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Argentina offers the sophistication of Paris, the gourmet cuisine of Italy and the untamed wilderness of Alaska. The second largest country in South America, Argentina provides an abundance of wow-inspiring moments. The beauty of its capital, Buenos Aires, strikes you from the moment you drive into this 19th century “Paris of South America”. The elegant architecture of its tree-shaded boulevards, the imposing monuments and sprawling parks set the tone for your Argentine Experience with Spiced Destinations.
Patagonia’s towering glaciers, crystal-clear lakes and evergreen forests provide the perfect contrast to the endless hues of red and yellow of the northern desert. The thundering waters of the Iguazu Falls echo amid the serenity of the Wine Country, home to some of the world’s greatest vineyards.
Whether you stay at a trendy hotel designed by Philippe Starck or at a charming traditional estancia, you will always enjoy the same warm and generous welcome.
Come prepared to fall in love.
In 1816, the United Provinces of the Rio Plata declared their independence from Spain. After Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay went their separate ways, the area that remained became Argentina. The country's population and culture were heavily shaped by immigrants from throughout Europe, but most particularly Italy and Spain, which provided the largest percentage of newcomers from 1860 to 1930.
Size (land area): 2,736,690 sq km (1,056,642 sq mi), it is the 8th largest country in the world.
Elevation Extreme: Lowest point: Laguna del Carbon -105 m under sea level, located between Puerto San Julian and Comandante Luis Piedra Buena in the province of Santa Cruz.
Highest point: Cerro Aconcaguam, the higest peak in the Western Hemisphere 6,960 m (22,834 ft) , located in the northwestern corner of the province of Mendoza.
Entry Requirements: A valid passport is required for U.S. citizens to enter Argentina. U.S. citizens do not need a visa for visits of up to 90 days for tourism or business. U.S. citizen tourist and business travelers arriving in Argentina at Ezeiza International Airport must pay an entry fee. Currently, the fee is only charged at Ezeiza airport. It can be paid in dollars, by credit card, or with traveler's checks, and is valid for ten years and multiple entries. It applies only to bearers of tourist passports.
Currency: Argentine peso. Visitors can exchange money at hotels, banks or, more conveniently, while shopping. ATMs are available and major credit cards are widely accepted.
For years Argentina supplied the world with prime beef, so it is no wonder that BEEF is king in Argentine cuisine. There are steak houses everywhere and the meats are juicy and tender. You don’t want to miss the bife de chorizo, or any other cut, so try a parillada (mixed grill) at any of Buenos Aires’ fine steak houses, or an empanada (cheese or beef turnover) as you browse around the town. Cosmopolitan Buenos Aires offers a broad culinary palette ranging from excellent Italian to rich Spanish dishes featuring ocean-fresh seafood. But for a quick snack, drop in at a confitería (Argentine pastry shop). And don’t forget to sample the excellent Malbec wines Argentina is famous for.
Buenos Aires is an important seaport and its people, known as porteños, are among the best dressed in South America, so it is not surprising that almost all the finer restaurants and clubs in Buenos Aires require “appropriate dress”. But if you forget your coat and tie you can always pick one up at any of the local men´s wear shops.
Argentina has a temperate climate similar to the United States and Europe. The western border is marked by the towering Andes, the center is made up by vast plains and, to the south, Patagonia is almost in Antarctica..
When planning a trip to Argentina, it is important to determine which regions of the countries will be visited during your trip. The seasons in Argentina are reversed so there is great skiing in August and outdoor grilling in Christmas.
Buenos Aires is always temperate but May through August can be chilly and wet, and November through March may be pretty warm, with occasional rain storm during the heat of the afternoon.
Northern Argentina, which is primarily a desert, may be visited throughout the year. During the southern summer the region may receive more showers but temperatures are pleasant to warm, throughout the year. When traveling to Northern Argentina, keep in mind that the temperatures drop significantly at night throughout the year so some warm clothing is recommended in the evenings.
The city of Bariloche was founded next to the very cold-water Lake of Nahuel Huapi. Similar to the US’ Great Lakes Regions, the climate in the Lake Districts tends to vary significantly between seasons. While the summer boasts long days (with up to 16 hours of daylight), and offers warm and sunny days ideal for exploring the beautiful country-side; the winter comes along with shorter and cold days with abundant snowfall, making the region one of the best places in the world for July & August skiing. The fall and spring are transition seasons with a mix of sunny and rainy days.
Summer is pleasant and tends to be dry. Days are long (up to 17 hours of daylight) providing a great opportunities to see more for a less of a time. However it is also windy, so a windbreaker is a recommended packing item, as well as multi-layer clothes. Winters usually stay just below freezing but the winds pick up and make the touring & sightseeing very difficult.
The summer (December through February) offers 18 hours of day light and comfortable temperatures, reaching 57 F (14C) during the day; making it a perfect season for hiking and trekking.
Capital of Argentina and the most sophisticated town in Latin America, Buenos Aires is crisscrossed with broad boulevards, dotted with plazas and is the closest thing to Paris outside of France. At the heart of the city, since colonial times, is the Plaza de Mayo, site of the Casa Rosada, official residence of the Presidents of Argentina and of the National Cathedral, burial place of Jose de San Martin, Father of Argentine independence. The Colon Opera House, on Cerrito St., covers a whole city block and has hosted some of the world´s greatest artists. Calle Lavalle, the town´s movie and theater Mecca, and Avenida 9 de Julio, said to be the world's widest, is crowned by a stunning obelisk commemorating the city’s 400th anniversary. Things get rocking around 10:00 p.m. or later at the discos, dance clubs and tango palaces. Set aside at least three days for the sidewalk cafes and swank boutiques, but be sure to save some time for a City Tour or a visit to a country hacienda for a typical “gaucho fiesta.” The city´s hundreds of hotels span the gap from old-world luxury to efficient and thrifty.
One of the largest and most impressive waterfalls in the world, it is higher than Niagara and four times wider. It is shared by Argentina and Brazil, and the debate goes on about which side is the most spectacular. Another plus for Iguazu is that it is set in a multi-national park surrounded by orchids, exotic birds and the most colorful butterflies. Get there by direct daily flights from Buenos Aires (1 hr. 40min.). Day trips and overnights are also available.
If you prefer the overland route, take the bus (about 21 hours) or the train to Posadas, along the border with Paraguay. On the Argentine side you have the Hotel Internacional overlooking the falls and close to the walkways. There are also hotels on the Brazilian side, but remember, you need a Brazilian visa to cross over. Hotels cover the full price range so there is no excuse for not staying the recommended two days and one night.
One of the centers of the great Argentine wine region, Mendoza is a modern city set against the backdrop of the Andes. This was the staging area from which the great liberator, San Martin, crossed the Andes to fight for Chile’s freedom. Despite the dry climate, the wine workers have turned this area into an oasis of fruit orchards and vineyards. If you plan your trip right, you can be in Mendoza to participate in the wine tastings in March and April. Mendoza is also the starting point for expeditions to climb Mt. Aconcagua, the highest peak outside of Asia. And just south of town, in Valle Hermosa, you have a brand new ski resort, Las Leñas, Get there by air (1 hr. 40 min.), by train, (14 hrs.) or by bus (16 hrs.).
Set in a strikingly beautiful hilly region, historic Salta is an elegant little colonial city founded in 1582 and graced with a wonderful old cathedral and many colonial buildings. Neighboring Jujuy, with its classical Spanish architecture, was founded in 1565 and lies only about 60 miles away along a winding mountain road known as La Cornisa. Jujuy is also an excellent excursion from Buenos Aires. Cafayate, in the Andean foothills, is a fine base from which to visit the desert and the curious rock formations with their amazing colors. The local population is largely autochthonous and colorful ethnic costumes abound. The usual excursion from Buenos Aires starts in either Salta or Jujuy, includes a visit to Cafayate and winds up in the other city.
The flight from Buenos Aires takes about 2 hrs. and the bus trip is close to 21 hrs. The best stay is 4 days and 3 nights. There are good hotels in both cities.
In the heart of Lake Nahuel Huapi National Park, at the foot of the Andes, lies the famous spa city of Bariloche, a top-of-the-line summer and winter resort set in a privileged location overlooking both the lake and the snow-capped Andes range.
The town is a veritable honeycomb of hotels and restaurants, most of which proudly serve the local specialty, white chocolate, and there are scores of fashionable shops, and pubs and discos. The brown trout season runs from October to March and the skiing season is from June to September. Boat rides on Lake Nahuel Huapi have ports of call on Victoria Island and the Bosque de Arrayanes forest of white-bark trees. If you prefer an angel’s eye view, take the chairlift ride up Cerro Campanario or a boat ride across Lake Nahuel Huapi to Victoria Island. Bariloche is the point of departure for the trip across the enthralling Lake District by way of Peulla and winding up at Puerto Montt, with its incredible views of the Osorno and Calbuco volcanoes. Bariloche is just 2 hrs. from Buenos Aires by air and 22 hrs. by bus. Scenery buffs may enjoy the 40-hour train trip across the pampas (two departures available weekly). The recommended stay is 3 days and 2 nights.
This is the threshold to a different world. Visit Punta Tombo for a look at the largest migrating penguin rookery in the Americas or hop over to Puerto Piramides to see the sea lions and sea elephants. Other popular trips include Gaiman, an authentic Welsh village with its museums and a local nature preserve. In October and November you can reserve a space on a small boat to go whale spotting. The flight from Buenos Aires takes 1 hr. 40 min.; the bus, 21 hrs. 30 min., but there is no train service. The recommended stay is 4 days and 3 nights. There are good hotel accommodations in Trelew and in nearby Puerto Madryn.
The adventure of a lifetime awaits visitors at this incredible spot at the foot of the Andes and in the heart of Argentine Patagonia. Your flight from Buenos Aires will take you to Calafate, and from there you can take an excursion to the Perito Moreno Glacier. This ponderous river of ice is 180 ft. high and has a leading edge that is three miles across. It is one of the few glaciers that is still growing. Other excursions include Upsala Glacier, Glaciares National Park, and the spectacular Mt. Fitzroy, named after the Captain of the Beagle during Darwin’s historic journey. The trip to Calafate from Buenos Aires takes 4 hrs. 20 min. There are connecting flights from Lago Argentino to Rio Gallegos and to Ushuaia in the south. The best stay is 4 days and 3 nights. Hotel accommodations are limited during the high season, October through March.
Featuring: Buenos Aires, El Calafate ( Perito Moreno Glacier) & Ushuaia.
Transport yourself into another world; a planet of ice and mystery where nature carved and sculptured some of its best creations. Explore the breathtaking views of the world’s greatest glaciers, rich fauna and unique flora. Visit the Southernmost city in the world and sail through the Beagle Channel.
Become enthralled with the distinctive Andean Northwest and feel as if you are touching the sky. In this unique and often overlooked region you will discover spectacular natural attractions. Follow the route of the famous “Train to the Clouds” (one of the world’s engineering marvels) to view majestic mountains, stunning gorges, colorful plateau’s and explore some of the most impressive archaeological sites in Argentina.
A journey by Private Car and Guide, featuring: Salta, San Antonio de los Cobres, Tilcara, Humahuaca’s Gorge, Cacjo. Cafayate, Puerto Iquazo and Buenos Aires.
Travel through Brazil and Argentina, and experience the rhythm of Samba and the romance of the Tango. From the tropical beaches of Rio de Janeiro through the mighty Iguassu Falls and to the elegant avenues of Buenos Aires, this journey offers an affordable showcase of South America’s highlights.
Argentina... no doubt one of the most romantic countries in the world. This journey offers an affordable look at the most famous attractions in Argentina, with fixed English-only group departures. Explore the sensual city Buenos Aires, the blue glaciers of Patagonia and the thundering waters of the Iguassu Falls, midst the sub-tropical forest. Pre and post programs are available.
Featuring Buenos Aires, Patagonia and Iguassu Falls, via guaranteed group departures, locally hosted by English-speaking guides; through April 2018.
Embark on a Private Journey to the oasis of Mendoza, where the snow-capped Andes and the desert meet, creating a perfect environment for the creations of some of the world’s most innovating wines. Stay at romantic Wine Lodges and indulge yourself in the true meaning of the good life.
Experiences of the European pioneers and Criollo settlers, and those of the adventurers of all over the world that still today reach this legendary land.
The IGUAZU GRAND Resort Spa & Casino, a member of Leading Hotels of the World and Virtuoso, is regarded as the most luxurious hotel at the Iguazu Falls and is the only full-service resort and casino on either side of the Falls. The hotel is located just ten minutes away from the Iguazu Falls National Park, which straddles the borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The hotel was built on fifteen acres of semitropical vegetation with three multilevel outdoor swimming pools and beautifully man-made cascades.
Located in the heart of Buenos Aires’ most elegant residential neighborhood, this luxury hotel is a landmarked property, originally erected in 1912, and fashioned in French Classical design. The mansion’s magnificent interior décor, 10 opulent suites, and personalized services raise the bar of luxury hospitality for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Finca Adalgisa is an early 20th century manor house and vineyard estate in the heart of the premier wine-growing region of Argentina. It is a charming family home converted in 2001 by Gabriela Furlotti,a third generation Argentine-Italian, into the first boutique hotel and winery in Mendoza.
Inspired by Alan Faena and designed by Philippe Starck, FAENA HOTEL + UNIVERSE has been conceived as a home. It is housed in El Porteño Building, a transformed historic grain construction originally built in 1902.
FAENA HOTEL + UNIVERSE offers luxury rooms and different spaces with a singular atmosphere that form our Universe.
Posada Puerto Bemberg is immersed in a 400-hectare of virgin jungle and situated on the shore of the Parana river, only 19 miles away from then mighty Iguassu Falls.
The posada is a jungle paradise, offering its guest a peaceful stay within the nature, while not compromising the comfort and luxury of modern times.
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http://www.spiceddestinations.com/destinations/latin-america-antarctic/argentina
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Thomas I. Wilch, chair and professor of geological sciences, and Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Trustees' Professor in the Sciences.
B.A., 1987, Macalester College; M.S., 1991, University of Maine; Ph.D., 1997, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Appointed 1998.
A.B., 1977, Rutgers College; M.S., 1981, Ph.D., 1987, University of Michigan. Appointed 1986.
A.B., 1973, Smith College; Ph.D., 1985, University of California, Los Angeles. Appointed 1981.
B.S., 1972, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Ph.D., 1978, University of California, Los Angeles. Appointed 1981.
Carrie A. Menold, assistant professor.
B.S., 1999, University of Michigan; Ph.D., 2006, University of California, Los Angeles. Appointed 2006.
Christopher M. Van de Ven, assistant professor.
B.S., 1997, University of Wisconsin; Ph.D., 2003, Stanford University. Appointed 2004.
Geology is the study of the earth, the processes that shape it and the materials of which it is composed. Geology gives students an understanding of the world around them, an appreciation for the length and events of earth history, and the knowledge to help them make informed decisions about environmental concerns.
The Geological Sciences Department offers majors in geology and in earth science. There are two tracks available through the geology major-- the first is designed for students intending to enter graduate school and/or continue on as professional geologists (TRACK G); the second is intended for students who do not plan to pursue graduate studies (TRACK L). Track L is also ideal for students who plan to combine a major in geology with a major in another science.
The earth science major is designed primarily for students in the secondary education program. It is also appropriate for students who have an interest in the earth sciences but plan to pursue careers in other fields. It may be combined with a second major in another field outside the sciences.
The geology curriculum provides students with a strong undergraduate preparation for more specialized training at the graduate level or for on the-job training by industries and government agencies.
The science of geology depends upon basic principles in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. A number of courses in these areas are required as cognates for the geology or earth science major.
Albion College geology graduates are successful in obtaining interesting and well-paying jobs. Currently, there are numerous well-paying jobs with petroleum and metal exploration companies as well as in the area of water resource and environmental management. Other geology graduates have been employed by numerous consulting firms; by research institutes; by state geological surveys and the U.S. Geological Survey; by universities and colleges as geology professors and by secondary schools as earth science teachers.
Over one-half of our graduates have chosen to continue geology studies at major universities and have obtained master's or doctoral degrees in geology before beginning their careers.
Three National Science Foundation grants to the department have established sophisticated geographic information systems (GIS), inductively coupled argon plasma (ICP) spectrometry and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry laboratories. Another NSF grant has provided electronic mapping tools, including global positioning receivers and base stations, laser ranging equipment and an electronic total station for precise fieldwork.
The Dow Analytical Science Laboratory houses a JY 38S ICP spectrometer with a Cetac 5000AT ultrasonic nebulizer, a Rigaku 2100 wavelength dispersive XRF spectrometer, a Fluxy automatic fluxer, a Sedigraph 5100 particle size analyzer, a Rigaku miniflex X-ray diffractometer, and a CEM Mars 5 microwave digestion system. This equipment supports analysis of a wide range of materials, including rocks and natural solutions, for most elements from trace (parts per billion) to major (%) levels. The Geology Shop includes rock crushing and grinding equipment, rock saws and polishing equipment and a Buehler petrographic thin section machine. Students in both introductory and advanced courses use the equipment, and it supports advanced environmental and geological research projects.
Our other laboratories are also well-equipped and include: an Olympus research-grade petrographic microscope with heating/freezing stage and digital imaging systems; a Franz magnetic separator; new binocular and petrographic student microscopes (along with color digital video and photographic microscopy units and image analysis software); three stream tables; a 3-meter flume, wave tank, current velocity meters and data-logging water analysis sondes; exploration seismograph; resistivity apparatus; and a magnetometer. Department collections include over 6,000 rock and mineral specimens, over 10,000 fossil specimens and more than 2,000 specialized maps.
Many departmental maps, minerals, rocks and fossils are displayed throughout the science complex. The Mitchell Museum and the science complex atrium include the wave tank and additional fossil, rock and mineral displays. The hallways of the department also have exhibits of current faculty and student research as well as additional maps and specimens.
The computer laboratory for GIS and digital image analysis includes 12 Windows XP workstations, two color scanners: a large format map and poster scanner and a desktop flatbed scanner, a color inkjet printer, a laser printer, and a link to the E-size printer/plotter in the nearby Dow Analytical Laboratory. Software for creating, manipulating and analyzing spatial data and images (maps, aerial photos and satellite imagery) includes the most recent versions of ArcGIS (ArcInfo and ArcView), ArcPad and ENVI.
Field study is important in geology, so the department maintains an active field program. Each spring students and faculty participate in a regional geology seminar and subsequent 10-day field trip; recent trips have been to California, Louisiana, Great Britain, Iceland, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona and New Mexico, New England, the Ozarks, the Northern Appalachians and the Smoky Mountains. Local field trips are sponsored by the student-run Geology Club. In addition, the Geology Department operates a summer field program in Wyoming, and South Dakota. Students from Albion and many other colleges and universities attend this camp each summer for training in geologic mapping and field research.
Research opportunities are available to all majors in their junior and senior years. Students may work on an individual laboratory or field problem within the scope of their background and write reports on the findings. Outstanding seniors may carry out honors work in geology or may take part in work that supports faculty research. The Lawrence D. Taylor Undergraduate Geology Research Fund supports student research and travel to present at regional and national meetings. A local chapter of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, a national earth science honorary, is active on the Albion campus.
There are two tracks through the geology major. Both require nine geology courses, a field work experience, participation in all departmental colloquia during the junior and senior years, and cognate courses (four or three depending on the track).
TRACK G--designed for the student who plans to pursue graduate studies in some aspect of geology or become a professional geologist, or both.
TRACK L--designed for the student who would like to major in geology, but who does not plan to enter graduate school.
TRACK G--At least three additional units, including either Geology 208 or Geology 209 plus two electives at the 300-level (one unit from Geology 314 may be counted toward this requirement). A minimum of four cognate courses including Chemistry 121 and 123 and two of the following: Mathematics 141, 143, 210; Physics 115, 116, 167, 168; Biology 195, 210. Students intending to enter graduate school should be aware that most graduate programs require at least one semester of both calculus and physics in addition to chemistry. In addition, many graduate programs require advanced study (senior- or graduate-level) in a cognate science. Students with specific interests in geology may want to pursue completing appropriate minors in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry or biology.
Track G majors are required to complete a departmentally-approved independent research project, and are encouraged to complete a senior thesis.
TRACK L--At least three additional units of geology at the 200-level or above, at least one of which must be at the 300-level. Three cognate courses selected from: Chemistry 121, 123; Biology 195, 210; Physics 115, 116; Mathematics 141, 143, 171, 210.
Five units in geology, including: Geology 101 or 103 plus four other geology courses, three of which are courses at the 200- or 300-level selected in consultation with and approved by the department chair.
Completion of a field experience equivalent to one-half unit.
Departmental Colloquia: All geology minors are required to attend departmental colloquia regularly and to participate once each semester for two semesters.
Six units in geology, including: Geology 101, 202, 208, 216; one unit selected from 306, 307 or 312; one unit selected from Geology 104, 106, 111, 115, 211, or ENVN 102, or a one-unit equivalent of approved independent research (Geology 412, Geology 411 taken twice, or a summer research experience). Note: This minor may not be elected by geology majors.
Five units in geology, including: 111, 211, 311 and two units of research-based directed study or one unit each of research-based directed study and a GIS-related internship, selected in consultation with and approved by the department.
Six units, including: Biology 195, two units from Biology 216, 225, 227, 237, or 310, Geology 208, 314, and a one-unit equivalent of approved independent research (Geology 412, Geology 411 taken twice, or a summer research experience), selected in consultation with and approved by the department.
Geology majors completing a minor in paleontology must take Geology 209 and Geology/Biology 309 as part of the geology major requirements or as electives beyond the major requirement.
Six units, including: Geology 103, 205, 209, Biology 309, and two units from Geology 101, 111 or 211, 208, or a one-unit equivalent of approved independent research (Geology 412, Geology 411 taken twice, or a summer research experience), selected in consultation with and approved by the department.
Six units, including: Geology 103, 205, 209, 309, Biology 195, and one unit from Biology 216, 225, 227, 237, or a one-unit equivalent of approved independent research (Geology 412, Geology 411 taken twice, or a summer research experience), selected in consultation with and approved by the department.
Nine units in geology and the completion of all other requirements as outlined above in the section "Requirements for Major in Geology." Track L or Track G may be elected.
Demonstrated mathematics proficiency at the Mathematics 125 level.
Completion of all other requirements for teacher certification in earth science, including professional education courses.
Geology 104 and 115 (taken as electives outside the major).
This program is intended for students who do not intend to pursue a career in geology.
Eight units in geology, including: 101 and 103; 201, 203 or 205; 216; one 300-level elective; and three other geology courses, two of which must be at the 200-level or higher. These may not include Geology 210, summer field camp or a directed study. Geology 202, 208 or 306 may be substituted for 216 with departmental approval.
Two cognate courses in mathematics, chemistry, physics and/or biology; may include Physics 105 or 206 and one of the courses listed under Track L (above).
Nine units in geology, including: 101, 103, 104, 115, and five other geology courses at the 200-level or higher (one must be at the 300-level), selected in consultation with, and approved by, the department. These may not include Geology 210, summer field camp, or a directed study.
Completion of all other requirements as outlined below in the section "Requirements for All Students Majoring in Geology or Earth Science."
Two cognate courses including Physics 105 and one course selected from those listed under Track L (above).
Six units in geology, including: Geology 101, 103, 104 and 115 and the completion of all other requirements as outlined above in the section "Requirements for Minor in Geology."
All students completing a major in geology or earth science must satisfy a field work requirement equivalent to one unit of study. This requirement may be fulfilled by summer research, internship or work experiences, academic year directed studies, completion of Geology 210 or 314, other suitable field experiences approved by the faculty (such as field trips sponsored by GSA), or some combination of the above.
A maximum of one geographic information systems course (Geology 111, 211 or 311) may be counted toward the major.
After completing three or four geology courses or at the end of their junior year, majors are urged to attend either the Albion summer field camp in the Rocky Mountains or a similar summer geology field course offered by another college or university. This experience is required by most graduate schools before entering a graduate program and is required by many industries and institutions employing geologists.
A modest lab fee may be charged in some courses.
A survey course designed for liberal arts students covering many aspects of physical geology, the study of active earth processes. Labs illustrate lecture materials and the techniques used by geologists. One field trip. Complements the material covered in Geology 103; either course can serve as an introductory course in geology. Staff.
A survey course designed for liberal arts students and covering many aspects of historical geology, the study of evolving environments and life forms on earth. Labs utilize fossils, rock samples, maps and field trips to illustrate techniques used by historical geologists. Complements the material covered in Geology 101; either course can serve as an introductory course in geology. Staff.
Without earth resources, civilization would not exist. Gold, diamonds, water, oil, building materials--all of our material resources ultimately are derived from the earth. This course examines the origin and geologic occurrence of these materials and the environmental implications of their utilization. No laboratory. Staff.
A review of the geological hazards which affect our lives, property and the environment. Emphasizes the origin and prediction of such hazards, as well as ways to minimize their effects. Covers earthquakes and volcanoes, as well as landslides, floods, meteorite impacts, and stream and coastal erosion. No laboratory. Staff.
An introduction to the elementary principles, techniques and utility of geographic information systems (GIS) toward the study of world geography, as well as related concepts and techniques involved in creating and using digital maps. Shows how maps (particularly computer-generated maps) can help in displaying and analyzing geographic and other spatial data, and the use of these analyses in modeling cultural and natural systems. Lecture and laboratory. Some prior computer experience is helpful, but is not required. Van de Ven.
Describes the world's oceans and atmosphere and considers how they interact with one another, and with humans. Topics include the geological evolution of the ocean basins, ocean-atmosphere circulation patterns, ocean currents, climate and weather patterns, storms and weather fronts, paleo-oceanography and the history of climate, and the chemical composition of the oceans. Emphasizes the role of the oceans in mediating global climate, global change, global dispersal of pollution and other environmental concerns. No laboratory. Offered in alternate years. T. Lincoln.
Study of stress-strain relationships and behavior of materials, with particular reference to recognition and interpretation of rock structures. Laboratory work includes methods of solving structural problems and the use of geologic maps and cross-sections to interpret sequences of events in complex structural regions. Offered in alternate years. B. Lincoln.
Prerequisite: Geology 101 or 103.
The geophysical and geochemical aspects of ground water, with an emphasis on the consequences of human intervention. Offered in alternate years. T. Lincoln.
Crystallography, crystal chemistry, optical and physical properties, and the occurrence of rock-forming minerals, with particular emphasis on the silicate minerals. Laboratory emphasizes hand-specimen and optical identification of minerals using petrologic microscopes. Offered in alternate years. Menold.
Hand-specimen and microscopic identification of minerals and rocks. Recognition and classification of all varieties of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, with emphasis on rock-forming processes. Laboratory emphasizes hand-specimen and optical identification of rocks using petrologic microscopes. Offered in alternate years. Menold.
Prerequisite: Geology 103; or Geology 101 and permission of instructor.
An examination of the processes and principles that control the accumulation and lithification of sediments, based on examples of recent environments and ancient rock sections in many parts of the world. Laboratory emphasizes map-reading skills and methods for studying recent and ancient sediments and rocks. Offered in alternate years. Bartels.
Prerequisite: Geology 101 or permission of instructor.
Geologic processes operating at the earth's surface and the landforms they produce. Includes the study of soil formation, river processes, glaciers, wave action, wind, groundwater and their related landforms. Field trips. Laboratory includes analysis of aerial photographs, topographic maps and experiments with flume and wave tank. Offered in alternate years. Wilch.
Prerequisite: Geology 103, or Biology 195, or permission of instructor.
The study of fossils and their use in geology and biology, focusing on invertebrate animals. Laboratory emphasizes relationships between groups and to sedimentary environments and correlation. Offered in alternate years. Bartels.
Prerequisite: Geology 101 or 103, or permission of instructor.
A field study of the structure and stratigraphy of selected geologic provinces. During the second half of the spring semester the class will meet once a week to discuss readings related to the geology of the field study. The field study itself will last for eight to ten days typically beginning the day after commencement in May. Staff.
An introduction to the elementary principles, techniques and utility of remotely sensed imagery and image interpretation, especially when used in conjunction with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Shows how digital maps created from, or utilizing, digital imagery from airplanes, space shuttles and satellites can help in displaying and analyzing spatial data, modeling processes and making decisions. Laboratory emphasizes the use of remote sensing and GIS in a variety of environmental applications. Lecture and laboratory. Offered in alternate years. Van de Ven.
Study of volcanic processes, eruptive products and their mechanism of formation, monitoring of active volcanoes, volcanic hazards, and the environmental impact of volcanism. Focuses on historical and modern case studies. Lecture and laboratory. Offered in alternate years. Wilch.
Study of selected environmental hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic activity, flooding, avalanches, water depletion and pollution. Includes land use planning and case histories involving environmental law. Laboratory uses maps, aerial photos and geologic data in the analysis and control of environmental hazards and in land use planning. Laboratory and field trips. Offered in alternate years. Van de Ven.
The study of the physics of the earth, its gravitational and magnetic fields, heat flow, seismicity and internal structure. The geophysical aspects of plate tectonics will be stressed. Offered as needed. B. Lincoln.
Covers the dynamics of glacier flow, origin of glacial features, events of the Pleistocene Epoch with emphasis on the Great Lakes area, Earth's climate history, causes of ice ages, recent and future climate change. Lecture, laboratory and field trips. Offered in alternate years. Wilch.
Prerequisite: Geology 203 or Chemistry 121.
The application of chemical principles to the study of the earth with emphasis on environmental geochemistry. Topics include the distribution of chemical elements within the earth, rock weathering, the chemistry of natural solutions, surface chemistry and the behavior of contaminants in the environment. Laboratories involve both field and laboratory techniques and rely heavily on state-of-the-art instrumentation, including optical emission and x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and ion chromatography. Offered as needed. T. Lincoln.
The fossil record, evolution, morphology, adaptation and paleobiogeography of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The interactions of vertebrates with ancient floras, climates and plate configurations will be emphasized. Lecture and laboratory. Offered in alternate years. Same as Biology 309. Bartels.
Prerequisite: Geology 204 or permission of instructor.
Petrogenesis and occurrence of igneous and metamorphic rocks with emphasis on using geochemical tools to understand the behavior of magmas, origin of crystalline rock and the physiochemical theories of metamorphism. Includes interpretation of phase diagrams, use and interpretation of geochemical data and modeling, and isotope geochemistry. Offered in alternate years. Menold.
Prerequisite: Geology 111 or permission of instructor.
The study of the more advanced capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Emphasizes spatial modeling and analysis using GIS software such as ArcView GIS. Topics include map algebra, point pattern analysis, network analysis, grid analysis and 3-D surface analysis. Students learn how to use these and other GIS tools for decision-making, model building and the effective use of maps. Lecture and laboratory. Offered in alternate years. Van de Ven.
The nature, origin and global distribution of important metallic resources. Exploration and resource evaluation techniques. Physical and chemical principles applied to the study of the genesis of ore deposits. Laboratory study of ore suites from major mineral deposits. Principles and applications of reflected-light microscopy stressing creative interpretation of ore textures. Offered as needed. T. Lincoln.
Critical evaluation of current topics in geology as determined by student and staff interest. Recent topics have been regional geology, engineering geology, paleoecology and volcanology. Staff.
The following courses are offered in the summer session in South Dakota and Wyoming.
Prerequisites: Geology 201, 204, 205 (or their equivalents) or permission of instructors.
Experience in geologic mapping is stressed. Field work is done in sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. Includes three weeks in northwest Wyoming and Montana, and two weeks in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Staff.
Prerequisite: Three courses in geology, one of which must be an advanced course related to the research topics.
Directed independent study and research related to field problems in the areas of petrology, geochemistry, geophysics, structural geology, stratigraphy or economic geology of the region. Time is arranged with the instructor. Staff.
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2019-04-21T02:37:12Z
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https://www.albion.edu/academics/academic-catalogs/2009-10-catalog/departments-and-courses/geological-sciences
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When it comes to homemade instruments, simple wind instruments can be among the most rewarding. They can be compact yet versatile, loud enough to be heard without requiring pickups or amplification, and in their simpler forms they can be fairly easy to make without requiring expensive materials or specialized tools.
Most common among homemade winds are tubular instruments with tone holes, such as simple flutes and clarinets. As a system for pitch control, tone holes are easy to make and intuitive to play. But they have some limitations and drawbacks. This has often led me to think about what the other options for pitch control in winds might be, including odd and unconventional methods as well as widely used and familiar ones. That’s what this article is about. In what follows, I’ll touch on most of the wind-instrument pitch-control systems I can think off. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but will give very brief descriptions for each, including pros and cons and practical considerations for building in a home workshop.
We start with tone holes. The limitations just referred to are several: First, humans have finite numbers of fingers, so there’s a limit to the number of tone holes a simple instrument can have, and the maximum isn’t very many. Six holes is a common number for simple flutes, with the advantage that six holes are easily and intuitively played, but this yields a rather small number of tones and limited scale possibilities. Eight or nine is the max, with some sacrifice in easy playability. With levers and pads the number of holes can be increased. Adding one or two levers isn’t too difficult, but as you get into more, things get complicated quickly. Counteracting these limitations are some mitigating factors: bringing an upper register into play can increase the available range beyond the number of holes. This can be done through embouchure and breath control, half-holing the highest hole, or a dedicated register hole. Cross-fingerings and/or half-holing can introduce some notes-between-the-notes. And, as winds are among the most expressive of instruments, it may be possible to do an awful lot even with a limited number of available holes – think, for example, of what a skilled shakuhachi player can do with just five holes.
Aside from the question of number, there’s also the matter of spacing and sizing with tone holes. The tone hole positions that yield the intended pitches often don’t agree with what the fingers can comfortably reach. In smaller instruments accommodations may be possible with trade-offs between tone hole spacing and sizing, although this compromises consistency of tone. But for lower-pitched instruments, the required spacings become wide enough that the only option is to get into levers and pads. Larger instruments may also call for holes that are too large to cover with a fingertip, again calling for some sort of larger hole-covering pad. In other words, the idea of the wonderfully simple homemade flute becomes a lot less simple if you want to go below a soprano range.
So you can see that, while traditional finger holes are clearly a good way to go for many homemade wind instruments, there are instances where you might find yourself thinking about what the other options might be for wind instrument pitch control. Let’s look at those now, starting with methods familiar from various standard instruments.
Valves like those used in trumpet and other brass instruments. These involve pressing a key which moves some interior parts to redirect the air column, in effect inserting an extra length of tubing and thus creating a longer overall tubing length for a lower note. Valves can also be used to redirect the path of the air column to another tube altogether, so that the same mouthpiece leads to one or another of several tubes of different lengths. (I like this latter idea because it can lead to some very cool looking many-belled instruments; for instance, see schalmei and others.) In the right circumstances valves are great, being particularly well suited to lip-buzzed instruments. But they require a level of sophistication in fabrication that is well beyond the capacities of most home workshops. One way around this problem is to use valves taken from a commercially made horn, rather than making your own. If you can get your hands on one or more old brass instruments ready to be junked, you may be able to do this without breaking the bank. Valves can be used not only for lip-buzzed instruments; they can also, in theory at least, be used for reeds or edge-tone instruments like flutes. However, with most reeds and flutes a problem arises. As most lip-buzzed instruments are designed, the nominal second register is at the interval of a fifth above what is thought of as the first register. As a practical matter, this means that for a chromatic instrument there must be enough valving combinations available to fill in the six semitones between the first and second registers. It happens that, with only a little compromise in tuning, this can be done with three valves. But flutes overblow into their second register at an octave above the first register, and for clarinets it’s at the twelfth. For those instruments, to fill in all the notes required between registers for a chromatic scale would require an awful lot of valves, and a lot of fingers to play them.
I’ve done a bit of daydreaming and experimenting to see if I could come up with a valving system that would be possible to make without requiring a specially equipped machine shop, and I’ve come up with a few kooky ideas, but none successful enough to report here. If you come up with something good, please let me know.
Advantages of valves: they work very well, especially for lip-buzzed instruments. Disadvantages: they are difficult to manufacture without sophisticated tools and skills, and for the reason described above, they present some difficulties for flutes and reeds.
Telescoping tubes (trombone style). To make slide instruments of this sort, you need two sizes of tubing that fit perfectly one inside the other – snug enough not to be leaky, but not so snug as to make sliding difficult. Such tubings can be found; for instance, hobby shops sometimes sell brass tubing in closely graduated sizes that work well. Coating the sliding portions with a touch of oil may help with both seal and slidability. Adding a flaring bell at the end of the outermost tube usually improves the sound, but this isn’t a requirement. With two telescoping tubes, the maximum change you can get is something less than a doubling of the length, which is not enough for an octave of range. Trombonists get more range by using embouchure control to throw the tone a higher register. If you use three or four telescoping tube sections, you can increase the range even without register changes, as in this instrument. With multiple sections there’s a potential problem that one tube may slide off the end of another before all the sections have slid out evenly, making it necessary to come up with some way to prevent that.
Advantages of telescoping slides: they’re easy to make and intuitive to play. You can gliss all you want and in theory get any note or subtle pitch gradation you want. No danger of placing tone holes in the wrong place. Disadvantages: It’s hard to accurately find the pitches you want, and constant glissing may induce seasickness. Clear, crisp scalewise melodies are difficult to play on most sliding tube instruments. This problem is more pronounced in small instruments because the slide positions for different notes are closer together when the sliding range is shorter. Trombonists learn to play with precision and accuracy by dint of lots of practice; they also benefit from relatively large sliding distances.
Sliding stoppers, as in slide whistles. The first thing to note about sliding stoppers is that they work by blocking the end of the air column, and this means that they can’t work with through-blowing instruments like reeds and lip-buzzed instruments. However, edge-tones (as in flute-like instruments) can work either with open or stopped ends, so sliding stoppers are feasible for them. The acoustic behavior of stopped-tube flutes is different from that of open-tube flutes with the result that a stopped flute will produce a fundamental note an octave lower than that produced by an open flute of the same length.
A nice option: if you use a flexible blow-tube, you can hold the instrument in front of you, or perhaps place it on a table while you play. The blow tubes idea presents some challenges for other sorts of winds, but for stopped-tube edge-tone instruments it’s perfectly feasible. The blow tube allows you to position the instrument so that you can see the slide position, which helps with pitch accuracy. To enhance this, a calibration stick can be installed just behind the slide with pitch locations marked on it, as in the instrument described here.
One of the challenges with sliding stoppers, much as with telescoping tubes, is to get the fit of the stopper snug enough to eliminate leakage and thus produce a clear tone, but not so snug as to make sliding difficult. Once again, a bit of lubrication such as lithium grease may help here.
The pros and cons of sliding stoppers are like those of telescoping slides: on one hand, great freedom of pitch and no worries about correct tone hole placement; and on the other hand, difficulty with clear articulation and pitch accuracy, coupled with difficulty in avoiding excessive glissando.
‘Moe. ’Moe is my name for a system I devised for wind instrument pitch control. It works with any of the standard wind instrument types – edge-tone instruments (flutes), lip-buzzed instruments, and reeds. You can see examples here and here. The idea is that there is an open slit running along the top of the pipe, from just beyond the mouthpiece to the far end. Extending over this slit, rising at a slight angle from the mouthpiece end to an anchor point over the far end, is a strip of flexible material. When you press down on this strip at any point along its length, it covers the portion of the slit between the mouthpiece and place you’re pressing, while the portion beyond still rises up and away, leaving the far part of the slit open. Thus, you can press at any point along the slit, and you will have closed the tube up to that point. The effect is analogous to the situation in conventional winds when you cover the first several tone holes while leaving the remainder open. You can do glissandos by sliding along the strip if you want, but you can also play discrete pitches just by pressing down at chosen points. The flexible strip, by the way, is made of magnetized plastic material while the tube is of steel. When you press the strip against the steel it magnetically snaps in place and provides a leakless seal.
Advantages: infinite pitch variability, no worries about misplaced tone holes, option of either glissing or playing discrete pitches. Disadvantages: difficult to build, difficult for the player to play perfectly in tune or to play rapid scale passages with precision.
Table-top Winds. This is not an entirely different pitch-control system, but, rather a way of managing tone holes. I’ve made just a couple of instruments this way and would like to do more. It’s especially useful for making winds that are large and low-pitched. The idea is for an arrangement in which a tubular wind instrument lies flat in front of the player, and the player operates a set of keys, keyboard fashion, to cover and uncover tone holes.
There are several special considerations to be taken into account to make this successful. One is that this arrangement doesn’t work with direct mouth blowing; it requires a blow-tube. This means it can’t work for lip-buzzed instruments. It can work with reeds and flutes, but only if you’re willing to sacrifice the subtlety and control of direct mouth-embouchure. In practice, it’s very feasible for flutes; more challenging for reeds. In order for the reed to sound with a blow tube you have to set the reed within a small enclosure, analogous to the interior of the player’s mouth, in order to maintain air pressure. Such enclosures are called reed caps; they’re used in some bagpipe pipes, some types of organ pipes, and some other early reed instruments. Doing a good job of fabricating reed caps can be a bit of a challenge.
Here’s another important consideration for table top winds in general: it’s tempting to imagine a simple system in which pressing single keys opens up single tone holes up and down the length of the tube. But this does not work well acoustically. Consider that when you play a typical mouth-blown tone holes instrument, you don’t open single tone holes; you usually leave open all of the tone holes beyond the first open tone hole. There’s a reason for that: if the section of tubing toward the far end beyond the first open hole is unvented and thus is itself a viable resonating tube, then the venting at the single open hole may not be complete. More problematic, the resonances of the tubing beyond the open hole will likely interfere with the resonances of the intended section of pipe above the hole. Having a bunch of additional open holes beyond the first one solves this problem by breaking up the tubing beyond the first open hole. So for the table-top wind instrument, if you want to be able to play keyboard-style by pressing single keys, you have to fix things so that pressing that one key will simultaneously open at least a few of the holes beyond. There are not-too-difficult ways to make this happen, but it requires a more elaborate mechanical system.
Advantages of table-top winds: You can have lots of holes, the number being limited only by your ability to keep adding holes with sufficient precision of workmanship that you don’t add too much cumulative leakage or damping in the system. You can make very long, low-pitched instruments without worrying about whether the fingers can span the distances between holes. You can make large-diameter instruments with tone holes too large to cover with a finger. Instruments can be large without worry about excessive weight on the player. Disadvantages: no direct-mouth embouchure. Complicated and mechanically challenging.
Squash Tube. This is an idea I had that was unsuccessful; I never got it to work well. But it’s kind of fun and crazy, so I’ll describe it here; maybe someone can improve on it. Like the sliding stoppers described above, it’s not suitable for through-blowing instruments like reeds; it can work only as a type of stopped flute. The idea is to make the flute tube out of a flexible material, soft enough that you can effectively close it by squashing at any point along its length, but springy enough that it will spring back open when released. At the same time, it must be firm enough that the tube wall doesn’t create too much damping, making a strong vibration unsustainable. The idea is that simply by pressing a finger to squash the tube at any chosen point along its length you can create a stopping point within similar to the stopper in a slide whistle. It was my hope that a fairly thick-walled latex tube would do the trick. But in the prototypes I made it never seemed to work well; the tone was never clear. This may have been because the tube was too soft and created too much damping to support a strong vibration, or it may have been because the internal shape of the stopped point didn’t allow good reflection of wave fronts, or it may have been because the stopping point was, despite forceful squashing, always a bit leaky. I eventually gave up on the idea.
Advantages: wonderfully simple, easy to make, and intuitive. Disadvantages: doesn’t work very well.
Variable end-stopper rigidity. In closed-end flutes, the wave fronts reflect off of whatever stops the far end. Typically that stopper is solid and rigid. If it’s not, the wave will still reflect, though not as strongly, and also not as quickly. As a result, the sounding frequency is lower when the reflecting surface is less rigid. For the difference in frequency to be enough to be useful, it helps to have a large reflecting surface. If you can somehow make the degree of rigidity variable, you can control pitch this way. The main example for this is balloon flutes, as explored years ago by Prent Rogers and Jonathan Glasier. Their balloon flutes consist of short, fat tubes, typically between three and six inches in length and an inch or two in diameter. They have a blowhole at the center for a flute-like edge tone, and the ends are covered with stretched latex membranes (balloon rubber). By pressing on these stretchy membranes with the fingers, the player can alter the effective rigidity of the ends, thus varying the pitch in a controllable way. Having a controllable membrane on each end instead of just one increases the range. This is one possible realization of the end-stopper-rigidity idea; other approaches may also be possible.
Advantages: simple and fun. Disadvantages: limited range, imprecise pitch, low volume, unfocussed tone quality.
Single large hole, covered to variable degrees. If you remove the mouthpiece from a recorder and play the mouthpiece alone, you can vary the pitch by covering the open end to varying degrees with the palm of your hand. This idea can work with other types of flutes, as well as reeds. It’s particularly suitable for globular instruments — that is, ocarina-like instruments with volumetric air chambers rather than long, thin, tubular forms.
Advantages: easy and fun. Disadvantages: limited range, difficulty in pitch precision and clear articulation of the notes.
Corrugaphonism. Corrugaphones are tubular wind instruments made of corrugated tubing such as plastic or metal flex tubing. When you blow through a corrugated tube, it produces a whistling tone at a pitch determined by the air speed (or, more precisely, the rate at which the air passes over the corrugations). The harder you blow = the greater the air speed = the higher the pitch. Pitch is thus controlled by how hard you blow; no toneholes, slides or valves needed. The pitch does not gliss from low to high as the air moves faster; rather, it jumps from one of the tube’s resonance frequencies to the next. These frequencies correspond to the harmonic series of the tube. The range of pitches available depends on the diameter of the tube, and for tubes that are narrow enough to blow effectively, the lowest soundable pitch isn’t very low. Thus, depending on the length of the tube the lower parts of the harmonic series often are not available, and what is available is a set of several tones from somewhere higher up in the series. All of this is to say that the selection of notes available depends on several factors, and they don’t typically add up to a complete scale. For this reason, it’s sometimes useful to work with several tubes together which between them create a usable scale. One way of doing this can be seen here, and is also discussed under “stopping and unstopping” below. On the other hand, there are also lots of ways to enjoy the limited pitches that are available on a single tube. Concerning the lack of low pitches in blowable tubes: you can can produce lower pitches on tubes of larger diameter by finding some way to produce a greater air flow than your lungs can. Most popular is whirling a large plastic flex tube (you’ve probably seen this done; perhaps tried it yourself). This creates a larger airflow in the tube and generates beautiful low tones.
Advantages: Easy to make. Playing is also very intuitive, although it takes a while to develop a higher level of control. Disadvantages: Limited pitch availability in any single tube; low notes are much quieter than high notes; works as a mouth-blown instrument only in a fairly high range.
Panpipes-like configurations. In panpipes, several end-stopped flutes, one for each note, are attached in a row with their tube-ends aligned so that you can blow them directly, and it’s easy to move from one to the next without having to reset your embouchure for each one. This works well for end-blown flutes. It’s more awkward for some other types of flutes such as fipple flutes, but not inconceivable. With other types of wind instruments such as reeds and lip-buzzed instruments, where the player really has to set his or her embouchure over the mouthpiece in order to play, it’s a lot more problematic.
Advantages of panpipe-like configurations: easy to make, intuitive to play. Disadvantages: only works for certain types of flutes, and requires the making of not just a single sounding tube, but many.
Don’t let your mental image of a harmonica limit you too much – a surprisingly long bar can still work well. But I found that mouthpieces made from wooden bars are a little hard on the lips; better to use some sort of plastic or corrosion-resistant metal.
Advantages of mouth-organ configurations: fairly easy and intuitive to play. Disadvantages: more work and materials required to make many pipes instead of one.
Reed and resonator agreement, as in shō and sheng and other Asian mouth organs. Perhaps you’ve seen instruments of this sort. In them, several pipes rise from a small air chamber. The player holds the chamber in his or her hands and blows into a mouth hole while covering and uncovering small holes near the bottoms of the pipes with the fingertips. The underlying principle is this: Each pipe has a free reed, and the pipe is of such a length that the natural resonance of the pipe agrees with its reed. This agreement, however, is sabotaged by the hole near the base of the pipe. As long as the hole remains open, the reed lacks support from the pipe resonance and will not sound. (Unlike some other kinds of reeds which can sound over a range of pitches depending on the resonance frequency of the pipe they’re attached to, free reeds tend to sound only at their preferred frequency or something close to it.) By covering and uncovering the holes while blowing, the player selects which pipes will sound.
Advantages: a very clever system! Disadvantages: it takes a bit of know-how to make it work.
Advantages: Simple and intuitive, and in its simplest forms not too hard to build. Disadvantages: requires making and tuning multiple pipes; doesn’t work for flutes or anything else that isn’t hole-free and through-blowing.
Keyboards (organ-like instruments). If you have the mechanical inclination, you can build a system of levers and valves for playing a bank of many pipes through a keyboard. The keyboard need not replicate the standard 7-5 keyboard of the piano; it can be any system of levers, buttons, or valves that works for your purposes.
Advantages: If you do this, congratulations; you’ve built an organ. Disadvantages: quite a lot of work.
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2019-04-24T16:17:05Z
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http://barthopkin.com/alternatives-for-pitch-control-in-wind-instruments/
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If you are new at Kayaking, you may find it hard to take all your belongings with you on the water. In addition, kayaks have a tendency to capsize.
You may run into trouble and need to protect yourself. There are a lot of manufacturers around that cater to these needs, and they work hard to design products that will leave you safer, more protected, and with your belongings on hand.
The best manufacturers focus on safety, comfort, and quality. The good news is, that we are trained experts in research and assessment, and we have researched hours on end to create a list top quality life jackets for you.
All of our top picks are from manufacturers who specialize in kayaking and fishing safety gear. We’ve compiled the best life jackets available for kayaking and fishing, and we have found some truly amazing jackets.
Hopefully, our research will help to keep you safe, comfortable, and enjoying your trips to the fullest. One may even safe your life!
We have compiled a comparison table to show you each product’s features right next to each other, making it easy to compare products and pick the one that best for your specific needs!
Some things you may want to consider before buying a life jacket, is that you always want to look around first to see what suits you best.
I can’t imaging how sick you could have gotten to find out you bought a boring orange “life block”, and not one like the ones we found made just for you.
Also we encountered similar complaints on every life jacket we looked at saying that they were too gaudy. Keep in mind before buying a life jacket that the thickness, to a certain extent is a necessary evil.
These are flotation devices, so I’m sure they can only get them so small before they lose effectiveness.
There are some very thoughtful manufacturers out there, and the life jackets we found are loaded with features for anglers of all types. Just keep in mind how it feels to be out kayaking, and pick one that best suits you!
This jacket is specifically built for kayaking, with a net area integrated into the back, that accommodates for a kayak seat, and gives you comfortable fit for your work or play.
Comfortable – This jacket will offer shoulder adjustments, ample ventilation, and a sculpted, flexible design.These features are designed to keep you cool, carefree and in control while you are kayaking, allowing unsurpassed comfort and peace of mind.
Designed for Paddling – A specially designed mesh backing, and sculpted, flexible design are incorporated for comfort. This provides a full range of mobility, and keeps you unrestricted and in full control.
Excellent Safety Features – SOLAS grade reflective material for visibility, attached whistle, and an expandable zippered pocket offer added safety. You will also get a whistle that can come in handy.
Above Average Customer Reviews – Ratings on top selling products can usually be affected by negative results. However, the ONYX MoveVent is different. 4.7 is one of the highest ratings we’ve seen on more popular products, you can rest assured you are buying quality with this one.
May require some special adjustments for large breasted women.
This life jacket was specifically designed for paddling sports. In our opinion, this design is unsurpassed and the top of its class.
Grab your ONYX kayaking life jacket in a variety of colors and styles here!
The Fisherman Personal jacket by Stohlquist is specifically designed for kayaking. They have incorporated EVA stiffened padded pockets, which allow “over the rim” re-boarding without spilling your belongings.
Designed for Kayaking – This jacket has features that will help kayakers keep comfortable, organized, and safe on the water, and in possession of all their belongings.
Excellent Quality – The high flotation back is made for kayaking. The cross-chest cinch harness, is fully adjustable, and the pockets with drainage use anti-spill technology that is perfect for kayaking.
Ample Pocket Space -7.5 X 7.5 EVA pockets act as fold down work surfaces, and the mounting locations in the pockets are perfect for tools, baits, and more!
Comfortable and Unobtrusive – Open sided for ventilation, with a neoprene padded shoulders, and lower back waistband allow for a customized fit.
Designed to Cater to the Specific Needs of Kayakers.
Some complaints of jacket being too bulky.
The Stohlquist Fisherman Personal Floatation Device is as brilliantly thought out design as it gets. This jacket is designed to keep you safe, on the water having fun, and with everything you need with you.
Come see what makes the Fisherman Personal so unique!
The NRS Chinook Mesh Back Fishing jacket is designed for kayak fishermen.
With pockets for tackle, a built-in rod holder, and numerous other well thought out features, the Chinhook has been boasted by fisherman to be an anglers best friend.
Designed for Anglers – Aside from the rod holder, the Chinhook Fisherman is perfect for kayak fishermen, with 7 front pockets for all your tackle, tools, and more.
Mesh Backing – The mesh back is perfectly designed for high-back seat kayaks, and it keeps you cool in the summer months, and allows for extra maneuverability.
A Fully Customizable Fit – A total of 8 customizable adjustment points, allowing a personalized fit, allowing personalized comfort and as much free mobility possible.
Soft PlushFIT Foam Floatation – This jacket is designed to snug to your body, offering all day comfort and easy of mobility, and allowing your performance to be uninhibited.
Some find the jacket hard to adjust.
The Chinhook Mesh Back Fishing PFD is made deliberately to accommodate the kayak fisherman. Designed by a company that was created by a fisherman that knows exactly what you need while you’re out on the water.
See how NRS made the kayak fisherman’s life a lot easier!
This U.S. Coast Guard Approved Type lll life jacket is designed with safety in the forefront. The ONYX Curve conforms to your body, allowing excellent mobility and comfort as well.
Made for Kayaking – With a mesh area in the back that fits high-back seat kayaks, the ONYX Curve is the ideal jacket for kayaking and water activities of all types.
Excellent Ventilation – Added ventilation in front and back to keep you cool during the summer months, and a design that adds extra mobility.
Designed for Comfort – Soft and lightweight with a sculpted, flexible design that contours to the body for unrestricted performance and all-day comfort.
Adjustable and Unobtrusive – Adjustable side belts help you fit the ONYX Curve to your body like a glove, keeping it stay out of the way of your best performance.
Designed with kayakers in mind.
Made with extra ventilation for summer months.
Sculpted and flexible, contouring to the body for comfort.
The ONYX MoveVent Curve Paddle Sports Life Vest is the safest and most comfortable option for kayaking. The extra ventilation will be welcome in the summer months, and the contoured soft, yet flexible fit allows full mobility.
See why ONYX jackets are perfectly designed for kayakers.
The Coleman Company Stearns Comfort Series Personal Floatation Device is another U.S. Coast Guard Approved life jacket built for comfort, with large arm holes designed for carefree casting, paddling, or aiming.
U.S. Coast Guard Approved -This design is safe enough for the Coast Guard, and amply thought out for any novice, keeping you comfortable and safe in your aquatic endeavors.
Large Arm Holes – The armholes are larger, specifically designed for hunters, anglers, kayak fisherman, and paddlers of all types, allowing you the freedom you need to be you.
Comfortable Mesh Shoulders -Excellent airflow, allowing you to remain cool in the summer months, and adding extra mobility for maximum comfort and performance.
Customizable Fit – The webbing adjustments and heavy duty zipper front are designed to hug your body, keeping the jacket as close to you as possible, and allowing safety without a big price to pay.
Made for active types and ideal fishermen, hunters, and kayaking.
Cool in the summer months with added ventilation.
Designed for comfort and all-day performance.
Safe, fully adjustable jacket offering personalized comfort.
The Coleman Company Stearns Comfort Series jacket will keep you with your mind on your work or play, and make safety and comfort second nature, allowing you to fish, shoot, paddle, or whatever you want to do without something big and bulky getting in your way.
See why Coleman flotation devices might be right for you.
The Onyx Kayak Fishing vest is perfect life jacket for kayaking, fisherman, or any other type of water-related activity due to its numerous pockets, and its special one-touch drop down tray pocket that holds a small tackle box.
Special Extra Pockets – This jacket offers a large mouth cargo pocket, a one button tray pocket, zippered fleece lined pockets, and an additional chest pocket to carry gear.
Low Profile, Paddle Specific Design – High foam back accommodates high back seats, and the ONYX Kayak Fishing Vest is made to stay out of the way while you are out with mother nature.
Full Custom Fit – Six adjustable straps for full custom fit, as well as the low profile, out of the way design meant to hug the body and stay out of your way.
Ventilation and Comfort – With a mesh back that allows cooling in the warmer months, you experience all day comfort with an ergonomically designed life jacket.
Designed for kayaking and fishing.
Stays cool in summer months.
Zipper may be hard to start up for some.
The Onyx Kayak Fishing Vest is designed for kayaking fishermen, adding the addition of ample and specialized pockets for carrying gear, tackle, and other personals or job-specific gear in while you are on the go.
Check out this awesome kayaking/fishing jacket!
The Stearns Comfort Series Collared Angler Vest is designed to make kayaking and fishing easier. There are additional pockets for storage, and mesh areas that allow added mobility, ventilation, and a cooler body in the hotter months.
Convenient Breathable Design – Mesh fabric shoulders create a unique breathable design that feels free, unrestrictive, and even cooling during summer months.
Designed for Kayaking and Fishing – Designed with you in mind, there are extra pockets, clips, and hooks to accommodate your tools, gear, net, or any other gear needed by active water sportsman.
Coast Guard Approved – The PVC/PE flotation foam neoprene collar that prevents chaffing, and 200D nylon shell with adjustable strap design is U.S. Coast Guard approved for safety.
Comfortable – This adjustable jacket is designed to stay out of the way until you need it, allowing a carefree experience without distractions.
Designed with kayaking and fishing in mind.
Extra pockets for gear, keys, and other items.
With extra storage, and an ergonomic design that is adjustable, the Stearns Comfort jacket is designed to keep you on the water with your necessities, and out of harm’s way.
See what Stearns has made just for the kayakers and fishermen.
The Absolute Outdoor Onyx A/M-24 Deluxe Auto/Manual Inflatable Life Jacket is packed with features. Enjoy utility pockets, and a convertible automatic/manual to manual only inflation, providing two totally different experiences for the kayaking or fisherman t stay safe in emergencies.
Equipped with Utility Pockets for Storage – Added pockets for gear, keys, phone, or other accessories and needed items make this life jacket ideal for water related outings of all types.
Convertible Design – Switch from automatic/manual to manual only inflation in case of emergencies, allowing you to have a backup in case your back up ever decides not too work.
Comfortable and Ventilated – This jacket is made to be lightweight, comfortable, and cool while keeping you in your favorite work or play, with everything you need on you.
U.S Coast Guard Approved – Coast Guard approved type V life jacket designed with the utmost attention to safety. Another top-quality fisherman’s best friend from ONYX.
You may need to read instructions before using the first time.
The Absolute Outdoor Onyx Inflatable life jacket is a perfectly though out design for kayakers and fishermen, with ample pockets and a design that keeps you carefree on the water.
Check out another ONYX masterpiece done just for you!
The Mustang Survival Hydro Elite 38 Inflatable PFD is designed with one thing in mind. Bringing you home safe.
This jacket offers a strobe light holder and safety whistle, and also offers a Hydro-static inflator Technology, that only inflates when submerged minimizing accidental inflation.
Safe and Innovative – Hydro-static Inflator technology or HIT technology allows you to self-inflate the jacket in any instance that you may be in an emergency situation where you are fully submerged.
Lightweight and Comfortable – The lightweight body-armor outer shell, and the Aerodynamic 3D Chassis system allow for a glove like fit, to keep you safe without getting in the way.
Great for Emergencies – With a Plus 38lbs buoyancy strobe light, and a safety whistle for added emergency gear, stay safe and have options when life’s “twists” try to turn your way.
Superior Safety for Water Activities – Added safety features and innovative survival design make the Mustang Survival Hydro Elite 38 Inflatable PFD the perfect aid in emergency situations.
The Mustang Survival Hydro Elite 38 Inflatable PFD is a great option for people who like to think ahead. There are added safety features, adaptations for comfort, and a Hydrostatic Inflator that may save your life one day!
Let’s get safe with Mustang’s survival gear!
The Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest Pack is an all-around excellent design. The various sturdy, zippered compartments give you places to put gear and personals, while the rod holder strap makes it ideal for kayak fishing.
Designed for Fishermen and Kayaking – With zippered compartments for gear, shell pockets with fly patches, and rod holder straps, this is the ideal life jacket for fishing or kayaking.
Adjustable – One size fits all and adjustable design is ideal for outings, because you never have to worry how it will fit. If you gain some weight, no big deal. If your son needs is, no big deal!
Lightweight and Comfortable – Designed with all day outings and rigorous activities in mind, this jacket makes the perfect accomplice for fishing or kayaking missions.
The Maxcatch Fly Fishing Vest is the ideal flotation device for fishermen. With lots of zipper pockets, a rod holder, and a one size fits all, comfortable fit, this jacket will keep you comfortable and in control on your outings.
See why we thought this life jacket is unique!
We do extensive research before tackling any topic, to make sure that we do not place any incorrect, or unnecessary information online.
We research manufacturers, mission statements, warranty information, websites, and blogs. We even watch videos, listen to product experts, and read customer reviews to determine our selections.
Life jackets are a must while you are out on the water, and it is crucial to have a life jacket that will do its job! Accidents can happen, which means that life jackets take a unique role compared to other products, because you have to wear them all day just “in case” something happens.
In the end, you want something comfortable, with the right materials and time taken to manufacture it. We found some excellent life jackets that are made for kayak fishing!
If you were looking for the best life jackets to protect you and your loved ones, we feel the same way… and you have come to the right place!
All of the products that made our top 10 list are ranked because they deserve it. Each of the jackets we selected are special in some way to kayak fishing. Each of the manufacturers designing these jackets understands the needs of a person out on the water.
Each of the manufacturers designing these jackets understands the needs of a person out on the water. They understand the need for safety and emergency preparedness, as well as the need to carry your belongings with you.
In the end only you know your needs exactly, so just pick the one that fits your needs best. Each of the models on our top 10 list will offer something unique to keep you safe, comfortable, prepared, and in possession of your necessities with you on your next kayak fishing trip!
Each of the models on our top 10 list will offer something unique to keep you safe, comfortable, prepared, and in possession of your necessities with you on your next kayak fishing trip!
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2019-04-25T00:51:34Z
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https://adventuregearslab.com/best-life-jackets-for-kayak-fishing/
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Triple-A Scranton lost two big league veterans today. The Yankees announced they have traded catcher Erik Kratz to the Brewers for cash or a player to be named later and released first baseman Adam Lind. Catcher Wilkin Castillo was signed out of an independent league yesterday to replace Kratz.
Releasing Lind is the more significant move. It tells us the Yankees are confident Greg Bird is fully recovered following ankle surgery. He is expected to join the team tomorrow, so that’s fun. Lind was essentially lefty hitting first base insurance in case Bird’s rehab was slowed or he suffered a setback.
As for Kratz, I wonder if he had an opt-out in his contract coming up (June 1st?), and indicated he was planning to use it. If so, the trade means the Yankees get something in return, and something is better than nothing. The Brewers have some catcher issues — Stephen Vogt is done for the season with shoulder surgery — hence the trade for Kratz.
With Kratz gone, Kyle Higashioka is the unquestioned third catcher on the depth chart. He is already on the 40-man roster and was probably third on the depth chart even while Kratz was in the organization. The Yankees have not yet announced a roster move to clear a spot for Bird, though Tyler Austin to Triple-A seems likely. Austin would effectively replace Lind as the team’s first baseman.
The Yankees have a great deal of depth throughout their organization at this point, and that includes the 25-man roster, MLB-ready players (be it those that are no longer rookie-eligible, or those that aren’t considered top prospects), and top prospects that are expected to knock on the door in short order. The middle tier of that group has shifted considerably over the off-season, as the team made trades (Giancarlo Stanton and Brandon Drury) and signed free agents (Neil Walker, specifically), but it has come into focus as we rapidly approach Opening Day. And it is those players that I’ll dig into a bit today.
A month ago, it seemed as though Austin had a spot on the Yankees roster locked-up; or, alternatively, that he had an incredibly strong inside track to a spot on the major-league roster. His ability to play first base and right-handed power made him an ideal back-up for and/or complement to Greg Bird, and the team didn’t have another player of that ilk sitting around. As long as he stayed healthy throughout the Spring (never a given with Austin), he had a good shot at making the cut.
And then they traded for Brandon Drury. It was a move that would give the Yankees depth at second and third, and therefore not necessarily a move that would impede Austin’s path to the roster – but Drury is almost a year younger than Austin, offers a similar (and more proven) offensive skill-set, and has experience at all four corners, second base, and shortstop. In the event that Miguel Andujar or Gleyber Torres made the team, it was clear that Austin would end up the odd-man out. That didn’t happen, as Andujar and Torres were not long for the team, so the chance was still there.
And then they signed the aforementioned Walker. And with that their starters at second and third could both fill-in at first base, and Austin’s lack of versatility within the infield spelled the end of his opportunity – for now, at least.
Austin, despite never having an extended run with the Yankees, is a known commodity at this point. He has raked at Triple-A in back-to-back seasons (.323/.415/.637, 201 wRC+ in 234 PA in 2016, .275/.342/.544, 143 wRC+ in 190 PA in 2017), but that hasn’t translated all that well to the majors yet (.236/.294/.447, 94 wRC+ in 136 PA). And, despite his ability to stand in outfield, he only play out there in an emergency.
If Austin ends up playing a significant role for the team this year, it will almost certainly be due to something happening to Bird, be it an injury or an extended stretch of awful performance. (Sure enough, Bird is hurt already.) And if Andujar and/or Torres end up forcing the issue, his place on the depth chart could become even more tenuous due to his lack of versatility.
The last few months have not been terribly kind to Frazier. His place within the organization was thrown into question with the acquisition of Stanton, and he subsequently spent the rest of the Winter being involved in whatever trade rumors were floated for the litany of starting pitchers that are/were/could have been on the market. And then he cut off his luscious locks to curb any potential issues with the team’s grooming policy, which is a throwback to the stupidity of last off-season’s news cycle – which is a non-issue, really, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, Frazier was concussed as a result of crashing into the outfield wall in Spring Training. He hasn’t played since February 24 as a result, and he may well open the season on the disabled list. The the first few weeks his recovery were downright frightening (a concussion is a brain injury, after all), and his progress is best-described as slow and steady.
With the possible exception of his injuries – an oblique injury shortly after his call-up last year and the concussion – Frazier’s stock remains largely unchanged. He was a consensus top-forty prospect heading into last season, he hit well at Triple-A (.256/.344/.473, 123 wRC+ – a notable improvement over his 88 wRC+ there in 2016), and flashed his potential in 39 games with the Yankees. The ridiculous bat speed, prodigious raw power, and 80-grade hustle were on display every step of the way, too. And he’ll spend most of the season as a 23-year-old, too, so there’s no reason to think that his stock is slipping. If and when he recovers from his concussion, it’ll be a matter of opportunity (or lack thereof) more than anything else.
Frazier’s role with the team is going to be up in the air for some time, but I think he’s much closer to the starting lineup than one might expect. A healthy Jacoby Ellsbury would have an edge on a bench spot, but if an opportunity arose for a starting role (meaning an injury, or maybe regression from Aaron Hicks) I think Frazier would leapfrog him for the regular playing time. Regardless of Frazier’s future with the team, I think it would behoove the Yankees to keep him playing regularly at some level, rather than sitting on a bench.
This is Higashioka’s eleventh year in the Yankees organization, and that does not quite capture how long his road to the show has been. His defense has long been considered at least solid-average, and there was always some hope that his bat would develop. He flashed a strong hit tool and a strong approach throughout his minor league career, and there were rumblings of above-average raw power, too. Unfortunately, assorted injuries and a Tommy John surgery sidelined Higashioka for most of 2012 and nearly all of 2013 and 2014, and he looked like a non-prospect when he returned in 2015.
And then he went out and hit .276/.337/.511 in 416 PA between Double-A and Triple-A in 2016. And when Gary Sanchez went down with an injury in the first week of the 2017 season, some felt that he should be the Yankees starting catcher. That didn’t happen, though, and his .000/.100/.000 slash line in 20 PA as Romine’s back-up didn’t give us any reason to continue to argue otherwise.
Higashioka went back down to the minors when Sanchez returned, and promptly suffered a back injury. He ended up playing in just 30 games between the minors and majors last season, and his durability is once again at the forefront of his profile. If there’s any silver lining, it might be that he hit .338/.390/.797 in the minors … but that was in all of 82 PA.
The soon-to-be 28-year-old Higashioka is healthy and hitting in Spring Training, which is a good sign. I believe that he’ll be the first catcher up should the need arise, but that’s predicated upon him staying healthy – which is far from a guarantee.
Do you feel the excitement in your bones? Kratz is included here largely because of the injury issues that have plagued Higashioka. He earned the call over a healthy Higashioka when the rosters expanded in September, as well, so maybe there’s even something more to it.
Beyond that, Kratz is a prototypical journeyman catcher. He can’t hit (his 1.000/1.000/1.500 line in 2 PA with the Yankees notwithstanding), but he’s a good defensive catcher that grades out well in framing, blocking, and controlling the running game. Seeing him on the roster before September wouldn’t be a good sign, but he’s a competent hand.
The injuries to Ellsbury and Frazier may well make McKinney an Opening Day bench piece by the time that you read this, but he fits here as this is being written.
McKinney was regarded something of a throw-in in the Aroldis Chapman trade that netted Gleyber Torres, but he was always a bit more than that. He was a consensus top-100 prospect heading into 2015 and 2016, and he had a first-round pick pedigree. He struggled mightily in 2016, though, slashing just .246/.342/.338 in Double-A and, as a bat-first (or bat-only) prospect, that wasn’t a good sign. He was nevertheless worth the flier, as someone that had been lauded for above-average grades in his hit tool, power, and approach.
His inclusion in the trade paid dividends in 2017, as McKinney performed decently at Double-A (.250/.339/.431, 110 wRC+ in 276 PA), and brilliantly at Triple-A (.306/.336/.541, 140 wRC+ in 224 PA), before closing out the season with a solid effort in the Arizona Fall League. There were some less than enthusing underlying numbers, such as a 4.0% walk rate in Triple-A – but a “throw-in” prospect hitting that well on the whole is a boon. And he was added to the 40-man roster in November as a result.
McKinney played the outfield exclusively prior to playing first base in the Arizona Fall League, and was generally regarded as passable as a corner outfielder. He has continued to play first in Spring Training, and the reviews are generally okay. He’s still a work in progress, but he’s far from a disaster there. And, given his relative inexperience there, that’s a good sign. His strange but productive .179/.410/.607 line in Spring Training isn’t bad, either.
Were it not for injuries to Ellsbury and Frazier, I’d expect McKinney to spend the vast majority of the year in Triple-A (or in another organization). There’s a real opportunity for him now, though, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he ended up on the big league roster until those two were deemed healthy; and, in Ellsbury’s case, I’m sure the Yankees will take their time with those evaluations. Whether or not that turns into a genuine opportunity is unlikely for the time being, but it’s not entirely out of the question.
Peterson was signed in back in January, and there hasn’t been all that much discussion about him since. He was picked-up to be a depth piece behind or alongside Tyler Wade and Ronald Torreyes, but there was never a chance that he would be anything more than a bench player. And with the trade for Drury and the signing of Walker, the odds of Peterson playing a role with the big club this year are dependent upon several things going wrong.
It’s worth noting, I suppose, that Peterson has spent time at all four infield and all three outfield spots in his big league career (even though he grades out poorly at most of them), so he could be the emergency option in plenty of ways should that opportunity arise. That’s essentially the role that Wade will play this year, though, and the versatility of Drury and Walker further abrogates the need for that sort of player anyway. He’s basically the Donovan Solano replacement, albeit with way more hurdles in his path.
The Kratzken is back. The Yankees have re-signed journeyman catcher Erik Kratz to what I assume is a minor league contract, his representatives at JMG Baseball announced. He was on the roster as the third catcher in September after coming over in a cash trade with the Indians. The Yankees outrighted him and he elected free agency after the season.
Kratz, 37, went 2-for-2 with a double in September and is the all-time franchise leader with a 2.500 OPS (min. two plate appearances). True story. Kratz hit .270/.359/.472 (132 wRC+) with 13 homers in 86 Triple-A games before the trade. He is a career .203/.250/.366 (63 wRC+) hitter in the big leagues, though 24 homers in 649 plate appearances is pretty cool.
My guess is the Yankees are penciling Kratz in as Kyle Higashioka’s backup with Triple-A Scranton next year, though I suppose it is possible he will get a chance to wrestle the big league backup job away from Austin Romine. Kratz traveled with the Yankees throughout the postseason even though he wasn’t on the roster. He must’ve made a nice impression.
We’ve gone through just about every player who made an appearance for the Yankees this year. The good ones. The bad ones. Now let’s get to some of the players in between, the players who are easy to forget. These are the players that you miss on the 2017 New York Yankees Sporcle quiz.
First, let’s go a little more in-depth on a few players I went over in the miscellaneous first basemen review and then touch on the true bottom of the roster.
While Refsnyder had a five-game stint at first base, the Yankees didn’t use him primarily at first this year. He was called up on May 2 to replace an injured Greg Bird on the roster. Six days later, he was sent down for Chad Green.
In all, Refsnyder was up-and-down three times in May, once for the single-admission Derek Jeter/Mother’s Day doubleheader and another time to take the spot of Jacoby Ellsbury post-concussion.
I’ve already gone into his inability to hit this year. It was painful. But his fielding also reared its ugly head. The moment that sticks out was when he replaced Dustin Fowler after the rookie’s devastating knee injury. Refsnyder almost immediately misplayed a ball in right field during a game the Yankees lost by one run.
The dream was that Refsnyder could be a Zobrist-type, but he could neither hit nor field particularly well and it’s why he’s currently on his third organization in the last year (Yankees to Blue Jays to Indians). He played six games against the Yankees with the Blue Jays in the final two months of the year and went 2-for-12.
With 40 more at-bats in 2017, Austin is six at-bats shy of no longer being a rookie. And after a sub-par season due to injuries, it’s worth wondering where he fits in New York.
Two separate DL stints this season really set him back from a chance to prove himself as at least a bench bat, if not the righty side of a platoon. Now, he’ll likely start 2018 in Triple A if he makes it through the offseason on the 40-man roster.
Fun note: He is Pikachu in Didi’s postgame tweets. I don’t think any of these other players got an emoji.
Higashioka had an impressive 2016 in the minors, earning himself the opportunity as the No. 3 catcher out of spring. His calling card in 2016 was his power, although we didn’t get a chance to see it in the majors.
In his age-27 season, he walked twice and picked up no hits in 20 plate appearances while playing nine games in April. He got the chance after Gary Sanchez went down with a forearm injury, but Higgy couldn’t hack it in an extremely short sample size after debuting in the Yankees’ home opener.
As he did for much of his minor league career, Higashioka dealt with injuries for much of the season. The team had to have hoped he’d turned the corner health-wise in his breakout 2016, but alas, he was unable to do so.
The team had to seek out a new third catcher for September after he couldn’t make make it back from his back injury. Now he’ll have to prove himself again to make it through 2018 on the 40-man.
The former top prospect spent his final games in pinstripes this season. Sad to see his time as a Yankee come to an end, but he became expendable this season with the team’s glut of young outfielders.
He made five starts in June and picked up four hits, stealing two bases. No extra-base hits though, which has been part of his issues. He just couldn’t hit for much pop, nor could he work many walks.
He was designated for assignment on June 29 to make room for Dustin Fowler. He spent the rest of the year in Scranton where he continued to show very little power but still produced with his legs (19 steals in 24 attempts).
Williams is now with the Cincinnati Reds, having signed with the club as a minor league free agent after the season.
Kozma may be the easiest 2017 Yankee to forget. He wouldn’t have made the roster at all if it wasn’t for Didi’s injury during the World Baseball Classic/Spring Training.
He played just 11 games in pinstripes and made just 10 plate appearances. He had just one hit and one walk. Didn’t do anything remarkable. He was DFA’d to make room for Didi on April 28 and spent the next 3.5 months with the Rangers. He was cut from their Triple A squad in mid-August.
The Yankees needed a third catcher down the stretch, so Kratz was acquired at the waiver deadline. He played in just four games and had just two at-bats. He delivered in both of them with a single and a double, finishing the season with a sterling 2.500 OPS. That’s good for a 600 wRC+. Oh snap!
He hung around the team during the postseason and stood up for Aaron Judge in a postgame interview after ALDS Game 5. That’s about it for his brief Yankees career.
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2019-04-24T14:26:14Z
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http://riveraveblues.com/tag/erik-kratz/
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St. Charles Borromeo fasting on bread and water.
their faces to show men they are fasting.
The three tools to truly change this Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Fasting must often be added to prayer.
When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, "Why could we not drive it (the demon) out?"
Food is the most primordial drives of the human being. If food is not available to someone, all other desires will be subordinated to it. So when one struggles with the sometimes disordered desires and passions of the human person, ordering the desire for food is one of the best places to start to gain strength to order the rest. We must master our passions or they master us.
Namely, fasting on bread and water at least once a week (a Wednesday or Friday is the best day) has been the practice along with prayer that have made saints and given countless people mastery over unruly passions (i.e. vices, bad habits, etc.). One can also fast by not eating in-between meals or saying no to sweets. Try this ‘hammer of the spiritual life’ and you will not be disappointed!
You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of life. As a Bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Nova Scotia back country.
Based on Ephesians chapter 5 these are Christian men (mostly Catholic) who are fasting for their loved ones, mainly their wives. They, like Christ, are laying down their lives by fasting for those they love and want to help get to heaven. I can personally testify to the power of doing this. I have also met the founder of this site and united action. Women may also sign up to have men fast for them to spiritual help them. Just do it!
God commanded it, Jesus practiced it, Church Fathers have preached the importance of it – fasting is a powerful and fundamental part of the Christian life.
But for many Catholics today, it's more of an afterthought: something we grudgingly do on Good Friday, perhaps on Ash Wednesday if remember it. Would we fast more, especially during Lent, if we understood how helpful it is for our lives?
“Let us take for our standard and for our example those that have run the race, and have won,” said Deacon Sabatino Carnazzo, founding executive director of the Institute of Catholic Culture and a deacon at Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Mclean, Va., of the saints.
So what, in essence, is fasting?
It's “the deprivation of the good, in order to make a decision for a greater good,” explained Deacon Carnazzo. It is most commonly associated with abstention from food, although it can also take the form of giving up other goods like comforts and entertainment.
The current fasting obligation for Latin Catholics in the United States is this: all over the age of 14 must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays in Lent. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, adults age 18 to 59 must fast – eating no more than one full meal and two smaller meals that together do not add up in quantity to the full meal.
Catholics, “if possible,” can continue the Good Friday fast through Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil, the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference adds.
Other Fridays throughout the year (aside from Friday within the Octave of Easter) “are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church,” according to Canon Law 1250. Catholics once abstained from meat on all Fridays, but the U.S. bishops received permission from the Holy See for Catholics to substitute another sacrifice or perform an act of charity instead.
Eastern Rite Catholics, meanwhile, follow the fasting laws of their own particular church.
Aside from the stipulations, though, what's the point of fasting?
“The whole purpose of fasting is to put the created order and our spiritual life in a proper balance,” Deacon Carnazzo said.
As “bodily creatures in a post-fallen state,” it's easy to let our “lower passions” for physical goods supersede our higher intellect, he explained. We take good things for granted and reach for them whenever we feel like it, “without thinking, without reference to the One Who gives us the food, and without reference to the question of whether it’s good for us or not,” he added.
Thus, fasting helps “make more room for God in our life,” Monsignor Charles Pope, pastor of Holy Comforter/St. Cyprian Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. said.
While fasting can take many forms, is abstaining from food especially important?
Yet why is fasting so important in the life of the Church? And what are the roots of the practice in Scripture?
The very first fast was ordered by God to Adam in the Garden of Eden, Deacon Carnazzo noted, when God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17).
Fasting is also good because it is submission to God, he said. By fasting from the fruit of the tree, Adam and Eve would have become partakers in the Divine Nature through their obedience to God. Instead, they tried to take this knowledge of good and evil for themselves and ate the fruit, disobeying God and bringing Original Sin, death, and illness upon mankind.
At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus abstained from food and water for 40 days and nights in the desert and thus “reversed what happened in the Garden of Eden,” Deacon Carnazzo explained. Like Adam and Eve, Christ was tempted by the devil but instead remained obedient to God the Father, reversing the disobedience of Adam and Eve and restoring our humanity.
Following the example of Jesus, Catholics are called to fast, said Fr. Lew. And the Church Fathers preached the importance of fasting.
Why is fasting so powerful? “By setting aside this (created) realm where the devil works, we put ourselves into communion with another realm where the devil does not work, he cannot touch us,” Deacon Carnazzo explained.
Thus, the practice is “clearly linked by St. Thomas Aquinas, writing within the Tradition, to chastity, to purity, and to clarity of mind,” noted Fr. Lew.
The current fasting obligations were set in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, but in previous centuries, the common fasts among Catholics were stricter and more regularly observed.
Catholics abstained from meat on all Fridays of the year, Easter Friday excluded. During Lent, they had to fast – one meatless meal and two smaller meatless meals – on all days excluding Sunday, the day of the Resurrection. They abstained from meat on Fridays and Saturdays in Lent – the days of Christ's death and lying in the tomb – but were allowed meat during the main meal on the other Lenten weekdays.
The obligations extended to other days of the liturgical year. Catholics fasted and abstained on the vigils of Christmas and Pentecost Sunday, and on Ember Days – the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the Feast of St. Lucy on Dec. 13, after Ash Wednesday, after Pentecost Sunday, and after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September – corresponding with the four seasons.
In centuries past, the Lenten abstention was more austere. Catholics gave up not only meat but also animal products like milk and butter, as well as oil and even fish at times.
Why are today's obligations in the Latin Rite so minimal? The Church is setting clear boundaries outside of which one cannot be considered to be practicing the Christian life, Deacon Carnazzo explained. That is why intentionally violating the Lenten obligations is a mortal sin.
But should Catholics perform more than the minimum penance that is demanded? Yes, said Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P., who is currently studying for a Pontifical License in Sacred Theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.
In Jeremiah 31: 31-33, God promises to write His law upon our hearts, Deacon Carnazzo noted. We must go beyond following a set of rules and love God with our hearts, and this involves doing more than what we are obliged to do, he added.
However, Fr. Lew noted, fasting “must be stirred up by charity.” A Catholic should not fast out of dieting or pride, but out of love of God.
“It’s always dangerous in the spiritual life to compare yourself to other people,” he said, citing the Gospel of John where Jesus instructed St. Peter not to be concerned about the mission of St. John the Apostle but rather to “follow Me.” (John 21: 20-23).
In like manner, we should be focused on God during Lent and not on the sacrifices of others, he said.
“We will often fail, I think. And that’s not a bad thing. Because if we do fail, this is the opportunity to realize our utter dependence on God and His grace, to seek His mercy and forgiveness, and to seek His strength so that we can grow in virtue and do better,” he added.
And by realizing our weakness and dependence on God, we can “discover anew the depths of God’s mercy for us” and can be more merciful to others, he added.
Giving up good things may seem onerous and burdensome, but can – and should – a Catholic fast with joy?
At the end of his annual Lenten penitential service on Friday, Pope Francis was the first to go to the sacrament of confession, afterward hearing the confessions of seven laypeople, three men and four women, in attendance.
Instead of giving a homily during the service, which he has done in years past, Pope Francis led people in a lengthy silence following the readings in order to reflect and pray prior to receiving the sacrament of confession.
Earlier on March 17, Francis spoke with participants of the Apostolic Penitentiary’s annual course on the internal forum about the importance of confessors being available to people and spiritually well-formed.
In his speech, the Pope said that to be a good confessor, a priest must be a man of prayer, a man who is attentive to the Holy Spirit and knows how to discern well, and who also is a good evangelizer.
Held in St. Peter's Basilica, the penitential service usually takes place on the fourth Friday of Lent, in anticipation of the “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative held yearly on the fourth Friday and Saturday of Lent.
This year, however, the Pope's penitential service was moved to the week prior, March 17. In addition to going to confession and hearing the confessions of seven others, the service included prayers, songs and readings from Scripture.
Afterward, almost 100 priest and bishops were available to hear the confessions of those in attendance.
Starting in the evening on March 24, churches throughout Rome will remain open for 24 hours to give pilgrims the opportunity to go to confession and take part in Eucharistic Adoration.
While parishes in Rome will be open overnight, churches elsewhere in the world are invited to participate as well, adapting the initiative to suit their local situations and needs.
Additional information on the “24 Hours for the Lord” can be found at the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization's website, www.novaevangelizatio.va.
The five-foot-ten, strawberry-blonde-bearded missionary priest was from the unassuming town of Okarche, Okla., where the parish, school and farm were the pillars of community life. He went to the same school his whole life and lived with his family until he left for seminary.
Surrounded by good priests and a vibrant parish life, Stanley felt God calling him to the priesthood from a young age. But despite a strong calling, Stanley would struggle in the seminary, failing several classes and out of two seminaries before finally finishing.
Scaperlanda, who has worked on Fr. Stanley’s cause for canonization, said the priest is a great witness and example, particularly in the Year of Mercy.
In June 2015, the Theological Commission of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted to recognize Fr. Stanley Rother as a martyr. The next step will be for his cause to go before a panel of cardinals and archbishops of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints.
“The fourth precept ("You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church") ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts and help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.
The faithful also have the duty of providing for the material needs of the Church, each according to his own abilities.."
Honor Among ThievesA mother complained to the schoolteacher, that other students in class were stealing her daughter’s pencils.
Ivy League MusicA month after Donald MacDonald started at Harvard, his mother called from Scotland. "And how are the American students, Donald?" she asked.
"They’re so noisy," he complained. "One neighbor endlessly bangs his head against the wall, while another screams all night."
"How do you put up with it?"
"I just ignore them and play my bagpipes."
A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore, where a seagull lay dead in the sand. "Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked. "He died and went to Heaven," the dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?"
At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny, a child in the kindergarten class, seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying as though he were ill, and said. "Johnny what is the matter?" Little Johnny responded, "I have a pain in my side. I think I'm going to have a wife....!"
truly fruitful in my life that I may hunger for only you. Amen.
The Lord God took Abram outside and said, "Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so," he added, "shall your descendants be." Abram put his faith in the LORD, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness. He then said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession." "O Lord GOD," he asked, "how am I to know that I shall possess it?" He answered him, "Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." Abram brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up. Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram stayed with them. As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram, and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him. When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates."
Adults - God’s love is on full display here, where He is willing to give all through His covenant with Abraham, while asking for nothing in return. How can you share this kind of love with others in your life?
Teens - Do you know the difference between a contract and a covenant? A contact is a temporary exchange of goods/services and a contract is an exchange of person. Do some research this week on other differences between the two.
Kids - Say some extra prayers of thanksgiving for God’s merciful love this week.
R.The Lord is my light and my salvation.
-Is there something in your life that God is shedding light on? How will you respond?
Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us. For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their "shame." Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord.
In the Second Reading we hear Saint Paul’s explanation of how and why we should be “in this world but not of it.” When we become caught up in earthly matters to the point that we forget the spiritual world, and our goal of eternal salvation, we find ourselves far from God - and that is the worst place to be.
Does your faith touch all parts of your life? Do you live it outside of the Church walls in a tangible and active way?
Adults - Share a time when you felt in awe of God’s grace. How were you called to respond to that experience—to be a witness, to move you to action, to prepare you for something else, to simply experience the gift of awe?
Teens - Did you ever have an experience that you didn’t understand while you were going through it, but made sense when it was over? Did you ever have an experience that didn’t seem remarkable at the time, but prepared you for something bigger, later on?
Kids - Peter, James, and John didn’t know what to do when they saw Jesus dazzling white on the mountain. What do you think you would have felt or done if you were there?
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2019-04-20T16:51:49Z
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https://www.romancatholicgoodnews.com/newsletters/roman-catholic-good-news-lent-prayer-fasting-and-almsgiving-3162019
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If you are using any service as an employee, contractor, or agent of a corporation, partnership or similar entity, then you must be authorized to sign for and bind such entity in order to accept this TOU, and you represent and warrant that you have the authority to do so.
1.1 “Agreement” - is an agreement between LENTIQ and CLIENT, as amended and supplemented by subsequent addendum or updated with any schedules, exhibits, or amendments. If no such agreement is entered into, then these TOU shall constitute the Agreement.
1.2 “Content,” “CLIENT Data,” or “Data” shall mean any of the following: (i) data, application and information belonging to CLIENT, a beneficiary of LENTIQ Services, (ii) data supplied by the Users of the applications included in the Content, (iii) data from or used in connection with transactions at the level of the applications included in the Content such as, but without limitation to information related to transactions and sales, information related to End-User accounts, etc., (iv) any information generated by the use of the applications or configurations that are licensed, on a non-exclusive basis, to CLIENT for the duration of the Agreement.
1.4 “Freemium Mode” is a grace period granted to CLIENT, to benefit from the LENTIQ Services free of charge for an unlimited period of time, as long as the CLIENT does not exceed using more than 3 nodes for their account. CLIENT shall not be billed while in Demo Mode. LENTIQ is entitled to suspend Demo Mode at any time, without prior notice, by starting to issue invoices.
1.5 “Effective Date” of the Agreement is the date of Client’s initial access to the Service through any online registration or order process.
1.6 “End-User” or “User” means any person who uses, in any way, any application made available through LENTIQ Services, whether or not he/she has received a written or verbal authorization to this effect from CLIENT. CLIENT shall bear full responsibility regarding authorized End-Users, regardless of the way in which they have been authorized. The tacit acceptance, by CLIENT, of a particular action of the End-User, irrespective of the ways in which such action would materialize, is deemed an “authorization”.
1.7 “Infrastructure Provider” means the applicable third-party hosting provider which Client has separately contracted with which stores Client’s data pursuant to the agreement between Client and such Infrastructure Provider (such as LENTIQ Services, Google Cloud Platform, or such other pre-approved platform, as applicable).
1.8 “LENTIQ” refers to LENTIQ, INC. a corporation formed under the laws of the State of Delaware along with their subsidiaries and affiliates.
1.9 “Network” means the communications network under the direct control of LENTIQ, through which CLIENT accesses LENTIQ Services.
1.10 “On-Demand Interventions” means LENTIQ interventions on the Internet network or the Services, requested by CLIENT or by state institutions and bodies.
1.11 “Planned Interruption” - means any interruption due to maintenance, routine or upgrading works, which may affect the availability of the service. LENTIQ shall endeavour to send CLIENT, at least 2 business days in advance, a notice of any Planned Interruption that shall affect the availability of the Services that is outside of the standard maintenance windows of between 23:00 (UTC) on Saturdays and 06:00 (UTC) on Sundays, except during Emergency Intervention Works and On-Demand Repairs/Interventions.
1.12 “Privacy Notice” means the policy displayed on LENTIQ's website, which may be amended from time to time.
1.13 “Services” or “LENTIQ Services” - are the services provided by LENTIQ and used by CLIENT. Such Services may be customized for CLIENT. LENTIQ Services include LENTIQ EdgeLake Services, which are DataLake related services such as infrastructure management, data management, metadata management, workflow management offered as a service and controlled through a web interface and deployed on officially supported platforms.
1.14 “Service Suspension” means the period during which LENTIQ Services shall be unavailable at the initiative of LENTIQ, in the special cases provided for in this TOU.
2. ACCESS TO THE SERVICES. MANAGEMENT INTERFACE.
3. FEES, INVOICING AND PAYMENT TERMS.
3.1 Access to the Service or to certain features of the Service may now or in the future require the payment of fees (“Fees”). Fees shall be set forth on the Management Interface. The Fees may be set in pound sterling (GBP), Euro (EUR) or U.S. dollars (USD). Fees are VAT-exclusive. The payment of the Services shall be made observing exchange rate of the ECB or National Bank of the country where LENTIQ's registered office is located, valid on the previous day date of the invoice.
3.2 Except as otherwise provided herein, all Fees are non-refundable. LENTIQ may add features to the Service on a going forward basis at any time and may charge additional Fees separately for such additional features if Client elects to use such features. LENTIQ reserves the right to change the Fees charged.
3.3 Each invoice issued by LENTIQ shall be deemed due in 15 days of the billing date. If the Fee is not credited to LENTIQ bank account by the due date, then LENTIQ shall be entitled to charge interest on the overdue amounts for each day of delay in payment at a rate of 0.2%, as well as to proceed to the Suspension of LENTIQ Services or to restrict the CLIENT's access to all or part of the Services and/or public access to the Services. LENTIQ shall reactivate the Services only after the payment of the due amounts, as well as of the interest.
3.4 Any good faith dispute as to the amount owed must be in writing and delivered to LENTIQ within 5 (five) days of the delivery date of the invoice or of the notification sent via email that the invoice can be downloaded from the Management Interface. The parties have expressly agreed that the invoices issued by LENTIQ under this Agreement are automatically deemed accepted for payment, except when the CLIENT disputes the amount of the invoice within the above-mentioned term.
If Client purchases any Service from an authorized partner of LENTIQ (“Partner”), Client’s use of the Service will be governed by these TOU, except that Client will pay Partner for the Service.
5.1 Subject to these TOU, LENTIQ grants to Client a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, terminable license to use the Service.
5.2 The Client grants to LENTIQ a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license, for the duration of this Agreement, to Client Data for the sole purpose of providing the Service to Client in accordance with this Agreement and LENTIQ’s Privacy Notice. LENTIQ shall not, now or in the future, sell any Client Data to any third party. Client is solely responsible for storing and maintaining backups and copies of all Data stored within Client’s applicable Infrastructure Provider. LENTIQ does not and is not responsible for storing any Data and disclaims all liability in connection with any claims that the Data have been lost, deleted, corrupted, or otherwise rendered unusable.
6.1 This Agreement shall come into effect on the Effective Date and shall continue for the entire Contractual Period until all Services have been validly terminated.
6.2 Each Service may have a distinct Contractual Period. The minimum term shall be of one (1) year. The commencement date of each Service under this Agreement shall be the date when the Service is delivered by LENTIQ.
6.3 The Term of the Services will automatically be renewed for successive Renewal Terms of one (1) year each (Renewal Term), unless terminated by either party on not less than 90 (ninety) days written notice of its intention to terminate before the expiration date of the Contractual Period.
7.1 Both Parties shall keep in strict confidence all Confidential Information disclosed during the performing of this Agreement. Each Party shall ensure that the confidentiality obligation shall be applicable to its employees, agents or subcontractors as set forth in this Agreement.
7.2 Further details regarding the Privacy Notice are available on the website. Any provision stipulated therein forms an integral part of this Agreement.
7.3 LENTIQ shall at all times comply with industry standard security practices with respect to the Services. In order to protect CLIENT’s rights and interests, LENTIQ may disclose information regarding the CLIENT only if they are requested from the login address specified in the Management Interface or to the extent that the internal procedures of identification are complied.
7.4 Data Processing Addendum. To the extent Client Data constitutes Personal Data, Client and LENTIQ hereby agree that Client shall be deemed to be the data controller and LENTIQ shall be deemed to be the data processor as those terms are understood under the EU Regulation 2016/679 General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). If Client Data is subject to the GDPR, then Client agrees to execute the LENTIQ Data Protection Addendum (“DPA”), available for download at lentiq.com, and to send the signed DPA to [email protected]. In the event that Client has executed the DPA, then, upon receipt of the executed DPA, LENTIQ shall process any applicable Client Data in accordance with the terms of the DPA, and the DPA shall control with respect to any conflict between this Agreement and the DPA.
m) To ensure the prerequisites of third-party cloud providers before using LENTIQ Services. This prerequisite can be found lentiq.com. LENTIQ shall be not be held liable for any damages or loss resulted from the breach of any of the terms of the Pre-requisite.
8.2.4. if brought to its attention that the usage of the Services by the CLIENT or the Data are illegal or any facts or circumstances resulting in an activity or Data that might cause damage to the rights of a third party.
8.3 The Service Suspension does not have any effect against the obligations between the Parties. For the avoidance of doubt, the CLIENT shall fulfil all the obligations provided in this Agreement, including the payment obligation. The CLIENT shall not be entitled to any reimbursement of the payments made in advance for the Suspension Period, irrespective of the reason for Suspension.
8.6 To limit the misuse of the Services and to ensure compliance with the Service Level Agreements to all CLIENTs, LENTIQ may temporarily limit certain parameters of the Services, such as data transfer speed, access to certain services, etc. for CLIENT.
8.7 On Demand Services may be subject to consumption limits. The consumption limit may be changed by LENTIQ depending on the guarantees provided or on CLIENT's creditworthiness and reliability.
9.2 CLIENT is solely responsible for the actions of its End-Users since LENTIQ is not able to control how the Services are used, and/or the End-Users' actions in what concerns the LENTIQ Services.
10.1.7 Maintaining current Data backups to prevent and mitigate Data loss.
11.1 CLIENT warrants that it has all rights, including proprietary rights in relation to CLIENT's Data, such as copyright, trademark and patent rights, trade secrets, etc.
11.2 If the Content includes applications that allow for UGC (“user generated content”) such as forums, blogs, chat rooms, and other interactive features, CLIENT shall assume sole responsibility for all the actions of the End Users as if they were CLIENT’s own actions, whether they were taken with or without CLIENT's consent. CLIENT undertakes to act quickly to delete or block public access to illegal information or to information that might violate the rights of a third party, according to applicable laws or regulations.
11.3 Apart from the technical monitoring conducted at the level of LENTIQ Services, according to which LENTIQ may intervene to remedy or prevent certain failures, LENTIQ shall not interfere with the Content and shall not make any amendment thereto, except in Service Suspension situations, Emergency Intervention, and On-Demand Interventions. CLIENT is aware and accepts that the operation of certain procedures, at the level of LENTIQ Services, may involve certain technical interventions on the Content, for which CLIENT shall take full responsibility. LENTIQ acknowledges and respects the ownership of CLIENT in relation to the Content, undertaking to refrain from any action that might jeopardize the security and integrity thereof. In order to ensure a high level of security, LENTIQ shall take reasonable steps to use security solutions in accordance with internationally recognized standards in the industry. In addition to the security measures provided by LENTIQ, CLIENT shall maintain optimal security solutions, including encryption of the Content. CLIENT acknowledges and agrees that the privacy obligations related to the Content are borne exclusively by CLIENT.
11.4 The Service is owned and operated by LENTIQ. LENTIQ has all rights, including proprietary rights in relation to the Service. Except for any Client Data, all materials related to the Service are the property of LENTIQ or our third-party licensors. LENTIQ reserves all rights to the materials not expressly granted in this Agreement.
12. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY. LIMITATION OF REMEDIES AND DAMAGES.
12.2 LENTIQ does not warrant the uninterrupted operation or the compatibility with all types of equipment or configurations of the software supplied with a non-exclusive license for the Agreement. “Software supplied with a non-exclusive license” shall mean any computer program or software made available to CLIENT during the Agreement and which is related to an additional feature or to management applications, but not limited thereto.
12.3 LENTIQ does not guarantee that services shall be done in a certain amount of time.
12.4 LIMITATION OF REMEDIES AND DAMAGES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER PARTY NOR ITS AFFILIATES SHALL BE LIABLE TO THE OTHER PARTY OR ITS AFFILIATES FOR ANY LOSS OF USE, LOST OR INACCURATE DATA, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, COSTS OF DELAY, LOST PROFITS, OR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, RELIANCE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING LOST PROFITS), EVEN IF INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES IN ADVANCE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW AND NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THIS AGREEMENT, LENTIQ’S AND ITS AFFILIATES’ ENTIRE LIABILITY TO THE CLIENT OR ITS AFFILIATES (FOR DAMAGES OR LIABILITY OF ANY TYPE), SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID (OR WITH RESPECT TO CLAIMS FOR FEES DUE, PAYABLE) BY THE CLIENT TO LENTIQ ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE PRIOR 1 MONTH UNDER THE APPLICABLE ORDER FORM. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT THE WAIVERS AND LIMITATIONS SPECIFIED IN THIS SECTION 12 WILL SURVIVE AND APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE AND WILL SURVIVE AND APPLY EVEN IF ANY LIMITED REMEDY SPECIFIED IN THIS AGREEMENT IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.
13.1 CLIENT agrees to indemnify LENTIQ and hold it harmless against any claim made by any third party arising from CLIENT's use of the Services and against any loss (direct or indirect), costs, actions, suits, claims, expenses (including legal fees), loss of profit as a result of a breach by CLIENT of its obligations under this Agreement or arising from any intentional or negligent act or omission of CLIENT or of CLIENT's End-Users. CLIENT shall provide LENTIQ with all the information and assistance that are reasonably necessary for the defense against or settlement of such claims.
14.1.3. if one of the parties unilaterally terminates the Agreement by giving 30 days’ written notice, the CLIENT being held to comply within 30 days with the obligations under the terms and conditions of art. 10.3.
14.1.5. within 30 calendar days from the notice of default, by giving a written notice of termination for breach by the entitled party, if the other party fails to perform or performs inadequately the contractual obligations, other than the ones provided at art. 10.1.4.
14.2. In the cases of termination under art. 10.1.4 and 10.1.5, the CLIENT shall be deemed in default as of right, if the remedy period expires and the CLIENT failed to remedy the breach within the term provided in the notice. The statement of fault termination shall be deemed as irrevocable from the communication date of the termination for breach notice and the termination of the Agreement shall operate at the same date.
14.3. In case of unilateral termination by the CLIENT without any reason or in case of termination of the Agreement by LENTIQ due to the CLIENT’s fault, the CLIENT shall be liable to pay damages equivalent to the entire value of the Agreement applicable until the end of the corresponding Contractual Period, given that for the provision of the Services, LENTIQ engages direct costs of the equipment and human resources, and the Contractual Period reflects such costs.
14.4. Any obligation and liability of the CLIENT shall be unaffected at the termination, including the obligation to indemnify LENTIQ for any damages in respect to any breach of the Agreement which existed at or before the date of termination for any reason.
14.5. The CLIENT shall immediately pay to LENTIQ all of LENTIQ's outstanding unpaid invoices and interest. Also, in respect of the Services supplied but for which no invoice has yet been submitted LENTIQ shall submit an invoice, which shall be payable by the CLIENT immediately on receipt.
From time to time, LENTIQ may modify the Agreement. Unless otherwise specified by LENTIQ, changes become effective for CLIENT after the updated version of this Agreement goes into effect. LENTIQ will use reasonable efforts to notify CLIENT of the changes through communications via Management Interface, email or other means. CLIENT may be required to click to accept or otherwise agree to the modified Agreement and in any event continued use of the Service after the updated version of this Agreement goes into effect will constitute CLIENT’s acceptance of such updated version. If CLIENT does not agree to the changes, CLIENT may terminate this Agreement in accordance with Section 14 (Termination).
15.1 Neither Party may assign this Agreement, in whole or in part, without the other Party’s prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld, delayed, or conditioned.
15.2 The absence of a written agreement shall be deemed as a refusal to consent to the assignment or novation, in whole or in part, of the contractual rights or obligations.
15.3 However, either party may assign this Agreement in its entirety, without consent of the other party, to its Affiliates or in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganization, sale of all or substantially all of its assets or part of a transfer as a going concern, or to another company of equal or better credit quality, providing at least the same or better service; this operation shall be notified to the other party via email or in the Management Interface at least 5 (five) days prior to the date on which such assignment shall operate.
16.1 Conflict. Where these TOU expressly conflict with the terms and conditions of another signed, written agreement between CLIENT and LENTIQ, the terms and conditions of that other agreement shall be controlling and shall supersede this TOU only to the extent of the conflict.
16.2 Non-standard service. If CLIENT requests LENTIQ to implement a certain configuration (hardware or software) or services that are not included in the LENTIQ offer, LENTIQ may mark the configuration or service as “unacceptable”, “non-standard”, “best effort”, “reasonable efforts”, “one-off”, “end of life”, “no support” or any other similar term (referred to in this section as a “non-standard service”). LENTIQ may refuse to provide any guarantee in respect of a non-standard service. CLIENT agrees that LENTIQ shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from the provision of a non-standard service. The LENTIQ Service Level Agreement (SLA) shall not apply to a non-standard service, or to services that are adversely affected by the non-standard service. CLIENT agrees that non-standard services might not be compatible with other LENTIQ services, such as the backup or monitoring services.
16.3 LENTIQ may offer Beta Services without any guarantees. If the CLIENT decides to participate in any beta test, pilot test, or similar test, then the Service shall be provided without any guarantees as a Beta Service.
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2019-04-21T14:07:39Z
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https://lentiq.com/terms-of-use
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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Jerry Bruckheimer has purchased the rights to a short story by Derek Haas and hired the writer to expand it into a feature screenplay for Disney. The deal was worth more than seven figures.
Haas is also the author of the Silver Bear thrillers, the second of which, Columbus, is scheduled for publication this November.
Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Black Circle by Patrick Carman. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Special thanks to Alex (age 14) for contributing his review of The Black Circle and to Scholastic for providing a copy of the book for this review.
If you are interested in purchasing The Black Circle from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
Synopsis (from the publisher): Where are Amy and Dan Cahill? The two kids were last seen in Egypt, hunting for one of the 39 Clues that could make them the most powerful people on earth. But no one has seen the siblings since. Has the ruthless Irina Spasky finally tracked them down? Or worse ... the Madrigals? No one knows where the Clue hunt leads next. But one thing is certain -- Dan and Amy are gearing up for their most dangerous adventure yet.
The only reality show to date that had a real mystery or suspense theme to it was The Mole, an ABC series that aired its original format for two seasons. Several celebrity versions and knock-offs followed, but couldn't match the quality of the original. Contestants needed to complete a series of (often) complex challenges to move on in the game. One of them, however, was a "mole", someone whose role it was to sabotage as secretly as possible the tasks being completed. At the end of each challenge, contestants were asked a series of questions intended to expose the mole; the one answering the least correctly was eliminated. Anderson Cooper was the host.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation features a passionate team of Las Vegas forensic investigators trained to solve crimes the old-fashioned way -- by examining the evidence.
Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen) exits this season and Laurence Fishburne joins the cast in the lead role of Dr. Raymond Langston. Along with Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), Nick Stokes (George Eads), Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda), and Captain Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle), they are all on the case 24-7, scouring the scene, collecting irrefutable evidence, and finding the missing pieces that will solve the mystery.
The CSI: Season Nine DVD set of 6 discs contain the 24 episodes that aired on CBS from October 2008 through May 2009.
Victorian London was a boon for crooks--and a bane for Scotland Yard, whose job it was to thwart crime. In the pages of fiction, the citizens of the capital often turned to private sleuths for redress. But Sherlock Holmes was not the only detective in town. Contemporary writers created an impressive cast of investigators, both amateur and professional, as colorful as the criminals they set out to catch. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes are their stories.
Some of the detectives in this classic British series work with the police. Others achieve success in spite of them. And a few even fall under official suspicion themselves. Yet all pit their wits against the best that London’s underworld has to offer in 13 finely crafted mysteries delivered by Britain’s top character actors.
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Set One DVD set of 6 discs contain the 13 episodes of this series that aired during the fall of 1971.
Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu by Michael Stanley. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Review: Set in Botswana, Assistant Superintendent David "Kubu" Bengu is assigned to assist in the investigation of two murders at Jackalberry Camp, a tourist destination near the borders of Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia in The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu, the second mystery in this series by the pseudonymous writing duo Michael Stanley.
Dead are the titular character, formerly of Zimbabwe, and Sipho Langa, of South Africa. Missing from camp is Ishmael Zondo, real identity unknown as he was in the country on a false passport, and now the prime suspect in both murders. Though they arrived in camp together, the two dead men apparently did not know each other and have no obvious connection to each other. The local authorities are quick to attribute the deaths to a drug deal gone badly. Kubu believes otherwise, especially when it's learned that Goodluck Tinubu was declared dead almost 30 years ago during a civil uprising in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Another murder with links back to the camp focus Kubu’s attention on who was present at the time of the original murders, who he believes know more than they’re telling.
There is great appeal in the characters and setting of The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu, but it must also be said that the book is far too long for what is essentially a routine murder investigation; at over 450 pages in length, cutting a third or more would have greatly improved the pacing with no loss of continuity. True, there's a wealth of detail about the lush countryside, from vistas (“Kubu looked around. The view was spectacular. Water and islands stretched to the hazy horizon. Wild date palms poked into the sky, hosts to circling palm swifts, moving almost too fast for the eye to track. To the right, the mainland was covered with thick vegetation. Jackalberry, mangosteen, and birdplum trees dominated the scene, with an occasional mahogany spreading its heavy branches.”) to night-bush sounds (“There was a loud crack, and a tree descended to comfortable elephant-trunk level.”), that add interest and depth to the story, but there are also extended backstories about the political unrest of the area that are related to the plot but really contribute relatively little. Even the suspect interviews, which often bear a striking similarity to those conducted by Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, who no doubt heavily influenced the character of Kubu Bengu, are too long by half.
The least satisfactory element of the story, though, is the murder plot. The authors tease the reader with hints as to its complexity (“Zondo is not Zondo, and Tinubu died years ago. To all intents and purposes, neither exists. Makes solving a murder a little difficult.”), but most will see it for what it is. The murders take place on remote river island with limited access, yet it takes over 350 pages before Kubu ponders, and ultimately answers, the questions that should have been foremost on his mind when he first arrived at the murder scene: Why Goodluck Tinubu? Why Jackalberry Camp? Why now? Still, despite its length and rather weakly developed and somewhat derivative plot, The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu is an enjoyable mystery, a familiar story in a most unfamiliar place.
Special thanks to Susan Schwartzman Public Relations for providing a copy of The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu for this review.
If you are interested in purchasing The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.
Normally a peaceful wilderness retreat, the Jackalberry bush camp has suddenly become a ghastly crime scene—and the details are still emerging when Detective David "Kubu" Bengu is assigned to the case. Zimbabwean teacher Goodluck Tinubu and another tourist have been found bludgeoned to death, while another guest at the camp—rumored to be a dissident wanted in Zimbabwe—has disappeared without a trace.
With the local police unable—or unwilling—to provide much assistance, Detective Kubu relies on his own instincts to track down those responsible for the crimes. But a startling piece of forensic evidence from Goodluck Tinubu's murder adds a complicated twist to the investigation, and Kubu must work fast to solve a seemingly impossible riddle before any more Jackalberry guests meet their death. Suspecting that everyone at the camp has something to hide, the wily detective from Gaborone sets a clever trap to find the truth.
Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed electronic and board games, parties for kids and adults, and getaway vacations including murder mystery weekends, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery game for the Nintendo DS. More mystery games for this platforms are available on our recently updated Games of Mystery: Nintendo DS webpage.
You, as the Hardy Boys, are invited onboard the Royal Express traveling from Paris to St. Petersburg to follow the mysterious trail of the Romanov family treasure in The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks, the first game in this franchise for the Nintendo DS.
Famed amateur detectives, the team consists of Frank and Joe Hardy. Joe is easily excitable and more spontaneous while Frank prefers to calculate a method of solving the mystery and relies mostly on logic. Together they need to discover what others before them have failed to find. In Treasure on the Tracks, you'll take a ride on the Royal Express to track down the lost clues of the royal Romanov family in the great cities of Europe!
The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks is currently scheduled for release for the Nintendo DS on September 1st, 2009, and is available to pre-order.
Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Chambers of Death by Priscilla Royal. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Review: Chambers of Death is the 6th mystery in this series by Priscilla Royal, set in medieval England and featuring Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal.
It is the end of autumn on a blistery, icy raining day as Prioress Eleanor, administrator of Tyndal Priory, a Fontevraudine nunnery, returns from an ill-advised journey concerning boundary disputes and contracts. Together, with her traveling companion, Brother Thomas, a monk at Tyndal, and a fifteen-year-old novice, Mariota, Prioress Eleanor seeks a refuge from the weather in that Mariota has suddenly turned quite ill. She is feverish and her breathing is ragged and labored. They are fortunate to find lodging at the manor of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. The members of the household are gracious and show great warmth to their visitors, carrying Mariota into a room with a bed near the fire to hasten her recovery, and giving Eleanor clean and dry clothes. The good will of some of the members of the family did not last long, however. Filled with anger, jealousy and lust, some remarked that the Devil with all his ghosts and demons were residing in the manor. Though Eleanor is desirous of moving on, Mariota’s fever does not break on the first day, and the visitors are invited to stay on until she is well. On the second night of their stay, a cry of “murder” is heard throughout the manor. Tobye, the stable groom is found dead, his throat slashed. Without hesitation, the local sheriff decides the deed was done by another servant, so immediately arrests the Hilda the cook, who had been known to look at Tobye in lustful ways. He is going to take her off to hang her.
Eleanor, although she had no idea who might have killed Tobye or why, was sure it was not Hilda. She knows she is a guest and should not become involved, but this is not her nature. Eleanor forces herself to confront the question of why she had gotten involved in this matter of murder. This was not priory land. The king’s law ruled here. After her successes in similar affairs, has she grown conceited? If true, she must cease her involvement and confess her overindulgent arrogance. She fears, however that, the evil in this place of refuge is more sinister than she had imagined. And then two more deaths occur, one which appears to be a suicide and another clearly murder. Who will the sheriff suspect now, and can Eleanor help identify the murderer?
The real strength of this series is in the character of Prioress Eleanor. She is truly and interesting and captivating person. Although she sees the sins of those who come to her for blessings, she recognizes that she, too, is a sinner. The other characters here are equally appealing, well considered and drawn. The plot in Chambers of Death is especially strong, the setting providing an appropriate atmospheric gloom over "whodunit" and why. This series continues to improve with each successive outing of the Prioress, and is highly recommended.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Chambers of Death and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
If you are interested in purchasing Chambers of Death from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
Synopsis (from the publisher): When one of her company falls ill on a return journey to Tyndal, Prioress Eleanor accepts lodging at a nearby manor. Master Stevyns' wife is having an affair with the groom while a local widow acts more the lady of the manor than the lady herself. His eldest son and spouse are obsessed with sin and heaven while his youngest son, bound for the Church, unexpectedly returns with more interest in lute playing than the priesthood. It is no surprise when someone's throat is cut, but the sheriff does all he can to avoid offending the family rather than seeking the real killer. When he arrests a servant, she herself is stabbed before she can either prove innocence or be taken off for hanging. Will Eleanor discover the dark secrets that have led to this string of killings before the murderer strikes again?
First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is your source for information on over 100 mystery series for children and young adults where each series is conveniently listed under four different age categories (New Sleuths, ages 4 to 6; Future Sleuths, ages 7 to 9; Sleuths in Training, ages 10 to 12, and Apprentice Sleuths, ages 13 and older), is pleased to announce new titles in the Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys mysteries series scheduled for publication in September.
The 22nd book in this series for young girl sleuths.
The 3rd book in the Galaxy X Trilogy.
Suspects: Tyrone McKenzie and his family seem to make enemies by the second. But is it a new enemy that wants to keep the park shut down? Or someone from the McKenzie family's past who has suddenly resurfaced ...?
The Hardy Boys mysteries are recommended for readers aged 10 and older.
Frank and Joe go undercover at a national spelling bee where a mysterious madman known as the Hangman is determined to erase the competition! Teens from across the globe have been invited to attend, and A.T.A.C. and the Hardy Boys have to do everything they can to keep the Hangman from spelling disaster!
The 18th book in this series of graphic novels.
Janet Rudolph over at Mystery Fanfare has posted the winners of the 2009 Ned Kelly Awards, which were given out last night in Melbourne by the Crime Writers Association of Australia recognizing outstanding works in the field of crime fiction and non-fiction by Australian authors.
Crime writer Shane Maloney was given the lifetime achievement award.
Our congratulations to the winners! Visit Mystery Book Awards for more information on over 30 other awards recognizing outstanding mystery fiction.
This weekend, Masterpiece Mystery! (PBS) presents the second series of Inspector Lewis mysteries. Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox return as Detective Inspector Lewis and Detective Sergeant Hathaway in seven all-new episodes. As the relationship between the two develops, new sides to the inimitable duo emerge. Memories of his wife's sudden death continue to haunt Lewis while Hathaway's understanding with the Inspector deepens with every case.
This Sunday, August 30th (9 PM ET/PT; check your local listings for the exact time in your area), "And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea" airs. A body is in the library, but not just any library. A man is dead in the basement of Oxford's Bodleian Library, the first murder there in 500 years. The maintenance worker had a curious interest in old books and a more contemporary proclivity for gambling. Lewis and Hathaway's investigation takes them into the secrets and contrasts of Oxford life — the closed world of gambling support groups and the rarified arena of arts and literature. But when the murders start to stack up like books in the Bodleian and the surreal link seems to be the poet Shelley, Lewis and Hathaway scramble to get an education and catch a killer.
New episodes air each of the following Sundays through October 18th (except September 27th).
Inspector Lewis is a spin-off from the long-running Inspector Morse mystery series, based on the characters created by Colin Dexter. Set in Oxford, it takes place chronologically five years after the death of Inspector Morse.
The first series of Inspector Lewis mysteries is available on DVD from Mysteries on TV.
In a press release yesterday, SouthPeak Games announced Crime Scene, a new game for the Nintendo DS.
Crime Scene turns the Nintendo DS into a weapon of justice. Players are tasked with combing through crime scenes and untangling suspense-filled scenarios by using the stylus, breath and voice features, and their own eye for detail to condemn wrongdoers. All the police tools are at the players' disposal as they study bodies, take blood samples, collect fingerprints, use voice recognition software, identify murder weapons, conduct DNA analyses and more.
"People love a good 'whodunit', so we're about to give them a bunch of head-scratching crimes to solve," said Richard Iggo, VP of Marketing at SouthPeak. "Whether you are a fan of police dramas on TV, classic detective fiction, or just tricky puzzles, Crime Scene allows players to take part in their own tense, high stakes investigation and get involved in forensic work."
Though no specific release date was mentioned, Crime Scene is expected to be available for the holiday shopping season.
Visit Games of Mystery: Nintendo DS for more mystery games available for this platform.
First Clues: Mysteries for Kids, your source for information on over 100 mystery series for children and young adults where each series is conveniently listed under four different age categories (New Sleuths, ages 4 to 6; Future Sleuths, ages 7 to 9; Sleuths in Training, ages 10 to 12; and Apprentice Sleuths, ages 13 and older), is pleased to announce a selection of new mystery books (including series books) scheduled for publication during September, 2009.
The Boxcar Children mysteries are recommended for readers aged 7 to 9.
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny take a trip down the Mississippi River in a paddle-wheel boat and stay in a haunted cabin! At least it seems haunted - ther are spooky phone calls, flickering lights, and strange shadows. Are there really ghosts, or is someone trying to scare the Boxcar Children away?
The Boxcar Children Graphic Novels are recommended for readers aged 7 to 9.
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are on a fall vacation in the woods - but suddenly a snowstorm hits! While they're trapped in their cabin they discover a strange message written in code hidden in a secret spot! Who is the message for? The Boxcar Children wait to be rescued from the deep snow, but in the meantime they have a mystery to solve!
The Aldens have new neighbors, and they're helping them build a tree house! From up high they can see things they hadn't seen before. There's a strange round window on the house next door that's been hidden by trees - but nobody can find the window from inside the attic. Does their neighbor's old house have a secret?
The Skulduggery Pleasant series books are recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending August 28, 2009 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.
Not much change at the top of the list this week with The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson retaining the top spot for the fourth straight week. Two new titles debut this week.
Entering the list in 10th position is the 15th thriller in the Alex Cross series by James Patterson, Alex Cross's Trial. Separated by time ... From his grandmother, Alex Cross has heard the story of his great uncle Abraham and his struggles for survival in the era of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, Alex passes the family tale along to his own children in a novel he's written--a novel called Trial. Connected by blood ... As a lawyer in turn-of-the-century Washington D.C., Ben Corbett represents the toughest cases. Fighting against oppression and racism, he risks his family and his life in the process. When President Roosevelt asks Ben to return to his home town to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan there, he cannot refuse. United by bravery ... When he arrives in Eudora, Mississippi, Ben meets the wise Abraham Cross and his beautiful daughter, Moody. Ben enlists their help, and the two Crosses introduce him to the hidden side of the idyllic Southern town. Lynchings have become commonplace and residents of the town's black quarter live in constant fear. Ben aims to break the reign of terror--but the truth of who is really behind it could break his heart.
Coming in at number 14 is 206 Bones, the 12th mystery in the Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs. There are 206 bones in the human body. Forensic anthropologists know them intimately, can read in them stories of brief or long lives and use them to reconstruct every kind of violent end. 206 Bones opens with Tempe regaining consciousness and discovering that she is in some kind of very small, very dark, very cold enclosed space. She is bound, hands to feet. Who wants Tempe dead, or at least out of the way, and why? Tempe begins slowly to reconstruct ... Tempe and Lieutenant Ryan had accompanied the recently discovered remains of a missing heiress from Montreal to the Chicago morgue. Suddenly, Tempe was accused of mishandling the autopsy -- and the case. Someone made an incriminating phone call. Within hours, the one man with information about the call was dead. Back in Montreal, the corpse of a second elderly woman was found in the woods, and then a third. Seamlessly weaving between Tempe's present-tense terror as she's held captive and her memory of the cases of these murdered women, Reichs conveys the incredible devastation that would occur if a forensic colleague sabotaged work in the lab. The chemistry between Tempe and Ryan intensifies as this complex, riveting tale unfolds.
Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Where Petals Fall by Shirley Wells. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Review: Forensic psychologist Jill Kennedy and DCI Max Trentham are shouldering more than their fair share of collective guilt. She is on stress leave, worry-ridden whether she made the right call in an earlier case where a suicide “wrongly accused, hanged himself” and wondering what it will be like to return to work shortly. Her own husband was a cop killed in a street shoot-out. Trentham hasn’t fared too well either, what with his superiors constantly nagging him, a mole in his squad room leaking information to the press, and himself a widower with two boys to raise and Jill to deal with both as a colleague and a lover. Now, they are haunted by the vicious death of a young woman that leads them to believe a serial killer may have returned from the dead. Part British police procedural and part psychological thriller, Wells’ Where Petals Fall is total entertainment.
What Jill and Max quickly discover is that 38-year-old floral designer, Carol Blakeley, has been murdered and her body left in Lee Quarry where two lads find it. The MO for the killing is identical to that of an alleged serial killer’s five years earlier when four other young married women had their throats slashed, their bodies wrapped in a white undertaker’s shroud, and their wedding rings threaded onto red ribbons tied around their midriffs. The earlier case was closed when the suspect was killed while fleeing the police, but his body was never found in the car that plunged into the sea. Now, the Kennedy-Trentham duo have to set aside Jill’s demons and their own domestic upsets to concentrate on finding Blakeley’s killer and keeping their supervisors, critics and the media at bay.
They go about their business in fine style. Despite the nagging reminders of "The Undertaker," as the press dubbed the serial killer, Jill and Max deal with the realities of the current apparent suspects. Blakeley’s philandering husband is a prime candidate, especially when a girlfriend turns on him. Then there’s a next-door neighbour of Jill’s who keeps popping up at all the wrong times but in the right places. There’s even a supposedly close friend of Blakeley’s who deserves every bit of the scrutiny she gets from Max, Jill and their colleagues as they sift and sort the similarities of the clues from the present and past murders.
Like other first-class British mystery novels, this one by Wells is tightly structured, keeps the reader guessing about whodunit, and has characters with depth, soul and interesting backgrounds. Who doesn’t feel compassion for Jill as she struggles on her comeback trail past her doubting Thomas colleagues? And surely, most readers will be on Max’s side when he takes on his browbeating supervisors more interested in career moves than in solving a particularly pernicious crime? And when the two have solved the case, who isn’t ready for their next one?
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham ([email protected]) for contributing his review of Where Petals Fall and to Soho Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
If you are interested in purchasing Where Petals Fall from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
Synopsis (from the publisher): When two young boys find a woman’s body in a quarry, Jill Kennedy and DCI Max Trentham experience a definite feeling of déjà vu.
Five years earlier, four women were found murdered in exactly the same way. Weirdly the bodies had each been discovered wrapped in a shroud – so the killer was soon dubbed "The Undertaker".
Following Jill’s profiling the police tried to arrest a loner called Edward Marshall, but the man had fled and, after a high-speed car chase, lost control and went over a cliff. His car was found but his body never was.
Now there are three possibilities: Marshall somehow survived the plunge into the sea; Marshall was innocent and the real killer is back – or a copycat is at work. It is up to Jill and Max to work out whether a terrible mistake was made by the police five years ago ... or whether the original murderer had an apprentice waiting in the wings.
The second in a new series of casual games featuring the teen sleuth!
A terrifying and mysterious bomber is plaguing the exclusive Redondo Spa! Can you defuse the situation and prevent the resort from losing all of its customers? Nab the culprit or you're out of business in Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger. This fun and exciting game will immerse you in a suspense-filled hunt as you piece together clues, discover the criminal, and crack the case!
Also available: Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger Strategy Guide and a Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger Game Walkthrough.
Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger, a Big Fish Game Club exclusive, may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (93.43 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour; the full version is 254.45 MB.
See also the first game in the series, Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses!.
USA Today is reporting that Steven Spielberg is developing a film based on a book Michael Crichton had written before his death, Pirate Latitudes, an adventure story set off the coast of Jamaica in 1665, which is scheduled for publication this November. David Koepp, who adapted Crichton's novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World, will write the screenplay.
Synopsis (from Michael Crichton's website): The Caribbean, 1665. A remote colony of the English crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Devoid of London's luxuries, Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses. In this steamy climate, life can end swiftly by dysentery — or dagger. But for a daring soul like Captain Edward Hunter, this wild outpost in the New World can also lead to great fortune, if he abides by the island's code. In the name of His Majesty King Charles II of England, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it.
Word in port is that the Spanish galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is awaiting repairs in nearby Matanceros. Heavily fortified, the impregnable Spanish harbor is guarded by the bloodthirsty Cazalla, a favorite commander of King Philip IV. With the Jamaican governor's backing, Hunter assembles a crew of ruffians to infiltrate the enemy island and commandeer the galleon and its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloodiest tales of Matanceros legend, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he makes it onto the island's shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry stand between him and the treasure.
With the help of his cunning band, Hunter hijacks El Trinidad and escapes the deadly clutches of Cazalla, leaving plenty of carnage in his wake. But the danger — and adventure — are only just beginning.
"Michael wrote a real page-turner that already seems suited for the big screen," Spielberg said of Pirate Latitudes. "Michael and I have had almost two decades of solid collaborations. Whenever I made a film from a Michael Crichton book or screenplay, I knew I was in good hands. Michael felt the same, and we like to think he still does." DreamWorks plans to wait for Koepp's script before setting any formal schedule for the project.
Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Triumph of Caesar by Steven Saylor. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Review: At age 64, Gordianus the Finder is retired but cannot resist the plea of Calpurnia, the wife of Julius Caesar, to investigate a potential danger against the state in The Triumph of Caesar, the 10th full length novel (there have been 2 short story collections) in this series by Steven Saylor.
But Gordianus wasn't Calpurnia's first choice as she thought he was dead, drowned in Egypt; she'd originally hired a man she learns is Hieronymous, an old friend of Gordianus, who has now been murdered. The dead man has left a large number of papers that Gordianus decides to use as a starting point for his investigation. Hieronymous had a decidedly mixed view of his good friend, as he writes, "Beginning to think dear old Gordianus was a bit of a puffed-up charlatan. This 'finder' business not remotely as difficult, or as dangerous, as he always made it out to be. The tales he used to tell, portraying himself as the fearless hero on a relentless quest for the truth! Half of those stories were probably made up. Still, if he's truly dead, as people say, I shall miss the old windbag ..." More pertinent to the case, Hieronymous makes clear he believes Caesar may indeed be in danger. "I dare not write my supposition even here; what if this journal were to be discovered? Must keep it hidden. But what if I am silenced? To any seeker who finds these words and would unlock the truth, I shall leave a key. Look all around! The truth is not found in the words, but the words may be found in the truth." Gordianus is determined to continue the pursuit of the truth that Hieronymous began, a quest that would be infinitely easier if he could only decipher the code left in the journal.
Fans of historical mysteries will delight in the characterizations of people and places, and the detailed descriptions of life in Rome at the time The Triumph of Caesar takes place. The mystery plot is a good one, and, as befits its genre, incorporates a historical event. In some, maybe many, ways the book seems symbolic of the reign of Julius Caesar, which (though its characters don't know it) is drawing to a close. Gordianus is as mentally sharp as ever, but his body is getting old and he has trouble with physical activity. There can't be too many more adventures for this aging sleuth, but in the meantime, however many there may be are sure to be as remarkable as Gordianus the Finder himself.
Special thanks to St. Martin's Minotaur for providing a trade paperback edition of The Triumph of Caesar for this review.
If you are interested in purchasing The Triumph of Caesar from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. The Triumph of Caesar (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.
Synopsis (from the publisher): The Roman civil war has come to its conclusion – Pompey is dead, Egypt is firmly under the control of Cleopatra (with the help of Rome’s legions), and for the first time in many years Julius Caesar has returned to Rome itself. Appointed by the Senate as Dictator, the city abounds with rumors asserting that Caesar wishes to be made King – the first such that Rome has had in centuries. And that not all of his opposition has been crushed.
Gordianus, recently returned from Egypt with his wife Bethesda, is essentially retired from his previous profession of "Finder" but even he cannot refuse the call of Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife. Troubled by dreams foretelling disaster and fearing a conspiracy against the life of Caesar, she had hired someone to investigate the rumors. But that person, a close friend of Gordianus, has just turned up dead – murdered – on her doorstep. With four successive Triumphs for Caesar’s military victories scheduled for the coming days, and Caesar more exposed to danger than ever before, Calpurnia wants Gordianus to uncover the truth behind the rumored conspiracies – to protect Caesar’s life, before it is too late. No fan of Caesar’s, Gordianus agrees to help – but only to find the murderer who killed his friend. But once an investigation is begun, there's no controlling what it will turn up, who it will put in danger, and where it will end.
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Which interior do you love most?
Small mosaic tile in the centre of a marble floor looks like a carpet atop larger tiles.
The contemporary surface of Gluckstein’s home has a classical foundation, and his master bathroom is no different. For intimacy and unique decoration, the tub is partially encircled by shelves full of leather-bound books. A mirrored side table holds bath essentials and complements the chrome touches found throughout the room.
Bring harmony to your space with hallmarks of Japanese design.
In Japan, black is considered a colour that is used to emphasize form. Look for shapely black items such as leggy cocktail tables or a curvy webbed chair. As a finishing touch, decorate white walls with traditional calligraphic scrolls; fashioned into a kimono and hung on a bamboo pole, their inky script becomes gorgeous graphic art.
Daybed, Design Republic; chair, blue pillows, Hollace Cluny; white pillow, L'Atelier; stool, Morba; table, broom, kettle, cups, Mjölk; rugs, Elte; wood panel, Jalan; throw, RusTeak; kanji tissue paper, The Paper Place.
A cascade of pretty pleats from a ceiling-mounted canopy frames this bed and softens the space.
Take cues from the poetic mix of flowing silk chiffon and chunky knits seen on the fashion runways and inject wistful charm into a sparely decorated bedroom by layering muddy hues in different textures. Perfectly rumpled linens dial down the fuss factor, while an ancestral portrait bestows a noble air.
Bedding, Au Lit; coverlet, Elte; embroidered pillowcase, Lucca; canopy fabric, Designer Fabrics; lamp, table, Industrial Storm; bed, Ikea; walls, Lamp Room Gray, trim, London Clay, Farrow & Ball; flooring, mouldings, The Home Depot; door, The Door Store; portrait, Kantelberg Antiques.
Smooth over industrial edges with playful textiles and classic vintage furniture.
Decorator and former H&H style editor Sabrina Linn’s loft is bursting with personality. Sabrina’s vision was a Palm Springs-inspired space lit with hits of tangerine and chartreuse. In her stylish living room, a pair of vintage swivel armchairs from a local junk shop were recovered in orange velvet. They balance the lighter neutral pieces, like the teak chairs and glass-topped coffee table. Mirrors atop the console add a touch of glam and sparkle.
For more, watch an Online TV tour of this loft and browse photo galleries of the interior and patio transformation.
Table, Decorum; circle mirrors, Hardware; gilt mirror, HomeSense; cabinet, Ikea; white tray, Elte.
Create a sleek restaurant-style space with reclaimed vintage stainless steel pieces.
Made from a rebuilt shop table, topped with butcher block, and surrounded by drafting stools, the kitchen island is the focal point in this industrial-looking space. An eye-catching dentist lamp hung over it can be repositioned easily with its hydraulic arm. The upper cabinets — from a lab — are backed and clad with stainless steel to strengthen them and tie them with the lower cabinets. With its 11-foot ceilings, painted brick wall and factory windows, its hard to believe this kitchen was designed a decade ago.
Ebony-stained floors add impact to this neutral space.
See more rooms from Suzanne’s new house, plus her old house, in our gallery of Suzanne’s houses.
This family’s personality shines through their collection of eclectic objects.
“I want people to walk into my house and feel comfortable,” Sharon says. You can see how effectively she invites conversation by surrounding her guests with beautiful arrangements of objects she and her husband, Joe, have collected. Cotton slipcovers and a sisal mat add a cosy informality, while an oversized zebra-stripe ottoman spells glamour.
Tour this house on Online TV, plus find more inspiration in our photo galleries of Traditional Living Rooms and Montana Burnett’s Favourite Spaces.
Armchairs, Morry Rotman Antiques; antique pine screen, Absolutely.
For more beautiful interiors by Lloyd Ralphs Design, see our photo gallery.
Table, L'Atelier; rug, Calypso Home; stair runner, Elte; lamp, Ralph Lauren Home; black staircase paint, Scandinavian Painting.
The elegant architectural backdrop sets off traditional-style furnishings.
This luxurious 1,500-square-foot master suite, complete with two fireplaces, dressing rooms and a balcony, resembles the finest European villa. Collaborating on the newly built house from its inception, interior designer Brian Gluckstein added cathedral ceilings, which lend a majestic quality and used architectural details, a soothing palette and soft furnishings to create an inviting, tranquil aesthetic.
Chair, bowls, coffee table, Elte.
Cabinets, flooring, Silestone countertop, Blanco sink and faucet, The Home Depot; hardware, Lee Valley; radio, Tivoli; wall colour, Cloud White (CC-30), Benjamin Moore; marble shelf, Ciot.
Neutral walls and grey furniture call for bright accents.
Pair pale or white walls with a dark ceiling or splashes of a bright accent colour like pink or green. This living room from our special Condos issue in 2008 has high, lofty ceilings and minimalist furniture, but the hits of pink art and orange throws infuse warmth into the space.
See more photos from 2010’s Trendsetting Paint Colours Gallery.
Paintings, Patricia Larsen, Ingram Gallery; wall colour, Wickham Gray (HC-171), Benjamin Moore; sofa, coffee table, Void Interiors/Plan b; throws, Hermès.
A pendant light and mirrored night table add glamour to an otherwise modern room.
Deep charcoal-grey paint adds depth to this bedroom’s panelled walls. Crisp hotel-style bedding enhances the space’s clean, streamlined feel.
Star light fixture, Constantine; night table, South Hill Home; water carafe, glass, Ginger's Bath Centre.
Show your personality with worldly pieces collected through travels.
This elegant Montreal home boasts classic style with French flair. In the living room, the oversized armchairs, silk-upholstered sofa, Klimt-inspired painting from Prague and Bohemian crystal chandelier heighten the luxe factor. A sea of neutrals keeps the look elegant and chic.
Dutch coffee table, Atelier de France; Oly Studio Duncan leather chairs, Lambert silk rug, Verte Campagne; Dransfield & Ross pillows, Ménagerie; floor lamp, Roche Bobois.
Modern and romantic elements mix beautifully in this space.
This room’s statement piece, a delicate Fortuny chandelier, sits gracefully above a heavy modern table and benches. An abundance of natural light bounces through the room thanks to the creamy white walls and large, unadorned windows.
Table, benches, Christophe Delcourt; dining chairs, Peanut table (between windows), Christian Liaigre.
Mixing and matching styles redefines country living.
With its bare wood floors, comfy seating and a palette of white, ocean blues and sunny yellows, the screened porch off the family room has a breezy “coast of Maine” aesthetic. Ideal for dining, gathering with friends or simply curling up with a book, the homeowners of this weekend home spend every moment they can in this cosy space.
Fabric for swing and seat cushions, Kravet; blinds, Bamboo Bazaar.
A fresh, lofty twist on classic farmhouse comfort.
With a soft palette of muted colours, the designers of this Vermont home put emphasis on the richly varying textures of nubby fabrics, wool, wicker, washed linen and worn barn wood. Anchoring the vast interior are dark-stained, wide-plank floors. In the kitchen, the island is designed to resemble an old store counter. The stools are by the Shaker Workshops in Massachusetts. A Spanish cast-aluminum table and rattan chairs were used in the breakfast area to complement the room’s raw look.
Sisal, Perfection Rug, walls, ceilings, cabinets, Benjamin Moore #967; coffee table, Ruth Stalker Antiques; chair, sofa, McGeary Yetman; fridge Sub-Zero; pillow fabric, Pierre Frey.
The rich eclecticism of these furnishings demonstrate a taste for rare materials and exotic grace notes.
Designer Katherine Newman reclaimed this room’s elegant neoclassical panelling, the decorative plaster details on the ceiling and the parquet flooring. The walls were coated a soft pink, reminiscent of the shade British designer David Hicks used at his family home in England. It’s an effective foil for the neutral furnishings and colourful art throughout the room. Katherine’s approach was to use pieces with a clean modern aesthetic and employ relief and interest with a few exotic pieces. “What evolved, against a highly classical background, was a unique modernist language with a focus on comfort,” she says.
Tavolo 6 coffee table, Fitzgerald tables, Coach chairs, Greydon pendants, wall sconces, island slipper chairs, Lona Design; McGuire benches (under coffee table), Primavera Interior Furnishings.
Boldly hued grass-cloth wallpaper, comfortable seating and rich patterns invite homeowners and guests to curl up with a good book.
“Every layer adds a dimension,” says designer Anne Hepfer. In her library, seagrass walls are layered with an antique suzani that Anne picked up in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.
A luxe high-rise condo breaks all the rules about decorating in small spaces.
Panelled walls, regal colours and floor-to-ceiling collectibles dominate this compact home. Not a corner of this condo was left undecorated. A work from the homeowner’s collection of “society portraits” dominates a softly lit corner of the dressing room. A leafed library table displays flowers and collectibles.
Antiques dealer Youssef Hasbani has a flair for mixing styles and cultures in his lakeside retreat.
Youssef’s cottage is like a lodge, filled with the beautiful objects he loves and collects. In his rustic dining nook, he showcases four vintage hurricane lamps above a rough, nature-inspired cedar pedestal table. Making use of every square inch of the space, he built an L-shaped banquette seat, covered in white terry cloth, which he also uses for storage.
A nature-inspired centerpiece makes a grand impression.
A slender Japanese maple standing on its burlap-wrapped base makes a seasonal statement in this pretty entryway. Majestic but not manicured, it gives the foyer a lovely unfussy feel while bringing a touch of the outdoor, in.
Glass-fronted cabinets and a pale green colour palette create a bright and airy atmosphere.
In this farmhouse-style kitchen, ceilings are a soaring 16 feet high. A large table in the center of the room can seat up to six, or be used as an island for additional workspace. Painted floors and painted wood furniture lend a light, fresh feeling.
For more beautiful French country interiors, see our photo gallery.
Dramatic pendant lights and a large marble island create a warm eat-in dining area.
The kitchen’s cool marble-topped eating counter has become Lynda’s favourite place to serve her guests a sophisticated meal, and her guests’ preferred place to dine. The table is also wired with outlets so can also serve as a work surface.
Moooi pendant lights, Klaus; chairs, Hollace Cluny; painting by Zhu Lan, Roseland Art & Decoration; wall, trim and ceiling colour, White Down (CC-50), Benjamin Moore; Venetian plaster wall finish, Scandinavian Painting Inc.; Calacatta Oro Anticato marble on counters and island, United Marble Co.; oiled white oak floor, Glen Stagg, Stagg Wood Flooring; House & Home plates, bowls, linens, flatware, The Bay and Home Outfitters; china pads, Teatro Verde.
Use white to keep diverse styles cohesive.
See more of Tommy’s houses, from past to present, in our photo gallery, plus get more Budget Decorating Ideas.
Sofa, Sarah Richardson Design; coffee table, ChairTableLamp; lamp, Of Things Past; wall colour, Pointing (2003), Farrow & Ball; art (far left), by Michael Adamson, Moore Gallery.
Old wood panelling was removed to reveal stunning fieldstone walls.
Once a room in an old schoolhouse, this dining area is now warm and inviting. The woodsy table was built by owner Carmen Dunjko with a wooden plank wrapped in artist’s canvas and birch stumps, reflecting the home’s Eastern Ontario pastoral setting. Sleek beech and rush dining chairs by Italian designer Vico Magistretti offer contrast and polish.
See more photos in our Storybook Cottages gallery.
Dining chairs, Klaus by Nienka?mper.
Asian and French decor pair beautifully in this busy hall.
This chic and artful vignette is as fresh today as it was four years ago. In a small hallway off the main hall, Chinese ginger jars and a dramatic amethyst geode adorn a French console. Below, a flowering plant adds life and colour to the high-traffic area.
Handsome antiques and formal furniture pieces give this lakefront cottage polish and sophistication.
Comfortable, relaxed and a bit luxurious are traits the homeowners were aiming for when they renovated this summer home. A large table surrounded by Windsor chairs and anchored by a striking iron lantern, seats ten in the generous dining area. The soothing paint colours and tongue-and-groove panelling found throughout the home enhance the lakeside look.
Table, chairs, Lockside Trading Company; lantern, Elte; sconces, Ginger's; flooring, Floortrends.
Street style meets sophisticated fashion in this space.
A mod mix of black, indigo and burnished gold rakishly blurs the line between hipster hangout and members-only hideaway. To get the look, introduce retro polish with smoked-glass accents, then enliven the moody ambience with vintage leather pieces and graphic patterns, from handsome stripes to exotic tribal prints.
Coffee table, South Hill Home; rug, Elte; pillows, Snob' curtain fabric, Designer Fabrics; table lamp, Phil'z; floor lamp, Zig Zag; crest art, Stacaro; brass case, Jackson Falk.
In Alexandra and Eliot Angle’s open-concept kitchen, a long maple table is paired with Gio Ponti’s iconic Superleggera chairs while a modern Octopus pendant balances the rusticity. White-washed wood flooring creates a sleek, clean look. Panelled cabinets and butcher block countertops add warmth.
Flooring, Osmo, pendant light, Autoban; Gio Ponti chairs, Cassina; wall colour, Brittany Blue (1633), cabinet colour Britannia Blue (1623), Benjamin Moore.
Burlap and black velvet upholstery mix in an unexpected way.
This lucent space is defined by a prevalence of glass, white and light.
With cloud white walls and an abundance of windows, designer Dina Theodoropoulos’s mid-town Toronto loft offers an dreamlike atmosphere. The double-storey main living area, with a 20-foot ceiling, is overlooked by a U-shaped mezzanine. Dark sucupira floors and a mix of richly toned rustic and modern furnishings ground the ethereal all-white space.
Drapery, D.S. Interiors; wall colour; Silver Lining (32-32), Pratt & Lambert; flooring, Floorworks - Relative Space; area rug, Elte.
A reclaimed oak table offers extra counter space.
See more of Suzanne’s favourite kitchens in our gallery.
Toaster, teapot, stacked glasses, William Ashley China; grey bowl, stainless steel bowl, Ikea; island, 3' x 6' reclaimed oak with steel base, leather chairs, Absolutely North; appliances, Tasco Distributors; cabinets, flooring, SMK Construction; light fixtures, Eurolite; cabinetry colour, All White (2005), Farrow & Ball; faucet, Dornbracht.
Painting the walls and ceiling white brightened an old wood cottage.
This great room — designed by Anne Hepfer — has two sitting areas, an ideal setup for weekends spent entertaining. The huge mirror (custom-made in Bali with tiny seashells) balances the fireplace at the other end of the room. The ottoman is made of antique mats from Borneo. Keeping the backdrop and major pieces neutral means the owner can add bold colour and pattern in easy-to-update accessories.
For more chic interiors by Anne Hepfer, see our photo gallery.
See more cottage photos in our White Cottages gallery, Traditional Cottages gallery, Cottages & Country Houses, plus more cottage photos.
Cane chair, Robert Lighton/British Khaki; wall colour throughout, White Dove (OC-17), Benjamin Moore.
The curving staircase and black-and-white fashion photography in this hall evoke glamour.
With its sweeping architectural staircase and white honed-marble finishes, the house of fashion designers Joe Mimran and Kimberley Newport-Mimran has a distinctly Hollywood feel; one almost expects to see Bette Davis swanning down the stairs with a martini held aloft.
This staircase was actually the toughest design challenge; they sought the twisted effect of an old Parisian staircase. The simple spindles have an almost antique feel, but their dark-grey hue and slender, handmade wood handrail lend the structure a modern look.
See more photos of the Joe Fresh Style and Pink Tartan designers’ house in our gallery and in the September 2008 issue.
House & Home’s Meg Crossley finished her basement with warm country style.
A white country-style home with European flair.
What makes Michelle Lloyd-Bermann’s home so unique is its eclecticism: the juxtaposition of old with new, inexpensive with antique and found objects with family mementoes. In the breakfast area, sunlight streams through a wall of French doors opening onto the garden. “You feel like you’re in a French café in the morning,” she says. Shallow kitchen cupboards were built by Michelle’s husband, David, to store glass, china and collectibles. He stripped the old Ontario farmhouse pine doors and fitted them with pigeon wire and brass hardware for an authentic French country look.
Table, Pine Design; chairs, Pierre Tremblay Antiques.
Michelle Lloyd Bermann, Lloyd Ralphs Design.
Elegant furniture contrasts with exposed pipes and beams.
The home of DwellStudio founder Christiane Lemieux and her family, this SoHo loft in New York perfectly blends old-world style with industrial accents. Matching black columns and lamps add punch in an otherwise neutral space. Gilt offers a feminine note.
See more photos of Lemieux’s glam and graphic New York loft.
Stools, Knoll; pendant light, FontanaArte; sofa, De La Espada; zigzag pillow, ABC Carpet & Home.
This bright and spacious living room features a marble fireplace, sandblasted glass windows, and a set of facing sofas on a golden-coloured rug.
A mirrored sideboard and modern hanging pendant light add sparkle and a touch of glamour. The Fred Herzog photograph above the mantlepiece and a petrified tree stump layer in an edgy, contemporary note.
Carpet, Colin Campbell & Sons; sideboard, Elte; pendant light, floor lamp, Living Space; sofas, Rosanne Daykin Interiors; Fred Herzog photograph, Equinox Gallery; sideboard Gordon Wiens painting, Bau-Xi Gallery; cardboard Cat Cocoon, plushpod.com.
A small arched doorway creates a sense of intimacy.
In this elegant dining room, large-format Chinoiserie wallpaper lends rich colour while white mouldings keep the look crisp. The Chippendale-style chairs were the starting point of the room. Upholstered in an understated Ralph Lauren plaid, these mahogany reproductions combine striking old world looks with new world durability and comfort.
Sideboard, Chinese crackle lamps, mirror, Angus & Company; Chinese Lhasa wallpaper, Brunschwig & Fils; table, chairs, Ridpath's.
This upstairs sitting area doubles as a guest room.
Toronto interior designer Mazen El-Abdallah of Mazen Studio wanted to create a room that was meaningful, useful and beautiful. Wall-to-wall sisal carpet throughout the second floor is a cosy option that also dulls the sound of footsteps. A narrow daybed — a housewarming gift from friend Suzanne Dimma — is the perfect option for an overnight guest. Details such as the large mirror and credenza are practical pieces for a guest room, yet do not look out of place when the space functions as a den.
See video tours of El-Abdallah’s main floor, second floor and attic, plus more gorgeous guest bedrooms.
Carpet, Elte; credenza, Zig Zag; art (by mirror) by Tek Yang; Bertoia Chair, Studio Pazo.
An old Catholic school dormitory gets a contemporary revamp.
These clever bookcases run the entire perimeter of this open-concept room, offering storage without cluttering up or breaking sight lines. At only 27” tall, these open shelves are perfect for storing books and curios, freeing up concealed storage areas for less aesthetically pleasing objects. Be sure to limit the number of pieces placed on top of the bookcases to maintain the open feeling.
Get more great ideas in our Organization Tricks photo gallery. For more on this condo, take a tour on Online TV.
Shelves, Scepter Industries; Paul Smith rug, The Rug Company; chaise, Quasi Modo; throw, Buddha, Elte; small throw pillows, red trau, white bowl, Hollace Cluny.
Bring the outdoors in with wicker furniture.
Wicker chairs and an oversized pendant lantern bring old Muskoka charm into this open-concept living/kitchen area. The floors are low-key antique hemlock, keeping with the theme of using natural materials.
Pierre Frey fabric (on sofa), Primavera; rug, Roger Oates Design; Raoul red pillow fabric, Y&Co.
Interior Design, Andrea Crawford; Architecture, Ian Maclaren, Hicks Partners; builder, Adam McDonald, Sherwood Custom Homes; landscape architect, Thomas Sparling; landscape contractor, Craig Rose, Rockscape Design in Bracebridge.
Create a charming, casual feel with a mix of floral prints.
Painted beadboard combined with pine and bare wood is very country. The chandelier is painted out the same shade as the walls, along with ornate cornice above the doors. Punchy red crewelwork on the chairs injects pattern. An antique beetle cartouche draws eyes up to the vaulted ceiling.
Tour this cottage designed by Colette van den Thillart in this online video. Plus, see more photos in our Storybook Cottages gallery.
Chairs, Calder’s Antiques; slipcovers, cushion fabrication, Home Couture by Maria; Harvest crewelwork slipcover fabric, Marvic Textiles; chandelier, Residential Lighting Studio; needlepoint rug, Reznick Carpets; sofa, CCI Custom Furnishings; sofa upholstery, Designer Fabrics; antique beetle cartouche, Talisman Antiques; crewel lampshades, Pottery Barn; faux fur throw, Selfridges.
A Palm Springs desert retreat gets a cool white reno.
Canadian actress Kathleen Robertson took an outdated post-and-beam bungalow and turned it into the minimalist abode she dreamed of. In her open-concept kitchen, black Bertoia chairs punctuate the neutral kitchen and dining area. A sleek rectangular light fixture is suspended from the original tongue-and-groove ceiling. Stark white walls and cement floors lend the space a gallery-like vibe, which Kathleen and her husband were aiming for.
Drapes, Ikea; light fixture, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams; chaise, B&B Italia.
A sea of wood connects the interior to its inspiring natural Muskoka surroundings.
The shorter back and longer but lower armrests make this stunning chair a good option for around a dining table, but the 1950s Danish icon also makes a statement on its own. Many finishes are available; our favourite is this soap-treated beech wood.
Table built by Gregory Rybak, MCM 2001; Jube Jube lights, Scot Laughton; Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs, Bulthaup; sketches, Alex by Schmitt.
Saturated grey hues lend gravitas to bleached floors and furnishings.
The wall’s rich tone gives the space warmth without dampening its light, airy feel. A picnic-style table paired with boxy wicker chairs evokes the pleasure of dining al fresco, while luxe accents, such as metallic and grey-velvet pillows, keep the look elegant.
Light, Design Within Reach; table, benches, stemware, La Merceria; pillow, Fluf; table cloth, Lucca; grey bowls, Made; Eva Zeisel pitchers, Hollace Cluny; white bowls, plates, Royal Doulton; decanter, Angus & Compnay; fabric for bench cushions and napkins, Designer Fabrics; wall colour, London Clay (244), Farrow & Ball; flooring, Tarkett; baseboard, The Home Depot.
Juxtapose matte and glossy finishes to add drama.
A modern chair in a glossy black finish is the perfect accent in a room with matte hardwood flooring and stark white walls. Industrial-style, wall-mounted lighting like this needs a simple backdrop, so keep walls white or neutral.
Chaise, bowl, Decorum; table, wall lamp, Industrial Storm; table lamp, South Hill Home; chair, OneTwenty Modern; stool, Hollace Cluny; sign, Hardware; photo, Telegramme; mouldings, The Home Depot; walls, Cloud White (OC-130), Benjamin Moore.
High-gloss, honey-coloured chevron flooring reflects the sunlight streaming through a large bay window flanked by two tall mirrored cabinet built-ins.
A stunning Murano glass chandelier hangs above elegant black upholstered dining chairs with contrasting piping in this effortlessly chic and modern dining room.
See more of Sharon Mimran’s elegant home through our online video tour.
Flowers, Horticultural Design; sconces, chandelier, Stanley Wagman Antiques; chairs, Sharon Mimran; mirrored doors, Vast Interiors Custom Glass and Mirror.
A gallery wall above the bed makes good use of the room’s high ceilings.
Scour discount department stores for on-trend lamp bases and top them with elegant fabric shades for a sophisticated look. This chrome lamp base was a steal at $40 while the shade cost $17.
See the entire Luxury For Less photo gallery. Plus, get more cheap chic ideas in Michael Penney’s Affordable Style blog.
Lamp base, $40. At HomeSense. Shade, $17. At Sears.
Throw, embroidered pillow, basket, HomeSense; House & Home bedding, The Bay; monogramming, The Little Monogram Shop; picture mats, DeSerres; wall colour, Blue Grass (CC-640), Benjamin Moore.
Serene colours and polished accents create a spa-like escape.
A designer country house that’s effortlessly artful and cosy.
Toronto designer Melody Duron’s restored barn boasts a living room that eschews the trappings of “country cute”, taking on a sophisticated-rustic look instead. All the stones that make up the commanding fireplace were found on the property. She installed new pine flooring, but the width of the planks and an oiled finish lend it a timeworn patina.
Floor lamp, Kantelberg Antiques; horse head signage, Absolutely Inc.; basket, shell, Constantine.
Create a bright, beachy feel with light walls and natural materials.
A low profile, all-white daybed (actually a boxspring and mattress) sets the pace in this living room. The white African Juju hat, vintage lamp and beige-and-white embroidered fabric from Mexico on the throw pillows infuse the room with personality. Teak folding chairs continue the organic, outdoor feel.
Find more inspiration in our photo galleries of White Cottages and Suzanne Dimma’s Favourite Dreamy Retreats.
Mattress, Ikea; Juju, Hollace Cluny; chairs, Fresh Home & Garden.
Part-cutting edge modern, part Asian fusion, part Craftsman, this home challenges established ideas about residential design.
Because this site lacked traditional front and back yards, architects and homeowners Christine Ho Ping Kong and Peter Tan ingeniously organized the layout around a central courtyard. Their inspiration was the intimate courtyard houses they’d spotted on their travels to Europe, Asia and India, which they admired for their easy flow between indoors and out. “The courtyards are the heart and soul of the house,” say the homeowners.
Watch a video tour of this award-winning house.
Grey sandstone, Beaver Valley Stone; landscape installation (poles along the wall), Fung Lee; bowl, Martha Sturdy.
Industrial designer Matt Carr and fashion designer/retailer Joyce Lo’s home offers offbeat charm.
In their dining room, a rustic table is flanked by vintage industrial-style chairs and an antique high-back settee, and anchored by a huge Moooi pendant light hung from one of the house’s original ceiling medallions.
See a full video tour of their house, too.
Rug, Bev Hisey; light, Klaus by Nienkämper.
Rustic meets modern in this spectacular upscale home.
Designer and shop owner Viki Mansell put her sophisticated taste and gift for mixing eras to good use when decorating her stunning country cottage. In what Viki calls the “winter” living area, Ultrasuede-covered tuxedo sofas invite people to gather. The stripped-pine fireplace and early-19th-century armoire are traditional elements. Uplights sitting on the floor beside the fireplace cast an unobstrusive glow. Mounted animal horns and antlers from North America and Africa, cowhide carpets and faux-fur throws also add to the cosiness.
Glass-topped console, Italinteriors; cowhide carpets, African tables, antlers, lamps, Absolutely Inc.
Panel moulding and a chair rail look grand.
This feminine space has a timeless, sophisticated style. Here, a settee and two armchairs upholstered in pea green velvet were updated with glossy white-painted frames. A sleek chrome and glass drum table sits elegantly between the chairs. Pearly white walls keep the overall look light and fresh.
Contracting, Glenvale Contractors; floor refinishing, D.B. Flooring; moulding, chandeliers, The Home Depot; fabrics, Osborne & Little and Nina Campbell, through Primavera; sewing, We Do Draperies; paint, Para Paints; Calfskin rug , Perfect Leather Goods.
This daring space perfectly embraces old and new.
Homeowner and designer Colette van den Thillart’s London home is a reflection of her signature style: edgy, witty and utterly fearless. In her living room, the walls are striated with charcoal grey and lacquered a dramatic peacock blue to create a glamorous look. Rich green accents enhance the saturated look, while touches of warm white and brushed gold add a fresh and luxe touch to the space.
British Colonial style goes casual.
Come the weekend, Canadian expat Donald Robertson escapes New York in favour of a Long Island family getaway. “We didn’t want a ‘precious’ house,” he says. On the second floor, the drywall was removed to reveal a huge vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom. Inexpensive Indian cotton-print bedspreads and cushions mix effortlessly with mattress ticking-covered wicker chairs and sisal rugs.
See more cottage photos in our Traditional Cottages gallery, Cottages & Country Houses, plus more cottage photos.
Reproduction four-poster bed, English Country Antiques.
The colour and texture of this house’s aged materials create a cosy feel.
Nestled in the Niagara Escarpment, antique dealer Jill Kantelberg’s country home is a stunning winter escape. Inspired by some of the homes she has visited in her travels through France, England and Belgium, her home is a cross between a great old barn and a country manor. The master bedroom is a luxurious retreat all in itself. With a limestone mantel and wide plank floors, every detail suits the room’s rustic aesthetic. The raised fireplace allows Jill to put her feet up on the hearth and feel the warmth when sitting here. The English tester, or four-poster bed, was made from reclaimed linen-fold oak panelling.
Drapery sewn by The Feather Factory; drapery fabric, Bilbrough.
A stark contrasting palette welcomes soft touches of pink and blue.
Influenced by her designer mother’s sense of style, Toronto homeowner Jennifer Young took cues from her childhood home to create a trendy space. “We had a David Hicks rug in the dining room when I was growing up, and I find myself with one now,” she says. Filled with pretty and unusual travel finds, this living room benefits from a myriad of prints and textures in a monochromatic colour scheme.
Lampshade, Residential Lighting Studio; throw pillows, Dwell; metal ball sculpture, Martha Sturdy; blue chair and stool reupholstery, The Big Stuff.
Designer Anne Hepfer gives her Georgian-style home a current but timeless quality.
When looking to move to Toronto, Anne — a former New Yorker — was charmed by the 10-foot ceilings and lofty elegance of this home, found in Toronto’s Forest Hill neighbourhood. In her airy dining room, Anne chose a round dining table to encourage conversation. For larger dinner parties, she squeezes in as many chairs as possible to create a sense of intimacy. Neatly displayed across the wall are early 18th-century French architectural prints, a reflection of Anne’s passion for architecture.
Flatware, Tiffany & Co.; wall colour, Skylight (205), Farrow & Ball.
Add dimension to a two-tone room with an eye-catching tiled floor.
A Vancouver home furnishings entrepreneur chose tailored lines and a high contrast palette to create a stunning eating nook adjacent to the kitchen. For a cosy touch, an antique love seat and matching chairs were slipcovered in white and paired with two Carrara marble-topped bistro tables.
See more indoor-outdoor spaces in our photo gallery.
Add character with a vintage convent table.
An unexpected circular shape adds instant impact.
Inspired by childhood vacations to Los Angeles and Bermuda, homeowner Victoria Webster opted for loads of colour in her bedroom. The Art Nouveau designer Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann-inspired bed is the focal point, and a backdrop of textural green wallpaper makes the oversized, nailhead trimmed headboard stand out even more.
See a video tour of this bedroom. Plus, learn how to make a DIY upholstered headboard from House & Home editors Joel Bray and Morgan Michener.
Island Ikat fabric, Quadrille; sconce, Remains Lighting; bedside table, Bungalow 5; benches, 507 Antiques; wallpaper, Phillip Jeffries; flowers, Emblem.
Limestone tile, a glass shower and modern lighting deliver contemporary style.
In this principal bathroom, walls, floors and countertops are covered in the same limestone, creating a seamless and sophisticated look.
Dornbracht faucet and fixtures, Empire Kitchen and Bath.
Beadboard painted out bright white evokes country charm.
Older homes often already have beadboard, but to fake this rustic cottage style, install it yourself and paint the wooden slats white. In this colourful children’s bedroom, regatta flags, buoys and patriotic rugs break up the white walls and complete the seaside look.
For more beachy and nautical rooms, see our Seaside-Inspired Interiors photo gallery.
To learn how to make your own coiled-rope lamp, view Michael Penney’s Online TV DIY segment.
Striped throws, Elte; red table, lamp, Ikea; bedding, Lakeside Trading Company; bunting, The White Company.
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When rebel forces overtook Tripoli in August 2011, prison doors were opened and office files exposed, revealing startling new information about Libya’s relations with other countries. One such revelation, documented in this report, is the degree of involvement of the United States government under the Bush administration in the arrest of opponents of the former Libyan Leader, Muammar Gaddafi, living abroad, the subsequent torture and other ill-treatment of many of them in US custody, and their forced transfer to back to Libya.
The United States played the most extensive role in the abuses, but other countries, notably the United Kingdom, were also involved.
This is an important chapter in the larger story of the secret and abusive US detention program established under the government of George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and the rendition of individuals to countries with known records of torture.
This report is based mostly on Human Rights Watch interviews with fourteen former detainees now residing freely in post-Gaddafi Libya and information contained in Libyan government files discovered abandoned immediately after Gaddafi’s fall (the “Tripoli Documents”). It provides detailed evidence of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees in US custody, including a credible account of “waterboarding,” and a similar account of water abuse that brings the victim close to suffocation. Both types of abuse amount to torture. The allegations cast serious doubts on prior assertions from US government officials that only three people were waterboarded in US custody. They also reflect just how little the public still knows about what went on in the US secret detention program.
The report also sheds light on the failure of the George W. Bush administration, in the pursuit of suspects behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, to distinguish between Islamists who were in fact targeting the United States and those who may simply have been engaged in armed opposition against their own repressive regimes. This failure risked aligning the United States with brutal dictators and aided their efforts to dismiss all political opponents as terrorists.
The report examines the roles of other governments in the abuse of detainees in custody and in unlawful renditions to Libya despite demonstrable evidence the detainees would be seriously mistreated upon return. Countries linked to these accounts include: Afghanistan, Chad, China and Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Sudan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
Finally, the report shows that individuals rendered to Libya were tortured or otherwise ill-treated in Libyan prisons, including in two cases where the Tripoli Documents make clear the United States sought assurances that their basic rights would be respected. All were held in incommunicado detention (many in solitary confinement) for prolonged periods without trial. When finally tried, they found that the proceedings fell far short of international fair trial standards.
Most of the former detainees interviewed for this report said they had been members of the Libyan Islamist Fighting Group (LIFG), a group opposed to Gaddafi’s rule that began to organize in Libya in the late 1980s and took more formal shape in Afghanistan in the early 1990s. At that time, Islamist opposition groups were springing up across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia in response to governments they deemed corrupt, oppressive, and not sufficiently Islamic.
Libya was no exception. In 1977, several years after Gaddafi took power, he imposed his unique political system, the Jamahiriya, or “state of the masses,” on the country. The government confiscated property, and began regulating every aspect of life, from religion to economics to education, in entirely new and often incomprehensible ways. Many Libyans, including traditional Muslims who were particularly outraged by the changes Gaddafi made to the practice of Islam and considered them blasphemous, expressed their opposition. Gaddafi put down dissent brutally, focusing in particular on Islamist opposition groups who, due to their alignment with Islamist groups abroad and the deep devotion of many members, he treated as a dangerous threat. Those suspected of even the slightest connection with the movement were rounded up, imprisoned, and sometimes executed, including in public and broadcast on television. It is in the context of this crackdown that the LIFG began to organize and set out, from bases both within and outside Libya, to overthrow Gaddafi.
Virtually all the former Libyan detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they fled the country in the late 1980s because of Gaddafi’s repressive policies against organized Islamic opposition groups and against persons perceived to be associated with such groups, due to their religious practices. Some joined the LIFG while in Libya, and others once outside the country. All but one said they participated in the fighting in Afghanistan that eventually defeated the Soviet-installed government of Mohammed Najibullah in 1992 and used the training they gained there for LIFG-led anti-Gaddafi efforts.
After the September 11 attacks on the United States, being Libyan without documentation in Afghanistan, and being part of an armed Islamic opposition group, placed these Libyan expatriates at high risk of arrest. That was true even if all those interviewed for this report claimed their group was not at war with the West. And so many of them fled, along with their families, moving from country to country, including to destinations such as Malaysia and Hong Kong as well as Mali and Mauritania. It was in these countries that they were taken into custody before being sent elsewhere.
For many of the individuals profiled here, this will be the first time their stories are told because, until last year, they were locked up in Libyan prisons.
New accounts of abuse in secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) black sites: Five former LIFG members told Human Rights Watch that they were detained in US-run prisons in Afghanistan for between eight months and two years. The abuse allegedly included: being chained to walls naked, sometimes while diapered in pitch dark, windowless cells, for weeks or months at a time; being restrained in painful stress positions for long periods of time, being forced into cramped spaces; being beaten and slammed into walls; being kept inside for nearly five months without the ability to bathe; being denied food and being denied sleep by continuous, deafeningly loud Western music, before being rendered back to Libya. The United States never charged them with crimes. Their captors allegedly held them incommunicado, cut off from the outside world, and typically in solitary confinement throughout their Afghan detention. The accounts of these five men provide extensive new evidence that corroborates the few other personal accounts that exist about the same US-run facilities. One of those five, before being transferred to Afghanistan, as well as another former LIFG member interviewed for this report, were also held in a detention facility in Morocco.
New evidence of “waterboarding” torture and a similar practice during interrogations: One former detainee, Mohammed Shoroeiya, provided detailed and credible testimony that he was waterboarded on repeated occasions during US interrogations in Afghanistan. While never using the phrase “waterboarding,” he said that after his captors put a hood over his head and strapped him onto a wooden board, then they start with the water pouring. They start to pour water to the point where you feel like you are suffocating. He added that, “they would not stop until they got some kind of answer from me.” He said a doctor was present during the waterboarding and that this happened numerous times, so many times he could not count. A second detainee in Afghanistan described being subjected to a water suffocation practice similar to waterboarding, and said that he was threatened with use of the board. A doctor was present during his suffocation-inducing abuse as well. The allegations of waterboarding contradict statements about the practice from senior US officials, such as former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who testified to the Senate that the CIA waterboarded only three individuals (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri). Former President Bush similarly declared in his memoirs that only three detainees in CIA custody were waterboarded. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has also denied the use of waterboarding by the US military.
Unlawful rendition: All interviewees said their captors forcibly returned them to Libya at a time when Libya’s record on torture made clear they would face a serious risk of abuse upon return. All had expressed deep fears to their captors about going back to Libya and five of them said that they specifically asked for asylum. One of them, Muhammed Abu Farsan, sought asylum in the Netherlands while in transit between China and Morocco. He said his asylum application was ultimately denied and he was sent to Sudan, where he held a passport. But Sudanese authorities kept him in detention and, shortly after his arrival, individuals representing themselves as CIA officers interrogated him on three different days. Within two weeks he was sent back to Libya. Though the Netherlands is the only government that actually had provided any of the Libyans we interviewed with an opportunity to challenge their transfer, the Tripoli Documents contain information suggesting Dutch officials might have been aware that Abu Farsan would ultimately be sent to Libya from Sudan. To the extent they knew that there was a genuine risk he would be returned to Libya, they violated his rights against unlawful return.
More information about Western collusion with the Gaddafi government: The Human Rights Watch interviews and the Tripoli Documents present new details showing a close degree of cooperation among the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments with regard to the forcible return and subsequent interrogation of Gaddafi opponents in Libya. Ten of the fourteen Libyans interviewed for this report were rendered back to Libya within a year of the date when Libya, the United States and the United Kingdom had formally mended their relations, seven within the five months. The mending of relations was very publically marked by a visit from British Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, to Libya on March 25, 2004. The collusion is ironic, given that years later these same governments would end up assisting Gaddafi’s opponents in their efforts to overthrow the Libyan leader. Several of those opponents are now in leadership positions and are important political actors in Libya.
Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi: Al-Libi’s case is significant, among other reasons, because the United States relied on statements obtained through his interrogation while in CIA custody to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq: Al-Libi died in a Libyan prison in 2009 (a suicide, according to Libyan authorities at the time) so it is difficult to obtain information about him today. But by talking to family members and others detained with him in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Libya, Human Rights Watch has pieced together some new details about al-Libi’s time in CIA custody and circumstances surrounding his death. Human Rights Watch also observed photos of al-Libi that Libyan prison officials appear to have taken on the morning of his death which allegedly depict him in the manner he was found in his cell. The photos show bruising on parts of his body.
The United States, Libya, and most of the other countries discussed in this report are party to important international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Persons apprehended in armed conflict situations would also have been protected by the Geneva Conventions of 1949. These treaties prohibit not only torture, but all cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Importantly, they also prohibit sending an individual to a country where that person would face a genuine risk of torture or ill-treatment.
In discussing rendition policies, former Bush administration officials have tried to justify the forced returns that took place during the administration by saying they always got “promises” from the receiving countries or “diplomatic assurances” the transferees would be treated humanely. As evidenced by US State Department country reports on human rights in the mid-2000s, however, the US government was well aware of the torture and ill-treatment taking place in Libyan prisons. The Gaddafi government’s many executions of its opponents after summary trials would have made it obvious to anyone involved in the rendition of LIFG members to Libya that they would be at grave risk. The US government’s perfunctory resort to diplomatic assurances, and unenforceable agreements between governments to not harm a person being transferred, shown in the Tripoli Documents to have been used in two transfers, reflect a callous disregard for the lives and wellbeing of people who the United States never should have returned to Libya.
Several individuals interviewed for this report said they endured physical abuse and mistreatment in Libya, some of which amounted to torture. This included being beaten with wooden sticks and steel pipes; whipped, including with ropes and electric cables; slapped, kicked and punched; and administered electric shocks.
At the same time, other interviewees said they were not subjected to physical abuse in Libyan custody. Some speculated this may have been due to prison reforms initiated by Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif Gaddafi, or agreements they had heard were made between the United States and Libya (perhaps diplomatic assurances) that transferees would not be mistreated. But neither Saif Gaddafi’s reforms nor US diplomatic assurances, if obtained, appear to have protected those detainees who were subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Nor did they protect detainees from being placed in solitary confinement which can amount to torture, ensure their access to family members and legal counsel, or make sure they were promptly charged and fairly tried. Typically, detainees had no lawyers and were denied family visits, sometimes for as long as two years. All of those interviewed said they were held for years before finally being charged with any offense. Once charged, they were appointed a lawyer to whom they either never spoke or who did not assist in their defense. They faced summary trials, and all detainees interviewed for this report were convicted, receiving sentences of lengthy prison terms up to life imprisonment, or the death penalty. At least three said they were subsequently interrogated in Libyan prisons by US, UK, or other foreign agents.
Detentions in Afghanistan and Morocco: Of the men interviewed for this report, the five who experienced the worst abuses and spent the longest period in secret US detention are Khalid al-Sharif (Sharif); Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed al-Shoroeiya (Shoroeiya); Majid Mokhtar Sasy al-Maghrebi (Maghrebi); Saleh Hadiyah Abu Abdullah Di’iki (Di’iki); and Mustafa Jawda al-Mehdi (Mehdi). All but Mehdi appear to have been held in the same locations for their first period of detention which they all said was in a US-run detention facility in Afghanistan. The four were then moved to a second location, apparently also in Afghanistan, to which Mehdi was later brought. In total, Sharif was in both locations for two years, Shoroeiya for about sixteen months, Maghrebi for about eight months, and Di’iki also for about eight months. Mehdi was only in the second location and he appears to have been detained there for about fourteen months. Prior to his detention in Afghanistan, Di’iki said he was also held in a facility in Morocco for about a month where he said he was interrogated by US personnel, though it is not clear if they were running the facility. In addition to these five, Human Rights Watch also interviewed Mustafa Salim Ali el-Madaghi (Madaghi), who was described in the Tripoli Documents as Di’iki’s deputy. He was arrested in Mauritania, sent to Morocco, held there for about five weeks, and then rendered to Libya. All six were senior members of the LIFG. Khalid al-Sharif, deputy to Head of the LIFG, Abdul Hakim Belhadj (see below), being the most senior member.
Saadi had been a senior LIFG leader and was the group’s religious leader and religious law expert. The Tripoli Documents contain communications from the CIA offering to help the Libyan government secure Saadi’s return to Libya and confirming MI6 involvement as well. Saadi was rendered to Libya from Hong Kong just days after Blair’s visit to Libya. Five other former LIFG members interviewed for this report were also rendered to Libya that year, and two more the following April. Communications contained in the Tripoli Documents, relating to Belhadj and Saadi, are a key part of a lawsuit against the UK government. They have also formed the basis of an investigation by the UK police into the government’s role in their rendition.
In addition to these eight, Human Rights Watch interviewed another senior LIFG member, Muhammed Abu Farsan, who had been with Belhadj and Saadi in Asia before they were detained. As described above, Abu Farsan sought but failed to obtain asylum in the Netherlands, which sent him to Sudan. In Sudan he was interviewed by individuals representing themselves as being from the CIA on three different occasions. Within two weeks, Sudan returned him to Libya.
Transfer from Guantanamo Bay: We also interviewed Abdusalam Abdulhadi Omar as-Safrani, who as of this report’s writing was one of two former Guantanamo detainees sent back to Libya by the United States. He said he was not a member of the LIFG. He was detained with Ibn-al-Sheikh al-Libi (see below) by US and Pakistani forces before being sent to Guantanamo.
Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi (Sheikh al-Libi): Sheikh al-Libi, also reportedly not a member of the LIFG, was held in US custody for years, allegedly tortured, and then rendered to Libya. We could not interview him for this report because he died in Libyan custody, allegedly by suicide. His rendition and torture is of particular importance because it produced intelligence that the CIA itself has recognized was unreliable but that nevertheless played a significant role in justifying the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Detainees Rendered from African Countries to Libya: We interviewed four other Libyans picked up in different places in Africa and then transferred to Libya: one from Sudan, Ismail Omar Gebril al-Lwatty (Lwatty); one from Chad, Mafud al-Sadiq Embaya Abdullah (Embaya); and two from Mali, Abdullah Mohammed Omar al-Tawaty (Tawaty) and Othman Salah (Salah). These interviews contained less evidence than the others of foreign or Western government involvement in the actual transfer, though there are indications that Western governments were involved in the initial apprehensions and subsequent interrogations. The African countries themselves, however, were equally obliged not to render these individuals to Libya, without process and against their will.
Most of the Libyans profiled in this report were imprisoned until February 16, 2011, when the uprisings against Gaddafi began. LIFG leader Abdul Hakim Belhadj, his deputy, Khalid Sharif, and LIFG religious leader Sami al-Saadi were released a year earlier, on 23 March, 2010, as part of a negotiated release of hundreds of prisoners. Belhadj, Saadi and Sharif had to publically renounce their aim of overthrowing the government by force as part of the deal.
Many of those interviewed were also involved in the uprisings against Gaddafi. Sharif, Saadi, and Di’iki were all re-arrested during this time for anti-Gaddafi activities and held until August 2011, when Tripoli fell to rebel forces. Belhadj commanded a brigade that played a key role in the uprisings and the taking of Tripoli. Shoroeiya, Sharif, and others interviewed for this report said that many former LIFG members who managed to escape arrest after the uprisings began, but are not profiled here, participated politically in the uprisings and militarily in organizing and training rebel forces. Belhadj and Saadi both ran as candidates for their respective political parties during the 7 July, 2012 elections. US diplomats have engaged with Belhadj and his party since they emerged as important players in Libya’s new democratic landscape, and several US Senators, including John McCain, have met with him. Sharif is now head of the Libyan National Guard. One of his responsibilities is providing security for facilities holding high value detainees (mostly officials of the former Gaddafi government) now in government custody. Di’iki also works at the Libyan National Guard and has similar responsibilities.. Mehdi and Shoroieya are prominent members of the same political parties to which Belhadj and Saadi belong, respectively.
Watch Libyan rendition victim Abdel Hakim Belhadj talk to the European Parliament, Reprieve.org, April 12, 2012, at 0:16 and 2:30, http://www.reprieve.org.uk/tvandradio/Belhadj_European_Parliament (accessed June 15, 2012).
Rendition is the transfer of an individual between governments. Transferring someone to another country without providing them an adequate opportunity to contest that transfer violates basic rights under international human rights law. Transferring someone to another government where they would face a serious risk of torture or other ill-treatment is unlawful. Transferring an individual to the custody of another government for the purpose of torture, usually to obtain information, is a practice commonly referred to as rendition to torture, which did not appear to be the intent of US renditions to Libya in the cases described in this report. US returns to Libya may have been motivated by the likelihood that finding another country to accept them might have been difficult or by an effort to improve relations with Gaddafi.
Testimony of Michael Hayden in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, February 5, 2008, http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs/110824.pdf, p. 71-72 (accessed July 2, 2012) (“Let me make it very clear and to state so officially in front of this Committee that waterboarding has been used on only three detainees.”). The CIA waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times, Abu Zubaydah at least eighty-three times, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri twice. CIA Office of the Inspector General, “Special Review: Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities” (September 2001 - October 2003), May 7, 2004, declassified in August 2009, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20090825-DETAIN/2004CIAIG.pdf(accessed July 2, 2012), (CIA OIG report), p. 90-91.
US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” 2004: Libya, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41727.htm (accessed August 15, 2012); and “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” 2006: Libya, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78858.htm, (accessed August 15, 2012). The United Kingdom was also concerned about human rights abuses in Libya during this period. The 2004 human rights report by the UK Foreign Office states, “[T]he UK remains seriously concerned by the human rights situation in Libya, including restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, political prisoners, arbitrary detention and conditions in Libyan prisons.” UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Human Rights: Annual Report 2004, http://fcohrdreport.readandcomment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/human-rights-report-2004.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), p. 67.
Human Rights Watch interviews withMohammed al-Shoroeiya (Shoroeiya), Tripoli, Libya, March 18, 2012; and Sami Mostefa al-Saadi (Saadi), Tripoli, Libya, March 14, 2012.
Human Rights Watch interview with Shoroeiya, March 18, 2012.
Human Rights Watch interview with Adusalam Abdulhadi Omar as-Safrani (Safrani), Benghazi, Libya, March 20, 2012.
Human Rights Watch interview with Saadi, March 14, 2012.
Human Rights Watch interview with Shoroeiya, March 18, 2012; Human Rights Watch interview with Saadi, March 14, 2012.
Human Rights Watch interviews with Safrani, March 20, 2012; and Saadi, March 14, 2012.
Human Rights Watch interviews with Khalid al-Sharif (Sharif), Tripoli, Libya, March 14, 2012; Shoroeiya, March 18, 2012; Muhammed Abu Farsan (Abu Farsan ), Tripoli, Libya, March 26, 2012; Sheikh Othman Salah, Tripoli, Libya, March 15, 2012; and Saadi, March 14, 2012.
Human Rights Watch interviews with Shoroeiya, March 18, 2012; Majid al-Maghrebi (Maghrebi), Tripoli, Libya, March 16, 2012; Sharif, March 14, 2012; Osmail Omar Gebril al-Lwatty (Lwatty), Tripoli, Libya, March 17, 2012; Abu Farsan, March 26, 2012; and Saleh Hadiyah Abu Abdullah Diâiki (Diâiki), Tripoli, Libya, March 18, 2012.
Abdul Hakim Belhadj (Belhadj) said he was interrogated by Americans four times, as well as by the British, French, Spanish, Germans, and Italians. Kim Sengupta, “Libyan rebel leader says MI6 knew he was tortured,” The Independent, September 6, 2011, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/libyan-rebel-leader-says-mi6-knew-he-was-tortured-2349778.html(accessed August 27, 2012). See also Chulov, “MI6 knew I was tortured, says Libyan rebel leader,” The Guardian,http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/05/abdul-hakim-belhaj-libya-mi6-torture?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 (accessed August 29, 2012). Saadi said he was interrogated by American, British, and Italian intelligence agencies, as well as by some agents who were speaking French, though he was not sure if they were French. Sharif said he was interrogated by French intelligence agents. Human Rights Watch interviews with Saadi, March 14, 2012; and Sharif, March 14, 2012.
Tripoli Document 2142 refers to Madaghi by one of his aliases, Mustafa Salim Ali Moderi Tarabulsi, aka Shaykh Musa.
Ian Cobain, “Libyan dissident tortured by Gaddafi to sue Britain over rendition,” The Guardian, October 6, 2011,http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/06/libyan-dissident-tortured-sues-britain (accessed April 22, 2012).
Watch Libyan rendition victim Abdel Hakim Belhadj talk to the European Parliament, Reprieve.org, April 12, 2012, at 1:38.
Cobain, “Libyan dissident tortured by Gaddafi to sue Britain over rendition,” The Guardian (“[T]he case currently relies upon a number of documents that Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO, found last month.”); See also “Investigation into rendition welcomed,” Leigh Day & Co. Solicitors news release, January 12, 2012, http://www.leighday.co.uk/News/2012/January-2012/Investigation-into-Rendition-Welcomed (Leigh Day & Co. is the law firm representing both Belhadj and Saadi and their families; the press release states “[a]fter Gaddaffi was overthrown documents were discovered by Human Rights Watch which allegedly show how British personnel were instrumental in his detention and rendition.” Claims filed by Leigh Day & Co. rely upon a number of these documents.); and Richard Norton-Taylor, “Libyan rebel leader sues Britain over rendition ordeal,” The Guardian, December 19, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/19/libyan-rebel-abdel-hakim-belhadj?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 (accessed April 22, 2012).
_police_service/ (accessed April 22, 2012).
Belhadj ran as a candidate under the Islamist political party Hizb al-Watan and Saadi as a candidate under the party al-Umma al-Wasat. Neither did as well as expected. Omar Ashour, “Libya’s Defeated Islamists,” July 17, 2012, http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/libya-s-defeated-islamists (accessed on July 18, 2012).
Posted on September 8, 2012, in North Africa and tagged Imperialism, Libya, Libyan Revolution. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
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Mobile phones today have a load of applications that have been designed to make the life of consumers easier. And with the smartphone sales blowing the roofs in recent times because of affordability, the number of people using the Internet has skyrocketed, and business owners and service providers are taking advantage of this by creating apps. Research polls indicate that by the end of 2016 it is estimated that there will be over 10 billion devices on the Internet. Among the apps already tapping into the digital space market is building inspection app. These are designed to perform house inspections so that fire accidents can be prevented to ensure safety, maintenance and storage.
You can easily use your inspection app on your smartphone for it works on iOS or android device. Also no Internet connectivity is necessary in the field for an inspector and can easily be used with preloaded templates or custom created templates. A smartphone will be useful in capturing all the data that is required such that you visualize the building inspections on the map, save the inspections on the device or even email them.
When you buy a building inspection app for Australia, you will be complying with the Australian standards as many that are available are not compliant. These apps allow customization so that the individual needs of users can be met. They cover both interior as well as exterior building inspections to help ensure that building systems are in good repair. In the long run, they are cost saving as a building owner easily identifies minor problems and corrects them in time thereby lengthening the lifespan of the building. There are other benefits, which include keeping building systems in good condition, eliminating the need for paperwork, saving time that normally is wasted on filling forms. Also the data accuracy is sharper when apps are used.
The popularity of smartphones among users has led to an expansion of the mobile app industry with many service providers taking advantage to create platforms that are designed to make the life of consumers easier accessing these services. A building inspection app allows users to conduct inspections regarding maintenance, repairs among others on their buildings. These apps are easily reachable and all it takes is having a smartphone. You can buy building inspection app in Warwick from apple store or Google play store. What makes them stand out even more is the fact that they can be used by pretty much anyone.
Maintaining a property is a costly affair and many homes sustain thousands of dollars in damages due to pest infestations. The sad truth is that these situations can easily be avoided by simply spending some money on pest control Gold Coast services. A large number of consumers are of the idea that they are more than capable of controlling an infestation of any kind with a few store-bought insecticides or rodent catchers. But the exact opposite is true!
What many homeowners do not realize is that what they are physically seeing is only a small percentage of the actual infestation and this is where professional pest control firms come into play. These professionals utilize specialized equipment to track and monitor the actual scale of infestation, and they additionally have the right tools and know-how to be able to eradicate the problem. There are so many reasons for homeowners to actually consider doing an annual check of their homes to ensure that a small infestation of rats, birds, ants or wasps do not turn into a life or death situation within their own homes.
Health risks increase in homes where rats and birds have overrun the property as they carry life threatening illness that could harm both humans and family pets. So in all honesty if one considers the cost of a loved one’s life, is it really too much to get a professional pest controller out to assess a family home or business premises on a regular basis?
Naturally, most people have grave concerns on negatively impacting the environment by using pesticides or poison to curb an infestation; however most reputable pest control Gold Coast services are backed by an eco-friendly ethos. One such firm is Gold Coast Pest Management Solutions. They pride themselves in using techniques that will not harm the environment and are equally safe for pets and humans alike. All it takes is one phone call and not only will a person be safeguarding the structural integrity of one’s home, but also ensuring the safety of one’s loved ones.
When dealing with any infestation, true professional pest control Gold Coast companies will first assess the problem prior to setting out an adequate pest removal plan. If a home has more than one type of infestation then it is best to use a firm such as Gold Coast Pest Management Solutions (http://www.goldpest.com/) who offer a full range of services related to every conceivable type of pest infestation.
The overall benefit of using one firm to handle the entire job is that it will mean only paying for one appointment that will incorporate all the necessary pest control methods. With the aforementioned pest management services consumers are able to get quotation up front for guaranteed pest removal services. There is no need to wait months on end for an appointment as most can be set up within a few hours of the initial call.
If a homeowner considers that most homes only require fumigation every few months to keep pests at bay, it makes perfect sense to get into contact with this Gold Coast pest control firm today. It may mean spending a little today to avoid needing to spend a fortune in a few months time to eliminate termites, rats or other pest that actually cause severe structural damage.
Termites or the white ants are some of the most common types of pests in Australia. They are often referred to as Australia’s worst enemy thanks to the destructiveness that is wrought by their infestation. They can cause extreme structural damages both to your home and businesses and that means you may have to spend potentially thousands of dollars doing some damage control in your premises. Good management of termites can be carried out by pest control Wollongong professionals who are capable of deploying safe and highly effective pest control and management practices that will ensure that your premises is free of any form of termite infestation whatsoever.
In the natural environment, the termites are generally ecologically beneficial. They will break down detritus and add all important nutrients to the soil. They also aerate the soil making it more suitable for many kinds of plants. On the contrary, the same ecological chain that is beneficial for the natural environment is very destructive for your home.
Termites primarily feed on wood. They might not destroy your wooden furniture due to regular human traffic or cleaning but with the wood used in the structural formations of the buildings, then they are generally amenable to very destructive termite attacks. These attacks will not only compromise the strength of the area that is attacked, but the overall stability and safety of the structure that has been infested. When the termite attacks are quite severe, they will render the structure practically unlivable as it could potentially fall over and cause serious injuries and even fatalities. Besides, the termite attacks mean that you will have to invest in costlier upgrades and repairs on your structures.
All these highlight the importance of hiring professional pest control Wollongong services that will get rid of these nasty pests with great efficacy without any adverse effects on your home or family members.
This is the most common effects of termite attacks. The attacks will be quite severe in those homes that have been primarily built of wood which will require more enhanced termite protections. But termites do not just attack wood. The homes or structures that are made from other materials may be also come under termite attacks. Termites can eat their way through plasters, some metals and many more.
Other forms of damages that the termites are likely to inflict on your structures can occur in areas such as the cabinetry, ceiling, flooring and even your prized housing furniture. The bad thing about termite damage is that you are unlikely to detect it until the damage has reached some advanced stages so it is always important to contact the pest control Wollongong services that are professional and reliable in order for you to arrest these damages earlier on before they become too serious.
Professionals usually carry out inspections on your property for termite infestation using well-trained termite detection dogs and other technologies such as the thermal cameras which are hyper-efficient in smoking out the termite infestations.
Subterranean termite damages occur below the ground and only become apparent once the damage is in a more advanced stage. Signs that there is some subterranean damage in your home include the buckling of the wood, swollen floors as well as the swollen ceilings. It is generally similar to subterranean water damages. Sometimes, this can be unveiled through a moldy scent or a mildew scent. These can be easily detected by specially trained termite detection dogs.
These kinds of termites are other kinds of destructive variants. They will build colonies in wood and then feed from inside. Look inside of walls or even on your furniture for some drywood termite infestation.
Due to the high cost of damage done by termites infestations, it is important to invest in professional pest control Wollongong services to assist you with prevention and damage control.
Pets are considered part of the family. Dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, ferrets, guinea pigs, rats and mice; they’re there when others weren’t. Medical developments give ailing pets long life and this is good. However, when ailing pets’ lives are needlessly prolonged, they suffer. Compassionate pet euthanasia Melbourne veterinarians perform this last act of kindness.
It will never be an easy decision. It’s hard to see your pet suffer. But even with the finest care, nobody can cover up suffering. Sometimes, giving the “good death” is the last option. When there is no more treatment, euthanasia is the only way. You need to let go.
Here are some questions to reflect on. It’s not easy, but they’re needed to help you decide.
* Does your pet still to enjoy living? When your pet can’t do three of his or her favourite things, it’s time. The quality of your pet’s life is already affected.
* If your pet doesn’t eat, cannot walk and has trouble eliminating. This might mean he or she is in continuous pain.
* What’s the prognosis? Are there any treatments available? Will these treatments not give your pet an uncomfortable life? Can you afford the cost of the treatment?
We have to do what we have to do. Regardless of the effect on us. Dedicated home pet euthanasia Melbourne service has now offers pre-euthanasia advice. It’s devastating, but there is comfort that through these guidelines, you’re deciding correctly.
Nobody dwells on saying goodbye. However, our pets’ lives are shorter than ours. As their caretakers, our duty is to do what’s necessary. We have to be ready for decisions like these. Understanding how pet euthanasia happens will make it easier.
The final decision might seem to come from you. It’s important to know that you’re just signing the authorization. Your pet’s condition already took away your right for any other decision. You’re left with no other choice.
These days, home pet euthanasia in Melbourne is offered. Experts agree it’s less stressful for a pet to see familiar surroundings. Be prepared to be asked about your pet’s remains. A proper burial or cremation will all be up to you.
Pet euthanasia is done by some veterinarians. Paws Forever is made up of pet euthanasia Melbourne vets helping them leave with dignity. An injection of sodium pentobarbital is administered. It can be in IV through one of your pet’s legs. It causes loss of consciousness in seconds without any pain. A Melbourne pet euthanasia vet explains things as they’re done. It is suggested that a sedative be given first. It relaxes and puts your pet to sleep.
When businesses dealing with snake removal Brisbane has nowadays suddenly experience an increase in calls, this can only mean two things – summer is on its way and snakes are coming out of their hiding places. Among the two S’s, the latter is the least enjoyable.
Good thing there are snake removal services near you. What is even better is that service providers of snake removal in Brisbane operate 24/7. This is not a guarantee, however, that they will be able to assist you instantaneously. For this reason, you should learn a trick or two on how to stay safe.
Did you know that Brisbane is one of the snake catcher areas, along with the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan, and Moreton? With this in mind, you should be mindful of where you’re going or where you intend to explore. Different species frequent in a range of geographical locations and vegetation communities.
Eastern Brown Snake, for example, loves the suburban environment. The dangerously venomous tiger snake, on the other hand, is commonly found in vegetation near wetland areas. Avoid these places and you should be fine.
Because most snakes love to hide in grassy areas and bushland, remove long grass around your home. Trim or mow the lawn and keep grass and vegetation short enough for you to see underneath them. You should also remove anything that snakes can use as a cover, such as corrugated iron and other piles of junk.
Got mice around the house? Considering that these pests are part of a snake’s menu, remove all or as much of them as possible. No need to attract those slithering creatures into your home.
Snakes indoors? Get everyone out and close the door to keep the snake from escaping. Place a towel along the bottom of the door to make escape even more impossible. No matter what happens, do not approach the source of danger.
The moment you spot a snake, call a Brisbane snake removal company right away. Do not attempt to deal with the problem by yourself, especially if you’re unsure what you’re dealing with. Some snakes are quite clever and might decide to show you just how clever they can be. This means you need to keep the number of the closest snake catcher on speed dial.
Using the information above, finding cost-effective snake removal Brisbane offers will be a breeze.
There are many different types of cat hotel Sydney areas have today – some have individual units, some have outdoor leisure areas, and some are just letting the cats mingle in a living room full of cat beds and toys. The best thing about catteries is that the facilities they have like cozy cat beds, heaters and the like will have your kitty feel at home quicker than you can leave him/her.
And of course, our main concern as pet owners will be the safety of our beloved pets. It is inevitable for our cats to wander off a bit farther than expected of them, but with a well-built, managed and maintained Sydney cat hotel today, you can be sure that their safety isn’t compromised while they explore the new premises. The cat caretakers in these cat hotels are very understanding that the nature of stealthy cats can get tricky. Normally, catteries have countermeasures for these types of ninja cats.
Diet is everything for these picky pets. We know our cats have their preferences on food, as well as eating habits. If they don’t like what they see, they’re just going to end up smelling around the feeding bowl and leave. There are many difficulties in having to feed your cat in the presence of the many other felines around, but with the trained cat caretakers in a cat hotel in Sydney that can monitor their habits and food intake, it should take most of the burden away from you. Check Puss n Boots Boarding Cattery Pty Ltd for more details.
Usually, a reliable cat hotel Sydney has today requires the cats to have proper documents with their vaccination details. Of course, if a place houses several cats, sharing food bowls, cat toys or litter boxes is unavoidable. With this situation, they have possibly already shared each other’s bacteria. However, in a cattery they do their best to ensure nothing out of the ordinary will happen to your pet. But if ever your precious pet does get sick while staying in the cattery, aside from having a veterinarian to call, the caregivers offer basic remedies for different ailments.
Cat boarding services use lots of gains for people who wish to go on a trip or those who want to afford their cat some special attention throughout the day. A bulk of the services for cat boarding Sydney has today supply comparable standard services, however, are capable of using customer-specific services to fulfill your satisfaction.
Why Should You Entrust Your Furry Feline Friend to Cat Boarding Places?
There are numerous gains to making use of a feline boarding service, with most of them being relatively inexpensive. One ought to quickly find a cheap cat boarding in Sydney, which is rather reasonable, compared to a boarding kennel or veterinarian stay.
A professional center for cat boarding Sydney has today, for instance, offers safe, reputable and protected family pet care if the owner has to travel away from the house. Affording your cat the services above will provide him or her some excellent rest at daytime while preventing any uncommon disruptions.
Though ideal in most cases, house care is not constantly workable. An expert facility for cat boarding Sydney has, for example, provides safe, reliable and secure family pet care, if the owner needs to travel away from home. A majority of kennels consist of a multi-level condo, one being for the bedroom and the other, dining and bathroom. In certain top-notch facilities, felines are released into a quiet space where they can play and interact easily. Such a location would be devoid of loud noises and have play areas having feline towers on which felines can climb up. Click Solar Lodge for more details.
It ought to be possible travelling out of town in full self-confidence of your feline being attended well at a veterinary center. A great benefit is that emergency services for family pets are usually available with service providers of Sydney cat boarding and get funded even under unique scenarios like when the customer is unable to give assent in person.
Affording your cat the services above will provide him or her some excellent rest at daytime while preventing any uncommon disruptions. If you’re trying to find Sydney cat boarding businesses in your area, check online resources like http://www.solarlodge.com.au/.
Why Are Insurance From Dog Walk Services Important?
There are so many resources on the internet about how to hire a dog walker. Most of these tips would focus their discussion on information you might already know. As a dog owner, this does not help you in terms of finding the right person or team that can provide quality dog walking services. One thing that you might want to look at is if the dog walker is bonded and insured. To some dog owners, insurance and bonding might not be a big deal. But this is very important if you want to avoid any losses or damages later on especially since animals, especially dogs, can be unpredictable and temperamental.
When you are comparing your options for services by a Spot The Dog Walker can offer, it is important to look at what insurance is offered. As a dog owner, it is also important to use this opportunity to learn why this is a make-or-break factor when you hire a dog walker.
Insurance is the main thing that separates professional dog walking services from the non-professionals. Hence, this should be an important factor to consider when you are looking to narrow down your options of which service to hire.
All professional dog walkers should be protected by liability insurance. This type of insurance is important to cover for any damage to your pet, home, or other bystanders. While dog walking, there are a lot of unforeseen circumstances that could cause your pet dog to behave erratically. Even when your dog is known to be gentle, there are certain triggers that could cause them to act uncharacteristic of their behavior. For this reason, a liability insurance will protect you when accidents do occur. Without insurance from the dog walking service that you hire, the dog owner will be liable for all of the costs. Thus, you would want to avoid that by hiring only dog walkers with insurance.
Aside from liability insurance, a worker’s compensation insurance is another form of protection that dog walkers should have. Before you hire a dog walker, it is important to know beforehand if the company offers worker’s compensation.
Unfortunately, liability insurance is not enough coverage. It won’t cover the cost of injury to the dog walker, only to the pet, properties or other individuals. Since they are offering services for your dog, you will also be held liable for what happens to the dog walker while caring for or walking your dog. But with worker’s compensation, you no longer have to worry about the cost. Some of the example scenarios wherein a worker’s compensation would be useful or necessary include but are not limited to the following: injury from a direct attack from your dog, or was caused by the action of your dog.
When looking at a dog walker Gold Coast has now to look after your pet dog, make sure they are properly insured and bonded. In fact, you need to stay away from dog walking services that lack insurance for the reasons stated above. If you need more help about finding a dog walker South Brisbane has today, go to http://spotdogwalk.com.au/.
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Have you just moved to Carseldine? Or have you recently changed your health plan? Or are you simply searching for a new primary health care provider? Selecting the right doctor is one of the most critical decisions you’ll ever make for you and your family. But which doctor is right for you? A doctor can only be considered right for you if he is able to meet all your health needs. There are many doctors in Carseldine but not all of them would match your needs and interests.
Doctors specialize in different areas of medicine, they are located in different parts of Carseldine and they charge differently for their services. So, to make sure you choose the right doctor for you and your family you ought to get answers to the following questions.
Doctors in Carseldine have different educational backgrounds. It is therefore, important to determine the kind of doctor you need before you start searching for one. First, there are primary care physicians (PCPs) who are divided into three specialties: For more information, check out us at SmartClinics.
Internal medicine: Treat adults and specialize in diagnosis, management and prevention of chronic conditions.
If you have children, you may look for a good Carseldine general practitioner. If you have a special health condition, you might want to consider a consultant specializing in your area of concern. For instance, if you suffer from diabetes, it is best to look for an endocrinologist. If you need a surgical operation, find a Carseldine doctor surgery specialist.
What is your health cover?
Getting quality health care isn’t cheap. It might actually strain you if you have to pay for it from your pocket. To avoid such unnecessary expenses, find a doctor who accepts your insurance plan. Check with the doctor you have in mind to make sure that your insurance is on their list. Also, to avoid surprises in future, contact your health insurance company to find out about the specifics of the plan.
Do want a doctor near your work or home?
The doctor’s office should be convenient for you. You don’t want to be traveling for hours to see your doctor when you’re sick. If you have little children you might want to consider the doctors in Carseldine close to your home. This will be quite convenient even during an emergency. It is also important to look at the doctor’s working hours. If you are mostly available in the evenings, choose a doctor who operates until late hours of the evening.
Language is a factor that many people tend to over look, but it’s quite important. It is essential for you and your doctor to be able to communicate freely without any barriers. Select a doctor who speaks your native language to ensure proper communication.
By the time you finish answering these questions you should have a short list of potential Carseldine doctors. Plan to visit and interview each of them, then make your decision from your findings. Visit our website at http://www.smartclinics.com.au/location/carseldine/.
Like other places in Brisbane, all the Eight Mile Plains aged care centres are required to give their residents the best possible care. They are particularly required to help each individual resident gain psychosocial, mental and physical well-being. Unless it is beyond their capability, staff in an aged care facility must ensure improved condition of residents and not a decline. Their core duties should be to care, treat and provide therapies so as to improve the health of these elderly people and help them live longer and happier lives.
Although the government has established care standards for nursing homes, it does not guarantee quality. This is to mean that Eight Mile Plains aged care centres are not equal. Some provide top-notch services and facilities while some are far from being desired. It is your role as the buyer of the services to investigate and find out if what a facility offers is truly up to your expectations.
This article will help you in making this all important decision by highlighting some of the things that a quality care centre must have.
Any quality nursing home Eight Mile Plains has available for the elderly, has enough employees to meet the needs of all the residents. Having adequate staff means that your loved one will have someone to take care of their personal needs for considerable number of hours each day. Nowadays, there are personal aged care Eight Mile Plains facilities that have taken the care a notch higher by offering residents exclusively personal care.
All the residents in a nursing home have unique needs as well as likes and dislikes. As such, the home must have a care plan for each resident that is distinctively designed for their personal needs. This applies to things such as diets – a resident should eat what their dietician has recommended and has a right to refuse anything that’s contrary.
A good aged care centre provides or allows the services of medical practitioners. They will not stop you from having your elderly person supervised by your family physician. If you don’t have a family doctor, the facility management can help you find one with expertise in the condition your loved one is suffering from.
Most residents rely on different types of medicine to maintain their health or treat diseases. As such, Eight Mile Plains aged care facilities are required to have proper procedures of ordering, storing, administering and monitoring medication. If these procedures are not followed, problems such as over-prescribing medicine may arise.
One reason why people are placed in nursing homes is to remove them from the isolation they experience at home. Therefore, a nursing home must provide adequate avenues for residents to socialize and interact with each other. In addition to providing communal spaces within the facility, the management should organize social events such as sports for the residents.
These are some of the indicators that an aged care facility is capable to provide the quality services you want for your elderly person. If you’re looking for unparalleled aged care or respite in Eight Mile Plains, check out Arcare.
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2019-04-25T04:15:00Z
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https://www.allpetsclinicfl.com/
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Prepared as a Word 2003 Document.
By Mike Allfrey – January, 2007..
As a regular reader of (and irregular contributor to) the Club Journal, I have often felt that the best use was not being made of the media available. If we consider, that we must have a combined Jowett experience within the club, exceeding one thousand years, then the articles printed to date have not reflected this massive source of knowledge.
I have decided to have a tilt at the windmill, in the hope that this will aid both the Editor and the club through supplying a detailed analysis on the Jowett Javelin/Jupiter gearbox. I do not claim to be an expert on this but act merely as a catalyst in the reactions which hopefully flow from this epic task. The aim of the following article is to set the example, starting a little pile on which you can add your contribution.
I have tried to set out in a logical manner all the facts that I can think of in relation to the gearbox. In this area, as in so many others, the manual leaves a considerable amount unsaid. I have also tried to bear in mind that when the manual was written, the wearing qualities of the various parts could not have been predicted. In a way we can use thirty years of hind sight. To this end I have numbered all the paragraphs evenly, allowing any learned contributor to add in the "odd" paragraphs where his/her experience can help. Ultimately we will thus end up with a completely detailed set of instructions on the gearbox. In addition, should the idea appeal, someone else may care to write up in similar detail other parts of the car's anatomy.
A clean working environment free of dirt, and clean parts that are free of rust, oil and dirt are essential, as are a copious supply of clean rags. All re-used hardware should have been wire-brushed, protective coating applied (Inox, WD-40 or such) and stored in labelled, re-sealable plastic bags that are stored in logical groupings, ready for easy location as required.
1. The gears are selected in the gearbox by means of two shafts. The gear operating shaft and the selector change shaft.
2. The gear operating shaft acts in the vertical plane and can take up three distinct positions: In the upper position it selects 3rd and 4th (top) gears. In the intermediate position it selects 1st and 2nd gears. In the lowest position it selects reverse gear only.
3. Rotation of the gear operating shaft, allows this shaft to select one or other of the gears in the upper and middle positions, or one gear in the lower position.
Looked at from the top, rotation of the shaft clockwise selects 2nd gear and, 4th gear, anticlockwise rotation selects 1st, 3rd and reverse gears.
4. The selector change shaft acts in the horizontal plane and by rotation of the selector change lever, causes the gear operating shaft to take up one of its three positions.
Looking from the front of the gearbox, when the selector change lever is at 1 o'clock the upper selector bar is in operation (3rd and top), at 12 o'clock the lower selector bar is in operation (1st and 2nd), and at 11 o'clock NO selector bar is in operation, (in fact the lower bar is locked to prevent it operating) and reverse gear can be selected.
5. To inspect the gear selection of the gearbox when it has been removed from the car prior to dismantling, or after reassembly, the gearbox should be attached to the Clutch housing and the clutch shaft cover should be in place. A spare clutch housing is useful for this exercise. Unless the gearbox is thus attached, selection of top gear will push forward the front mainshaft ball bearing, thereby releasing the synchro balls; and springs on the 3rd and 4th Synchronizer.
6. Check for excessive play on the clutch (or spigot) shaft. When present this will indicate either a worn mainshaft front roller bearing, Part No. 50017(the little caged rollers may have become un-caged), or a worn clutch shaft ball bearing, Part No. 50014.
7. Check for excessive play on the vertical gear operating shaft. Where present this will indicate that the gearbox housing has worn (the bore is oval) and will need bushing, or that the gear operating lever lug is worn (which will need replacement or be built up with weld).
8. Depress the gear operating shaft by hand and select reverse gear. Note whether or not the gear change lever hits against the stop on top of the casing. In some instances noted, the gear change lever will strike the base of the stop instead of the stop itself. This can be rectified by fitting a shim on the outside of the case below the gear change lever or the lower face of the lever can be filed off as much as 3 mm to correct the action.
9. On releasing the operating shaft (after depressing it) check that it returns to the upper most position naturally. If not the operating shaft spring may be broken or distorted, or the selector bar notches may not be correctly aligned (wear in the plunger notches or the plungers themselves allowing the selector bar to move backwards and forwards) causing the gear operating shaft lever lug to miss the recess in the bars or catching the edges of the bars.
10. Check the selector change shaft movement in the horizontal plane. More than 2 mm of movement fore and aft indicates that take up of wear on the selector lever pad is necessary by shimming on the outside of the gearbox casing immediately behind the selector change lever.
11. Check for cracks in the gearbox casing particularly round the driver's side front lug (which is definitely prone to cracking) due to insufficient tightening of the nut and engine vibrations. This can be fixed with the TIG aluminium welding process. The engine vibration with loose nuts can also cause cracking in the clutch housing particularly near the openings for the clutch fork.
12. Note that since the gearbox casing is cast from aluminium (i.e. a soft material, relatively speaking) which acts also as a bearing medium, all holes in the gearbox are subject to wear and need careful inspection.
13. Drain the oil from the gearbox. It may be helpful to apply some heat so that the plug can be removed easily.
NOTE: After removing the drain plug, carefully examine the oil and the inner gearbox housing to look for metal debris. This will give an indication of how the gearbox has been treated.
15. Since this is a description of a major overhaul, definitely drift out the layshaft thereby allowing the cluster gear to drop into the bottom of the box to enable removal of the mainshaft.
16. Whilst it may be possible to "drift out the clutch shaft ball bearing from inside the gearbox", the use of a especially constructed bearing puller that locates in the circlip groove is recommended.
NOTE: When removing the mainshaft bearing, it will be necessary to remove some of the studs to allow room for the puller to connect in the circlip groove in the bearing outer race. (See Steps 22 – 24 for stud removal/replacement information).
17. The removal of the bearing oil thrower from the clutch shaft prior to separating the clutch and main shafts (first and third motion shafts) gives a little more room for access.
18. When separating the clutch shaft from the mainshaft, it will be found easier if the clutch shaft spigot bearing is pushed as far forward as possible into the clutch shaft, rather than leaving it on the mainshaft spigot. In addition, the mainshaft can be withdrawn further to the rear if 2nd gear is selected carefully, prior to withdrawing the mainshaft through the side of the gearbox housing.
19. When removing the gears from the mainshaft, the use of a small narrow bladed screwdriver is recommended for depressing the plungers of the mainshaft lock washers.
20. To remove the reverse gear shaft with ease, use a socket, some washers and a 5/16" BSF setscrew to make up a puller. A tapped hole is provided in the shaft for this purpose.
21. Dismantle the entire selector housing cover even though this is NOT mentions! in the manual as it will need to be refurbished for a complete overhaul anyway. Carefully determine the operation of each of the levers and shafts in the cover as most of the trouble with the gearboxes can be traced to them. Once you fully understand the operation and function you will wonder, like me why there is no mention of it is made in the Maintenance Manual.
22. To remove studs from the gearbox, use two nuts of appropriate size for the stud concerned, and thread these onto the exposed portion of the stud. Lock the lower nut against the upper nut by tightening the nuts against each other.
23. To remove the stud, after locking the nuts together, turn the lower nut anti-clockwise, the stud will unscrew.
24. To install a stud, after locking the nuts together, turn the upper nut clockwise. When the stud is fully borne against its shank, release the nuts; by holding the upper nut still and turning the lower nut clockwise until free, then spin off each nut individually.
NOTE: Before installing a stud make sure that the surface around the threaded hole is flat. Distortion here can cause oil leakage at a poorly seated joint. Apply a smear of Penrite Copper Eze to the thread when the stud is being installed into a blind hole. Apply a smear of Loctite 518 Mastergasket if the stud’s hole breaks through into an oil-wet area.
IMPORTANT: Studs should be tightened to 20 per cent of the securing nut’s final torque value.
25. Gearbox housing – bearing in mind what has been previously stated about aluminium housings, thoroughly clean and air dry the housing, inside and out, with good quality degreasing fluid and rinse thoroughly with clean water.
26. Check again for cracks around the lugs and around the rear ball bearing. The rear stud holes are close to the edge of the casting and are prone to cracks also. Also, check the bore for the mainshaft ball bearing as incorrect (skewed) fitting can crack the casting.
27. Check the ball bearing surfaces for signs of the bearing having turned in the case. Score marks and/or a bluish tinge indicate turning and heating effects. If the surface is scored or otherwise worn, the gearbox housing will have to be replaced. If wear is minimal, apply three drops of Loctite 292 Threadloc (wick-in), equally spaced, between the housing and the bearing outer race. This should be done after the gearbox has been assembled, and with the components clean and dry.
28. Check the underside of the gear operating shaft upper hole for wear. If wear is apparent, you will need some shims to take up the vertical slack in the shaft on assembly. Failure to take up this slack will cause the gear operating lever lug to miss the recesses in the selector bars or to "half" connect in the recess.
29. Check the gearbox studs for loose studs or stripped threads. New studs can be manufactured from 1/4" BSF bolts cutting the bolt on the unthreaded portion below the head and then using a button die for cutting a 1/4" Whitworth or BSF thread, depending on the gearbox housing thread, on the unthreaded portion of the bolt. Enlarged threaded holes should be fitted with Helicoils (Recoils) whereupon you can use studs with a BSF thread at each end. This is one of the few instances where JCL mixed threads.
30. Remove all the studs from the gearbox side and check the surfaces for flatness. Clean up where necessary with a fine cut file and polish with an emery stone where the selector bars slide to remove burrs.
31. Check the 7/16” diameter stud at the front of the box lower RH side for protrusion into the inside of the housing. It can cause the layshaft front thrust washer to be pushed out of alignment. Remedy, grind, file or cut the stud to shorten if necessary.
32. Check the 5/16" diameter stud at the rear of the housing, lower left hand side, for protrusion into the housing. It can cause the reverse gear to be pushed forwards, and clash with first gear.
33. Check the gear operating shaft bores top and bottom for Ovality. If oval bore them out to 5/8" and insert bronze bush, DUFOR Part No. 1450, which is long enough to be cut in two to do both top and bottom bores.
34. Smooth all rough aluminium bearing surfaces on the selector housing cover by using a small flat whetting stone to remove scoring where the selector bars have been in contact with the cover plate.
35. Thoroughly clean all the gears with kerosene prior to inspection as the oily surfaces of the gears hide a multitude of sins. Inspect each gear for wear holding it in a strong light checking for heat affected areas and pitting. If possible replace all pitted gears and polish off all sharp edges with a fine emery stone.
36. Check the synchronizer cones on 2nd, 3rd and top gears for wear and lap in the gears on the mainshaft with fine grinding paste.
NOTE: With the synchronizer cone and cup pushed firmly together, the cup should hold the cone when held up with the cup uppermost. If the cone drops out of its own accord, the pair of parts are worn.
37. On completion of lapping, thoroughly clean off all traces of the grinding paste by using hot soapy water (which will expand the pores of the metal) with a stiff brush.
38. Check the selector bars for twist and bowing. Straighten with a hammer on a flat steel plate or anvil.
39. On completion of straightening, use a smooth file to clean up any nicks or slight alignment problem. Remove sharp edges with an emery stone to prevent cutting into the aluminium casing.
40. Check the selector bars for bowing by holding the bars back to back against a strong light and looking for gaps.
41. Inspect the bars for cracks especially round the corners of the recess in the bars where they connect with the gear operating lever lug.
42. Check the action of the gear operating lever lug in the recesses of the bars for reference prior to building up the lug or filling in the recesses of the bars. File away any high spots on the bars.
43. Inspect the selector bar notches for "tracks" created by excessive pressure on the selector plungers. If scored or grooved, the bars will need to be built up with Stellite welding to maintain their hardness.
44. Check that the bronze selectors are not loose on the bars. If looseness is found, new rivets will have to be installed.
45. Check for wear at the top of the shaft and on the bottom. At the top the shaft is likely to be worn on one side only. If worn, the shaft should be replaced. The bottom of the shaft is likely to be worn in a tapered manner.
46. If the shaft is in a chronic state as described above, the housing will be so much the worse for wear and will need bushing. To do this properly you need to remove the welch plug at the bottom of the casing. This will then allow the use of a long boring bar or reamer to align both top and bottom bores. This operation does require the use of a good quality reamer to fine finish the two bores.
47. Inspect the gear operating shaft spring for "kinking". This can be straightened out to some degree through winding the spring onto a round rod and then squeezing the spring with a pair of pliers. Better still if possible replace the spring.
48. Examine the gear change lever for wear. It should fit neatly in the machined flats on top of the shaft. If loose, build up the shaped hole and file back to shape.
NOTE: A small amount of rotational movement can be coped with by using Loctite 680 Adhesive during assembly.
50. Examine the lower face of the gear operating lever for wear. This is very important since excessive wear makes the selection of reverse gear an IMPOSSIBILITY. i.e. the lug may connect in the recess of the reverse selector link but the locking mechanism cannot come into play on the 1st and 2nd selector fork. If the face is badly worn it can be built up with weld and trued back with a file.
51. Check the detent plungers for excess wear or flatness. Many develop a diamond pattern on the hemispherical surface which prevents rotation of the plunger.
52. If necessary have the plungers built up with Stellite weld and ground back to round (or install new ones).
53. Use an emery stone to true up the rear face of the reverse selector link. The sliding block rubbing against the aluminium gear selector cover. Smooth action here aids reverse gear selection.
54. Build up the face of the reverse selector lock, where it makes contact with the bottom face of the operating lever, with weld. This will probably have worn in a crescent shape as a result of rubbing action caused by the lower face of the operating lever.
NOTE: If this lever is not built up it makes the locking of the 1st and 2nd selector fork impossible when selecting reverse gear. As a consequence, you may collect reverse and second gear at the same time, completely locking-up the gearbox.
55. Examine the layshaft for wear caused by the layshaft bearings rollers.
NOTE: If wear has taken place, a new shaft should be installed.
56. The club has a better version of the original caged-in-brass bearings in stock.
57. Check that the layshaft is straight. This is best done by pushing it back in the casing from the rear while all the internals are still out and then seeing if it lines up cleanly with the front hole. If bent it will not line up with the hole.
NOTE: Carry out this check now!
58. Place the gearbox housing with the front of the housing mounted on protected vice jaws and the threads of the front stud protected, so that the open side of the box faces you. Then tighten the vice against the stud.
59. Now do a trial assembly of the layshaft group by fitting the layshaft front washer, Part No. 50071, then the cluster gear, Part No. 50051, fitted with new roller bearings Part No. 50017, the layshaft rear pad, Part No. 50052, and finally the layshaft rear washer, Part No. 50051 With this pack stacked inside the housing, insert the layshaft from the rear.
60. This step can be made easier by employing a dummy layshaft inside the cluster gear and bearings assembly. The dummy shaft can be pushed through with the layshaft.
NOTE: Make sure there is room at the vice jaws for the dummy shaft to pass through the housing, while supported with one hand against the layshaft.
61. Add the necessary shims in front of the layshaft front washer until clearance is less than 0.012” Suitable shims are Gee-Jay Replacement Pack No. 276-2, which contain twelve 0.005” shims which need to be trimmed to clear the locating spigot on the front face of the front layshaft washer. Using these shims it is possible to end up with approximately 0.005” end float, which is the preferred end float specification.
62. A dummy layshaft can be cut from a worn layshaft, to a length equal to the cluster gear and the washers for later assembly ease.
63. Having polished the reverse selector link and built up the reverse selector lock, reassemble the reverse selector mechanism.
NOTE: The slotted nuts on the outside of the cover are of two different thicknesses and that the amount of thread showing on the post and reverse link pin also varies. Fit the thin nut on the stud showing the least thread. Make sure that the thin plain washers are placed under their respective nuts.
64. While these parts are being assembled, apply smears of Nulon L90 Xtreme assembly lubricant so that the mechanism is properly lubricated.
65. Apply a smear of Loctite 518 Mastergasket under the plain washers to seal the reverse selector posts. Wipe away any excess sealant.
66. Tighten the nuts to hold the posts tight in the selector cover. Nip up, then tighten further to align the split pin hole with a pair of slots.
67. Check that the spring on the reverse selector lock is working freely and is not pinched between the link and the raised portion of the selector cover. Check the action of the reverse selector shaft, it should be possible to push the fork along with a firm action by hand. If too tight slacken the screw forcing the spring and ball in the reverse selector shaft groove until the action is firm but positive. Check that the action of the reverse selector shaft allows the spring on the reverse selector lock to perform its function, i.e. return the reverse selector lock to its free state. Some filing may be necessary on the reverse selector lock to achieve a smooth action.
68. Partially reassemble the gearbox as follows to check various clearances.
69. Install the gear operating shaft, operating shaft distance collar, gear operating lever and spring and fix with the mills pin.
Don't bother about the woodruff key at this stage. In installing the spring it is easier to install the spring and the gear operating lever and then sliding the shaft through the spring and lever.
70. Insert the straightened and aligned selector bars.
71. Install the reassembled selector housing cover without the plunger housing and plungers at this stage. Apply smears of Nulon L90 Xtreme assembly lubricant to the sliding components. Two stud nuts at each end of the selector cover, adjacent to the selector bars, can be tightened.
72. This partial assembly will allow a check the operation of the gear change mechanism without the gears being present to block your view of the proceedings through the bearing bores.. The action can be extremely revealing.
(i) Note the gear operating lever lug location in relation to the upper selector bar (3rd and top) recess. If it sits too high, shims placed under the distance collar will fix it.
(ii) Note the selector change lever assembly fore and aft movement. If too loose, the pad will not be in contact with the operating shaft. Fit shims behind the lever on the outside of the housing.
(iii) Note the action produced by the bottom face of the gear operating lever. This face is designed to depress onto the reverse selector lock when the gear operating shaft is in its lowest position, and by see-saw action cause the other end of the lock to engage onto the 1st and 2nd selector fork preventing double selection of the gears. If the lock has not been previously built up, you can now gauge the amount of build up or file down required.
(iv) Note also that the lower face of the gear operating lever causes locking of the 1st and 2nd selector fork. If the surface of the reverse selector link is not smooth, or the edge of the reverse selector lock catches in the recess of the reverse selector link, or the reverse link lock spring is weak, you may be stuck in reverse gear forever. Touch up the rough edges with an emery stone or file the edge of the reverse lock selector as necessary and replace the weak spring.
(v) See that the gear change lever on the top side of the casing does not foul on the gear lever stop when the gear operating shaft is trying to select reverse gear. If necessary file a part of the bottom face off the lever to overcome this clearance problem. It is my belief that this is the cause in many cases, of the gearbox jumping out of reverse gear (i.e. the selector was never fully home and the ball in the reverse selector fork had not yet reached the groove in the shaft.
(vi) Note whether the action of filing the side cover flat has caused the opening for the selector bars to be too small. If so file down the back of the selector bars. Bear in mind that you have neither gasket nor sealant between the selector cover and the housing at this stage so don't be too keen to file down the backs of the selectors.
(vii) Check that the recesses in the selector bars produce a full and positive action with the gear operating lever lug. If necessary fill in the recesses of the bars with weld and/or build up the face of the lug.
(viii) When all the above points have been checked and adjusted, reassemble the housing one more time, but this time include the plunger housing and plungers.
(ix) Adjust the plunger setting by selecting a position halfway between neutral and 1st gear. Screw up the plunger adjusting screw till just tight and then release the screw half a turn and lock with the locknut.
(x) If everything has gone to plan you will now have spent about 20 hours on the gearbox and you are more than halfway home. You should hear some nice "clicks" when selecting any of the gear positions and the action should be smooth. (I used to think that, the "clicks" were caused by the synchro balls connecting with the internal grooves of the sliding gears but have since discovered that this is not so).
It is now time to start thinking about assembling the gears for the proper installation into the gearbox.
74. There is a missing tooth from the spline of the 1st sliding gear, which must line up with the drilling in the mainshaft to allow the 1st gear interlock to work. The use of a piston ring compressor for fixing the greased springs and synchronizer balls is advised when fitting the 1st and 2nd gear sliding dog onto its correct sliding gear.
75. The spring-locating pin and spring can be easier fitted after fitting the thick mainshaft lock washer as the 1st sliding gear can be moved back sufficiently to allow the washer to move back with it. Having fitted the spring and pin, depressing the pin and moving the whole sliding gear forward allows the thrust washer to fit into the groove in the mainshaft. Lock the washer by rotating it allowing the pin to enter the washer spline recess and lock in position.
76. Reference is made in the Maintenance Manual, to the difference between 2nd and 3rd gear bronze bushes, it does not state which way the bushes should face. The answer is that the counter bores on both bushes should face away from the central mainshaft thrust washer. The orientation of these bushes is shown in the Spare Parts Catalogue. This is a trap for those who do not know, as the counter bore in the bush is designed to clear the pin. Since the central thrust washer is the thin one, it could be considered that the pin would stick out more on it than on the thick thrust washers. This is not the case. Note also that the central annular oil way rather than the spiral ones line up with the drilled hole in the gear for oiling purposes.
77. Fit the second gear bush and the gear itself.
78. Now fit the central locating-spring and pin and then fit the thin thrust washer. Lock the washer by rotating it, as in Step 75..
There is another solution to the problem, it is not too difficult to modify the related components to accept another thick thrust washer. This requires some skilful machining, but is entirely successful. Plastic thrust washers can also be considered.
79. Fit the 3rd gear bronze bush with the recess facing forward (i.e. towards 4th gear) and then fit third gear itself.
80. Fit the front locating-spring and pin and then depress the spring and pin through the hole located in the third gear synchronizer cone, then slide on the front mainshaft locking washer and lock it by rotating it, as in Step 75.
81. Fit the 3rd and 4th sliding gear, with the etched numbers on both it and the sleeve facing in the same direction.
82. This completes the assembly of the mainshaft.
83. Insert the hardened steel spacing ring in the clutch shaft, Insert the main shaft (third motion shaft) spigot bearing into the clutch shaft, apply a liberal smear of Nulon L90 Xtreme assembly lubricant.
84. Check the fit of the clutch shaft on the mainshaft spigot and, if necessary, reduce the free play by fitting a further spacing ring on the mainshaft.
85. Reassemble the cluster gear assembly.
86. Insert the hardened steel spacing rings at either end of the gear cluster. Insert the bearings at each end of the cluster gear applying Nulon L90 Xtreme assembly lubricant.
87. Insert the dummy layshaft to hold the shims, washers, bearings and pad in place as a group.
88. Insert the gear cluster including all shims and pads in the housing and allow it to drop into the bottom of the housing.
89. Insert the clutch shaft assembly through the side of the housing.
90. Select 2nd gear on the mainshaft (for easier entry) and insert the mainshaft assembly through the side of the housing.
91. Now carefully push the mainshaft spigot into the clutch shaft in a straight-line action, to prevent damage to the spigot bearing.
92. Grip the mainshaft in a vice, so that the gears on it are clear of the cluster gear.
93. Line up the cluster gear and washers with the holes in the housing and insert the layshaft from the rear of the gearbox, pushing out the dummy shaft as the layshaft passes. through to the front of the housing. This is not an easy task.
94. Insert the reverse gear assembly, with the teeth towards the rear and the selector collar towards the front.
95. Install the fr6nt oil thrower disc.
96. Fit the clutch shaft mainshaft ball bearings and install their circlips. The bearing bores should be lubricated and the bearings driven home with a suitable hollow drift.
NOTE: The bronze speedometer drive gear should be installed at this time.
97. Install new tab washers, lock the gears and tighten the bearing securing nuts dead tight. Carefully bend over the tabs against flats on the nuts.
98. Ensure that the selector cover has the reverse gear selector fork in the right position, the locking lever lug should lie in the reverse selector link recess.
99. Install a new extension housing bearing sleeve. The sleeve should be pressed in against the spacer washer.
100. Install the rear extension housing roller bearing, followed by the rear spacer washer.
101. The rear seal should be pressed home against the spacer washer. The currently available modern seal has a slightly smaller outside diameter. This requires that the seal be installed with a small bead of Loctite Blue RTV sealant between the seal and the rear spacer washer.
102. Install the selector cover, using new gaskets and seal with Loctite 515 Mastergasket sealant.
103. Install the rear extension housing using a new gasket and Loctite 515 Mastergasket sealant.
104. Install the speedometer drive assembly. Use a smear of Loctite Blue RTV sealant between the body and the extension housing.
105. Special care must be taken, when attaching the gearbox assembly to the clutch housing, to ensure that the gearbox breather tract is not blocked with sealant.
106. The layshaft protrudes through the front of the gearbox. There is a hole to accommodate the layshaft in the clutch housing. What is not commonly known is that this hole is a large clearance hole.
There have been some instances of oil leakage from this area, due to loose fit of the layshaft in the gearbox housing and there is a simple way to repair a loose-fit shaft. .
The layshaft diameter is 0.75” and the hole in the clutch housing is nominal 7/8” diameter. Obtain a cup type core plug with 7/8” outside diameter and press it cup side facing the gearbox, into the clutch housing. The cup will spigot firmly over the layshaft spigot. An application of Loctite 290 Super Wick-in will effect a sound oil-tight seal.
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2019-04-20T04:45:49Z
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https://jowett.net/Parts/TechNotes-Part20-GearboxOverhaul.htm
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This autumn, the Swiss are set to elect a new parliament. But MPs are increasingly, and more aggressively, representing the particular interests of companies, associations and organisations. It’s an indication of a cultural change in the legislative body.
In March 2018, when the Swiss parliament rushed a new and very controversial social insurance law on allowing social welfare detectives through in just a week, the German-speaking daily Tages-Anzeiger used the dramatic headlineexternal link: “As if the devil were chasing them”.
Why such a rush? Isn’t it one of democracy’s most important principles to take time to design a well-balanced and independent legislation?
The answer lies with lobbying. In this particular case, health insurers as well as the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA), orchestrated a real power play to push through their own vested interests: going after people accused of being benefit cheats.
How is this possible? It’s all down to the parliamentarians, elected for a four-year period, who are increasingly representing particular interests.
The 246 members of the Swiss parliament have a total of 2,000 vested interests in 1,700 organisations, according to a study recently published by Transparency International Switzerlandexternal link, a non-governmental organisation.
The average number of mandates is eight per parliamentarian. However, two of them, one centre-right and one left-wing, top the list with 31 and 29 vested interests, respectively.
The phenomenon of lobbying has become more pronounced over the past two decades. Between 2000 and 2011, the average number of mandates per parliamentarian more than doubled. From 2007 to 2015, it rocketed by 20%.
Taking the new social insurance law as an example, the 38 members of the parliamentary Social Security and Health Committees (SSHC)external link, which both rubberstamped the social welfare detectives, have a total of 90 vested interests on the list of Transparency International Switzerland.
The Economic Affairs and Taxation Committees (EATC)external link of the House of Representatives has by far the most lobbyists, according to an analysis from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.external link Over the past 15 years, 150 to 200 parliamentarians with a vested interest have been at the negotiating table discussing new draft legislations.
The study shows that companies, associations and other organsations try to use parliamentarians instead of traditional lobbyists to influence legislation to support their vested interests.
This text is part of #DearDemocracyexternal link, a platform on direct democracy issues by swissinfo.ch.
“Lobbying has increased alarmingly in Switzerland,” says Alex Biscaro, deputy managing director of Transparency International Switzerlandexternal link and one of the authors of the NGO’s report into the issue.
Why are parliamentarians also lobbyists? One reason is that the Swiss parliamentary militia system - a long-standing tradition - means they are supposed to have a normal job in addition to attending the four annual parliamentary sessions.
Estimates on the workload of a parliamentarian range between 60 and 90%. So a member of parliament has time to work as an independent consultant or be on a company’s payroll as board member. Not only is this completely legal, but it is also intrinsic to the system.
“Lobbying is not all bad. It’s an important and legitimate part of a pluralistic democracy and the militia system,” says Biscaro. Switzerland’s parliamentary mechanism is streamlined and does not give militia politicians much support, he adds.
“They [militia politicians] depend on solid knowledge and practical information, which they often get from those with vested interests. In an ideal world, lobbying helps parliament pass appropriate and viable laws by providing expert knowledge,” Biscaro explains.
But lobbying has to be transparent with well-defined rules, Biscaro continues. “It has to be clear who represents which interests, and where the revenues from special mandates come from.” It also needs a code of conduct for parliamentarians and lobbyists as well as guidelines on how to deal with conflict of interests and benefits, such as gifts and travel.
Slovenia and the EU Commission, for example, have such a system in place. “They have transparency registers that disclose when lobbyists’ activities are geared to influence members of the commission and their legislation,” says Biscaro.
In Switzerland, committee decisions are usually made in a so-called black box, a hermetically sealed meeting room. This is an old procedure that aims to prevent leaks.
Why is there such a high concentration of vested interests in parliamentary committees? It’s because these usually set the course, which is often decisive for subsequent debates in the councils and possible future referenda.
The health sector is particularly prone to pressure from lobbyists, especially from the pharmaceutical industry. According to Viktor Parma, a parliamentary journalist of 40 years’ standing, the two multinationals Novartis and Roche are most active in this field.
“When the law for using social welfare detectives was discussed, the advisory committees of both chambers of parliament acted to some extent in the interest of health insurers,” says Parma.
Parma published a book about classic lobbying in parliament in 2011, with Oswald Sigg, a former Swiss government spokesman.
But since its publication, he has observed some fundamental changes: classic business lobbying is getting weaker while individual lobbying is growing stronger. Companies and organisations now send their own people to the capital to influence legislation that will serve their best interests.
According to Parma, the financial sector is another example of lobbying in parliament. Once upon a time, Swiss Bankingexternal link, the umbrella organisation of the Swiss financial sector, used to be very influential. In the last few years, however, the sector has been broken up, partially due to international pressure.
“This has resulted in the players of the Swiss banking sector acting individually. The big banks and other actors now have their own lobbyists,” Parma says.
The situation is similar in the economy sector, seen by many as the main player in lobbying. The Swiss Federation of Commerce and Industry, the former umbrella organisation for the Swiss economy, used to be so powerful that its director was actually described as a cabinet minister behind closed doors.
Nowadays economiesuisse,external link as it is known, is the umbrella organisation representing the Swiss economy; but companies increasingly act on their own. “Lobbyists from the classic industry associations now have to justify their existence; you can almost feel sorry about this,” says Parma.
For him, lobbying in Swiss politics is “non-transparent, unregulated and imbalanced in many areas. Hence, it creates perilous gateways for undemocratic interferences and increases the risk of corruption”.
Swiss parliamentarians list their connections to the private sector in the register for vested interests.external link As there is no controlling body, there is no guarantee whether their listings are comprehensive.
Every parliamentarian has two visitors’ badges to give to whomever they choose. This gives external lobbyists privileged access to parliament.
If a parliamentarian has been “bought” by lobbyists, parliament can withdraw his or her immunity. In September 2018 saw the first accusation with consequences. Former parliamentarian Christian Miesch (conservative right Swiss People’s Party/Canton Basel-Country) is now being tried by the federal prosecutor for alleged passive bribery.
Most cases where lobbying may have gone too far are usually settled informally by “gentlemen’s agreement”, Viktor Parma says.
MPs are the biggest lobbyists in Swiss parliament Renat Kuenzi Apr 12, 2019 - 11:00 This autumn, the Swiss are set to elect a new parliament. But MPs are increasingly, and more aggressively, representing the particular interests of companies, associations and organisations. It’s an indication of a cultural change in the legislative body. In March 2018, when the Swiss parliament rushed a new and very controversial social insurance law on allowing social welfare detectives through in just a week, the German-speaking daily Tages-Anzeiger used the dramatic headline: “As if the devil were chasing them”. Why such a rush? Isn’t it one of democracy’s most important principles to take time to design a well-balanced and independent legislation? The answer lies with lobbying. In this particular case, health insurers as well as the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA), orchestrated a real power play to push through their own vested interests: going after people accused of being benefit cheats. Representing people and companies How is this possible? It’s all down to the parliamentarians, elected for a four-year period, who are increasingly representing particular interests. The 246 members of the Swiss parliament have a total of 2,000 vested interests in 1,700 organisations, according to a study recently published by Transparency International Switzerland, a non-governmental organisation. The average number of mandates is eight per parliamentarian. However, two of them, one centre-right and one left-wing, top the list with 31 and 29 vested interests, respectively. The phenomenon of lobbying has become more pronounced over the past two decades. Between 2000 and 2011, the average number of mandates per parliamentarian more than doubled. From 2007 to 2015, it rocketed by 20%. Vested interests Taking the new social insurance law as an example, the 38 members of the parliamentary Social Security and Health Committees (SSHC), which both rubberstamped the social welfare detectives, have a total of 90 vested interests on the list of Transparency International Switzerland. The Economic Affairs and Taxation Committees (EATC) of the House of Representatives has by far the most lobbyists, according to an analysis from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Over the past 15 years, 150 to 200 parliamentarians with a vested interest have been at the negotiating table discussing new draft legislations. The study shows that companies, associations and other organsations try to use parliamentarians instead of traditional lobbyists to influence legislation to support their vested interests. #Dear Democracy This text is part of #DearDemocracy, a platform on direct democracy issues by swissinfo.ch. “Lobbying has increased alarmingly in Switzerland,” says Alex Biscaro, deputy managing director of Transparency International Switzerland and one of the authors of the NGO’s report into the issue. Part-time parliamentarians Why are parliamentarians also lobbyists? One reason is that the Swiss parliamentary militia system - a long-standing tradition - means they are supposed to have a normal job in addition to attending the four annual parliamentary sessions. Estimates on the workload of a parliamentarian range between 60 and 90%. So a member of parliament has time to work as an independent consultant or be on a company’s payroll as board member. Not only is this completely legal, but it is also intrinsic to the system. “Lobbying is not all bad. It’s an important and legitimate part of a pluralistic democracy and the militia system,” says Biscaro. Switzerland’s parliamentary mechanism is streamlined and does not give militia politicians much support, he adds. “They [militia politicians] depend on solid knowledge and practical information, which they often get from those with vested interests. In an ideal world, lobbying helps parliament pass appropriate and viable laws by providing expert knowledge,” Biscaro explains. Traceable, transparent? But lobbying has to be transparent with well-defined rules, Biscaro continues. “It has to be clear who represents which interests, and where the revenues from special mandates come from.” It also needs a code of conduct for parliamentarians and lobbyists as well as guidelines on how to deal with conflict of interests and benefits, such as gifts and travel. “Another vital necessity is the legislative footprint, a clear, traceable and transparent documentation of who influenced the legislation process, and when.” Slovenia and the EU Commission, for example, have such a system in place. “They have transparency registers that disclose when lobbyists’ activities are geared to influence members of the commission and their legislation,” says Biscaro. In Switzerland, committee decisions are usually made in a so-called black box, a hermetically sealed meeting room. This is an old procedure that aims to prevent leaks. Why is there such a high concentration of vested interests in parliamentary committees? It’s because these usually set the course, which is often decisive for subsequent debates in the councils and possible future referenda. For Biscaro, influences of a non-transparent and sensitive nature are a danger to democracies. “This is particularly problematic for our referendum system, especially when it is not disclosed who finances campaigns in order to influence how the Swiss people vote.” Tailor-made lobbying The health sector is particularly prone to pressure from lobbyists, especially from the pharmaceutical industry. According to Viktor Parma, a parliamentary journalist of 40 years’ standing, the two multinationals Novartis and Roche are most active in this field. “When the law for using social welfare detectives was discussed, the advisory committees of both chambers of parliament acted to some extent in the interest of health insurers,” says Parma. Parma published a book about classic lobbying in parliament in 2011, with Oswald Sigg, a former Swiss government spokesman. But since its publication, he has observed some fundamental changes: classic business lobbying is getting weaker while individual lobbying is growing stronger. Companies and organisations now send their own people to the capital to influence legislation that will serve their best interests. Change According to Parma, the financial sector is another example of lobbying in parliament. Once upon a time, Swiss Banking, the umbrella organisation of the Swiss financial sector, used to be very influential. In the last few years, however, the sector has been broken up, partially due to international pressure. “This has resulted in the players of the Swiss banking sector acting individually. The big banks and other actors now have their own lobbyists,” Parma says. The situation is similar in the economy sector, seen by many as the main player in lobbying. The Swiss Federation of Commerce and Industry, the former umbrella organisation for the Swiss economy, used to be so powerful that its director was actually described as a cabinet minister behind closed doors. Nowadays economiesuisse, as it is known, is the umbrella organisation representing the Swiss economy; but companies increasingly act on their own. “Lobbyists from the classic industry associations now have to justify their existence; you can almost feel sorry about this,” says Parma. For him, lobbying in Swiss politics is “non-transparent, unregulated and imbalanced in many areas. Hence, it creates perilous gateways for undemocratic interferences and increases the risk of corruption”. Little control Swiss parliamentarians list their connections to the private sector in the register for vested interests. As there is no controlling body, there is no guarantee whether their listings are comprehensive. Every parliamentarian has two visitors’ badges to give to whomever they choose. This gives external lobbyists privileged access to parliament. If a parliamentarian has been “bought” by lobbyists, parliament can withdraw his or her immunity. In September 2018 saw the first accusation with consequences. Former parliamentarian Christian Miesch (conservative right Swiss People’s Party/Canton Basel-Country) is now being tried by the federal prosecutor for alleged passive bribery. Most cases where lobbying may have gone too far are usually settled informally by “gentlemen’s agreement”, Viktor Parma says.
Lawmakers are not only influenced by party affiliation in their parliamentary activities. They also have roles in institutions and companies.
German (de)Was wollen wir? Und wie schnell?
Spanish (es)¿Qué queremos y a qué velocidad?
French (fr)Que voulons-nous? Et à quelle vitesse?
Italian (it)Cosa vogliamo? E quanto velocemente?
Political lobbying in Switzerland is much too opaque and not properly regulated, warns Transparency International.
Since the passing of a law granting ‘social welfare detectives’ more powers, an unprecedented citizen movement has emerged in protest.
Few women sit on company boards in Switzerland. Parliament has put off deciding about quotas, but business has ideas about what should be done.
Voters largely opted for probity over privacy in approving a new law that will allow social welfare detectives to spy on potential fraudsters.
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2019-04-22T22:33:32Z
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http://origin.swissinfo.ch/eng/directdemocracy/elections-2019_mps-are-the-biggest-lobbyists-in-swiss-parliament/44891468
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If I had to pick my favorite Instant Pot Indian recipe, this is it! For those of you who’ve been following my blog, you might remember my mom’s Indian chicken curry (stovetop) recipe.
As much as I love that recipe, I also love the Instant Pot version of Indian chicken curry and so does everyone I share it with – it’s comfort food; just add some rice or naan and that’s a meal right there.
One of the first dishes I wanted to try out when I first got my Instant Pot was my mom’s Indian chicken curry. If you’re looking for a delicious Instant Pot Indian recipe that’s sure to please, you’ve found it!
Many people who’ve only had Indian food in a restaurant may be surprised to see Indian chicken curry with potatoes. But potatoes are a common addition to chicken curry recipes made in Indian kitchens. Give it a try!
Adapting family favorite recipes to the Instant Pot is easy enough if you can figure out the amount of water and the time to cook.
Sometimes I get it on the first try and sometimes I have to tweak it a bit. My ever-patient family sometimes has to eat the same thing a few days in a row! But you’re lucky, because we’re doing the research and you get to try out the tested recipe.
Anyone who loves Indian curry recipes is going to love this Instant Pot Indian chicken curry recipe. My favorite way to eat this Indian chicken curry is with rice and papadum (thin crisp wafers). I like to crumble the papadum into the rice and curry!
– One of the changes I made for the Instant Pot version is to use bone-in chicken. I feel that bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks cook so well and quickly in the Instant Pot, and are so flavorful.
If you’d like to use whole boneless chicken, you can reduce the chicken cooking time to 10 minutes total. If you want to cut up the chicken, you can cook the potatoes and chicken together for 5 minutes.
– The other change I made was that I added a thickener at the end, because the curry was not thick enough for my taste. The Instant Pot allows dishes to cook with hardly any water loss, so the end result is not as thick as when cooked on the stove.
You might like it just fine, so feel free to omit this step. You can thicken the Instant Pot chicken curry in one of two ways: either by cooking down the liquid in saute mode at the end, or by adding a thickener.
I chose to add ground up cashew nuts, which I do with the stove-top version also. This is a trick my mom taught me. You can add coconut milk, coconut cream, heavy cream or purchased cashew butter, if you prefer.
If you enjoy Indian food, you can try my other Instant Pot Indian recipes like Instant Pot Indian Beef Curry and Instant Pot Aloo Gobi | Indian Cauliflower with Potatoes.
If you’re new to the Instant Pot and aren’t familiar with how to use it, please read the Instant Pot DUO Beginner’s Quick Start Guide or the Instant Pot ULTRA Beginner’s Quick Start Guide first and then come back here to learn how to make Instant Pot Indian Chicken Curry.
Melt butter and add cinnamon, cumin seeds and bay leaves and stir till fragrant, being careful not to burn.
Add onions, garlic and ginger, and saute till golden brown, about 7 minutes.
Add tomato paste mixture to the Instant Pot and stir.
Saute until tomato paste is cooked, about 3 minutes. If it sticks to the bottom, add a tablespoon or two of water.
Press ‘Cancel’ to turn Instant Pot off, otherwise spices can burn.
Add coriander, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne, salt and stir till fragrant.
Deglaze the pot with water or broth so there’s nothing stuck to the bottom of the inner pot.
Press Saute again to turn on Instant Pot.
Add chicken pieces, stir to coat with spice mixture.
Press ‘Manual’ or ‘Pressure Cook’ and ‘+’ or ‘-‘ until display reads ‘9’ (9 minutes).
The display will count down from 9 to 0; it will switch to ‘Keep Warm’ mode and display ‘L0;00’.
Add cubed potatoes and garam masala to Instant Pot.
Close Instant Pot Lid and make sure steam release handle is in the ‘Sealing’ position.
Press ‘Manual’ or ‘Pressure Cook’ and ‘+’ or ‘-‘ until display reads ‘6’ (6 minutes).
The display will count down from 6 to 0; it will switch to ‘Keep Warm’ mode and display ‘L0;00’.
Open Instant Pot and add cashew paste to the Instant Pot chicken curry and stir to combine.
Press ‘Saute’ and heat through.
Turn off Instant Pot, sprinkle Instant Pot Indian chicken curry with cilantro and serve with rice, bread or naan.
This Indian Instant Pot chicken curry is flavorful and creamy and is sure to please any Indian Curry lover.
In 'Saute' mode, melt butter. Add cinnamon, cumin seeds and bay leaf and stir till fragrant, being careful not to burn. Add onions, garlic and ginger, and saute till golden brown, about 7 minutes.
Add tomato paste mixed with 2 Tbsp water and stir.
Saute until tomato paste is cooked, about 3 minutes. If it sticks to the bottom, add another tablespoon or two of water.
Press 'Cancel' to turn off Instant Pot, otherwise spices can burn when you add them.
In 'Saute' mode, add chicken pieces and stir to coat with spice mixture.
Add cubed potatoes and garam masala to chicken and stir gently.
Add cashew paste, stir the chicken curry and heat through in 'Saute' mode.
Recipe has been modified to pressure cook the chicken for 9 minutes rather than 15 minutes before adding the potatoes for a further 6 minutes.
** To make cashew paste, blend 1/4 to 1/3 cup cashews with water to make a thick (like peanut butter) paste. Substitute cashew paste with cashew butter or heavy cream or coconut cream. You can also thicken the curry by cooking down the liquid at the end, in 'Saute' mode. If you prefer a thin curry, you can omit the thickener altogether.
Thank you Barbara! I am having fun with it. The other day I actually used my stove and it felt weird!
Donna, the cream is just a suggestion to substitute for the cashew, which is what I usually use. You would use about the same quantity i.e. a couple of tablespoons. One shortcut I take sometimes is to chop the onion, garlic and ginger in a mini food processor.
This looks delicious! The instant pot looks so fast and easy; I have got to try one!
The nice thing is you can turn it on and leave it – that’s pretty convenient for when you’re shuttling kids around!
I love, love, love curry! This is a great recipe, very detailed. Pinning for later!
So glad – keep me posted on how it goes.
I love chicken curry and your recipe looks so amazing! I think I may need to get an Instant Pot now that you’ve shown me how easy it is to use!
Cashew paste! I will need to look into this and find it! 😀 Thanks for this wonderfully comforting curry recipe. I am so excited to try this.
You’re welcome! Cashew butter works just fine too.
Warm curry is exactly what we need here in Denver to combat the snow!!! Looks ah-mazing!
Thanks Mikaela – just as cold and dreary here!
Romain, I used to use a stovetop PC, and I think you can reduce the time in my recipes by about 15 to 20%. If it’s undercooked, just bring up to pressure and cook for another couple of minutes. I would go by the timings in your PC manual. I think the recipe will turn out great – but you will notice it’s more liquidy at the end, so you’ll have to thicken… Let me know how it turns out!
Looks delicious!! I love chicken curry! I’ll have to try this soon!
I just love curries, especially in the colder winter months or when it’s dreary and raining out. I don’t have an instant pot, maybe one day I’ll get one! But it looks like the ingredients for the sauce would be great for a slow cooker too, so I can’t wait to give it a try!
Alison, I have a stove-top version of the same recipe. There’s a link on this post. Maybe you can try that one out. But yes, I think you can definitely use the slow cooker. You might need to up the spices maybe?
I had chicken thighs and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them. I had all of the ingredients on had and can’t wait to eat it, it smells so good. Thank you for sharing.
That’s wonderful -I hope you enjoy the chicken curry! And that’s pretty impressive that you had all the ingredients on hand – that never happens to me LOL!
Made this tonight. WONDERFUL! I’ve made the stove top version and loved it, but I think this is even better. The chicken just falls off the bone. And the spices…perfection.
I noticed that you omitted the mustard seed… I have to say it was delicious even without the mustard seed.
Thank you Neena for another memorable meal and making my family think I’m a good cook.
Thank you for the kind words, Monica -so glad I can help out in a small way! I did omit the mustard seeds because I do that sometimes to change up the flavor. You can definitely add them in at the beginning, just use a good cover to prevent splatters!
Hello, I’ve read a few of your recpies and have noticed that you often list cilantro an an ingredient in your indian dishes. My girlfriend hinks cilantro tastes like soap; can you recommend a different herb as a substitute for these dishes?
Good question. But a difficult one 🙂 I don’t think anything substitutes for the taste of cilantro. I’ve heard that some people are genetically predisposed to not liking the taste. I would just leave it out, and sprinkle it on individual servings if it’s a curry dish where it’s added at the end.
So strange how the human body works! Can’t even imagine not liking cilantro! I put it in everything (to a fault!) Since cilantro is actually from the coriander plant, I wonder if coriander seed/powder has the same effect on you… Keep me posted on how the recipe turns out, and thanks for checking in.
Just made this recipe with frozen chicken breast & changed the cooking time to 30 minutes manual to accommodate for the frozen meat. Otherwise, kept to your recipe. Had signifant liquid due to the meat being frozen, but burned off half the liquid via the Sauté mode as you suggested. Turned out delicious & the meat was incredibly tender & easily shredding. Thank you so much for sharing this. I’m new to the instant pot & cooking Indian cuisine for myself since my mother doesn’t live close. I look forward to making more of your recipes. Thank you!
That’s wonderful! Thank you for sharing info about how long it took to cook frozen chicken for the curry. I know what you mean about mom being far away – there’s nothing like mom’s cooking! I miss my mom’s cooking too.
Making this right now and found that 1/2 c liquid wasn’t enough to get to pressure using boneless thighs (it’s what I had available). Just popped it open and added more chicken broth. Waiting to see if that was enough.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, with the Instant Pot it is sometimes trial and error. You did the right thing, I hope you were able to enjoy the end result. Maybe next time start with 3/4 cup broth. And of course, I have to ask: you’re sure the pot was sealed properly?
When I checked on it, it was counting down but had not come to pressure (had only gone about 2 min like this). Still turned out amazing and was a big hit. I didn’t have the cashew paste on hand so thickened with corn starch and the flavors were out of this world and the hubby didn’t complain on the amount of extra cause.
Yay! So glad it worked for you Donna. And thanks again for sharing your experience.
I made this with boneless, skinless, chicken thighs and it worked perfectly with 1/2 cup of stock.
Hi, I recently discovered your blog and I Love it!! You make recipes so easy to follow. I wish I could just cook with you in the kitchen :). Please keep posting. It would also be great if you could do different dal recipes and khichidi.
Hi Shristi, thank you so much for the comment! It really means a lot. If you’re using bite-size pieces of chicken, I would try to do 6 minutes, and then add the potatoes as usual. You might need about 1/4 cup of broth or water if you find that it’s not pressurizing when you cook the chicken. Good luck!
Thanks Neena! I actually made it today and it turned out awesome! I had bigger pieces of diced chicken, and I cooked it for 10 mins. Maybe a little less would’ve been good too, but my family loved it! I don’t usually add potatoes to my chicken curries, but it tasted great the way you had it.
Just made this and it was delicious. A keeper recipe for sure that will be added to my meal rotations.
I had to make sure to save some for my 2 year old for tomorrow because I know she is going to love it too.
I’m so glad you liked it! Your two year old sounds like she likes all types of foods – good job, mom!
Glad it worked for you, Emily! In India, we serve plain yogurt with most meals and sometimes stir it in with curry and rice. Your kids have the right idea!
I tried your chicken curry with minor modifications. Used skinless chicken legs cut in half and coconut milk to thicken the curry. Used curry leaves instead of cilantro. Came out excellent. Thanks for doing the homework with the instant pot which made it easy for us to follow the recipe.
Thanks for the feedback, so glad you liked it – and you are most welcome!
Will this be good with skinless boneless thighs?
Hi Becky, it would work fine, but make the chicken cooking time 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how large the pieces are.
Hi! This looks fantastic! I’m wondering what I would do for timing if I want to leave the chicken out. I was going to add veggies in it’s place like cauliflower and perhaps some tofu. Would I still cook the spices together before I put in the potatoes and garam masala? Thanks for any tips you can offer.
Hi Fran – yes, cook the onions, tomatoes and then spices so they can ‘fry’ in the butter/oil. Then add your veggies and cook for the appropriate amount of time. So in case of potatoes and cauliflower, cook the potatoes for 5 minutes and quick release. Then add cauliflower and cook for 0 minutes, quick release (I find that cauliflower gets too soggy otherwise). If it’s undercooked, just cook in Saute mode till done and the next time you make it, you can adjust the timings. This spice ‘masala’ is very versatile and can be used for any meat or vegetable dish. Feel free to ask if you have further questions!
Fantastic recipe! I made this today with boneless chicken thighs and heavy cream in place of the cashew cream and it was amazing! I also added some frozen peas at the end during saute mode. Great recipe, thanks!
I love the changes that you made and am really glad you liked it!
Just came across the site looking for a chicken curry recipe to try out in my new Instant Pot! Thank you so much for this step-by-step tutorial! Many put recipes outthere but don’t tell you which settings to use high or low pressure and that’s frustrating for a newbie!
Thanks for your kind words! I’m so glad it was helpful. Tomato red kitchen walls – wow, that was bold of you!
I bought the new instant pot ultra and it doesn’t have a poultry button. Any suggestions what I should do?
Rimmy, on the Instant Pot Ultra, just use the ‘Pressure Cook’ button and high pressure. Good luck and enjoy your new IP – I can’t wait to get one!
This is a fabulous recipe. I have been making curries for years and with my instant pot, I’ve been struggling to get mine “authentic” enough — this one does the trick! I omit the potatoes in favor of other carbs, but this is the real deal. Well done!
That’s fantastic Melissa! Thank you for the kind words. I sometimes add ‘saag’ (spinach) to the dish at the end and just let it cook through. Very tasty and healthy too. I also find that this curry tastes best the next day.
Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe. My husband got me an instant pot in February, but I was not able to find a good recipe until I found yours.
Your recipe was so easy to follow with step by step pictures. I had no trouble making this chicken curry. The chicken curry came out just perfect. I will definitely try your other recipe soon. Thank you so much!!
I really liked the recipe. I may have added too much spices but still liked it very much. Any reason you add garam massala after cooking? I am thinking of trying this as add all spices in beginning and see how it turns our after sauteing the spices and onion to make the recipe even simpler. Any recommendations for any chutneys that would go well with this that can be ordered from Amazong?
Hi Ika – I somehow missed your comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the curry. We typically add garam masala closer to the end of cooking because it retains the flavors. Actually it would be even better to add it to this curry after cooking the potatoes, while it’s simmering. If you wish to add it with the other spices, you can do that, but sprinkle a little more towards the end of cooking. I don’t normally serve chutney with this curry but you could do a nice cucumber raita – a yogurt relish.
I can’t wait to try this recipe. It looks SO good! I really appreciate the details on using the Instant Pot with this recipe. So many recipes are difficult for those of us who are newer to the pot, because we don’t know what the abbreviations are, or we don’t know what buttons to push. I had to do a lot of research to find out that on the Lux, the manual is always on high.
On the cilantro topic, my husband adores it! He asked me why I don’t like it. I said I don’t dislike it, but the only thing I can think of is that it reminds me a little of soap. I later read that 10% of people think it tastes like soap, and it’s genetic. I also wonder if there are other things the 10%ers have in common. Just a curiosity nerd!
I hope you like the recipe! I keep posting the step by step instructions on all my recipes because I know there are always new IP users out there. It’s a time-consuming process, but I feel it’s much appreciated by people like you – thank you for commenting! I hardly ever cook anything on Low pressure, so I don’t think you’re missing out with the Lux model. And yes, although I can’t imagine cilantro tasting like soap, I get that people actually feel that way!
Best curry chicken I’ve every had. Boneless chicken thighs also works well.
Feel like I’m in India cooking with your mom when I make this recipe. Thank you for sharing your family recipe.
Thanks for the compliment – you’re welcome. I’m so glad you like the recipe!
This was the first recipe we made in our new Instant Pot. Used boneless chicken thighs and cooked them for 11 minutes. Thickened sauce at the end with about 2tbsp fat free plain Greek yogurt. Served chicken and sauce over white rice. Let me tell you – it was amazing!!!!!! The whole family loved every bite! Thank you for creating and sharing this recipe. We will definitely try your other Instant Pot recipes! 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
I’m so glad you liked it, Katie! Thanks for commenting – it really makes my day to hear from people like you. Please check in again when you try another recipe. If you like Thai curry, check out the Instant Pot Thai Red Curry. It’s really yummy and one of my favorites.
I’ve just bought an instant pot and came across your chicken curry recipe. I’m using a 1kg of chicken boneless thighs , could you please tell me how much of the other ingredients to use to the weight of chicken because your recipe uses 1 and half kg of chicken. I’m going to cook this today . Thankyou.
Hi Lorna – You can keep the measurements the same. My recipe is for bone-in chicken and you’re using boneless so I think it will work just fine. I make this recipe with boneless thighs and use the same quantities. Just reduce the cooking time. Good luck!
I made the recipe this evening, with the only change being that I substituted natural peanut butter (all ground peanuts, no added fat) for the cashew paste. It was very good! The chicken was very tender and flavorful, as were the potatoes and other ingredients in the sauce. However, I never did get the sauce to thicken, even after boiling it on the Sautee setting for 20 minutes. Perhaps next time I’ll use slightly less water and corn starch as a thickener. Also, the curry flavor was not as infused into the chicken as I am used to from enjoying curry chicken in authentic Indian restaurants. Is the curry infusion into the chicken that Indian restaurants achieve only possible with slow cooking rather than the faster cooking that the Instant Pot allows? Again, it’s a great recipe, but I would like to learn how to make it even better!
Hi Tom, thanks for your comment – no worries, I always like feedback! I think you should try and use less water next time, because it should not have been that liquidy. It’s a fine balance having enough water to reach pressure but not so much that it’s too watery. Having too much liquid is one of the top reasons for having a dish taste insipid. Maybe your chicken released a lot of liquid – was it frozen beforehand? Having a thicker sauce while pressure cooking would infuse more flavor into the chicken. Your tastes might also call for upping the spices. Also, this curry tastes really great the next day. Hope that helps and I’d love for you to try it again!
The chicken I used (4 large bone-in thighs) was fresh, not frozen. I will definitely add less liquid next time. We enjoyed it tonight, and I bet next time we’ll enjoy it even more. Thanks so much for the recipe and especially the very clear directions in it!
This was great! I used frozen chicken breasts and increased the time as a previous reader had done. Also, I have a sweet tooth, so we always put crema de coco (as is used in pina coladas) to make it tastier. Water chestnuts, California blend veggies, and cashews made the whole thing wonderful. Thanks again for your recipe!
Marilyn, I’m glad you enjoyed the curry. You are so welcome – you made some very interesting adaptations to the recipe!
Neena – I recently discovered your site and I am OBSESSED. I made this today and the red curry chicken a few days ago and both were insanely amazing.
Thank you for this site! Can I request a lamb biryani instapot recipe in the future???
Hi Aruna! Thank you so much for the kind words. When I get comments like your’s, it makes my day! I will add your request to my list. I don’t dash out recipes on this site – I can barely manage a recipe a week; it takes me time to find something I and my family love, and then post it. There are many epic fails before a winner recipe 🙂 So I will work on the lamb biryani recipe and hope you’ll see it sometime this fall.
This was delicious! Thank you! I’ve been a non cook my whole life but got the instant pot 2 months ago and have been inspired. Found your recipie and gave it a try based on all the excellent reviews. Outstanding! My 2 year old loved this too. I used chicken legs and those worked well. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Thanks again for your clarity and good taste.
We tried this once and it was delicous, but we had omitted cashew pastebecause we didn’t have any. Can we substitute with Almond butter because that is something we readily have in the house.
Hi Sandra, you can definitely substitute almond butter. The taste will be different, but good. Sometimes I use cashew and sometimes I just use thick coconut milk or cream. You’re mainly adding these to thicken. So the curry is very versatile.
My instant put lux80 doesn’t have poultry. Should I just use meat/stew??
Hi Susan – Just use the ‘Manual’ button for the same amount of time. Hope you enjoy it.
Would this recipe taste just as good if I used yams instead of potatoes, or would it make it too sweet?
I have used sweet potatoes before when we were on a low-carb kick 🙂 and it was good but yes, a bit sweet (not too much). I really like to use spinach too instead of potatoes sometimes if you’d like to try that. Of course, adjust cooking time as needed. Good luck!
We halved the recipe (so yields 3 servings) cos there were only two of us but we ended up eating everything anyway!
Thanks so much for your DETAILED recipe. Makes first-time instant pot users like me so much easier!!!
:> Looking forward to trying more of your stuff!!
Hi Pei, I’m really glad you liked it. I hope you get to try out more recipes, and please keep the comments coming – I always like feedback. You could reduce the quantity of chicken but keep the spices at the same level too if you wanted it to be more flavorful and/or spicy. Enjoy your new Instant Pot!
Tried this last night. Good. Wasn’t knock your socks off or anything but was good for dinner. I got the overheat error so I ended up needing to add a heavy 1/4 cup more stock to get it to come to pressure. So at the end I boiled a bit to get the liquid to reduce then stirred in some half & half w/tapioca flour to thicken and added a bit more garam marsala, salt & lemon juice to wake it up.
This recipe looks fabulous! I’m very new to the Instant Pot so appreciate such detail with how to use it. I’m finding there’s quite a learning curve. One question: Do you have an idea about how long I would cook it with boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into smaller pieces? Thanks! I’ll be following you for sure for Instant Pot recipes.
Hi Lori – I’m glad you found me! If you’re using boneless skinless chicken cut into bite size pieces, 4 to 5 minutes high pressure should be enough.
Just made chicken curry and it was delicious, i follow the recipe as u wrote. At the end i just added Some spinach instead of the cilantro..
I do Spinach and cilantro both sometimes. So, good choice. Glad you liked the recipe, Sandy.
Hello! This is fast becoming my favorite curry recipe. I have one question, though. I would like my curry to have more “sauce,” without diluting the flavor. Since I’ve already made the curry with the chicken and potatoes, is there a way I can just make more sauce to add to the leftovers? Maybe on the stovetop? Should I just fry the aromatics and spices like in the recipe, add liquid and voila? Thanks.
Hi Amy, I’m happy to you like the recipe! The juices from the meat do contribute to the flavor of the gravy, but I think what you’re suggesting would work. I would use chicken broth for the liquid. Here’s the stove-top version of the recipe. Simmer the liquid to thicken, and add some cream or cashew paste at the end to thicken.
I’m currently making this for the second time – my southern family including 4 kids all love it! They don’t like to deal with chicken bones so I used boneless and used the recommended cooking time of 10 minutes. It’s perfect! Thanks for a great go-to Indian curry recipe. I plan to try more of your recipes.
Hi Karen – great to hear! You might like the shrimp and grits 🙂 I’m really glad you found my site and hope you get to try some other recipes. If you like Thai, those recipes are very delish.
We follow a low carb diet. Would your recipe suffer if I replace the potatoes with cauliflower?
Hi Rhonda, not at all. This is just something I grew up; my mom makes chicken curry this way. You can add spinach, or any other vegetable. If you do use a quicker cooking vegetable, I would just do a quick or natural release on the chicken, add the vegetable and boil till cooked. Otherwise you might get a mushy vegetable. Thanks for your question.
Could I double the recipe in my 8-quart instant pot pretty easily or do you recommend cooking two batches separately? I’ve made this once before and now I’m cooking it for a bigger group!!! So tasty!
Hi Aruna – I think you should be able to double. The only caveat is that the chicken shouldn’t crowd the bottom of the pot such that there’s no circulation of liquid. You might be safer adding a little extra liquid?
Hi I tried the recipe in my IP. When I opened the pot to add the potatoes and garam masala after 15 mins there was a brunt layer at the bottom. I added the chicken broth as recommended so not sure why it still burnt. Any recommendations or tips for next time?
Hi Sharmila, do you have an 8 quart by chance? And did the Instant Pot seal properly? Did you deglaze the pot before adding the broth? I would add 1/4 cup more broth next time. and make sure the pot is deglazed. Let me know if you have further questions.
My wife (Becky from LoveToBeInTheKitchen.com) and I have been waiting to get an Instant Pot so we can try your recipes. We finally got one for Christmas, and this will be the first we try! We’ve loved getting to know you better at the blogger meetups and through your blog. I just know this recipe will be a guaranteed hit. Thank you for sharing a part of your life with us through your recipe!
Hi Derek and Becky – I’m so glad you got an Instant Pot. I hope you like the recipe, and let me know how it goes. Y’all are so nice, and made me feel so welcome that first time we met!
So tasty! Thanks for including the times for boneless meat.
Hi Rupa – you’re welcome, so happy you liked the recipe!
Thank you for this recipe! It looks very authentic, and my mom cooks potatoes with chicken too, but she finds it hard to give me exact measurements.
I want to try this recipe out next week with 2 lbs of chicken – a pound each of bone-in thighs and drumsticks. Before I do, I want to ask a silly question because I do not usually buy bone-in chicken.
1 Can I chop the bone-in thigh pieces into half across its width using a large meat knife so it cooks well with the drumsticks? I am not sure how people chop their bone-in thighs.
2 Can I keep all the measurements for the other ingredients the same for 2 lbs. of chicken?
3. If I am using fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste, can I dice 2 medium tomatoes instead?
Thanks so much for your help and for answering everyone’s questions so patiently. I’m loving your site!
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2019-04-19T12:52:25Z
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https://www.paintthekitchenred.com/instant-pot-chicken-curry/
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Where am I? What kind of a title is that? Well you see, I am in between blogs about Batten warriors right now. There will be more on the way if everything goes well and do I expect it to.
The last two blogs were quite a bit of work. Lucy Faith did a fantastic job of providing me information and I thought that everything went well. The more information that I am given, the more detailed the story will be and I was given her family’s complete information. Wow, what they have been through just to bring four children into the world. That, even before Battens came into play. The families in the UK that have children with CLN2 Batten Disease are dealing with so much right now. The threat of having treatment for their children removed must be devastating. To have that hanging over them is a huge challenge in addition to the one they already face. My thinking when I approached Lucy was that they, as a family, are now so well known. Perhaps it would be of no use to her and Mike to work on a blog with me. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at her response and I was extremely happy with the way that it turned out. It was a lot of work but well worth it.
I first started this blog in order to share the experience of being a parent to a special needs person. It also was for the purpose of sharing some of the things that I had experienced as a result of reading a particular book named FEARLESS. I have shared in the past that it was because reading this book about a Navy SEAL that I eventually became aware of Batten Disease. How is that possible? Well, you can read The Blog About My Blog, and that would fill you in. It’s right here on the home page. Just scroll down and you will find the link. I had heard the term blog before I started blogging, but at that point I didn’t really know what one was. I think that most blogs have daily or weekly entries but this one is different. Most blogs have information that people may find useful for living life or perhaps they exist to share thoughts or opinions. This one is different. The original content shared my experiences about my following the legacy of a Navy SEAL. It also talked about how I traveled to see his hometown and also to meet the little girl who first made me aware. There was a time when I was wondering what or who I would write about next. It would be a bore to most people if I was to write about myself. The question of what to write about next didn’t last long. Through a series of events, I started reaching out to families who had children with Batten Disease. Since that time, I have never been without a family to blog about. This blog is different because it tells the stories of families that go through the Batten journey. It does so from an outsider’s perspective with the help of the families themselves.
You may ask why am I doing this. What motivates me? This blog has become my life’s work outside of my normal job. I put an awful lot of time into it. If I am not writing, then I am doing something else in preparation to do so. It has been an amazing experience for me. The stories started out being somewhat simple. I have learned a lot along the way about gathering information and how to process large amounts of information. I have brought my son Benjamin into the discussion several times and have talked about the special bond that exists between us. I have talked about what it would be like if we no longer had him. A large void would appear in our lives if he were to be missing all of a sudden. We have no idea when that will take place or if it will happen in our lifetime. For the Batten family, things are different. For them, there is, in a big sense, a course of travel that is unavoidable. The actions that I see on the part of the parents are to me unparalleled in terms of their devotion to their child. Undying love is still a phrase that fits so well with the Batten community.
A young and single mother uproots herself. She moves away from her family in order to help her daughter receive a form of treatment not available in her area. This, knowing that it will only extend her daughter’s life in the hopes that a cure can be found. A cure for a terminal disease that she, up until recently, didn’t know existed. She is helping her little girl to battle the disease and the results are wonderful. During a chat about the whole experience, she tells me that anyone would do what she has done. You can’t tell me something like that and expect me to believe it. This same mom told me that she “loves her daughter so much that it hurts” (I am not done using this statement). That is the kind of thing that causes my emotions to get stirred up. I think about these things in the most inconvenient places. At work, while I am with my co-workers, driving down the highway, or while I am getting ready to pull up to full service gas pumps. As a parent to a special needs person, I can tell you that the level of devotion, and often, the sacrifices that I see in these families are well worth my time in writing. In fact, I need to do this!
Batten parents will sometimes maintain their own blogs concerning the things that they and their child are going through. I highly recommend that you patronize their blogs if you want first hand information. I hope that you will read both mine and theirs though. The things that I write are a combination of information given to me by the parents themselves and my own observations and feelings. There are some things that I can relate to directly and there are other things for which I can only try to show maximum empathy. The empathy that I have is not something that is forced but rather, something that I desire to possess. Let me tell you something. I do possess it. I am stating the truth when I tell you that I love these kids. I hope that you don’t mind. The same is true when it comes to their families. It is just the way I roll. I have my base of supporters of course. I have had several people express to me their appreciation for helping to spread awareness about Batten Disease. I so appreciate everyone’s kind words. I do like the fact that I have carved my own niche for spreading awareness but that was never my intent. My main reason for doing this has simply been to honor people within the Batten community because I have been so touched by their stories.
I get a variety of responses when I tell people about the blog. I think that most people are not able to place themselves in my shoes. This is so different than what the average person commits their freetime to. Sometimes, I will be talking to someone, explaining what I write about, and they will have this reflective look on their face. It is like they are trying to process what they have just been told. It is a little different but my heart is really in this. I look at life a lot differently than I used to. My life isn’t so much about self indulgence anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I can certainly be that way at times. It is true, however, that my short and long term goals are different. I now have an additional purpose or calling, if you will, in my life. I have had it suggested a couple of times that I should take up writing about wounded warriors. That would not be out of the realm of possibilities for me. I could contact the Veterans Administration or a veterans group and volunteer my time in working with warriors of a bigger variety. You know what though? I wouldn’t want to quit doing what I am doing currently. I would only want to add to it.
I have a really good friend who a lot of people know as Christy Gerrell Bac. She is the mom to a beautiful young girl named Amy. Amy is battling CLN8, Batten Disease. Christy’s husband is a different kind of warrior. Retired from the Air Force, it was discovered that Chad had cancer in his colon. Chad is battling hard and many people are praying for him in this most difficult battle. Can you imagine what it is like for Christy? How does she handle having two thirds of her small family sick like this? I don’t have a complete answer but she tells me how she handles it, in part. Simply put, she pours herself into writing and she writes extremely well. I cannot believe the level of talent that she possesses although I know that people like her exist in other places. Christy really deserves to have her books go through a publisher. Her ability to create characters and to carry them through in length just amazes me. In fact, I was perhaps a little bit jealous of her God-given talent. Then I thought to myself, It’s not that I don’t have an ability to write. It’s just that I am more of a journalist than I am a writer. Christy is one type of writer and I am another. If I had her level of talent, I swear that I would no longer be turning wrenches. What I do though, does have its place. My place now, and until there is a cure, is with these families for as long as they will allow me. By the way, Christy is self published on Amazon. You have to read her books on a Kindle, which I happen to have. I have been reading one book of hers after another. Just keep in mind that they are not for kids.
As I have already stated, I have a passion for telling these stories. I do so while pouring as much feeling into them as I can while also maintaining accuracy. I don’t know this for a fact, but it seems like the number of people that look at the blog on a regular bases is declining. This is not a big factor in my motivation to continue. I can see that people are reading the stories as they appear in the blog and that is good enough. It is nice though when I see that a lot of people are reading the various stories in between the times that new ones come out. That means greater awareness. I do see evidence of that at times! I can imagine that my detractors will think that it is useless to continue to read these stories. They may be thinking that, well here we go again. Just another story about a kid with Batten Disease. It is my belief that each one of these stories is unique and each one of these families stories are worth reading about. Whether we are talking about a well known family that has a lot of support in their local community or a single mom that is struggling to make ends meet. They all have to deal with this dreadful disease. The pure devotion and undying love exists in both sets of circumstances. Batten disease has no prejudice although certain variants may be more prevalent in certain places. Different stories, different circumstances, but the same pure devotion with varying but touching details. Let me also add this. You can put into the place of these families those who are dealing with different forms of pediatric cancers and other rare and fatal diseases. Pure undying love and devotion exists in many other cases.
So I have received an overall positive response from the Batten community when it comes to these stories. I also know that there will be those that are skeptical of what I am doing. I suppose it is true that, for whatever reason, the blog is not for everyone. Like I said earlier, some parents have their own blog. That’s wonderful. Others, just want to share their journeys on their own. Some just want to keep everything in private. You are certainly within your right to not participate. Please know though that everyone has a story to tell. Everyone that is dealing with Battens or has dealt with it had plans for their family. Those plans have been interrupted and their lives have been changed. If you don’t mind, I would like to tell your story. The heartache that is mixed with tender details. I have had the privilege of blogging about a lot of families now. This is so appreciated. There are some that I have talked to and some that I would like to approach. Some have said no thanks and that is certainly okay. I have not gotten back to a couple of families that I have previously talked to. I am so sorry about that. PLEASE! If you would like to be included, let me know. Don’t be afraid to ask. Also, Just because I send you a friend’s request it doesn’t mean that I am doing so just to get a future story. I follow the journeys of these children just to be a support to others. If an opportunity to write about that journey becomes available, then great! Again, if I ask and you are not interested, just say no thank you. Honesty is always the best policy. There are always those who say yes. If you change your mind after doing so, just tell me and there will be no hard feelings. The journey is a difficult one and all of you come first. Do you have some junk in your trunk that you don't want shared? Well, don’t we all? I just want you to know that I always keep things positive. I always say that “Life Happens” and the stories revolve around these little warriors. Plain and simple. I realize that it is sometimes difficult to share an experience that is so disheartening. I completely understand. Your kids and their stories are so sweet though. Please give it some thought.
Okay, so here we go, gulp! The next subject is putting ads that would generate a profit into the blog. Let me start by emphasizing something. This blog has never been about making money and it has never been my plan to do so. We are talking about the lives of innocent children and young adults and I never wanted to use that to increase my income. I have never contemplated putting ads into the blog just because of the way that things might appear to people if I did that. The reason I bring it up is because I would like to know what people in the Batten community think about this. It does cost money to maintain this blog but it is a cost that I gladly assume because I love what I do. The reason why I think about the ads is because of what could be done with the money. The people that know me best, know that I love to give to families that are in need. Lets face it. Dealing with this disease is very expensive. The thing is that I am the sole breadwinner at this house and so my ability to give is not that great. I don’t know how much money would be generated by the blog. However, if it was to become self-sustaining and I was able to give to research and those in need, well that would be a good thing. Wouldn’t it? I don’t know. Maybe that would complicate things and my fear has always been that it might drive people away. I would try to make the ads suitable to the types of items used in the Batten community. Your opinion would be greatly valued. It’s just a thought and I could go either way.
So where do I go from here? I will write as many stories as people will allow me to. In the beginning they were pretty simple. The stories have grown in length and have become more detailed. There is more commentary from me and more information about your sweet warriors. I hope that more people will say yes as I continue to reach out to the community. They are your stories and you have a say as to the content. The writing style is mine but I will work with you. I will repeat the fact that being Benjamin’s Daddy has lended itself to my sensitivity towards your children. My challenges pale in comparison to those experienced by all of you but I try to understand as best I can. It wasn’t that long ago that I loaded my little family on an airplane and traveled over 2,000 miles so that we, in large part, could meet the Batten princess that made us aware. It might sound hoaky to some, but my life was changed by that event. I have heard stories about the Batten conferences that take place each year and I have seen pictures taken at the event. I have even written about it in spots and I think about how incredible it would be to see it in person. I have always been a little jealous of the fact that I couldn’t be in attendance when they are going on. To be there and to meet so many of these little warriors in one place. Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could go? Well it would be for me and you just never know. I may show up sometime. Until then I will continue to write for as long as I am able. Thanks for following along. There is more to come!
Part of what makes these blogs is selecting the photos that I feel work well with the story. I think they help make the articles what they are. Choosing the best ones makes a difference. Don’t you agree? I’ll be looking through people’s photo albums (with their permission of course) and I will spot just the right one to use at the beginning of the blog. I’ll see it and say to myself, “That is the one. Right there!” At that point, the picture becomes associated with the title of the blog. The photo that you see here, at the top of this blog, is the one. It is amazing and it has been my favorite for some time now. There have been many a photo taken of Ollie and Amelia, but to me there is not another one like this one. It is a priceless work of art. Lucy has a way of working the camera. She knows how to capture the charm of her two little warriors so that we can all enjoy them from far away. This one paints a picture. It’s a picture that needs no words to tell a story. It portrays a close bond between a sister and her brother but they are not just any pair of siblings. They are on a journey together and I just bet that the bond between them is incredibly strong. With everything that they face, they do so together. This picture gives the appearance of Ollie needing comfort. It also appears that Amelia is providing it. This picture is simply beautiful and it goes well with a beautiful story.
I noticed a comment from one of the Batten parents when I first started writing these blogs. It was simple and it stated the following. “He’s writing about us.” I think that my feelings at the time were, “Why yes, I am. And for good reason.” It has been well over a year since I started and my feelings haven’t changed. Every day I go home to my sweet wife and my special needs son, Benjamin. The bond between us is strong and it is to me, an incredible thing. I have made this point over and over but I will do it again. My sensitivity towards my son has lended itself to the fact that I have a sensitivity to kids with rare diseases, such as Battens. There is always something really sweet about a child’s dependency on a parent or caregiver. The feelings that surround these stories are an addiction of mine. One that I have no intentions of giving up. What is it like to be told that your child has a disease that is terminal? That is a question that I have thought about often. Thinking about what these families face often brings me to tears.
This is a story about a young couple that fell in love and wanted a family together. Their dreams would come true but the fulfillment of them would not come without some big challenges. Mike and Lucy met and were inseparable from the time that they did. They made plans and worked at achieving goals together. This included achieving career goals and having the family that they dreamed of. Lucy gave birth to three sons and they were so excited. Mike and Lucy had no idea that a prince was in their midst but there was something really special with this little man they named Ollie. The bond between him and his family was instantaneous and special. Gosh, he was cute. A future heart throb. While things seemed like they couldn’t get any better, they did. The entire family was elated with the news that a princess would soon make her appearance into the household. Although she gave everyone quite a scare, she arrived into their midst and she was so completely perfect. From the time that Amelia arrived, all were instantly in love with her. This was for good reason and one that could clearly be seen. From the moment she began to smile, her smile became infectious.
They thrived as a family and life was so good. The first eighteen months had passed since Mike and Lucy’s family was completed and the future looked so bright. Mike was working hard and was in the process of building his business. The same tenacity and work ethic that had made him great on the football field also made him great at work and at being his family’s provider. Lucy had finished her education and she was poised to one day return to work. For now, the house was so busy with four children happily involved in all their activities. The king of which was football. The sounds of footballs being kicked were sometimes followed by things breaking as the sport was practiced inside as well as outdoors. Somehow, mum and dad didn’t always mind as much as one might expect. After all, the kids were doing something that was loved by all. You couldn’t walk very far without tripping over a toy or two. Kids have to have toys you know! There was laughter. Plenty of laughter and fun. No doubt, there were outings together to places that included grand mum’s house. Accompanied with all of this were thoughts of what the future would hold for all four of their children. Sporting and school events. Summer and winter vacations together. Perhaps Ballet recitals and other sweet things for the princess in the house. Graduations and successful careers. Weddings and a sprawling family as the size increased with grandkids. The list goes on.
It is too often that things don’t go as planned or as one might think they should. Troubles come our way. Things we would never expect to happen do happen and that sometimes brings devastation.That is the way it is with Batten Disease. Life already has it’s share of difficulties and we deal with them as they come to us. A rare disease such as Battens brings with it concerns that are on an entirely different level. Mike and Lucy had no idea how different of a course their lives as parents would take. Almost all at once they found themselves being part of a community, worldwide, that they didn’t even know existed. This part of their story will not only explain what would happen but also, how they would handle the unforeseen. Things would change forever as problems began to develop with their prince they named Ollie.
Lucy stated that it was around the age of three that they noticed some things in Ollie that caused concern. One thing was that he had some delay in the development of his speech. This had occurred in Ollie’s older brother Micky as well, however, Micky had caught up with the other kids when he started school. When they mentioned Ollie’s delayed speech to health professionals they felt that he would catch up just like his older brother did. While there, they also mentioned the fact that Ollie was a bit clumsy but as you might guess, the doctors felt that Ollie was just being a boy. Ollie was attending preschool at the time and he just loved it. He was hitting all of his milestones, with the exception of the delayed speech and potty training had been no problem. Mike and Lucy must have been relieved by the fact that the doctors felt everything was just fine. That was until the month of September 2014. Ollie had his first seizure.
The day had been very normal and Ollie had attended his preschool. He had done well that day and he was happy when he was picked up. As they had returned home, Lucy had noticed that Ollie felt warm and he had a temperature when checked. Her concern for him was great enough that she brought him to get checked out by medical professionals. It was found that Ollie had an ear infection and so antibiotics were prescribed as the family was sent on their way. Ollie returned to running around with his brothers after receiving a dose of the medication and all seemed to be fine again. It was later that night, while bathing, that trouble would strike. It was then that Ollie began to have a seizure. Lucy stated that it was the most terrifying thing that they had ever witnessed. Ollie actually slid under the water while seizing. Fortunately, Lucy was close by and screamed for Mike to come quickly as she pulled Ollie out of the water. Mike flew into the room as Ollie continued to seize. Lucy said that it was as if time had stood still while all of this was happening and who could argue with that. Mike continued to care for Ollie as Lucy called an ambulance. The seizing stopped in a few moments as they waited, but as it did, Ollie stopped breathing. What must have been part of Mike’s training as a former lifeguard kicked in and he started to perform CPR on his very own son. That is amazing calm in the midst of chaos. Lucy said that flashbacks from that day still haunt them.
She went on to describe to me what she had seen happen with Danny and Micky as all of this was happening, “I can remember looking up from Ollie, who was laying on the floor, into the eyes of Danny and Micky. They stood in the doorway watching and pure fear filled their young eyes. But even so, they knew what to do as they picked up Amelia who was still a baby. They flew out of the door to our friends next door.” By Mike’s quick actions, Ollie began to breath again. Of course, Ollie would get checked out by doctors who came to the conclusion that he had experienced what is called a febrile convulsion or seizure. This is a type of seizure that is associated with an elevated temperature. Mike and Lucy were assured that these are common in children and that 9 out of 10 times, they are never repeated. Ollie was discharged from the hospital the next day, much to the families relief. Their little Olliebobs was okay! It was, however, only hours after returning home that Ollie would have another seizure. According to Lucy, they were told by the hospital that it was a convulsion related to Ollie’s infection. That, though, was not to be the case. These seizures were not isolated but rather would become part of a larger problem. Over the next few weeks, Ollie began to have more and more seizures.
It is only fair in considering that Batten Disease is rare, that it may not be diagnosed quickly in all cases. It should, however, be known of in every place that medical science has it’s reach. Mike and Lucy were devastated with the diagnosis of Generalized Epilepsy. Almost all at once, the plans that they had made were interrupted. At least as they applied to Ollie. Questions arose. Would he be able to drive a car or even function normally as he got older. They were at this point, optimistic overall and felt that Ollie’s condition could be handled through medication. It would control the seizures and he could lead a normal life. It should come as no surprise that Ollie was referred to a neurologist because of the seizures. Lots of questions were asked about Ollie’s development and it was at that point that Mike and Lucy brought up Ollie’s issues with his speech and his clumsiness. Obviously this doctor knew the questions that needed to be asked. As a result of the information that she gathered from Mike and Lucy, it was decided that more testing needed to be performed. A lot of testing was performed. This included EEGs, CT scans, and MRI scans. Lucy said that it was as a result of the MRI performed that they learned Ollie’s cerebellum was smaller than it should be for a child his age. Oh man! This is commonly seen in children that suffer from Batten Disease. I don’t even think they knew the disease existed at this point. Lucy stated that it is this part of the brain that controls areas of development such as balance. This was the cause of Ollie’s frequent falls. It was at this point that it really started to appear that there was something going on besides regular Epilepsy. Mike and Lucy were really starting to worry, and for good reason.
Mike and Lucy were given information about Batten Disease. Then, they were told to take their son home and and enjoy him for as long as they could. They were sent on their way, that is all that there was to it. Lucy stated that the next few days were a mix of pain, sadness, disbelief, and anger. They kept reading the symptoms and felt that Ollie’s symptoms did not match up with them. They began to research the disease, thinking that they couldn’t give up on their son. Mike and Lucy felt that they had been let down by the doctors. As they worked through their grief, they pressed on in search for help with Ollie. Through their search, they found BDFA (Batten Disease Family Association) and reached out to them. They also reached out to families in the United States that were already dealing with the disease. The first person that Lucy had made contact with had a beautiful daughter that also had CLN2 Battens. Her remarks about that initial conversation are worth noting, “That conversation will never leave me. Through this father’s own pain he somehow found the strength to support us. This is something we will forever be grateful for.” This is one of the things that I have observed to be so wonderful concerning the Batten community. That would be the amount of support that these parents give to one another. It is truly something special. Only they can know what they as Batten parents are feeling.
It was a few weeks after Ollie’s diagnosis that Lucy started a Facebook page for Ollie. She had started the page initially to keep family and friends informed about Ollie and his struggle. As a family, Mike and Lucy had no idea, at the time, what kind of impact they would have on the Batten community there in the UK and elsewhere through Ollie’s Army. For that matter, they had no idea how their own lives, and the journey they would take as a family, would be impacted by the other families they would meet. What started as only a way to keep family informed would eventually become so much more. The awareness that would be raised and the people that they would meet is very worth mentioning. The help that they would seek for their own children would also be a help to others with Batten Disease. Ollie’s own need for help would impact other people’s lives. This would all happen as Ollie’s journey continued.
That was on the 30th of March, weeks after Ollie’s diagnoses. They received the news that their princess also had Batten Disease. Lucy further described the mood within the house as they returned home to digest what they had just heard. “For days all we did is cry. I could not stop being sick due to shock whereas Mike locked himself away from everyone.” This went on for a few days and then Lucy said that they pulled themselves together. I have read similar things from other parents. The shock and devastation eventually give way to determination. This, even though the heartache remains constant. In her own words, “.....there was no way we were going to let this horrific disease take our children without a fight.” So this all raises a couple of questions. How do you handle adversity such as this? What do you do when two of your children, or even just one, is diagnosed with a horrific disease that you didn’t even know existed. Everyone handles things differently. I would think that most every parent is determined to provide the best possible care and also to fight off this monster of a disease as best they can. Some do so quietly as a family and that is perfectly fine. Others share their child’s journey on social media. They want moral and other kinds of support from outside They want people to know who their child is and what the journey is like. They don’t want their kids to be forgotten! Still, others know the importance of spreading awareness about this disease. Much progress has been made but this is no time to quit. The difference between knowing and not knowing is profound. Especially as it relates to the medical community. People in public office need to be aware, as well as, the general public. And then, there are others that take up a leadership role within the community. They do things, not only for their own child’s benefit but also for the benefit of others. This may come from taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves. It can also come from intentionally seeking to take an active role. I believe that almost all of the above applies for Mike and Lucy. They have become very public in their battle against Batten Disease and it has benefited others as well as their own family.
Even with this decision, the company still had to be convinced that Ollie and Amelia met all of their criteria for the trial. Finally, after many assessments and sleepless nights, both of their darling children were excepted and the process was begun. Lucy stated that her and Mike were so thankful that both of their children were given a lifeline of hope. They also felt uplifted, knowing that their efforts had helped in giving this opportunity to other children across the globe. Ollie had brain surgery in November of 2016 to have a port inserted into his brain. This, so that he could receive the chemical that replaces the missing enzyme. Amelia would join her big brother at GOSH in February of 2017. The infusions take four hours and the family travels from Manchester to London every two weeks. This, obviously, takes a strong commitment as they juggle everything that life throws their way. The results are so worth it though. Lucy stated that they would have traveled to the other side of the world for their kids to receive this treatment. Both Ollie and Amelia are responding well to it. Sadly, Ollie had progressed further into the disease as they worked on getting their children accepted. He could no longer walk unaided by the time the he started the therapy and he was only able to say a few single words. There is no doubt that the enzyme replacement has had a major impact on increasing Ollie’s longevity and general health. The treatment has stabilized the disease in him. He no longer experiences the pain that he was having and his seizures are well controlled. He has only had one seizure in the last 16 months compared to the hundreds he experienced before he began the therapy. Ollie goes to school and enjoys swimming with his daddy. He is a doll of a young man and a genuine prince!
It needs to be noted that what you see with Ollie and Amelia is a contrast between early diagnosis and treatment, and having to wait. Amelia is thriving on the treatment because her Battens was discovered so early and the therapy was started right away. She, in fact, is one of the youngest children to be receiving the the treatment. She started the treatment so early that the only sign of the disease was a single seizure and that was attributed to sickness. Lucy describes the exceptional quality of Amelia’s life. This even though she has Battens, “As far as we are aware Amelia is the only child in the world who should have symptoms of Batten Disease but doesn't. Instead she is thriving, she goes to mainstream school, where she plays and interacts with her friends, she enjoys mark making and phonic lessons. Amelia can learn new information and retain it. She can run, dance, Juno and sing. These are all abilities which she should have lost a long time ago.” Lucy goes on to say that Amelia is learning to count, write her name, and ride a bike. Just like any other child. Mike and Lucy were extremely happy in what they were seeing in both of their Batten children. The enzyme replacement therapy had produced positive results in both of them and so they were excited by the news that the drug being used was approved by both the FDA and the EMA. In Lucy’s own words, they were “over the moon.” Once this happened, however, a new fight would loom on the horizon.
Mike and Lucy would remained involved and Ollie’s Army would continue to become more than a name. As mentioned before, the Facebook page named after Ollie was originally set up to keep family and friends informed but it quickly became much more. Major awareness was created through Ollie’s Army and some of that came with the help of some well known celebrities. I bet that, like the rest of us, they were taken by the appearance of these two attractive children and their family. Fundraising events have been held in the local community and the results are absolutely amazing to me. While a lot of the funds raised have gone towards Ollie and Amelia’s needs, a lot has been done for the fight against Battens in general. A big example happened recently. Ollie’s Army was able to raise and donate £30,000 to help in the research of therapy for the eyesight of children with CLN2 Batten Disease. In case you are curious, I did the conversion and that amount is over forty-two thousand in US dollars. This family is aware of the fact that this research comes too late for Ollie. However, it could help Amelia. They have also done this in the hopes that it will help others in the future. That is so commendable! Fundraising for their children has helped fund equipment and adaptive changes that were made to their home. Some of the funds have helped with the expenses related to the treatment and also help with making precious memories. They have also used funds to help support BDFA in their efforts as well.
There are some notable people that this family has met along the way. Now, I have referred to Mike, Lucy, and their kids as my royal family and they will always be that. (They are every bit as attractive of a couple as those that have belonged to the British Monarchy). As a family, they have been in the presence of royalty. That would be so by being in the presence of Prince Harry. I know that for them, he turned out to be a really neat guy. According to Lucy, Prince Harry first met Ollie at something called the Wellchild awards. You see, Ollie had been nominated for an award as being the most inspirational child. Well, go figure. He won! What happened there was so sweet. Lucy described the seen, “At the award ceremony Ollie met Prince Harry. As Prince Harry was knelt down speaking to Ollie, Ollie who could no longer walk or stand unaided used all of his strength to stand and hug Prince Harry. It was a magical moment which hit the headlines across the world.” That is amazing Ollie!
It would be six months later that Prince Harry would stop in at GOSH to see Ollie and Amelia. What a wonderful thing to do. I think that I am a fan of Prince Harry now. From an ocean and a continent away!
Ollie’s parents had been fans of Ed Sheeran, the musical entertainer, for some time. They passed on their love for his singing ability to Ollie. Ollie loves Ed’s music and he would sing along to his songs. That is until he lost his ability to do so. I know that Ollie’s face still beams with a huge smile when he hears Ed’s music. Ed is not only a gifted musician and singer, but also a great entertainer and his music has seen Ollie through some very difficult times. Ollie’s love for Ed’s music was revealed to Ed through a social media campaign set up by Lucy’s sister Emily. This got Ed’s attention and the entire family was invited backstage to meet Ed while he was performing a concert in Manchester. I can only imagine what a treat that had to have been for the entire family but especially for Ollie. I bet that Ed had really endeared himself to Mike and Lucy for having done this for them. I am also thinking that meeting this family was really meaningful to Ed and I bet he was inspired to be even more of a humanitarian. What a truly neat experience for all involved.
Mike and Lucy recently had the opportunity to appear on the largest morning show in the UK, which is called This Morning. While there for the appearance, they had the rare opportunity to meet the Prime Minister of the United kingdom. Theresa May was also appearing on the show that day and it gave the couple the opportunity to speak with her. They shared with her about the disease that confronted their children and the treatment that they were receiving. Mike and Lucy really appreciated the time that they were given with the Prime Minister. Oh, and why was the couple invited onto the show? That was to discuss the impact of the recent decision by NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) to not recommend funding by the National Health Service (NHS) for the treatment that Ollie and Amelia are receiving. This doesn’t only affect them, but also the others that are receiving the treatment. This is the battle I referred to that was looming and it also affects children who are waiting to start the therapy but can’t because of the decision.
Mike and Lucy’s days are busy. There are all of the normal responsibilities that come along with having a family. Mike’s work as a builder and Lucy’s work at home. There are two big brothers in Danny and Micky that are involved in all the normal activities. This includes school and football of course! They have to be the best big brothers because they have two younger siblings that require a lot of attention. There is also a princess in the house and a princess always requires a lot of attention. Especially when yours is a Batten Princess that is undergoing Enzyme Replacement Therapy. Her little self goes to school and does all the “normal” things because the therapy is working! They also have a very handsome young prince at their house. There is a very special bond between him and his family and their world revolves around him. That is because it has to. He is a Batten Warrior and he needs help as he fights. He is a royal rockstar! There are appointments to keep and that is not to mention a trip to London every two weeks. There is always messages and emails to answer. Planning of events and daily entries in Ollie’s Facebook page. Awareness, awareness, awareness! The list goes on and on. Oh, and maybe there is a certain blogger that needs more info to include in his next story. Even with all of this going on, they remain in the lead alongside BDFA in trying to make sure that that Enzyme Replacement Therapy remains funded.
On the set of This Morning!
“And now let me tell you about an entire family that has become royalty to me. There have been several famous couples that have been showcased by the Royal Family over the years. In my humble opinion there are none that have anything appearance wise on the couple that is Mike Carroll and Lucy Faith. They are both very attractive people. When an attractive couple decides to have a family that usually means that their children will be attractive as well. It is easy to see that is in fact the case. Ollie and Amelia and their other two boys are all very nice looking indeed. Adorable is more the word that I think of when looking at all the pics. Prince Ollie and Princess Amelia are among the many children that have become the face of Batten Disease.” This was written by me in my first blog about this family, My Kind of Royalty. These words all still stand true. I know so much more about Ollie and Amelia’s journeys, and Batten Disease for that matter, than when I first started. The more that I know and observe about this family, the more impressed I am. They have remained accessible to me even with everything that they have going on. There is another thought from the original blog that I would like to convey to you.
This is what I had said back then, “I can only imagine that Mike and Lucy would prefer that this guy from Oregon USA didn't even know who they are. Like any other couple, they just wanted to be a regular family. Raising their children in the safety of their home. Sharing in the experience of seeing each child grow and develop into adulthood. They just looked forward to seeing each one achieve success individually as they grow together in the bond of family and tradition.” Isn’t that what everybody wants in a family? Things do not always go the way we want though. What do you do when problems arise? How do you respond? I believe that this couple, this family, is a shining example of how to handle adversity. I know that they would give anything to have all four of their children healthy and whole. Mike and Lucy would probably prefer that they didn’t know what Batten Disease is on such a personal level. However, in the face of adversity, they are giving this their all. Aiding in awareness, funding, and research as they battle Batten Disease. Maximum effort with real class! There are so many others in the Batten community that I also have a profound amount of respect for. Yes, it is a tragedy anytime that someone is told that their child has a disease for which there is no cure. However, the details of the undying love and tender care that take place are without equal in beauty. This family will forever be royal to me because of all they have done in the battle against Battens. It is also true that within their home resides a prince and a princess. What once was my conclusion by appearances, is now very evident through fact. Forever Royal.
Of course Ollie's Facebook page is found easily by typing Ollie's Army into your search window on Facebook.
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2019-04-18T14:42:06Z
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http://www.rareblogger.com/blog/archives/04-2018
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This proposes individuals can at present in all likelihood preferred standpoint of their flourishing inspirations driving vitality of wholesale CBD isolate by strategies for piles of methods. Use and buy of CBD oil and grouped subordinates is real and does not require an accommodating weed permit. Most CBD oil begins from hemp which has mix of THC in the foremost district. In like way hemp has been sourced from outside the USA, freeing tries. What is progressively basic about CBD is that it not simply contains essential achievement inspirations driving enthusiasm of its own yet moreover can settle the evil that has been related with ingestion of THC, for instance, cripple of immediately memory… While THC isn’t risky in sums that are colossal and does not have any antagonistic results on the body, heaps of individuals, for instance, those in the get-together would slant toward. CBD as necessities be gives everything thought about satisfactory and progressively beneficial exchange to weed. The ability to swallow it by techniques for pens that are vape makes it even more admirable. Attempt it.
Cell phones have grown from being communication devices to a warm fad of the present generation. Every person, no matter age or monetary standing, has or wishes to have one. With quick development in technology, a cellular phone is fast becoming a substitute for the computer system. From iPhone, Blackberry, to iPad, the listing of state of the art mobile phones is limitless. This raised range has offered individuals a series of prices to pick from, so increasingly more people possess their very own personal mobile phones. The enhanced possession results in a raised variety of damages. Cellular phone repair has become a sector by itself. Cell phone repair shops are present anywhere now, yet people choose to change their harmed or defective cell phone rather than getting it repaired. Here’s why cell phone repair work is the most effective choice.
A brand-new smart phone will certainly cost greater than obtaining your damaged phone fixed. While you can obtain it 手機維修 for much less than a 100, you may have to spend more than 1,000 for a new one, depending upon your type and contract. Opt for the latest and go damaged! Mobile phone repair service is a cost-effective alternative, yet could take you even more time than obtaining a new one. Still, it is better to obtain your busted phone fixed rather than paying a lot of loan for a new gadget.
Obtaining a brand-new phone means you would certainly need to move the information existing in your damaged phone to the brand-new one. Since your phone is malfunctioning or damaged, you will experience loss of information. Going for cellular phone repair service is an excellent alternative as repair shops can get your busted phone dealt with, and recoup and retain all the data you have in your phone. Think of shedding the 250 calls you had and having to develop your contact checklist from the ground up! Cellular phone repair service is the much better alternative.
The even more the variety of cell phones made use of, the much more the atmosphere is damaged. Mobile phone produces radiation and warm and include in the issue of worldwide warming. Obtaining a brand-new phone means you include in the variety of smart phones currently in use. 爆 mon 維修 is the green choice. No further harm is triggered to the setting as a result of this. If your phone gets harmed or damaged, go to a cell phone repair store instead of getting a brand-new one!
When you are considering the most fundamental sort of draw up flags, the retractable ones are the principal decision. These are planned from tough vinyl material which can withstand unfriendly conditions. Utilizing them anyplace is simple. Essentially pulling them from the base will do. Whenever whatever be the area, indoor or open air, these prepared to utilize standards is extremely a perfect advertising instrument. Indeed, even the transportation is very simple since this slide inside the base when not being used. A portion of the spots where we locate these retractable standards utilized incorporate limited time occasions, in the entryways of lodgings, shopping centers and workplaces, at vehicle dealerships and even corporate insiders. This is the littlest kind of standard out there. Likewise its adaptabilities know no limits. Spot these on table tops or even go for divider mounting.
Basically the inflexible draw up flags is smaller than expected boards. In this kind of pennant an overwhelming weight canvas is upheld by a non-retractable pillar. The main negative side to this is it is beyond the realm of imagination to expect to withdraw it and resultantly transportation can be very troublesome. For the most part we discover these advertising apparatuses close to the bustling streets where profound materials are required. Additionally exchange demonstrates will in general use it with more noteworthy affinity. The excellence of these standards is that the designs and content which are shown on it very well may be seen from long separations. At the point when associations are thinking about a substantial foundation for displaying different items, the unbending roller flag is the best decision.
Commonly the regular draw up flags is not ready to satisfy the necessities of the association. So as to influence their items to get seen to the most extreme number of prospects they need something which is past the regular and contain something exceptional. The additional vast showcases discover their utilization in such situations. The best thing about these is that inverse the inflexible showcase stands, these can be disassembled by prerequisite and put away utilizing least space. Tape flag as the name proposes contain various shows at the same time which can be changed pull up singapore. There is adaptability of plan and even the strain of the presentation can be changed dependent on the fluctuated sizes.
The name panda is a significant intriguing one with regards to connection to these sorts of pennants. These are absolutely like the retractable draw up flags. The main contrast lies in the way that rather than metal based structure here bamboo is utilized. These are fundamentally green flags which are produced using inexhaustible assets. The tasteful magnificence, visual intrigue and high caliber of these flag shows settle on this a perfect decision for organizations wherever particularly the individuals who assume their liability towards mother earth truly. The twofold sided flags as the name proposes contain show on both the sides.
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The inside measurement that you may need to discover as you arrangement influencing an avenue south residence condo floor plan decision to house is the objective avenue south residence condo. Like to for the most part build up the best necessities for paying a gathering if you get a handle on your consideration on with Avenue south residence condo. You can find remarkable techniques from the visitors which are escaping inside the town of individuals that requires what impressively more gains the spot of ground to their avenue south residence condo proceeding with hypothesis similarly as at Avenue south residence condo speculation property that may drive specific thing bargains.
You have to discover your standard target at the starting time allotment the lean likelihood that you have to accomplish Avenue South Residence Core City Centre. It will in general be to a glorious degree crucial to consider your requesting besides passionately truly needs to enable you to totally can take a load off and in addition basic. You have to think about taking a gander at your own one of a kind home, strategy for evaluating the outdoors yard near zones, washroom frameworks. District gives a basic duty inside supposition choice inside individuals it could be cleared up it really is of eminent conditions of your specific cash related responsibility avenue south residence condo Singapore.
Way too much financial responsibility can Bring a devastating result in a company’s or an individual’s life. Providentially, bankruptcy legislations exist to bring respite to the individual who’s overburdened with debt. There are numerous chapters of bankruptcy laws for a variety of conditions. The legislations also keep changing and if you are intending to find insolvency after that you have to have knowledge about all that is called for. Furthermore, you can work with a seasoned in addition to smart attorney that could look after your situation of personal insolvency with no troubles. Yet the question is precisely how you would certainly understand what bankruptcy lawyer would be suitable for you. You must initially expect obtain an experienced bankruptcy lawyer. You may ask a pal or proximity to refer you. If you do not obtain it by reference, try Telephone directory where you will find lawyers that are grouped according to specialization.
You can additionally choose debt relief firm. You could call the bankruptcy lawyer and speak with him regarding the issue. A whole lot of Bankruptcy Lawyer use free preliminary assessment. After speaking to two or 3 bankruptcy attorneys, cope with a meeting with one with which you identify yourself. Consider how much experience the lawyer has and whether he specializes in bankruptcy laws or not. Additionally ask him if he will surely be taking care of the situation or will hand it over to a legal assistant or affiliate. You may also ask the authorized representative if you are able to play with him in installments. After picking a suitable lawyer, repair a consultation and meet him and review your case in detail. If you presume that the bankruptcy lawyer is asking for a very low cost, in addition to then please consider your choice again as he/she may not be aware of all of the regulations.
Also though a legal representative is not vital for submitting bankruptcy request however the sort of documentation involved could be complicated. A personal bankruptcy lawyer is inevitable to obtain you through it. Among the key factors why people frequently have to give into Bankruptcy Attorney Carlsbad is the inability to pay off financing in time. If they are still unable to pay back the car loan, the lender or other financial institution where the car loan was taken will require some action. In case the funding isn’t protected, the debtor will surely need to experience other long term effects. A good example of this is an important reduction in credit score rating because of nonpayment of financings. A bad credit ratings score in turn implies you will be not able to find financing’s with positive conditions in the long run from several other financial institutions.
Organic compost is readily made out of resources that are readily available. The natural procedure for decomposition is increased, as a result faster. A balance of drenched and dried up substance that is certainly aerated will result in compost. Simply leaves, grass clippings, home scraps – aside from lean meats and extra fat, even pieces of paper and cardboard can be used. Most something organic might be integrated into compost.
The place and construction materials available for you, and how very much actual operate you want to do determines the way you make organic compost. Backyard compost piles or pits need no constructing resources at all. A slow-moving stack is not difficult to start and add to while you attain resources. It takes very little upkeep. As the title suggests, it does not approach rapidly, and along the way can free vitamins and minerals to leaching. It is also odorous and entices flies and wildlife. A warm pile is started if you have plenty of material to provide at the same time. So as to keep it operating, it must be aerated properly and sometimes. Your backyard fork works well for this. The unwanted heat will kill weed seed products and pathogenic agents that is usually a good thing for organic compost.
Pits are quick and easy with no upkeep, and definitely will only deal with a small amount. Piles and pits might be positioned in an area from the garden, or any other place which is appropriate. A good area is a is easy to have the unprocessed resources to, and also to transfer the finished organic compost from. Some shelter from blowing wind, and sun exposure, is attractive to help in the heating of decomposition. There is not any lack of plans for a variety of compost receptacles and bins created from resources as varied as cable, wooden, brick and plastic. This is undoubtedly a neater strategy to produce natural pesticides, and helps to keep animals and bad weather out. The pot enables you to maintain temperature in and when transformed often, decomposition may be rapid. Many of the plastic receptacles accessible take up hardly any area, and may be rolled close to in order that the compost becomes aerated easily. Even trash luggage and trash containers may be used, however, some care has to be undertaken using these to regulate smell, flies, and keep them from learning to be a slimy clutter.
If you definitely don’t want to create another organic compost method, you can easily distribute the fabric over the floor to become included and function it in. This process necessitates that everything will get proved helpful in prior to it offers decomposed. It will likely be lengthier ahead of the benefits are noticed because the decomposition actually occurs in the soil. Essentially, this needs to be accomplished as being a rotation on area of the garden which is fallow for your year. The soil will then be conditioned and fertilized for next year.
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2019-04-18T16:42:13Z
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http://www.freelancebusinessclub.com/2019/03/18
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10 days 21 hours 15 min 50 sec remaining in the April competition.
THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN LICENSEE, PURCHASER AND ANIMESTUDIOTUTOR. THIS AGREEMENT APPLIES TO LICENSES ISSUED VIA THE WEB AND IS APPLICABLE TO ONLINE, DIGITAL DELIVERY OF LICENSED MATERIAL.
1.1 "Invoice" means the computer-generated or pre-printed standard form invoice provided by AnimeStudioTutor or an authorized distributor that may include, without limitation, the Licensed Material selected, any limitations on the license in addition to those specified herein and the corresponding price for the license of such Licensed Material. The Invoice shall be incorporated into this Agreement and all references to the Agreement shall include the Invoice.
1.2 "Licensed Material" means any still image, animation, visual representation generated optically, electronically, digitally or by any other means, including any original digital files or any Reproductions thereof, or any other product protected by copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right, which is licensed to Licensee by AnimeStudioTutor under the terms of this Agreement. Any reference in this Agreement to the Licensed Material shall be to each individual item within the Licensed Material and also to the Licensed Material as a whole.
1.3 "Licensee" means the person or entity purchasing a license hereunder or, if there is a separate Purchaser, the person or entity specifically designated as Licensee during the purchase process and set forth as such in the Invoice.
1.4 "Purchaser" means a person or entity purchasing the license hereunder on behalf of a third party Licensee.
1.5 "Reproduction" and "Reproduce" mean any form of copying or publication of the whole or part of any Licensed Material, via any medium by whatever means, and the distortion, alteration, cropping or manipulation of the whole or any part of the Licensed Material and the creation of any derivative work from the Licensed Material.
1.6 "User" means any employee or subcontractor of Licensee who: (i) downloads, manipulates, edits, modifies or saves the digital file containing the Licensed Material; (ii) is otherwise directly involved in the creative process utilizing the Licensed Material; or (iii) incorporates the Licensed Material within any derivative work.
2.1 AnimeStudioTutor grants to Licensee a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, worldwide right to Reproduce the Licensed Material identified in the Invoice an unlimited number of times in any and all media for all purposes other than those uses prohibited under Section 3 of this Agreement.
2.2 Licensee may have the Licensed Material Reproduced by subcontractors of Licensee for preparation of a final product, provided that such subcontractors agree to abide by the provisions of this Agreement.
2.3 Licensee may store the Licensed Material in a digital library, network configuration or similar arrangement to allow the Licensed Material to be viewed by employees, partners and clients of Licensee, so long as there are no more than ten (10) Users. Licensee must purchase additional seat licenses if there are more than ten (10) Users before such additional use begins.
3.1 Licensee may not sublicense, sell, assign, convey or transfer this Agreement or any of its rights under this Agreement.
3.2 Licensee may not: (i) make the Licensed Material available (separate from the end product into which it is incorporated) in any medium accessible by persons other than authorized Users; (ii) sell, license or distribute any end product containing the Licensed Material in a way that is intended to allow or invite a third party to download, extract or access the Licensed Material as a standalone file; (iii) include the Licensed Material in an electronic template intended to be Reproduced by third parties on electronic or printed products; or (iv) use or display the Licensed Material on websites or in any other medium designed to induce or involving the sale, license or other distribution of "on demand" products, including, without limitation, postcards, mugs, t-shirts, calendars, posters and other items.
3.3 Licensee may not falsely represent, expressly or impliedly, that Licensee is the original creator of a work that is a stand-alone pictorial, graphic or sculptural work or motion picture or other visual work that derives a substantial part of its artistic components from the Licensed Material.
3.5 Pornographic, defamatory or otherwise unlawful use of Licensed Material is strictly prohibited, whether directly or in context or juxtaposition with specific subject matter.
3.6 Licensed Material shall not be used contrary to any restriction on use provided to Licensee, including, without limitation, any restriction provided to Licensee prior to or at the time the Licensed Material is delivered to Licensee. Such restrictions may be included either in the information provided with the Licensed Material on AnimeStudioTutor' website or an authorized distributor's website or in any other written communication from AnimeStudioTutor. Any such restriction provided to Licensee shall be incorporated into this Agreement.
3.7 If the Licensed Material is Reproduced in an editorial manner, Licensee must include the copyright notice "© [insert current year] AnimeStudioTutor" appearing adjacent to the Licensed Material or on a credit page.
3.8 Where technically feasible, credit must be provided for any characters, props or background art Licensed Material used in a feature film, broadcast television or cable production and must read: "Characters and props by [AnimeStudioTutor]" or "Background art by [AnimeStudioTutor]" or "Characters and props by [other supplier/AnimeStudioTutor]" or "Background art by [other supplier/AnimeStudioTutor]".
3.9 Where Purchaser is licensing Licensed Material on behalf of a Licensee, Purchaser hereby represents and warrants that: (i) Purchaser is authorized to act as an agent on behalf of Licensee and has full power and authority to bind Licensee to this Agreement; and (ii) if Licensee disputes Purchaser's power and authority to act on behalf of Licensee with respect to this Agreement, Purchaser shall be bound and liable for any failure of Licensee to comply with the terms of this Agreement. Nothing in this Section 3.9 shall serve to excuse Purchaser's obligation to make payment to AnimeStudioTutor for the Licensed Material.
4. Copyright and Trademarks. No ownership or copyright in any Licensed Material shall pass to Licensee by the issuance of the license contained in this Agreement. Except as expressly stated in this Agreement, AnimeStudioTutor grants Licensee no right or license, express or implied, to the Licensed Material. In connection with the use of "AnimeStudioTutor" or any other of AnimeStudioTutor trade names, trademarks, logos or service marks, Licensee acknowledges and agrees that (i) AnimeStudioTutor' Marks are and shall remain the sole property of AnimeStudioTutor; (ii) nothing in this Agreement shall confer upon Licensee any right of ownership in AnimeStudioTutor' Marks; and (iii) Licensee shall not now or in the future contest the validity of AnimeStudioTutor' Marks.
5.1 AnimeStudioTutor warrants that: (i) it has all necessary rights and authority to enter into and perform this Agreement; (ii) the Licensed Material will be free from defects in material and workmanship for thirty (30) days from delivery (Licensee's sole and exclusive remedy for a breach of this warranty being the replacement of the Licensed Material); (iii) Licensee's use of the Licensed Material in its original form and when used in accordance with this Agreement, will not infringe on any copyright, moral right, trademark or other intellectual property right and will not violate any right of privacy or right of publicity; and (iv) all images, and/or property releases for use of the Licensed Material authorized under this Agreement have been obtained.
5.2 NEITHER ANIMESTUDIOTUTOR NOR ANY LICENSOR MAKES ANY OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE LICENSED MATERIAL OR ITS DELIVERY SYSTEMS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER ANIMESTUDIOTUTOR NOR ITS LICENSORS SHALL BE LIABLE TO LICENSEE OR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY FOR ANY PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES, COSTS OR LOSSES ARISING OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT, EVEN IF ANIMESTUDIOTUTOR OR ITS LICENSORS, AS APPLICABLE, HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, COSTS OR LOSSES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT PERMIT THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF DAMAGES.
6.1 Provided Licensed Material is only used in accordance with this Agreement and Licensee is not otherwise in breach of this Agreement and as Licensee's sole and exclusive remedy for any alleged or actual breach of the representations and warranties set forth in Section 5 above, AnimeStudioTutor shall defend, indemnify and hold Licensee harmless from all damages (excluding punitive damages not directly attributable to acts of AnimeStudioTutor), liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees and permitted and authorized costs), arising out of or connected with any actual or threatened lawsuit, claim or legal proceeding alleging that AnimeStudioTutor is in breach of its warranties set forth in Section 5 above. The foregoing states AnimeStudioTutor' entire indemnification obligation under this Agreement.
6.2 Licensee shall defend, indemnify and hold AnimeStudioTutor harmless from all damages (excluding punitive damages not directly attributable to acts of Licensee), liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and permitted and authorized costs), arising out of or as a result of claims by third parties relating to Licensee's use of any Licensed Material outside the scope of this Agreement or any other actual or alleged breach by Licensee of this Agreement.
6.3 The party seeking indemnification pursuant to this Section 6 shall promptly notify the other party of such claim. At indemnifying party's option, indemnifying party may assume the handling, settlement or defense of any claim or litigation, in which event indemnified party shall cooperate in the defense of any such claim or litigation. Indemnified party shall have the right to participate in such litigation, at its expense, through counsel selected by indemnified party. The indemnifying party will not be liable for legal fees or other costs incurred prior to the other party giving notice of the claim for which indemnity is sought.
7. Condition of Licensed Material. Licensee should examine all Licensed Material for possible defects (whether digital or otherwise) before sending any Licensed Material for Reproduction. Without prejudice to Section 5.1.(ii), AnimeStudioTutor shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by Licensee or any third party, whether directly or indirectly, arising from any alleged or actual defect in any Licensed Material in any way from its Reproduction.
8. Cancellation on Overdue Invoices. If Licensee fails to pay AnimeStudioTutor' invoice in full within the time specified in the invoice, AnimeStudioTutor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke the license if payment is not made in full on time.
9. Termination and Revocation. The license contained in this Agreement will terminate automatically without notice from AnimeStudioTutor if Licensee fails to comply with any provision of this Agreement. Upon termination, Licensee must immediately (i) stop using the Licensed Material; (ii) destroy or, upon the request of AnimeStudioTutor, return the Licensed Material to AnimeStudioTutor; and (iii) delete and remove the Licensed Material from Licensee's premises, computer systems and storage (electronic or physical).
10.1 Unauthorized Use. Any use of Licensed Material in a manner not expressly authorized by this Agreement or in breach of a term of this Agreement (including, without limitation, use of Licensed Material by more than ten (10) Users without purchase of additional seat licenses) constitutes copyright infringement, entitling AnimeStudioTutor to exercise all rights and remedies available to it under copyright laws around the world. Licensee shall be responsible for any damages resulting from any such copyright infringement, including any claims by a third party. 10.2 Audit/Certificate of Compliance. Upon reasonable notice, Licensee shall provide sample copies of Reproductions containing Licensed Material to AnimeStudioTutor. In addition, upon reasonable notice, AnimeStudioTutor may, at its discretion, either through its own employees or through a third party, audit Licensee's records directly related to this Agreement and use of Licensed Material in order to verify compliance with the terms of this Agreement. Where AnimeStudioTutor reasonably believes that Licensed Material is being used by more than the authorized number of Users, or that Licensed Material is being used outside of the scope of the license granted under this Agreement, Licensee shall, at AnimeStudioTutor' request, provide a certificate of compliance signed by an officer of Licensee, in a form to be approved by AnimeStudioTutor.
10.3 Electronic Storage. For all Licensed Material that Licensee takes delivery of in electronic form, Licensee must retain the copyright symbol, the name of AnimeStudioTutor, and any other information as may be embedded in the electronic file containing the original Licensed Material that is stored on Licensee's computers. Licensee shall maintain a robust firewall to safeguard against unauthorized third-party access to the Licensed Material.
10.4 Withdrawal. Upon notice from AnimeStudioTutor, or upon Licensee's knowledge that any Licensed Material is subject to a threatened or actual claim of infringement, violation of another right, or any other claim for which AnimeStudioTutor may be liable herein, or if AnimeStudioTutor withdraws any Licensed Material for any good reason, Licensee will physically remove the Licensed Material from its premises, computer systems and storage (electronic or physical) and, if possible, cease any future use at its own expense. AnimeStudioTutor shall provide Licensee with comparable Licensed Material (which comparability will be determined by AnimeStudioTutor in its reasonable commercial judgment) free of charge, but subject to the other terms and conditions of this Agreement.
10.5. Governing Law. This Agreement will be governed in all respects by the laws of Jamaica, West Indies. Any disputes arising from this Agreement or its enforceability shall be settled by binding arbitration to be held in the jurisdiction of Jamaica, West Indies. Notwithstanding the foregoing, AnimeStudioTutor shall have the right to commence and prosecute any legal or equitable action or proceeding before any court of competent jurisdiction to obtain injunctive or other relief against Licensee in the event that, in the opinion of AnimeStudioTutor, such action is necessary or desirable.
10.6 Severability. If one or more of the provisions contained in the Agreement is found to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable in any respect, the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not be affected. Such provisions shall be revised only to the extent necessary to make them enforceable.
10.7 Waiver. No action of either party, other than express written waiver, may be construed as a waiver of any provision of this Agreement. A delay on the part of either party in the exercise of its rights or remedies will not operate as a waiver of such rights or remedies, and a single or partial exercise by either party of any such rights or remedies will not preclude other or further exercise of that right or remedy. A waiver of a right or remedy on any one occasion will not be construed as a bar to or waiver of rights or remedies on any other occasion.
10.8 Entire Agreement. This Agreement contains all the terms of the license agreement and no terms or conditions may be added or deleted unless made in writing and signed by an authorized representative of both parties. In the event of any inconsistency between the terms contained herein and the terms contained on any purchase order or other communication sent by Licensee, the terms of this Agreement shall govern.
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2019-04-20T02:44:13Z
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https://www.animestudiotutor.com/license
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Wuhan (武汉; Wǔhàn) is the capital of Hubei Province in China and a major port on the Yangtse River.
Memorial Hall of 1911 Wuchang Uprising, Where Sun Yat-Sen Issued his Edict to Overthrow the Qing.
Wuhan once consisted of three separate cities; Hanyang, Hankou, and Wuchang. Hanyang was a busy port as long as 3,000 years ago in the Han Dynasty. Yellow Crane Tower was first built in 223BCE and gained fame throughout China through the poetry of Cui Hao during the Tang Dynasty. Wuchang has been a center of learning for centuries, especially in the field of the arts. It became a provincial capital in the Yuan Dynasty.
Hankou was considered to be one of China's top four cities during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was the busiest inland port, first opened as a treaty port in 1661. During the 19th century, as a result of concessions granted in the aftermath of the Opium Wars, large areas of Hankou's riverfront were carved up into foreign mercantile divisions with port and rail facilities and the area's economy expanded rapidly. There remain many grand buildings along Hankou's riverfront clearly European in design as a result.
The city is perhaps most famous for its pivotal role in the formation of modern China. On October 10, 1911 the Wuchang Uprising, led by Sun Yat-Sen, took place sparking the Xinhai Revolution throughout the nation which resulted in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty (China's last) and the formation of the Republic of China. The event is commemorated in many place names beginning with "Shouyi", literally "First Revolution", including a public square with an attached museum. In the ensuing chaos of the Republic of China, Wuchang was the capital of a leftist Guomindang government ruled over by Wang Jingwei in direct opposition to Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1927, Hanyang, Hankou, and Wuchang were united to form the city of Wuhan. The city fell under siege by the Japanese during WWII and was liberated in 1949. With the opening of China, Wuhan was reopened in 1992 for the first time since the revolution. Today, Wuhan is one of China's largest cities and remains an important center of commerce. While many visitors overlook Wuhan as just another city, beneath its industrial exterior a rewarding tapestry of history and cultural arts awaits.
Wuhan is an amalgamation of three smaller cities, Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang, each separated from the other by a river. Hankou is the business center and it sits to the northwest with the Yangtze River separating it from Wuchang and the Han River separating it from Hanyang. Wuchang is the education center hosting a bewildering variety of universities, institutes and colleges. It is separated from both Hankou and Hanyang by the Yangtze River. Hanyang is the industrial center, separated from Hankou by the Han River and from Wuchang by the Yangtze River.
The Number One Yangtze River Bridge, an old, Soviet-era colossus of engineering incorporating both rail and automobile traffic in a dual-layer setup, connects Wuchang with Hanyang. The more graceful Number Two Yangtze River Bridge, currently only open to automobile traffic, connects Wuchang with Hankou to the north. There are two major bridges across the Han River shuttling automobile traffic between Hanyang and Hankou. These two bridges are within sight of each other on the few smog-free days that exist. The Number Three Yangtze River Bridge, connects the outskirts of Wuchang with the outskirts of Hanyang to the distant south.
Wuhan has a humid subtropical climate with 4 distinctive seasons and abundant rainfall measuring 1.315mm on average. Winters in the city are cold the average January temperature being 4°C (39°F) and low temperatures around freezing and the high humidity makes it feel much colder. The city is influenced by the freezing winds blowing from Siberia, not to the extent however of the North China Plain. Occasionally, cold waves may occur lowering temperatures to -10°C (14°F) in some cases, while temperatures below -12°C (10°F) are rare. The city does occasionally receive snowfall so it has an average of about 5-10 days of some snow on the ground every winter. The lowest recorded temperature is -18.1°C (-0.5°F). Summers are hot and very humid. The combination of hot daytime temperatures, 32°C (90°F) on average, and very high humidity (77%) makes the heat feel oppressive. During heat waves the city may heat up to 35°C (95°F), so that the highest recorded temperature is 39.6°C (103.2°F). The majority of total precipitation falls during these months, due to the influence of the south-west monsoon. Spring and autumn are pleasant transitional seasons, albeit being very unpredictable.
Wuhan is a major city in a central position. It has all the bus, rail, road and air connections you would expect.
Wuhan can be accessed easily from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) about an hour outside of the city center. Flights from all major domestic airports are available, including Xian, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong and Taipei. International flights operate from Seoul, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore and Bangkok. Thai AirAsia recently launched its daily Bangkok-Wuhan service. The airport can be reached by metro on Line 2, with 7元 getting you anywhere in the city that is on the metro network, including all major train stations. The metro is easy to find (just follow signs for Transport Centre, if the author remembers correctly). Ticket machines have an English option and videos are available on YouTube about how the metro works. The machines require notes less than 20元 when buying singles.
Wuhan is a major railway hub, connected by direct trains with most of China's major cities. Overnight express trains (Z series trains) take one from Beijing (¥263), Shanghai, Hangzhou or Ningbo in 9-12 hours. There are also frequent train connections from Guangzhou taking about 12 hours and a bit less frequent trains from Shenzhen.
Besides over night trains, there are also day-time high-speed trains (D and G series) which connect Wuhan with Beijing (via Zhengzhou and Shijiazhuang), Xi'an, Shanghai (via Hefei and Nanjing), Guangzhou (via Changsha), Nanchang and Yichang. It takes 4.25–6.15 hours to Shanghai (¥280), 4.5 hours to Beijing (¥520.50), 4.6–5.2 hours to Xi'an (¥454.50) and 3.7–4.5 hours to Guangzhou (¥463.50).
The biggest hassle for most train travellers in Wuhan is that there are 3 wide spread train stations serving the three older cities that make up modern Wuhan and until 2009, none of them used Wuhan in their name. Wuhan Railway Station is the newest of the three stations to the east of the city, it is the main north-south high speed train station and only a few conventional trains stop here. Hankou Railway Station is in the north of the city and handles most east-west high speed trains but also many conventional trains. Wuchang Station in the south of the city handles mostly conventional trains. Both Wuchang and Hankou stations handle trains headed to many destinations all across China, making it confusing for travellers as to which station to use or fail to recognise that these stations are even in Wuhan when booking tickets.
There are two major long distance bus stations, again in Hankou and Wuchang respectively, which tend to have buses visiting both.
You can also reach Wuhan via boats on the Yangtze River, either from downstream centers such as Shanghai and Nanjing or from Chongqing further upstream, via the famous Three Gorges route.
Wuhan has a cheap (2元 per journey), efficient, but horribly bewildering bus system in place. The service has vastly improved compared to the past. It is the cheapest way to get around the city. If you have a local to guide you, it can be used to get from place to place with impressive speed (if not comfort or safety). Without a local to guide you, you should better have a very good map and a good grasp of Chinese. Bus stops do not appear to have a timetable as such but rather a breakdown of the route - you simply wait for the next bus as they are very frequent. These route guides indicate where the buses meet up with the metro (a little M symbol) so if you are lost or not near a metro stop find a bus stop and catch a bus that intersects a metro line - then keep your eyes peeled as the buses move incredibly fast!
Metro network now consists of five lines, with more lines due to open soon. A single journey can cost anywhere from 2元 to 7元. Announcements and signs are in both Chinese and English. It is a very busy metro network so unless you get on a terminus you must be prepared to be very forceful to obtain a seat. It is advisable to download a metro map app on your phone (as these will be up to date with the most recent metro extensions, whereas image based maps may be incorrect). There are many options available and the author would recommend that you research the different choices based on your travel plans - eg: some apps come with maps of multiple metro plans to avoid the need to download multiple apps.
Public transport in Wuhan ends much earlier than is found in many other cities around the world. Buses begin about 6am and end about 10pm depending on the route. The metro, depending on the line and direction, begins around 6am and can end any time between 10.30pm and 11.30pm.
Taxis are not hard to find. Taxis are supposed to switch drivers at 5:30pm however often they will appear to do so much earlier. After 4pm, expect half of all taxis to display a sign indicating they are not for hire. In congested areas, especially 1-way streets with no convenient exit, taxi drivers displaying the for hire sign (空车） sometimes reject you if it is inconvenient to them, but they rarely do this. Be aware and plan accordingly if you have to be somewhere on-time. Please also be aware that the lack of adequate taxis in congested areas (WuHan Plaza, for example), people in WuHan are much more aggressive when trying to get a taxi. Expect to race to any car that stops and to hold your ground at the door (for example if you're waiting at the front door, someone will jump in the back). Rates are relatively cheap at 10元 on the flag and with around 70元 getting you between almost any two spots you are likely to want to travel between. It is possible to get higher taxi fares, but usually only because the taxi driver has deliberately taken you on a longer trip (which is, thankfully, not a common occurrence).
Airport taxis are the exception. Foreigners in particular are likely to get ripped off by taxi drivers at the airport. They will demand prices starting at 150元 to go anywhere in the city. For reference, going from the airport to the middle of Hanyang costs about 50元 typically. It is advisable to insist on the metre before the taxi starts moving and if the driver refuses, step out, collect your luggage and go back to the taxi stand. Note that this is not a serious problem in the daytime when there is a supervisor at the taxi stand who is an airport employee, rather than a taxi driver himself.
One oddity of the taxi system is crossing the bridges. Because of the traffic problems and snarls at the bridges, the city has instituted a system in which half the taxis are not permitted to cross the bridge on half the days. Basically, if the day of the month is odd, odd-numbered taxis are allowed to use the Number One Bridge. If the day of the month is even, even-numbered taxis are allowed to use the Number One Bridge. This system may extend to the Number Two Bridge (this is not yet confirmed) but it does not extend to the Number Three Bridge. In most circumstances, however, it is not advisable to use the Number Three Bridge as it tends to increase the taxi fares dramatically (although it is an interesting ride).
The Yangtze River can be crossed by ferry for a very reasonable fee of 1.5元. The ferry runs frequently starting at 7AM and ending at 9PM. It offers by virtue of its unique location some nice views of the city, the Number One Yangtze River Bridge, Yellow Crane Tower, etc. during the day and an interesting nightscape view after dark.
Snake Hill Park from the Yellow Crane Tower.
Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼 Huanghelou), . The single largest tourist attraction in Wuhan, the tower is a modern construction built on the site of twelve previous incarnations. It is considered one of the four great towers in China. The tower sits atop Snake Hill near the Number One Yangtze River Bridge and affords a commanding view of the Yangtze River as well as the mouth of the Han River where it connects. The view of the city is very impressive, although at times made slightly hazy by smog. On the clearest days, one can see practically the entire city of Wuhan and far up and down the Yangtze River.
Entering the park costs ¥80 (as of 12/2010) which gives access to Snake Hill Park, Yellow Crane Tower and the Mao Pavilion (in which many of the poems of Chairman Mao are etched into stone for viewing pleasure). The park as a whole is nicely landscaped with many charming buildings. Of particular interest is the enormous bronze bell located behind Yellow Crane Tower itself as well as a teahouse on the premises which features regular performances of traditional Chu-era music. The performance itself is free, but it is expected that patrons enjoying it order at least a beverage or a small snack.
The current tower was completed in the 1980s using modern materials, most notably, concrete is used instead of wood for all supporting members so as to prevent yet another disaster, since the twelve previous towers were all destroyed by fires and war. The ground floor of the tower contains a large entrance hall, two stories tall, with enormous decorative lamps and a giant ceramic fresco displaying the quasi-mythical story of the tower's initial construction. The second story, essentially a balcony around the entrance hall, contains a souvenir shop as well as displays of traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy. The third story has a residence done up in the very ancient, Chu style modelled after the kinds of sitting rooms used by nobility greeting guests in the ancient period. The fourth story contains another souvenir shop and a set of models displaying the tower in five of its previous incarnations. This latter display shows the fascinating development of an essentially military watchtower into an increasingly residence/tourist-oriented showpiece. The top accessible story has pay telescopes and some nice art displays.
Wuhan is famous for its morning xiaochi (literally translated as "small-eats")- a variety of breakfast foods. Hubuxiang （户部巷） in Wuchang is Wuhan's famous breakfast alley where you will find all of Wuhan's famous breakfast dishes. Reganmian (热干面） (literally, "hot dry noodle") is the epitome of Wuhan's breakfast food. It is noodles with peanut sauce, tossed in sesame paste and other seasonings. You will find these noodles for ¥3 from street vendors. Other Wuhan breakfast specialties include mianwo, a type of savory donut; tangbao, small dumpling-buns filled with pork and soup; mibaba, a lightly sweetened pancake made with rice flour; and mijiu tangyuan, a sweet soup of rice wine (fermented from glutinous rice) with rice flour dumplings stuffed with sesame paste and "doupi", rice fried into a cake with tofu skin and some pickled veg.
In addition, the area to the north of the 江汉路 (Jianghan Road) subway stop is littered with small roadside stands and stalls during the morning travel rush. From about 7 onwards, the majority of the entrances and alleyways leading into the Jianghan Pedestrian Street (immediately to the north of the subway stop, Exit C) have people selling portable and not-so-portable breakfast foods, including the above-mentioned 热干面 (Reganmian) and about fifteen varieties of handheld pancake.
South of Exit B of 江汉路 (Jianghan Road), along 交通路 (Jiaotong Road), there's a fairly large shopping area, under which is another major food "street" frequented by the locals. For entrances, look for small stand-alone buildings with escalators and staircases leading downwards, in between the shopping malls. The most noticeable are a red-colored, half-cylindrical building in the middle of the shopping area and one with a peaked yellow roof along 中山大道 (Zhongshan Blvd).
There are a few drinks that are associated with the city. Included in this list is Jingjiu (a healthy alternative to regular wines), Baijiu. If you would like to taste something slightly more low key, there is a local micro-brew called Singo (Xingyinge), that will be the beginning of every good night, at just ¥1.5 per bottle.
Wuhan University(武汉大学 Wǔ-hàn-Dà-xué), It is regarded as one of the top ten universities in China, and its history dates back to 1893, making it one of China's oldest institutions of higher learning. It was also one of the first modern "national universities" in post-dynastic China. It is located in Hubei province's capital, Wuhan, known as "the nine provinces' leading thoroughfare".
South-Central University for Nationalities(中南民族大学 Zhōng-nán-mín-zú-Dà-xué). It is a national university located in Hubei province's capital Wuhan, directly under the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of PRC. It is a comprehensive university founded in 1951 and the former name was South Central College for Nationalities(Chinese: 中南民族学院). In March 2002, the school adopted the current name. As one of the 6 national higher education institutes for ethnic groups in China, SCUN is committed to the innovation in higher education for ethnic groups, and thus has achieved a rapid and comprehensive development. Everyone in SCUN, led by a wise and united leadership is making great effort for the comprehensive development of the school— to improve its teaching and learning conditions, enhance its education quality, construct a harmonious campus and ultimately make SCUN an outstanding university for ethnic groups with its own distinguishing features. SCUN is well on its way to a better future.
There are two train stations in Wuchang (Wuchang station and Wuhan station, the latter for high speed trains) and one in Hankou. There are also long-distance bus stations; one in Hankou, and near the Wuchang train station.
This page was last edited on 21 March 2019, at 11:19.
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Two more website updates this week. Many thanks to Andy for providing useful info about his family member Alfred Kershaw who worked at a Jewellers in Spon End and was killed during the Blitz. Also, I would like to thank Megan for sharing her memories of war-torn Coventry. Follow the link to read her story.
On a different note, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the latest issue of the Coventry Family History Society which is just out. Head on over to www.covfhs.org if you are interested in joining up.
Have you considered purchasing one of my family tree gift certificates as a splendid Christmas gift for a loved one? These can be cashed in after Christmas Day to commence research into the family history of the lucky recipient. Contact me for details.
Between now and Christmas I am working hard completing existing research projects for Christmas presents, so if you wish to place an order now I will be happy to start work for you in January.
Thanks to Barbara B from Austrailia who got in touch regarding the old occupation of Tripe Boiler. My husband has now added it to the Dictionary of Old Occupations.
Thanks also to the various people who sent me info this week regarding the Coventry Blitz. I will add these to the site shortly.
You may have heard me on BBC local radio earlier this week. I was on Bob Brolly’s show discussing the importance of learning about history and whether it should be taught in schools with the same prominence and English and Maths. I had a nice time, Bob is friendly, cheery sort of chap though I am not sure he was convinced to change his opinion! Thanks for having me on the show Bob, it was a pleasure.
Have been very busy researching family tree projects for everyone over the last couple of months. In the run up to Christmas I am focussed on making sure that all the family tree gifts are ready, and 2011 certainly has been a busy year! To make this happen less time has been available for updates to the various resources on my website, in case you are wondering why my updates have been slower recently.
Author Trevor Harkin has been in touch regarding recent resurfacing work at the site of the Coventry Blitz memorial at London Road Cemetery, which is the location of the mass grave of blitz victims.
An article in the local newspaper bore a headline about the resurfacing work "Mass grave for Coventry blitz victims turned into 'car park'". From what I read and from the photo it appears the site has been tarmaced over. The article goes on to say that the new surface is already crumbling with chunks breaking away at the edges. This all seems out of keeping with the location and significance of the memorial, where we honour the memory and sacrifice of the fallen.
Whilst trawling through census records this week I came across an old occupation called Bullion Pearler. Seems to be a misspelling of Bullion Purler, referring to the sort of decorative trim we see today at the bottom of sofas. An unusual specialist occupation which I have added to my Dictionary.
The new 2012 version of Family Tree Maker is out. This year’s update builds upon the enhancements found in the 2011 version with improved reports and the new Tree Sync feature for synchronising your family tree data with Ancestry.
Family Tree Maker is excellent software, and while the 2012 version seems like a minor update compared to last year I would heartily recommend it to anyone using an old version, and especially to anyone just getting started in their family tree research project and looking to buy the best software at a fair price.
The annual Blitz Remembrance Service is fast approaching. It will take place at 3pm on Sunday 13th November at London Road Cemetery, Coventry. I would like to thank Coventry Bereavement Services for letting us know the details.
The busy season is upon me once again, and I am now working on family tree projects as Christmas gifts for loved ones. We did, however, find time this week to update the website in response to a couple of queries from people who looked me up in Yellow Pages or similar because they had difficulty using the email links on my site. I now have a new web page on the site which provides two different ways of getting in touch with me online regarding family tree research.
Looks like a new 2012 version of the excellent Family Tree Maker will be available on or around October 14th. Early information indicates there may be three versions: Deluxe, Platinum and World editions. More info about these soon.
Hope you are enjoying series 8 of Who Do You Think You Are? This week we have UK daytime TV celebrity Richard Madeley finding out about the part his great grandfather played in fighting between New England colonists and Native Americans in Rhode Island.
I should like to thank Peter who got in touch last week with a correction in the data about his half sister Gretna Edwina Elliot on my Coventry Blitz Victims pages. As is often the case families have more accurate historical information than official records, so many thanks Peter for the update.
Also, author Jayne Shrimpton has been in touch this week with news about her new website. Jayne is an expert at dating old family photos and has written two great books on the subject.
Thanks this week to Sally M, who got in touch regarding details about her Great Uncle in a page on First World War burials in the 'Coventry At War' section of my site. It is great when people share more accurate family history info than provided by public records. I am more than happy to update data, or include related anecdotes or photos that family members wish to share.
The Dictionary Of Old Occupations had a significant update this week. About 20 census occupation definitions have been added to the site, and some existing definitions updated. We are very grateful to Richard W who sent me a list of occupational titles and descriptions from the Barnsley area (many of which were mining related) which he researched for publication in his local Family History Society journal. After checking into all these my husband and I were delighted to write up some dictionary definitions and share all this additional info with you via my site.
Last reminder - For those living nearby there are still a few hours left to head into Coventry and enjoy the Heritage Weekend events!
Ingrid B sent me some information about the old occupation of Pitcher, and Spike M emailed with info about the old occupation of Tisserand. Having checked these out both have been added to the free online Dictionary of Old Occupations. Many thanks to both of you for getting in touch.
Ingrid was initially prompted to get in touch after hearing the term Pitcher on a TV show, where it was used to describe a type of porter who carried meat goods into market overnight. If anyone has evidence to confirm this then it would be great if you got in touch so we can expand the definition.
Also of note this week is that Colin Water’s excellent reference book 'A Dictionary of Old Trades, Titles and Occupations' has just been released as a Kindle ebook. It makes a great alternative to my own work – it is bigger but somewhat pricier. As I have mentioned before, the only reason I do not own a copy myself is so that it did not influence my own work.
The Coventry Family History Society website has had a facelift. I am biased of course (I helped a bit) but I think the new look and feel are great! Check it out here: http://www.covfhs.org.
We currently have a small backlog of old occupations to process. Am aiming to review these shortly (i.e. in the next week or two) and confirm their accuracy before adding them to the site. Thanks to everyone who sent me info to expand the old occupations definitions.
In response to a query from Liz I am looking for evidence regarding the old occupation of Plod Weaver, possibly spelt as Plodweaver. My current thinking is that this is a textile industry occupation (obviously), but the query is whether 'plod' refers to a person operating a loom via their feet, or whether it is a spelling variation on ‘plaid’, describing the fabric.
This occupational title may be a regional term. Liz found it in parish registers for Gt Harwood, LAN near Blackburn. Please get in touch with me if you have any information to share regarding Plod Weavers. If we can crack this one it will help Liz out, and can also be added to my Dictionary of Old Occupations to assist fellow family tree enthusiasts.
Secondly, many thanks to Anita for the lovely flowers she sent me after we researched her husband's family tree as a present for his birthday. The flowers were a wonderful surprise and look beautiful.
Phew! Having returned from a summer holiday I am now back at work and busily researching a variety of family trees. Of specific interest this week I have been going through late 19th century workhouse records for one particular family. Even though a couple of registers were missing I was able to fill in the missing information by looking at the Indoor Relief books.
I would like to thank Ingrid B for supplying me with a couple of suggested additions to the Dictionary of Old Occupations. Whilst doing some volunteer work for FamilySearch, Ingrid came across occupational titles Schoolmistress and Furnace Tender in census records. These have been added to the site, along with Schoolmarm and Schoolmaster.
I have also performed a lengthy spell-checking exercise across www.familyresearcher.co.uk. Some classic typos from my original family researcher site back in 1995 had somehow been carried forwards, but have finally been sorted. Not an easy task when there are thousands of names and archaic job titles being incorrectly flagged up as errors!
For those interested in local history, Coventry Heritage Weekend is not far off. There will be lots of interesting and educational things to see. On Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September. Heritage Weekend provides a rare opportunity for the general public to visit some of the historic buildings in the city free of charge and is well worth checking out. The Old Grammar School will be open for the first time since 1995, and on Sunday there will be a re-enactment of Mary Ball’s trial. She was a convicted poisoner and became famous (or should that be notorious?) for being the last woman in Coventry to be hanged.
It has been a while since I last updated the website because I have been very busy researching family trees for people. I notice an increasing number of Wikipedia entries are citing my website as references within their encyclopaedia articles; these are very welcome as it is nice to be helping people in this way.
I made a little time this weekend to add two occupational definitions to the site. Firstly, in response to a query from Jessica I researched and added a lengthy definition of Zinc Worker, and secondly, I would like to thank Geoff J-Brett for the information he supplied regarding the use of Datallers in coal mining. This has been added to the Dictionary of Old Occupations.
Found a lovely review of my Family Researcher website this week. Head on over to Illiana Ancestors to see what Joan Griffis has to say about some of my free family tree and blitz research resources.
Thanks for your kind words Joan. And I know what you mean about the spellchecker – mine just could not cope either!
Went to the Coventry Archives this week. As I have said previously, it is great to see them open again, and really helpful as I needed to look up historical Workhouse records. Not everything is back to normal yet, in that some shelves are still bare but the records are safe in the vault and available on request. I suspect they are being cautious due to recent vandalism which resulted in broken windows.
Finally, there was a good piece in the Coventry Telegraph this week regarding the reopening of the history centre, and a list of some of the valuable and fascinating old documents they hold – such as a charter from King Henry III, King Edward III and a letter from Anne Boleyn. Great to see things are back to normal, I will be popping in any day now.
Good news! The Coventry Archives, aka the Coventry History Centre re-opened on June 9th after having been closed for repairs since before last Christmas. Opening hours for the Archives are 10:30 to 3:30 Tuesday to Saturday.
This week I have been working on a variety of photo family trees for people. It is interesting to see what the ancestors you are researching actually look like. Compared to a traditional family tree document, I often find that a photo family tree has that bit of extra magic, particularly when I unearth old photographs from 70+ years ago. Do remember to ask about photo family trees if you wish to commission me to research your family tree.
I have been focussing on researching more details about victims of the Coventry Blitz recently, and publishing the findings on my family tree website this week. If you have the surnames Gaskine, Gibbons, Gillespie or Golder in family trees you are researching then these may be of help.
Family tree research has certainly been keeping me busy this week! I found time to add details about members of the Copeland, Cotton and Coulter families to the Coventry Blitz Resource Centre. I was also able to add another photo of a Blitz victim – Alan Hiscocks – kindly supplied by Trevor Harkin.
I had some good news this week; Barnes and Noble are now selling my Dictionary of Old Occupations too. So, if you are a family tree researcher with a Nook then this may interest you. You can find my ebook by searching for either for 'old occupations' or 'Jane Hewitt' on their site, or from this link http://bit.ly/lE1p3R.
Author and historian Trevor Harking kindly donated some photographs of victims of the Coventry Blitz who went to Bablake School. If you are researching Farren, Fraser or Worrod family trees then these may be relevant to you.
Trevor has a new book out about the April 1941 air raids on Coventry. I have always been impressed with Trevor's work, and would encourage anyone interested in WW2 or local history to seek out a copy.
This week sees some promising news about the possible restoration of Coventry Old Grammar School, a magnificent building and part of Coventry’s heritage which is currently suffering from years of neglect. The Church of England has announced the setting up of a trust fund for this purpose. You can read more about this historical building in my Disappearing Coventry section.
I stopped by the Coventry History Centre (a.k.a. Coventry Archives) this week to check on progress. Busy workmen were to be seen, and the floor looked better than last time. Still no definite opening date though.
I have added new research data to my website regarding the Coventry Blitz. If you are tracing local Hockton, Singer, Shaw, Sims, Sharrocks, Scannell or Sharratt family trees then you may find useful data in the Blitz Victims section of my Coventry Blitz Resource Centre.
I would like to give a big thank you to everyone for the supportive comments and nice feedback about our new ebook, the Dictionary of Old Occupations. The kindle version has been most popular so far, but that may change now that Smashwords, who provide the eBook in all other digital formats, have reviewed / quality assessed the book and accepted it into their premium catalogue. This means that it will soon be more widely distributed by organisations such as Barnes and Noble.
Recent family tree research has had me tracing Scottish ancestors back to the early to the early 1800s so far in the Lanarkshire and Ross and Cromarty areas. I have also been tracing English family trees, including one focussing on the Lancashire area which I have managed to research back to 1745. Whilst I have uncovered lots of agricultural workers, my favourite occupation discovered this week was a chap born in 1823 who according to a series of census records spent decades working as a travelling wine and spirit merchant before settling down as a distiller when he got older. You never know what you will uncover when you trace your family tree!
Some great news this week. My Dictionary of Old Occupations is now available to purchase for your ebook reader!
Don’t worry, you can still access the full dictionary online free of charge, only from www.familyresearcher.co.uk. However, for those of you who want to be able to download the dictionary onto your ebook reader to access offline you can now do so legally and cheaply.
You can buy a low cost my Dictionary of Old Occupations from Amazon to use on your Kindle, and it is also available DRM-free from Smashwords in a variety of ebook formats . Enjoy!
Been busy working on my Dictionary of Old Occupations this week. Am delighted to announce that I have added in occupational definitions for trades etc. beginning with M and J. That means that the whole alphabet is covered, finally. A huge amount of time and effort has gone into making this free resource, hope you find it useful! I would like to recognise and thank my husband Paul for all his unpaid work on this project too.
The Dictionary of Old Occupations is not finished though. We have hopes and plans to enhance it further. Check in later to see how this progresses!
Stopped by the Coventry Archives yesterday to see how work is progressing on the repairs. It was good to see work actually taking place. We also took the opportunity to visit the Egypt exhibition at the Herbert gallery, well worth stopping by if you are in the area.
All the best, and have a great Easter.
I have some good news about the Coventry History Centre. It looks as though, after a lot of waiting, repairs may be about to commence! The good staff at the Herbert told us that building repair work is due to start any day this week.
While there is no definitive timescale, the building work is anticipated to take 3-4 weeks. After that is complete the furniture and equipment will need to be installed, this will take another week or two. Fingers crossed we might have access to our local archives in a couple more months.
Special thanks to Ami at the Herbert for updating us on the state of play.
Today is Census Day, so we all have to fill out huge census forms. Some people have valid concerns about the intrusiveness of some questions this time around. As a genealogy enthusiast I hope you can see the value in recording all this personal information which will benefit our descendents when they are researching their own ancestral roots.
The 1911 Scottish Census will be made available to us the public on April 5th this year. Not long to go now, great news for anyone with Scottish ancestry.
Family tree research continues at full pace as always. My spare time this week was spent performing a long overdue housekeeping exercise on the earliest pages I wrote for old occupations beginning with A and B. I am pleased to have updated all 12 of these web pages with additional information to existing definitions, some amendments and clarifications, and to have added several more old occupational titles and their definitions to the dictionary.
The Herbert website still says that the Coventry History Centre (a.k.a. the archives) will reopen in April, but says that the opening date is still unknown. We contacted them for an update, and I will try to stop by to the centre itself to check for notices on the premises. Given the council cutbacks in Coventry we can only hope that they will reopen the archives soon to give us access to records about our heritage. We have been without this facility for several months now.
If you have been trying to contact the Herbert to query the Coventry History Centre reopening then watch out for the broken link on their web page. When you click on the email address it chops off the last few letters so they will not receive your email. You can get around it by copying and pasting the address into an email instead. My husband reported the problem to them today, so hopefully the good people at the Herbert will be able to fix it soon.
Have just completed one of my Silver Family Tree packages for a particularly interesting family with a member in the British army serving in India in the late 1860s (a little after the mutiny), and I was able to unravel the mystery of their family legend linking ancestors to a major player in the old cotton trade.
I would like to thank the person who sent me information about blitz victim W T Upham, I have checked the details and added the information to the website.
This week my husband stumbled upon a website belonging to a genealogist elsewhere in the UK who appears to have outrageously copied 90% or more of his website content directly from my Family Researcher site, pasted it into his own website page after page, then replaced my name and other details with his own. The site appears to have been running since 2009 and the content looked so much like my site that one independent person commented he thought the sites were related.
One can only speculate as to the quality and originality of family tree research one might receive. My husband was in the early stages of initiating legal proceedings as recommended by the US hosting company when the person in question took down their site. He did so after his hosting company contacted him. For this reason I will not ‘name and shame’ him or the site.
Finally this week, I am delighted to report that I have completed another major update to the Dictionary of Old Occupations. Approx 160 old occupations, trades, professions etc. beginning with the letter T have been added to my site, bringing the dictionary total close to 2000 definitions. This project has taken me years of work in my spare time, so it is great to see how near completion it is.
My professional family tree research work has certainly been keeping me busy, but I have made time in the evenings over the last week or so to work on the Dictionary of Old Occupations.
Years ago, when I started typing up my notes on old occupation definitions, there were lots more jobs beginning with the letter C than other letters. I recall starting on these, getting as far as publishing three pages of C prefixed them on my website, before deciding to move on to other letters of the alphabet in order to speed up the overall process.
I am delighted to have revisited the mountain of jobs beginning with C, organised my notes and published the definitions online yesterday. 190+ jobs beginning with C have been added to those previously published. This takes the estimate number of definitions in the entire dictionary to over 1500!
If you know the definitions of old or archaic jobs titles, trades etc. beginning with C that are not on the list then please get in touch. Lots of people are sharing my free dictionary now, it would be great to expand the dictionary even further to help fellow family tree enthusiasts.
The last few weeks have been busy ones where family tree research work has been concerned.
The Dictionary of Old Occupations has proven popular with fellow family tree researchers. I would like to acknowledge the various people who have been in touch regarding old definitions for occupations such as Hind, Vestry Messenger, Intelligence Office and Bondsmen. Some of these were queries from people asking for help with their own ancestors, other were kindly supplying additional info to share on the site.
I would especially like to thank Ibrahim Leadley for generously providing two photographs related to his ancestor Hannah Harrison Lowe, who is reputed to be descended from royalty. An interesting story, from which I typed up a few research notes of my own and added a new page to the familyresearcher website to share these alongside the photographs.
If you are waiting for the archives at Coventry to reopen so you can research local history then I am afraid I have bad news. Despite the Council website presently estimating that the History Centre will reopen around now ("late January") the Herbert website says that the History Centre is closed until further notice, which seems a bit vague.
I have been along to the premises to find out more. The floor is still stripped right back, and repairs seem to be progressing much slower than we hoped. Signage on the premises indicates that it will be around April before the History Centre reopens. Sadly it looks like we will be without access to our heritage records for twice as long as we originally believed!
I would like to thank Sue B this week, who got in touch to tell me about a book called "The Fateful battle Line" which is full of information about the 1/7th Territorial Battalion and what befell them during the war. The book ties in with the Coventry At War section of the site, particularly the war diary of Sgt Edward Brookes.
I am also grateful to Colin and Carol, who provided me with more old job definitions to add to the Dictionary of Old Occupations. I have updated the site this week, and added them in as promised. Carol – In addition to the other occupations you sent me I have added a paragraph about Day Labourers to the site, and will add Junky to the Dictionary along with all the jobs beginning with J as soon as I am able. I only have a few letters of the alphabet to check and transcribe onto the old occupations A-Z lists, but it’s a time consuming job!
This week I have added another 112 old job definitions to the Dictionary of Old Occs. Having spotted too late someone on an online genealogy forum seeking an explanation what a Higgler was, and finding that the answer was in my to-do list, I decided to focus on transcribing my notes about jobs beginning with the letter H and make them available FOC on my familyresearcher website.
So if you discover anything from a Haberdasher to a Huxter in your family tree and are unsure what the job actually was then you may find the answer here.
My family tree website has been updated this week. I have added new information about members of the McKnight, Pointer and White families who were killed in the Coventry Blitz. You can find them in the alphabetical lists in the Coventry Blitz Resource Centre. I have also added a new definition to the Dictionary of Old Occupations for a Watch Case Joint Finisher.
This month Computer Shopper magazine reviewed the latest version of Family Tree Maker, which came out very well indeed. It really is an excellent package and is surprisingly cheap. It is listed on my family tree software page, along with other good packages.
Over the holidays I found time to go through more of my notes about old job and trade definitions. I picked on jobs beginning with the letter F this time. This week I added these to the website, they amounted to six new web pages containing details of 165 definitions. From Faber to Fuyster, you can find these on my Dictionary of Old Occupations, available free of charge to help you understand census records when you research your family tree.
Sadly Coventry Council has yet to announce the reopening of the Coventry Archives after the pre-Christmas flood. Their website page appears to have not been updated since December. It still says that the History Centre is unlikely to reopen before late January, but it also says this is because of the approaching bank holidays. I still recommend you check if the History Centre is open before planning a visit. The number is 024 7683 4060.
Older news updates can be found in the 2010 family tree news archive and the 2009 family tree news archive.
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2019-04-20T04:12:28Z
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https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/family-tree-news-archive-2011.html
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I periodically get a chance to teach classes on comics and graphic storytelling. I was able to teach such a subject in Spring 2012 at USC and hope to teach it again here next year. I shared my syllabus for the class at the time. Early on in the class, the challenge is to get students to think more deeply about the range of different devices which comics artists might use to communicate meaning. We were lucky this most recent time to have a really rich essay on this topic which Randy Duncan wrote for Critical Approaches to Comics, which was our principal textbook. Duncan's essay uses David Mazzuchelli, Asterios Polyp as its primary example. This book turned out to be an eye-opener for many of my students, because of its diverse range of visual symbols, its expressive use of color, and its diverse ways of deploying typefaces to capture the different communication styles of the various characters. Mikhail Skoptsov, then a Cinema School graduate student who was taking the class, was inspired to dig deeper into David Mazzuchelli's work and developed an argument about the persistent interest throughout many of his stories in exploring the challenges characters face in communicating with each other. Skoptsov, now a student in the Media and Cultures program at Brown, has continued to revise this essay and I am delighted to have a chance to share it with you today. My own sense is that it sheds some important light both on Mazzuchelli and on the "language" of comics more generally. Enjoy.
After working on a number of high-profile projects, such as Batman: Year One and Daredevil: Born Again, David Mazzuchelli broke away from superhero comics to self-publish the magazine Rubber Blanket. Despite lasting only three issues, the publication showcased works that Mazzuchelli had fully scripted and illustrated all by himself, forming some of the recurring techniques, themes and motifs he would later apply to his co-adaptation of Paul Auster’s City of Glass (1994) with Paul Karasik and his original masterpiece Asterios Polyp (2009). I would argue that these three works evince that Mazzuchelli is a modern graphic novel auteur, who repeatedly explores issues of language and communication. To prove this, I will examine the aforementioned two novels and the short story Big Man from Rubber Blanket #3.
I will begin by analyzing a scene from Big Man, whose titular character is a mysterious giant that washes up on a riverbank, one day, to the consternation of a rural farming community. When Peter, a farmer, tries to unsuccessfully speak with Big Man, he realizes that the giant doesn’t understand English. In the first of the two bottom panels on page 23, Peter says to Big Man: “If you can understand me, we want to know where you come from.” (23). In the next panel, Peter tries to use hand gestures to clarify the meaning of his words. This time he speaks slowly, placing pauses between his words: “Where… do you… come from?” On the first panel of page 24, the Big Man responds with the sound “Hhhn?”, while mimicking with his hands the action of writing. By doing this, he physically expresses a desire to have something to write with.
Subsequently, we see Peter hand him a file clipper and a pencil in the next couple of panels, evincing that he understood the gesture. Big Man then begins to write. When panel 6 reveals the Big Man’s text, it turns out that Big Man’s writing is indecipherable, as it appears in the form of signs that resemble hieroglyphics, which Peter, the other farmers and the readers cannot understand. This establishes that Big Man normally speaks and writes in a language that is unfamiliar to normal people.
Thus, this series of panels juxtaposes the Big Man’s ability to communicate physically through gesture with his inability to communicate verbally and through writing. Through the juxtaposition, Mazzuchelli proposes the idea that language can be physical, that it does not necessarily have to consist of spoken words and written text. In other words, he espouses an alternate way of communicating. Supporting this idea is the fact that Big Man never utters a word via ‘speech balloons’ or ‘word bubbles’, which represent the traditional means of visualizing dialogue between characters in comics. This is clearly visible in panel 8 on page 34 and panel 2 on page 35, where the little speech-impaired girl Rebecca successfully communicates with Big Man without verbally forming words and sentences.
Instead, as we can see in panels 3 and 4 on page 35, both of them utilize the nasal sound “Snrrt!” to speak to each other. Though they pronounce the same noise, Rebecca’s appears within white speech balloons, designating it as ‘dialogue’, while the Big Man’s “Snrrt” appears outside of a balloon, placing it in line with other noises such as the “THUD” in panel 6. The fact that “Snrrt” appears as both dialogue and noise illustrates that noise can have the same communicative function as dialogue. This positions noise as a viable means of communication, an alternative to speech and writing. Another possible interpretation could be that noise functions as a language, where a single sound can stand in for entire words or sentences.
One could construe the fact that Big Man and Rebecca converse using only “Snrrt” as them speaking a language only they understand. One doesn’t know exactly what Big Man and Rebecca mean by pronouncing “Snrrt!”, but the two apparently understand one another, as they use the sound repeatedly. As such, language becomes intrinsic not just to the plot and story of Big Man, but also to the perception of the titular character by the other characters and by the readers. Language essentially defines Big Man as a character, portraying him as an ‘other’ to the farmers and a familiar to Rebecca.
Language similarly defines the character of Peter Stillman, the reclusive billionaire of City of Glass, who hires main character Daniel Quinn to investigate Peter’s abusive and insane father. Quinn learns that Stillman Senior’s insanity apparently came about as a result of his research on language and religion. As Quinn’s narration indicates, Stillman believed that the fall of man from Paradise brought about the fall of language. After the fall, language “…had been severed from God.” (Karasik and Mazzuchelli 39) The idea of creating a new language or recovering the old language became a driving force for Stillman Sr., which he confirms to Quinn in a park conversation in the last panel on page 69. Thus, Mazzuchelli portrays language in City of Glass as part of one’s identity, as well as a source of character motivation. It can function not just as a means of communication, but as an extension of the characters.
Strengthening this view is the author’s visualization and foregrounding of communi-cation though an expressive utilization of text and word balloons, as well as the combination of words with abstract images. City of Glass first creates the impression that it abides by the traditional visualization of dialogue in graphic novels, wherein all the letters appear in the same font and the same size. For example, in the second panel of page 28, Quinn asks Stillman’s wife Virginia: “How was Peter finally discovered?” Virginia responds: “There was a fire”. Both lines of dialogue appear in spherical speech balloons with all letters in uppercase and in the same font. The majority of conversations within the novel utilize this style.
On the one hand, this establishes the font and speech balloon format Quinn and Virginia speak in as the ‘common’ format of the novel. On the other, this serves to distinguish the sequences, where conversations diverge from this format, which the scene that introduces Stillman Jr illustrates perfectly. When he begins to talk on page 15, the reader should immediately notice that Peter’s dialogue is visually different from that of the other characters. For one thing, his words mix lower and uppercase letters. The word “Peter” for example, capitalizes the “P” and the “T” while leaving the rest of the letters in lowercase. Such an amalgamation suggests that Peter speaks in an inconsistent, disorderly manner, in comparison to the other characters, who speak normally.
For another, Peter’s word balloon reaches deeply into his mouth, in stark contrast to the previous word balloons in the book, all of which appear at a distance from the mouth of the character, whose words they are conveying. This distinct visual presentation gives the impression that the balloon is a part of Peter himself, a natural extension of his character. Compounding this impression are the subsequent panels, which continue to display the word balloons literally emerging from inside Peter, each new panel closing the distance between Peter’s mouth and the frame. The second panel moves towards a medium close-up, the third to a close-up. This continues until the ninth and final panel has literally entered deep inside the throat of Stillman, which resembles an endless black-and-white spiral.
The word balloon continues to emerge from inside the spiral, the pattern making it appear, as if the panels have been following the spiral to its source. This continues in the 3x3 panels from pages 16-23, which display various surreal and abstract images, including a puddle of water (16), a gondolier (17), a grate (19), a bird (20) and a guitar (21). Multiple panels sometimes display the same image, only at different angles, with the gondolier occupying 15 panels from pages 16 and 17. All of the panels feature Peter’s word balloon emerging from the image and resuming his dialogue.
For example, Peter says in panel 9 of page 15: “…They say mother died.” On the next page, the frame displays the word balloon, reaching below the frame, continuing: “I say what they say because I know nothing.” The next panel shows the balloon coming from a puddle, continuing: “There was this. Dark. Very dark…” This combination of images signifies that Peter is the one speaking at all times. He remains the source of the dialogue. However, the reader sees different visual representations of the source/Peter. Thus, the use of multiple visual sources implies a continuous shift in Peter’s manner of speaking. The order of the images seems random and the lack of an identifiable pattern indicates that Peter has no control over what he says, his words essentially transmitting a stream of consciousness.
Additionally, Peter’s sentences can come off as incoherent, full of sudden changes of subject without a logical reason. As the aforementioned three lines of dialogue attest, after talking about the death of his mother, he suddenly and inexplicably shifts towards speaking about the dark room he was in as a child. Altogether, the mixing of uppercase and lowercase letters, the incoherent sentences and the different visual representations of Peter speaking express the idea that Peter is mentally unstable. He himself confirms his instability when he says: “I know that all is not right in my head” (21) As such, Mazzuchelli ultimately depicts communication expressionistically to visualize a character’s interiority to the reader.
Peter’s unique way of speaking/communicating distinguishes him from everyone else within the context of the novel. Thus, the image of the word balloon reaching literally inside him connotes that language is a part of him, an extension of his self. The plot confirms this by positioning Stillman Sr.’s search for language as the cause of his insanity. It compelled him to lock his son alone in a room for 9 years (Karasik and Mazzuchelli 27), ultimately leading to Peter’s mental instability.
Mazzuchelli expands on the idea of language functioning as one’s extension in Asterios Polyp by depicting every single character with a particular text font and speech balloon. To illustrate this, I present Figure 1, which features a sequence from the book between Asterios and his wife Hana, as they try to tell a story to a group of unseen interlocutors in a restaurant. Asterios’ text appears in all six panels in rectangular polygons, while his words are always uppercase, never lowercase, italicized or bold. The rectangular form of his speech balloons reflects his status as a professor of architecture and his preference for, as well his interest solids and rectangular flats. Meanwhile, while the use of solely uppercase letters reflects his aversion to change and his preference for rigid order and structure.
Hana, by contrast, speaks in spherical word balloons and her dialogue uses both uppercase and lowercase letters. This places her in direct opposition to Asterios visually, reflecting her down-to-Earth personality, her openness to change and her interest in non-rectangular figures, such as circles and straight lines, as she herself mentions towards the end of the book. Like in City of Glass, the text frame also functions in an expressive manner. For instance, the third panel portrays Asterios’ hexagonal speech box in the foreground, relegating Hana’s spherical speech bubble to the background.
As Hana describes how “…this one big guy tries to push…”, Asterios interjects with his addition: “Before that though, a couple of women squeezed in front of him.” Instead of telling the viewers via narration that Asterios interrupts Hana, Mazzuchelli depicts this through image and composition by visualizing Asterios’ box over Hana’s bubble. Through this, he additionally conveys Asterios’ egocentrism, his belief that he knows better than Hana. Hence, the text font and the text frame visually define and contrast the characters’ personalities, as well as convey how the characters speak, as opposed to just what they say.
By portraying everyone in the novel with his/her own particular text font and/or frame, Mazzuchelli illustrates that every person has an individual manner of speaking. Thus, the manner of speech becomes an extension of the character. This goes in hand with how the author describes language in Figures 2 and 3. Figure 2 opens with a narration. It states: “What if reality (as perceived) were simply an extension of the self? Wouldn’t that color the way each individual experiences the world?” The images on Figure 2 depict numerous people in a variety of art styles. Thus, the association of word and image indicates that the art styles all represent the different ways that individuals can experience the world.
If one’s perception of reality is an extension of one’s self and one’s manner of speaking is an extension of the self, then, by illustrating how every individual has a distinct manner of speaking, Mazzuchelli conveys that every individual has a different manner of perceiving reality. In Figure 3, the narration continues: “That might explain why some people get along so effortlessly…”. Images of men and women, drawn in an identical art style, appear next to it. In conjunction with the previous figure, the identical art style indicates that these men and women experience the world in a similar manner. The narration indicates that the images represent the people that get along easily, evincing that people who have similar perceptions of reality can effortlessly get along with one another.
Conversely, the characters in the next two images appear in different styles and the narration concludes with: “…while others don’t.” The association of these words with the images signifies that these characters perceive the world differently. So, they do not get along easily. Finally, the author presents two different characters speaking in one overlapping speech bubble. The words inside all say “Hello” in three different languages: English, Hawaiian and Hebrew. The narration below the image refers to the previous statement of people getting along: “Although people do keep trying.” Mazzuchelli associates the act of speaking, the act of verbal communication with individuals getting along or finding a common way of experiencing the world, as the overlapping speech bubble indicates.
This means that if language is key to verbal communication between different individuals, then language can be a means for people to find a common way of experiencing the world. While every character in the novel possesses a distinct style of speech and a unique perception of reality, the English language remains the one constant between them all. So, language becomes an extension of every single character within Asterios Polyp, functioning as an intermediary bet-ween the various individuals’ different perceptions of reality, allowing them to arrive at a unified perception. Together with the examples from Big Man and City of Glass, this proves that Mazzu-chelli is an auteur that visually foregrounds language and communication in comic form.
Overall, we can see that Mazzuchelli emphasizes language and communication throughout his body of work. By expressively using the text, the author helps define his characters through their manner of speech and their use of language. In addition, he raises various questions about how and why people communicate, about what language is and what its functions are. If communication is usually an unobtrusive and inexpressive element of mainstream graphic novels, it is a visible and distinguishing characteristic of the oeuvre of Mazzuchelli. So it isn’t surprising that Mazzuchelli and co-author Paul Karasik compared the adaptation of the novel City of Glass into a graphic novel to “… a translation from one language to another” (Kartalou-polos). In this regard, one could consider Mazzuchelli a graphic novel linguist.
Karasik, Paul and Mazzuchelli, David. City of Glass, The Graphic Novel. Picador, New York 2004. Revised version of Neon Lit: Paul Auster’s City of Glass, Avon Books, 1994. Based on the novel City of Glass by Paul Auster, Sun and Moon Press, 1985.
Mikhail Leonidovich Skoptsov is currently a second semester PHD student at Brown University's department of Modern Culture and Media. He has a BA in Cinema Studies from New York University and an MA in Film Studies from the University of Southern California. His current research interests include: postmodernism in cinema, media piracy, fan productions, serialization in cinema and television, as well as trans-media storytelling.
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2019-04-24T09:07:52Z
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http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2013/02/the-visual-linguistics-of-david-mazzuchelli.html
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What If I Chose Excellence Over Perfection?
Excellence is a healthy version of perfectionism which allows your gifted idealism to serve as an inspiration for action, rather than to reign as a tyrant for whom nothing is ever good enough! In this personal story, InterGifted coach Sandra Pfluger shares how she discovered the difference between the two, and how she was able to overcome her gifted perfectionism once and for all!
"Have you ever thought about the difference between perfectionism and excellence?" I had been rambling to my coach about my utter frustration with a group project for a university course I was taking, when she interrupted me with this question. I beg your pardon? Had I ever what? I'm sure I gave her a very puzzled look. Aren't they the same? And right as I was considering the question, their fundamental difference hit me. It would take a while for it to really sink in, but it was a moment when things suddenly started shifting.
Being a perfectionist wasn't news to me. I knew that having high personal standards, persevering through difficult phases and being meticulous in organising my affairs in order to deliver a certain result was an integral part of me. And I had come to accept it as a facet of my identity. I actually enjoy exploring things in depth, rather than just scratching the surface or meeting the basic requirements. I love putting things in a bigger context, grappling with the sometimes overwhelming complexity of our times and contemplating the purpose of our existence. And after all, being exact, conscientious and well-organised had its benefits. Plus, paying attention to details, doing things accurately and having them in order was not something I had difficulties with. It, sort of, came naturally. It is my gifted brain in flow mode.
One of the benefits of being a perfectionist is satisfaction. Yes, that does sounds like a contradiction, but bear with me for a moment. When you go above and beyond - say when drawing a chart in excel or writing a text or buying a gift or hosting a dinner - a sense of pleasure follows because you enjoy the process and the potential result of the activity. It can even be energising. And perfectionism often comes with appreciation and praise, even admiration. Let's admit it, these are nice perks.
However, perfectionism can lead to serious doubt about one's potential and accomplishment, a disproportional sensitivity to mistakes and a fear of being judged. It is the side of the perfectionism coin that often manifests in compulsive behaviours and obsessive rumination. They in turn lead to anxiety, even panic. And I noticed that I panicked a lot! While I appeared completely calm on the outside (as many people confirmed over time), I would freak out internally. My whole body would go into hyper-mode.
Perfectionism, I realised, had become a strategy for me to stay in control and to protect myself from negative external validation. More than it was about enjoying the process and the potential result. I feared being measured by failure and getting everything perfectly right was my way of controlling the fear. Over time and unconsciously, I had come to see achievement as a direct result of my competence and personal worth. And consequently, making mistakes became a non-option!
I remember a situation at the beginning of my internship at a branch of the Swiss legislature. I was asked to write part of a press release and I was anxious about living up to the expectations. This wasn't just some blurb in a local newspaper that people skimmed at best on their way to the sports section. This was the federal parliament! Different people were working on the draft document and I handed in my section just before lunch. I was nervous about my boss' feedback but overall satisfied with focus I had chosen for my text. Just as I was heading out, my boss caught me in the hallway and called me into his office. There were two typos and a missing comma in my writing. He clearly wasn't impressed, yet the delivery of his feedback was kind and there was no 'punishment'.
At the time, I couldn't see that though. All I saw was the monumental mistakes - plural - had made and all I could sense was panic, which didn't leave me for the rest of the day at work. It followed me home in the train and through much of the night as I was lying awake, going over the conversation with my boss, again and again. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let this happen? The next morning, I woke up scared of going to work because I might make another mistake and get fired.
So the only conceivable option was to make absolutely sure that I would not, under any circumstance, make another mistake. And so I constantly monitored myself, always vigilant of all the possible 'mistake traps' lurking around. I became a control freak and my harshest critic in the quest of perfection.
Being perfectionist and critical often does not stop at the self. It spills over and we become critical, even hypercritical, of others too. Especially when our own standards differ from the ones of other people. Remember the group work situation? Have you ever been in one and at some point said to yourself: "Screw it! I'm going to do it myself. I don't care if I have to put in all the work and they free-ride on it, but that way at least things get done properly?"
Time and again I got into this painful cycle of overcompensating for potential mistakes and flaws of myself and of others, while also spoiling the pleasure of fully completing a task and savouring the result with joy. Why do I hurt myself this way? Being so strict is not healthy! But I would only arrive at this conclusion after the fact. Today I know that perfectionism is a toxic thought pattern that hampers happiness in the long run, and makes us less resilient in response to disease and trauma.
But until some years ago I perceived imperfections as shameful traits. I needed to be flawless right away and all the time. Once - I was living in Washington D.C.- my boyfriend at the time and I were driving in the car, talking about our future. He had just landed his dream job across the country and I would soon return to Switzerland. "So, what are you going to do?" he asked, referring to my professional future. I had no clue! Answering the career question in itself was complicated enough, adding a long-distance relationship to it was just too much. But instead of saying: "I don't know yet, but I know I will figure it out and I would love your support in it," I just started crying, feeling desperate and alone. I had to have the perfect solution but I didn't.
Contemplating the difference between perfection(ism) and excellence has been a mind-opening exercise. I understood that perfection is not only unattainable - a process that puts you forever in a position of non-fulfilment - but it is also based on external expectations and standards. Perfectionism holds us hostage in endless guessing about the nature of these expectations and standards, and in the recurring attempts to live up to them.
Excellence, on the other hand, can be accomplished in whatever you do because it is based on your own individual standards. It still requires dealing with expectations, but they too are your own. And that is the invaluable and freeing work you then get to do: setting your self-chosen expectations and standards.
Breaking the perfectionism spell has been an enormous relief! Yet, deciding to choose excellence over perfection was only the beginning. Bringing excellence into being wasn't such a quick fix. But surprisingly fun.
To begin with, it was much more than an intellectual definition exercise. Simply swapping perfection with excellence and adapting my mental checklist didn't suffice. Creating excellence was an extended quest with a double-mission. And the two missions turned out to be quite closely linked. In fact, progress with one mission often meant advancement in the other. And lagging in one mission many a time meant slowing down in the other.
The obvious mission was about conceptualising my version of excellence. What was I going to fill this void - once inhabited by perfection and now labelled 'excellence' - with? As much as I enjoyed the freedom, I also felt quite helpless about initiating the 'creation process'. Over the years, I had gotten so used to focusing solely on external factors. It was my default setting. And that needed some serious re-programming. This re-wiring of the brain can be particularly challenging for highly sensitive and strongly empathic people who are so keenly aware of the needs of people around them. It's the master class in defining excellence!
So, in order not to fall back into old habits, I needed to give myself room to ponder the excellence question. It started with the word 'stop' for me. It was my signal for critical introspection before embarking on a task or project and before interacting with people. And I applied it to any context that I found myself in.
I screened my mental and behavioural habits, dissected how I approached tasks and activities, and I x-rayed relationships from acquaintances and colleagues, to family members and close friends. Which routines were beneficial for and supportive of the life I wanted for myself? What principles did I want to be my guide when working on projects and in my hobbies? How did I want relationships to look like? I drifted between assessing real-life experiences and my slowly forming idea of excellence. Moments of inner tension bore special insights - realising what you don't want can have such a cathartic effect. As can instances of strong positive resonance.
One element was critical: absolute honesty. No turning a blind eye, no making excuses, no rationalisations. No "what ifs" or "yeah, but maybes". The plain truth.
Staring reality in the eye was even more important with the second, not-so-obvious mission: Making mistakes. Yes, M I S T A K E S. The perfectionist and people pleaser's worst nightmare! But I knew that if I stayed in my safe corner and avoided risk and uncertainty, my idea of what excellence could look like, would be covered in blind spots. I felt huge discomfort even at the thought of consciously getting myself into situations to make mistakes. (I'm typing this with a big smile on my face!) But I was 'all in', so the only way out, was through. Framing it as 'getting out of the comfort zone' and 'experimenting' helped me tremendously.
At that time, I also first learned about Carol Dweck's research on "mindsets" and I noticed how both the growth and the fixed mindset were often competing voices in my head. I saw that in many ways I have a growth mindset - the awareness, the conviction even, that mistakes are integral to learning. Failure drives me to try harder, to improve and grow. People with a growth mindset see effort as a necessary element towards becoming their higher self and they use failure to their advantage. It fuels their courage and energy to persevere.
But I also recognised the fixed mindset in me, which I realised triggered much of my perfectionist behaviour since childhood. It is the anxiousness about how things are going to go, the uncomfortableness when doing new things and the uneasiness with situations that open me up to scrutiny. The shame of not being 'enough' or 'worthy' that lies at the root of these emotions. I recall a question my dad would ask me before exams (even in grad school for my second master's degree at the age of 32): "Do you think you are going pass this exam?", the doubt in his voice more than evident. It was about much more than simply passing the exam. I couldn't allow myself to not get a high grade!
And I remember another formative incident from 5th grade. We had just completed a maths test. One by one, each pupil was called to the teacher's desk. He had us watch while he marked our tests. With the graded test in hand we each had to pass the black board and 'publicly' indicate our grade on it. The moment I drew my stroke on the board, a noticeable murmur went through the classroom. I hadn't gotten the highest grade. That day, I decided that I wasn't any good at maths and later on shied away from the natural sciences altogether. Eventually gave up on becoming a doctor. Either I could do it already or I would never be able to do it. And it was clear that I couldn't! With a fixed mindset, every challenge is a potential threat that makes us lose faith in ourselves and we set ourselves up for self-fulfilling prophecies. Ultimately, we stay confined to places of comfort and controllable outcomes.
So here I was, learning to make mistakes. Zumba and yoga classes became my gentle teachers. I made them my safe 'lab'. There I allowed myself to 'let go of control' and get familiar with the experience of being imperfect. "I will make mistakes in class today, in front of everyone and watch myself in the mirror of the studio," I told myself very consciously. "That's okay. I'm here for myself and to have fun!". And, it was surprisingly fun! Laughing at myself felt so much better than reproaching myself. And I realised how painful my years of salsa classes and dancing had been. Because I had turned them into weekly exercises in perfectionism in an environment made for learning and creative expression. I felt so sorry for my ever so patient dance partner!
Once I stopped pressuring myself, the tension eased and gave way to pleasure. To being in the moment and to reconnecting with myself! And I observed my progress through making an effort. Gradually, I was able to venture farther away from my comfort zone into more risky areas of life.
With time and practice, I nurtured my growth mindset and moulded my idea of excellence. The two missions gradually started coming together. My standards towards myself and others got more refined. In many ways they became more relaxed. If you can cut yourself some slack, it gets easier to do it for others too! Today, I liken my recanting perfection and committing to excellence to a recalibration of my inner compass. My goals, standards and ideals aren't any less high than they used to be. Their quality has however changed markedly. Adaptations in behaviours and the formation of new habits followed. Our brains are wonderful tools to change our minds!
and, finally, I communicate my vision to others who are concerned, so as to reconcile the inner and the outer worlds.
Looking back, this journey to excellence has shown me my humanity with its limitations and endless opportunities. It uncovered the transformative power of effort on the path to mastery and the energy of being truly aligned with your integrous self. It revealed the healing effect of forgiveness for my mistakes. And it taught me that becoming (not being) is the purpose of any quest!
For some people, moving from a mindset of demanding perfectionism to a mindset of nurturing and enjoying excellence is simply a matter of noting the difference and making the change internally. Some places you can start on your own are looking at carried emotions, values, and Dweck's work on mindsets (mentioned above).
For others, as it was for me, it is an entire process, and one that takes caring support and guidance throughout. The things is, many gifted people are frequently told their ideals and standards of excellence are too high, that they should be happy with less, and that their healthy desire for excellence is actually unhealthy perfectionism. Other gifted people really do demand perfectionism from themselves and struggle to conceive of how they could let those standards go. All of these complex issues can take time to unravel, as there can be trauma and toxic shame behind the invalidation or pressure that one has felt to be more or less than they actually are.
If you find that you are struggling to make these shifts alone, there may be some deeper questions to address about what we call 'gifted trauma' (i.e. lack of adequate or accurate social mirroring, or unhealthy levels of pressure to be what you are not or do not want to be). Don't feel like you have to face all of that alone. If you feel you'd like or need support on the journey toward letting go of unhealthy perfectionism and embracing excellence instead, just reach out, the InterGifted coaches and mentors and I would be happy to support you.
Sandra is a career and life coach for gifted people. She lives in Estonia and coaches academics, researchers, and young professionals all over the world for personal and professional fulfillment. Feel free to get in touch with her to schedule a session!
What an excellent way of working with perfectionism. I recognise so much of myself in your description – the perfectionism, the panic-attacks, the hard work of guessing expectations from other people.
Thank you, Irene! So glad to know that my article resonated with you and that you found the ‘excellence way’ inspirational. Enjoy the process of experimenting and learning!
Interesting perspective, Sandra. It requires of me to broaden the meaning the word “excellence” has to me. I am al too familiar with the perfectionism and it’s drawbacks as you so insightfully describe it, and quite happy with wat Dweck’s mindshift brought me sofar (no, not sátisfied yet, ;-)). Moving my target from the absolute “perfect” to the relative “excellent”, did release some of the pressure of not being allowed to make mistakes, and gave “room for some”. However, to me, and the people I apparently mingle with, excellence has always and still portrays a relative value to an external criterium, and not my internal one. To me, sofar, it is still an “outside” performance based perspective, a result of my (non)gifted behaviour. I prefer to focus more on being (fullfilled) rather than doing (excellently), and on criteria that are measured internally on how one experiences their (well) being, in connection with what’s important to yourself, not so much the outside performance in the world. If I read your article correctly, so do you. It is surprisig to me to see this view represented by the word “excellence”. I heard this view for the first time this summer at the SENG conference facilitator training (for parent groups of gifted children), promoted enthusiastically by people who work in gifted education and counseling. I was surprised to hear this interpretation. Now I wonder, who else views it each of these ways?
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I understand your perspective and follow your argument. To me, excellence is very much linked to integrity as I define it for and vis-à-vis myself. It is a(nother) concept that I see primarily shaped internally (the choices I make, the values that I practice, the standards that I hold myself to, etc.). Integrity then becomes decisive in terms of how I experience my being and directly influences my happiness (or well-being). What do you think?
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2019-04-20T10:14:21Z
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https://intergifted.com/excellence-over-perfectionism/
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GENERAL SUMMARY: Clerical functions related to the laboratories. Handles telephone inquiries and call distribution; distributes patient results, filing, sorting, delivery and other general clerical duties. Test Order Entry and specimen handling. Some general laboratory maintenance. Duties may vary dependent on assigned site/department. STANDARD QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties. A. Education / Training: High school diploma or equivalent required. B. Work Experience : Hospital experience preferred C. Certification, Licensure, Registration : Other Qualifications: Accuracy and knowledge of basic computer functions, basic typing skills.
Statement of Purpose The RN II, in addition to all RN I functions, duties and responsibilities, collaborates with other healthcare providers in overseeing an ongoing comprehensive plan of care for a complex patient or groups of patient. Anticipates consequences of altered physiologic homeostasis and utilizes advanced skills to initiate early interventions. Participates in identifying, planning and implementing changes to improve unit operations and patient care outcomes. Qualified to function in the role of preceptor. Assumes responsibility for continued professional development and shares knowledge with others. May apply for Clinical Ladder. See Clinical Ladder guidelines for levels. Job Requirements Education: Graduate of a nursing program: diploma, associate degree, or baccalaureate program. BNS preferred. Experience: 1-2 years of direct patient care as an RN, or after nurse residency or orientation program. Minimum License and Certificates Required: Valid and Current Vermont License - Registered Nurse Reporting Relationships: Supervised By- Manager of the assigned area, Supervision Of- Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Licensed Nurse Assistants, Orderlies, Unit Clerks, and all others assigned to a specific patient care team including students from various Health care programs. Equipment Utilized: Electronic Medical Record, PC, Common Office Equipment, patient equipment for patient population/unit.
GENERAL SUMMARY: Clerical functions related to the laboratories. Handles telephone inquiries and call distribution; distributes patient results, filing, sorting, delivery and other general clerical duties. Test Order Entry and specimen handling. Some general laboratory maintenance. Duties may vary dependent on assigned site/department. STANDARD QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties. Education / Training: High school diploma or equivalent required. Work Experience : Hospital experience preferred Certification, Licensure, Registration : Other Qualifications: Accuracy and knowledge of basic computer functions, basic typing skills.
SUMMARY: Under general supervision, to do medical clerical work of a difficult and specialized nature; and to do related work as required. DUTIES & ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: NOTE: The following are the duties performed by employees in this classification. However, employees may perform other related duties at an equivalent level. Not all duties listed are necessarily performed by each individual in the classification. 1. Extracts from medical records information concerning condition, treatment, tests, medications, operative procedures, and final diagnoses of patients discharged from County hospitals; and sends to appropriate legal, health care, and other agencies. 2. Analyzes patients’ medical charts for completion and accuracy, prepares statements of diagnosis and treatments, and extracts other information required for the completion of forms received from patients’ insurance carriers. 3. Takes and transcribes doctors’ orders, case histories, physical examination notes, and related permanent medical records information and reports containing a wide variety of specialized medical terminology. 4. Acts as a receptionist in a clinical setting; answers telephone calls from providers, patients, doctors, nurses, visitors; screens patients over the phone to correctly refer to medical and specialty clinics; delivers messages to nursing staff, doctors, and ancillary department personnel; makes clinical appointments for patients; and uses intercom system. 5. Uses computer to request lab work, diet orders, x-rays, consults, medical records, medication amounts and schedule, physical therapy, EKG’s; uses computer to charge patients for services provided; gathers and inputs appropriate information in computer to complete the billing process or for case management/financial eligibility purposes; and enters information on RAND sheet. 6. Orders and restocks supplies for the hospital ward or department. 7. Prepares paperwork for admissions, discharges and transfers of patients; reviews medical papers received by mail and appropriately distributes or files; pulls and files charts, medical and lab sheets, etc. in medical records; assists with preparation of payroll and scheduling documents; and types forms, letters, memoranda, etc. 8. Delivers specimens to laboratory following established procedures to insure proper specimen identification and correct test request. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Education: High School diploma or GED with additional training a minimum. College graduate preferred. Minimum Experience: Either one year of experience in the class of Clerk II or an equivalent higher level clerical class with AHS; or equivalent of one year full-time experience in clerical work that requires using and interpreting a wide variety of medical terminology; or completion of a medical terminology course or medical assisting program at an accredited college or university, plus the equivalent of one-year full-time experience in clerical work. Required Licenses/Certifications: CPI -Crisis Prevention Intervention Training (required for all positions at John George Psychiatric Pavilion; and preferred for certain positions in the Emergency Department).
GENERAL DESCRIPTION/STATEMENT: The Cashier reports to the Manager ofFinancial Planning & Analysis. The Cashieris responsible for posting payments received from customers, processing On Linecredit card payments for customers, and preparing deposits along with otherduties assigned by the Manager. ESSENTIAL DUTIES: 1. Receivepayments and provide receipts to walk in customers. 2. Ensure thatmonies received are receipted to proper GL number on CBCL (Cash Book Clearing)worksheet for Home Office. 3. Processcredit card payments for patients via On-Line Bill Pay and any other creditcard transactions via the credit card machine. 4. Processcommercial credit card payments for Good Day Foundation submitted by Eye CareServices. 5. Post AroostookHealth Center (AHC) patient payments received from Mars Hill Nursing Home. 6. Prepare moneyfor Healthy Aging events, verify deposit, create deposit slip, and post to CBCLwith correct GL number. 7. Calculateand post discounts and adjustments for each patient payment received. 8. Forward any necessary/requested documents topatient accounts. 9. Maintain gascards issued by EMHS Foundation and distribute to various departments asrequested. 10. Prepare a summary cash-up sheet listing total ofbatch of checks separating total between patient and general ledgeramounts. 11. Endorse eachcheck with proper bank stamp. Complete bank deposit slips. 12. Scan all checks for each deposit attachingbatch pages. 13. Verify the cash drawer for both Cafeteria andPatient change to ensure that the daily beginning balance is correct. 14. Verify the receipts and cash ups are completeand accurate for various locations throughout AR Gould including but notlimited to Cafeteria, Gift Shop, AHC, and Medical Records. 15. Scan all cash ups in Document Imaging. 16. Scan bank deposit receipts into W:Drive/Deposit Receipt Folder. 17. Greet customers courteously and promptly. 18. Direct patients to appropriate departments forappointments as needed. 19. Direct patients to the billing department ifthey have questions concerning their bills. 20. Collaborate with Access Management to update patientaddresses in Siemens billing system. 21. Research patient credit balances. Work with Patient Accounts to submit anyrefunds that may be due to patients. 22. Verify, postand scan all physician practice site cash ups. OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES: Performs other work-related duties asassigned. LICENSE REQUIREMENTS: None AVAILABILITY REQUIREMENTS: Available weekdays, some evenings and weekendsinfrequently. Also available to attendseminars and educational workshops. EDUCATION SKILLS, EXPERIENCEREQUIREMENTS: 1. Associate degree with accounting skills or relatedexperience. 2. Excellent interpersonal skills. 3. Computer skills including Microsoft Excel. PHYSICAL DEMAND REQUIREMENTS: 1. Sitting. 4-8 hours/day. 2. Standing. Less than 1 hours/day. 3. Walking. Less than l hours/day 4. Lifting. 10-25 lbs with good body mechanics. 5. Twisting. Infrequently,1/120 or greater twists/day. 6. Bending. Infrequent bends hours/day. 7. Squatting/Kneeling. Less than l hours/day. 8. Endurance. Light energy requirements. 9. Wrist Position. Moderate deviation. 10. Pinching. Frequent, 500-1000 pinches per day. 11. Hand/Wrist Repetitions. 3000/4800/day or more. 12. Manual Dexterity. Frequent fine motor skills required. 13. Either Handedness. 40%- 60% of job cycle time. 14. Both Handedness. 40%-60% of job cycle time. 15. Sight. Requires corrected 20/20 near vision and minimal far vision. 16. Hearing. Can hear whispered voice at eight (8) feet (FAA class II). 17. Speech. Frequent clear speaking ability required. 18. Exposure to Infection. Minimal. ENVIRONMENT FACTORS: 1. High/Low Temperature. Work environment 70 - 80?F. 2. Noise. Slight, occasionally fairly loud sounds. 3. Working with Others. Moderate, association is intermittent and necessary. 4. Confined Spaces or Cramped Body Positions.Work in cramped positions/confined spaces (0 hours per week). 5. Body Injuries. Unlikelihood of significant traumatic injury. 6. Moving Objects. Unlikelihood of significant injury frommoving objects. 7. Toxic Conditions. Unlikelihood of exposure to toxic conditions. 8. Role Ambiguity. Slight, rarely is it not clear what othersexpect of the worker. COGNITIVE: 1. Problem-Solving Skills. Frequent problem-solving skills required. 2. Judgment/Assessment.Continuously assesses situations and determines corrective actions needed. 3. Supervision.No supervisory requirements. 4. Reading/Comprehension.Must be able to read and comprehend greater than Grade 10 level ofinstructions. 5. Math/Arithmetic.Must be able to add, subtract, multiply, divide, perform fractions, andcalculate percentages. EMOTIONAL ENVIRONMENT: 1. Composure Under Working Conditions(including demanding, and/or rude, residents/staff/visitors). Must remain calm and exercise self-control inworking relationships with staff, visitors, and patients. 2. Coping Skills for Stresses Associated with Duties. When working to educate others, understandall people have different learning levels and some take more time than others. 3. Coping Skills for Stresses Associated with Illness, Disability, Dying and/or Death. Not a requirement of this job or notassessed. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS REQUIRED: 1. Willingness to work cooperatively isnecessary. 2. Strong public relations and customersatisfaction motivation.
SALARY: $2,520 PER MONTH, SR-08, BU:03 The appointee to this position has potential to become permanent. Permanent civil service employees who are selected for a temporary position must request return rights to their permanent civil service position, or an equivalent position, prior to appointment. JOB DUTIES: TO RECEIVE, INSPECT, BREAKDOWN INTO ISSUING UNITS, LABEL, INVENTORY AND DISBURSE EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES TO THE UNITS AND DEPARTMENTS OF HILO MEDICAL CENTER. MUST BE AVAILABLE TO WORK SHIFTS, WEEKENDS AND HOLIDAYS AS NECESSARY BASED ON HOSPITAL OPERATIONS; SERVICES ARE PROVIDED 24/7. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: To qualify, one must meet all of the following requirements. Unless specifically indicated, the required education and experiences may not be gained concurrently. In addition, qualifying work experiences are based on a 40-hour workweek. EDUCATION: High School graduate preferred. GENERAL EXPERIENCE: One-half (1/2) year of work experience involving a variety of clerical tasks which demonstrated knowledge of arithmetic including multiplication and division; and the ability to follow oral and written instructions, carry out procedures in clerical work systems, speak and write simply and directly, and compare words and numbers quickly and accurately. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: One-half (1/2) year of work experience involving clerical work which demonstrated knowledge of store keeping practices, methods and procedures, and inventory record keeping procedures. SUBSTITUTIONS ALLOWED: SUBSTITUTION OF SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE FOR GENERAL EXPERIENCE: Excess Specialized Experience may be substituted for the required General Experience on a month-for-month basis. SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE: FOR GENERAL EXPERIENCE: 1. Successful completion of a substantially full-time equivalent clerical curriculum of a duration of six months or more at an accredited community college, business or technical school, which included courses in (a) English and (b) mathematics or bookkeeping may be substituted for the General Experience required. 2. Education in an accredited university in a baccalaureate program with courses in (a) English and (b) mathematics or accounting may be substituted for the General Experience required on the basis of 15 semester hours for 6 months of experience. FOR GENERAL AND SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: 1. Successful completion of a substantially full-time equivalent clerical curriculum of a duration of a year or longer, leading to a degree or diploma at an accredited community college, or at a business or technical school which included courses in (a) basic English, (b) mathematics or bookkeeping and (c) storeroom operations, supply management, or a related course, will be deemed to have met the experience requirements for the Stores Clerk II level. 2. Successful completion of a substantially full-time equivalent clerical curriculum leading to a degree, diploma, or a certificate of achievement at an accredited community college, business school or technical school which was for a period of less than one (1) year may be substituted for the General or Specialized Experience on a month-for-month basis provided the training included courses in (a) basic English, (b) mathematics or bookkeeping and (c) storeroom operations, supply management, or a related course. 3. Education in an accredited university in a baccalaureate program with courses in (a) English, (b) mathematics or accounting, and (c) supply management or a related course may be substituted for 6 months of the General Experience and up to 6 months of the Specialized Experience on the basis of 15 semester hours for 6 months of experience. SUPPLEMENTAL FORM: Applicants must submit at the time of application, the SUPPLEMENT for STORES CLERK II.
The Student Credentialing Coordinator & Standardized Patient/Clinical Skills Educator (SP/CSE) Program Educator ensures that students obtain proper documents and credentialing materials for approved Out of Network rotations. Coordinates submission of necessary documents at institutions outside the ACOM clinical network as required by those institutions to verify each student is properly credentialed to enter the rotation. The Student Credentialing Coordinator & SP/CSE Program Educator is also responsible for assisting the Simulation and Standardized Patient Program Coordinator in the discharge of responsibilities necessary for performing those vital functions of PErformance Exam Suite (PES) activities. The breakout time annually will be 60% student credentialing coordinator duties and 40% SP/CSE assist activities. Responsibility calendar highlighting this FTE breakout will be created on an annual basis at least 60 days prior to beginning of each academic year under the coordinator of Student Credentialing Manager and Director of Clinical Competency Center. Job Responsibilities and Duties: Assists with obtaining students' immunizations and certifications prior to matriculation, during preclinical and clinical clerkship activities. Assists with updating E* Value database consisting of documents and materials needed for clerkship rotations. Assists with training students on E*Value software. Assists OMS-111 and OMS-IV students in obtaining required information and documents for applying to clerkship rotations such as Certificate of Insurance, Letters of Good Standing, and numerous other documents required. Assists with maintaining a database of student drop/add schedule change forms for clerkship rotations that students must complete for rotations. Communicates via email, telephone, and fax in a timely manner with programs/hospitals and students to ensure all credentialing documents are submitted for clinical clerkship rotations. A written log of communication will be maintained. Certifies through E* Value system Out of Network clinical clerkship rotations for third and fourth-year students in a timely manner. Interacts closely with Clinical Sciences and Clinical Resources personnel (e.g., Regional Coordinators, Core Site Coordinators, Director of Clerkship Recourses Management, Affiliation Agreement Coordinator, Clerkship Systems Analyst, Clinical Science Coordinator, etc.). Works closely with the Registrar's office and Clerkship Systems Analyst verifying that graduation requirements of OMS-111 and OMS- IV students including the appropriate number of weeks of rotations is met by using a tracker form. Works closely with ERAS, MSPE, and VSAS Coordinator to ensure credentialing documents are prepared for student VSAS applications. Works with Clinical Resources in the process of Preceptor Credentialing. Duties include but are not limited to training Clinical Faculty on credentialing process for Preceptors and overseeing that credentialing folders are approved by Clinicians and the Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences , then returned to Clinical Resources in a timely manner. Assists with the planning of annual Credentialing Fair & Clerkship Fair events for OMS-II students. Maintains Clinical Skills Educator (CSE) scheduling for select Performance Exam Suite (PES) events; Organizes and monitors CSEs during select PES events; Schedules, coordinates and educates CSEs during training events. Assists with set up for PES events such as PE Skills Labs, OSCES, FOSCES, MINI OSCES, SSmall Groups and TBLS. Assists and supports Standardized Patients (SPs)/CSEs during select PES events. Assists with retrieval of students from the waiting area during select PES events. Assists with computers and troubleshooting during SOAP NOTE portion of select PES events. Contributes to team effort by preforming other duties as needed/assigned. Other duties as assigned by the Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities : Excellent interpersonal skills, a flexible mindset, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment. The Candidate must have solid working knowledge of Microsoft Office, and the ability and willingness to learn new software. This position requires excellent communication and ability to provide information in a timely manner. Computer proficiency is required. Documentation and archiving skills required. Qualifications: Requires a minimum of 5 years' experience working in a fast paced office with preference given to College, University and/or Physician office environment Requires Medical knowledge with a degree in the healthcare profession such as LPN/RN Requires experience in scheduling in a healthcare-related facility Requires credentialing experience for physicians and/or students Requires demonstrating high level of skills in email communications Requires knowledge of all Microsoft Office, including Outlook and 365 programs, and Adobe Acrobat Requires the ability to set priorities, meet deadlines, and perform assignments accurately Requires strong preference for an individual with strong writing skills and documented interest in improving the performance of the unit in the workplace, identifying and capitalizing on value added opportunities Requires flexibility to work early/late and/or on weekends for particular tasks and demonstrate ability to work in a team environment, yet work independently. Requires initiative and the ability to handle confidential information with discretion in incumbent with applied state and federal laws. Preferred superior organizational skills with an ability to work independently; strong attention to detail and an ability to interact diplomatically with a wide variety of constituents, and to work effectively as part of a team.
INTRODUCTION Under the supervision of the Director of Revenue Reimbursement, the Practice Management Training Coordinator is responsible for assisting the Senior Practice Management Specialist in planning and executing assigned projects. Tasks can include system configuration, training end users and super-users, planning for upgrades and enhancements, and overall support of Unity's Practice Management system. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Performs Clinical Practice Management Systems training for all new employees and other staff members. Assists with maintaining and updating policy, procedure, and/or front office workflows. Maintains strict confidentiality regarding confidential conversations, documents, and files. Assists in the monitoring and follow-up with staff using the practice management system. Assists Sr. PM Training Specialist with monthly registration clerk meetings. · Assists in configuration and testing activities to build and validate the system according to Unity's requirements. · Plans, schedules, and tracks project timeline and milestones and deliverables using the appropriate tools. Configures eClinicalWorks system at the request of ECW stakeholders, including development of provider working hours and visit types and visit type rules. Assists in facilitating and supports standard system design and configuration decisions for Unity's PM functionality by working collaboratively with medical and clinical staff across all sites. Supports specialized training regarding schedule maintenance and document management . · Provides on-site support as needed with PM initial implementation, upgrades, or enhancements. Monitors and responds to support "Ticket" requests. Travels to sites to follow up on training and support issues. Performs other duties as assigned. QUALIFICATIONS Associates degree required; Bachelor's degree preferred. Minimum of three (3) years working experience in health services operations. § Minimum of three (3) years experience in registration, billing, or charge entry functions. § Experience as a Registration Clerk III or cashier preferred. KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED BY THE POSITION · Familiar with medical billing and collection procedures to include Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance, and self-pay. · Extensive knowledge of computer software programs to include, Excel, PowerPoint, MS Word, (eClinical Works, AS/400 or other Patient Management Systems a plus). · Prior experience as a team leader. · Demonstrated experience as a practice management trainer. · Ability to work under pressure and independently with minimum of supervision. · Ability to work in a team oriented environment and interrelate well with individuals. · Good oral, written, and telephone communication skills. · Superior communication skills. · History of positive customer relations as demonstrated by supervisor recommendation.
Minimum 2 years previous medical surgical experience required. Currently licensed as a Registered Nurse in the State of Michigan. For those hired into an RN position after January 1, 2009, it is required to obtain a BSN within five years of their start date as an RN. Certification in the specialty area of practice is strongly encouraged. Experience in the clinical area in which application has been made is desirable. Is a self-directed professional with the ability to make independent judgments directing patient care. Demonstrates ability in using the computer with Windows format preferred. ORGANIZATION Accountable to the Unit Manager or designee of the assigned patient care unit; ultimately accountable for the practice of nursing to the Vice President, Patient Care Services. Provides direction to and supervision of LPNs, Techs, Clerks, Nursing Assistants, and/or other categories as needed. Works collaboratively and effectively with all members of the Patient Care Team. AGE OF PATIENTS SERVED Cares for patients in the age category(s) checked below: Neonatal (birth-1 mo) Young adult (18 yr-25 yrs) Infant (1 mo-1 yr) Adult (26 yrs-54 yrs) Early childhood (1 yr-5 yrs) Sr. Adult (55 yrs-64 yrs) Late childhood (6 yrs-12 yrs) Geriatric (65 yrs & above) Adolescence (13 yrs-17 yrs) X All ages (birth & above) No direct clinical contact with patients Age of Patients Served is dependent on the specific populations cared for on the Unit. SPECIFIC DUTIES Supports the Mission, Vision and Values of Munson Healthcare. Embraces and supports the Performance Improvement philosophy of Munson Healthcare. Promotes personal and patient safety. Uses effective customer service/interpersonal skills at all times. Uses effective customer service/interpersonal skills at all times. Follows Scope and Standards of Practice from American Nurses Association as listed below. Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned. Supports the mission statement of Munson Healthcare (MHC), Munson Medical Center (MMC) AND Munson Nursing: Munson Healthcare and its partners work together to provide superior quality and promote community health.
Additional Requirement: Position Requires travel/relocation: POSITION SUMMARY: The Registered Dietitian works closely with the departmental and interdisciplinary health care team to provide inpatient care that is integrated and compatible with patient-centered medical goals and objectives. Utilizes the Nutrition Care Process and Terminology (NCPT) to assess nutrition status, identify nutrition diagnoses, and develop, implement, and evaluate outcomes of nutrition care plans for patients at nutrition risk. Provides nutrition education and counseling to patients, families, and the community. Trains nutrition and dietetics interns and other health care professionals. Applies evidence-based nutrition practice guidelines, instructional methods, and tools. POSITION QUALIFICATIONS: Education/Experience: Bachelor’s degree in dietetics, foods and nutrition, or related area granted by a US regionally accredited college or university, or foreign equivalent. Completion of required dietetics coursework and supervised practice through a Didactic Program in Dietetics and Dietetic Internship, or a Coordinated Program in Dietetics accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Certification/License: Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR); certification/licensure as required by state of practice. Ability to maintain assigned work hours: Requires endurance to perform tasks over long periods of work hours. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: * Nutrition Assessment * Assesses nutrition status of patients by systematically collecting, recording, and interpreting relevant data from patients, clients, family members, caregivers, and other individuals and groups. * Utilizes food-/nutrition-related history; anthropometric measurements; biochemical data, medical tests, and procedures; nutrition-focused physical findings; and client history to determine factors affecting nutrition and health status, and compares data to criteria, relevant norms, and standards for interpretation and decision making. * Organizes and categorizes the data in a meaningful framework that links nutrition assessment parameters with nutrition diagnoses, and determines when a problem requires consultation with or referral to another provider. * Nutrition Diagnosis * Finds patterns and relationships among the nutrition assessment data to identify a nutrition problem that can be resolved or improved through treatment/nutrition intervention. * Prioritizes the relative importance of problems for patient/client/group safety. * Utilizes standard nutrition diagnostic terminology to write a PES (problem, etiology, and signs/symptom) statement that describes the problem, its root cause, and the assessment data that provide evidence for the nutrition diagnosis. * Nutrition Intervention/Plan of Care * Formulates a nutrition intervention plan based on the nutrition diagnosis and its etiology that prioritizes diagnoses based on urgency, impact, and available resources; utilizes evidence-based nutrition practice guidelines and other practice guidelines; coordinates care with other health care providers; and considers patients’/clients’ values and expected outcomes. * Selects nutrition intervention strategies to affect nutritional intake, nutrition-related knowledge or behavior, environmental conditions, or access to supportive care and services. * Confers and collaborates with patient/client/caregivers to implement and communicate the nutrition care plan; defines time and frequency of care, including intensity, duration, and follow-up; modifies the plan of care as needed. * Nutrition Monitoring and Evaluation * Identifies patient/client outcomes relevant to the nutrition diagnosis and intervention plans and goals to determine the amount of progress made and whether goals/expected outcomes are being met. * Monitors and measures outcomes by selecting nutrition care indicators that are relevant to the nutrition diagnosis and its etiology and signs and symptoms, as well as to the nutrition intervention, medical diagnosis, and quality management goals for nutrition, practice setting, patient/client population, and disease state and/or severity. * Compares current findings with previous status, nutrition intervention goals, and/or reference standards to evaluate the overall impact of the nutrition intervention on the patient’s/client’s health outcomes. * Counseling and Education * Provides nutrition counseling and education to patients, families and caregivers, and the community using evidence-based nutrition practice guidelines and appropriate instructional methods and tools. * Assists in the education of nutrition and dietetics students and interns; plans learning experiences, teaches, and evaluates performance. * Documentation and Communication * Documents relevant, accurate, and timely information performed in the Nutrition Care Process in the patient’s electronic medical record. * Communicates and influences treatment interventions determined by the medical team through interdisciplinary meetings, rounds, medical conferences, and nutrition-related in-services; serves as a resource on nutrition issues. * Works collaboratively with foodservice staff and ambulatory dietitian(s) to assure conformance with and continuation of nutrition care plan. * Accreditation and Regulatory Compliance * Demonstrates accountability with the rules for use and disclosure of patient/client protected health information required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). * Assures that care delivered to each patient is in accordance with state regulation and licensing, certification, or registration for the nutrition and dietetics practitioner. * Assists in achieving compliance with The Joint Commission, Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP), or other accrediting agency standards to continuously improve both the safety and quality of care for the patient/client and the organization’s overall performance. * Complies with federal requirements set forth under the Centers for Medicare andMedicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoP) and/or Conditions of Coverage (CoC) in order to receive Medicare/Medicaid payment; ensures state and local certification for health, safety, and quality standards are met. Management Functions: * Maintains productivity standards and practices effective time management and prioritizing of tasks. * Maintains accurate record keeping of daily clinical activities, including information for scheduling and billing. * Manages resources (time, materials, and staff) in a cost-effective manner. * Oversees and assigns the workload of nutrition and dietetics technicians and diet clerks. * Participates in the orientation and training of students, nutrition and dietetics technicians, and new dietitians.
ED Nurses: Relocate to beautiful Traverse City and work in a fast-paced, 43-bed, Level II Trauma Center in a state of the art Emergency Department! ENTRY REQUIREMENTS Currently licensed as a Registered Nurse in the State of Michigan. For those hired into an RN position prior to January 1, 2009, it is encouraged to obtain a BSN. Certification in the specialty area of practice is also encouraged. For those hired into an RN position after January 1, 2009, it is required to obtain a BSN within ten years of their start date as an RN. Certification in the specialty area of practice is strongly encouraged. For those hired into an RN position after January 1st, 2015, it is required to obtain a BSN within 5 years of start date Experience in the clinical area in which application has been made is desirable. Is a self-directed professional with the ability to make independent judgments directing patient care. Demonstrates ability in using the computer with Windows format preferred. ORGANIZATION Accountable to the Unit Manager or designee of the assigned patient care unit; ultimately accountable for the practice of nursing to the Vice President, Patient Care Services. Provides direction to and supervision of LPNs, Techs, Clerks, Nursing Assistants, and/or other categories as needed. Works collaboratively and effectively with all members of the Patient Care Team. Age of Patients Served is dependent on the specific populations cared for on the Unit. SPECIFIC DUTIES Supports the Mission, Vision and Values of Munson Healthcare. Embraces and supports the Performance Improvement philosophy of Munson Healthcare. Promotes personal and patient safety. Uses effective customer service/interpersonal skills at all times. Uses effective customer service/interpersonal skills at all times. Follows Scope and Standards of Practice from American Nurses Association as listed below. Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned. Supports the mission statement of Munson Healthcare (MHC), Munson Medical Center (MMC) AND Munson Nursing: Munson Healthcare and its partners work together to provide superior quality and promote community health. STANDARDS OF PRACTICE Assessment: Collects health data in a systematic and ongoing manner involving the patient, family, and other health care providers as appropriate. Determines the priority of data collection based on the patient's immediate condition or needs. Documents relevant data in a retrievable form. Diagnosis: Derives diagnoses from the assessment data. Validates with the patient, family, and/or other healthcare providers and documents. Identification of Outcomes: Involves the patient, family, and other healthcare providers in formulating outcomes from the diagnosis that are individualized and includes a time estimate for attainment. Determines outcomes that are culturally appropriate, realistic, attainable and measurable. Documents expected outcomes as measurable goals. Planning: Individualizes a plan of care with the patient, family, and other health care providers that prescribe interventions to attain expected outcomes. Develops a plan of care that establishes priorities, provides for continuity, and is documented. Implementation: Implements the plan of care in a safe, timely, and appropriate manner and documents interventions. Coordinates and collaborates in care delivery. Employs health teaching and health promotion strategies. Evaluation: Evaluates the patient's progress toward attainment of outcomes and includes the patient, family, and other health care providers as appropriate. Documents the patient's responses to the interventions.
SALARY: $2,688 PER MONTH, SR-11, BU:03 The appointee to this position has potential to become permanent. Permanent civil service employees who are selected for a temporary position must request return rights to their permanent civil service position, or an equivalent position, prior to appointment. JOB DUTIES: POST, BILL RECONCILE AND RECORD HOSPITAL ACUTE, LONG-TERM CARE AND OTHER CHARGES IN A TIMELY MANNER; CHARGES MAY BE POSTED MANUALLY OR ELECTRONICALLY; COMMUNICATES DIRECTLY WITH PROVIDERS OF SERVICES, INSURANCE AGENCIES AND RECIPIENTS OF SERVICES OR THEIR RESPONSIBLE PARTIES; PERFORMS OTHER DUTIES AS ASSIGNED; MUST BE AVAILABLE TO WORK SHIFTS, WEEKENDS AND HOLIDAYS AS NECESSARY BASED ON HOSPITAL OPERATIONS; SERVICES ARE PROVIDED 24/7. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS To qualify, you must meet all of the following requirements. Please note that unless specifically indicated, the required education and experience may not be gained concurrently. In addition, qualifying work experience is credited based on a 40-hour workweek. GENERAL EXPERIENCE: One-half (1/2) year of work experience which demonstrated knowledge of arithmetic, spelling and possession of the abilities to follow oral and written directions, to write simply and directly, and to observe differences in words and numbers quickly and accurately. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Two (2) years of work involved in posting to accounting records and other systematizing of fiscal information, i.e., computing, classifying and recording numerical data to keep sets of financial accounting records complete and to derive reports therefrom. Such experience must have demonstrated terminology pertinent to accounts maintenance operations and office practices and procedures relating to the processing and recording of transactions and accounting information. SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE: 1. Graduation from high school with courses in basic English and arithmetic may be substituted for six (6) months of General Experience. 2. Successful completion of a substantially full-time equivalent accounting curriculum: leading to a degree or diploma at an accredited business school, community college, or other comparable institution which included accounting courses in double-entry procedures in analyzing, recording and summarizing transactions; and the preparation and interpretation of financial statements, may be substituted for Specialized Experience on the basis of one (1) year of such training for one (1) school year of experience. 3. Completion of one (1) school year of (more than one year program) substantially full-time accounting curriculum which normally leads to a degree or diploma at an accredited business school, community college, or other comparable institution which included accounting courses in double-entry procedures in analyzing, recording and summarizing transactions; and the preparation and interpretation of financial statements may be substituted for one (1) year of Specialized Experience. 4. Education in an accredited university in a baccalaureate program may be substituted for Specialized Experience on the following basis: a) Fifteen (15) semester hours of training may be substituted for six (6) months of experience, provided the training included at least three (3) credits per semester of accounting courses such as accounting theory and methods used to record and report financial information; analysis of methods for valuing the assets, liabilities, and ownership; etc. SUPERVISORY APTITUDE: Must demonstrate possession of aptitude or potential for the performance of supervisory duties or potential for the performance of supervisory duties through successful completion of regular or special assignments which involve some supervisory responsibilities or aspects; by serving as a group or team leader, or in similar work in which opportunities for demonstrating supervisory capabilities exist; by completion of training courses in supervision accompanied by application of supervisory skills in work assignments; or by favorable appraisals by a supervisor indicating the possession of supervisory potential. Supplemental Forms: Applicants must submit at the time of application, the Supplement for Account Clerk.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS: Pharmacy Technician License issued by the State of Michigan or a temporary license by starting date and full licensure within 180 days of hire date . High school diploma (or G.E.D. equivalent), courses in chemistry and biology preferred. Pharmacy Technician Associate of Arts Degree, Associates degree with pharmacy experience, Bachelor's degree preferable. Pharmacy experience. (minimum 1 year) Training, knowledge and experience in aseptic technique and intravenous admixture preparation are desired. Knowledge of medications, medical nomenclature and ability to read physicians' orders is desirable. Knowledge of how hospitals operate and function is desirable. Good visual, manual dexterity and physical ability to withstand the majority of shift on feet, moving around. Must have legible handwriting and/or printing. Must have numerical comprehension and mathematical skills. Ability to communicate verbally, comprehends verbal instructions, and has good telephone etiquette. Experience with on-line computer systems is desirable. General clerical skills. Failure to obtain Full License within 180 days will result in termination of employment. ORGANIZATION: Under supervision of the Pharmacy Manager in conjunction with Pharmacy Technician Coordinator. May receive instructions from the Director, other Pharmacy Managers or any Pharmacist. Daily activities are set forth but not limited by a responsibility list and monitored by general and direct supervision from the staff pharmacists and/or Team Leader pharmacist. All medications prepared or obtained for dispensing must be prepared under the supervision of and checked by a Registered Pharmacist. Has daily working contact with other hospital personnel from various departments. SPECIFIC DUTIES: 1. Supports the Mission, Vision and Values of Munson Healthcare 2. Embraces and supports the Performance Improvement philosophy of Munson Healthcare. 3. Promotes personal and patient safety. 4. Ability to obtain Medication Histories from patients, family, and health care providers by using verbal questioning and available technology. 5. Has basic understanding of Relationship-Based Care (RBC) principles, meets expectations outlined in Commitment To My Co-workers, and supports RBC unit action plans. 6. Uses effective customer service/interpersonal skills at all times. 7. Monitors printer and triages printouts from the computer system in a timely manner. 8. Process admission, discharges, and transfers. 9. Performs general housekeeping on each shift in order to maintain a neat, clean, organized work area. 10. Performs nursing unit inspections according to the State Board of Pharmacy and Joint Commission expectations as assigned. 11. Answer phone with skill and demonstrates skill in taking messages and referring phone calls to the appropriate people. 12. Replenishes and checks all medications and expiration dates in various drug kits and trays according to approved lists of contents. 13. Performs the inventory control, stocking, outdate checking, unit-dose packaging, checking in and storage, and fiscal inventory of medications in all areas of the Pharmacy Department. 14. Fills, updates, and delivers unit dose carts at scheduled times along with medications and items placed on top of carts watching to assure complete transfer of all bins and certain types of medications that should be transferred to the patient bin remaining on the nursing unit. 15. Follows proper hand hygiene and abides with hand hygiene policies at all times, including cleaning hands between each patient room. 16. Performs requisition pick-up, filing, and delivery of medications for patients and floor stock. 17. Answers questions and problem solves on phone, at service window, and on rounds for issues concerning Pharmacy operations. Refers all situations (phone calls and otherwise) to the pharmacist when questions requiring judgment arise concerning pharmaceutical and/or medical knowledge. 18. Attends all mandatory in-service programs as determined by Munson Medical Center. 19. Performs some secretarial type duties such as record keeping and filing. 20. Makes periodic rounds to patient care areas to pick up physician orders, returned medications and solutions, and other paperwork for the Pharmacy Department. Drop off patient's medications to in-box and refrigerator and check refrigerator for unused admixtures. 21. Performs credits and debits for the pharmaceutical charging system, and processes returns as patients are discharged or other changes occur. Ascertains that the department clerk receives all charge documents. Returns credited medications to stock. 22. Organizes IV admixture labels and compares them with I.V. returns to determine reuse possibility. 23. Delivers and processes required records for controlled substances at scheduled times or time periods and double-checks medications, strengths, quantities, and nurse's signature as nurse is accepting delivery. Reports any problems immediately to pharmacist. 24. Participates in annual inventory. 25. Assists in maintaining all records required in monitoring productivity statistics and Quality Assurance programs. 26. Assists in the training of new Pharmacy employees. 27. Prepares and delivers medications and controlled substances to units with automatic dispensing cabinets (ADC) and appropriately bar codes medications. 28. Outdate checking sections as assigned. 29. Refills pharmacy kits and trays. 30. Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
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2019-04-23T02:33:09Z
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https://jobboard.healthcaresource.com/jobs-classic/?keywords%5Ball_words%5D=lab%20clerk%20ii¬_found=1
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A small percentage of children with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) develop a chronic form of the disease that often requires prolonged corticosteroid therapy. Disease modifying anti-rheumatic agents (DMARDs) or biologics have been successfully used to treat those refractory cases. Azathioprine is a DMARD that has been reported to be effective in HSP nephritis and in adult cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis, a condition with cutaneous histology similar to HSP.
A description of 6 cases with relapsing HSP without significant renal involvement, treated with azathioprine are reported. All 6 cases met the classification criteria for the diagnosis of HSP, had relapsing symptoms despite corticosteroid use, were successfully treated with azathioprine and were tapered off of corticosteroids. The duration of azathioprine therapy ranged from 7–21 months and no adverse events were reported.
Azathioprine is effective in controlling prolonged relapsing symptoms of HSP, allowing earlier discontinuation of corticosteroids. This report shows that azathioprine can be included in the therapeutic options for relapsing HSP and is the first case series in the literature of azathioprine use in HSP without significant renal involvement.
Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) is the most common form of systemic vasculitis in children. The peak incidence is 3 to 10 years of age. The disease is characterized by the tetrad of palpable purpura, arthritis/arthralgia, abdominal pain, and renal manifestations. Most cases recover spontaneously, and care is usually supportive, including bed rest, hydration, and pain relief with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or acetaminophen . Although corticosteroid use is controversial, it may result in accelerated resolution of symptoms; however, long-term use is usually limited due to adverse events . Rarely, a subset of these patients has persistent rash, arthritis or abdominal involvement despite treatment with glucocorticoids or has recurrent disease during glucocorticoid tapering. There is a paucity of literature regarding therapy of such recalcitrant patients without renal involvement, although there are a handful of case reports using methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil, rituximab, azathioprine, colchicine and dapsone [3–11]. In this case series, we report the successful use of azathioprine as a disease modulator in 6 patients (Table 1) with recalcitrant disease, without significant renal involvement, from two academic medical centers.
Patient 1 is a 7-year-old Caucasian female with HSP who initially presented with a rash on her lower and upper extremities. She was treated with 5 days of steroids. Three weeks later, she developed non-bloody emesis with a relapse of the rash on her face, upper and lower extremities and torso, leading to treatment with 1 mg/kg/day of prednisone. Three days later, she developed drainage of her lower extremity lesions and hematemesis. She was admitted and treated with IV methylprednisolone 2 mg/kg/day and IV fluids. On the fourth hospital day, she developed bloody stool after a few days of intermittent abdominal pain. An abdominal ultrasound showed small bowel intussusception, which was reduced with an air contrast enema. During her 21 days of hospitalization, she intermittently had abdominal pain and emesis after solid food re-introduction. Repeated attempts to taper oral glucocorticoids resulted in the relapse of her symptoms, leading to the use of IV methylprednisolone 1 mg/kg/day through a PICC. She received one dose of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) 2 g/kg and was started on azathioprine 2 mg/kg/day as long-term maintanance therapy. Her laboratory evaluation was remarkable for an anti-nuclear antigen (ANA) of 1:2560 titer with negative anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA), anti-double stranded DNA (dsDNA), and extractable nuclear antigens (ENA). She had normal hemoglobin (Hb) 13.5 g/L, complement levels, and creatinine (Cr) 0.4 mg/dl and no proteinuria or hematuria. Skin biopsy was not obtained. Her symptoms gradually improved and she was discharged on a methylprednisolone taper that was discontinued 6 weeks after discharge. Her rash and mild abdominal symptoms persisted for 3 months post-discharge. She was continued on azathioprine for a total of 11 months, and 15 months after medication discontinuation, she remained asymptomatic with unremarkable continuous laboratory screening for an alternative diagnosis, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Patient 2 is an 11-year-old Caucasian female who presented with palpable purpura, abdominal pain, and arthritis. She was initially treated with NSAIDs. Over the following 3 weeks, she developed multiple recurrences of her rash affecting her upper and lower extremities and lower abdomen, as well as a painful lesion of her right sole that prevented her from walking. She was admitted and received 2 days of IV methylprednisolone 5 mg/kg q6 h for 5 doses. Due to the prolonged duration and severity of her rash, she was discharged on a prednisone taper of 0.5 mg/kg/day over 6 weeks, and started on methotrexate of 10 mg/m2 BSA. Skin biopsy was not obtained. Six months later, methotrexate was switched to azathioprine 1 mg/kg/day due to recurrent purpura. Her symptoms subsided, and within 2 months, control of her rash was achieved. Azathioprine was discontinued after 7 months, after which she remained asymptomatic without a rash. Laboratory testing revealed negative ANCA, sedimentation rate (ESR) of 18 mm/h, C-reactive protein (CRP) of 1.9 mg/L, Cr 0.5 mg/dl, Hb 12 g/dl, and an unremarkable urinalysis.
Patient 3 is an 8-year-old Caucasian female who presented with a purpuric rash of her lower extremities and arthritis of her ankles. Her symptoms subsided without the use of steroids, but she had persistent arthralgias. Four months after the initial episode, following a febrile illness, she developed a recurrence of her characteristic rash and worsening joint symptoms. She was started on a prednisone taper from an initial dose of 0.5 mg/kg/day but had recurrence of her joint symptoms during tapering. Her prednisone dose was increased to the initial dose of 0.5 mg/kg/day, and azathioprine 1 mg/kg/day was added. She discontinued prednisone 6 weeks later and continued to be asymptomatic, with the exception of a single episode of a breakthrough rash 4 months later which resolved with a 5 day course of prednisone. Over the following several months, she remained asymptomatic and azathioprine was discontinued 7 months after her last relapse, for a total of 13 months in total of azathioprine treatment. Laboratory testing revealed negative ANA, Hb 11 g/dl, ESR 9 mm/h, Cr 0.4 mg/dl, and no proteinuria or hematuria. Skin biopsy was not thought necessary to confirm the diagnosis.
Patient 4 is a 9-year-old Caucasian male diagnosed with HSP six weeks prior to presentation. He initially had partial improvement on prednisone 1 mg/kg/day but then developed worsening symptoms with his prednisone wean. His palpable purpuric rash was most prominent on his bilateral distal lower extremities but was also present mildly on his buttocks, abdomen, and arms. He complained of arthralgias, testicular pain, and mild abdominal pain with normal bowel movements without hematochezia, mucous or signs of intussusception. Prednisone was increased back to 1 mg/kg/day with improvement of symptoms. A second but slower prednisone taper resulted in the return/worsening of symptoms again at 0.5 mg/kg/day. Azathioprine was added 3 months after disease onset, with successful tapering off of prednisone and no return of symptoms for the last 6 months. Laboratory evaluation showed ESR 11, CRP 0.8 mg/dL, urinalysis without proteinuria or hematuria, Cr 0.44 mg/dl, Hb 13.5 g/dL, normal immunoglobulin A (IgA), normal complement levels, and negative ANA, anti-SSA, anti-SSB, ANCA, rheumatoid factor (RF), and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodies. Skin biopsy was not obtained.
Patient 5 is a 9 year old Asian male with recurrent HSP over 4 years with manifestations of palpable purpura, abdominal pain with hematochezia but without intussusception, intermittent mild hematuria and proteinuria, and testicular pain with swelling. Laboratory evaluation was remarkable for ESR 23, CRP 8.3 mg/L, urinalysis without proteinuria but with brief intermittent hematuria, Cr 0.4, Hb 13.4 g/dL, normal IgA and complement levels, and negative ANA and ANCA antibodies. Skin biopsy was suggestive of leucocytoclastic vasculitis with IgA deposition typical of HSP. Renal biopsy was not performed. Azathioprine 1 mg/kg/day was added to prednisone 0.5 mg/kg/day due to the recurrent nature of his symptoms and the lack of a sustained response to glucocorticoids. The addition of azathioprine resulted in dramatic improvement of all symptoms, and tapering of prednisone was successful. Azathioprine was used for 21 months total prior to discontinuation, and the patient has currently sustained remission for 3.5 years off azathioprine and glucocorticoids.
Patient 6 is an 8-year-old Caucasian female with HSP diagnosed 3 months prior to presentation, with manifestations of palpable purpura, abdominal pain without hematochezia or intussusception, and mild lower extremity arthralgias with morning stiffness. Laboratory evaluation was remarkable for ESR 4, CRP 1.4 mg/L, urinalysis without proteinuria or hematuria, Cr 0.5, Hb 12.3 g/dL, normal IgA and complement levels, and negative ANA and ANCA antibodies. Skin biopsy was not obtained. Her symptoms were responsive to prednisone 0.5 mg/kg/day, but due to recurrence of symptoms during the glucocorticoid taper, azathioprine 1 mg/kg/day was added with rapid amelioration her symptoms. This allowed successful tapering off of prednisone. Azathioprine was used for 13 months prior to discontinuation, and the patient has sustained remission for 20 months off azathioprine and glucocorticoids.
In this case series, we describe 6 patients meeting the classification criteria for HSP , who developed prolonged and relapsing symptoms and were successfully treated with azathioprine. None of these patients had classic renal involvement. The duration of treatment with azathioprine ranged from 7 to 21 months without a relapse of disease after discontinuing treatment.
The course of HSP is usually benign and self-limited, with only 1/3 of patients having recurrent disease. Since the disease is usually self-limited, typically no treatment is warranted. In the absence of renal disease, the initial episode usually lasts approximately 1 month . Recurrence of disease occurs most commonly in patients with nephritis or more severe symptoms at presentation . Treatment with glucocorticoids offers quick symptomatic relief and shortens the severity and duration of gastrointestinal, joint, and cutaneous symptoms [1, 14] Steroids are often used successfully in patients with limited oral intake due to their abdominal symptoms, a painful rash, or difficulty ambulating. . However, treatment with glucocorticoids is controversial, as they do not appear to alter or improve the final outcome, including renal disease . There are currently no established evidence-based recommendations for glucocorticoid use in HSP, although they are often used in clinical practice.
Management options for recalcitrant disease that is poorly responsive to steroids or is steroid-dependent have not been defined, and only a few case series of patients managed with other medications have been reported [3–11]. Azathioprine has been used with corticosteroids or other agents in cases of HSP nephritis (Table 2). Results were encouraging as this combination seemed to improve the clinical course of the nephritis, but randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are needed [16–21]. Only one case of hemorrhagic bullous cutaneous HSP successfully treated with azathioprine has been reported in the literature . In addition, azathioprine has been used in cases of cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis with IgA deposition that histologically resembles HSP . Expert opinion favors the use of colchicine or dapsone as first line treatment for cutaneous leucocytoclastic vasculitis [23–25]. Efficacy of those agents is questionable, as the recommendations are based on case reports, while a randomized controlled trial failed to show efficacy of colchicine . Azathioprine is recommended as second line treatment by most authors for the treatment of cutaneous leucocytoclastic vasculitis [23–25].
Summary of studies and case reports identified by systemic literature search. We searched the Medline indexed literature after 1996 combining the words azathioprine, purpura, Schoenlein-Henoch and further searched the reference lists of identified articles for additional papers. We restricted results to English language published literature.
No progression of renal lesions after treatment initiation. Favorable outcome compared to historical control group.
Azathioprine and steroids ameliorate histopathological features and improve the clinical course of severe HSP nephritis. No significant differences in hematuria and proteinuria between the groups.
Toxicity to the GI tract (elevation of liver enzymes, anorexia, nausea, vomiting) and the theoretical increased risk of malignancy are the main concerns of azathioprine use. The idiosyncratic arrest of granulocyte maturation and subsequent risk of infection may be reduced by adjusting the dose of azathioprine based on the measurement of thiopurine S-methyltranferase levels (TPMT), whose genetic variation has been related to the observed bone marrow toxicity . No adverse events were reported in this case series, and safety monitoring included a complete blood count (CBC) and complete metabolic panel (CMP) to evaluate for liver toxicity or blood cell dyscrasias.
HSP is usually a clinical diagnosis, therefore, a skin biopsy is rarely obtained and usually no laboratory testing is necessary to establish a diagnosis [12, 28]. However, chronic or recurrent HSP symptoms should always raise concern for alternative causes of cutaneous small vessel vasculitis, such as ANCA-associated vasculitis or SLE [29, 30]. In addition, ulcerative colitis has been misdiagnosed as HSP , while Familial Mediterannean Fever (FMF) is also in the differential diagnosis. Frequently FMF patients develop HSP and a genetic association between FMF and HSP has been shown [32, 33]. Laboratory tests such as ANA, anti-dsDNA or ANCA antibodies are usually negative in HSP, and their positivity may be suggestive of another diagnosis. In these cases, careful clinical and laboratory diagnostic evaluation, including a skin biopsy, is warranted . In this series a skin biopsy was obtained only in patient 5. In the other cases the appearance of the rash, the concomitant symptoms and laboratory testing were strongly supportive of a diagnosis of HSP, making biopsy unnecessary.
While HSP is typically a self-limited disease, our cases all demonstrated persistent or recurrent symptoms. It is unlikely the resolution of symptoms in these patients was simply due to the natural course of the disease and was more likely due to the effects of azathioprine. Azathioprine appeared to be an effective steroid-sparing medication, allowing all steroid-dependent patients to be successfully tapered off of steroids. No official guideline is available for treatment duration, and this case series does not establish the optimal duration of azathioprine treatment. However, once symptoms are controlled, it appears that discontinuation of therapy may be attempted empirically after complete disease remission has been achieved for 6–15 months.
Our experience with the use of azathioprine has also been favorable in 4 additional cases not reported here. These include 2 cases with persistent skin and renal disease responding to treatment but without enough follow up time, one case of relapsing skin disease responsive to treatment with azathioprine but without significant follow up time to be reported, and one patient with relapsing skin disease and renal involvement in which azathioprine successfully achieved remission. Only in one case with persistent skin and renal involvement did azathioprine 1 mg/kg fail to achieve renal symptom control and was discontinued within 2 months.
In summary, this case series demonstrates improved symptom control, steroid-sparing effect, and induction of remission with azathioprine in patients with recalcitrant HSP without renal disease. No patient had any adverse events associated with azathioprine therapy. Randomized controlled trials comparing the different therapeutic options for these type of patients are needed in the future.
Authors do not wish to share data as it is not allowed by current IRB approval.
LF, PVT: involvement in medical diagnosis, management of the patients and retrospective review of cases; equally contributed as first writers of the manuscript. KWB, PHP, TLM, AJW: involvement in diagnosis, management of the patients and the process of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Consent for this case series was waived by the institutional review board of Washington University in St Louis. No approval was required by the institutional review board of Saint Louis University.
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2019-04-19T23:28:03Z
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https://ped-rheum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12969-016-0100-x
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Christmas Gifts for Fitness Lovers, Tech & Outdoors!
Fiit is the UK’s first form of interactive fitness that enables you to choose from a variety of specialist classes – from HIIT to Hatha – taught by the UK’s leading Personal Trainers with the added convenience of working out from the comfort of your own living room, hotel room or even office. Fiit is a perfect entry point for those wishing to access fitness in a non traditional gym setting and is is especially perfect for those who are time short but want to get that quick HIIT in!
Though Fiit can be used anytime, anywhere, the ultimate experience is on the TV. Coined as the Netflix of Fitness, the Fiit apps casts to the TV in the same way you would watch Netflix. It comes with a chest strap embedded with an accelerometer allowing members to see real-time performance metrics such as reps, calories, heart rate live on the dashboard, helping members push themselves harder each session. Think of it as a pocket sized PT!
One in five people who suffer from back pain have given up their job or reduced their hours because of their condition.
The new poll for Medserena Upright Open MRI Centres found that, contrary to popular belief, back pain is just as common amongst younger age groups as the elderly.
“Interestingly, our survey showed that 17% of people with back pain also suffer from claustrophobia”, comments Juliana Hyka, Radiology Manager of Medserena, “with women more prone to it than men.
“Yet only 5% said they had been offered an upright open MRI scan for diagnosis.
“Not surprisingly, 46% said they would prefer to stand up or sit down in a scanner which is open at the front – compared to just 19% who would opt for lying down in an enclosed tunnel”.
Medication was the most popular form of treatment for back pain, taken by 47% of respondents.
A third had been treated by a practitioner such as an osteopath or physiotherapist, whilst a quarter had taken to their bed for rest. However, 27% hadn’t bothered with treatment at all, opting to grin and bear it.
Just 14% of top professionals said they had received no treatment, whereas the figure for semi-skilled or unskilled manual workers was 36% (not even painkillers).
The Medserena Centres in London and Manchester offer upright, open MRI scans which are very different to the conventional ‘tunnel’.
The scans are carried out in a natural weight-bearing position. You can stand up, sit down, flex your neck and be moved into different postures – so the scan is carried out in exactly the position that pain is experienced. In many cases, this provides a more conclusive diagnosis of back pain than traditional MRIs that are performed lying down.
The open structure is ideal for anyone suffering from claustrophobia and also accommodates very large patients – up to 35 stone – more easily than the tunnel type.
Medserena surveyed 2000 people who had experienced back pain in the past 12 months. The research was carried out between 10-18 September 2018 by OnePoll.
At this busy time of the year… Christmas. Retaining Super High Mental Processing & Physical Capabilities Is Essential, try www.formnutrition.com for Boost Nootropics Compounds & Performance Protein!
Please see press release attached with information on Performance Protein and Boost.
FORM’s range of protein blends have been formulated under the watchful eye of Head of Nutrition, Dr. Adam Collins. A highly qualified nutritionist with over 20 years of experience, Dr. Collins is also Director of the MSc and BSc Nutrition courses at the University of Surrey and holds an MSc in Nutrition & Metabolism and a PhD focusing on energy expenditure and body composition. His current areas of research include Intermittent Fasting and nutrient timing. Our innovative protein blend comprises organic pea protein with brown rice, hemp and AlgaVia® whole algae protein to deliver a complete amino acid profile protein without the need for animal products. By providing sufficient amounts of all amino acids, and especially the key 9 ‘essential’ amino acids which cannot be synthesised by the body, our protein blend ensures optimal muscle growth and repair plus sustained energy throughout the day. Our products are free from thickeners, artificial flavours, soya, gluten and sugar. They are vegan, Halal and Kosher. Combining the latest scientific research with carefully crafted flavours our innovative range supports your peak performance and a great cause. Whether you are looking for a performance boost, muscle growth or cognitive support, Form has a solution for you.
The UK’s first high protein vegan chocolate buttons in four delicious flavours – original, orange, mint and honeycomb.
High protein, vegan chocolate buttons start up called Push Chocolate (www.pushchocolate.com) is an on-the-go product aimed for busy, fitness focused and / or vegan consumers looking for a healthier snack. Push Chocolate launched in September 2018.
Push Chocolate makes high protein, vegan chocolate buttons, available in four flavours – original, orange, mint and honeycomb, using only natural ingredients and has 50% less sugar than other mainstream chocolate buttons.
without the whey side effects some consumers get or unable to have.
The legendary video game that got most of us hooked once upon a time, is creatively translated into a wintry, dark blue ‘Merry Mario’ suit with an all over print featuring Mario himself, golden coins, mushrooms, snowflakes and Christmas trees. The outfit, consisting of pants, a blazer and a tie, is a unique reply to traditional formal wear and will most likely find its way into the hearts and wish lists of many fans this holiday season.
The Mario suit is the newest addition to OppoSuits’ best-selling, ‘geeky’ comic and video games collection, which already consists of official PAC-MAN™ and Tetris™ suits, as well as Star Wars™ and Marvel™ themed suits. The collection will continue to expand; new styles, including a second Nintendo collaboration, are already on the agenda for 2019.
OppoSuits started out as an idea while traveling through Southeast Asia. Since that moment, the concept ‘formal wear with a fun twist’ was born and grew into a successful adventure. The Dutch clothing company offers attire for men, women and boys, which is being sold around the world via OppoSuits’ own online channels and local costume stores and famous international retailers like Macy’s, Selfridges and Kohl’s. Besides their own designs, the company collaborates with big brands like Marvel, Star Wars and Nintendo to create exclusive products. In just six years, OppoSuits has set up a range of over 100 styles. The multinational now has over 50 employees, working from offices in The Netherlands and New York City.
This compliments the OppoSuits Christmas selection, examples below!
Magnesium is an essential mineral for overall health and wellbeing. The Magnesium Chloride in this Sports Pack is sourced from the Ancient Zechstein Sea which is known for its purity and quality, ensuring you the best natural product.Our Magnesium Chloride is 100% natural, pure and unrefined.
Magnesium is an important part of a balanced diet however, many of us have lower levels that necessary. Absorbing the mineral transdermally (through the skin) is a great way to directly benefit from its soothing properties. Perfect for pre and post workout recovery!
This pack includes spray for on the go, and bath flakes for relaxing in at the end of the day.
An invigorating blend of pure Magnesium Chloride Flakes from the Ancient Zechstein Sea, and 100% natural Essential Oils – perfect for use pre or post workout.
Magnesium is an important part of a balanced diet, however absorbing the mineral transdermally (through the skin) is a great way to directly benefit from its soothing properties. Our Magnesium Chloride Flakes are 100% natural, pure and unrefined.
This distinctive gift is for the outdoorsy men and women in our lives – paintings that capture the cool mountain air, the fresh smell of the alpine and the wind rustling through the leaves.
They remind us of the amazing sensations that infuses body and mind when we immerse ourselves in nature, and they allow us to escape into them when yearning for our next hike or snow adventure.
A painter, hiker and ski bunny, I use palette knives and acrylics to add texture and depth to create pillows of fresh powder, jagged mountain peaks and the bristles of towering pines. Clients can choose from the existing collection online or commission a special painting based on the beautiful memory they want to bring to life.
Paintings are shipped worldwide and can be viewed on www.rebeccacollett.com.
Men are notoriously difficult to buy for at Christmas time, but a local cycling-inspired clothing business, Cycology, has changed that perception by offering some great ways to solve the dilemma.
According to Michael Tomchin, co-founder of Cycology, t-shirts are the category within our range that shoppers really target at this time of year. The “something special” ingredient is found in the unique and totally original artwork, all hand drawn or painted by the other co-founder Sarina Tomchin.
Cycology was started in late 2012 as an outlet for Sarina’s art and design talent, inspired by her passion for cycling. In 2013 digital-marketing guru Dean Rushton became a part-owner and thereafter, Cycology’s business doubled each year. Last year the business achieved over 50,000 sales worldwide.
The home-grown business now sells its bespoke cycling t-shirts via its own websites to over 80 countries worldwide, with orders fulfilled via logistics warehouses in Australia, UK and USA. Sarina continually creates new designs that adorn the extensive product range that cyclists across the globe are drawn to, whether they are on or off their bikes.
Everyone needs to relax every once in a while.
Whether it be after an intense work out, spending hours in front of the computer or a challenging outdoor adventure, you feel you’ve earned something just for you. You deserve something special, something worthy of your achievement.
You get a glass and pour a smooth refreshing Jack Vettriano Gin & Tonic. Relax back and appreciate the timeless art and the quality that life can bring to those with passion and commitment.
Jack Vettriano Gin. For those who appreciate the finer things in life.
44% Ultra Premium British Gin featuring the work of Britian’s best selling artist Jack Vettriano. Strictly limited to 2500 bottles per painting. Four paintings with 100 of each personally signed by Jack.
Whether it’s ‘for the gamer, ‘for the techie’ or simply ‘for her/him,’ Philips Hue connected lighting range is simple to set-up for even the newest smart home fan and provides a memorable gift that will impress family and friends alike!
Hue is a leading personal, wireless and smart lighting system, combining brilliant and energy-efficient LED light with intuitive technology. It will forever change the way you control and experience light. Simply screw the Hue bulbs into your existing fittings, download the app, set up the bridge and follow the instructions to set brightness, create times, change colours, sync with your TV, email, social channels… it can easily fit in to any smart home set up and syncs with both Google Home & Amazon Alexa.
Philips Hue Play is elegant and flexible and allows you to choose from 16 million colours! Simply integrate it into your home and create special lighting effects. You can use it to create a TV backlight feature, create the perfect ambience for a relaxed evening or dive even deeper into your games with synchronized lighting effects using Hue Sync. Simply connect Philips Hue Play with the Hue Bridge – your control panel for all Hue lamps and experience how your home always shines in the right light for you.
For those who already have Hue in the home, feel energized and relaxed for those sleepy, dark winter mornings with the Hue bathroom range. The new Hue Adore range comes in a selection of designs to finely tune the right light at any time of the day in your bathroom. The Adore Hue wall mirror helps to get you energised in the morning and unwind with the perfect relax light before going to bed – settings can be adjusted with the Hue app.
Hue Go – for the hostess with the mostest!
The Philips Hue Go adds half a sphere of warm glowing light to emphasise your multi-coloured or soft glow style. It’s powered via a mains plug, but can also work wirelessly for up to three hours via the built-in rechargeable battery, meaning you can take it outside, or place it to for parties without cables getting in the way.
Rise on Christmas morning with a gradual sunrise-like setting using Philips Hue. Prepping Christmas dinner for the family? A bright white light is the ideal task lighting, before unwinding in the evening with a relaxing, warm white setting. A full spectrum of 16 million colours are available via the Hue app to create a light show at home which can even sync with your favourite festive music or Christmas movie – giving you the ultimate cinematic experience. Want to add a little something special to that new Christmas game you gifted? Hue can now sync up to your games thanks to their Razer partnership that now offers a truly immersive gaming experience like no other.
Available from Amazon, John Lewis, Argos and other major retailers.
Turn your garden into a magical winter wonderland with the new Hue Outdoor range. Add mood lighting to any BBQ or light the way up your garden path with a selection of luminaires which can be controlled via the Hue app when away from home. Choose designs from the Lilly, Lucca, Tuar and Turaco models.
With advances in technology meaning high quality tech is available at much lower prices, it is now possible to buy some pretty advanced gadgets for less.
Christmas is a time that can be stressful for many, and the pressure to fork out huge sums on presents can be overwhelming, particularly for those on tight budgets.
So, take the pressure off, there is no need to spend a fortune on premium products. Think smarter, and grab one (or more) of these six up-to-the minute tech gifts, which will impress even the most advanced gadget geek.
Keen to gift a smartphone that has many of the same features as a premium phone such as the iPhone XR, but lacking in the thousand pound budget? You can now get many similar features – such as 12MP rear camera, 6 inch HD screen, Face Recognition to unlock the phone and a handy Fingerprint Scanner from the Alcatel 3V which costs around a tenth of the cost of premium devices, at £129.99 from Tesco Mobile.
The Alcatel 3V has a 18:9 screen ratio’ which means it has a display that is taller than a typical 16:9 screen and as a result, provides you with a bigger screen in a smaller device for a better grip. The high quality 2K Display means fans of Netflix and YouTube can watch their favourite content on a bright and crisp screen, providing a truly immersive viewing experience. The Alcatel 3V is now available in glossy blue, glossy black or gold for £129.99 SIM-free Pay-As-You-Go from Carphone Warehouse.
Music aficionados who love a bit of deep bass in their tunes will enjoy these stylish on-ear headphones from Sony in a smart deep blue hue. Cleverly designed for the ears of EDM and Hip-Hop fanatics, the MDR-XB650BT Extra Bass On-Ear Headphones feature extra bass technology from Sony. The Bass Booster feature manages the noise reduction effectively maintaining an acoustically-tight seal, providing a rich and warm bass sound on all tracks, without leaking sound.
Lightweight and wireless, these headphones are perfect for mobile use without sacrificing the quality in sound – ideal for those that like to listen to music at the gym or whilst running. The headphones are now available in blue red or black, with a 2 year guarantee from John Lewis for £69.99.
Provide entertainment for everyone on Christmas Day by gifting the latest Echo Dot from Amazon. Ask the voice-controlled speaker to play music, answer questions, read the news, check the weather, set alarms, control compatible smart home devices, and more. Music can be streamed through the handy little device including songs from Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn and others through the speaker for richer and louder sound. Calls can be made hands free and even in the largest of rooms, Alexa hears the voice instructions from across the room. You can also connect to your own speakers over Bluetooth or with a 3.5 mm audio cable. Available in three different colours for £49.99 from Amazon.
Lightweight and portable, the Lenovo Tablet is ideal for on-the-go multimedia. A wide-view 10.1″ HD screen means watching movies, music and gaming is easy to enjoy. The immersive Dolby Atmos means cinematic moving audio that flows all around will really bring content to life. The touchscreen 10-point multi-touch display delivers crisp images and the quad core processor and 2GB memory deliver a smooth, responsive experience for even the most demanding multimedia requirements. Comes with 16GB internal storage, expandable up to 64GB with microSD card.
With 10 hours of battery life those long festive journeys to visit relatives won’t seem half as arduous. Available now for £99.00 from Argos.
For Netflix fans and those that love to kick back, relax and enjoy a good box set, the new Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote makes a very cool Christmas present. The lucky recipient can enjoy a huge choice of over 10,000 apps, games and Alexa skills, including Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and more. Access to millions of websites such as YouTube, Facebook is included as well as the ability to launch apps and control content with the included Alexa Voice Remote. Simply say “Launch Netflix” or “Skip ahead 5 minutes” and Alexa responds. Plus, play music, search for local restaurants and more. Hours of entertainment! Available now for £39.99 from Amazon.
For teens or tweens who long to receive their first smartphone this Christmas, but happen to have parents on a strict budget, that wish to spend less than £100, then this lightweight, glossy black 4G smartphone is an affordable alternative to costly premium models. The Alcatel 1 has a sizeable 5-inch screen in a neat, compact device. With an 8MP rear camera and 5MP front facing camera it will fulfil all photo and selfie requests. Meanwhile social media sharing features such as ‘Instant Collage’, ‘Photo Booth’ and ‘Social Square’ let users snap and share image and video content quickly and easily. The Alcatel 1 Android smartphone also comes with built-in ‘One Handed Mode’ meaning all camera features are kept easily in reach and its super swift to swipe to activate, change camera settings and snap the shot. The affordable smartphone available for £69.99 from Carphone Warehouse.
SOLE, creator of customisable insoles.
The positioning of your feet can affect the health, comfort and performance of your entire body. Orthotic insoles are designed to improve alignment, treat foot and ankle pain and prevent injury. They can be heat moulded in a conventional oven to ensure custom fit and they also contain an odour wicking topsheet and Polygiene® odour control technology to ensure your feet stay fresh no matter what you throw at them!
SOLE have insoles for every activity starting from a price point of £25. An Ask Men journalist once described them as ‘worth their weight in diamonds’ and I would love if they could be included in your gift guide.
Ideal for wanderlust travellers who venture off the beaten track, the Coleman Divide torch is tough and always ready to go, BatteryLock technology prevents residual battery drain in between uses ensuring you won’t be left in the dark, whilst the powerful 350 lumen output shines bright.
This super-efficient rechargeable head torch adjusts at the wave of a hand, its super bright 300 lumen output and battery lock technology combined with its rugged outer make it a great gift for those that enjoy everything from family camping, backpacking and trekking to extreme adventures!
Chlorella is a kind of green algae, which grows in fresh water and can be harvested and dried to create a food supplement. Studies on the algae have shown it could have powerful and positive effects on exercise performance, including improving the efficiency of the body’s energy production and lactate removal systems1, improving VO2max2 and reducing the impact of intense exercise on the immune system3.
Sun Chlorella, one of the world’s leading chlorella brands, have now launched a chlorella powder specifically for athletes, aimed at improving performance.
The latest addition to the Sun Chlorella range is a powder that is 100% pure chlorella, with no binders or additives, which is easily dissolved in sports shakes or energy drinks and is created using DYNO®-Mill technology – this helps break down the cell walls of the algae (without the use of heat or chemicals which can reduce the quality of the chlorella) to ensure when users get the most nutrients possible.
o Products do not contain any of approximately 270+ substances banned by major athletic organizations. o The contents of the supplement actually match what is printed on the label. o There are no unsafe levels of contaminants in the tested products. o The product is manufactured at a facility that is GMP registered and audited twice annually for quality and safety by NSF International.
The brand now hope athletes can get all the benefits of chlorella with confidence and be assured they are fuelling their performance in a positive and natural way.
1) Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2017 April 1; 312(4) 25. High-intensity intermittent exercise training with chlorella intake accelerates exercise performance and muscle glycolytic and oxidative capacity in rats. Horii N, Hasegawa N1, Fujie S1, Uchida M, Miyamoto-Mikami E, Hashimoto T1, Tabata I2, Iemitsu M3.
3) Eur J Nutr. 2017 Aug 19. doi: 10.1007/s00394-017-1525-9. The effect of Chlorella pyrenoidosa supplementation on immune responses to 2 days of intensified training. Chidley C1, Davison G2.
Superfood Seaweed Snacks: super healthy and delicious!
The spotlight is on seaweed and about time too! It’s finally being recognised as the natural, nutrient-rich, eco-friendly superfood that it really is. However, as lovely as walking along a beach and foraging for seaweed sounds – you really have to know what you are doing to seek out and find the tastiest stuff.
Now you can enjoy all of the amazing health benefits of seaweed in a tasty and bite sized puff. As moreish as crisps, but at less than 100 calories per 22.5 g bag and packed with nutrients, antioxidants, electrolytes, vitamins and minerals, SHØRE Seaweed Puffs are easily one of the tastiest, healthy new snacks in town!
With the equivalent over 6g of fresh Scottish sustainable seaweed in one bag, SHØRE Seaweed Puffs are naturally nutritious and packed with the good stuff, meaning that your diet is easily boosted whenever you eat them.
There’s no denying that seaweed is something of a nutritional powerhouse. In fact, it is much more nutrient dense than just about any land vegetable and is rich in vitamins, minerals and protein, as well as being low in calories, high in soluble fibre and a great source of antioxidants.
Did you also know that seaweed is also a great source of iodine, a nutrient that is missing in almost every other food! Iodine helps regulate hormone levels and thyroid function, as well as supporting a healthy metabolism and maintaining energy levels. Many vegans and pregnant women need more iodine, as do those who have replaced milk with plant-based alternatives such as almond or soya, as cow milk is naturally high in iodine.
What does our Nutritionist think?
Nutritionist Fiona Lawson comments, “Studies suggest that humans have enjoyed seaweed for over 8,000 years. The ancient Chinese considered the sea vegetable a delicacy to be given to guests of honour, while the Welsh made the most of its unique flavour in laver bread. Today, seaweed remains a staple of the traditional Japanese diet, which is considered one of the healthiest diets in the world. It’s rapidly gaining popularity in the West too- and for good reason.
Most of us will have only eaten imported seaweed, usually from Japan or Korea, which clocks up thousands of air miles before even hitting supermarket shelves. You can be safe in the knowledge that SHØRE’s seaweed is homegrown, sustainable and 100% Scottish.
Based in the town of Wick, perched on the rugged windswept coast on the far North Eastern tip of Scotland, the SHØRE team ventures out in all weather to hand- harvest the seaweed in crystal clear, unpolluted waters. The team collect all plants by hand, taking only what they need for the puffs and leaving more than enough for the seaweed to fully regenerate, making the process completely sustainable.
Lightfoot is the latest in connected car technology that uses Formula 1-style analytics to help drivers stay in their vehicle’s efficiency ‘sweet spot.’ Described as being like a ‘Fitbit for cars,’ Lightfoot’s discrete dashboard device helps drivers cut fuel consumption and emissions by 20% while reducing their chances of having an accident by up to 40%.
But that’s not all: its app and revolutionary rewards platform make smooth, efficient driving genuinely valuable. The platform offers discounts on everything from food shops and coffees to holidays and the latest tech. Alongside the 100+ discounts available through Lightfoot Rewards, you can use your smooth driving score to win cash giveaways and other prizes in weekly competitions, and you can compete against friends and family in leagues. Finally, good driving is worth something!
Lightfoot is currently priced at £99 plus an optional £3.99 per month subscription for access to the rewards platform.
no&more is free from sugar, sweeteners, calories and preservatives and available in three different flavours, cucumber&mint, watermelon&melon and blueberry and raspberry.
Stockists include Boots, Waitrose and Ocado.
The Salonpas Pain Relief Patch LARGE is the ideal stocking stuffer for friends and family who are in pain.
Hisamitsu America, a division of Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Inc., and the marketers of the Salonpas® line of pain relieving products, announce the availability of the Salonpas® Pain Relief Patch LARGE (SRP: $17.99) in a new double size value pack that includes nine large patches. Please advise if In Touch Ruby would like to receive the product. Product JPEG attached to this email.
AutoCamp is a modern and stylish outdoor hospitality experience that makes connecting with the great outdoors easy for everyone.
As the leader in outdoor hospitality, the unique properties are known for beautiful modern Airstream suites, luxurious tents, and mid-century modern clubhouse. They have locations in Santa Barbara, Russian River and Yosemite will open in early 2019.
Feel free to use the images below for a post or on social or both. They are pics of the Airstream at the new Yosemite location.
How about suggesting a gift of travel to Santa Barbara (winter weekends starting at $299); the Russian River Valley (winter weekends starting at $255); and soon to be open at Yosemite in Mariposa, California (winter weekends starting at $215)? People can log on to shop.autocamp.com to purchase gift certificates in increments of $50 up to $1000.
New to the UK, award winning sparkling AQUA Carpatica is nature’s perfect water and virtually nitrate free (AQUA Carpatica Natural Sparkling Water is naturally nitrate free).
Bottled at source, AQUA Carpatica combines an exceptionally balanced mineral content with a crisp and refreshing taste to provide a water like no other. Perfect for replenishing and rehydrating in the New Year.
Whether you are looking for that special gift for a rugby mad dad, a stocking filler for a fitness fanatic mum, or a gift for the friend that seems to have everything, Gilbert and Grays International has it covered.
With every carbonating bottle, SodaStream prevents 3,700 single-use plastic bottles and cans from being used and discarded. Not only is SodaStream great for the environment, but people with SodaStream drink 3 more glasses of water a day.
The FIZZI ONE TOUCH is SodaStream’s newest electric sparkling water maker that carbonates water at just the touch of a button and comes in black or white; and the AQUA FIZZ is SodaStream’s most premium sparkling water maker that comes with glass carbonating bottles that are specially designed and dishwasher safe.
If you are interested please let me know which machine you would prefer, and the best address to reach you at. The FIZZI and FIZZI ONE TOUCH come in either black or white. I would also be happy to put you in touch with SodaStream USA General Manager, Jecka Glasman, who can speak on what the beverage industry should be doing to curb the flow of single-use plastic.
tech21 are a leading impact protection brand who design a range of slim and stylish cases for all the latest smartphone – including the new iPhone XS and Samsung Galaxy Note9.
Tech21 cases use their patented FlexShock™ material and are scientifically proven to protect smartphones from drops of up to four metres, drop after drop.
With smartphones playing ever-central roles in our day to day lives, thought this could be a great fit for your Christmas gift guides “for him” and tech lovers.
Local Australian fashion and lifestyle brand, Piping Hot, has got you covered with their latest eco range. The best part? It’ll guarantee you a place on Santa’s nice list.
This summer, 94% of Piping Hot’s swimwear line is made with Repreve fabrics, which is made up of recycled materials, including plastic bottles and fibre waste. Each year, 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean, and Piping Hot is on a mission For Clean Oceans, turning recycled materials into key summer pieces.
The eco-friendly range offers a variety of pieces from bikinis and one pieces to rash vests and boardshorts. All styles feature hand-picked prints for the season to have you covered for fun in the sun.
Active wear collection Work+Play’. The perfect combination to suit your 7am to 11pm lifestyle.
The must have item for all active professionals looking to combine work with all sorts of sports, whether it’s running or cycling the Targus fitness rucksacks are the ideal accessory to combine your Work/Life balance in only one bag.
Intelligently designed, with three dedicated compartments for your laptop (up to 15.6″), daily accessories and sports gear, it’s as versatile and adaptable as you are. Targus have created a dedicated section to keep your clothing (including a detachable laundry bag) away from your tech and there’s even a ventilated front compartment designed for transporting your work or sports shoes. It’s a real game changer!
The Fitness Backpack is available in grey and black, and the cycling backpack in black. The Work+Play collection enables you to combine your work with your workouts – the perfect everyday solution.
If you or you know of a colleague who is interested in covering or reviewing the Work+Play range, please let me know! I can provide additional photography if required and here is a video to show you just how versatile the bags are!
Hand crafted by Hempen, the UK’s only organic hemp growing cooperative, this CBD infusion is a perfect muscle rub for straight from the gym or pitch.
Harnessing the powerful anti-inflammatory effects of CBD, it’s great for aiding recovery from training or injury as well as providing all round immune and wellbeing support through your body’s Endocannabinoid System. Use it topically or add to smoothies or hot drinks – CBD bulletproof coffee for the win! Find it online at www.hempen.co.uk/shop or get in touch via Facebook, Insta or Twitter @hempenorganic.
THE GYM bunny is declining in popularity, as women are favouring another form of exercise in 2018, according to a landmark study into the UK’s exercise habits.
A survey of more than 7,600 UK adults published by Decathlon in the Decathlon Activity Index 2018, shows that more than half of women (53%) regularly go swimming.
This beat the gym to the top spot – fewer than half (46%) claim to use the gym regularly.
Meanwhile, more than 1 in 3 (34%) women said they get involved with cycling as a form of exercise.
Yoga/Pilates was also a popular form of activity for women, coming in fourth place, closely followed by running which rounded off the list of top five sports women regularly do.
However, it’s not all bad news for gyms, as gym-based exercise is still the most popular form of exercise among men – just 1% less than women, showing gyms are levelling out gender wise.
Philippe Rebelo, UK Marketing Director at Decathlon commented: “The rise of the gym bunny is something we have seen propel in popularity in the sport industry over the last two years. However, our research shows swimming is favoured as the number one sport for women. This isn’t surprising given the advantages of this sport – swimming can tone and strengthen muscles and is a great way of decreasing stress and anxiety. Not only this, but swimming is one of the sports that the UK has been successful competing in thanks to talent like Ellie Simonds and Rebecca Adlington.
About the Book Fitness for Winning Rugby is a unique publication in as much as it looks at fitness for rugby in the widest sense of the word. Alongside core fitness information it includes valuable chapters on nutrition, injuries, recuperation from injury both physically and mentally as well as the importance of training and playing the game free from drugs that will enhance performance.
Throughout the book are colourful diagrams linked to physical training together with hand drawn anatomy illustrations that add an important educational dimension which makes Fitness for Winning Rugby an essential publication for parents who have children playing rugby, coaches and players of all ages and sexes. It will be especially useful for developing players who are looking for ways of taking their game to the next level and breaking into representative rugby. Students at schools and colleges studying the GCSE and A Level Sports Studies involving the principles of fitness for sport as well as the game of rugby will find this book an important reference source.
“Improving your fitness is not something that is going to happen overnight; it has to be a behaviour change, often a lifestyle change. However by following the key steps highlighted in this book it will certainly help in winning the challenges ahead”- Andy Robinson OBE.
About the Authors Chic Carvell trained as a Physical Education Teacher at the Scottish School of Physical Education, Jordanhill, Glasgow from September 1969 to June 1972. Having gained a Diploma in Management Studies (Recreation Management) in 1973 he spent the next ten years managing Leisure Centres in the UK and abroad, pioneering the health/fitness assessment concept when running businessmen’s fitness programmes. 1985 saw the birth of his Company, Chartex Products International Limited that, since its conception, has been at the forefront of designing education charts for the Fitness, Sports and Education industries. Chic has trained many sportsmen and women at club and international levels.
Rex Hazeldine worked for over 30 years as a lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at Loughborough University, becoming Director of Sport. He has been fitness advisor to the England Rugby Squad and the Rugby Football Union and director of fitness to the Women’s Rugby Football Union. He is the author of Fitness for Sport and Strength Training for Sport and co-writer of The RFU Guide to Fitness for Rugby (1991). In recognition for his work in fitness and sports coaching he has been inducted into the Sports UK Coaching Hall of Fame.
They already have guys wearing them for touch rugby in both Australia and the UK, and the movement is growing in the States.
Kapow Meggings are made for men who attack life with the confidence of a high performance athlete. Founded by Sydney brothers Ben & Jordan, Kapow’s leggings are designed especially for men and feature a show-stopping range of wild prints and killer colours. They’re made to fit like a second skin, and look like a million dollars. With styles ranging from Geotech to High Voltage, and neon leopard print to exploding supernovas, their designs are all about self expression, having fun, and standing out. Men all over the world wear Kapow’s for fitness, fashion, and festivals.
Men don’t have to wear boring workout gear. Whether they’re on the rugby field, squatting, running, downward dogging, or mother flippin’ BASE jumping, men need to look the goods and wear gear that can support high endurance high impact activities. But guys don’t have many options when it comes to premium quality athletic mens leggings that aren’t black, blue or… actually, that’s about it.
The new Performance Range is designed to supercharge male gym style with wild prints and killer colours.
Kapow Meggings have just launched a range of athletic leggings for men who have 99 problems but a bench ain’t one. It’s work-out gear that is engineered to get physical and designed for men who like to stand out from the crowd. Kapow’s leggings are battle-tested by amazing athletes from all corners of the world – our brand ambassadors include BASE jumpers, yoga teachers, bodybuilders and aerial acrobats.
Secretly Healthy Sweet Treats E-book.
It is a totally free e-book of healthy and scrumptious dessert recipes that my family and kids love!
During the holiday season, indulgent desserts run rampant and it can be hard for people to resist if they are trying to live a healthier life. Well, what if you don’t have to? Instead, make some of my healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. They are high in protein and healthy fats, and they are a hit with people of al l ages. Or impress your guests with a Marbled Chocolate and Pistachio Slice, They’ll never know they are actually nourishing their bodies with healthier ingredients than other seasonal desserts.
You can download the free e-book by going to NourishwithRenata.com and clicking on the Free E-book link in the menu bar.
10% discount code is “intouch10” for the www.pellleres.com.au site.
Pelleres are award winning fitness device designed to get to your fitness goals faster. Exercising with Pelleres you will burn more calories in a shorter time, example 21 mins vs 27 mins for 550 calorie burn.
Used by elite athletes the secret is now out!
Pelleres are ideal for functional training. As simple as putting them on and working out, so easy and effective.
Pelleres are an international award winning core strengthening device. Classified as a functional strength training device, Pelleres’ unique patented design “switches” on abdominal muscles in isolation.
The weight range; scientifically calculated to a resistance level based on muscle activation.
The position of the weight. The “opposite lever” for muscle activation.
Anchoring mechanism. Fast movement patterns with minimal change in position.
Grand Final Technologies are innovators in the sports industry.
We design and manufacture core strengthening systems and devices that help people realise their TRUE ATHLETIC POTENTIAL.
Pelleres are the latest innovation in functional strength training devices.
They are scientifically developed to activate core muscles during exercise. The specific weight and position are key to the effectiveness of Pelleres.
Pelleres™ is the latest innovation in sports technology that was developed in Brisbane, Australia.
Pelleres™ is a functional strength training device that instantaneously improves your performance. Just by wearing Pelleres™ you can run faster, jump further, throw longer, kick balls harder, and hit things with more power! I know, totally unbelievable but true!
But that’s not all, you also will get fitter faster, improve your core strength, and be able to recover from injuries quicker. Back pain? No more with Pelleres™; your back muscles are strengthened, which greatly improves core stability and posture.
How come and why is this so? Good question. Firstly Pelleres™ is based on well accepted principals of resistance, overload, counter balance, and the fundamentals of biomechanics.
How it works. As soon as you put on Pelleres™ you are creating a slight imbalance in your body. And what happens is that all your fine core stabilizers muscles are called into action to restabilize this imbalance. Because the weight added is so light it’s not your major muscles groups that have to work harder but instead your fine core stabilizers are called into action. Now because your core is actively engaged (or harder), your body immediately becomes more efficient in its activity and your performance instantaneously improves. It is a well accepted fact that there is a direct correlation between core strength and overall performance.
When you wear Pelleres™ all your core and stabilizer muscles are specifically targeted. The light weight targets your fine core stabilizer muscles and because they are working harder they get stronger.
Pelleres™ is based on a breakthrough scientific observation that by positioning slight weight on your forearms your body immediately becomes more efficient. Basically Pelleres™ tricks your body into working better. It’s incredible that something so simple can make such a difference!
Yes Pelleres™ are fantastic for athletes and pro sports men & women BUT they are equally beneficial for anyone wanting to improve their health, lose weight, or just get into better shape.
Just by exercising in Pelleres™ you burn more calories without any extra effort. Amazing but true!
Pelleres™ are excellent for rehabilitation. Overcoming any injury? Pelleres™ are excellent for shoulder, back, abdominal, hernia, knee, groin, hamstring, calf, or ankle injuries. They help reprogram or establish “correct” movement patterns.
If you are a personal trainer, coach, physiotherapist, Doctor, or chiropractor ask us about incorporating Pelleres™ into your business.
It’s incredible that something so simple can make such a difference! Tell us what you think. Post a message or comment; we would love to hear your thoughts on Pelleres™.
Apple Watch Series 4 Nike, 40mm Space Gray with Anthracite/Black Sport Band – R7999. Available from Digicape.
New MacBook Air 13’ DC i5 1.6GHz/8GB/128GB – Gold – R21499. Available from Digicape.
The MacBook Air is perfectly portable and ideal for professionals on the go, offering the capabilities of a laptop with the compactness of a notebook or tablet. And as the greenest Mac available – with a case made from 100 percent recycled aluminium – it ticks all the environmental boxes too.
Apple Airpods – R2659. Available from Digicape.
The new wireless Apple Airpods are perfect for that person in your life who hates being tied down…and wires are just soooo 2017. Airpods connect instantly when you put them in your ears, offering crystal clear sound without the pesky wires.
LaCie 2.5” Rugged Thunderbolt 3 & USB-C. Available from LaCie.
LaCie’s signature Rugged hardrive is the crème da la crème of on-the-go storage solutions, offering unrivalled speed and capacity – all enclosed in a highly-durable, shock and water-resistant casing. Spoil your artsy industry friend with a Rugged and we guarantee it will never leave their side.
LaCie DJI Copilot. Available from LaCie.
Knock the socks off your content creator friend with the LaCie DJI Copilot, a backup on-set solution that allows you to jumpstart post production (via an app), with no laptop required. You can connect Copilot to your phone or tablet via USB and launch the app (no internet required), to playback video, or to organise and manage files. The device is compatible with iOS and Android phones/tablets, Mac and Windows, drones, DSLR cameras and action cams, making it highly sought-after by content creators, film makers and drone operators – for obvious reasons.
Satin Pillowcase – R320. Available from Granny Goose.
Granny Goose’s satin pillowcases are the ideal gift for your girlfriend who has everything. Unlike cotton which draws moisture from your skin, satin pillowcases retain your skin’s moisture balance, helping prevent the formation of wrinkles, while also keeping your locks shiny & knot-free. This luxe pillowcase is guaranteed to leave you humming “I woke up like this!” under your breath all day.
The creators of the S-Charge, InDemand Design, launched the product on crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo, achieving its fundraising goal in 48 hours of going live. The campaign was supported by over 4,000 backers making it the best-selling crowdfunded Nintendo Switch accessory. With more than 5,000 units sold across 60 countries, the S-Charge has gone from strength to strength with the aim of being a must-have for all gamers.
The S-Charge also has an improved kickstand which offers greater stability and can be used in multiple angles to change the way you play. As the charging port has been moved to the right-hand side of the case, the S-Charge is one of the only ways to charge while playing in table top mode.
No need for extra carrying cases, the S-Charge not only protects the Nintendo Switch™ but also has slots for 2 extra game cards to bring along with you on the go. The S-Charge has been built to combat the problems of overheating and potential warping of the device. A bundle version is available with two free screen protectors and a hardshell carry case at an RRP of £64.99 from Amazon, John Lewis and Currys.
If your family or loved ones are tech-loving golf addicts, then the Arccos 360 Golf Tracking System may be the golfing product to purchase them this Christmas.
The device pairs up with your phone and provides players with real-time stats using GPS and shot tracking technology to really help improve performance.
The Arccos 360 Golf Tracking System sends stats to your paired device instantly and can be used anytime or anywhere you’re playing a round of golf.
The Proprietary Tour Analytics platform system interprets your stats, which means users can analyse their performance during a round of golf. With the instant data available at your fingertips, you can adjust your swing immediately to help improve performance.
Arccos 360 Golf Tracking System allows for completely seamless play, which means there is no need for additional actions that may interrupt your round of golf.
The one-time Bluetooth pairing process makes it simple to set up every time you set out on a golf course.
Meanwhile, the sensors can easily be attached onto the end of your golf grip and with sensors weighing less than 12g, the device has zero impact on the golf swing.
The NVIDIA Shield TV is a brilliant tech gift for Christmas, offering a transformative TV experience, with hundreds of apps and games, plus built in Google Assistant.
Created with the goal of ensuring safety without limiting independent play and exploration, the XPLORA 3S offers an instant channel for communication between parent and child.
By combining geolocation technology with a child-friendly interface, the 3S is the perfect solution for adults, who wish to maintain contact with their children, yet do not want them to have unsupervised access to a traditional smartphone,.
XPLORA 3S retains the basic functions of a phone, with the parent or guardian being given the ability to preset up to 12 numbers from which calls may be made or received. One-way text messages can also be sent by the parent to the child’s watch phone. With safety at the heart of XPLORA 3S’s design, should the child feel in danger, they can press XPLORA 3S’s SOS button and the watch phone will dial the 12 pre-programmed contacts until a response is received. An alarm sound can also be triggered. XPLORA 3S’s sophisticated geolocation capabilities provide parents with an unobtrusive yet dependable means of locating their child at any given time, whether by checking the parental app, or receiving notifications whenever the child enters or leaves a ‘safety zone’ – a preset geographical location. It also comes fully equipped with a camera and photo storage, is fully submersible for up to 30 minutes to a depth of 1.5 metres, and is also the only device of its kind with Amazon Echo integration.
The XPLORA 3S is available from Amazon, as well as directly from the XPLORA website, with prices starting at £179.99 (inclusive of 12 months of minutes and data).
From experiences for thrill seeking couples and horse fanatics to cycling enthusiasts and animal lovers, Lee Valley Regional Park has the perfect gift ideas guaranteed to make an unforgettable Christmas!
Give daredevilling duos the gift of water–fuelled fun at Lee Valley White Water Centre this Christmas. Couples can Jump into action as they surf their way down the rapids holding on to a hydrospeed or enjoy an exhilarating Hot Dog ride down the legacy loop in an inflatable, two person kayak.
The White Water Rafting adventure is the perfect present for daring dads, mad mums and brave brothers and sisters. Located at Lee Valley White Water Centre where Team GB won gold and silver during the London 2012 Canoe Slalom event, thrill seekers will create unforgettable memories as they tackle the drops, twists and turns of the venue’s exhilarating 300m long Olympic course.
Introduce a loved one into the world of horse riding with a gift voucher for Lee Valley Riding Centre’s ‘Have a Go’ lessons. Ideal for beginners, these group sessions enable riders to experience being on horseback within a safe and relaxed environment, upon well trained horses and ponies. During the lesson, participants will get acquainted with their horse before learning the basics of horse-riding from mounting the horse to moving through the paces.
A gift voucher for Lee Valley Park Farms is the perfect present idea for the little (and big) kids in your life! They can fill their day with a visit to our farmyard friends, explore the indoor and outdoor adventure play areas, ride down the Alpine Adventure before taking a ride to our working dairy farm on Tex the Tractor.
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2019-04-26T13:48:53Z
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http://rugbyrep.com/christmas-gifts-for-fitness-lovers-tech-outdoors/
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Or that he would come face-to-face with the one girl he could never forget.
You know how sometimes you meet a secondary character in a series and think, "Hmmm...he's intriguing. I'd like to know more about him." but his role in the series isn't significant enough to warrant his own book? And then, you meet him again in the author's next series? Still intriguing but still, no story. And then...one day you're in the goodie room at a conference and you pick up an advanced copy of an upcoming book by said author. You don't read the back cover blurb because she's one of your favorite authors and you know you'll be reading the book, no matter what it's about. Then, later, you open the book and read the first few pages and suddenly you realize...OMG!...it's his book. It's Steve - freaking - Springfield's story! Yeah, to say I was excited would have been a massive understatement. But then you start to worry. You've been anticipating this story for almost three years...through eight books. What if it doesn't meet your expectations?
It met my expectations. I read the entire book in one day. Then I read it again. And, recently, I read it for a third time. Once again, Katie Ruggle has penned a story that's funny, suspenseful, and emotional, filling it with everyday characters who are so vibrant, complex, and real that I forget they're characters and begin to think of them as actual people. Steve is such a good guy and a great dad. I adored him. And Camille, well, she's someone I just want to wrap up in a big, warm hug...except that would probably freak her out so much that she'd go running from the room. Steve's kids (who range in age from 10 to 15) come close to stealing every scene they are in but he and the kids are a package deal and I can't imagine enjoying this book - or Steve and Camille's relationship - as much as I did without all four of the kids. Each of them is unique and interesting in their own right. I'm hoping their characters will continue to develop throughout the rest of the series. Setting this first book in the new series at Steve's family Christmas tree ranch brings his three single brothers into the equation as well. I love how Ruggle digs into family dynamics - and dysfunction - in her books and I can't wait to find out what she has in store for the Springfields.
Another of Ruggle's strengths is her ability to slow build suspense throughout a story as she once again does in this book. It's not in your face but over your shoulder, always there, as it builds to a climax with a twist that I never saw coming. I'm very curious to see how that twist factors into the rest of the series.
If you enjoy romantic suspense with characters who will capture your heart and twists and turns that will leave you guessing, all wrapped up in a beautiful Colorado, postcard-worthy, Christmas tree ranch, then you'll want a copy of Katie Ruggle's Rocky Mountain Cowboy Christmas under your tree this year.
If you're interested in going back to when Steve Springfield and his family were first introduced to readers, pick up a copy of On His Watch, the prequel novella to Katie Ruggle's debut Search and Rescue series. It's currently free.
If you enjoy feel-good, contemporary romance that tickles your funny bone, tugs at your heartstrings, and surrounds you with a whole community of people with whom you'd like to be friends, there really isn't any better fictional town to visit than Emily March's Eternity Springs.
In this 16th book of the beloved series, March brings readers another second generation love story when unlikely Santa, Devin Murphy finally meets his match in Dr. Jenna Stockton.
I really enjoyed these two. They are likable characters who come to know one another through unlikely calls to Santa made by Jenna's son long before they ever meet in person or even know one another's names. I enjoyed how March created the connection between them, allowing it to build over time before they actually become part of one another's lives, and bringing them together when Jenna and her son have both lost hope. Of course, their path to love is not without some major roadblocks, including the stalker Jenna's running from, her traumatized son, emotional baggage from Devin's past, and the tiny obstacle of Jenna and Devin living on different continents. It's going to take a whole boatload of family and friends (thankfully, Eternity Springs is bursting at the seams with them) to vanquish Jenna's tormentor and help them find their way. Mostly, though, it's going to take two people having the courage to believe, the willingness to compromise, and the strength to fight for their happiness. Luckily for us, Eternity Springs is a place of hope, a place of joy, a place where hearts heal, and unspoken Christmas wishes come true. It's a place I never tire of visiting and a stop I encourage you to add to your holiday reading list.
Don't let the fact that The Christmas Wishing Tree is the 16th book in this long-running series scare you away. While fans of the series will undoubtedly enjoy catching up with Eternity Springs residents (exciting news for many of our favorite couples!), those new to the series should have no trouble enjoying Devin and Jenna's story on its own merits.
Are you a fan of the Eternity Springs series?
Jenna's son chooses dog-themed ornaments for his Christmas tree. Do you have a special theme for your tree?
When do you put up your tree?
With only a suitcase to her name, McKenna came to Gold Valley to confront her birth father. She didn’t plan to work at the Dodge ranch or fall for the gorgeous cowboy who keeps his heart roped off. But there’s no denying the way their broken pieces fit together. Hope brought her to Gold Valley—but will it be the gift that could finally heal Grant, and McKenna’s own wounded heart?
I knew as soon as I met grouchy, closed off, emotionally wounded Grant Dodge in an earlier book that I wanted to read his story. I also knew that the woman to bring him back to life would need to be strong, sassy, and unwilling to take his crap. McKenna Tate is all that and so much more.
I loved these two together. Life hasn't been kind to either of them though the experiences that brought them to this point in their lives were very different. Those experiences have toughened them but they have also left them vulnerable and hesitant to reach for happiness. McKenna is prickly and defensive while Grant has become an emotional hermit, finding solace in a bottle all too frequently. McKenna's inability to give up hope in the face of too many rejections endeared her to me while Grant's struggle to find an identity apart from the sympathy and pity tied to his past struck a chord of realism in light of my own life experiences. The attraction between Grant and McKenna is potent yet both resist its emotional pull initially and Grant, for much longer. Yates does an outstanding job of guiding them along their sizzling sexual and heart-tugging, emotional journey and I was with them every step of the way.
Maisey Yates has created an intriguing community of characters within her Gold Valley series of books, many of whom weave in and out of this story. The book is written in such a way that a new reader shouldn't be lost but I do think readers will have a deeper understanding of all characters, and their actions, if they have read the three previous Gold Valley books. I loved each and every one of them. The books, in order, are: Smooth-Talking Cowboy, Untamed Cowboy, Good Time Cowboy, and A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas.
Have you read any of Maisey Yates' books?
Do you have a favorite Gold Valley couple?
A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas is my first Christmas romance of the season. When do you begin reading holiday romances?
One randomly chosen person who leaves a comment before 11:00 PM (EST), September 25 will receive a print copy of A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas.
birthday wishes and fun yesterday.
Mrs. Brodie's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.
theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com.
I'm delighted to welcome Theresa Romain and Shana Galen, the authors of Mrs. Brodie's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, to the blog today. These two bestselling historical romance authors are among my favorites and I was so excited to learn they were combining their talents to produce this new novella duet set at an exceptionally unconventional academy for exceptional young ladies. I thoroughly enjoyed both stories and have hopes that they will consider revisiting the academy in the future. Please give them a warm welcome!
Hi, everyone! We’re so glad to be visiting The Romance Dish today—happy birthday, PJ! To celebrate PJ’s birthday (*wink*), we’ve got some trivia, excerpts, and giveaway goodies to share about our historical romance novella duo, Mrs. Brodie’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.
Mrs. Brodie’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies appears exclusive and respectable, a place for daughters of the gentry to glean the accomplishments that will win them suitable husbands.
But the academy is not what it seems. It’s more.
Alongside every lesson in French or dancing or mathematics, the students learn the skills they’ll need to survive in a man’s world. They forge; they fight; they change their accents to blend into a world apart. And the staff at the academy find a haven from their pasts…and lose their hearts.
As you might guess, we had a LOT of fun writing this!
1. This is a second chance at love story featuring Marianne Redfern, the cook at the exclusive Academy, and Jack Grahame, the first love who broke her heart years ago. These are all-new characters, so it can easily be read as a stand-alone story! But I’m also considering it part of my Romance of the Turf series because of Mrs. Brodie. She's Anne Jones, alias Janet Ahearn-- the villainess (or is she?) of the first two Romance of the Turf novels. She and her school will be a big part of the final book in that series, His Wayward Bride, coming out next spring.
3. Have you heard of the custom of "telling the bees"? It has never been so common in the USA as it historically was in England. The tradition was that bees on one's property needed to be told of big life events--marriages, deaths, births--or they'd get distraught about being excluded and would leave the hives or stop making honey. I’ve always thought this was a charming tradition, and Marianne and Jack make certain to keep the bees informed of major life changes.
“Where did you get this honeycomb?” Marianne asked.
Yet all of that belonged firmly in the past. The Redfern land now belonged to the Grahames, sold by Marianne’s mother upon being widowed five years before. Jack’s father had been living then, and he’d snapped it up using the Wilcox money that had passed into his hands.
There was no room for Marianne and Jack in that memory anymore, certainly not together.
“And honeycomb,” he pointed out.
The fiend. Did he know that was all she’d once wanted?
Did she know what she wanted from him now?
He poked through the paper and touched the discarded honeycomb with a gentle forefinger. Then he folded the brown paper over it, packing it away. Done, Marianne thought. He’d listen, and he’d stop now.
Instead, he said, “Then I’ll keep right on.” Stepping closer, he cradled her face in his hands—and he kissed her.
In my novella, “Counterfeit Scandal,” the heroine Bridget has a talent for counterfeiting currency. She learned from her father, who was a British operative during the American Revolution. In researching counterfeiting during this time, I learned that one method the British employed to win the war as attempting to crash the nascent American economy. By counterfeiting mass amounts of paper money, the British could render legitimate money worthless. As is the case now, money was printed on special paper. The British captured a ship with a large cargo of the special paper and were able to counterfeit large amounts of currency and put it into circulation. In fact, at one point during the war John Adams wrote to his wife to be careful when accepting any paper money.
Bridget has spent time in Fleet Prison for debts. Debtor’s prison was notorious for the poor conditions those imprisoned endured. If prisoners wanted decent food, a bed, or a fire, they had to pay for it. Pretty ironic considering this was a debtor’s prison. Many prisoners died before they could ever repay their debts or finish their time and be set free.
In “Counterfeit Scandal,” Bridget is searching for her son, who she gave up when she went to debtor’s prison. The hero, Caleb, tells her they should ask Joseph Merceron. Joseph Merceron was a real person and a magistrate; he was known as The Boss of Bethnal Green. He was also notoriously corrupt, lining his own pockets and those of his friends at the expense of the poor people he was supposed to be serving.
where Bridget tries to see Merceron.
Bridget reconsidered that statement a quarter hour later when she stepped into the Hog and Hen. The place looked as though the hog and hen in question had run rampant through the public rooms. She’d entered by herself about five minutes after Caleb had gone in. He’d told her he’d stand near the bar, and she spotted him easily. She must have looked as uncertain as she felt, because he gave her a firm nod as though to say, You can do this.
She took a breath, straightened her shoulders, and moved forward. Of course she could do this. She’d dealt with crying, screaming, fighting ten-year-old girls. A corrupt politician was nothing to her.
She made her way to the bar, aware that several pairs of eyes followed her. She was dressed more…completely than most of the women in the place, but she wasn’t here to advertise her charms. Still, her lavender gown and spencer were nothing to make anyone take notice. In an area of Town known for its silk weavers, the cloth of her dress was obviously inferior, as were her battered half boots and her drooping hat. She was nothing to waste time over.
Without looking at Caleb, who was now only a few feet away, she cleared her throat. The barkeep flicked his eyes at her, then went back to polishing a glass. “What can I get you?” he asked flatly.
He muttered something under his breath as she walked away. She hoped Caleb followed. She was trembling now, but Satan himself couldn’t have stopped her from going into that room. Perhaps she would find James today. She might even hold him in her arms tonight.
She walked out and continued walking. Tears burned in her eyes, but she wouldn’t give anyone the satisfaction of seeing them.
Mrs. Brodie’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies teaches all the usual subjects—plus quite a few unusual ones. We’d love to know, what was your favorite subject in school, or what subject would you like to study at Mrs. Brodie’s Academy?
To one random commenter on this post, Theresa would like to give away a copy of her historical romance novel Scandalous Ever After and Shana would like to give away a copy of her historical romance novel No Earls Allowed. This giveaway is open internationally, and the winner can choose print or Kindle copies.
Shana Galen is the bestselling author of Regency historical romances filled with passion and adventure. A former school teacher, Galen now balances marriage and motherhood with a full-time writing career. Unmask Me If You Can, book four in Galen's popular The Survivors series will be released November 6th. Connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter and visit her website for more information about her books.
A bestselling author of historical romances, Theresa Romain's accolades include starred reviews from Booklist and a 2016 RITA® final for Secrets of a Scandalous Heiress, book three in her The Matchmaker Trilogy. Her most recent full-length book is Lady Rogue (Apr 2018), book three in her The Royal Rewards series. Learn more about her books at her website and connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter.
Meg Buchanan is determined to prove she didn't get the trainer job in Redmond, Oregon's rookie smokejumper class because of her family's long history as firefighters - - or out of pity. But if teaching one of her own brothers isn't challenge enough, she's shocked to see Lance Roberts in the new class of recruits. Once her brother's best friend, and her first, unrequited crush, he's also the son of the man responsible for her dad's death.
I fell in love with Marnee Blake's writing while reading her debut trilogy. While New Adult is not my usual cup of tea, Blake's suspense-filled, action-packed, NA paranormal series kept me on the edge of my seat, eagerly turning pages until I finished each riveting story. When she announced her new series - contemporary, romantic suspense stories set within a community of smokejumpers in the Pacific Northwest - I didn't even have to think before jumping onboard. I am happy to report that this first book, Tempt the Flames, is a satisfying page-turner that has me eagerly anticipating the books to come.
Ten years ago, one fateful mistake resulted in the deaths of both Meg's and Lance's fathers, best friends and fellow smokejumpers. The accident was blamed on Lance's father and, in an instant, life was changed for both families. Sympathy and compassion were heaped upon the Buchanans by the residents of their small town while Lance and his mother were treated with suspicion and animosity. They eventually left Redmond, moving to California and Lance, burdened with guilt and anguish over his father's actions, cut ties with his best friend, Hunter Buchanan and the girl he had always secretly liked but could never have, Hunter's younger sister, Meg.
Over the past ten years, Lance has made a name for himself in California firefighting and now he's returned to Redmond to fulfill his dream of becoming a smokejumper. But small town memories are long and so are those within the smokejumping community. Will he be given a fair chance? Will people judge him on his own merits or will he forever be tainted by his father's actions? And how far will they go to stop him if they discover why he's really there?
Contrary to what Lance believes, his family wasn't the only one adversely affected by the events of that tragic day ten years earlier. Blake does a great job of showing the fractures and dysfunction that have grown within Meg's family as well. Everyone who was impacted by that day still struggles with it's fallout, including Meg and Lance. Will their deepening relationship bring the forgiveness and healing they, and their broken families, desperately need or be the final straw that rips them apart forever?
Tempt the Flames pulled me into Blake's high-risk world of smokejumping and into the minds, hearts, hopes, and fears of her characters. I'm intrigued by several of these characters and can't wait to find out which of them will be putting his heart on the line next.
If you enjoy contemporary romantic suspense with plenty of emotion, sizzle, action, and a mystery with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing through most of the book, I encourage you to give Tempt the Flames by Marnee Blake a try.
Hi Everybody! I'm home, survived Florence with no damage, and am beginning to get back into the swing of things. Thank you again for all of your kind thoughts and prayers over the past two months. I can't begin to tell you how very much it has meant to me. My heart has taken a beating and it will take awhile for me to get back to my normal, happy, optimistic self but I will get there eventually. Here's what's happening at the blog for the rest of September.
Thursday, September 20, Theresa Romain and Shana Galen will join us to celebrate their newly released historical romance novella duet, Mrs. Brodie's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. Stop by this Thursday to learn more about the secret classes, second-chance romances, fun, and adventure to be found at Mrs. Brodie's unconventional academy. Theresa and Shana are both offering giveaways (open internationally) and since Thursday is also my birthday, don't be surprised if there are a few unexpected giveaways from me as well!
Christmas makes an early appearance on Tuesday, September 25 with Emily March's The Christmas Wishing Tree blog tour. Stop by to read what I have to say about this newest installment in March's popular and heartwarming Eternity Springs series and for a chance to win a copy of the book.
I'm working on more reviews so keep an eye out for those over the next few weeks. I'm also working on clearing out my office - getting ready for potential flooding opened my eyes to just how much "stuff" resides there - so watch for some epic book giveaways as well.
Were you impacted by Hurricane Florence? Everything okay at your house?
What new book releases are you most anticipating?
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2019-04-20T12:29:55Z
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http://www.theromancedish.com/2018/09/
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Primarily because of its young age, Python is still a language that people only discover after having digested a few others: while many of its users love it enthusiastically, almost nobody is a native speaker of it, in the sense of having been exposed to it before any other.
As computer literacy evolves from desirable to necessary for people from all backgrounds, computer professionals and academics are responsible for taking a long-term view on how best to educate the next few generations of computer users. Form shapes contents, so the influence of a clean yet expressive first language in establishing good mental models and programming habits should not be underestimated.
This paper discusses how Python, with its high level of abstraction and judicious balance of simplicity, conciseness and versatility, is an excellent choice to introduce the fundamental ideas of the art of programming.
In many programming contexts scripting languages are steadily gaining popularity as the most effective way of getting the job done. From rapid application development to system administration and from web automation to scientific computing, many experienced developers embrace scripting enthusiastically once they discover how much time and frustration they save compared to solving the same problem with a lower-level system language. A lucid analysis of this shift is offered by Ousterhout who remarks that ``computers become faster and cheaper in comparison to programmers'' and hence that reduced execution speed is a fair price to pay in return for increased productivity and expressive power.
What only a minority seem to realise, though, is that a cleanly designed scripting language such as Python is also eminently suitable for introducing a virgin mind to the art of programming. Some will consider this suggestion as highly dangerous, on the grounds that new programmers should be introduced from the start to such fundamental principles as type and variable declaration: for them, to start a fresh mind on a scripting language might cause long-term brain damage of the sort that can be observed on those, such as yours truly, who started with BASIC in the Seventies or Eighties when home computers first came out. This paper aims to dispel such fears and to highlight, on the contrary, the virtues of Python as an effective language for introductory programming courses.
I stand behind this thesis with passion and dedication, but unfortunately without yet having had a chance to validate it by teaching a course or writing a textbook; this makes this paper an opinion piece rather than a scientific report substantiated by experimental data. I was however delighted to discover, after having written most of my first draft, a now well-known visionary plan aiming in the same direction (and beyond!), originated by none less than Guido van Rossum himself . In recognition of these two circumstances I shall keep this paper brief-a strategy that most readers will undoubtedly appreciate.
From the point of view of the Python evangelist (which cannot be totally ignored given the conference at which this paper is being presented) the suggestion of raising programmers on Python might appear like a brilliant proactive marketing strategy: instead of the obsolete method of converting programmers by showing them how much better Python copes with their specific problems, one gets in their brain ahead of the competition, before they even stand a chance to become polluted by the infidels.
Regretfully, the evangelists will have to face disappointment, since the main motivation for this proposal is not to recruit new followers to the Faith. Python here is a means, not an end, and indeed for those who will go on to become professional programmers it will only be a stepping stone towards other languages.
Many beginners' courses are, for obvious reasons, market driven, in the sense that they introduce the students to programming using the language that the students wish to be able to proudly display on their curriculum vitæ: this typically means Java in the luckier cases, or Visual Basic otherwise1. Without intending to discuss the issue of which language would actually be most beneficial to those students' future career, we wish however to investigate which language is most suitable for their introduction to programming. It must be emphasised that the two issues are largely orthogonal: anyone taking up programming as a professional occupation will by necessity have to learn a number of different languages over the years, so there is no fundamental need to use for the initial training the same commercially accepted language that the student expects (rightly or wrongly) to be using once employed, as long as that other language is also taught in due course.
On the contrary, just like the knowledge of more than one natural language makes an author more proficient and more aware of certain expressive nuances and subtleties that might otherwise go unnoticed, so the knowledge of several programming languages, with their different approaches to the task of expressing an algorithmic computation, broadens the mental horizon of the programmer and highlights alternative and sometimes more appropriate ways of solving the problem at hand.
The ``space'' of all possible programs is so huge that no one can have a sense of what is possible. Each higher-level language is naturally suited for exploring certain regions of ``program space''; thus the programmer, by using that language, is channelled into those areas of program space. He is not forced by the language into writing programs of any particular type, but the language makes it easy for him to do certain kinds of things. Proximity to the concept, and a gentle shove, are often all that is needed for a major discovery-and that is the reason for the drive towards languages of ever higher levels.
Programming in different languages is like composing pieces in different keys, particularly if you work at the keyboard. If you have learned or written pieces in many keys, each key will have its own special emotional aura. Also, certain kinds of figurations ``lie in the hand'' in one key but are awkward in another. So you are channelled by your choice of key. In some ways, even enharmonic keys, such as C-sharp and D-flat, are quite distinct in feeling. This shows how a notational system can play a significant role in shaping the final product.
It is thus appropriate to choose, for an introductory programming course, a language which makes it easy to express the important ideas without getting lost in irrelevant detail. As a cultural imprinting, the student needs to learn the fundamental concepts of program construction and the basic skills of specifying, expressing and debugging an algorithm. At this initial stage it helps if the notational system supports just that, without getting in the way with too much syntax or low-level detail. Python's clear conciseness is what is needed to visualise the algorithm in 15 lines as opposed to two pages of scaffolding, brackets and ancillary declarations. One is not forced first to write a concise pseudocode version and then some real code to implement it: with Python, the pseudocode is in fact also real code, and already executable.
A word of warning. Kernighan and Pike appropriately insist on style and clarity as the foremost qualities of a good program-and it is somewhat refreshing to see the C demigods inviting readers to caution when handling the more cryptic and less safe features of the language for which they were partly responsible. Python tutorials, on the other extreme, all too often put the emphasis on fun, not on style, perhaps in the over-enthusiastic hope that the cleverly designed layout and syntax of the language will make the source readable for free. While Python's structure may give it a head start on clarity compared to C, it would be wise to bank on this advantage by emphasizing to students the value of readability and good style, which require a conscious effort in Python like in any other language, including English.
We have spoken so far of introductory courses meant for future programmers, i.e. people that would naturally continue to intermediate and advanced courses, where they would learn new skills and new languages as appropriate. But the more novel and provocative aspect of this proposal to use Python in education sees this only as the marginal case. Future programmers are people who choose to use computers. The really relevant case-the one towards which the community of computer professionals and academics has the greatest responsibility-is that of the vast majority of people who will be forced (by us) to use computers and will probably never attend an intermediate or advanced programming course: historians, surgeons, lawyers, musicians and so on. At present, they may not receive any programming training at all. The idea put forward here is that they all deserve to get such training, in moderate quantity, at around secondary school age, and that Python would be a good language to teach them. The Van Rossum proposal is even more radical, advocating that programming should be taught at elementary school level as a basic skill, on a par with natural language and arithmetic.
It is always easy to make a strong case for including new topics in a syllabus. The problem is to decide what to leave out to make room for the new material and, for this reason, discussions of syllabus reform always resolve themselves into discussions of what to cut out, not what to put in.
But, apart from the age question, the crucial message is that all children, and not just the technically minded, would benefit from learning the principles of programming, as opposed to just being taught how to drive prebuilt applications as users.
Spreading the knowledge about programming has at least two advantages: the first is to somewhat demystify computers and give those future users the intellectual tools to understand, at least qualitatively, what goes on under the hood. Instead of I-don't-want-to-know-about-it-ly2 blaming all malfunctions on voodoo or Murphy, they will have some insight into possible causes for the problem and might be able to devise, if not a fix, a safer or less resource-hungry way of doing what they want.
It is easy, with hindsight, to recognise that this need for elementary programmability is perfectly solved by scripting languages. Only a tiny fraction of computer users will be professional programmers, but all users deserve to be taught how to write useful five-line scripts to automate simple repetitive tasks3.
4 Is Python a good first language?
As a separate issue from the desirability of introducing schoolchildren to programming, let's come back to Python in particular, and to its suitability as a first language.
One might think, especially in the light of what we just said, that two types of students ought to be distinguished, namely the future professional programmer and the future non-technical user, since the requisites for the respective ideal first languages might be quite different.
In the first case, one might wish to emphasise good programming habits that favour program correctness and maintainability, while in the second case one might lean more towards giving the students some directly usable practical skills, especially if this is expected to be their first and last programming tutorial.
For some, the requirements for the first case will mark Python as unsuitable. Faculty member Peter Robinson , in presenting the criteria for the choice of language to be taught initially to the computer science undergraduates at the University of Cambridge, lists ``mathematical basis'', ``strong typing'' and ``functional emphasis'' as the three main objectives, accompanied by ``a friendly environment for experimenting'', which translates as ``an interpreted language''. This because the students ``need to start with a sound foundation for programming that can establish the principles which will subsequently be applied in many different languages''.
The value of being able to see a program as a formal description of an abstract algorithm, and to analyse algorithms mathematically, is emphasised. From these requirements Robinson justifies Cambridge's choice of ML which, as an interesting side effect, puts all students on an equal footing: even those with previous programming experience have never heard of the language before and are typically accustomed to imperative rather than functional programming.
Python cannot score as well as ML against these criteria, especially for what concerns the mathematical purity: although it includes functional constructs and supports functions as first class objects, Python lacks ML's sophisticated type inference mechanisms and is certainly not a ``pure'' functional language-or a pure anything else for that matter. In fact, the following comment on C++ by Stroustrup applies equally well to Python, whose computational model fruitfully borrows from various inspiring sources.
Too often, ``hybrid'' is used in a prejudicial manner. If I must apply a descriptive label, I use the phrase ``multi-paradigm language'' to describe C++.
The reason why an educator, notwithstanding Robinson's valid points, might still choose Python over ML for a first course to computer science undergraduates is probably one of simplicity. While functional concepts can still be presented and explored in Python where appropriate, the core of the course can proceed using a notation that, while less rigorous and more detached from the mathematical foundations of computing, is nevertheless going to be much closer to the usual pseudocode used in language-neutral textbooks. The outstanding introductory volume by Goldschlager and Lister , which Robinson himself elsewhere lists as required cover-to-cover reading for the computer science undergraduates even before they turn up at Cambridge , presents its algorithms in a format and programming style that is going to look rather more familiar to a native Python speaker than to a native ML speaker.
Besides, one should not entirely dismiss the possibility that the choice of ML, while technically and pedagogically sound, might have an element of Cambridge elitism in it, as hinted at in the following extract from Haemer's witty and enjoyable chronicle of the 1994 VHLL symposium .
While [speaker Andrew Koenig] isn't put off by some of ML's unusual properties, Andy admits that it is the twenty-first programming language he's learned. I didn't have the impression that he was the norm. Neither, I think, did he.
Python's principal advantage as an introductory language is its high abstraction level, which is appropriate to introduce the fundamental concepts of algorithms without getting distracted by irrelevant details such as machine level micro-optimisations and memory allocation issues. Naturally, the future computer scientists will have to be introduced to such details at some stage-but this can happen later, in the context of explaining them how Python's own building blocks were made.
Anyone with an interest in the didactics of programming should not miss the excellent article by Stroustrup on learning Standard C++. Since C++ is so large, it must necessarily be conquered in stages; and, Stroustrup argues, an all too frequent mistake is to take the C subset as the first such stage.
In my considered opinion, that's not a good [choice]. The C-first approach leads to an early focus on low-level details. It also obscures programming style and design issues by forc[ing] the student to face many technical difficulties to express anything interesting.
What he instead suggests is an approach that, among other things, ``presents code relying on relatively high-level libraries before going into the lower-level details (necessary to build those libraries)'', ``presents common and useful techniques and features before details'', and ``focus[es] on concepts and techniques (rather than language features)''. To use Python to introduce programming is consistent, in spirit, with the above guidelines. Of course, since Stroustrup discusses studying C++, he implicitly targets students who have already committed to taking programming seriously; but the same guidelines define a sensible strategy even for our ``type 2'' students, i.e. those for whom the fundamentals of programming are a useful piece of 21st century culture but not the foundations of a career.
Someone might even argue that the ultimate goals for a first course to ``type 1'' and ``type 2'' students are not that different after all. In both cases we want to culturally imprint the students with a good methodology and an archetypal idea of how a complex construction such as a piece of software should be built in order to be manageable-indeed this may be what that makes the course more generally useful, even to the ``type 2'' students who will never write a program longer than ten lines. Moreover, again in both cases, we want to retain the students' interest by letting them practice with real problems (such as file manipulation and Internet programming) rather than just abstract data structures; and Python's standard library is just what we need here.
At a structural level, the absence of a direct language ancestor saves Python from perversions dictated only by the need for compatibility. The language is fairly clean, in the sense of being based on the regular combination of a few powerful orthogonal constructs.
Some of the Discardists were very forceful, in particular a university professor who said that the main reason his students loved the notation is that they do not need semicolons - a comment which any future language designer, with or without grandiose plans, should find instructive or at least sobering.
It is in fact only fair to remark that, if the block structure of language-neutral pseudocode can be expressed clearly and unambiguously by nothing more than a legible page layout, there are few good excuses to justify an abundance of brackets, semicolons and begin-end markers in the real code just to simplify the compiler. Making indentation count as block structure also has the beneficial side effect of forcing everyone to indent their source code correctly, under penalty of it not working.
Sometimes even historical accidents are useful. Python's explicit self argument to the methods of a class instance, which seasoned OO programmers may view as an inelegant artifact of the minimalistic implementation, helps less experienced programmers understand who is calling what on what else, and how object oriented programming actually works. When I was once asked to explain subtle distinctions between class and instance methods, it was helpful to be able to point out that the class method wouldn't have worked in that example because, lacking self, it couldn't find the object to which the operation applied. The same explanation would have been more nebulous in ``more advanced'' OO languages.
5 It can't all be good!
It is reasonable to expect that, under at least some aspects, Python will be unsuitable as a first language, since it was not originally designed for this specific purpose. Van Rossum openly admits this possibility and declares himself ready to modify the language where appropriate. He quotes case sensitivity of identifiers and truncation of integer division as features that actual teaching experience proved to be confusing. But there may in fact be more substantial sources of problems.
A less fundamental point, but nonetheless one that never fails to puzzle newcomers, is the distinction between lists and tuples (``So why can't you get away with just lists?''), and the related business of mutable vs. immutable.
Finally, for a language to be used to teach programming concepts, not being able to specify types in, say, the signature of a function is probably a drawback.
These aspects of Python's behaviour are so deeply rooted in its current structure that it is hard to imagine them being removed in a future revision of the language even if actual practice were to show that they effectively cause serious problems to the young students. It will be extremely interesting to see how the problem is tackled if it effectively arises. Breaking compatibility is allowed: the challenge is to devise a new construct that still fits in naturally and elegantly-in other words, one that still has the Python nature.
Python has done very well as a general purpose scripting language. As with some of its direct competitors, its high level data structures and high level primitive operations allow most typical data manipulation tasks to be expressed in tens rather than hundreds of lines of code. Unlike other scripting languages, however, its clean design and its good support for modularity and objects have allowed developers to fruitfully keep on scripting way past the canonical now-move-to-a-system-language limit of a thousand lines or so. Indeed it is thanks to this circumstance that, in a self-sustaining virtuous circle, many of the excellent contributions in the language's rich standard library have come to life.
But, despite this success in the rapid application development arena, Python is still under-utilised. The same cocktail of well chosen language trade-offs that gave Python the edge in the hands of experienced developers also makes Python a great resource for the important task of teaching programming. Newcomers-for whom the first language is a system to organise their new thoughts about algorithms as much as it is a tool for building programs that work-find in Python a clean notation that invites expression at the appropriate level for their experience; they may familiarise with general programming concepts in an environment built out of the regular composition of a few powerful constructs, rather than out of the irregular accumulation of cute hacks, compatibility kludges and special cases. As an added bonus, they get a language that enables them to perform useful practical work on their own data (Python's versatility with text manipulation and Internet protocols comes immediately to mind) rather than being confined to toy worlds populated by lists, trees and integers. Finally, they get a language that will take them a while to outgrow-as demonstrated by the multitude of professional developers who, even as non-native speakers, have now adopted Python for a substantial portion of their work.
Some of the best names of Pythonland have already committed to a substantial concerted effort that will validate the above claims and make Python, with the invaluable feedback loop of actual school experience, an even better first language. Now that the Computer Programming for Everybody project rationale is out, there is in fact much less need than before for a paper such as this one. At this stage, the contribution of this piece is primarily to offer some extra food for discussion, from a slightly different point of view and in a small and easily digested format.
Actually, within the gastronomic metaphor, the most appropriate image is perhaps that of an appetiser: this little piece doesn't give the reader any meaty substantiated facts-nor any cheesy language comparison tables, for that matter-but if a potential educator (or publisher, or author...) finds it sufficiently enticing to want to find out more and maybe bite a bigger chunk of the action, this appetiser will have served its humble purpose.
It was a pleasure to discuss some of these ideas over lunch with Frank Willison at IPC7 in 1998, as we clearly both believed in Python's great potential as a teaching language.
I am also grateful to the anonymous referees (particularly the one thanks to whom I bought the delightful The Practice of Programming ) for their pertinent and encouraging comments.
Les Goldschlager, Andrew Lister and Timothy R. Lister. Computer Science: A Modern Introduction. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, Mar 1988. ISBN 0-13-165945-6.
Jeff Haemer. ``Very High Level Languages Symposium Report''. ;login:, 20(1):5-10, Feb 1995. ISSN 1044-6397. (The symposium, organised by Usenix, was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from 1994-10-26 to 1994-10-28.).
Douglas R. Hofstadter. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books, New York, 1979. ISBN 0-465-02685-0.
Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike. The Practice of Programming. Addison-Wesley, 1999. ISBN 0-201-61586-X.
Don Libes. Exploring Expect. O'Reilly and Associates, 1995. ISBN 1-56592-090-2.
Bertrand Meyer. Object-oriented Software Construction, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN 0-13-629155-4.
John K. Ousterhout. ``Scripting: Higher Level Programming for the 21st Century''. IEEE Computer, 31(3):23-30, Mar 1998. ISSN 0018-9162. http://www.scriptics.com/people/john.ousterhout/scripting.html.
Peter Robinson. ``Preparing to study Computer Science at Cambridge''. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Teaching/Preparation.html.
Peter Robinson. ``From ML to C via Modula-3 an approach to teaching programming'', Dec 1994. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/ pr/mlm3/mlm3.html.
Bjarne Stroustrup. ``Why C++ is not just an Object-Oriented Programming Language''. OOPS Messenger, 6(4):1-13, Oct 1995. ISSN 1055-6400. http://www.research.att.com/ bs/oopsla.pdf.
Bjarne Stroustrup. ``Learning Standard C++ as a New Language''. The C/C++ Users Journal, May 1999. ISSN 1075-2838. http://www.research.att.com/ bs/new_learning.pdf.
Guido van Rossum. ``Computer Programming for Everybody (Revised Proposal): A Scouting Expedition for the Programmers of Tomorrow''. CNRI Proposal 90120-1a, Corporation for National Research Initiatives, Jul 1999. http://www.python.org/doc/essays/cp4e.html.
Maurice V. Wilkes. ``Historical Studies In Science And Technology And The Uses To Which They Can Be Put''. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 53(1):3-10, Jan 1999.
1 Other languages such as C++ may constitute even more desirable CV items, but are typically outside the scope of a beginners' course.
2 <0.5 wink> to Tim Peters who, with characteristic wit, introduced such insidiously contagious linguistic acrobatics in comp.lang.python years ago.
3 This brings to mind the magic power of Expect , which allows your script to drive character-based applications as if it were an interactive user; but unfortunately the tool's usefulness is reduced by the modern prevalence of graphical interfaces. Besides, Expect is far too complicated for a non-techie.
On 24 Nov 1999, 12:30.
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As the ancient Vulcan proverb goes, “Only Nixon could go to China.”1 This truism is essentially used in situations where someone with an unassailable reputation among a group of people takes dramatic action that would be roundly criticized by supporters had the action been taken by someone else. And judging by the reaction of some,2 Tillman v. State marks the point where the members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals downloaded nine copies of The Little Red Book3 on their respective Kindles and booked a collective flight to the Far East. But a closer reading of the opinion itself reveals that perhaps a unanimous decision was quite justified because the legal decision in that case—that expert testimony regarding the reliability of pre-trial identification procedures can be relevant and reliable—was not all that remarkable.
On December 21, 2005, Amandre Wilson and Joseph Liebetreu were shot and killed in their home after attending a charity ball. Richard Avila, who lived across from Wilson’s townhouse, heard two gunshots from the direction of the victims’ home. He heard Liebetreu yell, “Hey, you, get out of here,” and then heard two more shots. Avila saw an “extremely tall” black man wearing a black, mid-thigh-length coat and a gray knit cap run out of the victims’ front door. The lights to the front porch and garage were working, as well as a street light, so he could see the suspect’s face and noticed the suspect had no facial hair. Avila estimated that he was about 62 feet away from the suspect when he viewed him, and he called 9-1-1. He later assisted making a composite sketch that was published on a newscast.
Dan Christoffel, who lived in the same complex as Wilson, saw a tall black man who appeared to be running away from the victim’s home. Christoffel was in a car driven by his brother, and the tall black man slowed when he saw the car’s headlights. Christoffel described the man as having a baby face and wearing a knit cap and a dark, long, thigh-length coat. Christoffel passed within 4 to 6 feet of the suspect and the two made eye contact.
Shortly after the victims were murdered, Bobby Williams was at an apartment complex talking to some people when three black men entered. Williams saw and heard one of these individuals, a “big guy,” discussing that the victims, who had been dressed in ballroom clothing, looked like “easy picks.” This person explained that he was prevented from attacking the couple in their garage, so he went to the front door. When Wilson would not open the door fully, he forced his way in. Wilson fought back, so he shot her. He then shot Liebetreu, who had seen his face. Williams also saw the three men pull items from a garbage bag that included a purse, jewelry, and Christmas presents.
Williams called Crime Stoppers and later “tentatively” identified Larry Tillman to a couple of police officers while they were driving around Tillman’s neighborhood in an unmarked car. Avila and Christoffel looked at a total of six separate photo spreads, and neither could identify Tillman. Williams, however, identified Tillman in the photo spread. Twelve days later, Avila and Christoffel separately viewed a five-person live lineup. Tillman was the only person cleanly shaven, and he was also the only one whose picture had been in one of the previously viewed photo spreads. Avila positively identified Tillman, and Christoffel “tentatively” identified him. Christoffel testified that it was either Tillman or the No. 2 person but that he felt confident that Tillman was the suspect based on his face. Christoffel’s brother was shown a videotape of the lineup, and he thought the suspect could be either the third or fourth person, but the detective explained that he did not expect the brother to be able to identify the suspect because the brother’s focus had necessarily been on driving. Indeed, the State offered other testimony through the detective that it was not unusual for a witness to be able to identify a suspect more easily in a live lineup than through viewing a photo spread.
Tillman proffered the testimony of Dr. Roy Malpass as an expert on eyewitness identifications. A professor of psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso, Dr. Malpass was on the editorial board of one of the better psychology journals, Law and Human Behavior, and had helped to create the Department of Justice’s publication entitled Eyewitness Evidence, A Guide for Law Enforcement, which provide a set of guidelines for good practice in eyewitness-identification procedures. Dr. Malpass also lead the Eyewitness Identification and Research Laboratory at the university and explained that the study of eyewitness identification, as an area of psychology, is a field of study using repeatable techniques and calculated error rates to test a working hypothesis. Having heard the testimony in the case, Dr. Malpass stated that the type of photo spread used by the police was the same kind examined in the experiments using simulated crimes he has studied. Malpass also acknowledged that his testimony has been disallowed several times by trial court judges in criminal cases and one well-known researcher had opined that “our knowledge is not sufficient” for experts to be able to testify.
Dr. Malpass emphasized that he was not there to render an opinion about the accuracy of a particular witness’s testimony, nor did he intend to tell the jury about the specific lineup or photo spread used in the Tillman case. Rather, he proposed to testify as to the manner in which the lineup and photo spread were employed to explain that the use of a photo spread prior to gaining identification in a physical lineup is a biasing fact against Tillman. Additionally, he also would have testified that having a witness point someone out while driving through a neighborhood and then showing him a photo spread with that person’s picture in it is also suggestive. Neither of these types of identification procedures would be approved by the standards set out in the U.S. Department of Justice Eyewitness Evidence Manual. Finally, he also would have testified that having an eyewitness work with a sketch artist can change a witness’s original memory.
The trial court excluded the testimony. First, the trial court explained that Dr. Malpass had not performed any studies regarding a lineup procedure following a photo spread or on seeking a defendant and then a photo spread later. Second, the trial court questioned Dr. Malpass’s credibility because Dr. Malpass testified that he had not fallen asleep during the detective’s testimony during the trial even though the trial court had personally seen him nodding off several times and the bailiff had had to prod Dr. Malpass to wake him up. The court of appeals affirmed on the ground that Dr. Malpass’s testimony would not help the jury understand the evidence because Dr. Malpass did not tie the pertinent facts of the case to the scientific principles at issue.
Overriding the trial court’s role as “gatekeeper” for the admissibility of expert testimony, a unanimous Court of Criminal Appeals held that the trial court should have allowed Dr. Malpass to testify because his testimony would have been both reliable and relevant.4 Writing for the majority, Judge Hervey explained that for expert testimony to be admissible it must be based upon a reliable scientific foundation and relevant to the issue in the case. Applying the standard set out in Nenno v. State, the court first explained that psychology is a legitimate field of study and that the study of the reliability of eyewitness identification is a legitimate subject within the area of psychology. The court relied upon the broad consensus of the scientific community detailed in a recent opinion by the Supreme Court of New Jersey to reach the conclusion that the study of eyewitness identification is a reliable field of research that continues to grow.5 The court even noted that in the New Jersey case, a 10-day hearing on admissibility of such testimony was held and Dr. Malpass testified as an expert for the State. Thus, the court held that reliability of eyewitness identification was a legitimate subject within the legitimate field of psychology.
Having resolved the first two prongs of Nenno in favor of admission, the court then considered whether Dr. Malpass’s testimony properly relied upon and utilized principles involved in the relevant field of psychology. The State argued that Dr. Malpass did not make the principles he relied upon clear, but the court disagreed. Dr. Malpass specifically detailed one of the studies he relied upon as well as the psychological explanations leading to the primary conclusion that showing a witness a photo spread and then a lineup could be suggestive. Ultimately the court held that Dr. Malpass’s extensive experience and knowledge gave them confidence that Dr. Malpass had relied upon and utilized the principles in the relevant area of psychology. Thus, the court concluded that Dr. Malpass’s testimony was reliable.
Additionally, the court distinguished its previous cases where it had upheld the exclusion of eyewitness expert testimony. The court noted that this was unlike the situation presented in Pierce v. State, where the expert could not say if any factors that he discussed regarding cross-racial identification were applicable to the case or to what extent they might undermine the witnesses testimony.8 Similarly, the court distinguished Tillman from a case where the expert would have testified that the entire identification process is flawed without reference to any factors that may have applied to the testifying witnesses.9 In both of those previous cases, the court noted that the experts had not examined any of the eyewitnesses, but in Tillman, that did not appear to be a bar to admissibility of the evidence as the court appeared to opt for a looser fit than it had previously required.10 However, the court did reiterate that the hypotheticals posited to Dr. Malpass mirrored the facts of the case, suggesting his opinion testimony was sufficiently tied to the case.
Finally, the court also noted that Dr. Malpass’s testimony would have assisted the trier of fact. The court noted that eyewitness identification has continued to be troublesome and controversial and has been a major factor behind wrongful convictions.11 The court pulled examples of juror responses in voir dire in unrelated cases to note that awareness and concern surrounding mistaken identifications among jury members. The court cited the new laws regarding improvement and standardization of photograph and live lineup identification procedures.12 Given that jurors might have their own notions about the reliability of eyewitness identification, the court explained that Dr. Malpass’s testimony could also have educated the jury about an area in which it lacked a thorough understanding, much like the educator-expert testimony discussed in Coble v. State.13 And the State’s offer of the detective’s testimony about his experience with identification procedures made it necessary for the jury to hear from Dr. Malpass to receive a more balanced picture of the reliability of these procedures.
A casual reading of the opinion demonstrates that despite how generally unassailable the court’s ultimate conclusion was, the opinion was crafted to achieve a particular result. For example, there is no real discussion of the fact that Tillman, the proponent of the evidence, had the burden to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Dr. Malpass’s testimony was sufficiently reliable.14 Equally inconspicuous is any mention that the State, as the prevailing party on appeal, was entitled to every adverse inference or that Tillman could not rely upon any articles or treatises not presented to the trial court. However, the court cites to a lot of swell stuff without making it clear whether those articles were ever presented to the trial court. I do not mention this to denigrate the court or quibble with the ultimate conclusion that Dr. Malpass’s testimony was admissible. Rather, I point this out to show how ready the court was to bend over backwards to support its conclusion that such evidence should be presented to the jury. Given the court’s apparent predilection, prosecutors should be careful about trying to keep out expert testimony regarding the reliability of eyewitness identification.
Of course, as we go forward, it is also important to note what the opinion does not say. Nothing in this opinion undermines the current legal standards for suppression of in-court identification. The test is still whether, under the totality of the circumstances, an identification procedure was so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.15 This case holds only that the jury should have heard the defense’s expert testimony, not that the in-court identification should have been suppressed. What prosecutors must be mindful of, however, is that the court does take time to note that the identification procedure employed in this case “was not usual” and “involved many layers of suggestiveness.” So if you are dealing with identification procedures similar to those in this case, expect the defense to cite this language to prove up its suppression case.
Similarly, this is not a case where the expert was opining about the visual acuity of the witnesses. In Ex parte Spencer, the Court of Criminal Appeals considered expert testimony that witnesses could not have identified the facial features of an individual involved in the crime.16 There, the court addressed the issue of actual innocence rather than the admissibility of evidence, but the court did note that there would be no way for a forensic visual expert to test the conditions as they existed at the time of the offense. Tillman certainly gives the defense some good precedent to urge when offering new expert testimony, but the language in Spencer could suggest that a forensic visual expert’s testimony may need a tighter fit for admissibility given the inability to replicate the lighting conditions during the offense. At the very least, it suggests that the Court of Criminal Appeals did not announce a new per se admissibility rule regarding eyewitness reliability in Tillman. As with all things evidentiary, the court will still take them up on a case-by-case basis.
And finally, the court itself acknowledged the new identification procedure legislation that will, we hope, significantly reduce the number of flawed identification procedures and wrongful convictions. Nothing succeeds like success, and as officers receive more and more training regarding proper identification techniques we hope the need for expert testimony in this area will decrease. That said, prosecutors should be prepared to counter expert testimony on eyewitness reliability in the aftermath of Tillman as it seems likely trial courts will become more reluctant to exclude defensive evidence in related areas. Just how far trial courts and courts of appeals may stretch this opinion and whether it leads to a change in standards of review for suppression of in-court identification remains to be seen. As is usually the case, such answers lie in the undiscovered country.
1 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Paramount 1991.
2 See e.g. Editorial, Texas seeks to enhance the reliability of convictions, Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, Oct. 6, 2011; Steve McGonigle, Texas court’s ruling makes it easier for juries to hear about witnesses’ fallibility, Dallas Morning News, Oct. 5, 2011.
4 Tillman v. State, 2011 WL 4577675 (Tex. Crim. App. October 5, 2011)(9:0).
5 See New Jersey v. Henderson, 27 A.3d 872 (New Jersey 2011).
6 Jordan v. State, 928 S.W.2d 550 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996).
7 See Cohn v. State, 849 S.W.2d 817 (Tex. Crim. App. 1993).
8 Pierce v. State, 777 S.W.2d 399 (Tex. Crim. App. 1989).
9 Rousseau v. State, 855 S.W.2d 666 (Tex. Crim. App. 1993).
10 And really, skinny jeans are not very flattering.
11 United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967)(“The vagaries of eyewitness identification are well-known; the annals of criminal law are rife with instances of mistaken identification”).
12 Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.20. Note that at the time of the writing of this article, the draft of the statewide model policy for eyewitness identifications was available for viewing and comment at www.lemitonline.org/publications/eyewitnessid.html. Even if comments are closed by the time you read this article, it may still be available for viewing.
13 Coble v. State, 330 S.W.3d 253, 288 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010)(holding that A.P. Merillat could testify as an educated expert on the opportunities for violence in prison).
14 Hernandez v. State, 116 S.W.3d 26 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003).
15 Loserth v. State, 963 S.W.3d 770 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998).
16 Ex parte Spencer, 337 S.W.3d 869 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011).
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https://www.tdcaa.com/journal/as-the-judges-saw-it-literally%E2%80%88%C2%ADtillman-v-state-and-the-admissibility-of-expert-%C2%ADtestimony-regarding-out-of-court-identification/
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October 29 (Bloomberg) Three companies that mine coal in Mongolia's Tavan Tolgoi basin have agreed to export 1 billion tons of the fuel to China's Shenhua Group Corp. in the next 20 years, said the chief executive officer of one of the suppliers.
Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC, Mongolia (Mogi: Mongolian) Mining Corporation and Tavantolgoi JSC signed the memorandum of understanding with Shenhua on October 25, Yaichil Batsuuri, CEO of state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, said in an interview today in Ulaanbaatar. The coal delivered by the three companies could generate about $50 billion at current prices, Batsuuri said.
The MOU would ensure a long-term buyer for the companies operating in the Tavan Tolgoi basin, which contains 6.4 billion tons of coal reserves. Shipping 1 billion tons of coal over 20 years would be an average of 50 million tons annually. That's almost triple the 18 million tons that Batsuuri said he expected the three Mongolian companies to export this year.
The agreement signed with Shenhua also stipulates that any coal supplied by the Mongolian companies and not wanted by Shenhua can then be sold on the international market, Batsuuri said.
Mongolia's total coal exports fell to 11.38 million tons in the first nine months from 14.29 million tons a year earlier, according to the nation's statistics bureau. The value of the coal exports dropped to $783.94 million from $1.43 billion a year earlier, according to the agency.
State-owned Erdenes TT may export 5 million tons of coal this year, Batsuuri said. The company doesn't currently earn revenue from these shipments, which are going to Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. to pay back a $250 million loan from 2011 (Mogi: $350m in total).
Batsuuri said 3 million tons of coal, valued at $170 million, needs to be delivered to Chalco to pay off the balance on the loan. He said he expects the debt to be paid in full by January or early February.
MMC exported 3.2 million tons of coal in the first half of 2013, according to an August statement by the company, citing data from the National Statistics Office. It accounted for 42 percent of Mongolia's total coal exports in the period.
Shenhua, China's biggest coal producer, also signed a separate MOU with the three companies and Mongolia's state-owned railway company to build a freight line that will help deliveries to the Chinese border. Shipments of coal from the Tavan Tolgoi basin to the border have stalled this year amid complications with trucking companies, said Batsuuri.
This announcement is made pursuant to the provisions of inside information under Part XIVA of the SFO and Rule 13.09(2) of the Listing Rules.
As disclosed in our 2013 Annual Report, the Group has been under a very difficult operating environment by reasons of both internal and external factors, including technical issues in operation, the sluggish coal market environment, and the political and strategic deposits issues in Mongolia. The commercial coal production has come to a halt pending, among others, the construction of coal screening infrastructures in the Khushuut Mine Site and in Xinjiang, China respectively.
Due to setting in of the winter, completion of the Dry Coal Processing System and the Coal Washing Plant is expected to be further delayed. These will unavoidably postpone the resumption of commercial coal production to next year. The resumption is also subject to an agreement of moratorium and a debt restructuring discussed below.
The SF Convertible Note in the aggregate principal amount of HK$466,800,000 is due to expire on 12 November 2013. The Company has recently approached the holders of the SF Convertible Note requesting a moratorium on repayment of the principal and interest under the SF Convertible Note, and the terms are currently under negotiation. The aim is to preserve the current available financial resources for the operational use and development of the Group in short to medium terms. In addition, due to the high level of indebtedness of the Company, the Company is also assessing a debt restructuring plan with all the existing convertible note holders and loan provider of the Company.
If the Company fails to reach the terms of the moratorium and debt restructuring with the noteholders and loan provider of the Company and they take enforcement action against the Company, material adverse impact may occur on the operation and financial position of the Group. The Company will further announce any developments as and when appropriate.
Shareholders and potential investors are urged to exercise caution when dealing in the shares of the Company.
• Cash balance of $3.0 million at the end of the quarter.
October 29 (National Securities) MSE TOP-20 Index was up slightly by +0.01% to 14,188.50. Today's volume was 21,446 shares and trading amount was 30.3m MNT. 8 shares were up, 4 shares were down and 9 shares were stable.
Eurofeo (SOI) was limit-up to 2,070 MNT. Mongol shevro (MVO) and Auto road (AAR) are the biggest gainers, increasing 14.99% and 14.77% respectively. The top loser was Mongol leather (UYN), which produces leather clothes, dropped -7.69% to 1,200 MNT. HB Oil (HBO), which is oil refinery plant, was volume leader again. It's 11,495 shares were traded with worth of 4.1 million MNT. It's price was closed at 350 MNT, dropping -4.11%. Market capitalization was 3.2 billion MNT.
October 29 (Bank of Mongolia) On the Foreign Exchange Auction held on October 29th, 2013 the BOM has received bid offer of USD and CNY from local commercial banks. BOM has sold 20 million USD and 66.5 million CNY to the local commercial banks.
On October 29th, 2013, The BOM has received bid offer of USD for Swap agreement from local commercial banks and sold 107.0 million USD.
October 29 (Bank of Mongolia) Auction for 5 years maturity Government Bond was announced at face value of 50 billion MNT and each unit was worth 1 million MNT. Face value of 50 billion /out of 80.2 billion bid/ Government Treasury bill was sold to the banks at premium price and with weighted average yield of 10.24%.
October 29 (Cover Mongolia) On the third day of 27th Mongolian People's Party Congress, Deputy Speaker Miyegombo ENKHBOLD was elected as new leader of the opposition party, replacing U. Enkhtuvshin less than a year and a half after he was elected following last year's defeat in general elections.
Earlier in the morning, his father G. Miyegombo, a well-known educator and pioneer in developing Mongolia's university system, had passed away following a battle with illness.
This is the second time Mr. Enkhbold is elected MPP leader, and is a former PM (2006-2007), longtime mayor of UB (1999-2005) and a MP since 2005.
October 29 (UB Post) A wide range of innovations and reform are being made in the legal and law enforcement spheres at the initiative of the President of Mongolia, Ts.Elbegdorj. The draft pack bill initiated by the President, has been approved through the Parliament, or State Great Khural, and will be implemented soon in full scale. The next step for the initiative, innovations in the structure of the existing justice system, will soon be launched.
Before the innovations and reforms are put into place, several laws will be amended. Accordingly, discussions about the draft bill on Criminal Law took place between law enforcement officials and the court sector at the Civil Hall of the President of Mongolia last Friday.
The Amnesty Law has been applied four times in the past decade, releasing some 2,000-4,000 prisoners each time, however, the number of convicts and prisoners still hasn't decreased. Lawyers believe that Mongolia law is ineffective, as the crime rate has increased by five percent while the number of inmates rose by 18-20 percent. A decision was made to make reforms to the Criminal Code. A draft bill is being developed, renaming the Criminal Code the "Law on Crimes." The newly developed draft bill on crime aims to make vested changes in securing human rights and freedom, and includes provisions to re-classify cases related to corruption and misconduct. The present Criminal Code is not capable of resolving financial crime and unfair monopolies but the new law will include those issues.
At the discussions G. Erdenebat, deputy of the State General Prosecutor, introduced the draft bill on crime. The next step for reforms in the court and legal system, which have been undergoing reforms since 2009, is the system of justice and innovations presented in the Criminal Code, stressed G. Erdenebat. The Deputy State Prosecutor defines the new draft bill on crime as being able to implement the pledge of the President, "to bend the corrupt and straighten the back of the public," through innovations in the criminal justice system. The current legal system, adopted in 1992 to preserve the values of the democratic constitution, will be improved. The time has come to protect the values that were declared in the constitution. Mongolia will follow criminal law that truly combats crime.
The draft bill on crime legally defines 68 types of crimes, including domestic violence and intentionally inflating market prices for goods. Law makers have also revised policy on sentencing minors as adults, ruining rather than rehabilitating young offenders. The new law includes opportunities for acquittal in cases where the convict completely repays damages, the protection of victims and witnesses, and jailing individuals based on the severity of their crimes as felonies or minor offenses.
Arrangements will also be made to evaluate the length of prison sentences from a month to 20 years, considering that the detention alone is not always the most effective sentence. The draft bill states that when life sentences are imposed, they should be sentences of at least 20 years.
The draft bill includes principles in great contrast to existing law; an individual can only be charged once for a single offense or crime; eliminating follow-up discussion terms in international crime; more definitive language against capital punishment; and strengthening the enforcement of the International Criminal Code so that the accused is brought to justice even when the court has no capacity or interest in charging a foreign offender in accordance with domestic jurisdiction and law.
New types of crime, crimes involving information security, corruption and misconduct, will be clearly defined and a new chapter (Crimes Against Cultural Heritage) will be included in the new law in accordance with the state policy to preserve and protect historical cultural heritage and archeological, geological and paleontological findings and extraordinary treasures. The new law also includes a new chapter on financial crime, which includes the use of illegal monopoly, creating artificial shortages, bankruptcy fraud, tax evasion, illegal conduct by banks and financial operations, intellectual property theft and violation of trade secrets, avoidance of social welfare payments, and insurance, loan and credit fraud.
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, October 29, 2013 (World Bank) A new World Bank Group report finds that Mongolia implemented three positive business reforms between June 2012 and June 2013, making it easier to start a business, deal with construction permits, and access electricity.
Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises finds that 15 of 25 economies in East Asia and the Pacific made at least one regulatory reform to improve the ease of doing business.
Over the past year, Mongolia eliminated the requirements to get company statutes and chartered notarized and to register a new company with the local tax office, thereby making starting a business easier. The country also removed a rule requiring companies to submit building plans for lower-risk construction projects to the state for technical review. The third reform involved increasing operational efficiency while lowering the costs of getting electricity access.
IFC, the World Bank Group member focused on private sector development, has worked closely with the Mongolian government to support investment climate regulatory reforms, including providing advice on business reforms that are covered by the sub-indicators of the Doing Business index.
"For the second year in a row, Mongolia has implemented three positive business reforms, which demonstrates the country's commitment toward improving its business environment, particularly for smaller businesses," said IFC's Resident Representative in Mongolia Tuyen Nguyen. "The World Bank Group will continue to support Mongolia's reform agenda, paving the way for ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity in the country."
With IFC's partnership, the Mongolian government is drawing lessons from other economies that are successful at implementing business reforms. Last year, a Mongolia reform delegation visited Georgia, one of the top Doing Business performers, to learn how information technology can make governance more transparent and efficient.
Globally, Singapore continues to provide the world's most business-friendly regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs, followed by Hong Kong SAR, China. Joining Singapore and Hong Kong on the top 10 list this year are, in this order, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Georgia, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
The joint World Bank and IFC flagship Doing Business report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy's businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 189 economies. Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure the quality of fiscal management, other aspects of macroeconomic stability, the level of skills in the labor force, or the resilience of financial systems. Its findings have stimulated policy debates worldwide and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies. This year's report marks the 11th edition of the global Doing Business report series and covers 189 economies. For more information about the Doing Business reports, please visit doingbusiness.org and join us on doingbusiness.org/Facebook.
Cupertino, California, October 29 (Entone) – Entone, Inc., a leading provider of Hybrid TV and Connected Home solutions, announced today that Skymedia, a subsidiary of Skytel, one of Mongolia's largest mobile operator, is deploying its Kamai 510 Hybrid Media Player to deliver advanced IPTV services.
With more than a quarter of the nation's mobile phone market, Skymedia is continuing to expand into IPTV. Since 2012, Skymedia has been expanding their DSL and fiber networks to enable the delivery of video and IP services to a growing population of over 2.9 million people.
"Deploying IPTV has its unique challenges. Offering IPTV services in rugged and remote areas of Mongolia makes quality, stability and support especially important," stated D. Byambatseren, CEO at Skymedia. "Entone has helped us to reduce our CAPEX and OPEX during this IPTV rollout. Entone's hybrid solutions enable us to differentiate with services such as VOD and nPVR, while also allowing us to launch new emerging services in the future without additional truck rolls. Entone's world-class support has also been extremely valuable."
Entone's Kamai 510 hybrid media player is a powerful and flexible platform for IPTV and Hybrid TV services. Kamai offers a carrier-grade 5 GHz Wi-Fi option for wireless whole-home HD video distribution.
"We are proud to be partnering with Skymedia as we continue our expansion in the APAC region," said Mark Evensen, founder and CTO of Entone. "We look forward to supporting Skymedia with their IPTV deployment, and as they launch new services in the future."
Skymedia's deployment further validates Entone's global market leadership position in IPTV and Hybrid TV solutions. Over 150 of the world's leading service operators are deployed with Entone to support their IP and Hybrid TV video services.
Ulaanbaatar, October 29 /MONTSAME/ United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has established a technical assistance fund of 400 million USD for development of Mongolian small and medium enterprises.
The fund under the Quality Supplier Development Center of USAID Business Plus Initiative projects aims at increasing current offtakes of our small- and medium-sized businesses at least five-times, and at assisting them in supplying high quality products to the market.
Future actions of the fund will be detailed at the meeting that is to take place in the exhibition hall of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry on October 30.
October 29 (UB Post) A Mongolia-Poland Business Forum took place on Monday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relation to the official visit by the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski.
A delegation of representatives from some 30 Polish businesses accompanied President Komorowski, and heard an opening speech delivered by President of Mongolia, Ts.Elbegdorj, commending the endeavor.
During the forum participants discussed possible collaboration in the mining sector, especially in coal mining, and the supply of European standard mining equipment and machinery at low costs. The parties also discussed the progress of projects financed by credit from the Polish government.
The Mongolian Minister of Mining, D.Gankhuyag, and the Polish Minister of Economy, Janusz Piechocinski, signed a declaration of cooperation in the mining sector.
The ministries expressed their intent to futher economic trade and cooperation by introducing Polish mining technologies and trading heavy machinery and equipment used in mining. The Polish representatives also agreed to conduct a professional analysis of mining development and train Mongolian personnel working in the field.
October 29 (UB Post) Nine Malaysian companies participated in the inaugural Oil & Gas Specialized Marketing Mission (SMM) to Ulaanbaatar from October 1 – 3. The mission was organized by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE).
Among products and services promoted by Malaysian companies were valves, pipes and fittings, heating, ventilation, air conditioning services, lubricants, original equipment manufacturing services, technical and engineering training, sub-contracting for scaffolding and insulation services, engineering design services, as well as drilling equipment and services.
MATRADE's pre-arranged 102 business meetings between Malaysian companies and potential Mongolian buyers and major companies in the oil and gas sectors successfully generated sales and business opportunities valued at 677.94 million MYR (approximately 213 million USD).
Feedback from Malaysian companies was positive. A representative from Innovative Fluid Process Sdn Bhd said, "We got firsthand, ground-level information about the market. This is very good." Another participating company, Esional Sdn Bhd, added, "This SMM is really an eye opener and has given us some confidence for the subsequent move to tap the opportunities in Mongolia."
Mongolia is a fast growing emerging market that registered economic growth of 12.3 percent in 2012. The country has proven reserves of 2.4 billion barrels of oil at its three producing blocks and another 10 billion barrels of oil estimated in the Eastern Mongolian Basin. Mongolia is planning to have its own refinery plant by 2015, and this development will further boost the petroleum industry and supporting industries.
October 29 (TheBusinessDesk.com) FIRMS in the West Midlands have been urged to consider Mongolia as a new trading partner.
Jonathan Webber, Head of UK Trade & Investment's International Trade team Birmingham said the recent visit by William Hague to the country had highlighted its potential.
"There are many reasons why the world is suddenly waking up to the opportunities that abound in Mongolia and why West Midlands companies need to make sure they don't lose out," he said.
"For starters, Mongolia is expected to be the fastest growing economy in the world over the next two decades, with GDP per capita looking like it will more than quadruple by 2020. In 2012 it grew by 12.3% and in 2013 it's expected to grow by up to 12%, potentially doubling in 2014."
UKTI is holding an 'Explore Mongolia' seminar at Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham on Thursday November 14, as part of a series of events organised for Export Week (November 11-15).
Contributing to the seminar will be a variety of experts from the British Embassy, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia's capital), the Mongolian Embassy, London and UKTI West Midlands.
As well as advice for doing business in Mongolia, firms attending the event will learn why rapid growth - largely in the mining sector - has led analysts to christen Mongolia the 'Wolf Economy'.
Some of the largest untapped gold, copper and coal deposits in the world have been discovered in the country.
Mongolia also has the world's largest copper reserves, the second-largest coal reserves, significant onshore oil and gas fields, vast gold and iron ore reserves, and many other enormously significant deposits of minerals ranging from uranium to tungsten and zinc.
"Put simply, Mongolia's minerals will provide the world with supplies of many of its most valuable raw minerals for the rest of this century," added Webber.
The mining sector expansion is expected to have a strong multiplier effect on the wider economy in the years ahead. Raw and processed products will need to be transported from some relatively inaccessible areas to the global markets.
In addition, Mongolia already has a young, well-educated population, and a vibrant democracy with a pro-Western outlook - English is Mongolia's official second language.
Massive infrastructure projects are being planned to support the 2.9m Mongolian population.
As in other areas of Asia, high-quality imported consumer goods are increasingly popular and this demand is expected to increase rapidly in the years ahead.
West Midlands businesses have been advised to focus on the agriculture, construction, professional, financial and business services, education and tourism sectors for new opportunities.
The Mongolia seminar is designed to provide firms with briefing on the country's business climate and opportunities. UKTI will also be leading a trade visit to Ulaanbaatar in March 2014 and further details on how to participate will be available at the event.
October 28 (Oxford Business Group) Strong demand from both the public and private sectors will keep Mongolia's construction industry busy for the foreseeable future, though the heavy calls on the building trade is stretching resources and pushing up costs.
According to a World Bank report issued in early 2013, capital expenditure in Mongolia has experienced a 35-fold increase over the past 10 years, with the construction sector's contribution to GDP expanding by 25.6% in 2012, mainly due to a rise in public spending. More than 16% of all bank loans went to the construction industry in 2012, the report said, up from 11.8% the prior year, while the real estate sector's share of lending climbed to 17.3%, higher than mining's 14.4%.
Although demand on the construction industry is growing quickly, the World Bank said the capacity of the sector to absorb extensive new projects is not always keeping pace.
"Institutions for project appraisal, procurement, contracting and monitoring are currently under development and are being strained by the rapid increases in the capital budget," the World Bank report said. The international lender also noted a limited pool of skilled labour and a shortage of material inputs, which could drive up costs and compromise quality.
The government has moved to alleviate some of these constraints, providing $86.3m in working capital loans to 60 companies involved in the supply of construction materials, such as gravel and sand, steel, cement and lime. According to Ts. Bayarsaikhan, the minister of construction and urban development, it is hoped that within a few years, Mongolia will be self-sufficient in steel manufacturing and cement, along with a number of other key materials.
"Construction companies are already being supplied with bricks, PSP pipes for water and windows made by domestic manufacturers," he said in an interview with the local media on September 4. "Thus, in the near future, we'll be able to domestically manufacture and supply 15 main construction materials."
Industry participants say the government programme will have a significant impact in the sector, with plans to have up to 80% of all cement locally sourced by the end of the year, up from 30-40% today.
The government has also taken steps to tighten safety regulations on construction sites, which could attract more labour, particularly local, to the sector. While the effect in the short run has been to delay some projects, the long-term result is expected to be a safer and more secure industry.
One of the fastest-growing segments of the construction sector is transport infrastructure. Mongolia is working to expand its road and rail networks in particular. Almost 3000 km of major roads are under construction, with 1700 km of these due for completion by the end of 2013. There are also plans for building 1800 km of mainline rail lines for dedicated freight cargoes, set to be completed in 2018.
D. Ganbaatar, the president of Max Group, a local conglomerate, said that while road development largely depends on the state, with only so much the private sector could do to drive such projects forward, new plans to connect all of the country's provinces by road within the next two years should add to the construction sector's order book.
So too will the increasing urbanisation of Mongolia, with developments in the cities, and in particular the capital, being a growth driver, Ganbaatar told OBG. As more people move to urban areas, the need for both housing and retail facilities is increasing.
"In Mongolia, construction has been positively affected by the fast growth of the retail sector," he said. "This tight relationship will continue to be a key driver of more construction projects, especially in Ulaanbaatar."
In the housing sector, strong demand is pushing up prices, with a state-backed, low-cost mortgage loan scheme introduced in June contributing to the upward trend. However, Bayarsaikhan has said inflationary pressures will ease as the state's efforts to boost the supply of construction materials begin to have an effect. Moreover, according to the minister, some 33,000 housing units are set to come onto the market before the end of 2014.
The expectation is that demand for housing will remain high for some years to come, as citizens in lower income brackets seek to take advantage of inexpensive loans and developers launch real estate projects aimed at the growing higher end of the market. While construction companies could benefit from the substantial need for housing, they are likely to continue facing higher costs for some time.
October 29 /www.news.mn/ Today, the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, is marking its 374th anniversary on October 29th.
08:00 The Ulaanbaatar City Governor, Deputy Governor and representatives of the Ulaanbaatar City Citizens Representatives Khural will teach lessons on the history and culture of Ulaanbaatar City to school children.
11:00 A ceremonial event will be held at the newly laid foundation where a monument of a tortoise will later be erected and solo will be played by a horse-head fiddle with the symbol of Ulaanbaatar City.
11.30 A ceremonial event will be held to mark the re-location of the statue of great Mongolian writer D.Natsagdorj to a new place, to the garden in front of Ulaanbaatar hotel.
12.00 The ceremonial raising of the Ulaanbaatar City flag at Chinggis Khan Square (formerly Sukhbaatar Square).
12.20 Premier release of the album "Polite Ulaanbaatar" at Great Chinggis Khan Square.
12.40 A ceremony to mark the opening of Metropolitan Sale and Events at Great Chinggis Khan Square.
13.00 A gala concert by the children`s choir festival for the 374th anniversary of Ulaanbaatar City at the Central Cultural Palace.
17.00 Award Ceremony for the best construction in Ulaanbaatar City held at the Mongolian State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet.
October 29 (Bloomberg) North Korea and Mongolia signed a series of agreements to step up cooperation in a move that could help ease the two former Soviet allies' economic reliance on China.
The agreements were signed yesterday hours after Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj arrived in Pyongyang to become the first head of state to visit since Kim Jong Un became supreme leader in December 2011. The accords covered cooperation in industry, agriculture, sports, culture and tourism, the official Korean Central News Agency said. It didn't provide details.
"North Korea and Mongolia are particularly reliant on China," Charles Krusekopf, head of the American Center for Mongolian Studies, said by phone from Victoria, British Columbia. "Mongolia is looking for outlets to the sea to export minerals, coal and energy resources. There are a lot of people talking about potential for Mongolian resources to be shipped through North Korean ports to world markets."
Mongolia, a nation of 2.9-million people squeezed between Russia and China, adopted democracy and free elections in 1990, and moved to welcome foreign trade by offering access to its mineral riches. North Korea has been reaching out to friendly nations such as Mongolia and Indonesia as international sanctions over its nuclear weapons program have limited trade and hobbled the economy.
In June, HBOil JSC, an oil trading and refining company in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia said it acquired a 20 percent stake in the Sungri refinery in the North's northeastern free trade zone of Rason.
"I am sure that the Korean people will successfully achieve prosperity and progress of the country, their happiness and regional peace and stability in close cooperation with the international community," KCNA reported Elbegdorj saying at an official banquet in Pyongyang.
In September last year, after meeting with the visiting chief of North Korea's parliament, Elbegdorj pledged to help the new North Korean leader pursue economic reform, offering his nation's experience of moving toward capitalism.
North Korea cut its ties with Mongolia in protest when then-South Korean President Kim Dae Jung visited Mongolia in 1999. The sides re-established ties when North Korea's foreign minister visited Mongolia in 2002.
SEOUL, October 29 (The Asahi Shimbun) Mongolia's President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj is visiting North Korea, making him the first foreign head of state to go there under Kim Jong Un's leadership.
Elbegdorj held talks with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Oct. 28.
Because Mongolia traditionally has close ties with North Korea, Japanese officials are holding out hope the visit will lead to progress in the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s.
The visit is the first by a foreign leader since Kim became first secretary of the ruling Worker's Party of Korea in April 2012. It is thought that Kim Jong Un may meet with Elbegdorj during his stay.
KCNA said Elbegdorj and Kim Yong Nam shared opinions on the state of relations between the two countries and other issues.
The online edition of Rodong Sinmun, mouthpiece of the North's ruling party, said in an editorial on Oct. 28 that the Korean people viewed the visit as a good occasion to develop bilateral ties, as well as mutual exchange and cooperation, "in all fields."
This year marks the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties between North Korea and Mongolia.
Japan has sought Mongolia's assistance in helping it solve the abduction issue. Japanese officials have their fingers crossed that Kim might send some signal on the issue via Elbegdorj.
Mongolia has been receptive to the Japanese request, and a focus of attention now is whether the president refers to the issue in Pyongyang.
SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) -- Mongolia's president stressed that his country will work with Pyongyang to promote stability in Northeast Asia, the North's state media reported Tuesday.
The (North) Korean Central Television (KCTV) said President Tsakhia Elbegdorj, who is visiting North Korea, emphasized the important role that can be played by Pyongyang and Ulaanbaatar in pushing forward peace and stability in the region.
The broadcaster said the remark was made by the chief executive (Mogi: Mongolian president is not the head of gov) ate Monday following talks with senior North Korean officials, including Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Supreme People's Assembly Presidium.
Elbegdorj added that Mongolia was ready to work with all interested parties so as to contribute to the prosperity of Northeast Asia.
KCTV then said that officials from the two countries were in agreement on the need to expand cooperation in trade and investment, and shared the view such developments will further bilateral interests.
Kim, the nominal head of North Korea, meanwhile, said at the banquet honoring the Mongolian president's visit, that there has been continuous cooperation in political, economic, military and sports, and that Pyongyang is committed to expanding strong ties with Ulaanbaatar.
North Korean sources in Seoul and abroad said Elbegdorj's visit marks the first one by a foreign head of state since Kim Jong-un took control of the communist country in late 2011.
A summit meeting between Kim and Mongolia's leader will mark the "coming out" of the North Korean leader onto the stage of international diplomacy.
Pyongyang, October 28 (KCNA) -- The Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) hosted a banquet in honor of Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj on a state visit to the DPRK at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Monday evening.
Present there on invitation were the president and his wife, Luvsanvandan Bold, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Manibadrakh Ganbold, Mongolian ambassador to the DPRK, Khaltmaa Battulga, minister of Industry and Agriculture, Tsagaandari Enkhtuvshin, secretary general of the National Security Council, Tserendejid Byambajav, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Khabshai Erjan, vice-minister of Road Transport, Lundeg Purevsuren, national security and foreign policy advisor to the President, Amgalanbaatar Ganbaatar, advisor for mass liaison and mass policy to the President, Pureb Altangerel, secretary of state for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and personages concerned and staff members of the Mongolian embassy here.
Present there were Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK SPA, Pak Ui Chun, foreign minister, Ri Ryong Nam, minister of Foreign Trade, Ri Jong Mu, minister of Physical Culture and Sports, Kim Jong Suk, chairwoman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, O Kum Chol, vice-chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, Pak Kil Yon, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Kwak Il Ryong, vice-minister of Land and Maritime Transport, Hong Kyu, DPRK ambassador to Mongolia, Vice-Chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries Kim Jin Bom who is chairman of the DPRK-Mongolia Friendship Association, and officials concerned.
Kim Yong Nam made a speech there.
He said that this is a significant year marking the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and the 25th anniversary of President Kim Il Sung's second visit to Mongolia.
The Mongolian president's visit to the DPRK marks an important occasion in boosting the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, which were provided and developed by the preceding leaders, as required by the new era. The exchange of delegations at various levels and visits have become brisk in various fields including politics, economy, military affairs and sports and support and cooperation in the international arena have grown stronger than ever before.
We rejoice as our own over the fact that the friendly government and people of Mongolia have achieved the rapid socio-economic development of the country and raised the international position of their country by pursuing an independent and multi-faceted foreign policy under the leadership of the president. And we sincerely hope that everything will go well in Mongolia in the days to come.
We will as ever make all efforts to positively develop the friendly and cooperative relations with Mongolia having a long history and tradition.
Mongolian President H.E. Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj spoke next.
He said that he was pleased that the official talks between the two countries were held in a candid and friendly atmosphere and consensus was reached on all issues discussed at the talks.
He expressed belief that all issues agreed upon between the two countries would make a substantial contribution to enriching the bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation in new areas and positively developing them in the mutual interests.
I am sure that the Korean people will successfully achieve prosperity and progress of the country, their happiness and regional peace and stability in close cooperation with the international community.
I wish the hard-working Korean people greater successes in carrying out the cause of peaceful reunification of the country and its prosperity under the leadership of Marshal Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.
The banquet proceeded in an atmosphere overflowing with friendly sentiments.
Could Mongolia Serve as a Mediator with North Korea?
October 28 (Korea Economic Institute) As the only Northeast Asian nation not involved in the nuclear talks with North Korea, Mongolia is often left out of discussions about resolving the region's most intractable security issue – the North Korean nuclear crisis. However, when Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj becomes the first head of state to meet with Kim Jong-un on his current trip to Pyongyang in commemoration of 65 years of ties between the two nations, he hopes to play a constructive role in moving North Korea towards a more peaceful path.
At first glance, Mongolia may seem an unlikely mediator for dealing with North Korea. China has played the most significant role in mediating disputes between North Korea and its neighbors, while North Korea has sought to have direct conversations with the United States regarding its nuclear program. But since signing a friendship treaty to reestablish ties in 2002 after a brief interlude as Mongolia transitioned to democracy, Ulaanbaatar has utilized backchannel diplomacy to engage North Korea.
One of the primary ways Mongolia has sought to engage North Korea is by presenting itself as an example of a country that was able to make economic reforms peacefully while balancing its powerful neighbors. Much like Mongolia, which has become a boom market thanks to its mineral wealth, North Korea possesses substantial mineral deposits. Mongolia has offered this as one path for North Korea to develop its economy while retaining its sovereignty. However, Mongolia's economic boom also led to a transition to a democratic government, something which has long been a concern of the leadership in Pyongyang if it were to engage in economic reforms.
In the years since reestablishing ties, North Korea and Mongolia have signed a series of agreements related to science and technology, agriculture, trade, infrastructure, and other fields. Business ties are growing as well. Currently, there are 1,700 North Koreans working in Mongolia and President Elbegdorj is supportive of raising that number as well as engaging in joint economic projects, such as a Mongolian firm taking a 20 percent stake in an oil refinery in North Korea. At the height of tensions earlier this year with South Korea, North Korea felt close enough in its ties to Mongolia to reach out for food aid.
As one of the few countries with good relations with both North and South Korea, this may place Mongolia in a position to play a mediating role. While the West and North Korea both have complicated relationships with China, Mongolia is on relatively good terms with all of the parties involved and in some cases may be an easier route for exchanging information. Additionally, unlike the other parties involved, Mongolia does not have the complex history with North Korea of other states in the region and does not present a potential security threat to Pyongyang.
However, in recent years Mongolia has served as conduit for discussion with North Korea. Mongolia has offered to serve as a host for meetings between North Korea and other officials. In 2012, Mongolia hosted Japanese and North Korean officials as the two sides sought to resolve differences over the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. President Elbegdorj discussed this issue earlier this year in his meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Abe and may raise the issue with Kim Jong-un.
In 2009, North Korea reached out through Mongolia to let the United States know that while it would not return to the Six Party Talks, it was interested in meeting one-on-one with the United States dismantling its nuclear program and normalizing relations.
While Mongolia is unlikely to supplant the role China has played, it could find a role as a facilitator and neutral intermediary in helping to resolve tensions in Northeast Asia. One of the issues that blocked a resolution to the Six Party Talks was the abduction issue. If Mongolia were able to help to facilitate discussion and agreement on discreet issues such as this, it could play an important role in helping to maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
October 28 (UB Post) Avar LLC, registered in Mongolia, has been making headlines in Japanese media. Avar Limited Liability Company won a recent auction for the headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents in Chiyoda district, Japan (known as Chongryon) with a bid of 5.01 billion JPY (90 billion MNT).
Mongolian companies rarely purchase immovable property in Japan (Mogi: rarely? Was there such a case?), and Japanese concerns have been raised about connections to North Korea. Japanese authorities want to learn more about Avar LLC, its influence in Mongolia, and whether it can fully fund its purchase of the building.
Little information about Avar LLC is available, aside from its registration in Mongolia. One Japanese journalist of Japanese called Mongolia to speak with professional sumo wrestler Kyokushuzan Batbayar, and he replied, "There is no individual with that sum of money in Mongolia." (Mogi: well, sure he would say that, not a big fan of Asa) The lack of information about the buyer means that the court will need more time to determine whether or not they will proceed with the purchase. As a result, the Japanese court has postponed a decision to approve the sale of the General Association of Korean Residents in Tokyo headquarters to Avar LLC.
According to reports by some Japanese websites, there is speculation that Avar LLC is buying the building on behalf of North-Korea. Other Japanese analysts believe that there may be political involvement behind the purchase.
The building first went on auction in March 2013 and a Kagoshima-based Buddhist priest placed the winning bid of 4.5 billion yen. The priest, who had close ties with officials in North Korea, failed to come up with the money by the deadline.
The President of Avar LLC spoke about the purchase raising Japanese and Mongolian interest. According to his statement, Avar LLC was established nine months ago, and over the past several months, drafted a project to participate in the auction in Japan. He said, "We have no ties with any government bodies and it is just business, like we informed Japanese press and media."
The founder of Avar LLC, Ch.Erdenebat, is the brother of Mongolian celebrity Ch.Michidmaa. There is further speculation that professional sumo wrestler Asashoryu Dagvadorj and his brother, Member of Parliament D.Sumiyabazar, might be involved in the transaction.
Here is a brief interview with President of Avar LLC, Ch.Erdenebat.
- The Japanese court has delayed the decision to proceed with the sale of the Chongryon site. Why has the court decision been postponed for the building you've purchased at auction?
The court decision is delayed because of various reports related to the auction by the press and media of Japan and Mongolia. The court decision was supposed to be issued last Tuesday. But a court decision will be issued soon.
- Your company has not been active before this? How did you participate in the auction?
Our company has not been established for a long time. It is true that we have not been active. The company participated in the auction via a Japanese law firm. It does not matter how active the company is to participate in the auction.
- Your obliged 5.01 billion JPY is a very large amount of money. How did you organize the funds?
We will gather it through a foreign investment fund. After the court has made its decision I will give you specific information.
- According to reports by some Japanese press, Member of the State Great Khural D.Sumiyabazar and professional sumo wrestler and 68th grand champion Asashoryu D.Dagvadorj are connected to the purchase, or the Japanese government is behind this to bring back its citizens who were kidnapped in North Korea.
There are no links with any government bodies in Mongolia, Japan, North Korea or South Korea. It is just a business. Member of the State Great Khural D.Sumiyabazar is the husband of my sister Ch.Michidmaa. That is why people say that D.Sumiyabazar is involved in the purchase.
- Is Asashoryu D.Dagvadorj connected to the purchase?
October 29 /www.infomongolia.com/ Mongolian delegation led by Prime Minister Norov ALTANKHUYAG made a 4-day official visit to the People's Republic of China and during his meeting with Premier of China Li Keqiang, sides conducted a large scale intergovernmental meeting in Beijing on October 25, 2013.
The main part of the negotiations was signing the Medium and Long Term Program on Developing Mongolia-China Strategic Partnership Relations approved by two Premiers. The two countries have been entered into strategic partnership relations in 2011.
Afterwards, intergovernmental dialogue was continued establishing ten documents on cooperation in trade, economics, sciences, mining, infrastructure, transportation and communications. Moreover, Minister for Economic Development N.Batbayar co-signed an intergovernmental agreement on economic and technical cooperation.
10. "Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between Petroleum Authority of Mongolia and PetroChina Company",Petroleum Authority Director G.Ulziiburen.
On October 26, Prime Minister N.Altankhuyag was received by Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China andby Zhang Dejiang, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
October 29 (UB Post) Earlier this month, several online news outlets reported that Chinese hacker groups, allegedly state sponsored, launched attacks on Mongolian businesses and government to learn as much as it can about Mongolia's relations with the European Union and countries such as the United States, South Korea and Japan. The campaign targets not only entities from Mongolia, but also ones that have economic, diplomatic or military relations with the country.
"The ThreatConnect Intelligence Research Team (TCIRT) has identified a weaponized Microsoft Word document that contains a Concept Development Conference (CDC) announcement for the joint US and Mongolia military exercise called Khaan Quest 2014. Retrospective TCIRT research identified additional decoy documents, written in Mongolian, themed around events like the Mongolian presidential election, held in June 2013. This activity represents Chinese Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) activity against Mongolian entities and others that have economic, military, or diplomatic relations with Mongolia. Mongolia's attempt to steer a more independent path by reaching out to what it calls "third neighbors," such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union, is possibly prompting China to conduct CNE. ," explained the cyber intelligence agency.
The cyber offensive tactics which are very similar to those long applied against Tibetan and Uyghur nationalists and affiliated groups according to TCIRT. The targeted attacks "would help China maintain awareness of changes in Mongolian relations with the US and other Western influences and protect their national interests in Mongolia."
Although it is wedged between two great nations Russia and China, Mongolia is attempting to secure its independence by reaching out to what it calls "third neighbours'," such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union. TCIRT said Mongolia hopes that engagements such as joining Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will alter the dynamics of the region, so that it will move from being bound by Russia-China geopolitics to becoming a fully independent member of the region and international society. A strategic pivot westward by Mongolia only diminishes Chinese influence.
China has been the largest investor in Mongolia since 1998 and its largest trading partner since 1999. In 2009, the bilateral trade figure stood at 2.4 billion USD with China importing 1.3 billion USD worth of commodities, which accounted for more than 70 percent of Mongolian exports. According to official Mongolian statistics, China invested a total of 2.3 billion USD dollars in 2009, more than 60 percent of the total foreign investment in Mongolia.
In its conclusion, the TCIRT stated, "This activity represents Chinese Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) activity against organizations that China perceives to be jeopardizing its interests in Mongolia. As evidenced in the weaponized Khaan Quest document described above, Chinese APT groups will likely continue targeting US military entities involved in cooperation activities with the Mongolian military. Also, western European and other governments that engage with Mongolia diplomatically will be considered CNE targets as well. China's heavy economic investment in Mongolian natural resources will likely continue to fuel cyber espionage efforts against commercial entities, particularly mining and energy exploration companies that may compete with Chinese mining and energy companies in Mongolia."
China has many interests in Mongolia, but like most of its neighbours', anti-Chinese sentiment and tendencies can be observed in Mongolia to some degree. Although it is natural to seek security for one's interest in a population that is not entirely accepting of them, the cyber-attacks on Mongolia only further fuels local anti-Chinese sentiments, fear and distrust. The move, if indeed sponsored by the Chinese government would undermine the two country's relations. Chinese companies are disliked by Mongolian communities and locals, because they usually bring their own workers, and contributes little to decrease local unemployment. Add to that a long history of war and conflict between the nations and indoctrination of local heroes fighting against villains, who are so often from China, and you have a culture that is sceptical and fearful of China.
But there are other issues present in the matter. Although a serious breach of national security or cyber security has occurred the Ministry of Defence has not mentioned the affair once, and local news and media outlets haven't reported on the matter. Such follies cannot be ignored, for the sake of the nation's interest, security and independence. At least an investigation into the matter should be conducted by Mongolian authorities.
October 25 (UB Post) The citizens of Mongolia and Turkey can now visiting each other for up to 30 days without a visa.
The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, signed an MoU on a visa waiver during his visit to Mongolia last April.
An intergovernmental agreement on the visa waiver was signed by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from Mongolia to Turkey B.Batkhishig and by the Director-General of the Consular Department of Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sakir Fakili.
Also, diplomatic and official passport holders of Mongolia and Brunei Darussalam can visit each other without a visa for 14 days, effective August 2013, in accordance with a note exchanged between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries.
Ulaanbaatar, October 29 /MONTSAME/ The North-East Asia Economic Cooperation Forum and the 14th Consultative committee meeting of the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) are to run in Ulaanbaatar on October 30-31.
At the forum to be organized by the GTI, a cooperation mechanism between governments of Mongolia, China, Russia and S.Korea, present will be S.Purev, Deputy-Minister of Finance of Mongolia; Kyung-Ho Choo, Deputy-Minister of Strategy and Finance of South Korea; Pavel Korolev, Deputy-Minister of Economic Development of Russia; Yu Jianhua, Chairman of Foreign Economic Cooperation Department of Chinese Commerce Ministry and some hundred representatives of international banks and financial institutions.
RWI seeks a full-time, Ulaanbaatar-based Mongolia Country Coordinator (MCC) to support the implementation of RWI's activities with civil society organizations, government and the Parliament of Mongolia.
Since 2006, Revenue Watch has worked to advance natural resource governance across Asia, including the provision of technical assistance to government and civil society in Mongolia. This fall RWI will scale up its country work with the launch of a nine-month pilot program supporting the Great State Hural and exploring opportunities to develop further lines of work.
In particular, the MCC will be responsible for leading on the new parliamentary activities, and assessing the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of work with local governments and communities, as well supporting civil society work and building relationships with policymakers, government officials and donors in areas such as new legislation and revenue management. The MCC will work closely with staff at RWI's New-York headquarters, RWI's London office, where the Parliamentary Capacity Development Officer is based and the Eurasia Regional Office in Baku. The MCC will report to the Eurasia Regional Coordinator, but will be hosted by the Open Society Mongolia in Ulan Bator. Open Society Forum Mongolia's Executive Director will provide day to day supervision and support to the MCC.
· When mandated to do so, represent RWI in meetings and events.
· International experience is required.
· Fluency in Mongolian and English is required.
TO APPLY: Please send at your earliest convenience or by October 23, 2013, a cover letter, CV/resume, salary requirements and references to Mr. Galib Efendiev, Eurasia Regional Coordinator ([email protected]). Please include in subject line: RWI/Mongolia Country Coordinator.
October 25 (UB Post) The FIFA World Cup will begin in Brazil in 237 days. Teams from 21 countries will participate and compete for the FIFA World Cup Trophy. The last 11 teams to qualify for the 20th FIFA World Cup will be known at the end of this month. As countries around the world prepare for the event, the Mongolian channel ETV-HD has signed an agreement to work with Daily Newspaper to be the nation's official broadcaster and news source for next year's World Cup .
Ts.Ekhbat, director of ETV: Mongolian publishing organizations working together is a great example of how to support intellectual property.
ETV was just one channel to be invited to broadcast the FIFA World Cup. We are planning to complete our agreement with publishing organizations next month. We've confirmed potential locations to screen the World Cup, and will decide on final locations at the end of November. We are also choosing our sponsors. We are working together with Mongolia's best sportscasters. The FIFA World Cup is the best competition with the best working group. The World Cup is one of the biggest content providers and FIFA wants to protect its intellectual property. We are working together with the Intellectual Property Office and Agency for Fair Competition and Consumer Rights. We are very pleased to be working together.
S.Gantogoo, president of Daily Newspaper Federation: Mongolian Daily Newspaper is officially publishing FIFA World Cup news.
-You signed an agreement with ETV channel cover the FIFA World Cup. What are you doing in the range of this agreement?
- We are really appreciate working together with ETV. There a few important reasons for working together. First, we are working in the scope of intellectual property rights. Before the television channels always held the rights to screen events, not newspaper agencies, but we will also be providing information about the World Cup. Now we can serve as the official publisher. Second, we always pay attention to football information for publishing. Because our readers are interested in football, we publish almost two or three pages. In addition, ETV-HD is planning to work next time with radio for the FIFA World Cup 2014 under the motto "Watch the FIFA World Cup Closely."
October 23 (UB Post) Last Saturday October 19, the first ever "X Games Mongolia" took place in the very heart of the capital city, Central Square.
As the popularity and variety of outdoor activities in community spaces around UB rose in big numbers this summer amongst the youth, organizers believed this was the perfect time to show their support and host competitions that included skateboarding, inline skating, BMX and trail bikes.
It was a prime location, set in front of the monuments of national heroes Chinggis Khaan and Damdin Sukhbaatar and the Government Palace. It was a typically grand, Mongolian blue sky day as a crowd gathered around specially designed ramps that around 55 competitors used to show off their skills as they competed for gold, silver and bronze medals in categories such as "Highest Jump" for all sports; a fun "Spin Race" for skateboarders, where they had to start by spinning themselves several times around their vertical boards before racing, spinning again and racing back; a "Speed Slalom" course for inline skaters; and "Street Freestyle" a timed competition across all sports, to name a few. Custom made trophies were awarded at the end of the day to the overall best entrant in each sport.
First place for skateboarding's Highest Ollie was earned by Erdenedalai Purev with a 62 cm jump. Odmandakh Bataa won the skateboarding Spin Race and the top three places for Best Skateboarding Street Style went to Erdenedalai Purev, Odmandakh Bataa, and Orgio.
As well as being an exciting event for all those competing, it was also educational for those watching, having never before seen BMX riders jumping from one platform to another on one wheel, skateboarders performing "kickflips", or skaters speeding up ramps to perform 360 degree spins. All these achievements and more are known as "tricks" and represent the "extreme" edge that moves these sports beyond their basic recreational capacity. The event was meant for the audience to be inspired by competitors and raise more interest in the featured sports.
Another highlight of the event was the introduction of a new electronic moped. Nikel Ganbaa built the machine and hopes to expand the industry in Mongolia.
During the X-Games competition the founder of Nikel Ganbaa, G.Dashnyam spoke to reporters.
-When did you make the electronic moped?
-Since 2010, Ariunskvh, Aldaraa, Khishgee, Gantugs and Monjig were making electronic mopeds and bicycles by hand. We had our own department and assembled mopeds and bicycles named "Zehilhaan" and "Zetro".
-How much is the moped and what is its top speed?
- We made two differed mopeds. One is a car battery-powered moped, and its high speed is 35 kilometers per hour. The other is named "Litvang" and its high speed is 50 kilometer an hour. Now they are a little bit expensive because we made all the parts by hand.
-Where will you sell the mopeds?
- We plan to present our mopeds to City Administrators. And we are also planning to include a "Support Manufacturers" project. If they support our production, we will prepare over winter and can start production in Spring. We proudly say it's better than Chinese-made mopeds. We them to meet international standards and can provide a longer warranty. The important thing is that people should understand it's handcrafted and made in Mongolia.
Organizing the event were local NGOs, Dagina Khot, Mongolian Extreme Games Club in collaboration with Mongolian Uukhai Skateboarding Association and was affiliated with the Capital City Art and Culture Authority.
X Games is an extreme sports event that started in 1995 in Rhode Island, USA, and is organized every year by the U.S. sports broadcaster ESPN. This year saw the global expansion of a six-event calendar held in three host cities: Barcelona, Spain; Munich, Germany; and Foz do Iguacu, Brazil. The event features competitions in sports such as Moto X Speed and Style, Skateboard Vert, Rally Car Lites, Mountain Bike Slope Style and BMX Downhill. The winter version of the games include Ski Big Air, Snowmobile Freestyle, Snowboard Super Pipe.
The weekend also included the "Bicycle Ulaanbaatar" parade, an event to promote a project to reduce air pollution and traffic congestion. One part of the project is the construction of a bicycle road, a project that has been in discussion for some time, but still hasn't seen completion. The "Bicycle Ulaanbaatar" bicycle road project has been presented to the government. The range of the project includes the construct a 143.7 kilometer bicycle road and 99 bicycle parking locations. If this project is approved, construction will take place over three years. People supporting this project rode from Chinggis Square to East Four Road and from West Four Road back to Chinggis Square.
The path has been laid for future Mongolian X Games to grow in its level of competition, arena, audience and competitors. The event also has the potential to uncover the next Mongolian athlete to enter international championships around the world and become a sponsored professional. X Games will be held annually, and a winter X Games is presently under review.
October 23 (UB Post) Three Mongolians were detained in Malaysia for attempting to transport heroin. B.Khaliun, one of people detained, was accused of trying to transport heroin to Mongolia. He has lived with his sister, B.Khulan, in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
They are both married to African citizens believed to be drug traffickers. They were accused of transporting a drug called "Brand Goods" to foreign countries. Since last spring, Malaysian law enforcement has led an investigation on his activities, and 78 kilograms of heroin was reportedly found in his home in Malaysia.
His mother is also believed to be involved in their illegal operations. Their brother, B.Bilguun, and his wife were sentenced in Kazakhstan for selling drugs. Now, Chinese law enforcement wants to prosecute B.Khulan and her husband for alleged crimes in China.
New Orleans, LA, October 29, 2013 (PRWEB) When Loyola University New Orleans senior music industry studies major Dimitri Staszewski began his academic career four years ago, he never imagined he would travel 7,000 miles across the globe on a quest to document the changing musical traditions of Mongolian herders. But the aspiring filmmaker recently spent four months traveling back and forth between Mongolia's capital city, Ulaanbaatar, and the Mongolian countryside filming and experiencing first-hand the culture he'd previously only read about.
His more than 20 hours of footage preserves examples of the music of one of the world's last surviving nomadic cultures and one of the largest nomadic populations in the world. More than half of the Mongolian population has already shifted away from traditionally nomadic lifestyles, according to Staszewski.
After a sophomore semester backpacking throughout the southwest United States, Staszewski began exploring the idea of how people not only choose to live, but do live, throughout the world. One year and hours of research later, the California native embarked on his journey to Mongolia. He set off with the idea to film a documentary about the disappearance of the country's traditional music of herders and the consequences for Mongolian culture as a whole.
"I realized that I wanted to document and help preserve music performed by herders and former herders because that is the cultural context from which all of the country's traditional music originated," Staszewski said. "Even Mongolians who live in the city will attest to the fact that, even though they are not herders, some part of the nomadic herder identity in the music resonates with them and speaks to their own sense of identity."
During his stay with a nomadic family in the Mongolian countryside, Staszewski spent time herding, sheep wrangling and interviewing the locals. The most memorable moments happened when he was recording their musical performances.
"I met a herder who, after an interview, invited me to record him singing to his herd. That performance ended up being one of the most inspiring moments I have been able to be part of, and I felt honored to be able to be the one there capturing it," Staszewski said.
Staszewski is currently back at Loyola and slowly editing the footage from his time abroad. His original notion of creating a documentary, however, has changed.
"It was impossible to capture everything I would want to include in a documentary, and I feel like that wouldn't accurately showcase everything I witnessed. Instead, I want to create an interactive book that would combine short ethnographic essays with footage of actual performances and stories about my experiences as a foreigner and film engineer."
Staszewski, who recently applied for a Fulbright Scholarship, hopes to return to Mongolia for another 10 months after graduation. While there, he would create an extensive online archive of performances and written narratives about Mongolian herders and former herders.
"My goal is to showcase a side of traditional Mongolian music that I feel is currently underrepresented," Staszewski said.
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A sermon preached at COSAC, March 2018 in Brisbane.
“What is truth?” is a key question for scientists. Harvard University, where Jennifer Wiseman studied, has veritas, the Latin word for truth, as its motto. Jennifer tells me that the earlier version of its logo had two open books and a closed book, implying that there are some truths that we as humans should not pursue. I have been unable to verify (veritas!) that. The logo now shows three open books.
As scientists we are familiar with Francis Bacon’s observation of the two books, the book of Scripture and the book of nature, the book of the Word, and the book of the world, and that these two books are complementary. God speaks truth through both books. I would like to add a third book, the book of history and to suggest that Scripture is partly a book of the acts of God. Discerning God’s activity in history is the task of the prophet who interprets the meaning of contemporary events for God’s people today.
Francis Bacon stated that science is but an image of the truth, implying that truth is larger than what we scientists know and understand. There is a lot out there we don’t know. His statement also indirectly challenges the Cartesian ideal of truth being based on the foundation of axioms - self-evident truths - and developed through a series of logical steps to arrive at a logically consistent summary based on objective disengaged reason. As scientists we believe our tentative conclusions need to be continually tested in new situations to see whether our understanding holds up. Truth is much more subtle, wider, and richer than that which our logic can master.
Fiat Lux is the motto of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, and also the motto of Emmanuel College, Brisbane where our COSAC is being held. Fiat lux, is of course God’s first word in the Bible, commanding light to be, and separating light from darkness. The creation of light is God’s first act of creation. God is the source of both light and life. For modern researchers, like those at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, fiat lux implies that the search for truth is the search for enlightenment. Prometheus, the Greek Titan, a semi-god, is famous for snatching fire from the gods and giving it to humankind. He is a revered figure of the enlightenment because the enlightenment believed that science would bring enlightenment and truth to a world previously in darkness from the myths and superstition of the religious establishment. This is one of the strands of the myth that science and the Christian faith are opposed rather than complementary. It represents the pride of some modern scientific researchers.
This passage, with echoes of the first chapter of Genesis, describes John’s witness to Jesus, the source of light and life. That light of Christ is the light both of truth against falsehood, and the light of goodness against evil. The coming light clashes with darkness, for the darkness neither understood the light (an alternative rendering of the last statement of our text) nor overcame the light. We shall see how light and truth relate as we go on.
Here we have the gracious, substantial, life-giving, glorious truth seen in the person of Jesus Christ, which is in stark contrast to the Pharisaic legalism of the day. The clash of Jesus with the Jews is a prominent theme of John’s Gospel. This must not be construed as anti-Semitism, for Jesus himself was a Jew. Lesslie Newbigin wisely comments that the religious legalism criticised here also occurs within Christianity. Any religious system can degenerate into sterile, graceless legalism.
Karl Barth once said: “The word became flesh and then through theologians it became words again.” Those of you who have struggled with his very wordy writings will enjoy the irony, but the point is well made. All our theological statements are abstractions from the greater reality of the truth found in the incarnate Son of God who lived among us and graciously embodied the fulness of God’s truth. Bacon’s statement about science quoted above states a similar thing: our worlds and models only partly reflect the greater reality.
But how is this truth apprehended? As we read through John’s Gospel we find case studies and comments which flesh out various encounters with Jesus, the Word (Logos) of God. One such encounter occurred at night (John 3:1-14). Nicodemus comes out of the darkness to inquire after Jesus. He asks who Jesus is, commenting that he must be from God, for no one can do what he has done unless he has come from God. This is an interesting observation, for the controversy later in John particularly centres on who Jesus is and where he has come from, and how the Pharisees reject Jesus’ origins. Jesus, however, abruptly cuts across all this and tells Nicodemus quite bluntly, “Unless you are born anew (or from above) you cannot see the kingdom of God,” (v. 3). Nicodemus is puzzled, but Jesus’ subsequent responses barely expand the statement, talking about being born of water and the spirit and calling on Nicodemus to believe. He needs to believe in the cross, just as the Israelites believe in the snake in the wilderness, for, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life,” (v. 14).
So Nicodemus’ actions illustrate a process of coming out of darkness into the presence of Jesus, the light, where he is challenged to put his faith in the Son of Man and so be born anew/from above by the power of the Spirit of God, the breath of God, which gave life to humankind at the beginning of time.
Would Nicodemus come further into the light or return to the darkness? We will have to wait and see.
John Calvin, from the comfort of his study in exile from France in Geneva, critiqued “hidden believers,” the Huguenots, still living in France. He called them Nicodemites, and the term was disparaging. I first learnt about Nicodemites from Diarmaid MacCulloch in his book Silence: a Christian History. Unlike Calvin, MacCulloch is more sympathetic to Nicodemites and he proceeds to describe a number of groups who have chosen to privately practice a faith different from the one publicly demanded. MacCulloch singles out ongoing Catholics in Elizabethan England, who, against what he so tellingly describes as “magisterial Christianity,” continued to say mass privately, although it is unclear whether their allegiance was still to Rome or to the English church. The term “magisterial” well-describes churches whose power and influence is enhanced by the power of the state—power indeed that Calvin was able to assert in Geneva.
MacCulloch, who is openly gay, movingly describes gay, high Anglo-Catholics in Victorian England who with their clean-shaven faces and robed in cassocks and surplices, were treated suspiciously by vigorous bewhiskered Victorian clergy. But they provided clandestine support for each other and became a network of “Those in The Know” who understood the “Love That Cannot Be Named.” They had their coded words and their private meetings. My review of MacCulloch’s book on the ISCAST website suggests all may not be well with such an organisation.
Evolutionists in Christian colleges in the US have had to be very careful in what they taught for fear of being hounded out by more conservative Christians who make life very difficult for them. We have had a couple of them as guests of ISCAST: Professors Darrell Falk and Richard Colling. Their stories are available on the Internet. Even some of our own ISCASTians have preferred to have a low profile in their local churches, as they feel their scientific position would be misunderstood by those embracing young-earth creationism.
On the other hand, Christians in secular universities in the USA have found that their scientific credibility is undermined if their scientific colleagues find out they are Christians. So they prefer to make a name for themselves as scientists before declaring their Christian commitment. It is all part of the broader toxic conservative/liberal war waged so vehemently especially in the United States but also in parts of Europe. So we still have Nicodemites today.
What is truth? Jesus says, “I am the light. Do not continue in darkness but follow me.” The subsequent debate is mired in evidence for and against Jesus’ assertion. This is a difficult section asking Jesus to prove himself. But by what criteria? By what other lights can you prove he is the light of God, the true light? How can the fuller truth be evaluated by lesser truths? As the debate continues, those who believe can see the desperation of the unbeliever to continue in the darkness.
Light and truth are coming together. The link this time is to continue in the words of the Word, the Logos. Barth’s quote earlier, where the Word became flesh and we have turned it into words again, implies that we apprehend God’s Word personally. However, the Word of God speaks words from God and we are called here to hear these words, to continue in these words so that we will know the truth and experience the liberation the truth brings. The contrast between the liberty of truth and the convolutions of the Pharisees and those who do not believe is stark. There is freedom in the truth.
This feud between the Pharisees and Jesus is beautifully enacted in the story of Jesus healing the man born blind. Again, the question to the fore is, who is Jesus? Jesus sees himself as the light of the world and that he must do the works the Father has sent him to do. There is a direct link in the text between Jesus’ commitment to the light and his healing of a blind man, which Jesus provocatively does on the Sabbath. After the healing, when the Pharisees ask the man, he can only stick to his story, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see” (John 9:15, NRSV). The Pharisees are divided over who this Jesus could be. There were those who claimed he is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath, whereas others ask, how can a man who is a sinner perform such a miracle?
When the blind man is asked, his initial response is that Jesus is a prophet. The Jews are unconvinced and call in the man’s parents. They are cautious and vacillate. He is our son; he was born blind; but we do not know how he now sees and who opened his eyes. They refuse to become involved and take refuge in the hand-ball, “Ask him; he is of age.” John observes that they were afraid of the Jews, and fear prevented them committing themselves to Jesus. Truth is obscured by fear of the consequences.
So the Pharisees again confront the man born blind. He knows what happened and he is becoming more certain of its implications. He is on a journey towards the light. The Pharisees see that he is behaving like a disciple of Jesus. The man born blind challenges the Pharisees,“If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” At this, they retort that the man born blind was born in sin, so how could he teach them? They threw him out of the synagogue. Preserving their Sabbath and closing their minds to Jesus is more important than the fact that a blind man sees, and is coming to faith.
Jesus meets him and challenges him to a deeper commitment. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” he asks. The man responds to Jesus’ revelation of himself with the confession, “Lord I believe,” and worships Jesus.
In my clinical practice with addiction, I see this blindness, this lack of insight all the time, and part of the journey of recovery is for my patients (and me too!) to be open to the truth about themselves and to go on a journey into insight together.
The story of Jesus is the ongoing story of the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews confronting Jesus. Light comes into darkness. The darkness neither comprehends the light nor can it conquer the light. It is devastating when the best religion of the day, confronted by the best man that ever lived should choose to execute that good man. Not only are the Pharisees blind but they are on a journey into greater darkness. He has come to his own, but his own have not received him. So they capture Jesus and take him before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate.
For Pilate this is just one of many trials that he has conducted in Judea, he has no idea how pivotal this event is in the history of the world. Jesus is just another incidental criminal, caught in the vicious politics of this turbulent nation. From the kingdom of God’s point of view this shows the essence of the kingdom, speaking the truth to power, without exercising secular power.
It is interesting that the trial of Jesus centres as much on who he is as it does on the crime he is alleged to have committed. But the Pharisees have to somehow adjust the charge to secure an execution. The charge of blasphemy, and doing good on the Sabbath, has to be adjusted to the charge of treason against Rome. And Jesus claims to usher in the kingdom of God. Is that not an alternative kingdom and a threat to the established order? And many followers of Jesus, who have read this story over the centuries have been so accused of treason. Jesus’ disciples are not committed to a single ideology or to a single ruler. We are committed to truth. And if that clashes with the established order, then we are still on the side of truth, no matter how uncomfortable or how uncooperative this may be.
So here it is. The light is shining, the truth is there, and the truth challenges a response. Will the one confronted come to the truth or will he scurry back into darkness? Pilate asks the key question, the question of this talk: “What is truth?” And the question is left hanging.
I would love to have been there to find the tone with which Pilate asked the question. Was it a cynical question, entirely rhetorical because there is no answer? Was it a wistful question, if only things were simpler, if only there was not this political pressure, if only I could clear myself from the dilemma I find myself in. Was this a complex metaphysical question that philosophers and scientists have pored over, not finding an answer?
And yet in one sense the answer is simple. This man is innocent. He should be released. If you had committed yourself fully to that, you would have found yourself on a journey into trut;, light would have dawned, you would have moved from blindness to insight and your life would have been changed. But Pilate chose the opposite, and after a weak declaration of innocence he still continues to enter into darkness. This leads to Christ’s death and to our salvation, for the Son of Man will now be lifted up. And Pontius Pilate is now commemorated in history for just this one act of compromise.
So the judgment is given. Innocent but condemned to death. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. He himself sees this in telling his disciples, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him”(John 13:31). Humiliated, mocked, tortured and crucified. The Son of Man is lifted up, and the glory of God is revealed in the shame of the cross. John, who was there, witnessed to that glory, seen in the agony and pain, in the seeming triumph of light over darkness the triumph of political expediency over truth and the triumph of religious rigidity over spiritual freedom. John testifies, “We have seen his glory … full of grace and truth … of that fulness we have all received, grace upon grace … the only Son who is intimate with the Father, he has made him known” (John 1:14-18). The full blaze of Christ’s glory is seen on the cross, and we are incapable of seeing that glory directly; it is too intense, too bright. Glory in humiliation, glory in the surrender to the powers of darkness, glory in the triumph over death and the glory of the resurrection that follows.
We can draw the following conclusions from our study of truth, light and glory in John’s Gospel.
First, truth is personal/relational—not just abstract disengaged reason. Secondly, truth is found in whole-self commitment to Jesus Christ. Thirdly, truth is a moral commitment, not just an intellectual assent. It may be costly. Fourthly, truth is a journey, from darkness to light and from blindness to insight. Further as you commit; you will see further, but without that commitment, you will fail to progress. Fifthly, truth is a journey into freedom, however costly that journey may be.
We in ISCAST are all pilgrims on this journey, challenged each time we encounter new truth to respond to that challenge with deeper understanding and insight, or else to scurry back again into the familiar darkness of expedience.
Since giving this talk, I realise that the discussion about the two books, attributed to Francis Bacon by Charles Darwin in the frontispiece of the early editions of his Origin of Species, is actually a much older and more nuanced discussion going right back to Augustine in the fifth century and developing during the renaissance and reformation. This discussion is brilliantly expounded by Peter Harrison in his The Bible, Protestantism and the Rise of Science. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Australian Rules Football in which the ball is passes on to the next player. Colloquially it means to pass responsibility on to someone else.
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2019-04-20T07:04:31Z
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http://iscast.org/node/647
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Because Anopheles messeae Falleroni (Diptera: Culicidae) is one of the main vectors of malaria in Russia, studying its genetic markers is important for reliable identification of this species. This species is distributed nearly throughout the Palearctic region, and it exhibits high genetic variability. We investigated polymorphism of the rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) 2 of An. messeae in various regions of Russia, and we found intragenomic heterogeneity of ITS2 copies verified by chromatograms, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, and cloning PCR products. In total, we found nine different ITS2 variants. ITS2 variants that were considered specific to An. messeae and Anopheles daciae Linton, Nicolescu & Harbach were simultaneously present in one individual. These findings improve methods of species identification of An. messeae, and they do not support the species status of An. daciae.
Psorophora (Grabhamia) varinervis Edwards (Diptera: Culicidae) is redescribed in the adult stage. Pupa and fourth-stage larva are described and illustrated for the first time. Information about distribution, bionomics, and taxonomy also is included. Adults of Ps. varinervis can be separated from the closely related species Ps. (Gra.) discolor (Coquillett) on the basis of the wing characters, and the larva by the siphon and antenna characters.
The invasive species Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse 1894) (Diptera: Culicidae) has reached several European countries, including Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and recently Spain (Med. Vet. Entomol. 20: 150–152, 2006). Here, we present the initial characterization of the distribution of Ae. albopictus in the municipality of Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain, where it was found for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula. An ovitrap sampling campaign was developed from September to December 2004 to assess the spatial distribution and abundance of Ae. albopictus to evaluate the potential of an eradication attempt. The population of Ae. albopictus in the whole area was shown to be widespread within the municipality, and it included at least another one neighboring town, so authorities were advised to develop large-scale control measures. Some indirect evidence was collected on the introduction means and date.
Evaluations were made of the accuracy and practicality of mosquito age grading methods based on changes to mosquito morphology; including the Detinova ovarian tracheation, midgut meconium, Polovodova ovariole dilatation, ovarian injection, and daily growth line methods. Laboratory maintained Aedes vigilax (Skuse) and Culex annulirostris (Skuse) females of known chronological and physiological ages were used for these assessments. Application of the Detinova technique to laboratory reared Ae. vigilax females in a blinded trial enabled the successful identification of nulliparous and parous females in 83.7–89.8% of specimens. The success rate for identifying nulliparous females increased to 87.8–98.0% when observations of ovarian tracheation were combined with observations of the presence of midgut meconium. However, application of the Polovodova method only enabled 57.5% of nulliparous, 1-parous, 2-parous, and 3-parous Ae. vigilax females to be correctly classified, and ovarian injections were found to be unfeasible. Poor correlation was observed between the number of growth lines per phragma and the calendar age of laboratory reared Ae. vigilax females. In summary, morphological age grading methods that offer simple two-category predictions (ovarian tracheation and midgut meconium methods) were found to provide high-accuracy classifications, whereas methods that offer the separation of multiple age categories (ovariolar dilatation and growth line methods) were found to be extremely difficult and of low accuracy. The usefulness of the morphology-based methods is discussed in view of the availability of new mosquito age grading techniques based on cuticular hydrocarbon and gene transcription changes.
This study reports the genetic characterization of urban and rural populations of Phlebotomus (Phlebotomus) papatasi Scopoli (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Marrakech, Morocco. Using isoenzymatic analysis, four Moroccan populations were compared with other Mediterranean basin populations from Spain, Cyprus, and Syria. Morphological anomalies were noted in the male genitalia of 5.3% of the specimens collected from Marrakech area. Qualitative analysis of zymogram profiles revealed nine polymorphic enzymes (HK, PGM, PGI, 6PGD, MDH1, MDH2, ICD2, FUM, and ACO) and three monomorphic enzymes (ME, ICD1, and αGPDH). Genetic distances clearly separated the populations of western Mediterranean countries (Morocco and Spain) from eastern countries (Syria and Cyprus), but they could not be used to differentiate between urban and rural populations in Marrakech area.
Many studies of interspecific competition between Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae show that Ae. albopictus are superior resource competitors to Ae. aegypti. Single-species studies indicate that growth and survival of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti larvae are affected by the type of detritus present in containers, which presumably affects the amount and quality of microorganisms that the mosquito larvae consume. We tested whether different detritus types alter the intensity of larval competition by raising 10 different density/species combinations of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti larvae under standard laboratory conditions, with one of four detritus types (oak, pine, grass, or insect) provided as a nutrient base. Intraspecific competitive effects on survival were present with all detritus types. Ae. albopictus survivorship was unaffected by interspecific competition in all treatments. Negative interspecific effects on Ae. aegypti survivorship were present with three of four detritus types, but absent with grass. Estimated finite rate of increase (λ’) was lower with pine detritus than with any other detritus type for both species. Furthermore, Ae. aegypti λ’ was negatively affected by high interspecific density in all detritus types except grass. Thus, our experiment confirms competitive asymmetry in favor of Ae. albopictus with oak, pine, or insect detritus, but also demonstrates that certain detritus types may eliminate interspecific competition among the larvae of these species, which may allow for stable coexistence. Such variation in competitive outcome with detritus type may help to account for observed patterns of coexistence/exclusion of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti in the field.
In this study, we identified blossoms that attract Culex pipiens L. s.l. in a Mediterranean habitat by using branches of 26 common plant species as baits for traps. The highest catch, 60.5% of the total, by flowers of Tamarix jordanis Boiss., was ≈6 times greater than the 10.7% caught by flowering Polygonum equisetiforme Sm., and 10 times higher than the 6.6% caught by flowers of Acacia saligna (Lindle) H. L. Wendl. The catch elicited by the other plants ranged between 4.0 and 0.1%. Plant attraction also was evaluated in a field situation. Experimental and control sites were similar strips of vegetation along water channels with T. jordanis trees in the center. In the experimental site, these trees were sprayed with sucrose solution, food dye, and oral insecticide (Spinosad). Concurrently, patches of plant species and trees in the control site were sprayed with solutions of sucrose and different food dye markers. Cx. pipiens populations in both sites were monitored. The highest proportion (65.2%) of the marked mosquitoes in the control site carried the dye of flowering T. jordanis. The dye of flowering P. equisetiforme and that of A. saligna were found, respectively, in 8.1 and 3.5% of the labeled mosquitoes. The marker of reed groups (Phragmites australis [Cav.] Steudel) above the water was found in 19.4% of mosquitoes, whereas the different marker of dry land reeds was found in only 0.4% of the labeled mosquitoes. In the experimental site, after treatment, the mosquitoes decreased from ≈255 per trap to ≈24 mosquitoes per trap, whereas the catch in the control site reached ≈400 mosquitoes per trap.
Polymorphisms at eight microsatellite loci and a fragment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-ND4 gene were surveyed in Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) populations collected from six localities in North Cameroon, with emphasis on comparing domestic versus sylvan populations. The microsatellites revealed significant genetic differentiation among sylvan populations, with mean FST = 0.066. Domestic collections were genetically homogeneous (mean FST = 0.012). No pattern of isolation by distance was detected, and one of highest levels of genetic differentiation was estimated between populations sampled a few kilometers apart, each in a distinctly different ecological environment (FST = 0.076). Analyses of mtDNA-ND4 polymorphisms and divergence between the two neighboring populations revealed increased genetic diversity within the domestic population, with molecular signatures suggesting recent demographic expansion, whereas a single haplotype was observed in the sylvan sample. These data suggest reduced gene flow between sylvan and domestic Ae. aegypti populations in North Cameroon, reminiscent of the situation for Ae. aegypti in Kenya in East Africa.
Cytochrome c is a highly conserved protein that is found in many multicellular and unicellular organisms. Cytochrome c is a critical intermediate in apoptosis: a controlled form of cell death that kills cells as part of their natural process of development and in response to environmental condition. To detect whether cytochrome c of the mosquito Aedes aegypti (L.) (AeaCytC) is developmentally regulated, we used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to examine AeaCytC gene expression levels in different developmental stages of Ae. aegypti. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that AeaCytC was expressed in each developmental stage, at different points in time, and it was highly expressed in teneral female Ae. aegypti. Ae. aegypti cytochrome c protein (AeaCYTC) was detected only in adult mosquitoes, not in early developmental stages of Ae. aegypti. We also investigated the effect of certain environmental factors (e.g., temperature, UV-light, and permethrin insecticide) on AeaCytC gene and AeaCYTC protein expression in adult mosquitoes, and we found that response varied with age. These results suggest that AeaCytC gene and AeaCYTC protein play functional roles in the development of Ae. aegypti and the differential expression of cytochrome c has potential as a biomarker for environmental and chemical stress.
Saliva plays important roles in facilitation of a bloodmeal, lubrication of mouthparts, and parasite transmission for some vector insects. Salivary composition changes during the lifetime of an insect, and differences in the salivary profile may influence its functions. In this report, the amount and profile of salivary gland protein of the American visceral leishmaniasis vector Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva, 1912) were analyzed at different times of insect development and diet. Protein content from unfed female sand flies increased significantly with age, and a significant difference was observed in sugar-fed females during the first 10 d of adult life. Salivary protein content sharply decreased 1 d after blood feeding, with gradual increase in concentration the following days. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis revealed that most polypeptides present in the saliva of sugar-fed also were present in the saliva of blood-fed females. Understanding changes in sand fly’s saliva contents at distinct days after emergence and the influence of a bloodmeal in this aspect may reveal the role played by saliva during leishmaniasis transmission.
Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) is the primary vector of both dengue and yellow fever. Use of insecticides is one of the primary ways to control this medically important insect pest. However, few new insecticides have been developed for mosquito control in recent years. As a part of our effort to develop new insecticides to control mosquitoes, an inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 gene in Aedes aegypti (AaeIAP1) was targeted for the development of molecular pesticides. Herein, for the first time, we report that topically applied AaeIAP1 double-stranded RNA products are able to kill female adults of Ae. aegypti. Our results indicate that critical pathways or genes could be targeted to develop molecular pesticides for the control of medically important diseases vectors.
Previous work at our laboratory has indicated high resistance levels to deltamethrin correlated with failures of chemical control in field populations of Triatoma infestans (Klug, 1834) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in northern Argentina and southern Bolivia. The aim of the present work was to study the resistance patterns in eggs and first instars of T. infestans in populations from Argentina and Bolivia. At the egg stage, a population from Salvador Mazza, Argentina, showed the highest resistance ratio to deltamethrin and lambda-cyhalothrin, and it was susceptible to fipronil and fenitrothion. A population from Mataral, Bolivia, showed very low resistance ratios to deltamethrin and lambda-cyhalothrin, and it was susceptible to fipronil and fenitrothion. A Sucre population was susceptible to deltamethrin and fenitrothion, and it showed very low resistant ratios to lambda-cyhalothrin and fipronil. A Yacuiba population was susceptible to deltamethrin. At the first instar, the Salvador Mazza population was susceptible to fipronil, whereas the Mataral and Sucre populations were susceptible to fenitrothion, and they showed very low resistance ratios to lambda-cyhalothrin but the high resistance to fipronil. The Salvador Mazza population was resistant to deltamethrin at the larval stage. Remarkable differences were found in the resistance profile to fipronil in first instars and eggs from Sucre and Mataral. These indicated that the expression of insecticide resistance in eggs varies between populations and that the pyrethroid resistance diagnosed in T. infestans first instars is not indicative of resistance in the egg stage.
The Santa Luiza strain of the southern cattle tick, Boophilus microplus (Canestrini) (Acari: Ixodidae), is resistant to both permethrin and amitraz. A study was conducted at the USDA Cattle Fever Tick Research Laboratory in Texas to investigate the genetic basis of permethrin resistance with cross-mating experiments, and to determine the mechanisms of permethrin resistance through synergist bioassays and biochemical analysis of esterase profiles. The Muñoz strain, an acaricide-susceptible reference strain, was used as the susceptible parent and the Santa Luiza strain, originating in Brazil, was used as the resistant parent. The Food and Agriculture Organization larval packet test was used to measure the levels of susceptibility of larvae of the parental strains, F1, backcross, F2, and F3 generations to permethrin. Results of reciprocal crossing experiments suggested that permethrin resistance was inherited as an incomplete recessive trait. There was no significant maternal effect on larval progeny’s susceptibility to permethrin in the F1 and subsequent generations. The values of the degree of dominance were estimated at −0.700 and −0.522 for the F1 larvae with resistant and susceptible female parents, respectively. Results of bioassays on larval progeny of the F1 backcrossed with the resistant parent strain and of the F2 generations suggested that one major gene was responsible for permethrin resistance in the Santa Luiza strain. Selection of F3 larvae with either permethrin or amitraz led to significantly increased resistance to both permethrin and amitraz, indicating a close linkage between genes responsible for permethrin and amitraz resistance. The possible involvement of metabolic enzymes in permethrin resistance in the Santa Luiza strain of B. microplus was dismissed by the lack of enhanced synergism by TPP or PBO, as observed in synergist bioassays, as well as by the lack of enhanced esterase activity in the Santa Luiza strain relative to the susceptible strain. The results of this study suggest that other mechanisms, including a possible new sodium channel mutation that is different from the one currently known, may be responsible for permethrin resistance in the Santa Luiza strain of B. microplus.
A previous report has shown that mosquito sterol carrier protein-2 inhibitors (SCPIs) are larvicidal to larvae of the yellowfever mosquito, Aedes aegypti (L.) (J. Lipid Res. 46: 650–657, 2005). In the current study, we tested SCPI-1 in an additional four mosquito species for larvicidal activities: Culex pipiens pipiens, Anopheles gambiae, Culex restuans, and Aedes vexans. Cholesterol accumulation in SCPI-treated Ae. aegypti fourth instars was examined. SCPI-1 is lethal to all tested mosquito species, with the LC50 value ranging from 5.2 to 15 μM when treatments started at the first to third instar. However, LC50 values increase to from 5.2 to 38.7 μM in treatments started at first and fourth instar, respectively. The results indicate that the lethal effect of SCPI-1 decreases with the growth of larvae, which suggests that SCPI-1 is more effective before the larvae reach final growth period (the last instar). SCPI-1 suppressed cholesterol uptake in Ae. aegypti fourth instars, suggesting that one of the modes of action of SCPI-1 is via reduction in cholesterol absorption.
Culex pipiens pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae), infected per os from a membrane feeder, transmitted West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) at 26°C horizontally during feeding to hamsters and suckling mice and vertically to F1 progeny during egg deposition. Horizontal transmission rates increased with extrinsic incubation, with 75–100% of the females transmitting on days 16 through 25 postinfection (pi). No females deposited eggs infected with WNV after the first bloodmeal on 3–8 d pi. Females vertically transmitted WNV during egg laying after their second, third, and fourth bloodmeals on days 13–33 pi. The vertical transmission rate was 4.7%. The vertical minimal infection rate was 0.52 infected F1 specimens/1,000 specimens tested from females feeding during their second and later bloodmeals on hamsters or suckling mice. The sequence of horizontal and vertical transmission is reported. A female may transmit WNV 1) horizontally to a host during feeding and subsequently vertically to her offspring during egg laying, 2) vertically to her offspring during oviposition without prior horizontal transmission to a host, and 3) horizontally to a host without vertically transmitting the virus. These two means of transmission by Cx. p. pipiens contribute to the relatively high minimum infection rates that are reached in late summer and to the survival of virus during winter and initiation of amplification in the spring in the northeastern United States.
Vector competence of Aedes vexans (Meigen) and Culex pipiens pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) for West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) was compared. Infection rates of both species were similar 14 d after feeding on chickens, with WNV titers ranging from 104.2 to 108.7 plaque-forming units (PFU)/ml. Median infectious doses and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were 106.0(5.8,6.3) and 105.7(5.4,5.9) PFU for Ae. vexans and Cx. p. pipiens, respectively. WNV transmission was not observed in Ae. vexans that fed on chickens with WNV titers <105.0 PFU/ml, in contrast to a mean (95% CI) transmission rate of 7(2,18)% for Cx. p. pipiens. Mean WNV transmission rates for Ae. vexans and Cx. p. pipiens were 13(7,21)% and 10(5,19)%, respectively, after feeding on chickens with WNV titers of 105.3 ± 0.1 and 105.7 ± 0.1 PFU/ml, and 31(25,37)% and 41(30,53)% after feeding on chickens with WNV titers ≥106.1 ± 0.1 PFU/ml. Time postinfection (p.i.) significantly influenced WNV transmission by Ae. vexans as indicated by a nearly 10-fold increase in transmission rate between days 7 and 14 p.i. Mean WNV load expectorated with saliva of Ae. vexans was 102.4(2.1,2.7) PFU, and it was not significantly affected by the titer of chickens on which they originally fed or time p.i. These data indicate that vector competence of the primarily mammalophilic Ae. vexans, which also feeds on birds, approaches that of Cx. p. pipiens for WNV. Because peridomestic mammals, such as cottontail rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks, develop WNV titers infective for Ae. vexans, this species may play a significant role in WNV enzootic cycles.
The accurate forecasting and tracking of arboviral transmission is becoming increasingly critical for the early recognition and management of arboviral epidemics. Meteorological factors, especially rainfall and temperature, drive arboviral epidemics, but monitoring rainfall and temperature alone is not predictive of increased levels of vector-borne disease transmission. In Florida, model simulations of water table depth (WTD) provide a measure of drought, and they have been shown to provide an accurate forecast of arboviral transmission. Here, we tracked WTD in two peninsular Florida regions where focal West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) transmission was reported during 2004 and 2005. We compared the resulting WTD profiles with historical WTD simulations for Indian River County (IRC), FL, where two peninsular Florida St. Louis encephalitis virus epidemics had their epicenters in 1977 and 1990. In both of the regions where focal WNV transmission was reported during 2004 and 2005, the local WTD profiles approached the 1977 and 1990 IRC WTD profiles; however, differences in the local temporal sequence of hydrologic conditions were observed. These differences seem in part to explain why the focal WNV transmission during 2004 and 2005 failed to reach epidemic levels in peninsular Florida. These findings suggest that hydrologic monitoring, specifically WTD, may help determine the geographic extent, timing, and intensity of WNV transmission. We speculate that a more precise sequence of drought and wetting, including a secondary summer drying and wetting cycle, as occurred in IRC during 1977 and 1990, may provide the optimal hydrologic conditions for the expansion of an arbovirus outbreak from focal to epidemic. This study documents that monitoring hydrologic conditions, along with vector, avian amplification host, and virus population data, increases our ability to track and predict significant levels of arboviral transmission.
The epidemiological risk of infection by Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas in human populations of western Mexico is still under study. Although most vectors in this region and their vector capability are already known, new studies estimating the risk and the importance of individual Triatominae species (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) for T. cruzi transmission are necessary. For 1 yr, every month, >400 human dwellings and their surroundings in eight communities of two western Mexico states were searched for triatomines. More than1,000 specimens representing four species were collected and checked for T. cruzi infection. Based on the usual entomological indices, only the inhabitants of Gavilán El Progreso-La Villita are at serious risk of vectorial infection by T. cruzi. A population of Meccus longipennis (Usinger) was found living in peridomestic rock pile boundary walls after an insecticide spraying. It was confirmed the major role of peridomestic habitats as shelter areas for triatomines, particularly in rock pile boundary walls and chicken roosts. Triatominae presence also was verified in certain sylvatic habitats, including primarily heaps of stones. The important role of M. longipennis in the potential transmission of T. cruzi in the region and the secondary role of M. picturatus (Usinger) and Triatoma barberi Usinger also were confirmed. Null colonization of houses by T. barberi, which was collected primarily in peridomestic habitats, differs from its common intradomiciliary collection in other studies. Meccus pallidipennis (Stål) most probably does not exist in Nayarit. Meccus mazzottii (Usinger) and Meccus phyllosomus (Burmeister) are no longer found in Nayarit and Jalisco. Additional studies are necessary to determine the current epidemiological situation in other areas of western Mexico.
Understanding the transmission patterns of West Nile and St. Louis encephalitis viruses (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV and SLEV) could result in an increased ability to predict transmission risk to humans. To examine transmission patterns between vector and host, we trapped mosquitoes in three Florida counties from June to November 2005 by using chicken-baited lard can mosquito traps. These traps were used to monitor for presence of WNV and SLEV in mosquitoes and subsequent transmission of these viruses to chickens. In total, 166,615 female mosquitoes were sorted into 4,009 pools based on species and bloodfed status, and they were tested for presence of WNV and SLEV. Sera from 209 chickens were tested for WNV and SLEV antibodies. We detected eight WNV-positive Culex nigripalpus Theobald mosquito pools; SLEV was not detected in any pools. Six positive pools were collected in August and September from Duval County, one pool in September from Manatee County, and one pool in November from Indian River County. Of the eight chickens potentially exposed to WNV, antibodies were detected in only one chicken, indicating a low rate of transmission relative to the observed mosquito infection rates. Low virus transmission rates relative to infection rates would suggest that using sentinel chicken seroconversion data as a means of arbovirus surveillance may underestimate the prevalence of WNV in the mosquito population. However, using mosquito infection rates may overestimate the risk of arboviral transmission. A variety of factors might account for the observed low level of transmission including a lack of viral dissemination in mosquito vectors.
West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) invaded the Colorado Desert biome of southern California during summer 2003 and seemed to displace previously endemic St. Louis encephalitis virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, SLEV, an antigenically similar Flavivirus in the Japanese encephalitis virus serocomplex). Western equine encephalomyelitis virus (family Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus, WEEV), an antigenically distinct Alphavirus, was detected during 2005 and 2006, indicating that conditions were suitable for encephalitis virus introduction and detection. Cross-protective “avian herd immunity” due to WNV infection possibly may have prevented SLEV reintroduction and/or amplification to detectable levels. During 2003–2006, WNV was consistently active at wetlands and agricultural habitats surrounding the Salton Sea where Culex tarsalis Coquillett served as the primary enzootic maintenance and amplification vector. Based on published laboratory infection studies and the current seroprevalence estimates, house sparrows, house finches, and several Ardeidae may have been important avian amplifying hosts in this region. Transmission efficiency may have been dampened by high infection rates in incompetent avian hosts, including Gamble’s quail, mourning doves, common ground doves, and domestic pigeons. Early season WNV amplification and dispersal from North Shore in the southeastern portion of the Coachella Valley resulted in sporadic WNV incursions into the urbanized Upper Valley near Palm Springs, where Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus Say was the primary enzootic and bridge vector. Although relatively few human cases were detected during the 2003–2006 period, all were concentrated in the Upper Valley and were associated with high human population density and WNV infection in peridomestic populations of Cx. p. quinquefasciatus. Intensive early mosquito control during 2006 seemed to interrupt and delay transmission, perhaps setting the stage for the future reintroduction of SLEV.
Dermacentor occidentalis Marx and Dermacentor variabilis (Say) commonly bite humans in California. These Dermacentor species may play a role in transmitting spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae to humans in many parts of the state where Dermacentor andersoni Stiles, a known vector for the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Rickettsia rickettsii, is absent. However, the specific rickettsial agents present in these ticks and their current prevalence are poorly understood. In total, 365 D. occidentalis and 10 D. variabilis were collected by flagging vegetation at 16 sites in five counties of southern California. The presence of SFG rickettsial DNA in these ticks was detected with rOmpA and GltA gene polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. The rickettsial species were identified by sequencing PCR amplicons. Of 365 D. occidentalis, 90 (24.7%) contained R. rhipicephali DNA, 28 (7.7%) contained DNA of unclassified genotype 364D, two (0.55%) contained R. bellii DNA, and one (0.3%) contained R. rickettsii DNA. Of 10 D. variabilis, four (40%) contained only R. rhipicephali. Four new genotypes of R. rhipicephali were discovered. For the first time, we detected R. rickettsii in D. occidentalis. Our study provides the first molecular data on the prevalence and species identification of SFG rickettsiae circulating in populations of these California ticks. Because neither D. variabilis nor R. rickettsii were abundant, 364D should be evaluated further as a potential cause of human SFG rickettsioses in southern California.
Mosquito species abundance and composition estimates provided by trapping devices are commonly used to guide control efforts, but knowledge of trap biases is necessary for accurately interpreting results. We tested the hypothesis that commercially available traps (Mosquito Magnet–Pro, the Mosquito Magnet–X) would be significant improvements over the CDC Miniature Light Trap with respect to abundance, species diversity, and measures of recruitment in a wooded area of the Bronx Zoo in New York City, NY. The Mosquito Magnet–Pro collected significantly more mosquitoes (n = 1,117; mean per night, 124 ± 28.3) than the CDC Miniature Light Trap (n = 167; mean per night, 19 ± 5.5). The Simpson’s diversity index was greatest for the Mosquito Magnet–Pro. A CDC light trap from a simultaneous surveillance project was located 15 m away and used as a control trap to test for significant differences in mosquito counts on nights with or without the experimental traps. There were no significant differences between nights, indicating the test traps did not recruit beyond 15 m. The traps differed significantly in abundance, but they had similarly limited sampling areas. Measured differences in abundance were independent of differences in diversity. This study highlights how differences between traps might affect species abundance and composition estimates.
Communities of adult sarcosaprophagous dipterans were evaluated using both Schoenly traps (BST) baited with rabbit carcasses and the traditional forensic methodology (TradC) in the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. During 42 sampling days, 2,726 adult dipterans were collected (2,291 by BST and 435 by TradC) belonging to 31 morphospecies (31 by BST and 23 by TradC) and 14 families (14 by BST and 10 by TradC). Significant differences in the species abundance, richness, diversity, and dominance were found between BTC and TradC. BST collected more individuals and species than TradC. Rank correlations and matched rank-abundance plots indicated a significant nesting of the dipteran community collected by TradC with respect to BST captures. By comparing the structure and composition of the collected communities, only those collected by BST showed repeatability of the results. The above-mentioned information allows us to consider BST as a superior methodology to perform inventories of Diptera imagoes associated with carcasses. In the community collected by BST, the most abundant and rich families were Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Phoridae, and Sarcophagidae, all of them necrophagous species associated with carcasses. Calliphoridae and Muscidae were dominant in the first stages of decomposition (fresh and active decomposition), and Phoridae was the principal family during decomposition, dry remains, and bones stages.
The changes of the host-seeking and blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) surviving in a space containing vapors of the spatial repellents geraniol, eugenol, citral, anisaldehyde, or citronellal were evaluated using an arm-in-cage test and a bioassay of bloodmeals on a shaved mouse. The mosquitoes surviving concentrations of geraniol, citral, eugenol, or anisaldehyde at 0.013, 0.025, 0.050, 0.100, and 0.250 μg/cm3 for 24 and 48 h all showed different degrees of reduction in host-seeking ability. After 48 h of exposure to 0.250 μg/cm3 geraniol, almost 100% of the mosquitoes lost their host-seeking ability. The next most potent spatial repellent, anisaldehyde, stopped host seeking by >85.5%. Citronellal did not result in a significant reduction in the host-seeking ability at any concentration level after either 24 or 48 h of treatment. We also found that reduction of host-seeking ability recovered after various times. The longest recovery time (144 h) was observed for geraniol after 24 h at 0.250 μg/cm3. In the study, geraniol, eugenol, and citral all significantly affected the activation and orientation stages of the blood-feeding behavior. However, only anisaldehyde significantly interrupted the normal blood-feeding of mosquitoes in all stages of behavior. These initial laboratory results clearly showed that anisaldehyde and geraniol could be promising spatial repellents against Ae. albopictus that they could play a major role in new repellent technology.
We analyzed the geographic distribution using ecological niche modeling of three species of triatomines distributed in the Mexican state of Puebla. Punctual records were gathered for a period of 5 yr of fieldwork sampling. We used the genetic algorithm for rule-set production (GARP) to achieve the potential distribution of the ecological niche of triatomines. The models showed that Triatoma barberi and Meccus pallidipennis are sympatric and widely distributed in the central-southern part of the state, whereas T. dimidata is restricted to the northern mountains of the state with no overlapping among other species, M. bassolsae was not modeled because of the scarce number of locality records. We highlighted the warm and dry conditions in southern Puebla as important potential areas for triatomine presence. Finally, we correlated the species potential presence with the human population at risk of acquiring Chagas disease by vector-borne transmission; it is showed that M. pallidipennis presents the highest values of both ecological and poverty risk scenarios representing the main potential vector in the state.
Host-seeking ticks were collected during monthly dragging sessions from November 2004 through October 2006 in Tuscany, central Italy. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which was calculated from Landsat ETM 7 remote sensing data recorded in August 2001, was significantly correlated with numbers of host-seeking immature Ixodes ricinus L. (Acari: Ixodidae) during periods of relatively low rainfall such as summer 2005 (Spearman’s ρ = 0.78, P < 0.001 for nymphs in July) and to a lower extent in spring–summer 2006. In spring 2005, when rainfall was relatively high, the correlation was weak and not statistically significant. Generalized estimating equations (GEEs), taking into account repeated sampling of the same dragging sites, were used to model the effects of NDVI and season on counts of host-seeking I. ricinus nymphs. Seasonal variations of the effect of NDVI yielded a significant NDVI-by-season interaction in the first year of the study (November 2004–October 2005), but not in the second year (November 2005–October 2006) when there was a 2.5-fold increase of the number of nymphs per 100-m dragging for every 0.1 unit increase in NDVI (95% confidence interval = 1.6, 3.0). Risk maps that were obtained based on GEE results confirmed that the predicted number of I. ricinus nymphs per 100 m was relatively homogeneous through the study area during the 2005 spring peak of activity. Conversely, in 2006, the predicted abundance of nymphs was greater in moist bottomland habitat (characterized by high NDVI) than in dry, typically Mediterranean, upland habitat.
A sequential Bayesian algorithm and accompanying computer program were developed and validated to estimate population numbers of adult blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis Say, using mark–release–recapture methodology in field plots in central Mississippi. In fieldwork, data taken in February 2005 in a 1-ha plot yielded an estimate of 317 adult I. scapularis per ha. Data from another field plot in 2006, 3 km away, yielded an estimate of 280 adult I. scapularis per ha. The number of ticks collected per hour in both plots averaged 4.5. In eight of 14 (57%) of sampling events, the number of ticks collected per hour hovered closely around 5.0 (4.8–5.3). The computer program developed in this study readily produced statistical measures such as mean number of ticks per plot, mode, variance, and standard deviation, as well as easy-to-read graphs of estimated tick populations for each sampling period.
Five years of CDC light trap data from Suffolk County, NY, were analyzed to compare the applicability of human population density (HPD) and land use/cover (LUC) classification systems to describe mosquito abundance and to determine whether certain mosquito species of medical importance tend to be more common in urban (defined by HPD) or residential (defined by LUC) areas. Eleven study sites were categorized as urban or rural using U.S. Census Bureau data and by LUC types using geographic information systems (GISs). Abundance and percent composition of nine mosquito taxa, all known or potential vectors of arboviruses, were analyzed to determine spatial patterns. By HPD definitions, three mosquito species, Aedes canadensis (Theobald), Coquillettidia perturbans (Walker), and Culiseta melanura (Coquillett), differed significantly between habitat types, with higher abundance and percent composition in rural areas. Abundance and percent composition of these three species also increased with freshwater wetland, natural vegetation areas, or a combination when using LUC definitions. Additionally, two species, Ae. canadensis and Cs. melanura, were negatively affected by increased residential area. One species, Aedes vexans (Meigen), had higher percent composition in urban areas. Two medically important taxa, Culex spp. and Aedes triseriatus (Say), were proportionally more prevalent in residential areas by LUC classification, as was Aedes trivittatus (Coquillett). Although HPD classification was readily available and had some predictive value, LUC classification resulted in higher spatial resolution and better ability to develop location specific predictive models.
The first documented occurrence of demodectic (Acari: Prostigmata: Demodicidae) mange in white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman, in Texas was diagnosed from deep skin scrapings taken from the neck, shoulders, and withers of a fair-to-poor condition 6 yr-old male deer captured at Elkins Lake (latitude 30° 39′ 27″ N, longitude 95° 32′ 33″ W), Walker County. Approximately 35% of the animal’s skin showed effects of the demodicosis, which may have contributed to the animal’s body condition. The hematology of the infected deer seemed little altered from mean erythrocyte and leukocyte values of the local deer population, except for an observed eosinophilia (23% increase), which is consistent with an ectoparasitic infection and the concomitant bacterial infection observed. Predicated on host specificity and total body length measurements, Demodex odocoilei Desch & Nutting is probably the parasite collected from the captured white-tailed deer.
Malaria was a former public health problem in the Camargue, southeastern France, where members of the Hyrcanus group were recently described as the main malaria potential vectors. However, the systematic status in this group, which includes at least two sympatric sibling species, Anopheles hyrcanus (Pallas) and Anopheles pseudopictus Grassi as well as a morphologically intermediate form in the Camargue, is unclear. Indeed, both species have been alternatively considered as separated or synonymous species. We examined sequence variation of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) 2 and domain-3 (D3) of 28S ribosomal DNA and the cytochrome oxidase subunit I and II (COI and COII) genes of mitochondrial DNA of the Hyrcanus group mosquitoes from the Camargue and Turkey to infer the taxonomic status of the members of this group. DNA sequence analysis of ITS2 and D3 showed no difference between either species or geographical origin (mean pairwise genetic distances d = 0.000–0.003). The COI and COII sequences between French specimens also were nearly identical (d = 0.001–0.002), whereas French and Turkish Anopheles were genetically distinct (d = 0.009–0.014). The distinction between populations of the two areas, supported, respectively, by four and five fixed mutations, attested the differentiation by the distance. Finally, the high degree of genetic similarity, despite morphological differences between An. hyrcanus, An. pseudopictus, and an intermediate form, suggests that these three taxa may belong to a single species in the Camargue.
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2019-04-22T06:09:00Z
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https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-medical-entomology/volume-45/issue-3
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2019-04-19T06:51:52Z
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2019-04-22T06:34:18Z
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http://vincentfaust.com/category/galleries/
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Bronchial asthma is a disease manifested reversible (fully or partially), bronchial obstruction, which is based on pathogenetic allergic inflammation of airways and, in most cases, bronchial hyperreactivity.
It is characterized by recurring attacks of breathlessness, resulting from smooth muscle spasm, edema of mucous membrane of the bronchi and their blockage by viscid secret that leads to the BOS.
Asthma may be allergic origin, ie, occurs in individuals with increased sensitivity to certain chemicals or physical factors - allergens. Increased sensitivity may be a manifestation of hereditary-constitutional features of the organism, or develops as a result of prolonged contact with the allergen, while the impact on the body of a number of adverse factors (cooling, fatigue, chronic inflammatory diseases, etc.).
Asthma may also be infectious origin. At the outbreak of infectious bronchial asthma important role have bacteria, viruses and other microbes, which in interaction with the organism cause its allergic restruction. Most often it develops on a background of chronic respiratory diseases or paranasal sinusitis, at which in the body there is infection focus of a long time, as well as products of the microbes and substances produced during inflammation, have the properties of allergens.
Noninfectious asthma is caused by allergens of animal and vegetable origin. Allergens of animal origin include wool, horse hair, fish scales, etc. Sensitivity is sometimes also observed in some insect - bugs, cockroaches, butterflies, etc. Among the allergens of plant pollens play a special role. Bronchial asthma caused by plant allergens occur in a certain season of the year (April - July) - the period of flowering plants. In addition, the cause of asthma may be house dust and dry food for aquarium fish, etc., certain foods (eggs, crabs, chocolate, mushrooms, strawberries, oranges, etc.), some medicines.
In the event of attack of asthma there are importance of individual characteristics of nervous and endocrine systems. There are known occasions that in the patient with sensitiveness to the smell of roses, attack started at the sight of artificial roses. Negative emotions may provoke attacks also. In some patients attacks of asthma do not appear in periods of intense work, or during deep sleep.
The development and course of bronchial asthma depend on climatic factors. Exacerbations of the disease are often observed in spring and fall moon, patients often feel worse in windy weather, with sudden changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure at high humidity. In addition, high humidity contribute to the exacerbation of chronic bronchial and lung infections, which aggravates the course of bronchial asthma.
The modern theory of the pathogenesis of asthma is the concept of allergic inflammation, which has become an integrating, connecting the mediator (histamine), lipid membranes - receptor (β2 - adrenergic receptors), neurovegetative (vagotonia), reagine (Ig E) and other concepts. Development of suffocation is conditioned directly by three major pathophysiological mechanisms: bronchospasm, edema of bronchial mucosa and hypersecretion of bronchial glands.
The severity of asthma is classified on the basis of complex clinical and functional signs of bronchial obstruction. The physician evaluates the frequency, severity and duration of attacks of expiratory dyspnea, patient's condition during the period between attacks, severity, variabillity, and repayment of functional bronchial obstruction, response to treatment. Evaluation of functional indicators for determining the severity of the disease is carried out in the absence of episodes expiratory dyspnea. According to this classification, the patient's condition is determined by the degrees of seriousness of bronchial asthma. So there are intermittent (episodic) course; persistent (constant) course: mild, moderate and severe.
The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Expert Panel Report II (EPR-2), "Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma," highlight the importance of correctly diagnosing asthma. To establish the diagnosis of asthma, the clinician must establish the following: (a) episodic symptoms of airflow obstruction are present, (b) airflow obstruction or symptoms are at least partially reversible, and (c) alternative diagnoses are excluded.
The severity of asthma is classified as mild intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, or severe persistent, according to the frequency and severity of symptoms, including nocturnal symptoms, characteristics of acute episodes, and pulmonary function.
These categories do not always work well in children. First, lung function is difficult to assess in younger children. Second, asthma that is triggered solely by viral infections does not fit into any category. While the symptoms may be intermittent, they may be severe enough to warrant hospitalization. Therefore, a category of severe intermittent asthma has been suggested.
Patients with mild intermittent disease have symptoms fewer than 2 times a week, and pulmonary function is normal between exacerbations. Exacerbations are brief, lasting from a few hours to a few days. Nighttime symptoms occur less than twice a month. The variation in peak expiratory flow (PEF) is less than 20%.
Patients with mild persistent asthma have symptoms more than 2 times a week but less than once a day. Exacerbations may affect activity. Nighttime symptoms occur more than twice a month. Pulmonary function test results (in age-appropriate patients) demonstrate that the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) or PEF is less than 80% of the predicted value, and the variation in PEF is 20-30%.
Patients with moderate persistent asthma have daily symptoms and use inhaled short-acting beta2-agonists every day. Acute exacerbations in patients with moderate persistent asthma may occur more than 2 times a week and last for days. The exacerbations affect activity. Nocturnal symptoms occur more than once a week. FEV1 and PEF values are 60-80% of the predicted values, and PEF varies by more than 30%.
Patients with severe persistent asthma have continuous or frequent symptoms, limited physical activity, and frequent nocturnal symptoms. FEV1 and PEF values are less than 60% of the predicted values, and PEF varies by more than 30%.
Disease with any of their features is assigned to the most severe grade. The presence of one severe feature is sufficient to diagnose severe persistent asthma. The characteristics in this classification system are general and may overlap because asthma is highly variable. The classification may change over time. Patients with asthma of any level of severity may have mild, moderate, or severe exacerbations. Some patients with intermittent asthma have severe and life-threatening exacerbations separated by episodes with almost normal lung function and minimal symptoms; however, they are likely to have other evidence of increased BHR (exercise or challenge testing) due to ongoing inflammation.
Physical examination during an acute episode may reveal different findings in mild, moderately severe, and severe episodes and in status asthmaticus with imminent respiratory arrest.
Mild episode: The respiratory rate is increased. Accessory muscles of respiration are not used. The heart rate is less than 100 beats per minute. Pulsus paradoxus is not present. Auscultation of chest reveals moderate wheezing, which is often end expiratory. Oxyhemoglobin saturation with room air is greater than 95%.
Moderately severe episode: The respiratory rate is increased. Typically, accessory muscles of respiration are used, and suprasternal retractions are present. The heart rate is 100-120 beats per minute. Loud expiratory wheezing can be heard. Pulsus paradoxus may be present (10-20 mm Hg). Oxyhemoglobin saturation with room air is 91-95%.
Severe episode: The respiratory rate is often greater than 30 breaths per minute. Accessory muscles of respiration are usually used, and suprasternal retractions are commonly present. The heart rate is more than 120 beats per minute. Loud biphasic (expiratory and inspiratory) wheezing can be heard. Pulsus paradoxus is often present (20-40 mm Hg). Oxyhemoglobin saturation with room air is less than 91%.
Status asthmaticus with imminent respiratory arrest: Paradoxical thoracoabdominal movement occurs. Wheezing may be absent (associated with most severe airway obstruction). Severe hypoxemia may manifest as bradycardia. Pulsus paradoxus noted earlier may be absent; this finding suggests respiratory muscle fatigue.
Asthma may be manifested in the form of whistles, wheezing when breathing, shortness of breath (dyspnea) with exertion or at rest, in the form of coughing, which may be paroxysmal.
The classic manifestation of bronchial asthma is the attack of asphyxia. Typically, it begins suddenly, usually at night. The patient feels a pain and lack of air. Breathing is difficult, exhaling long and is accompanied by a loud whistling wheezing (so-called, expiratory dyspnea). Cough may join soon. In order to facilitate breathing patient takes the forced position - rising or setting, leaning on the edge of the bed, chair, straining his pectoral muscle.
After some time, breathing becomes calmer, sputum is separating; attack stops. Attacks last from several minutes to several hours or even days. Such prolonged or frequent (occurring at short intervals during the day) the attacks are called an asthmatic state. Occasional attacks do not leave behind any changes in the lungs, but with the development of the disease and the increasing frequency of attacks may occur emphysema, impairment of the heart. It should be in mind that asphyxia may be caused not only by asthma but other diseases. In most cases, the doctor during the examination of the patient may determine the nature and origin of suffocation, with the need to use instrumental and laboratory methods.
Objectively: skinis pale, cyanosis of the lips, nasolabial triangle, acrocyanosis. Thorax is blown, shoulders are raised, lung percussion sound is bandbox, auscultation reveals relaxed breathing, prolonged exhaling, a large number of dry whistling wheezing and changing moist rales. Borders of the heart are not defined, the tones are weakened, tachycardia.
Anamnesis. Symptoms: wheezing, shortness of breath, cough, fever, the formation of phlegm, and other allergic disorders. There is possible presence of contributing factors (allergens, infection, etc.), occurrence of asthma attacks at night. Attacks are curable. The outcome of previous attacks (the need for hospitalization, treatment with steroids).
Physical examination. Total: tachypnea, tachycardia, part of the auxiliary respiratory muscles, cyanosis, paradoxical pulse (the inclusion of support muscles and paradoxical pulse are correlated with the severity of obstruction). Lungs: adequate aeration, with auscultation the symmetry of breath, wheezing, long exhalation, increased volume of lungs are determined. Heart: signs of CVF. Allergic rhinitis and (or) sinusitis or dermatitis.
The clinical picture varies. Symptoms may be associated with URTIs, nocturnal or exercise-induced asthmatic symptoms, and status asthmaticus. Status asthmaticus, or an acute severe asthmatic episode that is resistant to appropriate outpatient therapy, is a medical emergency that requires aggressive hospital management. This may include admission to an ICU for the treatment of hypoxia, hypercarbia, and dehydration and possibly for assisted ventilation because of respiratory failure.
–The physical findings vary with the severity of the asthma. During an outpatient visit, it is not uncommon for a patient with mild asthma to have normal findings at physical examination. Patients with more severe asthma are likely to have signs of chronic respiratory distress and chronic hyperinflation.
Signs of atopy or allergic rhinitis, such as conjunctival congestion and inflammation, ocular shiners, a transverse crease on the nose due to constant rubbing associated with allergic rhinitis, and pale violaceous nasal mucosa due to allergic rhinitis, may be present.
The anteroposterior diameter of the chest may be increased because of hyperinflation. Hyperinflation may also cause an abdominal breathing pattern.
Lung examination may reveal prolongation of the expiratory phase, expiratory wheezing, coarse crackles, or unequal breath sounds.
Clubbing of the fingers is not a feature of straightforward asthma and indicates a need for more extensive evaluation and work-up to exclude other conditions, such as cystic fibrosis.
Symptoms of asthma may include wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness, among others.
A musical, high-pitched, whistling sound produced by airflow turbulence is one of the most common symptoms. In the mildest form, wheezing is only end expiratory. As severity increases, the wheeze lasts throughout expiration. In a more severe asthmatic episode, wheezing is also present during inspiration. During a most severe episode, wheezing may be absent because of the severe limitation of airflow associated with airway narrowing and respiratory muscle fatigue.
Asthma can occur without wheezing when obstruction involves predominantly the small airways. Thus, wheezing is not necessary for the diagnosis of asthma. Furthermore, wheezing can be associated with other causes of airway obstruction, such as cystic fibrosis and heart failure.
Patients with vocal cord dysfunction have a predominantly inspiratory monophonic wheeze (different from the polyphonic wheeze in asthma), which is heard best over the laryngeal area in the neck. Patients with bronchomalacia and tracheomalacia also have a monophonic wheeze.
In exercise-induced or nocturnal asthma, wheezing may be present after exercise or during the night, respectively.
Coughing: Cough may be the only symptom of asthma, especially in cases of exercise-induced or nocturnal asthma. Usually, the cough is nonproductive and nonparoxysmal. Also, coughing may be present with wheezing. Children with nocturnal asthma tend to cough after midnight, during the early hours of morning.
Chest tightness: A history of tightness or pain in the chest may be present with or without other symptoms of asthma, especially in exercise-induced or nocturnal asthma.
Other nonspecific symptoms: Infants or young children may have history of recurrent bronchitis, bronchiolitis, or pneumonia; a persistent cough with colds; and/or recurrent croup or chest rattling. Most children with chronic or recurrent bronchitis have asthma. Asthma is the most common underlying diagnosis in children with recurrent pneumonia. Older children may have a history of chest tightness and/or recurrent chest congestion.
During an acute episode, symptoms vary according to the severity.
Symptoms during a mild episode: Patients may be breathless after physical activity such as walking. They can talk in sentences and lie down, and they may be agitated.
Symptoms during a moderate severe episode: Patients are breathless while talking. Infants have feeding difficulties and a softer, shorter cry.
Symptoms during a severe episode: Patients are breathless during rest, are not interested in feeding, sit upright, talk in words (not sentences), and are usually agitated.
Symptoms with imminent respiratory arrest (in addition to the aforementioned symptoms): The child is drowsy and confused. However, adolescents may not have these symptoms until they are in frank respiratory failure.
Additional data. Despite the fact that lung function tests are not decisive in the diagnosis, they help assess the severity of airway obstruction and subsequent response to therapy in chronic and acute situations. VC, FVC,, FEV, the maximum air velocity in the middle of expiration, the maximum expiratory flow rate (test Tiffno), FEV / VC decrease, residual volume (RV) and total lung capacity (TLC) increase during episodes of obstruction. Reduced FVC <25% of the proper or <0,75 after the appointment of bronchodilator indicates the severity of the disease.
Pulmonary function test (PFT) results are not reliable in patients younger than 5 years. In young children (3-6 y) and older children who can't perform the conventional spirometry maneuver, newer techniques, such as measurement of airway resistance using impulse oscillometry system, are being tried. Measurement of airway resistance before and after a dose of inhaled bronchodilator may help to diagnose bronchodilator responsive airway obstruction.
Spirometry: In a typical case, an obstructive defect is present in the form of normal forced vital capacity (FVC), reduced FEV1, and reduced forced expiratory flow over 25-75% of the FVC (FEF 25-75). The flow-volume loop can be concave. Documentation of reversibility of airway obstruction after bronchodilator therapy is central to the definition of asthma. FEF 25-75 is a sensitive indicator of obstruction and may be the only abnormality in a child with mild disease. In an outpatient or office setting, measurement of the peak flow rate by using a peak flow meter can provide useful information about obstruction in the large airways. Take care to ensure maximum patient effort. However, a normal peak flow rate does not necessarily mean a lack of airway obstruction.
Plethysmography: Patients with chronic persistent asthma may have hyperinflation, as evidenced by an increased total lung capacity (TLC) at plethysmography. Increased residual volume (RV) and functional residual capacity (FRC) with normal TLC suggests air trapping. Airway resistance is increased when significant obstruction is present.
Bronchial provocation tests: Bronchial provocation tests may be performed to diagnose BHR. These tests are performed in specialized laboratories by specially trained personnel to document airway hyperresponsiveness to substances (eg, methacholine, histamine). Increasing doses of provocation agents are given, and FEV1 is measured. The endpoint is a 20% decrease in FEV1 (PD20).
Exercise challenge: In a patient with a history of exercise-induced symptoms (eg, cough, wheeze, chest tightness or pain), the diagnosis of asthma can be confirmed with the exercise challenge. In a patient of appropriate age (usually >6 y), the procedure involves baseline spirometry followed by exercise on a treadmill or bicycle to a heart rate greater than 60% of the predicted maximum, with monitoring of the electrocardiogram and oxyhemoglobin saturation. The patient should be breathing cold, dry air during the exercise to increase the yield of the study. Spirographic findings and the PEF rate (PEFR) are determined immediately after the exercise period and at 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes after the first measurement. The maximal decrease in lung function is calculated by using the lowest postexercise and highest preexercise values. The reversibility of airway obstruction can be assessed by administering aerosolized bronchodilators.
Blood testing: Eosinophil counts and IgE levels may help when allergic factors are suspected.
Recent evidence suggests the usefulness of measuring the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) as a noninvasive marker of airway inflammation, in order to adjust the dose of inhaled corticosteroids treatment. Currently FeNO measurement, due to high cost of equipment, is used primarily as a research tool.
Asthma is an inflammatory disease characterized by the recruitment of inflammatory cells, vascular congestion, increased vascular permeability, increased tissue volume, and the presence of an exudate. Eosinophilic infiltration, a universal finding, is considered a major marker of the inflammatory activity of the disease. Histologic evaluations of the airways in a typical patient reveal infiltration with inflammatory cells, narrowing of airway lumina, bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial denudation, and mucus plugs. Additionally, a patient with severe asthma may have a markedly thickened basement membrane and airway remodeling in the form of subepithelial fibrosis and smooth muscle hypertrophy or hyperplasia.
Peakflowmetria allows, though tentatively, to control state of the respiratory system and helps to some extent monitor of the effectiveness of treatment.
Chest radiography: Include chest radiography in the initial workup if the asthma does not respond to therapy as expected. In addition to typical findings of hyperinflation and increased bronchial markings, a chest radiograph may reveal evidence of parenchymal disease, atelectasis, pneumonia, congenital anomaly, or a foreign body. In a patient with an acute asthmatic episode that responds poorly to therapy, a chest radiograph helps in the diagnosis of complications such as pneumothorax or pneumomediastinum. Chest x-ray is not always necessary. It can document the increase of pulmonary volume, infiltrates areas due to atelectasis of distal obturated airway, this feature is important in suspecting of their infection.
Asthma. A. The typical X-ray data 9-year-old child.
The inflation and increased lung pattern. B. 7-year-old child with a more pronounced changes. C. Side projection showing swelling with flattening of the diaphragm and increased anteroposterior diameter at the top.
Paranasal sinus radiography or CT scanning: Consider using these to rule out sinusitis.
Allergy testing: Allergy testing can be used to identify allergic factors that may significantly contribute to the asthma. Once identified, environmental factors (eg, dust mites, cockroaches, molds, animal dander) and outdoor factors (eg, pollen, grass, trees, molds) may be controlled or avoided to reduce asthmatic symptoms. Allergens for skin testing are selected on the basis of suspected or known allergens identified from a detailed environmental history. Antihistamines can suppress the skin test results and should be discontinued for an appropriate period (according to the duration of action) before allergy testing. Topical or systemic corticosteroids do not affect the skin reaction.
In the period of remission allergic skin tests are conducted, positive analysis of which gives the possibility to exclude contact with the causative allergen, that is the key of the recovery.
The analysis of sputum: eosinophilia, Kurshman spiral (cylinders of the bronchioles), crystals Charcot - Leiden; neutrophilia proves the existence of bronchial infection.
Arterial blood gases: typical symptoms of hypoxemia during attacks and is usually expressed in hypocapnia and respiratory alkalosis, a normal or increased partial pressure pCO2 showes a significant fatigue of respiratory muscles and airway obstruction.
"Any wheezing" - is not bronchial asthma. Differentiated with CNS diseases, chronic bronchitis and (or) emphysema, obstruction URT caused by foreign body, tumor, edema of the larynx, carcinoid tumors (usually followed by a crowing, but not wheezing), repeated emphysema, eosinophilic pneumonia, dysfunction of the vocal folds, systemic vasculitis with lesions of the lungs.
Clinically the most important is differential diagnosis with bronchiolitis and laryngotracheal stenosis due to similar clinical picture.
The goals of asthma therapy are to prevent chronic and troublesome symptoms, maintain normal or near-normal pulmonary function, maintain normal physical activity levels (including exercise), prevent recurrent exacerbations of asthma, and minimize the need for emergency department visits or hospitalizations, provide optimal pharmacotherapy with minimal or no adverse effects, and meet the family's expectations for asthma care.
Medical care includes treatment of acute asthmatic episodes and control of chronic symptoms, including nocturnal and exercise-induced asthmatic symptoms. Pharmacologic management includes the use of control agents such as inhaled corticosteroids, inhaled cromolyn or nedocromil, long-acting bronchodilators, theophylline, leukotriene modifiers, and recently introduced strategies such as the use of anti-IgE antibodies. Relief medications include short-acting bronchodilators, systemic corticosteroids, and ipratropium. Nonpharmacologic management includes measures to improve patient compliance and adherence. For all but the most severely affected patients, the ultimate goal is to prevent symptoms, minimize morbidity from acute episodes, and prevent functional and psychological morbidity to provide a healthy (or near healthy) lifestyle appropriate to the age of child.
ü Long-term control: Usually, no daily medication is needed.
ü Quick relief: Short-acting bronchodilators in the form of inhaled beta2-agonists should be used as needed for symptom control.
The use of short-acting inhaled beta2-agonists more than 2 times a week may indicate the need to initiate long-term control therapy.
Long-term control: Anti-inflammatory treatment in the form of low-dose inhaled corticosteroids or nonsteroidal agents (eg, cromolyn, nedocromil) is preferred. Some evidence suggests that leukotriene antagonists may be useful as first-line therapy in children. Recently, the use of montelukast was approved for children aged 2 years and older.
Quick relief: Short-acting bronchodilators in the form of inhaled beta2-agonists should be used as needed for symptom control. Use of short-acting inhaled beta2-agonists on a daily basis or increasing use indicates the need for additional long-term therapy.
Long-term control: Daily anti-inflammatory treatment in the form of inhaled corticosteroids (medium dose) is preferred. Otherwise, low- or medium-dose inhaled corticosteroids combined with a long-acting bronchodilator or leukotriene antagonist can be used, especially for the control of nocturnal or exercise-induced asthmatic symptoms.
Quick relief: Short-acting bronchodilators in the form of inhaled beta2-agonists should be used as needed for symptom control. The use of short-acting inhaled beta2-agonists on a daily basis or increasing use indicates the need for additional long-term therapy.
Daily anti-inflammatory treatment in the form of inhaled corticosteroids (high dose) is preferred. Other medications, such as a long-acting bronchodilator leukotriene antagonist or theophylline, can be added.
Patients with moderate-to-severe asthma who react to perennial allergens despite inhaled corticosteroids may benefit from omalizumab treatment. Two 52-week pivotal Phase III clinical trials were designed to study asthma exacerbation reduction in 1071 patients with asthma (aged 12-76 y). The coprimary endpoint of each study was the number of asthma exacerbations per patient during the stable-steroid phase and the steroid-reduction phase. Patients were randomized to receive subcutaneous omalizumab or placebo every 2-4 weeks. Inhaled corticosteroid doses were kept stable over the initial 16 weeks of treatment (stable-steroid phase) and tapered during a further 12-week treatment period (steroid-reduction phase).
In both pivotal clinical trials, when used as an add-on therapy to inhaled corticosteroids, omalizumab reduced mean asthma exacerbations (ie, asthma attacks) per patient by 33%-75% during the stable-steroid phase and 33%-50% during the steroid-reduction phase. Reduction in asthma exacerbations was confirmed by improvements in other measurements of asthma control, including symptom scores (eg, nocturnal awakenings, daytime asthma symptoms).
Correction of significant hypoxemia with supplemental oxygen: In severe cases, alveolar hypoventilation requires mechanically assisted ventilation.
Rapid reversal of airflow obstruction by using repeated or continuous administration of an inhaled beta2-agonist: Early administration of systemic corticosteroids (eg, oral prednisone or intravenous methylprednisolone) is suggested in children with asthma that fails to respond promptly and completely to inhaled beta2-agonists.
Reduction in the likelihood of recurrence of severe airflow obstruction by intensifying therapy: Often, a short course of systemic corticosteroids is helpful.
Achieving these goals requires close monitoring by means of serial clinical assessment and measurement of lung function (in patients of appropriate ages) to quantify the severity of airflow obstruction and its response to treatment. Improvement in FEV1 after 30 minutes of treatment is significantly correlated with a broad range of indices of the severity of asthmatic exacerbations, and repeated measurement of airflow in the emergency department can help reduce unnecessary admissions. Use of the peak flow rate or FEV1 values, along with the patient's history, current symptoms, physical findings, to guide treatment decisions is helpful in achieving the aforementioned goals. In using the PEF expressed as a percentage of the patient's best value, the effect of irreversible airflow obstruction should be considered. For example, in a patient whose best peak flow rate is 160 L/min, a decrease of 40% represents severe and potentially life-threatening obstruction.
Consider consultation with an allergist; ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist; or gastroenterologist. An allergist may help with further evaluation and management when the history and physical examination findings suggest significant allergies (especially systemic involvement and allergies to dietary products). An ENT specialist may help in managing chronic sinusitis. A gastroenterologist may help in excluding gastroesophageal reflux.
When a patient has major allergies to dietary products, avoidance of particular foods may help. In the absence of specific food allergies, dietary changes are not necessary. Unless compelling evidence for a specific allergy exists, milk products do not have to be avoided.
One of the goals of therapy is to adequately control exercise-induced asthmatic symptoms so that physical activity is not restricted.
Current treatment of asthma includes the use of relievers, such as beta-adrenergic agonists, systemic corticosteroids, and ipratropium, and controllers, such as cromolyn, nedocromil, inhaled corticosteroids, long-acting beta-agonists, theophylline, and leukotriene modifiers.
These agents act as bronchodilators, used to treat bronchospasm in acute asthmatic episodes, and used to prevent bronchospasm associated with exercise-induced asthma or nocturnal asthma. Several studies have suggested that short-acting beta2-agonists such as albuterol may produce adverse outcomes (eg, decreased peak flow or increased risk of exacerbations) in patients homozygous for arginine (Arg/Arg) at the 16th amino acid position of beta-adrenergic receptor gene compared with patients homozygous for glycine (Gly-Gly). Recently, similar findings are reported for long-acting beta2-agonists (eg, salmeterol).
Albuterol sulfate (Proventil, Ventolin) This beta2-agonist is the most commonly used bronchodilator that is available in multiple forms (eg, solution for nebulization, metered-dose inhaler (MDI), oral solution). This is most commonly used in rescue therapy for acute asthmatic symptoms. Albuterol is used as needed, and prolonged use may be associated with tachyphylaxis due to beta2-receptor downregulation and receptor hyposensitivity.
Pirbuterol acetate (Maxair) Available as a breath-actuated or ordinary inhaler. The ease of administration with the breath-actuated device makes it an attractive choice in the treatment of acute symptoms in younger children who otherwise cannot use an MDI. Strength is 200 mcg per inhalation.
This nonracemic form of albuterol was recently introduced. One advantage is better efficacy; hence, lower doses have a therapeutic effect, and a significant reduction in the adverse effects associated with racemic albuterol (eg, muscle tremors, tachycardia, hyperglycemia, hypokalemia) is reported.
Levalbuterol (Xopenex) Nonracemic form of albuterol, levalbuterol (R isomer) is effective in smaller doses and is reported to have fewer adverse effects (eg, tachycardia, hyperglycemia, hypokalemia). The dose may be doubled in acute severe episodes when even a slight increase in the bronchodilator response may make a big difference in the management strategy (eg, in avoiding patient ventilation).
Long-acting bronchodilators are not used for the treatment of acute bronchospasm. They are used for the preventive treatment of nocturnal asthma or exercise-induced asthmatic symptoms, for example. Currently, 2 long-acting beta2-agonists are available in the United States: salmeterol (Serevent) and formoterol (Foradil). Salmeterol is discussed below. Salmeterol is available as a combination of salmeterol and fluticasone (Advair) in the United States. Advair has an expiration date of 30 days once the protective wrapper is removed.
Salmeterol (Serevent Diskus) This long-acting preparation of a beta2-agonist is used primarily to treat nocturnal or exercise-induced symptoms. It has no anti-inflammatory action and is not indicated in the treatment of acute bronchospastic episodes. It may be used as an adjunct to inhaled corticosteroids to reduce the potential adverse effects of the steroids.
These agents are used for long-term control and prevention of symptoms, especially nocturnal symptoms.
Theophylline (Theo-24, Theolair, Theo-Dur, Slo-bid) is available in short- and long-acting formulations. Because of the need to monitor the drug levels (see Precautions below), this agent is used infrequently.
These agents block early and late asthmatic responses, interfere with chloride channels, stabilize the mast cell membrane, and inhibit the activation and release of mediators from eosinophils and epithelial cells. They inhibit acute responses to cold air, exercise, and sulfur dioxide.
Cromolyn sodium (Intal), nedocromil sodium (Tilade). These nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents are used primarily in preventive therapy.
Steroids are the most potent anti-inflammatory agents. Inhaled forms are topically active, poorly absorbed, and least likely to cause adverse effects. No study has shown significant toxicity with inhaled steroid use in children at doses less than the equivalent of 400 mcg of beclomethasone per day. They are used for long-term control of symptoms and for the suppression, control, and reversal of inflammation. Inhaled forms reduce the need for systemic corticosteroids. They block late asthmatic response to allergens; reduce airway hyperresponsiveness; inhibit cytokine production, adhesion protein activation, and inflammatory cell migration and activation; and reverse beta2-receptor downregulation and subsensitivity (in acute asthmatic episodes with long-term beta2-agonist use).
Inhaled steroids include beclomethasone, triamcinolone, flunisolide, fluticasone, and budesonide.
Beclomethasone (Beclovent, Vanceril, QVAR) Inhibits bronchoconstriction mechanisms; causes direct smooth muscle relaxation; and may decrease the number and activity of inflammatory cells, which, in turn, decreases airway hyperresponsiveness.
Fluticasone (Flovent) has extremely potent vasoconstrictive and anti-inflammatory activity. Has a weak hypothalamic-pituitary adrenocortical axis inhibitory potency when applied topically.
Budesonide (Pulmicort Turbuhaler or Respules) Has extremely potent vasoconstrictive and anti-inflammatory activity. Has a weak hypothalamic-pituitary adrenocortical axis inhibitory potency when applied topically. Pulmicort is available in a powder inhaler (200 mcg per oral inhalation) or as a nebulized susp (ie, Respules).
These agents are used for short courses (3-10 d) to gain prompt control of inadequately controlled acute asthmatic episodes. They are also used for long-term prevention of symptoms in severe persistent asthma as well as for suppression, control, and reversal of inflammation. Frequent and repetitive use of beta2-agonists has been associated with beta2-receptor subsensitivity and downregulation; these processes are reversed with corticosteroids.
Higher-dose corticosteroids have no advantage in severe asthma exacerbations, and intravenous administration has no advantage over oral therapy, provided that gastrointestinal transit time or absorption is not impaired. The usual regimen is to continue frequent multiple daily dosing until the FEV1 or PEF is 50% of the predicted or personal best values; then, the dose is changed to twice daily. This usually occurs within 48 hours.
Prednisone (Deltasone, Orasone) and prednisolone (Pediapred, Prelone, Orapred) -- Immunosuppressants for the treatment of autoimmune disorders; may decrease inflammation by reversing increased capillary permeability and suppressing PMN activity.
Methylprednisolone (Solu-Medrol) May decrease inflammation by reversing increased capillary permeability and suppressing PMN activity.
Knowledge that leukotrienes cause bronchospasm, increased vascular permeability, mucosal edema, and inflammatory cell infiltration leads to the concept of modifying their action by using pharmacologic agents. These are either 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors or leukotriene-receptor antagonists.
Zafirlukast (Accolate). It is a selective competitive inhibitor of LTD4, LTE4 receptors.
Montelukast (Singulair) It is a last agent introduced in its class. The advantages are that it is chewable, it has a once-a-day dosing, and it has no significant adverse effects.
Omalizumab (Xolair) Recombinant, DNA-derived, humanized IgG monoclonal antibody that binds selectively to human IgE on surface of mast cells and basophils. Reduces mediator release, which promotes allergic response. Indicated for moderate-to-severe persistent asthma in patients who react to perennial allergens in whom symptoms are not controlled by inhaled corticosteroids.
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Gluteal augmentation has been performed with increasing frequency for nearly 5 decades. The first reported case, described by Bartels in 1969, used a breast implant to treat gluteal idiopathic atrophy.1 Over the ensuing years, augmentation of the gluteal region has been performed using implants designed specifically for the purpose, autoaugmentation with local flaps, and, increasingly, with autologous fat transfer.1–7 All modalities of gluteal augmentation have undergone an evolution of technique resulting in greater predictability with an improved complication profile. This refinement is perhaps most notable in gluteal augmentation with fat transfer. This is by far the most commonly performed method for gluteal contouring and augmentation today. We have seen an explosion in buttock-enhancing procedures since 2010. Popular media, social media, and Internet popularity of certain female icons of modern beauty have placed a large focus on buttock shape and curvier body silhouettes.
There are several advantages of gluteal augmentation with fat transfer compared with other methods.2,3,6 The procedure uses entirely autologous tissue, avoiding the compli cations associated with an implant (capsular contracture, implant migration or rotation, wound-healing complications, thinning of native tissues, and implant-associated infectious complications). It allows for detailed contouring of the entire gluteal area, allowing focused augmentation of specific areas of the region as dictated by anatomic need and patient preference (unlike implant-based augmentation or autoaugmentation using flaps, which have a more limited region of augmentation). The harvesting of fat by liposuction allows for comprehensive or focused torso contouring with a more profound global result. The reduction of fat in the lower back, flanks, thighs, and even more distant sites provide a powerful global body contouring effect combined with augmentation of the gluteal region. The subtraction of fat from the lower back and adjacent torso, with simultaneous addition of fat graft to the buttocks superiorly and medially, provides the 360– degree “curve” visual enhancement that is desirable. The result is an overall body silhouette in which concavities flow to adjacent convexities creating a pleasing and sensual S curvilinear body reshaping (Fig. 32.1).
Fig. 32.1 “S-curve” body silhouette.
Over the past decade, refinements in patient selection, surgical technique, and postoperative management have dramatically improved the short- and long-term results associated with gluteal fat augmentation. The procedure has evolved to one with a more consistent and predictable result and a dramatically reduced complication profile that is arguably superior to other modalities of gluteal augmentation. This chapter provides an overview of our approach to patient selection, surgical technique, and postoperative care, with special attention to details that optimize results and help avoid complications. It also discusses the management of complications that may arise from gluteal augmentation with fat grafting. Box 32.1 reviews the overall pitfalls that can lead to undesirable aesthetic results, poor patient satisfaction, or true surgical complications.
Appropriate patient selection and education is critical to the success of any cosmetic operation. The ideal patient for gluteal fat augmentation should have sufficient donor fat to allow for an appreciable gluteal augmentation. Very thin patients are generally considered poor candidates for the procedure; however, in some cases, thinner patients can have a dramatic global torso transformation simply as the result of a modest liposuction and fat augmentation to very select zones of the gluteal region. In some cases, when patients have marginal or insufficient quantities of fat for gluteal augmentation, they can be instructed to gain weight with a diet focused on gaining and increasing fat lobule size to improve lipoaspirate yield.
It is critical to have a thorough discussion with the patient and explain what the procedure can and cannot accomplish for that individual. As in any plastic surgical procedure, expectation management is of paramount importance. Reviewing preoperative and postoperative photos of other patients, particularly with similar body frame and tissue characteristics, helps demonstrate achievable results and elucidates limitations of the procedure. The magnitude of gluteal contour improvement achievable is rooted in the patient’s anatomic morphology and surgical precision. The consultation should include a careful discussion of the risks associated with the procedure along with the inherent unpredictability of fat graft survival and longevity of the overall “new” buttock shape.
It cannot be overemphasized that in the current online and social media climate, “selfies,” and numerous applications that help people alter their photographic images, patient education is becoming more vital. Without a collective effort by board-certified plastic surgeons in cohesive dissemination of honest information on long-term “true” results and limitations and/or risks, there will exist a far greater challenge in the near and distant future. A lack of informed decision-making will directly lead to unrealistic expectations and increased complication rates. Patients will see postoperative examples taken too early (with much of the visualized gluteal volume resulting from edema and ultimately nonviable fat grafts) or edited photos on social media or, worse, on surgeons’ websites, and expect these results. An honest plastic surgeon may lose that patient to someone less experienced or less interested in technical acumen and ethical practice standards. The results in fat grafting, more than any other aesthetic procedure, require a minimum of 6 months to a year to assess.
Patients with preexisting medical comorbidities or who are older than 40 years should receive appropriate medical clearance. It is very important to review all medications, supplements, herbs, and other substances that the patient is taking and instruct the patient to cease taking any that may predispose to perioperative complications (vitamin E, fish oil, aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, weight loss supplements, etc.). Thromboembolic risk factors should be scrutinized and discussed with patients. Smoking and nicotine use (vaporized or directly consumed) may greatly compromise fat graft viability by limiting blood flow to the fat grafts. A lack of proper vasodilation and neovascularization can reduce the delivery of proper nutrients for fat graft survival. Patients who have unrealistic expectations or who are psychologically compromised should have repeat consultation(s), formal psychological evaluation, or refusal of the procedure (often the wisest course). A classic example is someone who desires disproportionately large buttock size. As with oversized breast implants, overexpansion of the surrounding tissue envelope and scaffold will cause severe deleterious effects. This is even less predictable than in breast augmentation, because the long-term volume effect is not fixed as it is with an implant. The surgeon should not resort to “overcorrection” for this reason.
Proper technical planning and execution are directly related to preoperative evaluation and thorough discussion with the patient regarding aesthetic goals. As mentioned previously, successful outcomes should rely less on volume of augmentation than on optimal gluteal shape and how this shape relates to overall body contour. The goal of this chapter is to discuss possible complications and how to prevent them; therefore details on aesthetic planning and classifications of buttock shape are outside the chapter’s scope and intent. However, it is important to review general aesthetic guidelines.
Understanding the limitations on how V– and H-frames can be altered to the more desirable A-frame (or upsidedown heart) shape is paramount to avoiding overzealous injection, particularly in zones that notoriously have less fat graft survivability (midlateral and inferolateral areas). For example, to change a V-frame to a more optimal waist–hip ratio optimally requires a certain distance between the 12th rib and iliac crest (Fig. 32.3). The deeper the muscular attachments and the longer the distance, the more liposuction in this area can excavate the flank and create depth. In addition, lateral buttock augmentation and expansion of width is often hardest to achieve in the anatomic region that may need it most. The lack of neighbor fat cells here, along with essentially skin, thin subcutaneous fatty depth, and tensor fascia lata, makes it a challenge to alter the scaffold and establish a favorable environment for fat graft survival (Fig. 32.4). Excessive fat transfer here often leads to less graft survival and can lead to cyst and third-space cavities or frank seromas. However, selective release, grafting, and precise and limited re-release allows for appropriate expansion and fat take.
The patient should be marked in the standing position. Planned areas of liposuction should be marked in a standard fashion, with emphasis on the zones adjacent to the buttock. There are many different surgeon preferences in marking the buttock for gluteal augmentation. Although knowledge of certain classifications or gluteal zones is helpful, clinical markings do not need to adhere to these. More simply, areas requiring both release and different capacity for accepting fat grafts are marked. Markings are based on several factors including skin laxity, fat and muscle fullness, and bony structure. It is important to assess the lateral–trochanteric region for enhancement, because it can significantly contribute to the lateral contour of the gluteal profile. The iliac crest should be noted and serves as the lowest point of liposuction and the upper edge of the gluteal region. The patient should be assessed to determine whether elevation of the gluteal contour or additional fullness in the iliac crest are needed. There are often areas of dimpling throughout the gluteal region or an oblique fascial band at the inferomedial border of the buttock; these should be noted and marked, because they require “selective” release intraoperatively.
Fig. 32.3 Flank shape potential. The distance between the caudal ribs and iliac crest along with iliac crest height and shape influence the potential depth of the flank and waist excavation and degree of waist–hip ratio possible.
Fig. 32.4 In the midlateral and inferolateral gluteal region it is usually more challenging to ensure great fat graft survival secondary to a poor native scaffold and inadequate “neighbor” fat cells. The skin and subcutaneous layer are typically adherent to tensor fascia lata with less room for expansion. This patient has a lack of native scaffold, poor capacitance, and poor osseous morphology.
The preoperative marking session is the last, and arguably best, time to clearly delineate to the patient what areas are planned for reduction and augmentation. It is helpful to discuss with the patient which areas they feel strongest about augmenting, particularly in cases where there may not be enough fat to augment all areas of the buttock. The patient should be offered the opportunity to prioritize several zones, such as upper buttock fullness, posterior projection, posterolateral buttock fullness, or lateral hip–trochanteric fullness.
The patient may be prepped for surgery with a standing prep or in multiple steps throughout the operation. Sequential compression devices must be used, and the patient should be given a dose of preoperative or perioperative antibiotics within an hour of incision (and should be redosed after 4 hours if the surgical duration allows for that). Performing the procedure with general anesthesia allows for greater flexibility in the operation.
There are many approaches to patient positioning during surgery. We prefer to begin the operation with the patient in the supine position and turn the patient prone to complete the procedure. The procedure may also be performed with an alternating lateral decubitus position, but we do not believe this allows for good visualization of gluteal symmetry and creates abnormal buttock contour and tissue splaying. It is critical that all pressure points are protected, particularly with the patient in the prone position (axillary rolls, facial padding, elbow padding, and a horizontal cushioning of the iliac crests, etc.).
Liposuction is performed in the standard fashion using the surgeon’s preference for tumescence and cannulae. We prefer high-oscillation cannula-tip aspiration (power-assisted) lipoaspiration. The main layer targeted is the subscarpal layer, with large (4 and 5 mm) cannulas that allow for adequate fat removal and comprehensive redraping of the tissues postoperatively. A 4- to 5-mm cannula diameter allows the fat lobules in this large volume grafting to be minimally traumatized and more viable. Smaller cannulas are used to target superficial cellulitic areas and for more superficial lipodystrophy. Sometimes vibration is used without suction to release superficial and deeper bands before performing liposuction. Pretunneling and posttunneling are a highly effective way to mobilize the fat layer to be aspirated, and helps even out the remaining tissue layers during postoperative healing.11,12 As with all liposuction, it is critical to use multiple access incisions with crisscrossing passes at multiple depths to avoid contour irregularities. We believe special attention should be paid to aggressive liposuction of the lower back, central fat pad (sacral area), and flanks. It is the area just above the central gluteal border that can often blunt the degree of upper pole gluteal projection. With removal of this area of lipodystrophy, there is an apparent greater lower back lordosis with an appearance of greater superior gluteal projection. This is what is colloquially called a “shelf.” Excessive liposuction in the sacral area can destroy the lymphatics similar to the mons pubis area, leading to an increased prevalence of seromas in this region.
Seromas are more common in these two locations and typically resolve with simple one-time or serial aspirations in the office. Not adhering to the basic liposuction techniques listed previously may result in donor site irregularities or inadequate fat graft acquisition, both of which are undesirable.
Fat preparation is a critical step; the surgeon must not deviate from protocol and must be meticulous in every stage. There are many approaches to processing of the lipoaspirate, with an increasing number of devices (often expensive) used for it.13,14 Although the details may differ, the principles remain the same: the goal is to separate the viable fat in a sterile fashion from the aqueous component and prepare it for transfer to the buttock.
Our approach to fat preparation is to drain or aspirate out the aqueous component of the lipoaspirate once the fat has decanted in the liposuction canister (Fig. 32.5). The fat is then strained through a commercial strainer, without touching the fat, removing further aqueous components and obtaining a greater content of more purified fat lobules. The fat is mixed with a total of 300 mg clindamycin solution for each strained batch. The fat is then transferred into 60-mL Toomey syringes and prepared for injection to the gluteal region (Fig. 32.6). The strainers are covered with towels or paper to avoid theoretical contamination in this open, exposed part of processing. Although proponents of closed systems claim contamination is an issue, there has been no evidence to suggest that infection rates are increased or viability rates are reduced with this processing technique. In more than 1,000 buttock fat transfers using the simple technique described here, I (A.G.) have seen only three infections, and all resolved with simple incision and drainage, with no need for further revision or regrafting.
Fig. 32.5 Decanting after “low suction” aspiration into a closed canister system.
Fig. 32.6 Fat graft transferred into 60-mL Toomey syringes.
Fat transfer is the most technically unforgiving component of the procedure. The fat is susceptible to injury or death from shearing, nutritional depletion, excessive pressure, and other factors.13 Great care must be taken to place the fat properly into the appropriate anatomical regions and to avoid neurovascular complications to the patient and cytotoxic complications to the transplanted fat.
The single most important component to ensure success of fat transfer is to lay multiple small aliquots of fat so that the injected fat is surrounded by healthy, well-vascularized tissue and surrounding native fat cells. It is important to avoid pooling of fat into large aliquots, because they may progress to areas of fat necrosis or liquefaction. We use 3.7-mm cannulae to inject the fat and do so during advancement and retraction of the syringe (Video 32.1). Strokes should be rapid, in a fanning motion, not staying in one location for long. Typically no more than 5 to 10 cc of fat per pass is injected.
Fat lobules placed in syringes should not be excessively aqueous nor contain ligamentous and fibrous tissue. Revision and secondary liposuctioned zones will contain scar and fibrous tissue, which will be aspirated and require removal from injected aliquots. These both complicate the necessary tension feedback required to optimally judge injection volume required or possible per area. Some tissue resistance should be felt with every pass to avoid inadvertent pooling of fat lobules. This third spacing can cause future cyst formation and potential saponification of sterile fat (Fig. 32.7).
Overcorrection is not recommended, because excessive injection may result in greater pressure placed on the transplanted fat—a potentially cytotoxic event.13 Excessively aqueous fat grafts will overestimate actual volume of viable fat cells injected. This may make the patient feel good, because many want a certain amount of volume and determine success on this number. However, this will lead to unrealistic expectations. A viable fat ratio is approximately 30 to 50% of aspirate volume. For example, if 3 L are aspirated, up to 1,500 mL may be usable fat grafts. The factor that determines this is the density of fat cells per area. Volumes may be less in secondary cases or weight loss patients. Areas of gluteal dimpling may be released with percutaneous aponeurotomy using an 18-gauge needle. We often use a small pickle-fork cannula to release a lower central fascial band of the buttock.
Access incisions are closed using a layered technique. The nature of sterility and viability of fat grafted sites requires watertight closure of incisions, particularly those of the buttock and lumbar area. Open drainage should not be used. Compression of the areas of liposuction is important to prevent seromas and ensure good adherence of the skin and superficial fat layers to the musculoskeletal framework. We place one or two layered Topifoam adhesive pads (Mentor Aesthetics) over the area of the lower back central (sacral/suprasacral) fat pad to help enhance the desired lower back lordosis. We then place Topifoam foam over the areas that have undergone liposuction and place the patient into a compression garment.
Fig. 32.7 Overrelease of deep ligaments and fat compartment borders. Third spacing can result in fat “pooling” and subsequently alter fat take. (a) Ligament distribution varies in each buttock but is similar to Cooper’s ligaments in the breasts. (b) Cross-sectional relationship of ligaments from the muscle to the superficial subcutaneous fat layer. (c) Overrelease of ligaments and/or overexpansion with excess volume can create a pooling of fat cells in the third spacing that is created. (d) Over the long term, “fat compartment blowout” can create a non-contractile soft tissue envelope and an encapsulated cystic cavity containing saponified fat cells and liquid (usually sterile).
Patients are given antibiotics for 5 days postoperatively. The Topifoam pads are removed 7 to 10 days after the operation and are replaced as needed. The patient is instructed to use the surgical garment for up to 2 months after the operation, changing from first stage (two zippers) to second stage (one zipper). Pads are usually not needed when the second stage compression is used. Because compression on augmented buttocks can result in fat graft death, the patient is instructed to avoid sitting or lying on the buttocks for the first 2 weeks and up to 8 weeks as much as feasible. This includes prone positioning when sleeping and sitting with pillows underneath the thighs, keeping the gluteal region off the chair. There are now many commercially available pillows designed specifically for this purpose. Another approach some patients take is to sit on an inflatable exercise ball or sit on the thighs with the buttocks off the edge of a sitting stool or chair with no back.
A very important caveat to that rule is to have a very low threshold to see patients if they have any concerns or questions. The final surgical result is not noted for 3 to 6 months after surgery. After the 6-month mark, contour and volume retention does not change much further if all conditions remain the same.
Patients should be educated on meticulous hygiene. Patients are instructed to ambulate immediately after surgery.
Postoperatively, patients are instructed to “feed their fat.” We recommend a relatively high caloric intake for the first 1 to 3 months after surgery to ensure better fat nutrition and retention. Patients are allowed to engage in light exercise 4 weeks after the operation. We recommend that patients focus on exercises that will build and tone muscle (yoga, Pilates, weight training, etc.) rather than strenuous fat-burning exercises.
Poor fat survival is perhaps the most common complaint associated with gluteal fat transfer. Reasons associated with all aspects of the operation as well as patient idiosyncrasies are responsible for why fat take may be less than desired. Perioperative factors that affect fat survival can be categorized into those associated with fat preparation, fat injection, or postoperative care (see Box 32.1).6,13,14 Fig. 32.9, later in the chapter, addresses poor fat graft survival in areas of overrelease and overexpansion.
We believe that it is normal to lose anywhere from 30 to 40% of transplanted fat over 3 to 12 months. Surgical factors are reduced as much as possible to minimize this loss. From the first steps of the operation, great consideration is paid to maintaining and optimizing fat viability.
The operation is performed with a sense of urgency, with care taken to minimize any wasted time. Particular at tention is paid to minimizing the amount of time between the moment fat is removed from the body and the time it is injected into the buttock. Minimizing this extracorporeal time reduces potential oxidative and ischemic injury to the adipocytes. While the fat is out of the liposuction canister, it is kept covered by a towel as a barrier to contamination and air exposure. A common topic of discussion at conferences relates to this critical step. Critics of the “open” technique of transfer from donor to recipient note a “nonsterile” nature to strainers. However, the argument is null based on vast experience and lack of literature. The simplest way to think of this is that surgeons leave many instruments and materials (meshes, sutures, and tissue matrixes) exposed throughout surgical cases and resultant infectious issues do not occur.
There are many details associated with fat injection that can optimize graft take. It is critical that the fat be distributed in small aliquots (5 to 10 cc) in multiple passes to ensure that any implanted fat is completely surrounded by well-vascularized host tissue. Large aliquots of fat will result in “lakes” of fat within the buttock tissue, cyst formation, and fat loss. The central core of these large aliquots will be too far away from host tissue to receive any nutrients or oxygen by diffusion, before the graft is vascularized. This central tissue will be significantly more susceptible to loss.
Another important consideration to optimize fat take during the injection process is to pay careful consideration to the total volume injected with attention to the pressure within the buttock. There is an upper limit of fat volume that can be injected to the buttock.13 This capacitance should be judged preoperatively by tissue palpation and intraoperatively based on continual and subtle changes in tissue resistance with cannula passes. Beyond a certain point, the pressure built up within the gluteal tissues from excessive fat injection can build to a point that has a deleterious effect on the transplanted fat. The graft capacity should therefore be evaluated and reevaluated throughout injection. Increased experience in large volume fat grafting will help immensely in this and all steps.
Postoperatively, care is taken to nurture the transplanted fat as it transitions from a diffusion-dependent graft to vascularized tissue that has taken hold in the host environment. The most important concept in the perioperative period is to avoid pressure on the newly transplanted fat. Patients are instructed not to sit or lay on their buttocks for 2 weeks after the operation except for 20 to 30 minutes at a time on pillows for eating, toilet use, and other necessary tasks. We also believe in optimizing the nutritional support to the recently transplanted fat.
We encourage patients to enjoy healthy, complex carbohydrates and protein shakes between meals. We also encourage our patients to stay well hydrated but consume a low-sodium diet to minimize postoperative edema. Finally, as previously mentioned we try to maximize fat retention by allowing exercise 4 to 6 weeks after the operation but initially discouraging strenuous “fat-burning” exercises (such as aggressive cardiopulmonary workouts) in favor of more anabolic, muscle-building or muscle-maintaining exercises such as yoga, Pilates, or weight training.
The understanding of factors related to fat retention after grafting have made significant headway over the past 5 years. In general, this understanding is primarily related to operative maneuvers and techniques that improve outcomes. Future direction in research should be directed toward identifying the factors that result in differential fat take among patients and on how to control these factors.
Preoperative expectations aside, striving to achieve excellent postoperative symmetry is certainly an important goal but a secondary one of this procedure. Preexisting asymmetry must be appreciated before the operation. Different quantities of fat may be injected on either side and in different subunits of the buttock as needed. As a component of the preexisting gluteal asymmetry, structural differences between the buttocks must be recognized; this includes dimpling, fascial bands, indentations, scar tissue, and skin laxity. Fascial bands, inter–fat compartment ligamentous borders, and indentations may be released using a pickle-fork, vibrating various-tipped cannula, or 18-gauge needle (superficial) intraoperatively. Indentations and areas of scar may need more fat, scar release or revision, or reduction of contralateral gluteal augmentation to match the restriction.
If a patient is noted to have substantial asymmetry postoperatively, the most important first step is to wait at least 3 to 6 months after the operation to determine the final graft take. The desire and necessity for revision fat injection to correct asymmetry as a result of differential fat take is actually very rare.
If the patient continues to have asymmetry after the 3 to 6 months, the most straightforward approach is to perform another fat transfer procedure to augment the side with volume deficiency (Fig. 32.8). This can be undertaken as early as 6 months, but preferably at 12 months, if donor fat is available. In performing revision augmentation, the entire buttock need not be augmented. It is more efficient to only augment the anatomical zone(s) indicated. The alternative approach of reducing the buttock with greater volume using liposuction is not recommended, because liposuction of the buttock is fraught with complications, including significant contour abnormalities and untoward ptosis. In certain cases, liposuction may be considered if it is performed in areas that were augmented outside of the buttock tissue, such as the lateral hip or supragluteal area, to improve the asymmetrical appearance.
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2019-04-21T20:28:23Z
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https://plasticsurgerykey.com/gluteal-augmentation-3/
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I had been fiddling with creating these 2.5D parallax animated photos for quite a few years now, but there had recently been a neat post by Joe Fellows that brought it into the light again.
The reason I had originally played with the idea is part of a long, sad story involving my wedding and an out-of-focus camcorder that resulted in my not having any usable video of my wedding (in 2008). I did have all of the photographs, though. So as a present to my wife, I was going to re-create the wedding with these animated photos (I’m 99% sure she doesn’t ever read my blog - so if anyone knows her don’t say anything! I can still make it a surprise!).
Joe uses Adobe software to create his animations (Photoshop & After Effects). I neither have, nor want, Photoshop or After Effects.
What I do have is GIMP and Blender!
What I also don’t have (but would like) is access to the World Wildlife Fund photo archive. Large, good photographs make a huge difference in the final results you’ll see.
Click here to download the full size image.
It’s long because I’ve written hopefully detailed enough steps that a completely new user of Blender can pick it up and get something working. For more experienced users, I’m sorry for the length.
As a consolation prize, I’ve linked to my final .blend file just below if anyone wants to download it and see what I finally ended up with at the end of the tutorial. Enjoy!
Find something with good fore/middleground and background separation (and clean edges).
Pay attention to how you can cut up the image into planes.
Mask out everything except the subject you want.
Rebuild the background to exclude your subject.
Export each layer as its own image (keep alpha transparency).
Enable this ridiculously helpful Addon.
Import your image as separate planes using the Addon.
Push background image/plane away from camera and scale to give depth.
Subdivide subject plane a bunch, then add Shape Keys and modify.
Animate camera position throughout timeline as wanted.
Set keyframes for Shape Keys through timeline.
These files are being made available under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike license (CC-BY-SA-NC). You’re free to use them, modify them, and share them as long as you attribute me, Pat David, as the originator of the file.
What you probably want to look for if you are just starting with these are images with a good separation between a fore/middle ground subject and the background. This will make your first attempts a bit easier until you get the hang of what’s going on. Even better if there are mostly sharp edges differentiating your subject from the background (to help during masking/cutting).
You’ll also want an image bigger than your rendering size (for instance, mine are usually rendered at 1280×720). This is because you want to avoid blowing up your pixels when rendering if possible. This will make more sense later, but for now just try to use source material that’s larger than your intended render size.
Simple 2-plane visualization of the image.
This is actually all I did in my version of this in the video. This is nice because for the most part the edges are all relatively clean as well (making the job of masking an easier one).
Yes, that’s my daughter at the grave of H.P. Lovecraft with a flower.
So we’ve visualized a simple plan - isolate the woman and platform from the background. Great!
Once in GIMP I will usually duplicate the base image layer a couple of times (this way I have the original untouched image at the bottom of layer stack in case I need it or screw up too badly). The top-most layer is the one I will be masking the woman from. The middle layer will become my new background plate.
To isolate the woman, I’ll need to add a Layer Mask to the top-most layer (if you aren’t familiar with Layer Masks, the go back and read my previous post on them to brush up.
There’s a few different ways you can proceed at this point to isolate the woman. Really it depends on what you’re most comfortable with. One way is to use Paths to trace out a path around the subject. Another way is to paint directly on the Layer Mask.
Sorry. There is no fast and easy method of doing this well. This is also one of the most important elements to getting a good result, so don’t cheap out now. Take your time and pull a nice clean mask, whatever method you choose.
For this tutorial, we can just paint directly onto our Layer Mask. Check to make sure the Layer Mask is active (white border around it that you won’t be able to see because the mask is white) in the Layer palette, and make sure your foreground color is set to Black. Then it’s just a matter of choosing a paintbrush you like, and start painting around your subject.
I tend to use a simple round brush with a 75% hardness. I’ll usually start painting, then take advantage of the Shift key modifier to draw straight lines along my edges. For finer details I’ll drop down into a really small brush, and stay a bit larger for easier things.
To erase the regions that are left, I’ll usually use the Fuzzy Select Tool, grow the selection by a few pixels, and then Bucket Fill that region with black to make it transparent (you can see me doing it at about 2:13 in the video).
Now I have a layer with the woman isolated from the background. I can just select that layer and export it to a .PNG file to retain transparency.
Name the file with a .png extension, and make sure that the “Save color values from transparent pixels” is checked to save the alpha transparency.
Now that you have the isolated woman as an image, it’s time to remove her and the platform from the background image to get a clean backplate. There’s a few ways to go about this, the automated way, or the manual way.
The automated way is to use an Inpainting algorithm to do the work for you. I had previously written about using the new G’MIC patch-based Inpainting algorithm, and it does a pretty decent job on this image. If you want to try this method you should first read up about using it here (and have G’MIC installed of course).
To use it in this case was simple. I had already masked out the woman with a layer mask, so all I had to do was Right-Click on the layer mask, and choose “Mask to Selection” from the menu.
Then just turn on the visibility of my “Background” layer (and toggle the visibility of the isolated woman layer off) and activate my “Background” layer by clicking on it.
Not bad at all, and certainly usable for our purposes!
If I don’t want to use it as is, it’s certainly a better starting point for doing some selective healing with the Heal Tool to clean it up.
Manually is exactly as it sounds. We basically want to erase the woman and platform from the image to produce a clean background plate. For this I would normally just use a large radius Clone Tool for mostly filling in areas, and then the Heal Tool for cleaning it up to look smoother and more natural.
It doesn’t have to be 100% perfect, remember. It only needs to look good just behind the edges of your foreground subjects (assuming the parallax isn’t too extreme). Not to mention one of the nice things about this workflow is that it’s relatively trivial later to make modifications and push them into Blender.
For this tutorial we are now done. We’ve got a clean backplate and an isolated subject that we will be animating. If you wanted to get a little more complex just continue the process starting with the next layer closer to the camera. An example of this is the last girl in my video, where I had separated her from the background, and then her forearm from her body. In that case I had to rebuild the image of her chest that was behind her forearm to account for the animation.
Now that we have our source material, it’s time to build some planes. Actually, this part is trivially easy thanks to the Import Images as Planes Blender addon.
The key to this addon is that it will automatically import an image into Blender, and assign it to a plane with the correct aspect ratio.
To enable the Addon, just put check the small box in the upper right corner of the Addon. Now you can go back into the 3D View.
Back in the 3D View, you can also select the default cube and lamp (Shift - Right Click), and delete them (X key). (Selected objects will have an orange outline highlighting them).
For the Import Options we want to Un-Check the option to “Align Planes”. This will import all of the image planes already stacked with each other in the same location.
Under Material Settings we want to Check both Shadeless and Use Alpha so our image planes will not be affected by lamps and will use the transparency that is already there. We also want to make sure that Z Transparency is pressed.
Everything else can stay at their default settings.
Go ahead and hit the “Import Images as Planes” button now.
At this point things may look less than interesting. We’re getting there. First we need to cover just a few basic things about getting around in Blender for those that might be new to it.
In the 3D window, your MouseWheel controls the zoom level, and your Middle Mouse button controls the orbit. Right-Click selects objects, and Left-Click will place the cursor. Shift-Middle Click will allow you to pan.
I thought you said we were importing images?!
We want to reset all of the default camera transformations and rotations by setting those values to 0 (zero). This will place your camera at the origin facing down.
Now change your view to Camera View (looking through the actual camera) by hitting zero (0) on your keyboard numberpad (not 0 along the top of your alpha keys).
Yes, this zero, not the other one!
You’ll be staring at a blank gray viewport at this point. All we have to do now is move the camera back (along the Z-axis), until we can see our working area. I like to use the default Blender grid as a rough approximation of my working area.
I’ve also found that working at small scales is a little tough, so I like to scale my image planes up to roughly match my camera view/grid. So we can select all the image planes in the center of our view by pressing the B key and dragging a rectangle over the image planes.
This will make the adjustments a little easier to do. Now we’re ready to start fiddling with things!
What we have now is all of our image planes in the exact same location. What we want to do is to offset the background image further away from the camera view (and the other planes).
Right-click on your image planes. If you click multiple times you will cycle through each object under your cursor (in this case between the background/woman image planes). With your background image plane selected, hit the G key to move it, and the Z key again to constrain movement along the Z-axis. (If you find that you’ve accidentally selected the woman image plane, just hit the ESC key to escape out of the action).
Keep in mind that the further back the background plane is, the more pronounced the parallax effect will be. Use a relatively light touch here to maintain a realistic sense of depth.
What’s neat at this point is that if we were not going to animate any of the image planes themselves, we would be about done. For example, if you select the camera again (Right-click on the camera viewport border) you can hit the G key and move the camera slightly. You should be able to clearly see the parallax effect of the background being behind the woman.
After Effects has a neat tool called “Puppet Tool” that allowed Joe to easily deform his image to appear animated. We don’t have such a tool exactly in Blender at the moment, but it’s trivial to emulate the effects on the image plane using Shape Keys.
What Shape Keys does is simple. You will take a base mesh, add a Shape Key, and then deform the mesh in any way you’d like. Then you can animate the Shape Key deformation of the mesh over time. Multiple Shape Keys will blend together.
We are going to use this function to animate our woman (as opposed to some much more complex animation abilities in Blender).
Before we can deform the woman image plane, though, we need a good mesh to deform. At the moment the woman plane contains only 4 vertices in the mesh. We are going to make this much denser before we do anything else.
Select all the vertices in a rough outline around your image, and press the X key to invoke the Delete menu. You can just choose Vertices from this menu. You should be left with a simpler mesh containing only your woman image. Hit the Tab key again to exit Edit mode.
To clear a little space while I work, I am going to hide the Transform and Object Tools palettes from my view. They can be toggled on/off by pressing the N key and T key respectively.
We will want to change the Properties panel to show the Object Data for the woman image plane. Click on that icon to show the Object Data panel. You will see the entry for Shape Keys in this panel.
Now, the next time we are in Edit mode for this mesh, it will be assigned to this particular Shape Key. We can just start editing vertices by hand now if we want, but there’s a couple of things we can do to really make things much easier.
We should turn on Proportional Editing Mode. This will make the deformation of our mesh a bit smoother by allowing our changes to effect nearby vertices as well. So in your 3D View press the Tab key again to enter edit mode.
Once in Edit mode, there is a button for accessing Proportional Editing Mode. Once here, just click on Enable to turn it on.
To test things out, you can Right-click to select a vertex in your mesh, and use the G key to move it around. You should see nearby vertices being pulled along with it. Rolling your MouseWheel up or down will increase/decrease the radius of the proportional pull. Remember, to get out of the current action you can just hit the ESC key on your keyboard to exit without making any changes.
If you really screw up and accidentally make a mess of your mesh, it’s easy to get back to the base mesh again. Just hit Tab to get out of Edit mode, then in the Shape Keys panel you can hit the “−” button to remove that shape key. Just don’t forget to hit “+” again to add another key back when you want to try again.
Blender lets you control where the current pivot point of any modifications you make to the mesh should be. By default it will be the median point of all selected objects, which is fine. You may occasionally want to specify where the point of rotation should be manually.
The button for adjusting the pivot point is in the toolbar of the 3D View. I’ll usually only use Median Point or 3D Cursor when I’m doing these. Remember: Left-clicking the mouse in 3D View will set the cursor location. You can leave it at Median Point for now.
Ok, now we can actually get to the animating of the mesh. We need to decide what we’d like the mesh to look like it’s doing first, though. For this tutorial let’s do a couple of simple animations to get a feel for how the system works. I’m going to focus on changing two things.
First we will rotate the womans head slightly down from it’s base position and second we will rotate her arm down slightly as well.
Remember: hit the ESC key if you need to cancel out of any operation without applying anything. Go ahead and rotate the head down a bit until you like how it looks. When you get it where you’d like it, just Left-click the mouse to set the rotation. Subtle is the name of the game here. Try small movements at first!
If you end up selecting a couple of vertices you don’t want, remember that you can Shift + Right-click to toggle adding/removing vertices to the selection set. For example, in my image above I didn’t want to select any vertices that were too close to her face to avoid warping it too much. I also went ahead and made sure to select as many vertices around the arm as I could.
I also Left-click in the location you see in my screenshot to place the cursor roughly at her shoulder. For the arm I also changed the Pivot Point to be the 3D Cursor because I want the arm to pivot at a natural location.
Again, hit the R key to begin rotating the arm. If you find the rotation pulls vertices from too far away and modifies them, scroll your mousewheel to decrease the radius of the proportional editing. In my example I had the radius of influence down very low to avoid warping the womans face too much.
As before, rotate to where you like it, and Left-click the mouse when you’re happy.
Finally, you can test how the overall mesh modifications will look with your Shape Key. Hit the Tab key to get out of Edit Mode and back into Object Mode. All of your mesh modifications should snap back to what they were before you changed anything.
The Value slider for the shape key is 0 right now. If you click and drag in this slider you can change the influence of this key from 0 - 1. As you change the value you should be seeing your woman mesh deform from it’s base position at 0, up to it’s fully deformed state at 1. Neat!
Once we’re happy with our mesh modifications, we can now move on to animating the sequence to see how things look!
So what we now want to do is to animate two different things over the course of time in the video. First we want to animate the mesh deformation we just created with Shape Keys, and second we want to animate the movement of the camera through our scene.
What we are going to do is to set keyframes for our camera and mesh at the beginning and end of our animation timeline (1-250 by default).
We should already be on the first frame by default, so let’s set the camera keyframe now. In the 3D View, Right-click on the camera border to select it (will highlight when selected). Once selected, hit the I key to bring up the keyframe menu.
You’ll see all of the options that you can keyframe here. The one we are interested in is the first, Location. Click it in the menu. This tells Blender that at frame 1 in our animation, the camera should be located at this position.
Once position, hit the I key again and set a Location keyframe.
At this point, if you wanted to preview what the animation would look like you can press Alt-A to preview the animation so far (hit ESC when you’re done).
Just like with the camera, now jump back to the last frame in the range. Then set the value slider for the Shape Keys to 1.000. Then Right-click on the Value slider again, and insert another keyframe.
This tells Blender to start the animation with no deformation on the mesh, and at the end to transition to full deformation according to the Shape Key. Conveniently Blender will calculate all of the vertices locations between the two for us for a smooth transition.
As before, now try hitting Alt-A to preview the full animation.
The main settings you’ll want to adjust here are the resolution X & Y and the frame rate. I rendered out at 1280×720 at 100% and Frame Rate of 30 fps. Change your settings as appropriate.
If you scroll down the Render panel you’ll find the options for changing the Output. The first option allows you to choose where you’d like the output file to get rendered to (I normally just leave it as /tmp - it will be C:\tmp in windows). I also change the output format to a movie rendering type. In my screenshot it shows “H.264”, by default it will probably show “PNG”. Change it to H.264.
Once changed, you’ll see the Encoding panel become available just below it. For this test you can just click on the Presets spinner and choose H264 there as well.
Scroll back up to the top of the Render panel, and hit the big Animation button in the top center (see the previous screenshot).
Holy crap, we made it to the end. That was really, really long.
I promise, though, that it just reads long. If you’re comfortable moving around in Blender and understand the process this takes about 10-15 minutes to do once you get your planes isolated.
Well, that’s about it. I hope this has been helpful, and that I didn’t muck anything up too badly. As always, I’d love to see others results!
[Update] Reader David notes in the comments that if the render results look a little ‘soft’ or ‘fuzzy’, increasing the Anti-Aliasing size can help sharpen things up a bit (it’s located on the render panel just below render dimensions). Thanks for the tip David!
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2019-04-22T21:56:22Z
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https://patdavid.net/2014/02/25d-parallax-animated-photo-tutorial.html
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Autoimmunity is the underlying cause of more than 100 serious, chronic illnesses, targeting women 75 percent of the time.
Arthritic conditions commonly present with joint swelling, pain, stiffness and decreased range of motion. Each of these symptoms can fluctuate in severity, frequency, and duration. Chronic pain can contribute to a decline in daily activities and quality of life. Some types of arthritis also affect the heart, eyes, lungs, kidneys and skin as well as the joints.
Medical treatment for mild or moderate arthritic conditions can include: oral medications, physical therapy, rest balanced with exercise, a healthy diet with weight management and avoiding excessive repetitive movements.
We treat many types of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions with biologic medications at ARISE infusion therapy centers.
Ankylosing Spondylitis is a rare autoimmune disorder affecting between 0.2 – 0.5 % of the general US population. It belongs to a group of diseases known as spondyloarthopathies. Spondyloarthropathies and Ankylosing Spondylitis in particular are more commonly seen in men between the ages of 20 and 40, although they can affect anyone regardless of age or gender.
AS, is a form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine, although other joints can be involved. This disease is due to Inflammation, more commonly with the spinal joints (vertebrae) develop that can lead to severe, chronic pain and discomfort. It is not a mechanical form of arthritis. In more advanced cases this inflammation can lead to ankylosis — new bone formation in the spine — causing sections of the spine to fuse in a fixed, immobile position.
In a minority of individuals, pain does not start in the lower back, or even the neck, but in a peripheral joint such as the hip, ankle, elbow, knee, heel, or shoulder. This pain is commonly caused by enthesitis, inflammation of the site where a ligament or tendon attaches to bone.
Diagnosing disorders like AS can prove especially challenging as there are limited blood tests and imaging studies that can effectively evaluate patients with the condition. HLA B27 testing can be helpful in identifying those patients with back pain who may be at an increased risk of developing AS, and X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help to look for joint damage associated with inflammation. Rheumatologists use a combination of blood tests, imaging studies, and your clinical history to arrive at a diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis, and once the diagnosis is established he / she will help to determine appropriate therapy.
Use of anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDS) and biologic medications which can be given as an infusion or an injection.
Gout is an ancient disease, with its earliest descriptions dating to the time of Hippocrates. It is a painful affliction of the joints caused by deposits of crystals derived from uric acid. There are few disorders as painful as gout, turning those in the throes of an acute attack into a state of helplessness.
Early on in the course of this disease, flare-ups occur infrequently, last a week or so, and resolve on their own or with the help of medications that fight inflammation.
Over time, attacks become more frequent, last longer and involve an increasing number of joints. Eventually, if not controlled, gout sufferers may develop persistent joint pain, swelling, deformity and disability. In the most severe cases, lumps composed of crystalline uric acid form on the joints and in other tissues. These lumps, called tophi, can be quite disfiguring and may interfere with ordinary joint function.
The management of gout involves two important steps.
The first is to control the severe attacks by inhibiting inflammation with medications like colchicine, ibuprofen or naproxen.
The second, as attacks become more frequent, is to mobilize and eliminate the uric acid derived crystals from the joints and surrounding tissues. In essence, first fix the pain and then clear the body of excess amounts of uric acid.
In rare cases, patients may need intravenous treatment with a uric acid lowering agent called pegloticase (Krystexxa). Working with a rheumatologist is the best way to determine the right therapy for patients with gout.
Additional information about gout can be found Here.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus, is a systemic autoimmune condition that can affect any part of the body. Autoimmune conditions are illnesses that occur when the body’s cells and tissues are attacked by its own immune system resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. Patients with lupus produce abnormal antibodies in their blood targeting tissues (autoantibodies) as opposed to foreign infectious agents.
Patients present with a myriad of complaints and symptoms; it can affect the skin, heart, lungs, kidneys, joints, and/or nervous system. When localized to the skin, without internal disease, it is called discoid lupus. Only when internal organs are involved is the condition referred to as systemic lupus erythematosus.
Lupus is predominantly a disease of women. It may present at any age, although its peak incidence is during the childbearing years, between 15 and 45, at which time the female-to- male ratio climbs, reaching a peak ratio of approximately 12 :1. It occurs worldwide, although it is likely under-recognized and under- diagnosed in developing countries.
In the U.S., lupus is most prevalent among those of non-caucasian descent, with those of African heritage most affected.
Poor circulation to the fingers and toes with cold exposure (Raynaud’s phenomenon).
Complications may occur depending on the organ affected and the severity of the disease. Given its heterogeneous presentation, no single test can confirm and establish its diagnosis. A physician who specializes in lupus (rheumatologist) will evaluate the patient and make this clinical diagnosis.
Lupus is a chronic condition, and there is no cure yet available. However, in many cases patients can achieve remission of symptoms with prompt, appropriate treatment. Currently, there are both oral and intravenous therapies for lupus, all of which serve to control the body’s overactive immune response. Rheumatologists and patients work together to determine appropriate therapy based on the individual’s symptoms.
Additional information about lupus can be found Here.
On average, psoriatic arthritis affects about 30% of patients who have psoriasis and generally occurs about 9 to 10 years after the onset of psoriasis. Often the diagnosis is delayed because patients with psoriasis are not aware that arthritis can develop as a result of their skin disease. Even some health care professionals are not aware of all the potential complications that can occur in patients with psoriasis. A delay in diagnosis is problematic because studies have shown that damage to the joints can occur in some patients when appropriate treatment is not started promptly.
Psoriatic arthritis is an autoimmune disorder, unlike osteoarthritis which develops primarily as a result of “wear and tear” on the joints. This means that, as with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the immune system erroneously attacks the joints causing inflammation and damage. However, psoriatic arthritis falls into a group of disorders that is distinct from RA, known as the “seronegative spondyloarthropathies” or SPA, which share similar or overlapping features.
This group includes psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, and reactive arthritis (arthritis that occurs secondary to an infection such as food poisoning or bacterial infection). These disorders share some genetic and clinical features, and may share some biologic characteristics that lead to their development.
The diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis is based on symptoms and findings in the musculoskeletal system of a patient with current or past psoriasis or a family history of psoriasis. Joint symptoms typically include swelling, redness and warmth of a few or many joints, often in an asymmetric fashion.
What is frequently different about psoriatic arthritis when compared to RA is prominent involvement of tendons and “entheses,” the area where a tendon or ligament attaches to bone. “Enthesitis” is present in many common conditions such as tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis. When these problems are occurring repetitively or in a chronic, non-healing fashion in a patient with psoriasis, the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis should be considered.
Another common feature of psoriatic arthritis is dactylitis, often called “sausage digit.” This is a very painful and sometimes disabling problem which involves swelling of an entire finger or toe. We now know that dactylitis is due to swelling and inflammation of all the tissues within a digit including the joints, tendons, entheses and bone.
The spine can be involved in about 40 percent of patients, but it is rare for the spine to be the only area involved in psoriatic arthritis. Spine involvement is felt as inflammatory-type back pain. Inflammatory back pain is different than routine mechanical back pain in that it is slow as opposed to abrupt in onset, and gets better with activity and worse with rest. Inflammatory back pain frequently awakens sufferers from sleep at night.
Once the diagnosis is made, a patient’s condition is characterized as mild, moderate or severe based on disease activity assessed in all five areas of involvement in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). These areas include: the severity of skin disease, arthritis, back pain/spine involvement, dactylitis and enthesitis.
Psoriatic arthritis can also increase risk of cardiovascular complications (hypertension, heart attack and stroke).
Psoriatic arthritis is a potentially progressive disorder that not only can affect skin, joints, tendons and spine, but also can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Early recognition of this condition that allows appropriate treatment to begin is essential for relieving ongoing symptoms and possibly preventing future damage and disability.
Treatment is prescribed based on the severity of the disease, with milder therapies for mild cases and stronger medicines for severe disease that interferes with function.
Treatment may include non-medical interventions such as physical therapy and exercise. Weight loss is important for many patients with PsA, as increased weight has been shown to not only increase the risk of developing this disease, but also to decrease effectiveness of medicines.
Prescribed medications may include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen or naproxen), standard disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) such as sulfasalazine, methotrexate and leflunamide) and biologic therapies such as Enbrel, Humira, Remicade, Cimzia, Simponi, Stelara, Otezla and Cosentyx.
Biologic agents are medications that interfere with inflammatory activity in the body. These agents help with the symptoms of both psoriasis and arthritis and some may help stop progression of the disease. The possibility of serious side effects exists with these and all medications, and should be discussed carefully with a rheumatologist to fully understand the risks and benefits before starting any new therapy. New biologic agents are also in clinical trials and will be available for general use for psoriatic arthritis in the near future.
Additional information about psoriatic arthritis can be found here.
What exactly is rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and what can be done about it? Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common cause of autoimmune arthritis. It is characterized by inflammation in joints created by the immune system. Usually the immune system helps a person fight off infections, but in the case of RA, it attacks the joints and other tissues. The cause is unknown.
Joints of the hands and feet are most frequently stiff, sore and sometimes swollen. Other joints and the neck can be involved.
Symmetrical in body such as same finger on each hand.
Morning stiffness typically lasts at least a half hour.
Dry mouth and dry eye.
Sensations of pins & needles.
Hand bump on the finger or swelling.
Rheumatologists – physicians trained in musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases – can ask detailed questions and order lab tests, xrays and other tests if needed. This evaluation can distinguish RA from more common “mechanical” joint pains (wear and tear, injuries, and overuse) and other ailments such as lupus, fibromyalgia, gout, carpal tunnel syndrome, and Lyme disease.
There is no specific treatment that works best for everyone with rheumatoid arthritis, so the strategy is to “treat to target”. A doctor and patient will discuss the best initial therapy. Most often this will be a “DMARD” (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug). If RA has not improved enough once the drug has “kicked in”, then therapy can be augmented with other medicines. Several different kinds of medications can be used, ranging from pills to specialized home injections and in-office infusions. The process of getting RA under control may take 1 to 2 years; meanwhile anti-inflammatory treatments can help reduce pain and let people get back to their work, hobbies and lifestyle.
Overall, rheumatoid arthritis is a very treatable disease. Specialized medications used in a “treat to target” strategy can prevent joint damage and disability. But there is no known cure for RA. It is hoped that future clinical research will identify not only new medicines, but also tools to predict which treatments will work in each specific person, and when medications might be stopped without provoking the disease to recur.
Additional information regarding Rheumatoid Arthritis can be found Here.
Vasculitis literally means inflammation of the blood vessels. It is defined by the presence of inflammatory white blood cells in the vessel walls resulting in reactive damage and loss of vessel integrity which can lead to rashes, bleeding and tissue or organ damage. Vasculitis is a rare condition and can be a primary process, or secondary to another underlying disease or autoimmune condition. Vasculitis can affect people of any age, but some types occur more in certain age groups and ethnicities. Classically, they are categorized by the predominant sizes of the blood vessels that are affected, and also by the presence or absence of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), which can be detected with specific blood testing.
Large vessel vasculitidies include Takayasu Arteritis and Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA), or Temporal Arteritis (which occurs in about 15% of patients with Polymyalgia Rheumatica).
Medium sized vessel vasculitidies include Polyarteritis Nodosa (PAN), Kawasaki disease, and primary CNS Vasculitis.
Small vessel vasculitidies include Wegener’s (now named Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis or GPA), Microscopic Polyangiitis, Churg-Strauss.
Vasculitis can be secondary to conditions like Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis or occur after e exposure to medications, or infections like Hepatitis B and C, HIV, CMV, EBV and Parvovirus.
Diagnostic evaluation should consider age and gender, include a detailed history, including drug use, and infectious disease exposures. General labs should be obtained to identify which type of disorder is present and the degree of organ involvement if any.
Treatment depends on the nature, severity and type of vasculitis, as well as what organs are affected and to what degree they are affected. For example, in mild hypersensitivity vasculitis due to a drug, discontinuing the offending drug may be adequate, along with antihistamines and observation.
The goal of treatment is to induce remission, to minimize drug toxicity and to monitor for signs of recurrence.
You can find more information about vasculitis Here.
Behcet’s syndrome is a rare autoimmune condition. The cause is unknown, but in some cases it runs in families due to a genetic predisposition. Other contributing factors include infections and environmental exposures. The disease results in an attack of the immune system on mucosal surfaces, skin, joints, and blood vessels. Symptoms can include mouth and genital sores, rashes, joint pain and swelling, fever, and inflammation of the blood vessels, causing damage to organs. The inflammation of the blood vessels ranging from small arteries to large ones, as well as veins. Because of the diversity of vessels affected, this syndrome can manifest in numerous locations in the body.
A diagnosis is generally achieved by a thorough history, physical exam, and supporting lab work. In addition, there is sometimes supporting radiology studies or skin biopsies performed depending on the presenting symptoms.
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2019-04-25T03:01:14Z
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https://ariseinfusion.com/conditions-treated/arthritis-rheumatologic-conditions/
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Until the extension of the fisheries jurisdiction to 200 miles in 1976, the Icelandic fisheries were, for all intents and purposes, international and open-access fisheries. Large foreign fishing fleets featured prominently on the fishing grounds, taking almost half of the demersal catch. The extension of the fisheries jurisdiction to 200 miles all but eliminated foreign participation in the Icelandic fisheries. However, the initial management measures taken in the demersal fisheries following the extension of the fisheries jurisdiction in 1976 were inadequate and therefore did not alter the common-property nature of these fisheries as far as domestic fishers were concerned. They were still forced to compete for shares in the catch. Therefore not surprisingly, the development of the Icelandic fisheries in the post-war era closely followed the path predicted for common-property fisheries: exhibiting increasingly excessive capital and fishing effort relative to reproductive capacity of the fish stocks.
The value of fishing capital employed in the Icelandic fisheries increased by over 1400% from 1945-1983. Real catch values, on the other hand, only increased by 300% during the same period. Thus, the growth in fishing capital exceeded the increase in catch values by a factor of more than four, and, in 1983, the output-to-capital ratio in the Icelandic fisheries was less than one-third of the output-to-capital ratio in 1945. The post-war development of fishing capital and catch values since 1945 is illustrated in Figure 1.
This long-term decline in the economic performance of the Icelandic fisheries did not go unnoticed. With the de facto recognition of the exclusive 200-mile zone in 1976, the situation dramatically changed. The Icelandic fisheries gradually came under increased management until, after 1990, a uniform system of individual transferable quotas was instituted in practically all fisheries.
Due to an alarming decline in the stocks of herring (Clupea harengus), an overall quota in the form of a total allowable catch was imposed on this fishery in 1969. But since this did not halt the decline in the stocks' biomasses, a complete moratorium on herring was introduced in 1972. In 1975, when fishing on the Icelandic herring stocks was partly resumed, it was obvious that the whole fleet could not participate, and the rule of open-access for all vessels had to be abandoned. Hence, an individual vessel quota system with limited eligibility (licensing) was introduced. All vessels with a history of catching herring in the late 1960s and still in operation, were eligible for licensing. During the first years, each eligible vessel only received quota every other year. Vessel quotas were small and issued for a single season at a time. The quotas were determined annually by dividing the TAC by the total number of eligible vessels. In effect, the TAC was divided into two parts, a purse-seine TAC and TAC for vessels using other gears. The purse-seine vessels received the major part of the TAC, which was then divided into individual vessel quotas. The smaller part of the TAC became a common quota for all vessels catching herring with gear other than purse-seine, i.e. primarily drift-nets.
It soon became apparent that there was an economic need for quota transferability. Although formally non-transferable, quotas were being transferred by various measures. Therefore, spokesmen for the industry proposed that fairly unrestricted transfers of herring quotas between vessels be allowed. This was agreed to by the Ministry of Fisheries in 1979. Vessels using gear other than purse-seines continued to receive a common share of the TAC until 1985 when individual quotas were issued for those vessels as well. In 1986 the vessel quota system in the herring fishery was changed, such that all herring vessels were now subject to the same ITQ system and the quotas became permanent. The Fisheries Management Act of 1990 made the quota system in the herring fishery part of the general ITQ system.
The fishery for capelin (Mallotus villosus), which became a major fishery in the 1970s, was subjected to limited-entry and individual vessel quotas for licence holders in 1980, at a time when the stock was seriously threatened with overfishing. Again, a similar situation existed as for the herring fishery: too many vessels were catching capelin considering the TAC permitted for the stock. In the case of capelin the industry asked for the quota and licensing regulations. Owners of the bigger purse-seine vessels met in June 1980 and decided that they would ask the Ministry of Fisheries to limit entry into the capelin fishery and allot a quota to each licensed vessel. Only 52 vessels received a licence in 1980. The preceding year under open-access conditions there had been 68 vessels engaged in the capelin fishery. In 1986, capelin quotas became transferable. The capelin quota system became a part of the general ITQ system with the adoption of the Fisheries Management Act of 1990.
In connection with the extension of Iceland's exclusive fishing zone to 200 miles in 1976, the major demersal fisheries were subjected to overall catch quotas. The quotas recommended by the marine biologists soon proved quite restrictive and difficult to uphold. As a result, individual effort restrictions, taking the form of a limitation on the number of fishing days allowed for each vessel, were introduced in 1977. However because new vessel entry into the fishery remained possible, the demersal fleet continued to grow and the allowable fishing days had to be reduced from year to year. In 1977, deep-sea trawlers had been permitted to fish for cod (Gadus morhua) 323 days a year but in 1981 they were only allowed 215 days a year, despite a record catch. It gradually became obvious to everyone concerned that this system was economically wasteful and access needed to be restricted.
In 1984, following a sharp drop in biomass and catch levels of the demersal stock, especially for cod, a system of individual vessel quotas was introduced. The Fisheries Association of Iceland, a wide forum of all fishing industry participants, held its annual meeting on December 2 and 3. At the end of that meeting, after some heated discussion, a proposal was carried to ask the Ministry of Fisheries to try IQs for the demersal fisheries for one year, in 1984. The annual meeting of the Association of Vessel Owners had previously agreed to a similar proposal. On December 22, 1983, the Parliament passed an amendment to the Fisheries Act of 1976 which basically gave the Minister of Fisheries discretionary power to restrict entry through licensing and put a vessel quota system in place. In the Upper Chamber of Parliament, the amendment received only the minimum majority necessary: 11 of 20 MPs in support.
Because of the generally favourable results of the system, it was extended for 1985 and 1986-1987. However, in order to ensure sufficient political support for the system, an important provision was added: vessels were allowed to opt for effort restrictions instead of catch quotas. On 8 January 1988, the Icelandic Parliament enacted general vessel quota legislation that applied to all Icelandic demersal fisheries and was effective between 1988 and 1990. This legislation retained the effort quota option but made it somewhat less attractive.
The fisheries for inshore shrimp (Pandalus borealis), lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), and scallop (Chlamys islandica) are relatively recent additions to the Icelandic fisheries. They were largely developed during the 1960s and 1970s and, from the outset, have been subject to extensive management, primarily limited local entry and overall quotas. An overall TAC was set for the lobster fishery in 1973 with restrictions on the size of vessels and, subsequently, licensing and vessel quotas in 1984. Legislation regulating the processing and fishing of inshore shrimp and scallop was passed in 1975, giving the Ministry authority to issue quotas for these fisheries to the processors. There are seven inshore shrimp areas, each having regulations specific to it. The Ministry would set a TAC for each area and then allocate shares to each shrimp-processing plant in an area. The Ministry would also decide on the total number of vessels that could catch the shrimp in the area and licence those vessels for the fishery. In deciding the total number of licences the Ministry would also decide on the maximum daily catch and maximum weekly catch for each vessel. In addition the Ministry decided on the allowable size of vessels and the appropriate gear. The processing plants would then allocate quotas to vessels that would catch their share of the shrimp quota. In 1988, the deep-sea shrimp fishery also became subject to vessel quotas. The management of shrimp and scallop fisheries became part of the general ITQ system with the Fisheries Management Act of 1990.
The management system is based on individual transferable quotas and is therefore appropriately referred to as an ITQ system. The essential features of the current ITQ system are as follows: all fisheries within the EEZ and some outside are subject to vessel catch quotas. The quotas represent shares in the total allowable catch. They are permanent, perfectly divisible and transferable and they are issued subject to a small annual charge to cover enforcement costs. The ITQ system is uniform across the various fisheries. However, slight differences between the fisheries exist, mostly for historical reasons. This system is based on the Fisheries Management Act of 1990 with subsequent modifications.2 It applies to all fish stocks within the Icelandic EEZ for which a TAC is necessary. Since 1997 it also applies to fish stocks outside the Icelandic EEZ in which Iceland has national fishing rights. This includes the deep-sea redfish (Sebastes spp) just outside the Icelandic EEZ, the Atlanto-Scandian herring, the deep-sea shrimp on the Flemish cap, and cod in the Norwegian EEZ and the Russian EEZ.
It should be noted that the ITQ system was superimposed on an earlier management system designed mainly for the protection of juvenile fish. This system involving certain restrictions on gear, area and fish size is still largely in place. The ITQ system has not replaced these components of the earlier fisheries management system.
The Ministry of Fisheries determines the TAC for each of the most important domestic stocks. This decision is made on the basis of recommendations from the Marine Research Institute (MRI), which has its own vessels that are used to study the state of the fish stocks. In addition, the MRI relies on information from the fishers. In recent years the Ministry of Fisheries has followed the recommendations of the Marine Research Institute quite closely. The cod fishery plays a substantial role in the Icelandic economy, and therefore not surprisingly, successive governments had been reluctant to curtail the TACs for cod in accordance with the recommendations of the MRI. Only in the 1990s has the Ministry followed this advice and even stood firm on that decision despite political pressure, even from within the government. In 1995 a TAC-rule, which sets the TAC for cod at 25% of the fishable stock, was established.
Currently 19 species are subject to ITQs. They include: eleven demersal species: cod, haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), saithe (Pollachius virens), redfish, Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides), plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), wolffish (Anarhichas lupus), dab (Limanda limanda), long rough dab (Hippoglossoides platessoides), lemon sole (Microstomus kitt) and witch (Glyptocephalus cynoglossus); two pelagic species, the Icelandic herring and capelin; as well as deep-sea and inshore shrimp, lobster and scallops. Together these species account for over 90% of the landed value of the catch. In addition, Icelandic vessels in the deep-sea redfish fishery, the shrimp fishery on the Flemish Cap, and the Atlanto-Scandian herring fishery, are subject to ITQs. Several species on which fishing pressure is regarded as slight are not currently subject to TAC.3 This means that the corresponding fisheries can be pursued freely by all licensed vessels, but they are, in most cases, commercially negligible. Iceland's TAC in shared stocks is annually decided in the appropriate international forum. Currently four major international fisheries are managed on this basis.
Each eligible vessel is issued a permanent share in the TAC for every species for which there is a TAC. These permanent quota shares may be referred to as TAC shares.
The size of each vessel's annual catch entitlement (ACE) in a specific fishery is a simple multiple of the TAC for that fishery and the vessel's TAC share. In some fisheries, such as those for capelin and inshore shrimp, the management periods are seasonal, rather than a whole year. The same rule nevertheless applies. While the TAC share is a percentage, annual catch entitlements are denominated in terms of volume (i.e. tonnes).
The Icelandic demersal fishery is a mixed-stock fishery and vessels are bound to catch of species other than the major one they wish to target. The ITQs (or TAC shares) are, therefore, also denominated in terms of cod-equivalents, as the cod-fishery is the most important fishery in Iceland.
Both the TAC shares and the ACEs are fairly freely transferable and perfectly divisible. TAC shares are transferable without any restrictions whatsoever. Any fraction of a given quota may be transferred to another vessel subject only to registration by the Fisheries Directorate. The particulars of the exchange, including price, are not registered. Table 1 shows the development of TAC shares in the period 1991-1998.
The transfer of ACEs are subject to some restrictions. First, the Fisheries Directorate must agree to transfer of all ACE between geographical regions. The rationale for this stipulation is to stabilize local employment in the short run and prevent speculation in quotas. In practice, however, it appears that few inter-regional transfers are actually blocked. Transfer of ACEs became subject to further restrictions in 1992 and 1994 when the Parliament amended the Fisheries Management Act of 1990. These amendments were designed to further discourage speculative quota holdings. The constraints were, however, relatively insignificant. Further restrictions came into effect in 1998: up to only 50% of all ACE is freely tradeable between vessels under different ownership in exchange for money. However, the offsetting of transfers of different species with equal value is not subject to any such restrictions. Further, as vessel owners are not allowed to include the crew share in the cost of quota purchases, all ACE transfers, as of 1998/99, have to take place at an official Quota Trade Exchange.
Table 2 shows transfers of ACE in 1992-1998. Note that the reduction in ACE transfers in 1998/99 may reflect the impact of the new restrictions introduced in 1988 and the impact of the Quota Trade Exchange.
1 These quotas are measured in cod equivalents and represent temporary annual quota (gross) transfers only.
2 Type A: Transfers between vessels with the same owner.
Type C: Offsetting transfers of different species with equal value between vessels with different owners.
Type D: Transfers between vessels with different owners operated from different ports.
There is one minor exemption from the current ITQ system: in the demersal fisheries, hook-and-line fisheries by vessels under six GRT are exempted from quota restrictions, but are subject instead to limited fishing days and an overall TAC. Although this arrangement was to end in 1994, the exemption was extended though the number fishing days was reduced. Under the 1996 amendment to the Fisheries Management Act these vessels now choose between a cod-share quota system and a cod-effort restriction system (maximum number of allowable fishing days). As a group, they receive a 13.75% share of the general TAC for cod.
Economic theory suggests that the efficiency of an ITQ system stems from its creation of private property in harvesting rights ( e.g. Scott 1988, 1996; Arnason 1995b, 1999; Libecap 1989). This suggests that the higher the quality of this property right in terms of permanence, exclusivity, and transferability, the greater will be the resulting efficiency of the ITQ system (see Scott 1988, 1989 for more details). ITQs are, of course, imperfect property rights. An ITQ is a harvesting right and not property in the fish stock. They are, therefore, different from what is commonly referred as property rights on land. As pointed out by Hannesson (1994), ITQs are comparable to a right to extract a certain quantity of timber from a given forest or the right to harvest a certain number of deer from a given population. Although this may give the necessary incentives to cut the timer and catch the deer in efficient ways, it may not be suitable for the optimal husbandry of the forest or the population of deer.
Article 1 of the Fisheries Management Act of 1990 states that the fish stocks in Icelandic waters are the common property of the Icelandic people. It further states that the allocation of ITQs to individual firms and vessels does not give irrevocable property rights in these TAC shares. Alas, this Article has created uncertainty concerning the permanence and exclusivity of the ITQs and has undermined its economic effectiveness.
As a result, the quality of the property rights of Icelandic ITQs is substantially reduced. Thus Arnason (1999) finds that on a scale of zero to one, the quality of the Icelandic ITQ property right is only about 0.7, considerably less than the quality of the New Zealand ITQ right.
The initial allocation of TAC shares to individual vessels varies somewhat between fisheries. The general policy behind issuing quotas has always been to distribute the quotas in a "fair" way, when it was recognized that a TAC had to be set and entry in the fishery had to be limited.
Eligibility and the method for deciding on allocations have always been done in close cooperation with the parties concerned, i.e. the government, the vessel owners and the fishermen. In the demersal fisheries, for example, after the Parliament had changed the necessary legislation in December 1983 (a change that was based on the proposals of the Fisheries Association and the Association of Vessel Owners) a committee was formed to develop specific regulations for the quota system. The committee was comprised of representatives of government, vessel owners and fishermen. The committee was assisted in its task by the staff at the Ministry of Fisheries and the Fisheries Association. In January 1984 the committee published its proposals and the Ministry, with only minor changes in the proposals, issued regulations in February for the demersal fishery for 1984. Included in the regulations was the formation of an appeals committee comprising three members, one each from the Ministry, the Association of Vessel Owners, and the Association of Fishermen.
The general rule for eligibility to receive quota in a given fishery has been that a vessel had to demonstrate a catch history in that fishery. In the demersal fisheries the initial allocation was equal to the vessel's average share in the total catch during the three years prior to the introduction of the ITQ system in 1984. However there were noteworthy exceptions to this rule: if for instance, the vessel in question was not operating normally during the period from 1981 to 1983 (for instance because of major repairs, or had entered the fleet after 1981) the calculated share was adjusted upwards. Several vessel-owners, based on these issues complained about their initial quota shares in 1984, and the appeals committee made several changes. During the years 1985-1987 it was possible to modify the TAC shares by temporarily opting for effort restrictions instead of vessel quotas, and by demonstrating high catches during this period.
In the lobster and deep-sea shrimp fisheries the shares of the TACs are also normally based on the vessel's historical catch recorded during certain base years. In the herring and inshore shrimp fisheries the initial TAC shares were equal for all eligible vessels. The same held for the capelin fishery, except that a third of the TAC shares were initially allocated on the basis of vessel hold-capacity. The general rule now, is to issue TAC shares in new fisheries to vessels on the basis of the catch record of the three previous years.
As discussed earlier, the allocation of quota rights in Iceland took place at different times in different fisheries. As new fisheries have been brought under the ITQ regime, new quota allocations have taken place. Moreover, even in established ITQ fisheries, quota allocations have been subject to modifications. In the demersal fisheries, for instance, the allocation of quota rights was not a once-and-for-all affair but an extended process, due to the impact of the effort option between 1985 and 1990, and the gradual inclusion of segments of the small artisanal fleet into the ITQ system during 1991-1998. Thus, the allocation of quota rights in the Icelandic fisheries is a process that, though begun in 1975, is still going on. This prolonged period of quota allocations immediately suggests a certain difficulty in identifying and even discussing policy objectives of initial allocations in a useful way.
Broadly speaking, the initial allocation, of quotas have taken place at the time quota systems in the various fisheries were introduced. It is also broadly true that on those occasions the policy objectives for the particular allocation selected, if they existed at all, were not stated. On reviewing the discussion at the times the most significant steps in the allocation of ITQ rights occurred (i.e. 1975, 1979/80, 1984 and 1990) it emerged that the overriding concern in all cases was to improve the operating conditions and economic efficiency of the fleets in question. Concluding in each case that the way to go was IQs and ITQs, the question of quota allocation was simply settled by whatever the main interested parties, primarily the vessel owners, fishermen and regional representatives, could agree on.
This suggests that policy objectives in the sense of well defined goals were not a part of this procedure. It was more like a balancing of the various (largely similar) interests. In most cases the agreement was to allocate quotas on the basis of retaining historical catch shares, thus suggesting that the overall consensus may have been to (a) respect historical rights and (b) avoid rapid, radical changes in the distribution of catch across regions and vessels.
In retrospect it is very clear that the main objective of increased economic efficiency has been achieved. Moreover, historical rights have been largely respected and the reallocation of catch via quota trades across regions and vessels has been a fairly slow moving, smooth process. Thus the two allocation objectives have also been achieved.
First, it is important to realize that there is no hard data available on the views of rights-holders (or others) about the `process'. There are no reliable studies on this issue. Therefore what follows merely represents our impression.
It is useful here to distinguish between two groups of fishermen: vessel-owners on the one hand, and fishing labour on the other. As the quotas are associated with vessels, fishing labour are not rights-holders. Both parties were reasonably happy with the allocation at the outset of each ITQ system. Today, vessel-owners, broadly speaking, continue to be happy with the process. This is to be expected: they were the recipients of considerable asset appreciation in the form of quota price increases. There is only a certain amount of dissatisfaction among those who sold their quotas prematurely, i.e. before they reached the current value. The only identifiable group of vessel-owners that seems to be partly critical of the quota allocation process are the small vessel-owners, especially those who entered the system later and do not hold quotas. These, however, represent a small part of the overall fishery.
Today, a subset of fishing labour appears critical of the quota allocations, especially those fishermen whose vessels have reduced their quota holdings, and those fishermen who are in the position of having to participate in the cost of quota purchases at the insistence of the owner of their vessel.
The caveat regarding lack of reliable data (in Section 5.2) applies even more to this section. Community groups outside the fishing industry were not involved in the initial allocation of quota rights in the various fisheries and did not seem interested in the process. During the past few years, more precisely in the 1990s, the sharing of the quota rents has become a significant topic in Icelandic political debate. While this debate is mostly concerned about reallocating quota rents by the means of taxes and does not necessarily question the appropriateness of the initial allocation, this unavoidably enters into the discussion. Therefore, it does not seem far from the truth to say that the various community groups, or more appropriately, the large part of the general public, now questions the fairness of the initial allocation of the quotas. However, perhaps it is not so much the fairness of the allocation itself - most people seem to realize that the vessel owners should be the ones to actually operate the fishery - but the allocation of the quotas without any provision for quota fees.
One particular class of community groups should be singled out in this respect: the inhabitants of fishing villages and towns from which quotas have been transferred. These are typically critical of the initial allocation of quotas and often suggest that their community should receive (or have received) its own local quota.
Should rights have been allocated differently, given hind-sight? In general the answer would be no. No other course was really feasible at the time. It has to be remembered that, at the time IQs and ITQs were introduced in the various fisheries, the fisheries were usually in crisis and there had to be substantial cutbacks in TACs.
Drawn attention to, and provided more information on, the long-term financial implications of the initial quota allocation.
Defined the quota asset (right) in such a way that later concerns about equity and fair distribution could be more easily dealt with.
Assuming that the efficiency aspects of the ITQ system must not be compromised, this, of course, implies two diametrically opposite approaches: (a) provisions for a later taxation of the quota right and (b), unqualified property right protection for the quotas.
Arnason, R. 1994. On Catch Discarding in Fisheries. Marine Resource Economics 9, 189-207.
Arnason, R. 1995a. The Icelandic Fisheries: Evolution and management of a fishing industry. Oxford: Fishing News Books.
Arnason, R. 1995b. The ITQ Fisheries Management System: Advantages and Disadvantages. In: Johansen, S.T.F., (ed.) Nordiske Fiskerisamfund I Fremtiden. Kobenhaven: Nord, 43-70.
Arnason, R. 1996a. On the ITQ fisheries management system in Iceland. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 6, 63-90.
Arnason, Ragnar 1996b. Property Rights as an Organizational Framework in Fisheries: The Case of Six Fishing Nations, In: Crowley, B.L. (ed.) Taking Ownership; Property Rights and Fishery Management on the Atlantic Coast. 99-144. Halifax: Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.
Arnason, R. 2000. Property Rights as a Means of Economic Organization In: Shotton, R. (ed.) Use of Property Rights in Fisheries Management. Proceedings of the FishRights99 Conference, Fremantle, Australia, 11-19 November 1999. Mini-course lectures and Core Conference presentations. FAO Fish. Tech Pap. 404/1 pp14-25.
Crowley, B.L. (ed.) 1996. Taking Ownership; Property Rights and Fishery Management on the Atlantic Coast. Halifax: Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.
Gissurarson, H. and R. Arnason, (eds.) 1999. Individual Transferable Quotas, in Theory and Practice, Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press.
Hannesson, R. 1994. Trends in Fishery Management. In: Loyayza E.A. (ed.) Managing Fishery Resources, World Bank Discussion Papers 217.
Runolfsson, B. 1997. The Icelandic System of ITQs: Its Nature and Performance. In: Gissuarson H. and R. Arnason (eds.) Individual Transferable Quotas in Theory and Practice. Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press.
Scott, A. 1988. Conceptual Origins of Rights Based Fishing. In: Neher, P.A., R. Arnason and N. Mollett (eds.) Rights Based Fishing. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Scott, A. 1996. The ITQ as a Property Right: Where It Came From, How It Works, and Where It Is Going. In: Crowley, B.L. (ed.) Taking Ownership: Property Rights and Fisheries Management on the Atlantic Coast. 31-98. Halifax: Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.
1 The Fisheries Management Act of 1990 has been amended almost every year since it came into effect (i.e. in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999).
2 The Icelandic fisheries were also subject to restricted access. All commercial fishing vessels had to hold valid fishing licences, in addition to catch quotas. Fishing licences moreover, were issued only to vessels already in the fishery in 1990 and their replacements, provided they were deemed comparable in terms of fishing power. The fishing licences were only transferable with the vessels. In December 1998 the Supreme Court reached a decision on a case, concerning an application by an individual for a commercial fishing licence. The Ministry of Fisheries had declined the application and a lower court had decided the Ministry had grounds for the refusal on the basis of the Fisheries Management Act of 1990. Article 5 of this legislation stated that only vessels already in the fishery at the time of the legislation could receive licences. The Supreme Court found the article unconstitutional, on the grounds that it provided for unequal treatment of citizens. The Parliament passed legislation in January 1999 to rectify the Fisheries Management Act. All registered vessels may now apply for commercial fishing licences. Access is therefore not restricted anymore. Note, however, to fish TAC-controlled species also requires possession of a quota allotment.
3 In addition Iceland receives a share in the TAC for cod in the Norwegian EEZ and the Russian EEZ. These were allocated to Icelandic vessels as ITQs in 1999.
4 The uncertainty and insecurity of the property rights in ITQs also created problems for tax authorities and the banks. The tax authorities were uncertain whether a vessel-quota should be regarded as an asset on the firm's books or if expenditures on quotas should be regarded as outlays that are deductible from taxable income. When the tax authorities and the Ministry of Finance could not agree on the rules it was left for the courts to decide the matter. The courts decided that transfer of ACEs would be treated as taxable outlay while transfers of TAC shares would be treated as assets and depreciated over 5 years. Allocated quotas, whether annual or shares, were not subject to these tax rules and were treated as non-taxable. In 1997 the Parliament passed legislation whereby depreciation of TAC was abolished gradually through the year 2000. The banks had been unsure whether a vessel's quota should be regarded as part of the vessel's equity (value) when a vessel is put up as collateral for a bank loan. Both the Parliament and the courts agreed that quotas were not to be regarded as the property of a vessel owner, and were, therefore, not a legitimate collateral for loans. The Parliament passed legislation in 1997 that clarified this issue. Vessel owners and banks have, however, figured out ways to circumvent this: for example, a bank may make a loan on the condition that it must approve of any transfers of TAC shares.
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I studied in depth how to be successful in my PhD applications and it paid off: I got admitted to Stanford, University of Washington, UCL, CMU, and NYU. This blog post is a mish-mash of how to proceed in your PhD applications from A to Z. It discusses what is important and what is not. It discusses application materials like the statement of purpose (SoP) and how to make sense of these application materials.
There are some excellent sources out there on this topic and it is worth stopping for a second and understand what this blog post will give you and what other sources can give you. This blog post is mainly focused on PhD applications for deep learning and related fields like natural language processing, computer vision, reinforcement learning, and other sub-fields of deep learning. This blog post assumes that you already have a relatively strong profile, meaning you probably have already one or multiple publications under your belt and you worked with more than one person on research. This blog post is designed to help you optimize your chance for success for top programs.
If you seek more general information for PhD admissions, I recommend reading all the most highly voted questions and answers from Academia StackExchange. Other important sources are Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science which is a detailed write-up of the full admission process as viewed by CMU faculty. A similar but more concise source — in particular, relevant for good but not strong candidates — is the blog post Reflecting on CS Graduate Admissions which is again by CMU faculty. Less useful, but a quick read is the negative view of How to Write a Bad Statement for a Computer Science Ph.D. Admissions Application.
This blog post will first define what is important in PhD applications. Then we will dive into the application materials and how to think about these. Then I will talk a bit about the application process. The final section of the main part of this blog post will be on selecting schools — which schools are too good or too bad for me? After that, I will close with a Q&A section which was drawn from questions on Twitter. I will update this Q&A section periodically. If you have some questions regarding the application process, please leave a comment and I try to get back to you.
Recommendations: Respected professors speak highly of you. Personal connections are important.
Research experience: You did successful research before. Measured in publications, first-authorship, and prestige of conference where you published.
Undergraduate university name: Some universities select aggressively for this, some others do not care so much.
Employer name: It is common that students are admitted that were previously employed in finance or at companies such as Google, Facebook, etcetera.
Smarts: Perfect GPA, perfect GRE is somewhat correlated with intelligence (or at least with how fast you can learn and understand).
Grit / Conscientiousness: You do well under continuous rejection, disappointment, and failure. If you faced and have overcome difficulties you might want to include your story in the statement of purpose.
Accomplishment: You won Math or CS competitions.
Recognition: You won prestigious scholarships/fellowships.
Good at math or engineering: You developed or contributed to open source projects. You worked with research code.
For recommendation letters, one could devise four categories: Strong, Good, Weak, and Bad. Note that the main thing that admission committees look for in recommendation letters are indicators of research potential. This section has the main purpose of making you aware of what constitutes a good or strong letter and based on this information it might be easier for you to select letter writers.
Your letter writer knows you and writes bad things about you. Especially in the US anything even slightly critical is very bad.
Your letter writer does not know you (you had a class with her but you left no impression).
Your letter is short and only states that you did well in class.
Your letter writer knows you from class only.
Your letter writer is favorable, but can only write about achievements in class: Great project work in class; part of lively, interesting discussions in class.
The letter writer does not comment on your research.
The letter writer is not known by the admission committee nor by potential advisors.
The name of the letter writer is known by parts of the admission committee.
The letter writer’s name and work are known by at least one potential advisor mentioned in the statement of purpose.
The letter writer worked with you on research.
The letter writer mentions your excellent research abilities in anecdotes that demonstrate your creativity, commitment, persistence and research skills in general.
The letter writer writes about how you published your research.
The letter writer comments about research done outside of her lab.
US-style recommendation letter: The achievements are oozing through the paper. Everything is very much overdone, that is simple things become grand achievements.
The letter writer has an excellent command of English.
The letter writer is personally known by at least one potential advisor mentioned in the statement of purpose.
The letter writer is known for making excellent recommendations (previously recommended students do very well).
The letter writer mentions your abilities which help indirectly with research (engineering skills, presentation skills, interpersonal skills) and wraps these skills into anecdotes.
Anecdotes are important because the show that the letter writer really knows you. They also read much better. Stories are more interesting than checklists.
The letter does not need to contain everything listed here to be considered “bad” or “strong” and so forth. Recommendation letters are complicated.
If you select recommendation letters it can make sense to have some diversity among letters that highlight different strengths. One strong letter on research skills, a good letter on engineering skills (internship), and a good letter on performance in class/project work is a great combination. This combination is better than a strong letter on research, a good letter on research, and a weak letter on research.
Please see more details about the process of asking about recommendation letters below.
Publications are direct evidence for research experience and research skill. If you published as a first author, people know that you did most of the work. If you published as a second author, people know that you did a good portion of the work (25%-50%). If your name is the third or later, your contribution is discounted, but you probably went through the entire research process towards publication and gained a good amount of research experience. If you published a couple of first author papers a third author paper looks very good: It shows that you can work in a team.
If you published your work at a respectable conference, people know that: (1) Your work is high quality; (2) your work can be trusted; (3) that your current research skills is sufficient to publish at great conferences, (4) that you are competitive and/or you can stay productive under the pressure of publishing at a top conference.
It helps to view this in the eyes of a potential advisor: If you have two students, one published already at NeurIPS (Tier A) and one you published at a Tier B conference. You would know that the first student is probably ready to work on a research project which is aiming for NeurIPS next year. The second student would need further preparation, for example, publish in a workshop or at a less competitive Tier A conference before making the step towards NeurIPS. With the second student, there is some risk that this student might take more than a year to acquire the research skills to needed to publish at Tier A conferences. Pushing a student towards NeurIPS can be stressful for an advisor and it is easier to work with someone who already has the necessary research skills. If there is less stress between advisor and student then its easier to develop a strong professional relationship which makes it easier and fun to work with each other. So a potential advisor would have good reasons to select according to the prestige of the conference where you published at.
Other indicators have little effect on the application. Your work might be unusually creative, but you have no track record that you are a creative researcher. Maybe you got lucky.
The importance of publications often only emerges with the years. Often you published shortly before the PhD applications which means that the citations that you have on your work is a poor indicator of impact. If you get an usually high number of citations in a short time this can help, but maybe you just got lucky or good at marketing. Usually, the number of citations over the past 1-3 years is no reliable indicator of research potential and as such is disregarded. If you have a citation history over the past 5 years this might be a different story, but this does not apply to most applicants.
For most institutions, the statement of purpose is mainly a filter for people who took no time to polish the SoP. Your writing can show how you think, how you can sell, how you explain things, but it can also show that you are lazy and do not pay attention to details. It can show that you are not able to Google simple recipes of how to write (and how not to write) a simple formal document. For some institutions, the SoP can be important (CMU) but the content does not really differ for these institutions.
Intro to research interests with a catchy hook that makes the reader want to read more (one paragraph). This is the most important bit: If you do not interest your readers in this paragraph it is unlikely that they will focus on the rest of the letter.
The research experiences that you gathered along your way to grad school (about one page).
Identifying what research you want to do in the future.
Identify people with whom you want to work with and why.
(Optional) Explaining extenuating circumstances where appropriate.
In some circumstances, the SoP can be very important. This is so if you showed good — but not strong or weak — academic potential and you had to overcome significant hardship to be able to do research. If your application is strong and write about hardships it might alienate your readers (privileged prick); if your application is weak it might also alienate your reader (whining looser). If your application is good it is exactly right (a smart person that pushed through difficulties). For example, I had a rare situation where I was barred from university access and my SoP was very important to explain the difficulties that I faced under these circumstances.
However, disclosing hardships and weaknesses — like learning disabilities and mental illnesses — can also be double-edged sword: You might either alienate the readers or you might draw their sympathizes and admiration for persisting in a difficult situation. If you disclose such facts, it needs to be done right and the SoP needs to be extremely polished. Do not attempt this if you do not have the feedback from expert writers. For some stories which are more socially acceptable you do not need expert feedback to do it right: It is easy to write a compelling story where you worked yourself from extreme poverty into college and that you now want to realize your potential by doing a PhD; it is difficult to write a compelling story about the hardships that you faced while suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
However, if you did not face any hardship do not make up stories that make no sense: “As a white, male, upper-class US citizen, I was haunted by the responsibility of my privilege from an early age and my academic performance suffered in the process.”, instead, concentrate on your research experience.
The GRE & TOEFL tests and GPA are usually used as filter criteria. A very high GPA can be a good indicator of “some intelligence” which can help with the recommendation letters and publications are borderline. But a GPA of 4.0 will not help if you have no publications and bad recommendation letters — it might even hurt you because it shows that you concentrate on useless classes rather than research. GRE and TOEFL scores are pure filters: If you have an okay score you are not filtered out. If you have a perfect GRE score, it can help a little bit but much less so than a perfect GPA. Great GRE scores do not matter: I got into three out of the top five US computer science programs with verbal 159 (81%), quantitative 163 (86%), writing 5.0 (93%) and a TOEFL 120/120 and a GPA of 8.1/10. Any GPA higher than 3.5 is good. Anything above 3.5 does not matter. A GPA of 4.0 might help a little bit.
The CV lists what you have done. There are no surprises here. The content is important but the content is also determined by what you have done before and cannot be changed. Do not “tune” your CV by phrasing things in a nice way or by making your CV look “nice” or “creative” — this is a waste of time. Just list what you have done.
(2) If you have three letters which are on or above the “Good” level, you should think about making your letters more diverse. I for example used one academic letter, one industry lab letter, and one letter from a lecturer who is aware of my research.
Start early and ask experienced people for feedback. You should be safe if you follow the formula above. If you want to disclose difficulties that you had along the way to graduate school you will need a lot of time in your SoP and you can expect that the SoP will take by far the most time in all your application materials.
Try to reuse letters between universities. It takes too much time to “personalize” the SoP for universities. The only section that I changed in my SoP from university to university was the section that mentions the potential advisors I would like to work with.
Start early filling out the online applications early. Some forms are terrible and take some time to fill out and it is great if you can get this out of the way as early as possible to focus on recommendation letters, university selection and your statement of purpose. You should have a good reserve of money to do these applications. The entire process might cost up to $1000. If you do not have the money, ask some relatives for some help early on.
How to Select Schools for PhD Applications?
Can I get admitted to a top school?
This means if you doing an undergrad at a top 2 school and you have no publications you will still have a hard time. Top 2 school and a publication increase your chances of admittance dramatically. If you have no personal connections it is difficult to get admitted even with a strong profile. However, if your profile is overly strong under respected advisors then personal connections do not matter.
There are some other factors for special cases. For example, if you study at a top school and have only 1 publication then GPA will be an important factor. However, in general, top schools do not care about GPA numbers from schools below top 20 if it is at least a GPA of 3.5 or equivalent. So if you have a GPA of 3.5 at a below top 20 school and you have 4 publications you have a good chance of getting admitted. A low GPA (which is still > 3.5) can be a factor in favor if your research profile is very strong as it demonstrates that you do not care about classes but that you are passionate about research — exactly what advisors want to see.
Another thing to note here is that we have publication inflation. This means the value of a single publication becomes less and less because more and more students fulfill this requirement. The more students are interested in ML PhDs the more stringent the publication requirements. It might have been fine to have no publications to get into an ML PhD, but this is often no longer the case.
How to get admitted to top schools?
These statistics above do not mean that you cannot get accepted by these schools, but it means that if your profile is too weak you should take another year to bolster it. I, for example, extended my master by a year to squeeze in a year of research internships. Without this, I would never have made it into these schools. If your dream is to get into one of these top schools this is by far the best option. Even if you do not necessarily want to get into top schools, a research internship is highly recommendable.
Improved research skills so you can get an easier start into a PhD.
A test whether a PhD or a certain research direction (NLP vs computer vision vs systems) is right for you.
A good or even strong recommendation letter (the longer the internship the better).
But even finding a research internship is easier said than done! How can you approach this? My next blog post will deal in detail with the topic of how you can improve your application file for the application cycle in the next year.
You should apply for about 10-15 universities. If you apply for more, you run in the danger that you will not have enough time to really polish your applications. If you apply for less you run into the danger of not being accepted anywhere.
You should have one or two backup universities where it is likely that you are accepted (> 75%). Often the university where you already studied at is a good candidate for this since your recommendation letter writers will be known to the university faculty. Apply for all top universities where you have some hope of getting admitted (>10% chance). Fill out the rest of the university slots with universities where you expect to have a good admission rate (25-33%) — you should have a minimum of 3 universities of this kind. These universities are usually the ones where a recommendation letter writer has a personal connection to a faculty with whom you would like to work.
Note that the best advisors are not necessarily at the top schools. You can get excellent PhD training at many schools outside of the top 20. However, if you thinking about an academic career then the school rank will be really important and you should try to find an advisor at a top school.
Pick universities mainly according to possible advisors. Make sure each university has more than one advisor you would like to work with. Do not apply to a university where there is a single good advisor. If your list is too small, broaden your area of interest. For example, if you would like to do deep learning and NLP and you cannot find enough fitting advisors consider also some advisors in computer vision or other fields.
Classes for 1-2 years. Classes distract from research.
Funding guaranteed with admission, that is, you have guaranteed positions as a research assistant or a teaching assistant.
Classes for 0.25 – 0.5 years. You can focus on your research from start to finish.
Funding can be problematic and is often dependent on your advisor. This is why it is important to get in touch with your potential advisor before you apply.
Less prestigious (in most cases) and thus it will be more difficult to get academic positions after your PhD. It will be more difficult to get oral presentations, best paper awards etc due to visibility bias.
Also be aware of local effects. If you study in the US you will also be in a US research bubble. Same is true if you study in Europe or Asia. For example, researchers in Europe know the “famous” researchers worldwide, but beyond that, they know more European universities than US universities in general (e.g. Stony Brooks vs University of Sheffield). Same is true for other locations. If you want to join academia in Europe, and you cannot get admitted to top US schools, it might make sense to apply for mostly EU universities.
Is a master required for a PhD?
In continental Europe, bachelor degrees are usually 3 years long and you require a master degree to start a PhD. In the US and UK, bachelors are often 4 years long and you can start a PhD right after your bachelor.
It can help especially if you work at a prestigious institution (Google, Facebook, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs etc.). Other work experience can help if it is software engineering related, but any research experience (research internship) will be seen as far superior. Just a good job and no research experience will not help you.
Look at recent publications to get a sense of overlapping interest. Avoid working with academics that did not publish papers recently. There does not need to be an overlap in current research, but you should be interested in the research that the advisor is doing.
Look at the list of students that graduated and where they are now. If you cannot find a list of students that graduated this is a red flag (or a new faculty). This is a good indicator of the quality of advice and training that you will get.
Does the advisor has a startup? How many students does the advisor have? The combination of these factors is a good indicator of how much time you can the advisor to have. Dependent on how experienced you are in research you will need an advisor that has more or less time.
Is there a fallback option in the same department? Sometimes relationships do not work out. Protect yourself by having a second advisor option as a fallback.
Should one even do a PhD?
If you want to work in academia you will need a PhD.
In industry, everything is regulated by supply and demand. The supply of AI researchers will rise sharply in the next years. If the AI hype collapses the demand will recede. The situation might be very similar to the situation that data scientists face in 2018: Companies only take over-qualified applicants because there is much more supply than demand. In this situation, a PhD will make a big difference if you want to switch jobs or want to be promoted. You might get hired without a PhD now, but without a PhD but you might have problems if you want to switch to another research lab (because the supply of skilled PhDs might be high, while demand is low).
If the AI hype does not collapse (unlikely) then you can find and switch jobs easily without a PhD. However, note promotion might still be more difficult and you might need to do more “research engineering work” compared to research. If you are happy with a research engineer position a PhD might be useless for you.
Do not do a PhD for the reasons above alone. If you do not want to do research do not do a PhD.
It is very unlikely that your potential advisor will read and even reply you if you do not have a personal contact. If you do not have a personal contact and you apply to EU (UK) universities, then you might want to apply somewhere else.
How to pick a topic for your research proposal?
The topic for the research proposal does not matter. Nobody will ask you to do the work that you described in your research proposal. You can pick your research proposal topic based on how easy it would be to reuse it across different applications. If you do not need to rewrite it for different applications you save a lot of time. One thing to consider: The more familiar you are with a topic the easier it is to write a good proposal.
Wow, 98% applicants have 3+ publications in top conferences? That’s pretty tough!
Well, some might have only two publications but they went to a top school and had strong recommendation letters and so forth. But yes, that is pretty tough!
Why did you choose UW?
I might write about how to select among your offers in another blog post. For me, the main criterion was a combination of personal reasons and a good fit with potential advisors at UW.
Tim, this guide is excellent. Thanks for publishing!
If my TOEFL score is below seven points from minimum, will I be rejected even in the filtering process?
For many university, you might be filtered out — sorry! However, some universities are not as strict.
What might help is if your recommendation letter writers know someone in the university this person might be able to save your application from the filtering process so that it is at least looked at. You can also tell your recommendation letter writer about the situation and your recommender might mention this in the recommendation letter: “X scored below your minimum TOEFL requirements, but I believe that X’s command of English is sufficient to work in a team and publish research”.
Very nice post but it does seem to that a lot of this applies more particularly in the US. At least my experience when applying for a PhD in Europe was vastly different. Getting in touch with potential supervisors, interviewing and writing a research proposal was a very large part of the application process while the weight of the statement of purpose was I think way lower. I didn’t need the GRE either. It probably also depends where in Europe but this is the feeling I had with both the UK and Switzerland.
You are right, this post is mostly about applying to the US and experience will differ from PhD applications in Europe. However, I also see the research proposal in Europe a bit like a drawn-out statement of purpose, where the focus is on future research (and a plan of it) rather than what research one has done before.
I got into MIT, Caltech, and Stanford. I had exactly 0 papers in “top conferences”. The vast majority of my classmates at MIT did not have any conference papers coming in. I highly doubt the 93% statistic.
That said, I *did* have research experience at multiple internships and in school and I was very proactive in building tons of stuff in my spare time.
And if you have even 1 paper in a top conference that’s a huge plus. 4 papers in top conferences is honestly more like what you have when graduating from a PhD program.
Thanks for your feedback and your example. I think I just messed up with presenting the statistics in an understandable way — I will rework this later today. So actually these statistics also cover your case (they are just presented in a way that makes this difficult to understand). For example, if you did your undergrad at MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, you need fewer publications to enter (usually between 1 and 2 for the school above). However, if you did not attend a top 20 university or the best university in your country then you will need 3+ publications to enter (the average was 6 publications for people who did not do undergrad at top schools). I also know that MIT does not select as aggressively for undergrad degree, so your example is more common at MIT (especially if you hack some projects together — MIT loves that!).
One additional note: In current times and especially in the field of AI we live under publication inflation — too many applicants have one or multiple publications. One publication to enter the PhD was a lot 10 years ago, but it is not any longer, especially in fields like deep learning. I know some faculty who made it their rule to not take any student who has not published at a top conference before. That is harsh, but that is just a reality at the moment. In the end, its all about supply and demand — and the supply is increasing while the demand is steady.
Hi Tim, thanks for your very nice post, really helps a lot. Could you help me analyze my situations? I will start application next year. Currently I am a junior in a university in Minnesota ranked around 30 in csrankings and working with a faculty. Now I have 2 papers in top conference of computer vision and robotics and next year maybe I will have 2 more. For the recommend letters, there are two Professors(an ieee fellow and my mentor in lab) who knows me well and can give me strong recommend. My GPA is not good, just around 3.5. I was wondering what should I do in next year so that I can 1, cover the short come of my undergrad weakness and low GPA and 2, strengthen my competitiveness? Thank you.
Your profile is strong. GPA does not matter in your case, especially if you manage to have 4 publications by next year. It can even be an advantage which shows that you care more about research than classes. Make sure though, that your GPA stays above 3.5.
For your letter writers, it matters a lot if they know faculty at the institutions which you want to apply to. Ask them who they know.
To improve your profile make sure that you have a good third letter. This could be done with a summer internship for example. If you want to make an overwhelmingly strong case for top universities, I could recommend residency programs. These programs yield experience which helps you later to decide if you want to go into academia or industry. Additionally, you get another good letter and possibly 1-2 publications.
With 4 publications and if your letter writers have personal connections I think you have about 30% admittance probability for the top 4 schools. With a residency program, you can push this easily to 50-60%.
I don’t agree “Don’t contact advisor before application”. Many students I know get their offer by introducing themselves to advisors. I thought your options fit to TOP 5 graduate school since the committee will make all the decisions. Could you explain why you support not contacting advisor before application?
It always makes sense if your advisor has a personal connection to faculty that he/she introduces you to a potential advisor. Contacting advisors personally can make sense in your case since you have a strong profile. Trying to contact faculty personally if you have a weak profile can be a waste of time and in the worst case can be detrimental. In your case, I would go for it.
Hi Tim, Thanks for your great post. It is really helpful. I am going to apply for phd next year. Could you please give me some advice on my situation ？My goal is top 30 university for America.
I just got my master degree majoring in AI at the University of Edinburgh. I got my bachelor at Nankai University (top15 in China). I am going to work as a research intern at Czech Technical University in Prague for 1 year (start from next month). I got 101(28+29+20+24) in Toefl and 321 (151+170)+3.5 in Gre. I do not have a lot of official research experience and publication now.(My master thesis advisor says that she is going to publish a paper based on my thesis. My name will be included. But it is not published now). My research interest is algorithmic game theory and reinforcement learning. I do not care about the country to pursue a phd a lot, I just want to go to the best university based on my background.
Do I need to take another toefl or gre test? I think I can get better mark, if I work hard on it. However, based on your post, I think it might be better to focus on my research in Czech Republic. By the way, my GPA is not good(3.3 undergraduate, 3.6 master).
Hi Harry, your GPA and GRE are borderline, but still okay. I would not worry too much about that. If you want to get into a top program I would try to do excellent research at your position in the Czech Republic and try to publish papers at top conferences. If you do not have any papers in the next six months, I would suggest that you try to do research at another institution for another year. This would give you a strong research background and I think you would have a much easier time to get accepted at top universities. Good luck!
Is the post about research internships coming up and/or do you have any quick tips? I’m starting to look around. The current plan is to email professors that do work that’s very interesting to me, plus google around for official programs + NSF REU listings. Though I’m extremely unfamiliar with the process so advice is appreciated.
the PhD students of an adviser that you are interested in, but this is always a bit tricky and it will probably unsuccessful most of the time. So your best bet is really to look at what connections do you already have.
Tim great post.I have a question,i struggle too much at university level.Have a low GPA.
my left eye.No idea what to do,and how to deal with it.
It is not easy to do well with amblyopia! But remain steady — if you keep at you might be able to get into good universities. What you should do is try to extend the time that you spent on research and accept that you need a bit more time than others — for me, it was also like that! This could be for example that (1) you do a master degree (if you do not have already one), (2) try to do a gap year to do some research at some university, (3) do research internships after your bachelor/master degree. If you have a good research background, nobody will care about a low GPA and bad school! Also, read this.
However, you should also be realistic. Even if you spent more time than others on research, you still might not be able to get into top universities. But keep in mind that you can find excellent mentorship in many other universities in the top 100. Often, you can find an advisor which fits you perfectly at a top 100 university, and you even though it will not be as prestigious, you will get a great PhD education! If you need more advise, please feel free to email me.
I think the opposite can be said, regarding finding jobs with or without PhD in case of an AI bubble collapse.
If/when it happens, there should logically be less money invested in AI, and then recruiters might prefer candidates without PhD, who would claim lower salaries than candidates with PhD… Being overqualified can also be bad!
That is an interesting way to think about it and could well be true. I guess the people at the fringes, either cheap and qualified, or expensive and highly qualified could be high in demand.
Thanks for this great post that I just came across! I completed my Bachelors in Electrical Engg. from a top 10 school in an international country., and after that I worked as a software engineer where I did basic NLP/ML work, nothing research-y.
I got into a US school ranked around 50 for MS in CS, and have done 2-3 research oriented projects in which one project led to submission at a journal (which can take ages to get published). I also had a research oriented internship at a startup working on computer vision.
I plan to apply for a PhD starting in Fall 2020, but honestly after reading your post, it looks kind of impossible for me to get into a top school for a PhD in AI, as I do not have any publications ( I don’t know how everyone can get 2+ papers). Is there anything I can do to boost my profile, or should I just settle for the university that I am in currently?
If you worked on some research projects then you probably worked with some researchers. You can ask them who they know and if they know someone in a top PhD school this might help your application. Alternatively, you can just do one year of research internships. I was in a similar position and I also did a year or research internships. It may be difficult to get a research internship (especially an academic one), but you can ask the people who you did research with if they know someone who would be willing to take you on.
Thanks for the response. Yes I have asked my professors and I may be able to continue to work as an RA for my current adviser for a year and then hopefully get a publication by the application season. Unfortunately, most research internships in industry require you return to school after interning with them, which is not possible in my case as I’m graduating.
Hi Tim, great post. I have been admitted by some universities now. Could you please give me some advice which one is better for my further phd application?
It seems that msc degree in HK and UK does not provide abundant research experience and nearly no publication, not to mention top conference. Also , most foreign students(97%) participating in 2 years’ program at The University of Tokyo have no publication but only research experience.
master of AI in Lugano with IDSIA can provide enough opportunities focusing on AI. many famous scientist are working there such as Michael Bronstein, Piotr Didykbut and Schmidhuber, but this university is not so prestigious compared with HKUST, UT and ICL.
Could you give some advice on which one to choice if I wish to pursue my phd research in UK(ICL UCL) or Switzerland(EPFL ETH)? Really appreciate your reply!
This is a tough choice. I think to make it work you definitely need to spend your summers in research internships and you should get involved with research early in your master. I studied in Lugano and it is not necessarily easy to get involved in research. If you go to Imperial College I think you might be able to (1) do research there, or (2) use your connections from imperial college to intern at UCL/Oxford/Cambridge/Microsoft Research/ICL in the summer (you will not have many similar connections if you go to Lugano). You should write some students in research labs and ask them if they usually have interns/student workers at imperial college. Otherwise, there is always (3) do a year of research internships after your master. I also did this and this is a rather save path to a good PhD program. You will need to use your connections that you found during your master program to find these after-master-research-internships. Good luck!
This is a good point and it shows that individual smarts also have their limitations. Neanderthals had larger brains than we do but they had less sophisticated social structures across tribes and because they had less knowledge-transfer, collaboration and trade they might have met their demise while humans flourished. So yes, I think this is an important point on top of all of this. We would need not only computers as fast as the brain but computers which can collaborate (or just one very, very big computer).
Machine learning and computer vision are from what I hear very math intensive. What math courses beyond calculus 1-3 should a undergrad take to prepare for a PhD in computer vision?
If you did calculus 3 you are ready to go. Any additional knowledge is usually learned as you go. Learning something before you need it is not efficient and will slow you down. If you want to prepare for a PhD I recommend (1) doing a research internship, or (2) try to work on a research problem, or (3) find research problems that might be interesting to you and your advisor. Having better math skills will have little effect on your performance in your PhD.
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2019-04-21T05:05:47Z
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https://timdettmers.com/2018/11/26/phd-applications/
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A method and apparatus are provided for providing multiple qualities of service to different virtual network connections. In one example, the method receives a token of a cell descriptor of data traffic of a virtual network connection. It is determined whether the token is in conformance with contracted bandwidth parameters of the cell descriptor to obtain a conformance status. Based on the conformance status, one of the following steps is performed: the token is inserted into a first random access memory configured to store the token for immediate output, or the token is inserted into a second random access memory configured to store the token for non-immediate output.
The present invention generally relates to quality of service on computer networks, such as the Internet. The present invention more particularly relates to providing different qualities of service to different network connections that may have different bandwidth requirements.
It is hard to dismiss the entrepreneurial nature of the Internet; this is no longer a research project. For most organizations connected to the global Internet, the Internet is a full-fledged business interest. Having said that, it is equally hard to dismiss the poor service quality that is frequently experienced. The rapid growth of the Internet, and increasing levels of traffic, make it difficult for Internet users to enjoy consistent and predictable end-to-end levels of service quality.
The Internet has historically offered a single level of service, that of “best effort,” where all data packets are treated with equity in the network. However, we are finding that the Internet itself does not offer a single level of service quality, and some areas of the network exhibit high levels of congestion and consequently poor quality, while other areas display consistent levels of high quality service. Customers are now voicing a requirement to define a consistent service quality they wish to be provided, and network service providers are seeking ways in which to implement such a requirement. This effort is happening within the umbrella called “Quality of Service” (QoS). Examples of factors that effect QoS on the Internet include delay, bandwidth, and reliability.
Delay is the elapsed time for a packet to be passed from the sender, through the network, to the receiver. The higher the delay, the greater the stress that is placed on the transport protocol to operate efficiently. For Transfer Control Protocol (TCP), higher levels of delay imply greater amounts of data held “in transit” in the network, which in turn places stress on the counters and timers associated with the protocol. It should also be noted that TCP is a “self-clocking” protocol, where the sender's transmission rate is dynamically adjusted to the flow of signal information coming back from the receiver, via the reverse direction acknowledgments (ACK's), which notify the sender of successful reception. The greater the delay between sender and receiver, the more insensitive the feedback loop becomes, and therefore the protocol becomes more insensitive to short term dynamic changes in network load. For interactive voice and video applications, the introduction of delay causes the system to appear unresponsive.
Bandwidth is the maximal data transfer rate that can be sustained between two end points. It should be noted that this is limited not only by the physical infrastructure of the traffic path within the transit networks, which provides an upper bound to available bandwidth, but is also limited by the number of other flows which share common components of this selected end-to-end path.
Reliability is commonly considered a property of the transmission system, and in this context, it can be thought of as the average error rate of the medium. Reliability can also be a byproduct of the switching system. A poorly configured or poorly performing switching system can alter the order of packets in transit, delivering packets to the receiver in a different order than that of the original transmission by the sender, or even dropping packets through transient routing loops.
The Internet is composed of a collection of routers and transmission links. Routers receive an incoming packet, determine the next hop interface, and place the packet on the output queue for the selected interface. Transmission links have characteristics of delay, bandwidth and reliability. Poor service quality is typically encountered when the level of traffic selecting a particular hop exceeds the transmission bandwidth of the hop for an extended period time. In such cases, the router's output queues associated with the saturated transmission hop begin to fill, causing additional transit delay, until the point is reached where the queue is filled, and the router is then forced to discard packets or at least portions of packets (reduced reliability). This in turn forces adaptive flows to reduce their sending rate to minimize congestion loss, reducing the available bandwidth for the application.
Unfortunately, present methods of managing bandwidth that is available amongst a set of network connections have been inadequate, given the ever demanding transmission needs of users of the Internet.
It has been recognized that what is needed is a technique for managing bandwidth available amongst different network connections. Broadly speaking, the present invention fills this need by providing a method and apparatus for providing multiple qualities of service to different network connections of a single network path. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device or a method. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
In one embodiment, a method provides multiple qualities of service to different virtual network connections. The method comprises: receiving a token of a cell descriptor of data traffic of a virtual network connection; determining whether the token is in conformance with contracted bandwidth parameters of the cell descriptor to obtain a conformance status; and based on the conformance status, performing one of inserting the token into a first random access memory configured to store the token for immediate output or inserting the token into a second random access memory configured to store the token for non-immediate output.
In another embodiment, an integrated circuit is configured to provide multiple qualities of service to different virtual network connections, the integrated circuit comprises controller circuitry configured to control operations of: receiving a token of a cell descriptor of data traffic of a virtual network connection; determining whether the token is in conformance with contracted bandwidth parameters of the cell descriptor to obtain a conformance status; and based on the conformance status, performing one of inserting the token into a first random access memory configured to store the token for immediate output or inserting the token into a second random access memory configured to store the token for non-immediate output.
Advantageously, the present invention demonstrates that high quality of service (QoS) is possible in the Internet, even with ever demanding transmission requirements. Accordingly, it has been recognized that different customers have different QoS needs. For example, Internet users requiring large bandwidth connections need a higher QoS than Internet users requiring smaller bandwidth connections. The present invention exploits these variances in needs amongst customers. The present invention makes it possible to deliver differentiated levels of best effort traffic in a manner that is predictable and fairly consistent. In practical terms, the present invention provides the ability to offer varying degrees of service levels to different customers and to different applications.
The invention encompasses other embodiments of a method, an apparatus, and a computer readable medium, which are configured as set forth above and with other features and alternatives.
FIG. 1 illustrates the environment in which the Schedule Subsystem (SSS) 102 operates, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 illustrates flow of data through the SSS 102, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the GCRA, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 illustrates shaping characteristics of the GCRA, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 shows a circular time diagram of the timing sequence of data cells flowing through the Calendar List 204, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating scheduling according to port sequence, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the schedule correlation RAM contents, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the Port List and Link RAM, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
An invention is disclosed for a method and apparatus for providing multiple qualities of service to different network connections of a single network path. Numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be understood, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details.
The list below provides a quick reference to acronyms used in this disclosure.
QID—QueueID—4 bit field priority field (0 is highest).
ShapeID—shape identifier—the identifier that binds a cell to a “shape,” a shape being one or more CIDs.
VCI—Virtual Channel Identifier ATM Cell Header field.
VS—Virtual Source for ABR connections.
FIG. 1 illustrates the environment in which the Schedule Subsystem (SSS) 102 operates, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Surrounding subsystems of the SSS 102 include a Queue Subsystem (QSS) 104 and a Filter Subsystem (FSS) 106. The SSS 102 includes a SSS ASIC 108 and a SSS RAM 110. The QSS 104 includes a QSS ASIC 112 and a QSS RAM 114. The FSS 106 includes a FSS ASIC 116 and a FSS RAM 118.
FIG. 2 illustrates flow of data through the SSS 102, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The Schedule subsystem 102 includes GCRA pipeline, GCRA RAM 202, Calendar List 204, Mature List 206, Port List 208 and Sequencer. The Schedule subsystem 102 is responsible for calculating token transmission times, managing “deferred counts” of tokens that have been delayed, and for sequencing of output tokens.
The Schedule subsystem 102 inputs tokens from the Queue subsystem 104. Each token includes a ShapeID, QueueID, and a Count indicating that CDs with these characteristics have been enqueued. The Count value allows for several, identical tokens to be passed from the Queue subsystem 104 to the Schedule subsystem 102 simultaneously.
The Schedule subsystem 102 outputs tokens to the Queue subsystem 104. Each token includes ShapeID and QueueID, indicating that a CD with these characteristics is to be immediately transmitted.
The GCRA engine 212 processes tokens at up to 20/MTS (i.e., 16/MTS from the Queue subsystem 104 and 4/MTS exiting from the Port List 208). The GCRA involves determining when a cell on a given ShapeID may be outputted, based on its configured Sustained Cell Interval, Maximum Burst Size and Minimum Cell Interval. ShapeIDs for which shaping is not required have their Sustained Cell Interval set to zero.
The Calendar engine 210 accepts tokens from the GCRA engine 212. Each token includes a ShapeID and PortID, along with other information. These tokens are either destined for the Calendar List 204, or are put directly into the Port List 208 if a token is conforming, or part of a non shaped stream.
The Schedule subsystem 102 outputs tokens to the Queue subsystem 104. Each token includes ShapeID and QueueID, indicating that a CD with these characteristics is to be dequeued.
The Calendar List 204 is a memory structure addressed by CurrentTime. Each time entry contains a linked list of tokens for the port to be serviced at that time. Entries are added to the Calendar List 204 by the scheduler. At the start of each MTS the CurrentTime list set is transferred to the Mature List 206.
The 262,144 times supported by the Calendar List 204 allow for Peak Cell Rates down to approximately 1/262000th the maximum port bandwidth. Thus, connections down to 2.4G/262144, or approximately 9.6 kbps can be shaped.
The Mature List 206 is an intermediate list between the Calendar List 204 and the Port List 208. Here, tokens are associated with the current highest priority QID with deferred tokens. The Mature List 206 eliminates the need for QIDs to be stored in the Calendar List 204, greatly simplifying the structure of the Calendar List 204. At a rate of 10/MTS, tokens are transferred from the Mature List 206 to the Port List 208.
The Port List 208 is a memory structure addressed by PortID and QueueID. Each entry contains a linked list of tokens awaiting immediate output to the logical port. Once again, note that no more than one token for each ShapeID is present in the Port List 208.
The sequence circuit dequeues tokens from the Port List 208 in a strict round-robin order dependent upon the configured ports. This sequence defines the rate presented to each port, so is strictly enforced. Dequeuing may be halted on a per-port basis by back-pressure signals. Selection of QueueID within each Port is determined by a configurable “preferred sequence”, allowing a minimum guaranteed bandwidth to be delivered for each traffic QueueID.
ShapeID/QueueID/PortID tokens are passed back to the GCRA engine 212 from the Port List 208. If deferred tokens exist for the ShapeID, then one is selected for insertion in the Calendar List 204.
The data structures maintained by the Schedule subsystem 102 and the flow of data through the SSS 102 are provided. The data structures include a table which holds GCRA parameters and scheduling information, a Calendar List 204 which holds scheduled tokens, a Mature List 206 which holds tokens that have left the Calendar List 204 to be inserted into the Port List 208, a Port List 208 which holds tokens awaiting dequeueing, Port and Queue sequence RAMS and a Schedule Correction RAM (SCR).
The SSS 102 has two SIFwire interfaces which facilitate configuration and monitoring of the SSS, as well as supplying per port backpressure to the Port Sequencer.
The GCRA RAM 202 holds both GCRA parameters and scheduling information. As each token arrives at the SSS 102, the token is placed into the GCRA engine 212. When tokens emerge from the output of the GCRA engine 212, the SSS 102 has determined that the token is either: conforming, where the token is sent to the Port List for immediate output; non-conforming, where the token is sent to the Calendar engine to be added to the Calendar List; or to be deferred, where the token will be passed to the Calendar engine 210 to be added to the Calendar List 204 at some time in the future.
Tokens passed to the Calendar engine 210 are either non-conforming and are inserted into the Calendar List 204, or are conforming or unshaped and are immediately inserted into the Port List 208. Non-conforming tokens are effectively scheduled to be inserted into the Port List 208 at some time in the future. When that time arrives, the tokens are then transferred into the Mature List 206, to be later transferred to the Port List 208. At this point, the SSS 102 examines its deferred counts to determine the highest priority token so that the SSS 102 assigns the corresponding QID to the token going from the Mature List 206 to the Port List 208. The Mature List 206 is necessary because QIDs are not maintained in the Calendar List 204.
The general dataflow, shown by t he thin dotted line in FIG. 2, refers to the longest data path through the SSS 102. This path is traversed by non-conforming tokens and takes the token from the QSS interface, in and out of the GCRA RAM 202, in and out of the Calendar List 204, into the Mature List 206 and then into the Port List 208, and out to the QSS 104. The shortest path, shown by the thick dotted line in FIG. 2, is traversed by conforming tokens, or non-shaped tokens. This path takes a token directly from the QSS 104 interface into the Port List 208, and out to the QSS 104.
Four tokens per MTS arrive at the GCRA engine 212 from the Port List 208. These tokens are those that are to be passed to the QSS 104 to be transmitted. If any tokens from the shapes of the cells that have left the Port List 208 exist in the deferred counts, then tokens for these shapes are passed to the Calendar engine 210 for insertion into the Calendar List 204, and the corresponding deferred count value is decremented.
Tokens coming from the Queue Subsystem 104 have 3 fields: ShapeID, QueueID and a replication count. The PortID is not part of the token arriving at the SSS 102, it is instead kept in the GCRA RAM 202 and is retrieved using the ShapeID. The replication count allows the Queue Subsystem 102 to pass multiple tokens on the same connection using a single token. This is used when the Queue Subsystem 102 is dealing with packets. Tokens going to the Queue Subsystem have 2 fields: ShapeID and QID.
The scheduling algorithm is provided. The scheduling algorithm is most preferably applied to connections or shapes whose bandwidth is 622 Mbps or less. Support for logical ports (see the “Scheduling for greater than 622 Mbps” section below) is intended to offer simple PCR type shaping for connections whose bandwidth is greater than 622 Mbps.
The Scheduling Algorithm is used to determine whether connections are adhering to their contracts. An important aspect of the Scheduling Algorithm is that it is based on a Generic Cell Rate Algorithm (GCRA).
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the GCRA, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The GCRA determines the time at which the next cell for a given shape can be transmitted, and is executed whenever a cell is received. If that time coincides with the current time, then the cell is put into the Port List 208 for immediate output back to the QSS 104. Otherwise, the cell is delayed until the time calculated. Table 1 below shows example definitions for the GCRA. Table 2 below shows example pseudo code for the GCRA.
-- We must defer this token.
-- We haven't exceeded MBS. Schedule at PCR.
-- this cell at PCR.
-- We've violated MBS. We must shape to SCR.
-- We have received a cell xmitted at SCR or lower.
FIG. 4 illustrates shaping characteristics of the GCRA, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The arrival of cells is depicted on the top time line, and their departure on the bottom. A burst of 8 cells arrives at about time t4, but only three of these cells depart the shaper as that connection has only built up enough credit to transmit 3 cells. The remaining 5 cells in the burst come out at spaced at SCI. Another burst of 3 cells arrives at about time t12, at which time this connection only has enough credit to transmit 2 of these cells, the remaining cell is delayed by SCI.
External RAM latencies mean that full PCR/SCR/MBS shaping of connections or shapes at rates above 622 Mbps is not possible in the preferred embodiment. So that some form of shaping can be performed on shapes at rates above 622 Mbps, the idea of “logical ports” is used. By mapping a shape whose rate is above 622 Mbps to a logical port, only used by that connection, by means of the Port Sequence, the amount of bandwidth allocated to that shape can be controlled. See the “Sequencing” section below for a more discussion on the Port Sequence.
If a token is conforming with respect to its contract, then that token is immediately scheduled for output to the QSS 104 and put into the Port List 208, if that connection does not already have a token waiting in the Port List 208. If that connection does already have a token waiting in the Port List 208, then a deferred count value is incremented for that connection. If a token is not conforming, then the token must be delayed until such time that the token is conforming. Delaying a token can be done in one of two ways. One, the token has to be added to the Calendar List. Or two, if the shape to which that token belongs already has a token in either the Calendar List 204 or Port List 208, one of the counts corresponding to the token's ShapeID/QID is incremented. These count values are called the “deferred” counts. The deferred count values are maintained by the GCRA engine 210, and are held in the GCRA RAM 202. See the “GCRA RAM” section for more discussion on the GCRA RAM 202.
All tokens not consumed into the deferred counts are passed to the Calendar engine with a flag indicating whether they are conforming. The Calendar engine then processes these tokens accordingly.
Because time in the SSS 102 is represented by a finite number of bits (e.g., 28 bits), the time counter will often reach its maximum value and then wrap around back to zero. This situation complicates relative time calculations. There are two primary problems—dealing with negative time differences, and correctly handling shapes which have not seen any activity in a time greater than the maximum time value.
For purposes of later discussion, TIME_MAX is defined to be the amount of time represented by the number of bits in the time counter. In the SSS 103, the time counter is preferably 28 bits, so TIME_MAX has the value 228−1. The unit for time is a quarter MTS.
PERIOD:=SCI※64;—SCI is sustained Cell Interval.
Once a connection has been inactive for PERIOD, the sweeper updates that connection's state information, in particular its Last Arrival Time (LAT) value, and its credit. Once this limit is reached, LAT is updated to be the current time, and PERIOD is added to that connection's credit value. This sweeper ensures that calculated time differences for a connection are always less than TIME_MAX.
One of the 32K shapes is “swept” every MTS. All 32K shapes can be swept well within the sustained cell interval of the slowest connection supported by the shaper, 9.6 Kbps.
Every time a new cell arrives at the SSS 102, the shaper determines how long it has been since a cell on this shape last arrived. This calculation involves a subtraction, and if time has wrapped around to zero in the interim, this time difference will be negative. The shaper knows that this can happen, and employs the algorithm in Table 3 below to combat the problem.
-- The time difference is negative.
The algorithm of Table 3 works because the inactive connection sweeper ensures that the difference between current system time and last arrival is always less than TIME_MAX.
The GCRA engine 212 also maintains a per-QID deferred count value, together with a per shape deferred count value. The per shape value is the number of tokens to be scheduled at PCR, while the per QID count is the total number of deferred tokens for that shape. When a token arrives at the GCRA engine 212 and is determined to be non conforming, one or both of the deferred count values needs to be incremented. The GCRA algorithm proposed in the “Scheduling Algorithm” section above determines which count value(s) need incrementing. If the per QID count value is zero prior to incrementing either the deferred count values, this indicates that there are no tokens for that shape in the system, and a token can be added into the Calendar List 204. A token is passed to the scheduler for insertion into the Calendar List 204. If the per QID count value is non zero then no token is passed to the scheduler.
When more than one token from a particular shape has been scheduled (i.e., the per QID count value is greater than one), scheduled tokens for a particular shape need to be transferred from the deferred count lists into the Calendar List 204 when tokens from that shape leave the Port List 208. Four times every MTS a token exits the Schedule subsystem 102. Each of these exiting tokens are examined. If either deferred count values for the exiting token is greater than one, then there are tokens waiting to be transferred into the Calendar List 204. This being the case the GCRA engine 210 will pass a token marked as non conforming to the Calendar engine 210, and decrement the appropriate deferred count value(s) by one. That is, if the per shape PCI count value is greater than zero, both count values are decremented, and a token is scheduled at PCR. If it is zero, only the per QID count value is decremented and the token is scheduled at SCR.
The per QID count value parameter is also used for non-shaped streams. A requirement of the SSS 102 is that only one token per shape is present in the Port List 208, Calendar List 210 or Mature List 206 at any one time. This means that if a token for a non-shaped stream arrives, and a token for that stream is already present in the Port List 208, that token must be deferred until the token currently in the Port List 208 is output to the QSS 102.
Tokens from both shaped and unshaped connections are held in the deferred counts, in the GCRA RAM 202. The treatment of these two categories of deferred counts is slightly different.
Four times per MTS, a token is removed from the Port List 208 for output to the QSS 104. It is at this point that tokens stored in the deferred counts are transferred into the Calendar List 204, from the same shape as the tokens being removed from the Port List 208. This ensures that all tokens in the Calendar List 204 and Port List 208 have unique SIDs.
The procedure for transferring tokens out of the deferred counts for unshaped connections is the same as that for shaped connections, except that tokens are transferred directly to the Port List 208, rather than the Calendar List 204.
With the use of deferred counts to keep track of cells yet to be transmitted, it is possible for cells on one connection that arrive after cells that arrive on another connection, to leave the SSS 102 before the other cells. Consider, for example, a case in which ShapeID=15 has 100 cells arrive very quickly, then Shap.eID=17 has one cell arrive. Both shapes are unshaped. The cell on ShapeID=17 will depart before most of the cells on ShapeID=15. This is because the cells on ShapeID=15 have to be bled out of the deferred counts at a maximum rate of 4/MTS, whereas the sole ShapeID=17 cell will go straight into the Port List 208 and be transmitted.
The task of the GCRA engine 212 is to perform the GCRA, and to manage the GCRA RAM 202, which contains parameters necessary for implementing the GCRA algorithm, as well as the deferred count values. The parameters SCI, PCI, MBS, LS T, LAT and credit used in the GCRA algorithm are stored in the GCRA RAM 202 per ShapeID. The deferred count values are stored per ShapeID/QueueID. The GCRA RAM 202 is indexed using both the ShapeID and QID, which means that the GCRA parameters are aliased across all queue entries for a particular shape. The GCRA RAM 202 also contains the QID for each ShapeID. If no shaping is required on a particular ShapeID then its SCI parameter is set to zero. The format of each word in GCRA RAM 202 is shown in Table 4 below.
PCI : unsigned(22 downto 0); QMTS Peak Cell Int.
SCI : unsigned(22 downto 0); QMT Sust. Cell Int.
The parameters above marked in bold are those that management software must set when configuring a new connection.
One problem that the GCRA engine 212 needs to be aware of is that many cells from a particular shape may be presented to it during any given MTS. This means that in order to process cells other that the first in a set from the same shape, the GCRA parameters and deferred count values used must be those modified by calculations for cells during the current MTS and not those present in the GCRA RAM 202.
A count of the number of tokens present in the Scheduler per ShapeID/QID is kept in a separate external RAM. All SIDs in the Scheduler are unique. So, as tokens on a particular ShapeID/QID continue to arrive, the tokens are effectively deferred by increasing the appropriate deferred count value. As tokens exit the Scheduler, a new token on that ShapeID/QID enters the Scheduler if its deferred count is non zero. In theory all tokens in the cell buffer could be on the same ShapeID/QID, so each deferred count value must be able to cope with this, requiring this count to be a 20 bit integer. The Deferred Count RAM has a data width of 20 bits (plus parity), and an address width of 19 bits (15 bits of ShapeID, and 4 bits of QID).
The Scheduling algorithm is provided. The insertion of Shape IDs into, the Calendar List 204 is also provided.
Non conforming tokens need to be scheduled for release at some later time, so that the output of tokens from the scheduler conforms to the agreed contract. Shape IDs are stored in one of two places the Calendar List 204 or the GCRA RAM 202 as a deferred count.
The first scheduled token from a particular shape is stored in the Calendar List 204. Subsequent tokens from a particular shape are stored in the GCRA RAM 202 by incrementing the deferred count for that shape.
When a token arrives at the GCRA engine 212, the GCRA RAM 202 parameters for that token are read, including the deferred counts. If the deferred count parameters are zero, then the Calendar List 204 contains no entry for the current token, and the current non-conforming token can have an entry placed directly into the Calendar List 204. If the count is nonzero, the Calendar List 204 already has an entry for the current token. In this case, the Deferred Count parameter for the current token is incremented and written back to the GCRA RAM 202. When a token is passed from the GCRA engine 212, a “schedule time” parameter is also passed, which tells the Calendar engine 210 where in the Calendar List 204 to put that token. This time parameter, however, may not be exactly right, and the Calendar engine 210 may have to make a correction to that time value. See the “Scheduling with respect to Port Sequence” section below for more discussion on Scheduling.
Each time slot in the Calendar List 204 is associated to the four ports that will be serviced at that time, as defined in the port sequence. See “Normal Port Sequencing” section below for more discussion on sequencing. For each of these four ports, a list of tokens is maintained. Because each time slot is associated with four ports in the port sequence, no record of PIDs need be kept in the Calendar List, nor any record of QID. Therefore, it is crucial that tokens destined for a particular port be put in exactly the right location in the Calendar List 204.
FIG. 5 shows a circular time diagram of the timing sequence of data cells flowing through the Calendar List 204, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Each entry in the Calendar List 202 holds lists of cells scheduled for output at a particular MTS. Each entry in the Calendar RAM 204 holds a set of lists for each of the four ports scheduled to be serviced at that time by the pre-determined port sequence. A list is represented by a 15-bit head and 15-bit tail pointer. Table 5 below shows an example of how such a list may be defined.
In any given MTS, only four ports can be serviced. Each entry in the Calendar List 204 has a Port List 208 associated with it. Which ports are associated with which time slots is determined by the port sequence. When a token is scheduled for some time slot in the future, the port sequence must be observed. That is, when a time value is calculated by the GCRA engine 212 for insertion into the Calendar List 204, the actual time value used will be the one closest to, in advance of, the calculated value, assigned to the port of the token in question.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating scheduling according to port sequence, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. As an example, assume there are 3×622 Mbps (A, B and C) and 4×155 Mbps (D, E, F and G) ports on a SIR. A non-conforming cell targeted for Port G is received. It is calculated that the next token should be scheduled at time T+2, but taking the port sequence into account, the token for port G is actually scheduled at time T+16.
This “correction” of scheduled time allowing for port sequence is achieved by performing a RAM lookup. This RAM is called the “Schedule Correction RAM,” or SCR. The SSS 102 has an internal RAM which is indexed by port identifier and position within the port sequence. This RAM returns the position of the nearest entry in the port sequence for the requested port given the current position within the port sequence. In other words, for every entry in the port sequence, there are 16 corresponding entries which indicate the location of the nearest entry of that port from the current position.
The SCR also holds the NPS bit (Next Port Sequence). For entries close to the end of the port sequence, the next, nearest entry for a particular port may be back at the top of the sequence, that is, in the following port sequence. In this case we must increment the part of the Calendar RAM address which references which port sequence we are in. The Calendar RAM 204 contains 256K entries. The port sequence has 64 entries, which means that the Calendar RAM 204 holds 4K full port sequences, so we can consider the most significant 12 bits of the Calendar RAM address as a reference to an entire port sequence. The least significant 6 bits of the Calendar RAM address then become the position within a given port sequence.
The SCR is a lookup table which enables the Calendar engine to make corrections to the time parameter passed to it from the GCRA engine 212. The table is indexed using two parameters—a port sequence position, and a PID. This table returns the next nearest position in the port sequence allocated to a particular port, given a position in that port sequence. Table 6 below is an example organization of the SCR.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the SCR contents, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. As an example, consider the simple case of an LIM having 4×622 Mbs ports (0, 1, 2 and 3). The port sequence would be 0, 1, 2, 3, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . The SCR contents would be as shown in FIG. 7.
Tokens held in the Calendar List 204 are tokens which have been scheduled for insertion into the Port List 208 at some time in the future. When that time arrives those tokens are first transferred into the Mature List 206 before being transferred to the Port List 208. This intermediate step is required because the Calendar List 204 maintains no record of QID. Holding tokens temporarily in the Mature List 206 allows the SSS 102 to associate each of the tokens exiting the Calendar List 204 with a QID, and more importantly, the highest QID at the time. Because each token in the Mature List 206 must be dealt with one at a time, the rate at which tokens can be transferred from the Mature List 206 to the Port List 208 is limited to 4 tokens/MTS—a rate of 2.4 Gbps. Because this is equal to the maximum SIF2 bandwidth of 2.4 Gbps, ports are guaranteed to be serviced at their maximum rate. Leaving the association of QID with the token to the very last opportunity means that the higher priority tokens wont be blocked while lower priority tokens are sitting in the Calendar List 204.
The limited rate of tokens out of the Mature List 206 does introduce a problem—inter-shape head of line blocking. Because the Mature List 206 is an unsorted list of tokens for each port, and the SSS 102 cannot guarantee that the Lists will be emptied each MTS, lower priority traffic on a shape may block higher priority traffic on another shape. This blocking only occurs in the Mature List 206 when the rate of unique tokens coming out of the Calendar List 204 is in excess of 6 Gbps.
To enable the Calendar engine 210 to identify the highest priority QID with deferred tokens, when extracting tokens from the Mature List 206, a 16-bit “bitmap” is maintained per shape indicating which QIDs have deferred tokens. Each bit in this bitmap represents the state of the deferred counts for each of the 16 QID counters per shape. If a bit is set to ‘1’ then the corresponding QID deferred count is non zero. These per-shape bitmaps are held in the GCRA RAM.
The sequences block within the SSS 102 is responsible for retrieving four tokens from the Port List 208 per MTS and sending them to the Queue subsystem 104. Within the Sequences there are two sequencing mechanisms at play. First, there is a sequence describing the order in which the ports are serviced. Second, there is a preferred sequence for servicing the different Queue IDs for each port. Both of these sequences are programmable.
The Port List 208 itself is a collection of linked lists, indexed by Port ID and Queue ID. There are 16 Port IDs and 16 Queue IDs which mean the Port List 208 contains head/tail pairs for 256 lists. These head/tail pairs are kept in internal RAM.
The sequences simply traverses the various lists according to the defined sequences extracting four tokens per main timing sequence. These four tokens are also fed back to the GCRA engine 202 so that it can update its calendar and deferred count lists.
The sequence in which ports are serviced depends on the speeds of the various ports. The sequences provide a 64 entry RAM for specifying the port sequence, where each entry in that RAM is a port identifier. The sequences reads a port identifier from the port sequence RAM each quarter MTS, simply cycling through the RAM incrementing the address in each MTS four times.
When the Logical Port Mode (LPM) bit in the control register is set, all PIDs appearing in the Port Sequence are Logical Ports. In this mode of operation there is only actually one physical port (PID=0), i.e. OC48. The use of the logical ports is intended to allow simple, PCR type shaping of shapes above rates of 622 Mbps. The existence of shapes above 622 Mbps implies configuration of a single OC48 port, and hence the use of a single, fixed physical PID (of zero) when in Logical Port Mode.
Once the sequences have decided which port will be serviced in a MTS, the queue to service must be decided. The order in which to service queues is defined in a preferred queue sequence RAM. Each port has an associated preferred queue sequence. This preferred queue sequence allows for sequencing of queues other than by their inherent queue priorities. The preferred queue sequence algorithm is shown below in Table 7.
Per-port back-pressure is provided to the sequencer via a SIFwire interface, identifying ports that are experiencing congestion. When the sequencer receives back pressure for a particular port, that port is then skipped when it is selected from the port sequence, and nothing for that port is transmitted during the MTS in which the port was skipped. That port will continue to be skipped whenever it appears in the port sequence until the back-pressure is removed. The result is that holes in the cell flow on the output of the schedule subsystem appear.
The Calendar List 204 only ever contains one token per Shape ID, and because the Calendar List 204 is only updated when tokens leave the Port List 208, all tokens in the Calendar List 204 and Port List 208 are unique. This means that the tokens for the Calendar List 204, Port List 208 and Mature List 206 may be kept in a single RAM called the “Link RAM.” This RAM holds SIDs, where each ShapeID is used as the pointer to the next ShapeID in the list. This works because all SIDS in the Link RAM are unique, eliminating aliasing. Because the SIDs are stored in the Link RAM, the Calendar List 204, Port List 208 and Mature List 206 need only contain HEAD/TAIL pointer pairs (into the Link RAM) for the various lists they manage.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the Port List and Link RAM, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Table 8 below shows an example of pseudo code that defines a Link RAM.
The schedule subsystem (SSS) 102 has a “probing” function that allows the user to gather detailed information.
The SSS 102 provides a set of counters that count various statistics on either a per ShapeID or per PID basis. Probes consist of the counters themselves and the Probe ID register, which identifies which PID or ShapeID is to be tracked.
Whenever a new PID or ShapeID is written into the Probe ID register, the counters are reset to zero.
The Tokens Received Counter is a per ShapeID counter that tracks the number of tokens received on the requested ShapeID. Note that this tokens counter does not take into account the “replication count” field in the QSS/SSS token, and as such this counter does not reflect the number of cells corresponding to the tokens received by the SSS 102.
The Tokens Transmitted Counter is a per ShapeID counter that tracks the number of tokens transmitted by the SSS 102. This counter also reflects the number of cells corresponding to the tokens transmitted.
The Port List Occupancy Counter is a per PID counter that counts how many tokens are currently waiting to go out on the named Port.
The Peak Port List Occupancy is a “high water mark” for the Port List Occupancy.
The Conforming Tokens counter is a per ShapeID counter that counts how many conforming tokens are received on the indicated ShapeID.
The shaper only schedules tokens at times which correspond to the token's port being serviced. This means PID does not have to be tracked in the various data structures holding scheduled tokens, making them considerably smaller.
In the past, per PID lists were kept for each time slot in the shaper's calendar, making it large. With port sequence aware shaping, each time slot only holds tokens for a particular port, significantly reducing the amount of storage space required for scheduled tokens.
Also note that this is of course a multi port shaper, as well as being multi-priority (QID) and multi connection (ShapeID).
The multi-port facility is “built in” such that data structures are minimized (as described above) and such that unwelcome inter-port interactions are avoided.
When tokens are scheduled for later transmission, and placed into the calendar, the QID corresponding to the token is not written into the calendar along with the token. When tokens are scheduled, a per-ShapeID bitmap representing all the active QIDs on that shape is recorded. When tokens emerge from the calendar, they are placed in a list [mature list]. Here they are reassigned a QID, corresponding to the highest quality of service QID_currently_awaiting transmission for that shape, in contrast to the highest waiting when the token entered the calendar.
In this example above, token2 will emerge from the shaper before token1, which is desirable since it should receive a higher quality of service. If the assignment of QIDs was not deferred, but was placed in the calendar along with the token, then token1 would emerge from the shaper first. In this case, lower priority traffic could effectively delay higher priority traffic.
One of the problems a shaper must deal with is the wrap around of its time counters. When tokens arrive at the shaper, it must determine how much time has elapsed since the last token on that shape was seen in order to determine whether or not it is conforming to its shaping parameters. This is done by subtracting the shapes LAST_ARRIVAL_TIME from the CURRENT_TIME. A problem arises when a long time elapses between consecutive tokens on a shape, in which time the CURRENT_TIME counter may have wrapped around, thus making the simple subtract above invalid. The approach taken in the shaper is that once in every main timing sequence a shape is “swept”. This entails looking at the LAST_ARRIVAL_TIME for the shape being swept, and if the difference between it and CURRENT_TIME is above a threshold, then the LAST_ARRIVAL_TIME is updated to CURRENT_TIME, and the shape's credit parameter is updated accordingly. This ensures there are never wrap around problems when executing the above time calculations.
The present invention includes a computer program product which is a storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to control, or cause, a computer to perform any of the processes of the present invention. The storage medium can include, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, mini disks (MD's), optical discs, DVD, CD-ROMS, micro-drive, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMS, EPROMs, EEPROMs, DRAMS, VRAMs, flash memory devices (including flash cards), magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), RAID devices, remote data storage/archive/warehousing, or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data.
Included in the programming (software) of the general/specialized computer or microprocessor are software modules for implementing the teachings of the present invention, including, but not limited to, receiving a token of a cell descriptor of data traffic of a virtual network connection, determining whether the token is in conformance with contracted bandwidth parameters of the cell descriptor to obtain a conformance status, inserting the token into a first random access memory configured to store the token for immediate output, and inserting the token into a second random access memory configured to store the token for non immediate output, according to processes of the present invention.
replacing tokens removed from said first or sccond memory with deferred tokens from the third memory having the same identifier as the removed tokens until the count corresponding to said same identifier has a predetermined value, wherein said count is undated each time a removed token is replaced with a deferred token.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of inserting the token into the first random access memory comprises storing the token in a port list, and wherein the step of inserting the token into the second random access memory comprises storing the token in a calendar list.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data traffic includes different virtual network connections transmitted on a single virtual network path.
a particular count configured to indicate a number of identical transmit tokens to be transmitted simulianeously.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the token of the cell descriptor comprises inputting the token into a generic cell rate algorithm engine, and wherein the step of determining whether the token is in conformance is controlled by the generic cell rate algorithm engine.
defer, indicating that transmission of the token is to be deferred and that the token is not to be inserted into the first or second random access memory until a token with the same identifier has been outputted.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprises determining that the conformance status is conforming, and wherein the method further comprises immediately outputting the token.
upon arrival of the later time, transferring the token into a fourth random access memory configured to store the token for transfer to the first random access memory at another later time.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of transferring the token into the fourth random access memory comprises storing the token in a mature list.
transferring the highest priority token from the fourth random access memory to the first random access memory.
replacing tokens removed from said first or second memory with deferred tokens from the third memory having the same identifier as the removed tokens until the count corresponding to said same identifier has a predetermined value, wherein said count is updated each time a removed token is replaced with a deferred token.
12. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein the operation of inserting the token into the first random access memory further configures the controller circuitry to control storing the token in a port list, and wherein the step of inserting the token into the second random access memory further configures the controller circuitry to control storing the token in a calendar list.
13. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein the data traffic includes different virtual network connections transmitted on a single virtual network path.
a particular count configured to indicate a number of identical transmit tokens to be transmitted simultaneously.
15. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein the operation of receiving the token of the cell descriptor further configures the controller circuitry to control inputting the token into a generic cell rate algorithm engine of the integrated circuit.
17. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein the determining operation further configures the controller circuitry to control determining that the conformance status is conforming, and wherein the controller circuitry is further configured to control immediately outputting the token.
19. The integrated circuit of claim 18, wherein the operation of transferring the token into the fourth random access memory further configures the controller circuitry to control storing the token in a mature list.
transferring the highest priority token from the third random access memory to the first random access memory.
22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the step of inserting the token into the first random access memory further causes the processor to carry out a step of storing the token in a port list, and wherein the step of inserting the token into the second random access memory further causes the processor to carry out a step of storing the token in a calendar list.
23. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the data traffic includes different virtual network connections transmitted on a single virtual network path.
25. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the step of receiving the token of the cell descriptor further configures the processor to carry out a step of inputting the token into a generic cell rate algorithm engine, and wherein the step of determining whether the token is in conformance is controlled by the generic cell rate algorithm engine.
27. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the determining step further causes the processor to carry out determining that the conformance status is conforming, and wherein the instructions further cause the processor to carry out a step of immediately outputting the token.
29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the step of transferring the token into the fourth random access memory further causes the processor to carry out a step of storing the token in a mature list.
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2019-04-21T11:08:50Z
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https://patents.google.com/patent/US7379420B2/en
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The Ceann Comhairle ("head of the council") is the chairperson (or speaker) of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of Ireland.
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Cork East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas.
Cork North was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1923 to 1961.
Cork West was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1923 to 1961.
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Dáil Éireann (lit. Assembly of Ireland) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).
Dáil Éireann served as the directly elected lower house of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1937.
There are currently 40 multi-member constituencies, that democratically elect 158 TDs (members of parliament), to Dáil Éireann (Ireland's lower house), usually every five years.
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Dublin North was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas, from 1923 to 1937 and from 1981 to 2016.
Dublin South was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas, from 1921 to 1948 and from 1981 to 2016.
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Fianna Fáil (meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a political party in Ireland.
Fine Gael (English: Family or Tribe of the Irish) is a liberal-conservative and Christian democratic political party in Ireland.
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Francis Patrick Fahy (23 May 1879 – 12 July 1953) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1932 to 1951.
Frank C. J. MacDermot (25 November 1886 – 24 June 1975) was an Irish barrister and politician.
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The 8th Dáil was elected at the 1933 general election on 24 January 1933 and first met on 8 February when the 7th Executive Council was appointed.
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The Irish general election of 1933 was held on 24 January 1933.
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The Labour Party (Páirtí an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland.
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Leinster House (Teach Laighean) is the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland.
Leitrim–Sligo was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1923 to 1937.
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This is a list of Irish Leaders of the Opposition.
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Louth is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas.
Margaret Mary Pearse (24 August 1878 – 7 November 1968) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and teacher.
Mark Killilea Snr (15 January 1897 – 29 September 1970) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician.
Martin John Corry (12 December 1889 – 14 February 1979) was a farmer and long-serving backbench Teachta Dála (TD) for Fianna Fáil.
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Mayo North was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1923 to 1969.
Mayo South was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1923 to 1969.
Meath was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1923 to 1937 and from 1948 to 2007.
This is a list of members who were elected to the 7th Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (legislature) of the Irish Free State.
This is a list of members who were elected to the 9th Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (legislature) of the Irish Free State.
Michael Óg McFadden (1885 – 27 August 1958) was an Irish Fine Gael politician.
Michael Brennan (1884 – 6 October 1970) was an Irish politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for fifteen years for the Roscommon constituency.
Michael Davis (1875 – 30 March 1944) was an Irish Cumann na nGaedheal and later Fine Gael politician.
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Michael John Keyes (31 March 1886 – 8 September 1959) was an Irish Labour Party politician.
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The Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, officially styled as the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach (with special responsibility as Government Chief Whip), is the Chief Whip of the Government of Ireland and is the most senior Minister of State in the Government of Ireland.
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Seán Francis MacEntee (Seán Mac an tSaoi; 23 August 1889 – 9 January 1984) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Tánaiste from 1959 to 1969, Minister for Social Welfare from 1957 to 1961, Minister for Health from 1957 to 1965, Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1941 to 1948, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1939 to 1941, Minister for Finance from 1932 to 1939 and 1951 to 1954.
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Sir Osmond Thomas Grattan Esmonde, 12th Baronet (4 April 1896 – 22 July 1936) was an Irish diplomat and Cumann na nGaedheal (and later Fine Gael) politician.
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A TD (plural TDanna in Irish or TDs in English; full Irish form Teachta Dála,, plural Teachtaí Dála) is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament).
Thomas Derrig (Tomás Ó Deirg; 26 November 1897 – 19 November 1956) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician.
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Thomas "Tom" McEllistrim (14 October 1894 – 4 December 1973) was an Irish political and military activist in the period from 1916–23.
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Waterford is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas.
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Wicklow is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas.
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William Joseph Norton (2 November 1900 – 4 December 1963) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste from 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, Leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1960, Minister for Social Welfare from 1951 to 1948 and Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1954 to 1957.
William Edward Thrift (28 February 1870 – 23 April 1942) was an Irish university professor and an independent Teachta Dála (TD).
8th Dail, 8th Dáil, Members of the 8th Dail.
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2019-04-23T17:57:07Z
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https://en.unionpedia.org/Members_of_the_8th_D%C3%A1il
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Have you ever tried playing the soprano saxophone using a Bb clarinet reed? Believe it or not, they work great. I first heard about this sort of thing from saxophonist Branford Marsalis. He has stated in interviews that he plays clarinet reeds on the soprano. I don't recall him going into great detail about it, only saying that he likes the cut.
I dabbled with them off and on, but I never made any real commitment to them. Not until recently, anyway.
In April of 2015, I went on a European tour with The BadPlus, along with alto saxophonist Tim Berne and cornetist Ron Miles, and I took four boxes of RW reeds with me. Two boxes of 2 1/2 soft soprano reeds, and two boxes of 2 1/2 soft clarinet reeds. And guess what? The boxes of soprano reeds never got opened.
What I like about the clarinet reeds is that they have a more consistent cut throughout the entirety of the reed. My theory is that the clarinet narrower, therefore, there's less room for error. Soprano reeds tend to be a little flimsy at the tip, making them difficult to play with a full sound in the high register. And there's a general inconsistency throughout. Whereas, the tip of clarinet reeds tend to be firm but not too stiff. These reeds have a good balance between resistance and vibrancy. The cut feels sort of a cross between a Rico Royal (back when they were good reeds) and the Vandoren Traditional Saxophone Reed--a.k.a. The blue box.
To further explain my findings, here is a list of pros and cons of using Bb clarinet reeds on the soprano saxophone.
A higher percentage of good reeds per box--which is always a bonus!
Because you’re having to manipulate more sound, it can slow down your dexterity; however, this can be remedied by practicing a few Marcel Mule etudes or just coming down in reed size. Some might try shaving the reed, but I’m not a big fan of this process.
As I said stated earlier, they do take some getting used to; however, I think the benefits to be gained outweigh this temporary stage of discomfort, tenfold.
Check it out. I'd be curious to hear what you think.
Many of us in the music business, at one time or another, have been inflicted with the cognitive bias known as the illusion of control--a term coined by Harvard professor and clinical psychologist Ellen Langer. Simply put, this is when people overestimate the control they have over events in their lives. I've seen this cognitive bias in musicians, music educators, and particularly in music industry people like producers and A & R reps. Sometimes it works for us, sometimes it works against us. But rest assured it's there affecting our everyday lives.
Let's say you are an A & R rep at a record label--even though they barely exist anymore--and you signed a band that hit it big and made millions of dollars for the label. The illusion of control is you thinking that you and your "magical" formula for picking bands are the direct cause of the band’s success--which is often not the case. You may have entered them into the race, but why they crossed the finish line far ahead of the others is far beyond your control. If in fact you knew which bands were going to hit it big, you’d be the richest and most sought after person on the planet. But the fact of the matter is that you have no idea. The hypothetical band that you signed who hit it big, did so mostly due to luck. They just happened to be the right people, at the right place, and the right time.
A non-musical example of the illusion of control is winning the lottery. People who win lotteries often think they know how to pick lucky numbers. Many of them have some wacky system or ritual that means absolutely nothing (i.e. claiming to play numbers only from birthdates of family members, or playing various combinations of their phone number and zip code). Which as I mentioned earlier means nothing, since the selection of lottery numbers are totally random. Having a three-year old pick random numbers out of a box of sand is as likely to produce a winning lottery ticket as using numbers from birthdays and zip codes.
Studies performed by Langer showed that people who roll dice at the craps table tend to throw the dice harder if the want higher numbers and softer if they want lower numbers, as if that would make any difference. This is something that Langer defines as "skill cues."
As performers, ninety-nine percent of us are probably guilty of this. How many times have you stood on your tippy toes to hit those high notes, or bent your knees to honk out the low tones? As though being closer to the ground will actually help you play lower.
Even in the context of carving out a career as a jazz musician, I’ve seen the illusion of control in successful players who think that they know exactly why they became successful. I’ll hear theories from how they know how to put together a great band, how to spot trends, or know the right hands to shake. I do understand the importance of these aforementioned things. However, a lot of skilled musicians know how to put together great bands, spot trends, and have great social and political skills; yet, these things still don’t automatically translate into a successful career.
And of course, there's something to be said for continuing to try and keeping it at. But let's be clear, this is not control. This creates possibilities, not outcomes--something I will address a little later.
Years ago I had a band called Global Unity who got signed to Columbia/Sony—albeit our tenure with the label was short lived, but that’s another blog post. The way that this happened was totally random.
The short of the story is this: One day I decided to self-produced an album length recording of my band (this was before that kind of thing was popular, mind you) and after it was completed I played it for my friend Lisa. I told her that I was looking to shop the recording to various labels and she suggested that I give a copy to a booking agent friend of hers who was looking to get into artist management. After I agreed, she set the ball in motion by not only telling him about the recording, but actually taking it to his apartment and sitting down and listening to it with him. One of the reasons he agreed to their meeting was because he’d remember hearing us a few months earlier at some small club in the East Village. And apparently, really liked the group.
So here is where randomness played a role.
Right before our performance at this East Village club, I realized that I'd left some of my sheet music at home. Since the club did not have a copy machine, I went to a photocopy shop a few blocks from the venue. On the way back, I bumped into him and his then fiancée as they were walking up the street. They were just about to go to dinner, so I gave them a flyer and told them that the venue where I was playing was only a few blocks from the restaurant. So they took the flyer and assured me that they would stop by after they’d eaten dinner. Sure enough they did. And lucky for us, we performed a really good set. We were well-rehearsed and everyone was having a good night. Keep in mind that this was a period where if you wanted to have a relationship with a record company, you had to either invite someone from the label to one of your performances. or someone who would be willing to advocate on your behalf. This was pre-check-out-our-band-on-YouTube days.
Back to my point about randomness. Prior to this gig, I had made numerous unsuccessful attempts to get this agent out to one of my performances. However, just by chance, he happened to be in the neighborhood on this particular night that I was playing. And lo and behold, several months later I was able to reap the benefits of that random encounter.
After I had gotten my record contract, I could have come up with numerous pat-myself-on-the-back theories on why things went in my favor. But the fact of the matter is that I just happened to be at the right place at the right time--not to mention some good advocating on behalf from my friend Lisa. The music has to be good; that's a given. However, the fact that I have not been able to create any music remotely interesting to any label--large and small--is proof that this situation was in fact random. And in my own defense, maybe if I cared about that sort of thing a little more I might have been able to conjure some interests. The fact of the matter is that that sort or thing—shopping to labels and trying to get people to represent me—is of little interest. I’m much more interested in documenting my work these days. I’ll worry more about career advancement when the time is right.
Moving away from my getting-signed story for moment: Another point I’d like to make is that the illusion of control clouds our ability to access our situation. Studies have shown that the more powerful a person feels, the stronger the illusion of control becomes. I’ve seen this demonstrated in prominent jazz musicians who’ve surrounded themselves with sidemen who were not on their level--frankly, musicians whom many considered to be very mediocre. But because of the feeling of control and authority that comes with being a prominent person in this business, you can come to exist in a bubble, since you are no longer open to the criticism and assessment endured by everyday, less prominent players. And this is very common amongst people in leadership positions: CEOs of major corporations, presidents of universities, and pastors of churches. These figures of authority often get caught up in their own illusions of control, while everyone else around them are able to so clearly see the obstacles halting their progress.
I’d like to point out that the illusion of control isn’t all negative. The truth is that it makes us strive for things even when our chances of achieving them are very low. Think about how many times we’ve tried to get our bands booked on festivals as an unknown. The illusion of control made us feel that we could influence the booker’s decision by having a well-written cover letter, a slick looking band photo, and, of course, a well-recorded, well-performed CD.. These things do help, but ultimately, the booker of the festival makes his or her decision independent of what you think your influence is. If you are lucky, your packet will be the very thing they’re looking for at that particular time.
Point and case is when I got my deal with Columbia/Sony, it just so happened that the new regime at the label were looking for something more world music oriented. And voilà! My demo, Global Unity comes across their desk. The timing could not have been more perfect. But the bigger point to be learned from my scenario and many others like it, is that even though you ultimately don’t have the final say (or control), the illusion of control does at least give you the confidence to try.
The last issue I'd like to discuss is the illusion of futility, which is the opposite of the illusion of control. This is when you fail to recognize how much control or influence you actually have over a particular situation. For example, you may fail to realize how being difficult decreases your chances of employment. Or how practicing correctly makes you play more consistently. Or how just being visible increases your chances of being hired, in general. These are things we take for granted; however, these are things which we can control that can make a big difference.
In summary, if you want to do well in the music business, prepare, prepare, prepare. Or better yet, try, try, try. Ultimately, you don't have direct control over final outcomes; however, you can increase the likelihood of luck going in your favor. These are the rules of the game. Now our job is to learn how to play it.
I'm sure that I echo the sentiments of many when I say that with the passing of Ornette Coleman, we not only lost an important and still relevant jazz figure, but a school of thought that became the face of modern jazz as we know it. I've been more occupied with Ornette and his music in recent months since becoming an active member of The Bad Plus' Science Fiction project, in which we play music from his 1972 Columbia Records release of the same name.
A while back, pianist Ethan Iverson asked me to write a few words about Ornette and his music for a piece that he was putting together for his blog Do the Math to promote some upcoming performances with the Science Fiction project.
Two artists whom I think of as being the quintessence of originality are Ornette Coleman and Jackson Pollack. They both turned convention on its head--Ornette with sound and style, Jackson with colors and shapes. And Ornette was even more unique in that he was always Ornette. Jackson came into his own much later in life. Ornette, however, seemed to have been born into his--and has remained there. Whenever I hear Ornette's music, the message I always hear is that it's OK to be yourself. His music is a story of self-acceptance. He opened the doors of jazz, and welcomed all of those who felt that they had something say--both the well schooled and the untrained. His music taught black musicians that it's OK to embrace a black sound; it taught white musicians that it's OK to embrace a white sound. And even more importantly, it taught us all how to work together. On the surface, Ornette's music seems very militant--a blatant rejection of a European sensibility. But it's not that at all. At its core, his music doesn't reject anyone or anything. Through his music, Ornette embraced the world—and most of all, himself.
The (3) three best ways to practice the soprano are slow, slowly, and slower. Practicing slow is the aural equivalent of zooming in. It enables you to examine things from a more microscopic perspective. You are able to better access important components of your playing such as sound, embouchure, and rhythm a lot more carefully.
Slow practice is something that I do when I'm trying to get back to the basics--particularly with regards to the aforementioned things. This approach works similarly to the principle of opposites, which states that you that if you want to be able to play fast, then practice everything slowly. If you’ re trying to produce a robust, warm sound, then practice playing soft. It's a more disciplined form of practice and its benefits extend far beyond playing fast and a getting a big and warm sound of your instrument.
Now it's impossible to broach this topic without discussing tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, probably one of the cleanest and fastest musicians ever to play the saxophone--coming in second, maybe to John Coltrane. I'll take it a step further and say that Johnny Griffin had uniformity throughout all registers of the instrument that I'm not sure John Coltrane even had. His level of instrumental control and improvisational clarity can be heard on Griffin’s 1957 release, A Blowin Session, on which he shared the front line with notables of the time like Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley and John Coltrane. I’m not making this claim as a Johnny Griffin enthusiast, but it’s pretty obvious that he has a different level of instrumental command in comparison to his contemporaries; hence, why he earned the nickname, "The Fastest Gun in the West."
I'm mentioning Mr. Griffin because he was known for his very slow practice regimen--which isn't surprising. I've heard from numerous sources that he used to practice everything at a quarter note = 60, which is difficult to do over an extended period. To begin your practice playing everything at this metronome marking is no so difficult; however, to end your practice at the same tempo takes a different level or concentration and determination. And frankly, it would be difficult to play with the kind of precision for which Mr. Griffin was known without being extremely meticulous about every aspect of one's playing; I'm speaking of things such as his pitch, articulation, timbre, and harmonic acuity.
Getting away from saxophone oriented things for a for moment, one of the things I enjoy about slow practicing is how it slows down the mind--something I alluded to in #6. Back in my macro-shedding days, I often overloaded my brain with too much material. In non-musical occupations like being a lawyer or a college professor, having an abundance of information ready for immediate dispersion is a good thing. When playing jazz, however, being able to shut off the analytical side of your brain often makes you a more effective improviser. And don't think that I'm subscribing to the noble savage syndrome. Ignorance is not a virtue. However, to be an improviser with any kind of depth, you have to surrender to the natural forces and go with what is, and not with what you desperately want it to be.
So no matter which instrument you play, the tranquil effects of slow practice will leave your mind uncluttered, even after several hours of non-stop shedding. And more importantly, things that you're practicing actually get absorbed more deeply. It's the best of both worlds.
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2019-04-26T11:43:38Z
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https://sopranosaxtalk.blogspot.com/2015/06/
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2003-12-03 Application filed by Poll Wayne L. filed Critical Poll Wayne L.
2006-11-30 Assigned to MINIMALLY INVASIVE DEVICES, LLC reassignment MINIMALLY INVASIVE DEVICES, LLC ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: POTTER, WAYNE L.
2007-02-09 Assigned to MINIMALLY INVASIVE DEVICES, LLC reassignment MINIMALLY INVASIVE DEVICES, LLC CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE SPELLING OF NAME OF ASSIGNOR PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON REEL 018563 FRAME 0576. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE ASSIGNOR: POLL, WAYNE L.. Assignors: POLL, WAYNE L.
A surgical instrument for fragmenting and extracting stones includes an outer sheath having a proximal end and a distal end and an inner core longitudinally extending through the core and longitudinally movable relative to the core. The outer sheath has a basket sized for entrapping the stones and located near the distal end of the outer sheath. The distal end of the inner core is longitudinally moveable from a retracted position within the basket to an extended position past the distal end of the outer sheath. The distal end of the inner core is also adapted to engage and fragment the stones. Longitudinal movement of the inner core relative to the outer sheath transforms the basket from an expanded condition to a collapsed condition to entrap stones within the basket and provide a small profile for insertion and withdrawal.
This application claims the priority benefit of provisional patent application No. 60/503,404 filed on Sep. 16, 2003.
The present invention generally relates to a surgical instrument and, more particularly, to a basket type device or instrument for fragmenting and/or extracting stones or the like from various locations within a patient's body.
Many procedures have been used for extracting stones and stone fragments such as ureteral stones, calaceal stones and other calculus and the like from various biological systems such as renal and biliary systems. For example, ureteroscopy is the passage of a narrow caliber urinary endoscope within the ureteral lumen and is most commonly performed for the treatment and removal of painful ureteral stones that will not pass spontaneously. Ureteroscopy allows stone visualization and provides access for the delivery, guidance, and actuation of stone removal and/or fragmentation devices.
Typically, stone removal is accomplished with a retrieval basket. Existing stone retrieval baskets are constructed with inner and outer components. The inner component is typically a multi-filament wire generally composed of three to four strands that naturally separate and expand to form an oval shaped basket near the end and then rejoin at their terminus to a tapered tip. The outer component is a narrow cylindrical tube generally composed of plastic that encases the inner wire core and basket. When the wire inner component is pulled through the outer member, the flexible wires collapse so as to completely withdraw into the outer casing and collapse the basket. Typically a stone retrieval basket is passed beyond the stone either without or after fragmentation. The inner core is then advanced within and past the end of the outer sheath by manipulation of a handle on the proximal (surgeon's) end of the device. The inner core filaments then expand to form the basket and the surgeon manipulates the stone into the basket. Once the stone is entrapped in the basket, the inner core is withdrawn partially into the outer sheath so as to narrow the basket and securely capture the stone. Since the inner core cannot be completely withdrawn due to entrapped stone, the outer diameter of the basket is now larger than the fully collapsed device. The degree to which the basket is narrowed is visually controlled by the surgeon so as to insure the stone is firmly trapped.
Small stones may be simply grasped with a basket passed through the working channel of the ureteroscope. However, larger stones require fragmentation into smaller particles before they can be safely removed without injury to the ureter. In some cases, the stone may be completely fragmented into pieces so small that they will naturally pass out of the patient on their own without extraction. Occasionally, stones felt to be suitable for simple extraction will become immovable within narrowed segments of the ureteral lumen after basket entrapment. It is then difficult to disengage the stone from the basket for initial or additional fragmentation, and fragmentation within the basket is complicated.
Stone fragmentation is generally carried out via ultrasonic, ballistic, or laser methods. A fragmentation device is passed through the working channel of the ureteroscope and fragmentation is then performed. Stones are not held firmly in place during fragmentation making completion of fragmentation difficult to judge, and allowing some pieces that are still too large to pass naturally, to migrate proximally up the ureter where they may be difficult to re-engage or retrieve. Generally, once fragmentation is complete, the fragmentation device is removed and the basket is passed to entrap the remaining pieces. As such, two separate devices are necessary to complete fragmentation and removal.
Fragmentation without entrapment permits stone migration and loss. Fragmentation would be far more effective if the stone were held firmly in place so it could not recoil away from the fragmenting tip. Stone entrapment either without or after some fragmentation can be problematic in that even small stones, or those initially deemed to be adequately broken up, may be difficult to withdraw through the tight portion of the ureter.
Generally, stones are broken up until the fragments appear to be small enough to ensnare safely. Complete fragmentation may be hindered, however, by vision, ureteral edema, and fear of proximal migration. Even when the stones are adequately broken, stone fragments may be left behind because conventional baskets are not optimized for removal of shattered stones. Stone fragments left in the body may not be excreted as quickly or as completely as desired. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved surgical instrument for fragmenting and/or extracting stones and the like.
The present invention provides a surgical instrument which solves at least some of the above-noted problems. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention a surgical instrument includes, in combination, an outer sheath having a proximal end and a distal end and an inner core longitudinally extending through the core and longitudinally movable relative to the core. The outer sheath has a basket sized for entrapping the stones and located near the distal end of the outer sheath. The distal end of the inner core is adapted to engage and fragment the stones.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a surgical instrument for fragmenting and extracting stones comprising, in combination, an outer sheath having a proximal end and a distal end and an inner core longitudinally extending through the core and longitudinally movable relative to the core. The outer sheath has a basket sized for entrapping the stones and located near the distal end of the outer sheath. The distal end of the inner core is longitudinally moveable from a retracted position within the basket to an extended position past the distal end of the outer sheath.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a surgical instrument for fragmenting and extracting stones comprising, in combination, an outer sheath having a proximal end and a distal end and an inner core longitudinally extending through the core and longitudinally movable relative to the core. The outer sheath has a basket sized for entrapping the stones and located near the distal end of the outer sheath. The distal end of the inner core is longitudinally moveable from a retracted position within the basket to an extended position past the distal end of the outer sheath. The distal end of the inner core is adapted to engage and fragment the stones. Longitudinal movement of the inner core relative to the outer sheath transforms the basket from an expanded condition to a collapsed condition. The basket has a profile small in the collapsed condition than the expanded condition.
From the foregoing disclosure and the following more detailed description of various preferred embodiments it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention provides a significant advance in the technology and art of surgical instruments. Particularly significant in this regard is the potential the invention affords for providing a high quality, easy to operate, reliable instrument. Additional features and advantages of various preferred embodiments will be better understood in view of the detailed description provided below.
FIG. 16 is a diagrammatic view of second embodiment of the device according to the present invention, showing the core coupled to a fiber optic viewing device.
It should be understood that the appended drawings are not necessarily to scale, presenting a somewhat simplified representation of various preferred features illustrative of the basic principles of the invention. The specific design features of a surgical instrument as disclosed herein, including, for example, specific dimensions, orientations, and shapes of the outer sheath and inner core will be determined in part by the particular intended application and use environment. Certain features of the illustrated embodiments have been enlarged or distorted relative to others to facilitate visualization and clear understanding. In particular, thin features may be thickened, for example, for clarity or illustration. All references to direction and position, unless otherwise indicated, refer to the orientation of the surgical device illustrated in the drawings. In general, front or forward refers to a rightward direction within the plane of the paper in FIG. 1 toward the free tip of the inner core and the distal end of the device, and rear or rearward refers to a leftward direction within the plane of the paper in FIG. 1 toward the proximal end of the device and away from the free tip or distal end of the inner core.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that is, to those who have knowledge or experience in this area of technology, that many uses and design variations are possible for the surgical instrument disclosed herein. The following detailed discussion of various alternative and preferred embodiments will illustrate the general principles of the invention with reference to a surgical instrument or fragmentation and fragmentation basket suitable for fragmenting and/or removing ureteral stones from a human patient's body. Other embodiments suitable for other applications will be apparent to those skilled in the art given the benefit of this disclosure.
As best shown in FIGS. 1 to 7, a fragmentation and extraction device 10 according to the present invention is preferably utilized in conjunction with an endoscope 12 such as a ureteroscope or other suitable instrument. The fragmentation and extraction device 10 includes an outer member or sheath 14 having a collapsible basket 16 and an inner member or core 18 longitudinally extending through the outer sheath 14. The collapsible basket 16 of the outer sheath 14 serves as a retrieval and entrapment basket which can be selectively altered between an operating or free condition wherein the collapsible basket 16 is expanded radially outward to retrieve and entrap stones (best shown in FIGS. 1 and 4) and an inserting/extracting or collapsed condition wherein the basket is collapsed radially inward to a reduced profile to permit insertion and withdrawal of the device 10 and to entrap stones (best shown in FIGS. 2 and 5) as described in more detail hereinafter. The inner core 18 selectively collapses and therefore straightens the collapsible basket 16 and also selectively fragments stones as described in more detail hereinafter.
The elongate outer member or sheath 14 is generally tubular-shaped having a proximal end 14 a at the endoscope 12 and a free distal end 14 b for insertion into the patient. The outer sheath 14 has a cylindrically shaped outer surface 20 for most of its length and a longitudinally extending inner passage 22. The outer surface 20 of the outer sheath 14 is preferably sized and shaped for close passage through a working channel of the endoscope 12 and insertion into a lumen or cavity of a human patient. The outer sheath 14 is preferably the radially outermost component of the device 10 such that passage through the working channel of the endoscope 12 directly acts on the outer surface of the outer sheath 14 as described in more detail hereinafter. The inner passage 22 is preferably sized and shaped for close receipt of the inner core 18 as described in more detail hereinafter.
The illustrated collapsible basket 16 is formed near a forward or distal end of the outer sheath 14 and is generally bulb shaped but the collapsible basket 16 can alternatively be of any suitable shape. The collapsible basket 16 defines a hollow interior space 24 radially larger than the inner passage 22 such that there is free or open space in the collapsible basket 16 for entrapping stones within the collapsible basket 16 even while the inner core 18 passes entirely through the collapsible basket 16. The outer sheath 14 is perforated at the collapsible basket 16 by a plurality of openings 26. The openings 26 are preferably sized and shaped for the passage of stones into the interior space 24 of the collapsible basket 16 (best shown in FIGS. 1 and 4). The illustrated openings 26 are slits extending in a longitudinal direction and equally spaced about the circumference of the outer sheath 14. The slits 26 preferably do not entirely extend to the distal end of the outer sheath 14. The openings 26 can alternatively have any suitable size and shape. The spaced apart slits or openings 26 form separate longitudinally extending and circumferentially spaced apart bridging or connecting arms 28. The openings 26 and bridging arms 28 are preferably sized and shaped such that the collapsible basket 16 is resiliently collapsible to a substantially cylindrical shape with the openings 26 closed or substantially closed when the collapsible basket 16 is in the collapsed condition (best shown in FIGS. 2 and 5). The illustrated bridging arms 28 are rectangular-shaped in cross-section wherein the width w is greater than the wall thickness t. It is noted that the wall thickness t of the bridging arms 28 is preferably less than the wall thickness of the remaining portion of the outer sheath 14 but alternatively can be equal or larger. It is also noted that while the illustrated collapsible basket 16 has six openings and six bridging arms 28, there can alternatively be a fewer or greater number of openings 26 and/or bridging arms 28 within the scope of the present invention.
The illustrated inner passage 22 extends entirely through the outer sheath 14 such that there is an opening 30 at the distal end 14 b of the outer sheath 14. A rearward facing engagement surface or abutment 32 encircles the opening 30 in the interior of the collapsible basket 16 which cooperates with the inner core 18 to collapse the collapsible basket 16 as described in more detail hereinafter. It is noted that while the illustrated abutment 32 is in the form of an annular-shape or ring about the opening 30, the abutment 32 can alternatively have any suitable size, shape, and location.
The collapsible basket 16 is preferably formed of a suitable resilient material such that the collapsible basket 16 elastically deforms from its preformed or un-stressed operating condition to its inserting/extracting condition when suitable forces are applied by the inner core 18 and resiliently returns to its operating shape when the forces are removed. It is believed that suitable materials include polymers and elastomers. The outer sheath 14 and the collapsible basket 16 are preferably formed of the same material but alternatively can be formed of different materials. The outer sheath 14 and the collapsible basket 16 are preferably formed unitary, that is, as a single body of continuous material formed by, for example, molding, co molding or over molding. It is noted that alternatively the collapsible basket 16 can be secured or attached to the outer sheath 14 in any suitable manner.
The elongate inner core 18 is generally cylindrically-shaped having a proximal end 18 a at the endoscope 12 and a free distal end 18 b for insertion into the patient. The inner core 18 preferably has a length that can extend all the way through the outer sheath 14 including the collapsible basket 16 and pass through the opening 30 in the distal end 14 b of the outer sheath 14. A cylindrical outer surface 34 of the inner core 18 is sized and shaped to be closely and slidingly received in the inner passage 22 of the outer sheath 14 so that the inner core 18 can slide within the inner passage 22 along a central axis 36. The illustrated inner core 18 forms a forward facing engagement surface or abutment 38 near its distal end 18 b which is sized and shaped to cooperate with the abutment 32 of the outer sheath 14. The illustrated abutment 38 is in the form of an annular-shape or ring encircling the central axis 36 of the inner core 18 and is formed by an increased diameter portion 40 of the inner core 18. The abutment 38 can alternatively be formed by a reduced diameter portion or in any other suitable manner. It is noted that while the illustrated abutment 38 is annular or ring-shaped about the inner core 18 near its distal end 18 b, the abutment 38 can alternatively have any suitable size, shape, and location. The forward or distal end 18 b of the illustrated inner core 18 is provided with a nose 42 sized and shaped to pass through the opening 30 and sized and shaped to fragment stones. The illustrated nose 42 is generally dome-shaped but other suitable shapes can be utilized.
The inner core 18 is preferably formed of a suitable semi-rigid or rigid material such that once the abutments 32, 38 are engaged, forward movement of the inner core 18 relative to the outer sheath 14 elastically deforms the collapsible basket 16 from its preformed or un-stressed operating condition to its inserting/extracting or collapsed condition. Alternatively, the inner core 18 may be a hybrid of a rigid terminal section for fragmentation, and a more flexible proximal length that would allow for easier passage of the device 10 through the ureteroscope 12. Suitable materials are believed to include polymers, elastomers, and metals.
The inner core 18 extends through the inner passage 22 of the outer sheath 14 and can be longitudinally moved relative to the outer sheath 14. The inner core 18 slides freely within the inner passage 22 of the outer sheath 14. The inner core 18 is preferably suitably connected to a movement device or handle 44 of the endoscope 12 so that the surgeon can selectively control and actuate the inner core 18 relative to the outer sheath 14. As best shown in FIG. 1, the inner core 18 can be moved in a forward direction so that the inner core 18 passes entirely through the collapsible basket 16 and extends through the opening 30 at the forward or distal end 14 b of the outer sheath 14. In this extended position, the nose 42 of the inner core 18 is located forward of the distal end 14 b of the outer sheath 14 so that the nose 42 can initially fragment stones located forward of the device 10 prior to entrapment of the stones in the collapsible basket 16. As best shown in FIG. 2, the inner core 18 can be moved further forward relative to the outer sheath 14 once the abutments 32, 38 are engaged so that the inner core 18 applies a tensile force or load to the outer sheath 14 which elastically deforms the collapsible basket 16 to its collapsed condition. This collapsed condition produces a small profile for passage of the device 10 through the ureteroscope 12 and extraction down the ureter. As best shown in FIG. 3, the inner core 18 can also be moved in a rearward direction relative to the outer sheath 14 so that the nose 42 is in a retracted position within the collapsible basket 16. In this retracted position, the nose 42 of the inner core 18 is located within the collapsible basket 16 so that the nose 42 can initially or additionally fragment stones entrapped within the collapsible basket 16.
As best shown in FIG. 8, the device 10 is initially passed through the working channel of the ureteroscope 12 to a stone 46 located within a lumen or other cavity 60 of a patent so that fragmentation, capture, and/or extraction of the stone 46 may be accomplished under direct vision. Vision is accomplished by a fiber optic device or other suitable vision unit incorporated into the device 10. then endoscope 12, or separate of both the device 10 and the endoscope 12. During initial insertion, the collapsible basket 16 is preferably in its insertion/extraction or collapsed condition.
As best shown in FIG. 9, the stone 46 can be initially fragmented with the exposed tip or nose 42 of the inner core 18 if desired, as the nose 42 protrudes slightly through the opening 30 at the distal end 14 b of the outer sheath 14. Initial fragmentation may be desired when the stone 46 is too large to easily engage and capture with the collapsible basket 16. Energy is delivered by the inner core 18 to fragment the stone 46. Energy can be by mechanical energy delivered by direct impact with the stone 46 or delivered by an energy source 48 (FIGS. 13 to 15) of the device which transmits energy to the stone 46 through the inner core 18. Preferably, the stone 46 is initially fragmented only as needed to permit capture by the collapsible basket 16 to minimize small fragments produced outside the collapsible basket 16. It is noted that in some cases it may be desirable to engage and capture the stone 46 without initial fragmentation, such as when the stone 46 is small enough to be easily engaged and captured by the collapsible basket 16.
As best shown in FIG. 10, once the stones 46 are of adequate size for capture, the inner core 18 is pulled back by the surgeon actuating the handle 44 so that the collapsible basket 16 resiliently returns to its expanded or operating condition. The stones 46 are then engaged and passed into the inner space or lumen 24 of the collapsible basket 16 by the surgeon manipulating the entire device 10. With the stones 46 located within the collapsible basket 16, the surgeon can additionally or initially fragment the entrapped stones 46 within the collapsible basket 16 if desired. It is noted that in some cases it may be desirable to engage and capture the stone 46 without additional or initial fragmentation, such as when the stone 46 is small enough to be extracted without fragmentation. As best shown in FIG. 11, the inner core 18 can be retracted and re-extended within the collapsible basket 16 to directly contact the stones 46 which are located within the collapsible basket 16 to provide for fragmentation of the stones 46 through conducted energy or through the direct application of mechanical energy. It is noted that the collapsible basket 16 can be partially or fully collapsed to additionally secure the stones 46 during this fragmentation if desired.
With the stones 46 in the collapsible basket 16 the surgeon has several options for extracting the stones 46 and the device 10. First, the surgeon can remove the entire device 10 as is with the stones 46, while the collapsible basket 16 remains in its expanded condition, by sliding the device 10 down the ureter into the patient's bladder. Second, the surgeon can advance the inner core 18 to collapse the collapsible basket 16 to its insertion/extraction condition. As best shown in FIG. 12, the fully reduced profile of the device 10 in the insertion/extraction allows for easy removal of the entire device 10 with the stones 46 entrapped therein. Third, if a stone or stones are preventing complete collapse of the collapsible basket 16, the surgeon can reduce the profile of the collapsible basket 16 and further secure stone entrapment by withdrawing the entire device 10 partially back within the working channel of the ureteroscope 12. By withdrawing the outer sheath 14 into the working channel of the ureteroscope 12, the collapsible basket 16 is further narrowed and fully collapsed much like a conventional basket being withdrawn into its outer sheath. As such, the inner core 18 better impacts the firmly held stones 46 which are preventing complete withdrawal of the collapsible basket 16. It is noted that, if necessary, additional stone fragmentation may be performed when the collapsible basket 16 is collapsed or partially collapsed and the stones 46 are more firmly ensnared prior to or during any of these steps for extracting the stones 46.
Under some conditions, some stone fragments broken up by the inner core 18 within the collapsible basket 16 may spontaneously escape through the openings 26 of the collapsible basket 16. These pieces or fragments may be reengaged and the cycle of engagement and fragmentation continued until all particles are entrapped and extracted or deemed passable without extraction.
As noted hereinabove, fragmentation energy other than mechanical impact can be supplied to the stones through the inner core 18. An energy source 48 of any suitable type can be coupled or connected to the inner core 18. As best shown in FIG. 13, the energy source 48 can be pneumatic, ultrasonic or other vibrating device 50 useful for stone fragmentation. As best shown in FIG. 14, the energy source 48 can be in the form of a rotational drilling device 52 which rotates a drill head or bit 54 located at the distal end 14 b of the inner core 18 useful for stone fragmentation. The drilling device 52 can alternatively rotate the drill bit 54 alone or the entire inner core 18. Alternatively, a hollow passage of the inner core 18 can allow the transmission of hydraulic or pneumatic energy to propel the drill bit 54 or other mobile fragmentation tip. As best shown in FIG. 15, the energy source 48 can be in the form of a laser device 56 suitable for stone fragmentation. It is noted that in each of these embodiments, at least a portion of the inner core 18 comprises a material suitable to transmit or conduct the ballistic, ultrasonic, rotational, laser, or other desired form of energy. As best shown in FIG. 16, the inner core 18 can also alternatively be coupled to a fiber optic viewing device 58 which extends the length of the inner core 18 for viewing at the distal end 18 b of the inner core 18. It is noted that each of these alternatives can be used alone or in combination either simultaneously or consecutively. For example, the inner core 18 with a blunt nose 42 can be used to engage the stone, once the stone is engaged this inner core 18 is removed from the outer sheath 14 and an inner core 18 with the rotational drill bit 54 is placed within the outer sheath 14 to fragment the stone into particles. Such a inner core 18 used for rotational purposes but not for collapsing the collapsible basket 16 can be quite flexible throughout most of its length. It is further noted that the inner core 18 may effect mechanical fragmentation of the stones through direct exertion of pressure on the stones. For example, once the stones are trapped within the collapsible basket 16, an inner core 18 in the form of a rigid solid member may forcibly fragment the stones through direct mechanical pressure and without the delivery of conducted energy.
It is apparent from the above detailed disclosure that fragmentation and extraction device 10 according to the present invention provides many unique benefits over existing baskets. For example, the collapsible basket 16 is formed by the terminus of the outer sheath 14 and is collapsed upon movement of the inner core 18 to allow for stone engagement and retrieval. The inner core 18 uniquely provides the method of closing or changing the configuration of the collapsible basket 16. Additionally, the device allows for initial stone fragmentation via the exposed nose 42 of the inner core 18 prior to entrapment of the stone in the collapsible basket 16. Furthermore, the device 10 allows for additional or initial fragmentation of the entrapped stone within the collapsible basket 16 without the passage or use of additional devices. Moreover, the device 10 allows for disruption of the entrapped stone by direct application of mechanical force by the surgeon transmitted through the inner core 18. Even moreover, the collapsible basket 16 is constructed in a manner which entraps smaller fragments than prior art wire baskets.
It is also apparent that the fragmentation and extraction device 10 according to the present invention is a combination fragmentation and retrieval device that with a single device allows for optional initial stone fragmentation outside the collapsible basket 16, stone entrapment or capture, additional or initial stone fragmentation within the collapsible basket 16 if desired, and stone removal or extraction if desired. The fragmentation and extraction device 10 thus eliminates the need for separate fragmentation and extraction devices, decreases the necessity of device exchanges, and allows for continued and more efficient fragmentation once the stone is ensnared within the collapsible basket 16. Fragmentation of ensnared stones should allow for more efficient fragmentation and reduce proximal migration of large particles.
wherein the distal end of the inner core is adapted to engage and fragment the stones.
2. The surgical instrument according to claim 1, wherein longitudinal movement of the inner core relative to the outer sheath transforms the basket from an expanded condition to a collapsed condition, the basket having a profile small in the collapsed condition than the expanded condition.
3. The surgical instrument according to claim 2, wherein the basket is preformed in the expanded condition and resiliently returns to the expanded condition from the collapsed condition upon removal of force applied by the inner core.
4. The surgical instrument according to claim 2, wherein an abutment of the inner core engages an abutment of the outer sheath to resiliently deform the basket from the expanded condition to the collapsed condition upon longitudinal movement of the inner core relative to the outer sheath in a direction toward the distal end of the outer sheath.
5. The surgical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the distal end of the outer sheath is provided with an opening so that the inner core can extend through the opening and past the distal end of the outer core.
6. The surgical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the distal end of the inner core is moveable from a retracted position within the basket to an extended position past the distal end of the outer sheath.
7. The surgical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the distal end of the inner core is provided with a blunt nose for fragmenting the stones.
8. The surgical instrument according to claim 1, wherein an energy source is connected to the inner core to provide energy for fragmenting the stones.
9. The surgical instrument according to claim 8, wherein the energy source is a vibrating device.
10. The surgical instrument according to claim 8, wherein the energy source is a drilling device.
11. The surgical instrument according to claim 8, wherein the energy source is laser device.
wherein the distal end of the inner core is longitudinally moveable from a retracted position within the basket to an extended position past the distal end of the outer sheath.
13. The surgical instrument according to claim 12, wherein longitudinal movement of the inner core relative to the outer sheath transforms the basket from an expanded condition to a collapsed condition, the basket having a profile small in the collapsed condition than the expanded condition.
14. The surgical instrument according to claim 13, wherein the basket is preformed in the expanded condition and resiliently returns to the expanded condition from the collapsed condition upon removal of force applied by the inner core.
15. The surgical instrument according to claim 13, wherein an abutment of the inner core engages an abutment of the outer sheath to resiliently deform the basket from the expanded condition to the collapsed condition upon longitudinal movement of the inner core relative to the outer sheath in a direction toward the distal end of the outer sheath.
16. The surgical instrument according to claim 12, wherein the distal end of the outer sheath is provided with an opening so that the inner core can extend through the opening and past the distal end of the outer core.
17. The surgical instrument according to claim 12, wherein the distal end of the inner core is adapted to engage and fragment the stones.
18. The surgical instrument according to claim 12, wherein the distal end of the inner core is provided with a blunt nose for fragmenting the stones.
19. The surgical instrument according to claim 12, wherein an energy source is connected to the inner core to provide energy for fragmenting the stones.
wherein longitudinal movement of the inner core relative to the outer sheath transforms the basket from an expanded condition to a collapsed condition, the basket having a profile small in the collapsed condition than the expanded condition.
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2019-04-26T12:08:43Z
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https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050059981A1/en
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The inconvenient truth about a Trade War is that you actually have to pay for it as you go. The weapons of a trade war—restricting our own desires to buy a trading partner’s goods until they cry uncle—are by definition pay-as-you-go. It hurts here and now. It may or may not disturb our sensibilities, but it is likely to deeply disrupt our lifestyle. As a result, democracies are not nearly as good at this as a more tightly controlled autocratic style system. It is a game that must be played with incredible skill, especially in a democracy.
The President thinks trade wars are easy and winnable. They are neither, as we are learning the hard way. War is hell. But conventional war—military actions we normally think of as war—is different than a trade war. The United States has engaged in many conventional wars. They are horrendous activities that cost American lives and many hundreds of billions of dollars.
Wars are heavily debated and much anguished over, as they should be. However, American wars have one convenient feature. They are conducted by professionals who have opted to join the military, they happen far away, and no one seems to have to pay for it because the government borrows the money. There is no Afghanistan War surtax this year. Or any year. Debt explodes, but that is someone else’s problem (our grandchildren, I suppose).
A conventional war witnessed on the news can disturb our sensibilities, but it doesn’t disrupt our lifestyles. As a result, it can be waged even by a democracy.
The inconvenient truth about a Trade War, however, is that you actually have to pay for it as you go. The weapons of a trade war—restricting our own desires to buy a trading partner’s goods until they cry uncle—are by definition pay-as-you-go. It hurts here and now. There is no professional army to send off to fight. It is not conducted far away. There is no deflecting the costs into the distant future. It may or may not disturb our sensibilities, but it can deeply disrupt our lifestyle.
Yes, there are winners and losers in a trade war. On the other hand, trade liberalization creates winners and losers. Protectionism creates winners and losers. Policy stasis creates winners and losers. The creative destruction of capitalism inevitably leaves winners and losers in its wake. This is the great advantage of free and open markets.
The problem is that because a trade war is both up-front-and-personal and pay-as-you-go, it is extremely hard for a democracy to conduct it well. The intense pressures being put on the Administration by the ‘losers’ are highly likely to get the President to blink (if his immigration enforcement is any indicator).
Many will be relieved when the President caves. The truth is, however, that caving is not the right solution. Trade is a positive-sum activity– more is good. But trade policy in every country (including the United States) is essentially mercantilist. Trade negotiations are about reducing the barriers created by domestic politics. It is often ‘war by other means,’ and at times it must be aggressive. The United States has used its economic muscle to twist other countries into policies we prefer. Every country that can do it does do it. China is showing great deftness at this game. When negotiations get too aggressive, we call it war.
The question is how to do it well. It is a game that must be played with incredible skill, especially in a democracy. It can require more skill than for a military conflict because the weapons impose immediate costs—who will pay tariffs immediately and who will soon be punished by retaliatory tariffs. The range and scope of these weapons, and their consequences, will be determined a little by strategy, a lot by luck and a whole lot by sheer special interest politics.
Clearly the United States is not doing it well. The U.S. non-strategy is impulsive, insular, ill-conceived, and ignores key stakeholders. The internal battle among Trump and parts of his own administration and the Republicans in Congress over how to punish or to aid the Chinese industrial giant ZTE is a good example. ZTE, a serial violator of US law, is facing both severe punishment and tactical support by various parts of the Trump Administration. Both sides of this intra-Party fight are trying to best use this weapon in the trade “war” with China, but at bewildering cross-purposes.
Here is the larger problem. Good strategic trade policy identifies the two, maybe three critical objectives, carefully aligns weapons and allies, and targets the battle to those objectives. Team Trump has opened fronts willy-nilly across the globe. Losers abound (see Harley-Davidson), winners are uncertain, allies are alienated, and any important objectives are lost in the melee. As the losers garner political support, the weapons for an effective trade war shift and wane, and eventually disappear.
The most important point is that even a brilliant trade policy conducted in a well-functioning democracy is at a disadvantage in the face of a strong authoritarian system, where decisions are made by a “technocratic elite of highly-educated bureaucrats under party control” with both the authority to effectively apply its economic weapons and the patience to employ them for the duration.
It is not at all clear a democracy can win against such an opponent. It is certainly clear that a lone democracy—even the largest one– confronting a very large and determined authoritarian structure should not open simultaneous fronts against every possible ally.
This self-destructive strategy seems to be exactly how Team Trump is conducting the war. Not to mention that no one seems to know just what success actually means to the Team. We will likely get all the destruction without any of the creation.
The most likely outcome to this ill-conceived multi-front trade war will be a group of solidly antagonized trade partners, substantial damage to the multilateral infrastructure, an end to unified support to help draw China into a liberal ruled base trading system, and a growing sense of defensive nationalism across the globe that will require years of exceptionally good diplomacy to overcome.
Robert A. Rogowsky is Professor and Program Co-chair of the Masters in International Trade & Economic Diplomacy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA and Adjunct Professor of Trade & Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s Masters School of Foreign Service.
These essays are the opinions strictly of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or any officials of the Institute.
History Doesn’t Repeat, But it is Rhyming Like Crazy.
As we daily explore the consequences of discombobulation diplomacy—of which an important subset is what Ed Luce has exquisitely labeled “diplotainment”—we plumb ever deeper levels of concern for America’s future, for Pax Americana, and for the liberal order in general. China, we hear regularly is playing ‘the long game.’ The United States does not seem at all in that game.
Contrasting transactional impulse-driven diplotainment to the long game draws us to lessons history might offer. Those who do not know history are destined to repeat it. The consequences can be grim.
Ed Luce looks further back, insightfully and grimly comparing U.S. politics today to Nero’s Rome as it begins its mutation from Republic to Empire. Trump is taking care of the circuses, Luce warns, but how long will the bread last? At some point, Trump’s trade rhetoric must start to jeopardize growth.
In the spirit that history does indeed rhyme, I find perhaps history’s most valuable warning for us—and the long game—is a more recent story.
I am thoroughly enjoying the task of reading Henry Kissinger’s 1994 classic Diplomacy. I stumbled into a reverse déjà vu in 19th century Europe as Bismarck perfects the Realpolitik long game to create a new, dominating Great Power. It is an eery parallel to today. With full credit to Prof. Kissinger (specifically Chapter 5), let me retell his story.
With the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte and 25 years of near constant war across the continent, the Great Powers of Europe formed the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The “Congress” was to be a vehicle for discussions to resolve disputes among the Europe states. It was a carefully designed web of relationships based on respect for sovereign states and suppressing disruptive liberalizing (i.e., democratic) efforts that would disturb the equilibrium. Through “congresses and careful diplomacy,” especially the efforts of the brilliant Austrian foreign minister Klemens von Metternich and like-minded statesmen in England, France and Russia, war in Europe was avoided for four decades. Sadly, the carefully constructed system that brought peace for the first half of the 19th century succumbed to new ambitious, competing personalities.
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte III—nephew of the great general defeated at Waterloo– was voted into the French presidency in 1848. Erratic, ambitious and with an overly grand sense of himself, he successfully overturned the constitutional prohibition on his re-election and proclaimed the Second French Empire. An empire needs an emperor and in 1852 he dutifully appointed himself to the job.
In his [Napoleon’s] eyes foreign policy is only an instrument he uses to secure his rule in France; to legitimize his throne, to found his dynasty. …[H]e would not shrink from any means, from any combination which suited itself to make him popular at home.
Bonaparte’s nemesis, Bismarck, was not at all confused and played Bonaparte brilliantly. After antagonizing Russia, Bonaparte III offered neutrality to Prussia as he encouraged a war between Prussia and Austria. But, expecting Austria to prevail, then offered alliance to them. The loose and fiercely independent German states were held apart by the Congress of Vienna and Metternich’s strategic diplomacy. Bonaparte’s feckless efforts created for Bismarck the overwhelming external threat needed to pull the contrary members of the confederation together under Prussia leadership in defense of the attack by a hapless and declining Austria. The rising military and industrial power of the German Confederation now fell under the control of the militaristic Prussia, which in turn was firmly under the ambitious, hand of Bismarck. Germany became a dominant, ambitious new Great Power—the Second Reich— set on using its growing industrial and military powers to realize its continental ambitions. World Wars I and II followed.
Germany’s nationalism “unleavened by democracy” turned increasingly chauvinistic and militant. Raw power became the currency of the realm.
The same is happening now on a global scale. U.S. trade policy seems to be trying to harness Bismarck but is channeling Bonaparte III. China will soon enough be 25% larger than the United States and the dominant trading partner for virtually every nation on earth. The existential destructiveness of modern weaponry means that economic power is the most important form of power. China is no stranger to clear and effective application of it. To handle a rising China, the United States and China need Metternichs. We elected a Bonaparte III. China selected a Bismarck. It is certain that we are galloping headlong into rough waters. History does not offer grounds for much optimism.
Author Robert A. RogowskyPosted on June 21, 2018 Categories BlogsLeave a comment on History Doesn’t Repeat, But it is Rhyming Like Crazy.
U.S. industry in general has been strongly supportive of trade liberalization. There are, of course, a few exceptions, like steel, textiles and footwear, and a few select agricultural products. And I do mean a few. One Ag expert once told my trade class that if it’s white, it’s protected: sugar, cotton, milk, and rice. Everything else is on its own. However, for the most part, U.S. industry understands the modern global economy and America’s role in developing a global marketplace in which American industry can thrive. Consequently, Republicans in Congress and the White House historically have been extremely supportive of globalization, multilateralism, and trade liberalization.
Labor union leaders and certain public interest and environmental groups have opposed trade liberalization with varying degrees of intensity. For them, its about losing jobs to foreigners and harm to the environment. As a result, Democrats in Congress and the Oval Office have sat in opposition to trade agreements, or are at least been deeply reluctant.
In contrast, according to a series of Pew Research surveys over the past half-decade, nearly twice as many Americans see trade as a good thing as those who see it as a bad thing. Middle class, and the college educated respondents are the most supportive. Ironically, Democrats have for many years been more supportive of trade than Republicans. In fact, both Republicans and Democrats across the nation are much more supportive of trade and support trade agreements, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and NAFTA, than their representatives in Washington. The long-term disconnect between the American people and their representatives on international trade is disturbing.
Not surprisingly, things got even more disjointed in the last election. Thanks to Trump’s relentless attacks on trade, Republican support for multilateralism and trade liberalization plummeted. It fell from well above 50% supportive to below 30% during the campaign. The good news is that it has now climbed back to about 43%.
A silver lining in the dark cloud Trump has created over trade is that Democrats increased their support for trade, even though their representatives in Congress have not. More tellingly, the percentage of Democrats who view trade agreements as “bad for the U.S.” has dropped by half over the past 6 years.
If ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ perhaps Democrats in Washington can now embrace trade agreements because Trump hates them. It would at least get them more in line with their many constituents, at least those who are not Labor Union Leaders.
To compound this disruption, we now also have the spectacle of the Republicans in Washington at war with themselves over trade. There is every indication that this war will heat up dramatically heading toward the November election given Trump’s growing animosity toward our most important trading partners and Congressional Republicans’ apparent willingness to take him on.
It is clear that a large majority of Americans recognize the dynamic nature of global competition and the remarkable success of our own economy in it. Americans seem to recognize that trade agreements are about creating an open, rules-based trading system that is a key source of economic growth and prosperity for Americans.
The exploding Asian middle-class offers a vast new market for America’s products. Effective trade strategy should to break down barriers between those consumers and American businesses. Dropping out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—now re-forming without the U.S– will not help. The current discombobulated economic diplomacy, driven by inter-party warfare, intra-party warfare, and intra-Executive Office warfare at the highest levels, is a poor strategy.
Members of Congress and the White House regularly express their deep concern for their constituents but work in concert against them. Washington today seems incapable of producing a coherent trade policy that will further open Asia’s rapidly growing markets, strengthen American global leadership, and build effective strategic partnerships with our North American neighbors and European allies. Perhaps for starters, Washington should seriously re-connect with its constituents.
I can’t think of trade wars without recalling the scene from Mel Brooks’ iconic movie Blazing Saddles. The small, all white western town of Rock Ridge anxiously awaits its sheriff. A black man (Cleavon Little) shows up dressed in gold. Realizing their intense hostility to a black man parading himself as sheriff, he draws his gun, puts it to his own head, and takes himself hostage. The town, befuddled by the cognitive dissonance of a black stranger taking their sheriff hostage, lets him drag himself to the safety of the sheriff’s office. Catastrophe avoided; life, weird and confused, goes on because, well, life has to go on even in the face of life’s various dissonances.
Trade wars are a lot like this: nation’s taking themselves hostage to inflict pain on someone else. That is why there are always winners and losers in a trade war, just as there are always winners and losers in a trade peace. In fact, commercial activity and economic progress always means there are winners and losers. Recall the long-gone and little lamented buggy whip manufacturers.
One trade scholar described trade theory as the study of whose hand is in whose pocket, and trade policy as who will be pulling it out first. When we restrict imports, it punishes both domestic interests and our trading https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=1&oiu=http%3A%2F%2Fspencemunsinger.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F02%2FblazingSaddles.jpg&https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=1&oiu=http%3A%2F%2Fspencemunsinger.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F02%2FblazingSaddles.jpg&sp=643fd38774d6b67d0a8731b9c85f1a96sp=643fd38774d6b67d0a8731b9c85f1a96partners (reminder: these are not enemies, they are allies and partners in our economic progress who buy our stuff and sell us their stuff). Because we have punished them, they must retaliate. When they do, we counter-retaliate. Hence, war.
The problem, again, is the weapon. We block our purchases of their products, which some of us want. We shoot them in the foot, but through our own foot, or calf or thigh, depending on how recalcitrant our retaliating trading partners feel compelled to be. We hope that enough blood spatters on them to force surrender.
When George W. Bush imposed steel tariffs in 2002, retaliation was focused on Florida oranges, cars produced in Michigan, and other products in key swing states. The United States withdrew the tariffs on December 4. When the EU refused to let U.S. beef into European stores, the U.S. retaliated with tariffs on beef and pork products, goose pâté, Roquefort cheese, truffles, onions, carrots, preserved tomatoes, soups, yarn, Dijon mustard, juices, chicory, toasted breads, French chocolate, and jams, as well as agricultural-based byproducts, such as glue and wool grease. The list targeted especially France, Germany, Italy, and Denmark, Products from the United Kingdom were excluded because they had indicated support for lifting the ban.
The hard part with this weapon is to find goods for which trade will hurt the enemy more than yourself. In our trade skirmishes with the Japanese over autos under President Reagan, tariffs on luxury Japanese cars were initially thought strategically sound because rich U.S. consumers could afford it. Unfortunately, they were both unwilling and politically connected. That weapon was quickly withdrawn.
Trump’s trade war (sorry Mr. Kudlow, I mean “discussion”) has, of course, spurred retaliation. Canada, for instance, released a strategic swing state response targeting Mr. Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin—dairy, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and his own district’s big cucumber and gherkin industry. Also making the list is Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky bourbon, Bernie Sander’s Vermont maple syrup, Pennsylvania’s Hershey chocolate, and Florida’s fresh orange juice, along with beer kegs, mineral water and soy sauce, mayonnaise, salad dressing, automatic dishwasher detergents and certain types of plywood.
The weapons for a trade war are crude and Pyrrhic. They must be used carefully and strategically with an eye to the political pressure points that will make the ‘enemy’ blink before your own wounded make you blink. Fair warning Messrs Ryan, McConnell, Sanders, and of course Trump as we head into the November referendum. Some very carefully devised punishments will force selected domestic sectors to pay for the special subsidies given to steel and aluminum. The question is how they will make you pay?
According to the Government Accountability Office, between 2007 and 2011 Uncle Sam paid some $3m in subsidies to 2,300 farms where no crop of any sort was grown. Between 2008 and 2012, $10.6m was paid to farmers who had been dead for over a year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) runs more than 60 direct and indirect aid programs for farmers.Most of the direct aid goes to producers of a handful of field crops, not to livestock producers or fruit and vegetable growers. In the three largest farm subsidy programs — insurance, ARC, and PLC — more than 70 percent of the handouts go to farmers of just three crops — corn, soybeans, and wheat.
The blogs on this site are the opinions strictly of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or any officials of the Institute.
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2019-04-21T14:03:21Z
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https://www.commercialdiplomacy.com/2018/06/
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Welcome to this guide to government budgets for civil society produced by the Poverty Action Network Ethiopia (PANE). This guide aims to give the basic understanding on the budget process, budget tracking and monitoring budgets at a community level. Government budgets, at all levels of government, are the key document to understanding priorities and tracking implementation of pro-poor programmes. This is why PANE has chosen to focus on budgets. Hopefully this guide will provide the information and key skills to enable civil society to engage in this process. PANE is a network of over 70 civil society organizations in Ethiopia who have come together to influence the PASDEP and other poverty related policy issues. The mission of PANE is to ‘ empower citizens to enable their active participation in policy design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation in order to bring the voice of the poor to decision makers and make civil society, government and donors more accountable to the poor’. PANE sees giving civil society and citizens the ability to understand and engage with budgets as a key part of this mission.
2. Why should civil society be involved in the policy process?
NGOs, CBOs and communities are all trying to address these problems through their own work. However one major actor who can have significant impacts on all these problems is the government. Government policies affect everyday life. Policies on education affect children’s schooling, policies on health affect people’s well-being and policies on trade and taxes can affect the price of goods. Therefore if citizens want to change their situation they need to engage with the policies that affect their lives. Policies can have a big impact on poverty. The government of Ethiopia has also signed up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)– a set of 8 goals which the international community has decided it will try to reach in order to reduce poverty. It also has a commitment to produce a poverty reduction strategy to gain access to debt relief. The Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) is the government’s 5 year policy that sets out its poverty reduction strategy and how it will reach the MDGs. Through the PASDEP the government has signaled its clear commitment to ending poverty through various initiatives in different sectors.
However policies do not always manage to achieve their goals around reducing poverty. This could be for a number of reasons – perhaps funds were not allocated for the policy’s activities, perhaps the activities were not carried out well enough (i.e. clinics were built too slowly or roads were not of a good enough quality) or perhaps the activities outlined in the policy were not enough to address the whole problem (i.e. more schools were built and fees reduced to increase education for girls but more girls did not attend as their parents were worried about abuse from teachers).
2.2 What is the role of civil society?
No government can predict exactly how their policies will turn out, nor can they have perfect information systems. Governments are also not the only ones working to reduce poverty in a country. Therefore the work can be more effective if everyone works together – citizens, community based organizations, civil society organizations, the private sector as well as government. Civil society has a particular role as they are often focused on poverty reduction and have close links to the communities in which they work. Therefore they can help communities to understand and monitor policies and bring the perspectives and voice of those communities to the process.
2.3 What can civil society do?
PANE’s Focus PANE’s main focus is around the PASDEP and the Millennium Development Goals. 6 . They might want to monitor the impacts of policies on the rights of children on the ground i. Therefore having a clear focus will help you to decide where to look and what evidence to gather.e. All organizations are coming from a particular perspective or hoping to see a particular change. Organizations working for children’s rights might analyze policies to ensure child rights are addressed. do they ensure children can access health care? Gender Organizations working on gender might want to analyze the impacts on women of different policies. It highlights the priorities for the government as these are the areas where scarce resources are being spent. 2. PANE therefore focuses on the PASDEP policies and assess how these will help deliver the MDGs. Organizations working to support communities livelihoods might want to consider how a range of government polices – from infrastructure development to the development of marketing systems – will support the livelihoods of community members. For example do agricultural extension services reach and benefit women headed households? Livelihoods focus.5 Why the budget? So why are we focusing on the budget? The budget is the basic way in which policies are turned into action.4 What is your focus? If civil society wants to engage in the policy process it is useful to think about the focus you will have. The budget sets out the plan for government spending and therefore shows what will be delivered. 2.2. What are the key issues for you and what are the changes you want to see? Deciding on your focus can help design your work. For the promises written down on paper to be translated into schools or hospitals or roads they need resources. However the government only has a limited number of resources and has to decide where to spend them. Examples of particular focuses could be Child rights.5 Why the budget?monitoring the implementation of the PASDEP policies and the actions This mean’s PANE’s needed to reach the MDGs. The government has a huge number of policies and many impacts on the ground and it is impossible to track all of them.
The budget therefore provides a useful tool for civil society to monitor government’s commitments to pro-poor spending and to implementing policy commitments. This can help civil society reveal the problems and give evidence to back up their arguments. 7 . Understanding budgets and following their implementation gives civil society a unique opportunity to comment on the system.
From an administrative perspective. At the national level a budget refers to a state’s allocation of resources in terms of various perspectives such as economic. manpower. To monitor or track a budget and to assess its impacts on policy implementation it is important to understand the budget process. For our workshop purpose we only focus 1 The word budget is derived from the French bougette. a bag or purse. and human and a budget may include all these types of resources. natural. Therefore budget is key to the implementation of all policies. cited in Diokno. From an economic perspective budget is a representation in money terms of state’s activity or preferences in national policy. 8 .3.2 What is Budget and why does it matter? What is budget?1 We have all used budgets in various forms – from planning how to spend the bills at home to developing project budgets at work. 3. Budget Process 3. material. There are various types of resources such as financial. A budget is. 2 For details see Wildavsky. outlined as the ‘most important economic and political instrument’. 1999. a budget can also be defined as a process through which financial resources are allocated in compliance with state obligations to respect.2 A budget from political perspective is a reflection of a country’s policy priorities and political commitments into expenditures.1 Introduction It is difficult to conceive of any public policy that can be carried out without money and the way money is allocated to policies is through budgets. for the fiscal year. and human right. therefore. material. and is applied in modern times to the statement of revenues and expenditures (including the balance between the two) of governments. and other resources. political. administrative. Before we go to a discussion into budget process it is appropriate to introduce readers with what is budget and why it is important. protect and fulfil human rights as prescribed by human rights conventions and associated laws. a budget is understood as a resource plan that serves for the utilisation of financial. From a human rights standpoint.
equity. To put it simply budget decisions influence where we work. and rights may determine how the envelope is going to be spent (sectoral allocation). These are baseline figures from previous year. cost effectiveness research. therefore. whether we have clean water and sanitation. constitutional obligations (legal framework). It is the most important economic policy instrument of government. In this workshop we will mainly be focusing on the expenditure side. 9 . how it spends the money is a large determinant of economic development with redistributive impact. The Budget is also a fundamental tool in implementation of public policy. These allocations guide the expenditures which are made in order to reach various targets.on the financial and use the term ‘budget’ as a process by which state’s financial resources are planned and controlled. and as such can be a powerful tool in transforming the economy to meet the needs of the poorest. education our children have. What determines a budget: There are various factors that determine the total budget envelope – that is how much money is available to spend. regional or woreda) is also a powerful actor in the economy. This gives it the power to influence the level and direction of economic activity. For our purpose we. It is the major indicator of the priority accorded to fighting poverty or other issues than policy or legislation. define the term ‘budget’ as a process through which state resources are allocated. The Government (be it federal. what health care is available to use. a financial statement which includes revenue. therefore. It determines what services the government provides and what taxes we have to pay. expenditure and the balance between the two. what transport we use. need (as reported by offices). cost of programs. and capacity to spend. Thus. The budget is. Policy priorities (political). electricity. Why do government budgets matter? Government budget decisions affect everyday lives and the future of every citizen. It is therefore a key area to consider when looking at how a government is implementing policies or legislation. and many others.
It is through participation of people that one can bring people’s perspectives to the policy makers. It also allows different layers of government to know the most and unmet demands of the community. Through active participation in the budget process. Thus. Each budget system should be considered in terms of these standards. implementation. and review stages needs participation of various stakeholders. It also allows citizens to hold the government accountable. Participation in a budget process is not a luxury.3. By doing so the government and the community can mobilise resources. to build consensus3. accountability. The process in a budget preparation. it is rather a basic right of all citizens. Different budget systems have different levels of participation. and vulnerable groups) and effectively spend the resources. and equity and inclusiveness. people could stop money or resources being allocated to activities that would threaten their economic rights or ensure they receive compensation for rights they have been denied. to identify weaknesses in a budget. “city dwellers have been able to decide about virtually anything related to public 3 Consensus is a broad understanding of the common good and the modalities of working to that end. These are the ideals but not all budgets follow them.3 Budget Principles A budget process needs to be governed by principles like participation. transparency. provide more equitable distribution of budgetary allocations (without discrimination based on gender. One of the best examples in participatory budgeting is the case in Porto Alegre city in Brazil. and to mobilise the community effectively to meet a budget target. hence. region. approval. Participation: This is the level of involvement of all stakeholders/actors in the budget process directly or through legitimate intermediaries. It allows members of the community to raise what is important for them and. 10 . rural/urban. influence budget allocations. ethnicity. participation is an essential ingredient in the budget process to ensure efficient provision and more equitable distribution of budgetary allocations. Here forums made up of citizens regularly meet to discuss the budget and its formulation. Through this it is stated.
procedures. in its “Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency – Declaration of Principles. practices. In addition. motivate citizens and civil society to participate. 1996 [Revised June 1996]. and can contribute to consensus building and commitment. and forums on the basis of which budget decisions are made. February 21 to 25. etc. The principle of transparency is crucial to the budget process. Transparency enables citizens and civil society to hold the government accountable. if budget information is not available.) should be accurate. It is also related with the existence of clearly spelt out rules.5 4 Zander Navarro. timely and frequent information in useful formats on a country's economic conditions and its budget policies.org/external/np/fad/trans/. Paper presented to the Regional Workshop: Decentralization in Latin America—Innovations and Policy Implications. French. 5 The principle of transparency is recognised by the IMF.resources under the municipal domain from streets to be paved to reform of the city’s public market. and helps to mobilise the community effectively to meet budget targets. Participatory Budgeting—The Case of Porto Alegre (Brazil). are available at the IMF transparency web site at http://www. accurate. Paper submitted to the Second International Budget Conference entitled “Transparency and Participation in the Budget Process. Transparency is a prerequisite for public debate. Chinese.” Cape Town. information on development thrusts and programs. this information should be made available and accessible to the general public. Transparency can increase faith in the state. 1999. May 23-24.” Published in 1998See Barry H. and outcomes allows the public to hold the government accountable. 11 . Portuguese. which are now available in Arabic. Caracas. from sanitation systems to pay policies regarding municipal civil servants. Transparency allows the analysis of state policies and facilitates the identification of weaknesses leading to the adoption of needed reforms. Potter. expenditures and outcomes. it is difficult to discuss. expenditures. which they can only do if they have information on budget policies. Copies of the IMF transparency documents. South Africa. true and portray the genuine state of the economy. Fiscal Transparency: The IMF Code. Russian and Spanish. open to public scrutiny. Venezuela. Availability of information on budget policies.”4 Transparency: This refers to the provision of comprehensive. mandating that information affecting budget decisions (budgetary and fiscal information. from supporting cultural initiatives in peripheral areas to the publication of a book telling the history of a specified community. and written clearly and be readily understood by the public. The principle of transparency is important in the budget process.imf.
etc. Resources mobilised for expenditure comes basically from three sources: taxes. approval. Loans are raised in the name of the population and the whole population will be responsible for repaying them. active civil society. Budget allocations should be fair and just. strong media. independent auditor general and strong parliament. external aid and external borrowing.Accountability: This refers to answerability of decision makers and implementers with regard to budgetary processes at the formulation. Budgets should also be governed by the principles of equity and inclusiveness with out discrimination. 12 . In general accountability requires robust financial management system. without discrimination based on gender. and should redound to all citizens equally. robust financial management legislation. implementation and performance review stages to those whose interests are affected by their actions or inactions. This means the government should be accountable not only for how it spends these resources but also for budget outputs and outcomes. the money the government is spending is not its own but belonging to everyone. age. state performance and results (achieving results or meeting objectives for which public funds are spent). and aware electorate. In particular. Thus. social class. Equity and inclusiveness: This refers to ensuring opportunities that will maintain and improve the well being of diverse groups in any given social or political setting in terms of budgetary allocations. This makes accountability an important ingredient in a budget process. ethnicity. vulnerable sectors of society should not be discriminated against in a budget. quality and service for public money. Taxes come directly from the people and aid is given to the government on behalf of the people of Ethiopia. geography. Accountability in the state budget has several dimensions: accountability for objects of expenditure (what the state spends on). and budget processes that result in best value.
Budget approval and appropriation In the second stage. it is then presented to the parliament for debate and approval. These are budget preparation (drafting/design process). The complete picture of the cycle is presented by Figure 1. The central agency is responsible to summarise and consolidate the national budget and finally to present this before the council of ministers and/or parliament.audit and evaluation process). budget execution (implementation process). Budget Preparation The central agency (usually ministry of finance) circulates a budget call letter and guide line to all public bodies. Annual appropriation of the approved budget will then follow 13 . Figure 1 Budget Cycle Budget Preparation Budget Control Budget approval and appropriation Budget implementation 1. budget approval and appropriation (legislative process). and budget control (performance monitoring . once the recommended budget is reviewed and adjusted by the councils of ministers. 2.4 Stages of Budget Process/Cycle There are 4 stages in the budget process/Cycle at any level of jurisdiction. Every public body is required to prepare their budget requirement and submit to the central agency.3.
3. implementation of planned activities. Budget execution/implementation The third stage is disbursement of the approved budget to the relevant agencies. This is the process of the transfer and spending of the money which ensures that activities can happen to reach the required goals. How budget is linked with policies and priorities: In some countries there is what they call the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which provides the linking framework among policy making. approved. and recording expenditure. This involves monitoring activities in terms of annual public bodies’ reports and audit reports to the parliament. appropriated and executed accordingly (for the schedule see Annex 1).3. 14 .. MTEF rests on three pillars: the top down multi year projections of resource envelope targets (what is available). evaluate and audit. the bottom up multi year cost estimates of sector programs (what has to be financed with a focus on performance). and budgeting.e.6 The MEFF provides. This process allows the budget to follow the priorities in the development strategy for growth and poverty reduction. accounts for expenditure.5 Ethiopia’s Budget Process The budget process is guided by a directive (known as Financial Calendar) issued by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) to all entities listed as public bodies. and the institutional decision making process to integrate the above two pillars (making the necessary trade-offs). Budget preparation is guided by a document known as Macro-Economic and Fiscal Framework (MEFF) prepared by MoFED. the Council of Ministers. Budget control The fourth stage in the budget process/cycle is budget control/performance monitoring. planning. among others. i. This directive has a schedule to ensure that planning and budgeting are prepared. 4. This stage provides information that can be feed into future plans. forecast 6 MEFF shall be reviewed and approved by the executive body.
budget preparation . which includes identification of the amount of resources (foreign and domestic) . and budget control) at all level of jurisdiction (Federal. submission date of the budget request by public bodies to the respective finance and economic development institutions at all jurisdictions. the split of aggregate expenditures between federal and regional. and the split of federal expenditures between recurrent and capital for the next three years. and spilt the federal share between capital and recurrent budget. This phase facilitates the second phase. The first stage .of government revenue and expenditure. Firstly. budget implementation. submission of budget request in time. MoFED prepares annual fiscal plan by January 24. Based on this 3 year MEFF. preparation of unit costs and work plan for the upcoming fiscal year. and Woreda government). budget approval. Ethiopia’s budget process has the same four stages (budget preparation. Public bodies are required to respond to the budget call by preparing their budget according to the guidelines with their action plan.has four phases. MoFED/BoFED shall recommend a public body’s budget based on the information it has. expenditure financing. As discussed in the preceding section. Regional. If a public body fails to submit its budget request with the time specified in the budget call letter. 15 . This is the starting point of the budget preparation. the amount of money needed know as the expenditure requirement.known as the resource envelop. priority or focal areas to be considered in preparing the budget. Following this MoFED prepares the totals of the annual subsidy budgets and notifies the regional governments and administrative councils by February 8 at the latest. The second phase of budget preparation includes a budget call letter issued by MoFED/BoFED to all public bodies. The budget call letter includes recurrent and capital budget ceilings. setting the block grant amount for regional governments and administrative councils from all sources (domestic and foreign). all public bodies are required to perform all budget preparation activities including mid-year program review for the current fiscal year.
The last phase is summarization of the recommended budget by MoFED/BoFED/woreda to be presented to the executive body. regional house of people’s representatives. recurrent budget. health sector. amend. and Woreda Council. total expenditure ceiling. deals with performance review. and water sector indicators). Regional Council. ensuring whether disbursement is made according to budget. These legislative bodies review. The last stage. Subsidies to region are based on three indicators: population size 60%. Based on this discussion and government policies and priorities. education sector. 16 . and the recording and accounting procedures are up to the standard. MoFED/BoFED prepares the budget allocation guideline and the notification to public bodies and their budget institutions of the source of finance and line item of expenditures for the disbursement of the approved budget. After the recommended budget is reviewed and adjusted by the respective executive body at all levels. The institutions then use the budget to carry out their activities for the year. level of development 25 % (4 sub. The second stage of the budget process/cycle is budget approval and appropriation. ensuring whether public property is kept safe. budget control. 7 The appropriation at federal level specifies the total of the federal capital budget. adjusted and consolidated. and revenue collection effort 15%. Council of Ministers. The executive body shall review and recommend the budget. the requested budget will be reviewed. allocated ceilings for each public body.development indicators are considered here: agricultural sector. and regional subsidies and the total subsidy for each region. This includes activities such as ensuring whether the revenue utilization is according to laws and regulations. and woreda house of people’s representatives for approval of the budget and annual appropriation of the approved budget at all levels. The office of the general auditor is in charge of auditing public bodies and presents its findings before the House of Peoples Representative. Once the budget is approved and appropriated by the legislative bodies. it is then presented to legislative bodies the federal house of people’s representatives.7 The third stage is budget execution.The third phase is conducting a budget hearing (public bodies with MoFED/BoFED. and approve the budget.
What is your experience or observation with regard to the budget principles in the Ethiopian budget system? Do you think that civil society and citizens have access to influence what goes into the budget. influence the budget debate. Ideally. each stages of budget process/cycle should be subjected to all budget principles.Does Ethiopia observe budget principles in budget process/cycle? A budget process needs to be governed by principles like participation. and equity and inclusiveness. transparency. accountability. and monitor and evaluate the budget performance? Do civil society and citizens know whether the actual expenditure is according to budget and policy priorities and whether disbursement is made according to budget? Is there a room for civil society and citizen participation in most of the budget stages? How do you feel about the Ethiopian budget system with respect to budget transparency and budget accountability? 17 .
In what follows important points to be considered in budget tracking at each stages of budget process are identified. 2. the adequacy of the budget. funding flows and 18 . criteria/process for approving resources among regions. study and interpretation of budget data. “… involves the collection. It uses the information from budget proclamations and reports to analyze the actions of the government. Budget preparation: government commitment to stated policy priorities in allocations. and the establishment of findings and results. the correlation of budget data to other relevant information such as state policies and programs. Budget Tracking and the Rights-based Approach 4. Its aim is to provide analysis and information that is credible. as quoted by Diokno 1999). 1. accessible to a wide range of audiences. trends in budget. with the purpose of affecting the way budget issues are decided and the decisions that are made.4. Budget approval and appropriation: Is there transparency and inclusion of nonstate actors? Process conforms with laws and constitutions. equity issues (whether resources are allocated fairly among various sectors and regions/woredas?) along with criteria/process for allocating resources among regions. and makes a timely contribution to policy debates. 3. priority given to vulnerable groups.” Budget tracking is the assessment of whether or not a state’s allocations in the budget and their implementation are in compliance with its obligations or specific policy objectives. as pointed out by Lav (1999. progress in the budget (whether government’s response for specific purpose is improving?).1 Budget tracking A thorough and detailed review of the budget and actual expenditure is known as budget tracking. Budget tracking. Budget execution/implementation: operational efficiency (how much of the budget is spent? What happened to funds that are unspent?).
trends in actual expenditure and its adequacy. comparing expenditure on specific purpose (special interest) in relation to resources spent in other areas (for instance defence)? progress in actual expenditure (whether government’s response for specific purpose is improving?). The government is therefore obliged to undertake all actions and policies to enforce and protect the rights it has committed to. budget tracking from right-based approach specifically links the budget with state’s commitments and obligations to human rights. Budget control (performance monitoring . ensuring accountability and transparency (corruption? wastage?). a national budget can be defined as a process through which financial resources are allocated in compliance with state obligations to respect. protect and fulfill human rights. outcome (What impact has the budget had on the lives of the citizens and the economy?). In this approach the status of human rights and compliance with state obligations become the key determinants of the choices made relative to financial resource allocation. Is there transparency and inclusion of non-state actors in monitoring and evaluation of budget? 4. most cost effective programmes). Therefore the realisation and protection of rights should be taken into consideration in the national budget.audit and evaluation): Allocative efficiency (Are the right programmes being funded? (i.e. and 4. The Ethiopian government has ratified international conventions on human rights including child rights.2 Using the human rights based approach One focus for tracking budgets can be the human rights based approach. So. Where there are rights there are associated obligations which the government is duty bound to by the conventions.bottlenecks. while budget tracking can link various policies with the budget and its implementation. These rights are also included in the constitution. 19 . outputs of the budget (Is the budget meeting its target goals). From a human rights framework. Is actual expenditure in compliance with government’s policy priorities.
Public allocations may be scrutinized to find out whether the state has appropriated funds to protect rights. protect and fulfil rights. Public allocations may be compared against expenditures from a rights perspective. social and cultural rights and concomitant state obligations through a variety of ways: 1. 2. current expenditures and subsidies from the federal government. Public allocations may be probed to determine whether the expenditure mix.Budget tracking from a right-based approach tracks public allocations to determine their impact on economic. and 5. In general budget tracking from a right-based approach may use the following budget indicators: (a) Budgetary allocations: capital expenditures. Public allocations may be compared against international standards for rights expenditures and national standards related to the enjoyment and exercise of specific rights. 4. state programs. social. 3. Public allocations may be compared with the status and condition of economic. and (c) Changes in public allocations observed in time series data. and cultural rights to determine whether state allocations are geared towards the satisfaction and realization of these rights. geographical and spending level patterns. human rights. (b) Composition of expenditure among different state functions (for example priority may be given to national defence and security or debt service and less allocations for education and health). which result in breaches of 20 . imbalance in categories of current expenditures disproportionate or unequal spending on budgetary items. categories of current expenditures and compensatory measures comply with state obligations to respect.
however. therefore.Budget tracking. involves description and analysis of budget drafting. It should be noted. process. 21 . implementation and description of budget indicators that may be applied to a rights-based approach towards budget tracking. that monitoring the progressive realization of human rights through budget analysis entails a multi-year comparison of the state’s budget.
Budget Analysis 5.2 Techniques of budget analysis Preparatory work for budget analysis: Before getting into the budget analysis one has to be clear on the budget process and way the budget is presented. Quantitative techniques: One way to analyse budgets is to look at the allocations to different sectors or different regions. It also deals with per capita budgets. education) can be analyzed to measure The priority given to that sector compared to other sectors in the economy 22 Sectoral/specific budget area (for instance . One also needs to know how to read the figures in order to determine their implications.1 Introduction This section aims to give participants the specific skills to be able to analyze a budget. 5. comparing allocations to actual expenditure. and interpreting the results. Look at the government’s policies and plans to understand what the government is trying to achieve. both year-onyear and over the medium term. or calculating nominal and real growth rates.5. Familiarise oneself with various terms in the budget and to know how to read the budget. The purpose of this part of the budget work is to introduce participants to some of the key calculations that are frequently used in analysing budgets. These skills could be applied to different types of analysis for example budget tracking from a human rights based perspective. Organisations should Look at the budget law and corresponding guidelines and learn the process by which the government’s budget is prepared and approved (covered in the first section). One needs to know how the budget is classified and what each classification entails. These include looking at the size of a component of the budget relative to the budget total.
we divide 4 by 20 and multiply by 100 to change it into percentage. We express it in terms of a percent of the total. One sector’s as a share of the country’s (region’s) budget (example education) 2. For example. we say education’s share is 20%.- Changes in the amount allocated to that sector over time (also taking account of inflation) Amount allocated per person in that sector Whether the money allocated to that sector was spent. We use share to measure how much government prioritises a certain item in the budget. i. In what follows we shall discuss some specific techniques/tools which can give you the information on the above. 2003/04 and 2004/05 Method 1: Percentage share of the budget (indicates priority): The term share refers to the size of a slice of the pie in relation to the entire pie. Specific spending breakdowns as a share of the total sector budget (example: what share of the education budget goes to recurrent and capital budget and within recurrent budget what share goes to wages and salaries and teaching materials? What share of the health budget goes to primary health care or HIV/AIDS or …?) Looking at shares over time can tell us more about how government’s priorities are shifting. if the total national budget is Birr 20 billion and Birr 4 billion is spent on education. x 100 23 .. The formula is as follows Share of budget for sector Total budget We often use percent to express: 1.e. As well as considering specific sectors you could also look at regional or woreda budgets and compare them to national averages or other regions and woredas. Exercises are included to complete these tools for which you would need the regional budget for the following years: 2002/03.
divide the nominal amount by the deflator for that year. To take out the effects of inflation we use the ‘deflator’. Birr 20. In order to get the real amount for each year. The basic formula is: Growth rate in percentage in 2004/5 = (Amount in 2004/5 – Amount in 2003/4) x 100 Amount in 2003/4 Exercise 2: Calculate the growth rate for education in the recurrent budget. If we want to convert everything to 2002/3 purchasing power. The following example is derived from Table 5. Budgets from different years can give a distorted picture as inflation means that what money can buy across different years varies.000 million (nominal) divided by 1. 24 . Comparing one year’s budget with the next year’s allocations may indicate changes in the state’s policies and priorities. and from 2003/4 to 2004/5.44 (deflator) equals Birr 13889 million (real terms).1. Does the recurrent budget for education seem to be growing faster? Method 3 Converting from nominal values to real values (adjusting for inflation) Nominal: amount given Real: adjusted for inflation to reflect purchasing power of money at a particular time. we make 2002/3 the base year. from 2002/3 to 2003/4. As a result of this nominal and real values are equal at the base year. This is a figure set by the Ministry of Finance that is based on the rate of inflation. Therefore we need to remove the impact of inflation to determine the real figures. It is expressed as a percentage of the original allocation and is called the annual growth rate. For 2004/5. Would you say that the priority given to education is increasing or decreasing? Method 2: Calculating growth rates (indicates progress): The growth rate describes how much the size of an allocation changes from one year to the next.Exercise 1: Calculate the recurrent budget for education as a share of total recurrent expenditure for in 2003/04 and 2004/05. The deflator for the base year is 1 because we are using the base year as a benchmark and comparing everything to that year.
Birr 100 this year buys less than Birr 100 last year. inflation reduces purchasing power of Birr over time. i. 2003/04 2004/05 Average growth rate= Growth rate in year 1+ growth rate in year 2+ growth rate in year 3 3 25 . you add annual growth rates and divide for the number of annual growth rates. because prices are increasing.44 13889 As may be observed from the table.12 15179 2004/5 20000 1.Table 5. Is the budget for this program keeping up with inflation? 2002/03 Nominal figures for education Nominal Annual growth rate Real figures Real annual growth rate Method 4: Calculating annual average nominal /real growth rates (progress in nominal/real terms). Exercise 3: Calculate the real budget figures for the regional recurrent budget for education.1 Nominal and real values Nominal values Deflator Real values 2002/3 15000 1 15000 2003/4 17000 1. For the above given data annual average growth rate is the average growth rate of the three years. This gives a big-picture of what is happening over the medium term. We convert nominal amounts into real amounts to adjust for inflation. This makes straight comparison of amounts between different years inappropriate.e. i. Then calculate the annual growth rate for nominal and real budget and reflect on the two growth rates..e.
In 1998) * 100 26 . (i. This gives you the amount spent per person in your region on education.Exercise 4: Calculate the average growth rate for education for the real and nominal amounts over the three years. To do this divide the budget figure by the total population in the area the budget refers to. Calculate the per capita spending nationally 3.per capita budget for Eth. for the per captia spending in education in Amhara divide the education spending by the population in Amhara) Budgetfigu re population Per capita budget = Exercise 5: Find the population for your region. Express the difference between this amount and the average per capita budget figure for the countrywide as a percentage of the countrywide average. Is the spending on education keeping up with changes in the population? Method 6: Percentage difference from average (regional/woreda equity in per capita budgets) One thing you may want to analyse is if a fair amount is being spent per person in different regions. municipality) 2. district. Devide the education budget by the population figure. Calculate the difference between the sub-budget per capita spend and the national per capita spend 4. Take the per capita budget figure for a sub budget (region. Is this similar or different to the growth rate for each year? Method 5: Per capita budgets (equity and adequacy): To check that there is equity across the population it is necessary to work out the amount of spending per person. % difference for SNNP in 1998 = (per capita budget for SNNP in 1998.e. 1. Calculate this figure for the different years (remembering to check the different population figures). To do this you could compare the per capita spending for that particular region to the national average.
The spending rate for recurrent budget (recurrent expenditure to recurrent budget) is usually high because most of these expenditures are wages and salaries. The rate of utilisation can be found by dividing the actual expenditure by the approved budget. 1. the per capita figure (Method 5) (Methods 3 and 4) 27 . This can be also calculated for specific sector or sub sector. The spending rate for capital expenditure is usually low for Ethiopia.3 What do we learn by looking at different quantitative methods of budget analysis? The following can give an idea of how these methods can be used to inform our wider analysis. Adequacy: How much is budgeted? • • Nominal terms can tell us if the allocation is enough by looking a Real terms tell us if the allocation is keeping up with inflation. It is therefore necessary to look at actual expenditure as compared to approved budgets. To express this as a percentage of the approved budget divide the result by the approved budget and multiply by 100. To analyze the utilisation of the budgets you will need to compare budget reports to the budget proclamations.Average per capita budget for Ethiopia in 1998 Negative signs shows less per capita budget from countrywide average while positive signs shows more capita budget that the countrywide average. Rate of utilisation = (The actual amount spent on x in the approved budget) x100 The approved budget for x 5. Method 7: Comparing approved budget to actual expenditure (spending/utilisation rate efficiency) What is in the budget may not be what is actually spent in reality.
4 Thinking about the budget document In your exercise and observation do you think that the budget book enables readers to establish the relationship between functions and allocations and thus to check the rationale behind the allocations? Is the budget structure okay for effective budget analysis or for effective assessment of policies and budget outcomes? Does the budget document have enough breakdowns for effective budget analysis? Looking at budget reports: Does the budget document give information on funds that are spent for purposes other than those that are authorized? Does the budget document give information on the source of funds for expenditures that are larger than the allocated funds? Does the budget document give information on the unutilized portions of the allocations for expenditures less than the allocated funds? 28 .2. Priority: To tell us if the stated policy priorities are reflected in the budget and to determine if the government is keeping its promises (policy commitments) • • Percentage share calculations shows if priority is being put in the Real and nominal growth can show how a government is placing right place (Method 1) more or less priority on a sector (Method 3) 3. Progress: Is government’s response on this issue improving? • The rate of growth of allocations to a sector tells us if the government is putting more into a sector (Methods 2 and 3) 4. Equity: Are resources being allocated fairly? • The per capita measure compared to the national shows if the regions allocations are more or less than the national (Method 6) 5.
1 General overview on budget monitoring and evaluation The main aim of budget monitoring and evaluation is to gather information on the budget implementation to provide an assessment of how the budget is being implemented compared to the plan. time frame and dissemination strategy. definition of essential variables of budget performance and indicators. budget monitoring is looking at what has actually happened to the budget. It is a continuous assessment of implementation of the budget in relation to originally agreed resource allocation. improve budget outputs and outcomes. Evaluation is concerned with budget outputs (direct results of budget implementation or what that money did) and budget outcomes (changes in the quality of life in society that result from budget outputs). Thus. It has to state what is going to be evaluated. drought … which takes the time of most institutions). formulating the broad aim of your budget monitoring work and core monitoring question are the key to get started for budget monitoring. ahead of time. It is an assessment of whether intended objectives of the budget have been met.6. Monitoring and evaluation is not something that we think about at the end of the fiscal year. what external influence should be taken into consideration (eg. authorised budget and actual expenditure. This can then be used to: ensure fair and appropriate allocation of budget among different sectors and people is taking place. methods. and reduce the gap between approved budget and budget disbursements. what process and activities are being used to spend the budget. what evidence is needed to answer key evaluation questions. This allows people engaged in monitoring and evaluation to know the purpose of the budget. Monitoring is a routine collection and analysis of information on implementation/progress vis a vis original plans and its follow-up. who has a stake in the budget. Budget Monitoring and Evaluation 6. what type of output and outcome is expected at what level. Monitoring and evaluation plan should be formulated during the designing and planning of the budget with the participation of the stakeholders. should consist the following: conceptual framework. war. Hence. etc. 29 .
It is therefore necessary to monitor and evaluate budget to assess what has actually happened. 6. To provide information whether the expenditure is aligned with policies/priorities. Did it fit with the plan and is what is spent achieving all it is supposed to? Specific reasons for monitoring and evaluating budgets are: 1.Monitoring the budget can help civil society to have an oversight over the actual implementation of the budget.priority sector get enough. It does not tell us what actually happened. 6. what improvements in sectoral allocation are required? Is sectoral allocation focused on the right elements?. To provide crucial information about budget performance (What is the total envelope and sectoral allocation . To identify and take action to correct weaknesses in budgetary allocation and implementation. To provide a view over time on the status of programs supported by public resources. What do we mean by budget monitoring and evaluation? 1. Tracking budget principles 30 . 3. To identify potentially promising programs or practices 7. To check the level of compliance by the government of its economic and social rights obligations.1 Why and what is budget monitoring and evaluation? What is budget monitoring? The budget that a government produces is only the plan for what they intend to implement over the coming year. To provide information whether the budget is aligned with expenditure. To provide timely and frequent information on budgetary performance. 4. etc.1. and 8.). 5. 2. Is the community owned the process and committed?. Civil society can also help engage citizens in these activities to give them the information and understanding of what is happening to the resources being spent in their name.
d) Comparing budgets/expenditures with changes in inequities. and 5. Carry out a baseline study to establish initial level of indicators to allow for comparison (trend analysis). and g) To suggest corrective actions if things are going wrong. 6.Looking into the level of participation. f) Identify reasons for the deviations/discrepancies. 31 . 3. develop a monitoring and evaluation plan that clearly defines what information you intend to collect. policies and priorities of the government. transparency. In order to develop this. indicating how to check whether these objectives have been achieved or not. b) Comparing budget with actual expenditure. plans for analysis and develop indicators that will be used to verify if the budget process have been aligned with budget principles. among others. Develop instruments for collecting required information. need to be addressed. 1. c) Comparing expenditures with policies and priorities. Tracking changes in the budget situation a) To evaluate accounting procedures. 2. 4. objectives. the following major issues. including documentation of expenses and incomes. develop the logframe8 which shows the logical relationship between the means and ends. There must be a clear understanding and systematic analysis of the budget process..1. accountability and equity issues in the budget process 2. e) Detecting deviations/discrepancies. It reflects the causal relationship between the different levels of objectives.2 How to carry out budget monitoring and evaluation First there is a need to put in place a monitoring and evaluation system. 8 Logframe which is also referred as Logical Framework is a kind of matrix structure that presents the budget inputs-outputs-outcomes in a logic and systematic way. if the budget objectives have been achieved and etc.
Process – to monitor the budget cycle .6. Community is a group of people living together. Outcomes – to monitor benefits from usage of outputs . availability of information. how much money has been allocated and disbursed for health care in a particular region or woreda. outputs. 1. and directly representative of the object being measures.e. information accessible. what clinics have been build or health services provided in that region or woreda. Inputs – to monitor financial inputs .. Let us be clear first what we mean by the community. number of children educated. inputs. i.2 Community Based Budget Monitoring and Evaluation In the preceding sections we have had a discussion on budget monitoring and evaluation in general terms. i. 32 . sharing common facilities and facing somehow similar problems. .financial indicators -checking disbursements – what was actually received and spent i. accountability (do public bodies subject to internal and external audit and accountable to the public) and equity (sectoral proportion.improvements indicators in standard of living. We now shall discuss the community based budget monitoring and evaluation.checking what the budget has done.e.e. time bound.participation (civil society). In selecting indicator one has to take into account whether the indicator is easily measurable.achievements/performance indicators checking what was produced – looking at number of schools and hospitals built. per capita budget. 3. and outcomes as outlined below. health. does spending translate into better services such as improved status of health and education and reduction of poverty. etc . transparency (was the process transparent.budget principles indicator. has the community in that region or woreda received better health care? Have their rates of illness decreased? 4. 2. education. Outputs – to monitor immediate achievements . clear. number of roads built etc.1.3 What are the indicators for budget monitoring and evaluation? Indicators are central and form a major part of budget monitoring and evaluation system. Budget monitoring and evaluation indicators can be tracked from budget process. working conditions. rural/urban…) 6.).
Step 2. This will determine the type of Inputs information to be collected as well as the source. Table 6. which sector or service will be the focus. If these activities are done by community members themselves it will give them a real opportunity to engage with the budget process. people. Thus. documents and information used to monitor and evaluate the intervention are defined. and whether there is a requirement to make changes to the budget plan in the subsequent years to ensure that outcomes are achieved. community based budget monitoring and evaluation needs in place a monitoring and evaluation system.e. information is collected on budgetary inputs in that specific sector – exact amount of resources that have been 33 .A community based budget monitoring and evaluation is. whether budget disbursement in the community is aligned with the budget approval. How to carry out community based budget monitoring and evaluation Like all general budget monitoring and evaluation work.1 Steps in carrying out community based budget monitoring and evaluation Indicator level Inputs/outputs/outco mes Activity Step 1: Analysis at community level to decide which areas of the budget will be monitored i. refer to tracking of public expenditure in the community. monitoring and evaluation of public expenditure in the community in all or specific project/intervention in the community is included in the logframe where the levels. The issues raised in the preceding section for developing monitoring and evaluation system and identifying indicators also applies here. processes. whether public expenditures are producing the anticipated outputs. whether actual expenditure is aligned with authorised budget. thus. Using the logframe format community based budget monitoring and evaluation can be applied as follows. whether public expenditures are contributing to the desired outcomes.
has the clinic being constructed? Has the expenditure been according to allocation and priority? Are there any long or short term benefits being accessed Outcomes from this output? Step 5: Get views from other stakeholders on the process that has been taken to produce the outcomes. do they now have access to better health services? Step 6: Compile the information collected in a report. What has been the participation of the beneficiaries in planning and implementation of the activity in the sector? What benefits are they deriving from the outputs of this activity? i.e. How much is allocated? Inputs Who are the target beneficiaries? Step 3: Preliminary quantitative analysis of the allocations themselves.made available for that sector. What is the efficiency in allocation of the resources? What is the prioritisation in allocation of resources? Has there been a nominal change over the years in the allocation for this specific sector? Has there been a real change in the allocation for the sector? Output/outcomes Has the allocated budget for the sector been disbursed? Step 4: Physical inspection of outputs Looking at what has actually happened on the ground – i.e. Step 7: Plan an advocacy/dissemination strategy Who does the information concern? Inputs/outcomes What is the change desired? Step 8: Produce a budget statement based on the analysis in 34 .
Flows of funds were tracked through different tiers of the government and at the community level. UDN recently launched the Budget Advocacy Initiative (BAI) for pro-poor budget policies. This is a summary of the report in step 6. Serena Beach Hotel.steps 3 & 4. civic groups and individuals. Kenya 35 . funds reaching schools has increased to 80-90% for the period 19992000.31. This allows the community to understand the budget 9 Arianna Legovini (2005) ‘International Experience in Impact Evaluation’ paper presented in Impact Evaluation Workshop.9 Part of this work was the community based budget monitoring exercise in Tororo District by Uganda Debt Network (UDN) in November-December 2002.3. 6.1 Uganda Monitoring evaluation of public expenditure on primary education in Uganda has significantly improved the utilisation rate of the education budget. UDN developed a participatory community based budget performance monitoring system through a pilot exercise based on participatory methodologies. Step 9: Review your dissemination strategy and then disseminate. making radio announcements. and requiring schools to post information on their walls. As a result of this. Both general budget monitoring and community based budget monitoring and evaluation brought this issue to the attention of the government and public at large. institutions. the government to began publishing monthly inter-governmental transfers in newspapers. From 199195 only 13% of earmarked funds reached schools. UDN was formed in 1996 as an advocacy and lobbying coalition of Uganda NGOs. It has been actively involved in budget monitoring. It has mobilised civil society and communities to participate in the formulation of budget policies by empowering them to monitor the use of public resources through process of participatory learning and action. above. 2005. Due to the work highlighting the issue. August 26. Mombassa.3 Country experiences 6.
and establishing monitoring and evaluation system and developing indicators.2 Budget monitoring score card Objectives Indicators Score (out of 5) 1. This was followed by a three-day workshop on participatory community based budget monitoring and evaluation. central and local government budget process. budget processes. It was reported that the community was aware of various funds spent and intended to be spent in their community and clearly informed the meeting of their concerns on what to monitor and their priority areas. budget performance monitoring. and capital and recurrent budget. Participants formed a budget monitoring committee and developed a general guideline for the participatory community based budget performance monitoring and evaluation and identified priority areas to be monitored. They then developed their own monitoring and evaluation tool with indicators in terms of monitoring score card. To ensure that released No of planned activities against the activities funds are properly utilised done No of pupils against released funds Extent of record keeping and accountability Evidence of purchase Value of purchase items against budgeted funds Knowledge of staff and committees about usage of funds 2. Table 6. To ensure transparency in No of accomplished activities Information flow of the money released utilisation of released funds within the staffs and the management 36 . Below is an example of the score card containing the designed objectives (priority area is universal primary education) and indicators developed by participants and used in monitoring budget performance. The pilot exercise was participatory in the sense that the team had a one-day community meeting to discuss about the budget monitoring and evaluation.policies.
kitchen No of desks learning environment Availability of learning materials 5. 2-poor. for instance has faced hostility from some local officials and reluctance to provide information. 1-very poor. Minutes. Despite these difficulties. Some of the findings for education included poor infrastructure and inadequate desks in schools Unpredictable release of funds to schools which meant one school had to borrow funds for the end of the school year Some schools had displayed the funds they received while some did not This helped the monitoring teams to debate these problems with the authorities. 3-fair. it was found out that participatory community 37 . receipts. and other records (contracts. These kinds of exercise can face some difficulties. and 0-nil By using this monitoring score card. To ensure that proper Funds clearly/publicly displayed Involvement of finance/management procedures are followed committee during the budget process Parents’ involvement Student involvement Availability of supporting. of uniforms or playing kits bought Music instruments in schools curricular activities are No inter school game and sports activities being promoted in school 6. Ensuring good/conducive Availability of a good latrine. To improve No of visits to the head office No of school purchases carried out administrative coordination Note: Grading (score): 5-very good. …) 4. findings on primary education and lower level health facilities were presented to a larger audience including the local government officials. 4-good. To make sure that extra No. The exercise in Tororo district.committee Level of transparency and accountability Availability of documents and reports Minutes of management committee 3.
We want greater community responsibility and this programme guarantees this. Although there is no empirical support to this particular exercise. health. the difficulty of getting officials to share information. let us remove all the wrong however small. 6. Hakikazi Catalyst have undertaken participatory community based budget monitoring in selected areas of Arusha Municipal and Arumeru districts in Arusha region. Its main aim is to advocate for social and economic rights that promote sustainable livelihood. a non-governmental social and economic justice organisation established in 2000. and water and sanitation) has increased from 32.3. the combined pro-poor budget (education.2% in 1994/95 to over 42. One government official said that ‘There is something wrong somewhere considering what has been reported.2 Tanzania Hakikazi Catalyst. and in general for improved local governance. outcomes for the PRSP priority sectors of education. agriculture. and activities by using a community score card. health. is involved in monitoring budget inputs.1% in 1999/00 and is projected to increase to 48% in 2003/04. indicators. water and roads. 38 . Generally there was a positive reaction from the authorities. So let us not be defensive.based budget monitoring and evaluation is an effective strategy for increased accountability. It begun by analysing the 2003/04 budget of Arusha Municipal and Arumeru districts to determine recurrent and capital expenditure for poverty reduction priority sectors. the monitoring team should inform the authorities of what it is doing first and build alliances with them.’ To avoid such kinds of problems. agriculture. It also collected information on poverty reduction targets. outputs. since the establishment of UDN. rural roads. transparency. They found it helpful to find out what was actually happening in the community.
Vulnerable members of the community like people living with HIV/AIDS. Challenges: Hakikazi found the budget format was not helpful for quick review and detailed analysis. community based organisations and community leaders. It made the analysis very difficult and time consuming and obstructed from effective monitoring and evaluation. After the intervention of Hakikazi Catalyst. and youth). single and widowed women. It held community based poverty reduction strategy debates in which the community selected a poverty reduction strategy monitoring committee for each community from all categories of people (old.The process involved mobilising support from local authorities. 39 . Education and health) Hakikazi also found a lack of transparency in terms of comparing what resources had been allocated versus actual expenditure. Output of the monitoring: Before the monitoring activity communities were not provided with information on funds allocation and expenditure. Data in the budget documents was not disaggregated and no breakdowns were given of expenditure for individual items. They also found out that resources allocated are not adequate to meet the demand of services required. and youths have difficulty accessing basic services (ex. orphans. women. who were then trained. other civil society working on poverty reduction. They also were not participating in development and budget process. communities are empowered to monitor and evaluate poverty reduction activities and demand accountability. Each monitoring community selected two poverty reduction strategy priority sectors to monitor and evaluate with the community score card. Findings: The monitoring grassroots communities have confirmed that the local government is making a difference in the priority sectors. Resources for poverty reduction are not also fairly allocated.
values. and main intervention entry point of civil societies. the role of civil society in policy formulation and budget process in general and budget monitoring and evaluation in particular has immense advantages to the community. To influence what goes into the budget or to influence decision-makers on key budget related policy issues or problems that concern the citizens and hence to ensure adequate public investments allocated to community concerns. To monitor the budget performance. To promote public awareness of government policy. It crates/raises community awareness about budget and its implication of economic and social rights. In general the role of civil society in budget monitoring and evaluation and the subsequent budget advocacy are outlined in what follows. 9. 6. This awareness provides communities with the opportunity not only to claim the budget. 8. norms and culture of a society and its people are fully recognized 4. 3. To determining targets and indicators for monitoring outputs and impact. To ensure priority needs of poor are addressed in policies and interventions and hence championing and protecting the interests of the poor and marginalised. 7.4 Why civil society in budget monitoring and evaluation? The role of civil society in budget monitoring and evaluation is critical. 5. Monitoring and evaluation is one of the strongest tools for advocacy. It should be noted that for effective engagement of civil society in budget monitoring and evaluation. To prepare detailed implementation plan. They can also influence the government to take positive actions to guarantee economic 40 . 1.6. and more importantly. To ensure that the beliefs. their participation in policy formulation and in various stages of budget process is critical as it opens the room for possible influence of budgetary allocations and priorities in budget allocations. they will have a great opportunity to influence the budget process and hence budget outputs and outcomes. For timely feedback to ensure government rectify situation in the next fiscal year. but also. When communities gain knowledge on the budget and budget process and identify exactly where and how tax contributions and other public money is spent. the To recap. 2. to claim their rights.
to hold the state accountable to them. The role of civil society is. 41 .and social rights or to desist from implementing any policy. program or measure that limits or obstructs their rights. This knowledge may also spur communities to effectively participate in the budget process. and to force the government to become transparent in its fiscal activities. immense in creating the awareness and empowers the community in the process. therefore.
particularly the poorest and excluded ones. as well as to bring more people into the debate. and the public – and must be available when needed to inform policy decisions. Some definitions of advocacy refer to policy change or the technical aspects of advocacy while others explicitly refer to power. 7. it should be undertaken with the explicit intention of achieving policy goals. In order to achieve these goals. medium and long term. 7. and to enact and implement laws and public policies so that visions of “what should be” in a just. The goals are to raise the level of budget literacy among those engaged in the budget policy debate in order to improve this debate. economic and social systems and institutions – that directly affect people’s lives. decent society become a reality.1 Definition of Advocacy The rapid growth of advocacy training in the last decade has generated a wide variety of definitions. Some focus on who does advocacy and who is meant to benefit from advocacy. Budget Advocacy CSOs’ budget work should essentially focus on bringing about improvements in the lives of people. economic and social – is an overarching framework for these 42 . Advocacy consists of organized efforts and actions based on the reality of “what is. the following commonly used definition may be enough: • It is usually defined as a process of social change and transformation directed at making power relations in society more democratic. For our purpose. assuring marginalised people a place in public decisions.” These organized actions seek to highlight critical issues that have been ignored and submerged. it also requires that its findings be presented in a way that maximizes its impact on the policy debate. to influence public attitudes. Human right – political. the media. CSOs have to engage in budget advocacy.7. approaches and strategies.2 What is advocacy? • • Advocacy is not an event. While applied budget work demands quality analysis. Value-neutral definition: Advocacy is the pursuit of influencing outcomes – including public policy and resource-allocation decisions within political. Accordingly CSO budget analysis/tracking or monitoring cannot be simply research for the sake of research. Different definitions reflect different assumptions about how politics and power operate. Instead. Applied budget work also encompasses efforts to advance the understanding of budget issues. The analysis must be accessible to a wide range of audiences – particularly policymakers. It is more of a process that an organization or an individual undertakes to achieve a series of objectives in the short. such as assisting the most disadvantaged in society. and how change happens.
6 Tools for advocacy • The media (Radio. destitution. How decisions are made: accessibility of citizens to information and decisionmaking processes. What is decided: laws. values. • Championing and protecting the interests of the poor and marginalised. institutions. ministers.5 Why Budget Advocacy • Because resources are scarce • Certain groups of people are either excluded or marginalised from benefiting from the available resource base.3 Focus of Advocacy • • • Who decides: legislators. influence the design of specific policies or enactment of relevant laws 7. heads of state. 7. accountability and responsiveness of decision makers to citizens and other stakeholders.4 Budget advocacy is about … • Influencing decision-makers on key budget related policy issues or problems that concern the citizens. judges.visions. constituents and/or members of affected groups. to ensure fair and just budgets and entitlements of poor people. implemented and evaluated: ensuring accountability so that decisions are put into action. appointed officials. managing directors. services. thereby changing the institutions themselves. • Existing social inequalities in society & the unequal power relations between various social groups. etc. to change the power relations between these institutions and the people affected by their decisions. Newspaper and Television) • Research – good quality research • Planning 43 . and to result in a clear improvement in people’s lives. budgets. exclusion. • Some members of society are benefiting more than others • To cause change in the STATUS QUO. etc. • Ensuring that the beliefs. laws are enforced equitably. boards of advisors. appointments. Advocacy organizations draw their strengths from and are accountable to people – their members. etc. etc. administrators. • 7. 7. and powerlessness. policies. How decisions are enforced. regulations. Advocacy has purposeful results: to enable social justice advocates to gain access and voice in the decision making of relevant institutions. priorities. policy-makers. norms and culture of a society and its people are fully recognized. • It is a struggle against injustice. marginalisation. programs. statements. extent of consultation with and direct say of citizens.
• • • Mobilising and Campaigning Information Dissemination Monitoring and evaluation 7. Success at the Policy level 2. and manage the power plays that go on under the decision making table. deal with opposition.helps to identify a) Primary targets b) Secondary targets b) Allies c) Opponents d) Constituents • Policy and Situational Research • Mobilising and campaigning Components of an advocacy activity • The Goal • Objectives • Strategies • Indicators • Outputs • Activities • Means of Verification (MOV) Types of advocacy • Lobbying • Campaigning Letter writing Media campaign Demonstrations • Public Education • Litigation • Building Alliances and Coalition Evaluating Advocacy Impact 1. 44 . • Negotiating: Advancing your issue – How to present your position. • The Power Map .7 Planning an Advocacy Campaign: Critical steps to advocacy planning • Organisational Assessment (SWOT Analysis). Success at the democracy level Lobbying and Negotiating Lobbying: Getting to the table – What you will need to do to reach the table to voice your advocacy concerns. Success at the Society level 3.
money. how-reduces briefcase NGOs Weaknesses of advocating through networks 45 . • Familiarize yourself with the corridors of power • Classify the Players • Rank decision-makers • Inform and Build Relationships Advocacy network: A group of organizations that come together to ensure / bring about a social change in a democratic way. where.g.sign up to these • Common interests • Willingness /Value added-ness • Resources (take advantage of each others’ resources e.Who’s a lobbyist? Who’s a negotiator? • Good listeners • Not easily upset or distracted • Willing to let the other person talk and take the lead • Persistent but not dogged A good Lobbyist should be able to… • Think on their feet • Faithfully represent the views of others while still being flexible • Say I don’t know • Keep a sense of humour • Identify concealed agenda • Know when to retreat and try a new angle Lobbying: getting to the table 4 key steps. geographical experience) • Leadership • Clear work plan • Involvement Benefits of advocating through networks • Information sharing • Learning from each other • Having a strong/common voice in influencing change • Avoids/reduces duplication of work and competition • Able to know who is doing what. to help your lobbying lead on to serious negotiation.. Key factors for consideration in forming networks • Clear purpose and mission. human.
• • • • May lead to lack of ownership of responsibility Exploiting member organizations If there’s no transparency. database. can lead to suspicions on the coordinating NGO Not easy to disseminate information.making what is “invisible” visible • Information sharing Key factors in maintenance / growth stage • Creativity and innovativeness to keep the steam up • Organization in the network (communication systems. and chairperson doesn’t always have to share meetingrotate) 46 .keep members motivated • Setting realizable objectives • Foster trust and collaboration • Meetings and Documentation (meet only when necessary. decision making structure • Leadership. leading to high expenses Key factors in maintenance / growth stage • Openness and transparency at all stages • Good leadership with moral authority • Participatory decision making • Realization of tangible benefits • Equitable recognition and opportunities for all members. record minutes. send agenda before meeting.
g. promoting accountable and transparent governance. relevant legal and policy instruments of the government that prevail at present (e. the constitution. A few relevant examples are given below just to encourage further reading and understanding of the legal and policy environment. poverty eradication and development policies and strategies such as PASDEP. 8. 1/1995) Article 12: ‘Conduct and Accountability of Government’. Rural Development Strategy. states that the Government shall have the duty to formulate policies which ensure that all Ethiopians can benefit from the country's legacy of intellectual and material resources. affirms that citizens have the right to improved living standards and to sustainable development and the right to participate in national development and. 235/2001: The Establishment of the Federal Ethics and AntiCorruption Commission The Preamble of the proclamation states the reasons for establishing the Commission as: • the Government and the Peoples of Ethiopia recognize that corruption and impropriety are capable of hindering the Social. stipulates that the conduct of affairs of government shall be transparent. This right includes freedom to seek. in particular. opinion. receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds. and maintaining citizens’ active participation in matters that affect them. The Policy Environment In Ethiopia. Article 89: ‘Economic Objectives’.1 The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Proclamation No. Economic and Political development of any country. and to ensure that all Ethiopians get equal opportunity to improve their economic conditions and to promote equitable distribution of wealth among them. • corruption and impropriety are to be checked in order to promote and sustain the development and the democratic process in Ethiopia. It also provides that Government shall at all times promote the participation of the People in the formulation of national development policies and programs. it shall also have the duty to support the initiatives of the People in their development endeavors. and access to information of public interest. to be consulted with respect to policies and projects affecting their community. guarantees freedom of thought.) emphasize on ensuring realization of human rights. Article 29: ‘Right of Thought. 47 . Opinion and Expression’. regardless of frontiers. and expression.2 Proclamation No.8. etc. It also guarantees freedom of the press and other media and specifically includes prohibition of any form of censorship. and that any public official or an elected representative is accountable for any failure in official duties. Article 43: ‘The Right to Development’. 8.
Human Rights. transparent and democratic governance that respects the rights of all of its citizens. and review will be established at the woreda and kebele level. Protecting Basic Services (PBS) Project The PBS Project is an initiative designed by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) in cooperation with the donor community and other stakeholders in and outside the country. as enshrined in the Constitution. Participatory structures for planning. Minimum service standards will be developed and implemented at the woreda level. the government has shown its commitment to take the following practical measures that promote good governance: “During PASDEP. emphasis will be placed on steps to ensure accountability and transparency at the local government level. As part of the next stage of woreda-level decentralization.6.1 of the draft PASDEP. and then developed and adopted by the regional government institutions in the following two years. with a target of complete reporting by all federal institutions by the end of 2006.3 Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) Under section 5. In the same section of the PASDEP. there will be implementation of annual public audit reporting to Parliament. Manuals for grassroots participation will be developed and introduced in all regions at the woreda level during the next two years. including a series of M&E workshops. major efforts will be made to mobilize and capture local and community input into the decision-making process. It is also indicated that the M&E Action Plan formulated and adopted and a regular consultative process has been put in place with donors and civil society. especially women. 8. Openness and Consultation’ the government has reaffirmed that Ethiopia is committed to open. these minimum standards will be publicly displayed and publicized among citizens. ‘Governance.” “Citizens’ Charters will be developed and publicized by all federal institutions during 2006-07. and as part of the decentralization process. In addition.4. a system will be instituted of annual disclosure of accounting and performance information directly to the public. norms and standards. Local officials and stakeholders at the kebele level will be trained in grassroots participatory and consultative processes.• it has become necessary to create a society which shall not condone but rather prepared to effectively combat corruption and impropriety. defining indicators. 48 .” Besides. chapter 8 is entirely devoted to the Monitoring and Evaluation System of the PASDEP. and of the regions by 2007/08.” “Part of the rationale behind decentralization was to bring accountability and decisionmaking closer to the people. 8. monitoring. and systems developed for participation and consultation with civil society stakeholders. Actual performance against standards will be regularly publicized.
The existence of meaningful transparency. The PBS will provide the perquisite basis for locally initiated development with the efforts of grassroots groups. the Kebeles.” 49 . For this reason. The component has facilities to support citizens and CSOs to become “more familiar with budgets and to engage citizens and CSOs in pilot activities on social accountability. wanted and whether people believe that their livelihoods are improving as a result of PBS. The proposed PBS project is a package consisting of four main parts (or Components). and the woreda administration. ‘voice’ mechanisms and instruments of ‘bottom-up’ public accountability can help ascertain whether public services are needed. Component 4 of the PBS calls for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to participate actively and meaningfully in the implementation of pilot projects on Social Accountability (SA). backed by donor grants and matching government resources. The main aim of the PBS is to protect the delivery of basic services by the GoE while promoting and deepening transparency and accountability in the governance and management of the Protecting Basic Services project delivery. The management responsibility of the PBS is entrusted in the woreda administrations.It is designed to expand and sustain the basic human development programs that are almost exclusively provided by the GoE.
S.pdf. Ethiopia Streak. Mehrotra. New York. Legovini. Impact Evaluation Workshop.E. (1999) Rights-based Approach towards Budget Analysis. (2003) Monitoring Government Budgets to Advance Child Rights: A Guide for NGOS. Country Experiences in Assessing the Adequacy. 4..References Diokno M. Human Rights Quarterly. http://www. MD. October 1998. A (2005) International Experience in Impact Evaluation. (1998). Serena Beach Hotel. No. S. Vol. Social and Cultural Rights”. Robertson. paper prepared for the Meeting on 20/20 Initiative. (1994) “Measuring State Compliance with the Obligations to Devote the ‘Maximum Available Resources’ to Realising Economic. I. Cape Town. Mombasa. Baltimore.iie. Addis Ababa. Kenya. R. August 26-31. World Bank. 2005. Equity and Efficiency of Public Spending on Basic Social Services. IDASA. J. 16. South Africa. 50 .org/Website/CustomPages/ACFE8. Save the Children (2003) Children’s Budget: Are Children getting their Adequate Share of the Budget? Save the Children.
Notification of the approved budget 9. Notification of annual subsidy budget 3.mofed. Budget preparation 2. 26 – Feb 8. 8 Not later than March 22 March 23 .Annex 1: Financial calendar Cycle Planning Cycle 1.1 Public Investment Program call letter 2. 25-Nov 24-Jan Not later than Feb 8 Feb.3 Review and Finalize PIP 3. Executive Preparation and Recommendation of budget 1. Public Investment Program (PIP) Preparation 2.1 Preparation of MEFF 1. Budget Recommendation B. Prepare and finalize Annual fiscal plan Budget Cycle A. 8 Feb. Legislative Approval 7. Submit budget Request 5.July 7 51 .November 10 November 11 .2 Approval of MEFF 2. Notification of a 3-year subsidy estimates 4. 16 July 8. Approval and appropriation of the budget C. Executive Implementation 8.May 22 May 23. Issue budget call 4. Implementation of the approved budget Source: http://www. Preparation of the Recommended budget 6. Macro-Economic and Fiscal Framework 1.February 8 25-Nov Not later than December 25 Dec. Submission of Budget allocation and action plan 10.2 Submission of Public Investment 2.June 2 June 8 – July 7 July 8-15 July 16-Aug.org Calendar July 8 – November 10 Not later than October 26 October 27.
inputs used in service delivery. fiscal year. the addition of the term "fiscal" means a connection with government financial matters. appropriating spending.Capital expenditure: amount of money needed to spend on capital items or fixed assets such as land.Annual fiscal plan: preparation of annual estimates of the upcoming fiscal year revenue. expenditure. expenditure. . . .Annex 2: Glossary of budget terms .Appropriation: a legal authority granted to the executive by the House of Peoples Representative to spend public funds for the stated purpose. equipment. that are projected to generate income in the future.Budget deficit: an excess of budgetary expenditures over revenues. etc. or fiscal policy.Balanced budget: equality between the revenues and expenditures that constitute a budget. . such as fiscal budget. . .Fiscal year: government’s 12 months accounting period (Hamle 1– Sene 30) Recurrent expenditure: day-to-day operating expenses or those expenses usually incurred in the conduct of normal state operations. Fiscal year is then the standard 12-month period government uses for collecting taxes. etc. In each case. .Budget: a financial statement containing revenue. Fiscal policy. such as wages and salaries. and otherwise tabulating its budget. is policy that makes use of government spending and taxation. roads. which indicates how a government plans to use its expected resources to meet its goals for a given period. . or financial matters. buildings. The term is most often using in combination with other words. for example. administration. and financing. acquisition of furniture and equipment. and deficit/surplus estimates. spending.Revenue: income 52 .Fiscal: Relating to government taxation. .Budget surplus: an excess of budgetary revenues over expenditures. purchase of goods and services for current consumption.
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New to TVM this Sunday is Once Upon an Artisan, the brainchild of Karina Davila who will be showcasing unique and ethical knitwear handcrafted by artisans in her homeland of Peru….
New to TVM this Sunday is Once Upon an Artisan, the brainchild of Karina Davila who will be showcasing unique and ethical knitwear handcrafted by artisans in her homeland of Peru.
"It was 4 years ago when I realized I wanted to bring the beauty of Alpaca breeders and weavers to the world and contribute with the development of my country, Peru. The weavers live in remote communities in the Andes mountains and Alpacas are their main source of income. In 2015, I left my job in a travel company, went back to nature and began this dream.
TVM: What pieces are included within your range?
I am an artisan by heart, I inherited the ability with my hands from my grandfather who was making things all the time in his little workshop.
Since then I have always done things and explored from stained glass to origami, from macramé to carving stamps. I am also a photographer and design enthusiast.
It is 100% Ethically made in Peru.
Having been born in a country where weavers, textiles and artisans are part of my heritage, I’ve seen, admire and done crafts all my life. I’ve always been inspired by artisans, who keep traditional techniques alive.
All our pieces are timeless and one-of-a-kind. We believe in slow fashion so our garments are not only beautiful but sustainable as they will last for years, reducing the necessity of buying another one for the next season. We have cardigans, sweaters and more knitwear, all handmade by communities in the Andes. We also have funky and colorful Andean fabric accessories.
Nature inspiration and textures, birds, dream destinations and photos of my family who is back home.
My workshop/office is full of natural light, fabrics, yarn, plants and materials. It’s very inspiring place.
Tell us about a typical day for you, as a small business owner?
I wake up and do some sports, I eat a healthy brekkie and then to classes, I love learning so if nor in classes I am learning a new skill online. Sometimes I need to take photos, to create content or to prepare for a market. At night I cook with my partner, cooking is one of my passions and we love sharing that time together as we are always pretty busy.
I love the Coconut Dream Candle & Co!
I’ve following Gennine Zlatkis for ages, she’s my favorite artist/ crafter. I also love Junkaholique and The Vista.
I always keep warm with some of my Alpaca garments and protect from the sun with an aussie Akubra J. I love the Kultcha Collective clothing.
What can we expect from from you for the remainder of 2016 and beyond?
I will design my own garments for next year and will weave some in organic cotton for summer. I’m developing the online shop and I’m planning on selling around the world so I can support more weavers back home.
I’m new in the scene of markets so I was doing my research I found the TVM. I am an entrepreneur and loved the story of the founders, I felt inspired, everything looks so organized and beautiful. Definitively my style.
It’s my first time so I’m very excited. I’ve seen the photos of the stalls, live music and people and I love the vibe it transmits. Can’t wait!
If soft furnishings and stylish abodes are your jam, then you wont want to miss new stall Seven Seas Home at TVM Paradise Point this Sunday.
Read on to meet designer Kelly Taylor and find out more about Seven Seas Home.
Early in 2015 I started Seven Seas, as I have a love for fabrics and textiles and was studying Interior Design so I joined my two passions together. A trip to India to source fabric and learn how to block print was the real start. It it all came together from there.
Bean bags and floor cushion. I also sell fabric by the meter.
I have been sewing and creating from a young age, however seven years working in the fashion industry with product development and design has given me the skills that I need for Seven Seas.
Designed at home, in my room but made in India. I was over in India last year sourcing fabrics and getting samples made up.
Colour, pattern, textures, textiles... if I could have a room of fabric I would! I collect fabrics I like, end rolls and vintage textiles.
Ahoy is my first full collection with nine styles across three shapes. These are not your standard bean bag shapes, they are super comfortable and look great in homes.
Normally a pin board is mounted above my desk so I can constantly pin ideas and images up. I have just relocated (2 weeks ago) to the Byron area and I'm yet to move into a place but I hope to have a whole room I can fit out with bean bags for product testing. Box’s or buckets of fabric cuttings and rolls of fabrics, along with a sewing machine for custom/small orders.
Constantly running Spotify, currently on a Paul Simon radio.
When I'm not working my 9-5, it starts with a surf, coffee, breakfast, stroll around maybe a quick yoga stretch. I love going to markets myself in my space time when I'm not trading at them. I'm forever checking emails and social media to keep tabs on things. I like to get outdoors as much as I can (activities, activities, activities) and love finishing the day off with a good feed and a beer!
Overalls and big pockets are a must to keep all my valuables, as I'm always strolling around speaking to customers and neighbours.
What can we expect from you in 2016 and beyond?
I have just released in the last week my new collection, so I'm excited to show it to a new audience.
From what I have seen online and talking to people, the quality of stalls, their creatives, the size of the market, the live music on the day and the location are really appealing to me.
Tidal Magazine is a youth publication that showcases young talent in the area of surfing, skating, art, fashion, music and culture. Based on the beautiful Queensland coastline, Tidal brings light to some of the amazing local talent as well as changing some of the stereotypes about young people. On top of this, all of the funds raised will be going directly to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, to support crucial marine conservation efforts. Tidal is a collection of young people making things happen, with over 100 pages of pure content, it is more of a book than magazine. As Tidal is a collaboration, the stall will also be selling pieces from artists, photographers and musicians that are included in the publication.
Beautiful locally made & designed fashion for women aged 18-35. One off designer dresses, shorts tops & skirts.
Veg Out produces healthy lunch options and raw treats. Yum.
Handmade marble products including cheese platters, marble trays, coasters, stone homewares and furniture with marble inlays.
Mehndi or Henna is a herbal paste that can be applied into various designs using a cone shaped tube. Mehndi is a ceremonial art form which originated in ancient India. Its applied mainly in the hands and feet and is just like a temporary tattoo. Once applied the colour stands for 10-15 days.
A collection of locally designed Neoprene and Spandex/Nylon Swimwear, as well as handmade dresses and beach wraps.
Organic/Vegan street food stall. All items on the menu are vegan, whole food and organic where possible. All aspects in creating the burger including patties, condiments, sauces, jams and preserves are made entirely from scratch by Ditlef & Co.
New to TVM this Sunday at Paradise Point Park, is pop-up shop Just For Josephine, accessories label Kapowch, jewellery label Ton Sai and food stall Picnic Perfection.
TVM Paradise Point // Sunday 28 September // 8am - 1pm // Paradise Point Park, Cnr The Esplanade & Ephraim Island Pde, Paradise Point, Gold Coast.
Ton Sai - Island Vibes- is a jewellery collection inspired from the beautiful tropical coastal lifestyle of Ton Sai Bay, which forms part of the amazing Phi Phi Islands off Thailand. Each piece is individually handmade and designed to embrace natures treasures. The collection incorporates shells, precious & semi-precious stones, crystals, rocks, leathers, suede, unique charms & trinkets, beads and Tibetan coins. The designer, Leanne, sources and hand selects shells from the Gold Coast, precious and semi precious stones from the Gold Coast & Bali and beading/ trinkets from the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.
Kapowch sell clutch purses and sling bags that charge your phone on the go. Inside is a portable power bank that can charges your device up to 2.5 times before the battery itself needs recharging. Adaptors for all smartphones are available. Designed and made in Mullumbimby, NSW.
one category. Fashion is forever changing and evolving and Just For Josephine aims to be the source of current fashion trends and offer unique products.
Enjoy Picnic Perfection, a delightful food stall which offers a cute selection of picnic hampers for bruch and lunch, freshly made and packaged, ready to eat. Blankets, baskets and cushions are also available for hire, for a two hour period. Share these delights under the trees with your besties, this Sunday!
A bunch of incredible new stalls will hit TVM for the very first time tomorrow. Make sure you check them out!
Sweet authentic French crepes with 5 different fillings : Nutella, lemon and sugar, mix berry coulis, home made salted caramel, home made dulce de leche, with fresh fruits options : banana, strawberry and more.
Jack Sheard is a local young surf photographer who's been shooting around the Coast for years for various magazines and companies. Whilst in the water he's been lucky to witness some incredible empty waves and scenarios along the way.
Delicate crochet blankets, shell jewellery, lite bone crafted dream catches, large & small heavily shelled chandeliers, one off crochet clothing/bikinis.
Kyrane is fun, girly and an explosion of colour! Handbags, clutches, overnight bags, tote bags and coin purses made from high quality cottons, denims, silks and leather. Exclusive prints designed by Kyrane are also seen throughout.
The 2014 Desert Gypsy collection includes Pyramid Coin Pouches made using salvaged leather in an array of juicy colours, Petite Dreamcatchers; upcycled homewares made using wooden curtain rings and leather feathers, Treasure Pouch Necklaces; small leather fringed pouch necklaces to hold precious keepsakes, and Tribal Chevron earrings; glossy leather feathers individually hand painted in gold and white or embellished with gold leaf and metal chain.
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Hitting TVM for the first time this Sunday at Paradise Point is Makua Mu., a swimwear label founded by Renee and Lisa Van Drunen. We chatted to the creative duo to find out more about their brand new label, which launched on New Years Day of this year..
Growing up along the coast as sisters, the ocean formed a huge part of our childhood. If we were not at the beach, we were at the lake, in our attempt to chase water. The connection we shared with water carried across into adulthood, as did our desire to look good when chasing it!
After travelling the world in search of tropical sands, untouched lakes, hidden waterfalls and adventure we stumbled across exotic, unique and daring fashion. These creative concepts continued to spiral in our minds and ignited our desire to form the label.
After many months of hard work, patience and persistence, we officially launched Makua Mu. on New Year’s Day 2014.
Makua Mu. is a high quality swimwear and sportswear label focusing on designer cuts and intricate detail, however its exotic twist and limited edition styles keep our pieces unique.
Lisa has a creative background in Graphic Design and Renee has a background in Business and Marketing Communications. The perfect team!
Working in the design and manufacturing industry also runs in the family. It is something we were exposed to early on in our lives.
All corporate identity aspects are designed, produced or sourced within Australia.
The brand works closely with overseas designers and manufacturers, with branding activities carried out by local Australian businesses.
We find ourselves inspired when we travel to exotic beach locations, in our attempt to chase water. Inspiration also flows when thinking into the future and when considering the endless possibilities that await us.
Our Pebble Beach Swimwear Collection features bright palettes, designer cuts and intricate detail. Its exotic twist is by far the stand out feature of the collection.
Our Pebble Beach Sportswear Collection focuses on edgy designs, use of high performance fabrics, comfortable fit and a selection of bright, striking colours that screams motivation.
At this stage, our mood board is only a figment of our imagination! We have been so busy focusing on the day to day aspects of the label, that there has been limited time to reflect creatively in this manner.
Generally, we just whip out our phones and take quick snaps of anything that inspires us, wherever we may be and whatever we may see.
If we did have one, it would include all the exotic beaches we have discovered together, all beaches we hope to discover in the future, a huge section dedicated to colour inspiration and anything and everything to do with water, as we are forever chasing it!
Lisa’s creative space is decked out with everything she needs to be creative, with her inspiration being pulled from the ocean, which is close to her doorstep.
Renee’s creative space consists of a retro inspired desk, laptop, window overlooking the pool and a good cup of coffee.
We both prefer quite time when being creative, so there are no distractions. When we are not creating, you would probably catch us listening to something laid back and chilled out.
Everything and anything! Every day is so unpredictable, but generally brings with it long hours, challenges, successes and everything else in between.
There are so many amazing stalls at TVM, it is hard to select our favourite. We do however have a history of making some purchases from Lokoa Leather. In saying this, there is so much more for us to discover there!
We enjoy browsing mainstream celebrity and fashion magazines, along with anything to do with travel and culture. At times we limit our exposure to the fashion world because it can be so overwhelming. At the end of the day, we are happy doing our own thing and aim to gain our creative inspiration through adventure rather than published materials, here, there and everywhere!
On market day we will be mixing and matching sportswear from our Pebble Beach Collection. It is important that our customers are able to see what the designs look like on, how they fit different body shapes and their versatility.
What can we expect from the next collection/what are your plans for 2014 and beyond?
The Makua Mu. label represents everything we are, everything we do and everything we aspire to do in the future. Future collections will be based on this concept, so as a brand we will forever evolve. Your guess is ours!
But one thing is for certain, with the sun on our face and the earth beneath our feet,we will forever gravitate towards water.
TVM gives us the exciting opportunity to showcase our label to the public and mingle with customers and buyers. Additionally, this exposure allows us to obtain feedback from our customers, which we will use for continuous improvement.
We love the fact that we are working amongst creators and artists who share common interests to us. The vibe of TVM is amazing and by attending, we have a good excuse to go shopping!
Disciple Threads Boutique Disciple Threads Boutique stock ladies fashion, on-trend threads that stand out from the crowd. Find them at TVM Paradise Point, this Sunday!
Disciple Threads Boutique stock ladies fashion, on-trend threads that stand out from the crowd. Find them at TVM Paradise Point, this Sunday!
Handmade locally by the very talented Lisa Benny, is Harvest Clay. The collection includes pottery tableware for domestic and commercial use, created using high fired stoneware, porcelain and recycled clays.
their graphics and fun background. Deadwood Creative promotes handcrafted, and the husband and wife team carry this through everything they do, working from their home studio in the forests of Northern NSW.
SWOP is a sustainably sourced collection of vintage and preloved clothes and accessories. SWOP is a retail concept with a difference, they are creating an industry of rotating fashion built upon collaboration and sustainable community ideas. SWOP's collection traverses the trends of our time, inspiring future styles by celebrating and reviving favourite wears of the past.
Designed locally in Tweed Heads, Water Willow create beautiful and unique swimwear for little girls. Prices range from $15.95 to $50.
Byron Bay Chairs produce 100% hand-crafted Australian Adirondack Leisure Chairs. Each chair is handcrafted using locally sourced/recycled hardwoods & stainless steel screws which makes them ideal for both indoor & out. They can be custom made to order and the new addition of vintage letterpress wordsmithing allows customers to partake in the creative process.
Handmade in Northern NSW, Nimbikids garments are created for children aged newborn to twelve years, as well as quirky-eclectic cuddle cushions. Prices range from $12.00 - $69.00.
Men's and women's premium youth lifestyle clothing. Prices range between $20 and $100.
Unique beach and festival clothing, all designed locally, catering for a market audience who want a point of difference and great price.
Ollie Baby uses 100% organic cotton knit fabric with unique prints to create baby and toddler leggings, swaddle blankets, headbands and burp cloths.
Unisex alternative street wear, designed locally with prices ranging from $20 to $60.
Handmade natural fabrics, mostly raw silk, all hand weaved and hand loomed, hand block printed with natural dyes. All one-off pieces made in an atelier environment. Considered by the designer as wearable art.
With Bells On is a range of bell bottoms designed for women, men and children. An eclectic range of velvet, lace, tie dye and animal print pants designed and made in Pottsville.
"we(e) are a small, independent collective of lateral thinkers from the Gold Coast, Australia. we(e) create draw string-string backpacks, known as sea sacks. The sea sacks are made from sustainable calico and are ecofriendly and practical with only little weight, therefore the perfect companion for your outdoorsy lifestyle.
Handmade, hand-decorated ceramics - including tableware, succulent planters, jewellery bowls and decorative pieces.
stencilled, or printed with the creators own lino cut design for cards, pictures, coasters, paper and wood products. Also driftwood wall hangings with natural materials, stones & feathers.
New stalls hitting TVM this Sunday include..
Designed and made in Kings Beach on the Sunshine Coast, is Accordeon. This fun label features home made clothes for men, women, boys and girls with original fabric from Hawaii, Japan, Africa and USA, with some personal screen printed designs on organic fabrics too.
Designed and made on the Tweed Coast, is TVM newcomer Beautiful Bohemian Girl. The collection includes feather crowns, headpieces and accessories made with local and natural materials including kangaroo leather, cotton braids, feathers, beads and embellishments, all designed and handmade by Gold Coast local Erin King. Plus vintage lace and fabric one of a kind ladies garments all designed and handmade by Tweed Coast local Wendy Thorpe.
Something for the guys and girls in the form of pop-up boutique, Black Apparel, this Sunday. Find a selection of new and last season Afends brand products, mens and womens garments, axs, cushions and sunglasses.
Tres Vintage stocks one-off vintage pieces, hand picked by Marnie Galvin from around the globe. Sold at and affordable price, but make you look like a million bucks! Dresses, skirts, tops and some home-wears in the form of crochet rugs and pillowcases!
Plus BAMMF returns after a short hiatus.
A streetwear clothing label stocking Tees, Beanies, Spray Jackets, Shorts, 5 Panels, Bucket Hats, Singlets, Hoodies, CrewNecks + Canvas prints. All designed and made locally.
A unique range of children's wear priced between $15 and $79, all designed and made on the Gold Coast by Lucretia Jones.
New to TVM this Sunday is Lunar and Galerie Wa. Come and support our local creative talent and small business this Sunday 4th May at Burleigh Heads State School, 8:30am until 1pm.
Japanese style handmade pottery and tsumami zaiku (handmade fabric) jewellery by Kamiko Suzaki. Prices start from $10.
LUNAR caters for home, woman and child and designed for the wild at heart! The range includes beautifully crafted leather clutch bags, ankle boots, sandals and ballet flats. LUNAR kimonos are made from gorgeous silk & silk velvet, another staple for every woman - a kimono changes the vibe of every outfit.
We're pretty excited about Sundays sweet lineup of stalls, including plenty of our ah-mazing regulars and some shiny new talent!
Influenced by the spirit of ‘ride’, Baby Likes To RIDE designers Brooke and Frankie created a label designed to empower the women who wear it, collaborating with Australian artists and photographers and heading to Bali to manufacturer with the coolest peeps in the rag trade. The girls take pride in the knowledge that their garments are produced within a 100% transparent supply chain so customers know they are shopping ethically.
Baby likes to Ride is for the Rockers and the Rollers, the Surfers and the Skaters and the Movers and the Shakers.
MAVERIKSTUDIO have a range of unique handmade products. The first collection is called small change and includes up-cycled purses designed locally and made out plastic bags and vintage patterns. The second collection is called artesian and includes beautiful Columbian handbags and jewellery from two different tribes. The founders of MAVERIKSTUDIO, had the opportunity to live with these tribes and photograph them in order to help the community and rebuild their tribes after a civil war.
Rebecca Jones Apparel is a women's lifestyle label. It is a range of handmade clothing, intimates and accessories with a focus on the details and texture of each piece. Prices range between $40 - $150.
Wilde Ginger makes decor accessories from locally collected driftwood, as well as decorative glass jars and herb gardens designed for those with small outdoor areas or balconies.
Cantik (meaning 'beautiful' in Bahasa Indonesian) is for the free spirited sun seeker, lover of all things beautiful and exciting. Cantik is a luxury swimwear label established in 2013, featuring seamless 80s inspired silhouettes and buttery Italian lycra.
Rikki is a label designed in Coolangatta QLD, featuring custom designed shirts for women, all collared and long-sleeved business wear with an edge! Prints range from polka dots to skull prints.
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2019-04-22T13:15:13Z
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https://www.thevillagemarkets.co/tag/new-to-tvm/
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Home » Geography » The “Russian World”—What And Where Is It?
In the past five weeks or so, my students in “Russia Beyond the Russians” course at the Santa Clara University’s Osher Institute and I have grappled with the notion of ethnicity (or “nationality”) as it is understood—and has been understood throughout history—in Russia. While ethnic groups are often defined by their language, our examination of the conflict in Ukraine has shown that ethnicity and language do not always go hand in hand (see also Martin Lewis’ GeoCurrents post). Other factors, such as genetic descent, religion, shared history, and commonality of culture and traditions, play a role in defining ethnicities, at least as this concept is understood in Russia. Importantly, we have discussed how the notion of ethnicity can easily be manipulated for political purposes: entire populations may be reassigned to a different ethnic group by a government decision, and the understanding of what it means to be a member of a certain group can be changed. All of this strongly supports the view espoused by most present-day Russian anthropologists and sociologists, namely that “ethnicity” is a social construct rather than a natural phenomenon (as it was understood, for example, by Lev Gumilev).
While the concept “ethnicity” is intricate and malleable, the notion of the “Russian world” (in Russian: «русский мир») is even more so. The expression is frequently used today in political and ideological discourse, yet it is not new. The earliest mention of the “Russian world” is found in an 11th century religious document, where it seemingly refers to the sphere of influence of the Russian Orthodox church. In the 1800s, the expression typically referred to East Slavs who spoke closely related languages/dialects, descendants of Old Russian. (The term “Old Russian”, which refers to Common East Slavic, derives from the word Rus’ rather than Russia.) As late as the early 20th century, linguistic maps depicted Ukrainian and Belarusian dialects as “Dialects of Russian” (see for example the map reproduced on the left). The concept of the “Russian world” was revived and popularized by President Vladimir Putin, who said in a speech dedicated to the beginning of the Year of the Russian language (2007): “The Russian world can and must unite all those, who cherish the Russian word and the Russian culture, wherever they might live, in Russia or outside of it. We should use this expression, “Russian world”, more often.” As explained in the Wikipedia article, in the contemporary ideological conception, the “Russian world” is a transnational, transcontinental “civilizational space”, unified by common religion (Russian Orthodoxy), common language and culture, and shared historical memory and views on the future path of Russia. As such, this concept combines a concrete physical space with an abstract ideology. Moreover, the notion of the “Russian world” bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the infamous 19th century slogan of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality”— the co-called Uvarov’s triad (named after Sergey Uvarov, Nicholas I’s Minister of Education), which is also currently being “dusted” and revived as part of the official state ideology in Russia. But while the political regime, “Autocracy”, is a vital part of Uvarov’s triad, it is downplayed in the conception of the “Russian world” and replaced by a vaguer notion of shared memory and acceptance of a certain political framework.
Because the notion of the “Russian world” is so ambiguous and elusive, it is not surprising that many Russian citizens have only an imprecise idea of what the expression means, as has been shown by a recent survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM): 71% of the respondents in the survey claim to have “never heard the expression “Russian world””, while an additional 15% of the respondents have heard the expression but cannot explain what it means or “find it difficult to respond”. Only the remaining 14% of the respondents have some idea, however vague, what the “Russian world” refers to, and their ideas differ substantially. Some 3% of the respondents define the “Russian world” as “all the Russian people”, but this definition merely replaces one vague concept with another equally vague one. Another 3% of the respondents see the “Russian world” as “those who were brought up in the traditions of the Russian culture”, another definition that would be extremely difficult to operationalize (more on this below). Only 1% of the respondents take this expression to refer to native speakers of Russian. Another group, also 1% of the respondents, think that the “Russian world” is a nationalist movement (in Russian: националистическое движение). Another 1% say that the expression means “peace for Russia, for the Russians (when we don’t have a war)” (in Russian: Мир для России, для русских («когда у нас нет войны»)). Another view, also held by 1% of the respondents, equates the “Russian world” with “Russia, the Motherland”. Other views, held by less than 1% of the respondents each, include “the community of people living in Russia”, “people following the Orthodox faith”, “patriots”, “spiritual unity of the Russian people”. Small minorities of respondents thought that the “Russian world” refers only to a store (less than 1%) or a magazine (less than 1%).
Regardless of how individual respondents understand the expression—those who have actually heard it at all—only about two thirds of them think that the “Russian world” actually exists. Overall, it appears to be a learned concept, as the proportion of people who believe in its existence is higher among college graduates (64%) than among people who have not completed secondary school (50%).
The survey also explored several criteria that may be used to define the “Russian world”. (The numbers below are the percentages of those respondents who have heard the expression and believe in the existence of the “Russian world”.) One such criterion is faith: about a quarter of the respondents restrict the meaning of the “Russian world” to people of the Orthodox faith. (As far as I can tell, the survey did not ask about following a particular national church within the Orthodox faith, such as the Russian Orthodox vs. the Ukrainian Orthodox; more on the different Churches’ views about the “Russian world” below.) Curiously, education level appears to correlate with whether a respondent limits the “Russian world” on the basis of faith: almost one in three college graduates limits the meaning of the expression to “Orthodox people” while among the respondents with incomplete secondary education only 11% do. This difference, however, seems to be more of an effect of respondents’ certainty, as the number of those who think that the “Russian world” includes not only the Orthodox believers but also followers of other faiths and unbelievers is approximately the same among people of different education levels; yet far fewer respondents in the most educated group choose the “difficult to respond” answer.
Language is another important component of the “Russian world”, but only 38% of the respondents think that it includes only “people speaking Russian”, while over half of the respondents believe that the “Russian world” may also include speakers of other languages. (It should be noted that, as with faith, the question about language too was formulated rather vaguely; yet, as my examination of the language question in Ukraine shows, native speakers of a given language cannot be equated with active users.) The association between the notion of the “Russian world” and the Russian language is stronger among the most educated respondents: 40% of them believe that only Russian speakers are to be included. Among respondents with incomplete secondary education, only 11% think so. The difference in terms of respondents’ certainty in answering this question is particularly striking: only 3% of the most educated respondents chose “difficult to respond”, while this number in the least educated group is 33%.
Other criteria besides faith and language also play a role in defining the “Russian world”. Ethnic identity is a defining criterion of the “Russian world” for about a third of the respondents, while two thirds extend it to people of other ethnicities (“nationalities”). The extension of the “Russian world” beyond ethnic Russians correlates with age: the older the respondents the more likely they are to include non-Russians within the “Russian world”. Only 55% of the youngest respondents (aged 18-24) include people of other ethnicities, while among the oldest respondents (over 60 years of age) 75% adopt the broader definition.
This extension of the “Russian world” beyond ethnic Russians is particularly interesting because the revival of this concept in recent years has been driven in part by the legal standing of ethnic Russians: unlike the so-called titular ethnicities (e.g. Tatars, Yakut, Chechens, etc.), which are given certain legal rights by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, ethnic Russians are not considered a titular ethnicity anywhere. The special rights were granted to the titular ethnicities because all of them constitute a small minority of Russia’s total population (Tatars, the largest non-Russian ethnic group, constitute less than 5% of the total population); moreover, most titular ethnicities constitute a minority even in the federal subjects of which they are the titular ethnicity (e.g. the Mari constitute 44% of the population of their “ethnic republic” of Mari-El). Since ethnic Russians constitute over 80% of the population of the Russian Federation as a whole and, in most federal subjects, they are the majority (or at least the plurality) group, no special rights were granted to them by the Constitution. Some Russians now see this situation as paradoxical and discriminatory, and so the idea of the “Russian world” was meant to create a virtual entity in which Russians would be the titular ethnicity. However, it appears to have lost that narrowly ethnic meaning and become significantly broader. According to the WCIOM survey, the territory of present-day Russia is a defining criterion for only about a third of the respondents, while approximately two thirds of them think that the concept extends to people living outside of Russia. Curiously, women tend to have a broader definition of the “Russian world”: 72% of female respondents extend beyond the territory of the Russian Federation, while only 61% of male respondents do. Below, I shall return to the question of which specific territories outside of the Russian Federation are thought to be included in the “Russian world”.
Of the different criteria explored in the survey, “Russian culture” appears to be the most important: 45% of the respondents restrict the “Russian world” to “people belonging to the Russian culture”. But defining one vague concept through another, equally vague concept is hardly helping to pin down its definition, and while the bounds of “Russian culture” seems to be clear-cut to the so-called “hurray-patriots” (in Russian: ура-патриоты), this phrase can be understood very differently, depending on one’s views and agenda. The “Russian world” purists who limit it on the basis of faith, language, territory, and/or traditional values are sure to exclude almost the entire pantheon of Russia’s greatest cultural icons. Does Russian culture include the Russian-language literary works of such Nobel-prize-winning authors as the Jew Boris Pasternak and the émigré Ivan Bunin? Or if one’s definition does not rely exclusively on the Russian language, shouldn’t Russian culture include the works of the Yiddish-language writers Mendele Mocher Sforim and Sholem Aleichem? In other cultural and artistic fields that are not as tightly connected to language the question of inclusion into Russian culture is even trickier. Are paintings by such Jewish artists as Isaac Levitan (who was born in Poland) and Marc Chagall (who lived and worked in France) part of the Russian culture? What about the works of the Crimea-born ethnic Armenian Ivan Aivazovsky and of the Ukrainian-born ethnic Pole Kazimir Malevich? Does Russian culture include such architectural masterpieces in Saint Petersburg as the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, developed by a Swiss-Italian-born architect Domenico Trezzini, or the Winter Palace, home of the renowned Hermitage Museum, built by a French-born Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, or Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, designed by a Frenchman Auguste de Montferrand, who was “not Russian enough” to be buried in the cathedral he had spent 40 years building? Equally debatable is the inclusion in “Russian culture” of the music of Mikhail Glinka, who was of Polish descent (but recall that it was his “Patrioticheskaya Pesnya” that served as Russia’s national anthem in 1990-2000), and of César Cui, who was of a mixed French-Lithuanian descent. And since many advocates of the “Russian world” emphasize “shared traditional cultural values”, should cultural icons of what is euphemistically known in Russia as “non-traditional sexual orientation” be struck from the roster of “Russian culture”? Yet, Russian culture is hardly imaginable without the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky or the famous Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Most ironically, the creator of the above-mentioned “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” formula, Sergey Uvarov, was known for his homosexual affairs, which became a subject of a satirical verse by Alexander Pushkin, another one of Russia’s greats whose African roots should make “Russian culture” purists uncomfortable.
The elusive nature of the concept “Russian world” is the reason why the WCIOM survey respondents had very different ideas as to which specific groups outside the core of “Orthodox, Russian-speaking, ethnically and culturally Russian citizens of the Russian Federation” belong to the “Russian world”. As can be seen from the chart reproduced on the left, the best candidate for inclusion in the “Russian world” is Donbass, the area in eastern Ukraine that has seen the most tensions and violence in recent months. Three quarters of the respondents include it in the “Russian world”. The second spot in this ranking is taken by Transnistria, a thin sliver of eastern Moldova, along the Ukrainian border: 63% of the survey respondents think that it too belongs in the “Russian world”. As discussed in my earlier post, there is some discussion of a potential accession of this region into the Russian Federation, although the proposition is not without problems and challenges, as reflected by the fact that a large percentage of the survey respondents could not decide if Transnistria is “in or out” (19%, second only to 21% of the respondents uncertain about the status of Serbia). It should be noted that on several occasions, Moscow Patriarch Kirill has proclaimed the entire country of Moldova to be included in the “Russian world”.
They proposed a new penalty for traffic violators. For the first offense, the offender gets a hole punched in his driver’s license. For the second violation, he gets another. After the third offense, the fifth item in his passport is to be changed to “a Jew”.
That now those same Russian-speaking Jews—and even their descendants who may have never been to Russia—are considered by many Russians to be part of the “Russian world” boggles the mind.
Other areas thought to be included in the concept of the “Russian world”—and where Russia exerts its imperial ambitions—include northern Kazakhstan (56%), Abkhazia (55%), South Ossetia (52%), and even Serbia (48%), whose connection to the Russian culture is rather tenuous. It is not (and has never been) part of the Russian state, there are very few ethnic Russians in Serbia, and the Russian language has only a minor role to play (even the Serbian language is now more and more often written in the Roman rather than Cyrillic alphabet). But Russia has historically viewed Serbia as part of its sphere of influence in the Balkans and participated (or promised to participate) in military hostilities on the Serbian side. Finally, a quarter to a third of the respondents also think that central and western Ukraine (Kiev, Lviv) and the Baltic states are to be included in the “Russian world”, which goes a long way in explaining why many people in these countries are concerned about Russia’s expansionist ideas. For example, Ukrainians are split in their views of the “Russian world” and what role it should play in their country’s future. Ukrainian nationalists and leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Kiev Patriarch and of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church have long protested against the idea of the “Russian world”, which they take to be a decentralizing force that could result in a break-up of a united Ukraine. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church takes a more ambiguous position, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarch Kirill supports the expansion of the “Russian world”.
All in all, the expression “Russian world” is a perfect illustration of Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty principle: “it means just what [we] choose it to mean — neither more nor less”.
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2019-04-22T05:42:53Z
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https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/russia-ukraine-and-the-caucasus/russian-world.html
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Superhero archetypes can be used as a fun way to approach all three.
Because I want the widest margin of people to be able to relate, I’ve chosen from the most popular characters in comics. There are plenty of lesser-known characters who would also fit the bill but they wouldn’t be as relatable.
There are also certain characters who, while being my own personal favorites (such as the Hulk, Rogue and Rorschach), are either too ambivalent or not easy enough to explain in short, bite-sized micro-essays and therefore left off this particular list (though I may discuss them in another post).
These are my own symbolic interpretations, completely arbitrary. Others will have different ones and that’s not only fine and natural, it’s all part of the beauty of superheroes. They’re customizable for your own purposes.
Naturally, there will be a lot of overlap and crossover of qualities between characters. For each character, moreover, there are at least a handful of alternative characters that you might prefer and could easily use instead.
The qualities I discuss are by no means all of the lessons that each character has to teach us. This is just a small sample platter of ideas, if you will.
Lastly, though this list is numbered, it is not in order of importance. The sequence is purely based on my own arbitrary logic.
The above satire of Green Lantern from Cracked is a personal favorite.
As we know, the Lantern’s ring endows its bearer with the power to materialize anything he can imagine. When all the wearer can imagine is a fist to sock his enemies in the face with, clearly there’s a lack of imagination at play.
Sometimes, it is not lack of talent, skill, effort or luck that puts us in unfulfilling life circumstances but a simple lack of imagination (as in the cartoon above).
I don’t mean a fanciful, overly ambitious imagination like wanting to become the next Steve Jobs, but the ability to let your heart dictate what might be possible and what is worth struggling for rather than just second-hand wisdom or what the world tells you. The size of the dream is not what matters but its trueness to you.
With time and experience, many of us find ourselves adjusting our dreams and goals to make them more feasible, but better to dream creatively first and compromise later than never to have dreamt creatively at all.
The other condition of the Green Lantern’s ring is that even when Hal Jordan imagines something more creative than a fist, he must have an equal proportion of willpower to bring it to life.
This is also true in reality. An idea, no matter how clever or bold, is never enough. One must have the strength of will to initiate it, to persist in it and to not quit despite setbacks and failures. And the bigger the idea, project or conception, the greater the willpower required.
With the release of every great product or service, there are people who say that they thought of that too or that they thought of it first. Perhaps they did, but in this game only those with the will to follow through on their ideas can win.
Finally, make no mistake: This is not the same thing as The Secret. “Willing” an idea into being is a long, laborious process that requires real work and sweat, not just imagining and waiting for the universe to bring it to you on a silver platter.
Obviously, many superhero characters embody this virtue to a certain degree, but with the Green Lantern, it is explicitly symbolized in both the mechanics of his ring and its primary weakness: the color yellow, which represents fear.
The nature of the ring is such that a powerful imagination plus willpower can create just about anything, but if the ring bearer’s mind is clouded by fear or other negative emotions, his ring-powered creations will be unstable.
Within the Marvel universe, Cyclops is one of the characters with the strongest, clearest vision of what he wants to achieve. It’s quite appropriate, symbolically, for a character whose mutant power literally involves his vision.
Scott Summers may have been trained and mentored by Charles Xavier, but he eventually became his own man with his own vision that ultimately has come to even clash with Xavier’s. But, when chastised by his teacher, instead of backing down he had the courage to stand up for what he, not what anyone else, believed was right.
Regardless of whether his decisions have been right or wrong, it is because Cyclops is so clear in what he wants to achieve that he can resolutely make difficult choices, even dubious ones, and not sabotage himself afterwards by second-guessing.
Personally, I believe that one of the most common but least understood causes of failure in anything is lack of focus and concentration.
Cyclops can’t actually control his optic blast power. Without a special visor or eyeglasses, the beams shoot out everywhere. The beams represent attention and concentration of effort. With the help of his visor, he can shoot his eyebeams only when he needs to exactly on the targets that he needs to – focused, concentrated effort. But without them, his “attention” becomes scattershot.
Discipline and self-control are necessary to focus our attention on the highest priorities if we want any kind of chance at succeeding at anything whether the endeavor is career-oriented, intellectual or spiritual.
When you put yourself out there, no matter what form that may take, you need to grow thick skin because people, both friends and enemies alike, will sometimes say and do things that will deflate your confidence and motivation.
The kind of thick skin that we need is figurative, of course, but Aquaman has both kinds. His skin is literally tough enough that while it isn’t completely invulnerable to bullets (like Superman), it can nevertheless withstand them pretty well.
Equally importantly, he also has the kind of thick skin that deflects a persistent onslaught of mean-spirited jokes and insults. Some characters don’t get enough respect in their fictitious worlds (like Daredevil). Some don’t get enough in the real world from comic fans (like Cyclops). Poor Aquaman doesn’t get enough in either his own fictitious world or in reality from comic fans.
But while he doesn’t enjoy the treatment he often gets (who would?), he endures it with dignity and grace, ignoring it as best he can, and nobly continues to do what he does best: helping people.
As a man of two worlds, Aquaman is rejected as an outsider by both. Naturally, this is a source of pain for him, but instead of sinking into self-pity he tries to embody the best of both worlds while rejecting their faults and weaknesses.
We live in an increasingly multicultural world in which many, if not most, have multiple identities, affiliations and loyalties, sometimes conflicting ones.
This can be a source of great angst but it can also be a source of power. Like Aquaman, we can try to learn the best of what our different cultures have to offer and minimize the problematic aspects of them. In effect, by doing this we become like chameleons, far more adaptable in an ever confusing world than those who have their entire sense of self invested in a single identity package.
Like Darth Vader, most of Cyborg’s body is a machine. It’s what gives him his powers and abilities. He is truly a symbolic hero for our time as we find that ever more and more activities that we used to do with our own labor and muscle – even brushing our teeth – is being done by machinery.
This is why I chose Cyborg over a more popular or obvious choice like Iron Man. The latter can live without his technology to some extent. Cyborg is more like us in that neither he nor we can live without ours.
In this day and age, you can surely still be happy while shunning technology (in fact, it’s probably easier to be). But as far as material success goes, with everyone else using it, it’s getting harder and harder to have a fighting chance without at least partly using it.
The irony is that even as we’re inundated with more and more technological tools for communication, real and true human communication and connection has not necessarily improved (some, including me, would argue it has worsened in some ways), which is why the next quality below is also needed.
Very little of Cyborg’s body is actually human, yet his humanity remains intact. And never losing touch with that human core has been one of his primary struggles.
As the world becomes increasingly technologized, the hunger for simple, real human connection and old-fashioned values will only increase. This is one of the main reasons that Starbucks – at first, anyway – become so popular: it provided an appealing “third space” where people could simply enjoy good coffee, talk and connect or privately work on their own stuff in a social setting.
Those who can continue to find ways to deliver the human touch within a sterile technological world will be able to thrive at the personal, social and commercial levels.
No one has ever accused Wolverine of being a nice guy. With his bodily augmentations, training and feral temperament, he’s essentially the perfect killer. Were it not for people like Professor X who mentored and nurtured him, he may very well have ended up as nothing better than a mercenary.
As it is, Wolverine uses his qualities, even the negative ones, for good and is among the greatest of heroes in his own edgy way. He is an archetype for harnessing our demons and using them in ways more beneficial than hurting ourselves and others.
How does this translate to real life? Well, for instance, I have OCD and have had it for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I tortured myself (and sometimes others) with all kinds of bizarre habits and rituals and had very little control over it.
Today, through conscious effort over the years, I am in 99% control over it. I still get obsessive-compulsive thoughts, but I can almost completely ignore them. But, when I want to, when I think it might be beneficial, I unchain the beast and let it do its thing. Usually, this is for creative or work-related things in which the OCD helps me be meticulous and detailed in a way second to none.
And what else does Wolverine’s famous healing factor really represent but resilience? The ability to get up again after being knocked down, to put ourselves back together after being torn apart – this is what really distinguishes those who succeed (at anything) versus those who don’t, much more than just raw talent or intelligence.
Daredevil, as we know, can’t see. But his senses of hearing, smell, taste and touch are so supernaturally acute that, along with a radar sixth sense, they more than make up for the blindness.
We, too, can learn to use our talents and skills to compensate for our “blindness” or weaknesses. Everybody has weaknesses or blind spots in certain areas that may be due to our personality, our worldview, our limited knowledge or experience or whatever it may be. But we are also gifted with unique talents and abilities that, if used to their potential, can more than make up for those weaknesses.
Matthew Murdock has accomplished something that we all dream of but very few achieve: he has integrated his passions into his formal occupation. By night, of course, he is still Daredevil, but his battle against crime doesn’t end with daylight when he operates within the law as a respectable lawyer.
The other lesson here is the willingness to compromise a bit. If he could have it his way, Murdock would surely much rather be Daredevil 24-7 and be paid for it. But since he can’t, he has done the next best thing, which is make money by doing something that might not be perfect but is still connected somehow to his passion.
Moreover, the job funds Murdock’s activities as Daredevil so it is a worthy compromise. After all, not everyone is rich like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark. We have to have jobs to fund our passions and, with patience and persistence, we can find ones that are at least somehow connected.
Batman is among the most tortured of heroes, and we all know the story why. Fortunately for the fictional DC world, he transmutes the powerful negative emotions of grief and anger and uses them for good. He even eliminates the possibility that such emotions will cause him to overstep the line by making “no guns, no killing” an unconditional personal rule.
This principle, while similar to Wolverine’s Harnessing the Dark Side, has a subtle difference. With Emotional Alchemy, we are learning to channel our negative emotions into completely positive actions. With Harnessing the Dark Side, the actions we do are are negative but they come from habits and tendencies that we can’t get rid of entirely (such as Wolverine’s animal nature or penchant for killing or my own example of having OCD). Because we can’t stop ourselves from doing these actions completely we at least try to use them in more productive ways.
Batman is also the most driven of all heroes and given the powerful emotions he lives with, it’s not surprising why. Like him, rather than let our demons pull us down and sink us, we can use them to soar and achieve to ever greater heights.
We must be careful, though, that our compulsion to achieve does not drive us to unhealthy extremes, something that Batman himself, both in the comics and in the films, occasionally allows to happen.
To make up for a lack of supernatural powers, Batman relies on his superb intellect, supremely healthy body and immense wealth. But like everything else in comics, these, too, are just symbols. Not exactly a genius? Don’t have immense wealth? Never you mind for there are all kinds of resources that you can tap into with some cleverness and creativity. Figuring out what those might be for you and then accumulating them is, itself, a test of your resourcefulness.
This is also somewhat different from Daredevil’s Weakness Compensation principle in that while Daredevil relies mainly on internal powers (i.e. talent, skills) to compensate for his blindness, Batman exploits many external resources (connections, wealth, technology), indeed every resource possible, as well has his own internal intelligence and peak fitness to compensate for his lack of any powers at all.
Why does Spidey get so much love? It’s because he’s simply among the nicest and most self-effacing of superheroes.
You may think kindness and humility won’t get you ahead in this world, and sometimes that may appear to be the case. In the short run, it’s often true. But, in the long run, if you are loved and respected by the people around you – and nothing earns love and respect more than sincere kindness and dignified humility – then, at the most critical moments, they will step up to the plate and help you when you need it.
I have tested this principle and it works but it requires a long-term investment and it must not be calculated. If you’re nice to people for a day and then expect them to come rushing to your aid the next day, it’s not going to work.
Because of the words “great power,” some people misinterpret the true, deeper meaning behind the much quoted dictum, “With great power comes great responsibility.” But come now, just how “great” is Spidey’s power, really? Compared to so many vastly more powerful beings in the Marvel and DC Universes?
First of all, the word “great” here doesn’t indicate the level or size of power. It’s the value of the power, and all powers have great value and importance.
Second, Spider-Man very much represents the average person, so what does that mean? It means we all have unique talents and abilities that give us “power.” It is your duty to find them, hone them and use them.
Third, the responsibility isn’t just towards others; it’s also towards yourself. People wait endlessly for external events to make them happy. Take charge and take action. Fulfillment in life is your own “responsibility” and you have the “power” to make it happen.
Spidey never loses his sense of humor. Ever. It doesn’t mean he’s frivolous nor does he lack the sense to withhold witty comments during inappropriate moments. His humor is, rather, a kind of courageous defiance against adversity, against the blows, both literal and figurative, that life throws at him endlessly.
As I wrote about extensively in my post about the film adaptation, what makes Captain America a hero is not so much his physical prowess as his virtues of courage and determination, qualities he had even when he was a skinny weakling. He didn’t let his sickliness be an excuse from being of service back then and neither should we when we’re feeling down and out for whatever reason.
There’s always something we can do, no matter how weak and disempowered we feel, literally or figuratively. Start where you can. He did.
An idealist at heart, the years of serving in the military and leading soldiers in the field has made Cap a clear-headed pragmatist. His idealism and pragmatism both make him who he is. The key, as he shows us, is balance (though admittedly Cap himself sometimes strays too far into the overly idealistic side). Whichever direction you lean towards, idealist or realist, try to balance it out a bit with elements of the other. You may find your thinking becoming more holistic and integrative.
Cap isn’t the strongest, fastest or even the smartest in the Marvel universe. What he can do, however, is surround himself with those who are faster, stronger and smarter, earn their respect (even with someone as unruly as the Hulk), unite them to a cause and lead them brilliantly. We all need help with our efforts. We need allies, a team.
If the vision of what you want is clear, then, accumulate a team, however long it takes, that can help you bring it to fruition. Show them, by your integrity, that you are deserving of their help in attaining your dreams. You can then essentially become the leader of your own personal “superhero team” and, in return, help others with their dreams as well.
Wonder Woman’s trademark weapon is her Lasso of Truth. It represents both her love of abstract Truth and truthfulness.
Truthfulness, in a philosophical sense, is slightly different from honesty. A dictionary definition of “truthfulness” is: “being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something.” So genuineness is the key word here. If a co-worker asks you how she looks in a dress and you tell her she looks ugly, you might be being honest but are you being true to your own values?
During a key storyline in the DC universe, Wonder Woman gets chosen by the violet Star Sapphire ring (representing love whereas Green Lantern’s green ring represents will) for having more love for the planet Earth and everyone on it than anyone else.
Given that love is such an omnipresent theme in all of art, pop culture and entertainment, for DC to single out Wonder Woman like this, even over the equally-idealistic Superman, was a significant statement about her. She represents many things but, more than anything, she represents the Christ-like quality of all-encompassing love.
In an already idealistic list, the abstract concept we call love is the most idealistic of ideals. No one can say just exactly what it is for it is many things to many people. But we can all agree that everyone wants it and that it gives life meaning and makes it worth living.
To pursue your dreams, then, with love in your heart not only for what you’re doing but whom you’re doing it for, is the ultimate of accomplishments. It makes the journey itself the reward. And there are those in the self-help and personal development fields who believe and teach that love is the extra magical something that can propel a project, business or endeavor beyond mediocrity and make it truly great.
Hey, can’t believe that Superman isn’t here? (Sorry, I limited myself to 10 and then ran out of space). Which superhero who isn’t on this list has inspired you to improve yourself in some way? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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2019-04-20T20:14:56Z
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https://www.popmythology.com/top-10-superheroes/
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The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the two major professional tournaments, the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship. Scotland, as a constituent country of the United Kingdom, is not a member of the International Olympic Committee and therefore the national team does not compete in the Olympic Games. The majority of Scotland's home matches are played at the national stadium, Hampden Park.
Scotland is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872. Scotland has a long-standing rivalry with England, whom they played annually from 1872 until 1989. The teams have met only six times since then, most recently in November 2016.
Scotland have qualified for the FIFA World Cup on eight occasions and the UEFA European Championship twice, but have never progressed beyond the first group stage of a finals tournament. The team have achieved some noteworthy results, such as beating the 1966 FIFA World Cup winners England 3–2 at Wembley Stadium in 1967. Archie Gemmill scored what has been described as one of the greatest World Cup goals ever in a 3–2 win during the 1978 World Cup against the Netherlands, who reached the final of the tournament. In their qualifying group for UEFA Euro 2008, Scotland defeated 2006 World Cup runners-up France 1–0 in both fixtures.
Scotland lost just two of their first 43 international matches. It was not until a 2–0 home defeat by Ireland in 1903 that Scotland lost a match to a team other than England. This run of success meant that Scotland would have regularly topped the Elo ratings, which were calculated in 1997, between 1876 and 1904. Scotland won the British Home Championship outright on 24 occasions, and shared the title 17 times with at least one other team.[note 1] A noteworthy victory for Scotland before the Second World War was the 5–1 victory over England in 1928, which led to that Scotland side being known as the "Wembley Wizards". Scotland played their first match outside the British Isles in 1929, beating Norway 7–3 in Bergen. Scotland continued to contest regular friendly matches against European opposition and enjoyed wins against Germany and France before losing to the Austrian "Wunderteam" and Italy in 1931.
During the build-up to the 1978 FIFA World Cup, MacLeod fuelled the hopes of the nation by stating that Scotland would come home with a medal. As the squad left for the finals in Argentina, they were given an enthusiastic send-off as they were paraded around a packed Hampden Park. Thousands more fans lined the route to Prestwick Airport as the team set off for South America. Scotland's first game was against Peru in Córdoba. Two spectacular goals by Teófilo Cubillas meant that the result was a 3–1 loss. The second game was a very disappointing 1–1 draw against Iran. The disconsolate mood of the nation was reflected by footage of Ally MacLeod in the dugout with his head in his hands.
New manager Craig Brown successfully guided Scotland to the 1996 European Championship tournament. The first game against the Netherlands ended 0–0, raising morale ahead of a much anticipated game against England at Wembley Stadium. Gary McAllister missed a penalty kick, and a goal by Paul Gascoigne led to a 2–0 defeat. Scotland recovered to beat Switzerland 1–0 with a goal by Ally McCoist. England taking a 4–0 lead in the other match briefly put both teams in a position to qualify, but a late goal for the Netherlands meant that Scotland were again knocked out on goal difference.
Scotland failed to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, finishing third in their qualifying group behind Croatia and Belgium. This second successive failure to qualify prompted Craig Brown to resign from his position after the final qualifying match. The SFA appointed former Germany manager Berti Vogts as Brown's successor. Scotland reached the qualification play-offs for Euro 2004. Scotland beat Netherlands 1–0 at Hampden Park, but suffered a 6–0 defeat in the return leg. Poor results in friendly matches and a bad start to the 2006 World Cup qualification caused the team to drop to a record low of 77th in the FIFA World Rankings. Vogts announced his resignation in 2004, blaming the hostile media for his departure.
After the narrow failure to qualify for Euro 2008, McLeish left to join Premier League club Birmingham City. Southampton manager George Burley was hired as the new manager, but he came in for criticism from the media after the team lost their first qualifier against Macedonia. After Scotland lost their fourth match 3–0 to the Netherlands, captain Barry Ferguson and goalkeeper Allan McGregor were excluded from the starting lineup for the following match against Iceland due to a "breach of discipline". Despite winning 2–1 against Iceland, Scotland suffered a terrible 4–0 defeat by Norway in the following qualifier, which left Scotland effectively needing to win their last two games to have a realistic chance of making the qualifying play-offs. Scotland defeated Macedonia 2–0 in the first of those two games, but were eliminated by a 1–0 loss to the Netherlands in the second game. Burley was allowed to continue in his post after a review by the SFA board, but a subsequent 3–0 friendly defeat by Wales led to the SFA sacking Burley.
The SFA appointed Craig Levein as head coach of the national team in December 2009. In UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying, Scotland were grouped with Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Czech Republic and world champions Spain. They took just four points from the first four games, leaving the team needing three wins from their remaining four games to have a realistic chance of progression. They only managed two wins and a draw and were eliminated after a 3–1 defeat by Spain in their last match. Levein left his position as head coach following a poor start to 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification, having taken just two points from four games.
In qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Scotland were drawn in the same group as England, facing their rivals in a competitive fixture for the first time since 1999. On 11 November 2016, England beat Scotland 3–0 at Wembley; the return match, in Scotland, is on 10 June 2017.
Scotland have qualified for two European Championships, but have failed to advance beyond the first round on both occasions. Their most recent participation was at the 1996 European Championship, where the Netherlands progressed instead of Scotland on goals scored.
Scotland's home matches are presently covered by the pay-TV broadcaster Sky Sports. Television rights to away games vary; Sky Sports currently hold the rights to both home and away qualifiers for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup. The arrangements to show Scotland matches on pay-TV have been criticised by the Scottish Government, who have argued that qualifying matches should be included in the list of sporting events which can only be broadcast on free-to-air television. The SFA have argued that limiting the rights to free-to-air broadcasters would severely reduce the amount of revenue that they could generate. An independent advisory panel recommended that qualifying matches played by all four Home Nations be added to the list, but UK Sports Minister Hugh Robertson deferred a decision until the completion of the digital switchover.
BBC Scotland, STV, Setanta Sports, Channel 5 and BT Sport are among other networks that have previously shown live fixtures. All matches are broadcast with full commentary on BBC Radio Scotland and, when schedules allow, BBC Radio 5 Live also. In Australia, Scotland's national football team home games and selected away games are broadcast by Setanta Sports Australia.
Scotland traditionally wear dark blue shirts with white shorts and dark blue socks, the colours of the Queen's Park team who represented Scotland in the first international. The blue Scotland shirt was earlier used in a February 1872 rugby international, with reports stating that "the scotch were easily distinguishable by their uniform of blue jerseys.... the jerseys having the thistle embroidered". The thistle had previously been worn to represent Scotland in the 1871 rugby international, but on brown shirts. The shirt is embroidered with a crest based upon the lion rampant of the Royal Standard of Scotland. Another style often used by Scotland comprises blue shirts, white shorts and red socks. Change colours vary, but are most commonly white or yellow shirts with blue shorts. From 1994–96 a tartan kit was used. The current version of the crest is a roundel similar to the crest used from 1961 to 1988 enclosing a shield, with "Scotland" written on the top and "Est 1873" on the bottom. In the shield background there are 11 thistles, representing the national flower of Scotland, in addition to the lion rampant. Since 2005, the SFA have supported the use of Scottish Gaelic on the national team's strip in recognition of the language's revival in Scotland.
The following players were called up for the match against England in November 2016.
The following players have been selected by Scotland in the past 12 months, but were not selected in the November 2016 squad, or withdrew from that squad due to injury or suspension.
The Scottish Football Association operates a roll of honour for every player who has made more than 50 appearances for Scotland. As of March 2016 there are 30 members of this roll, with Alan Hutton and Scott Brown the most recent additions to the list. The qualifying mark of 50 appearances means that many notable Scotland players including Jim Baxter, Hughie Gallacher, John Greig, Jimmy Johnstone, Billy McNeill, Bobby Murdoch, Archie Gemmill and Lawrie Reilly are not on the roll of honour.
Statistically the most successful manager was Alex McLeish, who won seven of the ten games during his tenure. Discounting managers who took charge of less than ten games, the least successful manager was George Burley, with just three wins in 14 games.
Last updated: England v Scotland, 11 November 2016. Statistics include official FIFA-recognised matches only. The SFA includes a match against a Hong Kong League XI played on 23 May 2002 in its statistical totals.
Kenny Dalglish holds the record for Scotland appearances, having played 102 times between 1971 and 1986. He is the only Scotland player to have reached 100 caps. Jim Leighton is second, having played 91 times, a Scottish record for appearances by a goalkeeper. Former Scotland manager Alex McLeish played for the team 77 times and is the third most capped player.
The title of Scotland's highest goalscorer is shared by two players. Denis Law scored 30 goals between 1958 and 1974, during which time he played for Scotland on 55 occasions. Kenny Dalglish scored an equal number from 102 appearances. Hughie Gallacher as well as being the third highest scorer is also the most prolific with his 23 goals coming from only 20 games (averaging 1.15 goals per game). Other notable strikers include Lawrie Reilly, Ally McCoist, Mo Johnston and Joe Jordan.
↑ The competition did not use goal difference or goal average to separate teams level on points, so the title was shared instead.
1 2 Scotland qualified for the tournament as they finished in the top two positions in the 1950 British Home Championship, but the SFA withdrew Scotland's entry because they were not British champions.
↑ Cardiff City and Swansea City are Welsh clubs that play in the English football league system.
↑ Dawson Walker was left in charge of the players due to the Munich air disaster, in which official manager Matt Busby was seriously injured.
↑ Malky McDonald was manager on a caretaker basis, following the departure of John Prentice.
↑ Alex Ferguson was interim manager, following the death of Jock Stein.
↑ Tommy Burns was manager on a caretaker basis, following the resignation of Berti Vogts.
↑ Billy Stark was manager on a caretaker basis, following the sacking of Craig Levein.
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In most countries, economic growth and development are driven in part by the activities of higher education institutions. According to several scholars (Bhorat, Cassim & Tseng 2016; Boulton & Lucas 2011; Pouris & Inglesi-Lotz 2014), higher education institutions are the primary vehicle for the production and improvement of human capital. Also, the higher education industry serves as a major means for the development and maintenance of knowledge bases through research and innovation, as well as the circulation and conservation of knowledge through various forms of interactions with stakeholders (Nicolaides 2014). In South Africa, the National Development Plan states that the higher education industry produces skilled graduates to meet both the current and future needs of the economy (National Planning Commission 2012). Besides, universities also generate their own output and employ numerous employees within different professions, at different qualification and skills levels (Kimenyi 2011; Uyarra 2010). Perhaps one of the profound indirect economic impacts of universities is their procurement of various products from other sectors in support of their operational activities, which actuates economic activity within those industries (Dlamini 2016). The suppliers of the universities buy from other suppliers to fulfil university orders, and these suppliers, in turn, buy from others, resulting in a ripple effect that stimulates the economy (Pouris & Inglesi-Lotz 2014).
The majority of higher education institutions in South Africa are public universities, which are further classified as traditional, comprehensive and universities of technology (Bunting & Cloete 2010). Sustainability of these public universities is critical if their economic significance is to be maintained. Among those practices that may be implemented to ensure that public universities are successful is supply chain management (SCM). As underscored by Dlamini and Ambe (2013), the use of SCM to acquire goods and services is an efficient tool for addressing the challenges facing the higher education industry. However, higher education institutions have the responsibility of selecting the most appropriate SCM framework to ensure compliance not only to policies and procedure but also to choose a structure that results in the efficient use of limited organisational resources for improved service delivery (Nel 2010; PricewaterhouseCoopers 2016).
The South African higher education environment faces a multitude of SCM-related issues that are becoming increasingly complex and require unique and strategic solutions. According to some reports (Ambe & Badenhorst-Weiss 2011; KPMG South Africa 2016a; Mkhize 2004), some of these challenges include the poor implementation of SCM practices, the need for comprehensive policies, poor planning for annual procurement and the lack of skills and capacity. In the entire public sector, SCM has of late been placed under the spotlight because of the emphasis on financial management reform (Fourie 2015). Public higher education institutions have to follow suit, and universities can at times have a traditional approach to SCM that does not maximise cost-efficiency in a legally compliant manner (KPMG South Africa 2016a). This attracts the challenge of ensuring that SCM practices in these institutions are both useful and implemented in line with the available national policies.
This study aimed to explore the internal barriers to the implementation of SCM at a South African public university. The major research question addressed in this article reads as follows: ‘What are the major internal barriers faced by the institution in its implementation of SCM?’ There is a need for higher education to transition its SCM units from being procurement functions to strategic assets (Sallaudin et al. 2015). However, it is vital that comprehensive capabilities, policies, processes, procedures and systems duly bolster any positive changes in the higher education industry (Akyel, Polat & Arslankaya 2012; Fooladvand, Yarmohammadian & Shahtalebi 2015). Improving and optimising SCM will improve the financial position of a university, decrease the risks of non-compliance and better place the university to defend its policy direction as a respectable corporate citizen with its various stakeholders (Dlamini & Ambe 2013). This attracts the necessity to continue exploring new methods for increasing the effectiveness of SCM in higher education, to realise its benefits. Still, as reported by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET 2014), South African public universities have been mandated with an increased duty to implement good governance sustainability and corporate citizenships. However, the ability to comply with the best governance, financial and general management practices under today’s unpredictable economic conditions is primarily dependent on the availability of relevant information (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2016). Continued research is necessary then to investigate how higher education institutions may be able to adopt and implement SCM in line with existing best practices.
Despite the emphasis placed on SCM by the South African government, academic research has shown that few public universities have adopted SCM in terms of best practices. Previous research has demonstrated that most institutions do not apply SCM best practices (Dlamini 2016; Lau 2007; Owusu-Bio, Manso & Adiwokor 2015). As highlighted by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (2013), South African public universities face numerous challenges, such as poor governance, the lack of leadership, fraud and corruption. Consequently, several South African public universities have been placed under administration at some point during their existence after experiencing financial crises. In agreement, Dlamini and Ambe (2013) underscore that the ineffective application of SCM practices by South African public universities has resulted in cases of maladministration and the misappropriation of funds. As reported by Sallaudin et al. (2015), the effective and efficient application of SCM presents an excellent opportunity that could result in sustainable growth and success for and organisation. This study, therefore, contributes to the literature on SCM in higher education in South Africa by generating more knowledge that can be directed towards addressing the current challenges facing the industry.
The remaining sections of this article are organised as follows: The next section provides an overview of the theoretical insights that are important to this study. This section is followed by a discussion of the research methodology and an outline of the findings of the study. The final sections of the article focus on the conclusions, managerial implications as well as limitations and suggestions for future research.
This section covers three key issues in the discourse of the implementation of SCM in public universities. These are (1) the higher educational environment in South Africa, (2) public supply chain management in South Africa and (3) supply chain management in South African public universities.
The South African higher education sector operates under the supervision of the DHET. The critical performance area of the DHET is the harmonisation of all post-secondary education in South Africa to achieve the government’s objective of producing a skilled and capable workforce (Kotecha, Wilson-Strydom & Fongwa 2012). An important category among the various higher education providers is public universities. Currently, there are 26 public universities in South Africa, distributed within the different provinces of the country. These public universities are further classified as 12 traditional universities, six comprehensive universities, six universities of technology and two institutes of higher education (South Africa Education 2018). These public institutions provide their services to nearly a million students across a wide range of academic fields (Kotecha et al. 2012).
To accomplish the objectives of higher education that are promulgated in the existing legislative framework, public universities in South Africa are expected to have stable governance structures as well as vibrant, prudent and accountable management (De la Rey 2015). As quasi-autonomous organs of state, public universities are expected to use the current legislative framework to develop, benchmark and implement best practices (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2016). In recent years, the Office of the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) has introduced SCM as a specific review area in all public higher education institutions’ financial audit (AGSA 2011). This inclusion is intended to promote the development and implementation of efficient SCM processes and internal controls. From this process, it is envisaged that SCM will be implemented reasonably, equitably, transparently, competitively and cost-effectively. It is further anticipated that public universities will excel in their compliance with legislation, thereby minimising the possibilities of fraud, corruption and favouritism as well as unfair and irregular practices in these institutions (National Treasury 2015; Parliamentary Monitoring Group 2013).
Progressively, it is more accepted that public SCM is an essential practice in the management of public resources. It performs a strategic role in the public sector’s ability to deliver on its obligations of service delivery in line with the government’s service delivery as dictated by the South African constitution (Matolong 2015). In South Africa, public SCM is governed under the auspices of a legislative framework which states as its objective the need to be fair, equitable, transparent and cost-effective (Dlamini & Ambe 2012). Some of the major pieces of legislation related to public SCM include the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999, Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act 5 of 2000, Broad-Based Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004 (Turley & Perera 2014).
The public SCM arena in South Africa faces numerous challenges, most of which are well acknowledged in the literature. According to the National Treasury (2015), it appears that stakeholders do not comprehend well the strategic significance of SCM. Organisational structures within which public SCM operates are cumbersome and in many cases problematic, characterised by incapable leadership, demotivated staff and high staff turnover (Watermeyer 2011). Other challenges include uncertainties related to role conflict between technical staff and political appointees, the lack of integrated planning, and the failure to develop mechanisms and processes to manage both internal and market-related dynamics (Burger 2016; Dlamini 2016; KPMG South Africa 2016a). Moreover, it appears that the available rules and regulations are often ambiguous and confusing to implement for many stakeholders (Ambe & Badenhorst-Weiss 2012). The ultimate challenge relates to the entrenched lack of accountability, fraud and corruption, leading to substandard service delivery throughout the country (Universities South Africa 2015). Stakeholders in the South African public sector, therefore, face the challenge to develop and apply solutions that will disrupt the status quo and ensure that SCM contributes constructively to the achievement of the government’s socio-economic development imperatives.
Upon realisation of the importance of SCM in the higher education environment, most public universities in South Africa have established a service division which concentrates on the implementation of SCM within their institutions. This division, which is usually well structured, is typically manned by a full complement qualified SCM professionals. The most significant SCM activity undertaken by this SCM division in a public university would be to oversee the procurement of goods and services that are required by the different sections and departments of the institution (Hassan et al. 2015). Typically, public universities in South Africa have an annual procurement spend running into hundreds of millions of rands per institution. For instance, in the 2014 financial year, the aggregate spend by South Africa’s higher education institutions was nearly R25.6 billion (Business Tech 2015). The utilisation of these funds involves the implementation of other SCM activities that include supplier relationship management, demand management, order processing, as well as customer relationship and service management (Poluha 2016). Additionally, SCM in public universities involves a well-structured Motor Fleet Division which oversees the transportation and logistics function within the institution.
In South African public universities, the procurement of large-value items is implemented through the tender or competitive bidding system, which requires the engagement and consultation of various internal and external stakeholders who represent multiple parties that have vested interests in the running of the university (KPMG South Africa 2016b). Different stakeholders may be invited to participate at various stages in decision-making processes regarding the evaluation of suppliers who should be awarded the contract in the tender process (Gopalakrishnan 2015). Most university procurement policies should specify the representatives of different special interest and stakeholder groups that have to be invited to participate in such processes (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2015). Stakeholders may also be consulted as sources of information regarding important issues such as the existence of a need for a particular product or service, possible and realistic costing of goods and services and suitability of suppliers, among others (Al-Turki et al. 2008). Without this extensive consultation, most SCM processes may result in conflict as stakeholders feel that the procurement process is not executed transparently and that the decisions made should be reversed. Therefore, for the procurement process to operate smoothly and successfully in public universities, the input and voice of various stakeholders is required throughout.
This section discusses the research approach and design, participants, procedures for data collection, data analysis, measures of trustworthiness and ethical considerations.
The research methodology of choice for this project was a qualitative approach using the case study design. An exploratory qualitative research design was used for this study, as motivated by a need to understand the in-depth processes that operate within the subject of the research study (Yates & Leggett 2016). Qualitative research often emphasises understanding the processes of an organisation rather than predicting outcomes and is conducted within the local context in which the phenomena under study occurs (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler 2014; Leedy & Ormrod 2015). This applied to this study, which directed its emphasis to the understanding of barriers embedded in the internal organisational processes at a single South African public university. The chosen research method involved the exploration of the situation, collection of data, and analysis and interpretation of results (Mason 2010).
The target population in this study consisted of procurement personnel, members of the operational tender committee of council, university management and management consultants at a South African public university based in the Limpopo Province. The categories and numbers of people included in the target population are indicated in Table 1.
TABLE 1: Profile of target population.
The actual sample was drawn using a sample frame obtained from the human resources database at the institution. According to Padget (2016), the sampling frame is a list of elements from which the study’s sample is drawn. In this study, the sample frame consisted of a list of management, employees, external consultants and other important role players involved in SCM at the higher education institution. In choosing the actual sample, a non-probability purposive sampling technique was used. Non-probability sampling consists of the selection of sample elements based on the judgement of the researcher (Patton 2015). A purposive sampling technique is one in which only those population elements that serve the objectives of the study will be chosen (Petty, Thompson & Stew 2012). In this study, only members of the university who have some knowledge of SCM or have participated in decisions related to SCM were selected to participate in the study. The final sample composed of management, academics, consultants and staff in the procurement department in the institution. In line with the suggestion by Creswell (2013), there was no predetermined sample size in this qualitative study. Instead, interviews were conducted until the point of saturation, which is the point at which the responses of participants became almost similar, indicating that no further data collection was necessary.
For this study, the primary data were collected through a combination of focus group interviews and semi-structured in-depth interviews. A focus group can be defined as a guided, monitored and recorded group discussion on a particular topic organised for research purposes (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2015). Focus groups also generate a rich understanding of participants’ experiences and beliefs (Gill et al. 2008). One focus group session was conducted in September 2017 at a designated location within the main campus of the university and lasted for close to 45 min. The focus of the discourse was on general questions about the research topic. The focus group discussion was recorded through a combination of digital voice recorders and notes taken by the principal researcher, who also performed the role of a guide, monitor and time-keeper during the discussion. Eight people who were part of the target population attended the focus group discussion. Permission to record the discussion was requested from the participants before proceedings started.
Semi-structured in-depth interviews involving 17 participants followed the focus group discussion. In-depth interviews are face-to-face encounters between the researcher and informants directed towards understanding informants’ perspectives on their lives, experiences or situations as expressed in their own words (Flick 2014). The interviews, which were held in the English language, were aimed at exploring the views, experiences, beliefs and motivations of the participants concerning the objectives of this study. In addition to being neutral, sensitive and understandable, the interview questions were open-ended as they required more than a yes or no answer (Leedy & Omrod 2015). An interview guide was designed to ensure that the interviewer focused on the same issues consistently and asked the same questions in every interview, which enhanced the comparability of the multiple conversations (Blumberg et al. 2014).
During the interviews, questions were ordered to enable ease of flow, while allowing the interviewer to deviate when necessary without compromising the quality of the responses from participants. In line with suggestions by Doody and Noonan (2013), the interview questions were formulated along the lines of behaviour or experience, opinion or value, knowledge, sensory experience and demographic or background details. Permission to record these proceedings was requested from each participant before the interviews. During and after the interviews, the principal researcher actively took some field notes about any observations, thoughts and ideas regarding the discussion. Interviews were conducted until a point of saturation, which occurred at 17 participants, whereby there was no need to continue collecting the data as the process was now producing similar views.
In preparation for analysis, the voice recordings of both the focus group discussions and the in-depth interviews were transcribed into text format (Flick 2014). The services of a professional transcriber were used for the transcription. Once the transcripts were available, a content analysis was initiated to analyse the data. The central premise of content analysis is the selective reduction of text to categories including words or a set of phrases on which researchers concentrate (Mayer 2015). These specific words or patterns are indicators of the research questions and determine the level of analysis (Jonker & Pennning 2010). The interview transcripts were read several times over to identify the categories and the themes (main points) originating from the data. The themes were then classified into more manageable sub-themes, after which a summarised table of the central themes arising from the participants’ stories was drawn up (Bryman 2015). These themes represent the findings of the study from which conclusions were drawn. A computer program (ATLAS.ti version 8), which is useful when dealing with large sections of qualitative data in the form of audio, visual and text (Mayer 2015), was used in the data analysis.
Trustworthiness is concerned with how a researcher can determine confidence in the findings of his or her research and how observers can be confident that the conclusions presented are genuine (Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2011). Four measures of trustworthiness, namely credibility, transferability, confirmability and dependability, were applied in this study. Credibility is defined as the extent to which the presented findings are a correct representation of the views of the participants (Bhattacherjee 2012). To ensure that the findings of the study are credible, the data triangulation approach was used, in which data were collected from different sources, such as secondary data sources as well as from the participants themselves, and through the combination of focus group interviews and structured interviews (Bhattacherjee 2012; Moretti et al. 2011). Conformability is the degree to which others can confirm the research findings (Bryman 2015). For this study, member checks were performed by sending back the research findings to research participants for evaluation and corrective suggestions to ensure the confirmability of the research (Anney 2015).
Transferability is the extent to which the research findings of a specific study can be applied to theory formulation, practice and future research, that is, another context and other respondents (Anney 2015; Moon et al. 2016). To ascertain transferability, the current research environment and methods were compared to similar settings elsewhere within the South African public higher education sector. As defined by Moon et al. (2016), dependability is the extent to which the research findings are consistent and stable over time. To ascertain dependability in this study, audit tracks were performed. An audit track is a process of continuously testing the data and its interpretative themes as obtained from multiple sources (Anney 2015). In this study, the data transcripts were sent back to research participants for evaluation and corrective suggestions. This reduced the bias of the researchers when analysing and interpreting results.
The study was conducted consistently with the norms and acceptable standards of research. An introductory letter was written and issued to participants assuring them that confidentiality and privacy would be maintained and that their responses would be recorded anonymously (Blumberg et al. 2014; Petty et al. 2012). Throughout the study, the actual names of the participants were treated anonymously, and the identities of the respondents were treated with strict confidentiality. The benefits of the study, as well as the rights of the participants, were explained to each participant before their participation. Participants were requested to sign a consent form, which indicated that their participation in the study was voluntary. In addition, participants were allowed to withdraw from the study at any period. The consent of participants was sought regarding the use of an audio recorder during interviews.
This section provides detail on the description of the sample and the themes emerging from the study.
The stakeholders of the higher education institution who were involved in this study included executive, senior and middle management, a consultant, senior academics and staff from administrative support units. The demographic profile of these participants is presented in Table 2.
TABLE 2: Demographic profile of the participants.
Table 2 shows that eight males and nine females participated in the study. Four of the participants were between the ages of 30 and 40; five were between the ages of 40 and 50 and six were between the ages of 50 and 60. Further analyses show that four of the participants had worked at the institution for < 5 years, whereas five participants had worked in the institution for periods ranging between 7 and 8 years and eight had worked in the institution for > 20 years. Three of the participants were holders of a bachelor’s degree; one was a holder of an honours degree; five were holders of master’s degrees, and six participants were holders of doctorates as their highest qualifications. As these participants were highly qualified and were active participants in SCM activities in the institution, it was presumed that their views would be adequate and relevant in providing the required information in this study.
Eight themes emerged from the analysis of the empirical data. The themes and their operational definitions are presented in Table 3.
TABLE 3: Themes and operational definitions.
The individual themes and empirical evidence to support these themes are discussed in the next section.
Some participants lamented the monotonous approach by the institution’s management to the implementation of key strategies and the lack of a pro-active approach to change, which was detrimental to the involvement of stakeholders in SCM. Another participant accused management of blindness in issues about the benefits of SCM, which inadvertently contributes to the current dysfunctional situation in the institution.
The inability of management to involve key-stakeholders in SCM activities raises some ethical questions. As mentioned earlier, stakeholders such as academic and non-academic staff, students, alumni and surrounding communities are part of the university’s strategic constituencies that have an input in the university’s past, current and future state and operations. The decisions made, including those within the SCM area, affect these stakeholders. For instance, the goods and services procured by the institution are used by staff members, both academic and non-academic, to fulfil their daily tasks and responsibilities. Likewise, alumni are also an important cohort to the institution in that wherever they may be presently located, they serve as ambassadors for the institution, and hence, each institution has a division for alumni relations. Similarly, surrounding communities perceive that the institution exists to service them in different ways, such as through providing employment opportunities and meeting their educational needs. As such all these groups of stakeholders are pressure groups that have vested interest in the institution and should be included in important decisions that affect them, such as the procurement of strategic goods and services. The typical approach would be to ensure that these stakeholder groups are represented in these processes and to ensure that they have sufficient information to contribute constructively to the intended SCM transactions. The primary problem relates to the possibility of a deliberate ploy to exclude some stakeholders, given that SCM involves the disbursement of vast amounts of money. Unrestrained expenditures, if unchecked, may result in unethical practices such as fraud, corruption and the manipulation of procurement activities (Dlamini & Ambe 2013). As some of the representatives of the critical stakeholders are excluded from these processes, they are unable to contribute to the SCM transactions occurring, some of which may be irregular. Moreover, conflict is often the norm whenever certain parties feel omitted from such strategic activities, which leads to the further deterioration of relationships between stakeholders. It is therefore essential that SCM policies in place in the institution be augmented by the extensive involvement of stakeholders to avoid diluting the effectiveness of this critical activity.
The findings of the study attest that there is a limited grasp of SCM within the institution. This lack of familiarity with such a significant activity is likely to have adverse consequences on the institution as there are various risks associated with knowledge-based inadequacies in any organisation (Ruzic-Dimitrijevic 2014). Firstly, there is a danger that inappropriate cultures, processes and systems will be maintained as stakeholders base their decisions on outdated models. Secondly, there is a risk that stakeholders, both internal and external, who are aware of the prevalence of this limited knowledge of SCM in the institution, may take advantage by engaging in unethical practices, with very little, if any consequences. Thirdly, the risk of declining creativity and innovation in the institution is likely to be high, as stakeholders continue to reinvent the wheel when facing problems that are similar to those encountered in the past (Jennex & Durcikova 2013). The ultimate result of the lack of SCM knowledge is poor service delivery, as user departments will not obtain the satisfactory service they require from the SCM division. In the current case of a higher education institution, academic activities, which are the core priority, are likely to suffer from a lack of essential resources that should be made available by the SCM division. This is likely to lead to various unsatisfactory outcomes in the university’s activities. For instance, because of the lack of teaching resources which are provided through the SCM system, the university risks producing incompetent graduates who meet the institutional requirements for graduation but are ill-prepared to contribute positively to industry afterwards. Additionally, there may be a shortage of resources required to improve other essential academic activities such as research outputs and community engagement, possibly leading to poor institutional reputation. It is necessary then that programmes be put in place to ensure that management at the institution cultivates an atmosphere that facilitates continuous improvement, innovation, learning and problem-solving among those involved in SCM.
The consensus from the participants was that the institution could increase the use of innovation and technology to enhance the implementation of SCM. The feedback from participants also shows that the institution’s processes are mostly manual and that there is a lack of a centralised supplier database at the institution. This translates to inconsistent business processes characterised by prolonged lead times in evaluating, adjudication, awarding and processing of SCM-related transactions. Furthermore, the lack of a centralised supplier database impedes the prospect of fairness and transparency in SCM and leads to a proliferation of numerous suppliers, some who are unworthy to be considered as partners by the organisation, in this case, the university (Burt Petcavage & Pinkerton 2011). The study also showed that there had been inconsistent reporting of SCM-related information, which leads to the amplified risk of fraud, corruption and losses. All these irregularities tend to weaken the internal control system because of inconsistent processes and procedures and will ultimately hamper the measurement of SCM improvements.
Most of the participants were in agreement about the ineptness of the institution’s current policy and practices. The lack of a relevant policy guide translates to the institution’s failure to improve its SCM practices as reflected by the audit findings of both the institution’s internal and external audit reports. Furthermore, the lack of appropriate policy and procedures leads to uncertainty about which standards are to be followed and clouds the necessary transparency in the SCM processes. Also, as stated in a report by the National Treasury (2015), the ineffectiveness of the available policy, its inability to blend with the existing legal framework and its non-alignment to best practice equate to zero governance. This often results in fraudulent activities such as nepotism, cover-quoting, collusion, forgery and conflict of interest.
It is commonly acknowledged that the development of suitable policies neither leads to their implementation nor facilitates the further development of relevant strategies within institutions. It is implementation that gives life to policy and embeds it into the institutional practices and processes (Rolfstam 2013). As the practice of SCM accounts for a big chunk of expenditure for a higher education institution’s annual spend, a well-performing SCM division is critical to attaining the strategic objectives and goals of the institution (Lember, Kattel & Kalvet 2014). The South African National Treasury allocates the responsibility of developing and executing appropriate SCM to senior officials, but the strategy cascades to all levels of the organisation (National Treasury 2010). This depicts that while SCM strategy is developed at strategic, executive and management level, it is to be applied and practised at all organisational levels if positive results are to be realised. The lack of a resolute SCM implementation drive at the institution points to poor alignment between institutional strategies, demand management and SCM planning, such that the institution does not get value for its money from most of its SCM activities.
Participants indicated that the limited understanding of SCM within the institution was attributed to ineffective communication, training and education of stakeholders. They further linked the lack of stakeholder buy-in to the limited stakeholder engagement and communication by those who are tasked with the implementation of SCM. The lack of cooperation between the institution’s managers and stakeholders has eroded the integrity of and the trust in the institution’s SCM processes. Integrity violations such as abuse and manipulation of procedures as well as the waste and abuse of institutional resources expose the institution to the risk that funds, resources and assets are not utilised for their intended purposes and the greater good of the institution.
Participants further suggested that there is a need to develop an appropriate organisational structure and to design a skills dictionary for the various positions on the structure to integrate the different stages of the supply chain. Participants felt that such an action would ensure the correct placement of employees within the SCM division. From the feelings expressed by the participants, it appears that the institution faces organisational capacity challenges that include organisational design and development, leadership challenges, resource limitations, lack of delegation frameworks and limited management systems. These entrenched human resource limitations reflect the problems faced by the institution when attempting to execute key SCM activities effectively. This is because overall institutional performance is based on the combined performances of the available human resources, who participate in both operational and strategic activities (Gómez-Cedeño et al. 2015). Without an adequately skilled workforce which is prepared to assume the roles of SCM professionals, problems within this area are likely to persist leading to the underperformance of both the available personnel and the entire institution.
The employees and their morals, values and norms create an organisational culture which is a product of external adaptation and internal incorporation (Cao et al. 2015). Some scholars see culture as relatively stable and resistant to change, which makes it very difficult to alter the status quo (Chandler, Heidrich & Kasa 2013). It is not always that resistance to change is explicit; it is often indirect and, in most organisations, is eliminated by attitudes of the leadership (Prado, Kalid & Archibald 2017). As shown through the views of participants, the institution might be in need of a cultural overhaul if SCM is to be successfully executed. Implementation of SCM is an act of cultural renaissance in managerial practices as they have to transition the institution from the current state where there is a devotion to outdated business models which may no longer be relevant in today’s higher educational environment (Cao et al. 2015). A culture of consequence management has to be stimulated to address any institutional malpractices currently rooted in the SCM system. Of particular concern is the culture of non-compliance with SCM regulations, which is one of the factors actuating the poor performance of SCM. Attitudinal changes are therefore needed to ensure that role players execute their SCM-related duties prudently.
This study aimed to explore the internal barriers to the implementation of SCM at a South African traditional university. Eight themes were highlighted through the analysis of the qualitative data collected from various role players at the institution. The study revealed that implementation of SCM is unlikely to be successful if the support of stakeholders is not obtained before its application. As long as these stakeholders have not embraced the concept, they will be unable to support its implementation holistically within the institution. Because of the existing lack of transparency, these key stakeholder groups will perceive that the process is questionable and may either exclude themselves and disregard the outcomes of SCM transactions or campaign both formally and informally for the disruption of essential activities at the institution. Since SCM is a dynamic concept that has evolved over the years, many stakeholders in the institution are yet to understand it fully. As a result of this lack of knowledge of SCM, the primary focus is now being directed to procurement, which is marginal when compared to the strategic implications associated with SCM. The study further revealed that current policies are outdated such that they no longer address the current needs of the institution. Change management emerged as another theme, as there is an established tendency of depending on past practices (reinventing the wheel) without attempting to innovate in the area of SCM. It also emerged that there is a shortage of manpower that is adequately skilled in SCM, which has triggered much of the current underperformance. Still, an organisational culture characterised by resistance to change and non-compliance to laid down guidelines and procedures remains ingrained in the institution. The study, therefore, concludes that SCM in the institution is hampered by various internal barriers, each which is unique and requires specific managerial attention to address it.
Various solutions can be assumed in dealing with the eight internal barriers realised in this study. Stakeholder relationship management initiatives should be put in place within the institution. Some of these initiatives include supplier development, meetings and workshops for buyer–supplier interactions and improved reporting mechanisms for various stakeholders on issues related to SCM. To streamline SCM implementation, the institution should favour the use of automated or online SCM systems which have proven to be useful in the gaining of competitive advantages and restructuring organisational processes (Mahdillou & Akbary 2014). Furthermore, a centralised supplier database should be developed and updated regularly to enable data mining for trends analysis, accurate costings and improved planning. It is further essential to integrate all SCM systems with other institutional systems to ensure that there is systemic interaction in operations, planning and accurate reporting. Policy-related irregularities may be addressed by amending the institution’s SCM policy and procedures, and this should be supported by robust compliance monitoring and consequence management. It is further crucial that competent and knowledgeable supply chain professionals be recruited and remunerated sufficiently to retain them. However, given the shortage of experienced supply chain professionals in South Africa, it may be necessary to initiate graduate development programmes where suitable graduates from universities are recruited and developed to take over key supply chain-related positions upon completion of these programmes. Also, the change management models such as Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Management Process, the Deming Cycle of Plan-Do-Check-Act and the Change Management Foundation (Anderson 2013) could be espoused to develop a more enabling organisational culture.
The study is limited in that it is a case study that is based on a single higher education institution, which is located in one South African province. As a result, caution should be exercised in generalising the findings of the study to other higher education institutions and environments. As mentioned by Simon and Goes (2013), although case studies may be indicative of what happens in other organisations, additional research may be required to prove these suggestions in different contexts. Another limitation of the study relates to its dependence on the qualitative research approach, which produces subjective findings because of researcher bias and its heavy reliance on the skills and experience of the researcher (Griffin 2014). In this case, application of the same study to a larger number of public higher education institutions may yield different or richer data for analysis (Wallance & Sheldon 2015). Also, given that this study focused on the internal barriers to the implementation of SCM practices, future studies could focus on external barriers to obtain a balanced view of the barriers to SCM in the institution.
M.Z.M. did the literature review and collected the data. C.M. performed the data analysis and compiled the sections of the article.
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2019-04-26T09:55:55Z
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Hair loss is well-known health issue in the nowadays and many people are suffering from this problem. Since hair is considered one of the most important part of the body which decides and enhances people’s physical appearance, thinning and balding hair are common problems that many people in the world want to fix as soon as possible.
The hair type of each person depends on their own genetic nature, the foods they eat, and the climate of where they live. Some of the common trigger factors of hair loss are the use of wrong products, poor hair care, pollution, allergies, nutritional deficiencies, emotional and physical stress, and hormonal imbalances.
Our hair is the important factor that can enhance (or worsen) our appearance; so many of us spend large amounts of money on hair-care product items to achieve desired volume. Hair thinning is unavoidable and can affect both women and men of all age levels irrespective to race and stature.
Some of the common factors that may contribute to thinning hair issue are heredity, poor hair care routine, excess emotional or physical stress, allergies, pollution, use of wrong hair care products, nutritional deficiencies, and hormonal imbalances.
If you are suffering from thinning hair, you do not need to spend money on expensive products and treatments. There are several natural treatments that can aid in thickening and promoting voluminous hair.
People might have hair loss at some stages in life but people can always make use of natural treatments to get healthy hair and increase its volume effectively as desired. These are safe and cheaper. Natural treatments could be done right in your kitchen to improve the thickness of the hair without adversing any side effect. Then why you still hesitate about it?
Now, in this article, you should keep your eyes on best tips on how to get thicker hair strands on the Haircare section of the Healthy Guide site.
Regular protein cure is extremely needed for people to enjoy thicker and stronger hair. To get a protein hair cure, then you should consider eggs as your very first choice.
According your hair’s real length, prepare 1 – 2 eggs and beat it (them) properly. Use the egg to apply directly right onto your wet hair and let it stay within about half an hour. Rinse the hair thoroughly with shampoo and lukewarm water. You can make use of this protein cure 1 – 2 times per week.
Alternatively, you can combine 1 egg yolk, 1 tbsp. of the hair oil type that you want and 2 tbsps. of water. Massage your scalp gently and carefully. Apply this method 1 time per week to achieve thicker hair as desired.
Using olive oil is also one of the most amazing tips on how to get thicker hair in one month that people should not look down!
Olive oil can strengthen your hair and improve its overall health and appearance. In addition, this natural essential oil can help to strengthen and make your tresses smooth as well!
Olive oil has omega 3 fatty acids, which can work effectively as a natural hair moisturizer and can aid a lot in preventing dandruff as well. It can help to prevent frizzy hair that could be a trigger factor of the split end issue as its fatty acids can coat the shaft of the hair. Olive oil will make your hair shinier even if it is currently heavily damaged and dry just by coating your hair’s outer layer, making them look more healthful and smoother.
You can also try massaging your scalp and hair with warm olive oil and allow it to stay within about 30 – 45 minutes at least if you really want to make use of this natural home remedy. Wash your hair thoroughly with a mild shampoo of your favorite to rinse your hair and scalp off. You can also try leaving your hair’s oil overnight and then shampoo the hair after sleeping.
Another choice for you is to combine honey and olive oil together and use this mixture to apply directly onto your hair. Let it stay for half an hour at least and then rinse your hair off.
Both of these remedies, no matter which you will choose, should be applied 1 – 2 times per week for good!
People can use avocado as one of the best natural home remedies for hair loss and hair thinning because it can work well as a perfect moisturizer and can help to nourish your hair. In addition, the vitamin E content of this fruit can help to build and maintain the overall health of the hair shaft.
Avocado can help to revitalize and rejuvenate dry and damaged hair as it is jam-packed with 25 essential nutrients, such as vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, and minerals like phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, copper, and iron.
Mix a mashed avocado, a mashed banana, and 1 tsp. of olive oil together to make a paste. Massage it onto and all over your scalp and allow it to stay still within about half an hour to allow the scalp to absorb the nutrients completely. Finally, wash it thoroughly and shampoo your hair as usual.
Try making a hydrating hair mask with just 2 tbsps. of wheat germ oil and 1/2 ripe mashed avocado mixed together. Use this hair mask to apply on your hair (freshly shampooed) and let it stay for 20 minutes at least. Wash your hair off thoroughly and shampoo it as usual.
Use either of the 2 avocado hair masks mentioned above 1 time per week to achieve the best results as desired.
Fenugreek seed is an antidote for hair loss and also a culinary herb that is widely used to add to cooking all over the world. People, in fact, can use fenugreek seeds to prevent hair loss and develop hair much better.
Soak 2 – 3 tbsps. of fenugreek seeds in water within eight to ten hours. To create a fine paste, grind the soaked seeds. You can also mix 2 tsps. of coconut milk in this mixture for even better result. Use this combination to apply directly onto your scalp and hair and let it stay still within about half an hour before using lukewarm water to rinse your hair off. If you apply this method regularly every week, then this remedy will help you a lot in preventing dry scalp and bringing to you brand new thick hair appearance as desired.
On the other hand, you can use fenugreek seeds soaked water (keep them soaked in the water overnight) as a hair rinse. This will help to speed up your hair’s growth and help to clear the dandruff issue if you have as well. Apply this method 1 – 2 times per day for good!
The powerful anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, and exfoliating abilities of Indian gooseberry can help to maintain better hair growth speed and a healthy scalp at the same time effectively.
First, try mixing 1 tbsp. of amla powder or Indian gooseberry powder in 2 tbsps. of coconut oil and heat till it is boiling. Before going to bed, strain the oil and use it to massage directly onto the scalp. Shampoo your hair as usual the next morning. Apply this method every week on a regular basis until you see the improvement you desire before.
On the other hand, you can try mixing ¼ cup of warm water in ½ cup of powdered Indian gooseberry and allow it to stay within ten minutes. Use this paste to apply directly right onto your hair and allow it to stay still within fifteen to twenty minutes before washing your hair off. Avoid shampooing your hair for 2 – 3 hours. Reapply this method every few weeks to achieve the best results as desired.
Besides, try taking the Indian gooseberry fruits and natural Indian gooseberry extracts, or even a dietary Indian gooseberry supplement to make your hair healthy.
Mix equal parts of coconut oil and castor oil together and heat the mixture well. You just need to use the castor oil – coconut oil mix to apply directly onto your hair. However, it may tend to be too thick for some people.
Use the past to apply onto your scalp and hair and try massaging gently in circular motions.
To remove tangles and distribute the oil mixture throughout the hair, comb your hair thoroughly.
Use a towel dipped in warm water to cover your hair.
Allow it to stay within 60 minutes at least and then shampoo your hair as normal.
Reapply this remedy 1 time per week to get thick and lustrous hair.
Aloe vera, thanks to its moisturizing quality, is another very common ingredient that could be used to get thicker hair. It can also aid a lot in restoring the scalp’s pH balance.
First, try extracting the gel from 1 – 2 aloe vera leaves and use the gel to rub directly onto your scalp. Let it stay within about half an hour before using lukewarm water to rinse your hair off thoroughly. Apply this method 1 – 2 times per on a regular basis.
Another choice is to combine fresh aloe vera gel with 2 tsps. of coconut milk and use the mixture to rub onto your scalp. Allow it to stay still within about 30 minutes before shampooing your hair to rinse it off. Apply this method 1 – 2 times per week until you see desired improvement.
You can also try consuming 1 tbsp. of aloe vera juice every day before eating anything in the morning to get better overall health and hair growth.
Applying henna leaves is another simple way to promote thicker hair naturally at home as well. Henna leaf is the most common, well-known herbal remedy for beauty in India. It is obtained from Lawsonia Inermis leaf with anti-fungal properties and red-orange dye, giving human hair a healthy and natural appearance. Henna leaf is not just used to cover gray hair, but it can strengthen your hair, giving it shiny and voluminous look.
Henna leaf would give your hair a natural, rich color and make it softer, thicker, and less prone to breakage.
Grind some fresh henna leaves with a sufficient amount of water to create a fine paste. Allow it to stay for 2 hours and then use it to apply onto your hair. Use a shower cap to cover your hair. After 2 – 3 hours, shampoo your hair thoroughly to wash your hair.
Another choice is to combine enough water in powdered henna to create a paste with a yogurt-like consistency. Instead of pure water, you could also use green tea to condition your hair well. Let the henna paste to stay still overnight. The following day, add to this mixture with 1 raw egg and 2 tsps. of lemon juice. Use the mixture to apply onto your hair and let it stay till it completely dries. Last, shampoo your hair and wash it off.
Note: Ensure to wear your gloves when you use henna and apply the paste directly with a hair brush to avoid staining.
Flaxseed is an abundant source of omega – 3 fatty acids that can help to nourish hair follicles, and vitamin E – a powerful antioxidant, responsible for nourishing the hair, scalp, shaft, and hair roots. This can aid a lot in increasing the luster, preventing hair loss, and increasing hair volume while also expediting hair growth. If you use flax seed oil on a regular basis, you will be able to get rid/prevent of dandruff, scalp eczema, acute hair loss, and offer the hydration needed for maintaining healthy looking hair.
Soak in water with ¼ cup of flaxseeds and let it stay overnight. The following morning, over high heat, boil the flaxseeds with 2 cups of water and stir it occasionally. When the mixture is thick as needed (like foamy jelly), take it out of the heat and strain your gel. If you want, try adding 3 – 5 drops of your favorite essential oil to the mixture. Let it cool and apply that homemade hair gel onto your hair and scalp with a gentle massage. This flaxseed gel is extremely perfect for wavy or curly hair owners.
Alternatively, you can try eating freshly ground flaxseeds to promote thick and shiny hair texture. Besides, try making use of flaxseed oil to achieve the same results.
A healthy diet abundant in various minerals and vitamins, as well as protein is super needed for healthy and thicker hair as a prerequisite factor. B vitamins and protein, particularly, promote longer and thicker hair.
Thus, add more Greek yogurt, eggs, milk (has higher amount of protein than the yogurt your often eat), fresh green veggies, whole grains, seeds, nuts, legumes, beans, fatty fish, and poultry into your daily diet.
The simplest tip on how to get thicker hair for women and men is to use pure coconut oil to gently massage your hair on a regular basis. Coconut oil can help to reduce protein loss and retain the moisture essential for well-nourished and strong hair. It has antibacterial properties and nutrients that are responsible for protecting scalp and hair from infection and bacteria. Before you massage coconut oil onto your scalp and hair, you need to heat it first to increase its effectiveness. Remember to massage the oil onto your hair and scalp in a circular motion with your fingers to increase blood circulation and support the hair shafts and follicles in absorbing all essential nutrients from coconut oil. Use a warm moist towel to cover your hair and let it stay within about 60 minutes. Shampoo your hair and give it a good conditioner as usual. Repeat this method one time per week for strong and thick hair.
The best protein cure for thicker or stronger hair is egg yolk as it is jam-packed with vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin E to protect hair from pollutants, chlorine, and UV rays, as well as preventing hair thinning. It is very abundant in sulphur and is an excellent natural source of lecithin.
Take 2 eggs (medium-sized) and use it to apply onto your hair and scalp when the hair is still wet. Let it stay within ten minutes, and then use lukewarm water to wash your hair followed by the type of shampoo you love. You should apply this method as a regular treatment 3 times per week at least. Besides, you can mix 1 egg with 2 tbsps. water and 1 tbsp. olive oil, and then use this mixture to apply directly onto your hair. Apply it to your scalp and hair and allow it to stay still within about fifteen. With regular cure, you will get your hair growing stronger and thicker noticeably.
Orange juice is also one of the best tips on how to get thicker hair and refresh hair smell. It can help to promote thickens hair, hair growth, and is wonderful for curing dandruff. To make use of orange to promote thicker hair, slice an orange, peel them all, and put them into a food processor till you get a fine pulp as needed. Try applying this pulp directly onto your hair and allow it to stay within 20 minutes. Apply this method 1 time per week to achieve thicker, fuller hair in a few months or until you see desired improvement.
A mixture of apple puree an orange juice is also a useful method that can help to push hair growth and increase the thickness of hair naturally. Repeat this method within about half an hour 1 – 2 times per week is perfect for promoting thick hair. After that, you should rinse it off thoroughly. You will not need to apply any type of shampoo if you do not want.
Sweet and not sweet licorice herb can all be one of the most efficient cures for hair thinning and hair loss. Egyptians Licorice has powerful ability to sooth irritated, dry skin and scalp. It is such properties that can aid a lot in nourishing hair shaft and opening the pores of your follicles and scalp effectively.
Essential oils can help a lot in dealing with and beating off many types of health issues and diseases. They are equally efficient in making your hair thicker and fuller. For instance, rosemary oil can increases cell divisions and work well at cellular level. It can also help to expand the blood vessels which can help to proper blood circulation. Both atlas cedarwood oil and lavender oil have long been used by aromatherapy practitioners to treatment alopecia (hair loss patches). Jojoba oil provides great hydrating and moisturizing properties so that it can help to moisturize deep into our hair follicles. It can also help to repair dry damaged hair and improve blood circulation. Apply this method to create your own homemade essential oil mixture that can work excellently for speeding up hair growth.
Thanks for its high content of sulfur, onion can not only make your dishes more delicious but also support your hair in growing thicker and fuller. Blood circulation will be able to increase and also add more power to your hair by opening up your hair roots’ pores. These hair follicles sometimes get blocked due to oils, soil, or some diseases. Sulfur can also help a lot in improving the production of collagen in your tissues which can help to grow hair faster and fuller. Shallots and red onions have higher sulfur levels so that you can try with your own effort to utilize these sorts if you want to thicken your hair.
Smash the pieces of onions to get their juice.
Use the juice of the onions (shallots) to apply onto your own hair and scalp.
Allow it to stay still within fifteen to twenty minutes.
Use a shampoo to rinse your hair off.
The deficiency of nutrients necessary for hair is among the most important reasons that can lead to baldness and hair loss. If you cannot take enough nutrients for hair from your daily diet, then your hair will gradually get feeble and start falling off. Some fixings can help to nourish your own hair if you use them to apply directly onto your scalp and hair, and honey is among the best things for you to make use! Honey comprises a lot of vitamins and minerals needed for hair growth. Moreover, it can work well as humectant which can help to pull moisture and remain your hair hydration so that your hair will not be damaged and broken after all. Honey is actually one of the most amazingly useful foods for hair growth and thickening that supplies sufficient and vital nourishment to it.
Yogurt or Buttermilk – 1 tsp.
Coconut oil or olive oil – 1 tbsp.
Blend all ingredients well to create a nicely mixed combination.
Allow it to stay still within about fifteen to twenty minutes.
Add honey and yogurt to warm oil. In case you have greasy hair, instead of yogurt, you should opt for buttermilk with the same method.
Make your hair damp with clean water. After washing the hair, make use of the home-made conditioner you made before.
Warm the oil mix and keep it always warm. Do not use hot oil to apply onto your hair as it can make your hair texture dry.
Apply the home-made conditioner right onto your hair and wear a shower cap to maintain the heat!
Reapply this method 1 time per week or fortnight.
Coconut oil or olive oil – 1/2 tbsp.
Dehydrated Sage – 1 tbsp.
This could be considered a wonderful cure for your own hair if you are suffering from hair loss, hair thinning, or gray hair. This home – made hair mask is a fine combination of hibiscus and curry leaves that can help to deal with and beat off hair fall and will not just help to reinforce your hair from the roots to the ends but may also offer glowing hair treatment for your current hair issue (hair loss, hair thinning, or gray hair), as well as bringing about soft sleek hair appearance.
Use a pestle or mortar (or blender) to crush the hibiscus leaves so that you will have a fine paste. Try adding some water if you want.
Apply the hibiscus mask onto your own hair after oiling your hair!
Allow the mask to stay still within around 60 minutes.
Apply this method one or two times per week for three to four weeks at least.
The lovely hibiscus bloom contains large amount of Vitamin C, making the use of it one of the best tips on how to get thicker hair naturally at home. Besides, it acts effectively as a natural emollient. In addition, its astringent and moisturizing properties make it appropriate for both dry and greasy hair. In case that your own hair is thinning due to hair fall, dryness, and hair breakage, hibiscus oil is a great cure for you because this blossom can work well as a slick infusion, detangling your hair besides soothing your mucilage or dry scalp.
Use a mortar or pestle to crush the blossoms together with hibiscus leaves to create a paste.
Use this special home – made hibiscus oil to apply directly onto your scalp and hair your hair and scalp thoroughly.
You need to allow the oil to stay still on your scalp or use a warm towel to wrap your hair within twenty to thirty minutes. After that, wash your hair with Reetha Amla Shikakai shampoo or any regular type of shampoo you like, and you will feel a great sense of thickness added to your hair after just a few days. If you want to notice quicker and stronger results, you might prefer to create your own hibiscus hair mask at home with our very next recipe, use it to apply directly onto your hair before rinsing it off completely.
Ayurveda tells us about 4 fine herbal remedies that can bring about superb bright hair with a brand new voluminous look. These 3 ingredients include Shikakai (Acacia concinna), Amla (Indian Gooseberry), and Reetha (Soapnut). You may already know the power of amla in growing hair and reducing hair loss (as mentioned above); however, a brand new combination of this herb with the 2 powerful ones listed above will amaze you a lot. As you might suppose from its name, soap-nut or reetha, is actually a wonderful natural cleansing assistant that can help to remove all stubborn microbes presented on your hair and scalp. It can help to nourish the hair by giving it a natural feeling as well as wrapping away the dandruff issue. Shikakai, meaning fruits for hair, can keep its natural oils and also help to balance your scalp’s pH balance effectively! It conditions and reinforces our hair in a way which may increase the hair volume noticeably. You should make use of these 3 herbal remedies as it is possible to make your own herbal shampoo at home for hair thickening support.
Add shikakai, reetha, and amla, and mix them well together.
Mash them well using a masher.
Once it is cooled down, try mashing all ingredients to get the extracted the final juices of the ingredients.
You will see some froth that is expected to soap-nut or reetha while mashing.
Let the mix stay overnight.
If your hair is too wet, you may feel this shampoo somehow rough for your hair. Try using hibiscus powder in such scenario as a fine and available hair conditioner. Mix some water with the powder to make a paste to apply directly onto your hair. Let it stay for a while and rinse your hair off after all.
Make use of the remainder for your very next hair washes and remember to clean your hair after all.
In the nowadays, the importance of hair is as great as fashion when it comes to the whole appearance of an individual, so all of use need to give our hair better care in order to get more youthful appearance. Read the full list of tips on how to get thicker hair above and try making use of the natural remedies suggested as soon as possible! If you have anything to ask, feel free to leave your questions in the section below!
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2019-04-22T20:28:05Z
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https://healthyguide.com/how-to-get-thicker-hair/
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How to complete Petroleum Operations Notices (PONs); forms, guidance and contact details.
Below you’ll find all the information you will need to understand and complete any of the PONs relevant to your needs. This includes guidance, application forms and access to the UK Oil Portal.
It is an offence to wilfilly, or by culpable negligence, break or injure a submarine cable in a way that might interrupt or obstruct telegraphic or telephonic communication (see Section 3 of the Submarine Telegraph Act 1885 as applied by Section 8(i) of the Continental Shelf Act 1964).
Although there are a large number of submarine telecommunications cables on the UKCS, the risk of them being damaged by offshore activity is minimal as long as operators observe reasonable caution and remain aware of their location. PON 3 aims to inform licensees of the ways in which the telecommunications industry can help them to avoid contravening this legislation.
the position of out-of-service cables is likely to be approximate and the position of all cables and repeaters should be verified with the cable owners.
cable owners can hold any person causing damage entirely responsible for all the costs incurred in repairing damage to any cable system.
any person committing a punishable offence under the legislation could be punished without prejudice to civil action for damages by the cable owner.
consult with cable owners before undertaking any activity that might damage cable systems. Where the precise location of the activity is not critical, it may be possible to agree with the cable owner a safe distance from the cable system from which to operate. However, if the precise location of the activity is critical and within the distances given above, you must determine the exact position of the cable system by physical inspection. The cable owner will then be able to decide on a safe minimum distance from the cable system and advise on the operational procedures and safeguards necessary to avoid damaging the cable system.
it may be possible to move a cable in cases where the precise location of activity will almost certainly damage the system. If the cable owner agrees to move the cable, you should expect to reimburse for all costs incurred.
In the few instances where the WONS system is not suitable, please follow the procedure below and use the following PON 4 application form.
Certain licences comprise conditions that were issued at the time the licence was granted. Where there is a difference, the licence conditions take precedence over the guidance below and they must be adhered to. In some cases, more than 30 days advance notice of the intended time o drill may be required by other government departments – a condition that would be reflected in the licence. If full details of the proposed operation cannot be supplied with the application, the reasons for this should be explained. Failure to comply with licence conditions may result in consent being refused.
a minimum of 30 days notice is required for consent to straightforward drilling operations. Earlier notice will be necessary for operations in busy shipping areas.
it should be made clear in the application if an exploration or appraisal well might later be utilised for development.
it should not be assumed permission to occupy a site for a limited period will necessarily allow future activity on that site.
This notice applies to all wells – exploration, appraisal and development, in both landward and seaward areas.
A consent will usually be conditional upon drilling taking place within a year of the date on which it was issued.
In the case of wells where a sidetrack is required, where no sidetrack was planned at the initial consent stage, a separate application must be made following discussion with the OGA. A faxed proforma is acceptable for this; please fax to 0300 068 5003. The proforma should also be used, with supporting information, in the case of a re-entry after suspension to drill to another target location.
in areas to the east of 6 degrees West longitude, the geographic co-ordinate system is defined as ED50.
in areas to the west of 6 degrees West longitude. the geographic co-ordinate system is defined as ETRF89.
For landward wells, locations may in addition be specified by use of grid lines of the British National Grid.
UTM co-ordinates may be supplied in addition to latitude and longitude.
the difference between the WGS84 and ETRF89 co-ordinate systems is not significant and WGS 84 co-ordinate values can be assumed to be equivalent to ETRF89. This is equivalent to the transformation between WGS84 and ETRF89 being taken to be zero.
the recommended relationship between ED50 and WGS 84 or ETRF89 for petroleum exploration purposes is the “Common Offshore” transformation. The Common Offshore transformation is an operation using the position vector transformation method and a the following specified set of Helmert transformation parameters for changing co-ordinates between the WGS 84 and ED50 co-ordinate systems on the UKCS. For petroleum exploration and production purposes the transformation can also be used between the ETRF89 and ED50 co-ordinate systems.
The OSGB petroleum transformation is an operation using the position vector transformation method and the following specified set of Helmert transformation parameters for changing co-ordinates between OSGB36 (British National Grid) and ETRF89 or WGS84 co-ordinate systems. The transformation has an accuracy of typically two metres and is no worse than approximately four metres throughout Britain. A more accurate transformation is available from the Ordnance Survey.
The relationship between OSGB36 and ED50 for petroleum exploration and production purposes is the concatenation of the OSGB36 to ETRF89 and ETRF89 to ED50 transformations in the above recommendations, known as the UKOOA landward/seaward transformation.
when an operator applies for consent to drill a well in a landward area, they must submit with that application evidence the relevant planning authority has been consulted and that planning permission has been obtained. A landward licence does not give the licensee any rights of entry onto land or over minerals and deposits other than petroleum.
landward wells drilled on Mining Licences (granted prior to 1966) do not require formal written consent from the OGA. However, the operator of the licence must notify the department of the location and timing of drilling operations and is required to conduct all operations according to good oilfield practice. Written consent is necessary for the abandonment of these wells (see PON 5).
at least two reference latitudes and two reference longitudes should be annotated.
A description of the logging programme (both open and cased hole) for each casing depth plus any intermediate survey point should be included. Data on the expected formation water and mud filtrate salinities should also be provided.
Conditional logging runs should be included and the conditions noted (eg where shallow gas is expected).
This information may be presented in graphical or tabular form if preferred. The offset wells used to obtain this information should be indicated. Please indicate if the proposed Exploration or Appraisal well is in an area of High Pressure and/or High Temperature, High Temperature in this context can be defined as when the undisturbed bottom hole temperature is greater than 149C (300F). High Pressure can be defined as either the maximum pore pressure of any porous formation that exceeds a hydrostatic gradient of 0,18 bar/m (0,8 psi/ft) (representing an equivalent mud weight (EMW) of 1,85 SG or (15,4 ppg) or, needing deployment of pressure control equipment with a rated working pressure in excess of 690 bar (69 MPa, 10 000 psi). Note that areas of high pressure (abnormal pressure) need not necessarily be accompanied by high temperatures and vice versa.
If there is a possibility of Hydrogen sulphide at any horizon in the well, this should be identified. However, note that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) require to be informed of any incident involving H2S, Shallow Gas, or HP/HT (see PON 11).
Model clauses of the schedules in the Petroleum Act 1987 and in the Petroleum (Production) Regulations 1988 require licensees to measure petroleum using methods customarily used in good oilfield practice and from time-to-time gain Minister approval of all petroleum won and saved from the licensed area.
The licensee must obtain a ‘non-objection’ from the department to use a method of measurement prior to its implementation. This is a statutory requirement.
The level of detail required by the department will vary from case to case, but the procedure for approval is the same for all field developments.
PON 7 and petroleum reporting is now handled under the PPRS 2000 system. The submission guidance on this system describes the data requirements and format for the reporting of hydrocarbon production from offshore and onshore fields and terminals in the UK.
The specific requirements for seaward well and seismic licence data set out in this PON were agreed in principle through consultation with industry, Oil & Gas UK and PILOT in the PILOT Data Lifecycle Initiative endorsed in May 2003.
This PON is for information only.
The OGA’s well registration numbering system is a simple code system that provides an unambiguous reference for use in correspondence, cross-referencing between computer databases, and in other information and filing systems.
The Petroleum Production Reporting System (PPRS) number is derived from the well number elements of the the OGA well number.
The OGA recommends that operators carefully consider their internal well-numbering systems for new projects and design them to avoid confusion with the the OGA’s well registration numbers. Please remember that the full the OGA well number must be quoted on all returns, well logs, reports and correspondence related to a well. Operators development well-numbering systems should be reviewed with the the OGA’s Licensing and Consents Unit at an early stage in development programme planning.
The terms of this notice cover both seaward and landward wells, although land wells may also have a name as a secondary identifier.
Throughout this notice the term ‘platform’ should be taken to include subsea templates and sites where development wells are clustered in close proximity, eg around a gathering manifold.
Once the OGA receives a drilling application from an operator, basic well details are entered into the LCU wells database. A consent letter is then issued instructing operators to inform the OGA by fax immediately (preferably within two hours) once a well spuds. At this point the OGA database automatically assigns the next sequential number. The OGA will inform the operator and the HSE of the well number within one working day of receipt of the well spud fax.
The OGA defines a well to be a borehole drilled into the earth from a single surface or subsurface location to a single subsurface location. If the surface location changes but target location stays the same, a new well is regarded as a respud of the first well. If the target location changes but surface location stays the same, the new well is called a geological sidetrack. If a sidetrack is made to bypass an obstruction while the surface and target locations remain the same, this is called a mechanical sidetrack. A well may be drilled intentionally into an existing well.
Shallow boreholes drilled for the purpose of rig positioning or substrate investigation (not drilled primarily for the searching, boring or getting of petroleum) will not be included in the the OGA well numbering scheme. These will not be given a Drilling Sequence Number but will be identified with the mnemonic EB (Exploratory Borehole) following the relevant quad and block number, to avoid confusion with other wells.
The OGA supports the POSC (Petroleum Open Software Corporation) international standards initiatives.
The OGA well number comprises seven components (a)-(g), which uniquely define a well, eg 211/30b-A21Z (this is a sidetrack of well 21 on platform A in part block 211/30b). Country Quad Block Well Number: The number is initially established when drilling commences towards a target by insertion of a number in component (f), replacing the target reference letter(s).
Country (a): one character code to define the country in whose waters the well is drilled – UK offshore wells have a blank in this column; UK land wells have an L.
Quadrant (b): the number, or letter, of the quadrant in which the well is drilled. UK quadrants are areas enclosed by one degree of latitude and longitude. For quadrants with numbers, the number is up to three digits, right justified with no leading zero. Capital letters are used for quadrants with letters. The number or letter designation for the quadrant can be obtained from the map at paragraph 8.
Block (c): the number of the block within the quadrant in which the well is drilled. Each UK quadrant is divided into 30 blocks measuring 12 minutes of longitude by 10 minutes of latitude. The number has two digits including a leading zero.
Block suffix (d): used if the block is subdivided, usually after partial surrender – otherwise it is omitted. The retained part has the lower case suffix ‘a’ and the part(s) surrendered, which may be re-licensed, are given lower case suffixes ‘b’, ‘c’ etc.
‘Platform’, subsea cluster designation or land site (e): for wells drilled from a fixed or floating platform, through a subsea template, or from a land grouping – one capital letter should be used for platform designation, otherwise leave blank. The letter ‘S’ should not be used to avoid confusion with subsea wells in the PPRS.
wells forming part of a multiwell development, in which casings are batch set prior to finalising the slot/target allocation, will be numbered only after drilling has commenced to a specific target location, normally at the time of drilling out of the 20”, or equivalent, surface casing shoe.
Operators are required to advise the OGA by fax immediately when drilling has commenced to a specific target location. For most exploration and appraisal wells, this fax should be sent within two hours of spudding-in to the sea bed. For most development wells, a fax should be sent within two hours of spudding out of preset casing with the intention of drilling to the target.
(i) Re-spud: If a well is re-spudded for any reason, it is distinguished by an upper case character ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, etc. in this component (not applicable to ‘platform’ development). A well is designated to be a respud when the original attempt to drill the well fails for any reason at or near the surface and another well must be started at a nearby surface location to drill to the same target. First respud has a capital A, second B, and so on. (ii) Sidetrack: If a well is sidetracked and the abandoned part of the hole has significant data (i.e. logs, MWD and/or core), the sidetrack is distinguished by ‘Z’, ‘Y’, ‘X’, etc. in this column. A suffix is not required if a sidetrack is for mechanical reasons only, and the abandoned part of the hole does not have significant data (i.e. logs, MWD and/or core) and is not through any known hydrocarbon bearing interval. Suffixes of re-spudded wells that are then sidetracked are replaced by ‘Z’, ‘Y’, ‘X’, etc.
Multilateral wells will also be numbered in this way, with a suffix for each lateral. The allocation of suffixes should be agreed with the LCU Data Management Team.
Wells within a block will continue to be numbered consecutively even after the block has been subdivided for licensing purposes, eg following partial surrender and subsequent relicensing. After subdivision however, the block subdivision suffix (eg 24/04b) must be used.
The first well drilled from a platform will take the suffix applicable to the block or part block in which the platform resides when drilling commences. All wells subsequently drilled from that platform assume the same block suffix as the first well. Once drilling has commenced on a platform, relinquishment of part of a block will not require a change in platform wells numbers, i.e. there will be no need to add a block suffix to the well registration number for existing or future wells drilled from that platform.
All subsea structures or templates through which two or more development wells may be drilled will be given a ‘platform’ designation letter (component e) and wells will be numbered (component f) like platform wells. A platform or other installation set above the template will adopt the template designation letter. Clusters of subsea development wells will be treated in the same way as templates.
Wells should not be designated by drilling sequence number before spudding-in and drilling has commenced to a specific target location. Reference should be made to an identifying letter (or target location letter) for non-platform wells and for platform wells an identifying letter (following the platform letter) and slot number. A maximum of three characters can be used for the identifying letter and four for the slot number. Conductors and surface casing strings set, or planned to be set, in wells before drilling has commenced to a specific target location should be identified by the slot number following the platform or subsea cluster designation.
During development drilling, batch setting of conductors may be carried out. Often reservoir targets are not allocated at this stage, in which case the wells should continue to be referred to by their slot numbers. Within two hours of the well drilling out of the conductor with the intention of proceeding to the reservoir target a fax must be sent to the the OGA. The well will then receive its unique sequential well number from the the OGA.
add a suffix to indicate a second attempt to drill the same well (24/04- 2A).
call the mechanically failed attempt a well because it has reached a sufficient depth and acquired geological data which justifies so doing. In this case the second attempt is a new well and in our example would be 24/04-3 (unless 24/04-3 has already spudded elsewhere when it would be 24/04-4).
In all cases an application for consent to abandon this existing hole and drill from the new location is required.
the old well has production (including EWT but excluding DST) or injection history.
the old well has no production or injection history.
If the first above applies, the new well is termed a re-drill and re-numbered with the next consecutive chronological number. The effective date to determine the new number (spud date) will be the date the well drilled out of the existing well bore.
If the second applies, the well is considered a sidetrack and a suffix (starting from the end of the alphabet) should be added to the well number for the sidetracked well (24/04-A6Z) to aid log identification. This also applies to pilot wells and their subsequent horizontal sidetracks including multilaterals, and to a well re-entered to deepen to a new target following suspension.
In all cases an application for consent to abandon the existing section of the hole and drill to the new location is required.
No aspect of (e) and (f) above implies acceptance of the wells as more than one well for licence obligation purposes.
Wells drilled from mobile rigs and subsequently completed and tied into a ‘platform’ (eg single subsea completions) retain their original well registration number.
the PPRS number for a conventional platform or template well will be derived from elements (e) and (f) in the the OGA registration number. In the examples shown the PPRS number for well 2/05-H1 would be H01. However, unlike the Drilling Sequence Number the first nine wells from any ‘platform’ sequence should contain a leading zero.
in the case of single subsea completions connected to a nearby platform, the PPRS number will be derived by adding the platform letter and an ‘S’ to element (f). If well 15/16- 3Z was a single subsea completion connected to a platform whose designation letter was R then the PPRS No for that well should be RS03.
a possible ambiguity could arise when a subsea development well is drilled in a different block to the ‘platform’ to which it is subsequently connected. In this case the block number will be inserted after the letters and before the well number so that it is now a six-digit system, eg MS0703 and MS1203. The system depends on the full six digits being used to avoid ambiguity, hence well 3 or block 7 must be written 03 or 07 (for Magnus wells in block 211/07 and 211/12). The OGA number is prepared to consider other ways of removing the ambiguity on existing fields.
Normally a well number cannot be changed after it has been used for identifying well records. In exceptional circumstances however, an operator may apply to have the well renumbered to fit into a ‘platform’ site sequence, e.g to make the existing well A1 if ‘A’ is chosen for the ‘platform’ site letter. Subsequent wells drilled on the ‘platform or subsea cluster’ will then be numbered A2, A3 etc. The operator must discuss potential re-numbering of wells at the earliest opportunity during development planning. Reference must be made in all communications to both the original and synonymous well number, eg 10/07- 2, A1.
PON 14b should only be used by operators to notify the OGA of their intention to undertake landward surveys and/or offshore surveys and shallow drilling in internal waters.
Applicants are responsible for gaining landowner and other relevant permissions prior to carrying out any onshore geophysical survey.
Where regulation requires submission of an Environmental Statement for a project (well, field development or pipeline), the licensee must first assess the impact it would have and provide to the Secretary of State a formal statement containing a description of the project, conclusions from the impact assessment, and proposal of any potential measures to mitigate or remedy significant adverse effects.
Petroleum Operations Notice 16 (application for consent) is required for all project consents covered by the regulations, regardless of their need for an Environmental Statement. For example, a PON 15 seeking direction from EIA for the drilling of a well would be ready for submission before the PON 4, so the PON 15 has to be accompanied by the application for consent, i.e. the PON 16 – not the PON 4. This application must be accompanied by an Environmental Statement (if required), and is considered a formal request for any consent required under the regulations. The PON 16 should state that its request for consent and describe the project with regard to the consent being sought. This description may reference the project’s description as stated in any accompanying Environmental Statement, i.e.the PON 16 may briefly identify the project and contain a statement that it is further described in the Environmental Statement.
The PON 16 and Environmental Statement may be submitted some weeks or even months prior to the final draft of the development programme, well consent application (PON 4) or Pipeline Works Authorisation application, provided it gives an appropriate description of the project and its assessed effects on the environment.
If the Secretary of State directs that the Environmental Statement be dispensed for a particular project, the PON 16 can still be submitted but must be accompanied by a copy of the direction.
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2019-04-21T11:15:44Z
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https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oil-and-gas-petroleum-operations-notices
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Nottinghamshire has two teams in Division 3 of the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL). Games are played on weekends throughout the season.
With several players either permanently or temporarily unavailable this season, finding players for the first pair of matches – which happened also to be the only long-distance trip of the season – proved interesting, especially for the new captain. In the end, with some assistance from Neil Graham in particular, I was able to add three players to the squad: West Nottingham's latest French star (Mathieu Tournier), former Notts player Mark Jones (now living in Swindon), and – at the last minute – Robert Willoughby.
The new boys had a mixed day. Mathieu held a significant advantage as Notts 1 took on Poisoned Pawns 2 in a very evenly balanced match. Unfortunately he was unable to force the win – a fate that also befell Andy Walker and me. It was cruel, therefore, that with five of us drawing a miscalculation by Mark decided the result in the opposition's favour.
A 50:50 match going the wrong way is hardly a disaster, of course. Notts 2, however, didn't have the luxury of a roughly even contest. Conceding an average of 281 rating points per board to Guildford A&DC 4, anything other than a whitewash could be considered a success. For a while things looked quite promising, but one by one the zeros started to appear on the scoresheet. In the end it was the third of the debutants who scored the solitary half point, Robert narrowly failing to beat his much higher rated opponent.
Possibly the last thing any of us needed after a day of six draws and six defeats was to be woken by a fire alarm at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. With a loudspeaker blaring out instructions to get out of the building as quickly as possible, we (and all the other players staying overnight) staggered out of the building in various states of dishevelment. One or two (but none of us, I'm glad to say) had taken the order to leave immediately at face value and were wearing only the bare minimum – not a pretty sight. Fortunately, it was a false alarm, so we all trudged back in and tried to get back to sleep.
Notts 2 received another tough pairing – SCS – but this time the rating difference was a more manageable 51 points per board. Brian Thompson registered an excellent draw with Black on top board, featuring an amazing rook sacrifice.
With a win for Stan Cranmer and a draw for Neil Graham things were looking good. Boards 4 and 5 didn't turn out so well though, leaving Robert to try to pull things round. He had a sizeable advantage as the time control approached, but was very short of time – about four minutes for his last 12 moves. His opponent, however, was struggling to defend, and gradually the clock times grew closer together. I left the playing hall when the players were down to about two minutes each – I hate watching that kind of time scramble. Five minutes later I went back in to find that Robert had reached a completely winning position and had won on time, salvaging a draw for the team.
The next two rounds, on 6 and 7 December, should be fun. All three divisions will be playing that weekend, so there'll be grandmaster chess to watch.
A rarity: all three divisions playing in the same venue on the same weekend. We third division hackers therefore got to rub shoulders (almost literally) with a large number of Britain’s best players. I lost count of the number of GMs present, but here’s a selection of names to convey the flavour of the event: Speelman, Howell, Chandler, Conquest, Hebden, Rowson, Flear, Wells, Davies... the list goes on! So how did the Nottinghamshire contingent fare alongside such August company?
Nottinghamshire 1 received an unexpected gift from Round 3 opponents The Full Ponty in the form of a default on Board 6. We were notified in advance, so no one had to make a wasted trip. Very quickly the score moved to 2–0, when Alex Combie, making his debut, turned what looked like an exercise in pawn grabbing into an overwhelming kingside attack. All was well on the other boards and a big score looked possible, but it didn’t quite materialise. I overcame a slight disadvantage from the opening and forced a repetition in a knight endgame; David Levens’ position never quite delivered on its apparent promise; and Richard Truman’s extra pawn never came to anything. With the match won, Rob Richmond was left to try to find a win in what looked like a level position, but it too proved elusive.
The second team had the misfortune to be paired against Warwickshire Select 2, conceding around 170 rating points per board. Brian Thompson and Richard Myers did well to draw (in fact, Richard missed a win), but the opposition proved too strong overall. Maurice Hill came closest to adding a half-point, but he eventually succumbed in a long rook ending.
Board orders were shuffled to avoid players receiving the same colour on both days, but whether or not this influenced the results is hard to say. Against Bristol 2 the first team started well, with a quick draw for Alex and an easy win for me (finally ending an eight-game drawing streak in the competition). But then things started to go badly. Richard dropped a pawn for nothing and was well beaten; David was under a little pressure; and Rob had also lost a pawn. The best hope for a win seemed to be Andy Walker’s game, but that came to nothing, and when Rob failed to hold his position it was left to David to try to level the match. He reached an advantageous endgame, but the one fleeting winning chance slipped by.
Notts 2 looked like they were facing another beating against Mind Sports, but they rose to the occasion. Neil Graham took an early draw, after which two defeats made the situation look grim. The key game was Bob Taylor’s on Board 1. About halfway through he assessed his position as ‘desperate’, but a little while later he reached an endgame with a piece for two pawns and his technique proved secure enough to deliver the point against a much higher-rated opponent. Richard was grinding out his second draw of the weekend, so the match came down to Robert Willoughby’s apparently easy game on bottom board. Typically, of course, his opponent played well above her notional strength, and at one point appeared to have prospects of a perpetual check. But Robert eventually extricated his king and brought home the point to level the match.
The Executive Committee is likely to confirm that the teams' entry fees for this season will be paid by charging a board fee of �2.50 per game played (applied retrospectively). Update: a board fee of �3.00 was set, with the first weekend not charged for.
With snow forecast, the 4NCL management put in place a few emergency rules for the third set of matches. Players could arrive up to two hours late if affected by the weather, and would then play a five-hour session instead of seven hours. Team captains would be allowed to keep their mobile phones on until all their players had arrived. As it turned out, apart from two teams that opted not to travel just about everyone was present in good time.
Nottinghamshire 1 might have wished otherwise though. David Levens made a slip coming out of the opening and fell to a withering kingside attack; Alex Combie's complex position resolved itself into a loss; and Will Place got into a tangle after a successful opening and ended up losing. Trailing 3–0 after three hours' play was bad enough, but to make matters worse I had made a mess of a won position and was losing, while Brian Thompson's game was also bad. Only Rob Richmond seemed likely to score. But then the tide turned. My opponent seemed committed to creating severe time trouble for himself, and a succession of errors cost him first the advantage and ultimately the game – a 15 minute think after the time control was reached led him to resign. A couple of minutes later Rob forced resignation, so attention turned to Brian's game. It looked as though he might hold the draw, but his opponent played inaccurately until a position was reached in which Brian had R + N + P vs. R + 3P, with the enemy king confined to the back rank. There were winning chances, based on a mating attack, but if White could exchange off the last black pawn these would evaporate. Sure enough, a chance to do that arose, but White tried an alternative route and ended up losing all three pawns. Brian duly converted to save the match.
The second team were evenly matched against Halesowen. Prospects looked very good after Bob Taylor secured a draw against a strong opponent, and were made even better when Robert Willoughby won on Board 6. Although Neil Graham was clearly in trouble, Stan Cranmer had drawn and Richard Myers and Maurice Hill were both on top. Unfortunately, neither of these two could force the win, and Neil's defeat resulted in another 3–3 draw.
Round 6 took the opposite course for the first team compared with the previous day. After a couple of hours it looked as though we might score a big win: I had a big advantage from the opening, Will's opponent was sacrificing unsoundly, David had a clear advantage, and nobody else seemed worse. But this time everything swung against us. Alex could only draw, while I missed a tactical point and turned a likely win into a loss (ending a 19 game unbeaten run in the 4NCL – not the best moment to do it). Meanwhile, Will was two pieces up but finding his opponent's pair of advanced passed pawns awkward to deal with. Andy Walker reached a level rook ending and drew, but Rob's position turned nasty. Our best hope seemed to be David's game, where he reached a B vs. N ending with an extra pawn. Sadly, the enemy pieces proved to be well coordinated and the win was not to be found. Will did eventually neutralise the enemy pawns, but Rob's defeat condemned us to a narrow loss.
Nottinghamshire 2 received an unkind draw, facing the mostly young players of AMCA Rhinos. The average rating difference of 61 points per board was probably somewhat greater in reality. Ratings aren't everything, though. Brian seemed to be inspired by his heroics of the previous evening and won convincingly, while Bob registered another solid draw. Neil was in trouble again, but Robert had reached a won ending when disaster struck, a simple blunder costing him the game. Richard and Stan had drawn, but Neil was left trying to hold an endgame the exchange down, which turned out not to be possible. A draw was a good result in end though.
The penultimate weekend of the season was not, one would have to say, our finest hour. But let’s beginning with the good bit. Nottinghamshire 1 delivered the expected result against a weak Mind Sports team. I had the good fortune to be playing an opponent with an ECF grade of 78, which meant a very quick 1–0 lead. Robert Richmond followed with another win inside two hours. There were a couple of nervous moments before the win was confirmed, most notably when Richard Truman overlooked a knight fork in a good position. Fortunately he had a decent reply that led to a draw. Andy Walker reached an endgame with two rooks against a queen which the computer says was significantly better for him, but with passed pawns for both players it was not that easy for mere humans to assess. Tim Walker's match-winning draw came in a sharp-looking position following a knight sacrifice that gave him an advanced c-pawn. The only sensible assessment of the position is 'unclear'. Last to finish was David Levens, whose opponent generously gave him a 50 minute start on the clock.
So that left Maurice Hill with a reasonable position and Alex Combie with something that looked rather unclear. Maurice quite reasonably took a draw, but Alex's position drifted steadily downhill before a big mistake in a lost position cost huge quantities of material.
Richard survived some pressure to chalk up a draw. I bluffed my opponent into a dubious rook ending instead of a drawn pawn ending and won again, at which point I went off to the analysis room confident that Will's beautiful bishop pair and extra pawn would win the match. Although Alex was in trouble, David's position looked no worse than drawn.
Half an hour later I returned to find that Alex had lost, as expected. What I didn't expect to see was Will two pawns down and about to lose a third, while David had also dropped a pawn. Sadly, there were no miracles to be had, and yet another 3½–2½ defeat – our fourth of the season – was registered.
So could Notts 2 bounce back? Unfortunately, there was bad news even before play started. Maurice, despite feeling unwell, had made the journey to the venue, but was too ill to play. It may not have been a wise decision to make the trip, but the effort was appreciated.
At the board, Bob did reverse his Saturday result (a typical result against a stronger opponent), but no one else could score a full point. Richard Myers and Robert Willoughby, fresh (if that's the word) from the MCCU U125 final on Saturday, both drew, as did Stan. Neil's dreadful season continued, resulting in a narrow defeat.
There’s a certain inverted logic about perverse results: fielding our strongest team since the opening weekend, and with almost 100 points per board advantage, Nottinghamshire 1 quite naturally slumped to the worst defeat of the season, losing 4–2 to FCA Solutions 2. Of course, average ratings don’t tell the whole story. Most of our advantage was on Boards 1 and 6, but the other four were evenly balanced. I found stiff resistance at the bottom end, but an oversight by my opponent allowed a quick finish. In the diagram, White has just played 22.f4? to counter the threat of ...f5, although that’s not too dangerous.
I was sure there was something for me here, but efforts to make 22...Re8 or 22...Bb4 work were inconclusive. Finally, almost in desperation, I looked at 22...Ba6!, and all became clear: White must lose material. The game ended 23.Qxa6 (23.Qd2 Bb4 24.Bxa6 Bxd2 25.Bxd2 Qf6 is also fairly straightforward) 23...Qxe3+ 24.Kg2 Bb4 25.Rf1 Rc2 26.Rf2 Re8 0-1.
But that, unfortunately, was the high water mark. David Levens lost after trying too hard to win; Pete Mercs saw what appeared to be a nice position drift into unpleasantness and also lost; and yet another unfathomable Rob Richmond effort petered out into a draw. With a solid draw from Andy Walker, Richard Truman’s game became critical, but by this point winning was out of the question. An attractive attacking position yielded no more than an endgame in which Richard had three pawns for a sacrificed piece, but his opponent was able to chip away at the pawns while avoiding losing his own. Richard finally capitulated well into the final hour of play.
Much better news, however, for Nottinghamshire 2. Facing the AMCA Hippos, Robert Willoughby posted a straightforward win, although this was soon offset by Neil Graham’s defeat. Alex Combie scored a steady draw on top board, but things were a little unclear on the remaining boards. Bob Taylor’s opponent arrived 45 minutes late, but such disadvantages mean little to juniors. In the end, Bob weathered the storm successfully, finishing with an extra piece. Maurice Hill’s game went through a tactical interlude with errors on both sides, but he finally emerged with a piece for two pawns and had no difficulty securing the win.
With the match won, it remained only for Brian Thompson to turn his pressure into a win, which he duly achieved after his opponent cracked just before the first time control.
Notts 1 resumed normal service with yet another 3½–2½ defeat against Iceni – very beatable opposition. Richard’s marathon effort on Saturday may have contributed to his rapid loss, but the English language lacks an appropriate adjective to describe the disaster, so I’ll just say ‘horrible’ and leave it at that. In any case, it shouldn’t have mattered: I won a clean extra pawn, David had what looked like a straightforward technical win, and Andy was well on top. Brian dropped a pawn but held the ensuing rook ending easily enough, while Rob also drew. But then it all went pear-shaped. I missed a knight fork and was relieved to be offered a draw in a worse position and Andy let his advantage slip, which left David to save the match. Unfortunately a single oversight had turned his comfortable win into a desperate struggle to save the game. He managed it, but that was all.
Notts 2, however, were making hay against Littlethorpe 3. Stan Cranmer raced into a won rook ending while most of us were still in the opening. Robert won quickly and Neil drew, but although Alex held an advantage both Bob and Maurice were struggling. It didn’t seem to matter though: Maurice’s opponent mishandled the clock and simultaneously blundered and overstepped the time limit, Alex converted his queenside pressure into a win, and Bob held on to draw a pawn down, resulting in a 5–1 win that also saw Notts 2 jump above the first team in the table.
The final ignominy – Nottinghamshire 1 not only finished up behind the second team, but actually slipped further behind. It was gruesome stuff: despite a 200 points per board average rating advantage, with a significant difference in our favour on every single board, we were lucky to escape with a 3–3 draw.
Alex had no trouble despatching his young opponent, but on top board Rob’s king was being frog-marched all over the board in an apparently forlorn attempt to avoid calamity. Rob resigned, but Fritz thinks that the position might actually have been slightly better for him! Richard made a finger slip that saw him staring down the barrel, and Brian dropped an exchange for nothing. My opponent played the very odd 1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.Nc3 d6, so I was making things up from scratch very early on. Fortunately for me there was no cunning master plan behind Black’s setup. By now, David was facing a speculative exchange sacrifice. He defended carefully and at one point was actually winning, but the chance and the game slipped away.
At 2–2, with bad positions on the remaining boards, we were braced for the worst, but Richard’s opponent got his move order confused and dropped a piece. And then, just for a moment, it seemed that Brian might somehow wriggle out. His opponent didn’t seem to know how to use his material advantage, and reached both the first and second time controls with seconds to spare. It wasn’t quite enough though – a last ditch stalemate trap failed, and that was that.
Meanwhile, the (relatively) high-flying Notts 2 eased to a very comfortable 4–2 victory against Bristol 2. Robert had an easy win on bottom board and Maurice and Stan took steady draws. Bob did his customary job on Board 1, holding a much higher rated opponent to a draw. This effectively secured the match as both Will Place and Richard Myers were pressing for victory in rook and pawn endings. Will duly converted his, but Richard finally had to concede the half-point.
The final table on the 4NCL web site shows that Nottinghamshire 2 finished 18th (of 32 teams) with 10 points, while Nottinghamshire 1 were 23rd with 8 points. These positions are a little misleading – Notts 1 scored 34½ game points (out of 66) whereas Notts 2 scored just 30; and Notts 1 also faced much stronger opposition. But losing five matches by a 3½–2½ margin was hugely frustrating.
I’d like to thank all the members of the squad for making my life as captain particularly easy. Particular thanks go to the drivers, who took care of practically all of the detailed travel arrangements and were as flexible as ever when asked to go out of their way.
For personal reasons I am reluctantly relinquishing the captaincy – I can’t commit to all five weekends for 2009–10. I trust that my successor will have a little more luck with results!
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2019-04-21T01:03:54Z
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http://www.nottschess.org/2008_09/4ncl.php
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Most entrepreneurs are making drastic changes in the way they do their transactions. People are coming up with innovative business models to increase revenues. The hotel marketing managers are embracing the use of the internet to push the restaurant brand in the market. Make efforts to invest time and resources to getting the best online influencers to push your restaurant on the online platforms. Your focus should creating a lasting impression on the online users using the most effective marketing strategy. The social media platforms with huge subscribers can be of benefit to your brand. It is notable that most people will love visiting restaurants with super exciting places.
Social circle is powerful influencer and you just need a couple of clients who love to share their experiences with the world. You can encourage the clients to take pictures while taking their favorite dish at your restaurant. Most people understand the power of sharing on online platforms as more people will get to see the posts. It is important to note that friends trust the people who are close to them to recommend the best restaurant in town. The restaurant marketing techniques will encourage people to like and share your pages and accounts online. Individuals grab the opportunities the social media platforms have to offer. You can decide to make an epic video on the favorite spot in your restaurant. The online users will be in a place to give opinions and review on the services that you offer people at your restaurant.
There is no single person regulating your market reach and it is your ability to catch the attention of food lovers to your restaurant. You will notice that almost all people in your locality have a mobile device that they can use to connect to the internet. You have the advantage of introducing your brand to new and existing clients every day. It will be there for you to update any time you are free. You will learn that the conventional marketing techniques do not add the value we expect to the restaurant.
The social media platforms allow you to have target marketing campaigns. You will get reports on the performance of your advertisement campaigns. You will be in a position to assess the market needs when you research. The discussions that you plan to start in the chat rooms should be exciting to capture the attention of the members. You will be able to get ratings on your website. It is crucial for you to invite the members of the social forum to read your articles on the restaurant website.
The major thing and quality for the most successful restaurant is the fact that they cook very tasty food. it is always good to avoid any complains that may arise because of food that is not well cooked. Why most restaurants do well is because they have taught themselves to be creative in the meals they cook such that they attract great customers. The same way you should ensure that the people you have employed as the chefs are capable of cooking tasty meals that will always draw customers to your restaurants every other time. Ensure the quality of the food you present is equivalent to the money that the customers spend on the same meals. Once, you embrace that you will be sure to realize most of the benefits associated with owning a restaurant like Trento restaurant.
This is also a factor that influences the success of many restaurants. Just like it is not obvious for all people to like one thing it is the same when it comes to beverages because there are those who prefer different stuff. What someone prefers for the drink is not what the other person will prefer. Therefore, it is good to have this in mind just to know that you are going to receive customers from all parts and they will come asking for different flavors. If you major in one type of beverage were sure, you would only be favoring the group that likes that type, and in that case, you will end up losing the other percentage that prefers another kind. Take time to look for as many varieties as possible so that you can stick them to your restaurant because they will always find what they prefer.
they have a great discipline when it comes to service and make it possible for the customers to enjoy their time without distractions. They convey love and respect to the clients and the teammates. They know their jobs in welcoming and communicating well to the clients, which also makes them, bond and give effective advises to the clients. there is no waste of time for everything that you order. Their environment is such a commendable one from the way they carry themselves. There is no unnecessary noise or shouting at clients or among themselves.
Some people possibly will be asking what are these air fryers are, and what are the reasons for employing them, in addition to the advantages entailed in applying them as they prepare their meals. In the reality, owning an air fryer, a person’s healthiness might be upheld thus evading many kinds of diseases correlated to the foodstuff we usually prepare. For clarifications, an air fryer can be termed as a kitchen piece of equipment that prepares meals by flowing hot air around the foodstuff. An automatic fan powered by electric energy or any other source of energy, typically helps in circulating of the hot air just about the food at towering tempo, cooking the foodstuff and generating a hard deposit using the mechanism of Maillard causes. The appliance, which is the air fryer, toils on the other hand by coating the preferred meal in a slender layer of smeared with oil at the same time as circulating heated air to offer energy and initiate the cooking process. Through achieving this the application is proficient to deep-fry meals like fish, steak, pastries and many more while employing a smaller amount oil than a customary deep-fryer.
Power air fryers are normally made with an adjustable regulator and heat knobs that permit for additional specific food preparation. Food is safe to eat in a cooking holder that sits atop a drip serving of food. Air fryers are eye-catching for their handiness, well-being, and physical condition gains. A chip pot for instance, with its conventionally, unfasten crest, might straightforwardly permit hot dewdrops of food preparation oil to get away or splash out on the consumer, which is not achievable with an air stir fryer. In fact, in a customarily deep-fried meal, are beside contain more caloric materials, appropriate because of the oil inclusion held in their preparation. Separately from the cited above power air fryer appraisals, they additionally come with the subsequent confirmed physical condition benefits. They include; one will enjoy fat-free fried foods, easy to clean the appliance, they are great for muffins, one will as well enjoy crisply fried veggies that are good for the body, no oil needed and making healthy chips.
The durability of the pressure cooker will make you choose on the ones that you will buy for the use that you want to have. Getting the ones with the best quality will make you have the services that you need which are more effective that will make you have their services for long. The poor quality ones will make you have them get destroyed very fast that will not be a benefiting factor that you will need to have that are effective. Benefit is seen from the ones that will be able to last for a longer time when in use.
Italian sustenance is shockingly extraordinary nourishment that has ended up being so prevalent all around. Each of the twenty Italian locales has a specific course of action of flavours, recipes, things, and fixings. The earth and famous scene have acknowledged a fundamental part in adjacent trim sustenance in various Italian Restaurants. Smooth risotto and other painstakingly upgraded dishes win restaurants in the Northern regions, while awe-inspiring olive oil and tomato-based recipes run the splendid South. Hamburger is best delighted in as Florentine steaks in Tuscany, from decision cows brought up in the Chianina Valley. A segment of the acclaimed Italian cooking that is so outstanding in the Italian restaurants consolidate the going with.
Pasta is also remarkable in place to put. Fresh specially crafted pasta multiplies all through Italy and is frequently, for the most part, dressed, so as not to overwhelm its delicateflavour. Dried pasta is most well known in the South and can be adorned in perpetual innovative courses depending on the diner from where one eats. Some say there are more pasta shapes in Italy than one individual could eat in a lifetime. Italians have been known to quarrel about the correct name and culinary utilization of a specific pasta shape.
It doesn’t matter where you are and which restaurant you’re on the lookout for be it Italian or some other. The kind of service you receive will majorly rely on the restaurant you pick. In your search process, you may choose to ask for recommendations from people who have visited to provide you with a very clear picture of what to anticipate. Reviews online will also reveal to you the quality of services a given restaurant offers. Among others, here are a few of the things to look into while picking a restaurant.
You may be eating out as a family or a group of friends and the best thing is when you get meals at their best. It doesn’t necessarily mean you pay small but a place in which you eat and feel that the foods deserve the sum of money you’ve spent. It is called in other provisions, satisfaction. Other restaurants will supply a meal that’s overpriced but still goes for lower in different hotels and tastes much better there. To steer clear of meeting this adventure, make sure you research well and ask about.
Nothing beats excellent services in a restaurant. They will have customers coming over to eat again and again. That’s at the perspective of the team however, you may also have a role to play in the kind of support you get. Normally the waiters and the waitresses are very busy thus you’ve got to be kind unto them and keep reminding them exactly what you need and trust me that they will go out of the way to make certain you served satisfactorily.
On the most ignorant of this list, you should factor in sanitation as among those things to check into. No one wants to visit a restaurant that has a history of people contracting hygiene-related diseases. The one suggestion that works best is you first visiting the washrooms before taking a chair in a table. There is a likelihood that when the restrooms are clean, their hygiene levels are also large.
When we talk about the aesthetics, we are referring to the ambiance. Other times the restaurant possibly termed as beautiful but its d?cor does not attract you. It is good to decide on a restaurant which has the air you like being around. You need to listen to the music played there and determined if it’s the best for you and if it’s all about work and meetings, you may prefer one with private rooms for the same.
Another thing you can look into is the location of the restaurant, is it in a place you love the likes of Trento restaurant? Just make sure the area is accessible if you want to drive there or just near your place where you can walk have a meal without extra transport expenses.
Gluten is a sort of protein which is typically found in wheat and different sorts of oat grains, and it acts a paste which holds sustenance together to keep up its shape. Gluten free cookies and snacks are usually do not contain gluten, and they are considered to be full of health benefits as compared to foods and snacks that are rich in gluten. There are benefits that are associated with consuming gluten free cookies, snacks and also foods such as better digestive health.
There are some individuals who often face digestion challenges such as patients who suffer from celiac disease as presence of gluten in their digestive system causes an inflammation of the small intestines. The disturbance in this way causes, stoppage, gas and moreover the runs, therefore by wiping out gluten in their eating schedule, the patients end up hinting at change inside two or three days. Research in like manner shows that gluten free goodies moreover help in diminishing the chances of torment from a coronary disease and advances a sound heart, along these lines consuming gluten free snacks and foods ensures that it lessens the chances of hopelessness from coronary ailment.
Foods that contain gluten frequently prompt swelling and furthermore weight pick up, consequently devouring nourishment that are free of gluten have a tendency to advance weight reduction in people who wish to get more fit. Gluten free snacks and nourishments are additionally known to expand the vitality levels of an individual this is because foods that contain gluten are known to reduce the level of retention of the distinctive supplements found in sustenance.
Among the healthy sources of meat include from the sea. One would need to know that salt water tend to offer a beloved delicacies such as shrimps, crabs, and oysters. seafood is, therefore, best for reducing various common diseases and tend to yield other essential benefits.
Among the major benefits include essential nutrients such as B-complex vitamins such as B1, B12, B3, biotin among others, vitamin D, as well as vitamin B. Among the benefits one would acquire from the mentioned nutrients include influencing of energy production, concentration, metabolism, as well as beauty. One would also have some other seafood that boosts the vision as well as reproductive system capabilities. One would need to eat seafood with an intention of boosting his or her vitamin D levels and hence ensure healthy bone growth, boost immune system efficiency and also ensure cell growth. One would need to ensure that he or she takes seafood with the intention of ensuring a better heart health.
It is also essential to know that seafood is also very rich in proteins. Among the reasons one would prefer to eat seafood include the fact that it is a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids. One would need to note that seafood tend to reduce chances of arrhythmias, stroke, heart attack or any other cardiovascular illness. According to scientific researchers, eating fish tend to be healthier than buying omega 3 capsules and other commercially generated sources of omega 3.
One would also need to eat seafood because it is good for his or her joints. It would be essential for one to eat seafood with an intention of reducing chances of morning stiffness and tender joints. Among other benefits of seafood include maintenance of eyesight as well as age-related macular degeneration. One would need to make sure that he or she also make sure that he or she eats oil-rich fish with the intention of keeping his or her eyes bright and healthy.
One would also need to make sure that he or she eat seafood with the intention of ensuring that he or she has a good skin as well. One would need to know that seafood tend to make ones skin preserve moisture in the skin. It would possible for one to have a natural glow. One would need to know that the glow of the skin is more affected by what he or she eats as opposed to what he or she applies. Among the benefits of seafood include fighting depression, ensuring healthy pregnancy, boosting brain power among other benefits. In the modern world where everything can be accessed online, one would not have any excuse not ensuring that he or she keeps fit by eating the best seafood.
An air fryer is a device that uses hot air to cook food without using ay oil. The the gadget uses the technology of hot air to heat the contents in it. The the device uses a hot air which then produces heat currents that are used to cook the food. The heat currents produced circulates inside the basket and cooks the food. The a machine uses hot air to cook the food and not oil. Chips and snacks can be prepared using this air fryer without adding any fat. The most efficient air fryer to use in homes is the one that uses rapid air technology.
An air fryer comprises a fan and heating elements just like any other electric cooking device. Heating features become hot when they are supplied with hot air. The heat currents produced makes the entire place to become hot. The hot air inside the device is distributed using the fan. The circulating hot air is used to cook the food that is placed inside the machine. The first process is to put the food in the basket of the machine and to convert the power on. The second step is to set the required temperature enough to cook the food. The other step in operating an air fryer is to set the time. The hot air circulating inside the basket heats up the food and make it cook. While the food is halfway cooked, you should shake it through the cooking process so as to cook evenly. The modern air fryers are constructed with integrated air filters which prevent the smell from filling your house.
Two types of air frying machine are found in the market. One uses a cooking basket and the second one uses a non-stick bowl and paddle. Philips hot air fryer is the best option for the home. Philips air fryer uses a cooking basket for cooking. A the digital version and a Manual version are the two types of the air fryers that are found in the current market.
Both of the air fryers use a high temperature of 390 degrees Fahrenheit although the digital one has a 60 minutes timer. The manual version comes along with a 60 minutes timer. The air fryer that uses a paddle to mix the ingredients during the cooking process is the Tefal Actifry. This type of cooking device offers you a good opportunity to cook the food without shaking it. This type of cooking device gives you the best food that is good for your health which has fewer calories and less fat. To gather more information about air fryer, you visit hot air studies. There is a website that gives more information about hot air fryer.
The cooking time when using a pressure cooker is much less than regular cooking because of the pressure and the liquid which is able to reach very high temperatures. Because cooking time is greatly reduced, they are very energy efficient. Pressure cooking also helps kill bacteria and viruses so you get very healthy foods. So if you want to make your baby bottles bacteria or virus free, you can sterilize them in a pressure cooker.
When it comes to safety, you can be sure that pressure cookers are very safe to use. Unlike the ones used years ago, the modern pressure cooker already has locks and safety features. In old models, you are able to open the cover even while there is high pressure inside and this has led to may exploding incidents in kitchens in the past.
If you are deciding on what pressure cooker is right for you, you need to first identify what you want to achieve with it since there are many different types of pressure cookers. You can find pressure cookers of different sizes, designs, and materials so choose the best for your intentions. The ideal pressure cooker for a small household is the 3 to 4 quart cooker while for the medium sizes household, a 6 quart cooker will do. If you are feeding a large family, then you need an 8 to 10 quart cooker.
There are also pressure cookers classified according to material. Stainless steel and aluminum are the two types of materials used in pressure cookers. If you want a more durable and elegant looking one, then you should get a stainless steel pressure cooker. They are resistant to scratch and warp and the material does not react with foods. If you want a cheaper cooker that conducts heat well, then you need an aluminum pressure cooker. But, they react with acidic foods and they can easily scratch and dent.
Power pressure cookers are a latest addition to the family which is a digital pressure cooker with a single button. It is easy to use since you only put all the ingredients in, turn the settings, and it will do all the cooking. The latest model is the power pressure cooker XL. If you want to know if this latest addition is a buy good, check out the power pressure cooker xl reviews online.
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2019-04-20T00:46:59Z
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http://perezgraphics.com/category/foods-culinary/
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On the 20th of December there was a great deal of excitement following eyewitness reports of a puma south of San Pedro Town. While San Pedranos are very proud of their marine and land creatures, there was also, understandably a great deal of concern and fear about this uncommon and large predator in a populated, residential area. Mayor Daniel Guerrero did the right thing and immediately called the Belize Wildlife Conservation Networks’ (BWCN) Wildlife Advice Hotline for advice and assistance. This hotline is for the general public to report injured, orphaned, nuisance or abused wildlife. When a response is necessary they partner with the Forest Department and any relevant wildlife organisation to ensure the best outcome for the caller and animal concerned.
On December 10, 2013, Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) applied for a 3 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) reduction in electricity rates, to come into effect on January 1, 2014. The application was a result of an increase in hydroelectricity production in Belize and Mexico and subsequent reduction in the Cost of Power. The proposed rate reduction is intended to save customers approximately $15 million in 2014. On December 18, 2013, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) announced its initial decision for a further 1 cent reduction in rates. BEL has reviewed the PUC’s initial decision and has determined that, with the efficiencies achieved over the last two years, the Company can maintain quality service and supply to customers even with this additional $5 million reduction in revenue. The Company, however, has notified the PUC that whilst it has no objection to the intended Mean Electricity Rate (MER) of 44.65 cents, it is objecting to the proposed tariff basket, which would further erode BEL’s operating margins.
It was a week-long trip I was glad to be away on. Through the Belize Tourism Board (BTB), I would be travelling to destinations right within the 8,867 sq miles of my homeland, Belize. I was eager to look at my country through the eyes of a tourist, seeing what they saw when they ventured our terrains, falling in love when they snorkeled our renowned waters. I already know our country is without a doubt, beautiful. But what I wanted to know is, just what it is that keeps them coming back to our tiny jewel, time and time again? My journey began with a 20 minute fight via TropicAir to Belize City. The short flight provided me with a scenic view of the cayes and the iconic barrier reef that vividly contrasted some parts of the blue waters that lay beneath. With my camera, a few changes of clothes, and a spirit ready for adventure, I was prepared to have a week filled with Belizean experiences. Normally we tend to overlook this sort of travel because it’s in our own “back yard” but really, we don’t need to cross borders for adventures and vacations! Just read on as I share some of my adventures with you;maybe you’ll start packing for your very own Belizean adventure!
The San Pedro Branch of the Belize Red Cross is very fortunate to have strong local business support in their efforts to make a difference on Ambergris Caye. Crazy Canucks has been doing a wonderful Job with ongoing fundraising for the San Pedro Red Cross, they have designated the last Friday of their weekly trivia as Red Cross night. Think and Drink Trivia has raised $500 since June, with $175 of the total pouring in from Last Friday's Trivia. Without a doubt, it is one of the busiest and most popular trivia nights on the island. The owner Rob has a phenomenal sense of humor which guarantees everyone has a great time while raising money for a good cause.
On the 20th of December there was a great deal of excitement following eyewitness reports of a puma south of San Pedro Town. While San Pedranos are very proud of their marine and land creatures, there was also, understandably a great deal of concern and fear about this uncommon and large predator in a populated, residential area. Mayor Daniel Guerrero did the right thing and immediately called the Belize Wildlife Conservation Networks’ (BWCN) Wildlife Advice Hotline for advice and assistance. This hotline is for the general public to report injured, orphaned, nuisance or abused wildlife. When a response is necessary they partner with the Forest Department and any relevant wildlife organisation to ensure the best outcome for the caller and animal concerned. Because this is a voluntary organisation with no paid members, funds were sought privately to fly a team to San Pedro to investigate as it appeared to be a matter of urgency. Unfortunately, the puma had disappeared by the time they had arrived and due to heavy rains; there was very little evidence that allowed them to gather information about the puma. One of the team members was from Panthera, an organisation that specialises in studying and conserving large cats in Belize. Dr. Bart Harmsen of Panthera said; “You are probably wondering if you are in danger from this cat. Give a cat room to escape and they will do this. It is unlikely that this cat will attack people if not driven into a corner. This does not mean you should not be cautious, especially with children and pets. If you see the cat try and stay calm and do not turn your back on it or run away. Enjoy the sighting as many of you may have never seen a wild puma. If the cat approaches you - it will most likely move away- no matter what, stand your ground and wave your arms around and shout. This will assure it will move away. If reliable reports keep coming in that the cat remains around the town, we have to act and try and trap this cat and remove it from its location. For this we need your help.
Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow, First Lady of Belize, has been described as the Michelle Obama of Central America and is on a mission to improve the welfare of women and young people in Belize. 2013-12-31-WashingtonGala1.JPG Kim is the wife of Prime Minister Dean Barrow and is also the founder and director of one of Belize's most acclaimed NGOs, Lifeline Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of life for the children of Belize. I met with her to talk about her latest work and her role as First Lady, and here is how our conversation went: LIFELINE FOUNDATION Please tell me more about Lifeline Foundation. Lifeline Foundation started in 2006 and is a registered charitable foundation and NGO in Belize. Its objectives are to assist generally with the welfare of children in Belize, looking out especially for their social, health and educational needs, and being concerned particularly with those that are economically disadvantaged or suffering from any kind of disability. The foundation is run by a board of directors comprised of 10 women, with a mix of professional and business interests and backgrounds.
It's January 2014, and the cane season still hasn't started; what's worse is no one can say for sure when or if it will start. A part of the reason is the heavy rains since August, but the largest part of it is the still simmering dispute over bagasse. The latest timetable says that the season must start on January 15, but once again, the stalemate between the cane farmers and the factory owners continues, so the season may not begin on that date. The latest disagreement between both sides is that BSI wants to negotiate with the farmers on a payment for bagasse, but the farmers want them to put it in writing that a payment will be made before any meaningful negotiations can begin. That fairly fundamental difference led to today where the branch chairmen of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association met to discuss the latest letter to the association from BSI on New Year's Eve.
On this newscast we can talk all we want about the fewer murders in 2013, but when a 19 year old female is shot 7 times in the street by her 16 year old male first cousin - then we know that violence is still rampant in Belize City. That's just what is alleged to have happened on New Year's Eve in the Lake Independence area when Tajah Staine who was shot multiple times and called the name of her cousin as the gunman. Today, that young man, a 16 year-old, was taken to family court on charges of attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm, and dangerous harm, and due to the nature of the offences, he was remanded to the Wagner's Youth Facility at the Belize Central Prison. We have his name and photograph, but we cannot release it because he is still a minor.
In an update to the other New Year's family shooting we told you about, 30 year-old Hensleigh Ryan Jones was arraigned today in Orange Walk's Magistrate's Court for shooting his own father three times in the head. His dad survived, and so the son was read charges of attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm, and dangerous harm when he appeared before Magistrate Merlene Moody this morning. They are firearm offences so remand is automatic. He will be brought back on March 5. As we told you, Corozal police responded to a shooting incident in Ranchito Village on New Year's night, and when they visited the Jones Residence, they found his dad, 53 year-old Hensley "Nick" Jones with 3 bullet wounds to the head. He told police that his son, Hensleigh Ryan, shot him in the kitchen for no apparent reason.
Of the scores of "Cool Spots" all across Belize, we'd like to think that "Rob's Cool Spot" just outside Hattieville is among the most well liked. And that's because the owner, 61 year old Robert Robinson wakes up early every morning and gets on his fire hearth going to prepare delicious Rice and Beans with other local delicacies. By the evening, he's winding down - and on New Year's Eve at 6:00 pm, that's when 2 men tried to rob him. Monica Bodden found out more when she went to meet "Rob" at mile 17 today:... Monica Bodden reporting Robert Robinson has been making fire hearth food at his restaurant Robs Cool Spot for four decades. But on New Year's Eve at 6:00 in the evening, as he sat at his usual lookout, two armed men came looking not for food but money. Robert Robinson - Business Owner, Rob's Cool Spot "Two guys just pull up from around the corner and I didn't see them. When I look through here I saw one with a gun and the other came with a machete. The machete man chopped, but I wasn't sure if it was a chop I got. I thought it was a stick, but when I feel the coldness of the shirt, I lifted up my arm and I saw the chop. I then yelled for my wife and the men turn around and ran."
Tonight, a Ladyville family of 5 is homeless after their house and all their possessions were destroyed in a fire. The McKay family house caught fire last night at around 7, and the cause is believed to be a candle which fell over. Luckily no one was home, and Jenna McKay told us that she left to go get food for her children. She never suspected that a mishap would end up claiming all their belongings: Jenna McKay, fire victim "I wasn't taking long. I went to get something to make food for my kids to eat at my mom's house and mom told me that my house is on fire. All my things got damaged; my passport, clothes, TV, everything that a house would have got destroyed." Benisford Matura - Operations Officer, Fire Department "Last night about quarter after seven, the Ladyville Station got a call from the Ladyville Police of a fire on Cusco Street. They immediately dispatched and upon arrival a 20' X 22' wooden structure approximately 3 feet off the ground was totally engulfed in flames. They got into operation and did their best to extinguish the fire." Jenna McKay, fire victim "I had leave on the candle and the candle supposedly knocked over on my bed and caught the house on fire."
We've been reporting on the decrease in murders in Belize for 2013 - down from 145 to 99. We stress 99 murders is nothing to celebrate, but 46 fewer murders is reason to feel relief. While everyone has their own answer for the downturn, we wondered how it compared to other crime-ridden countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. According to statistics obtained by 7News from a colleague in the Caribbean, in most countries the murder rate is up. This is according to preliminary and unofficial figures. In Trinidad and Tobago, there were 405 murders, which is 6% more than the previous year, putting their murder rate at 30 per hundred thousand. In Jamaica, there were 1241 murders, which is up 15% from the year before putting their murder rate at 46 per one hundred thousand, which is expected to be one of the highest in the hemisphere. In the Bahamas, there were 118 murders, which puts that country's murder rate at 32, which is up 6% from last year. In Guyana, where end of year figures were hard to come by, there were 142 estimated murders, putting their murder rate at 19, which is up 3%.
But the reduced number of homicides masks the fact that violence, especially gun violence remains very prevalent in Belize. One man who knows well about that is Reynaldo Verde. In April of 2013, he was remanded for attempted murder, after he shot a man in San Pedro. It was the second time the senior sales tax employee was remanded for attempted murder. But in 2013, the victim asked not to press charges, so he got off. And he got off today too, in a case that for most average folks would result in automatic remand and at least 15 days in jail. Acting on information this morning at 6:00 police searched Verde's home off Faber's Road and found a Glock 380 pistol in the washroom. Police say he has two gun licenses but none for that weapon, and so he was taken to the police station pending charges. Usually, those are pretty much automatic, but in this case, Verde had the ear of senior police officers who listened to the senior sales tax collector when he told them he had been set up and that the gun had been planted.
Two police officers were knocked down by drivers over the past three days. The first was Mario Coc, who was riding a police motorbike on Faber's Road on New Year's Day at 11:00 am, when a Geo Tracker came charging out of Watermelon Street - didn't indicate as it should have and veered right, then left. Coc says he swerved to avoid a collision but crashed into the front of the vehicle which caused him to fall to the pavement and slide across the street. He received abrasions to the right knee, abrasions to the left arm, a cut wound to the left side of head, and multiple fractures of the right leg. Today he had to have surgery on his leg and is reported in a stable condition. The driver of the tracker was a 68 year old woman, Ismay Bulwer - who has received a notice of intended prosecution. And then last night on Caesar Ridge Road near Bismark Club, a policeman on bicycle was knocked down in a hit and run. 21 year old Tyrelle Tillett attached was one of two officers on Bicycle patrol when a brown Toyota Camry knocked him down from behind. The car drove off leaving him on the ground. Tillett was not seriously hurt and complained of pain to his left leg.
21 year-old Jorge Perez, a resident of Western Avenue, is out on bail for a charge of indecent assault after he was taken to Magistrate's Court today. A 15 year-old girl told police that New Year's Day, Perez grabbed her chest and fondled it. Police arrested and charged him with aggravated assault of an indecent nature, and he was arraigned before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, and because he had bruises and blood on his shirt, Senior Magistrate Frazer asked him about them. He said that he was beaten up while inside a cellblock when he was detained. He was granted bail of $2,000, which he was able to meet, and he must return to court on February 28.
The FBI is offering a ten thousand dollar reward for a California man with roots in Belize after he's accused of killing his wife and the mother of his two children in San Bernadino California on November 30th. According to news reports, Edly Albert Atherley was charged with murder in December but has allegedly fled, possibly outside the state's jurisdiction. The FBI says Atherley may still be in San Bernardino but they say he has ties in Florida and Belize. Atherley is five-feet, nine-inches tall and weighs between 160 to 170 pounds. He is African-American and has a tattoo on his right shoulder. The FBI says Atherley has a criminal history. An FBI release says, Anyone who knows of Atherley's whereabouts is urged to use extreme caution and contact their local FBI office or dial 911. The FBI also cautioned residents not to take independent action should they come into contact with him.
On New Years' Eve, 7News told you about the rejected petition which the People's United Party made to recall Cayo North East Representative Elvin Penner. The disgraced former minister of state, although being thoroughly condemned by the Opposition, the media and civil society, has not faced any criminal charges for allegedly facilitating an international fugitive. More than that, he is an area representative and a sitting member of the House of Representatives in good standing; he also enjoys additional perks like a salary over a hundred thousand dollars, his government vehicle, and health insurance. So, with this hurdle of the failed petition in the rear view, he is one step closer to distancing himself from the immigration scandal. With those things in mind, we spoke with Julius Espat, the Deputy Leader who has been there with caretaker Orlando Habet every step of the way. He told us yesterday that the party expected that first attempt to fail, no matter how hard they tried: Hon. Julius Espat - Representative, Cayo South "It is a national executive decision, so the Party Leader has requested a national executive meeting to go over the details. Presently we have been informed as to the detail as to why they didn't accept it which is something that we expected by the way. So now we will have the legal advisor and his team gives us their advice as to how we should move forward and then a decision will be made at the national executive."
Back in November, 7News told you about the rotation system at the Fort George Tourism Village which caused some of the operators to be up in arms, saying that they weren't getting a fair opportunity to engage the tourists. But in an environment where regulation is tough, and where there are often more operators than needed, there is often one quarrel or the other. Well, the Belize City Taxi tour guides and other freelance operators have joined up merging 5 different entities into one. One of the main criticisms that the Belizean operators get is that their approach to engage the tourists often come off as harassment, which the new union's leadership says should not happen: Arton Bowen, President FTGZ "It has provided a lot of benefits in the sense that, before like Mr. Pollard mentioned, there were a lot of difference in opinion and a lot of back and forth between the different groups. What have happen is that we have all decided to bridge that gap, we came together and we have put in place a set of rules that will basically govern all the freelance tour guides and taxi people in the zone, so that we could have a better working relationship."
The relentless rains in the last part of 2013 destroyed the roads, but it did the same to the agriculture sector. And now, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture has committed to providing assistance in the form of animal feed and some agricultural inputs to severely impacted farmers in highly vulnerable agricultural zones in the Belize District. It starts on Saturday 4th January with the provision of cattle feed to livestock producers in the Crooked Tree and Blackburn livestock productive zones. On Wednesday January 8th assistance will be provided to the communities of the Belize River Valley and on Friday January 10th the communities along the old northern highway (Maskall zone). All farmers and agricultural producers affected by rain and flooding in the Belize District can call the Department of Agriculture at 203-2842.
Thirty year old year old Hensley Ryan Jones of Ranchito Village in Corozal was charged with one count of attempt murder and use of deadly means of harm when he appeared in the Orange Walk Magistrate Court. Jones is accused of shooting his father in the head and this morning, Magistrate Marlene Moody remanded Jones into custody until March 5th. As we reported, fifty three year old Hensley Jones, also known as Nick Jones of Ranchito Village was shot in the head at his home, allegedly by his son on New Year’s Day. Police say when they arrived at his home, Jones, with blood running down his head, approached them. He was taken to the Corozal Community Hospital for treatment. Police say Jones was at his home when he was shot. The son fled the area and was apprehended by police a short time later.
Official information released to our newspaper tonight by Chief Engineer Lennox Bradley confirms that the damage to the country’s infrastructure, caused by the incessant rains over the past two months, has been substantial. Figures provided to us put the tab at $5.88 million, including $2.2 million in damages to the country’s sugar roads. Damage to public roads in the districts was reported at nearly $4 million. Of note is that the figure does not include prior disrepair to the national road network. Bradley informs us that, “The Ministry has already identified various contractors from the private sector who are assisting the Ministry in completing the works as soon as practically possible. The continued rains have affected the pace of the execution of works; but nevertheless, slow progress is being achieved and we are confident that with the anticipated improvement in weather conditions in January, we will be able to step up the pace to complete the works in a timely manner.” He added that due to the impact of the recent rains, the Ministry of Finance has provided the Ministry of Works with the necessary funds to complete the San Roman Bridge in the Orange Walk District and the Crique Sarco Bridge in the Toledo District. He said that $353,300 has been earmarked for the Crique Sarco Bridge and $300,000 for the San Roman Bridge.
At about 10:30 p.m. on New Year’s Day, a Ranchito businessman, Hensley Jones, 53, was shot three times in his head by his son, while they were at home together. Police said that their initial investigations revealed that Hensley Jones was in the kitchen area with one of his sons, who shot him twice on the left side of his head and once in the back of his head for no apparent reason then drove off in a brown Isuzu Rodeo SUV en route to Corozal Town, where police later nabbed him and took him into custody. According to police, they responded to a report of a shooting at Jones’ residence in Ranchito Village, and on their arrival, Jones approached the police vehicle with blood running down his head. He was immediately taken to the Corozal Community Hospital.
As we go to press tonight, the family of Brian Townsend—the 64-year-old Canadian whose disappearance from his home in Valley of Peace in the Cayo District was reported over a week ago on Christmas Day — has confirmed that the body found in Guatemala was that of the missing missionary. His body was found near the Belize-Guatemala border last Friday, December 27 – and buried by Guatemalan authorities because it was already decomposing. However, it was only today that the identity was confirmed by Townsend’s family. In a Facebook post released at around 5:00 local time, the family said that, “With grieving hearts, we inform you that the body found in Guatemala is Brian Townsend.” Meanwhile, a memorial service was held today by Valley of Peace residents to honor Townsend’s memory. Modesto Duenas, Valley of Peace chairman, told Amandala on Tuesday when we visited the village, that they were saddened by the news that Townsend’s body might have been taken to Guatemala and dumped by his abductors, and they hope that the assailants are caught and brought to justice as soon as possible. Reports are that investigators from the Belize Police Department made their way to the border village of Arenal, Cayo, earlier this week after receiving tips that Townsend’s vehicle – which had also been stolen at the time of his disappearance – had been spotted one night crossing the Belize-Guatemala border through a remote road, not usually patrolled by security forces.
New Year’s Day 2014 began with more heavy rains and overcast skies, as the 24th running of the Krem New Year’s Day Cycling Classic got under way from the northern border for the Elite and U-23 riders, and from Orange Walk Town for the Female, Junior/Youth and Masters Cat 4/5 races, all heading for the finish line near the intersection of Central American Boulevard with Mahogany Street in Belize City. But by the time the cylists neared Ladyville, the sun was shining brightly and it remained clear skies and bright sunshine till the end of the race, and in fact for the rest of New Year’s Day. With a lucrative package of station prizes and finishing prizes, there were enough foreigners in the field of Elites – Americans, Mexicans and Guatemalans, for some local fans to be wary of all the “treasures” possibly leaving for foreign shores. But the era of team riding is now firmly entrenched in the cycling community, and the “spoils” are reportedly shared to some extent among team members. Nevertheless, race fans still instinctively root for our local boys, especially in the Krem Classic and the Cross Country, the two biggest races on the cycling calendar; it certainly adds to the spice of the race. And they were not disappointed yesterday.
A mother is outraged that a young man whose life she said she had once saved tried to shoot her daughter to death on New Year’s Eve night. More appalling, though, is the fact that the gunman and the victim are cousins, who grew up together but who apparently had issues because of the girl’s association with his rivals, said the mother. Tashia Pauline Staine, 19, was entering her yard when her younger cousin, known as “Bigga,” 17, allegedly rode up and opened fire on her. When she fell to the ground, the gunman allegedly stood over her and fired more shots before riding away on his bicycle. The incident occurred a little before 11 New Year’s Eve night, on Gladden Street, just off La Croix Boulevard in the Lake Independence area of Belize City. Today, Staine—who had been shot 7 times—is recovering at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), while charges have yet to be levied against the young man whom she named—while on the ground gasping for air—as the shooter.
The sugar industry crisis—which came to a head in late 2013 with deadlock between cane farmers and the Belize Sugar Industries—will no doubt spill over into 2014. The impasse has emerged due to an ongoing dispute surrounding the payment for bagasse, a byproduct of sugar cane. Belize’s local sugar producer, Belize Sugar Industries (BSI), utilizes bagasse to generate electricity, which it sells to Belize Electricity Limited; and this practice has led to a protracted feud between the stakeholders of the vital sugar industry because the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA), and by extension, the local cane farmers want to be paid for the bagasse. For over the last two months, the farmers and BSI – specifically its parent company American Sugar Refineries (ASR) – have been at loggerheads concerning a negotiated payment for the bagasse; while the 2014 sugar cane crop season has now been delayed for an entire month, in part due to this issue. The most recent meeting between the opposing parties took place on Monday, December 23, 2013, at the BSI Staff Club in Orange Walk Town, where both parties met for the first time in three months. However, after around three hours of deliberations, no middle ground was reached; therefore, the stalemate continues and the fate of the next sugar crop season is still uncertain.
The DCE (December Chess Extravaganza) 2013 Swiss Tournament is now history. Twenty participants took part in two categories, nine in the junior and eleven in the senior. The turnout was rather unexpected, because of the very high number of those who pre-registered. However, the twenty participants gave good account of themselves. In the junior section, participants ranging in age from seven to eleven played their hearts out. From round one to five, their focus/attention was on their game. Upsets with their losses were mingled with happiness in their victories. The upset game of round one was between young Akeem Roches and Alexander Musa, who came in first and second, respectively, in the tournament. It lasted six minutes. Young Akeem, in Creole parlance, was “in his thing.” He was cool, as he moved his pieces across the checkered board. Alexander was noticeably uncomfortable. Fifteen moves after the game started, it was over. Of interest in round one was the game between two of the female players, Philany Palacio and Evian Berges. Both girls went after each other aggressively. After nineteen minutes, Philany emerged as the winner. At the end of the tournament, Evian received the Best Sportsmanship award and Philany the Best Female award.
champion, Brown Bombers, who edged rivals Hattieville United by the same 1-nil score that they had lost to Hattieville by in the 2012 finals. The championship game, which was preceded by the 3rd place game between City Boys and Ladyville Rising Stars, took place at the MCC Grounds on Sunday, December 22, before the Premier League clash between FC Belize and BDF. Rising Stars defeated City Boys for the 3rd place spot. The SMART 13 & Under championship game was evenly matched, with the decisive goal coming in second half from a long free kick by Tyreek Muschamp, who played sweeper for Brown Bombers in first half, then moved up into the attack in second half. The kids played their hearts out on both sides, but the goal by Muschamp stood up to secure the 1-nil victory and the championship for the Bombers. Immediately following the game, beautiful individual trophies were issued to all members of the 3rd place, 2nd place and championship teams. Big team trophies for 1st , 2nd and 3rd place teams were also received by their respective coaches and captains; individual award trophies were given for outstanding players in the different positions; and there was a special Fair Play trophy for the most deserving team.
Following a traffic mishap blamed on the indiscriminate use of high-beam lights and on wet road conditions, a promising young cyclist suffered 8 broken ribs and had to have his spleen removed after he was knocked down by a bus near St. Matthew’s Village on the George Price Highway. The young cyclist, 22-year-old Geon Hanson, was training for the KREM New Year’s Day Cycling Classic. The Belmopan resident was found on the side of the highway, between miles 36 and 37, at around 6:15 a.m. last Tuesday, December 24, 2013, after he was unfortunately knocked down by a J & J commuter bus, traveling in the same direction. According to Saul Castellanos, the bus driver, he was eastbound when the lights of an oncoming vehicle temporarily blinded him. He said that when he regained his sight, he saw the cyclist in his path and tried to avoid hitting him but wet road conditions compounded the problem, causing him to hit Hanson. Hanson, whose lungs had collapsed, was subsequently transported in an unconscious state to the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan, where he underwent an emergency surgery to remove his spleen. He was later transported to the KHMH in Belize City for another emergency surgery.
As we enter the New Year of 2014, the newspaper would like to review the last couple years of ruling UDP and Opposition PUP party politics. Our readers will have noted that we have been trying in these pages to cut through the shrill personality aspect of Belize’s politics in order to analyze core philosophical issues of socio-economics. It has not been an easy task. There has been, it appears to us, a considered effort to confuse the Belizean people with all kinds of noises and distractions. The campaign to confuse originates from the same places which gave us slavery, colonialism, and neocolonialism: you can fill in the blanks. There was a kind of golden age in Belizean politics where socio-economics was concerned. Quite arbitrarily, we would say this golden age was roughly from 1958 to 1968. Under Hon. George Price, the PUP government was seeking to remove the ethnic injustices and class differences which had been characteristic of British colonialism here. This was the sociology. On the economic side, the PUP plunged into agricultural production in a determined effort to improve the living conditions of the people in the midst of declining forestry resources and revenues.
You know, there are different ways of looking at life. What works for you, works for you. It’s quite popular for some people nowadays to say that you can be anything you want to be. In the old days, some people used to put it like this: reach for the stars and maybe you’ll reach the moon. Personally, I look at things somewhat differently. I think it’s important for oppressed people, especially those with sensitive personalities, to know their place, so to speak. For sure this sounds defeatist, but it’s also realistic. What works for me, works for me. Once you come from a certain background, your margin of error is limited. That is why we have so many human shipwrecks in our community. One or two mistakes, and you’re wasted. And that is why our parents used to beat us seemingly without mercy. It was because they knew that our margin of error would be limited, and they therefore sought to ensure that we kept our tail between our legs, as the saying goes. Sometimes I think I am one of the individuals that rich people call “bleeding hearts.” As I drive around my community, it hurts to see those of my people who would be referred to as “losers.” At this stage of my life, I am considered a modest success, but I can’t spend any time congratulating myself. I know that with a little change of luck here and there, things would have been disastrously different for me.
The Ministry of Natural Resources fired back today against allegations that its former Chief Executive Officer, Beverly Castillo, has been involved in a scheme to defraud a Belizean-American, Bernadette Pickwood, of land to give to her (Castillo’s) mother and son. In a statement issued today, the Ministry of Natural Resources maintained that it followed the right procedure before forfeiting Pickwood’s lease (No. 253/1989 in Belama). However, Pickwood’s attorney, Audrey Matura-Shepherd, and her brother, Bernard Pickwood, told the media today that the forfeiture was not legal, as the required notice had not been given to the leaseholder. “This is the crux of it: Was Bernadette Pickwood given this notice and reasonable time to address it? And we are saying no!” Matura-Shepherd said. In an unusual disclosure, the Lands Department today made public Pickwood’s rent statement, which claims that as of January 2013, she had $720 in arrears, accrued because she had not paid rent on the land she received.
2013 GONE, BUT 2014 YEAR OF RECKONING!
by Audrey Matura-Shepherd. This is my first writing to be published in 2014 and so I want to start by thanking all those people who have fervently read what I write and encouraged me to continue doing so. You may never know how many days I am pressed for time and I am totally exhausted, but the thought that I cannot disappoint you and that you are looking forward to hear from me on the issues of our loved country, makes me become re-energized to fulfill my implied and understood commitment to you. Also special thanks to those thousands who keep praying for me. Many ask how I find time to write and what helps to embolden me to speak so openly and frankly about issues. Let me tell you, it is all possible because of the grace of God and all those prayers from the heart keep adding to my account and multiplying my grace. Thank you so much and whoever you are, I too pray back those same blessings on you, that our Almighty Father may hold you up in 2014 and give you all you need to manifest and achieve His purpose for you in life.
Teachers and public servants have continued to plead with the Government to speedily implement a cost of living adjustment to offset what they say is a rise in the cost of living exceeding 30%; and as the New Calendar Year, 2014, has dawned, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow used that occasion to announce that those workers will be getting a salary adjustment – just not quite yet. In his New Year’s Day speech, Barrow said that the headline grabber is the decision of the Government to pay the raise – but not until August 2014, retrospective to April, the start of the fiscal year. He offered no explanation why the raise would be delayed. The Prime Minister also did not specify the quantum of the raise. He described it merely as “substantial” – pointing to an agreement, in principle, to pay teachers and public officers 50 cents out of every $1.00 government gets in extra revenue. Barrow also announced that effective January 1, 2014, the National Bank of Belize, which Government had previously said would especially target teachers and public officers for lending, would be expanding its portfolio to include small business and vehicle loans – and the ceiling for business and mortgage loans would be $175,000. Since its launch in September 2013, the bank’s lending ceiling has been fixed at $100,000.
Two Ladyville residents have been left homeless after a fire gutted their home in the Mitchell Estate area at about 6:30 this evening. Unconfirmed reports are that the wooden/plycem bungalow structure, which was occupied by two females, may have caught fire because a candle was left unattended inside one of the rooms. Vigilant neighbors reportedly saw the fire and alerted the occupants. Thereafter, one of the females rushed in to save her child, who she had allegedly left inside the house. Luckily, no one was harmed; however, one of the witnesses who spoke with Amandala said that the fire officials – who the witness said seemed unprepared – took a long while to arrive on scene.
The Belize Coast Guard has called off the search for four of five fishermen missing for more than three weeks now. On Monday, December 9—the same day that their relatives reported them missing—the body of one of the five men, Thomas Levi Young, 58, of Lucky Strike, Belize District, was found floating in the sea about 1 mile off the shores of Colson Cay in the Stann Creek District, in the area where they reportedly went to fish. Young, who had evidently suffered a brutal murder, was in an advanced state of decomposition. He had several chop wounds and a post-mortem revealed that he had been shot to death. Young had gone to sea with Derwind Gentle, 26; Elgin “ Ricey” Graham, 24; Sergio Flores, 34; and Kenrick Devin Chi, 26. The men departed the city aboard a 25-foot skiff, Natasha, at about 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 4, to fish in the Colson Cay area. They were to have returned on Saturday, December 7 – but never did. Their families reported them missing the following Monday, December 9.
The first three babies born at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for the year 2014 are all girls! Jasmine Martinez, 20, of Scotland Half Moon Village, Belize District, delivered the first girl at 6:20 a.m. She weighed in at 6lbs 7oz. She was followed shortly after by Christina Montejo, 16, of Belize City, who brought her 6lb pink bundle into the world at 10:00 a.m. Finally, Judith Middleton, 22, of Belize City, gave birth at 9:39 p.m. to her 7lb 10oz daughter. “The births of these babies reflect the positivity of life… and hope for the New Year,” said KHMH CEO Dr. Francis Longsworth, at a short ceremony honoring the new mothers this morning. All told, the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital saw a total of 1,789 births for the past year 2013. From January to November, 813 of those were via C-Section and 798 as normal deliveries. The number of births for December alone was 178.
Belize City Mayor Darrel Bradley announced that the infrastructural work in Belize will continue into the next year with the entire length of Vernon Street and Youth for the Future Drive. The works are to be completed by mid-February 2014, Bradley explained. He said that by December, the Belize City Council had reached their goal of concreting 100 streets for the year 2013 and that they are currently finishing streets such as Baghdad Street, Park Avenue, Madam Liz Avenue, and Alexander Street. Bradley also stated that through funding from the Ministry of Finance the Belize City Council would be able to do the area of Princess Margaret Drive in front of St. John’s College, and the area in front of the Marion Jones Stadium. Bradley also addressed the concerns of residents who say that a portion of Baymen Avenue has noticeably been left undone for an extended period of time now. He explained that the reason there has been delay in this area is because the Flood Mitigation Project is going to build a canal under that street. He said that the Flood Mitigation Project, which is being done through the Ministry of Works, is responsible for the delay in finishing Baymen Avenue and Cinderella Plaza because they are awaiting a design from a German company.
The San Ignacio Resort Hotel, as you might have noticed, has been making some big renovations. New Year's Renovations, if you will. They're in the process of posting the pictures. The look on the inside is great, and the new look on the outside will be definitely be different. It looks like the final result will be beautiful. In related news, the Green Iguana Conservation Project has a like page: "Yes we are under construction! However our service and accommodations are still the BEST in the west. All of these images were taken 1/2/2014"
Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow, the Special Envoy for Women and Children, was named 'Woman of the Year' by Complexd Magazine. Congratulations, Mrs. Simplis Barrow, for a well deserved award! The picture is from the 2014 Inspiration Calendar and Agenda launch. "Starting the New Year with some great news! Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow is named Complexd Magazine's Woman of the Year 2013!"
A few years of airline mega-mergers and consolidation (including the recent American and US Airways merger) have vastly changed the industry landscape. There’s some good news in all this for fliers, as airlines turn their attention to modernizing their fleets and adding more inflight amenities. But fewer airlines could put more consumers at the mercy of just a couple of behemoth airlines. So what’s in store for airline travelers in 2014? Here are ten ways flying will change in 2014: Security improves as TSA’s PreCheck takes off, Air travel taxes head higher, Inflight Wi-Fi becomes ubiquitous, The seat squeeze gets worse, Airlines battle for bicoastal business fliers, Transatlantic budget airlines make a comeback, We finally get do-it-yourself bag tags, We pay more fees, Inflight phone calls are coming, whether we like it or not, Private jets get more affordable.
President Raúl Castro's council of ministers abolishes tight controls that forced most people to refit cars made before 1959. One of Cuba's most distinctive anachronisms – roads full of classic cars from the 1950s – looks set to fade into history following the most sweeping relaxation of vehicle imports since the revolution. For most of the past half century, Havana's traffic has been jammed with Pontiacs, Studebakers, Oldsmobiles, Chevrolets and Soviet imports as a result of tight domestic controls and US sanctions that made it difficult to buy parts and fuel. Only officials, doctors and others with government connections or proof of foreign exchange income were allowed to purchase new imported cars. Everyone else had to make do with buying, selling and refitting cars made before Fidel Castro took power in 1959. But in the latest of a series of economic reforms, the council of ministers headed by his brother – the current president, Raúl Castro – on Friday abolished the need for permission and opened up the car market to all citizens. The Communist party's official newspaper, Granma, said the new regulations "eliminate existing mechanisms of approval for the purchase of motor vehicles from the state". The measure was partly designed to overcome public frustration at the old regulations, which gave an unfair economic advantage to those who could buy cars and sell them on the black market, often at four or five times the original price. Granma said the previous system created "resentment, dissatisfaction and, in not a few cases, led to speculation and enrichment".
Brian Townsend’s body was found in Guatemala, just over the border from his adopted homeland of Belize. The missionary from Edmonton had spent nearly a decade working in the Valley of Peace. A Canadian missionary's body was discovered in Guatemala, reportedly covered in chop wounds from a machete. Brian Townsend's son identified his father after seeing photographs of the remains. The son had traveled to Central America from Canada on Dec. 28 hoping to find his dad alive. "This has been such an insane trip for me. You go searching for results and sometimes you dig farther than you want to dig," Kory Townsend told CTV. Brian Townsend had been working as a Christian missionary in Belize for the past nine years, building schools and friendships with people in the Valley of Peace. He was first reported missing on Christmas Day. The 64-year-old had hired a chef to cook a Christmas dinner and when she arrived, Brian's truck was missing and his house had been ransacked. The chef spotted a trail of blood outside the home and alerted the authorities. Back in Edmonton, his family members started to worry. The Townsends created a Facebook page "Brian Townsend Missing Belize" and tried to raise money so that son Kory Townsend could travel to Belize to search for his dad.
As you daydream about a Caribbean cruise vacation, there is likely clear-blue sea in the picture. Perhaps you see yourself sitting on a white-sand beach, frozen drink in hand watching the waves. But there are other ways to experience water on fun — and sometimes thrilling — shore excursions. Check out these water-based Caribbean excursions. Belize Put on a headlight for a cave tubing experience, as you follow your guide on a fascinating float through an underground limestone cave system, sacred to the Mayans. Views include stalactites and stalagmites that spectacularly emerge in the darkness.
In the modern world -- when technological advances and information overload have left many of us with a desire to get back to basics -- the need for ancient wisdom may be more important than ever before. Ancient health and healing secrets are making something of a resurgence, and for good reason. The ancient Greeks asked the big questions about what it means to live a good life, and some of their theories on ethics and happiness have been backed by modern science. Thousands of years ago, Indian sages developed a system for stilling the thoughts that's now practiced across America. The early Maya civilizations, too, developed healing systems that have influenced holistic healthcare to this day. The Maya civilization thrived for six centuries through areas that are now Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas are in Mexico, as well as parts of Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala before collapsing mysteriously around 900 AD. The Mesoamerican civilization -- advanced in its art, architecture and mathematics -- may not have survived, but many of their secrets to good health, healing and living well are still alive to this day.
Sustainable tourism is an ally of poverty eradication in Central America and the three dimensions of sustainable development - social, economic and environmental - as reflected in the UN resolution on "Sustainable tourism and sustainable development in Central America". The 193-member UN General Assembly adopted the resolution unanimously during its 68th session. This represents an important step towards mainstreaming sustainable tourism in the international development agenda and the post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (New York, USA, 22 December 2013). Emphasizing that sustainable tourism in Central America is a cross-cutting activity with close linkages to other sectors and thus generating trade opportunities, the UN General Assembly recognizes tourism as a fundamental pillar of regional integration and an engine of social and economic development, income, investment and hard currency in the region. The resolution further “encourages giving appropriate consideration to the issue of sustainable tourism in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda", which will follow the deadline of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
On the shores of the Caribbean Sea and nestled between Mexico and Guatemala, English speaking Belize marries spectacular waters, dramatic rain forests and a culturally rich heritage with a collection of barefoot beach retreats, luxurious yachts and hip jungle hideaways, making it one of the most unique, exciting and beautiful places to visit on the planet. Absolute Belize has crafted a gourmet tailor made voyage that takes you through the pristine azul Caribbean waters on a luxury yacht, into the lush rainforests of the Toledo district, your destination being an 'agro-eco-chic' retreat perched high in the verdant jungle canopy. The journey begins on your own private luxury 50ft catamaran, with just your skipper to raise the sails and your private chef to cook the catch. Sail to the most exclusive and untouched private islands that dot the barrier reef. Swim, snorkel, kayak, fish, spot dolphins or simply relax – you pick the tempo. The culinary highlights include collecting your conch from the ocean, making your own ceviche and spearfishing lobster with your guide, followed by a lobster cooking master class with your private chef.
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2019-04-18T10:25:14Z
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https://ambergriscaye.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/481735/todays-belize-news-january-4-2014.html
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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) leads to chronic respiratory failure. Diaphragmatic dysfunction, a major driver of dyspnea and mortality, is associated with a shift of the burden of ventilation to extradiaphragmatic inspiratory muscles, including neck muscles. Besides, energy expenditure is often abnormally high in ALS, and this is associated with a negative prognostic value. We hypothesized that noninvasive ventilation (NIV) would relieve inspiratory neck muscles and reduce resting energy expenditure (REE).
Using indirect calorimetry, we measured REE during spontaneous breathing (REESB) and NIV (REENIV) in 16 ALS patients with diaphragmatic dysfunction, during the first 3 months of NIV. Measured values were compared with predicted REE (REEpred)(Harris-Benedict equation).
NIV abolished inspiratory neck muscle activity. Even though our patients were not hypermetabolic, on the contrary, with a REESB that was lower than REEpred (average 11%), NIV did reduce energy expenditure. Indeed, median REENIV, in this population with a mean body mass index of 21.4 kg.m-2, was 1149 kcal/24 h [interquartile 970-1309], lower than REESB (1197 kcal/24 h, 1054-1402; mean difference 7%; p = 0.03, Wilcoxon). REESB and REENIV were correlated with forced vital capacity and maximal inspiratory pressure.
NIV can reduce energy expenditure in ALS patients probably by alleviating the ventilatory burden imposed on inspiratory neck muscles to compensate diaphragm weakness. It remains to be elucidated whether or not, in which population, and to what extent, NIV can be beneficial in ALS through the corresponding reduction in energy expenditure.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a degenerative disease that affects motor neurones in the cerebral cortex, brainstem and spinal cord, with ensuing atrophy of skeletal muscles. Respiratory failure develops when respiratory motor neurones are involved. ALS-related respiratory failure causes major suffering and is a leading cause of death . Mechanical ventilation, most often administered non-invasively (NIV), is currently the only treatment for ALS-related respiratory failure. It prolongs survival and improves quality of life . Diaphragm weakness is a major determinant of ALS-related respiratory failure [3, 4].
A large proportion of ALS patients exhibit hypermetabolism [5–7], defined as an increase in resting energy expenditure (REE). Yet REE is a determinant of body weight and weight loss, that both have a documented negative prognostic impact in ALS [8–10].
Patients with ALS-related diaphragm weakness often exhibit strong phasic activity of inspiratory neck muscles —the so-called "respiratory pulse"— . These muscles can be abnormally powerful at producing negative intrathoracic pressures for inspiration . This can be interpreted as a compensatory mechanism to maintain ventilation: in ALS patients with diaphragm paralysis, vital capacity (VC) is directly correlated with the inspiratory pressure generating capability of inspiratory neck muscles . In some cases, the phasic inspiratory activity of neck muscles extends during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep . There therefore appears to be a shift of the inspiratory burden from the diaphragm to inspiratory neck muscles when the ALS degenerative process involves the phrenic motoneurones.
We hypothesized that extradiaphragmatic inspiratory muscles including inspiratory neck muscles contribute to "resting" energy expenditure in ALS patients with diaphragm weakness. To test this hypothesis we compared resting energy expenditure (REE) in ALS patients during spontaneous breathing and under NIV.
This was an exploratory "proof of concept" study conducted in a convenience sample of 16 patients with probable or certain ALS according to the revised El Escorial criteria (Table 1). The study was conducted in the Paris (France) ALS reference center, in a 1600-bed tertiary university hospital. This study was conducted in accordance with the amended Declaration of Helsinki. The appropriate French regulatory and ethical authority (Comité de Protection des Personnes Ile-de-France 6, La Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, decision #102-12) approved the protocol, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients.
Abbreviations: ALS-FRS-R revised Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - Functional Rating Scale, BMI Body Mass Index, FVC Forced Vital Capacity, PaO 2 arterial oxygen tension, PaCO 2 arterial carbon dioxide tension, Pi MAX maximal inspiratory mouth pressure (measured from functional residual capacity; best of three maneuvers; data missing in 5 patients), SNIP Sniff Nasal Inspiratory Pressure (measured from functional residual capacity; best of ten maneuvers; data missing in 1 patients —in whom MIP was available—), SpO 2 transcutaneous pulsed oxygen saturation.
Dyspnea was evaluated using the Modified Medical Research Council (MMRC) scale.
Grade 0: I only get breathless with strenuous exercise.
Grade 1: I get short of breath when hurrying on the level or walking up a slight hill.
Grade 2: I walk slower than people of the same age on the level because of breathlessness or have to stop for breath when walking at my own pace on the level.
Grade 3: I stop for breath after walking about 100 yards or after a few minutes on the level.
Grade 4: I am too breathless to leave the house or I am breathless when dressing.
To be eligible for inclusion in this study, patients had to have been placed on NIV indication defined according to current criteria, for at least 24 hours and up to 3 months (± 1 week). NIV had to be considered to be adequate, either immediately or after the first NIV adjustments . Patients had to present signs of diaphragmatic dysfunction including respiratory pulse in the supine position.
Patients with ALS in whom NIV had been started in an emergency context were not eligible. Patients with a disease other than ALS likely to alter nutritional status and metabolic status (renal failure, diabetes or thyroid disease, recent episode of acute respiratory failure, active infection, chronic pancreatitis, chronic alcoholism, corticosteroid therapy, known malignancy) could not be included in the study.
All in all, over the study period, 24 patients were eligible among 106 ALS patients seen at the center. Two of those refused to participate in the study, technical problems occurred in one case, and recordings were missed in 5 cases.
Neurological, respiratory and metabolic assessments were all performed on the same day.
The severity of the neurological deficit was evaluated by the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALS-FRS-R), which rates the ability to perform activities of daily living from 0 (total inability) to 48 points (no limitation) and incorporates respiratory items (dyspnea, orthopnea, respiratory insufficiency). The bulbar section of the Norris scale was used to quantify bulbar impairment from 0 (no bulbar function) to 39 points (normal bulbar function). The date of onset of the symptoms and their initial level (bulbar or spinal), the date of confirmation of the diagnosis, and ongoing treatments (all patients received treatment with riluzole 50 mg, twice daily) were also recorded.
Respiratory function was evaluated by arterial blood gases with spontaneous breathing in room air and by overnight pulse oximetry (SpO2) recording. Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) was measured in the supine and sitting positions with the EasyOne® ultrasound spirometer (NDD Medical Technologies, Andover, MA, USA). Inspiratory muscle strength was evaluated by measuring the maximal inspiratory pressure at the mouth (PiMAX) and at the nostril ("sniff nasal inspiratory pressure", SNIP) using a Micro-RPM® digital manometer (Micro Medical, Chatham, Kent, UK).
Optimization of nocturnal NIV was verified by arterial blood gases performed in the morning, one hour after disconnecting the ventilator, nocturnal SpO2 recording on NIV and detection of leakages by the software integrated into the ventilator [14, 15]. Of note, all the patients were equipped with home ventilators of the same make and model (Stellar®, Resmed, Bella Vista, Australia), with the spontaneous-timed pressure support mode (inspiratory and expiratory trigger).
Nutritional assessment comprised measurement of height and weight for calculation of body mass index (BMI), by adopting a cut-off of 20 kg/m2 for malnutrition. Resting energy expenditure (REE) was measured by indirect calorimetry using a Quark RMR™ apparatus (Cosmed, Rome, Italy). Measurements were performed before 10 o’clock in the morning after fasting overnight and after resting for 20 minutes in a semi-sitting position in a quiet room heated to between 20°C and 24°C. Only values obtained at metabolic steady-state (less than 5% changes in V'O2, V'CO2 and RQ for at least 15 minutes) were taken into account.
During spontaneous breathing on room air (REESB), oxygen consumption (V'O2) and CO2 production (V'CO2) were measured by a sensor fitted to the tip of a close-fitting oronasal mask. During NIV (REENIV), inspired air is carried from the respirator to the mask via a single tube. Expired air is delivered into the chamber via a calibrated leak distal to the sensor measuring V’O2 and V’CO2 (Figure 1). This methodology was developed in several healthy subjects prior to the study to ensure that measurement of REE on spontaneous breathing by the canopy method was equivalent to the that obtained by the cycle-to-cycle gas analyzer and that the calibrated leak in the NIV circuit did not induce any reduction of REE.
Schematic representation of measurement of energy expenditure during spontaneous breathing (A) and noninvasive ventilation (B).
for females, REE = 655 + 9.7*weight(kg) + 1.8*height(cm)-4.7*age(years).
Results were expressed as the median [1st quartile; 3rd quartile], and nonparametric tests were used for statistical analysis. REE measured on spontaneous breathing was compared to the predicted value by a Wilcoxon's test, which was also used to compare REENIV and REESB. Correlations between metabolic status (REESB, REENIV, REEpred-REESB, REESB-REENIV) and the various parameters likely to influence metabolic status were analyzed by Spearman’s rank correlation. The limit of significance was 5% (P < 0.05).
Measurements were performed after the first night on NIV in 10 cases, and at later time-points in 6 cases (after 32 to 96 nights). The anthropometric characteristics of the patients included in the study and the results of their respiratory and neurological assessments are summarized in Table 1. Thirty-one per cent (5/16) of patients presented an initially bulbar form of ALS. No patient has a gastrostomy. The first neurological symptoms had been present for an average of 26.5 [14; 39.2] months. All patients had received treatment with riluzole for an average of 13.2 [6.7; 19.5] months. At the time of the assessment, 37% (6/16) of patients had a BMI < 20 kg/m2 and 50% (8/16) of patients reported weight loss greater than 10% since onset of the disease. None of the patients had had a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy at the time of the procedure, but 6 of them (all among those who had lost weight) underwent this procedure in the following weeks.
REESB was significantly lower than REEpred (1197.3 [1054.7; 1402.6] kcal/24 h vs 1389.5 [1193.9; 1622.6] kcal/24 h, p = 0.004). The mean REESB / REEpred ratio was 90 [83; 97]%, with only one patient presenting a REESB / REEpred ratio greater than 110% (111%).
Ventilation was increased on NIV, with correction of diurnal and nocturnal alveolar hypoventilation (Table 2). All patients reported complete or almost complete relief of dyspnea. Physical examination demonstrated that inspiratory neck muscle activity was abolished in every case.
Abbreviations: A-a gradient for Alveolar-arterial gradient, PaO 2 arterial oxygen tension, PaCO 2 arterial carbon dioxide tension, RF Respiratory Frequency, SpO 2 transcutaneous pulsed oxygen saturation, V t for tidal volume, V d dead space volume (calculated using Bohr formula, note that non invasive ventilation efficiently corrects PaCO2 in spite of an increased Vd -expected-).
REE was significantly decreased on NIV (REENIV: 1149.2 [970.8; 1309.5] kcal/24 h, p = 0.03 compared to REESB; REESB - REENIV: -78.1 [-186.2; -27.5] kcal/24 h, i.e. by -7 [-14; -2]% (Figure 2). There was no difference in the magnitude of this result between the 10 patients studied immediately after NIV initiation and the 6 patients studied later.
Resting energy expenditure (REE) in the study population (box-and-whiskers) with indication of individual data (solid lines) during spontaneous breathing (REESB) and noninvasive ventilation (REE NIV ). The limits of the boxes correspond to the 25th and 75th percentiles of the distribution, with indication of the median as the black solid lines within the boxes. The whiskers represent the 10th and the 90th percentiles, respectively, and the black dots indicate the extreme values. The gray area corresponds to the interquartile space of REE predicted according to the equation of Harris and Benedict.
REESB and REENIV were significantly correlated with gender, the Norris bulbar score, sitting FVC and PiMAX (Table 3). There was no other correlation with any of the anthropometric (BMI, age), respiratory or neurological (severity, history of disease) variables. The REESB - REENIV difference did not correlate with any of the collected variables.
REE, resting energy expenditure; "sb", during spontaneous breathing; "niv", during non invasive ventilation.
FVC, Forced Vital Capacity; PiMAX, maximal inspiratory mouth pressure.
This study shows that NIV can acutely decrease resting energy expenditure in ALS patients with ALS-related chronic respiratory insufficiency exhibiting signs of severe diaphragmatic dysfunction.
For the purposes of this proof-of-concept study, we deliberately selected a small number of patients who were as homogeneous as possible in terms of the respiratory impact of ALS. Apart from NIV criteria, all patients exhibited obvious signs of diaphragmatic dysfunction including increased activity of inspiratory neck muscles, which may limit extrapolation of our results. Of note, the diagnosis of diaphragmatic dysfunction was based on physical examination and phrenic nerve stimulation was not performed to measure diaphragm strength and to distinguish lower from upper respiratory motor neurone diseases . Silencing of inspiratory neck muscles by NIV was also not confirmed by electromyography (but only clinically). If anything, residual inspiratory neck muscle activity would have underestimated the effect of NIV on energy expenditure. Similarly, the patients were studied under a triggered NIV modality: controlled mechanical ventilation could have resulted in a larger reduction of REE. Measurement errors with indirect calorimetry are a major concern, particularly when comparing two conditions involving different setups. We took extensive precautions to control for technical issues that could have interfered with the measurements, and extensive preliminary measurements were performed in normal subjects to check that REE was not affected by the different setups. The difference between REESB and REENIV in our patients (median 7%) exceeded the coefficient of variation of the measurement reported by other authors under similar conditions 3.5% ± 2.7% -standard error- in stable mechanically ventilated patients, see and was also greater than the variability observed in normal subjects during our in-house preliminary experiments.
The contribution of respiratory muscles to REE or oxygen consumption at rest has been estimated in the literature to be between 1% [18, 19] and 5-7% in normal individuals [20–23] and in quadriplegics . These estimates were mostly based on back-extrapolations of the relationship between V'O2 and load-induced increases in the work of breathing . This relationship is not linear and can underestimate the oxygen cost of unloaded breathing. To avoid this bias, the energy cost of breathing can be derived from comparisons between energy expenditure measured during spontaneous breathing and during mechanical ventilation in the same individuals [26, 27]. This approach implies that respiratory muscles are actually passive during the measurements performed under mechanical ventilation, which is not always easy to ascertain. In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease receiving NIV, Hugli et al. estimated that respiratory V'O2 was an average of 1.6% of V'O2. This figure was underestimated because NIV mostly failed to abolish respiratory muscle electromyographic activity. In addition, the ventilation-induced reduction in V'O2 was not normally distributed (1.6 ± 6%) and some patients had respiratory V'O2 values of about 10% of V'O2 . In quadriplegic patients treated with phrenic stimulation, switching ventilatory assistance from controlled mechanical ventilation to diaphragm pacing increased REE by an average of 21% . Because the patients in this study were overventilated, their respiratory-related energy expenditure was probably artefactually high. Hyperventilation-corrected values fell in the 10-15% range. To the best of our knowledge, the study with the most similar design to the present study compared energy expenditure during spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation in 9 tracheotomized patients with post-polio chronic respiratory failure . In these patients, REE decreased from 1378 (958—1607) kcal/24 h during spontaneous breathing to 1086 (598—1579) kcal/24 h during pressure support ventilation (22%), and V'O2 decreased from 207 (141—235) ml/min) to 159 (92—230)(23%). The REE reduction observed during NIV in our ALS patients (median 7%) and it V'O2 counterpart are therefore in the upper range of available normal values for respiratory V'O2 and in the lower range of reported values in patients. In addition to the possible underestimation discussed above, it must be emphasized that our patients mostly depended on their inspiratory neck muscles to breathe, as their diaphragm did not participate in ventilation.
In our patients, REESB was on average 10% lower than the value predicted by the Harris and Benedict equation. Of note, in the literature the prediction error for the Harris-Benedict equation has been reported to be as high as 18.6 + 14.9%, with limits of agreement showing that this equation could overestimate caloric expenditure by 591 kcal/d and underestimate requirements by 677 kcal/d [31, 32]. The energy requirements in ALS is a complex issue see review in and the details are beyond the scope of this discussion. Some studies have shown that one-half to two-thirds of ALS patients can be described as "hypermetabolic" [5–7] and remain so throughout the course of the disease . In comparison with these studies, our patients had a slightly lower BMI, which, although fat-free mass was not measured, tends to suggest that they were somewhat malnourished. More importantly, the respiratory status of our patients was poorer than that reported in other studies, as our study appears to be the first to provide REE measurements during spontaneous breathing in ALS patients meeting the criteria for mechanical ventilation (Ellis and Rosenfeld measured REE in ALS patients requiring NIV, but it is unclear from their article whether the measurements were obtained during spontaneous breathing or under NIV). Our patients had a mean FVC of 42.7 ± 5.9% when REESB was determined, compared with a mean FVC close to 80% in the studies by Desport et al. [6, 7]. In the longitudinal study by Bouteloup et al. , the 28 patients with sequential REE measurements had a mean VC of 67% at the time of the last measurement. In the longitudinal study by Kasarkis et al , performed before the NIV era, some patients were and remained hypermetabolic during the course of the disease, but the lowest observed FVC in this population was greater than 50%. It is therefore possible that the development of respiratory insufficiency in ALS has a masking effect on hypermetabolism, as suggested by Vaisman et al. . This could occur via various mechanisms, including increasing malnutrition [33, 35] due to the combination of ALS-related impairment of swallowing and/or eating-related dyspnea , as described in other types of severe chronic respiratory insufficiency [37, 38]. Of note, energy expenditure in ventilated ALS patients has been found to be low [8, 39], with results comparable to those observed in ventilator-dependent Duchenne patients , but it has also been found to be increased. Sherman et al. observed hypermetabolism in ventilated patients , and Ellis and Rosenfeld observed moderately increased REE values in patients requiring NIV . In both cases, mean BMI values were about 25 kg.m-2, vs. 22 in our patients, which might explain the discordant results. In any case, the present study showed that REE decreased under NIV in patients who were not hypermetabolic but who tended to be hypometabolic (possibly because of some degree or malnutrition): the amount of energy expenditure spared by NIV would probably have been even greater in better nourished patients. Also worthy of notice, the effect of NIV on REE was quite heterogeneous in our patients (Figure 2). We did not evidence any particular explanation for this finding. The reduction in REE was similar in the 10 patients studied upon NIV initiation and in the 6 patients studied somewhat later, and the correction of hypoventilation was excellent and homogeneous in the study population (Table 2). In addition, the REE response to NIV did not correlate with any of the anthropometric, respiratory or neurological variables collected.
There is a general consensus that NIV prolongs survival and improves quality of life in ALS patients, and particularly those without severe bulbar dysfunction. These positive outcomes are implicitly attributed to the correction of hypoventilation and nocturnal desaturations, and to the relief of dyspnea. In the light of the present observations, it might be hypothesized that NIV could also be beneficial, in certain cases, by reducing energy expenditure and therefore contributing to a better nutritional equilibrium —the prognostic value of which has been established—. Data from Lechtzin et al. have suggested that starting NIV early in the course of respiratory involvement can be associated with improved survival (an average gain of one year in a population with a mean FVC of 74.3 ± 10.1% pred —absence of obvious respiratory insufficiency—, in comparison with a population with a mean FVC of 48.3 ± 11.3% pred). These results must be taken with caution because they have not been prospectively corroborated and could, at least in part, be due to a time bias effect. However, our observations point at a putative mechanism for a beneficial effect of early NIV, namely a reduced respiratory-related energy expenditure. Of note, the accelerated muscle wasting due to hypermetabolism is bound to involve respiratory muscles. A NIV-related reduction in energy expenditure could therefore theoretically contribute to slow respiratory decline, yet a recent retrospective study suggested, apparently for the first time, that NIV could indeed decrease the ALS-related decline of VC . The correlation observed between REE and FVC and PiMAX in our patients (Table 3) tends to supports this hypothesis. Nevertheless, NIV may prove difficult to implement in asymptomatic patients. Proposing "early NIV" with the purpose of reducing energy expenditure would require prior convincing documentation of the corresponding clinical benefits. Further studies are therefore needed to elucidate what determines the response of REE to NIV and whether, in what particular population, and to what extent, early NIV can be beneficial in ALS through a reduction in respiratory-related energy expenditure. The role of ventilatory mode and triggering modalities is among the factors to be studied.
Thomas Similowski and Jesus Gonzalez-Bermejo contributed equally to this work.
This study was funded in part by the non profit "Association pour le Développement et l'Organisation de la Recherche en Pneumologie et sur le Sommeil, Paris, France" and benefited from the support of the program "Investissement d'Avenir ANR-10-AIHU-06" of the French Government.
The authors are grateful to Anthony Saul for editing the English style and grammar of the manuscript.
This study did not involve any competing interest, financial or otherwise, for any of the authors.
MG participated in the conception and design of the study, performed most of data collection and analysis, participated in data interpretation, drafted the submitted article and approved the final submission. CMP participated in the conception and design of the study, contributed to data analysis and data interpretation, revised the manuscript and approved the final submission. TS participated in the conception and design of the study, contributed to data analysis and data interpretation, revised the manuscript and approved the final submission. JGB participated in the conception and design of the study, contributed to data collection, data analysis and data interpretation, revised the manuscript and approved the final submission.
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2019-04-24T17:53:04Z
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https://bmcpulmmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2466-14-17
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This paper concerns the reconstruction of the main stages of the long-term landscape evolution of the Molise portion of the central-southern Apennines along a transect divided into three sectors (SW, Central and NE). Analysis mainly focused on geomorphological, stratigraphical and structural data supported by chronological constraints, coming from an overall review of past literature and several studies carried out by the authors of the paper during the last 20 years. The results obtained allowed the elaboration of a conceptual model of the long-term evolution of the Molise sector of the central-southern Apennines. Starting from the Pliocene, the emersion of the Molise area occurred gradually from SW to NE, allowing a polycyclic landscape to evolve under the major controls first of compression then transtensional to extensional tectonics as well as climatic variations. Principal markers of the Quaternary geomorphological evolution of the Molise area are represented by the infill successions of the intermontane tectonic depressions located in its internal, SW sector and by four orders of palaeosurfaces that developed between the Early Pleistocene and the beginning of the Late Pleistocene across the region. These markers testify to the alternation of phases of substantial tectonic stability and uplift whose spatial-temporal distribution could be assessed along the investigated transect. Results highlight that the most important stages of landscape evolution occurred during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. At the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, the Molise sector of the Apennine chain had already reached its present setting and further landscape evolution occurred under the major control of climate and land-use.
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Amato V., Aucelli P.P.C., Russo Ermolli E., Rosskopf C.M., Cesarano M. & Pappone G. 2012: Quaternary morpho-evolution, tectonic and environmental changes in the Boiano intermontane basin (central-southern Italy). Rend. Online Soc. Geol. Ital. 21, 1225–1227.
Amato V., Aucelli P., Capozzi A., DE Benedittis G.F., Pappone G. & Rosskopf C.M. 2013: Environmental changes in the Boiano intramontane basin (Molise, Italy) since the times of Ancient Bovianum (IVth century BC). Alp. Med. Quat. 26, 1, 15–29.
Amato V., Aucelli P.P.C., Cesarano M., Jicha B., Lebreton V., Orain R., Pappone G., Petrosino P. & Russo Ermolli E. 2014: Quaternary evolution of the largest intermontane basin of the Molise Apennine (central-southern Italy). Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 25, 2, 197–216.
Amorosi A., Bracone V., Di Donato V., Rosskopf C.M. & Aucelli P.P.C. 2009: The Plio–Pleistocene succession between Trigno and Fortore rivers (Molise and Apulia Apennines): stratigraphy and facies characteristics. GeoActa 8, 1–12.
Amorosi A., Bracone V., Campo B., D’Amico C., Rossi V. & Rosskopf C.M. 2016: A late Quaternary multiple paleovalley system from the Adriatic coastal plain (Biferno River, Southern Italy). Geomorphology 254, 146–159.
Ascione A. & Cinque A. 1999: Tectonics and erosion in the long-term relief history of Southern Apennines (Italy). Z. Geomorphol. Suppl.-Bd. 117, 1–15.
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Ascione A., Ciarcia S., Di Donato V., Mazzoli S. & Vitale S. 2012: The Pliocene–Quaternary wedge-top basins of southern Italy: an expression of propagating lateral slab tear beneath the Apennines. Basin Res. 23, 1–19.
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Aucelli P.P.C., Cinque A. & Robustelli G. 1997: Quaternary evolution of the Larino-Apricena portion of the Apenninic Foredeep (SE Italy). Il Quaternario, Ital. J. Quat. Sci. 10, 453–460 (in Italian with English abstract).
Aucelli P.P.C., Cinque A. & Rosskopf C.M. 2001: Geomorphological map of the Trigno basin (Italy): explanatory notes. Geogr. Fis. Dinam. Quat. 24, 1, 3–12.
Aucelli P.P.C., Robustelli G., Rosskopf C.M., Scarciglia F., Di Paola G. & Lucà F. 2010: Geomorphologic map of the area between Frosolone and Trivento (Molise, Italy). Journal of Maps 6, 1, 423–434.
Aucelli P.P.C., Amato V., Cesarano M., Pappone G., Rosskopf C., Russo Ermolli E. & Scarciglia F. 2011: New morphostratigraphic and chronological constraints for the Quaternary palaeosurfaces of the Molise Apennines (southern Italy). Geol. Carpath. 62, 1, 17–26.
Aucelli P.P.C., Amato V., Scorpio V., Bracone V. & Rosskopf C.M. 2012: Palaeo-landscape reconstruction and assessment of long-term erosion rates through DEM analysis: preliminary results from the Molise Apennine (Central-Southern Italy). Rend. Online Soc. Geol. Ital. 21, 1105–1107.
Aucelli P.P.C., Cesarano M., Di Paola G., Filocamo F. & Rosskopf C.M. 2013: Geomorphological map of the central sector of the Matese Mountains (Southern Italy): an example of complex landscape evolution in a Mediterranean mountain environment. Journal of Maps 9, 4, 604–616.
Aucelli P.P.C., D’Argenio B., Della Seta M., Giano S.I. & Schiattarella M. 2014: Intermontane basins: Quaternary morphoevolution of Central-Southern Italy. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 25, 107–110.
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D’Amico C., Aiello G., Barra D., Bracone V., Di Bella L., Esu D., Frezza V. & Rosskopf C.M. 2013: Late Quaternary foraminiferal, molluscan and ostracod assemblages from a core succession in the Trigno River mouth area (Central Adriatic Sea, Italy). Boll. Soc. Paleont. Ital. 52, 3, 197–205.
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Deino A.L., Orsi G., De Vita S. & Piochi M. 2004: The age of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff caldera forming eruption (Campi Flegrei caldera - Italy) by 40Ar/39Ar dating method. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 133, 157–170.
Di Bucci D., Naso G., Corrado S. & Villa I. 2005: Growth, interaction and sismogenic potential of coupled active normal faults (Isernia Basin, Central-Southern Italy). Terra Nova 17, 44–55.
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Doglioni C., Harabaglia P., Martinelli G., Mongelli F. & Zito G. 1996: A geodynamic model of the Southern Apennines accretionary prism. Terra Nova 8, 540–547.
Frezza V., D’Amico C., Aiello G., Barra D., Bracone V., Di Bella L., Esu D. & Rosskopf C.M. 2012: Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental evolution of the central Adriatic coast in the Trigno mouth area (Molise region). Rend. Online Soc. Geol. Ital. 21, 1086–1088.
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Gioia D., Gallicchio S., Moretti M. & Schiattarella M. 2014: Landscape response to tectonic and climatic forcing in the foredeep of the southern Apennines, Italy: insights from Quaternary stratigraphy, quantitative geomorphic analysis, and denudation rate proxies. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 39, 814–835.
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ISPRA 2011a: Geological Map of Italy (1:50,000 in scale). 393 sheet “Trivento”. Servizio Geologico d’Italia. http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/Media/carg/393_TRIVENTO/Foglio.html (in Italian).
ISPRA 2011b: Geological Map of Italy (1:50,000 in scale). 372 sheet “Vasto”. Servizio Geologico d’Italia. http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/Media/carg/372_VASTO/Foglio.html (in Italian).
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i tried a few times now but i cant get the windows live mail, ,messenger ect. to run.
perhaps someone can help me ?
I didn't have this error when I installed windows live, but today Messenger doesn't work normally (error 0xc0000005).
The only solution for me is launch the application as an administrator and with Vista compatibility mode.
Q: WIN7-I can't complete win7 installation in AHCI.
I have this crucial m4 128gb 6gb/s for over a month. I had it running well, with the firmware up to date til i managed to clean my computer. Looks like the boot manager didn't like that i switch moved two mechanical drive in different port. the boot manager was probably on them so thats why win7 was tripping and freezing.
So i unplugged the two mechanical drive, and did a fresh install of win7. I have a gigabyte x58-ud3r with 9128 marvell chip on on my 6/7 gSATA port. When i get the ssd, i put the ICH10 in AHCI and the gSATA port as well, and the installation completed.
Now, it just dont work. win7 will copy the files, decompress them and then when it reboot it will hangs at the logo screen and do nothing for like 30 min. I tried switching the port 6/7 in IDE, and windows installation just complete. Try to switch it back once win7 is install and it will hang on at the logo screen. The win7 registry key for ahci is set to 0 like it should be, but i can't boot win7 when its set to ahci in the bios.
I tried the fresh installation 3 times. I have load the marvell driver from my mobo cd with the partionning tool in win7 installation, and now it says what the installation can't update the registry after decompressing the files and it cancels the installation.
I've been on this for two days and it gives me serious headache. please guys, where do i start to make this ssd works like it was.
A:WIN7-I can't complete win7 installation in AHCI.
I have problems entering windows after the first installation of Windows 7 64 bit built 7000.
After seconds the welcome (splash) screen appears, the windows suddenly reboot automaticaly.
After that, black screen appears with dashes blinking.
(Actually, my current OS is Windows 7 32 bit built 7600, but I think it isn't cause of the problems. I have formatted the local drive, in which my current OS was installed, before I install Win 7 64 bit).
So, somebody, help me please !
Seems a hardware problem or try to reformat and re-install.
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Thinking it was just a corrupt file, I grabbed a hal.dll file from my SP2 computer upstairs, booted up with a copy of BartPE, and replaced the supposedly defunct hal.dll in with the working one. No dice.
I cannot boot into safe mode, or any of the other possible options. It will either hang at a black screen before rebooting, or give me the hal.dll error.
Q: "windows could not complete the installation..."
"windows could not complete the installation. to install windows on this computer, restart the installation"
please help me, i am really desperate to fix my computer. it's keeps on and on. i cannot start my computer even it says-set up is starting services. in a second, a bar appears like windows could not complete....." i click ok but just keep coming the same old thing. i'm so lost in computer. i don't know about computer stuffs. please help.
i really need help. thanks in advance.
A:"windows could not complete the installation..."
Please explain IN DETAIL what is going on. Start at the beginning.
Q: Windows cannot complete installation.
I keep getting this error: Windows cannot complete installation. To continue installing Windows, restart the computer. I got this error when I tried to restore my computer to factory settings. I am completely computer illiterate and have NO idea how to fix this! Help!
My apologies for the delay in responding!
May I ask for what reason you decided to restore Windows to factory settings? What symptoms were you experiencing?
Under normal circumstances you will be requested to restart your computer for Windows to complete the installation. Does this happen every time you restart your computer? If so, you "might" have a bad hard drive and it will need to be taken into a reputable tech shop to be replaced.
Hello I have recently fully recoverd my system but now I can't even go to the home screen. Whenever I try to the screen turns black and a mini box comes up saying (Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation.) I have tried restarting the system but still nothing.
Hello JohnBrown and welcome to Seven Forums.
(Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation.) I have tried restarting the system but still nothing.
Just for clarification, when you say you "tried restarting the system" do you mean you rebooted (restarted) the computer or you actually tried reinstalling Windows 7? From the error message you've provided, it sounds like the installation failed.
- Did you use a Toshiba provided reinstall disk or a Windows 7 installation disk?
- Do you know if your Toshiba has a hidden recovery partition that would restore your computer to factory specs?
- When you "fully recovered" your system do you know if the hard drive was formatted or not?
Q: Windows could not complete the installation.
Hello guys, this is the error I am getting when I start my laptop.
"Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer , restart the application"
Just bought it 1 week back , and I didn't back up the recovery partition and i did not got any recovery disc or installation cd with the laptop.
I tried to restore the system and was confused and selected recovery option, in dat I selected reset your pc, it didn't asked for any windows installation disc or back up disc and it took 30mins to complete and asked to restart ...after that I am getting this option .
A:Windows could not complete the installation.
I had a Windows 7 installation but then installed Windows 8 over it, a few weeks ago.
I can't restart the installation though, since the "System Restore" option is grayed out on the Win7 recovery disc.
I've got news for you Factory Restore and System Restore are not one and the same.
To correctly advise you please fill out your system specs to best of your abilities. Very important is to know the manufacturer of your computer, the precise model of the computer, and whether the computer is a laptop or a desktop.
I realize you will not be able to follow this write-up to the letter, but the write-up will serve as a guideline.
ADD the word laptop, desktop, netbook or tablet.
using your mouse/touchpad and then paste that info into your specs.
so i was trying to do a clean reinstall of windows.
then a pop up comes up saying windows could not complete installation.
to install windows on this computer , restart theinstallation.
Welcome to the Seven Forums!
Could you please add some system specs to your profile? Just lettings us know that you have 7 HP 64 doesn't help us finding an answer that much. Do you get any error message (saying other than just Windows Could not complete installation)?
You're also telling us that you're doing a clean re-install of Windows; I assume Windows has worked properly before? If so, which version? And what's the reason you're attempting a re-install? Hardware issue? Slow performance?
Hi, been trying this for 2 days with no result... Really hope I can get some help.
I installed Windows 7 on my machine using CD, HDD is blank (formatted). Once the system prepare to startup, it will go blank. When I go to safe mode, it says I cannot go to safe mode without complete installation of Windows 7.
I am not sure how to solve this.. I tried re-install XP on the machine, I can get everything back. Shall I run the setup of Windows 7 from Windows XP or how do I install Windows 7 from CD?
When I launch compmgmtlauncher, I can see my computer detected as ACPI x64-based PC, but I am trying to install 32-bit, shouldn't it shows x86?
Good specs there and welcome to Win7Forums vitaminc! So to make sure that I understand you right....You can boot the DVD disk and start the installation...and get to the part of where it says preparing your computer for the first time...and it fails?
Q: "Windows could not complete the installation"
A:"Windows could not complete the installation"
Well, I still haven't figured out how to fix this but I did find other people with the same problem. Aparently what happens is that customs opens up laptops during shipping. This causes them to begin the vista installation process, but the the lid is closed, powering the system off. Vista's installer can not cope with this re-started installation.So presumably my best option is to re-image the machine, which of course Lenovo does not document properly (or really at all).
I tried yesterday to reinstall Windows 7 from a genuine update CD (Home Premium) There was already an installation in place but it would not boot nor repair. There was other stuff on the drive too, but it was no longer relevant so I did not mind it being wiped. The installation was slow enough but eventually reached the last stage - "Completing Installation" - and there it has stayed for, so far, about 18 hours. There is still some action - three dots that appear, one, two, three, and then disappear and start again - but nothing more. Mouse is working but If I click the close box X (in the dialogue box) I see another box with the message that installation cannot be stopped at this stage or the computer may become unusable. The escape key produces the same message. No other key produces any effect and neither keyboard no mouse produces a menu. I have not dared to use the Ctr-Alt-Del combination.
Help and advice would be much appreciated.
I have a HP Pavilion dv5 laptop with windows 7 home premium. The system is 64 bit. The hard drive recently crashed and was not repairable. I purchased a brand new hard drive and used the disks provided by HP to install windows 7. It went through the whole installation process. When it restarts it comes to the welcome screen. A low pitch ding sounds and then the screen goes black with a message saying "windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer restart the installation." If I press CTRL +ALT+Delete, open task manager, and end the audit.exe process, windows will open and I can do everything. If I restart the computer it does the same message. What can the issue be? I also did a Bios scan and the hard drive and ram are good. I'm out of ideas.
That factory preinstalled Win7 is a corrupt install to begin with, larded with bloatware and useless duplicate utilties that have much better versions built into Win7. HP has the worst load of bloatware in the industry.
What I would do is get the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 using the installer provided and following the steps closely to get a perfect install.
If you insist on the factory install then I'd try running it from partition following steps in HP System Recovery or wiping the HD with Diskpart Clean Command to see if it will complete from disks then. But you need the Win7 installer to boot to the command line anyway, so might as well get the clean install.
Q: Help - Cannot complete Windows 7 installation.
I have recently bought a new computer and have been trying to install Windows 7. I am now in a loop where I get passed the "Starting Windows" screen and a box opens up saying "Windows cannot complete the installation. To continue installing Windows, restart the computer". When you click on "Ok" it automatically restarts and takes you back to where this box pops up.
This seems impossible to get passed. I would be grateful if anyone could give me advice.
A:Help - Cannot complete Windows 7 installation.
Without more information about your system specs, its really hard to tell you where to start.. click on the link in my sig and fill your specs out for us.... Thanks and welcome to the forums!!
Q: Windows can't complete installation.
So last year my computer's hard disk apparently broke so we had take it out and replace it with a new one. Unfortunately, doing this uninstalled ALL my drivers, including my graphics and audio ones.
Well now it's becoming an issue with me. For a while I had to use an outside audio driver just to have sound and now lots of programs and games don't want to load because my PC was running on only vga.dll.
My mom a while back ordered some reinstallation discs from HP and my dad suggested I run that to re-install my drivers. Those discs were ORIGINALLY used to fix my computer's messed up hard disk but since they changed the hard disk it worked relatively fine until I found out all the drivers were gone. The lack of drivers.
I press ok, it restarts and it repeats the same error. It's in an endless loop of this.
Were you using the recovery partition on your hard drive or a restore cd/dvd to restore your computer?
I have an 8 month old gateway nv44. I was having some problems so I tried a system recovery. Now it gives me a message that "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation". Every time I hit OK it restarts and comes back to the same message.
Can anyone help me fix this?
I have just restored my c drive and now during setup is preparing your computer for first use a message appears saying windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation.
It shows this message everytime I startup and keeps resetting the computer. My computer came with windows 7 already installed so I do not have a disk. Is there any way to solve this?
I just got my new laptop and when I turned it on, a window appeared and says Windows could not complete the installation. Install windows on this computer, restart the installation. I restarted many times and it's all the same result. Nothing happened. Please help!
Hi folks. I'm new to the forum so give me a little slack if I screw this up please lol. I have an Acer Aspire X1420G-U5832 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. I wanted to resturn my computer to factory condition so I went through the correct steps as it guided me. I cut and pasted my documents to a portable flassh drive so i wouldn't lose photos and important school documents. I proceeded with the steps and the system began restoring. I don't recall if it asked me to restart or if it restarted on it's own but whatever the case, it now gives me a dialog box every time I restart like it asks me too. The system dialog box I'm gtting is " (Install Windows), Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation." All restarts lead to this response and all safe mode restarts lead to one very similar only it mentions the safe mode aspect. ANY, help would be appreciated guy's. If you need additional info please let me know and I will provide. Thank you!
Try reinstall the Windows once again using this guide.
Have you tried pressing <Alt+F10> at boot up, to goto the Acer eRecovery Management.
Acer Support - Answers, E-Mail, Chat - How do I restore my computer using the eRecovery Management program?
You can order Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks from your OEM manufacturer's website.
What is the make and model of the laptop?
I have a HP 2133 mini-notebook running Windows 7. This was corrupted and I tried to install Windows 7 again but this knocked out some of the drivers for the touchpad and keyboard. This means that although I have been able to reinstall Windows I can't complete the installation as I can't type in the product key or tick any of the necessary boxes. It just doesn't work. I need to install a driver to correct this problem but without being able to run the operating system I can't do this. Does anyone know a way of doing this?
Sorry I can't download the TSG SysInfo as the notebook I have a problem with won't start.
I went away to work for a few hours and come back and apparently my laptop is broken. My sister uses it as well and I have no idea what she did.. Apparently somebody attempted to restore it? It now comes up with "Setup is starting services" and then a box pops up saying the installation cannot be complete and to restart. This is a continuous loop and I have no idea how to fix it. The laptop will not start in safe mode? If anybody could help, I would greatly appreciate it.
I don't know a lot about computers so if you could give me the dumbed down version, it would help.
Hello, I need some help with factory restoring my computer, I was having a few issues with it before so I though ill do a factory restore, everything was fine till it said "Setup is starting services", shortly after it said that it came up with an error message saying "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation." So there for I restarted my computer but it still keeps coming up with the same error message every time? I've restarted it about 7 times and it still keeps coming up with the same error message? The computer didn't come with a recovery disk and the make and model is: "Acer Aspire X3470"
which version of windows 7 do you have?
Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation".
I've restarted several times and even tried to start it in safe mode. Nothing is working. I can't get it to start up no matter what I do. I do NOT have any disks for it (if you needed to know that).
Can anyone help me with what I need to do from here please? Any help much appreciated. BTW, my technical skills are low so please, take it easy on me.
what are your system specs mainly model of hp.
Q: Windows 7 Cannot complete installation.
I own a Dell Studio 1558 Laptop, my keyboard broke so contacted them and they sent over a tech to replace my keyboard, ram, and mobo. After this i was getting a lot of BSOD while runing the laptop for a good amount of time, then i would have to leave it off for a while and it would boot up again, other wise I would get BSOD.
So I decided to backup my entire HDD and do a clean install of Windows 7 x64 Home Premium. After 6 days of attempting to install windows I still haven't succeeded. Since I recieve the message "Windows setup could not configure windows to run on this computer"
- Completely wiped out HDD, using Windows software, other computer, and ubuntu.
- I cannot remove my video card since its a laptop.
- My bios is set to AHCI (this is default). And swtiching it as well to ATA.
- Switching the name manually of the partitions.
-Installing it in another partition that inst C drive.
- Installing it with out a partition.
- Connecting a ethernet cable/without conecting ethernet cable.
- Loading intel drivers in the installation screen.
While pressing shift + f10 at the completing installation screen and executing explorer.exe, it crashes while performing Personalized Settings: Windows Desktop Update.
A:Windows 7 Cannot complete installation.
Set SATA controller to AHCI first to try install, then IDE mode if this fails.
Remove all but 2gb of RAM to try install.
After wiping HD, close Command Box and click Install Now, use Custom>Drive Options to create partition(s), format before installing to first OS partition - ignore the 100mb boot partition created by Win which places the Repair console on F8 Boot Tools.
If this fails, go back to Diskpart tutorial and use Step 2.2 to repartition and mark Active.
Unplug all other HD's and peripherals.
Turned my back on my laptop and it started an update of the OS ? Which seems to have failed.
Running a diagnostics I get ePSA 4302.10 anyone know what it means - can't seem to find list of codes!!!
Run the full Dell diagnostics (F12 at powerup before Windows loads).
If you require further information, post the exact error codes that result along with the system model and version of the operating system that is installed.
Q: Can I recreate the complete set of Windows Live Mail Folders?
A friend of mine has a problem with his Windows Live Mail client. He's running Win 7 HP 64 bit with the Windows Live Mail client and a Hotmail ID. His problem is that he sometimes sees emails mysteriously multiplying emails in his folders - this includes his deleted mail folder!
We have tried asking questions in the official Microsoft Mail forums but have received no response. What I would like to do is to delete his Mail.MSMessageStore database in both the Windows Live Mail folder and the Backup folder. I believe doing this will cause Windows Live Mail to recreate the Mail.MSMessageStore database. However I would like to be sure, before I do this, that he will continue to have access to all his (offline) Storage Folders, as well as his normal mail folders, after doing this. Does anyone know whether deleting the MSMessageStore database will cause any data loss or is it a totally harmless step?
A:Can I recreate the complete set of Windows Live Mail Folders?
Trying to complete installation set up on my laptop for windows 7 professional. Accidentally turned off and wont complete installation even after restarting. The same message keeps coming back again and again.
I do have the CD but I am unable to go past that message to attempt to reinstall.
Any help please? I am desperate.
Are you using the Toshiba Recovery Disks?
As u probably Guess around the end a little message popped up and told me it couldn't be complete and told me to do it again i did for the 2nd time before i decided to post, Any suggestions?
HI TSG'S, please help! I'm getting many assorted problems with windows xp - I wont list them all. I recently wiped my hard drive and since installation lots of things dont work. I ran sfc \scannow to find missing bits, and it ran and closed, but heaps of stuff doesn't work and I'm getting messages of missing root certificates. So...... i tried to run install again off the cd (upgrade) and it stops before it begins with a error message saying a previous installation didn't complete, quit out of this setup, log off, log on again, a program will start automatically (it didn't) then run setup again. I'm getting nowhere! Will I have to wipe the HD all over again - the kids will kill me if I lose all their stuff again!
BTW, can't even post on TSG's on that computer either!
Just got a new HP laptop for Christmas (yeah. It's not even 7 on Christmas morning and I'm already having problems.) I've seen a lot of people with this problem, but I can't fix it the way they did. "Windows could not complete installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation."
I can't start it in Safe Mode.
I can't access task manager.
I've tried alt+tab to see if these things are running in the background; they're not.
I don't have any disks.
It's an HP Pavilion dv7, and I got it refurbished.
Sounds like it is time for a disk .
I'm trying to install W7 premium OEM. The rig boots up fine, I'm able to access BIOS. When I attempt to use the DVD installation I'm met with "windows is loading files.." The first bar is done in seconds and then the next bar moves a third of the way along and then nothing. And still nothing 3 hours later. It seems I'm doing something wrong? Can anyone help?
can i suggest you take everything out apart from the basics. 1 x stick of ram, no GPU. etc etc.
Got a mates computer that would not boot normally, so button mashed f8 to bring up safe mode, uninstalled the crap, ran an antivirus and checked for registry errors with an outdated reg cleaner, there were heaps of errors which I could do nothing about as I had no internet at the time, so I decided to do a complete reset of the PC through the f8 boot menu. It went fine until I woke up the next morning to find that when it boots all I get is the error message at the toshiba boot screen saying "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation"there is no mouse pointer so I smash enter, it restarts and does exactly the same thing on next startup. Pleeeeaaaaassssse help me fix what I've done! I can't seem to get f8 to work after the reset and I'm stuck!
Let Windows complete the installation.
My sister has a miniHP 110, which was experiencing virus troubles, so I offered to do a factory restore. I have used that option several times on my regular HP laptop with no issues, but on her's, it's giving me the error message 'Windows cannot complete the installation in safe mode. to continue installing windows, restart the computer.' It goes on in a loop. I've tried booting it in safe mode, but to no avail. I've been playing around with it for a couple of days, and got to the screen where you choose accounts from. It said the account had been disabled, and to check with my administrator. I would go through the trouble of getting a windows 7 disk, but with this version of HPmini, there is no disk drive. I'm at a complete loss, is there anything I can do?
Hello Mackypoo, welcome to Seven Forums!
You don't need a DVD drive to install Windows, you should be able to use a USB stick, have a look through the information in these tutorials linked below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.
Brand new Acer AXC704GUW61 and it states: Windows cound not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart installation. The box says it has Windows 10 operating system, so how could it not be installed? Any advice on getting the computer up and running is greatly appreciated.
I have a Sony VAIO laptop and im trying to do a clean installation.
"completing installation" for about 12 hours.
Wipe the HDD with KillDisk, then use Windows 7 DVD to reinstall.
This is a brand new build, I am getting the following message after several attempts "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannnot proceed". If I restart windows I get the same message, I also get the same message when I restart in safe mode. I have tried several clean installs and always come back to the same issue.
First attempt with graphics card installed resulted in black screen after first restart. Removed graphics card to go with integrated graphics. I am seeing numerous posts of similiar instances, but no real defined solution.
Then boot into Windows 7 installer DVD or flash stick burned or written using tool and latest ISO for your licensed OS version here.
Please I need help, because I don't have any cd or DVD to install it!
If someone knows how tO fix it please let me know! I will appreciate it!
Q: It keeps saying " Windows could not complete the installation.
" Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation."
I've done this few time and still the same result. It is frustrating!!
I've very very basic computer knowledge.
A:It keeps saying " Windows could not complete the installation.
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2019-04-20T04:20:26Z
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http://thewikipost.org/topic/6Di7gkSoXsoiqq5DEGez9tggMRlcITe6/cant-complete-windows-live-installation-on-win7.html
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posts have ratings to discourage one-liner “me toos” replies and also to make quality discussions more visible. not sure though which scheme is best, what do you think?
would be nice to have a historical archive of the most interesting/popular/etc threads of all time. right now if it’s old enough it’s basically lost forever, because it’s too much effort to dig through the archives.
there’s a lot of interesting data/stas about mailing lists we don’t make use of… how many people are listening when i write a post to say Fedora’s devel list?
« Fedora 13’s Artwork – Need Your Help for F13 Beta!
This idea has also been in my head for a very long time, but never got round to do it.
Mailinglists aren’t very accessible and the web interface most lists use isn’t helpful at all. A forum like view makes things much more friendly and gives a better overview of the discussion. The only way to have an overview right now is to have the whole thread in a mail client, but a lot of the time i get pointed at discussions on lists i’m not subscribed to and you are stuck with that mailman thing that stacks everything into a tree in levels that i still haven’t figured out how they are sorted. Then you need to go back and forth the read the whole discussion.
I always get lost in mailinglists. And then there’s all the whining about “you didn’t top/bottom post”, “you didn’t reply all”, “the header info got lost”, “your attachtment is too big, waiting for moderation” etc. which makes using mailing lists not fun.
Tip: If you add a small form at the bottom you can let that send n e-mail to the list for that user. It will basically be a forum that people can e-mail to if they want. So you don’t have to use your e-mail client at all.
When this is implemented I’m sure I’ll spend more time on mailing lists.
Well, if having a web interface like this will encourage people to break threading, top post, send huge attachments and so on, making the life harder for those of us using a proper mail client, then I think is not a good idea.
Hi Nicu, it absolutely needs to interface with existing list interfaces too. It’s not meant to replace, but augment.
I understand this, but when I see things like “top post”, “flat view”, “attachments” I remember why I don’t waste time on forums. And an invasion of “me too”, AOL-style.
Wait wait wait a minute! Where did I say top post? I don’t think any of this should be creating top-posts..
This shouldn’t effect or degrade the current mailing list experience at all. It’s just a different view onto the same data. So if you prefer the email-centric way you wouldn’t be affected by the tool.
I was replying to Hylke, who seems to want a forum-like experience. I saw a lot of time the debate inside various projects if to use forums *or* mailing lists, that I made my mind.
The only forum I moderate these days is a local (Romanian language) Fedora forum and I find this so time-consuming that in the last couple of weeks, being busy, I think I accessed it once, leaving the work to the other guys in the team.
I put on tighter filters somewhat recently because I couldn’t deal with all the moderation email. Feel free to tune them down if you want though.
Awesome. More feedback coming via email.
This is cool, but it seems to be duplicating the functionality of sites like stackoverflow.com. Why not mimic them instead?
Oops, looks like Gökhan beat me to the punch.
stackoverflow doesn’t let you interact with existing mailing lists.
Awesome! This is much needed. Anything that lowers the barrier of entry for both navigating and contributing to mailing lists is a huge plus!
With an interface like this I think it will promote more people to contribute to lists rather than post on sites like fedoraforum.org where issues might go unnoticed by devs.
1. Make the first sentence of the newest post to a thread visible in the summary.
2. Many other gmail users will likely recommend taking ideas from the way http://mail.google.com and http://groups.google.com groups discussions.
> 2. Many other gmail users will likely recommend taking ideas from the way http://mail.google.com and http://groups.google.com groups discussions.
I’m a GMail user, and I hope Mairin will not take ideas from them. GMail’s ergonomy is just awful (especially in the way it handles mailing lists and threads in genera), and I’m convinced Mo can come up with much better (and these mockups are gorgeous by the way).
Except this will never, ever, ever, ever have those horrifying Google Wave scrollbars!
I understand I may sound completely different that all the other people who commented so far, but I am not sure I understand who is the target for such an interface.
Someone like me using a proper mail client won’t see and use any of those features. I use web interfaces only when having to search something in an archive and I like the full threaded view for that.
The fear is a forum like interface will bring a lot of the bad things and noise associated with the forums, I can deal with >500 new messages a day in my mail client, but won’t be able to keep up with so many forum posts.
I suspect the target audience is a user (like me) who doesn’t want to subscribe to YAML (yet another mailing list?) just to post a question, request, possible bug, etc.
I can sympathize with worring about signal to noise. But there’s got to be a better way than putting a barrier between you and your users.
The target is someone who doesn’t want to deal with mailman. I definitely am in that camp. I cannot manage mailing lists for the life of me. You may have noticed as co-maintainer of the Fedora design team list – I have 10 different email addresses and when I pick the wrong one my posts get held in moderation. Frustrating. I just want to send a quick reply and maybe I don’t have access to a subscribed account. And we have a lot of signal-to-noise ratio on a lot of our mailing lists in the FLOSS community in general.
The mailman archive interface is really painful for me to work with. It doesn’t even have search. Finding a message I know has a valuable nugget of information has taken me hours before.
I work with the mailman archive more often, every week have to extract data from it for Fedora Weekly News and I am OK with that.
Sure, I have my problems with it, one is search and you address it in this mockup, but I am sure search can be solved in an easier way (like a custom google query).
Also, the security model is not great, with having a per-list shared password for all the admins: I moderate design-team and ro-community, have a shared password for each of them and being site-based, only one can be saved in Firefox password manager.
Those are problems I would want to see solved… I don’t care much about sending mails with the wrong address, I also have over 10 addresses and aliases and at times forget to pick the right identity (own SMTP, a drop-down in Thunderbird, is easy), but mailman gives a warning and I can resend. Is something I can deal with knowing it keeps many abuses away.
That looks like a brilliant idea for a Thunderbird (or any other mail/news client) extension. I hate mailing lists, so I make heavy use of gmane, which is a mail to news gateway. If this was implemented as an extension you would have the same functionality for any list or group you read.
*Except* you wouldn’t have the value-add metadata like the ratings, which are especially important I think for figuring out which posters have the most clout / are worth following. That has to be stored somewhere communal I think.
I think the mock ups are great. It could make the barrier to entry to get in on certain topics a lot lower. I think it’s a win-win for everyone.
So I like the topic category idea. But I’m not sure how that would work. Don’t we need a layer of human beings plugging away at categorizing threads? And what happens when a to-do or agenda item thread jumps the tracks…and it is recategorizeable as long winded and boring. Does that fall off the agenda/to-do list?
How do you prevent the digg style tagging from becoming exactly the sort of +1 ‘me too’ that you want to see less of? Since digg itself is about ranking articles… where the information of merit is typically in the article itself and not in the discussion threads associated with the article. I would be concerned that is the wrong model for ranking discussion threads where the most salient information could be buried in the discussion…especially for something controversial.
Luke has been reading this natural language processing book… he thinks we can do some awesome things like that. But you do likely need some human beings plugging away – maybe the computer makes a guess and readers confirm or correct it.
I think threads should be able to have multiple tags…. but maybe one defines them the most. Not sure. I actually totally ripped it off from fark.com..
I want to see less one-liner ‘me too’ posts. If people submit a +1 instead, that’s one less mail going out to the mailing list. Individual comments I think under the initial thread post could have rankings too. What do you think?
So people will submit a “+1” instead of a “me too”, the “+1” will be visible only to those using the web interface and me, with a mail client, will be spared by this useless noise?
Knowing only part of the users (those following the web interface) will see those “+1” means we cannot reliably use the system even if we want to, like for a quick vote on something trivial?
So my idea for that is maybe we could add additional headers for the metadata. E.g, a new message comes in on a thread and it provides an updated X-Mailman-Thread-Rating header with the latest rating.
If you’re using mutt in gnome-terminal, you don’t even have to copy-paste the url — just right-click and open in browser. There’d need to be some sort of short-link mechanism, though.
It also looks like you might be able to take advantage of several of Mailman’s lesser known features, for example topics could map to Mailman’s keywords.
I didn’t even know Mailman had keywords!!! Sounds worth exploring!
brilliant… i always dread the times where the answer i need is on a mailing list web archive. It just screams 1990! And google groups is pretty clunky too.
If it were *me* writing the interface, I’d also add provision to be able to rate responders as well as individual posts or threads. When I read high-volume mailing lists, I already gravitate towards reading threads where I know the person’s reputation, and know there’s going to be a decent signal-to-noise ratio.
Yes the standard deviation will give you some sense of..volatility..but so will separating up/down votes as two different numbers as in the case of . I’m just not sure standard deviation measurements are something normal human beings are going to grab on to as a valuable metric. Maybe there’s a visual cue that can recasting stderr as a measure of consensus/controversy…like a heat index. star color? Blue stars…everyone cool with it. Red stars..its a hotly contested issue.
Personal reputation… what if we could go further and build a web of reputation such that once you’ve selected the individual authors you find have high SNR…the system then recommends post from other people your chosen authors think have high SNR. But to do that we’d have to have a centralized location to which we can all choose to publish how we score individuals.
You think Jack usually writes something worth reading…in the agenda and questions categories..so you scored him highly as a notable author in your interface by +1’ing the posts from Jack you like. The system would then look at Bill’s notable author selections and sees Jack has scored Jill equally highly in the same categories and then recommends posts from Jill to you as well.
In this way you build up a list of recommended authors with high SNR..and grow a discussion group. The system could always be recommending at least one more person than you’ve actively selected that scores high in your reputation web…so that there’s always an opportunity to grow your personal discussion group..but in a smart way.
You could reverse it and use this sort of feedback to figure out how to be a better author by getting some data from everyone about what categories you tend to make a positive impact in and what categories you are part of the noise…so you can try to be better…so we can all try to be better.
I’m my LUG we’ve been interested in replacing our mailing list with a forum for a long time and it remains a pending project. I learnt about JQuery’s forum powered by SoHo Discussion and then started hacking on a Django-based forum program (DjangoBB) in order to add the most of the features from SoHo Discussions we’re interested at but it’s still a work in progress.
I really like this idea since it would somewhat bring the “best of both worlds”, theoretically, but I a bit of a non-believer in it for now until a clear implementation path is drafted.
So that’s my suggestion: instead if interating for a sleeker UI please consider drafting the implementation strategy in a wiki so the UI can be analyzed under the light shed by the implementation path.
When you said this is aimed to augment the experience of the mailing list I can imagine how the web interface can be built taking the mails as input but can’t yet imagine how all of the new richness of this interface would flow back to the plain text mailing list without being too complicated or too spammy.
Anyway, kudos for the intent, this is an area that definitely needs more work and even widely used traditional forum software is starting to look way to old with sites like StackOverflow, SoHo discussions and GetSatisfaction.
Many web discussion interfaces fall flat in their understanding of threading. Mail clients too, for that matter. A thread isn’t the whole tree of messages starting from one initial message — a thread is a contiguous conversation _within_ that tree.
Especially as a particular discussion grows large, it’s important to be able to untangle that. I don’t necessarily care if someone replies to a distant branch of the tree, but care more about replies “near” where I was looking. I might even like to entirely lop off a branch without killing the whole conversation.
Todd Lehman’s LUGnet forum, which is nntp-backed instead of mailing lists, has a pretty nice interface for the turn-of-the-century timeframe when it was developed — see http://news.lugnet.com/build/?n=*,-20&v=c , or take a look at down near the bottom of http://news.lugnet.com/dear-lego/?n=5603 (selected at random) for an example of how longer threads are displayed.
I would like something like this a lot. Especially if a sensible group of people sat down and gave discussion mechanics in the community some serious thought, i.e. how posters would be rated etc. Also, they could contemplate if certain processes or workflows currently being carried out on mailing lists could be ‘moved out’ and done more effectively in dedicated tools (like the one for wallpaper design you made mock-ups of) and how these tools could interact with each other.
I think it is both an awesome ideas for some people, and also not good idea for some people who use email properly.
I think the web interface would be used by people like Mairin and other who likes it (including me!). Those people would need the richness features of the software. While other people who likes using just proper email, they can just extract the mails from the mailing list server.
So, I do not think this web interface ideas would conflict with the one which use proper mail only. It is just accomodating some people who needs to digest all the information differently.
As Matthew Miller mentioned, some mechanism to split off a subtree and promote it as a new thread. Maybe by some sort of vote or by a moderator. Maybe merges as well.
Automatically subscribe/favorite a thread if you post to it.
Daily summaries by email, with links to active threads that you’re following.
Mairin, Beautiful porposal for the mailing lists interface. I attend to your talk in the LibrePlanet, very nice.
Awesome! It’s a shame that people have to rely on Google Groups just to get decent archival/search functionality. Mailman 3 is going to decouple the list mgr back-end from the terrible UI. Any thoughts on how to align and take this forward?
Have you looked at GroupServer? It is a GPL mailing list manager with a web forum interface.
It has some of the features you have mentioned such as flattened threads, and thread summaries. We have tried to maintain equivalence between the web and email interfaces, which makes features like ratings and tagging a challenge.
Do you know if there’s any update on that? Has anyone worked on it?
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2019-04-18T17:14:12Z
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https://mairin.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/a-rich-web-interface-for-mailing-lists/
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Super Duty Magnetic Tool rack, stainless steel Magnetic Knife Bar And Magnetic Strip Holder ,Multiuse16 inch - Multiple uses, use in garage to arrange tools in your reach. This high quality magnetic strip saves space on the kitchen or workshop. In most workshops space is limited so you need to find a way to utilize every bit of space that you can one area that is often overlooked is the space underneath shelves and cabinets but this can actually be a great place to store small tools all you need is amagnetic strip. Width 1 ½ ” (4 cm) height ¾ ” length 1575″ ,stainless steel. Super easy to install and comes with all necessary hardware.
VIVOHOME Stainless Steel Magnetic Knife Bar - Built with an extra strong magnet for security it can can hold several knives or other tools at the same time. Easy for you to install it with the included mounting hardware. Made from high quality stainless steel it comes with a sleek, space-saving design . Featuring a simple design, this knife bar will blend in with your kitchen decor. Keep your kitchen cutlery organized and save countertop space ideal for store your kitchen tools like knife, spoon, fork etc .
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2019-04-25T09:47:21Z
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https://www.mygreatkitchenideas.com/22-best-stainless-steel-magnetic-knife-bars/
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Michael Lewis: Many Trump Appointees Are Uninterested In The Agencies They Head Up The Moneyball author is writing a series of articles for Vanity Fair about President Trump's picks to lead federal agencies — and the consequences of those appointments.
The Moneyball author is writing a series of articles for Vanity Fair about President Trump's picks to lead federal agencies — and the consequences of those appointments.
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. You might know our guest, journalist Michael Lewis, from some of his books, such as "Moneyball" and "The Big Short," both of which were adapted into movies. Lewis has spent a lot of this year exploring the ways the Trump administration is changing the federal government at the ground level.
Lewis has spoken to many career employees of the departments of energy and agriculture. He says they found Trump appointees ill-prepared for the jobs they have and uninterested in the work of the departments they're running. In a series of articles for Vanity Fair, Lewis reports that the consequences of such ill-informed leadership could be troubling in areas as critical as maintenance of the nation's nuclear arsenal and managing nuclear waste, both functions of the Energy Department. Lewis spoke to FRESH AIR's Dave Davies about his series and about his latest book, "The Undoing Project," which is now out in paperback.
DAVE DAVIES, BYLINE: Well, Michael Lewis, welcome back to FRESH AIR. What made you want to get into these government departments and see them from the inside here as the transition in administrations occurred?
MICHAEL LEWIS: Well, my mind when Trump was elected was on the subject of risk because I just finished a book, "The Undoing Project," about people's - the difficulty people had processing risk, in evaluating risk. And I was wondering what risks Trump brought with him. I then saw that the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration basically didn't happen, (laughter) that - what normally happens after a new president comes in is that the day after the election, dozens of people roll into each of the agencies and start getting briefings from the people who are on their way out or from the career civil servants.
And across the government, there were people waiting inside the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and no one showed up to be briefed. And so I thought, well, maybe this is a way to get at the question of what risk we're running with this new kind of president, go in and get the briefings myself that they didn't get and see and ask them. Like, what are the risks to the society if the government is neglected or mismanaged or misunderstood?
DAVIES: Right. And so you talked to a lot of officials and former officials of these departments. How easy was it to get access, to walk into the Department of Energy building and poke around?
LEWIS: So the former Obama people who ran the places were of course very accessible. Just generally, when I would call them up, they'd say, that's - you know, I'm relieved you called. I was hoping to have given a briefing or presided over a briefing, and it never happened, and I'd love to give it to you. The career civil servants who were inside the Department of Energy or the Department of Agriculture are highly exposed and scared. They're afraid they're going to get in trouble if their names are in the press. So a lot of it had to be done kind of (laughter) clandestinely.
The Department of Energy, for example - I did get in touch with someone who was a little less scared, and she gave me a tour of the building. But mostly with the career civil servants, I had to meet them outside the building and agree not to use their names. And funny enough, you know, they clearly felt so exposed that I think that - I'm continuing to do this project. I think I was - as a rule, I'm not going to use the names of the career civil servants because I don't want to get people fired.
DAVIES: Right. Well, let's talk about the Department of Agriculture, which you spent some time in. And you know, a lot of people think of, yeah, well, that's the agency that distributes subsidies to farmers. And you found out (laughter) there's an awful lot more that it does. There's a drinking game they play there, of - on the diversity of its tasks.
DAVIES: Yeah. So what are some of the things we would chug on that we wouldn't know the Department of Agriculture does?
LEWIS: You know, so - right, if I ask you, the USDA shoots geese at LaGuardia airport so they don't get into airplane engines - if you answered no, you'd be wrong. They - the USDA polices essentially all conflict between animals and people in the country.
The USDA makes sure that circus elephants aren't being abused. The USDA makes sure that each of the 9 billion birds we kill each year to eat are - aren't going to make us sick. The USDA oversees firefighting in the country while firefighting and the National Forest Service and 200 million acres of national forest. The USDA funds a vast majority of the science research into food production. The USDA feeds poor people and schoolchildren who can't afford school lunches.
I mean, it goes on and on. And the actual farming part of it, the agricultural part of it, the farm subsidy part of it, even if you count it generously, is less than 10 percent of the budget.
DAVIES: OK. So the Agriculture Department staff were prepared for a transition. They were ready to brief people who they knew would be coming in who may or may not have - share some of their policy agenda. Who showed up from the Trump administration?
LEWIS: Oh, my God. They had parking spots reserved, and they had offices set aside and the briefing books on the table. And they'd arranged Wi-Fi for the computers and passwords for everybody and, you know, badges to get in and out of the buildings. They expected a team of people to show up. And this wasn't just the Department of Agriculture. There were other agencies where they were similarly prepared that just wondered, where is everybody?
And then days passed, and they finally kind of get word that, well, they're a little disorganized, and nobody's coming. And it was actually the better part of two months before anybody shows up who's going to be - who's going to represent Trump's transition to the Department of Agriculture. So they had - they were just left waiting for a long time.
DAVIES: And the first person that shows up is a fellow named Brian Klipperstein (ph), right?
LEWIS: He's not the first person who's appointed by Trump to go in and be the transition person. But the first two people I think had problems because they were a lobbyist for, like, the soda industry. (Laughter) And there was protests about that person being involved in such an enterprise because, among other things, the USDA is responsible for the nation's nutrition and understanding it and promoting good nutrition. So the first guy who actually shows up and is still there is named Klippenstein, and he comes from an operation called Protect The Harvest.
And Protect The Harvest, best as I can tell, it's - it sees his job as essentially trolling the Humane Society, that it's - it stands up for the rights of people in animal-people disputes, which, you know, I didn't realize that it was necessary to do so. I thought people were doing a pretty good job of it. But it's hypersensitive to animal rights people and tries to respond to animal rights activists wherever it can. And it was funded by a rancher and oil man named Forrest Lucas. Anyway, this guy runs that operation for them. And the people in the USDA of course find that a little odd because one of the things the USDA does is stand up for the rights of (laughter) animals in animal-people disputes.
LEWIS: That kind of - yes, dogfighting and circuses and, you know, poultry farming. And wherever animals might be mistreated, the USDA has some responsibility to monitor it. And anyway, so this guy - but he's a one-man transition team. And the thing that's bewildering to the people inside the USDA who thought they were going to be passing the baton and explaining to the Trump administration how the Department of Agriculture works is that they thought this is a job for 20 people to be done over 80 days, not one person over a couple of weeks. So the feeling generally inside the institution was that the transition never really happened, and the people who eventually come in never really got the briefings.
DAVIES: And so Klippenstein wasn't interested in details.
LEWIS: Well, according to my sources, he was interested in some things and not others. And he took a peculiar interest in anything having to do with climate change. He wanted to know who inside the agency had been responsible for responding to climate change. And this also happened in the Department of Energy.
Essentially there was a witch hunt across the government for scientists, policy people who were responsible for responding to climate change because the position of the Trump administration was that basically it didn't exist. And so the career civil servant who was asked for the names of people in the Department of Agriculture who might be involved in, say, researching climate change refused to give up names. So that got shut down right away.
DAVIES: Eventually a larger team of Trump appointees did arrive at the Department of Agriculture. Who were they? What kind of backgrounds did they bring?
LEWIS: They sent in 30 or so people to work in the Department of Agriculture who were political appointees. They were typically young men in their 20s with absolutely no background in agriculture or in anything having to do with the mission of the Department of Agriculture. The magazine Politico got ahold of the resumes of these people, and most of them did not have the qualifications for the jobs they were supposed to hold. So it's a little unclear why they were put there or what they thought they were doing. And it's even unclear that people in the civil service there - how many of them are still floating around the building.
But the main positions inside the Department of Agriculture - the Senate confirmed positions like the deputy secretary and the undersecretary positions - there are 13 Senate confirmed positions at the Department of Agriculture. And when I finished writing this piece a month ago, only one of them had been actually filled - the secretary.
DAVIES: You asked everybody, what's one of your biggest concerns about what might go awry here? And one of them said the science. It turns out that the chief scientist of the Department of Agriculture is a Senate-confirmed position. You spoke to Cathy Woteki, right? She was the previous chief scientist. What did she tell you about the job, what it does, why it's important?
LEWIS: So what she told me was in some ways even not as interesting as who she was. I mean, this is a person - she's 70 years old - who's spent her entire career essentially preparing for this job of being the chief scientist at the Department of Agriculture and steering a budget of several billion dollars a year of grants to researchers who were working on things like how we respond to climate change in agriculture, how we grow crops in warmer climates or in different places or how we graze livestock when - at higher altitudes. I mean, there are all kinds of research projects that are essentially laying the groundwork for how we feed ourselves 50 years from now and that will pay off then. And it's mission-critical.
I mean, the whole department was in fact founded essentially as a science institution. When Lincoln created it in the 1860s, he did it so that farmers - there was a more rapid dissemination of the state-of-the-art practices in farming. So it's core to the mission of the Department of Agriculture. And this person who was - had been in the job, you know, had spent 50 years training as an agricultural scientist and really understood the field.
What concerned her was, first, who Trump had nominated to be her replacement - an Iowa right-wing talk show radio host named Sam Clovis, who had absolutely no background in science, whose chief qualification seems to have been he was just really loyal to Trump. He was co-chairman of Trump's campaign. And she, like everybody else, was mystified because while you can understand why political loyalists need to find their homes inside of an administration, why put him in a place where you actually have to know something? You know, why put him in charge of the science end of the Department of Agriculture, especially since so much of that research that's being done is one way or another related to climate change? And he doesn't think climate change exists.
So the fear - the broader fear was that the science programs in the Department of Agriculture were going to be politicized and that - in a way they just hadn't been and the culture would shift and it would cease to be a scientific enterprise and become a political one.
DAVIES: You know, when I read about this, it struck me that this is the kind of program that populists like Steve Bannon would say, this is exactly what we have to get rid of. This is the deep state, these bureaucrats who hand out tens of billions of dollars every year to obscure research projects or make loans to people hither and yon that taxpayers have no idea of or interest in, and this is the kind of swamp we want to drain. Give us an example of this science and the way it contributes something positive that we wouldn't know.
LEWIS: Penicillin (laughter). I mean, if you go back to the history of the Department of Agriculture and its role in making agriculture more efficient, there are not many people who would dispute that it is the - has been the chief engine of agricultural progress in the country from its founding. And the progress has been astonishing. I mean, the average farmer when the Department of Agriculture is founded is feeding three or four people a year. And now they're feeding a 155 people a year. In some ways, the scientific progress in the production of food is - it underpins the entire economy, enables everybody to be something else other than a farmer.
So the idea that, like, the free market by itself is going to generate the optimum amount of long-term scientific research - I don't think any person who's actually in the market, like, at a big corporation, a big ag corporation or, in the case of energy, big energy corporations would say - it would say that there's any validity to that. It's that they know the market is very good at funding research that has obvious short-term gains that will yield. It's not so good at funding research that is going to have really long-term implications that are hard - that the profits from which are hard to capture.
And that's the kind of research that the department funds. And it funds it at, you know, all those schools that are called ag or tech. The land grant universities that were founded alongside the Department of Agriculture in the 1860s are doing the research.
DAVIES: I want to come back to Sam Clovis, the guy that the Trump administration nominated as the chief scientist for the Department of Agriculture who you say didn't have a background in science, was a talk show host. What do we know about his effect on the science program in the Department of Agriculture so far?
LEWIS: We know nothing yet. I mean, the question is - it's very hard to see what they're doing now. I mean, it's still early days. And the sad truth is that you could put someone who is wholly unqualified into that job, and the society wouldn't feel the effects for a very long time because the kind of research that's being done is research in - is research that will pay off 30 years from now or 40 years from now.
So this is to me - there's a theme in the sort of risks that the Trump administration are taking by putting people who are not suited for jobs into the jobs. And one of the themes is that they're - a willingness to tax the distant future for the political present because the distant future really doesn't have a voice at the table.
DAVIES: My guest is Michael Lewis. His article is about the Trump administration's impact on departments of the federal government appear in Vanity Fair. Since our interview was recorded, the president's pick to be chief scientist of the Agriculture Department, Sam Clovis, has withdrawn his nomination. It was revealed that last year, Clovis was the Trump campaign supervisor of George Papadopoulos, who tried to broker a relationship between the campaign and Russian officials and has admitted lying about it to the FBI. We'll hear more of our interview with Michael Lewis after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. And we're speaking with Michael Lewis, the author of "Moneyball" and other books. His latest is "The Undoing Project." He has some articles now in Vanity Fair about how the Trump administration is reshaping the work of several federal departments, among them the Departments of Agriculture and the Department of Energy. I want to talk about the energy department. The energy department had reams of briefing material ready for the Trump team when they arrived. Who showed up, if anyone?
LEWIS: Nobody showed up the day after the election. They - and they were, too - were expecting 20 to 30 people roll in. And they were especially alarmed because like the Department of Agriculture, the energy department is misnamed. It really is misleading. You think it's about energy. It's really more about nuclear weapons. It's where the nuclear stockpile is maintained. And because they're in the middle of national security issues - and they were terrified that the Trump administration was not going to know what it needed to know.
So they had 20 desks and 20 parking spots and so on and so forth, and nobody shows up for several weeks. And when someone shows up, again, it's one guy, and it's a guy who doesn't seem to know very much and doesn't seem actually all that interested in learning what they have to tell him. He shows up kind of in a spirit of, oh, someone - you know, they told me I kind of got to come in here.
What became apparent to the Obama administration is that from the point of view of the Trump administration, the transition was something they just had to be able to say they did but they didn't have any actual interest in. And now, it wasn't true in every department. I think it's probably less true, say, in the defense department, but that was true - generally true across the administration.
And the problem is then of course, what happens is there's no transfer of knowledge? I mean, the idea that, like, the people who are going out, even if they're from a different party, don't have anything to teach the people who are coming in is preposterous, that the vast majority of what I would tell you if I had been in the energy department for eight years and you were coming in and didn't know very much about it would be not ideological at all.
It'd be like, how do we maintain the nuclear stockpile, or, what's going on with a nuclear cleanup in Eastern Washington - very technical things. And I would also give you guidance on how the place runs. But the Trump administration took - clearly took the view that they had nothing to learn at all from the people who had been running the place for the last eight years.
DAVIES: You write that there was - what was called as a beachhead team, some group of Trump staffers who showed up. What did you hear that they did?
LEWIS: ...Because this happened in every place. In the energy department, I mean, just to quote one of the civil servants, they said they ran around insulting people. And they did - among other things, they asked for a list of all the names of people who had been involved in any climate change conferences or research. So there was a feeling that there was a witch hunt for people who had worked on climate change. Beyond that, there was no real, like, groping with the subject matter or anything like that.
GROSS: We're listening to the interview FRESH AIR's Dave Davies recorded with Michael Lewis about his series in Vanity Fair examining how the Trump administration is changing the federal government on the ground level. They'll talk more about the series and about Lewis' latest book, "The Undoing Project," after we take a short break. And Lloyd Schwartz will review a new Brahms recording by one of Lloyd's favorite pianists. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to the interview FRESH AIR's Dave Davies recorded with journalist Michael Lewis, the author of "Moneyball" and "The Big Short." Lewis is writing a series for Vanity Fair about how the Trump administration is changing the federal government on the ground level. The first article was about the Department of Energy. The second and latest is about the Department of Agriculture. Lewis says many career employees have found Trump appointees to be ill-prepared for their jobs and uninterested in the work of the departments they're running.
DAVIES: What about Rick Perry, the energy secretary, who once as a candidate I think wanted to eliminate the Department of Energy?
LEWIS: Well, I wrote the piece on the Department of Energy and published it a couple of months ago. And one of the things that has occurred to me as I've been wandering around the government is that there's, like, a distinction that needs to be made within the world of Trump appointees, and that there are a whole bunch of people - like Sam Clovis in the science department at Agriculture or like Rick Perry at Department of Energy - who have exhibited such ignorance of the task that they are - been handed to do that the responsible response to being asked to do it should've been, you know, I'm not qualified.
Rick Perry said onstage - call for the elimination of the Department of Energy, and I couldn't remember its name. So the feedback - what I got out of career civil servants is, one, it was an insult that he was even put in the job in the first place. Two, he wasn't making any great effort to actually get to know the place, though he was doing lots of public appearances.
So he - and seemed to view the job as largely a ceremonial job, where he would tour and tweet about it, tour a national laboratory, for example, that's - and tweet about it. Or he was making - he's been - there's been lots of foreign travel and tweeting about it but no, like, organic interaction with this department he's meant to run. Now, that may have changed since I wrote my piece. I don't know. But the fact that the people in the building who are serious, committed civil servants are offended by the person who's been put on top of them is - it's not a good sign.
DAVIES: Your article about the Energy Department is titled "Why The Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming From Inside The White House." What does the Energy Department do that should scare us if it's done badly?
DAVIES: Now, I would think that would be the Defense Department. What does the Energy Department have to do with it?
LEWIS: No, no, no. They're - the Energy Department is responsible for maintaining the material inside of nuclear bombs - the plutonium and the uranium. They make - it's research at national labs like Livermore Laboratory or Lawrence Berkeley Lab or Los Alamos that's funded by and overseen by the Department of Energy that maintains the nuclear stockpile.
In addition, the Energy Department is charged with cleaning up the sites where we have made nuclear weapons, which are now horribly contaminated and, the more you learn about them, terrifying. So Hanford, Wash. - eastern Washington - was the site of the manufacturer of the plutonium that went into the first atom bombs during World War II. And that was - course, a hasty and rushed job in that we were racing to beat the Germans to get a nuclear - an atomic bomb.
And a lot of stuff was dumped in the soil that should not have been dumped in the soil and that is creeping slowly towards the Columbia River. And to clean it up, the Department of Energy estimates it's going to take $100 billion and a hundred years. That site, which is, you know, like, a third the size of Rhode Island, is a disaster waiting to happen. If it's not properly managed and the waste gets into the Columbia River, you have a nightmare scenario.
DAVIES: There are a lot of scientists and technical people, I'm sure, who run these and the - you know, the salt beds in New Mexico where the barrels of spent nuclear fuel are stored. But those at the top, what harm might they do? Are they going to cut the budget in ways that would have an impact?
LEWIS: It's hard to know what they're going to do. What we know is that the person who is - was actually in the office who was in charge of overseeing the nuclear stockpile in - during the last days of the Obama administration heard no word at all from the Trump administration about who was going to replace him or whether they wanted him to stay on, to the point where he had packed up his boxes and left.
And there was no one in the office until the Trump people called and said, oh, we've been - senators called the Trump people - administration, and said, you got to get that guy back. What happens if there's no one actually kind of running the place in a competent way? I mean, you tell me. I mean, I don't think anybody knows.
Here's something that one of the Energy Department officials said to me that - it was just a throwaway line, but it stuck in my head - said when the - that when the Trump people finally showed up and were questioning the people who were in this department that oversees the nuclear arsenal, they were asking about where the weapons scientists came from who were in the various laboratories like Los Alamos.
And they had explained to them that these people who end up figuring out how to make plutonium explode when you want it to explode and not explode when you don't want it to explode - that these people didn't start their lives wanting to make atom bombs, you know? They didn't start their lives as weapons scientists.
DAVIES: You want people who want - know how to keep nuclear material safe.
LEWIS: Safe - exactly. So it's that kind of thing. Like, you know, if you let the wrong kind of people close to the process, yeah, it's hard to know how it will go wrong. It's just - you just know it's not going to go more right.
DAVIES: One of the things that struck me when you were writing about things that the Energy Department does that aren't apparent to anybody in the public is things like, for example, its contribution to containing Iran's nuclear program and waste. You want to just describe that for us?
LEWIS: Well, Obama's secretary of energy, Ernie Moniz, is a nuclear physicist. He really knows how to build an atom bomb, or - and what you need for it. So he was at the table with - during the Iran negotiations. And he was so pleased with the result of the negotiations because he knew that what they were being denied, or what they agreed to deny themselves, would deny them the nuclear capability.
And that was the whole goal of the negotiation. So the Energy Department and the expertise in it is what you need at the table when you're trying to prevent some foreign country from getting its hands on nuclear weapons.
DAVIES: So if a new presidential administration comes in that is suspicious of the agreement, they need to understand the technical details to know whether it's an effective agreement or not, which means they got to pay attention and listen to the people in the department, right?
LEWIS: Absolutely. If you're not - you can't just say that's a bad deal without sitting down with people at, like, Los Alamos who will explain to you why it's not a bad deal, while, in fact, this is going to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons.
DAVIES: Michael Lewis' pieces about the way the Trump administration is reshaping departments in the federal government are appearing in Vanity Fair. We'll continue our conversation after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. And we're speaking with Michael Lewis, the author of "Moneyball" and many other books. His latest is "The Undoing Project." He also has several articles appearing in Vanity Fair about the way the Trump administration is reshaping the work of several federal departments, beginning with the departments of Agriculture and Energy.
I want to talk a bit about your latest book, "The Undoing Project," which is now out in paperback. It's about a couple of Israeli psychologists who did some pathbreaking work on how people make decisions. And I know that you got interested in this after you wrote "Moneyball," which is about how, you know, the managers of the Oakland Athletics found that smart, you know, data-based evaluation of ballplayers gave them insights far more helpful than veteran baseball scouts. So how did you get from major league baseball to these two guys in Israel?
LEWIS: You know, it was funny because I seldom read the reviews of my books because all I remember is the bad stuff in them, not the good stuff, so it's just a - it's a pain-inducing event. But I read a review of "Moneyball" by Richard Thaler, who's just recently won the Nobel Prize in economics, and Cass Sunstein, who is a legal scholar. And they said - they pointed out a flaw in "Moneyball."
And the flaw was that I didn't understand what my book was about. I thought my book was about how people got misvalued in a marketplace - in this case, baseball players. And they said, no, what this book is really about is the way experts - supposed experts on baseball players - scouts - misjudge the players. And it's about what's going on in the minds of those people when they make those misjudgments.
And two Israeli psychologists, Amos Tversky and Danny Kahneman, did work in the '70s and early '80s exploring what was going on in the minds of experts when they were making judgments in conditions of uncertainty. And they actually explained exactly what's going on inside the minds of these people.
And I thought, oh, my God, I missed the story. So I started reading their papers just to see what I had missed. And in the course of reading the papers, I finally got up the nerve to call Danny Kahneman and go visit him, and that began a relationship that led me to the book.
DAVIES: Yeah. Amos died in 1996.
LEWIS: Amos Tversky died in 1996. And oddly, which I didn't appreciate at the time, his eldest son, Oren, had been my student in the one term I'd taught at Berkeley. And so I had - I ended up having access to both sides of the collaboration. Kahneman himself, when he was 21 years old, reshaped the entire military by essentially doing "Moneyball" for Israeli officers. He built an algorithm to decide which young men would be officers and which wouldn't.
DAVIES: And how did Kahneman tell them to evaluate officers to find the good ones?
LEWIS: Well, what was going on when he came into the army in the early '50s was, they were using scouts. They were essentially using people who were supposedly expert in kind of looking at a young man, and sizing him up and deciding whether he was officer material. And he had the insight then that the judgment was bad. They already had data at that point.
They were starting to realize that the wrong people were ending up in the officer corps. The performance in the army was not good back then. And what he did was he identified half a dozen traits - he did this in a day. This is the amazing thing. This is how slapdash it all was at the time, too. But in a day, he sort of made a list of the traits that you would want in an officer. You want punctuality. You would want bravery. You would want et cetera, et cetera.
And he found ways to ask questions of people so that these qualities could be measured and a number could be assigned to a person that would be a grade for each quality. So he built a very cruel - crude algorithm, and he took the process of choosing the officers essentially out of the hands of the scouts. And to this day, it's done by what's called the Kahneman score - that the young men and women in Israel are evaluated by this thing he built in the early '50s.
LEWIS: No, you can - you know, it's funny. It's very hard to summarize because what they were doing - here's a good example of an experiment they did that's easy to describe on the radio. They put people in a room with a wheel of fortune. And on the wheel of fortune were - it was numbered 0-99, and they'd have people spin this wheel of fortune.
And it would land on some number - 47 or 62 or 88. And then after they'd - it landed on some number, they'd ask the people, what percentage of the countries in the United Nations come from Africa? And the answer, they were able to see, was driven in part by the number that was spun on the wheel of fortune. People who spun a low number guessed a lower number for the number of African countries in the United Nations than people who spun a high number.
And thus is born the idea of anchoring, that you can actually, really screw up people's judgment by throwing in an arbitrary number in front of the thing being judged. The thing, in a funny way, that really drew me to them as a subject was not just the research they're famous for, but all the stuff they kind of picked up and played with and didn't really publish anything about but got to all kinds of rich insights anyway.
DAVIES: Why is the book called "The Undoing Project"?
LEWIS: I think of their program as kind of undoing a false view of the human mind as an essentially irrational thing. But it's called "The Undoing Project" also because that's what they were working on when they busted up, when they stopped working together. They were trying to explore the rules of the human imagination. The very idea that the human imagination has rules is, to me, breathtakingly interesting.
But it grows out of Danny Kahneman watching people at the funeral of his nephew who had been killed in an Air Force plane crash try to undo the boy's death, the way that the stories they told - if only that had happened, if only that had happened, if only that hadn't happened. And there was a structure he saw to the if-only statements, that people were - the things they were undoing were the things that happened right before his death. They - people kind of worked from the tragedy backwards. They didn't say, if only there was no Israeli army (laughter) or if only he'd never gone into the Air Force.
And he and Amos start to noodle around about the rules of the imagination by looking at the way people undo tragedies and to turn up all this stuff that they'd ever put in print. And I think when you back away from Kahneman and Tversky, yes, people will say they created behavioral economics. They won Nobel Prizes. They created a field called judgment decision-making that never existed before. But what they really did was make it scientifically respectable to investigate the human mind and what it's doing. And that has had profound implications across the society.
DAVIES: You know, their approach to decision-making I gather has affected, you know, things that leaders do in government and medicine and finance and probably military strategy. You know, I'm wondering if - how it affects we ordinary people who make routine decisions like voting, for example. And I wondered what you think they might observe of the election of Donald Trump.
LEWIS: Well, let's - I'll give you a grab bag of things I think they would have said about the election. But I'm putting words in their mouth because of course they didn't speak to the election. The first thing they would say is they would notice how after the election, all sorts of people had explanations for why it was basically inevitable that Trump was going to win who never predicted it, that the world instantly set about trying to make itself seem more certain than it actually was and denying that - kind of a large random component in any election - that a lot of things could have happened where Trump wasn't president.
But people started to kind of explain the world as if that was what was meant to happen. So they would have been very interested in that, just for starters. And they would have said, you know, it's basically a phony exercise pretending to be able to explain what you never could have predicted. And reality is much more complicated than that. So, they would have said that.
Then they would have said I think that Trump's appeal is in part the way he eliminates the uncertainty of the world, that Obama - as successful as he was as president, Obama himself acknowledged that it was always problematic for him having to seem sure of things that were clearly inherently probabilistic, that people do not want to be led by someone who's saying, well, there's a 68 percent chance we won't be in a nuclear war (laughter). They want to be led by people who say, I'm going to - not going to let that happen. And that aspect of Trump's character they would have seen as appealing to basically human nature.
They would then have said about Trump that he is a case study of all of the problems with intuitive judgment because he gives into his own so totally, that he's so totally devoted to his own gut instincts. And they had identified all kinds of problems with gut instinct. The gut instinct led you to naturally think in stereotypes, for example, to naturally overweight whatever you've just heard or just seen, to naturally think that things that are vivid or memorable are much more likely to happen than things that aren't.
So they would have been - they would have fought - I think they would have been alarmed - very alarmed by Trump's - the lack of a sense he had that he needs to check his own gut against anything. I don't think they would have felt that their research basically explained the election. I don't - I think they would have said it was deeply inexplicable.
DAVIES: Well, Michael Lewis, thanks so much for speaking with us.
GROSS: Michael Lewis' articles about how the Trump administration is changing the federal government on the ground level are published in Vanity Fair. His book "The Undoing Project" is out in paperback. He spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies, who is also WHYY's senior reporter. After we take a short break, Lloyd Schwartz will review a new recording of pianist Nelson Freire playing Brahms. This is FRESH AIR.
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2019-04-22T15:27:00Z
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https://www.npr.org/2017/11/06/562246599/michael-lewis-many-trump-appointees-are-uninterested-in-the-agencies-they-head-u
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Disruptive technologies might change the very nature of humanity – and no nation can fight on its own.
Though human beings are social animals, for millions of years they lived in small, intimate communities numbering no more than a few dozen people. Even today, as the evolutionary biologist Robin Dunbar has shown, most human beings find it impossible properly to know more than 150 individuals, irrespective of how many Facebook “friends” they boast. Human beings easily develop loyalty to small, intimate groups such as a tribe, an infantry company or a family business, but it is hardly natural for them to be loyal to millions of strangers. Such mass loyalties have appeared only in the past few thousand years as a means of solving practical problems that no single tribe could solve by itself. Ancient Egypt was created to help human beings gain control of the River Nile, and ancient China coalesced to help the people restrain the turbulent Yellow River.
Nations solved some problems and created new ones. In particular, big nations led to big wars. Yet people were willing to pay the price in blood, because nations provided them with unprecedented levels of security and prosperity. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the nationalist deal still looked very attractive. Nationalism was leading to horrendous conflicts on an unprecedented scale, but modern nation states also built systems of health care, education and welfare. National health services made Passchendaele and Verdun seem worthwhile.
Yet the invention of nuclear weapons sharply tilted the balance of the deal. After Hiroshima, people no longer feared that nationalism would lead to mere war: they began to fear it would lead to nuclear war. Total annihilation has a way of sharpening people’s minds, and thanks in no small measure to the atomic bomb, the impossible happened and the nationalist genie was squeezed at least halfway back into its bottle. Just as the ancient villagers of the Yellow River Basin redirected some of their loyalty from local clans to a much bigger nation that restrained the dangerous river, so in the nuclear age a global community gradually developed over and above the various nations because only such a community could restrain the nuclear demon.
In the 1964 US presidential campaign, Lyndon B Johnson aired the “Daisy” advertisement, one of the most successful pieces of propaganda in the annals of television. The advert opens with a little girl picking and counting the petals of a daisy, but when she reaches ten, a metallic male voice takes over, counting back from ten to zero as in a missile launch countdown. Upon it reaching zero, the bright flash of a nuclear explosion fills the screen, and Candidate Johnson addresses the American public: “These are the stakes – to make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other. Or we must die.” We often associate the slogan “Make love, not war” with the late-1960s counterculture, but already in 1964 it was accepted wisdom, even among hard-nosed politicians such as Johnson.
During the Cold War, nationalism took a back seat to a more global approach to international politics, and when the Cold War ended, globalisation seemed to be the irresistible wave of the future. It was expected that humankind would leave nationalistic politics behind, as a relic of more primitive times that might appeal at most to the ill-informed inhabitants of a few underdeveloped countries. Events in 2016 proved, however, that nationalism still has a powerful hold even on the citizens of Europe and the United States, not to mention Russia, India and China. Alienated by the impersonal forces of global capitalism, and fearing for the fate of national systems of health, education and welfare, people all over the world seek reassurance and meaning in the bosom of the nation.
Yet the question raised by Johnson in the Daisy advertisement is even more pertinent today than it was in 1964. Will we make a world in which all human beings can live together, or will we all go into the dark? Can Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and their like save the world by appealing to our national sentiments, or is the current nationalist spate a form of escapism from the intractable global problems we face?
Let’s start with nuclear war. When the Daisy advert aired, two years after the Cuban missile crisis, nuclear annihilation was a palpable threat. Pundits and laypeople alike feared that humankind did not have the wisdom to avert destruction, and that it was only a matter of time before the Cold War turned scorching hot. In fact, humankind successfully rose to the nuclear challenge. Americans, Soviets, Europeans and Chinese changed the way geopolitics had been conducted for millennia, so that the Cold War ended with little bloodshed, and a new internationalist world order fostered an era of unprecedented peace. Not only was nuclear war averted, but war of all kinds declined. Since 1945, surprisingly few borders have been redrawn through naked aggression, and most countries have ceased to use war as a standard political tool. In 2016, despite wars in Syria, Ukraine and other hot spots, fewer people died from human violence than from obesity, car accidents or suicide. This may well have been the greatest political and moral achievement of our times.
Unfortunately, we are so used to this achievement that we take it for granted. This is partly why people allow themselves to play with fire, and that includes not only the latest Russian adventures in eastern Europe and the Middle East, but also the choices made by European and American voters.
The Brexit debate in Britain revolved mainly around questions of economics and immigration, while the EU’s vital contribution to European and global peace has largely been ignored. After centuries of terrible bloodshed, the French, Germans, Italians and Britons have finally built a mechanism that ensures continental harmony – only to have the British public throw a wrench into the miracle machine. Meanwhile, Donald Trump mixes calls for US isolationism with plans to strengthen the country’s nuclear arsenal and reignite a nuclear arms race, thereby threatening to undo the hard-won gains of the past decades and bring us back to the brink of nuclear annihilation.
It was extremely difficult to construct the internationalist regime that prevented nuclear war and safeguarded global peace. No doubt we need to adapt this regime to changing conditions in the world: for example, by relying less on the United States and giving a greater role to non-Western powers such as China and India. But abandoning this regime altogether and reverting to nationalist power politics would be an irresponsible gamble.
True, in the past, countries played the nationalist politics game without destroying human civilisation. But that was in the pre-Hiroshima era. Since then, nuclear weapons have raised the stakes and changed the fundamental nature of war and politics. No matter whom American voters elect to the presidency, the atom bomb is still there and E still equals MC². As long as human beings know how to enrich uranium and plutonium, their survival will depend on privileging the prevention of nuclear war over the interests of any particular nation. Zealous nationalists should ask themselves whether their nation by itself, without a robust system of international co-operation, can protect the world – or even itself – from nuclear destruction.
On top of nuclear war, in the coming decades humankind will face a new threat to its existence that hardly registered on the political radar in 1964: climate change. If we continue with our present course it is likely that global warming, ocean acidification and ecological degradation will result in unprecedented economic, political and social problems, and might well destroy the foundations of human prosperity. What is the nationalist answer to climate change? How can any nation, however powerful, stop global warming on its own? Will the US build a wall against rising oceans?
When it comes to climate, countries are not sovereign, but are at the mercy of actions taken by governments on the other side of the planet. As long as 200 governments pursue 200 different ecological strategies, shaped by their unique needs and interests, none is likely to succeed. With present-day technology, any serious measures to stop global warming are likely to slow down economic growth. Such a policy carries an unbearable political price if it is undertaken by a single country while others continue with business as usual. Any US administration that deliberately slowed down economic growth for environmental reasons would be bound to lose the next election; a Chinese administration that does so courts revolution tomorrow morning. In a nationalist and xenophobic world no government will sacrifice itself for the greater good of humanity, as Trump’s actions show.
Indeed, nationalism is even more dangerous in the context of climate change than that of nuclear war. An atomic bomb is such an obvious and immediate threat that even the most ardent nationalist cannot ignore it. Global warming, by contrast, is a much more vague and protracted menace. Hence, whenever environmental considerations demand some painful sacrifice, nationalists will be tempted to put the national interest first, reassuring themselves that we can worry about the environment later, or just leave it to people elsewhere. Alternatively, as in the case of Trump, they may simply deny the problem. It isn’t a coincidence that scepticism about climate change is usually the preserve of nationalist politicians. They have no answer to the problem, and so they prefer to believe it does not exist.
The same dynamics are likely to spoil any nationalist antidote to the third large threat to human existence in the 21st century: technological disruption. New technologies, particularly in the fields of bioengineering and artificial intelligence, will soon give humankind unprecedented, godlike powers. Whereas previously human beings learned to produce food, weapons and vehicles, in the coming decades our main products will probably be bodies, brains and minds. However, it is extremely difficult to foresee the potential impact of such technologies. They open the door to an entire supermarket of doomsday scenarios.
If and when artificial intelligence (AI) surpasses human intelligence, it may be given control of weapon systems and crucial decisions, with potentially calamitous consequences. In addition, as AI outperforms human beings in ever more tasks, it might push billions of us out of the job market, creating a new “useless class” of people, devoid of both economic value and political power. Meanwhile, given enough biometric data and enough computing power, external algorithms could know us better than we know ourselves, and then governments and corporations could predict our decisions, manipulate our emotions and gain absolute control over our lives.
On the bioengineering front, breakthroughs in genetics, nanotechnology and direct brain/computer interfaces could unleash deadly new epidemics or disturb our internal mental balance. In past centuries we have gained control of the world outside us and reshaped the planet, but because we didn’t understand the complexity of the global ecology, the changes we made inadvertently disrupted the entire ecological system. In the coming century we will gain control of the world inside us and reshape our bodies and brains, but because we don’t understand the complexity of our own minds, the changes we will make might disrupt our mental system. In addition, bioengineering might for the first time in history translate economic inequality into biological inequality, creating an upper caste of enhanced superhumans, and relegating the poor to the dustbin of evolution.
What is the nationalist answer to these menaces? As in the case of global warming, so, too, with technological disruption: the nation state is the wrong framework to address the threat. Given that research and development are not the monopoly of any one country, even a superpower such as the US or China cannot restrict them by itself. If the US government forbids the genetic engineering of human embryos, it won’t prevent North Korean scientists from doing such work. And if the resulting developments confer on North Korea some crucial economic or military advantage, the US will be tempted to break its own ban. Particularly in a xenophobic, dog-eat-dog world, if even a single country chooses to pursue a high-risk, high-gain technological path, other countries will be forced to do the same, because nobody can afford to remain behind. In order to avoid such a race to the bottom, humankind will probably need some kind of global identity and loyalty.
Whereas nuclear war and climate change threaten only the physical survival of humankind, disruptive technologies might change the very nature of humanity, and are therefore entangled with human beings’ deepest ethical and religious beliefs. Although everyone agrees that we should avoid nuclear war and ecological meltdown, people have widely differing opinions about using bioengineering and AI to upgrade human beings and to create new life forms. If we fail to cobble together globally accepted ethical guidelines, it will be open season for Dr Frankenstein.
When it comes to formulating such ethical guidelines, nationalism suffers above all from a failure of the imagination. Nationalists think in terms of territorial conflicts lasting centuries, whereas the technological revolutions of the 21st century should be understood in cosmic terms. Ever since its appearance on Earth, four billion years ago, life has been governed by the laws of natural selection. During those aeons, whether you were a virus or a dinosaur, you evolved according to the principles of natural selection. No matter what strange shapes life took, it remained confined to the organic realm. Whether a cactus or a whale, you were made of organic compounds. Now science might replace natural selection with intelligent design, and might even start creating non-organic life forms. After four billion years of organic life shaped by natural selection, science is ushering in an era of inorganic life shaped by intelligent design. What has Israeli, Russian or French nationalism got to say about this? In order to make wise choices about the future of life we need to go way beyond the nationalist viewpoint and look at things from a much wider perspective.
The nationalist wave sweeping across the world cannot turn the clock back to 1939 or 1914. Technology has changed everything by creating a set of global threats to human existence that no nation can fight on its own. A common enemy is the best catalyst for forging a common identity, and humankind now has three such enemies – nuclear war, climate change and disruptive technology. If, despite these threats, we choose to privilege our particular national loyalties above everything else, the results may be far worse than in 1914 and 1939.
A much better path is the one outlined in the EU’s constitution, which states that “while remaining proud of their own national identities and history, the peoples of Europe are determined to transcend their former divisions and, united ever more closely, to forge a common destiny”. There is still plenty of room in the world for the kind of patriotism that celebrates the uniqueness of my nation and stresses my special obligations towards it. Yet, if we want to survive and flourish, humankind has little choice but to complement such local loyalties with substantial obligations towards a global community.
In previous centuries national identities were forged because human beings faced problems and discovered opportunities that went far beyond the scope of local tribes, and which only countrywide co-operation could hope to handle. In the 21st century, nations find themselves in the same situation as the old tribes.
We need a new global identity, because national institutions are incapable of managing a set of unprecedented global challenges. We now have a global ecology, a global economy and a global science – but we are still stuck with only national politics. This mismatch prevents the political system from countering our main problems effectively.
To have effective politics, we must either de-globalise the ecology, the economy and the march of science, or we must globalise our politics. As it is impossible to de-globalise the ecology and the march of science, and as the cost of de-globalising the economy will probably be ruinous, the only solution is to globalise politics.
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2019-04-24T13:59:39Z
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https://www.newstatesman.com/2017/07/age-disorder-why-technology-greatest-threat-humankind
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1. What kind of personal information does Gamularity collect?
"Location Information", which means general information about the location from which you’re playing the Games or using the Websites (e.g. IP address, country, and city).
"Device Information", which means technical information about your Device. When we refer to Device Information, this means your Device ID, your internet service provider (ISP), your browser and browser plug-in types, operating system and operating system version, jailbreak information, network information, the brand and manufacturer of your Device, the language you’ve set for your Device, the version of the Game installed on your Device, and the name of your carrier.
Your Age When you install our Games, you will be asked to provide your age. We use this information to enable or disable certain Game features and certain types of ads shown to you depending on your age and where you are from. For more information about our policies for children’s personal information, please see Section 6.
Information from Connected Facebook Accounts In some of our Games, you may connect your Game account to your Facebook account so that you can keep up with your friends’ progress as they play the Game. Depending on your Facebook privacy settings, we will collect your gender, age range, and which of your friends on Facebook are also playing the Game. To manage the information we receive from Facebook, you will need to follow instructions provided by Facebook and change your privacy settings.
From time to time, you may have the option to receive special updates about Gamularity via a SMS text message. When this option is available, you may provide your phone number and we will only use this number to send you an SMS text message about the update.
If you apply for a job with Gamularity through www.gamularity.com, we will collect and use this information to process your application. We may also use this information to contact you in connection with your application.
Does Gamularity Collect My Financial Information When I Make In-App Purchases?
When you make in-app purchases in the Games, we do not collect or have any access to your name and billing information. This information is collected and stored by your platform (e.g. Apple’s Game Store or Android’s Google Play) or your platform’s payment processor.
Yes. Like most companies, we use tools from service providers to help us with various parts of our business ("Service Providers"), and depending on the service we need, these Service Providers may have access to your personal information. For example, we use a Service Provider’s email software to manage our Newsletter subscriptions, and if you have given us your email address to subscribe to Newsletters, then your email address will be shared with that Service Provider. We also use Service Providers for hosting, customer support, and mobile and web analytics. For a list of the Service Providers who have access to your personal information, please please see section 2.
In addition to our Service Providers, our Ad Partners may also have access to your personal information. We’ve dedicated a separate section about advertising and our Ad Partners, so please check that out in Section 5. We may also share your personal information for our legitimate business and legal purposes as described in Section 12.
3. How long will Gamularity keep my personal information?
To help us keep our Games running, we show ads in our Games with the help of third-party advertising partners ("Ad Partners"). We integrate Ad Partners’ technologies into our Games which are then used by the Ad Partners to determine what kind of ads to display to you.
In order to show you ads that you might interesting and/or relevant ("Targeted Ads"), Ad Partners collect and use your Advertising ID, Location Information, and Device Information. If location services are enabled in your Device settings, the Ad Partners may additionally collect your geolocation information. Because these Ad Partners’ technologies control what kind of personal information is collected from your Device and how it is used, we encourage you to review their respective privacy policies. Our ad partner is UnityAds.
If you do not want to receive Targeted Ads on your mobile Device, your mobile Device may give you the option to opt-out of receiving Targeted Ads on all apps on your Device. On Android Devices, you may opt-out by enabling the “Opt out of Ads Personalization” setting. On iOS Devices, you may opt-out by enabling the “Limit Ad Tracking” setting. In addition, you may be able to opt-out of receiving Targeted Ads from a specific Ad Partner. Please review our Ad Partner list above to see if an Ad Partner offers the ability to opt-out of receiving Targeted Ads. Please note that if you opt-out of receiving Targeted Ads, you will still receive contextual ads, which are non-targeted ads related to the content of the Game you are playing.
In addition to running ads in our Games, we also run ads to promote our Games in third-party websites and/or apps. When we run our own ads in third-party websites and/or apps, Service Providers help us optimize and measure performance of our ads and use their own tracking technologies to track Game installs and clicks and/or impressions of our ads. In some cases, we will share your hashed or anonymized Advertising ID with our Ad Partners so that the Ad Partner can help us market and promote our Games. In these cases, Ad Partners perform as Gamularity's Service Providers and we contractually require such Ad Partners to only use your personal information on our behalf. If you wish to opt-out of your personal information being shared with Ad Partners in this way, please contact us at [email protected].
We do not knowingly collect children’s personal information without parental consent, except as permitted under applicable laws such as the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For example, Gamularity, its Service Providers, and its Ad Partners may collect personal information, such as IP addresses and other persistent identifiers, from children under 16 strictly to support Gamularity’s internal operations and/or legitimate interests, such as analytics and to serve children with contextual ads. If you are a parent of a child playing the Games or using the Websites, you may review or have your child’s personal information deleted and refuse the further collection of his/her personal information by contacting us at [email protected]. Please contact us at [email protected] if you believe we are collecting a child’s personal information in violation of COPPA or the GDPR and we will delete this information as quickly as possible. For a list of Gamularity’s Service Providers, please see section 2.
Gamularity will retain your child's information for as long as your child's account is active, or as needed to provide services. If you wish to cancel your child's account or request that Gamularity no longer use the information to provide services, contact Gamularity at the email address listed above. Gamularity will retain and use the information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
If you wish to unsubscribe from receiving Newsletters, you can click on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email and you will stop receiving Newsletters or for that specific Game you were subscribed to. Please allow up to 24 hours before you stop receiving Newsletters. Please note that if you are subscribed to more than one Game mailing list, you will continue to receive Newsletters for those other Games. You may also continue to receive emails unrelated to marketing.
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect your information, both during transmission and once it is received. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. While no security system is completely secure, we and our Service Provider stake appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access or disclosure of the information collected by us. For Gamularity, this includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that all of your information is disclosed only on a "need to know" basis and ensuring that all information collected by Gamularity is done so via secured connections and protected and encrypted (using secure socket layer technology,"SSL") by industrial grade security software to guard against unauthorized access.
Please contact us at [email protected].
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2019-04-26T02:07:03Z
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http://gamularity.com/legal/
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How many significant plan changes has 80,000 Hours caused?
What costs has 80,000 Hours incurred in causing these changes?
Does the value of the significant plan changes justify total historical costs?
In the appendix, we also include 27 studies of career changes.
The following is a four page summary of what we found. More detail is provided in the main body of the document.
As of December 2013, we’ve collected 107 cases of significant plan changes, which we define as a 20% shift in plans plausibly attributable to 80,000 Hours. The full definition is below.
Over 60 were found through our impact survey. The remainder were found through our coaching evaluation, previous evaluation work and from prior knowledge.
We estimate that 14 occurred in 2011, 34 in 2012 and 59 in 2013. The changes resulted from a mixture of online research, coaching, community engagement and events, although it’s difficult to untangle these influences, so we are unsure which was most important. Nevertheless, there is evidence that both the online content and coaching can change careers in isolation.
Overall, we think this is good evidence that 80,000 Hours is having a significant effect on the career plans of its users. Nevertheless, there is potential for bias in collecting the evidence. In the future, we would like to outsource the evaluation process and potentially do a randomised control trial.
What did the plan changes involve?
The most common changes were becoming more likely to pursue earning to give, work at an effective altruist organisation, or support one of our high priority causes. Lots of plan changers also say they increased the extent to which they generally prioritise making the most difference with their careers. One in four was introduced to the effective altruism community for the first time by us, and over 80% say they are ‘active supporters of effective altruism’.
Before coming across 80,000 Hours, most were planning ‘conventional careers’, such as corporate jobs without donating, careers in academia, or conventional social sector careers such as teaching or non-profit work.
You can see a list of 20 randomly selected plan changes here, followed by ten explored in-depth.
You can see studies of some of the most high impact plan changes here.
The ability of the group of 107 is also very high. It includes an Oxford maths lecturer, several people who expect to earn well over £100,000 in their first year of work, several founders of tech startups, and several founders of non-profits. The majority attended Oxford, Cambridge or Ivy League Universities, and about a third have postgraduate qualifications.
What costs has 80,000 Hours incurred?
As of December 2013, our total financial costs were £147,000. If not donated to us, we think about 30% would have been given to other effective altruist organisations, 10% to GiveWell recommended charities, 20% to organisations working to mitigate existential risk, and 40% to other charities.
In addition, about 13 years of labour had been spent on the project by the team. We think the opportunity cost of this labour is likely to be larger than our financial costs. Estimates of how much we could have donated if we pursued earning to give instead suggest an opportunity cost of £233,000 in forgone donations.
This implies total costs of £370,000 at the end of 2013, or £3,500 per significant plan change.
Does the value of the significant plan changes justify total costs incurred to date?
We think our programs are likely to lead our users to have significantly more impact with their careers, because we provide significant benefits they wouldn’t have received otherwise, including introduction to new concepts like earning to give, in-depth research on specific careers, a structured planning process and useful connections to others in our community.
Based on this, the size of the shifts and the ability of the group (as explored above), we expect the plan changes to be highly valuable.
We provide three approaches to estimating their value and comparing it to our costs. This necessarily involves difficult judgement calls. We flag these in the body of the document, and provide substantial detail on the individual cases so you can make up your own mind.
Below is a summary of the approaches and the conclusions we’ve personally drawn.
39 of the 107 people (35%) who made significant plan changes are pursuing earning to give. They expect to donate over £2.5m over the next three years to high impact charities, of which they attribute £700,000 to 80,000 Hours. They have already donated £200,000, of which they attribute £70,000 to 80,000 Hours.
This is already double our costs, though doesn’t include adjustments for bias in the reporting, losses due to discounting (the costs have already been incurred but the donations arrive over the next three years), and opportunity cost (the relevant individuals may have turned down other high impact paths in order to pursue earning to give). The donations only justify our costs if these factors reduce their value by less than half.
We doubt the opportunity cost is very high because most top donors would have taken corporate careers otherwise, but they would not have donated to high impact charities. Discounting could reduce their value by 10-30%, and we’re unsure about bias. Overall, we’re unsure whether the value of donations over the next three years alone justifies our costs.
On the other hand, the figure of £700,000 ignores donations beyond 2016. Most people pursuing earning to give expect to donate more per year beyond 2016 due to earnings growth, and over five are on paths that have a realistic chance of income over £1m per year within the next five years.
We’ve ignored any impact the group has beyond their personal donations, though there have already been cases of people pursuing earning to give persuading others to donate significantly more.
The figure also ignores the impact of the remaining 68 people (65%) who are not pursuing earning to give. Many of these people compared their plans to earning to give, and decided they could have more impact by doing something else. If the value of these plan changes is comparable to the value of the changes towards earning to give, then the total value is about three times higher.
Overall, we think this approach suggests the value of the significant plan changes justifies our costs.
Since each plan change is intended to be a shift of more than 20%, and people make major career decisions every four years, if the figure of 20% is correctly measured, at least 85 years of labour has been reallocated on the basis of these plan changes over the next four years.
Only 13 years of labour and £147,000 (enough to pay for about another five years of labour) has been spent on 80,000 Hours, so we’ve influenced about five times more labour than we invested through the significant plan changes. To justify our costs, therefore, we’d need to increase the value of this labour by about 20%.
We think this is likely, because many of the 107 are now pursuing our top recommended careers, which, based on our research, we think are likely to be several times higher impact than ‘conventional careers’.
This doesn’t include any impact beyond the next four years. However, we think that the influence of the plan changes will carry through to the impact have beyond the next four years, because what you do over the next four years influences what you can achieve after that. More importantly, most of the group of 107 are now engaged with the effective altruism community, and a significant fraction say they now generally prioritise making a difference more than they did before. It seems likely that a significant fraction will stay engaged over the coming decades, rather than just the next four years, which would raise the expected value several fold.
We’ve collected 13 of the highest impact significant plan changes after July 2012. they include several people intending to donate over £100,000 over the next couple of years, someone going into politics, the founders of two new organisations and four people working on effective altruist projects. most of them now highly prioritise making a difference with their career. we think it’s likely that the value of these changes justifies our costs.
Overall, we’re fairly confident that the value of these plan changes justifies our total historical costs of £3,500 per significant plan change (in terms of donations to high impact charities). We guess they are somewhere between equally valuable and ten times as valuable. We don’t rule out scenarios in which the plan changes don’t justify our costs. But we also don’t rule out scenarios in which they turn out to be far more valuable.
How much better is the advice our users receive from 80,000 Hours compared to what they would have received without us?
We intend to submit our research to external evaluation over the next year.
How valuable are ‘conventional careers’ compared to the paths taken by the 107 people and effective altruist-style activities in general?
We can reduce this uncertainty by carrying out more careers research, which is our key priority over the next year.
To what extent does bias in our surveying methods mean we’ve overestimated how much these plan changes are due to 80,000 Hours?
We can reduce this uncertainty by outsourcing more of the evaluation, improving our attribution methods (for instance, by carrying out a randomised controlled trial of our coaching), and gaining better information on the career plans of new users. In the most important cases, we could also do more in-depth explorations of how the changes came about. We intend to pursue some of these options over the next couple of years.
How deep and long lasting is the influence of a plan change?
We intend to continue to track this group of 107 people.
Likewise, we’ll learn more over the next couple of years by tracking our users.
Perhaps more importantly, we’ll learn more about this through further research into the chances of extreme impact from various careers.
How can we be confident that further work will cause more people to change their career plans?
We can learn more about this by continuing to track the effect of our programs on our user’s careers over the next year.
In this document, we only examine the value of known significant plan changes. This does not fully capture our impact.
It’s likely our activities have caused career changes we don’t know about or which will occur in the future. We do not include these in our estimates.
Moreover, we believe 80,000 Hours has created substantial value beyond changing the careers of our users. This includes building the effective altruism community, building CEA (which has already incubated four other projects), creating a body of research and working out how to create an organisation with the chance of becoming much more influential in the future. We’ve written about these other types of impact in ‘what impact has 80,000 Hours had?
5 How many have we caused?
6 How did they come about?
7 When did they come about?
8 Were they really due to us?
9 What were the changes?
9.3 How many people have become ‘dedicated members’?
9.4 To what extent do changed plans translate into action?
11 How much did the significant plan changes cost?
11.1 Why have costs per plan change increased over time?
12 Does the value of these changes justify the costs incurred by 80,000 Hours?
13 What types of information did our users gain, and will this to lead to more impact?
14 How much more money do they donate to high impact charities?
14.2 What about people not pursuing earning to give?
15 How much labour has been influenced?
17 Conclusion – did the value of the significant plan changes justify our costs?
For instance, suppose someone says they anticipate going to medical school with probability 55% and law school with probability 45%. They then read an article on the 80,000 Hours blog and switch to 75% medical school and 25% law school. That’s the minimum that could count as a significant plan change. We set the threshold at 20% to make the metric more robust, and because it would be impractical to track very small changes.
In practice, if someone told us they changed their best guess option, then we counted that as a shift of greater than 20%.
The person tells us that they changed their plans and they think it was due to us.
We can identify the new information we gave them that changed their mind.
How many have we caused?
For each of these, we have an internal write up detailing the changes and what new information caused them.
In the survey we asked whether the changes arose from: reading our online content, one-on-one coaching, discussion with people met through 80,000 Hours and attending an event. We also asked whether respondents had worked for, volunteered for or donated to 80,000 Hours. They were allowed to select more than one answer. Their answers are here.
For the other sources, I judged which one, two or three pathways seemed most important, using my knowledge of their case.
There’s also some more breakdown for 2H 2013 in the metrics matrix.
This provides a rough indication of what triggered the plan changes. It’s much more challenging to work out which programs actually caused the plan changes, because it’s difficult to know the counterfactual. For instance, if we had done much less coaching, the same people might have spent more time reading our research or engaging with the community. For this reason, when our programs are more established, we will consider a randomised controlled trial of our coaching service.
All of our programs have been somewhat important in causing significant plan changes.
Events have been less important, but this could be because we’ve spent less time on them. Their main benefit is outreach, not changing plans directly.
In the survey, 37 people said online research was the only significant factor. this suggests the online content on its own can change careers.
The coaching evaluation shows that short coaching sessions could trigger significant plan changes in 40% of cases. Although it’s likely some of these changes would have happened anyway due to other programs, we think this suggests coaching can cause significant plan changes in isolation at the margin.
When did they come about?
This is difficult to estimate because changes tend to happen gradually over time.
We estimated when most of the influence occurred by going over the list of significant plan changes and using our prior knowledge of the cases.
In 60% of cases, we were familiar with the details and made an informed guess.
In 25% of cases, we could estimate when they first found out about 80,000 Hours. Absent prior knowledge, we assumed the plan change occurred six months after they first found out about us.
In 15% of cases, we couldn’t estimate, so we distributed these in proportion to the changes we had already classified.
Were they really due to us?
The relevant person agrees their plans changed due to 80,000 Hours.
We can say roughly what their plans were before, and what they were after.
Since it’s difficult to work out what would have happened without the existence of 80,000 Hours, there’s uncertainty in each case. Still, based on these conditions, we think it’s reasonable to conclude that 80,000 Hours is changing a significant number of plans.
To provide further evidence, we took a random sample of ten of the first 103 significant plan changes (the remaining four were added later during the evaluation). For each of these, we wrote a study explaining the changes and how they came about. We checked these write-ups with each individual. They pointed out any inaccuracies and confirmed our exact wording.
You can see the random sample here.
You can also see further studies here and here.
Many of the careers people switch to are unusual. For instance, about a third of the people who made changes are pursuing earning to give. Many others are planning to work at effective altruist organisations, or in support of unusual causes like global priorities research. This suggests the changes are due to either 80,000 Hours or other groups in effective altruism. Since 80,000 Hours has been one the main groups growing the effective altruism community, a portion of this influence is likely to be due to us.
The impact survey showed that the people who made career changes are pursuing different careers from other elite university graduates, and from survey respondents who didn’t report changed career plans.
As explained in the overall review of the performance of our programs, we caused these significant plan changes whilst reaching over 100,000 people and having several thousand engaged users. It seems reasonable to claim that 1% of our engaged users would change their plans based on our content.
The relevant individuals underestimate the extent to which these changes would have happened anyway due to other groups in the effective altruism community.
The relevant individuals are biased to overstate our influence, because they are supporters of 80,000 Hours and about a quarter know us personally. (Although note people may also be bias towards understating the influence of others on their decisions).
We therefore expect our influence on the group of 107 is more likely to be overstated than understated. Still, we remain confident that 80,000 Hours is changing a significant number of careers.
We can reduce uncertainty about bias in the future by outsourcing more of the evaluation, improving our attribution methods (such as by having a randomised controlled trial of our coaching), gaining better information on the career plans of new users to act as a baseline, and conducting more in-depth explorations of how plan changes came about. We intend to pursue some of these options over the next couple of years.
We took a random sample of twenty of the first 103 people (the remaining four were added later, since they were discovered during the evaluation). Based on our knowledge of their cases (normally due to survey responses) we identified how their plans had changed due to 80,000 Hours. We sent our written account to the individuals concerned and asked them to point out inaccuracies.
We’ve listed the plan changes here.
We broadly categorised the types of plan change, and recorded how many times they arose. The changes mentioned more than once are summarised below. Note that it was possible for one person to make several types of change, so the percentages add up to 155%.
The most common shift was towards earning to give. 30% also became more concerned with aiming to choose the career in which they can make the most difference.
The majority of these people attended Oxford, Cambridge or Ivy League Universities. Of the twenty, two have PhDs, two have Masters degrees, one is a Marshall Scholar, one is a graduate of Entrepreneur First and three are founders of startups.
The impact survey provides more data on what professions the plan changers will pursue, and how these differ from most elite graduates and followers of 80,000 hours who haven’t changed their plans. it suggests we’ve made our users much more likely to go into finance and effective altruist organisations, and a lot less likely to go into academia.
The survey also showed that most people who made a significant plan change now identified as effective altruists. 63% also switched from ‘conventional careers’ (i.e. aiming to pick the career that’s best personally) or conventional social impact careers (i.e. typically in non-profits, education or medicine) into the careers rated highly by 80,000 Hours, while the others switched between high rated options. A quarter were introduced to effective altruism for the first time by 80,000 Hours.
We expect that a significant fraction of the value will come from the top couple of plan changes. This is similar to what we found in our evaluation of earning to give.
Using our prior knowledge, we examined about 25 significant plan changes which we thought have the potential to be the highest impact (made large shifts, clearly influenced by us and entered high impact options). We investigated further, and selected the top 13. We’ve written up studies of each here.
We applied the further condition that these plan changes occurred after July 2012, when we started working full-time. This removed about seven similarly impressive cases, which are listed here.
The group includes the founders of three new organisations, several people who plan to donate hundreds of thousands of pounds over just the next few years to high impact charities, and many people who changed from leading normal careers to primarily aiming to make a difference in their careers.
How many people have become ‘dedicated members’?
Instead of focusing on significant plan changes, some have suggested we focus on how many dedicated members we create. A dedicated member is someone who has made a significant plan change, and says that in the future they (i) will decide what career to pursue primarily based on where they can make the most difference, (ii) are prepared to consider a wide range of options, and (iii) will be highly engaged with the effective altruism community.
Compared to a significant plan changer, a dedicated member is more likely to stay involved and pursue the career opportunities that turn out to have the most impact in the future.
From the 107 people who made significant plan changes, we identified 12 (11%) who we think plausibly became dedicated members because of 80,000 Hours. This is a small number, but their level of commitment is very high.
We’ve also written up studies of their plan changes, which you can see here.
To what extent do changed plans translate into action?
We write about this in the overall review of the performance of our programs. The majority seem to have already followed through and acted on their changed intentions. The majority of the remainder have not followed through because not enough time has passed (e.g. they’re still at university). Overall, we did not find evidence of many people abandoning their plans.
How much did the significant plan changes cost?
At the end of 2013, our total financial costs to date were £147,000.
If this money hadn’t been spent by 80,000 Hours, we think about 30% would have been given to other effective altruist organisations, 10% to GiveWell recommended charities, 20% to organisations working to mitigate existential risk, and 40% would have been given to other charities. This is based on where we guess our eight biggest donors over 2013 would have given otherwise, assuming they would have donated otherwise and assuming alternative effective altruist organisations would have sprung up in our place.
In addition, about 13 years of labour have been spent on the project by the team. We believe the opportunity cost of this time is likely to be larger than our financial costs. One way to roughly estimate this opportunity cost is to consider how much we could have donated if we had pursued earning to give instead. Using £20 per hour for staff, £7.50 per hour for interns, £2 per hour for volunteers before 2012 and £10 for volunteers after, we get an opportunity cost of £233,000 in forgone donations.
Combining these, we arrive at total costs of £350,000, of which a significant proportion would have been donated to high impact charities otherwise.
If we assign all of these costs to the plan changes and ignore resources spent on other activities, then the cost per significant plan change is about £3,500.
You can find a more detailed breakdown of costs in our review of program performance.
Why have costs per plan change increased over time?
Cost per plan change was very low in 2011 because we initially influenced a group of people we knew personally and only focused on outreach. In 2012, we started working with new people through the website, which was more costly.
In addition, in 2011 we were student volunteers with a low opportunity cost. By 2012, we had graduated, so had the option to work elsewhere.
Another variable is how much time we’ve devoted directly to changing careers and how much time we’ve devoted to investing for future growth. In 2013, the majority of our efforts were focused on testing our business model, developing our content and generally building the organisation. In 2012 we were more focused on outreach. We don’t expect the efforts in 2013 to have already paid-off, which has increased the cost per plan change in the short-term. Our coaching evaluation showed that short one-on-ones caused a significant plan change for an opportunity cost of about £500. This suggests if we had more of these, we could have substantially reduced the average cost per change.
Overall, we don’t think the trend from 2012 to 2013 is concerning, but we will continue to closely monitor the ratio.
Does the value of these changes justify the costs incurred by 80,000 Hours?
Putting a figure on the value of a significant plan change is difficult, since it involves estimating the impact the person will have in their new career path, the impact they would have had in their previous career path and how much of the change is due to 80,000 Hours. Any answer will necessarily involve judgement calls over which different people can reasonably disagree.
What types of information did the relevant people gain from us, and would you expect this to increase their impact?
How much extra money do they intend to donate to charity?
How much labour has been influenced?
How valuable do the most high impact plan changes seem?
Note that whether the value of these plan changes justifies the costs incurred by 80,000 Hours is a different question from whether 80,000 Hours has justified its costs overall. We expand on some of the other types of value we have created in ‘what impact has 80,000 Hours had?’.
What types of information did our users gain, and will this to lead to more impact?
Our audience is highly intelligent and altruistic (for instance, see the analysis of the applications for coaching and see the individual studies of career change). If you give them more information about having social impact which causes them to change their plans, then absent other information you’d expect their new plan to be an improvement, meaning it will lead to higher impact.
The information is presented in a misleading way, so it’s either biasing or convinces people of incorrect information.
The information is correct, but not very important in determining social impact.
The information is correct but demotivating, which reduces overall impact.
In contrast, we think we provide our users with highly significant and original information, as well as other useful support.
We sketch these benefits below. Note that we intend to investigate this in more detail in our upcoming research evaluation.
* Important concepts like earning to give; impact-based charity and aid evaluation (e.g. telling them about GiveWell); strategic cause selection; the importance of the long-run future; the importance of keeping your options open; the importance of assessing your actions compared to the counterfactual; and so on.
* Concrete information about various careers, like medicine, politics, biomedical research and others.
* Evidence based recommendations on how to make rational career decisions, which jobs are most satisfying and how to find jobs that fit.
We connect users, often leading to exchanges of information from more experienced workers to job seekers. For instance, most people who receive coaching are introduced to 1-3 other people in our network of over 100 alumni. We also provide a members directory.
Those who receive coaching benefit from a structured career planning process, an encouraging relationship with one of our staff and an outside view on their decisions.
Our content and community generally promotes being ambitious, altruistic and rational in your choice of career.
Based on this, we think it’s likely that the plan changes lead to significantly more impact. It’s hard to know from this alone, however, whether the value of the changes is sufficiently large to justify our costs. So now we will turn to several methods of estimating the value of a plan change.
How much more money do they donate to high impact charities?
Encouraging people to pursue earning to give is our most quantifiable impact. We use it to estimate a lower bound on the value of a plan change. In the random sample of 20 plan changes, 60% became more likely to pursue earning to give. among the 107 significant plan changes, based on our knowledge of them, we counted 39 significant plan changers (36%) who are now pursuing earning to give as their best guess strategy.
Seeks a high earning job, like in finance, software, consulting or law.
Intends to donate over 10% of their income (typically over 20%).
Is highly concerned with the effectiveness of their donations.
Participates in the effective altruism community.
To cover total historical costs of £350,000, each person pursuing earning to give would have to donate an additional £9,000. This is just 20-30% of a typical professional annual starting salary (and most of these people have an entire 40 year career ahead of them). Around a quarter are going into finance, where expected earnings are in the hundreds of thousands of pounds per year. We’ve identified five who are on career paths within hedge funds and tech entrepreneurship that carry a reasonable chance of earning millions of pounds within the next decade.
We attempted to measure in more detail how much these people are planning to donate in our earning to give evaluation, and we’ve provided studies of the individual donors so you can make your own assessments.
Have sufficiently large donations already been made to justify costs?
A random sample of ten of the 39 said they donated £200,000 over the last three years to high impact charities, of which they attribute £70,000 to 80,000 Hours. This is £6,000 per person, which is already close to justifying costs. However, 90% was due to one individual, who was by far the largest historical donor in the group of 39. So the overall average is likely to be significantly lower.
How much do they intend to donate over the next three years?
The largest five donors we’ve identified expect to donate £2.1m over the next three years to high impact charities, of which they attribute £565,000 to 80,000 Hours.
The random sample of ten expect to donate £1m over the next three years, of which they attribute £320,000 to 80,000 Hours. Excluding the largest donor, the corresponding figures are £146,000 and £37,000.
This suggests the entire group expects to donate about an additional £700,000 due to 80,000 Hours over the next three years, or £18,000 per person (565 + 37 * 3.5).
So expected donations over the next three years may already justify our costs.
Why might donations over the next three years not justify costs?
Overconfidence about earnings, donations and the chance of dropping out.
A desire to tell us what we want to hear, especially since many of the people surveyed are supporters of 80,000 Hours, and about a quarter know us personally.
An inability to disentangle our impact from the rest of the effective altruism community, which may have caused them to start earning to give soon after we persuaded them.
These biases might outweigh biases in the opposite direction, such as not wanting to admit being influenced, not putting enough weight on a small chance of very high earnings and not wanting to boast. We encouraged people to point out inaccuracies to help reduce these biases.
More importantly, pursuing earning to give may carry an opportunity cost: the alternative high impact activities these people could have pursued. We encourage you to read about the individual cases to judge the opportunity costs, since this is a difficult call.
To our knowledge, all of the top donors believe this is the best path for them in terms of impact. Four out of seven of the largest donors would have pursued corporate careers without giving as much, and without giving to high impact charities. So overall we don’t think the opportunity costs were high. On the other hand, the other three probably would have pursued academic careers, which likely carries some cost, depending on your view of the value of academic careers.
Finally, the donations from earning to give will come later, which means they’ll be less valuable than donations made now. Very roughly, this might reduce their value by 10-30%.
For donations over the next three years to fail to justify our costs, the opportunity costs, discounting and biases would have to remove more than half their value. We think this is plausible but somewhat pessimistic.
What about donations from 2016 onwards?
These are harder to estimate, since it’s hard to understand our causal influence and the chance of dropout becomes highly important. Nevertheless, the majority of people pursuing earning to give said they expect to be donating more in three years time (see the random sample of ten due to earnings growth. several are pursuing careers in hedge funds and tech startups, so have the chance of very high earnings. so, it’s likely there’s significant value in the donations beyond 2016.
Overall, we think the expected donations from people pursuing earning to give alone are likely to justify our costs.
What about other types of impact beyond donations?
The people pursuing earning to give may have other forms of impact beyond the money they personally donate. For instance, there have already been cases of people pursuing earning to give persuading others to donate more. This is ignored in the estimates above.
Our trustee, Nick Beckstead, attempted to estimate the value of an additional member of 80,000 Hours in May 2013. His best estimate was that an additional member leads to counterfactually-adjusted, time-discounted lifetime donations to high impact charities of $11,000, with a range of $700 to $170,000. However, he cautioned that this estimate is highly speculative, and you shouldn’t put much weight on it.
We no longer track impact in terms of members recruited. However, in old surveys of members we asked whether they anticipated making a significant plan change due to 80,000 Hours. 36% responded to the survey, and 37% of respondents said they anticipated making a “significant” or “complete” career change. That suggests one significant plan change corresponds to about ten members. When membership closed, we had about 1000 members and 70 significant plan changes, suggesting a ratio of 1:15.
Using the lower ratio implies the value of a significant plan change is about £68,000 in counterfactually-adjusted, time-discounted lifetime donations to high impact charities, with a range of £4,000 to £1m. This would comfortably justify costs of £3,500 per significant plan change.
What about people not pursuing earning to give?
About 35% of the people who made significant plan changes are pursuing earning to give as their best guess strategy. So far, we’ve shown that the additional donations from these people are already likely to justify our costs. This ignores the additional impact of the remaining 65% of people who made significant plan changes.
It’s harder to quantify the value of these changes, but we think it would be pessimistic to assume they have negligible value compared to earning to give. Earning to give has become a common baseline in our careers advice. That is, many people compare their options to it and only pursue something else if they think it’s likely to have more impact. If our users are able to correctly judge on average when they can do something better than earning to give, then the other 65% of plan changes are likely to have significant value compared to the 35% pursuing earning to give. If the value per plan change is similar, then our overall impact is three times the size of the impact of donations alone.
Another way to think about the value of a plan change is in terms of the amount of labour reallocated from conventional career paths to our recommended career paths.
This source claims people change job on average every four years. A significant plan change is defined as a shift of over 20% in their plans concerning their career path, cause, or next step. So if that percentage is correctly measured, each significant plan change would cause 0.8 years of labour to be spent differently over the next four years, and likely more beyond. In total, that makes 86 years of labour reallocated. Was this worth the cost of 13 years of labour from the team, and £147,000 in donations?
The average Oxford graduate starting salary is £25,000, so £147,000 of donations is worth roughly another five years of labour, raising the total to cost to 18 years of labour.
That means we’ve influenced about five time as much labour as we’ve spent on the project. For the costs to be justified, therefore, we’d need to increase the impact of our users’ careers by about 20% compared to what they would have done otherwise. (And assuming that the paths the team would have followed otherwise are about as valuable as the paths our users take).
We think it’s very likely the plan changers on average pick options that have 20% more impact than they would have had otherwise. This is because we think the paths our users take are likely to have several times as much impact as the ‘conventional careers’ they would have taken otherwise.
One significant problem is that the figure of 0.8 years per plan change may be too high, because it may not be properly counterfactually adjusted. However, if you think our recommended paths are twice as high impact as what our users would have pursued otherwise, you’d need to think this figure was overstated by a factor of ten before the plan changes no longer justify our costs.
Moreover, we’ve ignored any influence by 80,000 Hours beyond their next career decision. This seems pessimistic. First, what you do over the next four years changes the opportunities you can take after that. Second, and more importantly, many of the people making a significant plan changes say they have becme more generally concerned about making a difference, and we think over 10% have become ‘dedicated members’. Even if only a small proportion continue to be influenced beyond the next four years, since our users have their entire careers ahead of them, it could increase the expected value several fold.
Since it’s likely that a significant proportion of the impact comes from the tail of the distribution, another approach is directly analysing the most high impact plan changes. We’ve given details of changes we think have the highest impact since we went full time in July 2012 here, so you can make up your own mind.
Someone doing prioritisation research at the Global Priorities Project, which probably also wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for 80,000 Hours. They previously planned on maths research.
Three people working at the Centre for Effective Altruism, who switched from pursuing conventional careers to prioritising making a difference.
An Oxford PPE graduate starting a political career as an effective altruist, which we think is likely better than earning to give for someone well suited to it. They would have become a lawyer or an academic otherwise.
Someone who founded Animal Charity Evaluators with our help, which has already received donations of over £60,000.
Even ignoring the donations, we think these examples alone may well justify historical costs of £350,000.
Conclusion – did the value of the significant plan changes justify our costs?
In summary, we looked at whether to expect the plan changes to lead to more impact. Then, we examined from three angles whether the additional impact is likely to be large enough to justify our costs: (i) an estimate based on the additional donations of people pursuing earning to give (ii) an estimate based on how much labour has been reallocated, and (iii) an estimate based on the most high impact plan changes.
This question involves difficult judgement calls, so we’ve aimed to make enough detail available on the relevant individuals that you can make up your own mind.
Our assessment was that all three angles suggest the significant plan changes justify our historical costs, so overall we are over 80% confident the costs are justified.
By how much do the changes justify our costs? Our overall subjective estimate is that the significant plan changes are worth one to ten times as much as our costs.
Could the significant plan changes be worth much more than our costs?
Effective altruist style activities (like donating to GiveWell recommended charities, donating to GiveWell itself, or working on existential risk) turn out to have far more impact than conventional careers.
You’re optimistic that the people who have made significant plan changes will remain engaged in the long run.
You think that 80,000 Hours will remain influential in the effective altruism community.
You think there’s a good chance of ‘tail’ outcomes among the 107 people, like someone earning and donating tens of millions of pounds, being elected to office or founding a highly influential organisation.
How could the significant plan changes be worth less than our costs?
Our research could be importantly misleading, or not relevant to having more social impact.
More generally, it could turn out difficult to help moderately altruistic people have much more social impact than they were going to have anyway.
Our research could be correct, but few people will stick to their changes even over the next couple of years.
80,000 Hours could turn out to be relatively unimportant in effective altruism, and most of our influence would have happened anyway due to other groups.
Impact due to plan changes we don’t know of.
Impact due to small changes in career plans.
Impact due to plan changes that will occur in the future due to past efforts, such as when engaged users are making their next career decisions.
Given that over 100,000 people have viewed our website and millions of people have heard our ideas in the media, we think it’s likely there’s a significant number of plan changes we’ve caused that we don’t know about. Moreover, we expect our work will continue to generate a stream of plan changes in the future with little continued investment. Our survey suggests that for every three significant plan changes there are at least two other people who have been significantly influenced. this could easily lead to further future plan changes.
Overall, we think (1) – (3) could be a significant additional source of impact from career changes.
Moreover, we think it’s unlikely most of our impact to date comes from changed career plans at all. Rather, the value is in investment and learning could enable us to become much larger in the future. The value is also in building the effective altruism community. More information.
To date, we think we have caused 107 significant plan changes. We think this is good evidence that 80,000 Hours is changing the career plans of our users.
We’re over 80% confident the value of these plan changes justifies total historical costs of £3,500 per significant plan change (of which £1,200 is a financial cost and £2,300 is the opportunity cost of labour). We don’t rule out the possibility that the plan changes will not justify our costs, but we also don’t rule out the possibility that they will prove far more valuable.
Thanks very much for filling out our survey.
As part of our impact evaluation, we’re making a list of 20 randomly selected plan changes we’ve caused. Your name fell in the sample, so I wanted to check the following with you. Is it OK if we list this on the blog as part of the list? Your name will not be listed.
What were they planning before? Physics PhD, most likely followed by research in particle physics or cosmology.
How did their plans change, and what are they doing now? Will probably pursue earning to give in quantitative finance or other high-paid corporate jobs after finishing studying. Less likely to do a PhD.
We want it to be as accurate as possible given space, so please point out anything you think is misleading.
We took the list of 104 plan changes and randomly selected 20. In this table, we display the plan changes that 80,000 Hours seems to have caused.
We wrote the description of the plan changes based on what we currently knew from their own words in the survey, our coaching write ups, our own knowledge or the studies of career change prepared in October 2013.
We sent these descriptions to the relevant person by email, asking them to point out mistakes (unless noted otherwise).
When we had a version they were happy with, we confirmed the final wording with them (unless noted otherwise).
We’ve explored the first ten in more depth below.
How did their plans change?
1 Wanted to do a maths degree, with the intention of going into academia, to research biological anthropology. Had wanted to go into academia for all of their life, but now is much less sure. Can now imagine doing earning to give, which they more or less despised before. Still doing a maths degree, as planned before.
2 Was planning to do a master’s in Psychology, with the view to go into research designing interventions to increase people’s happiness, productivity and decision-making. He decided to work at 80,000 Hours instead. He intends to pursue his career on the basis of where he can make the most difference.
3 Student and intern at The Life You Can Save. Member of Giving What We Can. Very undecided about what to do. Intends to pursue the career that will allow him to make the most difference. Applied to a very wide variety of jobs, aiming to pick the one that will place him in the best position to have an impact in the long-term.
4 Pursue a career in climate policy or be a science advisor to NGOs or governments. Initially switched to considering earning to give in finance, but after several months decided to work within effective altruist organisations. Intends to pursue the career in which he can make the most difference.
5 Was planning on doing a Maths postdoc, but was considering other options. Increased confidence that working in finance was a good option for them, applied to a financial trading firm, did an internship with them, and now has two offers from top finance firms that they are choosing between.
6 No concrete career intentions though highly concerned about making a difference. Initially pursued jobs at THINK, which she discovered through 80,000 Hours. Then decided to intern at CEA. Finally, decided to found Effective Fundraising, which does nothing but fundraise for the most effective charities in the world, thereby creating a charity that’s even more cost-effective. This decision was influenced by 80,000 Hours, among several other groups. Intends to pursue the career in which she can make the most difference.
7 Split between working as a programmer, freelancing as a programmer, or starting a startup. Interested in but had vague ideas about making a difference through reducing existential risk or broad interventions to support economic growth. Still considering the same three career paths, but became convinced that reducing the risks from artificial intelligence is the most important cause. Decided to donate 2.5-5% of their income. Currently working as a programmer at a consultancy, having been recommended for the role by other members of 80,000 Hours. Intends to donate to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.
8 Student, considering a variety of paths. Applied to GiveWell and is now working there.
9 Consultancy, politics or charity. Also donating 10% of income as a member of Giving What We Can. Decided against pursuing charity work, and is currently pursuing consultancy.
10 Intending to either go to law school or start a career in academic philosophy. Decided to focus on researching issues around global prioritisation and the risk of human extinction within law and philosophy, as well as advocate for the importance of these issues.
11 Planned to work in the city, occasionally volunteer and donate monthly to Save the Children and Unicef. Still planning to enter management consulting, but seriously considering taking the Giving What We Can pledge after getting a job. More concerned about the cost-effectiveness of their donations.
12 Physics PhD, most likely followed by research in particle physics or cosmology. Will probably pursue earning to give in quantitative finance, ASML or other high-paid corporate jobs after finishing studying. Less likely to do the PhD.
13 Highly uncertain, but most likely journalism, teaching or non-profit work. Pursuing earning to give in consultancy or finance. 80,000 Hours was a significant factor in this decision, though they were already aware of some of the general ideas through Giving What We Can.
14 Student. Highly uncertain intention to become a science journalist. He decided to found a start-up with the aim of building skills and initially earning to give. He decided against science journalism. Working at a company he founded (Corvin Educational).
15 Choosing between doing a medical degree to go into medical research and maximising earnings in finance to do earning to give. Most likely to do medical research. Highly concerned with making a difference. Now most likely to take the earning to give route in finance. More likely to donate to meta-charities.
16 Planning to do post-graduate study in philosophy and then either go into academia or work somewhere in the not-for-profit sector, or potentially go into teaching. Shifted his career strategy so that where he can make the most difference is now the most important consideration in his choice of career. He is very confident that this would not be the case if it were not for 80,000 Hours. In terms of causes, he now considers advancing global prioritisation and mitigating global catastrophic and existential risks as very important. In the near future, he plans to apply to management consultancies, internships at the Centre for Effective Altruism, and to investigate whether he could intern with the Future of Humanity Institute or the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.
17 Donate 5% of income to local charities, and more in the future. Intending to go into Public or Community Health. Job intentions unchanged, but now intends to donate to GiveWell recommended charities.
18 Uncertain plans to become a barrister/ solicitor. Made me consider research, journalism and working for charity. Also raised possibility of carrying on with previous plans and earning to give.
19 Student. Planning to work in start-ups. Decided to donate 33% of his income, and the value of the equity of any start-ups he creates, to effective charities. Plans to lead his career on the basis of where he can make the most difference. Now he’s the co-founder of a start-up, Dropkic.kr, which matches investors with crowdfunding projects. All of the founders have made a legally binding agreement to donate 33% of the proceeds of a future sale of the company.
20 Working to fight climate change or global poverty through campaigning or social entrepreneurship. Decided that promoting effective altruism is the most important cause. Significantly increased how likely he is to found an effective altruist organisation.
19 Giving 10% to global poverty charities as a member of Giving What We Can. Uncertain intention to work in academia. More likely to pursue Earning to Give. Considered quantitative finance careers, but decided to start career in tech SME to build skills to improve long-term prospects and earnings. Intends to donate to meta-charities or effective altruist organisations. Currently working in a small tech company.
We took the first ten of the twenty randomly selected plan changes in the previous section, and explored the changes in more depth.
We wrote the studies out in full, using our prior knowledge.
We contacted the person with further questions and asked them to point out inaccuracies.
We confirmed the exact wording with the relevant person.
Denise is studying Maths at university in Germany.
Denise wanted to do a maths degree, with the intention of going into academia, to research biological anthropology.
Denise had wanted to go into academia for all of her life, but now she is much less sure. She can now imagine doing Earning to Give, which she more or less despised before. Denise is still doing a maths degree, like she had planned before.
Denise changed her plan through reading online content and through discussions with people who were also concerned with the goals of 80,000 Hours and involved in the Effective Altruist community, though she didn’t meet them directly through 80k.
Roman did the BPhil in Philosophy at Oxford, and was choosing between a wide range of careers.
He was planning to do a master’s in Psychology, with the view to do go into research designing interventions to increase people’s happiness, productivity and decision-making.
He decided to work at 80,000 Hours instead. He intends to pursue his career on the basis of where he can make the most difference.
Roman is working full time at 80,000 Hours.
Roman came to care more about making a difference with his career while an intern at 80,000 Hours. The plan change came about as a result of a case study done on Roman’s situation by 80,000 Hours whilst Roman was an intern at 80,000 Hours.
What were they planning before? Student and intern at The Life You Can Save. Member of Giving What We Can. Very undecided about what to do.
How did their plans change? Intends to pursue the career that will allow him to make the most difference. Applied to a very wide variety of jobs, aiming to pick the one that will place him in the best position to have an impact in the long-term.
What are they doing now? Policy analyst at the UK treasury.
How and why did the change come about? Participating in our community in Oxford. Received career coaching from our staff.
Like many students finishing university was something that happened to other people. I knew in the back of my mind it would happen to me too someday but I didn’t have time to think about that I always had other stuff to do. I had to get back to my room following the frisbee match, have a shower, finish that last question on neutrinoless double beta decay and then go to the party. Or something similar.
Background University of Oxford, PhD candidate in Climate Physics. Climate campaigner. Named a “Young Global Shaper” by the World Economic Forum.
What were they planning before? Pursue a career in climate policy or be a science advisor to NGOs or governments.
How did their plans change? Initially switched to considering earning to give in finance, but after several months decided to work within effective altruist organisations. Intends to pursue the career in which he can make the most difference.
What are they doing now? Working at CEA on outreach, prioritisation research and policy development.
How and why did the change come about? Attended a Giving What We Can event in Oxford, and was introduced to the arguments in favor of earning to give, which immediately convinced him to rethink his approach. This led to him becoming heavily involved in the community in Oxford, and helping to set up 80,000 Hours.
The reassurance of talking to people who were really serious about career advising meant I could focus on the most important aspects of my job search, and this in turn meant I had less doubt and more intent on what I was doing. I imagine this made it much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.
I actually wasn’t planning to change careers when I started talking to 80,000 Hours; I was just applying to things for exploratory reasons, but I found a job that was just so awesome that I had to take it. I was so busy at the time, having 80,000 Hours to narrow my search made it meant I actually had time to do my interviews. It’s possible I would have missed this opportunity if I’d been less focussed on my best options.
Background Student in Psychology at Thompson River University and Acadia University.
What were they planning before? No concrete career intentions though highly concerned about making a difference.
How did their plans change? She initially pursued jobs at THINK, which she discovered through 80,000 Hours. Then she decided to intern at CEA. Finally, she decided with Joey Savoie to found an organisation, Effective Fundraising, that does nothing but fundraise for the most effective charities in the world, thereby creating a charity that’s potentially even more cost-effective. This decision was influenced by 80,000 Hours, among several other groups. She intends to pursue the career in which she can make the most difference.
What are they doing now? Working at Effective Fundraising/The Greatest Good Foundation.
How and why did the change come about? As soon as Xio and Joey heard about 80,000 Hours, they got involved volunteering and reading our blog. Later, they interned with CEA, and had extensive discussions about their career with people they met through us.
Background Studied computer science at Warwick. Graduate of Entrepreneur First.
What were they planning before? Split between working as a programmer, freelancing as a programmer, or starting a startup. Interested in but had vague ideas about making a difference through reducing existential risk or broad interventions to support economic growth.
How did their plans change, and what are they doing now? Still considering the same three career paths, but became convinced that reducing the risks from artificial intelligence is the most important cause. Decided to donate 2.5-5% of their income. Currently working as a programmer at a consultancy, having been recommended for the role by other members of 80,000 Hours. Intends to donate to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.
How and why did the change come about? Became convinced of artificial intelligence risk being important while interning at 80,000 Hours and being introduced to others in the community.
Interning at 80,000 Hours and being involved in the community did make me think through in more depth which causes I thought were most important. I came to the conclusion that AI research is probably the most important cause right now.
What were they planning before?Student, considering a variety of paths.
How did their plans change, and what are they doing now? Applied to GiveWell and is now working there.
How and why did the change come about? He found out about the opportunity to work at GiveWell through an 80,000 Hours member and the blog.
What were they planning before? Consultancy, politics or charity. Also donating 10% of income as a member of Giving What We Can.
How did their plans change, and what are they doing now? Decided against pursuing charity work, and is currently pursuing consultancy.
How and why did the change come about? Discussions with staff and members of 80,000 Hours persuaded him that donating might be more important than working directly in the charity sector, which contributed to the decision to pursue consulting.
What were they planning before? Intending to either go to law school or start a career in academic philosophy.
How did their plans change, and what are they doing now? Decided to focus on researching issues around global prioritisation and the risk of human extinction within law and philosophy, as well as advocate for the importance of these issues. He’s now studying a Masters in Philosophy at Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship.
How and why did the change come about? He attended a talk by us in Princeton, then spent two months interning with us in Oxford, during which he had several in-depth discussions with our staff. Learned about the importance of the long-run future and ways to have impact within academic philosophy. We also gave him significant advice in writing his Marshall application.
80,000 Hours changed how I looked at my career prospects. At first, I thought 80,000 Hours’s message was just about earning to give, but Will persuaded me to forgo a lucrative internship at a hedge fund to do research for 80,000 Hours. I learned from this experience that I could have a great impact through research, but only if I think very carefully about how to maximize that impact. And that’s just what I hope to do through philosophy. [through 80,000 Hours] I met amazing people, and it is important to me that I know I have a network of smart, supportive folks in the years ahead.
We think the majority of the impact of the plan changes we cause is likely to come from the top 10% of most significant changes.
To explore the top 10% better, Ben selected the 13 plan changes he judged to be most significant. These plan changes involve a significant shift in plans into a plausibly very high impact path, and relatively clear evidence of 80,000 Hours’ influence. In addition, we highlight the founding of Animal Charity Evaluators, which was founded by a former intern at 80,000 Hours during their internship.
Since we’re most interested in understanding our impact after we became a professional organisation, the following are all plan changes judged to have occurred after July 2012. Many of the plan changes that occurred while 80,000 Hours was still a voluntary organisation are documented here.
We contacted the person with further questions and asking them to point out inaccuracies.
Unfortunately we can’t share one of the stories due to anonymity concerns. Two have been anonymised.
The following are not in order.
What were they planning before? Intended to pursue an academic career in pure mathematics. Giving 10% to effective charities as a member of Giving What We Can.
How did their plans change? Owen became convinced to consider impact in choosing research topics. This made him less inclined to continue research in pure mathematics, preferring areas with important but neglected questions.
What are they doing now? He’s doing prioritisation research at the CEA-FHI Global Priorities Project.
How and why did the change come about? Owen met the 80,000 Hours community through his involvement in Giving What We Can in Oxford. He was introduced to the case for basing career choice on expected impact by people in this community. Through further discussions, he became convinced to use his research skills to work directly on the most pressing questions.
80,000 Hours also contributed to founding the Global Priorities project where Owen now works. 80,000 Hours contributed to the initial idea, and wrote up the arguments in favor of the project, which helped the project to secure funding, some of which came from members of 80,000 Hours.
One of the major influences of 80,000 Hours was the idea of framing a career as part of what you can achieve for good in the world rather than just thinking of achieving good via donations.
How much do they plan to donate over the next 3 years? ~£100k, though ~$1mn per year from 3 years time if they don’t leave finance. Attributes this mainly to 80,000 Hours.
He decided to work at 80,000 Hours instead.
The change came about as a result of a case study done on Roman’s situation by 80,000 Hours whilst Roman was an intern at 80k.
Background Student at Denison University, studying political science and psychology.
What were they planning before? PhD in political science. Involved in the effective altruism community. Intending to donate a portion of his salary as a member of Giving What We Can.
How did their plans change? Considered earning to give in law, software engineering and marketing, and working in effective altruist organisations. Became more inclined to see his career as a route towards doing good, rather than just donate money.
What are they doing now? Pursuing earning to give in software engineering and running the effective altruist volunteer group .impact. Intends to choose career primarily on the basis of impact.
How and why did the change come about? Peter has explained his career decision in detail here. 80,000 Hours contributed through conversations with several members of staff and attending our workshop, which persuaded him to consider pursuing earning to give, take career capital into account and broadened the job options he considered.
I relied heavily on research done by 80,000 Hours to inform my decision – both in assisting my initial selection of high-impact options and in comparing them. The existence of 80,000 Hours moved me away from pursuing a Ph.D. program in political science toward earning to give in web development. 80,000 Hours very much impacted my decision.
How much has he donated in the last 3 years?
$1,100 donated – details are here. Has saved an additional $12,400 for future donations.
How much does he intend to donate over the next 3 years?
Around $60,000 to effective altruist organisations. This is at least $45,000 more than if he had pursued a PhD. He attributes 50% of this to 80,000 Hours.
Originally from a liberal-arts background, Marek worked his way into a job at a bulge bracket investment bank in Mexico City.
Marek was planning to pursue a career in Finance/Business. He was at an investment bank, and planning to eventually make the jump to the buy side, or maybe doing an MBA and going into a different part of the finance/business world. His main focus was money, mainly for the purpose of being rich when older. He didn’t really think about making a large positive difference, in part due to a lack of interest in it, but also due to an ignorance of that even being a possibility.
The first change after his exposure to 80,000 Hours was to greatly increase his interest in making a large positive difference in the world, and he thought he would do so by donating to the most effective causes from his corporate career. Eventually, he became convinced that to have the largest positive impact with his career, working directly within organisations focused on promoting doing good in an evidence-based, cause neutral way, would probably be the best thing for him to do. Marek changed his career plan radically and quickly; having only landed a job in finance the previous year, he decided to leave it to work at the Centre for Effective Altruism.
Marek started working at CEA in March 2014.
The change came about as a result of one on one coaching with 80,000 Hours, reading the 80,000 Hours website, and discussion with other people at CEA as well as from his other/unrelated networks.
Ben was a Philosophy student at the University of Warwick when he first heard about 80,000 Hours.
Ben was planning to work in the public sector, most likely as a teacher to start with, and eventually somewhere in the education / local government/central government.
Ben changed his plans to initially build career capital, and eventually earn to give or occupy a leadership role in an effective altruist organisation. Where he can make the most difference is now the most important consideration in his choice of career and this is due to 80,000 Hours.
Ben is currently the Director of Community at Giving What We Can.
Through reading our online content and coaching with 80,000 Hours, including a group workshop. It took a year and a lot of thinking for Ben to decide not to be a teacher and to aim for something that could do more good.
Anyone who is serious about changing the world should read through 80000 Hours’ research first. It has radically changed my perspective about how best to help people and my expectations about how much I can achieve.
What were they planning before? A student intending to donate 10% of his income to cost-effective development charities as a member of Giving What We Can, probably from a career in law or academia. He wanted to make a difference but wasn’t sure he would be able to.
How did their plans change? He initially changed his plans to do earning to give as a lawyer. After finding out about politics and seeing our research on it, however, he decided to attempt to start a political career. More broadly, he realised that it was possible to confirm his real-life goals to his idealistic ones, and devote his career to making the biggest possible difference.
What are they doing now? Working as an intern at CEA. Intends to start a political career.
How and why did the change come about? He found out about 80,000 Hours through Giving What We Can, and was convinced by the arguments in favour of earning to give. Later, he was introduced to the idea that politics might be an even better opportunity, which was confirmed through research produced as a part of a case study we did with him.
Without 80,000 Hours, I would not be pursuing this career.
Situation before: Student. Intention to do a PhD in philosophy. Making a difference was an important goal among several.
How 80,000 Hours intervened: Had several one-on-one discussions with 80,000 Hours staff, which prompted her to consider a wider range of options and talk to lots of people, and eventually to intern with us.
How her plans changed: Decided to do a PhD in the psychology of decision making, with the intention of advocating for better practices within academia. Has pledged 10% of her income to effective charities. Intends to primarily plan her career on the basis of where she can make the most difference.
What she’s doing now: She is pursuing a PhD in the psychology of decision-making at the Warwick Business School, supervised by a leader in policy based on behavioural economics.
80,000 Hours has significantly changed how I view my career. Helping others is very important to me, but as the standard ethical careers don’t fit my abilities or interests, I was unsure what to do next.
Until encountering 80,000 Hours, I had adopted the ‘Ostrich approach’ of ignoring the problem. Although I was initially skeptical, reading 80,000 Hours’ research made me realise that I could make a difference by doing what I was good at, and donating the money I didn’t need. I greatly appreciated 80,000 Hours rigour and quantitative approach, which gave me confidence I was making the right decision.
In retrospect, much of what 80,000 Hours is saying is really just common sense. I think 80,000 Hours style of career evaluation will become much more common in the years to come. In the meantime, I’ve found the 80,000 Hours community is a great way to connect with people of similar interests, and is almost as valuable as the research.
We can’t share the details of this case, but they expect to donate £420k to GiveWell recommended charities in the next three years. They attribute 25% of this to 80,000 Hours, or £105k.
We played a substantial role in the creation of Animal Charity Evaluators, which performs research into the most effective ways to promote animal welfare and now has an annual budget of $80,000. ACE developed out of Effective Animal Activism, which was founded by Eitan Fischer during an internship at 80,000 Hours. 80,000 Hours contributed to the initial concept for the charity and provided it with technical support, as well as assistance fundraising and hiring full-time staff. One of our team members, Rob Wiblin, was a founding trustee of the new organisation. Moreover, EAA was legally part of 80,000 Hours for 6 months, before being spun-off and independently registered.
Where they can make the most difference is the most important consideration in choosing a career.
They are prepared to consider a wide range of causes and careers (and have demonstrated this so far).
They identify as a member of the effective altruism community.
The idea of this metric is that it captures our impact over the long-run better than plan changes because dedicated members are likely to take the most high leverage opportunities as they are discovered, and this is what most matters.
The following is a sub-set of plan changers who we think are likely to be dedicated members, and were substantially influenced in that direction by 80,000 Hours. There are 12 in total.
The studies were collected in the same way as above.
How much do they expect to donate over the next three years? £100k in expectation, though likely to be zero.
What were they planning before? Planned to become a doctor and make a difference through treating patients.
How did their plans change, and what are they doing now? Rather than assuming that she will have a large direct impact as a medic, Abbie decided to focus on influencing other medics to multiply her impact. While completing medical school, she is establishing a network of healthcare professionals interested in helping people more effectively through careers in policy, research and earning to give, among others. She has secured £6,000 in funding from the 2023 Challenge. She is focused on using her medical career to make the most difference she can.
Abbie also became a dedicated volunteer at 80,000 Hours in Oxford. She has attracted hundreds of attendees to 80,000 Hours events and organized a conference on effective altruism in healthcare careers where she presented 80,000 Hours’ research.
How and why did the change come about? Always highly concerned with helping people through her career, after attending an event and talking to several of 80,000 Hours’ staff, Abbie was persuaded that the direct effects of her work on patients was not the most important factor in her impact. While a volunteer, she considered pursuing earning to give, but decided she could do more by influencing other healthcare professionals into high potential paths. 80,000 Hours has also helped by giving her careers advice, encouraging her to think strategically about how to make an impact in medicine, and advising her on the business plan for the network.
I began working in healthcare at the age of sixteen wanting to “help people” – my medical school application stated “an interest in humans at all levels, from the molecular to the psychosocial.” My motivations are still the same, but my thoughts on how best to help people have changed dramatically.
After various token attempts at volunteering, I had become very disillusioned with my apparent inability to do anything of consequence. I pretty much gave-up on the idea of “charity”. I was also despondent about life in general, lacking any clear purpose or sense of agency, and I took several years out of studying because I was too depressed to care. It was therefore a revelation for me to learn that it is possible for one person to have thousands of times more impact simply by directing their efforts towards a more effective cause.
I first stumbled across an 80,000 Hours event on career choice as an excuse to avoid being dragged to a “This is Jesus Week” talk by friends. Ironically, it turned-out to be a life-changing experience on a scale that my Bible bashing friends could not have hoped for…I desperately wanted to maintain the enthusiasm that I took away from 80,000 Hours, and started volunteering to help get the message across to others. I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of the 80,000 Hours community, and my involvement has had the happy consequence of making me more motivated and productive in general.
I hope that by establishing a network of healthcare professionals with similar values I can help other medics to think beyond their everyday work to the bigger picture. By influencing how other people spend their money, time and efforts, I will indirectly have far more impact than I could ever achieve on my own.
Callum is a maths student at University of Warwick.
He wasn’t sure, but a possibility was a role in the charity sector.
Callum changed his plan to do earning to give in finance. He is currently applying for jobs in finance whilst finishing his last year at university.
Where he can make the most difference is now the most important consideration in his choice of career. Callum says that 80,000 Hours probably had a large part to play in making it so, just through suggesting the idea.
The change into earning to give in finance happened as a result of watching a video of the first 80,000 Hours lecture and being persuaded by the arguments, as well as reading our online content and discussion with people he’s met through Giving What We Can and CEA.
What were they planning before? Uncertain intention to go into public health as a researcher or NGO worker.
How did their plans change? He decided to improve his programming skills, and pursue jobs in start-ups with the aim of creating valuable products and earning to give.
What are they doing now? He’s working at a start-up consultancy in London which aims to improve board decision making.
How and why did the change come about? Richard came to the original 80,000 Hours talk, and was immediately convinced. He then helped to found 80,000 Hours, interned with us, and received coaching. During this time, he researched a wide variety of careers. As the result of this, he considered a much broader range of sectors and considered doing earning to give rather than direct work.
Other benefits Richard met a friend through 80,000 Hours, who later provided Richard with loans to learn to program and helped him find jobs in tech start-ups.
See our earning to give evaluation.
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2019-04-22T10:10:08Z
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https://80000hours.org/2014/05/plan-change-analysis-and-cost-effectiveness/
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The fourteenth chapter of Romans presented to us our duty towards those who are weak in the faith, and who have excessively conscientious scruples with regard to things that are in themselves of no consequence. We are not judges of one another, but must all appear before [Christ's] judgment seat. If we have more knowledge than our brother, we are not arbitrarily to bring him to our standard, any more than he is to bring us down to his. Our greater knowledge rather throws upon us the responsibility of exercising the greater charity and patience.
The sum of it all is contained in these verses: "For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God."
1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. 3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. 4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus; 6 that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
Receiving One Another. The verses composing this chapter supplement the instruction given in chapter fourteen, and are a continuation of that. Thus, that chapter opens with the exhortation, "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye." The last verse of our present study is, "Wherefore receive ye one another."
How Are We to Receive One Another? The answer is, "As Christ also received us." This again emphasizes the statement that the apostle had not the slightest intention in any way of depreciating any one of the Ten Commandments when in the fourteenth chapter he said: "One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."
Christ did not in the slightest degree make any concessions in the commandments in order to accommodate those whom he would receive. He said, "Think not that I came to destroy the law, or the prophets." Matt. 5:17. Again, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10. Christ's commandments and those of the Father are the same, because he says, "I and my Father are one." John 10:30. When a young man wished to follow him, he said to him, "Keep the commandments." Matt. 19:17. Therefore it is evident that in making concessions for the sake of peace and harmony, no concession is to be made in respect to keeping the commandments of God.
How to Please Others. This is still further shown by the exhortation, "Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification." We are never exhorted to aid a brother to sin, in order to please him. Neither are we exhorted to close our eyes to a brother's sin, and allow him to go on in it without warning him, lest we displease him. There is no kindness in that. The exhortation is, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Lev. 19:17. The mother who would be so fearful of displeasing her child that she would not stop it from putting its hand into the blaze, would be exhibiting cruelty instead of kindness. We are to please our neighbors, but only for their good, not to lead them astray.
Bearing Others' Weaknesses. Going back to the first verse, we find this lesson still more strongly emphasized: "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." "For even Christ pleased not himself." Compare this with Galatians 6:1, 2: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such on one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." In bearing the infirmities of the weak, we are fulfilling the law of Christ. But to bear another's burdens does not mean to teach him that he can safely ignore any of the commandments. To keep the commandments of God is not a burden; for "his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3.
How Christ Bears Our Burdens. Christ bears our burdens, not by taking away the law of God, but by taking away our sins, and enabling us to keep the law. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. 8:3, 4.
He Says "Come." One blessed thing in the service of the Lord is that he does not say, "Go," but, "Come." He does not send us away to labor by ourselves, but calls us to follow him. He does not ask anything of us that he does not himself do. When he says that we ought to bear the infirmities of them that are weak, we should take it as an encouragement, instead of a task laid upon us, since it reminds us of what he does for us. He is the mighty One, for we read, "I have laid help upon One that is mighty; I have exalted One chosen out of the people." Ps. 89:19. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Is. 53:4, 6.
Why the Task Is Easy. This is what makes it easy to bear one another's burdens. If we know that Christ bears our burdens, it will become a pleasure for us to bear the burdens of others. The trouble is that too often we forget that Christ is the Burden-bearer, and, being over powered with the weight of our own infirmities, we have still less patience with those of others. But when we know that Christ is indeed the Burden-bearer, we cast our own care upon him; and then when we make the burden of another our own, he bears that too.
"The God of All Comfort." God is "the God of patience and consolation." He is "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 2 Cor. 1:3, 4. He takes upon himself all the reproaches that fall upon men. "The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me." Of the children of Israel it is said, "In all their affliction he was afflicted." Isa. 63:9. The words of Christ are, "Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor." "Reproach hath broken my heart." Ps. 69:19, 20. Yet in all this there was no impatience, no murmuring. Therefore, as he has already borne the burdens of the world in the flesh, he is fully able to bear ours in our flesh, without complaining; so that we may be "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." Col. 1:11.
The Gospel According to Moses. It is this lesson that is taught us throughout all the Scriptures: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." In the book of Job this is made manifest. "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." James 5:11. In the writings of Moses it is as clearly set forth. Christ says: "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not the writings, how shall ye believe my words?" John 5:46, 47. If the gospel according to Moses is neglected, it will be of no use to read the gospel according to John, because the gospel can not be divided. The gospel of Christ, like himself, is one.
How to Receive One Another. Finally, "Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God." Whom does Christ receive? "This man receiveth sinners." How many will he receive? "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
How will he receive them? "All day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." And if they come, what assurance have they? "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Let us learn of him; and remember that, wherever you may open the Scriptures, they are they which testify of him.
Standing on the Threshold. Our study of the book of Romans, while there have been many articles, has not been exhaustive. Indeed, it is impossible to have an exhaustive study of the Bible; for no matter how thoroughly we study any portion of it, we shall still find ourselves but upon the threshold. The more we study the Bible, the more will our best study seem to be only preliminary to further study that will be seen to be necessary. But although we can not expect ever to exhaust the truth, so that we can say that we have it all, we may be sure that as far as we have gone we have only the truth. And this assurance arises not from any wisdom that we have, but solely from adhering closely to the word of God, and not allowing the alloy of human ideas to mingle with its pure gold.
8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers: 9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. 10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. 11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. 12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root out of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. 13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, through the power of the Holy Ghost. 14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
"A Minister of the Circumcision." Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision. Bear this in mind. Shall we learn from it that he saves only the Jews? By no means, but we must learn from it that "salvation is of the Jews." John 4:22. "Jesus Christ our Lord" was "made of the seed of David according to the flesh." Rom. 1:3. He is the "root of Jesse," which stands "for an ensign of the people," to which the Gentiles seek. Isa. 11:10; Rom. 15:12. The Gentiles who find salvation must find it in Israel. None can find it anywhere else.
"The Commonwealth of Israel." In writing to the brethren at Ephesus, Paul refers to the time before they were converted as the time when they were "Gentiles in the flesh," and says, "At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. 2:11, 12.
That is, outside of Israel there is no hope for mankind. They who are "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel" are "without Christ," and "without God in the world." In Christ Jesus we are brought to God. But being brought to God we are "no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Vss. 18, 19. Therefore we have two things most clearly and positively taught, namely, That none are saved unless they are of the house of Israel; and, That none are of the house of Israel except those who are in Christ.
Confirming the Promises. "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." That shows that all the promises of God to the fathers were made in Christ. "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen." 2 Cor. 1:20. "To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. 3:16. There was therefore never any promise made to the fathers which was not to be obtained only through Christ, and therefore through the righteousness which is by him.
Christ Not Divided. Jesus Christ is declared to be a minister of the circumcision. Suppose now we hold that the promises to the fathers mean the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; we should then be shut up to the conclusion that only those natural descendants, those who are circumcised, can be saved. Or, at least, we should be driven to the conclusion that Christ does something for them that he does not do for the rest of mankind.
But Christ is not divided. All that he does for one man he does for every man. All that he does for any he does through his cross; and he is crucified but once. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Therefore since Christ is the minister of the circumcision to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, it is evident that those promises included all mankind. "There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him" Rom. 10:12. "Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also; seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith." Rom. 3:29, 30.
The "Tabernacle of David." At the time when the apostles and elders were assembled in Jerusalem, Peter told how he had been used by the Lord to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. Said he, "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Acts 15:8, 9.
Then James added, "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:14-18.
That is, the house of David is to be built up only by the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, and the taking from them of a people for God. And this was the purpose of God from the beginning, as the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." Acts 10:43.
"The Blessing of Abraham." Again we read that "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; . . . that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Gal. 3:13, 14. The curse that Christ was made for us, was the cross, as is stated in the words omitted from the text just quoted.
Therefore we learn that the promises to the fathers were assured only by the cross of Christ. But Christ tasted death for every man. Heb. 2:9. He was "lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:14, 15. Therefore the promises made to the fathers were simply the promises of the gospel, which is "to every creature." By the cross, Christ confirms the promises made to the fathers, in order "that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy."
"One Fold, and One Shepherd." In the tenth chapter of John we find some of the most beautiful, tender, and encouraging words of the Lord Jesus. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the gate by which the sheep enter into the fold. He gives his life to save them. Then he says, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd." Vs. 16. Therefore when his work is completed, there will be but one fold, and he will be the Shepherd. Let us see who will compose that flock.
The Lost Sheep. In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, that wonderful bouquet of blessed illustrations of the love and mercy of the Saviour, Jesus represents his work as that of the shepherd going to seek the lost and wandering sheep. Now who are the sheep that he is seeking? He himself gives the answer: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matt. 15:24. This is emphatic. Therefore it is evident that all the sheep whom he finds, and whom he brings back to the fold, will be Israel. And so it is just as evident that the "one fold" will be the fold of Israel. There will be no other fold, since it is to be "one fold." And he will be the Shepherd. To-day, as well as in the days of old, we may pray, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth." Ps. 80:1.
The Characteristic of the Sheep. Those who are following Christ are his sheep. But he has "other sheep." There are many who are not now following him, who are his sheep. They are lost and wandering, and he is seeking them.
What determines who are his sheep? Hear him tell: "The sheep hear his voice." "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice." "Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice." John 10:3, 16, 26, 27. When he speaks, those who are his sheep will hear his voice, and come to him. The word of the Lord is the test as to who are his sheep. Every one therefore who hears and obeys the word of the Lord is of the family of Israel; and those who reject or neglect the word, are eternally lost. "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29.
"One Faith." We may now stop to see how this that the apostle has said connects with what he has said in the fourteenth chapter, about Christ's being the minister of the circumcision, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, in order that the Gentiles might glorify God.
"Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations." Mark this: They who are to be received "as Christ also received us to the glory of God," are those who have the faith. Now there is but "one faith," as there is but "one Lord." Eph. 4:5. And faith comes by hearing the word of God. Rom. 10:17.
Since there is to be but one fold, and Christ, the one Shepherd, is not divided, there must be no division in the fold. Disputings, which come from human wisdom and human human ideas, are to be left out, and the word of God alone followed. That allows of no disputing, since it tells ever one and the same thing. This is the rule: "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 1 Pet. 1:1-3.
Faith, Hope, Joy, and Peace. "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Here we have faith and hope, joy and peace. The God of hope is to fill us with all joy and peace in believing, and this is to be by the power of the Holy Ghost. This connects the present instruction with that of the fourteenth chapter, where we are told that "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, 16 that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. 17 I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, 19 through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 20 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation; 21 But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand. 22 For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. 23 But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; 24 whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company. 25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. 26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. 27 It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. 28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain. 29 And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. 30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; 31 that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; 32 that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. 33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
The Gospel Commission. When Jesus was about to leave this world, he told his disciples that they should first receive power by the Holy Spirit, and then, said he, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8. "To the Jew first, and also to the Greek," but to all alike, and the same gospel to all. So Paul declared that his work as a minister of the gospel consisted in "testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 20:21. So in our text he tells us that as "the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God," he had "through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God" "fully preached the gospel of Christ" "from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum."
Partaking the Same Spiritual Things. The apostle, speaking of his desire to visit the Romans, said that he hoped to see them when he took his journey into Spain. "But now," said he, "I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things."
A very simple statement, but it shows that the Gentiles received nothing spiritual except that which came from the Jews. The spiritual things of which the Gentiles had been made partakers came from the Jews, and were ministered to them by Jews. Both partook of the same spiritual meat, and therefore the Gentiles showed their gratitude by ministering to the temporal necessities of the Jews. So here again we see but one fold and one Shepherd.
The God of Israel. Many times in the Bible God is declared to be the God of Israel. Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, immediately after the healing of the lame man, said to the people, "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus." Acts 3:13. Even in this age, therefore, God is identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel.
God desires to be known and remembered, and so we read his words, "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Ex. 31:13, 16, 17. God is the God of Israel. True, he is the God of the Gentiles also, but only as they accept him, and become Israel through the righteousness by faith. But Israel must keep the sabbath. It is the sign of their connection with God.
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2019-04-23T16:41:27Z
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http://sdabol.org/content/15-articles-romans
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This article is about the Stargate Universe episode. For the short story, see Aftermath (short story).
"Aftermath" is the second episode of the second season of Stargate Universe.
Dr. Nicholas Rush discovers the bridge, but keeps it secret from the rest of the expedition. Suffering from a food shortage, the expedition sends an Ancient shuttle to a planet near which Destiny stops. A shuttle malfunction forces the team sent to the planet to try to find a way to reactivate the disabled Stargate before they get permanently left behind.
A group of people are forced to evacuate to Destiny after an attack on Icarus Base by the Lucian Alliance, and are now trapped there. During the time on Destiny, tensions rise between Dr. Nicholas Rush and Colonel Everett Young, eventually causing a mutiny between the civilians and military. After a Nakai attack, the two groups must work together to prepare themselves for the next attack, for the crew's sake. Rush uses the Destiny interface chair to find a clue to the master code. After Colonel David Telford's brainwashing is broken, he reveals that the Lucian Alliance are coming to take Destiny. After a group of Alliance soldiers led by Commander Kiva and Telford gate to Destiny, they take several sections of the ship. During a skirmish in the infirmary, Lt. Tamara Johansen is shot in the stomach. During Telford's attempt to return control of the ship to Rush, he is caught by Kiva and the two shoot each other. Telford survives but Kiva is killed. Dannic takes control but is shot by Ginn, who returns control to Rush.
Dr. Nicholas Rush is unable to sleep due to nightmares of being tortured by Commander Kiva of the Lucian Alliance. He heads to the Control interface room, where Dr. Lisa Park is currently working. As he steps up to one of the consoles, he discovers a red box with Ancient writing on it. Clearly surprised by the find, he tentatively asks Park about it. She states that the program suddenly froze. He asks why she didn't call him for help, and she says that a reset usually fixes the problem. Rush presses a few buttons and clears the error, which confuses Park, who wants to know how he did it. He instead bids her goodnight, sarcastically noting that she has everything well in hand, and quickly leaves. She asks where he's going, to which he responds that he's going for a walk and that she should call him the next time she gets in trouble. Park is left alone, annoyed by his attitude.
Rush makes his way to an elevator, which he takes to the top floor of the pyramid structure. He goes to an empty room with a large blast door and inputs a code into the door control panel, causing the blast door to slide away. Behind it is another door, ornately styled. He presses the door release button, opening the room. A small gust of wind passes as the sealed room is pressurized. The interior houses several workstations and a chair with consoles mounted on it. As he examines the chair, the entire room lights up. This is followed by the room suddenly moving, rising up from the top of the ship so the windows aren't obstructed by the hull. Rush has unlocked Destiny's bridge. He sits in the chair and begins taking notes, when he is unexpectedly confronted by his deceased wife, Gloria Rush, sitting in one of the workstation chairs. She explains that he has found the master code, and now has full control of Destiny's systems. Furthermore, she believes he has no intention of sharing this information with the rest of the crew.
Wray interviews Ginn about the Lucian Alliance.
Camile Wray is holding an interview with Ginn. A Kino is recording the conversation, and MSgt. Ronald Greer is standing guard. Ginn tells Wray of the rumors she's heard regarding the purpose of the ninth chevron, legends that it will grant those who unlock it the power of the gods. Wray scoffs at the notion, asking which gods Ginn is referring to. Ginn assumes it is in reference to the ascended Ancients. She begins to speak about having control over time and space, so Wray interrupts, wondering if she really believes Destiny to be capable of such a thing. Ginn notes that it's just what the legends say. Ginn asks why Wray is here, and Wray states that she's here to get Ginn's perspective. She seems confused that Wray would want to know about her activities over the past 12 years, but obliges her. As Ginn describes it, the Lucian Alliance are warlords. On her home planet, they burned crops to force the native population into dependence on the Alliance for survival. They controlled education, and raised the children as soldiers. Two years ago, Ginn was forced into serving the Alliance at gunpoint, with the threat that her family would be killed if she didn't comply. Wray reaches the conclusion that Ginn had no choice but to serve. Ginn instead changes the topic, saying that they have not been fed well, but Wray assures her this problem is not unique to the prisoners. The ship's food supplies are running low, since they haven't been able to resupply in some time, and they could all starve. Ginn wants to know what will happen to them, knowing that their current situation cannot be maintained indefinitely. Wray simply says hasn't been decided yet. Ginn assumes Colonel Everett Young will have the final say. Wray takes a short look at Greer, then makes it clear that she will also have a part in the decision. Ginn argues that not all of them are bad people, and that they could contribute if given the chance.
In the makeshift prison, Colonel David Telford is escorted inside. Still healing, he limps to a box, where Varro sits next to him. He asks Telford what will be done with them. Telford reminds Varro that he is a considered a traitor, and thus wasn't told anything. Varro claims that Telford should know Young well enough to figure it out, but Telford asserts that Young has changed. Varro gets up, leaving Telford to rest.
In the Mess hall, Airman Darren Becker is serving rations of food to the crew. Dr. Dale Volker expresses displeasure at the small portions, remarking that it's hardly worth sitting down. Airman Dunning comments that things might be better if they weren't giving rations to the enemy. Sgt. Hunter Riley counters that their treatment of prisoners says a lot about them as a moral and civil society. Dr. Adam Brody and Eli Wallace are amused by his rather formal response, and Eli jokingly asks what pamphlet he read it from. Riley simply states that it is what he believes. Park comments that she has trouble sleeping with the thought that they are currently housing a group which would kill them given the chance.
In Young's room, Wray reminds Young that human resources was her job on Icarus Base. Young notes that Psychiatric evaluations are Lt. Tamara Johansen's responsibility, but Wray states that TJ needs to be given time to recover, which Young accepts. She relays a report from the International Oversight Advisory stating that the conflict with the Lucian Alliance has been escalating in the Milky Way, with intel reports that suggest a possible attack on Earth itself being possible. Young asks if she's gained any useful information from the prisoners. Wray thus far has nothing, but suggests that they might be more forthcoming if she could assure them that they would not be dumped on the next inhabitable planet as soon as they were no longer useful. Young notes that they tried to do the same thing, and wonders if everyone on-board will be OK with sharing rations until they run out of food. Wray insists they haven't reached that point yet, but Young asks how long she's willing to let the situation drag on, since this is about more than the proper treatment of prisoners. The simple fact of the matter is that the Alliance invaded the ship, and cannot be held prisoner forever. Wray insists that they're not all dangerous, citing her report, but Young dismisses the "I was just following orders" claim as an excuse by the prisoners to save themselves, having heard it before. Wray comes to the conclusion that they will be left on the next viable planet, and Young merely states that he hopes they run into one soon. He opens the door to excuse Wray.
On the bridge, the vision of Gloria is still talking to Rush, noting that his efforts to control the ship is not as easy as he had hoped. Rush notes that the ship was meant to have a crew. At Gloria's suggestion that there is a crew, he adds that the crew is supposed to know what they're doing. He states that the Ancients never intended Destiny to fly itself for so long, and is mildly surprised by Gloria suddenly having moved to the command chair. He believes there to be a purpose to the mission. Gloria notes that, despite his speculation, Rush immediately turned the autopilot back on. Rush notes that, without knowing what he is doing, he could stop the ship near another Binary pulsar or something equally dangerous. Currently, he is attempting to understand why Destiny only stops at certain planets, bypassing others entirely. Gloria suggests that they may simply be rest stops designed to give the crew a break, but are otherwise irrelevant to the mission. Ignoring the suggestion, Rush posits that environments could change over the years, becoming dangerous, but then this would assume Destiny could track the changes in real-time. He points out a nearby planet, which is classified as non-functional. Gloria simply says, "So it seems." Rush sarcastically notes how helpful she's been. Gloria starts reminiscing about their quiet walks in the garden back home. Ignoring her, Rush decides to stop the ship at the planet, as they are in desperate need of food. Gloria notes that a "big red X" is usually a bad sign. Finally fed up, Rush asks if she exists simply to second-guess him. She just asks him what he plans to do. Taking this as a "yes," Rush stops the ship.
In the control room, Eli, Brody, and Riley are confused by the sudden stop. Eli states that there must be a reason why the ship stopped. Rush suddenly walks in, telling him that the ship has stopped in range of a planet. Young notes that Riley couldn't find any gates in range, to which Rush suggests they use the shuttle. Brody is confused, wondering how Destiny could have data on a planet with no gate. Rush confirms that there is a gate, it's just not working. Riley expresses disbelief at the convenience of Destiny stopping within shuttle range. Rush angrily states that it's not magic, and that he's been trying to tell the ship they need supplies however he can. Young suggests sending a team to the planet. Rush adds that repairing the gate should be a priority. Eli notes that the shuttle trip will take an hour, and the jump countdown is set to less than seven hours. Young responds that with an active gate, supplies will be easy to retrieve, but Brody counters that they are too close to the planet to dial the gate even if it were active. Rush states that if they stop within range of the planet after the next jump, they'll have more time to collect supplies. Young asks if Rush wants to go, but Rush decides to stay. Young questions what Rush considers more important, food or his work, so Rush clarifies that there are malfunctioning systems he must continue working on.
The team is ready to leave.
Young decides to check on TJ, who is going on the mission to the planet, just prior to the launch, to make sure she's up to it. She insists she is, though she admits that she isn't at 100% just yet. Since they're running low on medicinal supplies, she wants to collect what she can now, just in case. She promises to take it easy. Young awkwardly states that he just wanted to make sure she'd be ok, and wishes her good luck. The rest of the team consists of Lt. Matthew Scott, Greer, Riley, Lt. Vanessa James, Dunning, Volker, Park, and Eli. Riley has plotted a course to the gate, and Scott launched after being given confirmation by Young.
On the bridge, Gloria expresses concern for Rush. Rush feels the same, noting that he "can't leave [him]self alone." Suddenly, Gloria is replaced by a vision of Jeremy Franklin, who states that Rush is missing things. A bewildered Rush says Franklin's name, and Franklin continues, noting that there is too much information here for one person to handle, no matter how smart they are. Rush asks for clarification, so Franklin points out the data on the planet. The data is extensive, Rush notes, but Franklin's specific concern is the volcanic activity and atmospheric super-rotation. This gives Rush pause. The shuttle is now a few minutes from hitting the atmosphere. Rush believes it will be fine, but is again countered by Franklin, who notes that Rush based his calculation on the optimal structural integrity of the shuttle, as taken from the database, without taking into account the wear and tear Destiny's extreme age has had on it. Concerned, Rush contacts Scott and informs him of the turbulence, assuring him that the shuttle was designed to handle it. Scott thanks him for the heads-up. Gloria has replaced Franklin, and silently stares at Rush; he says nothing.
As the shuttle enters the atmosphere, it hits extreme turbulence. Some of the walls spark and a pipe breaks, releasing steam. Rush hails Scott, receiving a response after the second attempt, confirming they passed the turbulence, much to his relief. After a short but rough ride, the shuttle makes it through, much to Rush's relief. However, the engines suddenly cut out. With half the systems suddenly offline, Scott cannot correct for the sudden failure. With no engine control, the ship rapidly loses altitude, clipping the side of a mountain with its wing, plowing through a forest, and eventually coming to a hard stop when it plows into a small cliff. Riley's window bursts upon impact, showering the room with rocks.
In the crashed shuttle, everyone begins to come to. The lights are flickering and sparks randomly burst from the walls. Scott discovers Riley pinned beneath his console, which is further covered by a pile of rocks. He calls TJ for assistance, making sure she's ok. Riley has a pulse, but is unconscious. Scott checks on everyone else. Dunning's head is slightly bloody, but he assures Scott he's fine, and everyone else has come out of the crash with little more than minor scrapes. Riley wakes up, his first instinct to free himself, only to find he can't move. TJ quickly calms him, and asks if he's in any pain. Riley tells her it doesn't hurt, and that he cannot feel his legs at all. This worries both TJ and Scott.
On Destiny, Young enters the control room, asking Brody where Rush is. Brody doesn't know, but has called him. Over the comm, Young speaks with Scott. Scott tells Young that he isn't sure what happened. He explains that Rush informed them of the atmospheric turbulence. Young interrupts, having just heard of this, so Scott clarifies that he warned them over the comm. He continues, detailing their sudden power loss after passing the turbulence. Young asks about injuries; Scott reports Riley's situation, and notes that everyone else is fine. They are working on prying the door open He notes that the shuttle is badly damaged, including a broken window, and they will not be flying it home. Rush walks in and tells Scott to find the gate and get it working. If Destiny stops within range after its next jump, they can be rescued. Scott schedules a report in 30 minutes.
Having managed to pry the door open, Eli squeezes through. Scott asks Volker if he can find the gate; Volker simply states that they'll figure it out. Eli asks about Riley, and Scott cannot give a clear answer. In private, TJ tells Scott that Riley is wedged in pretty good, and she isn't sure he should be moved. Scott notes that they'll have to eventually.
On Destiny, Wray tries to discourage Young from blaming the shuttle accident on their desperation. Young dismisses it as beyond their control. Wray has contacted the IOA once more, and they insist that Young keep at least some of the prisoners on the ship. Young does not care about their opinion. Over the radio, backup is requested in the prisoner's hold immediately. Wray and Young rush to the scene. The prisoners are trying to overpower their guards. Young enters the room and grabs the nearest Alliance prisoner, who is attacking one of his men. The prisoner elbows him, so Young throws him to the ground and violently smashes his head on the floor several times, while Wray watches in horror. He then begins to choke him. Remembering himself, Young lets go before he kills the man. Telford yells at Young to get him to stop, then pulls him up. The rest of the prisoners have been subdued.
The team searches for the Stargate.
On the planet, James' team has reached the rough location of the Stargate, which is nowhere in sight. Eli notes that the Ancient remote control isn't listing any addresses. James asks if Volker is sure about the location, to which he responds that the gate would be visible if he were.
Meanwhile, Scott and Dunning are attempting to lift the console off Riley, causing him intense pain. TJ stops them, and informs Riley that she's going to try to check his legs. They lift the console once more, and TJ reaches in. Its weight is too much for Scott and Dunning to support for long, so she withdraws her hand at Scott's insistence. Her hand is covered in blood. She notes that his leg is stuck pretty good, and that the console is helping cut off circulation to the wound.
Eli's Ancient remote control indicates that Destiny has jumped to FTL, and he begins to panic, despite suggestions from James to calm down. James asks for the odds of Destiny dropping out within range of the gate; Franklin tells her that there's no way to tell. Greer, standing atop a large pile of rocks, shouts at the others that he has found the gate. Eli believes Greer is simply high enough to see it, but upon reaching his position cannot find it. Greer directs him to look down: the gate is beneath them, having been buried in a rock slide.
On the bridge, Gloria recommends Rush gets some sleep. Rush just tells her that it would be easier if she'd help him. Gloria wonders what has drawn him to the conclusion that she can help. Rush asks to speak to Franklin, but Gloria doesn't recognize the name. Rush tells her that one of two things is happening; he's either gone crazy, or the ship has manifested the images of Gloria and Franklin as a way of communicating with him. Franklin has been the more helpful of the pair. Gloria asks him what he's trying to do. Rush explains that he wants to control the jump countdown. Gloria cant help. Rush takes this as proof he's gone crazy. With no Stargates in Destiny's immediate path, Rush will have to stop the ship soon in order to rescue the stranded team, but, as Gloria notes, he'll need to concoct an explanation for the abrupt stop. He can't just drop out of FTL at will, as the drives must remain active for four hours at a time to prevent permanent damage. The next time they drop out of FTL, it will be his last shot. Gloria still recommends that he tell the others, but Rush denies that course of action. She believes it's because he doesn't trust Young, and Rush vehemently insists that Young let the Lucian Alliance take over the ship, calling him mentally unstable. Rush adds that Young is getting worse, citing the incident with the prisoner. Gloria counters that Rush's negligence is responsible for the shuttle crash, but Rush blames their desperate situation on Young, and deems him unfit for command.
James' team is busy digging out the gate, having made little appreciable progress. Scott joins them, and Eli asks about Riley. Scott explains that Riley is bleeding heavily, and the console is the only thing keeping him from bleeding out immediately. Eli wants to do something, and Scott focuses their efforts on unburying the gate.
In the shuttle, TJ asks Riley if he's in pain. He says he's fine, and asks if she's ever attended to a patient she knows he is going to die. She has. Prior to this incident, Riley had figured that he wasn't meant to die yet, given his previous close calls. Riley tells her about his own religious mother, and how his father never believed yet always went with her. He is not religious himself. TJ tells him that she won't leave him if it comes to it. Riley asks TJ what she believes; she isn't sure. She tells him about her experience on the alien planet while she was recovering from her gunshot wound. She knows it felt real, even though she can't prove it, and sees it as a ray of hope that helps her cope with the situation. Park quietly listens while resting on one of the benches.
On Destiny, Varro meets with Young. He apologizes for the behavior of the prisoners. Young informs him that the prisoners will be sent off the ship when they reach the next viable planet, and that he expects them to cooperate; force will be used if necessary. Varro quietly accepts this and leaves.
Scott has opted to simply use explosives to clear the rocks covering the gate. Eli remembers reading that large explosions can potentially cause the Naquadah in the gate to overload and explode. Volker, somewhat unsure of his own opinion, doesn't believe it will be that big. Eli asks Scott if he's sure of his decision, but Scott sees no other option; it could take them weeks to dig the gate out manually. Eli wonders if the blast will damage the gate, so Scott asks him to make a decision. Eli gives the go-ahead and Scott flips the switch. The explosion does as intended, and Eli remarks that it was pretty big.
Telford meets with Young to inform him that he used the Long-range communication device. Young decides to skip the fact that he didn't authorize that. Telford has compiled a short list of prisoners Earth wants kept on board, as they may prove valuable. Young assumes that Telford has been given orders to take command should he resist, and questions if the crew will be willing to trust Telford. Telford says that the military is expected to obey. The ship drops out of FTL. Young calls Rush, asking for his location, and leaves the room with Telford behind him.
In the control room, Brody informs Young and Telford that the countdown is set to less than three hours. The planet is still in range, but the gate is locked out. He doesn't know why the ship stopped, since there are no planets in range save the one where the team is trapped. Brody suggests trying to bypass the lockout and dial the planet, noting its a long shot. Since it's all they have to go on, Young heads for the gate room, informing Rush. Rush comes in as the gate is being dialed. Young questions Rush on his activities, so Rush explains that he was in the engine control room, having determined that the FTL is still suffering from the radiation from the binary pulsar, causing them to shut down prematurely. Young says nothing.
With the gate cleared, Eli dials Destiny.
On the planet, the gate has been almost entirely uncovered. It suddenly starts shaking, and the team assumes that Destiny is trying to dial in. Volker tells them to clear the event horizon. Destiny's address comes up on Eli's remote. Once the shaking stops, Eli dials Destiny. The gate lights up and connects successfully. Scott comes through with Eli and James. Young is glad to see them ok, and asks about the others. Scott hesitates, and tells Young that Riley won't make it.
Young comes back with Scott to see Riley. Greer is waiting outside the shuttle. He enters the shuttle alone. TJ and Park are attending to him. TJ refuses to let Riley die alone, and Young asks to be given a minute alone with Riley. TJ motions for Park to follow her out. Riley apologizes for the situation, but Young assures him this is not his fault. Riley is concerned that they may try to stay to comfort him, and his only concern is that the team leaves before the ship goes back to FTL. He's not going to be around much longer anyway. Young wants to know what to tell Riley's family, but he can't think of anything good enough. He asks for the time until Destiny jumps, and Young says that they have plenty of time to spare. Riley states that he would ask Young for his gun if he didn't think the crew would blame him for the results. Young takes it as a joke at first, but Riley makes it clear that he's in pain. Young tries to leave to get TJ, but Riley stops him. With some effort, he pins his free hand under his back. Taking Riley's cue, Young quietly suffocates him. He informs the team that Riley has passed away.
Greer leads a toast to a fallen comrade.
Telford and Wray present Varro with the list of prisoners to remain on the ship. There are nine in total, Varro, Ginn, and Simeon among them. The rest are sent through the gate to the planet. A large gathering is held in Brody's bar, where Greer leads a toast to Riley. Scott is comforted by Chloe, who wipes a tear from his eye. Eli sadly watches Riley's video diary. TJ is alone in her quarters. Young is also alone in his quarters, drinking and silently crying.
On the bridge, Rush tells Gloria that there was nothing that could be done for Riley, so there was no reason to stay. She knows, but Rush assumes that her presence is to convince him of his own guilty conscience. He doesn't deny his responsibility; he was trying to save the lives of the entire crew, not just himself. Still, he is convinced of one thing: Destiny's name is not random. The ship has a purpose. On one of the workstations, a small message box pops up, which Rush reads intently.
The ship drops out of FTL into empty space. Brody assumes it's another short jump caused by the radiation, but Volker detects something on sensors. Rush issues a general call to meet him on the observation deck. Young and Eli meet on the way there, Eli having heard the call, too. Rush, Brody, and Volker are already present. Destiny is on-course for an unknown object, just out of visual range, which they are headed straight for.
Rush: I thought you were going to get some sleep.
Park: Yeah, so did I.
Rush: What's going on here, then?
Park: Some sort of crash. The interface is frozen.
Rush: Yeah? Why didn't you call me?
Park: Well, I was going to try a restart first. That's fixed it in the past. (Rush presses a few buttons) What did you just do?
Rush: It seems I fixed the problem.
Park: Yeah, I can see that. How?
Rush: Goodnight, Doctor Park. Glad to see you've everything well in hand.
Eli: Okay. Destiny just jumped. This is not good.
James: Oh, try not to panic.
Eli: Experience tells me that this is a very good time to panic!
Rush: [To a hallucination of his dead wife] The man [Young] is mentally unstable!
Riley: Do you believe in anything? God? The afterlife?
T.J.: I don't know. Since we've been here, we've seen... some incredible things. We know that there's so much we don't understand—beings more powerful than us.
Riley's Video Diary: "You'd figure being stranded in this ship in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strangers would be the problem. But, that... That isn't it exactly; it's not... its not so much being out here so much as not being there... for the... the birthdays, the weddings, the funerals. The simple things, like just taking your nephew on his first day of school, you know, or taking the dog for a walk. You know, just not... being there."
Stargate Wiki has 18 images related to Aftermath.
This episode marks the death of Sgt. Hunter Riley, the ninth loss of the Destiny expedition, after Senator Alan Armstrong, Sgt. Curtis, Andrea Palmer, Cpl. Gorman, Sgt. Spencer, Dr. Jeremy Franklin, Cpl. Rivers and Airman Armando Elsinor Von Spelker the Third.
Riley's video diary, played at the end of the episode, is the last of the Kino webisodes that accompanied the first season of Stargate Universe. This is the first webisode to be played in an episode, though events from certain webisodes have been referenced in the show.
This episode shows that even a minor obstruction in the path of the event horizon is enough to keep the gate from dialing.
In this episode, the expedition loses its second and last Ancient shuttle. The first one was given to the civilians who remained on Eden in exchange for all their military personnel who had decided to stay with them in the episode "Faith".
During the initial set up for the first five episodes, the episode (written by Robert C. Cooper) is the second episode in the second season, but would be the third to be filmed with "Pathogen" filming first to give director Robert Carlyle time to prepare.
Elyse Levesque is credited but has only a brief appearance with no dialogue.
Aftermath on the official Syfy website.
Aftermath on the official MGM website.
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2019-04-19T00:40:59Z
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https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Aftermath
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The extreme drought of 2018 in the Midwest region has forced livestock producers to be concerned with drought effects such as high levels of nitrates in forage and drought-damaged crops for silage and baleage. Many producers are now searching for alternative feeding options for livestock. In addition to safety and herd health issues, these factors affect the business decisions for each operation.
In response to producers’ concerns, University of Missouri Extension has developed this list of producers’ questions answered by extension crop and forage specialists.
What amount of nitrogen or manure applied to hay is likely to cause a nitrate toxicity problem?
The more nitrogen supplied to the crop, the more likely nitrate toxicity will occur.
Are the nitrates in forage substantially higher in the morning than in the afternoon?
If we get some rain, what happens to nitrate levels in corn?
Initially, nitrate levels will increase for a few days following a rain. However, nitrate levels will decrease to normal levels about 10 days after a rain if the crop begins to grow again.
After doing a nitrate quick test of feed sources, when should a farmer consider sending in a sample for a quantitative test?
If a nitrate quick test shows any reaction at all, a quantitative test of the feed should be done before feeding it to livestock.
How does feeding value of drought-damaged corn silage compare to that of traditional corn silage?
Because drought-damaged corn usually has less grain, its feeding value is lower than corn produced in a normal season. However, the ratio of grain to fodder in the silage does not change as much as is often anticipated. Typically, the feeding value is about 85 percent of that of normal corn silage feeding value.
Will nitrate levels in corn silage drop during the ensiling process?
Yes, typically nitrate levels drop 25–50 percent during the ensiling process if the silage ferments well.
Do nitrate levels in bagged corn silage get lower like nitrate levels of silage in a pit?
Ensiling will lower nitrates, but how it is packaged (pit, bag, baleage) makes no difference.
Can drought-damaged corn be made into baleage (large round-bale silage)?
Yes, but it takes a bit of extra management. Be sure that the bales are compacted well, net wrapped (which keeps the stalks from poking though as much) and then wrapped with plastic to a final thickness of 6 to 8 mil. Corn should be baled at moisture content of 50 to 60 percent.
Will chopping silage at a higher level than usual, such as one foot high, lower the nitrate danger enough to make it safe for feeding?
Not necessarily. Nitrate concentrations are higher in the lower parts of the plant. Increasing cutting height can help lower the concentrations in the silage, but it does not guarantee that the nitrate levels in the feed will be safe.
What can I plant into dead or dormant cool-season perennial grasses that could provide winter grazing IF there is no rain in time to simulate a fall grass growth before the late October growing decline?
If it doesn’t rain until late October, there is nothing you can plant for winter grazing this year. If the drought kills a pasture, you could plant winter wheat or rye in late summer (early September), providing there is sufficient autumn moisture for establishment and growth.
What are some fall grazing forage options to plant if the drought “breaks” between now and mid-August?
See the previous answer. Winter annuals are the best.
My hay meadow received a rain shower last week. A lot of Johnsongrass has started to regrow in the meadow. If I cut it, will the nitrates persist in the hay?
Yes. The nitrates will not degrade unless you ensile the forage.
At what level of applied nitrogen or animal manure should I be concerned about the potential nitrate level in hay? Will it be the same issue in a pasture?
The levels are the same for pasture and hay. Any concentration above 0.25 percent can begin to cause problems, with concentrations above 1 percent causing the most serious problems. See MU Extension publication G4661, Warm-Season Annual Forage Crops, for more information.
Will nitrate levels go down after hay is stored for a specific period of time?
What is the nutritional value of grasses or weeds — Switchgrass and foxtail in particular — that are still green at this time of year?
The nutritive value of forage is related to its stage of maturity. Typically, switchgrass and the summer annual weeds such as foxtail, barnyardgrass, goosegrass and crabgrass are reproductive this time of year; as such, they are “stemmy” and have low digestibility. But they can provide some roughage.
What are some alternatives for feeding hay?
Among alternative feedstuffs, high-nitrate corn silage is more readily available and offers the greatest energy content with the benefit of nitrate reduction. Corn silage necessitates that you modify your storage and feeding systems due to the wet nature of feed. If you make corn silage in bale form, you can use existing feeding and storage systems; however, waste will be higher than normal silage systems due to stalk refusal. If excessive dry-down occurred before the traditional corn silage harvest, baling wet stalks can lengthen the harvest window. Field reports indicate ear losses can be high with roller conditioners.
Baling dry corn stalks after harvest can ensure accurate corn harvest estimates and increased nitrate-reduction time. Corn stalk grazing can limit field losses and waste hauling from feeding areas. You will need to add protein supplements to corn stalks. Corn stalk bales can have up to 45 percent total digestible nutrients (TDN) and 6 percent crude protein (CP), which is greater than other straw alternatives. However, producers should expect greater waste from baled corn stalks, because cows will leave cobs and thick stalks behind after eating leaves and husks. Corn stalk fields can be stocked to graze at a rate of 2 acres per cow, which will provide 60 days of grazing. Expect cows to gain weight the first month, then as the higher quality plant parts are used up, provide 1 pound of supplemental crude protein per cow per day to improve digestibility of the lower quality components. Chemical treatments such as calcium oxide (CaO) or ammoniation can improve forage quality and digestibility. Refer to the article Digestibility of Crop Residues After Chemical Treatment and Anaerobic Storage from University of Nebraska-Lincoln for more information on CaO treatment.
In areas where broilers or turkeys are fed, you can feed poultry litter to extend hay supply and reduce supplemental protein needs. Litter must be stacked and allowed to heat prior to feeding; but after storage it can be used as a supplement to hay or as a substitute. See Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s publication Feeding Broiler Litter to Beef Cattle (PDF).
Traditional corn- and soybean-based byproduct feeds likely will be more expensive and in short supply. Consider alternatives such as wheat, peanut and cotton products. Wheat straw can be chemically treated similar to corn stalks. Gin trash and peanut hay offer alternative roughage sources. Remember, peanut and cotton hulls serve primarily as fillers and have low energy value, so price your supplements based on nutrient values rather than price per ton. If the local corn crop develops aflotoxin later in the fall, beef producers may buy infected corn at a discount.
Planting winter annuals such as oats, cereal rye and annual ryegrass in late August may offer some relief; however, you will need a timely rain to justify additional input costs. Be wary of herbicide carryover due to drought conditions.
Use MU Extension’s byproduct feed page to shop for alternative feed ingredients.
Can feed additives help reduce nitrate feeding risk?
Ensiling is the best option to use for high-nitrate feeds. Over time, in cattle, sheep, goats and buffalo, rumen microbes will develop increasing tolerance to nitrates. The best feed additive is a low-nitrate feedstuff, which will dilute nitrates.
What are recommendations for grazing corn?
I have enough hay, but I also have access to corn silage. Should I chop the silage?
Use local distressed crops if silage fits your feeding system; then consider marketing excess hay as an alternative enterprise. Conversely, use silage to retain calves and move to a different marketing window, or dry lot cows or calves on a custom basis.
When are nitrate levels in forage too high for feeding forage by itself or mixed with hay?
Nitrate levels in feed can be classified into four usage categories: safe, caution, danger and toxic. Feed in the safe category can be fed to any class of livestock. In the caution and danger categories, limited amounts of the feed can be used for nonreproductive livestock. Feed in the toxic category should not be fed to any class of animals in any amounts.
Table 1. How much nitrate is too much?
0 to 550 0 to 2,500 Safe Forage is generally safe to feed to all classes of livestock.
550 to 1,100 2,500 to 5,000 Caution Forage with the nitrate (NO3) content can cause a problem in pregnant and young animals. Do not feed forage with nitrate levels this high in combination with nonprotein nitrogen supplements; and limit forage with NO3 levels this high to one-half of total ration.
1,100 to 3,400 5,000 to 15,000 Danger: Toxic Limit forage with the NO3 level to one-fourth of total ration. Should supplement forage of this type with energy minerals and Vitamin A.
More than 3,400 More than 15,000 Extremely toxic Forage with this NO3 level or higher is toxic and should not be fed under any circumstances.
Are high nitrate levels a bigger concern in specific classes of livestock?
As indicated in Table 1, young and pregnant animals are most susceptible to nitrate toxicity. Usually seven to 10 days after exposure to high nitrate feeds, pregnant animals will abort due to lack of fetal oxygen. Young animals are susceptible to nitrate toxicosis because their fetal hemoglobin has an increased affinity for absorbing nitrates. As with many other nutritional disorders, aged or poorly conditioned animals are at increased risk compared to well-fed or heavily conditioned animals.
What are the keys to weaning calves early?
Work with your local veterinarian to develop a vaccine plan. In general, plan to vaccinate for blackleg and respiratory diseases three to four weeks before weaning. Revaccinate at weaning. Because early weaned calves have a low feed intake, be sure to feed them a nutrient-dense diet. You may need to increase the nutrient concentration in their feed to allow adequate energy and protein intake. Make sure your facilities fit smaller calves by checking the calves’ ability to reach water and feed. Offer high-quality hay in feed bunks where feed is offered. Until calves are bawled-out and bunk-broke, feed them multiple times a day to encourage intake and check for sick animals.
What steps should I should take to extend hay supply?
Early weaning reduces cow nutrient requirements by 40 percent. This saves a day’s worth of feed for a cow for every 2.5 days a calf is weaned. This savings extends forage supplies while allowing cows greater time to build body condition before winter. After early weaning and 90 days following the start of the 60-day breeding season, pregnancy diagnose cows and sort cows into the following management groups to prioritize culling order and forage resources.
By prioritizing the forage supply and culling early, you will enable productive cows to use the available resources efficiently. Consider limit-feeding cows to increase efficiency. Limit-feeding will reduce waste and focus resources on high-nutrient demand groups. As hay prices increase, the cost of waste and inefficiency also will increase. You can increase hay supplies by 25 to 50 percent, depending on current systems, by reducing hay waste through improved storage and feeding practices. If you are feeding cows daily supplements, consider adding monensin to the supplement. Ionophores have shown 10 percent reduction in maintenance energy requirements; and monensin, the only ionophore approved for beef cows, increased energy content of poor quality hay by 15 percent in recent research at Oklahoma State University.
The drought has ruined my corn and soybean crops. If I plant winter wheat or a forage grass this fall, should I be concerned with herbicide carryover?
For more information about herbicide carryover, including tables showing the required rotational intervals between application of corn and soybean herbicides and planting of winter wheat or forage grasses, see the article Consider Herbicide Carryover Potential Before Planting Wheat or Forage Grasses This Fall by University of Missouri’s Integrated Pest Management program.
Where will we stand on available phosphorus and potassium in crop ground if crops didn’t utilize applied nutrients? Will I be able to reduce inputs next year?
If yields are water-limited this year, phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) removal will be reduced. This will affect soil test levels. For fields with new soil tests next year, recommendations can be followed, as is.
Soil tests that were taken under drought conditions often give abnormal results for potassium. It is best to wait until soil moisture is somewhat replenished before taking soil samples.
For fields with previous soil tests, or for fields where soil tests are not part of phosphorus and potassium rate decisions, a credit can be given for phosphorus and potassium not removed this year; and rates can be reduced by the amount of this credit, with no risk of yield loss. For example, a phosphorus credit would be (projected P removal at yield goal) minus (actual P removal at actual yield). The phosphorus removal is calculated as (Yield) times (Grain P concentration). Grain P and K concentrations can be found on pages 12 and 20, respectively, of the University of Missouri publication Soil Test Interpretations and Recommendations Handbook.
How much of the nitrogen applied to my corn crop will be available for fall-seeded small grains?
Plenty will be available in the fall. But small grains don’t need much nitrogen (N) in the fall. The real question is how much will be available for small grains next spring. This will depend on winter and spring weather. Wet weather may lead to loss of nitrogen applied to, but not used by, corn. If winter and spring are not unusually wet, and corn yields were greatly reduced, it may be possible in some cases to get full yield of small grains without applying any additional nitrogen fertilizer.
One way to assess nitrogen availability from a droughted corn crop to a following small grain is to flag a small part of the field and hand-apply nitrogen to the small grain right at green-up in early spring. Check appearance of the small grain three weeks later — if it’s hard to see a difference in appearance where the green-up nitrogen was applied, it is likely that no additional nitrogen is needed.
Is it possible to capture nitrogen for winter small grains such as wheat, rye and oats?
Winter small grains will take up no more than 20 pounds of nitrogen per acre in the fall. Most corn fields will have a lot more than this available, due to low yield and low nitrogen uptake. Most soybean fields should have plenty, as well.
The amount of nitrogen from this year that will be available for small grains next spring depends on winter and spring weather. Wet weather may lead to loss of nitrogen applied to, but not used by, corn. If winter and spring are not unusually wet and corn yields were greatly reduced, it may be possible in some cases to get full yield of small grains without applying any additional nitrogen fertilizer.
See the answer to the previous question for a way to assess nitrogen availability from a droughted corn crop.
Can cover crops take up nitrogen this fall and release it for use in a spring planted crop?
Cover crops can take up, or scavenge, nitrogen this fall, but in limited amounts — possibly 20 pounds of nitrogen per acre. They can take up additional nitrogen in spring prior to killing, but they can’t be counted on to release the nitrogen in time for a spring-planted crop to benefit. The accumulated carbon and nitrogen will benefit the soil by producing additional organic matter; but fertilizer rates for a following spring crop should not be reduced.
Should I sell livestock or buy hay?
Cows without pasture will consume half a ton of hay per month. Purchased grass hay will cost between $100 and $200 per ton from now until the spring of 2019. Inventory your hay and cow numbers to estimate the cost of carrying cows until next spring. Most producers will find heavy culling justified or unavoidable. Sell cows and buy needed forage as soon as possible to avoid markets where prices are driven by glut and scarcity.
What are the tax liabilities if I sell cattle?
If you sell breeding cattle in excess of normal sales due to drought, you do not have to pay the income tax on sales if the cattle are replaced within two years under IRS Code Section 1003(e).
Will harvesting my corn for silage impact crop insurance payments I receive?
Crop insurance indemnities are not affected by harvesting corn for silage. In fact, harvesting damaged corn as silage offers additional revenue to the farmer without reducing revenue from insurance. Farmers who planted corn for grain but now want to harvest it as silage can do so after their insurance adjuster gives them permission. The adjuster will visit the field under consideration and give an estimate of yield that insurance will pay on or mark a strip of the field to be left until harvest. This strip, when harvested, will represent the yields of the entire field. Indemnities will be paid based on this yield.
Summary: (1) Never do anything before you contact your insurance company and receive their permission to harvest as silage; and (2) harvesting corn as silage will not reduce your insurance indemnity.
For insurance, how do I estimate potential yield with the in-field variability across the board this year?
Estimating yield for insurance purposes is the responsibility and sole prerogative of the insurance company. They are obligated to estimate yields according to best scientific methods. But if you disagree with their estimate of yield, your option is to let the crop mature until harvest. The time it would take to challenge an insurance adjuster’s estimate of yield would likely drag on beyond the appropriate time to harvest as silage.
What is the value of drought-stressed corn made into silage?
Drought-stressed corn silage generally has a feeding value of 85 to 95 percent of normal corn silage if a check of nitrate levels indicates it is safe to feed. The cost of other feeds is reflected in MU Extension’s weekly update of the latest relative feeding value of good corn silage going into a beef ration: http://agebb.missouri.edu/dairy/byprod/energygain.php.
What is corn silage worth relative to corn?
If standing in the field, silage is worth six times the estimated harvest-time net price of corn per bushel. Example: 6 × $3.75 per bushel = $22.50 per ton.
If chopped, delivered and packed in silo, it is worth eight times the estimated harvest-time net price of corn per bushel. Example: 8 × $3.75 per bushel = $30 per ton.
If dropped in the bunk in front of an animal, it is worth 10 times the estimated harvest-time price of corn per bushel. Example: 10 × $3.75 per bushel = $37.50 per ton.
Moisture levels, yields and shrink can differ dramatically from expectations. For tools to arrive at situation-specific prices, see http://dairy.missouri.edu/feed.
How do I estimate corn silage yield?
If little or no grain is expected, a rough preharvest estimate of yield is that 1 ton of silage per acre can be obtained for each foot of plant height, excluding the tassel.
How much corn grain should there be to justify combining the corn instead of chopping it?
The easy answer is to divide the cost of harvest by the market price. For example, if harvesting 1 acre of corn costs $30 and the market price of corn grain is $3.75, then a yield of 8 bushels per acre would pay for harvest.
However, corn yields of less than 30 bushels per acre may be difficult to harvest. A bushel of corn with normal-sized seeds contains about 73,000 kernels. If you assume a stand of 26,000 plants per acre and that each plant produces one ear, then it takes 2.8 kernels per ear to produce a bushel. So, a yield of 4 bushels per acre means the average kernel number per ear is 11. Even a yield of 30 bushels per acre translates into average ear size of 84 kernels — much smaller than the normal 600. Combines were not designed to efficiently harvest and shell such small ears, which are easily lost through the gathering mechanisms. Oddly shaped cobs and kernels may not flow normally through the rest of the combine. Kernels from sparsely populated ears can be larger than normal or much smaller than normal. If drought is relieved soon, then kernels will expand greater than normal and their shapes will be round because they do not have neighboring kernels to restrain their growth. If drought continues through seed filling, then seeds will remain small. Either of these abnormal kernels sizes may not thrash well from the cob. Smaller-than-normal kernels will have low test weights because they will contain relatively less starch and more cellulose.
So, low yield corn is difficult to combine, and increased harvest loss needs to be included in any calculations. Combine operators will need to pay special attention to machine settings. Unfortunately, wide variations for yield among areas in fields may make proper setting of combines difficult.
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2019-04-23T04:34:16Z
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https://extension2.missouri.edu/AGW1017
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Yale have really set a new standard for electronic keypad entry on uPVC doors with their KeyFree device. Not only do you have a digital combination keypad to open your door, but you also can operate the lock from a remote fob just like on your car!
What's more, the system carries the Police-Approved 'Secured By Design' label, giving you utmost confidence in the security of the system, without having the nuisance of keys to operate your lock. With our kit, you don't just get the handles, you get the kitemarked Yale Euro Cylinder for key-override, which is contained neatly within the lower panel of the external handle, as well as the unique Yale KeyFree spindle, and the correct fixing bolts - all taylored to suit your door by simply choosing your door setup from the list below!
The Yale KeyFree system allows for up to 4 programmed remote control fobs, a combination code on the digital keypad (as well as an additional temporary code setting for allowing workers temporary access while you're not there without handing over your main code), and a key-override facility should you lose your fob and forget your code!
With our complete Yale KeyFree kit, you get everything you need for your specific door size, not just the keypad handle set. This includes the kitemarked yale override cylinder, the unique yale spindle required on these systems, and the fixing kit for securing the unit to the door - all specific to the door measurements you select; a service we are proud to say we cannot find anywhere else!
We include all of the following in our Yale Keyfree Kit!
Darrel: Hi, guys. My name is Darrel, and I'm head of the Tech Team here at LocksOnline. Thanks for taking some time to tune in and watch one of our product review videos.
Now, we put these short little videos together to be able to give you, our customers, the opportunity to see the products that we have to offer, and hopefully a little bit more detailed. In the flesh, so to speak.
So today I want to show you an exciting product that we have on our website. It actually solves an incredibly large amount of problems in regards to the access industry, the access control industry, in regards to multipoint deadlocks on UPCV doors and composite doors. What this particular product is, it's the Yale KeyFree Combination Digital Electronic Combination Lock that's not available for multipoint locking solutions.
Now, I have it here in a bit of a template to sort of set it, because I want to try and explain to you how it all works, and go through it all in its individual little bits and detail.
We've got some bullet points as well up here on the board. The idea is, is that I'm gonna try to explain to you as well... There's a little bit of a measurement that you need to consider doing if you're thinking, "you know what, this is absolutely ideal."
So I'm gonna have a chat with you a little bit later on in respects to that as well.
So, some of the key features. How does this actual combination lock work? Of course, a lot of combination locks on the market these days, you have to do one critical thing to get it to work, and that's to be able to lift the handle up to actually throw on the bolts, and then you would physically then turn the key. What Yale have done here is they have managed to do that, either through use of a fob, or actually through the use of a key code from the outside. From the inside, you would be able to lift it up and lock it like normal from the inside as well.
So absolutely brilliant news in respects to that.
So it has actually been designed to work with the Yale Doormaster multipoint locking solutions, but I'm going to show it in a little bit more detail after, that it may actually work with other manufacturer's multipoint locks as well. Of course, Yale will only approve it to work with their multipoint locks, which is pretty obvious, really.
One of the distinct advantages as well, if you do decide to change the locking solution in the door as well, then you'll only get secured by design, which is one of the police approved bodies, etcetera, to ensure that the security and the integrity is absolutely paramount in regards to locking solutions on doors.
So that's well worth considering that.
But, as I mentioned, there's probably very little reasons why it cannot be used on other types of applications. So let's get onto the exciting things in regards to this. Let's actually get it lifted up here, and we'll try to talk you through all of the different types of things.
So, as I've mentioned, I've put a lock case in the center here to try and show you how it all actually gets fixed together. Of course, that's the type of multipoint lock that you may find in a UPVC or a composite door. So there's the back. I'm gonna put fingerprints all over it now. I've tried to keep it as clean as possible, but there's the back. This is the battery compartment in here, where all of the batteries are kept. There's a little knob here, which, I'll show you how that works in a second.
Daryl: ...I can now drop that down there like that.
Locking System: Disengaged. Please reenter your credential, and lift the handle to securely lock.
Daryl: There you go. So it's wanting to talk to me to say what it needs to do.
But now I've effectively got into my property, and now I'm in. So it really is as simple as that in regards to using the key code. We do supply our KeyFree with two fobs of standard. On the fob itself, you can actually just press the button and do exactly the same as what we've just done there.
Daryl: ...I would now lock the door.
Locking System: Lock closed. Securely locked.
Daryl: I now lock the door, and obviously everything now is all in the locked position. As I'm coming up to the door, around about five meters away, press the button.
Daryl: Press the handle down.
Locking System: Disengaged. Please reenter your credential and lift the handle to securely lock.
Daryl: So there you go. We're now actually back into the property.
So on the backend, if you're on the inside of the house now, there's the handle there, which, if you just wanted to operate the actual latch itself, you push this in there like that, and that allows you to operate the latch there. All right?
So that has now allowed you to actually open the door there. Sorry, that's a pull there. Sorry. So that now has allowed you to just open the door.
I'm pressing buttons there – two secs - let me get that.
Daryl: ...And now I've actually locked the whole mechanism, in which case, the only way you can open it is either by pushing the turn in, dropping the handle from the inside, or entering the code, or using the remote fob.
Daryl: ...I now get out, and I can then secure it then on the outside once I'm actually out of the property. All right?
Daryl: So I'm hoping it's been able to explain to you, just generally, how it all works. There are loads of other different features that are available as well. It's not my intention to go through more, and we do have more bullet listed. But what the video allows us to do is to actually try and show you, in the flesh, so to speak, how it all gets puts together.
Also, Yale have put a degree of redundancies into this particular key free system as well. So, for an example, on the front here we have this plate. But in the event, for whatever reason, the batteries were to fail, it'll actually tell you when the batteries are starting to fail, and suggest that you want to change them. But let's assume that we don't.
You can actually drop that down there like that, and you see you have little ‘knobdules’ here, which is designed to take, what we call in the industry a PP3, or a nine volt battery. You can actually apply remote power to those nodules there, and that would allow you enough juice then to be able to punch your code in and get in.
So that's absolutely first class. That's brilliance news. So therefore, then, you have that degree of redundancy.
Of course, also, you can get the cylinder that we're sit in here as well. This cylinder will also allow you then to be able to mechanically override it. Should anything happen to the locking solution, then this particular cylinder does allow you the old fashioned way of putting the key in and operating the lock in the event that you can't get in.
So another major plus when it comes to that as well.
Now, as standard, we've put a few key points in here. It's standard with two user codes, as you can see here. We supply two fobs just as standard, as part of the kit. You can have up to a maximum... There's an alarm system on this particular one as well. Once it's actually locked, if it sees any form of brute attack, then it will sound an alarm system on the actual unit itself to alert occupants around, and inside the house, that somebody may be tampering.
As we mentioned there, we've got the battery and a key override, and on the page as well you can download the PDF document that explains also all of the other key features, and how the program... Etcetera. So absolutely fantastic in respects to that.
On the backend here, if I was to lift this up here like that, in here you would be able to see the batteries and so forth, and all of the programming parameters, etcetera, that will be in the back here as well to allow you to program the whole unit up.
So I'm gonna take my hat off to Yale. There's been a long time in development on this particular product, but I've gotta say that they've actually thought about it. They've designed, in my view, at least, that there's a substantial product here for securing your house, and therefore then allowing you to use either a fob in which to open the door, or a keypad in which to open the door.
Now, when it comes to fitting one of these, and this is probably where people would start scratching their head a little bit, you've got to bear in mind the thickness of your particular door. So, in plain English, most wooden doors in the U.K. are 44 millimeters thick. Some UPVC doors can be up to around about 60 millimeters thick, and sometimes the position of the actual lock in the actual door may not necessarily be in the center.
So that's the reason why we have the whiteboard here today. So I can try and draw and explain to you what you need to be considering when you're measuring this up.
So if you've got yourself a UPVC door, so if you can imagine that's the inside here, and then that's the outside here... I will just call that in and out, okay? So the lock would actually sit on... This is the actual leading profile.
This particular lock here, the actual multipoint lock, and if you can just quickly have a look at that there, that multipoint lock unit there may not necessarily be sitting in the center, okay?It may actually be sitting off center. It may actually be situated here. So, for an example, therefore the actual measurement from here to the center, and then from there to the inside, or to the outside, in this particular case, may actually be different.
So what we've tried to do on our web page there, underneath the actual lock, etcetera, we have created a list of different thickness doors, and therefore then there is a standard list of where this lock will sit. So in your particular door, you would need to measure the overall length of the door... Or, sorry, the overall width of the door. Forgive me.
Then you need to measure then from the inside to the center, and from the outside to the center. As long as you then look down through the list there, it will tell you then what fixing kit that you'll need, and you can make the choice, what finished cylinder do you want? Do you want it bras or chrome? I think these are available in chrome or brass, and then it will also then, as well, give you the size of the cylinder that's needed as well, in which to work with your particular type of setup.
So just very, very quickly, get your measurement from the inside to the center of the lock, or from the outside to the center of the lock, and that measurement there... And obviously the overall measurement, and that will then give you an indication as to what fixing kit you will then need in which to fit this on your door.
So that's basically the reason for the board there. I hope that I've explained that to you. But if you need a bit more info on that, pop us over an email, and I can by all means chat with you on the phone if you're not exactly getting through to that.
OF course, a wooden door, for an example very, very quickly, a wooden door, the typical wooden door, the lock would be situated in the center, and if that's 44 and that there then to the center is 22, and therefore then from there to there is 22, then that's how easy that is. But if that was over here by 10 millimeters, then this would then be 12 millimeters, and that would then be 32 millimeters. So that's what you're trying to measure in respect to a UPVC door as well.
So that gives you some sort of idea in regards to how the actual lock is gonna be situated in your door, and then we can supply you the right fixing kit to make sure that the job gets done first time. Now what I wanted to mention to you, and I think it's quite important as well, is that, if I actually position this on the back here, you'll be able to see... I don't know if you could just zoom in across this particular section here... You can see that there's a fixing point here, there's a fixing point here, and then there's a fixing point there that will bolt through the actual Doormaster locking solution there. There's also another fixing point here, okay, which is actually locking through the system there.
You have to forgive me. I'm pressing buttons on it.
Then there's a final fixing point at the bottom here. So what Yale have done is they have managed to put a fixing point there, there, there, there and there. So they've made it extremely robust in regards to how it's gonna be mounted onto the door. So that's an absolutely brilliant system.
But, of course, if you're using somebody else's multipoint lock, this particular fixing here, and this particular fixing here, may not be able to work in conjunction with the lock that you may have. So you may only end up relying on the fixing here, the fixing there, and of course the fixing at the bottom. So it's well worth you having a look at your particular setup.
Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use the center of the handle here as your data. So if you were to measure your handle, and then you were to measure down the lock, because the actual keyhole is down at the bottom here... If I was to measure to the first fixing center there, I'm looking at roughly the center to center of around about 23 millimeters. Then, if I was to look at that fixing center there to the bottom one there, you're looking there at about 140 millimeters.
If I was now to look at doing it the opposite way there, if I can just get that on there like that, from that center spindle fixing center upwards now, you're looking at something in the region of 75 millimeters to the first one, and then, from the fixing center to the second one there, we're looking at roughly around about 130 millimeters, and then finally then to the top one there, you're looking at about around 175 millimeters there.
I don't know if you can actually get that in there.
So what I wanted to try and to explain to you is that, if you're thinking of using somebody else's center gear box and locking system, or you're not planning on wanting to get rid of the actual locking solution, but you want to be able to use the KeyFree, just be mindful of those measuring centers, and therefore then it will allow you to know whether or not you'll get at least 50%, 60% or 70% of the fixing centers in which to fix this actual lock to the door.
So here you go, guys. There's loads more that I could be talking about. The information is on our website. By all means, spend five minutes there, and have a read through all the manuals. I've gotta say, I think Yale have come up with trumps on this particular product. I've been impressed. I've been playing around with it now for a couple of days, and trying to understand how it all works. They've managed to, in my view, at least, make sure that they've covered quite a few of the key points that has always been an issue, has always been a concern when it comes to trying to put combination locks on UPVC or multipoint doors, and being able to get all of this to actually work as standard.
So, to recap, on ours you'll get the actual lock. We can then give you the options as to what fixing kit you'll need. You can then buy the type of door mastering with all the different back sets, if you want, and our kit comes standard, then, with two fobs as well to allow you to remotely open the door.
So there you go, guys. I'm hoping that I haven't bored you too much, and trying to explain to you how this actually works, and hopefully give you a little more detail. But, listen, if you need a bit more advice, or you want some more information, pop us over an email. Use the live chat that we have on our website. You can either talk to me or any of the guys. Totally no problem there. You speak to me or any of the sales team. Either way, we don't mind.
Or, by all means, do it the old fashioned way. Pick up the phone and give us a cool.
Either way, we'd love to hear from you. More importantly, I hope to see you as one of our customers. So for me, Daryl, and all of us at the team, thanks for taking the time to tune in. I hope speak with you real soon. Take care now. Bye-bye.
Keyfree is the new generation of family-friendly security. It's the digital door lock, only from Yale. Unlock your door with the remote key fob, just like unlocking your car. It transmits a unique signal, so only your key fob will work with your door. Use the keypad to unlock your door with a 4 to 12-digit code. The keypad lights up, so the numbers are easy to see at night.
It's simple to change your code, and you can set a visitor code, so you don't need to give out your number. You can also mask your code, by entering any series of digits, starting or ending with your number. The 9-Volt battery backup provides a fail-safe and there's a mechanical override key for emergencies.
Keyfree is so easy to use. It's designed for your home. It even talks to you. And if you don't want to chat, you can turn the voice prompts off. Keyfree has been tested to meet secured by design standards, the police-approved home security scheme. And it features a built-in 80 decibel alarm. Yale Keyfree has undergone rigorous weatherproof testing and it's tested to over 200,000 cycles, so it will stay looking good and performing well for years to come.
Keyfree makes your new door complete.
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2019-04-23T14:21:54Z
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https://www.locksonline.co.uk/Access-Control/Electronic-Strike-Releases/Electronic-Composite-Door-Locks/LocksOnline-Complete-Yale-KeyFree-Door-Entry-Kit.html
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Personalization, one to one, predictive targeting, whatever you call it. Serving the optimal digital experience for each customer is often touted as the pinnacle of digital marketing efficacy. But if predictive targeting is so great, why isn’t everyone doing it right now?
The reason is that while targeting can be incredibility valuable, many in the industry haven’t fully grasped that targeting ALWAYS leads to greater organization complexity, and that greater complexity means greater costs.
Informally, complexity describes both the number of individual parts, or elements, a system has, as well as how those parts interact with one another. Transitioning your marketing system (web site, call center, etc.) into one that can perform targeting will increase the number of elements the system needs to keep track of and increase the ways in which these elements interact with one another.
2) that it is available to our marketing systems at decision time.
That means that not only do we need to source the data, but we also need to ensure its quality and set up the processes that are able to deliver the relevant data at the time that the marketing system needs to select an experience for the user.
2) The User Experiences (differentiated content, different flows, offers, etc): Anyone who has done any AB testing will tell you that the hard, costly part isn’t running or analyzing the tests. It is the creation and maintenance of multiple versions of the content. Even if there is no marginal cost to create additional experiences (say we are doing a pricing test, it doesn’t cost more to display $10.99, than $20.99), we still need to be able to manage and account for each of these options.
3) Targeting Logic – This is a new concept. In order to link #1 and #2 above we need a rule set, or logic, that links the customer to the best experience. A set of instructions that tells our marketing system that if it sees some particular customer, it should select some particular experience. Most of the time the conversation around personalization and targeting is about how we come up with the targeting logic. This is where all of the talk about predictive analytics and machine learning etc comes in. But we need to consider that once we have done that work, and come up with our targeting logic, we still need to integrate the targeting logic into our marketing system.
In this way, the targeting logic should be thought of as a new asset class, along with the data and experience content. And like the data and experiences, the targeting logic needs to be managed and maintained – it too is perishable and needs refreshing and/or replacement.
In the pre-targeting marketing system, we don’t really need to deal with either #1 or #3 above to serve customers experiences, since there is really just one experience – all customers get the one experience.
However, in the targeted marketing system, we not only have these extra components, we also need to realize that these elements all interact, which significantly increases the complexity. For example, let us say you have a customer who contacts us with a question about a digital experience they had. In the pre-targeting world, it was fairly easily to determine what the customer’s experience was. With a targeted marketing system, what they experienced is now a function of both their ‘data’ and the targeting logic that were both active AT THE TIME of the experience. So whereas before, introspection was trivial, it is now extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible in certain contexts to discover what experience state the customer was in. And this difficulty only increases as the system complexity is a function of the cardinality (number of options) of both the customer data and experiences – the finer the targeting the greater the complexity.
This is important to consider when you are thinking about what machine learning approach you use to induce the targeting logic. While there has been a lot of excitement around Deep Learning, the resulting models are incredibly complex, making it very difficult for a human to quickly comprehend how the model will assign users to experiences.
This can be a big issue when you need to assess the ethics of the targeting/decision logic. While the input data may be innocent, it is possible the output of the system is in someway infringing on legal or regularity constraints. In the near future, it is entirely possible that automated logic will need to be evaluated for ethical/legal review. Human interpretable logic will be more likely to pass review, and help to instill confidence and acceptance of their host systems.
It is one of the reasons we have spent a large amount of our research here at Conductrics on coming up with algorithms that will produce targeting rules that are both machine as well as human consumable.
In a way, you can think of your marketing system as one big computer program, that attempts to map customers to experiences in a way that you consider optimal. Without targeting, this program is relatively simple: it has fewer lines of code, it requires fewer data inputs to run, and you know pretty well what it is going to spit out as an answer. When you include targeting, your program will need many more lines of code, require a lot more data to run, and it may be very difficult to know what it will spit out as an answer.
So the question you need to spend some time thinking about before you answer, is if/when the complex program will be worth the extra cost than the simple one.
And once you do, please feel free to reach out to us to see how we can help make the transition as simple as possible.
Awhile back I put together a fun list of the top 7 data scientists before there was Data Science. I got some great feedback on others that should be on the list (Tukey, Hopper, and even Florence Nightingale).
While the current excitement is around Big and unstructured data, most modern databases in commercial use today, along with the query language they use, SQL, are due to Codd’s work. Codd put together 12 or so rules to define when a database system can claim to be a relational database. One of these primary rules is the rule of Guaranteed Access. Essentially, the rule states that each unique data element has a unique address. This allows us, the user, to specify and select each atomic element and grab it if we want. Which, really, is the whole purpose of having a database.
The rule of Guaranteed Access got me thinking though. Maybe the current attempts to define Big Data in terms of quantity, or scale, or the value of data may be the wrong way to go about it. Rather than think about Big Data as a big collection of stuff, it may make more sense to think of Big Data as a capability we have about addressing and accessing data.
By framing it this way, we shed the ambiguous notions about quantity, size, and even value, and instead treat Big Data as a limiting process about our capacity to communicate with, and use, any present event or historical record of past events. In this alternative view, the metric for progression in the field stops being about the very bigness of data, but rather about the very smallness of the scale with which we can address and access data.
Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts!
Conductrics Web Actions, which is our way to use the system without coding.
This video tutorial focuses on the second option.
Create the content variations you want to try out on your pages, such as showing some portions of your page to some visitors and hiding them for other visitors. You can also do things like change headline text, swap images, insert new content, redirect some visitors to alternate landing pages, and so on.
Set up reward triggers for your conversion events, so Conductrics can learn and report on which variations work best for which visitors.
Target the variations to certain visitors based on geography, time, or your own custom data by setting up Content Targeting Rules.
If you want to try Web Actions out for yourself, get access by signing up at conductrics.com and check out how it works on your own pages. Thanks for watching!
1) Targeted Tests – we have a single test that is appropriate only for some of users.
2) Colliding Tests – we have multiple separate tests running, that could potentially affect each other’s outcomes.
What this is telling Conductrics is that for the Offertest, if the user is not from the US, then do not put them into the test and serve them the default option. Keep in mind that only US visitors will be eligible for the test, and will be the only users who will show up in the reporting. If you really just want to report the test results for different types of users; you just run the test normally and include the targeting features you want to report over.
Unless you are just doing a few one off tests, you probably have situations where you have multiple tests running at the same time. Depending on the specific situation you will need to make some decisions about how to control for how and when users can be exposed to a particular test.
We can use the same basic approach we used for US visitors, to establish some flow control over how users are assigned to multiple concurrent tests.
For example, perhaps the UX team wants to run a layout test, which will affect look and feel of every page on the site. The hypothesis is that the new layout will make the user experience more compelling and lead to increased sales conversion on the site.
At the same time, the merchandising team wants to run an offer test on just a particular product section of the site. The merchandising team thinks that their new product offer will really incentivize users to buy and will increase sales in this particular product category.
The most common, and easiest, strategy is to just assume that the different tests don’t really impact one another, and just run each test without bothering to account for the other test. In reality, this is often fine in many cases, especially if there is limited overlap.
Strategy Two: The Multivariate Test.
We could combine both tests into one multivatiate test, with two decisions: Layout; Offer. This could work, but, once you start to think about it, maybe not the best way to go. For one, the test really only makes sense as a multivariate test if the user comes to the product section. Otherwise, they are never exposed to the product offer component of the test. Also, it assumes that both the UX and Merchandising teams plan to running each test for the same amount of time. What to do if the UX team was only going to run the layout test for a week, but the merchandizing team was planning to run the Offer test for two weeks?
Rather then trying to force what are really two conceptually different tests into one multivariate test, we can instead run two mutually exclusive tests. There are several ways to set this up in Conductrics. As an example, here is one simple way to make sure users are assigned to just one of our tests.
This rule will randomly assign 50% of the site’s visitors into the Layout test. The other 50% will not be assigned to the test (the % can be customized). We now just need to set up a filter for the Offer test, that excludes visitors that have been placed into the Layout test.
This rule just says, exclude visitors who are in the layout test from the Offer test. That’s it! Now you will be able to read your results without having to worry if another test is influencing the results.
What is neat, is that by combining these assignment rules you can customize you testing experience almost any way you can think of.
These eligibility rules make a lot of sense for when we are running what are essentially separate tests. However, if we have a set of related tests – that are all working toward the same set of goals, we can instead use a multiple decision point agent. With multi-point agents, Conductrics will keep track of both user conversions and when the user goes from one test to another. Multi-point agents are where you can take advantage of Conductrics integrated conversion attribution algorithms to solve these more complex joint optimization problems. We will cover the Multi-Point agents separately and in detail in an upcoming post.
Thanks for reading and we look forward to hearing from you in the comments.
This is an idea for scaling out certain data when transitioning to a highly clustered architecture.
TL;DR Don’t just read, mostly subscribe.
Ideally suited for data that is read often, but rarely written; the higher the read:write ratio, the more you gain from this technique.
This tends to happen to some types of data when growing up into a cluster, even if you have data that has a 2:1 ratio for a single server (a very small margin in this context, meaning it is read twice for every time it is written), when you scale it up, you often don’t get a 4:2 ratio, instead you get 4:1 because one of the two writes end up being redundant (that is, if you can publish knowledge of the change fast enough that other edges don’t make the same change).
With many workloads, such as configuration data, you are quickly scaling at cN:1 with very large c [number of requests served between configuration changes], meaning that real-world e-commerce systems are doing billions of wasted reads of data that hasn’t changed. Nearly all modern data stores can do reads this like incredibly fast, but they still cost something, produce no value, and compete for resources with requests that really do need to read information that has changed. For configuration data on a large-scale site, c can easily be in the millions.
So, this is an attempt to reign in this cN:1 scaling and constrain it to N:1; one read per node per write, so a 32-server cluster would be 32:1 in the worst-case, instead of millions to one.
defn: Hub – any library or service that provides a publish/subscribe API.
defn: Store – any lib/service that provides a CRUD API.
Clients use the Store’s CRUD as any ORM would, and aggressively cache the responses in memory. When a Client makes a change to data on the Store, they simultaneously publish alerts through the Hub to all other Clients. Clients use these messages to invalidate their internal caches. The next time that resource is requested, it’s newly updated version is fetched from the Store.
Since the messages broadcast through the Hub do not cause immediate reads, this allows bursts of writes to coalesce and not cause a corresponding spike in reads, but rather the read load experienced after a change is always the same, and based on the data’s usage pattern and how you spread traffic around your cluster.
To stick with the example of configuration data, let’s suppose the usage pattern is to read the configuration on every request, with a cluster of web servers load balanced by a round-robin rule. Suppose an administrative application changes and commits the configuration, it also invalidates the cached configuration on each web server through the Hub. Each subsequent request as the round-robin proceeds around the cluster will fetch an updated configuration directly from the Store. Load balancing rules that re-use servers, such as lowest-load, can have even higher cache efficiency.
From the perspective of the code using the Client, the writes made by others just seem to take a little bit longer to fully commit, and in exchange we never ask the database for anything until we know it has new information.
The Store layer requires aggressive caching, which requires that you constrain the CRUD to things where you can hash and cache effectively. Map/reduce is not allowed, etc., it really is best for an ORM-like scenario, where you have discrete documents, and use summary documents more than complicated queries.
For those new to promises, their most basic form is a queue of functions waiting for some asynchronous operation to complete. When the operation is complete, it’s result is fed to all waiting functions.
The Promises API’s true value comes from lifting some control out of the compiler’s hands, and into the hands of our runtime code using such a simple structure. Now, rather than the syntax of the source code being the only description of the relationship between pieces of code (e.g. a callback pyramid), now we have a simple API for storing and manipulating these relationships.
In the widely used Promises/A , the API method .then() establishes such a relationship, but fails in a number of ways for me.
The word ‘then’ is given a second meaning, already being used in “if this then that”. If not literally in your language (CoffeeScript), then in your internal dialogue when you are reading and writing conditional expressions of all kinds, such as this sentence.
Also, ‘then’ is a very abstract word, becoming any one of three different parts of speech depending on how you use it. Good API methods should be simple verbs unless there is a really good reason.
I find that people who are new to Promises take a long time to see their value, and this overloading of an already abstract word, as it’s core method, is part of the problem.
So let’s imagine a better API, for fun, made of simple verbs that tell you exactly what is happening.
Q: What is the core service that the Promise API should provide?
A: To cause some code to wait for other code to either finish or fail.
I suggest that wait is the most accurate verb for the action here, and communicates immediately why I would want to use promises… because I need some code to wait for the promise to finish.
Using ‘then‘ values the lyricism of the resulting code over it’s actual clarity, making it just a bit too clever.
Many libraries add extensions for basic language statements, like assignment, delete, etc., but so far in my opinion this is just adding a function call and not really gaining anything, since these operations are never asynchronous. In practical usage of promises to solve every day tasks, I would suggest some more pragmatic extensions based on common but difficult promises to make.
“I promise to [asynchronously] touch all the files” is an example of a hard promise to make currently, when each touch is asynchronous you don’t know which file is the last, or when they are all complete. What you need are incremental promises.
“I promise to recurse over all directories”, is extra hard because you don’t even know the size of the goal at the start, and must update that knowledge recursively.
This enables you to create promises that are both recursive and incremental, which lets you create a tree of promises to represent any workflow, without leaking knowledge to (or requiring it of) the waiting code.
I think the current Promises API has sliced the problem-space exactly right, but I think there are some pragmatic design choices one could make to get a better API at the end of the day.
I am often a bit late to the party and only recently saw Tim O’Reilly’s “The Worlds’ 7 most powerful Data Scientists”. As data science has become a big deal, there have been a several top data science lists that have been floating around.
So for fun, I thought I would put together my own list of the top data scientists before there was data science. The people listed here helped unearth key principles on how to extract information from data. While obviously important, I didn’t want to include folks whose contribution was mostly on the development of some particular approach, method, or technology.
To a large degree, the people on this list helped lay the foundation for a lot of what currently goes on as data science. By studying what these guys* worked on, I think you can deepen the foundation of upon which your data science skills rest. As a disclaimer, there are obviously way more than seven who made major contributions, but I wanted to riff on Tim’s piece, so seven it is.
Tukey is hero to all of the data explorers in the field, the folks who are looking for the relationships and stories that might be found in the data. He literally wrote the book on Exploratory Data Analysis . I guess you can see his work as the jumping off point for the Big Data gang. Oh yeah, he also came up with a little something called the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT).
A real Andrey the Giant, maybe not in the order of an Euler, but this guy had breadth for sure. He gets on the list for coming up with Algorithmic Complexity theory. What’s that? It’s just the use of Shannon’s information theory to describe the complexity of algorithms in computer science. For a CS layman’s read (me), I recommend Gregory Chaitin’s book, Meta Math. For what its worth, I’d argue that a life well lived, is one that maximizes its Kolmogorov complexity.
Our second Andrey on the list, I had to give Markov the nod since we make heavy use of him here at Conductrics. Sequences of events (language, clicks, purchases, etc.) can be modeled as stochastic processes. Markov described a class of stochastic process that is super useful for simply, but effectively modeling things like language, or attribution. There are many companies and experts out there going on about attribution analysis, or braying about their simplistic AB testing tools, but if they aren’t at least thinking Markov, they probably don’t really know how to solve these problems. The reality is, if you want to solve decision problems algorithmically, by optimizing over sequences of events, then you are likely going to invoke the Markov property (conditional independence) via Markov Chains or Decision Processes (MDP). See our post on Data Science for more on this.
I think it is fair to say that Data Science tends to favor, or is at least open to, Bayesian methods. While modern Bayesian statistics is much richer than a mere application of Bayes’ theorem, we can attribute at least some of its development back to Bayes. To get a hang of Bayes’ theorem, I suggest playing around with the chain rule of probability to derive it yourself.
For having a major branch of statistics named after him and for being a fellow alum of the University of Edinburgh, Bayes is on the list. By the way, if you want to learn more about assumptions and interpretations of Bayesian methods check out our Data Science post for Michael Jordan’s lectures.
Maybe not as big as some of the other folks on the list, so they have to share a place, but come on, the Kullback-Leiber Divergence (KL-D)?! That has got to be worth a place here. Mentioned in our post on Data Science resources, the KL-D is basically a measure of information gain (or loss). This turns out to be an important measure in almost every single machine learning algorithm you are bound to wind up using. Seriously, take a peek at the derivation of your favorite algorithms and you are likely to see the KL-D in there.
I used to work at an advertising agency back in the ‘90s, and while normally the ‘creatives’ would ignore us data folks (this was back before data was cool), one could often get a conversation going with some of the more forward thinking by name checking Tufte. I even went to one of Tufte’s workshops during that time, where he was promoting his second book, Envisioning Information. There was a guest magician that did a little magic show as part of the presentation. A minor irritation is the guru/follower vibe you can get from some people when they talk about him. Anyway, don’t let that put you off since Tufte spends quality ink to inform you how to optimize the information contained in your ink.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this list is incomplete. I think a strong argument for Alan Turing , Ada Lovelace, Ronald Fisher can be made. I debated putting Gauss in here, but for some reason, he seems just too big to be labeled a data scientist. Please suggest your favorite data scientist before there was data science in the comments below.
*yeah, its all men – please call out the women that I have missed.
The Conductrics Web Actions Plugin for WordPress includes Conductrics Web Actions scripts in your pages, which makes it easy to test changes to your pages, track their success, and do dynamic targeting.
Initial Installation. In the WordPress Admin, go to Plugins > Add New, then search for “Conductrics Web Actions” and click Install Now to install the plugin.
Activate Plugin. The “Conductrics Web Actions” plugin should now be listed under Plugins > Installed Plugins in your WordPress admin. Click the Activate link to enable it.
Provide Conductrics Account Keys. Click the “Settings” link for the Conductrics Web Actions plugin in the list of Installed Plugins. Alternatively, you can also get to the setttings page via Settings > Conductrics Actions in the WordPress admin. Click on the Conductrics Account tab, then copy and paste your API keys from the Account > Keys and Password page from the Conductrics Console. Make sure to save your changes when done. If you don’t have a Conductrics account yet, just go to conductrics.com to get a free account to play around with.
Enable Web Actions. Still in the settings page for the plugin, click the Global Web Actions tab, check the Enable Web Actions checkbox, and save your changes.
The plugin is very simple. Its purpose is to make it easy to use the Web Actions feature provided by the Conductrics service. Rather than having to paste code snippets into your pages and posts, you just use the simple UI provided by the plugin, right from the WordPress admin.
Go to the “Edit” page for the page or post as you would normally.
You should see a Conductrics Web Actions area in the right sidebar. It might be toward the bottom of the page. If you want, you can grab the area by its title bar and drag it up under the Publish area, but that’s up to you.
Click the Create Agent button to create your new Conductrics Agent (“agent” is just our term for an A/B testing project).
Now you can set up what you want your test to actually change (perhaps showing or hiding an aspect of your page or theme).
You can learn more about what you can do with Web Actions in our documentation. You’ll notice that you completed the first step (“Creating an Agent”) already during the steps shown above.
How do I get a Conductrics Account? If you don’t have a Conductrics account yet, just go to http://www.condutrics.com to get a free account to play around with.
Who can I contact if I need help? Go to http://conductrics.com/contact/ with your question, we try to answer questions right away. We are usually available via the online chat window at the bottom of that page.
Contrary to what you have heard, the unfolding technological transformation we are witnessing isn’t really about data, not directly at any rate. It’s not that data isn’t important, but the focus on data is obscuring the real nature of change, which is the transition from a world driven by essentially static and reactive systems to one driven by hyper-localized, adaptive control systems.
These controllers are already in our cars, homes, and offices, and will be in our clothing, our parks; literally woven into the fabric of our physical environment. The future will not be defined by how much data is collected, but by the complexity and responsiveness of our localized environments.
Unfortunately, control or control systems aren’t commonly used terms/ideas, even in many of the applied data fields (Marketing, that’s you I am talking about), but they really should be. So what is control and why is it important? Control is a process of making decisions, and accepting feedback, in order to achieve some objective. In other words, it is something that senses and acts, it isn’t inert like data.
Let’s use simple example of a common controller – your basic thermostat. Your thermostat’s objective is to maintain a certain temperature in a room, or your house. It does this, in the simplest case, by checking the temperature of the room (this is data collection) and then based on its reading, will Heat, Cool, or do Nothing.
The rules that govern how the controller behave are called the control logic. In simple cases, like our thermostat, the control logic can be easily written out by a human. However, more advanced applications, like autonomous driving cars, are so complex that we will often need to learn much of the control logic from data, rather than have it directly programmed by people.
Why write it when the machine can learn it?
This is where data plays one of its major roles, in helping to learn the control logic. By employing machine learning (see our data science posts here and here) , we can learn the basic logic required for a particular controller. We can then hone and optimize the efficacy of the controller by embedding addition systems for updating the controller’s logic after it has been deployed – these adaptive systems use the current data from the system’s environment in order to continuously update and improve upon the control logic.
Folks who are excited about Big Data should start to think less about data per se, and more on how data will drive how we go about 1) creating more powerful controller logic and; 2) improving precision by enabling control systems access to more precise and higher dimensional data.
By framing data in terms of the control problem, naturally leads to real data questions, like, what if I didn’t have this bit of data, how much less effective would the system be? In other words, you can start to think about the marginal value of each new bit of data, so that you can move toward having an optimal volume and precision of data with respect to your goals and objectives.
While true, you often hear “Correlation isn’t Causation” often proudly exclaimed without any real followup about what that really means. By taking a control perspective, we can begin to get a little clarity on how to differentiate data that provides correlations and data that provides causation relationships.
Data that is passively gathered will tend to give you correlations. The data that you gather from your controller’s actions, however, will give you causal relationships, at least with respect to the actions that the controller takes. In fact, you can think of AB Testing as employing a type of dumb controller, one that that takes random actions. If you want to learn a bit more about the topic from an actual expert take a look at Judea Pearl’s work (opens a Pdf).
Data is Lazy, and leads to lazy thinking.
Here is the thing, data is passive. That makes it easy to collect and talk about. Integrating it into a working system or process is the hard part. Control, by definition, is active, and that makes it hard, because you have to now think about how the entire system is going to respond to each control action. That is probably one of the main reasons there is so much attention on data, you get to dodge the hard, but ultimately most valuable questions.
Whether you are in marketing, web analytics, data science, or even building a Lean Startup, you probably are on board with the importance of analytical decision-making. Go to any related conference, blog, meet up and you will hear at least one of the following terms: Optimization, AB & Multivariate Testing, Behavioral Targeting, Attribution, Predictive Analytics, LTV … the list just keeps growing. There are so many terms, techniques, and next big things that it is no surprise that things start to get a little confusing.
If you have taken a look at the Conductrics API, or our UI (if you haven’t please signup for a free account ), you may have noticed that we use the term agent to describe our learning projects.
Why use an Agent? Because amazingly, Optimization, AB & Multivariate Testing, Behavioral Targeting, Attribution, Predictive Analytics, LTV … can all be recast as components of a simple, yet powerful framework borrowed from the field of Artificial Intelligence, the intelligent agent.
Of course we can’t take credit for intelligent agents. The IA approach is used as the guiding principle in Russell and Norvig’s excellent AI text Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach – it’s an awesome book, and I recommend anyone who wants to learn more to go get a copy or check out their online AI course.
I’m in Marketing, why should I care about any of this?
Well, personally, I have found that by thinking about analytics problems as intelligent agents, I am able to instantly see how each of the concepts listed above are related and apply them most effectively individually or in concert. Intelligent Agents are a great way to organize your analytics tool box, letting you grab the right tool at the right time. Additionally, since the conceptual focus of an agent is to figure out what action to take, the approach is goal/action rather than data collection/reporting oriented.
So what is an intelligent agent? You can think of an agent as being an autonomous entity, like a robot, that takes actions in an environment in order to achieve some sort of goal. If that sounds simple, it is, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it is not very powerful.
An example of an agent is the Roomba – a robot for vacuuming floors. The Roombas environment is the room/floor it is trying to clean. It wants to clean the floor as quickly as possible. Since it doesn’t come with an internal map of your room, it needs to use sensors to observe bits of information about the room that it can use to build an internal model of the room. To do this it takes some time at first to learn the outline of the room in order to figure out the most efficient way to clean.
The Roomba learning the best path to clean a room is similar, at least conceptually, to your marketing application trying to find the best approach to convert your visitors on your site’s or app’s goals.
Lets take a look at a basic components of the intelligent agent and its environment, and walk through the major elements.
First off, we have both the agent, on the left, and its environment, on the right hand side. You can think of the environment as where the agent ‘lives’ and goes about its business of trying to achieve its goals. The Roomba lives in your room. Your web app lives in the environment that is made up of your users.
What are Goals and Rewards?
The goals are what the agent wants to achieve, what it is striving to do. Often, agents are set up so that the goals have a value.
When the agent achieves a goal, it gets a reward based on the value of the goal. So if the goal of the agent is to increase online sales, the reward might be the value of the sale.
Given that the agent has a set of goals and allowable actions, the agent’s task is to learn what actions to take given its observations of the environment – so what it ‘sees’, ‘hears’, ‘feels’, etc. Assuming the agent is trying to maximize the total value of its goals over time, then it needs to select the action that maximizes this value, based on its observations.
Observe the environment to determine its current situation. You can think of this as data collection.
Refer to its internal model of the environment to select an action from the collection of allowable actions.
Observe of the environment again to determine its new situation. So, another round of data collection.
Evaluate the ‘goodness’ of its new situation – did it reach a goal, if not, does it seem closer or further away from reaching a goal then before it took the past action.
Update its internal model on how taking that action ‘moved’ it in the environment and if it helped it get or get closer to a goal. This is the learning step.
By repeating this process, the agent’s internal model of how the environment responses to each action continuously improves and better approximates each actions actual impact.
This is exactly how Conductrics works behind the scenes to go about optimizing your applications. The Conductrics agent ‘observes’ it world by receiving API calls from your application – so information about location, referrer etc.
In a similar vein, the Conductrics agent takes actions by returning information back to your application, with instructions about what the application should with the user.
When the user converts on one of the goals, a separate call is made back to the Conductrics server with the goal information, which is then used to update the internal models.
Over time, Conductrics learns, and applies, the best course of action for each visitor to your application.
The intelligent agent has two interrelated tasks – to learn and to control. In fact, all online testing and behavioral targeting tools can be thought of as being composed of these two primary components, a learning/analysis component and a controller component. The controller makes decisions about what actions the application is to take. The learner’s task is to make predictions on how the environment will respond to the controller’s actions. Ah, but we have a bit of a problem. The agent’s main objective is to get as much reward as possible. However, in order to do that, it needs to figure out what action to take in each environmental situation.
The intelligent agent will need to try out each of the possible actions in order to determine the optimal solution. Of course, to achieve the greatest overall success, poorly performing actions should be taken as infrequently as possible. This leads to an inherent tension between the desire to select the high value action against the need to try seemingly sub-optimal but under explored actions. This tension is often referred to as the “Explore vs. Exploit” trade-off and is a part of optimizing in uncertain environments. Really, what this is getting at is that there are Opportunity Costs to Learn (OCL).
To provide some context for the explore/exploit trade-off consider the standard A/B approach to optimization. The application runs the A/B test by first randomly exposing different users to the A/B treatments. This initial period, where the application is gathering information about each treatment, can be thought of as the exploration period. Then, after some statistical threshold has been reached, one treatment is declared the ‘winner’ and is thus selected to be part of the default user experience. This is the exploit period, since the application is exploiting its learning’s in order to provide the optimal user experience.
In the case of AB Testing both the learning and controller components are fairly unsophisticated. The way the controller selects the actions is to just pick one of them at random. If you are doing a standard AB style test then the controller picks from a uniform distribution – all actions have an equal chance of selection.
The learning component is essentially just a report or set of reports, perhaps calculating significance tests. Often there is no direct communication from the learning module to the controller. In order to take advantage of the learning, a human analyst is required to review the reporting, and then based on results, make adjustments to the controller’s action selection policy. Usually this means that the analyst will select one of the test options the ‘winner’, and remove the rest from consideration. So AB Testing can be thought of as a method for the agent to determine the value of each action.
I just quickly want to point out, however, that the AB Testing with analyst approach is not the only way to go about determining and selecting best actions. There are alternative approaches that try to balance in real-time the learning (exploration) and optimization (exploitation). They are often referred to as adaptive learning and control. For adaptive solutions, the controller is made ‘aware’ of the learner and is able to autonomously make decisions based on the most recent ‘beliefs’ about the effectiveness of each action. This approach requires that the information stored in the learner is made accessible to the controller component. We will see a bit of this when we look at Multi-armed Bandits in an upcoming post.
Maybe you call it targeting, or segmentation, or personalization, but whatever you call it, the idea is different folks get different experiences. In the intelligent agent framework, targeting is really just about specifying the environment that the agent lives in.
Let’s revisit the AB Testing agent, but we add some user segments to it.
You can see the segmented agent differs in that its environment is a bit more complex. Unlike before, where the AB Test agent just needed to be aware of the conversions (reward) after taking an action, it now also needs to ‘see’ what type of user segment it is as well.
Notice that with the addition of segment based targeting, we still need to have some method of determining what actions to take. So targeting isn’t an alternative to testing, or vice versa. Targeting is just when you use a more complex environment for your optimization problem. You still need to evaluate and select the action. In simpler targeting environments, it might make sense to use the AB Testing approach as we did above. Regardless, Targeting and Testing shouldn’t be confused as competing approaches –they are really just different parts of a more general problem.
Ah, well you may say, ‘hey that is just AB Testing with Segments, not behavioral targeting. Real targeting uses fancy math – it is a totally different thing.’ Actually, not really. Lets look at another targeting agent, but this time instead of a few user segments, we have a bunch of user features.
Now the environment is made up of many individual bits of information, such that there could be millions or even billions of possible unique combinations. Hmm, it is going to get a little tricky to try to run your standard AB style test here. Too many possible micro segments to just enumerate them all in a big table, and even if you did, you wouldn’t have enough data to learn since most of the combinations would have 1 user at most.
Not only does the use of predictive models reduce the size of the internal representation, but it also allows us to generalized to observations that the agent has not come across before. Also we are free to pick whatever functions, models etc. we want here. How we go about selecting and calculating these relationships is often in the domain of Predictive Analytics.
Ah, but we still have to figure out how to select the best action. The exploration/exploitation tradeoff hasn’t gone away. If we didn’t care about the opportunity costs to learn, then we could try all the actions out randomly for a time, train our models and then switch off the learning and apply the models. Of course there is a cost to learn, which is why Google, Yahoo! and other Ad targeting platforms, spend quite a bit of time and resources trying to come up with sophisticated ways to learn as fast as possible.
Many online learning problems can be reformulated as an intelligent agent problem.
Optimization – is the discovery of best action for each observation of the environment in the least amount of time. In other words, optimization should take into account the opportunity cost to learn.
Testing – either AB or Multivariate, is just is one way, of many, to learn the value of taking each action in a given environment.
Targeting – is really just specifying the agent’s environment. Efficient targeting provides the agent with just enough detail so that the agent can select the best actions for each situation is finds itself in.
Predictive Analytics – covers how to specify which internal models to use and how to best establish the mapping between the agent’s observations, and the actions. This allows the agent to predict what the outcome will be for each action it can take.
I didn’t get to talk about attribution and LTV. I will save that for another post since this post is already long, but in a nutshell, you just need to extend the agent to handle sequential decision processes.
What is neat is that even if you don’t use our Conductrics, intelligent agents are a great framework to arrange your thoughts when solving your online optimization problems.
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2019-04-22T10:36:32Z
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https://conductrics.com/blog/page/2/
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Gowman, A. C., Picard, M. C., Rodriguez-Uribe, A., Misra, M., Khalil, H., Thimmanagari, M., and Mohanty, A. K. (2019). "Physicochemical analysis of apple and grape pomaces," BioRes. 14(2), 3210-3230.
This study details a comprehensive analysis of apple and grape pomaces that were generated in the course of juice and wine production, respectively. An extensive physicochemical analysis of these pomaces was performed to determine the elemental composition, ash content, sugar profile, and lignocellulose content. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were taken to examine the morphology of the pomaces. Thermal stability was also examined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Infrared spectroscopy was performed to observe the functional groups on the surfaces of the pomace samples. Grape pomace (GP) had better thermal stability than apple pomace (AP), but washing AP improved its thermal stability. The results from this study provide crucial information for various value-added applications of both apple and grape pomaces, especially for applications which are temperature-dependent. The diversion of these materials from waste back into the economic stream can alleviate their environmental burden and promote sustainable product development.
Fruits and vegetables are the fundamental raw materials of the food processing industry. Wastes called pomaces or marc (if processed for juice or oil) are often produced in large quantities after processing and represent a huge economic and environmental burden for the industry and society. Although the exact amount of food waste produced per year is unknown, it is widely accepted that food waste is an important issue and should be reduced (Garcia et al. 2016). The industry is, therefore, in constant search of novel applications for these materials.
Grape pomace (GP) is the biggest by product of the wine industry. Worldwide, approximately 50 to 60 million tons of grapes were used to produce wine in 2017 (70% to 75% of the total production of grapes, worldwide); and in Ontario, Canada, 89,000 tonnes of grapes were produced (Garcia-Lomillo and Gonzalez-SanJose 2017; OMAFRA 2018). Approximately 20% to 25% of all wine manufacturing results in GP (Dwyer et al. 2014). GP contains the skin, seeds, and stems of the wine grapes; it is composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, sugars, and low amounts of protein, lipids, and polyphenolics (Jiang et al. 2011). When improperly disposed, GP can cause serious and negative environmental impacts. Usually wineries have limited disposal options due to high fees and transportation costs. Although research has been done on extracting chemicals in economically viable and safe ways, alternative uses of pomaces should be explored.
In general, if the quality of the pomaces deteriorates, they will be sent to a landfill or left on site to decompose. Therefore, research aimed at the manufacturing of value-added products based on pomaces or chemical derivatization through biorefining is required to divert these materials from waste streams. Previous studies have been completed with various pomaces to produce value-added products. Apple pomace, for example, has been treated to extract pectin (Yates et al. 2017) and phenolic compounds (Bhushan et al. 2008). Apple pomace has been modified to enhance its nutritional value for use as a feedstock (Vendruscolo et al. 2008). Similarly, GP lacks the high amounts of nitrogen required for use as a suitable fertilizer, and it is only used is small quantities as animal feed (Dwyer et al. 2014). The skin of GP after pressing still contains high quantities of phenolic compounds, antioxidants, and fiber. The stem contains tannins, while the seeds are a potential source for the production of oil as well as fiber (Garcia-Lomillo and Gonzalez-SanJose 2017). Furthermore, GP can also be considered for the derivatization of energy, which can be obtained through thermo-chemical processing or pyrolysis—yielding gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels and/or novel materials including bio-based plastics (Cáceres et al. 2012; Toscano et al. 2013).
The development of sustainable composite materials has been at the forefront of polymer engineering research for the last two decades (Mohanty et al. 2000; Muthuraj et al. 2017). Composites are fabricated from bio-based plastics in combination with novel natural fillers (NFs). Natural fillers act as reinforcing agents within the matrix material to improve the mechanical properties of the composite blends. Many types of NFs have been investigated for these purposes, such as perennial grasses (Muthuraj et al. 2017), bamboo (Lee and Wang 2006; Chattopadhyay et al. 2011), hemp, and flax (Murdy et al. 2015). To date, however, there has been limited attention given to wastes generated by the food processing industry, such as apple, tomato, and grape pomaces. However, some research has been done on using fatty acids from tomatoes to create polymers (Benítez et al. 2018; Tedeschi et al. 2018). Based on the chemistry of these materials and reliable/constant supplies, fruit and vegetable pomaces offer substantial potential as cellulosic materials in composites (Mohanty et al. 2000). The use of these post-industrial waste materials in composite applications offers a green alternative to synthetic fillers or fibers and contributes to a “circular economy” (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017).
The AP used in this study was produced after the extraction of apple juice and was provided by Martin’s Family Fruit Farm Ltd. based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Normally, apple pomace is composed of various varieties of apples. The sample studied here included a blend of Northern Spy, MacIntosh, Empire, Gala, and Ambrosia varieties. Samples of AP were frozen after juice production to prevent oxidation. The juicing process takes fresh apples, presses then, and the remnants are discarded as biomass immediately. Oxidation of apple is commonly noted as a brown discolouration and slight acidic smell. Two different treatments of one sample of AP were used in this study. The first was used as received and the second was washed, as described below. GP was obtained from Andrew Peller Winery, Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. GP contains various amounts of different types of grapes, including: Cabernet Franc, Baco Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir (“Andrew Peller Limited” 2018). This GP sample had a dark brown colour with a purple tinge, which is to be expected for such a material. It was generated from red wine making. This means that this sample, unlike AP, was fermented during the wine making process to extract readily available sugars and compounds. The as received material was quite dry and did not possess any odour, suggesting limited further fermentation of the sample. Both samples contained fruit skin, stem, seeds and flesh materials and were initially prepared following the same seven steps outlined below, some AP material was set aside and washed as outlined below.
Samples of both AP and GP were air dried prior to commencement of physicochemical analysis. Both AP and GP samples were stored for a short time before received. The AP had a noticeable odour and colour change, which could be indicative to fermentation taking place. This was not observed with the GP. Both pomaces were air dried at 23 °C (to save on energy and costs associated with drying). Fresh AP samples were also given to compare the sugar profiles between fresh and aged AP.
Air drying consisted of the following steps: 1) the AP and GP were spread out as evenly as possible inside a fume hood to increase the exposed surface area, to ensure maximal drying surface exposure; 2) the samples were hand tossed as frequently as possible to increase aeration within the sample and promote a more even rate of drying; 3) moisture content was recorded every day to track changes; 4) the pieces of pomace were processed in a Fritsch Universal Cutting Mill (Pittsboro, NC, USA) to reduce size of material if necessary; 5) once samples met a moisture content of 15%, they were dried in a Hotpack commercial oven (Philadelphia, PA, USA) at 80 °C to reduce the moisture further; 6) at approximately 3% moisture, AP and GP samples were ground with a Retsch GmbH ZM 200 Grinding Mill (Haan, Germany) with a 1 mm sieve at 6000 RPM; 7) finally, the sample were placed in 80 °C oven until they reached a final moisture content of about 2 %. Moisture contents of less than 10% are sufficient to preserve most of the fibrous materials. In this case, a final moisture content of ~2% was chosen as the optimal level of drying for long term storage; considering the sugars’ content, and a level which did not require excessive energy for drying. Furthermore, the samples were inherently hydrophilic and complete removal of moisture is not possible, as a low percentage of water in the pomace is bound water and therefore quite difficult to remove.
The AP samples were split into two groups; washed and unwashed, which will be referred to as WAP and UAP, respectively. The AP was washed to increase its thermal stability as suggested by previous work (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2011). Washing the samples removes free sugars and low molecular weight compounds that thermally degrade at lower temperatures. This is discussed further in the TGA analysis of the samples. The WAP followed the same process as the UAP until reaching step 6. Afterwards 250 g of apple pomace was immersed in 1 L warm water, stirred for 10 min, vacuum filtrated and ground, as the washing process caused agglomeration. The WAP was then dried at 80 °C in an oven.
Moisture contents of AP and GP were measured after oven drying using a Sartorius AG Moisture Analyzer (Gottingen, Germany). An average sample size of 5 g was placed on an aluminum tray and subjected to infrared radiation at 105 °C in the automatic mode.
Elemental analysis was performed to determine the carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulphur content of the samples. A CHNS Elemental Analyzer by Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA) was used along with 2,5-bis(5-tert-butyl-2-benzo-oxazol-2-yl) thiophene (BBOT) as a standard. An average of three 2.5 mg samples of BBOT, AP, and GP were taken. Samples were placed into tin foil wrappers, rolled tightly, and placed in the machine under pyrolysis conditions (inert atmosphere) at 950 °C for 12 min per sample.
There are two major methods for determining the fiber content of a lignocellulosic material. The first is acid detergent fiber (ADF), which is used in most commercial applications and includes the determination of the cellulose and lignin fractions. Total fiber content of a biomass can also be determined through neutral detergent fiber (NDF), a method that measures all contents of the plant cell wall: the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. This method looks at the bulk of the biomass and its ability to act as a filling fiber in bovine feedstock (Beauchemin 1996). Chemical analysis of the AP and GP were performed by the SGS laboratories in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The ADF test was performed in accordance with (AOAC Official Method 973.18 (2005). The NDF test was performed in accordance to ANKOM Technology Method 13 (2015) using amylase and sodium sulphite and is further described in literature (Van Soest et al. 1991). Likewise, the free sugars such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, and lactose were measured through sugar profile testing completed by SGS labs at a subsidiary laboratory location (Burnaby Lab, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) via (AOAC Official Method 982.14 (1983).
The ash content of the pomace was determined using a Thermo Fisher Scientific Lindberg Blue M vacuum oven (Waltham, MA, USA). Three small ceramic crucibles were filled with approximately 3 g of sample. Testing was performed according to ASTM E1755-01 (2000). First, the moisture content was recorded from the AP and GP samples, and the samples were then heated to 525 °C and held at temperature for 3 h. Final weights were obtained and recorded (ASTM Commitee E48 2000).
The pH values of the AP and GP samples were taken using a Mettler-Toledo Automatic Titrator (Greifensee, Switzerland). Calibration before testing was performed by using known buffer solutions with pH values of 4, 7, and 10 from North Central Laboratories (Birnamwood, WI, USA). Samples of 4 g of pomace were mixed with 40 mL of distilled water and were then loaded in the titration trays. When measuring the pH, each sample was subjected to a voltage measurement with a glass probe while experiencing constant stirring for 40 s. This process is a modification to ASTM D1512-15b, Standard Test Methods for Carbon Black-pH value (2015), as there was no specific standard for pH of biomass materials (ASTM Committee D24 2016).
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed in accordance with ASTM E1131-08 (2014) using a Q500 from TA Instruments (New Castle, DE, USA). Approximately 10 mg of AP and GP were placed into a platinum pan starting at room temperature (23 °C) and heated to 800 °C at a temperature ramp rate of 10 °C/min under a nitrogen atmosphere. The tests were repeated, and results produced both thermogravimetric (TG) and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curves. The data were analyzed using TA Instruments Software, Version 4.5A, Universal Analysis 2000 (New Castle, DE, USA).
AP and GP samples were pressed flat onto the diamond crystal surface of a Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) Nicolet 6700 machine by Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA). The analysis was performed to investigate functional groups present within the samples by plotting transmittance versus wavenumber in the range of 4000 cm-1 to 400 cm-1 with 64 consecutive scans at a resolution of 4 cm-1.
The Phenom-World BV ProX Scanning Electron Microscope (Eindhoven, Netherlands) collected the back-scattering electrons to generate images. The SEM images of dried and ground AP and GP pomace (after step 7) were taken at 10 kV acceleration voltages with magnification between 500 and 1000 times. The samples were uncoated, due to the charge-reduction fixture of the microscope.
The elemental compositions of unwashed apple pomace (UAP) and washed apple pomace (WAP) are displayed in Table 1. Small differences occurred between unwashed and washed samples. This result was anticipated, as the materials were roughly the same. The only difference was the removal of small molecular weight compounds and water-soluble compounds during washing. Carbon was the most abundant element, at 46.73% w/w and 48.77% w/w for UAP and WAP, respectively. The second most abundant element was oxygen at 45.69% w/w and 43.21% w/w for UAP and WAP, respectively. Hydrogen was the next most abundant element at 6.43% w/w and 6.57% w/w, followed by nitrogen and sulphur at 1.12% w/w and 1.41% w/w and 0.03% w/w and 0.04% w/w for UAP and WAP, respectively. These results are similar to those found in previous studies (Mason et al. 1985; Verma et al. 2011; Guerrero et al. 2014). Slight differences can be attributed to different species of apples and environmental conditions.
The elemental composition of GP is shown in Table 2. The most abundant element found in the grape pomace was carbon, 54.0% w/w, followed by oxygen 37.85 %w/w and hydrogen at 6.08% w/w. The amount of nitrogen was 1.99% w/w, and traces of sulphur were found at 0.08% w/w. The data for hydrogen and nitrogen were similar to those reported in other studies, suggesting that, despite the grape sources and various environmental conditions, these values remain almost constant (Mason et al. 1985; González-Vázquez et al. 2017; Mäkelä et al. 2017; Botelho et al. 2018; Khiari and Jeguirim 2018). However, sulphur content was slightly lower than in the other studies, and carbon was slightly greater than in the other studies.
The elemental composition of pomace samples is of importance for their potential applications. For example, upon analysis of pomace samples, farmers can tailor the use of fertilizers and the growing conditions for optimizing crop yields. As noted in previous reports, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are supplied from the air and water (irrigation and rain), while nitrogen and sulfur are provided from fertilizers (McKenzie 1998). Elemental composition is also important for determining the applicability of biomass/pomace material as a fuel source (Verma et al. 2011).
Acid detergent fiber is used to measure the majority components of a plant cell wall, in this case composed of cellulose and lignin. Neutral detergent fiber measures all components of a plant cell wall: cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose (Beauchemin 1996).
Apple pomace had ADF values of 30.5% and 43.4% for UAP and WAP, respectively (Table 3). The NDF values were 40.5% and 54.8% for UAP and WAP, respectively. Unwashed apple pomace had lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose contents of 18.9%, 11.6%, and 10.0%, and WAP had lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose contents of 29.2%, 14.3%, and 11.4%. Overall, the lignocellulose results of AP samples were quite variable among the results from previously completed work and from this study. There was a relative higher fiber content in the WAP samples because of the removal of impurities, removing the non-cellulosic components during the washing process as well as a relatively large proportion of the ash (Dinand et al. 1996). Therefore, a higher weight percent of the remaining material was fiber for the washed samples. Coherently, the UAP contained more free constituents, which reduced the overall weight percentage of fiber in the samples as there was more material present to compare to. For GP, the ADF content was 42.4%, and the NDF content was 48.5%. Individual measurements showed a lignin content of 31.9%, while the cellulose content was 10.5%, and hemicellulose was 6.1% (Table 4). Other researchers found lignin contents of 32.5% ± 2.1% w/w and cellulose contents of 20.8% w/w (no distinction made between hemicellulose and cellulose) for Cabernet Sauvignon pomace (Corbin et al. 2015). The cellulose content of the grape pomace was lower when compared to other raw plant materials such as grasses or trees, which had cellulose values around 35% to 40% (Ververis et al. 2004). However, the AP in this study was more within the ranges reported in studies of other biomasses. In contrast, the lignin amounts in both samples were on the higher limit of what is typically found in raw plant materials, with values ranging from 14% to 30% (Ververis et al. 2004).
The amount of lignocellulosic material in biomass samples, determined through ADF and NDF test methods, was very important to quantify. For example, the content of these fibrous materials needs to be quantified to determine the validity of the pomace as a feedstock source based on the amount of usable energy available (Beauchemin 1996). Furthermore, the amount of fibrous material present in the samples is important to know when developing polymer composites. The fibrous content of biomass material is very important in polymer engineering when choosing sustainable natural filler, because fiber content impacts the mechanical properties of composites (Muthuraj et al. 2015). The filler not only reduces the cost of the polymer, but it improves mechanical performance and increases the bio-content/sustainability of polymer blends (Nagarajan et al. 2013; Muthuraj et al. 2015). For example, the impact strength of composites is often improved with the presence of fiber since this reinforcing phase is used to transfer the impact force more evenly throughout the matrix in the final composite material (Gowman et al. 2018).
The sugar content of AP is shown in Table 5. A comparison of WAP and UAP was made to determine the effects of fermentation (digestion of sugars within the samples) as well as the effects washing of both. Washing samples removed water-soluble compounds as expected (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013). The sugar profile validated the stage of fermentation of the samples, which was responsible for the acidic pH and odour. It was noted from this study and confirmed in literature that fructose was the most prevalent sugar in apple pomace sample as compared to glucose, sucrose, maltose, and lactose (Wang and Thomas 1989; Zupan et al. 2016; Persic et al. 2017).
The sugar content of GP is less investigated than that of AP. The sugar content of GP is highly variable (Table 6). The variability in sugar content of GP samples resulted from use of the sugars within the wine-making process. Many red wine samples require fermentation of GP such that the sugars are digested in the process. The length of the fermentation would also affect the residual sugar content in the samples. Furthermore, different cultivars would impact the remaining sugar content in the samples. It was also likely that oxidation took place for GP samples during improper storage.
The amount of free sugars in the sample is important for applications in polymer fabrication. As noted in the thermogravimetric analysis below, the free sugars of the samples decrease the thermal stability during processing (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013). However, synthesis of other value-added products from pomace benefit from increased sugar content. For example, GP was used a substrate for enzymatic degradation of sugars by various fungi to produce bulk chemicals. The free sugars in the samples act as a food source for the microorganisms (Botella et al.2005).
Ash content measures the amount of inorganic compounds present in a material, the remainder will be mostly minerals. The pomace ash was white grey and uniform in colour and composition for both AP and GP samples. The ash content of AP was 3.57% ± 0.51% for UAP and 1.26% ± 0.27% for WAP. Table 7 shows ash content for other samples of AP. The ash content obtained in this study was within the range of 1.5% to 4.01% as noted from previous studies (Mason et al. 1985; Gullón et al. 2007; Guerrero et al. 2014). The ash content of the GP, also found in Table 7, was 4.65% ± 0.43%. Previous works determined an ash content for wine-derived grape pomace of 4% at a moisture content of approximately 7% (Botelho et al. 2018). Cabernet Sauvignon pomace possessed an ash content of 3.0% ± 0.8% w/w (Corbin et al. 2015). Another study found an ash content of GP of 6.1% (Park et al. 2010). The AP and GP used in this study had similar ash contents to those of previous studies and to each other, as expected. Although environmental conditions and cultivar of apple or grape may differ, the species remains the same, so the values should be similar (Campbell and Sederoff 1996). Furthermore, the ash contents obtained for both GP and AP in this work were within the range of other raw plant materials such as miscanthus, switchgrass, kenaf, and olive tree, with a range of 1.5% to 5% ash (Ververis et al. 2004).
Ash content is important to study for composite processing and fuel sourcing. In work by Park et al. (2010), high ash content in grape pomace composites decreased the flexural properties of composite blends due to processing difficulties and binding adherence problems. Ash content of pomace/biomass samples for fuel sources is important to investigate, as the production of ash can cause problems in boilers or other equipment and raise environmental concerns (Vamvuka and Kakaras 2011).
pH is the measure of acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. The pH of the WAP and UAP were similar with values of 3.81 and 3.69, respectively (Table 8). In general, the samples exhibit an acidic pH. The slightly lower pH obtained for UAP was attributed to the fermentation process. It is well known that weak acid-like compounds are produced during the fermentation process; thus the washed samples were less acidic due to the removal of free acidic compounds during the washing. However, the concentration of acidic compounds depends on the stages of ripening of the fruit and on the possible fermentation. Hang et al. (1982) fermented AP and found no change in the pH after fermentation; therefore, it is reasonable that the pH values of UAP and WAP remained similar. In other words, the pH in the apple pomace can also be related to the ripening effect of the fruit at the moment of processing, which is a reflection of the concentration of sugars as well as acidic natural compounds present in the remnants of the fruit.
The pH of the grape pomace was 4.24, which again is very close to those reported in the literature. These slight differences could be attributed to the stage of ripening of the fruit, or even environmental differences (climate, sunshine, soil, growing conditions, water availability, etc.), which could make the grapes less acidic resulting in variations of sugars and acidic compounds contents.
The pH is important to study for various applications if the pomace is used as a value-added material. For example, the pH of pomace samples is less important for polymer processing, but it would be important for applications such as baking (Masoodi and Chauhan 1998; Masoodi et al. 2002), solid state fermentation (Albuquerque et al. 2006), and fertilizer (Moldes et al.2007), to give a few examples.
Depending on the intended application of either pomace material, thermal stability could be an important property. For example, if either pomace is to be used as NF within a plastic matrix, it is important to ensure the pomace is thermally stable to withstand processing temperatures and to avoid degradation of the NF (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013). Typical polymer processing temperatures range from 160 °C to 250 °C for commodity plastics and engineering plastics, so it is important to determine if the filler can be included if processed at these temperatures (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2016). The thermal stability of the pomaces can be seen in the figures below. Figure 1 shows the TG graph, which shows the mass loss of the pomace as temperature increases, while Fig. 2 shows the DTG graph, showing the rate at which mass loss occurs. The first mass loss, noted by a mild slope of the TG curve, can be attributed to water evaporation, as the moisture contents of the AP and GP were both at approximately 2%.
All samples showed a smooth curve, indicating that the samples experienced decomposition while forming gaseous products (Widmann 2001). The GP showed the best thermal stability compared to both apple samples. The temperature at 5% weight loss was 171 °C for GP and 113 °C for unwashed pomace. Once the AP was washed, this temperature increased to 209 °C. The UAP started degrading at low temperatures due to the presence of low molecular weight components. The WAP sample showed improved thermal stability compared to the unwashed sample (Fig. 1). The temperature at 50% weight loss was 396 °C for GP, 321 °C for UAP, and 341 °C for WAP.
The onset degradation temperatures are best seen in Fig. 2. There are three distinct peaks characteristic to the degradation of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, which are present in all pomace samples. The UAP had some additional peaks present, which may be attributed to the presence of lower molecular weight oxidative products (such as glucans and xylans) that were removed after washing (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013, 2016). The first peak present was due to the hemicellulose component degrading; it was seen at 267 °C for GP, 147 °C to 248 °C for UAP, and 260 °C for WAP. The cellulose component degraded at 340 °C, 324 °C, and 335 °C for AP, UAP, and WAP, respectively.
Lignin degrades over a range of temperatures, and this was seen starting at 378 °C, 365 °C, and 383 °C onwards for GP, UAP, and WAP, respectively. Yang et al. (2007) showed similar results with hemicellulose degrading at 268 °C and cellulose at 233 °C, with lignin degrading over a range of temperatures starting at ambient temperature and up to 900 °C. The values Yang et al. (2007) reported are similar to the values obtained for AP and GP.
Other researchers have found hemicellulose and cellulose degrading from approximately 160 °C to 500 °C, while lignin degraded over a range of 362 °C to 500 °C for GP (Khiari and Jeguirim 2018). Furthermore, the last peak of the DTG curve in the range of 375 °C to 500 °C was found in GP and AP samples and in other biomass samples such as distiller’s grains (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2011). According to previous studies, this peak is a result of the degradation of protein. Finally, the rightmost portions of the TG and DTG curves occur due to the slow loss of mass of higher molecular weight constituents (Kumar et al. 2008; Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013).
The FTIR spectra of WAP, UAP, and GP are shown in Fig. 3. All samples show a broad peak from around 3000 cm-1 to 3600 cm-1, which relates to the O-H and N-H bonds stretching, present in lignocellulose components of both pomace materials (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2016). The peaks present around 2850 cm-1 and 2920 cm-1 in all the samples are attributed to both symmetric and asymmetric stretching of C-H bonds.
Similar peaks have been reported in previous studies around 2920 cm-1 and are attributed specifically to the C-H in the lignin components (Xu et al. 2009). The peak around 1740 cm-1 is associated with the stretching absorption of carbonyl (C=O) along with the two previously mentioned peaks, relating to the ester group of a triglyceride in fat (Gordon et al. 1997; Cremer and Kaletunç 2003). Triglycerides are present in biomass/food samples (Guillén and Cabo 1997; Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013). These bands have also been attributed to cutin, a material present in the plant cuticle (Heredia-Guerrero et al. 2014). As mentioned above, C=O peaks in the range of 1700 cm-1 to 1800 cm-1 and can also be a result from the C=O in hemicellulose and lignin (Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013). The peaks in the range from 1200 cm-1 to 800 cm-1 were from the vibrations between C-O in the water-soluble components. Furthermore, the peaks at 1024 cm-1, 1020 cm-1, and 1031 cm-1 for WAP, UAP, and GP, respectively, may be a result of the vibrations of C-6 of cellulose (Pastorova et al. 1994; Zarrinbakhsh et al. 2013).
Scanning electron microscope images were taken to observe surface morphology and relative geometry of the particles present in AP and GP samples. WAP images were not included because they had the same visual appearance as UAP. The AP and GP each contained three distinct surface morphologies. Apple pomace surface morphologies and geometries are noted in Fig. 4: The structure was more porous and circular (A), the sample was flatter with noticeable gaps between (B), and there were tight distinctive layers of fibrous material (C). Likewise, GP also contained different structures, as shown in Fig. 4: straw-like fibrous materials (D), round globular materials in combination with fibrous structures (E), and small fibrous and compact samples (F).
As noted in previous studies, the porous structure found in AP samples may be attributed to the hemicellulose structures. Furthermore, the tightly packed fibrous structures of the AP can be attributed to the strong internal bonds in the fibers (Gouw et al. 2017). The pomace consisted of flesh, apple skin, and seeds. The three different images below of the AP may be attributed to the different components. For example, the skin on an apple is flat and fibrous in nature, whereas the flesh is far more porous. The seeds are also fibrous but are much harder and irregular. Therefore, there are various surface geometries present in the AP samples prior to drying and milling, and the major structures are displayed below.
The image of GP in Fig. 4F is similar to that found in previous studies. According to Pala et al. (2014), the flat surface of the sample is attributable to the lignocellulose fibrous materials. Again, the grape consisted of seeds, flesh, and some stem material. The stem material is assumed to be very fibrous in nature. The skin of the grape is much flatter but became quite irregular upon drying of the materials. The seeds of the grapes were also quite irregular and much harder than that of the skin material. The large surface morphologies result in different fibrous or porous structures, as shown in the SEM images. Examination by SEM is helpful for various applications, including use of the pomace materials as NF in polymeric materials.
Food waste is an economic and environmental burden and must be repurposed. Apple pomace (AP) and grape pomace (GP) offer significant potential in the development of value-added and sustainable products.
Based upon physicochemical analysis, AP and GP contain significant amounts of lignocellulosic materials that can serve as viable materials in value-added products. Based upon ADF, NDF, and lignocellulose analysis, the fiber present in pomace samples may support applications such as natural fillers in polymeric composites.
Overall, GP is thermally stable for most applications; however, AP requires washing to enhance thermal stability for temperature-dependent applications. For all other applications of AP and GP, it is important to be aware that the samples will ferment until the drying process is completed, and this must be considered.
The authors are thankful to: (i) Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), University of Guelph, Bioeconomy Industrial Uses Research Program Theme Project #030177; and (ii) the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canada Discovery Grants Project #400320 for their financial support to carry out this work. Special thanks to Martin’s Family Fruit Farm Ltd., 1420 Lobsinger Line, Waterloo, Ontario, N2J 4G8, Canada, for the apple pomace samples; and to Andrew Peller Winery, 697 South Service Road, Grimsby, Ontario, L3M 4E8, Canada, for the grape pomace samples.
Albuquerque, P. M., Koch, F., Trossini, T. G., Esposito, E., and Ninow, J. L. (2006). “Production of Rhizopus oligosporus protein by solid-state fermentation of apple pomace,” Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology 49, 91-100.
ANKOM Technology Method 13 (2015). “Neutral detergent fibre in feeds-filter bag technique method 13,” (https://www.ankom.com/sites/default/files/document- files/Method_13_NDF_Method_A2000_RevE_4_10_15.pdf).
AOAC Official Method 973.18 (2005). “Fiber (acid detergent) and lignin in animal feed,” AOAC International, Gaithersburg, MD.
AOAC Official Method 982.14 (1983). “Glucose, fructose, sucrose, and maltose in presweetened cereals,” AOAC International, Gaithersburg, MD.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2017). “Circular economy system diagram,” (https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/interactive-diagram), accessed on May 22, 2018.
Gullón, B., Falqué, E., Alonso, J. L., and Parajó, J. C. (2007). “Evaluation of apple pomace as a raw material for alternative applications in food industries,” Food Technology and Biotechnology 45(4), 426-433.
Hang, Y. D., Lee, C., and Woodams, E. E. (1982). “A solid state fermentation system for production ethanol from apple pomace,” Journal of Food Science 47, 1851-1852.
McKenzie, D. R. (1998). Crop Nutrition and Fertilizer Requirements, Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Edmonton, Canada, (http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex3791).
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) (2018). “Statistics,” (http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/stats/welcome.html), accessed on May 22, 2018.
U.S. Apple Association. (2018). “Annual U.S. apple crop statistics,” (http://usapple.org/all-about-apples/apple-industry-statistics/), accessed on May 22, 2018).
Widmann, G. (2001). “Interpreting TGA curves,” UserCom 2001 (http://www.masontechnology.ie/x/Usercom_13.pdf).
The World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) (2018). “World data report,” (http://www.wapa-association.org/asp/page_1.asp?doc_id=446), accessed on May 22, 2018.
Article submitted: September 5, 2018; Peer review completed: January 12, 2019; Revised version received: January 29, 2019; Accepted: February 8, 2019; Published: February 28, 2019.
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2019-04-21T14:36:31Z
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https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/resources/physicochemical-analysis-of-apple-and-grape-pomaces/
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April | 2014 | Extollagy!
Ogbourne St George, Wiltshire spent most of early June 2006 preparing to party like it was 1952. Cream teas for all villagers! Bunting! Warm beer!
During the celebrations at the village school (3 legged race, sack race, sweeties whether you win or lose) I stared down at my daughter’s face. She beamed back, but looked more like a target than a person, her mixed-race features obscured by a red cross on a backdrop of creamy white face paint.
The Cross of St George: twenty years ago, I’m not sure many people had much of an idea what it was. When did it start reappearing? It seems to me that it was around the time Scotland and Wales got their own parliaments. Did the latest antics in Westminster really have an impact on popular culture?
Whatever the cause, the cross has had something of a resurgence in the last five or ten years, an increase in popularity which came to a head over the period of the World Cup and the Royal Jubilee in June this year. It’s as if the symbol was lying dormant, waiting for the chance to reassert itself, like some relic of the True Cross.
A brief inventory of the bunting visible from my home this June: the retirement bungalows opposite had Union Jack paper plates nailed to the posts of their garden fence. The big thatched cottage next door had a full-size cotton Jack fluttering from a telegraph pole, and bunting everywhere. The thatched cottage opposite it had a flag of similar size stretched between – and nearly covering – its two dormer windows.
In all these flags, George’s Cross crowds out its Celtic co-crosses with imperial self-assertion. On the cottage just down the road it has taken over completely: an 8 foot Cross of St George, red cross on white, dancing in the sun. My journey home is like driving down the deck of the Victory: England expects….
Our babysitter comes: she wears a Cross of St George zip-up top. The bold red line of the cross is split by the zip, running either side of her neck and on to the hood. She looks like the page for some medieval knight. People are walking around with heraldry blazoned on them: the more I think about it the more medieval the whole business seems to be.
So who is this St George, anyway? And where did this simple, powerful graphic – a red cross on a white ground (officially, argent a cross gules; or – as www.streetparties.info has it – a cross of Pantone 186 on white) come from?
Googling for George turns out to be a highly appropriate way to chase this particular saint and his dragon. George is as amorphous and constantly-changing as the world wide web itself. Here, he is an honourable Palestinian of the third century AD; there, the reinvention of every hero-God of the ancient Middle East. His story and its locations moves from age to age and from location to location, fragmenting and changing shape according to local circumstance.
What is certain is that any search for the ‘real’ George is the least interesting aspect of the saint. The oldest stories of his life date to about 150 years after his death, and are more interesting as a reflection of the mythical needs of the fifth-century church than as a statement of historical truth.
These stories present him as an upstanding Christian from Turkey – Cappadocia to be precise – who lived in Palestine, probably at Diospolis, where his remains lie. The town is today known as Lod and is in Israel. George had some standing – he was a military governor, or the son of one. Until modern scholarship rendered even this account uncertain, this was who people thought St George was, albeit with a liberal sprinkling of miraculous powers.
Interesting to reflect that our football fans are painting their faces with the badge of an honourable, intelligent and multicultured Middle-Easterner. Perhaps they should just update the story, adopt Edward Said as his modern equivalent, and run around Wembley, Shizouka or the Stadium of Light with the crest of Columbia University picked out on their faces.
While the person these early stories describe is reasonably everyday, the things he does are not. Although the names of places and characters vary from version to version, the outline of the narrative remains the same. An evil ruler – in some versions called the governor ‘Diadanus’, in others the emperor Diocletian – unleashes a furious persecution of Christians, and George objects. What follows is a game of ‘My God is Stronger than Yours’ that does little for the idea that the new faith had an abstract moral programme worth defending.
The evil emperor tries to kill George three times before he finally succeeds. Each time, George is brought back to life, and then performs a miracle. Each miracle is more extraordinary than the last, the punishment meted out more violent. Some of these stories have a certain poetry: George visits a poor widow and provides her with free food for life by making a wooden column in her home bud, put down roots, and grow into a huge tree – the highest thing in the city – full with ripe fruit. The size of the tree draws the authorities’ attention, and soon George is on back with the evil emperor, being tortured to death once again.
Any poetic quality the miracles may have is compensated for by the extremity of the ensuing violence: sixty nails are driven into George’s head; his body is crushed ‘like particles of dry summer dust’; his brains pour out of his nostrils like milk. That kind of thing.
Each time George is killed the emperor tries to ensure his remains are untraceable, to avoid anyone finding them and building a shrine over them. Each time they are found and reconstituted by God, making a spectacularly cinematic appearance accompanied by various saints and angels. Each time, a few thousand more locals decide to abandon Apollo and follow George’s God, only to be slaughtered in their turn. And each time, the revivified saint goes on to perform an even more audacious miracle. He is only finally martyred after destroying all the idols in the Temple of Apollo and converting the evil emperor’s wife to Christianity, by which time 28,680 new martyrs have been created.
The quality of the story, with its one-dimensional characters, its fantastical special effects, and its X-certificate cartoon violence, is to the modern reader most reminiscent of a modern Manga cartoon or some of the more extreme games available for PlayStation 2. But however fantastical the stories, they are not unusual for their period. There is a whole crop of early saints with similar qualities: a Middle Eastern origin of uncertain historicity; dramatic miracle-making powers when pitted against the most dastardly of baddies; mass slaughters and mass conversions; a certain militarism. George originally appeared as part of a subset of these, the so-called Military Martyrs – introduced at http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/- who were especially popular in areas throughout the Middle East where Christianity had achieved some strength in a given community but was still under violent assault from the powers that be. In other words, the stories tell us more about the needs of their authors (and their audiences) than they do about any ‘real’ St George.
Googling for him, I am astonished by the range of resources available. Many are published by academic hagiographers, or Catholic organisations whose main interest is in establishing the historical ‘truth’ of a given saint’s story. There are complete translations of the earliest legends and first-rate bibliographies. At www.newadvent.org is a good summary of the only definite conclusion all this scholarship has come to: ‘all that can safely be said is that a martyr suffered at or near Lydda [another name for Lod] before Constantine’ – that is, the stories have their roots in a real human being, name unknown, associated with Lod and killed for his Christianity sometime in the period 300-320.
Much of the study of saints seems to be driven by this interest in proving the historical truth – or otherwise – of their stories. It is hard to find anyone – in print or on the web – with much intelligent to say about these legends as literary or cultural artefacts in themselves.
The lack of similarly detailed analysis of the legends is not simply a matter of doctrinal bias. Finding something intelligent to say is not easy: myths appear and grow in ways that are as amorphous and chimeral as culture itself.
It’s astonishing, for example, to realise that the one thing everyone knows about St George- that he killed a dragon and saved a princess – doesn’t appear until nearly a thousand years after the death of the ‘real’ George. The story appears fully formed in The Golden Legend, an extraordinarily influential collection of saint’s stories compiled by Jacobus de Voraigne and published in 1275.
Here, a terrible dragon threatens a city ‘in Libya’; his breath is venomous. To keep him at bay, the citizens send him a sheep every day. Soon, all the sheep have been eaten, and they have no choice but to select people: first men, then the young, selected by lot. When a lot falls to the king’s daughter: the king protests, sparking a popular uprising. The king relents, sadly sending his daughter to the marsh where the dragon is, dressed ‘like as she should be wedded’.
As the dragon approaches, a stranger on a white horse is passing: St George. The girl warns him to leave, but he stays with her and attacks the dragon. George quickly proves his superior strength. With the dragon cowed, he asks the princess to put her garter round its neck. Tamed by underwear, the beast submits pet-like to the will of the man and the woman. They lead it to the city, where George says he will kill the beast if the people convert to Christianity. They eagerly do so (this time just 15,000 new Christians are made, none of whom are martyred), and the dragon’s remains are scattered on the fields around the city.
Where does this story come from? There are hints of it in the original martyr’s myths: Diadanus the evil emperor, for example, is in one version also referred to as ‘the dragon’: add five hundred years of retelling, a few mistranslations, and a new cultural context and one could perhaps end up with the George and dragon story.
Whatever its origins, the story has the edge on all its predecessors in one crucial way: unlike them, it is a proper story, with dramatic tension, two or three memorable characters, a beginning, a middle and an end. The early George’s ability to call down miracles on demand is replaced by a real heroic struggle: the king refusing to sacrifice his daughter, then bowing to popular pressure; the isolated and terrified princess trying to get St George to leave before he, too, is eaten: and George himself, man against monster, unaided by deus or machina – unless you count the garter.
I have objective proof of the superiority of the ‘new’ George story over the ‘old’ one: the three-year-old-daughter test. I showed her the early images of St George – a hieratic figure with a sword and a lance – but they were of little interest: I then showed her Uccello’s George and the Dragon, which hangs in the National Gallery. It immediately prompted an interested ‘What’s that?’. I have now been asked seven or eight times to ‘tell the story again, Daddy’.
This Very Good Story leads us into some very deep waters. Agendas seem to lurk in it that take us far beyond conventional Christian moralising: why must the princess be dressed for marriage? Why does she tame the beast with her garter? Some doctrinal symbolism may be encoded in these images, but a sexual agenda is surely part of their appeal.
The story is strikingly similar to those of several Middle Eastern pagan gods, from the Egyptian Horus to the Persian Mithras, who battle with beasts and win. One of these is even associated with a spot about 10 miles from George’s shrine at Lod: the battle of Perseus with the sea monster to save the princess Andromeda is said to have taken place at the nearby port of Jaffa.
By playing a game of ‘this story is a bit like that story’, writers from the nineteenth century on have presumed much: George as pre-Christian Levantine hero-cult, grafted onto the martyrdom of some hapless local; George as an archetypal hero, representing all our struggles with the animal within. It’s attractive stuff, but the problems are historical: the George and the dragon story doesn’t occur until centuries after the period when ‘the problem’ was Christianity versus paganism.
Writers of the tenth or eleventh century, when the story is presumed to have its origins, had little need to reinvigorate long-dead pagan cults: they were more concerned about the new monotheism in the East. Islam was young, successful and – unlike early Christianity – very happy to establish itself through political and military struggle. The battle with Islam demanded new myths: it also led to new waves of cultural translation, as the Franks of Western Europe discovered the eastern church – where St George was already a major figure – and the Saracen world beyond.
The embattled Christian cultures went on the offensive. The Crusades they launched required a new breed of morale-boosting sacred hero. A heroic, far-travelling holy soldier fitted the bill perfectly. Indeed, a new cult of religious warfare was being born which would flower into an entire culture – chivalry – and George’s reputation snowballed as it did so.
The first signs of the rebirth of George came in a battle in 11th century Sicily, where he appeared before the Norman army which took the island from its Muslim inhabitants. He pulled off a greater and more influential version of the trick at the siege of Antioch during the First Crusade in 1098, appearing before the Christian armies shortly before the city fell. The ‘appearing before the army God wants to win’ trick has been something of a Georgic staple ever since: he made miraculous appearances in Russian villages throughout Siberia prior to the 1906 Russo-Japanese war, and appeared before the English armies at Mons in 1914.
Around this time his cross appears, too. The Golden Legend describes George cutting a cross of blood on the dragon’s head; the same source tells the story of George making an appearance at the siege of Jerusalem, bearing white arms with a red cross.
It is via the crusades and chivalry that the new cult of George – and his new symbol – reached England. Although the ‘old’ George of the miracles and the evil emperor was known here from at least the eighth century, Saint George did not play a major role before the thirteenth. His reinvention as our national saint – and the adoption of the red cross as his symbol – is another example of the way St George moves from culture to culture, constantly being re-invented.
This time, the audience was the English people: the author, successive Kings and their fourteenth-century spin doctors. The academic Jonathan Bengtson has pointed out that before this time, England had no truly national saint or symbol: saints like Edward the Confessor and St Edmund were more patrons of the Royal family than of the nation; Thomas à Becket was a more populist figure, but his cult posed some thorny political problems for the Crown. The heraldic badge of the Royal family likewise symbolised ruler rather than ruled. Indeed it is doubtful if the nation in the modern sense existed at all.
The gradual creation of a semi-official cult of St George thus played a key role in the process of building an English national identity – a process which, in this instance at least, may have been quite a ‘top down’ one.
Although it was probably Richard I, returning from the Crusades, who brought the ‘new’ Saracen-swotting George to increased attention, it was Edward III – or his advisors – who realised the special potential in the story. The institutions of the feudal system had been shaken from within by the murder of Edward II by his barons; the country was also under attack from without by both Frenchman and Scot. Edward founded a new chivalrous order, the Order of the Garter. The Order bolstered the relationship between Crown and aristocracy by creating a special new group of knights. It would be headed by the King; its myths and rituals would evoke the full richness of chivalric culture. Its patron would be St George.
The Order was founded in 1348; by 1388 St George’s red cross had become a kind of corporate heraldic logo for the English army: known as ‘the George Jacque’, it was compulsory wear for every soldier. By 1416 this spiritual migrant had been fully assimilated into the national culture: the Archbishop of Canterbury officially confirmed his role as ‘special protector and patron of the English nation’.
The Fifteenth century was the overripe peak of popular ritual in pre-Reformation England, and St George appeared as the patron of guilds and the hero of mumming plays across the country. By the next century, George had merged so deeply with popular culture – and our own native stories of dragons and other beasts – that it was possible for popular tradition to have replaced Silene, Libya with Uffington, Oxfordshire as the site of the dragon battle; and for St George to turn up as a native of Coventry in Richard Johnson’s 1608 The Most Famous History of The Seven Champions of Christendom.
England is not the only culture to have adopted this saint – with his good story and simple, graphic symbol – as a special patron. Genoa, Moscow and Georgia are just a few other places who have done so: indeed, his cult travelled east as effectively as it did west. He is claimed, for example, as a special protector by the Christians of Kerala, who see him as a protector in spite of having colonised twice by George-loving nations – first Portugal, then England.
I can understand how George has taken such a deep hold in so many imaginations. Simply while researching the saint, the over-familiar story of his encounter with the princess and the dragon has become something rather compelling. I can see now how myths mutate from ‘story’ to ‘belief’; I start to wonder if woolly words like ‘archetype’ are the only way my rationality can tame this particular beast.
But perhaps it is not the story’s ‘universality’ that gives it power, so much as its openness, its mutability. Once a legend has been reduced to such basic components – a man, a woman, an animal, a struggle – you can graft just about any cultural associations onto it.
I have started to crave some fixity as I watch George shape-shifting between cultures, in libraries and art galleries, and on the internet. A couple of years ago, as part of a visit to Israel, I took the opportunity to visit the only place on earth unquestionably associated with the ‘real’ St George: the town of Lod, which lies on the coastal plain between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
It was not a great time to visit the country. Four weeks into the Al-Aqsa Intifada, many of the key sites of Israel and the Palestinian Authority were closed, and tension was everywhere. One day, we went to the beach: we were the only people there, apart from a lonely-looking Arab man who whose very presence made my liberal Israeli hosts so nervous we departed almost soon as we arrived.
The journey to Lod revealed an Israel far from both headlines and tourist trails; an Israel that was on the surface a beguiling mixture of first- and developing worlds. Markets heaved with Arab Israelis; newly arrived – and highly secularised – Jews from the former Soviet Union; black Jews from the Horn of Africa. Pale Orthodox Ashkenazi herded on and off buses, switching from Yiddish to Bronx English when necessary. Young Sephardim supped coffees in shades and designer jeans, the guns of military service slung over their shoulders. Music that combined Middle Eastern rhythms with the latest dance beats thundered from open car windows.
I watched this world as my bus circled the concrete estates of Lod. The town seemed to consist of endless housing blocks, indistinguishable from the 1950s estates of Brooklyn, Hackney or Vladivostock.
Soon we doubled back on ourselves. I began to think how foolish it was to expect to stumble on St George’s shrine by peering out of a public bus. Then an unmistakable landmark slipped into view: the familiar red and white flag of St George flapping in the hot air, a church tower next to it, just like home.
I left the bus, and walked across a large and rather neglected square surrounded on all sides by housing blocks. It was if some planner wanted to make a central urban space here, but the money ran out. The square was overgrown with dry yellow grasses. Hulks of ruined and ancient looking structures stood by the cracked tarmac of a playing field.
As the flag drew nearer, I saw it was flying from the roof of a house. Next to the house was a handsome church of white Jerusalem limestone, but the tower next to it was not a bell tower at all: it was a minaret. The church and the mosque shared a wall, as if trying to occupy the same piece of land.
An efficiently friendly woman from the house with the flag – an Orthodox Christian institution – let me into the church. The interior was well-tended but a little soulless, the icons and candelabra of Orthodoxy dark beneath the crisp Byzantine-styled domes and arches. There have been several churches on this site: this one dates only to 1875.
A whole group of early legends tell the story not of the saint’s life, but of the importance of this place. They focus brazenly on a very limited series of messages: give to the church of St George at Lod, or found a church of St George yourself, and God will repay you with a miracle or two. Jews, Saracens and pagans will come to Lod to mock the cult, but will leave both punished and converted.
The relics of St George on display here included a stone column, used in his torture. Blood was said to flow from the column for three hours each year, on the anniversary of his death; it had a gap in it which functioned as a kind of supernatural lie detector, only letting people through it if they spoke the truth.
In a small room beneath the church, I came upon supposed tomb of St George: a dark space, occupied only by a small icon, a burning candle, and some empty censers. Some legends say this spot marks the site of his home, that his body was brought here at death and successively greater churches built around it.
Standing in his presumed burial place I was struck by the impact this man, obscure in life, had in death. If only by providing a moral uplift and a dose of faith at key moments, he has had an impact on history: giving courage to an embattled early church; supporting Crusaders in their fight against the Saracen; helping build nations; and spreading images, stories and ideas from culture to culture.
There was one fringe benefit to visiting during a new Intifada: I could experience for myself just how alive many of these issues still were. Diadanus, like the modern Israeli right, wanted to stamp out the enemy in his midst; in doing so he merely created new martyrs. If St George is any example, it is perfectly possible for a martyr to be more effective in death than in life.
A crowd was emerging from the mosque as I left the church. Mid-afternoon prayers had just finished. I approached the Imam to ask if I could go in: he looked me up and down with the gaze of one who cared little for unbelievers, then assented.
Inside, one of the worshippers was curious about my interest in the building. He was welcoming in a gentlemanly, almost graceful way; I warmed to him. We walked around the mosque together: it was a plain structure, one that had seen better days. Two large and ancient-looking Byzantine pillars frame the qibla niche that marks the direction of Mecca. I noticed that both were painted green. There was a small dome over the prayer hall and a large entrance door with an Arabic inscription on it: these, too were painted green.
I asked him if there was a reason the mosque shared a site with the church. In reply he talked of both buildings under one name. I found hard to enunciate this name correctly, so eventually he wrote it down for me, first in Arabic and then in Roman script: al-Khadir.
He said that the mosque was dedicated to this figure, and that local Arabs – Muslim and Christian alike – refer to St George by the same name too. I was fascinated: are they the same person? Does St George play a role in Islam? I sensed that these questions tested the limits of his English, and perhaps of his knowledge; but it was clear that the connection between the two figures was a deep one, and that this al-Khadir was more than an incidental figure.
I headed off towards the bus station, feeling like a frustrated, disorientated outsider. I came to Lod hoping to pin St George down: what I found was that that somehow, he extended into another culture. A whole new world of stories and histories to grapple with. Perhaps Google was the best place to hunt for him after all.
Back in Ogbourne St George, I learn more about Lod, and begin to understand why it looks like more like Crawley than Jericho, and perhaps why its Imams are more interested in the concerns of local Muslims than of an ignorant traveller.
At www.palestineremembered.com I find eyewitness accounts of one of the most ignoble episodes of the 1948 Israel/Palestine war: the evacuation of Lod. The Israeli army found themselves with the armed inhabitants of the town to their rear; with the authority of David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, then a Lieutenant Colonel, gave a clear order: ‘the residents of Lydda must be expelled quickly, without attention to age’. Sources say between 250 to 426 people were killed, scores of them while taking refuge in a mosque. The Chicago Sun Times spoke of ‘Blitz tactics’, and of many more deaths among the thousands of refugees. [I have checked this account against several more impartial histories of the period].
The pre-1948 Lod looked utterly different to that of today, with palm trees scattered between a maze of low, traditional houses; its souk and its mosques, and its 18,000 residents, all Arabs. By 1950 the town was in the process of being ‘modernised’: of a population of 10,450, only 1,050 were Arab. My little complex of church, church house and mosque is an island of ‘heritage’ in a town that has been ‘cleansed’ both ethnically and culturally.
It’s not the first time, either. The Jewish town of Lod was razed by the Romans in AD66; Caliph Abdel Malik had the (then largely Christian) town destroyed in 870. Or the last: some Muslims believe the end of the world will be marked by a battle between Jesus and Satan at the gates of Lod.
Sobered, I point Google at al-Khadir. As with St George, the resources are considerable: al-Khadir, it turns out, is both mysterious and important. A children’s book tells his story, available from islamicbookstore.com; meanwhile, an Islamic scholar gives his opinion on the subject at http://www.sunnah.org. From English versions of the Qu’ran and other core texts, to mystical commentaries by Naqshbandi sufis, there is much available.
In Sura 18 of the Qu’ran, The Cave, ‘Musa’ – probably Moses – makes a journey to the ‘land where two seas meet’. Here he encounters a being endowed with special wisdom by God. This figure, unnamed in the Sura itself, is Al-Khadir.
Al-Khadir leads Moses on a further journey, during which he carries out three baffling acts: he scuttles the boat in which they both are travelling; kills a young man without provocation; and rebuilds a fallen wall, in spite of having been made unwelcome by the locals.
Moses cannot understand these actions: al-Khadir explains the reason in each case. This story, presenting Khadir as a mysterious traveller who can discern the inner meaning of events, one who can advise one of the greatest of prophets, has made him particularly important in Islamic mysticism.
Beyond the Qu’ran, the tradition of al-Khadir expands as giddily as George’s did. Many believe he still exists, and from time to time – like St George – manifests himself. He buried Adam when he died; travelled with Alexander the Great on a quest to find the spring of eternal life; and meets Elijah in Mecca every year. He is said to have saved Palestine from floods at the turn of the century; a mosque dedicated to him in Baghdad was mysteriously protected, like St Paul’s in the Blitz, from the ravages of Desert Storm.
Al-Khadir is said to turn land green when he prays, or to appear dressed in green, or to make fruitful any patch of earth he passes. One of the most widely-accepted statements about him is attributed to Mohammed himself: he said that al-Khadir ‘sat on a barren white land and turned it green’.
Images like this give him things in common with St George: some scholars – not all – translate al-Khadir as ‘the green one’; some scholars – not all – claim ‘George’ means ‘tiller of the earth’. It is often said that churches of St George and mosques al-Khadir are located in similar kinds of places: promontories, hilltops, islands. These apparent similarities are both fascinating and tantalising, begging as many questions as they answer. Only one thing is definite: all over the Middle East, the figures of St George, Al-Khadir and the prophet Elijah elide with one another. Shrines to one are often shrines to the others; stories and popular rituals concerning them are shared. These three figures bring Jews, Muslims and Christians together.
In trying to find a clear explanation for all this I come up against the limits of the sources: most comparative study of al-Khadir is driven by a religious imperative to demonstrate the uniqueness of the Qu’ran – ‘the uncreated word of God’ – rather than its cultural interconnectedness. I am reminded how my reading about St George was similarly limited, with much scholarship focused on a Christian interest in establishing which elements of his legend were historically true. Hardly anyone seemed interested in the significance of those parts that were legend.
As I write this, extracts from The Dignity of Difference, by the [British] Chief Rabbi, Jonathon Sacks, are being published in the Guardian and the New York Times. A passage jumps out at me: ‘I believe that globalisation is summoning the world’s faiths to a supreme challenge, one that we can no longer avoid. Can we find, in the human other, a trace of the Divine Other?… there are times when God meets us in the face of a stranger’. George/al-Khadir/Elijah, a wise traveller moving between the three Abrahamic religions, doesn’t always make life easy; he veers between inclusiveness and militarism. But perhaps there’s life in the old martyr yet.
It’s the evening of 2 June, and a Jubilee bonfire is burning on the Down above Ogbourne St George. My daughter runs with the other village children in the dusk; we parents queue for overcooked sausages. Similar beacons jump hotly on the horizon. Suddenly, a group of locals push through the crowd carrying an effigy: the atmosphere shifts subtly from community bunfest to The Wicker Man.
The mask on the effigy is oddly familiar: a big wide grin between big wide ears. Are they really burning Prince Charles? Does the issue of the Royal succession matter so much to the farmers and retired bankers of the M4 corridor? No – they’re burning the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
I know Foot-and-Mouth didn’t go too well around here, but I didn’t expect this. I wait for something to happen. There’s a bustle in the hedgerow: is Al-Khadir coming? Perhaps he will tell us why, during a once-in-a-generation celebration of national unity, it is proper to burn your elected leader. The flames crackle: is that Elijah, come to lecture us on our Glorious Constitution? Something moves up the Aldbourne road: is that St George, horseshoes striking sparks on tarmac, come to rescue the poor PM?
But no miracle occurs. This home-grown act of symbolic terrorism goes unremarked, and the flames jump around poor Tony. Our children watch, red crosses painted on their faces.
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2019-04-26T08:26:21Z
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https://joncannon.wordpress.com/2014/04/
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Nobody can deny that the foreign sector has become the driving force behind the Spanish economy at present and will be the stronghold of the recovery in the coming years. Indeed, without its contribution the fall in GDP would be around 4%, in contrast to the decrease in growth that the external accounts generated in the 2005-08 period (with negative contributions close to 2% in any year).
This is not an isolated case of Spanish economic history. The foreign sector has enabled us to overcome previous crises.
However, unlike in the past, where currency devaluation was a crucial competitive gain, now it has to be rooted in other factors, at both macro- and micro-economic levels.
In fact, as a result of the difficult reforms that are being carried out, we can already observe macroeconomic competitiveness gains in unit labour costs (owing to improvements in costs and productivity, the latter in part due to falling employment levels) and our effective exchange rate in real terms (i.e., the ratio of our currency and our prices with currencies and prices of our trading partners, weighing each partner according to their relative weight in our exchanges).
However, the aim of this article is not to analyse competitiveness from a macroeconomic point of view, but from a microeconomic perspective, that is, from the point of view of the company and, in particular, the internationalisation process.
To this end, this article will discuss the latest state of affairs of the Spanish foreign sector, through a SWOT analysis, the relationship between competitiveness and internationalisation from the perspective of the company and the strategic decisions that these companies have to make in their internationalisation process, so that it is successful.
strengths and weaknesses and the threats and opportunities arising from the global environment.
The weaknesses of the Spanish foreign sector include the following.
Despite recent improvements, Spain still has an export base lower than neighbouring countries. Of the 123,000 companies that exported in 2011, only 37,250 were deemed regular exporters. Medium-sized Spanish SMEs have serious problems compared to their european counterparts, size being a key variable in productivity.
Around 67% of Spanish exports in 2011 went to the eU. It is obvious that the area is a comfort zone for Spanish companies but, in saying that, europe was the region most affected by the global economic downturn. According to OECD estimates, the global economic importance of the euro zone will halve in five decades. That is why geographic diversification, a process that is taking place gradually, is essential for the sustained growth of Spanish exports.
Compared with its european partners, exports of high technological value still have lower relative weight in total Spanish exports.
The high dependence on foreign energy imports (nearly 100% of oil and gas) reduces competitiveness in the Spanish sector. In 2011, around 86% of the foreign sector deficit corresponded to the energy deficit. far from being solved, between January and September 2012 the energy deficit increased by 13.6% year-on-year. The commitment to renewable energy that Spain has undertaken in recent years has helped alleviate some of this high dependence.
The positive evolution of Spanish foreign trade in recent years has allowed a rapid reduction of major imbalances in the Spanish economy: the current account deficit, which has gone from 10% of GDP in 2007 to 3.2% in 2011, and it is expected to turn into a small surplus in the coming months (in the first nine months of 2012 the trade deficit has decreased by 25.1%, standing at 26,564 million euros).
In 2011, Spanish exports rose by 15.4% and from January to September 2012 exports have continued to perform well, growing by 3.7% year-on-year, reaching 164,027 million euros. This has contributed to the significant improvement of the coverage ratio (exports/imports ratio), which in 2007 stood at 64% and currently stands at 86.1%, a record in the past 20 years.
The trade balance with the eU reached in the first nine months of 2012 a surplus of 8,107.8 million euros, more than double the figure for the 2011 January-September period (3,174.1 million euros). Also with the euro area, a significant increase was recorded in the surplus, going from 1,258 million euros in January-September 2011 to 5,281,000 euros in the same period in 2012.
According to UNCTAD, in the last decade Spain has lost only 0.2 percent of world export share of goods and services, well below the loss suffered by countries like UK, france, Italy and the US, which have suffered more at the hands of the emergence of china and other emerging markets in world trade.
Data for 2011 and 2012 shows a clear trend towards the geographical diversification of Spanish exports to third markets, noting in 2011, growth in regions like the Middle east (+22.3%), Asia (+20.9%) or Latin America (+20.2%).
From these weaknesses and strengths, intrinsic to the foreign sector, companies face a cast of external threats and opportunities presented by the global economy.
Among the main threats, the following should be pointed out.
As mentioned above, the eU is the main export market for Spanish companies. The global recession has been especially harsh in this region and the latest forecasts from the european commission (november 2012) are not particularly gratifying: the euro area GDP will decrease by -0.4% in 2012 and grow by 0.1% in the following year.
The restriction of credit and the high cost of finance that Spanish companies face is a major obstacle in their internationalisation processes. The adjustment of the Spanish banking sector has greatly affected the business sector since, according to the High council of the chamber of commerce of Spain, 80% of Spanish companies resort to banks to finance themselves, compared with 65% in the rest of europe and 30% in the US.
The emergence of new actors on the world scene, with a production model based on cost competitiveness, and the consequences of the global crisis on demand, mean that competition has increased significantly in recent years.
Global economic power is shifting and will do so even more in the coming years. According to an OecD study, in 2030, 51% of global GDP will come from non-OecD countries and this is forecast to increase to 57% by 2060, almost doubling the current figure. These countries are of interest to companies not only for the size of their markets but for their growing middle class with increasing purchasing power.
In recent months we can see a gain in competitiveness through various macroeconomic indicators: firstly, a depreciation of the real effective exchange rate (the so-called competitiveness indices trend) and a fall in unit labour costs, linked to salary adjustments and productivity gains (although this, in part, has been associated with loss of jobs).
One of the keys to understanding this process is that the ULcs of larger exporting companies evolved more favourably than ULcs of smaller companies, to which the degree of concentration of Spanish exports must be added: a third of the total is concentrated in just 50 companies.
Spain is in the top ten source countries of direct investment, due to the important internalisation process undertaken in recent years, which demonstrates its proven ability to successfully compete in international markets. The existence of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum is proof of that. This process highlights the weight of Spanish multinationals, whose drag effect on other companies is very significant.
Having described the context of the external sector in which the company operates, we can move on to the analysis of the key factors in the internationalisation process. The first thing to note is the two- way relationship between competitiveness and internationalisation. Indeed, competitiveness is a necessary condition for internationalisation, and in turn, every company with sustained global presence is a clear driver of competitiveness, both nationally and internationally.
But competitiveness through price is no longer the only effective strategy in international markets. It is necessary to have a differentiation that results in a reduction of the price elasticity of exports.
This advantageous positioning is achieved through the so-called International competitiveness factors, which include: financial structuring, tax planning, R&D, quality, design, branding, communication, economic intelligence, logistics, human resources and strategic alliances.
An adequate funding structure using the different tools available – equity, external financing both public and private, subventions and public grants, venture capital, business angels, multilateral financing, etc. – is an essential element 2. International tax planning of competitiveness and business access to third markets.
funding should be commensurate to the size of the company, its structure and the stage of the business process, also considering the nature of the projects and the countries in which it operates.
Establishing strategic tax targets is key and fundamental to any internationalisation process. Proper planning through a comprehensive analysis of factors such as proper tax structure, local tax planning, repatriation of income or proper funding, can result in a significant reduction in effective tax rate.
The terms research and development are generally well known, and encompass three activities: basic research, applied research and experimental development. Meanwhile, innovation includes the introduction of new goods or services (product innovation) or processes which are technologically new or substantial technological improvement of existing products and processes (process innovation). As stated above, high technological products have lower price elasticity, which is a significant competitive advantage.
or company. Therefore, any company wishing to be competitive abroad must act with proven quality, both of the product/ service and the business management, so that the choice of the appropriate approval/certification of quality becomes an interesting marketing tool.
A well-designed product has a greater impact on the end user so that they are willing to pay less attention to the price factor, – the price elasticity concept comes into play again- and more consideration is given to other factors such as functionality, image, aesthetics or the symbolic character. It is worth emphasising that the competitiveness of the product or service is guaranteed when it fully adapts to the demand preferences of the target market.
In a foreign market where the product is unknown, the key lies in differentiating the brand from that of the competitors. It is about creating a psychological image based on insights that add value to the product or service, clearly influencing the purchasing decisions of consumers. An important factor to consider when positioning the brand internationally is the trade-off between global brand and local brand, deciding whether the global brand adapts based on the requirements and characteristics of the local market. According to Interbrand, only two Spanish brands are among the Best Global Brands 2012, an index comprising the top 100 global brands.
The recognition of the strategic value of communication to penetrate and a gain a foothold in a market makes this factor one of the most important for the company. The correct use of tools such as advertising, direct marketing, public relations, trade shows, the relationship with the media or websites, is essential to infiltrate new markets, becoming a competitive advantage for companies.
and distribution of information, which is exploited to accommodate the needs of the company to a changing competitive environment. It allows the company to anticipate decisions of competitors, reduce risk, and to be permanently informed and innovative when making key decisions.
In addition to price or product quality, customers are increasingly assessing, in the selection of suppliers, issues such as delivery reliability, flexibility and responsiveness. Thus, a good management of all logistics processes becomes a very important differentiator in the international arena.
There is a high degree of correlation between the level of training of employees and managers and the pervasiveness of companies in international markets. Therefore, international training becomes a key factor for competitiveness, constituting talent management and human resources the centrepiece of the process. One of the key factors for the success of the international process is the correct definition of the most efficient organisational structure for the company among different possibilities such as local staff, executives who travel from head offices and expatriation.
The Spanish company must use the many advantages of strategic alliances to improve competitiveness and access third markets. Some of these benefits are, in addition to facilitating the entry into new markets, reducing costs and risks associated with the implementation of major projects and the acquisition of know-how, R&D and possible new sources of finance.
One thing to note is that, since Spain is an interesting hub with Latin America and north African countries, there are already several strategic alliances in different sectors, some with Asian companies interested in these markets.
In order to effectively utilise the opportunities presented by the external sector, it is essential for companies to be competitive in all stages of internationalisation. Any internationalisation process – regardless of the fact that a company can be in several stages at once in different markets or that it does not follow the process in a linear fashion – has four distinct stages: exportation, joint venture, direct investment and multinational.
The international competitiveness factors listed above are present in all stages of internationalisation and in each stage there are critical decisions that should not be ignored.
Decisions such as the choice of market or target markets, distribution channels, financing structure, partner selection, tax planning, structuring partnerships or redesigning the organisational model are fundamental decisions that will have an impact on the reduction of risks and costs associated with the internationalisation process and the odds of varying international project success.
The external sector has become the driving force of the Spanish economy and will allow us to overcome the current difficult situation. However, unlike other eras in Spanish economic history, which also saw the country’s external accounts help to overcome the crises, beginning with currency devaluation, currently the focus of competitiveness is linked with efforts such as structural reforms being carried out and which resulted in improved productivity, and therefore unit labour costs (although this is also due to reduced employment levels), as well as a depreciation of the effective exchange rate in real terms.
From a microeconomic perspective, the company must also keep in mind that competitiveness depends not only on price but on other factors, including financial structuring, tax planning, R&D, quality, design , branding, communication, competitive intelligence, logistics, human resources and strategic alliances.
In addition, to undertake a successful internationalisation process, it must be appreciated that there are different stages (export, joint venture, direct investment and multinational presence) and in each stage there are key decisions that must be taken carefully.
Indeed, a poor choice of market or partner, poor financial or tax planning or not paying enough attention to local law, may bring a failure of the internationalisation process, so the company should take advantage of existing public instruments and specialised business consultancies with presence in the target markets, so that the process is successful and sustainable over time.
ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ GARCÍA. Partner of Regulated Sectors, Foreign Investment and Internationalisation of KPMG in Spain.
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2019-04-19T00:29:39Z
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http://atlas.marcasrenombradas.com/analisis/competitiveness-key-to-the-internalitasion-of-the-company/?lang=en
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This platform is one of my favorites for driving traffic to a website and for growing brand awareness.
No doubt you know this platform well, but probably you would not think to use it for business. Or maybe you do and you’ve seen how well it can work. In either case, I hope here to make a compelling argument for why, Pinterest is something you should be using to drive traffic to your website.
Although Pinterest isn’t a social media platform in the traditional sense, Pinterest is thought of more as a search engine, almost like a visual Google. Because of this, Pinners have a certain bias and are in a searching frame of mind when they come to Pinterest. They’re looking for a solution, for help, for ideas, and for inspiration. If your business is what they find, and they like what they see, they’ll go ahead, click through on the pin and more often than not, continue to buy your product.
Pinterest is a must if your business targets women, operates in the wedding or the fitness industry or is very visual (think home decor, party planning etc.). When set up correctly and used consistently, Pinterest can be the greatest driver of traffic to your website allowing you to remarket to these highly interested people and overall provide great value to them.
Thyroid Refresh, a lifestyle support platform for thyroid patients, attribute a significant amount of their daily traffic to Pinterest. They launched their membership site in the Spring of 2018 and prior to their launch, we worked to build their audience with useful, helpful pins and a strong identifiable brand. One of the amazing things about Pinterest is that, unlike other social media which you might be using, a pin lasts forever and can gain momentum. We, therefore, created consistent, eye-catching pins to establish Thyroid Refresh in the market. Useful, value-adding infographics also worked well, all of which pointed to the website.
As Thyroid Refresh grew on Pinterest, it started to establish more and more traffic from the pins and the re-pins. After they launched, Thyroid Refresh published more content which their audience just loved. Pinterest is the perfect platform for a pre-launch strategy.
Have a clear idea of who your target audience is and what content they will enjoy. Then curate boards with that audience in mind. Your goal is to be a resource, a place for inspiration for your audience.
As with most platforms, Pinterest loves consistency. Plan to pin once a day, or better yet, set a scheduler like Tailwind to do the heavy lifting for you!
Putting these super simple tips will work wonders for your Pinterest efforts and get you started to maximizing this platform for your business.
Chrissy Teigen Twitter dominates the social media platform. There isn’t a month that goes by that the celebrity isn’t highlighted in the Twitter Moments section and she gets thousands of likes, retweets and posts. Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter messages are empowering in every way. If there is any female celebrity to be in awe of when it comes to social media, it’s Chrissy and for good reason. She’s a woman who embraces Twitter in all the right ways with millions of people watching.
Before making the jump to suggest Chrissy Teigen gets so much attention because she is a celebrity, you might want to take a closer look at her posts. Of course, she’s a popular star, she is part of the successful show Lip Sync Battle and her cookbooks are amazing, but there is more. She has developed her voice to include some beloved elements on social media that draws people to her posts. Her strong female voice is the perfect example of what women should strive for when using social media. She is empowering with her digital influence.
If you were to study Chrissy Teigen Twitter posts over the past eight months you might find there are empowering lessons to implement in your Twitter use. In fact, if you break down her Twitter posts, you will find five very important social media lessons that every Twitter user should follow to build up their social media stream.
Be authentic. Chrissy gives a glimpse of her life in a very real sort of way. It’s digital access showing who she is and how life is for her. People love how she shares who she is without the intensity of perfection. As life is good and bad, the balance of sharing both is authentic and enjoyable to read.
Talk to people. If you check out Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter posts, you will notice almost immediately she talks to people. Not just famous people either. Folks like you and me. Connecting with the world is what Twitter is all about, but some people forget this element. Notice how she retweets messages instead of simply liking a post. This effort goes a long way and her engagement is noticed by all.
Share life situations. Who knew a celebrity could be so normal? Chrissy Teigen does share pics of her next to Kim Kardashian, but she is also very relatable offering insight that her husband steals her cell phone chargers. The more you share about life, the better. We all are unique individuals, but we have so many things in common. Chrissy reminds us all that our lives are normal (to an extent) and we all face struggles and deserve happiness.
Twitter storms will come,Twitter storms will go. Not everyone will appreciate your thoughts online, but you have every right to share them. If you just say all the right things, you aren’t being authentic. Mix it up and offer up your vision on situations. Be prepared to meet a few naysayers, a few over the top personalities and even a few rude souls. Brush them off and keep sharing your voice.
Pictures, pictures, pictures. Chrissy’s pictures are real. The recent look at her potato salad (and crushed bowl) on the floor offered a glimpse at life at the Teigen home. Keep in mind Twitter pics shouldn’t all be filtered selfies with perfect lighting. Showcasing life, as it happens, is a great draw of followers too.
Chrissy Teigen isn’t the only female celebrity who has found Twitter empowering. There are a few other stars who use the social media to connect, impact and share life as it happens. The rock star Pink is another great example of how female celebrities make a positive impact on social media. Of course, you too, can make a strong impact on social media as well. Twitter is all about connecting, empowering your voice and making the world a better place one tweet at a time.
One of the things that business owners, entrepreneurs and bloggers struggle with is what marketing methods they should invest their time, and money, in. This is even more difficult for new businesses that have very little marketing budget.
You’ll hear, experts, gurus and would be marketers tell you that you have to do this or that. Everyone will have a different opinion. But there are some tried and true proven methods to market different types of business.
First of all everyone should be working to build an email list. That is something you own and it’s by far the most cost-effective way to market to customers and prospects. But first you have to drive traffic to your site right? Right.
Here’s a handy guide of how to market your site based on the type of business you are.
Have you been looking for ways to increase your brand’s presence on social media platforms? Good.
You’ve already written the content and established your online platform. Now it’s time to dust off those old blog posts and repurpose them so that others will read, react and repost!
Consider this your DIY Guide for Social Media Marketing—Blogger Edition. By executing these strategies and utilizing these tools, in no time you will see a little work go a long way.
In this article, I will provide you with five simple ways to revive old content to publish on your social media networks.
You can use key action items or your very own soon-to-be famous quotes from your blog posts. Canva and PicMonkey are two free resources that you can use to design your images in a flash!
Here’s an example of a branded blog post quote image that Lisa Irby from 2CreateaWebsite created based off an article that she wrote discussing whether or not blogging is dead that was pinned via Pinterest.
Periscope and Facebook Live are excellent resources that you can use to do this. In fact, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income used this strategy to promote a blog post that covered some of his reader success stories and to get more up front and personal with his audience.
Pat’s Live Periscope stream garnered some excellent comments from his audience who felt a more up close and personal connection to him during the live stream.
Video blog posts or Vlogs can be a great way to turn a blog post into a video then upload it to Youtube or your favorite social media platform.
For the Powerpoint presenter turned social media guru in all of us there is SlideShare. SlideShare is the web-based slide hosting service available on LinkedIn.
By presenting your blog’s content in slideshow format, you are able to skip over the soup and salad and immediately serve the key points for your audience to enjoy.
One of my favorite bloggers and a well known thought-leader in the content marketing space Mark Schaefer of Businesses Grow repurposed one of his blog posts 10 Reasons Why Twitter is Content Marketing’s Best Friend into an awesome slideshare presentation.
To date, Mark’s slideshare presentation has received more than 55,000 views!
Photo video stories using a tool like Flipagram is an excellent want to repurpose content from your blog.
Flipagram lets you easily share your work on social networks that include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus.
Here is an example of a Flipagram created by Shannon Henderson of ImShannon.com, a fellow entrepreneur that I discovered from Twitter where she repurposed a blog post written for 17hats.com on The 8 Questions to Ask to Close the Sale.
Optimize your content with hashtags (2-3) for networks like Instagram and Twitter.
Repeatedly promote your content across social networks. Don’t limit your promotion to one post with no follow-up. Post often but don’t go overboard.
Create a cohesive design and feel for your graphics. Let your brand speak for itself with your visual content. Whether using your brand’s logo or color scheme, familiarity is key to your audience. Stand out for all the right reasons.
Brand ALL of your visual content designs with your blog/site URL. You’ve put in the work creating and re-purposing the content, now tell them where to go for more information. The goal is for them to follow you to find out more about your brand.
Creating original content for your brand takes work. The next time you’re ready to post resourceful information throughout your social media platforms, consider re-purposing your old blog posts using some of these tips.
Re-purposing your work will make you a more versatile marketer and will help you get the most value out of your content.
I’d love to know how are you repurposing your blog content for social media networks? Please share your comments below. Cheers!
Kim George is a techie girl in a small biz world that makes TECH and Digital Marketing easy! You can download her Free Video Guide to Repurposing Content + follow her on @yourchicgeek81.
The last half decade has been an extended social media party that refuses to turn down its volume. Anybody in the free world with an internet connection is probably part of, and most definitely aware of this phenomenon that has brought us closer to hundreds of people we barely know, while cutting us off from the people actually around us. But hey, that’s social media and its magnetism for you.
As marketers, we have seen social media budgets going up with every passing year. The job of a social media marketer too has become more and more complex with time. However, there are some truths that are so universal about this medium that they promise to stand the test of time.
This is the first and most important certainty that you need to accept. Much as you hate it, your audience on social media is there to connect with friends, keep up with the latest family gossip or even snoop on their exes. No one signs up to social media in the hopes of following a fast food brand or an ecommerce site.
In Facebook’s own words, “People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.” This means, if you want users to connect with your brand on social media and stay engaged, you need to offer them something extra.
From inside scoops to exclusive social media discounts to special preview sales, give them a real benefit from connecting with your business on social media.
Getting fans and followers on social media is simply the first step. Real returns from social media come once you start engaging with your fans. Sharing your posts with their friends is probably the most significant form of engagement a fan can offer you. But social shares are also the most difficult thing to achieve. The trick to being extremely shareable on social media is to make your fans look good in front of their friends.
By painting them in a favorable light, you are virtually ensuring the fact that they will share your content among their networks.
Yes, creating your profile on most social networks is free of cost. Posting content on the sites and interacting with your followers is free as well. However, as social media has gotten more mature, the networks have begun monetizing nearly every aspect of reaching out to users on their platforms. We are all aware of how organic reach on Facebook dropped dramatically last year and has been on the decline ever since.
This however is not limited to Facebook. Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, SnapChat are all monetizing their giant audiences and extracting marketing dollars from brands who wish to engage with them on those networks. The lesson? Create awesome organic content. But back it up with requisite paid advertising muscle across the networks of your choice to be visible to your audience and make a difference to your bottom line.
Say you’re planning to set up a new online fashion store. If you’re like me, you’ll spend days (probably weeks) researching, understanding and agonizing over which platform to go with, before gingerly beginning with a free online shopping solution such as Spaces. Or, if you already happen to be running a small site selling apparel, built on a basic ecommerce platform like Shopify, you could try expanding your business to Facebook.
Use that same due diligence to pick social media networks that will work best to influence your target audience. Look at trusted data sources like the Pew Research Center to determine the audience profile for each of the social networks out there. Match these profiles with your buyer personas and ideal audience profile to figure out which platforms would work best for you.
Moreover, when users interact reach out to brands on social media they expect quick responses. Delay too much or worse, ignore them, and you’re on your way to losing their trust.
Tracking brand mentions allows you to unearth customer problems and fix them on time. Understanding customer sentiment, tells you about how customers perceive your brand, what its strengths are and what weaknesses need to be fixed.
You can manually quantify mentions by setting up Google Alerts for your brand or related keywords and keeping count on a spreadsheet. Alternately, you can simply pick up the ready-made mention metric available through a bunch of tools.
A tool like SocialMention helps you keep track the number of mentions your brand receives on a regular basis. It also lets you filter by source – Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and so on, so you know your brand equity on each platform.
You can filter based on keywords used, identify top users, and also know whether users feel positively or negatively towards your brand. If you use social media dashboards like Raven or SproutSocial, they offer you the same data (in different formats of course) as well.
Not all users are equal. There is your average fan or follower who may like or comment about your brand once in a while. And then there is the super fan who evangelizes your brand like it’s their own. Or the celebrity who gushes about your service to their followers, sending an avalanche of business your way. Creating loyal customers and brand evangelists is definitely not as impossible as it sounds.
Freebies and giveaways are an easy way to grow your fan base and increase engagement in the short term. However, users who like your page or share your posts in exchange for a bribe are mere opportunists who would do the same with your competitors too, given a chance. Instead of buying your customers’ love, try earning it on a more permanent basis. Post the kind of content that your users are automatically attracted to. Develop the kind of friendly, helpful social persona that your users love connecting with.
We can debate till the cows come home the correlation between social media and search rankings and not get anywhere. However, multiple pieces of empirical data have conclusively proven that social media does impact rankings and hence cannot be ignored. Last year, data showed the growing importance of social media vs. search in terms of site traffic.
When we integrate with social media into our websites as a means of improving organic rankings, we need to keep in mind one key fact. Social media is not a bottom of the funnel, last touch medium. Social media is a top of the funnel medium that attracts the right users to your site. It can influence a user positively about your brand. The actual conversion push might come from a coupon or a sale at a store that a user exposed to your social media marketing walks into. However, that does not change the critical role social media has in positively influencing customer choices.
Place social sharing buttons strategically alongside shareable pieces of content. This could be product images, blog posts, quotes, or whatever else works for your site.
Showcase user feedback from social media platforms as a means of upping your social proof and winning credibility from new users.
Encourage your existing users to refer their friends and family to your site via social media plugins.
Consider including social login to your website with plugins like Janrain. Social logins make the experience of browsing your site seamless for your users. At your end, they offer you rich social data about each user that you would never be able to access otherwise.
Yes, we’ve all heard about those brands like Lolly Wolly Doodle that were built purely on social media. However, if we’re honest to ourselves, we’ll realize that those are exceptions, not the rule. Not every single customer of yours is going to be active on social media. Most businesses need a multi-pronged approach to reach out to their audience and get them to buy. A mobile friendly website, a content strategy that boosts brand authority, on-site SEO readiness, and an email marketing strategy, are all key elements of a successful brand’s marketing story.
Social media is a dynamic space. Some days your audience seems to love Facebook, the next day they switch to Instagram. Sometimes images are the biggest engagement tool on social media, and then suddenly images turn passé with videos usurping their spot. These are trends that you’ll learn to keep up with as you ride along your social media journey. However the fundamental truths that social media operates on remain constant. Master them and you’re closer than most to your goal of rip roaring returns from your social media marketing efforts.
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2019-04-26T09:43:59Z
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https://sheownsit.com/tag/social-media-marketing/
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CIDEV’s business conduct is based on laws and regulations of both Israeli and the international community. The company is obligated to compliance with the laws’ believes, and rules related to its activity.
This document is not intended to replace any of the company’s different regulations but to supplement them.
Any references to male employees throughout the ethical code shall be taken to refer to female employees as well.
Ethical conduct: integrity, reliability, modesty, honesty, respect for others, proper business conduct and accountability.
A view of the company, its employees, customers, suppliers, and business partners, as well as any other company belonging to Cidev Group.
Honesty in all the company’s relationships with customers, suppliers, business partners, competitors, employees and different authorities.
Full compliance at all times with the requirements of laws, agreements, and the business culture guidelines which the company has defined and embraced.
A view that customers and suppliers are the company’s greatest assets and obligation to maintain their satisfaction.
A view of our employees as the key to company’s success and commitment to their advancement and nurture, while treating all employees equally, regardless of religion, age, gender, race or opinion.
Employees shall conduct themselves ethically and honesty in the performance of their duties.
Employees shall comply with all laws and regulations and act with honesty, integrity, and loyalty in any activity or communication in which they represent the company or act on its behalf.
The company shall encourage employees to promptly report any possible misconduct or violation of accepted ethical norms.
In any case of allegation of misconduct, the company shall conduct an internal or external investigation’ as the case may be.
The company prohibits employees from receiving any favors from entities directly or indirectly related to the company other than the company itself, whether such favors are given as compensation for work, are related to the employee’s position in the company, or may affect in any way his performance or the company’s.
The company prohibits employees to offer any favors to entities directly or indirectly related to the company other than the company itself, whether such favors are offered as compensation for work, are related to the employee’s position in the company, or may affect in any way his performance or the company’s.
Employees who are offered any favors shall refuse them immediately and provide the offering entity with an explanation, verbally or in writing, explaining the company’s prohibition. If in writing, Copies of this letter shall be submitted by the employee to his direct manager and to human Resources.
If the aforementioned refusal of such a favor is likely to adversely affect the company’s business position, the employee should inform the direct manager and act according to his instructions.
The company prohibits manager to accept favors from employees who are directly or indirectly subordinated to them.
The company and its employees shall ensure that employees are not involved in any transaction in which they may have personal interests, without prior written authorization from the company.
Employees shall avoid activities, investments or business contracts of any kind which may put them in a position of conflict with the interests of the company, without the company’s explicit written consent.
The company absolutely prohibits employees from conducting any private business activity with any of the company’s customers, suppliers or competitors, regardless of whether a conflict of interests may arise as a result of this activity.
To dispel any doubt, this prohibition shall also apply to any private business interaction, such as purchase of products or provision of services outside work, unless prior written authorization is given by human resources and the employee’s direct VP.
The company prohibits employees from accepting or offering any gifts which may seem as an attempt to obtain preferential treatment or to influence any decision.
Advertisement aids of a symbolic value carrying the logos of the giving organization.
Gifts of a reasonable value made by guests to an employee’s personal family event, whether such guest are co – workers or business relations.
Public awards to employees, including awards related to their work.
Gift package of a reasonable value, provided they are transferred to human resources that will allocate them to company events.
The company recognizes that personal relations may naturally form both among employees and between employees and outside work relations. Employees shall unsure that any such personal relations will not give rise to conflict of interests or offers of favors of any kind.
Employees shall not use any information they acquire as a result of their work for personal gain, including information regarding foreign entities.
The company prohibits employees from revealing information that has not been made public and which they have acquired as part of their work, except when requested by a competent authority and following the advice of the company’s legal consultant.
Employees, who hold, are invested in or control stocks of entities related to the company (competitors, suppliers or customers of the company) shall inform the Human Resources. If it is decided that a conflict of interests may arise or that the employee’s performance may be adversely affected as a result of any such holdings, the employee shall act to sell or transfer the aforementioned stocks. This shall not apply to immaterial holding of stocks or securities of public companies.
Cidev Group recognize that customers are its key assets and makes every effort to ensure their satisfaction by providing them with services and products of high standards of quality, technology and reliability, as well as through uncompromising adherence to the principles of integrity and honesty in its relationships with them.
The company shall maintain accuracy, reliability and honesty in the creation of materials, pursuant to the Company’s policy and with the approval of the Company’s CEO.
The use of the company’s inside information shall be made only when approved for publication.
Participation in tenders is a major part of a Cidev Group’s effort to preserve its customers, obtain new customers and expand its activity.
Participation in tenders shall be made in accordance with the governing laws of the country where the tender is issued, as well as with the accepted universal norms regarding the administration of tenders.
Employees of the company involved in the administration of tenders shall be familiar with all the relevant norms and rules: the accepted universal rules regarding tenders, the rules and laws of the country where the tender has been issued and any specific rules set forth for the tender. The company shall ensure that employees are informed and possess the required information.
If any doubt shall arise regarding a tender, the issue will be discussed at the appropriate levels of the company and approved by the Company’s CEO.
The company’s expectation to win any tender shall be based solely on its own merits and advantages, and not on any extraneous consideration or bias.
The company’s ability to meet the requirements of the work: validity, quality, and reliability of the product, required authority and certifications, schedules and supply dates and any other requirement specified by the customer.
The compatibility of the transaction with the requirements and procedure of the company regarding prices and the terms of payment.
The existence of any limitations to entering into contract with the customer, with regard to Cidev Group in Israel and abroad and other authorities.
The existence of licenses and permits, held by both the customer and the Cidev Group, required for the transaction which are the responsibility of the company to obtain.
Quotations shall be signed by the authorized persons within the company, depending on the subject and the amounts involved.
The company shall word any contract with accuracy and verify its ability to meet all of the contract’s terms and conditions.
The signing of a contract of all its clauses and provisions shall be made by the company’s authorized signatures only, in accordance wit the company’s procedures.
The company shall ensure that all persons involved in the operation of contracts are properly trained.
Cidev considers customer service to be part of its obligation towards customers. A reliable and professional customer service contributes to the satisfaction and loyalty of customers, and improves and reinforces the company’s image and reputation.
Customer service shall be planned in advance and taken into account in the pricing process and the allocation of resources for any transaction.
The relationship between the company and the customer shall be commercial in nature and pursuant to the terms and conditions of the contract. If a contract does not exist, any such relationship shall be conducted in accordance with the proposal approved by the customer.
The customer service shall be entrusted to professional workers, trained and instructed for this purpose by the company.
The company shall track the satisfaction level of customers through meetings with customers, feedbacks and comments.
As part of its policy of providing uncompromising services, Cidev Group acquires high quality products and services for the purpose of its operation.
The company considers its suppliers to be responsible for the promotion of its interests and business success.
The selection process for suppliers is therefore based on parameters of quality, cost, reliability and service, in accordance with the procedures of the company.
The selection process for suppliers shall be conducted in accordance with the relevant procedures of the company.
The quality and reliability of the work or services provided by the supplier.
The required investment by the company in order to raise the suppler to the standards expected from it.
The business and economic strength of the supplier and its ability to meet its obligation, including schedules and prices.
Cidev adheres to all terms, laws and regulations of both the international business community and the business community of each individual country in which it operates.
The company shall comply with all laws and regulations in the destination country, including all applicable national and international commerce laws.
Company employees shall conduct themselves properly on all their business trips, including complete adherence to the governing laws of the country they are visiting and avoidance of any acts or failures that could be considered injurious to local religious or cultural values, as well as to the interests of the State Of Israel and the Cidev Group.
Cidev Group considers competition to be an integral part of any business activity and leverage for the improvement and development of its advantages. The company maintains honest and fair relationships with its competitors, believing that focusing on the advantages and their development rather than the defamation of the competitors is the right way to succeed in business.
Employees or representatives of the Company shall make no attempt to illegally obtain any information regarding competitors, including any technical information relating to services, prices, negotiations or any other information that may provide the Cidev Group with a business advantage over such competitors.
No concealed relationships with competitors are to be established which may mislead customers.
The company encourages cooperation regarding issues of environmental protection for the benefit of individuals and society at large in both Israel and around the world, including cooperation with competitors.
Employees shall use the company’s computer system for the sole purpose of their work.
The company’s computer system shall be used correctly and professionally in order to avoid any damages to valuable equipment.
Acquisitions of computer systems, hardware or software shall be made solely by the company’s IT department, in accordance with the procedures and needs of the company.
The use of any software shall be made in accordance with the terms of its purchase or license.
The use of unauthorized software is prohibited. Installation of illegal software on the company’s computers is prohibited.
The use of any software not lawfully purchased or obtained is prohibited.
Classified information shall be protected by employees in accordance with the company’s procedures.
The company shall implement security system.
The company shall establishment information backup procedures.
Employees shall be trained to be informed and alert regarding computer security and information security.
The company shall allow the use of its information system for the purpose of sending and receiving personal e-mail messages, provided that such use in reasonable and informed, and not detrimental to the company in any way.
The company reserves the right to supervise and control the use of its information systems, and for this purpose and at its sole discretion, to inspect the files and folders on the personal computers provided to employees by the company. Any such actions shall be conducted in accordance with the law and with consideration for the privacy of employees.
As a workplace, Cidev Group strives to provide its employees with a work environment which is positive, pleasant and free from harassment, and is based on mutual consideration and accepted etiquette regarding good manners and personal appearance.
The recruitment of new employees shall be based on the qualifications, experience and suitability for the position in question. The company shall not discriminate on the basis of gender, religion, race etc’.
The company shall implement systems intended to protect of the rights of the employees and to provide them with welfare assistance.
The company shall allow employees to relocate between its different units, in accordance with the needs of the company on the one hand and the preference and qualifications of the employee on the other.
Promotions of employees shall be determined by their managers in accordance with the policy and needs of the company.
The company shall invest in the professional development and promotion of its employees and managers, in all levels, through training and teaching.
Sign his attendance report at the end of each month, with the approval of his manager.
Cidev Group denounces any harassment of employees in the workplace. A special procedure has been established and a Human Resources Manager has been appointed to address any complains with sexual harassment. In addition, the Company wishes to increase awareness and encourages its employees, and its managers in particular, to be sensitive and alert regarding this issue.
Cidev Group recognized the right of employees to hold their own political opinions. Nevertheless, political activity during work hours in any of the company’s facilities, or the use of any of the company’s tangible or intangible assets for the promotion of political goals or views, are prohibited.
Cidev Group maintains a policy of protecting the environment and the well-being of the community.
The Company expects its employees to show awareness to environmental and social issues and to do whatever they can to protect the environment by preventing hazards, identifying any potential environmental risks and activity seeking to promote the protection of the environment and the society in which we live.
This business culture values document contains the beliefs and world view of the company, together with directions of conduct that reflect this world view in the actual operation of the company. This document constitutes a list of “do’s and don’ts” for the employees of the Cidev Group.
An organized training program shall be established to incorporate the code and to regularly maintain knowledge of its provisions. The code shall be kept up-to-date and recommendations regarding any necessary updates shall be considered.
Employees shall be counseled regarding business conduct or any specific instruction contained in the code.
Encouraging employees to report violations.
Establishing an accessible and confidential complaint procedure.
Protecting employee who report violations from actual or potential retaliation.
Updating the reporting employee regarding the handling and results of the complaint.
The duty to implement the ethical code, to adhere to its rules and to maintain a proper business conduct is borne by all employees of Cidev Group, at all levels and in all areas of responsibility.
Employees shall learn and know the ethical code and sign it. The singed code shall be kept in each employee’s file.
Employees shall embrace the provisions of the code and act according to them.
Employees shall be alert for any violation of the code.
Employees shall make any effort to avoid situations that may lead to illegal or immoral activity, and shall not tolerate any such activity by others.
Employees shall consult the person responsible for the ethical code in any case of doubt or with any question.
The principles and rules relating to the business culture values which are set forth in the ethical code of the Cidev Group shall be integrated with the general training activities of the company.
The messages of the ethical code shall be transformed from managers to employees. Through this Top-Down process, senior managers shall relegate the issues to members of the management. Each manager shall relegate the issues to his team, and so on until the last of the employees.
The ethical code shall be distributed to all employees and shall be published on the company’s internet site.
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2019-04-25T18:13:48Z
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http://cidevelectronics.com/about-us/code-of-ethics/
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Born in a shed, laid in a feeding trough, He was born into the poorest of poor families. He spent his childhood on the run from His own king and his henchmen. After being an asylum seeker, He then grew up in a northern backwater of a tiny oppressed nation, ruled by a ruthless super-power, the Romans, who would crucify sometimes scores of His countrymen by the roadsides as a warning about what rebels can expect. His own people constantly taunted Him over His perceived illegitimacy – taunts that stuck throughout His life.
He learnt His adoptive father’s trade, a builder’s labourer, and worked at that for the great majority of His adult life. Then aged 30 He collected together an unlikely assortment of no-hopers and miscreants. Ill-educated fishermen, despised tax collectors, political zealots, notorious sinners. And for three years, just three years, He toured little Israel as a penniless, homeless, sometimes wildly popular, sometimes wildly unpopular preacher. Just three years in little Israel, an occupied province under the thumb of mighty Rome. Three years before His own people hated Him enough to hand Him over to the Romans, and they did what Romans did best. They snuffed out this upstart who claimed to be King.
Or did they? Because this unlikely mob of followers swore, even as it cost each of them their lives, they swore that Jesus had risen bodily from death, just as promised. And that He had ascended to the throne of the universe. These former fishermen, tax collectors and sinners, spread the word that Jesus was indeed the eternal King, the long promised Messiah, the Son of God. It was a truth that turned the world upside down. And within a few hundred years the empire that executed Jesus confessed Him Lord and King.
It is without doubt the most stupendous fact of all history. How is Jesus the central figure of human history? Why is the whole world about to stop to mark His birth?
In His day, Jesus was ignored and completely insignificant to anyone with any power. Then when He caused a minor and short-lived stir He was despised, rejected and condemned. Today, He commands more allegiance than any other human being ever has or ever could. Not bad for a kid born in a shed.
You see these are the facts. They are not in dispute by any reputable historian. Jesus – that penniless preacher, never entered political office, never entered religious orders, never entered the military, was never schooled in the customary way, never founded a school, never wrote a book, never led an army, never had an ounce of earthly power. He was butchered as a blasphemer aged 33.
And He is the single most important human ever born and billions call Him Lord.
These are the facts, they are not in dispute. Tell me, how do you account for all this?
I tell you, there’s only one way to account for it. The bible’s way. This is the only explanation for the most stunning fact of history. So what we’re going to do is spend a few minutes unpacking how the bible explains the significance of Jesus. Here’s the bible’s answer as to how on earth the kid born in a stable rules the world.
In the beginning… Christ was there.
Before there was a universe, Christ was there. Christmas is not the beginning of Jesus. Jesus has no beginning.
In the beginning was the Word (that’s Christ). Christ was with God and Christ was God – He too can take the name ‘God’. The divine Christ was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made.
Christ is the divine and eternal King.
Lo within a manger lies, He who built the starry skies.
That’s who Jesus is. The wriggling baby is He who built the starry skies. Jesus is really powerful and really old.
And from the beginning God has always acted through His King, Jesus.
God made the world through Christ His eternal King.
And, interestingly God and His Son Christ decided to set a man as king over the world.
Do you ever think of Adam as a king? He was a king. He was told to rule the earth (Genesis 1:26,28). Adam was king.
…and even all creation under him was dependent on his righteous rule.
But of course he proved to be an unrighteous ruler.
And so he fell, but with him fell his whole kingdom. Everyone who is from him fell. In fact the whole world fell.
The rule of King Adam affected everyone and everything. And the only hope for humanity, the only hope for creation is for Christ the eternal King to come and do Adam’s job properly.
And that’s precisely what Christ promises to do in Genesis 3 verse 15.
Do you remember Genesis 3:15?
Christ promises His own birth as the Offspring of a woman. The offspring of the woman will crush the serpent’s head, and the serpent will strike His heel.
Christ would be born into our situation – into Adam’s humanity. He would solve the problem by stepping into our shoes and dealing a death blow to Satan, the oppressor.
So ever since then the people of God have looked to this promise of Christ the King.
The promise rolls on through Genesis with people wondering, When will the Offspring come? Through whom will He come? Well we get to chapter 12 and a man called Abraham. He’s told that the Offspring will come through him and that through Abraham’s Offspring the whole world will be blessed.
Genesis 49 10 The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until He comes to Whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is His.
Kings would come in the tribe of Judah. And every Israelite king would be a throne-warmer for Christ. And when Christ takes to the throne, the whole world will become His kingdom.
And so Israel had its kings. And every little king who ascended the throne was meant to be a picture of Christ the true King.
…David was anointed as king and the very next thing David did as king was to crush the oppressor.
David killed Goliath, he dealt a death blow to Goliath’s head and he won the victory for his people. The people of David’s kingdom had done nothing to deserve this victory. None of them were able to defeat Goliath and none of them contributed a single calorie of effort to the victory. They just looked on and their king did everything. He crushed the head of the house of the wicked and they received the victory.
That’s what the king is meant to do. He is meant to step into our shoes, He is meant to join the fight and at the risk, perhaps even at the cost of his own life He is meant to crush our oppressor so that WE gain the victory.
As the people saw David, this little christ – christ with a little c – it would have made them long for the eternal Christ – Christ with a capital C – the One who would crush Satan himself.
Well their hope in Christ was helped along by the promise of 1 Chronicles 17.
11 When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish His throne for ever. 13 I will be His father, and He will be my son. I will never take my love away from Him, as I took it away from your predecessor. 14 I will set Him over my house and my kingdom for ever; His throne will be established for ever.
How the people longed for the Son of David to come. In fact the phrase, son of David, became one of the most popular titles for the Messiah. The Son of David would be the Son of God the Father and His throne would be established forever.
Well if that’s true then, what about Solomon? Solomon was the very first son of David to sit on the throne. And Solomon’s name means Peace. Would He be the true Prince of Peace? Would He be the promised Offspring?
But like David, his father, he would picture the reign of Christ in many ways. He would be filled with the Wisdom of God, just as Christ is filled with the Spirit of God. And, turning back to our reading from Psalm 72, Solomon would reign over a unified and peaceful kingdom. He ruled from the Mediterranean sea to the Dead Sea and from the River Euphrates to the end of the land. So, looking at v8, you can see how these words could sort of apply to Solomon. He rules from Sea to Sea and from the River to the ends of the earth (the word for earth and the word for ‘land’ are the same in Hebrew).
And verse 10 can sort of apply to Solomon too. Kings and queens came to Solomon and joyfully bowed to his wisdom and generous rule. 1 Kings 10 gives a fascinating account of the Queen of Sheba whose breath was taken away when she experienced Solomon’s reign in all its grace and wisdom and peace and prosperity. So Solomon was a miniature picture of verse 10.
But what about v11: ALL kings will bow down to him. ALL nations will serve him. That’s simply not true of Solomon. Not even close.
5 He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations.
Solomon died and rotted. So Psalm 72 cannot be about Solomon. The King referred to in this Psalm will endure through all generations.
Solomon was a limited and local portrait of Christ. Christ is the eternal and universal King. And Solomon knew it. Which is why he writes this Psalm as a prayer for the true Messiah.
The title, ‘Of Solomon’, means here what it means throughout the book of Psalms that it was written by Solomon. So Psalm 72 is by King Solomon but Solomon recognizes there is a King of kings. So he writes about, v4, the One who will CRUSH the oppressor. He’s writing about the true Serpent Crusher.
He’s writing, verse 6, about the One who will restore this cursed creation. The eternal King will be like rains watering the earth. He will bring life and prosperity.
Solomon is a picture of this King, he writes about this King, but he is not this King. Psalm 72 is about the Messiah, the Serpent Crusher, this world’s Fountain of Blessing, the King of Kings.
And what is this King like? What is the reign of King Jesus like? Well the Anglican Prayer book describes the reign of Jesus as His just and gentle rule. And that’s a great description of this Psalm. Psalm 72 shows us Jesus as a just and gentle King.
Endow the King with your justice, O God, the royal Son with your righteousness. 2 He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. 3 The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness.
The reign of Christ the King is a just reign. Don’t we long for that?
No. No-one ever did. No-one ever has. Even His fiercest opponents couldn’t make their accusations stick. And still today, the very fiercest opponents of Christianity nonetheless must admit they can’t prove Jesus guilty of sin. An exposee on Jesus does NOT reveal sin. We strung Him up on a cross and got a really good look at Him. We dissected Him on full display to the world and all we saw was righteous love bleeding from His veins. When you dig into Jesus, you don’t get dirt. Here is the one Man who stands up to scrutiny, the one King who rules in justice.
And when He rules in justice the world is set to rights.
Did you notice in this Psalm how even creation is redeemed by this King’s righteous rule? Verse 3 the mountains and hills bring prosperity and fruit. Verse 6 – He is like the rain that gives life to the earth. Verse 16 – corn abounds, fruit flourishes. He brings fullness and fruitfulness. When this King reigns in righteousness, creation is set to rights.
And you think, how could that be? How can a King change the weather, how can a human ruler affect creation like this? Well think of Adam.
The first king brought about cosmic ruin through His unrighteousness. When Christ comes in our flesh as the second Adam, He brings about cosmic redemption.
When He rules in righteousness the created order itself finds harmony again.
In the Gospels we see that in microcosm. Everywhere Jesus goes, Eden is restored. He is a little portable paradise and everything that’s cursed and dying and dark and broken, whenever it comes into His sphere it is brought to new life. What Jesus did in microcosm in the Gospels He will do cosmically when He comes again. When Christ stands on the earth again there will be flourishing and fruitfulness that far outweighs the curse and frustration that Adam brought.
4 He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; He will crush the oppressor.
How does King Jesus use His omnipotent power? ONLY to defend, save and protect the afflicted and the needy. What a different King is this? Power corrupts they say, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well not with this King. This King HAS absolute power. And how does He use it? ONLY to bless.
12 For He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no-one to help. 13 He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. 14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in His sight.
What is Jesus’ reign like? It is gentle. Do you see all the verbs in these verses? He delivers, He takes pity, He saves, He rescues. And who does He rescue? Look with me – ‘the needy who cry out,’ ‘the afflicted who have no-one to help’, ‘the weak and the needy.’ This is the just and gentle rule of King Jesus.
And Christmas confirms everything that’s written here. Because at Christmas, Jesus doesn’t just stick up for the little guy. He becomes the little guy. He doesn’t just fight for the needy and oppressed, He becomes the needy and oppressed.
How humble, how gentle is King Jesus? The Lord of Heaven became a single cell in Mary’s womb. He became a helpless baby wriggling in a wooden manger. He became a helpless sacrifice writhing on a wooden cross. All to crush our oppressor. All to save the needy. All to rescue you and me.
And you know what? He’s done it! He HAS done it. Like David felling Goliath, Christ has stepped into our shoes, joined the fight and dealt the decisive blow. And we HAVE the victory in King Jesus.
It’s not about you and how godly you are. It’s not about me and how much I’ve bent the knee to King Jesus. He has taken charge of things. He has taken our predicament entirely on Himself. The government is on His shoulders. He has determined to be this kind of King, to secure this kind of Kingdom and to bring us with Him.
15 Long Live the King! May gold from Sheba be given to Him. May people ever pray for Him and bless Him all day long. 16 Let corn abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. Let its fruit flourish like Lebanon; let it thrive like the grass of the field. 17 May His name endure for ever; may it continue as long as the sun. All nations will be blessed through Him, and they will call Him blessed.
This Christmas the whole world will stop to bless Him. On no other day does the whole world come to a standstill, all in honour of the kid born in the shed. Billions call on His name. Every day 25 000 Chinese call Him King for the first time. Every day 20 000 Africans gladly submit to His just and gentle rule. Every day 40 000 more Asians find heavenly blessing in Him.
How do you account for it? The kid born in the shed is ruling the world, from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. There’s only one explanation: Jesus is the eternal Christ, the Son of the Father, the Offspring of the Woman, the Serpent Crusher, the Cosmic Redeemer, the Hope of the Ages, the Desire of all Nations, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Maybe you’re not a Christian tonight or not sure you are. Well listen, Christ is for you. He is for you. He is your Maker who became a wriggling baby for you. He loved you to the manger, and then loved you all the way to the cross, to crush the Oppressor and lift you to the Father. Look to Him tonight and say to the Father – “Long live the King.” Recognize King Jesus, recognize His just and gentle rule. Because when you do, verse 12 gives you a promise – have a look at it. This King – King Jesus – WILL deliver the needy when they cry out. If you cry out to Jesus and say “save me from my sins, save me from myself, save me from trying to rule my own little world, save me,” the word of God promises He will deliver you. Cry out to Him even now in your heart. And talk to me or someone else about it tonight.
For those who already know King Jesus, take courage this Christmas. Jesus is our King. Jesus sits on the throne.
What a relief to know that the throne of the universe is not occupied by cruel fate or impersonal forces. The throne is not occupied by an absentee landlord, or a distant god. Jesus occupies the throne. Jesus. The One who defends the afflicted, who saves the needy, who HAS crushed the Oppressor. Who delivers those who cry out and takes pity on the weak. He sits on the throne. He is ruling this world and this week. So take heart. He IS reigning and when He stands again on the earth, He will bring peace, prosperity and cosmic redemption. So soon the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.
The highly commercialized and sentimental value of Christmas (as well as Easter) appreciates at the expense of knowledge of Christ: otherwise, "first-born" to be known personally in his all-inclusive death on the cross!
This is wonderful, I love this, thank you.
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2019-04-26T14:43:08Z
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https://christthetruth.net/2010/12/14/psalm-72-christmas-sermon/
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You are unsure whether a program is most effective for you, although if you should be contemplating applying for an internship, have a look at our opinions. Wondering how to write If you are attempting to find an internship or will need to learn more London provides, then head with their own site. Internships and volunteer work away from the class room reveals admissions officials what you’re thinking about and that you’re eager encourage that a workforce and to work .
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For making positive effect in the recruiter, it’s vital that you find a unique resume portraying your project specifics. A employment cover letter case for folks which are searching work . Remember there is no motive not to attempt to apply. For example, you might well be asking to get work in a lively work atmosphere. Afterward, when you’re asking to get a job, you will have the time to re arrange the CV to fit that job along with employer. Another thing concerning the employer information and the job, if any, want to go mentioned too.
Your CV supplies a synopsis of what you’ve got to give an company and who you are. Make sure that there was signs everywhere in the CV for almost any claims you’re generating. The skills-based CV enables one to center about the skills you have developed in several elements of your own life.
Make sure that the CV symbolizes YOU! Make certain your CV conveys this. It is crucial to organize your CV prior to starting writing it. You needs to say your CV and covering letter are attached. That your CV is simple to scan and readable’. CVs are meant for an extremely special audience. Deciding the appropriate CV to highlight your own abilities and adventures is vital.
There are a number of different CVs utilized within the uk now and despite it is correct that you find it possible to own unique formats of CV, additionally you needs to consider the form of job which you’re searching for, and the organisation’s culture, your experience as well as the way you wish to promote yourself to the company. A CV can change into quite a few pages from just two pages. Your CV will not allow you to get a job, but nevertheless, it might give a greater possibility of having a scheduled appointment to you. A graduate CV ought to really be pretty limited. Assembling the perfect CV may possibly look like an intimidating endeavor, but this really is something which you can understand. It is vital to keep in your mind the the trick to creating fantastic CVs as opposed to only excellent ones is to make them achievement-based as achievable.
Create an extensive selection of the advice you’ll want to include, and use it so as to reconstruct your CV. Your CV is an essential door-opener, and thus do not overlook its relevance. A great CV can enable you to get tons of interviews and responses, whereas the CV can usually get discounted. Moreover, in case you have not written a instructional CV the best time in your career.
Tailoring your CV is important and thus the further effort that you put to it that the better. What you are hoping for is your CV is what they really want at one of the second. The CV is right for healthcare or academic professions and is a great deal more extensive. Your CV has to shout you are the very best candidate to get the company. Producing your own initial CV following graduating could be tricky, especially if you’re hunting for the very first professional standing. Thus, it really is critical your application incorporate a sturdy CV.
You want to modify your own job character. The truth is, it was performed out. This really is as it has to do with freelancing, you need not go all out. Consistently seek to recognize your crowd, regardless of what you do. Try and get a thing that is positive and will make you find joyful if anything negative occurred for you. You should additionally have a peek at their cover letter tutorial.
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Though it’s maybe not mandatory, list your cause of resignation if you are feeling inclined to accomplish this. The main reason for my resignation is move for a other city. The resignation needs to be supplied carefully. Let’s focus on exactly what precisely the resignation was around.
Often they’re not sure how exactly to compose a resignation letter, when individuals are departing even a position or a business. When it really is you’re browsing for is hopeless at the provider, attempt to discover some thing acceptable for you in the work market. Entirely expect the venture if you try to quit whenever there’s tons of company. You have to learn everything locate the proper software and also guidance and you need to reach in your business. You are agreeing beforehand for if you are all set to launch your business, by just starting to get the bases in place. In addition, in case you left since you’re going in your to begin a new business, be sure everything is set up for you to show your focus to from the moment you’ve resigned.
If you should be an CEO or manager, you’ll take a position to spot the indications of disengagement and take remedial measures. Disengagement will not happen over night. If you’re not positive regarding your yield date, you ought to request a specific period and note you will reexamine your ability. If you should be considering quitting work toohere really are a few hints which may permit you to say goodbye.
In the event you were unhappy with your work, a statement just like I’ve settled to pursue different choices for private motives” is sufficient. Therefore it’s possible you have to alter tasks for an immense increase, in addition, it is possible that you can find a fairly major raise by playing with your cards right and keeping put. Propose a training session for an employee that are in a position to carry control the occupation you were doing. A few individuals are extremely much painful and sensitive to the job that they are being provided. You can find more than just a few explanations for why an employee could leave work. It is certainly not straightforward todo exactly what they do, and stopping your work for a means is among the actions you will require. While a good deal of what exactly which you perform within your business endeavor will undoubtedly likely probably be helpful when you transition to a freelance work, there are worth and skills that you have to develop in order to score the endeavors you want.
State the location you’re considering, and also why you would like to fulfill it. If you understand that you’re in place of having to compose a letter you might decide to learn these strategies. Until it’s also late if you armed forces to see the warning signs and’re awake, it is possible to quit the slide. Have been supplied just below.
The General is popularly Known as the Warrior Monk for a motive. You see. Typically your Manager is currently going to be caught off guard so that it’s much best to be prepared. No matter how excellent of a boss you’re employees will probably leave. A member of staff decide to try to get the most effective you can from your own work, while you’re still . If you’re in a place to become open with your present employer about your project search, sit back together with your superiors and permit them to be aware which you’re attempting to find employment elsewhere. Or when it hopeless as a result of current workplace, go someplace.
Do not utilize objectives, as it will restrict your choices you’re targeting, then if you’re perhaps not specific about the job. The job in the banking industry is of responsibility that is amazing whilst translate the reports prepared from the financial institution because of the transaction and the individual has to deal with monetary transactions. Prove that you just know to get and justify why you ought to discover this job. Thus, it’s important to discuss the job expertise in detail.
You’re conscious that the existing labor market is quite competitive, if you’re currently working to be given a work lately. After all, you are hunting for employment because you want to earn dollars, maybe never to invest it first! It demonstrates that you’re educated and curious in a job that is particular instead of seeing exactly what you will property and casting a large net.
Like the resumes, it’s imperative to list the project certain information from your resume. It really is if you should be enthusiastic about locating a job that is superior. You should come back and inspect the article 1 second if you wish to execute a really exceptional job, once you have finished your summary. Do not unnecessarily increase the length of resume by including insignificant particulars, but comprise all things which you feel will help you. New tasks will help felons to turn into a portion of the culture.
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Job-seekers ought to know it ought to be more employer-ready plus when they need to find an upgraded restart. Wherever possible for the results, they need to locate advantages. Job seekers must move through the interview period.
Don’t be obscure or the company might not be able to discover what you’re after. The issue is the fact that companies assume that you are looking for a challenging and profitable position. To start out with, companies assume which you’re hunting for a position which is both challenging and rewarding. As a result of volume of software, companies and recruiters don’t have the time to thoroughly review the very first time around of all resume.
Something to keep in your mind when creating a railroad jobs resume is it is essential that you simply will find out more for. On a clean sheet of paper write down every accomplishment or credential you’ll have the ability to think of that pertains to the kind of location you’re searching for. Assure you decide the location that you are applying for.
The restart objective must be. Writing a resume aim that is exciting and distinctive isn’t likely to be always a endeavor that is simple. The occupation Objective is intended to extend some reason to the hiring manager.
You may observe that they implement clear sentences that get directly to your purpose, In the event you take a close look at of our complimentary resume writing examples. The way the dates that you have put in can be managed by you will be demonstrated by this example. It’s critical to supply a good example which exemplifies the way the candidate is as opposed to just generating the blanket opinion, really actually a team player. It’s likely to refer the resume purpose examples to understand how to present your livelihood targets and bring employers.
Career element in restart will probably incorporate the truth of one’s prospective accomplishments that you’d love to achieve functioning in the particular status inside the business. Wherever your statement ought to be set, the 2nd paragraph of one’s resume cover letter is. Offers a concise introduction to the intent supporting the restart, highlighting your career objectives and the form of work which you want.
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The templates would be convenient. Business proposal templates are perfect for getting started out read on to locate the best kinds for your proposition. You can find about 15 templates out there there for new client endeavors, that may help to make your business proposal straightforward and organized to learn.
It’s possible to download templates to get suggestions from our principal website at no cost whilst to simplify the procedure and also spare your period. Templates can be modified at any moment. In addition, there are various types of project suggestion formats and job suggestion templates from that assistance that is critical may be taken by firm owners. The means is to use an expert project proposal template.
You will find many types of templates out there to be effective as well as efficient suggestion creating. You might realize which you end up saving templates out of some of the sites . Now that you will find plenty of templates intended, it’s manageable and very straightforward to produce a project proposition. Make sure you will find the best template touse. There really are still an assortment of sample templates and that means you are likely to find one which can utilize marketplace or your field. The principal reason behind employing sample suggestion template will be to get a concept regarding the perfect approach to commence the habit of making a terrific deal that gives a far more special shot endorsement from the possibility to you. The professional suggestion template involves a style that is nominal that is blank.
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Once you have uploaded a document, it is likely to appear in one’s file folder’s set. About the Envato market place internet site, you can find a good deal of documents needed for projects. The most up-to-date documents and templates may be observed beneath.
In case the proposal is to get utilization, then you can include of repayment terms for clients to check. A job proposal has a arrangement that is certain. Project suggestions often possess a format that you will need certainly to followalong with Using Sinnaps endeavor planning tool your suggestions include every thing. You have to discover how to make an extensive project suggestion if you’re tasked with create a new job proposal that you find it possible to introduce to relevant parties who are involved in your endeavor. If you also want to write job proposals that are effective, it really is wise to download endeavor suggestion templates from our website that is principal.
Keep in mind, the summary is your portion of the proposal, also also for some execs, it might be the sole part they read. The persons needs to find the precise info on just what the proposal should prove or cover Before it’s likely to get started producing a proposition. On all those worries you to have made a choice to create a proposition you could elaborate. Professional suggestions should be more computer-generated on organization letterhead, although service-industry strains can be pre-printed. An informal proposal is the initial step within a project. A contract is needed by contractsEven it. A contractor proposal to produce a bridge should start with a statement of need.
The suggestion will supply a great outline for an upcoming small business application and includes the basic plans for your own organization. Project proposal may be an crucial small business record for one personally that ought to be accomplished . A project proposition has components.
The proposal would be targeted at partners or potential shareholders at the organization. A business suggestion is utilized to offer your own product or support into a buyer or customer. Around the reverse side, you could pose the firm proposal unsolicited, way as well. An unsolicited small business proposition intended to create and make a income option follows the same structure but anticipates questions the client might have.
Before it certified for understanding all proposals experience comprehensive deliberation. Furthermore, however selections of proposals is there, not exactly all suggestions comply with a related template. Job suggestions contain information about your project. Funding challenge Proposals must comprise depth advice regarding the endeavor where the fundraising event must be organized.
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2019-04-23T00:25:45Z
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http://louis-pourusacanada.com/list-motywacyjny-po-niemiecku-zadane/
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Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus are the main vectors of dengue virus (DENV, Flaviviridae, Flavivirus), chikungunya virus (CHIKV, Togaviridae, Alphavirus) and Zika virus (ZIKV, Flaviviridae, Flavivirus) worldwide. Aedes aegypti is native to Africa and is found throughout the tropics, whereas Ae. albopictus is native to Asia but has recently spread to all continents. These three viruses are increasing global health threats, spreading from their original niches to most areas of the world. Dengue virus infection is a serious health problem for 2.5 billion people worldwide. A recent estimate indicated 390 million infections per year (95% credible interval, 284–528 million), of which 96 million (67–136 million) manifest clinically, although the actual number of cases is under-reported, and many cases are not definitively classified . Dengue infection causes more illness and deaths in humans than any other arboviral disease, the severity ranging from mild dengue fever to dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. Chikungunya fever is also as a significant worldwide public health problem; particular attention has been paid to this disease after its rapid, massive emergence in the south-west Indian Ocean, India and the Americas . Chikungunya can manifest as asymptomatic to severe infections, mainly with severe arthralgia but also with cardiovascular, neurological and respiratory symptoms [3, 4]. ZIKV, which was originally isolated in 1947 from a monkey in Uganda , has occasionally been reported in humans in Africa and Asia , but, after its sudden emergence in 2007 on Yap Island, affecting about 5,000 people , it caused successive outbreaks in French Polynesia in 2013–2014 and in Brazil since October 2015, before spreading across Latin America . The recrudescence of ZIKV has been associated with reports of neurological disorders and microcephaly, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a “public health emergency of international concern” on 1 February 2016 .
In Central Africa, several arboviruses, including DENV, CHIKV and ZIKV have been isolated from mosquitoes and human samples, but no massive outbreak was reported before introduction of the new competent vector Ae. albopictus. After it was first reported in 2000 in Cameroon , it spread rapidly to numerous countries in Central Africa and, with the native species Ae. aegypti, played a role in disseminating and spreading DENV, CHIKV and ZIKV in urban and rural environments [6, 12–14]. This change in the epidemiology of these three arboviruses is particularly disturbing because the region has many potentially suitable niches for Ae. albopictus, and several arboviruses of medical and veterinary concern are endemic . In view of the current lack of effective vaccines or specific drugs against these arboviral infections, vector control remains the most effective means for their prevention .
Insecticides play a major role in the control of mosquito vectors, and synthetic pyrethroids are the chemicals of choice because of their effective, rapid activity against insects, their low toxicity for mammals and their degradability in the environment [17, 18]. WHO recommends use of pyrethroids against adult mosquitoes and larvicides such as Bacillus thuringiensis var. israeliensis (Bti), organophosphates like temephos, benzoylureas like diflubenzuron, juvenile hormone mimics like pyriproxyfen and spinosyns such as spinosad for larval control . Unfortunately, long-term intensive use of insecticides usually leads to the emergence of resistance in mosquito species under selection pressure, and this is one of the major obstacles to the control of arthropod pests [20, 21]. Many control programmes are threatened by insecticide resistance in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. Aedes aegypti has been reported to be resistant to pyrethroids and organophosphates in various part of the world, whereas few data are available on insecticide resistance in Ae. albopictus. The few studies that have been conducted show decreased susceptibility of Ae. albopictus to a wide variety of active ingredients, including organophosphates, organochlorines (DDT) and pyrethroids.
Insecticide resistance in insects is due to two main mechanisms: enhanced metabolic detoxification and insensitivity of target sites . The first mechanism involves overexpression or qualitative changes in the catalytic sites of enzymes such as non-specific esterases (NES), glutathione S-transferases (GST) and mixed-function oxidases (MFO). Previous studies outside Africa on metabolic resistance mechanism in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus showed that most of detoxification enzymes linked to insecticide resistance belong to the cytochrome P450 genes [23, 24]. Target insensitivity is due to mutations that reduce the binding affinity between the insecticide and its physiological target. Pyrethroids and DDT acts on voltage-sensitive sodium channels, and insects develop resistance to these types of insecticide through substitution(s) of one or several amino acids in the channel sequence . These mutations in the voltage-sensitive sodium channel are known as “knockdown resistance” (kdr) and have been reported in several mosquito genera, including Anopheles gambiae , An. stephensi , Culex pipiens and Ae. aegypti . In many mosquito species, including Ae. aegypti, kdr related to pyrethroids and DDT has been located in segment 6 of domain II [23, 29–31], with other mutations at the same position (I1011M, I1011V, V1016G and V1016I) . In South-East Asia, for example, two major voltage-gated sodium channel haplotypes (S989P + V1016G and F1534C) confer resistance of Ae. aegypti to pyrethroids, and species with these two haplotypes are widely and sympatrically distributed in that region [33–35]. Neurophysiological studies have revealed that V1016G and F1534C single mutations each confer resistance to pyrethroids . Such kdr mutations are rare in Ae. albopictus; the mutation F1534C (TTC to TGC) at segment 6 of domain III described in Ae. aegypti is the only one that has been confirmed in Ae. albopictus from Singapore .
In Africa, most of the data on insecticide susceptibility concerns malaria vectors (Anopheles mosquitoes), and very little is known about Aedes. Most of the studies on Ae. aegypti in West and Central Africa date back 30–40 years , although resistance of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus was reported in Cameroon after introduction of Ae. albopictus . In CAR, both species are present, but Ae. albopictus predominates over Ae. aegypti at all sites in Bangui and southern CAR, where the two species are sympatric . The lack of data on their susceptibility to insecticides used in public health is a growing obstacle for dengue, chikungunya and Zika disease control programmes. We assessed the susceptibility of larvae and adults of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus to insecticides and the mechanism involved in order to select the best insecticides for use in an outbreak and to manage resistance in these populations.
Field-caught larval or pupal Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus (F0 generation) were sampled between June and September 2014, during the rainy season, in six districts of Bangui (Fig. 1). All samples were taken to the insectaries at the Institut Pasteur de Bangui (IPB) and maintained under controlled conditions (28 ± 2 °C and 80 ± 10% relative humidity); larvae were fed dry cat food. After emergence, adult Aedes mosquitoes were identified morphologically , grouped by species and site into cages and fed 10% sugar solution. Some of the F0 adults were used in adult bioassays, molecular and biochemical studies, and the remainder were used to obtain the next generation (F1). Females were allowed to feed on blood from rabbits to induce egg-laying. F1 eggs were hatched to obtain larvae for use in larval bioassays. The insecticides tested were chosen from the four main classes of adulticides (organochlorines, pyrethroids, carbamates and organophosphates) and two of larvicides (Bti and temephos). The reference strain (Ae. aegypti SBE) originating from Benin and papers impregnated with adulticides and Bti were supplied by the MiVEGEC project (Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs: Écologie, Génétique, Évolution, contrôle) (Université de Montpellier, France).
Larval bioassays were performed according to standard WHO guidelines using F1 larvae. The susceptibility of larvae was evaluated against technical-grade temephos (97.3%; Sigma Aldrich-Pestanal®, Seelze, Germany) and a formulated Bti product (Vectobac® 12AS, 1200 ITU/mg). First, stock solutions and serial dilutions were prepared in 95% ethanol (temephos) or distilled water (Bti) and stored at 4 °C. For Bti, five concentrations ranging from 0.08 to 0.2 mg/l and for temephos, eight doses ranging from 0.0025 to 0.009 mg/l have been used in larval bioassay. Fifty to 100 larvae per concentration (with three to four replicates, depending on the sample and the number of larvae available) were tested. Third late or early fourth-instar larvae of each species were placed in plastic cups containing 99 ml of tap water, and 1 ml of insecticide solution at the required concentration was added. Control groups were run systematically with larvae exposed to 1 ml of ethanol (for temephos) or 1 ml of tap water (for Bti). No food was provided to larvae during the bioassays, which were run at 28 ± 2 °C and 80 ± 10% relative humidity. Mortality was determined after 24 h of exposure to the insecticide. Mortality rates were corrected with Abbott’s formula when the mortality of controls was > 5%.
All data were analysed with Win DL v. 2.0 software . Lethal concentrations (LC50 and LC95) were calculated with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Resistance ratios (RR50 and RR95) were calculated by comparing the LC50 and LC95 for each species with those of susceptible strain, as RR50(95) = LC50(95) of studied population/LC50(95) susceptible strain and RR95 = LC95(95) of studied population/LC95(95) reference strain. Mosquito populations were considered as resistant when RR was higher than 1 and confidence intervals for LC50 or LC95 did not overlap those of the susceptible reference strain.
Adult bioassays were performed with non-blood-fed females according to the standard WHO guidelines . Four insecticides 4% DDT (organochlorine), 0.05% deltamethrin (pyrethroid), 0.1% propoxur (carbamate) and 0.5% fenitrothion (organophosphate) were tested. Two to four batches of 25 non-blood-fed females (2–4 days of age) were introduced into WHO tubes containing impregnated filter papers and exposed for 60 min. For every test, a control assay was run in parallel with untreated papers. The number of knockdown (Kd) mosquitoes was counted every 5 min during the 60 min. After exposure, females were transferred for 24 h into holding tubes (and allowed to feed on a 10% sugar solution) before being checked for mortality. Assays were carried out at 28 ± 2 °C and a relative humidity of 80 ± 10%. The susceptibility of the mosquitoes was classified according to the WHO criteria as susceptible when mortality was > 97%, resistant when mortality was < 90% and possibly resistant when mortality was 90–97%. Surviving females were killed and stored individually at -80 °C in Eppendorf tubes (according to insecticide); dead mosquitoes were stored in silica gel. As in the larval bioassays, Win DL software version 2.0 was used to estimate the KdT50 and KdT95 and their 95% CIs.
DDT- and deltamethrin-resistant specimens of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus were examined for the presence of kdr mutations. The total DNA of each surviving specimen was extracted with the 2% cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide protocol described by Morlais et al. , then resuspended in 1:50 μl sterile water and stored at −20 °C. The sodium channel gene was examined by PCR and direct sequencing of fragment encoding to verify the presence of mutations at I1011M or I1011V, V1016G or V1016I and F1534C in Ae. aegypti and F1534C in Ae. albopictus. In Ae. aegypti, we amplified and sequenced a part of segment 6 of domain II with the primers AaSCF1 and AaSCR4 and domain III with AaSCF7 and AaSCR7 . Whereas, Ae. albopictus was amplified with AaSCF7 and AaSCR7 for domain III.
The PCR mixture contained 2.5 μl 10× buffer (Eurogentec, USA), 1.5 MgCl2, 1 mM dNTP (Eurogentec, USA), 1 μl of 1/10 of each primer, 0.1 μl of Diamond Taq DNA polymerase (Eurogentec, USA) and 4 μl of 1/50 diluted total DNA in a total volume of 25 μl. DNA was amplified in a GeneAmp 9600 thermal cycler (PerkinElmer, USA) under the following conditions: 94 °C for 3 min, followed by 40 cycles of 30 s at 94 °C, 45 s at the annealing temperature 64 °C, 45 s at 72 °C and 10 min at 72 °C. PCR products (10 μl) were migrated on 1.5% agarose gel in TAE buffer, purified with AMPure® Agencourt® (Beckman Coulter, Danvers MA, USA) when they contained amplified fragments of the expected size and then sequenced with a BigDye Terminator v3.1 Cycle sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems, USA). The primers used for sequencing were: AeSCF3 for I1011M/V, AeSCR6 for V1016G/I and AeSCR8 for F1534C mutations in Ae. aegypti and AeSCR8 and AeSCR7 for the F1534C mutation in Ae. albopictus.
The sequence reaction was carried out in 9 μl of reaction volume containing 1 μl of 5× buffer sequence, 1 μl of primer (5 pmol), 1 μl of Big Dye terminator V3.1 and 1 μl of purified amplicons. Amplification was performed at 96 °C for 1 min, followed by 25 cycles at 96 °C for 10 s, 50 °C for 5 s and 60 °C for 4 min. Direct DNA sequencing was performed on an automatic sequencer ABI 3130XL (Applied BioSystems). Sequences were analysed with BioEdit version 7.2.5 .
In order to detect metabolic resistance, biochemical analyses were performed on 2-3-day-old F0 mosquito females by the modified microplate methods described by Hemingway & Karunaratne and Brogdon et al. . None of the mosquitoes used had been exposed to insecticide. For each experiment, at least 25 mosquitoes per species were assayed for MFO, GST, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), α- and β-esterases and total proteins. The SBE strain was used as the susceptible reference. Two wells filled with 10 μl of sterile distilled water were used as background (in two adjacent wells) for each analysis. Mosquitoes were ground individually on ice in 200 μl of sterile distilled water. Before centrifugation, 25 μl of each homogenate were distributed in two adjacent wells of a microplate to test for acetylcholinesterase, and the rest of the homogenate was centrifuged at 14,000 rpm for 2 min. Total protein and other enzyme systems were analysed in two replicates. The volume of supernatant was 20 μl for MFO and 10 μl for GST, α- and β-esterases and total proteins. Absorbance was measured in a spectrophotometer for microplate readers (TECAN, Sunrise™) with Magellan version 7.0. software.
The ratios of the specific activities of enzymes to the protein content of individual homogenates were determined in the Bradford assay . Thus, 10 μl of each homogenate was mixed in a microtitre plate well with 140 μl of Bradford reagent (Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, USA), and the mixture was incubated at room temperature for 5 min. The end-point absorbance was read at 595 nm. Protein values were calculated from a standard curve of absorbance of bovine serum albumin.
The assay used to measure mixed-function oxidases detects increases in the amount of haem, which are then converted into equivalent units of cytochrome P450. Cytochrome P450 was titrated in the haem-peroxidase assay according to Brogdon et al. . Briefly, 80 μl of 0.625 M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.2) were added to 20 μl of microfuged supernatant and 200 μl of tetramethylbenzidine solution (0.011 g 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine + 5 ml methanol + 15 ml sodium acetate buffer 0.25 M, pH 5.0). After addition of 25 μl of 3% hydrogen peroxide, the mixture was incubated for 15 min at room temperature with a cover. Absorbance was read at 630 nm and values calculated from a standard curve.
Glutathione S-transferase was measured with a 200 μl 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene working solution (100 μl of 0.060 g reduced glutathione prepared in 10 ml 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer pH 6.5 + 100 μl of 0.013 g 63 mM 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, diluted in 1 ml methanol and 10 ml 0.1 M phosphate buffer at pH 6.5) added to each replicate of mosquito homogenate. Absorbance was read at 340 nm every 30 s for 5 min. The rate of formation of conjugated 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene was assessed kinetically from a molecular extinction coefficient (9.5 mM.cm-1).
Two 25-μl replicates from each mosquito homogenate were placed in adjacent wells of a microtitre plate. Membrane-bound acetylcholinesterase in the mosquito homogenate was solubilized by adding 145 μl of Triton phosphate buffer (1% (v/v) Triton X-100 in 0.1 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.8). To one set of homogenates, 25 μl of 0.01 M acetylthiocholine iodide (ASChI) and 10 μl of 0.1 M propoxur solution (2.5 ml 0.1 M ASChI + 10 μl of 0.1 M propoxur in acetone) were added. To the other replicate, 25 μl of ASChI alone was added. The preparation was incubated for 3 min at room temperature, and the kinetics of the enzyme reaction was monitored continuously at 420 nm for 5 min. The results were expressed as percentage remaining activity in the inhibited fraction and in the control (uninhibited).
Non-specific esterase activity was assessed with two substrates, α- and β-naphthol acetate. For both substrates, 90 μl of phosphate buffer saline (pH 6.5) containing 1% Triton were added to the plate well containing 10 μl of microfuge supernatant, and the reactions were incubated at ambient temperature for 10 min, when 100 μl 0.6 M naphthol was added. After 30 min incubation at ambient temperature, 100 μl of Fast Garnett BC solution (0.010 g Fast Garnett salt + 12 ml distilled water) were added to stop the reaction. The reaction was then incubated for 10 min at room temperature. The concentration of the final product was determined at 550 nm calculated from a standard curve of α- or β-naphthol. Esterase-specific activity per individual was reported as μmol product.min-1.mg-1 protein.
Mean absorbance values of replicate wells for each tested mosquito were converted into enzyme activity and divided by the protein values. The mean activity of each sample was calculated and the distributions of enzymatic activities from wild mosquitoes were compared to those of reference strain mosquitoes (Ae. aegypti SBE) using Mann-Whitney tests (nonparametric) with GraphPad Prism version 5.00 software and Mann-Withney U-test with MedCalc version 15. Statistical significance was assumed at P < 0.05. Mann-Whitney test or Kruskal-Wallis test as appropriated was performed with STATA/IC version 11 (StataCorp College Station, Texas 77845) to assess the association between resistance status and enzymes activities in wild specimens but also to the reference strain, and P-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus larvae from all sites were susceptible to both larvicides, Bti and temephos (Tables 1 and 2). For Ae. aegypti, the LC50 of Bti was 0.06–0.15 mg/l and the LC95 0.25–0.30 mg/l, with similar results in Ae. albopictus (LC50, 0.07–0.11 mg/l and LC95, 0.20–0.27 mg/l). For temephos, the LC50 in Ae. aegypti was 0.0049–0.0059 mg/l and the LC95 0.0076–0.0096 mg/l, with values in Ae. albopictus of 0.0042–0.0057 mg/l and 0.0066–0.01 mg/l, respectively.
The results of WHO tube tests on Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus collected in six districts of Bangui are presented in Table 3. The mortality rate of negative controls was < 5%. In Ae. aegypti, resistance to DDT was observed in four populations, with mortality rates of 71–80%, and probable resistance in two further populations, with mortality rates of 93 and 94%. Only one population of Ae. albopictus was susceptible (100% mortality) and the rest was either suspected to be resistant (95–97% mortality) or resistant (41–90% mortality). With deltamethrin, Ae. aegypti from three localities showed mortality rates ≥ 98%, while the rates in other populations were between 95 and 97%. Samples of Ae. albopictus collected at two sites were resistant (rates of 87 and 94%), while all other populations were sensitive. Bioassays with propoxur and fenitrothion showed full susceptibility of the populations of both species, except for one population of Ae. albopictus to propoxur (mortality rate of 94%) and one of Ae. albopictus to fenitrothion (mortality rate of 96.4%).
The KDT50 calculated after exposure to DDT ranged from 35 to 80 min for Ae. aegypti and from 31 to 81.4 min for Ae. albopictus (Table 4). The resistance ratio at KDT50 for DDT was increased for populations of both species considered as resistant based on their mortality rates. However, these increases were rather limited and ratios did not exceed 1.6. With deltamethrin, all the KDT50 values for both species were < 30 min, and the resistance ratio at KDT50 was also increased for some populations considered as possibly resistant but ratios were low and below 2.
We analysed 80 Ae. aegypti and 93 Ae. albopictus specimens that were survivors of the adult bioassays. None of the non-synonymous mutations in the voltage-gated sensitive channel was detected.
For each of the four enzyme systems tested, we analysed at least 25 individuals per species and per population (Figs. 2 and 3). Comparisons with the SBE strain showed significant differences (Mann-Whitney U-test, P < 0.05) in mean enzyme activity in some populations: α-esterase activities were significantly higher in two Ae. albopictus populations (IPB, U = 140, Z = 4.84, P < 0.0001, and Sica 1, U = 216, Z = 3.32, P = 0.0009), and β-esterase activities were significantly higher in all five populations of Ae. aegypti (IPB,U = 429.5, Z = 1.98, P = 0.04; Sica 1, U = 284, Z = 2.3, P = 0.02; Lakouanga, U = 258, Z = 2.69, P = 0.007; Ouango, U = 214.5, Z = 3.34, P = 0.0008; and Ngongonon 3, U = 230.5, Z = 3.1, P = 0.001) and three Ae. albopictus populations (IPB, U = 118, Z = 5.14, P < 0.0001; Sica 1, U = 84, Z = 5.3, P < 0.0001; and Lakouanga, U = 168, Z = 4.04, P = 0.0001.
Significantly higher MFO activity was observed in three Ae. aegypti populations (IPB, U = 404, Z = 2.29, P = 0.02; Ouango, U = 296, Z = 2.12, P = 0.03; and Ngongonon 3, U = 296.5, Z = 2.11, P = 0.03) and two Ae. albopictus populations (IPB, U = 66, Z = 5.86, P < 0.0001 and Sica 1, U = 264, Z = 2.6, P = 0.009). The mean rate of inhibition of AChE activity in the presence of propoxur was significantly lower in two Ae. aegypti populations (Lakouanga, U = 191, Z = 3.69, P = 0.0002 and Ouango, U = 206, Z = 3.47, P = 0.0005) and in two Ae. albopictus populations (Lakouanga, U = 205, Z = 3.48, P = 0.0005 and 92 Logements, U = 92, Z = 5.18, P < 0.0001), suggesting that they contained some individuals with reduced sensitivity. Glutathione S-transferase activity was significantly higher than control in two populations of Ae. aegypti (Ouango, U = 155.5, Z = 4.22, P < 0.0001 and Ngongonon 3,U = 295, Z = 2.13, P = 0.03) and in three populations of Ae. albopictus (IPB, U = 223, Z = 3.69, P = 0.0002, Sica 1, U = 287, Z = 2.25, P = 0.024 and 92 Logements, U = 156.5, Z = 4.24, P < 0.0001). Statistical analysis performed to assess association between enzyme activities and resistance status of Aedes spp. populations. This showed that resistance status is significantly associated to certain enzyme activities such as GST and CytP450 in Ae. aegypti (Additional file 1: Table S1), and EST (α- and β-), GST and CytP450 in Ae. albopictus (Additional file 1: Table S2). This showed also that enzyme activities of field strain in both Aedes spp. is generally high than those of susceptible laboratory strains.
The results of the larval bioassays with Bti and temephos indicated satisfactory susceptibility in all samples of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus assayed. Full resistance to Bti has not been reported in field populations of either Aedes species although it was found in Culex pipiens in New York State . This larvicide acts as a mixture of toxins with different modes of action, which reduces resistance in targeted populations. As Bti is highly specific to some Diptera and might be considered a biological control agent, it is the first choice of larvicide for use against Aedes species [39, 52]. For temephos, our results suggest full susceptibility of all the tested populations. Nevertheless, resistance to this compound has been reported in Ae. aegypti in Brazil and Santiago Island in Cape Verde and in Ae. albopictus in Greece . Insecticide resistance results from extensive, long-term use [20, 21]; thus, for example, in Brazil, resistance to temephos compromises its use by the national dengue control programme [56, 57]. Although this insecticide was used moderately in Central Africa (Cameroon and Gabon) in the 1970s , it had never been used in vector control programmes in CAR, which probably explains the full susceptibility we observed for both species.
None of the Ae. aegypti populations from Bangui can be considered fully susceptible to DDT, as all were either possibly resistant or resistant. The same was true for Ae. albopictus, although the mortality rates were sometimes lower (41%). Mouchet et al. previously reported decreased susceptibility to DDT in Ae. aegypti sampled in Bangui in 1965 and 1971, suggesting continuing selection pressure on Aedes populations. DDT resistance has repeatedly been reported in Ae. aegypti [24, 58] and Ae. albopictus [59, 60], although data for the latter are scarce. The decreased susceptibility to deltamethrin observed in both populations may represent an obstacle for vector control programmes, because pyrethroids are recommended for the control of adult Aedes mosquitoes [61, 62].
The resistance to DDT and deltamethrin observed in both species is difficult to explain, because in CAR, as in other countries of Central Africa, use of insecticides against Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus is limited . CAR has promoted use of long-lasting insecticidal nets as one of the main components of the national malaria control programme, with indoor residual spraying by households with insecticides available on the market, which we noted at nearly every study site. Therefore, insecticides used against other insects of medical or agricultural importance may exert indirect selection pressure on these two mosquito species [63, 64]. Similar observations have been made for resistance of Ae. aegypti to deltamethrin in Indonesia , Thailand and Nigeria . As Ae. albopictus was reported for the first time in CAR in 2009 , we cannot exclude the possibility of invading populations with resistance to DDT, as suggested by Kamgang et al. in Cameroon.
In this study, the kdr mutations I1011M/V, V1016G/I, F1534C in Ae. aegypti and F1534C in Ae. albopictus were not detected in mosquitoes that survived to DDT or deltamethrin, in accordance with the finding that knockdown time was not or weakly increased during insecticide exposure in test tubes. We observed increased activity of several enzymes in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus samples that might explain the decreased susceptibility to DDT and pyrethroids. Although the mean activity of β-esterase was increased significantly in some populations of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, there was no evidence of resistance to deltamethrin in these samples according to WHO diagnostic concentrations ; however, most of the WHO diagnostic concentrations were established for Anopheles species, and it is possible that they are not transposable to Aedes or Culex mosquitoes. The diagnostic concentrations on these species for the main insecticides used in control vector should therefore be assessed. Although elevated esterase and glutathione S-transferase activities can be involved in temephos resistance , in our study all the populations were fully susceptible to this insecticide.
High MFO activity was found in three Ae. aegypti and three Ae. albopictus populations, but also with no clear association with full resistance to deltamethrin. In contrast, Paeporn et al. in Thailand showed that increased MFO and esterase activities in Ae. aegypti strains were associated with pyrethroid (deltamethrin and permethrin) resistance, and Saavedra-Rodriguez et al. reported that mixed-function oxidases and esterases were important in resistance to organophosphate insecticides in Ae. aegypti populations in Latin America. Reduced activity of AChE to propoxur inhibition was detected in some individuals of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, suggesting possible emergence of resistance to carbamates or other organophosphates in field populations.
We describe for the first time the susceptibility of Aedes in CAR to the main insecticide classes and the mechanisms potentially involved in resistance. This information adds to that on the susceptibility of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus to commonly used insecticides in Central Africa. The susceptibility of both species to Bti and temephos is encouraging for larval control in Bangui; however, most Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus samples were resistant or suspected of being resistant to DDT. Moreover, some populations of both species showed possible resistance to deltamethrin according to the WHO criteria. The absence of kdr mutations in the two species cannot explain the decreased sensitivity; however, differences in the activity of certain enzymes involved in metabolism could explain differences in susceptibility between populations. The results with propoxur (carbamate) and fenitrothion (organophosphate) were satisfactory, as decreased sensitivity was found in only one population of Ae. albopictus for propoxur and one for fenitrothion. These findings are important for effective control of DENV, CHIKV and ZIKV vectors in CAR. Further studies with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bottle bioassay and synergists should be conducted to obtain additional information on metabolic-mediated resistance mechanisms.
We thank Marie Rossignol (MIVEGEC, IRD) for assistance in the larval bioassays and Marina Olé Sangba-Zélo and Claire Sangba-Kembi Ngounou for assistance in mosquito sampling. We also thank Alexandre Manirakiza from the IPB for assistance in the statistical analysis.
This work was supported by the Institute Pasteur de Bangui, the International Network of Pasteur Institutes (Actions Concertées Inter-Pasteuriennes No. A12-12 and A22-15) financed by the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) and by the Service de Coopération et d’Action Culturelle de l’Ambassade de France à Bangui. The funders had no role in study design, data collection or analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
CN, BK, CB and GY conceived and designed the experiments; CN, CB, GY performed the experiments; CN, BK, CB and FC analysed the data; CN, FC, EN and MK contributed reagents, materials and analysis tools; and CN, BK, CP and FC wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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2019-04-21T04:53:43Z
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https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-016-1887-5
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A method and apparatus for sharing state information among a plurality of servers is provided. A first server receives a request to perform a file operation, such as a NFS file system operation. Thereafter, the first server updates state information to reflect a change in state associated with processing the request. The first server then causes state update information, which identifies the change in state that was made at the first server, to be propagated to a second server. The second server updates state information, stored at the second server, to reflect the change in state associated with processing the request at the first server. Advantageously, a client may send a series of stateful file operations to either the first server or the second server, even if processing any one of the stateful file operation requests requires knowledge of the state of processing prior requests in the series of requests.
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/014,354, entitled “Infrastructure For Performing File Operations By A Database Server,” filed on Dec. 16, 2004, referred to below as the “file operations patent,” which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/013,889, entitled “Techniques For Transaction Semantics For A Database Server Performing File Operations,” filed on Dec. 16, 2004, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/013,890, entitled “Techniques For Maintaining Consistency For Different Requestors Of Files In A Database Management System,” filed on Dec. 16, 2004, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/013,519, entitled “Techniques For Providing Locks For File Operations In A Database Management System,” filed on Dec. 16, 2004, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/172,674, entitled “Supporting Replication Among a Plurality of File Operation Servers,” filed concurrently, which is incoporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/172,088, entitled “Method and Mechanism for Supporting Virtual Content In Performing File Operations At A RDBMS,” filed concurrenlty, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
The present invention relates to sharing state information among a plurality of file operation servers.
Data may be stored in many types of storage mechanisms, such as databases and file servers. Each storage mechanism typically has its own means of access. For example, the SQL protocol is typically used to perform operations on a database, and the NFS protocol is typically used to perform operations on a file system. The SQL protocol is an ANSI standard for accessing and manipulating data stored in a database. The NFS protocol is a distributed file system protocol that supports the performance of file operations on files across a network. NFS is a well-known standard for sharing files between UNIX hosts.
In the NFS protocol, file operations are performed on files using a filehandle, which is an identifier that identifies a particular resource. The current version of NFS, version 4, which is specified in RFC 3010, supports additional functionality over version 3, such as enhancements to security and to the performance of stateful operations.
It is desirable to access as many kinds of data as possible from a single storage mechanism. For example, minimizing of the number of different types of storage mechanisms that are used to store and access data tends to reduce the amount of resources required to maintain the storage mechanisms. Also, accessing as many kinds of data as possible from a central location, such as a database, promotes ease of use and security, as data need not be accessed from a plurality of mechanisms that each enforce different security policies. Consequently, performing file operations upon as many files as possible through a database management system is desirable.
Approaches for accessing data items using the NFS protocol in a database management system are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/014,354. According to these approaches, files may be stored in a repository maintained by a database server. Clients may perform file operations on files, stored in a repository implemented by a database, by communicating with a database server using the NFS protocol.
It is desirable to provide an access mechanism capable of responding to a request for the performance of a file operation, issued by a client, in a manner that is both scalable and highly available to a large number of clients.
In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present invention described herein. It will be apparent, however, that the embodiments of the present invention described herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the embodiments of the present invention described herein.
Techniques are provided for sharing state information among a plurality of servers. State information describes the processing of file operations at a particular server of a plurality of servers. Advantageously, by sharing state information among the plurality of servers, any particular server may receive and process a request to perform a file operation, even if processing the request at the particular server may involve knowledge of the state of processing a prior request at a different server.
In an embodiment, a first server, of a group of servers, receives a request to perform a file operation, such as a NFS file system operation. Thereafter, the first server updates state information, stored at the first server, to reflect a change in state associated with processing the request. For example, the first server may store state information describing what file locks have been granted or which files are opened or closed.
The first server then causes state update information to be propagated from the first server to a second server of the group of servers. The state update information identifies the change in state that was made at the first server. The state update information may be propagated from the first server to the second server in a variety of ways. For example, the first server may store information that identifies the change in state to a persistent storage mechanism (such as a database), and thereafter the second server may read the information from the persistent storage mechanism. As another example, the first server may cause the updated state information, residing in volatile memory at the first server, to be sent to volatile memory at the second server.
The second server updates state information, stored at the second server, to reflect the change in state associated with processing the request at the first server. Advantageously, a client may send a series of stateful file operations to either the first server or the second server, even if processing any one of the stateful file operation requests requires knowledge of the state of processing prior requests in the series of requests.
A file system repository may implement a hierarchical folder structure. FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary hierarchical folder structure 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in the hierarchical folder structure 100 of FIG. 1, hierarchical folder structure 100 includes folders, e.g. the “public” folder, and files, e.g., the a.txt file.
The term “resource” shall be used when speaking generally about either a folder or a file of a hierarchical folder structure implemented by a file system repository. The phrase “contents of a folder” shall be used to refer to any resources logically associated with a particular folder, e.g., the contents of the “public” folder are the folders entitled “foo” and “foo2,” while the contents of the “John” folder are the files b.txt and c.txt. A resource stored in a virtual folder shall be referred to as a virtual resource. A resource that is not stored in a virtual folder (i.e., it is stored in a folder of the hierarchical folder structure implemented by information stored in the file system repository) shall be referred to as a non-virtual resource.
Files and folders identified by group 110 are physically stored in the file system repository implementing the hierarchical folder structure 100. FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary set of information 200 storing the files and folders of group 110 of FIG. 1 in a file system repository according to an embodiment of the invention. While the set of information 200 depicted in FIG. 2 includes only the names of files and folders for ease of explanation, the set of information 200 may include any data or metadata associated with the files and/or folders, such as the file size, folder creation time, and the file itself.
The set of information 200 of FIG. 2 may be stored in a variety of mechanisms, depending on how the file system repository is implemented. For example, the file operations patent, identified above, describes techniques for implementing a file system repository in a database. Thus, the set of information 200 may be stored, in one example, in one or more tables of the database implementing the file system repository.
The folder entitled John is a virtual folder, which means that while the John folder is logically part of the hierarchical folder structure 100, the contents of the John folder are not stored in the file system repository. For example, data and metadata for resources in group 120, namely the b.txt file and the c.txt file, are not depicted in the set of information 200 of FIG. 2.
The contents of a virtual folder may be determined by accessing a callback function associated with the virtual folder. For example, in the set of information 200, the file system repository maintains data that associates callback function 210 with the virtual folder John. Callback function 210 may be executed to determine the contents of virtual folder John, i.e., to obtain the b.txt file and the c.txt file. Although not depicted in FIG. 2, other callback functions may be associated with the virtual folder John to perform other functions using the John virtual folder.
The process of creating virtual folders and obtaining their contents using callback functions shall be described in further detail below; however, before doing so, it may be helpful to describe an illustrative architecture for receiving and processing requests from clients according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative system 300 according to an embodiment of the invention. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 3, system 300 includes a client 310, a server device 320, a database 340, and communications links 370 and 372. Optionally, system 300 may also include external storage system 350 and communications link 374. The server device 320 may process requests, received from client 310, to perform file operations on a file stored in a hierarchical folder structure, regardless of whether the file is physically stored in the repository 342, the database 340, the external storage system 350, the operating system 322 of the server device 320, or elsewhere.
Client 310 may be implemented by any medium or mechanism that is capable of issuing a request, to perform a file operation on a file, to server device 320 over communications link 370. For example, a user may use client 310 to retrieve a file from a hierarchical folder structure implemented by a file system repository by issuing a request to perform a file operation to server device 320. A non-limiting, illustrative example of client 310 includes an application, executing on a device, which is capable of requesting the performance of an NFS file operation. For ease of explanation, only one client 310 is depicted in FIG. 3, although other embodiments of the invention may comprise two or more clients 310.
Server device 320 refers to any physical machine upon which the functionality performed by protocol interpreter 332, file operation module 334, and virtual resource module 336 (each of which is described below) may be implemented. Server device 320 may include an operating system 322. The operating system 322 may implement a file system that allows one or more files, such as files 360, to be stored therein. Database server 330 may execute on the server device 320. For ease of explanation, only one server device 230 is depicted in FIG. 3, although other embodiments may include two or more server devices 320.
A database server 330 may be implemented by any medium or mechanism that is capable of receiving and processing requests, from client 310, for the performance of file operations. For this reason, database server 330 may be referred to as a file operations server in the description below. Database server 330 may receive and process a request, from client 310, to retrieve a particular file belonging to a virtual folder (the particular file may be physically stored in a variety of locations, such as in database 340 or external storage system 350).
Database server 330 includes a protocol interpreter 332, a file operation module 334, and a virtual resource module 336. A protocol interpreter 332 is a software component that receives requests from clients, dispatches the received request to a component of database server 330 for processing, and thereafter sends the results of processing the request back to client 310 in a response. For example, in response to the protocol interpreter 332 receiving a request to perform a file operation involving a file stored in file system repository 342, the protocol interpreter 332 may transfer the request to the file operation module 334 for processing. As another example, in response to the protocol interpreter 332 receiving a request to perform a file operation involving a virtual folder, the protocol interpreter 332 may transfer the request to the virtual resource module 336 for processing.
For ease of explanation, the examples discussed herein involve protocol interpreter 332 receiving a file system operation request (such as a NFS file system operation) from client 310, although protocol interpreter 332 may receive and process requests conforming to a variety of protocols, such as HTTP/DAV, FTP, SQL, etc.
As explained in further detail below, in an embodiment, the protocol interpreter 332 maintains state information that describes the state of processing file operations at the database server 330 in volatile memory. Various mechanisms may be used by the protocol interpreter 332 to maintain the state information in volatile memory, such as a set of b-trees or a set of hash tables. Additional description of the protocol interpreter 332 is provided in the file operations patent identified above.
A file operation module 334 is a software component that processes requests to perform file operations, received from client 310, that do not involve virtual resources. In processing requests from client 310, the file operation module 334 may read the request to obtain a filehandle that identifies a resource that is physically stored in the file system repository 342.
A virtual resource module 336 is a software component that also processes requests to perform file operations that database server 330 received from client 310. However, unlike the file operation module 334, the virtual resource module 336 processes requests to perform file operations upon virtual resources. For example, virtual resource module 336 may process requests to perform a file operation by reading a request to obtain a filehandle that identifies a virtual resource, such as a virtual folder.
While virtual resource module 336 is depicted in FIG. 3 as being separate and distinct from file operation module 334, in other embodiments, the virtual resource module 336 and the file operation module 334 may be implemented as part of the same functional entity.
Database 340 refers to any mechanism for persistently storing data. For example, database 340 may be implemented using the Oracle 10g database, available from Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, Calif. Database 340 may be implemented on one or more physical machines. Database 340 includes a file system repository 342 and a data dictionary 344. File system repository 342 refers to any file system repository for storing a hierarchy of folders and files. For example, file system repository 342 may be implemented using a NFS file system repository.
Data dictionary 344, as broadly used herein, refers to any information maintained by database 340 for uniquely identifying, to the database 340, the resources that are stored in database 340. For example, data dictionary 344 may contain a list of database resource identifiers. Each database resource identifier (sometimes referred to as an object identifier, or OID) uniquely identifies a particular resource stored in the database 340. A data dictionary 344 may also contain other bookkeeping information used by the database 340 to manage the resources stored therein.
In an embodiment, file system repository 342 may maintain a “virtual data dictionary,” which is a virtual folder that references information maintained in data dictionary 344. As explained in further detail below, such a virtual data dictionary may be used by the file system repository 342 to uniquely identify, within a virtual folder, resources that are physically stored in database 340, but not in file system repository 342. For example, if a virtual folder contained a file that is part of files 364, since the database 340 stores information in the data dictionary 344 that uniquely identifies each file in files 364, the repository 342 may use the virtual data dictionary to uniquely identify the files in the virtual folder, even though such files are not physically stored within the file system repository 342.
For ease of explanation, system 300 is depicted in FIG. 3 as including a database server 330 and a database 340. However, database 340 may be implemented by any persistent storage mechanism, and database server 330 may be implemented by any mechanism capable of retrieving and storing data from the persistent storage mechanism implementing database 340. Thus, embodiments of the invention may be implemented using persistent storage mechanisms, other than a database management system (DBMS), for storing and retrieving data.
External storage system 350 may be implemented by any medium or mechanism that provides for storing one or more files, such as files 362. External storage system 350 may be used to physically store files that are logically associated with a virtual folder of the hierarchical folder structure implemented by file system repository 342.
Communications link 370 may be implemented by any medium or mechanism that provides for the exchange of data between client 310 and server device 320. Communications link 372 may be implemented by any medium or mechanism that provides for the exchange of data between server device 320 and database 340. Communications link 374 may be implemented by any medium or mechanism that provides for the exchange of data between server device 320 and external storage system 350. Examples of communications links 370, 372, and 374 include, without limitation, a network such as a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Ethernet or the Internet, or one or more terrestrial, satellite or wireless links.
System 300 may include zero or more external storage systems 350, and one or more databases 340. Thus, embodiments of the invention may employ a different number of external storage systems 350 and/or databases 340 than those that are depicted in FIG. 3. Having described an illustrative system 300 according to an embodiment, the process of creating a virtual folder using system 300 shall now be described.
A virtual folder may be used to physically store files external to the file system repository 342, while logically being a part of the hierarchical folder structure implemented by the file system repository 342. The entity that physically stores the resources of a virtual folder shall be referred to as the virtual folder implementer for that virtual folder. For example, if files 362 are filed in a first virtual folder, and external storage system 350 physically stores files 362, then external storage system 350 shall be said to be the virtual folder implementer of the first virtual folder. Similarly, if files 360 are filed in a second virtual folder, and operating system 322 physically stores files 360, then operating system 322 shall be said to be the virtual folder implementer of the second virtual folder.
To create a new virtual folder, information is stored that enables the virtual resource module 336 to communicate with the virtual folder implementer of the new virtual folder. In this way, the virtual resource module 336 may perform file operations involving resources belonging to a virtual folder by communicating with the virtual folder implementer.
A user, such as an administrator, may use a client 310 to create a new virtual folder in a hierarchical folder structure implemented by file system repository 342. In an embodiment, to create a new virtual folder, the user uses client 310 to send, to database server 330, a request to create the new virtual folder. The protocol interpreter 332 receives the request, and sends the request to the virtual resource module 336 for processing. The virtual resource module 336 creates the new virtual folder by causing information, which describes how to communicate with the virtual folder implementer, to be stored in the file system repository 342. The virtual resource module 336 may communicate with the user in a series of one or more messages to obtain the information that describes how to communicate with the virtual folder implementer in performing file operations involving the new virtual folder.
In an embodiment, to facilitate the communication between the virtual resource manager 336 and the virtual folder implementer, the virtual folder implementer may register one or more callback functions with the virtual resource manager 336. When the virtual folder implementer registers a callback function with the virtual resource manager 336, the virtual resource manager 336 stores information that enables the virtual resource manager to call the callback function being registered. For example, the virtual resource manager 336 may make an entry for the new virtual folder in a callback table stored in file system repository 342. The callback table associates one or more callback functions with the new virtual folder. An entry for a new virtual folder may identify one or more callback functions that, when invoked by the virtual resource manager 336, cause the virtual folder implementer to perform a function using the new virtual folder.
To illustrate, to create a new resource in a particular virtual folder, the virtual resource module 336 calls a particular callback function, associated with the particular virtual folder, to cause the virtual folder implementer to create a resource within the particular virtual folder.
The contents of a virtual folder may or may not be stored in database 340. Indeed, the files logically associated with a virtual folder may be physically stored in any persistent storage mechanism capable of registering callback functions with the virtual resource module 336. For example, files for a first virtual folder may be a part of files 364, while files for a second virtual folder may be a part of files 360 or files 362. As a result, depending on where the resources of a particular virtual folder are physically stored, the native capabilities of database 340 may or may not be available.
If a file of a virtual folder is stored within the database 340, then the virtual resource module 336 may use certain mechanisms provided by database 340 to perform certain operations, such as reading, writing, lock checking, and access control/security operation, on the file. In this way, the virtual resource module may use the same locking and security mechanisms upon virtual resources stored in database 340 as non-virtual resources stored in file system repository 342. For example, to perform a lock operation (such as lock or unlock) or a security operation (such as checking whether a user has sufficient access privileges to access a file or setting the access privilege level required to access a file) on a file, the virtual folder manager 336 may call the same callback functions of database 340 to perform those operations as if the file was stored within the file system repository 342. This is so because in both cases the database 340 is storing the virtual resource, regardless of whether the virtual resources happens to be stored as part of the file system repository 342.
In an embodiment, when a virtual folder implementer registers a callback function to create a resource within the virtual folder, the virtual folder implementer is responsible for providing a virtual resource identifier with any resource stored within a virtual folder. A virtual resource identifier uniquely identifies, to the virtual resource module 336, any resource stored in a virtual folder managed by the virtual resource module 336. As described in further detail below, virtual resource identifiers may be used in generating filehandles for virtual resources obtained from a virtual folder implementer.
The virtual resource identifier may be composed in any manner that allows a variety of virtual folder implementers to each create virtual resource identifiers that uniquely identify, to the virtual resource module 336, a virtual resource. In order to prevent two different virtual folder implementers from assigning the same virtual resource identifier to different virtual resources, in an embodiment, each virtual folder implementer may create virtual resource identifiers by ensuring that a portion of a virtual resource identifier is unique to that virtual folder implementer. For example, a first virtual folder implementer may create virtual resource identifiers using a prefix of “abc1,” and a second virtual folder implementer may create virtual resource identifiers using a prefix of “abc2,” etc. In this way, each virtual folder implementer is guaranteed to generate virtual resource identifiers that are different than those generated by any other virtual folder implementer.
Having described how a virtual folder is created according to an embodiment of the invention, the use and generation of filehandles in system 300 shall be described.
In file system protocols, such as NFS, file operations are performed on resources using a filehandle, which is an identifier that uniquely identifies a particular resource. Thus, when the client 310 transmits a request for the performance of a file operation on a particular resource, the request will contain a filehandle that uniquely identifies that resource.
Filehandles are opaque to client 310. In other words, the client 310 does not need to be able to parse or process any information contained in the filehandle. Instead, when a client 310 wishes to receive a particular file, the client 310 sends a request to receive the particular file, along with the filehandle associated with the file, to the database server 330. In return, the client will receive the requested file from the database server 330.
While filehandles are opaque to client 310, the database server 330, and the components thereof, may read information that was incorporated into the filehandle at the time the filehandle is generated. This information is used by the database server 330, and the components thereof, in performing the requested file operations on the resources identified by the filehandle. Further description of how filehandles are generated, and the information that may be incorporated into the filehandle when it is generated, is provided below.
Anytime that the database server 330 sends a resource, such as a file, to the client 310, the database server 330 sends a filehandle, identifying the resource, to the client 310. In an embodiment, the file operation module 334 processes file operations, received at database server 330, to be performed on resources stored in file system repository 342. As a result of processing such a file operation, anytime that the file operation module 334 sends a resource back to the client 310, the file operation module 334 generates a filehandle for the resource previously stored in the file system repository 342, if the filehandle is not otherwise already available, to allow the file operation module 334 to send the filehandle back to the client 310 along with the requested resource.
In an embodiment, to generate a filehandle for a resource physically stored in the file system repository 342, the file operation module 334 generates the filehandle based, at least in part, on an object identifier (OID), assigned by the database 340, that uniquely identifies the resource to that database 340. Thus, each filehandle generated in this fashion uniquely identifies a particular resource stored in the file system repository 342. By generating filehandles in such a manner, the file operation module 334 may inspect a filehandle to determine the object identifier, and thereafter locate the particular resource in the file system repository 342 based on the object identifier.
In an embodiment, the file operation module 334 also generates the filehandle to include a flag that identifies that the resource identified by the filehandle is not a virtual resource. In this way, the protocol interpreter 332 may subsequently inspect the filehandle, and determine that the resource identified by the filehandle is not a virtual resource based on the flag contained in the filehandle.
Filehandles may be expressed in a variety of formats. As a result, the above formula for generating a filehandle for a non-virtual resource is only an example of one embodiment, and other embodiments may use different information in generating filehandles for non-virtual resources, or may use the same information, but express the information in a different format. For example, the filehandle may recite the flag and the object identifier directly, or the flag and/or the object identifier may recite the flag and/or the object identifier indirectly, e.g., the object identifier may be processed according to an algorithm to avoid reciting the exact object identifier, used by the database 340, in the filehandle.
In an embodiment, the virtual resource module 336 processes file operations, received at database server 330, to be performed on resources stored externally to file system repository 342. As a result of processing such a file operation, anytime that the virtual resource module 336 sends a resource back to the client 310, the file operation module 334 generates a filehandle for the resource stored externally to file system repository 342, if the filehandle is not otherwise available (the filehandle may have been already generated).
In an embodiment, to generate a filehandle for a resource physically stored external to file system repository 342, the virtual resource module 336 generates the filehandle based, at least in part, on a virtual resource identifier that uniquely identifies the resource to that virtual resource module 336.
The virtual resource module 336 may obtain a virtual resource identifier for a virtual resource in a variety of different ways. According to one embodiment, if the virtual resource is stored in the database 340, then the virtual resource module may access information in the data dictionary 344 to obtain the object identifier (OID) associated with the virtual resource, and use the object identifier as the virtual resource identifier. For example, the virtual resource module 336 may access a virtual data dictionary, implemented within the file system repository 342, to access information in the data dictionary 344 to obtain the object identifier (OID) associated with the virtual resource. The virtual resource module 336 may then use the OID for the virtual resource as the virtual resource identifier.
In another embodiment, if the virtual resource is stored external to database 340, then the virtual resource module 336 obtains the virtual resource identifier, for a virtual resource, from a callback function supported by the virtual resource implementer storing the virtual resource. As previously discussed, a virtual folder implementer registers a callback function, with the virtual resource module 336, that provides the virtual resource module 336 with a virtual resource identifier anytime a new resource is created or accessed in the virtual folder. For example, if a client 310 requests to receive the contents of a virtual folder, then the virtual resource module 336 will call a callback function associated with that virtual folder, and the virtual folder implementer will send back the resources of that virtual folder, along with a virtual resource identifier associated with each resource therein.
By generating filehandles in such a manner, the virtual resource module 336 may inspect a filehandle to determine the virtual resource identifier, and thereafter locate the particular resource based on the virtual resource identifier. The virtual resource module 336 maintains data that associates virtual resource identifiers with the virtual resources they identify. In this way, the virtual resource module 336 can identify a particular virtual resource using a virtual resource identifier.
In an embodiment, virtual resource module 336 may also generate filehandles to contain a flag that identifies whether the resource identified by the filehandle is a virtual resource. For example, if the filehandle is associated with a virtual folder, then a flag in the filehandle may indicate that the folder is a virtual folder. In this way, when the protocol interpreter 332 examines a filehandle contained in a request, the protocol interpreter 332 may determine, based on this flag, that the resource identified by the filehandle is a virtual resource and send the request to the virtual resource module 336 for processing.
In an embodiment, the virtual resource module 336 may also generate a filehandle to contain a virtual folder identifier. A virtual folder identifier is information that uniquely identifies, to the virtual resource module 336, which virtual folder is associated with the resource associated with the filehandle that contains the virtual folder identifier. The virtual resource module 336 may inspect a filehandle to determine which virtual folder is associated with the resource identified by the filehandle. In this way, the virtual resource module 336 may determine which virtual folder is associated with the virtual resource identified by the filehandle, and by extension, the virtual resource module 336 may determine which virtual folder implementer is physically storing the virtual resource identified by the filehandle.
As discussed above, filehandles may be expressed in a variety of formats. As a result, the above formula for generating a filehandle for a virtual resource is only an example of one embodiment, and other embodiments may use different information in generating filehandles for virtual resources, or may use the same information, but express the information in a different format.
In an embodiment, both the file operations module 334 and the virtual resource module 336 may generate filehandles in network byte order. In other words, the filehandles may be generated such that the most significant byte is first (as in big endian storage), regardless of how the information encoded in the filehandle is actually stored.
Having described how filehandles are generated for non-virtual and virtual resources according to an embodiment, the process of accessing resources using the filehandles shall now be explained according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the functional steps of accessing a resource, such as a file, organized in a hierarchical folder structure, which includes a virtual folder, implemented by file system repository 342 according to an embodiment of the invention. In step 410, client 310 sends a request to perform a file operation to database server 330 over communications link 370. The request sent by client 310 may be a NFS file operation.
In an embodiment, the database server 330 may receive the request of step 410 at the protocol interpreter 332. In another embodiment, the database server 330 may receive the request of step 410, and thereafter send the received request to the protocol interpreter 332 in step 410. After the protocol interpreter 332 receives the request from the client 310, processing proceeds to step 420.
In step 420, protocol interpreter 332 sends the request to an appropriate component for processing. In determining which component is appropriate for processing the request, the protocol interpreter 332 may consider the type of protocol in which the request is expressed. For example, the protocol interpreter 332 may receive requests conforming to a variety of different protocols, such as FTP, HTTP, and NFS, and requests of each type of protocol may be processed by different components of database server 330. For example, the protocol interpreter 332 may determine that the request received in step 410 is a request to perform a file operation because the request is in conformance with a file system operation protocol, such as the NFS protocol. As a result, the protocol interpreter 332 may send the request to a component responsible for processing file operations.
Both the file operation module 334 and the virtual resource module 336 process file operations. To determine which component to send received request for the performance of a file operation, in an embodiment, the protocol interpreter 332 determines whether the request for the performance of a file operation involves a virtual resource. The protocol interpreter 332 may inspect the filehandle, associated with the request, to read the virtual flag contained within the filehandle. If the virtual flag indicates that the resource identified by the filehandle is not a virtual resource, then the protocol interpreter 332 sends the request to file operation module 334 for processing. On the other hand, if the virtual flag indicates that the resource identified by the filehandle is a virtual resource, then the protocol interpreter 332 sends the request to virtual resource module 336 for processing.
To illustrate, assume that the request of step 410 is a request to retrieve the contents of a particular virtual folder identified by a filehandle contained within the request. Thus, in step 420, the protocol interpreter 332 would send the request to virtual resource module 336 for processing because the flag in the filehandle would indicate, to the protocol interpreter, that the virtual folder is a virtual resource. After the performance of step 420, processing proceeds to step 430 if the request of step 410 does not involve a virtual resource. On the other hand, after the performance of step 420, processing proceeds to step 440 if the request of step 410 does involve a virtual resource.
In step 430, the request to perform a file operation not involving a virtual resource is processed by the file operation module 334. The file operation module 334 processes the file operation request using the filehandle contained in the request. The file operation module 334 may identify the particular resource in the file system repository 342 against which the file operation is directed by inspecting the filehandle to determine the object identifier, which uniquely identifies, to the file operation module 334, the particular resource.
After the file operation module 334 has processed the requested file operation, the file operation module generates responsive data that describes the result of processing the request. The responsive data is then transmitted to the protocol interpreter 332. The protocol interpreter 332 then sends the responsive data back to the client 310 in a response.
To illustrate, FIG. 5 is an illustration of several requests, and their corresponding responses, communicated between the client 310 and the database server 330 according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 5 makes reference to the hierarchical folder structure depicted in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 5, initially, client 310 transmits a request 510 to database server 330. Request 510 is a request for the performance of a file operation to list the contents of the public folder. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives request 510, the protocol interpreter 332 will forward request 510 to file operation module 334, since request 510 does not involve a virtual resource because the public folder is not a virtual resource.
File operation module 334 processes request 510, and generates responsive data that identifies (a) the resources in the public folder (namely, the foo folder and the foo2 folder), and (b) a filehandle associated with each resource in the public directory. The file operation module 334 sends the responsive data to the protocol interpreter 332. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives the responsive data, the protocol interpreter 332 communicates the responsive data to the client 310 in response 520.
As another example, client 310 may transmit request 530 to database server 300. Request 530 is a request for the performance of a file operation to list the contents of the foo2 folder. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives request 530, the protocol interpreter 332 will forward request 530 to file operation module 334, since request 530 does not involve a virtual resource because the foo2 folder is not a virtual resource. File operation module 334 processes request 530, and generates responsive data that identifies (a) the resource in the foo2 folder (namely, the virtual folder John), and (b) a filehandle associated with the John folder. The file operation module 334 sends responsive data to the protocol interpreter 332. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives the responsive data, the protocol interpreter 332 communicates the responsive data to the client 310 in response 540.
When the client 310 sends a request to database server 330 that involves a virtual resource, processing proceeds to step 440.
In step 440, the request to perform a file operation involving a virtual resource is processed by the virtual resource module 336. The virtual resource module 336 processes the file operation request using the filehandle contained in the request. The virtual resource module 336 may identify the particular resource in the file system repository 342, against which the file operation is directed by inspecting the filehandle to determine the virtual resource identifier, which uniquely identifies, to the virtual resource module 334, the particular resource.
After the virtual resource module 336 has processed the requested file operation, the virtual resource module generates responsive data that describes the result of processing the request. The responsive data is then transmitted to the protocol interpreter 332. The protocol interpreter 332 then sends the responsive data back to the client 310 in a response.
Another example of performing step 440 shall be presented referring again to FIG. 5. Client 310 may transmit a request 550 to database server 330. Request 550 is a request for the performance of a file operation to list the contents of the virtual folder entitled John. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives request 550, the protocol interpreter 332 will forward request 550 to virtual resource module 336, since request 550 involves a virtual resource, namely the John virtual folder.
Virtual resource module 336 processes request 550, and generates responsive data that identifies (a) the resources in the John virtual folder (namely, the b.txt file and the c.txt file), and (b) a filehandle associated with each resource in the John virtual folder. The virtual resource module 336 sends the responsive data to the protocol interpreter 332. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives the responsive data, the protocol interpreter 332 communicates the responsive data to the client 310 in response 560.
As another example, client 310 may transmit request 570 to database server 330. Request 570 is a request for the performance of a file operation to obtain the file entitled b.txt. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives request 570, the protocol interpreter 332 will forward request 570 to virtual resource module 336, since request 570 involves a virtual resource because the b.txt file is stored in a virtual folder. Virtual resource module 336 processes request 570, and generates responsive data that contains the b.txt file and a filehandle associated with b.txt file. The file operation module 334 sends the responsive data to the protocol interpreter 332. When the protocol interpreter 332 receives the responsive data, the protocol interpreter 332 communicates the responsive data to the client 310 in request 580.
Advantageously, client 310 may access a resource in a virtual folder in the hierarchical file structure implemented by the file system repository 342, even though the particular resource is not physically stored in the file system repository 342. Therefore, the use of virtual folders greatly enhances the accessibility of resources by providing a single access mechanism, accessible via the submission of file operations, to logically store files in a hierarchical folder structure implemented by a file system repository in a manner that allows the files to be physically stored in a variety of locations, including locations external to the file system repository.
In an embodiment, the database server 330 may store state information that describes the state of processing file operations at database server 330. For example, the protocol interpreter 332 may store state information that describes the state of processing file operations at database server 330, including all file operations processed by both the file operations module 334 and the virtual resource module 336.
Embodiments of the invention include systems that include multiple database servers, and each database server may share state information with one or more other database servers in the system. Advantageously, a client that was previously being serviced by the first database server may subsequently be serviced by one of the one or more other database servers with which the state information was shared.
For example, a client may send a first request to perform a first stateful file operation, such as locking a particular file, to a first database server. The first database server may process the request, and send a response to the client. Thereafter, the client may send a second request to perform a second file operation, such as writing to the particular file, to a second database server. If writing to the particular file requires that the client have a lock on the particular file, the second database server may process the second request because state information is shared between the first database server and the second database server.
In this way, a client may be serviced by any of a plurality of database servers, since the state of processing stateful file operations is shared among the plurality of database servers. As a result, load-balancing techniques may be employed to increase the likelihood that requests from clients are received by database servers with the most available bandwidth to process the requests. Further, if the first database server becomes inoperable for planned (such as when an administrator takes a server offline to perform maintenance on the server) or unplanned reasons (such as when the first database server crashes), then another database server may take over in lieu of the inoperable database server.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system 600 that includes multiple database servers, namely database server 602, 604, and 606, according to an embodiment of the invention. System 600 also includes a client 610 and a database 620. Client 610 and database 620 each operate as described above with respect to client 310 and database 340 respectively. While only one client 610 is depicted in FIG. 6 for ease of explanation, system 600 may contain any number of clients 610.
Database servers 602, 604, and 606 each operate as described above with respect to database server 330, except that database servers 602, 604, and 606 each access the same database, namely database 620. Importantly, each of database server 602, 604, and 606 may share state information with one or more other database servers of system 600. The arrangement of multiple database servers accessing a single database, such as depicted in FIG. 6, may be achieved, in an embodiment, by using the Real Application Cluster (RAC) feature of the Oracle 10g DBMS, available from Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, Calif.
Although not depicted in FIG. 6, in some embodiments of the invention, a redirector component may be operationally positioned between the client 610 and the database servers 602, 604, and 606. A redirector is a functional component that redirects a request, from a client, to a particular database server based, at least in part, on which database server has the most available bandwidth to process the request. In this way, a client may issue a request, for the performance of a file operation, and the request may be received by the redirector. The redirector may then forward the request to one of database servers 602, 604, or 606 based on which database server has the most available bandwidth to process the request.
Having described an illustrative architecture, involving multiple database servers that each may share state information, additional description about the state information stored at database servers is now presented.
In an embodiment, the state information, stored at a particular database server of system 600, may include information that describes any change to the state of processing file operations performed at that database server. For example, state information may include information describing, for each client for which the database server is processing file operation, at least the following types of states: (a) the client/open state, (b) the locking state, and (c) the client lease expiry state.
The client/open state describes, for a particular client 610, the files that the client 610 has opened. The client/open state further describes information about the client 610, particularly about how a database server is to communicate with the client 610, such as the client's network address (e.g., an IP address). In an embodiment, the client/open state is updated whenever the client 610 connects to a database server, open a file, writes to a file, or closes a file.
In an embodiment, the client/open state is shared across all database servers of system 600 to ensure that all subsequent requests, sent from client 610, may be processed properly by any database server of system 600. For example, if database server 602 processes a request, from client 610, to open a file, and thereafter database server 604 processes a request, from client 610, to read the same file, information reflecting the state of processing the open file operation should be propagated from database server 602 to database server 604 prior to database server 604 processing the request to read the file. Additional description of the information maintained in the client/open state is available in the file operations patent identified above.
In an embodiment, the locking state describes information about the locks that client 610 has been granted. The locking state is updated anytime that client 610 locks or unlocks a particular file. Client 610 may be granted a lock on a range of bytes (a “byte-range lock”) on files in file system repository 342. In an embodiment, information in the locking state may not be updated as frequently as the client/open state; however, the locking state should be shared between each database server in system 600 to ensure each database server in system 600 processes file operations correctly. Additional description of the locks that may be granted to client 610, and thus the kinds of information maintained in the locking state, is available in the file operations patent identified above.
In an embodiment, the client lease expiry state describes the state of leases granted to client 610, i.e., the client lease expiry state describes when any lease granted to client 610 will expire. As described in further detail in the file operations patent identified above, file-based locks are lease-based, which means that once a particular file-based lock is granted to a requester, the particular lock is granted for a first period of time, after the expiration of which the particular lock expires. However, any communication received by the requestor renews the particular lock for a second period of time. Thus, a requester may continually renew a file-based lock as long as the requestor communicates with a database server before the file system lock expires.
In an embodiment, the client lease expiry state only is shared whenever the client lease expiry state is about to expire. Thus, if the client lease expiry state is updated at database server 602, database server 602 may determine not to share the client lease expiry state with database servers 604 and 606 if the lease is not likely to expire. In this way, communications exchanged between database servers of system 600 may be minimized by not sharing the client lease expiry state when it is unlikely that the lease will expire.
The file operations patent, identified above, describes several mechanisms for storing state information at a database server. According to one embodiment, state information is maintained using a lookup mechanism maintained by protocol interpreter 332. In one embodiment, the lookup mechanism is implemented using a plurality of B-trees maintained in volatile memory. The plurality of B-trees store state information used in processing stateful file system operation requests. For example, the plurality of B-trees may store requestor data, file data, and lock data. Requestor data is data that identifies requestors that are registered to issue file system operations. File data is data that identifies which files have been opened by which requesters. Lock data is data that identifies which locks on which files have been granted to which requestors.
In one embodiment, the plurality of B-trees, maintained by protocol interpreter 332, include a “client B-tree,” a “client_exists B-tree,” a “requestor B-tree,” an “open_files B-tree,” an “opens B-tree,” a “locks_requestor B-tree,” and a “granted_locks B-tree.” Each of these B-trees may store state information, and shall be described in further detail below.
Other embodiments of the invention may store state information using a different set of B-trees. For example, several B-trees mentioned above, e.g., the client_exists B-tree, store information that is also stored in other B-trees, and so all the B-trees mentioned above may not be necessary for other implementations. However, it may be advantageous to store the same or similar information in more than one B-tree, as the information may be more efficiently accessed using a first key in a first circumstance, and may be more efficiently accessed using a second key in a second circumstance.
In other embodiment of the invention, state information may be stored using other storage mechanisms instead of using a plurality of B-trees, such as one or more hash tables. Having described state information in further detail, an illustrative set of b-trees, used by protocol interpreter 332 in storing state information according to an embodiment of the invention, shall be presented.
The client B-tree is a B-tree that maintains information about all clients in the system 600. Each client 610 in system 600 is reflected in an index entry within the client B-tree. A client 610 registers with system 600 by issuing, to a database server in system 600, a request to establish a client identifier. The key of the client B-tree is a client identifier previously assigned to client 610 by a database server in system 600. A client identifier uniquely identifies a particular client 610 registered with the system 600. Each node of the client B-tree stores the information about a particular client in system 600, including the client identifier and a client-provided identifier, such as a network address of the client.
The client_exists B-tree may be used to determine, based on the client-provided identifier, whether a particular client has registered with the system 600. Each index entry of the client_exists B-tree also stores the information about a particular client, including the client identifier and a client-provided identifier.
Client 610 may be implemented by a medium or mechanism that is capable of issuing multiple requests for the performance of a file operation concurrently. For example, a client 610 may correspond to an application executing on a device, and the application may be comprised of multiple processes that each may transmit requests for the performance of a file operation to a database server in system 600. Therefore, to avoid confusion, the term “requestor” is used herein to refer to any entity that issues a request for the performance of a file operation to a database server in system 600. For example, a requestor may correspond to client 610, a process executing on client 610, or a process spawned by client 610.
The requestor B-tree is a B-tree that maintains information about requestors. The key of the requestor B-tree reflects both a client identifier associated with a requestor and a requestor identifier that uniquely identifies the requester. The requester B-tree may be used to determine all requestors associated with a particular client 610, which may be needed during the processing of a file system operation to open a file or when recovering a client that has become non-operational.
Each index entry of the requester B-tree stores the information about a requester. For example, an index entry of the requester B-tree that corresponds to a particular requester may store information about which client is associated with the requester, when the last communication from the requestor was received, which files the requestor has opened, and what state information is associated with the requestor.
The open_files B-tree is a B-tree that maintains information about files that have been opened. The key of the open_files B-tree is the filehandle of a file. The open_files B-tree may be used to determine whether it is possible to perform a file system operation on a particular file. Each index entry of the open_files B-tree may store information about an open file. Such information may include, for example, the number of file-based locks on the open file, the type of file-based locks on the open file, what state identification data identifies state information associated with the open file, and an object identifier for the open file.
Each index entry of the opens B-tree stores information about an open file, such as state identification data that identifies state information associated with the open file, the requestor that opened the open file, whether the file was opened for reading or writing, whether the open file has been modified, and whether reading or writing has been denied to any other requester other than the one which opened the open file.
To open a file, state identification data is generated to identify the open file. The state identification data is (a) transmitted to the requester that requested the file to be open, and (b) used to add an entry to the opens B-tree to reflect that the file has been opened.
The locks_requestor B-tree is a B-tree that maintains information about lock requestors. The key to the locks_requestors B-tree is a state identification data. Each index entry of the locks_requestor B-tree contains information about the requestor of a lock, such as the client identifier, the requestor identifier, and the lock owner identifier. The lock owner identifier uniquely identifies a particular requestor that is granted a lock. The client identifier and the requestor identifier are assigned by a database server in system 600, and the lock owner identifier is supplied by the requester.
When the protocol interpreter 332 instructs a component of a database server to perform a file system operation that requests the grant of a particular lock (hereinafter a “resource locker”), the resource locker may access one or more B-trees, maintained by protocol interpreter 332, which store state information. The resource locker may initially determine if a conflicting lock has already been granted on the file by accessing the granted locks B-tree. The resource locker may traverse the granted locks B-tree using the filehandle of the file identified by the file system operation. If an entry in the granted locks B-tree exists for the filehandle, an examination of the entry will inform the resource locker whether a conflicting lock has already been granted on the file.
If the resource locker determines that a conflicting lock has not already been granted on the file, then the resource locker may (a) generate new state identification data to identify the new state of the resource, and (b) add an entry to the granted_locks B-tree to reflect the grant of the requested lock. The resource locker may add a new entry to the granted_locks B-tree using the newly generated new state identification data for the resource, and thereafter, delete the prior entry in the locks B-tree that was referenced by the prior state identification data. The new entry in the locks B-tree contains a reference to all the prior stateful operations performed on the resource, so it is unnecessary to store the entry referenced by the prior state identification data.
Having described the types of state information that may be stored at a particular database server, and several approaches for storing the state information at a database server, several different approaches for sharing state information between database servers will now be discussed.
According to a first embodiment, state information may be shared between database servers by durably storing information describing a change in state. For example, database server 602 may durably store information that identifies a change in state to database 620. Thereafter, another database server, such as database server 604, may read the information identifying the change in state from database 620. This approach for sharing state information is referred to as the persistent approach.
The information about the change in state may identify any change or update made to the state information maintained by a database server. For example, any change in the state of processing file operations discussed above, such as a change in the (a) the client/open state, (b) the locking state, and/or (c) the client lease expiry state, may be propagated from one database server to another database server in this manner.
Advantageously, additional database servers, such as database server 606, may also read the information identifying the change in state from database 620. Thus, any number of database servers in system 600 may read the information identifying the change in state from database 620.
According to another embodiment, state information may be propagated from one database server to another database server by transmitting, from a first volatile memory at a first server to a second volatile memory at a second server, information identifying the change in state. This approach for sharing state information is referred to as the in-memory transfer approach.
For example, information about a change in state may be transmitted from the volatile memory of database server 602 to the volatile memory of database server 604. Additionally, information about a change in state may be transmitted from the volatile memory of database 602 to the volatile memory of all other database servers in system 600. In this way, any number of database servers in system 600 may receive information identifying the change in state from database server 602.
Any method for transferring information from one volatile memory to another may be used to transfer information identifying a change in state at a first database server to one or more other database servers. For example, an approach for transferring information from one volatile memory to another volatile memory is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,836, issued to Bamford et al.
According to another embodiment, state information may be shared between database servers in system 600 using both the persistent approach and the in-memory transfer approach. In other words, some state information may be shared via the persistent approach and other state information may be shared via the in-memory transfer approach. This approach is referred to as the hybrid approach.
In an embodiment, a change in state may be associated with a priority, and the approach used to share the state information describing the change in state may be determined based on the priority of the change in state. For example, a change in the client/open state may be determined to be a high priority, and thereafter state information describing the change in the client/open state may be propagated to one or more database servers via the persistent approach. On the other hand, a change in the client lease expiry state may be determined to be a low priority if it is unlikely that the lease will actually expire, and thereafter state information describing the change in the client lease expiry state may either not be propagated at all, or be propagated to one or more database servers via the in-memory transfer approach.
In another embodiment, the approach used to share state information may be based on the type of state information the change in state represents. For example, a change in the client/open state is propagated to one or more database servers via the persistent approach. On the other hand, a change in the locking state is propagated to one or more database servers via the in-memory transfer approach.
In an embodiment, after updating the state information stored at a particular database server, the particular database server determines whether the change in state should be replicated at one or more database servers. This determination may be based on the priority level, or the type of state information, associated with the change in state. Some changes in state, associated with a first priority level, may not be replicated to other database servers by persistently storing the change in state to database 620, while other changes in state, associated with a second priority level, may not be replicated to other database servers at all. For example, as explained above, in one embodiment, the client lease expiry state may only be propagated to another database server if it is likely that the lease will actually expire. In other embodiments, all changes in state may be replicated by sharing state information persistently.
In an embodiment, for performance reasons, a first database server may propagate state information only to one other database server, rather than all other database servers in the system 600. Such an embodiment may be advantageous if only a single alternate source is desired for a particular database server. For example, in one embodiment, database server 602 may only propagate state information to database server 604, rather than additionally to database server 606. In this fashion, the overhead involved in propagating state information to database server 606 may be avoided, while at the same time, database server 604 reflects the same state of processing file operations as database server 602. Thus, if database server 602 becomes unavailable, clients 610 previously being serviced by database server 602 may thereafter be redirected to database server 604 for servicing, since the state of performing stateful file operations was propagated from database server 602 to database server 604.
Certain file systems protocols, such as NFS, support replicating files from a first file system repository to another file system repository. For example, each filehandle in the NFS protocol has the attribute “fs_locations.” The fs_locations attribute of a filehandle identifies one or more locations that may be a source of the resource identified by the filehandle. Locations may be identified by a variety of ways, e.g., by server name or by IP address. In this way, if a first source of a file becomes unavailable, then the client may access the file from a second source.
Embodiments of the invention may operate to support replication by providing a client with the ability to access a file from a variety of sources. As shown in FIG. 6, multiple database servers may access the same database, namely database 620. Each of database servers 602, 604, and 606 can function as a source of a file stored in the file system repository implemented by database 620.
As explained above, a database server may use information stored in the database in generating a filehandle to uniquely identify a resource. For example, a database server may use an object identifier (OID) when generating a filehandle. In this way, any database server accessing the same database would generate the same filehandle for a particular resource. Thus, if a first database server is provided with a filehandle generated by a second database server, then the first database server would interpret the filehandle in exactly the same way as the second database server. Therefore, the first database server can perform file operations on the particular resource, identified by the filehandle, using the same filehandle generated by the second database server.
Further, this technique may be extended to include virtual folders by sharing information about each virtual folder implementer with each database server. In an embodiment, when a virtual folder implementer registers callback functions with database server 602, the virtual folder implementer also registers the callback functions with database server 604 and 606. Since each database server has access to the same set of callback functions, each database server will interpret virtual object identifiers in the same manner. Thus, any of database servers 602, 604, and 606 can process a request, from client 610, requesting the performance of a file operation involving a virtual resource, since each of database servers 602, 604, and 606 will process the filehandle accompanying the request in the same way since each of database servers 602, 604, and 606 have access to the same set of callback functions.
As a result, in an embodiment, a component of each database server, such as protocol interpreter 332, maintains information about the location of each other database server in the system. For example, protocol interpreter 332 of database server 602, 604, and 606 may maintain information about the location (such as IP address) of each other database server. Then, whenever client 610 requests information about an alternate source for a file, the database server may respond by providing information, to client 610, that identifies the location of the other database servers. For example, database server 602 may inform client 610 that the client 610 may also obtain files from database server 604 and 606. Client 610 may use this information to access any resource, of the hierarchical folder structure implemented by the file system repository, from database server 604 or database server 606.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the functional steps of accessing a file at an alternate file operation server. The steps of FIG. 6 shall be explained below with reference to the system depicted in FIG. 6.
In step 710, a file is accessed from a first file operation server. In an embodiment, step 710 may be performed by client 610 sending a request to access a particular file database server 602. In response, database server 602 sends a response to the client that contains the filehandle for the file being accessed. After the performance of step 710, processing proceeds to step 720.
In step 720, an alternate source for the file is determined. In an embodiment, an alternate source for the file being accessed may be determined by client 310 accessing an attribute of the filehandle returned in step 710. For example, the “Is_locations” attribute of the filehandle may provide the client 310 with a list of alternate sources for the file identified by the filehandle. Client 610 may access the “ls_locations” attribute by sending a request to database server 602. Database server 602 may service the request using information, stored at database server 602 (such as in protocol interpreter 332), about the locations of other database servers in system 600. For example, if client 610 accessed the ls_locations attribute of the filehandle, then client 610 would discover that the file may be obtained at either database server 604 or database server 606. After the performance of step 720, processing proceeds to step 730.
In step 730, the file is accessed from the alternate source. In an embodiment, step 730 may be performed by client 610 sending a request to database server 606.
Advantageously, the approaches discussed herein allow client 610 to obtain a file, stored in a virtual or non-virtual folder of the hierarchical folder structure implemented by a file system repository implemented by a database, by issuing a request for the performance of a file operation to any database server that is operationally coupled to the database.
While filehandles may be interpreted similarly by any database server in system 600, the state of performing file operations may be different at each database server. Thus, in one embodiment, any change in state, occurring at a first database server in system 600, is propagated to one or more other database server in system 600 using any technique discussed above, such as the persistent approach, the in-memory transfer approach, or the hybrid approach.
For example, assume that the client 610 transmitted a request, to perform a file operation, to database server 602. As a result of processing the request, client 610 obtained a filehandle for file abc.txt, and database server 602 stored state information that reflects a lock granted to client 610 on the abc.txt file. Thus, if client 610 subsequently sends requests to perform file operation on file abc.txt to database 604, client 610 does not need to obtain the lock on file abc.txt again, since state information describing the lock granted on the abc.txt file to client 610 has been propagated from database server 602 to database server 604.
In another embodiment, changes in state, occurring at a database server in system 600, are not propagated to other database servers in system 600. As a result, anytime the client 610 accesses a new database server for a file, it is the responsibility of client 610 to recreate the state of processing file operations at a new database server. This is so because, while the new database server and process file operations on the filehandle, the new database server is not aware of prior stateful file operations, requested by the client, performed by other database servers, using the filehandle because state information is not propagated between database servers.
For example, assume that the client 610 transmitted a request, to database server 602, to perform a file operation. As a result of processing the request, client 610 obtained a filehandle for file abc.txt, and database server 602 stored state information that reflects a lock granted to client 610 on the abc.txt file. If client 610 subsequently sends requests to perform file operation on file abc.txt to database 604, client 610 will need to obtain the lock on file abc.txt again, since state information describing the lock granted on the abc.txt file to client 610 has not been propagated from database server 602 to database server 604.
In an embodiment, a client, server device, database, and external storage device may each be implemented on a computer system. FIG. 8 is a block diagram that illustrates a computer system 800 upon which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented. Computer system 800 includes a bus 802 or other communication mechanism for communicating information, and a processor 804 coupled with bus 802 for processing information. Computer system 800 also includes a main memory 806, such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device, coupled to bus 802 for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor 804. Main memory 806 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 804. Computer system 800 further includes a read only memory (ROM) 808 or other static storage device coupled to bus 802 for storing static information and instructions for processor 804. A storage device 810, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is provided and coupled to bus 802 for storing information and instructions.
transmitting, from a first volatile memory at the first server to a second volatile memory at the second server, information identifying said change in state.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein each server, of the plurality of servers, is a database server.
wherein said step of propagating said state update information is performed upon determining said change in state should be replicated at said second server.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of propagating said state update information is performed for all changes in state, performed at said first server, as a result of processing NFS operations at said first server.
propagating, from the first server to each other server of the plurality of servers, said state update information.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein said change of state includes a change in the client/open state for the particular client.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein said change of state includes a change in the locking state for the particular client.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein said change of state includes a change in the client lease expiry for the particular client.
10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein each server, of the plurality of servers, is a database server.
12. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein said step of propagating said state update information is performed for all changes in state, performed at said first server, as a result of processing NFS operations at said first server.
14. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein said change of state includes a change in the client/open state for the particular client.
15. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein said change of state includes a change in the locking state for the particular client.
16. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein said change of state includes a change in the client lease expiry for the particular client.
Claims as filed on Oct. 13, 2006 for PCT/US2005/015033, 5 pages (attached).
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2019-04-23T15:20:11Z
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https://patents.google.com/patent/US7809675B2/en
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The presence of a leader in an organization has a very important role especially in situations where there is ambiguity role. The function of a leader is not just guiding and directing subordinates, but the important thing is how leaders are able to provide vision and a clear mission or direction where the organization will be taken. In an era where there is a cultural shift, it can not be denied that the organization needs a leader who has a keen sensitivity and intuition that can direct subordinate to the goal to be achieved.
With the more advanced the development that has been running so fast and this without doubt has led to a number of impacts, so as to have danpak both positive and negative. One piece of evidence that shows that the rapid expansion of world trade is now bringing changes in the market system. Globalization seIing first touted and is believed not to be influential in the near future, has now demonstrated a very strong influence. Another factor that ultimately can not be avoided is the national boundaries become blurred so that each country can no longer rigidly observe sistemyang they take. Culture that underlies the existing system ultimately helped hold an enormous influence. It looks at the culture that developed in the country of Indonesia itself. If in the past the culture of mutual aid-which is obvious in the struggle, still strongly embedded in the people of Indonesia, it seems now to be questioned again. Powerful strikes against the value of the Indonesian currency to encourage people from a certain group to save yourself regardless of the other party. This raises a question mark is there that the individual values are not necessarily the values of the nation has entered a nation known for its spirit of mutual royongnya. Which is basically a cultural values, ebiasaan, rituals, myths and practices that continue in public life is the breath that animates and directs the behavior of members (Robbins, 1996). should underlie any movement of social life. In this sense culture not just as a base, but the important thing is that culture has a role as a conduit of identity and the ‘normative glue’. Leaders in this context has contributed greatly to how culture can be lived in earnest by its members. But the fact it shows that the role of the leader in this regard is not very clear so members to lose confidence and eventually life organsasi being off balance. If trust has been depleted, the result may arise are shared values lost and each individual trying to save themselves each in a very complicated situation and ambiguity.
Based on the problems above, it is the goal in this paper is to determine how the role of the leader in relation to organizational culture.
Leadership According to Stoner (Handoko: 1984) is as a process of influence on the direction and delivery of the activities a group of related tasks. Leadership is no longer seen as a guide, but as a partner who, together with other members trying to achieve that goal.
According to Kennedy, (1996) stated that the definition of leadership can be said to be equal to the number of people who have tried to define it. He himself defines leadership as a process or action to affect the activity of a group of organizations in order to achieve the goals set.
Fiedler (1967) is one of the many other experts researching on leadership states that leadership is basically a pattern of relationships among individuals who use the authority and its effect on a group of people to work together to achieve a goal. Of the two definitions have been proposed clearly show how leadership is defined, which is related to efforts to influence and exercise authority. Understanding gives an idea that the leader is seen as a person who has more skills in an effort to motivate people to do something like the expected leader.
1. Clear agenda, a leader should ideally have two agendas: an agenda for himself, and the second is the agenda for the organization. The purpose of the organization’s agenda is to set the framework of all the work done, while personal agenda related to the objectives to be achieved by personal guidance is in line with what he really wanted for himself, and only he knows personally. In this case, the agenda should be disclosed in a sentence can be clearly acceptable and measurable goals Nataprawira.
3. Enduring Relationship, organizational life basically consists of a number of transactions and relationships. The key to keeping a relationship is the lack of respect for others, see others in a positive manner and willingness to cooperate. Others in this case is not only limited to members only but including the customers, peers, coworkers, and suppliers.
4. Worldly, worldwide (being ‘worldly’) relates to other cultural fabric, technology, and information gathering. This means also how leaders are able menfaatkan-technology new technology, understand the global market, respect for other people, cultures, conditions and business practices that take place. It also means knowing what is going on and mengumulkan information that is up-to-date. Thus it is clear how the views of Crosby on leadership.
2. Successful leadership depends on the behavior, skills, appropriate action, not on personal characteristics.
Peter F. Drucker (1996) in his book about the Leader of the Future should put more emphasis on how a leader should behave in the face of the world in the future. He said that an effective leader is not just delegate tasks, but they also do what they are delegated to subordinates. He further asserts that “leadership must be learned and can be learned ‘.
The leader in this case to determine where the business was about to take place, sasran-goals to be achieved both intenal and external assets and skills needed, opportunities and risks faced yng. The leader in this case is the strategist who ensures that the organization’s objectives will be achieved.
According Taliziduhu Ndraha, (2005). Cultural Organization is the principal settlement of the problems of external and internal implementation is done consistently by a group who then pass on to the members of the new recruits as a way to understand, think, and feel to the problems related as above.
a. mission and strategy, (b) goals, (c) means to Achieve Goals; (d) measurement, and (e) correction.
a. common language, (b) group boundaries for inclusion and exclusion, (c) distributing power and status; (d) developing norms of intimacy, friendship, and love; (e) reward and punishment; dam (f) explaining and explainable: ideology and religion.
1. The role of a clear distinction between one organization to another.
2. Bringing a sense of identity for organization members.
3. Facilitate the emergence of growing commitment to something larger than individual self-interest.
4. Improving the social system.
5. Meaning making and control mechanism to integrate and shape the attitudes and behavior of the employees.
2.4. Formation of organizational culture.
2. Internalizing the values of organizational values that exist on all members of the organization are internalized by means of socialization or simulation.
3. Formation change agentUntuk effective cultural transformation necessary to establish organizational change agents, whose job is to transmit the values of degan-cell culture models.
4. Prepare sistemMembuat systems and procedures to safeguard and maintain the continuity and progress of the company, with reference always refers to the organizational culture.
2.5. The concept of Organizational Culture.
The behavior experts have been trying to develop what the nature, behavior, sources of power, or aspects of the situation that determines how best leaders can influence followers and that they reach the target group. So in essence, earlier theories reviewing more on who has the leadership skills to influence, and in the context where the influence was used. The difference terutamaterletak in disagreement about the identification of the leader and the leadership. Yukl (Robin: 2002) explained that basically the focus of attention in a variety of research on leadership is trying to explore the determinants of effective leadership. Yukl elaborate further, some theorists believe that leadership is no different to the social processes that occur among all members of the group and the leadership is seen as a collective process that is divided among its members. Others hold the view that essentially all group members have specific roles that include specific leadership roles. The point is that leaders and leadership can not simply be seen as the process of influencing the powers possessed but the important thing is how the leader of a partner for its members to achieve a common goal. So the effectiveness of a leader depends on how the members involved in the achievements of the organization’s objectives. One of the earliest theories of leadership trait theory is the view that a leader is someone who has qualities not shared by most people, that is: it has high intelligence, charismatic, able to make decisions, enthusiastic, have the strength, courage, integrity , and confident.
a review of a very interesting especially in the working conditions of uncertainty. Organizational culture re-excavated to explore the forces that have owned themselves but tend to be overlooked. At the time of the external environment are considered less able to cope with problems that arise, then the back to see the powers that be even though it is believed also can not solve the overall problem. However, by exploring the existing culture, it is expected to explore the power they have. Figure 1 below describes how the process of the formation of an organization’s culture (Taliziduhu Ndraha, 2005).
Culture is essentially a foundation for an organization. If the foundation is not strong enough, then how good of a building, it would not be sturdy enough to support him. There are some opinions that said the circumstances of that culture should be established. Of the various opinions that can not be denied is the role of leadership. There are a number of stages when a company wants to membntuk culture. First, the company had had to look ahead to what his vision, then what the value system, then how these values are applied dalamorganisasi itself, and finally see how its resources.
According to Susanto (1997) that organizational culture can be turned on in the first place through the selection, which gained members at least have the same values with the existing organizational culture; management above, in this case the leader has a very big role in instilling values values and norms through his actions; socialization, cultures should constantly socialized both new members and old members, the process may include orientation and training through stories about the founder, Rital existing ritual, symbols , and so on. Further it is said that the founder has a very big role, because of how the vision and mission organizations concerned are not released on how the founding values. At the end of these values must be actualized and the breath of the existing organizations. Thus it can be understood how the leaders have great influence because it must be able to act as a model for the creation of the existing values. In table 1 below describes how a leader can influence the culture of the organization, that a culture that is embedded in orgnasasi make the subordinates to carry out what has been established by a leader.
Leader behaviors own leaders are role models who encourage members to identify and internalize the beliefs, values, and their assumptions.
Culture is owned by an organization that does not have a minor role. Heskett and Schlesinger (in Hesselbein, Goldsmith and Beckhard, 1996) says that the leader played a role in creating the conditions that ensure the creation budya job performance. This is due to members clearly able to read what you want from them so that they know exactly what they should do and are aware of their role in bringing. Steere, Jr.. (In Hesselbein, Goldsmith and Beckhard, 1996) argued that the culture has a role in providing identification and principles that guide the behavior of organizations and in making decisions, developing a method so that individuals can receive feedback on their performance, maintain a system of reward and reinforcement effect within the organization. Thus it can be understood how the culture can give ne identity and direction for the survival organisasi.Kondisi happened recently in Indonesia, seen by how vulnerable the public on various issues shows how weak cohesion that exists and how weak leadership role as a source of inspiration for the life of the nation. Indonesian society is paternalistic society, so in this case the role of the leader is the father who protect and nurture his men. This figure that eventually became a role model for all its members. Ing ngarso sung term seems appropriate tuladha portray how the relationship between the leadership of the men. Effect that arises is if this model missing or blurred function, it is the anxiety that arises because people are losing grip. Since the beginning emphasized the role of leadership in creating a culture conducive to the organization. In this case the role of the great leader because he had to socialize existing values or values that unite different taps based on different interests that will create the values that lived together. Able to perform as a leader whether or not a person can not be separated on a philosophy of life that are owned and a clear commitment to others. It had initially anticipated by Crosby (1996). He stressed the need for a leader to have a clear agenda and organisasis concerning himself so he knows where the intended direction. The agenda should involve long-term goals and short-term strtaegi be achieved by anticipating the possibilities that occur when the situation became confusing and ambiguous. It is precisely in this condition would seem the role of leader.
Opinions on the line with Steere, Jr.. (In Hesselbein, Goldsmith, Beckhard, 1996), he said that the most important part of the task of a leader is responsible for the establishment and development of corporate culture, which is done by: identifying and communicating the values and principles that guide the running of the company and the establishment of organizational decisions, setting an example of the behavior that the values and principles of the organization by example, as well as master the overall corporate culture, familiar with both the positive and the negative and reinforce the values on the things that are expected by the organization. Therefore, a leader should have a clear vision, extensive knowledge, a clear view of the situation at hand, so he can make a decision based on the desire to achieve common prosperity. With a clear vision, he can influence others in order to maximize personal and organizational development. All these can not be separated from personal mastering owned by a leader who will set out clearly in his personal agenda (Steere, Jr.., Bornstein and Smith, Weber, Schein, Pinchot, dalamHesselbein, Goldsmith and Beckhard, 1996).
the role of the leader is himself as the architect of the culture, the culture of responsibility can not be delegated to others. Therefore, how much the values that ultimately created the culture of the organization will be internalized by its members and embodied in organizational life. With this basis that the organization will live on despite the change because it becomes the foundation for building the organization. Organizational life is inseparable from the interaction between one person to another. Interaction is not only limited to the members of the members, members of the leadership, but in broad terms the interactions involving people with whom the organization conducts transactions with clients or customers, suppliers, peers, and so on. Interaction is of course not going to last long if it is not based on the lack of respect between each other. How big are the values underlying service and positive attitude of its members will be read in the context of the relationship. In this case the leader became a model for its members. How does he behave tehadap others, not just as a leader who gives orders but the most important is the ability to build in harmony with not only rely on the ratio of sheer but was able to put in place the proper emotions (Crosby, 1996).
Hesselbein, Goldsmith and Beckhard, 1996) gives a suggestion is that leaders should provide more opportunities for others to try and do their own responsibility. He must also provide encouragement and enthusiasm that terbangkit motivation, establish cooperation and empowerment to others. In the Three-Dimensional Developing Leaders, James F. Bolt (dalamHesselbein, Goldsmith and Beckhard, 1996) found that leaders need to develop a three-dimensional dimensions of leadership, namely business, leadership and personal. All three have a very close relationship. One dimension that is personal, a leader is expected to have the ability to self-empowered and the integration of work and life, which means she must always pay attention to both their personal and work life in order to obtain employment and social balance.
that arises is unrest and chaos will eventually arise.
Basically a leader according to Myers (Handoko: 1984) is one who serves: to help define and achieve group goals, in this case the leaders make policies and set goals; established group terutamaketika tension arises, in this case a very large share leader in the effort to reduce the differences and invited the group to work together; provide identification symbols, in this case acting leader As with symbols so that the group can be strengthened in a unity. Based on that, it is pretty clear what exactly the role of a leader in the creation of the stability of the social system. When there is a crisis of values of togetherness, the leaders are expected to take a stand so that the direction of the goals to be oyang will be able to re-straightened.
Thus it can be said that there is a vital connection between culture and leadership. The success of a leader it will be seen dalampengaruh them directly to the culture of the organization. According to Turner (Taliziduhu Ndraha: 2005) Basically a leader role in the formation of culture, the culture help shape its members (Turner, 1994). Establishment of culture can only be viewed more closely through the behaviors of the members as well as the spirit of the push. Eventually it was realized that a leader should have a clear commitment, the commitment to self and commitment to the organization. If these values are held shared values and the common good, then it will be seen in were full of the spirit of existing members. When a role is ignored, it will not be surprised if the existence of the organization will be destroyed because of it people tend to leave the national cultures that are owned and precisely using cultures of other countries which he said is better. In such a situation, reflection and introspection necessary to all parties and the courage to admit shortcomings is wise that can be ascertained are returning members raised confidence. It’s when leaders want to recognize his weaknesses, then at that time the support of the members will appear as essentially forgiving the people of Indonesia is easy to forget a mistake.
1. Leaders have a role in creating the cultural conditions that guarantee the creation of job performance. This is due to members clearly able to read what you want from them so that they know exactly what they should do and are aware of their role in bringing. Without denying this role brings a number of challenges that must be overcome because the goal laid on their shoulders. Despite the success and failure of the organization is not solely dependent on the leader, in this case the participation and willingness to sacrifice of the members have contributed not a little.
2. In this case the role of the leader is not small in disseminating the culture they have. As far as culture is not too deviated from the values held, then the role of the leader will not run so hard. Because the role of a leader in the culture is not a passive process. But it involves a proactive role of the people concerned. It means that people consciously accept the existing culture and become a basis for behavior kesehriannya.
3. Strength of a culture within the organization will look at the extent to which oganisasi able to survive in a difficult situation. In addition, the strength of the organization’s culture also lies in the extent to which members put their trust in their leader. When the situation turbulance, trust members are weak, then it is an indication that the role of leadership and culture internalized questionable experiencing a challenge. Now the most important in view of leadership theories are no longer based on the style of leadership per se, but the important thing is mampukan leaders use emotions and not rely solely on the ratio because it means a commitment based on conscience, the leader of their role .
Fiedler, F.E. , 1967. A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness f. New York. McGraw-Hill.
Stepen Robin, Organizational Behavior, Volume Indonesian (Translation By.
T, Hani Handoko Management, Second Edition, Publisher BPFE, Yogyakarta, 1984.
Taliziduhu Ndraha, Organizational Culture Theory, Rineka Copyright, Jakarta, 2005.
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2019-04-23T10:45:25Z
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Newshub announced Tova O’Brien as its new Political Editor.
Tova has been with the Newshub team since 2007 and has been the European Correspondent for over two years, reporting on breaking international news including the UK elections and the Grenfell Tower disaster. She will be commencing the role in April. Tova is excited to return to New Zealand, and the press gallery.
"I'm utterly delighted to be returning to the press gallery as Newshub's Political Editor and know full-well the responsibility that comes with the role. Ours is the best political team in the country and Newshub's legacy of exceptional, ground-breaking Political Editors has always been an inspiration."
Hal Crawford, MediaWorks’ Chief News Officer, said Tova has the skills and experience to make the role her own.
Newshub will announce its new European Correspondent in due course. Former Political Editor Patrick Gower is taking up the role of National Correspondent from April 2018.
MediaWorks also announced that Newshub journalists Lisa Owen and Ryan Bridge will be the new hosts of RadioLIVE Drive from early March.
Host of Newshub Nation Lisa Owen has also worked as a correspondent and investigative journalist throughout her career and is thrilled to return to radio.
Newshub journalist Ryan Bridge currently hosts ‘Your Sunday with Ryan Bridge’ on RadioLIVE. Ryan is looking forward to the move to Drive.
A replacement for Ryan’s Sunday programme will be announced in due course.
Hal Crawford believes Lisa and Ryan will be an excellent fit for RadioLive Drive.
“These two seasoned journalists bring a depth of news knowledge and warmth to our afternoon schedule on RadioLIVE. We are planning this show carefully, bringing the full force of the Newshub and RadioLIVE newsrooms together - I can't wait."
The SpinOff TV features a mix of YouTubers, stand-up comics and online reporters talking about what’s making headlines in New Zealand. Fresh daily content will be available on Newshub and The SpinOff, with weekly ‘best-of’ episodes coming to Three in June.
The SpinOff founder Duncan Greive has spent so long talking about TV, he can hardly believe he’s about to be part of it.
“I’m really proud of the amazing team who’ve grown The Spinoff from a TV blog that no one had ever heard of, to a multimedia news and opinion website with a fully fledged TV show,” says Duncan.
“The Spinoff TV will be exactly what you’d imagine it will be”, he continues, “all of the chaos, humour and prickliness of The Spinoff - just on TV”.
Newshub Investigates is a weekly podcast that will investigate some of New Zealand’s most intriguing and significant stories, beginning in March with a wrongful conviction of murder.
At a customer and media event held in Auckland this afternoon, MediaWorks CEO Michael Anderson unveiled a new corporate brand identity for the media organisation.
“One year ago, we introduced Three. This was the beginning of a journey with the Three brand - it reflected what we aspired to be, and over the course of the past year, we have fully inhabited that brand,” says Michael.
It was also announced at the event that Jay-Jay Harvey is joining More FM Drive alongside Jason Gunn with current Drive co-host Lana Searle moving to More FM’s Breakfast show with Si and Gary.
After 23 years at The Edge, Jay-Jay’s new role will see her commute to Christchurch to join Jason Gunn in the studio during the week. The new More FM drive lineup will launch in April and be broadcast nationally.
Jason has already prepared a warm welcome for his new co-host.
"I found a true friend in Lana and had the time of my life working with her. I've really been lucky to work with some very talented people throughout my career, and that continues as I can't wait for Jay-Jay to join me in the afternoon, I can guarantee there will be much laughter had by all."
Leon Wratt, Group Content Director - Music, MediaWorks Radio, is thrilled that two of New Zealand’s top broadcasters are joining forces for the first time.
“Jay-Jay and Jase are both incredibly talented and have large fan followings. We know this combination will be a hit with More FM - a station that is continuing to grow,” says Leon.
More FM is expanding into new markets in South Canterbury and Otago from April, and More FM’s Polly & Grant are now available in Waikato, Rotorua, Whanganui and Dunedin.
Josh Thomson has announced he will be stepping back from his role as co-host on The Project to spend more time with his family and focus on upcoming acting roles. Josh will continue to be a contributor to the 7pm programme and will join co-hosts Jesse Mulligan and Kanoa Lloyd on the desk regularly.
Jeremy Corbett, one of New Zealand’s best loved comedians, will take up the co-host role alongside Jesse and Kanoa from April. Jeremy will bring his signature style of comedy and incisive analysis to The Project, a programme that has redefined the 7pm timeslot with its mix of the news of the day, big interviews and comedy. Jeremy will continue to host the hugely successful 7 Days*.
Josh has co-hosted The Project since it launched in February 2017. During that time, he has covered a range of stories including opening up about his own personal experiences during Fertility Week, and awarding the humble mint slice the title of New Zealand’s Biscuit of The Year. He recently launched his local documentary series Subject: Dad as well as starring in the international series The New Legends of Monkey. Josh’s first child is due at the end of March.
The Project screens 7pm weeknights on Three and online at ThreeNow.
Three is bringing the new season of iconic series American Idol to New Zealand, hot on the heels of its record breaking premiere in the United States.
Season 16 of American Idol launched this week to over 10 million American viewers. The series is hosted by series veteran Ryan Seacrest, with music icons Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan serving as judges.
American Idol first premiered in 2002, and has been on hiatus since 2016 when Trent Harmon was crowned the winner after a nationwide talent search. American Idol is known for scouting out untapped talent and propelling them to super-stardom. It has been the launching pad for some of music’s biggest names, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks.
Season 16 of American Idol premieres on Tuesday, 3 April and will run every Tuesday and Wednesday evening on Three, 7.30 pm - 9.30pm.
MediaWorks is celebrating five wins at the 2017 New Zealand Television Awards, including Best News Coverage, Te Māngai Pāho Best Māori Programme and Best Comedy.
At tonight’s awards ceremony, the Newshub team took out Best News Coverage for their coverage of the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016. Best Presenter: News and Current Affairs was awarded to Mike McRoberts. Mike has been part of the MediaWorks family for 15 years, including 13 years presenting the 6pm bulletin. His devotion to his work has most recently seen him become the first Kiwi journalist with a NZ news organisation to report from Syria since the war began.
The Hui* was presented the award for Te Māngai Pāho Best Māori Programme. A compelling mix of hard-hitting current affairs investigations, human interest and arts and culture stories, The Hui is made by Great Southern Film and Television for Three.
7 Days* received Best Comedy/Comedy Entertainment Programme. The show has been a hit with audiences since its inception in 2009. Jeremy Corbett, Dai Henwood and Paul Ego continue to provide solid Friday night entertainment, and will be returning to Three early next year.
Mitchell Hawkes picked up Best Director: Multi Camera for his work on the live broadcast of the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards 2016.
MediaWorks have scooped a whopping 24 nominations across 13 categories in the 2017 New Zealand Television Awards including: Best News Coverage (Newshub), Best Comedy (Jono & Ben, 7 Days, Funny Girls*), Best Drama Series (Westside*), Best Current Affairs Programme (The Hui) and Best Factual Series (Great War Stories*).
The prestigious awards ceremony is being held for the first time since 2012, recognising excellence in television and honouring the special skills and unique talents of the companies and individuals who create, produce, and perform in television programmes in New Zealand. This year’s nominees date back to 2015.
Finalists are from both local programming and News and Current Affairs portfolios. Newshub is up for three different nominations in the Best News Coverage category for their coverage of the Port Hills Fires (2017), US Election Night (2016), and the Kaikoura Earthquake (2016).
Newshub’s Mike McRoberts is joined by The Project’s Kanoa Lloyd and Jesse Mulligan in the Best Presenter: News and Current Affairs category.
Dai Henwood (7 Days), Jono Pryor (Jono & Ben) and Kanoa Lloyd (The Project) are all contenders for Woman’s Day Television Personality of the Year.
The New Zealand Television awards will be held on Thursday 30th November at SKYCITY Theatre.
A full list of nominations is available here.
THE FIRST FESTIVAL OF THE SEASON IS KFC EDGEFEST AND IT’S SHAPING UP TO BE A BANGER!
New Zealand’s first festival of the season, KFC Edgefest, has just got even bigger with a stellar group of celebs and social media stars joining the festival line-up in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch this November, plus newly-announced local artists confirmed to perform the three-city festival tour.
Appearing alongside KFC Edgefest international headliner Jason Derulo are British hitmaker Jonas Blue, Norwegian tropical house/pop princess Astrid S as well as a host of Kiwi artists including Kings, Mitch James, plus KFC and The Edge welcome Openside, P-Money and Savage to the bill.
As revealed this morning on The Edge Breakfast show, girl band Fifth Harmony have announced today they have cancelled their New Zealand tour dates this November due to scheduling issues (*see below for full statement from Fifth Harmony).
Also featuring at KFC Edgefest are some of New Zealand’s favourite TV and social media celebrities, including Matthew Little (VJ Patterson) from Home and Away, Jayden Daniels (Curtis Hannah), Lukas Whiting (Finn Connelly) and Luke Patrick (Frank Connelly) from Shortland Street and as of Monday, The Edge listeners can be in to win tickets to KFC Edgefest to party with Matthew, Lukas, Luke and Curtis in an exclusive catered VIP area.
Adding to KFC Edgefest’s star power are the hugely popular Kiwi social media stars Jamie Curry and William ‘Wairua’ Cribb as well as The Bachelor’s Lily McManus (season 3) and Dani Robinson (season 1), health and lifestyle blogger Simone Anderson, The Block break-out favourites Ling and Zing plus The Edge team featuring Jay-Jay, Dom, Randell, Jono, Ben, Sharyn, Megan, Guy, Steph and Stuntman Sam.
- Become a Jetstar Star Jetstar are keen to see your ‘star’ power at KFC Edgefest, so they’ve got a Jetstar cam coming to all the shows. It’s like a kiss cam, but better because festival attendees will win prizes including domestic flights, cash and there are even international flights up for grabs.
- The KFC Edgefest Selfie Station Get a selfie with your fave stars hitting KFC Edgefest. Who will be there? VJ from Home and Away, Shortland Street stars, Jamie Curry from Jamie’s World, William Waiirua, Lily and Dani from The Bachelor and Ling and Zing from The Block. Timetable coming soon.
- The Edge Gram Garden Get the perfect pic for your Instagram in The Edge's Gram Garden. The Edge Road Runners will be there to take the perfect ‘festie’ pic of you and your besties.
- Playstation PlayLink Catch up with the PlayStation team at the PlayLink zone and prepare for a refreshingly different social gaming experience . Everyone who plays will go in the draw to score $1,000 cash! Visit https://www.playstation.com/en-nz/explore/ps4/games/playlink/ for more.
- Tattoo stations Attendees can remember KFC Edgefest forever with a cool festie tattoo! KFC Edgefest will be touring New Zealand’s major arenas in early November, including Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena on Friday 3rd November, Wellington’s TSB Bank Arena on Saturday 4th November and Auckland’s Spark Arena on Sunday 5th November. Each event boasts more than eight hours of the best in popular music, entertainment and activities.
Last week saw Three’s newly launched 7pm show The Project lift Three to win the week for the first time since the final of The Block NZ in August 2016.
The stellar performance saw Three wining the night in its target demographic of 25-54 on Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.
With a very strong performance across all five days, Thursday night saw The Project beat Seven Sharp in 18-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
Three’s hit series Married At First Sight Australia continued to outperform its competitors, with the series winning all three of its days - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – in the 25-54 demographic.
Likewise, movies continue to prove popular with audiences, with the Thursday Action Movie Hercules, Saturday night’s Garfield and Hot Fuzz, and Sunday’s Kingsman The Secret Service all winning Three’s target demographic of 25-54.
This week also saw the highly-anticipated return of Jono and Ben and 7 Days. Moving to an all-new timeslot of 9pm, Friday night’s 7 Days won its timeslot across four demographics – 18-39, 18-49, 25-54 and Household Shoppers with Kids.
Finally, Friday night saw The Project announce who The Bachelor NZ will be for 2017. Zac Franich will lead the highly anticipated third series of The Bachelor New Zealand, coming in March to Three.
The countdown is in full swing. With only one week to go, Three has confirmed the release of audience tickets to the highly anticipated, LIVE news and entertainment 7pm show - The Project.
The audience tickets are now available via the ThreeNow website and will give news and entertainment fans the first opportunity to not only be part of the television production, but see hosts Jesse Mulligan, Kanoa Lloyd and Josh Thomson, LIVE in their brand new studio.
At midnight, MediaWorks’ iconic Kiwi media brand TV3 will transform into Three. With a new brand and new look it’s unlike anything we’ve done before.
Some might call it a re-brand, but we think it's a little bit more than that.
From midnight our audience will see a whole new visual identity on Three and on our on-demand ThreeNow VOD service, as well as online at the new one-stop-shop ThreeNow.co.nz - a simplified, streamlined website for on-demand programming, TV guides and extra content.
The AM Show arrives on television, radio and digital devices from 6am on Monday the 13th of February.
Join Duncan Garner, Amanda Gillies and Mark Richardson as they bring you a whole new way to wake up.
Joining the on-air team is a dedicated group of Newshub reporters who, supported by the wider Newshub team, will provide the latest news and coverage. The AM Show’s reporting team includes Aziz Al-Sa'afin, Ollie Richie and Shannon Redstall in Auckland, Alice Wilkins in Christchurch and Mitch McCann in Wellington.
Aziz brings his unique approach to The AM Show as the show’s social media voice, regularly covering content and opinions from the web, and giving the audience a direct line of feedback to the show.
MediaWorks new digital audio streaming platform rova is LIVE from today.
The new mobile app offers Kiwis a simple and easy way to access their favourite local radio content in a digital environment, bringing together all MediaWorks’ radio entertainment stations, including MediaWorks’ local radio shows across the More FM and The Breeze network.
In addition to digital live-streaming of The Edge, The Edge TV, The Rock, More FM, The Breeze, The Sound, Mai, George FM, RadioLIVE and Magic, rova comes equipped with a range of podcast style channels, allowing users to stream the best bits from a range of MediaWorks’ entertainment and news brands.
These 24/7 highlight podcasts are available on dedicated channels and include the Mai Morning Crew; More FM’s Si & Gary; George FM Breakfast; The Rock’s Morning Rumble, and Drive with Thane & Dunc; The Edge’s Jay-Jay, Dom and Randell, and Jono, Ben & Sharyn; and 7 Days.
Sharyn Casey, host of The Edge Afternoons, said: “Just what everyone needs, 24-7 Jono, Ben and a Sharyn! OK that might not be true, but I personally guarantee you'll laugh at least twice a podcast".
MediaWorks today announced Jesse Mulligan, Kanoa Lloyd and Josh Thomson as the three key hosts of The Project, set to launch in the 7pm slot on TV3 in February 2017.
The Project combines current affairs and entertainment in a unique way, offering audiences an intelligent, informative and very funny half-hour mix of the stories that matter from New Zealand and around the world.
After producing 7 Days for seven years, Executive Producer Jon Bridges says he can’t wait to bring this fresh format and line-up to 7pm.
Radio New Zealand Afternoon host Jesse Mulligan cut his teeth on 7 Days as a head writer and a top regular guest, and brings years of experience working within news organisations. He has also spent time as the New Zealand correspondent for The Project in Australia.
Jesse will be busy juggling his Radio New Zealand show and The Project but can’t wait to get stuck in working with his new team.
"Kanoa and Josh are a dream team. Kanoa brings brilliant and diverse broadcast experience, with an undeniable star quality. Josh might be the funniest person in New Zealand, but he's also pure chaos. I think 7pm could use some chaos."
Kanoa Lloyd will leave Newshub Weather to join the panel in her biggest role to date. In a relatively short time, Kanoa has established herself as a highly regarded news contributor, combining a knack for outstanding journalism with a natural rapport on screen.
The hosts will be joined each night by a variety of guests to discuss the stories of the day. Guest hosts will include media commentators, comedians, sport, political and other personalities, made up of a large list of notable New Zealanders from a range of fields.
MediaWorks has today announced its new digital audio streaming platform rova will go live in January 2017.
The platform brings together all MediaWorks’ radio entertainment stations into one app, offering New Zealanders a streamlined way to access their favourite Kiwi radio content in a digital environment.
Beyond digital live-streaming of The Edge, The Edge TV, The Rock, More FM, The Breeze, The Sound, Mai, George FM, RadioLIVE and Magic, rova will offer audiences a range of channels streaming the best of their favourite MediaWorks’ entertainment programmes - podcast style.
rova will provide 24/7 streaming of highlight packages on dedicated channels from a range of MediaWorks’ entertainment and news brands including the Mai Morning Crew, More FM’s Si & Gary, TV3’s 7 Days and The Edge’s Jay-Jay, Dom and Randell from January, with more to come.
The service will also offer live-streaming of MediaWorks’ local radio shows across the More FM and The Breeze network.
rova will be available in January for iOS and Android devices via the App Store and Google Play, and will be continuously expanding new functions and content.
Afternoons on New Zealand’s most listened to radio network The Edge will never be the same again, with current host Sharyn Casey welcoming Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce as co-hosts. Ben Boyce said: "Jono has been at The Rock so long he didn't realise there were other radio stations." Jono Pryor said: "We sailed a bouncy castle across lake Taupo, a banana boat across Cook Strait and sold our souls on cans of energy drinks at The Rock. I can't wait to see what shameless radio promotions lie ahead at The Edge with Sharyn." Sharyn Casey said: "I'm looking forward to Jono and Ben ditching the Metallica t-shirts and letting their Taylor Swift flag fly high!" "I'm really proud of what I've achieved with Guy & Clint but Jono and Ben might be able to get me a good deal on a Holden, so ya know, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do."
At a trade event today MediaWorks CEO Michael Anderson and other senior staff made a number of major announcements for 2017, as well as the results from the latest GfK Total New Zealand Commercial Radio Survey - which placed MediaWorks as the most listened to radio network in New Zealand with more than 2.2m listeners.
Michael Anderson said: “MediaWorks reaches 3.7 million NZers every month or 95% of all Kiwis - on our Radio, TV and Digital platforms. They are highly engaged with our content and this drives our desire for creativity to be at the centre of everything we do. Our scale, great content - and our unrivalled talent pool - is our point of difference in this market.
ON TV3 MediaWorks is thrilled to announce a reinvention of weeknights at 7pm, bringing New Zealand a new style of programme in early 2017 with The Project.
With hosts to be named shortly, The Project will combine current affairs and entertainment in a unique way, offering audiences an intelligent, informative and engaging half-hour mix of the stories that matter from New Zealand and around the world.
The hosts will be joined each night by a variety of panelists to discuss the stories of the day, including guest appearances by New Zealand’s best broadcaster Paul Henry. Panelists will include Newshub journalists and presenters, comedians, sport, political and other personalities, made up of a large list of notable New Zealanders from a range of fields.
“The Project is news delivered differently,” said Hal Crawford, MediaWorks’ Chief News Officer.
The Project will launch in early 2017.
MediaWorks is delighted to announce Duncan Garner as the new host of its 6-9AM weekday news programme The AM Show.
Duncan will front the brand new morning show on TV3 & RadioLIVE, building on the success of the Paul Henry cross-platform format but with a new approach, new set and new sound.
The AM Show will retain some familiar attributes, but with a number of changes and additions.
MediaWorks’ Chief News Officer Hal Crawford said Duncan’s years of experience across talkback radio, the press gallery and current affairs made him the perfect fit for the job.
Host Duncan Garner said: “Content is king and that’s what the team and I are going to deliver - the best news, the best interviews, the best information you need to start your day. I also want to make sure everyone has a bloody good laugh too.
“Paul is a brilliant broadcaster who has changed the game in the mornings - I’m looking forward to building on that. Our new show will be warm, seriously smart, irreverent and funny. I can't wait to rip into it."
Other members of The AM Show team, and a replacement host on RadioLIVE’s Drive show, will be announced in the near future.
The AM Show will launch in early 2017.
With sadness, MediaWorks can confirm that Paul Henry will be stepping down from morning presenting in 2017.
Since the launch of New Zealand’s first multi-platform breakfast programme Paul Henry in April 2015 and Paul’s earlier foray into late-night news with The Paul Henry Show from January 2014, he has been informing, entertaining and dividing audiences.
Paul will remain part of the MediaWorks family, making guest appearances on 7PM’s new 2017 programme The Project and other potential roles to be announced next year.
In less than a year since launch Paul Henry had grown its audience to match its television competitor. In the key commercial demographic of viewers aged 25-54 the show regularly draws more viewers, outperforming the opposition. On RadioLIVE the programme continuously grew to its current peak of 160,900 weekly listeners with Paul receiving the Sir Paul Holmes Broadcaster of the Year Award, as well as Best Talk Presenter – All Markets, at the 2016 NZ Radio Awards.
The show will finish at the end of 2016.
Bringing romance to 2017 with all the style and energy he’s known for, television presenter and media personality Dominic Bowden is flying back especially from his base in Los Angeles to host next year’s season of The Bachelor New Zealand.
Dominic has been working as the backstage host on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, and hosting the red carpet for E! Channel at the biggest entertainment events on the Hollywood calendar. He’s also attended plenty of Bachelor events too.
The Bachelor New Zealand casting call is currently open for prospective bachelorettes. Women between 21 - 35 years of age who are genuinely looking for love and plenty of adventure have been invited to submit their application.
Potential bachelorettes can head to tv3.co.nz/thebachelornz to find The Bachelor New Zealand casting call application.
Further details about The Bachelor New Zealand will be released in 2017.
The Block New Zealand is back! New Zealand’s most loved renovation series returns in 2017 with new contestants, new challenges and a new location - Auckland’s North Shore.
"Every season of The Block has brought something new to the table,” said host Mark Richardson. “After the cracking success of Girls Vs Boys I can't wait to see what new contestants are going be thrown in the mix to keep us entertained. Casting is still open so my advice - and no doubt Sam and Emmett's - would be to give it a shot. You never know what could happen."
7 Days: The hit comedy show that delivers TV3’s biggest ratings is back for a 9th year. Putting the funny in Friday nights with Jeremy, Dai, Paul and a lineup of NZ’s biggest comedians.
Jono and Ben: Packed full of hilarious pranks, big laughs and great guests, Jono and Ben (and friends) bring you one entertaining hour of Kiwi television.
Family Feud: Survey Says…”What is NZ’s favourite gameshow?” Hosted by Dai Henwood, Family Feud features Kiwi families competing for the chance to win cash and prizes by guessing the most popular answers.
Westside: The West family saga continues. In this third season, Ted and Rita West return and Wolf meets a young Cheryl and so starts the beginning of one of the most outrageous stories in NZ Television.
Grand Designs New Zealand: Host Chris Moller follows Kiwis in their pursuit of extravagant dream homes and architectural brilliance.
Lost & Found: The emotional local series continues to reunite families, uncover cultural identities and share uplifting moments.
Fail Army: Presented by Kiwi comedians Joseph Moore and Guy Montgomery, Fail Army features funny pranks and compilations of the web's best fails, but on your TV!
The Block Australia: Back with the biggest renovation ever attempted in its twelfth series. Five couples will attempt to convert an old soap factory in the Port of Melbourne into five supersized luxury apartments.
The Graham Norton Show: From his couch to yours, every Friday night Graham gets the best A-list celebs, has the funniest red chair stories and usually features a Kiwi or two.
Humans: In a future where robots have become normalised, this thriller explores the unintended consequences of a series of robots who have obtained consciousness.
Grand Designs UK: Grand Designs UK sees design expert Kevin McCloud follow self-builders in search of outstanding architecture.
Live at the Apollo: Stand up comedy at its best. Featuring the best UK comedians live at London’s Hammersmth Apollo.
SVU: The New York Special Victims Unit continues to take on the toughest crimes, delivering hard hitting and emotional drama.
NCIS: America’s number one rating drama is back for another season of all new crimes and cases for the NCIS team to solve.
NCIS: LA: The successful spin-off of NCIS starring Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J.
The Blacklist: James Spader stars as Raymond 'Red' Reddington, a most-wanted fugitive who works with a FBI profiler to take down criminals and terrorists.
Married At First Sight Australia: The biggest series yet! The controversial social experiment gets supersized with ten couples meeting at the altar on their wedding day.
Wanted: Rebecca Gibney comes home when the second installment of this event drama finds her on the run in our very own backyard.
Chicago Med: The show that delivers an emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of Chicago's newest state-of-the-art trauma center and into the lives of the doctors, nurses and staff who hold it all together.
Hawaii Five-O: Follows the detectives who are part of an elite task force whose mission is to eliminate crime on the beaches of the Aloha state.
Beach Cops: This observational series follows the cops who operate along Sydney’s Northern beaches.
Hyde & Seek: This trans-Tasman thriller tells the story of Detective Gary Hyde who while investigating the murder of his best friend, uncovers a criminal conspiracy which leads to a man-hunt across Australia and New Zealand.
This Time Next Year: In a TV first, this series delivers an array of incredible real-life transformations that have taken twelve months for the participants but are revealed in an instant for the studio audience - from losing half their body weight, to finding love or even becoming a parent.
Hamish & Andy: The funnymen of radio and television return to TV3’s screens with an all new format, set to be one of the most exciting concepts of recent years.
The New Celebrity Apprentice: Arnold Schwarzenegger takes over the Boardroom when 16 celebrities compete for their favourite charities. Advising Schwarzenegger will be world-class business minds, including Steve Ballmer, Tyra Banks, Jessica Alba and Warren Buffett.
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W ubiegły piątek, 26 października Stowarzyszenie Na Tak oraz Zakład Psychopatologii Dziecka Wydziału Studiów Edukacyjnych UAM zorganizowały konferencję naukową pod hasłem: „Władza w rękach specjalisty”. Z pełną relacją z wydarzenia możecie zapoznać się na stronach naszego portalu.
Szanowni uczestnicy konferencji! Czy zgadzacie się z opiniami prelegentów. Prosimy potraktować nasze forum jako konferencyjne kuluary.
Mam takie refleksje po konferencji. Alain Salque prezentował sie bardzo przekonywująco w tym co mowił. Reprezentował on niedyrektywne, humanistyczne podejście do ON. uwazał, że trzeba ich traktowac podmiotowo. Pozwalac im o sobie decydować. szanować ich wolę. Godzić się z ich odmowami.
Nela Grzegorczyk – Dłuciak i Ewa Kuliga takze były bardzo przekonujące w tym co mówiły. One reprezentowały dyrektywne i behawioralne spojrzenie na problem. ON trzeba stawiać wymagania i je egzekwować ucząc je różnorodnych umiejetnosci fynkcjonalnych.
Zastanawia mnie jedno. Z czego wynikają różnice w spojrzeniu? Czy są one tylko wynikiem różnic osobowosciowych pomiędzy tymi specjalistami czy tez wynikają z innych przsłanek. Jakich? O czym powinien mysleć terapeuta wybierając swoja drogę zawodową? Czym się kierować?
Moim zdaniem zawodowy terapeuta nie powinien być po prostu sobą w relacji z ON. Powinien nagiąc swoje postępowanie do aktualnie realizowanego celu pracy. Nela i Ewa powinny umieć "podązac za uczniem" a Alain postawić im wymagania.
Meczy mnie jeszcze jedno pytanie. Stosowana analiza zachowania jest wg behawiorystów metodą naukową. Czy nauka może rozstrzygnąć jak pracować z ON? Moim zdaniem w ograniczonym zakresie. W ogóle uważam że powolywanie się przez behawiorystow na naukowość ich metody jest nadużyciem, tak samo zresztą jak nazwanie pracy niedyrektywnej - terapią humanistyczną. I w jednym i drugim przypadku moim zdaniem to chwyty marketingowe.
Friederike Kolster i Sonja Bernartz słusznie zauważyły, że władzę ma ten kto wyznacza cel. Dialog jako pomysł na wyznaczanie relistycznych celów uznanych przez ON jako własne wydaje mi się ciekawą prpozycją, choć nie jestem pewien jak by to wyszło z osobami z głębszą niepelnosprawnościa intelektualną. Nie wiem czy ktokolwiek w Polsce próbował świadomie to robić z dorosłymi osobami z uposledzeniem umysłowym. Ja z takimi osobami nie pracuję, więc nie wiem.
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In this article, I will give some recommendations on how to design data objects in C#. I will talk about immutability and about making invalid states unrepresentable. I will also present DataObjectHelper, a Visual Studio extension I created to help create data objects. I will also demonstrate how we can use F# to create data objects and use them from C# projects.
In a previous article, Data and Encapsulation in complex C# applications, I talked about behavior-only encapsulation among other things.
When doing behavior-only encapsulation, we separate data and behavior into separate units. Data units contain only data that is accessible directly, and behavior units contain only behavior. Such behavior units are similar to functions and procedures in functional and procedural programming, respectively.
In this article, I am going to give some recommendations on how to design these data units. I also call them data objects because in a language like C#, we create data units using classes; and as far as the language is concerned, instances of classes are “objects”.
This means that once a data object is created, its contents will never change.
By making data objects immutable, we get many benefits. I will only mention a couple of them here.
1. Data objects become thread-safe. This is true because all a thread can do to a data object is read from it. Having multiple threads reading something cannot cause a concurrency issue.
b. How is it affected by global state of the application (or even state external to the application such as a database)?
Q2. What effect on global state (or external state) does this function have?
Q3. What changes does this function do to the document argument?
By making data objects immutable, we can eliminate question number 3 and thus make understanding this method, easier.
To understand why this is important, consider the example where the DoSomething method passes the document argument to some other method, say Method1. Then, Method1 passes it to Method2 which passes it to Method3, and so on. Any of these methods can modify the TextDocument object passed to it. Now, in order to answer question 3, we need to understand how all of these methods modify the document.
By the way, if we make this function pure, we can also remove Q1.b and Q2. This would make the function even easier to understand. To learn more about pure functions, see the Functional Programming for C# Developers article here at DotNetCurry.
What if a data object has ten properties and we just want to “modify” one property?
We need to invoke a constructor and pass ten arguments. Nine arguments from these will just be simple property access expressions like existingDocument.Identifier. That code would look ugly.
Writing With methods for large data objects is a hard and error-prone task. To facilitate this, I have created a Visual Studio extension that enables the auto generation of such methods.
You can download the DataObjectHelper extension via the Visual Studio’s Extensions and Updates tool from the Tools menu.
Note that when applying the attribute, we provide the type of data objects that we wish to generate With methods for. A single applied attribute can be given many types.
3. Hover over the CreateWithMethods attribute (where it is applied on the ExtensionMethods class). The icon for Roslyn based refactoring should show up. Look out for a refactoring with title “Create With methods”, and click on it.
Figure 2 shows how Visual Studio gives us a preview of refactoring with the With methods that the extension is about to make.
Please note that the extension creates With methods as extension methods, and not as instance methods inside the data object. One advantage of this is that you can create such methods for data objects that you don’t have the source code for.
This class represents the result of translating a text document (e.g. from English to Spanish). It has four properties.
1. Success: the translation is 100% successful. In this case, the TranslatedDocument property would contain the translated document. All other properties would be null.
2. PartialSuccess: the translation is partially successful. In this case, the PageErrors property would contains a list of errors for each page in the source document. This is represented by a dictionary where the key is an integer representing the page number, and the value is an array of error messages for that page. The ImmutableDictionary and ImmutableArray types are similar to the standard Dictionary class in .NET and arrays in C#, except that they are immutable. For more information, see this article from Microsoft: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/mt795189.aspx.
Also, the TranslatedDocument property would contain the translated document. We should expect to have some untranslated words or statements in this document. All other properties would be null.
3. Failure: Nothing could be translated. This can happen for example when a translation web service that we use, is offline. The Error property would contain an error message. Other properties would be null.
This is clearly a programmer mistake.
Either the programmer wanted to set Result to Failure but set it to Success by mistake, or she wanted to set error to null and translatedDocument to a specific value but forgot to do so (maybe as a result of copying and pasting some other code?).
Now, if we try to construct the same invalid object as the example above, an exception will be thrown.
This is better since we will get an exception when we construct the object, instead of getting a NullReferenceException when we try to use the object later.
Still, we can only detect this problem at runtime. It would be better if we could detect and prevent this problem at compile-time. That is, if we get a compilation error trying to construct an invalid object.
Again, this is clearly a programmer mistake.
This code will compile and will not give us a runtime exception when executed. When debugging the application, the programmer might hover over the instance variable and see a non-null value for the Error property and incorrectly think that this result represents a failed result.
We can mitigate this problem by throwing an exception when the result argument is Success and the error or the PageErrors arguments are non-null. Such invalid state checking in the constructor acts as documentation that helps programmers understand which states are valid and which are not.
Now, these constructors act as the documentation for valid states.
Still, one can argue that by looking at the four properties of this class alone (without looking at the constructors), one cannot easily understand which combinations of values are valid and which are not.
All that the programmer can determine from this is that this object has four properties.
This doesn’t tell her/him which combinations are valid and which are not. The programmer has to go and see the constructors to understand which combinations are valid and which are not.
"Success. Translated document length: "
"Partial success. Number of errors: "
+ ", Translated document length: "
In this code, the programmer is switching on the Result property to handle each case. One problem with this code is that when the programmer accesses the result parameter, all the properties are available. So, for example, in the Success case, the programmer should only access the TranslatedDocument property, however, nothing prevents her from accessing the Error property.
Can we find a better design that better communicates how to interpret and use the DocumentTranslationResult class?
In this updated design, the DocumentTranslationResult class is abstract and contains no properties whatsoever. It has three derived classes that are nested in it; Success, Failure, and PartialSuccess.
The Success class has only one property - TranslatedDocument, the Failure class also has one property - Error, and the PartialSuccess class has two properties: PageErrors and TranslatedDocument.
Like before, we have three constructors, one constructor per subclass. But now, each subclass has only some of the properties of the original class. It is easier to tell which properties are related with which result type.
Note also that the ResultType enum is no longer needed. The type of the result is encoded in the type system, i.e., as a derived class of DocumentTranslationResult. This has the additional benefit of preventing invalid enum values.
In C#, enum variables are not guaranteed to hold a valid value. By default, the underlying type behind an enum is int. This means that any int value can be converted to ResultType. For example, (ResultType)100 is a valid value to be assigned to a variable of type ResultType.
Note also that there is a parameterless constructor of DocumentTranslationResult that is private. This gives us better control over which classes can inherit from DocumentTranslationResult. Usually, if the base class constructor is private, no classes can inherit from it. However, nested classes are special in that they can access the private members of the classes they reside in.
Now, if we want to modify this data object to add another result type, we can create another nested class inside DocumentTranslationResult that derives from it. Such a class has to be a nested class in DocumentTranslationResult or the code will not compile.
Now, if we have a variable of type DocumentTranslationResult.PartialSuccess and we try to use IntelliSense to view its properties, we can see the two relevant properties, as seen in Figure 4.
However, if we have a variable of type DocumentTranslationResult(which can hold an instance of any of the three subclasses), we get the following in IntelliSense (see Figure 5).
Now, we have no idea how to work with this data object. We now have to go to the class definition and read it. It is only after we have read it, do we know about the three subclasses and the properties they contain.
Similar to the FormatResultForUser method from before, we use a switch statement to switch on the type of the result. The ability to switch over the type of a specific variable is only available as of C# 7, as a result of introducing the pattern matching feature.
Notice that for each case, we are defining a new variable. For example, for the Success case we have a variable called successResult of type DocumentTranslationResult.Success. This means that we can only access properties related to the success case via this variable. Contrast this with the FormatResultForUser method from before. There, we had a single variable result that gave access to all the properties.
For more information about the pattern matching feature of C# 7, read the C# 7 - What's New article here at DotNetCurry.
The name of the method Match comes from pattern matching.
For each result type, we provide a lambda that takes the specific subtype and gives back a value. This means that in each case, we only have access to the properties defined in the corresponding subtype.
The Match method is a generic method that has a generic type parameter TResult. This allows us to use it to return a value of any type. Of course, all the lambdas passed to the Match method must return a value of the same type.
The Match method enforces the matching to be exhaustive, that is, the code using the Match method has to handle all cases or otherwise it won’t compile. Compare this with when we used a switch statement. When using a switch statement, we can forget to include a specific case and the compiler will not complain.
Sometimes, we need to deal with an instance of DocumentTranslationResult in a way such that we don’t want to extract or generate some data from it, instead we might want to simply invoke some code for each case.
Instead of taking Func delegates, this method takes Action delegates. The method will call the appropriate action based on the type of the result.
3. Hover over the CreateMatchMethods attribute (where it is applied on the ExtensionMethods class). The icon for Roslyn based refactorings should show up. A refactoring with title “Create Match methods” should show up, click on it.
Like With methods, Match methods are created as extension methods.
Issue 1: The page number is represented using an integer. Integers can have the value 0 and even negative values. However, a page number cannot be zero or negative. The current design allows us to create an instance of DocumentTranslationResult.PartialSuccess that has errors for page -5 for example.
At runtime, we are still protecting against negative page numbers by throwing exceptions. However, this new design communicates in a better way which page numbers are valid and which are not. Also, instead of having an exception-throwing-code duplicated in all places that needs to accept page numbers, we centralize this check in the PositiveInteger class.
There are ways to get better compile-time invalid state checking here. For example, we could write an analyzer that prevents the code from compiling if we construct a PositiveInteger class using a non-positive integer literal.
This has the advantage of making it very clear to the developer who is creating an instance of a PositiveInteger that not all instances of int can be converted to PositiveInteger . The developer has to try and check if such conversion was successful.
To make the design even more descriptive, we can use a PageNumber class (that contains a PositiveInteger) for the key of the dictionary to represent the page number.
Issue 2: String is used as the type of error. A better option is to create an ErrorMessage class to better communicate that this represents an error message.
Issue 3: The dictionary and the array can be empty. However, if the document is partially successful, then at least one page must contain at least one error.
Again, we can throw exceptions at runtime in the DocumentTranslationResult.PartialSuccess class constructor if the dictionary is empty or the error array for any page is empty. However, it is much better to create a NonEmptyImmutableDictionary and NonEmptyImmutableArray classes in the same way we created the PositiveInteger class.
Also, to make the design more descriptive, we can create a PageErrors data object to represent page errors. Such object would simply contain the dictionary property.
Note: The tendency to use a primitive type (e.g. int) instead of a special class (e.g. PageNumber) to represent a page number is called primitive obsession.
If you are reading a data class and you see a property of type string, can you tell whether it is optional or required? In other words, is it valid for it to be null?
We sometimes use the same type, e.g. string, to represent required and optional values, and this is a mistake.
It is very clear from this design that the primary address is required, while the secondary address is optional.
The DocumentTranslationResult class I used in the example (as is finally designed) is sum type. A sum type is a data structure that can be any one of a fixed set of types. In our example, these were the Success, Failure, and PartialSuccess types.
These three sub types themselves are product types. In simple terms, a product type defines a set of properties that an instance of the type needs to provide values for. For example, the DocumentTranslationResult.PartialSuccess type has two properties; PageErrors and TranslatedDocument. Any instance of DocumentTranslationResult.PartialSuccess must provide a value for these two properties.
Sum types and product types can be composed to form complex data objects. The DocumentTranslationResult example in this article has shown a sum type whose possible subtypes are product types. But this can be even deeper. For example, the Success case can hold a property of type TranslationMethod which can be either Local or ViaWebService. This TranslationMethod type would be a sum type. Again, the Local and ViaWebService types can be product types each containing details specific to them. For example, the ViaWebService type can have a property to tell which web service was used.
Design your data classes so that they are either sum types or product types. In C#, this means that a data object should either be abstract and have no properties and have derived types to present cases for this type, or it should be a sealed class and contain properties.
If you design your data objects this way, then you only need Match methods for sum types and With methods for product types.
By the way, the Maybe monad is a sum type because it can either have a value or not have a value. In my implementation, I use a struct for technical reasons. However, I have seen implementations of it that use two classes to represent the two cases.
Sum types and product types and combinations of these are called Algebraic Data Types. These types have very good support in functional programming languages. In the next section, I will show you how you can easily create your data objects in F# and use them from your C# projects.
F# is a .NET functional programming language. Although it is a functional language, it also has object-orientation support. Because it compiles to MSIL as any .NET language does, code written in F# can be consumed in C#, and vice-versa.
The code starts by creating a module.
A module in F# is simply grouping of F# code. This module contains a Document record. A record in F# defines a set of named values. In C# terms, this is like a data class which contains a set of properties. A record in F# is a product type.
The Document record has two values (properties in C#); Identifier of type string and Content of type string.
Next, we define two type aliases; imdictionary and imarray. This is simply to make it easier to use the ImmutableDictionary and ImmutableArray types.
Next, we define what is called a discriminated union in F#. This is a sum type.
A discriminated union allows us to create a type that can be one of a set of fixed types. In this case we define the DocumentTranslationResult discriminated union that can either be Success, Failure, or PartialSuccess. Notice how we define the fields (or properties in C#) for each case.
Now compare the amount of code we write here versus the amount of code we need to write in C#.
We can write our data objects as F# records and discriminated unions and then write our units of behavior in C#.
Note: Types created with F# are somewhat similar to the types I described in this article when viewed from C#.
The DataObjectHelper library can be used to create With and Match methods for types created in F#. The static class that will contain these methods must exist in a C# project, but the types themselves can come from F#. The DataObjectHelper library supports creating With and Match methods for all the types in a specific module. A module in F# is compiled as a static class in MSIL. If you specify this class when applying the CreateWithMethods and the CreateMatchMethods attributes, With and Match methods for all types within this module will be generated.
Don’t be tempted to use a single data class for many purposes. For example, if there is another translation process in your application that can either succeed or fail (cannot be partially successful), don’t reuse the same DocumentTranslationResult class because it models a result that can also be partially successful. In this case, create another data object to model this new result type.
There are cases where it makes sense to have something similar to a sum type but whose subtypes are not fixed. That is, other cases can be added later by a developer who is not the author of the type. I chose to make this topic out of scope for this article, but I might discuss it in a future article.
In this article, I have given some recommendations on how to design data objects in C#.
I talked about making the data objects immutable to make multithreading safer and to make the program easier to understand. I also talked about making invalid states unrepresentable. We make invalid states unrepresentable by modeling data objects carefully as sum types or product types.
I talked about making it easier to “modify” immutable objects by creating With methods and how the DataObjectHelper Visual Studio extension helps us generate such methods.
Also, for sum types, the DataObjectHelper extension can help us generate Match method to easily and safely switch over the different cases represented by sum types.
I also talked about how we can use F# to concisely create our data objects, and use them in C# projects.
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2019-04-19T20:50:34Z
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https://www.dotnetcurry.com/patterns-practices/1429/data-objects-csharp-fsharp
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Every Super Bowl-winning team is special, but some are better than others. Who's the best of all-time?
The first 53 Super Bowl winners in NFL history have presented us with many wonderful memories, from Garo Yepremian's ill-fated pass to William "The Refrigerator" Perry's touchdown run to Jackie Smith's dropped TD.
OK, so not all of the memories were of brilliant football.
But there was a lot of that, too. So which of the 53 Super Bowl winners was the best? Which was the "worst"? They were all winners, but how do they rank in order of greatness? Sporting News endeavored to establish the definitive ranking, which we did by tapping into the collective wisdom of our staff.
And this is the list we conceived, from 53rd to first.
Overview: The Giants might be the most-improbable champion on this list. New York lost four straight games from Weeks 10-13 and needed to win its last two to get in the playoffs. From there, an eerily-familiar script unfolded. After beating Atlanta in the wild card, Eli Manning walked into Lambeau Field and knocked off Aaron Rodgers and the 15-1 Packers, a game that was over about the time Hakeem Nicks reeled in a Hail Mary before halftime. By then you knew San Francisco was in trouble in the NFC championship game, a 20-17 overtime win. From there, Manning foiled another New England Patriots party in the Super Bowl to win a second Super Bowl in five years.
Overview: Is Joe Flacco elite? The Baltimore quarterback helped erase that punchline with another ready-made postseason run from a team that caught fire at the right time. The Ravens lost four of their last five regular-season games, but that's when the Ray Lewis retirement tour started. Baltimore beat Indianapolis in the wild card, then Flacco's miracle 70-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones forced overtime at Denver. Then, Baltimore beat New England in the AFC championship game to advance to the "Harbaugh Bowl." Baltimore held off a second-half rally by the 49ers. Lewis retired. Flacco earned a status bump. The Ravens won their second Super Bowl.
Overview: After a 6-2 start, New York floundered in the second half before getting a chance to knock off the 15-0 Patriots in the regular-season finale. New England won by a field goal, but the loss gave the Giants enough confidence to win at Tampa Bay and Dallas before upstaging Brett Favre in overtime at a frozen Lambeau Field in the NFC championship. Eli Manning took advantage of the moment in the Super Bowl against New England, and with a little help from a helmet, David Tyree made an improbable catch that set up Plaxico Burress' game-winning touchdown. New York is "that team" that ruined New England's bid at history.
Overview: The first championship of the New England dynasty did not come easily. Nearly every page of the rulebook came into play, from the "tuck rule" that helped save the Patriots in the snow against Oakland to the decision by the Steelers' Troy Edwards to run out of bounds unforced while covering a punt, which forced a rekick the Pats' Troy Brown returned for a TD. After Drew Bledsoe replaced an injured Tom Brady and led New England's win at Pittsburgh, there was a decision to make over whom to use in the Super Bowl. Brady was the choice, and was at his best when he needed to be - as would become his custom.
Overview: Whether Tampa Bay needed to fire Tony Dungy to break through to the Super Bowl is hard to say; all we know for sure is that it worked. In their first season under Jon Gruden the Bucs unleashed an overwhelming defense that was able to disguise a fairly ordinary offensive attack. Simeon Rice stormed through for 15.5 sacks, and 10 players picked up at least one interception. The Oakland Raiders were out of the Super Bowl by halftime - but the Bucs defenders put up three second-half TDs as if to show what they could do.
Overview: He'd been the No. 1 pick in the draft after winning the Heisman Trophy at Stanford but was written off as a failure after throwing 33 more interceptions than touchdowns through seven mostly losing seasons in New England and San Francisco. Oakland signed him as a backup, but when Dan Pastorini broke his leg early in the 1980 season Plunkett was back into the starting lineup. He lost his first time out, then went 13-2 the rest of the way. The Raiders became the first team to win the Super Bowl as a wild card entry into the playoffs.
Overview: This was the season Aaron Rodgers silenced the doubters and stepped out of Brett Favre's shadow for good. Rodgers had to sit out with a concussion in Week 15, a game in which Matt Flynn pushed New England to the limit. That served as a catalyst for the Packers, and the "Discount Double Check" was born. Green Bay won its next two to get in the playoffs, then kept it rolling through road playoff wins at Philadelphia, Atlanta and rival Chicago. That set up a Super Bowl date with Pittsburgh, and Green Bay jumped out to a 21-3 lead before holding off a late Steelers rally. Rodgers held up the Lombardi Trophy, and the Favre comparisons stopped.
Overview: This team is sandwiched in between two Colts' teams that had better regular-season records, but it was time for Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning to finally break through. Manning threw a career-low nine interceptions, and the Colts lost three of their last five before the playoffs. After beating Kansas City and Baltimore, Manning's time finally came. Indianapolis rallied from a 21-3 deficit to beat New England in the AFC championship, then knocked off Chicago in a rain-soaked Super Bowl XLI. Manning finally won that first ring, perhaps when it was least expected.
Overview: This wasn't a 15-1 team like the previous season, but the Steelers caught on at the right time and used the emotion of Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis' final season to make that playoff run. Pittsburgh sat at 7-5 before winning its last four regular-season games. Then they won three road games in the AFC playoffs at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver. Who could forget Ben Roethlisberger's game-saving tackle against Nick Harper against the Colts? Antwaan Randle-El's touchdown pass to Hines ward in Super Bowl XL? This team just made the right plays at the right time, and that brought home the fifth Lombardi Trophy.
Overview: The Raiders' 1981 post-Super Bowl letdown was well-timed. Falling to 7-9 put them in position to draft Marcus Allen with the 10th overall pick, and his brilliance was the primary reason the team returned two seasons later to win their third championship in an eight-year period. Because that run involved multiple coaches and multiple quarterbacks, it's not often viewed as one of the NFL's important dynasties. It also didn't help that the team moved during that time from Oakland to LA.
Overview: Doug Williams only started two regular-season games for the Skins and wasn't even the quarterback of record for a single regular-season victory. But he did lead the team to an overtime win in its season-ender against Minnesota, and he became famous as the first African-American to start a Super Bowl -- and more famous for a four-touchdown performance that earned him the game's MVP award.
Overview: One of the most curious Super Bowl seasons of recent vintage saw legendary quarterback Peyton Manning sidelined because of an injury, marooned there for a time because he hadn't been playing much like Peyton Manning, anyway, and then restored to the position as sub Brock Osweiler was stumbling through the regular season finale. Back in charge for the postseason, Manning was only as good as he had to be, but the Denver defense grew to dominance. Led by the outside rush of Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware, the Broncos gathered 13 sacks, four fumbles and three interceptions in the three games necessary to claim the franchise's third title.
Overview: This was the year that was supposed to end the Patriots' dynasty. They lost five times in the regular season to opponents that failed to reach the playoffs. They had to go on the road for the AFC championship game, visiting the Kansas City Chiefs and red-hot quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Although this is far from the greatest of Super Bowl champions, this surely represented Bill Belichick at the top of his game. He was the dominant figure throughout the playoffs - especially in the Super Bowl, where he towered over young Sean McVay, made him look like a teenager. They gave Edelman the MVP trophy after that game, but this was one of those times when they should have quit with the pretense and handed it to the coach. Belichick did not play, but he threw the Rams for a major loss.
Overview: This wasn't Ben Roethlisberger's best year; he struggled at times while the Steelers tried to cobble together an inconsistent running game. The defense, however, was a constant. James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley made that 3-4 edge rush hum with a combined 27.5 sacks. Pittsburgh led the league in scoring defense. The Steelers beat San Diego and Baltimore to face upstart Arizona in the Super Bowl, a game crystalized by Harrison's 100-yard interception return before halftime and Santonio Holmes' game-winning touchdown catch with 35 seconds remaining. It wasn't always pretty, but it was good enough to give Pittsburgh its sixth Super Bowl championship.
Overview: Perhaps no legendary quarterback ever produced a more forgotten championship performance than Johnny Unitas with the 1970 Colts - in part because he was unable to finish the game. This was only three years before he made his final start in Pittsburgh on an October afternoon - with the Chargers, replaced that day and forevermore by Hall of Famer Dan Fouts - but Johnny U led this team to a season of dominance that included a 68-yard touchdown pass to Ray Perkins that clinched a Super Bowl berth. He threw a 75-yarder early in the Super Bowl, but he left the game with a rib injury and backup Earl Morrall helped guide the Colts to a victory.
Overview: Tony Banks was supposed to be the Ravens' starting quarterback, and he was given half a season before the coaching staff saw enough - three losses, and five games without a touchdown - to make the move to Trent Dilfer. Was he Hall-of-Fame quality? No, but the Raiders scored 20 or more points in all but two of his starts, which included four postseason games. The defense was great from the start, allowing only 165 points in the regular season.
Overview: The combination of Sean Payton and Drew Brees knocked on the door a few times, but this was the year New Orleans broke that down. The always-prolific offense led the league in scoring, and they used home-field advantage to take out Kurt Warner-led Arizona and Brett Favre-led Minnesota in the NFC Playoffs. The Super Bowl win against Indianapolis was defined by two game-changing plays. The first came on Payton's decision to open the second half with an onside kick. The second sealed New Orleans' first championship when Tracy Porter intercepted Peyton Manning and took it to the house.
Overview: The Patriots fell to 2-2 after a 41-14 blowout loss at Kansas City on Monday Night Football, which prompted some to predict demise of this dynasty. We all know what came next. New England went on to Cincinnati. Then the next team. And so on. New England finished 12-4 and beat Baltimore and Indianapolis in the AFC playoffs, although both wins were clouded with controversy. Deflategate was born. The Patriots shook that off to beat Seattle in Super Bowl XLIX with the help of a Malcolm Butler interception in the final minute. A little lucky. Maybe a little dirty. But the end was result was Bill Belichick and Tom Brady winning a fourth Super Bowl together.
Overview: It took only a 10-6 record to win the NFC West, and that also got the 49ers the conference's No. 2 seed. The 49ers had to go on the road to play the Chicago Bears for a spot in the Super Bowl, but they obliterated a team that had seemed, at that point, to be the favorite to advance. The Super Bowl took more doing, as Cincinnati pulled ahead with a field goal that left 3:44 on the clock. But Joe Montana drove the 49ers from their own 8-yard-line in 11 plays that left the Bengals no time to recover. It was one last piece of brilliance from Bill Walsh before he ended his coaching career.
Overview: If we were ranking the most important teams in NFL history, this one quite possibly would be No. 1. The Jets' victory in the third Super Bowl gave credibility to the AFL/NFL merger. (How important was the Jets' win? As a kid, I was happy that NBC dumped the end of the Jets-Oakland game to show "Heidi"; in my view, the AFL wasn't "real" football, anyway.) But this Jets team wasn't just a one-game wonder. Namath was a brilliant talent whose soon-to-be knees hadn't yet robbed him of his ability to dazzle a defense, and he was surrounded by excellent weapons.
Overview: The Green Bay dynasty, still perhaps the defining era in National Football League history, died a glorious death on a 60-degree day at the Orange Bowl in Miami, the Pack cruising to a 30-7 lead after three quarters even as many of the key parts of the team advanced toward the finish line. Most important, this was Lombardi's final game as Green Bay coach, and the next year the Packers wouldn't even field a winning team. They won five NFL titles between 1961 and 1967. This was the least of those teams, but still a champion.
Overview: It's hard not to short-change this team relative to history because it wasn't asked to do as much as everyone else before or since. The season was shortened because of labor issues, so the heart of Washington's first Super Bowl season was, simply, cancelled. The Skins won their first two games, then didn't play again until November. The playoffs were slightly restructured to accommodate the odd season, so they had to play three games to reach the Super Bowl despite earning the No. 1 seed. No matter. Each of their postseason victories was a double-digit triumph.
Overview: It is challenging to rank the Eagles among Super Bowl champions because it's difficult to know what we're ranking. Are we ranking the team that, with blossoming second-year pro Carson Wentz enjoying an MVP-caliber season, won 10 of its first 12 games and looked very much like a championship contender? Or are we considering the team that was taken over by resurrected backup Nick Foles, who executed Pederson's offense to near-perfection against some of the best teams in the NFL? There's never been a Super Bowl champion quite like this, with no singular stars at the skill positions, no defender with double-digit sacks or gaudy interception stats. Here's what's gaudy: They defeated two 13-3 teams in their playoff run. This might be the truest team among all the 52 Super Bowl champs.
Overview: This Patriots team started out 2-2, including a 31-0 loss at Buffalo in Week 1. They didn't lose again after that. Tom Brady made pieces such as Antowain Smith, Kevin Faulk and Deion Branch fit on offense, and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel molded a unit that allowed a league-low 14.9 points per game. That defense tormented Peyton Manning in a 24-14 win against Indianapolis in the AFC championship, and New England held off upstart Carolina in the Super Bowl thanks to another game-winning field goal by Adam Vinatieri.
Overview: Did the Giants have an offense to match their overpowering defense? Well, not in form, but certainly in function. Quarterback Phil Simms threw 311 passes in the 1990 season. Four of them were intercepted. Four! The Giants finished plus-20 on the season in turnover margin, giving up the ball an average of less than once per game and taking it away nearly three times. Yes, it took a wide-right field goal from Buffalo's Scott Norwood to preserve the Giants' victory. But hey, they did force him to try it from 47 yards. And they allowed the Bills to possess the ball for less than 20 minutes of the Super Bowl.
Overview: Explaining how the most recent Dallas Super Bowl title came to be coached by Barry Switzer rather than Jimmy Johnson would require a book rather than the space allotted here - and plenty have been written. The coaching change, which occurred the prior season, did have an impact. It interrupted the team's run of Super Bowl titles and ultimately led to the end of the Cowboys' reign. But they were in the right place at the right time one last time, epitomized by the two interceptions that turned Larry Brown into the most unlikely Super Bowl MVP of all.
Overview: The first of Bill Walsh's Super Bowl champions didn't just launch a dynasty; this team revolutionized the game. It wasn't a loud revolution, but the power running game of prior decades was supplanted by a team that moved the ball with short passes, often to backs. The 49ers backs' caught a combined 117 passes in 1981; Oakland's backs got only 80 the prior season. So it didn't matter that San Francisco didn't have a back likely to go for 100 yards. It had Joe Montana, and a new approach to the game.
Overview: Because the Raiders were trapped in a decade that featured the Steelers winning four Super Bowls and Miami going undefeated, this incredible team's dominance does not always get the recognition it deserves. The Raiders lost only once - and avenged that blowout defeat against the Patriots with a comeback in their first playoff game - and then took the conference title game and Super Bowl by a combined 35 points.
Overview: The Broncos' playoff loss the prior year to Jacksonville was among the most shocking results in NFL postseason history; the Jaguars were in only their second season and had gone 9-7. How much did that drive Denver through the 1997 season? How much did John Elway want not only to get back to the Super Bowl, but win it? Making it to the Super Bowl required a road victory in the AFC title game, and winning it meant having to take down a Green Bay team that one year before had produced a season for the ages. Elway's pure desire was in full view when he dove headfirst for extra yardage on a third-down scramble deep in Green Bay territory - and the hit from three Packers spun him like a helicopter blade. The Broncos scored soon after.
Overview: A little bit of arrogance and a lot of nasty defense typified Pete Carroll's team in 2013. Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch kept the offense humming, and the league's best defense intimidated behind "The Legion of Boom." This team also took a cue from Richard Sherman, the outspoken leader whose tipped pass against San Francisco was iconic both for the play and the post-game reaction. Seattle then toyed with Denver in a 43-8 blowout in Super Bowl XLVIII, a dominant defensive performance that evoked memories of the 1985 Bears. The comparisons continue today.
Overview: This team might be among the most underrated in NFL history, better remembered for the Hank Stram "It's like stealing" comment picked up by NFL Films during KC's rampage over what had seemed, until that day, to be a genuinely great Vikings team. The Chiefs defense was loaded with Hall of Famers and held all three postseason opponents to seven or fewer points and forcing a combined 13 turnovers in those games. Only two opponents all year breached the 300-yard mark.
Overview: The launch of the Steel Curtain dynasty was more fitful than many remember. It came after a preseason interrupted by a league-wide players' strike. Crossing the picket line and entering camp - and his rifle of a right arm - helped position quarterback Joe Gilliam to take over as starter. But he was benched with the team at 4-1-1 and replaced by Terry Bradshaw, who himself was replaced three games later by Terry Hanratty. After the team lost to Houston and fell to 8-3-1, superstar defensive tackle Joe Greene literally walked out on the team because he was frustrated at the team's slow progress toward Super Bowl contention. Receivers coach Lionel Taylor caught Greene in the parking lot, allowed him to vent and convinced him to return. Five wins later, the Steelers had their first Lombardi Trophy.
Overview: If you think pre-Super Bowl silence was invented by Marshawn Lynch, we take you back to a no-simpler time when Cowboys running back Duane Thomas declined to speak with reporters in advance of the game. About the only thing he said before Dallas played the Dolphins was to respond to a question about the Super Bowl being the ultimate game with this gem: "If it's the ultimate game, how come they're playing it again next year?" This was Thomas' ultimate Super Bowl, however. He rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown - he was so unpopular Staubach won the MVP with only 119 passing yards - then was traded away in the offseason.
Overview: You know how everybody is making a big deal about Cleveland firing David Blatt? Well, George Seifert led this team to his second Super Bowl title in six years as coach, then won a combined 23 regular-season games over the next two years and lost his job. Now, that's dumb. He certainly had tremendous players at his disposal, including the Hall-of-Fame connection of Steve Young to Jerry Rice. But getting rid of Seifert didn't get San Francisco any greater success.
Overview: Perhaps the only thing more impressive than Miami's perfect season was not allowing the celebration to undermine the following year. Honestly, the fact the Dolphins came back the next season and lost just twice, rolling through the postseason by a combined 52 points - this team in some ways might even have been better than its more storied predecessor.
Overview: Did the Patriots complete the greatest Super Bowl comeback, or did Atlanta present the greatest Super Bowl choke? Well, yes. It was a lot of both. The Patriots had no business being in the game after trailing 28-3 in the third quarter and 28-9 entering the fourth. They almost certainly would have run out of time had Atlanta QB Matt Ryan not dropped deep to throw on third-and-1 inside the final 10 minutes, a decision that led to a strip sack that turned the game around. But New England did dominate regular-season competition in the AFC East and was not challenged in the playoffs on its way to the Super Bowl. This team had the numbers of a dominant team, but it never totally felt that way.
Overview: It took Bill Parcells just four years to build the Giants into the champions that he imagined. But the most important ingredient was in place when he arrived. Lawrence Taylor had been drafted in 1981, the second player chosen behind South Carolina running back George Rogers, and he began making Pro Bowls from his rookie year. By 1986 he was the most feared defensive player in the league. He sacked the quarterback 20.5 times that season and was unanimously named the NFL's MVP.
Overview: Tony Dorsett was a rookie fresh off winning a national championship at Pitt and barged into the NFL as part of an overwhelming running attack that also featured veterans Robert Newhouse and Preston Pearson. That unstoppable trio - and nimble QB Roger Staubach - averaged a combined 182 rushing yards in three postseason games, including 233 in the Division round game against Chicago. Dallas did not feature one of its greatest defenses, but the offense did its job in keeping that unit off the field.
Overview: John Elway waited 15 years to win his first Super Bowl. He was 37 years old when the Broncos beat the Packers to complete the 1997 season and it would have been easy to walk away with that long-awaited title. Coming back for one final season only invited disappointment … except the Broncos were set up to be really, really good. And so they were. Terrell Davis produced one of the most dominant seasons ever by a running back, and the rich passing game turned out two 1,000-yard receivers. Elway did not make it through the year unscathed, having to miss four starts. But he was there when the Lombardi Trophy was presented, and rightfully so.
Overview: The Greatest Show on Turf was an offense unlike any the NFL had seen, but even the Rams didn't see it coming. Well, not totally. They planned for a great passing attack by drafting Tory Holt to go with star wideout Isaac Bruce, but they expected Trent Green to run it. Instead, Green was badly injured in a preseason game and former Arena League QB Kurt Warner took over. Would it have been the Greatest Show with Green at the controls? Warner threw for 41 touchdowns that season. No one else did that.
Overview: The Steel Curtain was starting to droop by the time the 70s were nearing a close. Ernie Holmes had been gone several years and Dwight White, L.C. Greenwood and Joe Greene were within two years of retirement. Although there were six regular-season games in which opponents scored seven or fewer points, by the playoffs - and especially the Super Bowl - the D needed assistance from what had become an elite offense. John Stallworth and Lynn Swann were never better as a combination; Terry Bradshaw passed for a career high in yardage. Bradshaw's two bombs to Stallworth in the Super Bowl gave them all one last ring.
Overview: This wasn't the peak of the Packers' dynasty under Vince Lombardi, but it was by far the better of their first two Super Bowl teams. Such offensive greats as Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung were starting to fade; Taylor never played again for the Pack after rushing for 56 yards and a touchdown in the Super Bowl victory over Kansas City, and Hornung did not play because of a pinched nerve. But the defense was a terror. Six opponents scored fewer than 10 points. Four were held without a touchdown.
Overview: Jerry Jones didn't win many friends when he bought the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 and fired Tom Landry rather unceremoniously in favor of his old college teammate, Jimmy Johnson. But soon the former Razorbacks were winning big with the Cowboys behind a trio of brilliant offensive talents: running back Emmitt Smith, quarterback Troy Aikman and receiver Michael Irvin. They were called The Triplets, a curious nickname in that each brought something different to the attack. But they were inseparable on the field.
Overview: The greatness of the organization Joe Gibbs built in Washington is best exemplified by this fact: Mark Rypien was the third different quarterback to win a Super Bowl for him. As well, Earnest Byner had taken over for John Riggins as the team's featured runner. So it wasn't one or two stars at key positions who carried the Skins. It was their remarkable offensive line, 1000-yard wideouts Art Monk and Gary Clark and an underrated defense that overwhelmed the considerable competition.
Overview: On Jimmy Johnson's last lap with the Cowboys dynasty he built, the team reached its zenith, starting slowly with a post-Super-Bowl-funk start of 7-4 but then tearing through the games that mattered most: eight consecutive wins through Super Bowl 28 by an average margin of 16 points. Only a victory over the Giants in a season-ender to clinch the division even troubled them Cowboys.
Overview: What it took to transform the Steelers from Super Bowl champs to burgeoning dynasty was the rapid progress of Terry Bradshaw as a leader at quarterback and the maturation of the team's legendary 1974 draft class. Receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth became regular starters, center Mike Webster took a greater share of playing time on the line and linebacker Jack Lambert became a team-leading enforcer who created an iconic Steelers moment when, in the Super Bowl, he shoved Dallas safety Cliff Harris to the turf for taunting kicker Roy Gerela over a missed field goal.
Overview: It's tough to repeat as Super Bowl champions, and this is the last team to do it. Brady received more firepower in the form of veteran running back Corey Dillon, who showed he still had legs at 30 years old. New England had a top-five units on both sides and played a season-long game of can-you-top-this with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who beat the Pats in Week 8 and earned home-field advantage. The rematch came in the AFC championship, which New England won 41-27. The Patriots held off Terrell Owens and Philadelphia in the Super Bowl to earn that second straight championship.
Overview: Is it possible the greatest Packers team of the Super Bowl era was not coached by Vince Lombardi? It's not only possible, it's true. If you're arguing about the best Packers team, you might include the 1962 Lombardi squad that went 13-1, but the team you'd place it against in the conversation is this one. Brett Favre's only Super Bowl victory came with a team so complete it led the league in scoring offense and scoring defense, and whose Super Bowl MVP was primarily a special teams ace. The '96 Pack had it all.
Overview: There are those among the Steelers of the era who claim the 1976 team was their greatest; that group recorded some incredible defensive performances after a dreadful start, but to say it was undone only by playoff injuries is to slight the great Oakland team that eliminated them. This team had all the goods: a legendary defense that ranked as the best in the league, quarterback Terry Bradshaw at the peak of his heath and effectiveness, the dual Lynn Swann/John Stallworth threat at receiver and the reliable Franco Harris grinding out yards. It never got any better than this for the Steel Curtain.
Overview: We remember helicopters and a dance video and the Fridge. There was a lot of sideshow to the 85 Bears' rampage through the NFL. It's a tribute to the team's greatness, though, that all of that does not obscure the brilliance of the football performance. The only question about the '85 Bears seemed not to be whether they would win the Super Bowl, but whether they would go undefeated. And when that was gone, the issue was how great the margin of their Super Bowl victory would be.
Overview: Bill Walsh's retirement following the 1988 season put George Seifert in a curious position. He was taking over a Super Bowl team, so there really wasn't much room for improvement. Or was there? The '88 squad had to rally to win the title and needed a late winning streak to make the playoffs. The 49ers were gun-to-wire dominant in Seifert's rookie year and weren't even challenged in the postseason, winning three games by a combined 100 points. The combined margin of the team's two defeats? Five points.
Overview: Although their successors as champs drew far more headlines, this team is very much in the argument for the greatest of all time. For one, consider what they did in the Super Bowl to a Miami team that destroyed the AFC with young Dan Marino's passing wizardry. The 49ers put them down 12 by halftime, then ended it in the third quarter. Marino was sacked four times and completed no pass longer than 30 yards. The 49ers lost only a 3-point decision in an October game against Pittsburgh.
Overview: They still cling tight to their singular distinction: the only team in 50 years of the Super Bowl era to make it through the entire season without losing a game. Amazingly, they actually came close to falling six times, winning by a single score in each of their three postseason games. They had to come from behind twice in the AFC Championship game at Pittsburgh, and in the Super Bowl they had to fight off a late Washington rally after grabbing a 14-0 halftime lead. MVP Jake Scott intercepted a pass in the end zone and returned it into opposing territory. That didn't end the game, but all Washington had after that play was desperation. When it was over, the Dolphins had perfection. Forever.
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2019-04-20T06:20:28Z
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https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/list/the-best-super-bowl-winning-teams-ranked/kc9izx8mw7hm14cgyegdj27xk
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New revision. Lenovo equips the ThinkPad T480s with a new chassis and closes the gap towards its own ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Intel's latest quad-core processors are obviously included as well. We checked the SKU with the high-resolution WQHD IPS panel.
After the 2018 ThinkPad X1 Carbon (here in review), Lenovo also launched the new revision of the ThinkPad T4xxs. The new T480s is still sitting between the regular ThinkPad T480 and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon in Lenovo's lineup. Last year's T470s was in a tricky spot because it was only a small update, while both the T470 as well as the X1 Carbon 2017 got a complete redesign. The difference compared to the standard T470 was suddenly very small, and the gap towards the X1 Carbon grew bigger. This is supposed to change with the new T480s. The regular T480 is not available yet, so we will focus on the comparison with the much more expensive X1 Carbon for now.
Our test system is a campus model with the designation 20L8S02D00, which is only available for a limited user group (students & scientific employees). It is priced at 1259 Euros and comes with the modern Intel Core i5-8250U (quad core), 8 GB RAM, a 512 GB SSD (PCIe-NVMe), and the high-resolution WQHD panel (matte), but no operating system. We do not have any information about the Topseller SKUs for regular customers yet, but the T480s is already listed in Lenovo's online shop. A quick customization based on our test model results in a price of almost 1900 Euros, albeit with Windows 10 Home 64.
The campus program also includes the model 20L8S02E00 for 1499 Euros, which features a particularly interesting CPU/GPU combination. Besides the slightly more powerful Core i7-8550U, you also get the dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX150, which is not supposed to be available in Europe.
Lenovo uses a new chassis, but the differences to the previous ThinkPad T470s are not that big. The foot print of the new ThinkPad T480s is basically identical, and the weight does not differ a lot, either. The base unit is now 0.35 mm slimmer, but you will only notice it in a direct comparison. The easiest way to spot the new 2018 model is the overhauled connectivity, but more on that later.
The ThinkPad T480s is positioned between the regular ThinkPad T480 and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The tactile feeling of the smooth surfaces is almost on par with the flagship X1 Carbon. However, the difference to the T480 with its rougher surfaces is definitely noticeable.
We cannot complain about the quality: The base unit is very sturdy and you really have to apply a lot pf pressure if you want to dent it. The lid leaves a slightly sturdier impression than last year, and especially the ripples on the screen under pressure are not as bad. Lenovo also reworked the hinges. They are now a bit firmer and prevent bouncing of the display very effectively.
The keyboard of the ThinkPad T480s is spill-water resistant and Lenovo states that the device passed several tests according to the military standard (MIL-STD-810G), but does not disclose individual tests. Lenovo offers the T480s both in a black and a silver case.
Both the size and the weight of the ThinkPad T480s are pretty much right between its two siblings. All in all, however, all the competitors are very much alike. It is not problem to carry the T480s around.
The ThinkPad T480s is one of the 2018 models with the new mechanical docking connector at the left side. It consists of two USB-C ports (1x Gen.2 w/ Thunderbolt, 1x Gen.1) and the proprietary network connector. The latter is not really necessary though (and there is no adapter in the box), because the T480s also features a regular Ethernet port (Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet). You also get one regular USB 3.1 port (Gen.1, Type-A) on each side, so you do not need adapters.
Video output is either possible via HDMI (full-size), but it only supports the 1.4b standard. This means the maximum resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels can only be driven at 30 Hz. The USB-C port supports 60 Hz, but you will need a corresponding adapter (to DisplayPort or VGA, for example). The iGPU of the ThinkPad T480s can drive up to three independent displays.
Manufacturers often do not specify the interface of the Thunderbolt port, which is also the case here. The T480s only features one x4-interface according to the diagnostics tool HWiNFO, but it is occupied by the PCIe-SSD. The Thunderbolt 3 port is therefore attached via x2 interface with a maximum transfer rate of 20 Gb/s.
The SD card reader of the T480s still accepts full-size SD cards, but the transfer speeds fall behind the microSD reader of the current X1 Carbon. We determine more than 80 MB/s with our reference card from Toshiba (Exceria Pro UHS-II 64 GB), which is okay, but the performance could be better.
If you want to access the Internet on the road (and do not want to use your smartphone), you will be happy about the prepared antennas for a WWAN module (LTE). It is no problem to install the module by yourself, but you should keep an eye on the supported modules by Lenovo. NFC is optional (indicated by the small symbol on the touchpad), but it was not available on our test model.
Lenovo meets the increased security requirements of business customers with the ThinkPad T480s. Besides the usual stuff like a slot for a security lock, the fingerprint scanner (touch based) and the TPM 2.0 module, you can obviously set different passwords as well. A SmartCard reader on the right side is optional, and it is an easy way to integrate the laptop into your corporate environment without using additional peripherals.
Lenovo now equips the regular HD webcam with a mechanical shutter called ThinkShutter. You need some force and ideally a long fingernail to shift the shutter. There are also SKUs with an infrared camera for facial recognition in combination with Windows Hello. However, the latter is not available with the mechanical cover, which is probably caused by the much bigger lens. You should not expect too much from the regular HD webcam. It does its job in video conferences, but you should use your smartphone for better images.
There is not much in the box of the ThinkPad T480s; you only get the notebook, a 65-Watt power adapter, and some service leaflets. Lenovo offers numerous optional generic accessories like cases, power adapters, or docking stations (USB or Thunderbolt 3). There are also new mechanical docking stations for the docking port at the left side. You can choose between different models depending on your requirements. The following pictures show the most expensive ThinkPad Ultra docking station for around 320 Euros. You just put the ThinkPad T480s on top of it and you do not need any other cables.
The bottom panel is only secured by 6 Philips screws (only loosen, not remove) and can easily be lifted. Once inside, you clearly see the difference compared to the old T470s. There is only one (bigger) battery and the position of the components changed significantly, too. You can access and replace the M.2-2280 SSD, the WLAN and (if applicable) the WWAN module. The required antennas are prepared on every model (WWAN-ready). The latter is an advantage over the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, just like the additional SODIMM slot. You can upgrade the RAM up to 24 GB (8 GB soldered + up to 16 GB module).
ThinkPad T-series laptops are usually shipped with a 3-year on-site warranty. Lenovo also offers additional extensions up to five years and services like accident protection or Keep your Drive.
The keyboard was not changed this year. The ThinkPad T470s was already equipped with one of the best keyboards in the mobile segments, so this is no problem. Frequent writers will once again enjoy rich feedback with sufficient travel. The keyboard also features a white LED illumination with two intensities. Similar to the more expensive sibling ThinkPad X1 Carbon we would like to see an ambient light sensor, and a brighter level would be nice as well.
ThinkPad newcomers have to get used to the layout with the position of the Fn and Ctrl keys. However, you can change the allocation in the BIOS, just like the default behavior of the F keys (special functions).
The touchpad was slightly revised. There was still a little space between the touchpad and the dedicated mouse buttons on the previous model, which is now gone. The touch-sensitive surface is now a bit bigger. It is still a clickpad and can be pushed down in the lower half, which results in a slightly loud, but even clicking sound. The Precision Pad recognizes and executes movements and gestures very well.
You can also use the red TrackPoint with its dedicated mouse buttons. It works very well once you have got used to it, but this is also a matter of taste.
Lenovo currently offers three different screen options for the T480s: 2x Full HD (matte or touch, both 250 nits) and the WQHD panel on our test model. However, it is not the same AUO panel from the old ThinkPad T470s, but the LG Philips unit (LP140QH2-SPB1) we tested on last year's X1 Carbon 2017.
Lenovo advertises a luminance of 300 nits for the matte panel, but this is a conservative estimate. We determine 342 nits on average with a maximum luminance of 362 nits – very good results. The brightness distribution is also very uniform at 91 %, despite the bright panel. The biggest drawback is the comparatively high black value (0.46), so black contents appear a bit grayish and the contrast ratio (765:1) suffers as well. The subjective picture impression is otherwise decent, because there is no backlight bleeding even at the highest brightness setting, and there is no PWM.
The grayscale performance is not very good out of the box. We determine comparatively high DeltaE-2000 deviations and a slight green cast. There are some outliers when it comes to the colors, too, so you should calibrate the panel if possible. You can also install our calibrated profile, which is linked in the display box above (How to install a color profile).
It is easy to calibrate the WQHD panel and our measurements show big improvements for the grayscale as well as the colors. There is only one outlier (100% red) that surpasses a DeltaE value of 3. The slight color cast is gone as well.
The smaller sRGB reference is almost covered completely, and the wider AdobeRGB gamut still by 68.4%. The color accuracy is good, so you can use the WQHD model of the ThinkPad T480s for some picture editing.
The T480s obviously benefits from the matte screen outdoors. Reflections are not a big issue, which is also shown by the comparison with the glossy screen of the X1 Carbon 2018 HDR. Thanks to the good luminance, which is not reduced on battery, you can also work comfortable in bright environments.
The viewing angle stability of the IPS panel is very good. Colors remain stable even at wider shifts, and the content only gets a bit brighter. However, there should not be any limitations in practice.
Our test model is shipped without an operating system by default. Windows 10 Home 64 (as well as the drivers) were installed by the retailer Campuspoint. The following benchmarks and measurements were determined with these settings as well. More precisely: The processor can consume up to 44 W, and not only for short periods. This is probably connected with the cooling solution, which was probably designed with the optional MX150 GPU in mind since it consists of two heat pipes. Previous ThinkPad models often used one heat pipe for integrated GPUs, while models SKUs with dGPUs often get an additional one for improved heat dissipation.
The installation of Lenovo's Power Management Driver changed this behavior dramatically and limits the consumption to just 15 W. Even the slimmer X1 Carbon 2018 and the X280 can consume more power. The driver is from December 2017, so there is a chance it was not yet optimized for the T480s. We therefore raised the limit manually.
The PowerLimit at 44 W would suit the SKU with the dedicated MX150 GPU, which has a typical TDP of 25 W.
Note: BIOS 1.10 was released during the review, but it has no effect on the performance or fan activity.
Every ThinkPad is equipped with 4 or 8 GB soldered RAM (DDR4-2133 or DDR4-2400 depending on the CPU) in a single-channel configuration. It is, however, no problem to install up to 24 GB thanks to the additional SODIMM slot.
Our SKU is equipped with Intel's smallest quad-core ULV processor. The Core i5-8250U runs at up to 3.4 GHz on all four cores. More technical information for the processor is available here.
Thanks to the increased TDP limitation, the processor executes the Cinebench R15 Multi test with the full 4x 3.4 GHz, which results in an excellent score of 728 points. The processor gets quite warm (~90 °C), but can utilize its full performance potential and consumes about 30 W. The ThinkPad T480s even surpasses some units with the 45 W chip Core i7-7700HQ. The score drops to just 549 points with the previously mentioned 15 W limit.
Our Cinebench Multi loop shows that the cooling solution can handle the higher consumption. The score only fluctuates slightly during the first 20 runs, before the system will eventually decrease the TDP to 24 W (4x 3.0 GHz) for short periods. we determine the following average results after 50 runs (~55 minutes): 3274 MHz, 88.4 °C (CPU Package) and 28.3 W.
The surfaces warm up noticeable, but we can only measure more than 50 °C in the area right above the fan exhaust. The center keyboard area is at ~43 °C, while the bottom warms up to 46 °C – overall lower results compared to the X1 Carbon 2018, despite the better performance.
Note Undervolting: We managed to reduce the core voltage of our processor by 125 mV, which stabilizes the performance and reduce both the temperature as well as the consumption at the same time. All the exact values are listed in this dedicated article.
The subjective performance impression of the new ThinkPad T480s is very good thanks to the fast processor and especially the PCIe-SSD. There are no stutters, Windows boots up quickly, and applications are launched without any noticeable delays.
This impression is unfortunately not fully represented by the synthetic PCMarks, because our test model is usually in the lower half of the ranking. However, all the comparison devices are equipped with fast components and the differences are not huge. Even small driver issues or missing optimizations can have an effect here. Another RAM module would help as well.
The M.2 drive is provided by Samsung and carries the designation PM981. It is the latest PCIe-SSD from the Korean manufacturer and the successor to the popular PM961. You do not have to worry about the performance of the drive, because the transfer rates are great in all tests. AS SSD is the only exception, because we did not get any useful results. However, we already know this problem from other PCIe-SSDs.
You can also equip the M.2 slot for the WWAN module with a small SSD (M.2-2242) in theory, which was also the case for earlier ThinkPad models. However, there is no information in the spec sheet, and we did not have a corresponding SSD for testing.
You can use our comprehensive database for the comparison with other SSDs and conventional hard drives.
Our test model of the ThinkPad T480s is only equipped with the integrated UHD Graphics 620. This graphics adapter is a rebranded version of the old HD Graphics 620 with a slightly higher core clock; up to 1100 MHz in combination with the Core i5-8250U. The efficient iGPU with its integrated decoder is an excellent choice for multimedia purposes and the playback of high-resolution videos. The benchmark results are average and would benefit from another RAM module. The performance is not reduced on battery power.
Need more GPU performance? The ThinkPad T480s is also available with a dedicated Nvidia MX150 GPU. This graphics card is at least twice at fast, and even faster in some scenarios. More benchmarks and comparisons are available here.
The gaming capabilities of the T480s with the iGPU are limited to older or less demanding titles. The frame rates would be better with an additional RAM module, but SKUs with the Nvidia GPU will be the better choice for gaming ambitions.
The cooling solution leaves a sophisticated impression. Short peak load or the installation of applications are usually handled without any fan activity. We did not experience any electronic noises or coil whine, respectively, so the T480s is often a silent system.
Note: The following measurements were performed with the original 44 W TDP limit. The 15 W limit of Lenovo's Power Management Driver results in a maximum fan noise of 33.6 dB(A).
It takes about 30 seconds before the fan starts spinning at 33.6 dB(A) in 3DMark 06. It will jump to 36.9 dB(A) after another minute (the end of the first benchmark sequence).
We can measure 33.6 dB(A) in the Cinebench Single test, while the value fluctuates between 36.9 - 38.3 dB(A) in the CB Multi loop. The latter value is also the maximum during the stress test. The fan quickly reduces its speed after the load period and will run for a short while at 31.3 dB(A) depending on the CPU temperature. The fan noise in not very high-pitched and therefore not annoying.
The surface temperatures are very low while idling and under load at less than 23 °C. The temperature distribution is very even and there is no hot spot. We performed our stress test twice, once with the default 15 W TDP limit and once with the 44 W limit.
The stress test at 15 W does not reveal any surprises. The processor consumption (including the iGPU) drops to 15 W after about 10 seconds, which results in a CPU clock of 4x 1.2 GHz + 700 MHz GPU. The temperature distribution is similar to the Cinebench tests we performed earlier, but the general temperature level is much lower. We can only measure little more than 40 °C around the fan exhaust. The fan noise was steady at 33.6 dB(A) during the whole test. The temperatures for the 15 W stress test are listed as Witcher 3 results in the diagram below.
It obviously gets warmer with the increased power limit. We have added the detailed performance data of the one-hour test below. Both the clock (and there the consumption) begin to fluctuate after a while, we also determine different fan levels. It is either 33.6 dB(A) (4x 1.4-1.5 GHz CPU, 900 MHz CPU, ~42 W system consumption) or 36.9 dB(A) (4x 1.6 GHz CPU, 1000 MHz GPU, ~48 W system consumption). The warmest spot is about 10 °C warmer, and you should not use the system on your lap in this scenario. However, these temperatures are still okay considering the level of performance.
(-) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 40.4 °C / 105 F, compared to the average of 29.4 °C / 85 F for the devices in the class Office.
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 21.7 °C / 71 F, compared to the device average of 29.4 °C / 85 F.
(±) Playing The Witcher 3, the average temperature for the upper side is 33.8 °C / 93 F, compared to the device average of 29.4 °C / 85 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are reaching skin temperature as a maximum (34.3 °C / 93.7 F) and are therefore not hot.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 28.2 °C / 82.8 F (-6.1 °C / -10.9 F).
The two stereo speakers of the ThinkPad T480s are well-suited for voice playback in calls or video conferences, for example. We are no impressed by the performance in other scenarios though, because the "sound" is extremely thin and is just not very pleasant when you listen to music or watch videos. You should use a pair of headphones or external speakers if possible.
The microphone left a much better impression with clear voices and not much ambient noise. It is usually not necessary to use an external headset.
Lenovo managed to improve the power consumption compared to the predecessor, especially in light workload scenarios. However, there are no big surprises here. All three competitors from Dell, Fujitsu, and HP are slightly more efficient, but they also feature displays with lower resolutions.
We measured a maximum consumption of 67.1 W, but this is limited to a couple of minutes during our stress test before it drops. This is not perfect considering the 65 W PSU, but we did not detect a discharge of the battery, so the power adapter seems to have sufficient headroom. The consumption will level off between 42-48 W during the stress test with the increased TDP limit; while our measurement device show about 30 W after a few seconds with the default 15 W limitation.
The chassis is a bit slimmer, but Lenovo still managed to increase the battery capacity from 51 to 57 Wh thanks to the new single battery layout. The display seems to be a bit more efficient as well, which results in very good battery runtimes.
The stamina is now better than before, especially in the practical tests at an adjusted luminance of 150 nits. Our WLAN test runs for about nine hours and therefore two hours longer compared to the T470s (also WQHD). Our video loop even lasts more than 12 hours – 4.5 hours more.
The battery supports the RapidCharge feature, which provides 80 % of the battery capacity after just 60 minutes. We can confirm this statement with a tolerance of a few minutes. The last couple of percent take longer, which is normal, so the total charging time adds up to 115 minutes.
In review: Lenovo ThinkPad T480s. Test model courtesy of Campuspoint.
The ThinkPad T480s is a very interesting device and probably the most complete 14-inch business laptop from Lenovo right now. The previous model still suffered from some drawbacks, and most of them have been fixed for the 2018 edition.
The cooling solution between the SKUs with the integrated and the dedicated GPU seems to be identical, so the is sufficient headroom for the cooling of the quad-core ULV processor. The default Lenovo driver currently still limits the TDP to 15 W, which is very low. The cooling solution also handles the Core i5 quad-core very well even without the limitation, but this also results in higher temperatures and a louder fan. You can therefore choose between maximum performance or a cooler and quieter device. The performance is sufficient for many daily tasks, even with the 15 W limitation.
Back to old strengths: Lenovo improves the T480s at the right spots and presents a compelling package, which can convince us in the right sections.
There are not really any major drawbacks in the other sections, either. The speakers are back, just like the HD webcam. Core disciplines like the case, connectivity, display, input devices, and battery runtime, however, do not disappoint. After a weaker year for the ThinkPad T470s, the T480s is once again one of the best business laptops you can get.
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2019-04-23T07:55:49Z
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https://www.notebookcheck.net/First-Impressions-Lenovo-ThinkPad-T480s-i5-WQHD-Laptop.284832.0.html
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The US and Syria: Is Dialogue Coming?
Is the US contemplating a broader dialogue with Syria?
Not at this time. I explain the reasons why in an interview with Abdullah Ghadwi, published in al-Seyassah, Febrary 1, 2007.
All the same, a number of analysts believe that the administration is torn over dialogue with Syria and may be more open to such a dialogue than at any time in the past two years. Here are the arguments they put forward.
1. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she has given the U.S. embassy in Syria authorization to discuss Iraqi refugees with Damascus.
Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee U.S. diplomats were given authorization to discuss the flow of refugees with the Syrian government, but the talks are not to be part of a larger discussion with the country about Iraq, CNN reported Friday.
The secretary of state said talks with the country on the subject of closing its borders to insurgents would likely lead to Damascus demanding U.S. concessions on Lebanon, where Syrian troops were removed amid international pressure in 2005.
"I am concerned that given the circumstances of Syrian behavior in Lebanon … talking with Syria now about Iraq would have downsides for us in terms of Lebanon, in terms of what Syria would be looking for, in terms of how it would be perceived," Rice said.
This permission to Michael Corbin, the very capable US charge' d'affaires in Damascus, to carry out a dialogue on Iraqi refugees is a very narrow brief. The US is under immense pressure to help the Iraqi refugees fleeing its failed experiment in Iraq. Syria, until recently, has been willing to take in the poorest Iraqis, something no other state has been willing to do. Beginning in January new restrictions may exclude the most vulnerable and poorest refugees. (Iraqis must now prove that they have a legal rental contract for an apartment or rooms before they are issued three month, renewable residency permits.) The UN High Commissioner for Refugees announced that "Syria has assured the United Nations it would keep hosting one million Iraqi refugees despite new rules imposed on residency. There was a clear statement from the government members I met that no Iraqis will be sent back to Iraq against their will in the present dramatic circumstances," Guterres said after meeting senior Syrian officials. Syria insists that the benefit of the new measure will be to force Iraqis in Syria to get proper papers, register with authorities, and to maintain security. Iraqi refugees say Syrian authorities have been deporting Iraqis accused of fomenting sectarian tensions at home.
The US bears a particular responsibility to protect those who have been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict in Iraq. In addition, the US needs to make a proactive effort to resettle more Iraqis quickly and safely than it has up to this point.
"US policy and military action helped create the dreadful situation that now prevails in Iraq, yet up until now very few Iraqis displaced as a result of war have been allowed to take refuge in the US," said Malcolm Smart. "The US authorities must stand up their obligations on this issue and help lead the effort to provide long term durable solutions for Iraqi refugees."
In his just-released budget, President Bush asked for $35 million to help Iraq's refugees in fiscal year 2008, plus $15 million in supplemental funding for this year.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a private nonprofit group, had urged Bush to seek $250 million as part of a supplemental war funding request.
The Bush administration "has been slow to react to a worsening situation, amid ample warnings," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement. Rice's task force, he said, "is a hopeful sign, and it can move us forward as long as it doesn't waste time pondering the obvious."
Senior U.S. officials would not accept any special US responsibility for Iraqis fleeing the violence created by the US invasion. "It's a shared global responsibility," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in response to questions of whether the US had any special moral obligation to assist Iraqi refugees. The amounts of money allocated for refugees in the next two years and official administration statements suggest that President Bush will hold the line against helping Iraqi refugees or admitting the US must take special action.
"In six months, it will be too late," said Kristele Younes of Refugees International, an advocacy group. "We're not seeing the U.S. do much, frankly."
All the same, the new avenue for refugee dialogue is a toe in the door for Damascus. By compartmentalizing and allowing limited dialogue, Washington proves that separating the many issues it has with Damascus is possible. Right now, the differences between Washington and Damascus over Lebanon are the main sticking points, according to Rice. The US does not want to be asked to make concessions on Lebanon.
Saudia Arabia has decided that it will be the host of the next meeting of the Arab League, in Riyadh.
Officials said they hoped at that meeting to smooth relations with Syria after its president, Bashar al-Assad, insulted the Saudi king and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in a speech last summer. Officials believe that Syria had moved closer to Iran because of its isolation, and that that shift has given Iran a bridge to the Arab world.
“Politically speaking, Syria is not in the fold,” said an Egyptian diplomat who spoke on the condition he not be identified. “Maybe the goal is to bring Syria back to the Arab world.” If so, that, too, could antagonize Washington, which wants to isolate Syria further.
Currently there is talk of serious Syrian cooperation in Iraq. The Syrians are expected to extradite some former Baathists from the Iraqi regime. They are expected to conduct stronger border control with Iraq. And they are expected to invite senior clerics and tribal leaders from the Shiite and Sunni community of Iraq for reconciliation talks in Damascus and an end to the sectarian killings of Baghdad. The Syrians have their own channels to the Sunni street (at least parts of it) and can do the same in the Shiite street via Hizbullah. They have already welcomed Sheikh Harith al-Dari from the Muslim Scholars Association, who was in Damascus last week. The Iraqi Minister of Interior Jawad al-Boulani came to Syria to discuss security coordination. If the Syrians are able to deliver on Iraq, and thereby show the world that the keys to stability in Baghdad are in Damascus, how will the situation in Lebanon change, and in the favor of whom? The US administration, after all, despite all talk by George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, cares more so for Iraq than Lebanon. That is a fact. The keys to stability in the Middle East are in Baghdad, not Beirut.
I am not convinced Syria has the ability to affect the violence in Iraq very much, even if it were willing to throw its weight behind American plans there. President Asad said in his ABC interview with Diane Sawyer, "we are the main player in this issue." He was speaking about Iraq. Syria is not the main player. To be fair to Asad, he added that "our role is going to be through supporting the dialogue between the different parties inside Iraq with the support from the other parties like the Americans and the other neighboring countries and any other country in the world. So that's how we can stop the violence." This is fair enough. Syria can help, but it cannot make any dramatic difference in Iraq on its own. It can lend its weight through urging various groups to come to the table. Secretary Rice has made it clear that the US does not believe Syria can or will help enough to make dialogue on this front worth the concessions that Washignton would have to make on the Lebanese front or Israeli front.
All of this suggests that the US will have to review its stand on Syrian isolation eventually, but not in the short term. In 2007, the US will focus on its surge, on advancing Saudi initiatives, and arming the pro-American Lebanese and Palestinian factions. None of this is likely to bear fruit. Only after frustration on this front will Washington begin to come around to trying something new. Bush may hold out to the end of his administration. In the mean time, Lebanon will remain paralysed. The promise of foreign assistance should keep the economy afloat, but only staggering along. The Palestinians will continue to kill each other and witness the steady decay of what institutions and quality of life remain, and the Iraqi situation will deteriorate progressively, building up ever larger refugee populations in the neighboring states.
The problem the US has created with the destruction of the Iraqi state is that the traditional balance of power between the Arab states and Iran has tilted firmly in Iran's favor. The only remedy to this is to build up Arab cooperation and unity to bring the balance back into some equilibrium. Without serious action to address Palestinian grievances, bring Lebanese factions to the table, and, most importantly, to make peace between Syria and the rest of the Arab World through a comprehensive Israel, Syrian, Lebanon peace, there is no hope that the Arabs will arrive at greater unity and common purpose in countering Iran.
US policy, as presently formulated, is designed to exacerbate Arab divisions, guaranteeing that the region remains fragmented and an open field for Iranian influence. The US tried to rule the Middle East through Saudi Arabia following the Suez Crisis. It failed. Most likely, Washington's present Saudi gambit will be no more successful. Only by bringing Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria together, can the Arabs begin to make up for the loss of an Iraqi deterrent to Iran. Washington will fail to arm-wrestle the Arabs it doesn't like to the mat. Eventually, it will have to turn to diplomacy and making concessions that are difficult in order to bring the various sides together. Saudi Arabia has tried to do that in brokering the Hamas-PLO deal in Mekka. US officials are not listening or learning. They have already begun to decry Saudi accomplishments. Time Magazine headlines – US the Big Loser in the Mecca Deal? even as Syria lauds the deal.
To answer your question: The US and Syria: Is Dialogue Coming? I would say DEFINITELY NOT WITH THIS REGIME.
All close allies to the US in the Arab World: KSA, Egypt, & Jordan have asked the US not to open any dialogue with Bashar. Why would the US stand against its closest allies for a person that has repeatedly lied against them and the whole world and he is untruthfully? What he has to give. All the people know that he is good at creating conflicts & chaos but does not have any power to stop them.
There is no indication what so ever that the US or KSA have any doubt to open any dialogue with Bashar. Secretary Rice was very clear in limiting the discussion with the Syrian regime to the Iraqi refugees and POINT.
can you please tell me why you call the Lebanese government and Fatah “pro-American”?
Also, why do you think that “[i]n the mean time the mean time, Lebanon will remain paralysed. […] The Palestinians will continue to kill each other and witness the steady decay of what institutions and quality of life remain.”?
What “accomplishment” is it when you predict “the Palestinians will continue to kill each other”?
Furthermore, the myth you all continue to sell is that somehow what happens in Palestine and the rest of the ME are related. Please.
Good questions. I guess they’re pro-American because they take US arms and money;) Meanwhile, they’ll still kill any American they can get a hold of.
Of course, Landis fails to square that with his fantasy about “the Arab front” and how Syria would help Saudi Arabia and Egypt to deter Iran!
Ridiculous and transparent as always.
I found your recent interview in Al-Seyassah to be interesting to that point that I felt compelled to search for further information on the newspaper site.
كشفت مصادر سورية مطلعة عن صراع يدور بين الضباط القياديين في جهاز المخابرات السورية وعن اهتزاز ثقة الرئيس بشار الأسد بصهره رئيس الاستخبارات العسكرية اللواء آصف.
وذكرت المصادر ان الاسد عين نائباً ثانٍ للواء شوكت هو اللواء علي يونس رغم ان العلاقة بين اصف وعلي يونس سيئة جداً بينهما وكان اللواء اصف يريد ان يرسله لخارج المخابرات العسكرية وهدف التعيين هو كي يقوم بمراقبة كل تحركات اللواء آصف خوفاً منه والمشكلة ان الصراع بدأ مباشرة بين اللواء اصف ونائبه المخلص له اللواء سعيد سمور وبين هذا النائب الجديد الذي اعطاه الرئيس صلاحيات الاتصال معه مباشرة اسوة باللواء آصف وابقاه كذلك رئيساً للفرع 293 فرع الضباط وهو اخطر فرع في المخابرات العسكرية.
وحيث ان اللواء آصف كان عين العميد نزيه مسعود كرئيس لفرع المخابرات العسكرية في طرطوس وقام بنقل العميد محمد الشعار رئيس الفرع في طرطوس وذلك في شهر مارس 2006 وعينه رئيساً لفرع دمشق بسبب اثباته الاخلاص والولاء له حيث كان يساعد آخ اللواء اصف مفيد شوكت في كل اعماله التجارية ويحل له كل المشكلات في مختلف المديريات في طرطوس, فقد قام اللواء علي يونس بالاقتراح على الرئيس بنقله الى حلب لابعاده عن دمشق من اجل جلب شخص يكون ولاؤه للرئيس وليس لاصف وفعلاً تم ابعاد العميد الشعار بعد اقل من ثلاثة اشهر وكذلك اقترح اللواء علي يونس نقل اللواء ديب زيتوني »رئيس فرع حلب للمخابرات العسكرية« الذي عينه اصف لخارج المخابرات العسكرية وفعلاً تم نقله كنائب ثان لرئيس ادارة امن الدولة في خلال اقل من شهرين?
اما بالنسبة لامن الدولة فقد تم تعيين العقيد حافظ مخلوف »اخ رجل الاعمال رامي مخلوف – ابن خال الرئيس« كرئيس لقسم دمشق في أمن الدولة الكائن في الجسر الابيض وذلك لمراقبة رئيس امن الدولة اللواء علي مملوك وكذلك لمراقبة رئيس الفرع الداخلي اللواء فؤاد ناصيف وبعض التجار يقولون بأن لرامي يداً في تعيين اخيه لانه يؤمن له مراقبة هواتف واتصالات وتحركات كل التجار ورجال الاعمال كي يعرف الاسعار والمعلومات ويسرق منهم العمل والمناقصات.
وحول جهاز الامن السياسي فقد كشفت المصادر انه تم تسريح العميد وليد اباظة »نائب رئيس الامن السياسي« على خلفية انه شركسي ولا يمكن ان يكون هو شركسي ووزير الداخلية »اللواء بسام عبدالمجيد« شركسي بنفس الوقت وذلك خشية من أي تنسيق بينهما قد يصب في غير مصلحة النظام.
وبالنسبة للامن الجوي فقد قام العميد العلوي اديب سلامة »رئيس فرع التحقيق« بالتحقيق مع العميد السني حسان الشريف »رئيس فرع دمشق« على خلفية ما نسب اليه بانه الاحق ان يكون رئيساً لادارة المخابرات الجوية خلفاً للواء العلوي عز الدين اسماعيل الذي تقاعد في ابريل الفائت وقام الرئيس بتعيين اللواء العلوي عبدالفتاح القدسية بدلاً منه بعد ان نقله من خارج الامن الجوي وذلك بدلاً من تعيين العميد حسان الشريف لسبب بسيط انه سني ولا يمكن الوثوق فيه.
حتى محمد ناصيف »معاون نائب رئيس الجمهورية- رئيس امن الدولة السابق« والاقرب للرئيس والذي كان يعالج كل الملفات السرية للنظام لم يسلم من الرقابة والتدقيق حيث تم الطلب منه بعدم ارسال زوجته »بسمة شحادة خليل« مجدداً لزيارة اختها »هديل« المقيمة في الولايات المتحدة خشية ان تكون تحمل رسائل او معلومات للتنسيق بين محمد ناصيف والادارة الاميركية من دون علم النظام.
كما تم منع سفر جميع المسؤولين السابقين وضباط المخابرات والجيش المسرحين من مثل علي دوبا وعز الدين ناصر وعبدالقادر قدورة, وتم توزيع سيارات جديدة دفع رباعي كهدية من القصر الجمهوري لعدد من المسؤولين السابقين بغية ضمان ولائهم علماً انها تتضمن اجهزة تعقب واقتفاء أثر.
طلبت طهران من رئيس النظام الحاكم في سورية بشار أسد تأجيل زيارته الى وقت آخر لان الظروف الراهنة التي تشهد توترات في العلاقة مع أميركا, ووساطات سعودية يقودها الامير بندر بن سلطان رئيس مجلس الامن الوطني السعودي حول الازمة الراهنة في لبنان.. لان هذه الظروف لا تسمح باتمام الزيارة والعمل على نجاحها.
وقالت المصادر المطلعة وشديدة الخصوصية ل¯ »السياسة« ان بشار اسد, الذي يشعر بالقلق جراء تقدم التفاهمات السعودية – الايرانية, طلب زيارة طهران لملاحقة التطورات الجديدة فافاده الرئيس الايراني محمود احمدي نجاد بالموافقة, لكن بالعودة الى مرشد الثورة علي خامنئي تبين ان الرجل الاول في ايران طلب تأجيل هذه الزيارة معللاً رفضه لها بأن الوقت غير ملائم لانجازها.
وقد تأجلت زيارة بشار اسد الى طهران من دون تحديد موعد لها.
By the way Josh, are you familiar with the art of coffee cup reading? I am thinking of posting a brief description of this very exquisite Middle Eastern art.
Why will Lebanon remain paralyzed? So long as there is no compromise between Hizbullah and the Hariri people, Lebanon is unlikely to work out its problems. Here is one indication of the future.
BEIRUT –– The price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has soared in Lebanon, riding the wave of political crisis, community tension and fears of a new civil war.
It used to be 100 dollars (76 euros). Now it’s more than 700 dollars. “It’s a stampede,” an arms dealer who did not wish to be named told AFP.
After the country’s 1975-1990 civil war, militias handed in their weapons, all of them except the Shiite group Hezbollah, whose fighters were fighting Israeli occupation in south Lebanon.
The United Nations—as well as Lebanese officials—have demanded that Hezbollah disarm, but it has not done so.
After the current political crisis sparked deadly Beirut street clashes last month between opposition supporters and those backing the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, “everyone is looking for guns,” said a businessman close to the arms trade.
Requesting anonymity, he added that Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which heads the opposition movement, is not selling weapons on the local market.
The source of guns now available is twofold, the businessman said. Either they have been passed from hand to hand down the years or they were smuggled into the country, generally from Iraq.
Last December, police in the north seized weapons in a raid on offices of a pro-Syrian party, which said they were left over from the 1980s “from the time of the resistance” against Israel.
But guns that have hit the market recently are brought by road from Iraq via Syria, often hidden in containers, lorries, “and even concealed inside car doors,” the businessman said.
“To ensure they are not found by Syrian customs officers, only small quantities are smuggled at any one time,” he added.
On February 4, Syrian officials said they had impounded an Iraqi truck transporting guns to Lebanon, and on Thursday a lorry loaded with weapons destined for Hezbollah was intercepted by security forces in east Beirut.
For the arms dealer, who uses intermediaries to buy guns from Iraq, the former Yugoslavia remains an elusive El Dorado.
A client’s motives for buying a gun are unimportant. In Lebanon, when it comes to doing business, politics plays no part—both smugglers and dealers have links with all parties, the businessman said.
Gibran, Thanks for the Seyassah quotes. Interesting.
I like the exclamation point after Damascus. I think it should have been a question mark…as they did meet. Abbas actually called his talks with Meshal in Damascus “fruitful.” you were wrong. haha.
Yes Habib, of course. Their Damascus meeting(?) (you see I didn’t forget the question mark this time) was so fruitful that a civil war broke out in Gaza immediately!
“A client’s motives for buying a gun are unimportant. In Lebanon, when it comes to doing business, politics plays no part — both smugglers and dealers have links with all parties, the businessman said.
The black market price of a rocket launcher has not risen — it is still 300 dollars.
Patrick Haenni, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the absence of demand for heavy weapons is telling.
“It’s true that there is a general tension that is leading people to arm themselves, but I don’t think this indicates imminent hostilities,” he said.
Haenni believes the current trend to buy guns may give rise to “localized blunders,” as happened in late January when seven people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the Beirut street fighting.
“But for civil war to break out again requires a political decision, and for the moment there has not been one,” he said.” End of article.
Even before the last civil war, people in Lebanon used to keep personal weapons. It is more like a tradition and it is not unique to Lebanon. I am sure the Syrians horde similar weapons at their homes as well as other Middle Easterners. As to the implied suggestion that this is some sign of an impending civil war, I would say Bashar and Co. may continue to dream on.
Defense Minister Mr. Mur was very clear in his last statement following the confiscation of Hezbollah weapons:” not a mouse can cross the Syrian/Lebanese border without us knowing about it”. I tend to believe him. The confiscation of the weapons which were intended to reach the SSNP’s and the Baathists (according to HA spokesman) has given him and the government tremendous credibility and popularity among the vast majority of the Lebanese who are sick and tired of watching their homeland hijacked for the purpose of turning it into a theatre of carrying out foreign conflicts serving agendas of foreign governments (Syria and Iran). There will be no civil conflict inside Lebanon even if there is so-called regional political decision to this effect. This is the impression I receive from talking to various people in Lebanon, and I have a vast network which includes groups from various factions.
If the Syrians are able to deliver on Iraq, and thereby show the world that the keys to stability in Baghdad are in Damascus, how will the situation in Lebanon change, and in the favor of whom? The US administration, after all, despite all talk by George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, cares more so for Iraq than Lebanon. That is a fact. The keys to stability in the Middle East are in Baghdad, not Beirut.
The problemis that the United States in not in it alone … they have partners. Chirac and King Abdullah are president Bush’s partners in the Middle East today.
While Chirac is on his way out, prince Bandar is still very active and he will not allow president Bush to take Lebanon away from him and give it to teh Syrian president who called his King “a half man”.
Basically, Saudi Arabia invested too much in Lebanon to allow Syria to take it back … if it was not a problem for the Saudis, president Bush would have listened to James Baker and started a dialog with Syria.
I will keep repeating the same advice to every Syrian: Be content with your domain and look no further to others’ domains before you end up losing your own. The problem is within your self and is not with Mr. Bush, Mr. Baker, King Abdullah or Prince Bandar. If you cannot reach this peace with yourself then your State (Syria) becomes the real and only failed state in the world. It is the difference between greed and contentment.
Iraq refugee problem which triggered the Joshua toe would create instability to Bashar himself if he keeps fueling insurgents inside Iraq. In fact, the US has the upper hand when it speaks to the Syrian regime about the problem, and as Mrs. Rice said it does not need to offer Bashar any reward for him to act (if he can) on this problem. In other words, keep fueling Iraqi insurgency and you will get Iraqi refugees in return until they begin to threaten your own stability.
Thus, we go back to my advice. Be content with your own domain before you lose it all!
Now, Mr. Alex if you know the Iraqis intimately enough, then you wouldn’t count on them getting together under Syrian auspices.
It is actually the first time that I see I could agree with most of what you have just said. I hope that Bashar realizes this.
Iraq solution is not possible with the US is in Iraq,the occupation is the main reason why there is civil war in Iraq,Iraq is an arabic country, and not Persian country, NOW IRAN IS CONTROLLING IRAQ, thru men who feel they belong to Iran,and US and Isreal are supporting them,to keep Iraq away from the arabic camp, the arab league can send troops from arab countries,to provide security in Iraq,but they will not do it until US forces are withdrawn,in Lebanon they sent syrian troops(Ta-ef agreement),here Jordan Egypt and SAK must join.
Very good Majed. So the main players in Iraq who can actually stabilize it are Jordan, Egypt and KSA (perhaps with US assistance – well it has the main army right now in Iraq so you cannot overlook that – but eventually its army will withdraw). I second you 100% on this. But the Ta-ef agreement stipulates Syrian troops must withdraw from Lebanon! Of course, the agreement was made in the early 90’s, the Syrian troops overstayed their welcome period, the Syrian regime then began committing crimes of political assassinations in Lebanon, and eventually the troops were forced to withdraw disgracefully. Don’t you think that this is a clear example of the problem that the Syrian regime is facing? Namely, it is not able to gain the trust of any State – even the ones that used to view it as a brotherly State (regime) – as a result of not keeping its word on agreements? Would it not have been better for the regime to fulfill the Ta-ef accord and withdraw voluntarily? Could you imagine how respected the Syrian regime would have been right now among the various Arab States as well as the rest of the world? Instead of learning the lesson, the regime keeps trying to turn the clocks back – how pathetic.
“The issue of recognition was not addressed at all (in Mecca),” Ahmed Youssef said. “In the platform of the new government there will be no sign of recognition (of Israel), regardless of the pressures the United States and the Quartet would exert,” he said.
Hamas is required, under the Mecca deal, to respect all the previous peace deals the Palestinians had with Israel. There is enough recognition for Israel in those deals, I believe, to satisfy the quarter and Israel if they consider the deal carefully and objectively. You may hear some voices from within the Palestinian camp contrary of what was agreed upon in Mecca. But now you have to look at the issues from different perspective. Some of this talk would perhaps be for Palestinian public consumption, and I grant you that some would be a result of ideological constraints which may be difficult to overcome overnight. This is a typical Arab way of dealing with such problems. There was a strong statement to this effect from Mubarak today. Basically, he was stressing the fact that what was agreed upon by the Palestinian in Mecca should be fulfilled by them ad verbatim. Again, this is another typical Arab way of dealing with the problem. The crux of the matter is the Palestinians have no other way to go forward and any failure will reflect badly on them alone. So Israel, in particular, and the US should give it a chance by not voicing opposition. They can however, keep insisting on fulfilling certain conditions before a final deal can be reached.
The Mecca meeting was neither a great success nor a failure. Why does everyone here want things to be Black and White??
As you can read here in the analysis of Zvi Bar’el, my favorite Israeli writer, he Mecca agreement was more of a final presentation to the long process of negotiations between Hamas and Abbas. For example, in Damascus they did manage to agree on the makeup of the government including overcoming the last obstacle regarding their choice for the ministry of the interior.
At the time it was mentioned that the only remaining obstacle to an agreement was Hamas’s refusal to state that they “commit to” signed agreement preferring instead the “to honor” signed agreements.
In Mecca nothing changed. Hamas still got what it wanted (the vague NON committment) and they kept the previously agreed upon government makeup.
So what was is all about?
It was Saudi Arabia and the United States wanting a way out of their total boycott of the Palestinian government. And why did they need to do that?
1) To stop Iran’s rising popularity among the Palestinians who were punished by Israel, the US, Saudi Arabia and others, only Iran was supporting them.
Basically Israel and the US will now allow Saudi Arabia to send moeny to the hungry Palestinian people BUT Hamas did not regonize Israel … so I am not sure peace negotiations will take place.
And what about Damascus? Why did they allow Mashaal to go to Mecca and give Saudi Arabia all the credit without even mentioning any role for Syria in public? They could have refused to allow this Mecca meeting to take place if they wanted to. Surely they got something in return for losing the P.R. opportunity to announce the Hamas/PA agreement in Damascus the week before.
What they got was a long term gain .. their Hamas allies were slowly losing popular support among those Palesinians who could not take the hunger anymore. Damascus did not want their allies to disappear out of the Palestinian scene because of their failure to govern.
This is also part of the reason why in Lebanon Hizballah (and its opposition coalition) did not simply take over the government by force, which they could have done rather easily. If they did, they would have been boycotted the way Hamas was boycotted and they would also gradually lose popular support as a result of the dire economic conditions in the country. This is why Joshua is probably right for predicting no solution in Lebanon. Syria would rather make the Seniora government a failure rather than allow its allies to take over and be the failed government themselves.
The positive way of putting it: Saudi Arabia got something it badly needed (show its leadership potential to manage the Middle East) and the Syrian got to save and probably empower their valuable ally and asset, Hamas.
Short term gain for the Saudis, long term gain for Syria.
The main problem facing the syrian regime,is that it does not respect the freedom of their citizen, the security forces control the people(mukhabarat),history tells us whenever there is dictators,the dictators assasinate their opponant, freedom and democracy leads to unity,dictatorship leads to seperation.
good one…I was wondering what happened in Damascus between hamas and fatah.
but why do you think US/S.A wants this PR advantage now?why would they let abbas compromise? didn’t you say that hamas is losing popular support?
WOW. Is it true that the Syrian regime is looking as you put it for “long term gain”? That will be a first that I should salute providing of course this is true and I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
But then I do not agree with you that Bashar can afford to at least consider not allowing Mashal to go to Mecca or to encourage Hizballah take over the government by force. Despite how crazy and inexperienced Bashar has proven to be he has stopped short of doing this. It will be an early suicide. It would have speed up his fall that is coming shortly. His fall would have been almost immediate if he had done so.
You are right. Lets hope this will end very soon. We Syrians should live much better and we will shortly.
I read the analysis of Zvi Bar’el. I did not find any allusion in his analysis to a Syrian role in the making of the Meccan deal.
Could you please elaborate on how the Syrians could have blocked such gathering of the Palestinian factions? Will they prevent Meshaal from traveling? Can they really do it? Or will they try to kill him? Did he not run to Algiers in the summer in order to avoid Syrian pressure when the conflict in Gaza was taking place over the abducted Israeli soldier? So how much of leverage did the Syrians really have over Meshaal then? And how much more leverage they have left over him after his deal with Abbas? Is it not time for the Syrian regime to just come out in the open with a clear admission of being a manipulator of a ‘just cause’ (the Palestinian tragedy) rather than the true advocates of it? Or should I again pose a question which I previously posed? How long will the Syrian regime continue to live as a parasite feeding on the plight of the dispossessed?
Hamas were slowly losing support. But they were doing the Seniora thing … no matter how much doubt there is about their leadership adn popularity, they were staying in power and they were rejecting early elections.
President Bush can not wait another year or two until Hamas is forced to accept early elections. He needed to announce his “new Iraq policy” that somehow takes into account the Baker recommendations.
The fighting that took place in Gaza the past month was partially a last attempt to convince Hamas that it should accept early elections and that if it continues to govern then it is risking civil war … Hamas said “fine, let’s do violence… we are not quitting”.
So … everyone agreed that there is no other way but to compromise with Hamas.
By the way, Syria is getting some low-key recognition for its role in reaching the deal. Yesterday Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem received two “thank you Syria” phone calls from his Spanish and Norwegian counterparts.
Bashar might be different from his father in many ways, but if you see how he chose to not concede to American or Saudis demands and recommendations, knowing very well the highly negative media offensive they can unleash at him with their combined English and Arabic Media control, you can maybe consider that he is not the type who values short term P.R. hype over strategic gains.
Hafez never gave a damn about how they punished him in the American media. The Americans still think until today that through negative publicity they will get the Syrians to come to them asking for forgiveness… luckily, our dictatorship is solid 🙂 … negative press will not affect their numbers in the coming elections.
I think you will be better able to understad the Middle East if you steer away form taking for granted that the Syrian regime is always bad and that they are the only evil party in the Middle East (along with their allies Hamas and HA and Iran).
Zvi analyzed the Saudi Israeli American side of why they accepted to give Hamas what it wanted. I added the Syrian part.
As for what could Syria do to block Mashaal .. no they would not need to stop him from travelling at all. They would just ask him to make it difficult in Mecca to reach a deal. He would go there and insist on more. And that way no one would blame Syria for blocking him from traveling.
But again, because it would not be in Hamas’ best interest not to get this good deal, Syria did the right thing by encouraging the deal… again, in the short term they could have asked Hamas for the favor of helping the Syrians annoy the Saudis even more, but in the long term that would make Hamas angry with Syria when they are eventually forced out of their government a year or two from now.
So according to Alex: the Syrians can dictate to Meshaal to make it difficult to reach a deal in Mecca! Very ingenious.
Yet, if the Syrians do that, then they will annoy Hamas and make it angry with the Syrians. What is he talking about?
So you really think that after 60 years of suffering the Palestinians did not learn a lesson or two and they will continue to abide by the wishes and dictates of an inept Syrian regime!? Not to say politically and economically bankrupt dictatorship!
You know what? The more I discourse with you the more I get to ‘understand’ (misunderstand) this Middle East through the eyes of a narrow minded propagandist, who still lives in the past unable to adapt to a continually changing world, which is threatening his last hold to life with a straw, while waves are coming at him with such force that will drive him deep into the abyss at any moment.
The truth, my dear friend, is the Syrians can neither influence nor dictate the outcome of any event in Lebanon, Gaza nor in Iraq. They may soon become incapable of even dictating events within the narrow alleys of Damascus and other Syrian cities. Please read my previous advice: Be content with your domain before you lose it all. That’s when you really know your own limits! And hopefully you learn not to overstep!
No Mr. Alex, Hamas was not losing popularity. Neither was Seniora at any time facing a mortal threat to his government. In fact he is more popular today than he ever was. Keep on dreaming with your delusion. The days of your truly evil regime are numbered. And you know why it is evil? Because it lacks any credibility whasoever with the rest of the world and it seems it is losing credibility on the home front as well.
Hamas is required, under the Mecca deal, to respect all the previous peace deals the Palestinians had with Israel.
Wasn’t the previous deal (the ’93 handshake), recognition of Israel? I’m confused.
I know. Israel is “intransigent” for asking their negotiating partner to recognize them.
Which, BTW, is why the Euros and Israel have moved closer together. No one, not even the Leftest of Leftists, can blame Israel for not negotiating with a government still sworn to Israel’s destruction.
“The positive way of putting it: Saudi Arabia got something it badly needed (show its leadership potential to manage the Middle East) and the Syrian got to save and probably empower their valuable ally and asset, Hamas.
Well, it seems to me the Mecca negotiations were clearly an inter-Arab, internal issue rather than a simple discussion on how to go forward with “peace negotiations”. I can’t say I understand much about the inner workings of this meeting, and it seems like you and others here understand the concepts a little more than I do.
Nevertheless, from my vantage point, the Saudi/Syrian/Hamas gamesmanship doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. In the end, the people will continue to suffer with those who persist with continued rejectionism and violence.
Wait for a moment, its true that a deal has been reached in mecca, but experts will agree that it will not last long, as far as it is concerned about iraq, syria was the first arab country to oppose the war, sent millions of arab figters to it, this encouraged to do the same, now why are people concerned about iraqi refuges. the palestinians living abroad have millinions of dollars in their bank accounts, slowly iraqi refuges will turn rich like the palestinians, so why all this worry is about.
I agree that the Mecca deal was more of an Arab/Arab issue, in addition to president Bush’s role in the background in helping his Saudi friends.
However, Israel can also expect some movement towards the center… assuming no other inflammatory actions are taken on Israel’s part.
Hamas’ experience in government made them more “mainstream” and more pragmatic .. while they are still not saying the needed words “we recognize Israel”, a few more Israelis will now support talking to the combined Hamas/PA leadership … but not enough of them to make Olmert go that way, in my opinion.
It is again the chicken and egg impasse … must they recognize Israel in advance? What does Israel have to lose by trying peace negotiations? We know by now that boycotting Hamas will not make them go away.
Many do not share my opinion of course, but I am quite confident that involving everyone (Syria, Hamas, HA) in peace negotiations will be the only way out. But, we’ll agree to disagree on this one for now.
It is up to you to isolate yourself from the avalanche of articles and statements from British foreign minister, to Mr. James Baker, to all the Haaretz writers who are convinced that Syria might be, or is, the key to solving the Iraq, Lebanon, and maybe Palestine/Israel conflicts. Sure you can find statements from presidnet Bush and Chirac to your liking, but how do you explain the others? are they all Baathists like Alex?
I don’t think the Mossad would need my input to understand Arabs way of dealing with such problems, i.e. moving forward with the peace process. So cool it down and wait for Olmert, Abbas and Rice to meet and clarify things.
Basically, Hamas has its constituency which it has to care for. Besides there may already be some other splinter Palestinian groups ready to sabotage any deal if it is not to their liking. In the end pragmatism will have to rule. We may say that we have at this moment the formation of a Palestinian government which may have a credible claim to Palestinian representation capable of negotiating on their behalf. In addition to the 93 accord, Hamas is also required to recognize (I’m saying recognition not just honor) all Arab initiatives for normalizing relations with Israel. That includes basically all the Arab states as well as the Palestinians. So the question of recognition is already incorporated in the new deal. Now the PA was not able to carry out its 93 ‘handshake’ (as you said) obligations because of its differences with Hamas – basically they were competing for Palestinian legitimacy. With the new agreement there is some credible authority that may be held responsible in front of the world. Don’t think the Saudis will give the Palestinians a blank cheque. They are dead serious that the new government (Hamas/PA combined) must follow the agreement to the letter.
It is the will of the vast majority of the people of Lebanon who will reject any so-called Syrian solution in Lebanon whatsoever. Time for you to wake up. And time for Syria to buzz off and get off our backs. Don’t you understand? You guys have no credibility whatsoever in Lebanon! Besides, relations between Lebanon and Syria can never bypass the International investigation in the crimes of political assassination. Which means it is impossible as long as Bashar is in power. Period.
Yes, they must recognize Israel in advance. Absolute minimun. No question about it. Negotiations in this part of the universe, requires recognition on both sides. Period.
What do they have to lose? Nothing, except self-respect. Negotiating with someone who doesn’t recognize your legitimacy is the type of delusional non-sense that breeds millions of skeptical neocons and right-wing websites;).
From my observations, the Palestinian constituency, (like most Arab citizens) are rather an afterthought and powerless. Arafat started peace negotiations when he saw fit (he was losing power from his remote Tunis office), put down opposition when he saw it fit, controlled the security apparatus his way and so on and so forth. Now that the Palestinian nation is split between Hamas and Fatah, I don’t see many indications that the Palestinian citizenry have much to say about which way the government should go. Rather, these two leaders are calling the shots and the poor Palestinians follow. Oh sure, the politics of Israel is always a unifying factor as each political party tries to show who’s the best party to “resist” the hated Zionists.
But if any of these leaders said tomorrow, we’re starting a peace process with Israel, the Palestinians would follow without any hesitation. They’d welcome it with a sigh of relief.
Akbar what is the Palestine Israel recognizes and how does she that? What is the area, what about Jewish settlements, what about right of return and / or compensation, what about the water? Palestinians (all fragments) should demand a firm opinion from Israel about these fundamental issues and then give a an answer to recognize demand.
If Israel could provide a real answer to these fundamental issues, Israel would have a better moral ground in her demands and the peace talks would be smooth. 1967 borders would be a good start, but if Israel can’t live that, it is obvious that she wants more. The real cards should be on the table on both sides.
If Israel can’t now exactly say what is the future Palestine all the “peace demands” of Israel and “Akbars” are pure lip-service. There is hardly a Palestinian leader who could give Israel more than a solution based on the 1967 borders.
Rest assured that as long as you do not wake up to the fact that “Lebanon” is not “Gibran” you will never have peace in Lebanon.
A great majority of your friends and your neighbors are as negative to Syria as you are, but you have no way of measuring your group’s proprotion of the overall Lebanese population without introducing your own bias (wishes) into the estimate.
Gosh Josh, you take on a lot of backwash; are all the ad homenins the major style? Speaking metaphorically ,Bashar could not have the meeting of Hamas’s representative in Damascus Just because they are dealing with the new Realpolitik of the ME. Bashar will talk to anyone, and in prudence allow others to not flower for the time being.
I suggest that you take Lebanon out of your mind Alex; otherwise you will remain at war with yourself and thus will never find peace within yourself.
Do I need to remind you that I am not obliged to discuss with you internal Lebanese politics due to the fact that you are a foreigner as far as Lebanon is concerned? Now, you gave me another reason to insist on that. You do not even have the capability to comprehend Lebanese politics.
Lebanon is now at peace and it will remain at peace and it is the peace made by the Lebanese. Please take your Baath abomination to the toilet and flush it off.
Yes, Hafez never gave a damn about how the US punished him in the American media that is because he had the political experience and the power to afford do this. The problem with our guy is that he does not have neither the experience nor the power and despite this he does it. This is one of the reason we got to this desperate position.
Once the sides agree (again) on mutual recognition, I suppose the negotiations return somewhere where they left off, when Arafat came within a few inches of signing the final peace agreement at Camp David 2000. I wouldn’t dare to say what they would agree to, but I would say they came close to an agreement when Arafat decided conflict was more important to him than peace for his people and for his Israeli neighbors.
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2019-04-24T18:22:43Z
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https://www.joshualandis.com/blog/the-us-and-syria-is-dialogue-coming/
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“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it,” said Albert Einstein. And so it has been the case with hundreds of public employees in America who discovered that when they criticized their workplace regarding matters of public concern or when they were labeled as “whistleblowers,” they experienced retaliation, scurrilous attacks, and physical peril. It happened to me, beginning with the statement “…[Y]ou will be uprooted and blown away and probably will never know the reason why….” The advertisement from which that quote was taken signified one thing to Maggi Hall when she read it: Keep your mouth shut or you’re going to get hurt. Placed in the newspaper by her school superintendent, he intended to frighten into silence and submission not only Hall but his entire faculty as well.
The Supreme Court emphatically declares: “Teachers are the members of a community most likely to have informed and definite opinions as to how funds allotted to the operation of the schools should be spent. Accordingly, it is essential that they be able to speak out freely on such questions without fear of retaliatory dismissal” (Pickering v Board of Education, 1968). Over five decades since that landmark decision teachers, as well as all public employees, have yet to attain their inalienable right to free speech. The evidence to support my claim that totalitarianism flourishes within the public employment system of our democratic society is found in the hundreds of court cases between public employees and their employers.
This book, however, will deal exclusively with the rights of public school teachers though the consequences are the same for all public employees. It is also Hall’s claim that there is a direct correlation between repression of open debate and the demise of our schools. Fear of retaliation terrorizes teachers into silence, robbing them as well as our nation, of their voices in shaping the educational system. If teachers’ opinions are not given or requested, they often conclude they have little to contribute, that they are somehow inadequate. The feeling of inadequacy leads to diminished self-esteem and ultimately to an attitude of defeat and dissatisfaction.
For self-preservation or out of fear, demoralized educators, unconsciously or by choice, many times embark on a course of collusion with authoritarianism. But the inevitable consequence of such a destructive journey saves no one. Instead it produces two groups of victims: the teacher and the student.
By virtue of the correlation between self-respect and lack of freedom to speak and its ultimate threat to education, Hall proposes that free speech is much more than a constitutional privilege; it is a moral obligation. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Brandeis, “Those who won our independence believed…that public discussion is a political duty….” Public discussion created this democratic nation; open debate brought life and liberty to its people. It is, in fact, the only means by which we can revitalize our decaying educational system. More money won’t do it. Modern school buildings won’t do it. And innovative programs with catchy titles won’t do it. Communication will – between teachers, administrators, parents, and students – open, frank, and enthusiastic.
How do teachers halt administrative authoritarianism with all of its side effects? First, teachers, as well as all public employees, must believe that teachers are citizens first, employees second, and as such are granted under the United States Constitution the right to protected speech when addressing matters of public concern. Teachers must demand that their rights as citizens be acknowledged. But more importantly teachers must garner the courage to assert those rights, to liberate their voices as the most powerful instrument they have in initiating reform. Teachers united voices of freedom must be heard above the unconstitutional command for silence.
All teachers have this in common – We’ve sat year after year as our teachers shared with us their knowledge, attempting to inspire and to prepare us to become productive citizens of a democratic society. We’ve also known that our teachers had to do more than just teach; they had papers to grade, rolls to call, clubs to lead, and meetings to attend. But what we may not have known is that sometimes our teachers were called upon to do something out of the ordinary, something rather spectacular. Sometimes our teachers were called upon, personally, to defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
Little did Hall realize when she wrote a letter of complaint to the newspaper in Marion County South Carolina criticizing a proposed expenditure of $11,000 in public funds to fly seven school boards members to California for a convention that she would one day be called upon to defend her right of dissent and thus the very cornerstone of democracy itself – the First Amendment.
Hall was harassed, intimidated, and terminated. When Hall initiated a lawsuit in federal court accusing Marion School District II of denying her constitutional rights, Hall's attorneys for the South Carolina Education Association discovered piece after piece of a complex and intriguing puzzle. This mosaic of collusion included district personnel carrying out espionage acts: following her about town, even to her doctor’s office ten miles away; hiring a photographer to take a picture of her at an out-of-state meeting; even driving by her house on numerous occasions.
Hall's true story moved swiftly from an isolated small rural county incident to become a much publicized legal battle in South Carolina, concluding some years later at the doorstep of the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond Virginia. It became yet another victory for the rights of public employees to address matters of public concern. Indeed, the constitutional right of free speech was, once again AFFIRMED.
Hall v. Marion School District II (1994) was viewed by many school administrators as a possible threat to their hegemony over their teachers, and by teachers and teacher unions as validation of their right to speak out on educational issues without fear of reprisal.
Central to AFFIRMED is Hall's particular story, a narrative which has wide implications for those who one day may travel the path of public protest. Hall's book deals with legal and controversial issues. The Appendix gives suggestions to increase public employees’ awareness of their free speech rights. It clarifies the responsibilities which must accompany the exercise of free speech.
But there is a broader message AFFIRMED offers its readers, a message to each American: The Constitution of the United States of America must be defended regardless of the sacrifice; for in the final analysis the Constitution is our only bulwark against tyranny.
Theme: Public employees are protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to criticize their agencies with regards to matters of public concern.
A brief account of how my family and I settled in Marion County is given, my establishment of a county museum, and a tyrannical experience I encountered my first month teaching in the public school system.
In order to understand the environment in which a story of this nature could transpire, I describe the topography, the political, social, and educational structure of this small southern town. For it is indeed our environment that plays heavily in forming our thoughts, beliefs, and especially, our actions.
When I read in the paper that our superintendents had planned to send seven board members to California for a meeting that would cost over $11,000, I am outraged by such a waste of taxpayers’ money, especially since our students rank at the bottom nationally on standardized tests. I reflect back to earlier disappointments since moving to the county, an area socially, culturally, and educationally impoverished. I decide to voice my concerns in a letter to the editor of our newspaper. And that’s when the trouble begins.
After my first letter appears in the paper, response to my protest from school administrators is negative. I become suspicious and decide to learn more about our school district. I invoke the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, asking my superintendent for financial records and travel expenses. His refusal to comply with the state law intensifies my curiosity and my quest. I write more letters to the editor and to my superintendent requesting information. My principal begins to harass me. The situation escalates to a dangerous point when my superintendent buys space in the local newspaper and prints a promise that I had better keep my mouth shut or else.
I ask the county school board which oversees the local school boards to censure Dr. Foil for his threatening ad in the newspaper. It refuses. As intimidation grows starker I become even more paranoid. I plead for assistance form the county board. Again it refuses to help me, itself becoming a co-conspirator in the denial of my First Amendment rights.
When my crusade for fiscal accountability spreads to surrounding counties, The State newspaper, in its Sunday edition, publishes an extensive and uncomplimentary article about the administrative intimidation I am experiencing. The following morning, two weeks before school ends for the year, Dr. Foil walks into my classroom and promptly transfers me to the district office. I am not allowed to say good-bye to my students or to my co-workers or pack up my twenty plus years of accumulated teaching materials.
Dr. Foil had promised “that I would be blown away and never know the reason why.” I was sent to the district office where I remain in isolation until the school year ended, eight days of loneliness. During my incarceration I promise that I would learn all I could about teachers’ rights and do my best to translate my experience into something beneficial for teachers as well as all public employees. Newspapers and television stations descend on the office for interviews with Dr. Foil and with me. My photo and story run on the front page of The State and is picked up by the Associated Press and National Public Radio.
A month into summer vacation the school board finally notifies me of its intent – termination. It grants me the option of either a public or private hearing to show just cause as to why I should not be fired. I choose a public hearing which ultimately becomes the longest hearing of this nature that either set of attorneys had ever experienced. The school district calls almost three dozen witnesses to speak against me. Television cameras capture the hours of testimony and newspapers across the southeast report on the event.
The public hearing is a mockery of the judicial system. Ridicule and humiliation are pronounced during the course of this eighteen hour, four day hearing. The board chairman refuses to quell the rambunctious standing-room-only crowd. The principal’s testimony reveals her duplicity in the conspiracy, a fact for which she takes great pride.
Former colleagues testify in an attempt to prove me “disruptive to the educational process.” I am accused of verbally abusing children, behaving irresponsibility, refusing to supervise my students, and being dishonest.
My testimony reveals what I had been attempting to do within my rights as a citizen concerned over the waste of taxpayers’ money and the superintendent’s refusal to open public records for scrutiny.
Two weeks after the public hearing ends I receive a certified letter from the school board terminating me effective immediately even though I’d received that spring a superior evaluation. I am found guilty of being “disruptive to the education system” and summarily dismissed.
During my many months of unemployment I seek jobs, but to no avail. I then established the second environmental educational center in South Carolina as a volunteer for a state conservation organization headquartered in Mullins.
Opening statements by attorneys for the defense and the plaintiff set the stage for a three day bench trial. The superintendent is called as my first witness. His testimony confirms our suspicions: He had set a trap for me in order to fire me for “legitimate” reasons. He shows no remorse, only disappointment that his plan failed.
I write of the need to voice our dissent, to exercise our First Amendment rights, to stand up and be heard when we disagree with public policy, no matter what the consequences might be.
The federal trial continues with testimony from me as well as from two teachers who did not sign the petition requesting my transfer. Through a powerful closing statement my attorney defends the rights of all public employees as citizens.
Finally the Court’s decision comes down – VICTORY for teachers’ rights! The school district, dissatisfied with the outcome, appeals the decision to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond Virginia.
I continue my public awareness campaign for school reform by placing a full page ad in the newspaper. After its publication the superintendent decides to take an “early retirement.” The chairman of the county school board is unseated in the next election and all but one of the local school board members is fired. My principal announces the day my ad appears in the paper that she is seeking a transfer to another county. My trip to the Fourth Circuit in Richmond Virginia is a frightening, yet meaningful experience. The Appeals Court decision represents yet another victory for teachers and became one of the most significant First Amendment judgments to come down from the Fourth Circuit in over a decade. It is unanimous, published, author identified, and lengthy. The Order’s Final Word upholding the federal court’s decision: AFFIRMED.
I return to the same district but to another school, warmly received by its faculty and staff. Teachers are challenged to become involved in their school system, to defend their rights as citizens, and to take up the mantel for educational reform.
Believing education to be the key to making a difference in the world, Maggi Hall devoted thirty years to teaching. She pursued her goal with vigor and enthusiasm from graduate school to the classroom, from establishing programs for emotionally disturbed juvenile delinquents and learning-disabled students, to founding and directing two educational institutions: the Marion County Museum and the Fork Retch Resource Educational Center, both in South Carolina. For the latter projects she received local, state, and national awards. She was named by the SC Wildlife Federation its “Environmental Educator of the Year” and by the National Wilderness Society “Environmental Woman of Action for South Carolina.” But the highest honor bestowed upon her came from a student a decade earlier, a child she had not heard from after hugging him good-bye his last day of school.
In 1969, the beginning of her third year teaching she requested an all-Black school; thus, becoming the first and only white teacher assigned to an all-black elementary school in the segregated Durham North Carolina public school system. Five months later all public schools in the county were abruptly desegregated and the transition from one color to mixed interrupted and frightened thousands.
It was this situation that caused Hall’s former white second grader, now a retired school superintendent, to remember her. Nominated for North Carolina’s “Teacher of the Year” Jimmy was required to write a synopsis of the teacher that contributed the most to his overall educational growth. He selected Hall from his elementary years, writing of the methods she’d used to alleviate stress in both her white and black second graders when their young lives were disrupted. It wasn’t just desegregation that frightened them but the fact that the whites moved from an urban setting to an all-black school located in a rural black section of the county. It was Jimmy’s mother who tracked Hall down in South Carolina to notify her of Jimmy’s tribute.
Hall’s vocation was teaching, her avocation, the environment, volunteering for conservation organizations since her teens. She worked to save a river, a successful project featured in Southern Living and national public television. Sponsored by the Richard King Mellon Foundation, “Conserving America: Our Rivers,” an hour-long documentary, is periodically rebroadcast coast to coast.
She was featured in a film by the timber industry highlighting her work with resource extraction corporations regarding environmentally sensitive issues. Her successful five-year battle to halt construction of an interstate connector through thousands of acres of wetlands afforded her environmental organization a recognition it rightly deserved: the coveted national “Chevron Corporation Conservation” Award. For ten years Hall edited a bi-monthly, twelve-page conservation magazine. When she retired in 1995 from teaching and moved to St. Augustine Florida she volunteered for archaeological digs in the ancient city, was appointed to the city’s code enforcement board, served on numerous civic boards, and wrote two books: Flavors of St. Augustine: An Historic Cookbook, published by Tailored Tours Publication, and Images of America: St. Augustine, published by Arcadia Press. Both remain in print.
When Hall’s husband was offered a job teaching at their alma mater, Stetson University, they relocated to DeLand Florida. Soon thereafter Hall wrote two additional books published by Arcadia Press: The Campus History Series: Stetson University and Images of America: DeLand. Both remain in publication.
Hall established her real estate company in 2000, West Volusia Properties. The two-building complex that housed her office took two years to restore. WVP initiated the first restoration award in Volusia County which quarterly honored those who preserved a depressed property. As a Realtor Hall was the overall top producer for the board in 2005 and sold more vacant land and commercial than any other realtor. She initiated MainStreet DeLand’s Annual Downtown Beautification Award and donated $10,000 for the first year to three winners. Today she has lessened her load but one can still contact her at www.WestVolusiaProperties.com.
Having served on numerous city boards and private organizations until 2007 Hall resigned from all to create the first non-profit No Kill Animal Rescue group in Central Florida. After 10 years as president she retired with a exhilarating 6,000+ animals rescued and rehomed.
Married to her Stetson University sweetheart, Ronald, a Stetson philosophy professor, their family includes two daughters and their husbands, nine grandchildren, three dogs, and numerous grand animals.
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2019-04-23T02:39:35Z
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http://firstamendmentwins.com/about.html
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Play video Ronaldo to Man Utd, Arsenal to spend?Ronaldo to Man Utd, Arsenal to spend?
Play video Ronaldo to Man Utd, Arsenal to spend?
And that is all from Sportsday today.
We will be back tomorrow morning, until then good night.
He scored two goals earlier..
independent person from outside of football.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter announced plans last week to form an 11-person panel to review football's scandal-hit world governing body.
Domenico Scala had earlier said he would only lead the taskforce if he is guaranteed full independence.
The Swiss businessman is the already independent chair of Fifa's audit and compliance committee.
season-long loan from Premier League newcomers Watford.
Fabbrini has Championship experience with his parent club, as well as playing 17 games on loan at Millwall and Birmingham City last season.
Boro also hope to complete a deal to sign striker Christian Stuani from Espanyol this week.
Ben Westwood could miss Saturday's Challenge Cup semi-final against Hull KR because of suspension.
The 34-year-old forward has been accused of a Grade B shoulder charge on Luke Gale during in Sunday's 44-6 Super League win at Castleford and could be banned for up to two games on Tuesday.
Tigers half-back Gale was later withdrawn and taken to hospital for overnight observation.
third signing of the summer, following the arrivals of Jermaine Beckford and Paul Gallagher.
Catalans Dragons chairman Bernard Guasch has been fined and warned by the Rugby Football League for his comments criticising the ref after his club's home defeat by Huddersfield earlier this month.
Guasch issued a statement saying: "Enough is enough! We have had another two points taken away from us today because of the scandalous decisions of the referees."
The Catalans owner was deemed to be in breach of the RFL's rules and has been fined £1,000 and warned about his future conduct.
Notts County have been prevented from signing a goalkeeper on an emergency loan before Saturday's Women's FA Cup final against Chelsea.
Carly Telford (pictured) is Notts' only keeper eligible to face Chelsea and will be forced to start, despite only returning from a dislocated shoulder on Sunday.
Players are only eligible to feature at Wembley if they were registered for the sixth round of the competition on 12 April, meaning Danielle Hill and on-loan Siobhan Chamberlain are unavailable.
"Sometimes common sense has to kick in," said chief executive Luke Negus-Hill. "It could - touch wood it won't - end up with an outfield player being in goal."
Won 50 caps for Holland, scoring six goals and played at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.
Began his career with Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, scoring 35 goals in 159 league appearances, winning four league titles.
Made 21 league appearances for Barcelona and had loan spells with Schalke 04 and Olympiacos.
Won Champions League with Barcelona in 2011.
Afellay is Stoke's eighth signing this summer following the arrivals of Phillip Wollscheid, Jakob Haugaard, Joselu, Marco van Ginkel, Glen Johnson, Shay Given and Moha.
Chief executive Tony Scholes said: "It's no secret that Ibrahim was wanted by a number of clubs and we are understandably delighted that he has chosen to join us.
"He's clearly excited about the prospect of playing in the Premier League and the fact that he knows so many players who are already at the club will no doubt help him settle into his new surroundings."
We brought you this news earlier and Stoke have now confirmed they have signed former Barcelona winger Ibrahim Afellay on a two-year contract.
Shaun Wright-Phillips is on the move today, but fans from his last club won't remember his time there fondly. He makes it into our latest entries of disappointing transfers.
Will Crane: Has to be SWP at QPR, never looked confident and a shadow of his former self. One goal (but what a goal) in 67 games.
Steve Harr: Transfer let down... WHU & Mascherano. Couldn't oust Mullins in our starting XI but has since become an ever-present at Barcelona.
Peterwari Soberekon: Bebe will be disappointed he's not been mentioned yet. Worst signing in the Premiership. £7m for an unknown player.
making good progress as they recover from injuries.
Jerome, who was the Canaries' top scorer last season, has a foot problem while Olsson is on his way back to fitness after shoulder surgery.
"Cameron's doing straight-line running now, so it's just getting him twisting and turning and he should be fine," Neil told BBC Radio Norfolk.
"Martin's making great progress, so I think the next step for him is to start getting contact."
signed Pakistan fast bowler Junaid Khan as a replacement overseas player for Joe Burns.
Left-armer Junaid, 25, is available to play in the One-Day Cup and also in the Championship if required.
He has played 22 Tests, 52 one-day internationals and nine Twenty20 games for his country.
Junaid could make his debut against Lancashire, the side he represented in the T20 Blast in 2014, in their One-Day Cup tie at Blackpool on Wednesday.
Australia have won the third ODI by 89 runs at Worcester.
The visitors made 241-7 and then bowled England out for 152.
It was the second consecutive victory for Australia and gives them a 4-2 lead in points over England.
Here's a name you may remember... Jose Luis Chilavert. The former Paraguay goalkeeper and part-time goal machine is 50 today. Here's another important number for you - 67. That's how many he put in the back of the net during his career. Remarkable.
expanded to 24 teams in the future, according to the FA's head of women's leagues and competitions, Katy Brazier.
The are currently 18 teams in the top two tiers of the WSL, which is being increased to 20 clubs by 2017.
"Building things slowly is really important, because we want it to be sustainable," Brazier told BBC Radio 5 live sports extra.
Looking bleak now, as Laura Marsh is out for a duck leaving England 138-8, chasing Australia's total of 242.
Follow live commentary and text updates here.
The season hasn't even started yet and we have had our first sacking.
A non-league manager has been sacked for "a run of poor pre-season results and lack of player signings".
Former Chelsea defender David Stride had been in charge of Southern League side Bashley for just 40 days.
"It's absolute codswallop. The club already had someone in mind to replace me, but waited two weeks before telling me," Stride told BBC Sport.
Chairman Tim Allan said: "We made a tough decision to change things around now rather than the possibility of having more upheaval during the season."
Dundee United teenager Robbie Muirhead is battling it out with superstars Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar for Uefa's goal of the season.
top 10 for the 2014-15 campaign.
"rabona" finish in the win over Asteras Tripolis.
Some facts about Shaun Wright-Phillips, who signed for New York Red Bulls earlier today (see 15:07).
Wright-Phillips began his career at Manchester City, before making a £21m move to Chelsea in 2005.
At Chelsea he won the Premier League. League Cup and FA Cup but struggled to gain a regular stating place and returned to City in 2008.
He signed for QPR in 2011 on a three-year contract, a period in which the club were relegated twice.
Wright-Phillips won 36 caps for England, scoring six goals and played in the 2010 World Cup.
"I am the happiest man in the world," he said. "It's one of my greatest days in football.
"My dream was to play for a big team in England - and Aston Villa is undoubtedly one of the greats in English football.
"When I spoke to the coach [Tim Sherwood] I knew this was the place for me... it took 10 seconds to work out he was the right coach for me and Aston Villa was the right team for me."
Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar will miss the start of the season because of a hamstring injury, boss Roberto Martinez has confirmed.
The midfielder sat out Sunday's game at Hearts after suffering the problem in training and has now returned to Finch Farm to be assessed and begin his rehabilitation.
The full extent of the injury is still unknown and Martinez said: "He's going to miss the start of the season, which is a real shame because Stevie worked with fantastic results and fantastic signs over the first three weeks or pre-season."
An amateur bowler hoping to break into first-class cricket took all 10 wickets in an innings during a club match in Northamptonshire.
Joe Dawborn returned figures of 10-22 while playing for Peterborough Town in the Northants Premier League.
The 21-year-old also represents Northants' second team on a non-contract basis, and has had trials with both Middlesex and Leicestershire.
Earlier today Real Madrid beat Inter Milan 3-0 in a friendly in China.
We mentioned earlier today (13:30 BST) that Jack Burnell had qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Well, he has tweeted. And, quite rightly, is a little bit excited.
A footballer is in intensive care in a Cairo hospital after suffering serious injuries in a match.
Rudy Guelord Bhebey-Ndey, a 25-year-old striker for AC Leopards, was injured after a collision with the goalkeeper of Egyptian club Zamalek during a CAF Confederation Cup game.
"He was in a very bad condition when he arrived," neurosurgeon Salah Abdel-Khalek told an Egyptian radio station.
"The footballer had serious damage to his spinal column between the fifth and sixth vertebrae, a blow to the spinal cord, breathing difficulties and brain bleeding, but the surgery was successful.
"He will remain in intensive care for two days, where he is currently using a ventilator."
Michael Jacobs, Wanderers head coach Kenny Jackett has confirmed.
He told BBC WM: "The club have accepted an offer for him and we'll see how that progresses."
Jacobs, 23, helped Wolves to the League One title in 2014 made just 12 Championship appearances for the club last season.
A good read here. Team Sky rider Geraint Thomas has been heaping praise on his Tour de France-winning team-mate Chris Froome - and given us an insight into his stag do plans.
If dark clouds were circling for England earlier, they're well and truly set in now. Heather Knight is out for 38, bowled by Australian spinner Jess Jonassen. It's currently 72-4, with England chasing 242.
More of your disappointing transfers.
Karl Bristow: Has to be Karel Poborsky. Remember how excited I was when United signed him after his brilliance at Euro 96. He never recreated it.
Garry Brogden: Afonso Alves to Boro. Chased him for six months, paid twice what we originally offered and he got four goals in a relegation season.
Marc: Heskey for Villa, we were negotiating with Falcao and Benzema and got the the gentle giant, total "meh" moment.
And it's all over. Quyet's neat lob was the final piece of action, which was fitting given the effort Vietnam put in throughout.
The hosts might not have been in the same stratosphere skill-wise but you couldn't fault their workrate.
City will be happy with the performance and the result. They did what they had to against inferior opposition and looked sharp, passing the ball well throughout. And no one got injured. Job done.
Jeepers creepers, a goal for Vietnam.
Quyet is the man who scores and it's a nice finish too, dinking the ball over Willy Caballero from eight yards. Lovely stuff.
Warrington Wolves forward Ben Westwood could miss Saturday's Challenge Cup semi-final against Hull KR through suspension for an alleged grade B shoulder charge on Castleford's Luke Gale.
Tigers coach Daryl Powell called for retrospective action after it went unpunished at the time. Westwood will learn his fate on Tuesday evening when a panel will decide what - if any - sanction he should face.
Vietnam, in case you're wondering, drew 1-1 against North Korea in their last game.
Then again North Korea didn't have Raheem Sterling and David Silva up front.
At least those two are no longer on the pitch, with Manuel Pellegrini now changing his whole side to ensure everyone gets a run-out.
Three minutes to go, which is no doubt music to Vietnamese ears.
Some action pictures from Hanoi, via Manchester City's Twitter account.
Jose Angel Pozo, another sub, gets in on the act.
Another good finish from a tight angle, but more awful defending.
It's reminiscent of a primary school game where one team is full of big, powerful skilful lads and the other is, well - let's be kind here - not quite as good.
Vietnam's players are beginning to look a little demoralised. Can't think why.
2012: The London Olympic Games officially got under way with Danny Boyle's unforgettable 'Isles of Wonder' ceremony. We'd love to bring you the image of 'the Queen' jumping out of the helicopter but our search has come up dry. Instead, here's a man dressed as an angel on a flying bike. Magical stuff.
This is getting silly. Substitute Rony Lopes wriggles through the middle of the penalty area and lets fly with one of the weakest shot you'll see.
Despite the distinct lack of ferocity, the Vietnam keeper somehow allows the ball to wriggle under his body.
This may well prove to be City's easiest game of the entire season.
Raheem Sterling, having a cracking game, sets up David Silva for City's sixth.
He threads a pass onto the Spaniard's boots inside the area and Silva finishes in delightful style, chipping the keeper from close-range.
It's Silva's last contribution, he's withdrawn straight after.
Just in case you've lost track, Sterling, Kolarov and Silva have two goals apiece.
Bacary Sagna concedes a free kick on the edge of the box. Kolarov - wearing the skipper's armband after Joe Hart's withdrawal - sprints over to the ref and screams in his face. Now that's commitment at 5-0 up.
Kolarov needn't have got his knickers in a twist, the free kick rebounded harmlessly off the City wall.
The game's going through a quiet period here, hard for City to get too motivated given how easy things are. Half-an-hour to go.
"Goalkeeper Sergio Romero is in the US and will train with Manchester United ahead of Wednesday's game against Paris St-Germain in Chicago."
United announced the signing of Argentina international Romero earlier today.
As Jordan Ayew arrives at Villa Park, presumably to fill a gap left by Christian Benteke, here are some need-to-knows on the Ghanaian striker.
Confirmation of what we brought you earlier today as Jordan Ayew signs for Aston Villa from French side Lorient.
Villa were in the market for a striker after selling Belgian Christian Benteke to Liverpool for £32.5m.
The Midlanders, who also lost Fabian Delph to Manchester City, have signed Jordan Amavi, Idrissa Gueye, Scott Sinclair, Micah Richards and Mark Bunn.
Aleksandar Kolarov blasts a spot kick past the keeper.
Raheem Sterling wanted to take it - he's on a hat-trick remember - but Kolarov over-ruled him and took the ball out of his hand. Now Kolarov's on a hat-trick too.
Bit harsh on Sterling as he was the chap who won the pen in the first place.
England are making heavy weather of their ODI against Australia. Lauren Winfield is run out for a single that was as hopeful as some blue sky at New Road. But the heavy weather could be their saviour as the covers come on for a rain delay. Can they settle down if and when they come off again?
Find out with our live commentary and text updates here. That's 30-3 with England chasing 242.
And we're back under way at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi.
Will this half of football be closer and more keenly-fought? It's doubtful - Joe Hart didn't even get his gloves dirty in the first period - but you never know.
Bad news for Vietnam - Raheem Sterling and David Silva are still on the park. Willy Caballero is on for Hart, the latter presumably going off with boredom.
We'll bring you regular updates of what happens.
Want to know a bit more about Manchester United's new keeper, Sergio Romero?
Look no further than here, where there's a video of his best saves during last year's World Cup penalty shootout against Netherlands.
Bob Brett is resigning from his position as director of player development at the Lawn Tennis Association.
Brett was hired by the LTA last year when he was commissioned to undertake an extensive evaluation of British Tennis.
"I have enjoyed my time working with some very talented players coaches, sports science and sports medicine experts and I wish them all the very best in the future," he said.
Shaun will link-up with brother Bradley at the New York Red Bulls.
Former England international Shaun, 33, was a free agent after being released by QPR in the summer.
Some more of the transfers you wish had not happened.
Nathan: Massimo Taibi for Man Utd. Hugely talented keeper we signed for 4.5m, conceded five at Chelsea and THAT goal at Southampton (where the ball bobbled through his legs as he bent down to stop a shot).
Dan Rozzell: David James to Bristol City after 2010 World Cup lost 3-0 on debut and couldn't stop conceding goals and on big wages too.
Charles Tee: Luis Nani for me as a#mufc man, 41 goals, 52 assists in six years. Rubbish for £25m (2007) signing. Never quite became the next Cristiano Ronaldo.
Max Verstappen will, after finishing fourth in the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of some of the best drivers in the world, set his sights on passing his driving test.
The 17-year-old Toro Rosso driver is not yet old enough to take to the roads unattended in his native Belgium.
He turns 18 in September and will now use the four-week summer break from F1 to brush up on his road skills ahead of his driving test.
"I'm doing my lessons in the summer break and then will take my test around my birthday in September," said Verstappen.
The home fans may be watching Vietnam getting thrashed, but they are enjoying the experience if this tweet from Manchester City is anything to go by.
If I said there was a gulf in class here it would be an understatement on a par with Sir Alex Ferguson likes to chew gum a little.
It's no contest here. City have dominated, given all the time and space in the world to knock the ball around and create openings.
They've scored four times - including a brace for Sterling - but could have had double that. Training session stuff towards the end of the half.
Australian golfer Jason Day says he is "over the moon" after winning the Canadian Open - a week after missing out at The Open.
Day - who failed with a crucial late putt to miss out on a play-off at St Andrews - won by a shot in Canada, edging out American Bubba Watson.
The Australian world number four said: "It's just a really good feeling because whenever you win an Open championship of any country you're doing something good.
"For it come after what happened last week, I'm just over the moon right now."
Jese, Raphael Varane and James Rodriguez give Real Madrid a relatively easy victory in China.
Hang on, a minute, the fourth goal seems to have sparked Vietnam into life.
By that I mean Joe Hart just got a touch of the ball, the big man saving a shot. The crowd go wild and little wonder - they've not exactly had much to cheer about so far.
But normal service is soon resumed as City pour forward again, Silva letting fly from distance but his shot just clearing the bar.
Australia batsman Chris Rogers is fit to play in the third Ashes Test after recovering from dizzy spells, according to team-mate Mitchell Starc.
Rogers, 37, retired hurt on 49 in the second innings of the Lord's Test, saying he could see the stands move. He was hit on the helmet by a James Anderson bouncer.
But he underwent a full net session on Monday, facing balls from pace-trio Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
Starc admitted he did not give him any short-pitched deliveries, but added: "He seems to have come through pretty well. All reports are he is good to go."
We just said that James Rodriguez had gone close with a free-kick, well the Colombia international has just scored a sensational goal with his second free-kick attempt.
He curls his shot into the top corner, leaving a despairing Samir Handanovic no chance.
James Rodriguez curls a free-kick around the wall and forces Inter Milan keeper Samir Handanovic into another diving save.
Just five minutes left in Guangzhou.
Yep, Sterling is definitely fit. He's just scored again.
It's a great goal too,. Sterling starts a move, then latches on to a beautiful backheel by Iheanacho to finish it, shooting calmly past the keeper. This is easy peasy.
A worrying moment as Raheem Sterling collapses to the floor after being caught from behind.
After a couple of minutes of treatment, he gets up a little gingerly - then goes through a series of stretching exercises, the type of which you'd see at your local aerobics class.
It works though. He returns to the pitch and Manuel Pellegrini breathes a big sigh of relief.
Oh dear. England are not doing themselves any favours early on. Taylor plays across the line and is comprehensively bowled by Perry, the ball hitting middle stump fairly high up. That's 10-2 with barely 20 minutes gone. England chasing 242 to win.
Live commentary and text updates here.
Vietnam are ranked 143rd in the Fifa standings, which basically - at the risk of causing a diplomatic incident - means they're not the best.
It looks like that too as City score twice in the space of two minutes to essentially end the game as a contest.
Sterling's strike was a nice curling effort from the left edge of the penalty area. Then, with the Vietnamese defence appearing to operate a strict no-tackling policy, Silva headed against the crossbar before tapping in the rebound from his own effort.
Oh dear, this could be a rout. Actually, take the word 'could' out of that. It will be a rout.
Another water break in China with 13 minutes left.
Since Madrid's second goal the game has petered out somewhat.
And now David Silva gets in on the act. This could be a rout.
A busy day at Watford. One player in, and one player out.
Raheem Sterling makes it 2-0 to City.
one-shot victory over fellow Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick at the European Masters on Sunday.
In fact it was an all-English top three as Tyrrell Hatton finished two shots behind Willett on 15 under.
Disastrous start for England after lunch, Charlotte Edwards edges the fourth ball of the match to the wicketkeeper to give Ellyse Perry an early wicket. Not a run on the board. Nervy stuff with England chasing 242 to win.
Live commentary and text updates available here.
First goal of the game and it's gone to the Blues.
Jesus Navas is taken out 30 yards from goal. Aleksandar Kolarov blasts the free kick around a rather flimsy looking Vietnamese wall and past rooted keeper Vinh Loi.
City deserve it, they've had the better of the early stages.
1990: Former England captain Graham Gooch scored 333 in the first innings against India at Lord's.
The batsman followed it up with a second-innings hundred to set the record for the most runs in a single Test, a record that still stands today.
How England could do with a batting performance like that against Australia, when the third Ashes test begins on Wednesday.
Leave a message on the BBC Sport Facebook page.
You have high hopes that your latest signing is going to become a legend. Then soon after you can't wait for them to leave. Here are some more of your disappointing transfers.
Dave Miller: As a Southampton fan, it has to be Dani Osvaldo. Club-record fee, plenty of fanfare, and a seemingly classy player. In the end, aside from that beauty he scored against Man City, he never looked like he was going to rival Lambert for a spot in the starting XI. Then he threw all of his toys out of the pram when he hit Fonte. Complete waste of money.
Cameron Westwood: Without doubt, Michael Owen. Worst signing in the history of NUFC. Yes, even worse than Xisco.
Nathan Critchlow: Jo at Man City. Signed for a reported £19 million. Twenty-one league games. One goal. Scored more on loan than he did for us. Amazed to see him turning out for Brazil. Must be his identical twin.
Hallelujah! We have a football match.
Don't know where the flowers have gone. Probably in the bin. What a waste of money.
Anyhow, we're under way and we'll bring you regular updates throughout.
Inter Milan fail to clear the ball properly from a corner and Lucas Vazquez crosses to Varane who volleys home from close range.
The players and the officials appear to have been given a bouquet of flowers - possibly rhododendrons, I'm not sure, my mother would know - and are now standing there holding them, looking slightly sheepish.
Now they're lining up around the centre circle. The game was supposed to start at 14:00 BST. 13 minutes later and no sign of a game of football breaking out any time soon.
Welsh Athletics national coach Scott Simpson insists Dai Greene still has a future despite another injury-affected season.
Greene, world 400m hurdles champion in 2011, has failed to get the qualifying time for this year's World Championship.
Simpson said: "His mentality and resilience are some of his greatest strengths. He's in a good place with good people around him and, if he can make some good decisions over the next 12 months, then we'll hopefully see him at another Olympics."
Now there's a bloke from the Vietnamese Football Federation. He's also wearing specs. And he's also speaking. A lot.
The players meanwhile are still lined up on the pitch like lemons.
Could be a while to kick-off here.
Interesting beginning to the game. Well I say beginning, they've not actually kicked off.
The players have been stood on the pitch for the last five minutes while a bloke in spectacles - the president of some bank apparently - stands at a podium making a long speech, none of which we can understand because he's speaking in Vietnamese.
Joe Hart looks a little perplexed.
Right then, we have a treat for you now (depending on your definition of treat).
It's the game you've all been waiting for - Vietnam v Man City live from the Mydinh Stadium.
Kick off is at 14:00 BST, so about 60 seconds away. We'll bring you live updates throughout the game.
Raheem Sterling starts again, here's City's line-up in full: Hart (C), Sagna, Kolarov, Mangala, Denayer, Evans, Garcia, Sterling, Navas, Silva, Iheanacho.
That's it for Australia today, meaning England will need to score 242 to win the third ODI and take a 4-2 lead on points in the multi-format series.
A free-kick from Hernanes forces a diving save from Navas and the referee blows his whistle for half-time in Guangzhou where Jese's goal after 28 minutes separates the teams.
Ronaldo and Bale have also gone close in the first-half and it is Inter Milan's Handanovic that has been the busier of the two keepers.
We said it had been a good day for Jack Burnell (see 13:30) in the 10km event at the World Aquatics Championships in Russia. But not so for countryman Daniel Fogg.
Some more of your big transfer disappointments.
Lee Parkinson: Tomas Brolin, scored a worldy at USA 94, signed for Leeds 95, retired from football 98 aged 28.
Fraser Mackenzie: Tore Andre Flo for Rangers. Rangers most expensive player ever at £12 million. Much was expected. Flattered to deceive.
Dejan Obradovic: Kezman to Chelsea. Signed as half of the Batman & Robben combo from PSV, yet left a year later resembling anything but the hero.
Hot and humid evening in Guangzhou.
The players, whose shirts are already sodden with sweat, had a drinks break at 30 minutes.
Inter Milan's goalkeeper Handanovic is having a busy night and he blocks a Ronaldo shot at close range after 38 minutes.
Ellyse Perry has been bowled by Jennie Gunn at the Women's Ashes in Worcester. That's five down for Australia now with 237 runs on the board.
We have a breakthrough in China and it is Spain striker Jese who has put Real Madrid in front after 28 minutes.
Marcelo's dinked a pass into the box and Jese calmly cut inside and placed his left-foot shot past Handanovic.
BBC Sport's Olympics reporter Nick Hope is at the World Aquatics Championships in Russia and it has been a good day for British swimmer Jack Burnell.
A Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick forces a diving one-handed save from Samir Handanovic who tips the shot over the bar.
The Portugal forward then drags another shot wide.
Real Madrid on-top in China with 20 minutes gone, with Gareth Bale seeing plenty of the ball in his new position.
BBC Newcastle's Martin Emmerson at Chester-le-Street: "Durham's home One-Day Cup game against Worcestershire has been abandoned without a ball being bowled.
"The rain has not stopped falling in Chester-le-Street since Sunday tea-time, so both sides take a point.
"Durham are next in action against Somerset at Taunton on Wednesday, while Worcestershire play Yorkshire at home on Thursday."
Under-pressure England batsman Ian Bell has described Test cricket as a "brutal environment" ahead of the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston - but says there is no reason he cannot return to form.
Bell has scored just 117 runs in his last six Tests at an average of 10.63.
"It's a brutal environment, international sport,"
Bell said. "You have to perform. I'm realistic enough to know that I haven't played to the best of my ability in the last two months."
The teams are in with Nigerian youngster Kelechi Iheanacho upfront for City.
There's been a fair bit of talk about the possibility of a return to Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo, but there's only one man really worth listening to about the topic.
interview with BBC Sport's Simon Stone here.
Gareth Bale and Jese have got us under way in China as Real Madrid face Inter Milan in Guangzhou.
We will be bringing you live updates from the match.
live video coverage right here.
Britain's Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow are among the Brits to look out for today.
Bruno Manga will have a scan on a knee after being carried off in Cardiff's 1-0 win over Sparta Rotterdam.
The Gabon international defender returned to Wales with the rest of the team and will have the injury examined on Monday.
The injury could leave manager Russell Slade with a defensive problem with Ben Turner already missing the start of the season after having ankle surgery.
Great expectations. Huge disappointment. More of those signings that went wrong.
Lee: Kim Kallstrom to Arsenal. Loaning a player with a back injury then booting him after four appearances.
Max Baggins-Craig: Kleberson to M Utd, failed to adapt to English football & after two years of little impact he moved to Turkish side Besiktas.
Damo Clark: Alberto Aquilani, signed for £17 million as the next Alonso. 18 appearances one goal and two loan spells later he's gone.
Just for you, Damo, here is Aquilani's one and only goal in the Premier League.
Want something to ponder over your lunch hour? Then have a crack at this.
Today's teaser from our colleagues at Question of Sport is this: Since 1990 which five British riders have worn the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France?
We'll bring you the answers later this afternoon.
Open water swimmer Jack Burnell has become the first British athlete to secure a named place for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
He finished fifth in the 10km marathon swimming event at the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia today.
Whilst others have already secured Britain berths in events for Brazil - like shooting an triathlon - Burnell is the first to qualify himself.
Another wicket in Worcester as Healy is caught and bowled by England's Heather Knight. Australia currently 120-3.
England batsman Joe Root on Yorkshire teammate Jonny Bairstow: "It is never easy to come into such a big series but Bairstow has been averaging over 100, he is playing exceptionally well and is desperate to get out here and get some more runs and carry on his form.
"I am sure he will be ecstatic, he could not be in better form. He will be desperate to emulate what he has done this season on the international stage."
Bairstow replaced Gary Ballance in the England squad for the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston, starting on 29 July.
Inter Milan team to play Real Madrid in Guangzhou, China at 13:00 BST.
Inter Milan: Handanovic; Montoya, Ranocchia, Murillo, Jesus, Brozovic, Kovacic, Kondogbia, Hernanes, Palacio, Icardi.
Stoke City could be set to sign another former Barcelona forward.
Ibrahim Afellay is set to become the fourth former Barcelona player at Stoke City.
The 29-year-old free agent is having a medical at the Britannia Stadium after ending his four-and-a-half year stay at the Nou Camp.
Another scalp for England at the Women's Ashes. Nicole Bolton toe-ends one over extra cover and the delighted Laura Marsh takes the catch. Australia now 88-2 after 27 overs.
Rafa Benitez has named a strong line-up for their match against Inter Milan in Guangzhou, China.
Real Madrid: Navas, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Ronaldo, Kroos, Bale, Marcelo, Casemiro, Jese, Isco, Danilo.
There has been a lot of speculation that sought-after midfielder Arturo Vidal is to leave Juventus and join Bayern Munich. Well, this could be proof it's about to happen.
Vidal has posted this photo on Twitter, with the message: "A new stage ... a new dream ... Munich here we go !!!"
Three exclamation marks, it must be true.
A day at the beach usually entails building sandcastles, enjoying an ice cream, swimming in the sea, maybe a game of beach cricket.
Not when Alexis Sanchez is involved, where his seaside visit involves training for the start of the Premier League season.
Instagram of his training sessions.
Australia have recovered following that earlier wicket as captain Meg Lanning steadies the ship. They're now 83-1 at Worcester.
BBC Radio 5 live sports extra commentary and live text updates here.
The paper say Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez met with told Ramos and his agent in China.
At the meeting Ramos reiterated his desire to join United.
1985: BBC commentator and athletics doyen Steve Cram set the (then) mile world record at three minutes 46.32 seconds in Oslo.
We've all seen our clubs make what appears to be a dream signing, only for them to be a complete disaster. Today we recognise those transfers that have gone wrong. Horribly wrong.
Daniel Aspel: Mitroglou to Fulham, surely? £12m for an injured guy who played three games, never scored, we got relegated, he went back on loan to his original club and scored a winner against Atletico Madrid. Total farce.
Chris Kelly: Pascal Cygan. At first looked like a rock solid addition to our defence, was actually the worst defender I've ever seen in an Arsenal shirt.
Nathan Critchlow: Roque Santa Cruz at City. Four years, 20 appearances, three goals. Always injured or farmed out on loan to gain fitness. After Blackburn form he was hugely underwhelming.
Want your say on our Sportsday page? It is easy. Tweet us using #bbcsportsday or leave a message on the BBC Sport Facebook page.
Lukaku to United or just good friends?
Could Memphis Depay have found the striker that Louis van Gaal needs?
"Me and Romelu Lukaku in an conversation. See you soon," the Dutch international wrote.
has been interest from "Championship and Premier League clubs" in striker Ivan Toney.
Toney, 19, did not play in Saturday's 3-0 pre-season win at Brackley because of ongoing transfer talks.
"That'll progress in its time, and if it does then we'll deal with it," Wilder told BBC Radio Northampton.
No prizes for who adorns today's l'Equipe. It's that man Chris Froome. The headline mirrors many in the UK this morning, namely his vow not to dishonour the Tour de France jersey.
third season with Durham, extending his stay for the 2016 county season.
Since joining in 2014, Hastings has taken 76 first-class wickets in 20 matches.
"The people in the dressing room and the people up here in the North East are just fantastic, so my wife and I really enjoy it and want to keep coming back," said the 29-year-old.
...but we're not talking atmosphere, we're talking bees. Sunday's friendly against Blackburn was delayed because of a swarm of the little critters on the goalpost.
Kick-off had to be delayed while the club sent for a beekeeper to solve the situation. Turned out Oldham didn't have much sting in their play - they lost 2-0.
Today's talking point - disappointing transfers.
Fraser Bernstein: Soldado, Paulinho and Lamela have all flopped at Spurs to various degrees. As a Spurs fan, this is quite depressing.
Ebughe Emmanuel Omon: The biggest flop has to be Jose Antonio Reyes, he was dubbed the next Henry but didn't see much of him.
Ally Howe: 41 signings for Darlington in 2010. Bottom of the league and three seasons later down five divisions. Can we put an entire team in?
Well I was just about to tell you that Australia were off to a steady start in the Women's Ashes. But then Elyse Villani just forced me to re-write. She's out for 14. The visitors are currently 31-1 in Worcester, where it looks like the wind is whipping up a bit.
topped the Super League by beating Catalans 36-22.
both won titles on Sunday to move closer to tennis's top 100.
edged a thrilling finish to hold off Eagle Top in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
the first-ever mixed-gender synchronised swimming event in Kazan, Russia.
Football, F1 and cycling dominated the weekend headlines, so here's a quick digest of the other significant stories you may have missed.
Danny Willett took his third European Tour title with victory in Switzerland.
The IPC Grand Prix in London saw records tumble for British para-athletes Georgina Hermitage and Sophie Hahn. Hermitage set a new best in the T37 400m of one minute 2.48 seconds. Meanwhile Hahn clocked 13 seconds in the T38 100m.
Wales boss Chris Coleman says he does not want the distraction of negotiating a new contract while the team are involved in Euro 2016 qualifying.
The 45-year-old has led Wales to the top of Group B and have a three-point lead with four games remaining, with the top two from each pool qualifying.
Coleman's current deal expires after the finals in France next summer.
"I can't stress enough... that my full focus is on leading my country to France 2016," Coleman said. "Hopefully we finish well and I'm leading the team to France and then I imagine that would suggest that we'll be sitting down sooner or later to talk about the future."
The dual 2000 Guineas and St James's Palace Stakes winner Gleneagles is to miss Wednesday's 'Duel on the Downs' with the brilliant French trained five-year-old Solow in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.
Gleneagles' trainer Aidan O'Brien has expressed concerns about the going, currently described as varying between soft and good to soft.
agreed a deal to sign Cordoba defender Jose Angel Crespo according to the Spanish club.
win the toss and put Australia into bat in the third ODI of the women's Ashes between England and Australia at Worcester.
proposed move to Bath is now in the hands of the Welsh Rugby Union, says Bath head coach Mike Ford.
Instagram that he is on the way to Italy to join Roma.
The 25-year-old, who has been replaced as the Gunners number one by the arrival of Petr Cech, posted a video and wrote "Ciao Giallorossi!!."
A stat about United's new keeper Sergio Romero that should give Reds' fans confidence.
Taulupe Faletau is now in the hands of the Welsh Rugby Union.
An issue over the 24-year-old's availability to play for Wales now appears to be the only stumbling block to his arrival in the Premiership.
"Recruitment never stops. With Toby, it is well documented that we have spoken to him," Ford told BBC Radio Bristol.
"Nothing is sorted out and we won't say anything else until he has signed. It's in the Welsh Rugby Union's hands and we'll see where that goes."
We are getting some great suggestions about those transfers that promised a lot, but proved to be huge disappointments.
Michael Vine: Sol Campbell to Notts County has to be up there. Signed a five-year deal, played and lost one game then left three days later.
Andrew Neill: NUFC's signing of Emmanuel Riviere has been rather disappointing. Three goals in 23 appearances for a striker is rather atrocious.
John Michael Poole: Jay Bothroyd for SWFC has to be up there with the worst. One goal in 14 and by the end couldn't be bothered to jump for headers.
Keep the suggestions coming in on Twitter using #bbcsportsday or by leaving a message on the BBC Sport Facebook page.
It is four years to the day since Man City shelled out £38m to sign Sergio Aguero. "I will fight every year to help the team win major trophies," said the then 23-year-old. He kept his word.
set to sign Bristol City defender Greg Cunningham for an undisclosed fee, reports BBC Points West.
The Republic of Ireland international, 24, began his career at Manchester City where he made five appearances.
Cunningham would be the third arrival at Deepdale this summer after Jermaine Beckford and Paul Gallagher.
Michael van Gerwen beat James Wade 18-12 to win his first World Matchplay title in Blackpool on Sunday.
Van Gerwen won five straight legs to move 10-6 ahead in the final and held on to clinch the £100,000 first prize.
"It means a lot to me because, after the World Championship, this is the biggest ranking event," said the 26-year-old Dutch thrower.
Some more of your comments about disappointing transfers.
Raj Jha: Andy Carroll and just about every signing of late for Liverpool.
Debmalya Banerjee: Shevchenko to Chelsea. Absolutely no hunger.
Matt Harris: Abou Diaby. Showed so much promise as the next Vieira but failed to deliver... admittedly plagued with injuries.
Two-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome thanks the fans that have backed him during the race. Which maybe a little dig too at those who have questioned his integrity.
Looks like Crespo (see 09:49) will not be the only new arrival at Villa Park today.
Talksport that the club are close to agreeing a deal for Ghana striker Jordan Ayew.
The 23-year-old who plays for French Ligue 1 club Lorient will reportedly cost in the region of £9m.
Remember you can follow the action live right here.
For those who missed the weekend's events, Britain's finest put in a pretty good shift while the rest of us put our feet up.
Dina Asher-Smith broke the British record for the women's 100m, dipping under the elusive 11 second mark to clock a 10.99 at the Anniversary Games.
Shara Proctor also recorded a new British long jump record on the same day with a leap of 6.98m.
Bristol City are set to sign teenage defender Levi Ives from Torquay United, reports BBC Points West.
Left-back Ives made 20 appearances for Torquay last season and is a Northern Ireland Under-19 international.
When the deal is completed, the 17-year-old is set to join Championship club City's Under-21 squad.
We are talking about disappointing transfers today. Here are some comments from the BBC Sport Facebook page.
Stefan Glosby: Casiraghi for Chelsea. £5 million, scored at Anfield, then got injured against West Ham and never played again.
James Houston: Eyal Berkovic, Juninho. Roy Keane and any other former Premier League star that came to Celtic for a final fling.
Callum Bannister: Although he was great for the first two seasons I'll say Darren Bent as he cost 24m but it wasn't really his fault as he barely started under Paul Lambert.
Some live cricket coming your way now. The 3rd ODI of the Women's Ashes series is whirring into life in Worcester very soon.
Man City face Vietnam today as part of what seems a slightly exhausting pre-season tour. We'll have regular updates from the game, which kicks off at 14:00 BST. Judging by the scene below, it could be a lively atmosphere.
Started his career at Sevilla winning the 2006 Uefa Cup.
Also played for Racing Santander and in Italy for Padova, Bologna and Verona.
Won four caps for Spain Under-21s.
Real Madrid's 2-1 victory over Cordoba in January, with the Portugal forward later sent off.
It is fair to say the last two weeks have been testing for Aston Vila fans after losing Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke.
But it looks like there may finally be some good news to cheer this transfer window.
tweeted that Villa have agreed a deal to sign Spanish defender Jose Angel Crespo.
They go on to say that the 28-year-old full-back will travel to Birmingham today for a medical.
Who says there's no goodwill in the world of football?
waiving their entitlement to 50% of the gate receipts for Friday's friendly at Plainmoor.
In 2003, the Gulls made a similar gesture at a time when Exeter's debts had reached £4.5m.
"We have always maintained a fantastic relationship with Torquay and we sympathise with their current situation," said Exeter vice-chairman Julian Tagg.
Today's first discussion in Sportsday is about those transfers that have proved to be a massive disappointment. Get involved by using the hashtag #bbcsportsday or leave a message on the BBC Sport Facebook page.
Mark Hawlor: Has to be Juan Sebastian Veron for a let down. Big fee. Big fanfare. Bigger flop.
Luke Jones: As a Liverpool fan there are quite a few. I wouldn't say I had massive hopes but certainly wanted more from Carroll and Mario.
Tom Johnson: Had high hopes for Mo Salah after seeing him terrorise our defence in the Champions League that year, didn't hit form for us.
AS: Real Madrid have rejected a formal offer of £84m from Paris St-Germain for 30-year-old forward Cristiano Ronaldo, according to several Middle Eastern newspapers.
Something that, if true, would surely be the sporting story of the summer.
BBC Sports Editor Dan Roan has a copy of French daily newspaper Le Figaro.
We've been crying out for an exciting Grand Prix and on Sunday in Hungary we got one and then some.
In a dramatic race, Lewis Hamilton - despite staring on pole - finished sixth and then accepted the blame for his errors.
The world champion made a bad start, ran off the road on the first lap and later damaged his car in a collision with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. "I was all over the place,"
said Hamilton. "I really don't have any words to describe what happened. It was a really bad performance from me."
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel - pictured below in celebratory mood - won ahead of Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat and Ricciardo.
"Very near" is the rough translation of Marca's headline, referring to Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos's future at the Bernabeu following links to Manchester United.
@fqiren: Alexis Sanchez to Arsenal last season. Expected to sweep all in front of them. In the end only have the FA Cup to show. Poor.
1992: Alan Shearer was transferred from Southampton to Blackburn for a then-British record fee of £3.6m which delivered 112 goals in 138 appearances.
The Mirror: Chelsea will make a £26m bid for Everton defender John Stones, 21, within the next 48 hours, but the Toffees want £34m.
Harry G Henderson: Would say Torres was a let-down for Chelsea, but he scored THAT goal against Barca, so all is forgiven!
James Maloney: Chelsea signing Robert Fleck in 1992 for a then massive £2.1m. 4 goals in 48 games and he was shipped out.
Michael Hannaway: Ryan Babel came to Liverpool with a great YouTube CV. Shame it was never really there in a red shirt.
Back to football for Arsenal forward Theo Walcott is getting "closer and closer" to signing a new contract, says manager Arsene Wenger.
The 26-year-old England forward has a year remaining on his current deal.
Wenger said: "Not yet. Hopefully we can finalise it very soon."
Meanwhile, Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is set to join Italian side Roma and will have a medical on Monday in Rome.
Froome says he will "never dishonour" the yellow jersey after becoming the first Briton to win two Tour de France titles.
"The yellow jersey is very special. I will always respect it and never dishonour it,"
Froome was abused by spectators, with his performance described as "abnormal" by a French physiologist.
"Someone needs to speak up for the cyclists. I'm happy to do that. Someone has to make a stand, the time is now."
Former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, a man normally on four wheels, shows his appreciation for the man on two.
Given what he achieved over the weekend, it is about time we turned the spotlight on Chris Froome.
The 2013 champion beat Colombia's Nairo Quintana to the yellow jersey by 72 seconds with Spain's Alejandro Valverde third.
At times Froome was so dominant, it caused some to question whether the 30-year-old's performances were being enhanced by doping. He was subjected to abuse from spectators, claimed he had urine thrown at him on stage 14 and appeared to have twice been spat at in the last two stages before Paris.
But it didn't stop him from powering to victory and Froome's victory means a Briton - and Team Sky - have now won three of the last four of cycling's showpiece races.
Tottenham have touched down in the US ahead of their pre-season trip and looks like Harry Kane was a busy man at the airport..
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2019-04-21T02:54:15Z
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https://www.bbc.com/sport/live/33590071
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Americans will be feeling a new and unexpected pain of government overregulation before they vote in November. Yet, more than two-thirds of the public is currently unaware of what has the potential to be a serious 2014 election issue—representing more government intrusion and meddling with free markets, increased cost, loss of American jobs, and the elimination of choice.
The reality of Obama’s Green-energy policies is going to hit home with your next light bulb purchase.
As of January 1, in America, it is now illegal to manufacture or import the traditional incandescent light bulbs.
President George W. Bush signed the “Energy Independence Security Act of 2007” that was cosponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), in a different energy era. Back in 2007, there was a general belief that we were truly facing an energy shortage and that global warming was a real manmade crisis. It was thought that forcing efficiencies upon the public would reduce energy use and CO2 emissions.
What if Americans do like the “freedom to buy inefficient light bulbs?” After all, we like the freedom to buy inefficient trucks—with the Ford F-150 being the number one selling car in America in 2013.
So, why did supposedly pro-choice Democrats kill the Republicans’ attempt to bring back choice in light bulbs?
I believe that all of the efficiency rules and regulations are to hide the increasing energy rates—especially spiking electricity bills that are 20% higher than they were 6 years ago.
So, by mandating increased efficiency, which lowers our electricity usage, the pain of higher electricity prices is kicked, as usual, further down the road.
I posted a quick survey on my Facebook page. I asked: “When you get your utility/electric bill, do you pay attention to the kilowatt hours used or to the total dollars?” Within hours I had 118 responses, the vast majority answered dollars—which proves my point. Most of us do not know how much electricity we are using, but we know how much we are spending. When the price goes up, but we use less, the bill remains more or less the same. We are not aware of it.
But, when it used to cost $25 to equip your house with 100 light bulbs and it will now cost $500, the pain will hit home. Consumers will be asking: “What happened to the light bulbs?” They’ll be told that incandescent light bulbs have been outlawed.
Simone told me, during the break, after he mentioned light bulbs as a 2014 election issue on the Kudlow Report, that Larry Kudlow and the other two panelists asked him what he was talking about. None of them knew about the 2007 law that finally took full effect on January 1, 2014—part of the 72% who will be shocked the next time they purchase a new made-in-China light bulb.
As people are literally being forced to live in the dark, there will be public outcry. As Upton found, the “public response” won’t be good. Like ObamaCare, Republicans are on record as trying to change bad policy that takes away free choice—and that could spell trouble for Democrats in the 2014 elections.
I like my light bulbs. Why can’t I keep them?
We have a similar incandescent light bulb ban in the UK, so I now use G9 halogen bulbs in suitable adapters, and bit-by-bit changing all the bulbs to this combination (so I only have to buy G9 bulbs, which I do in packs of 10 from eBay).
The article hits the relevant point however, free markets are about the better technology winning, so if LEDs are better then incandescents (performance&price), then they will win out. Government have no business meddling in private choices, particularly when there is no evidence whatsoever that the ban has any effect on the climate, which after all is the root of the ban.
I live in EU. Just before the ban, I have stocked a cubic metre of incadescent bulbs and I’m assured that during my lifetime no mercury bomb enters my home. The human ingenuity is winning here. For example in Germany the classic bulbs can be purchased as “heating devices”, and in Poland as “shock-proof bulbs for outdoor use only” – it turns out the dummy bureaucrats did leave plenty of loopholes.
I heard about the German ‘branding’ of “globe heaters” on the basis that they produce much more heat than light (it seems strange that the greenies don’t like us heating our homes with electric heaters but want us to drive electric cars).
In the UK, the bulbs labelled “rough service” are quite legal, but the government are quite stupid in that they say they are not suitable for domestic use. Do they not realise domestic use is LESS demanding on the physical construction and ‘in-service’ use than industrial, and no different to commercial use??
The stupidity of the bureaucrats is bottomless.
Banning the light bulb is just a start, what other old relics have you been hoarding? Your furnace? How bout that old fridge? Maybe an annual home inspection that gets you certified to remain hooked to the power grid?
How about vacuum cleaner manufacturers that brag about how inefficient their motors are? Maybe I should keep quiet. We’ll soon be cleaning our carpets with Chinese lint rollers and packaging tape.
EU is already going to limit the vacuum cleaner power to 1400 Watts, so watch out for that coming your way soon.
I do not like a nanny govt. A govt. that thinks that they can rule our choices actually is an arrogant govt and thinks we are unable to think for ourselves. Also, it isn’t always in our best interests either, By having govt. doling out to the masses keeps them in their pockets and we can never get our individual power back. What a shame that would be. Isn’t it really dumb to copy a failing system of govt. I cannot see the intelligence of doing this constant change in free marketing. There is never going to be an ideal country where there is no poverty. That is never going to happen but in the U. S., we have the opportunity to climb the ladder to success and failure is not due to race, wealth etc because too many have made it out of poor circumstances because they were willing to work hard and become skilled workers what ever it took to do that.
I agree. And our government, democrats especially, is reducing overall incentive and production; and in the end, increasing poverty and all the very things they wish to decrease.
I am happy to have your agreement!!! I am very woried about our country and the direction it is going.
We use light bulbs to heat the chicken house just enough when the outdoor temperature gets below zero. Now this will be illegal and the chicken house will be heated with CFL’s. Democrats didn’t realize how much they hate animals.
I do the same thing to prevent the pipes from freezing. You can’t heat the chicken house with CFL’s. They don’t produce enough heat. Millions of people hate this arrogant, meddling government already. It’s time to replace it.
Beyond time. And many of these counterproductive regulations must be repealed as well.
There is some truth to this claim and it is also important in the wintertime even in our houses. Although the efficiency of conventional bulbs is low with respect to creating light, the inefficient part of the energy is emitted as relatively high-temperature heat that does provide some reduction in fuel costs to run your furnace. In the summertime of course, we don’t want the heat and there may be electricity savings benefits from not having an air conditioner remove this excess heat from your home. It depends where you live and how much your home relies on air conditioning.
They will only be able to take my light bulbs out of my cold dead hands. I am sorry to have stole the phrase from the gun rights people. Regardless I an sick of this government telling us what we can and cannot have. It is so absurd. It’s like me telling Obama what type of haircut he should get.
other things or for individuals to purchase other mod-cons.
better for each of us.
What about the mercury which will end up in landfills, rivers, streams, and eventually in the ocean where it will raise the mercury levels in fish and thus in humans?
Similar to Ni-Cd batteries, these bulbs will have to be disposed of at end of use to a recycle facility that can deal with the Hg and prevent it from entering the environment. The major problem with Hg emissions in the world today is artisanal gold miners and improperly functioning coal-fired generating stations that don’t prevent Hg emissions.
Electric Authority President and CEO, Fred Clarke Jr., more than 200 coal-based generating plants are scheduled to shut down in the next three to five years.
This is due in large part to EPA regulations.
One primary reason for this is to reduce poisonous mercury emissions into the environment.
mercury filled bulbs in order to save energy.
These mercury filled bulbs will wind up in landfills where the mercury will leach into rivers, streams, and underground aquifers, which are used to irrigate food crops. Mercury that leaches into rivers and streams will eventually reach the oceans where it will raise mercury levels in fish.
The EPA issued a fifteen step procedure for disposing of a broken mercury filled light bulb. The first step is to remove children and pets from the room. The next step is to open windows in the room. Other steps require treating the broken bulb as a bio-hazard.
the mandate to switch to mercury filled light bulbs.
Just another “feature” brought to the American taxpayers by the corrupt Obama administration.
I’m for firewood-powered electricity plants. Less than zero carbon emissions. 100% renewable. Less polution than even wind or solar! Only those who understand how much oxygen trees give out over their lifespan understand this. A tree emits the same amount of carbon whether it rots or is turned into energy.
Scientific-industrial civilization is an objective need of man’s life. Alleged global warming is unimportant. Nature is a tool for man, not a God to be appeased w/sacrifice.
Wrong, dummy. You will not see a significant drop in energy costs. No one has all 100 watt bulbs (that I know of). No one leaves every light in the house on. And I have used a few of the new bulbs. They DO NOT last nearly as long as advertised. And they are made in China, not the US. So a good portion of the spent buying them will flow to China. And what about the loss of taxes from the shuttered plants that made the old bulbs and the loss of jobs?
Also, Have you ever read the instructions on what to do if you break one?
In short, you are an ignoramus.
Oh John, how could I be so silly. Of course you are right and I’m a dummy. I suggest your knowledge about the different types of new lights is not up to speed. LEDs for the same lumens use about 1/10 the amount of energy. When one takes into account the loss of heat and the need for additional fuel in the winter, this complicates the calculation of net savings in the north and the need for added energy to run your air conditioning in the south (I think overall, this is likely a wash. Mercury is problematic – yes and their will be costs to do proper recycling. Despite the fat that I recognize the savings are real and people like you with less knowledge don’t see this means the government has decided to step in and force you to use the new bulbs. That I disagree with. If you want to spend your money unwisely, that is your right. There is no collective benefit here except in a really complicated economic model. So although we disagree on the savings, we do agree that you should not be forced to overcome your own stupidity.
And by the way, my estimate of $700 savings over 5 years was not based on 100 100 watt bulbs burning for 24 hours per day over 5 years. I don’t like the fluorescent bulbs but the LEDs make sense.
The modern white LED’s are, you guess – just UV LEDs covered with a fluorescent dye. So, it turns out you don’t know much indeed.
It turns out that what we purchase is not our right. In the light bulb case, to paraphrase, you may no longer buy a regular pair of shoes. You must now buy a pair of $500 Nikes. Every year. The ones with tongues made of arsenic. Why? Only one reason. Because the god of the libbies owns the Nike factory pipe dream.
Exactly. I agree with you that we should save energy if we can, but I don’t agree with your savings numbers.
See, what you do not figure in is that the energy companies want to save their limited resources, but they do NOT want to pass these savings on to consumers.
You see back in the 70’s the Government also helped out the natural gas companies, by giving a tax break to anyone that insulated their houses….this was going to conserve our natural resource…natural gas.
And it worked!! A LOT of people insulated their homes, new windows, etc etc. In fact it worked so well that the gas companies then came back and said they weren’t selling enough gas!!!
I was outraged that now we are required to buy this poison.
The E.P.A , at the behest of President O’Bama, is enforcing stringent emission standards on coal fired power plants. This will cause some plants to be closed while others must undergo multi billion dollar modifications.
Consequently, electricity rates will increase significantly.
This does not bode well for the electric/hybrid cars that President O’Bama wants us all to drive.
other countries, primarily in the Far East, which have much less stringent emission standards than the U.S.
by the jet stream and other currents.
This example of unintended consequences will: 1.) destroy more U.S.
jobs, 2.) raise the cost of producing goods in the U.S., 3.) increase home cooling and heating costs, 4.) increase the level of pollutants in the atmosphere, more so than if the coal were burned in the U.S., and 5.) subject American consumers to more mercury in their seafood.
If President O’Bama and the EPA are so concerned about mercury emissions form U.S. coal fired power plants, why are they not concerned about mercury filled light bulbs that are being foisted on the American public by the federal government?
If President O’Bama had used the $700 billion in stimulus- money to upgrade power plants, instead of rewarding his supporters, U.S. power plants and American consumers would not be facing this costly dilemma.
This EPA boondoggle is just another nail in the coffin of the U.S. economy.
Not a day goes by that I don’t say a prayer that this Marxist traitor die a slow, painful death. Probably won’t happen since I am beginning to think he is the Anti-Christ.
Other than not being a stout man or working for the EU, he sure fits the bill.
The Christian opposition to man’s productive, independent, worldly mind is the basis of Marxism. Obama is a New Leftist (Marxism minus industry and plus environmentalism).
Those who live in more northerly lattitudes benefit from the “loss” of heat from the incandescent bulbs as that isn’t lost, simply helps heat the home. Since the days are much shorter in winter when we have the greatest need for warmth coincide with the greater need for lighting this is a win-win. In mid summer when the days are extremely long, thus greatly minimizing the need for lighting we don’t have much need for the so-called wasted energy and of course use our lights much less for lighting.
The worst words to hear are “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.
We have to vote al the liberals and RINOs out of office.
You are so right. More than likely it won’t happen, though I think many will be forced out. I will try to do my part.
This government is the most corrupt I have seen in my lifetime (I’m 70). My mst fervent wish is these federal cretins die a slow, painful death….. In the dark.
A few years ago, our then Socialist Prime Minister in New Zealand, Helen Clark, proposed the same banning legislation for incandescent lamps. This caused so much furore that she was compelled to back down. And where is this idiotic politician now? About second in charge of the United Nations!!! And with people like her having an influence in the U.N. it is no wonder that the IPCC carries so much nonsensical weight. Turf them all out, I say!
It was obvious after just a few months in office that Obama was not only the first black president, he is the first president who desires to become the first dictator of the United States. I believe Obama will generate a crisis, declare nation-wide martial law, and abolish the 2016 election and all future elections. Obama does not govern according to will of the people and the Constitution–he rules by personal whim and executive fiat. All that is required for a democrat to become a dictator is for the republicans to do nothing. It is far past the time the low-information voters should have awakened to the Kool Aid they were drinking. The country is in a tailspin from which there is no recovery.
Wake up people for our future is at hand. Get this man out .
I am upset with myself that I didn’t get down to Ace hardware sooner to buy as many regular light bulbs as possible. Now it is too late.
Have you heard of these? http://www.newcandescent.com/ I just refuse to have light bulbs with toxic ingredients. I did buy bulbs in bulk as bulbs went off the market. I’ll buy these newcandescent ones when I start to run out of my hoard.
A little philosophical thinking. The nation is celebrating the 50th anniversary(1964) of the War On Poverty. Many will say the war is lost because the percentage of poor today is the same as fifty years ago. Our energy policy may be the reason the War On Poverty was lost. Almost without exception, renewable energy programs are more expensive than fossil fuel sources they are supposed to replace. LED light bulbs are $15 replacing a $0.25 light bulb. Since 1977, hundreds of billions, if not more than a trillion, of tax dollars was spent on programs pushing a variety of renewable energy sources–solar, wind, biofuels, biomass, etc. Tax dollars come from everyone in some form. The poor are hurt more by waste of tax dollars because the rich can withstand the losses. I maintain our renewable energy programs take from the poor and give it to the rich. This is the complete opposite of the War On Poverty which was supposed to take from the rich and give it to the poor. Thus the government is engaged in two economic programs that cancel each other.
Without government interference in energy policy, the nation would produce more inexpensive energy, create millions of high-paying jobs, add trillions annually to our gross domestic product, and have a positive balance of trade. This has to be a successful War On Poverty.
You would then think that your energy bills will STAY low, and that you are going to save money, but this probably isn’t true.
See energy companies want to conserve resources, they just don’t want to give the price break to YOU!
This would be like it’s your choice to drink clean water, and pay for that clean water but heck you don’t have to drink clean water you could drink the pouted water… but no… Our Government says we should drink clean water and thus regulates that our water for consumption should be clean. They don’t serve you polluted water and tell you if you want it clean you should have to treat it yourself. this rant is simply some republican who’s clearly invested in energy stock feeling a loss due to Americans being more efficient. and would prefer to keep her stock’s worth up by feeding Americans some crap about their right to chose weather they can buy cheap light bulbs or not. fine then why isn’t this person attacking the government for taking your right to drink polluted water as well….
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2019-04-25T06:04:20Z
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https://www.cfact.org/2014/01/09/if-you-like-your-light-bulb-you-cant-keep-your-light-bulb/
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When you are not out in the surf learning how to catch your first waves, or ride the waves of your life, the team at Family Surf Resort Morocco offer yacht and catamaran hire, windsurfing, Stand Up Paddle boarding, kayak rental, mountain biking and beach volleyball. If you are looking for something more relaxing there is a huge onsite spa which offers massages, sauna, Hamam and beauty treatments. You can also check out a cooking class at the onsite restaurant, or head to the nearby town and explore the Oriental flair of Morocco.
Portugal sits in the southwest corner of Europe and is one of the oldest nations on the continent. This country has a full and rich history including renowned ocean faring explorers. Even with its small size, Portugal offers a variety of landscapes such as rugged cliff-lined coast, lush green mountains, wonderful river valleys and kilometre long sand beaches. Through our range of camps, Portugal has become one of our top destinations, and it's only a short flight away.
Both the southern and western sections of Portugal are fantastic travel destinations throughout the year with popularity among European surfers really exploding in the last 3 years. This increase in surf travel comes from a combination of great waves and an abundance of surf spots, but also because of the interesting culture, amazing history, picturesque scenery and great food that you also find here.
Pure Surf Camps offers trips to Surf Lodge Portugal in the Algarve, which includes stunning ocean views from your room and the terraced rooftop swimming pool. The lodge lies at the foot of a nature reserve so when you are not looking at the ocean, you can stare into the untouched nature of the Algarve. Ingrina and Zavial beaches are 10 minutes away on foot and work best on a south swell. When you aren’t surfing the beaches are a great place for swimming, relaxing, and soaking up the sun.
The surf lodge boasts a huge sun terrace, comfortable sun chairs and an amazing rooftop pool. All the rooms have a private bathroom and come with comfortable furniture. There is a big communal living room with a fireplace and dining area where you’ll get amazing breakfasts and dinner.
In the lush green garden area at the lodge you'll find hammocks making it the perfect place to chill in the shade after your surf. And when the sun starts to get lower you can go to the in-house bar and get yourself the surf camp special, a “Spicy Sven” or any other cocktail to cheers with.
The surf course takes place at a local beach break that has great conditions for beginners and intermediate surfers and happens 5 times a week, with a 1.5-hour session in the morning, and the same again in the evening. You’ll get picked up in the morning and taken to the beach and all equipment is included.
If you’re after another way to tire yourself out for the evening, Stand Up Paddleboard tours are also available and will guide you around the coast to some hidden beaches, and the option to jump of some cliffs into the water.
Twice a week, sunrise yoga takes place on the rooftop terrace for your pre surf warm up. And in between surfing you can snorkel and dive at Ingrina Beach. Another highlight is the weekly BBQ where you can try the Lodge delicacy, the homemade burger, which is usually followed by a trip to nearby Sagres to party.
If you’re looking for comfortable and modern accommodation in a naturally beautiful location with great surf and an amazing team, Surf Lodge Portugal is the place for you!
In the Algarve, Pure Surf Camps offers trips to Surf Camp Algarve. The wonderful surf camp is located between the charming village of Raposeira and a nature reserve with both the west, and south coasts nearby.
The camp includes a pool as well as a large terraced area in the green surroundings and a range of accommodation options including 2-person wooden Sheddies, Double/twin Single rooms and Bungalows as well as Dorms in the main house and adjacent buildings. The camp also offers horse trips through the nature reserve and along the beach with the horses staying in a neighbouring paddock.
There is also a large friendly shared living room with lots of natural light, a fireplace and pool table. If you want to retreat a little you also have hammocks scattered around the property throughout the garden.
Every week, head chef Samu turns on his BBQ and whips up a feast for the famous BBQ. It’s a great time to hang with other campers as well as the staff and enjoy a meal, and drink together. This night more often than not ends up in the nearby town of Sagres to check out the local nightlife.
Surf Camp Algarve gives you the option of taking part in the surf course at the local beach of Amado, or jumping in the car and driving a few minutes to one of the hundreds of surf spots in the area. Surf Camp Algarve surf courses focus on keeping the groups small to make it a personable experience and include all the required equipment. They aim to keep lessons to around 3 hours daily, split into 2 sessions. If you’re heading out by yourself you can rent boards and equipment from surf schools on the beach and from the numerous surf shops.
After your surf session, Surf Camp Algarve offers trips to Lagos and Sagres both during the day and at night depending whether you want to shop and explore or party as well as Dolphin watching tours or SUP tours.
From Eco Surf Lodge Caparica to the beach is 150m, plus a small paddle and you’re surfing. Pure Surf Camp gives you the chance to book this amazing lodge near Lisbon. This surf destination has a welcoming, comfortable vibe and is decked out with hand made furniture from a local artist. The chill area consists of hammocks, a paved outdoor area as well as a pool, that can refresh you on the hottest summer days.
The in-house chef prepares home cooked soul food with local, organic ingredients, for breakfast and dinner daily, that will either charge your batteries for the surf to come or give your body what it needs to recover.
The surf spot nearby Caprica Eco Surf Lodge is easily accessible by foot, or by rolling on the longboards available at the camp.
The surf courses are 5 days long, with 10 and 15-hour options. There are also surf-guiding options available for more confident surfers who want to get onto the best waves with some local knowledge thrown in. The guides know all the spots, the perfect take of zones and the dangers associated with them, so you enter the water feeling confident. They’ll also go out and surf with you so they can give you more tips throughout your session.
Lisbon is easily accessed by bus making it easy if you want to go shopping, exploring or partying. The main party areas of Lisbon are Bairro Alto and Docas de Santo Amaro where bars and nightclubs line up almost endlessly alongside each other. Bairro Alto is the centre of the Lisbons’ Hip Hop, Gothic and Jazz scene, and Docas de Santo Amaro, down by the waterfront next to the suspension bridge, is where a bunch of old warehouses have been renovated to accommodate a countless number of clubs and bars that cater to every music taste.
Beachfront Surf Camp Caparica offers an easily accessible, world-class surf trip via Pure Surf Camp. This beachfront camp has a charming and comfortable vibe and has had many happy, surf-stoked visitors pass through its doors.
The camp offers single, double and triple rooms as well as dorms that are all kitted out with clean and comfortable furniture. There is a large shared living room as well as a well-stocked communal kitchen and dining room. Breakfast will be waiting for you in the dining room every morning before you head of on your surf course.
There are 2 surf courses, a 10, and 15 hour, both running for 5 days of the week.
The surf coaches will give you a short introduction to the basics on the beach, then its very much learning by doing. The coaches will be in the water with you and give you helpful pointers throughout the lesson. If you’re still feeling fresh after the surf lesson you are more than welcome to take the boards and wetsuit out in your own time and continue to practice.
If you’re looking for some evening activities you can't go past stopping by one of the local wineries to try some of the outstanding Portuguese wines, while chatting with your new friends about the days surf.
You can also rent a bike from the camp and cruise down the beachside promenade to check the next surf spot in Caparica.
Surf House Ericeira brings countless point and beach breaks to your doorstep, offered to you by Pure Surf Camps. The surf possibilities are endless and keep every surfer happy, from the rookie to the seasoned pro.
The villa in Ericeira overlooks a large pool and a huge garden area with a bar. Its position on a south-facing hill means it is protected from the wind making the time spent chilling by the pool even more comfortable. Three times a week the house throws a dinner party where you will get to enjoy a great BBQ, Pizzas, Mexican food or whatever else delicious menu the chefs decide on.
The villa also has 2 large open plan kitchens where you can cook for yourself, or join together with your housemates and create a masterpiece and eat together in the dining area.
There are 2 options in regards to surf courses, the 3-day/6 hour beginner course and the 5-day/10 hour medium surf course. Each beginning with a small land based lesson and then it’s into the water to turn theory into reality.
There’s more to do to however than surf and chill on the nearby beaches. You can join in on yoga classes, mountain biking, or go skating in the Quiksilver Boardriders shop/club. You can even take a trip to Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site or to one of the many wineries in the area to do a wine tasting.
Surf House Ericeira lets you escape the hustle and bustle of the working life and get into the ideal surfer holiday rhythm of eat-sleep-surf.
Sea View Surf Camp Ericeira, available through Pure Surf Camps, offers an idyllic surf trip that includes a rooftop terrace where you can watch the sunset behind the waves.
The camp has been laid out, and furnished to evoke a real surf, chilled vibe. There are single, double and dorm rooms available and most have a private balcony. Daily breakfast includes things like pancakes, muffins and fruit plates which are served on the rooftop sundeck with a view of the sunrise.
Alongside the rooms, you can also rent apartments at Sea View Surf Camp Ericeia that come with their own kitchen, bathroom and balcony, as well as a view of the ocean.
200 meters away from the camp is the local surf spot that offers perfect waves for beginners to learn the basics and catch their first real waves on. For all those who haven’t surfed before, or haven’t surfed much we recommend taking a course, and if you are more comfortable with surfing, surf guiding is also available. If you choose Surf Guiding our most experienced coaches will take to the right spots for your level, go over some info about the break and go surfing with you.
After your daily surf fix there are beach volleyball tournaments, beach football and Downhill Mountain biking to keep you busy.
The Sunset Surf Lodge Ericeira, made available through Pure Surf Camps, provides you with a chilled, quiet and peaceful get away where you can leave the stress of your real life behind and enjoy the picturesque setting and the ocean view of the lodge. The accommodation is super comfortable, the surf is amazing and price is unbeatable.
Through the summer months the surf in Ericeira is perfect for everybody. You can take a beginners course and get your first experience of surfing, or join the advanced course and improve dramatically. If you want more lessons you can book extra classes onto your course while you are there to get you to the next level quicker.
To give you the energy to power through the day a delicious breakfast is included as well as the option to book dinner for your stay, these are made with ingredients from the region by a great cook, and include the odd delicious BBQ outside while enjoying the sun.
If you want to keep busy after your daily surf trips the camp can organise trips to Lisbon, Nazare or UNESCO World Heritage Site – Sintra. A trip to Lisbon can be varied; you can shop, explore historical sites, party or just relax with the locals. If you are lucky and there is a big swell during you’re stay you will see the worlds best big wave surfers taking on Nazare, which is amongst the top 5 big wave spots in the world holding the current biggest wave surfed record. In Sintra you will see castles, palaces belonging to former Kings of Portugal, a picturesque old city and an amazing landscape.
Through Pure Surf Camps you can book your next trip to Surf and Art House Ericeira, which provides great accommodation, 5 minutes away on foot from the beach at a budget price.
To Surf & Art House!
The hostels interior has been transformed with the addition of a local artists paintings hanging on the walls. The rooms are kitted out with modern wooden furniture and the common areas, including the living room and garden, are great for socialising with the other visitors and crew. It doesn’t matter if you're hanging in the hammock, in the midst of a fierce foosball battle, playing pool or chilling together around the BBQ – there’s always plenty to do here after your epic days out in the water surfing.
The camps vicinity to Lisbon enable spontaneous trips where you can go shopping, immerse yourself in the culture, party at world-class nightclubs and bars or explore the historical sites of the stunning city.
Around Ericeira you can find the best waves Europe has to offer with breaks that are perfect for everyone from spring to autumn. There’s nothing to get in the way of catching the best waves of your life. Everything is available from beginners to advanced surf courses where equipment is included, to board rental, everything you need to take your surfing to the next level!
The brand new Surf Lodge Santa Cruz, mediated by Pure Surf Camps, sits in one of the most wave rich areas of Portugal. Here you will enjoy the adventure of the daily surf classes with enthusiastic surf coaches followed by the peaceful and relaxed evenings in gorgeous surroundings.
The lodge has been freshly renovated and newly furnished making it the perfect spot to unwind and escape the reality of home. The garden and pool invite guests to spend their afternoons after the daily surf trips relaxing and making the most of the camp with other visitors and the friendly crew.
The Canaries are a real paradise: crystal clear blue ocean, white sand dunes, and only a few hours away. These islands sit Southwest of Europe in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Each island offers a totally different landscape, but all have epic surf and a mild climate throughout the year.
The volcanic islands are known as the Hawaii of Europe due to the similar length of coastline, the amazing waves and that tropical paradise feeling. On your trip you’ll find every type of wave you are looking for, from mellow, easy beach breaks to catch your first waves, to, heavy and shallow reef breaks to push your surfing to the limit. The best thing is, the Pure Surf Camps are open 365 days a year so you can plan your next holiday anytime that you feel like escaping the hustle and bustle of daily life.
If you’re looking for a surf trip that has that tropical islands feel, great waves, plenty of sunshine with a scattering of palm trees, but don’t want to spend your whole budget on the flight, this is the spot for you. Surf and Yoga Apartments Fuerteventura has everything you are looking for in a surf trip.
To Surf & Yoga Fuerte!
You can choose between a private apartment, where you and your friends or family can enjoy a private getaway, or book a bed or room in the shared apartments. All of the accommodation is located directly at the beach so wherever you are you have an ocean view, including from the private pool.
All of the apartments come with fully kitted out kitchens so you and your group can comfortably cook up whatever your heart desires. If you are feeling a little tired after all the surfing and sunshine and you just want to take it easy and go get something, you are also in luck, because just down the road are plenty of great restaurants where you will find amazing local cuisine, tapas as well as plenty of international spots.
If you are booked into the shared apartment you will also be greeted every morning with an inclusive continental breakfast that includes tea and freshly brewed coffee, as well as snacks through the day to give you some energy after the time spent out in the ocean.
The ocean is at the heart of trips to Fuerteventura. The surf is amazing and the team offer both a 3-day, and 5-day surf course that will get you up and riding your first waves in no time. There is also the option of checking out what’s under the surf by going snorkelling at the local reefs which are filled with life. If you want to spend afternoons on land the team also offer daily yoga classes to loosen up those muscles you worked out in the surf and get you toned and ready for the next session.
Explore the crystal-clear turquoise waters of the Atlantic Ocean around Fuerteventura, find epic waves and enjoy endless sunshine and mild temperatures.
At Surf camp Fuerteventura you have the choice of spending your nights in an apartment, bungalows, a studio, or rooms in the Surf Hostel, all of which are located within easy walking distance to the beach. The apartment, bungalows and studio all have a private kitchen that includes a stove and fridge.
If you are staying in one of the accommodation options that has its own kitchen you can still choose to join the people from the Surf Hostel for the communal breakfast. The breakfast consists of fresh fruit, muesli, baguette, a selection of cheeses, ham and salami. There’s also tea and a fresh pot of coffee to greet you when you wake up. There are also plenty of restaurants nearby to keep even the pickiest eaters satisfied.
Directly next to the Surf Camp you’ll find the surf school where you have the choice between a beginners or an advanced surf course. Both include board and wetsuit rental as well as transfers to the most fitting waves for your skill level. The team of experienced and qualified coaches will split you down into small groups to get you paddling, standing and turning in a heartbeat, all while having a great time.
If you’re already a confident surfer you can also choose the Surf Guiding option where the guides will find the best waves for your skill level and take you out, give you pointers about the break, and your surfing. If you want to do some other water activities the team can offer snorkelling, windsurfing, SUP, Jet ski rental, game fishing and plenty more. If you want to spend some of your holiday on land you can also do a yoga course, or class.
Only a few steps away from the beach, Family Surf Camp Fuerteventura offers a family friendly vacation that has plenty to keep everybody happy. Located in the south of Fuerteventura you’ll be inundated in warm weather and sunshine. The team offer surf courses for the whole family starting from kids as young as 7 years old.
There are 3 individual houses you can choose to stay in each with its own highlight. The first is Alta Vista Apartment which is 50 meters away from the beach. The second, TAO Apartment, it has its own rooftop pool, and the third, Juan Mar Holiday House has an unobstructed ocean view.
This is the perfect place to take the family for an active holiday, regardless if its winter or summer, to learn to surf, enjoy the beach and all only 4 or 5 hours away from Europe.
The best waves, breath taking views, perfect weather in a house owned by pro surfer Alex Zirke and his family. Here you can choose between comfortable single, double and dorm rooms.
You can also choose to stay in a separate small apartment that has access to a pool as well as a view of the ocean. These apartments also have a fully stocked kitchen so you and your group can comfortably cook dinner while enjoying the ocean view. This is the perfect spot to unwind and let go of the stress of work and home life in general.
If you stay at the Zirke House you’ll wake up to a daily continental breakfast buffet with freshly made coffee to wake you up, and get you ready for the surf ahead.
Both the apartments and the Zirke House are situated near great restaurants so if you don’t want to cook in the afternoons or evenings you have plenty of choices, including some of the best Tapas on the island as well as the freshest seafood.
Surf Camp Tenerife has two surf course options, either the basic consisting of 15 hours, or the intensive course where you surf as much as you can. The courses are mainly focued on spending time out in the water and learning through doing, but they do incorporate a small theory session on the beach. All the guides are locals to the area and will get you on the best waves to get your surfing to the next level in no time. When you’re not in the water you can skate the nearby park, or go hiking and explore the Macizo de Anaga mountain range which is close to the camp.
You can surf perfect waves at the doorstep of Surf Camp Gran Canaria from sunrise to sunset all while enjoying blue sky, crystal clear water and warm temperatures.
Gran Canaria will greet you with warm air and water temperatures throughout the year, great surf for anyone from the total rookie to the pro, an amazing team, great food, a pool, beach bar and a beach with surf spot within a few meters of your front door. The camp overlooks the ocean to make that after surf beer even more satisfying, and if you want to drink a few more beers, meet some locals and party until the sun comes up, Las Palmas is only a short walk away.
At Surf Camp Gran Canaria you can choose to book a single room, a bed in a dorm, or an apartment all of which have an ocean view meaning you can check the surf from bed before you get up every morning. The surf camp has a kitchen you can use for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as do the apartments. There are also countless great restaurants nearby if you don’t feel like preparing anything, or maybe you want to toast to a successful day in the water with the rest of your surf buddies at one of the local bars.
The team offers surf courses to suit every type of surfer. There are beginner and advanced courses available as well as surf guiding. Regardless of what course option you choose, the coaches are experienced, qualified locals. You get modern equipment which is included in the course price. There are a large variety of surf spots nearby and the transfers are included.
If you still have energy to burn after your surf time you can hike through the stunning landscapes you can find on the island, go on mountain bike tours, windsurf, kitesurf, take a quad bike tour or one of many other options.
Sri Lanka will not only greet you with warm, tropical weather and great surf, but also stunning landscapes, amazing wildlife, delicious food, a rich history and super friendly locals.
The islands documented history goes back 3,000 years with evidence of pre-historic settlements being found that date back 125,000 years. The location of Sri Lanka, directly south of India, made it an integral part of the silk road and a melting pot of culture and a highly prized bit of property. The Portuguese invaded and took over in the 1500’s, then the Dutch defeated them in the 1600’s, and then, finally, the British came and took it in the 1800’s and named the country Ceylon. In 1948 Sri Lanka became an independent country once again. You can see the influence in the architecture and the people, but Sri Lankan culture, customs and way of life stayed strong through all of this and their people and monuments lasted through all of the wars.
Unbeatable location directly next to Ahangama Bay. When you’re in the pool you feel as if you can swim right out into the Indian Ocean.
The Villa offers superior suites and a 5-star restaurant which will make your holiday a perfect combination of action out in the water and total relaxation back at the base. There are Yoga classes, spa treatments and massages all available directly through the Surf Villa Sri Lanka.
You also have plenty of options if you want to go out and explore. You can check out the largest animal in the world, the Blue Whale, on locally run whale watching tours. The old fortified seaside town of Galle is also nearby and well worth a trip as is the old hippie village of Mirissa and its beach bars.
Surf Camp Sri Lanka is in the southwestern surfer town of Ahangama. You’ll get great waves here during the European winter months, as well as being able to enjoy perfect weather, warm water, white sand beaches and fresh coconuts from the beachside coconut trees.
Go to the Surf Camp!
The first surf session usually hits the water early in the morning before breakfast. After a few hours in the water breakfast consisting of fresh tropical fruit, bread, local delicacies as well as coffee and Ceylon tea will taste even better. Then after breakfast you can catch a TukTuk to the next spot and surf some more.
The team know all the spots and can read the conditions to find a spot that suits your skill level, and the type of surfing you’re going to be doing. You don’t need to make any decisions in the morning, just wake up, throw on some boardshorts or a bikini, and get taken to your perfect waves.
The camp consists of two modern buildings which have been lovingly furnished and have all the comforts of home. The first is the Surf Villa, located directly on the beach, it has a garden area with hammocks and a spa, a large outdoor roofed patio area and spectacular ocean view. The second is the Surf House. This is only a few steps away from the ocean in the township of Ahangama.
At both spots breakfast and dinner is prepared by our onsite chefs and are included in the price. There’s nothing quite like coming back from an exhausting day of surfing to a freshly cooked meal, a stunning view, and a cold drink. You have the choice of Double Rooms and Dorms at both houses and each room always has its own private bathroom.
Close to the camp you have the option to go whale watching and check out Blue Whales, that happen to be the largest animal in the world. You can go to Yale National Park and go on a Safari and see things like elephants, snakes, crocodiles or if you’re lucky a leopard. There are also sea turtle hatcheries, tea plantations, Nature Reserves and endless palm-tree-lined white sand beaches nearby to explore.
Surf Retreat Sri Lanka is for those of you who are looking to combine luxury, with your tropical surf trip. The newly built complex is modern, immaculately designed and comfortably furnished. The retreat sits amongst beautiful natural surroundings on the outskirts of Weligama.
Go to the Surf Retreat!
The retreat has a big pool, sun terrace, manicured garden, a spectacular open-air restaurant, and all only 120 meters from the beach. The large range of surf spots available is bound to keep everybody happy. The camp also run 5 days’ worth of surf courses a week. If you’re a little more advanced in the water you can also take part in the Surf Guiding where the team will show you the best spots, give you some local info, then let you catch the waves of your life.
This is the perfect stress-free surf getaway. Everything is organised, delicious food, yoga sessions, surf courses, massage and as many coconuts as you want to drink are included in the accommodation price.
At the camps heart, you have a giant swimming pool, tropical garden and a yoga deck. A small stream runs through the property giving the yoga sessions a picturesque backdrop. The camp is small and intimate only accommodating 10 guests at a time meaning evenings are enjoyed eating together, playing the guitar, enjoying a cold drink and enjoying the tropical weather of Sri Lanka out in the garden under the lanterns in the trees.
Surf House Sri Lanka is right on the Weligama Beach where you have great views and great surf all in tropical conditions. The Weligama Beach break is perfect to catch your first waves and 5 minutes either way you’ll find epic spots for more advanced surfers. Regardless of your skill level after you’re finished your trip you’ll be a much better surfer than when you arrived.
Go to the Surf House!
If travel here through the European winter you will arrive when the waves, and weather, are their best. To make your trip even more amazing you have white sand beaches at your doorstep littered with huge Coconut Trees, an amazing nature reserve and tea plantation not too far away, as well as 28°C water.
The Surf House is made up of two parts, the Beach House that is directly on the beach, and a slightly cheaper option which is 100 meters inland. All the rooms are modern, clean, and comfortably furnished. Daily breakfast is included on the rooftop restaurant, where you can also eat dinner with other guests and share a drink together.
There are 2 surf courses, the beginners and advanced, with the team making sure there is no more than 4 students to 1 coach. This means you will advance your surf skills extremely quickly. If you are confident in the water and have a bit of experience under you belt you can choose to take part in the Surf Guiding. The team even have a boat available so you can get to some secret spots that nobody else can access, the boat is also used for the weekly boat trip along the coast which we definitely recommend.
The team offers a Surf and Yoga package where you get 6 surf sessions and 6 yoga classes a week. The camp also offers regular movie nights, table tennis tournaments, trips to the famous Weligama beach parties in their own party bus, or just some casual pool and beach games. Escape next winter by booking a trip to Surf House Sri Lanka!
The area around the camp is peaceful and quiet, but only 10km away you have the party hub of Kuta. There is a natural stone pool at the centre of the camp that’s surrounded by tropical plants as well as plenty of places to chill in the shade, or soak up the sun, all to make your time spent at camp peaceful, comfortable and a lot of fun.
If you want to go out and eat there are plenty of restaurants in the area where for 2 or 3 € you’ll get a great local meal. Surf House Canguu is made up of 2 Deluxe Villas, 2 Deluxe Suites, Deluxe Double Rooms and Standard Double Rooms. There is also a Surf Lodge 200 meters away where you have the Dorm Room.
The camp offers Deluxe & Standard Double Rooms, Triple Rooms and 4-Person Rooms. The Deluxe rooms have an open plan layout, private bathrooms, air-con, a small tropical garden and a TV with a selection of DVD’s. The standard rooms also have private bathroom and the 3 and 4-person rooms have a small lounge, kitchenette and small garden.
The last piece of the puzzle to making the perfect surf trip is the great waves, which you will definitely get when you travel to Indonesia. Surf Guiding is included in the cost, and the crew will take into account the season, swell, wind, tide & your skill level to get the perfect waves for you. Best bet is to book your luxury Bali surf trip now.
You also have world class surf spots like Uluwatu, Bingin and Impossibles nearby that’s bound to get every experienced surfer stoked. These spots cater more towards the advanced surfer but if you are just learning you can also choose to stay here and make the short trip to one of the beach breaks nearby to catch mellow waves, all while taking advantage of the qualified and experienced coaches and their advice and tips. The crew offer 12 surf sessions a week so regardless of how good you are, you will be a lot better after by the time your holiday comes to an end.
Costa Rica has been described as the Switzerland of Central America because of not only it mountainous inland regions, but also because of its international neutrality and relatively high standard of living. Every year about 1.5 Million visitors travel to the country to relax on the beautiful beaches, explore the mountains and rainforest, or, of course, surf.
The natural beauty of both the coast and inland regions is spectacular, and not only are the landscapes beautiful, but also the diverse animal life you will encounter. You’ll see everything from Howler Monkeys sitting in the trees to Tukans’ flying overhead. A trip into the jungle is definitely worth an afternoon. A trip to Costa Rica will not only give you the opportunity to surf epic, world-class waves, but you will also be able to explore an amazing jungle that is full of life, relax on tropical beaches, learn about an ancient culture and meet super friendly locals.
Crystal clear water, perfect waves, stunning jungle scenery, plenty of wildlife, ancient culture and impressive volcanos. This is everything that will greet you when you decide to travel to Surf Camp Costa Rica.
Go to Surf Camp C.R.
The camp is 100 meters away from the beach and is surrounded by a tropical garden, all with an ocean view. At the camp you can choose to stay in comfortable free standing wood bungalows or double/triple rooms in the main house. The different options either have a view of the jungle or ocean and are all extremely comfortable, with modern furnishings and fittings.
The camp provides all meals, starting with a healthy and delicious breakfast every morning. The breakfast consists of muesli, bread, cold cuts, cheese and most importantly, amazing locally grown and roasted coffee. In the evenings the chefs will prepare amazing local and international meals, as well as making vegetarian and gluten free options.
The surf spots surrounding the camp seem to have constant waves. There’s even a wave directly on the beach by the camp that is easily accessible on foot. If you want you can upgrade to the Premium Package where an intensive Surf Course is included. You can also choose to take part in the Surf Guiding where you will get to explore the waves along the coast with local and knowledgeable guides.
When you’re not surfing you can take part in yoga classes with a professional instructor to improve your core strength, balance and fitness to improve your surfing on land. You can also skate the mini-ramp, or take a trip into the jungle which comes highly recommended.
Find perfect, empty waves in Costa Rica when staying at the Surf House, run by Lapoint Travels A.S. The long swell lines generated in the Pacific Ocean roll towards the Costa Rican coast to create surf that will get every surfers heart rate up.
Go to Surf House C.R.
The Camp is located on the hill next to the beach meaning you have stunning ocean views from everywhere, even the pool. If you’re lucky you might even see a whale swim by while looking out towards the ocean. You can choose to stay in extremely comfortable double or dorm rooms which all have private bathrooms.
Before you hit perfect waves the team provide a hearty & nutritious breakfast to give you the energy to power through. The team make use of the local tropical fruits in conjunction with muesli, yoghurt and amazing freshly brewed coffee. After your first surf session the team will prepare a brunch for you when you get back. For dinner you can either check out one the many local and international restaurants in the area or eat at the restaurant at the camp.
Surf House Costa Rica offers 3 different Surf Course options designed for different skill levels. All the courses will take you to the waves that best suit your skills and will show you some of the Costa Rican coastline. The surf school team are all experienced and internationally qualified.
The time spent out of the water will definitely not be boring. If you want, you can chill at the camp and relax in the pool, but you can also go on jungle excursions to check out the Sloths, Howler Monkeys and plenty more jungle inhabitants, or you can take part in yoga classes.
Our surf camps in the Dominican Republic offers white sand beaches that are dotted with coconut trees, year round tropical weather, and ideal surf conditions. The breath-taking national parks make up a third of the country and include every type of landscape from rainforest to mountains and include various nature reserves. Whether you’re a surfer, eco-tourist, active or beach vacationer, the Dominican Republic is a paradise for every visitor. The republic is part of the Caribbean and makes up the larger half of the island of Hispaniola, the other portion being Haiti. The language is Spanish and the currency is Dominican Pesos (DOP). European winter months are the best travel times and are definitely worth the trip.
Alongside the dramatic landscape and the picture perfect beaches, the Dominican Republic is also known for the warm hearted and friendly locals, a very interesting history, and of course, rum, coffee and cigars.
The camp is located just 5 minutes on foot from the beach at one of the best surf spots in the northern part of the Dominican Republic. The spot is called Encuentro and there are plenty of breaks to choose from which cater to all levels, from first time on a board, to the super advanced ripper.
All year round you can enjoy the tropical climate, warm, crystal clear water, ample sunshine and the beautiful white sand beaches. The Camp sits in a small surf village called Cabarete where you’ll find great restaurants, cafes, bars and surf shops. Not only is this area renowned for great surf, but also for great areas to go kite and windsurfing.
For those who want to chill post surf you can cruise around on our Stand Up Paddleboards or practice Yoga with our qualified instructors. If you choose the “surf, Sleep and Yoga Packet” there will be 5 Yoga sessions included in your stay.
Every apartment has its out veranda with a hammock and some comfortable outdoor furniture, a kitchen and own bathroom. In the communal area there is a roofed BBQ area where you can chill with the other guests and enjoy a meal and a cold drink, or fresh coconut.
Dominican Republic really is the quintessential summer paradise that has an amazing camp, great surf and beautiful landscapes that will all combine to make your next surf trip a vacation to remember.
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2019-04-23T00:04:40Z
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https://www.puresurfcamps.com/en/surf-camps/
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On 21st and 22nd March 2007, a Roundtable was held to discuss the results and the implications of a four year study of youth spirituality.
A pilot project was begun in 2002. The study involved two rounds of interviews with young people plus a major national telephone survey of 1200 young people.
The Chief Investigators were Assoc.Prof. Ruth Webber and Dr. Michael Mason (ACU), Dr. Andrew Singleton (Monash) and Rev Dr Philip Hughes (CRA).
The project has been sponsored by 17 organisations.
Several of the presentations made at the Roundtable are available below.
From Pointers, Volume 16. Number 3. September 2006.
As the study of youth spirituality comes to an end, we have begun exploring the implications of the findings for church and youth activities, for schools and religious education, and for parents and the young people themselves. A final formal meeting with the sponsors of the project was held on 18th August 2006 and several of the sponsors spoke of what they saw as significant implications for their various contexts. This article is based partly on my own reflections and partly on those who spoke at that meeting. This is just the start of the process. The Christian Research Association is looking forward to holding consultations in various places towards the end of this year and the start of 2007.
Having noted the low levels of involvement among young people in churches and their vagueness about beliefs, one has to ask whether the churches have failed young people. Have they failed to pass on the heritage of faith that has been handed down over many generations?
In some of the interviews we conducted in Christian schools, we asked students about their own beliefs, and then asked them about what they had been taught. They could explain the Christian faith the school was teaching. But the differences between the school’s teaching and their own beliefs were most informative. Young people take what works for them. They put together their beliefs in a way that is meaningful for them. Those aspects that are not meaningful are not explicitly rejected, but rather fade into obscurity.
We followed this up through many in-depth interviews. Young people saw it as their responsibility to put their own beliefs together. They were aware of the many sources of information. They could talk about the problems in the relationship between religion and science. Many were wrestling with the issue of how the suffering that arises from natural disasters can be reconciled with the idea of a loving and powerful God.
Some young people indicated that they found it impossible to accept Church teaching on issues such as abortion, homosexuality and premarital sexual activity. Some pointed to the human failures within the church, of paedophilia and other forms of abuse. In the light of all this, they were putting together, albeit vaguely and unsystematically, beliefs that made sense to them.
Western culture has changed. Throughout the Western world, young people have been brought up not to accept what is handed to them. Rather, they see it as their right to work things through for themselves. Many people of previous generations have come to those same difficult issues later in life.
Sometimes people wrestle with them within the churches. Sometimes they hope that someone else will come up with the solution. Contemporary Australian young people start from the standpoint of the individual, in most cases outside the context of a church, putting together beliefs and practices that make sense to them.
The general pattern in church life has been to invite people into the church and then provide them with opportunities to explore life and faith. The entrance is clearly marked on Sundays, but entry points are not so evident on other days of the week. But attending a church on Sundays demands a certain amount of commitment. One is expected to join in the hymns and the responsive prayers. Some churches expect one to find the reading in the pew Bible and to be able to follow it. And then one has to listen passively to the sermon. There are no opportunities for questions or discussion, no chance to express one’s disagreement.
Young people told us, however, that they enjoyed listening to the experiences of people they respected. Sometimes, in the church schools, they warmed more to services when teachers took them rather than the chaplain or priest. Often, they enjoyed input from other students. They were keen to know what would work for them in their own lives, here and now. Such input made it more meaningful to them. A few jokes to make it more fun, some visual elements to make it interesting, and it might hold their attention.
I was talking with a class of students in a Catholic school about what were most ‘fun’ experiences they had ever had. I expected the usual range of answers: a pop concert, a visit to a theme park, extreme sports, and so on. But this class was unanimous in its opinion. It was the last spiritual retreat they went on. “Why was that so much fun?”, I asked. “Because we said things to our friends that we would never normally say”, they said. The retreat had focussed on relationships. It had provided them with the opportunity to deepen their relationships and to appreciate each other at a new depth. That had been fun.
In his reflections on the findings of the project, Garry Everett , who works with the Queensland Catholic Education Commission, noted that in his experience religious education has been approached primarily from a cognitive perspective. However, Generation Y are evidently approaching spirituality and putting life together affectively.
He went on to comment that religious education has generally been approached as if it was delivering certitude. However, Generation Y see themselves as being on a journey and are not convinced by the certitude. It has offered what it saw as a system of meaning while most young people believe there can be no great all-encompassing system. They are looking for experiential markers and techniques.
I wonder if the churches can do better at providing opportunities for people to explore faith without first requiring that people make a commitment, or expecting people to participate in the strange and culturally foreign rituals that occur on Sunday mornings? I wonder if we can open opportunities for discussion and dialogue without making assumptions about the existence of a total system of belief that can be delivered with certitude? Can we start those discussions with the issues of everyday life: about friends and family, about fun and freedom?
Young people want to be taken seriously. They want their autonomy in matters of faith to be respected. But they are willing to enter into dialogue if they feel that the environment will let them explore faith in ways that are meaningful to them.
Their parents often have similar attitudes and are no more involved in the churches than their children. One of the surprises in the data was how close the attitudes and beliefs of Generation Y were to their parents and how much Generation Y takes from their parents. The Broken Bay Catholic Schools Office noted that this may mean that we need to take seriously the whole family in the dialogue.
For many young people, worship is a very strange activity. Many have little understanding of the symbols and the language. The language does not have to be 19th century for them to be confused. We asked a range of students in church schools what they understood by ‘grace’. A few knew that it was the prayer you say at the meal table, but almost no one could get much further than that. I am sure they had heard the term, but they had not absorbed it. It had not connected with what they already knew or had experienced.
Many young people have told us that they are simply bored by church services. Those that occur in the context of a Christian school are boring. Those that occur in a local church are usually worse. Much of the time, they fail to connect with the language, the thoughts and the interests of the young people.
One of the highest values amongst contemporary young people is ‘excitement’. We have been exploring what they mean by this. They want experiences that are new, that are different, that capture their attention and absorb them. Many freely admit that they find it hard to concentrate on words alone. They have been born into a world full of moving images and short bites of information.
It dawned on me that what is new for one person looks just the same to another. I turn on a commercial radio station and all I hear is unpleasant noise. I cannot tell one band from another. The differences between hip-hop, rap and other sorts of contemporary music escape me. Just a bar of classical music, and I certainly know whether it is classical or romantic, whether it is Mozart or Tchaikovsky. The new symphony of Vivaldi that has just been discovered I find exciting. The new rock band means nothing to me.
Those of us who have attended services of worship all our lives are attuned to the tiny differences, the different wording in the prayer or the hymn in a different place. Such differences escape many in our pews, let alone the outsider who becomes easily bored by what, to them, is the sameness of it all.
We have built our network of churches on the basis of geographical area. But today’s communities are centred around tastes and interests, styles and passions. The language, the assumptions, the worldview of one community are very different from that of another.
Worship that expresses what we feel must be in the language of the heart. Among younger people in our community that means that worship will be different from one group to another, both in language and style, in symbol and focus.
As God came into our culture to express God’s self, so we need to express our worship in the language and symbols of our culture. Indeed, part of the function of worship is to lift our culture to new heights as its forms of expression are used for worship. Youth forms of communication are multi-sensory. They are colourful with a strong physical and emotional beat. Most importantly, however, they relate to a world in which young people are trying, each in their individualistic way, to put their lives together – their relationships, study, work; the world of fun and excitement, of chill-out times, and sometimes of confusion and hurt.
The core part of this study of young people was conducted by a team of researchers: Michael Mason and Ruth Webber (ACU), Andrew Singleton (Monash), and Philip Hughes (CRA). The Christian Research Association alone was responsible for the additional surveys and interviews in schools. For more details, see the CRA website: www.cra.org.au. Philip Hughes takes sole responsibility for the opinions about implications for the study that are expressed here.
From Pointers Volume 16. Number 3. September 2006.
The research into the spirituality of young people which the CRA has undertaken is in the concluding stage. The third and final stage of the study involved interviews with students who had been questioned two years ago. Much was learnt about the values, world views, and spiritual beliefs and practices of young people in the first and second aspects of the study – which were based on interviews and surveys. This final round sought to add a longitudinal element, and hence another perspective to the study.
Changes were examined in three ways. Firstly, students were asked about changes in their beliefs, values and practices over the last two years and what might have contributed to such changes. Secondly, the questions were turned around: what were the significant experiences they had had in the previous two years and what had been the impact of those experiences? Thirdly, some similar questions were used in both the first and second interviews so the researchers themselves could compare the responses.
The students interviewed came from a variety of Catholic and Lutheran schools across four States, in both rural and urban areas. While the first round of interviews included around 160 students, this report is based on interviews with 68 students, all of whom participated in the original interviews. While the bulk of interviews were conducted in person, often in the schools of the various students, a hand-full occurred over the phone.
This report considers two groups of changes: firstly changes to the values and goals of students, and secondly to their spirituality and church attendance.
Before addressing various aspects of change, it is important to note that a continuing trend was that many students were much more articulate about their values and beliefs than they had been two years earlier. In many cases, students were also more confident and self-assured, and generally had a better sense of who they were, in comparison with the first round of interviews. In this regard, increased maturity was evident.
Overall, there had been little change in the students’ primary values. Relationships with friends and family remained a central part of their lives, although some students suggested that they had developed a greater appreciation for these relationships. The importance of these relationships was a recurring theme throughout the interviews.
As students spoke about their daily and other important activities, family and especially friends were included as part of their description about what made that activity important. For example, soccer, netball and drama were some of the sports which young people were enjoying, not only for the exercise and creative aspects but also for the social element.
Friends and family were often the first people students would turn to for guidance, and were generally the most significant influence in their lives. These relationships contributed to the young people’s framework of beliefs and values (Fowler, 1986).
More evident were changes that had to do with the stage of life of the young people. The majority of the students involved in this round of interviews were either undertaking their VCE, HSC or equivalent, or entering this phase (year 10). This had a significant influence on some of their priorities. Some students indicated that, for the time being, other interests and concerns had to be put aside. Sports and hobbies could not be pursued at the same depth. It was noted that interests in social justice were also relegated in the list of priorities.
As students completed their secondary schooling, they did not revert to their foci of earlier years. Rather, further studies or establishing themselves in their careers often became a focus in their priorities and many young people continued to say they had little time for some of the things they enjoyed.
One girl who was in her second year out from school talked about her attempt to enter the entertainment industry. In that context, she spoke of her dreams and of the importance of focussing on herself for the moment. This may seem self-centred. Yet, she had found opportunities to do voluntary work that was associated with the career she wanted to pursue and was engaged in helping others in that way.
With the bulk of participating students at the point of adulthood, of growing personal independence and freedom, these students were being exposed to new opportunities and circumstances. Many mentioned that getting their driver’s licence had been important, while others spoke about the ability to have a job and earn money. Many students at this age are learning how to juggle more spheres of life (Fowler, 1986).
Other changes in values were influenced by factors beyond the students’ control, such as incurring an injury or becoming sick. These experiences in turn shape and guide the goals and general attitudes about life and self.
Generally students had a more defined understanding of their goals – from deciding on a specific profession to learning about the process required to reach their goal – than had been evident in the first interview. One student who had previously held the general goals to ‘settle down, have a wife, friends, enough money’, had become more specific in this round. This student was now aiming for a career in information technology.
I was wanting to be an actress, but now I don’t know what I will do. I’m in the process of sorting out what to do. I think I want to own a business.
Some other students had had to change their aims as they did not do as well in their studies as they had hoped. For example, since year 10 one student had wanted to work in law. Yet poor marks at school meant that she had to change her plans about how she achieved that goal. Instead of going directly to university, this student had to go though a year of college.
The immediate goal of many students in this round was success in their studies, with school taking up more of their time and attention than previously. Wider goals included travelling, having families of their own, being secure and having a comfortable life.
This is a significant time of life, with the students not only learning more about themselves. Their relationships grow in depth. They encounter a wider range of experiences through learning at school and vicariously through the media, through opportunities at university and successes in extra-curricular activities (Hughes et al, 2003, p. 4). Giddens refers to reflexivity to describe this process. Through various experiences, challenges and setbacks, students develop not only a better understanding of themselves, but actively rebuild their identity according to these developments (Giddens, 1991, p. 75). Giddens contends that instead of depending on the tradition from which they came, individuals are more likely continually to analyse and evaluate their own lives according to their own experiences.
This reflexive process was particularly evident in several students who had completed school and had decided to have a ‘gap year’. One of these students went overseas and worked in a youth club in the United Kingdom. Another who planned to be a doctor had taken a position for a year as a receptionist at a medical centre. These young people were actively seeking experiences on which they could reflect. In the light of these experiences they were making judgements about what they should do in the future.
In the surveys that had been conducted in schools, students emphasised the importance of having an exciting life. In this round of interviews, students were asked what it meant to have an exciting life and whether their ideas about excitement had changed over time.
With schooling at the forefront of students minds, an exciting life had taken a back-seat for some students. Some spoke about the growing importance of school, money, time and responding to opportunities in life. Several students saw themselves as becoming more mature and less into ‘mucking around’.
Beyond a change in focus, some said that excitement was a less important value now as they had achieved many of their goals for excitement. Part of this may have been the gradual move towards independence, which meant that greater freedom from parents and family allowed them to attend parties, drive cars, travel and have greater control over their relationships. While some young people saw part of the excitement of such experiences in the realising of their own independence, for others, growing freedom meant seeking more serious activities.
Some students thought that having a girlfriend or boyfriend was a part of having an exciting life although others said they preferred to be part of a wider group of friends than have one intimate relationship. Through such experiences, young people learn about themselves and make choices through which they build or rebuild their sense of self (Giddens, 1991, p. 75).
The study found that while some students flourished with the new opportunities to grow and develop, other students struggled. These students tended to offer fewer ideas about their goals, had less idea of how to achieve them, or generally struggled to talk about themselves.
A number of students had developed their ideas on specific issues. Much of this could be attributed to a general maturing. It is important to recognise the numerous issues and experiences which the young people had encountered over the years. These often required students to make a decision or confirmation about what they believed. It is at this life stage that people are becoming aware of the contradictions and contentiousness of religious issues, not only from the students’ own traditions but also about the wider impact and role of religions in society (Fowler, 1986).
Many students considered spirituality to be a positive thing. A significant number were open to spiritual experiences – not limited to supernatural events but anything which may have impacted the students’ view or understanding about God or spirituality. This shows little change between the first and final round of interviews.
Many ‘spiritual experiences’ involved family and friends. Meaning about spirituality came not only from a church or personal spiritual revelation, but from the hard and trying times in life. Such experiences included relationship breakdowns or the death or sickness of a significant person in their lives. It is important to note that openness to spiritual experiences or positive attitudes to spirituality in general occurred regardless of whether or not students attended church on a regular basis.
Views of God had not changed markedly between the first and final stages of the study. What was apparent in this stage was the number of students struggling with questions about the nature of God and how God fits into the world. Students were also asked about their view of Jesus. Again, regardless of whether students attended church they were open to learning about Jesus, although several also expressed confusion about him.
The American sociologist, Robert Wuthnow, describes how grappling with particular questions and issues is one way in which people make their faith personal (1990, p. 129). Many young people tailor the tradition they had formally accepted to create their own sense of identity and ownership of the beliefs (Wuthnow, 1990, p. 129; Fowler, 1986). While ultimately they are given the opportunity to be responsible for their beliefs and integrate them into their lives, some express a limited commitment or even dismiss or ignore this aspect of their lives (Wuthnow, 1990, p. 130; Fowler, 1986).
Again, the model of constructing their world in an intentional and reflexive way appears to be appropriate. The students interviewed spoke about their acceptance of and respect for people from other denominations and religions and, in some cases, their interest in exploring these. Many showed a desire for new experiences, although there was often a sense that they wanted to do this on their own terms. Students were generally also open-minded towards religious faith. Most were aware of, and many had actively thought about, how to reconcile natural disasters with the belief in a loving and powerful God. They were well aware of the issues of religion and science and potential conflicts between them. Many were seeking ways of making sense of the variety of perspectives, constructing and shaping their beliefs through a reflexive process.
Many students reported little change in their levels of church attendance. Of those that did, many had been attending church on an occasional basis two years ago but had stopped going in the interim. Others who had been going less regularly previously spoke about their increasing independence and greater awareness which had facilitated the change. Still others had changed because their levels of commitment to the church and connection to it (though family especially) had decreased.
For example, one student spoke about how her family had stopped attending, although she still attended occasionally when asked to participate in the choir.
I don’t believe in going to church because why am I going to go to church to prove to other people I’m a Christian? I’ll pray by myself.
Another female student who was attending occasionally two years ago had moved to the city and had not joined a church. She also felt that her beliefs remained important to her even though she was not attending.
Other students reported an increase in their regularity of attendance. For example, some students spoke about how they were expected by family to attend, yet their growing maturity and independence meant that they felt they were attending in their own right, out of their own desire to be there.
A few students who were attending more did so out of a personal decision. One girl had had a conversion experience at a Pentecostal convention. She had been convinced of the power of the Christian faith when she had seen people who had been ‘slain in the Spirit’.
Another young student had increased her attendance because of the influence of a friend. On the other hand, the most common reason behind increased involvement was having specific roles which allowed them to participate and contribute to the services. For example, one student had met a priest through her university who encouraged her to participate in the activities and services there, and another student was asked to play the guitar. Many of the young people who were attending regularly were participating in the music life of their churches.
Significant life experiences such as moving interstate, a serious accident or illness within the family or an overseas holiday had various kinds of impact on their beliefs and practices. Sometimes these significant experiences had led to students becoming much more aware of what was happening to themselves and those around them. The challenge of experience drew some students into new levels of maturity. Others noted significant life changes through which they had experienced the loss of social networks and friends.
The role of experience was also evident in some of the stories they told about their journeys of faith. For example, several young people spoke of having their faith challenged and, in some cases, deepened by difficult experiences such as personal sickness or the death of a family member. Increased involvement in churches generally seemed associated with formal involvement, for example, through music. However, a few students also spoke of how faith had become personally more meaningful, while for others it had lost what relevance it might have once had.
Young people sometimes seek out significant life experiences. Most young people want to try things out for themselves and to learn by doing so. This was apparent as they spoke about their attitudes to girlfriends and boyfriends, about careers, and about the ways they put their faith together.
Changes in relationships and new depth in relationships were evident in a few cases. Such changes can have a real impact on young people. The resolving of tensions with parents and the growth in the depth of relationships with friends can help young people find a sense of purpose in life and develop goals for life. Relationships with teachers was one factor that had been very important to several students as they sought to work through problems.
Changes in maturity were often identified by students as they spoke of what had happened to them. Actions they had considered ‘fun’ were now seen as ‘childish’. However, other changes also appeared as part of the growth in maturity. Some young people spoke about a greater balance in what was important in life: both study and friends, both work and family. Maturity was also apparent in the greater articulation they were able to give to their goals, their attitudes and their beliefs. Along with the change in maturity often went new freedom and independence. One important point in this process, mentioned by several students, was obtaining their driving licences. At the same time, several students mentioned tensions with parents in relation to being independent.
Changes in life-stage were evident in many interviews. As students reached the final years of their schooling, they were more focussed on completing their secondary education successfully. Many students were thinking about future career paths. Older students were not necessarily clearer about those career paths. Many still had little idea what would be an appropriate career. However, in general, they were more realistic in their thinking, less captivated by glamorous careers or unattainable goals. Major changes had occurred for some of the students who had left school. All had tried more than one course or career before settling into the present course. With the move from school came greater responsibility for their own decisions.
In Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, the social theorist, Anthony Giddens, describes the formation of the self as a ‘reflexive project for which the individual is responsible’ (1991, p.75). ‘We are’, he says, ‘not what we are, but what we make of ourselves’ through continuing ‘reconstructive endeavours’ (1991, p.75). He describes this process as ‘all pervasive’ and contributing to the primacy of the concern about ‘lifestyle’ (1991, p.81). This process involves choice within the plurality of options. Aspects of traditional culture are ‘adopted’ rather than being ‘handed down’ (1991, pp.80-81).
This process can be contrasted with the society in which the nature of the ‘self’ is largely given by the groups into which one is born. In many non-Western societies today, the self is largely a product of the social class, the political and religious groups in which grows up. The process of the development of the self involves socialisation into these groups, absorbing their language, their symbols and their beliefs. There may be narrow bands within which choices can be made in terms of occupation but, by and large, one has to accept one’s station.
What we have been describing through this article is the formation of the self as a reflexive project. We have caught glimpses of it in relation to the formation of personal goals and career options. We have seen it in the personal choices of primary values.
Giddens himself has suggested that within this context religion, as a form of tradition, would be undermined. Religious cosmology, he suggested, ‘is supplanted by reflexively organised knowledge, governed by empirical observation and logical thought, and focussed upon material technology and socially applied codes’ (1990, p.109). Something of this is apparent in the interviews. Yet, there are also glimpses of the incorporation of religious beliefs into the reflexive self. Young people continue to wrestle with religious beliefs and some young people incorporate them into the ways they see the world. Nevertheless, they are doing this in their own way and in their own time.
This discussion suggests that young people are searching for genuine experiences, especially those involving friends and family, although other meaningful connections also play a role. Thus, while family and friends attend church and young people feel they can contribute to the life of a church through given role and duties to perform, they found involvement more meaningful. The flip side is that if family and friends do not attend, if the students’ goals are oriented around working and playing sport, and if they are not familiar with the language and culture of a church, it is hard for students to be drawn into the collective worship experience.
The young people showed great interest in making decisions for themselves and in being independent in relation to their beliefs, their values and their practices. To have a constructive role in the growth of young people, schools, churches and even parents have to respect that desire for autonomy and engage in dialogue, respecting that process of reflexive construction.
Giddens, A. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Stanford University Press, California, 1991.
Hughes, P., et al. Exploring what Australians Value, Openbook Publishers, Adelaide, 2003.
Wuthnow, R. Growing up Religious, Beacon Press, Boston, 1990.
The first presentation at the Youth Spirituality Roundtable was given by Dr Philip Hughes. He outlined some major findings from the research on how young people put life together and explored some of the implications. His presentation can be downloaded from this site.
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https://cra.org.au/category/youth-spirituality-roundtable/
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Wheat seedlings were grown in red light (1500 μmol m-2 s-1) for different photoperiods having their root shoot transition zones exposed or covered from red light. Seedlings grown under 2h L, accumulated similar amount of chlorophyll and carotenoids in both the conditions. However, the amount of chlorophyll, carotenoid and protochlorophyllide decreased with increase in photoperiod and increased with increase in photoperiod respectively in seedlings having root shoot transition zones exposed and covered respectively. Low temperature 77k spectra of leaves excised just before the end of dark period from plants showed that a blue shift was observed in the photo-transformable Pchlide with F655 shifting to F653 from 2h to 6h L in seedlings grown with their root-shoot transition zone exposed. This shows the presence of prolamellar bodies in these seedlings. However, in 2hL, photosystem II (PSII) and photosystem I (PSI) were absent in seedlings with their root-shoot transition zones exposed whereas PS I was absent in the seedlings with their root-shoot transition zone covered. Well defined PSI and II were observed in 4hL and 6hL photoperiod in these seedlings. Results demonstrate that a threshold of red light is required for manifestation of present inhibition of greening process and subsequent dark period does not restore the greening process. Synthesis of PORA and subsequent assembly of Pchlide-PORA is also affected as demonstrated by increase in ratio of relative fluoresence of Pchlide to Chlide and by blue shift in the photo transformable Pchlide forms.
Light is energy source as well as an important signal for plant growth and development . Light quality and quantity effect chlorophyll and carotenoid content and photosynthetic characteristics eventually effecting overall plant growth and development. Plants tend to adapt the structure of photosynthetic apparatus, pigment composition and their phototropic and photomorphogenic responses to different light qualities and quantities .
There are substantial differences in spectral distribution of light in various plant habitats with high light intensities in tropical regions to very low light intensities under water. The growth and development of plants also occur during dark and is known as skotomorphogenesis. During skotomorphogenesis protochlorophyllide accumulates as the major pigment. The conversion of protochlorophyllide to chlorophyllide and then to chlorophyll requires light demonstrating spectral dependence of chlorophyll biosynthesis in plants [3-5]. Böddi et al. have shown the presence of four universal forms of protochlorophyll (ide) from different plant species: at 633 nm, at 645 nm, at 657 nm and one at 670 nm with their vibration sublevels at 693 nm, 710 nm, 726 nm and 740 nm respectively. Using photo periodically grown plants, Schoefs and Bertrand , have shown that peak of photo transformable Pchlide is at 653 nm (associated with pro-thylakoid membranes), instead of 656 nm (associated with prolamellar bodies). These photo ransformable Pchlide changes to chlorophyllide (Chlide) in response to saturating light flashes. This conversion involves synthesis of various intermediates. The peak of photo transformable Protochlorophyllide at F653 nm or 656 nm decreases on flash illumination and a peak due to Chlide: POR:NADP+ appears at 690 nm, which within a fraction of second shifts to 694 nm due to Chlide:POR:NADPH. After incubation for 5 s in dark a peak at 676 nm due to free Chlide was observed in bean . Many non-fluorescent and fluorescent intermediates of Pchlide are formed during this conversion [4,9]. Franck et al. have shown that in etioplast membranes of dark-grown wheat Pchlide associated with NADP+ and NADPH gives peak was at 681 and 690 nm respectively after flash illumination and subsequent dark incubation. Photoactive Pchlides are regenerated by different pathways: 1) After the photoreduction through the formation of a non-photoactive Pchlide form emitting fluorescence at approximately 651 nm (Pchlide-POR-NADP+), 2) After dislocation of large aggregates of Chlide-light-dependent POR-NADPH ternary complexes . Le lay et al. have shown that in etiolated barley leaves, a saturating flash of 200 ms (0.2 sec) induces photo transformation of protochlorophyllide F655 to chlorophyllide, than into chlorophyll, which do not require light.
Earlier studies on wheat seedlings grown under continuous red light (500 μmol m-2 s-1) have shown that the seedlings were not green and did not accumulate any chlorophyll when their root-shoot transition zones were exposed to red light. Chlorophyll synthesis and development of photosystems was inhibited in these seedlings [12-14]. On the other hand seedlings with their root shoot transition zone covered from red light were green and accumulated chlorophyll [12-17]. The above inhibition of greening process was completely reverted by blue light (50 μmol m-2 s-1) and partially reverted by far-red light (200 μmol m-2 s-1) . The photoreceptors play a critical role in greening process in plants. These photoreceptors alone or in combination affect the overall growth and development in plants. Phytochromes and cryptochromes mediate red-light and blue-light mediated responses respectively . The signaling functions of photoreceptors are activated or inhibited by light facilitating information flow in either condition . In higher plants three forms of phytochromes Phy A, Phy B and Phy C are found in monocots like rice and five forms (Phy A to E) are found in dicots like Arabidopsis . Phy A in contrast to other family members accumulates in large amount in etiolated plants . Studies done by Roy et al. have shown persistence of PhyA especially in the shoot-bottom in rice seedlings grown in red light (400 μmol m-2 s-1) with their root-shoot transition zones exposed suggesting its probable role in inhibition of greening process.
In the earlier studies [13,14] the seedlings were grown under continuous illumination of red light (500 μmol m-2 s-1). These seedlings manifested inhibition of greening process when their root-shoot transition zones were exposed to red light. Therefore, in order to understand whether continuous illumination is prerequisite for manifestation of this response or some threshold level of red light for shorter duration may lead to inhibition of greening process, present study was undertaken. Besides this the accumulation of protochlorophyllide and its conversion to chlorophyllide was also studied to understand effect of photoperiodic illumination of red light (1500 μmol m-2 s-1) on accumulation of chlorophyll and formation of Pchlide-POR complexes and their photo-transformation by saturating flash of red light (0.2 sec) on wheat seedlings grown with their root-shoot transition zones exposed and covered from red light in vivo.
Wheat (Triticum aestivum cv HD 2329) seeds were used as experimental materials. The seeds were obtained from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.
Porphyrins were purchased from, Logan UT. All the chemicals and solvents were of analytical grade. Hepes buffer, ethylene diamine tetracetic acid (EDTA), sorbitol, 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indol phosphate (BCIP), nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT), Alkaline phosphatase (AP), acrylamide, bis-acrylamide were purchased from Sigma Aldrich, USA.
Light source for plant growth in red light was Gallium-aluminium-arsenide light emitting diodes (LEDs) having high output in red region of photosynthetic absorption with maximum spectral output at peak wavelength of 670 nm and narrow bandwidth of 26 nm. This peak wavelength corresponds to the peak of photosynthetic action spectrum of plants.
Wheat (Triticum aestivum cv HD 2329) seeds were germinated and grown in a dark room on water in Petri dishes or acrylic trays in red light (1500 μmol m-2 s-1) LEDs on germination paper having their roots and root-shoot transition zones exposed (V-) or in vermiculite (V+) having their roots and root-shoot transition zones shielded from red light in different photoperiods of 2h L+22h D, 4h L+20h D, 6h L+18h D, 12h L+12h D, 18h L+6h D, 24h L, for 5 days. Here ‘L’ is light period, ‘D’ is dark period and ‘h’ stands for hours of light treatment.
There was no increase in temperature in the plant growth area and same moisture content was maintained in both growth conditions. All the measurements were done just before the end of dark period.
Three replicates of 100 mg leaves were taken from 5-d-old seedlings. Leaves were cut into pieces and hand homogenized in pre-chilled mortar and pestle in 10 ml of ice cold 80% acetone at 4°C under green safe light. Homogenate was passed through 8 layers of cheesecloth and centrifuged in sorvall centrifuge with SS-34 rotor at 10,000 rpm for 10 min. Supernatant was taken. Chlorophyll and carotenoids contents were measured spectrophotometrically as described by Porra et al. and Welburn and Lichenthaler respectively on UV-160A (Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan) double-beam spectrophotometer. Absorbance was taken at 663 nm, 645 nm and 470 nm. Reference cuvette contained 80% acetone.
Leaves from 5-d-old seedlings grown under different light regimes were taken and total tetrapyrroles synthesis was monitored before dark incubation. Three replicates of 100 mg leaves were taken and homogenized in 10 ml of 90% ammonical acetone. For preparing 90% ammonical acetone, 1 N ammonia solution (7.48 ml in 100 ml distilled water) was prepared and then diluted ten times. This 0.1 N ammonia solution was taken and acetone was added so as to obtain 90% acetone in 0.1 N ammonia. The homogenate was centrifuged in sorvall centrifuge in SS-34 rotor at 10,000 rpm for 10 min at 4°C. Supernatant was taken and HEAR (Hexane extracted acetone residue) was prepared. For preparing HEAR, acetone extract of sample was taken in a separating funnel and equal volume of ice cold hexane was added to it. This was mixed properly and the two layers were allowed to separate. Lower layer was taken. To this layer 1/3rd volume of hexane was added. Again the two layers were mixed and allowed to separate. Lower layer was taken. This layer was hexane-extracted acetone-residue mixture (HEAR). Emission spectra E440 nm was recorded from 580 nm to 700 nm. Pchlide content was calculated as described in Hukmani and Tripathy .
Leaves from 5-d-old plants grown under different photoperiodic regimes were excised just before the end of dark period immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. Low temperature emission spectra (600 nm-770 nm at 440 nm excitation (E440) with slit width set to 2 nmwere recorded from leaves:- (i) just before the end of dark period, (ii) after illumination with saturating flash of red light (0.2 sec) and (iii) after incubation for 10 minutes in dark after flash illumination after freezing in liquid N2 by putting the leaves in Dewar cuvette containing liquid N2. This Dewar cuvette was then put in the cuvette holder.
The fluorescence spectra were recorded in ratio mode in SLM-8000 (SLM Instruments, Inc. Urbana IL, USA) spectrofluoremeter having a photon counting device. The instrument was interfaced with an IBM microcomputer. Rhodamine B was used in the reference channel as a quantum counter. A tetraphenylbutadiene (TPD) block was used to adjust the voltage in both samples as well as reference channel to 20,000 counts per second at excitation and emission wavelengths of 348 nm and 422 nm, respectively. The excitation and emission bandwidths were adjusted to 2 nm. The photon count was integrated for 1 sec.
Seedlings grown under continuous red light (1500 μmol m-2 s-1) for 24h having their root-shoot transition zones covered in vermiculite were completely green and accumulated normal amounts of Chlorophyll (Chl). However, under identical conditions, seedlings grown having their root-shoot transition zones exposed to red light (1500 μmol m-2 s-1) were not green (Figure 1) and did not accumulate Chl (Figure 2A). Wheat seedlings having their root-shoot transition zones covered were greenish yellow whereas those with root-shoot transition zone exposed were yellowish green (Figure 1, E2 and D2) when grown under grown under 2h light (L)+22h dark (D). However, these seedlings accumulated small but similar amounts of Chl (Figure 2A). Seedlings grown under 4h L+20h D photoperiodic regimes started behaving differently in relation to amount of Chl accumulated. Seedlings having their rootshoot transition zones covered from red light accumulated almost double amount of Chl as compared to 2h L+22h D seedlings having their root-shoot transition zones covered. However, seedlings grown under 4h L+20h D (Figure 2A) regime having their root-shoot transition zones exposed to red light accumulated very small amount of Chl, i.e., nearly 1/8th of 2h L+22h D seedlings. With further increase in photoperiod i.e., 6h L+18h D, 12h L+12h D and 18h L and 6h D, the seedlings having their root-shoot transition zones shielded from red light, i.e., grown in vermiculite, turned greener and there was a linear increase in Chl content (Figure 2A). However, seedlings grown under identical conditions having their root-shoot transition zones exposed to red light were not green and did not accumulated Chl (Figure 2A). This demonstrated that even 4h light exposure of red light (1500 μmol m-2 s-1) was sufficient to induce present photomorphogenic response. This response could not be reversed in the succeeding 20h dark period leading to conclusion that a critical dose of 2,16,00,000 μmol m-2 of light was sufficient to induce the non-greening photomorphogenic response in seedlings with their root-shoot transition zone exposed. Many studies have shown effect of light on chlorophyll biosynthesis and degradation in plants [12-14].
Figure 1: Wheat seedlings grown in red light (1500 μmoles m-2 s-1) for different photoperiods with their root-shoot transition zones exposed (1) or covered (2). (A) 2h L+22h D; (B) 4h L+20h D; (C) 6h L+18h (D) D, 12h L+12h D; (E) 18h L+6h D, where L is light hours and D is dark hours.
Figure 2: Chlorophyll, carotenoid and protochlorophyllide content in plants grown in red light (1500 μmoles m-2 s-1) under different photoperiods.
Seedlings grown under 2h L+22h D photoperiod having their root-shoot transition zones exposed or covered accumulated similar but small amount of carotenoids (Figure 2B). The carotenoid content of seedlings having their root-shoot transition zones shielded from red light linearly increased with increase in red light photoperiod from 4h L+20h D, 6h L+18h D, 12h L+12h D and 18h L+6h D (Figure 2B). The carotenoid content declined in seedlings grown having their root-shoot transition zones exposed, with increase in red light photoperiod (Figure 2B). However, in Arabidopsis seedlings grown under high light of 1800 μmol m-2 s-1 in photoperiod of 8h L+16h D, the carotenoid content increased with increase in light intensity . Carotenoids usually act as a scavenger for singlet oxygen generated in pigment bed in response to light treatment . As substantial amount of carotenoids were present in seedlings grown under 4h L+20h D photoperiod, the non-accumulation of Chl in these plants may not be due to the oxidative destruction of already synthesized chlorophyll.
Seedlings grown under different photoperiods having their root-shoot transition zones covered from red light accumulated small amounts of protochlorophyllide (Pchlide) when measured before the end of dark period. However, plants grown under similar conditions with root-shoot transition zones exposed to red light accumulated substantially low amounts of Pchlide (Figure 2C). Proto chlorphyllide accumulates as the major pigment in dark. On subsequent exposure to light it gets converted to chlorophyllide [3,4]. The accumulation of Pchlide was very less in seedlings with their root-shoot transition zones exposed to red light. The chlorophyll accumulation is very less in these plants. This suggests that either Pchlide synthesis or protochlorophyllide reductase expression or formation of Pchlide-POR complexes are inhibited in these seedlings.
To further understand the functional status of Pchlide and POR and organization and assembly of PSII, PSI, low temperature fluorescence spectra (E440, excitation at 440 nm) from leaves, were recorded.
Seedlings grown under continuous red light (500 μmol m-2 s-1) having their root-shoot transition zones exposed, synthesized low amount of Pchlide, most of which accumulated in non-photo-transformable form [13,14]. Therefore, plants grown under photoperiodic regimes having their root-shoot transition zones exposed or shielded from red light were studied to ascertain the functional status of Pchlide pool. Leaves were excised from the seedlings having their root-shoot transition zones covered as well as exposed from red light just before the end of dark period and their fluorescence spectra at 77K were recorded (E440) as described in material and methods. As shown in Figures 3B and 4, leaves excised just before the end of dark period from plants grown under red light having root-shoot transition zones exposed in 2 hL+22 h D regimes, accumulated substantial amount of Pchlide in non-photo-transformable form (E440, F632 excitation at 440 nm with fluorescence at 632 nm). However, they also accumulated significant amount of Pchlide in photo-transformable form as shown by a fluorescence peak at 655 nm. A peak with fluorescence at 676 nm was also observed due to Chl(ide). Small peak at 655 nm could be attributed to less Pchlide amount, as a result small amount of complexes of Pchlide-POR-NADPH were formed . The 655 nm peak of Pchlide-POR-NADPH complexes are associated with prolamellar bodies . As long dark period was there in this photoperiodic regime, prolamellar bodies might have developed leading to peak at 655 nm. Although these seedlings were slightly green peak of PSII and PSI were not observed. Upon flash illumination, the peak at 655 nm due to photo-transformable Pchlide was substantially reduced and a broad peak having near maxima from 677-680 nm appeared due to transformation of Pchlide to Chlide showing presence of functional protochlorophyllide reductase (POR A) (Figure 4). After 10 min dark incubation the fluorescence peak at 676 nm was observed (Figure 4). This may be due to inhibition of synthesis/assembly of PSII proteins. In these seedlings the carotenoid content was more as compared to seedlings grown in larger photoperiods. Griffiths et al. have shown that illumination of wheat etioplast membranes with 60 W lamp for 30 sec lead to transformation of 635 nm and 652 nm peaks to a smaller peak at 632 nm and an intense peak at 680 nm. The 632 nm peak was due to non-photoactive pigment whereas 680 nm peak due to chlorophyllide. Yahuban et al. , have shown that the conversion of Pchlide to Chlide was inversely proportional to carotenoid content in wheat seedlings. Using dark grown wheat seedlings they have shown that in the leaves with reduced carotenoid content, a greater number of protochlorophyllide molecules transform to Chlide per light flash as compared to that in normal leaves. The ratio of Chlide /Pchlide (657) was always highest in leaves nearly deficient in carotenoids, medium in leaves with carotenoid deficiency and lowest in normal leaves . However, in the present study the ratio of relative intensity of Pchlide to Chlide increases with decrease in carotenoid contents of seedlings (Figures 2, 4, 5 and 6). This decrease can be attributed to lower amounts of POR A in these seedlings (results not shown).
Figure 3: Low temperature fluorescence spectra (E440) of leaves from seedlings grown in 2h L+22h D photoperiod (A) Zone covered (B) Root shoot transition zone exposed.
Figure 4: Low temperature fluorescence spectra (E440) of leaves from seedlings grown in 2h L+22h D photoperiod with root shoot transition zone exposed showing flash induced changes.
Figure 5: Low temperature fluorescence spectra (E440) of leaves from seedlings grown in 6h L+18h D photoperiod with rootshoot transition zone exposed showing flash induced changes.
Figure 6: Low temperature fluorescence spectra (E440) of leaves from seedlings grown in 2h L+22h D photoperiod with root shoot transition zone covered.
In seedlings grown under red light (1500 μmol m-2 s-1) in photoperiodic regime (under 2h L+22h D regime) having their root-shoot transition zones covered in vermiculite a small peak at 632 nm and a smaller peak at 655 nm due to non-phototransformable and photo-transformable Pchlide respectively were exhibited (Figure 3A). The 655 peak could be due to oligomeric photoconvertible Pchlide. Using 77K fluorescence emission spectra in vitro studies in etiolated pea homogenates have shown conversion of aggregates of 636 nm emitting monomeric protochlorophyllide form into flash-photoactive oligomeric 644 and 655 nm emitting forms . These leaves also showed a huge peak at 685 nm, which could be attributed to PSII core complex (D1/D2/ cytb559 complex). Fluorescence peak due to 696 nm (due to CP43/CP47) and at 735 nm (due to PSI) were absent (Figure 3B). This could be due to inhibition of synthesis/assembly of PSI proteins.
In seedlings grown under 4h L+20h D and 6h L+18h D photoperiodic regimes having their root-shoot transition zones exposed to red light peaks at 631 nm, 654 and 675 nm were of non-photo-transformable Pchlide, photo-transformable Pchlide and Chlide respectively were observed. After flash illumination the peak at 654 nm decreased substantially and a broad peak at 680 nm instead of P695, increased, due to photo-transformation of photo-transformable Pchlide to Chlide in seedlings grown in 4h L+20h D photoperiodic regime. However in 6h L+18h D photoperiod the Chlide peak was observed at 677 nm in seedlings with their root shoot transition zone exposed. Amirjani et al. , have shown that an energy transfer from short-wavelength Pchlide to long-wavelength Pchlide does not occur if many Pchlide molecules attach in Pchlide-POR complex. However, as Pchlide itself is less in the present study small complexes of POR-Chlide-NADPH were formed resulting in a peak at 680 nm instead of 695 nm after flash illumination. After 10 min dark incubation after flash, the peaks at 680 nm and 677 nm peaks of two different shifted to 675 nm (Figures 5 and 7) which was due to release of free Chlide from Chlide-POR-NADP+ complex. Peak at 655 nm reappeared with a decrease in 632 nm peak. This was due to formation of Pchlide-POR-NADPH complex at the expense of non-phototransformable Pchlide.
Figure 7: Low temperature fluorescence spectra (E440) of leaves from seedlings grown in 6h L+18h D photoperiod root-shoot transition zone exposed showing flash induced changes.
With increasing photoperiod from 2h to 4h to 6h the fluorescence emission peak of photo-transformable Pchlide blue shifted from 655 nm in 2h to 654 nm in 4h and 653 nm in 6h photoperiod. Thus the blue shift of photo-transformable Pchlide from 657 nm in dark grown seedlings to 653 nm in 6h photo periodically grown seedlings demonstrated the light induced change in structural organization of Pchlide-POR complex. In fact green bean leaves grown under 16h L+8h D photoperiodic regimes had a peak at 653 nm due to photo-transformable Pchlide. Thus shorter wavelength form of Pchlide-POR-NADPH (655, 654 and 653 nm) may be preferentially associated with pro-thylakoid and thylakoid membranes .
Fluorescence peaks at 687 nm and 693 nm due to PSII and a peak at 742 nm due to PSI (Figure 6) were observed in seedlings gown in both 4h L+20h D and 6h L and 18h D photoperiod regimes with their root shoot transition zone covered showing normal development of both the photosystems in these seedlings. As chlorophyll is present in sufficient amount it led to well developed, PSII and PSI.
period required for manifestation of the non-greening photomorphogenic response which was earlier illustrated [12-14]. Chlorophyll accumulation and carotenoid levels decreases with increase in photoperiod in seedlings grown in red light with their root shoot transition zone exposed. Carotenoids act as scavengers of reactive oxygen species. These reactive oxygen species are formed on exposure of plants to different stress conditions like high light, exposure to herbicides etc, leading to degradation of chlorophyll. If chlorophyll degradation has occurred in seedlings with their root shoot transition zone exposed, there would be increase in reactive oxygen species leading to increased carotenoid content in these seedlings. Therefore, in the present study similar levels of carotenoids in the seedlings with their root shoot transition zone exposed (non-green leaves) or covered from red light (green leaves) states that chlorophyll degradation does not occur in these seedlings. Instead chlorophyll biosynthesis is inhibited at some point . The synthesis of Pchlide decreases with increase in photoperiod which is accompanied with decrease in POR A availability in plants grown with their root-shoot transition zones exposed. This decrease in POR A and Pchlide could not be restored in subsequent long dark periods. The structural organization of Pchlide-POR complexes also changes with increase in photoperiod. The presence of P654 and 653 forms of Pchlide in seedlings grown in 4h L+20h D and 6h L+18h D photoperiods with their rootshoot transition zoned exposed shows presence of pro-thylakoid membranes instead of prolamellar bodies which are generally formed in the dark grown plants. As proposed by Roy et al. Phy A might be playing role in manifestation of this inhibition of greening process in these seedlings grown in photoperiods. Results from the earlier [13,14] and present study demonstrate that it is not continuous illumination with red light but a threshold of red light (2,16,00,000 μmol m-2) which is required for manifestation of present inhibition of greening process. The subsequent dark period does not restore the greening process. Synthesis of PORA and subsequent assembly of Phlide-PORA is also affected as demonstrated by increase in ratio of relative fluorescence of Pchlide to Chlide and by blue shift in the photo-transformable Pchlide forms.
Antibody for POR A was obtained from Dr. WT Griffiths. The work was supported by a competitive grant from the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (DST/SP/SO/A-49/95).
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Ćilerdžić, J., Stajić, M., Vukojević, J., and Lončar, N. (2014). "Intraspecific diversity in the production and characterization of laccase within Ganoderma lucidum," BioRes. 9(3), 5577-5587.
Ganoderma lucidum has a well-developed ligninolytic enzyme system, where laccase is the dominant and sometimes only synthesizing enzyme, and therefore could find an application in the delignification of abundant plant raw materials and in food, feed, paper, and biofuel production. The questions that provided the goals for the present study were whether the profile of G. lucidum laccase depends on cultivation type and carbon source, as well as whether intraspecific diversity exists. Conditions of submerged cultivation proved more preferable for laccase activity compared with solid-state cultivations in all studied strains, while oak sawdust provided a better carbon source than wheat straw. Maximum laccase activity (7241.0 U/L) was measured on day 14 of oak sawdust submerged fermentation by strain BEOFB 431. Intraspecific diversity in synthesized proteins was more significant in wheat straw than in oak sawdust submerged fermentation. The profile of laccase isoforms was dependent on strain, plant residue, type, and period of cultivation. Four acidic laccase isoforms (pI 3.6) were detected in G. lucidum BEOFB 431 at the same cultivation point where maximal enzyme activity was measured.
Ganoderma lucidum has a well-developed ligninolytic enzyme system, where laccase is the dominant and sometimes only synthesizing enzyme, and therefore could find an application in the delignification of abundant plant raw materials and in food, feed, paper, and biofuel production. The questions that provided the goals for the present study were whether the profile of G. lucidum laccase depends on cultivation type and carbon source, as well as whether intraspecific diversity exists. Conditions of submerged cultivation proved more preferable for laccase activity compared with solid-state cultivations in all studied strains, while oak sawdust provided a better carbon source than wheat straw. Maximum laccase activity (7241.0 U/L) was measured on day 14 of oak sawdust submerged fermentation by strain BEOFB 431. Intraspecific diversity in synthesized proteins was more significant in wheat straw than in oak sawdust submerged fermentation. The profile of laccase isoforms was dependent on strain, plant residue, type, and period of cultivation. Four acidic laccase isoforms (pI 3.6) were detected in G. lucidumBEOFB 431 at the same cultivation point where maximal enzyme activity was measured.
Agricultural and industrial expansion leads to the production of enormous amounts of agricultural, forest, industrial, and domestic wastes, all of which could be serious environmental pollutions. The annual production of various plant raw materials reaches approximately 170 to 200 billion tons, of which only 3% is used directly. The rest becomes environmental ballast because of its relatively slow degradation due to high lignin and low nitrogen contents (Zechendorf 1999; Pahkala and Pihala 2000; Dias et al.2010). However, plant biomass as well as other frequent wastes could present potential resources for food, feed, paper, and energy production (Pahkala and Pihala 2000; Tabka et al. 2006; Yusoff 2006; Rodriguez et al. 2008). Mushroom fruiting bodies, an excellent source of proteins, are a high nutritionally valued food that is produced in this way. Current steady world population growth has resulted in a lack of food, 870 million malnourished people, and 10 million deaths every year (FAO 2012). Additionally, if it is taken into account that malnutrition is in positive correlation with protein deficit, slow child growth rate, and the appearance of various kinds of infection (Caulfield et al. 2004), then it is apparent that the importance of mushroom production and usage in the diet are high. The degradation of lignin and the breaking down of the hemicellulose-lignin matrix from plant residues increase their digestibility by ruminants and therefore their potential for utilization as animal feed (Sharma and Arora 2010). Agricultural crop residues could also be alternative sources for paper production, which would protect the autochthonous forest (González et al. 2009). Currently, 80% of the primary energy consumed in the world is obtained from fossil fuels, which have negative effects on both the environment and the global economy (Nigam and Singh 2011). Therefore, special attention has been given to the consumption of renewable and biodegradable energy sources such as biofuels, hydrogen, and natural gas (Elshahed 2010). However, the transformation of the plant waste involves a complex degradation process whose efficiency depends on the potential of the organism-degrader, oxidative mechanisms, and culture conditions (Wan and Li 2010). Could mushroom species play a role in the process? Mushrooms, especially white-rot species, are one of the main degraders of plant raw materials because they possess a ligninolytic enzyme system. The current trend is to screen the capacity of new species and strains for producing these enzymes.
Ganoderma lucidum (Curt.: Fr.) Karst., as a white-rot species, synthesizes lacasses (EC 1.10.3.2), Mn-oxidizing peroxidases (EC 1.11.1.13), and lignin peroxidases (EC 1.11.1.14) (D’Souza et al.1996; 1999; Varela et al. 2000; Ko et al. 2001; Silva et al. 2005; Stajić et al. 2004). Because it is capable of producing the aforementioned enzymes, G. lucidum can modify and degrade various aromatic compounds, especially lignin, and can participate in various biotechnological processes.
Laccase is the dominant, and sometimes only, ligninolytic enzyme synthesized by G. lucidum that has a significant physiological and biochemical role (D’Souza et al. 1999; Ko et al. 2001). Therefore, the questions that provided the goals for the present study were whether the profile of G. lucidum laccase depends on cultivation type and carbon source, as well as whether intraspecific diversity exists.
The cultures of studied G. lucidum strains were obtained from fruiting bodies from Serbia, Montenegro, and China (Table 1), and maintained on a malt agar medium in the culture collection of the Institute of Botany, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade (BEOFB).
The inoculum preparation involved the following steps: (i)inoculation of 100.0 mL of the synthetic medium (glucose, 10.0 g/L; NH4NO3, 2.0 g/L; K2HPO4, 1.0 g/L; NaH2PO4 x H2O, 0.4 g/L; MgSO4 x 7H2O, 0.5 g/L; yeast extract, 2.0 g/L; pH 6.5) with 25 mycelial discs (Ø 0.5 cm, from 7-day-old culture from malt agar); (ii) incubation at room temperature (22 ± 2 ºC) on a rotary shaker (160 rpm) for 7 days; (iii) washing of obtained biomass (3 times) by sterile distilled water (dH2O); and (iv) biomass homogenization with 100.0 mL of sterile dH2O in a laboratory blender.
Solid-state cultivation was carried out at 25 ºC in 100-mL flasks containing 5.0 g of wheat straw or oak sawdust as the carbon source and 10.0 mL of the modified synthetic medium (without glucose). Submerged fermentation was carried out in 250-mL flasks with 50.0 mL of the modified synthetic medium enriched with 5.0 g of the ground tested plant raw materials, at room temperature on a rotary shaker. Suspension obtained after inoculum homogenization was used for medium inoculation (3.0 mL per flask for solid-state and 5.0 mL for submerged fermentation). Samples from the flasks were harvested after 7, 10, and 14 days of cultivation, with the aim of following the dynamic of enzyme activity. The extracellular enzymes produced during solid-state cultivation were extracted by sample stirring with 50.0 mL dH2O at a magnetic stirrer at 4 ºC for 10 min, and the extracts were separated by centrifugation (at 4 ºC and 5000 rpm, for 15 min). After submerged cultivation, the samples were prepared by centrifugation. The obtained supernatants were used for the determination of laccase activity and total protein content. Three replications were performed for each sample.
Activity of laccase was defined by monitoring the A436 change related to the rate of oxidation of 50 mM 2,2‘-azino-bis-[3-ethyltiazoline-6-sulfonate] (ABTS) (ε436 = 29300 M-1 cm-1) in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.0) at 35 ºC (Stajić et al. 2004). The reaction mixture contained buffer, ABTS, and sample (Vtot = 1.0 mL).
Enzymatic activity of 1 U was defined as the amount of enzyme that transforms 1 μmol of substrate per min. A BioQuest CECIL CE2501 spectrophotometer (England) was used for these assays.
The amount of total proteins was determined using the Bradford method, using bovine serum albumin as the standard (Silva et al.2005). The total protein content is presented as mg/mL.
Screening of the laccase profile was performed for all analyzed G. lucidum strains in the optimum type and period of fermentation of both tested plant raw materials, as well as for the best laccase producer under all cultivation conditions.
Samples for SDS-PAGE were centrifuged (at 20 ºC and 13000 rpm, for 3 min) and together with buffer [0.5 M Tris HCl (pH 6.8), 85% glycerol, SDS, 0.1% brom phenol blue, and β-merkaptoetanol (ß-ME)] were heated in boiling water for 3 min. This type of electrophoresis was performed on 4% stacking and 10% running polyacrylamide gels in buffer with the following contents: 0.025 M Tris, 0.192 M Gly, 0.1% SDS (pH 8.3), at 80 V through concentrated and 120 to 160 V through separated gel for 120 min. Completed electrophoresis gels were fixed in a solution that contained 50% methanol, 10% acetic acid, and dH2O to 100%, and then protein bands were visualized by staining with Coomassie Briliant Blue-G (CBB G). Molecular mass standard of a wide range (6.5 to 200.0 kDa (Sigma-Aldrich)) was used.
Determination of laccase isoforms was performed by separating protein extract by native-PAGE and defining isoelectric point (pI) by isoelectric focusing (IEF). Samples for native-PAGE were mixed with buffer of the same content as for SDS-PAGE but without SDS and ß-ME and without heating. Native electrophoresis was performed on 4% stacking and 10% running gel. Bands with laccase activity were located by the gel incubation in 10 mM ABTS in 200 mM phosphate buffer (pH 5.0). IEF was carried out in 7.5% polyacrylamide gel with 5% ampholyte on a pH gradient from 3.0 to 10.0 in three phases: (i)at 100 V for 15 minutes; (ii) at 200 V for 15 min; and (iii) at 450 V for 60 min. Completed focusing gel was fixed in trichloroacetic acid and protein bands were detected by staining using CBB G. IEF marker in a pI range of 3.6 to 9.3 (Sigma-Aldrich) was used.
Laccase activity was detected after both the submerged and solid-state fermentation of wheat straw and oak sawdust at all measurement points (Fig. 1). Generally, submerged cultivation was the more appropriate cultivation type for laccase activity compared with solid-state cultivation, and oak sawdust was a better carbon source than wheat straw.
The peak laccase activity was observed after 14 days of oak sawdust submerged fermentation by G. lucidum BEOFB 431 (7241.0 468.0 U/L), which was almost 3-fold higher than the maximum value obtained after 10 days of solid-state fermentation of the same plant residue by strain BEOFB 434 (2517.0 21.0 U/L). The differences among minimum values of laccase activity obtained after oak sawdust fermentation by tested strains were more significant, from 742.5 49.0 U/L (after 7 days of BEOFB 433 solid-state cultivation) to 3020.5 41.5 U/L (in strain BEOFB 432 after 10-day-old submerged cultivation). Increased laccase activity during oak sawdust submerged fermentation were observed in all studied G. lucidum strains, which was not noted in solid-state cultivation (Fig. 1). However, under conditions of solid-state fermentation, a gradual decrease of laccase activity during the cultivation period was found in G. lucidumBEOFB 431, contrary to strain BEOFB 433, where activity slighty increased. In strain BEOFB 432, activity level declined on day 10 and rose on day 14, and in BEOFB 434 the peak of activity was noted on day 10 and the minimum on day 14 (Fig. 1).
Significant laccase activity was also noted after wheat straw fermentation, especially after submerged fermentation. Thus, the highest enzyme level was observed on day 14 of G. lucidum BEOFB 434 cultivation (5921.5 813.0 U/L), while the strain BEOFB 431 was the best laccase producer during the solid-state fermentation of this residue (4872.0 93.5 U/L, on day 7). According to the dynamic of laccase activity during wheat straw submerged fermentation, studied G. lucidum strains could be classified as one of two groups: (i)activity decreases with cultivation period (strain BEOFB 431); and (ii) level of laccase activity gradually increases from day 7 to day 14 of cultivation (strains BEOFB 432, BEOFB 433, and BEOFB 434). During the solid-state cultivation of wheat straw, a decrease in laccase activity was detected in all studied strains, especially in BEOFB 431, where on day 14 no activity was detected (Fig. 1).
The total protein content was also higher after submerged cultivation of the strains. Thus, the peak amount was noted after 10 days of submerged fermentation of oak sawdust by G. lucidum BEOFB 432 (548.0 23.0 mg/mL), while the minimum production was observed after the solid-state cultivation of BEOFB 433 and BEOFB 434 on both oak sawdust and wheat straw. This profile of protein production reflected specific laccase activity (Fig. 1).
Protein patterns after SDS/PAGE revealed the existence of significant intraspecific diversity, as well as differences in the same strain depending on plant residue (Fig. 2). A higher level of differences among strains was obtained after submerged cultivation in wheat straw-enriched medium. Thus, a band of 29 kDa was clearly separated from the extracts of G. lucidum BEOFB 432, BEOFB 433, and BEOFB 434, while a band of 97 kDa was noted in strains BEOFB 433 and BEOFB 434. In strain BEOFB 431, one strong band of 40 kDa as well as three weak bands of molecular masses in the range of 66 kDa to 97 kDa were visualized (Fig. 2A). However, after submerged fermentation of oak sawdust, the level of similarity in protein band arrangement among strains was more significant. The bands of molecular masses of 14, 36, 40, and 66 kDa were noted in all studied strains, and a band of 29 kDa was observed in all except strain BEOFB 431 (Fig. 2B).
Laccase isoforms detected in tested G. lucidum strains were more numerous after oak sawdust submerged fermentation. Thus, at the end of 14 days of cultivation in the wheat straw-enriched medium, three bands were separated in strain BEOFB 431 and only one in the other strains (Fig. 3A). Under the same conditions of oak sawdust fermentation, four laccase isoforms were observed in strain BEOFB 431, compared with only two in the other strains (Fig. 3B).
The profile of laccase isoforms in the best producer (strain BEOFB 431) changed during the cultivation period and was also dependent on cultivation type (Fig. 4). Thus, during submerged cultivation of the strain in wheat straw-enriched medium, no laccase band was detected after 7 and 10 days, while on day 14, three bands were visible (Fig. 4A). After 7 days of wheat straw solid-state fermentation by this strain, two laccase bands were separated and with cultivation extention that number decreased to only one band (Fig. 4A). During oak sawdust solid-state fermentation, three isoforms were noted on days 7 and 10 and only one after 14 days, while on day 14 of submerged cultivation, four isoforms were visible (Fig. 4B). All separated laccase isoforms of strain BEOFB 431 were acid, with a pH of 3.6.
Considering the significant proportion of lignin (between 23% and 30%) in wheat straw and oak sawdust (Nishimura and Matsuyama 1989; Rakić et al. 2006; Salvachúa et al. 2011), efficient exploitation of these plants’ raw materials requires pretreatment by lignin degraders, among which mushrooms hold an important place. A degrader’s effectiveness depends on its capacity to produce ligninolytic enzymes, which is affected by lignin content in relation to hemicellulose and cellulose, as well as by cultivation method (D’Souza et al. 1999; Arora and Gill 2000; Fenice et al. 2003; Moldes et al. 2004; Songulashvili et al. 2006). Numerous studies show the existence of significant inter- and intraspecific mushroom diversity in enzyme activity. Thus, Stajić et al. (2004) and Songulashvili et al.(2007) reported significant differences in enzyme activity among 11 Pleurotus species and between two Ganoderma species, respectively, during both submerged and solid-state fermentation of selected plant residues. However, differences in laccase activities were also noted at an intraspecific level within Cerrena maxima, P. ostreatus, P. pulmonarius, P. eryngii, Trametes versicolor, and G. lucidum(Camarero et al. 1996; Stajić et al. 2004; Silva et al. 2005; Songulashvili et al. 2007; Simonić et al. 2010).
The effect of plant residue chemical composition on laccase production and activity has been demonstrated by numerous previous studies. Thus, Arora and Gill (2000) showed that the enzyme level was higher during sugar cane fermentation than during wheat and rice straw fermentation by Phlebia floridensis. Olive mill wastewater stimulated enzyme production in Panus tigrinus (Fenice et al. 2003), while mandarin peels increased laccase activity in G. adspersum and T. hirsuta (Songulashvili et al. 2006; Ćilerdžić et al. 2011; Songulashvili et al. 2006).
The production and activity of ligninolytic enzymes and the level of lignin degradation also depend on cultivation type. Generally, submerged cultivation is preferred for the synthesis of hydrolases and laccase, while solid-state cultivation is the optimum for Mn-oxidizing peroxidase production (Elisashvili et al. 2008). The same authors demonstrated that laccase activity in Coriolopsis polyzona was 15-fold higher after beech leaves submerged fermentation than after solid-state fermentation. In G. applanatum, the obtained value was about 4-fold higher after submerged cultivation in a mandarine peels-enriched medium than after the solid-state fermentation of wheat bran (Elisashvili et al. 2009). In further studies, the same authors reported significant laccase production by G. lucidum IBB 447 submerged cultivation in wheat bran-enriched medium, which was explained by the fact that soluble hydrocarbons, aromatic compounds, and trace elements of the residues release into the medium and stimulate synthesis of the enzyme (Elisashvili et al. 2010).
The number of laccase isoforms visible in this study was the same or higher than those previously obtained, and depends on strain and cultivation conditions. Thus, D`Souza et al. (1996) separated two isoenzymes (Gl1 and Gl2) in G. lucidum and characterized their genes during cultivation in malt medium. Three isoforms (GaLc1, 2, and 3) were purified and characterized after submerged cultivation of the Korean strain G. lucidum in glucose/peptone/yeast extract medium (Ko et al. 2001). Certain of the components of a cultivation medium can selectively stimulate some isoforms in G. lucidum. Thus, Coelho et al. (2010) showed that the herbicides bentazone and diuron acted as inducers of lac2 and repressors of lac1 in G. lucidumcompared with control glucose liquid media.
Noted differences in the laccase activity and isoenzyme profile could be explained by the fact that G. lucidum presents a worldwide distributed species-complex in which each strain is characterized by different physiological state and anabolic demands caused possibly by geographical origin. Based on the data it can be concluded that the strains have different capacity to degrade various plant raw material, which is a basis for their potential application in preprocessing of abundant agricultural and forest residues that could be good resources for production of fruiting body of medicinal important species, as well as fiber and energy.
A further contribution of the study is the demontration that submerged cultivation is more suitable cultivation type because it is a less time-consumable and more controllable way for obtaining a large amounts of low-cost laccases required for various biotechnological processes.
1. Intraspecific diversity in laccase properties within Ganoderma lucidum was noted.
2. Oak sawdust was a better substrate for laccase production than wheat straw.
3. Submerged cultivation was preferable for laccase production compared with solid-state fermentation.
4. The highest laccase activity was noted on day 14 of sawdust submerged fermentation.
5. Four acidic laccase isoforms were observed after oak sawdust submerged fermentation.
This study was carried out with the financial support of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Project No. 173032.
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Article submitted: April 3, 2014; Peer review completed: July 7, 2014; Revised version received and accepted: July 21, 2014; Published: July 25, 2014.
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Compliance with laws issues have always been an important part of the commercial lease negotiation process. In particular, negotiation focused on the division of responsibility for laws of general applicability as distinguished from laws specifically applicable to the particular tenant or its particular use, and compliance requiring capital expenses. The enactment of environmental laws and the resulting liabilities, however, have significantly impacted the practice of commercial real estate law generally and lease transactions in particular. For almost 100 years the industrial revolution spurred fantastic economic growth in New Jersey, producing what seemed to be a never-ending development of industrial sites that took advantage of New Jersey’s proximity to New York and Philadelphia, the availability of coastal resources, railroads, and an ever-advancing transportation system. As industry grew, so too did the problems associated with pollution. Waste resulting from production processes was discarded with little thought for the impact it might have on human health and the environment. As a result, contaminated land, water, and air became the legacy to the industrial revolution in New Jersey, as it did throughout the United States. An awareness of these problems lead to the enactment of environmental laws imposing liability on both property owners and operators. Thus, very few, if any, commercial real estate lease transactions can be completed without a careful examination of the impact of environmental issues.
Although leasing practitioners have experienced working with federal and state environmental laws and regulations for over thirty years now, environmental issues continue to present an array of road blocks to the successful completion of commercial lease transactions, particularly in the arena of urban areas. And new laws and regulations continue to be enacted and promulgated requiring a constant due diligence by real estate practitioners to remain abreast of the constantly changing environmental landscape. On May 7, 2009, Governor Corzine signed into law the Site Remediation Reform Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10C-1 et seq. (“SRRA”), which is having a wide ranging impact on the way contaminated sites are addressed in New Jersey. SRRA was part of a package of environmental legislation that also included amendments to the Industrial Site Recovery Act (“ISRA”), the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act (the “Spill Act”), and the Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act (“BACSRA”), in order to conform these statutes to SRRA and accomplish related goals.
The following is a very general overview of the law imposing joint and several liability on owners and operators of real estate. It is intended to provide the leasing practitioner with a basic foundation of the law in order to evaluate the potential risks of a transaction.
Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, as amended, (“CERCLA”), the federal superfund law, the defenses to the strict, joint and several liability imposed upon the owner of a contaminated site are extremely limited. In its 1986 revisions to CERCLA, Congress created an innocent purchaser defense which is available to an owner who undertook all "appropriate inquiry" prior to acquiring property and did not know and had no reason to know of any discharges of hazardous substances at a contaminated site. Congress did not elaborate on what constituted all appropriate inquiry, resulting in a protracted rulemaking process which culminated with the issuance of a final rule on November 1, 2005 (the “Rule”). The Rule took effect on November 1, 2006. The text of the Rule is located at 40 CFR § 312. In sum, the Rule requires that an inquiry be conducted by a qualified environmental professional (as defined by the Rule) and include, among other elements, (1) interviews with past and present owners, operators, and occupants; (2) evaluations of historical sources of information; (3) searches for recorded environmental cleanup liens; (4) reviews of federal, tribal, state, and local government records; (5) visual inspections of the facility and of adjoining properties; (6) the degree of the obviousness of the contamination and the ability to detect the contamination by appropriate investigation; and (7) commonly known or reasonably ascertainable information about the property. In response to the issuance of the proposed Rule, in November 2005 ASTM International promulgated a new industry standard for the conduct of all appropriate inquiry investigations. The standard, codified ASTM E 1527-05, has been approved by the EPA as being in conformance with the Rule. For the first time in eight years ASTM is examining changes to E 1527-05.
A similar analysis must be followed in order to meet the New Jersey Spill Act innocent purchaser protection established in 1993, which was modified on January 6, 1998 with the enactment of BACSRA.
While the federal and state innocent purchaser defenses protect those landowners who did not know and had no reason to know of the presence of hazardous substances at the time of purchase, as originally crafted they did not afford any protection to the landowner who is aware of such contamination prior to acquisition.
The buyer does not impede the effectiveness of any institutional controls established at the site.
There is a split in the courts over the definition of “disposal” for the purposes of determining when contamination results. The Ninth Circuit ruled that passive migration of contamination on property does not constitute “disposal” for purposes of CERCLA. Conversely, the Fourth Circuit has held that in the case of underground storage tanks, “active human conduct” was not required for there to be a disposal. Under this view, contamination could result after acquisition through no act of the purchaser, rendering the BFP defense unavailable to the purchaser.
The Brownfields Act also protects contiguous property owners or those who own property that is “similarly situated with respect to” contaminated property, as long as the parcels are owned by separate parties. The contiguous property owner is shielded from CERCLA liability for the presence of hazardous substances which migrate from that off-site source.
CERCLA does not define “similarly situated with respect to”. The EPA has taken the position that the property need not be located immediately adjacent to the contaminated property in order to receive this protection.
In order to qualify for the contiguous property owner defense many of the same conditions that apply to innocent purchasers must be satisfied. In addition, the owner must not have caused, contributed to or consented to the release. The property owner must also take reasonable steps to prevent and stop any release and prevent or limit human, environmental or natural resource exposure to any hazardous substance that migrated onto the property. If one fails to meet the conditions of a contiguous property owner defense, BFP protection may be available.
The party (a) conducted appropriate pre-acquisition inquiry by completing a preliminary assessment and site investigation, (b) performed a cleanup prior to property acquisition, relied on a previously issued final remediation document, or, prior to the property acquisition, obtained the NJDEP approval of a Remedial Action Workplan and thereafter complied with the conditions of the Remedial Action Workplan and (c) established and maintained all engineering and institutional controls.
In the event that the property owner obtains knowledge of a discharge of a hazardous substance at the property during its period of ownership, and subsequently transfers ownership of the property without disclosing this information, the transferor is strictly liable for the cleanup and removal costs, and loses any liability defense.
In contrast to the federal BFP protection, the Spill Act requires that the new property owner undertake remediation of the discharge. However, if the new owner has complied with the requirements set forth above, then the Spill Act provides the new owner with protection against liability for cleanup and removal costs or damages under state law to any person harmed by any hazardous substance discharged on the property prior to the acquisition and any migration off the property.
Within ten (10) days of acquisition the new owner agrees in writing to provide the state with access for remediation and any related activities.
This provision does not relieve the new owner of liability for: (1) a discharge that occurs after acquisition; (2) any negligent actions that aggravate or contribute to the harm; (3) failure to maintain the institutional or engineering controls or otherwise comply with the provisions of a final remediation document or Remedial Action Workplan; (4) cleanup and removal of hazardous substances that may have been discharged on the property or migrated from the property; and (5) failure to comply in the future with any laws or regulations.
Similar to the federal Brownfields Act’s protection with respect to contiguous property owners, BACSRA provides that a property owner will not be required to investigate or remediate contamination coming onto the site from a property that is owned and operated by another party, unless the property owner is in any way responsible for the off-site discharge. BACSRA also provides that a property owner is not responsible to remediate groundwater contamination to a concentration lower than the level migrating onto the property from off-site.
Until now, except for discharges from regulated underground storage tanks, the obligation to report a discharge of contamination to NJDEP has generally been limited to the property owner and operator, and the party responsible for the discharged hazardous substance. Consultants and other third parties generally were not obligated to report. SRRA creates independent reporting obligations for the LSRP.
If the LSRP obtains specific knowledge of a discharge on a contaminated site for which he or she is responsible, then the LSRP must notify the person responsible for conducting the remediation and notify NJDEP. If the LSRP identifies a condition that in his or her professional judgment is an immediate environmental concern (“IEC”), then the LSRP must immediately advise the person responsible for conducting the remediation (e.g. a seller) and immediately notify NJDEP even if it pertains to a site for which the LSRP is not responsible. An IEC is defined as a condition at a contaminated site where there is contamination to a potable well at or above the groundwater remediation standards, contamination of an occupied or confined space that produces a toxic or harmful atmosphere to humans or physical damage to essential underground services, contamination that could result in acute human health exposure, or any other immediate threat to the environment or to public health and safety.
As a result of this new reporting obligation, a landlord that plans to permit a prospective tenant to undertake an on-site investigation, must determine if it will permit the prospective tenant to use an LSRP in connection with that investigation – particularly where a landlord is intending to impose a confidentiality requirement in connection with that investigation.
Traditionally, real estate transactions were consummated on an “As-Is” basis. As such, upon a closing of title for example, responsibility for the real property transferred to the buyer. In the early stages of the development of environmental law, sellers and landlords took refuge in the “As-Is” provision of the agreement, arguing that the doctrine of caveat emptor protected such party from claims involving environmental contamination. In the environmental arena, however, real property sold or leased on an “As Is” basis will not preclude a claim brought under CERCLA, state statutes such as the Spill Act, or traditional common law doctrines such as fraud, misrepresentation, negligence, nuisance, strict liability, and trespass. The courts early on held that an “As Is” clause will not enable a party to shift liability by claiming caveat emptor. An “As Is” clause will merely protect a party from a claim of breach of warranty, but will not bar relief in a Spill Act or CERCLA action. Further, the sophistication of the parties cannot be used to convert an “As-Is” clause into a contractual reallocation of CERCLA or Spill Act liability.
Although the courts have generally been reluctant to impose liability upon a buyer or a tenant for pre-existing environmental contamination based exclusively upon an “As Is” clause, the courts will enforce a contract as written. Consequently, while neither the Spill Act nor CERCLA permit private parties to shift Spill Act and CERCLA liability from one private party to another vis-à-vis the government, as between themselves, they may contractually reallocate Spill Act and CERCLA liability. In order to preclude recovery against a seller or a landlord under CERCLA or the Spill Act, there must be an express provision allocating the risk between the parties, and a clear and intended waiver or release of the right to bring the particular claim in the future.
Upon completion of a remediation, NJDEP will no longer issue a No Further Action Letter and Covenant Not to Sue. Instead, the LSRP will issue a Response Action Outcome (“RAO”) to the person responsible for conducting the remediation.
Upon issuance of the RAO, the person responsible for conducting the remediation shall be deemed, by operation of law, to have received a covenant not to sue for the area of concern that was remediated (or for the entire real property, if the appropriate investigation was performed). The covenant not to sue releases the following parties from all civil liability to the State to perform any additional remediation, or to pay compensation for natural resource damages: (1) the person who undertook the remediation (unless the person is liable for cleanup and removal costs under the Spill Act, and has no defense to liability); (2) all successors in property ownership; and (3) all lessees who operate at the property. The covenant not to sue does not apply to discharges that occur after the issuance of the RAO, nor does it relieve any person from the obligation to comply with future laws. Unless new information comes to light or the credibility of the LSRP has come under scrutiny, NJDEP only has 3 years in which to audit an RAO.
The clauses set forth below, and the comments to them, are intended to focus the attention of the leasing practitioner on the respective interests of landlords and tenants, and the dilemmas faced by each in commercial leasing transactions.
A. Contaminants. "Contaminants" means any regulated substance, toxic substance, hazardous substance, hazardous waste, pollution, pollutant or contaminant, as defined or referred to in the Site Remediation Reform Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10C-1 et seq.; the Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10B-1 et seq.; the New Jersey Environmental Rights Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:35A-1 et seq.; the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.11 et seq. (the "Spill Act"); the New Jersey Air Pollution Control Act, N.J.S.A. 26:2C-1 et seq.; the Hazardous Substances Discharge: Reports and Notices Act, N.J.S.A. 13:1K-15 et seq.; the Industrial Site Recovery Act, N.J.S.A. 13:1K-6 et seq.; the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §6901 et seq.; the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §9601 et seq. ("CERCLA"); the Water Pollution and Control Act, 33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq.; the "Tank Laws" as defined below; together with any amendments thereto, regulations promulgated thereunder and all substitutions thereof, as well as words of similar purport or meaning referred to in any other federal, state, county or municipal environmental statute, ordinance, code, rule or regulation, including, without limitation, radon, asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, urea formaldehyde and petroleum products and petroleum based derivatives. Where a statute, ordinance, code, rule or regulation defines any of these terms more broadly than another, the broader definition shall apply.
B. Discharge. "Discharge" shall mean the releasing, spilling, leaking, leaching, disposing, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, treating or dumping of Contaminants at, into, onto or migrating from or onto the Premises or the Property, of which the Premises is a part, (including, without limitation, the soil, surface water, subsurface water or groundwater) or the threat thereof, regardless of whether the result of an intentional or unintentional action or omission.
C. Engineering Control. “Engineering Control” shall have the meaning ascribed to such term under N.J.S.A. 58:10B-1 and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
D. Environmental Documents. "Environmental Documents" shall mean all environmental documentation in the possession or under the control of [identify the party] or their representatives (including, without limitation, any LSRP retained by [identify the party]) concerning the Property or its environs, including, without limitation, all sampling plans, cleanup plans, preliminary assessment plans and reports, site investigation plans and reports, remedial investigation plans and reports, remedial action plans and reports, or the equivalent, sampling results, sampling result reports, data, diagrams, charts, maps, analyses, conclusions, quality assurance/quality control documentation, correspondence to or from the NJDEP or any other Governmental Authority, submissions to the NJDEP or any other Governmental Authority and directives, orders, notices of deficiency, approvals and disapprovals issued by the NJDEP or any other Governmental Authority.
E. Governmental Authority. "Governmental Authority" shall mean the federal, state, county or municipal government, or any department, agency, bureau or other similar type body obtaining authority therefrom, or created pursuant to any Laws, and shall also include an LSRP.
F. Institutional Control. “Institutional Control” shall have the meaning ascribed to such term under N.J.S.A. N.J.S.A. 58:10B-1 and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
G. ISRA. "ISRA" shall mean the Industrial Site Recovery Act, N.J.S.A. 13:1K-6 et seq., the regulations promulgated thereunder and any amending and successor legislation and regulations.
H. LSRP. “LSRP” means a licensed site remediation professional as defined in the Site Remediation Reform Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10C-2, and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
I. Law or Laws. "Law" or "Laws" shall mean each and every applicable federal, state, county or municipal statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, order, code, directive or requirement, currently or hereafter existing, together with all successor statutes, ordinances, rules, regulations, orders, codes, directives or requirements, of any Governmental Authority, including, without limitation, Laws in any way related to Contaminants, and the common law.
J. NJDEP. "NJDEP" shall mean the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection or its successor.
K. Notices. "Notice" or "Notices" shall mean, in addition to its ordinary meaning, any communication of any nature, whether in the form of correspondence, memoranda, orders, notices of deficiency, directives or otherwise.
L. Premises. “Premises” shall mean ________________.
M. Property. “Property” shall mean the real property commonly known and designated as ___________________________, together with all improvements thereon.
N. RAO. “RAO” shall mean a response action outcome as defined under N.J.S.A. N.J.S.A. 58:10B-1 and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
O. Remediation. “Remediation” shall have the meaning ascribed to such term under N.J.S.A. 13:1K-8 and N.J.S.A. 58:10B-1 and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
P. Tank Laws. "Tank Laws" shall mean the New Jersey Underground Storage of Hazardous Substances Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10A-21 et seq., and the federal underground storage tank law, (Subtitle I of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended), 42 U.S.C. §6901 et seq., together with any amendments thereto, regulations promulgated thereunder and all substitutions thereof, and any successor legislation and regulations.
Q. Tenant's Representatives. "Tenant's Representatives" shall mean any shareholder, officer, director, member, partner, employee, agent, licensee, invitee, guest, assignee or sublessee of Tenant, or any other third party other than Landlord.
R. Underground Storage Tanks. "Underground Storage Tanks" shall have the meaning ascribed to such term under the Tank Laws, as well as unregulated underground storage tanks used to store Contaminants, and shall include, without limitation, the "monitoring system", the "leak detection system", the "discharge detection system" and the "tank system" associated with the Underground Storage Tanks, as those terms are defined by the Tank Laws.
The definition section set forth above is intended to ensure against possible ambiguities by applying very broad, all-inclusive definitions to the defined terms. When applied to the clauses that follow the definition section, the broadly defined terms will better enable a landlord or tenant to assign liability. The definitions may require modification in the event the property is a multi-tenant facility.
It is important to note that the definition of "Laws" includes future laws, as well as common law. The inclusion of a reference to future laws will preclude an argument that newly enacted laws, such as ISRA, were never within the contemplation of the parties, and therefore are, or are not a particular party's responsibility.
The definitions also address the SRRA, and its establishment of a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (“LSRP”) program, in which the LSRPs conduct the cleanup, determine whether such cleanups have been effective, and issue the final sign-off document, an RAO. In some important respects the LSRP performs functions that were formerly within the exclusive purview of NJDEP, although NJDEP may inspect and, under certain circumstances, review documents submitted by the LSRP.
SRRA creates a licensing board to establish LSRP standards. The LSRP must comply with the requirements of SRRA, and the board has the power to suspend or revoke an LSRP’s license, or impose other penalties.
Pursuant to SRRA, as of November 3, 2009 any person who began the remediation of a contaminated site had to hire an LSRP. Additionally, by May 7, 2012, all pre-existing remediation cases that were being overseen by NJDEP had to be transferred to an LSRP. Also, SRRA provides that, under most circumstances, an LSRP is not required for the performance of pre-acquisition environmental due diligence.
Tenant shall, at Tenant’s own expense, promptly comply with: (a) all Laws, foreseen or unforeseen, ordinary as well as extraordinary, applicable to the Premises, Tenant, Tenant’s use of or operations at the Premises, or all of the them; (b) the requirements of any regulatory insurance body; and (c) the requirements of any insurance carrier insuring the Premises; regardless of whether compliance (x) necessitates structural changes or improvements; (y) interference with Tenant’s use and enjoyment of the Premises; or (z) results from any condition, event or circumstance existing prior to or after the commencement of the lease. Tenant acknowledges examining the Premises, and the Property, of which the Premises is a part, prior to the Commencement Date and accepts the Premises, and the Property, of which the Premises is a part, “as is”, and enters into this lease without any representations or warranties on the part of the Landlord as to the condition of the Premises, the Building or the Property. The Tenant release the Landlord, its shareholders, officers, directors, partners, members, employees and agents from all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and costs, and covenants not to sue the Landlord with respect to the environmental condition of the Premises, the Building and/or the Property regardless of whether the claim now exists or is hereafter enacted or promulgated.
This clause is best suited for a single-tenant industrial facility since it imposes broad responsibility upon a tenant to comply with all laws, requirements of regulatory insurance bodies and requirements of insurance carriers, which are applicable not only to the tenant and the tenant’s use of the property, but to the property in general. Employing an “as is” concept with respect to the lease transaction, the tenant’s compliance obligation attaches even if the condition requiring compliance pre-existed the lease commencement date and even if compliance requires structural changes or improvements. Depending upon the length of the lease, a tenant may legitimately argue that structural improvements should be amortized over the length of the lease, so that the tenant’s percentage of responsibility decreases as the lease approaches its end.
If a tenant is going to be held responsible for structural changes and improvements, it is imperative that there is consistency between the maintenance and repair clause and the compliance with laws clause.
(a) Tenant shall, at Tenant’s own expense, comply with all Laws now existing, so long as such laws are applicable by reason of Tenant’s use of and operations at the Premises and are not Laws of general applicability, and provided that compliance with such Laws shall not obligate Tenant to undertake any structural changes or improvements to the Premises. In all other respects, Landlord shall, at Landlord’s own expense, promptly comply with all Laws applicable to the Premises and the Property, regardless of whether compliance necessitates structural changes or improvements.
(b) Tenant shall have the right to contest, by appropriate legal proceedings, in the name of Tenant or Landlord, the validity or applicability of any Law with which Tenant is obligated hereunder to comply, and Landlord shall, at no cost to Tenant, cooperate with Tenant in connection with such contest, including, without limitation, signing such affidavits and certifications as may be requested by Tenant and giving testimony at depositions, hearings or trials with respect to such contest.
(c ) Prior to the commencement of this lease, Landlord shall, at Landlord’s expense, obtain and deliver to Tenant a certificate of occupancy for the Premises, or any other certificate as required by Law.
This clause limits the tenant’s compliance obligation to those laws that are applicable by reason of the tenant’s particular use of and operations at the property. The Landlord is assigned liability for compliance with all other laws.
In addition, the landlord has the responsibility of delivering to the tenant a certificate of occupancy or other such certificate as may be required by law, prior to commencement of the lease. In this manner, the tenant has a certain comfort level that the property complies with local ordinances and that the tenant’s use of the property is a permitted use.
This clause also provides the tenant with the opportunity to contest the validity or applicability of a law. When providing such a right, the landlord should impose upon the tenant certain requirements: namely, that the contest will not result in a lien against the property, will not result in civil or criminal liability on the landlord’s part, and will not cause landlord to be in violation of its mortgage. In addition, the tenant must be obligated to prosecute the contest diligently and keep the landlord apprised of the status of the contest. The landlord should have the right to preclude a contest if the tenant is in default under the lease or the property will suffer injury or other waste if the compliance activities are postponed.
If the property is a multi-tenant facility, then the tenant should also consider modifying the clause to impose upon landlord responsibility for other tenants’ non-compliance with laws.
A. ISRA Compliance. Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, comply with ISRA. Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, make all submissions to, provide all information to, and comply with all requirements of the NJDEP. Tenant's obligations under this subparagraph A shall arise if there is a closing of operations, a transfer of ownership or operations, or a change in ownership at or affecting the Premises or the Property, of which the Premises is a part, pursuant to ISRA, whether triggered by Landlord or Tenant. Provided this lease is not previously cancelled or terminated by either party or by operation of law, Tenant shall commence its submission to the NJDEP in anticipation of the end of the lease term, no later than six (6) months prior to the expiration of the lease term. Should Tenant’s operations at the Premises be outside of those industrial operations covered by ISRA, Tenant shall, at Tenant’s own expense, provide to Landlord an affidavit (the “ISRA Affidavit”) from Tenant’s members, partners, or officers, as the case may be, upon which Landlord may rely, that shall be in form and substance satisfactory to Landlord, which shall establish that ISRA does not apply to Tenant’s operations.
B. Information to Landlord. At no expense to Landlord, Tenant shall promptly provide all information requested by Landlord, an LSRP or NJDEP for preparation of an ISRA Affidavit, de minimis quantity exemption, limited conveyance application or other submission made, if any, by Landlord, and shall promptly sign such affidavits and submissions when requested by Landlord, an LSRP or NJDEP. The foregoing shall not impose on Landlord any obligation to make any submission not otherwise expressly required pursuant to this lease.
E. Landlord Audit. Tenant shall permit Landlord and Landlord's agents, representatives and employees, including, without limitation, legal counsel and environmental consultants and engineers (including without limitation, an LSRP), access to the Premises, from time to time, during the lease term, for purposes of conducting an environmental assessment, inspection and sampling, during regular business hours, or during other hours either by agreement of the parties or in the event of an emergency. Tenant shall not restrict access to any part of the Premises, and shall not impose any conditions to access. Landlord shall use reasonable efforts to avoid unreasonably interfering with Tenant's use of the Premises, and upon completion of Landlord's assessment, investigation and sampling, shall, to the extent reasonably practicable, repair and restore the affected areas of the Premises from any material damage caused by the assessment, investigation and sampling.
F. Tenant Remediation. Should the assessment, investigation or sampling performed pursuant to subparagraphs (D) or (E) above, or any other assessment, investigation or sampling, reveal the existence of: (x) a Discharge of Contaminants; [or (y) a Discharge of other than sanitary waste to the Septic System]; then, in addition to being in default under this lease and Landlord having all rights available to Landlord under this lease and by Law by reason of such default, Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, promptly, diligently and in a continuous manner, undertake all action required by Landlord and any Governmental Authority, including, without limitation, promptly: (1) retaining an LSRP reasonably satisfactory to Landlord, (2) preparing and submitting to the appropriate Governmental Authority, all required assessment, investigation, sampling and remedial action plans and reports, and other documents; (3) implementing, to the satisfaction of Landlord and the appropriate Governmental Authority, including, without limitation, the LSRP, the approved assessment, investigation, sampling and remedial action plans and reports in accordance with all Laws; (4) removing from the Premises all such Contaminants to the satisfaction of Landlord and the appropriate Governmental Authority, including, without limitation, the LSRP; (5) establishing a remediation funding source, which funding source shall be satisfactory to Landlord and the appropriate Governmental Authority, including, without limitation, the LSRP; (6) paying all filing and oversight fees of the NJDEP; (7) addressing all required natural resource restoration and satisfying all natural resource damage claims; and (8) obtaining and delivering to Landlord an RAO.
G. Nature of Tenant's Remediation. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in this paragraph, in no event shall Tenant's remedial action involve Engineering Controls or Institutional Controls, including, without limitation, capping, fencing or other physical barrier or a deed notice, or institutional control notice pursuant to N.J.S.A. 58:10B-13, and notwithstanding the requirements or approvals of the NJDEP or any other Governmental Authority’s requirements or approval, Tenant's remedial action shall meet the most stringent published remediation standards for soil, surface water, groundwater, drinking water and indoor air.
H. Tenant's Restoration. Promptly upon completion of all required investigatory and remedial activities, Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, restore the affected areas of the Premises from any damage or condition caused by the remedial work, including, without limitation, closing, pursuant to Law, any wells or piezometers installed by or on behalf of Tenant at the Premises.
I. Hold-over Tenancy. If prior to the expiration or earlier termination of the lease term, Tenant: (1) fails to obtain from the NJDEP or an LSRP, as the case may be, and deliver to Landlord, either (a) the ISRA Affidavit, (b) a de minimis quantity exemption, (c) an RAO, pursuant to ISRA (the "ISRA Clearance"); or (2) fails to remediate all Contaminants pursuant to subparagraph (F) above, and deliver to Landlord an RAO, (the "Environmental Clearance"); then upon the expiration or earlier termination of the lease term, Landlord shall have the option either to consider the lease as having ended or to treat Tenant as a hold-over tenant in possession of the Premises. If Landlord considers the lease as having ended, then Tenant shall nevertheless be obligated to promptly obtain and deliver to Landlord the ISRA Clearance or the Environmental Clearance, as the case may be, and otherwise fulfill all of the obligations of Tenant set forth in this paragraph. If Landlord treats Tenant as a hold-over tenant in possession of the Premises, then Tenant shall pay, monthly to Landlord, double the regular and additional monthly rent which Tenant would otherwise have paid under the lease, until such time as Tenant delivers to Landlord the ISRA Clearance or the Environmental Clearance, as the case may be, and otherwise fulfills its obligations to Landlord under this paragraph, and during the holdover period, all of the terms of this lease shall remain in full force and effect.
K. Permits. Tenant shall not commence or alter any operations at the Premises prior to: (1) obtaining all operating and discharge permits, registrations, licenses, certificates and approvals from all Governmental Authorities required pursuant to Laws, including, without limitation, air pollution control permits and water pollution discharge elimination system permits from the NJDEP; and (2) delivering a copy of each permit, registration, license, certificate and approval to Landlord, together with a copy of the application upon which such permit, registration, license, certificate and approval was based.
L. Environmental Questionnaire. Contemporaneously with the signing and delivery of this lease, and thereafter, annually on the anniversary date of the commencement of the lease term, Tenant shall complete, execute and deliver to Landlord an environmental questionnaire which shall be in the form and shall contain such terms and provisions, as Landlord may, from time to time, submit to Tenant. In the event Tenant's response to the environmental questionnaire indicates, in Landlord's determination, a potential environmental issue, then Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, undertake in accordance with Law, all environmental assessment, investigation, sampling and remediation as Landlord deems appropriate.
M. Environmental Documents. During the term of this lease and subsequently, promptly upon receipt by Tenant or Tenant's consultants, LSRP or counsel, Tenant shall deliver to Landlord all Environmental Documents concerning or generated by or on behalf of Tenant, whether currently or hereafter existing.Tenant shall make its LSRP and consultants reasonably available to Landlord, at no cost to Landlord, to discuss any or all Environmental Documents. Landlord shall have the right to review in draft any and all Environmental Documents prepared by or on behalf of Tenant.
N. Attendance at Meetings. Tenant shall notify Landlord in advance of all meetings scheduled between Tenant or Tenant's representatives and NJDEP or any other Governmental Authority pertaining to the Premises, and Landlord and Landlord's agents, representatives and employees, including, without limitation, legal counsel and environmental consultants and engineers, shall have the right, without the obligation, to attend and participate in all such meetings.
O. Liens. Tenant shall promptly notify Landlord of any liens threatened or attached against the Premises pursuant to the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.11 et seq., the regulations promulgated thereunder, and any amending or successor legislation or regulations, or any other Laws. In the event that such a lien is filed against the Premises as a result of the actions or omissions of Tenant or a Tenant's Representative, then Tenant shall be deemed in default under this lease and, in addition to Landlord having all rights available to Landlord under this lease and by Law by reason of such default, Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, within thirty (30) days from the date that the lien is filed against the Premises, and in any event prior to the date any Governmental Authority commences proceedings to execute on the lien, either: (1) pay the claim and remove the lien from the Premises; or (2) deliver to Landlord either (a) a bond in an amount and with a surety satisfactory to Landlord in Landlord's sole and absolute discretion, or (b) a cash deposit in the amount of the lien, plus any interest that may accrue thereon. The foregoing shall not constitute a consent or agreement by Landlord to permit such a lien to attach to the Premises, nor shall the foregoing be deemed a waiver by Landlord of a default by Tenant under this lease.
P. Landlord's Consent for Tenant's Investigation. In no event shall Tenant, nor anyone on Tenant's behalf, undertake any environmental assessment, investigation, sampling or remediation of the Premises without prior written notice to, and the prior written consent of, Landlord. In the event Landlord consents to an environmental assessment, investigation, sampling or remediation, then prior to undertaking any assessment, investigation, sampling or remediation, Tenant shall, or shall cause Tenant's engineers and consultants, as the case may be, to provide Landlord with a protocol outlining in detail the nature, scope and location of all assessment, investigation, sampling or remediation to be undertaken, and shall receive Landlord's written consent to such assessment, investigation, sampling and remediation. Landlord and Landlord's consultants, engineers and representatives shall have the right, without the obligation, to be present during such assessment, investigation, sampling or remediation, and shall have the right, at no expense to Landlord, to split all samples taken by Tenant or Tenant's consultants or engineers and Tenant shall provide Landlord with sufficient advance notice in order to ensure Landlord shall be able to exercise its right to be present and split samples. Tenant shall promptly provide to Landlord, at Tenant’s cost and expense, the results of all samples collected at or about the Premises and/or the Property.
Q. Landlord's Right to Perform Tenant's Obligations. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in this lease, in the event, pursuant to this lease, Tenant is required to undertake any assessment, investigation, sampling or remediation with respect to the Premises, then, at Landlord's discretion, Landlord shall have the right, without the obligation, from time to time, during such sampling, assessment, investigation or remediation activities, to perform such sampling, assessment, investigation or remediation activities at Tenant's expense, and all sums incurred by Landlord shall be paid by Tenant, as additional rent, upon demand.
R. Indemnity. Tenant shall indemnify, defend with counsel satisfactory to Landlord and hold harmless Landlord, and Landlord's [officers, directors, shareholders, members, partners,] employees, agents and personal or legal representatives from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, penalties and costs, foreseen or unforeseen, including, without limitation, counsel, engineering and other professional and expert fees, which an indemnified party may incur, resulting directly or indirectly, wholly or partly as a consequence of Tenant's actions or omissions with regard to Tenant's obligations under this paragraph.
S. Survival. This paragraph shall survive the expiration or earlier termination of this lease. Tenant's failure to abide by the terms of this paragraph shall be restrainable, or enforceable, as the case may be, by injunction.
U. Interpretation. The obligations imposed upon Tenant under subparagraphs (A) through (T) above are in addition to and are not intended to limit, but to expand upon, the obligations imposed upon Tenant under paragraph [insert number of the general compliance with laws paragraph] .
The Industrial Site Recovery Act focused New Jersey’s lawyers' attention on the need to protect their landlord and tenant clients from potential environmental liability.
ISRA utilizes the North American Industry Classification System (“NAICS”) to group industries and determine which are subject to ISRA. The NAICS classification numbers are published by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”). OMB first published NAICS numbers in 1997. Prior to that year, OMB published the Standard Industrial Classification system (“SIC”). With the introduction of NAICS, OMB sought to create a classification system that better reflected the structure of the modern economy. Consequently, New Jersey had to restructure ISRA to utilize NAICS codes rather than those of the SIC. The subject NAICS codes are now codified at N.J.A.C. 7:26B.
ISRA entitles a landlord and a tenant to petition the NJDEP to first compel the party responsible pursuant to the provisions of the lease to comply with ISRA. If the lease provisions are clear, the NJDEP will first turn to the party responsible under the lease for compliance. Consequently, a clearly drafted lease provision is essential.
This broad landlord clause places responsibility upon a tenant to comply with all ISRA as well as other environmental requirements pertaining to the property, and in the case of ISRA, the tenant is obligated to comply regardless of whether the landlord's or the tenant's actions trigger ISRA.
The clause requires that the tenant commence compliance with ISRA at least six (6) months prior to the expiration of the lease term. If the tenant's operation is outside of those operations covered by ISRA, the clause requires that the tenant deliver an affidavit to confirm that its operations are not covered by ISRA. It is recommended that the landlord require that the tenant deliver an affidavit similar to the affidavit previously submitted in order to obtain a Letter of Non-Applicability from the NJDEP when the NJDEP was still issuing Letters of Non-Applicability.
This clause obligates the tenant, during the lease term, and upon expiration of the lease term, to perform an audit of the property to determine whether there has been a discharge of a hazardous substance or hazardous waste and to establish the integrity of any underground storage tanks on the property. The clause also provides the landlord with a right to undertake an audit of the property. If the landlord's or the tenant's audit reveals that a discharge occurred, or if any other environmental evaluation of the property reveals that a discharge occurred, during the lease term, then the clause obligates the tenant to undertake all remediation. In this respect, the clause prohibits the tenant from undertaking any remediation by way of engineering or institutional controls, regardless of whether such controls are approved by the NJDEP or an LSRP, and obligates the tenant to remediate to the most stringent standards applicable.
First, it is important to definitively remove any notion that the tenant will have a right to impose any engineering or institutional controls in order to avoid court-imposed engineering or institutional controls. See E.I. du Pont de Nemours v. State, 283 N.J. Super 331 (App. Div. 1995); compare with Dean Witter Services Company, Inc. v. Colpro, Inc., Docket No. HUD-L-5317-94 (unpublished opinion, decided December 27, 1994 by Judge Maurice J. Gallipoli).
Second, BACSRA permits concentrations of contaminants to remain in soil and groundwater above the applicable cleanup standards under certain circumstances. The contaminants that remain at the real property above the cleanup standards are subject to engineering and institutional controls in order to prevent exposure. The institutional control used to address soil contamination is known as a Deed Notice. The Deed Notice requires that a certification be submitted to NJDEP every two years confirming that the engineering control continues to be properly maintained and continues to be protective of public health, safety, and the environment. The institutional control used to address groundwater contamination is known as a Classification Exception Area. As with the Deed Notice, a certification must be submitted to NJDEP every two years. Additionally, within 120 days after the projected expiration of the CEA, at least two rounds of groundwater samples must be collected to confirm that the contaminants have dissipated as predicted or to determine whether any additional actions may be required. N.J.A.C. 7:26E-8.6. Pursuant to SRRA, any parties responsible for an engineering or institutional control shall be required to obtain a remedial action permit from NJDEP and parties responsible for an engineering control will be required to post a financial assurance to guarantee that funds are available to operate, monitor and inspect the engineering control. The preparation of an Inspection and Maintenance Plan, which is to be used as a guide for properly maintaining any engineering control shall also be required. Thus a landlord has an interest in avoiding this continuing responsibility by restricting a tenant’s use of engineering and institutional controls.
In the event the property is a multi-tenant facility, then the tenant should seek to limit the tenant's liability to those actions or omissions of the tenant or the tenant's representatives.
The tenant's representatives should be broadly defined to include, as applicable, all shareholders, officers, directors, members, partners, employees, agents, licensees, assignees, sublessees, guests and invitees of the tenant.
Given the common occurrence that investigations and remediations are not concluded by the time a tenant's lease term expires, the clause also gives the landlord the option of deeming the tenant a hold-over tenant.
A commercial or industrial landlord must, at the outset, make a decision as to how closely it will monitor a tenant's on-going operations. As the liabilities of landowners expand, it becomes increasingly important for a landlord to protect the environmental integrity of its investment. In this respect, the clause obligates the tenant to deliver to the landlord all environmental documents, as well as an affidavit and an environmental questionnaire at the commencement of the lease, and annually thereafter, in order for the landlord to be kept fully apprised of the tenant's operations at the property and their potential impact on the environmental integrity of the property. In addition, this information will enable the landlord to determine early on in the lease negotiation process, whether the tenant's operations are such that the landlord would prefer not to lease the property to the tenant.
The clause also obligates the tenant to inform the landlord of any meetings to be held with the NJDEP or other governmental authorities with respect to the property, in order to permit the landlord and the landlord's representatives to attend and participate in such meetings. Furthermore, the tenant is not allowed to undertake any environmental activities with respect to the property without first obtaining the landlord's prior written consent to those activities and without first providing the landlord with a protocol for the activities to be undertaken.
A. ISRA Compliance. Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, comply with ISRA, but only in the event of a closing of Tenant's operations, a transfer of Tenant's operations, or a change in the ownership of Tenant. If ISRA compliance, or any other environmental compliance, becomes necessary at the Premises or the Property, of which the Premises is a part, due to any action or omission of Landlord, or any third party other than Tenant, including, without limitation, a trigger of ISRA compliance due to a change in ownership of the Property or a change in ownership of Landlord, then Landlord shall, at Landlord's own expense, promptly, diligently and in a continuous manner comply with ISRA. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, and regardless of whether environmental compliance is triggered by Landlord or Tenant, Tenant shall only be responsible to investigate and remediate Contaminants at the Premises to the extent that the Contaminants were Discharged by Tenant, in the most cost effective manner possible under the circumstances, including, without limitation, through the use of Engineering Controls or Institutional Controls, and to pay the related filing fees and post the related remediation funding source until the issuance of an RAO. In all other respects, Landlord shall, at Landlord's own expense, and without unreasonably interfering with the on-going business operations of Tenant, promptly, diligently and in a continuous manner, assess, investigate, sample and remediate, pay all filing and oversight fees of the NJDEP, post the remediation funding source and take all other action required with respect to any Discharge of Contaminants, including, without limitation, with respect to any post-RAO obligations. If Landlord shall recover under any insurance policy for costs that Tenant is responsible for under this Lease, then Landlord shall promptly deliver such proceeds to Tenant.
B. Information to Tenant. At no expense to Tenant, Landlord shall promptly provide all information requested by Tenant or any Governmental Authority, including, without limitation, an LSRP, with respect to Tenant fulfilling Tenant's obligations under this paragraph, and shall promptly sign such affidavits, submissions, and other documents requested by Tenant or NJDEP, including, without limitation, a declaration of environmental restrictions or other institutional control notice.
C. Burden of Proof. In the event of a dispute between Landlord and Tenant with respect to liability for a Discharge of Contaminants, Landlord shall have the burden to prove that the Contaminants were Discharged by Tenant, and, failing to carry such burden, Landlord shall be responsible, at Landlord's own expense, and without unreasonably interfering with the on-going business operations of Tenant, to assess, investigate, sample and remediate such Contaminants, pay all filing fees, post the remediation funding source and take all other action required with respect to such Contaminants and environmental compliance.
Tenant for Tenant's proportionate share of the reasonable and necessary costs actually incurred by Landlord.
E. Notice of Meetings. Tenant shall be notified of all meetings by Landlord or Landlord's representatives, with any Governmental Authority and shall have the right to attend and participate in all such meetings.
F. Environmental Documents. Landlord shall deliver to Tenant all Environmental Documents which pertain to environmental compliance or the recovery or attempted recovery from an insurance carrier, or both, and to the extent applicable, shall submit such Environmental Documents to Tenant prior to submission to any Governmental Authority, for Tenant's review and comment.
G. Indemnification by Tenant. Tenant shall indemnify, defend with counsel satisfactory to Landlord and hold Landlord harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, penalties and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable counsel, engineering and other professional and expert fees which Landlord may incur, resulting directly from: (1) a Discharge of Contaminants at the Premises by Tenant; or (2) a breach by Tenant of Tenant's obligations under this paragraph; provided, however, that Landlord is able to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the Contaminants were Discharged by Tenant.
H. Indemnification by Landlord. Landlord shall indemnify, defend with counsel satisfactory to Tenant and hold Tenant harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, penalties and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable counsel, engineering and other professional and expert fees which Tenant may incur, resulting as a consequence of: (1) a Discharge of Contaminants at the Premises or the Property, of which the Premises is a part, as a result of the actions or omissions of Landlord or any third party other than Tenant; (2) a breach by Landlord of Landlord's obligations under this paragraph; or (3) a breach by Landlord of any representation or warranty made by Landlord in this lease.
I. Survival. This paragraph shall survive the expiration or earlier termination of this lease. Landlord's failure to abide by the terms of this paragraph shall be restrainable, or enforceable, as the case may be, by injunction.
J. Interpretation. The obligations imposed upon Landlord and Tenant under subparagraphs (A) through (I) above, are in addition to, and are not intended to limit, but to expand upon, the obligations imposed upon Landlord and Tenant under paragraph [insert number of the general compliance with laws paragraph].
A tenant should be careful to avoid responsibility for ISRA compliance or any other environmental compliance arising by reason of any prior operations at the property, operations at adjoining properties, or compliance triggered by the landlord or another tenant of the property.
This clause imposes upon a landlord all obligations with respect to environmental compliance, other than those obligations arising directly out of the tenant's actions or omissions. The clause requires the landlord to establish that the tenant discharged a contaminant on the property prior to liability attaching to the tenant, and then, the tenant's liability only extends to discharges by the tenant, which the tenant has the right to remediate in the most cost effective manner possible, including the right to use engineering and institutional controls.
B. Indemnity. Tenant shall indemnify, defend with counsel satisfactory to Landlord and save Landlord, and Landlord's [officers, directors, shareholders, members, partners,] employees, agents and personal or legal representatives harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, penalties and costs, foreseen or unforeseen, including, without limitation, counsel, engineering and other professional and expert fees which an indemnified party may incur, resulting directly or indirectly, wholly or partly, as a consequence of: (1) the acts or omissions of Tenant, or Tenant's agents or consultants, occurring during or relating to any entry; or (2) any breach by Tenant, its agents or consultants, of any term, condition or covenant set forth in this paragraph. The provisions of this paragraph shall survive the expiration or earlier termination of this lease, as the case may be.
(1) Furnish to Landlord and cause all of its agents and consultants that may enter upon the Property to furnish to Landlord, at least five (5) business days prior to any entry onto the Property, at Tenant's or Tenant's agent's or consultant's own cost or expense, as the case may be, and cause to be maintained and kept in effect at all times that any entry is made upon the Property, insurance against claims for personal injury (including death) and property damage, under a policy or policies of general public liability insurance of not less than Three Million ($3,000,000) Dollars per occurrence with respect to bodily injury (including death), and Three Million ($3,000,000) per occurrence for property damage, naming Landlord as an additional insured. Each policy shall provide that it cannot be cancelled without fifteen (15) days prior written notice to Landlord, and each policy shall be issued by a recognized responsible insurance company licensed to do business in the State of New Jersey.
(2) Furnish or shall cause to be furnished to Landlord, at least five (5) business days prior to any entry onto the Property, at Tenant's or Tenant's subcontractor's own cost and expense, and cause to be maintained and kept in effect at all times that any entry is made upon the Property, contractor's pollution liability insurance of not less than One Million ($1,000,000) Dollars per occurrence, naming Landlord as an additional insured, and providing coverage to Landlord for damages relating to any pollution or contamination of the Property, or its environs, as a result of Tenant's activities or the activities of Tenant's agents and consultants. The policy shall provide that it cannot be cancelled without fifteen (15) days prior written notice to Landlord and the policy shall be issued by a recognized responsible insurance company licensed to do business in the State of New Jersey.
(3) Provide notice, at least five (5) business days in advance of entering upon the Property, which notice shall set forth the date and time of entry, the identity of all persons and entities who shall enter upon the Property, the nature, location and extent of all work to be performed upon the Premises, a protocol outlining in detail the nature, scope and location of all invasive testing to be performed (which shall be subject to Landlord's written approval prior to implementation), and the estimated duration of the entry. Landlord and Landlord's consultants and engineers shall have the right, without the obligation, to be present during the entry, and shall have the right, without the obligation, at no cost or expense to Landlord, to split all samples taken by Tenant or Tenant's agents and consultants.
D. Confidentiality. Except as otherwise set forth in subparagraph E below, all environmental testing and investigation results, including, without limitation, all drilling, boring or other invasive testing information and results, and all documents generated with respect to or otherwise relating to any environmental testing and investigation, including, without limitation, all field notes (collectively, the "Documents and Information"), shall be kept confidential. If, for any reason, Tenant or Tenant's agents or consultants believe disclosure of the Documents and Information is required pursuant to Law, or pursuant to court or other administrative process, then Tenant shall give immediate written notice of such fact to Landlord and shall provide Landlord with the citation to the authority which Tenant believes imposes the disclosure requirement. Landlord shall have the right to interpose all objections that Landlord may have to the disclosure, and Tenant shall, at no cost to Landlord, reasonably cooperate with Landlord in connection with such objections, including, without limitation, giving testimony and signing affidavits, certifications or other documentation as may be required by Landlord, provided the information contained within the affidavits, certifications or other documentation is true and accurate. In no event shall Tenant retain an LSRP to perform or provide oversight with respect to any environmental investigation or testing. Tenant shall ensure that any environmental consultant retained by Tenant shall implement such measures as are necessary to ensure that any LSRP that may be employed in the same company as the environmental consultant retained by Tenant shall not review or be privy to any investigation or test results or any related Environmental Documents. Tenant shall secure and deliver to Landlord a statement from anyone acting on behalf of Tenant, including, without limitation, Tenant's agents and consultants, acknowledging the terms of this confidentiality agreement and agreeing to be bound by its terms. A copy of such statement, with an original signature, shall be delivered to Landlord prior to any entry upon the Property pursuant to this paragraph. The provisions of this subparagraph shall survive the expiration or earlier termination of this lease, as the case may be.
E. Delivery of Documents to the Landlord. If, but only if Landlord shall so request in writing, Tenant shall deliver promptly to Landlord, or shall cause its agents and consultants to deliver promptly to Landlord, a copy of the results of all environmental testing and investigation performed with respect to the Premises, and a copy of all Documents, all at no cost or expense to Landlord. The provisions of this subparagraph shall survive the expiration or earlier termination of this lease, as the case may be.
This clause provides the landlord with the ability to control the tenant's pre-occupancy due diligence in order to ensure that such due diligence does not disrupt ongoing operations at the property or result in damage to the property. The clause obligates the tenant to inform the landlord, prior to any entry, of the nature and extent of the investigation that will be undertaken, the entities that will enter upon the property, and the duration of the entry. In addition, the tenant and the tenant's consultants are obligated to provide to the landlord, insurance to protect the landlord in the event any damage arises due to the entry, including, without limitation, environmental damage.
It is important, from the landlord's point of view, that if any environmentally sensitive conditions are discovered during the entry, that the tenant not disclose those findings to any third party, except to the extent that disclosure is required by law. Accordingly, the clause provides for continuing confidentiality by the tenant as well as the tenant's consultants. See also the General Overview of the Law above for a general discussion on the disclosure obligations of an LSRP.
Finally, the clause obligates the tenant to indemnify the landlord for any loss arising from the tenant's entry, and to deliver to the landlord a copy of all results from the tenant's investigation. However, the delivery obligation only arises if the landlord expressly requests a copy of the investigation results. Because contamination discovered may have resulted from the misdeeds of a prior tenant, a landlord does need to consider obtaining those results to ensure that it is able to pursue the responsible tenant while evidence is clear of the responsible party and while the responsible tenant remains a viable entity.
A. Environmental Documents. Contemporaneously with the signing and delivery of this lease, and thereafter promptly upon receipt, Landlord shall deliver to Tenant all Environmental Documents in the possession or under the control of Landlord concerning: (1) the Property; (2) its environs; (3) all past operations at the Property; (4) environmental investigation, actions or claims commenced by any Governmental Authority or third party, concerning the Property; (5) predecessors in title; (6) current and former occupants of the Premises and the Property, of which the Premises is a part; or (7) all of the above.
B. Access. Tenant and Tenant's agents shall have the right, without the obligation, prior to the commencement of the lease term, to enter upon the Property for the purpose of inspecting the Property and performing testing at the Property, including, without limitation, soil sampling, borings and investigation, groundwater sampling and investigation, and engineering studies. Landlord shall notify Tenant of any dangerous condition on or with respect to the Property, including, without limitation, conditions which due to the nature of the sampling, borings or investigation to be performed by or on behalf of Tenant shall pose a dangerous condition to Tenant, its agents or representatives. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, if Tenant determines, as a result of its investigation, its review of the Environmental Documents, or its review of other information provided to Tenant by Landlord or any third party, that the environmental condition of the Property is unsatisfactory to Tenant, in Tenant's sole and absolute discretion, then Tenant shall have the right to terminate this lease upon notice to Landlord, in which event neither party shall be under any further obligation to the other, with the exception that Landlord shall return to Tenant all money paid by Tenant to Landlord with respect to this lease.
C. Representations and Warranties. Landlord represents and warrants to Tenant that: (1) the Property is in full compliance with all Laws; (2) there has been no Discharge of Contaminants in violation of Laws; and (3) there are no Underground Storage Tanks in, on, at, under or about the Property.
D. Baseline Study. In the event Tenant undertakes an environmental investigation of the Property pursuant to subparagraph (B) above, then a copy of the report of the investigation shall be attached to this lease, and Landlord and Tenant acknowledge that such report shall be evidence of the environmental condition of the Property as of the commencement date of this lease. Landlord and Tenant further acknowledge that the results of the investigation shall not be evidence of all areas of environmental concern that may exist at the Property, but shall only be evidence of the conditions revealed in the report to be annexed.
This clause provides the tenant with the ability to undertake a pre-occupancy due diligence investigation of the property prior to commencement of the lease in order to evaluate whether the environmental condition of the property is such that the tenant should reconsider the transaction. Both the landlord and the tenant should give consideration to undertaking an investigation of the property prior to the commencement of the lease in order to establish a base-line evaluation of the environmental condition of the property.
It is important for a tenant to undertake a certain amount of due diligence prior to the commencement of a lease since the tenant, as an operator, can be held responsible for all environmental conditions that are found to exist on the property during the tenant's lease term.
The representations and warranties will enable the tenant to establish a base-line of the landlord's knowledge with respect to contamination at the property. Obviously, the landlord will have numerous concerns with respect to the representations and warranties and, if the landlord does agree to provide any, it will likely severely limit the scope of the representations and warranties.
A. Tanks. Landlord represents and warrants that to Landlord's actual knowledge, without any investigation, there are ______ Underground Storage Tanks at the Premises (the "Tanks").
B. As-Is. Tenant accepts the Tanks "as is" and Landlord shall not be liable or bound in any manner by any verbal or written statements or representations relating to the Tanks, or their operation, condition, character or quality, or whether the Tanks are in compliance with the Tank Laws. Tenant releases Landlord, its shareholders, officers, directors, partners, members, employees, agents, successors and assigns from all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and costs, and covenants not to sue any of the foregoing with respect to the Tanks and any Discharge from the Tanks.
C. Owner and Operator. Tenant shall comply with the Tank Laws. For purposes of the Tank Laws only, Tenant shall be deemed the "owner and operator" of the Tanks. However, this in no way shall be deemed to pass legal title to the Tanks from Landlord to Tenant. Tenant's obligations pursuant to this paragraph shall include, without limitation: (1) obtaining all permits for installation and maintenance of the Tanks, including, without limitation, annual registration and recertification; (2) payment of all registration and recertification fees; (3) posting of all required financial assurances; (4) installation, maintenance, repair or replacement, as the case may be, of all monitoring, retrofitting, secondary containment and corrosion controls; (5) maintenance of records and inventory controls; and (6) all reporting, investigation and Remediation required pursuant to the Tanks Laws; all at Tenant's own expense.
D. Nature of Tenant's Remediation. In the event of a Discharge of a Contaminant from the Tanks, then, in addition to being in default under this lease and Landlord having all rights available to Landlord under this lease, at law and in equity by reason of such default, Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, and in accordance with Law, promptly, diligently and in a continuous manner, (1) retain an LSRP or Subsurface Evaluator, as appropriate, (2) perform all investigation, monitoring and Remediation, including, without limitation, posting all remediation funding sources that may be required by Landlord or any Governmental Authority, (3) pay all filing and oversight fees of the NJDEP, (4) address all required natural resource restoration and satisfy all natural resource damage claims, and (5) obtain and deliver to Landlord an RAO. In no event shall Tenant's cleanup involve any Engineering Controls, including, without limitation, capping, fencing or other physical barrier or deed notice, or Institutional Controls, and notwithstanding the requirements or approvals of the NJDEP or any other Governmental Authority, Tenant's cleanup shall meet the most stringent published or unpublished remediation standards for soil, subsurface water, groundwater and drinking water.
E. Attendance at Meetings. Tenant shall notify Landlord in advance of all meetings scheduled between Tenant or Tenant's representatives and NJDEP or any other Governmental Authority with respect to the Tanks, and Landlord and Landlord's agents, representatives and employees, including, without limitation, legal counsel, and environmental consultants and engineers, shall have the right, without the obligation, to attend and participate in all such meetings.
F. Environmental Documents. During the term of this lease, and subsequently, promptly upon receipt by Tenant or Tenant's consultants or counsel, Tenant shall deliver to Landlord all Environmental Documents concerning or generated by or on behalf of Tenant with respect to the Tanks, whether currently or hereafter existing.
G. No Installation of Tanks. Tenant shall not install any Underground Storage Tank or aboveground tank at the Premises without the prior written consent of Landlord, which Landlord may grant or withhold in Landlord's sole and absolute discretion. Prior to the expiration or sooner termination of the lease term, Tenant shall, at Tenant's own expense, remove all Tanks installed at the Premises should Landlord so demand, and in so doing Tenant shall comply with all closure requirements of the Tank Laws.
H. Indemnity. Tenant shall indemnify, defend with counsel satisfactory to Landlord, and hold Landlord, and Landlord's [officers, directors, shareholders, members, partners,] employees, agents and personal or legal representatives harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, penalties and costs, foreseen or unforeseen, including, without limitation, counsel, engineering and other professional and expert fees, which an indemnified party may incur, resulting directly or indirectly, wholly or partly, as a consequence of Tenant's actions or omissions with regard to Tenant's obligations under this paragraph, or by reason of Landlord's ownership of the Property and the Tanks.
I. Survival. This paragraph shall survive the expiration or earlier termination of the lease. Tenant's failure to abide by the terms of this paragraph shall be restrainable, or enforceable, as the case may be, by injunction.
J. Interpretation. The obligations imposed upon Tenant under subparagraphs (A) through (I) above are in addition to and are not intended to limit, but to expand upon the obligations imposed upon Tenant under paragraphs [insert number of the general compliance with laws paragraph and the environmental compliance paragraph].
This broad landlord's clause places the responsibility upon the tenant to comply with all tank law requirements. It also obligates the tenant to indemnify the landlord for any damages resulting from any release, discharge or leak of a regulated substance or hazardous substances. The indemnification obligation survives the expiration or earlier termination of the lease. The tenant is also prevented from installing any tanks on the property without obtaining the prior written consent of the landlord.
A. Tanks. Landlord represents and warrants that: (1) there are Underground Storage Tanks at the Premises (the "Tanks"); (2) the Tanks have been registered pursuant to, and in accordance with, the requirements of the Tank Laws; (3) a copy of each registration and recertification thereof shall be delivered to Tenant by Landlord within five (5) days from the signing and delivery of this lease and, thereafter, promptly upon receipt; and (4) the Tanks are otherwise in compliance with all Tank Laws.
B. Compliance with Tank Laws. Landlord shall comply with the Tank Laws, including, without limitation: (1) obtaining all permits for installation and maintenance of the Tanks; (2) undertaking all registration and recertification of the Tanks; (3) paying all registration and recertification fees; (4) posting all required financial assurances; (5) installing, maintaining, repairing or replacing, as the case may be, all required monitoring, retrofitting, secondary containment and corrosion controls; (6) maintaining a record of inventory controls; (7) reporting, investigating and cleaning up any Discharge required pursuant to the Tank Laws, unless such cleanup is required as a result of the actions or omissions of Tenant; and (8) paying all filing and oversight fees of the NJDEP.
C. Access. Landlord shall have the right of reasonable access to the Premises as may be necessary to perform the foregoing obligations, so long as Landlord shall not unreasonably interfere with Tenant's on-going business operations at the Premises.
D. Tenant Cooperation. Tenant shall cooperate with Landlord by supplying to Landlord all information within Tenant's control, and promptly, upon request, executing such documents as Landlord may request Tenant to execute should the information contained in the documents be found by Tenant to be complete and accurate.
F. Survival. This paragraph shall survive the expiration or sooner termination of this lease. Landlord's failure to abide by the terms of this paragraph shall be restrainable, or enforceable, as the case may be, by injunction.
This clause imposes complete tank law responsibility upon the landlord. While definitive representations are provided, the tenant should give consideration to undertaking an inspection of the property prior to the commencement of the lease term and reserving a right to terminate the lease prior to its commencement upon the determination that there has been a release, discharge or leak of a regulated substance or hazardous substance from a tank.
The ability of the tenant to impose complete tank law responsibility upon the landlord will be greater in a multi-tenant situation than in a single-tenant occupancy, and where the tank is used to store heating oil rather than raw materials for the tenant's manufacturing processes or other tenant operations.
© Copyright 2013 by Jack Fersko. Mr. Fersko is partner in the Real Estate Department of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis, LLP where he is the Co-Chair of the Alternative Energy & Sustainable Development Practice Group. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Jay A. Jaffe in the preparation of these materials. Mr. Jaffe, a member of the firm, practices in its Environmental Department.
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2019-04-20T03:17:19Z
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https://www.greenbaumlaw.com/insights-publications-95.html
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If there was any lingering doubt — and really at this point there shouldn't have been, but if there was — Myah Taylor has put it all to rest. The Olive Branch senior will go down as one of the best and most-honored girls basketball players in the history of the area.
Taylor cemented her legacy on Monday when she was named Gatorade's state player of the year for a record third straight time. The honor comes after the Mississippi State signee led the Quistors to the MHSAA 6A state championship with a 57-54 victory over Starkville at Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson on Saturday.
Olive Branch ends the season 33-1 and is ranked 19th in the latest USA Today national poll.
"I had to sacrifice a lot but like my dad told me, now I can see the hard work has paid off," said Taylor. "Things like not going out with my friends ... I'll either be at home studying or in the gym.
"Don't get me wrong, winning the Gatorade award is great. But our number one goal all season was to win state as a team. That's what we worked toward all year; our motto was 'all in.' I couldn't have done any of this without my teammates."
The 5-6 Taylor — who is ranked 49th nationally in the class of 2016 according to ESPN HoopGurlz — averaged 21.6 points, 7.5 assists and 7 steals for Olive Branch this season while shooting 49 percent from the floor. Off the court she's just as impressive, maintaining a 4.10 grade-point average.
She capped her career with a 16-point, 9-steal, 6-assist effort in the victory over Starkville.
Anastasia Hayes, the Miss Basketball winner from undefeated state champ Murfreesboro Riverdale, was the Gatorade winner for Tennessee.
Georgia Tech has picked up another verbal commitment from a Shelby County girls basketball standout as Ridgeway's Elizabeth Dixon announced via Twitter on Sunday that she was headed to Atlanta.
"After heavy consideration and talking with family, I'm excited to further my education at Georgia Tech," she Tweeted. "I'm so excited and can't wait."
Dixon will be joined by another talented class of 2018 standout, Whitehaven sharp-shooter Jasmine Carson, who committed to the Yellow Jackets last month.
The 6-3 Dixon is currently the 20th-ranked junior in the nation according to ESPN HoopGurlz. She attracted serious recruiting interest from a host of strong programs, including Baylor, Tennessee, Ohio State, Florida State, Louisville, Kentucky and Maryland.
To get to where Olive Branch wanted to go, it was not going to be pretty.
But while the method of digging itself out of a double-digit hole and holding up the gold ball as the 6A state champions may have not been the preferred way to go about it, it was nonetheless effective.
Using a grinding full-court trap Olive Branch beat Starkville 57-54 on Saturday in Mississippi Coliseum, despite getting less than stellar games from both of its Dandy Dozen players.
“I’m just glad that it worked out,” coach Jason Thompson said.
Myah Taylor, the top player in the state and a Mississippi State signee (for the second game in a row, future head coach Vic Schaefer was watching), finished with 16 points, but she was 5-of-18 from the floor, 0-of-5 from 3-point range and even 6-of-16 at the free throw line. That’s not typical Taylor.
Mahogany Vaught was the player of the game with 14 points, but she was also 4-of-14 from the field. They, and their teammates, were struggling in the first half (8-of-27 FG), and it took a quick four-point burst just to make it 26-21 at halftime against the Lady Jackets (31-1).
Thompson also made sure Taylor and Vaught knew he was going to ride with them throughout.
So as a team they ratcheted up the pressure, to great effect: Starkville turned the ball over eight times in the third quarter and 14 in the second half. The Lady Jackets went the last six minutes of the third quarter and first minute of the fourth without making a field goal.
It led to some easy Olive Branch baskets, but also a lot of free throws for both sides (55 total). Starkville, to its credit, held on as long as it could on the defensive end, and it was still 49-49 with three minutes to go.
That’s when Taylor (who finished with nine steals) made a series of free throws, and then found Nadia Gillespie along the baseline for a jumper that made it 54-49 and effectively sealed it.
The Tigers are most likely done for the season. The Grizzlies are in the middle of a puzzling slump.
But Central's girls basketball team showed Saturday there's still plenty to be happy about in Hoop City as it pushed the No. 1 team in the nation to its absolute limits. But in the end, Murfreesboro Riverdale showed it was legit as it held off the Lady Warriors 66-59 in a thrilling AAA championship game at the Murphy Center.
Central — which battled its way to the final after finishing in third place in the District 16-AAA tournament — ends the season 30-7. It was the school's first appearance in the championship game since winning it all in 2011.
"We knew we were the underdog team from Memphis, going up against the No. 1 team in the nation," said Central's Brianna Cooks.
But in typical grit-grind fashion, Central took it right to the favorites and found itself in the fourth quarter with a great chance to pull the upset.
Jireh Washington's 3-pointer gave the Lady Warriors a 52-51 lead with 6:45 to go in the game, and she hit a free throw moments later to tie it at 53. Riverdale — led by tournament Most Valuable Player Anastasia Hayes — responded though and was clinging to a 59-55 lead when Washington missed a 3 with 1:12 to go.
Free throws by Brinae Alexander and Aislynn Hayes then gave Riverdale enough cushion to ride out the storm.
Washington — who finished with a team-high 20 points — was terrific from beyond the arc, connecting on 5 of 6 attempts. Central shot 8 of 18 as a team but was a frustrating 13 of 40 on its 2-point attempts.
As coach Rashad Haynes said, the chances were there.
"We usually have five guards on the floor, and there were some second-chance opportunities where they made some and we missed some," he said. "The effort was there; the fight was there. But (we) didn't finish.
"A different play here and there, and maybe it's a different game."
Anastasia Hayes, a Tennessee signee who was named Miss Basketball earlier in the week, finished with 32 points and was a one-girl press-breaker against Central's furious pressure defense. Amanda Whittington added 11 points while Brinae Alexander pulled down 16 boards, all of them seemingly coming at demoralizing times for Central.
Riverdale ends the season 34-0 and is the sixth straight Murfreesboro team to win the state championship.
"Our mindset against them was the same as with any other team," said Central's Johne' Stewart. "We don't look at rankings or anything like that. We played them like we would any other team."
Cooks had her best game of the tournament, finishing with 17 points on 3 of 5 3-point shooting. Stewart added 14.
"It's hurtful," said Haynes. "But I'm very proud. I think we represented Memphis very well. And just a few more shots here and there ..."
After 36 games, Central coach Rashad Haynes says he's still waiting for all of his girls to bring their "A-games" on the same day. Saturday will need to be that day.
The Lady Warriors advanced to the championship with a 72-59 victory over Dickson County Friday at the Murphy Center. Their reward? A match-up against the defending state champs, undefeated Murfreesboro Riverdale, which also just happens to be the No. 1 team in the nation according to USA TODAY.
"We've got one more chance, one game left," said Haynes. "We're still trying to figure out who we are."
Here are some hints. Central is athletic, tough and talented and causes all kinds of problems with its pressure defense. The Lady Warriors for 16 turnovers against Dickson County after forcing Oak Ridge to cough it up 21 times in Wednesday's quarterfinals.
Jireh Washington scored 23 to lead Central (30-6) while Johne' Stewart — who poured in 31 against Oak Ridge — added 18. But the Lady Warriors would have been hard-pressed to win without a terrific all-around game from Kynadi Kuykendoll, who scored 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to go along with 5 of her team's 9 steals.
"(Rebounding) is about heart," the 5-4 Kuykendoll said. "It's not about height. They have five players; we have five players. You just have go in there and box out."
Kuykendoll's 3-pointer with 3:29 to go in the first half gave Central a 30-16 lead and they still led by eight (32-24) at the break.
"The key was pressure," said Haynes. "The continuous pressure that kind of let us get out and get some offensive creation. The opportunities are there and the kids are stepping up at the right time."
Three-point shooting also helped Central build its first-half advantage; the Lady Warriors connected five times from behind the arc leaving Haynes pleasantly surprised.
"No, that's not something we normally do," he smiled. "We've been consistently inconsistent."
Said Washington, who made 2 of 4 of her 3-point attempts, "We have been very inconsistent but we keep working."
Spurred on by their huge student section, the Lady Cougars pulled to within 40-34 as Emily Beard knocked down a pair of free throws with 1:32 to go in the third. But Washington responded with a jumper before Bionka Massie drained a long 3 from the corner at the buzzer to make it an 11-point advantage and Dickson County (29-8) was all but finished.
Kailey Rosenbaum, Dickson County's potent inside threat, finished with 13 points before fouling out early in the fourth quarter. Olivia Rinehart came off the bench to score 10.
Saturday's 1 p.m. championship will be Central's first appearance in the finals since winning it all in 2011. Riverdale beat Central 80-58 when the teams met in the semifinals last year and will be formidable once again. But Central appears to be peaking at the right time. And it's March.
Haynes is keeping his fingers crossed.
"I talked pre-game about everybody trying to bring their A-game and how dangerous we could be," he said. "We're trying to get there."
Dickson County (59) — Kaelin Roberts 9, Cierra Smith 6, Raegan Purvine 8, Emily Beard 9, Kailey Rosenbaum 13, Olivia Rinehart 10, Sierra Morgan 4.
Central (72) — Brianna Cooks 7, Brittney Ivory 3, Kynadi Kuykendoll 16, Bionka Massie 5, Johne’ Stewart 18, Jireh Washington 23.
Records — Dickson Co. 29-8, Central 30-6.
For 16 minutes, the impossible looked possible Friday at the Murphy Center.
Houston, playing in the state semifinals for the first time in school history, went toe-to-toe with mighty Murfreesboro Riverdale and played them to a virtual standstill at halftime. But the Warriors took control of the game in the third quarter before eliminating the Mustangs, 69-50, in the AAA semifinals.
Riverdale (33-0), which is ranked No. 1 in the USA Today national rankings, will play for its second consecutive championship Saturday at 1 p.m. against Central, which ousted Dickson County earlier in the day.
The most successful season in Houston history ends 28-4.
"We're only losing three seniors," said first-year coach Ben Moore. "We started three sophomores and a freshman today so we have a chance to be back here.
"The run this team made through the region tournament was special. I knew we had a talented team but I didn't see that toughness until the region. With a first-year coach, they had to figure out a lot of things on the fly."
Despite shooting just 33.3 percent from the floor, Houston led by as much as five in the first half and trailed just 26-23 at the break. That was due in large part to the fact that Riverdale was even colder from the floor (27.8) percent.
But the Warriors scored the first nine points out of the gate to take a 35-23 lead and Houston never threatened. Brinae Alexander did most of the damage, hitting two free throws before converting a 3-point play and knocking down a nice jumper.
Alexander finished with 21 points and 8 rebounds to lead Riverdale.
"We knew somebody was going to make a run," said Moore. "We just hoped it would be us."
Said Riverdale coach Randy Coffman, "They stretched us out some in the first half and we got in a little trouble. I was telling them about 20 different things to do (defensively). We got big, decided we wanted to defend and get out and be Riverdale."
Miss Basketball winner Anastasia Hayes added 15 for Riverdale, which made 13 of 22 shots (59.1 percent) in the second half. Alexis Whittington chipped in with 12.
"We wanted to get them back," said Houston's Madison Griggs, whose team lost to Riverdale in a Christmas tournament last season. "But they're quick. They shoot the ball well and rebound."
Freshman Destinee Wells had 20 to lead Houston while Griggs and Miss Basketball finalist Jayla Hemingway finished with 9 apiece. Houston never did get its shooting stroke cranked up and ended the game 20 of 56 (35.7 percent).
"They went to that 1-3-1 and that really bothered us," said Moore. "We weren't very patient and we couldn't get buckets."
Houston (50) — Melisa Carter 2, Shaela Gardner 6, Madison Griggs 9, Jayla Hemingway 9, Rochelle Lee 2, Kennedy Maclin 2, Destinee Wells 20.
Riverdale (69) — Brinae Alexander 21, Anastasia Hayes 15, Aislynn Hayes 8, Amanda Whittington 5, Alexis Whittington 12, Alasia Hayes 7, Jalyn Holcomb 1.
Records — Houston 28-4, Riverdale 33-0.
Fake news. Alternate facts. In a world where the truth isn't as necessarily cut-and-dried, here's another perception that's taking a beating: Memphis girls basketball teams can't compete with their eastern and mid-state counterparts.
Houston advanced to the AAA semifinals Wednesday, surviving a cold-shooting, foul-filled game against Clarksville to win 58-45 at the Murphy Center. That puts the Mustangs (28-3) in Friday's 11:30 p.m. semifinal against defending state champion Murfreesboro Riverdale, which is ranked No. 1 in this week's USA TODAY rankings.
They'll be joined in the semis by Central, which eliminated Oak Ridge earlier. Both Houston and Central represent Region 8 and Mustangs coach Ben Moore said Wednesday's results definitely made a statement.
"I think you look at our region; we played Hamilton, White Station and Central in the region tournament," he said. "And White Station was fantastic all season. I think there were three or four teams from our region that could have made it to state and made a little run."
Instead it will be Houston moving on after winning the first state tournament game in school history. The Mustangs' only other appearance came in 2014 when they lost to Blackman in the quarters.
This one was a battle from the get-go. Houston won despite shooting just 37 percent from the floor and was certainly helped by the fact that Clarksville was even worse (26.7 percent, 3 of 15 on 3s). The only reason the Wildcats stayed within striking distance until the fourth quarter was excellent free-throw shooting; they shot 18 of 19 from the line.
"Survive and advance, that's kind of been our mantra the last couple of weeks," said Moore, who is in his first season at Houston. "We're happy to still be playing."
Jayla Hemingway, a Miss Basketball finalist who led Houston with 14 points, said her young team's first appearance on the big stage was a factor.
"I think we were nervous, kind of shellshocked at first," she said. "But our team is very close, like a family, and we were (eventually) able to get each other pumped up."
Hemingway — herself a sophomore — got plenty of help from freshman Destinee Wells, who finished with 13, and sophomore Madison Griggs, who hit a pair of 3-pointers to finish with 10. Houston never trailed after Griggs connected from the top of the key with 41 seconds left in the first half, giving the Mustangs a 26-24 lead at the break.
Hannah Goins scored 12 points to lead Clarksville (27-6), which finished in third place in the District 10 tournament before surprising many by winning the Region 5 tourney.
Clarksville (45) — Ellie Treanton 4, Deja Walls 7, Judy Cummings 8, Ailyah Miller 7, Lainey Persinger 2, Hannah Goins 12, Taylor Adkins 5.
Houston (58) — Melisa Carter 4, Shaela Gardner 7, Madison Griggs 10, Jayla Hemingway 14, Sammiyah Hoskin 3, Rochelle Lee 4, Shannon Sharp 3, Destinee Wells 13.
Despite a rare off night from senior star Myah Taylor, Olive Branch will be playing in its third MHSAA 6A state championship game in the last four years.
The Quistors (31-1) forced 22 turnovers and dominated on the glass in a 61-47 victory over Jackson Murrah at the Jackson Coliseum. The victory sends Olive Branch — ranked 19th in the nation according to USA Today — into Saturday's 6 p.m. championship game.
Mahogany Vaught had 23 to lead Olive Branch. Katie Blackmon grabbed 21 rebounds and almost out-rebounded Murrah by herself; Olive Branch won that battle 44-22.
Taylor, a Mississippi State signee and two-time Best of the Preps player of the year, had 12 on just 4 of 17 shooting. Olive Branch rallied in the second half after trailing 26-21 at halftime.
"I don't have to score because I know my teammates have my back," she told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. "I continued to encourage my teammates that the game wasn't over and you see what the results were."
Murrah (45) — Jessica Almons 9, Regina Sampson 3, Keimoya Walker 15, Kasey Bradford 8, Nya Irvin 2, Zephorah Jones 8.
Olive Branch (62) — Katie Blackmon 11, En’dya Buford 10, Marika Owens 4, Sarena Shipp 2, Myah Taylor 12, Mahogany Vaught 23.
Central girls basketball coach Rashad Haynes says that when Johne' Stewart is hitting shots "she's the golden child."
Stewart and all the Lady Warriors were good as gold Wednesday at the Murphy Center.
The 5-8 junior poured in 31 points and was part of a ferocious defensive effort as Central defeated Oak Ridge, 74-63, in the quarterfinals of the AAA girls state tournament. The victory sends the Lady Warriors (29-6) into a 10 a.m. semifinal Friday against Dickson County. The winner of that one will play for the state title Saturday at 1 p.m.
"The key for Johne' is her defensive responsibilities," said Haynes, whose team is in the semis for the second straight season. "The players have a lot of freedom offensively as long as they stick to their defensive assignments. Our mindset is to identify ourselves regardless of who we're playing.
"If we're able to play the way we're capable of and to our strengths, I felt we could be successful."
Central forced the pace from the outset and successfully created turnovers, leading to several easy buckets in transition that helped shake off some of the pre-game jitters.
"Some of them were kind of bug-eyed," said Haynes.
Oak Ridge finished with 21 turnovers, compared to just eight for the Lady Warriors.
"That was definitely part of it," said Wildcats coach Paige Redman. "I'd be a fool to sit here and say that wasn't a big part of it."
Said Haynes of his team's constant pressure on the defensive end, "You can prepare for it but it's nothing like until you see it and actually have to go through it."
Oak Ridge had no answer for Stewart either, who scored 24 points in the first half to help Central build a 41-29 lead at halftime. She finished 10 of 20 from the floor and 11 of 12 from the free-throw line, hitting 5 of 6 in the final minute to keep Oak Ridge at arms length after the Wildcats had closed to within 7 with 1:17 to go.
"I had to step up," Stewart said. "I had an offensive assignment and a defensive assignment but mainly that was my goal, to step up."
Others did as well. Kynadi Kuykendoll hit two 3-pointers to fuel Central's decisive second quarter and finished with 10 rebounds as well. And Bionka Massie — the lone senior on the roster — took over for Stewart in the second half, scoring 14 of her 16 points.
"It was as important as having five players on the floor," said Haynes of Massie's contribution off the bench. "It allowed us to maintain (the advantage)."
Oak Ridge, last year's state runner-up, ends the season 30-4. Desiree Bates led the Wildcats with 20 while Courtney Ellison and Mykia Dowdell contributed 14 and 13 respectively.
Oak Ridge (63) — Courtney Ellison 14, Jada Guinn 4, Destiny Kassner 8, Jaymi Golden 4, Mykia Dowdell 13, Desiree Bates 20.
Central (74) — Brianna Cooks 9, Brittney Ivory 4, Kynadi Kuykendoll 8, Ariel Lane 2, Bionka Massie 16, Johne’ Stewart 31, Jireh Washington 4.
Briarcrest's Savanna Owens (23) starts the fast break during Thursday's Division II-AA semifinal at Lipscomb's Allen Arena.
Longtime Briarcrest coach Lee Smith said this year's team was the youngest he's ever had. The Saints showed their age on the big stage Thursday.
Brentwood Academy took any suspense out of the game early, taking control of the game with a 16-3 run in the first quarter before winning 66-37 in the Division 2-AA girls semifinals at Lipscomb University's Allen Arena. The Eagles (25-6) will go for their fourth straight championship Saturday at 1 p.m. against Ensworth, which eliminated Father Ryan in the other semifinal.
For the Saints, who end the season 22-9, it will be another long ride back to Memphis after a disappointing state tournament appearance. One of Shelby County's most consistent programs, Briarcrest has advanced to the final four in seven of the last eight years, finishing runner-up three times and losing four times in the semis. Four times, they've had their season ended by Brentwood Academy.
But while those teams were laden with veteran standouts, this year's roster features only one senior, Morgan Hunt, who finished with four points.
"We have some good eighth-graders coming up so I'm optimistic," said Smith. "I feel really good about the future ... We just kind of got away from who we are. Not to discredit them, though; they're a very good team."
Briarcrest led 6-5 before the Eagles went on their decisive run to take a 21-8 lead after the first eight minutes. The Saints were never able to get it under double figures after that.
There were several issues. The Saints committed 25 turnovers and lost the rebounding battle 38-22. Briarcrest shot 34.1 percent from the floor (14 of 41) while Brentwood Academy connected on almost 50 percent of its attempts.
"Poor decision-making," said Savanna Owens. "And when you get behind against a team like that ... it's hard to dig yourself out."
Added Smith, "Offensively, I thought that we didn't panic. We knew what we wanted ... but we allowed one or two turnovers to get to us and we never did get ourselves settled down. I called two timeouts early in the first quarter trying to get us settled but we never got on track.
"And they killed us on the boards."
Owens, a junior, turned in a strong performance with 18 points on 7 of 15 shooting from the floor (2 of 6 from behind the arc). No other Saint reached double-digits though.
The Eagles got excellent balance, led by 14 from Maggie Brown. Kathryn Stockhoff scored 11 while Blair Schoenwald and Kallie Searcy added 10 apiece.
Central (54) — Eva Bailey 3, Brianna Cooks 12, Kynadi Kuykendoll 11, Ariel Lane 8, Johne’ Stewart 13, Jireh Washington 7.
Munford (29) — Gabby Crawford 10, Ali Gover 7, Shania Johnson 3, Johnna Jones 7, Kennisha Mason 2.
Records — Central 28-6, Munford 27-7.
Arlington (52) — Karlee Bates 4, Sarah Grandberry 11, Christina Nichols 4, Nya Stewart 2, Lanetta Williams 14, Caitlyn Wilson 17.
Houston (56) — Shaela Gardner 8, Madison Griggs 11, Jayla Hemingway 13, Sammiyah Hoskin 4, Rochelle Lee 2, Shannon Sharp 3, Destinee Wells 15.
Jim Hill (58) — Nakeisha Holcomb 9, Antionette Womack 19, Deandria Barnes 3, Sabrina White 2, Ladedra Bryant 7, Lakala Thornton 6, Truth Taylor 7, O. Olateru-Olagbegi 1, De’Aisha Herring 4.
Olive Branch (86) — Katie Blackmon 11, En’dya Buford 15, Dasia Harden 2, Dallas Hullett 2, Sarena Shipp 11, Myah Taylor 22, Mahogany Vaught 11, Sarah Cararas 2, Tyriana Gilbert 2, Taylor Woodhouse 8.
Records — Jim Hill 26-6, Olive Branch 31-1.
Arlington (47) — Karlee Bates 6, Sarah Grandberry 5, Christina Nichols 9, Nya Stewart 6, Lanetta Williams 6, Caitlyn Wilson 15.
Munford (56) — Gabby Crawford 23, Ali Gover 5, Shania Johnson 2, Johnna Jones 19, Kennisha Mason 7.
Central (54) — Brianna Cooks 27, Kailyn Downs 1, Brittney Ivory 2, Kynadi Kuykendoll 2, Bionka Massie 1, Johne’ Stewart 13, Jireh Washington 8.
Houston (61) — Shaela Gardner 3, Madison Griggs 13, Jayla Hemingway 17, Sammiyah Hoskin 4, Rochelle Lee 2, Destinee Wells 22.
Records — Central 27-6, Houston 26-3.
By the numbers: She had 20 points, 9 steals, 7 assists and 5 rebounds in Olive Branch’s win over Warren Central, sending it to the MHSAA Class 6A quarterfinals.
Coach speak: “She was a fearless competitor on both ends of the court this weekend. She loves to play the game, and at a high level, since she was in middle school,” coach Jason Thompson said.
For the record: Taylor is a five-star signee with Mississippi State.
Dream job: Wants to graduate with an engineering degree and help lead Mississippi State to the Final Four.
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2019-04-25T10:49:47Z
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http://memphisgirlsbasketball.blogspot.com/2017/03/
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This Act is the Walking Access Act 2008.
types of access that may be associated with walking access, such as access with firearms, dogs, bicycles, or motor vehicles.
includes any walkway, established or administered under the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990, that was in existence immediately before this Act came into force.
Section 4 register: replaced, on 12 November 2018, by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
Section 4 Registrar-General: amended, on 12 November 2018, by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
This section establishes the New Zealand Walking Access Commission.
The Commission is a Crown entity for the purposes of section 7 of the Crown Entities Act 2004.
The Commission consists of no fewer than 5, and no more than 8, members.
Members of the Commission are the board for the purposes of the Crown Entities Act 2004.
The Minister must, after consultation with the Minister of Māori Affairs, appoint at least 1 member who has a knowledge of tikanga Māori (Māori customary values and practices).
The objective of the Commission is to lead and support the negotiation, establishment, maintenance, and improvement of walking access and types of access that may be associated with walking access, such as access with firearms, dogs, bicycles, or motor vehicles.
monitoring the compliance with, and enforcement of, this Act in relation to walkways.
If the Commission is aware that a site is culturally sensitive, it must consider whether it is appropriate to publish a map or information indicating the location of the site before doing so.
to sports fish (within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Conservation Act 1987) and game (within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Wildlife Act 1953).
any other information that the Commission considers would be useful for users of walking access and relevant landholders.
The code may make recommendations that are specific to a local area or a region.
The Commission must prepare a draft code as soon as practicable after the commencement of this Act.
invite members of the public to comment on the draft code.
a reasonable period of time is allowed for members of the public to comment on the draft code.
The Commission must consider each comment it receives under this section.
be satisfied that the recommendations on standards of behaviour (if any) are appropriate.
any other matters that the Commission thinks are relevant to its considerations.
The Commission may issue the code at a time, and in a manner and form, that the Commission thinks appropriate.
revoke the code and substitute another code.
Sections 14 to 17 apply, with all necessary modifications, to amendments to, or the revocation and substitution of, the code under subsection (1).
However, sections 14 to 17 do not apply to minor amendments that do not materially affect the code.
for purchase at a reasonable price.
If the Commission considers that all or part of any public land should be made available for use as a walkway, it may propose to declare all or that part of the land (as the case may be) to be a walkway.
If the Commission proposes to declare any public land to be a walkway, it must obtain the written consent of the administering authority of the land to do so.
If the administering authority consents to the declaration of the walkway, it may impose any conditions in relation to the walkway when granting consent.
Any public land that is to be declared a walkway must be defined on a plan.
The plan must define the land in accordance with rules made by the Surveyor-General under section 49 of the Cadastral Survey Act 2002, unless the Surveyor-General grants an exemption or specifies alternative requirements in accordance with section 47(5) of that Act.
The plan must be lodged with the chief executive and recorded in the cadastre.
The Commission must assign a distinctive name to a walkway over public land.
any other persons or organisations that the Commission considers representative of persons who have an interest in the naming of the walkway.
specifying any conditions imposed in relation to the walkway by the Commission or by the administering authority when granting consent to the walkway.
if no date is specified, on the date of notification in the Gazette.
if the Commission thinks it desirable in the circumstances, by any other method of giving public notice.
If public land that is declared to be a walkway is subject to the Land Transfer Act 2017, the Commission must lodge with the Registrar-General a copy of the Gazette notice referred to in section 24(1).
The Registrar-General must record the particulars of the Gazette notice in the register.
Section 25(1): amended, on 12 November 2018, by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
the purchase of any land that includes all or that part of the land (as the case may be) proposed for use as a walkway.
in the case of Maori freehold land owned, vested, or held in any other capacity, with the person in whose name the land is registered.
any purchase of Maori freehold land that includes land proposed for use as a walkway.
Any private land that is to be declared a walkway must be defined on a plan.
To avoid doubt, this section and section 29 do not override the requirements under any other Act that apply to the transfer of the fee simple estate in, or the lease of, only part of the land held in a record of title.
Section 28(4): amended, on 12 November 2018, by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
a transfer to the Commission of the fee simple estate in land purchased under section 26.
The Registrar-General must register the easement, lease, or transfer upon receiving it.
Section 29(1): amended, on 12 November 2018, by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
The Commission must assign a distinctive name to a walkway over private land.
This section applies to private land proposed for use as a walkway and in respect of which the Commission has complied with sections 26 to 30 (either by obtaining an easement or lease over, or by purchasing land that includes, the land proposed for use as a walkway).
specifying any conditions imposed under the easement or lease (if any) in relation to the walkway.
The Commission must lodge with the Registrar-General a copy of the Gazette notice referred to in section 31(2).
perform any activity that is reasonably incidental to that passing or repassing.
Subsection (1) does not prevent any member of the public who requires mobility assistance due to a physical or neurological impairment from using a personal mobility device on a walkway.
any conditions imposed in relation to a walkway.
provide for enforcement under Part 4.
The Commission may appoint a department, local authority, or public body, or the Commissioner of Crown Lands, to be the controlling authority of a walkway.
The Commission may, at any time, review an appointment made under subsection (1) and, if the Commission thinks fit, revoke the appointment.
However, before appointing a department under subsection (1) or revoking the appointment of a department under subsection (2), the Commission must obtain the consent of the Minister responsible for the department.
A local authority of a district or region may be appointed as the controlling authority of a walkway despite any part of the walkway being located within the district or region (as the case may be) of another local authority, but only if the Commission first consults both local authorities.
This section is subject to section 36.
If public land has been declared to be a walkway under section 24, the administering authority of the land is the controlling authority for the walkway.
the Commission may appoint a controlling authority in accordance with section 35.
If there is no controlling authority under this section or section 35, the Commission is the controlling authority.
To avoid doubt, if the Commission becomes the controlling authority under subsection (3), the Commission may subsequently, in accordance with section 35, appoint another person to be the controlling authority in place of the Commission.
generally promoting and maintaining the walkway for the pleasure, safety, and welfare of members of the public.
spending money in the discharge of its functions and powers in respect of the walkway, as long as the controlling authority is not prohibited from doing so by another enactment or any rule of law.
the controlling authority obtains the written consent of the landholder of the land on which the facilities or amenities are, or are proposed to be, located.
at the request of the landholder of land adjoining the walkway.
A controlling authority must close a walkway if it considers that the closure is necessary to comply with a condition imposed in relation to the walkway.
A walkway must not be closed for any longer than the controlling authority considers necessary.
must notify members of the public of a closure in accordance with section 39.
if the controlling authority thinks it desirable in the circumstances, by any other method of giving public notice.
did not contain the information required by subsection (2).
the Commission and the controlling authority of the walkway agree that it is no longer appropriate to retain the walkway.
the need for public safety.
If a walkway is revoked under section 40 in respect of land that is subject to the Land Transfer Act 2017, the Commission must lodge with the Registrar-General a copy of the Gazette notice referred to in section 40(3).
Section 41(1): amended, on 12 November 2018, by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
on the recommendation of a controlling authority, officers of the controlling authority who are suitably qualified and trained.
may at any time resign office by written notice to the Commission.
An enforcement officer appointed under subsection (1) is not to be regarded as employed in the service of the Crown for the purposes of the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956 or the State Sector Act 1988 just because the person is an enforcement officer.
every fish and game ranger and warranted officer, within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Conservation Act 1987.
The Commission may, by written notice, appoint fit and proper people who are suitably qualified and trained to be honorary enforcement officers.
has subsequently approved those expenses.
An honorary enforcement officer is not to be regarded as employed in the service of the Crown for the purposes of the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956 or the State Sector Act 1988 just because the person is an honorary enforcement officer.
every honorary enforcement officer appointed under section 45(1).
the area or areas in relation to which the officer may exercise the powers, or that the officer may exercise the powers throughout New Zealand.
any article of uniform, badge of office, or equipment issued to the officer.
Before an enforcement officer or honorary enforcement officer exercises his or her powers under this Part, the officer must produce his or her warrant of appointment (unless it would be impracticable to do so).
evidence that the officer holds an office described in section 44.
An enforcement officer or honorary enforcement officer exercising a power under this Part may call on any person in the vicinity for assistance, and the person called upon is authorised to assist the officer, as long as the person acts under the direction and supervision of the officer.
An enforcement officer or honorary enforcement officer exercising a power under this Part may enter onto a walkway with a vehicle or a dog if the officer believes, on reasonable grounds, that the vehicle or dog is necessary for the purposes of exercising the power.
require a person whom he or she believes on reasonable grounds to be committing, or to be about to commit, an offence, to stop doing an act.
to produce evidence of his or her full name, residential address, and date of birth.
A person who does, or omits to do, an act in the course of performing a duty or exercising a power under this Part is under no civil or criminal liability for that act or omission unless the person acts, or omits to act, in bad faith or without reasonable grounds.
Proceedings are commenced by filing a charging document under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011.
Despite anything to the contrary in section 25 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, the limitation period in respect of an offence against this Act ends on the date that is 12 months after the date on which the offence was committed.
Any person, including the Commission, an enforcement officer, or an honorary enforcement officer, may file a charging document.
Section 53(1): replaced, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
Section 53(1A): inserted, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
Section 53(2): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
erects a structure on or over a walkway.
The onus is on the defendant to prove that at the time of the alleged offence an activity is authorised.
knew that the offence occurred on or in relation to a walkway.
whether or not the plant or part of it is removed from, or subsequently returned alive or dead to, the land on which it grew.
Section 54(4) noxious weed: amended, on 18 September 2012, by section 93 of the Biosecurity Law Reform Act 2012 (2012 No 73).
that the act or omission of the defendant took place or occurred in an emergency and was consistent with providing for the safety and welfare of a person.
in accordance with an agreement between the landholder of that land and the controlling authority of the walkway.
The defences set out in this section do not limit any other defences that may be available.
damages, destroys, or alters a structure that is on, over, or adjacent to the walkway.
behaves in a threatening manner to the officer or assisting person.
In prosecuting an offence against subsection (1) or (2), the prosecution must prove that the defendant knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly committed the offence.
wildlife has the same meaning as in section 2(1) of the Wildlife Act 1953.
A person is not guilty of an offence against this Act if the act or omission of the person is authorised by regulations made under this Act.
If there is an inconsistency between an offence under this Act and an offence under any other enactment, in relation to the administration or control of public land, the provisions of that other enactment prevail.
A person who commits an offence against section 54 is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000.
A person who commits an offence against section 56 is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000.
Section 59(1): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
Section 59(2): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
A person who commits an offence against section 56(2)(b) is liable, in addition to the penalty for the offence, to a fine not exceeding $100 for each day or part of a day that the offence continues after he or she has been required to stop the offence.
A body corporate that commits an offence against section 54 or 56 is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 5 times the maximum fine otherwise provided for the offence.
Section 61: amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
that the director or the manager knew or could reasonably be expected to have known that the offence was committed, was being committed, or was about to be committed, and failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent or stop it.
A court may sentence a person who commits an offence against section 54 or 56 to a sentence of community work, and the provisions of subpart 2 of Part 2 of the Sentencing Act 2002 apply accordingly.
In assessing an amount payable under subsection (1), the court may take into account the salaries, wages, and incidental expenses incurred in investigating the act constituting the offence or in remedying any loss or damage caused by the offence.
An amount payable under subsection (1) may be awarded by the court in fixing a penalty and is recoverable in the same manner as a fine.
without the personal attendance of the certifying officer or proof of his or her signature.
Subsection (1) applies unless the defendant adduces evidence to the contrary and the interests of justice require the attendance of the certifying officer.
a walkway on the landholder’s land, in the case of public land.
includes liability for both compensatory and exemplary damages.
However, subsection (1) does not apply to any loss or damage caused by the landholder’s deliberate act or omission.
providing for any other matters contemplated by or necessary to give full effect to this Act and for its due administration.
to any walkway specified in the regulations.
providing for the conditions under which the public may use any walkway.
that is specified in the bylaws.
by resolution of the controlling authority and signed by at least 2 members of the controlling authority who are authorised to do so.
Despite anything to the contrary in this Act or in any other enactment, the controlling authority must not delegate the power conferred by subsection (1).
A person who fails to comply with any bylaw made under this section contravenes this subsection and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding $1,000.
Section 68(5): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
Publication under subsection (1)(b) is, in the absence of proof to the contrary, evidence that the bylaws have been properly made and approved under this Part.
an existing status or capacity of any person to whom the bylaw applies.
if the controlling authority is not a local authority, at the office of every local authority in whose district or region the walkway is located.
Section 157 of the Local Government Act 2002 does not apply to a bylaw made by a local authority under section 68.
An entity that, immediately before the commencement of this Act, is a controlling authority appointed under section 11 of the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990 is to be treated as a controlling authority appointed under section 35 of this Act.
If an administering authority or the Minister of Conservation is, immediately before the commencement of this Act, still deemed to be a controlling authority under section 11(3) or (4) of the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990, the administering authority or the Minister is to be treated as having become a controlling authority under section 36 of this Act.
On the commencement of this Act, all easements, leases, and agreements entered into for the purposes of the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990 and in existence immediately before the commencement of this Act vest in the Commission.
If an enactment provides for an easement to be granted or provided to the Crown under the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990, and the easement has not been granted or provided on the commencement of this Act, it must instead be granted or provided to the Commission as grantee.
the Commission is subject under an easement referred to in subsection (2) when that easement is granted or provided to the Commission.
The Crown is not in breach of any obligation referred to in subsection (3) as long as it takes all reasonable steps to satisfy the obligation.
Subsections (1) and (2) have effect whether or not any enactment, deed, or agreement permits, or requires consent to, those matters.
This section is subject to section 74.
that were in existence immediately before the commencement of this Act.
The agreements referred to in subsection (1) are administered by the Minister of Conservation.
must be applied for the purposes for which the money was granted or gifted.
The vesting referred to in subsection (1)(a) occurs on the commencement of this Act.
The Commission is not liable for acts or omissions of any person under the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990.
However, a proceeding commenced under the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990 that, immediately before the commencement of this Act, is pending by or against the Director-General of Conservation may be carried on, completed, or enforced by or against the Director-General of Conservation as if that Act had not been repealed.
This section applies to any person who, immediately before being employed by the Commission, was a contributor to the Government Superannuation Fund under Part 2 or 2A of the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956.
A person to whom subsection (1) applies is, for the purposes of the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956, deemed to be employed in the Government service, and that Act applies to the person as if his or her service as an employee of the Commission were Government service.
A person ceases to be deemed to be employed in the Government service when that person ceases to be employed by the Commission.
Section 77 does not entitle a person to become a contributor to the Government Superannuation Fund if the person has (since being employed by the Commission) ceased to be a contributor.
For the purposes of applying the Government Superannuation Fund Act 1956 to a person referred to in section 77, the Commission is the controlling authority in relation to that person.
whether any amendments to this Act are necessary or desirable.
present a copy of the report to the House of Representatives.
The New Zealand Walkways Act 1990 (1990 No 32) is repealed.
The Acts specified in the Schedule are amended in the manner indicated in that schedule.
Definition of walkway in section 2(1): repeal.
Section 6B(1): omit “the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990,” in each place where it appears.
Section 17C(1): omit “the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990,” .
Section 17D(1): omit “the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990,” .
Item relating to the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990 in Schedule 1: omit.
Paragraph (a) of the definition of protective mechanism in section 2: omit “section 8 of the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990” and substitute “sections 26 to 29 of the Walking Access Act 2008” .
Heading above section 59: omit “of Minister of Conservation” .
Heading to section 59: omit “of Minister of Conservation” .
Section 59(a): omit “Reserves Act 1977,” and substitute “Reserves Act 1977 or” .
Section 59(a): omit “or section 8 of the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990” .
Section 80(3): omit “section 8 of the New Zealand Walkways Act 1990” and substitute “sections 26 to 29 of the Walking Access Act 2008” .
Section 80(3)(a)(ii): omit “Director-General of Conservation” and substitute “New Zealand Walking Access Commission (established by section 6 of that Act)” .
Schedule 1: insert in its appropriate alphabetical order “Walking Access Act 2008” .
Paragraph (l) of the definition of public place in section 2(1): omit “section 2 of the New Zealand Walkways Act 1975” and substitute “section 4 of the Walking Access Act 2008” .
This is a reprint of the Walking Access Act 2008 that incorporates all the amendments to that Act as at the date of the last amendment to it.
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2019-04-22T07:12:12Z
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http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2008/0101/latest/whole.html
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The flags of the 28 NATO member countries flap in the wind in front of headquarters in Brussels.
A pro-European protest held in Kiev in 2013 embodied the willing nature of the Ukrainian democratic movement, however as of yet Ukraine has been unable to translate this into a successful and stable regime.
A group of unmarked soldiers conduct a routine patrol at the Simferopol Airport in Crimea. These “little green men,” as they were referred to by the media, were later identified as members of the Russian armed forces.
Leaders from Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine gathered to sign the documents dissolving the Soviet Union and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 8, 1991.
Robert Hunter is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 1993 to 1998, as well as U.S. representative to the Western European Union. He was Director of the Center for Transatlantic Security Studies at NDU from 2010 to 2012.
NATO has been only one of the many instruments and political-security efforts designed to deal with problems of power in Europe. The modern history of this subject can be said to have begun with the end of the Napoleonic wars, when the Congress of Vienna fashioned a set of understandings that, based on the overarching concept of the balance of power, largely kept the peace on the continent until 1914, when it fell with a crash that led to the most cataclysmic war (to that time) in European history. The collapse that led to the Great War had many causes, but perhaps none so important—and certainly none so consequential for the aftermath—as the problem of German power. This had emerged with full force upon the completion of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s project to forge a more or less united Germany, with the final phase in the period between 1867 and 1871. From that time until 1945 (with a hiatus from 1918 until the late 1930s, or the “phony peace”), dealing with the “German problem” was central to forging arrangements that could bring some reasonable predictability and a method of preventing a radical imbalance of power (and hence the risk of a major European war). These efforts, too, failed and cataclysmically so. After the Second World War, one of the central problems on the continent was how to deal with the future of German power.
One key objective, shared by all the nations of Europe and extending into the time of the division of Europe between East and West, was to keep Germany from again being a principal source of instability and potential conflict in Europe—in other words, to “keep Germany down,” in the oft-quoted phrase attributed to Lord Ismay, NATO’s First Secretary General.2 Furthermore, once the lines of division in Europe solidified, with Germany divided between the American, British, and French occupation zones on one side and the Soviet zone (later becoming the separate nations of West Germany and East Germany) on the other, there was tacit East-West agreement to keep the country divided—one of the few things on which all could agree.
But concern about growing German power from 1867 onward was not the only problem plaguing Europe. Beginning in the mid-1940s, there was awareness of Soviet power in the heart of the continent—awareness that had been building for some time, certainly from the solidification of Bolshevik control in Russia and the formal creation of the Soviet Union in 1924—that embraced the old Russian empire at close to its furthest historical dimensions. The Second World War and the defeat of Nazi Germany—and especially the central role of Soviet forces in bringing about that defeat—brought Soviet military power and then progressively developing communist control to the middle of Germany, as well as north and south along a line that stretched, as Winston Churchill put it, “[f]rom Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic[.]”3 Thus, the problem of Soviet power overlapped with that of German power from the late 1940s until the end of the Cold War, when further basic transformations took place. First, by the beginning of the 1990s, it became evident that the German “problem” had been “solved,” in large measure because of developments within German society—a truly remarkable event in European history. This “problem” had to of course remain “solved.” Second, the contemporaneous collapse of the Soviet internal and external empires appeared (erroneously) to many observers to be at least a partial solution to the problem of Soviet power in Europe and, more broadly, elsewhere in the world. Indeed, the collapse of these two Soviet empires was the most profound retreat of any major nation’s or empire’s power, without war, in all of recorded peacetime history.
At that time, views regarding Germany’s future coalesced. As Soviet military forces and the resultant political influence were withdrawn from both East Germany and elsewhere in Central Europe, leaders in Moscow swallowed hard and accepted not only that the two halves of Germany could be unified, but also that it could be a member of NATO, subject to some transitional arrangements contained in the so-called Two-Plus-Four Agreement (the two Germanies and the four post-World War II occupying powers).4 In effect, the Soviet Union/Russia had decided (or accepted) to rely on the United States to keep watch over united Germany, in part through embedding it in a Western institution that had its own practices for organizing security relationships and behavior-expectations among allied countries. This embedding was also facilitated by the membership of a united Germany in what is now the European Union.
Even so, added insurance was useful. This was especially important for Germany, as it sought to forestall the reawakening of fears among some Central European peoples and governments. Therefore, when NATO and then the European Community took in new members—most important in the first tranche were Poland and the Czech Republic, which “surrounded” Germany with these two institutions—it helped to ensure that the future economic success of—and perhaps even dominance by—a united Germany would not be perceived as “here comes Germany again,” but rather as “here are NATO and the European Union.” The same logic applied to the creation of the euro: the German economy would still be uppermost (and it continues to be so in Europe), but a visible instrument of that predominance would not be the deutschmark. Notably, the leading architect of these particular insurance policies was Helmut Kohl, who served as Chancellor of both West Germany (1982-1990) and of a reunified Germany (1990-1998).
This analysis is important background to the entry of the United States as a European power, first episodically (1917-1919 and 1943-1946) and then continually from the late 1940s onward. The third U.S. engagement was derived in part from memories of what had happened after the United States left Europe following the First World War; it was also stimulated by emerging concerns that the rapid withdrawal of the overwhelming bulk of U.S. forces from the continent after the end of World War II could lead to exploitation by the Soviet Union. Of course, that conclusion was not immediately obvious and did not reflect a consensus at the time. Indeed, there is still some debate about whether there had to be a division of Europe and a Cold War with the Soviet Union. That point is raised here because it is relevant to current circumstances. Is it possible for leaders (and nations) to live with an anomalous situation in terms of relations involving powerful states—a powerful Soviet Union in the late 1940s and today’s resurgent Russia—or is the cliché “nature abhors a vacuum” (of power) too psychologically compelling? Is this the case even in circumstances where solidifying lines of division and requiring certainty in calculations about relationships could be antithetical to the securing of national interests? It is no accident that many of those in both the United States and, presumably, Russia who talk about a “new Cold War” come from the ranks of those who fought the first Cold War. These individuals were then reassured by the confidence and predictability conferred by the existence of a stable, more or less rigid, and overarching paradigm of East-West confrontation, as opposed to the anomalous and psychologically unsettling situation of a “paradigm gap”5 in U.S. foreign policy following the disappearance of the Soviet Union.
In the late 1940s, the United States came to believe that, without a reassertion of American power on the continent on a lasting, rather than an episodic, basis, Soviet power (both geopolitical and ideological-economic) was likely to prevail across Europe, to the detriment of U.S. interests and values, as well as those of the European liberal democracies.9 It is important to note that the establishment of American power in Europe did not happen overnight but was progressive10, and that it also involved both public and private sector elements.11 Revival of democratic politics (and opposition to communist politics, especially in France and Italy) went hand in hand with economic revival.
It was only near the end of the decade that these political and economic efforts appeared to be insufficient as Soviet power and influence were being consolidated farther east. There was a growing belief that the United States had to make a strategic commitment to the continent to promote confidence on the part of what were becoming known as West European countries. As such, in signing the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949, the United States for the first time committed itself permanently to the defense of other countries.12 Even so, the North Atlantic Treaty contains no automatic commitment by any ally to come to the defense of another signatory against “armed aggression.” Rather, in the words of Article 5, each of the Allies is obligated to take “such action as it deems necessary.”13 At U.S. insistence, sovereignty was and continues to be fully preserved. (It is not for nothing that the North Atlantic Council takes all decisions by consensus, which in itself conveys strength, not weakness. When the Council has taken a decision, including for the use of military force, no allied country has ever gone against that decision, even though no NATO operation has ever included all of the Allies. NATO has always operated militarily as a “coalition of the willing,” though not in terms of the political commitment to stand together).
Even so, the U.S. commitment to the security of its initial 11 Allies was political—a strategic commitment without any tangible manifestation at first. However, critically important despite that limitation—especially as measured against the historic reluctance of the United States and the American people to make such a commitment—was the fact that it received bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate.14 It was only after the start of the Korean War in June 1950, which seemed to show that the Soviet Union was prepared to use military force to advance its geopolitical ambitions, that NATO was militarized. Indeed, Allied Command Europe only came into being almost two years to the day (April 2, 1951) after the North Atlantic Treaty was signed.
This review is important because it presages so much of what happened at the end of the Cold War, as well as what is happening now.15 The process in the late 1980s and the early 1990s was remarkably similar to what had happened in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and consisted of an amalgam of politics, economics, strategic commitment, and military forces and institutions. It is this process and its relevance to the problem of dealing with Russian power in Europe today that is the focus of the balance of this article. Further, given the centrality of the problem of Russian power, the article will not explore other key aspects of the development of NATO, including the so-called “out of area” issues, extending beyond Europe and into the Middle East and North Africa, or critical security issues on the continent, including the influx of refugees and other migrants that is posing the most severe crisis for the EU in decades.
The most remarkable thing about NATO in the post-Cold War period was that it continued on, something that historically does not happen to alliances when the war is over. Equally remarkable was that the United States did not leave Europe, either by taking out all of its military forces16 or—more importantly, in fact—by in any way slackening its strategic commitment to the continent.
Why the United States sustained such a strong European commitment is more complex. The United States was then and continues to be, in NATO jargon, the “800-pound gorilla.” Without going into the full history of what transpired, there was the memory of what had happened at earlier moments when the United States had withdrawn strategically and militarily from the continent. More significantly, Europe continued to be important to the United States, although following the end of the Cold War this was denominated more in economic and other non-military terms than militarily. There was also strategic security business to be done, both to ensure that the great challenge to European security, the Soviet Union, was indeed fractured beyond repair, as at the same time its forces were being withdrawn, and to help restructure relations among countries that were emerging or reemerging from decades of suppression under Soviet power and tutelage.18 While it cannot be quantified, the United States has learned over the years that its strategic commitment to European security, however that may be defined in any period, buys it a lot of political and economic influence. In short, it gets cut a lot of slack by Allies simply because it can be relied upon to be ready and willing to help if there are security-related troubles. Indeed, testing whether that proposition continues to be true and, if so, to what degree and in what forms, is one of the key conundrums facing the Alliance at the moment and is likely to be so for the foreseeable future. The United States at the end of the Cold War confirmed itself as a European power; the extent to which it will continue playing that role lies at the heart of many of the challenges that face the West, including the future and value of NATO.
The reconstruction of European security and other developments made possible by the end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the internal and external Russian empires, and the withdrawal of most of Russian military and strategic capacity from Central Europe all have many fathers and mothers, as is true of most great historical developments.19 One such “father,” as noted earlier, was certainly Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl. But perhaps the most important was U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who argued in Mainz, Germany, as early as May 1989 (six months before the opening of the Berlin Wall), for a “Europe whole and free,” later supplemented with the words “and at peace.”20 It may be that President Bush did not himself at the time understand the full import of what he was proposing. These few words constituted a basic grand strategy for the United States and the West in Europe and set forth an ambition that has never been realized in European history.
Beginning to break down walls between NATO and the European Union, operating on the principle that “security” in Europe would be as much as, if not more than, about economic and political developments—that is, democracy—as about military matters.23 The EU would thus necessarily play an instrumental role in economics and politics that had proved so successful in Western Europe during the previous four decades. The Western ambition at the start of the 1990s was to extend this principle and practice into countries suddenly coming out from under Soviet influence and control. There were even hopes that this could happen in Russia.
The principal reason for listing these core parts of the new grand strategy is to denote that each element related to a fundamental objective of European security, including America’s interest in it. They show the intersection and interaction of political, economic, and security (military) factors, in a symbiotic relationship, as had been true from the onset of the Cold War. Of course, the private sector also has had a major role to play. Indeed, one reason for the continuing strength of transatlantic ties is that economic relations between the United States and the EU countries, in both public and private sectors, are closer to balance both in terms of trade and balance of payments, as well as in cross-border investments and ownership, than is true, in particular, with China, and as was true at the time of U.S. concerns with Japanese economic competition.
President George H.W. Bush’s vision, as elaborated both during the balance of his administration and in much of the Clinton administration, was also to try achieving something even more fundamental in terms of relations among states, especially given Europe’s often painful and tragic history: to try to move beyond two historic practices, namely the balance of power and spheres of influence. This was a tall order and, in fact, this transformation has so far proved to be unattainable, though at first there did seem to be some promise of doing so and it remains a goal worth pursuing.
Key to achieving the strategic elements of the overarching grand strategy was and still is dealing effectively with the great problem of power on the continent that remained after the end of the Cold War: the future of Russia. Clearly, making it possible to avoid a reintroduction of spheres of influence and balance of power politics, as well as the risks of renewed challenges to European security writ large, would require incorporating Russia into a larger framework. More than any other, it is this problem that has not been solved, nor is there currently much prospect of achieving that goal, if it can be at all, at least for the foreseeable future. Indeed, from the time “Europe whole and free and at peace” was proposed as an organizing principle for Europe, three criteria regarding Russia had to be fulfilled: 1) there would not be an onset of serious revanchism in Russia; 2) Russia would have to abstain from trying to establish suzerainty over countries in its neighborhood;24 and 3) any new arrangements in European security could not be at the expense of the security or other legitimate interests of any European country (including Russia and every other European nation) or of the continued operation of the NATO Alliance25, including the critical continued engagement of the United States.
Part of the problem has been the way in which the different elements of the grand strategy, as unpacked here, have been pursued.26 The most critical efforts have had to deal with the triple issues of: 1) taking Central European states off the geopolitical chessboard; 2) making a place for Ukraine, without either its falling under the sway of Russia or its premature, formal incorporation in Western institutions such that Russia would have legitimate (not “neo-imperial”) cause for concern; and 3) not isolating Russia, but rather trying to draw it productively into the outside world, and more particularly the West, without its either threatening or being threatened by others.
NATO’s most important effort to try squaring these various circles was to create the Partnership for Peace (PFP).27 Given the differing interests found within the West, in particular on the part of national institutions (for example, the military), PFP coalesced around three basic purposes: 1) to help transform and “socialize” the militaries of non-NATO member countries that joined PFP and, building on the inculcation of Western standards and practices, to have a positive impact on broader society; 2) to help aspirant countries prepare themselves for possible NATO membership so they could be “producers and not just consumers of security;”28 and 3) to help countries that would never (or not soon) join NATO as full Allies to advance their security capabilities, work with NATO, and, in the process, fall within the “penumbra” of NATO engagement, though without the benefit of the Washington Treaty’s Article 5 security guarantees.29 Further, it was decided that any countries that belonged to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) could join PFP and also NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and thus presumably have a chance for Alliance membership.30 That definition included all of the so-called neutral and non-aligned countries, all components of the former Yugoslavia, and all components of the former Soviet Union—thus defining as “European” countries as far afield as Kyrgyzstan!
For many officials and commentators in the West and, in particular, in the United States, these arrangements, taken together with other steps, constituted a new set of understandings about the future of power in Europe and a way to avoid reversion to the kind of difficulties that had led to the two great wars of the 20th century and the Cold War.
But whether what has transpired could have been different does have bearing on what might be possible in the future. In particular, is there anything the West, especially the United States, can do to deal with Russian power in Europe, while fully preserving Western interests, without simply accepting the need to confront the Putin administration for as long as is necessary, presumably until there is some change within the Russian government, economy, and society analogous to the developments that led the Soviet Union to dissolve?
This article will prescribe a number of steps for the United States, NATO, and other Western countries and institutions to take now or in the near future to ameliorate the current problem of Russian power in Europe.36 First, however, it is necessary to examine things that have been done over the last several years that contributed to the current imbroglio. They can at least be instructive as illustrative “thou shalt nots” for the future, on both sides.
With his seizure of Crimea in February 2014 and the extension of Russian military activities (both direct and indirect) into other parts of Ukraine, President Putin’s Russia is clearly violating agreements that bind the country, notably the Helsinki Final Act of 197537 and the Budapest memorandum of 1994.38 Moscow has also not fulfilled its commitments regarding Ukraine under the so-called Minsk II Agreement.39 Russia’s direct military actions within Ukraine have been supplemented by activities in other spheres and in other places in Central Europe, notably cyber attacks, manipulation of energy markets, economic penetration, and either direct or indirect propaganda and efforts to subvert democratic practices and institutions. These efforts also supplement what Putin and others have done to reduce the chances for development of liberal democratic politics and society in Russia—a subject that is indicative of parallel attitudes toward matters of Russia’s projection of power beyond its borders.
This understanding needs to start with recognition that it is incorrect to argue that Russia has been violating agreed norms of the post-Cold War world in Europe and a new order (other than violation of particular treaty commitments). Since Russia has not in fact been involved in creation of such norms and order, it cannot be said to be in violation. This is a key point that is generally ignored by critics of Putin’s behavior who stigmatize what he has been doing. We do not like it, and we can and do oppose it, but he has not gone against some agreed-upon understandings, since such understandings could not exist in the absence of serious Russian participation in framing them. This is a basic principle of statecraft and a lesson for the future.
Following the period when the United States and other Western countries believed that an effective system of security relationships had been put in place for Europe, several Western and especially U.S. actions, particularly under President George W. Bush, could reasonably have been viewed by Moscow, under any leadership, as pushing it aside or at least as not taking its legitimate interests into account. In effect, from the latter part of the Clinton administration through the next two U.S. administrations, President George H.W. Bush’s ambition to try including Russia fully in development of European security was largely ignored. Russia (the Soviet Union) had lost the Cold War, so the reasoning went, and it could be marginalized or at least accorded minor status in deliberations about the future of Europe. The first part of this statement is true (the Soviets lost the Cold War); the second (Russia could be ignored) helped to sow the wind. Ukraine, more than any other country, has reaped the resultant whirlwind.
Two other Western steps played into Russian suspicions. The first was the U.S. decision, eventually blessed by NATO, to deploy anti-ballistic missile sites in Central Europe. These are designed to defend against North Korean missiles and those that Iran might develop at some point in the distant future—the latter rationale being advanced on security grounds but in fact essentially reflecting U.S. domestic politics. The U.S. has argued that these missile defenses would in no way impact Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal—that is, eroding mutually assured destruction. In fact, the U.S. is correct in its reasoning, and Russian analysts know it. But that is not the point. As viewed from Moscow, the United States was showing it could act militarily at will in Central Europe, regardless of what the Russians might say, and, in the process, go against the spirit (though not the letter46) of the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act.
More important, however, was NATO’s declaration at its April 2008 Bucharest summit that “[Ukraine and Georgia] will become members of NATO.”47 This was designed as a face-saving device for U.S. President George W. Bush when several European members were not prepared to give these two countries even a non-committal Membership Action Plan, pointing toward potential NATO membership at some unspecified point in the future, but without any guarantee that it would in fact occur. Unfortunately, the wording of the summit declaration could only be read—however unwittingly it was drafted—as the actual formal commitment by the Allies (“they will become members”) to the security of these two countries against external aggression under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili read NATO’s declaration that way and tested the proposition in South Ossetia. Vladimir Putin also obviously read the NATO declaration the same way and slapped Georgia down in a short conflict. Given that no NATO ally came to Georgia’s military defense, the Bucharest declaration proved to be worse than useless, not just by showing that no ally truly saw Georgia as a future NATO member, but also by implicitly calling into question the worth of Article 5.
The United States In. The United States needs to remain deeply engaged as a European power. This is so in part because the basic U.S. grand strategy toward Europe, from April 1917 onward, is essentially unchanged. Clearly, the potential challenge from Russia to the continent as a whole is not what it was during the Cold War. Nevertheless, most of the states on Russia’s western periphery, not just Ukraine, are deeply concerned, and they would be even more so if none of them had become members of NATO. Of course, this statement begs the question whether, without NATO enlargement and other Western steps that ignored legitimate Russian interests, Putin would have taken the steps he did against Ukraine and also, less directly, against a number of other Central European states. But “better safe than sorry” is a good principle when history cannot be undone or “tested” in a controlled experiment.
Further, there is a common understanding in Europe that no matter how much military capacity any European country has, none, even in combination, would be able to deal with a Russia determined to have its way in this area, for example, against one or more Baltic States. The United States remains indispensable. Indeed, even after the Cold War, the European Allies have worked assiduously to keep the United States engaged strategically on the continent—with “strategically” defined more in terms of political commitment than in actual deployment of military forces (though interest in the return to Europe of some U.S. forces has risen since the beginning of Russian actions against Ukraine). Insuring continued U.S. strategic commitment to Europe was a major reason that the Allies responded so promptly and strongly after the U.S. was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001, which led, the next day, to NATO’s only ever invocation of Article 5 (without a request from the United States to do so). Further, when the United States sought European (and other) support for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, every single NATO Ally, as well as a number of PFP partners, sent military forces and other security personnel. Arguably, almost all of them did so not because they felt threatened at home by Taliban-instigated terrorism, but rather to help ensure that the United States would come to their aid if need be—and the “need be” has meant, more than anything else, a potential threat from Russia. Thus it is natural that the Allies, whether those directly in the potential line of fire from Russia or others more remote within Europe, want the U.S. to be prepared to redeem this implicit bargain.
Remember Europe. The United States must show that it has not reduced its interest in Europe. It does not take much imagination or insight to realize that the attention paid by the U.S. Government to Europe generally has been slackening over the years, especially after the completion of NATO’s restructuring during the 1990s, followed by the U.S.-led military actions in Bosnia and over Kosovo.50 Though some reordering of U.S. global priorities between the time of operations in Kosovo (1999) and Russia’s seizure of Crimea (2014) was clearly merited, this did become a matter of concern to Europeans when the U.S. announced that it would undertake a “rebalancing” to Asia. This was a natural development that derived from shifts in global economics and, thus, in some degree geopolitics. The United States has long been a power in both the Pacific and the Atlantic, and did not isolate itself from the Western Pacific in the 1920s and 1930s to the degree it did from Europe. The United States thus correctly believes itself able to “walk and chew gum at the same time.” Nevertheless, concern developed in Europe about an excessive shift in U.S. attention and thus possibly reduced readiness to respond to perceptions of insecurity regarding Russian power in Europe.
This sense that the United States might not be as willing to engage in Europe or that it may not be making intelligent judgments was compounded by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which provoked the worst crisis ever within the NATO Alliance and which has presented major problems for the West ever since.51 There has also been concern expressed about the manner in which the military campaign against Muammar Gadhafi’s Libya was conducted52, as a problem more of perception (U.S. “leading from behind”) than of reality, considering the critical role of American airpower in that conflict. Furthermore, there has been a common belief in recent years (at least up until events in Crimea and even to a significant extent afterward) that Washington has been less interested in exercising leadership in Europe than in the past. Given the many uncertainties regarding Russian intentions, this is not a good message for United States to send to its Allies.
Striking a balance. It is also important to differentiate between Western efforts to reassure Central European countries and actions that would contribute little to actually affecting Putin’s calculations, but which, by contrast, he can represent to the Russian people as further evidence that Russia is being “surrounded” by the West or is being “disrespected” and denied its “proper place in the sun.” As argued above, the West, and particularly the United States, has been derelict in this regard, although it is not possible to prove whether the series of U.S. errors has been instrumental in helping to determine Putin’s projections of Russian military power against Ukraine and indirectly elsewhere in Central Europe. The NATO Allies need to be mindful of the spirit as well as the letter of the NATO-Russia Founding Act, as well as its original purposes, in deciding what to do militarily in terms of deployments and bases. Balances need to be struck. To be sure, Russia is in default on treaty commitments, but the circumstances of perception are not symmetrical. Putin uses what the West does in his domestic propaganda, which is all the more psychologically compelling given that it must be clear to all attentive Russians that their country is indeed inferior in most of the constituent elements of national power and influence. Something similar relates to the imposition of sanctions on the Russian economy, in hopes that domestic political pressures will cause Putin to change course. Maybe they will, but Western calculations reflect at least in part the tendency to see in economic sanctions greater capacity to change behavior than is borne out by historical experience, except on rare occasions. Furthermore, if a nation’s leadership considers that something truly important is at stake, sanctions almost always fail. The West does have to calculate that, at least in the short-term, sanctions that affect the average Russian can be used by Putin for anti-Western domestic propaganda. Indeed, imposing sanctions is classically more of a “feel good” option when others are not attractive than a serious effort to achieve goals.
Remember first principles. In seeking to deal with the problem of Russian power in Europe, both now and later, it is important to revert to first principles of the 1940s: that military instruments are only one element in the overall mix for mobilization of Western power and influence, both absolute and countervailing. Politics (including support for democracy) in Central European states is a critical factor, as is economics—in both the public and private sectors. Indeed, the “hollowing out” of the Soviet Union was accomplished less by Western military power (which proved to be the shield) than by economic power and political example (the sword). Something similar might also prove to be true regarding Russia’s future. (This is the case for sanctions). The roles of political and economic factors are even more applicable to Ukraine, where entrenched corruption helps to facilitate Russia’s intervention, notably because of the impact of corruption on Ukraine’s economic and political failures. The failure of Ukrainian liberal democratic politics goes along with lagging Western investment in the country, as well as Kyiv’s unwillingness to consider arrangements that will grant significant autonomy to Russian-ethnic and Russian-speaking regions. In short, dealing with the problem of Russian power overall requires a package of instruments, approaches, and attitudes that emphasize inherent Western strengths57 and needs to include steps by Ukraine that focus on its future success as a nation. The same is true in other Central European states that are lagging behind in economic and democratic development.
Rethinking NATO Enlargement. Even if there were to emerge further credible threats from the Russian Federation toward its Western neighbors, the Alliance needs to consider carefully the pace and extent of further membership enlargement under Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty. The Allies have already accepted that they will cope with the added administrative, political, and even military integration challenges posed by having many more members than before. But calculations also need to be made about what added security is truly to be gained, especially by countries in Central Europe that are not “in the line of fire” from Russia, so to speak. Every country within Europe proper that could have legitimate concerns about the need for Article 5 strategic-military guarantees against potential aggression is already a member of the Alliance.58 It can, in fact, be argued that there has already been too much NATO enlargement, at least prior to further attempts to see whether Russia could be included in a mutually advantageous and mutual security-producing way in a “Europe whole and free.” Of course, most Central European states remain under the illusion that they can truly be full members of the West and attractive to Western investment only by being members of NATO. This is not the case; rather, they must undertake necessary internal economic, political, and social reforms.59 PFP and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (along with steps by the EU) put countries in the Western “family”; increasing NATO membership at this point is likely on balance to be counterproductive in terms of overall security and other requirements, especially in dealing with the problem of Russian power and Putin’s domestic exploitation of NATO’s expansion. Of course, this also means that Finland and Sweden should continue their current non-membership relationships with NATO, rather than seeking to join. That would serve no useful purpose either for them or for the Alliance.
Instruments of Western power and influence: integration and balance. The requirements of dealing intelligently and effectively with the problem of Russian power in Europe has now demonstrated beyond argument the critical requirement that NATO and the European Union finally break down remaining barriers to their cooperation with one another, and not just those that involve the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy. The problems facing Europe and the United States do not arrange themselves according to neat institutional lines, but rather will require broad understanding of interconnections and the need for coordinated responses. It is nonsense that three countries—Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus—have been able to stymie developments in NATO-EU cooperation that should have been achieved two decades ago. Further, it is now necessary to have a method—a political-level process—that will foster integrated Western analysis and action across the full range of political, economic, and strategic (including military) matters. This needs to include analysis of the best uses of scarce resources. NATO has developed a goal of two percent of GDP spending on defense by each Ally, a goal that few Allies are able to meet. In fact, as argued above, the role of NATO conventional military forces would be limited in dealing with a projection of Russian military power in Europe if Moscow were to do more than it already is doing.61 More relevant (and thus likely to be more efficacious for the West over time) is to provide substantial resources to help build up economies (especially that of Ukraine) that are vulnerable to Russian inroads. It is therefore far better for the NATO nations to set a standard for contributions to security overall rather than military spending, perhaps even a higher level of effort than two percent of GDP. Indeed, even if all of the NATO Allies met the goal of two percent of GDP in military spending, it would likely be of marginal value in deterring or countering any further hostile Russian intentions in Central Europe.62 A commitment to a broader definition of security, however, focusing especially on the economic realm, could have a significant impact.
At the same time, increased military and related activities designed to dissuade Russia from further adventures against Ukraine and other parts of Central Europe must not, in the West’s overall interests, lead it to drift into a permanent confrontation with Russia as a byproduct of taking those actions that are necessary, unless Russia makes such a permanent confrontation unavoidable which, at this juncture, seems unlikely. Indeed, the original idea of Partnership for Peace (and EU analogues)—that participation by every “European” country is possible and even desirable—needs to apply here as well. This is not to be naïve or to expect that Russia will want to participate in institutions and processes that it has had no role in designing anytime soon. It is also possible that Putin has already decided that maximizing Russian advantages, whatever the penalties, is the best course to pursue. Clearly, he has to decide the balance of risks and benefits, especially regarding the potential long-term isolation of the Russian Federation from deep engagement in the outside world, where poor choices made by the Soviet Union ultimately led to its self-defeat and fall from the ranks of great powers. In the meantime, however, the West needs to make its own calculations regarding whether it might, in time, be possible to develop with all the countries of Europe a workable approach to the problem of Russian power that is also supportive of Western interests. This goal should be kept in mind in designing and implementing efforts for existing, reformed, and possibly new institutions.
In general, there needs to be balance between acting where necessary against unacceptable assertions of Russian power and seeking opportunities to engage Russia productively, if at some point it will be prepared to do so, rather than the West’s concluding now that Moscow will continue to choose the ultimately self-defeating path of single-country aggrandizement. A major risk in the alternative to such a search for possible cooperation, of course, is the development of a rigid approach, the over-militarization of responses, and the playing into Putin’s hands (for as long as the Russian leadership pursues current policies and approaches in Central Europe) with regard to his using Western actions to convince the Russian public that their country is being denigrated and treated with far less respect than Russians believe it merits as a (putative) great power.
Moving onward? Finally, in judging approaches for a long-term strategy regarding the problem of Russian power in Europe, it is important not to lose sight of an “off ramp” from what Putin has been doing. That includes not exaggerating Russian capabilities, military and otherwise, and not forgetting lessons from retrospective analysis of Cold War developments, including, perhaps most critically, that viewing military capabilities as a good predictor of political intentions can be self-defeating and even dangerous. Furthermore, it is perhaps most important that current debates not lead to a solidification of views in the West, especially in the United States, that Russian behavior is irremediable or that it must be confronted for the indefinite future, perhaps in a new Cold War. The risks of self-fulfilling prophecy are all too real, especially when viewed in terms of the tendency of human nature to desire sharp lines of division and even, as so often appears in U.S. debate, a division between “good guys” and “bad guys.” Currently, Putin is quite willing to play his part as the villain, and he may see his stature in Russia rising as a result. But it would be a profound mistake for the West to take this as an invitation to create a new line of division within Europe and to condemn ourselves to another lengthy period of self-defeating confrontation or worse.
Attitudes in the West will be critical and must include self-confidence and a willingness to engage Russia where that can be both advantageous to the West and also mutually attractive and beneficial.63 This does not mean neglecting what Putin has done so far; that cannot—and must not—be ignored. But it is also important to be intelligent in judging what is to be done rather than ceding the initiative to Putin. A good place to begin looking for potential opportunities is in the 19 areas of potential NATO-Russian cooperation contained in the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act.64 These areas of potential cooperation should include the NATO-Russia Council if Russia is prepared to engage seriously to mutual benefit—a testing ground of its intentions. At some point, there could be consideration of supplementary security arrangements.
1 Because of NATO’s current central concerns with Russia, this article will focus primarily on NATO’s role in continental Europe: in particular, its collective defense function, less so its crisis management and cooperative security functions. See: “Chicago Summit Declaration Issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Chicago on 20 May 2012,” <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_87593.htm?selectedLocale=en>.
2 “Lord Ismay Quotes,” Goodreads, <https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4322359.Lord_Ismay>.
3 See: “Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech,” <http://www.westminster-mo.edu/explore/history-traditions/IronCurtainSpeech.html>.
5 The author coined this term in about 1992.
6 The United States was in effect adopting the view propounded by Professor Halford J. Mackinder of the London School of Economics, often paraphrased that whoever controls the heartland of Europe controls the world. See: “The Geographical Pivot of History,” The Geographical Journal 23, no. 4 (April 1904), <http://www.thinkorbebeaten.com/Library/M/MacKinder’s%20Heartland%20Theory.pdf>.
7 This is particularly evident in negotiations on trade deals, even though the Treaty of Rome invests this authority in the European Commission (Article 113). The United States will seek advantages from one or another European country, a common practice in diplomacy.
8 Robert E. Hunter, The European Security and Defense Policy: NATO’s Companion or Competitor? (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2001), <http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1463/MR1463.fore.pdf>.
9 Notably, the United Kingdom played a major role in seeking the engagement of U.S. power permanently in Europe. The British Labour government helped to inspire what became the Marshall Plan and took the lead in creating, through the March 1948 Brussels Treaty, the Western Union (which later evolved into the Western European Union and, today, CSDP), which was instrumental in fostering America’s lead in developing the North Atlantic Treaty (Treaty of Washington) of April 1949.
10 Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s now historic speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946, proclaiming the onset of an “Iron Curtain,” was widely criticized in the United States and it can be argued even now that he was premature. It is also interesting to note that Churchill had previously apparently tried to cut a deal with Joseph Stalin on the future of the Continent. See: Winston S. Churchill, “Sinews of Peace” (speech, Westminster College, Fulton, MO, March 5, 1946), National Churchill Museum, <https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/sinews-of-peace-iron-curtain-speech.html>. On U.S. responses to the speech, as reported to the Foreign Office in London by the British Embassy in Washington, see: Paul Halsell, “Winston S. Chuchill’s ‘Iron Curtain Speech’ march 5 1946, joseph Stalin’s response, and British Foreign Office assessment of speech impact,” The Internet Modern History Sourcebook, 1997, <http://nebraskastudies.org/0900/media/0901_0102iron.pdf>. On Churchill’s diplomacy with Stalin, in which he purportedly tried to work out Anglo-Soviet arrangements for Europe, without the United States, before he turned to pursuing the engagement of the United States, see: Fraser J. Harbutt, Yalta 1945: Europe and America at the Crossroads (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
11 Many of the architects of this role for U.S. power and presence in Europe were major private sector figures. See: Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1994).
12 “Treaty of Alliance with France,” February 6, 1778, <https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=008/llsl008.db&recNum=19>.
13 North Atlantic Treaty Organization, The North Atlantic Treaty: Article 5, Washington D.C., April 4, 1949, <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm>.
15 The intervening period is far less interesting or instructive for the future and will not be dwelt on here.
16 Though in the summer and fall of 1990, most of the U.S. forces stationed in Europe departed for the Persian Gulf after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, never to return. See: John R. Galvin, Fighting the Cold War (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2015): 404-413.
17 Of course, there were exceptions. Greece and Turkey still have special preoccupations with one another. And some allied countries with interests beyond Europe, notably France in francophone Africa, have continued to look in that direction as well as, and often in distinction to, engagements with allies in Europe or across the Atlantic.
18 For East Germans, the history of suppression that ended in 1989-1990 began in 1933 under the Nazis, for the Baltic States in 1940, for other parts of the Former Soviet Union from many years earlier, and for most of Central Europe from the end of World War II or later in the 1940s.
19 Mikhail Gorbachev, for example, must be considered to be one of those “fathers.” Yuri Arbatov, Director of the Institute for USA and Canada Studies—the semiofficial Soviet liaison to Western research institutions during the Cold War—commented laconically that, “We are going to do something terrible to you…You will no longer have an enemy.” Of course, it can be argued that Vladimir Putin has reversed the process by again giving the West an enemy. See: “Georgi Arbatov,” The Telegraph, November 14, 2010, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8132697/Georgi-Arbatov.html>.
20 George H. W. Bush, “A Europe Whole and Free” (speech, Mainz, Federal Republic of Germany, May 31, 1989), <http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/ga6-890531.htm>.
21 Notably, Germany took the lead on NATO enlargement and on what became the NATO-Russia Founding Act, although the NATO draft of that Act was written mostly in Washington.
22 Notable in this regard was article 231 of the Versailles Treaty: “The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.” Ironically, it was written by two young Americans at the conference, John Foster Dulles and Norman Davis, the former of whom was later secretary of state, the latter president of the. Council on Foreign Relations. See: Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (New York: Random House, 2003).
24 See: Matthew J. Ouimet, The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy, (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
25 That would also have to include operations of the European Union.
26 Many of the steps taken will not be discussed here, notably the structure of NATO forces, levels of funding and defense investment, burden-sharing among allies, and practical relations between NATO and the EU, because they are less central to the basic problem of power on which this article is focusing.
27 This is only shorthand. See: Partnership for Peace Programme, <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50349.htm?selectedLocale=en>.
30 See, for example: Warren Christopher, “A New Atlantic Community for the 21st Century,” address at the State Theater in Stuttgart, Germany, September 6, 1996, <http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/briefing/dispatch/1996/html/Dispatchv7no37.html>.
31 One matter has always been the “criteria” for being accepted as a member of NATO. Many ideas have been advanced and many hoops designed for aspirants to jump through. In fact, however, there is only one criterion for NATO membership: whether all the existing members of the alliance are prepared to extend an Article 5 security commitment. The rest is procedural fluff.
32 The details of these decisions, formally taken at NATO’s Madrid Summit, need not be discussed for the purposes of this analysis. See “NATO Summit” (Madrid, Spain: July 8-9, 1997), <http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/1997/970708/home.htm>.
33 Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation (Paris, France: May 27, 1997), <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm>.
34 Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Ukraine, July 9, 1997, <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_25457.htm>.
35 See, for example: Stephen Kotkin, “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics: Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2016.
36 Given the limitations of the subject and other articles in this edition of PRISM, this article will also not deal with the possible results of sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation or on the complexities regarding Russia’s engagement in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, including the idea that it is trying to “buy itself out of Ukraine sanctions” by being helpful to the United States or, at least in partial contrast, by showing that it can “play in the West’s backyard” in another region, as well.
37 Helsinki Final Act, August 1, 1975, <http://www.osce.org/mc/39501>.
38 “Budapest Memorandums on Security Assurances 1994, December 5, 1994, <http://www.cfr.org/nonproliferation-arms-control-and-disarmament/budapest-memorandums-security-assurances-1994/p32484>.
39 “Full text of the Minsk agreement,” Financial Times, February 12, 2015, <http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/21b8f98e-b2a5-11e4-b234-00144feab7de.html#axzz49ogRGciT>.
40 The author is avoiding the term “Cold War,” which he defines as a circumstance in which two states or coalitions in confrontation are unable to distinguish between issues on which they can engage in potentially productive negotiations and issues where they cannot do so—when virtually everything is “non-negotiable.” That was true during a significant part of the traditional “Cold War.” It is not true now in Western relations with Russia; and thus the concept will be avoided as not likely to contribute to useful analysis and debate and of emotive rather than practical value.
41 See: Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems, Signed Moscow May 26, 1972, <http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/abm/abm2.html>.
42 Putin also criticized the West for military actions against Libya in 2011: “‘When the so-called civilized community, with all its might, pounces on a small country, and ruins infrastructure that has been built over generations—well, I don’t know, is this good or bad?’ Mr. Putin said. ‘I do not like it.’” Ellen Barry, “Putin Criticizes West for Libya Incursion,” The New York Times, April 26, 2011, <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/world/europe/27putin.html?_r=0>.
43 For its part, in 2007, Russia decided to suspend its observance of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. See: Andrew Kramer and Thom Shanker, “Russia Suspends Arms Agreement Over U.S. Shield,” The New York Times, July 15, 2007, <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/world/europe/15russia.htm>. In 2015, it withdrew from the Joint Consultative Group on the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. See: Kathrin Hille and Neil Buckley, “Russia quits arms pact as estrangement with Nato grows,” Financial Times, March 10, 2015, <http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f6c814a6-c750-11e4-9e34-00144feab7de.html#axzz49ogRGciT>.
44 The added member nations were Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
45 NATO did adopt a working principal that no country, referring indirectly to Russia, would be permitted a veto on any decisions that NATO would make about security, including membership decisions.
46 “NATO reiterates that in the current and foreseeable security environment, the Alliance will carry out its collective defense and other missions by ensuring the necessary interoperability, integration, and capability for reinforcement rather than by additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces [emphasis added]. Founding Act, Op.cit.
47 Bucharest Summit Declaration, issued by the Heads of State and governments participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Bucharest, April 3, 2008, <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_8443.htm>.
48 The draft of the European Security Treaty, June 2, 2008, <http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/6152>.
49 Doug Palmer, “Obama signs trade, human rights bill that angers Moscow,” Reuters, December 4, 2012, <http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-obama-idUSBRE8BD12620121214>.
50 NATO’s air campaigns in Bosnia (1995) and Kosovo (1999), followed by the deployment of peacekeeping forces (the Implementation Force and Stabilization Force in Bosnia, and Kosovo Force), were only indirectly related to issues of Russian power in the continent or threats to European security more broadly. They had to be undertaken in response to the most extensive conflicts and human suffering on the European continent since World War II, not just for moral reasons, but also to show that the Western alliance was relevant to real situations, thus to validate all of the efforts to adapt NATO for the future. Had NATO stood aloof from the fighting and dying in Bosnia, it would have lost both political and moral legitimacy. Further, at the time everyone involved in European security agreed that there would be no wider war emanating from events in either Bosnia or Kosovo. Also, in both cases, in the end Russia cooperated with Western countries in helping both conflicts to end and, regarding the NATO-led Bosnia peacekeeping forces, Russian troops played an active role, under U.S. command, for the first such cooperation since U.S. and Soviet forces met on the Elbe River in 1945. By contrast, NATO’s intervention in Kosovo, without a UN Security Council Resolution—which Russia would likely have vetoed, along with China—was one of the elements in Russian calculations that it was not being treated as an “equal” in deliberations concerning European security.
51 As noted, this discussion will not attempt to assess the relationship between Russia’s engagement in Syria and what is happening with regard to Ukraine.
52 For President Obama’s comments on this issue, see: Jeffrey Goldberg, “The Obama Doctrine: The U.S. president talks through his hardest decisions about America’s role in the world,” The Atlantic, April 2016, <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/>.
53 See: Wales Summit Declaration Issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Wales, September 5, 2014, <http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_112964.htm>. Note: this article was completed before the NATO summit in Warsaw in July 2016. It is slated to build upon the decisions taken at Wales and other NATO military steps since then in Central Europe.
55 For example, see: David A. Shlapak and Michael Johnson, “Reinforcing Deterrence on NATO’s Eastern Flank: Wargaming the Defense of the Baltics,” RAND (2016), <http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1253.html>.
56 To be effective, NATO and the United States would have to rely primarily on horizontal as opposed to vertical escalation—that is, to make clear to Russia that it would pay a heavy (“disproportionate”) price elsewhere in the world for unacceptable actions in Central Europe. What that price would be needs to be thought through carefully and relate to the extent possible to Russia’s own calculations of cost and benefit. It is for this reason—a “disproportionate” price—that it is hard to conceive of Putin attacking any NATO member state with military force, or even to seek to occupy major areas of Ukraine, as opposed to lesser “threats”—what NATO now calls “hybrid warfare,” and probably not even that.
57 Thus, surely, comments by the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that Russia poses an “existential threat” to the United States are not only nonsensical and potentially dangerous, they play into paranoia on both sides and reduce the opportunities for either side to move beyond the current imbroglio, even if both sides wanted to do so. See: “‘If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia,’ Dunford said. ‘If you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming.’” See: Dan Lamothe, “Russia is greatest threat to the U.S., says Joint Chiefs chairman nominee Gen. Joseph Dunford,” The Washington Post, July 9, 2015, available at <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/07/09/russia-is-greatest-threat-to-the-u-s-says-joint-chiefs-chairman-nominee-gen-joseph-dunford/>.
58 This definition does not include Georgia and, of course, Moldova and Belarus. But the Allies have already demonstrated by their refusal to support Georgia during its conflict with Russia in 2008 that there will not be a consensus to admit it to NATO.
59 The political and foreign policy backsliding of the current Hungarian government shows the risks of adding countries to the NATO alliance without at the same time imposing continued requirements for democratic development. In 1998, U.S Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Tex.) proposed a mechanism whereby new NATO members, which experienced internal political developments, such as now in Hungary and Poland, could formally be counseled by existing Allies in matters of democracy and governance. The U.S. administration rejected her suggestion, unfortunately as it has transpired.
61 This article will not attempt to deal with the complexities of questions relating to nuclear weapons in Europe, including in the strategies of NATO and the Russian Federation. It is an area for potential arms control negotiations, however.
62 This judgment leaves aside the value of the defense spending goal in convincing the U.S. Congress that the European allies are “pulling their weight,” an issue that has gained added saliency now that NATO has proclaimed the 2 percent goal; it also leaves aside the potential role that increased European defense spending could play in regard to potential military actions “outside of area,” e.g., in the Middle East, if that were to transpire. Ironically, the 2 percent goal actually betokens weakness rather than strength since, as of the writing of this article, only 5 of the alliance’s 29 members meets the goal.
63 Thus Western (including U.S.) cooperation with Russia in the Arctic continues virtually unabated, as being in everyone’s self-interest. This region has been “fenced off” from U.S. restrictions on dealing with Russia, and that position is supported by most federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard. Common perceptions of the threats posed to everyone by climate change may help to explain this cooperation.
64 In May 2002, the NATO Rome Summit agreed with Russia on a new NATO-Russia Council to replace the Permanent Joint Council set up under the 1997 Founding Act. Most important, arrangements would no longer have all the NATO Allies on “one side of the table” and the Russian Federation on the other; henceforth, all members of the NRC would be treated as equals, with veto power over decisions. The 19 areas of potential NATO-Russia cooperation remained the same. See: NATO-Russia Council, 2002 Rome Summit, May 28, 2002, <http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2002/0205-rome/rome-eng.pdf>. Note: Arms control might be particularly attractive, both for its own value and as according Russia equal status in perceptions as well as in fact.
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Light fantastic: A CMOS digital-to-analog converter developed at the University of Edinburgh helps LEDs act as communications devices.
As LEDs become a more common source for room lighting they’re opening a new pathway for linking mobile devices to the Internet, with the potential for wider bandwidth and quicker response time than Wi-Fi. At least that’s what researchers such as Harald Haas, chair of mobile communications at the University of Edinburgh, are hoping.
"All the components, all the mechanisms exist already," Haas says. "You just have to put them together and make them work."
Haas’s group, along with researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, St. Andrews, and Strathclyde, are halfway through a four-year, £5.8 million project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, in the United Kingdom. They are pursuing ultraparallel visible light communication, which would use multiple colors of light to provide high-bandwidth linkages over distances of a few meters. Such a Li-Fi system, as it’s been dubbed, could supplement or in some instances replace traditional radio-based Wi-Fi, they say. But taking on such a broadly used radio technology is an uphill battle.
At the IEEE Photonics Conference in October, members of the consortium showed off the progress they’re making. For instance, the team has used commercially available red, green, and blue LEDs as both emitters and as photodiodes to detect light. By doing that, they created a system that could both send and receive data at aggregate rates of 110 megabits per second. When transmitting in one direction only, they reached a rate of 155 Mb/s.
A British hi-tech start-up has invented a light bulb fitting capable of acting as the equivalent of a wireless network in the home.
PureLiFi, a spin-out from Edinburgh University, is poised to announce new technology that can create a two-way high-speed connection using signals sent by LED lightbulbs for the first time.
The company’s creation has attracted the interest of a club of hi-tech investors who are close to agreeing a $10m (£6.2m) funding to help miniaturise and commercialise the system.
It is a box that can be connected to any ordinary light fitting with an LED bulb and turn it into a LiFi internet access point. The signals are encoded in a high frequency flicker many thousands of times faster than the human eye can detect. At the other end of the box, a receiver picks up the signal and communicates back in infrared light. It is this device that Prof Harald Haas, the founder of PureLifi, plans to miniaturise using the incoming investment.
Prof Haas said that the creation of a "world first" two-way LiFi network was an "absolute essential development in proving this technology can be part of the Internet of Things".
The Internet of Things is a catch-all term for a trend toward more everyday devices being connected, such as thermostats and home security systems.
It is envisaged that eventually the internet will be used to monitor and control almost any domestic or industrial device. That would mean a major expansion in wireless networking capacity beyond what Wi-Fi can provide.
Prof Haas said: "Worldwide industry demand for this product shows that LiFi is viewed as a transformative technology that can change the way we use the mobile internet and be an enabler of the emerging Internet of Things."
PureLifi hopes that light-based wireless networking will become standard for 5G, the successor to the 4G networks currently being deployed by mobile operators, which is in the early stages of development.
The technology is currently being tried out by major airlines, which want to use it to provide better in-flight connectivity, and intelligence agencies, which are interested in the potential of LiFi for secure wireless data transfers.
A TECHNOLOGY start-up that uses beams of light to transmit data has been tipped as a flotation candidate, potentially worth "hundreds of millions of dollars", as it looks set to smash its fundraising targets.
PureLiFi, which was spun out from Edinburgh University in 2012, has already secured about £1.5 million from investors including business angel syndicate Par Equity and Scottish Enterprise.
As revealed by Scotland on Sunday in December, the firm has embarked on a further fundraising round aimed at bringing in about £3m, but is now poised to raise more than twice that figure. Edinburgh-based finance boutique Quest Corporate has been appointed to arrange the funding.
Quest Corporate founder Marcus Noble said PureLiFi, co-founded by chief science officer Harald Haas, "is a phenomenal business" with strong prospects for an initial public offering (IPO).
While current wi-fi systems use radio waves to transmit internet data and other information, LiFi equipment uses beams of light.
Sir Alexander Graham Bell may be better known as the guy who invented the first ‘practical’ telephone, but the Scottish scientist laid claim to an arsenal of additional innovations.
Among these were the photophone, a wireless telephone of sorts that enabled sounds (including speech) to be transmitted via light. It’s said that Bell actually valued the photophone more than the telephone from his lifetime achievements, even though it never quite took off and is now consigned to the footnotes of history.
However, more than 130 years after the photophone first came to light, Professor Harald Haas is pioneering his own light-centric wireless communications technology. And ironically, he’s doing so from the Alexander Graham Bell building at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Imagine a future where your internet connection is beamed across your office from the overhead lights.
Using a standard light fitting attached to an internet connection, LiFi sends data to a receiver attached to a computer by means of rapid, invisible, flickering of the light source.
Professor Harald Haas is now commercialising the technology with a company spun out of Edinburgh University.
Right now the prototype device is too large to be attractive to consumers, but the team says eventually it should be small enough to integrate into a mobile phone.
They will be showing off its capabilities at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Professor Haas demonstrated the technology to Rory Cellan-Jones.
Wi-fi connectivity from a light bulb - or "li-fi" - has come a step closer, according to Chinese scientists.
A microchipped bulb can produce data speeds of up to 150 megabits per second (Mbps), Chi Nan, IT professor at Shanghai's Fudan University told Xinhua News.
A one-watt LED light bulb would be enough to provide net connectivity to four computers, researchers say.
But experts told the BBC more evidence was needed to back up the claims.
White LEDs hold promise as a key enabler for future wireless networks based on optical attocells, offering significant improvements to indoor data coverage.
The advent of the first cellphones in the 1980s marked the beginning of commercial mobile communications. Now, only 30 years later, wireless connectivity has become a fundamental part of our everyday lives and is increasingly being regarded as an essential commodity like electricity, gas, and water. The technology's huge success means we are now facing an imminent shortage of radiofrequency (RF) spectrum. The amount of data sent through wireless networks is expected to increase 10-fold during the next four years.1 At the same time, there isn't enough new RF spectrum available to allocate. In addition, the spectral efficiency (the number of bits successfully transmitted per Hertz bandwidth) of wireless networks has become saturated, despite tremendous technological advancements in the last 10 years. The US Federal Communications Commission has therefore warned of a potential spectrum crisis.
Light fidelity (Li-Fi),2 the high-speed communication and networking variant of visible light communication (VLC),3 aims to unlock a vast amount of unused electromagnetic spectrum in the visible light region (see Figure 1). Li-Fi works as a signal transmitter with the off-the-shelf white LEDs typically used for solid-state lighting and as a signal receiver with a p-i-n photodiode or avalanche photodiode. This means that Li-Fi systems can illuminate a room and at the same time provide wireless data connectivity. Unlike laser diodes, the LEDs my colleagues and I studied produce incoherent light, which means the signal phase cannot be used for data communications. Therefore, the only way to encode data is to use intensity modulation and direct detection. This poses severe restrictions on the data rates we can achieve.
Could Li-Fi spark a communications revolution like Wi-Fi?
Multi-tasking micro-lights now being developed could initiate an amazing transformation for the future of communications.
Tiny light-emitting diode (LED) lights could deliver Wi-Fi-like internet communications, while simultaneously displaying information and providing illumination for homes, offices and many other locations.
Over the next four years, a consortium of universities in the United Kingdom will be developing this innovative technology to help unleash the full potential of “Li-Fi” - the transmission of internet communications using visible light rather than the radio waves and microwaves currently in use.
The project is being led by the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, with funding from the UK’s Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Although the potential possibilities offered by Li-Fi are being explored all over the world, this EPSRC-funded consortium is pursuing a radical, distinctive vision that could deliver enormous benefits.
In visible light communication, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI has set a further milestone on the way to highspeed internet from the ceiling lamp. Development of novel components for data transmission over LEDs means that significantly higher bandwidth can now be used in real-time with data throughput rates of up to 3 Gbit/s being reached in laboratory experiments. The new components will be presented at FOE 2013.
The technology developed by HHI makes it possible to use standard off-the-shelf LED room lights for data transmission. Data rates of up to 800 Mbit/s were reached by this optical WLAN under laboratory conditions, while a complete real-time system exhibited at trade fairs reached data throughput of 500 Mbit/s. The newly developed patent protected components have now achieved a transmission rate in laboratory experiments of over 1 Gbit/s per single light frequency. As off-the-shelf LEDs mainly use three light frequencies or light colors, speeds of up to 3 Gbit/s are feasible.
One of the things that has not stopped amazing me is the continuous technological developments in the lighting industry ever since I started my career now 30 years back. In my early days we had the 40mm fluorescent tubes, a couple of incandescent lamps including the good old PAR reflector lamp and a few gas discharge lamps like mercury vapour, sodium and a bit of metal halide, all old technology. Over the years these technologies improved dramatically (tri-fosfor, high frequency, compact fluorescent, white sodium, new generation metal halide, halogen, ec) and new technologies such as induction, fiber optic and the last couple of years the incredible developments with LED lighting.
Now something new is about to hit us if we can believe Harald Haas, a professor in digital communication teaching and researching simultanously in universities in Edinburgh, Scotland and Bremen, Germany. Research in these universities has focussed around white light communication and infrared technology respectively. One of the key technologies he has been researching is LED data transfer technology! Basically using light as the medium to transfer data. Using light in itself to transmit data is nothing new (fiber optic cables!) but using visible light (something we use in our everyday life) to communicate is. By inserting tiny transceivers in an LED light bulb, the light beam can be used to transfer data. Considering that there are many billions of light bulbs installed all over the world, this technology potentially opens up data transfer opportunities exponentially compared to the wireless technology we are accustomed to now. The technology can work on direct as well as reflective light which overcomes one of the main hurdles of obstacles obstructing a light beam. The technology would also work very well under water.
Regular LEDs can be turned into optical WLAN with only a few additional components thanks to visible light communication (in short, VLC). The lights are then not just lighting up, they also transfer data. They send films in HD quality to your iPhone or laptop, with no loss in quality, quickly and safely.
Just imagine the following scenario: four people are comfortably ensconced in a room. Each one of them can watch a film from the Internet on his or her laptop, in HD quality. This is made possible thanks to optical WLAN. Light from the LEDs in the overhead lights serves as the transfer medium. For a long time, this was just a vision for the future. However, since scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Berlin, Germany, have developed a new transfer technology for video data within the scope of the OMEGA project of the EU, its implementation in real life is getting markedly closer.
Will Li-Fi be the new Wi-Fi?
FLICKERING lights are annoying but they may have an upside. Visible light communication (VLC) uses rapid pulses of light to transmit information wirelessly. Now it may be ready to compete with conventional Wi-Fi.
"At the heart of this technology is a new generation of high-brightness light-emitting diodes," says Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, UK. "Very simply, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1, if it's off you transmit a 0," Haas says. "They can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for transmitting data."
It is possible to encode data in the light by varying the rate at which the LEDs flicker on and off to give different strings of 1s and 0s. The LED intensity is modulated so rapidly that human eyes cannot notice, so the output appears constant.
After Wi-Fi, will there be… Li-Fi?
Researchers around the world are fine-tuning technologies that use standard lighting equipment to cheaply transmit high-speed data streams wirelessly, even while the equipment appears to be producing nothing more than normal illumination. Generally, the technologies rapidly and subtly fluctuate the intensity of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, in a way that is imperceptible to the human eye.
Advanced LED-based technology could revolutionise the way we send and receive data. Ellie Zolfagharifard reports.
The human desire for light was one of the reasons that caveman became engineer. From the very first camp fires to the oil-filled lamp and electric torch, man-made light has led the development of the modern world.
The objective has always been a simple one: to provide illumination in areas that the Sun can’t reach. We’ve been extremely successful in this, with more and more places on Earth touched by artificial light each day. The technology has showcased our best innovations and given us the ability to see things that would otherwise be hidden.
But what if light could do more than just illuminate? What if it could also send streams of data? Traffic lights, television sets, car headlights, billboards and lamps might all suddenly become far more important in our daily lives. We could receive maps from a street light, get news alerts from lamps and download music from electronic posters.
Flickering ceiling lights are usually a nuisance, but in city offices in St. Cloud, they will actually be a pathway to the Internet.
The lights will transmit data to specially equipped computers on desks below by flickering faster than the eye can see. Ultimately, the technique could ease wireless congestion by opening up new expressways for short-range communications.
The first few light fixtures built by LVX System, a local startup, will be installed Wednesday in six municipal buildings in this city of 66,000 in the snowy farm fields of central Minnesota.
In the near future, hooking up to the Internet may be as simple as turning on the lights.
A new wireless data communication system, invented and patented by a D.C.-based company and licensed to Minnesota's LVX System, uses visible light instead of radio waves to transmit digital information, a development that could revolutionize online communications.
"We're talking faster speeds and more secure connections, all with reduced energy consumption," said LVX Lab Chief Executive Officer Mike Muggli.
Muggli was at the IBEW International Office in Washington, D.C. late last year to show off the company's new invention.
LED's used for lighting in home and office, and used for data transfer at the same time, used for wireless internet connection.
With preparations well under way for a societal shift to solid-state lighting based on high-output LEDs, a proverbial light bulb has appeared above the heads of some forward-looking engineers. Their proposal: Why not switch the LEDs on and off so fast the eye cannot tell, in order to use them to transmit data too?
With enough advance work, every new LED light fixture could also be wired into the network backbone, accomplishing ubiquitous wireless communications to any device in a room without burdening the already crowded radio-frequency bands. Visible light communications (VLC) is being refined by industry, standards groups and well-funded government initiatives. And the stakes are enormous, since the traditional lighting market is measured in trillions of dollars and the transition to solid-state has already begun.
Smart lighting—the use of highly energy-efficient and controllable solid-state light sources both to illuminate a defined space and facilitate optical wireless communication among electronic devices within that space—recently took a major step forward. In April Professor Thomas Little (ECE) began fabricating a new LED-based prototype that the National Science Foundation Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at Boston University developed over the past year. Fulfilling an initial order for 40 units, Little is now shipping these devices to the Center’s industrial and educational outreach partners, a development that could spark new advances leading to commercialization.
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2019-04-25T18:01:46Z
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http://bemri.org/visible-light-communication/news.html
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13. Applicable law - Settlement of Disputes: If Buyer purchases the Products from Trimble Inc. then these Terms will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California and applicable United States federal law, without reference to “conflicts of laws” provisions or principles. If Buyer purchases the Products from Trimble Europe BV then these Terms will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Netherlands, without reference to “conflicts of laws” provisions or principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not apply. No dispute or legal action arising under this Agreement, may be brought by either party more than one (1) year after such cause of action accrued, except that an action for nonpayment may be brought within two (2) years of the date of the last payment.
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2019-04-22T02:05:53Z
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https://store.trimble.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10681&sitex=10140:22372:US&PROD=nEm2BL0smddirx9B2NaBAtIgEE&PROD_pses=ZG51E5D14427348992B6E93B87FD367FCB3A417A7BD3C472F8AECB46EFA05F38E67B28A975953C382D42796C0A3DDA77F5
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