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<st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> has not been in a war of any kind since 1815. It has not been in an official foreign war since 1515. This would be astounding, even miraculous, for any nation. But <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> borders <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Germany</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . And <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> France</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . And <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Italy</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . And <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Austria</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . And <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Liechtenstein</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . Now the Prince of Liechtenstein has rarely lashed out in Blitzkrieg in a desperate bid to reign uber alles, but ALL of <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> 's other neighbors have devoted a lot of effort to invading other countries.
In addition to the encircling foreign marauders, <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> itself is composed of several different ethnic groups that get along as well as, e.g., Germans and French. But they haven’t ethnically cleansed each other for two centuries, either.
You would think that peacekeeping performance of this kind would make <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> an object of study in every political science and civics course worldwide. "WHY Didn't They Attack <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> ?" should be the title of many a textbook. This is not the case. Very few political scientists study <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> .
<st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> is of no interest to politicians, because the features of the Swiss system that keep the peace are the same features that make Swiss politicians unimportant. Do you know the name of the Swiss President now serving out his nonrenewable one-year term? No, you do not (it’s Samuel Schmid, but you won’t remember tomorrow). His name doesn't matter, and he doesn't matter to the defense of <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . There is no central location of Swiss defense, no Pentagon or NORAD into which you can crash a 757 or a black-market Kazakh nuclear weapon. The defense of <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> is the entire people of <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> itself.
As a final defense, the Swiss have rigged the vaults of their banks for demolition. Any dictator attacking <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> will find the gold in his numbered bank account buried in rubble hundreds of meters under a mountain. It is known that Hitler had a numbered account.
<st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> has also provided for defense of the lives of its civilian population against nuclear terrorism. Realizing after World War Two that nuclear weapons in the hands of power-mad idiots posed a public health threat, the Swiss started a nationwide shelter-building program in 1960. By 1991, there was enough shelter space in <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> to protect everyone in their home or apartment, and also enough at their workplace and school. A Swiss citizen is generally never more than a few minutes from a fallout shelter with an air filter.
The entire Swiss shelter program was accomplished for somewhere on the order of $35 (1990 dollars) per year per capita. The <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> spends vastly more every year to achieve a military only capable of intervening in <st1 lace> Third World</st1 lace> nations that don’t have WMDs. The combined <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> armed forces are incapable of shooting down a single ballistic missile, or even intercepting low-flying propeller planes. Nor are there bunkers with filtered air supplies for the inhabitants of our glass cities or crackerbox suburbs. The only civil defense in the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> is for the President and the bureaucrats under <st1 lace> <st1 lacename> Iron</st1 lacename> <st1 lacetype> Mountain</st1 lacetype> </st1 lace> . Everyone else is nuclear fodder, except for those provident few (such as the Mormons) who build their own shelters to protect their families.
<st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> does not send troops to intervene in other nations. <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> does not spend tens of billions of dollars yearly to fund dictators around the world, nor did <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> donate hundreds of billions of dollars to the Warsaw Pact through bank "loans." <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> does not send billions of dollars worth of weaponry every year to the warring tribes in the <st1 lace> Middle East</st1 lace> . <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> has no enemies. Yet the Swiss are armed to the teeth and dug into every hill and under every building.
<st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> policy is the evil-parallel-universe inverse of the Swiss. The <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> intervenes everywhere, spies on everyone, supports every faction in every dispute. We have as many enemies as there are disputatious people in the world. Yet we spend more effort on disarming our own airline pilots and other law-abiding citizens than on providing shelters for our children against nuclear, chemical, or biological attack. We have an expensive conventional army, and quite a few aging offensive nuclear weapons. But no defense for our children.
1. The US kleptocracy, which has reaped such vast increases in power from terrorism and war. “War is the health of the State,” and terrorism drives citizen support for war.
5. Every emerging power on Earth. The more the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> sinks into the <st1 lace> Mideast</st1 lace> quagmire, the more chance for new powers to rise to dominance.
6. Citizens of nations ruled by US-backed dictators and oligarchs, who are victims of our Aid To Dependent Dictators programs.
7. FOX News, always looking for higher ratings.
This would have been more concise if I had listed the groups that would NOT benefit from anonymous WMD attacks on the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> , to wit, the world’s libertarians, capitalists, and peace lovers of all stripes. Unfortunately, the “non-aggression principle” won’t prevent anyone from being killed by terrorism and/or anti-terrorism. So, we must all determine the best risk management strategies within our budgets.
There are two basic categories of attacks. One type is the Jerry Bruckheimer Movie attack, typified by 9-11. Spectacular attacks that kill only a few thousand people are great for raising the Homeland Security budget, but they don’t raise the individual’s risk level that much. For most people, it would be more worthwhile to put some effort into avoiding heart disease and cancer than to try to avoid random, low-level terrorism. However, it is prudent to avoid targets with high cinematic value, like the Statue of Liberty, the <st1 lace> <st1 lacename> Golden Gate</st1 lacename> <st1 lacetype> Bridge</st1 lacetype> </st1 lace> , Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.
The second category of attack is the “anonymous warfare” strike, intended to seriously damage the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . While it might be hard for a minor power to inflict crippling physical damage on the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> , anonymous attacks can rely on a high “Homeland Security Multiplier Effect.” For every dollar of damage done by the 9-11 attack, post-attack “security” measures have done ten more. And a nuclear attack would make the post-9-11 hysteria look orderly and rational by comparison. One anonymous strike could paralyze the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> for decades.
Or budget terrorism could be launched with poison gas, germs, or even conventional explosives planted in vulnerable areas such as dams, gasoline storage tanks, chemical transport trains, etc. etc. etc.
One might think that a Homeland Security budget of over $40 billion would provide a little bit of protection for US citizens. Governments are never efficient, but some of them at least spend some tax money on its putative purpose. Swiss, Israeli, and many other nations’ civil defense programs distribute gas masks, radiation meters, financial aid for constructing shelters, etc. However, US Homeland security has provided us with: free advice from <st1 lace> <st1 lacename> Tom</st1 lacename> <st1 lacename> Ridge</st1 lacename> </st1 lace> . According to Tom, all a <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> citizen needs for protection against WMD is some duct tape and enough food for three days. Personally, I don’t think that this advice, even in full-page ads, was worth $40 billion. In any case, American families will receive no help from Homeland Security’s new director, either. <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> civil defense is strictly DIY.
A DIY civil defense program is limited by the fact that the majority of our discretionary income has already been allocated to other uses by federal, state, and local tax authorities. Most of us can’t afford to protect our families and ourselves properly, because that money is in <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Iraq</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> and a hundred other foreign-aid regimes.
Still, most of us can do better than duct tape. Contrary to media “wisdom,” one or even a thousand nuclear bombs won’t kill everyone. Nuclear fallout radiation intensity falls by a factor of a thousand over two weeks, so if you can hide in a well-stocked basement with a crude air filter for that long, you would probably survive . . . IF you knew what you were doing and had made some preparations. Germs and gas have their own limitations, and terrorists probably won’t have the biggest and best of anything. Of course the terrorists still have an advantage, because most Americans aren’t even up to <st1 lace> <st1 lacename> Tom</st1 lacename> <st1 lacename> Ridge</st1 lacename> </st1 lace> ’s suggested level of preparation.
The best location is: not in the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> . If your work can be done in <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Costa Rica</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> , <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> , or some other nation that hasn’t attacked anyone for decades, you could move. Unfortunately, most of us have sentimental or economic ties to <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> target zones.
Within the <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> : if you live downstream from one of those high dams in <st1:state> <st1 lace> California</st1 lace> </st1:state> , just stop reading this and get in the car. What were you thinking anyway?
Other places require trade-offs; small towns are safer in most scenarios, but may not have lucrative jobs. If you live in a smaller city, you’re likely to get some warning of fallout or disease outbreak. The safest locations are rural, but not everyone can afford to live well in the country. The general rule is to avoid large cities if you can, and especially <st1 lace> <st1:city> Washington</st1:city> , <st1:state> DC</st1:state> </st1 lace> and <st1:state> <st1 lace> New York</st1 lace> </st1:state> . These cities are self-terrorizing anyway, between the draconian victim disarmament laws and the crime.
9-11 was our warning. Homeland Security has given us hundreds of useless “warnings” since then, but it would be sheer coincidence if any of these actually preceded an attack. The “Emergency Broadcasting System” isn’t going to know about a terrorist nuclear attack until after they see it on CNN. Warnings of biological threats may be subtler; sudden outbreaks of “flu-like” symptoms in odd patterns might be signs of biowarfare . . . or they might be signs of flu, which might kill you anyway since the FDA seems to be protecting us very efficiently from flu vaccine. Again, the best way to have warning is not to be in the immediate target area.
Minimum: A small water and food stockpile (if you don’t have to leave your house for a month, you’ll make it through plague or fallout a lot more easily).
A HEPA filter in the living room would make <st1 lace> <st1 lacename> Tom</st1 lacename> <st1 lacename> Ridge</st1 lacename> </st1 lace> ’s “seal up your bedroom with duct tape” idea work much better . . . as long as the power stayed on. Ideally, you should be able to seal up your house and use a hand-cranked blower to provide filtered air, but now we’re getting into the “protective construction” area.
And yes, some duct tape is always a good thing (those two weeks in the fallout shelter might get boring otherwise).
Optimally, everyone desiring to opt out of the ill effects of war and terrorism could live in a concrete dome, such as those produced by the good folks of <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Italy</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> , <st1:state> <st1 lace> Texas</st1 lace></st1:state> .
100 psi blast waves just slide off a concrete dome (especially if it’s partially buried), as do tornadoes, hurricanes, drive-by shootings, and blast waves from asteroid impacts. Other forms of underground (or hillside, like Bilbo Baggins’) construction can also be inherently attack-resistant. Anyone who is living in a probable target city for economic reasons should at least consider hobbit-style construction instead of Styrofoam and 2 x 4s . . . of course local building codes often practically forbid underground construction.
If you have a basement, only relatively little work is needed to make it into an effective fallout shelter. Terrorist bombs might well be more on the scale of 15-kiloton Hiroshima-killers than the 25-megaton Cold War monsters. A 15-kiloton bomb from an old tactical artillery shell or rocket warhead would have a lethal blast radius much smaller than even a small <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> US</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> city, but fallout could be lethal for 20 miles or more downwind.
The basement is usually easier to seal against chemicals and germs, too. Just remember that Swiss basements have hand-cranked filtered air blowers; if you succeed in sealing up a basement tight enough to keep out VX aerosols, you’re going to need an air supply. Don’t forget to invite <st1 lace> <st1 lacename> Tom</st1 lacename> <st1 lacename> Ridge</st1 lacename> </st1 lace> along to crank it for you; he’s not busy changing threat level colors anymore.
The whole subject of Civil Defense is about preparing for the failure of the normal system of economic specialization. But the more normal social ties that we can preserve, the more effective protective measures can be and the quicker civil society can recover. On a personal level, if all of your friends believe that “the best thing to do in a nuclear attack is go outside and die quickly,” then you should probably try to add a few acquaintances of a more practical bent.
The Swiss have avoided war for 200 years by being mentally and physically prepared for it. Even if <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> were attacked by nuclear terrorists, their mental preparation (and their courage, another essential commodity that Americans have failed to stockpile) would save them from hysterically scrapping their Constitution and civil liberties.
We Americans have been at war throughout most of the same decades that <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> Switzerland</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> has been at peace. Now that <st1:country-region> <st1 lace> America</st1 lace> </st1:country-region> has mutated from Republic to Empire, we are at perpetual war with every nation that wants to be independent of the whims of the POTUS. At the very least, we must all recognize the fact, and be prepared for the shocks to come. Civil society can recover from a lot of destruction; it can’t recover from cowardice and refusal to prepare for trouble until chaos is already upon us. | 2019-04-24T06:52:11Z | https://www.survivalmonkey.com/threads/they-didnt-attack-switzerland.4898/ |
이 중 $5 정도는 최근 3일간 발생된 것 같습니다.
25, 000원을 버는데 3달이 걸렸다고 하면…. 이걸로는 먹고 살기 힘들겠지요?
이틀 전부터 광고위치를 변화시킨게 20$ 돌파하게 만들었던 것 같습니다.
일반적으로 블로그는 상업 사이트가 아니고, 좋은 정보, 지식등의 컨텐츠를 제공할 목적으로 만들어 집니다.
하지만, 컨텐츠를 구성하고 운영하는데는 노력과 시간이 생각보다 많이 들어 갑니다.
운영자뿐 아니라 블로그의 구독자에게도 광고주에게도 좋은 일인 것 같습니다.
블로거 – 방문자 – 광고주 관계를 이렇게 보면 윈-윈 할수 있는 모델이라고 할수 있겠네요.
따라서 전문 블로그를 운영하면서 수입이 생길수 있다는 것은 꽤 의미있다고 생각합니다.
한두번씩 눌러주는 습관이 생기는 것 같습니다.
10일 동안에 소진 됬던 비용 보다도 적네요.
그런데, 여러분의 지난 3개월 광고 수익은 어떠신가요?
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This guide was built to serve as a comprehensive resource to using .htaccess.
The .htaccess file is a configuration file that affects how a web server responds to various requests. It is supported by several web servers, including the popular Apache software used by most web hosting providers.
.htaccess files operate at the level of a directory, allowing them to override global configuration settings of .htaccess directives higher in the directory tree.
Why is it called .htaccess?
These files were first used to control user access on a per-directory basis. Using a subset of Apache’s http.conf settings directives, it allowed a system administrator to restrict access to individual directories to users with a name and password specified in an accompanying .htpasswd file.
While .htaccess files are still used for this, they are also used for a number of other things which we’ll cover in this guide.
Where is the .htaccess file?
In theory, every folder (directory) on your server could have one. Generally, though, there is one in your web root folder — that’s the folder that holds all the content of your website, and is usually labeled something like public_html, www or httpdocs.
If you have a single directory that contains multiple website subdirectories, there will usually be an .htaccess file in the main root directory and also one in each subdirectory (/sitename).
Why can’t I find my .htaccess file?
On most file systems, file names that begin with a dot ( . ) are hidden files. This means they are not typically visible by default.
But they aren’t hard to get to. Your FTP client or File Manager should have a setting for “show hidden files”. This will be in different places in different programs, but is usually in “Preferences”, “Settings”, or “Folder Options”. Sometime you’ll find it in the “View” menu.
What if I don’t have an .htaccess file?
First of all, make sure that you have turned on “show hidden files” (or its equivalent), so that you can be sure you actually don’t have one. Often, .htaccess files are created automatically, so you will usually have one. But this isn’t always the case.
Start a new file in a plain text editor.
Save it in ASCII format (not UTF-8 or anything else) as .htaccess.
Make sure that it isn’t htaccess.txt or something like that. The file should have only the name .htaccess with no additional file extension.
Upload it to the appropriate directory via FTP or your browser-based file manager.
Using .htaccess files to specify error documents is very simple, one of the simplest things you can do with this feature.
When a request is made to a web server, it tries to respond to that request, usually by delivering a document (in the case of HTML pages), or by accessing an application and returning the output (in the case of Content Management Systems and other web apps).
If something goes wrong with this, an error is generated. Different types of errors have different error codes. You are probably familiar with the 404 error, which is returned if the document cannot be found on the server.
There are many other error codes that a server can respond with.
If you don’t specify any type of error handling, the server will simply return the message to the browser, and the browser will display a generic error message to the user. This is usually not ideal.
Create an HTML document for each error code you want to handle. You can name these whatever you like, but it’s helpful to name them something that will help you remember what they’re for, like not-found.html or simply 404.html.
Then, in the .htaccess file, specify which document to use with each type of error.
Notice that each directive is placed on its own line.
And that’s it. Very simple.
Most content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, and most web apps, will have their own way of handling most of these errors codes.
The original purpose of .htaccess files was to restrict access to certain directories on a per-user basis (hence the name, hypertext access). So we’ll look at that first.
Usernames and passwords for the .htaccess system are stored in a file name .htpasswd.
It’s important to realize that the password stored in the file isn’t the actual password used to log in. Rather it is a cryptographic hash of the password.
This means that the password has been run through an encryption algorithm, and the result is stored. When a user logs in, the plain-text password is entered and run through the same algorithm. If the input is the same, the passwords match and the user is granted access.
Storing passwords this way makes them more secure — if someone were to gain access to your .htpasswd file, they would only see the hashed passwords, not the originals. And there is no way to reconstruct the originals from the hash — it is a one way encryption.
bcrypt — This is the most secure, but also the slowest to compute. It is supported by Apache and Nginx.
md5 — This is the default hashing algorithm used by current versions of Apache. It is not supported by Nginx.
crypt() — This used to be the default hashing function, but it is not very secure.
You can create an .htpasswd file, and add username-password pairs to it, directly from the command line or SSH terminal.
The command for dealing with the .htpasswd file is simply htpasswd.
To create a new .htpasswd file, use the command with the -c option (for create), then type the path to the directory (not the URL, the actual path on the server). You can also include a user you want to add.
This creates a new .htpasswd file in the /etc/ directory, and adds a record for a user named johnsmith. You will be prompted for a password, which will also be stored, using the md5 encryption.
If there is already an .htpasswd file at the specified location, a new one is not created — the new user is simply appended to the existing file.
If you’d prefer to use the bcrypt hashing algorithm, use the -b option.
If you don’t feel comfortable using the command line or SSH terminal (or if you don’t have access to it for some reason), you can simply create an .htpasswd file and populate it using a plain text editor, and upload it via FTP or file manager.
But then you’ll need to encrypt your passwords somehow, since the htpasswd command was taking care of that for you.
There are many .htpasswd encryption utilities available online.
This gives you several options for hashing algorithm and password strength. You can simply copy-and-paste the output from there into your .htpasswd file.
You don’t need to have a separate .htpasswd file for every .htaccess file. In fact, you shouldn’t. Under most normal circumstances, you should have one for your entire web hosting account or main server directory.
The .htpasswd file should not be in a publicly accessible directory — not Public_HTML or www or any subdirectory. It should be above those, in a folder that is only accessible from the server itself.
Each directory can have its own .htaccess file, with its own set of users which are allowed to access it.
If you want anyone (including non-logged-in users) to access the directory and its files, simply do nothing — that is the default.
The first line specifies the path and file name to your list of usernames and passwords. The second line specifies a name for the secured area. This can be anything you like. The third line specifies “Basic” authentication, which is what you usually need.
The <Limit> tag specifies what is being limited (in this case, the ability to GET or POST to any file in the directory). Within the pair of <Limit> tags is a list of who is allowed to access files.
In the above example, any valid user can access files. If you want to restrict access to a specific user or few users, you can name them.
You can also put users into groups and allow access based on group. This is done by adding another file which specifies the groups.
Using .htaccess and .htpasswd to resrict access to certain files on your server only really makes sense if you have a lot of static files. The feature was developed when web sites were usually a collection of HTML documents and related resources.
If you are using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Drupal, you can use the built-in user management features to restrict or grant access to content.
SSI, or Server Side Includes, is a light-weight scripting language used primarily to embed HTML documents into other HTML documents.
This makes it easy to re-use common elements, such as headers, footers, sidebars, and menus. You can think of it as a precursor to today’s templating and content management systems.
This should enable SSI for all files that have the .shtml extension.
The benefit of doing this is that you can use SSI without letting the world know you are using it. Also, if you change implementations in the future, you can keep your .html file extensions.
The downside of this is that every .html file will be parsed with SSI. If you have a lot of .html files that don’t actually need any SSI parsing, this can introduce a lot of unneeded server overhead, slowing down your page load times and using up CPU resources.
If you don’t want to parse all .html files, but you do want to use SSI on your index (home) page, you’ll need to specify that in your .htaccess file.
That’s because when the web server is looking for a directory’s index page, it looks for index.html, unless you tell it otherwise. If you aren’t parsing .html files, you’ll need your index page to be named index.shtml for SSI to work, and your server doesn’t know to look for that by default.
This alerts the web server that the index.shtml file is the main index file for the directory. The second parameter, index.html is a backup, in case index.shtml can’t be found.
You can use .htaccess to block users from a specific IP address (blacklisting). This is useful if you have identified individual users from specific IP addresses which have caused problems.
You can also do the reverse, blocking everyone except visitors from a specific IP address (whitelisting). This is useful if you need to restrict access to only approved users.
The first line states that the allow directives will be evaluated first, before the deny directives. This means that allow from all will be the default state, and then only those matching the deny directives will be denied. If this was reversed to order deny,allow, then the last thing evaluated would be the allow from all directive, which would allow everybody, overriding the deny statements.
Notice the third line, which has deny from 789.56.4. — that is not a complete IP address. This will deny all IP addresses within that block (any that begin with 789.56.4).
You can include as many IP addresses as you like, one on each line, with a deny from directive.
The reverse of blacklisting is whitelisting — restricting everyone except those you specify.
As you may guess, the order directive has to be reversed, so that that everyone is first denied, but then certain addresses are allowed.
You can also block or allow users based on a domain name. This can be help block people even as they move from IP address to IP address. However, this will not work against people who can control their reverse-DNS IP address mapping.
This works for subdomains, as well — in the previous example, visitors from xyz.example.comwill also be blocked.
A referrer is the website that contains a link to your site. When someone follows a link to a page on your site, the site they came from is the referrer.
This doesn’t just work for clickable hyperlinks to your website, though. Pages anywhere on the internet can link directly to your images (“hotlinking”) — using your bandwidth, and possibly infringing on your copyright, without providing any benefit to you in terms of traffic. They can also hotlink to your CSS files, JS scripts, or other resources.
Most website owners are okay with this when happens just a little bit, but sometimes this sort of thing can turn into abuse.
Additionally, sometimes actual in-text clickable hyperlinks are problematic, such as when they come from hostile websites.
For any of these reasons, you might want to block requests that come from specific referrers.
The .htaccess directives that accomplish referrer-based blocking rely on the mod_rewriteengine.
This is a little tricky, so lets walk through it.
The first line, RewriteEngine on, alerts the parser that a series of directives related to rewrite is coming.
The next three lines each block one referring domain. The part you would need to change for your own use is the domain name (example) and extension (.com).
The backward-slash before the .com is an escape character. The pattern matching used in the domain name is a regular expression, and the dot means something in RegEx, so it has to be “escaped” using the back-slash.
The last line is the actual rewrite rule. The [F] means “Forbidden.” Any requests with a referrer matching the ones in the list will fail, and deliver a 403 Forbidden error.
One of the more annoying aspects of managing a website is discovering that your bandwidth is being eaten up by non-human visitors — bots, crawlers, web scrapers. These are programs that are designed to pull information out of your site, usually for the purpose of republishing it as part of some low-grade SEO operation.
There, of course, legitimate bots — like those from major search engines. But the rest are like pests that just eat away at your resources and deliver no value to you whatsoever.
There are several hundred bots identified. You will never be able to block all of them, but you can keep the activity down to a dull roar by blocking as many as you can.
Here is a good security solution for WordPress websites.
When a request is made to a web server for a URL which does not specify a file name, the assumption built into most web servers is that the URL refers to a directory.
So, if you request https://example.com, Apache (and most other web servers) is going look in the root directory for the domain (usually /Public_HTML or something similar, but perhaps /example-com) for the default file.
The default file, by default, is called index.html. This goes way back to the beginning of the internet when a website was just a collection of documents, and the “home” page was usually an index of those documents.
But you might not want index.html to be the default page. For example, you might need a different file type, like index.shtml, index.xml, or index.php.
Or you might not think of your home page as an “index”, and want to call it something different, like home.html or main.html.
The way this works is that the web server looks for the first one first. If it can’t find that, it looks for the second one, and so on.
Why would you want to do this? Surely you know which file you want to use as your default page, right?
Remember that .htaccess affects its own directory, and every subdirectory until it is overridden by a more local file. This means that an .htaccess file in your root directory can provide instructions for many subdirectories, and each one might have its own default page name. Being able to place those rules in a single .htaccess file in the root means that you don’t have to duplicate all the other directives in the file at every directory level.
One of the most common uses of .htaccess files is URL redirects.
URL redirects should be used when the URL for a document or resource has changed. This is especially helpful if you have reorganized your website or changed domain names.
301 means “Permanently Moved,” while 302 means “Moved Temporarily.” In most cases, you want to use 301. This preserves any SEO equity the original URL had, passing it on to the new page. It also will cause most browsers to update their bookmarks. Most browsers will also cache the old-to-new mapping, so they will simply request the new URL when a link or user attempts to access the original. If the URL has changed permanently, these are all desirable results.
There’s very little reason to use 302 redirects, since there’s usually very little reason to temporarily change a URL. Changing a URL ever is undesirable, but is sometimes necessary. Changing it temporarily, with the plan to change it back later, is a bad idea and is almost always avoidable.
All the examples in this section will use the 301 redirect.
There are two different ways to “change” a URL with .htaccess directives — the Redirectcommand and the mod_rewrite engine.
The Redirect command actually sends a redirect message to the browser, telling it what other URL to look for.
Typically, the mod_rewrite tool “translates” one URL (the one provided in a request) into something that the file system or CMS will understand, and then handles the request as if the translated URL was the requested URL. When used this way, the web browser doesn’t notice that anything happened — it just receives the content it asked for.
The mod_rewrite tool can also be used to produce 301 redirects that work the same way as the Redirect command, but with more options for rules — mod_rewrite can have complex pattern matching and rewriting instructions, which Redirect cannot take advantage of.
The relative URL is relative to the directory containing the .htaccess file, which is usually the web root, or the root of the domain.
If you have moved your directory structure around, but kept your page names the same, you might want to redirect all requests for a certain directory to the new one.
What if you entire site has moved to a new URL? Easy.
Increasingly, websites are moving away from the www subdomain. It’s never really been necessary, but it was a holdover from the days when you most people who operated a website were using a server to store lots of their own documents, and the www or “world wide web” directory was used for content they wanted to share with others.
These days, some people use it, and some people don’t. Unfortunately, some users still automatically type www. in front of every URL out of habit. If you’re not using www, you want to make sure that these requests land in the right place.
To do this, you’ll need to use the mod_rewrite module, which is probably already installed on your web host.
Do you see the problem with that?
It redirects all subdomains to the primary domain. So not just www.example.com, but also blog.example.com and admin.example.com and anything else. This is probably not the behavior you want.
But what if you are using the www subdomain?
You should probably set up a redirect to make sure people get to where they’re trying to go. Especially now that fewer people are likely to automatically add that www to the beginning of URLs.
You just reverse the above code.
Several guides on .htaccess redirects include instructions on how to make 404 errors redirect to the home page.
This is a good example of how just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean you should do something.
Redirecting 404 errors to the site’s homepage is a terrible idea. It confuses visitors, who can’t figure out why they are seeing the front page of a site instead of a proper 404 error page.
All websites should have a decent 404 page which clearly explains to the user that the content couldn’t be found and, ideally, offers some search features to help the user find what they were looking for.
Why use .htaccess instead of other alternatives?
You can set up redirect in PHP files, or with any other type of server-side scripting. You can also set them up within your Content Management System (which is basically the same thing).
But using .htaccess is usually the fastest type of redirect. With PHP-based redirects, or other server-side scripting languages, the entire request must be completed, and the script actually interpreted before a redirect message is sent to the browser. With .htaccess redirects, the server responds directly to the request with the redirect message. This is much faster.
You should note, though — some content management systems actually manage redirects by updating the .htaccess programatically. WordPress, for example, has redirect plugins that work this way. (And WP’s pretty URL system does this as well.) This gives you the performance of using .htaccess directly, while also giving you the convenience of management from within your application.
There is no reason that someone should be able to view your .htaccess file from the web. It is never a needed document.
Moreover, there are some big reasons you should definitely not want people to see your .htaccess file. The biggest issue is that if you are using an .htpasswd file, its location is spelled out in the .htaccess file. Knowing where to find it makes it easier to find.
Moreover, as a general rule, you don’t want to provide the public with details about your implementation. Rewrite rules, directory settings, security — all of the things that you use .htaccess for — it is a good security practice to hide all of this behind-the-scenes at your web server. The more a hacker can learn about your system, the easier it is to compromise it.
MIME types are file types. They’re called MIME types because of their original association with email (MIME stands for “Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions”). They aren’t just called “file types” because MIME implies a specific format for specifying the file type.
The type attribute refers to a specific MIME type.
Sometimes you’ll find that your web server isn’t configured to deliver a particular type of file. It just doesn’t work — requests for the file simply fail.
In most cases, you can fix this problem by adding the MIME type to your .htaccess file.
If you want to associate several different file extensions with the same MIME type, you can do that on a single line.
Here is a not-quite-complete list of file formats and associated MIME types.
If you are managing your own website, and you know what file types you publish resources in, then there is no need to paste this entire list into your .htaccess file.
However, if you run a site that many other people are contributing and publishing content to, you may want to simply allow a large number of file types this way to make sure no one has a bad experience. This is especially the case if you run a site where people might be specifically sharing a lot of files, for example a file sharing site, a project management application (where many files will often be attached to project), or a web app that handles email.
Hotlinking is the practice of linking to resources from other domains instead of uploading the content to your own server and serving it yourself.
Say you find an image on a website that you really like, and you want to use it on your site. Ignoring copyright issues for the moment — you could download the image, upload it to your website, and embed it on your page like normal.
But if you were lazy, or trying to save bandwidth, or didn’t know how to upload a file, you could just embed it directly form the original file.
That’s hotlinking. It also happens with CSS and JS files, but images are the most common.
Some websites/hosts don’t mind at all if you do this — you can hotlink images from Wikipedia without anyone being upset. And some websites encourage it in one form or another. For example, JQuery provides their JS libraries via a CDN (Content Delivery Network), so you can hotlink directly to it without having to upload it and serve it from your own server.
But many web host consider hotlinking to be a form of bandwidth and resource stealing. To be sure, if you are running a relatively small site, you can’t afford to have thousands, or tens of thousands, of requests being made every day for resources that have nothing to do with actual visitors to your site.
If you are having a problem with hotlinking, you can disable it with some mod_rewrite rules added to your .htaccess file.
Be sure to change example.com in the third line to your actual domain name. This will catch any requests not coming from your domain, and then check if it matches one of the specified file extensions in the fourth line. If there is a match, the request fails.
If you want to add other file extensions, you can simply edit the last line.
If you want to let the world know why their hotlinking has suddenly stopped working, you can replace hotlinked images with a special image with a message like, “We hate hotlinking!” or “Original Content Available at https://example.com”.
What happens if you have a directory full of documents or other resources, no index.html file, and no default directory page specified in the .htaccess file?
In many cases, the result will be a generic directory listing of all the files in the directory.
That’s right. If you have a folder in your hosting directory labeled /images, and it has no index.html page, when someone navigates to https://example.com/images, they will be able to see a list of all the images on your site.
That’s the default behavior of most web servers, and it makes sense from the standpoint of the original conception of a website as simply a place to keep and share documents. But this is not the desired behavior for most sites.
Many web hosting accounts will have disable this already as part of their global configuration. But not all do so.
If your web server has disabled indexes as part of global configuration, but you do want them, you can enable them with the reverse of the above command.
If you want to show directory listings, but you want to hide certain file types from the list, you can do that too.
CGI, or Common Gateway Interface, is server-side method for including non-HTML scripts (like Perl or SSI) in web pages.
Typically, CGI scripts are stored in a folder labeled /cgi-bin. The webserver is configured to treat any resource in that directory as a script, rather than a page.
The problem with that is two-fold: – URLs referencing CGI resources need to have /cgi-bin/ in them, which places implementation details into your URL — an anti-pattern to be avoided for a number of reasons. – a complex website may need a better organization structure than simply having a ton of scripts jammed into a single /cgi-bin folder.
If you have other file extensions you want processed as CGI scripts, you can add them in the first line.
Most of time, you put scripts in your web directory because, well, you want them to be run as scripts.
But sometimes that isn’t what you want. Sometimes you want to display the source code to public visitors, instead of running the script.
This might be the case if you run a file sharing service or a code repository site, and you want people to see the source code and be able to download it, but the scripts are actually part of your site’s functionality.
This can be done in your .htaccess file by removing the script handler for certain file types and replacing it with a handler for text.
Alternatively, as mention previously, you could force files with these extensions to be downloaded automatically, rather than displayed.
Be careful with either of these, though. If you only want some files to be displayed this way, but are still using these scripts for the rest of your website, your going to have a bad time if you put that directive into your web root’s .htaccess file.
A better practice would be to place all such “display only” scripts into a single directory, and then place the directive into an .htaccess file there in that folder.
Sometimes you need to tweak PHP’s settings. The right way to do this is in a file called php.ini.
Unfortunately, not all web hosting companies allow their customers to edit the php.ini file. This is especially true of shared hosting providers, where a single installation of PHP may be running hundreds of web sites.
Fortunately, there’s a workaround — you can embed php.ini rules into your .htaccess file.
Not all PHP settings can be specified in .htaccess files. For example you can not disable_classes this way.
For a complete list of all php.ini settings, see the official php.ini directives guide.
Editing your .htaccess file for the first time can give you sudden feeling of immense power over your web hosting environment. You suddenly feel like a sysadmin.
Unfortunately, this power can go to your head, and you may find yourself using the .htaccess file in ways that aren’t really the best.
When you need to do something that seems like an .htaccess sort of job, there’s basically two situations where you should put that directive somewhere else.
Whenever possible, the types of directives you can place in an .htaccess file are better off being place in the httpd.conf file, which is a configuration settings file for the entire server.
Similarly, PHP settings more properly belong in the php.ini file, and most other languages have similar configuration setting files.
Placing directives further upstream, in the httpd.conf, php.ini, or other language-specific configuration file allows those settings to be “baked-in” to the web server’s parsing engine. With .htaccess, the directives have to be checked and interpreted with every single request.
If you have a low traffic site with only a handful of .htaccess directives, this isn’t a big deal. But if you have a lot of traffic, and a lot of directives, the performance lag can really add up.
Unfortunately, many shared hosting providers do not allow customers to access the httpd.confor php.ini files, forcing users to rely on the slower .htaccess file. This provides a double-penalty when compared to custom VPS configurations because shared hosting is also generally low-powered. This is one of the reasons that a site with respectable traffic should probably be on a VPS plan instead of shared hosting plan.
If you are using a good Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress or Drupal, some of the things you might do in an .htaccess file — such as redirect URLs or block IP addresses — can be done from inside the application.
Often, this works in conjunction with the .htaccess file, with the application programmatically adding directives.
When this is available, it is usually best to accomplish these tasks from inside the application, rather than editing the .htaccess file yourself. You are less likely to introduce bugs and incompatible directives if you use a well-tested, open source plugin, rather than editing it yourself.
Messing around with your .htaccess file can be great — but it can also cause your server to seize up and start delivering 500 Internal Server Error messages.
Here’s a few ideas to help you through that.
This should go without saying, but — sadly — it’s a lesson many of us have to learn over and over again.
Do one thing. Then test it. Then do another thing. Test that.
If you do several things all at once, and then something fails, you won’t know which directive is causing the problem.
Along with doing only one thing at a time, you should save your file between each thing you are trying. Your saved archive needs to be restorable. This isn’t Microsoft Word where you can just Undo — you need a saved copy of your file.
You should always have the latest working version available in case you mess something up. Always, always, always have the ability to restore to a working version.
This is easiest if you some kind of source management system like Git. You can commit after each change, and roll back if you run into any problems.
If you do run into a problem, and you’re having a hard time figuring out why, check your Apache error logs. These often provide valuable information about where to look.
Developer forums and Q&A sites like StackOverflow are invaluable tools for even the most seasoned developers and sysadmins. And don’t forget Google. Often, the difference between a bad web master and great one isn’t knowing the answer, its knowing where to find the answer.
Sometimes you made a typo. Sometimes you have an esoteric and confusing problem caused by a confluence of unpredictable factors.
Most problems, and the really frustrating ones, are the ones in the middle — the simple, everyday problems that are easy to fix if you just knew about them.
Here’s a few of those.
There is only one way to spell .htaccess — it has to begin with the dot, and it must be in all lowercase letters.
It seems dumb, but if your .htaccess file isn’t doing what you expect, that should be the first thing you check.
Some shared hosting providers disable .htaccess altogether. Others allow it, but restrict certain directives from being used — they’re just ignored if included.
Similarly, even on VPS plans or your own dedicated servers, .htaccess might be disabled.
If you have access to the httpd.conf file, or other server settings, you can check this yourself. If you find the directive AllowOverride None, you found the culprit. Replace it with AllowOverride All.
If you don’t have access to your httpd.conf file (because you’re on shared hosting, for example), you may need to contact your hosting company’s tech support and see if they can enable it for you, or offer you suggestions on ow to accomplish what you’re trying to do in a different way.
If you have multiple nested directories, it’s possible for each one to have its own .htaccess file. Every .htaccess file from the root, through each nested directory, applies — they are read in order, descending down the directory tree.
If you set something in your root directory, and then something in subdirectory overrides it, the directive in the .htaccess file closest to the requested file will take precedence.
ExpiresByType image/icon "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/icon "access plus 1 month"
A good strategy is to use .htaccess to restrict POST requests to commonly-abused URLs by referrer. Basically, if the referrer isn’t your own website, you just discard the request with an error.
Otherwise, the website (CMS) has to fire up to deal with the request, even if it’s a nonsense request. So it’s a redirect, back to the same page, to check for a real browser instead of a bot. It’s a redirect to their IP, which will almost certainly kick out an error message. You basically want to redirect the traffic anywhere but your server. | 2019-04-22T20:16:15Z | https://getbutterfly.com/ultimate-htaccess-guide/ |
The deVere Group. Enough is enough!
Readers: If you are looking at pensions can I suggest you read this informative and impartial article first. Also, if you are thinking about talking to this company (or any other company of it’s type) about any sort of financial investment do a bit of Googling for complaints first, do some serious digging before you sign anything with anyone! Caveat Emptor!
Alan, along with Elle, is the owner of Spain Buddy. He was born in the North of England (Lancashire) and travelled extensively before eventually settling in Almería. Alan has 3 sons from the first of his 18 marriages, (Sam, Joe & Ben) who are all now adults. You can read more articles by Alan on his personal blog at AlanGandy.com and see more of his photography on his photography website as well as on Flickr and Instagram.
Also, for less than the price of a cup of coffee each month you can help support Alan's photography (and get some freebies into the bargain). Click here to visit his Patreon page to find out more.
Help preserve the Spanish landscape (and the planet) doing something you do every day!
Some quite interesting reading and a collection of links on this page. Amazing what two minute of digging around can turn up…..
I understand how cold calls can get very annoying I get many myself however your comment “I know some people can’t get proper jobs and have to work for companies like this” I don’t agree with, a job is a job as far as I can see this is not a boiler room company ripping people off.
Well, I for one wouldn’t do it.
Boiler room: I’m not so sure having read some of the links one the page linked in my previous comment, stretching the definition a little I know. I wouldn’t deal with them that’s for sure, I’ve seen and read enough that in my opinion they might be questionable.
Let me put it this way, our number is ex-directory and also registered with Listas Robinson (the Spanish equivalent of the telephone preference service) they should not be calling in the first place never mind blatantly ignoring repeated requests to leave us alone.
Devere does worse damage than boiler rooms. Most people are skeptical of boiler rooms and won’t hand over all their life savings for “investment.” But many are conned by deVere into handing over all of their savings to be locked up for 25 year in high fee funds and completely inappropriate structured products, with high penalties for trying to get out should they figure out their mistake. The damage (amount lost) is far worse than a small punt on a boiler room’s speel. deVere can destroy people’s lives.
It amazes me how little research people do on these pension and investment companies before handing over their life savings!
I used to think that way too until I met people who had been scammed by deVere and their ilk. Sadly these groups are predatory. False advertising is their standard operating procedure. Expatriates used to a reasonably well-regulated financial services industry in their home country tend to believe the b***sh** of these bastards. I’ve seen too many victims now to think it’s entirely their fault.
The regulators need to step up to the plate and start cleaning this up. I wonder if deVere Spain is even operating legally?
Pissed off with deVere? They voluntarily offered an email to a friend to complain to. Have fun, will!
I work in the industry. Unlike any deVere people I am qualified, regulated and above all else ethical!
I am always coming across people who have dealt with deVere, asking me to “right the wrongs”….. which isn’t always possible. They are a disgrace to our industry and I would recommend everyone giving them a wide berth!!
If anybody needs further confirmation just spend an hour on the Internet searching deVere or Nigel Green who owns the company. One hour of your time against being financially ruined????
Always worth adding the word complaint or scam in the search, although you will find plenty without them….. even when they pay ££££’s a year to have negative comments about their company removed from the net!
Frankly I’d be wary of pretty much anyone operating over here, not just deVere (PB being another point in case when it comes to unethical direct sales).
It never ceases to amaze me just how little due diligence people do when risking their life savings.
Absolutely. But not just deVere, anyone in the financial services sector should be examined with a fine tooth comb.
Devere sound terrible. I feel that if you require any form of financial advice it makes absolute sense to use advisors who are properly regulated in the UK. Otherwise, what protection and peace of mind do you have? I would also personally insist that any such company have a long track record of dealing with ex-pats and of course, do your research before anything!
I agree. All of my business comes from referrals from existing clients. If you do the job right then the referrals come naturally.
I wouldn’t recommend trusting anybody because they seem to “be nice”.
Ask for references, research online and above all take your time with any decisions. The sharks tend to push you for a quick decision.
‘youdontknowhalfofit’ The very fact that you have remained anonymous and made no attempt to ‘sell’ either yourself or company suggests to me you are one of the good guys. Thanks for that.
Dave (and anyone else reading): There’s a number of links in the pensions article above to help checking people out. Seems from what I’ve seen they all claim to be regulated. Not that I believe it matters much here, and so many of them appear to be ‘piggy backing’ the licences of other companies. Absolute minefield. As suggested above referrals have to be the best place to start.
I work for deVere spain as an adviser and want to give some feedback because I recently lost a potential partner for business seminars due to some bad press relating to deVere and the alleged phone-calls. Some background first and in reply to youdontknowhalfofit ; I have 20 years UK IFA experience, my senior colleagues at deVere and I are all qualified to UK standards, I myself have had FPC for many years and CeMap but deVere insisted I obtain my DipFA or DipPFS and R02, R03 as a minimum before letting me out of close compliance supervision, even then 100% of my cases are checked before business is allowed to proceed. Of course, until legislation improves in Spain, there are no required qualifications. As for DeVere group or deVere and Partners, We are registered both in the UK with the FCA (deVere and Partners (UK) Limited 469151http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmPassports.do?sid=188346) and the CNMV (deVere and Partners (UK) Limited 2297 http://www.cnmv.es/Portal/Consultas/ESI/ESISExtranjerasLP.aspx?numero=2297&tipo=CLP) plus the DGS in Spain (deVere Spain J2807 http://www.dgsfp.mineco.es/regpublicos/pui/pui.aspx) so is one of only two ex-pat adviser firms that I know of that are regulated here in Spain. There are no providers or plans that I am aware of that tie the client in for any more than 5 years, charges are transparent and normally there is no direct charge to the client. Naturally, we have global competitors and we are aware that competitor firms employ staff and incentivise publicists to anonymously churn out negative comments. However, we did operate a call centre and still have a handful of staff making calls to professionals and ex-pats who they have prospected from the internet and local business guides, in the past the Do Not Call system was not as effective as we would like. The objective of the phone-calls is simply to explain about the service with a view to inviting potential clients to seminars or have a no obligation meeting with a consultant, we never transact business over the phone. Should you receive any phone-calls simply ask to go on the Do Not Call list or simply ask to ring with regulatory updates occasionally if you prefer, provide all contact numbers that you wish to add to the Do Not Call list and your number will be added to the system. Also deVere have added a warning on the FCA website, we are aware of a clone firm pretending to be from deVere group making harassing phone-calls. The genuine emails from deVere group will have a ‘-‘ as follows [email protected] therefore I would suggest asking for a confirmation email before agreeing to any meeting or discussion. Finally, courtesy is appreciated and should be expected from any of the deVere staff. Your feedback is appreciated.
There is only one thing I will take exception to in your response, no actually two. Both related.
Firstly: Your use of the word alleged. This article refers to ACTUAL rather than alleged phone calls received repeatedly over time form you company by myself and my wife. I despise the cold calling nature of your company and as stated will never deal with your company simply on that basis.
Secondly: I do not expect to have to contact your company to put my numbers on a ‘remove list’, my numbers are as stated registered with Listas Robinson. I should on that basis NOT receive cold calls.I have REPEATEDLY instructed your callers to remove me from your lists, but still the calls come. Perhaps they do remove them at the time.
I stand completely by my original article as it is based purely on my personal opinion and experience.
As for licensing etc that you have dealt with in reply to the links. I’m really not qualified in any way to comment, which is why I have published your comment in full and totally unchanged. I trust that you can take that as a gesture of balance, and as your right to reply.
Thank you for publishing my previous comment. I agree with you that cold calling, especially when requested not to, is poor business practice however the systems used in most call centres rely on the phone number being added to a Do Not Call list or DNC. Should you receive a call from the legitimate deVere your number will have been obtained through publicly available sources including marketing companies and social media. If you have several phone numbers and send an email to the email address provided you should not receive any further calls. The lady trying to speak over you may have been trying to make that point though understandably you thought it appropriate to cut her short. You have my personal email now too and I would be happy to speak with you directly. Thanks again for showing balance by publishing what is factual information relating to the genuine Devere group and devere-spain.es.
You’re welcome. It is only fair… I’m a firm believer in balance and freedom of speech on all sides.
The ‘lady’ speaking over me was rude and unpleasant and continued her pitch with any regard for my wanting to stop here. She was an embarrassment to your company in every possible way. I will not spend my time – which has a value – to stop your company or any other pestering me. Can I send you an invoice for time wasted up to now? The likes of Listas Robinson and the Telephone Preference Service in the UK exist to prevent unwanted cold calls. Whilst farming numbers from ‘publicly available sources’ (and adding all and sundry in LinkedIn) your people should be running the numbers they collect past such lists and filtering out my numbers. That’s the raison d’etre of these services. I believe it to be the responsibility of companies like yours who use cold calling techniques to comply with the spirit and any legal obligations of these services.
It is not for us, the recipients of unwanted calls, to be asking dozens if not hundreds of companies not to intrude. Despite repeatedly instructing your callers to remove me this has not yet happened.
Your calls thus far have been so far at best unwanted and intrusive through to the one described above which was offensive and appalling.
I appreciate your comments, but the ‘sharp end’ of your operation is not good in my experience.
You obviously are trying to appease me in some way here, but as I’ve said because of this I am not and never will be a prospect for your company. However, that said I’d like to lay down a challenge to you as someone who is coming across as trying to remedy the situation. Are you a gambling man?
Here’s the challenge: Can you use your influence (without me spending my time contacting your company for all the reasons I have explained) to ensure I (or my wife) never receive another phone call from your company, no more LinkedIn requests or any other contact?
Everyone’s time is valuable including your own, my objective is to give balance rather than appease anyone; deVere as a professional firm don’t want you or anybody else to receive unwanted phone calls but at the same time, communication has to begin somewhere. I personally believe an email or ‘contact request’ should precede any phone-call but my opinion is not important.
Our industry and the company I work with is much maligned by individuals or groups who see it fit to generate anonymous, malicious misinformation for their own commercial benefit – you have vented your frustrations in the public domain but you have added your name and your complaint seems genuine. My relationship with a potential business associate has been potentially irreparably damaged as a consequence of some of the comments posted which have been shared directly with me.
1) I can’t prevent anybody trying to contact you via linked-in, you can change privacy settings I believe.
2) Without a list of the phone numbers I cannot prevent calls to numbers deVere do not have registered as Do Not Call.
I can make every effort to make sure any email you send to me directly is actioned.
Genuinely I can only give my point of view and I understand your frustrations, I do not know for sure that it was the genuine deVere making the calls for the reasons outlined in my previous reply – I will do everything in my power to help you though.
You say “seems genuine”? It is genuine. No secret who or what I am. Nothing to do with your business, just pi**ed off with the harassment.
I shall continue to report all contact from deVere on LinkedIn as spam.
The list of numbers is available from Listas Robinson and the TPS, which your company has an ethical (I’m not certain but also quite probably a legal) obligation to comply with.
Which implies that your company does not have a system robust enough to ensure ‘no future contact’. In good faith though, I will mail you personally the numbers and lets see what you can do? Deal?
I understand your point of view and of course I will action your email.
There was no intended implication in terms of the company systems; I would not gamble against the potential failings of systems in general – I am registered with TPS in the UK yet you wouldn’t believe how many accident or miss-sold PPI claims I am eligible for? All data should legally be TPS screened before calling UK numbers from the UK. Listas Robinson is intended to reduce commercial mail and calls although my personal understanding is that they (Listas Robinson) have no legal standing. Social media changes the legal landscape’ a contact or ‘friend’ is in essence an acceptance to communicate.
There is no excuse though for rudeness or harassment from anyone.
Back to the issues you have raised. My livelihood relies on integrity and good will, I live in a relatively small community who read comments posted on your site and others like it and judge me at least in part by my association with the company. I don’t want you or anybody else feel they have been harassed in any way shape or form and will action your email tomorrow which should sort the problem..
I would ask that anyone experiencing the same issue you have reported use the email supplied at the start of this post, specify your name and associated phone numbers and ask for them to be added to the Do Not Call list. Also please make a note of any person who tells you they are from deVere, ask them for their email address and it should contain a ‘-‘ e.g. [email protected]. That way we can speak directly to the caller and ensure we do everything possible to avoid future calls.
Thank you for publishing my comments.
I most certainly don’t have any friends or contacts at deVere. Random attempts to add me via any social media platform are immediately reported as spam.
Phone number, ex-directory, always. Listas Robinson, Never allow ‘partners’ and such to email me….
I should be water tight. I do this ‘internet thing’ for a living. I know the law, and I know how it – should – work.
It’s only fair. I hope you feel that we have given you reasonable opportunity to answer your critics. I appreciate there are always two sides, and many different individuals in an organisation like yours. It’s for the reader to make their own opinions, not for me to only allow comments from one side of an argument.
They sell very high charged savings plans that are not allowed in the UK (Generali Vision Plan) and they have received lots of bad press about this.
It’s fair to say that there are lots of buyer beware pointers here.
To the Devere advisor – with respect, if you are losing business through bad press, may I suggest that you move to another company?
My comments do not represent deVere group or deVere spain e&eo. I will do my best to provide evidence to support to my comments.
Regulation and qualifications – My previous posts cover your points relating to UK qualifications and regulations. The sources available to ‘Dig’ generally are at best inaccurate at worst fabricated although on occasion get published in the broad sheets or tabloids.
Daily mail: deVere are a global group and have a high profile presence in the world’s press – do any of the other financial advisory firms you know have the same presence? Naturally deVere has attracted good and bad press. https://www.devere-group.com/deVere-News/PressReleaseList.aspx . however the negative seems to be the focus of this board.
Panorama – the programme features one incidence of a well publicised case and fails to point out that deVere compensated the clients fully. The incident dated back to the early days of deVere. With thousands of clients and hundreds of advisers, inevitably there will be mistakes however times have changed and the improvements in regulation and compliance systems and controls are there to minimise the risk of mistakes happening.
Generali Vision – we are not in the UK. All products sold in any jurisdiction have to be compliant in that jurisdiction – there are multiple providers including Generali, incidentally a leader in their field, and the charging structure can be found on their website. Devere are paid directly by the provider. Relative to the UK the charging structure may be high but appropriate for each jurisdiction.
Cold Calling – Covered in earlier posts and historically controls were poor.
Summary; The previous comment by Dave Mongomery is an example of the rumour mill in action “They have been booted out of lots of countries including Belgium & Luxembourg” – where is your evidence and is the source credible?. I chose to work for deVere for a number of reasons, including standard of training and support, regulatory status, non-biased charging structure, incredible product range that simply are not available to other smaller firms. The controls in terms of police checks, qualification checks and due diligence is exceptional and with respect, should the negative press have a credible source and evidence, I might consider your suggestion. In the meantime, I will continue to provide an honest opinion.
Ex-pats have a tendency to make a direct comparison with the UK in terms of products, charges etc. As an example, UK ISA’s are not tax efficient in Spain and are not available in Spain.
The UK have a completely different legislative framework to Spain and the rest of the world where the providers themselves set the charging structure of their products and commission is used to ‘incentivise’ all firms. Devere adopt a neutral approach to ensure there is limited commission bias.
I am interested to know how the Do Not Call system has worked so far – Have you had any further calls from deVere Alan Gandy?
Another issue that has recently come to light – Chase de vere and Devere Group are separate entities entirely and have no common link. Much of the negative press I have seen relates to Chase de vere.
Hi Devere IFA, your firm has definitely been booted out of Thailand. That I know first hand.
deVere in Thailand tries hard to pretend that it has acquired a legal Thai firm. But that appears to be – at best – wishful thinking, and at worst, complete deceit. The acquisition was never approved by the local regulator.
Not a single devere “adviser” has a license in Thailand, nor ever has had one. If you have any different information, post it here. I’d be especially interested in the name of even a single deVere Thailand employee that you think is (or has ever been) licensed to sell offshore investments or even give investment advice.
None so far…. I’ll be in touch if they start coming again.
Let me put some of your wrong/erroneous info right here. Upfront: I am a fully licensed financial advisor in Germany catering to Expats. I am currently helping several of them taking legal steps against DeVere Germany for malpractice and illegal advice (i.e. without proper licensing).
1. In Germany it is entirely illegal to cold-call a private person, either at home or their place of job/business. Not on a reference (which is usually bogus anyway if challenged). It requires the explicit permission of the called person upfront. Still – and in full knowleged of this. DeVEre Germany has regardlessly used cold-calling as the modus operandi and still does. You guys simply don’t care about laws and regulations, that is the simple truth of it.
2. Here in Germany DeVere has no license to offer investment advice at all. The old one run out in July 2013 and you guys could not get a new one as it would require proof of skills as financial advisor for all local advisors. The only thing left in Germany is a license as insurance broker…and this will hopefully soon be terminated by the German authorities. In many other countries you have acted without proper license or bogus claims of licensing. The British FAC is currently looking into this as well according to my knowledge, especially abuse of passporting rights for cross-border activities.
4. Generali Vision is located on Guernsey. They have – as confirmed by the Belgium and German authorities – no license or right to be sold or offered within the EU. Because the EU passporting rights do not apply to them.
On top of that German laws (and me thinks EU directives as well) require that the initial costs for such a plan be disclosed in full EUR before (!) a contract is signed. this is never the case when DeVere sells these plans. Which is why the entire sales-process is illegal in Germany as it is (I can’t judge for Spain as I do not know the legal regulation there well enough, but EU laws also apply to Spain, obviously ).
The list of countries where DeVere was banned/kicked out is a long-one around the world . I am working eagerly on trying to making Germany the next country where the DeVere sales practice is finally banned. Unfortunately there are so many spin-offs that it is sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. But they, too, will eventually be brought down.
For consumers there is only one cause of action: check the actual regulation for insurance or investment advice in the country where you live and do not just trust it when an IFA says so. Check the online registrations lists and make doubly sure you’ll understand the licenses in full.
Furthermore, check any quotes you get for full disclosure of costs (i.e. commissions ) involved. If you don’t get transperent information, stay away.
Since DeVere and others also often gives wrong information about “tax advantages” of their offshore pension plans or executive investment bonds, have your tax advisor check into this before you sign anything.
Don’t do a QROPS without unbiased advice of a licensed UK-based specialist first – you might be losing a lot of guarantees for your pension and exchange it for risky and dubious investments. At least here in Germany the “structured notes” that DeVere loves to put into EIBs and other such products for an QROPS transfer are considered thru a large number of high court decisions as entirely unsuitable for pension planning do to their inherent risk of total capital loss.
DeVere’s expansion strategy is mostly/partly by a process of merger or acquisition – that is to say that DeVere will purchase or merge with usually the locally larger established firms and take them on as part of the group, bring in new systems and controls, branding, training and development etc.
Unfortunately, despite full due diligence, the acquisition and merger strategy has inherent risks in the sense that by taking on a client bank and personnel in an environment where there are little or no required adviser qualifications and limited regulations, DeVere often also have no choice but to take on the liability for reputation and advice given by the acquired firms current and previous advisers.
Regulations in Thailand are far from straightforward, DeVere rely on legal advice from the best in the world but even then, the regulations have to be translated into English language and/or interpreted. Most IFA firms in the UK will tell you that even the nature of FCA rules and regulations are often vague and have to be interpreted by the firm.
I can find no evidence to support Andy’s comment ‘The acquisition was never approved by the local regulator’ – You will notice in the case of Thailand, the company name is still Broadgate Investment Advisory Securities (Thailand) Company Limited. https://www.devere-group.com/globalpresence/globalpresence.aspx. Broadgate are registered in Thailand: Broadgate Investment Advisory Securities (Thailand) Ltd is licensed by the Thai Ministry of Finance and regulated by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (according to their website). Ministry of Finance no : SD03-0048-28. SEC license no : D06-0048-18. I guess it is possible the Thai regulator did not approve the acquisition but I do not speak Thai or have direct access to the legal team deVere used so I would ask Andy – you stated you know as a ‘Fact’ – are you another one jumping on the band-waggon of deformation or do you have any evidence to support your ‘Fact’ that you (Andy – comment above) ‘Know for a fact’?
In the past, DeVere in my opinion have been too quick to re-brand to ‘deVere’. On the reverse, where business levels or demand is low, or regulatory procedures create an unworkable environment (for example overbearing or unmanageable staffing or capital adequacy levels or local government levies where costs massively outweigh potential gains) – DeVere may chose to move out of a location that just simply offers little or no commercial benefit – for example, lack of competitive edge or beneficial terms for the client (such as limited tax efficient product availability or range locally compared to the established private banking sector). DeVere are unapologetically a business and have a general philosophy to be and work with the best in the industry.
Many of the blogs are known to have been posted anonymously by former staff; where deVere have made the decision to ‘eject’ or lose some acquired personnel for a variety of reasons, I would expect poor standards or questionable history as some of those reasons.
In emerging markets deVere will take on good communicators to train as advisers, usually with client facing experience from consultancy and yes sales environments who are willing and able to travel and live abroad, due in part to the limited experienced personnel available local. I still have ongoing training myself – Devere continually invest in their staff and will train all of them; In my opinion the quality of training is high usually to an internationally recognised standard but local qualifications may not be the typical UK DipFA or DipPFS for example; adequate non the less for recommending a limited range of products (Remember – UK qualifications are only usually relevant in the UK! but a tool for credibility and demonstrable ability, no doubt).
UK qualifications may be recognised but irrelevant in terms of some overseas jurisdictions. The advice DeVere Spain gives, even prior to legal requirements to do so, for UK pension transfers, is usually done through a highly qualified team in the UK and regulated in the UK, the adviser based locally, even if highly UK qualified, would simply introduce the pension business. Other firms in Spain have to now use external providers to do the same.
Often, take Thailand as an example, especially where no dual tax agreements are in place with commonly used offshore jurisdictions, new products have to be developed specifically for that jurisdiction because the usual international products simply have limited tax benefits, for example due to no dual tax agreements and simply do not meet the requirements for international clients, charges on those products will invariably be more expensive than the UK for example. Product regulations are often non-existent in some parts of the world.
Opinion and comparisons are often shared on here but with UK based experience rather than an international knowledge. UK based advisers or former UK financial body examiners who have retired to Spain for example often comment with a UK mentality or perspective – when I came to live in Spain, as a UK adviser I considered ‘naked’ investments to be more appropriate than offshore bonds in Spain due to charges for international bonds (typically around 0.5 to 1% per annum in addition to initial and fund charges) but with local taxation realised that despite charges, the taxation advantages in Spain (limited tax on growth, tax on profit elements on withdrawal as one) offer significant potential benefits for most UK clients who are or will be tax resident in Spain.
I do not know anybody personally at the Thailand office and without checking their certificates I don’t know what qualifications they have, I do know deVere will act quickly to be as regulated as possible in any area they cover and use the world’s best legal teams to advise and will suspend operations – by choice to avoid any breach of local or international rules.
What I do know is that the compliance and oversight procedures here deVere Spain are 100% as stated in earlier blogs – I don’t really see the relevance of Thailand or other overseas businesses here in Spain other than to fuel a general message that DeVere are the big bad demons of financial services. I gave a link in earlier posts to show our FCA / CNMV and DGS registrations – also there are no complaints registered to the business on the FCA register -DeVere Spain have liability insurance with AIG Europe – these are indeed FACTS.
In summary, there are good and bad in everyone but it would be wise to get out of your UK mentality bubble – YOU ARE NO LONGER IN THE UK (unless you live in the UK – sorry, did not mean to exclude you UK readers x) – I would strongly recommend 1. Speak with an adviser based in the country that you are or will be tax resident (remember in Spain if you are here more than 182 days, in most cases you have an obligation to pay tax in Spain and become tax resident by default). 2. Ask for and see evidence of qualifications and/or evidence of training or experience from any adviser or firm you speak with – (New starters have to start somewhere and may be under supervision therefore request evidence of supervisor qualifications) 3. Work with a company that is registered and regulated locally and where appropriate with the UK FCA too 4. Has financial ability and appropriate liability insurance to make financial redress to mistakes if and when they are made. 5. Base your choice on FACTS relating to your country of residence. 6. If you have any concerns about the nature of initial contact, have the courtesy to think of the person making that communication as a person; allow them a minute to deliver there message and communicate politely with them 7. Listen to the people trying to help you – you may learn something you didn’t know before and you may gain some value at the expense of a small part of your valuable time (Not just yours Andy but everybody).
Talking of time, I am going to sign off from adding to the this thread – I have provided my personal email to the site owner, have directly addressed his issue with deVere Spain to the best of my ability and I am genuinely interested in providing balanced feedback or assistance to any of you resident here in Spain.
I would urge you to contact directly any firm that you are unhappy with and help them to help you.
As one final note: You should expect courtesy from the company too, Alan Gandy felt one lady in particular was rude which is simply unacceptable to me, never mind deVere. I will personally assist anybody where they have experienced anything other than professionalism from anyone associated with deVere Spain because my business depends on it, I also know I have the backing of a fantastic team who will assist me to assist you. I have extended that courtesy to Alan and will do the same for any individual or collective with genuine gripes.
1. I do not know the laws of Germany so cannot comment re ‘cold calling’ or unsolicited introduction mail/email – maybe you would kindly send a link to current laws I will do some research myself or forward to me via the mediator of this thread – Previous comments give my view on the whole ‘cold calling’ issue.
For a balanced debate where possible I will provide support for my comments, all of the blogs out there make spurious claims – I don’t know whether they have any foundation but they all share one thing in common, they fail to provide evidence and other IFA’s are quick to fuel the fire.
I appreciate Pat, you may have evidence that you cannot provide on a blog but feel free to pass on any via Alan Gandy, the site moderator – The worlds largest firms work with deVere and would cease to do so I would imagine if what you are saying is true – I would move away from deVere if I found hard evidence that what you say is true but I can’t seem to find any.
Now I really have to get on with some work…..thank you again Alan for posting my replies.
My comments are my own opinion and views and not approved by DeVere Group or DeVere Spain e&eo.
No doubt, being a large firm, deVere will have some.
—-and then you see a pattern. One time could be a simple mistake or oversight, twice would call for a very serious review of compliance procedures in the company. This often shows: DeVere does not care for license.
Again, this does not look like a single individuum overstepping the line but like a special climate at DeVere.
your 5: I am not doing DeVere’s homework. Selling structured notes in Germany requires a banking license which they don’t have. Selling them as part of pension plans is liable for malpractice claims – DeVere would lose every court complaint about this, especially if prior dissolving a safe UK company pension scheme.
Securities Law in Thailand is in fact quite straight forward and readily available in English. If deVere had any difficulty in understanding the English, it could have contacted the SEC (regulator) directly years ago (as I have) and gotten clarification on any point. Or if deVere preferred it could have consulted with any international law firm such as Baker McKenzie or Clifford Chance and gotten clarification.
deVere instead side-stepped the law entirely and set up an illegal entity selling offshore products to expatriates in Thailand. As it became clear deVere would run into trouble, it announced that it had taken over Broadgate. It’s very easy to see that the Thai takeover deal wasnt’ approved and didn’t go through. Just check the Thai SEC website – it’s all there in plain English. Broadgate is still owned by its original shareholders. None of the deVere salespeople have licenses in Thailand – just do a simple search.
Sorry to burst your bubble. In Thailand deVere has been breaking the law. That’s why deVere is on the Investor alert list. It doesn’t own Broadgate. That’s why deVere is not listed as a shareholder of Broadgate. No deVere personnel have any licenses in Thailand – that is why if you search for any of them by name they do not come up.
The Thai SEC has started to file criminal complaints against people giving advice in Thailand without licenses. If nothing else, I hope that clarifies things for your company and its personnel operating illegally here.
I do not see what this has to do with Spain, I acknowledge the articles have some sensational commentary but you have not provided any evidence to support your comments. You have made sweeping assumptions and claim to have evidence when all you can produce to support your claims are broad sheet headlines knowing that readers see the headlines but rarely read the complete article.
1.2. 4 Where is your evidence of any high court rulings against deVere, any evidence of outlawed products or incorrect registrations, or any reprimands for cold calling that you say you have first hand knowledge of?
deVere Germany GmbH is registered in the local court of Frankfurt am Main under HRB 55281. It is registered with the insurance broker register (http://www.vermittlerregister.info registration no. D-8HD0-NHM21-08). deVere Germany GmbH has a license according to sec. 34d German Trade Act (insurance broker), supervisory authority: Industrie- und Handelskammer, Frankfurt am Main, Börsenplatz 4, 60313 Frankfurt.
Can you provide evidence e.g. copy of the law or a statement from a governing or regulatory body that proves the above licence does not meet German licencing requirements.
My objective again is to provide balance. What does a sexual harassment case based on a singular accusation in the USA have to do with Spain?? deVere have hundreds if not thousands of employees – statistically 1 in 1000 of any demographic could be a bad egg – of course the article you posted states an allegation without evidence. I can’t comment but I know I did not take part :) and I accept deVere will attract news, good and bad.
Thanks again to Alan Gandy for publishing comments without prejudice.
(My comments are my opinion and not approved or shared by deVere group or deVere Spain S.L. e&eo).
And as I said before, there were issues with clone firms pretending to be devere, deVere have published their own response to information on blogs available on the deVere website. Maybe in the past deVere screwed up – I don’t know.
I don’t really know the situation in Thailand however the regulations in Asia have improved in recent years – I still have not had any evidence that the Broadgate purchase was turned down by the regulators – just blogs.
My experience of DeVere Spain is nothing but professional from an insider point of view and my personal impression of the group as a whole is positive.
Little confused by the last post by DeVereIFA as the points about regulation have confirmed what Patrick stated.
@Christopher Lean – Hi Christopher, again this is a post for Spain but I am intrigued: Answer – not at all – I have posted deVere’s permissions in Germany, they are licenced under pass-porting permissions for investment advice and under local arrangements for insurance products – Are you saying the permissions are not correct? please provide evidence – I cannot find any information to confirm that their permissions are not adequate for Germany?
Kindly note that deVere also has its registrations added to the ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) in preparation for MiFID 2 (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II) currently being updated by the authorities.
MiFiD amendments were valid from 2007 and new proposals MiFID 2 are due in 2017 for those of you who are interested.
Goodnight and thank you again.
All the original shareholders are listed, not deVere.
You’ll find only one person, a Thai national, who is licensed and working for Broadgate. No one from deVere.
You can also check out the type of license that Broadgate has. Even if deVere did acquire it (which it did not), Broadgate is not authorized to sell offshore insurance wrapped investments to Thai residents. This is essentially how deVere’s earns its revenue, or am I wrong and your firm does something else?
Meanwhile, deVere Group and deVere & Partners (Thailand) Limited have been on the Thai SEC’s Investor Alert list since 2014 :http://market.sec.or.th/public/idisc/InvestorAlert.aspx?lang=en&reportcode=PP07&table=T01 The website the SEC lists is your firm’s website, not some clone firm.
If deVere still has any doubt about Thai securities law and for some reason doesn’t want to speak directly to the Thai SEC (who speak perfect English), as I suggested before, try hiring an international law firm with a Thai office like Baker & McKenzie or Clifford Chance. Their lawyers are fluent in the law and in English.
As Pat notes above regarding Germany, selling risky offshore structured products inside people’s pension plans is not a practice that would be acceptable in Thailand. deVere nor any firm would not receive a license to do this.
By the way the law in Thailand has not changed recently. The SEC Act has been in place since 1993. It is only in recent years that expats have begun to complain and give evidence to the Thai SEC. Sadly all too many expats were unaware of their protection under Thai law and many departed Thailand without filing a complaint. That has changed, not the law.
I am just following this discussion, nothing else. I simply said I was confused as you and Patrick refer to the same types of licences, albeit from a different angle. The permissions are what they are and they state what activities they cover.
If you have an establishment of a branch passport ( as above ) from the FCA, then the staff in Germany would be covered to give investment advice. If I am reading this incorrectly, then I have no issue with someone clarifying this.
@Andy – as I said before, my interest is in Spain, all I know about Thailand please refer to previous posts.
More than happy to give you the evidence and proof that you seem not wanting to ackknowledge. And yes, I am talking about Germany and other countries (mainly EU memberstates) where DeVere blatantly violated regulations rules and consumer protection laws…but this is mainly to underline that this company is not the great international financial advisor you try to paint them. As to the legal situation in Spain, I do not know – but will inquire as I have years of experience in finding out what lies behind the typical smoke screens put up by the likes of you.
– careful reading may be helpful before you try to twist my words around in order to muddy the water: I have not claimed that there are high-court decisions against DeVere in Germany (yet). What I have claimed – and everyone with just a little bit of German and some Google-capacity can find out – is that structured notes are not suitable for pension planning by German law.
Here are just some such examples of court decisions by the German BGH (Federal Court – highest level below Supreme court).
This list could be continued at nauseam.
This is why strcutured notes are not suitable for pension planning, least of all for QROPS.
– Licenses of DeVere in Germany: thanks for posting the link to the public registry of the FCA. Now everybody can see that you either have no clue about what you say or simply try to mislead people.
Both passporting right for Germany are cleary stated as Outward Services (both for insurance IMD and financial advice MIFID). Outward Services means DeVere UK has only a permission to offer cross-border services, meaning you can advice people/clients in Germany FROM your UK office by phone or email or the odd short visit in Germany – but you are not allowed to run a branch/estbalishmend in Germany under this permission. However, DeVere Germany is a Germany based corporation and DeVere website claims to have offices in Frankfurt and Hamburg (and used to have in Munich). Several “advisors” of DeVere are locally present permanently (and claim do be so) for many years already in Germany. this clearly has nothing to do with “Outward Services” but would require “Outward branch”. And the FCA makes explicitly clear that you have to apply for the right form of what you want to do under the freedom of services.
Consequently DeVere is misleading the FCA about their activities in Germany (and other countries) by using the weaker/cheaper passporting rights of “Outward Services” instead of “Outward Branch”.
Again, this is no rocket science and DeVere cannot claim ignorance here.
In Germany there is DeVEre Germany GmbH. It was established in 2009. For years it only had a license for financial advice under provision § 34 C GewO from IHK Frankfurt. At the same time it was giving insurance advice (most offshore pension plans are life assurance products and require thus a license for insurance advice) in Germany without proper licensing, claiming to be under Belgium license. The Belgium authorities gave us in writing that this was incorrect.
Ever since March 2013 DEVere Germany has now, as you correctly state, the relevant license for insurance advice under § 34 D GewO from the IHK Frankfurt. Which shows also that all the time before DeVere Germany was acting illegally when offering insurance advice.
But since July 2013, DeVere Germany is without license for financial advice. because ever since investment advice requires a new license under provision § 34 F GewO. Which requires among other things proof of qualification of each advisor and person residing in Germany to offer financial advice on behalf of DeVere. A simply glimpse in the online registry in Germany for that will show the lack of this important license. Consequently DeVere advisors in Germany are not allowed to offer any investment advice at all – and clients foolishly enough to take such advice have no recourse to an indemnity insurance as required by law.
For a market that DeVere has claimed to be very important like the German one, this is one very poor compliance of the laws in Germany – which are there for consumer protection, mind you.
Now, for any advice on structured notes, a special banking license is required under German law – because these are, as expressed above, high-risk investments. This license is § 32 KWG and and DeVere Germany has not such a license either. So any advice offered in Germany including structured notes is massivly illegal.
GEnerali Vision: as said above: The beloved cash-cow of DeVere for “pension planning” is the Generali Vision plan because of its high initial costs which convert nicely into high commissions.
Generali Vision is a product of Generali International Ltd. which is located in Generali House, Hirzel Street, St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands. Since the Channel Islands are not part of the EU, they would need to apply for a license in at least one EU-memberstate and then might possibly passport into other EU-memberstates. This never happened. Consequently the Belgium authorities informed us that the sale/distribution of Generali Vision is illegal throughout the EU as no such license was ever granted. And the Ombudsman in Belgium informed a client that because of this no indeminity insurance would step in to pay out in case of malpractice even if and where DeVere might have a correct license as insurance intermediary.
Under German consumer protection laws, clients have to be informed about the costs for an insurance product in full EUR with the quote. I have never seen such a legally compliant quote by any DeVere “advisor” in Germany…and I have seen plenty. Which is understandable because no-one would sign a 25-year duration plan with Generali Vision if he’d be properly informed that the first 23 monthly premiums (and what amount this generates) are entirely going into costs/commission and will thus be lost if you need – for whatever reasons -cancel early.
– DeVere UK has no license from the FCA to offer advice IN Germany thru a branch/establishmend as shown on the FCA registry.
-DeVere Germany did not have a required insurance intermediary license for 5 years of its activities in Germany, falsly claiming to be under Belgium license. It has now since March 2013 a license as insurance intermediary but NO license whatsoever for investment advice in Germany, especially not for structured notes.
– German courts have ruled often and all the way up to the BGH that structured notes are high risk investment and thus unsuitable for pension planning and conservative investors. I don’t believe that other EU countries will have a much different stance on that.
– Generali Vision pension plans are not licensed to be offered in the EU as they are located on the Channels islands which are not part of the EU – hence no passpoprting rights are available but rather a formal license must be obtained by at least one EU memberstate.
Last but not least to show how inadequate advice by DeVere at least in Germany is: DeVEre advisors in Germany have sold and still are selling EIB (Executive Investment Bonds) from Old Mutual and other similar products to residents of Germany, claiming it to be tax efficient and helping to save taxes in Germany.
The contrary is correct as many DeVere clients just found out to their horror when audited by German tax authorities. Because the life assurance umbrella of these EIB is offering insufficient risk-coverage for death under German laws, they fall under what is deemed “transperent taxation” in Germany. I.e., profits from selling funds or matured structured notes have to be reported for taxation in every calendar year. All thos resident in Germany who believed in DeVere expertise are now facing serious penalties for tax evasion for the past years when they did not report these profits in their tax declarations. Great job, you guys !
Anyone wanting to have a clear pucture of what DeVere has been doing and is still doing: please check “pissedconsumers”, search for DeVere and scroll by their blanket ” we are good and did not wrong” comments down to the complaints. It will open your eyes.
@Andy – Why do you persist on Thailand? some of your information appears to me to be incorrect – here is the SEC registration clearly showing the permission for investment advice AND the shareholders.
Please may we stick to Spain .
If you quote legal documents, please make sure you understand what they mean.
As your quote from MIFID directive clearly shows, there is a difference between estbalishment of a branch or free provisions of services. Both passporting rights can be applied for with the FCA, but they trigger different responsibilities to the host country and its regulation.
So, to make this finally clear again: DeVere UK has not a license to offer advice in the form of branches/establishment in most EU memberstates. It can only offer advice FROM UK into these countries as a cross-border service.
PS: since you are insinuating – a typical DeVere spiel, by the way – that I have “business interest” in spreading this info about DeVere: while I do offer full-fledged holistic insurance and financial advice to Expats in Germany, I do not offer ANY of the products that DeVere loves to sell here. Because they make no sense to residents of Germany, are far too expensive and simply unsuited for the vast majority of Expats in Germany. Therefore we are playing on totally different levels here and I don’t count sales-organisation like DeVere as a competition at all. I am just sick and tired by their constant and blatant abuse of laws and consumer protection rules in Germany. that’s all.
This is about deVere’s business practices. Many locations have been brought up as part of this discussion. I happen to know a lot about Thailand specifically. I am very happy to share my knowledge about what I know about Thailand in exchange for what others are posting about other countries.
Yes, the link you posted shows clearly the shareholders of Broadgate. Look closely and note that the shareholderrs are not deVere. They are the original shareholders of Broadgate.
as expkained above, Chris: DeVere UK has only passporting right INTO Germany for cross-border services. The passporting granted by the FCA is for “Outward Services” only. Hence the established branch in Germany is not covered under this license at all. That would require “outward branch”, which DeVere has for a few EU-countries but certainly not Germany (as both the FCA registry AND the BAFIN (German finance authority) registry show.
Since DeVerer Germany GmbH is a legal entity under German law the prevailing opinion amongst legal experts is, that it would not fall even under “outward branch” either – but I would allow for some legal interpretation room here. Yet, since there is no passporting license for “outward branch”, it is rather an academic question in the end. DeVere Germany has a German license as insurance intermediary (which shows that they, too, believe in the need for local licenses) but not for investment advice. Consequently all Germany based advisors offering investment advice are doing so illegally. Period.
now I just wonder when Andy is going to get the usual threatening letter by DeVere lawyers to erase this thread at once…. because this is what they usually do (as I could see both in Germany at Toytown and Switzerland (Expat-Forum) in order to avoid that negative but factual information can be found in the internet.
Patrick, thanks for the clarification. I merely referred to the links that deVereIFA provided himself and your comments which, as I said, appeared to confirm the same thing. I could find no evidence of an outward branch on the FCA website.
Please be respectful, I am not attempting to muddy any waters I replied to all of your comments with evidence from credible sources. To ensure my understanding is correct I have also written to the FCA for their confirmation to add to the factual evidence I have provided.
Patrick to say that structured notes are inappropriate for pensions in my opinion is narrow minded – several structured products with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS etc. offer capital protection, deep barrier and quarterly income, yes returns are subject to the providers solvency – should two of the world’s largest e.g. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs collapse there would be far wider implications for all; to site the collapse of Lehman Brothers as justification for high court rulings involving deVere is pretty tenuous don’t you think? – any reasonable IFA would recommend provider diversity to minimise exposure to the collapse of one institution which is clearly an inherent investment risk.
Have either of you a copy of any letter from any solicitor acting on behalf of deVere, really?
QDeVereIFA: I am not sure if you really do not understand what you write and quote here and thus just preach what you have been (falsly, I must add) told or if you just try to “muddy the waters”. Either way, you are wrong.
I have asked the British FCA in Spring of this year if DeVere UK (and a few others I don’t want to name here who act similarily ) who has only passporting rights into Germany by “outward services” are allowed to run a branch/estbalishment under this passporting licenses.
So, sorry mate – you are utterly wrong. Nothing has change in 2011 which would suddenly allow you guys to run a branch in Germany outside German rules and regulations AND without proper authorization by the British FCA.
Ok, try to understand: it is not me who says so, it is German courts on numerous occassions, such having established a pretty clear guideline to this regards. It has nothing to do with narrow-minded or not. if you (not YOU personally but DeVere advisors in Gemrany) offer investment advice in Germany, you should know German laws, German rules and even more so German taxation rules which make most of the structured notes underneath a life assurance umbrella pointless anyway.
Nobody I know has even weeks before the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros evere though they could go belly up. Which was a mistake as everyone knows now. Same applies to any other large bank as "guarantor" of the structured note. There is no guarantee that any of the banks you name will survice another financial crisis like the one we had when Lehman Bros crashed. Too big to fail will not be a safety line in the future anymore.
But that is all neither here nor there: if you fully and transperently tell your clients: look, there is the risk that all your money can be lost in this investment if you transfer your capital from your safe UK pension into my QROPS solution and he gets that in writing (including the costs you are producing directly and with kick-backs from the funds and banks as required under most EU laws and rules) and a client still decided to do so….fair by me. But of all the DeVere advice documents I have seen, that simply never happens. I even have a recording from a call a client of mine took with a DeVere advisor in Germany who told him that structured notes where an entirely safe product. Which they simply are not. this is seriously misleading clients and the cases I know which are being just now started in Germany against such bad advice will cut thru the courts in Germany like a hot knife thru butter.
Structured notes are an extremly risky investment, only suitable for very risk affine and experienced investor. Anyone who has a more conservative stance on his investments and wants to protect his capital ought not be advised to sign up with anything like that. This is what a really professional and ethically sound investment advisor adhers to. Sorry for having to point that out.
I could obtain one from a couple of website here in Germany and elsewhere, but what would be the point?
Even more so: DeVere tried to supress the negative publicity on "PissedConsumers" in the US with a law suit….and miserably failed so because in the US the first amendment is something precious and not easily discarded.
The Japanese regulator has updated its “List of non-registered or non-authorized entities with the FSA” for the month of July by adding 4 more names.
At the top of the list of new additions is: “(1) deVere Group Tokyo K.K.
As you can see, DeVere Japan is listed both as violating cold-calling AND as non-registered or non-authorized entities with the FSA.
So, we have violaitons in Thailand and Hongkong, now in Japan and as reported by me in teh recent past in Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. And you still claim this to be a simple oversight or mistake? I smell a mode of operation…..
I have read through the comments with extreme interest. Biggest is not best. I have many years experience in financial services. De Vere sent me to Malta – at my own cost – but paid accomodation. A five day course was held including about ten others, of whom maybe two had experience in financial services. Investments was by far and away the main priority. Which goes against the title IFA (Independant Financial Advisor) as life and disability cover is for all intents and purposes not covered. Holistic planning? My foot. Most qualified for postings to various branches and countries. Not me. No boot camp for me, thank you Sir. The course trainer thought she was the bees-knees but was caught out lying – not just by me, but the others attending. They shovel drivel in. If you make it, great. If not, out. Not much time. Their reputation is scandalous and the authorities should ban companies like them, who make their sole mission to generate as much commission as possible.
The deveregroupinfo.com page doesnt seem to work. Is this the correct URL?
They are operating in Manila, Philippines now too….watch out!
I’ve just signed up with this company to move my pension funds to a QROPS arrangement including an investment bond. I’m getting really worried now, reading all this negative stuff about the firm and that investment bonds are only advised because they pay high commission, when my advisor told me they don’t get paid by commission.
Does anyone know if this company are properly regulated in France, as I have been told they are? I haven’t been given any information about any ‘cooling off period’ so I don’t know if I can get out of this arrangement now, without it costing a lot, having signed only a couple of days ago?
I’m no expert, this thread started from my frustration with their sales methods. However, common sense would suggest that they’re getting a commission and/or fees from somewhere (i.e. you) along the way.
I doubt they aren’t just advising out of the kindness of their hearts.
Product charges same as going direct – no broker fee or ‘service’ charge.
Speak with your adviser if you have any concerns.
Do not touch this company (or Blacktower, a clone) with a barge pole. You invest then see the value if you cancel a few days later and realize their aim, to write lump sum investments. Their agents know nothing about life or disability cover. They churn out advisors and discard them just as quickly. Ask what their agent turnover is. Why are they hiding behind other companies to access clients in Europe. And the sexual harassment at Blacktower? I have not given my correct email because of recriminations.
Deb, put on hold immediately making any moves until you have all your questions answered. Ask deVere for full disclosure of all fees and commissions involved in their recommended course of action, including not just deVere’s compensation, but all the fees and commissions associated with the QROPS plan, any insurance provider (such as R360, Generali, Skandia, etc), the products they are suggesting (structured products – understand fully what these are and their high fees, the upfront commissions of the mutual funds inside the insurance plan as well as their annual running fees, etc).
Please post back what you learn about all the fees and commissions involved and whether deVere’s is regulated in France here.
I used the name and email which are fictitious as both companies carry a lot of power and clout. I have written to you before and am worried about recriminations. Was an employee.
If you want to cancel, do so immediately. It will take them a while to process the application. It will also take a while for your current pension provider to transfer the assets. What platform did they use, was it an Old Mutual Bond? If so he will be paid commission.
A question. Should someone find themselves in the situation of needing/wanting to cancel, are they able to stop the transfer by contacting the existing holder of the funds?
We will always respect anonymity.
Deb, checking the regulator in France’s website – I don’t see deVere France listed as being regulated. deVere UK has some cross-border permission to do business in France, but you’d want to make sure that you are working with deVere UK and its people (check your service agreement).
On fees/commission, there are multiple layers you’d be paying. There are ongoing QROPS level fees, then ongoing insurance policy level fees, then the fees/commission of the underlying products inside the insurance policy (both initial charges and ongoing). Get a full breakdown of all of these fees. Some of it ends up in deVere’s pockets, some in each of the other entities along up the food chain.
Pension transfers typically take 6-12 weeks to complete so yes you could just contact the transferring out scheme and tell them to block it, but as I said do this ASAP as the bonds have tie in periods and exit penalties, once it is in, it is in.
I didn’t realise these replies were here, sorry.
I did find DeVere France on the UK database as being authorised for dealing with insurance. They are registered in France for insurance and pension products under one guy’s licence number. The address he used in his advice letter is on the DeVere website and there are testimonials on there for him so I’m trying not to worry that he doesn’t even work for the company.
Yes, it was an Old Mutual European Executive Investment Bond. I started worrying when I noticed that his advice letter actually advised me to use the Old Mutual European Portfolio Bond but the brochure he gave me was for the EEIB. When I looked up the difference, the EEIB isn’t available in the UK, which make me worry that it’s because it’s somehow been outlawed there.
I’m really worried that my funds may somehow have already gone. Is there any chance my pension providers in the UK would have transferred the funds that quickly, when I only signed on Thursday afternoon?
Ironically I was originally working with Abbey Financial Solutions who are based in Spain and this guy told me that they weren’t regulated in France and so I should work with a respectable company like deVere, who are.
It takes a while to transfer so contact both your existing pension provider and Devere if you want to stop the transfer. Pension firms are notoriously slow at transferring out so it would be unlikely they have started the process. Just for your information, the Old Mutual Bond pays 7% up front commison, 4% goes to the adviser. So for a £100,000 pension that is 4k in his back pocket. Nothing necessarily wrong with this but it’s shocking if he isn’t declaring this.
How much is your pension worth? Is there a reason you are doing a QROPs rather than a UK Sipp?? Sipps are cheaper.
In the first instance, speak to your adviser with any concerns, there is a cooling off period but base any decisions on facts. Much of what you read in blogs for example is opinion and rarely will you find evidence to support claims made.
DeVere offices world-wide are part of the DeVere group. Each office is also an individual business which is registered in the local territory. https://www.devere-group.com/footer/RegulatoryDisclosures.aspx in France and Spain for example, deVere have professional indemnity insurance in the locality plus the financial wealth to pay redress when mistakes happen and inevitably they do.
Speaking as an adviser from DeVere Spain, the pension trustees used are registered on the ROPS list with HMRC, the bond providers are independent from deVere e.g. OMI, SEB etc etc and charges are transparent. In fact where other firms charge a ‘Service’ fee or ‘AMC’ deVere generally do not – Due to size, deVere negotiate larger fixed fee deductions from the providers themselves.
You should be provided with all the terms and conditions and charges relating to the products you have chosen even down to individual funds.
I noticed several comments on here encouraging you to cancel your application – I would encourage you, as Andy has done, to consider how the charges with deVere compare to other firms and ask your adviser for clarity. If the adviser is unable to explain the charges or confirm them in writing, I would be concerned.
Also compare the charges to those on your UK pension fund – we seem to forget that the UK adviser and providers all make money from somewhere, ask your scheme provider for a breakdown of charges too.
As a direct result of your comments here, a DNLI or “Do Not Linked-In” list has been created within DeVere Spain – I will add your details. Hopefully you have not had any phone-calls since we last spoke?
Phew, all cancelled. I’ve confirmed too that the advice he gave me was bad for me personally, incorrect in some respects and misleading in others. I’ve found out so much bad info about this company this weekend I’ll be steering clear of them from now on and I recommend everyone else to do the same.
Incidentally I’ve spoken to a proper French qualified and registered and also UK qualified independant financial advisor this morning and asked what they would recommend and though they said now is a bad time to do it (best wait until I’m 55 so I can take the thirty per cent out before investing the remainder, so I don’t end up paying fees on it for the ‘initial period’) that if I did do it, they would recommend basically what Abbey Financial Solutions discussed with me, though their fees for it would be cheaper than Abbey’s and they have a better agreement with the provider about taking money out with no exit fees.
SIPPS wasn’t even mentioned – he said I really needed to get my pension fund out of the UK.
He specifically said he would receive no commission and I’ve had this repeated to me since, so are you sure about that?
I’m not sure I should mention the value of my pension fund on a public thread but I’ve since read that it’s not enough to consider a QROPS, though he said it was well over the amount where I should consider it. Could you get my email address off Alan so I can be more specific in private?
Deb, your email is not visible anywhere in the thread. Nor is anyone else’s.
Please could you clarify who Devere have negotiated fee deductions with. Ie which providers?
Please do not print my name. Another company to investigate is Blacktower, virtually a clone of De Vere and who have quite a few ex-De Vere employees working for them, eg Paul Howard, Mgr Italy, who has not retained one employee he has hired but either fired them or told them to resign. And I have been told by an ex-Blacktower employee there were sexual shenanigans in their head office not too long ago. Howard, of Italy, has huge upfront fees directly deducted from client capital. And never writes life cover, disability, even when it should, but aims only for the lump sums.
I would like to thank Alan Gandy for the opportunity to comment on this site however similar to many posts by adding comments, with evidence, to balance some of the criticism posted simply provides the opportunity for others to post disinformation for their own commercial benefit – for example, citing licencing issues in Thailand and a case relating to a single individual based in the USA as a damning indictment toward all DeVere advisers – Now Blacktower seem to be receiving the same, anonymously of course.
@ Deb, hi Deb, an example of fees would be with Provider X, the direct charge to you would be Y without using an IFA. With DeVere, the charge to you would still be Y however a percentage of Y goes to DeVere. In terms of fund charges, the same as you will find on Morningstar or Trustnet – again, the IFA gets a percentage.
Agreed, it may be that DeVere gain a larger percentage than other adviser firms but this is due to its commercial strength and has exclusive products with the largest fund managers like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UBS for example which clearly is an advantage for the client.
This will be my final post.
I would simply ask anybody making decisions based on comments look at the facts and genuine evidence. Check the qualifications of your adviser – (example, I found an adviser recently claiming to be a graduate of Harvard business school with a degree in economics, his certificate was false) and check the registers of the regulators in your area. Check the source of any information you chose to process as fact. Should you have any concerns ask for evidence and speak with your adviser.
Thank you once again Alan and all, I wish you well.
@Chris, Hi Chris, to clarify – the fee to the client with the providers mentioned in my previous post would be the same as going direct. For example a bond provider charging 1.5% per annum for the first five years, the charge would be the same to the client going through DeVere, deVere do not add a ‘Service’ charge but does receive payment from the provider. The individual adviser remuneration is the same from provider to provider to avoid bias. I cannot list all the providers, there are too many.
…and no, no phone calls thank you.
I wasn’t that lucky…….. I invested through a “good friend” in Mallorca in 2007 who worked for DeVere & Partners, and have now lost more than half my investment(55K) and built up a commision debt of more then 7000eur according to last fact sheet from OMI. My lawyer sent his letter by burofax to DeVere Spain who answered they had nothing to do with this investment as they were registered in Sep 2007 and I invested in May 2007.
OK let’s put some meat on the bones. The following applies to Blacktower, AES, Devere, Continental Wealth and Blevins Franks, hereafter, the FA(Financial Advisory). These companies should all be avoided! Here’s why. Firstly, they do not use qualified advisors, they use ex-salesmen to sell financial investments wrapped in an insurance wrapper. Why? Because they aren’t regulated to offer financial advice, only sell insurance, so they have to put their financial advice within an insurance wrapper.
Firstly, this wrapper costs clients a HUGE amount – 1.75% per year – which results in an upfront payment of 6.5% to the firm selling it.
Secondly, rather than being independent, these FAs use their own ‘approved’ funds. What this actually means is charging the clients an unnecessary fund entry charge of 5%, all of which goes direct to the FA, to buy a fund which hasn’t been chosen because it’s any good, but because the FA have an agreement in place with the fund house to sell this fund and for that entry fee to be passed onto the FA. For this fund you’ll pay another annual fee, around 1%, half of which will go to… yes, you’ve got it, the FA firm! Adding up. In nearly all cases these fund houses form relationships with the FA because they wouldn’t be able to sell their funds any other way, because they simply don’t compare with better managed funds.
Not done there. Some of the above firms also feel it’s appropriate to charge an annual advisor fee… add another 1% onto your annual bill.
So, Mr DevereIFA, you’re posting on this forum claiming to be open and honest about regulation, cold calls etc, but you’re failing to explain what the serious problem with your company is. Funds that make no money, coupled with fees that add up to as much as 20% over a 5 year period. So even if your funds made 4-5% a year, which in most cases they don’t, your clients still wouldn’t make any money, which is surely what they came to you in the first place for?
The problem those FAs are creating, is that because Spain has complex tax, inheritance tax etc laws, people genuinely need financial advice and should benefit from it. But there’s so little trust connected to financial services that the legitimate companies find it very hard to gain the trust of their clients, and ultimately people in Spain end up breaking the law regarding their finances because they’re afraid to seek professional help. There are honest FAs out there.
My advice is due diligence. Ask for all the fees to be written down on a plain piece of paper and signed by your FA. So the bond fee, if you have a bond (these are very useful in Spain if from a reputable supplier with low fees), the fund fees (one trick the above FAs use is they add the funds a month after you’ve signed up and don’t tell you about the fees until it’s too late). Fund fees should state an annual charge and whether or not there is an entry charge. Also check whether or not they will expect an advisor fee on top.
My advice would be total fees should never exceed more than 2.5% PA averaged out over the first 5 years – including any advisor/set-up fees. So get all the fees for 5 years, add them up and divide them by 5. If they’re over 2.5% PA then ask for an explanation. FAs and the Finance Institutions have to earn money, but fees in addition to this are totally unnecessary. There’s no need for greed.
Ask for details about the investment recommendation BEFORE you sign anything. To reiterate, all fees, fund performance, size etc. I would personally only use funds from large, well known companies with a track record.
Fund performance often relates to risk. You want to see steady, consistent returns, 6-8% year on year, possibly even lower. Don’t be seduced by returns over 9% – the only way these are achieved is through higher risk. Unless you are prepared to make losses these won’t be for you.
If you’re careful you can still get good financial advice out in Spain.
My charging structure was called AV279 and this policy was a Skandia(OMI) product.
Funds are still frozen. When I asked DeVere, OMI and Frontier the difference between frozen funds and funds closed to dealing, I never get an answer.
Since 2008 these funds have not been trading , half the value has disappeared, so what is there to be managed?
All I can say this was a very unfortunate investment for pension days.
Oh deVere….I worked for them for a very, very, very brief period. Now, I’m not saying all advisors there are bad, there are a few who have great experience and genuinely care for their client’s and don’t just vanish after astonishingly high commissions are in their back pocket.
I now work for another firm, where we unfortunately have a lot of clients approaching us to recover the affects of poor and advice on their pensions provided from deVere.
Not all advisory firms are bad though, just some due diligence on the firm needs to be taken when getting advice or being approached:) Stay safe out there!
I was contacted by deVere a few years back, they had called my company switchboard and asked for me. They claimed that they had been mandated by my employer to help expats with financial advice, and had been given my name (yet still had to call the switchboard in a city hundred of miles way to reach me?).
Their claim was a lie, I checked with our personnel group who had never heard of them, nor any such mandate. Based on the almost simultaneous attempt to connect with me in LinkedIn, I assume they’d got my name from there and simply called head office on spec.
I had taken their first call, and told them I wasn’t interested, but they have made repeated attempts to reach me. Initially through the switchboard but when I persistently refused to let the operator put them through they now seem to have my direct line. So far they don’t seem inclined to talk to my voicemail, so I’m happy to let them waste their time. If their harassement gets more direct I’ll report them to our company legal group, who are not shy about dealing with shysters.
I have no idea whether devere are the Ponzi-scheme scammers they are reputed to be, or simpy pushy used-car-salesmen types who’ll stop at nothing to get a sale, but either way I’d recommend avoiding them. I strongly suspect that if and when their schemes go wrong, the last we’ll see of them is their dust as they head for the Bahamas with everyone else’s money.
I lost a shitload of money to these lying scoundrels!
This happened in 2010. After trying unsuccessfully to get some reprieve, I finally gave up, and simply decided to let it go.
Over the years, I’ve seen literally hundreds of reviews, complaints, rants and raves, etc, about DeVere and Generali. These never interested me. What did interest me, however, were those individuals who decided to stop talking, and actually take some action against these fraudulent companies.
When I was seeking “reprieve”, I actually went as far as hiring a lawyer in London. I myself reside in Sweden, but I decided that a UK-based lawyer would be in a better position to put the screws into these clowns. My lawyer was ready to take on the fight. But, he advised me that it would not be worth it — mainly because : the cost of the legal battle alone would be 2 or 3 times more than the money what I had lost to DeVere.
His advice : find other people like myself, who also lost their savings………..organize ourselves into a group……….and launch a legal fight! This way, we could all split the legal costs. And, more importantly, DeVere would have to take us seriously if there were a large number of us beating down their door in court !!
I set up groups on Facebook; I even created a website for this purpose. But, none of this ever got anywhere. Why?? Because, there were many people who were all about “talking” and ranting, and raving about DeVere. But, when it came time to step up, and get ourselves together, so we could actually DO something about it, none of them were willing to do anything!
Eventually, I realized I was wasting my time, and simply dropped the whole thing.
I would definitely be interested in joing your camapaign. I am in the UAE and they are very active here.
i am sure there are hundreds of expats who have been ripped off by them.
I have written to the BBC Money Box Live and Money Saving Expert.
please tell me how I can sign up.
I work as an IFA for an independent office in Spain and am appalled at the lack of qualifications and more worryingly knowledge and ethics of many of the employees of these ‘biggest in the world for a reason’ firms.
If you want transparent pricing, people like myself will invest the upfront commissions into your investment and charge you an annual fee, therefore aligning our commercial interests with yours. All companies are able to do this but don’t tell you about it and don’t offer it to you as this would mean entering into a long term relationship with you as opposed to making a quick buck and leaving you to go alone in the future.
Those big companies don’t offer quality, they offer a quick fix in the same way as big fast food chain like McDonalds will fill a hole by providing a generic hamburger meal deal, one size fits all product not tailored to your needs and without any service levels or recognition as a valued client.
Personally I’d rather go to a nice family restaurant where the chef will prepare something that is to my taste with the best ingredients based on my needs, who will want and be interested in my feedback and will create a good atmosphere and level of trust and respect so that I’ll want to keep going back!
Your life savings cannot be replaced once they’ve gone so be very careful before you sign anything. Shop around and get second and third opinions, and don’t sign up for anything that you don’t understand.
A good qualified, ethical and knowledgeable IFA will be able to explain both the product that they are recommending as well as the reasons for choosing them for you and should be able to do so in layman’s terms and if they can’t I wouldn’t trust their judgement. Don’t invest in anything that you are not 100% confident with and take your time to feel confident with them, ask as many questions as you can, it may be a bit geeky but real professionals are actually very interested in their field and love to educate others too.
Many companies use salespeople who have only limited knowledge of the products that they are recommending based on sales pitches provided by their management and training teams. You wouldn’t buy a car from someone who knows little or nothing about them so why would you chance your life savings, children and grandchildren’s future on the advice of a salesperson?
Be smart and don’t ever be pressured into signing something you’re not 100% happy with. If people try to push you or tell you that the product is only available for a limited time then that is a sure sign that they are trying to pressure you and don’t want you to seek a second opinion as they’ll be found out for the fraudsters that they are.
For the underlying investments that will make up your investment stick with well known names and if you are not an experienced investor steer clear of structured notes (the IFA will get upto 7% commission on these) and any alternative funds that don’t have daily pricing and cannot be exited at any time (these too have high sales commissions for a good reason, they don’t sell themselves). Choose someone who will give you regular reviews and who will keep an eye on your investments and keep you up to date on their performances and any changes that you could consider for them.
You are going to have to pay fees at several junctures, this is an unavoidable part of investing, however the amount you pay and the way it is done varies drastically. Tracker funds offer lower maintenance fees and historically outperform more expensive actively managed funds and such ones as as FTSE 100 tracker fund is ideal for low maintenance long term investors. My pricing structure is based on an on-going advisory fee on the overall total of your funds so the better they perform the more I earn which makes it in my interest to get the best performance for you as possible. Also by paying the commissions from the tax wrapper providers to my clients, I create an instant uplift in the value of your investment, lay the foundations for a long term relationship and make it necessary to keep a close eye, i.e. actively manage, your investments.
There are a few of us honest and qualified advisors in Spain and if you shop and ask around you will find us.
I’m not leaving any contact details here as I’m not touting for business but I work on the Costa del Sol where there are a number of not so reputable firms whose work I often try and unwind, I’m just trying to pass on some quality free advice to fellow ex-pats so that you can avoid the sharks that have bitten so many of us in the past!
I would also join you in this campaign. Got screwed by them in Mozambique and now they had closed their offices here and ran away.
deVere Spain has yet again tried to contact me. I have told them not to contact me again under any circumstances but they continue to persist. I even had some school leaver try to connect with me via LinkedIn. I’ve tweeted my outrage, but they don’t respond to tweets. This is a diabolical company. If this was the UK I’d be pursuing the FCA for a penalty.
To be fair to the one deVere employee on this thread. He did contact me privately and did get us on their No Contact list so I can confirm it does exist, and it worked. Well, apart from one recent call from someone who likely doesn’t follow their own procedures on this. Lucky for them my wife answered and dealt with it politely (I would have dealt with it differently).
I live in Thailand and am a client of these guys and have had a reasonable experience so far. After reading this thread I got a bit spooked and checked with the SEC, this company is registered and not on their watch list. I also checked on my advisor, turns out he is also licensed and has his own licence number that is different to the company one.
Luckily I don’t only believe what I read on blogs and go and look for the real answer from the source.
DeVere UAE or are they? One minute they are PIC deVere then PIC is nothing to do with deVere then deVere are in the UAE but not licensed as they are one of the few companies that when the Central Bank ceased licensing failed to get a new license just a letter saying the approval process underway – that was 6 years ago.
OK, so to respond to DEVEREIFA, regardless of your apparent qualifications – tbh i doubt any reputable qualified IFA would work for devere, you fail to mention that devere have a limited fund list they can use – that is a list of less than 10 funds in the whole world that they allow their advisors to use. Those funds ALL pay hidden commissions to devere, 5% up front and ongoing annual commissions. The funds themselves are closely linked to Nigel Green, are in the lower quartile with regards performance – in other words in the worst 25% of funds in that category in the world. The only way they can encourage people to use them is to pay hidden fees to IFAs, so you guys flog them to unwitting clients who have no way of knowing they are being sold a load of rubbish at extortionate fees. How do I know this? Well I stupidly worked for devere for 3 months, but as would any moral person, i left as soon as i knew all this.
How can you call yourself an IFA when you know fully well that you cannot be INDEPENDENT when your company will only allow you to sell a very limited suite of sub-par products?
One of your very vocal IFAs, a XXXX of devere Spain, claims to have been working in financial services since 2005, despite having only joined devere in the middle of 2015. His previous job? Estate agent. His job before? Car salesman. On his facebook XXXX claims to look after £1m of clients money – that is petrifying!! I would add that everything I’m saying here is open source and verifiable on the internet, all factual taken from XXXX’s own facebook and linkedin. XXXX is not registered with any of the professional bodies that would suggest he has any qualifications, and non are listed on his linkedin.
The simple fact is, there are good IFAs in Spain, who follow the UK model – they are non-tied, they are industry experienced and they do not receive hidden fees from fund houses so can choose the best options for their clients. Devere are NOT one of those companies. I know because in 3 months i learnt how NOT to do the job, I learnt that the first sales job devere do is on their advisors.
Every month devere run competitions to incentivise their advisors to SELL certain financial products! This practise is totally illegal in the uk. Again, how can a product be correct for a client’s personal circumstances if it only sold so the IFA can win a prize? Last month the winners all got a luxury 5 star trip to vegas, later in the year the prize is australia – all for selling one particular product to unwitting clients.
DEVEREIFA, if you knowingly sell this limited suite of products to your clients, knowing they are not the best funds in the world, or indeed in the top 75%, then you are choosing your own wallet over those of your clients who worked their entire lives for their savings. I hope this is a moral quandary for you.
Oh and just to clear things up… devere are NOT regulated in spain. They are only registered with the DGS to sell insurance products. They are NOT licensed or regulated to give financial advice. devere are not regulated when giving QROPS advice either as this is an unregulated industry and they cannot passport their DGS regs to malta/gibraltar. They simply refer QROPS business to trusts. Basically they are life insurance salesmen who make their clients sign an investment waiver- the clients unwittingly sign away any responsibility devere might’ve had for the underlying investments. There is no thought in the investment advice, simply ‘in-house’ funds they are told to sell by Nigel Green.
Ben1978, they weren’t licensed in Thailand for years and there is proof of that, also that both devere and devere Group were on the Investor Alert list in Thailand. Even now only a very few of their literally dozens and dozens of foreigners claiming to work for devere in Thailand actually have licenses.
Hi Alan – I work in the industry and completely agree with your comments regarding companies ‘claiming’ that they are licensed. In some cases they can get away with it, particularly in more remote destinations….but if you want to be ultra safe check with the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) in the UK. If a company is licensed and regulated by the FCA then they will have to conduct business in an ethical and transparent manner.
10 Years ago a “friend” Mr. XXXX from DeVere Barcelona sold me a 50K OMI insurance linked to two Frontier funds.
They were longterm low risk funds linked to property in London.
Some months ago I managed to get out 15K after all the mgmt fees were deducted. I have spent a considerable time trying to get info like funds portifolio etc. without any luck.
When my Spanish lawyer wanted to take DeVere Spain to court, mr. XXXX said they were not the correct DeVere as they registered their company some months after I invested.
DeVere Group and OMI admit no responsebillity for this investment.
Of course they are not on the FCA register, the FCA only covers financial services being sold within the UK and deVere work with expats in other countries, so the FCA would have no interest in them and vice versa. You would need to be checking if they are registered with the financial service authorities within the country that they are working, in your example Spain. The fact that they are not on the FCA register is about as relevant that they are not registered with the Association of Ventrilaquists!!!
for all the alternative funds and fantastic I.F.A. there are only two investments most should do.
1) Property. Preferably UK. But abroad if you do you d.d. and accept higher risks.
2) Index funds..US Vanguard. The returns on this past 10 years have been outstanding. I think Vanguard charge about 0.5% annual management fees.
Shove the rest……but people love “exotic, different, complicated..” and the scammers know this.
Nothing else outperforms these. Now save your-self from the B*S* and look into those two.
When will my comments be PUBLISHED, so I can contact other potential candidates, who would join me in my class-action suit against Devere and Generali=??
I was scammed out of several thousands of euros by Devere & Partners, who sold me a so-called Generali Policy.
This happened as far back as 2010.
I know that there are literally thousands of people who have fallen prey to this scam. The problem is: a lot of people seem to want to TALK about it; but nobody is interested in actually doing anything about it.
I went as far as hiring a lawyer, who was based in London (UK). Mainly because that’s where DeVere was when they stole my money! My lawyer understood my situation, but he advised me that to let it go, because: the legal fees alone would exceed the money which Generali had stolen from me.
His advice: find as many people as you can, who were also scammed, and organize ourselves into a group. Then, launch a legal battle.
I have been searching for anyone who is interested in taking this matter further. But, so far, have not found anyone with the balls to get up and fight these animals!
As in: launching a legal attack on Generali and somehow getting back the money they stole from us. !!
Alan is currently away and he is the one that approves/rejects any comments on this article.
Once he returns he will approve your comment, or contact you to let you know why not. Not all comments are published due to legal reasons – but Alan is well on top of all that.
Sorry that I can’t be of more help in the meantime.
Anyone from Zimbabwe? lied to and misguided by Devers ?
Want to thank you for this thread, it really came in useful. Was cold-called in Pakistan on Friday by a sincere-sounding, polite young salesman from deVere Malta and am so very grateful I found the comments here when I searched the web for my due diligence about them (I especially recommend the Bloomberg article that Mr. Montgomery posted the link to, it’s easy to read & comprehensive). The caller said they’d help me find out the status of my UK pension for free if I signed a Letter of Authority, & would be connected to an advisor who would charge for any services I decided to use after that, which sounded fair, but after reading about them in various articles won’t be using the group. | 2019-04-25T00:00:13Z | https://www.spainbuddy.com/the-devere-group/ |
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Let stand for 30 minutes. After that, clean the carpet using a clean cloth and warm water. Then let the carpet dry on its own. After drying, clean the carpet back by using a vacuum cleaner to lift the remaining dirt that is still left on the surface of the carpet.
Make sure the carpet is free of stains and smell of vomit that can invite a lot of germs to come. also, make sure that you clean it to the maximum so that no more stains are left behind. A clean carpet will make your child feel comfortable on it. Because carpet is usually the most comfortable playground for children. Make sure you clean it with proper and professional carpet cleaning services.
A website loading speed is a very important thing. When a customer visits your site and it loads slowly, then they may think that your website wastes a lot of their time. You should deal with this kind of a scenario as soon as possible. It’s because the longer you let this problem takes place, the more customers will change leave your site quickly. That’s why you need a good web hosting service and this can be a good solution for your online business.
You can hire a trusted web hosting service near your area. A good hosting company provides a complete package for website owners, so you may choose the one which suits your budget and necessity. We recommend you hire an experienced web hosting company. It’s because they have more experiences when they provide hosting services for website owners. Usually, this kind of company provides a good and stable loading speed for websites, and they also give sufficient space for storing your data as well.
The struggle to become an entrepreneur is really not easy and in an instant. There are many risks that must be borne by each business owner. On the other hand, the success achieved will be very beneficial for your life. Maybe you have a lot of brilliant ideas, a mature business plan, and a solid team, but if your business management is not done well, then this can be a waste. You must know this to keep the growth of your business and UNTERNEHMEN-HEUTE.
Every company must have operational funds. The biggest mistake of an entrepreneur is not having a budget for office operational needs. How do you measure profits if you don’t know how much money your company is spending? You can set a budget every month and increase the amount when the business is stable later. Do not let the pegs bigger than the pole. If you do not have an operating budget, you will tend to make mistakes in doing business.
Many people feel tired easily in the office, but there is a way to make you cannot feel tires easily. Therefore, women can feel comfortable when they put a bucket of flower in their workbench. The workbench will feel more beautiful and interesting when a flower put on it. Before it. you must find the right flower in flores medellin. The fresh flower can make your worktable feel fresh.
If you want to put a bucket of flower on your workbench, make sure you follow these tips. These are the right tips below.
You can choose the right flower before you put on your table. It because the right flower can make your mood feel comfortable and you can work maximally. You can choose your favorite flower to make your day feel better. If you put a bucket of flower on your workbench, then you cannot feel tired easily.
You can choose the right vase and suit for the table. You cannot choose the vase that bigger or even smaller rather than the table. Make sure that vase is suited with the flower that you like. The flower that has long stem can put on the long vase, and the flower that has small stem can put on the small vase. Make sure you choose the right vase. The combination of the right flower and vase can make your workbench looks beautiful.
You can put the bucket of flower in the corner of the table. If there are any tools in your workbench, then you can choose the small vase and put it on the corner of the table. It will make your table looks more beautiful and make you feel comfortable.
In fittings that are installed with lights with a large power or wattage, it will be easy to melt as a result, the attached lights will be difficult to remove when replacing the lights with new ones. In addition, lamp fittings mounted on the ceiling of the house will be prone to waterlogging due to leaky water from dripping raindrops. At the time of the rainy season try to check the house occasionally to see if there are flooded lamp fittings.
You have to tidy up the location of this cable so that it is not damaged by heavy loads or stretches tense at sharp angles that can result in peeling and disconnection of the cable which results in the electrical short circuit.
You can start checking the power cord if it is properly connected and there are no cables that are open or not isolated. You should also pay attention to the wires that are spread whether the nail clamps are still sturdy. After that, you must make sure that you close the chipped cable due to the bite of the mouse with special insulation of the electrical cable.
If you want to have a charming home, then maintaining exterior wall paint is an obligation for the owner. Choosing exterior paint cannot be arbitrary, because it will affect the assessment of people towards the house. Exterior painting woodstock has received various consultations regarding the exterior paint of the house to make it look beautiful and show the character of the house owner read this.
If the walls are moldy and peeling, the problem might come from rainwater seepage. Check windows, doors, roofs, and make sure there are no gaps. If you see a gap that allows water to enter, cover it with a mixture of waterproof silicone.
The right time to clean the wall is two weeks after the painting process is complete. At this time, the wall was completely dry, but still left some stains and dirt remaining. Regular cleaning will make the walls look cleaner. You should clean the walls once a month.
Spraying high-pressure water is indeed the easiest way to clean stains. But this method will actually quickly damage the wall paint at home. This is because high-pressure water sprayed can go between the walls. In addition, hydrostatic pressure can also push the wall up.
It’s also important to always check the wall for peeling even if it’s small. This peel can be a sign that there is a problem with your walls, such as a leak or damaged drainage. Don’t forget places that are always exposed to sunlight such as windows or door frames. Continuous sun exposure makes this part look dull compared to other parts of the wall. Therefore it is necessary to replace the paint layer every two years, to make it look brighter.
Today, many people are more interested in watching a video than anything else. Whether it’s a video for ads, video music or other videos. Many people are happier when watching videos than reading a paper in a newspaper video production company in singapore. So, finally, many business people make promotional videos for their business. If you can’t make it yourself, then it’s time to use the services of the video production house singapore.
the efforts of your video results are cooler, you need to sort out what content you will display in the videos you make. If the video is a compilation video from various moments that you have been through or have passed by someone you love. You need to sort out which important moments and pictures you will display in the video. Vice versa, if your video is a live action video, you need to sort which scenes you will display in the video.
You can try any of the effects that are most suitable for the video you are making. But keep in mind, too, do not give too much effect on the video that you make because if you eliminate the impression and message that you want to convey in the video. Use effects as needed only so that your video becomes more attractive without removing and overriding the message you want to convey to the person you gave the video.
You can make your videos become more alive by presenting the right background music. In this section, you can fill in your favorite songs or according to the theme of the video you are making. It’s a good idea to look for the song a few days before you edit the video. This is to make it easier for you so you do not need to find the right song when editing the video.
Consuming the right amount of alcohol certainly will not cause various dangers or diseases in your body. however, consuming alcohol in excessive amounts will obviously make you suffer from certain diseases. So, if you feel you are addicted to alcohol, you can go to addiction treatment center that will help you treat your dependence to alcohol. That way, you will get the right therapy and rehabilitation.
The amount of fluid in the body is very helpful for alcoholics in detoxifying their bodies. They must consume at least 3 liters of water per day so that all the poisons in their bodies can be wasted. The amount of fluid that enters will make it easier to eliminate and dissolve toxins in their bodies.
There are many fruits and vegetables that are believed to be detox for those of you who have consumed too much alcohol. the one you can choose is beetroots and carrots. You can choose between fruits and vegetables that you can make a juice and you consume to get rid of alcoholism. Make sure you choose the right one that suits your taste.
Because the detoxification process is not an easy process, you must do sport as an activity that you can do during the process. Because a lot of potassium is released with sweat, offset by consuming more fruits and vegetables. You can choose a banana or other fruit to increase potassium.
Keep in mind, depression that arises during the detoxification process can cause feelings of anxiety and irritability. In severe conditions, detoxification side effects can lead to tremors (shaking) or hallucinations. This condition requires sedatives that must be purchased with a doctor’s prescription.
Internet pelosok kini menjadi program yang cukup gencar dilakukan. Indonesia memiliki wilayah yang sangat luas, tetapi sayangnya jaringan komunikasi belum mencakup seluruh wilayah. Masih banyak wilayah pelosok yang belum memiliki akses internet, sehingga dapat dikatakan daerah tertinggal. Daerah pelosok yang belum memiliki akses internet biasanya terhambat oleh infrastruktur yang masih sulit dilewati. Sementara untuk membangun titik komunikasi membutuhkan transportasi dan peralatan yang cukup banyak. Oleh karena itu, pemerintah mulai berbenah dan bekerja sama dengan berbagai pihak agar daerahnya tidak tertinggal informasi temukan ini.
Mungkin ada pertanyaan mengapa warga pelosok memerlukan internet? Bukankah tidak ada yang bisa digali dari daerah tersebut? Bukankah daerah itu cukup sulit dijangkau?
Hilangkan pola pikir seperti itu. Kita tidak pernah tahu potensi apa yang dimiliki daerah pelosok jika tidak pernah menggalinya. Nyatanya daerah pelosok lain yang memiliki akses internet mulai menunjukkan geliat perekonomian yang baik. Banyak daerah mulai membuka alternatif wisata dengan spot foto yang diinginkan oleh masyarakat kota. Internet memberikan informasi baru bahwa pengguna media sosial mencari tempat pariwisata dengan latar belakang yang unik dan menarik untuk diunggah ke media sosial. Di sini, internet juga mampu menjadi media promosi dengan jangkauan yang sangat luas dalam waktu singkat. Tanpa adanya internet, mereka tidak akan tahu bahwa daerah tersebut memiliki potensi yang dapat digali. Bahkan biasanya tempat wisata semacam itu mampu menarik wisatawan lokal dan mancanegara.
Tidak hanya dari sektor pariwisata, manfaat internet juga dirasakan oleh petani dan pemilik perkebunan dalam pengembangan tanaman mereka. Hadirnya internet mampu memberi informasi dan pengetahuan baru mengenai bibit unggul, pupuk yang baik, dan variasi cara bercocok tanam yang baru. Jika sebelumnya mereka menanam tanpa mengenal cuaca, maka kini mereka mampu mengenali cuaca untuk menanam tanaman yang sesuai dengan cuaca tersebut. Dengan begitu, lahan tidak menganggur, produksi tetap berjalan bahkan memiliki variasi dengan kualitas yang lebih baik. Inilah manfaat yang didapat jika internet mampu menjangkau hingga daerah pelosok. Siapa tahu jika daerah tersebut memiliki potensi yang cukup besar.
It’s not just gossip that is easy to circulate, but also a myth about anything close to our lives. Even a few who believe like a matter of drinking a cup of coffee can make addiction to make it difficult to sleep. If you buy coffee beans it can mean that you love to drink a cup of coffee. However, you must know the following myths about coffee that many people still believe in bean to coffee.
It can be said to be true, and can also be said to be wrong, depending on how to interpret the addiction. As we know that in coffee there is a caffeine content that stimulates the nervous system. Caffeine does not cause addiction. Even if you want to drink two to four glasses of coffee it won’t make you addicted like alcohol or illegal drugs.
Some people often say that if you drink coffee, then you will find it hard to sleep at night. Energy stimulation triggered by caffeine in coffee is considered a factor that triggers insomnia. This can be said to be wrong, because after drinking coffee in the morning or afternoon, caffeine is directly produced in the liver and then removed from the body in only 4-5 hours.
So, caffeine only lasts a minute in the body. No matter you want to consume as much as 2-3 glasses of coffee a day, you will not suffer from insomnia. Somehow, it would be better if you avoid coffee 6 hours before the time you sleep at night.
The myth that is widely circulating in the community says that drinking coffee regularly can cause cancer. From there, a lot of research was done to find a correlation between coffee and cancer, and the results? Nothing! Some studies have found that those who drink coffee regularly have a lower risk of cancer because coffee contains antioxidants that can help fight cancer.
In a house, you can certainly find various types of carpets. in fact, usually, in every room in a house, there is one type of carpet owned. Carpets can indeed make the atmosphere of the room more comfortable and can make the room more enjoyable to live in. For this reason, many people use carpets in their homes. However, to clean the carpet, you can use the services of the tile cleaning north shore so that your carpet is always clean and there are no germs there northernbeachescarpetcleaning.com.
Entering the bedroom, the expected feeling is certainly comfort because the bedroom is a private space where you can do anything and be yourself. Get extra comfort by installing carpets on the entire floor of your room. So that when you step into the bedroom, you will be immediately greeted by the softness of the carpet that is comfortable for your feet who are tired of doing activities all day. You can also lie on the floor of a carpeted room comfortably while reading a book or playing a gadget.
Of course, you do not want to disturb the occupants of other homes while you are active in your room, such as when you set music loudly to reduce fatigue. To reduce the risk of sound interference for people who are outside your room, attach a carpet that is thick enough on the floor of your room. You can consult the carpet seller, what kind of carpet is the best to reduce noise.
Do you have a spacious bedroom and want to divide it into several areas? Because the use of bulkhead will take place and seems too stiff, then you can rely on carpets. For example, you want a comfortable reading corner, specify one side or corner of the room that can get enough sunlight during the day, then install a carpet with a size that is not too broad as a marker of the area is your reading area. On the carpet, you can put a bookshelf, some soft pillows, and a small table for putting drinks or snacks.
For those of you who will go to Thailand and plan to go to Phuket, then you should know that there are many activities and interesting places that are there. One interesting activity even for foreign tourists is playing golf. In fact, phuket golf is very famous in there are many people who carry out these activities. For those of you who like sports, this will be a fun activity for you.
Not much different from other tourist attractions, what better tourists before visiting a place, need to find out how the weather in that place. Strong winds in the sea will force the Friends to abandon all plans for launching the island.
If you want to travel to Phuket, the best time is from December to March, where the weather is not so humid, and there is a breeze that makes it comfortable. Temperatures around 75F to 89F (24C to 32C). You better not to visit Phuket around April and May, in that time you will feel the hottest temperature with temperature levels from 80F to 95F (27C to 36C).
Phuket is a place where it’s difficult or can’t find public transportation. To get out of the airport, friends can rent a car, or take a taxi. How about traveling from places to places in Phuket? Friends can use the TukTuk, or take a private taxi. If a Friend has been to Thailand, he must have seen the TukTuk before, a vehicle driven by a bicycle in front, and directed the passenger to the rear.
Of course, we know that in golf, the most important equipment we have is a golf club. This is a tool that will help us hit and put the ball into a hole in the golf course golf savers. When it is not a layman, golf clubs are also referred to as golf clubs and there are various types that need to be known. On the other hand, we’d like to recommend you to play at the finest bangkok golf course whenever you visit Thailand on your next vacation or business trip.
Irons – In a set of golf clubs, an irons set consists of numbers 5-9 where pitching is added. When the number is getting bigger, the shaft is shorter, but the result of the swing is farther away using the long shaft. In the set, number 7 iron is known to produce blows more than 120 meters away.
Woods – Usually it can also be called a driver where its use aims to get a long distance swing result. In general, there are 1-3 for this wood, but only 1 has no problem and just enough. The swing for wood 1 is known to be able to reach more than 200 meters.
Hybrids – It can also be said that hybrids are a blend of irons and woods. To produce long-range blows, hybrids can be relied on like woods. It’s just that indeed for hybrids its use can be outside of tee-boxes and woods only inside.
Putter – Golfers consider this putter as a striker when compared to the position of a soccer player. The task of this putter’s main function is as a put in the hole scorer in the green aka the penalty box. Because the shape and weight of the head on the putter are very diverse, then pay attention to the usage according to their respective goals.
Wedges – Actually, wedges also include irons, but wedges are more special because the head has a different tilt or loft. Loft that is on the wedges actually even more sloping than the irons. swing lob with wedges can be done at a short distance to direct the ball to the green. Sand Wedge is a multifunctional and more popular type of wedge.
They say breakfast is the most necessary meal.
Unfortunately, it is often the most monotonousa cup of coffee and a sandwich that we choose to have. Meanwhile, making an interesting breakfast menu is not so difficult. Let the daily breakfast menu be simple, and the dishes in it fast food. Weekend breakfasts can be late and lazy, which means you can spend more time preparing them.We have prepared several different options for breakfast menus, balanced and uncomplicated. Try to use them.
You can create your own breakfast menu. Save them in your cookbook and put the appropriate label, for example, “quick breakfast”. On it at the right time you will quickly see all the recipes that are suitable for a quick breakfast menu. To know more aboutBojangles Breakfast hours, seek help online.
Good breakfast a hearty, healthy breakfast from a nutritionist is similar in its purpose to a battery that will charge you with energy all day. Its absence can badly affect a person’s social, mental or physical activity during the day. This is explained by the fact that the body after a night’s sleep has time to “get hungry” and for its proper operation it is necessary to replenish its energy reserves. People who have a good breakfast in the morning are less susceptible to stress, problems with immunity and are able to work more productively during the day. Also, regular breakfasts can normalize hormones and blood sugar levels in humans.
The distribution of the nutritional elements of a proper breakfast, according to the recommendation of nutritionists, is carried out according to the formula, in which 50% is allotted to the share of carbohydrates, 30% proteins, and 20% fats. Want To Log Off? Native Advertising RelapFor breakfast, you should eat complex carbohydrates, the splitting of which requires a long time. To know more about Bojangles Lunch Hours ,seek help online.
Thanks to the convenient navigation system on the Bojangles website, you can quickly and easily pick up a breakfast item with breakfast being served during breakfast hours and go through the drive thru and indulge. In order to do this, it is enough to go to the above site and then in the special fields specify the city that you are going to visit. When choosing a fast food restaurant in another state where you stay and spend your holidays, you should take into account your own wishes and requirements for a place that will become your home for a while. The main criteria for choosing a fast food restaurant are often the presence of a good breakfast menu, the convenient location of the food menu itself, as well as the presence of breakfast included in the price. On a functional Internet hotel search service Bojangles website is to find a hotel with breakfast is easy. In the upper right corner of the web page opened by us there is a very convenient and functional “Advanced” key. It is with its help that it is possible to install a filter for fast foods with breakfast.
Those diagnosed with diabetes can change lives. However, being aware of conditions is the first step towards effectively managing it. In this article I discuss how diet, exercise and natural medicines can help control your diabetes.
blood sugar management with healthy diet, If you go and see a nutritionist they can help make a diabetic food plan for you that will keep blood sugar levels (glucose) even. This new diet will likely be different for your previous one and you need to take the following into consideration, You will need to avoid refined sugar because they make you spike the glucose level. However, there are many no-sugar food varieties available to you.You will need to eat several times a day to maintain your blood sugar levels even throughout the day.
blood sugar management you will need to keep an eye on triglyceride and fat intake. This can be achieved through low fat eating plans. You will need to increase the intake of complex carbohydrates (wheat, barley and rice) because they are processed at a slower rate than simple carbohydrates (such as refined sugar). You will need to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables to keep your glucose levels even.
blood sugar management by keep checking the amount you drink alcohol. If your diabetes is not completely under your control, you should avoid alcohol completely. If it is under control then; a diabetic can safely consume 1-2 alcoholic drinks per day, a diabetic woman can consume 1 alcoholic drink per day and diabetes that is 65 or more can consume 1 alcoholic drink per day.
blood sugar management modifying your diet in a very effective way to keep your glucose levels even and control your diabetes. However, you might also try naturopathy (natural medicines to treat diabetes). If you decide to experiment with the naturopathic approach it is very important that you consult with your doctor first. If your doctor is OK, then try the following, Consume more fish oil, Borage oil and Omega 3 oil. Research has shown that fatty acids can help you regulate your fatty acid metabolism is damaged, reduce complications and cardiovascular assistance against diabetes.
blood sugar management by water carries out and absorbs heat so this is a good way to reduce glucose levels.Try massage and reflection. The right massage will help you relax which in turn controls your diabetes. Hopefully, this article has opened your eyes to ways that you can manage your diabetes. Changing your diet is the best way to manage your condition and naturopathy offers several unique alternatives for you to consider. Whichever way you choose to manage your diabetes, it is key so that you consult a professional doctor and nutritionist before applying real changes.
Children need the best school uniforms for maximum learning in school. We believe you agree with this. Have you tried to provide the best uniform for children? If not, then you have to do it now. You may still be confused about what things should be considered when buying uniforms for children in order to get goods that are in accordance with their wishes.
The size of school clothes is very important so that children feel comfortable wearing it. Of course, we already know that wearing clothes that don’t fit properly will feel very uncomfortable. Clothing that is too big or small will also affect the appearance of the child while in school. Well, To avoid the size-related problem, it would be better if you measure or have an estimate of the right size for your child, or you can also look for a slightly larger size but not to greatness. Because indeed the size made is seen in general.
Unlike Iflix, netflix change country does not have download functionality for offline viewing. It would be difficult if you want to take it on a long journey, especially on the airplane. With Netflix, you can download the video you want to watch through an Android or iOS device. It can store up to 10 titles and is stored for 7 days, before being deleted automatically. So, users can download ready through a Wifi connection, and do not worry about the connection to watch while on the street. Although Netflix is ??now officially in Malaysia, you still have not full access to its content library, as enjoyed by users in the United States. Popular TV shows like Friends, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., House of Cards, Big Bang Theory, Flash and Agent Carter, cannot be watched in Malaysia. But you can still enjoy some other exclusive titles like Daredevil, Marco Polo, Orange is the new Black and Jessica Jones.
In this case, Netflix is ??more relevant to users in Malaysia. In fact, Netflix has local content like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. You can also choose subtitles and languages ??while watching. In short, you will not have full experience using Netflix in Malaysia. This is because there are local broadcast rights, which vary by country. If you want the best of Netflix, it seems that the VPN is still relevant to finish it. For those happy with a series of politics like House of Cards and FBI serials like Criminal Minds, then you can get them through Mindhunter. It’s fair to say that, as David Fincher, who is the producer of the series of House of Cards, also holds the same position in the new series. Mindhunter is based on the book by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker in 1995 entitled Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit.
Although the book tells of the real story of a Special Agent named John Hammer for 25 years of career, the TV version of Mindhunter will tell about fictional FBI agents. Separated in 1979, two FBI agents, Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) and Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) were interviewing suspects of serial killings to help them solve the case.
New people meeting: Whether you are learning English or traveling, of course you meet new people and interact with them. Traveling but not meeting new people? Aha, it could be just around your home complex. That’s not traveling by name. Traveling is when traveling or traveling to a place that you already know or have never been traced. Meanwhile, check out the recommended b1 test booking if you want to get the UK visa soon.
Let alone at the destination, when arranging the trip will meet many new people. For example, people at the immigration office when making passports or Ms. Mas who serve airline ticket purchases, and so on. There is no doubt, when you are traveling you will meet and interact with many new people. What about learning a foreign language?
When learning a new language, meet and interact with new people. “Ah, not really. I interact with my classmates. “That doesn’t mean I’m learning English. What? You are not deep in it. But, doing duty as a student is to take lessons at school.
What is the difference? Following lessons and learning is really different. If you take English lessons, you do what the teacher tells you to do, do assignments, read, write, etc. Everything is done because you are a student and to get good grades. While learning foreign languages is when the desire to increase knowledge and practice comes directly from yourself. You will really do it when you have a goal you want to achieve after being proficient. See the difference between the following lessons and learning because you have a purpose?
Well, when we are serious about learning English, we have to meet new people. From new people, we learn and absorb more things like accents, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, etc. In fact, the best way to be proficient is to get out and practice with new people. When was the last time the practice of speaking English with new people, Caucasians or foreign tourists?
You will at least worry if one day you have to take a vacation or leave your house for a long time but you don’t need to be confused, the most important thing is to always be vigilant and use 4 tips to maintain the security of your home below. In the meantime, contact the company of Car Keys Dublin whenever your car door lock has been tempered by an unauthorized person important link.
1. Close and lock the window.
Doors may be the main focus, but windows should also be our concern because usually, thieves use windows to enter the house. Don’t just because a device like an air conditioning machine happens to be perched on a second-floor window does not mean that robbers lose their minds and keep looking for entry even if we close and lock all windows, or make sure there is additional security at the place if that is possible.
Whether you have been in an apartment building for years or have just moved into a house, it is important to find out who belongs to the neighborhood, so you might at least be able to ask for their help to take care of your home. Plus, people more often ignore each other in the world. So it makes sense if you talk to your neighbors and socialize.
3. Keep the key in your hand.
Whether you live in a big house or a narrow studio apartment, walking until the door is late at night while groping through someone’s pocket or bag is attracting unwanted attention. Home security is more than just keeping people out of the house, but also about keeping safe wherever you are. Don’t make this mistake.
Keep your LCD television so that it is not easily visible and striking so that it attracts the attention of people out there, use a curtain or match the state of your home so that unauthorized outsiders cannot see. If criminals cannot accurately see the condition of your home, then they will likely have trouble and think so many times to rob your house.
The easiest way we can take care of a watch so that it is durable is to store it in a dry place with a normal temperature in the room. If you put a place that has a certain room temperature (air-conditioned room, a room that is exposed to direct light), then the temperature will automatically affect your watch. Keep your watch in a container, or a special watch box. You should keep your popular watch, like the bulova watch in a special watch box to make it safer.
Clean your watch with a wet tissue, but not a tissue that is too wet or wet with water. because if you only use ordinary tissue, it will make a scratch on the glass of your watch. A good wet tissue that doesn’t make a scratch is wet tissue that is used to clean the baby’s skin. Let it dry without using a dry tissue or dryer (dryer), because the hot wind coming out will affect the components in your watch.
All married people certainly agree that there are many choices and problems that will come to the wedding. Many people feel that marriage is a very difficult thing to do. How come? You have to live with someone forever. This means you also have to take all decisions with mutual agreement. Unfortunately, not everyone can do it and end in divorce. If this has happened, then all you can do is use the services of the oklahoma city divorce attorney .
After the divorce is complete, it’s not the time for you to blame the divorce. You must be able to take responsibility for what will happen after your divorce. Gather support from your family and closest friends who can help you deal with the divorce process. There is nothing wrong with consulting lawyers or divorce mediators.
One simple way that you can stay strong in the face of divorce is to control your emotions and how to behave in front of your ex-husband or wife and also in front of your children. You also need to maintain attitude in the face of various divorce processes that are not easy.
You certainly are old enough to know what lessons you can take from the divorce case. Whatever causes underlying your divorce, you must be able to take lessons from it.
Job centre online is a vital resource when you are looking for work. This is very difficult to come by if you are looking for a temporary job while working full time and it must be managed wisely if you are unemployed and find yourself with too much time my online job centre . Setting your time to improve your prospects can be difficult at first, but it must be quite simple once you have developed a habit.
Job centre online is perfect for those who are looking for work while still working as focusing on finding longer jobs that focus on finding the best jobs. Schedule your work searching on a weekly basis. Don’t try to squeeze your search for work to be fully eating day. Find your free time available, and schedule regular job searches. If you accidentally lost your search for a job due to an emergency, wait until the next job search is scheduled. Instead of desperately making time to find work, find out your schedule and do as much as you can to stay with it. After finding a habitual job, you have to find the time you have organized to do that is not the time you missed as much.
Job centre online suggest that you have to spend more of your backup money on every aspect of your life as you spend in your spare time on the same aspects. This means that if you have love for a car that takes up to 10% of your life, then 10% of your reserve money should go towards passion, such as by contributing to car loans for sports cars. If this is applied to find work, then suddenly additional value is placed at that time. If you spend money on developing your ability to find work, increase the value of that time which might make you prioritize more. There’s no need to spend very much to achieve this effect, either, as things like continuing development don’t always cost very much.
Manajemen gudang adalah hal yang sangat penting dalam kelangsungan bisnis sebab gudang berkaitan dengan penjualan. Manajemen yang buruk akan mengakibatkan barang-barang yang berada di rak gudang tidak sesuai dengan penjualan dan berakibat pada kerugian. Di sinilah pentingnya manajemen pengaturan gudang, baik dari pemilik bisnis maupun pekerjanya. Apalagi jika menjalankan bisnis ritel yang memiliki banyak item untuk disimpan. Jika tidak cermat, maka bisnis tersebut akan mengalami kerugian skala besar.
Buatlah jadwal pembelian terhadap produsen barang sehingga memudahkan Anda dalam melakukan forecasting dan lain-lain. Forecasting adalah pengaturan barang yang berada di rak gudang untuk memastikan barang-barang tersebut tetap berada di tempatnya atau tidak mengalami selisih dengan penjualan.
Setelah mendapatkan jadwal persediaan dengan para supplier, Anda dapat menghitung biaya yang telah dihabiskan. Beberapa mungkin bertanya mengapa budgeting tidak dilakukan di awal agar lebih mudah menghitung. Jawabannya adalah jika diletakkan di awal, maka tidak akan sesuai dengan kebutuhan di pasar.
Sebagai pemilik bisnis ritel yang menyimpan berbagai jenis barang, Anda harus tahu cara menyimpan stok yang benar sesuai karakter barang tersebut. Sebagai contoh adalah barang yang dijual memiliki nilai yang berharga namun ukurannya kecil. Maka lebih baik diletakkan di tempat yang mudah terlihat agar dapat terus dipantau.
Selain mengenali karakter barang, Anda juga harus mampu mengatur tampilan gudang. Hal ini sangat penting bagi Anda yang memiliki bisnis ritel yang barang-barangnya memiliki masa kadaluarsa. Untuk memudahkan pengecekan, Anda harus mengatur agar produk yang keluar dari gudang adalah produk dengan kadaluarsa yang paling awal. Tata letak yang rapi juga akan memberikan keuntungan efisiensi waktu pencarian barang.
In pushmoneyapps.com/top-internet-marketing-products-by-aidan-booth-steve-clayton/ there are many worksheets available on the apps that you can use to help you put plans in writing. Some of these planners involve working with calendars to set sub specific goals to reach in weeks or months of time. Some worksheets are based on an action plan and what needs to be done next in accordance with priorities. They may not have a time limit attached to them, and you only need to check off what you do as you do them.
pushmoneyapps.com/top-internet-marketing-products-by-aidan-booth-steve-clayton/ is a world of testing and trials, and continually modifying things is really needed for a business to succeed. If you have decided this year will be a year that you see a big difference in your business, then you will need to break your actions into a period of time to ensure that you reach your goals this year. If you don’t take the time to make this plan and time the formula to follow you will find yourself lost and overwhelmed by the information and actions that need to be taken. Thinking about a plan well will help you focus more and be able to handle distractions much better. The action calendar settings are easily modified and you must be flexible with that. There is nothing on the Internet the world of marketing is written in stone, and if you find that changes are needed then go ahead and make changes.
pushmoneyapps.com/top-internet-marketing-products-by-aidan-booth-steve-clayton/ plan can be changed and changed at any point of the trip if you find there is a faster route to get to the final destination. An imperfect plan is at least the starting point. You have put where you are and where you want to go. Between two points is a different way to get there. During your trip to your destination, because you follow your plan, you might see something that will help you reach your goals faster. If you do it, it must be done. Keeping this in mind when you make your plan will help you get it done.
For sure, your view of a private investigator rock hill sc is one that constantly brings with him weapons, tracks criminals and gets his girl at the end. That’s right pretty romantic? Sure is. But you must know that private investigations are far more than that. More than saving someone from being killed or retaliating because of the self-realization of things that have affected a person’s life.
Private investigator might see it as a Great job, another an adventurous style while some people choose not to think of their lives as private investigators as this work seems to free them close to their graves. Well, everyone has the right to their own beliefs. But the truth still remains the truth. Previously, private investigations were said to be limited to boring goods. Before the emergence of James Bond films or the concept of Mission Impossible, private box investigators were only to stalk the various individuals they were employed for stalks. Investigators, especially those who are good, have an established database of back ups who can dig into documents that are public domain. If your personal investigation team is good enough, they are able to violate various systems that hold important evidence regarding the case.
Private investigator can conduct surveillance or supervision. However, with the development of complexity, private investigation companies now continue to be more confusing cases than their predecessors. There are various types of private inquiry work. If you are considering looking at private investigations as life in the state of Texas, you might find this article useful. One classic technique that is being used by private investigators is supervision. This is the process of collecting important data through actual observation. Usually, this is done in secret and must not, at each level, reveal some clues that will trigger suspicion. This is probably one of the longest methods used in trading. Usually it continues for several days and even months, surveillance is the process by which the subject is truly observed which results in extraction of details.
When camping, there is a good chance that your items will get dirty. If you know this ahead of the actual trip, you can prepare for the inevitable and get yourself some extra supplies. Have fun on your trip and don’t worry about getting messy; it happens. When you’re home, you can be normal again.
Sitting too long will certainly make your back and some parts of your body feel pain. This often happens and is felt by office workers who work in front of the computer. For that, what they really need is the right office chair. You can use the ergonomic office chair to feel maximum comfort in the office and while working.
Selection of suitable seats is an important step in preventing health problems in people who work in a sitting position. Then, what is meant by ergonomics? In ergonomics, sitting is seen as a special activity influenced by the way people work. Not only that, but it is also influenced by interactions with their work environment. Please note that a chair that has a good design will allow users to sit in a balanced position. For that, do not be surprised if there are many office employees who need ergonomic chairs during their work.
Are you currently planning to renovate a bathroom? The bathroom is an important part of a house. Did you make the decision bathroom renovations choice that you will choose to implement in your renovation project? Here are some things that you need to consider to ensure that the result of your bathroom renovation will be as well as you expect.
It is highly recommended to put the bathroom downstairs. This is so that the plumbing business becomes simpler. However, if you really need a bathroom or toilet upstairs, make sure it is not a kitchen below.
A stuffy and smelly bathroom is a result of poor air circulation. Don’t forget to make sure there is a separate flow of air in and out so that the air in the bathroom is maintained. The problem is not a few people who build bathrooms under the stairs. The house is also in a very dense location so that there is no remaining open land to supply fresh air and remove the stuffy air.
If this is the situation you are facing, try to install a two-way exhaust fan. Install on the door frame or ceiling if on top is empty space. This fan will pull out the stuffy air. Change the direction of rotation for air supply.
In feng shui, the flat ceiling will make the circulation of positive energy in the bathroom more optimal. In addition, there should be no protruding ceiling so as not to disturb the flow.
Toilet placement can be a dilemma problem, especially for those who live on narrow land, including flats and apartments that repair the toilet position is no easy matter. If you work with professional bathroom contractor who has years of experience, you will have the chance to get the advice. This means that there is nothing to worry about the closet placement or location. | 2019-04-25T19:42:32Z | http://www.campusvetclinic.com/2019/03/ |
This is a five reel, three row online slot offering twenty five paylines, and belongs to the cute and cuddly genre. The world of soft toys sets the scene for this Eyecon game, which features Free Spins and Coin Pusher bonus games, and an RTP of 95.3%. We’re proud to offer the game to you right here at UK Slot Games, where you can also play over 600 slot games, including ‘Starburst’, ‘Rainbow Riches’, ‘Fluffy Favourites’ and ‘Bonanza’.
The first Fluffy Favourites game was such an outstanding success that it took the entire online slot world by storm. Nobody really appreciated quite how much demand there was likely to be for a slot game based on childhood themes; most developers have spent years finding new ways to pitch to the adult market, and although nostalgia comes up as a topic occasionally, nobody’s ever been quite as direct about it as Eyecon were when they released that first game back in 2006. Given the phenomenal success of the first game, a sequel was always likely, and here it is.
If you missed it first time around, or you’re new to online slots, Fluffy Too (a play on ‘Fluffy Two’) is a classic style online slot; nothing too complicated, and not too many confusing additional features; it just happens to be adorable to look at. It’s set in a world populated by stuffed toys; the kind you used to cuddle up to at night. Many of us, especially Brits, will have childhood memories of trying to win soft toys from inside glass cabinets at seaside amusement marks, and it’s that exact sense of nostalgia that this game appeals to.
The background of the game sets the action on a beach; so either the toys have gone on holiday, or we really are back in that seaside town again, trying to win those soft toys and pestering our parents for more money to have another go! A rainbow colourfully decorates the sky, and there’s a tall structure there which may or may not be a representation of the world famous Blackpool Tower overlooking the beach.
For the uninitiated, there are no standard card symbols on the reels on this game, just adorable toy animals for as far as the eye can see. Like entering Noah’s Ark, they come in pairs of values, and in ascending order they are the goldfish and the duck, which both have a maximum value of 100 coins per payline; rhino and giraffe (200), lion and tortoise (300), gorilla and panda (500), and then the pink dragon alone (dragons don’t pair up with anyone or anything outside of the Game of Thrones world), which has a maximum value of 1000. The most valuable symbol, confusingly, isn’t the dragon. It’s been superseded by a purple hippo, who pays off in multiples. If the hippo appears on your reels 2, 3, 4, or 5 times on the reels, you’ll accordingly win 10, 100, 500 or 5,000 coins; that top prize is the equivalent of 200 times your original stake.
Fans of the original will already know and love the pink elephant as the wild symbol, and it’s back again for the sequel, replacing all symbols other than the scatter, which is a coin (more on that in a moment). Any winning combination involving the pink elephant doubles in value.
As we hinted at earlier on, the point of Fluffy Too is that it’s adorable to look at and easy to play; throwing a wide range of complex bonus options would spoil the simplicity of its appeals. There are two though, and both of them could have a major impact on him much money you can take from the game.
1. Free Spins: Free spins do what free spins always do; any combination of three, four or five pink elephants anywhere on the reels will award you 15, 20 or 25 free spins. Any winning combination found during a free spin trebles in value. The free spins can also re-trigger if the right number of elephants land on the reels again, and the process can repeat up to a maximum of 400 free spins. That’s a big number, and should mean big money.
2. Coin Pusher: Coin Pusher is a new feature in this game, and one of the main things that makes Fluffy Too stand out as being different from Fluffy Favourites. The original game offered you a Toy Box bonus where you had to select toys using a claw, as you would when trying to win them at an amusement arcade. The Coin Pusher bonus sticks with the concept of trying to recreate an old amusement park game, but this time it’s penny pushing; the game where you insert a coin at the top of a machine, and hope that it pushes the coins at the bottom off a ledge so you can collect them. In the online slot version that Fluffy Too offers, you merely need to make selections on the screen to choose your prize. The maximum value here is 100 times your original stake, but even if you miss out on that, you’ll still get a multiplier.
Perhaps no game has demonstrated that so well as ‘Fluffy Favourites’, which was launched in 2006. It’s the jewel of the Eyecon crown, still as popular today as it’s ever been. Over ten years later it’s still recognized as one of the most played, and most loved, online slots of all time. That makes it an obvious choice to be featured here at UK Slot Games. It also explains why you’re currently reading a review of a sequel to that game!
The Fluffy Favourites franchise, which has arguably become the jewel in Eyecon’s crown, is of tremendous importance to them. Their excitement about the games comes through every time they make any statement about it, such as this description of Fluffy Too from their website:- “As you may know, Fluffy Favourites Slots is one of the most popular online slot games around. And now you can enjoy the sequel just as much!
The sheer number of exclamation marks there just screams excitement, and it’s well justified. If you owned the company behind Fluffy Favourites and you saw how well it was performing for you, you’d be excited too!
As it’s not the only game in the Fluffy Favourites franchise, there are of course several related games to Fluffy Too. It’s part of a whole family of Fluffy-inspired games by Eyecon, and we can only imagine that family growing larger in the future. The games include the first game, a sequel beyond this one, and some jackpot variants of all three games. Here’s the detailed breakdown for you.
The original game in the series, and an iconic legend in the land of slot games. When this game was released, it was considered to be close to slot game perfection. It’s still full of charm and joy, and with its gentle volatility and 95.3% RTP it still attracts plenty of regular players, even though more modern takes on the formula are now available. One of the key differences between the original and the later games, other than the vastly improved animation and sound, is the bonus features; instead of the Coin Pusher mode that Fluffy Too offers, there’s a Toy Box feature instead, re-creating the process of trying to grab a soft toy from a glass booth using a claw. Anyone who went to a British seaside when they were a child will know exactly what we mean!
Another game in the series that was made by Instant Win Gaming as opposed to Eyecon, and another fresh take on the online slot experience. If you’ve ever played ‘Tetris’ - and who hasn’t? - then you’ll intuitively know how to play this game already. Play takes place on a 9x6 grid full of the adorable animals from the Fluffy Favourites game world. All you have to do is find five or more matching animals to win a prize. Once you’ve matched them up, they’ll vanish from the grid, and more animals will take their place (exactly like making lines on Tetris!). You just carry on matching them up until there are no more left to match. The more matches you make, the more points you get. And what do points make? Prizes! It’s worth noting that not all of the animals are worth the same in this game; fifteen purple hippos will net you 10,000 times your initial stake, for example, whereas fifteen yellow ducks only get you fifty times your stake. That’s still a good multiplier! There are a few bonus games thrown in for good measure, including the kind of ‘prize picker’ rounds that make ‘Fluffy Too’ so popular in the first place.
When ‘Fluffy Favourites’ became a huge hit, the entire gaming industry sat up and take note. There may not have been many games themed around the ‘cute’ genre before; perhaps because the developers didn’t think it would appeal to adults; but they were wrong. In any event, there have been several games made since that have a few things in common with the Fluffy Too game world, but are either made by completely different development teams, or have nothing to do with the Fluffy Favourites franchise whatsoever. Here are just a few of them.
Big Top: Big, bright, bold colours? Check. Adorable animals on the reels? Check. A circus or fairground setting? Check. ‘Big Top’ may have a lot of the same dressing as ‘Fluffy Too’, but it confines itself to staying in the circus tent itself instead of venturing into the fairground outside. That’s why the animals on the reels are joined by circus clowns, and the animals themselves are performing tricks. There’s even a lion in a top hat! Who let him be ringmaster? This game was made by Microgaming, and it’s one of their older titles. That age shows, even though it’s still fun to play. There’s no background music at all, barely any animation even when a winning line is found, and a one dimensional graphical style. It’s a fun game that’s easy to understand and easy to play, but doesn’t offer any bonus games other than a few multipliers.
NextGen Online have made something that feels a little closer to ‘Fluffy Too’ in ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’. The visuals are just as adorable and soft, and if you ignored the title this could be mistaken in look and style to a ‘Fluffy Favourites’ game. They’ve just moved the animals away from the fairground and taken them out on a picnic for the day. In an interesting theme, the teddy bears have lost all the items they need for their picnic, and if you can find their food and cutlery they’ll pay you quite handsomely for them! There are a few bear-themed bonuses, too; scattered picnic basket symbols can pay out up to 100 times your bet if you find them in the right combination, and there are even some missing bears to find, too! This is a non-traditional online slot in that it doesn’t offer free spins or a ‘prize picker’. It’s the ‘prize picker’ aspect of ‘Fluffy Too’ that really makes it stand out.
We don’t usually think of wolves as being cute, but that perception completely changes the moment you load up ‘Wolf Cub’. These adorable baby wolves would never bite you; would they? This is a wintry, and perhaps even almost Christmassy, game which features fluffy wolves out in the snow, needing your help. Unlike ‘Fluffy Too’ there’s only one type of animal on the reels here, but if you like wolves and huskies we doubt you’ll mind. This is a NetEnt game; yet another developer who’ve seen the success of ‘cute and fluffy’ games and decided to join in. There are free spins, bonus games, wilds and scatters; all the mechanics of a traditional slot are here for you to enjoy. Sadly no pink elephants though!
Somewhere between ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Fluffy Too’ lives ‘Furballs’. The creatures within the game haven’t been drawn with the same level of charm or lovability as the Fluffy Favourites gang have, but they’re an undeniably cute and endearing bunch; and there are a lot of them! This is a crisp, clean, sharp and simple game that won’t win any awards for stunning design, but the minimalistic layout means it’s easy to play on mobile formats. There’s a free spins bonus feature, which is what you’d expect as a minimum, and also ‘energy ball’, ‘lightning ball’ and ‘virus ball’ wilds which is where the ‘Space Invaders’ comparison comes from. Find one of these balls and they’ll have an effect on the furballs around them, either changing their colour or destroying them completely. That could make it easier for you to find winning lines, or it could make it harder. This is a Core Gaming slot game, which isn’t as innovative or immersive as ‘Fluffy Too’, but has a definite appeal of its own.
What if the fluffy favourites in the ‘Fluffy Too’ game weren’t actually cute stuffed toys? What if they were cute baby dinosaurs instead? That’s the major difference between ‘Fluffy Too’ and this title. If you remember the sitcom ‘Dinosaurs’ from the 1990s you’ll immediately see where this online slot got its inspiration from; right down to the dinosaurs in nappies! The adult dinosaur on the reels is the wild, matching with any of its children to create winning lines. The egg is a scatter, and can bring you free spins. Is it as in-depth or expansive in terms of bonuses as ‘Fluffy Too’? No, but it’s still a fun game to play, and cute to look at!
Eyecon are a company with one eye on the future; they know that mobile gaming is only going to increase as a percentage share of the market as time goes on, and they’re ready to move with that trend. They do an exceptionally good job of adapting their games for the mobile format, and Fluffy Too is yet another example of that.
Nothing has been lost in the move from the desktop or laptop to the smartphone or tablet version. The graphics are of the same quality, the sounds are still there, and the features are unaffected. The only difference between playing on a computer or on your phone is that you’re using your finger to do it.
The game is even aware of whether you’ve viewing it in landscape or portrait mode when you load it up, and if you change the perspective, it will adapt itself accordingly. Instead of shrinking the play area or the buttons, it moves them to a different area of the screen, making sure they’re always accessible, and the play area is always in focus and clear. As an added bonus, you get a much better view of the scenery when playing on a hand-held device, because of the way the screen ratio works. That means that we can now quite clearly see that the tower in the background is definitely supposed to be Blackpool Tower, and there’s a much better look at Blackpool’s beach, and the fairground down the road. The game makes a great advert for Blackpool’s tourist board!
Fluffy Too, and the entire Fluffy Favourites franchise, are big news within the gaming industry. Because of that, they often find themselves in both the mainstream press and the gambling press. Not all of that attention is positive; when you’re on a pedestal, people tend to throw stones at you.
That was certainly the case in this Daily Mail article, which uses an image of Fluffy Too to illustrate what it claims to be evidence of gaming companies advertising directly to children; they and some regulators are concerned that children could be attracted by the imagery of the game, and this could cause them to become interested in gambling. Whilst it’s true that if any company is marketing at children directly there should be consequences for that, the article doesn’t take into account that many adults also find Fluffy Too to be a charming game to play.
There are positives too; Fluffy Too and the franchise it belongs to have been such a runaway success that Eyecon became very desirable to investors. Playtech decided to spend £50m on acquiring them and having them as an in-house brand. The news is seen as part of Playtech’s plans to expand into the online gaming world and further develop their technology capabilities. ‘Fluffy Favourites’ is considered such an important asset from the Eyecon range that it’s the only one of their online slots to be mentioned by name in the article!
Why Is UK Slot Games The Best Place To Play Fluffy Too?
Thanks for taking the time to read this review. We hope it served as a good introduction to not only the Fluffy Too slot game, but the entire Fluffy Favourites universe, and that you’ll have potentially found not just one but several new online slots to play. We’d love you to stay right here on ukslotgames.com and play it with us.
Secondly, we don’t force you to deposit money when you first sign up. Everybody is welcome to make an account, and you can then browse our entire catalog to find a game you really want to play before you hand over any money. Fluffy Too is a fine place to start, but there’s no reason to stop there! In fact, we do the opposite of forcing you to hand over money. When you sign up, you could win up to 500 free spins on our games just for doing so! | 2019-04-25T00:54:18Z | https://www.ukslotgames.com/all-games/slots/fluffy-too |
In today’s episode, we talk about how we help Jennifer overcome fears and create a plan to quickly grow her membership by the end of the year.
Jocelyn Sams: Hey y’all. On today’s show, we help Jennifer take her education business to the next level.
Shane Sams: Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast where life always comes before work. We’re your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. We’re a real family that figured out how to make our entire living online. And now, we help other families do the same. Are you ready to flip your life? All right. Let’s get started.
Shane Sams: What’s going on everybody? Welcome back to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast. It is great to be back with you again this week. We have a beautiful day in Kentucky and we have an amazing guest. Another member of the Flip Your Life community. On the show today, we want to welcome Jennifer Bradley. Jennifer, welcome to the podcast.
Jennifer B.: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to talk to you guys.
Jocelyn Sams: It is great to talk to you again. Jennifer is someone we have actually met in real life, which is really exciting. You guys know that I love it when we have people on that we have met in real life. This is a really good show for me.
Shane Sams: And I was telling Jennifer off air, we may know Jennifer better than anyone who has ever been on the show because she’s also a member of our all-access mastermind. I literally talk to Jennifer every single day on Voxer.
Jocelyn Sams: And we chose Jennifer to be a part of the podcast because she is a community member who believes in posting her success.
Shane Sams: And taking massive action in her business.
Jocelyn Sams: When we look for people to be a guest on the podcast, we look for people who are really taking action, who are letting other people know about the successes that they’re having. And that is why she’s here today.
Jocelyn Sams: Let’s jump into a little bit of that. Start out by telling everyone about who you are and a little bit about your background and your business.
Jennifer B.: I’m Jennifer Bradley and I’m from Michigan. I have three little kids at home. Ages seven, four and two. And then I’m married to my high school sweetheart. My business is I’m a speech therapist. I started out selling on a third-party platform Teachers Pay Teachers. I’d just sell therapy materials that I have created. I recently, about a year ago, turned it into a membership platform. I have all of my therapy materials in one area for speech therapists to use.
Shane Sams: And how has that gone? I know a lot of people that is a scary transition. They’ll go to a third-party marketplace, they’ll make a little money online, whether it’s putting a book on Kindle or selling something on you-to-me or in another place like that. Then it’s like, “Oh, man. If I go offline, how am I gonna find customers?” All that thing. How’s your membership going?
Jennifer B.: It’s going great. At first, it was a little scary. A little bit daunting to have my own website and send traffic there. But I’m really seeing the benefits now because I own it and as a third-party website I’m on there and I have no control of changes that are made. Since I’m always selling one-off products, I have to continuously sell and sell because most of my products range from $3 to $10. Where the membership is growing now, I’m having members and I’m in charge of my own destiny. It’s been an amazing transition.
Shane Sams: How many members do you have now?
Jennifer B.: I have 380 members now.
Shane Sams: Oh my goodness. That’s insane.
Jocelyn Sams: Yeah, that’s awesome.
Shane Sams: Just think about what you said out loud. We don’t get too far into numbers for people, but I’m gonna paint the picture here for everybody. What if you had 380 people paying you 25 bucks a month or 50 bucks a month or 100 bucks a month. That’s a crazy amount of customers and really all they’re doing is logging into a community and getting access to your resources, right?
Jennifer B.: Mm-hmm. Yeah. They just log in. They have access to all my therapy materials that were on TpT.
Shane Sams: But we sat down at Flip Your Life Live last year and I worked with you at our table for a little while. You were telling me so many amazing things that I hear from so many people, “Oh, my gosh. I was afraid.” You had something making money. This third-party marketplace. It was making good money too, right?
Shane Sams: And you’re like, “Oh my gosh. What if I stop promoting that? Is that gonna die? Am I gonna give up a good thing? A bird in the hand is better …” All those fears that we have. I remember we were talking about your promotion strategy and you were still really promoting even the third-party marketplace. I looked over and I’m, “But the membership’s making as much money as that. Why would you just not promote the thing that’s passive and create stable predicable income?” And we were like, “Yeah. That’s probably what I should do.” Right?
Jennifer B.: Yeah. I needed you to knock some sense into me because I was only pretty much promoting TpTs little one-off sales. Since starting to work with you guys, I have gone up almost 100 members in a month. I needed that.
Jocelyn Sams: Okay. That’s awesome.
Shane Sams: That’s why we love bringing success stories on because most of the time people know what to do and they do just need to talk it through with somebody and see the fork in the road and be like, “Yeah, I’ve been down this road 100 times. I’m telling you, it’s the right thing.” But the most important thing is you actually took action on it. That’s why you got 100 members in a month is because you said, “Yeah. That’s the path I need to go down. I just need to hammer down on it.” And that’s what we love about you, Jennifer. ‘Cause you put in the work. You do what it takes. It takes some risks. It takes a little discomfort at times to make it to the next level.
Shane Sams: We were just meeting with our live event coordinator for next years live event. We were like, “Could we double or triple the amount of people who come to Flip Your Life Live?” I looked over at Jocelyn and I said, “This feels really scary. Though, it’s probably right.” That’s where you were. Do I go all in on the membership and leave behind what got me here to get to the next level? And that was scary, wasn’t it?
Jennifer B.: Yes, it was very scary. Because TpT was a big income for me. To just let that do its own thing without promoting it was a very big jump. But it’s been working out really well.
Shane Sams: Now, you’re full-time online. I know you do go in to the school every once in a while just for a couple hours to keep your toe in the water, but you are full-time online correct?
Shane Sams: Well, I just want to first, before we got on, ’cause we’re gonna try and help you get to the next level. That’s always our goal. There’s always a next level. There’s always a way to raise the bar. But congratulations for flipping your life because it takes a lot of energy and effort and courage while you’ve got three kids under the age of seven at home to do what you’ve done. And we never want to shortchange that. It’s so easy to get complacent and it’s so easy to always look ahead. But sometimes look back and say, “Wow. I’ve done something that 90% of people are not doing.” And you’ve done a great job of that, Jennifer, so congratulations.
Jennifer B.: Thank you. Thank you.
Jocelyn Sams: I think that it’s important to recognize that Jennifer didn’t wave her magic wand to make all this happen. There was a lot of hard work and energy that went behind it. But I think that in hindsight you would say that it was worth it.
Jennifer B.: Oh, yeah. Definitely. I didn’t watch TV for three years, but it paid off in the end.
Shane Sams: What brought you to the Flip Your Life community?
Jennifer B.: I heard you guys on Pat Flynn. I had been a part of another membership community to grow memberships. It was a great community, but it wasn’t as family focused. It was more technical focused. I liked that you guys had the technical part but also you were a family. You were a husband and wife team. It was very focused on the community and the members helping each other and I really liked that aspect of it.
Shane Sams: You know, that’s one reason we started the Flip Your Life community in the first place. Because when we were out trying to start our online business, we found the same thing. We found a lot of courses. We found a lot of people telling you how to do things. But we didn’t find anywhere where we felt like people were focused on the real issues that were holding us back. The things that held us back were not we couldn’t grind though and figure out WordPress or we couldn’t grind through and figure out how to take payments for a product. Those are all solvable issues. It was we’ve got a four-year-old and two-year-old and they’re screaming while we have 30 minutes to work. What do we do? We had to stumble through all those problems ourselves and when we decided to start teaching this, we were like, “That’s where we need to focus our energy. Helping people deal with the real issues that hold them back.
Shane Sams: It’s why we love people that come on with three, four, five, six, even seven kids. Because it just proves out there, look, Jennifer has three kids. Jennifer has a life. Jennifer was working. She built a business online. There you go. Why are you not doing that? I just want to encourage anybody that hears this. You can do this while raising a family working full-time. You just gotta take the inspiration and do it.
Jennifer B.: That’s what I liked. You guys talk a lot about the mindset and the fears. I think that was more my big thing. Getting over that stuff than anything.
Jocelyn Sams: That’s one thing that we’ve just really learned through the years of doing this. Usually, things boil down to something that we’re afraid of. Maybe it’s something that we think we can’t do. Or some kind of self-limiting belief is what causes a lot of people’s issues.
Jocelyn Sams: Let’s dive into that a little bit. Let’s explore what’s going on with you as far as what is holding you back right now? If you were to look at something and say, “I’m worried about something. Or I’m afraid I can’t do something.” What might that be?
Shane Sams: ‘Cause the fears do not go away just because you become successful. In fact, they may get bigger and you just have to keep overcoming that next obstacle. That next fear. That next mindset issue every step of the journey. I don’t want anyone out there to say, “Wow. Shane, Jocelyn and Jennifer have made it. They’re never afraid again.” Right? We all have fears that are holding us back. What’s challenging you right now?
Jennifer B.: I think the fear of overall being judged by selling things or I’m being too pushy and just having that being judged by the speech community. Because it’s a smaller community of professionals. So, I don’t want to have … I’m afraid of getting judged about being that pushy sales person I guess.
Jocelyn Sams: I totally understand that. I’ve definitely gone through that as well. I think in the education space especially you can have these types of fears because a lot of people offer things for free because it’s education. You have this mindset that, “Oh, nobody wants to pay for anything.” Things like that. Would you say that that is part of it?
Jennifer B.: Yes. Definitely part of it. Like I should be giving away things for free instead.
Shane Sams: What happens here is it’s a lot like everything else in our society in 2018 basically. The loudest voices come from the fringes. Right? And when you get the person who’s really bitter and is a taker and wants everything free and really doesn’t respect. I find that a lot of people that write us hate mail or something because we charge for our products or something like that, they’re usually coming from a place of disempowerment and they’re really mad and bitter. And they almost feel entitled like someone should either give them everything or maybe they’re just frustrated and they can’t achieve it and they wish they could have it, but they’re not really willing to do what it takes, so they want to complain about it. Right?
Shane Sams: What we have found is those loud voices from the fringes are the ones that derail us the hardest. We look at our comments all the time. We look at our Facebook posts. We look at the emails that we receive. We look at our … Even our reviews on our podcast on iTunes. Probably 1% of them are actually complaining or actually negative. But they are so loud and so mean that they just override … You have 300 and something people paying you money every month without complaining. But that one comment on the webinar in the chat box … wants to make you just bash your head through the wall.
Jocelyn Sams: And find value in it.
Shane Sams: And find value in it. And not only that, have found a way to believe in themself enough to bet on their own life. To bet on their own future with their money and their time. Those are the people we’ve got to really focus on. Because if we focus on the bad people that are judging us, how can we help the good people that aren’t?
Shane Sams: We struggled through this when we were about to host our live event. We were like, “Who are we to host a live event? Everybody else goes and speaks at live events. You have 10 speakers on stage. We were like, “No, we’re gonna host our own. We’re gonna speak on stage for two straight days and interact with over 100 people. That’s what we’re gonna do.” We had some negative comments. We had some negative things that we had to deal with. But look at all the good that came out of that live event. Just for you and for other people. If we listened to those negative voices, then we don’t get to help all the people that really need it.
Jennifer B.: Yeah. That makes sense. Yes.
Jocelyn Sams: Sometimes it’s hard to listen to that voice. Especially when you have these people who are saying, “Oh, well, your product’s too expensive.” Or, “I don’t want to join your membership because it should be free. I can get better stuff like this for free.” Well, you know what? That’s fine. They’re not your people.
Shane Sams: Go do it, dude.
Jocelyn Sams: Go for it. Do it. Spend your time looking for it. It is out there. But if you want to spend your time and effort doing it, then you’re not my customer. I think that it just takes a little bit of time just to get used to the idea. It used to bother me a lot more than it does now. When somebody would be super negative or say something that just bothered me or whatever. It doesn’t bother me as much anymore. I think just being okay with everything not being perfect.
Shane Sams: And also too, Jocelyn and I are bothered by hate in different ways. I really bow up and want to fight them. I write them back sometimes and I’m, “Bring it. Let’s go. I’ll joust with you.” And Jocelyn, it gets her really, really down. Like, really, really down and doubting. But it does affect us both really negatively. The biggest thing that we’ve learned over the last couple years is you gotta ignore it. You just gotta ignore it. It’s gonna come. You have to accept it, that it’s gonna happen. And the more you can delete it, the better. Right?
Shane Sams: You just gotta let that go. Because, gosh, you just can’t make everybody happy. You know that. You’re selling to schools.
Jennifer B.: Mm-hmm. And yeah, I’m like Jocelyn in that it gives me doubts. I’m like, I can’t be scared to do things. You had told me to send out three emails a week and I thought I was gonna get a bunch of hate mail from people. I think I overreacted about that. So, I’m trying to get my head around the fact that I’m just overthinking.
Shane Sams: Once you get over the fact that it’s going to happen, that doesn’t really make it easier to deal with, but you can create systems. That’s the real practical thing that we’ve done to shield ourselves from it. It’s really important once you have enough money to get someone to take some of that off of you. You need a customer service person. Or if you have a business partner, like Jocelyn, before we could afford customer service, I would check the messages first to delete the hate mail before Jocelyn saw it because it was such an energy drain on her. Right?
Shane Sams: And that’s gonna create more energy drain.
Jocelyn Sams: Yeah. “This person’s a jerk, don’t join their community.” You don’t want that to happen either. One of the things that I do to deal with this, especially when I was still answering my own customer service a lot, is I would say, “Okay. Well, what’s the worst thing that can happen? If I send out this email asking people to buy something, what’s the worst thing that can happen?” Well, the worst thing is maybe someone would say, “This is a rip off. It’s way too expensive. And this website is a joke.” Then I would write a little response to that. And it would say something like, “Hey. Thank you for your email. I understand that you think that the product is too expensive. I totally understand. There are lots of free resources available online. Feel free to use those and I appreciate you writing in.” Or whatever. That way, my mind had already dealt with it.
Shane Sams: It’s a canned response. Sends the same thing back to everybody, so she doesn’t have to waste any energy. But she also feels like she answered the person that was mad at her.
Jocelyn Sams: For me, I felt like I was prepared for it that way. And really, I only had to send it out one or two times. In my head, I’m thinking I’m gonna get 100 responses that say this and I got two.
Shane Sams: Let’s put this in context too because sometimes the criticism that we get is harder than we think it is. Right? What’s the meanest thing anyone’s actually ever said to you in your customer service? What’s the meanest thing that you can remember right now, seriously, that anyone has ever said to you?
Shane Sams: It’s like that fear of something that could happen has almost over … You can look back and say, “Literally, that has never happened to me.” My mom, I was sitting there last night at my mom’s house. And it’s almost Halloween when we’re recording this. My mom was like, and God love her, “Now, you’re gonna take the kids’ candy up to the hospital right?” I was like, “Why would I do that?” She goes, “Well, they’ll run that right through the x-ray machine to make sure nobody’s putting razorblades in your Reese’s cups. I said, “Mom. Let’s be honest here. Do you know any human being, in person, that that’s ever happened to?” She said, “Well, no. But I read about it in the paper one time.” Right? We laugh at that. You know what I’m saying? We hear that one thing or we imagine that one scenario and it becomes this overriding thing in our life that we think’s gonna happen and then it’s almost real. And then keeps us from doing something that could cause that. Right?
Jennifer B.: Mm-hmm. But yeah, I like that idea to pre-make your emails. I feel like that would make me feel better.
Jocelyn Sams: Yes. It’s just one less thing to think about. You just know that if that situation happens, you have a response for it. You don’t even have to think about it. You can just put it outside your mind.
Shane Sams: And your brain will deal with it.
Jocelyn Sams: One thing to remember is just that people … There’s always gonna be someone who doesn’t like you. If everyone likes you, then you’re probably not polarizing enough. You need to find someway to make it, not controversial, but just let your real personality come out. If you’re not doing that, then people probably aren’t really connecting with you.
Shane Sams: That’s an actual email.
Jocelyn Sams: Who reads their hate mail on the air? Nowhere but the Flipped Lifestyle podcast.
Shane Sams: But that guy sent that around and was so bitter and hateful and he didn’t look up and say, “You know, these guys have 4,000 posts in their success stories forum.” Think about that. He was so blinded by his own bitterness that he just had to be hateful instead of realizing that we had something that could possibly help him. That’s what you’ve got to … Your materials not only are helping teachers have the better work experience, helping them be happy at work, helping them be happy at home because they’re not spending time on lessons, and think about all the kids and people who are gonna be impacted over the years by all the lesson plans that you’re putting out there and everybody out there who’s doing something with their life and putting things out on the internet, you’re bringing value to the world. Never let those negative voices hold you down. Okay?
Jocelyn Sams: All right, Jennifer. We’ve talked a little bit about what’s going on inside your head. What can we help you with as far as working on the nuts and bolts of your business to help you move it forward?
Jennifer B.: I am the type to see something and want to do it. So, I buy too many courses because I want to prefect this and I want to perfect that. I’m just everywhere with everything and I don’t know where to focus my time. Do I focus my time on blogging more? Do I focus my time on creating ads? Do I focus my time on Instagram or email marketing or … I’m all over the place with what I should do next I guess.
Shane Sams: What do you want right now? What do you want to spend your time on and where do you want to go? The easiest thing to do is set a member goal or a money goal. Right? Then how do I get there, or how do I want to get there? What is your next goal right now for you?
Jennifer B.: My goal would probably be I would love to have 500 members by the end of the year. Yes, that’s my goal.
Shane Sams: We’ve got about two months to get there. That’s good. Ambitious goals are what you need. You want to stretch. Right?
Shane Sams: How do you want to get there? If you said, “Man, any path I pick will work. Anything I do will work because if I put the effort into it and I’ve got a plan, if I execute the plan, it will work. What’s your easiest path mentally to get there?
Jennifer B.: Probably for me probably more Facebook ads or Instagram ads ’cause I know them decently. It’s an easier way for me to, I think, to advertise I guess.
Jocelyn Sams: Okay. So, really that means that you think that you need to either promote to your current audience or grow your audience. Which one of those would you say is accurate? Or both?
Jennifer B.: I think grow my audience. I recently got an email from somebody telling me that she was so excited to join. That I need to promote more because she didn’t know about me. I guess that’s them telling me. I feel like I need to get my name out there a little bit more.
Shane Sams: Okay. This is a very similar place that we found ourselves earlier this year. Okay? I just want to go back to what we just said because it’s really important for anybody out there listening about working backwards. You said 500 people. And then we said, “What’s the best way to get there?” You said Facebook ads. Right? And then that led to an anecdote that proved it in your system. You have a person that told you, a customer, that was, “Wow. If I’d known about you sooner, I’d have done this.” And you’ve been in the game a little while, so you’ve got plenty of things that you’ve already done that you can go ahead and promote. It’s not like you’ve gotta reinvent the wheel every day or create new blog posts or create new content. You just have to activate all this amazing stuff you’ve already got.
Shane Sams: But working backwards from the goal, your plan is basically, “Okay, I need to get 100 more members. I need to promote my most popular stuff to new people on Facebook.” That’s it. That’s all you have to do for the rest of the year. You don’t have to create anything new. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You’ve just gotta go do that.
Jocelyn Sams: It may also mean some repurposing. What I mean by that is can you create a short video about one of the things you’ve written a blog post about and post it on YouTube?
Shane Sams: Our priority list always goes in this order. We look at every task and we dive down into tasks. Yesterday Jocelyn and I were planning out November and we said, “What is our goal for November?” Well, we have to get our Black Friday sale ready, which we’re gonna be selling our videos from Flip Your Life Live, the video package. We said, “Okay, what do we have to do? What are all the tasks that we have to do to get that done and repurpose that content into a product?” So, we’re wrote down all those tasks. But then we look at those tasks … For us, the next step is for me and Jocelyn is we say, “Okay, who’s gonna do what?” But for you, you’re just like, “What order am I gonna do the tasks.” Right?
Shane Sams: But back up a little bit. Before we decided that was the thing we were doing in November, we had four other things that we could do that would do different things. Like making YouTube videos, making podcasts, doing all these things. We always give them little … We draw little icons behind them. We say, “This one would make money immediately. What’s the fastest one to make the most money? This one would keep current customers happy. This one would be promotion. This one would be a process that we could delegate. This one might be something that we have to do on a repeated basis.” The things that do money always win.
Shane Sams: When you tell me, “Well should I make more blog posts?” My first question is, does it make you more money? Maybe in the long-term. But you already got blog posts that you can promote. Why not just promote them and send that to your list? Now it’s making money and it’s promotion. You’re ready to go. That’s how you have to look at things. What makes me the most money this quarter. Period. Do that. If everyone just makes that decision, your long-term plans will automatically stack up and work in your favor because you’re making money as you go.
Jocelyn Sams: And be decisive. Usually the reason that people bounce around from course to course or community to community is because they’re not really decisive on what they want. Truth be told, they don’t really believe in themselves to do whatever it is that they’ve set out to do, so they think, “Oh, well, if I just take this ads course, this is gonna solve all my problems.” No. You already have everything that you need to be successful. Stop hiding behind courses and do the work.
Jennifer B.: I have like 10.
Shane Sams: This was $1,000 too by the way. This was not a cheap course.
Jocelyn Sams: Nothing against this particular program or this particular person. I don’t know anything about them. But I’m like, “No.” This person has probably taken 100 courses. They have implemented some things, but I’m like, “You already have all the knowledge, all the information that you need. It’s right there. You don’t need another course. Stop hiding behind courses.” Anyway, that’s what I’m trying to say is that you already have everything you need. If you are not taking action, you need to do a little bit of internal work. What is stopping you? What is making you think you can’t do it? There’s something inside that’s making you want to take another path or basically just delay the inevitable. Stop delaying it. Get the work done.
Shane Sams: This worked. This worked. Why would I not just do it over and over. And I get the feeling that you’re like me. Sometimes we get bored with the, with what’s working.
Shane Sams: But just do it. Just keep doing that. Keep shooting free throws and keep scoring points. Because that’s all you gotta do to win.
Jocelyn Sams: Sometimes it’s easier to look for an alternate path than to stay on the path that you’re already one.
Jocelyn Sams: And it also requires some work. There’s some brush in the path. You’re gonna have to clear that off. There’s some things that you’re gonna have to do. But if I just find another path, it might be better.
Jennifer B.: I think you guys both hit it. I think sometimes my fear of the getting judged thing and not selling I’m like, “Oh, I’ll buy a course to do that. To learn how to do that more.” And then Shane, like you just said, I think sometimes I get bored to. I’m like, “Ooh, this course looks good. I’ll do this.” And I have 10 courses that I haven’t taken yet.
Shane Sams: Oh, without question. I buy books all the time and I’ll read a chapter and I’ll get really excited. But then I get bored. I don’t even do what the chapter told me to do.
Jocelyn Sams: We seriously probably have over 100 books on our bookshelf. We’ve probably read about half.
Shane Sams: The shelf is ending in the middle. Right? And I’m not saying that’s not valuable. We get things out of them. But it’s … I bought this book the other day about YouTube. And I know our YouTube strategy. We have a plan for next year. It’s repurpose it. We have over 1,000 videos of questions we’ve answered over the last few years on online business and we want to roll those out onto YouTube individually. We have a live strategy to answer questions from the community. One a day or one every other day. And then put that question as an answer. We’ll take that answer, give it to the person who asked the question, who’s a member, but then we’ll just do it on YouTube, so it’s more content.
Shane Sams: I know this strategy. I know it’ll work. The numbers don’t lie. I’m looking at the stats and I’m like, “Okay, well, we’ll have 1,000 videos by the end of next year. If all those videos are getting 10 views a day, we’re getting 10,000 views a day.” It’s not hard. And then we just pitch something at the end. That’s what we have to do. But I bought this book about YouTube ’cause I’m looking for the magic. When really, the magic is roll up your sleeves and do it and a year from now amazing things will happen.
Jocelyn Sams: Imperfect action always beats no action.
Shane Sams: That’s right. That’s right.
Shane Sams: And the book was so bad. I’m not gonna name names. But this book was, “Start your channel. Create a playlist.” There was nothing. It was supposed to be the best book ever. The reviews. All these experts were on the front saying it was the most important YouTube book that had ever been written. And it was literally like, “Start your YouTube channel.” That’s what the whole book was about. We’re always looking for the magic pill, but the magic pill is us. The magic pill is work. Just gotta do it and grind. I’m gonna help you create a lot of Facebook ads between now and the end of the year.
Jennifer B.: I know. The things that you’ve been giving me since I joined your private coaching, I’m like, “This is scaring me.” But it’s all good.
Shane Sams: But it’s all worked, right?
Shane Sams: It’s all worked so far.
Jennifer B.: 100 members in a month.
Jocelyn Sams: All right, Jennifer. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation today about just the different fears, mindset issues and trying to move forward in your business. What is one thing that you plan to take action on in the next day or so based on what we’ve talked about here today?
Jennifer B.: I am going to do the working backwards thing where I’m gonna figure out how I can get another 120 members by December 31st. The specific tasks that go into that. I know it’s ads, but I gotta figure out my strategy for it.
Shane Sams: The most important question in any ad strategy is where you’re sending people. That’s something that me and you can hash out in the private mastermind. What are we going to promote? We’re not gonna promote 40 different things. We’re gonna figure out a good strategy and stick to it and just promote it over time to beat those members out of the bushes. Okay?
Shane Sams: All right. What an awesome call, Jennifer. Man, that was just some amazing stuff and you have an amazing goal that’s gonna take you forward. Before we go, Jocelyn and I love to share a bible verse with all of our listeners. We get a lot of our inspiration in business and in life from the Bible and we’re super excited today because Jennifer has a verse that she would like to share with everybody listening to the podcast.
Jennifer B.: All right. The one I like is the Proverbs 21:5. It is the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
Shane Sams: Ooh. That is deep.
Jocelyn Sams: I love it. I think that it really echos what we’ve talked about here today. There is no magic wand, there is no magic pill. If you are going to live the life that we live, you’ve gotta do the work.
Shane Sams: That’s such a clear example for all business owners. The plans of the diligent. That means you plan it and then you do the work. Right? But then the plans of the hasty, they’re just trying to look for the magic pill and they fail. What an awesome verse. Listen, thank you for sharing that verse today and thank you just for being so transparent. Coming on the show and sharing what you’re doing and all the members and really being open and honest with your fears. That’s gonna resonate with somebody today. That’s gonna help somebody else move forward in their business. That’s what we’re all about. Throwing that pebble in the pond and letting that ripple out. Thank you Jennifer for sharing your story today.
Jennifer B.: Well, thank you guys for having me. This has been amazing. I have some work to do.
Jocelyn Sams: All right guys. If you need help building your online business, getting those members just like Jennifer did, we would love to have you inside our Flip Your Life community. The first 30 days are totally free and you can learn more at flippedlifestyle.com/free. We hope to see you inside the community real soon.
Shane Sams: All right guys, that is all the time that we have today. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast. We will see you next time. Between now and then, get out there and do whatever it takes to flip your life. We’ll see you then. | 2019-04-24T09:00:38Z | https://flippedlifestyle.com/podcast260/ |
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I don’t often have occasion to wear smart shoes and consequently I’ve managed to keep my last pair going for about 20 years (in fact they are my old school shoes). I’m not sure at what point in my school career I graduated to these shoes from my previous, smaller pairs, but I’m sure I had them for at least a year or two in which they got worn every day during term time. Since then they’ve had much more limited use, but have stood me well for events such as weddings and funerals (fortunately not too many of the latter) as well as gigs where I have to dress a bit smarter than usual (fortunately not too many of those, as it often involves having to iron a shirt too). They were also my stage footwear for my recent performance in Iolanthe.
Sadly, however, after the gig I was playing tonight (technically last night, as it’s now just about Sunday morning) the sole of one of my shoes decided to fall off. It possibly could be glued back on but since both the soles and uppers are wearing out somewhat, it’s probably time to lay these faithful old shoes to rest and invest in a new pair. Given that I’m unlikely to be giving them the daily wear that my school shoes got in their first couple of years, hopefully my new shoes will last at least 20 years too.
I have recently been enjoying the opportunity afforded by modern technology to play board games at a distance, in two ways.
The first, which I might write about sometime soon, is using a gaming website called yourturnmyturn.com to play a variety of games mostly against random people I don’t know (although one of the random people I play against is my friend Andy, who introduced me to the site).
The other, which I’m concentrating on in this post, is using a Java-based gaming engine called Vassal, which provides a virtual gameboard for a number of games (loaded as modules) and supports realtime play via a server or P2P network or play by email.
So far I’ve been using Vassal exclusively to play one game – Small World (I won’t go into the details of the game, as you can read all about it on Wikipedia). This is a game that my brother, Wulf, recently discovered IRL and thought would work for online play. While he was investigating how to make that happen, he came across Vassal and so invited me to join him in a game.
After our first 2-player game we recruited our friend Phil to join us for a 3-player game, as it seems to work better with at least 3 players (although the 2-player version is still quite enjoyable). We have now just completed our second game and are about to start on a third, as well as inviting a couple of other players (including the aforementioned Andy, who is Phil’s brother) to join us for another (as far as I can remember, 5 players is the maximum).
One of the things that makes the game enjoyable, and highly replayable, is the way that the different race/power combinations (which are selected randomly as the game progresses, although you do have the choice to skip over races in the queue (at a cost of some victory points) in order to get preferable combinations) have quite different strengths and weaknesses and invite quite different tactics to make them work at their best. The fact that the game is time limited (10 turns, at least in the 2 & 3 player versions) is also good, as it prevents individual games from dragging on for too long.
I anticipate many more good games of Small World, both using Vassal and (hopefully, one day) IRL.
PS in case you were wondering, Byd Bach is Welsh for Small World.
The other day I gave myself a treat and reread one of my favourite volumes of poetry: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. I can’t remember when I first read this and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve read it (certainly well into double figures by now) but it always gives me great pleasure to return to it. As with all good poetry, I think it works best when read aloud so that you can enjoy the sounds of the language.
I would struggle to choose my absolute favourite from among these poems, but there are several I’m particularly fond of. One of these is “The Old Gumbie Cat”. I particularly like this one because of the masterful way that Eliot uses a mixture of two different meters to signal changes in pace within the poem.
She sits and sits and sits and sits – and that’s what makes a Gumbie Cat.
In these first two lines from stanza two, the very first syllable of the first line is unstressed as are the first two of the second line (which effectively complete the final dactyl from the previous line). The combination of shorter lines (roughly twelve syllables instead of 16) and the dactylic stress pattern give a much greater sense of movement which reinforces the description of the Gumbie Cat’s nocturnal busyness.
This is a dactyl and this is a spondee; here is another.
Apart from the final foot, which is always a spondee, there is more-or-less complete flexibility about which feet are dactyls and which are spondees, which allows for quite considerable variation of the rhythm within the confines of dactylic hexameter. I’m not sure whether it’s required to have at least one dactyl in the line or whether a line consisting solely of spondees would be allowed. So far the most spondees I’ve seen in a single line of Homer is 5 (which happens as early as Iliad 1:3).
One of my favourite things about my local supermarket is that they often have cheese on sale at reduced prices to clear when it is approaching its sell-by date (when they are no longer legally allowed to sell it at any price). This means that you can often pick up interesting cheeses substantially cheaper than they would normally be and when they are getting closer to the state of optimum readiness for eating (which is usually sometime after the sell-by date, at least for things like brie).
The most recent cheese I picked up in this manner is one that I’ve had before once or twice and which, despite my initial scepticism, is a cheese I very much enjoy. Bowland is a Lancashire cheese with added raisins, apple and cinnamon. It tastes remarkably (or perhaps not that remarkable, given the ingredients) like fruitcake and, since cheese and fruitcake is a well-established pairing, it works very well.
This is a cheese I usually enjoy on its own, in fairly small quantities (I’ve managed to make my existing piece last about a week, which is quite good going for me and cheese). I did try a small amount with some cider, on the assumption that the apples in the cheese would complement the apples in the cider (and given that cheese (of the Lancashire/Cheddar variety, at least) and apple is another well-established pairing) and ought to work quite well. Unfortunately I’d overlooked the fact that Bowland is quite a sweet cheese and my homebrew cider is very much at the scrumpy end of the cider spectrum, therefore this particular pairing was not a match made in heaven (my homebrew might work quite nicely with a good mature Cheddar, while Bowland could probably be washed down with a fairly sweet cider, but they certainly don’t go well together).
It occurred to me after my last bike-related posted that I hadn’t given any updates on the previous bike situation, in which my mountain bike was down for some fairly serious repairs and I was waiting to get my old road bike back.
It took a while to get all the parts I needed to fix my bike. Eventually I gave it a new bottom bracket, crankset and rear wheel (the latter obtained from Recycle Cycle Cymru for £10 and the others purchased new), as well as replacing the gear and brake cables, brake pads and chain and giving the rear derailleur a thorough clean.
Changing both the chainrings (as part of the crankset) and the rear cogs (with the wheel) meant getting a whole new set of gear ratios, as the new components were different sizes to the old ones. In general it seems that the gearing is slightly higher now than it was (although having changed my tyres at more or less the same time makes it hard to tell as the width of the tyres also made quite a big difference – in fact since changing to thinner tyres after first drafting this post, I’m inclined to suspect that the fatter tyres had a lot more to do with the increased cycling difficulty than any change in the gear ratios). At some point I should probably try to dig out (or reconstruct) the gearing chart I once prepared for the original chainring/cog combinations and do a similar one for the new gears.
While waiting to get these repairs completed, I got my old bike, a Motobecane touring bike probably dating from the late 1970s (as the company went bust in about 1980), back from the friend I’d given it to (in whose shed it was sitting unused much as it had in mine). When I first got it back my other bike was still in pieces, so I spent an evening working on this one to get it into working order so that I could avoid walking to work the next morning. Most of that work consisted in adjusting the mudguards so they didn’t rub on the wheels. I noticed that the tyres were looking a bit perished but decided they would do at least for a few weeks.
The bike performed reasonably well on my way into work, but when I was coming home I heard some ominous squeaking sounds from the rear wheel area. On stopping to investigate I discovered that the retaining nut for the rear brake assembly was missing. I’ve no idea whether it had fallen off while I was cycling or if it was already missing, as that’s one bit of the bike I didn’t check carefully (having ascertained that the brake itself was working). I rode very carefully the rest of the way home and then took a trip (on foot) to my local hardware shop to get a replacement bolt (fortunately it’s a standard metric size) before riding again.
My next ride on that bike was on a Sunday afternoon and was designed to be a short circular route along some country lanes near my house. I say “designed to be” because my front tyre (or at least the inner tube) exploded when I was about halfway round. On inspection, it appeared that the sidewall of the outer tyre had given way, causing the inner tube to get caught between the tyre and the rim and leading to its swift, explosive demise. I did have a spare tube on me, but with the outer tyre wall so broken I had to push the bike home (probably only about a mile or so, but still a lot harder work than cycling it) and then order a new pair of tyres.
By the time my new tyres, Schwalbe Marathons like I (later) put on my mountain bike, arrived I had got the other bike working again so there was less pressure to get the road bike back on the road. When I did get round to putting the tyres on I managed to cycle about 10 yards before the new front inner tube exploded. This time, I think it was because I didn’t take due care to ensure the inner tube wasn’t trapped under the edge of the outer tyre. Naturally, that had been my only spare inner tube of a suitable size, so I then had to wait several more days to get another one.
I fitted the new tube and got the tyres both pumped up a couple of weeks back, and have taken the bike out for a couple of tentative spins down the road (mostly to the postbox and back) without the tyres blowing up. This afternoon, I made another attempt at doing my previous circular ride and was pleased to be able to get home in one piece.
I think I’ll probably stick with using the mountain bike for most purposes, not least because I find it has a somewhat more comfortable riding position. However, it’s useful to know that I have another bike I can fall back on if I need to take that one off the road for a while for maintenance. I’ll probably try to use the road bike from time to time as well, to ensure that it stays in good working order and feels loved.
I’ve been continuing to use the last.fm radio facilities for a fairly high proportion of my listening recently and it continues to turn up occasional gems.
This morning I was listening to The Be Good Tanyas artist radio, which plays music from artists deemed to be similar to this band. I’m not sure how they go about determining similarity, but in this case the stuff that’s being played seemed to fit quite well together (unlike some artist radios I’ve tried, which come up with very random mixes of supposedly similar artists).
Anyway, one of the tracks that the radio played this morning was “Mad Tom of Bedlam” by Jolie Holland. She was, I gather, one of the founding members of the Tanyas and continues to appear as a guest with them on a fairly regular basis. This particular track is an old English folk ballad (though not an Old English one!) that I first heard on a Steeleye Span album in what sounds like a fairly traditional rendition (as far as I can remember it had a different name, though it was definitely the same song). Jolie Holland has given the song a jazz twist, treating the tune quite freely and giving it a swing rhythm with drum kit accompaniment. To my ear, this is an excellent fusion of folk and jazz.
The track is from her first studio album, Escondida (which sounds a bit like a medical condition, although it’s actually Spanish for “hidden”). I had previously listened to most of the album, which is available on Spotify, but I couldn’t remember it particularly well so I had another listen to it this morning. The whole album is slightly jazz-tinged, although “Mad Tom” appears to be the most jazzy arrangement on there. It’s definitely worth a listen if you get the chance.
The other day, while I was searching for a completely different Google Chrome extension, I came across an interesting one called Language Immersion for Chrome, which had the intriguing strapline “learn a new language while you browse the web”.
It describes itself as “an experimental extension that aims to simulate the experience of being immersed in a foreign language” and is powered by Google Translate. It works by translating certain words and phrases on any webpage into the target language of your choice (any of the 60 or so supported by Google Translate), substituting the translated phrase for the original on the page (it highlights the translated bits so you can spot them more easily) . For instance, if you had la langue set to French vous pouvez see something comme this. The context of the surrounding words in a language you can speak (I’m not sure if it only works for pages in English or for other source languages) enables you to grasp the meaning and the repeated exposure helps to cement the word in your head. I think it is supposed to mimic, to some extent, the way that children naturally acquire language more-or-less by osmosis rather than sitting down to memorise long vocabulary lists.
The tool offers a couple of extra features, which are selectable as options. One is the ability to click on a highlighted/translated phrase to revert it to the original language, enabling you to check your understanding; this feature is reversible, so you can click again to get the translated version back. The other facility is the ability to hover over the phrase and hear an audio clip of it being spoken, handy if you want to work on your pronunciation. Also, the tool enables you to specify your fluency level in the target language (on a sliding scale from “novice” to “fluent”), which alters the proportion of the page to be translated and possibly also the choice of the words translated (though I assume the words are selected pretty much at random and if it can’t find a translation for a particular word or phrase it picks another one nearby and tries again; I doubt it maintains lists of approved phrases to translate for each language and level).
So far that sounds like a pretty useful tool. Unfortunately there are a couple of reasons why it didn’t work altogether smoothly and why, in consequence, I’ve removed it from my browser at least for now. It takes a while to load the translations and the audio feature only seems to be available for certain languages and can be quite slow to kick in even with those ones. There is also, of course, the problem of the inherent inaccuracy of a machine translation in the first place. I spotted plenty of mistakes when I tried the tool using Welsh (which I speak quite fluently) and French (rusty but passable) so I’m sure there are also lots of mistranslations in the other languages.
To some extent those problems may get alleviated, although probably never solved entirely (especially the machine translation issue) as the software (both the extension and the GT backend) continues to be developed. However, I don’t know whether I will use it again in any case. I’m not sure of the pedagogic value of inserting random phrases from another language into a stream of text; it may be quite handy for reviewing and extending vocabulary but doesn’t necessarily offer any great benefits over more traditional tools like flashcards, and it doesn’t show you how to actually use the words idiomatically in the target language.
I think I’m more likely to get benefit from continuing to look at websites in the languages I’m trying to learn (when available – there aren’t that many written in ancient Greek!). Google Translate can be quite a handy tool for checking understanding of specific words and phrases with this approach, especially as there are several browser extensions available that let you select some text and get a translation immediately; however, I generally prefer to try and read to get a general idea of the gist of a passage without getting too bogged down in the details of individual words. As with the language immersion extension, the surrounding text often helps you to get an understanding of an unfamiliar word, but if the surrounding text is also in the target language that gives you a much better feel of how the word fits in context.
I suppose it may be interesting to start trying to learn a more-or-less completely unfamiliar language (for which trying to read a website entirely in that language may be too much) with the immersion tool and then switch to (or at least supplement with) websites in the target language once I begin to acquire sufficient vocabulary. This might be helpful as part of an attempt to learn a language but I suspect that it would work better in conjunction with other language-learning tools than trying to use it on its own. | 2019-04-21T20:34:21Z | https://magnuscanis.wordpress.com/2012/05/ |
Witnesses: Nathan Bostock, Head of Restructuring & Risk, RBS, Eric Daniels, Former Group Chief Executive, Lloyds Banking Group, Stephen Hester, Chief Executive, RBS, and Tim Tookey, Group Finance Director, Lloyds Banking Group, gave evidence.
Chair: -y ou hope, be for e a parliamentary select committee . I am going to start with a very general question. The Bank of England made this estimate of the cost of the subsidy to the UK taxpayer, so theoretical underpinning costs, and they came to £100 billion, across the banking system, as the 2009 cost to the taxpayer. From your point of view, as two leaders of two banks, what value for money has the taxpayer got for that £100 billion underpinning and some direct investment?
Q106 Chair: So you do not accept the Bank of England figure?
Stephen Hester: No, I do not accept the Bank of England figures. I am not an economist and I am obviously not an econometrician, but research that we have seen, which I think will be published in the coming weeks, and I will provide you with a copy if and when it is, comes up with dramatically smaller figures.
Stephen Hester: I have seen figures that are less than a 10th of that amount. But my point is not that one figure or another is accurate. I would accept that there has been an implicit subsidy. One can debate the size of it; I believe it is much smaller.
Q108 Stephen Barclay: Have you published those figures that suggest it is less than a 10th?
Chair: They are publishing on Friday.
Stephen Hester: I have seen work in progress, but as soon as there is something that is finished we can certainly make it available. But the second point that I would make is that all of these figures are backward looking, however you would calculate it, and clearly one of the most important things that is under way is the reform of the banking system, such that it no longer has any implicit subsidy from taxpayers in any country, whether here or otherwise, and if one forward-projects the dramatic increases in capital for banks in liquidity and the other reforms like living wills and resolution, I believe that we will get to the place that we should be at, where there is no longer an implicit public subsidy, and we are certainly very supportive of that being the case.
Q109 Chair: The job of this Committee is to follow the taxpayer pound and to assure the public that we have had value for money for the investment of that taxpayer pound. The figure that we have been working with is £100 billion-let’s not quarrel about the figure-but whatever it is, £10 billion is still, were that correct, a fantastically substantial amount. What value has the taxpayer had out of both the implicit and explicit investment that we have made since the financial crisis?
Stephen Hester: Again, I think that there are many different ways to attack that issue. Of course there are series of direct and ongoing receipts that the taxpayer has had through fees paid to the Bank of England and to the Treasury for explicit liquidity support: fees paid on the Asset Protection Scheme, and so on. Hopefully there will be handsome returns from ownership of the shares of RBS and Lloyds, but that is obviously to be seen in the future. Over and above that you then move into broader societal issues about whether the functioning of the financial markets has a benefit to all of society or not, and I think it does.
I want to be very clear: my point is not that you can do a mathematical calculation and say, "All is fine." My point is the contrary: all is not fine, such that reform is needed, such that these implicit subsidies disappear, however you might argue about the numbers.
Eric Daniels: On the methodology that I understand was behind the £100 billion number, I would somewhat agree with Nick Macpherson who said it depends on the day that you do it.
Q110 Chair: It is a 2009 figure. For 2008, the Bank of England said it was a £10 billion implicit and explicit subsidy, total subsidy. But 2009, it was £100 billion. So they looked at calendar years.
Eric Daniels: The way in which they approached it was to look at the difference between the standalone rating and the cost associated with funds as a standalone institution versus the support rating. They took that differential and used that as the basis for the calculation. What I would say is that no bank today, or during 2009, was able to raise money at the support rating. The actual cost of funds to the bank was at the standalone rating. I think the idea that using that differential to calculate the socalled subsidy is simply not correct. I challenge the assertion.
Q111 Chair: Accepting the challenge, nevertheless we all accept that there is a substantial investment by the taxpayer in supporting the banking system during the banking crisis. Did the taxpayer get value?
Eric Daniels: I think I can only repeat what Stephen said, that the explicit support that was given-whether it was liquidity support in the form of CGS or SLS-was, in fact, at very attractive rates for the taxpayer. The investment in the equity of the banks, as Stephen said, remains to be seen, but I think we all believe that the taxpayer will get a very handsome return for that investment.
Q112 Stephen Barclay: Just sticking with the Bank of England research, that also commented that the dominant influence in the lack of lending to companies was the reduction in the supply of credits by the banks. Do you accept that finding?
Stephen Hester: That would not be the data that we have. I think that the data that is pretty consistent all around the world is that post-recessions, what happens-in the generality, of course; there are individual cases that are different-is that people try to get their borrowing under control. Savings rates go up, deleveraging happens, borrowing goes down, and so in every industrialised country around the world you saw an increase in savings rate, a paying back of borrowing as people desire to be more conservative, and I think that is by far the dominant effect on the lending.
Q113 Stephen Barclay: Absolutely, the Bank of England cited a number of factors, but within those various factors they said the dominant one was the one I cited. Given that they have access to a wider data set than you do, and they can request your data, and they can request data from the regulator, why do you think, in your opinion, the Bank of England got it wrong?
Stephen Hester: I do not think my position here is to per se criticise the Bank of England, and indeed I do not have in front of me line by line, if you like, the report that you are citing, with all its context, but all I can say to you is I believe that the dominant influence-not the only influence, but the dominant influence-in the reduction of lending has been people’s desire to borrow less in the context of an uncertain economic outlook.
Q114 Ian Swales: On this topic, Mr Hester, you talked about the implicit subsidy, based on the Chair’s first question, and you seem to be suggesting in one of your remarks that you would see, in effect, that disappearing. Now, as I understand it, one of the main factors behind that is the Government standing behind deposits in the banks, and in effect standing behind international operations as well as UK operations. When you say you see that disappearing in the future, by what mechanism do you think that is going to happen?
Stephen Hester: The mechanisms, if you like, that are under way-well advanced, in fact-can possibly be divided into two categories. The first is banks holding huge amounts more capital and liquidity reserves, quite properly-obviously I am not here to defend the past, since I have only been in post two years-and that means that the likelihood of banks needing external support once those reforms have been fully worked through, the Basel III process, dramatically falls. Then secondly, there is a huge change in what happens in the less likely circumstance that a bank nevertheless fails in the future.
What the last crisis unveiled, and I have spoken about this a number of times in advocating reform, is that it was quite hard to pass on losses, pass the shareholder to creditors, which is normally what would happen in any other company, and the state found itself jumping into the middle. There are a whole series of parts of reform around things called CoCos and things called bailins-sorry to use technical terms-resolution mechanisms, changes in legislation, living wills. There are a series of things in this category that the world’s regulators are advancing, designing and changing, such that in a future crisis not only would a bank be less likely to go under because they had more strength to start with, but there then would then be a smoother recourse to creditors, as opposed to Governments, and not the need for Government intervention.
So the combination of those, plus banks managing themselves, learning from the crisis, getting out of risk position, should get us to the position where Government support of the capital variety, is not needed. There will always be a role for central Bank liquidity support, but there should not be a role for capital support, and that is why I have always advocated that these reforms take place. I think we are going in absolutely the right direction, and as they bite that will be the result.
Q115 Ian Swales: On a specific, then: retail depositors. Do you see the Government’s scheme to support retail depositors disappearing in this new world that you are describing?
Stephen Hester: Obviously retail depositors, or the retail deposit insurance, is funded by the banks through levies. That is true here, it is true in the United States, but I cannot speak for every country. So although the Government can offer an overdraft, in the end it is the banks that pay for that scheme. My guess is that scheme will stay; you could argue for its enhancement, but it has already been enhanced. You can clearly have a debate about its size, but quite properly it is paid for by the banks.
Q116 Chair: I want to get you back to this value to the taxpayer. I want to get you back to the value. You believe you have value in the sense that you are paying for the money that we, the taxpayer, are lending you. One of the aspects of the deal, and it would be good if you could both answer this, was that we wanted to keep lending going, both mortgage lending and business lending, and both of you abysmally failed in 2009. RBS was £22 billion short on the business lending and Lloyds £8 billion short, on the figures that we have in front of us. 2010 looks a bit better, but only because we have changed the goalposts, so instead of looking at net lending we are looking at gross lending. I would have hoped one of the ways we could measure value for money for the taxpayer would have been your role in securing growth in the economy, particularly through the SME sector. Why did you fail, and in that context how do you expect us to say you have given value for money?
Eric Daniels: I think I would characterise our performances somewhat differently. I am very happy with the performance of Lloyds. We extended over £30 billion of new mortgage lending during the past year. We have helped over 50,000 first-time buyers. We have lent approximately £44 billion, I believe, to corporations and small businesses-£11 billion specifically to small businesses. We in fact exceeded our commitments to Government during this past year.
Q117 Chair: Only because the goalposts have changed. I am sorry to interrupt you on that, but when the targets were first set they were net targets-that was 2009-and you both failed abysmally in 2009, which was a key year for growth. In 2010 you are doing better, I accept that, but only because we have changed, and presumably in your negotiations with the Treasury, you are now on gross targets, which I do not think are a terribly helpful measure, but I accept that they are the measure that has been set.
Eric Daniels: I think that I would give you two responses. In the first place, we increased our net lending to businesses during the year, so this is not something where it is simply chicanery.
Q118 Chair: What is your net lending to business in 2010? I have it down as a negative.
Eric Daniels: I believe it is positive. I do not have the number to hand.
Q119 Chair: What is it? Does Mr Tookey know?
Tim Tookey: It was positive overall.
Q120 Chair: What? A billion or something? I think our advice from our officials was it was still a negative.
Q121 Chair: Can officials help?
Tim Tookey: -for SMEs for year two.
Q122 Stephen Barclay: Just whilst they are helping, can I just clarify that gross lending to a company can go up, whilst the actual money the company gets , the net lending , goes down? In other words, if I have a first loan with you worth £1 million, and that is under an existing loan agreement and I pay that back, because of the fee structure in terms of that loan, and I take a second loan from you worth £1.5 million, probably with higher fees, charged with more security, you would present that as gross lending of £1.5 million, but the actual money that I as a company would have from you would be £500,000. Do you accept that going to gross lending, which is the target for 2010/11, can give quite a misleading position as to the amount of the bank’s money that has been placed with a company?
Eric Daniels: No, I do not believe it is misleading at all. I think it is a very accurate representation of the banks’ willingness to lend. The distortion that the net lending figure causes is, as Stephen pointed out earlier, in a recovery period, when you often see demand for lending go down a great deal, and so you see a lot of repayments. Companies want to get their balance sheets in order. What we see are two factors: one is lots of repayments among midsized companies, and among big companies not only repayments but also going to the capital markets directly. So increasing gross lending in that kind of environment I think speaks very well to the banks’ willingness to lend.
Q123 Stephen Barclay: Did you not make those points to the Treasury when they set the target?
Eric Daniels: There were lengthy discussions with the Treasury when we set the targets.
Q124 Stephen Barclay: So some of those criteria would have been factored into the original target that was set?
Q125 Stephen Barclay: So you signed up to them with very little thought having been put into them?
Eric Daniels: No-if you will let me finish please. This was after a very complex negotiation on GAPs. At the 11th hour we were asked to commit to lending targets, which we did, but we also caveated those, because we were not given enough time to negotiate thoroughly. We basically agreed that it would be subject to demand-the demand had to be there-it was subject to liquidity, subject to having capital, and subject to creditworthiness. Those were the four conditions, and that was the agreement that we struck. It was not a lengthy negotiation: again, there was no time.
Q126 Stephen Barclay: I t strikes me that there are relative priorities: on the one hand, the Government are saying they want you to lend more. On the other hand, every financial services party is saying they want you build your capital base up . The Bank of England is saying they want you to repay them more quickly, and your own remuneration is saying , "L et ’ s get the share price up, because that is what the bonuses will be paid on. " W hat is unclear to me is how you assess those relative priorities , or is it your argument that you can do all four at the same time?
Eric Daniels: Is there a question there?
Q127 Stephen Barclay: There are four different priorities there. One of those, which we are just looking at, is the lending priorities, which you have missed on the commercial lending. I am trying to understand how you prioritise the lending priorities vis-à-vis what strikes me as different priorities that have been set-your own internal remuneration priority for staff, compared with some of the Government’s other objectives and the regulatory objectives, which are pushing in other directions. How do you prioritise those different issues, or are you saying that it is your expectation you will deliver all four at the same time?
Eric Daniels: I think you need look no further than last year. Last year Lloyds repaid some £60 billion of Government funding, first, increased its gross and net lending, increased its share price, working for the shareholder, and what was your fourth?
Q129 Chair: Can I get an answer on that lending issue, because my note now tells me Lloyds did have a positive-apologies for that-but RBS had a negative on the net.
Stephen Hester: Let me take up your points. I think the first point is that we should be very clear that since I have taken the helm two years ago RBS has done everything it can and continues to do to support its customers in the UK, and is, as a consequence of those efforts, not only lending very large amounts of money but substantially in excess of our national market shares, as was shown on the Merlin figures that were published last month.
But if I could shed some light on an important apparent misunderstanding, the lending commitments were legally binding commitments, and if we had failed under them we would, could and should have been sued by the Treasury. My understanding is that the Treasury concluded there were not grounds to do that; i.e. there was no breach of them. I am not surprised that there was no breach of them, because I was heavily involved in the discussions at the time, when I had just arrived, with the last Government, which was obviously concerned to ensure that the recession was not exacerbated by a lack of confidence in financing markets.
Stephen Hester: I am trying to explain, so I hope it will be helpful to you. The key concern of the Treasury and Ministers at the time was that there would be a disappearance of foreign lenders in the UK market and an artificial credit crunch as a result of the disappearance of people who were previously lending a lot of money, and that artificial withdrawal of funds would make the recession worse. That was the concern. What the intervention with Lloyds and RBS was designed to do was to give reassurance that, if the foreign banks all disappeared and if credit demand continued at a very high level, there would be adequate capacity from the domestic banks to make it. The way that the targets-at least I can speak for RBS-were calculated was on a back of the envelope assessment, on short notice, by the Government and Treasury, of the kind of figures that foreign lenders represented, what the gap in the market might be if demand did not go down and foreign lenders disappeared, and therefore what increment might be required. Therefore, we said that we would lend up to this amount if there was a demand on creditworthy terms. Now, in fact what actually happened was two things: number one, demand, as it did in every other country and as it does in every other recession, in fact fell-it did not stay at the high levels; and secondly, foreign lenders did not leave the market in anything like the quantum that was feared. Those were good things, and as a result the lending commitment was met, but was met without the full amount being required, either by borrowers or through the complete flight of foreign lenders, so that is in fact what happened.
Chair: Nick wants to come in. We are going to have a vote in two minutes. Do you want to do it before the vote or after?
Q131 Nick Smith: Very quickly: in both of your introductory remarks, Mr Daniels and Mr Hester, you talked about a handsome return for the taxpayers owning RBS and Lloyds’ shares. What is your latest estimate on what that handsome return will be?
Q132 Nick Smith: I am sorry, I cannot hear you. Can you speak up?
Eric Daniels: I do not believe anyone can call the stock market in what will happen in the future. I think all the signs are very good: Lloyds share price increased quite dramatically last year as we returned the bank to profitability. I would hope that, as we continue to enhance profitability, the share price will continue to rise.
Q133 Chair: So you agree with John Varley that there is nothing-it sounds to me as we draw this bit to a close-for you to apologise for?
Eric Daniels: I beg your pardon?
Q134 Chair: You agree with John Varley, Barclays, that there is nothing to apologise for? It sounds to me, out of all this, that you are feeling fairly confident; you feel there is nothing to apologise for.
Eric Daniels: I am not sure I can draw the connective tissue from one statement to the other, but if you ask me in general, are we remorseful, or is there a cause for concern in what happened during the banking crisis, I would say absolutely yes. We had clearly a lot of shareholders who were dependent upon our dividends. We clearly have not paid a dividend, and that is disappointing.
Q135 Chair: Taxpayer? We are here representing the taxpayer.
Eric Daniels: Again, as I stated earlier, I believe for the liquidity support that was granted, the CGS and the SLS, the banks paid at or above commercial rates, so the taxpayer did very well. In terms of the GAPs, which I understood was the primary subject of discussion today, in the case of Lloyds, we never formally entered into the programme, yet we paid £2.5 billion to the taxpayer to get out of the agreement, so I think the taxpayer did very well indeed on that.
As for the shareholding, I think I answered that question. I believe that as our share price continues to go up, and the bank continues to become increasingly profitable, the taxpayer will do very well indeed.
Q136 Nick Smith: Mr Hester, can you answer my question please, as we seem to be going through the middle of the banker’s fight back here: have you got an estimate on what the taxpayer’s "handsome return"-your phrase-will be?
Stephen Hester: Obviously we have put out details of the fees we pay, but in terms of our future share price I am afraid I am actually legally not allowed to forecast it, nor is it prudent for me to do so, so I am afraid I cannot give you a share price for the future. Of course then it is not in our hands, not just what happens to the stock market, but whether, how, when and in what manner the Treasury, through UKFI, decides to dispose of the shares, so I cannot.
Q137 Stella Creasy: Mr Daniels, can we come back to what the taxpayer can expect? When you do expect Lloyds to be paying corporation tax?
Eric Daniels: That would be a profit forecast, which I certainly cannot give you. What I would say is that Lloyds is well on its way to absorbing the accumulated losses, and nothing would please me more than having Lloyds pay corporation taxes.
Q138 Stella Creasy: So when do you expect to be profitable?
Eric Daniels: We are in fact profitable.
Q139 Stella Creasy: And yet you are able to defer that liability for corporation tax.
Chair: We are going to go do a vote, and then we will come back and pick it up. I am really sorry that it gets interrupted in this way: it always provides a difficult session. But we will get into it when we come back.
Q140 Chair: A pologies for that . We had a couple of votes, which is very disruptive, but that is how the cookie crumbles. I just want to get back to this issue of value to the taxpayer, which is our remit, which is why we are focusing on it. You have both really justified that you believe there has been proper value to taxpayer s from the fees paid in the schemes in which you have participated. I hope you have had a chance to look at the Report that formed the basis for our inquiry. Have you had that? I am assuming that that has been distributed to you. We have taken evidence on that from Treasury officials: Tom Scholar, who presumably you have dealt with a lot. In his evidence and in the Report, if you have a copy of it, both the Report and his evidence state that the fees were well below commercial prices to get the stability and confidence back into the market. Quite proper good objectives, but nevertheless below commercial charges. Let me just see what he said; this was in evidence to us: "If you look at what subsequently happened to the commercial price of providing a similar guarantee, yes it is true, as the Report says, that the commercial price remained higher for longer than people were expecting." So the price that the Government was charging was lower. If you accept that, and I see that Eric Daniels is frowning, but if you accept that, how do you still come forward and say that you think that there is proper value to the taxpayer-that we have been properly rewarded out of the Credit Guarantee Scheme, for example?
Eric Daniels: If I may, Lloyds never entered into GAPs: we simply paid to leave the agreement that we had made in March, so I think the taxpayer got a very good deal.
Q141 Chair: And what about you? You are well into it.
Stephen Hester: Of course. Forgive me, because at different points, I thought we might have been talking about value to the taxpayer from different things: obviously the Bank of England numbers, the price at which shares were subscribed, or the Credit Guarantee Scheme, but as I understand you now, you are talking very specifically about the Asset Protection Scheme.
Q142 Chair: I am now focusing on that.
Stephen Hester: Got you. With respect to the Asset Protection Scheme fees, I think truthfully there was no-and indeed is no-private-sector equivalent insurance policy that was viable at the time that would allow you to say that the fee was high or low against something that was demonstrable. So by definition it is a matter of opinion. Clearly the board of RBS recommended entry into the scheme, and as a matter of legal duty could not have done so if it felt that the scheme in the round, in all of its terms, was wrong for its shareholders-82% of whom are of course, in the circular process, the Government-and so in that sense we did not feel that the fees were inappropriate.
But what I would say is that the Asset Protection Scheme, we believed at the time we entered it, and we said so publicly, was unlikely to cost the taxpayer anything. The taxpayer, we thought, would make a profit. At every stage of reforecast, that continues to be our view. I believe it is also the view of those concerned in the Government, and that is entirely appropriate; it was an insurance policy and I think the taxpayer should make a profit out of it. I have no complaints about that, but it continues to be the case, and as I say I think the taxpayer will make a profit out of that scheme, but I cannot tell you that there was a definite market price which the fees were higher than or lower than; there was not. So it was one entered into by both parties at the time.
Q143 Chair: And the Credit Guarantee Scheme, where, if I just read from the Report-I will try not to read the lot-"the fees charged to banks under the Credit Guarantee Scheme to guarantee new wholesale debts were designed to be on a commercial basis, but not so large as to prevent banks from using it, but sufficient to provide a reasonable return … However, we estimate the benefit"-I am skipping a bit, so apologies for that-"is substantially more than £1 billion."
Stephen Hester: If you mean the benefit to the taxpayer, I do not know, but I know the taxpayer has made a big profit on it.
Q144 Chair: I think it was to the banks. That is the benefit to the banks.
Q145 Chair: It provided you with cheaper money.
Stephen Hester: -was calculated in order to represent market prices. But it is also true that that guarantee was not otherwise available from someone else, and so one can have a debate about whether the market prices were theoretical or not.
Q146 Chair: But it allowed you access to wholesale funding at a cheaper rate. Or probably wholesale funding full stop , and then wholesale funding at a cheaper rate.
Stephen Hester: No, the cost of the wholesale funding plus the guarantee cost was calculated such that it was equivalent to the notional cost that you would have otherwise borrowed without that guarantee. However-and as a consequence the taxpayer has made a profit-what I am saying is that we are dealing in notional cost, and in fact that borrowing would not have been available in those amounts, and therefore it is impossible to know the counterfactual of what you would have borrowed at actually as opposed to theoretically.
Q147 Stella Creasy: So you disagree with the Treasury, who acknowledge this subsidy and are reviewing the fees?
Stephen Hester: -I do not know whether I am disagreeing with the Treasury or not.
Q148 Stella Creasy: The Treasury recognise that they have subsidised you to the tune of a billion pounds.
Stephen Hester: I am saying to you that the Treasury has made a profit, and the value of the guarantee was set in a way that was designed to be market priced. However, there was a degree of theory as opposed to practice to that because it was impossible to test, and indeed it is entirely probable, within the market conditions of the time, the theoretical prices would not have pertained, and so that is what I am saying to you.
Q149 Stella Creasy: So there was a subsidy, then, essentially of a billion pounds? You would accept that it was not value for money for the taxpayers?
Stephen Hester: Did the taxpayer make a profit? Yes. Was it calculated in a theoretically accurate way? Yes.
Q150 Stella Creasy: Did you get a good deal?
Stephen Hester: I think that the banks needed that support. The banking system needed that support.
Stephen Hester: I think just because one side thinks it was the right thing to do does not mean to say it was the wrong thing for the other side. It could be right for both sides, and I would submit to you in this circumstance it has been right for both sides.
Q152 Stella Creasy: So you think it is right for us to subsidise the banks to the tune of a billion pounds in the Credit Guarantee Scheme.
Stephen Hester: I do not recognise that figure; what I am saying to you is I think it is right that the taxpayer has made a substantial profit out of this scheme, because the taxpayer was giving something valuable to the banks. Theoretically that was priced on an arm’s length basis. Whether in reality, and by what amount, it was not, I do not know.
Q153 Chair: I have to say that I think you have to take a very narrow view of profit, because the wider impact of the banking crisis can hardly have been a profit. Can I move back to lending, because that was where we were? I just wanted to clear up that point. You both feel that you are lending well now. I have some quarrel with the way the target has been devised. Also, I did not want to intervene too much on you, Mr Hester, but I do have some quarrel to say you did not meet the target set in 2009. Okay, nobody took action against you, but you did not meet it. Recently we have had the Engineering Employers’ Federation report, which I assume you have seen and we have too, which accepts that cash is beginning to flow, but what they have said is that about a third of their companies are finding that the costs of borrowing have increased substantially, particularly-and this is the interesting thing-in the last couple of months. The impact will be more on SMEs than it will be on others, the larger FTSE companies, who can raise it through bonds and equities. Again, going back to our remit, the taxpayer’s interest, the deal is taxpayer puts money in, and what we hope to get out is better lending to businesses, and particularly the SME sector. What is your comment on the Engineering Employers’ Federation finding?
Eric Daniels: I do not really have much to comment on; I disagree with it. The cost of borrowing for SMEs has not been this low for many years, and what we are seeing is, in fact, some increase off very low levels, which reflects the higher cost of funding for the banks. As we all know, the markets, over the past year, whether it was last May, last September or more recently in February, got quite jittery when the possibility of contagion from Greece, Spain or Portugal and so on was looming. So the cost of funding for the banks has gone up, and that is reflected in some part-not across the board, but in some part-in new lines and facilities for our customers.
Q154 Chair: Do you want to add anything?
Stephen Hester: The average cost of SME loans that RBS made last year was 3.5%, and, as Eric says, that of course, by historic standards, is extremely low. What is true is that relative to base rate there have been some changes, but if I can draw an analogy perhaps apposite to the moment, it is a bit like petrol prices going up, and the reason petrol prices have gone up is because the cost of buying oil, out of which petrol is made, has gone up. Exactly the same thing has gone on for banks: the costs relative to base rate for banks to get money has gone up, and so consequently that is passed on, even though the absolute rates are historically low.
Mrs McGuire: O n this s ubject, I would quite like to just do a very quick follow up on what has just been said.
Chris Heaton-Harris: Mine is as well.
Q155 Chris Heaton-Harris: It might even be the same thing. First of all, thank you for coming, because it is not often a group of politicians meets someone less popular than themselves, so it is really kind of you to give us that sort of charitable feel. It is really a question to you, Mr Hester. I imagine most of us around this table have had constituents and companies write to us, small businesses especially, who are having problems securing loans, and in 2009 Peter Ibbetson, who is your Small Business Chairman, said that 93% of SMEs are currently able to roll over overdrafts at RBS at the same or lower rate. I was wondering, if he measured it then, what is that measure now?
Stephen Hester: I do not have the precise percentage. I do not think it has changed a lot, but I am very happy to write to you afterwards to confirm that. But our overdraft price promise, which I think is the primary component of what was put in, remains in place.
Chris Heaton-Harris: I am happy to pass over to Anne.
Q156 Mrs McGuire: I would just like to question the 3.5% average. Obviously Mr Daniels did not give us a figure for Lloyds’ average lending to small companies. Frankly, 3.5% lending to small businesses does not chime with what we are hearing out there, and I am wondering whether or not there are other costs that need to be taken into account when small and medium enterprises are trying to access finance. I do not have permission to reveal some of the details here, but certainly the small businesses in my area did not give the impression-and it has been verified with your bank by me, through questioning the bank-that 3.5% was anything like what they had been asked to pay. Are there fees, or have the fees gone up? Have the securities that have been asked for gone up?
Stephen Hester: Clearly the figure I gave you was an average, so there will be some above and some below. You are correct to say that for some kinds of borrowing, in addition to that there can be fees associated with taking out the loan, or whatever it might be.
Q157 Mrs McGuire: Have those fees increased?
Stephen Hester: And those fees, probably on average, have increased.
Q158 Mrs McGuire: Once, twice? 50%, 100%?
Stephen Hester: I think I can say with great certainty that, even when you take account of fees, the average cost of borrowing for SMEs is amongst the lowest it has been in decades. However, it is higher relative to base rate than it was, for the reasons that I have sketched out. Another way to think about it is, if you like, are the banks profiteering? In other words, are the banks taking, somehow, an inappropriate margin out of the middle between their cost of borrowing and the others?
What I can say, again, is we publish our figures every three months on this, and if we take our Corporate Lending division, our UK division that lends to businesses of all sizes, the return on equity of that division has obviously been loss making through the recession and very low, and so is not a good advertisement for our shareholders, but has now got back to below our target, but roughly to 12%, which we think is roughly our cost of capital. So you can see no evidence either on the bottom line of profiteering, or indeed on the average for businesses. But it is certainly the case that, in the same way that petrol prices have gone up, bank input prices have gone up, and that gets passed on through different means. It has to be.
Q159 Mrs McGuire: So if I say to you that a farmer in my constituency came to me who had previously had an arrangement fee to sustain his overdraft, or to maintain his overdraft, increased from £500, I think, if my memory serves me correctly, to almost £5,000, that would not be considered profiteering? I have to say to you, one of the arguments that is constantly put to Members of Parliament is that as a taxpayer I own 83% of this bank, and people feel that those dramatic increases in arrangement fees are perhaps hiding the true costs of borrowing.
Stephen Hester: As I said, I think our numbers are very transparent, and you could look at them every three months, we publish them as to what our profits are, and what that is in each of our business lines, so you can see the aggregate. Of course, that does not tell you the answer for any particular borrower, but you can see what the average is. And again, using my petrol price analogy, petrol prices have gone up fast and a lot, but that was because oil prices went up fast and a lot, and exactly the same has happened with the cost of borrowing for banks, which in turn is, if you like, our goods that we sell to customers in the form of lending.
Q160 Mrs McGuire: But they have not gone up 10 times. An arrangement fee from £500 to £5,000 sounds to me like a tenfold increase.
Q161 Chair: Mr Daniels, do you want to add to that at all on this exchange?
Eric Daniels: That is a very complete answer.
Q162 Mr Bacon: We have heard different Members from different parts of the country. In my own constituency, which is in East Anglia, in Norfolk, I met with the Federation of Small Business on Monday morning, and the predominant theme that I was told about-it was really for them to talk to me, rather than me give them a speech-was the difficulty in accessing bank lending.
Austin Mitchell: The same here.
Mr Bacon: When I was first elected in 2001 that was not the case. I did not get business people banging on my door about that, nor in 2002, nor in 2003, and so on until the banks between them crashed the whole world in 2007/08. Obviously there have been huge problems since then-we are all trying to get out of the mess, you are all trying to get out of the mess. I do appreciate that you are being told to do things that are contradictory. I think Mr Barclay alluded to this earlier: you are being told to lend more; you are also being told to conserve your capital-your natural instinct, I suppose, is to protect your capital if you are not sure about the quality or the value of your assets-and you are also being told to strengthen your capital and improve your balances sheets, and it is very difficult to do all of these things simultaneously. In fact, some of them are obviously completely contradictory. But nonetheless it is the case that you are saying that there is a lot of lending happening, and we are all getting the message from different parts of the country that it is very difficult for business owners to access the loans that they need.
I had one example of an individual who set up a business three or four years ago. He found it easier to access money then, when he was setting it up, than he does now when it is successful, cash generative, and he wants to invest in equipment because it will help him to get leading edge, blue-chip customers and help him to grow and possibly take on more staff. Why is there this disconnect between these two world views? Mr Daniels, do you want to start perhaps?
Eric Daniels: I think that we have a couple of things to look at. One is: what is the real demand for credit? I know there are a lot of anecdotal stories, and if there is a particular member of your constituency that has an issue with Lloyds, I would very much appreciate it if you would write to, in this case, Mr Tookey, but we would be very anxious to hear about that in Lloyds. But I think if you look at the evidence it says that the actual overdraft usage or line utilisation usage-so in other words, we extend the line of credit and you can draw it down any time you wish to-is actually falling. So this is already preagreed, there is a preagreed price for it, the facility is there, but customers are not drawing down; they are drawing down less than they did before. So that says something about demand.
The other thing that I would tell you is that, if we look at the market in 2006/07, which you alluded, to when your constituent was starting up, we had an awful lot of flaky lending in the marketplace. You need look no further than Ireland or Iceland or some of the continental banks that were very much in the SME market in the UK. They were in the mortgage market. It was a lending freeforall. So covenants came down, conditions were almost nonexistent, pricing was ridiculously low: that is not an appropriate way to bank. What was happening was we were seeing an awful lot of competitors-especially not the main competitors-changing conditions and changing the market, and an awful lot of people who probably were not really terribly creditworthy, and if we had been sensible as a society we probably would not have allowed them to get into debt. It was not good for them, it was not good for the economy and it certainly was not good for the banks. But that was the frenzy that we were in. Today we have hopefully all learned lessons. We have returned to some much more traditional practices and rules around prudence.
Q163 Joseph Johnson: A question to Mr Hester and Mr Daniels please. You have both, to a greater or a lesser degree, got the dead hand of the state gripping the entrails of your respective organisations. Mr Hester, you have been quite explicit in recent weeks in identifying a certain amount of talent flight from your organisation. I would be interested to know to what extent you feel that is due to the large Government shareholding in your organisation.
Stephen Hester: This is in some ways a difficult position, because I think we need to be crystal clear that RBS would not be here today were it not for support from the state, and so while some consequences go with that, I think it would be entirely unbalanced to not start with that recognition and say, if there are some consequences, the outcome is worth the consequences. So that would be my first answer.
The second point I think is that all businesses, whether or not they are owned or partly owned by Government or by the state, I think have a duty, and it is good business practice, to try to be sensitive to the environment in which they operate, the communities that they serve, and there are sometimes tradeoffs in doing that, and I would like to think that a number of those issues would be true of us whether or not we had compromises, if you like, and whether or not we had state ownership. But in a sense there is a time for everything, and I think what I would say to you is that the time, I believe, is fast approaching when the benefit to both the state and RBS of the state privatising increases. Clearly the state can use the money in terms of budget deficit, and in terms of the symbolism of economic recovery that a privatisation would represent. In the case of RBS, there is the worry that RBS is somehow subject to different, more conflicting and more complex requirements than all of its competitors. So I think the right answer to this is not to, in a sense, bemoan the past-far from it, we have to be grateful for the past-but more to say the right way going forward, the winwin, is to advance privatisation when that is possible.
Q164 Joseph Johnson: Can I put the same question to Mr Daniels, please?
Eric Daniels: I do not believe that we have lost significant numbers of people. We have a natural attrition in Lloyds of somewhere around 10% of our people per year. We are not seeing anything really remarkably different from that.
Q165 Joseph Johnson: Great . T he follow up question to both of you is what top rate of personal income tax do you think is consistent with London maintaining and perhaps enhancing its position as one of the world’s important financial centres?
Austin Mitchell: It is an optional question.
Eric Daniels: I would not begin to know how to answer that question.
Q166 Joseph Johnson: You do not have a view?
Eric Daniels: I could not begin to answer it.
Q167 Joseph Johnson: In what sense?
Eric Daniels: I have never studied it; I do not have a basis to offer an opinion. I think it is a complex subject, and if I were to give you an answer, it would superficial at best.
Q168 Mr Bacon: How much truth do you think there is in the point-made by a parliamentary colleague of mine who used to be a swaps trader for many years-that a lot of this bonus culture is nonsense in the sense that lots of people would not leave London because they like London too much. London has too much to offer compared with virtually everywhere else. If you are out in Geneva at eight o’clock in the evening it is dead; there is nothing to do. Whereas in London there is plenty to do, everything to do, and it is one of the world’s greatest cities, and that in itself has a centripetal force that is probably more important than bonuses, and the talk that somehow you have to keep up the bonuses at the right level, otherwise everyone will suddenly up sticks and get on a plane, is overstated.
Eric Daniels: Is there a question?
Q169 Mr Bacon: Yes, the question is do you think it is correct that that is overstated?
Eric Daniels: I think that that may not be the right measure. I might ask, "How does change happen?" It rarely happens with the bank: it happens over time and it happens on the margin. What we do know is that a particular bank hired more people in Singapore last year than they did in the UK. If you look at the rise of the Dubai financial centre, again, you are seeing more and more jobs going over there. It is not the middleaged derivatives trader who has two kids in school and so on: it is the young, up-and-coming 25-, 28-year-old who is looking to build a career, and they see that their prospects are brighter elsewhere.
Q170 Mr Bacon: So you m ight not see it other than almost imperceptibly, but if you look back on it several decades later, you might suddenly realise there had been a very big change.
Q171 Jackie Doyle-Price: I am just reflecting on what you particularly said, Mr Daniels, about the fact that risk had been in the price for many years in the run-up to the banking crisis, and that is what got us into this mess, and looking also at the targets and the caveats you have placed on it in respect of demand and creditworthiness. Where that takes me is, I am reassured from a taxpayer value-for-money point of view that the taxpayer is not just going to be standing in there supporting poor credit risks. But in that sense, to what extent are those targets having any meaning at all? For you, are they targets, are they aspirations, and how confident are you that you will meet those lending targets for businesses particularly?
Eric Daniels: I am absolutely confident I will not since I am no longer in the chair.
Q172 Jackie Doyle-Price: As a sector then, how confident, looking at it-can I then conclude that they are meaningless?
Eric Daniels: I think that question might be better asked of Mr Hester, who has something to do with it.
Stephen Hester: I think that the job of maximising support for customers in the UK is one that, in any event, the banks should be doing the most on because that is their business, and I believe the banks certainly-it is true of RBS-are doing even more than perhaps in any event they would be in response to the obvious needs of society, one manifestation of which is the political dialogue and the lending commitments that are associated with that. We can see that as an example in the context of RBS’s market share, but I see that every day in our internal workings.
What, however, is unfortunately the case for those who would like a neater world is that no one can tell you today what amount of borrowing UK business can usefully use in the coming year, and we do not have a centrally planned economy, and even if we did I do not think you could answer that question. It is of course the case that an element of what is being done is to build confidence. I think this is a crucially missing bit of the dialogue: crucial to economic growth-and the UK is in trouble if we do not get economic growth-is confidence. There are lots of bits of confidence: a piece that the banks can help with is the confidence that if people have a good proposition, a bankable proposition, that money is there and people are trying to help them now. Banks have many flaws, there are many individual cases where I am sure they can do better, but I do think that we take it very seriously that it is our job to first give people confidence and second to back that up with substance where it is bankable. What we cannot do is, in a centrally planned way say, "That will definitely be amount of money x or y, and here you can have it regardless of whether you have the right proposition or not."
But this issue of confidence should not be ignored, and I do think that one of the important changes in recent months is that people have realised that looking backwards all the time and recriminating all the time and, if you like, looking on the negative side of life, is not going to help us grow. It is very important to learn from the mistakes and put them right, but in the end what we need to be doing is looking forward, trying to get growth and wealth creation, and the banks have an important role to play in the business confidence to start with, and then in the provision of support when the right propositions come along behind that, and that is what we need to do. We are doing it imperfectly; we need to try to continually perfect that.
Q173 Jackie Doyle-Price: And the continued presence of the taxpayer in the banking system is enabling you to do that, let’s be frank. One of the things you said is that you are doing more than perhaps you wanted to. What we have seen is-and you have both made this point in different ways-that many businesses have been reducing their credit exposure and turning to other sources of finance. To what extent is the taxpayer being asked to prop up the riskier side of lending?
Stephen Hester: Although you could not often tell it from public debate on the subject, I do not believe, when you sweep aside the debating points, that Government is actually asking the banks to go back and do some more reckless lending. I do believe that most people think that the banks should try to lend responsibly and support their customers in that way. In that sense I think the banks are trying to both lend responsibly-as Eric has pointed out, in some instances that means differently than in the past-whilst at the same time trying within that envelope to support their customers. Certainly when I think of the people on the ground in RBS, and again I am sure there are many individual cases where we get it wrong so I am not in any way trying to say that we are perfect, they know that they have to try and find a way to support the customer. We do not always succeed. 85% of the time, if a small business asks us for a loan, we say yes. Sometimes with us that small business has to jump through more hoops than it might have done in the past: more covenants, more financial disclosure. Because the business may be weaker, it may be suffering with the recession; standards may have changed. One way or another we are trying to keep the same flow of money going as we did before, at least in terms of your likelihood of getting a loan.
Q174 Jackie Doyle-Price: Are you pricing that risk effectively or is the taxpayer supporting that?
Stephen Hester: Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing; the banks thought they were before and they were wrong. Right now the banks are trying to price risk effectively. Whether that is indeed what we will have done will take some years to find out, when you look in the rear-view mirror and find out what actually did happen to the economy and so on and so forth. That is certainly the intent.
Q175 Chair: Mervyn King said rather worryingly in the interview he gave recently in the Telegraph, which I assume you also saw, "The search for yield goes on. Imbalances are beginning to grow again." You paint this rather rosy picture, but the Governor of the Bank of England appears not to agree.
Stephen Hester: I do not know whether this was what he was meaning, because I was not present when he made the remark-I am always nervous about interpreting from newspaper articles-but I think the point is very important to understand, and I think we do all understand: what happened to the world was as a result of a series of unsustainable economic imbalances, many of which are still out there. The banking system had a big part in that but not a sole part in that. It is incumbent upon the whole world to keep working away at economic imbalances, whether it is, in the UK, our fiscal imbalance, our balance of payments imbalance, the imbalance of household saving versus borrowing, the imbalance that was in banks’ balance sheets. There are a whole series of these things which still have not been corrected and will probably take a lot of years to correct. That is why it is so important that all of us work together to do so.
Q176 Chair: Take his comment at face value, which is the only way we can do it; it was in quotation marks so I assume that he did say it. "The search for yield goes on. Imbalances are beginning to grow again". You would challenge that, would you?
Stephen Hester: I am not going to comment on remarks that I only read about in the newspaper. I think it is wrong to do that. All I can say to you is: the problem of imbalances in the world has not been fixed. To some extent the first steps of the cure made worse imbalances, because the first steps of the cure in some countries were to increase budget deficits and other kinds of imbalance which then subsequently need to be worked down.
Q177 Chair: I do not think he is talking about Government budget deficits, he is talking about banks. If you do not want to answer it, say you do not want to answer it.
Stephen Hester: I am doing my best to answer it.
Q178 Chair: It is pretty clear to me. Mr Daniels, do you want to comment on that?
Eric Daniels: I have nothing further to add.
Chair: What does that mean? Do you think he was right? He is wrong?
Q179 Stella Creasy: Let’s turn to something else he also mentioned in the article, which is a very big debate that is happening here in Parliament and something that I think all of us look at when we look at the value for money of the decisions that were made over the last couple of years to invest in the banks. We have not solved the "too big to fail" problem. In fact, let me quote from Mervyn King directly. He said, "We've not yet solved the ‘too big to fail’ or, as I prefer to call it, the ‘too important to fail’ problem. The concept of being too important to fail should have no place in a market economy". If your banks were to collapse, the Government would have to step in to protect your customers. As we have all talked about, many of our constituents are customers of yours and to prevent there being a contagion to other banks is something that we dealt with the first time. Implicitly you are still guaranteed by the taxpayer. What needs to be done to end the "too big to fail" culture? Is it to break you up into smaller banks? If not that, what else can be done?
Eric Daniels: Think about what has happened over the past couple of years in terms of the much stiffer capital requirements; Core Tier 1 did not exist as a concept in 2008, and today all banks run with very high levels of shareholder capital, much higher than there has ever been in the past. In the case of Lloyds, we now carry 10% of Core Tier 1 and 15% overall capital. Those levels were unheard of a few short years ago. In addition to that there has been an enormous amount of work done on liquidity regimes. We all know that banks do not go bankrupt because of capital but rather because of access to liquidity. Again, an enormous amount has been done. The amount of liquidity that any bank holds today is many multiples of what they carried in the past. I think those are two important changes that should not be overlooked.
In addition to that, I think there has been a tremendous amount of re-examination of the system of regulation, of understanding some of the risks that probably were not well understood before. That gives a better safeguard to society in terms of managing those risks. The final thing that I would point out is "too big to fail" is perhaps a misnomer, or perhaps does not aid understanding. What is probably more difficult is when a bank is enormously interconnected and complex. That is what makes a resolution regime very difficult. In the case of Lloyds, for example, we are a very straightforward business. The Bank of England has basically told us that they believe we are in fact straightforward; it is easy for us to be resolved, if you will. I do not think it is a bigness issue, it is a complexity issue.
Q180 Stella Creasy: Just so I am clear Mr Daniels, you dispute the analysis of Mervyn King. Can I also check, then, whether you think there should be any concerns to us as taxpayers about the size of market share that Lloyds now has as a result of the changes over the last couple of years, that, in terms of competition for consumers, the dominance that you play within the mortgage and savings industry is not a problem? You do not see that there is a problem for us as consumers, that you are too big for the British market now.
Eric Daniels: No. I think this is a very, very highly competitive market. It is a good deal less concentrated than many other markets, for example, Canada, Australia, and France. In fact it is less concentrated. I think that every study that I have seen has said that UK consumers get very, very good outcomes in terms of pricing. What really matters is not the size or concentration, it is the contestability. What you see in the UK is a lot of discounting. You see a lot of free offers, a lot of interest free periods and so on. That is because it is such a fiercely competitive market. A zero balance transfer on a credit card is a relatively common thing because the banks fight each other for market share. That leads to very good, top quartile consumer outcomes. I do not believe that the size of Lloyds or any other UK bank impedes competition. Indeed, the OFT is charged with looking and examining whether they think the consumers are getting a worse outcome because of the size or structure of the industry.
Q181 Stella Creasy: So the Governor of the Bank of England is wrong and a 30% market share is not a problem. Mr Hester, what is your view about what the Governor of the Bank of England said?
Stephen Hester: Again, I am not going to be tempted by your invitation into a slanging match with anyone as distinguished as the Governor of the Bank of England.
Q182 Stella Creasy: I am not tempting you to a slanging match at all; I am asking your opinion. Are the British banks too big to fail?
Stephen Hester: What I would say to you is as follows. Of course, coming in to RBS as I did at its point of near failure, it was of intense professional interest to me as to what caused failure; what to do about it; using RBS as a specific example, how to make banks safe again, in addition to what parallels there were in the rest of the banking industry. It was something I have spent a great deal of time on and thought on. RBS is, I hope, an exemplar of the things we needed to put right. I believe that I have been very clear that very substantial reform was needed in the banking system.
What I have also been clear about, though, is my belief that size and shape are complete red herrings in this debate. When you look at the banks that were weakened and failed, or nearly failed, there is no pattern of size and there is no pattern of shape. In fact, the majority by far were small and simple: Bradford & Bingley, Dunfermline Building Society, Northern Rock. Think of, today, banks that are relatively weak: the Spanish Caixa and so on. Regardless of size and shape, it has been my view that the banking industry needed very substantial reform that would apply whether you are big or small, simple or complicated. As I said earlier on, but just simply to reprise it for you, the two components of that were to make each bank safer with more capital and more liquidity-Eric has spoken about that-then to put in place mechanisms that, even if despite that extra safety there was failure, you did not go to the Government for capital support, but you went through Co-Cos, bailouts, your own creditors in a resolution regime. I believe that when the current banking reform process has been completed and the international Basel Committee, on which the UK is well represented, is mid-stream, that we will indeed have achieved those goals and made banking safer for society as we should have done. That would be true whether you are a big bank or a small bank, a simple one or a complicated one.
Q183 Stephen Barclay: Firstly can I say, I agree with Mr Hester’s comment that it is important that we learn from the mistakes and look forward. Could I just pick upon something that a senior executive at Lehman Brothers said to the Fed, or was quoted as saying. He said, "We do not know what the value of our derivatives liabilities are, and frankly neither do you". Just starting with Mr Daniels, what has changed in the way you managed your derivatives liabilities? Was it right to present those in terms of a net position and is that still the case in your approach; I am talking about how you manage your counterparty risk?
Eric Daniels: I am not quite sure I grasped the question. You are asking "Have we changed the way in which we manage derivatives?"
Q184 Stephen Barclay: What I am asking is: you as a senior executive have to understand what is on your balance sheets, the assets, what we as taxpayers have invested in and the risk that is posed to them. A lot of companies, in term of their derivatives trading, were presenting that in terms of net-you understand these issues very well-for example, in terms of the position between your trades with Barclays. There is a counterparty risk if Barclays goes down and there is a difficulty in terms of how that is quantified, how that is then studied. PRIN 3 and PRIN 4 and SYSC have certain requirements in terms of how you manage your liabilities there. What I am saying is there are clearly faults in the way it was happening two or three years ago. What has changed in your approach?
Eric Daniels: I think one of the things that I should clarify before answering is that Lloyds is a commercial and a retail bank. While we will use derivatives, for example, in investment banking products, we use them only really for flow. In other words, if a manufacturer in the Midlands wants to hedge their interest rate-in other words they have a floating rate loan, and they want to lock in the rate of interest-we will sell them a derivative. Once we sell to them we have an open position. We lay that off within an investment bank. So for a very short period, what we will do is in fact have a derivatives exposure. But really the use of derivatives for us is mostly flow to serve customers. We do not use it as a trading position, a proprietary position. Do we in fact have some exposure to it? Yes, of course we do. What we do is we manage our limits very carefully, as we always have.
Q185 Stephen Barclay: If you had been here three years ago you would have said you manage your limits. That was not my question. My question was, have you changed your approach? Do you still present that from a net position, or have you changed your approach in term of counterparty risk?
Eric Daniels: Tim, I don’t know whether you have anything to add.
Tim Tookey: We report this information gross. As Eric said, we manage it very tightly and we know what our positions are and how they are valued on a daily basis. On top of that we very carefully analyse the counterparty risk that you are referring to on the asset side of all exposures, whether that is the company in the Midlands that Eric was using in his example, or indeed the third party to whom the risk would have been laid off.
Q186 Stephen Barclay: Perhaps you can help. I am a generalist; I am not an expert as you are in these matters. I just had a scan this morning of your preliminary report from a couple of weeks ago, and on page 125 it says, "The Group reduces exposure to credit risk by using master netting agreements … These do not meet the criteria under IAS 32", whatever that is. What that suggested to me was that you are presenting these in a way that does not meet international accounting standards. As I say I am not an expert, but why are you not presenting them in a way that meets international standards? Are you presenting them in the same way you would have done three years ago?
Tim Tookey: I am very happy to confirm that we do present all of our financial information in accordance with international financial reporting standards. That is the basis upon which our accounts have been done since IFRS were introduced in 2005. Our auditors report publically on the basis of preparation of the accounts, and that is indeed what they have given us.
Stephen Barclay: Sure, you go through the various legal checks before one signs those off.
Tim Tookey: It is more than that. It is actually a certificate from the external auditors who obviously owe a duty of care to shareholders to ensure that we do indeed comply with international accounting standards.
Q187 Stephen Barclay: You bring me very nicely onto the auditors; I was going to come on Mr Hester’s auditors in a moment, but it is timely. After 10 months of intensive work by the Treasury, the Accounting Officer of the Treasury had to seek a letter of direction because-it was before your time I accept-they were unable to confirm the validity of what your firm was saying in terms of the assets of the company. What does that say about the quality of the external audit work that was done?
Stephen Hester: I think that the first thing I would say is that there were lots of things RBS did not do well. Our job is to improve on those things. One of the things that it did not do that well was to have perfect books and records, computer systems and so on and so forth. There are countless amounts of millions of pounds and man hours and management effort going in to improve that alongside the many other things that we are trying to improve. That would be the first point that I would make to you.
The second point that I would make to you, in relation to the specifics that you are referring to-to which my first point also refers-is that the Asset Protection Scheme I think covered something like 3.5 million individual loans in RBS. No bank in the world, RBS or any other, ever had designed its systems to aggregate information in the particular way that was called upon by the Asset Protection Scheme and the different safeguards that a Government agency was used to getting. If I can give you a parallel, it would be a little bit like someone suddenly coming along the top of the UK Government saying, "We want to get every patient record from the NHS, every record from Work and Pensions and bring them together".
Therefore there were imperfections in the systems but, simply, systems were not designed to gather information in that particular way. I believe that even though I think RBS needed to improve and has been improving, not for this reason but in general, it remains substantively the case that there have been no instances that threaten the taxpayer as it relates to APS. There is no prospect that the taxpayer is going to be on the hook for anything under this category or otherwise in APS, as we do not expect to claim. So I think as it relates to materiality, the Treasury were quite right to sign off and nothing has come out since that suggested that that was a misjudgment.
Q188 Stephen Barclay: That is a different issue you are moving onto. First of all, Mr Tookey’s whole argument a moment ago was this was looked at by the external auditors. What that case demonstrates is a serious failure by the external auditor in all of this.
Stephen Hester: Do you want me to finish or not?
Q189 Stephen Barclay: You are suggesting it was perhaps the unreasonable request of the Treasury asking for information in a particular form that was different. Look at what Tom Scholar said when he gave evidence: "Given what we discovered about the quality of risk management and the poor systems and controls within the business, we were concerned that there might be other problems that had not come to light." He was not suggesting we were asking for information in a particularly unique format. The point is there was a regulatory duty under SYSC for you to manage your controls. You had external auditors who also were under a duty. Yet after 10 months of intensive work by the Treasury they could not rely on it. What I am trying to drive at in my question to Mr Daniels in terms of how they present their information on derivatives is, what has actually changed? What has changed in the way these are being done and in the way that these risks are being presented?
Mrs McGuire: For example, do you still have 21 different IT systems, which was one of the issues raised by the Treasury?
Stephen Hester: We still have lots of different IT systems. It will take many years for us to reduce them, and the work is ongoing to do so. If I may, I am not saying that RBS’s systems were up to scratch; I said to the contrary. What I am saying, though, is that the shortcomings that were pointed out were not of a magnitude to have led to losses to the taxpayer. Since I have come into RBS I have tried to understand whether there were things hidden in cupboards that were unknown that represented big risks and loss. Perhaps sadly, what I can say to you is that from the inside of RBS, what I discovered was really just a Technicolor version of what one could have seen from the outside. Indeed, though there were many of them, the specific shortcomings in the systems area have not led to material losses for either the taxpayer or our shareholders. The material losses, and they have been huge, came from big things, big misjudgments, big areas of concentration that were on display.
Coming to your point on derivatives, I think the management of derivatives has substantially changed and continues to change across the industry but certainly in RBS. By the way, the overwhelming majority of losses that RBS will have suffered across the cycle-and it is true of other banks-comes from bog standard lending, not from derivatives. Derivatives was a tiny fraction of where the losses arose.
Q190 Stephen Barclay: The report suggests a £1 million deterioration in three months on junk bonds.
Stephen Hester: Junk bonds are not derivatives; they are loans, they are bonds. There has been a huge amount of work on derivatives to improve the ability, which was a problem in Lehman, to offset liabilities in a legal way if you like, netting agreements. There is a huge amount of ongoing reform to clear derivatives and trade them across exchanges and through central counterparty clearing. Then there has been a huge amount of work done by all banks, certainly by RBS, to refine valuation to make more conservative reserving and to improve the risk management overall. I can certainly say to you that there has been a great deal of work. It is ongoing. It is certainly true of RBS, and it is true of the industry as it relates to management of derivatives.
Q191 Austin Mitchell: I want to move on to bonuses, which are effectively part paid by the taxpayer. I see that RBS paid out £28 million in bonuses to nine executives. We are told that this was done after exhaustive consultation with our shareholders, one of which is me. How was I consulted? How was the public consulted? How was the Government consulted on this?
Stephen Hester: There are two forms in which that took place. Every year the remuneration policy and the remuneration decisions are up for vote and all the shareholders can vote as they chose on the remuneration report. Secondly, the objectives that are set both in the remuneration report and the objectives that are set for me have been reviewed each year by UKFI on your behalf. Thirdly, prior to the payment of bonuses at RBS, the Chairwoman of our remuneration committee conducted an extensive shareholder consultation, including UKFI and our major institutional shareholders, with a big fat presentation pack going through all the aspects of bonus policy and taking into account that feedback. That is the format in which the consultation has taken place. I think it is more extensive than was the case before.
Q192. Austin Mitchell: It was given effectively by UK Financial Investments.
Stephen Hester: I cannot speak for them as to what processes they go through to decide their vote, but obviously they are the holder of the shares in RBS and Lloyds. I think they undertake that task with great thoroughness.
Q193. Austin Mitchell: Just in passing, I see from Private Eye, which is an infallible source on banking matters, that the head of UK Financial Investments is Mr Robin Budenberg who was a great giver of bonuses at UBS. He had his bonuses at UBS channelled through Jersey so he did not pay tax. Did you do that?
Q194. Austin Mitchell: But the bank has lots of subsidiaries in tax havens like Jersey.
Q195. Austin Mitchell: The taxpayer now owns lots of banks in tax havens doesn’t it?
Stephen Hester: I think the population of the Isle of Man, where we happen to be one of the larger banks, would feel a little bit resentful if you were characterising them as all there because it is a tax haven. There are real economies in places that have got low tax rates, as well as high tax rates.
Q196. Austin Mitchell: So these are just for tax avoidance purposes then.
Stephen Hester: Do people live in the Isle of Man for tax avoidance purposes? You must draw your own opinion.
Q197. Austin Mitchell: Profits made in this country, channelled through the Isle of Man , are done for tax avoidance purposes.
Stephen Hester: As I was saying, I do not believe that RBS has been the subject of particular criticism as it relates to its aggressiveness on taxation. If you can show me contrary evidence, obviously I would be very pleased to look at it. We have signed up to the tax code and I think our affairs are completely in order.
Q198. Austin Mitchell: Let me ask you about your bonus of £7.7 million, which is well beyond the dreams of your average PPE graduate when he leaves Oxford. Is it that you had produced some outstanding enormous profit for the bank or was it just that you are a greedy banker? What have you done for the £7.7 million?
Stephen Hester: I think this is a subject that is perhaps inappropriate for me to go on about for long, because I do not set my own pay. That is set by my Board of Directors and in turn voted on by shareholders, including UKFI. As you well know it is at the low end of comparable jobs in the UK and globally, albeit at the high end of society if you want to put it in those terms. One can have a philosophical discussion about pay differential.
Q199. Austin Mitchell: The taxpayers wants to know why we are paying, we are contributing, to giving you £7.7 million.
Stephen Hester: Your job as a politician is to have that philosophical discussion. What I am charged with doing is to try to run a large bank, on which many customers depend, in which the taxpayer has a great deal of financial exposure, to the best of my own and my colleagues’ abilities. It is in the hands of others how they want to pay me for that. It is in my hands whether I want to do the job for that. I think by the standards of each profession, which is in the end how these things are measured, the governance process is gone through in a very thorough way. As I say, I am not going for a second to engage you in the philosophical discussion about pay levels in society. Fortunately that is not what I am charged with doing. I have to protect your investment.
Q200. Stella Creasy: You do not have to accept bonuses though do you?
Stephen Hester: No, you do not have to accept your salary either.
Q201. Stella Creasy: A bonus is a different thing. Mr Daniels, have you accepted your bonus?
Eric Daniels: No I did not.
Q202. Austin Mitchell: That is a feeble comeback: that we do not have to accept our salary. £7.7 million is huge and the taxpayer is contributing to it, effectively.
Stephen Hester: No one is forced to employ me.
Q203. Austin Mitchell: Do you see these bonuses as an incentive to take risks at different levels in the banking industry? The bigger the risk you take, the bigger the bonus you collect.
Stephen Hester: I think that it is extremely important that the incentives that go in any industry, but in this case in the bank industry, have been reformed. There has been very comprehensive reform. In fact, RBS has been amongst the leaders in doing that both in terms of alignment of incentives and their measurement, and the ability to claw them back if the incentives retrospectively are seen to go wrong. The UK today has, in those regards, the toughest regime in the world. I think RBS is at the forefront of that process. I do believe the issue of risk and misalignment of incentive has been very comprehensively addressed. What is clear is that there are parts of the banking industry which remain highly paid, and of course it is clear that that is a matter of controversy depending on where you look. Fortunately, that is not what I am charged with. What I am charged with is trying to run this bank as well as I can by the standards of its environment.
Chair: I am going to stop that conversation because it can go on. I think others will have probably said it to you Mr Hester and to you Mr Daniels, but it is just very difficult in the situation. We come in, again defending the taxpayer. Our interest is not as the Treasury Select Committee. We are just here saying: did we get value for money from the money that was put in? I think, in the same way as we as MPs have had to understand the impact out there of some abuses of the allowance system by some Members of Parliament, you have to understand that the people are suffering from a credit crunch, which they feel you in large part caused; to then see large bonuses is a bridge too far. I think a sensitivity to that in whether or not you accept your bonuses is all we ask for; especially when we are in a position where the taxpayer continues at this point to prop you up, hopefully not for too long, but we do. I think it would just be nice to get a feel from some of the people that have benefitted from the bonus system that they understand that and respond to it, in the same way that we have had to respond as MPs to criticism of us. I think it is a very simple issue.
Q204. Ian Swales: I would think it is very likely we will be voting down our own £1,000 pay rise on Monday as MPs. I do not know what people are doing around the table, but that is the discussion we will be having on Monday. My real question is, hopefully you have given us a lot of comfort in a way that things are secure and we are never going back to the days of two years ago. If we did, I think there is an element of saying: to what extent the UK taxpayer stood behind international operations of banks, to what extent that was justifiable and whether that should happen in the future. One of our colleagues who is not here was talking about breaking up the banks geographically which I think is clearly not the type of thing we should be asking industry to do. But the UK taxpayer, explicitly or implicitly, aids the banks, stands behind risk, possibly less so now and hopefully even less in the future. Should we get into that situation again, to what extent should the UK taxpayer be backing a huge international bank?
Stephen Hester: I think that firstly, hopefully the UK taxpayer will make a profit not a loss from its support; in the event, it looks like that is going to happen. Secondly, I think one of the very positive things that came out of the negative of the world financial crisis is that the world did not turn in on itself and that protectionism in all its forms did not take over. The world realised that the future still lies in a small world where we trade with each other and where we exchange all sorts of goods, services, cultures and so on. That is particularly true in Britain because we are one of the world’s most open economies with the most to lose, of any economy, from a world that turned on itself, became completely nationalistic and pulled up the drawbridges. I would say to you, in my own view, with financial services, which is a huge part of the UK economy anyway, as with the whole of the UK economy, that it behoves us to encourage a global system in which all of us play a role. I think that was what happened in the aftermath of the financial crisis on all levels and it was the right thing to do.
Q205. Ian Swales: If we had got it wrong and one of these large banks had actually crashed and burnt somehow after the taxpayer had stood behind it or rescued it-UK taxpayer money went in the direction of the Icelandic banks in effect for UK depositors. I know we have got corporate bails and so on, about foreign subsidiaries and we know some of the severe losses of some of your competitors over the Atlantic. I understand your point about global competition and the importance of financial services to the UK. But as the Chair keeps saying, we are here for the taxpayer. To what extent should their money be used for activities that take place overseas?
Stephen Hester: The taxpayer should not. The whole point of the reform of the banking system is to make sure the taxpayer here, or in any other country, does not. I am a fierce advocate of the reforms that are in process, not complete, to do that. To my mind, the right answer is to ensure that the global financial system is reformed such that this is not an issue. The wrong answer is for countries to draw up their own drawbridges and isolate themselves from the world, whether in financial services or any other form of global trade.
Q206. Ian Swales: That is one test we should be applying to the new banking world, that is the sort of area we have just been talking about then.
Q207. Chris Heaton-Harris: In a way I look at you and I see a bit of John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, except John Galt was never really supported by the taxpayer. Can you see the point in time when RBS is a huge success again in the future? Is it within grasp even though it may take a number of years? Secondly, and just going back to a previous question, you said that there was a risk of misalignment of incentive within the system. Do you think it is right that the shareholder dividends were cut by up to 90% but staff payouts have been barely changed?
Stephen Hester: Clearly we are putting in every effort that we can to make RBS a success again. We have set out a plan which we believe will do that. Two years into what I thought was roughly a five year process we are on or ahead of that plan by its different matrices. I believe that so far we have reason to be encouraged. That success needs to be measured in simple terms across three dimensions. As I see it, we have three simple roles although there is a great deal of complexity beneath them. Part of it is to make the bank safe for all constituencies; part of it is to continue to serve our 40 million customers; and part of it is to get some of the shareholder value back which of course is substantially about taxpayer value. Across those three matrices I think that we have made good progress in two years, but we have a few more years of hard work to go before we can say that the job is done, if you can ever say that the job is done. Nevertheless, I think so far so good is the right way to answer that question.
Q208. Chris Heaton-Harris: What about the shareholder dividends cut by 90% but staff payments remaining roughly the same?
Stephen Hester: We are not allowed to pay a dividend, even if we wanted to, by the European Union. That is a choice that is currently outside our control. Obviously we will review it once that has been lifted in the context of whether it is prudent to do so or not.
Q209. Nick Smith: You mentioned Project Merlin and your commitments there. Mr Hester, you have already talked about committing to HMRC’s new code of practice on taxation, not just complying with the letter but also the spirit of the law. Are you confident that all your highly paid directors are not getting paid overseas to avoid paying their tax to us?
Stephen Hester: I believe that to be the case, yes.
Q210. Nick Smith: Is that the same for Lloyds?
Q211. Stephen Barclay: Just on remuneration, again I think we are asking you to face both ways. We want you to retain your talent, we want you to return the company to profit and get the share price up so that we get our money back at the same time as we are asking you not to pay staff too much. There is an obvious inherent tension there. Can I just ask quickly, in terms of derivatives, does either bank sell derivatives to retail customers?
Eric Daniels: Not that I know of.
Stephen Hester: Not in a direct sense, although in an indirect sense I could give you an example.
Q212. Stephen Barclay: Perhaps you could write a note on it to clarify.
Stephen Hester: 25% of all farmers in the UK take out derivative products to hedge their farm payments in foreign exchange terms against Europe. A number of people take out investment products where returns are linked to the stock market, but have a protection if the stock market goes down.
Q213. Stephen Barclay: I was thinking of things like complex interest rate swaps, and whether retail customers understand interest rate swaps if you are selling those to retail customers.
Stephen Hester: I am happy to write to you about the answer that I have given.
Q214. Mrs McGuire: Over the last two years there has been a great deal of public and private anguish in relation to the banks both at a personal level and at a corporate level. The taxpayer has invested an enormous amount of money. Dare I say it, some politicians have invested a great deal of their own credibility in looking to how we can support the banks through this. Yet when I look at the wider market, I still see share prices for both Lloyds and RBS at a level way below what one would expect for banks that are appearing to be successful. Why has the market not responded in a more generous way to some of the efforts that you have made over the last two years and some of the massive investment, and indeed insurance policy, that the British taxpayer has given you?
Stephen Hester: I will have a little crack with RBS. I am afraid it is a glass half full/glass half empty answer. When we announced the situation that we faced after the financial crisis in January 2009, or in the middle of the financial crisis, our share price went to 9 pence per share. After the end of the first year, i.e. at the end of 2009, in round numbers it had gone to 30 pence, so it had tripled. At the end of this last year it had gone to about 40 pence, so it had gone up about another third. On the one hand I think the stock market has indeed measured progress back from the brink. On the other hand it is true that there are many issues still ahead of us. Going back to the answer that I gave earlier, RBS still has more risks in places than it should have. We are still an unfinished work of progress, and so I think the stock market is recognising that-which is specifically about RBS-as well as generally worrying about things that impact all banks like things happening in the Middle East, the eurozone, the path of the economy and the uncertainties over regulation. There is a combination of industrywide things that are a restraint on share prices and RBS specific things, which is why, while we have made very good progress from a starting point, we are still very much a work in progress.
Q215. Mrs McGuire: Do you have a comment about Lloyds’ position given again the taxpayers’ investment?
Eric Daniels: I thought that was a very complete answer.
Q216. Chair: One final question Mr Daniels. You retired a couple of weeks back and I would just be interested in any observations that you have got, from that position, to leave with us from your experience of living through the banking crisis that would benefit the taxpayer over time. This is the final thing.
Eric Daniels: I think so much has been written I am not sure I could really add to the body of knowledge. I think it was Stephen that said before that we saw huge global imbalances, whether it was in the US where we saw a huge increase in money supply, whether it was the lowering of credit standards and covenants in virtually every country. I think that the world wanted to see continued growth and we were willing to take more risk, consciously or unconsciously, to continue that growth. What happens of course is when you have those kind of imbalances you create asset bubbles. Throughout history you see asset bubbles, and when the bubbles burst it is very painful indeed.
Hopefully we will learn from that. We will have seen much different capital levels, much different liquidity levels with the Basel reforms. I think what is also terribly important is that we recognise that if we continue to run the macroeconomic imbalances we will inevitably have bubbles and we will inevitably have another crisis. It may not be a banking crisis. We saw property prices boom in the US in the early 1990s and then we saw the LBO, leveraged buyout, crises and so on. Booms can manifest themselves across a variety of assets; the dotcom boom would be another example. What we have to do is be very careful in terms of our macroeconomic policy, and we have to address the issues with very specific changes in regulations, which I think is well under way.
I do not think I can add too terribly much further than that. I am very hopeful that as a society we can have a very thorough debate about the role that banks play, we can have a very thorough examination of the causes for the banking crisis. Then at some point I think we need to move on and try and advance the economy, and try and advance society. I think that we do need to examine carefully what has happened over the past years, but at some point we should turn our attention to growing again and making this a more prosperous country.
Q217. Austin Mitchell: Do you regret that you were bullied into taking over the Halifax and the extra strain that that imposed on the bank?
Eric Daniels: I understand there is a wide range of opinion about it. I have always been steadfast in maintaining that I think this will be a very good deal for our shareholders. There has undoubtedly been short-term pain, but I believe if we look at the results of the past year, if we look at how quickly our impairments are coming down, and how quickly the Lloyds Banking Group has returned to health, this will be a very good deal for shareholders.
Chair: Thank you very much indeed. Thank you to both of you, and I am sorry that we kept you waiting in the middle with our voting. Thank you. | 2019-04-24T18:36:05Z | https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmpubacc/c785-ii/c78501.htm |
.,... More Than 20,000 Cast Ballots During c en w ..... Earlv Voting Period BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor The first of an n-day Early Voting period began on Monday, July 30th, in Hills borough County. During that period, which ended on Sat urday, August nth, 20,197 registered voters cast at the designated Early Voting sites. The Jimmie B. Keel U brary drew the largest num ber of voters and the lowest turnout took place at the North Tampa Public Ubrary. The votes totaled at each location are as follows: Fred B. Karl County Center, 795; Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center, 1,091; Bloomingdale Library, 2,641; and C. Blythe C Andrews Library, 1,129. fE Other libraries where votes were cast include Jan Platt Library, 2,315; Jimmie B. Keel Library, 2,781; and New Tampa Library, 1,039; North c z c( c en w ..... it w > w Tampa Library, 565; Bruton Memorial Library, in Plant City, 1,435; Riverview Branch.Library,894;and SouthShore Library, 1,453 Registered voters also cast ballots at Temple Ter race Library, 1,503; Town N' Country Library, 974; Upper Tampa Bay Library, 944; and West Tampa Library, 638 The largest number of people cast ballots, 2,708 votes, took place on August nth, the last day of voting. The lowest number of votes cast took place on the first day of Early Voting with 1,256 ballots case on July 30th. Registered v oters who did not participate during the Early Voting period can cast ballots during the Primary Election on Tuesday, August 14th when the winner of some o f the local elections are expected to be deter mined. c w :::1: en :::i m Q. z tu ..J ..J m ..J w z FREE Professional Service The Florida Law States That You May Be Entitled To $1 0,000 For Loss Wages And Medical Care ... (PIP lllMIICe Needed) !z Service w Support and Help from the : beginning to the end. Spinal Injuries o Neck Pain Back Pain it Hip Pain Leg Pain Transportation Available Auto Repair Body Shop Specializing In: Car Accidents Pedestrian Incidents Motorcycle &,...;;tf6n+c! Truck Accidents Slip and Falls Bicycle Bus And More ... "Don't be victimized twice for an accident that wasn't your fault" Call Michelle B. Patty Local: 813-495-3702 Toll Free 1-866-352-4200 Go To You Tube and punch The Patty Shuffle CJ Avalable 24 Hours A /7 Days A Week ....... .. Hearing Set For Dual Election law svstem Last year, Elections laws for the majority of Florida residents changed. However, resi dents in the 5 counties covered by the Voting Rights Act are challenging the state's dual election systems. Last year, Republican Governor Rick Scott signed a law that changed voting rules. Two sections of the 20n law being chal lenged: the number of days allowed for Early Voting; and the section that requires that will force voters who change out of the county ad. dresses on Election Day to cast provisional ballots. Democratic State Senator Arthenia Local Joyner, theACLU and the National Council ofla Raza challenged the new law stating that the state violated rule-making requirements b y telling Supervisors of Elections in 62 coun ties to follow the new law. The other five counties, including Hillsborough County, are covered under the Voting Rights Act and must have approval from the Justice Department. Under the Voting Rights Act, the Depart ment of Justice has approved 77 other areas of the new law. Administrative Law Judge Thomas Crapps will hear the argument and issue a ruling on August 24th. Three Students Chosen As THA ScholarshiP Recipients ... Tampa Bay Technical High School Graduate BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor On Friday, three recent high school graduates will be honored during an awards luncheon. The Tampa Hous ing Authority is honoring the graduates as part of its Hous ing Heroes Scholarship Pro gram. The luncheon will take place Friday, at the Double Tree Hotel, 4500 W. Cypress Street, beginning at n a.m. The event will open with a silent auction. The theme for the lunch eon this year is "Achieve ment Results From Work Realizing Ambition." Adam Ant will per form at the event. Traditionally, the Tampa Housing Authority has se lected students who reside in public housing to receive the scholarships This year, dur ing their 12th Annual Schol arship Program, the organization has selected three students who reside in Hillsborough County. Ms. Courtni Jenkins is a 20n graduate of Howard .. Blake School of the Arts Graduate W. Blake High School. She will attend Hillsborough Community College. James Elisaint and Derrell Thompson are both graduates of Tampa Bay Technical High School. James will attend Florida International University in Miami. Derrell will attend West Florida University. All three are recipients of the Dr. Mar garet Fisher Housing Heroes Scholarship Awards. Jerome Ryans, Presi dent and CEO of the Tampa Housing Authority said, "We believe that assisting y oung people in our community will essentially provide a divi dend that will ultimately help the next generation of young men and women. It is our re sponsibility to make sure that scholarship opportunities like this one continue to flourish and expand. Ms. Lillian Stringer, Director of Public Relations for the Tampa Housing Au thority said, "It has been my desire to help those who have a passion for higher educa tion, but sometimes lack the ... Tampa Bay Technical High School Graduate financial and tangible sub stance to help get there. I was that young person that didn't think college was for some one like me until a teacher identified my potential and lit a fire under me that was not ever put out. Since the inception of the program, 45 students have received scholarships for a total of $90,000. In addition to the monetary award, each recipient receives a set oflug gage and a laptop with a car rying case. The Housing Authority has set a goal of raising $50,000 through ticket sales and the silent auction to sup port the scholarship pro gram.
N Local -0 N Neighborhood -1-en ::) (!J leader Anends ::) c( c Maior Conference en w ::) 1-BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer Eastern Heights Neigh borhood Association and Crime Watch President, Sam Mobley, was the only repre sentative from Tampa to at. tend a big conference in Pensacola. From July 12, through the 14th, the Florida Neighbor hood Conference was held, with Florida Neighborhood Association Leader, Susan Ajoc, as the guest speaker. Mr. Mobley said repre sentatives from neighbor hood associations were able >to address major concerns in their community. a: "We talked about gang viLL olence, and how they are identified, said Mr. Mob c( ley. >-"We talked about the crime rate and what kind of ffi crimes are being committed ::) that are associated with gang 1-activity Mr. Mobley said drugs continue to be a problem in w the Eastern Heights area, and C he thinks law enforcement is doing a great job in respond ing to the concerns of resi dents in the area. ::) "I'm determined to get drugs out of my community. ..J City of Tampa Community liaison, Shannon Edge, and Sam Mobley stand with plaques given to them at the convention. This kind of activity affects property values and keeps nice families from moving in. I have rental property I haven't been able to find a tenant for in more than 10 years. The problem is the drug activity is being condoned by older adults or parents of the actual drug dealers. It seems they look out for each other." Mr. Mobley said he will continue to attend meetings with other groups, including the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership, with hopes of finding a solu tion to the problems in East ern Heights. ..J ::) m ..J w Revival! Revivalf z ;::: z w en c( c a: 0 ..J LL MT. TABOR M.B. CHURCH 2606 Grace Street Tampa, FL Pastor T.D. Leonard PL N US FOR OUR ANNUAL REVIVAL WORSHIP SERVICES! August 13-17, 2012 Preaching Week -7 p.m. Theme: "The l..ocal Church Needs To Return To Her First Love" Revelation 2:4 Evangelist: D. Sampso Paslor of Friendship Missionary Houston, TX Treasurer of the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. Dr. Stephen Thurston, President Revival! Revivalf Olvmoic Gold Medalist Calls lutz Home In London, England be fore the final of the women s 4X100 meter relay race began, Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, and Carmelita Jeter made a promise that they would come out on top. The American women had been shut out of gold medals in 100 and 200 meter races, finishing behind the strong Jamaican women. But, it was not to be for the relay final. TIANNA MADISON From left to right: Carmelita Jeter, Bianca Knight, Tianna Madison, and Allyson Felix. Madison ran the open ing leg of the relay, handing the baton over to 200 meter gold medalist, Allyson Felix. Felix then handed the baton to Bianca Knight, who handed it 100 meter bronze medalist, Carmelita Jeter. When Jeter crossed the finish line, she automatically started pointing to the board that showed they had just set a new world record of 40.82. Madison is a native of Elyria, Ohio, but now calls Lutz, Florida home. She was greeted at Tampa Interna tional Airport by a large crowd who gave her hugs and kisses, and congratulated her. Middleton Head Football Coach Wants Students To learn School's Historv G. S. Middleton Head Footb _all Coach, Alonzo Ashwood, said he grew up listen ing to stories about the history of Middleton High School, and H. W. Blake High School. I've met with Pastor Ron Ellis (Exalted World Ministries), who graduated from Tampa Bay Vo-Tech but considers himself a member of the Class of 1971, and we talked extensively about the pride students had during that era. We also talked about life, spirituality, and how to change the culture at Middle ton. "Few people know that from 1934 until1956, Middle ton was the only high school Blacks could attend. When Blake came along, we had two, but that was it Coach Ashwood said what's needed now is the com munity support that existed On behalf of B.A.M. and Exalted World Ministries, Pastor Ron Ellis Oeft) presents Middleton Head Football Coach, Alonzo Ashwood, with a check for $500 for the football team during the school's era of greatness, prior to 1971. "I think we have to attack the mindset of our young peo ple, and talk to them about the history of both Blake and Mid dleton. We have to instill in them the same pride that was responsible for the success of hundreds of graduates from REVIVAL REVIVAL REVIVAL !!! IEITESIIIEIIIl CIIRCI U53IIIWI RUI liiiiTISISSI, R 33592 11131 98&-am PASTOR HENRY M. COCHRAN. JR. THE GREATER NEW COVER.VAN'T CHURCH SUMMERVILLE. SOUTH CAROLINA COME HEAR GOD' S MAN PREACHING AND TEACHING GOD'S WORD EVERYONE INVITED COME AND EXPERIENCE A SPIRITUAL REVIVAL! both schools." Pastor Ellis explained that an inadvertent result of the 1970-1971 Desegregation Plan was the separation of the students within the same com munity. "We lost the family iden tity. We also have to under stand that it will never be like it was then. Today we have kids living in the same com munity who don t know each other. "Through it all we made it though, and I'm proud to be in a position to help empower as many young people as I can." Pastor Ellis founded an organization called B.A.M. (Believe, Achieve, Maximize), and that made it possible for him to reach out to the players at Armwood during their first championship run. ""Today, I'm stretching out further to other schools. I'm going to start doing it at Mid dleton, and I'm committed to helping Coach Ashwood. Coach Ashwood said he hopes to get more former Tigers to join the Tiger Club and help bring back the pride and spirit. "I've been somewhat suc cessful in reaching out to a lot of the former Tigers from the 1970s and earlier It's impor tant for us to come together and so something great for the school, and help these kids get to college. Our principal, Owen Young, has done a great job and I credit his open-door pol icy for making the students feel more comfortable. Reporter Leon B. Crews can be reached at (813) 248-0724, or emailed at [email protected].
0 Loca Painful Disease Hasn1 Stopped This woman's Mission >;' C( 0 en w :::::> 1-BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel StaffWriter Ronnie Terry can' t remember a time in her life when she wasn t involved in entertainment. With Roberta Flack as her god mother she wa s exposed to a lot of the industry from the inside and out. Aft e r giving birthday to h e r son in 2006, Mrs. Terry was diagnosed with fibromyalgi a a common syn drome in wh ic h a person has long-term, body-wide pain and tenderness in the joints muscl e s tendons and othe r soft tissues The dise a s e has also b ee n linked to RONNIE TERRY fatigue, sleep p roblems, headache s, d e pression and anx iety. I was pregn ant and living in Las Vega s, and had to put REPUBLIC PHAR 1304 E Busch Blvd, suite B Tampa, FL 3361 Ph:813-933-3439Fax:813 -402-0426 Your community pharmacy We accept most insurances including Medicare and Medicaid Prevention & Education Extractions Crowns & Bridges Dentures Partials Root Canal Therapy Repair & Relines *Gold Crown (Real) Available *Patient Relaxation The 6th Annual "Day of Pampering" Saturday, October 20, 2012 8:00 a .m.-2.-GO p.m. Unlwl'llty Area ConnunHy Center (UACC) 14013 N 22nd Stn8t, T-.a, FL 33&12 FREE ADMISSION Registration Required Free Test Screenings-Cholesterol, Glucose, Blood Pnssure and Respiratory Referrals f8r *Pap Tests and *lla1111110grams (Rw to thole who qualifY) Space Ia Limited. Call813-307 8082 Hosted By: Available Workshops: cancer Prevention & Ear1y Detection Healthy Ufestyles & Nutrition (!l A POWER Sunlvorshl p Resources = Overcoming Stress my career on hold to be a stay home parent. When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, it wa s blamed on some kind of trauma I'd suffered. The docto r s said it was a result of having my first child, but I believe it was from a 1995 car acci den t." Mrs. Terry said she 's had a long 5 years bringing attention to the disease, and how devastating it can be. Ronnie Terry i s a beau tiful dynamic former entertainment publicist turned model/ actress/ dancer /host, spokesperson On November 4th, she will be part of a cast coming to Tampa t o perfor m in the Carlos Davis written stage production, Holding On To What You N e uer Had. The play i s being promote d by Too Smooth En t ertainment, and will be at the Straz Center. Mrs. Terry said she s still being treated for fibromyal gia and she fights it all the time. "My husband and I decided to move to Atlanta so I could be closer to my family. Now I can deal with the dis ease. I was in a depression for a long time with the pain and I would have just given up if it weren't for niy son. acting and mod eling for about a year, and I'm looking forward to com ing to Tampa to appear with m y husband in the play. Mrs. Terry said she' s very excit e d about thi s pro duction, becaus e thi s is her fir s t l e ad i ng role. "Too Smooth and I have t alke d e xtensiv el y, and I didn t know at first I was the lead character. I found out what the play was about when I talked to him. I will be challenged in this role, and I enjoy working with my husband." Mrs. Terry said the play has a surmised ending and everyone will be shocked. Father And Daughter Share Common Goal VIcrORIA AND NAPOLEAN WRIGHT BY JULIA JACKSON Napolean Wright is we ll known for managing clubs and promoting in the Tampa community. H e i s also an aspiring actor, who started making films in the 1970s. He worked with celebrities like Ice-T and Bernie Mac. Following in his footsteps is his daughter, Victoria Wright, also known as Janu. She is an artist, songwriter, actress and starred in a film called "Sunshine." 'Janu' is currently work ing on a movie while attending modeling school and plans to graduate in RNC Octob er. Sh e g r a du a t e d fr o m Gary Adult S chool, attended Hillsboroug h Com munity Colle g e and h a s CD Speciali s t certification from Leary Tech 'Janu' enjoys working with children but her pas sion is acting and modeling. For more than 12 years she has made her mark in the rap industry. She has a thirst for acting and is doing all she can to pursue that interest. Her acting instructor, Mary Ann has given her much inspiration and she believes that with God on her side she can accom plish anything. Town Hall Meetings Focus On Convention Mayor Bob Buckhorn will host town hall meetings on three consecutive days this week. The topic of discussion will be the Republican National Convention. The three meetings will take place in different areas of the city. All of the meetings will begin at 6 p.m. and end at 8 p.m. All of the meetings are free and open to the public. On Tuesday, August 14th the meeting will take place at the Florida Aquarium in the Taylor Great Room, 7 01 Channels i d e Driv e On Tuesday, Augu s t 1 5 t h, Mayor Buckhorn will host ihe m eeting at St e t son University, in the S mith Court Room, 1700 N Tampa Street MAYOR BOB BUCKHORN On W ednes d ay, Augu s t 16th, the meeti n g w ill be h eld a t the Kate Jac k son Comm u nity Center, 821 S. R o m e Avenu e. T h e C i t y of Tampa w ill host t h e Republican Nationa l C o n ve n tio n from A u g u s t 27th throu g h A u g u s t 30, 2 012.
w Organization Hosts First Fashion Show SirPass Events recently hosted their First Fashion Show, using the theme "Ambitious Elements of Style." The fashion show took place at the University of South Florida Embassy Suites. The event created excitement in the fashion industry. The organizers said, "We are combining various elements in the fashion world that are represented by the most ambitious entities to bring about a sophisticated and excitement filled event." (Photography.by Toby Scott, of Chow and Scott Keepsakes). "JS The Best" and DJ Dubble Up were ready to make sure everyone had a great time. ShaQueena Cole and Mataya Redding displayed some off their new products. CJ Brian Ross, Yoharis Valentin, Johana Eubanks, Jonquetta Williams, Suli Massa and Tiffany Torres, of"Hands 2 Hair By J" provided the finishing touches to the already lovely models. Sneaker And Fashion Show Held At MOSI Members of the Bay Area Society hosted the largest sneaker and fashion show in Florida. The event was held at the Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI). The show was a sneaker wonderland for those who prefer this type of footwear. (Photography by Toby Scott of Chow and Scott Keepsakes). Justin, Joerod, and Jency showed off some of their custom made shoes to those in attendance. Christine and Carmen, of Se7en District, talked about the new line of products the company is offering this year. Steven Charboniel and Lennon Velazquez are excited about all the "Sneaker Heads" that came out to showtheir style.
Bolt leads Jamaica To Olvmpic Gold In 4x1DO Relav Jamaica's Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt celebrate as they receive their gold medals after winning the men's 4XlOO-meter relay. c LONDON -Usain Bolt finally delivered what he had denied fans with his previous two victories at the London Games -a world a: record. I.L. The crowds packing the main stadium on Saturday < night erupted in wild cheers as Bolt took the baton from C Yohan Blake and ran m across the finish line to help i= Jamaica to victory in a > record 36.84 seconds in the a: 4x1oo-meter relay. He added that gold to the ones W he earned in the 100 and c w :I: 200. The United States got the silver in 37.04, matching the old record that Bolt helped set at last year's world championships. Trinidad & Tobago took the bronze in 38.12 after Canada, which was third across the line, was disqualified for running outside its lane. Bolt's latest victory makes him the first person to win golds in the 100 and 200 meters and the 4X100meter relay at consecutive Olympic games en m ;::) 0.. z i= w ..J ..J ;::) m American Wins Gold,. First Women's Boxing Medal Middleweight Claressa Shields defeated Russia's Nadezda Torlopova. American Claressa Shields, a 17-year-old with a megawatt smile, won gold in the 75-kilogram competition with a show of raw strength and aggression against her older Russian rival, Nadezda Torlopova, 33. It was a win for youth and speed over strength and experience Shields broke away from Torlopova in the second of four rounds by being faster on her feet. That approach frustrated Torlopova in the ring. By the third round, Shields had a five-point lead over Torlopova, and never looked back. Shields overwhelmed the Russian for a final score of 19-12. lSU'sDBOH Team For Violating Rules TYRANN MATHIEU Heisnian Tro ph y finalist Tyrann Mathieu was kicked off LSU s football team Friday for breaking an athletic department rule. The junior defensive back nicknamed Honey Badger for his tenacious style, small stature (5-foor-9, 175 pounds) and blonde streak of hair rose from obscurity to become one of college football's biggest stars last season He was a sleeper Reisman candidate as the Tigers won the Southeastern Conference championship and reached the BCS title game. But almost as quickly as Mathieu rose to fame and became the face of LSU football, the Honey Badger phenomenon ended in Death Valley. Athletic Director Joe Alleva said Mathieu, who was suspended for a game in 2011 after failing a drug test violated an athletic department rule and had his schol arship revoked. With Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, lakers' Four On Floor Shifts Balance Dwight Howard becomes the next great center of the Lakers. Will he have the same success as his predecessors? The Lakers are not a per fect team, nor are they fool proof picks to win the 2013 NBA title just because Dwight Howard now graces a roster that also includes Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash. Howard gives the Lakers the game s best two-way cen ter a lockdown defender who has led the league in rebounding in six of the last seven seasons and is capable of averaging 20 points per game. Johnson Released Bv Dolphins Following Domestic Banerv Arrest As the Miami Dolphins took the field for practice Sunday, Chad Johnson was getting out of jail. Hours lat er, he was out of work. The Dolphins terminated the six-time Pro Bowl receiv e r 's contract abou t 24 hours after he was arrested in a domestic battery case invo lving his wife. Johnson was released from jail on $2,500 bond earlier Sunday after his wife accused him of head-butting her during an argument in front of their home. Johnson was charged with simple domestic battery, a misdemeanor The confrontation came barely a month after Johnson married Evelyn Lozada, who is on the reality 1V show "Basketball Wives. The 34-year-old Johnson had been battling for a spot on the team after a disappointing season with the New England Patriots in 2011. Following Sunday's prac tice, coach Joe Philbin said he would meet soon with Johnson. Only five days earlier, Philbin said Johnson's roster spot could be in jeop ardy if he didn t temper his freewheeling behavior. Johnson annoyed the coach by frequently using profanity during a session with reporters. Johnson who recently changed his name from CHAD JOHNSON Chad Ochocinco -was arrested Saturday after Lozada confronted him about a receipt she found for a box of condoms, police said. According to an arrest affi davit, Lozada said she was taking groceries into their home when she found the receipt in the car trunk. When the two were seated back in the car, they began talking about the receipt and their marriage. That's when Johnson got upset and head-butted his wife, the report said. Lozada ran to a neighbor's house and called police. A responding officer said Lozada had a 3-inch cut on her forehead, according to the affidavit, w,4ile Johnson did not have any visible marks or bruises. When questioned by police he confirmed there was an argument over the receipt, but said his wife had head butted him. Gabbv Douglas Honored With Mural In Hometown GABBY DOUGLAS VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -Gabby Douglas is really big in her hometown. Really big and painted on a wall. The gold-medal-winning gymnast has a giant mural painted in her honor in Virginia Beach. And she loves it. WOW!!! This is amazing!! so honored, Douglas tweeted Friday from the Olympics in London, where the 16-year-old won two gold medals at the Summer Games. The mural shows Douglas holding a gold medal with an Anierican flag backdrop. It says "Way to go Gabby." Brothers Todd and Eric Lindbergh spent four days painting the 9-by-30 foot mural on the outside wall of a sports bar. Todd Lindbergh says he found out that Douglas was from Virginia Beach, and the idea behind the mural came the moment he saw her on television at a medals ceremony.
ntertainment '! Young Jeezv Named Senior VP Jada PinkeD Smiih Covers SePtember Essence 'Malcolm X' Actor Dies At18 1-U) :::) 01 A&R At Atlantic Records C w Drake Passes Jav-z For Most Bill board R&B/Hip-Hop #1 Singles c w ::a: tJ) :J m :::) Q. z t= After snatching his first #1 single as early as 2009, Drake has surpassed Jay-Z for the most #1 s i ngles on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop charts in the 70-year history of Billboard. Drake's latest collabora-w ..J ..J tion with 2 Chainz, ''No Lie" rose to the top of the ..J R&B/Hip-Hop Chart to heW come his 10th No. 1 hit on the chart z Jay-Z scored his first R&B/ Hip-Hop #1 sin g le in 1995, with a t o tal of nine a: 0 ..J LL records in which he was the lead artist in four Lil Wayne is in third place with e ight and Kanye West trails with six. A SALON BARBER AN) FASNION NETWORK St:Rlf.S JADA PINKETT SMITH Jada Pinkett Smith continues to deny that her marriage to Will Smith is in turmoil. Her latest comments are to Essence magazine, which features her on the cover of its September 2012 issue. She insists she can t even fathom divorce since her husband is like another part of me. Jada Pinkett Smith on the Essence September 2012 cover. It's rumored that we' re g etting a divorce. But no. We re not getting a divorce Where am I going to go? That's my boo. It's like he 's another part of me. Bevonca Performs And Films Music Video At UN BEYONCE NEW YORK Superstar si nger Beyonce has sere naded a different New York City venue: The United Na tions Beyonce performed her song I Was Here on Friday in the UN's General Assem bly Hall in honor of World Humanitarian Day, which is Aug. 19. A music video of the performance will debut the same day. Beyonce sang in front of hundreds, including Julia Stiles, R&B singer TheDream and songwriter, Diane Warren, who wrote the song. Warren said in an inter view that she initially called Beyonce's husband, Jay-Z, and played the song for him over the phone. He quickly called Beyonce, and days later she recorded it. It ap pears on her album "4," re leased last year. LOS ANGELES -Albert Freeman Jr., fhe veteran actor who played Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee's epic film Malcolm X ," has died. He was 7 8. Howard University con firmed his death Friday night, but details weren t im mediately available. Freeman taught acting there for years and served as chair man and artistic director of its theater arts Freeman earned an NAACP Image Award for playing Malcolm X's mentor in Lee's 1992 biogra phy. He also received an '""-"'"--.......,,. Emmy nomination for his JR. role as Malcolm X in the 1979 miniseries "Roots: The Next Generations." He won a best-acto r Daytime Emmy that year for his work as Capt. Ed Hall on the soap opera One Life to Live." Stevie J Gets Punched Bv Mimi Outside l.A. Nightclub Somebody needs to give Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta (LLHA) star, Stevie J a les son on how not to catch the fade As if the extremely en tertaining punch, kick and slap s, h is side-piece Joseline Hernandez gave him on Monda y 's (Aug. 9) episode weren't embarrass ing enough, he lost a battle with an open hand that just happened to belong to his ex, Mimi Faust. During a trip to Los Ange les, Stevie and Faust were headed inside the club when STEVIEJ AndMIMI FAUSf a photographer asked him who would win a fight be tween the cast of Basketball Wives and LHHA. He of course gave the wrong an swer: "Mimi and Joseline." Faust socked him, then took the cigarette out of his mouth for a quick puff. Naomi Makes Appearance After Receding Hairline Stir Naomi Campbell made international headlines, but not for her stunning looks. Campbell received intense media attention for sporting inches of hairless hairline when emerging from the water during a yachting jaunt. Pictures snapped of the 42-year-old supermodel vacationing in Ibiza shocked many as patches of bare scalp were revealed by the lack of coverage created by a wet weave. "With her h ai r pulled back in a ponytail, Naomi re vealedher incredibl y reced ing hairline, the result of her over-reliance on hair exten sions and weaves for most of her model ling career." EmbarressNAOMI ment over the CAMPBELL unflattering photos did not deter the beauty from stepping out to mix and mingle with athletes and celebrities at an Olympic charity event held in London. Wearing a hair piece that covered much of her baldness, Campbell hosted "an Olympic Celebration Dinner in partnership with Fashion For Relief. OJ Khaled Facing Eviction over S55k Rental Pavment DJ Khaled may be "the best," but maybe not at pay ing his bills. Khaled owes his landlord over $50,000 in unpaid rent, and has yet to settle his debt, which means that an eviction is imminent. Khaled rented a Miami apartment from Misci LLC. The agreement was that he would make 2 payments of $66 ,ooo each. While he han dled the first transaction, he failed to cover the entire bal ance of the second, causing the landlord to file court doc uments to have him kicked out of the unit. The 36-year old worked out a new deal to break up the rent into 3 payments, and shelled over $n,ooo. He was scheduled to drop the remaining DJKHALED $55,000 a month later. Misci gave Khaled a 3day notice to vacate the property, of which he report' edly refused. The company is suing to have him removed, and is seeking payment to cover their legal fees in addition to Khaled's outstand ing rental debt.
" MS. ELLASTINE DIANA PITTMAN Graveside services for Ms. Ellastine Diana Pitbnan will be held Wednesday, August 15, 2012, at 11 a. m. at Orange Hill Cemetery, 4900 E. Chelsea. Ms. Ellastine Diana Pittman was born on February 21, 1966 and passed away August 9, 2012. She was preceded in death by: her father, Samuel Pitbnan; grandmother, Ella Riggins; grandfather, Willie Riggins; and sister, Theresa Walker. Left to mourn her loving daughter' s death is: her mother, Falstine Isaac; two sisters, Cheryl Hill and hus band, Daryl and Shirley Isaac; four brothers, Alan Riggins and wife, Rosa, Willie For man, Jr. and wife, Veronica, Charles Isaac and wife, San tera, and Derrick Isaac and fi ancee, Quinesia; nieces, Allison, Danaesha, Akari, Quiniyah, Marlena, Nickie, Tiera and Sharonda; nephews, Alan, Vearly, Don tae, Devin, Zavid, Daryl, Jr., Daniel, Santonio, Jay and Marice; aunt, Annie Bunch; two uncles, Willie Riggins of Detroit, Michigan, and Ronald Riggins and wife, Minnie; cousins, Mary Isaac, Carolyn Brown and husband, Sher man, Felisha, Vida, Tammy and Sharon; good friends, Tonya Pittman and Pat Taylor; and godmother, Janie Cohen. Arrangements entrusted to Stone's Memorial Funeral Home, Edward W. Stone, Jr., L.F.D. "A FANNIE B. STONE TRADIDONAL SERVICE" L.etourilmilytnkecareot:yourfiunlly. "We are the Jo!!yto a fine andqua)lly .,Nice" REVEREND JOSEPH WENDELL HARDY, SR. Homegoing celebration for Reverend Joseph Wendell Hardy, Sr. of Tampa, who passed away Thursday, August 9, 2012, will be held Thursday,Augustt6,20t2,at 1 p. m. at First Missionary Baptist Church of Highland Pines, 4711 E. 21st Avenue, Tampa, 33605, with the pas tor, Reverend Cleveland Lane, officiating. Interment will fol low in Rest Haven Memorial Park Cemetery. Reverend Hardy was a na tive of Quincy, FL, where he was educated in the public schools of Gadsden County. He was a resident of Tampa, for approximately 26 years. Reverend Hardy was a member of First Missionary Baptist Church of Highland Pines of which the Reverend Cleveland Lane is Pastor. He was employed by the Hillsborough County School Board as a Bus Driver prior to his disability retirement. Reverend Hardy was pre ceded in death by his parents, Joseph and Evelyn Hardy. He leaves fond memories with: his wife, Mrs. Annie Jo Hardy; 7 sons, Anthony Robert Hardy (Mary), Joseph Wendell Hardy, Jr. (Sandy), Ernest Darrell Calhoun, Gre gory Crevan Calhoun, Eugene Antwynn Hardy, Joseph Wen dell Hardy, Ill and Robert Taylor Hardy; 4 daughters, Ora Denise Smith, Martha Denise Hardy, Vernetta De lores Hardy and Terika Ann Hardy; 2 grandchildren, Courtney Calhoun and Ernest Darrell Calhoun, Jr.; 4 great grandchildren, Akhari Torik White, Zaimere Christopher White, Kayla J. Hardy and Aron D. Hankerson, Jr.; 2 sis ters, Clydeana Willis (John) and Debbie Freeman (Moses); niece, Dana Washington (Cedric); 3 nephews, Armand Bright (Brenda), Terrance Freeman (Rachel) and Bishop Eric Freeman (Coleen); and other relatives and friends. There wiD be viewing from 5-8 p.m., Wednesday, August 15, 2012, at Wtlsoll Funeral Home, 3000 N. 29th Street, Tampa, 33605. Friends are asked to assemble at the church at approximately 12:45 p.m., Thursday for the serv ice. "A WILSON SERVICE" www.wilson-funeralbome.com ...... .....,..,._ (813) 254-4918 JOHN HOWARD AND GRACE TILLMAN CLARK The family of the late John Howard and Grace Tillman Clark thanks Pastor Rev. Dr. David W Green, associate min isters, officers and members of Allen Temple AME Church for their faithful services. The family also thanks Rev. Eugene Garnett of Springhill M. B. Church, Rev. Beverly Lane of Bethel AME Church, and all or ganizations and persons who supported the family in their re cent loss with prayers, cards, and many other acts of kind ness. Love, from the children, Fred Hearns, Pearl Elaine Roberts and the family. National NY Cops Shoot Knile-Wieldinu Man Dead In Times Square DARRIUS KENNEDY NEW YORK CI'IY, NY New York Police Department officers shot 51-year-old Darrius Kennedy dead in the middle of Times Square Satur day afternoon after he allegedly refused to put down a large knife he was reportedly ing at officers and tourists. A reported 12 shots were fired at Kennedy after he al legedly advanced towards offi cers with the knife He was shot several times in the stomach and later died at a local hospital. The deadly encounte r began around 3 p.m when an officer reportedly noticed Kennedy smoking a joint When the cop tried to cuff him, Kennedy grew irate and pulled out a six inch blade. Kennedy allegedly began wielding it in the middle of Times Square. He was pepper spra y ed six times but it did not force Kennedy to give i n to officers de m ands a c c ording to NYPD official s H e w a s re pe at edly a s k e d t o put down t he k ni f e bu t r efus ed t o do so police officials said. ..... N 0 ..... N ELLEN J. DUHART In Loving Memory Of Our Mother, Our Dear Mom I know that everyone thinks their mother is the best, well let me just inform them all that we were the ones who were blessed. There's no other Mom like you, of that I am quite sure. For, no matter what the pain, you always had the cure. Most of all Mom, we thank you for showing us who God is so we could become the blessed women and men we are today. ., r-0 From, your blessed and highly favored family. c )> en Ohio law Expands Eartv Voting For Republicans, Cuts It For Democrats m z :j z m Ohio has made voting harder for Democrats and eas ier for Republicans. ThinkProgres The Nation magazine and MSNBC s Rachel Maddow reported this week that Ohio s Republi can Secretary of State Jon Husted has intervened in county by-county voting rules to break ties in county boards of elections siding with Re publicans who want to limit voting in large urban centers like Cleveland which are heavily populated b y Democ rats to work hours, while county boards in Republican leaning areas voted to allow ex panded early voting hours that will make casting a ballot eas ier. Starting October tst, voters OJ in Democrat-leaning urban ? centers including Cleveland r Columbus Akron and Toledo will now only be allowed to z vote between 8 am and 5 pm 'tJ on weekdays, when the majority of people are at work. The r board of elections in these en counties, which are split evenly ifi between Democrats and ReC publicans, was gridlocked over !;2 a Democratic effort to expand m hours. The Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted -4 stepped in to deny expanded C hours in these counties. But m Republican-heavy counties C have actually expanded early voting hours on nights and )> weekends, when most people have time to go to the polls Hair Braider Wins Lawsuit Challenging Utah Rules SALT LAKE CI'IY, UT -A Utah woman who braids hair to supplement her family's in come has won a federal lawsuit against the state over its li censing process for her craft, arguing state regulations vio lated her right to earn a living. A federal judge ruled this week that the state s requirement that Jestina Clayton get a cosmetology license to braid hair was unconstitu tional and invalid because regulations are irrelevant to Clayton's profession. Clayton, 30, sued l ast y ear after she f ound it would be ille gal to run a hair-braiding bus ines s without a license, i n part because of public and safety concerns. Clayton said she learned how to braid hair as a s-year-old in her West African home country of Sierra Leone, and she was doing it at her suburban Salt Lake City home to support her three children-ages 7 5 and 1 -while her husband finishes school. U.S District Judge David Sam in Salt Lake City said Utah's cosmetology licensing requirements are so discon nected from hai r -braiding "that to premise Jestina's right to earn a living by braid ing hair on that scheme is wholl y irrational and a violaC) tion o f her constitut ion ally m protected rights. | 2019-04-20T10:22:27Z | https://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0024310/00491 |
Creating positive change doesn’t happen overnight. Just ask the seven Palo Alto residents who have been selected as recipients of this year’s Avenidas Lifetimes of Achievement awards for pouring their time and energy into projects designed to better the community.
Together, Ruth and George Chippendale, Dexter Dawes, Marion Mandell, Judy Sleeth and Carol and Terry Winograd have dedicated the equivalent of 312 years of public service to advocating for art in the classroom, providing nonprofits with financial expertise, caring for 20 foster children, supporting Palo Alto’s Sister City Organization, bringing Jewish and Muslim communities together and more. Their persistence and unwavering desire to change the status quo has made an impact not only here but across the globe.
The following stories shine a spotlight on how these individuals with ordinary beginnings went on to lead extraordinary lives.
Recently married and pondering job prospects across the country, George and Ruth Chippendale took a driving trip in 1957, stopping for interviews in Wichita, Denver, San Diego and Los Angeles before landing in Palo Alto, where they decided to plant their roots in the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood.
Palo Alto was like nothing the East Coast-bred pair had ever seen before, said George, who settled on an engineering job at Lockheed Missiles and Space.
There was space to roam, and a nice family house could be had for $21,500, Ruth added.
“Oh, it was wonderful,” she said.
George, who during his college years in Boston had learned to fly and bought his own small plane, flew it out to California.
By 1962, the Chippendales had three children, and Ruth had left her teaching career to raise them. It was also during this time that the couple became involved in the Christian Family Movement, which launched them into a lifelong commitment to social activism and giving back to the community that had impressed them so much that first day they arrived.
For nearly six decades, the couple has spent countless hours providing aid to parents of emotionally and mentally disabled children; offering emergency assistance through the St. Vincent de Paul Society; feeding the homeless; distributing food; working for peace and justice; taking in 20 foster children and adopting a developmentally delayed son (who died at the age of 21); collecting and distributing toys and clothing; and preparing layettes for needy new mothers.
In 2004, the Vatican awarded the couple the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for their years of service. The following year, the couple received a prestigious Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service. This month, the duo is receiving the Avenidas Lifetimes of Achievement Award for their service to Palo Alto.
Joining the Christian Family Movement was “a dramatic change in my life,” said George, who proudly called himself a “Boston Irish Catholic Democrat” but, until marrying Ruth, had considered weekly Mass mainly a place to snooze or daydream.
Ruth had come from a deeply religious family, with a sister who became a nun and a brother who became a priest.
“The church was nothing to me until I met this woman,” he said, explaining that she had shown him the English translations of the Latin prayer books that made the service more meaningful.
Through the Christian group’s Migrant Mission Program, George found himself teaching catechism to farm workers in Cupertino. He flew priests to Mexico and Central America for the Latin American Mission Program, and “that was a step up in motivation,” he said.
By the late ‘60s, George was piloting health care teams and patients back and forth to Central America to perform reconstructive surgeries on children with cleft palates through the Stanford University-based group Interplast (now Resurge International).
Ruth meanwhile began taking in babies through a foster program with Santa Clara County. Between 1966 and 1976 the family took in 20 babies, the last one of which they adopted and raised as their own.
“That was in the days when they didn’t have enough adoptive parents,” Ruth said. Most of the babies were newborns, coming straight from the hospital. The Chippendales kept a carriage, which they would wheel from room to room, and Ruth grew deeply attached to the babies.
These days, George has long since stopped flying his plane -- he no longer even drives -- but uses the telephone to continue his decades-long activism in East Palo Alto with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, coordinating emergency help to families and individuals in need with food, rent, utilities, clothing and medical prescriptions.
Until recently, George and Ruth helped prepare a meal every Monday at St. Francis of Assisi church in East Palo Alto for anybody who wanted to come in and eat. George also has helped recruit and secure scholarships for children to attend St. Elizabeth Seton School and Hidden Villa summer camp in Los Altos Hills.
Ruth, a regular at the 7:15 a.m. daily Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas, continues her 30-year involvement with Palo Alto’s Downtown Food Closet, as well as with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Hotel de Zink, in which churches take turns providing hot meals and beds for the homeless.
She’s also become a Raging Granny, joining fellow grandmothers who dress up in hats and go into the streets to promote peace, justice and equality.
“I’d gone to so many rallies and so many demonstrations -- anti-war, pro-environment -- and I thought, ‘As long as I’m going to go to these rallies and demonstrations, I might as well have some fun with it,” she said.
Both Chippendales say the tightening housing market in East Palo Alto is making it harder than ever for low-income people trying to survive.
“Now, with the impact of people coming into East Palo Alto with places like Facebook and Google, no longer do you have that market technique of renting a room from the bulletin board at the laundromat,” George said. “Instead you go onto Craigslist and the room that used to be $600 is now $1,200.
Palo Alto resident Dexter Dawes tried retirement in 1996 -- but it didn’t last long. A few months after retiring, the former investment banker and his wife were welcomed home from their trip to India with a surprise voicemail asking Dawes to jump back into the business world. His youngest son’s friend wanted to start a software company, and he needed someone with proven financial expertise to guide him. Dawes, 60, was ready to take on this new challenging role. That was 20 years ago, and the Palo Alto resident still hasn’t quite retired.
Now in his 80s, Dawes has spent the bulk of his “retirement” years volunteering on numerous boards, commissions and oversight committees to provide financial guidance to local nonprofits. He has served on 17 different boards for corporations as well as organizations benefiting everyone from seniors and children to students and Palo Alto families, including the Palo Alto-Los Altos American Youth Soccer Organization, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, the Palo Alto High School Sports Boosters and the Bond Oversight Committee and the Audit and Finance Committee for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District.
This month, Dawes is receiving the Avenidas Lifetime of Achievement Award for his service.
Dawes said sitting around watching TV after leaving the corporate world was never an attractive option, so he decided to put his experience to use.
“I think my role is addressing problems,” said Dawes, whose behind-the-scenes input has helped keep numerous organizations financially sound, even during tough times.
Dawes, who served as chairman and vice chairman on Palo Alto’s Utilities Advisory Commission, developed a 10-year efficiency plan that enabled the city to weather the energy crisis of 2001 as well as volatile changes in the gas market, including the bankruptcy of energy supplier Enron Company.
The commission’s decision to reduce its power contract with Enron ultimately saved the city tens of millions of dollars, Dawes said.
As treasurer, chairman and board member of Palo Alto’s Channing House, he helped develop financial guidelines for the retirement community’s development and led what he described as “a battle” to settle more than 10 lawsuits over a construction project that was two years late and whose budget was significantly overrun. When the construction company sued for excess costs, Dawes was ready to shepherd a resolution. The case went into mediation.
After “driving hard with a mediator, who put a lot of pressure on the contractors,” Channing House settled on a favorable basis, he said. The settlement was finally agreed upon on Dawes’ last day as a board member in February 2016.
“All things considered, the fight was worth it for the community,” Dawes said.
Dawes attributes his success in the nonprofit sector to skills -- such as negotiating and good judgment -- he acquired during a long and storied career he launched at Ford Aerospace shortly after earning an MBA. By 1973, he had started his own firm that specialized in raising capital, mergers and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). During the 1980s, he took over the management of an investment fund and switched from raising capital to investing in private companies.
Looking back on the past 20 years, Dawes said nonprofit work can be just as challenging -- and rewarding -- as a paid job.
“Palo Alto is an amazing community with intelligent, active and well-heeled people. With these blessings come a fountainhead of ideas and approaches,” he said. “The long and short of it ... (is) it can be a stifling process in which it takes years to get a decision made and implemented.
Editorial Intern Sophie Pollock can be reached at [email protected].
It was during the 1940s at the height of World War II when 10-year-old Marion Mandell decided to join the war effort. She worked tirelessly to knit socks and mittens for overseas troops and to roll and sterilize bandages in the oven as part of a Girl Scout project for her troop in New Jersey.
The war eventually ended, but Mandell’s commitment to community service and the Girl Scouts of the USA never waned. Mandell, now 87, has spent the better part of eight decades inspiring generations of Girl Scouts and strengthening community programs that help those in need.
“Working with people is so terrific and rewarding,” said Mandell, who has an uncanny way of using skills she’s learned -- whether it be folk dancing or Spanish -- to help others.
This month, Mandell is receiving the Avenidas Lifetimes Achievement Award for her ongoing service to local Girl Scouts as well as her role in Palo Alto’s Sister City Organization, which she has supported for half a century.
Mandell, who started with the Girl Scouts as a Brownie in 1939 when cookies cost only 25 cents a box, credits her first troop leader for her lifelong commitment to volunteer work. Mandell said her leader was “a wonderful woman,” so she stuck with the organization and realized that maybe she, too, could have that impact on others.
She continued in the service organization as an assistant leader and in college became a summer camp counselor in upstate New York.
“I thoroughly enjoyed those summers,”said Mandell, who still calls herself a Girl Scout.
In 1958 -- the same year she, her husband and two young children “caught a 14-hour flight on a propeller plane” (before the use of modern passenger jets) to move 3,000 miles from New York to their new home in Palo Alto -- she became involved in the local Girl Scouts.
She went on to serve as a Girl Scout camp counselor, troop leader, camp director, trainer and organizer. She has directed three Camporees -- an outdoor skills competition with about 300 participants -- annually for 37 years for the Girl Scouts of Palo Alto and Santa Clara County. To this day, she is still involved in the event, which she calls her favorite Scouting activity.
Mandell said she believes the Girl Scouts’ enduring appeal is in large part due to the organization’s flexibility and willingness to remain relevant with the times.
“The Girl Scouts have (always) been in the forefront of modern events,” she told the Weekly when the Palo Alto Girl Scouts were celebrating their 90th anniversary in 2012.
The local Scouts can get badges in areas related to aerospace and architecture and even media savvy. In conjunction with NASA, they formed the first all-girls local robotics team, which now encompasses the entire Bay Area.
Mandell also has had a significant impact on Palo Alto’s Sister City program, serving as the primary organizer of the Neighbors Abroad cultural-exchange program between Palo Alto and Oaxaca, Mexico, each summer for more than 50 years.
Mandell said her interest in Neighbors Abroad began when her children began taking Spanish in school. Mandell said it seemed very possible that her family would be hosting an exchange student from Mexico, so she enrolled in every Spanish course that Foothill College had to offer and became fluent.
This prompted her to do more with her newly learned skill. She joined the board of directors for Neighbors Abroad in Palo Alto in 1963 and shortly after became the group’s vice president for Palo Alto’s sister city, Oaxaca.
City Council members have described Mandell as a “key champion” for the program, fostering cultural connections between the two communities that have led to the construction of a children’s library, a planetarium and the Albergue Infantil Josefino orphanage, which cares for 55 children. The group also funded a health care initiative that has helped rural villages grow nutritious food and learn about basic medical care.
Mandell also has worked with the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs to provide Oaxaca with eight badly needed emergency vehicles donated from Palo Alto. Oaxaca has named an ambulance after Mandell.
Editorial Intern Sarah Mason can be reached at [email protected].
She has made good on that aspiration: As a teacher, a docent and the founder of the nonprofit Art in Action, Sleeth has inspired a love of art in thousands of Peninsula students, for which she is receiving the Avenidas Lifetimes of Achievement Award this month.
Sleeth, who grew up in Pasadena, studied history and art history in college and earned a master’s degree in education. She taught English, history and art history at Castilleja School in Palo Alto.
Art in Action began in 1982, when Sleeth volunteered in her eldest daughter’s kindergarten classroom. Budget cuts had ended arts education, so the teacher asked Sleeth to give art lessons.
Soon, friends began asking her to show them how to teach art. Sleeth designed curriculum for volunteers who don’t have a background in art -- mostly parents and some teachers. As the program grew, a friend, Betsy Halaby, helped train volunteers and develop lessons.
Art in Action now serves 74,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade nationwide. In addition to offering lessons in art appreciation, the organization equips volunteers with “art kits” stocked with art supplies so that students can create their own art.
Sleeth often hears from teachers that days with Art in Action visits have almost perfect class attendance.
From the founding of Art in Action until her retirement as executive director in 2013, Sleeth never collected a salary. She is still active with the program, spearheading a scholarship fund that allows more schools to participate.
Last year, she received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Obama Administration. The award recognizes extraordinary volunteer service.
For many years, Sleeth has also volunteered as a docent with Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, developing tours for school children. When Art in Action students come to the Cantor, Sleeth enjoys the chance to see their newfound appreciation of art.
Freelance writer Heather Zimmerman can be reached at [email protected].
Young couples aiming to manage two demanding careers and an engaging family and community life might look to Carol and Terry Winograd for inspiration.
Terry, a star in the field of artificial intelligence who left the industry in 1980 to create Stanford University’s Human-Computer Interaction Group, has mentored scores of technology entrepreneurs, including some of Silicon Valley’s most famous names.
Carol, a physician and professor of medicine and human biology at Stanford, directed the university’s Geriatric Research and Education Center until she was sidelined by illness and retired on disability in 1995. She later returned and, for another 12 years, taught a sophomore seminar in “Woman and Aging,” incorporating biology, psychology, sociology and even poetry.
This month, the Winograds are receiving the Avenidas Lifetime of Achievement Award for their efforts to eliminate poverty and promote peace. Carol has served on numerous boards including J Street, the Advisory Board of the Jewish Chaplaincy at Stanford Medical Center, Abraham’s Vision, New Israel Fund and the Women Donors Network’s Middle East Peace Circle. She is also a longtime member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and she brought the Jewish and Muslim communities in Palo Alto and the south bay together as co-founder of JAMAA, Jewish and Muslim American Association.
Terry founded Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and the Liberation Technology Project. He is an active member of Bend the Arc, a Jewish social justice organization. Together, they participate in Sunday Friends, a nonprofit organization that empowers families to break the generational cycle of poverty; Kol Emeth and Beth David synagogues; and the Palestinian Jewish Dialogue Group. They have also traveled to Kenya with Stanford students to help local people apply technology to solve problems of daily living.
The next two dates kicked off the couple’s long history of shared activism: They traveled to New Hampshire to work on the anti-Vietnam War Democratic presidential primary campaign of U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy.
Both had inherited a sense of liberal activism and civic engagement from their parents -- Terry’s in Greeley, Colorado, where his businessman father had served on the school board and Carol’s in Woodbridge, New Jersey, where her mother, a “consummate volunteer,” had established community mental health programs and a Reach to Recovery breast-cancer support program.
Terry has a childhood memory of going out with a wagon to campaign for Adlai Stevenson for president, “which, in Greeley, Colorado, was pretty ‘out there,’” he said.
Carol recalls holding tin cans with her brother in front of a Howard Johnson’s restaurant to collect donations for a cause she cannot remember.
“But I do remember my mother saying, ‘It’s the poor people who give more money than the rich people,’” she said.
Within months of their first date, Carol and Terry were living together and by the end of that same summer, they had married.
“We look back and say, ‘What were we thinking?’ How would you get involved so quickly and not take your time, but we just did it,” Terry said.
The Winograds moved from the East Coast to San Francisco in the early 1970s for Carol’s medical residency at the University of California, San Francisco.
She was particularly drawn to what she calls “medicine in the streets” or “political medicine,” having already worked in women’s health clinics, Black Panther clinics and as a medic for anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.
Terry took what he thought was a one-year fill-in position at Stanford for an artificial intelligence scholar who’d gone on sabbatical. But the other professor never came back, and Terry assumed the post permanently.
In those years of teaching, research and consulting at what was then Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Terry came to a conclusion that led him to switch his research and teaching focus: the belief that artificial intelligence would never properly capture the scope of human cognition and that the more compelling pursuit was the use of computers to enhance -- not replace -- human intelligence.
Among the future entrepreneurs he advised were Google co-founder Larry Page and Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman.
Carol’s approach to geriatrics sprang from work early in her career at what was then called the Jewish Home for the Aged in Oakland.
Nowadays, both Winograds, officially retired from their faculty jobs, continue to mentor some students but make a lot of time for the progressive causes they favor and, for their grandchildren. Having had some pre-IPO shares in Google has allowed them also to become philanthropists and political donors, though they say it hasn’t changed their lifestyle much.
“We don’t buy a lot of stuff -- no new gadgets, no yacht, no furs, no jewels,” Terry said. | 2019-04-19T23:00:54Z | https://paloaltoonline.atavist.com/meet-palo-altos-change-makers |
Several years ago, I made a OOAK art doll to represent the "Queen of the Night", from Mozart's "the Magic Flute". The doll went on to a new home, but I've never been able to get her costume out of my mind.
Ever since getting into the BJD costuming hobby, I've wanted to make a duplicate of that costume for one of my ball-jointed dolls. The problem was always deciding which doll to make it for, and finding enough time between commissions to actually make it. I still had left-over supplies of most of the materials, so decided the doll would have to be an MSD size, to better approximate the size of my original doll.
Now that I'm actually going to start working on the costume, I've decided to document my progress in this "Creative Adventure" album. I won't be sharing patterns - just my ideas and techniques - but maybe those will be interesting or helpful enough.
One of the main things holding me back from starting the Queen of the Night costume, was finding the right main dress fabric. I still had enough of everything I'd used for the original gown - except that embroidered blue taffeta. I've looked everywhere, and have purchased at least eight different dark blue fabrics from which I'm now going to have to choose.
Preliminaries - Who Will Become Queen?
In the summer of 2013 I finally decided my Iplehouse JID Asa would become my "Queen of the Night". She had faceup chipping issues, and needed a new faceup anyway. I'd recently acquired JID Soa, and she could step into the costumes and characters that were originally created for Asa. So I brought my Asa away to Charie Wlison Grenier (who does all my doll's faceups) for a new more dramatic faceup.
Asa's new faceup was perfect for the character! Now she needed the costume.
I usually make tights to go under my doll's costumes, but wanted to keep bulk at the waist to a minimum, so made stockings instead.
Soa was my stocking and underwear model while Asa was away getting a new faceup.
The pantaloons are of fine cotton, and I decided to make them fancier by adding a lace insert above the knees.
Added some blue & purple silk ribbon bows and a purple paper rose as embellishment.
so am not going to stress over making everything exactly period perfect. All I want is something stable to hold out the skirts.
will take on the proper shape.
time I need to make one of these it can be made altogether in one piece, and that should be a lot easier.
Jan 27 - I have to design the pattern for the underskirt, but am not sure yet what length to make it. I want to switch Asa's body with my new Leona who has the newer JID girl body and the larger glamour bust. The new bodies stand about 1/2 taller at the shoulder than the old bodies, so the skirts will need to be lengthened accordingly. I'm going to use Leona to design the skirt patterns.
In the meantime, I've painted the edges of the blue flower petals that are going to be sewn onto the underskirt. The petals are from blue poinsettias I bought many years ago. The veining in the petals reminded me of the underbelly of a dragon. I wish I'd bought more of them, as I've never seen them again. Fortunately I do have enough petals for my Asa's gown, but I'll have to use the less pointy ones I didn't use last time. After painting any light edges a dark blue, I brushed on some silver glitter paint.
But first the basic skirt. Both fabrics I'm using are sheer metallics, and the pale periwinkle blue is especially thin and flimsy, so it needs to be supported by white cotton backing. I lay the two fabrics on top of each other, smooth them out and pin the layers together. After tracing the pattern onto the back of the cotton, I cut out the skirt, but decide not to cut out the darts.
The pale blue fabric is so flimsy, and moves so much, that I want to first sew the two layers of fabric together.
fabric from moving, there's still a small spot on the back hemline that doesn't match.
length of skirt to aim for, and using a ruler, measure and pin a line around the bottom where I want the ruffle to go.
glamor bust body. The resin match is excellent. All she needs now is some blushing, and her own hands.
Feb 1 - The first layer of embellishment is now on the underskirt. I hand-stitched on the fancy blue lace - first sewing along the bottom edge, an inch above the ruffle, and then all the way around again tacking down everything on the fancy upper edge. The work went very slow, as handwork always does - it took over three hours!
Hand-sewing is very labour-intensive, and this is just the very beginning. I've gathered all the trims and beads that need to go on the underskirt. There's three different petals from Christmas Hydrangeas, purchased the same year as the blue poinsettias. They will all only go on the front half, as there's no point putting all that detail work into something that will never show.
February 3 - I stitched the final row of velvet petals onto the skirt, then measured how much ribbon I'd need for the puffs that will fill the space between the lace and the petals. The bottom edge of the ribbon needed bead embellishment. I used the picot stitch, but used three beads in the middle each time instead of just one.
After beading the edge of the ribbon, I carefully divided it into six equal parts, and pre-stitched each section.
I gathered all the trims I'd need for the puffs.
having several JIDs who can step in for each other. I just can't work on the bodice, because Soa has the small chest.
floral embroidery. I spent years looking for a replacement - something that would come reasonably close.
I'm going to have to choose from these six fabrics. The metallic velour comes closest pattern-wise, but it's so completely period-inappropriate. The flocked organza is very nice, with appropriately scaled flowers, but it's a sheer fabric and will need a lining - which is why I bought the plain taffeta. The flocked taffeta is the right kind of fabric, but the flocked flowers are way too big a scale. The silk brocade is nice but the silver birds and flowers stand out too much. I wonder what would happen if I over-dyed it?
I'm just going to have to play with them all and see how they look, and how they drape. Then I'll have to decide.
February 4th - I've decided to go with the plain dark blue taffeta. It doesn't have any patterns or embroidery, but it drapes the best, and will look very elegant with all the more elaborate parts. The back of the gown will be covered by the sheer cape with sparkly stars and moons anyways, so that can create interest in the back. So now I have to come up with an overskirt pattern.
I use some old sheeting, pin it in place, and cut for the skirt. That will be my pattern. I just need to add seam allowances. I've tried to tone down the colours a bit in the photo above, so they are more like what the colours look like in real life. The blue lace is still a bit too dark, but the other colours are pretty good.
The Queen of the Night is one of the main character from Mozart's "the Magic Flute". It actually takes place in ancient Egypt, but when I made my original Queen, I was going more for the style the original costumes would probably have been - in the period fashions of the day. I was assuming that Mozart pre-dated Napoleon and his adventures in Egypt, so costumes and sets would be pretty much left up to the imagination, since they didn't know about true ancient Egyptian styles yet. I could be wrong, but that's what I was going with. So, when I made my "Queen of the Night" I decided to make a roughly period-style gown in dark, rich blues and purples like the night sky, with lots of sparkles and glitter to represent the stars.
February 5 - Yesterday I cut out the overskirt and hemmed it by hand - which took quite some time. I machine-stitched the front openings as they won't show under the embellishment, but the hem will, and they didn't have sewing machines back in the Rococo period, so a machine-stitched hem would look totally wrong. So, it had to be hemmed by hand.
February 6 - Finished the beading on the second side, and it was time to attach the skirt to the waistband. I cut the waistband out of the dark blue fabric, and because the fabric frays super easy, I Fray Checked all the edges. I had originally planned on having the skirt open at the front, but it would mean being super exact with the measurements. I figured there would be more leeway if I made the opening at the back. Then if the waistband was a bit wide, it could overlap a bit - something that would not be possible if the waistband opened at the front.
The top of the skirt was going to be very bulky to gather onto the waistband, so I decided to sew darts at the top, in order to reduce the amount of fabric. I sewed sixteen darts across the top of the skirt, and trimmed off the excess fabric, zig-zagging the raw edges. It's a good thing I went with a back opening, because the waistband ended up overlapping by almost an inch.
Here's the overskirt with the side panels pinned back.
The next step is to sew the embellishments onto the other side of the snap, but I had misplaced the small bag with glitter-edged, sheer flower petals I needed to make some flowers for the tie-backs. It had been right there in the morning, but disappeared later. I looked everywhere - twice, but couldn't find it anywhere. The next day, I was cutting silk ribbons, then realized I'd had the silk ribbon drawer out the morning my baggie with flower petals disappeared. So I went to look, and sure enough, there they were, right in the top. I made two flowers out of several sets of petals, and painted the stems on the ribbon roses.
February 9 - Time to draft the bodice pattern. This is the very first time working with a glamour bust so I have to start from scratch - almost. I folded a paper towel in half and traced the neckline from a small bust pattern, cut it out, and using painter's tape, taped it into position onto her shoulders. Then pinned it center front at the bottom. I drew the darts and seams just on the one side. Then I removed the paper towel folded it back in half along center front, and cut out the "pattern".
test bodice out of white cotton, cutting off all the outer edge seam allowances, and stitched it together.
February 10 - I traced the bodice pattern onto iron-on interfacing, pressed it onto the navy taffeta, and cut it out.
I positioned a poinsettia petal in center front, and basted it into place.
stitch all the way around the outside edge - top, back, and bottom edge - and turn it right-side-out through an armhole.
After turning the bodice right-side-out, and sewing the sleeves, I basted all the edges so it will press better.
I tried the separate pieces on Asa to see how they look.
the basting, turn the bodice inside-out again, and re-stitch the neckline, making it open a lot further.
the bodice was back with the good side out, I stitched the lining to the bodice fabric around the sleeve openings.
The bodice looked much better with the new adjustments, so it was definitely worth the extra effort.
Like, why bother switching Asa to a glamour bust if her cleavage isn't even going to show?
then touched up the front flower petal with paint and glitter. Also touched up the last five petals.
sleeve before I stitch the sleeve into the armhole. And then I'll finish the bodice neckline.
the bottom of the sleeves so they'd be higher in front, and lower in back, but thought they didn't come down far enough.
So I reworked my sleeve pattern, inserting a half inch. Then I cut it out of the fabric. But, when I was measuring the length of the light blue ruffle, I changed my mind, and decided the sleeves were the proper length after-all. I thought the light blue ruffle seemed too plain, so picot-stitched periwinkle blue beads along the entire bottom edge. The beading makes my eyes go wonky, so I stitched both ruffles on the first sleeve, then took a picture since it was getting late in the day, and I was losing the light.
get to the elbow embellishments this evening, as I'm very tired today. But after all, "tomorrow is another day".
February 14 - Today things are going a lot better today. The end is coming into sight, so I'm getting excited to finally see everything come together. I sewed the ruffles on both sleeves, and sewed on the petal trim. I used the glue gun to glue on the roses and ribbons. I usually prefer sewing to gluing, but with all the bits of embellishments sticking out and catching the thread at every stitch, I opted for the glue gun. After the sleeves were done, I sewed them into the bodice armholes.
Next step was to sew the upper bodice puffs from the sparkly purple ribbon, and bead both edges.
I gathered and beaded the purple ribbon along the neckline and stitched the ribbon puffs in front.
Finished with a blue paper rose. With the bodice finished, I was finally able to lace it up the back.
I've been keeping an eye out for just the right necklace, but haven't found one yet, so decided to make one for the time being. I borrowed my Ryung's necklace as a model, and chose clear, silver, blue and red beads, and made the necklace.
stand-up collar with the last five poinsettia petals. Then I have to make a wig.
The cloak is made of a soft black tulle covered with stars and moons. They are gold on one side, and silver on the other, but when the fabric lies gathered in folds, both the gold and silver show.
Now I need to make the wig. I had originally thought it should be silver-gray, like the original, but I like the dark brown of the wig she's been wearing. I find it has a softer look than a gray, white or black formal wig would have, and the brown compliments the maroon and gold embellishments on the dress. I've gone through my bags of brown mohair and there's lots the same colour as the wig she currently has on. I've crocheted a wig cap, but don't want to tackle the mohair today, as it's always a huge mess, and we are getting overnight company, and don't want to have to stop halfway through. I'll just work on the hair embellishments, and maybe tackle the wig tomorrow.
February 17 - Today I have to tackle Asa's new wig. I've crocheted the cap, and have started sorting through the mohair. I found two bags of 'Very Dark Brown' which were purchased from Edgewood Angoras many, many years ago. Back then Edgewood Angoras raised angora goats specially for doll hair, which they sold at local doll shows. The mohair was dyed and sold in baggies marked with the name of the goat the mohair came from. They had a lot of goats, and some had way curlier hair than others. The mohair I'm working with today comes from 'Justinia' and 'Mandrake'. The mohair locks range from 5" to 8" long and are quite curly.
I'm going to have to strip Asa down to her underwear - or less - as I certainly don't want her gown covered with mohair and bits of plant debris as I work on her wig.
To make the wefting, I stitched the mohair onto paper, then removed it from the paper. It took a long time to prepare enough mohair, as much of it was very matted and full of plant debris. I ended up covered with al the bits of plants debris and had to vacuum my clothes and the whole areas I was working.
I applied the mohair with my glue gun, first gluing the shorter curls around the front of her face, and the longer hair in the back of her neck. Then the wefting was applied one layer at a time. When I was done gluing, Asa looked like she was lost in a giant afro. But as messy as it may look, I did apply the mohair in very specific layers.
The next step is to remove the wig, soak the hair in lukewarm water and comb it thoroughly.
That will reduce the bulk considerably. Then I have to start styling it.
on with a specific hairstyle in mind. It's still extremely poufy, as the mohair has not been combed down yet.
I separated out the very front layer of hair and secured it with an elastic for now. I combed out all the other outer hair and tied it back onto the first ponytail. My plan at this point it to thread the top layer of hair at the front through the tiara I'm going to make, and then secure the hair into the ponytail.
make my own to better match the gown. I wired three layers of beaded loops to create the tiara.
I chose some nice blue and purple feather fluffs, and wet them, and folded into paper towel, wrapped them onto tiny curlers.
hair back and secured it into the ponytail. Then combed the ponytail, divided it into two, and braided each section.
I wrapped the braids around to create a small bun, and stitched it into place. Then I combed the front bangs. I took the wig off the doll, and gave the wig a thorough spray with hairspray. I covered Asa with a large piece of plastic wrap to protect her from the hairspray, and combed out the back hair and put it onto five curlers.
*Note - NEVER use hairspray on an unprotected doll. It will react with the sealer and ruin the faceup. I know this from first-hand experience having accidentally gotten hair spray on my Narae. I was in a hurry, and knew enough to cover her face with a paper towel, but the spray still touched the resin around the edges of the paper towel, and reacted with the sealer causing white spots.
February 21 - I did all the wig-finishing and embellishing last night when there wasn't good lighting, so there are no under-construction photos. After removing the curlers, I sprayed them and let them dry. Then I stitched on the tiara, and hot-glued all the embellishments I'd prepared, into the wig. After everything was glued on, I applied glitter paint and tiny stars. | 2019-04-19T16:56:05Z | http://www.antiquelilac.com/queen-of-the-night---a-creative-journey---tutorials.html |
Appendix 6: Misophonia Emotional Response Survey.
[a] Misophonia Treatment Institute, Livermore, CA, USA.
Misophonia is a condition in which a person has an acute emotional response of anger or disgust to a commonly occurring innocuous auditory or visual stimulus referred to as a trigger. This case details the effective treatment of misophonia in a young woman that included a counterconditioning treatment called the Neural Repatterning Technique (NRT), which combines a continuous positive stimulus and a reduced intensity, intermittent trigger. The treatment was delivered via the Misophonia Trigger Tamer smartphone app and all treatments were conducted independently by the patient. In this patient, the trigger elicited a physical reflex of contraction of the flexor digitorum profundus, which caused her to clench her fist. To enhance the effect of the NRT treatment, Progressive Muscle Relaxation was incorporated to increase her ability to deliberately relax the affected muscle during treatment. During NRT treatment sessions, the patient experienced a weak physical reflex to the reduced trigger stimulus but no emotional response. Her emotional response of misophonia was not treated, but when the physical reflex extinguished, the emotional response also extinguished. This case indicates that the misophonic response includes a Pavlovian-conditioned physical reflex. It is proposed that the trigger elicited the physical reflex and the physical reflex then elicited the conditioned emotional response that is characteristic of misophonia. Because of the conditioned reflex nature of misophonia, it is proposed that a more appropriate name for this disorder would be Conditioned Aversive Reflex Disorder.
Received: 2015-03-24. Accepted: 2015-07-15. Published (VoR): 2015-10-16.
Misophonia is a recently identified disorder in humans which is characterized by an extreme emotional response of anger or disgust to commonly occurring, innocuous auditory or visual stimuli (Edelstein, Brang, Rouw, & Ramachandran, 2013; Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2002, 2014; Schröder, Vulink, & Denys, 2013; Wu, Lewin, Murphy, & Storch, 2014). The condition was first identified in 1997 by audiologist Marsha Johnson, which she named Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome (4S; Bernstein, Angell, & Dehle, 2013). The name misophonia, which means “hatred of sound” was proposed by Jastreboff and Jastreboff (2002). The name misophonia refers to the emotions evoked by the trigger stimulus rather than a general hatred of sound.
Misophonia is a unique and discrete disorder that cannot be classified in the DSM-5 or IDC-10 (Schröder et al., 2013). With misophonia, specific auditory or visual stimuli trigger a response of irritation or disgust, which immediately escalates to anger (Schröder et al., 2013). Auditory triggers can be almost any repeating sound, but those commonly reported are eating sounds (e.g. lip smacking, chewing), nasal sounds (e.g. sniffing, breathing, snoring), and repetitive sounds (e.g. typing, pen clicking; Edelstein et al., 2013; Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014; Schröder et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2014). Visual trigger stimuli of repetitive movements (e.g. hair twirling, leg shaking) and movements associated with auditory triggers (e.g. jaw movement) are also reported (Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014; Wu et al., 2014).
Emotions commonly reported in response to trigger stimuli are anger and disgust (Edelstein et al., 2013; Johnson et al., 2013; Schröder et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2014). Schröder et al. (2013) noted that anxiety was specifically not a response to trigger stimuli of the participants in their study, but participants reported actively avoiding exposure to trigger stimuli. Other researchers have reported anxiety as a common emotion of individuals with misophonia (Edelstein et al., 2013; Johnson et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2014). Although this seems to be a discrepancy, the anxiety of misophonic individuals could have been associated with avoidance behaviors, and so referred to as avoidance by Schröder et al. (2013).
The physiologic response accompanying strong emotions was measured to validate self-reports of emotional responses to trigger stimuli (Edelstein et al., 2013). Skin conductance was shown to begin increasing 2 seconds after onset of trigger stimuli and continue increasing for the duration of a 15s trigger. Participants in this study also reported general physiologic responses associated with emotional arousal including pressure in chest, head, and whole body; clenched/tightened muscles; sweaty palms; difficulty breathing; and increased blood pressure and heart rate.
Although the prevalence of misophonia in the general population is unknown, it was estimated at 3.2% based on comorbidity with other auditory conditions (Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014). Another study utilizing undergraduate psychology students reported 20% of participants had clinically significant misophonia (Wu et al., 2014). Misophonia can develop at any age, with a mean age of onset in childhood (Schröder et al., 2013). Once misophonia develops, it seemingly persists over the lifespan of the individual and often worsens with time (Schröder et al., 2013). The impact on the individual can vary from mild to debilitating and can cause severe problems in family, social, and professional life (Dozier, 2015b; Edelstein et al., 2013). Although misophonia is a chronic condition, it can vary due to other factors. Patients have reported that the severity of their misophonia is affected by their momentary feeling of well-being (Wu et al., 2014).
Research on the etiology and nature of misophonia is limited by the lack of an animal model (Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014). Studies to date have focused on the stimulus-emotion relationship and physiological responses accompanying strong emotions (Edelstein et al., 2013; Schröder et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2014). The etiology and nature of misophonia has been ascribed to physiological abnormalities in the brain (Møller, 2011), general hyper-reactivity similar to sensory processing disorder (Schröder et al., 2013), and classical conditioning (Dozier, 2015b; Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014; Schröder et al., 2013). Most discussions of misophonia refer to the condition as an emotional response to trigger stimuli, with accompanying fight-or-flight responses, including both physiological arousal and behavioral activation as shown in Figure 1 (Bernstein et al., 2013; Edelstein et al., 2013; Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2002, 2014; Schröder et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2014).
Popular view of the misophonic response.
Dozier (2015a, 2015b) identified a discrete muscle reflex in response to trigger stimuli, which occurred independently of the emotional response when the trigger stimuli were sufficiently weak (see Figure 2). Dozier proposed that the emotional response may be elicited by the sensation from the physical reflex, because of the observed direct relationship between the decrease of the physical reflex in treatment and the decrease of the emotional response in real-life (see Figure 3).
Initial skeletal reflex response to a misophonic trigger stimulus. The trigger stimulus directly elicits a skeletal muscle contraction.
Misophonia emotional response is elicited by the physical reflex.
As shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3, the trigger stimulus elicits a response. Such a stimulus-response pair is known as a reflex. A Pavlovian conditioned reflex is generally viewed as being learned through a temporal pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS), which becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS), and an unconditioned stimulus (US), such that the CS becomes associated with the US and elicits a response similar to the unconditioned response (UR) elicited by the US (Lattal, 2012). It has been demonstrated that the critical pairing for conditioning to occur is the NS/CS with the UR (Donahoe & Vegas, 2004), rather than that of the NS/CS and the US. When a stimulus occurs 0 to 2 seconds prior to a skeletal reflex response, Pavlovian conditioning can occur (Furedy & Riley, 1987, p. 7), and that stimulus can then elicit a conditioned response.
There have been no controlled studies on the treatment of misophonia, but there are several published case studies and summaries of patient outcomes. The most established method of treating misophonia is to add noise to the patient’s environment, which reduces the misophonic response to auditory triggers (Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014; Johnson, 2014). This is generally accomplished with a behind-the-ear sound generator that resembles a small hearing aid. Additionally, this treatment has incorporated protocols to promote active extinction of the misophonic response (Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014) or cognitive behavioral therapy to manage misophonia as a chronic condition (Johnson, 2014). Both methods have reported a high level of positive patient outcomes, but details on attrition, statistical significance, and effect size have not been reported.
A case study of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat misophonia in a young woman reported remediation of impaired social functioning at end of treatment and at 4-months posttreatment, although the woman still found the trigger stimuli unpleasant (Bernstein et al., 2013). Another CBT case study reported successful reduction in maladaptive behavior associated with trigger stimuli in two adolescents (McGuire, Wu, & Storch, 2015), but no follow-up data was provided. A third case study reported using a counterconditioning treatment called the Neural Repatterning Technique (NRT) in a middle-aged woman by individually counterconditioning three auditory triggers and a visual trigger (Dozier, 2015a). This treatment paired a continuous positive stimulus with an intermittent, reduced-intensity trigger stimulus which resulted in a progressive decline in the strength of her physical reflex to the trigger stimulus (see Figure 2). The patient reported a decline in her emotional responses to real-life trigger stimuli which accompanied the decline in her physical reflex during treatment (see Figure 3). The patient reported a large reduction in the severity of her misophonia at the end of treatment, and at 4- and 10-months posttreatment.
At the 2013 Misophonia Association Conference, a member of the patient panel reported virtually eliminating his misophonic emotional response by relaxing all of his muscles continually during a trigger situation (Martz, 2013). Discussion with the author revealed that this individual developed proficiency in progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) as a treatment for his general anxiety as a teenager, and for many years he relaxed his muscles immediately after triggers to suppress his emotional response.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is practiced by systematically tensing and relaxing 15 to 20 skeletal muscle groups (Borkovec & Sides, 1979). It has been demonstrated that individuals who practice PMR develop increased control of skeletal muscles, including a reduction in muscle tension during stressful events (Borkovec & Sides, 1979; Lehrer, Woolfolk, Rooney, McCann, & Carrington, 1983; O'Bannon, Richard, & Runcie, 1987). Daily PMR has been shown to be a benefit in treating anxiety disorders and improving well-being (Borkovec & Sides, 1979; Conrad & Roth, 2007; Dehghan-Nayeri & Adib-Hajbaghery, 2011; O'Bannon, Richard, & Runcie, 1987; Öst, 1987, 1988a).
Applied Relaxation is an enhancement to PMR that incorporates PMR as the initial relaxation training (Conrad & Roth, 2007; Öst, 1987, 1988b). The second phase of training includes relaxing each muscle group sequentially without first tensing it. The final phase develops the skill of relaxing all muscles simultaneously. Applied relaxation is the technique which was ascribed as an effective management technique for misophonia by one misophonic individual (Martz, 2013).
There is little absolute certainty about misophonia due to the sparse research on the condition, except the finding that typically innocuous auditory and visual stimuli evoke extreme, involuntary emotional responses in the misophonic individual (see Figure 1). Misophonia is a chronic condition that generally maintains or strengthens, so it is unlikely that the condition will abate without intervention. Of fundamental interest to this case is the view of misophonia as a conditioned reflex response and therefore subject to change through experience, as reported by two misophonia treatment providers (Dozier, 2015a; Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014). The physical reflex response of misophonia, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, identifies a characteristic that is germane to this case. The course of treatment was informed by the research on muscle relaxation which indicates that the daily practice of PMR provides broad wellness benefits in addition to developing improved muscle control.
Miley (pseudonym) was a 21-year-old, single Caucasian woman. She attended university during the school year, but had just moved home for the summer. Her mother was divorced and lived alone. Miley reported having a generally positive relationship with her mother, except for the issue of misophonic triggers by her mother, which made living together difficult. Miley was not taking psychotropic medications. She presented for treatment by VSee video-chat and was well-groomed, articulate, and outgoing, with an overall positive attitude toward life which was reflected in her bright smile and cheerful demeanor. (VSee is a medical-grade internet video chat service that meets the confidentiality requirements for treatment of patients).
Miley contacted the author by email seeking treatment for misophonia after she had self-diagnosed her condition based on internet research. She was far from the treatment facility, so assessment and treatment were provided by VSee. Although her misophonia caused extreme emotions and was a major problem for her at university, she requested help with the misophonic triggers from her mother, which specifically were sounds of chewing and scraping of utensils on dishes. She reported extreme emotions of anger and rage in response to being triggered by her mother, which prevented them from eating together.
Miley reported that her misophonia began at about age 6 or 7, but her first concrete instance of a severe response to a trigger was at age 9. Her first triggers were her mother’s yawning and gum chewing, and a classmate yawning. She reported that her childhood seemed fairly normal to her. She viewed herself as overweight at age 6 and tried to diet at age 8. Her parents divorced when she was 8, but she didn’t feel overly affected by this or other life events. She reported that she was a sensitive child, who responded to her mother’s emotions and that her mother was often stressed. Miley reported that she had never been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or other mental conditions, and that she did not have any such tendencies.
All assessment forms were downloaded from misophoniatreatment.com and submitted by email, including an informed consent. The questionnaires included the Misophonia Assessment Questionnaire (MAQ) and the Misophonia Coping Responses (MCR) surveys by audiologist Marsha Johnson, which she has used in her practice for over a decade. The MAQ contains 21 questions on time spent with various negative thoughts and feelings about misophonia. The rating scale is 0 to 3, with 3 being “almost all the time” and 0 being “none of the time” so the sum score can range from 0 to 63. Johnson (2014) used the sum MAQ score to rate patient misophonia severity as mild (1-21), moderate (22-42), or severe (43-63). Other questionnaires included the Misophonia Activation Scale (MAS-1) from misophonia-UK.org, Misophonia Physical Sensation scale (MPS) and Misophonia Trigger Severity scale (MTS) by audiologist Natan Bauman, and the Misophonia Emotional Response (MER) survey by the author. See Appendices 1-6 for the specific content of the assessments and patient responses. Presently there are no validated misophonia assessment instruments.
The written assessment was based solely on the self-report of the client. Her responses supported her self-diagnosis of misophonia. Miley’s responses on the MAQ showed that she had a high level of preoccupation with misophonia, answering 16 of the 21 questions with “a good deal” or “almost all of the time,” and the other 5 with “a little of the time.” Her sum score was 49 at intake, which rated her misophonia as “severe.” Miley’s initial rating for her emotional distress to triggers was 9 on the MAS-1, and her physical sensation was 7 on the MPS. Her rating was 8 on the MTS, which is a combination of emotional and physical response severity (see Table 1).
aValues are sum scores. bValues are maxima. cMultiple ratings indicate response variability. dMode = 1. eMode = 3. fMode = 0.
On the MCR survey Miley reported that she usually responded to triggers with mild responses that indicated she was annoyed or upset, or by turning away or covering her eyes, putting on headphones, moving away from the sound, and leaving the room either immediately or after attempting to tolerate the sound. She reported often engaging in more aggressive responses, in that she would sternly ask the triggering individual to stop making the sound, verbally snap at the person making the sound, or use physical violence on the person making the sound. Her individual responses are shown in Appendix 2.
Miley’s emotional responses to triggers were extreme. All of her responses on the MCR were “almost all the time” except for nonaggressive feelings such as wishing she were deaf, not wanting to offend, or feeling hopeless. She also rated herself low on feeling offended by the person making the sound and feeling disgust. Her individual responses are shown in Appendix 6.
Miley’s responses on the assessments indicated that she was suffering from misophonia. To confirm this diagnosis, the therapist tested for an immediate physical reflex response to a single instance of a trigger stimulus (see Figure 2 and Figure 3). The therapist asked Miley to close her eyes and relax while he used a spoon and a bowl to make a trigger sound. The therapist’s first trigger sounds were intentionally too soft and short to trigger the patient. The therapist then increased the volume and duration of the sound until Miley reported that she was triggered. She reported that she felt the response in her hands and forearms as if to make a fist, which indicated that the muscle that contracted was probably the flexor digitorum profundus in her forearms.
Misophonia is characterized as an involuntary response to a trigger stimulus. A counterconditioning treatment (i.e., NRT treatment) was reported as being effective in the treatment of specific trigger stimuli for a middle-aged woman (Dozier, 2015a) whose misophonic responses consisted of a physical reflex response to the trigger stimuli and an emotional response. It was posited that the physical reflex response mediated the emotional response, as shown in Figure 3 (Dozier, 2015b). The NRT treatment described by Dozier (2015a) focused on eliminating the physical reflex response without addressing the emotional response. In that case, reducing or eliminating the physical response reduced or eliminated the emotional response in real-life settings. The counterconditioning treatment was delivered in a weekly session with the therapist and with custom audio recordings for daily, independent sessions by the patient. A treatment app (Misophonia Trigger Tamer) was developed by the author for smartphones to automate the delivery of the NRT treatment. The app delivered a continuous positive auditory stimulus (music) and intermittently delivered the trigger stimulus. The app provided control for volume, duration, and rate of the trigger stimulus, which allowed the patient real-time control of the treatment. The app also had the capability for the patient to record and edit custom trigger stimuli, and use their choice of music for the positive stimulus. Delivery of the positive stimulus with the app is optional. The positive stimulus could also be provided by another activity such as a taking a walk or viewing photographs.
Misophonia is reported to persist and often worsen with time (Schröder et al., 2013). Therefore, if misophonia includes a conditioned physical reflex response to the trigger, there must be a mechanism that allows Pavlovian conditioning to occur, such that the trigger-response reflex is maintained or strengthened. Dozier (2015b) posited that the pairing of the trigger stimulus and an increased intensity response can occur when the individual receives repeated triggers. Firstly, muscle tension may increase if the muscle affected by the trigger is not relaxed before the subsequent trigger stimulus, especially when the trigger stimuli occur at high rate. Secondly, a heightened state of anger and distress is experienced with misophonic triggers, and this generally increases muscle tension, which could also contribute to the maintenance of the conditioned reflex. To achieve the opposite effect, an individual would need to relax the affected muscle and remain calm while experiencing repeated trigger stimuli.
As previously discussed, Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) has been demonstrated to increase deliberate control of relaxing a specific muscle; therefore, engaging in PMR for sufficient time to develop muscle control prior to the counterconditioning treatment may enhance the treatment effect. Relaxing muscles in response to triggers, as is taught in Applied Relaxation, might also reduce the emotional upheaval of a trigger situation, as previously discussed (Martz, 2013). Because of the broad benefits of daily deep relaxation, including reduction in anxiety, the author viewed PMR as a practice with the potential to enhance the therapeutic effect of treatment either directly or indirectly.
The treatment design for this case was essentially an automated version of the NRT treatment presented in Dozier (2015a) with the addition of Progressive Muscle Relaxation to develop muscle control and Applied Relaxation during treatment and when exposed to real-life trigger stimuli.
The initial session included the assessment and a discussion on misophonia including ways to manage the condition. The topics covered were 1) the reflexive nature of misophonia; 2) how to reduce triggers by adding noise to the environment; 3) the importance of not enduring triggers; 4) an explanation of the NRT treatment; 5) selecting a the first trigger to address in treatment; 6) selecting the positive stimulus for treatment; 7) verification that Miley had the capability to set up her smartphone for treatment; and 8) a discussion of Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Miley was instructed to download the Misophonia Trigger Tamer app from iTunes or Google Play, learn to use it with the tutorial videos, set up the playlist and trigger in the app, and practice PMR twice a day.
Miley committed to performing the PMR exercise twice a day for the next week using online training video and guided audio downloads. She also committed to conducting four to six NRT 30-minute treatment sessions per week. All NRT treatments were to be carried out independently using the Misophonia Trigger Tamer app. All sessions with the therapist were to be conducted by VSee, which is a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant video-chat service.
Miley performed PMR twice each day for the 7 days before the second therapist session. At this session, she reported that relaxing her hands had reduced her emotional response when she was triggered in public, but that adding noise to her environment had not been effective in reducing her misophonic physical and emotional responses at home. During the previous week she recorded a spoon-on-bowl trigger and edited it, so that the trigger sound began immediately at the start of the file. She also set up a playlist in the Misophonia Trigger Tamer with a mixture of calming and happy songs to use as the positive counterconditioning stimulus. The session with the therapist included discussion about how to set the app parameters for the NRT treatment and a 5-minute sample NRT treatment to insure Miley knew how to conduct the treatment and that the parameters were properly set. She was instructed to increase the volume and duration of the trigger to maintain a low physical response of approximately 1 on a 0 to 5 scale, where 0 was no reflex response and 5 was a real-world trigger response. Miley was instructed to complete the 30-minute NRT treatment session she started with the therapist, and to perform a 30-minute treatment each day. The therapist recommended that she keep her hands relaxed during treatment sessions and wiggle her fingers when triggered in real life.
At the third session with the therapist, Miley reported that she had performed PMR every day and the NRT treatment on 3 days. She stopped after the third treatment because she no longer triggered to the recorded stimulus. She was instructed to use 2 other trigger recordings of the spoon-on-bowl sound and start a variety of chewing-sound triggers once she did not respond to the spoon-on-bowl triggers. She was instructed to continue daily PMR, relax her hands when triggered in real life, and continue with daily NRT treatments.
At the fourth therapist session, which was 2 weeks later, Miley reported that she had performed PMR most days. She happily announced that her responses to the spoon-on-bowl and chewing triggers were gone for her recorded sounds, but still small in real life. At this point, Miley chose to terminate treatment. She had conducted the 5, 30-minute NRT treatment sessions and 4 shorter sessions. The total time was equivalent to 7 half-hour NRT sessions. The Misophonia Trigger Tamer app history log is shown in Table 2. There are 9 entries, indicating that Miley heard a total of 368 spoon-on-bowl triggers and 178 chewing triggers. The duration of the triggers was 0.9s for the spoon-on-bowl triggers and 1.3s for chewing triggers. The inter-stimulus interval was 21 seconds.
The therapist followed up with Miley by email a month after she returned to university. She reported that her misophonia was still a significant problem, especially for yawning, which was both a visual and auditory trigger. She wrote that her response to yawning the previous semester was a 9 or 10, but this semester the worst she had experienced was a 5 and it was usually about a 3. (This verbal report did not reference any specific misophonia assessment scale).
Miley completed the assessment forms and returned them by email for a 6-month posttreatment assessment (see Table 1). Her MAQ sum score had declined to 7, and three of those points were her response to the item, “My sound issues do not seem to have a known cause.” (See Appendix 1 for specific responses). The large reduction in her MAQ sum score is illustrated in Figure 4. Her responses on the MCR survey indicated that she had a greatly reduced overt behavioral response to triggers. Her predominant responses to triggers were to “hear a known trigger sound . . . and feel no physical sensation” and “calmly move away from the sound.” (See Appendix 2). She also reported greatly reduced emotional responses to triggers. On the intake MER survey, 20 of the 26 responses were “almost all the time.” At 6-month follow-up, her highest response was “a good deal of the time” for feeling that she must see the person making the sound. Fourteen responses were “not at all” and 11 responses were “a little of the time.” (See Appendix 6). This large decline in the emotional distress to triggers was consistent with the decline in her MAQ sum score. Her MAS-1 score was 4, with a note that 1 was the typical response. Her MPS score was 2, with 0 being a typical response. The MTS score for spoon-on-bowl triggers was 0, and the response for chewing triggers was 0-2. The MTS scores for non-treated triggers was 0 to 3 and 11.
A second follow-up was conducted by email at 12 months posttreatment (see Table 1, Figure 4, and Appendix 1). Miley’s misophonia severity had increased as evidenced by the increase in the MAQ sum score to 12 and MAS-1 typical response rating to 3. She also indicated an increase the severity of her response to triggers that had not been addressed in treatment (MTS scores of 0, 1, 8, 11, and 12, indicating that she occasionally experienced rage in response to triggers). However, the triggers specifically addressed in treatment had completely extinguished (MTS score of 0). She also reported that she had been recently diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.
Measure of misophonia severity (Misophonia Assessment Questionnaire sum score) over the course of treatment and follow-up.
There were no complicating factors such as difficulty creating appropriate materials for homework sessions as previously reported by Dozier (2015a). The Misophonia Trigger Tamer app allowed Miley to personally adjust the treatment parameters in response to changes in her physical response to the recorded trigger stimulus, so treatment was maintained at the prescribed level. The app also allowed Miley to record real instances of her triggers, edit them, and use them for treatment. The treatment did place a sizeable time demand on Miley. She was very diligent in performing the PMR exercises during the first week, but was sporadic with the NRT treatments, conducting these treatments on only 8 of the 21 days from start to end of treatment. The lack of compliance to the number of NRT treatment session was irrelevant due to her high rate of progress with the treatment. There were few, if any, issues with access or barriers to care in this case. The automation with Misophonia Trigger Tamer app reduced the therapist time to less than half of that required to provide the treatment manually, thereby greatly reducing the cost of treatment. VSee video-chat allowed the treatment to be provided over a long distance, and there were no interruptions to service.
This case includes a replication plus an extension of the treatment of misophonia reported in Dozier (2015a). The replicated issues of treating misophonia include the following: 1) the NRT treatment effectively ameliorated the misophonia in the patient; 2) there was a physical reflex response to the trigger stimulus as shown in Figure 2; 3) the physical reflex occurred independently of the emotional response during treatment; 4) the physical reflex acted like a Pavlovian conditioned reflex in the gradual decline to exposure; and 5) there was a direct relationship between the reduction of the physical reflex and the reduction of the emotional response in real-world experience after treatment, supporting the relationship between the physical reflex and the emotional response shown in Figure 3. This case extended the treatment of Dozier (2015a) by incorporating the Misophonia Trigger Tamer app as an automated delivery mechanism for the NRT treatment, PMR, and Applied Relaxation in the NRT sessions.
Further support that misophonia is a conditioned response comes from the observation of spontaneous recovery by the patient. Spontaneous recovery of conditioned reflexes is a well-documented phenomenon, wherein the reflex decays during an active extinction process and then recovers with time (Lattal, 2012). The Misophonia Trigger Tamer app has precise settings for the volume and duration of the trigger stimulus in treatment. When the parameter values at the end of a treatment were used at the beginning of the next treatment, the response to the trigger was initially stronger than at the end of the previous treatment. This is consistent with spontaneous recovery of a conditioned reflex. Identifying misophonia as a conditioned reflex phenomenon has important implications for management, treatment, and research.
Firstly, with Pavlovian conditioning, a neutral stimulus that occurs temporally with a conditioned stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus. For misophonia, this means that a nontrigger stimulus (e.g., jaw movement) occurring with a trigger stimulus (e.g., chewing sound) can become a new trigger. As noted in Dozier (2015a), a visual trigger will continue to be a trigger, even after the response to the associated auditory stimulus has been extinguished. The implication here is that individuals should be cautious about repeated exposure to trigger stimuli because of the possibility of acquiring new triggers. This is an issue for managing misophonia as a chronic condition and exposure to triggers during treatment. Any treatment that includes exposure to triggers should include techniques that effectively reduce the misophonic response or are devoid of consistent pairing of nontrigger stimuli with trigger stimuli.
Secondly, viewing misophonia as a conditioned reflex rather than the result of a neurological defect has broad treatment implications. There is a large body of research on Pavlovian conditioning that may be applicable to the development and enhancement of treatment procedures (Donahoe & Vegas, 2004; Furedy & Riley, 1987; Lattal, 2012; Mowrer & Klein, 2000; Pavlov, 2003/1927). One simple application is that treatment should include techniques that will reduce a fundamental misophonic reflex rather than solely attempting to reduce the overt coping response of the individual. Jastreboff and Jastreboff (2014) reported achieving meaningful reduction of misophonia severity in patients with a treatment protocol that included in vivo counterconditioning experiences, along with other management techniques.
Thirdly, there is an implication for research to understand misophonia. It has been proposed that misophonia is the result of a defective or malfunctioning structure in the upper brain (Møller, 2011), which is diametrically opposed to the view that misophonia is a Pavlovian conditioning phenomenon. Viewing misophonia as anomalous brain activity will bias the researchers toward looking for the cause of misophonia within the brain, compared to viewing misophonia as an aversive conditioned reflex which is a result of typical brain functioning and environmental experience.
A case study has inherent limitations of generalizability and demonstration of causal factors. A controlled study is needed to demonstrate a causal relationship between the intervention and the reduction of misophonic symptoms. The patient’s initial physical misophonic reflex was a hand grasp, which seems easier to willfully control, and so may have facilitated response to treatment. Many individuals have a physical reflex that is more difficult to relax than a hand grasp. Additionally, the dependent measures were self-reports of the patient which is a limitation to the reliability of the data. The subject in this case demonstrated a high level of self-efficacy and motivation by seeking treatment, which could have been a factor for her rapid response to treatment. Furthermore, there was no formal assessment of comorbid conditions which could have an effect on the case.
The forearm muscle contraction Miley experienced in response to triggers appeared to be an important factor in the manifestation of her misophonia. Identifying the specific physical reflex response in the assessment allowed her to increase the focus on that specific muscle in her PMR exercises. Relaxing a hand grasp is a common behavior, so it is likely that Miley’s ability to relax this muscle during treatment was not based solely on one week of PMR exercises. Control of the affected muscle seems to have contributed to an enhanced effect of the NRT treatment because she could willfully relax those muscles during treatment and when triggered in real life. Individuals with other muscle reflexes may require much more practice to gain control of the muscle affected by a misophonia trigger and hence receive the benefit of relaxing during NRT treatments.
In both this case and that which was discussed in Dozier (2015a), the NRT treatment was effective in reducing specific triggers, but the reduction of treated triggers did not reduce non-treated triggers. By relaxing her hands in treatment, Miley developed a method of responding to real-life trigger situations that reduced her future misophonic response. This is supported by the decline in her response to triggers from her posttreatment assessment to the start of semester email report, and then the 6-month follow-up assessment at the end of the semester. In this case, Miley developed the ability to relax the affected muscles, and relaxing those muscles in trigger situations was a likely cause for the gradual reduction of her misophonic response for non-treated triggers. However at the 12-month follow-up assessment, she reported an increase in her emotional response to triggers, but she reported that her physical reflex response had remained low. Her increased emotional response to triggers may have been related to her recent diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder.
This case demonstrated the successful use of the Misophonia Trigger Tamer app to deliver the NRT treatment. All NRT treatment sessions were conducted independently by the patient. Because the app gave the patient full control of the treatment parameters, proper training to use the app was essential. In this case, the patient was an intelligent, technically savvy university student. The training included tutorial videos, help from the therapist in setting the initial parameters for treatment, the guidance of an initial 5 minute NRT treatment, and learning how to adjust the trigger during treatment. The app allowed Miley to vary the intensity of the trigger stimulus within each treatment session to maintain the desired reflex response. Based on the success of the treatment, she did this well, but many patients will likely need more support and guidance.
In this case, the NRT treatment did not eliminate the misophonic response to the trigger. At the end of treatment, Miley had no response to the recorded triggers, but she still had a weak response to the trigger in real life. This is understandable because the treatment setting was a different context than real-life, and conditioned reflexes are context sensitive (Lattal, 2012). It has been demonstrated with animal research that a conditioned reflex which is extinguished in one setting, can still occur in a different setting. The use of recorded vs. live trigger stimuli is a limitation of the NRT treatment. After the NRT treatment, sometimes a misophonic reflex will decline and extinguish in the real-life setting, and sometimes it will maintain at a substantially reduced level (Dozier, 2015a). It is also possible for the misophonic response to strengthen after treatment. If the response in real-life settings is unacceptably strong, then further counterconditioning treatments could be incorporated with a context that is closer to real life, including use of real-life trigger stimuli. In this case, at the 6-month follow-up, Miley reported that she had no trigger response to the spoon-on-bowl sounds, and a weaker trigger response to chewing sounds. It is plausible that she relaxed her hands in trigger situations, and this aided in the continued decline in her misophonic response to the treated triggers. This issue seems important when setting expectations with the patient on the goals of treatment.
This case provides support for the use of the NRT treatment for specific misophonia trigger stimuli. This treatment may be used to reduce triggers from a single source (e.g., one person) or that occur in a single context (e.g., typing at work). Triggers should be treated sequentially, using at least three different recordings of each trigger. The patient responded extraordinarily well in this case. The treatment reported in Dozier (2015a) took over 5 months, and the patient in this study also responded well. An individual who responds more slowly may require a significantly longer treatment. The NRT treatment should enhance other treatments, such as an audiologist-provided behind-the-ear sound generator or CBT therapy, because it reduces the initial physical reflex of misophonia.
This case demonstrated the importance of identifying the initial physical misophonic reflex (see Figure 3) and addressing the reflex in treatment. The therapist should help the patient identify the physical misophonic reflex as part of the assessment, which can often be accomplished by having the patient relax while hearing a single, short, quiet trigger. In this setting, the patient can often identify a specific physical response. Rarely can a misophonic patient accurately identify their initial physical reflex prior to assessment. Typically patients have reported some of the physiological responses that accompany the extreme emotional responses of misophonia as their initial physical reflex. The author has witnessed initial physical reflexes that include virtually every skeletal muscle and many internal responses (e.g., esophagus constriction, stomach constriction, intestine constriction, sexual sensation, nausea, and the urge to urinate). Many individuals have a reflex that affects several muscles (e.g., calves and toes, shoulder and neck, or several muscles in arm).
Incorporating Applied Relaxation into the treatment protocol is highly recommended, with a focus on gaining control of the affected muscle. Prolonged use of Applied Relaxation may be critical to cases in which the treatment effect is slower.
The NRT treatment addresses the physical reflex response of misophonia. The treatment parameters need to be set so that the patient perceives the physical response to the trigger. Some patients have reported a combined emotional and physical response using the Misophonia Trigger Tamer and have responded to treatment. Cases wherein the individual reported only an emotional response to the trigger during treatment have not shown progress.
Some patients reported a pain or sensation in the ear. This can be caused by tensor tympani syndrome which accompanies severe misophonia (Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014). This should be considered an accompanying symptom of misophonia and not the initial physical reflex. The settings for the trigger stimulus in NRT treatment need to be high enough to activate the initial physical reflex. Tensor tympani syndrome will likely be eliminated by successfully treating misophonia (Jastreboff & Jastreboff, 2014).
The Misophonia Trigger Tamer app is a means of delivering the NRT treatment for auditory triggers. Visual triggers are common in misophonia and often develop to visual stimuli paired with an auditory trigger. The Visual Trigger Tamer app can be used to provide the NRT treatment for visual triggers. The app uses a video clip for the trigger and allows video, audio, and pictures to be included in the playlist.
The MAQ sum score provides a measure of the distress of an individual due to misophonia. This measure seems to be sensitive to the pervasiveness of trigger stimuli for the individual, as well as the severity of the response to individual triggers. For example, one patient used white noise and open ear headphones as the sole treatment. Her MAQ sum score dropped from 47 to 17 after one assessment and management session because the noise reduced the severity of the misophonic response so she felt no anger. Treatment should include some methods of escape and avoidance of trigger stimuli to have an immediate, meaningful improvement in the distress caused by misophonia. This is likely to aid in the effectiveness of the NRT treatment because the reflex is not continually strengthened through exposure to the trigger and the patient will have an overall improvement in well-being, enabling a positive emotional state for the NRT treatment.
Individuals often seek the help of a psychological therapist for misophonia. In such cases, the therapist should consider all component parts of the misophonic experience. As shown in Figure 5, these parts are the trigger, the physical reflex response, the emotional response including physiological arousal, and overt behavior. The causal interactions shown with horizontal lines are those observed in this case, but it is likely that, in many cases, there are more complex interactions, as shown by the dotted lines. Parents generally seek help because of problems with overt child behavior. CBT or other talk therapy is often requested. Two case studies using CBT for misophonia reported positive outcomes (Bernstein et al., 2013; McGuire et al., 2015). It is recommended that a treatment plan address all component parts. Addressing only the overt behavior with enticing rewards seems contraindicated.
Five distinct components of the misophonic response.
Sensory processing disorder (SPD) or sensory over-responsivity shares similarities of symptomology with misophonia, and it has been suggested that SPD and misophonia are manifestations of a single disorder (Taylor et al., 2014). SPD manifests as over or under-responsiveness to stimulation from touch, taste, smell, vision, hearing, and movement, with tactile and auditory sensitivity being the most common (Reynolds & Lane, 2008; Taylor et al., 2014); and SPD auditory sensitivity is primarily to unexpected and loud noises (Schröder et al., 2013). Misophonia is generally limited to low volume auditory stimuli and visual stimuli associated with the auditory stimuli or repetitive movements. Therefore, SPD and misophonia can be viewed as different, unassociated conditions which may both result in an anger or fight-flight response (Schröder et al., 2013). Furthermore, we view the physical misophonia muscle reflex to trigger stimuli as additional support that SPD and misophonia area distinctively unique and different disorders.
Misophonia is a relatively unknown condition that is a detriment or impediment to the lives of many individuals. Although many think of misophonia as a rare disorder it may afflict hundreds of millions individuals worldwide. There is a great need for fundamental research on misophonia as well as research to validate assessment instruments and establish empirically-validated treatments (Webber & Storch, 2015). Misophonia research seems to be limited by a lack of interested professors and by institutes who have committed research tracks for various neurological and psychological conditions.
In this case, the debilitating effects of misophonia were ameliorated by treating a conditioned muscle reflex response to specific misophonic trigger stimuli and by the patient developing a generalized response of relaxing muscles when triggered. Although the patient experienced misophonia as an extreme emotional responses to specific environmental stimuli, it appears that her condition would be more accurately described as a conditioned skeletal muscle reflex response to specific environmental stimuli which in turn elicited extreme emotional responses. Likewise with the naming of this condition, misophonia focuses on the emotions of this disorder and diverts attention form a core component of the disorder, which is a conditioned aversive reflex. Further research on the components of misophonia is warranted. Aversive stimuli have been shown to evoke fight-or-flight responses in humans (Berkowitz, 1983; Berkowitz, Cochran, & Embree, 1981). These studies found that the aversive stimuli evoked a range of emotions that may not be reflected in overt behavior. Other research identified activation of the limbic system of humans in response to aversive odorants (Zald & Pardo, 1997) and to aversive gustatory stimuli (Zald, Lee, Fluegel, & Pardo, 1998). Such responses seem consistent with those of individuals with misophonia.
Some individuals with misophonia have a weak physical reflex. In these cases, the physical stimulus is too mild to be comparable to aversive stimuli used in research studies; however, the stimulation of the physical reflex may elicit a conditioned emotional reflex. The physical reflex is intrusive, and difficult to not perceive. A person may apply distraction techniques to divert their focus from the trigger stimuli, but the physical stimulation is still perceived and could therefore elicit the conditioned emotional response. For these reasons, a more appropriate name for Misophonia would be Conditioned Aversive Reflex Disorder.
Misophonia is generally viewed as a life-long, debilitating condition, which is disruptive to social and professional life, and becomes progressively worse with time. This case study treatment provides some encouraging results where the typical course of this condition was potentially reversed and apparently abated. It is hoped that the information presented here can supplement other work in developing treatment for misophonia to provide meaningful relief to those suffering from this disorder.
The author did not receive any funding or financial support for the treatment development, treatment delivery, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The author is a private practitioner, with a “doing business as” entity of the Misophonia Treatment Institute. He is the developer of the Misophonia Trigger Tamer, the Visual Trigger Tamer, and Misophonia Reflex Finder apps, which are patent pending.
Furedy, J. J., & Riley, D. M. (1987). Human Pavlovian autonomic conditioning and the cognitive paradigm. In G. Gavey (Ed.), Cognitive processes and Pavlovian conditioning in humans (pp. 1-25). Chichester, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons.
Johnson, M. (2014, February). 50 cases of misophonia using the MMP. Paper presented at the misophonia conference of the Tinnitus Practitioners Association, Atlanta, GA.
Lattal, K. M. (2012). Pavlovian conditioning. In G. J. Madden (Ed.), APA handbook of behavior analysis: Vol. 1. Methods and principles (pp. 283-306). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.
Martz, K. (2013). Patient Panel. Presentation at the annual conference of the Misophonia Association, Portland, OR.
Møller, A. R. (2011). Misophonia, phonophobia, and “exploding head” syndrome. In A. R. Møller, B. Langguth, D. DeRidder, & T. Kleinjung (Eds.), Textbook of tinnitus (pp. 25-27). New York, NY: Springer.
Mowrer, R. R., & Klein, S. B. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of contemporary learning theories. Howe, United Kingdom: Psychology Press.
The sum of all scores of this assessment is an indicator of the severity of misophonia.
Level 0 I hear a known trigger sound but feel no discomfort.
Level 1 I am aware of the presence of a known trigger person but feel no, or minimal, anticipatory anxiety.
Level 2 Known trigger sounds elicit minimal psychic discomfort, irritation, or annoyance. No symptoms of panic or fight or flight response.
Level 3 I feel increasing levels of psychic discomfort but do not engage in any physical response. I may be hyper-vigilant to audio-visual stimuli.
Level 4 I engage in a minimal physical response – non-confrontational coping behaviors, such as asking the trigger person to stop making the noise, discreetly covering one ear, or by calmly moving away from the noise. No panic or fight or flight symptoms exhibited.
Level 5 I adopt more confrontational coping mechanisms, such as overtly covering my ears, mimicking the trigger person, make repeated sounds, or display overt irritation.
Level 6 I experience substantial psychic discomfort. Symptoms of panic and a fight or flight response begin to engage.
Level 7 I experience substantial psychic discomfort. Increasing use (louder, more frequent) use of confrontational coping mechanisms. I may re-imagine the trigger sound and visual cues over and over again, sometimes for weeks, months or even years after the event.
Level 8 I experience substantial psychic discomfort and some violence thoughts.
Level 9 Panic/rage reaction in full swing. Conscious decision not to use violence on trigger person. Actual flight from vicinity of noise and/or use of physical violence on an inanimate object. Panic, anger or severe irritation may be manifest in my demeanor.
Level 10 Actual use of physical violence on a person or animal (i.e., a household pet). Violence may be inflicted on self (self-harming).
Level 0 I feel no physical sensation.
Level 1 I feel minimal physical sensation and can ignore it.
Level 2 I feel some physical sensation but can often/always ignore it.
Level 3 I feel some physical sensation but have difficulty or cannot ignore it.
Level 4 I feel elevated physical sensation and usually cannot ignore it.
Level 5 Feels elevated physical sensation, definitely cannot ignore it.
Level 6 Feels elevated physical sensation, cannot ignore it and each incidence has an impact on person’s life.
Level 7 Feels physical sensation as described above and cannot cope with it.
Level 8 Feels physical sensation which can be best described as emotional pain.
Level 9 Feels physical sensation which can be best described as physical pain.
Level 10 Feels physical sensation which is overpowering and is causing physical pain.
0 I feel no physical sensation.
1 I feel minimal physical sensation.
2 I feel some physical sensation but can ignore it.
3 I feel some physical sensation but cannot ignore it.
4 I feel elevated physical sensation and have difficulty ignoring it.
5 I feel elevated physical sensation and definitely cannot ignore it.
6 I feel elevated physical sensation, cannot ignore it, and have negative emotions.
7 I feel physical sensation as described above, cannot cope with it, and have strong negative emotions.
8 I feel physical sensation which can be best described as emotional pain and causes very strong emotions.
9 I feel physical sensation which can be best described as physical pain and causes extreme emotions.
10 I feel physical sensation which can be best described as severe physical pain and overpowering emotions.
11 I have no physical sensation but immediately get angry at the person making the sound.
12 I have no physical sensation but immediately have rage at the person making the sound.
Thomas Dozier is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (behavior scientist). He holds a Master of Science in Behavior Analysis and the Family from California State University, Stanislaus. He has researched and developed treatments for misophonia since 2012. He established the Misophonia Treatment Institute (MTI) in 2013 and serves as director. Misophonia Treatment Institute is a “doing business as” entity. Thomas H. Dozier is the sole proprietor of this entity. The goal of MTI is to promote research, development of treatments, and provide information and treatment for individuals with misophonia. In addition to his work on misophonia, Dozier works as a parenting coach to help parents apply behavior analysis to practical family problems. | 2019-04-20T16:54:13Z | https://psyct.psychopen.eu/article/view/138/html |
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Surface Oncology, Inc. (the “Company” or “Surface”) is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company focused on using its specialized knowledge of the biological pathways critical to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment for the development of next-generation cancer therapies. Surface was incorporated in April 2014 under the laws of the State of Delaware.
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The accounting policies followed in the preparation of the interim condensed consolidated financial statements are consistent in all material respects with those presented in Note 1 to the financial statements included in the Company’s final prospectus for its initial public offering of its common stock filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4) of the Securities Act on April 18, 2018, which the Company refers to as the Prospectus, except for the Company’s adoption of the new standards as discussed below.
The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of expenses during the reporting periods. Significant estimates and assumptions reflected in these consolidated financial statements include, but are not limited to, revenue recognition, the accrual of research and development expenses and the valuation of common stock and stock-based awards. Estimates are periodically reviewed in light of changes in circumstances, facts and experience. Changes in estimates are recorded in the period in which they become known. Actual results could differ from the Company’s estimates.
The accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet as of September 30, 2018, the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, the condensed consolidated statements of cash flows for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, and the condensed consolidated statement of redeemable convertible preferred stock and stockholders’ equity (deficit) for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 are unaudited. The unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the audited annual consolidated financial statements and, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments, which include only normal recurring adjustments, necessary for the fair statement of the Company’s financial position as of September 30, 2018 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017. The financial data and other information disclosed in these notes related to the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017 are also unaudited. The results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for the year ending December 31, 2018, any other interim periods, or any future year period.
In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (or FASB) issued ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), which supersedes all existing revenue recognition requirements, including most industry-specific guidance. The new standard requires a company to recognize revenue when it transfers goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration that the company expects to receive for those goods or services. In August 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-14, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Deferral of the Effective Date, which delayed the effective date of the new standard from January 1, 2017 to January 1, 2018. The FASB also agreed to allow entities to choose to adopt the standard as of the original effective date. In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-08, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Principal versus Agent Considerations, which clarifies the implementation guidance on principal versus agent considerations. In April 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-10, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Identifying Performance Obligations and Licensing, which clarifies how a company identifies promised goods or services and clarifies whether an entity’s promise to grant a license provides a customer with either a right to use the entity’s intellectual property (which is satisfied at a point in time) or a right to access the entity’s intellectual property (which is satisfied over time). In May 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-12, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Narrow-Scope Improvements and Practical Expedients related to disclosures of remaining performance obligations, as well as other amendments to guidance on collectability, non-cash consideration and the presentation of sales and other similar taxes collected from customers. In December 2016 the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-20, Technical Corrections and Improvements to Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which amends certain narrow aspects of the guidance issued in ASU 2014-09 including guidance related to the disclosure of remaining performance obligations and prior-period performance obligations, as well as other amendments to the guidance on loan guarantee fees, contract costs, refund liabilities, advertising costs and the clarification of certain examples. ASU 2016-08, ASU 2016-10 and ASU 2016-12 have the same effective dates and transition requirements as ASU 2014-09, all of which collectively are herein referred to as Revenue ASUs.
During the nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company adopted ASU No. 2016-15, Statement of Cash Flows: Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments (“ASU 2016-15”), which addresses diversity in practice in how certain cash receipts and cash payments are presented and classified in the statement of cash flows. The adoption of this standard did not have any impact on the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements.
In November 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-18, Statement of Cash Flows: Restricted Cash (“ASU 2016-18”). The amendments in this update require that amounts generally described as restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents be included within cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning-of-period and end-of-period total amounts shown on the statement of cash flows. ASU 2016-18 was effective January 1, 2018. As a result of adopting ASU 2016-18, the Company includes its restricted cash balance in the cash and cash equivalents reconciliation of operating, investing and financing activities. The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash within the balance sheet that sum to the total of the same such amounts shown in the statement of cash flows.
In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (“ASU 2016-02”). ASU 2016-02 will require lessees to recognize most leases on their balance sheet as a right-of-use asset and a lease liability. Leases will be classified as either operating or finance, and classification will be based on criteria similar to current lease accounting, but without explicit bright lines. In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-10, “Codification Improvements to Topic 842, Leases” (“ASU 2018-10”), which provides narrow amendments to clarify how to apply certain aspects of the new lease standard, and ASU No. 2018-11, “Leases (Topic 842) – Targeted Improvements” (ASU 2018-11), which addresses implementation issues related to the new lease standard. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018 and interim periods within those fiscal years, and early adoption is permitted. The Company anticipates material adjustments to its consolidated balance sheet for the recognition of a lease liability and a right of use asset for its operating leases, which primarily represents the lease of its corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In July 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-11, Earnings Per Share, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity, Derivatives and Hedging (Part I) Accounting for Certain Financial Instruments with Down Round Features, (Part II) Replacement of the Indefinite Deferral for Mandatorily Redeemable Financial Instruments of Certain Nonpublic Entities and Certain Mandatorily Redeemable Noncontrolling Interests with a Scope Exception (“ASU 2017-11”). This guidance is intended to reduce the complexity associated with accounting for certain financial instruments with characteristics of liabilities and equity. Specifically, a down round feature would no longer cause a freestanding equity-linked financial instrument (or an embedded conversion option) to be considered “not indexed to an entity’s own stock” and therefore accounted for as a derivative liability at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in current earnings. Down round features are most often found in warrants and conversion options embedded in debt or preferred equity instruments. In addition, the guidance re-characterized the indefinite deferral of certain provisions on distinguishing liabilities from equity to a scope exception with no accounting effect. This guidance becomes effective January 1, 2019. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact that the adoption of ASU 2017-11 will have on its consolidated financial statements.
In June, 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-07, Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting (“ASU 2018-07”). The new standard simplifies the accounting for share-based payments to nonemployees by aligning it with the accounting for share-based payments to employees, with certain exceptions. The new standard will be effective beginning January 1, 2019 and early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact that the adoption of ASU 2018-07 will have on its results of operations.
Other accounting standards that have been issued by the FASB or other standards-setting bodies that do not require adoption until a future date are not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s financial statements upon adoption.
The Company determined that there was no material change in the credit risk of these investments. As a result, the Company determined it did not hold any investments with an other-than-temporary decline in fair value as of September 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017. | 2019-04-24T14:23:10Z | https://investors.surfaceoncology.com/node/6941/html |
What is the AUREA Award?
The award is a global competition to identify and celebrate excellence in Augmented and Virtual Reality in the entertainment sector, across a range of applications, products and experiences. Its goal is to award state-of-the art work in this booming sector where technology and creativity meet. AUREA seeks to present products and services that not only deliver great experiences, but also demonstrate the great potential of this sector for the future of technology and entertainment.
For entrants, no. For the jury, yes. Because this is our inaugural year, and we want to encourage a wide range of potential entries from all corners of the entertainment sector, we are not asking entrants to declare typical categories such as “application” or “hardware”. We want our all-star jury to have the freedom to decide what the most exciting or groundbreaking products or experiences are, across all potential categories.
The jury will be free to determine winners, and they will be looking to award them in five general categories: Creative, Experience, Impact, Innovation, Interaction, and a special category outside the main competition: Lifetime Achievement. You cannot apply for this last category. The jury will decide for itself based on the following criteria: a significant contribution through one’s career; innovative and creative excellence; and a considerable impact on the market.
Each entry will first be considered based on your online submission of a) answers to the online Entry Form, which includes a short description of the entry and, where applicable, a relevant link or website URL, as well as b) up to 3 uploaded items. These can include documents that describe the entry (for example, PDFs, Presentations, etc.); videos or links to videos showcasing or explaining it.
What do you mean by “entertainment”?
We see a vast range of new products and experiences in entertainment. On the content side, that means new forms of film or storytelling projects - from live action to animation - as well as music experiences, live events, games, or mixed reality experiences. This also includes applications, whether they are experienced via headsets, smart phones or other hardware or on-site installations.
And speaking of hardware, there is a boom in great new headsets, wearables and other hardware offering exciting experiences. Finally, this wouldn’t be possible also without a diverse array of enabling technologies, be they platforms, software, middleware, or other solutions working in the background. If you think your entry touches the entertainment sector, even only partially, and moves it forward, we encourage you to enter.
Who is behind the AUREA Award?
The award is an initiative of Mack Media, who are pioneers in bringing together innovative technology with entertainment. Their Virtual Reality roller coaster experience, Coastiality, is already a market-leader in turning theme park rides into thrilling VR experiences or even interactive games. Seeing the great wave of innovation that AR and VR are bringing to entertainment and even live experiences, they have created the AUREA Awards to provide a benchmark for excellence as well as a forum for leaders of the field to gather, exchange ideas and strengthen ties across the many elements of the industry.
How will the awards be conducted?
Once the entry deadline (Oct. 14, 2018) has been reached, we’ll select and notify a pool of finalists, who will be invited to pitch our all-star jury live at a VIP gathering on November 29-30, 2018 in Europa-Park in Rust, Germany. The awards gathering will feature an intimate, invitation-only conference on Virtual & Augmented Reality, and finalists will be able to take part in this high-level event with jury members and other participants.
As part of the proceedings, the jury will select winners immediately after the live pitching sessions, and the awards will be announced at a ceremony that day. Finalists will also be invited to spend the remainder of the weekend enjoying Europa-Park with other attendees or even their families. We invite you to enter this one-of-a-kind competition and be a part of this exclusive conversation about the future of this exciting industry!
We therefore invite entrants (for-profit or non-profit companies, foundations, or individuals) from the entire AR and VR ecosystem, be it experience or storytelling producers, game developers, application or service providers, hardware makers, software or platform providers, or other players active in the market.
All we ask is that your product or service be operational, either as a company or a working product that our jury can see, hear, touch or experience, and that consumers, users or audiences can or have already experienced it by Oct. 14, 2018, our entry deadline. Entries should have been released or available starting July 14, 2017 to October 14, 2018.
We will place judging priority on entries that have more recently entered the market and only one entry per company is allowed.
What is not eligible for entry?
In our first year of the awards, we don’t wish to be too constricting. However, some types of entries with little chance of making the cut would include: pitch decks of startups or apps that don’t have a product on the market; demo reels of story ideas for experiences that aren’t yet available; prototypes of hardware devices that aren’t available. In general, if it’s more of an idea than a real thing, we encourage you to keep developing it and possibly enter next year. Also, if your potential entry shows us no plausible connection whatsoever to the entertainment sector of VR and AR, no matter how convincing it is, then it won’t be considered eligible.
When are entries accepted and due?
Entries Accepted: Starting June 26, 2018 - Apply Now!
A short, written description – maximum 300 words – of your entry. We suggest you formulate this carefully beforehand and be ready to copy/paste it into the form.
Up to three uploads that explain and support the entry. These can be documents such as info sheets, flyers, or presentations, links to videos, links to app downloads, or short films themselves (please no longer than 3 minutes).
Your agreement to abide by the Terms and Conditions described in this document.
Once you have submitted your entry, you will receive an automatic confirmation of its receipt. Our team will review the entry and confirm that it is eligible and enter it into the first round of judging to determine the finalists. As part of this process, we reserve the right to contact you via the email address you provide us for clarification or explanation of your entry, or to provide more details if we determine that more information is needed to understand or verify your entry.
Once we have confirmed that your entry is eligible, we will notify you that it will be considered for the finalist round starting after the deadline of October 14, 2018. After you have submitted an entry, you may withdraw from the award by contacting us via email. You may also resubmit your entry, for instance if there is a significant update or new material that can support it, but this will then cancel and supersede your previous entry.
There is no entry fee. The submission of an entry implies full and unconditional acceptance of all rules.
What should I say in the description?
Here are no required elements, but your description could include some of the following: a description of the product or experience from the user’s point of view, some background on its creation and launch date, any key metrics or info regarding potential market success, information on the company that is submitting it, and any other info that helps us understand why this entry was created or what it hopes to achieve.
What if my entry is a product or experience that can’t be uploaded or shared easily?
Don’t worry. We understand that many potential entries are best – or possibly only – experienced fully with particular hardware, software, players, proprietary technology or even spatial environments. If you have such an entry, simply do the best you can with traditional means like the description, photos, short videos, presentations, etc. Please bear in mind that if you are invited to pitch your entry to the jury as a finalist, we would expect that you could then give our jury the “full effect” of your entry. If you are capable of demonstrating it live in an expo or trade show setting, we expect that you can then bring it to Europa-Park for your live pitch.
The awards may nominate up to four finalists for each category, to be invited to pitch the All-Star jury. By October 22, 2018, we will announce a select pool of finalists on the website and in other publications relating to the Awards and invite those who have been selected to go on to the live pitch round. Invitations will be sent to the email address you use to register. The nominated finalists will be asked to confirm their acceptance of the nomination and consent to the award. They will be invited to come to the AUREA Awards at Europa-Park in Rust, Germany, in the Southwestern part of the country near the Swiss and French borders, on November 29-30, 2018.
Finalists will be expected to cover the cost of their own travel and transport to Rust, but they will be given complimentary accommodation for 2 nights in one of the distinct hotels on site at Europa-Park. This is limited to two representatives per company/entry. There is no claim to a certain room category. The finalists will be invited to all events related to the AUREA Awards, including tours of the park, dinners and receptions, a conference featuring some of the biggest names in the VR and AR industry, as well as other activities.
The live pitches will take place in a semi-public setting featuring the jury members as well as the select group of industry guests invited to attend the AUREA Awards conference. Each entry will be given 10 minutes total, with 5 minutes to make a presentation or demo, and then 5 minutes for Q&A from the jury members.
How may I present my entry to the jury?
If possible, we invite you to be ready to give the jury the full experience of your entry. So your presentation can range from simply speaking to presenting a PPT presentation, 2D videos or other “traditional” means, or letting the jury experience the entry firsthand, for instance with a headset(s), other hardware you bring, or whatever creative way you want to use to delight and impress the jury. If your entry does not fit into the 5 minute slot, for instance because it’s a longer film or experience, we may potentially allow it to be made available to the jury earlier so that they may experience it in full before the final deliberations are made.
What if I can’t attend the live pitch?
Making the live pitch is a required part of winning an AUREA Award. If you cannot attend the live jury pitch, we would unfortunately have to rescind your invitation as a finalist. Therefore, by entering online, you agree to attend the AUREA Awards live pitch on November 29 and 30, 2018 should your entry be chosen as a finalist.
Firstly, we want the jury to have every opportunity to judge the finalists on a “level playing field”, meaning a live pitch/demo and Q&A process. Secondly, you would not only be attending a live pitch, but also an exclusive conference where every voice and player is important to us. And finally, the two days’ awards and conference promise to be a one-of-a-kind opportunity to meet, network and even socialize with some of the brightest lights in the VR and AR industry, and every slot at this exclusive gathering matters to us. So if you can’t make it, we’d like to be able to invite someone else who can.
innovation - is this entry something new or innovative?
impact - did this entry have an impact on the users, audiences or industry as a whole? If it’s supposed to be entertainment, does it entertain?
creative - is there creative excellence on display in any way, be it storytelling, use of technology, or other elements?
experience - how well were the ideas executed? Is it a great experience?
interactive - is it intuitive, easy to use or done at a high professional level? Does it utilize the potential for interaction?
does this entry help show us the way forward for AR / VR and entertainment?
would we want to see it / play it / ride it / experience it again?
The jury will be suitably qualified and will have, collectively, ample experience in business, entertainment, intellectual property, virtual, augmented or mixed reality fields. The jury will be selected by the organizers from candidates meeting the above criteria.
to act collectively (the winner must obtain a majority of the votes).
The same day as the live pitches. We’ll hold an awards ceremony at the conclusion of our 2-day event and subsequently publicize the winners. The winners will be kept secret until the awards are announced.
By entering, you grant us permission to use your name and image in publications, photos, videos or other media that publicize the award and its finalists or winners.
There is no cash prize for the AUREA Awards, however each winner will receive a physical AUREA Award and a certificate. Additionally, all finalists are given an invitation to attend the awards & conference and remain onsite in Europa-Park for the weekend that follows. Finalists will be given up to 2 nights’ accommodation (for two persons per entry) in a Europa-Park hotel as part of the event. Finalists will be responsible for covering their own travel costs to and from the awards & conference.
No cash disbursement and/or replacement of the prizes is possible. Recourse to the courts is not permitted.
Are there any other details I should think of?
The AUREA Awards reserve the right to disqualify entrants or finalists at any time; this applies especially to circumstances such as making false or grossly misleading statements or claims in an initial entry or live pitch.
All entrants guarantee that they own the rights to or have legally licensed all elements of their entries, including intellectual property, trademarks, copyrights, music rights, image rights, or any other related usage rights. The AUREA Awards may not be held liable for any potential copyright or other infringements related to the online submission, publication or promotion of entries, finalists or winners.
Finalists will attend the AUREA Awards at their own risk; for those who do not live in Germany we recommend travelers’ insurance.
The AUREA Awards and Europa-Park may not be held liable for any damages (real or imagined) arising from an entry either winning or not winning an award or making the final round.
Any materials, submissions or even potential equipment or hardware used in the process of competing for the award are not the responsibility of the AUREA Awards if lost. We have no obligation to return or ship objects back to entrants.
All entries and submitted information will remain private and be used only to determine finalists and the winners. This information will be shared confidentially only among the AUREA Award organizers and jury members. The AUREA Awards will publicize the names, companies, websites and, where applicable, photos or videos of finalists or winners. No information in the entries will be released to the public without the consent of the entrants, and all submitted materials - besides winners - will ultimately be removed/erased after the conclusion of the awards.
In the event of being selected as finalists, participants agree to cooperate with the organizer by providing access to the press and other media for interviews or for photographing or filming.
The organizer reserves the right to publish finalists' and winners' information as settled above on its website and in promotional material (publications, exhibition media, etc.) without remuneration for the participant.
Neither reproduction nor making available rights will be payable on any document submitted for the Awards, either during the selection procedure or in relation thereto.
The organizer also reserves the right to record and publish videos and pictures from the award ceremony without remuneration for the participant.
In the event of force majeure or if circumstances so dictate, the organizer reserves the right to suspend, postpone or cancel the Awards at any time and without prior notice; in this event, participants will not be entitled to claim compensation.
and processed solely for the purposes of managing participation in the competition in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. The privacy statement explaining the processing of contestants' personal data is publicly available on the official contest website.
If you object to your data being stored, please inform us by email ([email protected]) and it will be deleted from our files. All the collected information is essential in order to duly carry out the process of selection and assessments of the candidacies; therefore, please note that, in case that you object to your data being stored, your application will be automatically excluded due to insufficient information.
Participation in the AUREA Awards or submission of a proposal implies that you have read and accepted the ‘Declaration' and ‘Additional declarations' in the registration form.
We want to keep it simple, but there are always questions that arise.
Send us an email at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as quickly as possible. | 2019-04-18T20:22:06Z | https://aurea-award.com/faq |
If you are in the market for a new bifolding doors, then you may be considering ultra slim or frameless bifolding doors. These variations on the conventional bifolding door provide a folding door but one that gives you much more glass and less visible aluminium than a typical bifolding door.
Frameless glass doors are designed to feature maximum glass and little visible framing.
What is the definition of a frameless bifolding door?
Some bifolding doors are not frameless but marketed as such.
Who makes frameless bifolding doors?
Comparing Sunseeker, ID Systems & Frameless Glass Curtains.
Sunseeker Doors Frameless Glass Doors.
Glass options on frameless bifolding doors.
Glass options separate and differentiate frameless glass doors.
Profile Dimensions of Frameless Glass Doors.
Frameless Door Weather Performance and Security.
Frameless bifolding door warranties and guarantees.
Why Frameless Glass Curtains is the better frameless bifolding door.
It meets Building Regulations and has certification.
How much do frameless bifolding doors cost?
The fundamental difference between a frameless bifolding door and a conventional folding door is how it looks, how it operates and its construction.
A frameless bifolding door does away with the aluminium profile on many of the verticals and is intended to give a cleaner, clearer appearance as though you have a wall of glass. Frameless bifolding doors, in short, comprise far less aluminium than a standard bifolding door – but are they truly frameless?
Only a structural glazed product can feature no frame at all; many commercial buildings can feature structural glazing. So while the use of the word ‘frameless’ may imply that there is no frame at all there always will be some. Aluminium is still required not only to provide strength and integrity to the product but also to provide a fixing point for the hardware and for the doors to hang and work correctly. Aluminium will also be used to the perimeter frame so that it can be fixed to the structure. The threshold will also be made of aluminium.
What frameless glass doors have is a design that aims to use as little visible aluminium as possible and more visible glass area than a regular full framed aluminium door.
If we have therefore established that a frameless door must still consist of some framing to critical areas, what constitutes a frameless door?
To a door or window professional, a ‘mullion’ is a specific window section or a combination of sections designed to create a vertical member or the appearance of one. In our opinion, a frameless door can be interpreted as one with no visible mullion. No mullion means no visible section on the intermediate verticals where all the doors meet.
The correct definition of a frameless door is one that has no mullion.
FGC Doors showing a minimal visible sightline (the gaskets).
Sunseeker doors are slim but the profile where doors meet is clear to see.
ID Systems again with a visible profile where the doors meet.
No mullion should also mean no capping pieces, flat bars or any aluminium or plastic profile at the junction where the door panels meet. This is our interpretation of what constitutes a frameless bifolding door. Others may disagree by our definition. However, all three products we are comparing here (and others) market themselves as not having the door profiles found on conventional doors where they meet. With this in mind, we consider the definition a fair one.
When choosing a frameless door, it’s important to separate the facts from the fiction.
Just about anyone researching a product will turn to the internet and most likely Google. However, a search for “frameless bifolding doors” will throw up a wide variety of results, in both the organic and sponsored listings.
Many companies are bidding for the keyword ‘frameless’ and ‘bifold’ for you to click on their website, but they do not offer this product at all. We checked.
Study the images that accompany frameless doors and you will often see standard doors instead.
Even national brands are advertising frameless doors, but they don’t offer them. We checked.
Many advertised frameless doors are single glazed only. They are for internal use and don’t have weather ratings.
Doors marketed as frameless double glazed doors have a profile where the doors meet in the middle – a visible ‘mullion’.
Several products are only for internal or commercial use.
Some frameless doors are the same products with a different brand name.
Our goal was to find three frameless doors that are suitable for residential use and that which we could compare.
Sunseeker Doors Frameless Double Glazed System.
There are other products on the market too. For example, there are Sliding Glass Walls from DORMA; although these are for commercial applications and not for dwellings. You will also find the FD75 flush glazed door from The Folding Sliding Door Company. We couldn’t consider it as a frameless bifold for this review. Although it may give the appearance of being frameless it still relies on framing all the way around the door panels. It is the way the glass is constructed that contributes to its seamless appearance. That being said, we do like this door and would recommend considering it if you’re not explicitly looking for a frameless door.
Another company you will find is Finline doors, but these are the Sunseeker product. Optima is a further choice but like DORMA these are intended for commercial or internal applications.
What became evident in trying to fathom out these different products was that the frameless door description is overused. There was no common theme around these doors. So it is important to clarify first, what exactly is a frameless door?
These three products all offer different visuals, technical specifications, price points and guarantees.
The choices you’ll make will be based on your specific criteria. We receive daily enquiries from consumers asking “what’s the best window” or “what’s the best door”. While all products will meet minimum industry standards, some are better made, have more impressive features of varying levels of customer service. It is the features that matter to you that should influence your decision.
Frameless Glass Curtains, Sunseeker and ID Systems products are great sellers and popular. All three products compared here are also beautiful doors. Each company is established and has a successful track record in what they do.
Sunseeker has previously reported year on year growth, so their doors are clearly popular with customers.
Frameless Glass Curtains have designed their product from scratch and install them nationwide and internationally. Their doors have recently been fitted in a world-class luxury cruise liner. They have also been provided anywhere from a terraced house to a mansion, eco homes and commercially.
ID Systems also provide their products to a large number of different dwellings, and they too have carried out some very impressive installations.
All the products differ, some are better specified and better certified. Our goal is to give you some balanced and impartial information to help you come to your conclusion.
ID Systems offer a range of doors but the frameless version is only single glazed.
ID Systems are based in Norwich and provide a wide variety of glass products. In their range, you will find bifolding and sliding doors, Glass Walls, windows, entrance Doors, roof products and balustrades.
ID Systems have been established for over 20 years and also offer the excellent Sunflex folding door brand.
The SF25 system by ID Systems is a good looking slim and aesthetically pleasing door. It cannot be used for comparison purposes as it is only available as single glazed. Great if single glazed doors are suitable for your project or going inside the home, but we suggest for many it won’t be acceptable.
SF20 by ID Systems is an internal frameless door system. We like this because not only is it frameless and sleek but can provide door panels of 1600mm wide and up to 2600mm in height. Where its limitations become apparent is that it can only come with a maximum of five panels. The FGC door, by comparison, has been used in many internal applications as a single or double glazed door and can be made with more panels as needed.
ID Systems do offer further choices with their slimline slide and turn SF30 and SF35 products. However, these have (albeit slim) aluminium between the glass doors so we would not regard these as frameless in the same way FGC doors are. They also imply that these products are better used to close off a conservatory (while still meeting Building Regulations) rather than a full external door. These doors can also be made as curved and angled doors too.
So ultimately when compared to ID Systems, Frameless Glass Curtains offer both an internal and external solution by providing a single and double glazed product in a frameless door. Their doors also have no restrictions on Building Regulation compliance and no criteria that they are better used internally.
Sunseeker doors while visually similar to frameless doors still use a plant-on profile, a mullion.
Sunseeker Doors offer their Frameless Glass Doors. These too are an aluminium system on the perimeter frame and the horizontal rails of the door panels. However, there the similarity ends.
Sunseeker doors while they may look similar in their images have a 38mm plant-on section surrounding the double glazed units where each side meets. This section applied at this point is relevant. The reason for this is that the Sunseeker doors use standard double glazed units. If a double glazed unit is left with exposed edges and they are not protected, the glass unit will fail, not to mention the sides of the glass would be visible and unsightly.
Finally, Sunseeker doors can only go up to 800mm wide per door panel, whereas the other two brands can be made larger.
Frameless glass curtains feature no mullion or frame where the door panels meet.
Frameless Glass Curtains (FGC) offer a selection of glass door products manufactured in their factory in Chatham, Kent. They supply and install on a nationwide basis to residential and commercial properties. In their range, you will find entrance doors, room dividers, glazed screens and of course the frameless bifolding doors.
FGC design and patent their doors with some innovative features and innovations. Some of these include high levels of security, sound and thermal insulation and impressive weather resistance.
In a double glazed frameless bifolding door from FGC, you will find glass made from Pilkington Planitherm 4s. It has a ‘U’ value of 1.0 W/m2K. In practical terms, this creates a thermally efficient product that is comfortable as an all year round door.
FGC doors can be ordered as single or double glazed doors and are suitable for fitting internally or externally. They also come with a ten-year guarantee.
In the following sections we take a look at the various features that make up a Frameless Door system and explain some of the key differences.
All doors feature the slide, swing and fold arrangement that is typical of how these doors operate. The access leaf is swung open and then each panel slides along the track to its stop and hinges open. With all door panels open, they are stacked in a folded open position.
Be careful that frameless doors aren’t those intended for internal use only and single glazed.
If you are looking for an internal frameless glass door, it is fair to say any of these three products will be suitable.
If you are looking for an external door – a bifolding door, you will want a double or even a triple glazed door. As we suggested, some frameless systems are only available to buy single glazed when asked for as a frameless glass door. Do check this out when looking at these and other products on the market. A single glazed frameless door makes for an excellent room divider, pool enclosure or to separate off a garden. All three companies can provide this product in these circumstances.
Sunseeker Doors offer their frameless doors as single glazed only. If you want a double glazed option, you’ll have to go with their Ultraslim variant but have a visible mullion.
ID Systems offer their Sliding Turn Systems but state clearly on their website that they are ideal for balconies, room dividers, and patio areas. However, they are clear that these doors only provide a ‘moderate’ weather rating for projects that do not require compliance with current Building Regulations. Therefore this rules them out for external use.
Therefore for glass options, the Frameless Glass Curtains product comes out on top. You can have single, double or even triple glazed in one product.
Aesthetics is a personal matter. Everyone will have a different view as to which product is the better-looking door. Study the images of all three doors on the company websites and you’ll see some great installations set off by some beautiful doors.
Using our definition of no visible mullion, the Frameless Glass Curtains is the clear winner. This is not to imply that the other doors are aesthetically inferior. The FGC product is the only one we know or could find with no visible mullion.
The Frameless Glass Curtains doors are designed and engineered to do away with the visible profile, no matter how small or slim, that the other doors used and require by design.
Sunseeker, ID Systems and other products all rely on some form of aluminium or plastic profile at the vertical areas where the doors meet; FGC uses sophisticated gaskets only. Again the result is no visible mullion.
FGC have achieved this through many ways, but one excellent detail is in the unique glass they use that is different from anyone else. Their doors use quality glass just like any other, but the spacer bar that separates the two panes is what’s unique. Where all other double glazed products use a metal or plastic spacer bar, FGC’s is made of glass, and it’s toughened as well. FGC have also patented this toughened glass spacer bar and it is totally unique to them.
Sunseeker doors features a cover strip over the glass where it meets in the middle and on the ends.
Only a gasket between the doors. Other doors rely on aluminium or plastic profile.
ID Systems, depending on the product will show visible profile if double glazed.
A typical spacer bar found on most double glazed units.
The edge of the glass detail looks sleek, continues the transparency of the glass right to the edge and looks completely different. Looking at the FGC doors close up reveals a really great design feature. We had never seen a double glazed unit with a glass spacer bar before, and we recommend you see it for yourselves.
All matters of visible mullions, spacer bars and aesthetics aside, we reaffirm that all three doors are attractive. For clarity, we provide some of the critical dimensions for each of the products.
The Sunseeker frameless system frame is 40mm high by 63mm thick. The Frameless Glass Curtains Clearline system is slightly different at 44mm x 61mm. The 4mm difference between the two is marginal and won’t affect the visual sight lines that significantly.
For the door panels themselves, Sunseeker doors are 42mm high and 51mm thick. The FGC Clearline doors are smaller than this making for a slimmer door.
The ID Systems doors also stack cleanly and neatly and offer similar dimensions to the above. Technical information wasn’t available to give you specifics. It really will depend on what product you decide to use from their range because of the single glazed issue highlighted above.
In the fully folded position, Frameless Glass Curtains take up much less space than fully framed doors.
One advantage to having a frameless glass door is that it takes up far less space when all the panels are folded back.
Full aluminium bifolds will usually take up far more space when all stacked together. This is because the doors are thicker front to back so it is logical that they will be bulkier too.
Taking a four-panel door as an example in the fully stacked open position, Frameless Glass Curtains come out as the slimmest with only 180mm of stack taken up. Sunseeker doors are nearly twice as thick at 310mm. ID Systems are virtually the same as well.
Therefore if you are looking for the frameless door that will take up a small amount of space, FGC wins it. In our experience stacking thicknesses of doors are not the deciding factor for buyers – overall aesthetics tend to matter much more. However, you will want to consider this if you have doors inside your home as room dividers. The FGC doors are the slimmest of the three.
As far as the thresholds are concerned, the door made by Frameless Glass Curtains has the competition beaten on the heights. Their doors offer an unbelievably slim threshold that sits only 5mm above the finished floor level. That aside, all systems can be set into the floor as low or high as desired to achieve a flat floor level inside and out.
We were unable to establish clearly whether the Sunseeker and ID Systems products have passed any weather or security standards. This does not imply they will be easy to break into or that they leak. If sales of standard doors and windows are anything to go by, consumers want to see some evidence of certification. On an ID Systems and Sunseeker door, it is quite hard to clarify. We’d welcome their confirmation on this.
Therefore if you are considering either the ID Systems or the Sunseeker frameless products in whatever variant, we would recommend you establish in writing what you are getting. With both being established businesses customers are buying their products, but we expected to see a more transparent approach to what their frameless products achieve technically.
FGC are very clear in what their doors offer. They meet the latest enhanced PAS security standards, severe weather rating and quality standards for their glass units.
Once again we recommend you check out each company to establish clearly what performance standards, certification and testing has been carried out.
With Sunseeker there was little by way of clear information either on their websites or when we contacted the Company. Our understanding is that Sunseeker doors offer a 2-year guarantee on their products.
Frameless Glass Curtains offer a 10-year insurance backed guarantee.
ID Systems market a 5-year guarantee although we’d recommend establishing whether this is across their entire range, or product specific. Their warranties are also transferable should the property be sold during the warranty period.
When compared to the Sunseeker and the ID Systems doors, Frameless Glass Curtains are the better door. There are three key points that make this product different and worthy of consideration. These key points may not matter to every customer as each will have different requirements. However, for aesthetics, completeness and certification, FGC doors come out on top.
All three products are excellent, fit for purpose and sold by three different but established firms. For a frameless glass door without the visible mullion, the FGC door is better in our view. It doesn’t have one.
The FGC door again seems to win on functionality with simplicity. One product does it all. It is a door that will meet every customer need as one product. If you want a double or triple glazed door you can have one without having to choose an alternative. FGC doors are suitable for both external and internal applications, commercial and residential projects as well.
As an external door, the FGC door meets Building Regulations. It also offers transparent information on its certification and accreditation. It’s security tested, weather tested and has patents.
So what about prices of these doors? The nature of the door industry is such that there are no recommended retail prices. All three businesses are transparent in their pricing, and we suggest you contact each company with your requirements for a quotation.
We have stressed throughout this review that each product is fit for purpose, and you should see all three to help your purchasing decision. We set some benchmarks to compare the three doors around the glass, aesthetics and technical specifications. What we did find is a lot of confusion around frameless doors. We suggest you do your own research as well.
Frameless Glass Curtains offer a frameless glass door at home internally and externally.
The important thing to remember is that most types of frameless glass doors come with some compromise. You either have to choose a non-thermally broken system, or a slim system with advanced glazing or one that is for internal use.
Frameless Glass Curtains as a complete product doesn’t compromise, and we consider their doors be a great door solution whether you need it inside or out. It offers all the benefits of an insulated, secure, weather tested and certified aluminium door but as a frameless design without a visible mullion.
If you would like more information on frameless glass bifolding doors or any other door product, please contact us.
Sunseeeker images courtesy of Sunseeker Doors.
Hello David, thank you for your comment on the Aluminium Trade Supply Website.
It is perfectly possible to do the frameless glass doors at the sizes you mention. For the best prices and service I recommend you contact the manufacturer directly that can also install nationwide.
Hope this helps, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
I’m looking for any personal reviews of Vision Glass Doors, who I think also trade as Sunseeker. Particularly looking for opinions on their UltraSlim Slide and Turn and how it compares to others in the market (e.g ID Systems). This article is a couple of years old, so I’m not sure if it is all still relevant? I’m particularly interested in any clarity on performance from a weather and security perspective.
Hello Mark, I’ve replied to you by email on this. We’ve never had anything negative reported on these doors and ID Systems have done a lot of installations with these doors. It is a little difficult to get clarity on weather and security and whether the doors have been independently tested. This does not mean a door that is not tested is easy to break into, or that it will leak! It just means that it does not have the independent certification of other systems. ID Systems/Sunseeker should be able to clarify this directly.
Hi, I am interested in the frameless glass curtain, ..measuring 5 mtrs.
I realise you would need other details, of our requirements, but could you please begin to give me a …not fixed quote, just to give me an idea, for. 5 mtr frameless bifold, thank you.
Thank you for your enquiry. Give FGC a call and they should be able to give you an approximate price over the phone.
Could you please give me a price on 6m x 2m frameless bifold doors for the rear of a self-Build project. Many Thanks.
Hello Helen, our website is an information resource only and does not provide any prices or product. The below two systems offer a range of single and double glazed frameless doors as possible suggestions.
Or do get in touch via our contact forms with your location and I can put you in touch with someone local, but the above can help directly too.
I am very much interested in frameless bifold doors. I would be grateful if someone can call me on my moble as soon as possible.
Hello Sati, thanks for your question. If you’d like to get in touch using our contact form with your location, I can put you in touch with some local installers of these products and answer any questions you may have. | 2019-04-22T14:03:22Z | https://www.aluminiumtradesupply.co.uk/14406/best-frameless-bifolding-door/ |
The list of links in "Cross references", above, to pages in Children of the Amphioxus is intended to provide general background to lamprey locomotion.
Activities of identified interneurons, motoneurons, and muscle fibers during fictive swimming in the lamprey and effects of reticulospinal and dorsal cell stimulation.
"1. Application of D-glutamate to the isolated spinal cord of the lamprey produces phasic activity in ventral roots, which is similar to that of the muscles of the intact swimming animal. Therefore, the isolated spinal cord may be used as a convenient model for the investigation of the generation of locomotor rhythms in a vertebrate.
5. Edge cells were only weakly modulated during fictive swimming. Their peak depolarizations occurred near the end of the VR burst ... Most giant interneurons were not phasically modulated during fictive swimming.
6. Repetitive intracellular stimulation of Müller cells during fictive swimming generally evoked an increased burst intensity in ipsilateral VRs and a decreased burst intensity in contralateral VRs. The cells M3, B1, and B2 also produced increases or decreases in the frequency of VR bursts. Repetitive intracellular stimulation of sensory dorsal cells could also change the intensities and timing of VR bursts.
7. This study is an initial survey of lamprey spinal interneurons that participate in swimming activity. Lateral interneurons and CC interneurons are active during fictive swimming and probably help coordinate the undulations of the body, but their roles in pattern generation are not known. The central pattern generator is subject to modification by descending and sensory inputs."
"The central nervous system of the lamprey contains serotonergic (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) neurones both in the spinal cord and in the brainstem. Endogenously released 5-HT from these systems modulates the pattern of fictive locomotion induced in the in vitro preparation; the burst rate is lowered and burst discharges become longer and of higher intensity. Local application of 5-HT, mimicking activation of the 5-HT systems, has a specific effect on the late phase of the afterhyperpolarization (AHP) in motoneurones and interneurones. 5-HT markedly reduces the amplitude of the late AHP without affecting passive membrane properties or the shape or threshold of the action potential. This 5-HT effect appears to result from a direct action on the calcium-dependent potassium channels underlying the late phase of the AHP. A reduction of the amplitude of the AHP will result in altered spike discharge characteristics, with potentiation of the response (discharge rate) to a given excitatory input in all neurones influenced by 5-HT.
It is suggested that the modulatory effect of 5-HT on fictive locomotion can be attributed to its action on the late AHP and thereby to the potentiation of excitability in excitatory and inhibitory interneurones in the generator circuitry. This has been further corroborated in computer simulation studies of a network model, where the action of 5-HT was simulated by decreasing AHP amplitude, resulting in a slowing of the rhythm analogous to the effect demonstrated experimentally."
"A great deal of our current understanding of the brain originated from discoveries made at the cellular and molecular levels. However, even with all of the pieces of information at hand, it is very difficult to sort out the relevant mechanisms responsible for the operation of a neural system. Thus, we must use experimental models that are simple enough to understand and yet sufficiently complex to capture essential features of whatever function we want to consider. On the other hand, we need to be able to test the relative contribution of these features and therefore must recur to computer simulations of system models. In this paper, we deal with the motor system used for ambulation. Locomotion is a universal pattern of behavior generated by a family of different neural control systems: (1) generation of the propulsion (rhythmic limb or trunk movements); (2) visuomotor coordination adapting the movements to the environment..."
Neural networks that co-ordinate locomotion and body orientation in lamprey.
"The networks of the brainstem and spinal cord that co-ordinate locomotion and body orientation in lamprey are described. The cycle-to-cycle pattern generation of these networks is produced by interacting glutamatergic and glycinergic neurones, with NMDA receptor-channels playing an important role at lower rates of locomotion.
The fine tuning of the networks produced by 5-HT, dopamine and GABA systems involves a modulation of Ca2+-dependent K+ channels, high- and low-threshold voltage-activated Ca2+ channels and presynaptic inhibitory mechanisms."
"The vestibular control of the body orientation during swimming is exerted via reticulospinal neurones located in different reticular nuclei. These neurones become activated maximally at different angles of tilt."
Interaction between the caudal brainstem and the lamprey central pattern generator for locomotion.
"Because of its remarkable simplicity and the robustness of the isolated preparation, the lamprey has been used as a model system to study locomotion and its central pattern generator. The function of the spinal cord is relatively well understood in this context, but the role of the brain or even the caudal brainstem remains less so.
We here present a study of the interaction between the caudal brainstem and the spinal pattern generator for locomotion. We show that the interaction is highly complex, with both feedforward input from the brainstem to spinal cord and feedback input from the spinal cord to brainstem playing a significant role in the motor output during locomotion.
The brainstem, when diffusely stimulated pharmacologically, can initiate fictive locomotion, or it can disrupt or alter the ongoing D-glutamate initiated motor output. The nature of the disruptions vary greatly, and can induce generalized irregularity, while the alterations can include accelerating or decelerating of the bursting. All behaviors are displayed with spectrograms of the motor nerve discharge. We also show that the unstimulated brainstem can disrupt as well as slow the bursting, but in a complex fashion. Finally, a slow episodic behavior initiated from the caudal brainstem is also described. This can be elicited either by D-glutamate to the brainstem or by ascending activity from the spinal cord pattern generator.
Thus, we demonstrate that the interaction between the brainstem and the spinal cord during the production of locomotion is highly complex. The locomotion that is exhibited by the combined brainstem-spinal cord preparation is extremely variable. This is in striking contrast to the variability of the locomotor output pharmacologically induced in the spinal cord alone. The latter preparation exhibits remarkable regularity, or upon occasion, irregularity, but not the routine irregularity or the systemic up and down changes in frequency seen with the brainstem present. However, the pattern of frequency changes induced by the brainstem is not predictable, and remains to be understood."
"... the interaction is highly complex, with both feedforward input from the brainstem to spinal cord and feedback input from the spinal cord to brainstem playing a significant role in the motor output during locomotion."
A mesencephalic relay for visual inputs to reticulospinal neurones in lampreys.
"Visual stimuli elicit motor responses in lampreys. These responses rely, in part, on the activation of reticulospinal (RS) neurones which constitute the main descending pathway in these early vertebrates. This study sought to identify and characterize possible mesencephalic relays for visual inputs to RS neurones of the rhombencephalon.
The anatomical substrate subserving this function was investigated by iontophoretically ejecting cobalt-lysine, a retrograde tracer, in the middle rhombencephalic reticular nucleus in the in vitro isolated brainstem preparation of young adult Petromyzon marinus. Several populations of cells were retrogradely labeled in the brainstem. Of particular interest were the cell populations found on each side of rostral mesencephalon, located in the tectum and pretectum. There were, on average, 113 cells labeled contralateral to the injection site and 80 cells labeled ipsilateral to the injection site. The cells were morphologically similar on both sides, except that the contralateral group had larger cell bodies as compared to the group on the ipsilateral side.
To determine whether the axons of the cells contacted reticulospinal neurones, electrophysiological experiments were carried out in which the region containing these cells was microstimulated. Large post-synaptic potentials were recorded intracellularly in RS neurones. Furthermore, microstimulation of the optic nerve on the same side as the recorded cell (i ON) evoked responses with a pattern similar to those resulting from stimulation of the optic tectum contralateral to the cell recorded (co OT), except for the longer response latencies. Local ejection of xylocaine (1% lidocaine hydrochloride) or CNQX (1 mM) onto the co OT reversibly abolished the responses evoked from stimulation of the i ON. There were no significant effects observed when the drug was ejected onto optic tectum ipsilateral to the cell.
Taken together, the results from this study indicate that the crossed tectoreticular pathway is involved in relaying optic nerve inputs to RS neurones of the middle rhombencephalic reticular nucleus. Moreover, cells of origin of this pathway appear, in all respect, homologous to cells giving rise to the crossed tectobulbar pathway in other vertebrates."
"Taken together, the results from this study indicate that the crossed tectoreticular pathway is involved in relaying optic nerve inputs to RS neurones of the middle rhombencephalic reticular nucleus. Moreover, cells of origin of this pathway appear, in all respect, homologous to cells giving rise to the crossed tectobulbar pathway in other vertebrates."
See the paper for the links.
"The sensory control of lamprey dorsal fin motoneurons was studied by using paired intracellular recordings combined with a morphological analysis.
Dorsal cells innervating the skin of the dorsal fin and fin motoneurons were retrogradely labeled by injecting fluoresceincoupled dextran amines into the dorsal fin. Labeled motoneurons and dorsal cells showed close appositions, suggesting that the dorsal cells innervating the fin region make monosynaptic connections with fin motoneurons.
By using conventional electrophysiological criteria, monosynaptic excitatory connections were found between fin dorsal cells and fin motoneurons. In addition, Lucifer yellow injection followed by confocal three-dimensional (3-D) reconstructions of monosynaptically connected pairs, revealed close apposition between dorsal cell axons and the distal dendrites of fin motoneurons. Each fin motoneuron received monosynaptic excitatory input from at least four different afferents. The amplitude of the monosynaptic excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP)s was reduced by administration of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist DL,2 amino-5-phosphovaleric acid (APV).
Sensory stimulation could also elicit di- or oligosynaptic inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP)s, which were blocked by the glycine antagonist strychnine, resulting in the appearance of large monosynaptic EPSPs, which could induce action potentials."
" By using conventional electrophysiological criteria, monosynaptic excitatory connections were found between fin dorsal cells and fin motoneurons."
Organization of the lamprey striatum - transmitters and projections.
"The purpose of the present study is to characterize the striatum of the lamprey by immunohistochemical and tracing techniques.
Cells immunoreactive for GABA and substance P (SP), and positive for acetylcholinesterase, are present in the lamprey striatum.
Immunoreactive (ir) fibers were detected by antisera raised against SP, dopamine, enkephalin and serotonin. These immunoreactive fibers were mainly located in the periventricular neuropil that borders the striatum and in which GABAergic striatal neurons distributed their dendritic arbors.
Putative connections between the striatum, the ventral part of the lateral pallium, and the diencephalic motor centers involved in the control of locomotion were studied by using fluorescein-coupled dextran amines (FDA) as a tracer. The striatum projects to the ventral part of the lateral pallium (lpv), where GABA-ir cells and SP-ir fibers were also present. The lpv in turn projects to the ventral thalamus, which has descending connections to the reticulospinal cells involved in the control of locomotion.
These results, together with previous findings of histaminergic and neurotensin projections, suggest that the lamprey striatum and its inputs with regard to neurotransmitters/modulators are very similar to those of modem amniotes, including primates, and are thus conserved to a high degree."
"The striatum projects to the ventral part of the lateral pallium (lpv), where GABA-ir cells and SP-ir fibers were also present. The lpv in turn projects to the ventral thalamus, which has descending connections to the reticulospinal cells involved in the control of locomotion."
Note mention of the "ventral thalamus".
Differential effects of the reticulospinal system on locomotion in lamprey.
"The main conclusion of the present study is that the proportion of RS neurons with different influences on the spinal locomotor network differs significantly among different parts of the reticular formation of the lamprey. The specificity of RS influences may represent a basis for modifications of the segmental locomotor output necessary for the control of equilibrium and steering during locomotion."
Unfortunately, there's no mention of neurotransmitters, so it doesn't provide any insight into the roles of glutamate vs GABA in locomotion.
"The forebrain, brain stem, and spinal cord contribution to the control of locomotion is reviewed in this chapter. The lamprey is used as an experimental model because it allows a detailed cellular analysis of the neuronal network underlying locomotion. The focus is on cellular mechanisms that are important for the pattern generation, as well as different types of pre- and postsynaptic modulation. Neuropeptides target different cellular and synaptic mechanisms and cause long-lasting changes ( > 24 h) in network function."
"The forebrain, brain stem, and spinal cord contribution to the control of locomotion ..."
"Behavioral studies in lampreys of the northern genera, Ichthyomyzon, reveal that sensory inputs initiate and modulate locomotion by activation of reticulospinal (RS) neurones.
"The interneurones relaying afferent vestibular, trigeminal, lateral line, cutaneous and proprioceptive inputs are localized in the rhombencephalic region"
This is another example of behavior which was initiated, not by the Substantia Nigra pars Compacta (SNc) and not by the rhombocephalon, but by sensory input relayed by interneurones in the rhombencephalon. This may turn out to be what is actually happening in most cases.
The roles of spinal interneurons and motoneurons in the lamprey locomotor network.
"The isolated lamprey spinal cord offers a relatively simple and convenient adult preparation in which to investigate how nerve cells generate behavior and in particular the rhythmic motor patterns of locomotion. Nerve cell classes can be identified and their cellular and synaptic properties characterized, and a simple model based on demonstrated synaptic connectivity can account for major aspects of fictive swimming. Clearly, however, much remains to be learned. In particular, the properties of the spinal neurons have been shown to change during swimming activity but relatively little is known about how these changes occur or the effects that these changes have upon the activities of the network. In addition, much remains to be learned about the cell types and their synaptic interactions as demonstrated here with the newly discovered feedback connections from motoneurons, which have not been previously taken into account in modeling of the lamprey locomotor network."
Activity-dependent metaplasticity of inhibitory and excitatory synaptic transmission in the lamprey spinal cord locomotor network.
A cellular mechanism for the transformation of a sensory input into a motor command.
"The initiation and control of locomotion largely depend on processing of sensory inputs. The cellular bases of locomotion have been extensively studied in lampreys where reticulospinal (RS) neurons constitute the main descending system activating and controlling the spinal locomotor networks. Ca(2+) imaging and intracellular recordings were used to study the pattern of activation of RS neurons in response to cutaneous stimulation.
Pressure applied to the skin evoked a linear input/output relationship in RS neurons until a threshold level, at which a depolarizing plateau was induced, the occurrence of which was associated with the onset of swimming activity in a semi-intact preparation.
The occurrence of a depolarizing plateau was abolished by blocking the NMDA receptors that are located on RS cells. Moreover, the depolarizing plateaus were accompanied by a rise in [Ca(2+)](i), and an intracellular injection of the Ca(2+) chelator BAPTA into single RS cells abolished the plateaus, suggesting that the latter are Ca(2+) dependent and rely on intrinsic properties of RS cells. The plateaus were shown to result from the activation of a Ca(2+)-activated nonselective cation current that maintains the cell in a depolarized state.
It is concluded that this intrinsic property of the RS neuron is then responsible for the transformation of an incoming sensory signal into a motor command that is then forwarded to the spinal locomotor networks."
The intrinsic function of a motor system--from ion channels to networks and behavior.
"The forebrain, brainstem and spinal cord contribution to the control of locomotion is reviewed in this article. The lamprey is used as an experimental model since it allows a detailed cellular analysis of the neuronal network underlying locomotion. The focus is on cellular mechanisms that are important for the pattern generation, as well as different types of pre- and postsynaptic modulation. This experimental model is bridging the gap between the molecular and cellular level to the network and behavioral level."
Stimulation of the mesencephalic locomotor region elicits controlled swimming in semi-intact lampreys.
"The role of the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) in initiating and controlling the power of swimming was studied in semi-intact preparations of larval and adult sea lampreys. The brain and the rostral portion of the spinal cord were exposed in vitro, while the intact caudal two-thirds of the body swam freely in the Ringer's-containing chamber.
Electrical microstimulation (2-10 Hz; 0. 1-5.0 microA) within a small periventricular region in the caudal mesencephalon elicited well-coordinated and controlled swimming that began within a few seconds after the onset of stimulation and lasted throughout the stimulation period. Swimming stopped several seconds after the end of stimulation. The power of swimming, expressed by the strength of the muscle contractions and the frequency and the amplitude of the lateral displacement of the body or tail, increased as the intensity or frequency of the stimulating current were increased. Micro-injection of AMPA, an excitatory amino acid agonist, into the MLR also elicited active swimming.
Electrical stimulation of the MLR elicited large EPSPs in reticulospinal neurons (RS) of the middle rhombencephalic reticular nucleus (MRRN), which also displayed rhythmic activity during swimming. The retrograde tracer cobalt-lysine was injected into the MRRN and neurons (dia. 10-20 microm) were labelled in the MLR, indicating that this region projects to the rhombencephalic reticular formation.
Taken together, the present results indicate that, as higher vertebrates, lampreys possess a specific mesencephalic region that controls locomotion, and the effects onto the spinal cord are relayed by brainstem RS neurons."
"Taken together, the present results indicate that, as higher vertebrates, lampreys possess a specific mesencephalic region that controls locomotion, and the effects onto the spinal cord are relayed by brainstem RS neurons."
Heterogeneity of the population of command neurons in the lamprey.
Fast and slow locomotor burst generation in the hemispinal cord of the lamprey.
"A fundamental question in vertebrate locomotion is whether distinct spinal networks exist that are capable of generating rhythmic output for each group of muscle synergists. In many vertebrates including the lamprey, it has been claimed that burst activity depends on reciprocal inhibition between antagonists.
This question was addressed in the isolated lamprey spinal cord in which the left and right sides of each myotome display rhythmic alternating activity. We sectioned the spinal cord along the midline and tested whether rhythmic motor activity could be induced in the hemicord with bath-applied D-glutamate or N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) as in the intact spinal cord or by brief trains of electrical stimuli.
Fast rhythmic bursting (2-12 Hz), coordinated across ventral roots, was observed with all three methods. Furthermore, to diminish gradually the crossed glycinergic inhibition, a progressive surgical lesioning of axons crossing the midline was implemented. This resulted in a gradual increase in burst frequency, linking firmly the fast hemicord rhythm [6.6 +/- 1.7 (SD) Hz] to fictive swimming in the intact cord (2.4 +/- 0.7 Hz). Ipsilateral glycinergic inhibition was not required for the hemicord burst pattern generation, suggesting that an interaction between excitatory glutamatergic neurons suffices to produce the unilateral burst pattern. In NMDA, burst activity at a much lower rate (0.1-0.4 Hz) was also encountered, which required the voltage-dependent properties of NMDA receptors in contrast to the fast rhythm.
Swimming is thus produced by pairs of unilateral burst generating networks with reciprocal inhibitory connections that not only ensure left/right alternation but also downregulate frequency."
"Swimming is thus produced by pairs of unilateral burst generating networks with reciprocal inhibitory connections that not only ensure left/right alternation but also downregulate frequency."
Tectal control of locomotion, steering, and eye movements in lamprey.
"The intrinsic function of the brain stem-spinal cord networks eliciting the locomotor synergy is well described in the lamprey-a vertebrate model system. This study addresses the role of tectum in integrating eye, body orientation, and locomotor movements as in steering and goal-directed behavior.
Electrical stimuli were applied to different areas within the optic tectum in head-restrained semi-intact lampreys (n = 40). Motions of the eyes and body were recorded simultaneously (videotaped).
Brief pulse trains (<0.5 s) elicited only eye movements, but with longer stimuli (>0.5 s) lateral bending movements of the body (orientation movements) were added, and with even longer stimuli locomotor movements were initiated. Depending on the tectal area stimulated, four characteristic response patterns were observed.
In a lateral area conjugate horizontal eye movements combined with lateral bending movements of the body and locomotor movements were elicited, depending on stimulus duration. The amplitude of the eye movement and bending movements was site specific within this region.
In a rostromedial area, bilateral downward vertical eye movements occurred. In a caudomedial tectal area, large-amplitude undulatory body movements akin to struggling behavior were elicited, combined with large-amplitude eye movements that were antiphasic to the body movements. The alternating eye movements were not dependent on vestibuloocular reflexes.
Finally, in a caudolateral area locomotor movements without eye or bending movements could be elicited. These results show that tectum can provide integrated motor responses of eye, body orientation, and locomotion of the type that would be required in goal-directed locomotion."
"These results show that tectum can provide integrated motor responses of eye, body orientation, and locomotion of the type that would be required in goal-directed locomotion."
Note: At this point PubMed seems to have changed the results for this search. I need to review the references starting here to see if there is anything that I didn't find the first time through which may be useful.
Descending brain-spinal cord projections in a primitive vertebrate, the lamprey: cerebrospinal fluid-contacting and dopaminergic neurons.
"We used Neurobiotin as a retrograde tract tracer in both larval and adult sea lampreys and observed a number of neuronal brainstem populations (mainly reticular and octaval populations and some diencephalic nuclei) that project to the spinal cord, in agreement with the results of previous tracer studies.
We also observed small labeled neurons in the ventral hypothalamus, the mammillary region, and the paratubercular nucleus, nuclei that were not reported as spinal projecting. Notably, most of the labeled cells of the mammillary region and some of the ventral hypothalamus were cerebrospinal fluid-contacting (CSF-c) neurons.
Combined tract tracing and immunocytochemistry showed that some of the labeled neurons of the mammillary and paratubercular nuclei were dopamine immunoreactive. In addition, some CSF-c cells were labeled in the caudal rhombencephalon and rostral spinal cord, and many were also dopamine immunoreactive.
Results with other tracers (biotinylated dextran amines, horseradish peroxidase, and the carbocyanine dye DiI) also demonstrated that the molecular weight or the molecular nature of the tracer was determinant in revealing diencephalic cells with very thin axons.
The results show that descending systems afferent to the spinal cord in lampreys are more varied than previously reported, and reveal a descending projection from CSF-c cells, which is unknown in vertebrates. The present results also reveal the existence of large differences between agnathans and gnathostomes in the organization of the dopaminergic cells that project to the spinal cord."
"We ... observed a number of neuronal brainstem populations (mainly reticular and octaval populations and some diencephalic nuclei) that project to the spinal cord, in agreement with the results of previous tracer studies.
I'm interested in projections to the spinal cord. The above mentions the DLR but not the MLR. What is the interaction between them?
Neural bases of goal-directed locomotion in vertebrates--an overview.
The activity of spinal commissural interneurons during fictive locomotion in the lamprey.
"Locomotor networks in the spinal cord are controlled by descending systems which in turn receive feedback signals from ascending systems about the state of the locomotor networks. In lamprey, the ascending system consists of spinobulbar neurons which convey spinal network signals to the two descending systems, the reticulospinal and vestibulospinal neurons.
Previous studies showed that spinobulbar neurons consist of both ipsilaterally and contralaterally projecting cells distributed at all rostrocaudal levels of the spinal cord, though most numerous near the obex. The axons of spinobulbar neurons ascend in the ventrolateral spinal cord and brainstem to the caudal mesencephalon and within the dendritic arbors of reticulospinal and vestibulospinal neurons. Compared to mammals, the ascending system in lampreys is more direct, consisting of excitatory and inhibitory monosynaptic inputs from spinobulbar neurons to reticulospinal neurons.
The spinobulbar neurons are rhythmically active during fictive locomotion, representing a wide range of timing relationships with nearby ventral root bursts including those in phase, out of phase, and active during burst transitions between opposite ventral roots. The spinobulbar neurons are not simply relay cells because they can have mutual synaptic interactions with their reticulospinal neuron targets and they can have synaptic outputs to other spinal neurons. Spinobulbar neurons not only receive locomotor inputs but also receive direct inputs from primary mechanosensory neurons. Due to the relative simplicity of the lamprey nervous system and motor control system, the spinobulbar neurons and their interactions with reticulospinal neurons may be advantageous for investigating the general organization of ascending systems in the vertebrate."
" In lamprey, the ascending system consists of spinobulbar neurons which convey spinal network signals to the two descending systems, the reticulospinal and vestibulospinal neurons."
Simple cellular and network control principles govern complex patterns of motor behavior.
"Spinal interneurons are organized into networks that control the activity and output of the motor system. This review outlines recent progress in defining the rules that govern the assembly and function of spinal motor networks, focusing on three main areas.
We first examine how subtle variations in the wiring diagrams and organization of locomotor networks in different vertebrates permits animals to adapt their motor programs to the demands of their physical environment.
We discuss how the membrane properties of spinal interneurons, and their synaptic interactions, underlie the modulation of motor circuits and encoded motor behaviors.
We also describe recent molecular genetic approaches to map and manipulate the connectivity and interactions of spinal interneurons and to assess the impact of such perturbations on network function and motor behavior."
The lamprey locomotor network, arguably the ancestral doyen of vertebrate locomotor systems, generates a pronounced left-right alternation of motor output in each segment, while imposing a segmental phase lag that results in the propagation of an undulatory wave of motor activity along the body axis, from head to tail ( 5 ). This basic motor strategy is evident in most fish, in the larval stages of amphibia, and in a more limited form, in some mammals ( 8 , 10 , 6 , 11 ).
Some 100 million years after the emergence of agnathans, the acquisition of pectoral fins – paired appendages that represent the precursors of the tetrapod limb – permitted aquatic vertebrates to use them for steering and move them in either alternating or synchronous modes during locomotion.
Mammals, comparative newcomers that appeared on the scene only ?130 million years ago, have retained and embellished this versatile appendicular addition to the motor repertoire."
"The first vertebrates to emerge, some 500 millions year ago" ... "Mammals, comparative newcomers that appeared on the scene only ?130 million years ago"
A parallel cholinergic brainstem pathway for enhancing locomotor drive.
"The brainstem locomotor system is believed to be organized serially from the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) to reticulospinal neurons, which in turn project to locomotor neurons in the spinal cord. We identified brainstem muscarinoceptive neurons in lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) that received parallel inputs from the MLR and projected back to reticulospinal cells to amplify and extend the duration of locomotor output. These cells responded to muscarine with extended periods of excitation, received direct muscarinic excitation from the MLR and projected glutamatergic excitation to reticulospinal neurons. Targeted blockade of muscarine receptors over these neurons profoundly reduced MLR-induced excitation of reticulospinal neurons and markedly slowed MLR-evoked locomotion. The presence of these neurons forces us to rethink the organization of supraspinal locomotor control, to include a sustained feedforward loop that boosts locomotor output."
"The brainstem locomotor system is believed to be organized serially from the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) to reticulospinal neurons, which in turn project to locomotor neurons in the spinal cord. We identified brainstem muscarinoceptive neurons in lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) that received parallel inputs from the MLR and projected back to reticulospinal cells to amplify and extend the duration of locomotor output."
"Discrete neural networks in the central nervous system generate the repertoire of motor behavior necessary for animal survival. The final motor output of these networks is the result of the anatomical connectivity between the individual neurons and also their biophysical properties as well as the dynamics of their synaptic transmission. To illustrate how this processing takes place to produce coordinated motor activity, we have summarized some of the results available from the lamprey spinal locomotor network. The detailed knowledge available in this model system on the organization of the network together with the properties of the constituent neurons and the modulatory systems allows us to determine how the impact of specific ion channels and receptors is translated to the global activity of the locomotor circuitry. Understanding the logic of the neuronal and synaptic processing within the locomotor network will provide information about not only their normal operation but also how they react to disruption such as injuries or trauma."
See: Mesencephalic Locomotor Region for full Abstract, Related citations and Cited by's.
Forebrain dopamine neurons project down to a brainstem region controlling locomotion.
Motion with direction and balance. | 2019-04-26T01:41:25Z | http://psychology.children-of-the-amphioxus.com/table-of-contents/lamprey-locomotion |
For Jane Parker fruitcake fans (and believe me -- there is no bigger fruitcake nut than a Jane Parker fruitcake nut): The Jane Parker website is ready to take your orders. Go to www.janeparker.com and peruse the selection, including both light and dark fruitcakes, ranging in price from the 1-pound dark cake for $27.49 up to the 4.5-pound light fruitcake ring for $46.49.
If you aren't a Jane Parker fruitcake nut, a brief explanation: Jane Parker is the house brand for the A&P supermarket stores, which once were all over the South. Although A&P stores are now harder to find, some of its brands, including Jane Parker, are still made and sold at various chains around the country, such as PathMark, Waldbaum's and The Food Emporium.
For many people who grew up in the South in the 1950s and '60s, Jane Parker cakes were as much a part of Christmas as spray-on snow and aluminum Christmas trees with blue ornaments. So when the stores dwindled and the cake got hard to find, it become a yearly ritual to track down an elusive cake.
Nowadays, you can not only get them through the A&P company, you can find them on Amazon. But Santa doesn't travel as fast as he used to, so it's time to get those orders in.
Let me know if you spot an elf riding a Norelco shaver.
What's harder than deciding which cookbook to buy? Deciding which cookbook to review. In Sunday's Observer, I picked four (for the record, I didn't suggest my own book, "Pecans: A Savor the South Cookbook" - writer Pam Kelley made that decision).
In Wednesday's Food section, fellow writer Andrea Weigl and I named our seven picks. But we knew that it wouldn't be enough and that we both would have our own favorites. So here are a half-dozen more that are my picks, plus a recap of the ones we're already suggested.
Comfort Me With Offal, by Ruth Bourdain (Andrews McMeel, $19.99). Will the real Ruth Bourdain please not stand up? The joke is more fun if we never know who is behind the food-writing parody "Ruth Bourdain" - a mashup of impossibly elegant Ruth Reichl and always profane Anthony Bourdain. RB started as a Twitter account, but the book stretches the joke past 140 characters. It's a sendup of foodie-world pretensions, like a guide to "nose to tail" eating that includes probiscus monkeys and a chart to decide if you're a celebrity chef ("does the inside of a QVC studio feel homey?") Rock on, Ruth, whoever you are.
"Southern Comfort," by Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing (Ten Speed Press, $35). Both chefs who moved back to Louisiana after a foray in New York, the Rushings are unabashed lovers of bold, hearty, homey Southern cooking. These are the kind of recipes you'd make on a Sunday afternoon when you want to hang out with a bunch of friends and eat something good.
"Burma: Rivers of Flavor," by Naomi Duguid (Artisan, $35). I wrote a column about Duguid's Burma trek earlier this year, but her cookbook is definitely worth a deeper look. For global eaters, it's an exploration of a cuisine that is still a surprise, with a range of new flavors and techniques.
"Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts: Quicker Smarter Recipes," by Alice Medrich (Artisan, $25.95). Medrich has always been one of our most innovative and creative food writers. She's not a baker so much as someone who loves all things sweet and knows how to lead your tastebuds in new paths.
"How to Cook Everything: The Basics," by Mark Bittman (Wiley, $35). Every year, I get questions about which book to buy for a beginning cook. This would be an excellent choice: It has more than 1,000 photos, including steps, and like his earlier "Everything" books, the recipes are accessible without being dumb. You can start here and learn enough to go a long way in the kitchen.
RECAP: What else have we suggested?
"Bouchon Bakery," by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel (Artisan, $50).
"Fire in My Belly: Real Cooking," by Kevin Gillespie with David Joachim (Andrews McMeel, $40).
"Pecans: A Savor the South Cookbook," by Kathleen Purvis (UNC Press, $18).
"Buttermilk: A Savor the South Cookbook," by Debbie Moose (UNC Press, $18).
"Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking," by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubert (Gibbs Smith, $45).
"Great Meat Cookbook," by Bruce Aidells (Houghton Mifflin, $40).
"Barefoot Contessa Foolproof," by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, $35).
"Fix It & Freeze It, Heat It & Eat It," by Southern Living (Oxmoor House, $19.95).
"The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook," by Deb Perelman (Knopf, $35).
"Japanese Farm Food," by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (Andrews McMeel, $35).
"Flour Water Salt Yeast," by Ken Forkish (Ten Speed Press, $35).
One of the great things about being the recipe clearinghouse is that readers are always making sure I remember old recipes. You lose it, I look for it and then I get to take a second look.
A few weeks ago, a reader was looking for an oatmeal recipe that her sister had found in the Observer years ago. All she remember was the date -- sometime around 2007 -- and that it involved sticking oatmeal in the refrigerator overnight.
I can't always work miracles to find missing recipes. We switched from paper clip files to an electronic version in 1985, the same year I started working here. If it's before 1985, you're out of luck. But after that, if I have a clear phrase or a distinct word, I can usually track it down.
That worked in this case. And when I looked at the recipe, I set aside for my own uses, too. At this time of year, I'm just as likely to eat oatmeal for a late dinner as an early breakfast. Thanks, reader.
From "The Short-Cut Vegetarian," by Lorna Sass (Quill, $16). You could probably use nonfat milk if you don't keep rice or soy milk (or almond milk) on hand. And you'd never miss 1/4 teaspoon of cardomom.
COMBINE oats, pineapple, milk, cardamom and salt in a glass or plastic bowl. Stir well, cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, stir in the banana and top with nuts.
Looking through all the Thanksgiving recipes we've run in the last two weeks, what haven't we covered? Ah, a good salad.
You need something sturdy, in case you're taking it for a potluck. It should be simple to make. Colorful, of course. And it should be something everyone will like, even the ones who think they hate broccoli.
Where will I find such a recipe? Hey, that book about pecans looks familiar. I wonder what kind of recipes I could find there?
From "Pecans: A Savor the South Cookbook," by Kathleen Purvis (UNC Press, 2012).
TOSS the broccoli, cranberries, onion and pecans in a large serving bowl.
WHISK together the mayonnaise, sugar, milk, vinegar and salt in a small bowl. Pour over the salad and toss to mix well. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.
My column on California's vote on GMO labeling actually started several weeks before the election, at the James Beard Foundation's annual October food conference.
A little background: I am the chair of the JBF Leadership Awards, which honor people and organizations for their work on things like sustainable agriculture, sound food policy and safe food systems. For the record, my role was to craft the procedures for how the awards work, but I don't vote on the honorees. I helped to lay the tracks and I make sure the train runs on time, but I don't drive the train. Setting it up that way was my attempt to avoid a conflict of interest with people and issues I cover.
As part of the Leadership Awards for several years now, the foundation holds a conference on food policy. The conference covers everything from sustainable policies to the future of food. This year, conference director Mitchell Davis set up an intriguing and thought-provoking subject -- trust. Trust in your food supply, trust in food information, trust in food regulation.
It was edgy stuff. There were discussions on the pressures within the dairy industry, and the role of government in creating food systems we trust. Dennis Treacy, the chief sustainability officer for Smithfield, set on a panel with Tensie Whelan from the Rainforest Alliance, Shauna Sadowski from Annie's and Hal Hamilton of the Sustainable Food Lab -- and looked some vocal critics straight in the eye.
The panel that caught my attention, though, was the one on GMOs. That's the one I quoted from in my column. Jason W. Clay, one of the winners of this year's Leadership Awards and the VP of market transformation for the World Wildlife Fund, spoke sensibly and reasonably about the importance of research into GMOs, which usually are shorthand for "evil empire." It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon after a big lunch, in a sunny 44th-floor conference room with windows overlooking Central Park -- and I was not only fully awake, I was transfixed by what he had to say.
Yes, I know that it's easy to make snap judgments about food science. It's faster to decide "I don't like it in my gut" than it is to do the hard slog of reading through reporters and research, to sift through seemingly conflicting bits of information to decide whether what your gut is telling you is something you can trust. But as Jason Clay is fond of saying, "It’s not what to think, it’s how to think."
You can see clips of all the panels on Livestream, including that panel with Clay and moderator Fred Kaufman, a contributing editor at Harper's and author of "Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food." The other I'd recommend: The talk by one of the other Leadership Awards honorees, Kentucky farmer, poet and farm activist Wendell Berry, on the 50-Year Farm Bill and the future of American agriculture.
Great news for Charlotte's Polka Dot Bakeshop and Fort Mill's Cupcrazed Cakery: They both made the list of the 50 Best Cupcake Bakeries in the country.
The website thedailymeal.com is fond of posting slideshows (the better to log lots of clicks) with the editors' picks for best in a number of food categories. This time, they ranked cupcake places, with drool-worthy pictures. A couple of bakeries with national reps didn't rank all that highly -- New York's Magnolia Bakery came in at a lowly 43 out of 50, while Baked by Melissa ended up at No. 22.
Cupcrazed, which came to national fame on the Food Network show "Cupcake Wars," was ranked No. 38, with shoutouts for its flavors and its great customer service.
Meanwhile, Polka Dot Bakery broke into the Top 10, at the No. 6 slot. Daily Meal editors called it "the price and joy of Charlotte, North Carolina," and said, "They pour their hearts into creating a delectable menu."
And if you want to try the No. 1 pick for best cupcake bakery, it's not a very long drive: The honor went to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory.
Here's the slide show: Best Cupcake Bakeries.
In January, Bill Addison wrote a piece on Southern bakeries for Southern Living magazine. To my surprise, there were no local bakeries on the list. So I wrote a blog post and threw it open to you, the readers: Where would you send Southern Living to taste bakeries around here?
I figured I might get a baker's dozen replies or so. To my surprise, I got 53, a long list of bakeries from Harrisburg to Pineville. There was a roundup of Charlotte favorites, of course -- Amelie's and Nona's, Tizzerts and Suarez. All fine bakeries.
But what really caught my attention were the small-town places. I can't believe in all these years, no one told me about the wonders of the Albemarle Sweet Shop's clown cookies (above) or the cheese rings at Carswell in Rock Hill. Or the pecan pie cupcake "under glass" (right) at Just Baked, in a comfortable old house in Cornelius.
My editors and I agreed that a bakery tour of the countryside was in order. The result was today's story.
It should smell warm and sugary and buttery. It shouldn’t be all glass and plastic.
It should have people behind the counter who look like they sometimes get floured handprints on their backsides and don’t even notice.
It should have cookies and layer cakes and a good slice of pie, not just cupcakes. But if it has cupcakes, they're as much about the cake as the frosting.
It should have a short list of great stuff, not a long list of good stuff.
It shouldn’t have so few things in the case that you’re forced to eat something you don’t want.
It should be a place where people come to sit and be comfortable and eat something they know they shouldn’t but know they can.
It should have cakes with names instead of just flowers.
When you ask what the most popular thing is, the people behind the counter should know and not just say "oh, everything is good."
It should make you feel a little bit like a kid again.
So, what about you? What places did I miss? Is there another Albemarle Sweet Shop hiding out there? Post a comment and let me know. I'm always looking for an excuse to hit the road.
Back when the World Wide Web was still called the World Wide Web, it didn't take long to notice that the whole thing was made for recipe searches. But with so many early players stumbling around, how did you know where to start?
That's why we quickly learned to appreciate the cleverly named Epicurious. Built by Conde Nast, it contained recipes from both of its food publications, Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. It was a rarity in the too-much-to-see web world: Something that actually did make life simpler.
Over the years, Epicurious has spawned a lot more, including the blog Chow.com, and its recipe database has grown to include more than 180,000 recipes, from members, cookbooks and all kinds of sources. If you're looking for it, Epicurious has probably got at least one version of it.
Epicurious editor Tanya Steel and her editors have now reversed the old print-to-web path. They've sorted through their databases to find the highest-rated recipes and put them in a book, "The Epicurious Cookbook: More Than 250 Our Our Best-Loved Four-Fork Recipes" (Clarkson Potter, $27.99).
Recipes? Printed? What a startling concept. I wonder if it will catch on.
An Epicurious member posted a family recipe that may be the easiest dip every printed. It's certainly the easiest to remember.
Stir together the mayonnaise, cheese and onion in a medium mixing bowl. Transfer to a shallow, 1-quart baking dish and bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 25 minutes.
Yes, that would be California chef Deborah Madison. Founder of the iconic San Francisco restaurant Greens as well as an early chef for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse. Author of the book "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," among others. One of the early lights of the local-food, farm to table movement. These days, she's in Sante Fe, at Cafe Escalera.
Until she leaves Sante Fe to travel to Davidson College. Yes, that would be Davidson, just north of Charlotte, where Madison will do two events next week. For very low prices. Seriously, this is a major opportunity for local-food fans.
On Thursday, Nov. 8, Madison will host a squash tasting at 11 a.m. in the Lilly Family Gallery of the Chambers Building at Davidson. There will be seven or eight squash dishes to taste and instructions on how to cook them. There's no charge to attend. Just show up and learn about squash.
On Friday, Madison will coordinate lunch in the dining hall at Davidson, featuring braised chicken with dried fruit and shallots, savory goat cheese tart, greens with Moroccan spices, and "soups for the soul." Cost for that is $10.25 each, and it's basically lunch in the college dining hall with students -- and a great chef.
Color me Greens, with envy. Welcome, Deborah. And lucky Davidson.
If you need more details, call chef Craig Mombert, 704-894-2600, or the main information line for the college, 704-894-2140. Friday's lunch is in the Vail Commons and the Lilly Family Gallery is on the ground level of Building 54.
Last week, I ran an item about the Battle of the Brews at the All-American Pub, to raise money for the group 704 Project, which gives grants to local projects.
Organizer Mark Miller told me this week that the event was a bigger success than they ever expected. They had hoped to get 100 people, and got 275. And the group raised $4,300, a lot more than the $1,000 they were hoping to get.
The enthusiasm isn't surprising: If you've gone to any of the events at the local breweries, it's astonishing how much a part of Charlotte life they have become so quickly.
The results: 1st place went to Olde Mecklenburg's Mecktoberfest. Second: NoDa Brewing Co.'s Coco Loco. And third: Triple C's Smoked Amber. Hops, Birdsong and Heist also were competing.
And the best result of all, of course, was the money raised. Olde Meck donated its $1,000 prize to the Charlotte Public Tree Fund. Nice. I'll raise a glass to that.
Time to give some serious thought to the subject of coffee. Discovery Place has opened a new exhibit on coffee, sponsored by S&D Coffee and Tea of Concord and featuring information and photography from the book "The Birth of Coffee," by Daniel Lorenzetti and Linda Rice Lorenzetti.
The Lorenzettis traveled the world to capture photos of the people who plant, pick and produce coffee. It took more than a quarter of a million miles to eight countries.
"Millions of people are involved in growing, harvesting and caring for the coffee we love so much." That's worth thinking about when you pour your morning cup.
"Birth of Coffee" will run through Jan. 7 at Discovery Place, 301 N. Tryon St. in Charlotte. Go details on visiting the museum, go to www.discoveryplace.org .
After a constant round of travel, there wasn't much that was fresh in the refrigerator. So I stared into the cabinet where the cans live, waiting for dinner to magically suggest itself. Canned this, canned that. Nothing that seemed to go together.
Except those black beans and that can of coconut milk. Black beans and coconut milk? They didn't seem to belong together, yet something in the back of my brain thought they might. I tapped the two ingredients into a Google search to see if such a crazy idea had occurred to anyone else.
Why yes, actually. I found Caribbean versions and Southeast Asian versions. I ended up making it a real hybrid with a couple of links of chicken-based Italian sausage there were waiting in the freezer. But you could skip the meat or go with something like leftover grilled chicken.
Seriously, you never know what will happen when you stare into a cabinet.
Adapted from my brain and several online recipes.
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, reduce heat to medium-low, and cover. Cook 5 to 10 minutes, until softened. Stir in the garlic and and cumin and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant. If you're using meat, add it, raise the heat to medium-high and saute until just cooked through or reheated.
Stir in the black beans, coconut milk and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. If you want a creamier soup, scoop half the beans into a blender and puree (cover the lid with a kitchen towel so it doesn't splash) or use an immersion blender to puree some of the soup. Or skip all that and leave the beans whole. Stir in the hot sauce and peanut butter and cook a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve garnished with cilantro or a squeeze of fresh lime juice. .
Want to learn how to cook in an emergency?
The phrase "culinary history" can sound like dusty stuff, with "receipts" for strange foods like pumpions and dried green beans.
Ah, but there is much to be learned in how people used to cook. Our local group of culinary historians, the Historical Cooking Guild of the Catawba Valley, wants to prove that to you with a class on Saturday, "Emergency Prep: Eatin' High on the Hog When the Power Goes out."
The class will cover things like equipment and supplies, how to "put food by" (canning, curing, drying, smoking and bucket storage), kitchen safety in the dark and useful resources. You'll get hands-on lessons in cooking in fireplaces, fire pits and gas cookers. You'll learn the tricks to washing up in a bucket. And you get lunch: pork barbecue, baked beans, corn cakes and apple crisp.
The class will be at the President James K. Polk Historic Site, 12031 Lancaster Highway, in Pineville from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The cost is $20, and advance registration is required. To check on whether there are spaces left, email Leila Merims at [email protected].
PHOTO: Pam Dudeck demonstrating fireplace cooking at the James K. Polk Historic Site. Courtesy of the Historic Cooking Guild of the Catawba Valley. | 2019-04-22T16:32:16Z | http://obsbite.blogspot.com/2012/ |
Students in FASH455 were excited to have Laurie Sutandar, Vice President of U.S. Sourcing, JCPenney Corporation join the class as a guest speaker. Based on her 30+ years of experiences as sourcing executive, Laurie shared her insightful observations and first-hand stories of U.S. fashion apparel companies’ sourcing models, the selection of sourcing destination, emerging sourcing trends, and the impact of trade policy on the future landscape of apparel sourcing. Laurie also shared her valuable advice about sourcing-related career preparations.
Students in FASH455 had a unique opportunity hearing from Bill Jackson, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles (2016—present) about the textile and apparel provisions in NAFTA 2.0 (or newly called the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement, USMCA). As the top U.S. trade official for textile and apparel issues, Bill is responsible for conducting and overseeing negotiations affecting textile and apparel products, advising the U.S. Trade Representative on textile and apparel trade policy matters, and working to expand the industry’s access to foreign markets. He was the lead U.S. negotiator on market access for textiles and apparel during the last several months of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement negotiations in 2015. Mr. Jackson served as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade preference program from 2010 to 2016 and Director for African Affairs at the U.S. Trade Representative Office (USTR) from 2002 to 2010, during which he worked on a wide variety of U.S.-African trade and investment issues, including administration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preference program.
Students in FASH455 had an exciting live discussion on the NAFTA renegotiation and the U.S. textile and apparel industry with Joshua Teitelbaum, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Textiles (2014-2016). While serving as one of the top U.S. trade policymakers for the textile and apparel industry in the Obama Administration, Mr. Teitelbaum made substantial contributions to the development of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), among other multilateral, regional and bilateral trade initiatives. Mr. Teitelbaum also served as the chairman of the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA), which supervises the negotiation and implementation of U.S. textile trade agreements. Mr. Teitelbaum received his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School in 2008 and his B.S. from Cornell University in 2005.
During the event, Mr. Teitelbaum shared his insightful views about the Trump Administration’s motivation of launching the NAFTA renegotiation, the debate on the yarn-forward rules of origin and exceptions (e.g., tariff preference level) and the industry implications of rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Students were excited to have Nate Herman, Senior Vice President of the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) as a guest speaker for FASH455. Nate Herman oversees AAFA’s government relations department, managing the association’s trade policy, and regulatory affairs activities. Nate leads AAFA’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, formulating and implementing CSR policy and representing AAFA and the industry on CSR issues before governments, NGOs, and other key stakeholders. Nate also leads the association’s work on sustainability, transportation, logistics, and customs issues. In addition, Nate develops all apparel and footwear industry data and statistics as AAFA’s resident economist. Prior to joining AAFA, Nate worked for six years at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration assisting U.S. firms in entering the global market. Nate spent the last two years as the Department’s industry analyst for the footwear and travel goods industries.
During the event, Nate shared with his insightful views of the global nature of today’s apparel industry, U.S. fashion brands and apparel retailers’ sourcing strategy and critical trade policy issues that matter significantly to the apparel sector, including tariff barriers, NAFTA renegotiation, renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and implications of the 232 trade investigation.
The FASH455 class had an exciting dialogue with Erin Ennis, Senior Vice President of the US-China Business Council (USCBC) on international trade and the US-China trade relations. Erin Ennis has been Senior Vice President of USCBC since February 2015, after serving as Vice President since 2005. In that position, she directs USCBC’s government affairs and advocacy work for member companies and oversees USCBC’s Business Advisory Services. Before joining USCBC, Ms. Ennis worked at Kissinger McLarty Associates, the international consulting firm headed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former White House Chief of Staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty. At Kissinger McLarty, Ms. Ennis was responsible for implementing strategies for international business clients on proprietary trade matters, primarily in Vietnam and Japan.
Before entering the private sector, Ms. Ennis held several positions in the US Government. From 1992 to 1996, Ms. Ennis was a legislative aide to former U.S. Senator John Breaux, working on international trade and commerce. At the Office of the US Trade Representative from 1996 to 2000, Ms. Ennis first worked in Congressional Affairs on Asia issues, including annual approvals of China’s most favored nation status and the ill-fated 1997 push to renew presidential “fast track” negotiating authority. Beginning in 1998, she was assistant to Deputy US Trade Representative Richard Fisher, who led US trade negotiations and enforcement with Asia, the Americas, and on intellectual property rights.
During the event, Erin shared her insightful views on several critical issues facing the US-China trade, from the debate on trade imbalances, implications of China’s WTO membership, managing the trade disputes, challenges facing US businesses operating in China to the Trump Administration’s China policy. During the Q&A session, students also asked questions about the potential impact of imposing a punitive tariff on U.S. imports from China.
The FASH455 class had an exciting dialogue with Ambassador Friedrich Loehr, former Consul General of Germany in Boston (2008-2012) on foreign policy in the Trump era. Ambassador Loehr is a career officer in the German diplomatic service. He was Ambassador to North Korea from 2005 to 2007 and Deputy Chief of Mission in Beijing, China form 2002 to 2005. He has held a number of distinguished German Foreign Office posts, including Minister-Counselor of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament; Adviser to the Policy Planning Group of the CDU/CSU party at the Bundestag; and Deputy Director of European Political Affairs in the Chancellor’s office. He has served overseas in German embassies in Algeria, Sudan, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Serbia. He also represented Germany in international organizations including the United Nations and the European Union. Ambassador Loehr is currently on the faculty at Northeastern’s College of Professional Studies is a former fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard.
During the event, Ambassador Loehr shared his insightful views on the anti-globalization movement, the impact of Brexit on the future of the European Union and US-EU partnership, implications of a rising China to the world, Trump administration’s foreign policy agendas and some other current world affairs.
Students in FASH455 had an exciting live discussion on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with David Spooner, former U.S. Chief Textile Negotiator and Assistant Secretary of Commerce. As Chief Textile Negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative Office, David was a principal negotiator for free trade agreements with Central America, Singapore, Australia, Chile, Panama, Bahrain, Colombia, and Peru, principally negotiating the apparel and textile chapter, rules of origin and safeguard measures.
During the event, David shared his insightful views about why the Trump Administration proposes to renegotiate the 23-year-old NAFTA, the outlook for the renegotiation, the economic and political factors behind the debate about the yarn-forward rules of origin as well as the business implications for the proposed elimination of the tariff preference level (TPL) from NAFTA.
Students in FASH455 were honored to have Ron Katanick, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing, Kohl’s Department Stores join the class as a guest speaker. Based on his 20+ years of industry experiences, Ron shared his insightful observations and first-hand stories of U.S. fashion apparel companies’ sourcing model, the selection of sourcing destination, emerging sourcing trends, and future landscape of apparel sourcing. During the Q&A session, students asked questions about the outlook of apparel “Made in the USA,” sourcing related career opportunities, and other current events in the U.S. apparel industry.
Students in FASH455 had an exciting discussion with Ryan Ong, Director for International Economic Affairs Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Ryan shared his views on the state of the U.S. manufacturing sector and international trade, the debate regarding the U.S. trade deficit, and how trade policy can promote robust manufacturing in the United States. During the Q&A session, students also raised questions about the impact of Brexit, U.S.-China trade relations and the future of textile and apparel manufacturing in the United States.
Gail Strickler, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles (2009-2015), who negotiated the textile chapter under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), visited FASH455 and had a special discussion session with students on topics ranging from the textile and apparel rules of origin in TPP, NAFTA renegotiation, AGOA renewal and state of the U.S. textile and apparel industry. Gail also delivered a public lecture on The Global Apparel Industry – Style and Substance as part of the Fashion and Diplomacy Lecture Series sponsored by the Institute for Global Studies and the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies.
Students in FASH455 had a unique opportunity discussing trade agreement and the U.S. textile and apparel industry with Bill Jackson, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles (2016—present). As the top U.S. trade official for textile and apparel issues, Bill is responsible for conducting and overseeing negotiations affecting textile and apparel products, advising the U.S. Trade Representative on textile and apparel trade policy matters, and working to expand the industry’s access to foreign markets. He was the lead U.S. negotiator on market access for textiles and apparel during the last several months of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement negotiations in 2015. Mr. Jackson served as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade preference program from 2010 to 2016 and Director for African Affairs at the U.S. Trade Representative Office (USTR) from 2002 to 2010, during which he worked on a wide variety of U.S.-African trade and investment issues, including administration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preference program.
Students in FASH455 were very honored to have the great opportunity discussing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its implications for the global textile and apparel industry with Gail Strickler, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles (2009-2015). As the top U.S. trade policymaker for textiles, Ms. Strickler supervised the negotiations of the textile and apparel chapter in TPP as well as other important trade agreements affecting textile and apparel products. She also advised US Trade Representative, including Ambassador Ron Kirk and Ambassador Michael Froman, on textile and apparel trade policy matters and worked to expand the industry’s access to foreign markets. Prior to joining the U.S. Trade Representative Office, Ms. Strickler worked for Saxon Textile Corp from 1980 to 2007 serving ultimately as its President and CEO until it was acquired by Patriarch Group in 2007 and became a division of Duro Textile LLC., where she served as Vice President of the Global Apparel Division. Ms. Strickler also served as the Assoc. Director of the Institute for Textile and Apparel Product Safety (I.T.A.P.S.) at Philadelphia University and president of the Textiles Distributors Association. She further served on the board of directors of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) from its inception in 2004-2006 as a member of its Trade Policy committee. She was a board member for the USDA Cotton Board from 2002 to 2009, serving as Chairman of the Textile Research Committee. She has served on the board of directors at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Education Foundation since 2004 and its executive committee from 2006 to 2009.
Students in FASH455 had a great dialogue with Maureen Gray, Vice President of International Trade, Ralph Lauren Corporation (2011-2016) on global sourcing strategies of US fashion apparel companies. As VP of International Trade, Maureen Gray champions Ralph Lauren’s Customs and trade issues. Maureen Gray is also a strong voice for the U.S. apparel industry during the negotiating of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. As commented by Kim Glas, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance and former deputy assistant secretary for textiles, consumer goods and materials at the Commerce Department, “Maureen Gray brought a lot of industry know-how to the [TPP] negotiations, from understanding supply chains and understanding the incentives to help move or shift supply chains. Her knowledge of Customs enforcement was critical through the negotiations.” From 2011 to June 2016, Maureen also served as the chairman of the U.S. Fashion Industry Association (USFIA).
Students in FASH455 had a unique opportunity Skyping with David Spooner, former U.S. Chief Textile Negotiator and Assistant Secretary of Commerce. As Chief Textile Negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative Office, David was a principal negotiator for free trade agreements with Central America, Singapore, Australia, Chile, Panama, Bahrain, Colombia and Peru, principally negotiating the apparel and textile chapter, rules of origin and safeguard measures. In the Commerce Department, Mr. Spooner led U.S. Government enforcement of trade remedy laws, principally the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy laws. He administered the Foreign Trade Zone system; oversaw apparel trade policy and the implementation of laws governing trade in apparel; managed trade remedy negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as dispute resolution proceedings at the WTO; chaired U.S.-China talks on macroeconomic reforms and the steel industry; and supervised the US Department of Commerce’s import safety initiatives.
Students in FASH455 had an exciting Skype discussion on the U.S. footwear industry and related sourcing issues with Matt Priest, President of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA). Before joining FDRA in February 2009, Mr. Priest served as Senior Advisor to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles and Apparel at the U.S. Department of Commerce. As deputy assistant secretary, he oversaw programs and strategies to improve the domestic and international competitiveness of the U.S. footwear, fiber, textiles, and apparel industries. Mr. Priest was also Chairman of the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA), which determines when market-disrupting factors exist in the domestic fiber, textiles and apparel marketplace. Mr. Priest is also featured in the well-known book the Travels of a T-shirt in the global economy.
The 2014 URI Cotton Summit intends to raise public awareness of the importance of the cotton and related textile and apparel industry in the 21st century global economy. The summit also provides a valuable forum for faculty, students, industry leaders and policymakers to exchange ideas and enhance dialogues on critical global issues associated with the cotton and related textile and apparel industry. The summit is sponsored by the Import Support Program of the Cotton Board and with supervision from Cotton Incorporated.
Keynote speakers and special guests for the 2014 URI Cotton Summit (from Left to right in the picture):Julia Hughes, President, U.S. Fashion Industry Association; Dr. Stacey Frederick, Research Scientist, Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness at Duke University; Robert Antoshak, Managing Director, Olah Inc.; Jenna Oschwald, Manager, Global Supply Chain Marketing, Cotton Incorporated; David Trumbull, Principal, Agathon Associates; Dr. David M. Dooley, President, University of Rhode Island; Nate Herman, Vice President, American Apparel and Footwear Association; Elizabeth King, Vice President, Cotton Board; Dr. Kitty Dickerson, Consultant & Professor Emerita, University of Missouri; Erin Ennis, Senior Vice President, US-China Business Council; Augustine Tantillo, President & CEO, National Council of Textile Organizations; Maria D’Andrea, Supervisor of Office of Textiles and Apparel,U.S. Department of Commerce; Jon Devine, Senior Economist, Cotton Incorporated. Photo credit: Michael Salerno.
Case study as a teaching method is regularly used in FASH455. Through case study, students have the chance to apply what they’ve learnt in the lectures into thinking and solving real-world problems. Case study also improves students’ skills in critical thinking, oral presentation, writing as well as working in teams. In general, each case study includes three inter-connected learning activities: written case analysis (individual work by students), small group discussion (5-6 students/group) and plenary case discussion (whole class) led by the instructor. Special thanks to the Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning at the University of Delaware for funding the trip to attend the Harvard Business School Case Teaching Method Training Seminar in March 2016.
President Obama launched the National Export Initiative (NEI) in late 2009 which intends to double the U.S. export over the following five years. The U.S. textile and apparel industries both welcome the initiative and play important roles contributing to the reaching of the goal.
In this context, students play the role of export promotion specialists for the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) under the U.S. Department of Commerce. In the form of teamwork, each group focuses on a specific foreign country and evaluates its potentials as an export market for U.S.-made textile & apparel. Market assessment is based on studying secondary sources (such as UN COMTRADE database, OTEXA tariff database, industry publications, consulting & research papers, etc) and in-depth interviews with 1-2 international students/scholars originating from the examined country. Four aspects are specifically evaluated: 1) economy and market; 2) trade patterns; 3) business culture and 4) market-access related policy.
At the end of the semester, students present their findings & export recommendations both orally and in the written report.
Help student recognize the importance of textiles & apparel (T&A) industry in today’s global economy and its unique economic, social and political contributions to major economies around the world.
Enhance students’ knowledge about major emerging markets in the world and inspire their critical thinking on the potential business opportunities for U.S. T&A companies in these markets as well as unique market access challenges.
Raise students’ awareness of ethnic and cultural diversity in the world and prepare them for global citizenship in the 21st century.
Improve students’ market research, information collection and data analysis skills.
Enhance students’ teamwork, leadership and presenting skills. | 2019-04-18T15:09:13Z | https://shenglufashion.com/term-project/?shared=email&msg=fail |
“HARVARD ECONOMIST’S STUDY Finds No Racial Bias in Police Shootings,” the headline from Fox News Insider proclaimed. A chorus of conservative media sources peddled similar takes. Even mainstream outlets like The New York Times covered the controversial findings. As the nation reeled from a harrowing month of racially charged police shootings in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Atlanta, an eminent social scientist, Roland Fryer, was challenging allegations that African Americans find themselves disproportionately in the crosshairs of law enforcement.
Fryer found the question of whether law enforcement officers are more violent with minority suspects than their white counterparts irresistible. As a black academic who grew up in challenging circumstances and experienced his share of unpleasant encounters with cops, he had a personal stake in the project. Crunching the numbers appealed to him more than grabbing a picket sign. As he compiled data, he asked searching questions. Was there a quantifiable pattern of racial bias in police violence? If so, how could this data inform public policy?
After spending some time observing cops on the beat in New Jersey and Texas, Fryer and his team collected and coded a staggering number of archived police reports. The data they trawled represented nearly five million entries from New York’s Stop, Question, and Frisk program, and another 1,300 records of police shootings from 10 cities, including Houston and Los Angeles. Fryer focused particular attention on 6,000 incident reports from Houston recording confrontations in which officers were justified in discharging their firearms but did not; these chronicles of restraint threw the split-second deliberations that lead to police shootings into sharp relief.
Using this trove of information, the study reached two interlocking conclusions. Police used more coercion with blacks and Latinos than whites, but were equally likely to fire on blacks and whites. The latter finding was a revelation, particularly given the publicity surrounding the deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement officers over the past two years. In Houston, police were 23.8 percent less likely to discharge weapons when the suspect was black. Fryer had expected to uncover unmistakable evidence of bias against minorities in police shootings. What he found instead was “the most surprising discovery of [my] life” — that racial bias seemingly vanishes when police officers pull the trigger.
[That agenda] is actually costing African-Americans their lives.
There is more than one way to frame the study’s findings, of course, and the reporting of Fryer’s research in the media functions as an ideological litmus test. If perceptions about black lives at risk fit nicely with liberal myths about law enforcement, then intuitions about officers being impartial in their use of force fit nicely with conservative myths about law enforcement. Nothing about the unjustified killings of black men in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Atlanta needs to be reconciled with this data; the numbers could never excuse these deaths or exculpate the responsible officers. The insinuation that, in light of these statistics, protestors need to justify their outrage at the shootings of innocent victims is a non sequitur.
Media fixation on lethal force is understandable, but this represents a single dimension of the panorama Fryer’s study presents. More dispositive, though less surprising, than his conclusions about police use of lethal force is his evidence that officers are quicker to resort to physical confrontation and to draw weapons when the suspect is nonwhite. Latinx and black subjects were more than 50 percent more likely to encounter violent escalation at the hands of law enforcement. Controlling for factors like resistance, Fryer found African Americans were still 17.3 percent more likely to elicit a show of force from cops. If his numbers are reliable, it is time to retire the canard that blacks have nothing to fear if they heed officer’s directions: police threatened or restrained compliant African Americans 21.1 percent more frequently than they did their white counterparts.
Suppressing some facets of this research while amplifying others games the results at the expense of seriously grappling with the implications of a pioneering study. Fryer and his team produced the most substantive survey to date on police violence. They painstakingly inventoried the most current available evidence to quantify and analyze a phenomenon that has raised concerns throughout the country. Their unsettling conclusions demand critical attention.
The reliability of a study like Fryer’s turns on the quality of its sources. Given that police forces exist to promote public safety, it surprises many that data collection on police shootings — particularly shootings that do not result in fatalities — remains surprisingly inconsistent, incomplete, and uncoordinated. There is no dedicated government entity with a mandate for standardizing this reporting. Nor are there uniform criteria for recording incidents in which law enforcement officers discharge weapons. What evidence can be gleaned is self-reported, produced for local municipalities rather than federal agencies.
Aside from variation, significant questions remain about the objectivity of the reporting. Although police reports furnish important data for research on police violence, they are not always as devoid of bias as their detached tone suggests. When violence escalates, the likelihood of elliptical reportage and coded justifications increases. “What’s there is crappy data,” David Klinger, a criminal justice scholar at the University of Missouri, lamented. So unreliable were statistics in the protean category of “legitimate homicides” that the Department of Justice stopped reporting them in 2009. Fryer imposes some regressive controls on these variables, but his findings still rely on the premise that police reports are fundamentally reliable and relatively exhaustive. He has maintained that the outcomes remain the same irrespective of whether one finds the police framing persuasive or obfuscatory. That said, much still depends on the accuracy of records provided by law enforcement. Omissions and selective detail can skew the data, raising concerns about its reliability. In this respect, Fryer’s study is hardly singular. He has to reckon with the same evidentiary vulnerabilities as all such studies based on self-reported data.
Some of the most pivotal evidence for this study comes from the incident reports from Houston. This reporting of confrontations in which officers are authorized to use deadly force but refrain from doing so provide an important statistical context for police shootings. By comparing decisions to open fire with decisions to hold fire, the researcher can more readily identify racial bias. Consider what happens when one removes this information from the calculations. One could only count the bodies and compare them to the number of incidents, using different filters to accommodate the variables. It would be impossible to know if officers fired in every situation where a threat warranted shooting or if they seldom resorted to force even in the most dangerous circumstances. Houston’s incident reports thus supply critical data, revealing a police force’s propensity to shoot in situations of danger and uncovering hidden patterns in those decisions.
Fryer’s close reading of Houston’s data provides valuable granular information but limits its global application. To generalize from his findings, one must assume that the rest of the United States looks a lot like Houston. That is a dubious assumption, to put it mildly. Police departments vary as significantly as the cities they exist to protect. A police force may, like Houston’s, mirror the community they serve demographically; alternatively, it may look as different from its citizens as Ferguson’s did at the time of the Michael Brown shooting. Training may emphasize preemptive fire or restraint in cases of open conflict. The department may follow the protocols of “Broken Windows Theory,” cracking down on even minor infractions, or may focus only on more serious crimes. Most relevantly, few departments collect and report data as methodically as Houston does. Taking Houston as a statistically representative sample, then, is risky business, a selection bias Fryer himself concedes.
Indeed, when anthropologist Cody Ross researched police shootings using a crowd-sourced database at Deadspin, he found significant regional disparities in racial bias. Departments in conurbations like Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Miami-Dade shot disproportionate numbers of black and Latinx suspects. Ross arrived at a strikingly different conclusion from Fryer: victims of police shootings were three times more likely to be black and unarmed than white and unarmed.
These apparently incongruous findings can be reconciled by considering the different ways the researchers go about measuring the role of race in police shootings. Ross measures racial bias differently than Fryer does because he is asking a different question. As Rosa Li summarizes his approach in Slate: “For people shot by the police, what is the relative likelihood that they are black versus white and armed versus unarmed?” Unlike Ross, Fryer has little interest in calculating rates of shooting by race. On that count, there can be no debate. In an astringent critique, Justin Feldman points out that, even in Houston, Latinx and black residents are two and five times more likely, respectively, to be shot by police than their white counterparts. But Fryer is after different quarry. He purports to identify “racial bias” by investigating whether these shootings exceed the limits of statistical discrimination based on race.
The term “statistical discrimination” requires explanation. Suppose that, in a given municipality, Latinx drivers are 20 percent more likely to drive without a license. To an economist, that means police officers have rational justification to pull over 20 percent more Latinx motorists than whites to demand identification. Anything eclipsing that benchmark invites charges of racial profiling. Using this metric, Fryer seeks to identify racial bias by determining whether police shootings of black and Latinx citizens occur at rates that transgress the bounds of statistical discrimination.
Employed properly, statistical discrimination can become a powerful tool for detecting unfair racial profiling. Perhaps the most prominent recent case involved a legal challenge to New York City’s “Stop, Question, and Frisk” program. A study co-authored by Andrew Gelman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Alex Kiss revealed that, using arrest rates by race from the previous years as the criterion for statistical discrimination, blacks were stopped 23 percent more and Latinx 39 percent more than was warranted. Their findings furnished evidence for a trial that ended this regime of stopping and frisking residents of minority communities.
Yet deploying the concept of statistical discrimination in this way remains controversial because it fails to account for systemic racism. Fryer concerns himself only with what happens once police have confronted a suspect. But numerous studies have documented how racial discrimination colors individual officers’ decisions to accost individuals in the first place. The more police target minorities for routine questioning, the higher the total number of minorities charged — even if the rates of arrest for these minorities are actually lower. Arrests from these stops can create their own momentum, propelling confirmation bias by raising the threshold for statistical discrimination. For this reason, critics such as Feldman have criticized the Harvard study’s methodology as inappropriate to the phenomenon under investigation.
More confrontations for lesser offenses also have the effect of lowering the perceived threshold for threat in the aggregate. Uri Simonsohn illustrates this principle with the video of a police officer subduing an African-American teenager at a pool in suburban Dallas that went viral a year ago. The officer’s aggression reflected an overestimation of threat: unarmed teenagers in bikinis pose little danger to public safety. On average, the threshold for perceived threat minorities pose diminishes. Such disproportionate responses lead to coercion and arrests of less dangerous people. But they also entail that, unless the researcher effectively controls for threat, more arrests for lesser offenses means fewer shootings as outcomes. The pool has become diluted — “with criminals and girls in bikinis” grouped together, as Simonsohn puts it. Perversely, then, the presence of bias creates the impression of a lack of bias in lethal confrontations. This diluting effect tallies with the results of Fryer’s research, and helps to explain the “surprising” findings of more violent encounters and fewer police shootings of racial and ethnic minorities.
So what difference does this study make for Latinx and black lives? Narrowing the focus to what happens once an officer stops a minority, as the Harvard study does, can obscure the larger context. This is true even if one accepts the validity of its findings. An analogy might help. Suppose a physician conducting a routine screening informed you that if you contracted the particular strain of cancer he was looking for, your treatment would involve more invasive therapies and destructive side effects, but that your chances of survival were similar to others in this condition. That might appear good news. But what if the physician then reminded you that you were 23 percent or 39 percent (to use the figures from the New York study) more likely to be diagnosed with this cancer than others? That would make you feel considerably more vulnerable.
Statistics are the currency of science, the regnant standard for human knowledge. Claim that lives are at stake, and this is an opinion; lard this assertion with numerical evidence, and your argument carries the signature of objectivity. Yet numbers, like words, require context for their meaning. Statistics are based on perspective, selection, and other limitations that demand careful interpretation. Different communities translate this data into narrative accounts and normative commitments, and power relations stamp the creation of policy from data. In many ways, as philosopher James Blachowicz points out, this “scientific” method of dealing with information looks more like poetry than positivism: we conscript the data to fit our task, not to discover immutable laws of nature or engineer human behavior. The reportage surrounding Fryer’s working paper exposes the plasticity of statistical texts in the hands of various interpretive communities — from activists taking these numbers as evidence of police brutality to their critics marshaling it as evidence of activist overreach. We need to handle these deployments of statistics with more critical awareness and sensitivity to context.
Fryer’s study makes an important contribution to the problems of police use of force against minorities, but it raises as many questions as it answers. New findings may complement or complicate his conclusions. In the meantime, partisans on the left and right will continue to enlist his research to support their own agendas, using statistics to lacquer their arguments with the veneer of respectability. These numbers have much to tell us, and they should be instrumental in formulating policy. But we should also be cautious in mistaking them for our only access to the real, should we lose sight of the personal experience behind the statistics. The visceral response that arises when we see faint specters of officers firing on innocent black and brown bodies on video, and the dread minorities feel when they see blue and red lights in their rearview mirrors, are present in a way that an actuarial calculus can never capture. Black and Latinx residents inhabit a world in which racial profiling and police harassment are palpable realities, not mere statistical abstractions. If black lives matter, they must matter more than numbers on a ledger sheet, or in a research abstract. As we deliberate strategies of policy and protest, we must value their voices, their rhetoric, and their experiences as part of a thick description that includes our best data.
Ryan T. Woods teaches at Georgia Gwinnett College and serves as associate editor at Marginalia Review of Books, a channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books. | 2019-04-23T00:44:21Z | https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/to-take-the-measure-of-lives-the-metrics-and-morals-of-quantifying-police-violence/ |
We have developed a first order logic that is sufficient to describe many things. The goal of this chapter is to discuss ways to extend and apply this logic. We will introduce relations and functions, make some interesting observations about identity, and discuss how to use multiple quantifiers.
Recall that if we have a predicate of arity greater than one, we sometimes call that a “relation”. An arity one predicate like “… is tall” does not relate things in our domain of discourse. Rather, it tells us about a property of a thing in our domain of discourse. But an arity two predicate like “… is taller than …” relates pairs of things in our domain of discourse.
More generally, we can think of a relation as a set of ordered things from our domain of discourse. An arity two relation is thus a collection of ordered pairs of things; the relation “…is taller than…” would be all the ordered pairs of things where the first is taller than the second. The predicate “… is taller than…” would be true of all these things. The relation “… sits between … and …” would be the collection of all the triples of things where the first sat between the second and third. The predicate “… sits between … and …” would be true of all of these things.
Logicians have developed a host of useful ways of talking about relations, especially relations between just two things. We can illustrate this with an example. Hospitals and other medical treatment facilities often need blood for transfusions. But not any kind of blood can do. One way to classify kinds of blood is using the ABO system. This divides kinds of blood into four groups: A, B, AB, and O. This classification describes antigens on the surface of the blood cells. It is a very useful classification, because some people have an immune system that will not tolerate the antigens on other kinds of blood. This tolerance is determined by one’s blood group.
Notice a number of things. First, every blood type can share blood with people of that blood type. But it is not always the case that if I can share blood with you, you can share blood with me: it could be that I am type O and you are type B. Also, if I can share blood with you, and you can share blood with Tom, then I can share blood with Tom.
Examples of reflexive relations in English include “…is as old as…”. Each person is as old as herself. A relation that is not reflexive is, “…is older than …”. No person is older than herself.
Examples of symmetric relations in English include “…is married to…”. In our legal system at least, if Pat is married to Chris, then Chris is married to Pat.
Examples of transitive relations in English include “…is older than…”. If Tom is older than Steve, and Steve is older than Pat, then Tom is older than Pat.
A moment’s reflection reveals this isn’t true. A person of type O can give blood to a person of type AB, but the person with type AB blood cannot give blood to the person with type O, without potentially causing a reaction. So G is not symmetric.
Finally, to determine if G is transitive, consider whether the following is true.
A person with type O blood can give blood to a person with type A blood, and that person can give blood to someone of type AB. Does it follow that the person with type O can give blood to the person with AB? It does. And similarly this is so for all other possible cases. G is a transitive relation.
A function is a kind of relation between two or more things. What all functions have in common is that they relate some specific number of things to precisely one thing. A familiar example from mathematics might be the squaring function. We write for this, n2. This takes one number, say 7, and then relates it to exactly one other number, 49. Or addition is a function that takes two numbers and relates them to exactly one other number, their sum.
Think of how you could use something like this in our logical language. You could say, “The father of Tom is Canadian”. But now, who is Canadian? Not Tom. Tom’s father is. In this sentence, “the father of…” acts as a function. It relates a person to another person. And, in our predicate, “the father of Tom” acts like a name, in that it refers to one thing.
Functions are surprisingly useful. Computers, for example, can be understood as function machines, and programming can be usefully described as the writing of functions for the computer. Much of mathematics is concerned with studying functions, and they often prove useful for studying other things in mathematics that are not themselves functions.
We can add functions to our logical language. We will let f, g, h, … be functions. Each function, as noted, has an arity. A function of arity n combined with n symbolic terms is a symbolic term.
fx: the father of x.
That works because the father of the father of Tom is the paternal grandfather of Tom, which then is a symbolic term, and we can apply the function to it. Recall that, when a rule can be applied repeatedly to its product, we call this “recursion”.
There is one predicate that has always been enormously useful, and which in most logical systems is singled out for special attention. This is identity.
Malcolm X is a great orator.
Malcolm X is Malcolm Little.
The last example is not very common in English usage, but it is grammatical. Here we see the “is” of existence. The sentence asserts that Malcolm X exists. In the first sentence, we would treat “…is a great orator” as an arity one predicate. The “is” is part of the predicate, and in our logic, cannot be distinguished from the predicate. But the second case uses the “is” of identity. It asserts that Malcolm X and Malcolm Little are the same thing.
And then we could say, whenever we write “α=β” we really mean “Iαβ”.
Note identity describes a relation that is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. Everything is identical to itself. If a=b then b=a. And if a=b and b=c then a=c.
One special feature of identity is that we know that if two things are identical, then anything true of one is true of the other. In fact, the philosopher Leibniz defined identity with a principle that we call Leibniz’s Law: a and b are identical if and only if they have all and only the same properties. Our logic must take identity as a primitive, however, because we have no way in our logic of saying “all properties” (this is what “first order” in “first order logic” means: our quantifiers have only particular objects in their domain).
Where we replace one or more occurrences of α in Φ with β. We can call this rule, “indiscernibility of identicals”. We sometimes also call this, “substitution of identicals”.
This is an interesting kind of rule. Some logicians would call this a “non-logical rule”. The reason is, we know it is proper because we know the meaning of “=”. Unlike, for example, modus ponens, which identifies a logical relation between two kinds of sentences, this rule relies not on the semantics of a connective, but rather on the meaning of a predicate. This notion of “non-logical” is a term of art, but it does seem profound. Adding such rules to our language can strengthen it considerably.
We can see from these examples that there are interesting parallels between relations (including functions) and predicates. To represent some kind of function, we can introduce a function into our language, which acts as a special kind of symbolic term, but it is also possible to identify a predicate that is true of all and only those things that the function relates. Nonetheless, we must be careful to distinguish between predicates, which when combined with the appropriate number of names form a sentence; and functions, which when combined with the appropriate number of other terms are symbolic terms. In our logic, treating predicates like functions (that is, taking them as symbolic terms for other predicates) will create nonsense.
Every number is greater than or equal to some number.
Some number is greater than or equal to every number.
Every number is less than or equal to some number.
Some number is less than or equal to every number.
Depending upon our domain of discourse, some of these sentences are true, and some of them are false. Can we represent them in our logical language?
We can follow tradition, and use “≥”. Thus, when we write “α≥β” we understand that this is “Gαβ”. Let us also assume that our domain of discourse is the natural numbers. That is, we are talking only about 1, 2, 3, 4….
This raises important questions about how to interpret multiple quantifiers. Using multiple quantifiers expands the power of our language enormously. However, we must be very careful to understand their meaning.
Consider the following two sentences, which will use our key above.
As we understand the semantics of quantifiers, we will say that they do not. The basic idea is that we read the quantifiers from left to right. Thus, the first sentence above should be translated to English as “Every number is greater than or equal to some number”. The second sentence should be translated, “Some number is less than or equal to every number”. They have very different meanings. Depending upon our domain of discourse, they could have different truth values. For example, if we use the natural numbers as our domain of discourse, the first sentence is true and the second sentence is true. However, if we used the integers for our domain of discourse, so that we included negative numbers, then the first sentence is true but the second sentence is false.
It may be helpful to think of multiple quantifiers in the following way. If we were to instantiate the quantifiers, then, we would work from left to right. Thus, the first sentence says something like, pick any number in our domain of discourse, then there will be at least one number in our domain of discourse that is less than or equal to that first number that you already picked. The second sentence says something quite different: there is at least one number in our domain of discourse such that, if you pick that number, then any number in our domain of discourse is greater than or equal to it.
With this in mind, we are now able to translate the four phrases above. We include the English with the translation to avoid any confusion.
As we noted above, the truth value of these sentences can change if we change our domain of discourse. If our domain of discourse is the natural numbers, then only the second sentence is false; this is because for the natural numbers there is a least number (1), but there is no greatest number. But if our domain of discourse is the integers, then the second and fourth sentences are false. This is because with the negative numbers, there is no least number: you can always find a lesser negative number.
Hopefully it becomes very clear now why we need the possibility of a number of variables for our quantifiers. We could not write the expressions above if we did not have discernibly distinct variables to allow different quantifiers to bind different locations in the predicate.
It can be interesting to see a powerful use of multiple quantifiers. In 1905, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) published a very insightful and influential paper, “On Denoting”. This paper, and additional work by Russell that followed it, made brilliant use of a series of problems in logic and language that perplexed Russell. Russell was concerned about a number of puzzles that arise around phrases like, “The current President of the United States…”. Such a phrase seems to act like a name, and yet a number of strange outcomes arise if we treat it as a name.
It is not the case that Sam is bald.
That seems correct, if we grant the premise that all those who are not bald have hair. But now consider the following sentence.
It is not the case that the present King of France is bald.
The present King of France has hair.
But that’s not right. There is no present King of France!
The present King of France does not exist.
This seems to pick out a thing, the present King of France, and ascribe to it a property, not existing. After all, in our logical language, each name must refer to something. But if we can pick out that thing in order to describe it as not existing, does it not exist? That is, is there not a thing to which the term refers?
Some philosophers indeed argued that every term, even in a natural language, must have a thing that it refers to. The philosopher Alexius Meinong (1853-1920), for example, proposed that every name has a referent that has being, but that existence was reserved for particular actual objects. This is very strange, when you consider it: it means that “the round square” refers to something, a something that has being, but that lacks existence. Russell thought this a terrible solution, and wanted to find another.
George IV wished to know whether Scott was the author of Waverley.
George IV wished to know whether Scott was Scott.
George IV already knows that Scott is Scott.
This says there is something—call it x for now—that is the present king of France, and that thing is bald, and if anything is the present king of France it is identical to x. This second clause is a way of saying that there is only one king of France, which is how Russell captures the meaning of “the” in “the present king of France”.
This sentence is false also. It cannot be used to conclude that there is a present king of France who is hirsute.
Note that there is no need in this formula for a name that refers to nothing. There is no name in this formula.
Russell has done something very clever. He found a way to interpret a phrase like “the present king of France” as a complex logical formula; such a formula can be constructed so that it uses no names to capture the meaning of the phrase. It is an interesting question whether Russell’s analysis should be interpreted as describing, in some sense, what is really inside our minds when we use a phrase like “The present king of France.” That’s perhaps an issue for cognitive scientists to settle. Our interest is that Russell inspires a new and flexible way to use first order logic to understand possible interpretations of these kinds of utterances.
Russell’s translations also suggest a surprising possibility: perhaps many names, or even all names, are actually phrases like these that are uniquely true of one and only one thing. That was of interest to philosophers who wanted to explain the nature of reference; it suggests that reference could be explained using the notion of a complex predicate expression being true of one thing. That is a radical suggestion, and one that Russell developed and defended. He proposed that the only names were the very basic primitive “this” and “that”. All other natural language names could then be analyzed into complex phrases like those above. This is an issue for the philosophy of language, and we will not consider it further here.
Russell’s insight is that if only one thing is Φ, then anything that turns out to be Φ must be the same one thing.
The first sentence says, there exists a thing x and a thing y such that x has property Φ and y has property Φ and x and y are not the same thing. This asserts there are at least two things that have property Φ. The second sentence says for any x, y, z, if each has the property Φ, that at least one of them is the same as the other. This asserts that there are at most two things that have property Φ.
Combine those with a conjunction, and you have the assertion at least two things are Φ, and at most two things are Φ. That is, there are exactly two things that are Φ.
That’s awkward, but it shows that we can express any particular quantity using our existing logical language. We will be able to say, for example, that there are exactly 17 things that are Φ. It is quite surprising to think that we do not need numbers to be able to express particular finite quantities, and that our logic is strong enough to do this.
For each of the following, describe whether the relation is reflexive, symmetric, or transitive. If it lacks any of these properties, give an example of where the property would fail for the relation. (That is, if you say a relation is not symmetric, for example, then give an example of an exception.) Assume a domain of discourse of humans.
Make your own key and then translate the following into our logical language. You should use a function in your translation of each sentence that has an implicit function.
The mother of Ludwig is musical.
Ludwig’s paternal grandmother is musical, but his maternal grandmother is not.
Ludwig’s father is taller than his mother.
Ludwig’s mother is not taller than Ludwig, or his father.
Ludwig’s mother is not Ludwig’s father.
No one is the mother of everyone.
Provide your own key and translate the following into our logic. This will require multiple quantifiers.
Everyone is friends with someone.
Someone is friends with someone.
Someone is friends with everyone.
Everyone is friends with everyone.
No one is friends with everyone.
Use Russell’s interpretation to translate the following expressions. Make your own key.
The Emperor of New York is rotund.
The Emperor of New Jersey is not rotund.
The Emperor of New York is not the Emperor of New Jersey.
There is no Emperor of New York but there is an Emperor of New Jersey.
There are two and only two Emperors of New York.
Use our logic to express the claim: exactly three things have property F. | 2019-04-26T13:36:21Z | https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/concise-introduction-to-logic/chapter/15-relations-functions-identity-and-multiple-quantifiers/ |
In SQL, a number – i.e.: any signed, or unsigned, combination of the digits 0 to 9 – is either an exact numeric value or an approximate numeric value. A numeric value may be a <literal>, the value of a parameter or a host language variable or the result of any expression or argument (including a possibly qualified <Column name>) that evaluates to a number.
Exact numeric values have a precision and a scale. The precision is a positive integer that determines the number of significant digits in the radix. The scale is a non-negative integer that specifies the number of digits to the right of the value’s decimal point. Exact numeric values are stored in one of the four exact numeric <data type>s: INTEGER, SMALLINT, NUMERIC or DECIMAL.
Approximate numeric values, or floating point numbers, have two parts: a signed decimal number (the mantissa) and a signed integer (the exponent). The exponent specifies the magnitude of the mantissa, so the value of such a number is the mantissa raised to the power of the exponent. Approximate numeric values also have a precision: a positive integer that specifies the number of significant bits in the mantissa. Approximate numeric values are stored in one of the three approximate numeric <data type>s: FLOAT, REAL or DOUBLE PRECISION.
A <numeric literal> is any number in one of two categories: the exact numeric integers and decimal numbers, and the approximate numeric floating point numbers.
An <exact numeric literal> is either an integer or a decimal number and its <data type> is exact numeric DECIMAL, though it is compatible with the INTEGER, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, NUMERIC, REAL, FLOAT and DOUBLE PRECISION <data type>s. The <literal>’s precision is the number of digits it contains and its scale is the number of digits to the right of its decimal point. A valid integer <literal> is a signed or unsigned decimal integer with an implicit scale of zero, e.g.: -65 or 476.
A valid decimal <literal> is a signed or unsigned decimal integer with an explicit scale (that can nevertheless default to zero), e.g.: 65 or -819.3 or .67 or -.02.
In this example, we’ve shown the real and double precision numbers in a normalized form – with one digit before the decimal point. This is not mandatory, but strongly recommended. We also show a fixed number of digits after the decimal point so that maximum sizes will be apparent; in fact leading zeroes and signs, as well as post-decimal zeros are all optional. The one thing that is not optional is the letter “E” – always upper-case.
The <data type>’s name: either INTEGER, SMALLINT, NUMERIC, DECIMAL, FLOAT, REAL or DOUBLE PRECISION.
The <data type>’s scale (for exact numeric types).
Whether the <data type>’s precision and scale are expressed in decimal or binary terms.
The required syntax for an INTEGER <data type> specification is as follows.
INTEGER may be abbreviated as INT; it defines a set of possibly signed whole numbers that have a scale of zero.
[NON-PORTABLE] INT’s precision must be greater than or equal to the precision of SMALLINT but is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define INT’s precision. FIPS says that INT should have a precision of at least 9 digits. OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book defines INT as a 32-bit, signed binary numeric, i.e.: INT corresponds to the C long int data type. Thus, INT defines a set of values that are possibly signed whole numbers with a precision of 31 bits and a scale of zero, e.g., -6500 or 476673.
[NON-PORTABLE] INT’s radix must be the same as the radix chosen for SMALLINT but is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define whether INT and SMALLINT have a binary radix or a decimal radix. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book defines INT and SMALLINT with a binary radix, i.e.: 2. This gives INT a valid range of -2,147,483,647 to +2,147,483,647.
The required syntax for a SMALLINT <data type> specification is as follows.
SMALLINT defines a set of possibly signed whole numbers that have a scale of zero.
[NON-PORTABLE] SMALLINT’s precision must be less than or equal to the precision of INT but is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define SMALLINT’s precision. FIPS says that SMALLINT should have a precision of at least 4 digits. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book defines SMALLINT as a 16-bit signed binary numeric, i.e.: SMALLINT corresponds to the C int data type. Thus, SMALLINT defines a set of values that are possibly signed whole numbers with a precision of 15 bits and a scale of zero, e.g., -65 or 476.
[NON-PORTABLE] SMALLINT’s radix must be the same as the radix chosen for INT but is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define whether SMALLINT and INT have a binary radix or a decimal radix, i.e., 2. THis gives SMALLINT a range of -32,767 to +32,767. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book defines SMALLINT and INT with a binary radix, i.e.: 2. This gives SMALLINT a range of -32,767 to +32,767.
The required syntax for a NUMERIC <data type> specification is as follows.
NUMERIC is a fixed-point numeric with a decimal precision and decimal scale that are equal to the explicit precision and the explicit scale given; it defines a set of values that are possibly signed decimal numbers with an optionally defined precision and optionally defined scale, e.g., or 65.73 or .6 or -819.3 or -.25.
The optional precision, if specified, is an unsigned integer that defines the maximum precision of acceptable values. The minimum precision is 1.
The optional scale, if specified, is an unsigned integer, greater than zero, that defines the maximum number of digits in the scale of acceptable values. It must be less than the precision and defaults to zero if omitted. You may define a scale for NUMERIC only if you also define a precision: if no precision is defined, the scale must default to zero.
The required syntax for a DECIMAL <data type> specification is as follows.
DECIMAL may be abbreviated as DEC and is a fixed-point numeric with a decimal scale that is equal to the explicit scale given; it defines a set of values that are possibly signed decimal numbers with an optionally defined precision and optionally defined scale, e.g., 65.73 or .6 or -819.3 or -.25.
The optional precision, if specified, is an unsigned integer that defines the maximum precision of acceptable values. DEC’s decimal precision must be at least equal to the precision you define – compare COBOL, which allows “PIC S9(3) COMP-1” but might allot a full-word “PIC S9(5)” for internal storage. The minimum precision is 1.
The optional scale, if specified, is an unsigned integer, greater than zero, that defines the maximum number of digits in the scale of acceptable values. It must be less than the precision and defaults to zero if omitted. You may define a scale for DEC only if you also define a precision: if no precision is defined, the scale must default to zero.
The required syntax for a FLOAT <data type> specification is as follows.
FLOAT is a floating-point numeric with a binary precision; it defines a set of values that are possibly signed floating point numbers.
The optional precision, if specified, is an unsigned integer that defines the maximum number of bits (including the hidden bit) in the mantissa of acceptable values. FLOAT’s binary precision must be at least equal to the precision you define. The minimum precision is 1.
[NON-PORTABLE] The minimum exponent and the maximum exponent for FLOAT are non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define FLOAT’s minimum and maximum exponents. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book allows you to define an exponent ranging from -038 to +038 for FLOAT.
The required syntax for a REAL <data type> specification is as follows.
REAL is a floating-point numeric with a binary precision, i.e.: REAL defines a set of values that are possibly signed floating point numbers.
For example, -1.27982E+15 or .465E-07.
[NON-PORTABLE] The minimum exponent and the maximum exponent for REAL are non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define REAL’s minimum and maximum exponents. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book allows you to define an exponent ranging from -38 to +38 for REAL.
The required syntax for a DOUBLE PRECISION <data type> specification is as follows.
DOUBLE PRECISION is a floating-point numeric with a binary precision, i.e.: DOUBLE PRECISION defines a set of values that are possibly signed floating point numbers.
[NON-PORTABLE] The minimum exponent and the maximum exponent for DOUBLE PRECISION are non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define DOUBLE PRECISION’s minimum and maximum exponents. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book allows you to define an exponent ranging from -038 to +038 for DOUBLE PRECISION.
Throughout this section, we´ve shown examples of <numeric literal>s that conform to the various SQL <data type>s we´re describing. It is important to remember that your DBMS doesn´t see them that way. To an SQL DBMS, <exact numeric literal>s have a DECIMAL <data type> and <approximate numeric literal>s have a FLOAT <data type>.
Now that we’ve described SQL’s numeric <data type>s, let’s look at some example SQL statements that put them to use.
These SQL statements make a Table with four exact numeric Columns, insert a row, then search for any number less than -1.
These SQL statements make a Table with three approximate numeric Columns, insert a row, then search for any number less than 50000.
According to the IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, “single-” and “double-precision” numbers are defined as follows.
The most significant mantissa bit is assumed to be 1. It is not stored.
You’d find the same specification in, say, an Intel FPU reference text or a C++ manual. But we found discrepancies when looking through documents for Java (where the exponent range is between -35 and +38), Delphi (where the exponent range is between -45 and +38 for single-precision and between -324 and -308 for double- precision), FIPS SQL (where the FLOAT exponent+size are 9+47 and the REAL exponent+size are 7+23). So, for portability reasons, it would be a good idea to avoid the extremes of the IEEE range.
Most DBMSs support IEEE float formats because FIPS requires that the decimal ranges be supported and because the DBMS code itself is written in a language that supports IEEE floats. But never does an official SQL standard tell vendors “how to store the data”. So it might be that your DBMS actually uses the IEEE sizes or it might be that your DBMS actually stores float decimal literals (as xBase does) and processes with base-10 arithmetic. If so, the following information doesn’t apply to you.
[Obscure Information] applies for the rest of this section.
Note that the number is wrong (three thirds should equal 1). Increase the scale. Try again. You’ll never get the correct result because you can’t accurately represent 1/3 as a decimal fraction.
If your Table has 1000 rows, then the conversion to binary happens 1000 times – cumulating the inaccuracy each time – and the conversion back to decimal happens only once, when the final SUM is returned. Rounding won’t save you, because the result – 99.45 – is good to the nearest hundredth. And you won’t check the result in your head. Yet the result is “wrong”.
In theory, this arithmetic exercise is not a “floating point” problem. We introduced the inaccuracy by converting a decimal fraction to binary. Both fixed-point and floating-point binary fractions have the same danger of inaccuracy, because the danger lies in the fact that we’re dealing with binary numbers – not in the fact that we’re dealing with floating-point numbers. So, in theory, the same “wrong” result could be returned for a DECIMAL Column or a NUMERIC Column. In practice, though, the better SQL DBMSs won’t use binary fractions for DECIMAL or NUMERIC values. Instead, like COBOL with “PIC 9V99”, they actually store an integer with an implied decimal point – so the number 1/100 is, internally, 1. No conversion occurs because an integral number of hundredths are being stored, rather than a fraction.
Because of this, for all financial transactions, both money and interest ought to be DECIMAL or NUMERIC. The frequency of definitions like: CREATE TABLE Table_1 (salary FLOAT); is a mistake, justified only by the fact that, in C or Pascal, it’s normal to define big or non-integer variables as floating-point.
A number is compatible with, and comparable to, all other numbers – that is, all numbers are mutually comparable and mutually assignable. Numbers may not be directly compared with, or directly assigned to, any other <data type> class, though implicit type conversions can occur in expressions, SELECTs, INSERTs, DELETEs and UPDATEs. Explicit numeric type conversions can be forced with the CAST operator.
In SQL, CAST is a scalar operator that converts a given scalar value to a given scalar <data type>. The required syntax for the CAST operator is as follows.
The CAST operator converts values of a source <data type> into values of a target <data type>, where each <data type> is an SQL pre-defined <data type> (data conversions between UDTs are done with a user-defined cast). The source <data type>, or <cast operand>, can be any expression that evaluates to a single value. The target <data type>, or <cast target>, is either an SQL predefined <data type> specification or the name of a Domain whose defined <data type> is the SQL predefined <data type> that you want to convert the value of “scalar_expression” into. If you use CAST (… AS <Domain name>), your current <AuthorizationID> must have the USAGE Privilege on that Domain.
CAST (NULL AS <data type>) and CAST numeric_source_is_a_null_value AS <data type>) both result in NULL.
You can CAST an exact numeric source to these targets: exact numeric, approximate numeric, fixed length character string, variable length character string, CLOB and NCLOB. You can also CAST an exact numeric source to an interval target, provided the target contains only one datetime field. That is, you can CAST an integer to INTERVAL YEAR or to INTERVAL MONTH, but you can’t CAST it to INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH. You can CAST an exact numeric source to a UDT target or a <reference type> target if a user-defined cast exists for this purpose and your current <AuthorizationID> has the EXECUTE Privilege on that user-defined cast.
You can CAST an approximate numeric source to these targets: exact numeric, approximate numeric, fixed length character string, variable length character string, CLOB and NCLOB. You can also CAST an approximate numeric source to a UDT target or a <reference type> target if a user-defined cast exists for this purpose and your current <AuthorizationID> has the EXECUTE Privilege on that user-defined cast.
When you CAST, an exact numeric value or an approximate numeric value to an exact numeric target, e.g., CAST (25 AS INTEGER), CAST (1.47E-5 AS DECIMAL(9,7)), or when you CAST an exact numeric value or an approximate numeric value to an approximate numeric target, e.g., CAST (25 AS FLOAT), CAST (1.47E-5 AS DOUBLE PRECISION) – your DBMS checks whether the source is a valid value for the target’s <data type> (or if a valid value (one that doesn’t lose any leading significant digits) can be obtained from the source by rounding or truncation. If so, then the source is converted to that target value. If neither of these are true, the CAST will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22003 "data exception-numeric value out of range".
[NON-PORTABLE] If your source value is not a valid value for your target <data type>, then the value CAST is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define whether the DBMS will round or will truncate the source to obtain a valid target value. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book truncates the source to obtain a valid target value.
If the length of the result equals the fixed length of the target, then the source is CAST to that result. If the length of the result is shorter than the fixed length of the target, then the source is CAST to that result, padded on the right with however many spaces is required to make the lengths the same. If the length of the result is longer than the fixed length of the target, the CAST will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22001 data exception-string data, right truncation. And if the result contains any characters that don’t belong to the target’s Character set, the CAST will also fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22018 data exception-invalid character value for cast.
If your approximate numeric source value is zero, the CAST result is this character string: ‘0E0’.
When you CAST an exact numeric value or an approximate numeric value to a variable length character string target or a CLOB or NCLOB target, your DBMS converts the number to the shortest string that represents that number. As with fixed length target, it strips off leading plus signs, leading zeros, and any insignificant decimal signs and trailing zeros. If the length of the result is less than or equals the maximum length of the target, then the source is CAST to that result. If the length of the result is longer than the maximum length of the target, the CAST will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22001 “data exception-string data, right truncation”. And if the result contains any characters that don’t belong to the target’s Character set, the CAST will also fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22018 data exception-invalid character value for cast.
[Obscure Rule] The result of a CAST to a character string target has the COERCIBLE coercibility attribute; its Collation is the default Collation for the target’s Character set.
When you CAST an exact numeric value to an interval target, your DBMS converts it to the value of the interval’s single datetime field represented by that number – for example, CAST (25 AS INTERVAL YEAR) results in an interval of 25 years. If the number you’re casting is too large for the precision of the target – as in CAST (500 AS INTERVAL HOUR(2)` – the CAST will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22015 "data exception-interval field overflow.
When you CAST an exact numeric value or an approximate numeric value to a UDT or a <reference type> target, your DBMS invokes the user defined cast routine, with the source value as the routine’s argument. The CAST result is the value returned by the user defined cast.
If you want to restrict your code to Core SQL, don’t use <Domain name> as a CAST target: CAST only to a <data type>.
In SQL, when an exact numeric or an approximate numeric value is assigned to an exact numeric target, the source is first converted to an exact numeric value with the precision and scale of the target. When an exact numeric or an approximate numeric value is assigned to an approximate numeric target, the source is first converted to an approximate numeric value with the precision of the target. In either case, if the assignment would result in the loss of any of the source value’s most significant digits, the assignment will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22003 data exception-numeric value out of range.
[NON-PORTABLE] If the assignment of a numeric value would result in the loss of any of the source value’s least significant digits, the result is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define the result using either of two options: (a) your DBMS may truncate the source to fit the target and then make the assignment or (b) your DBMS may round the source to fit the target and then make the assignment. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book truncates the source value to fit the target.
[Obscure Rule] Since only SQL accepts null values, when a null value is taken from SQL-data to be assigned to a numeric target, your target’s value is not changed. Instead, your DBMS will set the target’s indicator parameter to -1, to indicate that an assignment of the null value was attempted. If your target doesn’t have an indicator parameter, the assignment will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22002 data exception-null value, no indicator parameter. Going the other way, there are two ways to assign a null value to an SQL-data target. Within SQL, you can use the <keyword> NULL in an INSERT or an UPDATE statement to indicate that the target should be set to NULL; that is, if your source is NULL, your DBMS will set your target to NULL. Outside of SQL, if your source has an indicator parameter that is set to -1, your DBMS will set your target to NULL (regardless of the value of the source). (An indicator parameter with a value less than -1 will cause an error: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22010 data exception-invalid indicator parameter value. We’ll talk more about indicator parameters in our chapters on SQL binding styles.
ALL returns TRUE either (a) if the collection is an empty set (i.e.: if it contains zero rows) or (b) if the comparison operator returns TRUE for every value in the collection. ALL returns FALSE if the comparison operator returns FALSE for at least one value in the collection.
SOME and ANY are synonyms. They return TRUE if the comparison operator returns TRUE for at least one value in the collection. They return FALSE either (a) if the collection is an empty set or (b) if the comparison operator returns FALSE for every value in the collection. The search condition = ANY (collection) is equivalent to IN (collection).
With SQL, you have several other operations that you can perform on numbers, or on other values to get a numeric result.
SQL provides the usual scalar arithmetic operators, + and - and * and /, to perform operations on numbers. All of them will be familiar; there are equivalent operators in other computer languages. If any of the operands are NULL, the result of the operation is also NULL.
Because two dashes i.e.: -- means “comment start” in SQL, our example of a double negative has to be -(-occurrence_decimal) rather than --occurrence_decimal.
Dyadic * and / have priority over dyadic + and -, but monadic + and - have top priority. It’s good style to use parentheses for any expressions with different operators.
CASE expressions are good for taking error-abating actions in advance.
SQL has no low-level debugging features, so sometimes you will need to force an error somewhere in a complex expression, to be sure it is actually being executed. For this purpose, insert code that would cause a numeric overflow.
[NON-PORTABLE] An exact numeric value added to, subtracted from, multiplied by or divided by an exact numeric value yields an exact numeric value with a precision that is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define the precision of the result. For all these operations, if the result of the operation can’t be exactly represented with the correct precision and scale, the operation will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22003 "data exception-numeric value out of range". [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book gives the result of an arithmetic operation between exact numeric operands a <data type> and precision that matches the <data type> and precision of the operand with the most exact precision, e.g.: for an operation with SMALLINT and INT operands, the result is an INT.
An exact numeric value added to or subtracted from an exact numeric value yields a result with a scale size that matches the size of scale of the operand with the largest scale, e.g.: for an operation with DECIMAL(6,2) and INT operands, the result has a scale of 2.
An exact numeric value multiplied by an exact numeric value yields a result with a scale size that is the sum of the scale sizes of the operands, e.g.: for an operation with DECIMAL(6,2) and NUMERIC(10,4) operands, the result has a scale of 6.
[NON-PORTABLE] An exact numeric value divided by an exact numeric value yields a result with a scale size that is non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define the scale size of the result. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book gives the result of a division operation between exact numeric operands a scale size that matches the size of scale of the operand with the largest scale, e.g.: for an operation with DECIMAL(6,2) and NUMERIC(10,4) operands, the result has a scale of 4.
[NON-PORTABLE] An approximate numeric value added to, subtracted from, multiplied by or divided by an approximate numeric value yields an approximate numeric value with a precision and scale that are non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define the precision and scale of the result. If the exponent of the result doesn’t fall within the DBMS’s supported exponent range, the operation will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22003 "data exception-numeric value out of range". [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book gives the result of an arithmetic operation between approximate numeric operands a <data type> and precision that matches the <data type> and precision of the operand with the most exact precision, e.g.: for an operation with REAL and DOUBLE PRECISION operands, the result is a DOUBLE PRECISION type.
[NON-PORTABLE] An approximate numeric value added to, subtracted from, multiplied by or divided by an exact numeric value (or vice versa) yields an approximate numeric value with a precision and scale that are non-standard because the SQL Standard requires implementors to define the precision and scale of the result. [OCELOT Implementation] The OCELOT DBMS that comes with this book gives the result of an arithmetic operation between approximate numeric and exact numeric operands a <data type> and precision that matches the <data type> and precision of the operand with the most exact precision, e.g.: for an operation with REAL and DOUBLE PRECISION operands, the result is a DOUBLE PRECISION.
Let it grow. The result is DECIMAL(6) if the operation is addition and slightly more if the operation is multiplication. This choice has the advantage that it eliminates “overflow” errors. But there are still undefined areas: What happens if the DECIMAL precision is already at the maximum? What happens if the operation adds 1 to a SMALLINT – does the <data type> upgrade to INTEGER so that the increased precision is valid?
Chop it. The result is DECIMAL(5), regardless. This risks failure on even the most innocuous operations, but it’s a simple rule to follow: output precision = input precision. Programmers can understand it.
These choices are not mutually exclusive and your DBMS might make different decisions for different operations.
will cause an error – be sure your source value fits in the CAST target.
SQL lacks useful functions which in other languages are built-in, e.g.: the ability to detect NaN (Not a Number).
SQL vendors are only obliged to define and to accept IEEE numbers. They can do arithmetic without paying any attention to the IEEE standard at all. In particular, some vendors may use the same routines for approximate numerics as they use for exact numerics, and exact is slower.
Still, you can do the basic arithmetic functions – add, subtract, divide, multiply, compare – provided you take sensible precautions.
We did this operation with an IEEE-compatible compiler: 1234.567 - 1234.000 The result was 0.5670166.
Here, by casting to DEC(8,3) we first change the result 0.5670166 to 0.567. The second CAST casts this back to REAL, with a subsequent result of 0.5670000. Casting is a straightforward way to strip – unfortunately, it’s only useful if you know a lot about the data.
By the way, don’t just transpose the operands. Order of expression evaluation varies.
When doing floating-point division, keep in mind that there is such a thing as “negative zero” and there are floating-point numbers which are so small that you’ll get an exception when you divide by them, even though they don’t exactly equal zero. This makes it a little harder to test for “division by zero” errors in advance.
SQL provides ten scalar functions that return a number: the <case expression>, the <cast specification>, the <position expression>, the three <length expression>s, the <extract expression>, the <cardinality expression>, the <absolute value expression> and the <modulus expression>. Only the last two also operate exclusively on numbers; these are described below. We’ll discuss the rest in other chapters; for now, just remember that they evaluate to a number and can therefore be used anywhere in an SQL statement that a number could be used.
ABS operates on an argument that evaluates to a number. It strips a negative sign (if it’s present) from the argument and returns a non-negative number whose <data type> is the same as the argument’s <data type>, e.g.: ABS(-17) returns 17, ABS(17) returns 17 and ABS(0) returns 0. If the argument is NULL, ABS returns NULL.
[Obscure Rule] ABS can also operate on an interval. We’ve ignored this option for now – look for it in our chapter on temporal values.
The required syntax for a <modulus expression> is as follows.
MOD operates on two arguments, both of which must evaluate to an exact numeric integer. It divides the first number by the second number and returns the operation’s remainder as a non-negative exact numeric integer whose <data type> is the same as the divisor_argument’s <data type>, e.g.: MOD(35,4) returns 3 and MOD(32,4) returns 0. If either argument is NULL, MOD returns NULL. If the divisor_argument is zero, the function will fail: your DBMS will return the SQLSTATE error 22012 "data exception-division by zero".
MOD is new to SQL with SQL3. In the Standard, MOD stands for “modulus” but the result of this function is not actually a modulus – it is a remainder achieved “by means of a modulus”.
SQL provides five set functions that return a number: COUNT(*), COUNT, AVG, SUM and GROUPING. All but COUNT(*) also operate on numbers (COUNT(*) operates on rows). AS do the set functions MAX and MIN also operate on numbers. Since none of these operate exclusively with numeric arguments, we won’t discuss them here; look for them in our chapter on set functions.
In addition to the comparison operators, SQL provides eight other predicates that operate on numbers: the <between predicate>, the <in predicate>, the <null predicate>, the <exists predicate>, the <unique predicate>, the <match predicate>, the <quantified predicate> and the <distinct predicate>. Each will return a boolean value: either TRUE, FALSE or UNKNOWN. None of these operate strictly on numbers, so we won’t discuss them here. Look for them in our chapter on search conditions.
When you’re defining a <data type> specification, think about whether you really need a numeric <data type> for the expected data. Don’t just ask: are the values always bunches of digits? For example, phone numbers are digits but if you define a DECIMAL <data type> for them you might lose a valuable piece of information – whether a leading zero is significant. Identification numbers are digits but if you define a DECIMAL <data type> for them you might have trouble calculating the check digit, which is usually based on a substring extraction. Instead, consider the question: will I ever need to do standard arithmetic operations on the data? If the answer is “no”, use a string <data type> rather than a numeric type.
Once you’ve gone through the decision tree, calculate the required precision and scale by looking at all expected values.
The “typical” SQL DBMS supports most of the standard numeric data types, but often uses preferred local names. Here are some lists of local types derived from vendor manuals. The correlation with the leftmost (“Standard”) column is sometimes imprecise. “ODBC” is not a DBMS but a spec.
Other commonly-seen numeric data types include TINYINT (8-bit signed integer), BIGINT (64-bit signed integer) and SERIAL (integer that goes up by 1 for each new inserted row).
Before we finish discussing numbers, it’s time to add something to our “SQL library”. To be worthy of addition to the SQL library, a routine must (a) be good clean SQL, (b) be callable from C and Delphi, (c) be actually useful in C and Delphi because it does something that those languages can’t and (d) have nothing at all do with “databases” – it should be available for use just like any general function library.
Our addition to the SQL library for this chapter will be a calculator. It won’t match C and Delphi for floating-point arithmetic, but it will give more exact answers. Here it is.
Pass: An arithmetic expression in the string lp_calculation. The string may contain any combination of numeric <literal>s (in valid SQL form), the operators * + * / MOD ABS and parentheses.
lp_result: Result of expression (a string containing a number).
lp_error: SQLSTATE and error message, if expression was invalid. | 2019-04-20T01:29:04Z | https://crate.io/docs/sql-99/en/latest/chapters/03.html |
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During 2013 and early 2014 a test program was carried out to evaluate a multi-electrode, High Resolution Resistivity/ Induced Polarization (HRRIP) system over 9 mineral deposits within the non-glaciated region of the Yukon. The HRRIP system was chosen over conventional resistivity/IP systems used in the mining industry for the following reasons: 1) The lack of glacial material overlying these deposits means they can be mapped at depths less than 70 to 80 m, 2) conventional systems require the use of large generators to generate the current, with corresponding large field crews, and often require line cutting whereas the HRRIP systems can be used with limited or no line cutting, 3) the HRRIP systems only require a battery operated current source with a crew of 3 to 4 personnel and are therefore portable and light weight, 4) this means the HRRIP systems are faster, cheaper, and leave a smaller environmental footprint. The HRRIP systems are therefore an economic and environmentally friendly way to explore for these targets because exploration costs are reduced with smaller crews and less time spent collecting the data in the field.
HRRIP systems have been used within the environmental and engineering geophysical community for more than 30 years. Typical applications include locating aggregate, groundwater mapping, salt water intrusion into fresh water aquifers, contaminant and leachate mapping, shallow landslide hazard mapping of slip planes, porosity and potential debris volumes and locating buried tunnels and sink holes. These systems are ideal for follow-up of exploration targets in non-glaciated environments since they can map shallow resistivity and IP structures potentially associated with mineralization and/or alteration products to depths between 70 and 80 m.
The geology of the nine deposits is well known and they have been extensively drilled to outline mineralization. They are perfect deposits for testing the HRRIP system. The deposits were selected to provide different deposit types, different structural styles and different metal content (Au, Ag. Cu, Pd, Zn). The resistivity and IP responses depend on the host rock of the deposit as well as the type of mineralization associated with the deposit. For example, the stockwork structure of a porphyry copper deposit containing disseminated sulphide mineralization has a distinct IP response.
The primary goal of the study was to investigate if these high resolution systems could be used to map known mineralization and structure. In particular, for which deposit types and/or geological situations does the method work and are there deposits where the inversions are inconclusive or incomplete. By understanding the geophysical response over deposits with known geology and mineralization we learn how the HRRIP method can be more effectively utilized in prospective areas where the geology and mineralization are not that well known. A second goal was to investigate which array type(s), if any, were most effective for mapping the different deposit types. The nine deposits selected to test the HRRIP method provided a cross section of the target types and mineralization outlined above.
This paper summarises the main results of the study and provides example inversions from the Klaza gold deposit.
Multi-electrode, high resolution, shallow resistivity/IP systems are a light weight version of traditional resistivity/IP systems used for mineral exploration. Their main advantage is they are portable, light-weight, and do not require large generators for the current. For example, an 84-electrode 2D array with an electrode spacing of 5 m covers a distance of 415 m and, depending on the array used, images the upper 50 to 100 m of the subsurface. In addition, the smaller electrode spacing provides good lateral resolution. Longer lines are obtained using roll-along techniques similar to those utilized within the seismic industry. These systems can collect data using common arrays (Fig. 1) such as dipole-dipole, pole-dipole, pole-pole, and Wenner-Schlumberger (or inverse Wenner-Schlumberger), as well as specialized arrays such as the strong gradient array developed by Advanced Geoscience Inc (AGI). See Best et al. 2014 for further details of the arrays. Each array has its strengths and weaknesses when imaging the subsurface. A comparison of using a battery versus a generator was carried out at the Brewery Creek case study (Figure 4). The results showed that batteries provided a more stable current (Best et al, 2014). Hence all the case study tests were carried out using batteries.
An Advanced Geosciences lnc. (AGI) Supersting multi-electrode resistivity/IP system with 84 electrodes was used to collect the resistivity and induced polarization (IP) data. The electrode spacing was fixed at 5 m for this case study, providing a spread length of 83 x 5 = 415 m. Most lines were short enough so that only a single spread length was necessary. Those lines longer than a spread length were obtained using the roll-along option of the Supersting System.
The current (I) and voltage (V) were measured for each electrode pair and converted to an apparent resistivity (ρa) using the following formulas (Sumner, 1976).
where V is the measured voltage (volts), I is the injected current (amperes), a is the spacing between the electrodes (m) and n is a multiple of the electrode spacing (5, 10, 15 m, etc., i.e. n = 1, 2, 3, etc.). The apparent resistivity computed from the above equations equals the actual resistivity of the subsurface only for the case of a homogenous earth. The inverse Schlumberger array is the same as the Schlumberger array except the current and voltage electrodes are interchanged (reciprocity theorem).
The resistivity data were presented as an apparent resistivity pseudosection (Fig. 2). If the subsurface was not a simple homogenous layer then the actual resistivity must be determined from inversion of a forward model. The forward model can be a 1D, 2D or 3D. We used a two-dimensional inversion program (Earthimager software developed by AGI) because 3D data collection is time-consuming and expensive and we collected the profiles with lines placed parallel to known strike in order to keep the interpretation as close to 2D as possible.
Figure 2. Example of an apparent resistivity pseudosection for a dipole-dipole array.
where the voltage Vp is the same voltage used in the equations for the apparent resistivity and is the voltage just before the current is turned off as shown in Figure 2.
The Supersting collects the IP data in 6 time windows starting from time zero and spaced logarithmically. The six voltages (or subset of them) are averaged and divided by the initial (time zero) voltage VP to provide the chargeability. The voltages in the 6 time windows are stored so the user can determine which ones to use during further processing. At least 4 of the voltages must be used in order to produce statistically meaningful chargeability values. The IP data were plotted as IP pseudosections. The Earthimager software uses a forward model (Sumner, 1976) in order to obtain the sub-surface chargeability distribution. The process is similar to that carried out for resistivity inversions.
Minimal line cutting was needed for the AGI Supersting system since the multi-element cable is lightweight and required little effort to move it around in the field . The cable is segregated into 6 sections, each with 14 electrodes to make up the 84 electrode system. Three sections were placed behind the console and 3 were placed in front of the console, making the console the center point of the spread. When a line required roll-along either one or three of the back sections were moved to the front and the console was moved to the new center position. In most instances it only took a few hours to get a single spread ready for data acquisition. Soaking the electrodes to reduce the contact resistance and ensuring they are properly connected to the cable takeouts required the most time. Once all of the electrodes were connected and soaked it took several hours per array type to collect all combinations of current and voltage electrodes for a single spread. A significant amount of the time is for averaging the voltage signal to improve signal-to-noise. The same spread, however, was used for multiple array types without making any physical changes to the cable layout.
The final 2D resistivity and chargeability inversions were output as xyz files for input into Geosoft to produce the sections in the report.
Figure 3. Schematic of IP voltage decay versus time (from Sumner, 1976).
The locations of the 9 case studies are shown on the Yukon terrane map in Figure 4. Brewery Creek (CS-1), Dublin Gulch (CS-2), and Flame/ Moth (CS-3) are east of the Tintina fault and lie within the Selwyn basin. The other case study targets are located west of the Tintina fault and lie within the Yukon Tanana terrane, a pericratonic sequence that extends from northern British Columbia, through Yukon, and into southern Alaska (Colpron et al., 2006; Wainwright et al., 2011). The Yukon Tanana terrane consists of Paleozoic schist and gneiss that were deformed and metamorphosed in the late Paleozoic, and intruded by several suites of Mesozoic intrusions that range in age from Jurassic to Eocene (Mortensen, 1992; Colpron et al., 2006). From Late Permian to Early Jurassic, the rocks were tectonically stacked along foliation- parallel thrust faults (Mortensen, 1992; Berman et al., 2007).
The Klaza property (Figure 4), a gold-silver vein/breccia occurrence in the south Dawson Range, is located in the Mt. Nansen area west of Carmacks within the Paleozoic Yukon-Tanana terrane. Mineralization is hosted in Mid-Cretaceous granodiorite and is associated with four distinct southwest-dipping faulted zones: the Klaza, BYG, Herc, and BRX zones. Lewis and Burke (2011) described galena, arsenopyrite, pyrite and sphalerite-bearing veins and breccia, and noted phyllic and argillic alteration of breccia clasts and in the adjacent granodiorite wall rock. The high resolution resistivity/IP survey was carried out over the BRX and Klaza zones (Figure 5).
Figure 4. Location of the 9 case studies overlain on the Yukon terrane map.
Figure 5. Location of geophysical lines overlain on the surficial geology map of the Klaza property.
Dipole-dipole extended (see Best et al., 2014), inverse Schlumberger, and strong gradient array data were collected on lines KL-050E and BRX-600E (Figure 5). The length of these lines was 415 m (a single spread length) for all arrays. The average RMS error of fit for these 6 arrays (3 per line) was 2.91% with the highest value equal to 4.2% for the dipole dipole extended array on line BRX-600E. These lines had a very high signal-to-noise ratio providing excellent high quality data.
The resistivity and chargeability inversions for the dipole-dipole extended array for line KL-050E, including borehole geology and gold grade, are shown in Figure 6. The black outline is a resistivity low associated with a chargeability high over the mineralized vein and breccia zone. The HRRIP survey indicates these features extend in depth, consistent with the borehole results showing the mineralization also continues at depth. All 3 arrays (dipole-dipole extended, inverse Schlumberger, and strong gradient) on this line showed similar results. The granodiorite showed up as a resistivity high as expected. However, the chargeability values were quite variable. The individual veins and fracture zones did not show up since they were too narrow. but the mineralized zone containing all these individual fractures showed up quite nicely.
Figure 6. Resistivity (upper) and chargeability (lower) inversions of the dipoledipole extended array for line KL-050E. Gold grades are indicated on the boreholes.
The resistivity and chargeability inversions for the inverse Schlumberger array on line BRX- 600E is presented in Figure 7. The results were generally consistent with those for line KL-050E. There were two mineralized zones along this line (outlined by black lines) with resistive granodiorite surrounding them. As before the inverted resistivity tended to agree more closely with the mineralization than the chargeability, although they both outlined the general mineralized zones. The mineralized zone at the NE end of the line had a large chargeability feature associated with it but the zone near the SW end only had a moderate chargeability. This was consistent with all three of the arrays. The black lines indicated only partial overlap between resistivity lows and chargeability highs on this line.
Figure 7. Resistivity (upper) and chargeability (lower) inversions for the inverse Schlumberger array for line BRX-600E. Gold grades are indicated on the boreholes.
The HRRIP method turned out to be a fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly approach to explore for mineral deposits in non-glaciated regions of the Yukon. Agreement between known geology and mineralization and the inverted profiles was generally good. In some of the test cases chargeability was effective in locating areas of mineralization and in others resistivity outlined structure and geological formations.
Below are a few general observations.
gold mineralization associated with sulphide and/or clay alteration often produced a chargeability response.
resistivity lows were usually related to metasedimentary rocks. Mineralization can be associated with the contact between metasediments and the surrounding resistive rocks (see for example the Eagle deposit case study (CS-2) in Best et al., 2014).
inverted resistivity profiles provided information on structure and geology which can be used for locating targets of potential mineralization.
most of the inverted resistivity profiles contained a near surface (approximately the upper 10 to 15 m) section containing numerous high resistivity features related to patches of permafrost.
The study, however, did identify inconsistencies between inversion results, both resistivity and IP, from different arrays along the same line (Best et al., 2014). This points out the importance of using both for interpretation.
The study showed that different geological settings and/or type of mineralization influenced the response of a given array type. The characteristics of one deposit type leads to low resistivity values, for example clay alteration and/or sulphide mineralization, whereas the characteristics of another deposit type leads to high resistivity values, for example quartz veins. Similar arguments hold for how deposit type affects chargeability.
Dipole-dipole and extended dipole-dipole arrays have been shown to have excellent lateral resolution, particularly for inverted resistivity. On the other hand the inverse Schlumberger array, and its extended version were effective at locating chargeability features associated with mineralization. The strong gradient array was somewhere between these two with regard to resistivity resolution and imaging mineralized zones with the chargeability. The location of the “infinity” current electrode influenced the response of pole-dipole arrays and led to asymmetric pseudosections . The depth of exploration for a pole-dipole array is approximately 50% more than the other arrays for a given “a” spacing and fixed number of electrodes. Near-surface resolution, however, was poorer for the pole-dipole array than for the other arrays. Merging pole-dipole data with “infinity” electrodes placed at opposite ends of the spread eliminated any asymmetry associated with single “infinity” locations.
Melvyn Best has close to 40 years geophysical experience in industry and government, working with Shell and Teknica Resource Development Limited in Calgary, Houston and The Netherlands and the Geological Survey of Canada in Dartmouth, NS and Sidney, BC. In 1997, he took early retirement from the GSC and started a geophysical consulting practice in oil and gas exploration and production as well as ground water and environmental studies. He is a past adjunct professor at the University of Victoria and the University of Calgary. Mel has published over 50 journal and GSC papers.
Best, M., Fage, I., and Daigle, R., 2014. Case studies of high resolution resistivity/IP surveying over known mineral deposits: Yukon, Canada. Yukon Geological Survey, Miscellaneous Report 11, 146 p. This report can be obtained from the Yukon Geological Survey at www.geology.gov.yk.ca.
Colpron, M., Nelson, J.L., and Murphy, D.C., 2006. A tectonostratigraphic framework for the pericratonic terranes of the northern Cordillera. In: Paleozoic evolution and metallogeny of pericratonic terranes at the ancient Pacific margin of North America, Canadian and Alaskan Cordillera, M. Colpron and J.L. Nelson (eds.), Geological Association of Canada, Special Paper 45, p. 1-23.
Lewis, L.L. and Burke, M., 2011. Yukon hardrock mining, development and exploration overview 2010. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology Overview 2010, K.E. MacFarlane, L.H. Weston, and C. Relf (eds.), 2010. Yukon Geological Survey, p. 36.
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2005-12-05 Assigned to GENNUM CORPORATION reassignment GENNUM CORPORATION ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: CAIN, ROBERT C.
A system for monitoring brain waves includes a detection electrode that is detects brain waves and is located on the part of the ear that is in or above the ear canal. The detection electrode also generates a brain wave data signal. A reference electrode is included in the system, and operates to detect a reference signal and to generate a reference data signal. A monitor is also included and receives the brain wave data signal and the reference data signal. The detection electrode and reference electrode form an electrode pair, and the monitor processes the brain wave data signal and data reference signal to generate neurofeedback.
This application claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/624,316, filed on Nov. 2, 2004. This prior application, including the entire written description and drawing figures, is hereby incorporated into the present application by reference.
The technology described in this patent document relates generally to the field of brain wave detection and monitoring devices. More particularly, it relates to monitoring brain waves from the ear.
Brain waves or electroencephalographic (EEG) signals can be monitored in order to detect and diagnose numerous medical conditions. Brain wave detection and monitoring can also be used to detect what areas of the brain are functioning, and to some extent, detect what a person is thinking. This information can be utilized in many useful applications.
Brain waves or EEG signals have been measured from various points on the scalp of a subject. Some devices use electrodes that are embedded within the patients scalp, while others use electrodes that are attached to the surface of the subjects skin. Embedding the electrode entails a surgically invasive procedure and attaching electrodes to the scalp can be aesthetically unpleasant. Furthermore, the electrodes are generally wired to a monitor that is located elsewhere on the body, and these wires and monitors are also aesthetically unpleasant, restrict movement, and the wires may become entangled.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example system for measuring brain waves from the ear.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a human ear.
FIG. 3 a is a diagram of an example system for measuring brain waves from the triangular fossa.
FIG. 3 b is a diagram of an example system for measuring brain waves from the cymba conchae.
FIG. 3 c is a diagram of an example system for measuring brain waves from area straddling the triangular fossa and cymba conchae.
FIG. 4 is a diagram of a second example system for measuring brain waves from the ear.
FIG. 5 is a diagram of a third example system for measuring brain waves from the ear.
FIG. 6 is a partial cross-section of an example system for measuring brain waves from the ear canal.
FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example system for transmitting brain wave data wirelessly to a monitor.
FIG. 8 is a diagram of a second example system for transmitting brain wave data wirelessly to a monitor.
FIG. 9 is a diagram of a third example system for transmitting brain wave data wirelessly to a monitor.
FIG. 10 is a diagram of an example brain wave monitoring and alerting device.
FIG. 11 is a diagram of an example system for measuring brain waves from the ear canal where the detection electrode and the monitor are combined in the same housing.
FIG. 1 is an example of a system for measuring brain waves from the ear 1. The ear 1 offers a relatively inconspicuous location, and has been found to be a site where brain wave activity is detectable. Certain areas of the ear 1 such as the area above the ear canal 2 and in the ear canal 4 have proven to be a better locus for detecting brain wave activity than the lower part of the ear 6. In particular, the area of the upper part of the ear 2 called the triangular fossa 7 and also the area called the cymba conchae 9 have been discovered to have especially high brain wave activity, especially near the skull. It is believed that the thinness of the skull at this location is the reason for the higher brain wave activity readings. Additionally, the triangular fossa 7 and cymba conchae 9 both form a type of natural basket for seating an electrode or monitoring device on the ear.
FIG. 1 shows a detected brain wave signal being communicated 8 to a brain wave monitor 10. The monitor 10 is also receiving a reference signal communication 12 from a brain wave reference source 14. The reference source 14 is typically an electrode placed in an area that displays little or no brain wave activity at all, or little or no brain wave activity of the same channel that is being measured. Examples of good locations for the reference electrode where there is little or no brain wave activity include the ear lobe, the outer part of the ear, the mastoids, and the chin. It is also possible to locate the reference source 14 in certain parts of the ear where brain wave activity is present but is not in the same channel of brain activity that the detection electrode is measuring. The reference source 14 serves as a ground for the monitor 10, enabling the monitor 10 to process the detection signal 8 into meaningful neurofeedback data by using the reference signal 12 as a zero point to compare with the detection signal 8.
The brain wave monitor 10 receives the brain wave signal 8 and the reference signal 12, and processes these signals together, using the reference signal 12 as a baseline. The monitor 10 may also amplify the signals 8, 10 to obtain better data. After processing, the monitor 10 outputs neurofeedback, which will allow users and observers to gain valuable data about the brain function of the user. This neurofeedback can be made available to the user/observer in a number of ways, some of which are discussed in detail below. The monitor 10 may be located, for example, behind the ear, in the ear, on a pair of glasses, hanging around the neck, on a belt, in a pocket, or wholly detached from the user's body.
FIG. 2 shows the various anatomical parts of the human outer ear 20. The outer ear 20 includes the ear canal 22, also referred to as the auditory canal, and the pinna 24, also referred to as the auricle, which is the entire area surrounding the ear canal 22. The pinna 24 serves to collect vibrations from the air. The ear canal 22 conducts those vibrations to the ear drum of the middle ear.
The pinna 24 has various convex and concave formations. The outer edge of the pinna 24 has a prominent and curved rim called the helix 28. Running substantially parallel to the helix 28 is another curved prominence, the antihelix 30. The antihelix 30 widens and becomes less prominent at its upper terminus to form a triangular depression, known as the triangular fossa 31 (also referred to as the fossa triangularis). A narrow, curved depression located between the helix 28 and antihelix 30 is referred to as the fossa of the helix, or scapha 32. The antihelix 30 also curves around a semi-ovoid concavity called the concha 34. The concha 34 is divided by the commencement of the helix 35, (also known as the crus of the helix), into an upper part, the cymba conchae 36, and a lower part, the cavum concha 37. The concha 34 surrounds the ear canal 22 opening. Adjacent and partially opposed to the ear canal 22 opening is a pointed projection called the tragus 38. The antitragus 39 is located on the opposite side of the concha 34 from the tragus 38 and is also proximate to the ear canal 22 opening. A notch-like concavity, called the incisura intertragica 40, is positioned between the tragus 38 and antitragus 39. The ear lobe 42 is at the very bottom of the pinna 24, beneath the antitragus 39.
FIG. 3 a is a diagram of an example brain wave monitoring system. A brain wave detection electrode 102 is positioned in the triangular fossa area 104 of the ear 100. In this example, the detection electrode 102 is partially situated underneath the helix 106 of the ear 100, in order to allow the electrode 102 to be positioned as close as possible to the skull. The detection electrode 102 is linked to a brain wave monitor 110, for example, by a wired connection 108.
FIG. 3 a also depicts a reference electrode 112 that is located on the ear lobe 114 of the same ear 100 that the detection electrode 102 is located on. In this example, the reference electrode 112 is a clip, which allows it to be easily attached to the ear lobe 114. The reference electrode 112 is also linked to the brain wave monitor 110, for example by a wired connection 116. The monitor 110 performs processing and neurofeedback output functions.
FIG. 3 b is a diagram of another example brain wave monitoring system. This system is the same as the system depicted in FIG. 3 a, except the detection electrode 102 is located in the cymba conchae 122. In this example, the detection electrode 120 is partially concealed by the crus of the helix 124.
In another example, depicted in FIG. 3 c, the detection electrode 102 may be located on both the cymba conchae 122 and the triangular fossa 126, straddling the lower ridge of the triangular fossa 104.
FIG. 4 shows a second example of a brain wave monitoring system positioned on a human head 150 having a left ear 152 and a right ear 154. A detection electrode 156 is located on the triangular fossa 158 of the right ear 154. A reference electrode 160 is positioned on the ear lobe 162 of the left ear 152. This example brain wave monitoring system is differentiated from the example shown in FIG. 3 partly by the fact that the reference electrode 160 is located on the opposite ear from the detection electrode 156. Locating the reference electrode 160 on the opposite side of the user's head may provide a better site for obtaining a reference signal that is more isolated from the brain wave activity channel that is being detected, and could increase the accuracy and usefulness of the neurofeedback.
Both the detection electrode 156 and the reference electrode 160 are linked, in this example, by a wire 164 to the monitor 166, which is located in a separate housing behind the ear. The monitor may be secured to the back of the ear, for example, by a clip, a hook, or an adhesive. The housing of the monitor 166 may also be shaped so that it will be held in place by frictional and gravitational forces alone. The monitor is depicted as being located behind the right ear 154, but in another example may be located on the left ear 152, or situated on the pinna of either ear 152, 154.
In another example, there is a brain wave monitoring system like the one shown in FIG. 4, except that it has a second pair of detection and reference electrodes. The second pair of electrodes is positioned on opposite ears from the pair of electrodes shown in FIG. 4. That is, the second detection electrode is positioned on the left ear 152 and the second reference electrode is positioned on the right ear 154. The second electrode pair, in one example, may be linked by a wired connection to the same monitor 166 shown in FIG. 4, or in another example, the second pair of electrodes may be linked by a wired connection to a second monitor, which may be located behind the left ear 152, opposite the monitor 166 of FIG. 4.
In another example, the system depicted in FIG. 4 is combined with other electrodes located at other positions on the ear or on the scalp of the user, and each electrode is linked to the monitor 166.
Referring now to FIG. 5, it shows a third example of a brain wave monitoring system positioned on a human head 200 having a right ear 202 and a left ear 204. A first combined electrode 208 is positioned on the triangular fossa 210 of the right ear 202. A second combined electrode 212 is positioned on the triangular fossa 213 of the left ear 204. These combined electrodes 208, 212, operate as both detection and reference sources and are processed relative to the opposite ear counterpart. That is, the detection source in the first electrode 208 is processed with the reference source in the second electrode 212, and the detection source in the second electrode is processed with the reference source in the first electrode. The first and second combined electrodes 208, 212 communicate with the monitor 214. The first combined electrode 208 sends a channel x detection signal 216 and a channel y reference signal 218 to the monitor 214. The second combined electrode 212 sends a channel y detection signal 220 and a channel x reference signal 222 to the monitor 214. The monitor 214 processes the channel x signals together, and the channel y signals together to output two sets of neurofeedback. The monitor 214 may also perform further operations on the data to average the two sets of neurofeedback. This dual arrangement allows collection of better neurofeedback than a single electrode pair would allow.
In another example, the system depicted in FIG. 5 is combined with other electrodes located at other positions on the ear or on the scalp of the user, and each electrode is linked to the monitor 214.
In another example, a second monitor is provided and channel x signals 216, 222 are transmitted to one monitor, while channel y signals 218, 220 are transmitted to the other monitor. Each monitor processes the signals separately.
FIG. 6 shows a system for monitoring brain waves from the ear canal 252. A cross-section of the pinna 250 and ear canal 252 are presented. The ear canal 252 is an ovoid cylindrical passage that extends from the interior of the concha 254 to the ear drum 256. When measured from the surface of the concha 254 to the ear drum 256, the ear canal 252 is about an inch long. The ear canal 252 forms a gradual “S-shaped” curve and is directed, at first, inward, forward, and slightly upward, this is called the pars externa. The ear canal 252 then passes inward and backward, known as the pars media. The final part, known as the pars interna, passes inward, forward, and slightly downward.
FIG. 6 shows a detection electrode 258 located in the ear canal for detecting brain waves. This location provides at least the benefit of hiding the electrode from view, thereby increasing the aesthetic appearance of the monitoring system. A reference electrode is also included in the system and may be located in an appropriate place as discussed above. The detection electrode 258 and reference electrode are connected to the monitor 260 that processes the signal. If a wired connection is used, a clear, translucent wire may be used to link the detection electrode 258 to the monitor 260.
In another example, another detection electrode may be placed in the opposite ear and linked to either the monitor of FIG. 6 or to a second monitor. In yet another example, the monitor 260 and detection electrode 258 may be combined in a single earpiece wherein the electrode portion is located within the ear canal 252, and all or a portion of the monitor 260 is located outside the ear canal 252 and within the pinna 250.
FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example wireless brain wave detection system. Wirelessly transmitting brain wave data will enhance the aesthetic appearance of the system, and prevent the problem of wires becoming entangled. An example of the wireless circuitry that can be used for this function is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/100732 titled, “Binaural Hearing Instrument Systems and Methods,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The system includes a detection electrode 301, and a reference electrode 302. The data gathered by the detection 301 and reference electrodes 302 is transmitted to a wireless transmitter 303 that has an antenna and communications circuitry capable transmitting, or may first amplify then transmit the combined reference and detection electrode signal to a monitor 304. The detection electrode 301 may be placed on various locations on a patient where brain wave activity is detectable, including, for example, the triangular fossa, cymba conchae, and scalp. The reference electrode 302 may be placed in various places where there is little or no brain wave activity of the channel that is being measured by the paired electrode. Furthermore, multiple detection and reference electrodes may be added to the system and linked to the wireless transmitter 303 that is wirelessly linked to the monitor 304. The monitor 304 could also be placed in many different locations on the user or the user's clothing, or could even be located apart from the user, however, the monitor 304 should be within the wireless communication range of the transmitter 303 to properly receive data.
FIG. 8 shows a diagram of a wireless brain wave detection system that is similar to the example shown in FIG. 7. In FIG. 8, however, there is a combination detection electrode and transmitter 310. Both a detection electrode 312 and a transmitter 311 are included in the same housing. Communications circuitry and an antenna are also housed in the combination detection electrode and transmitter 310. A reference electrode 315 is also part of the system, and is linked to provide reference signal data to the combination detection electrode and transmitter 310. The reference and detection signals are combined and the transmitter 311 wirelessly transmits a combined data signal to a monitor 317. The combined signal may also be amplified before being wirelessly transmitted. Other reference electrodes and detection electrodes may also be added to the system and linked to the transmitter 311 and monitor 317.
FIG. 9 shows a diagram of a wireless brain wave detection system that is similar to the example shown in FIG. 8. However, in FIG. 9 there is a combination reference electrode and transmitter 320, rather than a detection electrode and transmitter 310. Both the reference electrode 321 and the transmitter 322 are included in the same housing, along with communications circuitry and an antenna. A detection electrode 325 is also part of the system, and is linked to the combination detection electrode and monitor 320 for transmitting detection signal data to it. The reference and detection signals are combined and the transmitter 322 wirelessly transmits a combined data signal to a monitor 327. The combined signal may also be amplified before being wirelessly transmitted. Other reference electrodes and detection electrodes may also be added to the system and linked to the transmitter 322 and monitor 327.
FIG. 10 shows an example of a system for alerting a user or a third party about dangerous brain wave activity. It also has recording and communication functions. The system includes a monitor 400 that is linked to one or more detection electrodes 402 and one or more reference electrodes 404. The monitor 400 houses a preamplifer 405 that is linked to the detection and reference electrodes and amplifies the signal that it receives. The amplified signal is transferred to a processor 406 which converts the brain wave data and reference signal data into neurofeedback data. One possible type of processor that may be used is Gennum Corporation's part number GC5055, also the processor could be the processor disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/100732, titled “Binaural Hearing Instrument Systems and Methods.” The neurofeedback data is then analyzed by the analyzer 408 to determine whether the neurofeedback represents a significant neural event. A significant neural event may be anything that a user or observer wishes to be notified of or have a record of. This allows for many useful applications, some of which are described below. If a significant neural event is detected, then the analyzer 408 triggers a warning mechanism; an example warning mechanism may be an audible tone and/or a signal to a communication device. The audible tone warning is generated by a tone generator 410 and emitted from a speaker 412. This would serve to alert the user, as well others in the vicinity if the tone is set loud enough for others to hear. Alternatively, or in conjunction with the alert tone, the analyzer 408 can transmit the neurofeedback data or an alert signal to a communication device 414 by a wired or wireless connection 415. The communication device 414, for example, could be a cellular phone, a wireless telephone connected to a land line, or a mobile network device. A signal 415 could also be sent to an external device 413. Alternatively, or in conjunction with the above features, the analyzer 408 could send neurofeedback data of only the significant neural event to the feedback recorder 416 described below.
As an alternative to or in conjunction with sending neurofeedback to the analyzer 408, the processor 406 may instead send neurofeedback data directly to a feedback recorder 416. The feedback recorder may record all neurofeedback data that is generated by the processor 406 and store it in memory 415, or if neurofeedback data is being sent directly to the analyzer, the feedback recorder 416 could accept neurofeedback data from the analyzer that represents a significant neural event and store only that data. The recording could be accessed by a wired or wireless connection 417 from a computing device 418 or a communication device 414. A computing device 418 may be, for example, a desktop computer, a personal data assistant, or a laptop. Accordingly, the neurofeedback could be transferred from the feedback recorder 416 at the user's convenience.
A system such as the one shown in FIG. 10 and described above, could be very useful as an epileptic early warning device. Epilepsy affects approximately 50 million people world-wide and 10-15% of people who suffer from epilepsy are untreatable. Epileptics have significantly reduced freedom in their lives as a result of never knowing when a seizure will occur and may not be able to drive a vehicle or operate machinery. Epileptics may also be restricted from participating in such things as swimming or having a bath for fear of drowning while having a seizure. Also, epileptics may fear social situations or public places, because of the embarrassment that having a seizure in public could cause.
An epileptic seizure is foreshadowed by a characteristic explosion of brain wave activity a few seconds before the seizure takes place. Normal waking consciousness results in slow wave 30-40 Hz, low voltage 20-30 μV eeg potentials. Seizures result in higher frequency and higher voltage 1000-2000 μV eeg potentials. The example system shown in FIG. 10 and described above could generate a warning signal to alert the user or a third party to the start of the seizure when the high frequency, high voltage brain waves are detected. The example FIG. 10 system can be applied to warn of oncoming seizures by programming or hardwiring the analyzer to recognize the characteristic brain wave activity of a seizure as the significant neural event. In turn, the significant neural event will trigger the warning mechanism, which will be either an audible alert generated by the tone generator 410 and speaker 412 or an alert signal that is transmitted to the communication device 414.
In the event the tone generator 410 is activated, the warning tone emitted from the speaker 412 would alert the user, and if the volume is turned up, persons in the vicinity of the user as well. This would allow the user a few seconds or even minutes to get out of a dangerous situation, such as a swimming pool or a moving vehicle. It could also allow the user to request help from those around him, or to get to a private place where they will not be so embarrassed to experience the seizure.
In another example, the tone generator 410, when triggered, emits vocal instructions that are loud enough to be heard by persons in the user's vicinity, and that state, for example, that the user is experiencing a seizure and requests help from those person in the surrounding area. This may be particularly useful for users who have especially serious epileptic seizures.
In another example, in the event the signal 415 to the communication device 414 is triggered, it may cause the communication device, for example, to call 911, or some other telephone number, or it may send an alert signal to a central monitoring site. It could also send an e-mail or other type of electronic communication over the internet. The signal could also cause certain information to be communicated to the contacted party as a request for help, such as an explanation of the emergency nature of the communication, and an identification of the user, etc.
In the event that the signal 415 to the external device 413 is triggered, it may cause the device 415 to shut down to minimize the chances of injury resulting from the seizure. For example, many automobile accidents are caused by epileptic seizures, and the damage from such a seizure could be minimized by signaling the vehicle to come to a controlled stop. Other types of vehicles and equipment could also be signaled to shut down when an oncoming seizure is detected.
In another example system, a global positioning system indicator is located on or near the user, and is linked by a wired or wireless connection to the monitor 400. The user's location is then communicated as part of the signal 415 to the communication device 414, perhaps as part of a request for help.
Another application for the example device of FIG. 10 would be in diagnosing epilepsy. A seizure can be reliably diagnosed to be epileptic if the brain waves during the seizure can be observed. Often it is difficult to get an eeg record of a seizure while it is happening, because the patient must be in a doctor's office or hospital and wired to an eeg monitor at the time the seizure occurs. Seizures are unpredictable and thus this is an unreliable and time consuming method of getting an eeg recording of a seizure. During this monitoring period the patient may also be induced to have a seizure by taking the patient off of their medication or by sleep deprivation or some other uncomfortable stimulus. With the example device of FIG. 10, however, the patient could go about their day outside the doctor's supervision, and a record of the seizure could be obtained whenever it naturally occurs. The brain wave data would be stored in the feedback recorder 416, and could be accessed by linking the monitor 400 to a computing device 418 or a communication device 414 by a wired or wireless connection 417.
Applications for other medical conditions that involve brain wave functions are also possible with the system of FIG. 10. For example, applications for disorders such as schizophrenia, narcolepsy, migraine headaches, and sleep disorders could all have similar functions as the epilepsy example, i.e. the warning tone function, the brain wave recording function, and the communication function.
The diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea may be another especially useful application of the example device of FIG. 10. The monitor 400 could monitor and record brain waves that are indicative of sleep apnea, enabling physicians to diagnose the disorder while allowing the patient greater comfort and mobility. Furthermore, the warning tone function could be used to alert severe sufferers of sleep apnea when they are not breathing. This would be done by programming or hardwiring the analyzer 408 to recognize brain waves that indicate the user has stopped breathing, and set this as the significant neural event. This would then trigger the tone generator 410 to emit an alert tone through the speaker 412.
Applications for other uses that have definable brain wave patterns are also possible with the system of FIG. 10. For example, sleep and dream research, altered state research, stress management, relaxation training, and peak performance training. All these areas could benefit from at least the recording or communication functions of the example device of FIG. 10. Furthermore, the aesthetically pleasing and mobile nature of the device of FIG. 10 would encourage persons to participate in such research. Other applications, such as detecting brain waves for hands-free device control could also be made more aesthetically pleasant and mobile with the example device.
It should be understood that whenever an element is discussed as being located on a left or a right ear, it may also be located on the opposite ear. It should also be understood that any of the examples disclosed may be combined with a further array of electrodes. For example, a third electrode known as a “common” or a “right leg driver” would be beneficially combined with all of the above examples. Furthermore, while various features of the claimed invention are presented above, it should be understood that the features may be used singly or in any combination thereof. Therefore, the claimed invention is not to be limited to only the specific examples depicted herein.
Further, it should be understood that variations and modifications may occur to those skilled in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. The disclosure may enable those skilled in the art to make and use embodiments having alternative elements that likewise correspond to the elements of the invention recited in the claims. The scope of the present invention is accordingly defined as set forth in the appended claims.
As an example of an alternative embodiment, FIG. 11 shows another example of a brain wave detecting system. A human head 500 is depicted having a left ear 502 and a right ear 504, and a combined detection electrode and monitor 506 is housed in the pinna 508 of the left ear 502. A detection electrode 510 is also located in the right ear 504 as well. The detection electrode 310 is linked to the monitor portion of the combined electrode and monitor 506. Reference electrodes that correspond to the detection electrode 510 and the detecting electrode portion of the combined electrode and monitor 506 maybe located in the appropriate places that have been discussed in this specification.
In another example, the combined electrode and monitor 506 of FIG. 11 also includes a reference electrode that corresponds to the detection electrode 510 on the opposite ear 504. The detection electrode 510 may also include a reference electrode so that it is a combined electrode like that depicted in FIG. 5. In yet another example, the ears 504, 502 may both contain a combined detection electrode, reference electrode, and monitor. In this case, each monitor portion would process a separate set of signals.
the brain wave monitor including communications circuitry for communicating wirelessly.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the brain wave monitor is situated in a housing, and one of the detection or reference electrodes is also situated in the same housing.
3. The system of claim 1 further comprising: a plurality of said detection and reference electrodes, so that each reference electrode is paired with a detection electrode to form an array of pairs of electrodes.
4. The system of claim 3 wherein at least two of said pairs of electrodes include one electrode that is situated in the same housing as the brain wave monitor.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one detection electrode is located in a triangular fossa area of an ear.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one detection electrode is located in a cymba conchae area of an ear.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one detection electrode is located in both a triangular fossa and cymba conchae area of an ear and straddling a lower ridge of the triangular fossa.
8. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one detection electrode is located in the area of an ear that is covered by a helix or covered by a crus of the helix.
wherein the monitor is operable to process the brain wave data signal and reference electrode signal into neurofeedback, and to trigger a warning mechanism when a significant neural event occurs.
10. The system of claim 9 wherein the warning mechanism is a tone generator that generates an audible warning signal connected to a speaker.
11. The system of claim 10 wherein the audible signal is a request for help.
12. The system of claim 10 wherein the warning mechanism is an alert signal sent by a wired or wireless link to a communication device.
13. The system of claim 12 wherein the alert signal causes the communication device to dial an emergency telephone number.
14. The system of claim 13 wherein the alert signal further causes a request for help to be sent to the dialed emergency number.
15. The system of claim 12 wherein the alert signal causes the communication device to send an electronic message.
16. The system of claim 9 wherein the warning mechanism is a signal sent by a wired or wireless link to an external device.
17. The system of claim 16 wherein the signal causes the external device to shut down.
18. The system of claim 17 wherein the external device is an automobile.
19. The system of claim 9 further comprising a feedback recorder, wherein the neurofeedback is transmitted to a feedback recorder for storage in memory.
20. The system of claim 19 wherein only neurofeedback representing one or more of the significant neural events is transmitted to the feedback recorder for storage in memory.
21. The system of claim 9 wherein neurofeedback is transmitted by a wired or wireless link to a communication device.
22. The system of claim 9 wherein the significant neural event is the characteristic neurofeedback preceding an epileptic seizure.
wherein the monitor is operable to process the brain wave data signal and data reference signal to generate neurofeedback.
24. The system of claim 23 wherein the detection electrode is located at the triangular fossa of an ear.
25. The system of claim 23 wherein the detection electrode is located on the area of a triangular fossa that is closest to a front part of a user's head and partially enclosed by a crus of the helix.
26. The system of claim 23 wherein the detection electrode is located at a cymba conchae of an ear.
27. The system of claim 23 wherein the detection electrode is located in the ear canal.
28. The system of claim 23 wherein the monitor further comprises a neurofeedback recorder that is operable to store in memory the generated neurofeedback.
29. The system of claim 28 wherein the memory containing the stored neurofeedback is accessible by one of a computing device or communication device via a wired or wireless link.
30. The system of claim 23 wherein at least one of the reference electrode or the detection electrode is included in a housing with the monitor.
31. The system of claim 23 further comprising: a plurality of said detection and reference electrodes, so that each reference electrode is paired with a detection electrode to form an array of pairs of electrodes.
32. The system of claim 23 wherein at least two of said pairs of electrodes include one electrode that is situated in the same housing as the brain wave monitor.
33. The system of claim 23 wherein the reference electrode and detection electrode are located on opposite sides of a user's head.
34. The system of claim 23 further comprising: a plurality of said detection and reference electrodes, so that each reference electrode is paired with a detection electrode to form an array of pairs of electrodes.
35. The system of claim 34 wherein within each pair of reference electrodes and detection electrodes, the reference electrode and detection electrode are located on opposite sides of a user's head.
36. The system of claim 35 wherein at least one reference electrode is contained in the same housing as at least one detection electrode, and the at least one reference electrode and at least one detection electrode are not in the same pair.
processing the reference data signal and the brain wave data signal to generate neurofeedback.
38. The method of claim 37 wherein the step of detecting brain waves is done from the triangular fossa.
39. The method of claim 37 wherein the step of detecting brain waves is done from the cymba conchae.
40. The method of claim 37 wherein the step of detecting brain waves is done from the area concealed by a helix and a crus of the helix.
41. The method of claim 37 further comprising the step of analyzing the neurofeedback to determine if a significant neural event is occurring.
42. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of triggering a warning mechanism when a significant neural event occurs.
43. The method of claim 42 wherein the warning mechanism is an audible alert tone.
44. The method of claim 42 wherein the warning mechanism is transmitting an alert signal to a communication device.
45. The method of claim 42 wherein the warning mechanism is transmitting a signal to an external device.
46. The method of claim 45 wherein the signal causes the external device to shut down.
47. The method of claim 46 wherein the external device is an automobile.
48. The method of claim 41 wherein the significant neural event is an epileptic seizure.
49. The method of claim 37 further comprising the step of recording the neurofeedback.
50. The method of claim 41 further comprising the step of recording the neurofeedback that indicates the significant neural event is occuring. | 2019-04-25T14:36:57Z | https://patents.google.com/patent/US20060094974 |
Our main goal for 2016 was increasing our level of grantmaking, and we focused on this rather than hiring. The team expanded little, but we recommended over $100 million worth of grants in 2016, compared to under $20 million in 2015. We briefly summarize our activity in each of the major causes we worked on below. In most cases, it is too early to see impact from our work, but in a couple of cases there appears to be some early impact.
We had three Scientific Advisors - Chris Somerville, Heather Youngs and Daniel Martin-Alarcon - start in mid-2016. (Chris was previously consulting on a part-time basis.) We still have a good deal of work to do before setting focus areas within scientific research.
We did not complete the spinoff of the Open Philanthropy Project into a separate organization; this turned out to be more time-consuming than anticipated. We anticipate completing it by mid-2017.
We expect to be able to continue recommending grants at a pace of $100+ million per year (though with considerable year-to-year variation) and maintaining current quality (i.e. grants that we consider reasonably well-investigated and good expected value for money). We now have a much more tangible sense of what the day-to-day key questions and operational challenges are for giving in this range. Many new questions and challenges have come up.
At this stage, we now see greater importance for a number of issues including the question of how much grantmaking to aim for in each of our focus areas and how to decide when a grant is worth making, our approach to public communications, and how to make our grantmaking process more streamlined and systematic. In particular, we believe that we will gain a lot from sharpening our thinking on several points related to worldview diversification - and the relative appeal of different worldviews - before increasing our annual giving level much more.
For 2017, we don't plan to focus on scaling up our program staff or grantmaking. Instead, we expect to maintain them at roughly the same level while making significant progress on the items listed in the previous point.
Last year's post laid out plans for 2016. This section follows the order of that section, and quotes from it to allow comparisons between our plans and our progress.
Potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence will be a major priority for 2016 ... Daniel Dewey will work on it full-time, and Nick Beckstead and I [Holden] will both put significant time into it as well. Some other staff will be contributing smaller amounts of time as appropriate ... We won’t necessarily recommend a large amount of grantmaking in this cause, though it’s possible that we will. Our main goal is to lay the groundwork for more grantmaking in the future.
We recommended approximately $11 million in grants, including $5.56 million to start UC Berkeley's Center for Human-Compatible AI, $2.4 million to Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (writeup forthcoming), approximately $2 million to the Future of Humanity Institute, and $500,000 to Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Our grantmaking has focused on (a) creating more spaces for work on technical safety research in academia; (b) "shovel-ready" grants to existing organizations. We also put substantial effort into writing up our views on the topic, making connections with people in relevant fields, and developing a general grant process that we'll be using for more grants on technical safety work. We feel much better informed about this area, with a clearer sense of our future potential activities, than we did a year ago. We still consider it a highly promising philanthropic area, and we plan to continue allocating partial time from several staff (especially Nick Beckstead, Helen Toner and myself) as well as all of Daniel Dewey's time. Working this way in 2016 did not require cutting or suspending any other top-priority work, and we don't expect it to in 2017 either. We see this as a very long-time-horizon cause, and we don't think we can point to tangible impact of our work yet.
We hope to recommend at least $10 million worth of grants in the area of biosecurity in the next year. A full-time Program Officer will be starting work in this area soon.
With Jaime Yassif as our new Program Officer who started in mid-2016, we've recommended a bit over $21 million in grants in this area. $16 million of that was for the Center for Health Security; other major grants included $1.8 million for the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense and $2.7 million for the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative. We focused initially on "shovel-ready" grants to organizations that relevant staff had pre-existing knowledge of. We then spent some time setting priorities more systematically. In the near term our top three priorities will be: (1) risk assessment; (2) managing the risks posed by advances in biotechnology, its global spread and decreasing barriers to access; and (3) building capacity for independent policy research and advocacy. In the coming year we plan to refine our strategic priorities and set longer term goals for the program. Most of our grantmaking in this cause was done after mid-year and has aimed to build capacity for key institutions; we don't think we can point to tangible impact of this work yet.
We hope to recommend at least $10 million worth of grants in each of criminal justice reform and farm animal welfare. We have cause-specific staffers leading our work in both areas.
We recommended about $20 million worth of Criminal Justice Reform grants in 2016. Priorities include sentencing reform (including $3 million for the Alliance for Safety and Justice), organizing (including Faith in Texas, Mijente and The Ordinary People Society), prosecutorial accountability and reform (such as The Accountable Justice Project), and piloting and promoting alternatives to incarceration (such as restorative justice). We expect to publish significantly more content on this topic in the coming months. We've seen several cases where our grants may have had an impact, and will likely write more about some of these in the future (while some are best not to share publicly). So far, we believe the most significant case is that of a recent bill signed in Illinois that our grantee, the Alliance for Safety and Justice, estimates will result in approximately a 3000-person reduction in the prison population (we plan to discuss this in more detail in a future post). It is our understanding that ASJ developed the strategy for the bill, and worked very closely with the bill's champion Jehan Gordon-Booth, to cover all bases necessary in the state to get it passed. It passed with strong bipartisan majority and support from key law enforcement associations. Our grant to ASJ constituted 54% of its income in 2016; we believe this grant substantially increased the scope of ASJ's work, and that the work ASJ did in Illinois is among the work that would have been unlikely to occur without our support.
As quoted above, last year we wrote that we hoped to recommend at least $10 million worth of grants in this area. We recommended about $15 million worth of grants in 2016 (not including an additional $2.5 million we recommended in 2015). This included about $3 million each to Mercy for Animals (grants here, here and here) and The Humane League (here, here, and here). Our main focus was on corporate campaigns for better treatment of both layer and broiler chickens, both in the U.S. and abroad. Our grantees have now secured cage-free pledges from all of the top 25 US grocers, foodservice companies, and food manufacturers, and 16 of the top 20 fast food chains, which will benefit >250M hens annually once implemented. They have also secured global cage-free pledges from the world’s two largest foodservice companies, the world’s largest discount grocery chain, and several of the world’s largest hotel chains, and regional cage-free pledges from Latin America’s largest fast food operators and France and Britain’s largest grocers. And they have secured commitments from the largest US foodservice operators and several fast food chains to reduce the suffering of >200M broiler chickens annually. We also supported work on fish welfare, work on promoting animal product alternatives, and nascent work to build stronger farm animal welfare organizations in China and India. We view these as long-term efforts and don’t expect to see tangible progress from these grants soon.
exploring funding opportunities around a cluster of science and technology policy issues, such as policy around emerging technologies (potentially including advanced artificial intelligence) and other topics related to science policy and infrastructure.
investigating a set of funding opportunities in macroeconomic stabilization policy.
maintaining or expanding upon our grants in immigration policy and land use reform.
I’d guess that his work (aside from supporting Chloe and Lewis) will result in about $10 million worth of grant recommendations in 2016, but with high uncertainty.
Alexander spent less time on the above priorities than anticipated, instead focusing on supporting Chloe and Lewis, helping Open Philanthropy move toward spinning out as an independent organization, and working with the science team on grants around the use of gene drives in malaria control (discussed more below). We recommended about $2 million in grants to think tanks to work on macroeconomic stabilization policy (grant writeups here, here, here, here and here), as well as a renewal for Fed Up (writeup forthcoming). We also recommended $1-2 million for immigration policy and land use reform. We mostly think it is too early to see especially clear impact from these grants. We plan to lower the priority of new grantmaking (as opposed to renewals for existing grantees) in macroeconomic stabilization policy, immigration policy and land use reform this year. We've made a relatively small number of grants in these causes, and this is related to the fact that Alexander's attention has been divided between multiple priorities. (We've also updated in favor of the "expert" model of philanthropy described in this blog post.) For now, we anticipate mostly keeping our work in these areas in “maintenance mode,” while Alexander works on some other priorities (more below).
We still have a substantial amount of work to do before we’ll be ready to set focus areas within scientific research. We don’t plan to set a particular goal for 2016, because (a) we are allocating senior generalist time to potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence; and (b) we think time spent on scientific research will be much more productive after our scientific advisors come on board.
Recommended a large grant for work on gene drives that might reduce malarial burdens (main writeup forthcoming; one grant is written up here).
Reviewed over 100 grant proposals that were submitted to the NIH's Transformative Research Award Program and not funded, and we plan to recommending funding for some. We see this as a way of getting a very broad view of what sort of ambitious and unfunded ideas are out there in the life sciences.
There is a strong possibility that we will make grants aimed at helping grow the effective altruist community in 2016. Nick Beckstead, who has strong connections and context in this community, would lead this work.
We recommended about $1 million to Founders' Pledge, and $1.4 million for SPARC and Center for Applied Rationality. We also made recommendations for Machine Intelligence Research Institute and Future of Humanity Institute (writeup forthcoming), though we've classified these as falling under potential risks from advanced AI rather than under effective altruism. We are hoping to recommend grants for 80,000 Hours and Centre for Effective Altruism soon. At that point we believe we will have covered most of the major opportunities in this area, but we will continue to keep an eye out. We expect to have substantive updates on these organizations' progress and the impact of our funds within about a year, but we don't at the moment.
As discussed above, we have significantly better capacity - and context - for evaluating potential grants than we’ve had in the past. As such, we are making a moderate effort to identify potential grants that don’t fit neatly into an existing focus area but are highly “shovel-ready” (in the sense that we can identify a specific potential grantee) and appear strong overall based on the knowledge we’ve picked up in the course of our many cause investigations and discussions. We don’t expect to make a large number of these grants, but we expect to make some.
We recommended about $5.5 million in grants on outstanding opportunities to mitigate risks from climate change: $2.5 million for research on solar geoengineering (writeup forthcoming) and $3 million to encourage reduction in hydrofluorocarbon emissions. We also made about $1 million worth of other "one-off grants" (see here, here and here). We wrote about our recommendation to Good Ventures to grant $50 million to GiveWell's top charities. We aren't including this figure when we say (above) that "We recommended over $100 million worth of grants" in 2016.
We hope that by the end of 2016, the Open Philanthropy Project will operate as an independent organization from GiveWell, with its own employees and financials, though some individuals will continue to do work for both organizations.
We continue to commission case studies on philanthropy’s past successes as part of our history of philanthropy work. We also continue to collect relevant cases informally. By the end of 2016, we hope to publish a summary of what we’ve learned about the history of philanthropy, which will be a significant update from our 2012 post on the subject.
We hope to continue improving cross-cutting aspects of how we work. Our interests include improving our process for producing public writeups, refining our approach to cost-effectiveness estimates and comparing the good accomplished by different grants, refining our thinking about how much giving we should recommend to GiveWell's top charities, and finding ways to improve our general forecasting abilities (since our grantmaking decisions rely on views about what developments are likely in the future). We expect to do some work on all of these fronts, but it will not be a major priority with a concrete goal this year.
We still don't have the capacity we'd need to identify focus areas within the category of global health and development - beyond our existing connection to GiveWell's work and our support of the Center for Global Development. We don’t plan to build this capacity in 2016 and expect to revisit this in a future year.
The first of these - spinning off into an independent organization - turned out to be more complex and involved than we had anticipated. We put significant time into it in 2016 and are planning to complete the spinoff by mid-2017. We put less time than anticipated into the other points listed above. We did not publish an updated writeup on the history of philanthropy, and may or may not do so in 2017. We made some progress on the third point, including a revised approach to information sharing, starting to explore best practices for forecasting, improvements to our grantmaking process and new hires who focus on it, and an internal "Program Officer guide" that we expect to eventually create a public version of.
Speaking broadly, the main significance of 2016 for us is that we greatly increased our grantmaking, to the point where it is now comparable to that of major foundations. We expect to be able to maintain this pace and quality of giving recommendations (i.e. $100+ million per year, though with substantial year-to-year variation, from grants that we consider reasonably well-investigated and good expected value for money). If we had a goal of increasing the annual level of grantmaking further, we think we could fairly easily do so, and this has affected how we think about giving now vs. later. We now have a much more tangible sense of what the day-to-day key questions and operational challenges are for giving in this range. Many new questions and challenges have come up. At this level of giving, we now see more importance for careful public communications, the need for a more streamlined and systematic grantmaking process, and the need for more thinking about the question of how much grantmaking to aim for in each of our focus areas and how to decide when a grant is worth making. In particular, we believe that we will gain a lot from sharpening our thinking on several points related to worldview diversification - and the relative appeal of different worldviews - before increasing our annual giving level much more.
For reasons outlined above, we aren't planning much staff expansion in 2017. We plan to continue grantmaking roughly as we have been, while trying to improve the underlying processes and intellectual framework.
Major focus areas with full-time staff: we expect to continue our work on potential risks of advanced AI, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, criminal justice reform and farm animal welfare much as we did in 2016. I would guess that the total amounts given in these causes will be broadly similar to what they were in 2016, and it's hard to say whether they'll be higher or lower for a given cause, because we don't know what sorts of opportunities we will find. My best guess is that the four causes combined will account for around $70-90 million in recommendations.
Other US policy grantmaking. We believe that the results of the 2016 elections have changed the overall landscape for U.S. policy (though not in a way that substantially alters the promise of criminal justice reform or farm animal welfare). Alexander Berger plans to put less emphasis on finding new grantees in immigration reform, macroeconomic stabilization policy and land use reform, while focusing on maintaining existing grants in those areas. He plans to spend more of his time exploring new potential Open Phil policy priorities in light of the 2016 elections. It's hard to say what level of grantmaking this will lead to.
Effective altruism. We now consider this to be among our focus areas. We've recommended (or will soon recommend) multi-year grants to the organizations we're most interested in supporting in this area. Nick Beckstead will maintain relationships and continue keeping an eye out for new opportunities, including opportunities to provide further funding to existing grantees, though we won't necessarily make new grant recommendations in 2017 beyond the couple we're working on now.
Scientific research. We've been working with our new full-time staff in this area for a few months, and feel that we still have a lot to learn about how best to investigate causes in this area. We hope to set focus areas by the end of 2017 or early 2018, though we still consider that a "soft" goal such that we will feel unsurprised if we don't achieve it. I expect that some grantmaking opportunities will come up in the meantime; we would like to recommend at least $10-20 million worth of grants while still choosing focus areas this year, including some of the "transformative research award" candidates mentioned above, and we plan to make larger grants if we can find outstanding opportunities (such as gene drives).
Other. Claire Zabel has been investigating potential "one-off grants" for global catastrophic risks other than the two mentioned above, particularly climate change and nuclear weapons policy. We don’t yet know how much grantmaking this will result in.
Overall, I will not be surprised if 2017 grantmaking is lower than 2016 grantmaking, as there were some significant one-off grants in 2016 (particularly in the area of gene drives). But I'd guess that we will recommend at least $100 million worth of grants, and I'll consider it quite surprising if we don't recommend at least $80 million worth.
How we determine whether it's better to make a given grant or save the money for a later date.
This work is likely to include addressing several of the fundamental questions we listed recently: how to compare cost-effectiveness across very different causes, how to make decisions under different kinds of uncertainty, how best to realize the benefits of worldview diversification, and which types of beings warrant our moral concern. It may also include some degree of further investigation on the moral value of the far future, and the question of how likely it is that we can have non-negligible impact on humanity's long-term prospects. We hope this work will put us in better position to make systematic day-to-day decisions about our grantmaking, and to choose the best possible cause prioritization and funding allocation as we scale up our giving further.
We're hoping to improve our grantmaking process, particularly the process of completing a writeup, grant agreement, and grant payment. (Currently, it often takes months from when we recommend a grant to when we finalize and announce the grant.) We recently hired Morgan Davis to help with this work, and may hire more people in line with this goal.
We're hoping to hire a Director of Operations so that we can be in good position to build an operations team as we grow further in the future. Currently, we largely share operations capacity with GiveWell.
We're hoping to improve our communications capacity. Currently, we make many grants with relatively little sense for what communications challenges they might raise, and what we can do to minimize or mitigate such challenges. We are exploring the idea of more intensive engagements with communications firms, and/or hiring, in order to get better at this. Doing so might also improve our ability to create public communications about our work that are more digestible than the content we currently put out.
We expect to complete the process of becoming a separate organization from GiveWell this year.
We are becoming more interested in the idea of finding additional donors to partner on our work, whether it takes the form of funding good giving opportunities that aren't a fit for us, pooling resources, or simply sharing a lot of information. Part of our increased interest comes from our increased sense that we can spend a lot of money in a high-impact way. We don't have any particular goals on this front for 2017, but we expect to spend more time talking with major philanthropists and future major philanthropists than we did in 2016.
We expect to very preliminarily start looking back at previous grants and doing self-assessment. However, we think it will be more productive to focus on this work a year or two from now. We expect most of our grants to take several years to have noticeable impact (if any), and the bulk of our grantmaking to date is now less than a year old.
Throughout this post, "recommended" means that a recommendation was made by an Open Phil grant investigator and approved by Cari and Holden. However, the recommendation is generally conditional on finalizing a grant agreement and completing due diligence, and in many cases the next step after this is a recommendation to a donor-advised fund that has final say in what grant (if any) is made. Grants are not posted to our database until completed, so in many cases the date of a grant's being "recommended" in the sense used here is different from the date that a grant appears in the database.
Last year's review stated, "We hope to recommend at least $10 million worth of grants in each of criminal justice reform and farm animal welfare. We have cause-specific staffers leading our work in both areas. (In each case, we’d include grants already made in these areas - since late 2015, when both staffers joined - as part of the $10 million.)" However, we decided that this accounting method is needlessly confusing, and we're now just listing numbers for calendar-year 2016. | 2019-04-25T23:58:26Z | http://www.goodventures.org/research-and-ideas/blog/our-progress-in-2016-and-plans-for-2017 |
Whether you’re a student, or a professional looking for a career change, a first-rate education is your best bet to locking down to that Big Four job.
0.1 Where do you start?
With so much information available, choosing the best accounting program can be difficult, so we’ve compiled a list of the 50 best accounting programs at the best accounting colleges in the U.S.
About: The McCombs School at the University of Texas at Austin offers a high quality undergraduate program as well as a top-ranked Master of Professional Accounting with the possibility to pursue an integrated five-year program. In fact, the school has been ranked #1 by US News and World Report for the past 10 years.
About: Nationwide recognition, high CPA exam pass rates and an innovative curriculum define the accounting program at Brigham Young University. Both the BS in accounting and the Master of Accountancy programs boast highly effective teaching with close to 100% placement rates for Master’s graduates every year.
The Marriott School at BYU also offers a PhD Prep track to prepare students for a PhD in Accounting. Students are also encouraged to gain experience through volunteering, internships, student organizations and business competitions.
About: The top-rated University of Illinois offers a comprehensive accounting program including a four-year Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, a Master of Accounting Science, a Master of Science in Accountancy, a Master of Science in Tax and a PhD program.
About: This leading accounting program allows students to major in accountancy and to qualify for the CPA exam by pursuing a Master of Science in Accountancy or a Master of Business Administration.
First-rate teaching is supplemented by extra-curricular activities, a Tax Assistance Program and excellent career services. The University of Notre Dame has been widely recognized for its accounting research, while the Mendoza accounting program has consistently topped national rankings.
About: The prestigious Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania allows undergraduate students to pursue an accounting concentration with a diverse curriculum, including courses in auditing, tax and different types of accounting.
Students wishing to sit for the CPA exam can study for the highly ranked MBA at Wharton School and take additional accounting courses. Students wishing to enter the field of accounting research can undertake a PhD and benefit from the school’s first-rate research facilities and expertise.
About: Students at the prestigious Leventhal School of Accounting, part of the Marshall College of Business at USC, can choose to major in accounting as well as study accounting at the postgraduate level.
The Master of Accounting and Master of Business Taxation programs provide in-depth coverage of accounting and taxation and prepare students for on-the-job success. Award-winning faculty members, a flexible curriculum, first-rate research and a focus on international business practices make this program unique at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
About: The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan offers an undergraduate degree in accounting and a Master’s program designed to prepare students for the CPA exam and for a wide variety of careers.
This innovative program integrates the Master of Accounting and the MBA program to provide a dynamic education relevant in an ever-changing business world. What is more, excellent connections with the business community improve the students’ chances to gain experience while studying and to find employment upon graduation.
About: Students at the University of Mississippi’s Patterson School of Accountancy can study for a Bachelor of Accountancy, a Master of Accountancy, a Master of Taxation or a PhD in Accountancy.
This prestigious accounting program offers a broad-based education with the possibility to gain in-depth expertise through elective courses. Excellent opportunities for hands-on learning are provided through the school’s internship program and extra-curricular activities, while a highly regarded faculty composed of CPAs guarantees first-rate teaching.
About: The University of Indiana has gained an excellent reputation as one of the country’s “Public Ivies” and offers a top-ranked accounting program through its Kelley School of Business.
Accounting can be studied at all levels and graduate students can choose between a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Accounting to prepare for the CPA exam and for a successful accounting career. Through internships, field study projects and field consulting experience, students at Kelley School can gain valuable real-life skills.
About:The highly rated graduate business school at the University of Chicago offers a blend of in-depth expertise and hands-on learning to prospective accountants and CPAs. The MBA curriculum covers accounting and financial analysis, financial statement analysis, taxation and managerial accounting.
Students may opt to get involved in various extra-curricular activities including the Corporate Finance Group, Distressed Investing and Restructuring Group or the American Bankruptcy Institute Corporate Restructuring Competition. The flexible accounting program at Booth School allows students to pursue the MBA full-time, on evenings or weekends.
About: The Fisher College of Business offers 12 specializations as part of its undergraduate accounting program, including tax, management, government and non-profit accounting. At the graduate level, students can choose between a prestigious Master of Accounting and a Master of Business Administration.
Through business partnerships and opportunities for real-world experience, students can get off to a great start in their accounting careers. Moreover, the college is ranked 4th nationwide in accounting research.
About: The Stern School of Business allows students to major or co-major in accounting and prepares them for a wide range of careers in business and finance. Students wishing to sit for the CPA exam can opt for an undergraduate CPA track or pursue the prestigious Stern MBA program, which provides in-depth expertise in different areas of accounting.
New York University is one of the largest private universities in the country and its excellent connections to the business community put its graduates at an advantage.
About: Mays Business School at the Texas A&M University consistently ranks among the best schools in the country. The Department of Accounting offers a comprehensive program at all levels designed to help students pass the CPA exam and go on to successful careers in public accounting.
An unique feature of the Mays School is the five-year Professional Program that allows students to complete a BBA and a Master of Science in any business major within five years.
About: The UC Berkeley offers an unique accounting program through the prestigious Haas School of Business, while additional accounting courses and a Certificate in Accounting can be earned at UC Extension.
While the school does not offer a major or minor in accounting, students can qualify for the CPA exam by taking a variety of accounting courses. Moreover, postgraduates interested in accounting research can undertake the top-tier PhD program at UC Berkeley. This four-year program offers two years of formal coursework and two years of joint research with the faculty.
About: Cornell University is known for consistently ranking among the top 5 schools in the country in terms of CPA exam pass rates. Students at Dyson School can complete a Bachelor of Science with an accounting concentration which allows them to prepare for a dynamic business environment.
Coverage of intermediate and advanced accounting, as well as taxation, auditing and assurance, financial analysis and modeling equips Cornell graduates with in-depth expertise for passing the CPA exam and succeeding in a demanding profession.
About: Best known for consistently achieving the best CPA exam pass rates in the country, Wake Forest’s School of Business provides a comprehensive accounting program based on lectures, seminars and research.
The prestigious undergraduate program at Wake Forest boasts a 97% graduate placement rate, while 98% of 2013 Master in Accounting graduates were employed upon graduation. Nationally recognized for academic excellence, Wake Forest University offers a wide range of accounting specializations, with a unique track in Financial Transaction Services available to Master’s students.
About: Prospective accountants can earn a certificate in accounting, a Bachelor of Science in Accounting or a Master of Accountancy degree at the Collins College of Business. Students wishing to sit for the CPA exam may qualify by completing a single-major or double-major Bachelor’s degree or by studying for the Master’s degree.
Outstanding students can start studying for the Master of Accountancy degree as undergraduates. Excellent facilities and opportunities to gain experience complete this effective accounting program boasting a 98% graduate employment rate.
About: Stanford University offers a highly rated PhD program in accounting that lives up to the high standards of this leading research university. This quantitatively oriented program strives to apply general principles to accounting issues such as financial reporting, taxation and managerial accounting.
Students looking to become CPAs can opt for the two-year MBA program that includes a selection of accounting electives, as well as compressed courses and a wide range of Stanford courses that can be combined for a personalized experience.
About: The comprehensive accounting program offered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks among the best in the country. Undergraduate students can specialize in finance and can choose from a range of 25 accounting and finance classes.
Moreover, the prestigious Master of Accounting program at Kenan-Flagler School provides world-class teaching and hands-on experience, as well as great opportunities to network and start a career as an accountant. The program boasts a 98% graduate placement rate.
About: The nationally recognized accounting program at Trulaske College of Business offers a combined 150-credit degree in addition to the traditional Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in order to help students on the CPA track.
Strict admission criteria and an in-depth curriculum are the hallmarks of academic excellence, while experiential learning opportunities such as internships, business competitions and study abroad programs complement the coursework. Trulaske College boasts a high graduate employment rate and higher than average starting salaries in accounting and finance.
About: The prestigious Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida offers a top quality accounting program known for its excellent CPA exam pass rates and rigorous curriculum.
Apart from the Bachelor of Science in Accounting and the Master of Accounting degrees, students can also opt for the 3/2 Program that combines the two degrees over a duration of five years. Another unique feature is the Post-Baccalaureate that allows students from various backgrounds to complete the prerequisites necessary for enrolling in the Master of Accounting program.
About: The undergraduate accounting program at the University of Richmond ranks consistently high in terms of CPA exam pass rates and academic excellence.
With employers including the Big Four and high graduate placement rates, the Robins program relies on a comprehensive curriculum with small class sizes and flexible coursework. At the graduate level, students can pursue a highly-rated MBA program which includes courses in accounting and a capstone project that can include accounting concepts.
About: The highly rated undergraduate program in accounting at SMU Cox provides students with a broad business background alongside an accounting core including courses in intermediate accounting, cost accounting, taxation, auditing, accounting systems, ethics, accounting theory and business modeling.
Moreover, students wishing to sit for the CPA exam can pursue the Master of Science in Accounting with two possible tracks: Assurance and Advisory or Tax. This 32-credit program with a diverse range of electives connects students to a dynamic network of business leaders in the Dallas area.
About: The University of Wisconsin – Madison offers a highly regarded BBA in accounting as well as a Master of Accountancy and a PhD program. Students may qualify to sit for the CPA exam by pursuing the Integrated five-year Master of Accountancy; alternatively, students lacking a solid accounting background may undertake a two-year graduate program.
With plenty of extra-curricular activities and opportunities for networking, the Wisconsin School prepares students for career success as well as academic achievements: the school has one of the best CPA exam pass rates in the country.
About: The prestigious McIntire School of Commerce has an excellent reputation for its undergraduate and graduate accounting programs. At the undergraduate level, students follow an Integrated Core Curriculum and can choose a specialization in accounting in their fourth year.
Students on the CPA track may complete the required coursework at the undergraduate level or complete the Master of Science program. This 30-credit program offers concentrations in financial reporting and assurance or tax consulting and is centered on experiential learning.
About: The Foster School of Business at the University of Washington offers a top-quality accounting program with a rigorous curriculum and world-class researchers as faculty members. Students can pursue an undergraduate degree with an accounting concentration, as well as a Master of Professional Accounting.
The school boasts links to the thriving Seattle business community and students benefit from plenty of opportunities for career development through internships and extra-curricular activities.
About: The School of Accounting at the University of Georgia prides itself on award-winning faculty members and students, excellent student evaluations, graduate employment rates of over 90% and high CPA exam pass rates.
The school offers a BBA in Accounting, as well as a Master of Accountancy and an integrated program including both degrees. Students pursuing the Master of Accountancy degree may specialize in audit, taxation or auditing systems alongside a core curriculum in accounting and business.
About: Students at the prestigious Broad College of Business can choose between a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, a Master of Science in Accounting or in Business Analytics, and a PhD in Accounting or in Information Technology Management.
The school also offers a five-year program suitable for students wishing to become CPAs. Employability is at the heart of the Broad accounting program, with a curriculum rooted in the real business world and around 200 students participating in internships every year.
About: The Freeman School of Business at Tulane University prepares students for the CPA exam and for success in the field through its undergraduate accounting program. A broad background in business and general education is supplemented by specific accounting courses.
Moreover, graduate students can pursue the comprehensive one-year Master of Accounting program, which covers advanced accounting topics, tax, auditing, business law and ethics and offers a number of electives to fit every student’s specific career goals.
About: Students at the Stan Ross Department of Accountancy at the City University of New York’s Baruch College have a wide range of choices: a BBA in Accounting, a Master of Science in Accountancy and a MBA with an Accounting major.
Both of the latter programs fulfill the requirements for taking the CPA exam. While the Master of Science in Accounting provides the shortest route to the CPA exam, some students may prefer the MBA for its diverse curriculum and multiple career options.
About: The long-standing Northern Illinois University offers a diverse accounting program including a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, a Master of Accounting Science (Leadership and Professional) and a Master of Science in Taxation.
The undergraduate curriculum covers essential topics in financial accounting, accounting theory and business law, while the graduate programs offer flexible study options and value professional experience. A unique dual MAS/MBA degree option is also available.
About: The Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Ohio offers an undergraduate degree in accounting, as well as a highly ranked Master of Accountancy program.
Students aiming to qualify for the CPA exam may earn the necessary credits in five years, with outstanding students able to qualify in four years thanks to the dual degree program. High graduate employment rates and excellent career development opportunities for students recommend this program as one of the best in the country.
About: Santa Clara University is the oldest higher learning institution in Western USA and has a long-standing accounting tradition. The accounting major offered at the undergraduate level offers a comprehensive overview of accounting topics alongside business and general education courses.
Students also complement their learning through internships, independent study and extra-curricular activities. At the graduate level, highly-rated MBA and Master of Finance programs prepare students for a range of careers in the business world.
About: The Carroll School at Boston College has won widespread acclaim for its rigorous accounting program which values ethical decision-making in accounting. Undergraduate students at Boston College can choose an accounting major that provides a comprehensive overview of the field, while graduate students can study for a Master of Science in Accounting or Finance or a Master of Business Administration.
Dual degree options are also available and students can tailor their learning to their individual backgrounds and career goals, such as meeting CPA requirements.
About: Prospective accountants can undertake a thorough training at the Smeal College of Business, with options including a BSBA in Accounting, a Master of Accounting and a PhD in Accounting. Students can also opt for an integrated undergraduate-graduate program tailored to provide a direct route to the CPA exam.
With 95% of Master of Accounting graduates employed upon graduation and recruiters including the Big Four, Penn State is one of the best places in the country to start a career in accounting.
About: The competitive accounting program at the Eccles School of Business blends innovative class work with hands-on experience to provide students with a unique well-rounded education.
Students can work with real-world clients and participate in volunteering programs, as well as complete field projects and undertake short professional courses. It is thus not surprising that the Master of Accounting program at the University of Utah boasts a 96% graduate employment rate alongside high CPA exam pass rates.
About: The long-standing accounting program at the University of Tennessee focuses on finance, information management and supply chain management, as well as international business practices. Students can pursue an undergraduate degree with an accounting major, a Master of Accountancy or a PhD in Accounting. Excellent teaching is supplemented with internships and hands-on experience. Moreover, Master’s students can choose to specialize in Audit and Controls or Taxation.
About: Undergraduate students at Culverhouse College can major in Accounting and gain expertise in auditing, taxation and managing financial accounts, with the option to specialize in Professional Accounting. At the graduate level, the College offers a Master of Accountancy and a Master of Tax Accounting.
Through its successful blend of high quality teaching and real-world experience, Culverhouse College consistently achieves high graduate employment rates, with recruiters including the Big Four and Fortune 500 companies.
About: Business knowledge and technical expertise are at the core of the accountancy curriculum offered to undergraduate students at the Carey School of Business. Moreover, students wishing to embark on a CPA career may opt for the Master of Accountancy or Master of Taxation program.
While the former provides advanced accounting expertise, the latter prepares you for a career in business and tax advisory or tax law. With a nearly 100% graduate employment rate, the graduate program at Arizona State puts students in a great position to start their careers.
About: The Tippie College offers a high quality BBA in Accounting program focused on general skills, business knowledge and accounting technical competence. Students wishing to become CPAs or to enhance their expertise can pursue the Master of Accounting degree with one of four specializations: managerial accounting, tax, finances and auditing or management information systems.
Student organizations, volunteering programs and internships help Tippie students improve their skills and resumes to aim for a Big Four job or a successful public accounting career.
About: The highly rated accounting program at the Spears School of Business aims to equip students with a broad knowledge base as well as with advanced expertise in accounting. Students can choose between a BSBA with an Accounting major, a Master of Science in Accounting and a PhD in Accounting.
All courses are taught by instructors with extensive public accounting and research experience. Moreover, excellent professional opportunities allow students to gain experience during their studies and potentially secure a job offer upon graduation.
About: The College of William & Mary values flexibility and personal choice through the “Individual Program of Study” initiative. Students may choose to major in accounting while also choosing to double major or to add a different concentration to their curriculum.
Students aiming for CPA licensure may pursue the Master of Accounting program and one of its three elective tracks – Auditing, Taxation or Valuation. Non-accounting majors can fulfill the MAcc prerequisites through a Summer Boot Camp.
About: Leadership and decision-making are at the core of the University of Connecticut’s innovative accounting curriculum. High CPA exam pass rates and graduate employment rates are proof of the program’s effectiveness, achieved by supplementing classroom learning with opportunities for experience.
Students wishing to apply for a CPA license can pursue the online Master of Science in Accounting, a flexible program designed to complement the undergraduate accounting degree at the University of Connecticut.
About: The non-profit Bentley University combines technology and accounting expertise to create an innovative accounting program at both the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition to the undergraduate degree and the Master of Science in Accountancy, Bentley students can also opt for a five-year program that allows them to qualify for CPA licensing within five years.
Moreover, the dual degree option allows MBA students to simultaneously study for a Master of Science degree.
About: The Kogod School of Business offers a rigorous Bachelor of Science in Accounting program, as well as a Master of Science in Accounting and a Master of Science in Taxation. While the former is designed to satisfy the 150-credit requirement for CPA licensure, the latter focuses on tax code and state taxation.
Both provide in-depth expertise alongside opportunities for career development. Moreover, Master of Accounting students are able to choose from a wide range of specializations including non-profit and forensic accounting.
About: Students pursuing a BSBA at the Olin Business School are able to choose a major in accounting during their sophomore year and they can also opt for a second major from a different school.
Graduate students wishing to take the CPA track can pursue a Master of Accounting program unique for its flexibility: almost half of the required credits consist of elective courses. Other options at this highly rated school include a Global Master of Finance, MBA and PhD programs.
About: The accounting program at Ball State University is deeply rooted in the local business community and provides an immersive learning experience, as well as rich internship and networking opportunities. Academic quality is ensured by the small class sizes and experienced faculty members.
Ball State students can pursue a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s degree in accounting; while the former provides a solid foundation to an accounting career, the latter allows students to qualify for CPA certification and gain advanced accounting skills.
About: Belmont University offers a well-regarded accounting program for undergraduate and postgraduate students. One third of Belmont graduates typically gain employment with the Big Four, while excellent internship opportunities and high quality teaching enhance the employability of accounting students.
Students wishing to become CPAs can apply for the Master of Accountancy program, even if they hold non-accounting undergraduate degrees. A flexible schedule and a diverse and rigorous curriculum define the Master of Accountancy program at Belmont University, whose graduates consistently secure employment with major accounting firms.
About: Students at Walton College can pursue a BSBA in Accounting, a Master of Accountancy and a PhD in Accounting. Additional options are available, such as the International BSIB program and the five-year integrated MAcc program that allows students to qualify for the CPA exam.
The comprehensive accounting curriculum offered at Walton College is supplemented by internship experiences and extra-curricular activities. Career outlooks are bright for accounting graduates, who report high employment rates and good starting salaries.
About: Highly rated by the Princeton Review, Businessweek and U.S. News for its business program, Bryant University offers excellent undergraduate training in accounting, as well as Master’s degrees in Professional Accountancy and Taxation.
With experienced instructors and a comprehensive curriculum with a focus on experiential learning, Bryant University boasts employment rates of 98% and an excellent standing in employer surveys. This AACSB-accredited accounting program allows students to enhance their employability through internships, study abroad program and directed study projects.
Our initial list was collected with the help of the commonly referred U.S. News and Businessweek rankings, as well as subject-specific indicators. Including the Public Accounting Report’s survey of accounting professors. Our list was then sorted by several metrics, listed below.
As undergraduate and graduate programs are usually ranked separately, this list provides a ranking of accounting programs that stand out at both levels.
* Do I need to attend one of these schools to be a good accountant?
Absolutely not. Community college and a good attitude can take you a long way.
* Do I need to attend one of the 50 top universities to get an accounting job?
No. There are many paths to landing a great accounting job. However, many of the larger public firms focus their recruiting on these colleges. | 2019-04-25T14:18:18Z | https://big4accountingfirms.org/best-accounting-schools/ |
Before completing this post, I need to acknowledge that my goal in writing about modern physics was to create a milieu for more talking about Western Zen. However, as I’ve proceeded, the goal has somewhat changed. I want you, as a reader, to become, if you aren’t already, a physics buff, much in the way I became a history buff after finding history incredibly boring and hateful throughout high school and college. The apotheosis of my history disenchantment came at Stanford in a course taught by a highly regarded historian. The course was entitled “The High Middle Ages” and I actually took it as an elective thinking that it was likely to be fascinating. It was only gradually over the years that I realized that history at its best although based on factual evidence, consists of stories full of meaning, significance and human interest. Turning back to physics, I note that even after more than a hundred years of revolution, physics still suffers a hangover from 300 years of its classical period in which it was characterized by a supposedly passionless objectivity and a mundane view of reality. In fact, modern physics can be imagined as a scientific fantasy, a far-flung poetic construction from which equations can be deduced and the fantasy brought back to earth in experiments and in the devices of our age. When I use the word “fantasy” I do not mean to suggest any lack of rigorous or critical thinking in science. I do want to imply a new expansion of what science is about, a new awareness, hinting at a “reality” deeper than what we have ever imagined in the past. However, to me even more significant than a new reality is the fact that the Quantum Revolution showed that physics can never be considered absolute. The latest and greatest theories are always subject to a revolution which undermines the metaphysics underlying the theory. Who knows what the next revolution will bring? Judging from our understanding of the physics of our age, a new revolution will not change the feeling that we are living in a universe which is an unimaginable miracle.
In what follows I’ve included formulas and mathematics whose significance can be easily be talked about without going into the gory details. The hope is that these will be helpful in clarifying the excitement of physics and the metaphysical ideas lying behind. Of course, the condensed treatment here can be further explicated in the books I mention and in Wikipedia.
My last post, about the massive revolution in physics of the early 20th century, ended by describing the situation in early 1925 when it became abundantly clear in the words of Max Jammer (Jammer, p 196) that physics of the atom was “a lamentable hodgepodge of hypotheses, principles, theorems, and computational recipes rather than a logical consistent theory.” Metaphysically, physicists clung to classical ideas such as particles whose motion consisted of trajectories governed by differential equations and waves as material substances spread out in space and governed by partial differential equations. Clearly these ideas were logically inconsistent with experimental results, but the deep classical metaphysics, refined over 300 years could not be abandoned until there was a consistent theory which allowed something new and different.
Werner Heisenberg, born Dec 5, 1901 was 23 years old in the summer of 1925. He had been a brilliant student at Munich studying with Arnold Sommerfeld, had recently moved to Göttingen, a citadel of math and physics, and had made the acquaintance of Bohr in Copenhagen where he became totally enthralled with doing something about the quantum mess. He noted that the electron orbits of the current theory were purely theoretical constructs and could not be directly observed. Experiments could measure the wavelengths and intensity of the light atoms gave off, so following the Zeitgeist of the times as expounded by Mach and Einstein, Heisenberg decided to try make a direct theory of atomic radiation. One of the ideas of the old quantum theory that Heisenberg used was Bohr’s “Correspondence” principle which notes that as electron orbits become large along with their quantum numbers, quantum results should merge with the classical. Classical physics failed only when things became small enough that Planck’s constant h became significant. Bohr had used this idea in obtaining his formula for the hydrogen atom’s energy levels. In various “old quantum” results the Correspondence Principle was always used, but in different, creative ways for each situation. Heisenberg managed to incorporate it into his ultimate vector-matrix construction once and for all. Heisenberg’s first paper in the Fall of 1925 was jumped on by him and many others and developed into a coherent theory. The new results eliminated many slight discrepancies between theory and experiment, but more important, showed great promise during the last half of 1925 of becoming an actual logical theory.
In January, 1926, Erwin Schrödinger published his first great paper on wave mechanics. Schrödinger, working from classical mechanics, but following de Broglie’s idea of “matter waves”, and using the Correspondence Principle, came up with a wave theory of particle motion, a partial differential equation which could be solved for many systems such as the hydrogen atom, and which soon duplicated Heisenberg’s new results. Within a couple of months Schrödinger closed down a developing controversy by showing that his and Heisenberg’s approaches, though based on seemingly radically opposed ideas, were, in fact, mathematically isomorphic. Meanwhile starting in early 1926, PAM Dirac introduced an abstract algebraic operator approach that went deeper than either Heisenberg or Schrödinger. A significant aspect of Dirac’s genius was his ability to cut through mathematical clutter to a simpler expression of things. I will dare here to be specific about what I’ll call THE fundamental quantum result, hoping that the simplicity of Dirac’s notation will enable those of you without a background in advanced undergraduate mathematics to get some of the feel and flavor of QM.
where I’ve restored the usual q for position. What this expression is saying is that in the new QM if one multiplies something first by position q and then by momentum p, the result is different from the multiplications done in the opposite order. We say these q-numbers are non-commutative, the order of multiplication matters. Boldface type is used because position and momentum are vectors and the equation actually applies to each of their 3 components. Furthermore, the FQR tells us exact size of the non-commute. In usual human sized physical units ħ is .00…001054… where there are 33 zeros before the 1054. If we can ignore the size of ħ and set it to zero, p and q, then commute, can be considered c-numbers and we’re back to classical physics. Incidentally, Heisenberg, Born and Jordan obtained the FQR using p and q as infinite matrices and it can be derived also using Schrödinger’s differential operators. It is interesting to note that by using his new abstract algebra, Dirac not only obtained the FQR but could calculate the energy levels of the hydrogen atom. Only later did physicists obtain that result using Heisenberg’s matrices. Sometimes the deep abstract leads to surprisingly concrete results.
For most physicists in 1926, the big excitement was Schrödinger’s equation. Partial differential equations were a familiar tool, while matrices were at that time known mainly to mathematicians. The “old quantum theory” had made a few forays into one or another area leaving the fundamentals of atomic physics and chemistry pretty much in the dark. With Schrödinger’s equation, light was thrown everywhere. One could calculate how two hydrogen atoms were bound in the hydrogen molecule. Then using that binding as a model one could understand various bindings of different molecules. All of chemistry became open to theoretic treatment. The helium atom with its two electrons couldn’t be dealt with at all by the old quantum theory. Using various approximation methods, the new theory could understand in detail the helium atom and other multielectron atoms. Electrons in metals could be modeled with the Schrödinger’s equation, and soon the discovery of the neutron opened up the study of the atomic nucleus. The old quantum theory was helpless in dealing with particle scattering where there were no closed orbits. Such scattering was easily accommodated by the Schrödinger equation though the detailed calculations were far from trivial. Over the years quantum theory revealed more and more practical knowledge and most physicists concentrated on experiments and theoretic calculations that led to such knowledge with little concern about what the new theory meant in terms of physical reality.
However, back in the first few years after 1925 there was a great deal of concern about what the theory meant and the question of how it should be interpreted. For example, under Schrödinger’s theory an electron was represented by a “cloud” of numbers which could travel through space or surround an atom’s nucleus. These numbers, called the wave function and typically named ψ, were complex, of the form a + ib, where i is the square root of -1. By multiplying such a number by its conjugate a – ib, one gets a positive (strictly speaking, non-negative) number which can perhaps be physically interpreted. Schrödinger himself tried to interpret this “real” cloud as a negative electric change density, a blob of negative charge. For a free electron, outside an atom, Schrödinger imagined that the electron wave could form what is called a “wave packet”, a combination of different frequencies that would appear as a small moving blob which could be interpreted as a particle. This idea definitely did not fly. There were too many situations where the waves were spread out in space, before an electron suddenly made its appearance as a particle. The question of what ψ meant was resolved by Max Born (see Wikipedia), starting with a paper in June, 1926. Born interpreted the non-negative numbers ψ*ψ (ψ* being the complex conjugate of the ψ numbers) as a probability distribution for where the electron might appear under suitable physical circumstances. What these physical circumstances are and the physical process of the appearance are still not completely resolved. Later in this or another blog post I will go into this matter in some detail. In 1926 Born’s idea made sense of experiment and resolved the wave-particle duality of the old quantum theory, but at the cost of destroying classical concepts of what a particle or wave really was. Let me try to explain.
Max Born, who introduced probability into fundamental physics, was a distinguished physics professor in Göttingen and Heisenberg’s mentor after the latter first came to Göttingen from Munich in 1922. Heisenberg got the breakthrough for his theory while escaping from hay fever in the spring of 1925 walking the beaches of the bleak island of Helgoland in the North Sea off Germany. Returning to Göttingen, Heisenberg showed his work to Born who recognized the calculations as being matrix multiplication and who saw to it that Heisenberg’s first paper was immediately published. Born then recruited Pascual Jordan from the math department at Göttingen and the three wrote a famous follow-up paper, Zur Quantenmechanik II, Nov, 1925, which gave a complete treatment of the new theory from a matrix mechanics point of view. Thus, Born was well posed to come up with his idea of the nature of the wave function.
The result of Heisenberg’s concern and the thinking about it is called the “Uncertainty Principle”. The statement of the principle is the equation ΔqΔp = ħ. The variables q and p are the same q and p of the Fundamental Quantum Relation and, indeed, it is not difficult to derive the uncertainty principle from the FQR. The symbol delta, Δ, when placed in front of a variable means a difference, that is an interval or range of the variable. Experimentally, a measurement of a variable quantity like position q is never exact. The amount of the uncertainty is Δq. The uncertainty equation above thus says that the uncertainty of a particle’s position times the uncertainty of the same particle’s momentum is ħ. In QM what is different from an ordinary error of measurement is that the uncertainty is intrinsic to QM itself. In a way, this result is not all that surprising. We’ve seen that the wave function ψ for a particle is a cloud of numbers. Similarly, a transformed wave function for the same particle’s momentum is a similar cloud of numbers. The Δ’s are simply a measure of the size of these two clouds and the principle says that as one becomes smaller, the other gets larger in such a way that their product is h bar, whose numerical value I’ve given above.
In fact, back in 1958 when I was in Eikenberry’s QM course and we derived the uncertainty relation from the FQR, I wondered what the big deal was. I was aware that the uncertainty principle was considered rather earthshaking but didn’t see why it should be. What I missed is what Heisenberg’s paper really did. The equation I’ve written above is pure theory. Heisenberg considered the question, “What if we try to do experiments that actually measure the position and momentum. How does this theory work? What is the physics? Could experiments actually disprove the theory?” Among other experimental set-ups Heisenberg imagined a microscope that used electromagnetic rays of increasingly short wavelengths. It was well known classically by the mid-nineteenth century that the resolution of a microscope depends on the wavelength of the light it uses. Light is an electromagnetic (em) wave so one can imagine em radiation of such a short wavelength that it could view with a microscope a particle, regardless of how small, reducing Δq to as small a value as one wished. However, by 1927 it was also well known because of the Compton effect that I talked about in the last post, that such em radiation, called x-rays or gamma rays, consisted of high energy photons which would collide with the electron giving it a recoil momentum whose uncertainty, Δp, turns out to satisfy ΔqΔp = ħ. Heisenberg thus considered known physical processes which failed to overturn the theory. The sort of reasoning Heisenberg used is called a “thought” experiment because he didn’t actually try to construct an apparatus or carry out a “real” experiment. Before dismissing thought experiments as being hopelessly hypothetical, one must realize that any real experiment in physics or in any science for that matter, begins as a thought experiment. One imagines the experiment and then figures out how to build an apparatus (if appropriate) and collect data. In fact, as a science progresses, many experiments formerly expressed only in thought, turn real as the state of the art improves.
Although the uncertainty principle is earthshaking enough that it helped confirm the skepticism of two of the main architects of QM, namely, Einstein and Schrödinger, one should note that, in practice, because of the small size of ħ, the garden variety uncertainties which arise from the “apparatus” measuring position or momentum are much larger than the intrinsic quantum uncertainties. Furthermore, the principle does not apply to c-numbers such as e, the fundamental electron or proton charge, c, the speed of light in vacuum, h, Planck’s constant. There is an interesting story here about a recent (Fall, 2018) redefinition of physical units which one can read about on line. Perhaps I’ll have more to say about this subject in a later post. For now, I’ll just note that starting on May 20, 2019, Planck’s constant will be (or has been) defined as having an exact value of 6.626070150×10¯³⁴ Joule seconds. There is zero uncertainty in this new definition which may be used to define and measure the mass of the kilogram to higher accuracy and precision than possible in the past using the old standard, a platinum-iridium cylinder, kept closely guarded near Paris. In fact, there is nothing muddy or imprecise about the value of many quantities whose measurement intimately involves QM.
During the years after 1925 there was at least one more area which in QM was puzzling to say the least; namely, what has been called “the collapse of the wave function.” Involved in the intense discussions over this phenomenon and how to deal with it was another genius I’ve scarcely mentioned so far; namely Wolfgang Pauli. Pauli, a year older than Heisenberg, was a year ahead of him in Munich studying under Sommerfeld, then moved to Göttingen, leaving just before Heisenberg arrived. Pauli was responsible for the Pauli Exclusion Principle based on the concept of particle spin which he also explicated. (see Wikipedia) He was in the thick of things during the 1925 – 1927 time period. Pauli ended up as a professor in Zurich, but spent time in Copenhagen with Bohr and Heisenberg (and many others) formulating what became known as the Copenhagen interpretation of QM. Pauli was a bon vivant and had a witty sarcastic tongue, accusing Heisenberg at one point of “treason” for an idea that he (Pauli) disliked. In another anecdote Pauli was at a physics meeting during the reading of a muddy paper by another physicist. He stormed to his feet and loudly said, “This paper is outrageous. It is not even wrong!” Whether the meeting occurred at a late enough date for Pauli to have read Popper, he obviously understood that being wrong could be productive, while being meaningless could not.
Over the next few years after 1927 Bohr, Heisenberg, and Pauli explicated what came to be called “the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics”. It is well worth reading the superb article in Wikipedia about “The Copenhagen Interpretation.” One point the article makes is that there is no definitive statement of this interpretation. Bohr, Heisenberg, and Pauli each had slightly different ideas about exactly what the interpretation was or how it worked. However, in my opinion, things are clear enough in practice. The problem QM seems to have has been called the “collapse of the wave function.” It is most clearly seen in a double slit interference experiment with electrons or other quantum particles such as photons or even entire atoms. The experiment consists of a plate with two slits, closely enough spaced that the wave function of an approaching particle covers both slits. The spacing is also close enough that the wavelength of the particle as determined by its energy or momentum, is such that the waves passing through the slit will visibly interfere on the far side of the slit. This interference is in the form of a pattern consisting of stripes on a screen or photographic plate. These stripes show up, zebra like, on a screen or as dark, light areas on a developed photographic plate. On a photographic plate there is a black dot where a particle has shown up. The striped pattern consists of all the dots made by the individual particles when a large number of particles have passed through the apparatus. What has happened is that the wave function has “collapsed” from an area encompassing all of the stripes, to a tiny area of a single dot. One might ask at this point, “So what?” After all, for the idea of a probability distribution to have any meaning, the event for which there is a probability distribution has to actually occur. The wave function must “collapse” or the probability interpretation itself is meaningless. The problem is that QM has no theory whatever for the collapse.
One can easily try to make a quantum theory of what happens in the collapse because QM can deal with multi-particle systems such as molecules. One obtains a many particle version of QM simply by adding the coordinates of the new particles, which are to be considered, to a multi-particle version of the Schrödinger equation. In particular, one can add to the description of a particle which approaches a photographic plate, all the molecules in the first few relevant molecular layers of the plate. When one does this however, one does not get a collapse. Instead the new multi-particle wave function simply includes the molecules of the plate which are as spread out as much as the original wave function of the approaching particle. In fact, the structure of QM guarantees that as one adds new particles, these new particles themselves continue to make an increasingly spread out multi-particle wave function. This result was shown in great detail in 1929 by John von Neumann. However, the idea of von Neumann’s result was already generally realized and accepted during the years of the late 1920’s when our three heroes and many others were grappling with finding a mechanism to explain the experimental collapse. Bohr’s version of the interpretation is simplicity itself. Bohr posits two separate realms, a realm of classical physics governing large scale phenomena, and a realm of quantum physics. In a double slit experiment the photographic plate is classical; the approaching particle is quantum. When the quantum encounters the classical, the collapse occurs.
The Copenhagen interpretation explains the results of a double slit experiment and many others, and is sufficient for the practical development of atomic, molecular, solid state, nuclear and particle physics, which has occurred since the late 1920’s. However, there has been an enormous history of objections, refinements, rejections and alternate interpretations of the Copenhagen interpretation as one might well imagine. My own first reaction could be expressed as the statement, “I thought that ‘magic’ had been banned from science back in the 17th century. Now it seems to have crept back in.” (At present I take a less intemperate view.) However, one can make many obvious objections to the Copenhagen interpretation as I’ve baldly stated it above. Where, exactly, does the quantum realm become the classic realm? Is this division sharp or is there an interval of increasing complexity that slowly changes from quantum to classical? Surely, QM, like the theory of relativity, actually applies to the classical realm. Or does it?
During the 1930’s Schrödinger used the difficulties with the Copenhagen interpretation to make up the now famous thought experiment called “Schrödinger’s Cat.” Back in the early 1970’s when I became interested in the puzzle of “collapse” and first heard the phrase “Schrödinger’s Cat”, it was far from famous so, curious, I looked it up and read the original short article, puzzling out the German. In his thought experiment Schrödinger uses the theory of alpha decay. An alpha particle confined in a radioactive nucleus is forever trapped according to classical physics. QM allows the escape because the alpha particle’s wave function can actually penetrate the barrier which classically keeps it confined. Schrödinger imagines a cat imprisoned in a cage containing an infernal apparatus (hollenmaschine) which will kill the cat if triggered by an alpha decay. Applying a multi-particle Schrödinger’s equation to the alpha’s creeping wave function as it encounters the trigger of the “maschine”, its internals, and the cat, the multi-particle wave function then contains a “superposition” (i.e. a linear combination) of a dead and a live cat. Schrödinger makes no further comment leaving it to the reader to realize how ridiculous this all is. Actually, it is even worse. According to QM theory, when a person looks in the cage, the superposition spreads to the person leaving two versions, one looking at a dead cat and one looking at a live cat. But a person is connected to an environment which also splits and keeps splitting until the entire universe is involved.
What I’ve presented here is an actual alternative to the Copenhagen Interpretation called “the Many-worlds interpretation”. To quote from Wikipedia “The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction and denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternate histories and futures are real, each representing an actual ‘world’ (or ‘universe’).” The many-worlds interpretation arose in 1957 in the Princeton University Ph.D. dissertation of Hugh Everett working under the direction of the late John Archibald Wheeler, who I mentioned in the last post. Although I am a tremendous admirer of Wheeler, I am skeptical of the many-worlds interpretation. It seems unnecessarily complicated, especially in light of ideas that have developed since I noticed them in 1972. There is no experimental evidence for the interpretation. Such evidence might involve interference effects between the two versions of the universe as the splitting occurs. Finally, if I exist in a superposition, how come I’m only conscious of the one side? Bringing in “consciousness” however, leads to all kinds of muddy nonsense about consciousness effects in wave function splitting or collapse. I’m all for consciousness studies and possibly such will be relevant for physics after another revolution in neurology or physics. At present we can understand quantum mechanics without explicitly bringing in consciousness.
In the next post I’ll go into what I noticed in 1971-72 and how this idea subsequently became developed in the greater physics community. The next post will necessarily be somewhat more mathematically specific than so far, possibly including a few gory details. I hope that the math won’t obscure the story. In subsequent posts I’ll revert to talking about physics theory without actually doing any math. | 2019-04-18T22:22:18Z | https://hoalablog.com/2019/01/09/qm-1/ |
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Section 3 (A) of the Medicines Act 1981 (Meaning of Medical Device) is available here www.legislation.govt.nz.
(f) investigating, replacing, or modifying parts of the human anatomy.
Only medicines with consent to distribute in New Zealand and medical devices can claim to have a therapeutic purpose in advertisements.
A ‘therapeutic purpose claim’ in an advertisement will likely refer to a medicine(s) or medical device that has a therapeutic effect on an actual or implied medical condition / disease or physiological process (see definition below for disease). A ‘therapeutic purpose claim’ may be accompanied by words such as enhance, improve, prevent, interfere with, terminate, reduce, increase, accelerate, inhibit, boost, treat, relieve and stimulate. For medicines, the therapeutic claims(s) must be consistent with the indication(s) that have been approved for the product.
Disease includes any injury, ailment, deformity, disorder, or adverse condition, whether of body or mind.
‘Natural Health Products and Dietary Supplements’ – Products for the primary purpose of bringing about a health benefit (see definition below for health benefit) to the person who uses the product. May include Natural Health Products, Dietary Supplements, Herbal Preparations and Traditional Medicines.
Health Benefit claims in advertisements for a Natural Health Product and Dietary Supplement must be supported by scientific or traditional substantiation. Only products that meet the definition in this Code of a Natural Health Product or Dietary Supplement may claim a health benefit in advertisements.
‘Health Services’ – Services that offer a method of treatment (see definition below for method of treatment) for a range of medical conditions OR services that offer support for normal healthy body functions. Providers may or may not be registered health professionals (as defined in the NZ Medicines Act). May include (but not limited to), services for Medicine, Surgery, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Rehabilitation, Diagnostics, Psychotherapy, Counselling, Fertility, Sterilisation, Relaxation Massage, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine.
Any method of treatment for reward undertaken, or represented to be undertaken, for a therapeutic purpose.
A health practitioner who is, or is deemed to be, registered with an authority established or continued by the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 as a practitioner of a particular health profession.
When advertising is directed to Healthcare Professionals or Healthcare Professionals appear in advertisements, this definition also includes those who are studying or undertaking research in relation to any of the registered health professions and employees of healthcare professionals.
Note: The Medicines Act does not permit healthcare professionals endorsing a medicine or a medical device in advertisements to consumers.
Advertisers should take care in using the term ‘healthcare professional’ in advertisements. People in advertisements, or who are referred to in advertisements, should only be labelled as a Healthcare Professional (or are studying, undertaking research or are employees of healthcare professionals) if they fit the legal definition otherwise the advertisement may be misleading.
Weight Loss / Weight Management Programme’ – A programme that may include the sale of e.g. food, meals, meal replacement or gym equipment, and may include advice on diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes. Weight is lost or managed through reduced energy intake and / or increased energy is expended. Where there is suitable substantiation, claims for weight loss may be made in advertisements for weight programmes.
Advertisements for weight programmes are NOT subject to the Medicines Act unless there is a medicine or medical device advertised with the programme. Advertisements for weight programmes that include a Medicine, Medical Device, Natural Health Product or Dietary Supplement or Health Service are subject to the advertising requirements of this Code for these products.
Advertisements for Weight Programmes that include a medicine, medical device or health service may only claim ‘weight loss’ if this claim can also be made about the product / device / service. A weight loss claim in an advertisement for weight programmes such as these will infer a weight loss claim on the product / device / service.
This could be misleading if the product / device / service is not able to make a weight loss claim when advertised alone (without the weight programme).
Natural Health Products and Dietary Supplements when advertised alone may not make weight loss claims in advertisements. When included in an advertisement for a weight management programme weight loss claims cannot be made about the product or the programme.
PLEASE NOTE: There are further detailed guidance notes on the Advertising of Weight Management Programmes at the end of this code. These guidance notes assist advertisers to produce advertisements in a socially-responsible manner and so consumers are not deceived or misled.
Therapeutic and Health advertisements shall observe a high standard of social responsibility particularly as consumers often rely on such products, devices and services for their health and wellbeing.
Advertisements shall contain the following mandatory information to encourage responsible prescribing, recommendation, sale and use.
This information shall be set out in a way (legible / audible) that ensures it can be readily understood by the audience to whom it is directed.
Mandatory information as required by the most recent edition of the Medicines Act, Medicines Regulations, Medsafe Guideline on Advertising therapeutic products, Medicines NZ Code of Practice and the Self-Medication Industry Code of Practice.
Always read the label and follow the instructions.
This Medical Device must be administered / applied / implanted by a healthcare professional.
For products that contain vitamins and / or minerals, the following additional statement (or words to this effect).
For products that may be used for a short time, after which the consumer should seek medical advice, the following additional statement (or words to this effect).
Name and address of the advertiser.
The following statements (or words to the effect).
‘Food additional’ or ‘Plus the cost of food’.
Any other mandatory information relevant to products, devices or services advertised with the programme.
The following statement (or words to the effect).
Weight management takes time and effort to be successful. People should seek professional advice on diet, exercise and lifestyle changes.
Including the name and address of the advertiser in advertisements for therapeutic and health products, devices and services allows consumers to determine who is responsible for the advertisement. They are then able to make contact with the advertiser to, for example, ask questions or request more information. Including the name and address of the advertiser is a legislated requirement for advertisements for medicines and medical devices.
The advertiser’s address may be limited to the City name providing the advertiser can be easily located via an online search or in the White / Yellow Pages. Advertisers may also include their company website address.
are safe or that their use cannot cause harm or that they have no side effects or risks.
harmful consequences may result from the therapeutic or health product, device or service not being used.
Advertisements should not portray unrealistic outcomes or prey on or misrepresent vulnerable audiences (e.g. sick, elderly, pregnant women, overweight people).
The use of scientific language in advertisements is acceptable providing that it is appropriate to, and readily understood by, the audience to whom it is directed.
Advertisements shall be truthful, balanced and not misleading. Advertisements shall not mislead or be likely to mislead, deceive or confuse consumers, abuse their trust, exploit their lack of knowledge or without justifiable reason, play on fear. This includes by implication, omission, ambiguity, exaggerated or unrealistic claim or hyperbole.
Advertisements shall be accurate. Statements and claims shall be valid and shall be able to be substantiated. Substantiation should exist prior to a claim being made. For medicines and medical devices, therapeutic claims must be consistent with the approved indication(s) (for medicines) or the listed intended purpose (for medical devices). In addition to the ASA Guidance Note on Responding to a Complaint about Misleading Claims, the following guidance is specific to advertising therapeutic products, natural health products and dietary supplements and health services. Substantiation varies for claims made in advertisements depending on what is being advertised.
i. Therapeutic claims for Medicines shall be those approved by Medsafe and thus would be consistent with the product Data Sheet, Consumer Medicine Information and / or the approved Label.
ii. Therapeutic claims for Medical Devices should be consistent with the ‘Intended Purpose’ noted on the WAND listing and the claims must be able to be supported by appropriate substantiation.
Medical Devices must be listed on WAND within 30 working days after the device is first imported, exported or manufactured (Note: There are some exceptions to this WAND listing requirement).
There is no independent evaluation in New Zealand of the substantiation for claims made about a medical device. The onus to have substantiation on-hand and provide it when necessary, lies with the advertiser.
Please note: The WAND database is not accessible to members of the public or any other party except Medsafe and the New Zealand sponsor.
Note: It is an offence under the Fair Trading Act to make a claim in an advertisement that cannot be substantiated. Advertisers must be able to back up a claim before the claim is made in an advertisement. This Commerce Commission Fact Sheet provides an overview of the substantiation provisions of the Fair Trading Act.
Advertisements shall not encourage, or be likely to encourage, inappropriate or excessive purchase or use. Advertisements for prescription medicines shall not encourage, or be likely to encourage, inappropriate or excessive prescriptions or requests for a prescription.
Comparative advertising shall be balanced and shall not be misleading, or likely to be misleading, either about the product, device or service advertised or classes of products, devices or services, with which the comparison is made.
Comparative advertisements shall not be disparaging and shall be factual, fair and able to be substantiated, referenced to the source and reflective of the body of available evidence.
Comparative advertisements shall not discourage consumers from following the advice of their healthcare practitioner.
Comparative advertisements shall compare ‘like with like’. Advertisements for Natural Health Products and Dietary Supplements shall not include comparisons with medicines or medical devices either specifically or generally.
Advertisements may include reference to the advertiser’s sponsorship of any government agency, hospital or other facility providing healthcare services, provided that sponsorship is explicitly acknowledged and cannot be misconstrued as an endorsement of the product, device or service being advertised.
Advertisements shall not claim or imply endorsement of the product, device or service by any government agency, professional body or independent agency unless there is prior consent, the endorsement is current, verifiable and the agency or body is named.
Patient testimonials and healthcare professional endorsements in advertisements, where not prohibited by law, shall comply with the Code, be authenticated, genuine, current, and typical and acknowledge any valuable consideration. Exceptional cases shall be represented as such. The Medicines Act Section 58 (1) (c) (iii) prevents the use of patient testimonials in advertisements to consumers for medicines or medical devices or methods of treatment where a therapeutic benefit is obtained (Note: Section 60 of the Medicines Act exempts advertisements that are circulated solely or principally to healthcare professionals). This means that an advertisement to consumers cannot include (or imply) a patient (or group of patients / class of people) with a medical condition or disease, taking a medicine or using a medical device or have accessed a method of treatment and showing in some way that they have benefited from it.
Testimonials for natural health products and dietary supplements, and health services to support a normal bodily function are permitted. However, these testimonials should not include any information that implies the product is a medicine or medical device or that the service has a therapeutic benefit. This is likely to breach the Medicines Act. The content of testimonials must be consistent with the claims allowed in the advertisement for these products and services.
The Medicines Act Section 58 (1) (c) (ii) prevents the use of healthcare professional endorsement in advertisements to consumers for medicines or medical devices or methods of treatment where a therapeutic benefit is obtained (Note: Section 60 of the Medicines Act exempts advertisements that are circulated solely or principally to healthcare professionals). This means that an advertisement to consumers cannot include a registered healthcare professional (real or fictitious) recommending (or implying to recommend) a medicine or medical device or a method or treatment for a therapeutic benefit to members of the public.
Healthcare Professional endorsements for natural health products and dietary supplements are not permitted.
Healthcare Professional endorsements for health services to support a normal bodily function are permitted. However, the endorsement should not include any information that implies that the service has a therapeutic benefit. This is likely to breach the Medicines Act. The content of a healthcare professional endorsement must be consistent with the claims allowed in the advertisement for these services.
Other individuals or organisations may endorse a medicine, medical device, therapeutic service, natural health product and dietary supplement or health service in advertisements. The endorsement should be consistent with the claims allowable for what is being advertised. These endorsements should not include or imply a testimonial (i.e. have used themselves and benefited) unless the testimonial is consistent with the statements above in the testimonial section of these Guidelines. To be consistent with the legislation, advertisements for medicines or medical devices that include endorsement by a Government Agency must not state or imply that the Government Agency has approved the content of the advertisement.
Testimonials and Endorsements in advertisements should not breach the Therapeutic and Health Advertising Code, Principle 2, Rule 2 (b) Advertisements shall not encourage, or be likely to encourage, inappropriate or excessive purchase or use.
The advertising for Weight Management Programmes should be conducted in a socially responsible manner and should not deceive or mislead consumers. These guidelines recognise the social and health issues arising from obesity and its impact on society. It is generally accepted that losing weight and maintaining the weight loss is difficult in many circumstances. Consumers targeted by advertisements for weight loss may be unduly influenced by claims for quick or easy weight loss or ‘magic bullet’ solutions. Advertisers should avoid these kinds of claims.
So that advertisements for Weight Management Products and Programmes observe a high standard of social responsibility, the following guidance is provided.
a) Advertisements should acknowledge nutrition and exercise as major elements in individual weight management.
To help comply with the requirement for a high standard of social responsibility, Advertisers shall include reference to the need for a balanced, healthy diet and regular exercise as key elements of individual weight management. See the Therapeutic and Health Advertising Code for suitable statements.
b) Advertisements should not suggest or imply that consumers follow a diet which is not nutritionally well-balanced or include a plan or process that has, or is likely to have, an energy intake less than that recommended by an authoritative dietary expert and specified from time-to-time in the Guidance Notes.
Advertisers shall not promote a diet plan with less than 3500 kilojoules (800 calories) per day on average over the course of one week.
c) Advertisements should not imply that the product or service is a substitute for a balanced diet.
d) Claims for specific weight loss or reduction in body measurement should be realistic and supportable.
e) Advertisements should not promote unrealistic, rapid, or unsafe outcomes.
f) Advertisements should not be directed nor have strong appeal, to people under the age of 18.
g) Advertisements should not suggest or recommend weight loss during pregnancy.
h) Advertisements should not suggest that it is socially or culturally desirable to be underweight.
i) Statements or implications to the effect that consumers of an advertised product or service can “…eat as much as you like…” or “…eat, eat and get slim…” cannot be used.
Please Note: The ASA Complaints Board has regularly upheld complaints about weight loss or management products and services which make claims similar to those above. It is deemed socially irresponsible to encourage those who are trying to lose weight to eat an unlimited amount of food, regardless of the effects of the product or service being promoted.
j) Advertisements for intensive physical activity programmes, products and services should encourage users to check with a doctor or professional adviser before commencing.
Advertisers should take care that models or actors, and any person providing testimonials, should not be underweight and have a generally-accepted weight to height ratio and body-mass index.
In addition, when using permitted testimonials, images should not be manipulated to misrepresent actual results.
Guarantees in weight management advertising must be used with great care. In particular, if a guarantee offered is for your money back, as opposed to in support of the efficacy of the product, this must be clear. | 2019-04-25T20:16:09Z | https://www.asa.co.nz/codes/codes/therapeutic-and-health-advertising-code/ |
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Quality improvement, process improvement, physician leadership development, patient safety, physician professionalism.
PURPOSE: Physician disrespectful behavior affects quality of care, patient safety, and collaborative clinical team function. Evidence defining the demographics, ethnography, and epidemiology of disrespectful behavior is lacking.METHOD: The authors conducted a retrospective analysis of reports of disrespectful physician behavior at Stanford Hospital and Clinics from March 2011 through February 2015. Events were stratified by role, gender, specialty, and location in the hospital or clinics where the event occurred. Event rate ratios were estimated using a multivariable negative binomial regression model. Correlation of rates of faculty and trainees in the same specialty were assessed.RESULTS: One-hundred-ninety-nine events concerned faculty; 160 concerned trainees. Events were concentrated among a small number of physicians in both groups. The rates of faculty and trainee events within the same specialty were highly correlated (Spearman's rho: 0.90; P < .001). Male physicians had an adjusted event rate 1.86 (95% CI = 1.33 - 2.60; P < .001) times that of females. Procedural physicians were 3.67 times (95% CI = 2.63 - 5.13; P < .001) more likely to have a disrespectful behavior event than non-procedural physicians when adjusting for other covariates. Most common location for faculty was the operating rooms (69 events, 34%); for trainees, the medical/surgical units (43 events, 27%).CONCLUSIONS: Patterns of physician disrespectful behavior differed by role, gender, specialty, and location. Rates among faculty and trainees of the same specialty were highly correlated. These patterns can be used to create more focused education and training for specific physician groups and individualized remediation interventions.
Because of modern challenges in quality, safety, patient centeredness, and cost, health care is evolving to adopt leadership practices of highly effective organizations. Traditional physician training includes little focus on developing leadership skills, which necessitates further training to achieve the potential of collaborative management.The aim of this study was to design a leadership program using established models for continuing medical education and to assess its impact on participants' knowledge, skills, attitudes, and performance.The program, delivered over 9 months, addressed leadership topics and was designed around a framework based on how physicians learn new clinical skills, using multiple experiential learning methods, including a leadership active learning project. The program was evaluated using Kirkpatrick's assessment levels: reaction to the program, learning, changes in behavior, and results. Four cohorts are evaluated (2008-2011).Reaction: The program was rated highly by participants (mean = 4.5 of 5). Learning: Significant improvements were reported in knowledge, skills, and attitudes surrounding leadership competencies. Behavior: The majority (80%-100%) of participants reported plans to use learned leadership skills in their work. Improved team leadership behaviors were shown by increased engagement of project team members.All participants completed a team project during the program, adding value to the institution.Results support the hypothesis that learning approaches known to be effective for other types of physician education are successful when applied to leadership development training. Across all four assessment levels, the program was effective in improving leadership competencies essential to meeting the complex needs of the changing health care system.Developing in-house programs that fit the framework established for continuing medical education can increase physician leadership competencies and add value to health care institutions. Active learning projects provide opportunities to practice leadership skills addressing real word problems.
Purpose Physician leadership programs serve to develop individual capabilities and to affect organizational outcomes. Evaluations of such programs often focus solely on short-term increases in individual capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to assess long-term individual and organizational outcomes of the Stanford Leadership Development Program. Design/methodology/approach There are three data sources for this mixed-methods study: a follow-up survey in 2013-2014 of program participants ( n=131) and matched (control) non-participants ( n=82) from the 2006 to 2011 program years; promotion and retention data; and qualitative in-person interview data. The authors analyzed survey data across leadership knowledge, skills, and attitudes as well as leadership titles held, following program participation using Pearson's χ2 test of independence. Using logistic regression, the authors analyzed promotion and retention among participants and non-participants. Finally, the authors applied both a grounded theory approach and qualitative content analysis to analyze interview data. Findings Program participants rated higher than non-participants across 25 of 30 items measuring leadership knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and were more likely to hold regional/national leadership titles and to have gained in leadership since program participation. Asian program participants were significantly more likely than Asian non-participants to have been promoted, and women participants were less likely to have left the institution than non-participants. Finally, qualitative interviews revealed the long-term impact of leadership learning and networking, as well as the enduring, sustained impact on the organization of projects undertaken during the program. Originality/value This study is unique in its long-term and comprehensive mixed-methods nature of evaluation to assess individual and organizational impact of a physician leadership program.
The aim of the study was to examine the impact of a surgical comanagement (SCM) hospitalist program on patient outcomes at an academic institution.Prior studies may have underestimated the impact of SCM due to methodological shortcomings.This is a retrospective study utilizing a propensity score-weighted intervention (n = 16,930) and control group (n = 3695). Patients were admitted between January 2009 to July 2012 (pre-SCM) and September 2012 to September 2013 (post-SCM) to Orthopedic or Neurosurgery at our institution. Using propensity score methods, linear regression, and a difference-in-difference approach, we estimated changes in outcomes between pre and post periods, while adjusting for confounding patient characteristics.The SCM intervention was associated with a significant differential decrease in the proportion of patients with at least 1 medical complication [odds ratio (OR) 0.86; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.74-0.96; P = 0.008), the proportion of patients with length of stay at least 5 days (OR 0.75; 95% CI, 0.67-0.84; P < 0.001), 30-day readmission rate for medical cause (OR 0.67; 95% CI, 0.52-0.81; P < 0.001), and the proportion of patients with at least 2 medical consultants (OR 0.55; 95% CI, 0.49-0.63; P < 0.001). There was no significant change in patient satisfaction (OR 1.08; 95% CI, 0.87-1.33; P = 0.507). We estimated average savings of $2642 to $4303 per patient in the post-SCM group. The overall provider satisfaction with SCM was 88.3%.The SCM intervention reduces medical complications, length of stay, 30-day readmissions, number of consultants, and cost of care.
A growing body of evidence suggests that patient (including family) feedback can provide compelling opportunities for developing risk management and quality improvement strategies, as well as improving customer satisfaction. The Patient Representative Department (PRD) at Stanford Health Care (SHC) (Stanford, California) created a streamlined patient complaint capture and resolution process to improve the capture of patient complaints and grievances from multiple parts of the organization and manage them in a centralized database.In March 2008 the PRD rolled out a data management system for tracking patient complaints and generating reports to SHC leadership, and SHC needed to modify and address its data input procedures. A reevaluation of the overall work flow showed it to be complex, with over-lapping and redundant steps, and to lack standard processes and actions. Best-practice changes were implemented: (1) leadership engagement, (2) increased capture of complaints, (3) centralized data and reporting, (4) improved average response times to patient grievances and complaints, and (5) improved service recovery. Standard work flows were created for each category of complaint linked to specific actions.Complaints captured increased from 20 to 270 per month. Links to a specific physician rose from 16%-36% to more than 80%. In addition, 68% of high-complaint physicians improved. With improved work flows, responses to patients expressing concerns met a requirement of less than seven days.Standardized work flows for managing complaints and grievances, centralized data management and clear leadership accountability can improve responsiveness to patients, capture incidents more consistently, and meet regulatory and accreditation requirements.
As complexity of care of hospitalized patients has increased, the need for communication and collaboration among members of the team caring for the patient has become increasingly important. This often takes the form of a nurse's need to contact a patient's physician to discuss some aspect of care and modify treatment plans. Errors in communication delay care and can pose risk to patients. This report describes the successful implementation of a standardized team-based paging system at an academic center. Results showed a substantial improvement in nurses' perceptions of knowing how to contact the correct physician when discussion of the patient's care is needed. This improvement was found across multiple medical and surgical specialties and was particularly effective for services with the greatest communication problems.
Evidence-based performance measures, known as core measures, have been established by The Joint Commission to improve the quality of care for patient populations, such as those with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), as well as to improve the quality of surgical care--the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures. Hospital administrators have traditionally held academic and community physicians and hospital clinicians accountable for integrating the core measures into daily practice. Such efforts have often led to suboptimal results because of the belief that the "organization" (macrosystem) is the appropriate level at which to work to improve quality. Stanford Hospital and Clinics (Stanford, California) has instead held leaders of clinical microsystems--the clinical units where care is provided--accountable to improve performance on the core measures. The strategic approaches taken for this initiative include engagement of the hospital's board of directors; clear assignment of accountability among interdisciplinary care teams to drive the change; implementation of a unit-based medical director program; transparency of core measure performance at the microsystem, mesosystem, and macrosystem levels; and concurrent monitoring with rapid feedback of results.In 2007, the first year of this initiative, the 24-metric composite compliance score for all four core measures increased from 64% to 82%. The composite score was sustained at a minimum of 90% during 2009 and Quarter 1 of 2010.Holding clinical microsystems accountable for improving unit performance proved beneficial to macrosystem performance of the Joint Commission core measures.
To develop a new instrument for judging the appropriateness of three key services (new prescription, diagnostic test, and referral) as delivered in primary care outpatient visits.Candidate items were generated by a seven-member expert panel, using a five-step nominal technique, for each of three service categories in primary care: new prescriptions, diagnostic tests, and referrals. Expert panelists and a convenience sample of 95 community-based primary care physicians ranked items for (i) importance and (ii) feasibility of ascertaining from a typical office chart record. Resulting items were used to construct a measure of appropriateness using principals of structured implicit review. Two physician reviewers used this measure to judge the appropriateness of 421 services from 160 outpatient visits.Primary care practices in a staff model health maintenance organization and a large preferred provider network.Inter-rater agreement was measured using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and kappa statistic.For overall appropriateness, the ICC and kappa were 0.52 and 0.44 for new medication, 0.35 and 0.32 for diagnostic test, and 0.40 and 0.41 for referral, respectively. Only 3% of services were judged to be inappropriate by either reviewer. The proportion of services judged to be less than definitely appropriate by one or both reviewers was 56% for new medication, 31% for diagnostic test, and 22% for referral.This new measure of appropriateness of primary care services has fair inter-rater agreement for new medications and referrals, similar to appropriateness measures of other general services, but poor agreement for diagnostic tests. It may be useful as a tool to assess the appropriateness of common primary care services in studies of health care quality, but is not suitable for evaluating performance of individual physicians.
A Joint Planning Committee Report was issued in 1974 exploring how Stanford University might itself provide primary care to students, faculty, employees and their dependents at low cost. The report called for the creation of a health maintenance organization owned by its subscribers in affiliation with Stanford Medical Center. However, because the report was dismissed by the dean of the School of Medicine as being unworkable, the Midpeninsula Health Service (MHS) began operating as an unaffiliated, nonprofit health plan in downtown Palo Alto in January 1976. The MHS's planning, early operation, move to the Stanford campus, financial viability and ultimate fate are examined as an example of action research in health care.Source documents were examined by the authors, a founding MHS board member and its two inaugural medical directors, in compiling a 30-year organizational history.The MHS was remarkably prescient in its early use of small primary care groups that included midlevel practitioners, the principles of evidence-based medicine, the participation of patients in self-care activities, and a commitment to the continuous monitoring and improvement of quality. Imputed annualized costs of care were 30% lower than contemporary fee-for-service care and 20% lower than that of Kaiser, with no discernible difference in health outcomes.Action research methods can be useful in identifying and testing potential solutions to vexing problems in health care delivery.
Measuring and improving the quality of care while curtailing costs are essential objectives in capitated care. As patient care moves from the hospital to outpatient settings, quality management resources must be shifted to ambulatory care process improvement. The Quality Improvement and Efficiency Financial Incentives Program at Stanford University Medical Center was adopted to increase quality improvement efforts and contain costs. THE INCENTIVE PROGRAM: Each department's budget for care of capitated patients was reduced by 5% from the previous year. Return of a reserve fund (10% of payments for specialty care) required completion of substantive quality improvement projects and containing costs. Successful departments were also eligible for bonus funds. Implementation strategies included endorsement by clinical leaders, physician education, use of administrative data to identify project topics and support measurement of quality and cost variables, project templates and time lines, and the availability of clinical quality managers with special expertise in clinical process improvement.Eight of 13 clinical departments developed and implemented 19 ambulatory quality improvement projects to varying degrees. Success in the program was roughly correlated with the potential impact of the incentive on revenues and the status of the lead person selected by the department to spearhead their efforts. Only 5 departments achieved their cost containment goals.Financial incentives are one method of encouraging physicians to use clinical process improvement methods. Endorsement by clinical leaders and selection of realistic beginning projects enhance chances for success. The capitated population has attributes that make it an attractive focus for initial quality improvement efforts.
The demand for teachers of family practice is being met in part by recent residency graduates. The background of these individuals would not predict that they would become teachers, and a major role adaptation is required of them. Yet a number of factors lead them to elect to become faculty members. They possess several qualities different from faculty members coming from practice backgrounds and are, therefore, able to make unique contributions. A combination of recent graduates and practice-experienced faculty members may represent the ideal mix for the further development of academic family practice.
Providing exposure for family practice residence to all aspects of community medicine is a common goal of training programs. The Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center Family Practice Program has initiated an innovative project which involves residents serving as team physicians for local college athletic teams. This provides a valuable opportunity for residents to learn skills they can be expected to need in their future practice. The team physician's role offers educational potential for family practice residents through experience with acute orthopedic problems as well as the preventive and psychological aspects of sports medicine. This role also serves as an example of physician responsibility for health-related activities in the acommunity.
PROTEIN BINDING OF CALCIUM AND STRONTIUM IN GUINEA PIG MATERNAL AND FETAL BLOOD PLASMA AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY Twardock, A. R., KUO, E. Y., AUSTIN, M. K., Hopkins, J. R. 1971; 110 (7): 1008-? | 2019-04-25T20:04:36Z | https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/joseph-hopkins |
Start the Traeger on smoke with lid open 4-5 minutes. Set grill to HIGH and preheat with lid closed for 10-15 minutes.
Prepare artichokes by cutting in half lengthwise. In a small dish, combine garlic and oil, brush over artichoke halves and drizzle with lemon juice and a dash of salt.
Put artichokes directly on the grill grate, flat side down for 40-60 minutes.
Once artichokes are soft, remove and lower temp to 350. Set artichokes aside and allow to cool.
Remove artichoke leaves and scoop out fuzzy core with a spoon. Cut remaining artichoke hearts into small pieces.
Heat butter in a fry pan over medium heat. Saute onions until soft, add spinach and cook to wilted. Add cream cheese, cream, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring until melted. Stir in artichoke hearts until combined and heated through, about 5 mins, remove from heat. Fold in cheeses and stir to combine. Place mixture in oven safe dishes (like our favorite Lodge cast iron individual rounds).
Place baking dishes on grill and warm, lid closed until all cheese has melted. Stir once and top with additional sprinkling of Parmesan & Paprika. Continue cooking another 30 minutes or until top is golden. Serve hot with crackers, chips or flat bread triangles.
When ready to cook, start the Traeger grill on Smoke with the lid open until the fire is established (4 to 5 minutes). Set the temperature to 350 degrees F and preheat, lid closed, for 10-15 minutes.
Clean the mushrooms and remove the stem, set aside caps. Allow the cream cheese to soften. Mix cream cheese with rub and cracked pepper, to taste. Once incorporated, stir in shredded cheese and onions. Wrap bacon around the mushroom and secure with a toothpick. Fill the cap with the cream cheese mixture. Bake the mushrooms (uncovered) until the filling is bubbling and just beginning to brown, about 30-45 minutes. Remove mushrooms from the grill and allow to cool slightly before serving.
One of my favorite holiday memories from my childhood is baking pies the night before Thanksgiving. I would “help” my mom in the kitchen, staying up later than normal to finish baking the delicious pies for the feast the next day.
There was always a bit of pie dough leftover, and my mom would cut it up into triangles, shake cinnamon sugar over the top, and bake them up for delicious treat before bed. Piecrust cookies became my favorite part of the pie-baking ritual.
For this dessert shop recipe, we took piecrust cookies a few steps further to make them even more special and delicious, elevating them into much more than a leftover treat - these are tasty enough to take center stage! Especially when served with a pumpkin cream cheese frosting dip.
In a food processor, measure the flour, salt and sugar. Cut the butter into cubes and add to flour.
Pulse only enough to create a crumb mixture.
Slowly add cold water until the mixture begins to stick together when pressed between your fingers.
You can either cover half the rolled out dough and fold the remaining half over, or apply a second sheet of rolled dough to cover the first.
Roll a second time to press the two sheets together to reveal the ingredients inside and reach desired thickness.
Use festive cutters to cut cookie shapes from the dough, or shape for hand pies or to fit your pie plate, depending on desired use for crust.
Take it to a whole new level by leaving out the optional sugar, adding fresh herbs and using this crust for left-over Turkey & Stuffing hand pies with gravy dip - or as the crust for a next-day turkey pot pie!
Cookie Press Butter Cookies are a classic at Holiday time, and now with OXO's Fall Disc Collection, they can be made and shared as early as Halloween! Because this dough holds its shape so well through the baking process, Miss Beth suggests adding decorations before baking so that sprinkles and sparkle sugars stick even when packaged. Also, remember to use just a baking sheet without any spray, grease or silicone baking mat so that the pressed cookies will stick slightly to the surface and release from the plate of the press with clean lines and distinct pattern. This chart from OXO shows the finished product created by each disc in the collection.
fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, continuously beating.
3. Gradually add flour, beating until well incorporated.
4. Place dough in cookie press with desired disk. Press dough out onto an ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown on the edges.
Rotate baking sheet halfway through baking time.
Making yogurt at home is an exciting process and allows you to use only the ingredients you want. And now that the Cuisipro yogurt maker is collapsible for easy storage, the excuse of bulky equipment is out the kitchen window! Once you realize how simple it can be to make your own yogurt, especially the part about using the batch you've made to start another, you can virtually be making it everyday! With all that delicious dairy around, here's a simple recipe that makes a cool, refreshing dessert of your creation, and once again, you get to decide what goes in, so you can make them as sweet or tart as you like, with whatever berries you find in season. Imagine a Hatcher's Pass Blueberry version, or one full of your bumper crop of backyard raspberries - either way they'll make a special, healthy treat to share on the porch in the Midnight Sun!
With a strawberry huller, remove stems and wash berries. Reserve one cup of the largest berries to cut into thick slices, tip to base. With the small bowl in place, puree the other 2 cups of berries in a food processor with one tablespoon of honey until smooth.
Stir up yogurt and remaining tablespoon honey to get a smooth, pourable thickness (if your yogurt is more set, you may need to add a bit of milk to reach a good texture). Place one or two slices of strawberry in each popsicle basin, pressing to edge. Fill basins 3/4 full with yogurt mixture and top off with pureed berries, or alternate for varied pops - even layers for stripes! Cover and insert sticks. Freeze until solid, at least 6 hours or overnight.
Prepare a straight sided baking pan with parchment strips that extend up and over the sides of the pan and secure with bulldog clips. Spray with Vegalene baking spray; set aside.
Combine all ingredients, except vanilla and emulsion, in heavy 4-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 15-20 minutes or until butter is melted and mixture comes to a boil.
Remove pan from heat; quickly stir in vanilla and Red Velvet emulsion. Pour into prepared pan without scraping the bottom as caramel can scorch. Cool completely, preferably overnight.
Once caramel is cooled, lift from pan and use a bench scraper, also sprayed with Vegalene, to cut into even cubes.
The cubes should hold their shape at room temperature to be ready for dipping.
Melt Callebaut white chocolate in the small double boiler insert over boiling water. Remove from water and stir until smooth.
Using the chocolate dipping tools, dip each square to coat and set on a silpat lined baking sheet or parchment.
Before chocolate sets, apply holly berry and snowflake sprinkles to each chocolate along with light sprinklings of Pure Alaska Sea Salt pyramids and/ or edible glitter. Molded chocolate shapes like pine cones or snowflakes also make nice toppings as well as adding other chocolate flavors to the finished candy.
Once cooled, remove from silpat and package using chocolate paper cups and gift boxes.
While chocolate is still warm, you can set the caramel on a chocolate transfer sheet. Once it cools the pattern will peel off the sheet with the chocolate, leaving a lovely design on the surface it contacts.
Using clean cotton gloves to handle finished chocolates keeps them fingerprint free.
With the help of the digital candy thermometer, and Hazel, our favorite (adorable) nut grinder, a little bit of edible glitter, this toffee was incredibly easy and oh-so-pretty.
One essential tool to the success of the toffe is a candy thermometer to insure that the toffee has that perfect, melt-in-your mouth crunch, without breaking your teeth!
We scored our toffee while it was still malleable, which made for a more even break so that we could vary our toppings without crossover.
The bench scraper was the ideal tool for the task, and we also used it to chop up the toffee into giftable pieces.
The AK Pure Sitka Flake Sea Salt pyramids were a delicious - an dazzling - addition to one of our toffee flavors.
And for the finishing touch - cellophane bags and baker’s twine make this an easy, elegant, and delicious holiday gift for friends and neighbors... if you can keep yourself from eating it all!
Toasted Flake Coconut, Almonds and AK Pure Sea Salt.
Toasted Hazelnut and Edible Glitter.
Toast the whole hazelnuts on a baking sheet until just browned. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Use Hazel Nut Grinder to chop. Repeat with almonds.
Line a second baking sheet with a silpat mat.
In a sauce pan cook the butter, sugar, water and salt over medium heat until the temperature reaches 305 degrees- or hard crack stage- on your digital candy thermometer. Stir occasionally and when the mixture turns golden brown, immediately remove the pan from heat.
Quickly stir in the vanilla extract and pour the mixture onto the silpat lined baking sheet, beginning in the center and working lengthwise, allowing it to spread evenly to edges.
Cool at room temperature for 45 minutes.
Temper chocolate in a double boiler. We love this little one because it keeps the chocolate surface area down and with the clip and handle, it sits on any pot.
Spread the chocolate over the cooled toffee and sprinkle with nuts and or other toppings, pressing lightly to set the bits into chocolate layer.
Let cool for an additional hour, or until the chocolate is set.
Break toffee into pieces and wrap to share.
As a fruity alternative to your daily pumpkin-spiced hot beverage, a nice warm sip of fresh juiced apple cider takes the chill off of any autumn day- especially with a pair of donut holes for dunking!
And before we get to that, we wanted to clear up a common question about the difference between apple juice and apple cider. It turns out that apple cider is essentially unfiltered apple juice- hence the opaque appearance versus the clear apple juice you can buy at the store that has been both filtered and pasteurized to extend shelf life. So, if we're being technical, if you're juicing apples, your getting apple cider - which can be served cold or warmed with spices.
For our cider, we used our Omega Vert slow juicer (which presses the juice from the apples using an auger and screen process) and a collection of our favorite apple varieties including crisp greens and sweet reds. This can be made up to 24 hours prior to serving if stored in the fridge in a covered vessel.
Now donut holes are usually just the bite size bonus you get when cutting the center from a traditional raised donut, but using a portion scoop and chilled quick dough gives you a nice sized ball that is just as easily eaten in one or two dunkable bites. We wanted to make sure we had enough to share, so we doubled the batch and used a smaller scoop, and believe me, there were more than plenty to go around! They do puff up a bit in the fryer, so depending on the size you want, plan for some expansion.
If you don't have a fryer, you can use a pan on the stove top, or you could just bite the bullet and get one of these!
This particular T-fal fryer is our favorite because it's so easy to clean. Once the oil has cooled you just drain it out the bottom into the reservoir and all the sediment stays in the basin where it can be wiped out. Also, the basket and element are removable so that if need be- you can really scrub the unit for storage.
In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients less the sugar. Set aside. In the bowl of a KitchenAid Mixer, cream sugar & butter until smooth. Add egg and beat until incorporated. Reduce speed and stir in buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla just until combined. Gradually add dry ingredients until a smooth batter forms - do not over mix! Cover batter and refrigerate 1 hour until firm.
Heat T-fal fryer to 350 degrees.
Using a medium to small portion scoop, carefully drop batter into oil. Do not overcrowd. Allow balls to fry about 1 min or until dough begins to brown, roll each one over to equally brown other side.
Carefully remove finished balls from oil with a spider and place on a paper towel lined plate for excess oil to drain off. Put cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and toss to combine. Add warm donut holes and roll to coat.
Skewer 2-3 donut holes and use to garnish fresh juiced apple cider.
Warm in a small pan on the cooktop to just below a boil with a cinnamon stick and whole cloves.
Fall is here - in fact, it's almost gone. It's getting cooler outside and the desire to 'treat' ourselves to something warm and delicious is palpable. It's time for baking sweets, for passing along treasured recipes and for trying new ones. Time to turn on the oven and share something special, something made by you in your own kitchen. It's time for what we call our Dessert Shop Demos and we've officially kicked off this treat season with our first Dessert Shop recipe: Cinnamon Pumpkin Pull Apart Bunt.
Because it's now mid-October, we feel compelled to start eating all things pumpkin, so we swapped the traditional filling of our favorite cinnamon roll recipe for Petersen's Family Pantry Pumpkin Butter sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Then to make the presentation extra special - something you'd want to bring to your holiday table to share with guests - we opted to bake it in a bundt topped with rich melty cream cheese frosting. The result is a stunning loaf that could be casually pulled apart and dunked in a frosting pool, or delicately sliced and served as an after dinner companion to warm cider or hot cocoa. Anyway you decide to share it, it's an ooey-gooey treat that is definitely worth trying!
Proof yeast with 1 1/2 C warm water and 1 tsp sugar.
In the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer with dough hook attached, stir together egg, oil, honey and salt.
Stir in yeast mixture. Slowly add flour, one cup at a time until all is incorporated and dough forms a ball in the bowl.
Let rise, covered, until double in size (about 1 hour).
Roll dough into a rectangular shape.
Spread pumpkin butter evenly over the dough.
Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over the pumpkin butter.
Roll lengthwise, cut into one inch sections and arrange in a well greased bundt pan. We used Nordic Ware's Anniversary Pan which has plenty of room and just enough shape for the dough to fill into as it rises.
Let raise untill double in size (about 30-45 minutes). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
1 8 oz block cream cheese, room temp.
Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add powdered sugar and beat for 12 minutes. Add liquid flavors and beat for another 1-2 minutes. Spread over warm bundt and serve on a cake plate.
You'll notice two different loaves pictured here, one from our Anchorage Store, (where we used extra brown sugar) and the second from our Wasilla Store, which rose quite a bit fuller and lent itself to an easier 'pull apart' than the first that we chose to serve sliced, revealing the lovely layers of pumpkin and cinnamon marbeling. We love being able to see those delicious swirls!
Join us each Friday through Christmas for another sweet recipe from the 'Dessert Shop'.
No Churn Ice Cream. Tested: Approved!
I am a huge proponent of ice cream makers. Homemade ice cream is the absolute best! Here’s the trouble: what if you don’t have an ice cream maker, or maybe don’t have room in your freezer for one? Well, if you’re on Pinterest, you’ve probably seen oodles of pins boasting “no churn” style ice cream, which seems to magically appear in beautiful loaf pans.
We got sucked in, and decided to see what the hype was about. Well, it turns out that not only is no-churn ice cream delicious, it’s easy, and honestly does feel a little like magic.
I looked at several different recipes, and all of them had the same base: two cups of heavy cream and one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk. That was it.
From there, you can add pretty much anything you want. Knowing the cloyingly sweet taste of sweetened condensed milk, I was highly skeptical how the finished product would taste. But we had to try it!
First, we split the condensed milk evenly into three small bowls.
Next, we whipped the cream until it made stiff peaks, using the KitchenAid Artisan mixer. While the cream was whipping, we mixed a pinch of salt into each bowl.
Once the cream was whipped up, we divvied it out evenly into the three condensed milk mixtures, and folded them gently together, starting with one small dollop to break up the thickness of the condensed milk mixture, adding more until they were mixed with a uniform color and consistancy.
After that, we just poured each flavor into a mini loaf pan, covered the tops with parchment paper, and put them in the freezer. We waited overnight to try them, but they should be frozen hard enough after 4-6 hours.
For the chocolate ice cream, we decided to whip our cream in the Vitamix! It was fun and quick to use the blender, which made short work of the cream.
For the condensed milk mixture, we added a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, and half a cup of dark cocoa powder.
Once the cream was ready, we did the same technique as before, folding the two mixtures together, placing in a chilled loaf pan, covering with parchment, and letting it hard freeze. Easy, right?
The next day, we tried the finished product, and we were not disappointed!
The ice cream froze nicely, and had a delightfully creamy texture, and scooped perfectly into our cones.
Blueberry AK Pure Sea Salt makes a decadent topping to any scoop, like our salted caramel or even the dark chocolate.
Try it at home, with any one of our delicious Monin syrup flavors for easy ice cream, with or without the ice cream maker. | 2019-04-20T09:11:16Z | http://apcooks.com/category/recipes/ |
The guests who gathered in a blizzard for an Italian mountain vacation had no idea what was coming.
He was pinned in the darkness by the unseen weight of beams and walls, ice and earth. He lay on his stomach, unable to move. His mind was cloudy; his heart sped with a sudden terror. What happened? Where am I?
He gasped for air and grabbed at a fistful of snow, shoving it into his mouth. He coughed out the dirt and the glass.
He surveyed what he could: His left leg had been twisted and thrust forward at an impossible angle, so that his foot rested near his cheek. He could move his left arm, that was free, but his right arm and leg were crushed and wedged beneath something enormous. He wasn't entirely alone, he sensed, realizing with horror that his chin rested on the knee of a corpse. He tried to still the panic, to recall the half-forgotten moments before everything went dark.
He had been speaking to his wife. They were standing in a doorway. And then: the whistling gust of wind; the momentary loss of consciousness; the sense of tumbling through space; the sounds of coughing, moaning; and the horrifying silence that followed. Had it been an earthquake? Had everyone died? He called to his wife in the dark but heard no answer. He thought about their 5-year-old daughter in Rome, across the peninsula. Then he heard voices, faint at first but growing more distinct.
The hotel stood in splendid isolation, high among the mountains. All around was forest and far beyond was the sea, the Adriatic, which the guests could glimpse on a clear day from any number of the hotel's enormous windows. Nestled up here on the flanks of Italy's Apennine Mountains—above the medieval town of Farindola—the Hotel Rigopiano had never been easy to reach, but then, its isolation only added to its appeal.
So, too, did the resort's well-known spa, adorned with its Roman-style frescoes, shimmering marble floors, and burbling fountains. It had been enough, in recent years, to attract Italian pop stars and celebrities; George Clooney had even stayed there in 2009 while he was filming The American nearby. From all over Italy, well-heeled vacationers were drawn, paying as much as $1,200 a night to take in the views of the canyon below, to enjoy the mountains as if they were theirs alone.
In plenty of ways, it was. There were no other buildings for miles. There never had been. The resort stood just inside the Gran Sasso National Park, situated incongruously among ancient mountains still on the move—sandstone peaks that, for millions of years, have thrust upward from the earth's center. It was a location that was beautiful and unsettled at once, a spot where the rhythms of nature tended to be indifferent to those who ventured there.
Last January, snow began to fall across the Gran Sasso. For days it came down without letup, and the enormous drifts ringing the Rigopiano grew taller by the hour.
From his home in the suburbs of Rome—120 miles away—Giampaolo Matrone watched the weather with rising concern over the trip he'd been planning. It was supposed to be a treat for his wife, an overnight getaway to a spa that her friends had raved about.
But now, given the blizzard, he wondered if they should make the drive—and whether the mountain road leading to the hotel was even open. Matrone phoned the Rigopiano and reached its owner, Roberto Del Rosso. Del Rosso said not to worry. Matrone simply needed chains on his tires, he was told. “Tranquilo,” Del Rosso said over the phone.
What Del Rosso kept to himself was that things were growing bleak up on the mountain. Food and supplies at his hotel were already running low, and with only a single snowplow, officials in town were struggling to keep the road open.
Whether it was ignorance or avarice, it's hard to know exactly why Del Rosso downplayed the gathering storm and encouraged more guests up the mountain. Maybe it was optimism: hope that the weather would clear or that more plows might arrive. The fact is, things didn't get better, and by the time Matrone and his wife reached Farindola, they were battling a total whiteout.
Giampaolo Matrone endured 60 harrowing hours beneath the crumpled hotel.
At the base of the mountain, Matrone wrapped his chains around his tires and joined a line of cars inching along behind a small snowplow. An officer of the provincial police urged Matrone to head back down the mountain, but turning around on the skinny road was now nearly impossible, and besides, he had paid good money for the room.
When the guests in the convoy finally reached the hotel, they were cold and exhausted. They found logs aflame in the fireplaces and red candles burning in brass candelabras, throwing a mellow glow on the unfussy reception area. But the atmosphere wasn't entirely cozy. They could hear the storm strengthening outside in the dark.
“Don't be angry—start enjoying this,” Del Rosso said, announcing that he would keep the hotel's spa—the “beauty center”—open an extra hour to help the new arrivals unwind.
That night, as the cars outside the Rigopiano were cocooned in snow, only 12 of the hotel's 45 rooms were occupied. The inn may have had just 28 guests, but Del Rosso knew that it could have been worse. Business had always been brutal in the winter. In fact, since it had been built in 1958 as a modest hiker's hut, the Rigopiano had often closed up during the snowy months—even after it became a hotel in the 1970s. With no ski slopes nearby to attract visitors, the hotel was tough to sustain. Things got so bad in the 1990s that the hotel was actually abandoned and fell to ruin. “Vandals broke the windows, stole the plates and mattresses, sprayed graffiti,” says Massimiliano Giancaterino, the former mayor of Farindola.
So it had been something of a surprise when Del Rosso, the nephew of the original proprietor, re-opened the Rigopiano in 2007, pouring millions of euros into a dramatic expansion—the centerpiece of which was his beauty center, which he counted on to lure guests up the mountain year-round.
But the improbable resurrection had long borne a whiff of corruption. In 2012, prosecutors charged a handful of local officials and builders in a bribery scheme related to the project. After a drawn-out legal fight, the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Still, questions lingered about how Del Rosso had so quickly obtained a zoning variance for a major commercial expansion inside a national park.
Beyond those allegations of dodgy financial dealings, there were broader safety concerns—fears that some say should have kept the hotel shuttered forever. Pasquale Iannetti, an alpine guide who served on the town's avalanche commission, warned municipal officials in 1999 that the area—sitting in one of the most tectonically unstable corners of Europe—was susceptible to landslides and avalanches.
Geological experts spoke up, too, noting a fact that the builders of the old hiker's hut must have neglected 60 years ago: The structure, located at the base of a canyon, sat in the path of a natural conduit for snow cascading down from Monte Siella. In fact, aerial photography had shown evidence of an avalanche in 1956 on the exact spot where the hotel now stood.
As the guests awoke on Wednesday, they discovered that their predicament had worsened overnight. The cars in the lot were invisible. The phone and power lines were down. Cellular coverage, always spotty on the mountain, had gotten worse. Now the only form of reliable communication was Wi-Fi, running through a satellite antenna on the roof.
Faye Dame, a 42-year-old Senegalese immigrant who helped Del Rosso with maintenance work, was doing the best he could to clear a path in the driveway. It had been a few days since the hotel's last delivery of food and supplies, and employees in the kitchen were trying hard to manage what was left of the dwindling provisions. For breakfast, they put out a few microwaved croissants, some marmalade, and Nutella. It wasn't much.
After breakfast, Matrone and his wife returned to the spa and climbed into the Jacuzzi. Matrone sank beneath the surface. And then: The hotel began to wobble. The windows rattled and the water in the tub sloshed over the edges.
The couple leapt out of the Jacuzzi and wrapped themselves in towels. They didn't yet know exactly what had happened—that a quake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale had struck the mountain—but Matrone had had enough. “Let's get the baggage and get out of here,” he told his wife, dressing quickly. Others followed him out into the parking lot, where they began excavating their cars. Fifteen minutes after the first earthquake, another tremor hit, this one measuring 5.6.
• The Hotel Rigopiano’s spa was designed to lure visitors in winter. Before disaster struck last January, a blizzard had trapped 28 guests in the mountain resort.
They backtracked to the hotel, infuriated by the snow that choked the road beneath them but unaware of a larger threat developing far above them. High up on Monte Siella, the 6,650-foot peak looming over the Rigopiano, a soft bed of powder now some 500 yards wide had enlarged and grown precarious overnight.
Del Rosso assured his frustrated guests that the road would soon be plowed. In the meantime, his staff cobbled together lunch. Around 1:30 P.M., as the guests ate, their plates began to rattle with the dreadful shake of another tremor. Two hours later came a fourth quake. Del Rosso said there was nothing to fear. Authorities were working to help them all get off the mountain, he said.
Moments later, Del Rosso got an unhelpful reply from his nephew. Farindola's one turbine-style snowplow, the only machine powerful enough to clear the road, was out of commission, he was told. Nobody knew when a replacement would arrive. Del Rosso wasn't sure what to tell his guests; he confided in one of them, Sebastiano Di Carlo.
As the light outside faded, guests and workers alike tried to reach their families and searched for distraction. Adriana Vranceanu and her son huddled over a checkerboard in a playroom on the ground floor. She needed some aspirin and had sent her husband, Giampiero Parete, to the parking lot to find some in their car. Meanwhile, their daughter shot pool with two other children down the corridor in the billiard hall.
A handful of guests sat in white upholstered armchairs and sofas. Matrone paced the reception area, anxiously discussing options with his wife. Del Rosso was just around the corner, in the hotel's handsome library nook. Half a dozen of his employees milled about in the kitchen.
This was when the snow on Monte Siella began to slide. Maybe it had been that fourth earthquake—a tremor measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale—that had dislodged the frozen slab of snow from where it rested, upon a slippery sheet of older snow. Or perhaps the massive accumulation of fresh powder overnight had finally created enough weight and instability to bring the whole thing loose. Whatever the cause, the path the snow was about to take was far less of a mystery.
They heard the avalanche before they ever saw it. As the wall of snow and ice tumbled downward, it pushed at the air, compressing it into a terrible low whistle—a kind of grim, naturally occurring warning to anyone in the disaster's path. To anyone, in other words, stuck inside the Hotel Rigopiano. As it churned, the avalanche gathered speed and size, and also rocks and trees. It grabbed everything in its way, fashioned it all into chaos, and roared down the mountain.
With the force of 3,000 Mack trucks, the snow slammed into the hotel at 60 miles per hour. Walls buckled. The avalanche thundered through the kitchen, killing the workers there, including Linda Salzetta, the young waitress, and Faye Dame, the Senegalese handyman. It tore into the alcove where Del Rosso had been standing, and then it raced diagonally across the two rooms where guests sat sipping hot drinks. There, a choice of seats determined life or death. Stefano Feniello, celebrating his 28th birthday, died instantly. His girlfriend, Francesca Bronzi, somehow stayed alive. Another young couple on a romantic getaway, Vincenzo Forti and Giorgia Galassi, were spared as well.
The snow—and the weight of everything it had brought down the mountain with it—ripped the hotel from its foundation, collapsed it into a pile of rubble, and sent debris flying more than 100 yards. Those caught inside, the ones not yet killed, were taken up in the churn and, when the tossing and tumbling came to a final stop, were left buried in the icy heap of rock and ruin. All was now still; everything had gone dark.
Outside the hotel, Fabio Salzetta, the resort's jack-of-all-trades caretaker, had been working in the tiny boiler hut about 30 yards from the main building when he noticed an eerie silence. A few moments later, he tried to throw open the door, but it wouldn't budge. The little outbuilding was sealed in snow. So he pried away the window frame and wriggled outside. Standing there on an empty snowfield, he gazed at a trail of sheer destruction—as if a rake had been dragged down the mountain, toppling beech trees, crushing cars, chewing up everything caught in its path.
Salzetta felt numb. He trudged forward in the snow, sinking to his knees. Wait, where was the hotel?
Then he saw it—or what was left of it. The tip of the Rigopiano's roof poking out of a pyramid of ice-topped rubble. The entire building had been bulldozed down the hill. Billowing steam rose from the thermal pool.
Salzetta shouted for a pair of colleagues who'd been outside the hotel while he was in the boiler hut.
Parete, who didn't even have a coat, appeared disoriented, distraught. “My family is inside the hotel,” he wailed.
Parete was fumbling with his phone, desperately trying to call for help. But his touch screen, soaked from the snow, didn't work at first. Salzetta, keeping his composure, cleared the snow from the exhaust pipe of Parete's BMW X5, and the two climbed inside. Finding a cell signal seemed to take forever. At least 30 times they dialed the emergency number, only to lose the connection. At last, they reached a dispatcher and Parete blurted out what had happened, but the woman didn't seem to grasp what she was hearing.
As he awoke, he confronted anew his terrible reality. He was buried alive. Despair washed over him. Who is going to save us? How can they reach us?
“I have family inside!” Parete yelled. “I promise on the life of my son it was an avalanche.” But the emergency dispatcher, perhaps confusing Parete's report with an earlier call about a possible house collapse, was sure that he was exaggerating.
Getting nowhere, Parete hung up in frustration.
The boss jumped into action. Minutes later, Parete's phone rang. On the line was Antonio Crocetta, the chief of the region's alpine rescue team—a squad of highly trained volunteers.
“We're coming,” Crocetta promised, and asked Parete to stay calm.
“How long will it take?” Parete wanted to know.
That wasn't possible now, Crocetta explained, because of the heavy snow, high winds, and risk of more avalanches. Darkness had set in, and Parete and Salzetta sat alone and afraid inside the car, the motor running, the heat now blasting.
Down the mountain, at his base in the hillside village of Penne, Crocetta alerted the carabinieri, the military police, and mobilized his unit, a team of 14 men trained in rescue operations. Reaching the resort—or what might remain of it—would mean trekking six miles up the mountain, in the dark, through near-impossible drifts, while the blizzard still raged.
By 9 P.M., the squad—which included a surgeon, an anesthetist, a dog handler, and two veteran alpine guides—assembled in the dark, on the road just outside Farindola. They slipped on cross-country skis and strapped to each of them “seal skins”—nylon strips designed to let the skis slide forward but not backward. Each man carried a shovel and a sonda, a collapsible probe used to poke through snow and rubble to prod for bodies. They pulled on their masks and trained their headlamps into the storm. Then they started, single file, up the mountain, toward where they knew the Hotel Rigopiano once stood.
The snow was falling so hard, the wind blowing so strongly, that the men could see only a few feet ahead of themselves. Across their path, fallen trees blocked the way, half submerged by the growing drifts. When they could, the responders clambered over the downed logs. When they couldn't, they stopped to chop at the trees with saws and axes.
Fabio Prencipe was first in line. He was 26 and had served in the alpine rescue unit for seven years. He had dug through rubble and treated trauma victims after the terrible Amatrice quake in August 2016, which had killed nearly 300 people, but he had never encountered conditions as arduous as he did now. He bent low and plodded forward. After 100 yards, Prencipe had to stop. Exhausted, he gave up his position and moved to the rear, establishing a rotation that would continue as the men trudged upward. Even the unit's search dog, a German shepherd, struggled to advance against the howling, shifting wind.
About six hours after leaving Farindola, the unit turned a corner, and Prencipe noticed the first signs of the disaster: a wide snowfield strewn with toppled trees. He heard the hum of a generator and saw the distant lights of the resort's beauty center. Drawing closer, he could make out the twinkling yellow bulbs of a Christmas tree. There was no movement anywhere—no sound, just rubble. While others circled the destroyed hotel, Prencipe spotted two headlights, beaming through the blizzard. Two hundred yards away sat Salzetta and Parete in the BMW. Prencipe raced in their direction.
“How many people are in the hotel?” he asked.
The building was buried in a snow-covered heap, but Salzetta offered his best guesses. As Prencipe wrapped Parete—who still didn't have a coat—in a thermal blanket and took him down the mountain on a stretcher, other team members formed four-man lines and began probing the snow with their sondas. They found the first body after about an hour, buried under five feet of snow. It was Gabriele D'Angelo, Salzetta's colleague. He lay facedown, his arms wrapped tightly around the sack of pellets that he was carrying when the avalanche struck. Alessandro Giancaterino, who had worked as the maître d' of the hotel's restaurant, was found buried nearby. Later, Del Rosso's body would be discovered, too, pulled from beneath the rubble that crushed him as his hotel disintegrated.
As the alpine team probed for corpses and recovered the dead, Giampaolo Matrone lay in a coffin-sized pocket of air beneath 30 feet of snow, ice, and rubble.
He could hear nothing of what was happening at the surface. Shock had set in and he felt no pain, no hunger, no cold; compressed into his tiny space, his mind focused only on his need for movement and air. He began to view everything he was wearing as a hated encumbrance. A wool scarf had wrapped around his face. With his unobstructed left hand, he managed to remove it, then tore off his gold neck chain, adorned with a lucky eagle pendant from the Lazio soccer club. Although the temperature was well below freezing, he felt a powerful urge to shed everything that he was wearing. With great contortions, he wriggled free of his jacket and tore off his right shoe so that his naked foot lay against ice and snow.
Immobilized in the darkness, he soon began to drift in and out of consciousness. He lost all sense of time. Surreal imagery drifted through his mind. At one point, he was walking alongside his wife through the back alleys of Monterotondo, toward the bakery his family operated there, taking note of every shop, every street corner, each crack in the pavement. Later, he was locked in the bakery's refrigerator, banging on the heavy steel door; he was swigging bottles of ice water and splashing the bracing liquid on his face. He saw his brother appear outside the door, yank it open, and beckon him to freedom. The thoughts were strange and richly detailed. He imagined rescuers swooping in on magic carpets, dressed like Aladdin in The Arabian Nights. At one point he imagined sitting inside a theater, watching a search-and-rescue team leading children across a stage to safety. Matrone raised himself from his seat and tried to follow them. In another vision, his best friend, a bodybuilder, materialized on the mountain where Matrone lay, lifting tons of concrete with his hands and setting him free.
Each scene of entrapment was followed by liberation. Then he would wake and confront anew the terrible reality: He was buried alive. Despair washed over him. Who is going to save us? he asked himself. How can they reach us?
Lorenzo Botti and his dogs arrived on the mountain on Thursday morning, the day after the avalanche. A rescue specialist and expert canine trainer with the fire department, Botti had, with his dogs, dug out the dead in the Amatrice quake. Standing in the snow, looking at the remains of the hotel, he made a quick assessment: There's nothing to do—no chance of survivors.
By now helicopters were arriving, bringing firefighters who, like Botti, would begin picking through the rubble for the bodies. Police technicians had set up an antenna that allowed them to home in on buried cell phones. Wherever there were phones, there would be people—or, more likely, bodies. For many on the scene, the grim task ahead wasn't going to be a rescue mission but rather a retrieval operation.
Botti began by slithering into the beauty center—which seemed remarkably intact. He moved carefully past dangling concrete and rebar. At the spa's reception desk, he paused and flipped through the appointment book. It was blank for the afternoon of January 18, confirming his hunch that the spa had been empty when the avalanche struck.
He turned his attention to the 30-foot-tall mound, buried under snow, that constituted the main structure of the hotel. After studying a crude floor plan drawn for the rescuers by Salzetta, Botti and his men mounted the wreckage, shoveled through ten feet of snow, and, when they found the top of the building underfoot, began sawing into the roof.
Working in teams of three or four, the men—firefighters and members of the alpine rescue team—carefully lowered themselves through the apertures they'd cut. Lights fastened to their helmets shone in the darkness, illuminating the twisted debris. The space was so cramped, so cave-like, the rescuers had to crawl on their bellies, hunting for tunnels through the heap. For hours they called out for survivors as they moved along, feeling past broken concrete beams and shattered furniture.
Finally, at 11 A.M. on Friday, 30 hours after the search began, they heard something astonishing: It was a woman crying for help.
Adriana Vranceanu—whose husband had gone to fetch her aspirin from their car before the avalanche and then frantically phoned for help—was bleeding from a head wound when firefighters found her and her son squeezed together in a crawl space.
She didn't remember much and grilled her rescuers for details. “Tell me what happened,” she said. “There was an earthquake, then a strong roar.... Something collapsed on me. A landslide?” As Adriana and her son were led to safety, she was told about her husband, how he'd been found, shaken but unharmed, in the parking lot. He was safe, they said, evacuated by sled to a nearby hospital.
Finding the survivors electrified the rescuers, but what Adriana told them made an even bigger impact: “There are many other people inside the hotel.” The firefighters tunneled quickly toward the nearby billiard room. They cut a small hole in the roof and lowered a video probe. Gathered around a screen, the team could see the soft green felt of a pool table and then, shockingly, two small kids emerging from behind a sofa, drawn by the light from the hole cut in the roof. Somehow, the entire room appeared intact.
The firefighters broke through the wall and found three small children. Their eyes were wide and white. “Stay calm,” a rescuer said. “Get on your bellies, make like a centipede.” Carefully but quickly, the men ushered the children through the wall and out of the rubble.
The pile was frighteningly unstable. As they moved, the rescuers knew that the force of their digging and cutting-or another tremor-could bring it all down upon them.
Meanwhile, another squad of rescuers picked up on a cell-phone signal, coming from a crawl space. They sawed toward voices crying for help. Soon they found the young couple, Galassi and Forti, as well as Bronzi, the girlfriend of Stefano Feniello—and they pulled them by their feet to safety.
It was after midnight now, Saturday, January 21—a full 55 hours since the avalanche. The rescuers had been working nonstop for more than two days in teams that were out of touch with one another while inside the wreckage. The pile was frighteningly unstable. As they moved, the rescuers knew that the force of their digging and cutting—or another tremor—could bring it all down upon them.
Paolo Di Quinzio and three other members of the alpine rescue team burrowed on, breaking blade after blade on their circular saws, battling the wet masonry that stood between them and a faint cell signal detected deep in the ruins. Suddenly, they heard a voice. They silenced their saws and listened into the blackness: It was Matrone.
He could yell, but Matrone was still fading in and out of consciousness. When he grew quiet, he dreamed and saw in his mind a vision of his wife, Valentina Cicioni. She hovered over him, an angel of mercy, he thought. She assured him he would be okay.
Matrone was awake now. He could see nothing in the darkness, but as the voices and the buzzing of saws grew louder, he became more alert. “Be careful with the saw,” he admonished the rescuers. “Be careful, there is my wife, my daughter.” In his confusion, he had forgotten that his daughter had remained behind in Rome.
“We have put them in the car because it's cold,” Di Quinzio lied. He kept the conversation going, trying to keep Matrone conscious.
For several more hours, the squad punched through the tangled wreck. At last, around six in the morning, Di Quinzio's saw broke a hole through a final, thick layer of insulation. He pointed his light toward the opening and, peering in, spotted Matrone's back. There he was. For the first time, a bit of light filled the space where Matrone was trapped.
Di Quinzio could see how the angled concrete beams had created a small cocoon in the wreckage that prevented Matrone from being crushed to death. Those near him had not been so lucky: Squeezed in the space with him were the bodies of two women—one supporting his head, one curled beneath his left leg.
Reaching him finally, Di Quinzio wrapped a cloth around Matrone's head so he couldn't see the bodies. “We're covering your eyes because of the dust,” Di Quinzio told him. Matrone played along, knowing he had shared the space with at least one body. Rescuers slipped body bags around the two dead women and pulled them through the hole with ropes. Di Quinzio touched Matrone's trapped arm and legs.
“Can you feel that?” he asked.
As his eyes adjusted to the artificial light, Matrone studied for the first time his own pinned arm with horror. The wrist had swollen to four times its normal size, and most of the limb had turned black. The rescuers raised the concrete beams off Matrone's limbs with the hydraulic jack. “You are a badass guy, a superhero,” Di Quinzio said, as he reached beneath Matrone's armpits and gently lifted him out of his tomb.
Looking up, I saw the trail of shattered trees delineate the avalanche's course. The cruelty of nature, the awful consequences for those who defy it, was impossible to ignore.
For the first time since the avalanche, he now felt cold. Wrapped in a thermal blanket, he was placed in a helicopter and airlifted to a hospital in Pescara.
Gangrene had burrowed itself deep into his right arm. The nerves in his right ankle had practically been destroyed. When he awoke from the first of many surgeries, Matrone was told that had he been rescued even two hours later, his arm would certainly have been lost.
Five days after his rescue, as he began to make peace with what he had endured, Matrone was given the news that his wife had died—one of 29 people killed by the avalanche. Doctors had kept the information from him to protect his fragile psyche. Her body had been found, crushed by debris, next to where Matrone had been trapped. The angel who had appeared to him in his fitful dreams had, unbeknownst to him, never left his side.
Six weeks after the disaster, I drove from Pescara through rural Abruzzo to visit the ruins of the Hotel Rigopiano. The hotel was sotto sequestro—technically closed to all but the police, firefighters, and government officials, pending the provincial prosecutor's investigation into allegations of criminal negligence. The families of some who had died in the Rigopiano had hired a well-known trial lawyer in Rome to press for a re-investigation of the 2007 zoning variance and an inquiry into the authorities' failure to clear the road.
Despite the restricted access, my translator, the scion of an influential local family, had utilized his connections to get us to the site. As we neared Farindola, the massif came into view, its upper flanks covered by recent snow. Climbing up the mountain in our car, I spotted—among the felled trees—an overturned Jeep, which I was later told had belonged to Del Rosso, the owner of the hotel. The carabinieri allowed us through their checkpoint, and we drove toward what was left of the hotel.
The snow that had once covered the structure had been shoveled off, exposing a twisted mess, a giant freeze-frame of violence. Looking up the ravine, I saw the trail of shattered trees delineating the avalanche's course as it sped toward the hotel. The cruelty of nature, the awful consequences for those who defy it, was impossible to ignore.
Six uniformed firefighters arrived for an inspection, and we trailed them through the knee-deep snow to the beauty center. Neat rows of NordicTrack bicycles, StairMasters, and weight machines filled the exercise room—a mundane tableau frozen as it was in the moments before destruction. I ducked beneath chunks of concrete and rebar dangling from the ripped-open roof and stepped over piles of dirt, bricks, wooden planks, and chunks of Styrofoam. I plunged deeper into the ruins, following a dark corridor past the surreally frozen massage and hydrotherapy parlors, until my translator warned me that it was time to leave. “Another earthquake tremor could bring the whole place down,” he said.
As I walked back to the parking lot, I encountered Fabio Salzetta, the hotel employee who had met the rescue squads in the parking lot and shared his knowledge of the hotel's layout. I had interviewed him two nights earlier in a café, and he nodded in recognition. “Tutto bene?” he asked, shaking my hand. He had come with the carabinieri's permission to observe the scene of his sister's death, and to perhaps recover his car, missing since the disaster. It seemed hopelessly optimistic.
Moments later, a flatbed truck drove past, bearing his white Suzuki Vitara, crushed into a small square, as if processed by a trash compactor. It seemed hard, right then, to account for how Salzetta had himself been left unscathed—how, or why, the avalanche had spared any of the 11 who lived. Salzetta turned away and the truck disappeared slowly down the mountain.
Joshua Hammer wrote about the life and death of a child soldier in the January 2017 issue of GQ. | 2019-04-18T20:57:40Z | https://www.gq.com/story/the-avalanche-that-ate-hotel-rigopiano |
Found a like new pair of Keen brand Mary Janes at the neighboring town rummage sale for $1. Sold them on Ebay yesterday for $50 plus $10 shipping.
Went to my favorite work lunch place today and got the usual deal: 2 slice of pizza and a soda for $4 but had a coupon for a dollar off so it was only $3. (Actually didn't save anything because I put the dollar saved into the tip jar, those kids work hard!) BUT they said I could keep the coupon and use it again before it expires at the end of the month!
Applied and interviewed for another very part time bookkeeping job at a church on U of I campus. Haven't heard back from them yet. If I get this job it might entitle me to lots of on campus perks like all summer at the fitness center for $32 total. That would be great!
Signed up for a Silver Sneakers (don't laugh) gym membership. Absolutely free for those of us of a certain age. They have group classes and access to all equipment.
I finished April slightly under budget despite paying my homeowners insurance for the whole year. My budget is level set for all months, so certain ones are more challenging than others. In May I have more freedom to spend and will have to get more work clothes but will want to make sure I don't go overboard.
DH and I went to an AARP sponsored minor league baseball game last night for the grand total of $30. It included game tickets dinner, soft drinks, some marketing swag (tote bags, visors, etc), and a special seating/dining area right at field level. I even won a stadium blanket as a raffle prize. It was delightful!
Ate some free food at work and saved my lunch for my supper.
Cleaning out freezer of last summer's squash. Combine squash with frozen black been something that has been in there, and bought liver for 4 dollars and cooked it all up to make dogfood.
Last week they had squash, fish, and blueberries cooked up. It is so nice to move some ofthis squash along, and the dogs love the food.
found two sad bags of spinach in the fridge. Wilted them down with a little bacon grease - yummy! Went out to dinner tonight with a 2 for 1 deal; total for two walleye dinners including tip on the pre-discount price: 11.50. Took lunch to a work-group meeting. I will have to buy out tomorrow... Got a haircut finally, after several self-trims around the edges. I spend $20 including tip, about 4 times a year. I could get it cheaper, but I like the way this woman cuts it.
Went garage saling today and found a baby garage sale (no surprise there). The women was selling BEAUTIFUL 4 piece outfits for 25¢. I found adorable Carhart coveralls with a pink flannel shirt and even found a baby swimming suit. I bought a bag full of clothes and gave her $4 (more than she asked). The clothes were pristine and many of them can be mixed and matched. It made my day. I hope my son's partner loves them too. If not, I, at least had fun! Also found a very nice black leather purse for a friend for $1. I bartered and got a beautiful bag to put the purse in to give to her (bag was free). Totally frugal, fun and beautiful gifts. The weather here is wonderful... sunny and cool. The day was perfect!
Finally got a coupon to a clothes store and earned Kohl's cash to lure me back in the store, but it will be one thing I give my mother for Mother's Day instead. I got mix and match basics for work and stuck to my budget.
Still logging everything AND I've started a new thing: I'm recording my frugal wins on my hotmail calendar. Reason being, for those days when I have none I can look to the others to encourage myself. It's not fancy; just where, how, and how much. For example, going to Del Taco, used c/o AND AARP discount = 1.46 saved. It's only savings if I'd've spent it regardless.
Aiming for my spending to reflect my lifestyle not the other way around.
Working for a client this week, was just shocked at how wasteful office staff was towards food. Ordered in, ate a few bites, declared themselves bored, let it sit out overnight, trashed it the next day. Not my business, but, yikes!
They ordered in for Cinco de Mayo. I scored a churro, some chips and guac. There was a lot of cinnamon sugar crumbs left at the bottom of the churro bag. I'm toting it home to add to my oatmeal tomorrow. Yum! That's how I roll but I'm keenly aware I can't judge others.
Free entertainment today: went to the auto race track which the local auto-cross club had rented for the day. Watched experienced drivers and amateurs race around about a .6 mile track for a few hours while sitting under a shaded pavilion. My SO got to be a passenger on two of the races and had a blast.
Cooked some soybeans someone gave my son that he did not want. Went to several shoe stores and only purchased two items in neutral tones, comfortable heights, and to company dress code. With these I can get by for awhile without my feet killing me from wearing heels for 8 1/2 hours a day.
30 minutes on a bike is quite impressive to me!
Got free flowers from my mom who is thinning out her perennial beds. And I second that 30 minutes is impressive. Don't doctors recommemd just 20 minutes 3 times a week of cardio?
Got a Groupon for a medical treatment that knocked the price down from $199 to $99, then did some internet magic and got it knocked down even further to $84. Finally did the legwork to switch over my prescriptions to a mail-order company through my health insurance, which should save about 35% on what I'm already paying. My doctor gave me some great advice about using an OTC treatment for a particular problem, thus saving me time and money---thanks, Doc!
My particular doctor is suggesting I do 90 minutes of walking or 60 minutes of biking a day, at least six days a week. Sigh.
Skipped Friday lunch ordered out. Will try to hold off on purchasing more clothes until I see how my 30 day review goes Monday. For years I have not wanted to spend money in this area and things are starting to literally wear out, but I don't want to invest in work related wardrobe items without assurances I am doing fine in this job. Today was a rare jeans Friday so I lucked out.
I have not been frugal at all recently, but I'm going to turn that around and hopefully you'll be hearing more from me. I have been cheering you on from the sidelines. Last Sunday was a major long-planned splurge at a specialty plant shop I've been wanting to visit for 2 years (Seed to Stem in Worcester and I was like a kid in a candy store). Splurge I did, but decided that now it is time to cool it for awhile. I've been virtuous all week, working every day and always bringing my lunch. I've been reading library books, and I cut bleeding hearts from my garden and lilacs from my Mom's garden, so my house is full of beautiful free flowers!
Yuck RR. I'm glad the work at home has been approved!
We had lobsters at home last night (from Market Basket), which was less frugal than the pizza DH made for us Fri night, but way more frugal that lobster dinner at a restaurant would have been.
Got an unexpected memo at work last week saying we can wear jeans this summer (never thought I would see the day!) This prompted me to return a suit I had bought last month and not worn yet. Better yet, I didn't buy anything else while I was at the store returning it.
I did buy some more plants, but I was biding my time for Bluestone Perennial's spring sale, so everything was half off.
Went to a lower cost area for my 45,000 car service. It is 2.5 times cheaper than near me in part due to no sales tax so well worth the drive, and I ensured there are no repairs needed before the warranty expires at 50,000 miles. I continue to buy work clothes, but am spending a reasonable amount because there are so few items that meet the strict dress code at work (the owner is in his eighties and has not kept up with the American move to ever more casual clothing), are comfortable, and are flattering at my age and weight.
We are on vacation (not frugal) and went to the grocery store for hot soup and rolls for lunch (frugal). Most of our sightseeing has been walking and checking out free local attractions (frugal) but spending occasionally on high end experiences like the puffin encounter at the SeaLife Center.(not frugal) Sometimes the most interesting things happen just when out and about walking like seeing the bald eagle up close when he was sitting on the boardwalk injured and waiting for rehab to come and pick him up or the sea otter swimming up and down the harbor showing off.
I think it is all about making good choices. Wish I could choose the weather.
Our CSA pickups started this week (paid $465 for the 20 week season). This provides most of the veg we can eat in 1 week. We'll buy fruit and protein. I get 2 dozen eggs/week from a RN at work who free ranges chickens on her 8acre "farm". $2/dozen-it's a steal!
I stocked up the fridge and freezer at Costco: $326. It's eating at home which makes it frugal. IE: Can't buy 4oz of tri-tip for $2 a serving. DH is marinating 1 piece and will smoke it for 5hours today. We'll have ready to go tri tip in the freezer for several lazy night meals.
And this weekend I'm planting our garden. Tomatoes/eggplant/peppers.....fresh for eating and in the fall harvest I can put up enough ratatouille for the year to use as stew, pasta sauce, chili base.
Other spending this weekend limited to plants and supplies needed to repair the garden drip system.
I see these expenses as investments in annual frugality even though expenses are high at the time.
We just dug a bunch of lilac volunteers and put them out in front of the picket fence my husband made out of free pallets. Then we covered the strip with two sheets I bought at a garage sale yesterdayfor 50 cents. Then we put some of the straw bales we used to insulate the house last winter over the sheets to keep out weeds and start the new garden area for bulbs.
So I guess the cost of our new lilac hedge (in a few years, anyway!) is 50 cents and a morning of hard work.
I love lilacs. A whole hedge of them sounds lovely.
I would love to see a picture of your fence, Tybee!
We moved into our 1960s era "retirement" house on May 1 so it has been a month of spending more money than I have in a long time. I am chomping to make it feel like home but buying stuff new is so expensive. I try to see every expenditure for repairs or decor as another opportunity to be resourceful. I took some of the curtains out of one room and refashioned two panels into curtains for another. Bought a solid pine dining table set on CL at a very good price. Bought another solid wood dining table at a thrift store for $25 to use as a desk. Used coupons to buy things like paint from the big box store and then painted the rooms ourselves. Hoping I can take cuttings from or thin all the various plants that are popping up and start more gardens. It's endless but fun to be frugal.
Pinkytoe: I like your "fun to be frugal" statement. I read a recent Frugalwoods post, where she talked about how frugality encourages creativity in solving life's situations, and I want to do a better job embracing that mindset. I also want to keep using Catherine's idea as a mental exercise to see if future retired Rosa would approve of a given expenditure.
Yppej: I need to think of work clothes as more of a cost of doing business, with the challenge of spending as little as possible!
Sweetana: I don't think vacation is necessarily un-frugal. A lot of people are frugal so they can have the money to travel. It doesn't sounds like you're maxing out your credit cards at an all-inclusive resort or anything like that. Were you in Maine? I would love to see puffins some day.
Gardnr: It sounds like you're doing a great job on the food front, and that is an amazing price for eggs!
We ate three wonderful dinners at home this weekend (accompanied by good wine values from Costco!), worked in the garden and walked the beach for recreation, and I did my semi-annual closet clean out for a productive project. It was a satisfying and affordable mix of work and pleasure.
We are in Alaska. I lived there from 54-77. This is a memory tour since we don't think we will return.
sweetana, I would love to have lived in Alaska - I've only been twice but it was SO lovely. I was supposed to have been born there in 56 - my parents had planned to homestead, but my grandfather guilt-ed my father into staying in Ohio- and my mother, who didn't particularly care if she lived in Alaska or not and didn't want to leave her family- never quite forgave him for not moving, so I've spent much of my life hearing about how I should have been born in Alaska, lol.
My big frugal for the day was re-homing a kitten we rescued this morning from my brother's hanger and his dogs. Much cheaper to give it away than the shots and neutering would have been. If we'd not have found someone to take him we would have kept him, but I'm rather relieved we didn't need to!
How strange. I was born in Ohio and whisked to Alaska when 6 months old. No idea why Mom was in Ohio at 9 months pregnant. World is a small place really.
Sweetana: Do you follow Donna Freedman's blog, Surviving and Thriving? She blogs about simple living and personal finance and she lives in Alaska. I really enjoy her writing, but you might especially enjoy the Alaska connection.
Took the online Jeopardy test to see if I can win some money down the road as a contestant, but I feel like I didn't do very well. I probably need a show like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" where I have more time to come up with an answer. It looks like I will finish May a little under budget.
We followed up on a customer service issue we had recently with a local bank, and they are sending us a check for $100. There was a bit of back & forth telephone tag, but it turned out to be worth it.
Yesterday was the first day of my employer's 4-week, 200,000 step challenge, and I hit my 10,0000 steps for the day. I'll get a $100 gift card if I complete it successfully.
My taillight stopped working. I went to Autozone and asked if I bought the part could they install it for free. The salesman found it had come unplugged and I plugged it back in, no charge. My guess is it was jostled loose when I crammed the trunk stocking up on paper towels on sale - maybe an argument for the just buy things when you need them thread. And I know it would be better to not use so many paper products, but my son has severe OCD and our consumption will not drop below American norms.
For many years I have dreamed of visiting all 50 states, but in looking at the 14 to 24+ hour flight times, lack of direct flights, odd flying hours, and expense I have come to the conclusion going to Alaska and Hawaii are not worth my life energy and I would probably enjoy a vacation closer to home instead. From fighting passengers to invasive TSA agents to awful airlines I am not enamored of air travel either, but may try it to San Antonio, a city about 2500 miles away that I have always wanted to visit.
By the way I saw on the news a beautiful shot of rosa rugosa, the beach rose!
Yesterday DH finally washed the floor--he had the entrance rug lifted and the vacuum out for 3 days--so he finally scrubbed the floor and lo and behold found the library book I had lost that was going to cost sixteen dollars to replace. It had slid under the bookcase out of sight. I had looked for that book everywhere and was resigned to paying the replacement fee. Sixteen dollars saved!
We are planning a cruise in a smaller vessel next summer - Vancouver to Alaska, along the inside passage. If you live close enough to drive to Vancouver that's an alternate way to get to Alaska.
Thanks Tammy but I am on the East Coast. Today I went to Walmart and resisted the temptation to get one of those retractable garden hoses that folds up on itself. Instead I only got things I needed, including a cheap hat. I have now made the connection between sun exposure and my skin outbreaks, and I really should protect my scalp, where I don't put sunscreen, from skin cancer. | 2019-04-22T13:57:47Z | http://www.simplelivingforum.net/archive/index.php/t-14930.html?s=ee700014ad2508319829100d695f890f |
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We hear a scrape behind us, and my guide’s pale eyes flick past my shoulder. His hand is a gold-brown blur as it flies to the hilt of a scim slung across his back.
A simple movement full of menace. A reminder that he is not just my guide. He is Elias Veturius, heir to one of the Empire’s finest families. He is a former Mask—an elite soldier of the Martial Empire. And he is my ally—the only person who can help me save my brother, Darin, from a notorious Martial prison.
In one step, Elias is beside me. In another, he is in front, moving with unnatural grace for someone so big. Together, we peer down the tunnel we just passed through. My pulse thuds in my ears. Any elation I felt at destroying Blackcliff Academy or rescuing Elias from execution vanishes. The Empire hunts us. If it catches us, we die.
I pull a dagger from my belt and try to hear beyond the clicking of tunnel tarantulas and my own breathing. The prickling sense of being watched fades—replaced by something worse: the smell of pitch and flame; the rise and fall of voices drawing near.
I slide into the crypt, suppressing a shudder at the loud crrrk of a resident tarantula. A scim that Darin forged hangs across my back, and its hilt clanks loudly against the stone. Stop fidgeting, Laia—no matter what’s crawling around in here.
Elias ducks into the crypt after me, his height forcing him into a half crouch. In the tight space, our arms brush, and he draws a sharp breath. But when I look up, his face is angled toward the tunnel.
Even in the dim light, the gray of his eyes and the sharp lines of his jaw are striking. I feel a jolt low in my stomach—I’m not used to his face. Only an hour ago, as we escaped the destruction I wrought at Blackcliff, his features were hidden by a silver mask.
He tilts his head, listening as the soldiers close in. They walk quickly, their voices echoing off the walls of the catacombs like the clipped calls of raptor birds.
The soldiers enter our tunnel, and one pokes his lantern into the crypt across from ours. “Bleeding hells.” He recoils quickly at the sight of whatever lurks within.
Our crypt is next. My belly twists, my hand shakes on my dagger.
Beside me, Elias releases another blade from its sheath. His shoulders are relaxed, his hands loose around the knives. But when I catch sight of his face—brows furrowed, jaw tight—my heart clenches. He meets my gaze, and for a breath, I see his anguish. He does not wish to deliver death to these men.
But if they see us, they will alert the other guards down here, and we’ll be neck-deep in Empire soldiers. I squeeze Elias’s forearm. He slides his hood over his head and pulls a black kerchief up to hide his face.
The soldier approaches, his footsteps heavy. I can smell him—sweat and iron and dirt. Elias’s grip on his knives tightens. His body is coiled like a wildcat waiting to strike. I clamp a hand onto my armlet—a gift from my mother. Beneath my fingers, the armlet’s familiar pattern is a balm.
Suddenly, further down the tunnel, a thud echoes. The soldiers spin, draw steel, and hurry to investigate. In seconds, the light from their lantern fades, the sound of their footsteps fainter and fainter.
We emerge from the crypt, and a tremor rumbles through the tunnels, shaking dust loose and sending bones and skulls clattering to the ground. I stumble, and Elias grabs my shoulder, backing me into the wall and flattening himself beside me. The crypt remains intact, but the ceiling of the tunnel cracks ominously.
We cut through the catacombs with new urgency. With every step I expect to hear another patrol, to see torches in the distance.
When Elias stops, it is so sudden that I barrel into his broad back. We’ve entered a circular burial chamber with a low, domed ceiling. Two tunnels branch out ahead of us. Torches flicker in one, almost too far away to make out. Crypts pock the chamber walls, each guarded by a stone statue of an armored man. Beneath their helmets, skulls glare out at us. I shiver, stepping closer to Elias.
But he does not look at the crypts, or the tunnels, or the distant torches.
He stares at the little girl in the center of the chamber.
She wears tattered clothing and her hand is pressed to a leaking wound in her side. Her fine features mark her as a Scholar, but when I try to see her eyes, she drops her head, dark hair falling into her face. Poor thing. Tears mark a path down her dirt-streaked cheeks.
She lets out a tiny sob. “Help me,” she whispers.
“Let me see that cut. I can bandage it.” Elias drops to one knee so he’s at her level, the way my grandfather did with his youngest patients. She shies away from him and looks toward me.
I step forward, my instincts urging caution. The girl watches. “Can you tell me your name, little one?” I ask.
“Help me,” she repeats. Something about the way she avoids my eyes makes my skin prickle. But then, she’s been ill-treated—likely by the Empire— and now she faces a Martial who is armed to the roots of his hair. She must be terrified.
The girl inches back, and I glance at the torch-lit tunnel. Torches mean we’re in Empire territory. It’s only a matter of time before soldiers happen by.
“We can’t just leave her.” His guilt is plain as day. The deaths of his friends days ago in the Third Trial weigh on him; he doesn’t wish to cause another. And we will, if we leave the girl here alone to die of her wounds.
Elias’s eyebrows shoot up. I cannot blame him. It is not what I expected either.
She glances at my neck, my ears, my wrists. With that look, she gives herself away.
I stare at the tar-black orbs where her eyes should be, and scrabble for my dagger. But Elias is already in front of me, scims glimmering in his hands.
“Back away,” he snarls at the girl, every inch a Mask.
At my clear disgust, her lips curl in a sneer that looks obscene on her otherwise sweet face. She growls—the guttural sound I heard earlier. This is what I sensed watching us. This is the presence I felt in the tunnels.
“What are you?” I whisper.
She whips her arms out, her hands gleaming with a strange viridescence. Elias flies toward her, but she evades him and fastens her fingers on my wrist. I scream, and my arm glows for less than a second before she is flung backward, howling, clutching her hand as if it is on fire. Elias pulls me to my feet from the dirt where I am sprawled, pitching a dagger at the girl at the same time. She dodges it, still shrieking.
Elias swings at her, sliding one of his scims across her neck. He’s not fast enough.
Elias reels back, shock etched into his eyes. Light flickers in the tunnel. Three torches bob swiftly toward us.
Who in the skies is he? I don’t ask, only bring up my dagger in response.
Her words die as Elias’s scim rips through her heart. “Efrit, efrit of the cave,” he says. Her body slides off the weapon and lands with a solid thump, like a boulder falling. “Likes the dark but fears the blade.
No such luck. I hear a shout and the thunder of bootsteps behind us.
Three auxes and four legionnaires, fifteen yards behind us. As I race ahead, I whip my head around to gauge their progress. Make that six auxes, five legionnaires, and twelve yards.
More of the Empire’s soldiers will pour into the catacombs with every second that passes. By now, a runner has carried the message to neighboring patrols, and the drums will spread the alert throughout Serra: Elias Veturius spotted in the tunnels. All squads respond. The soldiers don’t need to be sure of my identity; they will hunt us down regardless.
I take a sharp left down a side tunnel, pulling Laia with me, my mind careening from thought to thought. Shake them off quickly, while you still can. Otherwise . . .
No, the Mask within hisses. Stop and kill them. Only eleven of them. Easy. Could do it with your eyes closed.
I should have killed the efrit in the burial chamber straightaway. Helene would scoff if she knew I’d tried to help the creature instead of recognizing it for what it was.
Helene. I’d bet my blades she’s in an interrogation room by now. Marcus—or Emperor Marcus, as he’s now called—ordered her to execute me. She failed. Worse, she was my closest confidante for fourteen years. Neither of those sins will come without cost—not now that Marcus possesses absolute power.
She will suffer at his hands. Because of me. I hear the efrit again. Reaper walking!
Memories of the Third Trial jolt through my head. Tristas dying upon Dex’s sword. Demetrius falling. Leander falling.
A shout from ahead returns me to myself. The field of battle is my temple. My grandfather’s old mantra comes back to me when I need it most. The swordpoint is my priest. The dance of death is my prayer. The killing blow is my release.
Beside me, Laia pants, her body dragging. She is slowing me down. You could leave her, an insidious voice whispers. You’d move faster on your own. I crush the voice. Besides the obvious fact that I promised to help her in exchange for my freedom, I know that she’ll do anything to get to Kauf Prison—to her brother—including trying to make her way there alone.
In which case, she’d die.
“Faster, Laia,” I say. “They’re too close.” She surges forward. Walls of skulls, bones, crypts, and spiderwebs fade away on either side of us. We’re far south of where we should be. We’ve long since passed the escape tunnel in which I hid weeks’ worth of supplies.
The catacombs rumble and shake, knocking both of us down. The stench of fire and death filters through a sewer grate directly above us. Moments later, an explosion rips through the air. I don’t bother considering what it could be. All that matters is that the soldiers behind us have slowed, as wary of the unstable tunnels as we are. I use the opportunity to put another few dozen yards between us. I cut right into a side tunnel and then retreat into the deep shadow of a half-crumbled alcove.
“Will they find us, do you think?” Laia whispers.
Light flares from the direction we were headed, and I hear the staccato clomp of boots. Two soldiers turn into the tunnel, their torches illuminating us clearly. They halt for a second, bewildered, perhaps, by the presence of Laia, by my lack of a mask. Then they spot my armor and scims, and one of them releases a piercing whistle that will draw in every soldier who can hear it.
My body takes over. Before either of the soldiers can unsheathe their swords, I’ve impaled throwing knives into the soft flesh of their throats. They drop silently, their torches sputtering on the damp catacomb floor.
I lunge back to the alcove, pulling her with me and loosening my scims in their scabbards. I have four throwing knives left. Not enough.
The last word leaves my lips as the soldiers who were following us come into view from the tunnel to our left. Five yards away. Four. In my mind, the knives have already flown, already found their marks. I burst from the alcove and let them loose. The first four legionnaires go down quietly, one after the other, as easy as scything grain. The fifth drops with a sweep of my scim. Warm blood sprays, and I feel my bile rising. Don’t think. Don’t dwell. Just clear the way.
Six auxes appear behind the first five. One jumps onto my back, and I dispatch him with an elbow to his face. A moment later, another soldier rushes me. When he gets a knee to the teeth, he howls and claws at his broken nose and bloody mouth. Spin, kick, sidestep, strike.
Behind me, Laia screams. An aux hauls her out of the alcove by her neck and holds a knife to her throat. His leer turns into a howl. Laia’s shoved a dagger into his side. She yanks it out, and he staggers away.
I turn on the last three soldiers. They flee.
In seconds, I collect my knives. Laia’s whole body shakes as she takes in the carnage around us: Seven dead. Three injured, moaning and trying to rise.
When she looks at me, her eyes grow round in shock at my bloodied scims and armor. Shame floods me, so potent that I wish I could sink into the ground. She sees me now, down to the wretched truth at my core. Murderer! Death himself!
“Laia—” I begin, but a low groan rolls down the tunnel, and the ground trembles. Through the sewer grates I hear screams, shouts, and the deafening reverberation of an enormous explosion.
I don’t get to ask how she happens to know this fascinating tidbit, because at that moment, telltale silver flashes from the tunnel to our left.
“Skies, Elias!” Laia’s voice is choked, her eyes wide. One of the Masks approaching is enormous, older than me by a dozen years and unfamiliar. The other is a small, almost diminutive figure. The calmness of her masked face belies the chilling rage that emanates from her.
Boots thunder from our right as whistles draw even more soldiers. Trapped.
Laia dives straight into my stomach, a graceless, desperate leap so unexpected that I topple back into one of the wall crypts. I punch straight through the thick cobwebbing over the crypt and land on my back atop a stone coffin. Laia’s half on top of me, half wedged between the coffin and the crypt wall.
BOOM. The ceiling of the tunnel we were just standing in collapses all at once, a thunderous rumble intensified by the roar of explosions from the city. I flip Laia under me, my arms on either side of her head to shield her from the blast. But it is the crypt that saves us. We cough from the wave of dust unleashed by the explosions, and I’m keenly aware that if not for Laia’s quick thinking, we’d both be dead.
The rumbling stops, and sunlight cuts through the dust. Screams echo from the city. Carefully, I lift myself away from Laia and turn toward the crypt entrance, which is half-blocked by chunks of rock. I peer out into what’s left of the tunnel. Which isn’t much. The cave-in is complete—not a Mask to be seen.
I scramble out of the crypt, half dragging, half carrying a still-coughing Laia over the debris. Dust and blood—not hers, I affirm—streak her face, and she paws at her canteen. I put it to her lips. After a few swallows, she pulls herself standing.
Rocks obstruct the tunnel to our left, but a mailed hand shoves them away. The Commandant’s gray eyes and blonde hair flash through the dust.
“Come on.” I pull up my collar to hide the Blackcliff diamond tattoo on the back of my neck. We clamber out of the ruined catacombs and into the cacophonous streets of Serra.
No one appears to have noticed the collapse of the street into the crypts—everyone is too busy staring at a column of fire rising into the hot blue sky: the governor’s mansion, lit up like a Barbarian funeral pyre. Around its blackening gates and in the immense square in front of it, dozens of Martial soldiers are locked in a pitched battle with hundreds of rebels dressed in black—Scholar Resistance fighters.
“This way!” I angle away from the governor’s mansion, knocking down two approaching rebel fighters as I go, and aim for the next street over. But fire rages there, spreading rapidly, and bodies litter the ground. I grab Laia’s hand and race toward another side street, only to find that it is as brutalized as the first.
Above the clang of weapons, the screams, and the roar of flames, Serra’s drum towers beat frenziedly, demanding backup troops in the Illustrian Quarter, the Foreign Quarter, the Weapons Quarter. Another tower reports my location near the governor’s mansion, ordering all available troops to join the hunt.
Just past the mansion, a pale blonde head emerges from the debris of the collapsed tunnel. Damn it. We stand near the middle of the square, beside an ash-coated fountain of a rearing horse. I back Laia against it and duck, desperately searching for an escape route before the Commandant or one of the Martials spots us. But it seems as if every building and every street adjoining the square is aflame.
Look harder! Any second now, the Commandant will dive into the fray in the square, using her terrifying skill to tear a path through the battle so she can find us.
I look back at her as she shakes the dust off her armor, unmoved by the chaos. Her serenity raises the hair on the back of my neck. Her school is destroyed, her son and foe escaped, the city an absolute disaster. And yet she is remarkably calm about it all.
“There!” Laia grabs my arm and points to an alley hidden behind an overturned vendor’s cart. We crouch down and race toward it, and I thank the skies for the tumult that keeps Scholars and Martials alike from noticing us.
In minutes, we reach the alley, and as we’re about to plunge into it, I chance a look back—once, just to make sure she hasn’t seen us.
I search the chaos—through a knot of Resistance fighters descending on a pair of legionnaires, past a Mask fighting off ten rebels at once, to the rubble of the tunnel, where my mother stands. An old Scholar slave trying to escape the havoc makes the mistake of crossing her path. She plunges her scim into his heart with a casual brutality. When she yanks the blade out, she doesn’t look at the slave. Instead, she stares at me. As if we are connected, as if she knows my every thought, her gaze slices across the square.
A Torch Against the Night (Ember in the Ashes Series #2) 4.7 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 37 reviews.
A dark book, full of layers, some still waiting to be peeled back. At first I rolled my eyes with helenes pov. Then after a few sections I realized I looked forward to her parts. I'm excited about Harper, seems like he will be a good character partnered with helene. I can't believe I have to wait TWO YEARS for the next book! I hope not too many others die, but I know its necessary for character development. I hate ( and like) what happened with elias in the begining, but I know it will complicate everything in a horrible, complex way.
Better than the first book! Character development was enjoyable and logical. Story was well writtenand condusive to inspiring one to turn to the next page. I can't wait for the next books to come out!
This sequel wad so worth the wait. I was so pleased with this book. The journeys these characters go on is amazing. The beginning was a little slow but once the story got going i could not put it down. I know the author announced books 3 and 4 will be coming but now i am sad i have to wait so long for them! I love Laia and Elias together. They make such a great team. And the chapters from Helene's point of view really help you understand her more than the first book. Please keep writing because I need more stories of the Empire and of Laia and Elias!
Fantastic. Wonderfully dark, even more so than the first in the series, An Ember in the Ashes. The characters' journeys are quite unique and very surprising - several twists that I didn't see coming. With the trials and Blackcliff out of the picture the reader is taken on a road trip unlike any other - it gives the author plenty of room to world build. As an added bonus we get Helene's first person perspective, and it was certainly worth the wait. The book sticks with you - themes and experiences that I had to dissect and contemplate long after the final page. It's certainly the hallmark of good fiction. I haven't read anything quite like this. Incredible job - I cannot wait for the next one.
4.5 stars This was so so so much better that the first one. I was definitely hesitant to even read it since I struggled with Ember, but pretty much right off the bat I was struggling between wanting to devour it and savor it. The first part of the book is a slow burn. There is some build up and some planning and then all of a sudden, a page gets turned and it's like a roller coaster. At one point, the tension was so heavy, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Excellent characters and an interesting story filled with heartbreak, action, and more feels than you could shake a stick at. I certainly hope we get at least one more book. Edit: 7/15/16: Sabaa told me she has two more books in her head and is waiting to see if they'll be able to come out and play.
I love Laia and Elias unwavering determination. They never give up!
Sabaa Tahir's sequel to the amazing “An Ember in the Ashes”, "A Torch Against the Night" tells the story of Laia and Elias’ continued escape from Blackcliff Academy in Serra where the evil elite soldiers (Masks) are trained for the Martial Empire. Laia, a Scholar and former Scholar revolutionary informant as a voluntary slave to the supremely evil Blackcliff Commandant, is determined to save her brother, Darin, from the worst prison in the Empire, Kauf. Elias, former Mask in Training and former Aspirant in the Emperor Trials, gave Laia his oath to help save Darin when she rescued Elias from his execution for failing the Emperor Trials. As they cross the empire, they have to stay hidden from those tracking them: Elias’ evil mother, the Blackcliff Commandant; Helene, Elias’ best friend from Blackcliff and the new Blood Shrike (lead executioner to the new Emperor); and all of the previously mythical horrors recently unleashed by the Nightbringer, who wants to destroy all Scholars. Helene, who was extensively tortured for Elias’ escape, is ordered to hunt Elias down while fearing the new Emperor’s designs on her family if she fails. The future of the Martial Empire and its enemies are at stake. "A Torch Against the Night" is the incredible five star sequel to the amazing book, “An Ember in the Ashes”. The worldbuilding from the first book grows to include the Tribes. I like how Tahir portrays the strengths of each character while simultaneously showing how they cope with their previous or ongoing traumas. I like Laia’s quiet inner strength and Elias’ determination, like a legendary soldier committed to his just cause. Notwithstanding Helene’s position, it is easy to feel moved by her desire to serve her Empire, despite its transgressions (especially against her). The incorporation of the mythical horrors of the Scholar Empire helps this story transcend a typical 4 star series and become a series worth re-reading countless times. My opinion is solely my own, but I do want to thank Goodreads, Penguin Teen, and Sabaa Tahir for a copy of this awesome book.
This is a must-read! So much action, so many plot twists, and just the right dash of romance. Loved it and already can't wait to read book 3, A Reaper at the Gates.
This book was fantastic. The series is growing much more complex and interesting as it goes along and I LOVE it when series do this!
Great storyline that keeps you reading- refreshingly unpredictable!
An outstanding second edition to this series. This book was action packed and very fast paced. My heart was left aching, and I cannot wait for the third installment to be released!
Read it in one day between watching grandkids soccer and baking cookies! Laia and Elias's story makes my heart ache!
Must read series... can't wait for more!
In this second installment in the series . Amazing isn't the only word i would use to describe this outrageously incredible book. It is definetly a must read!!!!!!
Laia and Elias are on the run from the Empire. They are hunted by old enemies and old friends, but Laia is determined to rescue her brother, and Elias is determined to keep his promise to help her. This sequel picks up right where An Ember in the Ashes left off, and the pace doesn’t slow. We learn more about the characters we already know, and meet a few new ones along the way. Deciding who to trust is key. Once again, Tahir pulls you into her world and doesn’t let you go. Rich characters, detailed plot, and adventure on every page. This second novel more than lives up to the first, and I sincerely hope there is a third in the works. Tahir is an amazing storyteller. As with the first, this YA is definitely more suited for mature young adults: detailed, brutal violence; mild swearing; and a mild, cut-away love scene. | 2019-04-22T02:46:17Z | https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-torch-against-the-night-sabaa-tahir/1122653618?ean=9781101998885 |
The following Trading Policies and Procedures form part of and are included in the Application and Agreement that has been made with the Barter Business Exchange, Inc. By signing the Barter Business Exchange, Inc. Client Application and Agreement, Client agrees to abide by these Trading Policies and Procedures. The purpose of the following trade rules and regulations is to facilitate trading among Clients by promoting a system of good business practices and understanding of the guidelines set forth for all barter exchanges by the National Association of Trade Exchanges (NATE) and the International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA).
NATURE OF THE PARTIES: The "Barter Business Exchange, Inc." hereafter referred to as "BBE", is a trade company that acts as a clearinghouse and third party record keeper of trade transactions among its Clients, which are businesses that contract with BBE to organize and facilitate barter of their goods and/or services with other Clients. "Client" is a business that has contracted with BBE to exchange its goods and/or services with other Clients and wishes to subscribe to BBE's record keeping and barter services. "Barter Broker" is the BBE employee whose function it is to assist Clients in the sale and purchase of goods and services.
NATURE OF BARTER DOLLARS: A "Trade" is a barter purchase or sale of goods and/or services whereby payment is made in barter dollars posted to Client's account pursuant to these Trading Policies and Procedures. A "Barter Dollar" is an accounting unit used to record the value of trades. Ownership of barter dollars denotes the right to receive goods and services available within the BBE trade network. Barter dollars may be used only in the manner and for the purpose set forth in these Trading Policies and Procedures. One barter dollar is equal to one dollar in U.S. currency. Barter dollars will not be considered legal tender, securities, or commodities. Barter dollars may not be redeemed for cash. BBE disclaims responsibility for the negotiability of barter dollars.
DEFINITION OF A CLIENT IN GOOD STANDING: A Client who conducts trades in accordance with these Policies and Procedures, is current in any monies owed to BBE, and has a valid Barter Card, is considered a "Client in Good Standing." Only Clients in Good Standing are entitled to the services of BBE. When a Client has by his or her conduct or misconduct displayed to BBE the inability to meet the standards set in Client's own industry relative to the quality of goods or services, or has been charged with the commission of a crime involving fraud or moral turpitude, or otherwise exhibits to BBE that the Client's reputation in the business community has been diminished, then for the protection of the remaining Clients, BBE reserves the right to restrict the use of Client's barter dollars to purchases only and shall restrict the rights of said Client to sell or advertise Client's goods or services for sale until such time as Client can exhibit to BBE that the standards expected in Client's own industry can be met. Expired debit cards shall remove a Client from being a Client in Good Standing.
$100 REFERRAL BONUS: A referral bonus of one hundred ($100.00) barter dollars will be given to each Client who introduces and refers a new BBE Client. To qualify for the referral bonus, Clients must provide BBE with the following information about the potential Client: company name, owner's name, location, and phone number. Referral bonus is paid to Client when the new Client's Application and Agreement has been accepted and approved by a BBE Officer.
BARTER CARDS: "Barter Cards" are printed plastic cards issued for identification purposes only. Client must have a barter card in order to make a purchase. Barter cards issued to Client's account shall remain the property of BBE and must be returned upon demand. Client is solely responsible for all charges made on barter cards issued to Client's account. BBE is not responsible for use of barter cards by unauthorized persons. The individual signing the Barter Business Exchange, Inc. Trading Policies and Procedures as well as any individual using a barter card personally guarantee any transaction as well as any cash service fees that may have occurred as a result of such transaction. Barter cards are issued to all authorized barter cardholders listed on the Client Application and Agreement free of charge. All requests for additional barter cards must be in writing and signed for by the Client. Additional barter cards for new authorized barter cardholders are free of charge. Clients will be charged a ten ($10.00) dollar cash fee for each replacement barter card.
USE OF TRADE CERTIFICATES (DEBIT CARDS, GIFT CERTIFICATES and SCRIP): The following rules govern the use of Debit Cards, Gift Certificates, and Scrip. Once Trade Certificates are purchased, they cannot and will not be replaced if lost, stolen, or damaged. Trade Certificates should be used as soon as possible after they are purchased, and must be used before their expiration date. All tips, gratuities, and sales taxes must be paid in cash at the point of purchase by the buying client. BBE reserves the right to refuse to sell Trade Certificates to clients who have previously refused to pay the proper taxes and gratuities or have created other problems at restaurants or other selling establishments. BBE is not responsible if a business refuses to accept Trade Certificates and BBE will not make restitution for any cash charges that Client may incur. BBE will not extend expiration dates and/or buy back Trade Certificates that are expired. All disputes concerning the use of a Trade Certificates are between the Client and the business issuing the Trade Certificate, and BBE bears no liability in the event the issuing business refuses to honor the Trade Certificate or ceases to operate the business.
HOUSE ACCOUNTS: "House Accounts" have prearranged the payment of their cash transaction fees with BBE. On the front of the Client's barter card, it will state that the Client has a "PRE-PAID DEBIT CARD”. The trade procedure for both the Selling Client and the Buying Client is the same as a normal trade account. These accounts are used for BBE employees, Client sub-accounts, Clients who are closing their account with BBE, and members of other barter exchanges who are spending within the BBE trade network. BBE reserves the right to deny the sale of a Pre-Paid Debit Card to any person for any reason.
BARTER DOLLAR LOANS: Clients who have a negative barter balance (barter purchases and/or barter fees exceed barter sales) will be charged a monthly barter finance charge of one and a half (1.5%) percent (eighteen [18%] annually). Purchases by Clients must be limited to the amount of barter dollars in the Buying Client's account. Clients wishing to apply for a barter dollar loan may submit an application for approval. Clients grant to BBE the right and power to make barter dollar loans to any Client on terms and conditions consistent with Client's credit worthiness and ability to repay. BBE is under no obligation to extend credit at any time. Clients will be required to compensate BBE in cash on demand for any deficit amount in their barter dollar account resulting from purchases made without sufficient barter dollar balances or without prior barter dollar loan arrangements.
RIGHTS OF BBE AND ITS SHAREHOLDERS: Client recognizes and grants to BBE the right and power to: 1.) Regulate and control the number of outstanding barter dollars with the trade network; 2.) Borrow barter dollars and spend them within the trade network. Such borrowing will be sufficiently collateralized by specifically pledged assets of the system pursuant to the guidelines established and imposed by the International Reciprocal Trade Association.
BROKERAGE FUNCTION: BBE serves in a brokerage capacity by organizing and facilitating trades among Clients. Responsibility for the conduct of a trade is exclusively that of the two Clients participating in the trade. THE DUTY TO INSPECT GOODS AND SERVICES FOR QUALITY AND QUANTITY RESTS UPON THE BUYING CLIENT. Trades are entered into on a voluntary basis between the Clients. BBE assumes no responsibility for the quality, timely delivery, warranty or service being traded. Clients should exercise the same diligence entering into trades as normal cash transactions. Client does hereby indemnify and hold BBE harmless with respect to any claim, debt, or liability whatsoever, arising out of any trade exchange transaction wherein Client is a buyer or a seller.
TRADE DISPUTES: BBE is functioning in a brokerage capacity and as a third party record keeper. BBE is to be held harmless on any liability question arising between Clients. Trade disputes are only between the Buying Client and the Selling Client and shall be settled by the parties themselves. Clients may wish to submit a "Complaint Form" to BBE. A copy of this Complaint Form will be kept in each Client's file and a copy will be mailed to each Client. If BBE receives more than two (2) complaints on a given Client for either poor performance or attempting to charge in excess of Client's normal retail prices, BBE reserves the right to terminate Client's account.
AVAILABILITY OF GOODS AND SERVICES: BBE shall continue to solicit new businesses having goods and services to satisfy the needs of all Clients. BBE is committed to provide only those goods or services actually available in the trade network. Because of high Client demand and short supply, certain goods and services are available on a limited basis only. Requests for these goods and services will be placed on a "Waiting List." Buying Clients are responsible for contacting their Barter Broker if they wish to be placed on the waiting list. Clients with negative barter balances (purchases exceed sales) and/or past due cash fees will be removed from all waiting lists. BBE is not responsible if a Client cannot find specific products or services to buy from the other Clients.
COMMITMENTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: is only responsible for commitments and representations made in writing by authorized BBE Officers. Barter brokers, agents, or employees of BBE have no right to bind BBE to any obligations or representations whatsoever without such written authorization.
Client's account must have a positive barter balance.
Client must give written notice to the BBE Trade Department. On Hold status cancels contractual commitments by BBE regarding exclusive territories or other applicable agreements.
Clients who charge other BBE Clients cash for their products and services who have not notified the BBE Trade Department in writing that their account is “On Hold” prior to sale will be charged a twenty-five (25%) percent cash transaction fee on the total amount of the cash sale.
TAXES: Selling Client shall charge the Buying Client the appropriate sales and excise taxes in cash and collect and record these on the BBE 3-part form at the time of sale. Under no circumstances will BBE be responsible to pay any sales, excise, use or other tax on behalf on any Client. Clients are advised that transactions involving barter dollars are generally treated as taxable events for federal, state, and local tax purposes. The declaration and reporting of all applicable local, state, and federal taxes resulting from trades rest solely with the Client. BBE is required by federal law to obtain the correct Taxpayer Identification Number of Client (who is required by law to provide such number) and to report all trade sales of Client to IRS on Form 1099B. Failure to provide the correct Taxpayer Identification Number may result in the imposition of backup withholding of twenty (20%) percent of the gross proceeds of each sale transaction, under federal law. Client agrees to hold BBE harmless for any actions BBE takes to comply with federal tax laws. Clients should seek professional tax advice.
TIPS AND GRATUITIES: All tips and gratuities shall be paid in cash to the Selling Client at the time of purchase by the Buying Client.
CASH TRANSACTION FEES: Client agrees to pay a twelve and one-half (12.5%) percent cash transaction fee based on the gross value of each purchase as agreed to on the Client Application and Agreement. Cash transaction fees are only charged to Clients when they purchase goods and/or services within the trade network. Selling Clients do not pay a cash transaction fee. An additional two and one-half (2.5%) percent cash transaction fee will be charged on all inter-exchange purchases (purchases made from other barter exchanges). If Client’s cash fees are sixty (60) days past due from issuance of statement, Client grants BBE, at that time, the right to permanently increase the twelve and one-half (12.5%) percent cash transaction fee on all purchases to a fifteen (15%) percent cash transaction fee on all future purchases. BBE may, at its option, require advance payment of Client transactions fees.
WORK-IN-PROGRESS TRADE DEPOSITS: The following procedures apply to trades involving special orders, construction jobs, service work, or long term leases and other work-in-progress transactions.
If the written estimate is more than five hundred ($500.00) barter dollars, Selling Client should obtain a work-in-progress deposit/down-payment in barter dollars in the same non-refundable manner as a cash transaction. This is done with a 3-part form and work-in-progress authorization number. Selling Client must obtain a work-in-progress authorization number from the BBE Trade Department BEFORE THEY START THE TRADE. BBE will only issue a work-in-progress authorization number for the barter amount in the Buying Client's account. BBE will not issue work-in-progress authorization numbers for Buying Clients who are not in good standing. Work-in-progress deposits and down payments are considered normal trades. Clients are required to follow applicable policies and procedures.
Buying Client (Buyer) should contact his or her assigned Barter Broker to discuss all desired purchases. The Barter Broker will give the Buyer a list of available Selling Clients (Sellers) in the BBE network to fulfill the Buyer’s needs. If a Seller is "On Hold", the Buyer may ask to be placed on a waiting list. If the Buyer needs to purchase products and services that are not available, the Buyer should contact his or her Barter Broker to request that BBE recruit new members who do sell the desired products and services.
It is the Buyer's responsibility to contact the Seller. Buyers must identify themselves as members of the Barter Business Exchange when they contact the Sellers.
The Buyer must present his or her barter card at the time of purchase. However, if the Buyer is paying with gift certificates or scrip, it is not necessary to present a barter card.
If the trade involves special orders, construction jobs, service work, or long-term leases and other work-in-progress trades, Buyer should ALWAYS get a written estimate from the Seller before authorizing work to begin.
Buyer purchases the Seller's goods and services at the Seller's prevailing retail prices for 100% trade. However, all taxes and gratuities must be paid in cash by the Buyer to the Seller.
At the time of purchase, Buyer must sign a completed 3-part form.
The Buyer's account will be debited for the amount of the purchase when the authorization number is issued by the BBE Trade Department. Special Travel Procedures—a twenty ($20.00) dollar cash booking fee will be charged for all travel requests outside of North Carolina. Client must complete and sign a Travel Request Form to travel within the BBE network. Once a reservation has been confirmed, it CANNOT be cancelled for ANY reason.
Client must have a valid, current barter card and be a Client in Good Standing in order to make a purchase. Client is solely responsible for all charges made on barter card(s) issued to Client's account. BBE is not responsible for use of barter cards by unauthorized persons.
At the time of purchase, the Buyer must present his or her barter card. However, if the Buyer is paying with gift certificates or scrip, it is not necessary to present a barter card.
Sellers will provide their goods and services at their prevailing retail prices for 100% trade to Buyers in good standing. Seller will provide all materials and labor on trade.
Seller must collect all taxes and gratuities in cash from the Buyer.
If Seller fails to call BBE for an authorization number at the time of sale.
Seller must complete a 3-part form for each transaction. Each 3-part form must contain the following information: Seller's company name, Seller's account number, Buyer's company name, Buyer's account number, Buyer's signature, description of the goods and services traded, date of purchase, an authorization number or a work-in-progress authorization number, total barter dollars charged, taxes paid in cash, and gratuities paid in cash.
In order to receive credit for the trade, the Seller must mail the top copy of the completed 3-part form to BBE.
If the signed 3-part form is not submitted to the BBE Office within 30 days of issuance of statement, BBE has the right to reverse the trade, in which event; it will be the responsibility of the Seller to collect from the Buyer.
Failure to follow these procedures will place responsibility for the transaction on the Seller and not on BBE.
RECORD KEEPING AND ERRORS: All active Clients will receive a monthly statement of account online in the BBE Marketplace. Client's monthly account statement will be considered accurate as printed unless the BBE accounting department is given written notice of any discrepancies within thirty (30) days of issuance of statement. All copies of statements requested within sixty (60) days of issuance will be sent free of charge. All requests after sixty (60) days of issuance will be subject to a one ($1.00) dollar barter charge per statement. IRS audit of Client's account is subject to a twenty-five ($25.00) dollar cash charge per hour with a one (1) hour minimum. A cash administrative fee of fifty ($50.00) dollars cash for each trade transaction will be charged to any business or individual who provides BBE with an incorrect Taxpayer Identification Name and/or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and/or fails to submit any taxpayer number information.
ADMINISTRATIVE FEES: An administrative fee of fifteen ($15) dollars cash and fifteen ($15) dollars barter will be charged to Client's account each month. The monthly administrative fee is due upon receipt of the BBE monthly account statement. Clients who request materials to be sent via certified mail will be charged seven ($7.00) dollars cash.
JOINT AND SEPARATE LIABILITY: When the Client's Application and Agreement is accepted by a BBE Officer and an account is opened for Client in BBE trade network, the Client and individual signing for the Client hereby assume joint and separate responsibility for all purchases and fees as outlined on the Client's Application and Agreement and in these Trading Policies and Procedures.
LATE PAYMENTS—FEES THIRTY (30) DAYS PAST DUE: BBE accounts will be deemed past due if not paid within thirty (30) days of date on statement. All fees and charges, including cash transaction fees, administrative fees, and other charges to Clients by BBE are compensation for services rendered in processing Client into the exchange system, operating the clearing house and brokerage functions, administering these Policies and Procedures, maintaining records, and facilitating Client's use of the exchange system. Client agrees to pay BBE the full amount of such fees within fifteen (15) days of issuance of the monthly statement; otherwise BBE shall charge Client a cash penalty on the outstanding cash balance at the rate of two (2%) percent per month on the unpaid balance, OR a ten ($10.00) dollar cash late charge, whichever charge is greater.
LATE PAYMENTS ~ FEES SIXTY (60) DAYS PAST DUE: If cash fees are sixty (60) days past due from issuance of statement, Client grants BBE, at that time, the right to permanently suspend any loan agreements established between Client and BBE. If cash fees are sixty (60) days past due from issuance of statement, Client grants BBE, at that time, the right to permanently increase twelve and one-half (12.5%) percent cash transaction fee on all purchases to a fifteen (15%) percent cash transaction fee on all future purchases.
LATE PAYMENTS ~ FEES NINETY (90) DAYS PAST DUE: Any account continuing in a delinquent status for three (3) consecutive months may be closed without notice by BBE. Barter dollars in the account will be forfeited and placed by BBE in its general operating account unless outstanding fees are paid. At any time in the future, the Client may reestablish the account and reclaim the barter dollars by: (1) Paying all cash fees owed on the outstanding balance, AND (2) Paying a processing fee of one hundred ($100.00) dollars cash.
RETURNED CHECKS: Any Client that has a check returned to BBE by the bank will be charged a thirty ($30.00) dollar cash penalty.
DIRECT TRADES: Direct trades between Clients to avoid cash transaction fees are prohibited, and if consummated are subject to standard cash transaction fees payable upon demand. Such trades WILL RESULT IN THE TERMINATION OF TRADING PRIVILEGES FOR BOTH CLIENTS INVOLVED. BBE reserves the right to publicly announce such terminations to the existing Clients.
OVERPRICING: Clients will sell their goods and services at their prevailing retail prices for 100% trade credit. Selling Clients are not obligated to honor sale prices and may charge their prevailing retail prices. BBE reserves the right to inquire into complaints of overpricing. Violations may result in termination of Client's account. Buying Client is responsible for reporting all incidents of overpricing to the BBE Office.
BBE has received more than two (2) complaints on a given Client for either poor performance or attempting to charge in excess of Client's normal retail prices.
Client commits fraud against BBE or other Clients.
Client is trading directly with other Clients without paying cash transaction fees to BBE.
Client is not following the Trading Policies and Procedures.
A client is not a Client in Good Standing as defined in paragraph 3 hereinabove.
The filing of any proceedings or petition by Client under Federal or State law seeking protection from its creditors or any assignment made by Client, whether formal or informal, for the benefit of Creditors.
The appointment of a Receiver or Trustee with respect to Client's business affairs or the filing of any involuntary proceeding against Client by its creditors.
Client's loss or suspension of any license held by it which is necessary for Client's business operation.
Owes outstanding cash fees due to BBE which are more than thirty (30) days past due. The trading privileges of the Client shall be reinstated immediately upon payment of such past due fees.
Client ceases to be a Client in Good Standing. Client shall be given notice of such suspension. The trading privileges of the Client shall be reinstated immediately upon Client’s cure of the reasons for such suspension unless due to the nature thereof, BBE decides to terminate the Client for cause in accordance with the above Section 30.
If Client has a positive barter account balance (sales exceed purchases) and is a Client in Good Standing, Client may stay active and spend the balance until purchases equal sales. Until barter dollars are spent, monthly administrative fees will be charged to Client's account. If the Client has a positive barter account balance (sales exceed purchases) and the Client’s Application and Agreement has been terminated by BBE, Client will be required to pay the twelve and one-half (12.5%) percent cash transaction fee or the fifteen (15%) percent cash transaction fee on the remaining barter dollar balance prior to spending the remaining barter dollars and will be issued a “Debit Card”. Further, such barter dollars shall be spent within ninety (90) days of notice to terminate the relationship with BBE. All barter dollars that are not spent within ninety (90) days from the date on the termination letter will be forfeited and placed by BBE in its general operating account.
Barter cards must be returned immediately upon termination.
In the event BBE incurs any costs or expenses to collect any sum due BBE from Client, then BBE shall be reimbursed by client for any such costs or expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees. In the event BBE is the prevailing party in any other controversy or proceeding involving Client, then BBE shall be entitled to the recovery of its costs, expenses and reasonable attorneys' fees in addition to such other remedies being sought therein.
If a BBE member shall go out of business, any debt owed to BBE shall be repaid from the BBE Member Loan Fund directly to BBE and will become immediately due to BBE in cash. This payment constitutes a sale to the Client. BBE is required by law to report all barter income to the Internal Revenue Service on a 1099B. Client will then be sent to an attorney or collection agency. All barter and cash debts, including debts paid by the BBE Member Loan Fund, will become immediately due to BBE in cash.
ADDITIONAL BUSINESS LISTINGS: Clients having more than one (1) business may be listed under an additional trade categories in the Barter Business Exchange Marketplace at no additional charge so long as only one account statement is required. Client having more than one business that requires separate account statements may open separate accounts for each business at no additional charge. Client will be charged a monthly administrative fee for each business having a separate account.
ADVERTISING AND THE BBE MARKETPLACE: Unless otherwise stipulated between the parties of this Agreement, Client authorizes BBE to notify and advertise to other Clients and potential Clients the availability of Client's good and/or services. Applicant authorizes BBE to send broadcast fax and email advertisements to their business.
SECURITY INTEREST: Client grants BBE a security interest in all barter dollars credited and to be credited to Client's account for the amount of all unpaid cash fees. In the event of the insolvency or bankruptcy of Client, all cash fees shall be due and payable in full. Upon the filing of positions under Chapter 7, 11, or 13 of the Bankruptcy Code or an Assignment for Benefit of Creditors, no trade shall be allowed until all cash fees due BBE have been paid in full. Should the Petition under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code be lifted by or against Client, or should the plan lifted pursuant to either Chapter 11 or 13 not provide for the full payment of all cash fees due BBE, BBE shall have the option, in lieu of filing as a creditor, of treating the barter dollar balance equal in value to the amount of cash fees owing and terminate the account, provided, however, that at such time as BBE does receive all of its cash in full, and in the event of discharge, pursuant to Chapter 7 notice is received from the Trustee that the barter dollars have been abandoned, BBE shall re-credit the barter dollars to the Client's account.
ASSIGNMENT OF ACCOUNT: A Client's account is not assignable or transferable without BBE's express prior written consent. Barter dollars may not be advertised for sale without BBE's express written consent. In the event of bankruptcy or insolvency of a Client where assets of the Company will be sold, BBE has the first right of refusal to bid on barter dollars to be liquidated.
FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS: Clients shall abide by applicable federal, state, or local laws, or regulations appropriate to any trade, and BBE shall not be responsible for any failure on the part of Clients to comply. Client agrees to hold BBE harmless for any action BBE takes to comply with applicable laws or regulations.
WARRANTY: The sole and exclusive warranty made by the Selling Client is that it has title to such products free and clear from any lien or encumbrance. Other than set forth above, goods and services are sold "As Is, Where Is", with respect to any goods or services purchased by the Buying Client through BBE. Buying Client recognizes that such items are produced and provided by others and not by BBE or its affiliates. BBE makes no warranty either expressed or implied, by operation of law or otherwise and disclaims all liability as to the fitness, quality, delivery date, merchant ability, prices or any term of the trade transaction, and the Buying Client shall look solely to the manufacturer, distributor or retailer of such merchandise for any warranty. Buying Client acknowledges that any trade transaction in which it participates shall be on a voluntary basis.
AMENDMENT OF TRADING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES: BBE may at its sole discretion change the Trading Policies and Procedures of these Agreements from time to time, by giving Client thirty (30) days prior written notice. Failure to give BBE written notice of objection thereto within such thirty (30) day period shall be deemed to constitute acceptance by Clients. By using the Barter Business Exchange Website and Marketplace, you agree to accept these changes, whether or not you have reviewed them. Also, purchases or sales after thirty (30) day notice period shall constitute Client’s acceptance of such amended Barter Business Exchange Trading Policies and Procedures and shall be subject to the provisions thereof without exception .All changes to this agreement must be in writing and signed by an officer of BBE. The Client Agreement and these Barter Business Exchange, Inc. Trading Policies and Procedures constitute the entire agreement between the Client and BBE and replace all prior agreements, if any, whether oral or written, between Client and BBE or any predecessor of BBE. Neither Client nor BBE have relied upon any representation or promise, which is not contained in the Barter Business Exchange, Inc. Trading Policies and Procedures.
DISSOLUTION: In the event that the BBE trade network terminates or otherwise ceases to do business, all Clients in a negative trade position will pay amounts they owe in cash (one barter dollar being equal to one dollar in cash in U.S. currency) into a fund. The fund, less expenses, will be distributed pro rata to all Clients who are in a positive barter dollar position. Thus all Clients in a positive position will receive cash for their barter dollars to the extent that the funds permit. BBE shall not be liable to any Clients for cash or barter dollars beyond the distribution of such funds as aforesaid.
ENFORCEMENT OF TRADING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES: Each and every term and provision combined in these Trading Policies and Procedures is severable from every other term and provision therein. If any such term or provision should be judged invalid, illegal, or unenforceable it shall not affect the validity, legality, or enforceability of the remainder of any other term or provision of the Trading Policies and Procedures. The remainder shall remain valid, legal, enforceable, and in full force and effect. In the event that legal action must be taken by BBE against a Client to enforce any provision of these Trading Policies and Procedures, BBE shall be entitled to recover attorney fees, costs, and simple interest at the rate of eighteen (18%) percent per year from the date of default until payment, and Client agrees to court venue chosen by BBE attorney.
GUARANTOR PROVISION: The Client affirms that s/he is the owner / officer / agent of the member business entity and acknowledges that the establishment of Client’s account is conditioned upon the personal guarantee by the Client for the payment of debt incurred hereunder and the Client hereby personally and unconditionally guarantees payment of any and all debt incurred by his/her said business entity. All BBE members will be required to sign a personal guarantee for any debt which is currently, or may in the future become, due. The personal guarantee guarantees that any and all debt incurred by Client’s business shall be paid in a prompt and timely fashion. The personal guarantee is in addition to the contractual relationship between BBE and Client. For all accounts that are not paid-in-full within thirty (30) days following the termination date, a one and one-half (1 1/2%) percent monthly service charge will be added to the account. In the event that attorneys’ fees are incurred for collection with or without suit, the Client agrees to pay such fees plus court costs. If the client is a corporation, a LLC, or other business entity, the person executing the Client Agreement, to induce the granting of credit to the Client, and in consideration therefore, does hereby guarantee personally payment of all amounts owed to BBE, and hereby waives any requirement on the part of BBE to proceed with its claim against the business entity, either first or concurrently, as a condition precedent to bringing any action against such individual on the basis of this guaranty. The Client and individual signing the Client Agreement hereby assume joint and separate responsibility for all purchases and fees as outlined in the Barter Business Exchange, Inc. Trading Policies and Procedures.
CLIENT ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND WARRANTY: Client acknowledges that he or she has read the current effective Trading Policies and Procedures, that such Policies and Procedures are made a part of the Client Application and Agreement, and that the Trading Policies and Procedures may be changed by BBE from time to time in accordance with the provisions of these Rules. Client warrants that it provided all information to BBE in good faith and that such information is accurate to the best of its knowledge.
NAME AND TAXPAYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER CHANGES: In the event that Client changes his or her legal name, company name, and/or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), applicant is required to inform BBE within ten (10) days. At that time, Client must complete a new Client Application and Agreement and Form W-9. BBE reserves the right at its sole discretion to suspend the trading privileges of any Client who has had a name or number change until BBE receives the new signed Client Application and Agreement and Form W-9. Once the paperwork is received, all barter and cash debts and/or credits will be transferred into the new account.
ALL TRADES MUST BE IN BARTER DOLLARS: The barter dollar must be accepted for the total value of the transaction. Any exception to this policy, such as by way of example a trade transaction involving a cash component, must be approved in advance by BBE, without exception.
BASIS FOR COMMISSIONS: On all transactions engaged in by Client through BBE, or for which BBE referred Client to a potential trading partner, the commission due BBE shall be based upon the full value of the transaction, regardless if the transactions is paid for by cash, cash/ trade blend, credit card, check, direct trade, or through another barter company in which Client is a member.
WAIVER: BBE, in its sole discretion, may from time to time waive any provision of the Barter Business Exchange, Inc. Trading Policies and Procedures for any Client as it deems warranted in its sole discretion. Any such waiver, to be effective, must be in writing and executed by an authorized officer of BBE. It is understood that any such waiver shall be strictly limited to the specific terms of the written waiver document. Except as provided for by the foregoing, any failure of BBE to insist upon strict compliance with any particular term or provision of the Barter Business Exchange, Inc. Trading Policies and Procedures, or any delay or omission on the part of BBE to enforce any such term or provision, shall not constitute a waiver with respect to any such term or provision.
BBE is unable to contact Client at the most recently updated contact information furnished by Client. BBE may, at its sole discretion, close the abandoned account, placing any positive trade dollar balance in the BBE General Operating Account.
Website or the online BBE Marketplace for any reason whatsoever.
or call (919) 469-5538 for personal assistance. | 2019-04-19T07:18:45Z | http://ncbarter.nextrade360.com/p/terms |
Ranking the NBA's new head coaches: Who is facing the most pressure?
From dynasty do demolition: Anything is possible for Billy Donovan and the Thunder.
Seven NBA teams will open the 2015-16 season with new head coaches, but the state of the profession was relatively stable this summer thanks in part to a number of guillotine candidates managing to hang onto their jobs. Toronto’s Dwane Casey, Cleveland’s David Blatt, and Washington’s Randy Wittman all survived despite rumors and rumblings at various points of last season, while Byron Scott returns to the Lakers’ bench despite posting the worst single-season winning percentage in the franchise’s illustrious 67-year history.
All told, coaching turnover decreased for the second straight season: there were 14 new coaches entering the 2013-14 season and nine new coaches entering last season. What’s more, there were zero true repeat offenders. The Timberwolves are the only team opening 2015-16 with a new coach for the second straight season, and they’re only doing so because of the terrible circumstances surrounding Flip Saunders’ battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. At this time last year, by comparison, five teams were trotting out new coaches for the second straight season.
Seven coaching changes is still a lot, however, and pink slips were handed out by contenders and also-rans alike. In truth, there weren’t that many surprises, in part because the highest-profile firings—Scott Brooks in Okahoma City, Tom Thibodeau in Chicago, and Monty Williams in New Orleans—were at least somewhat anticipated.
Let’s welcome the new coaches in the only manner that seems appropriate: ranking them by who faces the most pressure this season. The following factors weighed in these rankings: external expectations, the talent and experience of the roster, the team’s recent success (or lack thereof), their level of experience, the organization’s front-office and ownership dynamics, and market size.
Few NBA coaches have a sweeter setup than what Skiles will enjoy in Orlando. For starters, he’s a proven turn-around artist being asked to execute a turn-around. He took over rebuilding situations at his three previous stops—Phoenix, Chicago and Milwaukee—and he eventually coaxed meaningful improvement out of all three teams. This job is right in his wheelhouse, and it helps that he’s taking over from a first-time coach in Jacque Vaughn who never really distinguished himself or managed to instill a perceptible team identity.
Roundtable: Which NBA star is under the most pressure this season?
Even better, the Magic’s failure to win more than 25 games in each of the last three seasons has plunged expectations about as low as they can go. But, wait, there’s more: Orlando has been collecting young talent for three years now, including first-round guys like Victor Oladipo, Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris, Aaron Gordon, and Elfrid Payton, so Skiles isn’t inheriting an empty cupboard. Improvement from this developing core is expected, if not guaranteed, as they gain experience. Orlando ranked 25th or worse on both sides of the ball last season, and it’s hard to imagine Skiles will let that happen again.
There are other tie-loosening factors at play. Skiles happens to be a popular former Magic player who spent five seasons in Orlando during the early-1990s, he’s working under an unproven GM in Rob Hennigan, and he doesn’t have any imminent, franchise-changing free-agency decisions looming over him. The national media has understandably ignored this franchise since Dwight Howard left, so Skiles is free to take his time getting the ship righted. If the Magic beat expectations and make a surprising run at a low playoff seed, Skiles might even find himself in the Coach of the Year conversation.
As with Skiles in Orlando, the easiest way to make a good first impression as an NBA coach is to take over from a rookie who fell flat on his face. The Brian Shaw era in Denver was one of the most underrated disasters in recent memory: He couldn’t settle on lineups and rotations, he called out and clashed publicly with his players on multiple occasions, he failed to get consistency from a fairly talented and expensive roster, he admitted to struggling to connect with his younger players and, in perhaps his lowest moment, he tried rapping his pre-game scouting reports. As the kids say: Bruh.
To be clear, Michael Malone had his own share of drama during his 106-game tenure in Sacramento. But Malone showed real progress in Year One, before he was abruptly canned by wild-card owner Vivek Ranadive, and he succeeded in connecting with his All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins, which was his top order of business. The miffed (and, in some cases, outraged) reaction to his firing, and Sacramento’s retched play under his interim successor Tyrone Corbin, made his tenure look better than his 39-67 record might initially suggest.
Two full years of directionless weirdness from the Nuggets’ front office has unintentionally set up Malone nicely this season. Denver doesn’t have a single 2016 All-Star candidate on its roster and it plans to start teenager Emmanuel Mudiay at point guard after dumping Ty Lawson and his off-court issues to the Rockets. Those two factors alone guarantee that expectations are nonexistent in the loaded West.
Indeed, Malone’s season will be deemed a success if Denver improves its bottom-five defense, if Mudiay shows the potential to be a foundational player, and if the front office gains clarity on which members of its mish-mashed roster are keepers (hint: not JJ Hickson). That’s a pretty low bar, all things considered, and Malone should be up to the task. The only real hurdle will be balancing minutes between the younger members of his roster and his roster’s numerous veterans, as competing interests exist up and down the roster.
The bulk of the pressure facing Sam Mitchell was unavoidable. It just boils down to timing: Mitchell was named interim coach, in place of Saunders, less than a month before Minnesota opened training camp. That’s not an ideal situation for any coach, let alone one who hasn’t held a head job since 2009 and is being asked to take over a 16-win roster with no timetable on how his job status might change going forward. Best wishes to Saunders for a full recovery, and major kudos to Mitchell for stepping up to the plate in the Timberwolves’ moment of need.
Handicapping the 2015 NBA Rookie of the Year race: Who are the favorites?
Once the games begin, Mitchell will begin facing the heightened expectations and scrutiny that comes with two very promising No. 1 overall selections: Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. Both players have the potential to be perennial All-Stars, and any stagnation or stumbling in their developmental arcs will lead to second-guessing. This is a legitimately tall order: Mitchell must maximize the talents of two players who aren’t yet of legal drinking age with little in the way of preparation time.
Further complicating matters is a roster that’s equal parts youth movement, retirement home and hospital ward. Ultra-vets Kevin Garnett, Tayshaun Prince and Andre Miller are all the definition of known quantities, but any on-court success they achieve this season will necessarily come at the expense of Minnesota’s prospects. Meanwhile, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic have proven to be valuable rotation players when healthy and progress-killers when sidelined with injuries. Add it all up, and Mitchell will be juggling all season long.
Lastly, there’s an element of impatience in Minnesota that doesn’t quite exist in Orlando or Denver, as the Timberwolves haven’t made the playoffs since 2004. The extraordinary circumstances surrounding this job and Mitchell’s history as a long-time player with the Timberwolves may help ease some of that burden on that front, but many fans will nevertheless expect significant progress over a dismal 2014-15 season. Again, kudos to Mitchell for leaping into this fray.
Of the seven coaches on this list, Alvin Gentry is the trickiest one to gauge because there are two sets of competing factors at play when it comes to the expectation game for the Pelicans.
On the inflationary side, there is the very real demand for progress. Monty Williams, Gentry’s predecessor, was fired at arguably the highest point of his tenure. Williams had spent the previous four seasons building up a new core following the departure of Chris Paul, and he had succeeded in landing New Orleans in the playoffs thanks to a dramatic victory over the Spurs in a win-or-die season finale. Parting with Williams sent a clear message: his best wasn’t good enough, and Gentry inherits that burden.
Fueling expectations even further is the nonstop, warranted hype around Anthony Davis. Last season saw Davis progress from star to MVP candidate, as he led the league in Player Efficiency Rating at age 21 and landed at No. 3 on SI.com’s Top 100 Players of 2016 list. A talent like this puts his coach in “no excuses” territory far more quickly than you might think. For comparison’s sake, LeBron James made the Finals at age 22, while Kevin Durant went to the West finals at age 22 and the Finals at age 23. As crazy as it sounds, a first-round exit for Davis, even at age 22 and even in the West, might be viewed as a disappointment this season. That fate would be doubly disappointing for Gentry when compared to the ring he won as a Warriors assistant last season.
Now, let’s talk deflation before the hype train hits 100 miles per hour. Above all else, there’s the injury factor. Gentry’s been dealt a pretty crummy hand: Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, Omer Asik and Alex Ajinca are all either injured, injury-prone or recovering from a serious injury. That’s roughly half his rotation; no team can be expected to thrive with so many questionable links in the chain.
The Pelicans’ lack of success historically and the fact that they’re not the Saints both play to Gentry’s advantage. The franchise hasn’t won a playoff series since 2008 and should get some time to build up. That’s especially true now that Davis signed a five-year rookie extension this summer. With that signature, all Pelicans’ plans became multi-year plans.
On balance, Gentry will need to show progress this season, both with the potency of the Pelicans’ attack, which is his specialty, and in molding Davis’s path to greatness. The health of his club will determine how far it goes, and it may well end up being the chief explanation if they flat-line in the postseason. This season, Gentry should enjoy the benefit of perspective, which is more than can be said for the three remaining names on this list.
Remarkably, there was some doubt as to whether Karl would survive the summer. The current Kings regime isn’t exactly known for its grace under fire, and Karl courted tension with All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins with some questionable comments in the media. Cooler heads ultimately prevailed, but only after an awkward encounter between player and coach at Las Vegas Summer League and yet another round of Cousins trade rumors.
Karl is in a unique position, even for an NBA coach: outsiders expect, and in some cases are rooting for, an utter catastrophe. Chaos is a distinct possibility. There are so many potential potholes looming: Cousins’ volatility, Rajon Rondo’s unpredictability, owner Vivek Ranadive’s impatience, GM Vlade Divac’s inexperience, a whole host of lineup questions, and a drab team culture that hasn’t produced a winning squad since 2006. In that light, it might be tempting to see Karl as a success if the Kings are merely bad but not embarrassing or overtly dysfunctional.
But it’s just not that simple. Ranadive has proven that he isn’t willing to settle for bad. Cousins is clearly sick of being bad. And Karl, a former Coach of the Year with 26 years of NBA experience, isn’t used to be being bad. If the Kings are bad again, they won’t be going quietly into the night. There will be blood in one form or another.
Perhaps that’s one reason Karl came out and said his team has the potential to go .500, which amounts to a high bar for this organization. The stakes are high, the margin for error is slim, and 41 wins would represent significant upward momentum that would ease a lot of tension and buy everyone involved a little time. Divac made enough short-term moves this summer to make 41 wins a reality, but a lot of things will need to break right to actually make it happen. That said, Sacramento hasn’t been known as a place where a lot of things break right in recent years, so Karl enters 2015-16 with about as much pressure as any coach that’s likely headed to the lottery will ever face.
When Fred Hoiberg decided to make the jump from Iowa State to the Bulls, he was forced to make a series of trade-offs. In exchange for getting to coach one of the NBA’s biggest and most successful brands, he has to deal with the scrutiny that comes with playing in one of the country’s largest markets and work under a management regime that clashed with his predecessor. In exchange for getting to coach one of the East’s deepest and most talented rosters, he has to find a way to keep everyone happy while implementing an entirely new system. In exchange for inheriting a squad that made the playoffs five straight years, he has to win—big and immediately—lest he be compared unfavorably to Tom Thibodeau.
The pressure is coming at Hoiberg from all sides: from above, from the fan base, from his accomplished roster of players, and from comparisons to the recent past. And that’s before you even consider the negative energy that seems to build over the team whenever Derrick Rose opens his mouth, or the injuries already sustained by Rose and Mike Dunleavy Jr., or the likelihood that Rose will miss time for one reason or another this season, or the brewing rumors of discord between Rose and Jimmy Butler. Opening night is still weeks away and, if it wasn’t for Derek Fisher and Matt Barnes, the Bulls would have already lapped the field when it comes to unnecessary distractions and potentially damaging noise.
It says a lot about Hoiberg’s confidence and competitive nature that he welcomed all of these headaches when he could have kept on enjoying the good life as “The Mayor” of Ames. In a best-case scenario, his higher-paced, free-flowing system helps Chicago finally get past LeBron James in the playoffs, and Hoiberg gets a congratulatory Steve Kerr-like treatment from the media. In a worst-case scenario, injuries strike yet again and the Bulls realize, too late, that Thibodeau’s single-mindedness was indeed the key to overcoming mid-season adversity.
The rational view here should be one that emphasizes patience during the transition, particularly because many of Chicago’s key pieces—Rose, Joakim Noah, and Paul Gasol in particular—are questionable fits in a more wide-open style. Unfortunately, “rational” and “patience” are luxuries that a team that has been stuck as a quasi-contender for a half-decade simply can’t afford. Fair or not, Hoiberg will need to hit the ground running and show real results right out of the gate.
“Hey, coach, I’m really glad you could meet with us today. We’d love for you to consider joining the Thunder. There’s really only one catch, and I hope it’s not too big of a deal. If something doesn’t go quite right, whether it just takes you awhile to to the NBA, or whether it’s an injury to one of our three stars who all underwent surgery last season, or whether our young supporting pieces fail to deliver in the postseason, or whether our tough conference competition simply outplays us, there’s a chance—a small chance!—that Kevin Durant decides not to re-sign with us next summer.
“Now, if Kevin doesn’t re-sign, then there’s a chance—again, a small chance!—that we’ll either need to trade Russell Westbrook or prepare for him to leave in 2017. Now, if Kevin and Russell both leave—this is only a hypothetical!—then there’s a chance Serge Ibaka leaves too. Then we might—might!—be rebuilding around Enes Kanter. At that point, there’s a chance—a small chance!—that we would be dealing with a disillusioned fan base that can’t wrap its head around the fact that we never won a title and made just one Finals appearance with eight years of Durant and Westbrook together. Plus that whole James Harden thing, but we actively avoid mentioning that.
Hopefully, that’s not quite how Thunder GM Sam Presti’s recruiting pitch to Billy Donovan went this summer. Whether Donovan chooses to publicly acknowledge this nightmare scenario or not, there’s no getting around the immense stakes facing Oklahoma City this season. A title run could re-open a championship window that extends for the next five years, or more. Another injury-plagued season like last year might lead Durant to seek out greener pastures and bring down the entire house of cards.
One could argue that Donovan, who arrives from the University of Florida, will face more pressure this season than any NBA coach in the last five or 10 years. Erik Spoelstra might have been axed if the Heat had stumbled in the 2011 playoffs, but the “Big Three” era would have continued on without him. David Blatt might have gotten the quick pull if he had cost the Cavaliers their second-round series against the Bulls with his terrible timeout call, but James wasn’t going to leave Cleveland after one try.
What, precisely, is the range of possibilities for Donovan in his first year as a professional coach? Everything from dynasty to demolition. Now that’s pressure of the highest order. | 2019-04-19T18:41:04Z | https://www.si.com/nba/2015/10/09/nba-coaches-billy-donovan-fred-hoiberg-george-karl-alvin-gentry |
Plastic 2 is a plug-in for FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server that processes secure payments within FileMaker.
FileMaker 7 or higher, Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 6 or higher, Windows or Mac OS X 10.6. Rosetta on Intel Macs not supported.
If you unzip the zip archive containing the plug-in files and open the top-level directory, you will find two subdirectories labeled WIN (for Windows) and MAC (for Macintosh). The WIN directory contains two plug-in files, one with a .fmx extension and another with a .fmx64 extension. The file with the .fmx64 extension is only used for FileMaker Server installations, which are explained below. The MAC directory contains a plug-in file with a .fmplugin extension.
To install the plug-in, copy the plug-in from the WIN or MAC folder to one of the directories listed below. Directory paths are listed relative to the parent directory of the installation home directory of the FileMaker application.
Note: Using the plug-in with the FileMaker Server Web Publishing Engine or the FileMaker Server Scripting Engine requires an Enterprise plug-in license.
Uninstall the plug-in by quitting FileMaker Pro or stopping FileMaker Server and removing the plug-in file from the appropriate Extensions or Plugins directory.
Plug-ins will run in a fully featured demo mode until they are registered. While running in demo mode, the plug-in will run for 2 hours at a time. In order to get another two hours of demo time, you must restart FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Server's database server module or FileMaker Server's Web Publishing Engine, depending upon where the plug-in is installed.
To register the plug-in in FileMaker Pro, you may either enter the license information in FileMaker plug-in preferences or by calling CCRegister inside a script. You must call CCRegister inside a script in order to register the plug-in for use with FileMaker Server.
Returns: a 1 on success or a 0 on failure.
When something unexpected happens, the plug-in will pop up a dialog showing what the error message is. This makes it easy to see what went wrong. However, in some cases, you (the developer) may prefer to show your own message to the user, or possibly not show a message at all. In that case, you can call CCSetErrorCapture ( true ). This will suppress the displaying of error dialogs.
If a plug-in is not installed correctly, all plug-in function calls will return "?"
The simplest way to check to see if money has changed hands in a payment processing function call is to check the result of the function itself. This is extremely useful when calling functions such as CCProcessPayment and CCProfileProcessPayment. The result of the transaction will give a transaction ID or the word ERROR. Using the CCLastError like in the example above will give further information about the error, such as if there is no network connectivity, or the card was declined.
#Transaction is unsuccessful. Below is an example of how you might handle the error.
For more information on how to correctly install and work with plug-ins, check out the Plugins 101 documentation.
USA ePay can process a wide variety of transactions, including eCheck / ACH payments, profile-based payments, and subscriptions. For detailed examples of each of these transactions, check the demo file included as a download with Plastic 2. These scripts are ready for insertion into your own solution!
You'll need an account using the USA ePay Gateway, and use your source key and the PIN as the first two parameters for every plug-in function call that performs a transaction. You can log into your account at USA ePay and generate the PIN there. In the function signature template, you may see the terms merchant account name and transaction key instead of source key and PIN. This is due to the fact that Plastic 2 supports many gateways that use different definitions of log-in credentials.
Before processing any payments, you need to tell Plastic which gateway you are using. This is done by calling CCSetGateway.
Returns: 1 if a valid gateway is provided, "ERROR" on failure.
If running card present charges, you should also set cardPresent to true when setting the gateway.
To run test transactions, call CCSetTestMode - If set to 1, tells Plastic to perform all subsequent transactions as test transactions. If set to 0, tells Plastic to perform all subsequent transactions as live transactions. If this function is never called, the default behavior of Plastic is to treat all transactions as live transactions.
If you would like to use Plastic to perform transactions against an alternate URL, call the CCSetGateway function with the additional parameter url, whose value would correspond to the alternate url. A gateway emulator is a common use case for an alternate URL. Gateway emulators fashion an application programming interface that resembles that of a competing gateway to ease the integration process for merchants who switch to their gateway.
The call to CCSetGateway acts as a flag, so all subsequent transactions will point to the alternate URL until otherwise specified or FileMaker is restarted.
This simple example will run a single charge and requires you to input a card number and expiration date. To prevent this information from being saved in your database and to simplify PCI compliance, jump to the #Payment Profiles section.
Once you properly configure your merchant account, you can quickly and easily process payment transactions.
The CCProcessPayment function will process a transaction and return a transaction ID. This function returns a transaction ID if the transaction is successful or the word ERROR if the transaction fails. For detailed information about the most recent transaction failure, call the CCLastError function before calling any other transaction-processing function.
In your script, you would then have a second line after setting the gateway.
Note: It is important to store the resulting transaction ID because you may need it later to void the transaction, issue a refund or capture a previously authorized transaction.
You may submit optional parameters to most of Plastic's payment-transaction processing functions. These parameters will be submitted to the payment gateway along with the basic transaction information. Although they are not usually required to process an order, these parameters can be useful for tasks such as address verification or linking a transaction to a customer id or an invoice number. To supply additional parameters to a function call, add them to the end of the parameter list after the last required parameter, using a "key=value" syntax.
Plastic 2 now supports payments via direct bank transfers and eChecks, via ACH payments. To take a payment via eCheck, use the CCProcessPaymentACH function after calling the gateway.
You must pass in the ACH Type and driver's license information. Do so by adding the extra parameters as key=value pairs. The blank placeholder is marked with ""; - normally you would use this parameter for a bank name, but that is not supported in USA ePay transactions.
If taking a Account Receivable Transaction (ARC) or Back Office Conversion (BOC) payment, you must also pass in a check number. If not, simply type ""; where that checkNumber field would be.
A sale transaction for credit card contains two parts: an authorization which verifies and places a hold for the amount, and a capture, which actually transfers the funds.
To run an authorization, pass in an additional parameter authMode=AUTH_ONLY.
After running an authorization, run the appropriate CCProcessAuthorizedPayment. Pass in the previousTransactionId from the transaction ID you received from the process with authMode.
Certain types of merchant accounts are set up for reading physical card swipes, instead of taking orders via the web or over the phone. If you account is a card present account, like a retail store, then you will need to also send the data included on the magnetic stripe of a card. It is important to pass in swipe data if you have it, as your transaction may be downgraded to a more expensive rate if you simply type a card number.
To process a card present transaction, first call CCSetGateway with the parameter cardPresent=true. If CCSetGateway returns a 1, then you can perform a card present transaction.
To process a payment using card present accounts, you'll need the information in the magnetic stripe of the credit card. In Plastic, this information may obtained from a keyboard-emulating card reader, which essentially dumps text into a text field when the card is swiped, as if the text had been entered via a keyboard.
While some card readers will contain software that parses that raw data from the magnetic stripe before dumping it to a field, this documentation refers to those keyboard-emulating readers that dump raw data. Raw swipe data contains two delimited pieces of information: Track 1 and Track 2.
See http://www.exeba.com/comm40/creditcardformat.htm for more information about Track 1 and Track 2.
Note: As a convenience, the Plastic function CCTrackData will parse either Track 1 or Track 2 data as a return-separated string containing account code, cardholder name, expiration date (YYMM), and optional discretionary data.
Finally, call CCProcessPayment and pass in raw swipe or track data. When processing a card-present transaction, a gateway will typically require you to pass in either the full raw swipe, Track 1 or Track 2. In most cases, you do not need to pass in card numbers and expiration dates.
Pass in either track1 or track2.
When using CCProcessPayment, specifying the additional parameter "authMode=AUTH_ONLY" will perform an authorization as opposed to a sale transaction. Specifying the "isPartialAuthorization=true" parameter will tell the gateway to allow for partial authorizations of pre-paid credit cards, gift cards and debit cards.
After specifying a partial authorization, you can request the remaining balance and the requested amount by using CCPartialGetRemainingBalance and CCPartialGetRequestedAmount. Both return the dollar amounts, and do not require any additional parameters.
Voids a previously processed payment. The parameters are similar to the CCProcessPayment function, except dollarAmount is replaced with the addition of the previousTransactionID parameter. The previousTransactionID should be the transaction ID of the transaction you wish to void. This value is returned by the CCProcessPayment function. Alternately, you can use the CCLastPaymentTransactionID function to get the transactionID of the last processed payment.
pin - your merchant account password OR transaction key.
previousTransactionID - the transactionId of a previously processed transaction.
Note that CCVoidPayment will only work on orders that have not settled yet, which means that it will generally only work on payments made that same day. To void settled orders, use CCRefund instead.
See also: CCLastPaymentTransactionID: the transactionID from the payment gateway service if the order is successful, or "ERROR" if there was a problem (use CCLastError for more detailed information about the nature of the error).
To credit a transaction, you need the transaction ID returned by CCProcessPayment. Pass this (along with other payment info) to the CCRefund function. This is similar to the void process, except it accepts a dollar amount and the credit card number (or the last four digits of the credit card number) used to process the original transaction.
If you do not pass a dollar amount, it will refund the whole amount of the transaction.
With subscriptions, payments can automatically be debited to a credit card or a bank account on a time period you specify. If you gateway supports it, there may be up to five functions used to manage subscriptions: CCCreateSubscription, CCCreateSubscriptionACH, CCModifySubscription, CCModifySubscriptionACH, and CCDeleteSubscription.
USA ePay supports all five subscription functions. Creating and modifying subscriptions all accept the same optional parameters, available in the table below.
Valid pay periods include daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, biannually, and annually. The number of installments specify how many transactions to run. A six month subscription would specify a payPeriod of monthly, and 6 installments.
To create a credit card subscription, use CCCreateSubscription. To create a bank account subscription, use CCCreateSubscriptionACH. Italicized items are optional.
Returns: the subscription ID on success, "ERROR" on failure.
After a subscription has been created, it can be modified with CCModifySubscription. If the original subscription was a bank account you'll use CCModifySubscriptionACH. The optional parameters can be set to "" if you do not need to modify them. The last two, marked with ""; are payPeriod and frequency, which cannot be modified.
Returns: 1 on success, or "ERROR" if there was a problem.
There are no optional parameters with deleting a subscription.
Plastic 2 features customer profiles, which allow you to submit customer and payment information to be reused for future transactions. This greatly simplifies PCI compliance, and keeps sensitive information out of your database. To get started, first you'll need to create a customer in the system. This will return an ID that you can then store. After that, attach a payment method to this newly created customer. This will return a payment ID, which together with the customer profile ID, you can run charges against.
After creating a customer, it can also be updated, deleted, or retrieved. Retrieving a customer will return the information the gateway has saved about the customer, with the sensitive information masked. Customer ID is a end user set value, and Customer Profile ID is the one dictated by the gateway.
Which will return the last name of the profile requested.
You don't necessarily need to pass in a customer ID for creating or updating a customer profile.
Payment profiles allow you to save payment information straight to the gateway for future use. To create a payment profile, call either CCProfileCreatePayment or CCProfileCreatePaymentACH, depending on whether the payment profile is a credit card or ACH. Credit cards are created with CCProfileCreatePayment and updated with CCProfileUpdatePayment. Italicized items are optional, and can accept ""; if not needed.
Returns: Creating a payment will return the ID of the profile created, "ERROR" on failure. Updating will return 1 on success, "ERROR" on failure.
After creation, payments can be retrieved with CCProfileGetPayment Payments can be deleted with CCProfileDeletePayment.
Returns: Getting a payment will return the ID of the profile requested, "ERROR" on failure. Deletions will return 1 on success, "ERROR" on failure.
ACH payments are added and updated in much the same way as a credit card. Italicized items are optional, and can accept ""; if not needed. ACH payments can use the same CCProfileGetPayment, CCProfileValidatePayment, and CCProfileDeletePayment as above.
Optional parameters: achType, driversLicenseNumber, driversLicenseState.
You can process a payment and refund transactions using the saved payment data. Please note you'll need to mark whether the original payment method was an ACH or credit card using the key=value pair.
Returns: Payments return a transaction ID from the payment gateway service if the transaction is successful, or "ERROR" if there was a problem. Refunds will return 1 on success, or "ERROR" if there was a problem.
Plastic includes a number of helper functions that allow users to retrieve data from the gateway or Plastic.
To execute any of these functions inside of a script, use a Set Field or Set Variable script step.
CCGetCardIssuer(cardNumber) - returns the card issuer for a given card number, either: VISA, MASTERCARD, AMEX, DINERS, DISCOVER, JCB. Returns an error if the card number is from another issuer.
CCGetLast (name) - returns a value from the most recent transaction response that corresponds with the name parameter.
M- CVV2/CVC2 Match - Indicates that the card is authentic. Complete the transaction if the authorization request was approved.
N- CVV2 / CVC2 No Match – May indicate a problem with the card. Contact the cardholder to verify the CVV2 code before completing the transaction, even if the authorization request was approved.
P- Not Processed - Indicates that the expiration date was not provided with the request, or that the card does not have a valid CVV2 code. If the expiration date was not included with the request, resubmit the request with the expiration date.
S- Merchant Has Indicated that CVV2 / CVC2 is not present on card - May indicate a problem with the card. Contact the cardholder to verify the CVV2 code before completing the transaction.
CCLastChargeResult - returns the gateway's result code for the last operation.
CCLastPaymentAuthCode - returns the gateway's approval code for the last payment which was processed with CCProcessPayment.
CCLastPaymentTransactionID- returns the gateway's transaction ID for the last payment which was processed with CCProcessPayment.
CCLastRawResponse- returns the gateway's raw text response for the most recent transaction.
CCValidateCardNumber (cardNumber) determines if a card number is valid. Does not indicate the validity of the card itself, only its number. Returns either a 1 for valid card, or 0 for invalid cards.
CCLastError - returns the text of the last error triggered by a plugin function.
CCLicenseInfo - returns information about the license used.
CCVersion - returns the version of the credit card plugin which is installed.
This page was last modified on 7 November 2013, at 20:58. | 2019-04-25T04:47:16Z | http://docs.360works.com/index.php?title=USA_ePAY&oldid=884 |
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Gammex Inc. appeals the district court's entry of judgment on Dunbar Medical Systems Inc.'s fraudulent inducement claim, arguing that two clauses in the parties' settlement agreement or Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 11 bar that claim. Gammex further contends that the court erred in finding that there was no intent to perform at the time the alleged misrepresentationswere made, in awarding punitive damages given the existence of contract language barring the recovery of such damages, in awarding punitive damages given the elements of fraud had not been proved by clear and convincing evidence, and in awarding pre-judgment interest on both compensatory and punitive damages. We affirm the entry of judgment and the award of punitive damages, and reform the judgment solely to clarify the pre-judgment interest award.
Gammex Inc. is a manufacturer of teleradiology equipment, which is used to digitize data from a medium such as x-ray film or ultrasound and to transmit those data to a remote unit for purposes of medical review and diagnosis. Until 1994, Ms. Linda Dunbar, president and sole shareholder of Dunbar Medical Systems, Inc. ("DMSI"), was an independent distributor of teleradiology equipment for Gammex.1 A by-product of the dissolution of the parties' relationship was a lawsuit, filed by Gammex on April 28, 1994, in which Gammex sought return of equipment and damages ("1994 Litigation"). In February 1995, DMSI filed a counterclaim asserting breach of contract, fraud, defamation, and various other claims against Gammex. Shortly before trial, the parties executed a Settlement Agreement. That Agreement is the focus of the case before us.
Discussions leading up to the execution of the Settlement Agreement occurred between December 1995 and July 1996. In December, the parties participated in unsuccessful court-ordered mediation. Sometime thereafter, Ms. Margaret Lescrenier, a vice-president of Gammex, telephoned Ms. Dunbar to discuss settlement terms, including the possibility of transferring equipment to DMSI in lieu of cash. The district court found that in that conversation, Ms. Dunbar told Ms. Lescrenier that she did not want to consider older Courier II units because they had software and hardware defects.2 According to Ms. Dunbar, Ms. Lescrenier assured her that the units would be new and come from the latest run of fifty manufactured by Gammex and would be problem free. A follow-up letter dated February 1, 1996 faxed by Ms. Lescrenier to Ms. Dunbar listed various equipment, including ten Courier II units, that Gammex was willing to give DMSI. The letter gave a list price of the Courier II units of $10,000 each, a total list priceof all offered equipment of $203,600, and stated that " [t]he majority of the above equipment is new, never been used. Some of the Courier computers were demonstration units."
On February 8, Ms. Dunbar sent a fax to Ms. Lescrenier that responded to the proposal. That transmission included a list of the same equipment along with dealer transfer prices. Ms. Dunbar's fax indicated that, based on the dealer prices, the actual value of Gammex's proposal was $44,654.25. Ms. Dunbar also stated that she did not "know what to do" with some of the listed equipment, and that there had to be a cash settlement along with the equipment package.
These discussions were outlined in a fax dated February 26. That communication (1) explained the equipment substituted for the items for which Ms. Dunbar indicated she had no use; (2) made reference to an exclusive dealer contract, a definition of a sales territory, service arrangements, and assistance with advertising that were agreed to in earlier mediation proceedings, and (3) offered $50,000 in cash. The total list price associated with the new equipment package was $203,975, and again, the communication indicated that the majority of the equipment was "new, never been used" and that " [s]ome of the Courier computers were demonstration units." The fax also stated that Ms. Dunbar had "misstated the value of the equipment in the original list" in her February 8 response.
Negotiations resumed in late April, when Ms. Dunbar's attorney contacted Gammex's counsel. By April, DMSI was no longer interested in maintaining certain relationships with Gammex,4 and it indicated that several aspects of the earlier proposals were no longer of value (e.g., a new distributorship agreement, assistance with advertising). Negotiations between the parties' counsel dealt, inter alia, with the amount of cash Gammex was to pay to DMSI, the equipment to be transferred (e.g., whether mouses and cables were included, whether a six-month warranty would be included, configuration and programming issues), the availability of documentation regarding the equipment, the availability of discounts on such items as replacement parts, responsibility for shipping and insurance costs, and the timing of the delivery of the cash and the equipment. Thus, the focus of the second stage was on the consideration Gammex was to give DMSI in return for DMSI releasing its claims.
The parties eventually agreed to Gammex's releasing claims related to the 1994 Litigation, and transferring to DMSI the equipment listed in Ms. Lescrenier's second proposal and $70,000 in cash. The final agreement included three express warranties: (1) that Gammex "has good and clear title to the Equipment, and that the Equipment is free of all liens, mortgages and encumbrances at the time of shipment to Dunbar Medical"; (2) that the equipment "is either new and has never been used, or has previously been used as demonstration or loaner equipment"; and (3) that the "Equipment, at the time of shipment to Dunbar Medical, is working and operational in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications applicable to each item included in the Equipment." In return, DMSI agreed to release claims related to the 1994 Litigation. The agreement was signed by Ms. Dunbar, on behalf of herself and DMSI, on July 18, 1996; Charles Lescrenier, Gammex's CEO, signed the agreement on July 23, 1996.
As per the agreement, Gammex transferred $70,000 to DMSI. The parties dismissed, with prejudice, their respective claims. Ms. Dunbar sent to Gammex instructions regarding how the Courier II units were to be configured and programmed. DMSI received equipment from Gammex, albeit after the date stated in the Agreement. After receiving the equipment, some of which was damaged in transit, Ms. Dunbar determined through testing that it differed in significant ways from what it had been represented to be.
As a result, on November 11, 1996, DMSI filed in the 152nd Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas an action asserting breach of contract and fraud claims. Gammex removed the case on December 23, 1996 to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.5 In response to the district court's granting of Gammex's November 28, 1997 motion for a more definite statement, DMSI filed a first amended complaint on January 16, 1998. In that complaint, DMSI alleged breach of contract and fraudulent inducement, and sought $150,000 in compensatory damages, $600,000 in punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, and attorney fees.
Gammex filed a motion for summary judgment on February 2, 1998, arguing, inter alia, that under the Texas Supreme Court's decision in Schlumberger Technology Corporation v. Swanson, 959 S.W.2d 171 (Tex. 1997), the Settlement Agreement barred DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim.6 The district court denied Gammex's motion on March 4, 1998, and also denied Gammex's subsequent motion to reconsider.7 A three-day bench trial began March 31, 1998. Gammex's motion for a judgment as a matter of law was denied.
The evidence revealed that some of the highly technical equipment was not only not new, but outmoded, or defective, or had been used not merely for demonstration or loaner purposes. The ten Courier II units were not programmed as set forth by Linda Dunbar in breach of Paragraph 2.2 of the Agreement. The evidence, both testimonial and spreadsheet documentation, showed that upon arrival, none of the ten Courier IIs captured images off the digitizer or ultrasound and that the equipment did not meet specifications provided to Gammex by DMSI . . . . [C]redible testimony established that a large portion of the equipment was not new, but used, and some nonoperational or only partly operational. Despite Linda Dunbar's insistence that she wanted Courier II units from the last production run that did not have the hard drive and software problems identified in the state court suit, none of the equipment sent to DMSI was manufactured later than 1993, and most was manufactured between 1990-1992. It included old, discontinued models . . . . Some of the equipment had been used and taken back by Gammex as trade-ins or exchanges.
The court also noted Ms. Dunbar's testimony that the August 1996 value of the transferred equipment was no more than $20,000. It held that as a result of Gammex's breach, DMSI was entitled to $150,000 in benefit-of-the-bargain damages and to $35,200 in attorney fees.
The court went on to find that Gammex had fraudulently induced DMSI to enter into the Settlement Agreement. Ms. Lescrenier was found by the court to have knowingly made false statements regarding the transferred equipment's value, condition, and age. The court found that the estimates of the equipment's value were "deliberately and greatly inflated." Ms. Lescrenier's statements, which were found by the district court not to be expressions of opinion, were made with the intention of causing Ms. Dunbar to rely on them and settle the parties' dispute. Ms. Dunbar was found to have relied on Ms. Lescrenier's statements and to have been injured as a result. The court determined that Gammex's fraud entitled DMSI to $150,000 in benefit-of-the-bargain damages, and $300,000 in punitive damages.
As a result of these determinations, the court ordered on November 23, 1998 that DMSI submit a proposed final judgment, and allowed Gammex to file objections to that proposed judgment. On February 22, 1999, the court entered final judgment, which, not surprisingly, reflected DMSI's election to recover under its fraud in the inducement cause of action. The court awarded DMSI $150,000 in compensatory damages, $300,000 in punitive damages, and pre- and post-judgment interest. Gammex timely appealed.
Before us, Gammex challenges only the district court's entry of judgment on DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim, its award of $300,000 in punitive damages, and its award of pre-judgment interest on those punitive damages.8 In general, Gammex contends that (1) DMSI's claim is barred, either by the Settlement Agreement's terms or by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 11; (2) the evidence does not support the court's finding of no intent to perform; (3) the Agreement bars the punitive damage award; (4) DMSI has not met its statutory burden in proving entitlement to such damages; and (5) the lower court improperly awarded pre-judgment interest on punitive damages. We note that Gammex does not challenge the lower court's findings that Ms. Lescrenier made the statements that are at the heart of DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim, that the statements included misrepresentations of fact, or that Ms. Dunbar relied on Ms. Lescrenier's statements. In assessing Gammex's arguments, we apply the well-established standard of review applicable to bench trials, examining questions of law de novo, and reviewing findings of fact for clear error. See Gebreyesus v. F.C. Schaffer & Assocs., Inc., 204 F.3d 639, 642 (5th Cir. 2000).
Gammex contends that under Schlumberger Technology Corporation v. Swanson, 959 S.W.2d 171 (Tex. 1997), two provisions within the Settlement Agreement operate to bar DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim. The first is an "as is" clause, which provides that " [e]xcept as expressly provided for herein, the equipment is conveyed and transferred by Gammex to Dunbar Medical as is, where is, and with all faults, and there are no warranties which extend beyond the description of the equipment on the face of exhibit 'A' attached hereto."9 ¶ 2.2. The second provision, a merger clause, provides that the Settlement Agreement "contains the entire agreement between the parties, and no representations, inducements, promises, or agreement, oral or otherwise between the parties with reference thereto and not embodied herein shall be of any force." ¶ 4.2.
The district court rejected Gammex's argument in its review of Gammex's motion for summary judgment. It distinguished Schlumberger from the case sub judice by noting that "while the agreement here may appear to Gammex to be an integrated one, there was no express, specific disclaim of reliance on Gammex's alleged statements and representations." We also reject Gammex's argument, but do so for somewhat different reasons.
In Schlumberger, the Texas Supreme Court recognized the inherent tension between the principle that the " [p]arties should be able to bargain for and execute a release barring all further dispute," 959 S.W.2d at 179, and prior authority holding that clauses in contracts, including merger and disclaimer provisions, need not bar subsequent claims of fraudulent inducement. See id. at 178-79. The court held that "a release that clearly expresses the parties' intent to waive fraudulent inducement claims, or one that disclaims reliance on representations about specific matters in dispute, can preclude a claim of fraudulent inducement," but also emphasized that "a disclaimer of reliance or merger clause will not always bar" such a claim.10 Id. at 181. Because the parties should be able to rely on their negotiated disclaimer or merger clauses to resolve fully their disputes, the question for the court was "under which circumstances such disclaimers are binding." Id. at 179. For the answer to this question, the court looked to " [t]he contract and the circumstances surrounding its formation . . . ." Id.; see also Prudential Ins. Co. v. Jefferson Assocs., Ltd., 896 S.W.2d 156, 162 (Tex. 1995) (stating that, in determining whether an "as is" clause is unenforceable, " [t]he nature of the transaction and the totality of the circumstances surrounding the agreement must be considered").
We read Schlumberger as holding that particular contract clauses may, under certain limited circumstances, curtail the contracting parties' ability to challenge the contract's validity on fraudulent inducement grounds. Schlumberger gives us some indication of what those circumstances may include. That the negotiating parties in Schlumberger were represented by counsel, were experts in the subject matter of the negotiations, and were bargaining at arm's length were important to the court.11 See Schlumberger, 959 S.W.2d at 180. In addition, the court noted that at the center of the parties' dispute was the object of the alleged misrepresentations -- the value of the mining project -- and that the sole purpose of the unambiguous release was to end that dispute "once and for all." Id.
We must assess whether Gammex and DMSI's Settlement Agreement "clearly expresses the parties' intent to waive fraudulent inducement claims, or . . . disclaims reliance on representations about specific matters in dispute." Id. at 181. The parties in the instant action were represented by counsel, and bargained at arm's length over the terms of the Settlement Agreement. The final bargain struck exchanged releases of claims for equipment and cash. Both parties could be considered extremely knowledgeable about the type of equipment reflected in the agreement -- one manufactured and marketed that equipment, the other was previously a distributor of the equipment.
We nonetheless conclude that under the circumstances of this case, the "as is" and merger clauses do not bar DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim. The Agreement reflects that Gammex and DMSI specifically contemplated future, although not continuing, interactions with one another. DMSI had the right to send one employee to Gammex's offices for training on the Courier II and other equipment, Gammex was to provide DMSI free support by telephone for one year, and Gammex agreed to apply for one year its standard trade discount to DMSI's purchases of replacement parts and supplies. In addition to future interactions, the parties contemplated future disputes related to the Settlement Agreement. A punitive-damages provision in that Agreement presupposes a claim arising from or related to it. This suggests that the parties were not seeking to end all disputes between them "once and for all." Schlumberger, 959 S.W.2d at 180. Although these observations are not dispositive, they frame our analysis of the "as is" and merger clauses.
As the Texas Supreme Court noted in Prudential Insurance, although an "as is" clause can negate a claim that a seller's conduct caused a buyer injury, see 896 S.W.2d at 161, such a clause is not always enforceable. See id. at 162. The court explicitly noted that fraud used to induce agreement was a circumstance that rendered that clause unenforceable. See id. ("A buyer is not bound by an agreement to purchase something 'as is' that he is induced to make because of a fraudulent representation or concealment of information by the seller."). The issue at hand is whether the "as is" clause demonstrates the parties' clear intent to waive fraudulent inducement claims or disclaim reliance on representations about specific matters in dispute. See Schlumberger, 959 S.W.2d at 181.
We conclude that it does not. The misrepresentations in this case went to the condition of the equipment (i.e., its "newness" and its being problem-free). The contract specifically warrants that the equipment be either "new and . . . never . . . used, or . . . previously . . . used as demonstration or loaner equipment" and that it would be "working and operational in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications . . . ." The "as is" clause specifically excepts the other explicit warranties. Under these circumstances, we cannot conclude that DMSI, in agreeing to the "as is" clause, disclaimed reliance on Gammex's representations regarding the equipment's age or functioning, or intended to waive fraudulent inducement claims. Cf. SMB Partners, Ltd. v. Osloub, 4 S.W.3d 368, 371 (Tex. App. 1999, no pet.) (holding that an "as is" clause that specifically excluded other warranties did not apply to the purported misrepresentation and thus did not bar the fraudulent inducement claim).
Gammex also argues that under the Texas Supreme Court's opinion in Padilla v. LaFrance, 907 S.W.2d 454 (Tex. 1995), Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 11 makes oral representations made in the course of negotiating a settlement agreement unenforceable.14 As a result, DMSI cannot rely on Ms. Lescrenier's statements to support a claim of fraudulent inducement. Gammex takes issue with the district court's rejection of this argument, contending that the court erred in concluding that because the Settlement Agreement was to be performed in less than one year, the statute of frauds does not apply.
Like the district court, we conclude that Gammex's argument must be rejected, although we base our decision on different reasoning. In Padilla, the Texas Supreme Court faced the question of whether a series of letters between parties constituted an agreement that satisfied Rule 11's writing requirement. Analogizing to the statute of frauds, the court held that the letters evidenced a binding agreement, in part because they reflected "all material terms of the agreement." 907 S.W.2d at 460-61. Gammex wishes to use language within the Padilla opinion to require that all oral representations made in the context of settlement negotiations be in writing in order to be enforceable. See id. at 460 ("To satisfy the statute of frauds, 'there must be a written memorandum which is complete within itself in every material detail . . . .'" (quoting Cohen v. McCutchin, 565 S.W.2d 230, 232 (Tex. 1978))). Gammex contends that because oral settlement agreements are unenforceable as a matter of law, no claim of fraudulent inducement can be brought. It looks to Weakly v. East, 900 S.W.2d 755, 758 (Tex. App. 1995, writ denied), for support for this contention.
We find Weakly distinguishable on its facts. In that case, plaintiffs alleged that defendants, in an effort to forestall the sale of the real estate to another buyer and to purchase that property at a lower price in a foreclosure sale, promised to purchase real estate with no intention of actually carrying out that promise. See id. at 758. The court found that the essence of the fraud claim was the oral promise to purchase realty. See id. Because a contract for the sale of realty is not enforceable unless in writing, and because the alleged fraud did not prevent the necessary writing, the court found that summary judgment in favor of the defendants was proper on the fraud claim. See id.
Gammex's argument could have more force if DMSI was seeking to enforce as a contract an alleged oral settlement agreement between Ms. Dunbar and Ms. Lescrenier. Here, however, DMSI challenges the validity of the signed Agreement. Unlike the plaintiffs in Weakly, DMSI alleges that Gammex's actions constituted fraud in the inducement -- the writing, signed by the parties, was procured by Ms. Lescrenier's misrepresentations as to the condition of the equipment to be transferred. This allegation cannot be said to be an attempt to by-pass the statute of frauds via a fraud claim, or an attempt to enforce an otherwise unenforceable oral settlement agreement. DMSI's injury stems from Gammex's alleged violation of its independent legal duty not to procure a contract with DMSI through fraud. See Formosa Plastics Corp. USA v. Presidio Engineers & Contractors, 960 S.W.2d 41, 46 (Tex. 1998).
Gammex seeks to distinguish Formosa on the ground that it involves a contract, rather than a settlement agreement. Rule 11 applies only to settlement agreements. Although it is clear that a settlement agreement must be in writing to be enforceable under Texas courts' interpretation of Rule 11, we must reject Gammex's attempt to rely on the scope of that Rule to negate DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim. We can think of no principled reason for distinguishing between fraudulent inducement claims targeting contracts and those targeting settlement agreements, and Texas law provides us with no cause to do so.
Under Texas law, a party claiming fraudulent inducement must demonstrate (1) a material representation, (2) that was false, (3) that was either known to be false when made or was asserted without knowledge of the truth, (4) that was intended to be acted upon, (5) was relied upon, and (6) that caused injury. See Formosa, 960 S.W.2d at 47; DeSantis v. Wackenhut Corp., 793 S.W.2d 670, 688 (Tex. 1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1048 (1991). "A promise of future performance constitutes an actionable misrepresentation if the promise was made with no intention of performing at the time it was made." Formosa, 960 S.W.2d at 48.
Gammex contends that the district court erred in finding that Ms. Lescrenier intended not to perform at the time she represented that the transferred Courier IIs would come from the last production run and would be problem free. To support this contention, it points to the fact that the Ms. Lescrenier's proposals were not fully accepted in February, to evidence that Ms. Lescrenier relied on a list of available equipment prepared by Mr. Sopotnick, and to evidence that Ms. Lescrenier did not participate in the second stage of negotiations. Gammex urges us to conclude that the evidence supporting the lower court's finding of the requisite intent is "so weak that it creates only a mere surmise or suspicion of its existence," T.O. Stanley Boot Co. v. Bank of El Paso, 847 S.W.2d 218, 222 (Tex. 1992), and is thus insufficient.
Our review of the district court's finding is limited. Under the Federal Rules, "due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses." Fed. R. Civ. P. 52(a); see also Coury v. Prot, 85 F.3d 244, 254 (5th Cir. 1996). "The burden of showing that the findings of the district court are clearly erroneous is heavier if the credibility of witnesses is a factor in the trial court's decision." Id. at 254 (citing Village Fair Shopping Ctr. v. Broadhead, 588 F.2d 431, 434 n.2 (5th Cir. 1979)). In this case, the trial judge specifically noted her assessments of Ms. Dunbar's, Ms. Lescrenier's, and Mr. Sopotnick's credibility.
We do not emerge from our review of the record with a "'definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.'" Concrete Pipe & Prods of Cal., Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for S. Cal., 508 U.S. 602, 622 (1993) (quoting United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395 (1948)). Evidence indicates that although Ms. Lescrenier was not an active participant in the last rounds of negotiations, her second February proposal was a basis upon which those negotiations built. Although Ms. Lescrenier indicated in her testimony that Gammex's inventory changed between February and August, when the equipment was shipped, Mr. Sopotnick testified that there was no change. He also testified that Ms. Lescrenier accompanied him when he reviewed the inventory to assess what equipment was available. Given this and other evidence in the record, we conclude that the district court's finding is not clearly erroneous.
Because we conclude that the district court did not err in entering judgment on DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim, we turn to Gammex's challenges to the lower court's punitive damages and pre-judgment interest decisions. With regard to punitive damages, Gammex contends that the district court erred in not enforcing a contractual provision in which DMSI explicitly released claims for punitive damages, and that DMSI is not entitled to such damages because it has not met its statutory burden of proof.
As to any and all claims that may be asserted by Dunbar Medical or Dunbar arising from or in any way relating to this Settlement Agreement, including but not limited to the Equipment, in no event shall Dunbar Medical or Dunbar be entitled to recover special, consequential or punitive damages, and recovery of special, consequential or punitive damages shall be absolutely precluded.
Gammex contends that this language must be interpreted as a release of DMSI's punitive damages claim, and that because the clause was freely negotiated, it bars DMSI's recovery of such damages.
In general, a party is not bound by a fraudulently induced contract. See Formosa, 960 S.W.2d at 46; Prudential Ins., 896 S.W.2d at 162. Underlying this rule is the notion that a party induced by fraud to enter into an agreement has not provided the assent necessary to make a binding contract. See Dallas Farm Mach. Co., 307 S.W.2d at 240; Edward Thompson Co. v. Sawyers, 234 S.W. 873, 874 (Tex. 1921) ("Contracts, though reduced to writing, are avoided when induced by material promises, never intended to be kept, not because one is allowed to vary his written contract, but because real assent is essential to a binding contract."). "One who is entitled to avoid an entire written contract because it lacked his assent can no longer be held bound by any of its stipulations . . . ." Sawyers, 234 S.W. at 874-75.
Because a party is not bound by a contract he was induced by fraud to enter, we find inapplicable Memorial Medical Center v. Keszler, 943 S.W.2d 433 (Tex. 1997), a case Gammex relies upon to support its contention that the punitive damages provision is enforceable. In Memorial Medical, the Texas Supreme Court determined, inter alia, that a post-injury release of claims for gross negligence is not against public policy. See id. at 435. The settlement agreement and release at issue in the case were considered valid documents. See id. at 434 ("The parties . . . have not contested the validity of the release or claimed ambiguity or fraud in its execution."). Thus, the issue regarded the enforceability of a clause within the contract, not the validity of the contract. Here, we consider whether a clause in a contract otherwise unenforceable against DMSI may nonetheless preclude punitive damages. We hold that it cannot. Because DMSI was found to have been induced into entering the Settlement Agreement by Gammex's fraud, the district court did not err in concluding that the Agreement's punitive damages provision was not binding on DMSI.
Gammex next argues that DMSI has not met its burden under section 41.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and therefore is not entitled to a punitive damages award. Section 41.003(a) provides that a claimant prove "by clear and convincing evidence that the harm with respect to which the claimant seeks recovery of exemplary damages results from (1) fraud, (2) malice, or (3) wilful act or mission or gross neglect in wrongful death actions . . . ." Gammex attacks the lack of "clear and convincing" evidence supporting a finding of no intent to perform on the part of Ms. Lescrenier, and argues that this case exhibits neither the "evil mind," Transportation Ins. Co. v. Moriel, 879 S.W.2d 10, 18 (Tex. 1994), nor the "extraordinary harm," id. at 24, that are required under Texas law to award punitive damages.
Gammex's reliance on Moriel and other cases building on its principles is misplaced. The cases cited each deal with allegations of bad faith. See State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Simmons, 963 S.W.2d 42 (Tex. 1998) (involving allegations that insurance company breached its duty of good faith and fair dealing); Universe Life Ins. Co. v. Giles, 950 S.W.2d 48 (Tex. 1997) (same); Moriel, 879 S.W.2d at 14 (same). As subsequent Texas Supreme Court decisions have recognized, Moriel "clarified the requirements for the imposition of punitive damages in a bad faith case." Simmons, 963 S.W.2d at 47; see also Giles, 950 S.W.2d at 54 (noting Moriel limits recovery of punitive damages in bad faith cases to, among others, those able to show fraudulent conduct in addition to bad faith).
This is a fraud case. Under section 41.003(a), DMSI had the burden of demonstrating that its harm was due to Gammex's fraud. The statute defines fraud to be "fraud other than constructive fraud." Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 41.001(6). As the Texas Supreme Court has noted, " [a] finding of intent to harm or conscious indifference to the rights of others will support an award of exemplary damages. In [Trenholm v. Ratcliff, 646 S.W.2d 927, 933 (Tex. 1983)], this court held that a fraudulent inducement was enough to support at least a finding of conscious indifference." Spoljaric, 708 S.W.2d at 436 (internal citations omitted). DMSI did not also need to show malice, as the statute is explicit in providing that a claimant needs to show harm from fraud or malice.
DMSI was required to show by clear and convincing evidence the elements of punitive damages provided in section 41.003(a). See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 41.003(b). Clear and convincing evidence is "that measure or degree of proof which will produce in the mind of the trier of fact a firm belief or conviction as to the truth of the allegations sought to be established." Id. § 41.001(2). Gammex contends only that evidence is insufficient to support a finding that Ms. Lescrenier had no intent to perform when she assured Ms. Dunbar of the condition of the equipment to be transferred. We have considered the evidence under the clear error standard and have rejected Gammex's argument. It fares no better under the standard applicable here. Thus, we conclude that the district court did not err in awarding punitive damages.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court's entry of judgment on DMSI's fraudulent inducement claim, and its award of punitive damages. We reform the judgment to clarify that pre-judgment interest at the rate of 10% per annum is to be assessed only on the compensatory damage award. See Krieser v. Hobbs, 166 F.3d 736, 747 (5th Cir. 1999).
AFFIRMED in part; REFORMED in part. Gammex shall bear the costs of this appeal.
In early 1989, DMSI and DataSpan, Inc. entered into an agreement whereby DMSI became an independent sales representative for DataSpan. Radiation Measurements, Inc. is Gammex's predecessor in interest. DataSpan was acquired by Gammex/Radiation Measurements in 1989. We refer to each of these companies as "Gammex."
The Courier II is a stand-alone computer that runs teleradiology equipment.
Ms. Dunbar later determined that in fact, the camera's manufacturer had earlier ceased production of the requested camera.
The letter Ms. Dunbar's attorney sent to Gammex's attorney listed as part of Ms. Dunbar's settlement proposal that " [a]ll continuing or past relationships will be severed (except for the terms of the settlement agreement, the non-disclosure and software license agreements)."
Jurisdiction is claimed under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. DMSI is a Texas corporation with its principal place of business in Harris County, Texas, and Gammex is a Wisconsin corporation with its principal place of business in Middleton, Wisconsin.
The Settlement Agreement contains a choice-of-law clause that provides that the Agreement "shall be construed and governed by the laws of the State of Texas."
Because Gammex's motion to reconsider raised a new argument -- that Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 11 barred DMSI's claims -- the lower court interpreted the motion as a supplemental motion for summary judgment that was ripe for decision given DMSI had responded.
Gammex concedes that DMSI is entitled to recover $150,000 in compensatory damages on its breach of contract claim, and to receive $35,200 in attorney fees. It also concedes that DMSI is entitled to recover pre-judgment interest at the rate of 6% per annum on the compensatory damages award.
The quoted language appears in all capital letters, in a bold-face type, at the end of the paragraph that lists Gammex's warranties with regard to the equipment.
The court cited its opinion in Prudential Insurance Co. v. Jefferson Associates, Ltd., 896 S.W.2d 156, 162 (Tex. 1995), as describing some of the circumstances under which such clauses would not be binding. Included in those circumstances are where the contract was procured by fraud and where a seller's conduct obstructs a buyer's ability to inspect the condition of what is being sold. See id. The court also noted that " [w]here the 'as is' clause is an important part of the basis of the bargain, not an incidental or 'boiler-plate' provision, and is entered into by parties of relatively equal bargaining position, a buyer's affirmation and agreement that he is not relying on representations of the seller should be given effect." Id.
The argument that merger or disclaimer clauses should be binding whenever parties to the agreement were represented by independent legal counsel was expressly rejected by the Schlumberger court. See 959 S.W.2d at 178.
DMSI also sought additional language relating to a six-month warranty on the equipment. This was rejected. The description of the equipment to be transferred in the final agreement differs from the description in the documents exchanged by Ms. Lescrenier and Ms. Dunbar in including a reference to "loaner" equipment. This addition does not contradict Ms. Lescrenier's representations, however, as loaner equipment, although not new, could still come from the last fifty manufactured by Gammex and be problem-free.
We note that the parties negotiated separate release clauses covering any and all claims "made in or based on or related to the claims made in the Litigation." The "Litigation" was defined as the action Gammex initiated in 1994. Thus, we do not read the release clauses as covering claims arising from the Settlement Agreement. Indeed, in a section of the contract separate from the "Releases" section, the parties included provisions relating specifically to the Settlement Agreement. Those provisions were the merger clause, the clause prohibiting recovery of punitive and special damages, and the choice-of-law clause.
Under Rule 11, "no agreement between attorneys or parties touching any suit pending will be enforced unless it be in writing, signed and filed with the papers as part of the record, or unless it be made in open court and entered of record." Tex. R. Civ. P. 11 (West 2000).
Gammex also contends that we should apply language from Boggan v. Data Systems Network Corp., 969 F.2d 149 (5th Cir. 1992), to hold that Ms. Lescrenier's statements cannot constitute actionable misrepresentations. See id. at 153 ("It is well settled that the negotiations and discussions leading up to the writing cannot displace the terms of the written agreement."). We decline to do so. Our decision in Boggan was in part based on the finding that the alleged misrepresentations were expressions of intent, rather than statements of fact, see id., and that statements such as "I think we have a deal" could not, under the circumstances, be considered actionable misrepresentations. In the case before us, the district court found that Ms. Lescrenier's statements were misrepresentations of fact, or promises made with no intention of performing. Each of these is an actionable misrepresentation under Texas law. See Formosa, 960 S.W.2d at 46-48.
Gammex also asks that we reform the interest award to reduce the rate to 6%, as this was the rate DMSI requested. It does not contend that an award at the higher rate was erroneous, and thus we deny its request. | 2019-04-19T16:17:12Z | https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/216/441/570341/ |
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in view that the DB2 UDB V8.1 free up, IBM has been working tough to reveal more and more elements through standard SQL that were as soon as handiest invoked by way of a command-line or C API.
DB2 UDB V8.2.2 adds three new user-defined features (UDFs) that permit approved faraway shoppers to get details a couple of DB2 UDB server, together with computer, product, and example advice, etc. earlier than DB2 UDB V8.2.2, this information turned into handiest attainable via administrative APIs. These news UDFs are introduced to an ever-expanding group of desk features that return tips in regards to the operations of your gadget (as an example, that you may use a table UDF to come photograph display screen tips).
These new UDFs are created when a new database is created on the DB2 UDB V8.2.2 degree. in case you have already got an existing database and you've got applied the upkeep circulate for DB2 UDB V8.2.2 to your current server, which you can use the db2updt command to create these new routines. These new routines are described in sqlescat.h and positioned within the new db2envinfo library found within the sqllib/bin/hobbies directory.
in this article, i'll take you throughout the details of those new gadget assistance UDFs and provides you examples of a way to use them.
The outcomes of this UDF tell me that I even have my DB2 UDB server put in on a computing device it is running a 32-bit edition of Microsoft windows 5.1 (which is windows XP technology) and i have installed provider Pack 1. The host identify of my desktop, the variety of CPUs (both physical and enabled with a partition when you are using one), and total memory (in MB) is additionally proven.
the new SYSPROC.ENV_GET_PROD_INFO UDF will also be used to return tips in regards to the precise DB2 UDB product installed to your server.
that you may see during this figure that I even have DB2 UDB business Server edition (ESE) installed on my server, it is accurately licensed, and it's put in on the V8.2 release level.
The remaining new UDF, called SYSPROC.ENV_GET_INST_INFO, returns assistance concerning the instance of the DB2 UDB product installed to your server.
So there you've got it: some convenient the way to retrieve all types of equipment-related tips with the convenience of an SQL remark. There are other new UDFs in DB2 UDB V8.2.2 that may return advice within the DB2 history file and the DB2 Registry. moreover, don't forget all those table services that IBM has been including due to the fact that the generable availability date of DB2 UDB V8.1.
Paul C. Zikopoulos, BA, MBA, is an award-profitable writer and speaker with the IBM Database aggressive technologies group. He has greater than 9 years of event with DB2 products and has written a lot of journal articles and books about it. Paul has co-authored the books: DB2 edition 8: The legit book, DB2: The comprehensive Reference, DB2 Fundamentals Certification for Dummies, DB2 for Dummies, and A DBA's e-book to Databases on Linux. Paul is a DB2 licensed advanced Technical knowledgeable (DRDA and Cluster/EEE) and a DB2 certified solutions expert (enterprise Intelligence and Database Administration). at the moment he's writing a book on the Apache Derby/IBM Derby database. that you would be able to attain him at: [email protected].
DB2, DB2 usual Database, and IBM are logos or registered logos of international business Machines organisation in the u.s., other countries, or each.
Java and all Java-primarily based emblems are logos of solar Microsystems, Inc. in the u.s., different nations, or each.
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other business, product, and repair names can be trademarks or carrier marks of others.
Copyright overseas business Machines agency, 2005. All rights reserved.
The opinions, solutions, and tips listed here are from the creator's experiences and aren't supposed to signify legitimate verbal exchange from IBM or an endorsement of any products listed inside. Neither the author nor IBM is chargeable for any of the contents in this article. The accuracy of the tips listed here is in line with the writer's skills on the time of writing.
Books that principally target certification are your most excellent guess. Their coverage matches what you will face on the assessments. different DB2 books will also be positive in pursuing your intention as smartly, however concentrate your effort on these designed to assist you certify. desk 3 lists DB2 certification books and different worthy tomes. you can discover enlightening studies by means of those people that have used the books for examination preparation posted on websites like Amazon or Barnes and Noble on-line , and you'll buy the books there as smartly. IBM's site also offers a certification booklist.
My personal advice is the DB2 V8 certification guides written by means of Roger Sanders. every book covers one DB2 exam and comprises "practice questions" to hone your exam-readiness. The books hew strictly to what you need to recognize for the tests: they do not waste your time with extraneous cloth, and they don't depart anything out you deserve to be aware of (full disclosure – I don't have any financial hobby in these books however have acted as an unpaid reviewer and wrote a foreward to 1).
Whichever certification guidebook you choose, you increase your probabilities of passing by supplementing them with complementary study resources. listed below are some suggestions.
IBM presents two free courses that you deploy and be trained from on your computing device. both are GUI-primarily based and interactive. the primary is oriented to the DB2 developer cert (assessments seven hundred and 703), the 2d towards the Linux/Unix/home windows DBA checks (checks 700 and 701). down load both from IBM at http://www7b.application.ibm.com/dmdd/trainingcertification.html. These classes are superb.
IBM additionally presents a sequence of six free interactive online tutorials that prepare you for examination seven hundred, downloadable from http://www7b.software.ibm.com/dmdd/trainingcertification.html, or without delay from http://www7b.utility.ibm.com/dmdd/library/tutorials/db2cert/db2cert_V8_tut.html. These are exceptional history if you are new to DB2.
it is fundamental that you just take "practice exams," mock-united statesof the true aspect with an identical questions. You should be look at various-in a position. IBM offers a free online examine for every certification examination. Take any of them by means of the net from http://www7b.application.ibm.com/dmdd/trainingcertification.html or http://certify.torolab.ibm.com/ice/displayPage/en. You must have information superhighway Explorer 5 or above or Netscape Communicator four.7 or above to take these observe assessments. The different source for observe questions are the certification books with the aid of Roger Sanders mentioned earlier.
The DB2 Developer domain has free DB2 tutorials, technical articles, and sections where that you could "ask the experts" and even "meet the specialists." Bookmark this web site for your browser as a correct choice for discovering DB2.
you're going to need hands-on event with DB2 to circulate the checks. Get it at work, or install DB2 UDB V8 in your domestic computing device operating windows or Linux. which you could at once download DB2 UDB at no cost from IBM's DB2 Developer area (just click on on the IBM support and downloads tab at the suitable of the webpage). lots of the certification books for the core tests consist of a CD-ROM with a trial copy of DB2 UDB V8 for home windows PCs. The trial models shipped in the books have a distinct trial length of 180 days. The trial edition that is downloaded is 90-days. you could always reinstall the software in case your certification effort takes longer.
in order for you any of the DB2 manuals, all include the product and are available should you installation the database from the CD-ROM. or you can download any guide for gratis from IBM in PDF format. that you could also obtain IBM redbooks on advanced topics by free down load from http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/, mainly DB2 redbooks.These internet sites assist you to order hardcopies, in case you so select.
do you want school room training? My feeling is that IT pros experienced in the area through which they are checking out should not have it to move. however those new to their testing topic should still accept as true with it. The DB2 tests are tricky sufficient that it be impossible you are going to flow from publication discovering on my own. IBM's training web site can support you make a decision.
IBM posts the legit check ambitions, suggested supplies, and training assistance, and short self-assessment tests. evaluation all of them to be sure your development is on course.
The sources above offer you every thing you need to cowl these bases.
the new tutorials will train you the basics of the DB2 products and tools, DB2 protection, and a lot greater. You need to make a FREE registration to view the tutorials.
This tutorial introduces the basics of the DB2 items and tools, along with the ideas of information warehousing and OLAP. it is the first in a collection of six tutorials designed to support you put together for the DB2 UDB V8.1 family Fundamentals Certification (examination seven hundred).
This tutorial introduces you to DB2 safety. you'll learn about DB2 authentication, authorization and privileges. it's the 2d in a collection of six tutorials so you might use to aid you put together for the DB2 UDB V8.1 family Fundamentals Certification (exam seven hundred).
This tutorial introduces you to the objects that make up a DB2 database, and to the components that have an effect on how the database is created. After a short introduction to DB2 objects, we’ll investigate the diverse tools to create, access, and manipulate DB2 objects. This tutorial is the third in a sequence of six tutorials so that you can use to aid you put together for the DB2 UDB V8.1 family Fundamentals Certification (examination seven-hundred).
This tutorial introduces you to Structured question Language (SQL), and helps to offer you a very good understanding of how DB2 universal Database uses SQL to outline database objects (akin to tables, views, or indexes) and to control records in a relational database. This tutorial is the fourth in a sequence of six tutorials that you should use to help prepare for the DB2 UDB V8.1 household Fundamentals Certification (examination 700).
This tutorial discusses statistics types, tables, views, and indexes as described by using DB2 familiar Database. It explains the points of those objects, the way to create and manipulate them the use of Structured query Language (SQL), and how they will also be utilized in an utility. This tutorial is the fifth in a series of six tutorials for you to use to aid prepare for the DB2 UDB V8.1 family Fundamentals Certification (examination seven hundred).
This tutorial will introduce you to the concept of records consistency and to the quite a few mechanisms which are used via DB2 commonplace Database to keep database consistency in each single- and multi-person environments. here's the last tutorial in a series of six tutorials that you can use to support prepare for the DB2 UDB V8.1 household Fundamentals Certification (examination seven hundred).
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In late April 2005, IBM released an update, called Version 8.2.2, of the IBM DB2 Universal Database product (DB2 UDB). This update was inspired by functional enhancements for SAP environments, but the reality is that everyone can benefit from the works that has gone into this update.
Traditionally, database administrators (DBAs) can get frustrated when trying to retrieve information about their database servers. On the one hand, they can use graphical tools such as the DB2 UDB Control Center to help them, but many experienced DBAs do not like to use graphical interfaces. Indeed, experienced DBAs tend to administer and maintain their databases using command-line scripts and so on.
On the other hand, the typical method is not necessarily appealing either. Sure, many of the utilities that DB2 UDB exposes for the retrieval of system information are based on a C API, or some sort of DB2 UDB CLP command. This solves the problem of retrieving information from a graphical user interface (GUI), but involves programmatic or syntactical complexities. For example, if you want to get a snapshot of your database using a C API, you have to know how to programmatically call this API. Suppose you had development skills in the Java language, for example; you would have to use a JNI wrapper to call the C APIs provided by DB2 UDB. This involves yet another level of complexity.
Assuming that as a DBA you are neither a programmer nor someone who likes to use a GUI, what options do you have? The SQL API, which DBAs are typically well versed in, represents a common ground by which DBAs can leverage the productivity of a command-line environment--without the complexity.
Since the DB2 UDB V8.1 release, IBM has been working hard to expose more and more features through simple SQL that were once only invoked by a command-line or C API.
DB2 UDB V8.2.2 adds three new user-defined functions (UDFs) that allow authorized remote clients to get details about a DB2 UDB server, including machine, product, and instance information, and so on. Before DB2 UDB V8.2.2, this information was only available via administrative APIs. These news UDFs are added to an ever-expanding group of table functions that return information about the operations of your system (for example, you can use a table UDF to return snapshot monitor information).
These new UDFs are created when a new database is created at the DB2 UDB V8.2.2 level. If you already have an existing database and you have applied the maintenance stream for DB2 UDB V8.2.2 to your existing server, you can use the db2updt command to create these new routines. These new routines are defined in sqlescat.h and placed in the new db2envinfo library located in the sqllib/bin/routine directory.
In this article, I will take you through the details of these new system information UDFs and give you examples of how to use them.
The results of this UDF tell me that I have my DB2 UDB server installed on a workstation that is running a 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows 5.1 (which is Windows XP technology) and I have installed Service Pack 1. The host name of my machine, the number of CPUs (both physical and enabled with a partition if you are using one), and total memory (in MB) is also shown.
The new SYSPROC.ENV_GET_PROD_INFO UDF can be used to return information about the actual DB2 UDB product installed on your server.
You can see in this figure that I have DB2 UDB Enterprise Server Edition (ESE) installed on my server, it is correctly licensed, and it is installed at the V8.2 release level.
The final new UDF, called SYSPROC.ENV_GET_INST_INFO, returns information about the instance of the DB2 UDB product installed on your server.
So there you have it: some easy ways to retrieve all types of system-related information with the ease of an SQL statement. There are other new UDFs in DB2 UDB V8.2.2 that can return information in the DB2 History file and the DB2 Registry. Moreover, don't forget all those table functions that IBM has been adding since the generable availability date of DB2 UDB V8.1.
Paul C. Zikopoulos, BA, MBA, is an award-winning writer and speaker with the IBM Database Competitive Technologies team. He has more than nine years of experience with DB2 products and has written numerous magazine articles and books about it. Paul has co-authored the books: DB2 Version 8: The Official Guide, DB2: The Complete Reference, DB2 Fundamentals Certification for Dummies, DB2 for Dummies, and A DBA's Guide to Databases on Linux. Paul is a DB2 Certified Advanced Technical Expert (DRDA and Cluster/EEE) and a DB2 Certified Solutions Expert (Business Intelligence and Database Administration). Currently he is writing a book on the Apache Derby/IBM Derby database. You can reach him at: [email protected].
DB2, DB2 Universal Database, and IBM are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
Copyright International Business Machines Corporation, 2005. All rights reserved.
The opinions, solutions, and advice in this article are from the author's experiences and are not intended to represent official communication from IBM or an endorsement of any products listed within. Neither the author nor IBM is liable for any of the contents in this article. The accuracy of the information in this article is based on the author's knowledge at the time of writing.
This chapter introduces you to the backup and recovery tools that are available with DB2 universal database, and to show you how to both backup a database on a regular basis and restore a database if it becomes damaged or corrupted.
Your knowledge of the various transaction logging features available.
Your knowledge of the types of database recovery available (crash, version, and roll-forward) and your ability to demonstrate when and how each are used.
Your ability to create and use database-level and tablespace-level backup images.
Your ability to create and use full, incremental, and delta backup images.
Your ability to return a damaged or corrupt database to the state it was in at any given point in time.
Your knowledge of how and when invalid indexes are recreated.
Your ability to suspend and resume database I/O and your ability to initialize a split mirror copy of a database.
This chapter is designed to introduce you to the backup and recovery tools that are available with DB2 Universal Database, and to show you how to both backup a database on a regular basis and restore a database if it becomes damaged or corrupted.
Although basic syntax is presented for most of the DB2 UDB commands covered in this chapter, the actual syntax supported may be much more complex. To view the complete syntax for a specific command or to obtain more information about a particular command, refer to the IBM DB2 Universal Database, Version 8 Command Reference product documentation.
Recognizing the types of transaction logging available and understanding when each is to be used.
Understanding how crash recovery, version recovery, and roll-forward recovery operations are initiated.
Understanding how database-level and tablespace-level backup images are made.
Understanding how full, incremental, and delta backup images are created and used.
Understanding how invalid indexes are recreated.
Understanding how split mirroring is used to backup a database.
Understanding how I/O is suspended and resumed so mirrors can be split, as well as knowing how split mirrors are initialized.
The initiation and termination of a single transaction defines points of data consistency within a database; either the effects of all operations performed within a transaction are applied to the database and made permanent (committed), or the effects of all operations performed are backed out (rolled back) and the database is returned to the state it was in before the transaction was initiated.
When the COMMIT statement is used to terminate a transaction, all changes made to the database since the transaction began are made permanent. On the other hand, when the ROLLBACK statement is used, all changes made are backed out and the database is returned to the state it was in just before the transaction began. Figure 7-1 shows the effects of a transaction that was terminated with a COMMIT statement; Figure 7-2 shows the effects of a transaction that was terminated with a ROLLBACK statement.
Figure 7-1. Terminating a transaction with the COMMIT SQL statement.
Figure 7-2. Terminating a transaction with the ROLLBACK SQL statement.
It is important to remember that commit and rollback operations only have an effect on changes that have been made within the transaction they terminate. So in order to evaluate the effects of a series of transactions, you must be able to identify where each transaction begins, as well as when and how each transaction is terminated. Figure 7-3 shows how the effects of a series of transactions can be evaluated.
Figure 7-3. Evaluating the effects of a series of transactions.
Changes made by a transaction that have not been committed are usually inaccessible to other users and applications (unless another user or application is using the Uncommitted Read isolation level), and can be backed out with a rollback operation. However, once changes made by a transaction have been committed, they become accessible to all other users and/or applications and can only be removed by executing new SQL statements (within a new transaction). So what happens if a problem occurs (for example, a power failure occurs or an application abends) before a transaction's changes can be committed? In order to answer that question, they must first look at how data changes are made and at how transaction activity is logged.
DB2 Universal Database Express Edition v8.1, for Linux and Windows, suits small and medium businesses positioning themselves for e-business. Silent install capability allows application provider to incorporate DB2 UDB Express as transparent part of solution. Suite of advanced management and autonomic computing capabilities support simplification and automation of administration tasks. Scalable features allow seamless transition to other DB2 editions as businesses grow.
DB2 UDB Express easily integrates with applications and results in faster deployment and faster time to market for partner applications.
For ordering, contact: Your IBM representative or the Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL (Reference: VE001).
OverviewDB2 Universal Database® (UDB) Express Edition V8.1 combines the power, function, and reliability of an open industry-standards-based relational database with simplicity in packaging, installing, and deploying at a minimal investment cost. DB2® UDB Express meets the data management needs of small and medium businesses (SMBs) positioning themselves for e-business on demand(TM).
DB2 UDB Express was developed in consultation with IBM Business Partners. It is ideal for those partners embedding it in their application or reselling it as part of their market-ready solutions for SMBs.
Easy to OwnDB2 UDB Express has a very low entry cost and it can reduce or eliminate costs associated with deploying and maintaining your data. The silent install capability allows an application or solution provider to incorporate DB2 UDB Express as a transparent part of the solution. Similarly, autonomic computing capabilities such as the Health Center, Configuration Advisor, and Query Optimizer eliminate many of the complexities and costs traditionally associated with managing relational databases.
Flexibility of Open Industry StandardsDB2 UDB Express can be deployed on either Linux or Windows® and supports a full range of industry-standard application interfaces including JDBC, SQLJ, ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, ADO.NET, DB2 CLI, Embedded SQL, XML, and Web Services.
Ready to GrowAs your business grows, you cannot afford to continually start over with new technologies to meet your changing needs. DB2 UDB offers the same core capabilities across the entire line of database servers. You benefit from the same reliability, security, and optimization as your data volumes or utilization increase. You can leverage your existing investments with DB2 UDB Express through available upgrades to other editions of DB2 UDB to support more platform choices and larger hardware installations.
All of these benefits combine to improve your return on investment and let you quickly derive the most value from your information assets required to operate your business.
Key PrerequisitesRefer to the Hardware Requirements and Software Requirements sections.
Simplified DeploymentThe silent install capability enables an application or solution provider to incorporate the install of DB2 UDB Express as a transparent part of the solution. It combines silent installation with the ability to create databases and configure DB2 UDB Express using scripts. It also supports the ability to create an up-and-running application solution. DB2 UDB Express can be deployed on either Linux or Windows, the two pervasive deployment platforms for SMBs, offering you flexibility in the choice of hardware and operating system for deployment.
Autonomic Management CapabilitiesDB2 UDB Express incorporates a suite of advanced management and autonomic computing capabilities. These support the simplification and automation of administration tasks, eliminating many of the costs traditionally associated with managing relational databases. The Configuration Advisor provides facilities to configure the DB2 UDB Express environment to optimize performance. The Health Center monitors your DB2 system, alerting you to potential DB2 operational issues, and providing advice about resolving them.
Design for 24/7 OperationDB2 UDB Express supports 24/7 operation by eliminating the need to shut down the database to perform maintenance. Changes to key database and database manager configuration parameters can be made while the database is online and take effect immediately. This gives you more flexibility for deciding when to change the configuration to better suit changing workload characteristics. In some cases, you can set a parameter to be automatic. This allows DB2 to adjust the parameter value without intervention from you as workload on the database changes.
Support of 24/7 operation is further enhanced by the online utilities available with DB2 UDB Express. Database backups can be performed online or offline, as can data reorganizations.
Application Development SupportDB2 UDB Express supports a wide set of application programming interfaces including ODBC, OLE DB, ADO, ADO.NET, JDBC, SQLJ, DB2 CLI, embedded SQL, and emerging interfaces such as XML and Web services. This is the same set that is supported across the scalable DB2 UDB family of offerings. A wide range of industry solutions that utilize these interfaces can run with DB2 UDB Express.
Investment ProtectionDB2 UDB Express offers the same core capabilities across the entire line of database servers. This provides you the ability to benefit from the same reliability, security, application development interfaces, and optimization as your data volumes, number of users, or utilization increase. Leverage your existing investments with DB2 UDB Express through available upgrades to other scalable editions of DB2 UDB to support more platform choices and higher throughput on larger hardware installations.
Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation ActDB2 UDB Express Edition V8.1 is capable, as of June 27, 2003, when used in accordance with IBM's associated documentation, of satisfying the applicable requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, provided that any assistive technology used with the product properly interoperates with it.
Product PositioningDB2 UDB Express Edition is the database server designed for deployment in an SMB, generally as part of a solution built by an IBM Business Partner. It is limited to deployments on servers that will run 32-bit applications with up to two CPUs running either Linux or Windows. DB2 UDB Express offers a full function database server at a low-entry cost with a named user-based pricing model.
For customers with higher scalability, performance, and throughput needs, IBM offers the following server editions of DB2 Universal Database:o DB2 UDB Enterprise Server Edition (ESE) meets the database server needs of midsize to large businesses. It can be deployed in Linux, UNIX®, and Windows server environments on any size server, including 64-bit servers. DB2 UDB Enterprise is the ideal foundation for building data warehouses, transaction processing, or Web-based solutions as well as a backend for packaged solutions like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Supply Chain Management (SCM). Additionally, DB2 UDB Enterprise offers connectivity and integration for other enterprise DB2 and Informix(TM) data sources.o DB2 UDB Workgroup Server Edition (WSE) is the database server designed for deployment in a departmental or small business environment that involves a small number of internal users. DB2 UDB Workgroup uses a licensing model designed to provide an attractive price point for smaller installations while still providing a full-function database server. It can be deployed in Linux, UNIX, and Windows server environments on systems with up to four 32-bit CPUs.o DB2 UDB Workgroup Server Unlimited Edition (WSUE) offers a simplified per-processor licensing model for deployment in a departmental or small business environment that has Internet users or number of users that makes per-processor licensing more attractive than the WSE licensing model. The WSUE can be deployed in Linux, UNIX, and Windows environments on systems with up to four 32-bit CPUs. | 2019-04-23T12:46:22Z | http://smresidences.com.ph/practice-test.php?pdf=000-706 |
The 14th Dresden Symposium is the occasion for a short reminiscence: In 1990, we realized the First Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies, just one week after the re-unification of Germany. Clinicians and scientists from the Eastern and the Western part of Germany, Austria and Luxembourg discussed mainly methodical aspects of autoantibody determinations but also the clinical and pathogenic relevance of autoantibodies. The topics of the Second Symposium in April 1993 dealed mainly with diagnostic aspects. The Third Symposium in September 1996 was a turning point in such a way that we realized the first international meeting with participants from 14 countries. The series of international symposia was not possible without the active help of the co-chairs and members of the international advisory committee as well as the members of national organizing committee. It was a happenstance that the support of three international opinion leaders in the field of autoantibody research, René Luis Humbel (Luxembourg), Eng M. Tan (La Jolla, USA) and Yehuda Shoenfeld (Tel-Hashomer, Israel) led to the successful start and continuation of our international symposia since 1996. Equally, the other co-chairs of the following symposia, Michael Meurer (Dresden, Germany), Marvin Fritzler (Calgary, Canada), Michael Bachmann (Dresden, Germany), Edward K. L. Chan (Gainesville, USA), Allan Wiik (Copenhagen, Denmark), Philipp von Landenberg (Olten, Switzerland), Luis E. C. Andrade (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Pier Luigi Meroni (Milan, Italy), Ger J. M. Pruijn (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), Günter Steiner (Vienna, Austria) had a key role in the organization and in the succes of these meetings.
The "founders" of the international series Dresden Symposia of Autoantibodies. Left: Eng M. Tan, René Louis Humbel and Karsten Conrad in discussion at the 5th Symposium 2000; Right: Yehuda Shoenfeld in action at the 9th Symposium 2009.
The main purpose of the Dresden Symposia is to provide a podium for clinicians and scientists specialised in "autoimmunology" to exchange academic informations and to present and discuss the results of basic and applied research on autoantigens, autoantibodies and autoimmunity. Besides methodical aspects of autoantibody determinations and diagnostic strategies for autoimmune diseases the autoantibody symposia focused on various aspects of the induction, pathogenicity and clinical relevance of autoantibodies. Furthermore, each symposium had its own main focus: Pathogenic idiotypes, silica exposure and autoimmunity (3rd Symposium, 1996); Autoantibodies and tumors (4th Symposium, 1998); Autoantigens - structure, function and role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases (5th Symposium, 2000); From proteomics to molecular epidemiology: Relevance of autoantibodies (6th Symposium, 2002); From animal models to human genetics: Research on the induction and pathogenicity of autoantibodies (7th Symposium, 2004); From etiopathogenesis to the prediction of autoimmune diseases: Relevance of autoantibodies (8th Symposium, 2007); From pathogenesis to therapy of autoimmune diseases (9th Symposium, 2009). Our anniversary event, the 10th Symposium, 2011 "From Prediction to Prevention of Autoimmune Diseases" concentrated on different aspects of the pathogenesis, the prediction, novel treatment regimes and prevention of systemic and organ specific autoimmune diseases as well as autoimmune graft rejections. The 11th Symposium, 2013 entitled "Infections, Tumors and Autoimmunity" focussed on manifold aspects of autoimmunity in infections and tumors, novel aspects in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, paraneoplastic and tumor associated autoantibodies, autoantibodies in systemic autoimmune rheumatic and neurological diseases, the standardization/harmonizationof autoimmune diagnostics and other methodical aspects of autoantibody testing.
The 12th Symposium in 2015 „From Autoantibody Research to Standardized Diagnostic Assays in the Management of Human Diseases“ concentrates on several aspects of improving autoimmune diagnostics. Topics that are addressed include the International Consensus on ANA Pattern (ICAP) and the International Autoantibody Standardization (IAS) initiatives, the optimization of diagnostic algorithms, the description and evaluation of novel disease-specific autoantibodies as well as the development and introduction of novel assays into routine diagnostics. Furthermore, important developments of the last years, most notably the improvement in diagnosing and predicting the course of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, autoimmune neurological, gastrointestinal and liver diseases, the potential diagnostic relevance of anti-DFS70 antibodies and tumor-associated autoantibodies as well as some hot topics in autoimmunity regarding disease pathogenesis and management have been presented and discussed.
During the symposia the development of important novel diagnostic options (e.g., autoantibodies against tissue transglutaminase, sp100, citrullinated proteins/peptides, gangliosides, ion channel and receptor proteins, DFS70/LEDGF) and methods (e.g., multiplex assays) have been well documented.
Pioneers of autoimmune research. Left: Noel R. Roes in discussion at the 8th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies 2007. Right: Walter van Venrooij talking at the 9th Symposium 2009.
Up to now, clinicians and scientists from 44 countries, mainly from Europe and North America, but also from South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North Africa, attended the symposia to present and/or discuss various aspects of the etiopathogenesis, diagnostics and therapy of autoimmune diseases. Among these participants were many young scientists but also pioneers of autoimmunity research. So we are very proud that we could welcome Noel R. Rose, Baltimore, USA (Witebsky-Rose criteria; research on autoimmune thyroid diseases and pathomechanism of autoimmune diseases), Eng M. Tan, La Jolla, USA (1966: discovery of Sm antibodies together with H.G. Kunkel; research on autoantibodies against extractable nuclear antigens among others), Morris Reichlin, Oklahoma City, USA (discovery and research on Ro and La antibodies), Walther van Venrooij, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (autoantibodies against citrullinated proteins/peptides) and Angela Vincent, Oxford, UK (ion channel antibodies), Josep Dalmau, Barcelona, Spain (autoantibodies in encephalitis and paraneoplastic neurological diseases), Kenneth Michael Pollard, La Jolla, USA (environmental factors and autoimmunity), and Jill P. Buyon, New York, USA (congenital heart block) to one or more of our symposia. Equally, we highly appreciate the contributions of all experts, who presented their newest data during the symposia and who are named in the programs of the past symposia published on "Programmes of the past Symposia".
Co-Chairs since the 6th and 7th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies, respectively. Left: Marvin J. Fritzler talking at the 8th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies 2007. Right: Edward K.L. Chan in discussion with Henri-André Ménard at the 9th Symposium 2009.
The organisational aspects including cultural programmes of the symposia were performed by Blackwell GCM, Berlin, Germany (1996), Porstmann Kongresse GmbH, Berlin, Germany (1998), P & R Kongress GmbH, Berlin, Germany (2000), and since 2004 by the Association for the Advancement of Immune Diagnostics, Dresden, Germany (founded during the 6th Symposium in 2002). Up to now, more than 50 companies have participated in the industrial exhibitions, among them some that are not existing yet and others that were founded in the past years. Representatively, we would like to mention the following companies which were present eight times or more often at the Dresden symposia: Bio-Rad Laboratories (8); BioSystems S.A., Barcelona, Spain (8 times); Medipan GmbH, Dahlewitz, Germany (9); DLD Diagnostika GmbH, Hamburg, Germany (10); Elias/Pharmacia diagnostics/Phadia GmbH, Freiburg, Germany (10); IMTEC/HUMAN GmbH, Berlin/Wiesbaden, Germany (10); The Binding Site GmbH, Schwetzingen, Germany (10); ORGENTEC Diagnostika GmbH, Mainz, Germany (10); and EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, Lübeck, Germany (13). Furthermore, the Dresden meetings were partially sponsored by the DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Bonn, Germany) and the Medical Faculty of the Technical University Dresden (Dresden, Germany). Herewith we thank all sponsors that contributed essentially to the success of the past symposia.
The Dresden Prize on the Study of Autoantibodies was founded by the Association for the Advancement of Immune Diagnostics to award young scientists up to age 35 for their contribution of outstanding results on the research on autoantibodies presented at the Dresden Symposia on Autoantibodies. The prize of 1000 EUR was awarded for the first time in 2004 at the 7th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies to Nikolina Mihailova & Elisaveta Voynova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia (Bulgaria). They presented their results on the "Selective suppression of DNA-specific B cells in lupus mice". The second winner at the 8th Symposium (2007) was Joyce van Beers from the Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands) with here results on "The synovial citrullinome of rheumatoid arthritis patients". Her proteomics analyses provided an inventory of synovial proteins in the inflamed joints of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Novel citrullinated proteins that may be targeted by the immune system in the synovia of RA patients were identified in synovial fluid samples of RA patients. The winner of the 9th Symposium (2009), Klaartje Somers from the Hasselt University Diepenbeek (Belgium), presented her observations on "Novel autoantibody targets in multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis". By using a cDNA phage display approach, Klaartje Somers et al. identified novel autoantigenic targets of autoantibodies in patients with multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Novel RA-specific autoantibodies that are also present in rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP negative patients with early RA may help to improve early diagnosis, prediction and subtyping of RA.
In the symposia of 2011 and 2013 we had 2 prize winners: In 2011, Mike Becker (Charité, Berlin, Germany) discussing the Role of functional antibodies against vascular receptors in systemic sclerosis and Charlotte Starke (University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany) focussing on Autoantibody secreting cells in the nephritic kidneys of lupus prone NZB/W F1 mice are sensitive to bortezomib.
In 2013, Gerson D. Keppeke (Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil) with the topic Mycophenolic acid and ribavirin induce cytoplasmic Rods and Rings (RR) structures in vivo, but only ribavirin induces anti-RR autoantibodies and S. John Calise (University of Florida, Gainesville, USA) presenting Effects of intracellular glutamine levels on the reversible assembly of cytoplasmic rod and ring auto antigenic structures.
The winner of the Dresden Prize 2015 (12th Dresden Symposium) was Deborah Kienhoefer (University Hospital Erlangen, Germany) presenting results of the impact of oxidative burst on the development of lupus-like autoimmunity. In 2017, the winner of the Dresden Prize was again a young woman: Lydia Noss (Medical Faculty Dresden, Germany) presenting the topic Autoantibodies against glycoprotein 2 isoforms in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease.
Prize Award Ceremony at the 9th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies, 2009.
· AAA Vol.1 (2000): Autoantigens and Autoantibodies: Diagnostic Tools and Clues to Understanding Autoimmunity.
· AAA Vol.2 (2002, second edition 2007, third edition 2015): Autoantibodies in Systemic Autoimmune Diseases - A Diagnostic Reference.
· AAA Vol.3 (2002): From Proteomics to Molecular Epidemiology: Relevance of Autoantibodies.
· AAA Vol.4 (2004): From Animal Models to Human Genetics: Research on the Induction and Pathogenicitiy of Autoantibodies.
· AAA Vol.5 (2007): From Etiopathogenesis to the Prediction of Autoimmune Diseases: Relevance of Autoantibodies.
· AAA Vol.6 (2009): From Pathogenesis to Therapy of of Autoimmune Diseases.
· AAA Vol.7 (2011): From Prediction to Prevention of Autoimmune Diseases.
· AAA Vol.8 (2011): Autoantibodies in Organ Specific Autoimmune Diseases - A Diagnostic Reference.
· AAA Vol.10 (2015): From Autoantibody Research to Standardized Diagnostic Assays in the Management of Human Diseases.
Each scientific meeting was accompanied by a special event regarding culture and traditions of Dresden and Surroundings. The Social Dinner of the 3rd Symposium (the first international one) took place in the historical restaurant "Italienisches Dörfchen" on the Theatre Square, situated between the Semper Opera House, the river Elbe, the Zwinger Museum and the Court Church. At the 4th Symposium we visited "Pfunds Molkerei", the most beautiful milk shop of the world (since 1998 in the Guinness Book of Records). The cultural highlight of the 5th Symposium was the visit of the specialized restaurant "Silberstollen" dedicated to the traditions of mining in Saxony (unfortunately closed since the great flood in 2002). Moritzburg Castle, the hunting lodge and summer residence of August the Strong (1670-1733) near Dresden was the event location of the 6th Symposium. Before the Social Dinner, a guided tour through the baroque museum provided an insight into the largest collection of ornamental leather tapestries in the world, Saxon and French furniture, Oriental and Meissen porcelain, paintings of the 17th and 18th century and the most important collection of hunting trophies in Europe. A guided tour to the Pillnitz Palace and Park and Social Dinner in the historical Orangery of the Pillnitz Palace highlighted the cultural part of the 7th Symposium. Pillnitz Castle, the former summer residence of the Saxon royal court is today the home of the Museum of Decorative Arts. The park deserves closer attention as it combines the strict forms of the baroque period with those of an English landscape garden. Alongside many rare trees the over 200-year-old Japanese camellia is a particular magnet for visitors.
Dancing with countess Cosel at Pillnitz Park.
A Guided tour and Social Dinner in the Meissen Castle were the cultural highlights of the 8th Dresden Symposium. The establishment of the Meissen Castle goes back to the year 929. In 1470, the brilliant master-builder Arnold von Westfalen created a late gothic castle complex, the first palatial castle of ist kind in German building history. Between 1710 and 1863, the castle was the first domicile of the famous Meissen porcelain factory.
Social Dinner at Meissen Castle.
During the 9th Dresden Symposium we organised a guided visit and Social Dinner in the Castle of Weesenstein. Weesenstein Castle in the Müglitztal valley is one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in the surroundings of Dresden. The 700-year-old castle on a rock above the village presents its visitors saxon history from the Middle Ages through to the 19th century. Especially delightful is a walk in the castle gardens.
In 2011, during the 10th Dresden Symposium, we visited the Fortress "Königstein", a unique example of the art of European fortress construction.
The cultural highlight of the 11th Dresden Symposium was the visit of Albrechtsberg Castle, a lovely property in the Dresden vineyards, built by Prince Albrecht of Prussia in 1854.
Social Dinner at Weesenstein Castle.
During the 12th Dresden Symposium (2015) we organised a guided visit of the Dresden Castle or Royal Palace, former residence of the kings of Saxony, today an internationally renowned museum. In 2017 (13th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies), we visited the world famous Old Masters Picture Gallery. The following Dinner in the Hilton Hotel was highlighted by the performance of the world champion in fast drawing.
Social Dinner at Dresden Castle.
In the next years we will attempt to continue the successful series of Dresden Symposia on Autoantibodies and we hope to welcome you at the 14th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies in September of 2019. | 2019-04-21T18:55:30Z | http://gfid-ev.de/dsa-history.htm |
I'm not sure if this is truly an errata or if I misunderstood something.
If a character recives 3 dots for primary skills, 2 for secondary and one for tertiary, and a single skill cannot be associated with more than two paths, then the bolded text describes an inpossible situation.
Dexterity or Might and your relevant combat pool."
the prone character must stand up as part of a mixed action.
Standing up is an Athletics roll with a Complication of 1.
The rules on 118 also contain two other apparent typos: "clash range" rather than "close range" and "his opponents punishes" instead of "his opponent punishes" or "his opponents punish."
It concerns me that the movement rules which are relevant in combat, including entirely combat-specific actions like Disengage, Rush, and Utilize Cover, are only given in Chapter 2, starting on page 72, while the rules for every other aspect of combat are in Chapter 4, starting on page 115. Furthermore, the movement actions reference range bands, which are only explained in the combat section, pgs. 119-120. This placement is inconvenient even in the PDF format, with bookmarking, and I can only imagine it would be even more frustrating when using a physical text.
Page 3: One of the messages in the image says "Shear physical perfection" instead of "Sheer physical perfection". It's unlikely he's talking about scissors. It's also totally reasonable that Donnie would use the wrong word. There's also "Donnie's got stlye" and "have yo baby", which again may be deliberate.
Page 9: Cu Sith doesn't have the grave on the 'u' or 'i', but the Cu Sidhe form (Irish) looks like it would have an acute on the 'u' (I don't have a decent source to be sure on the Irish version). Some sources leave out the graves entirely when used in English. If modified here, the entry on page 167 should be updated as well.
Page 9: Shen should either have an acute here, or it should be excluded in the rest of the book.
Page 11: "very different place than the anything" should probably be "very different place than anything"
Page 12: Possible error in "blessings upon mankind... while" where perhaps the ellipsis was supposed to be a comma. While ellipsis is occasionally used to indicate a long pause, it should be preceded by a space in that case.
Page 16: Terra Incognitae isn't the proper plural form of Terra Incognita, since you would make the noun plural as well as the adjective (Terrae Incognitae). However, Terra Incognitae does look better for a non-Latin reader, and if you're making it your own term, I suppose you can decide on your own plural form.
Page 22: I didn't find an authoritative source that matched the spelling used for Lugh Lamhfhada's epithet (Lamhfhada). However, various sources spell it differently, and if your spelling was intentional, it's probably fine and will be familiar to players of various video games.
Page 34: "A Primordial's inhabitants are include Elementals" should exclude either the "are" or the "include"
Page 37: I'm assuming the "ao si" is supposed to be "aos si". If so, since "aes sidhe" was the term used earlier in the book, perhaps the same term should be used in both places. The earlier reference could be changed instead. The term "aos si" seems more correct, while the older "aes sidhe" is likely more familiar. Aos Si is also the Antagonist entry.
Page 40: Should yokai and Jizo have a macron over the 'o'?
Page 41: If dodaem is intended to be the same thing as doodem, it's an infrequent spelling. Similarly, Anishinaabeg seems more common than Anishinaubaek.
Page 42: The 'o' with a macron in Teotl didn't show up here for me in one reader, and showed up oddly in another. This could just be an issue with the readers I'm using.
Page 42: Should ollamaliztli have a macron over the 'o'?
Page 44: I believe the tilde belongs over the 'a' in Sao, rather than the first 'a' in Salvador.
Page 45: Under Varanasi, the term Kami is not capitalized, as it is in the rest of the book.
Page 48: "This may be one the reasons Titans" should be "This may be one of the reasons Titans"
Page 51: Text ends abrubtly after "irritation in an oyster"
Page 57: In the Rolling Dice sidebar, "The Storyguide might determine the Approach while the player decides the Approach". I'm assuming the first of these was supposed to be "Arena" (from text on pages 61 and 62), though the Forming a Dice Pool section seems to indicate the player just gets to choose the Attribute.
Page 60: Under Medicine, there's a switch from "Their" to "she". Under Pilot, while the "They" pronoun isn't used, the "he" and "his" don't match the style of the other entries.
Page 61: Under Survival 1, Survival 5, and Technology 5, the feminine pronoun is used. I don't have any objection to any particular choice of pronoun, but it looks like an effort was made to use "they" for this section (particularly for Techonology 5 where "they" is also used).
Page 67: Under Stunts, the "complicated Stunt" and "difficult Stunt" are in italics, while the "enhanced Stunt" is not.
Page 71: Under Action-adventure, perhaps the plural version Terra Incognitae should be used here.
Page 72: Under Barriers in the Movement section, the suggested dice pool is "Athletics + Might or Finesse". Was this supposed to be "Athletics + Might or Dexterity"?
Page 77: Under Intrigue "character's Attitudes" should probably be "characters' Attitudes"
Page 79: Under Exerting Influence in the Encourage Belief paragraph, there should probably be an "or" between "Leadership (indoctrination)" and "Subterfuge (rumors)".
There are some errors with the skill specializations which others have already mentioned.
Page 85: Eric Donner has spent 21 skill points. If Step Six of character creation is unintended, this should be 18. If Step Six is intended, this should be 23. He also has not allocated the extra attribute point.
Page 86: Near the end of the Background section, "The only one question remains" seems to have one too many words. Removing any one of "the", "only", or "one" makes the sentence work better. There's also a missing period at the end of the last sentence in the "Where's Xiutechutli" sidebar.
Page 87: Emanuel Montero has spent 21 skill points. He has spent one fewer attribute points than Eric Donner (perhaps he should have another point in Composure). The extra attribute point from Step Six is not included either.
Page 89: Hassan al-Hakim has spent only 17 skill points. It's likely some were supposed to go into Empathy. The extra attribute point from Step Six is not included. I expected his Movement Dice to be 5, since the section on Movement seems to let you use the better of Dexterity and Might.
Page 91: Rashmi Bhattacharya is missing the 'h' in her last name. She has spent only 21 skill points. The extra attribute point from Step Six is not included. I expected her Movement Dice to be 5 (using Dexterity).
Page 93: Rhiannon Jernigan has spent only 18 skill points. The extra attribute point from Step Six is not included.
Page 94: In the section on deeds, "in-setting destines" should probably be "in-setting destinies"
Page 94: "Since Deeds are an expression of intent towards and action" might have been intended as "towards an action"
Page 97: The Character Creation Example under Attributes uses Reason rather than Intellect. For some reason, only 5 points are assigned the the Social Arena (3 Presence, 1 Manipulation, 1 Composure), so the final stats are off by one.
Page 98: The Character Creation Example under Finishing touches indicates that Mao has three Injury conditions. I'm not sure if this is one lower than it should be, or if Taken Out is just not counted. There's also mention of the Athletics + Stamina pool, which is apparently 4. This would make sense if Mao had an Athletics of 2, but he doesn't appear to have this skill (though he did have 5 discretionary points, which may have been allocated to Athletics). Given the character sheet, I would expect the pool he's computing to be the Move pool, which the other characters base on Athletics + Might. Finally, it looks like he's using Composure for his Defense stat, which may be intended, but all of the other sample characters restricted themselves to Stamina for this.
Page 104: Under Supernatural Origin Paths, "Humans dominate The World, but they not the only" should be "but they are not the only"
Page 106: Under Wireless Interface, "Electronic devices respond you without needing to touch them" should be "respond to you without needing to touch them" or simply "respond without needing to touch them"
Page 111: Under the Trickster Knack, "In Sheep's Clothing", "When you disguise yourself, you do without needing to roll" should be "you do so without needing to roll"
Page 112: Well Tempered references the "Armored" Tag. Should this be Soft (1)?
Page 112: Under Character Advancement, "The Storyguide have more control" should be "has more control"
Page 116: Under Attack Resolution, item 5, "The next player's takes their turn" should be "The next player's character takes their turn" or perhaps "The next player takes their turn". Since the next slot may be an SGC slot, perhaps it would be best as "The next character takes their turn".
Page 117: The Grapple section lists a Skill of "Agility (Might)". Was this supposed to be Athletics or Close Combat? The Grapple sidebar seems to have a different mechanism of escaping the grapple than the Break Free stunt. I'm also confused by the 1s cost of Break Free, given that the cost seems to either be 0s or the number your opponent spent. The Position stunt mentions Dodge, but that's not defined (we already need to overcome defense for all of these stunts).
Page 118: Under Ranged Attack, the Disarm stunt mentions the "near" range increment, which should probably be "Short"
Page 118: Under Modifiers to Attack / Defense Actions, there are three mentions of "clash range", which should probably be "Close range"
Page 118: Under Ambush, "roll Agility + Dexterity" should perhaps be "roll Dexterity + Subterfuge"
Page 120: In the table entry for Long range, perhaps Discipline was meant to be Resolve. Overall, the textual portion doesn't match the table.
Page 125: Motorcycle Jacket referenced Armored. Should this be Soft (1)?
Page 146: The Armor box states that Soft Armor increases Defense. For players, it instead increases the successes needed for the Inflict Damage stunt. Increasing Defense makes stunts like Disarm more difficult, which may not be intended.
Page 174: Yoruba may not need any diacritical marks, but if you do use them, I believe the 'o' should not have a mark, while the 'u' has a grave and the 'a' has an acute.
Page 174: Oduduwa didn't get the background for the Callings line.
Page 178: "Wits and Perception and folded" should be "Wits and Perception are folded"
It would be nice if the Purviews were always in alphabetical order.
I did not check any of the God names for proper diacritics.
Page 58: A bulked-up power lifter (Physical 3) with the Force Favored Approach (Might 5) who is an Olympic athlete (Athletics 5) will average 3.33 successes, and succeeds at lifting two microwaves about 2/3rd of the time. This should be typically achievable by a Might 1, Athletics 0 mortal.
Page 65: In the scale section, the mention of "astra weapon" is the only one in this book (those with access to Hero may understand it's a relic).
Page 67: In the Stunts section, there's a prohibition on benefiting the same Skill/Attribute combination. It's possible the intent is that after your Stunt using Dexterity + Athletics, you can benefit your teammate's Dexterity + Athletics, but if so, that's unclear.
Page 72: Under Utilize Cover in the Movement section, it isn't clear if the "simple roll" indicates that this is a simple action.
Page 73: Under Procedurals, one of the examples is "engage in intrigue". Normally, this would be a decent example, but since Intrigue is one of the three areas of action, it's odd to use it here.
Page 74: Given that the Greco-Roman pantheon (Theoi) uses Hades rather than Pluto (Kerberos is generally associated with Hades), perhaps this should be changed to "child of Hades" instead of "child of Pluto".
Page 74: Under Finding Clues "There is a variety of ways" is more typically written "There are a variety of ways". The version you have isn't wrong per se, but goes against the AMA Manual of Style.
Page 83: Under Ready-made Characters "Each character has used some experience to buy two additional Knacks". Given Step Six of character creation, this does not seem to require any additional experience.
Page 97: Under Skills, "If this gives a Skill more than five dots, redistribute the extra dot to another Path Skill." isn't applicable, given the rule on page 96 that "Any given Skill can be associated with at most two of your Paths."
Page 97: Under Skills, the explanation of Momentum granted by a failed roll with a Specialty implies that the failed Ability roll does not need to match the Specialty (e.g. the character with a Specialty in Pistols misses with a Rifle, and since she's failed a roll with an Ability in which she has a Specialty, she gets 2 Momentum). It's also unclear what the Ability keyword is here, though I suspect it was meant to be Skill.
Page 107: In the Healer Knack "With A Glance", there is a shift from "you" to "she". Similarly on page 109 in the Leader Knack "Captain of Industry", "You can inspire a number of people equal to her Leadership" has the same shift.
Page 112: Under Character Advancement, "spending momentum" should be "spending Momentum"
Page 115: Under Attack Resolution, item 3 "Spend successes to overcome the target's Defense, the attack is successful." is confusing. Perhaps this was meant to bridge into the next sentence: "If the attack is successful, spend additional successes on Stunts."
Page 116: The Inflict Damage stunt for Close Combat includes the Armor, but the Grapple, Ranged Attack, and Thrown Attack do not include this. It's not really necessary to mention it, since it is mentioned in the Armor section, but including it for one type and not the others implies that Armor only applies to Close Combat.
Page 118: The Ranged Attack Pin stunt seems like it would always be added to any successful attack at a cost of 0s. It's also odd that the Thrown Attack knockdown (Line Drive) goes against Might while the Ranged Attack knockdown (Knock Down) goes against Stamina.
Page 149: Attack - Can the Antagonist act while maintaining Dread Gaze? Mixed actions and Move without using a basic action are disallowed, but what about other actions, like attacking?
Last edited by ubik2; 08-03-2018, 04:45 AM.
Not 100% if this is an oversight worth errata or an intentional decision already made, but should Nuwa the Snake Goddess have Beasts (snake) as a purview?
I'm sure others have already caught many of these, but here's my list......SNIP!!!!!!!!!
Good Lord Man!!! And well done. On my first pass through I missed about 60% of these.
Last edited by Blackwood; 08-09-2018, 02:38 AM.
P. 57 "Forming a Dice Pool" Refers to Finesse as Control on two occasions.
"displays their Force, Control, or Resilience in that area"
"it may also be a test of mental control"
Also, throws from a grapple are extremely contradictory and confusing. This covers the grapple sidebar on p.117, the throw stunt on the same page and the Throwing paragraph on p.118.
The sidebar says, you can throw a grappled target with opposed Athletics + Might, winning ties. The paragraph on 118 mentions lifting with Athletics + Might, which isn't opposed, as weight is static.
More importantly though, the sidebar allows a grappler to just throw their victim (as a simple action, I assume) whereas the Stunt has you pay successes from the Grapple action. As I understand it, Grapple replaces Close Combat Attacks against an already grappled target (as opposed to starting a grapple, which is done with CCA). It works with Agility + Might, which probably means Athletics + Might, as Agility doesn't exist. It's also the only attack action to list the relevant Attribute in parentheses behind the skill. This has you overcome the target's defense to perform Grapple Stunts, including Throw. This version needs at least one success to throw [Might] meters + 1 meter per extra success, which is the only indication of the range of this throw from a grapple, so let's use it.
1. Why would you need to succeed on the Grapple action and spend successes on a stunt to throw your victim if just being in control let's you throw them right away?
2. Why do you not need to be able to lift your opponent for this stunt?
3. How do you determine the distance on the sidebar throw, when there are no successes from a Grapple action to pay for it?
4. Why does the grappler win ties on the opposed roll from the sidebar, when normally, defenders win?
Last edited by VeZAlchemyst; 08-09-2018, 04:41 AM.
Not sure if this is an errata for Origin or Hero, but Origin references "Calling Crisis" on page 153 as a possible source of Tension Pool, indicating it's defined in Hero. This term doesn't appear in either book again - and should probably be in Origin, if it's a rule that is intended for use in Origin games.
EDIT: Looking at it closer, this probably refers to changing Callings through Failure and Adoption Deeds, but neither seems to give Tension as currently defined in the Hero Draft. Likewise, the other source of Tension on 153 of the Origin book references resolving Conditions as a source of Tension, but resolving conditions only appears to give momentum.
Last edited by HighPriest; 08-09-2018, 07:30 PM.
The sentence which begins with "Choose from a Calling list that seems appropriate" obviously refers to creating a Denizen / creature of Legend character due to its parenthetical examples, but it isn't introduced smoothly. In fact, I must say that I'm confused as to whether the Denizen creation rules are intended to be in Chapter 3 at all, or if they were all supposed to be moved to the Supernatural Paths Appendix. "Creatures of Legend" are mentioned on pg. 94 in the Concept step, and they're clumsily mentioned there in the Callings and Knacks section on pg. 98, and pg. 104 gives a brief introduction for Supernatural Origin Paths and then refers you to the Appendix for everything other than pre-Visitation Scion, but I believe those are the only references. It's possible that the bits on 94 and 98 are textual artifacts, and 104 is meant to be the arrow pointing toward Denizen rules for those Storyguides and players who want them, or maybe they're meant to be more clearly present as an option throughout the whole chapter. I'm not sure.
Last edited by Ascension; 08-10-2018, 05:12 PM.
It is not clear if the Adjusted Paths still give access to the base Path's knacks.
And another one: The Break Up Grapple stunt and the Grappled condition (pg 116-117) disagree on how to get out of being grappled.
I've been combing through things and while I still have other items to double check before I post them I did want to slot in what I could.
Page 11 - The World of Legend exists alongside The world of humanity. -> It should either be The World of Humanity, or the world of humanity.
Page 12 - "ready to devour hapless mortals who stopped at the wrong spring to drink or took the wrong paths through the dark, deep woods." -> Shouldn't this be deep, dark woods instead of dark, deep woods?
Page 15 - "Carnivàle’s miracles are low and slow, never quite making the “rubes” wise to the nature of The world they inhabit." -> nature of The world is weirdly capitalized, should it be The World or the world, either way - needs consistency.
Page 16 - "The Gods long ago retreated from the mortal World" -> World is capitalized but mortal is not, If referencing a formal reference then it should be Mortal World, or if not intended to be - should be mortal world.
Page 16 - "Legendary creature: Any non-human being related to the mythic World," -> should be either Mythic World or mythic world.
Page 16 - each instance of a term not capitalized.
Page 30 - "They almost possess powerful" - should be "They almost all possess"
Page 34 - "but even Primordials binding Fire and Darkness..." - this is awkward with the use of Binding - should pick a different word to describe this that fits the sentence - such as "But even Primordials of Fire and Darkness" or "But even Primordials who embody Fire and Darkness.."
Page 34 - "A Primordial's inhabitants are include..." - should be altered to say either "A Primordial's inhabitants include" or "A Primordial's inhabitants can include..".
Page 36 - " the exceptions are either pass through other realms attuned to" - should be "the exceptions either pass through..." - remove are as the flow of the rest of the sentence is specific to describing what the exceptions DO, not what they actually are.
Page 49 - "This isn’t a just a war of ideals," - remove the first a, should read "This isn't just a war of ideals..."
Page 57 - "displays their Force, Control, or Resilience" - I believe "Control" should be "Finesse"
Page 59 - The text for Leadership (Copied here) appears to be different in size or font than the rest of the same text throughout the skill pages. "Leadership is a knowledge of..."
Page 61 - The text for Technology (Copied here) appears to be different in size or font than the rest of the same text throughout the skill pages "Technology represents the..."
Page 66 - "a master swordswoman might be able a cut everything within reach" - This should be altered to read as either "might be able to cut everything" or "may be able to cut everything within reach". the word "a" is either incorrect or the phrase should be modified to remove it.
Page 69 - FAILURE - has a weird graphic distortion on the LUR where it is unclear if that is intentional or if it is accidental, the U appears to be angled and slightly above the other letters.
Page 70 - MOMENTUM - the TUM has a weird graphic on the U same as on page 69.
Page 70 - which can hold up to (twice the number of players) at a time. - This is formatted strangely as you do not need to add the parentheses but should clarify "which can hold up to twice the number of players in Momentum at a time."
Page 72 - When it’s relevant, an unimpeded human on foot can move a number of feet each turn equal to twice their Athletics + their highest Physical Attribute. - I would try to clarify this so it is exceedingly clear. Is the intent "(2xAthletics) + Highest Physical Attribute, or is the intent 2x(Athletics+Physical Att)? I would spell this out in specificity for the sake of text rather than leave it potentially ambiguous.
Definitely let me know if there is any question regarding these notes.
The Ready Made Character Eric, on p. 85, has the Knack Tempered, which is probably supposed to be Well Tempered.
Emanuel, on p. 87, has listed the knacks Bold Introduction and Inspirational Aura. I can't find either in Origin, though Inspirational Aura does appear in the Hero preview as a copy of Captain of Industry.
Hassan, on p. 89, has "Healer with the Hands of God", which is probably supposed to be "Surgeon with the Hands of God". He also has Instant Diagnosis, which I can't find in Origin, but does appear in Hero.
Page 123 - the weapon tag Brutal is not bold. | 2019-04-19T05:08:06Z | http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/scion/1233836-scion-origin-errata-thread/page9 |
1. In view of what course of man does God need to carry out his purpose—soon?
IT IS comforting to know that, whereas human plans for mankind are failing, the purpose of a loving Creator is succeeding. The failure of human plans is causing all of us hardship and concern. But faith in God strengthens us to look ahead to our enjoying eternal good from the sure success of His purpose. He never needs to learn from such things as previous mistakes, for he makes none. Men ought to learn from past human mistakes, but they have the weakness of repeating the same mistakes. Failure follows. So now the unerring God needs to carry out his purpose—soon!
2. How did plans laid for our twentieth century fail, and what questions arose as a result of introduction of atomic warfare?
2 The grandiose plans that nineteenth-century planners laid for our twentieth century ended in failure. World War I pricked them as if a rainbow-colored soap bubble. The League of Nations plan did not repair matters. Soon it appeared that world planners had not learned by experience through collapse of the League of Nations. The future presented them a new challenge when two atomic bombs were dropped in the Far East, to usher in atomic warfare. All of us now confronted something indeed serious. What protective device would men responsible for world planning now provide? Something that experience guaranteed to prove a sure success? Something that expressed a wisdom superior to that of mortal man?
3. What kind of society is the United Nations, and how has it affected the world state of affairs?
3 No, the nation that exploded the atomic bombs took the lead in arranging with its war allies for another society of nations. Just another political league with a new dress and facial makeup, under a new name, the United Nations organization. It has its Declaration of Human Rights. It has its International Court of Justice. It has its police force, which has enforced the cease-fire along the Suez Canal. It has its General Assembly and Security Council as planning bodies for the now 135 members of the United Nations. Admittedly, it has served as a safety valve for an explosive world situation, but, for all that, the world state of affairs still continues explosive. The United Nations, although organized for world peace and security, has not prevented the development of the nuclear bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles with warheads containing nuclear bombs of devastating power.
4. How far has the United Nations organization been able to go about calamitous conditions, and how is confidence in it shown to be waning?
4 In the United Nations we have another instance of international planning on a world scale, but by a number of participants larger than ever before. However, is such overall world planning by mortal men proving successful or offering hope of success? The United Nations investigates and publishes data on the deadly pollution of air, sea and land. Also, on the spread of death-dealing diseases and epidemics. Yes, on famines and droughts. It finds itself unable, however, to cope with the worsening situation. It takes note of the regional Treaty Organizations of Communist and anti-Communist political blocs outside the United Nations, but cannot interfere with these international groups. So human confidence in the United Nations weakens, and political rulers continue to depend upon their regional alliances and upon strong military stockpiles as the best deterrents to a Nuclear World War. Promises of politicians to lay the foundation for a “generation of peace” sound hollow!
5. Since the world situation does not better itself after all the human planning, what questions arise?
5 People are imperiled not only by international complications. They are afflicted by domestic problems and trouble, turmoil and anarchy, and the hardness of living in their own countries. What is the trouble? Why is it that with all the feverish and intensive planning and taking of preventive measures, the world situation does not better itself? Where does the fault lie? What is in error with all this human planning? What has been left out of consideration? Honest-hearted persons would like to know.
6, 7. (a) In all such national and international planning, what has been overlooked? (b) After get-togethers opened by prayer, what have the planners failed to do?
6 In all the aforementioned cases of national and international planning, we note that there is an overlooking of the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the sea, an ignoring of His counsel.
7 Oh, the planners may claim to belong to the various religious sects of Christendom or to Judaism or to Buddhism or to Mohammedanism or to Hinduism or to some other religious group. They may have their political or social get-togethers for deliberation on problems opened with prayer by some clergyman. Yet, do they thereafter let themselves be guided by the counsel given by man’s Creator? Do they go to his written Word, where his counsel can be plainly read? Then, do they let themselves be guided by such counsel? Here a controversy might arise. The planners are not all agreed as to what the written Word of the Creator is, for they have different sacred books that they consider holy, the basis for their religious belief. But the true Creator of heaven and earth is the One who made man and put him on the earth and told man what he was to do here. This Creator also foretold with accuracy our present-day distress of nations with perplexity.
8. What is the book not considered or followed by worldly planners, and who made that book?
8 The Maker of man is also the Creator of this written Word, his inspired Book. That Book is the Holy Bible, written by the hand of faithful men whom the Creator inspired to write. Bible societies have spread this inspired Book all around the earth, in hundreds of languages. So it is not an unknown and inaccessible Book. Its very opening sentence says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The first chapter of the Holy Bible also describes the creation of mankind, both male and female. (Genesis 1:26-31) This is the Book that is not consulted or followed by the worldly planners for human society.
9. What ancient Bible statement about human plans still stands uncontestable, as illustrated by what world powers?
9 The wise observation as made about three thousand years ago and as recorded in the Holy Bible remains uncontestable even today. It is recorded in Proverbs 19:21, and, according to the Jerusalem Bible translation of this proverb from the Hebrew language, it reads: “Plans multiply in the human heart, but the purpose of Yahweh stands firm.” (See also The New English Bible and Revised Standard Version.) The name Yahweh here is the pronunciation of the divine name that is preferred by some to the pronunciation Jehovah. Human plans, schemes and devices have multiplied throughout the past centuries and millenniums, but have they succeeded in standing firm and producing permanent gains and controls? Where today are the famous political empires that once held wide control, particularly the seven world powers of Bible history and prophecy? Where is the ancient Egyptian World Power, also the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, the Roman, the Anglo-American? Where is the incomparable British Empire that once embraced one fourth of the earth’s surface and a quarter of its population? Their glory has faded.
10, 11. (a) What indicates that Jehovah’s purpose regarding his kingdom moves forward to brilliant success? (b) What shows that Christendom’s growth has not been by preaching God’s kingdom?
10 What, though, about the counsel of Jehovah or “purpose of Yahweh”? It still stands firm, unchanged. It continues to prevail and to move forward to brilliant success. The kingdom of God continues to be preached world wide, this proclamation surpassing everything that has been known thus far in religious history.
11 By the expression “the kingdom of God” we do not mean the religious organization of Christendom. For the first time in history the religious membership of Christendom has passed the billion mark, the latest published estimate of her membership being given as 1,024,106,500. (See The World Almanac, 1974, page 342.) But this growth has not been achieved by preaching the kingdom of God. It was the churches of Christendom that declared that the League of Nations is “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.” So, as long as that political organization for world peace and security continued, the churches preached the League of Nations. Christendom’s plan or scheme has also been “to put God in government.” For that reason her clergymen dabble in politics, and the clergymen urge their church members to involve themselves to the full in politics, even aspiring to the highest political offices in the land.
12. How do the words and course of Jesus and his disciples reflect on Christendom’s efforts “to put God in government”?
12 However, does Jehovah God want to be put in political government of this world? If He is not already there, why does He have to be put in these human political governments? His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, when asked by a Roman politician, “Are you the king of the Jews?” answered: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.” With reference to his true disciples, this Jesus said: “They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.” (John 18:33-36; 17:14) Neither Jesus nor his true disciples of the first century C.E. made any attempt “to put God in government.” Christendom’s multiplied plans to put the God of the Bible into the political governments of this world prove that she is not preaching the true kingdom of God and that her church members are not true disciples and imitators of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. Christendom is not the visible earthly expression of God’s kingdom.
13. How has Christendom’s plan to convert the world to her churches apparently failed, in spite of revivals and crusades?
13 For centuries Christendom’s plan has been to convert the world of mankind, either by force or by persuasion, and to make them members of her churches. The ostensible idea behind this was to get them to heaven and to save them from going to a place of everlasting conscious torment as disembodied souls. Christendom’s thought, too, was that in this way God’s kingdom would come and his will would be done on earth as in heaven. (Matthew 6:9, 10) But Christendom’s unscriptural plan for world conversion has apparently failed, as the number of non-Christians continues to be more than double that of Christendom’s membership and as antireligious forces, especially Communism, increase and more and more of Christendom’s members become religious hypocrites or nonactive. Her religious revivals and crusades prove to be of short-lived effect.
14. Human plans have been based on what or inspired by what, with what outlook resulting for mankind?
14 Were the survival and salvation of the human race dependent upon the plans of men, all would be lost for mankind. Their multifarious plans are either based on human wisdom or inspired by malicious spirit demons. Self-reliant men might like to pooh-pooh the suggestion, but what was prophesied nineteen hundred years ago is more true today than they care to believe, that in “later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1) Because men have fallen away or deserted from the faith set forth in God’s written Word, they have ignored God’s plainly stated purpose. They are like the first human pair in the Garden of Eden. “This only I have found,” said the wise man Solomon, “that the true God made mankind upright, but they themselves have sought out many plans.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29) Because of the failure of their plans, one after another, they have been obliged to reshape or remake their plans or schemes.
15, 16. The continuing of worldly nations in a United Nations organization is in the nature of what against Jehovah, and what Scriptural warning is there against it?
16 “A wicked man has put on a bold face, but the upright is the one that will firmly establish his ways. There is no wisdom, nor any discernment, nor any counsel in opposition to Jehovah. The horse is something prepared for the day of battle, but salvation belongs to Jehovah.”—Proverbs 21:29-31.
17. What divisive factors dominate the increased number of nations, and why can unification of mankind not come by them?
17 A United Nations organization with its Security Council and its Disarmament Conference is not God’s way for unification of all mankind in a warless and secure earth. Since World War II of 1939-1945 C.E. mankind has been divided up into more national groups than ever before, each group claiming national sovereignty. The division of the human race is increased by language differences, varying customs, opposing political aims and ideologies, and racial and religious prejudices. Self-determination and self-preservation are the dominant factors. World government by man is impossible, and the unifying of all mankind will not come by this means. The world of mankind cannot be united among themselves, for they are not united to the one living and true God, Jehovah. His Son, Jesus Christ, said that the ruler of this world is Satan the Devil, the ruler of the demons. In harmony with that, the Christian apostle Paul said that this ruler of the world is also “the god of this system of things,” who blinds the minds of those not at unity with Jehovah God.—John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4.
18, 19. (a) Where must order and unity be restored, and why? (b) To this end, what has God purposed to carry on “at the full limit of the appointed times”?
19 “He [God] made known to us the sacred secret of his will. It is according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself for an administration at the full limit of the appointed times, namely, to gather all things together again [or, to reunite for himself (under one head) the all things] in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Yes, in him, in union with whom we were also assigned as heirs, in that we were foreordained according to the purpose of him who operates all things according to the way his will counsels.”—Ephesians 1:9-11, NW; Rotherham, Diaglott.
20, 21. (a) In every nation there is complaint on the part of the people against what? (b) What did Solomon show to be the valid reason for the people’s restiveness?
21 “I myself returned that I might see all the acts of oppression that are being done under the sun, and, look! the tears of those being oppressed, but they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, so that they had no comforter. And I congratulated the dead who had already died rather than the living who were still alive.”—Ecclesiastes 4:1, 2. Also Ec 5:8; 7:7.
22. After thousands of years of oppression by human administration, what is the case about comfort and deliverance for mankind?
22 At times the people are driven to act like crazy because of the oppression. (Ecclesiastes 7:7) After thousands of years of oppression, and in the face of world conditions today, it proves to be true that the oppressed people have no comforter from any part of the present worldly administration of human affairs. There is no salvation for them, no deliverance for them, from human sources.
23. According to God’s purpose, how will unification of all the people come about, and what will this mean for them?
23 The need for a better administration or managing of affairs the all-wise God foresaw long ago, and, according to his good pleasure, he purposed to institute such an administration. Under that administrating of affairs by him there will come the unification of all the people. That will mean peace, harmony and security everywhere on earth.
24. Who is the unification agent by whom God will administer things, and what is the definite purpose for this administration?
24 Let us take a look at how God Almighty proceeded to administer affairs. Let us look at the unification agent by means of whom God administers things. That one is God’s Messiah, his Anointed One, the Christ. Hence, the inspired Bible writer points to that one when he says that the administration that is to be set in operation “at the full limit of the appointed times” is for a definite purpose, “namely, to gather all things together again in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Yes, in him, in union with whom we were also assigned as heirs.” (Ephesians 1:9-11) There is a lot of prejudice and animosity toward this Jesus Christ in both the religious and the nonreligious sections of mankind; and yet, what kind of administration are we to expect from God through him?
25, 26. (a) What did Psalm 72 say prophetically regarding the Messiah’s dealing with the poor people? (b) What record is given in Acts 10:37-39 about the relief work done by the Messiah Jesus?
26 “You know the subject that was talked about throughout the whole of Judea, starting from Galilee after the baptism that John preached, namely, Jesus who was from Nazareth, how God anointed him with holy spirit and power, and he went through the land doing good and healing all those oppressed by the Devil; because God was with him. And we are witnesses of all the things he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; but they also did away with him by hanging him on a stake.”—Acts 10:37-39.
27, 28. (a) How did Jesus come to have a double claim upon King David’s kingdom over Israel? (b) In agreement with that, what did Isaiah 9:6, 7 say about the princely rule of the Messiah?
28 “To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom in order to establish it firmly and to sustain it by means of justice and by means of righteousness, from now on and to time indefinite. The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.”—Isaiah 9:6, 7.
29. Thus Messiah’s princely rule will be of what kind, and why will it not come by democratic vote of the people?
30, 31. (a) How did God give a guarantee of the promised government of the Christ? (b) How did Peter bear witness to this fact at Acts 10:40-43?
31 “God raised this One up on the third day and granted him to become manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses appointed beforehand by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after his rising from the dead. Also, he ordered us to preach to the people and to give a thorough witness that this is the One decreed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone putting faith in him gets forgiveness of sins through his name.”—Acts 10:40-43.
32. So God could now proceed to do what gathering work, and with whom as his Agent for reuniting things?
32 That this resurrected Jesus Christ might be able to serve as God’s Agent in reuniting things, God exalted him to the divine throne in the heavens. (Acts 2:33-36; 1 Peter 3:22) Thus God could proceed to “gather all things together again in the Christ,” not only the things on the earth but also the “things in the heavens.” Jesus Christ is thereby a heavenly, superhuman Messiah, with greater powers for doing good in behalf of the people than when he was down here on earth as a perfect man. All mankind will be unified under him as the Head appointed by God the Great Administrator.
33. What did God purpose for the Christ to have associated with him in taking care of human affairs, and so what is first formed on earth?
33 However, God purposed that his Son Jesus Christ should have a body of associates with him in taking care of human affairs. These associates ruling over mankind were to be taken from among mankind. While yet on earth these were to be formed into a congregation having a bond of unity with him. The apostle Paul, when writing to the congregation in Ephesus, continued on to say: “It is according to the operation of the mightiness of [God’s] strength, with which he has operated in the case of the Christ when he raised him up from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above every government and authority and power and lordship and every name named, not only in this system of things, but also in that to come. He also subjected all things under his feet, and made him head over all things to the congregation, which is his body.”—Ephesians 1:19-23.
34. From what sources were members of the “body” to be taken, and how was the barrier in between removed?
34 Now what about the members of this congregation, the “body” of Jesus Christ? Well, it was God’s generous purpose that it should be made up not only of those who had been circumcised Jews but also of those who had been non-Jews or Gentiles. For 1,545 years (from 1513 B.C.E. to 33 C.E.) they had been disunited. The barrier, “the wall in between that fenced them off,” was the Law covenant mediated by the prophet Moses in the year 1513 B.C.E. In the year 33 C.E. Jesus Christ was used by God as the means by which to remove this barrier through his death on the torture stake. As the apostle continues on to say: “By means of his flesh [hung on the torture stake] he abolished the enmity, the Law of commandments consisting in decrees, that he might create the two peoples in union with himself into one new man and make peace; and that he might fully reconcile both peoples in one body to God through the torture stake, because he had killed off the enmity by means of himself.”—Ephesians 2:14-16.
35. (a) When were the uncircumcised Gentiles brought into the congregational “body”? (b) How many members was the body to have?
35 Three and a half years after the removal of the legal barrier, God began bringing Gentiles, non-Jews, into the congregational “body” of Jesus Christ. This God did by sending the apostle Peter to preach the message of the kingdom of God’s Messiah to interested uncircumcised Gentiles. When these accepted the Kingdom message, God anointed them with holy spirit and they got baptized as Christians. (Acts 10:1-48) After that, and especially after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 C.E., many Gentiles were baptized into the congregational “body” of Jesus Christ; thus they were united with him as their spiritual “head.” Just as a human body had a definite number of members in order to be complete, so this congregational “body” of Christ had a definite limited number of members. The last book of the Holy Bible plainly says that the number of “body” members is limited to 12 × 12,000, or 144,000.—Revelation 7:4-8; 14:1-3.
36, 37. (a) Why is there need for a unification work within the congregational “body” of the Christ? (b) For that purpose, what has God through Christ bestowed upon the congregation?
37 “The very one [namely, Jesus Christ] that descended is also the one that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might give fullness to all things. And he gave some [gifts] as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers, with a view to the readjustment of the holy ones, for ministerial work, for the building up of the body of the Christ, until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, . . . speaking the truth, let us by love grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ.”—Ephesians 4:8-15.
38, 39. (a) Why could Christendom not be that “body of the Christ”? (b) Because of the fruitage she has borne, what will happen to her?
38 Christendom makes the claim that she is this “body of the Christ.” But how could such a thing ever be? For after more than sixteen centuries of operation she has ingloriously failed to attain to such Christian unity. She is split a thousand ways, by religious sects, all teaching different conflicting doctrines. She is not one religious “body,” not one church. Her separate religious sects are not the separate or individual branches in the Christ’s “vine.” (John 15:1-8) This is true in spite of Christendom’s World Council of Churches. Christendom’s religion has proved to be one of the most divisive forces in human experience. On this account her record has been a gory one, stinking with human blood.
39 This is not the fruitage of true Christianity. Jesus Christ said: “A good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. Every tree not producing fine fruit gets cut down and thrown into the fire. Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men.” (Matthew 7:18-20) As a rotten tree, Christendom is bound to get cut down shortly and destroyed as if consumed by fire. She will not fare any better than the other members of religious Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion.—Revelation 17:1 through 18:8.
40. What must we say as to whether, because of Christendom’s state, God’s purpose to have a unified congregation has failed?
40 What, then? Has God’s purpose to have a unified congregation that is gathered together in one under the Head Jesus Christ failed? No! Christendom’s unbiblical plans for the future are failing, but not so God’s purpose. He is not depending upon Christendom to furnish the members of the heavenly kingdom, which God will use in administering earthly affairs for the unity of mankind. All those who want to be God’s people He tells to get out of Christendom and out of all the rest of Babylon the Great. (Revelation 18:4) Christendom is not the way into the privileges of the Messianic kingdom of God. The things that she practices debar her from any part in the reuniting work by that heavenly government. The apostle Paul goes on to say to members of God’s true Christian congregation: “You know this, recognizing it for yourselves, that no fornicator or unclean person or greedy person—which means being an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and of God.”—Ephesians 5:5.
41. In spite of opposition by Babylon the Great, what does God now have in unity on earth, and theirs is a gathering of what kind of things?
41 In spite of all the opposition of Christendom and other members of Babylon the Great, yes, in spite of Satan the Devil and his demons with whom God’s true people have a struggle, God has now on earth his remnant, the final ones who are in line to have a part in God’s administering of human affairs through Jesus Christ, their Head. In spite of coming from various races and nations, they are a united congregation, all of them holding unitedly to the one invisible heavenly Head, Jesus Christ. Thus, in their case, God has ‘gathered together again in the Christ’ the “things in the heavens,” inasmuch as even now God has “seated [them] together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus” and they are also heirs of the heavenly Kingdom.—Ephesians 1:10; 2:6.
42. What prophetic command of Christ is the remnant carrying out, and who are now associating with the remnant?
42 Since the end of the Gentile Times in the year 1914 they have unitedly been acting upon Jesus’ prophetic command: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; [after which] the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) Associated with this remnant of Christ’s congregational body are hundreds of thousands of dedicated worshipers of Jehovah God who have obeyed His command to come out of Babylon the Great. (Revelation 7:9-17) All together they are known world wide as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.
43, 44. (a) The time has neared for action by what against what? (b) According to Galatians 4:4, when did God send to earth the one who was to be his Chief Servant in the administration?
44 “When the full limit of the time arrived, God sent forth his Son, who came to be out of a woman and who came to be under law, that he might release by purchase those [Jews] under law, that we, in turn, might receive the adoption as sons. Now because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts and it cries out: ‘Abba, Father!’”—Galatians 4:4-6.
45. At what time did the gathering work begin in its first stage, and why?
45 When God’s Son Jesus Christ was glorified in heaven and founded the Christian congregation at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., the “administration at the full limit of the appointed times” started operation in its first stage, the most essential stage. The congregation of those who were to be associates in the unifying work with Jesus Christ in the heavens had to be gathered and unified under its Head, God’s Chief Servant. In this way “the things in the heavens,” the things destined for the heavens, would be ‘gathered together again in the Christ,’ so that the “body” used by God in his administration might be complete.—Ephesians 1:9-11.
46, 47. (a) When did the due time arrive for the second feature of God’s “administration,” namely, the gathering together in Christ of “the things on the earth”? (b) From then onward the second stage of the gathering work went into operation under whose “administration”?
46 However, according to God’s purpose, the due time must come for the second feature of his “administration,” namely, to ‘gather together again in the Christ’ “the things on the earth.” This time arrived when the Gentile Times came to their fulfillment in autumn of the year 1914 C.E. There the time came for the Messianic Kingdom rule as formerly exercised by King David over in the Middle East to be reinstated, not in earthly Jerusalem, but in the heavens.
47 In heaven, at God’s right hand, was where the permanent Heir of King David was now located, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it was that Jehovah installed this heavenly Heir of King David on the throne, with royal power not just over the territory of ancient Israel but over all the earth, over all mankind for whom Jesus Christ had died as a perfect human sacrifice. Thereby the Kingdom of the Messiah went into operation. At that time, in a culminating way, the “full limit of the appointed times” had been reached when the “administration” that God was conducting ‘should gather together again in the Christ’ the estranged “things on the earth.” This would be the second stage of the gathering or uniting work according to God’s purpose.
48. In view of unification failures on a large scale since 1914, what must go in its entirety?
48 In 1914 World War I broke out, dividing the world into two opposing economic, political camps. The postwar League of Nations failed to unify mankind. Now the United Nations continues to fail in unifying mankind. It was Christendom, the most powerful religious organization on earth, that failed to prevent two world wars, and, till now, she has failed to unify mankind in true peace and security. Not just these political and religious organizations will have to go, but the whole man-made system of things. It will go completely in the coming “great tribulation” such as mankind has never before experienced.—Matthew 24:21, 22.
49. What is the only means for the salvation of the human race, and what kind of prospects now lie ahead of mankind?
49 The Only means of salvation for us humans is the heavenly Messianic kingdom, which God purposed ever since our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned in the garden of Eden and disunited themselves from God their Creator. (Genesis 3:15; Romans 16:20) Now that the “full limit of the appointed times” has been reached in a complete sense, we find ourselves in a day with the finest of prospects ahead!
50. Who on earth today are hailing the Kingdom, and how are they showing where they stand as to rulership?
50 Shortly there will be completed the full membership of the heavenly Kingdom, the 144,000 Kingdom heirs under their Head, Jesus Christ. God’s unchanged purpose with regard to this Messianic kingdom will succeed, with glory, honor and vindication for Himself. Already a crowd of people from everywhere on earth discern that God has put the Kingdom in heavenly power, and they hail it joyfully and with loyal devotion. This crowd is already great, but it is still increasing as “this good news of the kingdom” continues to be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations. (Matthew 24:14) To prove where they now stand, they wholeheartedly join the still surviving remnant of Kingdom heirs in this preaching and in giving this worldwide witness.
51. So why may it be said that the work of gathering together the things on the earth under Christ has begun?
51 The last book of the Bible envisions this “great crowd” as giving their first attention to the heavenly throne of Jehovah God and to his Chief Servant used in his administration and crying out gratefully: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9, 10) Although this “great crowd” is made up of people from all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues, they seek to be unified under God’s Chief Servant, Jesus Christ. They are at unity with the Kingdom remnant and are at unity among themselves. Unitedly they worship God at his spiritual temple and render to him sacred service day and night. So it may be said that, already, in this unified “great crowd,” the work of ‘gathering all the things on the earth’ into the Christ has begun, in accord with God’s “administration.” What a reassuring token of things soon to come!—Revelation 7:14-17.
52. What will this “great crowd” survive, and why will Satan and his demons be unable to interfere with their restoring of Paradise?
52 The last book of the Bible also gives assurance that this “great crowd” of worshipers of the one living and true God will come out of the “great tribulation” as survivors of this world calamity with which the whole earthly man-made system of things will be brought to an end as a complete failure. The thrilling task of transforming all the earth into a Paradise garden will stretch out before them. Satan the Devil and his spirit demons will be unable to interfere with this peaceful beautification work, for they will be bound and isolated in an abyss from which they cannot interfere with what goes on here on earth. Protectively over the “great crowd” on earth there will be the heavenly Messianic kingdom with authority to regulate earth’s affairs for a thousand years.—Revelation 20:1-6.
53. (a) For the gathering together again of all the “things on the earth” into unity under Christ, what will be required? (b) How will the resisters of the unification be dealt with?
53 Thus God’s new order on earth will start off with a unified human society. But the unification work of the heavenly Messianic kingdom will not then be over. Throughout the millennium of its reign over the earth there must take place the miraculous resurrection of the human dead for whom Jesus Christ died as a ransom sacrifice. (1 Timothy 2:5, 6; John 1:29, 36) These billions of resurrected humans will all have to be brought together into a unity under Jesus Christ, the Chief Servant in God’s “administration.” The ultimate purpose of this is to bring about at length their unification with the Universal Sovereign, Jehovah God. This will require the uplifting of all the obedient ones of mankind to the human perfection such as Adam and Eve had at their creation in the Garden of Eden. All the disobedient resisters of such unification, yes, too, Satan and his demons, will be destroyed everlastingly, never again to be disturbers of the peace.—Revelation 20:7-15; Acts 24:15.
54. With what are we comforted today, and to the success of what do we look forward, with blessings in store?
54 All honor to the Supreme Administrator, Jehovah God! He not only purposes but also faithfully fulfills his purpose. Let us all take courage, then! Although we see all human plans for earth’s administration disastrously failing today, we are comforted with the blessed knowledge of God’s all-excellent purpose. Confidently we look forward to seeing and experiencing the success of God’s purpose. Forever we expect to enjoy the endless blessings therefrom! | 2019-04-18T12:43:59Z | https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101974001 |
Auxiliaries are extremely important for navies of all sizes, as without them, the primary fleet vessels cannot be effective.
In World War II, HMS Plinlimmon was converted to a minesweeper and based at Granton on the Firth of Forth Went to Dunkirk, served on the Tyne and later went to Harwich as an accommodation ship. Returned to owners in 1946 but broken up at Grays in 1947.
An ammunition ship is a warship specially configured to carry ammunition. Their cargo handling systems, designed with extreme safety in mind, include ammunition hoists with airlocks between decks, and mechanisms for flooding entire compartments with sea water in case of emergencies. They most often deliver their cargo to other ships using underway replenishment, using both connected replenishment and vertical replenishment. To a lesser extent, they transport ammunition from one shore-based weapons station to another.
Airedale. Beryl. Brown. D’arcy. Edme. Fraternity. Gift.
Motor Water Barge – Harwich 1941.
Stores Barge – Harwich 1941.
Admiral’s Barge – Harwich 1941.
Motor Dispatch Barge – Harwich 1941.
A Danlayer was a type of vessel assigned to minesweeping flotillas they were usually small trawlers, fitted for the purpose of laying dans. Dan laying was an important part of minesweeping, and boats were fitted specifically for this purpose. The task of a danlayer was to follow the minesweepers as they worked an area, and lay the dans which defined the area swept and made it obvious where the clear channels were. This would also help the minesweepers cover areas accurately without gaps and unnecessary overlaps.
Shila, Signa , Silva, Shova, Spina.
Degaussing is the process of decreasing or eliminating a remnant magnetic field. It is possibly named after the Gauss unit of magnetism. Degaussing was originally applied to reduce ships’ magnetic signatures during WWII. Degaussing is also used to reduce magnetic fields in CRT monitors and to destroy data held on magnetic data storage.
Fishing trawlers were designed to tow heavy trawls, so they were easily adapted to tow minesweepers, with the crew and layout already suited to the task. Drifters were robust boats built, like trawlers, to work in most weather conditions, but designed to deploy and retrieve drift nets. They were generally smaller and slower than trawlers.
Examination drifter, Adty No 2495. Built 1910, 78grt, Banff-reg BF.175. In service 4.15-1919 as net vessel.
Examination Drifter, Nore Command 1941.
1925 sold to Alexander Smith Buckie.
1927 sold to G. “Swanson” Smith, Gordonsburgh & others.
1934 sold to Alexander & Arthur Smith, Buckie.
1940-1945 Requisitioned for war service as a minesweeper & auxiliary patrol vessel.
Maida was a 107 GRT hired drifter sunk by a mine off the East Coast of Scotland on the 6th March 1940. 4 people were lost from boat.
Hired drifter, Adty No 1333. Built 1915, 77grt, Lowestoft-reg LT.184. In service 12.17-1919.
Ocean Scout (LT10) was a hired Torpedo Recovery Drifter launched in 1913.
Orion was a hired drifter, Adty No 2280. Built 1906, 70grt, In service 4.15-1919 as net vessel, minesweeper. Renamed Orion II May 1915.
Sea Holly was a Admiralty wood drifter, Adty No, 3883, building programme began May 1917, average cost of hull and machinery £11,500. Delivered 15.6.18, Armament: 1‑6pdr. Served as minesweeper. Renamed Columbine 11.19. sold 1925, renamed Sea Holly 1927.
Sternus was a LL Drifter launched in 1919.
1911: Ordered by J. T. C. & F. J. Salmon, Gt Yarmouth.
1.1930: Sold to John Victor Breach , Lowestoft.
9.2.1938: Sold to Explorator Ltd , Lowestoft .
15.11.1939: Requisitioned for war service as a Minesweeper.
1942: based Harwich LL sweep drifter.
23.5.1945: sold to County Fishing Co Ltd , Lowestoft .
1953: sold for breaking up.
Sunbeam II (YH279) was a hired Torpedo Recovery Drifter launched in 1916.
Sweet Promise (LT595) was a LL Drifter launched in 1893 by R.Kitto & Son.
Swift II was a hired Drifter launched in 1907 by Montrose.
Three Kings (LT517) was a LL Drifter launched in 1912 by J0hn Duthie.
Minesweeping drifter built in 1919.
A Fireboat is a specialised watercraft and with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with fire fighting equipment. Older designs derived from tugboats and modern fireboats more closely resembling seafaring ships can both be found in service today.
They are frequently used for fighting fires on docks and shore side warehouses as they can directly attack fires in the supporting underpinnings of these structures. They also have an effectively unlimited supply of water available, pumping directly from below the hull.
A Floating Dry-dock is a type of pontoon for dry docking ships, possessing floodable buoyancy chambers and a “U”-shaped cross-section. The walls are used to give the Dry dock stability when the floor or deck is below the surface of the water. When valves are opened, the chambers fill with water, causing the Dry-dock to float lower in the water. The deck becomes submerged and this allows a ship to be moved into position inside. When the water is pumped out of the chambers, the Dry dock rises and the ship is lifted out of the water.
A wide variety of ships – merchant and naval – could be seen from vantage points on Harwich Pier and all of the way around to Parkeston Quay. One of the more interesting craft was the floating dock, which arrived in March 1912 and took up its moorings of Shotley. It was built of iron and the admission of water into its watertight compartments enabled it to be sunk to the required depth so vessels could float in easily to be docked. It was big enough to accommodate two destroyers side by side and by pumping out water the vessels could be propped up to create a dry dock for repair, examination and maintenance.
Harwich from 1951 to 1954 and after that was used at a few locations on S coast.
Motor Gun Boat was a Royal Navy term for a small military vessel of the Second World War. Such boats were physically similar to Motor Torpedo Boats, but equipped with a mix of guns instead of torpedoes. Their small size and high speed made them difficult targets for E-boats or torpedo bombers, but they were particularly vulnerable to mines and heavy weather. The large number of guns meant the crew was relatively large, numbering as high as thirty men.
HMS Locust was one of 4 Dragonfly-class river gunboats of the Royal Navy, Launched on 28 September 1939 and commissioned on 17 May 1940, she survived the Second World War despite being severely damaged many times, including taking a shell hit during Operation Overlord.
Locust had a central role in Operation Jubilee, the Dieppe Raid in August 1942. She was commanded by Commander Robert Ryder, who had previously attacked the Drydock in Operation Chariot, the St Nazaire Raid. Locust carried about 200 Royal Marine Commandos.
Locust was used as a Landing Ship HQ ship at Normandy in 1944, Harwich in May 1945 and Holland May to June 1945.
She was placed in reserve from 1946 until 1951 when she was converted to a drill ship for the Royal Naval Reserve and used for training. She was decommissioned in 1968 and sold on 24 May 1968 to Cashmore for breaking. She was broken up in Newport.
Harbor support is a critical support role, with various types of vessels including tugboats, barges, lighters, derricks, and others, used to move ships and equipment around the port facilities, and depot ships and tenders to service ships currently in the harbour. These vessels also help maintain the harbor by dredging channels, maintaining jetties and buoys, and even providing floating platforms for port defense weapons.
Water Boat, capsized off Normandy, June 14, 1944.
Ex- MTB 5 60” Reclassified Minesweeper Attendant Craft MAC 5 in 1940 Mined and sunk off The Gunfleet sands (near the Thames estuary) on 26 December 1940.
Examination Service – Harwich 1941.
NSCO’s boat – Harwich 1941.
Trinity House vessel, built in 1935 by Cammell Laird.
Dapper, Jeff, Mutt, Prinlo, Salvager, Wrangler.
In the first week of June 1944 she was based at Harwich. She was in 17 LCT Flotilla, H Squadron, and Force.
An armed yacht was a yacht that was armed with weapons and was typically in the service of a navy. Their speed and manoeuvrability made them useful as patrol vessels. Armed yachts served as patrol vessels during World War I. In the latter conflict, armed yachts were used as patrol vessels, convoy escorts, and in anti-submarine duties.
Jumbo was a motor yacht of timber carvel construction, pitch pine on oak frames with a Coventry diesel engine type KF. She was built in 1923 by Wm. Haywood of Leigh on Sea. The vessel was built for a master stevedore for pleasure and kept at Brightlingsea where it cruised the English Channel.
HMS Severn was a Humber-class monitor of the Royal Navy. Originally built by Vickers and launched on the 19th August 1913. She had a relatively successful career during the First World War with at least three engagements. At the Battle of the Yser in 1914, off the coast of Belgium, she bombarded German troops as well as artillery positions. On 10 October 1914, she survived an attack by the submarine U-8 when a torpedo passed under the shallow draught vessel. In early 1915, the twin turret was removed and replaced by two shielded single 6 inch guns fore and aft. In July 1915, she was towed to the Rufiji River delta in German East Africa where she and Mersey then assisted in the destruction of the German light cruiser SMS Königsberg.
A Motor launch (ML) is a small military vessel in British navy service. It was designed for Harbour defence and submarine chasing or for armed high speed air-sea rescue.
HMS ML 216 was a Fairmile B class Motor Launch built by Lady Bee Ltd, Shoreham and Commissioned on the 28th May 1941. She Foundered off the English East coast on 28 September 1944 after being mined and damaged.
Once the need for the “small fleet of mosquito boats” was recognized the British acted quickly in contracting American companies to provide a solution. The Electric Launch Company, Elco, was well-suited to the task of quickly turning out standardized, reliable craft en masse.
Fate. Destroyed at Harwich by fire.
Foundered off the English East coast on 28 September 1944 after being mined and damaged.
Sold to Clunies Shipping Company in 1948 and converted to a cargo vessel, she was stranded off Punta Mogotes on passage to Italy on the 21st April 1949.
HMS Dodman Point was a Beachy Head Class Repair Ship built by Burrard Dry Dock, Vancouver, Canada and launched on the 14th April 1945. she was sold for scrap on the 16th April 1963.
Mull of Galloway was a repair Ship of the Beachy Head class of the royal navy. Launched on 26 October 1944, built by North Vancouver Ship Repairs Ltd. (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada). Mull of Galloway re-commissioned in 1954, to become the Inshore Minesweeping Flotilla Headquarters ship and carried out that role until 1957 when she was placed in Reserve.
25/8/1956. Wives, children and sweethearts of men serving on H.M.S. Mull of Galloway were at Harwich Quay, to watch the vessel leave for an unknown destination in the Mediterranean. The ship was wearing the broad pennant of its new commanding officer, Commodore C.W. McMullen, D.S.O and Bar, who was recently appointed to succeed Commodore John Lee-Barber, D.S.O R.N.
In 1965 she finally left Portsmouth on-route to Hamburg for Breaking Up.
Nore Command – Harwich 1941.
Forde . Foremost 18. Freija.
Seaplane Carrier is a ship that provides facilities for operating seaplanes. These ships were the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War.
These carriers had hangars for storing and maintaining the aircraft, but no flight deck as in a true aircraft carrier. Instead, they used cranes to lower the aircraft into the sea for take off and to recover them after landing. The ships were normally converted merchant vessels rather than specially constructed for the task.
HMS Ark Royal was the first ship in history designed and built as a seaplane carrier. She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1914 shortly after her keel had been laid. In World War I, Ark Royal participated in the Gallipoli Campaign in early 1915 with her aircraft conducting aerial reconnaissance and observation missions. Her aircraft later supported British troops on the Macedonian Front in 1916, before she returned to the Dardanelles to act as a depot ship for all the seaplanes operating in the area. In January 1918, several of her aircraft unsuccessfully attacked the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben when she sortied from the Dardanelles to attack Allied ships in the area. The ship left the area later in the year to support seaplanes conducting anti-submarine patrols over the southern Aegean Sea.
After the end of the war, Ark Royal mostly served as an aircraft transport and depot ship for those aircraft in support of White Russian and British operations against the Bolsheviks in the Caspian and Black Sea regions. She also supported Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft in British Somaliland in the campaign against the Mad Mullah in 1920. Later that year, the ship was placed in reserve. Ark Royal was recommissioned to ferry an RAF squadron to the Dardanelles during the Chanak crisis in 1922. She was reduced to reserve again upon her return to the United Kingdom the following year.
Ark Royal was recommissioned in 1930 to serve as a training ship for seaplane pilots and to evaluate aircraft catapult operations and techniques. She was renamed HMS Pegasus in 1934 and continued to serve as a training ship until the beginning of World War II in September 1939. Pegasus served in this role until mid-1941 when she reverted to her previous duties as a training ship. This lasted until early 1944 when she became a barracks ship. The ship was sold in late 1946 and her conversion into a merchant ship began the following year. However, the owner ran out of money during the process and Anita I, as she had been renamed, was seized by her creditors in 1949 and sold for scrap. She was not broken up until 1949.
Built as SS Empress for the South East and Chatham Railway Co., Empress was requisitioned for service during World War I by the Admiralty on 11 August 1914, and was commissioned on 25 August. she was converted by Chatham Dockyard to carry and operate three seaplanes.Empress was assigned to the Harwich Force along with Engadine and Riviera. On Christmas Day 1914, nine aircraft from all three ships took part in the Cuxhaven Raid on hangars housing Zeppelin airships. Seven of the nine seaplanes successfully took off for the attack, but they inflicted little damage.
She was returned to her owners in November 1919 and was sold to the Société Anoynyme de Gérance et d’Armament of France in 1923. Empress was scrapped in France in 1933.
HMS Engadine was a seaplane tender converted from the cross-Channel packet ship SS Engadine, she was initially fitted with temporary hangars for three seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance and bombing missions in the North Sea. She participated in the unsuccessful Cuxhaven Raid in late 1914 before she began a more thorough conversion in 1915 that increased her capacity to four aircraft.
Engadine was purchased in February 1915 by the Admiralty and she was modified by Cunard at Liverpool from 10 February to 23 March 1915 with a permanent, four-aircraft, hangar in the rear superstructure and a pair of cranes were mounted at the rear of the hangar to hoist the seaplanes in and out of the water.
Upon completion of the modifications on 1 September, Engadine was assigned to the Harwich Force along with the seaplane tenders Empress and Riviera. On Christmas Day 1914, nine aircraft from all three ships took part in the Cuxhaven Raid on hangars housing Zeppelin airships.
She was sold back to her original owners in 1919 and resumed her pre-war role. Engadine was sold in 1933 to a Philippine company and renamed SS Corregidor. She was sunk with heavy loss of life by a mine in December 1941 during the invasion of the Philippines at the beginning of the Pacific War.
HMS Riviera was a seaplane tender which was converted from the cross-Channel packet ship SS Riviera, she was initially fitted with temporary hangars for three seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance and bombing missions in the North Sea.
Sold in 1932 and renamed RMTS Laird’s Isle for service in the Irish Sea, she was requisitioned again in 1939 by the Admiralty for service as an armed boarding vessel to enforce the British blockade of Germany. The ship became a training ship in 1940 and was then converted in 1944 into a troop transport for amphibious landings. HMS Laird’s Isle was returned to her owners after the war and resumed her service in the Irish Sea until she was sold for scrap in 1957.
HMS Vindex was a Royal Navy seaplane carrier during the First World War. The ship was built in 1905 by Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle upon Tyne as the Viking, a fast passenger ferry for the Isle of Man Steam Packet. Viking was requisitioned by the Royal Navy on 26 March 1915 for conversion to a seaplane carrier, and was purchased outright on 11 November 1915. She was renamed HMS Vindex to avoid confusion with the destroyer HMS Viking. Vindex was assigned to the Harwich Force in November 1915 and operated in the North Sea through 1917.
The ship was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet at Malta in 1918, where she served until she was paid off in late 1919. Vindex was originally intended to be retained for service with the fleet after the end of the war, but this proved to be too expensive and she was sold back to her original owners on 12 February 1920 and reverted to her original name. She was requisitioned again in 1939 and served through the Second World War as a troopship, but not as HMS Vindex. The ship was returned to her owners in 1945 and was finally sold for scrap in 1954.
HMS Fitzroy was a Hunt Class Survey Ship was launched on Tuesday 14th April 1919 by Lobnitz & Company Renfrew.
HMS Franklin was a Halcyon-class minesweeper commissioned in 1938 as a survey ship. She served as such throughout World War II, continuing in that role until decommissioned in 1953.
The ship was built by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, Troon, with engines provided by Thornycroft of Woolston. She was laid down on 17 December 1936 and launched on 22 December 1937. As a survey ship she differed from the others in her class by having a larger bridge and a surveying chartroom aft. During the war the ship was armed with a single 12-pounder anti-aircraft gun forward.
Franklin was commissioned on 17 August 1938, and carried out surveys off the Thames Estuary. In June 1939 she was sent to survey St. Lewis Inlet, Newfoundland, but in August was ordered home in anticipation of the outbreak of World War II. During the war she carried out surveys around the coast of the UK, mostly in connection with the laying of minefields. In June 1944, under the command of Lt.Cdr. Edmund George Irving, she was deployed off the French coast, following the Normandy landings, surveying ports as they fell to Allied forces. By November she was surveying the entrance to the Scheldt.
On 20 December 1916, the first meeting of the Merchant Shipbuilding Advisory Committee took place where it was decided that an extensive shipbuilding programme should be started, the ships to be of a simple design and as far as possible to be of a standard type as regards hulls and engines. These new vessels for the Government were given a standard nomenclature, the prefix to their names being WAR. 821 vessels were ordered from U.K. yards and abroad and 416 were completed to Government order, 279 were sold and transferred to private owners before completion and the remainder were cancelled. They were all modified versions of the A and B Class standard dry cargo ships, known as the Z Class. All had 2 large dry cargo holds, 6 of them had 5 cargo tanks and the remaining 9 had 7 cargo tanks, specially designed for the carriage of heavy fuel oil. Most of them were initially under commercial management.
Empire Reserve was a 5,693 GRT tanker built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne. Completed in 1916 as Mytilus for Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co Ltd. Requisitioned by MOWT in 1941. Arrived on 14 August 1942 at Harwich, for use as an oil fuel depot. Intended to be renamed Empire Reserve but name not taken up. Returned to Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co Ltd in 1946 and towed to Plaju, Indonesia. Used as a floating oil depot, before being scrapped in November 1950 in Bombay.
19 November 1941 sailed from Methil in convoy FS 650 towards Southend cargo for the destroyer force at Harwich.
22 November 1941 while in the above convoy was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea off Great Yarmouth by German E-Boat S104. The tug Superman arrived to take her in tow to Yarmouth but she broke her back and sank. Her crew of 45 were all saved. | 2019-04-22T00:51:30Z | http://www.harwichanddovercourt.co.uk/warships/repair-ships/ |
Two site stewards write their observations on a CASSP site visit form at a prehistoric site in the Sierras.
For several years, volunteer site stewardship has been recognized as an effective way to help protect archaeological and historical resources and several site stewardship programs have been developed throughout the United States. A 2007 survey by Sophia Kelly, published by the National Park Service as Technical Brief 22, listed many of the state programs and identified key elements of volunteer site stewardship. During the last four years, however, many changes have occurred, especially in program budgets. The California Archaeological Site Stewardship Program (CASSP) is one program that has adapted to these changes. In an effort to better understand how site stewardship programs achieve their goals, this article examines some of the current characteristics and practices of CASSP.
A working group within the Society for California Archaeology (SCA) started CASSP in 1999 with the goal of training volunteers at two Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Field Offices to help protect sites in those resource areas. Initially, it was not certain if CASSP would go beyond these first two workshops. Gradually, public land management agencies and local communities responded with greater interest and funding.
Since 1999, almost one thousand people have participated in more than fifty CASSP training workshops held all across California. Last year, about three hundred active volunteer stewards reviewed the physical conditions of nearly four hundred sites and districts and reported their findings to agency archaeologists. Stewards help identify problems before they become more serious and, consequently, more expensive to fix. Their presence also helps deter inappropriate behavior by visitors (Figure 1).
In California, volunteer site stewards are based in nine BLM Field Offices, six National Forests, five units of the National Park Service, and several State Parks Districts and State Vehicular Recreation Areas. Hundreds of CASSP volunteers work on public lands, but CASSP is not a government program. It is a program of the Society for California Archaeology, a nonprofit organization.
CASSP has three clients: sites, agency archaeologists, and volunteer site stewards. The program helps to protect archaeological and historical sites on public lands, assists the agency archaeologists in monitoring the sites that they are responsible for, and provides opportunities for the volunteers to have a meaningful experience. When these goals overlap, CASSP creates a win-win for the public agencies, archaeologists, and volunteers.
To achieve these goals, CASSP follows five main principles: attract good volunteers; maintain a consistent structure, but be flexible; decentralize; focus; and food. Each is important, but the first one is absolutely essential.
Principle 1. Attract good volunteers.
Good volunteers are people who are sincerely interested in and committed to protecting sites. Good volunteers are self-selected by meeting several thresholds. In order to become a site steward, applicants must complete a training course (Figure 2). The training is a formal, two-day workshop held over the weekend at the public land management agency where the volunteers may work. The workshop fee is $25 per person, and applicants have to register one week in advance. Workshop participants also sign an agreement to keep specific site location information confidential. By completing the training, applicants demonstrate their commitment to site preservation, and we treat them with the respect they deserve.
We offer a “free trial” of site stewardship on the second day of the workshop. After completing the classroom sessions on the first day and signing a confidentiality agreement, the participants take a field trip on the second day to several recorded archaeological sites. At each site, we talk about a site steward’s duties and encourage one or more of the workshop participants to complete the monitoring form, which is then turned over to the host archaeologist as the first volunteer reports on the site (Figure 3). For an example of the CASSP monitoring form, please see pages 6 and 7 of this article.
To attract committed volunteers, it is essential to respect the participants. We do this by providing name badges at the workshops to both the volunteers and to everyone helping to run the workshop. The badges help break down barriers between strangers and can be used to introduce people to each another.
We show respect by keeping the workshops on time and on topic. We start at 9:00 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. Speakers are given definite time limits that are enforced by the workshop moderators. Time limits are also enforced by requesting that questions and discussion be deferred until break time or lunch and, if necessary, by going to the front of the room and politely sliding into the speaker’s personal space until they get the message and wrap things up (this is not always easy when the speaker is a uniformed supervisor or law enforcement officer but it helps that we do not work in their office). Staying on time shows that we think that the volunteers’ time is valuable, even if they are just starting their training.
We follow an agenda that is printed on the first page of the workshop notebook. This plan allows us to make sure that all necessary topics are covered, ensuring that the volunteers receive the full value of attending. Completing the agenda also demonstrates right from the beginning that CASSP makes measurable progress, and that volunteers can make similar progress as site stewards who are preserving cultural resources.
The number of participants at each workshop is limited to 25 people, in addition to speakers and agency staff. This is the maximum number we can effectively address and engage at one time. When the number of participants is 25 or less, everyone who attends has the chance to ask questions and become involved in the discussions.
We maintain contact with the volunteers and workshop participants after their training has been completed. The second day of the workshop ends with a group picture, which we print and send to everyone with a handwritten thank you note, as well as an evaluation form with a return-addressed stamped envelope. We are genuinely interested in participants’ comments about the workshop and their suggestions on improving the program. We also want the volunteers to know that we enjoyed meeting them and that they are an important part of a statewide organization.
The CASSP newsletter is printed and mailed to everyone who requested it or has participated in a workshop in the past five years. It is also sent by e-mail as a PDF and archived on the CASSP web site (www.cassp.org). The web site contains several sections, including a description of CASSP and information for potential volunteers, current volunteers, and agencies. CASSP also maintains a listserv ([email protected]) and provides presentations and articles (like this one) to other organizations.
We provide the agency archaeologist who hosts the workshop with copies of the volunteers’ candidate forms and confidentiality agreements and from this we create a contact list. We write thank you letters to the archaeologist and to the supervisors in the host agency (with the group photo of the workshop participants included). This helps bring closure to the workshop and highlights the agency archaeologists’ role with the volunteers to their supervisors.
Principle 2. Maintain a consistent structure, but be flexible.
The format for the workshops and structure of the program is the same for each office and agency while still allowing for flexibility with the details. For example, the program outlines the duties of a site steward to visit his or her assigned site and to record any observations, but the program is very adaptable concerning frequency of visits and the form of the report. For the workshops, while we provide an agenda, the schedule can adapt to the background and concerns of the audience and speakers. For instance, agency law enforcement officers are scheduled on the workshop agenda, but their patrol duties may change their availability, so we adjust the agenda accordingly.
We provide a turnkey structure, but workshop locations and participants vary greatly, from conference rooms to tribal council rooms to camping out in the desert. Flexibility with the details means we can be more responsive to local needs and talents. In the workshops, there are standard components that are used every time and at every location, and then there are custom-made ones, such as information about the local archaeology and history, which help make the training more relevant to those who will be local volunteers (Figure 4). Standardization reduces effort and expense and enables volunteers to train at one location and work at another that is closer to home.
Decentralization means that the volunteer site stewards work under local control and for the archaeologist at the local agency, not for the CASSP office in southern California or for the SCA office in northern California. Supervision of the volunteers is the responsibility of the agency archaeologists, as they will provide the daily contact and oversight for their volunteers.
The workshop training reinforces decentralization. While the workshop organizers and presenters initially are the center of attention, the focus shifts through the morning from the organizers to the agency archaeologist and other speakers as they give presentations about local cultural resources and other topics.
After lunch, we move the center of attention from the speakers to the volunteers. We create a list of items (on the white board and in the workshop notebooks) that should be carried on a volunteer’s site visits. We do an exercise in which the participants practice their observation skills by writing down their description of one of the presenters as a “perpetrator.” Then we break into small groups to discuss how to react in situations that one could face as a site steward (Figure 5). There are no easy or obvious answers and after 30 minutes, each group has to report back to the whole workshop and discuss their choices. By this stage, the participants are doing almost all of the talking as they lead the discussions. On the field trip, the workshop participants see actual archaeological sites and make their own discoveries. They also develop the habit of conversing with the archaeologist who will be their supervisor about specific site conditions and the general archaeological background.
It is easy to be distracted by other worthy activities but CASSP tries to narrow its activities to a few specific ones in order to be as efficient and effective as possible. CASSP focuses on its clients and primary goals and if a proposed activity does not serve all three clients, then it is not pursued. Even if they are worthy, the program cannot spend time and resources trying to do activities that are outside the site stewardship scope and experience.
· CASSP is not a certification program, university extension, or field school.
· CASSP does not train individuals to monitor construction projects or activities for archaeological evidence.
· CASSP does not provide site interpretation or other public education at a site.
· CASSP does not create mitigation strategies or cultural resource evaluations.
Instead, CASSP concentrates on volunteer training for site stewards to visit assigned sites and report on their conditions. Many volunteers will work with their agency archaeologists on other valuable tasks that help protect cultural resources. When that happens, it strengthens the program but it is not something that the program requires, expects, or is able to spend resources on.
The fifth principle for a successful site stewardship program is food. CASSP provides lunch on the first day of the volunteer training workshop when people spend all day in a classroom setting. We initially did this to save time and to keep up our momentum but soon recognized this as an important tool for creating a comfortable atmosphere. Food is fun; everyone enjoys a good sandwich or a tasty spinach salad or an extra bite-sized brownie. When sharing a meal, people feel more comfortable asking questions and participating in discussions. The lunch is fresh and simple, with plenty of choices. Sandwiches, salads, and beverages for 25 people can be provided for a total cost of about $200. We bring sandwich bags and save leftovers as snacks for the next day’s field trip.
The final point, which is actually incorporated into all the principles, is to remove barriers. The Society for California (SCA) is the statewide professional society for archaeologists in California. Members of the public can also join and are encouraged to do so. As the sponsor of CASSP, the SCA offers everyone who takes the volunteer training for site stewards a free first-year membership. This helps introduce the SCA to people who may want to continue with paying memberships and for many people, it opens a door to archaeological lectures, research, and professional papers. It is common to see people at the annual meetings of the SCA wearing name badges with the “CASSP” affiliation.
· Committed and serious volunteers often go beyond site stewardship by, for example, assisting in fieldwork and helping to repair vandalized sites.
· In the training workshops and when doing site stewardship, volunteers have opportunities to talk to people with whom they normally do not interact. The workshops attract a diverse group of people, such as students, retired people, hikers, bikers, off-highway vehicle users, Native Americans, and community old-timers and newcomers. We start with everyone introducing themselves, then ask questions, share lunch and encourage involvement in discussions. During the workshop, participants find common interests and experiences to share with each other. Conversations are made easier because everyone at the workshop shares the same status: everyone is new to the local archaeology or to the site stewardship program.
· Volunteers bring greater visibility to cultural resource concerns at agencies. As the volunteer site stewards come to the public agency office, their visits to the agency archaeologist are noticed. Management soon realizes that these people are not coming to lodge a complaint, but are instead coming to help the agency comply with its responsibilities for cultural resources.
· In turn, these volunteers gain a greater awareness of the goals, tasks, and constraints of the U.S. Forests, BLM, and parks where they volunteer.
· CASSP has brought academic and consulting archaeologists into activities with public volunteers. We often ask other archaeology and anthropology professors and consultants to provide their expertise for CASSP advanced training workshops. They do not pay the workshop fee and can participate in the complete workshop where they continue to informally share their knowledge and answer any questions from the participants. Established volunteer site stewards are also invited to return to workshops (without paying the fee again) to inspire new volunteers with their enthusiasm and experience (Figure 6).
This article has described some of the principles and practices that have been useful for CASSP. Other programs will differ because they face different challenges and opportunities and have different needs and funding sources. By sharing experiences, site stewardship programs across the country can generate critical thinking and discussion about how public volunteers can best help protect cultural resources. As a result, a national coalition of site stewardship programs is emerging to share expertise, identify opportunities of economies of scale, attract new funding sources, and provide a focus where agencies can find out how site stewardship may be useful for them. Site stewardship programs have to maintain current best practices while being receptive to change, in order to better protect sites, assist agencies, and benefit volunteers. Stay tuned.
Please keep me informed through email. This sounds like an intresting program. | 2019-04-24T07:09:40Z | https://www.archaeological.org/news/hca/7783 |
To improve the quality of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) the CR guideline from the Dutch Royal Society for Physiotherapists (KNGF) has been updated. This guideline can be considered an addition to the 2011 Dutch Multidisciplinary CR guideline, as it includes several novel topics.
A systematic literature search was performed to formulate conclusions on the efficacy of exercise-based interventions during all CR phases in patients with CHD. Evidence was graded (1–4) according the Dutch evidence-based guideline development (EBRO) criteria. In case of insufficient scientific evidence, recommendations were based on expert opinion. This guideline comprised a structured approach including assessment, treatment and evaluation.
Recommendations for exercise-based CR were formulated covering the following topics: preoperative physiotherapy, mobilisation during the clinical phase, aerobic exercise, strength training, and relaxation therapy during the outpatient rehabilitation phase, and adoption and monitoring of a physically active lifestyle after outpatient rehabilitation.
There is strong evidence for the effectiveness of exercise-based CR during all phases of CR. The implementation of this guideline in clinical practice needs further evaluation as well as the maintenance of an active lifestyle after supervised rehabilitation.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the most common causes of mortality in the Netherlands, with mortality rates of 5724 in men and 4125 for women, in the year 2011 . Multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation (CR) reduces mortality rates by 32 % . The main goals of CR are to increase physical and psychosocial recovery after a cardiac event and to reduce the risk for recurrent cardiac events by improving lifestyle (‘cardiovascular risk management’) [3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
Exercise training constitutes an important part of CR and is usually conducted by physiotherapists (PTs). The intervention is aimed at improving exercise capacity and optimising daily physical functioning in relation to individual physical activity limitations and participation restrictions . Also, exercise programs should induce inactive patients to develop and maintain an active lifestyle, and consequently lower their future cardiovascular risk .
The importance and the exact content of an adequate CR exercise protocol is not always sufficiently appreciated . Recently, it was reported that among Dutch CR centres, considerable variation exists in methods for determination of exercise intensity, training intensity and volume, and uniformity of physiotherapeutic interventions . A possible explanation for this is that both the 2011 multidisciplinary CR guideline and the 2005 CR guideline by the Dutch Royal Society for Physiotherapists (KNGF) lack clear practical guidance for PTs. Moreover, many international guidelines and position statements are not specifically aimed at the practical application of exercise-based CR [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14]. Therefore, an updated clinical practice guideline on exercise-based CR was developed by the KNGF, describing optimal physiotherapy care during all phases of CR, including assessment, treatment and evaluation. This paper sums up the main conclusion and recommendations.
This guideline was systematically developed according to the Physiotherapy Guidelines Development in the Netherlands method . The guideline development group (GDG) consisted of the following disciplines: PTs representing the KNGF, movement scientists, epidemiologists, a representative of the 2011 Dutch multidisciplinary CR guideline committee and a cardiologist representing the CR section of Dutch Society of Cardiology. An external group from relevant disciplines reviewed the draft versions of the guideline. The members of the GDG and the external members did not have any conflicts of interest.
A computerised literature search was undertaken in the Cochrane library, Medline, PEDro-database, Cinahl and relevant national and international guidelines of CR [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 16], using the following keywords: heart disease, acute coronary syndrome (ACS), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), unstable angina pectoris (UAP), angina pectoris (AP), acute or elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), CR, preoperative and postoperative care, exercise and physiotherapy.
Recommendations for the efficacy of exercise-based CR were based on systematic reviews or meta-analyses, if available completed with more recent random-clinical trials (RCT). Methodological quality of RCT’s was scored on the PEDro scale . Only studies with a PEDro score of more than 5 points out of 10 were included. The level of evidence of the conclusions based on literature has been categorised on the basis of the Dutch national agreements (EBRO/CBO). A distinction was made between four levels, based on the quality of the articles from which the evidence was obtained (Table 1).
If there was insufficient evidence, recommendations were based on consensus within the GDG. Additionally, other aspects were used to determine recommendations such as: clinical relevance, safety, patient and professional perspective, availability of devices and resources, health organisations, juridical consequences, ethnical and organisational aspects, and possibilities to confirm this guideline to other monodisciplinary and multidisciplinary CR guidelines.
PPT is recommended for patients at increased risk of developing postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC) after CABG (Table 2) . PPT reduces mortality, morbidity (fewer airways infections), duration of ventilation and length of hospital stay (Level 1) .
If a patient is referred for exercise-based CR prior to CABG, the following information should be provided: diagnosis, comorbidities, medication, and the time span before surgery. PPT should comprise inspiratory muscle training (IMT) using an inspiratory threshold device, coughing, huffing and breathing techniques (to promote sputum evacuation and stimulate optimum ventilation). In addition, aerobic training to preserve or improve physical fitness should be considered (in consultation with the patient’s cardiologist). It is recommended to start IMT at least 2 weeks, and if possible 4 weeks before surgery, at a frequency of 7 days a week using 20 min sessions at an intensity of 30 % of maximum inspiration pressure (PI max). The resistance should be adjusted once a week on the basis of the Borg scale (0–10). If the Borg score (0–10) is < 5, the resistance should be increased by 5 %.
An increased PI max (and inspiratory endurance time) to the highest possible extent – measured using a PI max meter.
Relative rest is recommended during the patient’s stay on the CCU after an acute cardiac event or after their stay at the ICU following CABG (level 4).
The PT checks for problems of mucus clearance and ventilation. Treatment is given if necessary (as indicated by the pulmonologist or other specialist). The perioperative pulmonary treatment by the PT involves explaining the purpose of physiotherapy, teaching the patient techniques to improve ventilation and to mobilise and cough up sputum (breathing, huffing and coughing techniques).
Dynamic mobilisation exercise results in a faster recovery and a better physical health at discharge in CABG patients (level 1) [20, 21] and other CHD patients (level 4) compared with rest, and is therefore recommended during the clinical phase.
The cardiologist provides the PT prior to the mobilisation phase with the following medical referral information: reason for referral, diagnosis, date of the event or treatment, medication use (type and dosage regime), complications or comorbidities, planned date of hospital admission, and any further diagnostic information deemed relevant by the cardiologist. The clinical mobilisation phase should include functional exercises, such as ADL-related exercises, walking and stair climbing, at an early stage. Exercise intensity should be decreased or exercise should be discontinued if the patient shows signs of excessive strain, such as angina, impaired pump function (shortness of breath disproportionate to exertion, abnormal fatigue disproportionate to exertion, increased peripheral/central oedema), arrhythmias (high heart rate not in proportion to exertion, irregular heartbeat, changes in known arrhythmias), abnormal increase or decrease of blood pressure, fainting, dizziness and vegetative reactions (excessive perspiring, pallor). During this phase, the PT explains the nature of the patient’s CHD and/or the surgery, the further course of the CR program, ways of coping with cardiac and other symptoms and the CHD itself, ways to recognise signs of excessive strain and the way the intensity of activities at home can be gradually increased.
The patient knows how to cope with their symptoms and is able to intensify and expand their ADL activities.
In some exceptional cases, patients may not have met these goals at the time of discharge from hospital, due to psychosomatic, social or severe physical problems. Such patients may be referred for clinical admission to a specialised multidisciplinary CR centre.
Outpatient rehabilitation consists of an intake / assessment procedure, a treatment phase and an evaluation, which will be discussed chronologically in the following section.
At the start of the outpatient rehabilitation phase, all eligible patients should be referred for an intake procedure, carried out by a member of the rehabilitation team, preferably by using the Dutch Clinical Algorithm for patient needs in CR . During this screening procedure, it is decided which interventions are indicated (Fig 1.).
If a patient is referred for an exercise program, an additional assessment should be performed to evaluate the nature and severity of the patient’s health problem in relation to their physical functioning and the extent to which it can be modified.
This assessment focuses on identification of impairments of bodily functions, limitations of activities, restrictions of participation and health problems that may influence the choice of exercise activities to be included in the exercise program (Fig. 2). Limitations of activities may regard their nature, duration and/or quality. The PT analyses the performance of problematic activities that were identified using the patient-specific symptoms instrument . The performance of the problematic activities can be graded in terms of duration and intensity, perceived fatigue (Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale 6–20) and in terms of anxiety, chest pain and dyspnoea. When a maximum or symptom-limited exercise test has not been performed at baseline, or for (interim) evaluation of the exercise goals, the functional capacity can be determined by the Shuttle walk test (SWT) [24, 25] or the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) . The MET method and/or the Specific Activity Scale (SAS) can be used to estimate whether any discrepancy between the actual performance level and the target level can be eliminated with a suitable exercise program, and also for (interim) evaluation of the exercise program. Based on the results of the assessment procedure, rehabilitation goals will be defined (Fig. 2).
The physiotherapeutic treatment during the outpatient rehabilitation phase comprises 3 modalities: information / advice, a tailored exercise program and a relaxation program (Fig. 3).
Based on the individual goals, patients’ preferences and limitations established during the assessment procedure in combination with results of the maximum or symptom-limited exercise test and safety criteria, a definite exercise program is composed. These safety criteria are shown in Table 3.
If these criteria are violated or if signs of excessive strain occur during exercise, such as severe fatigue or dyspnoea, angina, unexpected increase in breathing rate (> 40 breaths per minute), pulse pressure reduction (≥ 10 mmHg), reduction of systolic blood pressure during exercise (> 10 mmHg) and increasing ventricular or supraventricular arrhythmias, the exercise session will be terminated. In the early stages of the exercise program, the PT systematically measures the patient’s blood pressure and heart rate (and rhythm) before, during and after the exercise session. This supervised period is extended if any arrhythmias, ischaemia, angina, blood pressure abnormalities or supraventricular or ventricular ectopy occur during exercising.
The tailored exercise program may comprise practising skills and activities (to enable patients to utilise their general or strength endurance in motor activities), aerobic endurance training, local and strength endurance training, practising functions/activities, and/or training to reduce risk factors. In the case of comorbidities, the GDG recommends starting the exercise program based on the exercise principles relating to the most restrictive pathology or disorder.
Aerobic exercise results in a reduction of general and cardiac mortality and morbidity rates, the number of non-fatal recurrent AMIs, and risk factors, as well as in a significant increase in exercise capacity, and is therefore recommended (Level 1) [9, 28, 29, 30, 31]. High-intensity interval training (HIT) may be recommended because it appears to be more effective than moderate-intensity endurance training (Level 2) . If HIT is applied, the cardiologist should be informed and safety criteria should be closely adhered to.
The patient’s exercise capacity can be increased by means of aerobic endurance and interval training, preceded by warming up and followed by cooling down. The exercise principles to be applied depend on the goals of the physiotherapy and the patient’s physical condition. If the goal is to improve the patient’s exercise capacity, the training level can be gradually increased over a number of sessions from 50 to 80 % of VO2 peak/ heart rate reserve, 20–30 min per session, ≥ 2–3 times a week. HIT typically consists of four 4-minute blocks, during which the patient exercises at an intensity of 80–90 % of their VO2 peak/ heart rate reserve, with 3 min of active recovery during which they exercise at 40–50 % of their VO2 peak/ heart rate reserve. Interval training may be indicated for patients in poor physical condition not able to perform exercise of long duration; if the patient is in sufficiently good physical condition, both endurance training and interval training can be used. In both cases an initial 2 week phase of training at 40–50 % of VO2peak/ heart rate reserve is recommended.
Exercise intensity should be based on the results of a maximum or symptom-limited exercise test. The optimised exercise zone can be calculated using the Karvonen formula, which calculates the exercise heart rate as a percentage of the heart rate reserve, added to the resting heart rate . If respiratory gas analysis was performed during a maximum or symptom-limited exercise testing (because of unexplained dyspnoea or comorbidity [COPD]), exercise intensity should preferably be based on a percentage of VO2 peak, VO2 reserve or the ventilatory or anaerobic threshold, converted into heart rate or wattage. If the patient is on beta-blockers, the exercises should be based on the results of the maximum or symptom-limited exercise test with beta-blocker use. If the patient’s heart rate increase during the maximum or symptom-limited exercise test is severely limited, the exercise intensity should be based on a percentage of the maximum capacity expressed in wattage or METs, and/or a Borg score (6–20).
Strength training is recommended as an adjunct to aerobic exercise . Strength training increases muscle strength and strength endurance, resulting in a reduction of activity limitations and increased participation, especially among older (and fragile) patients, who experience exertion-related limitations due to lack of muscle strength and strength endurance (Level 1) . Submaximal strength training is not advised for patients who underwent surgery by sternotomy during the first 8 weeks. Symmetrical functional exercises within the pain threshold can be conducted after 6 weeks (in order to prevent a frozen shoulder) (Level 4).
Muscle strength can be improved using 8–10 exercises of the large muscle groups, at a frequency of 2–3 times a week (depending on the goals) against a resistance that is gradually increased from 50 % to 70–80 % of the one-repetition maximum (1RM). Exercising should preferably start with 2 weeks at 30–40 % of 1RM. The GDG recommends estimating the maximum strength on the basis of the 4–7RM, and then approaching the training load by using the pyramid diagram (Fig. 4).
Table 4 shows a broad specification of the training variables for the various priorities within the exercise program.
A relaxation program (including breathing therapy) is recommended in CHD patients. A relaxation program reduces cardiac mortality and morbidity, and has a favourable effect on physical, psychological and social parameters (including resting heart rate and fear of exercise) (Level 1) , and appears to be superior in combination with an exercise program compared with only an exercise program (level 2) .
CHD patients should attend 2 sessions to try out the relaxation program. If the program proves beneficial, they attend a further 4–6 sessions lasting 60–90 min each. The relaxation program integrates cognitive therapy and physical relaxation exercises. The cognitive themes addressed include understanding the value of rest, the balance between exertion and rest, the influence of psychological factors on physical functioning and differentiating between cardiac factors in relation to stress, anger, depression and pressure of time. Instructions for relaxation can be given during exercising (active relaxation) or at rest (passive relaxation), partly in the context of warming up and cooling down, and partly as a separate relaxation program.
In addition to a ‘continuous’ evaluation over the entire course of the exercise program, more comprehensive interim evaluations should be carried out at least every 4 weeks, as well as at the end of the CR program. If patients only partially attained their goals, but are likely not to continue the rehabilitation activities independently (at home), the CR program is prolonged or the patient is referred to a primary care physiotherapy practice. If patients did not attain their goals and it seems likely that they have attained their maximum achievable level, they should be referred back to the multidisciplinary CR team to explore other treatment options.
Table 5 shows the intended outcome for each physiotherapeutic goal, instruments recommended for interim and final evaluation and the final targets that should be pursued. The PT also evaluates whether the patient has acquired sufficient knowledge about secondary prevention, and evaluates the goals of the relaxation program.
The PT should report to the multidisciplinary CR team about the treatment process, the treatment outcomes and the recommendations (aftercare). This should happen at least at the end of the treatment, but possibly also during the treatment period. In addition, the PT informs the patient’s cardiologist, family physician and, if applicable, their rehabilitation physician or company doctor. The CR is then either continued or concluded, after consultation with the multidisciplinary team.
Patients are advised to continue exercise to reduce the cardiac risk profile after the CR (Level 1) [37, 38]. A follow-up is recommended to encourage inactive patients to become physically active again (Level 3) .
Patients may be referred to exercise programs offered by certified exercise facilities, but may also individually make use of regular sports facilities. Patients with CHD who are unable to maintain an active lifestyle without assistance, or have not yet attained all the physical goals during the outpatient phase, but are deemed to be capable of doing so, should participate in an exercise program which is designed in accordance with the KNGF guideline for exercise interventions in CHD , or an equivalent KNGF-accredited intervention, supervised by a primary care PT who has completed additional training. Monitoring is important in order to identify any relapses at an early stage and intervene. The GDG recommends monitoring the patient’s active lifestyle (preferably after 6 and 12 months), by activity monitoring devices and or telephone or using a web-based or printed questionnaire.
This guideline provides an evidence-based instrument to assist in practical and clinical decision-making during exercise-based CR in all phases of CR. Strong evidence is found for preoperative physiotherapy, mobilisation at an early stage in the clinical phase, aerobic exercise, strength training and relaxation therapy during the outpatient rehabilitation phase, and the adoption and monitoring of a physically active lifestyle after outpatient rehabilitation.
As compared with the 2005 CR KNGF guideline and the 2011 multidisciplinary CR guideline , several novel topics have been included in the present guideline. First, recommendations were made with respect to the preoperative phase for patients undergoing CABG. Second, this guideline provides clear practical guidance on how to tailor exercise with respect to intensity and duration individually, using results of a maximum or symptom-limited exercise test. In this way we aim to reduce the considerable practice variation which has recently been reported in Dutch CR centres , and thereby, to increase effectivity of exercise-based CR in the Netherlands . A third novel topic is the addition of HIT as a training strategy in CHD patients. Finally, this guideline focuses more on the adoption and monitoring of a physically active lifestyle after the outpatient rehabilitation phase.
The implementation of this guideline in clinical practice needs further evaluation . Compliance to the guideline needs to be stimulated by, for example, adopting it into the Dutch clinical algorithm . Also research is needed on strategies to improve monitoring and follow-up of the maintenance of a physical active lifestyle after supervised CR; for example by implementing activity monitoring devices combined with telemonitoring, or by web-based coaching platforms to guide patients . Finally, more research is needed into characteristics and modalities of physical activity and exercise training in cardiovascular risk management in the long term .
We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the other members of the GDG: Audrey Merry, Rob Klaver, Sandra Schoonewille, Sandra Verhagen, Harold Leeneman, Judith Verbeek, Shanne Bloemen and Angelique de Rijk, and external reference group: Rob Bertram, Jan van Dixhoorn, Marleen Buruma and Erik Hulzebos. The authors would also like to thank Jaap Donkers for his assistance in drafting the description of the preoperative phase. In addition, the GDG would like to thank the authors involved in developing the previous edition of this Guideline: Lisette Vogels, Jean Graus, Rob van Hulst, Frank Nusman, Roelof Peters and Bart Smit. The inclusion of the above persons as consultants does not imply that each of them agrees with every detail of the Guideline. | 2019-04-24T04:02:42Z | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12471-013-0467-y |
There is a growing body of evidence to support the use of telehealth in monitoring HbA1c levels in people living with type 2 diabetes. However, the overall magnitude of effect is yet unclear due to variable results reported in existing systematic reviews. The objective of this study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials to create an evidence-base for the effectiveness of telehealth interventions on glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Electronic databases including The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, HMIC, and PsychINFO were searched to identify relevant systematic reviews published between 1990 and April 2016, supplemented by references search from the relevant reviews. Two independent reviewers selected and reviewed the eligible studies. Of the 3279 references retrieved, 4 systematic reviews reporting in total 29 unique studies relevant to our review were included. Both conventional pairwise meta-analyses and network meta-analyses were performed.
Evidence from pooling four systematic reviews found that telehealth interventions produced a small but significant improvement in HbA1c levels compared with usual care (MD: -0.55, 95% CI: -0.73 to − 0.36). The greatest effect was seen in telephone-delivered interventions, followed by Internet blood glucose monitoring system interventions and lastly interventions involving automatic transmission of SMBG using a mobile phone or a telehealth unit.
Current evidence suggests that telehealth is effective in controlling HbA1c levels in people living with type 2 diabetes. However there is need for better quality primary studies as well as systematic reviews of RCTs in order to confidently conclude on the impact of telehealth on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes is a serious, chronic condition that is recognised as an important cause of premature death and disability worldwide. In particular, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is emerging as one of the greatest global public health challenges in twenty-first century . In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) spends around £9.8 billion a year on diabetes. Most of this cost (80%) is spent on treating complications alone as a result of poorly controlled diabetes, of which many are possibly preventable . These could include blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, strokes and amputations . Diabetes UK warned that “diabetes is threatening to bankrupt the NHS after a 60% rise in cases in the past 10 years”. The cost of treating diabetes complications is also expected to almost double by 2035/6 if no actions are taken to prevent these complications . The urgent need for improvements in effective management of diabetes and preventing its complications is therefore evident.
The aim of diabetes management is to keep blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible to improve symptoms and minimise the risk of long-term complications . This requires close monitoring of vital signs and effective working relationship between the patient and their healthcare professionals. The provision of conventional outpatient care alone, which generally occurs less than 3 times a year , is therefore not sufficient.
There is a growing body of evidence that supports the uses of advanced and innovative technologies, such as telehealth, to monitor and manage people with diabetes at a distance and as frequently as it is needed [5–7]. Telehealth is generally described as the exchange of medical information from one location to another using electronic communications or digital technologies, such as desktop, laptop, mobile phones and other wireless tools .
Overall, existing evidence suggests that telehealth has the potential in improving HbA1c for patients living with diabetes but the overall magnitude of effect is unclear due to variable results reported in existing systematic reviews. Given that the literature already contains multiple systematic reviews on telehealth and type 2 diabetes [7, 9, 10], there is an opportunity to pool the evidence from all existing reviews to report an estimate of effect. Therefore, to create an evidence base for the effectiveness of telehealth on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes, we conducted the first systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the evidence of the effects of telehealth interventions on glycemic control in patients living with type 2 diabetes.
For the purpose of this study, we defined telehealth as remote patient monitoring (RPM), which involves the transmission (electronic or verbal) of self-monitored blood glucose (SMBG) readings to a healthcare professional or a specialist team at an offsite monitoring center for evaluation and feedback.
Studies that met the following criteria were included in this review: i) systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses of RCTs with our definition of telehealth as an intervention; ii) adults ≥18 years of age with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes; iii) comparison of standard outpatient care (usual care) or other RPM telehealth interventions; and iv) reported HbA1c outcome. Systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses of RCTs on RPM telehealth interventions were excluded if they: i) were non-English publications; ii) included a mixed study population (type 1 and type 2 diabetes) and results were not reported separately for type 2 diabetes; or iii) do not provide feedback to patients following the transmission of SMBG data. In systematic reviews where RPM telehealth was one part of a wider intervention, these were only included where the effects of the RPM telehealth component were individually reported. In addition, if the same authors had produced several publications of the same review, the most updated and/or the full report of the review were included, and other versions excluded.
The literature search was conducted from April 1 to 8, 2016 and the electronic bibliographic databases including The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, HMIC and PsychINFO were searched. All searches were restricted by date range to 1990 – April 2016. Limiting the search period from 1990 is likely to identify all apart from a very small minority of systematic reviews that were carried out earlier [11, 12]. A base strategy (see Additional file 1) was developed in MEDLINE (Ovid interface). This strategy was then converted to run effectively in other databases using different interfaces. Reference lists of all potentially relevant systematic reviews identified by the electronic searches were also checked for any eligible reviews that have not been identified in the search.
Based on the eligibility criteria, two reviewers (AL and YP) independently screened the list of titles/abstracts identified through searches for systematic reviews. Selected systematic reviews at this stage were further included for a full-text review by the same two reviewers. Any disagreements between the reviewers about the inclusion and exclusion were resolved by discussion until a consensus was reached. The same two reviewers using Eppi-Reviewer software 4 then extracted data from the resulting final list of selected systematic reviews independently. The two sets of extracted data were then compared for quality and validity purposes. Consensus was achieved without negotiation.
The assessment of the methodological quality and strength of each systematic review was based on the AMSTAR tool, which is a validated measurement tool available for evaluating multiple systematic reviews . The AMSTAR tool is a questionnaire that comprises of 11 criteria, which specifically assess the presence of: i) an a priori design; ii) duplicate study selection and data extraction; iii) a comprehensive literature search; iv) the use of status of publication as an inclusion criteria; v) a list of included/excluded studies; vi) characteristics of included studies; vii) documented assessment of the scientific quality of included studies; viii) appropriate use of the scientific quality in forming conclusions; ix) the appropriate use of methods to combine findings of studies; x) assessment of the likelihood of publication bias; and xi) documentation of conflict of interest .
Each of the 11 items is given a score of 1 if the specific criterion is met by a “yes” answer, or a score of 0 if the criterion is not met, unclear or not applicable. The overall AMSTAR score is calculated by adding all the individual item scores together. As defined by AMSTAR, quality is categorised into three levels: high quality if the total score is between 8 and 11, medium quality if the total score is between 4 and 7, and low quality if the total score is between 0 and 3.
The same two reviewers independently assessed each potentially relevant review for inclusion. Any disagreements between the reviewers were resolved by discussion and when required, a final opinion from a third reviewer was sought.
To examine the overall magnitude of effect in using telehealth for controlling HbA1c levels in Type 2 diabetes, where possible, we conducted conventional pairwise meta-analyses as well as network meta-analyses (NMAs) of the included reviews. While the pairwise meta-analyses allowed us to investigate the difference of effect between telehealth interventions vs. usual care, the NMAs enabled us to explore if there is any specific telehealth application that is superior. NMAs involve the statistical combination of both direct and indirect evidence about pairs of interventions that originate from two or more separate studies to provide estimates of relative effectiveness for all comparators.
Care was taken to not include data from individual studies more than once by unpicking each of the included reviews and the subsequent combination of data of the individual primary studies included in the reviews. For HbA1c, where change from baseline data were reported in the trials and were accompanied by a measure of variation (for example standard deviation), these were extracted and used in the meta-analyses. Where measures of spread for change from baseline values were not reported, these trials were excluded from the meta-analyses.
Furthermore, due to the various telehealth applications (technologies) used as well as feedback methods provided in the interventions, we performed subgroup meta-analyses to assess whether their impact on glycemic control differed.
The conventional pairwise meta-analyses were conducted with reference to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews, whereas NMAs were undertaken using the Netmeta package in R3.2.2. This uses a graph-theoretical method, which is mathematically equivalent to the frequentist network meta-analysis . Heterogeneity was assessed using the overall I2 value for the whole network, which is a weighted average of the I2 value for all comparisons where there are multiple trials (both direct and indirect), and random-effects models were used if the I2 value was above 50% (as for pairwise meta-analyses, this was interpreted as showing the assumption of a shared underlying mean was not met, and therefore a fixed-effects model was inappropriate). A funnel plot generated in Review Manager 5 (RevMan 5) for HbA1c was used to visually assess publication bias.
Items on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) checklist that is relevant for a systematic review of reviews was used to report the findings (see Additional file 2).
The systematic literature search identified in total 3279 potentially relevant studies. After removing duplicate studies, 3201 studies were screened on their titles and abstracts for relevance. In total, 3143 were excluded because they were not systematic reviews or meta-analyses, or did not include telehealth interventions or a population with diabetes. For the remaining 58 studies, full text articles were obtained and reviewed against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Overall, 54 studies did not meet the eligibility criteria such as being a systematic review and/or meta-analysis of RCTs, including telehealth interventions that met our definition of telehealth, and/or reporting Type 2 diabetes results separately. These studies were therefore not included in this review. A detailed list of excluded studies and reasons for their exclusion is provided in an additional file (see Additional file 3). Figure 1 provides the systematic review of reviews study flow chart that demonstrates the inclusion and exclusion process and results.
In total, four systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. Summaries of these are presented in evidence tables (see Additional file 4). The included reviews were published between the years 2009 and 2015. Only one review conducted meta-analyses .
The reviews we included and coded only assessed studies with an RCT design. Two of the four reviews included both type 1 and type 2 diabetes but only data for type 2 diabetes was used in this review.
Although all four reviews focused on determining the effectiveness of telehealth applications for individuals with diabetes, the scopes of the reviews varied. One review solely targeted telehealth remote patient monitoring interventions that incorporated key elements of structured self-monitoring of blood glucose . Another review only focused on telehealth interventions in patients with type 2 diabetes and inadequate glycemic control . For the remaining two reviews, one included studies using cell phones and wireless devices only , and the other one looked at studies on Internet blood glucose monitoring systems only . Furthermore, one of the four reviews only included patients with type 2 diabetes using insulin , two reviews included both insulin- and non-insulin-dependent patients with type 2 diabetes [16, 17] and one review provided no details on this . The two reviews that included a mixed population of insulin- and non-insulin-dependent patients did not report any results separately for the two groups.
In total, we found 78 studies coded in the four reviews, of which 51 were considered relevant to our review. Individual telehealth interventions that were deemed irrelevant and excluded included studies that did not involve or report results separately for participants with type 2 diabetes, studies that did not include telehealth interventions that met our review’s definition of telehealth or studies that did not involve the transmission of SMBG data followed by automatic and/or healthcare provider feedback. The 51 relevant studies contained 16 duplicates and four studies also had multiple publications (n = 10); thus, we identified in total 29 unique studies relevant to our review. However, four of these studies did not provide extractable data for HbA1c and were therefore not included in our meta-analyses. The number of relevant trials included in each review ranged from five to 18 trials and the sample sizes of the various trials ranged widely from 30 to 1665 participants. The length of the interventions ranged from 3 to 60 months, with majority of the interventions lasting three months (13/29 studies) or between six and 12 months (13/29 studies). Only one study reported a five-year follow-up.
Moreover, studies also varied in intervention complexity; nearly half of the studies involved automatic transmission, where self-monitored data are transmitted directly and automatically to a receiving station without interruption. This typically involves patients using either a mobile phone with a diabetes management software installed and connected to a blood glucose meter or a telehealth unit that is connected by a secure computer network at home. Approximately one third of studies used the Internet or a website to deliver self-monitored blood glucose results and self-management information. Lastly, there were also some interventions delivered by telephone. Telephone-delivered interventions do not require patients to electronically transmit their daily blood glucose readings to their healthcare professionals. Instead, they typically require patients to log their blood glucose levels daily and a healthcare professional would follow up with a telephone call weekly to review the blood glucose log and discuss the glucose values with the patients.
Moreover, when it came to providing feedback to patients; majority of the interventions provided feedback at least once daily, if not more, using one or a combination of feedback methods including, SMS or text messaging to the patient’s mobile phone, messaging through internet, telephone calls and/or secure messages via a patient portal or through a telehealth system. Majority of the feedback was provided by a healthcare professional but nearly half of the studies provided automatic feedback generated from computer algorithms, without provider input. Only one study utilised videoconferencing as a way of delivering feedback to patients and three studies only contacted patients with feedback if necessary (i.e. when blood glucose levels were not within normal range). In addition to the wide range of technologies used, many of the studies also incorporated an educational component to their telehealth intervention to improve patients’ knowledge in diabetes self-management. Almost all studies indicated that the transmitted self-monitored blood glucose data were used to provide feedback, or modify treatment or behavior, although the details varied.
For the purposes of subgroup meta-analyses, telehealth applications and feedback methods were classified into different categories. For telehealth applications, these were grouped into four categories according to the method of transmission used for transmitting self-monitored data to a receiving station remotely: (i) Internet/web (including any application or software on a computer or a mobile phone that uses data networks or the Internet); (ii) automatic transmission (including the use of any telehealth unit placed at home that automatically and directly transmit data upon taking measurements); (iii) automatic mobile transmission (including the use of any telehealth equipment that allows for the direct transmission of self-monitored data on the move, without interruption); and (iv) telephone (interventions delivered by regular telephone calls from a healthcare professional, no electronic transmission of data involved).
With regards to feedback methods, six categories were classified: (i) automated message (automated messaging generated from computer algorithms, without healthcare provider input); (ii) human calls (interactive telephone calls with a healthcare provider or researcher); (iii) human calls only if necessary (i.e. interactive telephone calls with a healthcare provider only when blood glucose levels were outside of normal range); (iv) human message (personalised feedback via messaging from a healthcare provider); (v) human message + calls (personalised feedback via messaging from a healthcare provider followed up by an interactive telephone call); and (vi) videoconferencing (use of video telecommunication technologies which allow the patient to communicate in real-time with a healthcare provider at a distance). Automated and human messages could include messaging through Internet, SMS, a patient portal and/or a telehealth system.
Among the four systematic reviews described in the current review, two were rated moderate quality reviews [7, 17]. The methodological quality of the remaining two reviews [16, 18] was considered low according to the AMSTAR tool (total score of 1 and 2, respectively). The most common methodological weaknesses were lack of including an ‘a priori’ design, a list of both included and excluded studies, and a search for “grey literature or unpublished literature” and/or detail the source of funding/support for the systematic review and for each of the included studies. For the two reviews that scored a low rating, in addition to the above, the authors did not provide details on whether they performed duplicate study selection and data extraction procedures nor include the use of any quality scoring tool or checklist. Furthermore, three of the four included reviews were also of qualitative nature; hence further 2 out of the maximum 11 points were lost due to the lack of any statistical pooling of results and statistical assessment for the presence of publication bias. The reason for not conducting meta-analyses in the three qualitative reviews was not described.
In the two reviews [7, 17] that used a quality scoring tool (Downs and Black score and Jadad score, respectively) to assess the scientific quality of their included RCTs, 18 out of 25 studies were rated as moderate/good quality. The remaining five RCTs were rated as low quality based on the Jadad score.
All four reviews primarily examined the effect of telehealth on HbA1c. Russel-Minda et al., 2008 reported that three out of their five studies on type 2 diabetes using cell phones with SMS and Internet (some with nurse-directed educational component) found a statistically significant improvement in HbA1c when compared to usual care. Tildesley et al., 2015 who identified nine randomised controlled Internet blood glucose monitoring systems (IBGMS) trials, reported that eight of them showed significantly improved HbA1c levels in the IBGMS group when compared with the usual care group. However, one of the studies only achieved significant HbA1c reduction at six months but not 12 months. Greenwood and colleagues (2014) identified and reviewed 16 teleheatlh remote patient monitoring interventions using one or a combination of technologies (including telephone, mobile phone, wireless device, telehealth unit and/or internet), that incorporated key elements of structured self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) identified as essential for improving HbA1c. They reported that, compared to usual care, telehealth was shown to significantly improve HbA1c in seven out of the 15 reviewed studies. The authors also found that interventions that incorporated at least five out of the seven key elements of structured SMBG consistently achieved significant HbA1c improvements between study groups. In addition, studies that incorporated at least four of the seven key elements of structured SMBG and had a baseline HbA1c greater than 8% resulted in a decrease of at least 0.7% in HbA1c levels. Lastly, Huang et al., 2015 reported that, compared to usual care, 11 out of the 18 studies included in the review found a statistically significant improvement in HbA1c in the telehealth group. Furthermore, a meta-analysis of the 18 studies found that participants using telehealth had significantly improved HbA1c levels when compared to participants receiving usual care (MD = − 0.54, 95% CI: -0.75 to − 0.34). The same review also conducted subgroup analyses that included feedback methods, duration of follow-up, study location, baseline HbA1c and sample size. They found that feedback by interactive telephone calls with a healthcare provider or researcher to be associated with the greatest improvement in HbA1c (K 1.13; 95% CI, K 1.51 to K 0.75), followed by automated phone-based SMS and/or internet-based messaging (K 0.36; 95% CI K 0.47 to O 0.24). No improvement in HbA1c was reported with automated telephone calls (K 0.01; 95% CI K 0.32 to K 0.29). For the remaining subgroup analyses, a significant reduction in HbA1c was reported to be associated with Asian ethnic groups, small study sample sizes, and patients with a baseline HbA1c level of 8% or higher.
In order to determine the overall effectiveness of telehealth on glycemic control in individuals with type 2 diabetes, we conducted additional meta-analyses that incorporated all the unique studies, with extractable data on HbA1c, identified in the four reviews.
A pairwise meta-analysis pooling evidence from 25 (out of 29) RCTs indicate that, compared to usual care, telehealth is associated with significant improvements in HbA1c in patients with type 2 diabetes (MD = − 0.55, 95% CI: -0.73 to − 0.36) but with statistical heterogeneity to the variability in effect estimate (I2 = 82%; Fig. 2). In addition, although telehealth was statistically better than usual care in improving HbA1c levels, the confidence interval of the mean difference crossed the threshold for minimal clinically important difference (MID) as defined by the NICE guidelines on type 2 diabetes in adults . The greatest effect was seen in telephone-delivered interventions (MD = − 0.83, 95% CI: -1.54 to − 0.12), followed by Internet blood glucose monitoring system interventions (Internet/web) (MD = − 0.77, 95% CI: -1.14 to − 0.40). The effect of automatic data transmission using a mobile phone or a telehealth unit was shown to be similar (MD = − 0.27, 95% CI: -0.51 to − 0.03 vs. MD = − 0.34, 95% CI: -0.48 to − 0.20). Moreover, significant heterogeneity was reported in all subgroups except from the ‘automatic transmission’ subgroup (Fig. 2).
A network meta-analysis of the 25 RCTs further indicated that all telehealth interventions provide a significant lowering of HbA1c compared with usual care, with Internet blood glucose monitoring system interventions also providing significantly more lowering of HbA1c than telehealth interventions using automatic mobile transmission (MD = − 0.4934, 95% CI: -0.9250 to − 0.0619). However, considerable between-study heterogeneity was present (I2 = 75.3%; see Additional file 5).
We also conducted pairwise and network meta-analyses on feedback methods. Evidence from pairwise meta-analyses of 25 RCTs showed that the human calls subgroup was associated with the greatest effect size (MD: -0.98; 95% CI: -1.54 to − 0.42), followed by human message (MD: -0.69; 95% CI: -1.13 to − 0.26) and then automated message (MD: -0.46; 95% CI: -0.63 to − 0.30) (Fig. 3). Very small effect sizes or no improvements were reported for feedback via human message + calls (n = 1), videoconferencing (n = 1) and human calls only if necessary (n = 3). This is most likely due to the very limited number of studies being available in these subgroups. Similar results were reported in the NMA (see Additional file 6), where significant reduction in HbA1c levels was associated human calls, human message and automated message subgroups when compared with usual care groups. In addition, the NMA also suggested that feedback provided through human calls and human message to significantly improve hbA1c levels compared with feedback provided by healthcare providers only when HbA1c levels fall outside of normal range (MD: -0.9768, 95% CI: -1.7278 to − 0.2285 and MD: -0.7031, 95% CI: -1.3697 to − 0.0365, respectively).
A funnel plot generated in Review Manager assessed publication bias and significant publication bias towards positive outcomes in the included studies was observed.
Telehealth, which can be defined as personalised healthcare delivered at a distance, is believed to have the potential to enhance the quality of healthcare. Over the last decade, there have been numerous studies aimed at assessing the feasibility and effectiveness of telehealth strategies on the management of diabetes . As the number of published telehealth studies began to increase, a plethora of systematic reviews on telehealth interventions of variable scope and quality, also began to emerge.
Hence, in order to create an evidence-base for the effectiveness of telehealth on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes specifically, we conducted a review of systematic reviews. Moreover, in order to generate precise and reliable conclusions; we specifically focused on telehealth applications that involved patients transmitting (electronically or verbally) SMBG results to a receiving station or person to receive automated messages and/or healthcare provider feedback.
Our systematic literature search identified, in total, 58 potential telehealth and diabetes systematic reviews but only four reviews met our inclusion criteria, of which two were of moderate quality and the other two of low quality according to the AMSTAR tool. All four reviews concluded that telehealth interventions have the potential in improving glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes. However, when we pooled the HbA1c results from the 25 RCTs included in the four reviews together, only 14 (56%) studies reported a significant improvement in telehealth intervention versus usual care group.
The greatest improvements in glycemic control with telehealth was reported in studies where participants had a mean baseline HbA1c level of 8% or greater, regardless if they were on insulin or not [7, 16, 18]. These findings were similar to other recent published systematic reviews related to telehealth and diabetes management [20–22]. Where study participants had a mean baseline HbA1c at or near their glycemic target, small but significant improvements were also reported , suggesting that glycemic improvements with telehealth is not limited to patients with type 2 diabetes and inadequate symptomatic control at baseline (≥8%) only.
It is important to note when interpreting the results from our review that this review is limited to capturing and reporting information presented in the included systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Two important limitations therefore exist in our review of systematic reviews. Firstly, we depended on the authors of the four included reviews in this review to have adequately included and critically appraised individual studies as well as correctly captured and interpreted the study results. We did not examine the full-texts of individual studies unless there were major data gaps we had to fill in the reviews or we felt that there may be discrepancies in the analyses of individual studies included in multiple reviews. Hence, potential omissions or errors that may be present in our coding and/or analyses and results, may be due to unreported errors in the original reviews and/or original primary studies included in those reviews.
Secondly, the four reviews varied greatly in terms of the type of telehealth interventions, duration of follow-up, study sample size, baseline HbA1c levels, and/or insulin- and non-insulin-dependent population with type 2 diabetes. In addition, the reviews included minimal description on the additional telehealth components such as e-learning, virtual coach and/or networking support group and how these additional components may have impacted on the health outcomes. Details on feedback frequency and how it was used to help support and improve patient self-management skills were also limited. In addition, only one of the four reviews conducted meta-analyses. Hence, statistical pooling of results to assess the estimated mean effect of HbA1c with telehealth is limited. Although we attempted to pool and examine the findings on HbA1c from the four reviews, substantial heterogeneity among individual studies was evident from the overall meta-analyses, majority of the subgroup analyses (by transmission and feedback methods) as well as network meta-analyses due to the diversity of telehealth interventions and applications used in the trials. It is therefore difficult to confidently conclude which telehealth component or type 2 diabetes population is likely to benefit the most and from which telehealth intervention, especially in the long-term.
We therefore agree with the recommendations made by the authors of the four reviews that more high quality, well-designed RCTs with large sample sizes and longer follow-up durations are needed to investigate the sustainability and to confirm the benefits of telehealth in type 2 diabetes management. In addition, to produce reliable pooled estimates of HbA1c, it would be useful for future studies to take into account the differences in baseline HbA1c level when recruiting study participants and drawing conclusions from findings. Greenwood et al., (2014) have also suggested that future telehealth research should explore the use and impact of telehealth on behavior change in people with non-insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes. This group of users would primarily use telehealth for lifestyle and behavior change to manage their diabetes in contrast to insulin users who would primarily use telehealth for monitoring and adjusting insulin treatment. Comparing the usage and impact of telehealth in these two sub populations of diabetes may provide some explanations as to which and how different telehealth components work and/or are responsible for improved glycemic control for people with diabetes. For example, are improvements in HbA1c level with telehealth dependent on insulin dose adjustments, or SMBG frequency or from increased self-motivation and/or patient-physician communication? Future research in this area could provide important knowledge for clinical practice for diabetes management .
To further strengthen the current evidence-base for telehealth and the management of type 2 diabetes, future reviews should also consider assessing the cost-effectiveness and outcome measures that may influence the uptake and outcomes of telehealth interventions, such as healthcare provider satisfaction and patient health-related outcomes (e.g. quality of life and quality of care) as well as the usability and feasibility of self-monitored devices for diabetes management. These are all important evidence for current clinical guidelines and health-related economic policies.
This review found that telehealth interventions produced a small but significant improvement in HbA1c levels compared with usual care, suggesting that telehealth has the potential to deliver beneficial change. However, there is a need for higher quality primary studies as well as systematic reviews of RCTs in order for us to draw any definite conclusions. Furthermore, in order to provide a complete evidence base for policy makers on the overall effectiveness of telehealth interventions for type 2 diabetes management, future reviews should also focus on the impact of telehealth in other areas of diabetes management such as quality of life, quality of care and cost-effectiveness.
This research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Northwest London (NIHR CLAHRC NWL). The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care.
PAL contributed to the literature search, concept and review design, data analyses, interpretation of results, review write-up, and feedback on the review drafts. GG and YP contributed to the review design, analysis and interpretation of results as well as carried out revisions to the review. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Diabetes UK. NHS spending on diabetes 'to reach £16.9 billion by 2035'. Available from: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news_landing_page/nhs-spending-on-diabetes-to-reach-169-billion-by-2035. Accessed 15 June 2018.
Diabetes UK. Available from: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/. Accessed 15 June 2018.
Spanakis EG, Chiarugi F, Kouroubali A, Spat S, Beck P, Asanin S, et al. Diabetes Management Using Modern Information and Communication Technologies and New Care Models. Interact J Med Res. 2012;1(2):e8. https://doi.org/10.2196/ijmr.2193.
Steventon A, Bardsley M. The impact of telehealth on use of hospital care and mortality. Available from: https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/research/the-impact-of-telehealth-on-use-of-hospital-care-and-mortality. Accessed 15 June 2018.
NICE. T ype 2 diabetes in adults: management. 2015;(December):1–57. Available from: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng28/resources/type-2-diabetes-in-adults-management-1837338615493. Accessed 15 June 2018. | 2019-04-26T05:41:26Z | https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-018-3274-8 |
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Washington State is the leading producer of apples, pears, and cherries in the U.S. (reference), and North Central Washington is an ideal place to grow fruit, with sunny dry summers, cold winters, and an abundance of river water for irrigation. You will find information on this page regarding tree fruit orchard establishment, including site selection, planting, and cost estimates of establishing apple, pear, cherry and stone fruit orchards. Information on weed control, pest and disease control, rootstocks, support systems, irrigation, and economics will be found in the other sections of this site.
Establishing a new orchard requires significant research and planning, in order to grow healthy trees with exceptional fruit quality. Orchard site selection and preparation are the first management decisions that affect the productivity of a tree fruit orchard. Whether considering a new site, replanting a former tree fruit site, or updating to current varieties or production systems, there are many important decisions to make.
Location considerations Regional climate conditions should be reviewed when establishing a fruit tree block. Determine current weather data and historic environmental data by visiting the nearest AgWeatherNet weather station to your location. If available, historic temperature extremes, frost risk, average bloom date, consistency of cropping for neighboring farms, etc. may be instructive. Ideal sites are on gently sloping land with good air drainage, so that cold air can move down slope and not accumulate in a low spot or “frost pocket” causing problems especially during bloom. South facing slopes warm up faster in the spring than north facing slopes. Planting early blooming cultivars at south facing locations would increase their risk for spring frosts. Orchard sites surrounded by unmanaged range land will usually have more pressure from deer and other vertebrate pests. Blocks that are close to residential areas may necessitate buffer rows to reduce the potential for off-target pesticide drift.
Soil considerations Loam or sandy loam soil types have good characteristics for orchards. Soils that are permeable, with a texture allowing water to drain properly, and that have enough water holding capacity so that trees won’t dry out between irrigation sets are ideal. Trees will grow best in soil with a pH around 6.0 to 7.0, slightly acidic. As noted previously for new sites, soil tests can confirm texture, pH, organic matter content, nutrient availability, presence of nematodes, etc. Whether a replant or new site, this information can help determine what amendments should be made and whether preplant fumigation is necessary. See information on soil testing labs in the Tools and Resources section of this site. Find more information on our Soils and Nutrition page. Information on orchard soil fumigation can be found on the Chelan/Douglas Co Extension website and in the Crop Protection Guide.
New sites You should examine soil survey maps to determine general soil types in your area. Preplant soil tests are helpful to determine soil texture, pH, organic matter content, nutrient levels, and the presence of damaging nematodes if those are a concern. Soil test results can establish a starting point for soil amendments you may need to supply before planting. For established orchards, foliar testing is useful to determine nutrient levels in the plant. See the Tools and Resources section of this site for information on laboratories that provide soil and leaf sample analysis. It is also important to know what crops were grown on the land before, or what the land was used for, to determine future pest, disease and other risks. Extension personnel can provide information on local fruit tree disease and pest concerns. Since fruit trees are sensitive to herbicide residues in the soil, it is important to know the previous crop history. It is also important to consider the site characteristics (air and water drainage, water access/availability, elevation, etc.) that might make it more suited for one fruit type, cultivar or market than another.
Disk and remove cover crop.
Perform deep bidirectional ripping to 36”.
Soil amendments can be applied for organic sites, or fumigation for conventional production sites.
Many organic growers use fumigation at the start, and then transition to organic after the first growing season. This practice is allowed under organic rules.
Use replant disease tolerant root stock, which can provide substantial mitigation of replant disorder.
Fumigation in a replant site should ideally be done in the fall, as it does not work well when soil temperatures are below 42℉. Recent research has also shown success using mustard seed meal treatments as an alternative to fumigation. (reference).
Transitional site considerations If you plan to try a different production system, or new varieties, consider establishing a test block for a few years to see if you are happy with the results before establishing a large planting. See Test Blocks-Great for new cultivars or systems, D. Layne, American/Western Fruit Grower, 2013.
Financial planning Decide on the feasibility of what you are considering and develop a business plan. Labor costs are high for training and pruning in new orchards. Determine market fruit prices, yields, and costs to grow the variety that you are interested in. Cost and returns are variable depending on the type of fruit, the size of orchard, orchard management practices, and market prices. See information on the cost estimates of establishing Apple, Pear, and Cherry orchards as well as other market information on the WSU Tree Fruit Economics page or visit their links page for presentations on the establishment of benchmarks for tree fruit production costs. You can also visit the WSU and Oregon State University enterprise budget pages for more information. Here is an additional resource for anyone thinking about transitioning into organic production: Organic Transition – A business planner for farmers, ranchers and food entrepreneurs, G. DiGiacoma, R.P. King and D. Nordquist. SARE Handbook. 2015 (Accessed: 1/19/17).
Pre-plant care When trees arrive from the nursery, keep them cool and the roots moist. Do not store them with any fruit, as they are ethylene sensitive (will start to grow too early). Trees should be planted as early in the spring as possible, as soon as you can after delivery. Place the new trees under sprinklers for 24 hours prior to planting. Trees can be stored for a week to 10 days under sprinklers if needed; desiccation is the primary cause of early die-off.
When trees are planted, the soil around the new tree should be a few inches higher than the surrounding soil to accommodate settling in. The graft union should be at least 4-6 inches above the soil mound. It is important that the union not touch the soil because this could lead to scion rooting where the rootstock influence on scion vigor can be adversely impacted. Be sure that trees receive sufficient water (without excess) as soon as possible after planting.
Planting apple trees. Jon Clements, UMass and Michael Parker, NCSU. eXtension. 10 Aug, 2011.
Prevent transplant shock. Good Fruit Grower. 15 April, 2012.
Planting frenzy. Shannon Dininny and TJ Mulinex, Good Fruit Grower. 19 April, 2016.
The harvest window is another aspect to consider when deciding on fruit varieties. Harvest is the single most demanding labor activity in orchards, so planting varieties that allow a broader harvest window, allows fewer laborers to pick over a longer period of time. Take into account other tree crops already in production. Consider the pests and diseases that may occur in your area, and try to locate disease resistant rootstocks if they are available.
Pears are very slow to come into production, with many Washington pear trees in production being 50-100 years old. New high-density pear plantings are being established, fire-blight resistant varieties are being introduced, and research is underway to find new dwarfing rootstocks for pears.
See the Varieties and Breeding section of this site for varieties that are commonly grown in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. Consult with extension specialists, other growers in your area, and nurserymen to determine which cultivars are most likely to perform well in your location. As noted above, for cultivars that have not been widely grown or tested in your area, establishing a test block would be a good idea.
Selecting rootstocks If you are establishing a new orchard on a replant site, utilizing a rootstock that is resistant (or tolerant) to replant disease is ideal. Purchase certified virus-free trees from reputable commercial nurseries. Where possible, choose trees that are resistant (or tolerant) to relevant pests and diseases and have sufficient cold hardiness for your region. Determine the correct rootstock for your soil type and site, the production system you plan to use, the tree vigor and precocity needed, and the potential to yield large volumes of high quality fruit. Because nursery demand for fruit trees is high and strong in the Pacific Northwest, plan well in advance to ensure that your nursery tree order will be processed and trees will be ready for the time of planting. Visit the Clean Plant Center Northwest webpage for information about testing or acquiring clean materials. Also see Which apple rootstock should you grow with? S. Dininny, Good Fruit Grower, Feb. 2016 and Avoiding rootstock mistakes, T. Auvil, Good Fruit Grower, Feb. 2016.
Nursery trees: Raised for 1-2 years in a nursery before being planted in the orchard.
Rootstocks: Planted and budded in place with scion in late summer of 1st growing season.
Sleeping eyes: Rootstocks grown in nurseries for 1 year, then budded in the fall, dug in the winter, and planted in the orchard in following spring. (small root system).
Which apple rootstock should you grow with? S. Dininny. Good Fruit Grower, 2016.
Steps to establishing a money-making orchard. G. Warner, Good Fruit Grower, 2007.
Pollinizers Some sweet cherry and apple varieties require planting compatible pollinizers. Choose disease resistant pollinizers for trees if possible. Crabapples are commonly used as pollinizers for certain apple varieties. However, ‘Manchurian’ crabapples are a source of postharvest fungal inoculum in apple orchards. A fact sheet on Pruning ‘Manchurian’ crabapples can be found here and the guidelines for control of the fungus can be found here. More information on pollination can be found on our Pollination page.
Production systems The first step is to decide whether the new orchard will be managed with conventional or organic practices and note the differences that are required for organic certification. See the Organic Production page on this website for more information.
Planting design Depending on the management system you choose, the spacing between rows and between trees in the row can differ considerably. Tree rows are commonly oriented in the North-South compass direction to maximize sunlight absorption. Many current high-density plantings to high-value varieties have really increased the profit potential per unit land area. However, with increased planting densities, increased tree costs, and often the need for establishing trellises, the infrastructure cost to establish a new orchard can be substantial (e.g., $30,000/acre or more). Management practices that can enable first harvest at younger tree ages (e.g., third or even second leaf) are becoming more common. The irrigation system, tree support system, alleyway grass or cover crop, and understory weed strip areas are all design considerations. The canopy must allow light to penetrate the trees for adequate growth and fruit quality. Space and maneuverability logistics for workers, mechanical pruners/hedgers and thinners, mobile platforms, tractors, trailers, bins, trellises, overhead nets, wind machines, etc. should all be considered.
Irrigation systems Irrigation should be set up when it is time to plant so the trees will get water right away. It is important to keep new trees that have arrived from the nursery with moist roots, but not too wet. If the roots dry out, they will die. Water trees when first planted so that trees will settle in and there won’t be large air pockets around roots. Don’t overwater after planting, as the roots can rot. If trees sink too low, pull them up right away. Water again as soon as trees show signs of growth. Drip irrigation is a good choice, as it delivers consistent water supply to new trees. Consider the water availability at the site. Find out the legal water rights, water quality, pH, sodium absorption ratio, and electrical conductivity. Determine how much water you will need to grow the type of fruit on the production system that you want. Drip irrigation delivers consistent water to new plantings. See the WSU irrigation scheduler mobile app manual here. More information on irrigation can be found on our Irrigation Management page.
Incorporating new technology A new orchard provides the opportunity to integrate new technological tools into your site. Consider the technology that you would like to use when designing your next orchard. This can include environmental sensors, mechanical harvesters, mobile platforms, mechanical thinners, netting for sunburn, hail, and bird protection, weather stations for mobile sensing, insect traps that monitor catch numbers, etc. See the WSU Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems Fundamental Research page for the latest information on experimental research in this area. Also see: Implementing Robotic Harvest Technology.
Training systems Scientists at WSU are conducting trials on rootstocks and different training systems to find the best systems for varieties in our area. You can find information on training systems on the Pruning and Training Systems section of this site. Types of training systems used for specific tree crops are listed below along with reference links for more information.
Cherry Training Systems, L. Long, G. Lang, S. Musacchi and M. Whiting, PNW Extension Publication #667, 2015.
The seven cherry training systems, R. Lehnert, Good Fruit Grower, May, 2015.
High Density SSA plantings: how we can optimize fruit quality, S. Musacchi, pdf presentation, WSHA 110th Annual Meeting, Kennewick, WA, 2014.
New Training Systems for High-density Planting of Sweet Cherry, S. Musacchi, F. Gagliardi and S. Serra, HortScience, 50(1): 59-67, January, 2015.
Evaluating Cherry Training Systems, B. Sparks and D. Eddy, Growing Produce, May, 2012.
Peach Training Systems Aren’t One-Size-Fits All, C. Herrick, Growing Produce, February, 2015.
Disease and pest management If the site is a replant site, you are aware of the pest and disease threats that must be managed. New plantings must be monitored closely for any signs of insect or mite pests or diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses. Young tree trunks should be protected from chemical sprays, herbicides, machinery, and even animal feeding. See the Crop Protection section of this site for more information on Insects and Mites, Disease and other management practices or visit the online Crop Protection Guide.
Weed management Weeds are a concern with new plantings, as they compete for water and nutrients with the young trees. Organic growers may have more of a challenge with weed control than conventional growers. Conventional growers need to protect young trunks from herbicide damage with tubes, milk cartons or by painting the trunks. See the Weed Management section of this site for information on weed management.
Vertebrate management Vertebrate pest control can be a challenge in a new orchard. New trees need tree guards around trunks to protect from rodents. If deer are in the area, deer fences are the best method for excluding deer and preventing deer damage. More information on vertebrate pest management can be found in that section of this site.
Environmental stress Injury from the elements to new trees is a concern in new orchards. Sun damage can occur to the trees and fruit due to little or no shade during the first couple of years. There may not be a lot of protection against wind, and trees can dry out quickly. Young trees are sensitive to water stress. Rain near harvest time is always a concern for cherries because it can cause fruit cracking making the fruit unmarketable.
Advances in Brassicaceae seed meal formulation and application protocol for control of apple replant disease, M. Mazzola, poster pdf, USDA-ARS Tree Fruit Research Lab.
Horticultural systems and practices to facilitate mechanization in apples and pears, S. Musacchi, WSU-TFREC, 2014.
WA 38 rootstock and system trial, 2013.
Woolly Apple Aphid resistance in advanced rootstock selections, 2011.
A database to aggregate research results and assess technologies, 2009.
Establishing an apple orchard, eXtension, 2012. (Accessed: 1/19/17).
Techniques & benefits of a fruit wall, R. Lehnert, Good Fruit Grower, January, 2014.
Good, better, best? The quest for better apple rootstocks, T. Auvil, Good Fruit Grower, June, 2014.
Get it right at planting, G. Warner, Good Fruit Grower, February, 2011.
Response of ‘HoneycrispⓇ’ apple trees to combinations of pre-plant fumigation, deep ripping, and hog manure compost incorporation in a soil with replant disease, P. G. Braun, et. al., HortScience, 45(11)1702-1707, 2010.
Pruning Bartlett Pears to optimize fruit quality, S. Musacchi, WSU-TFREC.
2010 Cost estimates of producing pears in North Central Washington, S. Galinato and R. K. Gallardo, WSU Extension Fact Sheet FS031E, 2011.
2010 cost estimates of producing Bartlett pears in the Yakima Valley, S. Galinato and R. K. Gallardo, WSU Extension Fact Sheet FS034E, 2011.
Innovation of current orchard systems to produce high quality, S. Musacchi, WSU-TFREC, 2014.
Systems approach for ensuring superior pear fruit quality, 2013.
Genetic analysis of advanced pear rootstock, 2013.
Vigor control and promotion of fruiting pear trees, Good Fruit Grower, February, 2013.
Pear Industry ripe for change, G. Warner, Good Fruit Grower, September, 2013.
High Density SSA plantings: How we can optimize fruit quality, S. Musacchi, pdf, WSU-TFREC, 2014.
Sweet Cherry Orchard Establishment in the Pacific Northwest, L. Long and C. Kaiser, PNW 642, February, 2013.
Reducing the impact of virus diseases on quality cherry production, 2013.
Growers try hooped trellises, M. Hansen, Good Fruit Grower, February, 2013.
High density cherry orchard economics, M. Hansen, Good Fruit Grower, December, 2012. | 2019-04-21T23:05:03Z | http://treefruit.wsu.edu/orchard-management/orchard-establishment/ |
2 What Are Fever Blisters?
3.1 Cold Sores and Fever Blisters: Are They Serious?
3.2 Are Cold Sores and Fever Blisters Contagious?
10 Do Home Remedies for Cold Sores or Fever Blisters Really Work?
Cold sores or fever blisters as they are sometimes called are suffered by countless thousands of people worldwide. They are caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV). Some people are lucky and seldom if ever suffer an outbreak, whereas others are less fortunate and suffer repeatedly from the pain and discomfort they can cause.
The first signs of a sore developing for many people can be a burning or tingling sensation around the mouth and lips, a sore throat and in some cases swollen glands, usually in ones neck. It is harder as a parent to determine if a young child is about to have an outbreak as they are less specific as to what symptoms they are experiencing, but the onset of cold sores is often associated with dribbling as the sore develops.
The actual sores are the result of the reproductive process of the virus, which having entered a healthy cell, causes that cell to replicate the virus. The virus then destroys the host cell, releasing millions of cells in a confined area, which produces what is commonly called the cold sore.
1. Ultra Violet Light – One must be careful not to overdo exposure to the sun. When sunbathing use a suitable sun block.
2. Stress – Either physical or emotional is a major cause because it weakens the body’s immune system causing the virus to become active.
3. Menstrual periods – An outbreak can often be associated with women’s periods.
4. Diet – This plays an important part in one’s general health and consequently your body’s ability to fight off a flare up.
5. Alcohol – Taken in excess, alcohol can rob your body of essential nutrients which can cause cold sores to erupt.
To suppress a cold sore outbreak there are several things one can do to assist the body in suppressing the virus.
Controlling stress is very important. Avoid emotional conflict and ensure one has sufficient sleep.
A diet containing more fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, beans and lentils, free range meats and filtered water strengthens the body and provides the nutrients needed by the immune system to function properly.
There are countless treatments available across the counter or from your family doctor, for them, producing various results, but now there are extremely effective and fast acting natural treatments available that allow you to get a cold sore treatment quickly and eliminate them forever. If you suffer from unsightly cold sores you should investigate these natural treatments which so many people are now raving about.
Medical experts are not sure as to why fever blisters are formed but they are of the opinion that people who suffer from vitamin deficiency and have a low immunity system are more prone to these blisters. Parents therefore should be careful with their young ones and supply them with sufficient fibres, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates diets which can help them to develop a strong immunity system.
Stress, frequent illnesses like cold or flu and over exposure to sunlight can also be a cause for fever blisters and more importantly those who suffer with a weak immunity system are more susceptible to it.
Precaution is better than cure. So the best way to get rid of fever blisters is to avoid getting them at all by being careful about your diet and leading a healthy life so that if you do fall a victim to a fever blister you will be able to come out of them soon.
How to get rid of fever blisters can be a cause of anxiety but the way to prevent it is to avoid coming into direct contact with one who has it by refusing to share utensils, linen or other items that may transfer the virus from one to the other.
Studies have shown that application of sunscreen on the lips can also prevent fever blisters. L-Lysine is a supplement that may help you to get rid of fever blisters. Also avoid taking chocolates and nuts as these can aggravate the disorder of fever blisters.
A vaccine to help in getting rid of fever blisters is on its way soon so till then nothing can be more helpful than precaution itself.
The HSV-1, or the herpes simplex virus, is the primary cause of cold sores and fever blisters—both of which are the exact same condition that affects the lips. The medical term for cold sores and fever blisters is ‘herpes labialis’. However the word ‘labialis’ is not be confused with genital herpes, which uses the same etymology for the labia of a female’s genitalia. Though rare, cold sores and fever blisters can spread on and around the mouth. And in most serious cases, cold sores and fever blisters swell out over the face, which is called ‘orofacial herpes’.
Cold Sores and Fever Blisters: Are They Serious?
The first question that runs your mind when you think about cold sores and fever blisters is whether or not these conditions are serious. They can be. But most of the time, cold sores and fever blisters remain latent for years before showing any symptoms. And when you do find cold sores and fever blisters, chances are they will disappear within two weeks.
Cold sores and fever blisters are recurrent, as the virus causing it stays in the skin around the mouth. The condition usually comes and goes. Throughout a year, a patient may experience up to a dozen or more recurrences of cold sores and fever blisters. Fortunately, most patients with cold sores and fever blisters don’t have to go through it all. In less serious cases, cold sores and fever blisters stay dormant and only occur 5 to 10 days, once or twice annually.
Are Cold Sores and Fever Blisters Contagious?
Apparently, over 64 percent of adults in the U.S. have this condition, and that doesn’t yet include teenagers who have the herpes simplex virus dormant in their systems. And yes, cold sores and fever blisters are contagious. As a matter of fact, STDs don’t even come close to how infectious this condition is, because cold sores and fever blisters can be contracted with just a single touch.
Instantaneously, the virus can get transferred to the next person’s hand. If that virus somehow comes in contact with an abrasion on the mouth, specifically the oral mucosal tissue, it will initiate the infection and this person will start to develop cold sores and fever blisters.
Even when the herpes simplex virus stays latent underneath the facial skin, it still infects that area. It doesn’t always mean that you have to keep your distance from someone who has cold sores and fever blisters, but you still have to be very careful so as not to touch the infected area.
The risk for contracting cold sores blisters is very high. More often than not, a person already has it unknowingly. It’s even harder to back track steps and figure out from whom he or she got the herpes simplex virus.
In order to fully protect oneself from catching this disease, one should consult with the family physician whenever he or she comes in contact with a person infected with cold sores blisters virus.
Getting cold sores or fever blisters in and around the nose and on other parts of your face can be more painful than the ones that generally appear on the lips and around the mouth.
The cold sores or fever blisters in and around the nose are similar to those that appear on your lips and mouth. They swell and form blisters which erupt, produce scabbing and finally heal, usually leaving no scars. This is called nasal herpes.
Basically, the virus goes through the same stages that oral herpes goes through; that of the ‘prodrome’ stage, the ‘weeping’ stage and the ‘healing’ stage. The ‘prodome’ stage consists of feeling a burning or tingling feeling followed by a formation of a cluster of small blisters at the site of infection.
Next is the ‘weeping’ stage when the fever blister starts to ooze and crust over into a scab. Finally, in the ‘healing’ stage, the cold sores or fever blisters in or around the nose scab or crust over and are replaced by fresh new skin. The cold sores or fever blisters in and around the nose can be a result of autoinoculation, where you actually spread the virus from one area to another yourself. Cold sores are highly contagious. Picking your nose when you accidentally touch an active outbreak of a cold sore is one way of transmitting the virus to your nostrils. Being conscious of what you touch and where your hands have been will help avoid spreading the virus to other parts of your body. Washing your hands often with soap and water will also help prevent autoinoculation.
The cold sores or fever blisters in and around the nose can get really irritating and extremely painful particularly if you have the flu or a cold at the same time. The conditions inside the nose, being moist and warm, make the virus thrive which can increase its chances to infect nearby areas and can lead to a longer healing time than usual. They are aggravated every time you try to blow and wipe your nose as it is nearly impossible to avoid the sores.
When the scabbing stage begins, the crusting becomes hard due to the constant flow of air in the nostrils. This means the scabs can easily break and bleed with just a movement of your nose. The skin in the nostrils is fragile and thin which increases the possibility of the scabs breaking and bleeding easily. This can promote further infection of the virus.
Applying home remedies like placing ice on the nose can help relieve the pain of the cold sores or fever blisters and can speed up the healing time. Taking L-lysine can also shorten the duration of the episode.
Having cold sores or fever blisters on any part of your face is unpleasant enough. But having cold sores and fever blisters in and around your nose could possibly be the worst. However it may be possible to stop a cold sore or fever blister in and around the nose before it starts.
Considering more than half of the world’s population carries the herpes simplex virus 1, there are definitely needs for fever blister remedies. It doesn’t take much for the virus to move itself from one host to the next. The infection of a person comes from making contact with another person carrying the virus.
Many times, all it takes for virus transfer is for people to share saliva, whether it is through kissing, or sharing a drinking cup or eating utensil. People carrying the virus that causes fever blisters should take precautions so that they don’t spread it to others, including family members and co-workers. The areas they usually transmit from include the lips, eyes, and ears.
People must avoid scratching or even touching those infected areas. If there is a need to physically relieve an itch, use a cotton ball or preferably a small cotton swab that can be promptly discarded. It would be nice to wrap the cotton swab in a tissue so know one accidentally touches it during trash can dumping.
Contacting others orally is an obvious no-no. This contagious virus would easily and quickly transmit to the next person. Those items used for consumption of food and drink need to be cleaned thoroughly, and using some antibacterial cleaning solution would be best.
A technique people can opt to use as a fever blister home remedy is an age old tradition that may seem primitive, but it is effective. Many people have seen improvements in their recovery when they apply toothpaste to the location of the blister. The amount needed depends upon the severity of the cold sore. When using toothpaste, cooling and numbing sensations come about from the paste ingredients. The sensations reduce and relieve the pain and itching as the blood flow increases to the fever blister, sending a more rapid supply of white blood cells. For the toothpaste, its active and inactive ingredients which include baking soda, enzymes, and such will help kill germs and bacteria in the immediate area.
Determining early that the virus is bubbling up will greatly aid in treating and reducing the severity of the fever blister. Some of the warnings for an onset of a cold sore include itchiness, slight warmth, and even a bump forming on the skin.
When detected, clean, disinfect, sanitize, and apply toothpaste to the location. Try to apply the paste evenly with a cotton swab, and do this in the morning and before laying down for bed. The fever blisters will eventually heal.
Use sunscreen on a sunny day as a preventative measure if a blister isn’t present. Since the herpes simplex virus 1 cannot be cured, numerous tips including the previous few need to be taken as fever blister remedies, or at least, preventative measures. Detecting the virus early can be a great weapon and so is educating those who are most susceptible around you. If you can prevent a cold sore, you won’t have to worry about the multitude of fever blister remedies.
Some may think fever blisters remedies to be a tale but it is actually a reality to others. When using fever blister remedies on lips or any other varieties of canker sores it truly is vital you take safety measures on what ingredients you applying on your mouth sores. Should you be not cautious of the fever blister remedies used you might make your cold sores a lot more uncomfortable and painful. When you are infected with fever blisters, you must avoid foods like grains, peas, peanuts, chocolate, oatmeal and whole-wheat products.
Below are 6 effective fever blister remedies you can refer to.
1) The easy fever blister remedies are to always maintain the fever blisters clean and dry. Don’t try to cover them up with cosmetics as performing so will only worsen the fever blisters. Other than that, covering up with thick layers of foundation is not effective as well.
2) Applying fever blisters area with petroleum gel will speed up the recovery process, stay away from cracking, bleeding, and try to reduce spreading. Apply lip balm as fever blister remedies that proven having sunscreen protection will help to avoid making the fever blisters worsen. Take note that most of the times fever blisters attacks are caused by long duration of sunlight exposure.
3) One of the fever blister remedies is putting tea bags and ice on fever blisters will help if reducing the pain and soreness, and also minimize the inflammation. Tea contained Tannic acid that has natural anti-viral elements that can assist to fight the fever blister virus.
4) Other fever blister remedies include taking lots of lysine foods and keep away from those that are either high in citric acid or high in arginine. Lysine stops the fever blister virus from replicating and on the other hand arginine keeps them alive. Try to eat more dairy foods and potatoes that are major sources of lysine.
Steer clear of or do away with arginine sources like whole grains, peas and chocolates. Acidic foods are verified to hasten and worsen fever blister, so reduce taking citrus fruits will definitely help.
5) Some herbs such as sage and aloe Vera are commonly used and extremely helpful. Just putting few drops of the extract and waits for the anti-viral elements to work on the fever blisters. This is one of the natural fever blister remedies.
6) Of course, the most easy fever blister remedies are to visit clinic or pharmacy and ask for doctor-prescribed medicines to put to your fever blisters. Practically all of them alleviate the pain and soreness caused by fever blisters. Nonetheless, although some anti-fever blister medications tell you that they are able to cure your cold sores permanently, don’t anticipate it to really do.
Bear in mind that the fever blister virus normally stays inside the nerve endings for a long period. Other than keep looking for fever blister remedies, the best way to defence against it is to find out what actually cause your fever blister attack. The causes are different for every individual.
When in search of fever blister remedies it is ideal to first check for basic solutions that you simply can apply with natural resources that can easily found within your home. Performing this will most likely save you a trip towards the grocery shop.
Many people have apple cider vinegar in their dwelling hence you might need to begin with those fever blisters remedies initially. This fever blisters home remedies are easy to apply and very inexpensive. However a lot of time the fever blister remedies suggested above is not good enough for some individual who have more severe fever blisters.
Home cold sore remedies are desired as a way of preventing the flare-up of fever blisters. This would prevent the need to continually purchase over-the-counter or prescribed medications in order to keep treating the problem. This is necessary as there is not a cold sore cure.
The onset of a cold sore can be detected ahead of time if you train yourself to be aware of the warning signs. Some of the common indicators of a developing cold sore include itching, tingling, and warmth at the location that will become a fever blister.
This period of time usually lasts several hours and provides a period of time where precautions can be taken. During this time, it is highly advised to not touch this area.
To touch or scratch the area will act as a catalyst for the herpes virus to travel to other areas that will be touched. If the overwhelming urge to scratch or clean near the area can’t be overcome, you should clean the area with an anti-bacterial solution, and wipe the area clean with a disposable cotton ball or swab.
It would be great to not have to go through this, and that is why we should take full advantage of proper nutrition in order to reduce cold sore occurrences. If you have a good home cold sore diet, you can make the herpes simplex virus dormant.
A good diet and exercise program should be followed to suppress the virus. The changes you make in your diet to improve the alkaline content in your body is what puts the virus in a dormant state. Making these positive changes in your diet for a lifetime can lead to never seeing that cold sore in the mirror again.
The herpes simplex virus 1 needs an acidic environment to thrive, and in this state it is hard to suppress outbreaks. Balancing your diet between acidic and alkaline foods in the proper proportions will lead to significant reductions in the outbreak of cold sores, as it usually makes the virus dormant. Home cold sore remedies are great, but consult a nutritionist on how to go about implementing some of these changes to your diet.
There are food choices that should be reduced or eliminated altogether in order to succeed with this method.
Foods to avoid include high fat dairy products, margarine products, saturated fat foods, mayonnaise, junk food, artificial sweeteners, chocolate, etc.
Various kinds of preservatives used in food also help trigger outbreaks, so focus on natural, least processed foods. High fibre foods are good for the heart, increase the metabolism, have low acidity, and are usually all natural.
Avoid those acidic foods to avoid cold sore outbreaks. Water, milk, and juices are excellent drinks to stay hydrated, but be sure to reduce your caffeine intake. Make your food choices your home cold sore remedies, and stop suffering from fever blisters.
Once you get a fever blister, you will experience pain, numbness, burning and tingling around your mouth or lips. Before you figure out how to get rid of a cold sore, the infected skin around your lips will turn red. After 4-5 days the red skin will turn into yellow crust. This usually means that your cold sore should heal in about 8-10 days.
Don’t touch your blister – The first tip on how to get rid of fever blisters is to keep them from spreading by not touching the infected skin. Touching the blisters frequently will only add infection to your cold sore. And scratching them for getting rid of cold sores will only harm your skin.
Lastly, one of the main reasons why you should not touch your cold sore is to avoid spreading the virus. Touching your fever blisters and making physical contact with your friends and families will only put them at risk of getting them too.
Keep it clean – How do you get rid of a cold sore and the associated pain? Simple – you can ease the soreness by using soap and water. Rub the soap smoothly into your fever blisters then wash it off. But make sure that the soap will not be used by others to avoid cross contamination. Cleaning your fever blisters once in a while will also help lessen the bacteria around your mouth and prevent further infection.
Apply a cream – There are creams that contain zinc oxide, which has been said to lessen the outbreak of fever blisters. Some creams require prescription but there are also over-the-counter creams for getting rid of a cold sore. Creams can also alleviate the pain and tingling of fever blisters.
Consult your doctor -If you’re really bothered and want to make sure that you’re doing the proper thing, it is best to ask your doctor how do you get rid of cold sores. Getting a check-up will help you to know the cause and treatment for fever blisters. You can also ask your doctor if he or she can prescribe antiviral medicine or creams to heal faster.
The above steps are just some ways how to get rid of cold sores – there are still many others. Just make sure that you take note of the signs and prevent the spreading of the virus.
Some remedies can sooth the pain, reduce the area affected, and speed up the healing process, cutting short the duration of the visible sore. One of the most common remedies, and possibly the cheapest, is treating cold sores and fever blisters with ice.
A lot of cold sore sufferers testify to the amazing effects that treating cold sores and fever blister with ice has on their outbreaks. Sometimes ice can even stop the virus from turning into a full-blown occurrence. To accomplish this you need to take action immediately at the first sign of an oncoming outbreak, also known as the ‘prodrome stage’, when you get that tingling or itching sensation.
Treating cold sores and fever blisters with ice involves putting an ice pack on the area affected and holding it there for a few minutes and taking it off occasionally if it gets too painful. Do this for about 10-15 minutes every hour or more, if you have time. Doing this in the early stages of an outbreak reduces the virus’ metabolism, discourages its reproduction and can eventually push the virus back into hibernation.
Treating cold sores and fever blisters with ice is a fairly effective way to stop a full-blown outbreak. The results may vary from one person to another. In the event that it continues to develop, continue applying ice on the area to help ease the pain and to stop further swelling. This will also make the cold sore go away faster than usual.
Treating cold sores and fever blisters with ice can produce remarkable effects on its own. And if used with other treatments, it can produce better results.
Frozen tea bags are an example of a treatment with ice incorporated in it. This treatment provides the soothing effects of ice and increases the potential of suppressing the cold sore virus. Tea contains natural anti-viral properties that can be used as an organic remedy for cold sores or fever blisters.
Another combination that many sufferers find success with is; ice followed by rubbing alcohol. This dries out the sore and keeps the area sterile.
There are many other home remedies for treating cold sores or fever blisters that sufferers have used with varying degrees of success. Using ice as an inhibitive measure and in combination with other treatments for cold sores or fever blisters is fairly effective. However treating cold sores or fever blisters with ice is still treating an outbreak. A more effective solution would be to stop the cold sore before it starts.
Do Home Remedies for Cold Sores or Fever Blisters Really Work?
Do home remedies for cold sores really work? Curing cold sores is difficult, if not next to impossible. No treatment works for everyone. One person will have good results with a remedy and another person will say that it doesn’t work for them. In addition there are differing strategies.
One approach is to try and dry the sore. Another approach is to keep it moist and deprive it of oxygen, and still a third is to dry it out and then keep it moist.
In addition, there are other preparations that are normal house hold supplies that do not fall into either category, with examples of how they could be used.
Do home remedies for cold sores really work? The method of drying out the sore involves applying some sort of astringent to the site. There are many different products that accomplish this. Most of them contain alcohol or a solvent that dries out the skin.
Here is a partial list, starting with the most logical and proceeding to the hard to believe. Most of the time one would use ice and/or open the blisters with a needle before using these products.
Drying the sore is probably a better strategy than keeping it moist. Almost all of the over the counter preparations keep the area moist. Usually this is not effective in shortening the episode.
Next is a partial list of remedies that don’t really fall into either category. They are reported to be helpful in treating cold sores.
Most of these home remedies are reported to shorten the episode, but again they focus on applying something to the sore after it has already started. So the best that can be expected is to shorten the healing time and perhaps relieve some of the pain. But be aware that some of them actually increase the pain. | 2019-04-19T08:41:08Z | https://www.coldsoretreatmentadvice.com/treatment/fever-blister-remedies/ |
There are two notable sides of the fence that people seem to sit on when it comes to this contentious topic.
On the one side sit the ‘bubble blowers’ who use statistical data to demonstrate that collectively, we have the highest level of mortgage related debt per household of all developed countries in the world.
They argue that local property prices are over-inflated and set to come tumbling down and this could be by as much as 50 per cent.
In 2015 it was the US Global Economics forecaster Harry Dent and in 2016 it was Jonathan Tepper’s turn. His ‘claim to fame’ was to correctly predict the housing bubbles in US, Ireland & Spain.
On the other side of the debate are those who believe an Australian property bubble in 2016 is just a good story to sell papers or gets clicks on the internet, but that there are no signs of a significant housing market correction on the horizon.
They accept the property markets are slowing down; but they anticipate a nice easy transition into a naturally quieter phase of the property cycle. Period.
So who is right and who is wrong?
And is it all as black and white as two simple sides of a debate?
18. OVERSEAS BUBBLES – HARBINGERS OF DOOM FOR AUSTRALIAN HOUSING?
HOW LONG BETWEEN ONE PROPERTY CYCLE AND THE NEXT?
IS AUSTRALIA EXPERIENCING A PROPERTY BUBBLE?
I’ve already given some perspective on the property bubble here, but today in a commentary that’s a little longer than usual, I want to piece together the various fragmented arguments around Australia’s property bubble puzzle and give you my thoughts on each of them.
Hopefully by exploring the ‘big picture’ fundamentals, I’ll shed some light on what’s happening in the market today and what we might be able to expect tomorrow.
And I’d like to show you that to be a smart property investor it’s critical to keep your eye on the big picture fundamentals rather than constantly getting caught up in talk of property bubbles.
Losing that focus is likely to undermine your journey and steer you off track, causing you to lose sight of your long term objectives.
I want to help you keep your focus.
I’m going to use my forty odd years of market experience and investing (some would suggest rather successfully) through 4 complete property cycles, to cut through all the noise and explore 18 aspects of the property bubble in context, explaining why smart property investors shouldn’t lose sleep over all the speculative market reporting.
A housing bubble doesn’t just mean high prices — prices can just be high in response to basic supply and demand.
A housing bubble is defined by rapid rise in property prices, where house prices are a long way away from what is fundamentally considered justified and generally occur when highly leveraged speculators enter a market for short-term growth.
And it is usually also associated with strong credit growth.
The problem is that property bubbles are often hard to detect in real time because there are so many different Australian property markets and there is so much disagreement over the concept of affordability and the fundamental value of properties.
The fact is, most market movements are influenced by those who keep the markets moving – humans and our psychological responses to perceived highs and lows.
This reality, combined with today’s 24/7 information superhighway, means markets are being influenced in different ways and with more frequency.
Real estate bubbles are caused by a rapid escalation in house prices, fueled by a level of buyer demand that outweighs supply.
Something generally happens to spike buyer demand, as in the recent case of low interest rates making property relatively cheap to leverage into.
This upward movement entices “speculators” into the market, further fanning the capital growth flames with increased investment activity.
Then eventually some other influence comes along to quell demand, (often rising interest rates) even though the supply pipeline is still pumping out newly built dwellings.
This causes prices to slump and it is said that it could lead the Real estate bubble to burst.
The problem I have with all the recent ‘housing bubble’ propaganda is that it’s largely one-dimensional, failing to account for the many underlying fundamentals that influence our unique property sector.
2. Is the ‘property market’ in bubble trouble?
Overseas commentators are often guilty of talking about the impending implosion of Australia’s ‘property market’. Singular.
They speak as though the many markets within markets across our vast continent can be wrapped up in a neat little package.
Clearly this is not the case.
We have many different property markets around Australia – some defined by geography and others by price points – and while they may all be influenced by a number of common factors such as interest rates or government policies, they all have their own unique factors driving their particular market including local supply and demand, local economic factors, local job growth or lack of it and local council planning authorities with their own policies and agendas.
Not to mention divergent communities with all sorts of infrastructure, industry and amenity variations.
So it is wrong to generalise about one property market.
Any time I see a headline proclaiming, ‘Housing market crash’, I wonder which, of the hundreds of Australia’s micro-housing markets they’re referring to.
It seems a lot can happen in real estate in the 12 months since I wrote the fist version of this report, and the fears of an Australian “property bubble” bursting never came to pass, just as I predicted it wouldn’t last year.
Instead over the past year we’ve seen an orderly slowdown in the heady Sydney property market, as well as strengthening markets in other capital cities such as Melbourne and to a lesser extent in Brisbane and Hobart.
Despite the underlying strong fundamentals for the Sydney property market tighter lending criteria from the banks (who were forced to slow down lending to investors by APRA) together with media hype of high prices moved the Sydney market from 5th gear into 2nd gear.
The Sydney house prices recorded extraordinary price growth from 2013 to 2015, after moving up steadily since 2008, however by the end of last year that growth started to slow.
We also need to remember that the Sydney property market was mainly flat from 2003 – 2008 a decade before that recent short burst of strong growth.
Media reports say that Sydney houses now cost 12 times the annual income, up from four times about 40 years ago.
But thanks to record low interest rates, it still costs less today to service a mortgage out of the typical income than it did in 1989 when interest rates hit an eye-wateringly high of 17 per cent.
Respected economist Saul Eslake does not expect a property price crash, but says that forces are shifting that will dampen demand and increase supply, and that slower population growth will limit new demand.
There are also a number of current, and proposed, policies that are taking some of the heat out of the market, particularly for investors.
In late 2014, the Australian Prudential and Regulatory Authority (APRA) believed that Australian banks were over-leveraging their residential loan portfolios, especially in the light of tighter world standards.
So the banks were told that they must not increase their investor lending by more than 6% (in some cases it was 10%) a year and were also required to raise a large amount of capital by issuing shares.
This has resulted in banks tightening their lending criteria including requiring larger deposits and stricter interest servicing criteria.
At the same time foreign property investment in Australian property has slowed a little in response to the slowdown in the Chinese economy, the higher Australian dollar and China restricting the outflow of funds from that country.
However, outside the big capital cities the story is different.
Unfortunately we’ve heard horror stories of investors who’d over-committed financially or bought in risky one-industry locations such as mining regions going bankrupt.
Boy have things changed from when I first started investing.
I would have loved to have access to the variety of daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly market statistics that are available today.
The problem is much of the commentary I see relies heavily on short-term data and is often written by people who don’t have the perspective that having invested, both successfully and unsuccessfully, through a series of property cycles, gives those experienced commentators who in general are not worried about a property bubble.
In other words, this short term reporting is far from reliable when it comes to gaining a clear perspective of enduring market fundamentals that sophisticated property investors pay attention to.
Unlike shares in a faceless corporate entity, real estate represents an emotional investment as well as a financial one.
Of course that’s one of the reasons why talking about property bubbles causes such heated debate, but it’s also why we need to explore the many facets that fuel this investment vehicle, to better understand what’s happening at any given time.
What I’m getting at is that for most property owners real estate is not an investment vehicle – it’s their home, their castle.
This makes real estate a unique investment vehicle because it’s the only investment market dominated by non-investors and underpins the stability of Australian property prices.
When the economy falters those 70% of Australians who own their own home don’t suddenly sell up causing property prices to plummet, they hold on biding their time till the cycle moves on.
And as half of these home owners no longer have a mortgage, when interest rates rise they don’t panic.
In fact experience through the recession we had to have in the early 90’s showed that despite double digit unemployment and rising interest rates Aussies did all they could to hold on to their homes. They would rather eat dog food that sell up, and as a result house prices stumbled and fell a little – but they did not crash.
Clearly this is very different to what happens in the stock market or in some overseas property markets where you can hand keys back to the bank and walk away from your loan obligations.
Large volumes of ‘real time’ market data means investors are drip-fed constant ‘evidence’ about house price movements, buyer activity, vacancy rates, rental yields and so forth.
This causes a kind of ‘death by statistics’, where investors are assaulted and subsequently distracted off course by a lot of confusing and sometimes conflicting ‘noise’ from the many markets within markets.
Investors must remember the big picture rather than getting caught up in the detail…where the devil is.
A good example is the current commentary around the alleged “overheated” Sydney property market.
Sure Sydney prices were rising fast over the last few years – but they’ve only risen by 7.4% in the 12 months to April 2016 according to CoreLogic RP Data’s Home Value Index, and as you can see from the graphic below, that market is really only playing catch up with overall price growth 5.9% per annum over the last 10 years – hardly bubble material.
The problem is that any time dwelling prices show significant upward growth a run of alarmist reporting follows.
The same has happened across Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth at various times in the recent past.
While the level of activity we were seeing in parts of inner Sydney property market wasn’t sustainable over the long term, does it really reflect an emerging Sydney housing bubble or just ‘normal’ market movements?
I’ve already shown that over the longer term Sydney property price growth is not in bubble territory and taking monthly, quarterly or even annual data sets out of context in such a way creates a ‘tale of two cities’ paradox.
While some “bubblers” are suggesting our property markets are a ‘runaway train’ that’s set to crash at any moment, the graph below shows price growth for the 10 years to January 2016, with Melbourne being the only market to double in value.
In fact, once adjusted for inflation, Sydney and Melbourne property markets are the only capital city markets where dwelling values have risen faster than inflation since the last market peak.
So let’s clarify: is housing really unaffordable in Australia?
Well…according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) it is and Australia’s property prices are grossly over-inflated, with radical policy making required in order to slow the nation’s emerging housing bubble.
This includes tighter regulations around foreign investment and property related lending practices.
However measuring housing affordability is such an abstract idea because it is not a one size fits all measure and there are so many factors which contribute to affordability or unaffordability.
But what interest rate do you use when a typical mortgage is paid off over 25 to 30 years?
What figure do you use for household income? Much like interest rates household incomes will fluctuate over the 25 to 30 year cycle of a mortgage.
And income levels are very different across different regions of the country as is the money that flows to single vs dual income households.
Is a home in Australia the same as a home anywhere else in the world?
In the sense that it provides shelter it is, however, tax regimes, the cost and scarcity of developable land, the provision of infrastructure and the availability of jobs are all other factors that contribute to the cost of housing.
Furthermore, most comparisons are not apples with apples.
Australian housing markets are dominated by detached houses whereas markets like Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and Manhattan are largely apartment markets while London for example is predominately attached housing types (what we would call terraces or townhouses).
The fact that Australian homes are, at least for the large part, detached and the largest in the world will also contribute to a higher cost.
Most overseas analysis of our market situation is misleading due to its focus on two typical measures of affordability, being the ratio of house prices to household incomes and house prices to rents.
But I would argue that what they don’t use preferred measure of housing affordability in Australia, which is the proportion of disposable income spent on housing costs.
At a little over 20 per cent, our level of new housing loan repayments as a percentage of household disposable income remains at a 30 year average and is falling due to our stable, low interest rate environment.
House prices are expensive but Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Dr. Alex Joiner has demonstrated that if you take the median house price in 1985 and adjust it only by disposable household income growth between 1985 and 2016 and the change in borrowing capacity over this period – via lower mortgage rates – you find that the 1985-adjusted value is 1 per cent above current median prices.
So the change in incomes and interest rates since 1985 imply that Aussie housing is fairly valued (actually slightly cheap).
This analysis is crucially predicated on interest rates staying at or below their present marks and if interest rates rise, then housing could be considered expensive; but the bond market currently implies that over the next 10 years the cash rate will only climb by about half a percentage point.
Real estate plays a significant role in our collective cultural psyche.
Buying your own home is an aspirational Aussie dream, representing a rite of passage that affirms our financial success and gives us a new social status.
According to a 2011 report, The Evolution of Home Ownership Rates in Selected OECD Countries: Demographic and Public Policy Influences, home ownership has various spillover effects for society as a whole.
Linked to things like better educational outcomes for children and a more ‘active and informed citizenry’, many modern governments vigorously promote home ownership because of the potential social and economic benefits.
In recent times the property sector has almost singlehandedly kept our economy moving, breathing new life into retail, infrastructure and employment due to the many industries that survive off the back of bricks and mortar.
These periods are synonymous with increased public policy encouraging home ownership – think the FHOG boost during the 2008 GFC for instance.
In the 1990s, 71.4 per cent of Australians owned or were purchasing their own home, a rate second only to Spain and Luxembourg at 77.8 per cent and 71.6 per cent respectively.
Interestingly, Australia’s rate of home ownership as recorded by the ABS dropped slightly to 69.5 per cent in 2004, with a further fall to 67 per cent in 2011.
While some suggest this declining rate of home ownership is largely due to an inability for first homebuyers to break into our over priced property market, others like industry heavyweight John McGrath, note a clear cultural shift occurring across younger generations.
First home buyers aren’t actually absent from the market, they’re just buying an investment property before they buy a home to live in.
Cultural shifts occur as generational influences come and go.
During the 1970s and 80’s, Baby Boomers were busy building family homes that showed a distinct preference for detached dwellings on large suburban blocks.
This led to a massive construction boom that saw our once fairly contained major cities start to expand outward in a rampant period of unprecedented urban sprawl.
Enter the Baby Boomer offspring; the often tertiary educated Gen X and Y children of the seventies, eighties and nineties, who collectively put marriage on hold in favour of high-powered careers and embraced an emerging café culture.
This changing of the generational guards brought with it an interesting transformation in our housing markets.
Where once it was all about size, home ownership has become more about convenience and lifestyle, as location takes precedence over square footage.
Many younger homebuyers are trading backyards for balconies, buying apartments and compromising on space in order to break into popular postcodes within a two to ten kilometre radius of major CBD markets across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
This trend has been confirmed by ABS data, indicating that building approvals for higher-density homes, such as apartments and town houses, surged by 36 per cent over the past year, while approvals for ‘traditional’ houses fell by 1 per cent.
Tellingly, these figures reveal there were nearly as many building approvals for higher-density homes (9,102) as houses (9,441).
Major demographic shifts, such as shrinking household sizes, are driving the rising demand for higher-density accommodation. In 1911, the average number of people living in a private dwelling was 4.5, with this figure falling to 3.5 by 1966 and now sitting at around 2.7 people per household.
According to RP Data, 19 of the 20 most densely populated suburbs in Australia are located within the Greater Sydney area, with the one exception being Melbourne’s Southbank precinct.
And it’s not just owner-occupiers who want a slice of the inner city property pie, but tenants forced to forego the Great Australian Dream in order to be closer to the action and employment, due to pricier entry points.
This booming buyer and tenant demand is exerting upward pressure in select locations where accommodation supply is tightly constrained, due to restricted development and residential growth opportunities.
It’s expected this downsizing trend will continue, with increasing evidence of formative shifts in the way we work, play and live, along with an escalation in higher density urban design and planning to utilise existing infrastructure.
“As transit oriented developments continue to gather pace I am quite certain we will see higher population densities spreading to key transport nodes located further away from the city centres,” says Lawless.
One ‘housing bubble’ hypothesis is that a growing tide of ageing baby boomers will cause a wave of downsizers to sell their family home and cash in their share portfolios all at once.
Some overseas economists have suggested the resultant accommodation oversupply will cause a significant market corrections and an ‘asset meltdown’.
Second, says Guest, is older people choosing to downsize and releasing equity by selling the family home to help fund retirement.
However, he adds that the latter effect has become weaker, given our ability to leverage equity without selling any assets through facilities like redraw loans and reverse mortgages.
But remember our population is likely to almost double in the next 40-50 years, with many immigrants keen to buy the Baby Boomers’ McMansions to live in while developers will be keen to buy them to redevelop these older homes into apartments and townhouses.
Property analyst Michael Matusik says although we’re not experiencing a national property bubble, an influx of ‘grey’ money from China is distorting the Sydney and Melbourne property markets.
“All of this illicit activity is creating a demand that would not otherwise exist,” says Matusik.
Others argue that foreign investment, whether in domestic real estate, manufacturing or mining, increases national wealth and if an overseas buyer is willing to pay a local owner more for their asset than an Australian resident, why shouldn’t they take the best offer going?
Developer capital is forcing up city land values as Asian investment groups are buying up development sites to build high rise towers to on sell to Asian investors. There have been several instances of Asian developers paying prices comfortably in excess of what is perceived locally to be “fair market value”, in certain cases 25 to 40 per cent above what domestic developers might previously have been prepared to pay.
While there is no direct correlation between the impressively rebounding tourism sector and our real estate markets, record Chinese visitor numbers and tourism expenditure is inextricably linked to other longer term demographic trends, including the increasing popularity of Australia as a destination for Chinese capital.
Clearly it’s difficult to get a handle on how much activity in Australia’s property sector is directly related to foreign investment activity and the FIRB has come under fire regarding its apparent inability to stay on top of who is buying what.
Then there are concerns about the lack of regulation around China’s banking sector, meaning buyers may not be able to maintain their offshore asset base in Australia.
Economists suggest China has a prominent informal financial system because its formal banking sector functions so poorly and without an informal financial system, China’s growth would have been much slower than it has been and Australia would be worse off as a result.
Similarly, the flow of Chinese capital to Australia would have been reduced and so too would the related benefits, including less housing supply and fewer construction jobs.
These commentators suggest that the scapegoating of Chinese investors over high Aussie house prices can be refuted with hard evidence.
Australia is on the crest of an undeniable demographic tsunami, as 5.3 million Baby Boomers hit retirement age over the next fifteen years.
Scaremongers suggest this mass workforce exodus will send us hurtling toward a similar fate suffered by Japan, where retirees dramatically outweighed working citizens and in turn, toppled the economic balance.
There’s no doubt extra pressure will be exerted on certain services as our population ages, particularly public ones like healthcare, which we know rely on taxpayer funding. And of course less people will be actively working and contributing taxes.
So we should anticipate some type of economic fallout from this significant generational transition.
But is it reasonable to expect all retirees to stop spending money and sell off any property they own, just because they decide to cease paid employment?
Numerous alarmists seem to think so, predicting a subsequent bursting of the housing bubble.
The reality is, while many retirees want to downsize, most won’t be able to afford to do so and have money left over as they’ll end up spending an amount similar to the value of their home on an apartment or townhouse that might be smaller but a little flashier, in or around the neighbourhood they raised their family in.
Further, the government is aware of the dilemma it faces as close to half of the present day workforce (43%) decides to call it quits but won’t have sufficient savings or super to rely on in retirement.
But they have a solution, and it’s more people.
Both sides of politics have geared their policies to reflect the need to keep our population growing, looking at ways to increase the tax-paying workforce by importing younger workers.
It’s hoped well trained Gen-Xers and Y’s will migrate to Australia, filling our skilled labour void, earning high incomes and of course, contributing their fair share of tax.
This will result in extra demand all of these new citizens will place on our already scarce inner urban housing stock, as they seek accommodation to rent and purchase.
These are the people who’ll keep the money moving.
Eighty seven per cent of Aussies live in and around our major urban centres.
Logically, growing city-centric employment opportunities, combined with more skilled migrant workers moving into these areas, will only increase competition for already tightly held inner city property markets.
If anything, it could be said that in attempting to address the Baby Boomer conundrum by upping migrant numbers, we’ll only see more housing demand in the future and therefore, a continued underpinning of property prices for years to come.
We might be blamed for a lot of things when it comes to Australia’s economic fortunes of the day, but no, I don’t think you can pin the alleged property bubble on the Baby Boomers!
The ability to buy and borrow against residential real estate through self-managed super funds has opened up a whole new market for Australian property over the last few years.
In other words, the RBA was worried that the trend to purchase real estate assets within an SMSF structure, could significantly inflate property prices.
But then in 2015 and 2016 APRA stepped in and lending to SMSF’s to buy investment property slowed down considerably removing one of the fans that fired the property market.
Interestingly according to the SMSF Professionals Association of Australia (SPAA), residential property is a minor element of the total SMSF investment market compared to commercial holdings, representing 3.4% and 11.7% of investments respectively.
Additionally, only 1% of all SMSF property investments were geared, meaning these are relatively secure assets, with limited risk weight allocation.
While the increased promotion of leveraged property purchases within SMSFs was a growing trend, officials are certainly taking a tougher stance and demanding greater transparency around management of these entities.
Do I think we should be worried about mum and dad investors all rushing out and gearing at high-risk levels to secure SMSF property investments?
The short answer is no; but I’m concerned about poor property choices some SMSF trustees are making.
Thirty years ago, investment related borrowings accounted for just 13% of total housing finance, compared to a whopping 40% or $139 billion of domestic investor finance over the past 12 months.
As is evident from the graphic below from Pete Wargent, more Australians are turning to bricks and mortar to build their retirement portfolios, with a notable spike post-GFC reflecting a growing disenchantment with comparatively volatile investment vehicles like shares.
This continuing deluge of property investors keen to snap up residential real estate, particularly in the lucrative Sydney and Melbourne housing sector, is becoming a major market stimulus in its own right.
But what impact will sustained investor activity at such unprecedented levels have on the housing market’s long-term stability?
This is a question I can’t answer with any certainty right now, because we’ve never seen activity to this degree before.
What we do know is the prolonged spike in investor related borrowings that kicked off with vigour in 2008 and then again in 2012 is worrying the RBA, causing them to issue warnings about capping investor loan growth and advising lenders that extra capital charges will be imposed on banks breaching a 10 per cent growth limit in this area.
Alarmingly, the RBA is concerned that lenders enjoying the fruits of our booming Sydney property market will ignore regulator threats, choosing to pay extra capital charges as they continue to sell more investment loans.
Property expert Christopher Joye says that although the Reserve Bank is rightly worried, they’ve backed themselves into a corner, basing February’s decision to cut rates further on the assumption that the housing market was starting to cool (probably off the back of end of 2014 market data).
The concern around such unheard of levels of property investor activity is whether these portfolios are built to withstand an inevitable interest rate rise.
If investors are too exposed, with unsustainable levels of gearing, what happens when the market turns?
Critics suggest that when the RBA finally decides our economy is healthy enough to start upping the cash rate once more, struggling investors looking to claw back cashflow could create a sufficient stock saturation to pop our alleged ‘property bubble’.
While there’s no doubt that a number of newbie investors out there are perhaps too highly leveraged in the wrong type of asset and at risk when rates rise, the majority of property investments are relatively sheltered by our continuing buoyant rental market.
Further, many seasoned property investors are using the current low rate environment as an opportunity to solidify their asset base and reduce non-tax deductible debt, thereby strengthening their financial position in anticipation of any such changes to the current status quo.
Dr. Andrew Wilson, chief economist for Domain, provides the following graphic for the Sydney property market which was obviously the market concerning some as at the end of 2015 around 50% of purchases there were being made by property investors.
However even in Sydney the percentage of the population that are at risk of defaulting on their interest rates rise is minimal (4.3%).
32.6% of Sydney’s population are tenants and they won’t be affected when interest rates rise.
31.4% of Sydney’s population own their homes outright and are not vulnerable to rising interest rates.
31.7% of Sydney’s population owns a home, but their mortgage repayments are less than 30% of the incomes meaning these families are unlikely to experience mortgage stress if interest rates rise.
Only 4.3% of Sydney’s population has mortgage repayments that cost them more than 30% of their income and this group will be vulnerable if interest rates rise significantly.
Another much maligned target of housing bubble enthusiasts is this contentious area of the Australian tax system that supports investment.
Critics estimate that negative gearing has pushed up property prices by 9%, causing many to call for an inquiry into the legal “tax loophole” that allows investors to claim back costs directly related to property assets.
However I would argue that property investors provide an essential service to millions of Australians who chose to, or have to, rent their accommodation and as such these investors should be treated like all other business people.
In our modern society we pay taxes and expect the government to provide us with certain essential services.
These include hospitals, roads, schools, jails, public transport, aged care and public housing.
In Australia the government often shares the burden of providing these services with private enterprises that can often deliver them more efficiently and cheaper.
When the government can’t supply enough public hospital beds, private run hospitals step up to the mark and not only receive tax deductions for their business loans, but also allowances to subsidize them.
So do aged care providers, schools and public transport providers who provide services in tandem with the government.
Our government also provides public housing, but not enough for all those who can’t afford to buy their own property.
While government social and public housing programs are helpful, it is only the private rental market that can deliver rental accommodation at the rate and scale that is required at present.
Property investors save a deposit, buy a property, commit to a loan for 25 or 30 years and provide accommodation for others in our community.
In return we expect to get a reasonable return on our investment risk, just like other business people do.
We know that the rent won’t cover our expenses, but accept that certain tax benefits plus the long term capital growth will make up for this.
Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.
Negative gearing is a necessary mechanism, in effect acting as a subsidy for people who are renting and encouraging the provision of rental stock for people who cannot afford to buy.
Some estimate the current shortfall between social housing demand and supply is in the region of 200,000 dwellings per annum.
So the government has a choice – come up with an additional $50 billion odd to construct these dwellings, or continue to absorb an estimated $4 billion in negative gearing revenue losses and maintain the status quo for private property investors.
It’s clear when you drill down into much of the noise associated with Australia’s apparent ‘housing bubble’ that a key element of the argument is missing.
The fact is, market cynics are largely ignoring the basic supply and demand equation that drives all consumer-based commodities – with property being no exception.
Pete Wargent says Australia is projected to have 4.3 million more households in the 25 years to 2036, meaning the requirement for rental accommodation will be “beyond huge.
This immense ongoing demand from our ever growing population will continue to underpin Australian property markets over the long term, particularly in those inner urban areas that hold enduring appeal due to well established infrastructure and proximity to employment opportunities.
Some argue (and rightly so) that a looming accommodation oversupply is on the cards for certain CBD markets due to an apartment construction boom.
But when you put the numbers into perspective, should we really be so alarmed about an impending price correction right across the board?
BIS Shrapnel forecasts a surplus of multi-residential dwellings for Victoria in the vicinity of 14,300 by June 2016.
But this is just one market, within a multitude of broader markets.
Sure, it sounds like a large number in isolation, but when you consider that conservative estimates suggest our population will almost double in size over the next four decades to 39.7 million, this is a drop in the accommodation ocean.
And remember, you’re not buying ‘a market’ – as a strategic investor you would be buying individual properties – and only the type of property that will have long term strong demand from affluent owner occupiers who can afford to and are prepared to pay a premium to live in that location.
While price growth has grown across pockets of Australia’s housing markets, you certainly couldn’t claim that property values have escalated dramatically in real terms across the entire nation.
At least not with sufficient gusto to justify the level of scaremongering we keep seeing in the media. In fact you could safely describe average prices as relatively ‘flat’ in inflation adjusted terms.
As I’ve explained above, Sydney and Melbourne are the only capital cities where dwelling values have risen at a faster pace than inflation since the last property peak.
Source: Dr. Andrew Wilson, Fairfax/Domain.
In 2014 -15 the RBA increasingly came under fire for the role its lenient monetary policymaking has allegedly played in inflating the ‘property bubble’, with many pointing the finger at ‘cheap debt’ for fueling so-called speculative investment activity in the sector.
He says while Australia’s central bank hasn’t been forced to cut rates back to zero, as has been the case in other developed economies, it must tread carefully when it comes to the delicate balancing act between encouraging consumption and investment spending (to stimulate jobs growth), versus the risk of a housing bubble.
This is a lesson the Bank of Japan learned the hard way when, toward the end of the eighties, it failed to tighten monetary policy quick enough to address the Yen’s strong appreciation against the US dollar.
Past episodes of significant market corrections in the likes of Japan and America, are often used as yardsticks by which to measure the size of Australia’s ‘housing bubble’.
Japan’s economic bubble lasted from 1986 to 1991 and was characterized by a rapid acceleration of asset prices, including an over-inflated housing sector and uncontrolled credit expansion.
Some compare Australia to Japan because of the increased levels of speculative investment activity that occurred there off the back of excessive monetary policy easing, similar to what we’re witnessing here with low interest rates making property assets more appealing.
Then of course there are comparisons to the US, where poor money management and out of control lending practices left many mortgage holders unable to make their repayments, subsequently sending their housing sector into a spiral that resulted in a price crash and burn.
Recently, the spotlight has turned to China.
Our Asian neighbour has arguably become the world economic powerhouse; stealthily working to shift America’s global influence to its own shores through a stranglehold on manufacturing and export trade.
As their local economy transitions from ‘developing’ to fully dominating the world stage at breakneck speed, the Chinese real estate market has boomed.
Worryingly, the Wall Street Journal recently published a study that found 22.4% of houses in China’s urban areas were vacant as at 2013, up from 20.6% in 2011.
Experts argue that as the Chinese stop constructing housing and relying on Australia’s natural iron ore reserves to the same extent as they have in the past, the flow on effect will create a major hole in our economy.
On the other hand, with Chinese property losing its appeal as an asset base, it’s more likely that our neighbours will continue to spend their investment dollars in our housing markets.
Of course comparing China’s significant supply imbalance to Australia, where we have the opposite problem of an accommodation shortage, is about as relevant as comparing apples and oranges.
While it’s interesting to note what’s going on across our increasingly inter-connected globe, we must keep in mind that Australia is relatively unique in terms of its housing market fundamentals.
As John McGrath recently pointed out, “The property market has a strong foundation supporting it. We have low unemployment (despite recent job losses), a strong and resilient economy, low interest rates, a tax system that rewards property investment and a massive undersupply of housing in the face of rising population growth.
This love of all things bricks and mortar essentially sheltered us from the 2008 GFC and when the going got tough, we turned to the thing we’ve come to know and rely on as an integral part of our cultural identity – housing.
What I’ve tried to show you in this rather long report is that the Australian property markets are behaving in their normal fashion and we don’t need to fear a property bubble that’s about to burst.
Of course we all know the property market moves in cycles which is typically depicted in 4 stages.
The boom followed by the downturn, followed by the stabilisation phase which leads to an upturn which sets us up for the next property boom.
And currently we’re at the mature stage of this property cycle and price growth will slow and prices will eventually fall in many location. Fall a little – not collapse!
The Expansion Phase – House prices are above the previous price peak of the cycle.
By the way…other than in a few isolated markets (such as mining town), property never falls into the contraction phase.
In other words when the cycle moved on and priced fall they don’t drop below their previous troughs.
Interestingly it has nothing to do with the number of years.
Cycles are driven by a series of socio-economic factors, but over the years I’ve noticed that the nature of our property cycles is changing and they seem to be getting shorter.
However the current property cycle is likely to be different!
It seems that we are heading for a period of low interest rates, low inflation and lower capital growth that should prolong the current property cycle for a few more years before rising interest rates bring this cycle to a halt, just like they did in 2010, 2013 and in the 1990’s.
By the way… we’ve experienced similar conditions – a prolonged period of flat interest rates in the 1990’s.
The continued wealth of our nation which will ensure we can pay more for properties.
As the number of Australian households is due to increase by 4.3 million over the next 25 years, our demographic changes will be a key factor in the type of property that will be in continuous strong demand in the future and that will keep increasing in price.
We are going to have more one and two person households and more of us will be keen to live in medium density dwellings, close to work, amenities and transport.
Our ageing population suggests that up to 65 per cent of us will live alone.
But not only are we ageing, we’re getting married later, couples are having fewer children and having them later in life, preferring to concentrate on climbing the career ladder prior to settling down.
Couple-only families are projected to experience the largest increase of all types of families over the next 25 years and are expected to rise by up to 64 per cent from 2011 to reach up to 3.8 million families in 2036.
I see our demographic changes (huge population growth and changes in the way we will want to live) as more important in shaping the future of our property markets than short term fluctuations in interest rates, supply and demand or consumer confidence.
Sure, there will be ups and downs in property prices. But we’re not currently in a property bubble, we won’t be seeing a property bubble in 2016, and real estate prices are NOT going to collapse.
Infographic: Is Australia Experiencing a Property Bubble?
I know the scope of this topic makes for a lot to process. We’ve put together some of the critical information in visual form to help you digest it all.
If you enjoy it, please feel free to share it around the web. There’s a code below so it can be embedded on your website.
Maybe you could read this , Michael and let us know what you think. Thank you.
I agree the apartment price crunch is coming to the “off the plan” high rise sub market – I’ve also warned about it- I first wrote about it a year ago.
Just wanted to ask what your opinion was on something. The statistics you provided show that many homeowners own their home outright or have a mortgage commitment of less than 30% which is further supported by the Dec 2015 housing data from APRA that shows the average variable rate loan across Australia in 2015 was just over $300k with fixed loans slightly higher at $330k (which is much less than the average Australian property). My question to you is that while rising interest rates may not impact the ability of home owners to service their mortgage, do you think that given the current low yields on Sydney property rising interest rates may stimulate a capital flight from the housing market into alternative fixed income investment options that may provide a higher yield?
Stop looking at graphs and figures, come out on the streets and see what bubble we have , in the last four years the chinese have bought over 4 trillion dollars worth of property in Australia ,believe me i have been to all auctions weekend after weekend ,all overseas Asian investors, no Aussies buying this market. In 2 months the prices oof brand new properties have dropped 150 thousand dollars…. this is only the start of the crash ,as Chinese government start clamping down on outflows of cash leaving their country…..run for the hills the crash is coming in big way..
If you believe world economists like Casey, Soros, Maloney, Schiff and Duncan, the current Chinese sharemarket crash is apparently the start of a worldwide crash, affecting largely the western capitalist world of Europe, US and Australia and ultimately the collapse of the US$. Deflation, then hyperinflation, messing with markets globally, causes property prices to plummet, and mortgage rates to soar. As buyer fortunes change, property is placed on the market en masse, with prices plummeting, and mortgagee sales providing opportunities for bargains. Only a story? A sudden huge increase in property prices usually causes a sudden huge drop too….we can expect a correction in volatile markets.
Knowledge is indeed power. Thank you for showing us the facts.
Negative Gearing is not essential, most overseas property markets function fine without it.
You also miss quote the social dwelling statistics. From AHURI – “To address this shortfall over the next decade requires an additional 20,000 social dwellings per year over the next 10 years.” Not the 200,000 dwellings p.a. that you suggest. Also, 20,000 dwellings compared with 1.8 million investors taking advantage of negative gearing makes the argument about supporting social housing largely irrelevant. Please stop pretending that you are doing a social service.
In the end, the tax advantages favour investors at the expense of first home buyers wanting to owner occupy. It redistributes wealth from those working and saving to buy a home, towards those who have already bought and negatively gear. It also most benefits people already on high incomes. Is that a fair tax system? I don’t think so. | 2019-04-21T00:07:41Z | https://propertyupdate.com.au/australias-property-bubble-smart-investors-guide/ |
– Beyond Fest, the highest-attended genre film festival in the U.S., has announced “Cronenberg with Cronenberg: A Retrospective of the New Flesh,” an exhaustive,13-film celebration of the legendary autuer’s career. Returning to Los Angeles for the first time in a decade, David Cronenberg will be in attendance for three, special event screenings at the legendary Egyptian Theatre where he will be joined by actors, collaborators, and guest moderators.
Co-presented by Telefilm Canada, the American Cinematheque’s partner for the annual Canada Now film festival, and with the support of the Consulate General of Canada, “Cronenberg on Cronenberg” opens on Saturday, September 29 with “The Shaping of Rage,”an all-day marathon of David Cronenberg’s early films presented sequentially and on 35mm. That evening, Cronenberg will be joined by long-time collaborator Howard Shore for a 30th anniversary screening of “Dead Ringers” with director Mick Garris moderating a post-screening Q&A.
The full slate is comprised of 37 features, 43 shorts, one episodic series, and 20 virtual-reality and immersive experiences; half of the lineup was directed or co-directed by women. Other standouts include Kahlil Hudson and Alex Jablonski’s “Young Men and Fire,” Lana Wilson’s series “The Cure for Fear,” Jane Gillooly’s “Where the Pavement Ends,” “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” “What Is Democracy,” “The Truth About Killer Robots,” Locarno winner “Fausto,” and Karlovy Vary winners “Walden” and “Putin’s Witnesses.” Take a look at the full slate at https://pointsnorthinstitute.org.
– Today SFFILM announced the recipients of the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship. The award goes to support the development of narrative feature screenplays that explore stories and characters related to science and technology. In addition to a $35,000 cash grant, the fellowship includes a two-month residency at SFFilm’s FilmHouse – production offices independent filmmakers – and access to consulting science advisors with expertise in the screenplay’s scientific subjects, as well introductions to leaders in the Bay Area’s science and technology communities.
The two new fellows are writer/director Erica Liu with “The Mushroomers” and writer/director So Young Shelly Yo with “The 11th Endeavor.” Project descriptions are below. The fellowship is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
“The Mushroomers”: Following her husband’s death, a young mycologist attempts to sublimate her grief by embarking on an offbeat project to heal a contaminated old-growth forest using only super fungi, but Mother Nature and the mechanics of her own mourning prove far fickler than she had anticipated.
“The 11th Endeavor”: A fiery female biotechnologist, hoping to break ground outside the realms of her lab, competes to be Korea’s first astronaut on the nationwide televised Korean Astronaut Program. In her obsessive quest to become Korea’s first astronaut, So Yeon steps into a world of unmeasurable physical and mental stress and discovers shocking revelations about her country. Based on the true story of Yi So Yeon, South Korea’s first astronaut.
– RLJE Films has acquired all North American rights to the upcoming horror film “All the Creatures Were Stirring.” Written and directed by David Ian McKendry and Rebekah McKendry, the film stars Constance Wu, Amanda Fuller, Jonathan Kite, Jocelin Donahue, and Graham Skipper. RLJE plans to release the film on VOD, Digital and DVD on December 4, 2018.
– Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to Jafar Panahi’s latest humanistic drama, “3 Faces,” which had its world premiere and won the best screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film will have its North American premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and will screen at the upcoming New York Film Festival this fall.
This is Panahi’s fourth feature that he has made while under a 20-year ban imposed by the Iranian government since 2010. The film will be rolled out in theaters in March 2019, followed by VOD and home video release.
– The First Annual Montana International Film Festival today announced its main slate of over 55 films, panels and events from September 14 – 16 in Billings, MT. The inaugural festival will see six narrative and eight documentary features competing for $15,000 in cash and in-kind prizes, including the first-ever MINT Spirit Award, as well as six juried awards: Best Female Director, Best Narrative Feature, Best Narrative Short Film, Best Documentary Feature Film, Best Documentary Short Film, and the Made In Montana award.
“We’re excited to have had the caliber of submissions that we received, especially for a first-year festival,” said Executive Director Brian Murnion in an official statement. You can find out more about the new festival at its official website.
– Paramount Worldwide Acquisitions has acquired the North American rights to the Sarah Jessica Parker-starring drama “Here and Now” (formerly titled “Blue Night”). The film will be distributed by Paramount Home Media Distribution on Digital and VOD beginning November 9, 2018, the same day that it will debut in theaters from AMBI Distribution.
– Samuel Goldwyn Films has announced that the company has acquired North American rights to actor Alex Pettyfer’s directorial debut “Back Roads.” Based on the Oprah’s Book Club selection and New York Times bestselling novel by Tawni O’Dell, the film explores the impact of family trauma with a powerful and visceral noir thriller that leaves audiences breathless until the last moment. The film is slated for a late 2018 theatrical release.
– IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Black 47,” directed by Lance Daly, produced by Macdara Kelleher, Tim O’Hair, Arcadiy Golubovich, and Jonathan Loughran. The film, which had its World Premiere at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival, stars James Frecheville, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Jim Broadbent, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Sarah Greene, and Moe Dunford.
Altitude Film Distribution will release the film in mainland Britain on September 28. The film will also open in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland on September 5 through Wildcard Distribution. “Black 47” will have its North American premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and will be released theatrically in the U.S. on September 28 via IFC FILMS.
– Music Box Films has acquired the U.S. rights to “Transit” from German auteur Christian Petzold, starring up-and-comer Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer. The film had its world premiere in competition at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival and has been selected to play this fall in the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. Music Box Films plans a theatrical rollout in early 2019 followed by a release on home entertainment platforms.
Adapted from Anna Seghers’ WWII novel of the same name, Petzold reimagines the story written and set in Marseille just after Germany’s invasion as an examination of modern-day France. The story follows Georg (Franz Rogowski), a German refugee who takes on the identity of a recently deceased author, Weidel, whose papers he was carrying as he fled Paris.
– IFP’s signature event, IFP Week, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with both new and revamped public programs for the 2018 edition, taking place from September 15 – 20, 2018. Alumni from across four decades of the organization’s history are coming together to review careers, discuss the state of the film and media industries, and debate the future of storytelling. This year’s programs include numerous public screenings, talks, and even a DUMBO-wide scavenger hunt, all centered on cutting-edge independent content for the big screen, the small screen, and now your headphones, with IFP’s inaugural dive into podcasting and audio storytelling. IFP’s public programs are the perfect place to meet and interact with creatives pushing the boundaries of storytelling on all platforms.
Under the leadership of Head of Programming Amy Dotson and Programming Producer Bill Curran, the IFP Week public talks and events take place in and around Brooklyn, NY at BRIC, The William Vale Hotel, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, DUMBO Loft, and IFP’s headquarters, the Made in NY Media Center by IFP. You can find out more about this year’s event at its official website.
– Serbian producer Milos Antic announced today that he has acquired the film rights to legendary director Sam Peckinpah’s unproduced classic screenplay “Castaway” from the Peckinpah Estate and will be producing alongside Los Angeles-based producers Katy Haber and Benni Korzen.
– The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) today announced that writer/director Sara Colangelo’s “The Kindergarten Teacher” will be the Opening Night Film of the 26th Hamptons International Film Festival on Thursday, October 4 at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The film stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Rosa Salazar, and Gael García Bernal, telling the story of a kindergarten teacher who seeks to cultivate the poetic talents of one of her students with questionable methods.
Colangelo is a 2013 alumna of HIFF’s annual Screenwriters Lab. Maggie Gyllenhaal & Colangelo will both be in attendance at the festival.
– YouTube has partnered with Roadside Attractions to release “Viper Club,” Maryam Keshavarz’s new drama starring Susan Sarandon, Matt Bomer, Lola Kirke, Adepero Oduye, Sheila Vand, and Edie Falco. The film will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and will be released in theaters on October 26, 2018. VIPER CLUB will be available on YouTube Premium in 2019.
The film, co-written by Iranian-American filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz and Jonathan Mastro, tells the story of Helen (Susan Sarandon), a veteran ER nurse secretly struggling to free her grown son, a foreign war correspondent, from capture by a terrorist group. After running into roadblocks with government agencies, she discovers a clandestine community of journalists, philanthropists and advocates who might be able to help her.
– Grasshopper Film has acquired North American distribution rights to “Distant Constellation,” Shevaun Mizrahi’s beautifully composed and magical documentary on the residents of a Turkish retirement home comprised of pranksters, historians, artists and would-be Casanovas. “Distant Constellation” will open theatrically at the Metrograph in New York City on November 2, 2018 before expanding to other markets, followed by a release on VOD and home video in early 2019.
– Kino Lorber announces has acquired all North American rights to Bi Gan’s sophomore feature, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” which had its world premiere at Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The film will have its North American premiere at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival next month and its US premiere at the New York Film Festival in October. The film will be rolled out in theaters in Spring 2019, followed by VOD and home video releases.
Bi’s previous film, “Kalili Blues,” had an acclaimed run worldwide in 2015, winning China’s Golden Horse Award for Best New Director and an emerging director award at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Per its official synopsis, “‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ follows a drifter named Luo Hongwu (Huang Jue) who returns to Kaili, the Chinese hometown from which he fled several years ago. He begins a search for the woman he once loved (Tang Wei) and whom he has never been able to forget.” The film wowed audiences and critics at Cannes with an ambitious 59-minute, single 3D extended take that plunged viewers into the main character’s dreamy perspective when he dons glasses in a cinema to watch a 3D film.
Cooper will also receive a year of mentorship and services to support the development, production, and impact campaign for the film. The announcement comes at a critical time, and this program will nurture filmmakers committed to creating dynamic storytelling and encourage environmental stewardship.
The SFFILM Environmental Fellowship is geared towards mid-career filmmakers with a feature documentary project in development or early production that focuses on pressing environmental or conservation issues. Cooper is an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer with a passion for transforming complex issues into compelling storytelling.
“Youth v. Gov” will chronicle a landmark lawsuit brought by 21 youths who are suing the U.S. government and fossil fuel industry for creating a climate emergency and endangering their futures. The film was selected from a field of 70+ submissions by a committee of film and environmental experts from SFFILM, Vulcan Productions, Sierra Magazine, EarthX and the Redford Center.
– Sundance Selects has acquired U.S. rights to “Non-Fiction,” written and directed by Olivier Assayas, starring Juliette Binoche and Guillaume Canet. The film will have its World Premiere at the Venice FIlm Festival followed by screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
– Glenn Close will be honored by Museum of the Moving Image at its 32nd annual Salute on December 3 in New York. The news was announced today by Ivan L. Lustig, Co-Chairman of the Museum’s Board of Trustees and Carl Goodman, the Museum’s Executive Director. The evening will feature cocktails, dinner, and an award presentation, featuring clips from Close’s career introduced by her friends and colleagues.
Close joins the ranks of past honorees who have received the Museum’s Salute including: Annette Bening, Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro, Robin Williams, Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Hugh Jackman, Steve Martin, Julianne Moore, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier, Julia Roberts, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Jimmy Stewart.
– The 2018 Traverse City Film Festival wrapped over the weekend, and concluded its latest edition with a slew of award winners, including Win Wenders’ “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word” (Grand Prize for Best Film), a tie for Best U.S. Fiction film between Scott Cooper’s “Hostiles” and Brett Haley’s “Hearts Beat Loud,” the Best U.S. Nonfiction Film winner “Jane Fonda In Five Acts” from Susan Lacy, and a special Lifetime Achievement Award to Jane Fonda. You can see the full list of winners right here.
– The Woods Hole Film Festival, the oldest film festival on Cape Cod and the Islands, concluded its 27th year over the weekend with the announcement of this year’s winners at the Captain Kidd Restaurant in Woods Hole. With 170 films, an increase of 40 from last year, this year’s festival experienced unprecedented competition with three awards presented in each category. More than 100 filmmakers, the majority of whom were making their directing debuts, and over 6000 audience members attended this year’s Festival.
Jury winners included: “Funny Story” for Best Narrative Comedy Feature, Henry Barrial’s “Driver X” for Best Narrative Dramatic Feature and and “Dawnland,” directed by Adam Mazo for Best Documentary Feature.
– Cinema Guild has announced the acquisition of all U.S. distribution rights to Hong Sangsoo’s “Grass.” The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and fall festival dates will be announced soon. “Grass” will open in theaters in 2019.
– IFC Films has announced that it is acquiring U.S. rights to “Diane,” a film written and directed by Kent Jones, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and starring Mary Kay Place. The film will have its international premiere this week at the Locarno Film Festival and won the top prize for Best Narrative Film at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival along with Best Screenplay and Cinematography. IFC plans to theatrically release the film in early 2019.
– Grasshopper Film has picked up US distribution rights to “Asako I & II,” with a plan to release the film in theaters early next year, followed by a VOD and home video release. Based on a novel by Tomoka Shibasaki, the film premiered in competition at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The news was first reported by Deadline. | 2019-04-22T11:02:41Z | https://www.indiewire.com/2018/08/breaking-film-tv-industry-news-august-2018-1201990316/ |
Should Physical Education in schools be compulsory?
Participation in sport promotes health.
Physical Education is an important part of holistic schooling.
School sport is about discovering gifts.
The quest for national sporting achievement begins in schools.
Without school support, sports will collapse.
If not forced to exercise in youth, many will never think to do it in adulthood.
Sport helps to forge character.
Participation in sport promotes health. Government is, or should be, concerned with the health of its citizens. Encouraging physical activity in the young through compulsory PE fights child obesity and contributes to forming lifelong habits of exercise. This doesn’t have to be through traditional team sports; increasingly schools are able to offer exercise in the form of swimming, gymnastics, dance, weight training, use of a multigym, aerobics, etc.
Students should be allowed a choice. Lots of children don’t want to do this. If their parents agree, why should they be forced to (or forced to lie in producing a sick note)? It is different from any other lesson – it is about what one does with one’s body. In any case, it is a red herring to say that PE makes any serious difference to people’s health. There are plenty of more effective ways of ensuring a healthy population than pushing children round a freezing sports pitch once a week; not least would be addressing the disgusting diets our young have today, and encouraging walking or cycling to school rather than total reliance on the car.
Sport is a waste of school time and resources. One or two PE lessons a week make very little difference to an individual’s health – but a huge difference to a school’s budget. It creates a whole extra department in schools, wasting a great deal of money and time that could be better spent on academic lessons. It also requires schools buildings to be surrounded by a large amount of land for playing fields, making it prohibitively expensive to build new schools in urban areas. The quality of teaching is low, as students are taught in huge classes. On the other hand, the quality of teaching and of equipment goes up if there are fewer (but keener) students taking the subject. Frankly, given the average current pupil-teacher ration, the subject is not merely without positive purpose – it may be dangerous to students who are normally not properly supervised.
The quest for national sporting achievement begins in schools. If we don’t have compulsory PE, it is much harder to pick out athletes to represent our country on a wider stage. Even with a ‘sports academy’ model run along Australian lines, it’s much easier to find suitable individuals with a full sports program in every school. State education is not just about aiding the individual – it’s also about the state getting a good return on its investment – in a well-educated populace to drive business and entrepreneurialism etc. This applies equally in sports, too.
Schools aren’t supposed to be about fostering achievers for the state – that smacks of Stalinism. Schools should be tailored to the individual – if the individual student doesn’t want to participate in sports, they shouldn’t have to. If we allowed such national aims to be considered in schools, would we consent to humiliation of those that did badly in maths lessons, to encourage their achievement in maths (and thus business skills?) Of course not. But we allow that in PE.
Without school support, sports will collapse. If full classes aren’t made up, then team activities will end by sheer lack of numbers, no matter if several very talented individuals are at the school (or even potentially talented – they’ll never know without the program). If voluntary take-up of sport in schools is too low, then schools will shut down PE programmes so that there is no choice at all. Not everyone is academic: why deprive those talented sports students of their one chance to shine?
Forcing children that don’t want to play to make up teams in order to allow others to shine smacks of rigid education from a bygone era. In any case, in an increasingly litigious age, a compulsory rather than voluntary sports program is a liability. More and more schools are avoiding the very team games (e.g. rugby, soccer, hockey, football) the proposition discusses here, due to the (realistic) fear of lawsuits.
Sport helps to forge character. Playing team sports builds character and encourages students to work with others. It teaches children how to win and lose with good grace and builds a strong school spirit through competition with other institutions. It is often the experience of playing on a team together which builds the strongest friendships at school, which endure for years afterwards.
Many say the same benefits derive from the common endurance of prison… In particular, injuries sustained through school sport and the psychological trauma of being bullied for sporting ineptitude can mark people for years after they have left school. Teamwork can be better developed through music, drama, community projects, etc. without the need to encourage an ultra-competitive ethos.
It is a red herring to say that PE makes any serious difference to people's health. There are plenty of more effective ways of ensuring a healthy population than pushing children round a freezing sports pitch once a week; not least would be addressing the disgusting diets our young have today, and encouraging walking or cycling to school rather than total reliance on the car. Both methods would involve promoting a healthy lifestyle without forcing the participation in unpopular physical education classes that do little for one's education.
Physical education helps to forge character and the mutual respect required to succeed in an adult environment. Playing team sports builds character and encourages students to work with others, as they would be expected to do in most business or sporting environments. Sport teaches children how to win and lose with good grace and builds a strong school spirit through competition with other institutions. It is invaluable to imbue with children the delicate balance between a competitive rivalry that encourages effort and, on the other hand, losing the fairness and respect required to enjoy sport. It is often the experience of playing on a team together which builds the strongest friendships at school, which endure for years afterwards. As was noted in a report to the European Parliament, 'PE...helps children learn to respect and value their own bodies and abilities, and those of others'. Compulsory physical education is the only means by which all children can be forced to appreciate such advantages. Hardman, K. (2007). Current situation and prospects for physical education in the European Union. European Parliament.
Physical education undermines one's character as much as it strengthens and forges it. For every future athlete who grows in stature as he becomes comfortable in a team environment, there are a number of academic students who are forced weekly to cope with the brutality and criticisms of others more gifted at specific sports. Values like respect are not taught on a football field, any glance at a professional football match leads inexorably to that conclusion. Furthermore, learning about teamwork and co-operation no longer requires hours spent playing sport; they can be taught just as accurately and effectively in a classroom through music, drama, community projects, etc. without the need to encourage an ultra-competitive ethos.
Compulsory PE lessons can be treated in the same manner an ordinary educational class is treated; if the student refuses to participate and therefore does not do their work, they are punished with extra work of that same class. In this case, that would necessitate added physical education exercises at a later date or immediately after the class. The excuse that the student does not wish to participate in the class should be seen as no different to if it were stated during a maths or English class, where it would not be accepted. The fact that physical education is qualitatively different to those classes is irrespective; once deemed a compulsory subject, and therefore beneficial, it must be accepted and completed.
The intention of advocating a healthy lifestyle and sports is lost if there is a punishment attached to the class. Furthermore, to expect all students to participate in a class that is so overtly embarrassing to the weaker athletes is almost state-sanctioned bullying. In a maths class, the working and answers of the weakest students are not paraded in front of the class for all to see, and if they try to stop this, kept behind for extra work. It is demonstrably unfair to ask students, fragile about their appearance as it is, to compete physically with classmates. It should be encouraged, but maintain voluntary for those who wish to do so. The others can still be taught about healthy living and exercise without being dragged into physical exertion.
We acknowledge the right of individuals (or their parents) to control their own bodies – when they have an operation, where they go, what they do. Why is this any different? This discussion should be held in the real world: students actually aren’t compelled to attend PE classes, as ‘sick notes’ are produced with alarming regularity by parents complicit in their child’s wish to avoid this lesson. The aim of ‘compulsory PE’ isn’t being fulfilled at present in any case, and greater efforts to enforce it will only result in more deceit, or children missing school for the entire day – or, in the most extreme cases, being withdrawn from state education by parents unwilling to allow their children to be forced into something they don’t wish to do. Instead, we should simply abandon the whole exercise and allow PE to become voluntary. The UNESCO charter stresses the right to PE, and was addressed to nations that failed to provide it at all – it was not meant to suggest that individuals should be compelled to do it in nations that do. UNESCO. (1945, November 16). Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
If not forced to exercise in youth, many will never think to do it in adulthood. This is no idle question: obesity in the UK is rising rapidly and Dr. David Haslam believes schools are part of the problem. Individuals have no right to 'choice' about this: they're being compelled to attend school, to take the lessons the state says they should take. The state doesn't just impose a curricular compulsion, since physical attendance is forced – so there’s nothing unique in principle about enforced PE. Indeed, what can be more important as an aim for our schools than to encourage public health? It is in recognition of that fact, that in 1978 UNESCO recognised PE as ‘as essential element of lifelong education.’ If PE is made voluntary, it seems obvious that many students – against their long term interests, and the long term interests of society – will choose not to. That will damage this essential element of education, and damage public health. It is true that the health of society is not perfect even with compulsory PE – but how much worse might it be without it? Batty, D. (2008, February 21). Schools make children more obese, leading doctor says. Retrieved May 18, 2011 UNESCO. (1978, November 21). International Charter of Physical Education and Sport. Retrieved May 18, 2011, from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Students should be allowed a choice with relation to their school subjects, including physical education. Children know, often from early ages, what they want to do with their life from what subjects they enjoy and those they don't. Lots of children don't want to do physical education; it is different from any other lesson – it is about what one does with one’s body. For those not confident about their bodies, why should they be forced to go through the embarrassment and stress of a PE class when they could be spending the time most constructively and happily in a classroom? Furthermore, and on the flip side, those who do enjoy PE will still be able to take the class and in an environment surrounded by those who feel similarly. Athletes will no longer be held back by those who force teachers to re-iterate instructions or rules.
Students, unaware of the subjects that will most benefit them in the competitive work environment, have no such right to choose all their subjects at school. Many schools offer students a restricted right to choose subjects at school, but only those which offer comparative advantages. Certain subjects like, in the Western world, English, maths, science and physical education, are not voluntary because they offer advantages to all that form a foundation necessary to excel in other areas. If students were given the right to choose all their subjects, few would do the more difficult subjects like science and maths that, whilst requiring more effort, are more rewarding for society as a whole, and the students themselves.
A compulsory rather than voluntary sports program is a risk for both students and schools. More and more schools are avoiding team games (e.g. rugby, soccer, hockey, football) for the (realistic) fear of lawsuits when injuries and disputes occur. In one example, a defendant was awarded £100,000 by the school of a student who tackled dangerously and caused both neck and ligament injuries to his opponent opponent. Furthermore, injuries sustained through school sport and the psychological trauma of being bullied for sporting ineptitude can mark people for years after they have left school. Furthermore, psychological injuries occur to those who would not otherwise do sport if not forced, these injuries tend to be the longest and most damaging. Voluntary physical education would avoid such traumatic episodes. BBC News (2001, August 8). Rugby injury wins £100,000 damages. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
Compulsory physical education does not risk unnecessary and costly injury. Injuries that occur in physical education are firstly more advisable than injuries that occur in the classroom or playground for PE teachers tend to be trained in first-aid. Furthermore, the psychological bullying occurring in physical education classes is only a small subset of bullying that is rife among schools as a whole. The prowess, or lack of it, that leads to bullying in PE classes is no different to the lack of 'prowess' in looks, or name, or spelling that will drive bullying in other educational environments.
Successful sporting nations realise that sports, like any other specialised subjects, are best taught to selected groups that display both talent and interest in the field – forcing all to compete holds back the able and punishes the less able. The right way to go is to liberate those that don’t want to participate, and allow those that are extremely keen to go to academies that focus their talents more efficiently than a regular school ever could. Furthermore, our children are burdened enough in schools already, especially at the older end of the system, with multiple examinations. PE simply adds, needlessly, to this hectic schedule.
Sport is different to, say Latin – it encompasses life choices (most importantly, a concern for physical fitness, but also working in a team etc.) that ought to be encouraged in all students. As Ken Hardman argues, ‘physical education makes a unique contribution to the education of all pupils’. Extra classes for interested students can take place separately, and often do in the form of fixtures with other schools, championships etc. Sport shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to academia, an either/or – it should be a part of every student’s life in addition to their other studies. If the opposition is correct about the heavy workload involved in schools, then students are that much more likely not to choose PE in an environment where it is voluntary, and the quality of our children’s health will be even worse. Much better to keep being healthy compulsory, and reform the pressures elsewhere in the curriculum. Hardman, K. (2007). Current situation and prospects for physical education in the European Union. European Parliament.
Sport is a waste of school time and resources. One or two PE lessons a week make very little difference to an individual's health– but a huge difference to a school’s budget. It creates a whole extra department in schools, wasting a great deal of money and time that could be better spent on academic lessons It also requires schools buildings to be surrounded by a large amount of land for playing fields, making it prohibitively expensive to build new schools in urban areas. The quality of teaching is low, as students are taught in huge classes. On the other hand, the quality of teaching and of equipment goes up if there are fewer (but keener) students taking the subject. One Californian student asked to comment stated PE ‘doesn’t help me in any way...it’s really a waste of time. I don’t learn anything here.’ Active Living Research. (2007). Active Education: Physical Education, Physical Activity and Academic Performance. San Diego. Marshall, J., & Hardman, K. (2000). The State and Status of Physical Education in Schools in International Context. European Physical Education Review, 203-229.
Physical Education is an important part of holistic schooling. PE is an aspect of school being about more than just book learning – it is about educating the whole person, a holistic education that betters us in an all-round sense, rather than a merely academic experience. Some aspects of physical education are vital for future wellbeing, e.g. being able to swim, learning to lift heavy weights safely. Furthermore, ‘kids who are more physically active tend to perform better academically’. Arguments about cost seem petty when compared to this aim – and also misguided, since PE departments would continue to exist to serve those that chose to study PE voluntarily, even if the subject were no longer to be compulsory. Arguments about the size of classes may well be correct, but these suggest better funding for PE rather than abandonment of the commitment to public health. Active Living Research. (2007). Active Education: Physical Education, Physical Activity and Academic Performance. San Diego.
PE Is humiliating as well as unnecessary, Now I´m not an expert on this topic, but isn´t Hauling around a heavy backpack all day enough?
“Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind…” as quoted by famous American writer Sylvia Plath. I think this quote justifies my point of argument that physical education should not at all be compulsory in school…. | 2019-04-20T18:24:03Z | https://debatewise.org/debates/2726-physical-education-compulsory/ |
I am very excited to bring you the second interview this week with a debut YA author. Today's guest, Leah Cypess, is a fellow member of the class of 2k10, and her new release, Mistwood, comes out today!
The Shifter is an immortal creature bound by an ancient spell to protect the kings of Samorna. When the realm is peaceful, she retreats to the Mistwood. But when she is needed she always comes.
Mistwood has been getting amazing reviews, including a starred review from Kirkus that called it "astonishing and inspiring." And if you know anything about Kirkus, you know they're a pretty tough audience.
"Edge-of-the-chair reading, with enemies and betrayal at every turn!"
"Intriguing and illusive...with an incredibly executed twist that fits like that very last, perfect puzzle piece. A one-sitting novel!"
"An unusual, suspenseful fantasy that is propelled by well-placed clues."
Leah was kind enough to take time out of her busy pre-release schedule to answer my Mostly Debut Author interview questions. It's been a while since you've seen them, since I ask an abbreviated list for the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit. I'd forgotten some of them!
Q. What's been your biggest surprise/thrill about your first release?
The fact that it’s happening! I have wanted to be a writer for so long, and have been seriously submitting manuscripts for so many years, that I was really starting to think it never would. I had imagined being told, “We want to publish your book!” so many times that when I finally did get an offer, it felt like it wasn’t real. And incredibly, it was with one of the imprints I have always most wanted to work with.
Hard to say I’d want to be any of them… I’m kind of tough on my characters. :) I’ll have to choose Isabel, though; in a way, I feel like I was inhabiting her life when I was writing her.
Q. Conversely, which of your characters would you most like to bring to life in our world (maybe as a best friend or much, much more ;-) ?
Q. Same two questions, but use examples from another author's work (including television/movies/theatre)?
I would love to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Walking around all little and fragile-looking, and then someone starts up with you and WHAM! As for a best friend, Kaylee from Firefly would be an awesome person to hang out with.
Hmm, maybe I should just ask Joss Whedon if he would write my life for me.
I’m intermittently working on a time-travel book that is giving me a lot of trouble, and I would love for Connie Willis to come fix all its problems for me. Because I’m sure she could, in about three seconds.
I have a terrible fear of flying. It’s unfortunate, because I really like being in faraway places, and usually you have to fly to get to them.
Q. Let's say there's a TV show, movie, or recording artist that has a cult of you. Which is it? (i.e., what do you like that no one else you know likes)?
Q. If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?
Q. If you could write in a totally different genre than your current one, which would you choose?
There’s nothing stopping me from writing in a totally different genre than my current one – in fact, I am currently working on a straight historical novel set in the 16th century. Of course, I have been working on it for the past 10 years and probably will be working on it for the next 10 years, because that kind of intensive research is hard to find time for. I will finish it someday, though!
Q. What are you working on now, and what new releases can we expect to see from you down the road?
Q. The forest plays an iconic role in MISTWOOD, as it does in many fantasies. Why do you think forests evoke such strong feelings of magic and mystery? What is it about them that humans simultaneously desire and fear?
I grew up going to summer camp in the Catskills, and I always noticed the difference between the forest during the day and during the night. During the day, the forest was a beautiful place in which to have adventures; I used to sneak off from scheduled activities and go hiking alone (NOT recommended; I’m lucky I never got seriously injured when no one had any idea where I was). But at night, walking back from campfires, the forest was seriously scary. The trees always seemed hostile and menacing, like they didn’t want us there.
Q. I noticed on your website that you spent some time drawing fantasy scenes during law school classes. :-) Do you still draw in your spare time, and if so, do you find that it helps your writing?
Giant congrats to Leah on her wonderful debut! I can't wait for my copy to arrive in the mail--it better be here when I get back from RT on Saturday.
Speaking of which, I generally don't blog when I'm at conventions (too exhausted), so if you want to see what I'm doing, check out my full RT schedule, or follow me on Twitter. Hope to see some of you there!
Today's guest on the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is Jessica Brody, author of The Karma Club, her debut YA novel!
Seriously, don't you want to read the book from the title alone? But wait, there's much, much more! Keep reading for all things Karma Club, including a very fun book trailer and your chance to win one of four Flip Phones!
Madison Kasparkova always thought she understood how Karma works. Do good things and you'll be rewarded, do something bad and Karma will make sure you get what you deserve. But when Maddy’s boyfriend cheats on her, nothing bad comes his way. That’s why Maddy starts the Karma Club, to clean up the messes that the universe has left behind and get back at the people who have wronged them. Sometimes, though, it isn’t wise to meddle with the universe. It turns out Karma often has plans of its own.
"Written with wit and panache. Readers will have fun with this one, and it might make them think a little, too."
"A well-paced comedy, with a nice balance of cinematic physical humor and genuine teen emotions."
Check out this trailer and play "spot the celebrity"!
To celebrate the release of The Karma Club on April 27, Jessica is giving away FOUR Flip Video Cameras (as well as TONS of other cool prizes!) on her site. Visit her website for all the details and to enter to win!
Jessica Brody is the author of two books for adults. The Karma Club is her first book for teens. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California where she is working on her next novel. Despite what some people from her high school might claim, she has never sought revenge on an ex-boyfriend. Visit her online at: www.jessicabrody.com.
And now...my interview with Jessica!
I suppose I’d have to choose Maddy from The Karma Club. Although I don’t envy her for having to deal with a cheating boyfriend and the stuck-up queen Bee who stole him. But she does have some very awesome friends to support her. And then there’s that new guy in the picture who’s pretty freaking cute. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with him for an afternoon!
Well, I haven’t done it yet, but next month I’m scheduled to go “under cover” at a fast food restaurant. In the book I’m writing now (52 Reasons to Hate My Father), a teen heiress is forced to work at a fast food restaurant and since I’ve never worked at one, I need to get to find out what it’s like. My friend owns a Taco John’s restaurant and he’s bringing me as a new employee so that I can be trained like it’s my first day. I told him not to tell any of the other employees what I was doing so I could get the “real experience.” I’ve never been more excited to make tacos! But what I’m really looking forward to is working the drive-thru. I’ve always wanted to wear one of those headsets. “Welcome to Taco Johns, can I take you order?” How did I do?
Oh that’s easy. Cheesy, bubble-gummy, teeny-bopper pop music. I love it to death! Especially the stuff from the UK. They do pop music better than anyone! I have stuff that would make your teeth hurt! My husband can’t stand any of the music I listen to. When asked in an interview once, what’s his least favorite type of music, he replied, “Whatever is in my wife’s CD player at the moment.” Haha! It’s the biggest joke between us!
I don’t know if I’d call it a phobia, per se, but I have this really weird thing about bones. I’m totally squeamish about them. No one can crack any bones around me. And I can’t have my bones touched. My hip bone is the worst. I don’t even like touching it! It’s very odd. I think something terrible must have happened to me (and my bones) in a past life!
Thanks to Jessica for taking the time to answer my questions, and big congrats on your teen debut!
Next week on the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit tour is...*gulp*...me. I haven't decided if I'm going to "tour myself" and answer my own questions. I've never thought of any answers!
A convention, two bookstores, and a red-velvet-draped bar.
For directions and more details, click on the links for each event. For a complete list of events this year, check out my Facebook "fan" page event section.
Details: Booksigning with over 300 authors! Open to the public for a $5 admission at the door. Free for attendees of the RT Booklovers convention.
Details: Reading, discussion--and most important, delicious cookies and brownies from Westminster's Starry Night Bakery.
Details: Part of Lady Jane's Salon reading series. I'll be reading from SHADE and taking questions, then autographing, then enjoying a social hour to celebrate the next day's release. Drinks are only $5--that's right, five-dollar drinks in Manhattan. Admission is $5 or a gently used romance novel.
Where: Borders, 2420 S. Pleasant Valley Rd.
If you can't make any of these events but would like a signed copy, you can pre-order Shade through Constellation Books (410-833-5151 or online). Let them know if you want me to personalize it or just sign my name.
This blog is now located at http://blog.jerismithready.com/.
Today on the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is the debut author of a very highly anticipated book, The Cinderella Society. I present to you...Kay Cassidy!
But before my interview with Kay, let's learn a little about her novel, shall we?
What's a girl to do when the glass slipper fits, but she doesn't want to wear it anymore?
Sixteen year old Jess Parker has always been an outsider. So when she receives an invitation to join The Cinderella Society, a secret society of the most popular girls in school, it's like something out of a fairy tale. Swept up by the Cindys' magical world of makeovers, and catching the eye of her Prince Charming, Jess feels like she's finally found her chance to fit in.
Then the Wickeds--led by Jess's arch-enemy--begin targeting innocent girls in their war against the Cindys, and Jess discovers there's more to being a Cindy than reinventing yourself on the outside. She has unknowingly become part of a centuries-old battle of good vs. evil, and now the Cindys in charge need Jess for a mission that could change everything. Overwhelmed, Jess wonders if The Cinderella Society made a mistake in choosing her.
Is it a coincidence her new boyfriend doesn't want to be seen with her in public? And is this glamorous, secret life even what she wants, or will she risk her own happy ending to live up to the expectations of her new sisters?
I opened the card, my hands trembling in dread and the faint remnants of what I used to call hope, as a tiny silver high-heel pin bounced into my hand.
Your presence is requested at The Grind.
Kay Cassidy is the author of teen fiction she wishes was based on her real life. She is the founder of the national Great Scavenger Hunt Contest(tm) reading program for kids and teens and the host of the inspirational Living Your Five(tm) web project. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, movies, music, and reading. Lots and lots of reading. She hopes her debut YA novel, THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY (April 13, Egmont), will help girls embrace their inner Cindy.
Probably Cammie from Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series. The spy school world is completely amazing to me – how cool would that be??
As much as I adore Jess and Ryan in The Cinderella Society, I would actually want to bring Heather to life. I just want to give her a big hug and tell her everything is going to be okay.
I can't think of a weird tidbit, but I did incorporate some mind-blowing stats about girls and body image. The statistics broke my heart.
Probably J. K. Rowling. And really, it wouldn't even be collaboration I was after. I would just love to chat with her about the world of Harry Potter and how it looks in her mind.
Thanks to Kay for stopping by, and congrats on the debut!
Now everyone, go out and find your inner Cindy!
What do you think? I'm not normally a huge fan of trailers (I don't even like music videos anymore because they often skew my perception of the songs, a perception that tends to be personal and sometimes, er, quirky), but I really like this one. Then again, it is possible that I am ever so slightly biased.
Shade comes out May 4, two weeks from tomorrow. *heart attack* To quote from the book, "Get the defibrillator!"
I'm excited to report two, highly related SHADE-y developments.
My first solo signing of Shade will be Sunday, May 2, 3-5pm, at Constellation Books, a lovely independent bookstore not far from chez Jeri (BTW, that's pronounced "shay jher-EEE") in Reisterstown, MD, pictured here.
I don't know who the guy in the vest is. Presumably a public safety official of some sort. But no worries--it's a lovely neighborhood in a lovely town. If you're familiar with Reisterstown but not with Constellation Books, it's across from Java Mamma's and on the same side of the street as the Cow, which, according to its Facebook fan page, rocks.
Anyway, there will be a reading, Q&A, and most important, baked goods (a redundant phrase if there ever was one) from Starry Night Bakery, the coffee house where I spend every Wednesday with my local writer friends. I promise to read a G-rated selection from Shade, and Constellation has a fabulous children's section, so bring the whole family!
So what's in it for the rest of you, who can't make it to Reisterstown? If you order your copy of Shade from Constellation Books, at any time before or after the launch party, I will sign it for you. If you order it before the launch party, obviously, I will sign it that day and it will be shipped out the following day--the day before the official release date.
You'll be supporting a wonderful independent bookstore. Y'all know the importance of that.
You'll get an autographed book, personalized if you like.
You might even get it sooner than if you ordered from an online bookseller, who probably won't be shipping until May 4.
It's not just win-win, it's full of win!
To get your signed copy of Shade, either call the bookstore at 410-833-5151, or place your order online, and when you get to the order page, note in the comments if you want it personalized. Otherwise it'll just be a plain old autographed first printing, suitable for future eBay transactions.
I'm off to spend a three-day weekend finishing the rough draft of Shift. Wish me luck! No, wait, I have plenty of that. Wish me caffeine and discipline!
Fantabulous news! I'm now free to announce that in the last two months, my amazing agency (Curtis Brown, Ltd.) has sold the French, Spanish, and German rights to Wicked Game, which was first published in May 2008. Its sequel, Bad to the Bone (originally published May 2009) will also be translated into French and German.
I'm tickled beyond belief at these first foreign sales for this series. I can't wait to see the new titles and covers, and how some of the (very colloquially American English) lines in these books will be translated.
The butterflies in my stomach vomit on each other's wings.
Maybe he was de-cockinated in a tragic vamp-f***ing accident.
Good luck with that, foreign publishers!
Bragelonne will be publishing Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone in French, within 18 and 24 months, respectively (hopefully sooner).
Versatil will be publishing Wicked Game in Spanish (not sure of dates yet), with an option on Bad to the Bone.
Lübbe will publish Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone in German, within 24 and 30 months, respectively.
I will be sure to share covers as soon as I see them. Yay, Ciara! Go show "Old Europe" a good time!
I'm back! Okay, I didn't actually go anywhere, but I'm trying like crazy to finish a rough draft of Shift ASAP so my critique partners have time to read it and give me feedback in the next month so that I can rewrite it and give my editor a second draft instead of a crappy first draft ("crappy first draft" is a redundant phrase).
To demonstrate the importance of that process, I'm writing a series of guest blog posts at TeenReads.com, where you can get a behind-the-scenes peek at the creation of Shade. The first installment went up last week, called "Putting the Shade in Shade."
1. Facebook fan page - I'll draw a name at 5pm Friday from the members of the page to win a signed final copy of the hardcover book. All you have to do is become a fan! Beyond giving you a chance to win a free book, the fan page is your best bet for hearing the latest on my contests, news, and events.
2. Class of 2k10 April giveaway - Comment to win a signed ARC of Shade, a signed hardcover of Rhonda Hayter's super cute middle-grade debut, The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams, and much more!
3. Rosemary Clement-Moore's Nothing But Nets giveaway - To celebrate the paperback release of her YA novel Highway to Hell, the always awesome Rosemary is giving away a ton of prizes, including a $100 gift Barnes & Noble certificate, an ARC of her next book, and many other author-donated prizes, including a hardcover copy of Shade. All you have to do to enter is donate to the United Nations Nothing But Nets campaign, to provide low-cost mosquito netting to malaria-vulnerable areas.
I hate to say this is an “important” book because it brings to mind words like – boring – lecture – preachy, and this book is none of those things, but I do think it is an important story to read. Not much is written about boys who suffer from abuse and the effect that has on their relationships.
Off to sleep now. Tomorrow I'll have a very exciting announcement about the WVMP Radio vampire series! | 2019-04-23T12:30:23Z | http://blog.jerismithready.com/2010/04/ |
THERE ARE SOME ARTISTS WHOSE ART MAY BE EXAMINED WITHOUT MUCH STUDY OF THEIR BIOGRAPHIES, OR REFERENCE TO THEIR LOVED ONES, WHILE WITH OTHERS THEIR WORK IS SO CLOSELY LINKED TO THEIR FAMILIES THAT IT BECOMES ESSENTIAL TO ANY ANALYSIS OF THEIR OEUVRE. MIKHAIL NESTEROV (1862-1942) IS AMONG THE LATTER: THIS ARTICLE, WHICH INCLUDES MATERIALS, LETTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM VARIOUS ARCHIVES, EXAMINES THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE ARTIST'S FAMILY AND HIS WORK. THESE LETTERS HELP US SEE WHAT IS USUALLY HIDDEN FROM THE VIEWER'S EYES - THE DIFFERENT ROLES THAT AN ARTIST'S FAMILY PLAYS IN HIS LIFE. NESTEROV'S FAMILY MEMBERS OFTEN INSPIRED HIM TO CREATE HIS PAINTINGS, OR SERVED AS "PROTOTYPES" FOR THE SUBJECTS OF HIS LARGE-SCALE WORKS, EVEN FOR THE FRESCOES THAT THE ARTIST CREATED FOR VARIOUS CATHEDRALS. WITHOUT DOUBT, THIS WAS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE ARTIST; HE WROTE THAT "...IF THERE IS A FACE, THERE IS A PAINTING. IF THERE IS NO [FACE], NO EXPRESSION THAT I SEEK <...> - THERE WILL BE NO PAINTING. LIKE SEROV, IT IS THE HUMAN SOUL THAT I NEEDED FIRST AND FOREMOST." IN MAKING THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NESTEROV'S FAMILY MEMBERS IT IS NOT ONLY HIS LETTERS AND PAINTINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT, BUT ALSO THE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT HAVE BEEN PRESERVED, WHICH SOMETIMES REFLECT MUCH ON NESTEROV'S CREATIVE PROCESS. THE LEGACY OF THE ARTIST'S DESCENDANTS, WHOSE LIVES WERE PROFOUNDLY INFLUENCED BY THE PERSONALITY OF THEIR FATHER AND GRANDFATHER, IS ALSO REVEALING.
On May 31 (19) 1862 a baby boy was born in Ufa, who would be remembered in the history of Russian art as Mikhail Va-silyevich Nesterov. But back then, Misha was a little mischief-maker who was as far from being respectfully called by his name and patronymic as he was from art. The only son of a merchant, he was his father's single hope of preserving the family business. when his parents sent the twelve-year-old Misha to study in a secondary school in Moscow, the only thing that betrayed the boy's future as an artist was the fact that he was quite fond of drawing. Misha's passion for drawing was so strong that it impressed his teachers; it was on their advice that his father Vasily Nesterov (1818-1904) gave the boy permission to leave the school and start, in 1876, his education at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
In making this decision, Vasily Nesterov was also making a sacrifice: he realized that there would be no one to take over the family business, and it was not long before he closed it down. However, he did not just send his son "sailing" out on his own: he warned Mikhail that he would only consider him an artist when Pavel Tretyakov acquired one of his paintings for his gallery. This happened in 1889, when Tretyakov purchased "The Hermit" from Nesterov, and a year later, the gallery acquired "TheVision of the Young Bartholomew". Thus, Mikhail Nesterov had succeeded as an artist in the eyes of his family.
Nesterov remained grateful to his father for the rest of his life -for letting him take "the chosen and beloved path" , and for financing his education. His mother Maria (1823-1894) provided a different kind of support, described by Nesterov in his memoirs: "I have always felt, and still feel that no one ever listened to me or understood my childish, young dreams, my fears, my plans like she did; though uneducated, she was so caring and considerate, she lived entirely for me and through me - my darling mother." Images of Nesterov's parents survive in their portraits, now in the Tretyakov Gallery, which he painted while still an art student in the 1880s.
Nesterov's letters to his parents and sister cover the period from the end of the 1880s through the 1890s. written by a young artist at the beginning of his career, they often read like notes from a diary; the reader is able to get an idea of some events of Nesterov's life, as well as his intentions and plans. He often shared his thoughts with his loved ones and asked them for help and advice. His correspondence reflects one such "family council" - in 1897 the artist wrote to them about his desire to donate his series of paintings dedicated to Sergius of Radonezh to the Tretyakov Gallery; he was asking for their opinion and was prepared to change his mind should they disagree. His sister and his father (in spite of being a merchant) supported Nesterov in his decision to donate art worth a few thousand rubles, and it is thanks to this that the paintings are now housed at the gallery.
However, his parents' influence on Nesterov's art was indirect. The inspiration he received from his beloved first wife, Maria Marty-novskaya (1862-1886), was much more profound. The artist met her in Ufa in the summer of 1883. Later in life he described meeting his future wife for the first time: "The young lady kept walking; I followed her slowly [on horseback]. we went on like this for a while, and I noticed that the stranger had guessed that the rider was not just out and about, but rather had a purpose, so she began watching him through a small hole in her umbrella..." The artist made a drawing depicting this encounter and called it accordingly "The First Meeting". It was the first of a whole series of Maria Martynovskaya's images; more than that, it was in that summer that the female image itself became part of Nesterov's art - before then, it had been absent from his drawings, studies and paintings.
In the autumn following his acquaintance with Maria, Nesterov returned to Moscow to continue his education. The love-struck couple only saw each other again the following summer; Nesterov worked with renewed tenacity between his visits to Ufa. He finally obtained the long-awaited title of a "free (independent) artist" in 1885 and married Maria in the same year.
what was the artist's first wife like? "She was not beautiful in the ordinary, conventional way. what she did have was elusive charm, innate originality <...> and amazing femininity, which was so attractive not only to my father, but everyone who knew her. [Like] a first spring flower with its delicate scent," wrote Olga , Maria and Mikhail's daughter.
The birth of Olga, Nesterov's eldest and favourite daughter, was the source of great joy for the couple, but Maria developed complications after childbirth, and soon died. Shaken, Nesterov poured his grief into art: "That bitter-sweet feeling still upon me, I drew a lot back then, and the image of my deceased [wife] would not leave me; her features were everywhere, the peculiarities of her face and her expressions came back to me and found their way into drawings and sketches. <...> It felt like she was with me then." Nesterov captured his late wife's image in a posthumous portrait (which he later destroyed) in her wedding attire, as well as in his painting "Bride of Christ". In the same way that the first meeting of the young couple was reflected in Nesterov's drawings, his last farewell to his dying wife was depicted in his watercolour "The Last Sunday. June 1 1886."
"My love for Masha [nickname for Maria] and losing her made me an artist, brought substance into my art that had not been there before, gave it feeling and a living soul - in a word, everything that people came to value, and still value in my art," Nesterov wrote to describe the important role his wife played in his development as an artist.
Unfortunately, very few of Maria's letters survive today; Olga, the eldest of Nesterov's children, gave some letters to the Tretyakov Gallery but requested that they not be published. Nesterov's letters to Olga are marked with special warmth; they give the reader a chance to appreciate his attitude towards her mother. One letter helps us clarify the date of Maria Martynovskaya's death. Many researchers have mistakenly stated the date, which is never clearly indicated in the artist's memoirs, as May 29. However, in his letter to Olga of June 1 1906 Nesterov wrote about marking the anniversary of her mother's death on that day. Another fact pointing to June 1 is the name the artist gave to the watercolour depicting his dying wife, "The Last Sunday. June 1 1886." Also, it was June 1, not May 29 that fell on a Sunday in 1886 - it was indeed on a Sunday, according to Nesterov's memoirs, that Maria died.
Nesterov painted many portraits of his oldest daughter, who reminded him of his beloved late wife, the most famous of which is "Portrait of O.M. Nesterova" ("woman in a Riding Habit", or "Amazon"), executed in 1906; he painted it in between two dangerous operations that Olga had to undergo, expressing his fear of losing her and his desire to preserve her features in his art. Nesterov's friend Sergei Durylin wrote to Olga about this portrait: "In the same way as 'the girl with peaches' (Vera Mamontova) is the best, the fairest Russian young woman of the 1880s, so is 'the girl in a riding habit' (you!) the best and fairest Russian young woman of the early 1990s. <...> How marvelously did he [Mikhail Nesterov] combine here his love for his daughter with his admiration for the young Russian woman." Quite justly, the artist considered this portrait among his best works, and viewers mainly know his daughter Olga from it.
It is less known that Olga Nesterova continued her father's work and became an artist herself. An intriguing note from Nesterov to his very young daughter, written in block letters, is kept at the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist is asking her to have her photograph taken for a portrait and includes a rough sketch with a note that says "You can colour it"; indeed, the drawing is "finished" with coloured pencils. It seems it was with such "colouring" and "collaborative work" that little Olga started drawing. She did not receive any formal art education; however, from Lyolya Prakhova, a friend of the family who was briefly engaged to Nesterov, she learned to create silk embroidery using a special stitching technique of the 16th-century embroidery masters, and her works were indistinguishable from watercolour.
Mikhail Nesterov met Lyolya Prakhova after he moved to Kiev, where he was invited to take part in painting the interior of the Cathedral of St. Vladimir. It was there that he became close to the family of Adrian Prakhov, who was in charge of the work on the cathedral; Prakhov's daughter Elena (1871-1948), who was nicknamed Lyolya, became a dear friend. The artist found Lyolya to be talented, uncommonly pure and kind, and chose her as his model for painting the image of St. Varvara in the cathedral. As a result, the small saint in the fresco had such a likeness to Lyolya that one of Kiev's grandes dames declared: "I cannot pray to Lyolya Prakhova!", and Nesterov was required to re-paint the image, making changes to the saint's pose and face.
The artist was convinced that Lyolya Prakhova was someone who understood him very well: "That part of my soul, or my spirit that was the source of my art, the source of 'Bartholomew', 'Tsarevich Dmitry' and my other paintings, that corner of my very nature, my creative soul was not known to many - maybe two or three [people]. My late mother knew it, and Lyolya Prakhova guessed..." In 1899, "after ten years of friendship", Nesterov proposed to Lyolya, and was accepted; however, the engagement did not last, which did not prevent them from remaining lifelong friends. In one of the letters (included here) Nesterov wrote to his daughter Olga fourteen years after he and Lyolya Prakhova broke their engagement, he remembers Lyolya not as a friend, but as someone who was once his muse.
Nesterov's new love, and the mother of his middle daughter Vera , was Yulia Urusman (1877-1962), a teacher. Her images in Nesterov's art would later be referred to as "Nesterov's woman" - a refined and spiritual face, enormous sad eyes full of deep feeling... Yulia Urus-man's image became part of such works as "Thoughts", "Beyond the Volga", "Aksakov's Motherland", and "The Raising of Lazarus". Yulia also modeled for Nesterov's frescoes in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy; her features may be discerned in the frescoes Nesterov painted for the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Abastumani. In Nesterov's "Holy week", one of the female figures is that of a woman holding a small light-blue coffin (coffins of this colour were used to bury male babies who died in infancy) - this image also likely related to Yulia Urusman and Fedya, her son with Nesterov who died at birth in 1902.
Nesterov also painted several portraits of his daughter with Urusman, Vera. The artist complained to Vera that her features proved "elusive" to him, that he was not entirely happy with his portraits of her; it was only his 1918 drawing of Vera that he praised: "...as good as Valentin Serov's."
Even though Urusman and Nesterov remained friends all their lives, his letters to her are little known. At the same time, much of his correspondence with his daughter Vera was preserved and can help us understand Nesterov's life in the 1920s and 1930s. The artist's granddaughter (Vera's daughter) Maria Titova published these letters in 2012. with Ms. Titova's permission, one of them is included here; in it, we see Nesterov not as an artist, but as a devoted, albeit strict father and grandfather, a witty man with a way with words.
In 1902 Nesterov married again - his bride, Yekaterina Vasilyeva (1879-1955), was a schoolmistress at the Kiev Finishing School, where Olga, Nesterov's eldest daughter, was studying. In a letter to Alexander Turygin, the artist described how they met: "About three weeks ago, I was told that a certain schoolmistress from the Institute (whom I did not know) was asking for permission to visit me and see my painting - young, beautiful, a favourite of the Countess Kono-vnitsyna , et cetera. I agreed... and now this young woman has fallen in love with me, passionately and with abandon, and I fell in love with her like a schoolboy. She is indeed beautiful, tall, elegant, very intelligent, and by all accounts, a wonderful, steadfast and selfless person."
The artist's second wife remained his faithful companion for 40 years, until the end of his life. Nesterov valued her "unusual, heartfelt and intelligent interest in his art", her "love for everything he holds dear" ; in his correspondence, he often mentioned that Yekaterina took care of household work. "My wife is in the kitchen, cooking, roasting, darning all sorts of things - and I keep painting," he wrote to his friend Turygin.
Yekaterina's portrait, which the artist painted in 1905 in their apartment in Kiev, was Nesterov's first portrait that he considered good enough to be exhibited. The sadness, sorrow and disappointment, the discord with the world that filled his earlier female images, in this portrait gave way to peace of mind and harmony, to a quiet delight in the world. Later, the artist would paint many more portraits of his wife and use her as a model for an icon and frescoes at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent; thus, she served as the model for Mary listening to the words of Christ.
After a year of marriage Yekaterina gave birth first to a daughter, Natalya (another daughter, Nastenka, was born in 1904 but died in infancy), and then their son, Alexei, in 1907. Nesterov would paint numerous portraits of his children with his second wife, and his son Alexei would also serve as the model for the young boy who sees Christ in "In the Land of Russia (The Soul of the People)". For a long time the artist was looking for the right image and the right pose, so when one day he noticed all that in his son, he hurried to take a photograph (published here).
Mikhail Nesterov's correspondence with his second wife and their children is housed at the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist's letters to his wife Yekaterina are "active", so to speak. Many of his letters to his oldest daughter may be called lyrical, while his letters to Turygin are philosophical; his letters to his second wife may be called "epic" as it is narrative that prevails in them. written when they happened to be apart, these letters contain detailed accounts of Nesterov's everyday life, of his social meetings and impressions; they prove that the artist's wife did not only help him run the household - he often asked for her assistance in his work. In one such letter, Nesterov outlined Yekateri-na's role in their life together: "you are the wheel in our mechanism (but I am still the mechanism!)".
Nesterov's letters to Natalya and Alexei (Alyosha), his children with Yekaterina (in the Tretyakov Gallery Manuscripts Department), echo the impressions the viewer gets from their portraits. Natalya's letters are alive, vibrant and sharp, and that is how she comes across in the portrait "Young Girl by the Pond", painted by her father in 1923. In contrast, Alexei's letters are more measured and contemplative, very much like his image in his father's 1919 study "Portrait of Alyosha Nesterov". The artist was well aware of how different his children's personalities were - in a letter, he called Natalya "Master Natasha" and Alexei - "Miss Alyosha".
As for the future lives of family members: Irina Shreter (1918-2003), the daughter of Olga Nesterova-Shre-ter, became a production designer; her work in the cinema included such films as "Girls", "The Garnet Bracelet", "Master of the Taiga", "At Home Amongst Strangers, a Stranger Amongst Friends", and others.
Nesterov's other granddaughters, the children of his middle daughter Vera Nesterova-Titova, became successful scientists. Tatiana Titova (1939-2010), the younger of the two, earned a graduate degree in physics and mathematics and worked at the Institute of Physical Chemistry. The older one, Maria Titova (born 1937) is a Professor of Medicine at the Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery. Maria fulfilled her grandfather's desire that one of his relatives became a medical doctor; to this day she remains the guardian of her grandfather's legacy.
As fate would have it, the second husband of Nesterov's daughter Natalya (1903-2004) was Fyodor Bulgakov (1902-1991) , the son of the Russian philosopher Sergei Bulgakov, one of the subjects of Nesterov's painting "The Philosophers".
Alexei (1907-1942), Nesterov's son with his second wife, was a professional horse breeder, an amateur artist and photographer; he also wrote poetry, and one of his poems is included here. Alexei died the same year as his father after a long battle with tuberculosis.
Mikhail Nesterov himself remained in good spirits and continued painting until the end of his life. He was 80 when he died on October 18 1942 in the arms of his wife Yekaterina, who, along with his children and grandchildren, did so much to preserve the artist's legacy.
<...> Needless to mention, I will remember this trip well; I have seen a lot of things that would be hard to forget. I believe that it will not fail to influence my advancement as an artist, even if I am unable to paint anything, because I have seen so much, and there is still so much to see; so when I come back to Russia and study hard, it is my hope that the flaws that are so big now will gradually disappear.
Tretyakov Gallery Manuscripts Department, F. 100, item 1279, pp. 1-2.
MIKHAIL NESTEROV'S LETTER TO VASILY, MARIA AND ALEXANDRA NESTEROV, WITH HIS DRAWING COLOURED BY HIS DAUGHTER OLGA.
MIKHAIL NESTEROV’S LETTER TO VASILY, MARIA AND ALEXANDRA NESTEROV, WITH HIS DRAWING PAINTED BY HIS DAUGHTER OLGA.
MIKHAIL NESTEROV’S LETTER TO HIS SISTER ALEXANDRA NESTEROVA, WITH HIS DRAWING COLOURED BY HIS DAUGHTER OLGA.
How are you, my dear Olyushka!
I was expecting that you would send me a message today, while still on the road, but instead I got your telegram from Ufa. Thank you for remembering, and for your congratulations. I did indeed turn 44 today, and in a few days you will be 20!
A lot has happened through the years, some good, some not so good... one cannot live without that... I cannot be like "Demon" and say that I "do not miss the past" - I do miss it, I miss it a lot! One cannot bring it back - and it is hard to amend... Especially when one starts feeling that old age is approaching.
How is your embroidery coming along? I will not give up hope of receiving a gift from you one day, and I will do so with great pleasure.
MIKHAIL NESTEROV’S LETTER TO VASILY, MARIA AND ALEXANDRA NESTEROV, WITH HIS DRAWING COLOURED BY HIS DAUGHTER OLGA.
MIKHAIL NESTEROV’S LETTER TO OLGA NESTEROVA WITH HIS DRAWING COLOURED BY HIS DAUGHTER.
Noon today was 20 years since your mother passed away.
I just came back from the Danilov monastery, where we attended the memorial service, tidied up the gravesite, cleaned the monument; and I saw in front of my eyes, like it was happening now, those terrible days of 1886, impossible to forget.
Oh! How excruciating, how hard it was... <...> And, both you and I were equally helpless then.
Did you pray for your mother today?
I went to Petrovsky Park yesterday, walked by the church where we were married; then I walked by the house in Zykov Pereulok, where the poor folk used to live, and still live, and where your mother and I lived before the wedding. The little house is still standing, as is the attic with the single window where I lived.
It all has passed, all gone!
I have "grown up", have become "a famous artist", but am I happy?
Do not "overthink" it, as I always did, and always regretted later.
Tretyakov Gallery Manuscripts Department, F. 100, item 1453, pp. 1 (reverse)-2.
How are you, my sweet "oldest granddaughter"?
Tretyakov Gallery Manuscripts Department, F. 100, item 1470, p. 1.
I gave your letter to Vera. She <...> is so good-natured, so caring towards everyone, a sweetheart.
<...> Kisses from your loving father.
Tretyakov Gallery Manuscripts Department, F. 100, item 1464, pp. 1-1 (reverse).
My love and kisses to my granddaughters, whether obedient or not, and to you.
From the archives of Maria Titova.
Tretyakov Gallery Manuscripts Department, F. 100, item 1834, pp. 1-1 (reverse).
A DRAWING MADE BY OLGA NESTEROVA ON AN UNFINISHED LETTER [TO HER AUNT, ALEXANDRA NESTEROVA].
A DRAWING MADE BY MIKHAIL NESTEROV IN CHILDHOOD.
IN THE LAND OF RUSSIA (THE SOUL OF THE PEOPLE).
ALEXEI NESTEROV POSES FOR THE COMPOSITION “IN THE LAND OF RUSSIA”.
YEKATERINA NESTEROVA WITH HER CHILDREN, NATALYA AND ALEXEI.
YEKATERINA NESTEROVA AND NATALYA NESTEROVA POSING FOR IMAGES DESTINED FOR THE ICONOSTASIS AT THE MARFO-MARIINSKY CONVENT.
ARTIST’S COPY OF A MURAL ON THE NORTHERN WALL OF THE CHURCH OF INTERCESSION AT THE MARFO-MARIINSKY CONVENT IN MOSCOW.
OLGA NESTEROVA IN A DRESS MADE FOR THE GRADUATION CEREMONY AT THE INSTITUTE FOR NOBLE YOUNG LADIES IN KIEV.
VERA NESTEROVA, THE ARTIST’S MIDDLE DAUGHTER.
MIKHAIL NESTEROV WITH HIS SECOND WIFE, YEKATERINA, AND THEIR CHILDREN, NATALYA AND ALEXEI.
MIKHAIL NESTEROV AND IRINA SHRETER.
YOUNG GIRL BY THE POND (PORTRAIT OF NATALYA NESTEROVA).
MIKHAIL NESTEROV’S LETTER TO HIS FAMILY.
“YESTERDAY MY PAINTING WAS FINALLY MOUNTED [REFERENCE TO NESTEROV’S COMPOSITION “THE YOUTH OF ST. SERGIUS OF RADONEZH”], FLANKED ON THE WALL BY AP[OLLINARY] VASNETSOV’S LANDSCAPE (A LAKE) TO THE RIGHT AND GHE’S PORTRAIT OF MARIA TOLSTAYA TO THE LEFT (MIRRORWISE) <…> AT THE END OF THE LETTER I ATTACH A DRAWING FEATURING MY COMPOSITION AND OTHER NEIGHBOURING ONES AS VIEWED BY SPECTATORS FROM THE STAIRS”.
NATALYA NESTEROVA AND FYODOR BULGAKOV.
YEKATERINA AND MIKHAIL NESTEROV IN THEIR APARTMENT ON SIVTSEV VRAZHEK STREET. | 2019-04-26T04:05:31Z | https://www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/articles/1-2013-38/mikhail-nesterovs-family-his-art |
Journey blogs is all about sustaining a record online regarding your journey know-how. While blogging is surely a commitment, items news is usually it’s regularly a very advantageous one. The fundamentals of How for making Money Blog for First-timers Bloggers may generate income from your own home in a range of means gameacthan.com.
There is a multitude of blogs. non-etheless, a journey blog may additionally possess your thoughts about the particular locations inside the map, just like their socio-economic conditions as well as the politics circumstances. Your blog will surely gain from that. Though a blog may contain just simply anything you want to write and promote, it’s important likewise to decide and consider your key goal of putting up a blog. Property Blog A residence blog is a specific kind of blog which has been established simply to share and discuss, in a continuous fashion, a local event including improving the property, or possibly a detailed restoration practice. Demand Blogging and site-building takes a commitment by the blog owner for the purpose of the blog to succeed in and maintain a diploma of popularity.
Sites are many items today whether part of a company, part of a marketing program, or perhaps only your own reflection. A blog may be a significant alternative until the money starts arriving from your business. Blog is only the contraction of web site. A significant component many weblogs is the facility whereby readers of the weblog can leave personal commentary and views that can be examine by other folks. If you’re considering producing your own weblog, here are a few basic ideas approach get started blogging and site-building. An informative weblog which helps people within the internet to locate answers could make them wish to stop because of your website generally.
Third thing which you might like to do is apply your blog internet site in order to make you some authentic money. Each of the links happen to be pointing towards the proper area. It is possible to also integrate links to your site that are identical to backwards links which then equals great ranking.
Following sat into compose a post, you simply couldn’t cause a relevant however engaging subject matter. Whether you agree or disagree together with the bloggers content, make certain you discover a means to improve the post. You could have an amazing post but in the event the nature of the post is a the end a lot of people just may not reach that. You’re merely very likely to start finding a developing number of articles or blog posts distributed through fewer channels. The articles and reviews made to your business blog has to be relevant to the main topic of the blog.
By simply figuring out using a key phrase search device, you will learn precisely what they’re looking for and after that you may position the writing of your blog in order for your content comes up first as soon as the pc send rear the answers from their search query. Your readers will get comfortable with the regular leaving your 2 cents cycle. For any blogging to work at SEO and engaging visitors, it has to be continuously updated .
Daylights, even the term blog itself sounds a small sci-fi. When you’ve exhausted all of your ideas, all of us will help you develop fresh and trending blog page topics. Just one particular great idea to write much better posts should be to compose the post and come back to this after one day. Blogging to the Bank 2011 is the kind of course that can assist you achieve that. Maintaining a blog is more than writing a few things and posting these people online. Earning profits from a blog needs you to focus on several different elements, and bringing all of them with each other in the correct place is a secret to success. Running a blog for profit is a reasonably new idea but is normally one that lots of people are thinking about testing out.
Many circumstances the choice to begin a blog is a great impulsive a person unless that you simply seeking to monetize it. The intent with the majority of blog writers is to get visitors to go back to their website thus growing loyal followers! As you may well have dreamed of, blogging is merely the action of employing a blog.
Interest for the subject Firstly you are likely to wish to have a personal interest in this issue on which that you simply blogging. Though having a interest in your subject matter isn’t necessary to earn money blog, it will certainly help to make thing less complicated for you. You can actually earn money by simply blogging and tons of people are already undergoing it. There are a number of ways to generate income from a blog. There isn’t a correct” way to earn money from a blog. If you’re looking forward to making extra money out of the blog, therefore you’ve got to remain in mind a few critical information from the beginning. Blogging for profit can definitely give you some excessive money yet , you should know a definite thing from the beginning .
Journey blogs is all about preserving a diary online relating to your journey proficiency. While blog is surely a commitment, the products news is it’s frequently a very valuable one. The fundamentals of How for making Money Blog for Starters Bloggers may generate income at home in a range of means .
There is a multitude of sites. non-etheless, a journey blog page may additionally have got your thoughts regarding the particular locations in the map, just like their socio-economic conditions or perhaps the politics circumstances. Going through your brilliant blog will surely gain from it. Though a blog can easily contain only anything you desire to write and promote, it’s important likewise to decide and consider your major goal of putting up a blog. Property Blog A home blog is known as a specific type of blog that can be established in order to share and discuss, within a continuous style, a family event just like improving the home, or possibly a thorough restoration practice. Demand Blogging takes a determination by the weblog owner intended for the blog to reach and maintain a degree of popularity.
Sites are many elements today whether part of a business, part of an advertising program, or only an individual reflection. A blog is a significant different until the cash starts being released in from your company. Blog is only the shrinkage of web site. A significant component many weblogs is the facility whereby readers of the weblog can leave personal feedback and landscapes that can be go through by other people. If you’re considering producing the own blog, here are a few basic ideas for you to get started running a blog. An informative blog page which supports people to the internet to discover answers will make them need to stop by your website typically.
Third thing which you need to do is work with your blog internet site in order to make you some authentic money. All the links are pointing towards the proper spot. It is possible to also include links to your internet site that are identical to backwards links which then equals big ranking.
Any time you sat to compose a post, you merely couldn’t creates a relevant however engaging subject matter. Whether you agree or disagree considering the bloggers article, make certain you get a means to raise the post. You could have an amazing content but in the wedding the nature of the post is a the end a lot of people just may well not reach that. You’re simply just very likely to start finding a growing number of articles and reviews distributed through fewer channels. The threads made to your company blog should be relevant to the topic of the blog.
By simply figuring out how to use a keyword search instrument, you will learn precisely what they’re seeking and after that you may position the writing of your blog for your content comes up primary as soon as the computer send back again the answers from their search query. Subscribers will get acquainted with the regular submitting cycle. To get a blogging to work at SEO and engaging readers, it has to be constantly updated csisalvage.com.
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Many situations the choice to begin with a blog is an impulsive a person unless most likely seeking to generate income from it. The intent from the majority of writers is to get individuals to go back to the website thus growing loyal supporters! As you may well have thought, blogging is merely the action of employing a blog.
Love for the Topic Firstly you are likely to wish to have a personal interest in the niche on which if you’re blogging. Though having a interest in your theme isn’t needed to earn money blogs, it will certainly help to make thing easier for you. You can earn money just by blogging and tons of people are already carrying it out. There are a number of ways to generate income from a blog. There is correct” method to earn money from a blog. If you’re looking forward to making extra cash out of your blog, therefore you’ve got to live mind some critical facts from the beginning. Operating a blog for profit can definitely provide you some extra money nevertheless , you should know a definite thing right from the beginning .
Journey blogging and site-building is all about sustaining a journal online regarding your journey knowledge. While writing a blog is surely a commitment, the products news is certainly it’s regularly a very rewarding one. The basic principles of How to Make Money Blogging and site-building for Newcomers Bloggers can generate income from your home in a range of means .
There is a vast number of websites. non-etheless, a journey weblog may additionally have got your thoughts regarding the respective locations in the map, like their socio-economic conditions or possibly the political circumstances. Your site will surely gain from this. Though a blog can easily contain merely anything you want to write and share, it’s important as well to decide and consider your major goal of putting up a blog. Home Blog A residence blog can be described as specific type of blog which has been established simply to share and discuss, within a continuous manner, a domestic event such as improving the property, or possibly a complete restoration practice. Demand Running a blog takes a dedication by the blog page owner meant for the blog to realize and maintain a degree of popularity.
Weblogs are many factors today whether part of a business, part of a marketing program, or perhaps only an individual reflection. A blog is known as a significant alternate until the money starts being released in from your group. Blog is only the shrinkage of website. A significant part many sites is the facility whereby visitors of the blog can leave personal comments and feelings that can be read by other folks. If you’re enthusiastic about producing your own blog page, here are a few standard ideas for you to get started blogging. An informative blog page which helps people around the internet to discover answers could make them desire to stop from your website often.
Third idea which you need to do is apply your blog site in order to make you some authentic money. All of the links will be pointing towards the proper spot. It is possible to also incorporate links to your internet site that are similar to backwards links which then equals great ranking.
As soon as you sat into compose a post, you simply couldn’t develop a relevant but engaging subject. Whether you agree or perhaps disagree when using the bloggers article, make certain you look for a means to increase the post. You can have an amazing post but in the wedding the nature of the post is at the end a lot of persons just might not exactly reach this. You’re only very likely to start with finding a growing number of articles distributed through fewer stations. The threads made to your company blog must be relevant to the main topic of the blog.
Simply by figuring out using a key phrase search application, you will learn precisely what they’re in search of and after you could position the writing of the blog to ensure your document comes up earliest as soon as the pc send rear the answers from their search query. Subscribers will get used to the regular placing cycle. For any blogging to work at SEO and engaging readers, it has to be frequently updated .
Heck, even the term blog by itself sounds a small sci-fi. When you have exhausted all your ideas, we will help you develop fresh and trending blog topics. The great theory to write increased posts is usually to compose the post and come back to this after one day. Blogging to the Bank 2011 is the sort of course that can assist you achieve that. Keeping up a blog page is more than simply writing one or two things and posting them online. Making money from a blog requires you to work with several different factors, and having all of them at the same time in the appropriate place is a secret to success. Blogging and site-building for earnings is a rather new idea but is one that lots of people are thinking about trying out.
Many circumstances the choice to start with a blog is a great impulsive you unless you’re seeking to generate income from it. The intent of this majority of writers is to get visitors to go back to their website thus developing loyal followers! As you may have dreamed of, blogging is merely the actions of employing a blog.
Passion for the subject Firstly you will certainly wish to have your own interest in this issue on which most likely blogging. Though having a interest in your matter isn’t required to earn money writing a blog, it will certainly help to make thing less difficult for you. It’s possible to earn money by simply blogging and tons of folks are already doing it. There are a number of ways to generate profits from a blog. There is correct” method to make money using a blog page. If you’re eager for making extra money out of the blog, therefore you’ve got to remain in mind a few critical details from the beginning. Blog for profit can definitely give you some surplus money however , you should know one thing from the beginning hamad.com.au.
Journey running a blog is all about preserving a diary online regarding your journey knowledge. While blogs is surely a commitment, the goods news is normally it’s regularly a very advantageous one. The basics of How to produce Money Blog for Starters Bloggers can easily generate income in your own home in a range of means .
There is a vast number of blogs. Nonetheless, a journey weblog may additionally have got your thoughts about the individual locations in the map, like their socio-economic conditions or perhaps the politics circumstances. Your site will surely gain from it. Though a blog can easily contain just anything you desire to write and share, it’s important as well to decide and consider your main goal of putting up a blog. House Blog A home blog is a specific kind of blog that can be established only to share and discuss, in a continuous trend, a home event including improving the property, or possibly a extensive restoration practice. Demand Running a blog takes a determination by the blog owner just for the blog to achieve and maintain a diploma of popularity.
Websites are many things today if part of an organization, part of a marketing program, or only a reflection. A blog is mostly a significant substitute until the cash starts being released from your company. Blog is merely the shrinkage of web log. A significant component many weblogs is the center whereby viewers of the weblog can keep personal responses and opinions that can be read by other folks. If you’re considering producing your own weblog, here are a few basic ideas to be able to get started blog. An informative blog page which products people for the internet to get answers can make them wish to stop because of your website typically.
Third idea which you want to do is use your blog site in order to make you some authentic money. Every one of the links are pointing for the proper place. It is possible to also include links to your site that are similar to backward links which in turn equals great ranking.
When you sat into compose a post, you simply couldn’t make a relevant however engaging subject. Whether you agree or disagree along with the bloggers article, make certain you locate a means to enhance the post. You might have an amazing post but in the wedding the nature of the post is a the end then a lot of persons just may well not reach that. You’re merely very likely to begin with finding a growing number of articles or blog posts distributed through fewer channels. The blogposts made to your small business blog must be relevant to the topic of the blog.
By figuring out how to use a key word search program, you will learn just what they’re searching for and after which you can position the writing of the blog in order for your article comes up first of all as soon as the computer system send returning the answers from their search query. Subscribers will get used to the regular posting cycle. For the blogging to work at SEO and engaging visitors, it has to be frequently updated www.santoor.com.bd.
Heck, even the term blog themselves sounds a tiny sci-fi. Should you have exhausted all of your ideas, we all will help you create fresh and trending blog page topics. A definite great notion to write upgraded posts should be to compose the post and come back to that after 1 day. Blogging towards the Bank 2011 is the kind of course that may help you achieve that. Keeping up a weblog is more than writing a handful of things and posting these people online. Making money from a blog requires you to focus on several different elements, and carrying all of them mutually in the correct place may be the secret to success. Blog for earnings is a fairly new notion but can be one that many people are thinking about testing out.
Many circumstances the choice to start with a weblog is a great impulsive one unless you aren’t seeking to profit from it. The intent belonging to the majority of blog writers is to get visitors to go back to the website thus growing loyal followers! As you may have dreamed of, blogging is only the action of employing a blog.
Passion for the subject Firstly you will certainly wish to have a private interest in this issue on which you’re blogging. Though having a personal interest in your theme isn’t instructed to earn money blogs, it will certainly generate thing simpler for you. One could earn money simply by blogging and tons of people are already undergoing it. There are a number of ways to generate income from a blog. There is correct” approach to earn money from a blog page. If you’re getting excited about making extra cash out of the blog, in that case you’ve got to time in mind some critical information from the beginning. Operating a blog for profit can definitely provide you some excess money yet , you should know one particular thing from the beginning .
Journey running a blog is all about keeping a record online regarding your journey skills. While operating a blog is surely a commitment, the goods news can be it’s frequently a very worth it one. The basic principles of How to build Money Blogging for Beginners Bloggers may generate income at home in a range of means .
There is a vast number of sites. Nonetheless, a journey blog may additionally currently have your thoughts regarding the respective locations inside the map, like their socio-economic conditions as well as the political circumstances. Your site will surely gain from it. Though a blog can contain only anything you want to write and share, it’s important as well to decide and consider your principal goal of putting up a blog. House Blog A property blog may be a specific sort of blog which has been established simply to share and discuss, in a continuous style, a home-based event such as improving the house, or possibly a comprehensive restoration practice. Demand Blogging and site-building takes a devotion by the blog owner with regards to the blog to realize and maintain a degree of popularity.
Websites are many items today whether part of a corporation, part of an advertising program, or perhaps only your own reflection. A blog is known as a significant choice until the money starts to arrive from your group. Blog is only the contraction of blog site. A significant component many weblogs is the service whereby viewers of the blog can leave personal opinions and landscapes that can be go through by others. If you’re considering producing the own blog page, here are a few basic ideas means get started blogging and site-building. An informative weblog which aids people for the internet to discover answers will make them need to stop by your website quite often.
Third thing which you can do is make use of your blog web page in order to make you some the case money. Every one of the links will be pointing for the proper place. It is possible to also incorporate links to your internet site that are the same to backwards links which in turn equals substantial ranking.
Once you sat right down to compose a post, you merely couldn’t produce a relevant yet engaging subject. Whether you agree or perhaps disagree together with the bloggers content, make certain you get a means to increase the post. You could have an amazing post but in the event the nature of the post reaches the end a lot of people just may not reach it. You’re simply very likely to start finding a growing number of discussions distributed through fewer channels. The threads made to your small business blog must be relevant to the main topic of the blog.
Simply by figuring out how to use a keyword search instrument, you will learn exactly what they’re seeking and after that you could position the writing of your blog in order for your content comes up initially as soon as the computer send backside the answers from their search query. Subscribers will get acquainted with the regular leaving a comment cycle. To get a blogging to work at SEO and engaging readers, it has to be regularly updated .
Daylights, even the term blog themselves sounds a small sci-fi. When you have exhausted all your ideas, all of us will help you develop fresh and trending blog page topics. One particular great notion to write upgraded posts should be to compose the post and come back to that after twenty four hours. Blogging to the Bank 2011 is the sort of course that may help you achieve that. Staying in touch a blog page is more than writing some things and posting all of them online. Earning profits from a blog requires you to work with several different elements, and taking all of them at the same time in the appropriate place is the secret to success. Blogs for income is a rather new idea but is one that lots of people are thinking about testing out.
Many circumstances the choice to start a blog is an impulsive you unless you aren’t seeking to profit from it. The intent from the majority of writers is to get visitors to go back to the website thus growing loyal supporters! As you might have thought, blogging is the action of employing a blog.
Enthusiasm for the subject Firstly you are likely to wish to have a private interest in the topic on which you’re here blogging. Though having a interest in your subject isn’t necessary to earn money blogging, it will certainly produce thing less difficult for you. You can earn money simply by blogging and tons of individuals are already executing it. There are a number of ways to generate income from a blog. There is correct” approach to earn money from a weblog. If you’re eager for making extra cash out of your blog, then you’ve got to keep in mind several critical facts from the beginning. Blogging and site-building for income can definitely give you some excess money yet , you should know a particular thing from the beginning ngdiseno.cl.
Journey writing a blog is all about keeping a diary online regarding your journey proficiency. While running a blog is surely a commitment, the goods news is certainly it’s often a very valuable one. The basics of How to build Money Running a blog for Starters Bloggers can generate income from your home in a range of means anandansd.wordpress.com.
There is a vast number of weblogs. non-etheless, a journey blog page may additionally currently have your thoughts regarding the individual locations inside the map, just like their socio-economic conditions or possibly the personal circumstances. Your blog will surely gain from this. Though a blog may contain only anything you desire to write and share, it’s important likewise to decide and consider your major goal of putting up a blog. House Blog A house blog is actually a specific kind of blog that can be established simply to share and discuss, within a continuous fashion, a home-based event just like improving the house, or possibly a extensive restoration practice. Demand Running a blog takes a devotion by the weblog owner just for the blog to succeed in and maintain a qualification of popularity.
Weblogs are many details today if part of an organization, part of a marketing program, or only an individual reflection. A blog is mostly a significant option until the cash starts being released in from your business. Blog is only the contraction of web site. A significant component many weblogs is the center whereby readers of the blog page can leave personal reviews and opinions that can be browse by others. If you’re enthusiastic about producing your own weblog, here are a few fundamental ideas for you to get started operating a blog. An informative blog page which aids people over the internet to locate answers could make them desire to stop from your website often.
Third factor which you need to do is employ your blog web page in order to make you some authentic money. Every one of the links happen to be pointing for the proper place. It is possible to also include links to your site that are similar to backward links which then equals big ranking.
Whenever you sat into compose a post, you simply couldn’t creates a relevant however engaging subject. Whether you agree or disagree considering the bloggers article, make certain you find a means to enhance the post. You can have an amazing content but in the event the nature of the post is a the end then a lot of persons just may well not reach it. You’re simply just very likely to start with finding a growing number of articles and reviews distributed through fewer channels. The subject material made to your small business blog has to be relevant to the topic of the blog.
By simply figuring out using a key phrase search instrument, you will learn just what they’re seeking and after that you may position the writing of your blog for your document comes up initially as soon as the pc send backside the answers from their search query. Your readership will get acquainted with the regular publishing cycle. To get a blogging to work at SEO and engaging readers, it has to be constantly updated .
Bejesus, even the term blog themselves sounds a little sci-fi. Should you have exhausted your entire ideas, we will help you make fresh and trending blog page topics. A definite great concept to write improved posts is usually to compose the post and come back to this after 1 day. Blogging for the Bank 2011 is the type of course that can assist you achieve that. Keeping up a weblog is more than writing a number of things and posting all of them online. Earning money from a blog needs you to work on several different elements, and getting all of them alongside one another in the correct place may be the secret to success. Writing a blog for income is a rather new notion but is definitely one that many people are thinking about testing out.
Many scenarios the choice to start a blog is a great impulsive one particular unless most likely seeking to profit from it. The intent with the majority of writers is to get individuals to go back to the website thus developing loyal supporters! As you may well have believed, blogging is just the actions of employing a blog.
Love for the subject Firstly you will likely wish to have your own interest in the subject on which occur to be blogging. Although having a interest in your subject matter isn’t forced to earn money blogs, it will certainly produce thing less difficult for you. You can actually earn money just by blogging and tons of folks are already carrying it out. There are a number of ways to generate profits from a blog. There is correct” approach to make money using a weblog. If you’re looking towards making extra money out of the blog, after that you’ve got to remain in mind a lot of critical particulars from the beginning. Blogging and site-building for profit can definitely provide you some extra money yet , you should know just one particular thing from the beginning . | 2019-04-25T18:47:49Z | http://www.researchindex.org/2019/02/08/ |
This is awesome! My Exchange account over at www.myhostedsolution.com has been migrated to their new Exchange 2010 hosting servers. This means that I can finally do SMS synchronisation between my mobile, running Windows Mobile 6.5, and my Inbox. Better still, with Outlook 2010 I can both view and reply to SMS messages from within Outlook. All of this without having to configure any additional settings or services.
Here are the few steps you have to do.
Upgrade your Exchange account to Exchange 2010. If you set up hosting with www.myhostedsolution.com you get this included in you subscription for free by default. Did I mention they have unlimited storage so is awesome value.
Go into ActiveSync on your Windows Mobile 6.5 device and enable synchronization of Text Messages. This should enable synchronization of your text messages with your Exchange 2010 server. When I first upgraded to Exchange 2010 the option to synchronize text messages didn’t appear in ActiveSync on my device so I ended up wiping the device and setting up the account again.
The next piece is to install or upgrade to Outlook 2010. This sports a much newer interface, including the ability to send SMS messages. After installing and configuring your account (or if you’re upgrading, after your data file has been upgraded) you should see an email from Outlook 2010 entitled “Send and receive text messages on your computer!” which indicates that your mobile device is synchronizing text messages and Outlook is ready to send messages.
This will open the Text Message window where you can enter your message. Note the list of emoticons in the ribbon.
Once you’ve written your message, hit Send. When your device next synchronizes you should see a notification that your SMS message has been sent. That’s right, Outlook 2010 synchronizes the message to be sent to Exchange 2010, which then synchronizes it to your mobile device, which then sends it using your mobile phone account. No additional services necessary!
If you get an SMS Message it will be synchronized to Exchange 2010, then on to Outlook 2010, appearing in your Inbox along with your email. Careful if you’re working for an organisation that monitors email as your text messages will now be accessible to your Exchange administrators.
You can of course reply to an SMS and it will be sent out again via Exchange, Outlook…. your device. You do need to make sure your device is synchronizing, otherwise your SMS messages won’t be sent.
Every time I get a new device I go through almost one debug cycle before I’ve had enough and decide to disable the Windows Mobile security. If you aren’t familiar with Windows Mobile security there are essentially one (for pocketpc/Windows Mobile Professional) or two levels (for smartphone/Windows Mobile Standard). In both cases, if security is enabled the device will prompt you, as in the following screenshot, to allow untrusted assemblies to run on the device. Of course, this includes a number of assemblies that are used during debugging, so a royal pain to have to click Yes for each assembly that is loaded.
The easiest way to disable this “feature” is to use the Device Security Manager that comes with Visual Studio 2008 (Tools –> Device Security Manager). So long as your device is connected via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center you should see a display similar to the next image ��� this shows my device with Prompt One Tier as the current setting.
Selecting “Security Off” and hitting the Deploy to Device means that I can easily debug applications without having to click Yes to those annoying prompts.
As you can see this is essentially a deep link with some additional information on the end of it. Simply strip off all the extra parameters to give you a deep link that you can use.
Now I had to double read this… surely the only way to do something like this would be to have an application already running on the device… and doesn’t that imply that the user already has your application installed on the device… which means they’ve probably already been to marketplace, found, purchased and installed your application… what’s the point in providing this mechanism????
Ok, in answer to that question I can see that if you have multiple Windows Mobile applications in marketplace then you can increase sales by providing cross links between your applications. That way once someone buys one of your applications, they are more likely to buy the others. Alternatively you could provide a free/trial version with a link to the paid version.
Personally I see that there is an obvious gap here – how do I provide a deep link to my application on a mobile web site (or even a standard web site that is accessible via a WM device) that can be resolved on the device via the marketplace client. It wouldn’t be out of the question to have a link such as wmapp://LinkID that would be handled by the marketplace client in order to display the appropriate application. This link could be used when the site detects the page being browsed by a windows mobile client.
There are a number of good posts on working with OpenGL on Windows Mobile via the .NET Compact Framework but one thing I’ve noticed is that they don’t really try to wrap the OpenGL functionality in a way that makes it reusable as an application/game framework. Mostly the logic for rendering was intermingled with windows forms logic, such as OnPaint, which was intermingled with logic for updating the current scene. If you look at say XNA you notice that the model is very simple – essentially they have a single run loop consisting of Update and Draw. I set out to update the OpenGL ES wrapper initially provided by Koushik Dutta and since extended with some great examples across at XDA Developers. Here’s what I came up with to start with.
If you grab the OpenGL ES wrapper you will notice that at its core is essentially a single Windows Form that handles the OnPaint method in order to draw using OpenGL primitives. Nearly all the computation and rendering is done in this method. In the constructor and subsequent initialization methods there are a number of OpenGL ES calls in order to setup the display, surface and context required in order for OpenGL to draw to the screen. In order to create a reusable framework that would be a starting point for any project undertaken in OpenGL all this code would have to be wrapped in a way that it doesn’t need to be duplicated for each project.
To push the call to UpdateScene onto a separate thread. This prevents the UI from blocking whilst it’s in running.
To invoke Invalidate once UpdateScene has completed. This ensures that OnPaint will be invoked again and that the draw-update loop will be invoked again.
In the next post I’ll show you how to get started with this wrapper by overriding the ApplicationForm. In the meantime, try it yourself….
Does Windows Mobile 6 Smell (part II)?
In my previous post I talked about Microsoft and the enterprise and how it had help shape Windows Mobile 6.x. Now I want to look at some of the implications of this strategy, specifically looking at how the attitude towards touch input has changed over time.
One of the things that really differentiated Windows Mobile was it’s ability to work on multiple different form factors, from your non-touch txt friendly devices with keyboards through to your candy bar devices through to your pda-style devices with on-screen keyboards. Track back a few years and you would have seen the names Pocket PC and Smartphone being used to describe devices with and without a touch interface. With a move to align the two operating systems these came to be known as Windows Mobile Professional and Windows Mobile Standard – personally I think this did more than confuse the market who were already confused by the double use of the word Smartphone.
But this post wasn’t supposed to be a Windows Mobile history lesson, instead it was to look at our opinions on touch have evolved. If you recall back to the Pocket PC days there were very few people who actually used “touch” to interact with their device. Most uses whipped out their stylus and used that to push and poke at the screen. They would tap at the on-screen keyboard or even learn how to use the quirky text recognition capabilities of the device. This process was quite painful, particularly if you were responding to a text message or email. This is in part why both hardware keyboards and the Smartphone increased in popularity – both these addressed the problem of how to quickly navigate and type on the device.
The challenge with a physical keyboard is that no matter how to position it you end up with a tiny keyboard that simply adds weight and size to the device. Text entry, whilst quickest using a full qwerty keyboard was still a far shy from entering it on the desktop and often the extra hassle of sliding out a keyboard, waiting for the screen to reorientate and then entering text was enough to put off a lot of users.
The challenge with Smartphone is that it just sux – ok, you have me, I’m not a Smartphone advocate. Whilst I find that the interface is quick to navigate nearly all the applications are somewhat lacking or clumsy to use. Take internet explorer for example – you either have a little arrow cursor that you drag around the screen using a dpad or you jump from link to link, often making the text of the website very difficult to read. Personally I’ve never liked this style of device and it was scary a couple of years ago because it seemed that 90% of all new devices being released by OEMs were a Smartphone, rather than having a touch screen.
From a development perspective we saw the convergence of Smartphone and Pocket PC into Windows Mobile as a good thing. It meant we could build a single application that would work on both styles of devices. Unfortunately, this is a bit like building a desktop application and running it on the device – great idea, but results in an aweful user experience as either the desktop application is limited to display what’s available on the device (ie small screen real estate) or the application has to scale down to fit to the device (resulting in small controls that are hard to use). Guidance from Microsoft even suggested that developers should build to target Smartphone so it will work on both devices.
This whole topic became even more interesting when Apple released the iPhone and multi-touch came into the mainstream. Unfortunately the Windows Mobile team failed to get it and released 6, 6.1 and 6.5 without any support for multi-touch. In fact it’s only been with the release of the HTC HD2 that we’ve even seen capacitive screens for Windows Mobile which would effectively allow multi-touch. I believe this was because there was a misunderstanding on how users wanted to use their device. Too much research focussed on looking at ways to improve what users were currently doing (eg using a stylus), rather than exploring more innovative ways for the users to do things (eg making all controls larger so that the user can use touch instead of a stylus).
Now, finally Microsoft has awoken and we are seeing a new era of devices and operating systems heavily geared towards making touch (and I’m sure in the future multi-touch). Windows Mobile 6.5.3 has restyled controls, repositioned Start menu and Ok buttons, specifically geared to making it easy to navigate with touch and gestures. Windows Phone 7 series is all about touch, swipe, gesture and motion in general. It’s clear to see that this is the way forward and that the old Blackberry style non-touch devices are a thing of the past.
Does Windows Mobile 6 Smell?
If you ask most users what they think of Windows Mobile they either don’t know what it is (most non-techie consumers) or they shudder saying that slow, overly complex phone that I never use now I have…. Anyone would think that Windows Mobile smells. I’d like to put forward some points that at least explains why it looks and smells the way it is. You may even decide to give the current generation of Windows Mobile 6.5.3 devices a go.
I think the first point I’d like to make is that I doubt at any stage Microsoft decided that the end user wasn’t the highest priority when designing and building Windows Mobile. The whole “end-user-first” message that’s coming from Microsoft is just another re-hash of the “Age of User Experience” message that we saw a couple of years ago. What I do buy is that Microsoft has changed focus on which end user they’re putting first, or at least, what end user activities should come first.
In the past the design of Windows Mobile was geared towards an end user who worked for an enterprise, was connected to Exchange server and the reason for having a device was to make phone calls, send sms, triage email, work with contacts, calendar and tasks to get their work done. Now we’re seeing a new era where Windows Phone 7 is about supporting end users in every facet of their lives – helping them stay in contact, entertain them, help them relax, get work done, oh and of course make a phone call. Actually the latter seems to have been almost an after thoughts as there is not even a hardware call and/or hang up button according to the specs released by Microsoft last week.
So I guess the question has to be asked as to why the focus was on the enterprise user? Microsoft’s entry into the mobile phone market came as an extension of their embedded operating system. In fact Windows Mobile is essentially Windows CE in a specified configuration, with additional modules, such as Office Mobile and of course a phone stack. As such it seemed logical for them to enter this space in order to support enterprise users.
Once in this space it appears that Microsoft saw RIM as one of the main competitors with their Blackberry devices. Those familiar with Microsoft codenames will know that Crossbow was one of the code names used internally for one of the previous versions of Windows Mobile – this happens (probably coincidentally) to be the name of a pesticide that can be used to get ride of the blackberry plant (ref Website). The Blackberry OS has traditionally been menu centric, so as long as Windows Mobile only had as single “Start” menu it was considered to be a safe bet. Also, since Blackberries didn’t have touch screens, supporting touch (rather than stylus, and definitely not multi-touch) input wasn’t really considered a core use case. Again the result was that Windows Mobile continued to evolve towards a dpad/keyboard driven interface – in the enterprise this resulted in some very effective office worker devices that could be used to rapidly triage email but they weren’t the nicest consumer devices.
More on this discussion in future posts….
Get it while it's hot from the download center. The content in my original overview of the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 SDK is still accurate. However the installation issues have been resolved and there is a bunch of things (like the help files and the Map Framework sample) are now installed correctly. The installation of the DTK should not affect any of the existing emulator images you have installed. Stay tuned for more information on what's in the DTK.
Windows Mobile 6.5.3 DTK - Ready, Set….. Oh wait, hang on….. Go!
As some of you will be aware there was a first attempt at releasing the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 DTK (now missing) earlier this month. Despite a number of bits being missing or not installed correctly there are definitely some good bits coming in the DTK (take for example the Widget development story within VS2008). According to Todd in his Marketplace Momentum post we should see the real version of the DTK later this week. Check back with this blog to find out more about the actual release when it happens.
According to Twitter, which Microsoft clearly believes as the best way to communicate to its developer community, the Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK has been pulled.
Note that whilst this acknowledges that the SDK wasn’t properly tested there is apology to a developer community that collectively has probably wasted thousands of man hours installing, uninstall and reinstalling SDKs to get machines back to a working point.
I totally agree that the SDK should have been pulled as soon as there was a known issue with it but for Microsoft to continue to insult its developer audience is just one slap after the other.
The first thing to note about the newly released Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK is that it effectively comes in two parts. If you want to build applications for both the professional (ie touch screen devices) and standard you need to get both versions of the sdk. This way you will get all the emulator images.
For all those who have started working with Visual Studio 2010 the news is not great. As you are not doubt aware from the beta versions there is currently no support within VS 2010 for doing mobile development. This SDK release does not change this, you will continue to have to use Visual Studio 2008 for doing Windows Mobile development, with the exclusion of widgets, which you can do as a web site in VS 2010 and manually package it up for deployment.
Post install I thought I’d take a look at the readme file to see what’s changed in this SDK. Doh! Someone forgot to check this as the title reads “Windows Mobile 6 SDK Refresh”. The contents seem to make the title which made me think that I’d installed the wrong SDK but no, there’s a Start Menu item for “Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK” so I’m guessing that I didn’t get it wrong.
Following the readme “fail” I decided to launch Visual Studio 2008 to see whether I could spot the differences myself. From the New Project dialog (below) you can see that there is a new node “Widgets for Windows Mobile”. Given my recent set of blog posts on building Windows Mobile widgets I was really eager to see what this would entail.
After selecting the SimpleWidget option I was presented with a basic web site layout containing sub folders for css and script files. Personally I would have liked to see another sub folder for images.
Looked like a good starting point so I thought I’d try running it. Before doing so I went to start up a Windows Mobile 6.5 emulator image. I ran up the Device Emulator Manager only to discover that none of the 6.5 professional images (that were all there from when I’d install the 6.5 emulator image pack released last year) were there. Thinking I must be missing something I installed the Standard edition of the 6.5 SDK. This only made matters worse, now I have no Windows Mobile 6 or 6.5 images.
After enabling the ActiveX control I got the following output – looks very similar to what I’d expect on the device. Unfortunately the ActiveX prompt appears every time you start the debugger. The simple work around to this issue is to not stop the debugger. Because you are effectively working with a mini web site you can change content (ie htm, css, js) and just refresh the browser to see your changes.
Set breakpoints and then walk through your code inspecting variables.
Use the “hide” (which changes to “show” when clicked) button to mimic the widget going into the background. The onshow and onhide events get invoked.
Change the resolution and orientation of your widget to see what it would look like in different perspectives. Changing resolution is particularly important as you need to cater for these devices differently otherwise your widget will be either unusable or look childish.
You can change most of the System State properties to see what effect it has on your device. See my post on System State (aka Notification Broker) and Device Information for more information on working with this information.
Of course, whilst this is convenient for development, you must and I repeat must test your widgets on real devices.
I’m not entirely sure what all the parameters mean yet but I’m sure they’re in the help files somewhere (actually, no it appears not. The help files seem to be the standard WM6 SDK files). What does interest me is the Output Path parameter. If I navigate there I notice three files: the first two, Harness.html and Harness.js are what make the debugger happen, the last, SimpleWidget1.widget is of course the widget file which you can copy and install on your device or emulator to see how it runs on your device.
I must admit I expected to see a manifest file editor as part of the project properties. Not seeing it there I thought I’d double-click the config.xml files (which of course is the manifest file for a widget). Wow – notice the nice editor it displays, rather than a basic xml editor.
My only criticism here is that the team haven’t really thought this through. For a widget you would typically supply two icons if you are going to deploy to both professional and standard devices, one being a png, the other being an ico.
That’s enough about widgets. Let’s take a quick look at the emulator. Notice that this isn’t the 6.5 we’re used to see in the emulator. In fact if you look in the second image you’ll see that this is build 23090 which is around the build number that everyone has been talking about for Windows Mobile 6.5.3.
In brief you’ll notice that the start and ok/X buttons are at the bottom of the screen. A number of the menus are now graphical. The notification area drops down to be a graphical set of links and the tabs are no longer tabs, they’re more of a scrolling system (left-right) at the top of the page. These are all moves to better support touch input and going forward capacitive screens.
I’m sure there’s plenty more in the Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK that I haven’t discovered yet. Other than the major FAIL around the installation process (I would recommend uninstalling any previous WM6.5 emulators first) and the readme/help documentation I’m glad to see Microsoft starting to release new tools for us mobile developers.
Just posted to MSDN Downloads is a brand new SDK for doing Windows Mobile development. The SDK is coupled with new emulator image downloads for the following languages GER, FRA, ITA, JPN, CHS and ESP. Go download the bits from the Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK Download page.
Out of the box the Windows Mobile widget API provides only basic support for saving and retrieving data. The documentation on MSDN shows how you can read and write basic key-value pairs for values up to 4000 bytes but what happens if you want to store more than that? And, what do you do if you want your widget to run as a gadget or on a desktop browser? The following code, which we’ll add to widget.js handles all these scenarios.
When you run the widget you can enter a name, which will be persisted across runs of your widget. The following screenshots are from the widget running as a widget, gadget and in the desktop browser. Note that the gadget is unique in that if you close the gadget and open another instance it will not remember your settings. This is because each instance of the gadget has its own unique storage (so you can run multiple instance of the gadget at once). However, if you restart your computer with your gadget running you will notice that it remembers the values. This is because it is the same gadget instance!
Whilst Windows Mobile widgets are great, they definitely have their shortcomings when compared for true mobile application. One such area is in the ability to interact with device hardware and information. Further, it appears that every OS provider seems to be tackling this differently. If you look at S60 they have expose a wealth of device and user information via their widget API. Unfortunately one of the weaknesses of the current Microsoft implementation of widgets is that there are only a few pieces of device information you can query (out of the box) and no user information (ie contacts, calendar…). If you want to do more, you have to build and deploy ActiveX controls to assist your widget.
Returning to the Windows Mobile widgets and out of the box you get the following pieces of system information. All are exposed via the SystemState object.
A Boolean value indicating whether the device is cradled.
An integer value indicating whether the display is in portrait or landscape mode.
A Boolean value indicating whether the device is presently registered on its home network.
A string indicating the name of the device’s mobile operator.
A Boolean value indicating whether the device is currently roaming.
An integer indicating the phone signal strength, expressed as a percentage of full strength.
An integer indicating the current state of the battery, such as whether the battery level is critically low or if the battery is charging.
An integer indicating the current battery strength, expressed as a percentage of full strength.
And here’s an example of how you would access one of these properties. You first need to create an instance of the SystemState object. Next, query the actual property you are interested. Finally, if you want to receive notification when that property changes, you need to add an event handler to the “changed” event, passing in the callback method as the second parameter.
Note, that the SystemState properties and the callback event are all exposed via the Windows Mobile Notification Broker that has been around since Windows Mobile 5. What I don’t get is why only this limited set of properties?
One of the frustrating things about working with widgets is determining whether your widget has a connection, firstly to a network and secondly to your server. Whilst there is no “IsConnected” property exposed via the SystemState object, you can use a combination of properties to try and deduce if there is a network connection.
Lets start with the widget.js file. You have to be careful when working with the widget API to ensure you don’t break your cross-platform capabilities. Of course if you don’t want your widget to run as a gadget you can eliminate quite a bit of the following code.
The other thing you will notice about this code is that there is a wrapper used for calling the event callback. When certain system events are raised (eg PhoneSignalStrength) a number of events will be raised within a short period of time. This wrapper protects against this. Warning: Some events will be hidden by this wrapper, so only use it if you don’t mind if some events are missed. In our case we are only using the change in state to prompt the application to check if it still has connectivity.
In the utils.js file we’re going to add a simple Ping routine that can be used to detect if a server is reachable. It does so by downloading a specified image within a given timeframe. Note that you should use a small image as you don’t want to waste network bandwidth.
Now, to bring these together we’re going to introduce a new file, network.js, that registers for changes to the cradle and phone signal strength, and then based on those changes calls the Ping function to determine if the server can be reached. Note that as we don’t have any WiFi state information we can’t just assume that because the device is not cradled and there is no phone signal there is no data connection. As such, we just use the change in state to invoke ping the server. Again, there is some time checking around the Ping function to make sure it isn’t called too frequently.
Some minor changes to main.htm and main.js in order to display the connected state. Add a div, isConnected, to main.htm, and add a call to Network.init and a callback function to main.js.
After deploying this widget, you should see that the connected status is displayed below the rest of your content. Of course, you may want to use a nicer icon/image to represent the connected state.
One of the reasons that widgets are an interesting alternative to mobile web sites is their ability to integrate into the Windows Mobile shell similar to native or managed applications. Menus are one of these integration points. When designing your widget you should consider using the menus in additional to placing links within the content on your html page. Menus are a great way of controlling navigation within your application as they are always at the bottom of the screen, regardless of where the user has scrolled to (like mobile websites, widgets tend to be elongated, allowing vertical scrolling but eliminating horizontal scrolling where possible).
For example, the menu may contain items such as Home, Exit, About – items that are will be there regardless of where the user is in the widget. This is not to say you can’t dynamically control what’s displayed in the menu, in fact far from it as you can easily add and remove, enable and disable menu items.
In the previous post you saw how we can display manifest information to the user. Whilst this was useful in demonstrating how to read information from the manifest, it’s not likely that we always want that information to be displayed. Lets add a menu item that will toggle the visibility of this information.
To start with, we need to encapsulate the manifest information in the main.htm file into a single div that we can hide and show. This way we only need to toggle a single div, rather than each of the manifest information divs.
The next thing we need to do is add some helper methods to make working with widget menus that much easier. Note that this code will create menu items when running as a widget but it will also create div elements for menus when running in a standard browser, this aids debugging as you can test the navigation/event handling of your menus from within Visual Studio.
// Appends the menu item to the main menu at the end. If the id of the menuitem to be added already exists in the menu, an exception will be thrown.
// Appends the menu item to the parent menu at the end. If the id of the menuitem to be added already exists in the menu, an exception will be thrown.
// Removes the menu item from the main menu. If the specified id does not correspond to an item in the menu, an exception will be thrown.
// Removes the menu item from the sub main menu. If the specified id does not correspond to an item in the menu, an exception will be thrown.
// Sets the softkey of the widget. Currently we supprt setting the left softkey and right soft key.
// If there is an error setting the soft key, exception will be thrown. If the softkey index is invalid, exception will be thrown.
// Add sub menu items to right soft key "Menu"
Lastly, returning to the main.htm file we need to add two hidden divs which will be used during testing to display the menu items when the widget is run on the desktop. These divs will remain hidden when the widget is run on the device.
Here’s the widget in action – you can see that the left menu (which used to read Exit) now reads Blog and that the right menu includes both the standard Exit item and an About item. Clicking the About item displays the hidden manifest information.
If you run this from within Visual Studio, what you will see is that the left and right menus are simulated by divs that are created at the end of the page. In the same way as the widget running on the device, clicking the About will display/hide the manifest information area.
Let’s start with the html page. We’re just going to add some div tags into which the values from the manifest file will be inserted.
In the updateManifestDiv method you’ll notice we are using $get. This method is not defined by default so we need to define it in utils.js (the name of this file is not important so long as you include it into your Main.htm file).
This morning I was looking for update to the WWOS Cricket widget which NineMSN published late last year. I had already “purchased” (it’s a free app, so it’s not really purchasing) the widget so I was surprised that it was not listed under My Applications within the Marketplace application on the device. Being a little confused by this I thought it may be specific to my device so I loaded up one of the emulators and again, no applications to install.
After a bit of thinking (actually I went off and did other things) it came to me that it may be to do with the region I have my device set to. For whatever reason when I rebuilt my device last I had forgotten to set the region back to Australia. Similarly, the default region for the emulators is also the US, which is why neither the device or emulator was showing my applications. Sure enough, when I reset my region back to Australia, which requires a reboot, I could again see my applications.
In my opinion this is just confusing – if I’ve bought an application/widget and I’ve signed into Marketplace I should see all the applications/widgets I’ve purchased, regardless of which region my device is currently set to.
For those not familiar with the Marketplace application or haven’t seen the WWOS Cricket widget, here’s a few images to get you started.
Starting with Windows Mobile 6.5.3, developers can create Windows Mobile widgets using Visual Studio.
Given that you can already do most of the development within Visual Studio this would suggest better IDE support for perhaps debugging or packaging your widget…. This is pure speculation but if you want to get a bit of a heads up on widget development using Visual Studio, try the following posts.
The version of Windows Mobile mentioned in the MSDN article and by Mary Jo in Is Microsoft (slowly) picking up the pace with Windows Mobile? must be a reference to some of the leaked builds that I’ve been piloting on my Touch Pro (see New Windows Mobile build with Zooming for the latest ROM I’m running).
So far in this series I’ve covered Getting Started, generating Start Menu Icons and a Gadget Side Note, all with a single static page that will generally display ok on all devices. However, when you get into building more complex widgets and testing on different devices you will notice that what works on higher resolution devices (Eg the HTC Diamond 2 or the HTC HD2) won’t look good on a smaller device (Eg HTC Snap). Whilst you may be thinking “Oh goodness, please don’t tell me we have to handle all the different resolutions differently,” the good news is that for the most part you only really need to worry about two classifications “high res” and “low res” devices. Devices are typically divided into those with a width >=480 (high res) and those with a width<480 (low res).
The easiest way to change the way your widget displays for different resolutions is to use different css files to determine the style of each element. Our widget doesn’t currently use a css file, so lets add two css files in order to handle high and low resolution displays. Actually, while we’re at it we’ll include a gadget.css file which we will use in order to specify the height/width properties that were manually added to the Main.htm file in the previous post. Put all of these css files into a css folder to keep your project tidy.
Note that the gadget.css doesn’t specify the background – instead of having a third layout we are going to combine the highres.css and the gadget.css values. This means that the gadget.css only needs to contain values that are unique to the gadget layout. You could take this approach with the low res display as well but given that most elements/class styles will change between high and low res it's probably easier to manage as two unique layouts.
This is the entry point to Widget code.
And we of course need to implement the WidgetAPI functions in the widget.js file. Note that to avoid confusion we create a WidgetAPI object rather than the existing window.widget object.
Note: After you have installed your widget on a device you don’t need to reinstall or upgrade your widget every time you want to see your updates. Instead you can locate where your widget has been extracted to on the device and simply copy across the files that have changed. For example the widget is currently extracted to \Program Files\Widgets\User\17 so when I make changes, say to Main.htm, I just copy that file across to this folder. Then I just need to exit and restart the widget to see the changes take effect. | 2019-04-23T20:04:49Z | https://nicksnettravels.builttoroam.com/?tag=/Windows-Mobile |
On the second night of a seven-game road trip, the Portland Trail Blazers made a stop in Philly to take on the 76ers.
Coming off a double-digit win over the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, the Blazers looked to take advantage of the Joel Embiid-less 76ers behind their big duo of Jusuf Nurkic and Enes Kanter, and they did just that.
While the center tandem controlled the offensive glass, Maurice Harkless and Al Farouq-Aminu, who typically fly under the radar, hit their groove.
Here’s a look at everything you might have missed as the Blazers beat the 76ers, 130-115.
In Saturday’s win, seven Blazers scored in double figures. Moe Harkless finally found his spark, dropping 13 points, five rebounds and three steals in the contest. Meanwhile, it was Al-Farouq Aminu, who impressed for the Blazers bigs. He added 15 points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal in the game.
The Trail Blazers were on the rebound attack on Saturday in Philly. Without Joel Embiid, “Nurk and Turk” came alive on the boards. Jusuf Nurkic dropped 24 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in just 24 minutes, while Enes Kanter had 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists in his second game for Portland.
Next up, Portland takes on the Cavaliers in Cleveland. Here's how and where you can watch Monday's game.
The Trail Blazers attacked rebounds Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia the way a pack of dogs would go after cheesesteak scraps over at Pat’s or Geno’s emporiums of the local specialty.
The 76ers were eaten alive on the boards – a 53-33 advantage for Portland that included a whopping 19 offensive rebounds -- and were outplayed at both ends of the court.
The final score was 130-115 but the game was not nearly that close.
Without all-star center Joel Embiid, the Sixers were lost. Portland had 66 points in the paint and 19 second-chance points. The Trail Blazers’ double-barreled center combo of "Nurk and The Turk" -- Jusuf Nurkic and Enes Kanter -- was dominant, just as it had been at Brooklyn Thursday against the Nets.
Nurkic had 24 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in just 23:32. He hit nine of his 13 shots. Kanter had 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 20:40.
The inside scoring made up for another sub-par shooting night from three-point range, as Portland made just five of 23 from long range.
And balanced scoring was a big deal, with seven players in double figures. The Blazers moved the ball well enough to get 29 assists while coughing up just 11 turnovers.
That made it a rare night when Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were not as necessary as usual. Lillard finished with 17 points and McCollum with 15. They each went 1-5 from three-point range. But both are willing passers and Lillard finished with eight assists in just under 30 minutes of duty.
Portland was very attentive on defense in this game, even though the Sixers’ 48.3 shooting percentage speaks to the contrary. Anytime you can hold JJ Redick to 1-10 shooting, you’re doing something right.
Nurkic got into a iittle back-and-forth with Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and it prompted a quip after the game.
And the big rebounding edge?
Kanter passed the credit around for the big rebound advantage.
PHILADELPHIA – Role players on professional teams rarely get the recognition they deserve, but so far on this Trail Blazers’ seven-game road trip, that’s who is getting a lot of props from Blazers head coach Terry Stotts and the Blazers’ star players.
Portland’s starting forwards Al-Farouq Aminu and Maurice Harkless, who usually go under the radar, were front and center when talking about why the Blazers have started out 2-0 on this East Coast swing.
Aminu finished with the second-highest plus/minus on the team with a +23 only second to Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum’s +24 in Saturday’s game. Harkless finished with the third best, a +22, as the Blazers put on an offensive clinic against the 76ers, beating Philadelphia 130-115.
“Their presence is always felt,” Lillard said, even though to media and fans the tandem might go unnoticed at times.
Playing as a team is what this Blazers squad has always been about, but now with the new additions of Enes Kanter and Rodney Hood along with some much needed-rest from the All-Star break, this Blazers’ team looks like the sky is the limit.
In Saturday’s win, seven players scored in double figures.
“Aside from the new guys and Nurk playing the way he has played these first two games, I think [Aminu and Harkless] have really been a spark for us -- rebounding, defensively, you know, communication, just the activity of both of them out there together is a lot to deal with for opposing teams,” Lillard said.
“I thought Moe Harkless had an outstanding game. He was able to score when he had his opportunities, he made big help (defense) decisions,” Stotts said postgame.
Harkless finished with 13 points, five rebounds, and three steals in Saturday’s win. Aminu added 15 points, six rebounds, two assists, and one steal.
Coach Stotts was pleased with both of his starting forwards and that confidence in both Harkless and Aminu has never wavered.
“I like what they’re doing at both ends. Offensively, they’re playing well. Moe had matchups that he looked for, and we looked for, he was aggressive, finished around the basket. Defensively both of them have always been are, and have always been, like I’ve said for the three years, they complement each other at the defensive end with their switching and their length,” Stotts said.
In Thursday’s win over the Nets, Aminu had a +34, while Harkless recorded a +32 to earn the best plus-minus of the team. That goes to show just how much of a positive impact the duo is making after the All-Star break.
The tandem was getting it done on both ends of the court, as they often do, especially early on.
“[Aminu] showed his versatility. He can guard 1 through 5. He can switch out on centers. He can switch out on guards… That’s the type of versatility from all those guys we need for the rest of the season,” McCollum said.
As for Harkless, it looks as though he is back to his old self.
“I’m just trying to build off the last game, just come out with the same type of mentality, same type of aggressiveness… Just doing things that I can do every night, taking advantage of mismatches, aggressive on the boards, and playing defense,” Harkless said.
Harkless has now scored in double-digits in three straight games.
The 25-year-old small forward has played in just 38 games this season while dealing with a lingering knee issue.
Harkless’ running mate is happy to see his knee feeling so good.
“For me, to see him just being healthy is really nice. I feel like sometimes we forget stuff like that… Injury has kind of held him back a little bit. To see him hitting his groove is nice,” Aminu said.
It was obvious in the locker room after Saturday’s game that Harkless was feeling good again after the jokes he was making.
“Jake [Layman] got everybody going. We were just being aggressive attacking the rim… We’ve got guys like Jake who has a whole lot of bounce, so he got me excited. I went in there a couple of times trying to make something too,” Harkless said with big a smile.
Saturday’s victory improves Portland’s road record to 11-15 and it proves that this Blazers’ team has players who understand their role and their teammates are always quick to recognized their efforts.
Saturday equaled a team win for the Blazers.
PHILADELPHIA – It was a 10am pacific tip-off on Saturday as the Trail Blazers visited the Philadelphia 76ers, but it looked like Portland had already adjusted nicely to the East Coast time change.
Saturday’s game was close throughout the first half, yet the Blazers put up 41 points in the third and cruised to a 130-115 win over the Sixers to improve to 2-0 on their current seven-game road trip and snag their third straight victory overall.
1.Simmons is gonna need to develop a three-point shot at some point, right?
With Sixers All-Star wing Ben Simmons not being a threat to shoot the three-point ball at all meant Maurice Harkless or whoever had the defensive assignment on Simmons at the time was really able to sag off him. You don’t see that hardly at all in the modern-day NBA. With that though the Blazers were able to help off Simmons more and focus on Tobias Harris and Jimmy Butler, especially early on.
What a sequence it was for Jake Layman early in the second quarter.
With Evan Turner out for Saturday’s game because of knee sorness, Layman and Rodney Hood saw the floor a little bit more.
Layman showed once again why he has earned a spot in the Blazers’ rotation.
Layman drove to the hoop hard and finished with a driving dunk that seemed to stun the 76ers crowd at the 10:11 mark of the second. He then followed that up two possessions later with a block on Sixers All-Star Jimmy Butler.
The block on Butler is just another play that proves Layman has made a point to improve on the defensive end. So often, the talk is all about Layman’s offense – his dunks, his back-cuts, his rainbow threes – which makes sense, but people should really start examining his defensive efforts. The stops and the blocks on that end are probably more of a reason why coach Terry Stotts has been giving him even more of an opportunity.
According to the referees in Philly though, Layman was a little too aggressive. He got into early foul trouble, picking up his third foul at the 2:46 mark of the second quarter. Layman still stayed aggressive and since the Blazers started blowing out the Sixers late in the third quarter, Layman wasn’t needed much late down the stretch.
At the end of the third quarter, 17 of the Blazers’ 44 rebounds were offensive. Portland also outscored Philadelphia 50-44 with points in the paint after three, which meant the Blazers were taking advantage of Joel Embiid not playing due to knee soreness.
The 76ers, on the other hand, were unable to get very many extra possessions. At the end of the third period, Philadelphia had just four offensive rebounds and only totaled 23 rebounds at that point.
One last thing – the second half turned into a dunk fest for the Blazers and Philly fans were not happy about it. The crowd let out some loud boos when the Sixers called a timeout at the 10:31 mark in the fourth with the Blazers up 21 and then later in the game as well.
NEXT UP: The Trail Blazers visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night with a 4:30pm PT start time. Our pregame coverage tips off at 3:30pm on NBC Sports Northwest.
PHILADELPHIA – Today marks the second game of a 13-day, seven-game trip for the Trail Blazers. Portland started off the trip with a 113-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night.
Today also marks the second of two meetings between Portland and Philadelphia this season after the Trail Blazers easily defeated the Sixers 129-95 on Dec. 30th at the Moda Center with 76ers big man Joel Embiid out of the lineup that night.
Before today’s game, Blazers head coach Terry Stotts and Sixers head coach Brett Brown addressed the media.
Coach Brown discussed the biggest challenges with having five new players in the team’s 10-man rotation – It’s the communication on the defensive end.
The Sixers are looking to talk more and “a lot quicker” especially to contain Trail Blazers guards Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
There’s no doubt that Philadelphia now has plenty of great shooters, but Coach Brown says even though his team is trying to figure out how to play with each other and at times they might be too unselfish, he knows it’s a good problem to have and they will never complain about having too many scorers.
Coach Brown also believes that Lillard is one of the most underrated players in the league.
“I am and have been a massive fan of Damian Lillard. He does fly under the radar… I think his defense has improved overtime, but his ability to score in a bunch of different ways and his ability to just punish a game if you have a sliver of a mistake is, you know, Steph-like. It is. He can do it with range, he can do it with speed, he can do something at the rim,” Brown said.
Joel Embiid (left knee), Shake Milton (right hand), and Zhaire Smith (left foot) are out for today’s game.
Blazers Injury Update: Evan Turner (left knee soreness) is out for today’s game.
Coach Stotts says you can expect Maurice Harkless, Rodney Hood, and Jake Layman to all get more minutes with ET out.
Philadelphia is starting center Boban Marjanović with Embiid out due to a knee injury. Coach Stotts knows Boban can have a major impact down low.
“I have a lot of respect for Boban. He’s a really skilled big man. He’s got a nice touch, he passes, he affects shots at the rim,” Stotts said.
NBCS NW Coverage: Blazers Outsiders Pregame Show (3:30 p.m.), Blazers Outsiders Postgame Show (immediately after the game).
The Blazers have listed Evan Turner (left knee soreness) as out for Saturday’s game at Philadelphia.
The 76ers have listed Joel Embiid (left knee), Shake Milton (right hand), and Zhaire Smith (left foot) as out.
VIDEO: Did Nurk and Kanter just become best friends? Yup.
VIDEO: Highlights: Long road trip gets started on the right foot!
Their center, Joel Embiid, who sat the game out with a sore knee, may well be the best player in the world. He MUST be, to make the hapless-on-this-night Sixers worthy of a 23-14 record.
Philadelphia, which was just this side of pathetic against the Trail Blazers, shot only 35.4 percent from the field and an incredibly horrific 18.6 percent from three-point range. Portland, meanwhile, worked Philadelphia over to the tune of 59 percent from the floor and 54.5 percent from three – both season highs.
The Blazers’ 34-point victory was their largest of the season and they actually led by 43 at one point. They shot 65.6 percent after three quarters before turning the game over to the end of their bench.
“I was really proud of the way we played in the first half at both ends,” Portland Coach Terry Stotts said.
The Trail Blazers got 35-51 shooting from their starters, with Evan Turner taking over for Maurice Harkless, who was resting a sore left knee. But the big news was that CJ McCollum was able to shoot his way out of a three-point slump that had been hindering him for a few weeks.
McCollum went 13-18 from the field and 4-7 from three-point range. He scored 35 points in just 27:50.
“Overall, I think we played a good game and I made some shots, which made it easier for everybody else,” McCollum said. “It was a big win for us going into a new year and a tough road opponent in the Sacramento Kings.
“I understand how much time I put in and how many shots I put up. I knew the tide would turn eventually.
Sixer Coach Brett Brown pointed to the absence of Embiid and what it meant for his team.
“Just the reality of how much Joel means to the team,” Brown said, “I’ve said, I’ll say it again, I think he’s a defensive player of the year. You know, you feel him, whether you look at the points in the paint, it’s at 62 to 30, whether you look at the rebounding margin (59-36).
Very true, but I think it’s only fair to point out that the 76ers are very talented, even without their center. They have one of the best two-way players in the league in Jimmy Butler, supposedly. Butler went 2-12 from the floor.
They have JJ Redick, an all-time great three-point shooter who was 3-11 overall and 2-7 from three.
They have Ben Simmons, last season’s Rookie of the Year, who managed to go 7-12 from the field but just 5-10 from the foul line.
Simmons has a jump shot that looks like a right-handed player trying to work on his left-handed shots. Except that Simmons is left-handed.
The Trail Blazers, who got double-figure scoring from all their starters but Turner, who finished with 8, did a very good defensive job on the Sixers, one of those teams that insists on beating you with three-point field goals, even on nights when they are not going in for them. They finished a rather mind-boggling 8-43 from that range.
The Trail Blazers head for Sacramento Monday and meet the Kings on New Year’s Day.
Under three minutes into the game, CJ McCollum had picked up two quick fouls and went to the bench at the at the 8:17 mark in the first quarter when Seth Curry checked in for him.
At that point, Portland was up 13-9 over Philadelphia, but it was easy to think it could be a long night for the Blazers and McCollum after having to go to the bench so early.
Not to mention, Portland was without one of its starters with Maurice Harkless (left knee) sitting out in the second night of a back-to-back.
Philadelphia was also without one of it starters—All-Star big man Joel Embiid.
The Sixers missed Embiid in a big way, but McCollum came out of his ‘shooting slump’ in an even bigger way.
“I’ve felt good the last few games. I’m just trying to get into a rhythm. Trying to stay on the court. I got two fouls early tonight, but overall I think we played a good game. I made some shots and I think that made it easier for everybody else,” McCollum said.
The Blazers cruised to a 129-95 victory after scoring 70 points in the first half.
Two quick fouls didn’t slow him down.
McCollum was a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor in the first quarter including making his only three-point attempt.
The Blazers starting shooting guard finished the game with 35 points on 18 shots in just 28 minutes of work. The best part for McCollum – he made 4-of-7 from three-point range and broke out of that three-point shooting slump we’ve seen over the past few weeks.
McCollum’s running mate, Damian Lillard added 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting in the win.
“It was a great performance. I think early in the game I saw that he was making shots. It was going for him... We had a pretty good defensive effort going in as well as a group,” Lillard said.
McCollum has scored 30+ now for the sixth time. If he would’ve played the fourth quarter he would have most likely hit the 40-point mark, which he has done three times already this season.
It was definitely one of those special nights and his teammates recognized it early.
“Just keep feeding him. You know when he gets in one of those grooves… It could be one of those nights that you ride it out and I thought we did that,” Lillard said.
It’s not only fun for fans to sit back and watch McCollum go off, Jusuf Nurkic also enjoys kicking back and watching the show from the bench.
“When CJ got going… When you’re on the bench and you’re looking there, it’s like, ‘man it’s gonna be a light night.’ Anytime somebody has (a good) shooting night it just looks good,” Nurkic said.
Evan Turner got the start in place of the injured Harkless. Turner had eight points and seven rebounds. He was also happy his teammate found his stroke again.
“I know the past few games he’s been a little off, but that’s definitely impressive on his second night of a back-to-back and, you know, we really needed it and I thought he did a great job,” Turner said.
For his career, McCollum is shooting 40 percent from long distance entering Sunday’s game.
McCollum went 22-for-77 (28.6%) from three-point range in the month of December. Before Sunday’s game, McCollum had zero or one three-pointer in six games this past month.
It was just simply missing buckets.
“I felt like I was missing shots. I felt like I was, you know, getting some of the same looks that I’ve been getting my entire life and I wasn’t making them,” McCollum said.
“I figured the tide would turn, eventually,” McCollum added.
It was not only a great shooting night for McCollum, but as a team, the Blazers ended the game shooting 59 percent from the field, including 54.5 percent from three. The Blazers’ 106 points through three quarters are the most points the Blazers have scored through three quarters this season.
Portland is now 6-3 in its last nine games and it was obvious that this Blazers team was relieved to have a blowout win.
“We really needed something like this just to rest and, you know, get the right momentum going and, you know, the biggest thing now is resting up and trying to duplicate it,” Turner said.
The Blazers will now hit the road. Portland will travel on New Year’s Eve with a New Year’s Day game vs. the Sacramento Kings.
Blazer fans should be thankful Portland is playing in a more of a sleepy city and not a party city.
Nurkic joked about being in Sacramento and from the sounds of it, they won’t be raring to go out.
“I’m really happy about that… Sleep at 11 o’clock,” Nurkic said with a smile on his face.
That should mean a well-rested Blazers team on New Year’s Day, which is just what they will need playing against the team who leads the league in pace.
When you lead by as many as 42 points, you're usually going to win the game. That's exactly what the Blazers did on Sunday. Joel Embiid didn't play for the 76ers and the Blazers took advantage of Philly missing its best player. This was the get right game that the Blazers needed, and to beat a good team like this on the second of a back-to-back makes it that much better.
Dwight Jaynes, Trail Blazers' Insider: I know Embiid is important to Philly but that's no excuse for such a poor performance. Sixers were awful and Blazers were on fire, including CJ McCollum, who snapped out of his three-point slump in a big way.
Jamie Hudson, Trail Blazers' Reporter: You could not trust the Sixers' process tonight. The Blazers shot well, more specifically CJ McCollum shot well to lead the charge on offense. As for the Sixers, yes they didn't have Joel Embiid, but early in the 4th quarter Philly was shooting just 17% from three. It was an ugly game for the 76ers. Jimmy Butler was nowhere to be found on the offensive end. Portland was in need of game like this one. To have a blowout victory where you can rest your starters on the second night of a back-to-back is a double win.
Mike Richman, Trail Blazers' Reporter: CJ McCollum busted out of his month long slump in a big way, torching the lifeless Sixers for 35 points in 28 minutes. This was a beat down of epic proportions and a nice bounce back win for the Blazers on the second night of back to back games.
NEXT UP: The Blazers hit the road for a quick one-game trip against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, January 1st. Tip-off is set for 6:00pm with coverage beginning at 5:00pm on NBC Sports Northwest.
It is the second night of a back-to-back for the Trail Blazers as Portland gets set to host the Sixers.
Before tonight’s game Blazers head coach Terry Stotts and Sixers head coach Brett Brown gave updates to the media.
Stotts discussed how he feels that Meyers Leonard is most likely having his best season of his career. He has been pleased with his progression and how confident Leonard has been this year.
The Sixers pose a few challenges for the Blazers with big man Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler and Coach Stotts addressed both players’ strengths.
Coach Stotts also talked about what tonight’s game could look like with Embiid not on the floor.
“I think it changes more for them, than for us. Obviously, the guys will have more of an impact on the game. We’ll see if he doesn’t play… who gets those minutes and how Brett decides to rotate his players,” Stotts said.
UPDATE: Trail Blazers forward Maurice Harkless (left knee) will NOT play tonight.
Sixers Injury Update: Joel Embiid (left knee) was initially listed as questionable, but he has now been downgraded to OUT for tonight’s contest.
Coach Brown says the training staff is not worried about Embiid’s knee soreness.
“We’ll figure out what’s gonna happen tomorrow and go from there. It’s not anything that we’re concerned about – just reacting to, you know, his thoughts and the medical staff thoughts that perhaps it might be best to sit,” Brown said.
The Sixers will start Amir Johnson in place of the injured Embiid. | 2019-04-20T05:20:44Z | https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest/tags/philadelphia-76ers |
tasty_weed brought up an interesting point in his book recommendations under his bio - the difference between what a church's doctrine is and what the masses believe. A friend of mine engaged in diaglog and bible study for several years studying the teachings of our churches (him catholic and me evangelical) - it was awesome. We both learned so much - and both admitted to having great misconceptions based on sources that turned out to not know the doctrine of the church they professed.
According to Catholic doctrine - How is one saved? Or is that even the right questions to ask?
Realize you are a sinner and not up to God's standard.
The tricky part for me is in what comes next. I beleive a true, saving faith will motivate one (as a result of the Holy Spirit's influence) to start living for Christ. What does that say for those who "accept" Christ, but thier lifes don't change? Have they really been saved, or are they just ignoring the proddings of the spirt and living thier own lives.
John-Boy wrote: According to Catholic doctrine - How is one saved? Or is that even the right questions to ask?
From one protestant to another, yes, "how is one saved?" is the right question to ask, but to ask a Catholic that question might furrow their brow, even though, by the things they said to attempt an answer, we would agree that they were saved. Christ is the absolute center of their worship. Catholics are born in original sin. Catholics are subsequently cleansed of all sin through baptism. Babies are cleansed of original sin. Adults are cleansed of both original sin and actual sin up to that point. Hence, baptism is necessary for salvation. It is worth noting that original sin is conceived of as something different than in protestant circles, which is too much to go into here, but suffice to say that, for Catholics, to be cleansed of original sin does not mean we are in a state similar to that of Adam and Eve pre-fall. Even though they are cleansed, their appetites remain out of order (concupiscence). As such, humans are still inclined towards sin, though not enslaved to it as Protestants (or at least Calvinists) say. Catholics say that free will remains, though it is weakened.
Sin, in Catholic circles, is broken down into venial and mortal sin. The basic difference is that mortal sin is freely-consented deliberate sin (i.e., if it's sinful and you didn't know it, you only committed a venial sin). Mortal sin committed after baptism separates man from God again, and must be confessed to God through the sacrament of penance (i.e., confession. It is worth noting that Catholic teaching is that one must truly have a penitent heart; not just that going to confession cleanses you whether you are sorry or not). Venial sins incurred after baptism impede our progress to the Kingdom, but do not prevent it. As such, confession is not required for these sins, although it is encouraged. Those who die without mortal sin not having been forgiven them are condemned to hell. Those who have been baptized and die in venial sin (all or most of us) go to purgatory, where they are cleansed once and for all before they see the Beatific Vision (i.e., U***n with God).
This is it, in a nutshell. There is not enough room to go into all the arguments for these various doctrines here. As is evident though, the main difference lies in the mechanical nature of Catholic piety vs. the "spiritual" nature of Protestant worship. I confess, though, that it is this mechanical-ness that attracts me to Catholicism. After all, we are humans, incarnate beings, not pure spirits. We were made to process the world through flesh and blood. And, I believe, it is this intrinsic human-ness that God has provided for in the Catholic church and other sacramental churches (i.e., the necessity of bread, wine, water, the sounds of forgiveness, the smell of incense...they are the gospel made physical and really present, as opposed to present in our minds only).
I apologize for the length, but it is a lengthy subject to which I have no doubt done very little justice. One last point, to others who read this and say that all of this invalidates Christ's work for us, is that it is simply not true. Baptism, confession, the Eucharist, purgatory etc are all thought of as Christ's work being made present to us, physically, in the here and now (or in the then and there). In other words, we are not left to merely think about Christ, but he and all that he has done for us, under various forms, is physically brought into our presence.
Thanks for the explanation - so I guess the need to ask forgiveness after committing a mortal sin is what would lead to not believing in eternal security?
Where do the rest of you fall out on that? Once saved always saved?
I do belive in "once saved always saved", but the issue is back to the deffinition of "saved". I would say that someone who appears to be leading a godly life and then backslides and rejects God was never REALLY saved. He may have gone through the motions, and had an intellectual UNDERSTANDING of Jesus, but never took the step of turning over his life and taking Jesus into his heart.
Not to start any flame wars, but there are some major points of that Catholic doctrine you stated that I have some pretty big problems with.
John-Boy wrote: Thanks for the explanation - so I guess the need to ask forgiveness after committing a mortal sin is what would lead to not believing in eternal security?
That is correct. As for "once saved always saved" (OSAS), I don't buy it. As far as I can tell, one must be a Calvinist to believe that. In my opinion, OSAS is the logical conclusion of a system that believes that God has eternally decreed individual's salvation, and consequently, other's perdition. And I believe that all humans have a shot at salvation, not just the elect. If our salvation is not eternally decreed, and we actually have free will, then we must have the free will to reconsider our allegiance to Christ. Otherwise, it's not really free.
I used to be Calvinist and really enjoyed the security of it, though.
sguthrie wrote: I do belive in "once saved always saved", but the issue is back to the deffinition of "saved". I would say that someone who appears to be leading a godly life and then backslides and rejects God was never REALLY saved. He may have gone through the motions, and had an intellectual UNDERSTANDING of Jesus, but never took the step of turning over his life and taking Jesus into his heart.
No flame war here, buddy . I am not Catholic. Assuming your issues are with the doctrine and not with my no-doubt flawed explanation of it, I used to have the same issues you no doubt have. But recently, for me, the tide has been turning the other way.
As for your questioning as to whether someone is really saved, I don't see much of a practical and ultimate difference between someone who everyone thought was saved but REALLY wasn't, and someone who was and now isn't. They are both ways of explaining the same phenomenon, i.e., of people who once professed and acted in a certain way, and now don't. You explain it your way because you a priori believe in security, and I explain it my way because I a priori believe in free will. Under both explanations, the person, as it stands now, is doomed to perdition. To speak of "if's" (i.e., what if he had died then?) is to speak of a universe that has never existed.
I re-emphasize the in all of this.
Okay you free willers ( ) - how does God determine if He's going to let you in the club? Sounds like it's your relationship with Him at the time of death?
John-Boy wrote: Okay you free willers ( ) - how does God determine if He's going to let you in the club? Sounds like it's your relationship with Him at the time of death?
It's God's decision based on his wisdom, justice and mercy, and His take on the sum total of my life's faith and work. The ball is entirely in the court of his mercy and justice, and I try not to make predictive statements about the outcome. In the meantime, I try to do my best to "work out my salvation with fear and trembling" in cooperation with the grace He so lavishly pours out on us.
tasty_weed wrote: That is correct. As for "once saved always saved" (OSAS), I don't buy it. As far as I can tell, one must be a Calvinist to believe that. In my opinion, OSAS is the logical conclusion of a system that believes that God has eternally decreed individual's salvation, and consequently, other's perdition. And I believe that all humans have a shot at salvation, not just the elect. If our salvation is not eternally decreed, and we actually have free will, then we must have the free will to reconsider our allegiance to Christ. Otherwise, it's not really free.
I don't see that at all. I have free will whether to accept Christ or not. The point being is that once I TRUELY HAVE accepted him, there is no way in the world I would ever give it up because we've experience the joys and benefits.
tasty_weed wrote: It's God's decision based on his wisdom, justice and mercy, and His take on the sum total of my life's faith and work.
Oh boy, this is gonna be a fun group - I don't agree with that either. I don't think that our lifes work determines AT ALL whether we get into the club. I think if you sincerely accept Christ you're in, even if you NEVER live the life he wants you to lead. I also think there are varing degrees of reward in Heaven (and punishment in Hell) - I works will determine exactly HOW good or bad it is, but that one decision will affect IF it's good or bad.
If I may jump in, I would like to throw my hat in the ring as one who believes whole-heartedly in eternal security.
To say that one can lose his salvation is to say that some behavior is necessary to be qualified for it, whether this qualification comes before or after salvation. As soon as we say that, we have thrown grace out the window. I do not now, nor have I ever, deserved my savation. Salvation is by faith alone, and no action or behavior adds or subtracts from that.
While eternal security can perhaps be easier for a Calvinist because of election, I would argue that most Calvisnists don't have eternal security either! A Calvinist can get stuck in the question, "Am I really elect?" This stems from the expectation that a believer will necessarily persevere in good works. As soon as a Calvinist sins, or sins "too much", the necessary question of "true" belief flares up. Imagine the torture of this situation. Since there appears to be evidence of non-election, this person is in a bad situation. If they are not elect, there is nothing they can do about it!
Continuing with the thought that a saved individual must of necessity show his salvation in his works is to mix salvation with discipleship. As each of us that is a believer knows, following God and avoiding sin is not something we perfect here on Earth. It is a conscious, day-by-day day decision to set aside our flesh, and choose to follow Him by faith. Some will follow the urging of the Holy Spirit and make that choice, and, as we have all done before, some will ignore the Spirit and not follow. Just because we don't follow for an hour or a day or a year or ten years does not change God's redemption of us by grace through faith in Christ.
Salvation is a gift. By definition then, it is not then a reward or a wage. We cannot earn it. By salvation, what I mean is deliverence, after physical death, from eternal torment into eternally abiding in the presence of the loving triune God of the universe. This is eternal life. If, at the point of salvation, we have eternal life, then we cannot lose it, by its very definition. Elsewise what we received was not eternal.
I'd better stop before this turns into a full-blown paper! This sure is fun. I hope that I was able to write such that those that disagree with me are not offended. I offer my thoughts in the spirit of friendly and open discussion on this all important topic.
sguthrie wrote: I don't see that at all. I have free will whether to accept Christ or not. The point being is that once I TRUELY HAVE accepted him, there is no way in the world I would ever give it up because we've experience the joys and benefits.
You are defining "truly accepting" as one who perseveres to the end. That is your right, and many others do likewise. But it strikes me as being a fairly arbitrary definition. I define it as one who believes Jesus Christ is Lord and confesses it through his actions. And there are such people who eventually deny him as said Lord, for whatever of a variety of reasons.
St. James, paraphrasing, states that "sincerely accepting Christ, even if you NEVER lead the life he wants you to lead" is a contradiction in terms. Faith without works is dead (useless) faith. I agree with what you said otherwise. I didn't say that "our life's work determines whether we get into the club". I said our life's faith and work. I say again, faith without works is DEAD. Works without faith is humanism. Separating the two seems useless to me. Works demonstrate faith. Faith motivates work. I agree that "levels" of heaven exist, correlating to our works. But surely Scripture teaches that no works = no faith = no club. I don't see how works can be removed from the equation. Few works = small faith = mustard seed = club. Great works = great faith = club. It may not be this linear in reality, but again, I can't see how works can removed.
Going back to the question of OSAS, this is precisely one reason why I don't believe it. Among other things, it leads to apathy. I think that someone who claims saving faith in Jesus Christ ought to feel a little uncomfortable at the lick of the flames at their feet when they "never" listen to him about the life he wants them to lead. Don't misunderstand me, I would never condemn someone proclaiming to be a Christian for sinful patterns in their life. We are still this side of Heaven, after all. And to quote myself here , sanctification is the result of a lifetime. For me to pass judgment at one timepoint along the way would be a little presumptuous.
Tyler wrote: To say that one can lose his salvation is to say that some behavior is necessary to be qualified for it, whether this qualification comes before or after salvation. As soon as we say that, we have thrown grace out the window. I do not now, nor have I ever, deserved my savation. Salvation is by faith alone, and no action or behavior adds or subtracts from that.
I am affraid I am going to have to stop robbing my employer and desist with this thread for while. And I am also affraid that we are about to hit that point where these conversations usually become futile. You obviously believe what you believe, and you have stated it very clearly. I believe what I believe, and have probably stated it less than clearly.
Let me assure you, though, that I do not believe that salvation can be earned. Should that be the case, I would be in a lot of hot water. Neverthess, as I have pointed out elsewhere, I don't think scripture warrants the separation of faith and works. Making reference to your post, it's not that I think that my works would somehow all of a sudden disqualify me from membership, when they had previously qualified me. It is more related to disqualification through loss of faith. How is that loss of faith demonstrated? Through a drastic change in our priorities, as evidenced through works. You see, I am only saying what St. James says, that there is an intimate and unbreakable connection between faith and works. To lack one is to lack the other. And, as St. James, in his epistle, never condemns his readers to hell, I don't. I don't know the future. I barely know the present. What I do, with St. James, is warn people that they had better tend to their faith, and thereby bear fruit in keeping with repentance (works). To say that salvation is by faith alone is to deny the organic unity of faith and works. Is salvation a free gift? Absolutely! Do we, as human beings, have to accept that gift through repentance? Absolutely! Do people who have professed faith in Christ and have previously evidenced good works, but who subsequently choose to live in state of "blatant unrepentant sin" (which is to say, unrepentant sin) thereby demonstrate that they have lost their faith in Christ? I think, "yes". Another eloquent gentleman I was speaking with earlier thought, "no", because he thinks they had never been saved in the first place. I confess to not being privy to that information.
I'm in way over my head here, but here's my understanding.
I realize there is a ton in James about faith being dead without works, and a lot more than these from Paul about faith, so I won't quote them all here.
We are saved not by any action we could possibly commit, but by the action of Jesus on the cross. Yes, faith without works is dead, but what does dead faith mean? What are the works? I have never seen that clearly laid out in scripture. I am imperfect, how can any work I do have any impact on what Christ has done for me? I think that's putting myself on His level, which I am NOT prepared, nor willing to do.
I will admit that I am immature in these issues, I want to learn. I know this issue has been debated by those far wiser than us. I do enjoy discussing with y'all though. Please take no offense from my simplistic thinking.
tasty_weed wrote: St. James, paraphrasing, states that "sincerely accepting Christ, even if you NEVER lead the life he wants you to lead" is a contradiction in terms. Faith without works is dead (useless) faith. I agree with what you said otherwise. I didn't say that "our life's work determines whether we get into the club". I said our life's faith and work. I say again, faith without works is DEAD. Works without faith is humanism. Separating the two seems useless to me. Works demonstrate faith. Faith motivates work. I agree that "levels" of heaven exist, correlating to our works. But surely Scripture teaches that no works = no faith = no club. I don't see how works can be removed from the equation. Few works = small faith = mustard seed = club. Great works = great faith = club. It may not be this linear in reality, but again, I can't see how works can removed.
I agree that true faith will motivate works, but I also think that it's a cycle that feeds on it's self: you get saved, you get the "tickle" from the holy spirt to do works, that feels good, you get a "tickle" to do bigger and more sacrifical works, and so on. I think it's entriely possible to be saved, but ignore the "tickle" - maybe it's because you don't feel you're good enoug to do what God is asking, or your scared, or whatever. I'm not saying there would be NO works, but you would never come close to living the life Christ wants.
When I talk about "truly saved", I am talking about those who have sincerely taken Christ into thier lives and try to have a relationship with him. This is opposed to people who go to church, KNOW who Christ is, and does the works (maybe even a lot more than a lot of Christians) because it makes him feel good or it's what he "supposed" to do. These people would probably say they are saved, and probably even believe it, but have no relationship with Christ. From the outside looking in, you would never tell (Judas is a perfect example from the Bible).
sguthrie wrote: When I talk about "truly saved", I am talking about those who have sincerely taken Christ into thier lives and try to have a relationship with him. This is opposed to people who go to church, KNOW who Christ is, and does the works (maybe even a lot more than a lot of Christians) because it makes him feel good or it's what he "supposed" to do. These people would probably say they are saved, and probably even believe it, but have no relationship with Christ. From the outside looking in, you would never tell (Judas is a perfect example from the Bible).
But how else can "relationship" or "sincerely taken Christ into their lives" be defined other than knowing who he is (and thereby what he has done) and acting on that knowlege? What am I missing? What other litmus test exists? Isn't that the gospel? Believe who he is and repent (Judas didn't repent). Believing and repenting IS what we are supposed to do, and it will feel good.
Satan and the deamons KNOW who Jesus is. It's more than just a head-knowledge. I believe it's the act of giving your life over to him.
It's a poor analogy, but I've heard people use a chair as an example. You may believe that chair is that, that it will hold your weight, and it will be comfortable. But until you act on it by sitting in the chair, you're still standing there. If you believe Jesus is who is said he is, but never take the act of giving yourself to him, then I believe you're missing a vital step.
Uh-oh - "Act on it?" Now you're talking about works too!!
This is a fun little debate. Thanks to all who are participating.
Let me address briefly the James 2 passage and point out that if that passage is talking about eternal life when it talks about being "saved" then James could have chosen a better example. Why would James use as his example demons, who have NO chance of eternal life even if they combine works with their belief?
Let me agree that when it comes to growing one's faith, works are critical. That is James's point. However, all faith is NOT related to salvation. Faith is necessary for a walk with God on a day-to-day basis, and this should be a growing situation (ref. James 1:3-4).
To say that salvation is by faith alone is to deny the organic unity of faith and works.
I must again disagree. (Eph. 2:8-9 for starters) Salvation happens in a moment, at the instant of belief. No works are involved, it is a gift, and it cannot be revoked. Works are not an issue until AFTER salvation, at which point works and faith are team in the process of sanctification.
Believe who he is and repent (Judas didn't repent).
The implication of this statement is that Judas believed who Christ was but didn't repent and therefore wasn't saved. Please point me to scriptures which indicate this.
St. James, paraphrasing, states that "sincerely accepting Christ, even if you NEVER lead the life he wants you to lead" is a contradiction in terms.
I would take issue with the paraphrasing. (surprise! surprise! ) Rom 7 is a pretty clear situation that even Paul didn't lead the life he (and by implication Christ) wanted him to lead.
Going back to the question of OSAS, this is precisely one reason why I don't believe it. Among other things, it leads to apathy. I think that someone who claims saving faith in Jesus Christ ought to feel a little uncomfortable at the lick of the flames at their feet when they "never" listen to him about the life he wants them to lead.
This is a common criticism of eternal security, but it is not actually Biblically based. It is an appeal to people's motives for good works, and is claiming that without the threat of eternal damnation people will not behave themselves. This is not a proof.
Having said that, I do not for a second believe that eternal security removes one's accountability. It removes the threat of eternal torment, and praise God for that freedom!, but it does NOT remove accountability. II Cor. 5:9-10 declares that believers will stand before Christ to be judge for things done in the body both good and bad. It would be a long explanation (that I will gladly go into if requested to do so), but I believe that after our physical death there are plenty of opportunities for both reward and punishment for our life lived here on earth that do NOT involve eternal torment and that are temporary in nature.
My apologies for jumping around so much. I fear that when I go to read what I have just written it will be a garbled mess. I hope not. I hope what I have said is clear.
Again, thanks for the discussion guys. I really enjoy theological debates.
This has become quite the little discussion! I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments and digesting a little. I have a few thoughts to add, if i may.
Tyler, i'm not sure i'm in agreement with some of your statements. let me see if i'm understanding you correctly. When i read the james 2 passage, i don't believe that James is saying "when it comes to growing one's faith, works are critical. That is James's point." James specifically states that "a person is justified by what he does, and not by faith alone." Lest i be criticized for taking this out of context, let's look at the whole passage. James is saying that faith and deeds are interwoven, linked beyond separation. Read verse 14...that verse taken in context looks fairly harshly on faith without works. I believe, lest i sound heretical, in saving grace and that faith is what is required for salvation. What i don't believe is that faith and works can be separated, as shown by james' language in chapter two...he says that one without the other is as a body without a soul. DEAD! That he used demons was not a proof that he was not talking about salvation, it was simply a juxtaposition for the purpose of contrast and comparison. I must also say that i do not believe that we are in perpetual doubt of our salvation...we hear in Paul that it is by Grace we are saved, through faith, and not by works (alone) so that no one can boast...leading me to believe that with faith (which is only considered alive when accompanied by the works which are faith's natural outpouring) is what will bring salvation by God's grace. That i don't believe in eternal security shouldn't even enter the debate about faith and works. | 2019-04-22T02:04:38Z | https://christianpipesmokers.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25 |
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I encountered so many breakthroughs during that weekend!! The money mindset discussion led me to begin using a long flat gold wallet (which obviously I fell in love with) that lays my money flat!! I am able to see it, respect it and feel endless gratefulness for receiving it daily!!! As soon as I returned from the trip I knew I needed to clean house: both literally (in my closet) and emotionally!!! I’ve been in this business for over five and a half years and most of my wardrobe consists of work out gear; I was not paying the respect it deserves. I began to organize my closet and gave it love and respect! It definitely set the tone in my appearance and I then decided to get rid of everything I didn’t love in order to welcome all the things I do love and also make room for them. Every Monday I write down my goals for the week. I speak into existence what I want in my business, how much keto cash I want to create for the week, and all the calls come in. I am also asking away and assuming the sale. During the Faith Over Fear retreat, I realized I was not being my truest self and came to the clear realization that I was living a secret life by not disclosing to my friends on social media that I had gone back to work two years ago. So as soon as I returned, I did exactly that, I went live and shared with the world my truest self!!!
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Thank you Kaye and thank you Aida for allowing this transformation in my life to take place!!
I came away with so much more than expected from the Faith over Fear retreat. I originally thought I would just be part of a 2-3 hour presentation that I created and answer some questions. The experience was the total opposite. It was 2 days filled with stories of struggle, inspiration and courage. Every person in the room had a different story but had one thing in common. They all wanted to succeed……together! Experiencing this camaraderie inspired me to improve my presentation just a little bit so everyone could get the most out of it. Instead of “teaching” I made it a guided conversation with slides so we could really connect on what they wanted to learn. This simple change turned a good presentation into a great presentation that kept everyone, including those skeptical of social media, engaged.
I arrived that Friday afternoon as just someone that had a scheduled presentation but left Tuesday inspired and connected to so many amazing souls. To this day, I see posts pop up from some of the people that attended the retreat and the reward I feel from seeing them implement what they learned is priceless.
The Faith over Fear retreat was such a beautiful experience, as a Clarity Coach and Business Mentor I have the honor and privilege of accompanying women along their Entrepreneurial Journey. As a close confidant, I am pulled into the social fabric of my client’s lives, as their personal life and business story weave in and out of each other on a daily basis. I become invested in my clients, and their results. It is just the nature of what I do. The Retreat was originally created as a full day of Inspiration, but we dug deep, and then we dug deeper. I found myself so lit up by the men and women who showed up both spiritually and emotionally.
We cried. We slayed. We claimed. We owned.
As Entrepreneurs we live in the ebbs and flows of failure and success, and the retreat reminded me that I never want to to do anything other than this. I was born to Guide, Lead and Mentor. I am so grateful to have been in the presence of such inspirational people, from all walks of life, each with so much magic to share. I was there to fill their cup, but frankly I left with mine overflowing.
The Entrepreneurial journey is a fickle one, but when in doubt listen closely to your heart for guidance, she will never steer you wrong.
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Even though being a British Island-based VPN provider, ExpressVPN keeps almost to zero records of your online activities. This makes it the most Well-established VPN service on the market.
Using ExpressVPN gives you the whole range of benefits, from complete security and anonymity when online to device security and a wide variety of features for enhanced security. When all these crazy benefits are coupled with its high speeds connections, you get the best online experience.
In terms of security, ExpressVPN is among the best on the market. It offers a kill switch on its apps, which block all your online traffic in case of an interruption in VPN connection, thus keeping your whole online data secure and safe. The apps are updated with the latest technology and features, and there are no IP leaks or drop in connection speeds when connected to ExpressVPN servers.
Military Grade Encryption: ExpressVPN uses 256-bit AES encryption to secure your online traffic whenever you’re connected to its servers.
User-friendly and reliable apps: ExpressVPN offer user-friendly apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Incredibly high-speed servers: ExpressVPN servers are fast and available all over the world. When connected to ExpressVPN servers, you will be able to browse smoothly and stream in HD without any delays.
Compatibility across all platforms: apart from its dedicated apps, ExpressVPN is also compatible with various other devices including Xbox, PS4, Roku, Amazon Firestick, Router, Linux, Apple TV, Smart TV and Android Boxes.
30-day money-back guarantee: you can use ExpressVPN for 30 days for free, after which you will be charged according to your selected subscription. You can get a refund anytime until 30 days free trial is over.
Unblocks Netflix and other streaming services: Yes, ExpressVPN not only unblock Netflix and its US library but it also unblocks Hulu, BBC iPlayer, HBO Now, etc., in any other country.
24/7 live chat support: The most responsive customer support by any VPN provider. ExpressVPN support is available 24/7/365 and will respond to your queries and requests within seconds.
Being a premium VPN provider, there can be a few drawbacks to ExpressVPN when you compare it to its competitors. Though these drawbacks have zero effect on the incredible service offered by ExpressVPN. The major and maybe the only drawback of ExpressVPN when compared to other VPN services is its price. However, ExpressVPN does offer different discount offers which can give you the same excellent service at limited cost.
Let’s be honest, nothing comes for free, and if you’re looking for exceptional VPN performance and security, then ExpressVPN is probably worth the money.
Moreover, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee offered by ExpressVPN in all of their packages that means you can enjoy its service absolutely for 30 days. If you’re satisfied with their service and want to continue with them, it will charge you once your chosen subscription expires. If you don’t like it and don’t want to continue, you can ask for a refund and you will have your money back.
Slightly more expensive: the prices are high on all of their subscription plans, however, they frequently offer discounts on each plan and sometimes it also brings promotional packages that can give you up to 70-80% of discount.
Only 3 multi-logins: this is the only technical issue we found with ExpressVPN. You can only connect 3 devices with your ExpressVPN account.
ExpressVPN also offers Smart DNS service with each package. Smart DNS is a method used to access geographically-restricted content and websites. What this technology does is it replaces the default DNS assigned by your ISP in order to spoof your geographical location.
Smart DNS service is useful in unblocking streaming services like Netflix US and BBC iPlayer that are geo-restricted outside their designated regions. The services work by resolving your DNS requests from a specified location or region.
Smart DNS is fast since there is no encryption done, this means you won’t face buffering issues as often as without it. Smart DNS can be used on many internet-enabled devices including Roku, PS4 or Xbox. However, Smart DNS doesn’t provide you with any form of security or privacy online. But you can still get this service easily with ExpressVPN.
ExpressVPN’s Stealth Servers are based in Hong-Kong and specifically designed to defeat online censorship in mainland China and anywhere where VPNs are blocked. Although ExpressVPN hasn’t opened up about how these stealth servers actually work, however, from evaluation, they work pretty darn well.
It’s sometimes really difficult to access a VPN provider’s website to sign up, let alone defeat online censorship in China with a VPN. However, stealth servers can be just the thing you need to do that.
For those who frequently perform location-specific activities like gambling or betting, ExpressVPN gives Kill Switch feature that automatically switches off/kill any website or software you are currently using in case your network connection gets lost. This means, even when your secure network is gone, your device protection is still there to keep you safe.
You may have experienced a significant drop in your connection speeds, well it’s your internet provider throttling your bandwidth. But ExpressVPN stops your ISP from throttling and limiting your internet bandwidth. ExpressVPN gives you unlimited bandwidth allowing you to download and stream HD movies and videos without getting concerned about your internet speeds.
With ExpressVPN’s 2000+ servers in 148 countries worldwide, users can connect to as many servers as they want any time they want to. You can switch between different servers without any limitations and worries.
ExpressVPN is not only known for their exceptional services but also for the premium prices on their subscription plans. Yes, they may be charging you a few extra dollars, however, their service quality is worth the money they are asking for.
ExpressVPN is offering three standard subscription packages with prices varying on the duration of the subscription. The higher the subscription duration is, the less you have to pay. Each plan offers you the same features with all-inclusive functionality. The three subscription offered by ExpressVPN includes a monthly package, 6 months package, and a 12-month package. The 12-month plan can save you up to 35% and is an ideal plan for long-term VPN users. There are no discounts on 1 and 6-month plan. Each plan includes the 30-day money back guarantee. it’s great for those who want to try out ExpressVPN service before many the commitment.
Another amazing offer by ExpressVPN is their referral program. With it, you can get more months of subscription without paying a penny. For every customer you refer, you will get a free month on your subscription.
An Ideal plan for starters who are looking to try VPN services for the first time. What better way to start it off with the best VPN service. The plan includes all the features and options, as well as a 30-day money back, guarantee to ensure the users don’t go unsatisfied anyhow.
The 6 months plan is a great way for users to experience online privacy and freedom for six months for just $59.95. Again all features, privacy and security options are included in the package, and you will also get a 30-day money back guarantee as well.
The 12 Month Plan is a suitable choice for vivid VPN users and for those who want to protect their online privacy at all cost. This subscription package will cost you $99.95 annually and you will be getting all the features and options in the package as well. This plan also includes a 30-day money back guarantee.
ExpressVPN gives you a variety of payment options, approximately 23 to get your payments through. The payment options include credit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin and others. Payment through Bitcoin will be great for those who want to keep their payment process anonymous.
The best thing about ExpressVPN is its compatibility across all platforms, meaning users can use the service on a wide range of VPN-enable devices. ExpressVPN have user-friendly apps for a number of the device including Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Furthermore, if your device is not VPN supported, you can configure ExpressVPN on router ExpressVPN’s VPN server addresses and connect your preferred device to the now VPN-configured router.
ExpressVPN offer dedicated apps for all major platforms including apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the only VPN to offer a dedicated Linux app. The apps are easy to use and the interface is made with user-friendliness and user-interaction in mind. Easy login and connect option is integrated into all apps for users easiness. All the features and options are available inside the apps and users can use the app according to their own preference. The apps are quick to connect and you can also use auto-connect option to connect with the best server available of your desired location.
Again, apart from apps, you can also setup ExpressVPN on other platforms and devices using manual configuration found on the official website. Setting up ExpressVPN on your other devices is easy. All you need to do is to download and install the ExpressVPN app for your preferred devices and then use your VPN credentials to login to the apps. Once logged in, you can connect to the desired server and become anonymous or unblock websites from anywhere. ExpressVPN apps are the most interactive of all VPN apps in the market. They are light and doesn’t take long to load or connect.
All the ExpressVPN dedicated apps also include features like split-tunneling and DNS leak protection, not to forget other features like kill-switch, unlimited server switching, and more. All these features plus the best-in-class encryption will surely keep you protected and your browsing data safe from prying eyes.
Another addition to the already vast number of features by ExpressVPN are browser add-ons for Firefox and Chrome, though these browser extensions are only compatible with Windows and Mac OS.
These browser extensions aren’t just simple browser-only proxy servers, but instead, they work like a full desktop software and they need to be installed. Once you turn on the browser extension, they will give you access to global content as well as online privacy and device security.
ExpressVPN is one of the best VPN websites we have come across. In terms of simplicity and user-experience, everything is just at the right place and you won’t have any problems in accessing or navigating through different pages. The website feels well-organized and there is a whole lot of information you could make use of.
The features, pricing, and company details are well defined on the site, and also you will also find a sitemap to help you get you to the right pages.
Support and blog are also available on the site with useful and interesting information that will help users know more about the service.
Getting ExpressVPN subscription is simple and doesn’t require any technical knowledge. In order to sign up to ExpressVPN, you need to buy a suitable subscription package.
To do that, visit ExpressVPN website and hit the Get Started at the top right corner. After that, select a subscription plan that suits your needs, then simply enter a valid email ID and proceed to the payment options. There are tons of payment option to choose from. A wide range of Credit cards is accepted.
Once you have successfully signed up to the service, you will be sent a welcome message along with an activation code that you can keep or set your own. The email message will also include links on the things you will need to setup VPN as well as your ExpressVPN credentials.
To setup ExpressVPN on your preferred devices, first, you need to register to the service. Registering to ExpressVPN is simple, just as we explained above. Apart from payment details and a valid email ID, no other information is required to register to the service. You can use your personal email or a disposable email ID. You can also send payments through bitcoin to make your registration anonymous.
Once you are signed up to ExpressVPN, you will receive a welcome email that includes a verification code and information about setting up the service on your devices.
Setting up ExpressVPN on windows is easy as they offer a dedicated windows VPN app. to download VPN for Windows, go to the ExpressVPN website, move your mouse cursor to products on the top menu and click on Windows.
After doing that, click on the Download app button found at the center of your screens. The downloading will start automatically. The file is not large, only 26 MB, so it won’t take that long if you have a fast internet connection.
Once the app is downloaded, simply run the file and you will see a new installation window.
Click install and continue to the whole installation process. Once the installation is completed, launch ExpressVPN app and you will be asked to provide an activation code that you received with the Welcome email. Paste the code, and that’s it!
Now all you need is to select the desired location and hit the connect button.
The installation process for Mac VPN is similar to that of Windows client. You can simply follow the same procedure to download and install ExpressVPN for Mac. You can also download ExpressVPN from App Store.
ExpressVPN app for Android can be downloaded from the website or straight through the Play Store. Just like Windows, you can go to the website and select the Android download. Hit the download app and the downloading will begin.
To download ExpressVPN from Google Play Store, launch the play store app and search for ExpressVPN. Hit the install button to download the app.
Once downloaded, the app will install automatically. Run the app and enter your account credentials. After you’re logged in, you will be asked to configure your VPN.
And you are done. Not that difficult, right?
We didn’t try the iOS app, however, the process is same as Android when downloading and installing the VPN on iOS.
ExpressVPN runs a wide network of servers, 2000 approximately, at 148 locations in 94 countries worldwide. This means that it will allow you to anonymously and safely access the website from 148 different locations without going anywhere.
ExpressVPN servers are distributed between physical and virtual servers. They have 34 servers in the US alone. ExpressVPN also has 61 servers in the UK while around 33 in the Asian region. Whichever server you connect to, it will have almost zero effect on the speeds and performance of the service.
To guarantee secure, fast, and reliable VPN connection, ExpressVPN is also offering virtual server locations in a number of countries. When you connect to a virtual location, your whole online traffic will come from the IP address of the country you connected to but the traffic will be routed through a secure server in a country with a better connection. It’s especially great when you’re connecting to a region far away from your current location.
Smart location is a feature that automatically picks the VPN server location suitable to your connection. The feature runs an algorithm that ranks servers locations based on key metrics like distance, latency, and download speed.
Europe United Kingdom (7), Albania (1), Andorra (1), Armenia (1), Austria (1), Belarus (1), Belgium (1), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1), Bulgaria (1), Croatia (1), Cyprus (1), Czech Republic (1), Denmark (1), Estonia (1), Finland (1), France (2), Georgia (1), Germany (4), Greece (1), Hungary (1), Iceland (1), Ireland (1), Isle of Man (1), Italy (2), Jersey (1), Latvia (1), Liechtenstein (1), Lithuania (1), Luxembourg (1), Macedonia (1), Malta (1), Moldova (1), Monaco (1), Montenegro (1), Netherlands (3), Norway (1), Poland (1), Romania (1),Portugal (1), Russia (1), Serbia (1), Slovakia (1), Slovenia (1), Spain (1), Sweden (1), Switzerland (1), Turkey (1), and Ukraine (1).
Asia Azerbaijan (1),Bangladesh (1), Bhutan (1), Brunei (1), Cambodia (1), Hong Kong (4), India (2), Indonesia (1), Israel (1), Japan (2), Kyrgyzstan (1), Laos (1), Macau (1), Malaysia (1), Mongolia (1), Myanmar (1), Nepal (1), Pakistan (1), Singapore (3), South Korea (1), Sri Lanka (1), Taiwan (2), Thailand (1), Vietnam (1), Virtual India (1), and Virtual Philippines (1).
Being a British Virgin Island-based VPN provider, ExpressVPN does not follow the US online privacy or data retention laws. It is not obliged to share user’s data to ISP or government and will not keep logs of your online traffic. British Virgin Island is a British overseas territory and is not part of the 14 Eyes surveillance treaty.
Except for your email ID, ExpressVPN does not collect our personal information for its service. Your email is only required to address technical issues or sent service messages, and nothing more. In simple words, ExpressVPN doesn’t keep traffic logs that can be used to identify you or trace you. But instead, they follow the no-log policy to keep your activities private and secure.
ExpressVPN uses the highest encryption in AES 256-bit with SHA-512 HMAC authentication and RSA-4096 handshake to encrypt your online activities from prying eyes.
From the security point of view, ExpressVPN also allows bitcoin payment, which will enable you to send payments anonymously. Another thing to note is that ExpressVPN works using shared IP addresses, meaning that you don’t have to worry that someone will be able to track you easily.
Also, ExpressVPN has introduced some amazing new features in DNS leak protection and WebRTC leak protection. DNS leak protection will allow you to bypass the issues of DNS leaks. When you switch network interface via ExpressVPN VPN connection, you can overcome the problems of DNS leaks right away.
Whereas, with WebRTC leak protection, you will be able to hide your original IP address on various different web browsers.
ExpresssVPN offers impressive customer service. There is a 24/7 live chat available through which you can contact them at any time, and they will respond straight away. We tried the live chat and their support team was quick to respond and were professional with their answers. Overall, their response was quick and we were satisfied with how they handled our questions.
Beside live chat, there is a contact form and email support as well through which you can contact them. Moreover, you will also find a huge support page on the website which basically provides you with all the detailed information about the service. Included in the support section are VPN setup tutorials, troubleshooting guides, and more. The tutorial section is all about how you can setup ExpressVPN on your device if you’re just getting started. The guides in the tutorials were really well put in a defined step-by-step manner, and it was pretty easy to configure devices using those tutorial guides. We tried to use one of the guides to setup VPN for iOS and it didn’t take long for us to finish. We browse a few things to see if the services are working properly and are any good, we are literally amazed by the speeds and ease of access we had with ExpressVPN.
Apart from setup tutorials, there is also troubleshooting guides, which are really helpful in times when you are facing a technical issue with the service. The troubleshooting guides also include step by step solutions that are thoroughly defined to help users immediately solve any issue they are facing.
To see how ExpressVPN performs in terms of speed and performance, we conducted a few tests to evaluate the downloading and uploading speeds we receive when connected to their servers in the different location. We also tried to access popular streaming platforms and see if we are able to stream high-quality content without any problems or delays.
The final results of our speed tests show that ExpressVPN indeed has great performance and speed. When we connected to their UK server, we didn’t saw any drop in speed. We were able to access geo-restricted websites as well as streaming platforms like Netflix and BBC iPlayer and were able to stream high-quality videos without any buffering.
Similarly, when we switched to its US server, there was a little drop in speed but that didn’t stop us from accessing Netflix US and Hulu and were able to stream in HD.
Netflix is protected with advanced security mechanism to stop international users from accessing the service. But don’t worry about that because ExpressVPN unblocks Netflix without any problems. To unlock Netflix outside US, simply connect to any of ExpressVPN’s US server, preferably New York or Los Angles server and you will be able to access Netflix from anywhere.
What other services can I access with ExpressVPN?
Apart from Netflix, you can access other streaming services like Hulu, BBC iPlayer, ITV, Kodi, PopcornTime, and more without any issues. If you’re an avid streamer who wants to watch all the latest TV shows and movies, then using ExpressVPN will give you instant access to all your favorite streaming services.
For those who want to access Hulu outside of US, you can do that by connecting to any US server and enjoy streaming on Hulu. If you want to access popular UK channels through BBC iPlayer or ITV, simply connect to ExpressVPN’s UK servers and instantly catch your favorite UK channels on your VPN-enabled devices.
For Kodi and PopcornTime Fans, you must know that these services work on BitTorrent protocols and fetches streaming content from illegal sources. This is where ExpressVPN can also help protect your online privacy while you’re streaming movies and shows on Kodi and PopcornTime.
When it comes to torrenting and P2P file sharing, ExpressVPN is certainly the VPN to go for. ExpressVPN offers P2P optimized servers that are ideal for torrenting. Moreover, ExpressVPN has the performance and privacy to let you torrent and share P2P files anonymously.
Another thing to remember is that ExpressVPN doesn’t keep traffic logs of its users and follows a strict no-log policy, which means every ExpressVPN user can enjoy anonymous torrenting and P2P file-sharing services without worrying about getting into trouble. Again, as we have shown you the results from our speed tests which indicates ExpressVPN servers are incredibly fast and you can easily download your favorite torrent files with complete anonymity.
Also, the wide network of servers allows you to connect to different locations and avoid the hassle of being tracked by your ISP or government. ExpressVPN offer server locations that are torrent-friendly, such as Netherlands and Switzerland. By connecting to these locations, you can torrent at high-speeds and with complete privacy and anonymity.
What Makes ExpressVPN better than other VPNs?
There is so much to compare when we talk about which VPN is better than the other, but in case of ExpressVPN, there is little to say against the dominance it has over other VPN in terms of value and quality. There may be other VPN providers as good as ExpressVPN but when it comes to consistency in delivering quality services and support, there is no one that can come close to ExpressVPN.
It’s possible to argue against the high subscription prices of ExpressVPN, however, as soon as go past the pricing stage, you will see that ExpressVPN comes out on top due to the greater value it offers for every dollar. For a little extra dollars, you will get an incredibly fast and secure VPN service with almost to zero drawbacks, plus highly-functional features like the kill switch, and exceptional performance. In addition, ExpressVPN also gives you immaculate online security and privacy thanks to its amazing VPN features that offer protection and convenience whenever you go online.
Many VPN users or even potential users will find ExpressVPN expensive, but it’s worth that extra money if you’re going for a reliable VPN service. ExpressVPN offers you complete device security and online anonymity no matter what purpose of use is, be it accessing geo-blocked websites or access streaming services like Netflix, or you are simply looking to protect your online privacy.
With ExpressVPN you can protect up to 3 different devices simultaneously. This may be a drawback for the service since many VPN providers now offer up to 10 simultaneous connections. However, the overall service is definitely better than other VPN providers. The number of servers offered by ExpressVPN is huge, and the speed is incredibly fast even when connected to a far location. The apps are really easy to use and come with all the features provided by ExpressVPN.
The subscription plans are what bugs many users, but ExpressVPN does include a 30-day money back guarantee. So, if you’re not satisfied with their service, you can simply ask for a full refund.
The customer service is also top-notch. You will find live chat available on the website if you’ve questions to ask about the services, you can connect them via the live chat and they will probably respond within a couple of seconds. Further, there is a great deal of information available on the website in form of support, so if you encounter any issues, you can check them out for quick solutions.
Overall, we were satisfied with the ExpressVPN service. The service may be lacking in some areas but they are still the best when it comes to providing strong online security and access to global content, which is what every user wants. | 2019-04-23T02:34:41Z | https://topvpnservice.com/reviews/expressvpn/ |
American culture is a rich fusion of customs and histories from all over the globe and centuries past. In the U.S., you’re as likely to find life-changing samosas as you are a comforting plate of barbecue and coleslaw. To celebrate this, we’re highlighting 11 of America’s most culturally diverse cities, in no particular order, where you might feel like you’ve arrived in another country. Don’t be fooled, though—Americana is different everywhere you look, whether you’re celebrating Oktoberfest in Texas or watching a Bollywood premiere in California. These destinations ought to be the most popular U.S. cities for international travelers who want to experience one of America’s finest features: its inclusive spirit. Revisit your family’s heritage or encounter a whole new side of America, and whatever you do, embrace the flavors, people, and festivities that make the 50 states a great place to travel.
Today, just over 700 people call Washington Island home, and many of them can trace their story back to another island: Iceland. This idyllic village has long been an oasis for Scandinavian-Americans, especially folks of Icelandic and Danish decent. Not only does this community embrace their international culture—they are always happy to tell you about the waterfront pioneer history that sets this place apart.
Cultural encounters – At first glance, Jacobsen Museum is just a tiny log cabin. Look closer and this museum is filled with found Native American artifacts, Jens Jacobson’s own carvings, and debris from the many legendary shipwrecks at Death’s Door (the strait that connects Lake Michigan to Green Bay).
Food for thought – The Koyen Collection is a marketplace for Northern European cuisine, handcrafted arts and jewelry, and some good old-fashioned pub time. It’s anchored by K.K. Fiske Restaurant, where you’ve got to order the lawyers—they’re actually burbot fish, not attorneys, so don’t worry—and try a seasonal sangria at the Granary Saloon.
Come one, come all – Stop for a moment of meditation at the island’s traditional stavkirke, which is modeled after the 12th-century Borgund Stave Church in Norway. The meandering prayer path and the stavkirke’s simple wood interior will bring you back to nature.
Silver Spring is known for its wonderfully walkable city center and the East African influence that brings this place to life. This community keeps the traditions of Ethiopia alive in aromatic cuisine and cultural events, while celebrating the achievements of today’s generation of African-American artists and entrepreneurs.
Cultural encounters – Downtown Silver Spring is full of local public art, from sculptures and murals to live theater and dance. Princess Mhoon Dance Institute is among the city’s performing arts programs, and choreographer Mhoon and her students have been invited to perform for Michelle Obama in celebration of Black History Month.
Food for thought – Start your morning at Kefa Café, an amazing coffee shop with an art gallery and good vibes, run by sisters Lene and Abeba Tsegaye. Their espresso-pulling powers are impeccable. For dinner, get a table at the elegant Bete Ethiopian Cuisine & Cafe. The name Bete means “home” in Amharic, and you’ll feel like a kid at the dinner table again—if you grew up on hearty yeatakilt wot and injera.
Come one, come all – Silver Spring honors its many African cultures with festivals, conventions, and markets. Celebrate the music, art, and movement of Southern Africa at the Ubuntu Festival on May 20th. Thinking ahead? The beloved FestAfrica is expected to return in August 2019, so mark your calendar. Contemporary and folk music, dance, food, comedy shows, and arts and crafts round out this weekend of fun and entertainment for all ages and backgrounds.
What do Texas Hill Country and Bavaria have in common? What don’t they? Bold, rustic, and larger than life, this cultural fusion is right at home in Fredericksburg. Time is certainly changing this city into a contemporary cowboy town, but the bustling downtown area maintains its Bavarian-American ambiance. Even many of the street signs include their German name, like Main Street, known historically as Hauptstrasse.
Cultural encounters – Take in the colorful blend of western saloons and Bavarian architecture on a walking tour of Fredericksburg’s Historic District. Spend lots of time on Main Street and check out the White Elephant Saloon, built in 1888, and be sure to tour the historical houses, as many are open to the public as stores, restaurants, and landmarks.
Food for thought – If you’ve ever wanted to embark on a quest for the best schnitzel in Texas—and you should know, there’s a lot—Fredericksburg is a great place to start. Make sure your tasting includes the hometown favorites from Friedhelm’s Bavarian Inn, Der Lindenbaum, and the Old German Bakery & Restaurant.
Come one, come all – Dance, sing, guzzle, and eat your fill of German culture at Oktoberfest, which takes over the town the first long weekend in October. This annual festival has been running for over 35 years, and it’s worth planning a getaway around.
Africatown, known officially as Plateau, is a historical African settlement located 3 miles from downtown Mobile. In 1860, more than 100 people—many of them children—were brought to Mobile in an illegal slave ship from the region that became modern-day Benin in West Africa. Wreckage of this vessel, the Clotilda, was just discovered in January 2018, reopening the conversation of America’s tragic past. Today, Plateau is lush and residential, with many of the old houses still standing as historical markers.
Cultural encounters – Stop by the Africatown Welcome Center to learn more about the community and their Beninese-American heritage. This district is a piece of the greater mosaic of Mobile’s history, and you can follow this along the African-American Trail, which includes the Plateau and Carlen neighborhoods and the district around Baltimore Street, among other significant sites.
Food for thought – Mobile’s signature soul food is inseparable from its African roots. Savor the blending of cultures and flavors at Mary’s Southern Cooking. This cafeteria-style gem is known all over town for their baked chicken and yams that will haunt your dreams.
Come one, come all – Each year, the city of Mobile raises up the many customs and people who enrich the city and the country as a whole. Join the 35th annual Mobile International Festival this November. The event usually takes place toward the end of the month.
Located in Santa Barbara County, Solvang is a lovely Danish village surrounded by stunning wine country. Win, win. As you wander between the horse-drawn trolleys and half-timbered houses, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in Denmark’s history. But you’ll be glad you’re still in 21st-century California when you start snapping selfies in front of the Hamlet Square windmill #LookMomNoPassport.
Cultural encounters – Around here, local museums pay homage to their Danish heritage. Visit the Hans Christian Andersen Museum at the Book Loft to learn more about Denmark’s master storyteller, and discover the Danish pioneer experience at Elverhøj Museum of History & Art.
Food for thought – Solvang is home to more than half a dozen Danish bakeries. If you’ve never had a stroopwafel, this is the place to try ten! It’s two waffle cookies with gooey caramel or jam filling. The folks at the Solvang Bakery make theirs with a cream and jam.
Come one, come all – The Danish Heritage Festival, Danish Days, brings even more color and energy to town—if that’s possible—this September 14-16. Watch blacksmith demos, community dances, and tour a Viking encampment!
You may already have Virginia Beach on the brain, with dreams of relaxing on the sand and dining on Chesapeake oysters. Add the awesome international vibes to your long list of reasons to visit this seaside city. Virginia Beach is home to its own Little Manila, though you’ll see Filipino culture in the city wherever you go. What’s more, this region is home to the largest Filipino-American network in the country. Think of all the lumpia!
Cultural encounters – Visit the Philippine Cultural Center of Virginia to join a community Zumba class, or ask about upcoming traditional dance events, like the Cherry Blossom Festival presented by the School of Performing Arts.
Food for thought – Mangan Pop-Up is a Filipino fusion food truck that turned heads at 2017’s FilFest with their sisig tacos. This spicy pork hash has found its perfect match in a tortilla with fresh lime and cilantro.
Come one, come all – Nearby Norfolk hosts the annual Fil Fest USA with food, dance, pageantry, and activities for all ages. Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach made an appearance at the 2016 festival, and each year brings new performers and speakers to the lively lineup.
Japan Via Flickr/Pedro Szekely; Honolulu via Yelp/Cara M.
You can’t beat Honolulu’s breezy, beach-lined streets, world-class surf breaks, or the tropical cuisine and coffee that fuels every day in paradise. All this is made even better, thanks to the infusion of the native heritage and Japanese culture. The island’s plentiful seafood makes some of the best sushi in the world, and don’t get us started on the awesome street art and dancing or you’ll miss low tide.
Cultural encounters – Take a traditional tea service class or a number of other classes at the Japanese Cultural Center. Just check their schedule online and call ahead. Honolulu is also a great place to immerse yourself in the ancient indigenous culture. Long before this place became an American territory, Hawaiians built a beautiful civilization. Visit Iolani Palace to learn more about Hawaiian royalty, history, and customs.
Food for thought – Eat sushi and poke! This raw fish dish originated on the islands of Hawaii, and today’s poke has been heavily influenced by Japanese flavors and technique. Try the Shoyu Ahi at Ono Seafood and your mouth will say, “Oh, yes!” Order it to-go and walk along Kapahulu Avenue to Waikiki Beach for a picture-perfect picnic #pokepic.
Come one, come all – January is a great time to visit Honolulu! Plan your next winter getaway around the New Year’s ‘Ohana Festival. It takes place at the Japanese Cultural Center each January, so start planning for 2019. This year’s event commemorated the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. Now, that’s something to celebrate!
Miami is a mosaic of people, places, and passions. It’s a little bit Americana, a little bit Cuba, and a little bit Haiti, plus a smattering of other influences all in one. Next time you can get away to the Magic City, anchor your itinerary in Little Haiti, a neighborhood that makes huge cultural contributions to Miami’s inventive music scene and the vibrant art splashing through the streets. Little Haiti helps make Miami one of the most cultured cities in the U.S., hands down!
Cultural encounters – Little Haiti is full of bold art, community vibes, and amazing eateries. The Little Haiti Cultural Complex embraces the Afro-Caribbean heritage with events galore. You can also wander through the art gallery or the Caribbean Marketplace for some of your own inspiration.
Food for thought – You’ve got to eat at Naomi’s Garden Restaurant & Lounge. The menu includes favorites like jerk chicken and fried plantains, as well as vegan stroganoff and chickpea stew! The outdoor dining area also features live music and the tropical décor will make you smile no matter how your day started.
Come one, come all – This neighborhood is alive with music! Sweat Records is a vegan-friendly coffee shop and a world-renowned record store. Sweat often hosts vinyl release shows, audiophile listening parties, and music movie nights, plus their annual Record Store Day block party. They’ve got a community flier area, too, so stop by and take a look at other Miami events.
If we’re perfectly honest, the city of West, Texas is actually located east of the state’s center. But that’s OK—for many Czech sojourners during the 19th century, this place was the destination of their journey west. These days, that adventurous spirit is preserved in the historical thoroughfares and in some surprising nooks and crannies. You can’t go anywhere in West without encountering Czech goodies—not even the Shell Station, which houses the Czech Stop, a family-run gift boutique and bake shop!
Cultural encounters – The History of West Museum is all about the city’s Czech legacy and the generations of immigration and pioneering that has made this community what it is today. Get up close with traditional Czech customs and the wagons that brought settlers westward.
Food for thought – Gerik’s Ole’ Czech Bakery & Café is the best place in town for a cozy breakfast and pastries. Order the skunk egg kolache. It’s not actually an egg and it has nothing to do with skunks. It’s a cheesy fried croquette wrapped in a kolache pastry!
Come one, come all – Westfest is the place to be each Labor Day weekend. It’s a polka and Czech cultural celebration with dancing and live music, family activities, and hearty Danish fair food. We’ll take a beer bread sandwich for each hand!
Fremont is famously one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States, as its cultural roots include Indian, Latin American, South American, and Afghan. In fact, Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel “The Kite Runner” takes place, partly, in Fremont. Together, this forms a unique community where you can hear a different language spoken around each corner and where acceptance and open-mindedness are the best neighbors.
Cultural encounters – Whether you practice the Sikh faith or not, you can visit the Gurdwara Sahib, aka Sikh temple. Come to appreciate the architecture and history as you tour the campus, which features a café and community events as well as conventional religious services.
Food for thought – Chaat Bhavan may not be fancy, but their vegetarian cuisine is as authentic as it comes, offering regional dishes from all over the country, including Punjab, Gujarat, South India, and Kolkata. When it’s time to dress dinner up a bit, dine on gorgeous Northern Indian fare at Rangoli Flavors of India.
Come one, come all – Watch a Bollywood film at Cine Grand! This movie house features blockbusters alongside independent international releases.
Tarpon Springs via Yelp/Carlos P.
Have you ever thought, “I sure would love a Greek getaway without traveling farther than Florida’s Gulf Coast?” Hey, it has come up before, and there’s good news! Tarpon Springs is located less than 30 miles west of Tampa, and it’s a picturesque Greek-American village. On the north side of the city, Dodecanese Boulevard ambles along the waterfront and it’s lined with Greek eateries and the historic Sponge Docks, which are a must-visit as they feel like a Greek fishing village.
Cultural encounters – Stop by the Limani for Greek imports and take-away dishes. It’s near the water and will remind you of a Greek flea market. Grab a pita to-go and walk along the water. This is also a great place to take a cruise and pretend you’re sailing the North Mediterranean Sea.
Food for thought – For flavors that are undeniably Greek, order the Octopus Stifado at Dimitri’s on the Water and relax on the patio seating near the docks. This culinary dream crossed continents when Restaurateur Demetrios Salivaras’s family moved to the U.S. from Greece in 1971, and the rest is delicious history.
Come one, come all – We can’t think of a better use of Florida’s balmy summer weather than attending Opa! Palooza. Dress for a party with live music, contemporary art, and plenty of food for stuffing your face. If you eat your weight in dolmas, we won’t judge!
Where’s your favorite multicultural destination in the U.S.?
Thank you for including Mobile International Festival in your article. Our festival is always the weekend before Thanksgiving and this year the date is November 17, 2018.
This is pretty cool! It’s exciting to read this especially from someone who resides in Virginia Beach and helps coordinate Filipino events here in the community – and reads your review on Expedia! But to know this is the awesome experience you received during your stay here – it truly makes us honored that we have shared a little Philippines here on the East Coast! Please share with your friends – because Fil Fest 2018 – has some exciting programs to be unveiled.
Fil Fest Games 2018 – Get Ready, Get Set- JUSTGO Virginia Beach! | 2019-04-23T15:54:21Z | https://viewfinder.expedia.com/11-us-cities-feel-like-international-destinations/ |
In order to spread the silent language of evil, another method that satan teaches people is negativity. Its basis lies in people's lack of awareness that Allah sees every evil done openly or in secret, and that those who do these deeds will receive the appropriate reward in the Hereafter. The negative personality that accompanies this clouded awareness is where this hidden evil is most frequently encountered. A person who does negative things through satan's intimidations gradually displays a series of unseemly moral qualities, but does so while hiding behind the "silent language of evil," thinking he could not possibly be discovered.
A person in a negative spiritual state has many apprehensions and doubts on his mind stemming from the influence of satan. If he wants to escape from satan's influence and his negative spiritual state, of course, he can immediately find the appropriate answer to all his misgivings in the Qur'an. But he does not consider how easy it is to escape satan's oppression, being preoccupied with his own apprehensions. What draws him into a negative spiritual state are most often vain apprehensions that have nothing to do with the truth. If he examined these silly, mindless and illogical thoughts in the light of the Qur'an, he would soon see that they were invalid, and satan's influence over him would immediately dissipate.
Generally, at the base of these apprehensions occupying a person's mind and draw him into a negative spiritual state is discontent. Despite all the countless blessings and good things that Allah has created, a person's lower self tries to draw him into a moral state wherein he will be discontent, pessimistic and see everything in a negative light. In such a moral condition, an individual may be displeased with whatever he may encounter; this condition will lead him into negativity about conditions in his environment, the behavior of his acquaintances, events that occur, his own spiritual state and behavior and many other things. Sometimes, his discontent is based on not knowing about events that have already occurred and those that have yet to happen—that is, hidden events related to the future (gayb). They become discontent and totally pessimistic when they imagine events with no basis in reality. They say, for example, "What if this happens?" or "Such a result may definitely come out of that."
But these thoughts and the behavior they inspire do not comply with the moral teachings of the Qur'an. For this reason, satan wants to instill this spiritual state in individuals of weak faith or who have sickness in their hearts. When the basis of this discontent lies in these individuals' acquaintances, satan wants to make them perceive this negative spiritual state with a secret language, and in a manner impossible to detect. In ignorant societies that live far from the moral teachings of the Qur'an, people use this language to send others hidden messages of what they mean and what they want from one another. Satan wants to establish this kind of morality among people of faith and make them understand one another by means of secret ritual behavior that is allusive, witty and contains hidden messages. In this way, he distances them from the moral teachings of the Qur'an by drawing them into his own insincerity and moral perversity.
Those who examine satan's invitation will see for themselves its greatest harm. As long as they do not seek Allah's favor and comply with the Qur'an, there will be no dearth of anxiety and discontent in their lives. It becomes impossible for them to derive any pleasure from the blessings of food, drink, sleep and rest. They cannot enjoy love and friendship; and they cannot be joyful, happy or content. In addition, that they cannot find a solution to their spiritual state and the discontent they so openly express puts them under great tension. Since their acquaintances are content and at ease and know nothing of their predicament only increases their tension to an unbearable degree. For this reason, they sometimes harbor hidden anger toward those around them. Because they continually fill themselves with all these apprehensions, their negativity continues to increase.
In the following pages, we will see how people who come under satan's control use the secret, silent language of evil to express their negativity and regard their actions as justifiable. In this way, we will uncover the game that satan is playing with human beings.
Satanic thoughts give rise to a negative personality with a special spiritual state. Keeping silent is one of the most important weapons of people in this spiritual state, who think that being calm and saying nothing is one of the best ways to express the discomfort they feel. In this way, they wish to draw the attention to themselves and make others feel that something is amiss. Their basic aim is to blame others for whatever situation they're in and to have them make restitution. This method is used widely by those whose lives do not conform to the moral teachings of the Qur'an.
Before they say anything, they assume a kind of behavior to make others think that something unusual is going on. When asked them, "What's wrong? Has something upset you? Can I help?" they generally use this spiritual state to save themselves. Then to these well-intentioned questions they give reticent and deliberately perfunctory answers: "It's nothing. It's just your imagination. I couldn't sleep, and I'm tired." Whenever possible, they make no further elaboration but remain silent, giving no details. Occasionally, they enter discussions with a terse sentence and a cold, official manner. They answer "Yes," "No," or "I don't know" in a curt particular tone of voice. When they want to attract the attention of others present, they continue their protests until these people take an interest in them and believe what the protesters want them to think. Once they have the attention they want, they gradually get over what is bothering them and, to give the impression that their emotional state is beyond their control, they behave as if "I'm feeling better now."
Their tone of voice slowly returns to normal after a few questions, interest and "tender loving care" from others. They gradually join in conversations, give the impression (hard as it may be) that they can be a part of the fun and finally, return to their normal state. They can overcome their negativity because they have shown that it was caused by the wrong behavior of others and that they were able to get over it only because these others changed their attitudes.
The fact that these people are sometimes able to draw the attention and interest of their acquaintances is not enough to satisfy their perverse behavior. Satan puts these individuals into this glum, negative spiritual state and makes them behave in a way that reveals that they don't know exactly what they want. In this condition, they cannot change their behavior whether or not people pay them attention . Once such an individual follows satan and begins to display a negative, "protesting" personality, he still has the willpower to escape from this situation if he wishes to—because he has got himself into this situation out of his own will. But it's not clear how his present spiritual state can be corrected. If he becomes lively and talkative and suddenly gives up this insincere behavior and acts with intelligence, it will be clear that he has done this deliberately by altering his behavior. But he does not because satan rules his mind. And, later, even if he wants to free himself from this condition, he chooses to continue his silent protests so that his insincerity will not be discovered. Satan takes advantage of this situation and draws him into another secret evil under the pretense that it will save him.
In the moral teachings of the Qur'an, there is no place for such a silent language, for suggestive behavior or the negative behavior comes from satan's influence. In everything, the believer's measure is the Qur'an. If there is any error, clearly it should be stated intelligently and eloquently, in keeping with the moral teachings of the Qur'an. Moreover, since those with faith take the voice of their consciences as their foundation, they accept every exhortation that agrees with the Qur'an and respond to it with greater acts of goodness.
The eyes are an important measure of sincerity, reflecting every feeling in the human spirit. This characteristic is most evident in the eyes of believers who, along with their words and actions, reveal their fine moral character with their eyes. For this reason, their expressions are very clean, shiny and bright. From their eyes, we can see that have submitted to Allah and are deeply attached to Him, that they are honest, reliable, sincere, intelligent, conscientious and content.
But as for those who have fallen under the influence of satan, the faces cannot possibly display these qualities. Because of the negative spiritual state that satan has inculcated, their faces do not reflect contentment and security. On the contrary, their negative thoughts are reflected in their faces, and their dark, uncomprehending expressions do not reveal what they are thinking. They may believe that they give no sign of the satanic spiritual state within, yet their eyes prove that they nurture no good, positive thoughts. Such faces give the uneasy feeling that we do not know what else is hidden behind them.
These people are of course aware of their negative influence, of the sense of darkness and vileness that they wear on their faces. Perhaps they have entered this state because of something that happened to them, someone else's behavior, or their insincere misinterpretations of totally fabricated ideas. But they make use of these satanic methods to dissimulate their discontent to those around them. Allah tells us in the Qur'an that those whose consciences have been darkened by their evil deeds have faces shrouded by vileness.
The faces of these individuals are indeed dark as night and the way they look is not normal. In their eyes it is very difficult to find comfortable expressions of contentment and peace. Their spiritual state is extremely negative, and their uneasiness and lack of trust in Allah is reflected in their eyes. This tension may cause a physical contraction, so that their eyes become very narrow and dull. Just as their minds are under satan's influence, so are their eyes. Normally, if there is no problem, a person's eyes do not have such a dull and uncomprehending look. The eyes of a normal, honest and sincere individual are wide open, lively and bright. The eyes of such a normal person take on a human understanding; they have a comfortable look, and this person can form relationships.
It is very tiring to look into the eyes of a person under satan's control. To be around someone who produces negative effects makes everyone uncomfortable.
At this point, it should be said that it is totally up to the individual to correct this perverse expression. When he puts aside the apprehensions in his heart and the evil thoughts coming from satan and, in their place, puts good thoughts in accord with the Qur'an, his face's expression—Allah willing—becomes bright and beautiful. Because of his fine moral character and submission to Allah, the light in his face and the way he looks grow even deeper. But, because these people deliberately put on these expressions for a specific purpose, they deliberately avoid the effort it would take to reverse the situation.
To draw those under satan's insidious control into behaving outside the limits imposed in the Qur'an, satan teaches them several ways of speaking negatively. But they are careful that their manner of speaking should not betray its satanic aspects. One basic characteristic is that at first, their conversation seems positive. From the general scope of what is being said, a listener thinks that the speaker is very edifying and that his words conform to the Qur'an. This is the sense that comes from the general scope of what is being said. But gradually, through subtle methods, a satanic logic takes over that has nothing to do with the Qur'an.
If the speaker wrote down his words on paper, a reader might not detect any satanic sense in the words. But satan supports the speaker with so many details that, even though the words he uses have a positive sense, they leave listeners with just the opposite impression. His various emphases, his tone of voice, the juxtaposition of sentences and topics and even his facial expressions add a very different meaning. When a believer hears this kind of conversation, he realizes that the words do not come from a conscience conforming to the moral teachings of the Qur'an, that there is something satanic hidden in them.
What does satan want to achieve by such negativity? First of all, he wants to stir up strife among believers, to secretly inculcate negative thoughts in them and give them a negative spirit. He wants to destroy the brotherhood and unity among them, prevent them from being content and joyful—and, finally, to distance them from the moral teachings of the Qur'an. He thinks he can achieve these aims by the hidden evil in conversations of those taken under his influence.
But such could not possibly occur among people of sincere faith, who above all, are protected by Allah's mercy. Because of their sincerity and their having made Allah their protector, He protects them from satan's wickedness and of those who follow him. His Presence keeps them constantly on the true path; He gives them superior intelligence, understanding and perception so that they can see and spoil the games that satan plays. In this way, all of satan's efforts will come to nothing.
Those who follow satan despite being around believers are, in fact, very well aware of satan's objectives. However, their following satan serves their very own aims. Because they want to let people around them know that they feel uncomfortable, they use this method that satan has inspired with intention. With the negative manner they put on, they seek to draw attention and interest to themselves; to make others think about them and do what they want. They use satanic methods to secure the same blessings they could have earned honestly by living sincerely according to the moral teachings of the Qur'an and using their intelligence consciously. This is certainly a dead end.
Believers never respond to demands made using satanic methods. Believers are responsible for opposing satan's incitements and for calling on others to accept the moral teachings of the Qur'an. Satan tries to deceive humans with other possibilities and have them believe they can live happily if they follow his methods. But satan promises nothing more than a deception.
Nobody likes a person who always wears a discomforting look, remains determinedly silent, dour and sulky, sees the negative side of everything and looks at things pessimistically. Such a person will never be happy and live a good life until he rids himself of every kind of wickedness, both secret and open, submits to Allah's religion and experiences the contentment of living according to the moral teachings of the Qur'an.
Eventually, those overpowered by satan's intimations to look at everything negatively become unable to appreciate the countless blessings and good things that surround them. They criticize and try to find fault with everything to the point where only these thoughts occupy their minds. They complain constantly about what makes them unhappy, but never mention the blessings that Allah has created for them to enjoy. They speak about what they see as defects, flaws or deficiencies very fluently but never express of the good things and blessings that Allah has created. That is because, people of this moral who are deeply under satan's influence think only about the things they regard as flawed.
Qarun's fate points to a truth that everyone should consider and learn from. Allah gives countless blessings to His servants on Earth. But most of those who develop a negative personality display such a character because of the courage brought by living in a comforting environment among believers. Their complaints about the many blessings that could make them happy and give thanks to Allah are an indication of their ingratitude. However, if these blessings were to disappear, and they suffered hunger, sickness and other difficulties, they would not be able to bear them. They would then regard the smallest blessing as a great value and would thank Allah for it.
No doubt, any logical and intelligent person can see this truth. No special effort is necessary to understand it; one needs only look around. In this case, why do some individuals not aware of these good things? Why do they avoid the enjoyment and joys that these blessings give? This is a result of the influence of satan, who does not want people to lead their lives with the awareness of this truth. For this reason, he distracts his followers with empty apprehensions and diverts them with anxieties. In this way, he wants to lead them to where they think only about these negative things and do not appreciate the mercy that Allah has toward them.
But sometimes satan does not have such a direct influence on people. It is enough for him to draw people into exhibiting the negativity of personality described in this chapter. A person who develops such a misunderstanding of morality finds negativity all by himself: Just to be contrary; he does not speak about the good and avoids edifying conversation. Although he sees the blessings that Allah has created in all their beauty, he deliberately avoids mentioning them. He wants to show his acquaintances that something is making him discontent.
This is one of the messages sent in this insidious, silent language that satan teaches human beings. They pretend not to have heard good news that has made everyone happy; while everyone else greets it with sincere joy, these individuals do not join in the excitement or even say a word. If necessary, they say a few terse words in a cold and uninterested voice. In this way, they send the message that they are unhappy about something, in a very different spiritual state from the others around them, and that even this good news cannot liberate them from their spiritual condition.
However, all this effort is clearly pretense. If he wanted to, this person has the will to snap himself out of that state in a moment. But he does not want to, and is determined to continue in this satanic behavior. Were he to mention all the blessings around him, his negative atmosphere would dissipate. Seeing the truth, he would conform his behavior to the moral teachings of the Qur'an. But because he does not want to do so, he remains deliberately sullen in the heaviness that listening to the voice of satan has cast over him. With the traps he has set, satan convinces people that the evil deeds they have done are good and, by their own will, draws them into a system that will do them harm.
In such a situation, however, one must immediately take refuge in Allah. If he persists in behavior contrary to the moral teachings of the Qur'an, he must remember that Allah may repay him with the pangs of Hell. Such a person should consider his own helplessness compared to the infinite power of Allah, that he needs His mercy; and must adopt a moral attitude that will never permit him the audacity to be so bold.
People who become unable to appreciate the countless blessings that Allah has given may later reach the point where they cannot take pleasure from the blessings they do possess even if they wanted to.
Looking at the spiritual state of those under the influence of satan and the anxieties they experience as a result, we see clearly how this character they have assumed in order to send hidden messages leads to their own destruction.
They repeat actions that have given them pangs of conscience, claim that there are wicked people around them, and are determined not to be subject to their consciences. They cause tension among their acquaintances, are resolute in their arrogance. They always think the worst possibility is the most likely one. They do everything in their power not to be liked and afterwards, feel sad and wonder why no one likes them. Looking negatively at everything, they oppose everything and afterwards complain that nothing makes them happy. Taking their worries and apprehensions everywhere they go, they are easily irritated by others. Adopting the attitude that people snub them, they do everything they can to make themselves unattractive and are sorry later.
These are only a few of the traps satan has set for human beings with the negative point of view that he has inculcated in them. Someone who falls under his influence and acts according to this point of view is his own worst enemy. Forgetting that he is under the control of Allah and His infinite mercy, he lives constantly in fear and chaos. Because of his anxious spiritual state, he becomes introverted and prefers to be alone. In this state, he will grow sorrowful and without hope and have spare time to invent imaginary scenarios. Forgetting Allah and adopting a way of thinking that gives preference to other people; he is directed into ways of thinking that gives him ample scope to make himself miserable. A meeting he must attend, a bus he missed or an outfit he doesn't like assumes the dimensions of a disaster. No matter how much he tries to convince himself that he shouldn't care about these things, none of the reasons he comes up with affects him. The spiritual condition he's in makes it impossible to persuade himself. He forgets that everything happens to him with Allah's knowledge; he believes that he must manage people and events by himself. And, seeing that he lacks the strength to do this, he is devastated.
But by Allah's will, every individual has the power to save himself from every kind of wickedness. Allah has revealed this in many verses of the Qur'an. Allah has inspirited in the human lower self both wickedness and the ways to avoid it. Therefore, every individual has this possibility from his creation. Only a person who does not know the Qur'an and does not practice religious morality can despair and say, "It's out of my hands!" Believers know that such helpless words have nothing to do with the morality that comes from faith. | 2019-04-23T00:16:15Z | https://m.harunyahya.com/tr/Books/4013/The-Silent-Language-of-Evil/chapter/5101/They-express-their-negativity-and-discontent-in-the-secret-language-of-evil |
The Hidden Power Social Media Can Provide in Rhode Island Divorce Cases.
Today everyone from adults to pre-teenagers has cellular phones, tablets, iPods, laptops and every other kind of hand-held or desktop device known to man within their reach. Communication is now fast and easy and it is all too easy to post something in the blink of an eye without even thinking to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linkedin, Instagram and any other social media platform or app that exists out there. Yet with all this great speed of communication and information come the corresponding challenges that people don't even think about before pressing the send key and making a post or sending a communication.
Social media has become a virtual playground for attorneys and pro-se litigants in divorces to find the ammunition they may need to present as evidence before the courts, or in the very least gain leverage against their spouse.
There's a great deal of truth in the notion that once you put something out on the internet you can never truly get rid of it. Even if you post something on Facebook or in Google Text Chat and later delete it, is it really gone? The answer might surprise you. These days social media companies that provide these wonderful communications tools and apps don't want their services and their servers to go down so they back up frequently. Even if you think you've deleted something permanently on a social media platform the truth is that it's probably not gone and with the right savvy and sometimes a carefully worded subpoena to the company a person can resurrect that little trinket that could help them in a divorce.
Your spouse has been distant for quite some time and is constantly on Facebook. Your accounts are connected and you don't see anything out of the ordinary for your spouse's posts but your spouse is on Facebook for long periods of time. Something doesn't feel right to you. Suddenly you are served with a divorce action and your spouse deletes their Facebook account.
You decide to get a divorce lawyer and you tell the lawyer your suspicions. The lawyer ultimately checks the Facebook pages of a few of the people your spouse knows at work and suddenly conversations of other people talking about how much time your spouse is spending with "so and so" and what might be going on. The lawyer checks to find a Facebook page for "so and so" and there are posts about how much time the person has been spending with your spouse and how wonderful a relationship they have. The lawyer notices that the dates are more than two years old and finds comments by your spouse that were probably once in your spouse's Facebook account. The lawyer digitally copies every page and reference and may even make a screen capture movie to preserve what is written online in case anything else is deleted or made "private" to prevent it from being seen in the future. The lawyer then prints out all the pages with the dates. Your lawyer calls you in to let you know what has been found and explain to you what affect it might have in your divorce proceeding. You want more information so your divorce lawyer starts drafting up subpoenas for people and Facebook to produce documents and digital information.
People make social media posts, send texts, chat and email without even thinking. In past days you could control information if it were contained on paper. You could know where the original was and who might have copies. Today, the digital age has shown us that for the techno-savvy person or attorney, virtually nothing comes with out a trail, and nothing is truly deleted. The question is whether you can find it.
My divorce is almost finished. When can I introduce the person I'm dating to my children?
QUESTION: I filed for divorce from my spouse and it was granted. About 10 days after my Rhode Island divorce hearing I met someone and we have been seeing each other frequently for the last month. When can I introduce this new friend to my children?
ANSWER: If you're looking for a basic legal answer then my advice would be that you should stop seeing this person until your divorce is done. This is not because I don't believe you have a right to be happy. If you do not have a Final Judgment in your divorce case then it is not prudent for you to date another person because you are still married and your spouse and/or your spouse's lawyer can delay you from getting a Final Judgment of Divorce from issuing for an extensive amount of time.
Now you might wonder, what would my spouse have to do? Only two things 1) be upset at you, and 2) file a motion of any kind. Of course you know your spouse better than I do. However, in my history as a lawyer I have seen things that you could not make up in your wildest nightmares happen from presumably reasonable and respectful parties in a divorce.
It is very, very easy for a spouse to be upset that you have moved on from your marriage before it is even over. Many spouses, both men and women, find that the other spouse dating before their marriage is even over to be insulting, degrading, hurtful and angering to say the least. All it takes is a little bit of anger for your spouse to file a motion in the family court. What kind of motion? Any kind of motion! All it takes is a pending motion before the court filed sometime near the date when the Final Judgment can be signed in order to prevent the court from finalizing your divorce. Suddenly a divorce that you thought was almost over may now go on for month after month and possibly motion after motion so that you are still married to your spouse. If your spouse knows or even suspects that you are dating someone then it is very easy to file a motion to restrain and enjoin you from having the children around anyone you may be dating as long as the divorce is still going on. If that motion is granted and your spouse is still angry, hurt or in the least bit upset, it is very easy for your spouse to want to keep the divorce going as long as possible so that you can't have the children around the person you are dating. Frankly, it isn't worth it. Better be safe than sorry. In the scope of a lifetime it is better to wait a few months than to suffer for another year or more.
I realize this is not the crux of your question, but it was worth stating it because it goes hand in hand with the more important answer. Introducing your children to someone you are dating is no small matter. Legally, until you are prohibited from doing so you could introduce the children to the person you are dating anytime you want. The question is whether or not that is truly best for your children. Many children have a hard time dealing with the divorce of their parents, especially if they are five years of age or more when they start making the identification of their parents as a couple.
The parents are typically the foundation that keeps the children consistent because the child knows they can rely on their parents as a team to keep their world together because they can depend on them to be there. While divorce is a reality for many married couples in the psyche of a child a divorce can often signify the destruction of their stability. Each child is different. Each child's feelings and age should be considered. The amount of time you have been separated should be factored in. The children need to get used to the idea that the parents will no longer be living under the same roof. The children need to be supported by both parents so that the children realize that their stability in having two parents is still present after the parents are no longer living together with them in the same household.
Once the children have adjusted to the idea that their parents will still provide them with stability even if they are not in the same household, it is my humble opinion that then you might slowly introduce a person that you have been dating to the children so long as that person has been a stabilizing factor in your life. Remember, that any new person you introduce to your children needs to be a stabilizing factor for them. If you haven't been with this person long enough to establish a solid, strong, stable and loving relationship with the person, then how can you expect this person to be safe to introduce to your children who are in a much more fragile emotional and mental state?
Most certainly this last part sounds more like counseling advice and is more appropriate to come from a counselor who deals with children of divorce. However, my comments are from direct experience in my own life and in the lives of hundreds of clients over the years.
Personally, I was divorcing before I became a lawyer. I made virtually every mistake that I mention here and I paid a price that no parent should ever have to bear. I wish I had known today what I know now and I regret deeply when a client of mine pays the price because they choose to ignore my advice.
So if you are to remember anything, I ask you to remember one thing. Your relationship with your children is fragile. One poor decision on your part and you might never see your child(ren) again.
You Don't Need a RI Divorce Lawyer Because the Court Gives You the Questions?
If you've been over to any one of the Rhode Island Family Courts and picked up a divorce packet you will find that the packet now includes a set of questions that you should know the answer to if your represent yourself in an uncontested divorce.
Believe it or not, the questions for some of the packets have been created by the court. So why should you need a lawyer if you've supposedly agreed upon everything with your spouse and the court supplies you questions that have been written up by an actual judge, right?
The answer is actually simple and yet it's significance is so important that it would be easy for you to overlook. It's this simple. A divorce is about your legal rights and protecting those rights in the divorce process. However, it is not the role of the list of questions in your packet or even the judge in the courtroom on the day of your hearing to protect your rights. So you may be wondering, who protects my rights? If you go in representing yourself, then YOU DO! So the question is, do you know your rights and do you know how to protect them. The fact is that most people don't know their legal rights and they don't know how to protect them when the need arises.
So why do they give you sample hearing questions at all in your divorce packet, right? Well, you have the constitutional right to represent yourself. Unfortunately too many people are going into court because they don't want to hire a lawyer or even go get legal advice and guidance to protect their rights. Yet when people don't know what they are doing they screw up the court's calendar with the time they spend floundering around trying to figure out what to do. So, they give you sample questions to make it easier for you so that you're less likely to waste the court's time and thus this helps them get another case off the judge's docket.
So in a nutshell, the court gives you questions as a guide only. Yet those questions don't tell you your legal rights and the court isn't responsible for telling you your legal rights. The questions are generic and they do not address every thing you may have rights to in your case.
Ultimately, it's up to you if you choose to represent yourself and play games with your rights. The judges must hear about certain things in order to make their decisions. The questions cover those things. However, even in simple divorces many people have issues that are outside the questions the court provides. The thing to remember is this. When you go to court and represent yourself in your own divorce, you are playing lawyer as if you knew your rights and knew how to protect them. If you miss something or screw up a right that you might have had, then that's your problem. You may or may not have the opportunity to go back and correct it later, if you know how and you do it in time. There are some rights that people don't realize that they only get one shot at. If you blow it, you have no one to blame except yourself.
A qualified divorce and family law lawyer protects your legal rights when they represent you. In the very least you should go to such a lawyer to get advice about your divorce, your rights and how to proceed. Yet if you don't do that you can't come back to the court later and blame the judge, or the clerk or the people who hand out the packets with the questions in them.
Personally, I think putting the questions in divorce packets is a bad idea. This is not because I believe lawyers should get more business. It is because people now are of the belief that because they have questions from the court that the questions are all they need and that these questions along with the judge protect their rights. That is absolutely incorrect! Neither the questions nor the judge do anything to protect your rights.
Do yourself a favor! If you and your spouse have children, assets or debts then go see a qualified divorce lawyer if you are going to go through a divorce proceeding. I hear people represent themselves and make mistakes in their own divorce every month that were preventable. Don't allow yourself to be a victim of the system.
Equality and Father's Rights: The Rhode Island Family Court Needs to Catch Up!
It's supposed to be a world of equality where men and women are treated equally under the same circumstances. Yet, unless you reach an agreement with your spouse in a divorce that both parents will enjoy shared placement and equal time with the Minor Children, typically the result is anything but fair for the father. The vast majority of the time the mother becomes the placement parent either because the court makes that decision after trial or the father may choose that it is not in his children's best interests to go through a custody battle where heightened tensions between the parents which spill over to the children. It's extremely rare that the father ends up as the placement parent even if he is the best qualified parent to end up with placement of the children.
Why? There still exists this underlying notion that a mother of children has a special bond with children because she carried the child within her, or because mothers are presumed by their very nature to be more nurturing than men. Thus a conclusion is too often made that children should be with a mother because she is the nurturer. This reasoning of course has no basis in fact but rather comes about because of societal notions of the man as the "bread winner" and the woman as the one who "cares for the household and the children." It is an antiquated notion to say the least in today's society.
Equality for fathers in the Rhode Island family court system is sorely lacking when it comes to placement of children when faced with antiquated concepts such as "giving birth to the child" and the presumption of "superior maternal nurturing." After practicing exclusively in the family courts for 16 years I have seen fathers relegated to an "extra" whose rights as a parent are relegated to a part-time babysitter. Fathers who during a marriage were an integral part of their children's lives are now typically given "every other weekend" and "one evening during the week" to exercise as their "parenting time." This is true even though these father's once spent every weekend and sometimes every evening with their children. In family court mediation fathers are often told, "father's typically get every other weekend and one night a week" which is sometimes used to justify that a father should be happy if he gets an extra evening conceded to by the mother of the children. In one case I recall a client walking out of mediation only to breakdown and cry on me in the parking lot. When I inquired about it he said that he told the mediator that he spent more time with the children than the mother but when he told the mediator he wouldn't settle for anything less than equal time with their children he was told by the mediator "It's never going to happen."
Regardless of whether a mother be awarded placement of the children or not, the family court is seldom the place where fathers get the equity they deserve. While equitable does not mean equal, it begs the question as to why men who as fathers in an intact family have equal rights with the mother, yet when there is a divorce they are denied the time with their children that they previously had regardless of who filed for or who caused the breakdown of the divorce.
How is it that in severing the marital contract fathers rights are somehow reduced to less than the time they had with their children? Most assuredly in many cases this is not only penalizing the father but the children as well. Most certainly the court does not take the position that in a divorce a party who makes a claim or counterclaim for divorce is also divorcing the children and yet the reduction in a father's rights in our courts seems to give evidence that a father who is not a placement parent is, in fact, divorcing himself to some degree from his children.
Yet admittedly there are many cases that are settled by agreement of the parties. In these cases, surely the court should bear no fault for fathers having reduced time with their children if these men agree to that arrangement. This was something I have pondered at length and it is something that deserves response if only to understand why our legal system needs to change.
In many agreed upon cases before the court, through public or private mediation, or by virtue of the assistance of attorneys, it is the too often the repeated standard to fathers that they will usually only receive "every other weekend and one evening per week" that becomes the crux of the problem. This is because it is this very unwritten standard that causes the injustice. This unwritten standard is the responsibility not simply of the Family Court, but of the entire judiciary.
Where this standard came from and why it has been used and in existence for the entirety of my 16 year divorce practice is beyond comprehension. Yet simply put, if there is to be any standard at all it should be the presumption that each parent is entitled to equal time with the children and any reduction for either party should be addressed from there. Without setting this as the beginning point, this unwritten standard continues to devalue fathers and wrongfully remove them from their children's lives when they may well have been active participants in their children's daily lives. To do anything less is to deprive fathers of not only their rights but serves to punish the children of the relationship and create too great an opportunity for the ever growing problem of parental alienation which threatens to destroy the family unit.
As a father, I was subject to this "every other weekend and one evening per week" standard 18 years ago before I was an attorney. If there is to be true justice and equality on the issues in the family court at all father's rights need to be recognized before this court not by some amorphous standard that has no basis in law or in fact, but with the understanding that without fathers the child would not exist and that without the father in the life of the child both the father and child are denied the enrichment that is necessary to provide a balanced life, especially for the children.
Fathers need to know that they do not have to simply accept the trademark unwritten standard for a father's parenting time, but rather they should be aware that they have the right to fight for equal time with their children either by placement or through extensive parenting schedules.
Authored By: Christopher A. Pearsall, RI Divorce Attorney a.k.a. " The Rhode Island Divorce Coach ℠ "
1. What is the residency requirement that must be met in the State of Rhode Island before you can file for divorce?
Answer: To file for divorce in Rhode Island you or your spouse must me a resident and continuously domiciled inhabitant of the state for at least one year before you file your complaint for divorce.
2. Do I have to be married for any particular length of time before I can file for a divorce in Rhode Island?
Answer: No. You can be married for any length of time and still file for divorce as long as you meet the state's residency requirement.
3. Do I file for divorce in Rhode Island if that is the state that I got married in?
Answer: No, not necessarily. You can only do so if you or your spouse have met the residency requirement for filing a divorce in Rhode Island.
4. How long does it take to get divorced in Rhode Island?
Answer: Typically an uncontested divorce can be completed in Rhode Island in about 5 1/2 months.
5. Is there any way a person can get a divorce faster than 5 1/2 months in Rhode Island?
Answer: Yes, if the spouses have been living separate and apart for a period of at least 3 years then a divorce can be completed in about 3 1/2 months.
6. Am I required to have a lawyer to get divorced?
Answer: No. You have the legal right to represent yourself. However, it is always advisable to get legal advice from a lawyer who regularly practices divorce in Rhode Island so that you are fully aware of your legal rights, options and alternatives.
7. What is the Rhode Island Family Court Filing fee for a divorce?
Answer: The filing fee as of February 6, 2016 is $140.75 plus a technology surcharge if you pay using the court's computerized system of $4.57.
8. How much does a divorce cost?
Answer: There is no set fee for how much a divorce will cost. The fees for divorces vary from attorney to attorney and case to case. The only set cost is the court's filing fee and technology surcharge.
9. Why do the fees for divorces vary so much?
Answer: Every attorney is different just as every case is different. The more experienced an attorney is the more likely it is that the attorney may charge more for his or her services. The more complicated the case is or the more difficult your spouse is, the more time and effort it may take on your attorney's part and therefore it could cost more.
10. What is an Uncontested Divorce?
Answer: Generally, many lawyers consider an uncontested divorce one in which the parties have already reached a fundamental agreement that resolves all aspects of the dissolution of their marriage before the divorce filing takes place. It is typically a divorce in which neither party files any motions or sends out any documents known as "discovery."
Answer: The law provides for different legal tools that can be used in a case to essentially "discover" the important aspects of the case before it goes to trial or in order to evaluate settlement offers from an informed position. The primary legal tools are interrogatories, requests for production of documents and things, requests for admissions, depositions and subpoenas. | 2019-04-21T09:14:00Z | https://www.rhodeislanddivorcetips.com/2016/02/index.html |
All of the shares of common equity of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company are privately held by a limited group of investors. As of July 29, 2011, 74,609,001 shares of common stock were outstanding.
When used in Part I, Items 2 through 4, and Part II, Items 1 through 6, the following terms have the definitions indicated.
other business or investment considerations that may be disclosed from time to time in MEHC's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or in other publicly disseminated written documents.
Further details of the potential risks and uncertainties affecting the Company are described in MEHC's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including Part II, Item 1A and other discussions contained in this Form 10-Q. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exclusive.
We have reviewed the accompanying consolidated balance sheet of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company and subsidiaries (the "Company") as of June 30, 2011, and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income for the three-month and six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, and of cash flows and changes in equity for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010. These interim financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management.
Based on our reviews, we are not aware of any material modifications that should be made to such consolidated interim financial statements for them to be in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We have previously audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated balance sheet of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2010, and the related consolidated statements of operations, cash flows, changes in equity, and comprehensive income for the year then ended (not presented herein); and in our report dated February 28, 2011, we expressed an unqualified opinion on those consolidated financial statements. In our opinion, the information set forth in the accompanying consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2010 is fairly stated, in all material respects, in relation to the consolidated balance sheet from which it has been derived.
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company ("MEHC") is a holding company that owns subsidiaries principally engaged in energy businesses (collectively with its subsidiaries, the "Company"). MEHC is a consolidated subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ("Berkshire Hathaway"). The balance of MEHC's common stock is owned by Mr. Walter Scott, Jr. (along with family members and related entities), a member of MEHC's Board of Directors, and Mr. Gregory E. Abel, a member of MEHC's Board of Directors and MEHC's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. As of June 30, 2011, Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Scott (along with family members and related entities) and Mr. Abel owned 89.8%, 9.4% and 0.8%, respectively, of MEHC's voting common stock.
The Company's operations are organized and managed as eight distinct platforms: PacifiCorp, MidAmerican Funding, LLC ("MidAmerican Funding") (which primarily consists of MidAmerican Energy Company ("MidAmerican Energy")), Northern Natural Gas Company ("Northern Natural Gas"), Kern River Gas Transmission Company ("Kern River"), CE Electric UK Funding Company ("CE Electric UK") (which primarily consists of Northern Electric Distribution Limited ("Northern Electric") and Yorkshire Electricity Distribution plc ("Yorkshire Electricity")), CalEnergy Philippines (which owns a majority interest in the Casecnan project in the Philippines), CalEnergy U.S. (which owns interests in independent power projects in the United States), and HomeServices of America, Inc. (collectively with its subsidiaries, "HomeServices"). Through these platforms, the Company owns and operates an electric utility company in the Western United States, an electric and natural gas utility company in the Midwestern United States, two interstate natural gas pipeline companies in the United States, two electricity distribution companies in Great Britain, a diversified portfolio of independent power projects and the second largest residential real estate brokerage firm in the United States.
The unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP") for interim financial information and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's rules and regulations for Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the disclosures required by GAAP for annual financial statements. Management believes the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements contain all adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) considered necessary for the fair presentation of the Consolidated Financial Statements as of June 30, 2011 and for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010. The results of operations for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year.
The preparation of the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the Consolidated Financial Statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the period. Actual results may differ from the estimates used in preparing the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements. Note 2 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 describes the most significant accounting policies used in the preparation of the Consolidated Financial Statements. There have been no significant changes in the Company's assumptions regarding significant accounting estimates and policies during the six-month period ended June 30, 2011.
In June 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2011-05, which amends FASB Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") Topic 220, "Comprehensive Income." ASU No. 2011-05 provides an entity with the option to present the total of comprehensive income, the components of net income and the components of other comprehensive income either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements. Regardless of the option chosen, this guidance also requires presentation of items on the face of the financial statements that are reclassified from other comprehensive income to net income. This guidance does not change the items that must be reported in other comprehensive income, when an item of other comprehensive income must be reclassified to net income or how tax effects of each item of other comprehensive income are presented. This guidance is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2011. The Company is currently evaluating which presentation option will be implemented.
In May 2011, the FASB issued ASU No. 2011-04, which amends FASB ASC Topic 820, "Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures." The amendments in this guidance are not intended to result in a change in current accounting. ASU No. 2011-04 requires additional disclosures relating to fair value measurements categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy, including quantitative information about unobservable inputs, the valuation process used by the entity and the sensitivity of unobservable input measurements. Additionally, entities are required to disclose the level of the fair value hierarchy for assets and liabilities that are not measured at fair value in the balance sheet, but for which disclosure of the fair value is required.This guidance is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2011. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting this guidance on its disclosures included within Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
In January 2010, the FASB issued ASU No. 2010-06, which amends FASB ASC Topic 820, "Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures." ASU No. 2010-06 requires disclosure of (a) the amount of significant transfers into and out of Levels 1 and 2 of the fair value hierarchy and the reasons for those transfers and (b) gross presentation of purchases, sales, issuances and settlements in the Level 3 fair value measurement rollforward. This guidance clarifies that existing fair value measurement disclosures should be presented for each class of assets and liabilities. The existing disclosures about the valuation techniques and inputs used to measure fair value for both recurring and nonrecurring fair value measurements have also been clarified to ensure such disclosures are presented for the Levels 2 and 3 fair value measurements. The Company adopted this guidance as of January 1, 2010, with the exception of the disclosure requirement to present purchases, sales, issuances and settlements gross in the Level 3 fair value measurement rollforward, which the Company adopted as of January 1, 2011. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on the Company's disclosures included within Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Substantially all of the construction work-in-progress as of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010 relates to the construction of regulated assets.
The following are updates to regulatory matters based upon material changes that occurred subsequent to December 31, 2010.
In December 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") issued an order establishing rates for the period of Kern River's current long-term contracts ("Period One rates") and required that rates be levelized for shippers that elect to continue to take service following the expiration of their current contracts ("Period Two rates"). The FERC set all other issues related to Period Two rates for hearing. In November 2010, the FERC issued an order that denied all requests for rehearing from the FERC's December 2009 order and established that Kern River is entitled to a 100% equity capital structure in its Period Two rates. In January 2011, Kern River filed a motion for clarification on certain depreciation issues with the FERC and also filed a petition for review of the orders regarding Period One rates in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In March 2011, the petition was dismissed upon request of Kern River and the FERC without prejudice to Kern River's refiling at the end of the Period Two rates proceeding.
In April 2011, the presiding administrative law judge issued an initial decision regarding Kern River's Period Two rates. Among other items, the administrative law judge determined the Period Two rates should be based on a return on equity of 11.55%, a capital structure of 100% equity, and a levelization period that coincides with each shipper group's uniform contract length of 10 or 15 years. The administrative law judge also determined that Kern River's regulatory asset associated with compressor engines and general plant replacements can only be recovered in a future rate case and may not be incorporated into Period Two rates at this time. Kern River filed its initial brief on exceptions in May 2011 and its brief opposing exceptions in June 2011. In July 2011, the FERC issued its order substantially adopting the presiding administrative law judge's initial decision. One or more parties, including Kern River, are expected to request a rehearing or clarification of the order.
Level 1 — Inputs are unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the Company has the ability to access at the measurement date.
Level 2 — Inputs include quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability and inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data by correlation or other means (market corroborated inputs).
Level 3 — Unobservable inputs reflect the Company's judgments about the assumptions market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability since limited market data exists. The Company develops these inputs based on the best information available, including its own data.
Represents netting under master netting arrangements and a net cash collateral receivable of $115 million and $141 million as of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, respectively.
Amounts are included in cash and cash equivalents; current investments and restricted cash and investments; and noncurrent investments and restricted cash and investments on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. The fair value of these money market mutual funds approximates cost.
Derivative contracts are recorded on the Consolidated Balance Sheets as either assets or liabilities and are stated at fair value unless they are designated as normal purchases or normal sales and qualify for the exception afforded by GAAP. When available, the fair value of derivative contracts is estimated using unadjusted quoted prices for identical contracts in the market in which the Company transacts. When quoted prices for identical contracts are not available, the Company uses forward price curves. Forward price curves represent the Company's estimates of the prices at which a buyer or seller could contract today for delivery or settlement at future dates. The Company bases its forward price curves upon market price quotations, when available, or internally developed and commercial models, with internal and external fundamental data inputs. Market price quotations are obtained from independent energy brokers, exchanges, direct communication with market participants and actual transactions executed by the Company. Market price quotations for certain major electricity and natural gas trading hubs are generally readily obtainable for the applicable term of the Company's outstanding derivative contracts; therefore, the Company's forward price curves for those locations and periods reflect observable market quotes. Market price quotations for other electricity and natural gas trading hubs are not as readily obtainable due to the length of the contract. Given that limited market data exists for these contracts, as well as for those contracts that are not actively traded, the Company uses forward price curves derived from internal models based on perceived pricing relationships to major trading hubs that are based on unobservable inputs. The estimated fair value of these derivative contracts is a function of underlying forward commodity prices, interest rates, currency rates, related volatility, counterparty creditworthiness and duration of contracts. Refer to Note 6 for further discussion regarding the Company's risk management and hedging activities.
Contracts with explicit or embedded optionality are valued by separating each contract into its physical and financial forward, swap and option components. Forward and swap components are valued against the appropriate forward price curve. Option components are valued using Black-Scholes-type models, such as European option, spread option and best-of option, with the appropriate forward price curve and other inputs.
The Company's investments in money market mutual funds and debt and equity securities are accounted for as available-for-sale securities and are stated at fair value. When available, a readily observable quoted market price or net asset value of an identical security in an active market is used to record the fair value. In the absence of a quoted market price or net asset value of an identical security, the fair value is determined using pricing models or net asset values based on observable market inputs and quoted market prices of securities with similar characteristics. The fair value of the Company's investments in auction rate securities, where there is no current liquid market, is determined using pricing models based on available observable market data and the Company's judgment about the assumptions, including liquidity and nonperformance risks, which market participants would use when pricing the asset.
Changes included in earnings are reported as operating revenue on the Consolidated Statements of Operations. For commodity derivatives held as of June 30, 2011 and 2010, net unrealized gains (losses) included in earnings for the three-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010 totaled $2 million and $(4) million, respectively, and for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010 totaled $1 million and $5 million, respectively.
The Company is exposed to the impact of market fluctuations in commodity prices, interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates. The Company is principally exposed to electricity, natural gas, coal and fuel oil commodity price risk primarily through MEHC's ownership of the Utilities as they have an obligation to serve retail customer load in their regulated service territories. MidAmerican Energy also provides nonregulated retail electricity and natural gas services in competitive markets. The Utilities' load and generating facilities represent substantial underlying commodity positions. Exposures to commodity prices consist mainly of variations in the price of fuel required to generate electricity, wholesale electricity that is purchased and sold, and natural gas supply for regulated and nonregulated retail customers. Commodity prices are subject to wide price swings as supply and demand are impacted by, among many other unpredictable items, weather, market liquidity, generating facility availability, customer usage, storage, and transmission and transportation constraints. Interest rate risk exists on variable-rate debt and future debt issuances. Additionally, the Company is exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk from its business operations and investments in Great Britain. The Company does not engage in a material amount of proprietary trading activities.
Each of the Company's business platforms has established a risk management process that is designed to identify, assess, monitor, report, manage and mitigate each of the various types of risk involved in its business. To mitigate a portion of its commodity price risk, the Company uses commodity derivative contracts, including forwards, futures, options, swaps and other agreements, to effectively secure future supply or sell future production generally at fixed prices. The Company manages its interest rate risk by limiting its exposure to variable interest rates primarily through the issuance of fixed-rate long-term debt and by monitoring market changes in interest rates. Additionally, the Company may from time to time enter into interest rate derivative contracts, such as interest rate swaps or locks, to mitigate the Company's exposure to interest rate risk. The Company does not hedge all of its commodity price, interest rate and foreign currency exchange rate risks, thereby exposing the unhedged portion to changes in market prices.
There have been no significant changes in the Company's accounting policies related to derivatives. Refer to Note 5 for additional information on derivative contracts.
Derivative contracts within these categories subject to master netting arrangements are presented on a net basis on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.
The Company's commodity derivatives not designated as hedging contracts are generally included in regulated rates, and as of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, a net regulatory asset of $498 million and $564 million, respectively, was recorded related to the net derivative liability of $496 million and $565 million, respectively.
The Company uses commodity derivative contracts accounted for as cash flow hedges to hedge electricity and natural gas commodity prices for delivery to nonregulated customers, spring operational sales, natural gas storage and other transactions. The Company's commodity derivative contracts designated as fair value hedges were not significant.
Certain derivative contracts, principally interest rate locks, have settled and the fair value at the date of settlement remains in accumulated other comprehensive income ("AOCI") and is recognized in earnings when the forecasted transactions impact earnings.
Realized gains and losses on hedges and hedge ineffectiveness are recognized in income as operating revenue, cost of sales or operating expense depending upon the nature of the item being hedged. For the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, hedge ineffectiveness was insignificant. As of June 30, 2011, the Company had cash flow hedges with expiration dates extending through December 2014 and $13 million of pre-tax net unrealized losses are forecasted to be reclassified from AOCI into earnings over the next twelve months as contracts settle.
The Utilities extend unsecured credit to other utilities, energy marketing companies, financial institutions and other market participants in conjunction with their wholesale energy supply and marketing activities. Credit risk relates to the risk of loss that might occur as a result of nonperformance by counterparties on their contractual obligations to make or take delivery of electricity, natural gas or other commodities and to make financial settlements of these obligations. Credit risk may be concentrated to the extent that one or more groups of counterparties have similar economic, industry or other characteristics that would cause their ability to meet contractual obligations to be similarly affected by changes in market or other conditions. In addition, credit risk includes not only the risk that a counterparty may default due to circumstances relating directly to it, but also the risk that a counterparty may default due to circumstances involving other market participants that have a direct or indirect relationship with the counterparty.
The Utilities analyze the financial condition of each significant wholesale counterparty before entering into any transactions, establish limits on the amount of unsecured credit to be extended to each counterparty and evaluate the appropriateness of unsecured credit limits on an ongoing basis. To mitigate exposure to the financial risks of wholesale counterparties, the Utilities enter into netting and collateral arrangements that may include margining and cross-product netting agreements and obtain third-party guarantees, letters of credit and cash deposits. Counterparties may be assessed fees for delayed payments. If required, the Utilities exercise rights under these arrangements, including calling on the counterparty's credit support arrangement.
MidAmerican Energy also has potential indirect credit exposure to other market participants in the regional transmission organization ("RTO") markets where it actively participates, including the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. and the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. In the event of a default by a RTO market participant on its market-related obligations, losses are allocated among all other market participants in proportion to each participant's share of overall market activity during the period of time the loss was incurred, diversifying MidAmerican Energy's exposure to credit losses from individual participants. Transactional activities of MidAmerican Energy and other participants in organized RTO markets are governed by credit policies specified in each respective RTO's governing tariff or related business practices. Credit policies of RTO's, which have been developed through extensive stakeholder participation, generally seek to minimize potential loss in the event of a market participant default without unnecessarily inhibiting access to the marketplace. MidAmerican Energy's share of historical losses from defaults by other RTO market participants has not been material.
In accordance with industry practice, certain wholesale derivative contracts contain provisions that require MEHC's subsidiaries, principally the Utilities, to maintain specific credit ratings from one or more of the major credit rating agencies on their unsecured debt. These derivative contracts may either specifically provide bilateral rights to demand cash or other security if credit exposures on a net basis exceed specified rating-dependent threshold levels ("credit-risk-related contingent features") or provide the right for counterparties to demand "adequate assurance" in the event of a material adverse change in the subsidiary's creditworthiness. These rights can vary by contract and by counterparty. As of June 30, 2011, these subsidiary's credit ratings from the three recognized credit rating agencies were investment grade.
The aggregate fair value of the Company's derivative contracts in liability positions with specific credit-risk-related contingent features totaled $506 million and $603 million as of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, respectively, for which the Company had posted collateral of $111 million and $136 million, respectively. If all credit-risk-related contingent features for derivative contracts in liability positions had been triggered as of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, the Company would have been required to post $248 million and $261 million, respectively, of additional collateral. The Company's collateral requirements could fluctuate considerably due to market price volatility, changes in credit ratings, changes in legislation or regulation, or other factors.
The Company's restricted cash and investments as of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010 are primarily related to (a) funds held in trust for nuclear decommissioning and (b) debt service reserve requirements for certain projects. The debt service funds are restricted by their respective project debt agreements to be used only for the related project.
In conjunction with the construction of wind-powered generating facilities, MidAmerican Energy has accrued as construction work-in-progress certain amounts for which it is not contractually obligated to pay until December 2013. The amounts ultimately payable are discounted at 1.46% and recognized upon delivery of the equipment as long-term debt. The discount is amortized as interest expense over the period until payment is due using the effective interest method. As of June 30, 2011, $94 million of such debt, net of associated discount, was outstanding.
In May 2011, PacifiCorp issued $400 million of 3.85% First Mortgage Bonds due June 15, 2021. The net proceeds are being used to fund capital expenditures, for the repayment of short-term debt and for general corporate purposes.
In April 2011, Northern Natural Gas issued $200 million of 4.25% Senior Notes due June 1, 2021. The net proceeds were used to partially repay its $250 million, 7.0% Senior Notes due June 1, 2011.
In January and February 2011, Northern Electric issued £119 million of notes with maturity dates ranging from 2018 to 2020 at interest rates ranging from 3.901% to 4.586% under its finance contract with the European Investment Bank.
As of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, Berkshire Hathaway and its affiliates held 11% mandatory redeemable preferred securities due from certain wholly-owned subsidiary trusts of MEHC of $143 million and $165 million, respectively. Interest expense on these securities totaled $4 million and $8 million for the three-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively, and $9 million and $18 million for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively.
Berkshire Hathaway includes the Company in its United States federal income tax return. As of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, income taxes receivable from Berkshire Hathaway totaled $118 million and $396 million, respectively. For the six-month periods ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, the Company received net cash payments for income taxes from Berkshire Hathaway totaling $399 million and $65 million, respectively.
Employer contributions to the domestic pension and other postretirement benefit plans are expected to be $127 million and $28 million, respectively, during 2011. As of June 30, 2011, $105 million and $14 million of contributions had been made to the domestic pension and other postretirement benefit plans, respectively.
Employer contributions to the UK pension plan are expected to be £50 million during 2011. As of June 30, 2011, £8 million, or $13 million, of contributions had been made to the UK pension plan.
Federal and state income tax credits primarily relate to production tax credits at the Utilities. The Utilities' wind-powered generating facilities are eligible for federal renewable electricity production tax credits for 10 years from the date the facilities were placed in service.
The Company is party to a variety of legal actions arising out of the normal course of business. Plaintiffs occasionally seek punitive or exemplary damages. The Company does not believe that such normal and routine litigation will have a material impact on its consolidated financial results.
The Company is subject to federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations regarding air and water quality, renewable portfolio standards, emissions performance standards, climate change, coal combustion byproduct disposal, hazardous and solid waste disposal, protected species and other environmental matters that have the potential to impact the Company's current and future operations. The Company believes it is in material compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
PacifiCorp's hydroelectric portfolio consists of 46 generating facilities with an aggregate facility net owned capacity of 1,161 megawatts. The FERC regulates 98% of the net capacity of this portfolio through 16 individual licenses, which typically have terms of 30 to 50 years. PacifiCorp expects to incur ongoing operating and maintenance expense and capital expenditures associated with the terms of its renewed hydroelectric licenses and settlement agreements, including natural resource enhancements. PacifiCorp's Klamath hydroelectric system is currently operating under annual licenses. Substantially all of PacifiCorp's remaining hydroelectric generating facilities are operating under licenses that expire between 2030 and 2058.
In February 2010, PacifiCorp, the United States Department of the Interior, the United States Department of Commerce, the State of California, the State of Oregon and various other governmental and non-governmental settlement parties signed the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement ("KHSA"). Among other things, the KHSA provides that the United States Department of the Interior conduct scientific and engineering studies to assess whether removal of the Klamath hydroelectric system's four mainstem dams is in the public interest and will advance restoration of the Klamath Basin's salmonid fisheries. If it is determined that dam removal should proceed, dam removal is expected to commence no earlier than 2020.
Under the KHSA, PacifiCorp and its customers are protected from uncapped dam removal costs and liabilities. For dam removal to occur, federal legislation consistent with the KHSA must be enacted to provide, among other things, protection for PacifiCorp from all liabilities associated with dam removal activities. If Congress does not enact legislation, then PacifiCorp will resume relicensing at the FERC. In addition, the KHSA limits PacifiCorp's contribution to dam removal costs to no more than $200 million, of which up to $184 million would be collected from PacifiCorp's Oregon customers with the remainder to be collected from PacifiCorp's California customers. An additional $250 million for dam removal costs is expected to be raised through a California bond measure or other appropriate State of California financing mechanism. If dam removal costs exceed $200 million and if the State of California is unable to raise the additional funds necessary for dam removal costs, sufficient funds would need to be provided by an entity other than PacifiCorp in order for the KHSA and dam removal to proceed.
PacifiCorp has begun collection of surcharges from Oregon customers for their share of dam removal costs, as approved by the Oregon Public Utility Commission ("OPUC"), and is depositing the proceeds in a trust account maintained by the OPUC. In May 2011, the California Public Utilities Commission ("CPUC") approved the collection of surcharges from California customers beginning at a future date to be determined through a tariff filing. In June 2011, the tariff filing was completed and new rates will be effective upon establishment of two trust accounts.
As of June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, the net book value of PacifiCorp's Klamath hydroelectric system's four mainstem dams and the associated relicensing and settlement costs was $121 million and $125 million, respectively. During 2010 and 2011, PacifiCorp received approvals from the OPUC, the CPUC and the Wyoming Public Service Commission to depreciate the Klamath hydroelectric system's four mainstem dams and the associated relicensing and settlement costs through the expected dam removal date. The depreciation rate changes were effective January 1, 2011 and will allow for full depreciation of the assets by December 2019. PacifiCorp is seeking similar approval in Idaho and expects to seek approval in the next Washington general rate case. As part of the July 2011 Utah general rate case settlement stipulation, PacifiCorp and the other parties to the settlement stipulation have proposed to defer a decision regarding the acceleration of the depreciation rates for the Klamath hydroelectric system's four mainstem dams to a future rate proceeding, at which time the associated relicensing and settlement costs would be addressed. The Utah Public Service Commission is expected to make a final decision regarding the settlement stipulation not later than September 2011.
In May 2011, PacifiCorp issued a notice to proceed with the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the 637-MW Lake Side 2 combined-cycle natural gas-fired generating facility. The notice to proceed resulted in purchase obligations for the years ending December 31 of approximately $181 million in 2011, $206 million in 2012, $126 million in 2013 and $8 million in 2014.
In May 2011, MidAmerican Energy signed contracts totaling $427 million for the construction of emissions control equipment at two of its jointly owned generating facilities to address air quality requirements. These contracts resulted in purchase obligations for the years ending December 31 of approximately $143 million in 2012, $194 million in 2013 and $90 million in 2014. As a joint owner of the generating facilities, MidAmerican Energy's share is $238 million. | 2019-04-24T16:54:43Z | https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1081316/000108131611000017/mehc63011form10-q.htm |
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Sarah Hickerson. That was her name. It’s a new name to me, well, new in the sense of being an ancestor… rolling around on my tongue like sweet dark chocolate – the best – from Belgium – my favorite. Let me say it again and savor its flavor.
Sarah was my great-great-great-great grandmother. Those are glorious words, because before now, she was a brick wall – a maybe and nothing more. I want to introduce you to Sarah, but first, I need to introduce you to Harold.
Harold is my long-suffering cousin. I met Harold more than 20 years ago now, probably about a quarter century ago. I remember things relative to life events – landmark events in my life – and I know where I was living when I met Harold and that it was before my previous husband’s massive stroke. He is my longest-standing genealogy research partner – what a testimony to his endurance!
Harold with Jayden, his great-granddaughter.
You see, this week when I mentioned that we had broken through a 30 year brick wall, he told me that for him, it was more like a 45 year brick wall. Suddenly my 30 year brick wall didn’t look nearly so bad. Or maybe I should say his 45 year brick wall made me even more jubilant.
Harold and I didn’t know each other before we met through genealogy. You’d think we would. Our common ancestors, Joel and Phoebe Crumley Vannoy died in 1895 and 1900 respectively, and their children were our great-grandparents who clearly knew each other – and so did their children. It seems that it was in our parent’s generation that the families lost track of each other – probably that the generation who began to move away from Appalachia in earnest – often in order to find jobs elsewhere. Harold’s grandparents moved to Missouri, and mine moved to Arkansas and then Indiana, before divorcing a decade later and a half later, in the 19-teens. The families moved apart and not only lost track of each other, the next generation didn’t even know the other families existed. That was the generation of our parents. So it was something of a miracle when Harold and I found each other, and even more amazing when we discovered we lived within 35 miles of each other in an entirely different state.
It was progress that divided the family, plus maybe a bit of bootlegging on my grandpa’s part, and it was genealogy that reunited us more than half a century later.
Harold and I are both old fashioned genealogists – meaning diggers – think of us as hound dogs after a bone. Both of us have visited many locations over the years and we share our results and research with each other. In this case, it’s the cumulative effort of both of our research work that has brought us this breakthrough – although in this case, much of the Hickerson research, especially the pieces that led to Higginson, is entirely Harold’s.
Who Was Elijah Vannoy’s Father?
The Vannoy family in Hancock and Claiborne Counties of Tennessee had kept good records, for the most part, since they had moved from Wilkes County, North Carolina to then Claiborne County in about 1812. Before that, not so much.
The earliest record of Elijah Vannoy is an 1807 entry in the Wilkes County, North Carolina Deed Book G-H. He married Lois McNeil (daughter of William McNeil and Elizabeth Shepherd) sometime before 1810 and he is listed in the Wilkes County, NC 1810 Federal Census. He left Wilkes County, NC after 1811 with the McNeil family and an Elijah Vannoy is listed in the Bedford County, Tennessee 1812 Tax List.
Later in 1812, he appears in the Claiborne County, TN court notes where he lived for the rest of his life, even though his homeplace shifted to be in Hancock County in the 1840s when Hancock County was formed.
The problem is that we didn’t know who Elijah’s father was. This should not have been so tough. There were only 4 candidates. All 4 Vannoy men who lived in Wilkes County in the 1784 timeframe when Elijah was born were sons of John Francis Vannoy and Susannah Baker Anderson. How tough can this be?
Very tough, let me tell you. Half a century tough!
Not all Wilkes County records are existent. Seems that at some time, or times, in the past, the clerk decided to have a large bonfire because they didn’t need those old records anymore. If you’re cringing and groaning, well, so was I. I still do, every time I think of that being done intentionally. The county next door, where we think Elijah and his parents may have lived for at least part of the time, Ashe, has incomplete records as well. Ashe County was created from Wilkes in 1799.
Fortunately, the Wilkes County local tax records are still existent as well as the 1790 census records. Utilizing those records, I reconstructed, as best I could, the family structures and rough ages of the various children. Then, utilizing family records, Bibles, deeds and such, I assigned the children to the parents.
At the end of this process, I had narrowed the parental candidate to either Daniel or Nathaniel Vannoy. Harold had an uncle who told him that Elijah was “Nathaniel’s boy” and given what we had, we pretty much took that at face value.
But then, then, a Bible record emerged from a family member. Nathaniel’s Bible, and guess what….there was no Elijah. Now, people didn’t leave children out of the Bible. Nonetheless, I tried to decide if there was “room” for Elijah there, because Nathaniel seemed to be such a good fit. And there was, barely, but not very reasonably. He would have had to have been conceived when his sibling was about 3 months old, and left out of the Bible – and both of those things individually were very remote possibilities, let alone to have happened together.
Nathaniel died at the home of his daughter in 1835 in Greenville, SC. A few years ago, I visited Greenville, SC, on the way to another destination. I spent the night and the next day in the local courthouse pouring over will records, deed records, probate records….anything and everything, only to determine that Nathaniel had pretty much distributed his estate to his children before his death. However, there was no mention of an Elijah.
Daniel was the most difficult of the men. He died early, for one thing, we think, as did his wife, leaving very few records. Daniel married Sarah Hickerson on October 2, 1779. He filed for a land patent in 1780, obtained the grant in 1782 and was on the Wilkes County tax list with 100 acres until 1787. After that, he was still taxed, but he was no longer taxed on land. He shows up in the 1790 census and on the personal property tax lists until 1795, but in 1796, he is gone and there is nothing further. However, we know the family didn’t move away, because Elijah is living there when he married Lois McNiel not long before 1810. Their proven son, Joel, also married in Wilkes County in 1817, so they had to be living someplace in the vicinity!
If Daniel died and had no land, there was likely no estate. Furthermore, his widow would not have been required to pay tax because only adult males over the age of either 16 or 21 were taxed, depending on where they lived and the laws of the time. In 1795, unquestionably, Elijah was under the age of 16 and any child born after 1880 would have been as well.
The 1800 census doesn’t exist, but in the 1810 census, we find Sarah Vannoy shown with three females. There is no further record of Sarah, unless an 1820 census record that shows a Sarah Vannoy age 26-45 is Daniel’s widow. This seems extremely unlikely, unless someone simply counted the boxes on the census form incorrectly, because in 1820, someone 45 years of age would have been born in 1779, the year Sarah was married to Daniel. That’s an awfully large mistake to make.
The only known male child of Daniel Vannoy is Joel, known as “Sheriff Joel” in the family. A daughter Susannah is also attributed to Daniel Vannoy and Sarah Hickerson. In the 1790 census, they had two male children, and given that we only know of one son, Joel, the slot for a second male born before 1788 is enticingly vacant.
In 1810, Sarah Vannoy is shown to be age 26-45, which is too young for our Sarah. If this is our Sarah, she is shown with three females, which would make three daughters and 2 sons, at least, if it is Sarah Hickerson Vannoy.
I tried to correlate names as well. Elijah’s oldest son was named Joel, the same name as Daniel’s only known son. Elijah had a daughter named Sarah too, but no male child named Daniel…at least not that survived. But then, Joel didn’t name a son Daniel either, but he did have one named Elijah. We didn’t have a lot to work with here.
So there we stood, for more than a decade.
I had journeyed to Wilkes County, NC, Greenville, South Carolina and the NC State Archives in Raleigh. Harold had been to the Allen County Public library searching for Hickerson information. That’s where he discovered that the Hickersons were originally Higginsons. We had information alright, but nothing to tie it all together and nothing to tie it to any specific Vannoy male.
It was still only data, information, not evidence.
When DNA testing first became available, Harold and I decided that we could at lease rule in or out one possibility, and that was that Elijah wasn’t the son of any of the Vannoy men, but was instead illegitimate or adopted. Harold tested, and we found other males as well not in our line of descent, confirming that Elijah was indeed a Vannoy male genetically. At least one possibility was removed.
I surmised years ago that the only way I was ever going to solve this mystery was through the wives lines. By that, I mean that because we are going to match descendants of all 4 men utilizing both Y and autosomal DNA, because they all 4 shared a father, that the only differentiating factor was going to be the DNA of the various wives lines.
To make this even tougher that means that we had to match someone ELSE, preferably multiple someone elses, descended from the wives lines utilizing autosomal DNA.
We have just one more fly in the ointment. Harold and I are descended from one of the wives too. Yep, everyone married their neighbors and it was inevitable. Andrew Vannoy’s’s father-in-law, John Shephard is the brother of our ancestor, Robert Shephard who married Sarah Rash and had daughter Elizabeth Shepherd who married William McNiel. William and Elizabeth had daughter Lois who married…you guessed it….Elijah Vannoy. And around and around we go.
So, if Elijah’s father was Andrew Vannoy, we were up the proverbial creek without a paddle. And we’d never know it because only sign would be if many people who descended from the other wives lines tested and we consistently did NOT match any of them. That’s not exactly proof – not at more than 6 generations removed.
Fortunately, Andrew had been fairly well ruled out pretty early in the game as a candidate to be Elijah’s father.
I tentatively entered Daniel Vannoy and Sarah Hickerson as Elijah’s parents in my genealogy software, more than anything as a placeholder because I knew who Elijah’s Vannoy grandparents were, unquestionably and I needed someone to connect the generations. I felt Daniel was my best shot, although I really hesitated when I added this record to Ancestry because I felt the link was so tenuous and I didn’t want anyone else copying it as gospel.
So, that brings us to today, or this week, anyway. It seems appropriate that I’m finishing this article on Thanksgiving day!!!
Periodically, I’d go and look, rather half-heartedly to see if I had any DNA matches with any Hickersons, Hendersons or Ray/Reys and periodically, I would find out that I didn’t…or not anyone I could connect to anyway.
Each of the three autosomal DNA vendors has the ability to search on surnames, including ancestral surnames. However what I didn’t do was twofold. I only searched my own account. I did not ask Harold to search his, nor did I search the accounts that I manage who also descend from Elijah. Duh!!! What was I thinking?
Actually, truthfully, after so many years of that wall standing so firmly, I thought it would never fall and so I stopped pushing the envelope. We are right at that 6 generation threshold, so I was painfully aware that I might not match someone on a big enough piece of DNA to be over the threshold for matching.
Here’s my direct line to Sarah.
We don’t yet have advanced tools that are flexible enough to say “find all the Hickersons in the data base, drop the threshold to 3cM and tell me if I match them and if they match each other. Oh yes, and tell me if any of my Vannoy cousins match these people too.” Nope, not here yet, still a dream… so I searched my own account periodically with no results.
Secondly, I didn’t search for the surname Higginson. I have a really good excuse for that. I didn’t realize that Higginson was the earlier form of Hickerson. Cousin Harold shared that with me this week. He found it a couple years ago when he visited the Fort Wayne library, and while it didn’t seem to matter at the time, today, it matters a great deal.
It’s winter in Michigan…far too early, way too cold and rather a brutal and dramatic entrance. The wind was howling the snow blowing straight sideways. Here, just look out my back window for yourself. You used to be able to see a lake, but not anymore!
I had just spent two days researching and writing about the new Ancestry DNA Circles rollout. Truthfully, this seems “cute” and very easy and enticing, but certainly not adequate as compared to what genetic genealogists want and need, and not terribly relevant to me. By this, I mean that the only thing that DNA Circles does, is, well, group your DNA matches and those who also match each other’s DNA and have a common ancestor in a pedigree chart. That doesn’t mean that all of your DNA matches because you descend from this ancestor, but it does increase the odds, the more people in the circle.
For example, the only circle I have that is relevant to this discussion is a circle for Joel Vannoy that is made up of me, cousin Harold, a kit he administers and a fourth cousin who doesn’t reply to messages.
I already know I’m descended from Joel Vannoy, so really, there is nothing for me here. Now if there had been a Hickerson circle, THAT would have been news!!!!
Given Ancestry’s suggestive “soft science” approach, I was terribly frustrated and rather grumpy when you combine the hours that the articles took and the terrible weather. Grumpy cat’s got nothing on me.
However, because I was writing about the before and after aspect of Ancestry’s new software, I had to review all of my shakey leaf matches, before and after. Among other things, ancestry changed the way their software sorts and matches.
Before, I had no shakey leaf match to a descendant of Charles Hickerson and Mary Lytle, but afterwards, I did.
There it was, in color, sitting there just calmly staring at me. OMG!!!!
Was this the real McCoy?? Or was this the proverbial case that we have so often found on Ancestry where the DNA does match and the pedigree does match, but they point to two different ancestors?
Need I mention that there are no tools at Ancestry, no chromosome browser, nada, to solve or resolve this issue? Ancestry feels we don’t need them. I’m here to tell you, we do. Here’s the perfect example of why.
I did what any good genealogist cousin would do. I e-mailed Harold right away with the news!!!! I asked him to check his results at Ancestry and those of his brother as well, and let me know if he matches the same person, or any Hickerson descendant.
And then, I waited, of course, for his answer.
Harold’s brother had a Charles Hickerson/Mary Lytle match at Ancestry too.
Neither Harold nor his brother matched the same person that I did, but one of the people they both matched was very interesting, because a third cousin, Cindy also shared a match with this person. Cousin Cindy descends through her ancestor known as “Sheriff Joel Vannoy,” the proven son of Daniel Vannoy and Sarah Hickerson. This match is shown above, with the current tester’s screen name and current generation removed.
So three Vannoy cousins, one not through Elijah, but through his suspected brother, all match the same Hickerson descendant.
OMG this is enticing, but the problem is that we can’t prove it because we have no tools. This is exactly why we need a chromosome browser that shows us they not only match the same descendant, but match on the same segment of DNA. That’s confirmation of a genetic match – and the only way to provide that confirmation. So close but so <insert swear word of choice here> frustratingly far away.
Below, a little summary table of our Hickerson/Higginson matches at Ancestry.
About this time, I received another message from Harold. He told me that while cousin Cindy had tested at Ancestry, her brother had tested at Family Tree DNA – and she had just joined him to the Vannoy DNA project which Harold and I administer.
If I was ever glad that I have embraced autosomal participants in surname projects, today is that day.
I quickly signed onto the the Vannoy project and looked at Cindy’s brother’s Family Finder results. Utilizing the “ancestral surname” search capability, I discovered that Cindy’s brother indeed matches three people who descend from a Hickerson line, including one who descends from Charles Hickerson and Mary Lytle through a son.
Oh, I’m in Digger the Dog heaven now, because I do have tools at Family Tree DNA – and I also have cousins – lots of cousins.
I hadn’t really realized the true power of cousins until this exercise.
There are a total of 10 cousins, nine of whom descend from Elijah Vannoy and Lois McNiel and one from Daniel Vannoy and Sarah Hickerson’s son, Joel, who have tested at Family Tree DNA, all of whom are in the Vannoy DNA project.
Needless to say, I searched each one for both Hickerson and Higginson ancestral suranme matches, and what I found was a goldmine. Individually, these results were interesting with a nugget or two, but cumulatively, it was the Gold Rush!!!
After I made a matrix of who matched whom, I then began the process of pushing the results into the chromosome browser. I won’t bore you with the many iterations of that exercise, but suffice it to say that it’s very exciting to see the Vannoy, Hickerson and Higginson segments overlap.
In this example, individuals are being compared to my cousin Buster at 1cM.
At the end of the day, we had the following match matrix. All of the Vannoy cousins are shown at left, including William who descends from Sheriff Joel Vannoy, proven son of Daniel Vannoy and Sarah Hickerson. The rest of the cousins all descend from Elijah Vannoy and Lois McNiel. The top row represents all of the individuals who show Hickerson or Higginson in their ancestral surnames. The two green individuals descend from Charles Hickerson and Mary Lytle (Little).
You’ll notice, above, that there are several instances where more than one cousin matched the same Hickerson/Higginson descendant. This was very important, because it allowed me to compare their DNA by segment in the chromosome browser.
I downloaded all of the match data for the matches to the Hickersons and Higginsons, and to each Vannoy cousin as well. Needless to say, the Hickerson and Higginson matches won’t be displayed at Family Tree DNA unless they are over the matching threshold of around 7.7cM, which does not mean they would not match at lower segment thresholds. That can be discovered by a composite spreadsheet in which all of the matches of all of the cousins plus the Hendersons and Hickersons are compiled. Downloaded match data at Family Tree DNA includes segments of 1cM or above.
The spreadsheet is 614 rows and includes 64 matching clusters of individuals which include Vannoy cousins and at least one Hickerson/Higginson match. Some of these matches are as large as 20cM with 6000 SNPs. More than twenty Hickerson/Higginson triangulated matches are over 10cM with from 1500 to 6000 SNPs. Many are much smaller. An excerpt of one match cluster is shown below. This is the same group as is shown on the chromosome browser on chromosome 2, at the very top of the graphic.
Note that the cousins are matching each other on this segment, and they are also matching the Hickerson/Higginson descendants as well on this same segment, which strongly suggests that this “Vannoy” segment is descended from the Hickerson/Higginson line of the family.
Bingo! Checkmate! Wahoo!!!! Happy Dance!
Sarah Hickerson – you are now MY confirmed ancestor, along with your husband Daniel Vannoy. Welcome back to the family – we’ll be celebrating you at the Thanksgiving table today. You have been resurrected to us, reconnected after more than 100 years of being lost!
The dead may be dead, but our ancestors don’t have to be dead to us, even if the records are gone – they aren’t.
Their DNA runs in our veins, and that of our cousins. The power of this solution was found in the many cousins who have tested. Without all of us, the ancestral connection would not have been revealed.
Thank you, cousins, on this wonderful Thankgiving Day!!!! Thank you Harold for your tireless research, and for never giving up.
And thank you Family Tree DNA for the chromosome browser, the matrix and other tools necessary to break down this brick wall.
Hi Roberta, Perhaps I am misunderstanding, but are you really claiming to have “proved” an ancestor based on segments smaller than 2 cMs? Is the grouping on Chromosome 2 on what you are basing your conclusions? Most of these segments are likely pseudo-segments and would disappear if you had the ability to phase your data. The rest are most likely IBS – simply an indication of ancestry from a common population group. In no way do segments this side indicate a recent common ancestor.
There are many other matching segments, and obviously many are over the matching threshold of 7+cM or they wouldn’t be shown as matches at all at Family Tree DNA. I chose that particular segment as an example because it was shown on chromosome two on the browser above with matches for 5 people and it had a large number of matching Vannoy cousins who also matched several Hickerson/Higginson individuals. It was an example, since I didn’t really think that everyone wanted to see all 614 rows of the spreadsheet. I would not claim an ancestor based only on this match only, but in addition to many other segments, it certainly can’t dismissed as irrelevant. Some of the triangulated segments between the Vannoy/Hickerson/Higginson individuals are as large as 13 and 19cM and 3000 and 4800 SNPs. There are a total of 65 triangulated segments in the 614 rows that are triangulated between the Vannoy/Hickerson/Higginson participants.
I’m glad to hear that, but I think that this was a potentially misleading example to use since it gave the impression that these tiny matches are highly significant. Thank you for your clarification.
Congratulations. Very inspirational story for those of us interested in genetic genealogy. So glad for you that your persistence has paid off. Now you can train your sleuthing skills on to another mystery!
This makes my heart sing! (Or maybe I’m just hungry.) Congratulations! This is truly inspirational.
Great article! Your brick wall reminds me of one I am dealing with. Is there a way to tell if the Ancestry hints are based off of my tree or a DNA match? It appears that most of them are just coming from matching names on my tree and I’m looking for ones that are due to DNA with these same names.
They are based on DNA. You have the option at Ancestry of downloading your raw data and uploading it to GedMatch and/or FTDNA and comparing it to those of your matches who have also done this. You will usually find that some have; that will increase your confidence that your Ancestry DNA is based on DNA, not just trees. If you have a particularly interesting match you can often appeal to their curiousity and request they upload. Your first job is to learn to understand what you are seeing in that raw data upload actually means.
Laura, I’m not sure I was clear enough. I have kits at FTDNA & Ancestry, I’ve also uploaded all of these to GEDmatch. I have used DNA for a while and understand it pretty well. My question is whether on Ancestry trees any of the leaf hints pertain to DNA and not just the information provided in the tree – not when I am on my DNA Home page. I find that people don’t even reply, let alone upload upon request, and many don’t even have a visible tree. Very frustrating! BTW, a Davenport recently showed up on my father’s Y-67 along with our surname of Moore.
What a family tangle and such a happy ending. And a great example of why we need all the DNA analysis tools possible.
I absolutely agree with CeCe, but thank you for clarifying that these “DNA cousins” also share larger segments, above the FTDNA 7.7 threshold. Not that it isn’t still misleading and will have every novice in the universe chasing 1cM segments. Although I realize what you have done is look for clusters of these small homologous segments among a set of subjects who are already connected by segments long enough to have a high likelihood of being IBD, there are many who won’t.
They can’t even see the smaller segments at FTDNA if they don’t match above the threshold in the first place, because they aren’t considered a match. I very clearly showed that these people matched at FTDNA and several of them matched multiple cousins at FTDNA – in the chart above the spreadsheet.
I realize that and I saw the chart above the spreadsheet. But the second that phrase “lower the threshold” enters the conversation it’s all some people will see or think about. And, trust me, it’s downhill from there.
As mentioned by other posters on this page, these small segments may or may not be meaningful. Who knows. But, I thought it was fun to compare. If you should do any further research on your Hickerson line to determine who Charles Hickerson’s father was, etc., I hope you’ll blog with your results. I don’t descend from Charles Hickerson. My line, as far as I’ve been able to research, goes back to John Hickerson, who was born about 1755 in Fauquier County, Virginia, and died 1791 in Sumner County, Tennessee. His father is said to be Thomas Hickerson, born about 1736 in Prince William County (now Fauquier), Virginia, and died in 1812 in Warren County, Kentucky. It would be interesting if our Hickerson lines intersect at some point further back.
That’s actually very interesting because it just so happens on that segment that several of the Hickerson/Vannoy descendants match from a range of about 131-138 and you are dead center in that range.
Roberta, if that’s the case, couldn’t it make it possible that that segment range on Chr 20 could represent Hickerson alone and not Vannoy? I love this stuff.
Did you check out the Higgerson-Higgason-Hickerson project at FamilyTreeDNA? I administer it and am willing to collaborate.
I checked it out very early but will contact you privately. Thank you much! | 2019-04-19T03:05:14Z | https://dna-explained.com/2014/11/27/sarah-hickerson-c1752-lost-ancestor-found-52-ancestors-48/ |
British electricity customers will soon find out whether they will be saddled with paying for the world’s most expensive power station, Hinkley Point C. The first new nuclear station to be built in the UK for 21 years, Hinkley is the centrepiece of the government’s plan to cut carbon emissions and reduce British dependence on imported gas. In order to persuade French and Chinese investors to commit £18bn for this project the government, having repeatedly stated there would be no subsidy for nuclear energy, has promised that British electricity customers will pay for all the power the station produces at a price of £92.50/MWh (megawatt hour)—more than double the current market price of £35/MWh—for 35 years after the station is completed, and indexed to inflation (the price includes £2/MWh for decommissioning). On top of that, the government will guarantee (for a fee) that lenders to the project bear no risk. And it has undertaken that no future government can pass any law or policy that would hurt the investors, on pain of compensation.
There is no British nuclear company involved in the project because we have not had a British nuclear reactor design for 40 years. The project, if it goes ahead, will be a combination of French and German technology, funded by French and Chinese government-owned companies. The only role of the British will be to pay for the power it produces.There is a case for building new nuclear power stations in the UK, as the existing ones are nearly all scheduled to close within 15 years and it’s hard to see how we can meet the decarbonisation targets set in law by the 2008 Climate Change Act without new ones. But Hinkley is an unacceptably costly way of doing so. There are other nuclear projects in the pipeline and, while little is certain in the world of nuclear economics, there is good reason to think that the other stations will be considerably cheaper. Hinkley’s costs have risen dramatically as the new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), the type of pressurised water reactor planned for Hinkley, has been revealed as all but unbuildable. The project sponsor, the French electricity company EDF, is now desperately short of cash and can ill afford the risk of this enormous project. What was supposed to be a privately funded project has turned into a three- way government deal. Yet we are stuck with high private sector returns which inflate the cost. The British government should cancel this project in the interests of protecting customers. But it fears that it would jeopardise the rest of the nuclear programme as well as break an agreement with the UK’s new best friend, China. So we are reduced to hoping that the French government, which is EDF’s major shareholder, will decide to scrap the project.
The problem is that the UK, for quite noble reasons, is committed to new nuclear stations as a crucial part of cutting the country’s carbon emissions. The government hoped that this could be done with private sector capital though EDF and the other nuclear developers all have actual or de facto state support. The first of these new stations, Hinkley Point C, uses a reactor type that has not yet been built on time or budget anywhere in the world. The hugely escalating costs have made a nonsense of leaving it to market forces, as EDF, financially weakened by falling prices in its French home market, now needs the British government to guarantee the project’s debts and to provide a 35-year price contract to make the investment worthwhile. Even then EDF cannot go it alone and has had to ask its Chinese partner, increasingly looking like a rival, to help fund the project. The British government dare not stop the project for fear of jeopardising the other nuclear projects in the pipeline, which offer the hope of lower costs. Without a lot of new nuclear capacity to replace the older stations, which will close by 2030, the government looks set to breach its own legally binding carbon emission reduction targets. So it is only the French government—the owner of EDF and also the promoter of the formerly very successful French nuclear industry—which might save us from Hinkley’s costs.
It’s rare for a commercial project to be bad for both sides—but Hinkley is. On one side we have an investment whose cost has spiralled out of control and now puts the financial viability of EDF at risk. That appears to be the view of Thomas Piquemal, the former Chief Financial Officer of EDF, who resigned on 7th March. It’s rare for a CFO to resign these days and this can only be seen as a mark of how risky this investment would be for the company. Indeed no ordinary company with a market capitalisation (the stock market value of the company’s shares) of around €20bn (£16bn) would risk investing €15bn (EDF’s two-thirds share of the project cost) in a single investment. No matter how high the eventual return might be, this is known in the financial world as betting the company, and a good CFO does not allow the board to do this.
But EDF is not a normal company. It may be quoted on the Paris stock exchange but with 84 per cent of its shares owned by the French state and with a board representing the great and good of French industry, it is a national champion, a symbol of France’s economy and the result of a spectacularly successful strategic commitment by France in the early 1970s to nuclear power. That commitment, driven by France’s lack of indigenous energy and its fear of being held hostage by foreign oil and gas suppliers, led France to have 70 per cent of its power from nuclear (the majority of the rest coming from hydro). EDF has enormous respect at home for its role in bringing the country economically viable, safe and reliable power. Since privatisation, EDF has also built a major international business with EDF Energy as its UK subsidiary. With limited scope for expansion at home, EDF has searched for a global role, touting itself as the company for the post-oil era. And indeed there is a large potential market for nuclear power worldwide (EDF also invests in renewable energy but it has no particular competitive advantage there). EDF is the effective leader of “team France,” a consortium of French nuclear engineering and design companies which hopes to sell French expertise to the world.
The problem is that the reactor that EDF is selling looks like a dud, at least economically. The EPR was developed by the French company Areva and the German company Siemens, which realised that a new generation of safer reactors was needed to reassure public opinion after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 (the anniversary of which is 26th April). Siemens later dropped out of the project when the German government decided to phase out nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster of 2011 (whose anniversary was in March this year). The EPR is an enhanced version of an earlier French pressurised water reactor (PWR), itself derived from the standard United States Westinghouse design which France licensed in the late 1960s with full rights to build and sell it.
The second EPR is being built by EDF at Flamanville in Normandy, next to two existing nuclear stations. Intended to start operating in March 2012, the latest forecast date for completion is late 2018. Construction costs have risen to €10.5bn. The first EPR to generate power will almost certainly be in China, where two units are under construction at Taishan in the south of the country. One is now ready for testing. These are less delayed than the European reactors but then the Chinese, who have lower labour costs and a great deal of experience in building infrastructure, are now very efficient at building nuclear power stations, with 24 currently under construction.
The cost of the EPR at Hinkley has escalated from £8bn to £18bn partly as EDF has learned from the EPR projects elsewhere. It’s unlikely that Hinkley would see a further tripling of costs because much of that has already been priced in. Of the latest £18bn estimate, £2bn has already been spent, on a combination of site preparation and the maintenance of a large team of engineers and contractors.
The government saw itself as merely removing an obstacle to one type of energy, reflecting a private sector keen to invest in nuclear, without subsidy (other than some form of compensation for the carbon dioxide emissions saved). In line with the ideology of leaving energy policy to the market, begun by Nigel Lawson in the 1980s and largely intact until the present, the government would let private investors choose where to place their money, leaving the government above the fray.
This policy was unrealistic on several grounds. The first was that the government was adding policy goals, first for renewable energy as required by the European Directive of 2009 and then the UK’s self-imposed Climate Change Act of 2008. How to combine central targets with a market-driven energy industry? The government tried to keep as much of the energy market intact as possible but there has been a growing contradiction between ends and means.
Secondly, nuclear is not a technology that was ever likely to be delivered by the market alone. It is too large, costly and risky for any normal private company to fund without some form of state support or insurance. Private energy companies in the oil and gas sectors do manage investments on the scale of Hinkley Point C but they do so with relatively proven technology and by sharing costs between the world’s largest corporations. Even then there is often a degree of government support through state development banks. And the rates of profit needed to compensate for the risk are far higher than in electricity projects.
The biggest obstacle to private investment in nuclear is its exceptionally bad track record of construction risk, going back to the 1970s. Nuclear projects routinely overran, partly owing to legal challenges (especially in the US) and partly because each station is a cathedral-like structure of complex, bespoke engineering requiring exceptional project management and coordination of multiple contractors. These problems are magnified when the reactor is of a new kind. It is too expensive to build a full prototype to check the feasibility of construction and operation. So the first few are, in effect, prototypes. No private company could justify taking that risk, no matter what the possible returns if all went well. And no bank would lend to such a project without guarantees. And only a large creditworthy state could make such guarantees credible.
The field of nuclear reactor vendors is dominated by either state-owned companies (French, Chinese, Russian) or state-backed (Japan and South Korea). The US is not currently a major player because low gas prices make new nuclear development completely uneconomical in the US. The two key competing designs to the EPR are the AP1000 and the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). Both were developed by American companies but are now built only by Japanese companies (Toshiba and Hitachi respectively). These ostensibly private companies are backed by the Japanese government and have access to state funding through the Development Bank of Japan. It is inconceivable that either company would be allowed to fail by the Japanese government if it got into trouble, especially when that government is committed to a long term restoration of the Japanese nuclear industry.
So it was naive and unrealistic for the UK government to believe that nuclear investment would be forthcoming in just the same way as for gas power stations or renewable energy, both of which attract private capital readily and willingly.
When it started developing the Hinkley Point C project in 2007, EDF probably really thought that it could finance the project itself, without any government subsidy (but with some form of carbon pricing) and make a reasonable profit. That’s certainly what the British government believed anyway. So why did the project reach the point where it has a 35-year fixed price contract, EDF depends on Chinese funding and the project still looks questionable?
Aside from the huge increase in the costs of the EPR, EDF has suffered a major reversal of financial fortune. Back in 2008 EDF was the world’s most valuable utility company, with a market value of over €140bn, based on investor confidence in its ability to generate safe, sustainable cashflows. It could certainly afford to finance the then €8bn Hinkley project cost. But the company is now worth a fraction of that value: barely €20bn. This is mainly because of a fall in income in its French business, as the government has cut the price it allows EDF to charge for its power. On top of that, EDF needs to fund a large capital programme to extend the lives of its existing nuclear station. The upshot is that the company has had negative net cashflows in recent years and has had to borrow to pay its dividend, something that is clearly unsustainable (the dividend was cut in February 2016).
Around 2011, the combination of worsening news on EPR construction in Finland and France and the company’s deteriorating financial position led to the awkward conclusion that EDF needed partners. But who would have the financial means and nuclear skill to be a suitable investor? EDF turned to the two nuclear companies with which it had been working in China for 20 years. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and China General Nuclear (CGN) are, like EDF, state-owned corporations which operate in some degree as commercial businesses, but firmly under the policy guidance of central government. CNNC, which later dropped out of the Hinkley project, not only operates nuclear stations but is responsible for nuclear waste and decommissioning as well as China’s military nuclear activities. CGN, based far from central government in the commercial hub of Shenzhen, is somewhat more profit-minded and, without military activities, is a less problematic partner for western investments. Having learned how to build and design nuclear reactors from the French, CGN knows EDF well.
But why would CGN (and the Chinese government) want to invest in Hinkley? Because China is a new entrant into the global nuclear reactor industry and wants to build its own reactor in the UK. Hinkley would be the first step, a minority investment (CGN would take a 33.5 per cent stake) that would establish a Chinese presence in the British nuclear industry. The real prize would be if CGN could become the majority investor and operator of a project using China’s own new Hualong 1 reactor. If the Hualong 1 can get generic design approval from the UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (a roughly four-year process likely to start this year) then CGN hopes to build the reactor at Bradwell in Essex (EDF is supposed to be a minority investor in this project). In asking CGN to help fund Hinkley, EDF has allowed what may be its biggest competitor into the market. If Hualong is built and operated successfully it will be a tremendous boost for China’s hopes of leading the growing international nuclear power industry. EDF, if it keeps backing the EPR, could find itself excluded.
British government support for the Hinkley project remains solid. On 12th March the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published “Five reasons why we are backing Hinkley Point C.” Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, gave a speech on “a new direction for energy policy” in November 2015 which reaffirmed Hinkley and nuclear more generally as central to the government’s decarbonisation goals. It is widely believed in Whitehall that George Osborne, the Chancellor, is in favour of Hinkley, even while he has cut support for onshore wind (which is pretty much economic without subsidy but unpopular with Conservative Party members in the rural areas where they are typically sited).
The government is a prisoner of a policy created by the former Labour government, with overwhelming cross-party support and particularly from David Cameron, then Leader of the Opposition. The Climate Change Act of 2008 began life as the Big Ask campaign led by Friends of the Earth and a coalition of environmental groups in May 2005. They sought a legally binding commitment to greenhouse emission cuts with annual targets. David Cameron, seeking to detoxify his party’s “nasty party” brand, aligned himself and his party with the campaign. The campaign was spectacularly successful. A draft bill was passed in 2007 and unlike most legislation actually got stronger during its passage. The original target was a 60 per cent cut in the UK’s emissions by 2050. By the time the Act was passed in November 2008 it was 80 per cent. Only three MPs (all Conservative) voted against the bill. It was a remarkably ambitious and far-reaching piece of legislation. But most British people, watching the global financial crisis unfold, didn’t notice what was being committed to in their name.
The Act requires Parliament to set five-year legally binding carbon budgets (annual targets were too inflexible) on the path to 2080 and created the independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) as auditor of progress and advisor on how to achieve it. From its first report in December 2008, the CCC envisaged a major role for nuclear power in hitting the targets. It also saw a large amount of carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology that would allow the continued burning of gas and coal but with minimal carbon emissions. But that technology remains unproven and the CCC’s estimates of its contribution to hitting the carbon budgets of the 2020s now look highly optimistic. So nuclear is even more important in achieving the carbon cuts, which already envisage a huge increase in offshore wind power, currently in progress.
New nuclear is at least four years behind the schedule envisaged by the CCC. Further delays risk the government missing its fourth and fifth carbon budgets (2023-27 and 2028-32). If this happens, the Secretary of State for Energy at the time is, in theory, in breach of the law. It’s not entirely clear what would happen then. Parliament made the law and could amend or even scrap it. But for David Cameron in particular, who lent considerable support to the Act, it would be embarrassing if the current government looks likely to miss its target.
So if the government were to unilaterally scrap the Hinkley project, it would risk missing its own carbon targets. And it’s not just Hinkley. The other nuclear projects in the pipeline, all led by Japanese companies, would also be vulnerable. Horizon Nuclear Power, a fully-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, aims to build two ABWRs (a jointly owned design with the US company General Electric), one at Wylfa in Anglesey and one at Oldbury in Gloucestershire. Both are sites of former nuclear stations (the original Wylfa Magnox station closed only in December 2015).
Hitachi’s rival Toshiba is promoting its own AP1000 reactor at Moorside in Cumbria through a joint venture with the French company ENGIE (formerly GDF-Suez). The AP1000 was developed by the American company Westinghouse, which is now owned by Toshiba, having briefly belonged to British Nuclear Fuels, the government-owned company that ran the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria.
Acquiring and developing the sites has cost the Japanese companies millions of pounds. They depend on British government policy remaining pro-nuclear and not changing any of the rules. An abrupt cancellation of Hinkley would cast doubt on the viability of these other nuclear projects, potentially leaving the UK with a very large hole in its decarbonisation strategy. If the claims made by the Japanese for their reactor types are confirmed, then they could be considerably cheaper than the Hinkley EPR. It is clear that, at present, the investors expect a similar type of contract to that of Hinkley, though the price is obviously negotiable. The increased political risk arising from a Hinkley cancellation would make the investors ask for even higher prices from the government in any future power contracts they sign.
The Hinkley site was chosen for the first new reactor in 20 years because it is in the south (where the demand is), it has seawater for cooling, good transport links and already has a grid connection. It also has local acceptance, in part owing to the two previous stations on the site. All of these would be true for an alternative reactor type. If the current Hinkley Point C project were to be cancelled then eventually somebody would build another reactor there. It could be EDF, or they could sell the site and recover some of their costs. The scale of new nuclear needed to meet the CCC’s visions for the early 2030s carbon targets, when nearly all of the UK’s existing nuclear stations will be shut, makes sites a valuable resource. So cancellation of Hinkley might not affect the total amount of nuclear built in the next 20 years, just the timing. Cancellation might lead to the Secretary of State asking parliament to approve a temporary exemption from the Climate Change Act without prejudicing the longer-term goal.
Later nuclear reactors should be somewhat cheaper than the EPR. It is currently about the same price per unit of energy generated as offshore wind but with the advantage that nuclear, once built, is generally reliable and can produce steadily through those days when wind turbines are idle. Until large-scale electricity storage becomes workable, nuclear seems essential to hitting our carbon targets.
It is not clear that the UK’s well-intended but somewhat vainglorious attempt to cut its carbon emissions is the best way for the country to help newly industrialising nations to grow safely. A big boost to research into more advanced clear energy sources might have been a better way to help the world and to boost British industry. New nuclear will help the UK construction and engineering industries, but the intellectual property and export value lies elsewhere. The UK abandoned its own nuclear designs four decades ago. Using French, Japanese or Chinese nuclear stations to hit the carbon targets seems a sadly inefficient way to meet the nation’s obligations.
There has been a remarkable degree of policy consistency and continuity on new nuclear, through three different governments (Labour, Coalition and Conservative). Governments are routinely criticised for lacking a long-term perspective. It is deeply ironic that in this one area where successive governments are committed to a very long-term goal, the outcome could be a costly blunder that will impose unnecessarily expensive power on an entire generation of British customers.
If Hinkley Point C is built, it will be one of the largest nuclear power stations in the world. At £18bn—a figure which could rise from delays already foreseen, and which could reach £24bn after financing costs—it would also be one of the most expensive. It would also be one of the government’s most costly mistakes.
That does not represent a single bad decision, however, but the clash between different policies, each well meant in their way. On one hand, there is the commitment to cleaner energy that does not emit carbon and the decision to phase out existing coal-fired power stations to meet that goal; there was also the desire to bring in foreign investment to fund the cost of nuclear.
The impact on energy bills—one of the few themes with which Ed Miliband, as Labour leader, was able to inflict damage on his political opponents—was conveniently set aside along the way, as tomorrow’s problem.
But the discomfort of EDF, the French energy company contracted to build the plant, with the high costs of construction and the impact on its own financial stability has brought tomorrow’s problem home today. So has the threatened closure of the huge Port Talbot steel works, where one of the myriad financial problems of the plant is high energy costs.
If Hinkley is built, it will saddle the UK, people and companies, with electricity that costs more than double the current wholesale price. That dwarfs the other concerns about the project, from the UK’s point of view, although they are hardly trivial. There are worries about the likely delay; this is only the fourth reactor of its type—and probably the last—being built in the world, and the others all have significant delays. Problems with design of the dome have emerged. The role of China in providing a third of the finance has also raised security concerns.
But it is on cost that the greatest challenge comes, and that is the reason why the government should use the wavering of EDF to back out. That would not have to mean the end of nuclear power in the UK; nuclear remains an important way of reducing carbon emissions. But there are cheaper, already established, nuclear power designs around.
The UK could pick one of those, and wait while others emerged. For all the political embarrassment, and the hazards of revisiting the planning process, the case for doing that on cost grounds alone seems overwhelming. | 2019-04-22T14:40:50Z | http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-folly-of-hinkley-point-c |
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Sofitel Sydney Wentworth is located in central Sydney, close to State Library of New South Wales, Sydney Opera House, and Circular Quay. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour.
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth features a restaurant and a bar/lounge. Room service is available 24 hours a day. The hotel serves Full breakfasts (surcharges apply). Recreational amenities include a health club. The property's full service health spa has massage/treatment rooms and beauty services. This 5.0 star property has a business center and offers small meeting rooms and audio visual equipment. Wireless and wired high speed Internet access is available in public areas (surcharges apply). This Sydney property has event space consisting of banquet facilities, conference/meeting rooms, a ballroom, and exhibit space. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include a library, a concierge desk, and multilingual staff.
There are 436 guestrooms at Sofitel Sydney Wentworth. Beds come with premium bedding. Coffee/tea makers and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature showers, makeup/shaving mirrors, bathrobes, and slippers. Wired high speed and wireless Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks and complimentary newspapers, guestrooms offer direct dial phones. Televisions have pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include blackout drapes/curtains, electronic/magnetic keys, irons/ironing boards, and clock radios. Housekeeping is offered daily and guests may request wake up calls. Cribs (infant beds) and rollaway beds are available on request.
Four Seasons Sydney is located in central The Rocks, close to Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Opera House, and Circular Quay. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour.
Four Seasons Sydney features a restaurant and a bar/lounge. Room service is available 24 hours a day. Recreational amenities include an outdoor pool, a spa tub, a fitness facility, and a steam room. The property's full service health spa has massage/treatment rooms and beauty services. This 5.0 star property has a business centre and offers small meeting rooms, secretarial services, and a technology helpdesk. High speed Internet access is available in public areas. This The Rocks property has 1317 square meters of event space consisting of banquet facilities, conference/meeting rooms, and a ballroom. The property offers an airport shuttle (surcharge). Business services, wedding services, limo/town car service, and translation services are available. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include a marina, valet parking, and a concierge desk.
There are 531 guestrooms at Four Seasons Sydney. Beds come with pillow top mattresses and premium bedding. Coffee/tea makers and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature separate bathtubs and showers, makeup/shaving mirrors, designer toiletries, and bathrobes. Wired high speed and wireless Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks and complimentary newspapers, guestrooms offer multi line phones with voice mail. Televisions have DVD players and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include CD players, separate sitting areas, electronic/magnetic keys, and irons/ironing boards. Guests may request hypo allergenic bedding and wake up calls. A nightly turndown service is offered and housekeeping is available daily. Cribs (infant beds) and rollaway beds are available on request.
The Menzies Sydney is located in central Sydney, close to Pitt Street Mall, Circular Quay, and Sydney Opera House. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour.
The Menzies Sydney features a restaurant and a bar/lounge. The hotel serves Full breakfasts (surcharges apply). Recreational amenities include an indoor pool, a spa tub, a sauna, and a fitness facility. Wireless Internet access is available in public areas. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include gift shops/newsstands and currency exchange. This is a smoke free property.
There are 446 guestrooms at The Menzies Sydney. Coffee/tea makers and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature hair dryers. Wired high speed and wireless Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks, guestrooms offer direct dial phones. Flat panel televisions have satellite channels and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include electronic/magnetic keys, irons/ironing boards, and clock radios. Housekeeping is offered daily and guests may request wake up calls. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
Located in central Sydney, Park8 Hotel by 8Hotels is near the airport and close to Sydney Town Hall, Sydney Parliament House, and State Library of New South Wales. Nearby points of interest also include Darling Harbour and Sydney Opera House.
Park8 Hotel by 8Hotels features multilingual staff, tour/ticket assistance, and complimentary newspapers in the lobby. Complimentary wireless and wired high speed Internet access is available in public areas. Room service is available during limited hours. Other property amenities at this Art Deco property include concierge services. This is a smoke free property.
There are 36 guestrooms at Park8 Hotel by 8Hotels. Guestrooms have city views. Beds come with pillow top mattresses, signature bedding, and Egyptian cotton linens. At the 4.0 star property, accommodations include kitchenettes with microwaves, refrigerators, coffee/tea makers, and cookware/dishes/utensils. Bathrooms feature shower/tub combinations, complimentary toiletries, and hair dryers. Wired high speed and wireless Internet access is complimentary. In addition to desks and in room safes, guestrooms offer phones with voice mail. 32 inch flat panel televisions have cable channels. Air conditioned rooms also include iPod docking stations, minibars, electronic/magnetic keys, and irons/ironing boards. Housekeeping is available daily. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
Quality Hotel Cambridge is located in central Surry Hills, close to Sydney Jewish Museum, Sydney Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nearby points of interest also include Darling Harbour and Circular Quay.
Dining options at Quality Hotel Cambridge include a restaurant and a coffee shop/café. A bar/lounge is open for drinks. Room service is available during limited hours. Recreational amenities include an indoor pool. This 4.0 star property offers secretarial services and business services. Guest parking is limited, and available on a limited first come, first served basis (surcharge). Additional property amenities include a concierge desk, multilingual staff, and gift shops/newsstands.
There are 170 guestrooms at Quality Hotel Cambridge. Refrigerators and coffee/tea makers are offered. Bathrooms feature hair dryers. High speed Internet access is provided. In addition to fax machines and in room safes, guestrooms offer phones. Televisions are available in guestrooms. Air conditioned rooms also include irons/ironing boards. Housekeeping is available daily. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
Marriott Sydney Harbour is located in central Sydney, close to Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Opera House, and Circular Quay. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour.
Marriott Sydney Harbour's restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Room service is available 24 hours a day. Recreational amenities include an indoor pool, a health club, a sauna, and a fitness facility. Spa amenities include massage/treatment rooms and beauty services. This 5.0 star property has a business centre and offers small meeting rooms, secretarial services, and limo/town car service. Wireless Internet access is available in public areas. This Sydney property has 588 square meters of event space consisting of banquet facilities, conference/meeting rooms, a ballroom, and exhibit space. Wedding services and tour assistance are available. Guest parking is limited, and available on a limited first come, first served basis (surcharge). Additional property amenities include a coffee shop/café, valet parking, and a concierge desk.
There are 550 guestrooms at Marriott Sydney Harbour. Refrigerators, coffee/tea makers, and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature separate bathtubs and showers, phones, bathrobes, and complimentary toiletries. Internet access (surcharge) is provided. In addition to desks and complimentary newspapers, guestrooms offer multi line phones with voice mail. Televisions have premium satellite channels. Air conditioned rooms also include blackout drapes/curtains, electronic/magnetic keys, irons/ironing boards, and clock radios. A turndown service is available nightly, housekeeping is offered daily, and guests may request wake up calls. Cribs (infant beds) are available on request.
InterContinental Sydney is located in central Sydney, close to Museum of Sydney, Sydney Opera House, and Circular Quay. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour.
InterContinental Sydney features a restaurant. Room service is available 24 hours a day. Recreational amenities include an indoor pool. This 5.0 star property has a business centre and offers secretarial services and business services. High speed Internet access is available in public areas. Concierge services and tour assistance are available. Additional property amenities include multilingual staff, gift shops/newsstands, and laundry facilities.
There are 509 guestrooms at InterContinental Sydney. Coffee/tea makers and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature bathrobes and hair dryers. High speed Internet access is provided. In addition to desks and complimentary newspapers, guestrooms offer direct dial phones. Televisions have video game consoles. Air conditioned rooms also include irons/ironing boards. A nightly turndown service is offered and housekeeping is available daily. Rollaway beds are available on request. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
The Sebel Residence Chatswood is located in Chatswood's North Shore Sydney neighbourhood and local attractions include Luna Park, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Sydney Opera House. Additional area points of interest include Circular Quay and Macquarie University.
The Sebel Residence Chatswood features a restaurant. Room service is available. Recreational amenities include an outdoor pool, an indoor pool, a spa tub, a sauna, and a fitness facility. This 4.5 star property has a business centre and offers small meeting rooms, limo/town car service, and audio visual equipment. Wireless Internet access is available in public areas. Wedding services, concierge services, and tour assistance are available. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include multilingual staff and currency exchange. This is a smoke free property.
There are 56 guestrooms at The Sebel Residence Chatswood. Guestrooms have balconies. At the 4.5 star property, accommodations include kitchens with microwaves, refrigerators, and coffee/tea makers. Bathrooms feature separate bathtubs and showers, bathrobes, scales, and complimentary toiletries. Internet access (surcharge) is provided. In addition to in room safes, guestrooms offer direct dial phones with voice mail. Televisions have cable channels, DVD players, and VCRs. Air conditioned rooms also include CD players, blackout drapes/curtains, electronic/magnetic keys, and irons/ironing boards. Housekeeping is offered daily and guests may request wake up calls. Cribs (infant beds) and rollaway beds are available on request. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
Hilton Sydney is located in central Sydney, close to Queen Victoria Building, Darling Harbour, and Sydney Opera House. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay.
Hilton Sydney's restaurant serves breakfast and dinner. A poolside bar and a bar/lounge are open for drinks. Room service is available 24 hours a day. Recreational amenities include an indoor pool, a health club, a sauna, and a steam room. The property's full service health spa has beauty services. This 5.0 star property has a business centre and offers small meeting rooms, secretarial services, and limo/town car service. Wireless Internet access is available in public areas. This Sydney property has event space consisting of banquet facilities, conference/meeting rooms, a ballroom, and exhibit space. Business services, wedding services, translation services, and tour assistance are available. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include a coffee shop/café, valet parking, and a concierge desk.
There are 577 guestrooms at Hilton Sydney. Refrigerators, coffee/tea makers, and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature handheld showerheads. They also offer makeup/shaving mirrors, designer toiletries, and bathrobes. Internet access (surcharge) is provided. In addition to desks and complimentary newspapers, guestrooms offer direct dial phones with voice mail. Televisions have cable channels, DVD players, and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include remote lighting/drapery/curtain control, blackout drapes/curtains, electronic/magnetic keys, and irons/ironing boards. Guests may request hypo allergenic bedding and wake up calls. Housekeeping is available daily. Cribs (infant beds) and rollaway beds are available on request.
Located in Wolli Creek, Mercure Sydney Airport is near the airport and close to Cahill Park and Kogarah Golf Course. Other points of interest include University of Sydney and Moore Park Golf Course.
Dining options at Mercure Sydney Airport include 2 restaurants. A bar/lounge is open for drinks. Room service is available 24 hours a day. The hotel serves Hot and cold buffet breakfasts (surcharges apply). Recreational amenities include an outdoor pool, outdoor tennis courts, a fitness facility, and tennis courts. This 4.0 star property has a 24 hour business centre and offers small meeting rooms and audio visual equipment. Wireless and wired high speed Internet access is available in public areas (surcharges apply). This Wolli Creek property has event space consisting of a conference centre, banquet facilities, conference/meeting rooms, and a ballroom. For a surcharge, the property offers an airport shuttle at scheduled times. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include barbecue grills and currency exchange. This is a smoke free property.
There are 269 guestrooms at Mercure Sydney Airport. Bathrooms feature shower/tub combinations and hair dryers. Wired high speed and wireless Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks, guestrooms offer direct dial phones with voice mail. Televisions have satellite channels and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include coffee/tea makers, irons/ironing boards, and clock radios. Guests may request wake up calls. Rollaway beds are available on request. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
Park Regis City Centre is located in central Sydney, close to Sydney Town Hall, Darling Harbour, and Sydney Opera House. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay.
Park Regis City Centre features a coffee shop/café. Recreational amenities include an outdoor pool. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include a concierge desk, multilingual staff, and laundry facilities. This is a smoke free property.
There are 122 guestrooms at Park Regis City Centre. Refrigerators and coffee/tea makers are offered. Bathrooms feature complimentary toiletries and hair dryers. Wired high speed Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks, guestrooms offer direct dial phones with voice mail. LCD televisions have satellite channels. Air conditioned rooms also include irons/ironing boards and clock radios. Guests may request extra towels/bedding and wake up calls. Housekeeping is available daily. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
Travelodge Wynyard is located in central Sydney, close to Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay, and Sydney Opera House. Nearby points of interest also include Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour.
Travelodge Wynyard's restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A bar/lounge is open for drinks. Room service is available. Recreational amenities include a fitness facility. Wireless and wired high speed Internet access is available in public areas (surcharges apply). The property offers an airport shuttle (surcharge). Business services, wedding services, and tour assistance are available. Additional property amenities include a coffee shop/café, a concierge desk, and laundry facilities. This is a smoke free property.
There are 277 guestrooms at Travelodge Wynyard. Refrigerators and coffee/tea makers are offered. Bathrooms feature complimentary toiletries and hair dryers. Wired high speed Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks and in room safes, guestrooms offer direct dial phones with voice mail. Televisions have premium satellite channels and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include blackout drapes/curtains, electronic/magnetic keys, trouser presses, and irons/ironing boards. Guests may request hypo allergenic bedding and wake up calls. Housekeeping is available daily. Guestrooms are all non smoking.
Sebel Surry Hills, Sydney is located in central Surry Hills, close to Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nearby points of interest also include Darling Harbour and Circular Quay.
Sebel Surry Hills, Sydney's restaurant serves breakfast and lunch. A bar/lounge is open for drinks. Room service is available 24 hours a day. The hotel serves Buffet breakfasts (surcharges apply). Recreational amenities include an indoor pool, a spa tub, a sauna, and a fitness facility. This 4.5 star property offers small meeting rooms, secretarial services, and a technology helpdesk. Wireless Internet access (surcharge) is available in public areas. This Surry Hills property has event space consisting of banquet facilities, conference/meeting rooms, and exhibit space. The property offers an airport shuttle (surcharge). Business services, wedding services, limo/town car service, and translation services are available. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include a coffee shop/café, a concierge desk, and barbecue grills.
There are 269 guestrooms at Sebel Surry Hills, Sydney. Refrigerators and coffee/tea makers are offered. Bathrooms feature shower/tub combinations, designer toiletries, complimentary toiletries, and hair dryers. Wired high speed Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks and in room safes, guestrooms offer direct dial phones with voice mail. Televisions have satellite channels and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include separate sitting areas, blackout drapes/curtains, electronic/magnetic keys, and trouser presses. Housekeeping is offered daily and guests may request wake up calls. Cribs (infant beds) are available on request.
Located in central Elizabeth Bay, Macleay Hotel is near the airport and close to Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney Parliament House, and State Library of New South Wales. Additional points of interest near this hotel include Fitzroy Gardens and Royal Botanic Gardens.
Macleay Hotel features a restaurant. Room service is available during limited hours. The hotel serves Cooked to order breakfasts (surcharges apply). Recreational amenities include an outdoor pool. Spa amenities include beauty services and a hair salon. This 3.5 star property has a 24 hour business centre and offers secretarial services and business services. High speed (wired) Internet access (surcharge) is available in public areas. For a surcharge, the property offers an airport shuttle at scheduled times. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Other property amenities at this Art Deco property include a concierge desk, barbecue grills, and multilingual staff. Extended parking privileges may be offered to guests after check out (surcharge). The property has designated areas for smoking. A total renovation of this property was completed in November 2009.
There are 80 guestrooms at Macleay Hotel. Guestrooms have city, sea, or water views. Beds come with premium bedding. At the 3.5 star property, accommodations include kitchenettes with stovetops, microwaves, refrigerators, and coffee/tea makers. Bathrooms feature showers, complimentary toiletries, and hair dryers. Wired high speed Internet access is available for a surcharge. In addition to desks and complimentary newspapers, guestrooms offer direct dial phones with voice mail. 68 cm LCD televisions have DVD players and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include iPod docking stations, blackout drapes/curtains, irons/ironing boards, and clock radios. Housekeeping is offered daily and guests may request wake up calls. Cribs (infant beds) are available on request.
Harbour Rocks Hotel is located in central The Rocks, close to Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nearby points of interest also include Circular Quay and Darling Harbour.
Harbour Rocks Hotel features a restaurant and a bar/lounge. Room service is available during limited hours. The hotel serves Buffet breakfasts (surcharges apply). This 4.0 star property has a business centre. Wireless and wired high speed Internet access is available in public areas (surcharges apply). Additional property amenities include concierge services.
There are 55 guestrooms at Harbour Rocks Hotel. Coffee/tea makers and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature hair dryers. Guestrooms offer phones.
Park Hyatt Sydney is located in central The Rocks, close to Circular Quay, Sydney Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nearby points of interest also include Darling Harbour and Museum of Contemporary Art.
Park Hyatt Sydney features a restaurant and a bar/lounge. Room service is available 24 hours a day. Recreational amenities include an outdoor pool, a spa tub, a sauna, a fitness facility, and a steam room. The property's full service health spa has massage/treatment rooms and beauty services. This 5.0 star property has a business centre and offers small meeting rooms, secretarial services, and limo/town car service. High speed Internet access is available in public areas. This The Rocks property has event space consisting of banquet facilities and conference/meeting rooms. The property offers an airport shuttle (surcharge). Business services and tour assistance are available. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include valet parking, a concierge desk, and multilingual staff.
There are 158 guestrooms at Park Hyatt Sydney. Guestrooms have balconies. Beds come with premium bedding. Refrigerators, coffee/tea makers, and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature separate bathtubs and showers with handheld showerheads. They also offer phones, makeup/shaving mirrors, and designer toiletries. Internet access (surcharge) is provided. In addition to desks and fax machines, guestrooms offer multi line phones with voice mail. Televisions have premium cable channels, DVD players, and pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include CD players, complimentary bottled water, ceiling fans, and remote lighting/drapery/curtain control. Guests may request hypo allergenic bedding and wake up calls. A nightly turndown service is offered and housekeeping is available daily. Cribs (infant beds) and rollaway beds are available on request.
Oaks Hyde Park Plaza is located close to Australian Museum, Sydney Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nearby points of interest also include Darling Harbour and Circular Quay.
Oaks Hyde Park Plaza features a restaurant and a bar/lounge. Room service is available. Recreational amenities include an outdoor pool, a spa tub, a sauna, and a fitness facility. This 4.0 star property has a business centre and offers limo/town car service and audio visual equipment. Additional property amenities include laundry facilities.
There are 174 guestrooms at Oaks Hyde Park Plaza. At the 4.0 star property, accommodations include kitchenettes with refrigerators and coffee/tea makers. Bathrooms feature shower/tub combinations, complimentary toiletries, and hair dryers. Internet access (surcharge) is provided. In addition to complimentary newspapers, guestrooms offer direct dial phones. Televisions have pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include minibars, electronic/magnetic keys, irons/ironing boards, and clock radios. Housekeeping is offered daily and guests may request wake up calls. Cribs (infant beds) and rollaway beds are available on request.
Rydges North Sydney is located in North Sydney's North Shore Sydney neighbourhood, close to Luna Park, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Sydney Opera House. Nearby points of interest also include Circular Quay and Fort Denison.
Rydges North Sydney features a restaurant and a bar/lounge. Room service is available 24 hours a day. This 4.0 star property has a business centre and offers small meeting rooms and audio visual equipment. This North Sydney property has event space consisting of banquet facilities, conference/meeting rooms, and a ballroom. The property has a complimentary area shuttle which runs to destinations within 5 km. Wedding services and tour assistance are available. Guest parking is available for a surcharge. Additional property amenities include a concierge desk and laundry facilities.
There are 166 guestrooms at Rydges North Sydney. Refrigerators, coffee/tea makers, and minibars are offered. Bathrooms feature shower/tub combinations and hair dryers. Internet access (surcharge) is provided. Guestrooms offer complimentary newspapers. Televisions have pay movies. Air conditioned rooms also include electronic/magnetic keys, irons/ironing boards, and clock radios. Housekeeping is offered daily and guests may request wake up calls. Cribs (infant beds) and rollaway beds are available on request. | 2019-04-20T13:06:36Z | http://checkhotelavailability.com/australia/sydney-hotels.html |
We got off to a leisurely start back on Wednesday morning. After posting the previous day’s travels, we headed out to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel near the hotel, then headed back to Matt’s apartment to pick him up so I could get the nickel tour of the Florida State campus, and Brian could hit the bookstore to pick up some FSU merchandise. The campus is impressively big, but modern. It felt like it was bigger than the Boston College campus, but then, BC’s campus is tri-level, and I spent most of my time in middle campus.
And then we brought Matt back to his apartment, and it was time to hit the road. Brian had plotted a route that was mostly back roads to take us into western North Carolina.
We started on Route 27 out of Florida, and into Georgia. Nice road; for the most part we were able to maintain a reasonable speed, but it still had tons of farms and scenery. At one point we saw a sign for a general store; we stopped, and it was like something out of the thirties.
Eventually, we skirted Atlanta on the interstate, passing by Marietta, where my Aunt Dot used to live. If she were still around, we definitely would have stopped.
During the afternoon, we passed through a corner of Tennessee, ending in Asheville, North Carolina.
The only hitch was that the whole day, I was burping up breakfast. Damn you, Cracker Barrel. By the time we got to the motel, I was tired and slightly achy all over, and uninterested in dinner. I sent Brian off to get something to eat, and fell into bed.
Fortunately, the hotel had a free breakfast, and was able to to have avoid fried food for breakfast the next morning. Feeling somewhat better, we set off for Virginia via the Blue RidgeParkway, after making an abortive attempt to see the Biltmore Estate, and discovering that it was massively overpriced.
The scenery was gorgeous. There are overlooks all along, and we stopped at several. At one overlook, we took a short hike up to a mountaintop overlook. We drove up to the top of Mount Mitchell. the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi, even though from it, you can see another mountain that looks taller.
After the rangers departed, we took a look at the time, and decided it was time to make up some time. We got off the parkway, and headed up to Waynesboro for the night.
Friday was the last day on the road. We skipped breakfast, as my stomach was not in a stable state, and headed onto the Skyline Drive, bound for Gettysburg.
We spent an hour or so on the Skyline Drive. It’s gorgeous. At one point, we saw a deer, and another, a bear cub.
We would have liked to have spent longer on Skyline Drive, but we needed to get to Gettysburg reasonably early. We spent some time on local Virginia roads, where we saw the Shenandoah River, and then switched to the Interstate to get to Gettysburg.
We got there around noontime, and stopped at the visitor center, where we saw a movie about the battle, and saw a huge cyclorama of the battle. Then we did an abbreviated version of the self-driving tour.
Gettysburg surprised me. First off, Gettysburg was and is an actual town, with an existence apart from the battle. The battle happened because the town roads were there. So when you do the self-driven tour, you drive out of the visitor center, past a huge cemetery (the townspeople were the ones who got stuck dealing with all the dead and wounded), into the downtown, past McDonalds and insurance offices, and then you pass some older houses, take a left and you’re on Confederate Road, where the Confederate troops were massed.
I was surprised by how big the battlefield was. The field the Confederates had to cross was huge, and the rock formations the Union troops were defending from were tall, and afforded a good view of the approaching troops. I don’t understand how Lee possibly thought he had a chance.
Gettysburg is a place where you could spend a lot of time if you wanted to, but we were just about out of time. We drove around the battlefield for an hour or so, sometimes getting out, but for the most part just looking, without stopping to read the markers. We were done for the day by 3, when we started the eight hour trip back home.
Overall, I really enjoyed the trip, gastric issues aside. For me, it was kind of a reconnaissance trip — I bought the bike to do some touring, and I was taking mental notes along the way. Hopefully, I’ll pass by these ways again.
We made the second half of the trip into Florida yesterday, traversing North and South Carolina, and Georgia on I95 before crossing into Florida and heading west along he panhandle into Tallahassee.
I was struck by how many tall straight evergreens there were growing along the highway. I knew lumber had to come from somewhere, but it clearly didn’t come from the maples and oaks I’m accustomed to in New England. These grew straight and tall, and while they had branches growing off the sides, they didn’t really have crotches where the tree splits in two and then splits again.
As we were going through Georgia, we ran into thunderstorms. At one point, as we were approaching the storms, I could see an industrial complex way off in the distance under heavy dark clouds and shrouded in mists. Then, further along, we got into the storms themselves and saw lightning pounding the ground off to our sides.
We got to Matt’s apartment around 5:45. We met his roommate and girlfriend, then checked in before taking them all out to dinner. They seemed very nice, and we hung out with them for a while afterwards before heading back to the motel.
We’re running a little early this morning; as someone forgot to turn off his alarm. After breakfast, we’ll head back over to get the nickel tour of the campus before starting to head back north.
Today was the first day of the road trip. Fundamentally, the purpose is to get my nephew Matt back to school in Florida; the plan is to get down there as rapidly as possible, then backroad it back.
We left Canton around 5:30 this morning, and drove through steadily straight through to the first exit in New Jersey, where we stopped for a coffee, fuel and bathroom break, then continued on until lunch in northern Virginia around 2, and then continued pretty much straight on until we got here in Fayettesville North Carolina. It’s been all highway driving the whole time, and most of it on I-95.
We managed to dodge a bullet just before lunch — we passed an overturned tanker truck that had tipped over coming onto the highway. It must have just happened when we passed it — there were people stopped there, but traffic hadn’t backed up very far.
We’ve passed through a couple of torrential downpours on the way down, and another one greeted us coming out of dinner.
Time to head for bed for another day of driving tomorrow. The goal is to be in Florida by the end of the day.
I’ve been thinking about picking up a new watch for a while now, and I finally pulled the trigger about a month ago. Surprise, it’s not an Apple Watch.
I’ve admired the look of classic watches for a while, but I’ve had digital watches for a long time — since at least my one hour photo days, where it was essential to log the exact time a roll of film came in and what time it was due, and I’ve gone through a succession of cheap Timex and Casio digital watches.
But at the same time, I’ve started to find myself admiring the looks of analog watches, especially the ones with biggish dials and metal bracelets. At the same time, I’ve been aware of the Apple watch, but I don’t really care for the looks of it, and there’s nothing about the functionality that I find compelling.
I started looking a little more seriously at watches the beginning of the summer, and when the battery on my last watch died, decided it was time.
I wanted a chronograph style watch, preferably with Arabic numbers, with a metal bracelet. I was willing to go moderately expensive, but not too expensive. So on a Sunday afternoon, after comparing prices online, I went over to Macy’s to take a look at watches. I ended up with a Tissot Chrono XL.
It was surprisingly heavy when I tried it on – much heavier and substantial than the watches I’d been wearing. I was a little afraid I’d get tired of the weight, but I decided to go for it anyway. I’m glad I did. I love the way this thing looks. It just looks and feels classy, and I quickly got used to the weight of it.
Moving from a digital to analog watch has been interesting. First of all, when I looked in the box, there were no instructions, just a catalog of other Tissot watches. Why?? I’ve just spent a lot of money on a watch, I’m not going to get another one right away. I needed to find out how to set it and how to use the chronograph, not peruse their history.
I was worried that I’d forgotten how to quickly tell time, but that’s been a non-issue. It’s been interesting though, that I now perceive time on the left side of the face to be much more about time before the hour than time after the hour — for example, in the photo above, it more obvious that it’s 20 to 3 than 2:35, as it would be with a digital watch.
I haven’t had to really time anything yet, so I haven’t really used the chronograph functions thoroughly. It did take me a while to find the the functions to reset the hands to their starting position — and it was a bit of a surprise to find that the “seconds” hand is on the bottom-most dial, not the main sweep second hand, which is for the chronograph. And I am finding that the while the hands do glow in the dark, they don’t glow all that brightly, and at that light level, my eyes don’t see that sharply anymore.
But overall, I’m happy with having a really nice watch for a change.
I got a text from my brother Brian last week asking if I’d like to join Pam and him on a trip to Martha’s Vineyard that Thursday. Even though it’s close by, I haven’t been to the Vineyard since I was a teenager.
We took the ferry from Woods Hole over to Vineyard Haven, one of the seven towns comprising Martha’s Vineyard. The weather was perfect – sunny, dry, slightly breezy. The island is about seven miles off the coast of Massachusetts, and the trip takes about 45 minutes each way. The view from the ferry was great, especially coming into Vineyard Haven Harbor, passing tons of boats on the way in.
Once the we arrived, Brian rented a bright red Jeep for the day. We put the roof panels in the back, and headed off around the island.
The first town we passed through was Oak Bluffs, with its gingerbread cottages and old Victorian hotels. Then we passed the beaches on the long sand spit on the way to Edgartown. Once in Edgartown, we got out and walked around town for a bit, and had lunch. Then we headed west across the island, through West Tisbury and Chilmark, to Aquinnah, where we got out to see Gay Head.
Gay Head is a clay cliff on the western end of the island; it’s one of the few pre-glacial landforms on the island. The name comes from the fact that parts of the cliff are reddish. There is a lighthouse there, and an outlook over the cliff; we got out and walked around a bit, and then it was time to head back to Vineyard Haven for the 5:00 ferry back.
We had a great time. It was nice doing the sightseeing thing, it was good to spend time with the two of them, and you couldn’t ask for better weather. The trip over and the scenery there got the photographic juices flowing.
Side Note: I’ve always been fond of the polarization effect in my pictures – a polarizer will reduce surface glare, increasing color saturation, and depending on the position of the sun, can really deepen the blue of the sky. For this trip, since it was sunny all day, I put the filter on at the beginning of the day, and never took it off. A lot of the pictures are stronger for it, but I’m also wondering if I’m overdoing it a bit. The Gay Head pictures in particular show a strong polarization effect, which borders on the unrealistic at times. And in the pictures where there isn’t much benefit to the polarization effect (shooting into the sun, for example) I’ve still picked up a slight cyan cast.
Something to think about next time I’m shooting land or sea scapes.
I first went to the Quechee Balloon Festival in 2012, with my brother and nephew Matt, who were accompanying one Matt’s friends and father to the festival. I managed to get a balloon ride, and liked it enough to do it again with them the following year.
Since then, they haven’t gone again, and I’ve wanted to go back. I figured this year would be a good year to combine a balloon flight with a short motorcycle tour. So I booked a flight for Friday night, and made motel reservations for Friday and Saturday, in case of weather trouble that would require re-booking the flight.
I left home around noon on Friday, and ran into heavy traffic in Boston and on Interstate 93 up through New Hampshire. By the time I was on I-89, I’d lost over an hour, and didn’t dare switch over to the side roads.
I did eventually get to the motel barely in time to check in, bring the bags up to the room and switch my boots for sneakers, before heading off in search of the festival grounds.
Despite being told to be there by 5 (which is why I was hurrying), they didn’t start processing reservations until 5:30. Finally, after signing off on a lot of paperwork, I got my boarding pass, and met Katherine, from the crew, who took me down to the balloon.
My pilot was Walt Rudy, of Aloft Horizons based in Ohio, and his crew chief was his wife Deb. I met my fellow passengers, and together, we helped get the balloon set up.
The balloon envelope is stored tightly packed inside a big canvas bag. It has to be pulled out to its full height on the ground, unbound, and then spread out flat on the ground.
In the meantime, the basket is laid sideways on the ground, and the envelope fastened to it. Then it was time to wait for the wind to drop, and the festival’s “balloonmeister” to give the ok to launch. It took a while for the winds to abate, but finally we got the go ahead.
The first step in getting a balloon aloft is to “cold inflate” it. The mouth of the balloon is held open by a pair of people — I was one — while fans blow air into the balloon. First there is a ripple of a bubble, and soon enough, while still lying on the ground, it’s nearly its full round shape.
Next, the pilot starts to heat the air, first with a couple of short bursts from the burner, then with longer ones. The envelope develops lift pretty quickly, and starts to pull the basket to a standing position. At that point, the three of us piled in — there is no graceful way to do it–and we sort of “idled” for a moment while Walt got the lay of the land. He added just enough heat to get us just off the ground, and his ground assistants walked the basket a few steps to get clear of our neighbors, and then he blasted the burners again and we were off.
Approaching a tree top. We went right through it.
We were probably the fourth or fifth balloon to head out. All the balloons headed south-easterly, over the Quechee Dam, Simon Pearce factory and covered bridge, and toward the Ottauquechee River. Walt tried to drop us down over the river, hoping to pick up a current of air, but the wind didn’t cooperate. We did float over the Quechee Gorge and past the bridge. At various points we could see our reflection, or the reflection of another balloon below us.
Floating in a hot air balloon is very different from flying in an airplane. You’re in the open, for one thing, and you can feel the open air around you. You can turn around and look in any direction. It was crystal clear, and we had the setting sun behind us, so the colors ahead were vibrant, while the balloons behind were backlit. And it’s mostly quiet and serene, punctured by the roar of the burners when it’s time to gain or maintain altitude.
We flew over a bend in the river, and a few farms. At one point, we passed over a stable, and Walt called down to the horses. It was peaceful and quiet, just the four of us in the basket, and the other balloons around us as we floated over the forest.
Around the half hour mark, Walt was starting to look for places to land. We would see little oases of flat ground in the middle of the forest. I could see he had his eye on one likely spot, but the winds would not cooperate, so we hopped over a hill, plowing through some tree tops, before he spotted an open field right beside Route 5, and dropped us gently to the ground.
We met the homeowners, and their children, who were rather wide-eyed about it. Walt helped them up into the basket so they could get a sense of what it was like, while the envelope deflated. The chase crew arrived only a few moments after we landed, and we had to quickly pack up the balloon – we’d taken off late, and had to get back to the festival for the Glow. As a parting gift, Walt left the homeowners a bottle of champagne, a ballooning tradition.
After the evening flights, the balloons come back to the Festival grounds for the Glow. By this time it’s dark, and the balloons are re-inflated, tethered in a row, and then the pilots fire off their burners in sync to light the envelopes. It’s very pretty.
After The Glow, I helped Walt and his crew pack the balloon back up. It had to be deflated, the envelope bound up and packed into its bag, and the basket put on a platform on the back of the van.
My plans for Saturday were pretty loose. I wanted to visit the Simon Pearce glass factory again, and then I intended to simply follow Route 4 West on the motorcycle, and see where it took me. During breakfast, Walt called me and asked me if I could drop off the boarding pass from the night before so he could turn it into the festival.
My first stop of the morning was the village of Quechee. There is a dam and a waterfall and a covered bridge there, which I’d flown over the night before. Next to the dam is an old mill, which is now the home of the Simon Pearce store, restaurant and glass factory. They make fine glassware right on the premises. The store is at street level, and the glass factory is at river level.
Once I’d picked up a vase for my mother, it was time to hit the road. Route 4 in Vermont is a really nice road for motorcycles — nice scenery, some curvy sections, not too busy, and in reasonable condition. There wasn’t anything in particular I wanted to see, I was just out for the ride.
Serendipity struck though; as I approached the junction of Route 106A, I saw signs directing me to Plymouth Notch, the birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge. “Why not”, I said, so I followed 106A, a fun road in of itself, to the Coolidge homestead.
There’s a small museum, detailing Coolidge’s life, and then you can walk through the village of Plymouth Notch, which, paving aside, is pretty much the way it was a century ago. There is a General Store, operated by his father, the Coolidge Birthplace, which is a small house attached to the back of the store, the house where Coolidge grew up, and where he took the oath of office, and the barn owned by his grandfather, part original and part a restoration. I joined a guided tour and got to see the insides of all these buildings.
After leaving Plymouth Notch, I headed back up to Route 4, and continued to follow it westward, to the fringes of Rutland, where I turned around, and headed back to the Festival.
When I got there, I found Steve and Kathy from the night before were there too, and together we helped get the balloon set up again, and helped this evening’s passengers into the basket. I was also grabbing shots of the other balloons preparing to take off. Deb offered me the chance to join the chase crew, and I accepted. I did have time before we left to get a few more pictures of the festival.
The chase crew drives the van to where the balloon lands. With luck — and we were lucky this evening — it will get there just as, or slightly before, the balloon lands. Deb, Walt, and their assistant Katherine are all from Ohio, so we had a local friend of theirs, Tiffany, with us, to navigate the roads. There was a GPS beacon aboard the balloon and Katharine and Tiffany were both tracking it; Tiffany chose the route to get us to where they anticipated the balloon would land. This time they forecast it pretty closely; as we traveled along Route 5 we saw the balloon come over the hill; Deb parked the van, and we got out to run to where the balloon was landing.
The first order of business when the balloon touched ground was to get rid of its buoyancy. Walt continued to vent hot air out the top of the balloon, and the ground crew held the basket down. If necessary, the pilot will hover an inch or so off the ground while the crew walks the basket to a more convenient spot. Passengers are not allowed to leave the basket until the pilot says so — to lose the weight of the passenger suddenly could cause the balloon to shoot back up. Once Walt gave the go ahead, we helped the passengers out of the basket.
Once the passengers were out, one crew member pulled on a rope attached to the top of the balloon. Gradually, the hot air cooled and escaped, and the envelope settled onto the ground. As it did, the basket was laid on its side, the mouth of the envelope closed, and we started to gather up the fabric of the envelope into a long thick line to drive the rest of the air out. Velcro straps were bound around the envelope at intervals to keep it tidy and compact. Once the envelope was bound up, we got it into its bag. It’s a lot of work, and fortunately the homeowner where the balloon landed helped out. He had a couple of little kids with him and Deb put them to work sitting on top of the envelope as it was put into the bag to drive the air out. Once the balloon is in the bag, we heaved it up into the truck, then hauled the basket up onto a platform on the back of the van and fastened it down.
Once everything was packed away, Walt had a short champagne ceremony with the passengers and homeowners, where he told the story of how the Montgolfier brothers invented hot air balloons, and started bringing champagne with them to reassure the people where their balloons were landing that these strange devices were friendly. Story told, he poured out a cup of champagne for everyone, and left a bottle with the homeowners.
We then headed back to the festival grounds for the Saturday night Glow. Since takeoff hadn’t been as late as our flight, we had a a little more time to get back and get set back up. Once again I helped get the balloon inflated; once it was up, I walked around to to get some more pictures.
After the glow, I helped pack up the balloon one last time, and then it was time to say goodbye to Walt and Deb, Tiffany and Katherine.
The ride back the next day was uneventful. Since I was in no particular hurry this time, I took Route 4 back through New Hampshire. The weather and scenery were great. Route 4 ended at I-93; after a few miles of backed up traffic I got off the interstate and onto Route 3A. While on this road I made an interesting discovery: I was passing along the a river, and I had a nice view of it from the bike, so I stopped to get some pictures of it. I walked back nearly a mile, but found no spot where I had a clear shot of the river; my mind must have stitched together the flashes of the river as I rode by into one continuous vista that didn’t really exist.
I got home just before four, just in time to run some errands. Overall, I had a great time. I loved being in a balloon again, and it was fun helping out, despite the fact that it’s surprisingly physical work. It was good taking the bike on a longer trip, and hopefully I can work my way up to even longer ones.
When I visited Greenwich last fall, I didn’t plan my trip very well; it was kind of spur of the moment, after starting too late, taking longer than expected at Westminster Abbey, and not being able to get onto the London Eye. I didn’t get down there until about quarter past four — just in time for everything to close. | 2019-04-20T14:19:47Z | https://tedohara.net/author/tobin-dax/page/2/ |
Proposal at the Titanic Belfast!
Today at Titanic Belfast, Australian visitor Leo Nestor shocked his Irish sweetheart Joan Butler when he got down on one knee and asked for her hand in marriage.
The 68-year-old former professional Aussie Rules player, was introduced to Dubliner Joan in D’arcy’s Bar in the Gold Coast by Fiona Logan, the sister of Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest legend Johnny.
Leo chose his moment to propose in The Launch gallery that overlooks the famous Slipway on which Titanic was built.
The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) has put together a list of 10 exciting things to do in Northern Ireland over the next week (February 4 – 10).
Mixed Marriage, Lyric Theatre, Belfast, January 30 – February 23. Set in Belfast on the eve of the Ulster Covenant, Mixed Marriage is a poetic tragedy – with earthy humour – which dissects class and religious sectarianism through the breakdown of one ordinary family.
Newry Film Club Night – Incendies, Sean Hollywod Arts Centre, Newry, Co. Down, February 6. A 2012 Canadian film which follows the journey of twin brother and sister as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their mother’s life.
Female Gothic, The Market Place Theatre, Co. Armagh, February 6. The Victorian fascination with tales of mystery and the supernatural created an enduring legacy of Gothic fiction; but it is often the male writers that we remember. Many thrilling and eerie stories from the great female writers of that era have gathered dust and been forgotten. Until now.
Ultimate Eagles, Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, February 6. The Ultimate Eagles recreate the music of The Eagles with reverence, excitement and with a new stage show that focuses its bright lights on the 1970s when the band was at its mightiest.
Ulster Orchestra JTI Lunchtime Concert Series Mozartiana, Ulster Hall, Belfast, February 6. Fifty minutes of sublime and inspiring music performed by the Ulster Orchestra and local and internationally renowned soloists.
Glenelly Historical Society Presents: Glenelly Our Home, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, February 7. An illustrated lecture depicting memories of the former homes of Glenelly. Celebrate this unique historical culture and see images of homes that are now lying derelict or as wallsteads.
Féile Chaoimhín Uí Dhochartaigh, citywide, Co. Londonderry, February 7 – 10. A four day celebration of the life of one of the best known figures in the traditional music scene in Derry. The festival will feature an all-star line-up of musicians, teachers, and performers and includes an intensive Irish language course.
A Valentine’s Massacre – Murder Mystery, Grand Opera House, Belfast, February 9. Some like it hot, and it can’t get hotter than being on the run from the mob after witnessing a St. Valentine’s Day massacre of the mafia’s making. Comedy will accompany murder, mystery and intrigue. Drinks reception and three course meal included as part of the evening.
Chinese New Year at Belfast Zoo, Antrim Road, Belfast, February 10. Celebrate Chinese New Year at the zoo and learn more about the Chinese animals at the keeper talks and feeding times. 2013 is the year of the snake and visitors born in the year of the snake will also get free admission to the zoo for the day.
Here are Jacqueline’s pick of family events taking place this weekend across the North.
Want to have a bit of family fun but learn something crucial about the world around you at the same time? Then Castle Espie is the place for you on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd of February. As part of World Wetlands Day 2013, WWT Castle Espie are hosting two days of fun talks. Come with the family and interact with science to discover the 6 secrets of wetlands and explore questions such as ‘What wetland plant feeds more than 3 billion people every year?’ – ‘Why does there seem to be more flooding incidents every year?’ –‘Why do we need clean wetlands to survive as a species?’ and many more. Come and meet a collection of reptiles, amphibians and creepy crawlies and learn about their bodies, lifecycles, and adaptations. Lectures take place at 12pm and 3pm each day. Pre-booking is essential as places are limited.
The Bardic Theatre Present Lionel Bart’s OLIVER! This musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic opens Friday 1st February 2013 – Nightly @ 8pm until 16th February. Box Office: 028 87 725 286 (Stewart’s Music Shop).
Dominic Kirwan, one of Ireland’s best and most popular concert performers, embarks on a nationwide concert tour with his excellent band to coincide with the release of his new album. Dominic’s show creates a wonderful atmosphere among his audience and everybody leaves wanting more. The concert at Ardhowen on Thursday 31st January features songs from his many albums as well as others from right across the country and pop music spectrum. All tickets are £20.00.
The Terrace Hotel Magherafelt is the venue for the upcoming “Take Me Out” fundraiser on Friday 1st February in aid of the Buddy Bear Trust. Organised by the students from Magherafelt Northern Regional College to raise funds for a Conductive Educational School for kids with Cerebral Palsy – the only one of its kind in N. Ireland, this promised to be a great night out! Tickets only £5.
Drama For Kids’ presents the classic tale ‘Puss In Boots’ in aid of Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice at The Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre, Saturday 2nd February. Puss, an accomplished creature, with wit and ingenuity persuades his master, Tom, to pass himself off as the Marquis of Carabos, with profitable and romantic results. Meet a strong selection of fine characters; Perriwinkle, the foppish Court Jester, Princess Diamond, Dame Eyebright, Count Crusher, a wicked Ogre, and many more.
The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Tribute Show comes to the McNeill Theatre Larne on Saturday. The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Tribute brings audiences into the colourful worlds of Mickey Mouse and a whole host of characters children have loved down through the years, live on stage, right before their eyes in this exciting and fun filled musical production. Featuring fantastic costumes and colourful lighting, it will be an experience for all the family to remember and cherish.
Great News from Thana at Whoosh!
After 4 great years of event catering, hard work, blood, sweat and tears – we are delighted to present the new addition to our services, the Whoosh Thai & Vietnamese Street Food Café!
What is Street Food about?
[street food] is simply ready-to-eat, hot and cold, fast, fresh and deliciously healthy food – ours is served in a comfy casual and relaxed setting.
Our dishes are prepared with quality ingredients and served fresh on the day. At Whoosh, we are obsessive about food and always use the freshest ingredients available. Our menu is small yet varied, providing an element of surprise for our customers as new dishes are introduced on a regular basis.
Sourcing local quality meats, fish and vegetables are essential to us to produce good food. Our dishes are bursting with flavours and colours but contain no MSG, no additives and no preservatives – most of them can also be prepared to suit vegetarian and gluten-free diets. Our key ingredients: love, passion and respect for food. We simply love what we do and do what we love.
In the Southeast Asian culture, eating isn’t just about food but it is also about taking time to appreciate the little things in life and to share our stories, experiences or ups and downs with family, friends, neighbours, colleagues… This is the reason why at Whoosh we love meeting new faces, making new friends and learning from others. So, we never eat alone!
So, if you fancy a quick bite, lunch or a catch-up with friends… sit-in or take -out, eat Whoosh! Eat together!
Where are we? Bellhouse Lane, Coleraine Town Centre (between First Trust Bank and Next), nearest car park: Mall Car Park.
A celebration of the very best in tourism and hospitality will take place on May 30th at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast.
The Northern Ireland Tourism Awards, organised by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board in association with Diageo Northern Ireland, will showcase recent success and a high profile year for the industry, as well as looking forward to the opportunities in 2013 with the UK City of Culture, World Police and Fire Games and G8 Summit.
2012 has been a hugely significant year for tourism in Northern Ireland, dominated by world class events and activity surrounding the ni2012: our time, our place campaign which included the opening of Titanic Belfast, the new Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre and a sell-out Irish Open.
There are 11 award categories in total this year with two new categories for 2013 – ‘Customer Service Excellence’ and ‘Best ni2012 initiative’ and NITB is encouraging organisations and businesses of all sizes to apply.
Aine Kearney, NITB Director of Product Development said, “The ni2012 campaign helped to move tourism to a new level in terms of profile, economic impact and self-belief as the spotlight shone on Northern Ireland for all the right reasons. Now is the time for organisations to celebrate their achievements throughout this significant year by entering the tourism awards.
“The awards will offer businesses the opportunity to review their performance and identify their core strengths. For those who win it is an independent and prestigious endorsement of their organisation and the quality of their products and services,” she said.
“Everyone at NITB is looking forward to a wonderful night of rewarding excellence and celebrating the industry’s achievements,” she added.
Michael McCann, Country Director of Diageo Northern Ireland said, “At Diageo we are committed to working with NITB and our other industry partners to drive visitor numbers throughout Northern Ireland and leave a lasting legacy for the growth and development of tourism.
“In Northern Ireland we have an unrivalled reputation of being great hosts, ensuring that those who visit us have a great experience and it is important that the people, places and organisations that make such a valuable contribution to our tourism industry are recognised and rewarded.
“At Diageo we are proud to support the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards and we are passionate about positioning Northern Ireland as a great location to visitors both at home and abroad,” he added.
This year’s Northern Ireland Tourism Awards gala ceremony will take place in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on Thursday 30th May 2013. The evening will be a glittering celebration of tourism success over the past year with a sit-down gala dinner and entertainment showcasing local talent.
The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) has put together a list of 10 exciting things to do in Northern Ireland over the next week (January 28 – February 3).
Donaghadee Historical Society Talk, Donaghadee Community Centre, Co. Down, January 28. The author Stephen Cameron will give a talk to mark the 60th anniversary of the Princess Victoria Ferry Disaster. Proceeds will go towards the upkeep of the Donaghadee Lifeboat, the ‘Sir Samuel Kelly’ which brought survivors to shore.
Starlight Express, Millennium Forum, Co. Londonderry, January 28 – February 9. One of the longest running musicals in British theatre history, Starlight Express has been specially designed for a new generation of audiences with an electrifying soundtrack and all-new dazzling sets and choreography.
The Young Americans, Waterfront Hall, Belfast, January 30. The world renowned Young Americans have been the pinnacle of excellence in music and dance. During this two act spectacular you will travel through time and across musical genres with vocal and dance showstoppers to rival any West End or Broadway production.
Made in Italy, Belle Isle Cookery School, Lisbellaw, Co. Fermanagh. February 1. Learn about authentic Italian dishes using meat and fish and try your hand at making fresh pasta and ravioli filled with seasonal ingredients. Discover the secrets of deeply rich sauces to enhance any dinner.
Oliver, Bardic Theatre, Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, February 1 – 16. Oliver was the first musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ work to become a stage hit. It follows the story of an orphan who runs away from an orphanage and hooks up with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.
Sporting Traditions through the Ages in Newry and Mourne, Newry and Mourne Museum, Bagenal’s Castle, Newry, Co. Down, February 1 – 28. This colourful exhibition of memorabilia will celebrate sporting traditions and achievements through the ages and will examine the important contribution sport has made to the social and cultural fabric of life in the district.
Be Wild about Wildlife, Beginner Birding – Seabirds, Murlough National Nature Reserve, Dundrum, Co. Down, February 2. Come along and enjoy this great day out for bird beginners. Meeting point is at the car park. Suitable footwear is essential.
Snowdrop Walks, The Argory, Moy, Co. Armagh, February 2. As winter melts away, take a self-guided walk through the estate, enjoy a warm refreshment, buy your own snowdrop plants and pick up some essential reads in the second hand bookshop.
Furniture Upcycling Workshop, Mossley Pavilion, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, February 2. Pick a piece of furniture and learn how to transform it into something truly unique for your home. Learn how to get the ‘chalk paint look’ and other craft techniques such as crackling and decoupage. Furniture and materials provided along with an afternoon tea.
National Intermediate/ Master & Juvenile Development Cross Country Championships, Gransha, Co. Londonderry, February 3. A 12-race programme of top quality cross country action with runners aged 10 to 80 years. Local runners in particular will be trying to impress on home turf.
Ahead of this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch, RSPB invites you along to a fundraising coffee morning at Regent Street Methodist Church, Newtownards from 10am – 2pm on Thursday 24th January. Admission is by donation and you are invited to enjoy a cuppa and some sweet treats and get involved in this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch. Ever wondered what wildlife visits your garden each day? Well this January we are encouraging you to get outdoors for an hour and take part in the world’s biggest wildlife survey. Once your hour is up simply get in touch and tell us what you have seen! To entice more visitors to your garden on the weekend of 26 – 27 January we will be whipping up a delicious dinner for the birds which you can take home as our gift to you.
The Spring Farm Machinery Show Fintona will be taking place on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th January at the Ecclesville Centre in Fintona. This event attracts over 12,000 farmers and contractors from across the UK and Ireland to view the latest machinery, gather technical information and network with the industry. It has always been the largest of its kind in Ireland and this year it promises to be bigger and better than ever with the Ecclesville centre expanding yet again allowing room for an extra 60 exhibitors. As well as having once again grown in size, this show will have even more attractions for visitors making it the place to be in 2013. This is an extremely popular annual event showcasing all the latest and best agricultural equipment and machinery the industry has to offer.
The Westville Wedding Fair at the Westville Hotel takes place this Sunday afternoon, 27th January from 1.00pm to 5.00pm. Come along for a chance to view the hotel and the facilities on offer for your special day, we well as an opportunity to meet lots of local wedding suppliers.
The Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre Limavady will celebrate Burns night in style on Thursday 24th January. Willie Drennan and his band, with special guest John Trotter, will sing the songs, recite the poems and play the music of Rabbie Burns while explaining the Scottish Bard’s connection with Ulster. Willie and John will also play some popular high energy songs and tunes from their days with the Ulster Scots Folk Orchestra and Nae Goat’s Toe. A special traditional Burns supper will be provided for all those attending. Don’t miss this exceptional evening celebrating the life and work of the Bard, Rabbie Burns!
Spend some time with your family at Gosford Forest Park, where you will discover some of the rarest breeds of farm animals. (Parking charge applies). Gosford Castle boosts a walled garden, red deer park, poultry collection and ornamental pigeons in docecote. Off A28, near Markethill, Armagh 7 miles, Newry 12 miles. Nature trail, barbeque site, café. Open all year. Toilet and shower facilities available on site.
On Saturday 26th January The best of Northern Ireland One Act Amateur Dramatics compete for the honour of representing Northern Ireland in the British Festival in 2013. Three productions from the regional One Act Play festivals will perform at Theatre at The Mill for this winning title. Further information on the plays and presenting groups will be detailed closer to the festival on www.theatreatthemill.com.
Three is the magic number for Stendhal Festival of Art!
Stendhal Festival of Art is delighted to announce that the third instalment of the most all encompassing music and arts festival in Northern Ireland will take place at Ballymully Cottage Farm, Limavady, on August 16 and 17, 2013.
Having steadily gained momentum over the past three years, the 2013 event will see the return of everything that has proven so popular with festival goers who have attended in the first two years along with a few new additions which aim to delight and inspire.
Stendhal Festival is accepting submissions from bands and artists via their own website and this year will also be working in conjunction with New York based ReverbNation who will also be accepting applications to play at the event from January 21 until April 30.
Organiser Ross Parkhill said: “We are delighted to be partnering with ReverbNation in order to accept band submissions this year. They have a huge audience and it will no doubt open doors for us in terms of getting the festival noticed not only in Northern Ireland but the entire UK and further afield.
Anyone wishing to submit an application to play please fill in the application form on Stendhalfestival.com before midnight on April 30.
To apply through ReverbNation simply click on the link found on Stendhalfestival.com or go to www.reverbnation.comand search Stendhal Festival of Art in the search box, the closing date on ReverbNation is also April 30.
If your band does not already have a ReverbNation Press Kit, you will be able to follow links on that page to create one.
Early bird tickets for the August event are expected to be on sale in February.
The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) has put together a list of 10 exciting things to do in Northern Ireland over the next week (January 14 – 20).
Walls 400! Ebrington, Co. Londonderry, January 1 – 31. Walls 400! will mark the quarter-centenary of the city walls with a series of activities to explore the contested history that the city walls represent and celebrate Derry’s walls as a present-day national heritage asset.
Kieran Goss in Concert, Ranfurly Arts and Visitor Centre, Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, January 12. Long hailed as one of Ireland’s leading songwriters and performers, Kieran Goss has many fans across the globe but if his songs have made him a star, his live shows have made him a legend.
Fiona Cassidy – Author in Residence, An Creagán, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, January 14, 16 & 18. Bestselling author Fiona Cassidy will be taking up residence at An Creagán to offer a series of creative writing workshops for adults.
Newtownards Market, Conway Square, Co. Down, January 19. This traditional weekly market caters for all your needs with a diverse range of stalls selling fruit, vegetables, flowers, tools and household goods.
An Evening with Dominic Kirwan, Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, January 19. One of Ireland’s best and most popular concert performers embarks on a nationwide tour with country, pop and album hits.
Arenacross, Odyssey Arena, Belfast, January 19. The crazy indoor off-spring of motocross racing. The racing is short, sharp and shockingly spectacular with huge triple jumps, killer mogul sections and fast, banked corners, all designed to provide high-octane sensory fun.
Woodland Workout, meeting at Craigavon Museum car park, Waterside House, Oxford Island, Craigavon, Co. Armagh, January 19. Start the New Year in the great outdoors and help stack rotten timber to create habitat piles for insects, coppicing hazel trees and give your brain a workout as you learn about the native flora and fauna and local folklore. Sturdy footwear and warm waterproof clothes are essential.
Man of Aran, Ulster Museum Lecture Theatre, Belfast, January 20. Robert Flaherty’s new digital restoration of the classic 1934 documentary ‘Man of Aran’ – an Irish documentary following the hardships of daily life experienced by a family living and working on the Aran Islands, just off the west coast of Ireland.
Nature Tales, the MAC, Belfast, January 20. Conjure up fantastic fairy-tales and stories in this workshop for 4-6 year olds. With help from the sculptures in Claire Morgan’s amazing exhibition, storyteller Mary-Frances will conjure up fantastic fairy-tales and stories about animals and nature, before asking you to make up your very own animal stories.
A Very Grand Canal, Waterways Ireland Headquarters, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, until January 31. An exhibition of prints, sound, film, music, photography and literature all of which have been inspired by the Grand Canal in Offaly. Artists include Geraldine O’Reilly, La Cosa Preziosa, Mixed Bag Media, Eugene O’Brien, Veronica Nicholson and Wayne Brennan.
Saturday 12th January sees the Kirkistown Racing Circuit host a short circuit karting meeting by the 500 Motor Racing Club of Ireland, featuring direct drive junior and senior classes. This event is round 3 of a 4 round Kirkistown Karting Winter Series. Admission is free.
A long time ago in the far off city of Old Peking, lived a boy called Aladdin – join him on a magical carpet ride for this classic Christmas pantomime. Get ready for another treasure-filled adventure produced by Stewartstown Dramatic Society. Its pure panto genie-us at the Burnavon Theatre Cookstown from 11th to 26th January. Tickets are £10 (£8 concession).
Roll out of bed on Saturday mornings and join the mountain biking enthusiasts at Corralea. Mountain bikers are welcome to use the trails and a qualified Trail Cycle Leader will be on site to assist and advise anyone present on skills, techniques, bike setup and where to go. The session is open to Mountain Biking enthusiasts who have their own gear (bike in working order, gloves, helmet etc..) or novices who want to experience the tracks. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Bike hire is available and includes helmet and gloves (minimum 12 years).
Roe Valley Arts Centre Limavady are delighted to present James Ivory’s adaptation of Peter Cameron’s novel, starring the superb Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney and Charlotte Gainsbourg on Saturday 12th January. 28-year-old Kansas University doctoral student Omar Razaghi wins a grant to write a biography of Latin American writer Jules Gund, but Omar must first get through three people who were close to Gund – his brother, widow, and younger mistress—in order to write it. Travelling to South America to persuade this dysfunctional ensemble of oddball characters awakens a greater journey in the young writer. Never before screened in the UK, this beautifully filmed Merchant Ivory production was made following Ismail Merchant’s death. The screening will be introduced by a member of the Merchant Ivory Board and complimentary refreshments will be provided. This special screening also launches the Roe Valley January-April Film Programme.
Step back in time in style and enjoy Victorian Afternoon Tea in style in the Dining Room of Milford House Museum. Visitors can book Afternoon tea in the Dining Room where you will partake of Tea using silver and china while the Mc Crum family portraits look down on you. Enjoy delicious sandwiches cut in strips (no crusts!), smoked salmon, scones with fresh cream and jam, cakes and buns. You will be served by our guides wearing genuine nineteenth century clothing who will instruct you in the art of etiquette of Victorian Afternoon Tea. This is followed by a guided tour. Visitors can also book a living history tour set in the year 1899.
© Copyright What's On NI 2017. All Rights Reserved. | 2019-04-20T14:44:12Z | https://whatsonni.com/news/2013/01/ |
Sometimes a merging of the centuries just works. This beautiful Parisian apartment full of period details has been brought up to date with a sympathetic restoration and rooms full of retroinspired wallpaper designs and mid-century furniture. It now perfectly suits the lifestyle of a young family and is full of light, colour and designer details.
The colour palette has been kept neutral in the light-filled living room while the warm herringbone floor and blue chairs sing out. Curtains have been kept plain so as not to distract the eye away from the geometric rug and the modern details in the room.
The elaborate marble fireplace and gilt mirror provide quite a contrast against the modern furnishings.
The narrow galley kitchen is not short on impact thanks to the boldly coloured tiles and modern lighting. Whilst a modest breakfast bar provides extra work space and a handy place to perch for breakfast.
In order to get light into the kitchen a window has been inserted between this room and the dining room next door. This also connects the two rooms visually so that the cook does not feel isolated when entertaining.
The colour palette in the dining room picks out the yellow, grey and black from the kitchen tiles in the adjoining room.
The highly polished wooden floors flow throughout the apartment connecting all of the spaces and the retro inspired wallpaper is also another recurring theme.
Architecture and Design by Prisca Pellerin.
Extract from ‘Renovate Innovate: Reclaimed and Upcycled Homes’ by Antonia Edwards, published by Prestel.
Tiny House by Jessica Helgerson Interior Design.
Tall, high-efficiency windows come right down to sofa level, letting in maximum light.
Jessica Helgerson is a Portland-based designer of residential and commercial interiors. With a long-standing interest in green building and sustainability, she has sat on a number of boards devoted to environmental preservation. In 2008, Helgerson and her husband bought a 540-square-foot cottage on five acres of farmland on Sauvie Island, an agricultural landmass on the Columbia River just north of Portland. The cottage was first built in the early 1940's as part of Vanport Village, a development constructed to house shipyard workers from Vancouver in Washington and Portland. When Vanport Village flooded in 1948, the small structure floated down the river to Sauvie Island, where it became the goose check station (a place where hunters would showcase the geese they had shot). Years later, it was remodeled and became a rental property.
One addition to the 1940s Tiny House was a green roof, which was planted with moss and ferns gathered from the Columbia River gorge.
The walls were insulated, then faced in reclaimed wood siding from a barn that had been deconstructed onsite.
Given its small footprint, Helgerson redesigned the interior of Tiny House for maximum efficiency, creating one open-plan room that comprises the dining room, living room and kitchen. This room also contains built-in sofas that double as twin beds for guests, and hidden storage underneath provides an ideal place for children’s toys. The ceiling of the main living area was opened up to give a feeling of space, but lowered over the bathroom and bedroom to make a lofted sleeping area for adults accessed via a walnut ladder. A wall of shelving provides plenty of room for books and large, low-set windows bring ample light into the interior.
One wall contains the kitchen, maximizing the available space.
The parents’ bedroom is located on the mezzanine level of the main room, which is lined with vintage Moroccan Beni Ourain rugs and accessed via a walnut ladder. In addition to a separate kids’ bedroom, the built-in sofas double up as beds for guests.
The family spent four years living in the cottage. Raising chickens, turkeys and bees, they have worked towards self-sufficiency, with nearly everything they eat grown at home. A 1,200-square-foot greenhouse on the site houses vegetable gardens and fruit trees, and they’re even able to make cheese from a neighbour’s goats and cows. They now live in a larger house on the same property, making the cottage the perfect place for relatives and friends to stay.
How do you fancy a 240 m2 penthouse, with a spectacular open-plan living space on the upper floor and stunning views over the Thames?
This penthouse is arranged over the top two floors of a prominent high-rise residential development, originally designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, and now dramatically reconfigured by FORMstudio.
The former arrangement ignored the spatial potential offered by the distinctive, soaring wing roof and the spectacular wrap-around views over the river and to the City beyond. Now, from the entrance, a view of the river draws the visitor forward into a double height space, from which an elegantly detailed stairway leads upward, revealing the impressively spacious open-plan dining and living area above.
On the lower level, a spectacular river-facing master bedroom suite, includes a floor-to ceiling glazed oriel window cantilevered out over the water and equipped with a rotating Citterio-designed circular sofa, to exploit the Canaletto-like panoramic view. There are also two further bedroom suites.
The generous upper floor space features areas for sitting, dining/cooking and working without the need for dividing walls. The raised level of this living space has dramatically improved the river view from a sitting position and created access to the beautiful terrace.
We think we could be very happy here. Who wants to be roomies?
Doing their bit to address the need for private rentals in London, LPC Living, an award winning developer specialising in urban regeneration, have developed 22 brand new design-led homes in Finsbury Park. Fonthill Mews is set in a historic mews and former coach house, and is the perfect retreat for city dwellers, with bespoke one and two bed properties each with their own unique features. The private gated development is creative and modern whilst still retaining an array of traditional features.
A mix of natural materials, custom made fittings and industrial fixtures are found throughout the development. While each property has a stylish open plan concept, formulated by the architect to create a sense of free flowing space. Intimate corners for cosy nights and larger areas for gatherings are equally manageable in the versatile spaces. A selection of the homes have a movable kitchen island unit, which can be pushed to one side to alter the shape and atmosphere of the room. Party! We're thinking. And the kitchen cabinets vary from chalky grey-greens to blues and charcoals, adorned with smooth white and light grey marble worktops.
Large windows allow natural light to flood through each house and apartment. Many of the houses feature large glass doors that open out onto large decked terraces from the master bedrooms, overlooking the serpentine communal gardens. A neutral palette is used throughout; whitewashed American oak lines the floors whilst the walls are dip-dyed with neutral shades.
As if that wasn't enough, a handful of the properties make excellent live/work spaces, with spacious annexes lit by skylights with unobstructed views of the sky providing an impressive amount of additional space. Two of the properties harbour secret rooftop terraces, flanked with climbing vine and benefiting from pretty views of trees and neighbouring rooftops.
Now available to rent, contact Lettings Manager Alex Reach to book your viewing.
Fonthill Mews is a new project by LPC Living and was created in conjunction with site designer, Mike Baxter and is marketed exclusively by Davies & Davies Estate Agents. The brand identity for the development and all marketing materials have been created by design and communications studio, The Barefaced Movement.
We're always delighted when we find an interesting house renovation project in our in-box. This stunning house built in 1782 in a Georgian Crescent in Bath was sent to us by Claire Rendall interiors and of course we couldn't wait to find out more.
1. What was the client brief?
The house when it was bought was a classic “how not to treat a historic property,” so the brief was to bring it back to life. As many people do, the house had been hermetically sealed and was suffering badly as a result. All the fireplaces were blocked up, synthetic fitted carpets clung to every room. All walls were covered with wood-chip wallpaper and painted, secondary double glazing panels covered all of the windows. Plastic shuttering attempted to keep water out of the basement but merely kept any damp in.
All the pretty plasterwork was thick with many years of paint.
2. What improvements have you made?
The first thing was to allow the house to breath. Soggy fitted carpets were removed. Secondary double glazing panels were taken out and windows rehung. Bricks were removed from the fireplaces and the basement plastic panels were removed. Rain water could now get in but most importantly it could escape too. We fitted an Aga in the basement kitchen and this encouraged air to circulate. Suddenly the house felt drier. It’s really important to think about how these houses were built and lived in. Unfortunately, in the 1960’s and 70’s the onus was on keeping moisture out and as a result a lot was trapped in. Now we understand the sense of breathable materials such as lime plaster and natural fibres for carpets.
3. What was the budget roughly?
4. What aspect of the renovation are you most happy with?
It was a totally joy to reveal the delicate plaster mouldings. I tend not to get so upset now when I see plasterwork caked in paint because I know its protecting it. When we took the paint off the plasterwork was as crisp as the day it was fitted. We also stripped the thick gloss paint that was under the stair carpet revealing the beautiful original oak staircase, and when the spindles on the top floor were cleaned of years of thick chipped paint, I noticed that they were different sizes. I suspect that many parts of the house were recycled when it was built in the 1780’s. Certainly many of the timber beams in the basement had plugged holes showing that they had been used before, possibly as ships timbers or in other houses. I just love imagining where they had been.
For this house, I wanted it to recapture its personality. An intimate Georgian House. It had a gentleness so I used soft duck egg blues, rich Indian rugs and French linen sheets for curtains.
6. What has been the clients' reaction to the finished project?
Thrilled. It’s always lovely to find a dejected property and bring it to life. In many ways the transformation is more acute and therefore impressive.
Extract from Life Unstyled by Emily Henson, published by Ryland Peters & Small.
You'd never guess, but a mere five minutes' walk from this tranquil apartment is bustling Brixton Village, one of South London’s most vibrant areas. For six years now, Stephanie Zak and Ben Johnson have called this bijou flat their home, creating a stylish and calm haven in the centre of town. When Stephanie bought the flat – it was her first home – it was an unfinished shell and over the years she has transformed it into the cosy retreat it is today. A photographic shoot producer working mostly in interiors, she has clearly picked up a few pointers along the way and found the perfect balance between a styled and natural look. Ben is a music producer who often works from home, so it’s important that the flat is calming and inspiring, both of which are true.
Despite its small size, a huge amount of personality has been packed into the living room. Shelves flank the chimney breast and another was added above the non-working fireplace to provide more surface space for this globe-trotting couple’s collections, largely picked up on their travels. Potted plants and vases of branches bring the room to life and last longer than cut flowers.
Located one flight up in a 1930s red-brick block, the flat is petite – one small bedroom, an open-plan living room with a galley kitchen and a bathroom. The couple have added storage wherever possible: there are built-in units in the living room, a large mirrored wardrobe in the bedroom and stacks of vintage suitcases filled to the brim.
Open shelving in both the living room and kitchen allows the couple’s style to shine through. The fireplace shelves display decorative items like small plants, pictures and books, while the cupboards beneath serve as a drinks cabinet and storage for extra glassware, candles, vases and other things they’d rather not have on show.
Home and travel are priorities for Stephanie and Ben, who have found a way to combine their two passions. They rent out the flat to other travellers and the additional income they earn allows them to feed their insatiable desire to travel. Playing host has encouraged them to create order in their small home without sacrificing style. On display are cherished mementoes – photos, art and small collections – but care has also been taken to make it a well-functioning space so guests can find what they need.
In the small galley kitchen just off the living room, storage is limited. Shelves are organised into cookbooks, pots/pans, dinnerware and glassware. A large framed poster hangs on the wall, adding further to the personality of the home.
The flat is decorated with a charming mix of vintage finds, furniture found on the street and then refurbished, and accessories collected on their travels. The Moroccan wedding blanket on their bed was found in a souk in Marrakech and was a birthday gift from Ben to Stephanie, while the turquoise sari repurposed as bedroom curtains was picked up in Malaysia. Also thrown into the mix is artwork inherited from Stephanie’s Swiss grandparents and sculptures made by her sculptor mother. All in all, it makes for an enchanting home, the kind of place that compels you to stop and take it all in.
In the small bedroom, every inch of space is put to good use. The windowsill is lined with small plants and gilt frames (above) and a very tight nook at the foot of the bed gets a wooden side table for dishes of jewellery and vases of flowers, with a dressmaker’s bust adding character and doubling as necklace storage (below). To make up for the lack of built-in storage, Stephanie collects vintage suitcases and stacks them along the wall to hold items that she doesn’t need to access frequently, such as off-season clothes (also below).
I imagine you learn to be relaxed when you allow strangers to rent your home. You have little choice but to be chilled out about the fact that people are going to touch your stuff! And it shows in the sweetly laid-back way that Stephanie has styled, or rather not styled, her things.
I particularly love the shelves flanking the fireplace, where all manner of odds and ends jostle for space – photobooth snaps, dried flowers and branches, candles and postcards. It feels special but not too precious and it feels alive, as if it’s constantly evolving, thanks to the inspiration that the couple bring back from each trip.
CREATIVITY BEFORE CONSUMPTION - The small bedroom features some great ideas.
Life Unstyled by Emily Henson, published by Ryland Peters & Small.
Nina Campbell is arguably the queen of 'quintessentially English' style. Her interiors are luxurious, yet warm and cosy. Layered, but somehow ordered. Full of life, pattern and colour, and yet comforting to the eye. Can you tell we're fans?
When we were offered the chance to share with you some photographs of her London home AND share some of her words of wisdom, we said YES PLEASE. Enjoy.
What makes a perfect interior? "You need to have a spark, a flash of something that seems a bit unplanned, all the while suiting your personality and remaining practical. There’s no point in having a showcase as a home – we all need to feel that it’s our own space when we close our door. Entertaining is one of my many passions so my perfect interior needs to be inviting for when I have guests round for lively, lengthy dinners."
What tips do you have for creating the perfect interiors? "Your home is somewhere you can stamp your personality, be creative and make your own. Create the impression of space and grandeur by using some decorative tricks such as strategically placed mirrors, they reflect light and make the room feel larger. My ceilings are rather low, so I lacquered them, it adds an element of glamour to the room and makes the ceiling feel higher."
What do you like about florals within your interior? "When I use floral motifs in my home, I like to play with scale. Smaller subtle pattern works well with upholstery and pretty decorative accessories. To create a sense of drama I use larger scale prints on wallpapers, pictures and prints."
Why are hallways important? "The hallway sets the tone of the house and deserves to be considered as a space in its own right. It is a well-used room that people walk through continuously, and makes the first impression to your all of your guests."
What is the inspiration behind your design? "My focus was on creating a personable living space for myself on the first floor. The upstairs is given over entirely to my bedroom, bathroom and walk in dressing area. I used the Penrose fabric from my own collection on the walls, it’s a very soft pale blue, pink and flowery all over. Not only is this a great alternative to wallpaper, but it adds warmth and texture whilst soundproofing the room."
What are your favourite parts of the house? "My favourite element would be the chair I have in my bedroom. I can sit there and look through the window that overlooks the magnolia tree in the garden. You can barely see another house, only gardens, which is amazing for central London."
The freelance photographer, interior stylist and design consultant Ilaria Chiaratti Bonomi talks about her property in Eindhoven.
Throughout Ilaria Chiaratti Bonomi's semi-detached property in Eindhoven, Holland, is an array of crocheted cushions, blankets and decorations. The freelance photographer, interior stylist and design consultant, who contributes mainly to the Italian homes magazine Casa Facile, started crocheting home accessories when she moved from Italy to Holland in 2009.
A year later, Ilaria started her blog, IDA Interior Lifestyle, where she writes about new trends, DIY tutorials, interior styling, her crochet makes and much more. In fact, following positive feedback to her crochet pieces she started her own Etsy store and this year she launched her own yarn shop.
It was in 2012, in need of a bigger space to pursue her freelance career, that Ilaria and Alberto, her husband, moved from their 75sq metre apartment into the property you see here. “I can't say it was love at first sight – dark and heavy furniture, dull colours, and bland décor. But I saw great personality and potential with a lot of original details, such as the doors and the stained glass windows,” says Ilaria.
Now, Ilaria refers to her home as 'the happy house' as she says it's fresh, young and represents who they are; She called her previous flat 'the blue apartment' because she decorated it in different shades of blue.
The property is located in a residential area near the city centre. “Eindhoven is a nice and quiet city, the perfect size to live in. And, in the past years the city has been improved and now offers design spaces and an interesting cultural life,” says Ilaria.
She describes her interior style is a mix of flea-market pieces, hand-made and design items. She finds interior inspiration through using Pinterest – she says she's a ‘Pinterest addict’ – and by reading blogs and magazines (online and print).
Decorating the property is ongoing. “As an interior stylist I always have new ideas and, almost every week, I change the position of the objects and sometimes I even do big changes. Our friends are always curious to visit us because they know that every time there will be something different,” says Ilaria.
This article originally appeared in the May 2014 issue of Heart Home magazine.
This is one of the latest projects by London-based Design Company, Studio Ashby. Inspiration for the design of the penthouse was taken from the surrounding location and reflects the spirit of lively Soho and the modern art scene in London. It's so full of charm and personality we couldn't help but be drawn in.
Interest has been introduced by filling the space with art, books, and personal mementos and by layering objects, furniture and lighting. There's also a liberal use of Liberty fabrics which is very apt as the famous London department store is just around the corner. We love the use of their peacock fabric on the headboard for example which is a great way to create a focal point in the bedroom.
Continuing that thread of the avant-garde style of the arts and crafts movement, modern art is hung throughout the penthouse. Pieces by Jake Curtis, Brent Baker and Dave Watts add to the eclectic and vibrant interior, creating a sense of a real home filled with beautiful, cherished objects.
"My home is referred to as an "artists work/live loft space" in Venice. It has an industrial feel with the high ceilings, cement floors and wire railings but since it is by the beach we wanted to add a more bohemian, colourful aspect to the decor. We wanted to make sure the white walls were filled with tons of artwork and that the furniture was cosy and inviting. We wanted to keep the room comfortable but needed to make the space a bit happier and vibrant! It is so gorgeous now. The chairs and couch are quite simple and chic, a bit more reflective of our lifestyle now." - Whitney Port.
Safavieh Milton Side Table, £194.99. Kelim Cushion Cover, £28.99. Tripod Floor Lamp, £54.99.
"Bringing Whitney Port’s unique look to your home is all about capturing a sense of her lifestyle. With a home by the beach, Whitney’s apartment is filled with colourful, bohemian décor and vibrant touches. This look works perfectly against a light palette, which helps to stop a space from feeling too overcrowded. To capture the look in your home, try incorporating colourful, soft furnishings such as rugs, throws and cushions that offer a bohemian vibe."
Brass Mirror, £69.99. Sideboard, £309.99. Palm Print, £19.99.
"A crucial element of Whitney’s home style is her collection of eye-catching art work and memorabilia from her travels. This paints a story in your home and offers visitors a sense of the people who live there. Without over-crowding your space, add ornaments garnered from your travels to styled vignettes or consider creating a gallery wall of mismatched artwork—this is great for adding vibrancy to a neutral space and helps to inject a sense of your personality into your home."
Solid Beech Wood Arm Chair, £359.99. Blue Rug, £315.17. Screen, £173.99.
"The most endearing quality of Whitney’s apartment is the sense of airy brightness. In rooms which don’t have a great deal of natural light, opt for paint in a vibrant colour to bring a splash of life and luminosity to your space. Arrange white furniture against your painted walls to ensure the colour complements its surroundings rather than clashing with them. Botanical touches and fresh flowers are another brilliant way to bring life and luster to your space—display them in a beautiful vase or planter for that extra pop of style."
Mother-of-three Sarah Szekeres lives in a five-bedroom, detached house in Caramel Valley, San Diego. The suburban area is just minutes from the beach and boasts nearby parks, schools, neighbourhood pools and open spaces. She shares the house with her husband Dave, a mergers and acquisitions attorney, and their children – Carson, five, Brooke, four, and Dylan, one.
The couple enjoy living in San Diego: “the weather averages 70 degrees year round and we love the proximity to the beach as well as the laid back and friendly attitude of the residents,” says Sarah.
They moved into the property in December 2012 attracted by its location – just ten blocks from their previous home which they still own and rent out – and given that the area was under development: “we wanted a neighbourhood with new home construction which allowed us to select the finishes on our home – cabinets, flooring, countertops, bathroom shower material – and the lot our home would be on,” she explains.
They were especially taken with the walking trail and canyon that their lot backed onto – they now get ocean breezes in the backyard – and the floor plan which suited a family of five.
On moving in, Sarah and Dave spent ten days improving the property including painting the whole interior, adding crown moulding, a bespoke master bedroom closet, white shutters and a custom garage.
A month after, interior designer Cecily Mendell helped finish the kitchen and family room nook, living room, dining room, downstairs powder room and master bedroom.
“She did a great job of nailing our style and then pushing us a little out of our comfort zone. She did a fabulous job and has impeccable style,” says Sarah.
The modern decor of the new house is greatly different from Sarah and Dave’s previous property which was smaller and Spanish in architecture: “we had dark brown cabinetry and furniture throughout and light tumbled travertine flooring with light muted colours as accents,” explains Sarah.
Currently they are in the process of finishing the backyard. The couple have spent $60,000 on improving the property. “We originally planned to spend $25,000 but the scope of the project more than doubled,” she explains.
Sarah seeks interior inspiration from Pinterest and Houzz and favours online shops such as Serena & Lily and West Elm.
This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2013 issue of Heart Home mag.
This is the eclectic home of Justin Colombik and his partner Jason Sebacher. Justin is an interior designer who designs high-profile restaurants and hotels throughout the United States (currently he's working between Chicago and San Francisco)—as well as abroad. Jason has two jobs: he is a playwright—having produced and published plays all across the country—and manages the Department for English as a Second Language at Truman College.
Their home is a condo on the top floor of a vintage four-story walkup. It's in the historic Andersonville neighborhood, on Chicago’s north side, a hop, skip, and a jump away from the lake. Consisting of one bedroom, a library (second bedroom/office), a living room, dining room, 2 foyers (front and back) and a back porch, they have lived there since 2013 and it's their first home together.
Q. What attracted you to your home in the first place?
A. The layout, the “bones,” and the neighborhood.
Q. What improvements/decorating have you done?
There was really a top-to-bottom renovation; other than moving walls (which we thankfully didn’t have to do) and the charming, old-world details that you just don’t see in new buildings (like the fittings and moldings), almost everything has been gutted to the studs, updated and/or cleaned-up.
First, we had all of those vintage details restored and touched-up. Those were an important centerpiece to the design, and we wanted to make sure they shined. In every room we repaired and painted the walls, added period moldings and refinished the floors.
The kitchen and bathroom were gutted. In the kitchen, we got new appliances suitable for a small space, cabinets, lighting fixtures. The kitchen has a convection microwave, which doubles a second oven. We configured the layout to increase storage, appliance size, and countertops with changing the size of the space we had or moving plumbing. We replaced the granite countertops with quartz. In the bathroom we updated the shower fixtures, replaced the vanity/countertop refinished the cast-iron tub, and added a stackable washer and dryer.
In the bedroom there were these bizarre three-foot-deep, full-length mirrored closets that we moved a long with the wall and install custom full height built-in modern wardrobes with lighting.
Q. What are you most proud of in your home?
A. I really love how my partner and I blend our personal styles together to create our own style. Jason would be happiest if books covered every available wall and surface, and I am more of a layered minimalist. Together we created a smart, comfortable, interesting space that we both love—lots of rich textures and great art.
Q. Are there any more improvements you wish to make in the future?
A. I’d love to have a stair go directly to the roof so we could access the rooftop and create a roof-top garden.
Q. Where do you get your inspiration from?
A. Jason and I started with what we both loved, and with how we want to live. His incredible book collection was a design challenge that we also used. While I usually get my inspiration from fashion, pop-culture and architecture, for this project, I was inspired by us.
A. To me the greatest beauty is simplicity. It’s a fine line to toe, and my style exists in the spaces of clean architectural lines, a connection to history, layers of textures, and meaningful stories.
Q. Do you have any favourite shops/market?
A. Many of the pieces in our home come from a design shop called Scout, which is a few blocks away. Amazing one of a kind finds!
Q. Have you found any real bargains?
A. When my grandparents moved from Illinois to become full-time Floridians, they gave me a lot of their furniture and art. Visiting the house was like walking through a Mad Men set; they have wonderful taste that has enhanced our homes design—as well as making it more connected to them.
Q. Do you entertain often and how?
A. Absolutely! We have a formal dining room that comfortably seats eight, and we like to fill it! Jason also has actors over for script readings.
Q. What’s your favourite menu/music for entertaining?
A. I love cooking, and work my way through interesting cookbooks I pick up—so it depends! That said, you can never go wrong with comfort food. Jason likes to put together the music for when we entertain; we both love the 80s, so there’s a lot of fun to be had.
Q. Which is your favourite room and why?
A. Personally, it’s the kitchen! I love to cook. With the great appliances, finishes, and layout, it’s such a pleasure.
You can see more of Justin's work here and here.
This four bedroom Georgian house, built in 1830 is on leafy Bromley Common and was one of the first houses built there as a hunting retreat for wealthy Londoners. Nowadays it is the home of Serge and Malin, and their children Maija 12, Elise 6, Emilio 4. Plus their 2 cats Pelle and Alfons. Malin is a photographer and location manager so it will come as no surprise that the house is available for shoots via 1st Option. And it is so full of photo-worthy opportunities that we couldn't wait to share it with you.
They have lived there now for 10 years (they also have a house in Sweden and one in France) and were first attracted by the fact that is was big enough to shoot in (or course), the style of the property (simply stunning), and the wonderful garden.
The house has been completely renovated in the time they have been there, and when we asked Malin if they had any professional help she laughed “Tradesmen only, my husband and I are a good team, I drag the things I find and love home, place it somewhere where it is in the way for everyone, and he has the feng shui and places it all eventually!” Malin must be very good at this, as she designed and sourced the materials for the greenhouse herself.
She describes her style as definitely mixed. She's inspired by her travels, her work and life itself. When she's not living that life you will find her on Pinterest. And her favourite shops are Graham and Green, made.com, tk max, antiques shops in Hastings and Whitstable and she also loves the Brocantes in France, loppis in Sweden and boot sales in the UK. “it's about picking up things that can't be replicated”.
So here's hoping she doesn't mind if we pop round.
This 4 storey 1970's townhouse in leafy Highgate, London, has recently been completely refurbished by LLI Design. The owners, a young professional couple, saw the huge potential in the house and wanted to embrace the 70's feel but not in a cliched way. The room sizes were good, being the full width of the property on each floor, and they benefited from natural light, but the circulation spaces were cramped and dark.
The result is anything but cramped and dark however, and could teach us a few lessons on how to make the most of the space we have.
The living/TV room is situated on the lower ground floor, where there is the least light, and where a rugged, semi-industrial feel has been created with brick effect wallpaper and metal furniture. The new open-tread staircase was designed to bring as much light to this area as possible and every inch of space has been utilised, including placing the TV under the stairs.
A small work area has also been positioned in a corner of this room, making the most of the window, and with a large storage cupboard in which to hide paperwork and files.
The ground floor consists of the sitting and dining areas and space has been maximised in both with the use of an L-shaped sofa in the living area and built-in banquet seating around the dining table. The visual impact of the new staircase was kept to a minimum by installing a glass balustrade with no handrail and strong pieces of artwork and graphic cushions help bring the separate zoned areas together to form a cohesive whole.
Adding a round table, 2 dining chairs, a matt black accent pendant lamp over the table and artwork above helped to define the dining area. Although it has a small footprint it can comfortably sit 6 people.
A small breakfast bar was added to the kitchen and dramatic dark bronze tiles created a backsplash between the top of the counter and the bottom of the units.
The second floor was reconfigured from a series of separate rooms into a stylish master suite, with an open plan bathroom featuring a statement freestanding bath. This is a great space-saving plan as walls, doors and corridors all take up unnecessary square footage.
The owners however, did want that WOW factor in the master suite, and this was achieved with textured porcelain wall tiles sitting easily next to the Cole & Son Fornasetti “Clouds” wallpaper, floor tiles in the bathroom that were in the format of a rug pattern and two striking bronze mirrors over the vanity unit.
The project was recently awarded - Best Interior Design Private Residence London, in the United Kingdom Property Awards 2015 / 16.
With all out thoughts now firmly on summer holidays, we couldn't resist showing you this beautiful, light-filled, holiday apartment in Barcelona. Designed by Susanna Cots Interior Design, the minimalist space and white walls are warmed by the wooden floor stretching the length of the apartment and by the wooden fenced outside space.
We particularly love the window design and the way the deep frames provide seating both inside and out, whilst also flooding the interior with that gorgeous Spanish light. And the modern fireplace built into a corner is also a favourite feature - for those cooler evenings when you just want to cosy up inside.
Henny Tate was brought up in the countryside by a mother who loves nature. Following in her footsteps she now lives in a country cottage in a small village in Wiltshire where she works as an interior designer. She discusses the inspiration behind her work and setting up a family home.
Interior Designer Henny Tate lives in a stunning grade II listed house with her three young children and husband Rupert. They fell in love with the country cottage six years ago and decided to follow their hearts and buy the property, “We had no reason to move here whatsoever!” she laughs, “but we just loved the house”.
Henny has maintained the character of the house beautifully when renovating and asserted her own style with quirky, and thrifty furnishings. Dotted around the home you can spot old church pews, re-upholstered chairs, a bargain sofa bought from her local auction house and, her favourite piece, a work top cleverly re-crafted from an old billiard table top - need I say more!
From looking at the combination of cleverly put together crafts and objects it is clear that Henny has an inherent talent. Very few could inject touches of ethnic art and colourful textiles into a quintessential English country cottage quite so effortlessly. A quick delve into her background reveals where she gets her creative flare from. Her mother, Celia Lewis, is an artist and author whose published books, ‘The Illustrated Guide to Keeping Chickens’ and ‘The Illustrated Guide to Keeping Pigs’, are proudly placed on the coffee table.
Celia’s illustrations can be seen on various cushions or table mats throughout the house and although she is not as big on nature as her Mother, it’s evident that the country theme is very close to Henny’s heart.
Henny’s earthy background and love of all things wholesome have undoubtedly influenced her attitude to life and design. She places great emphasis on homemaking, and her penchant for cultural pieces, natural fabrics and up-cycling has proved the perfect recipe for creating a beautifully nurtured family home.
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of Heart Home mag.
This modern apartment in Barcelona was designed by Susanna Cots Interior Design for two book lovers. We were struck by the clean white lines of the space and the contrasting wooden lacquered sheet that crosses the apartment vertically and horizontally creating an emotional and warm passageway.
The starting point of the apartment is the centrally located dining room. The ceiling is dressed in wood that, at the same time, shapes the furniture that holds the TV and a fireplace. This wooden wrapping continues across the ceiling and separates the living and the water areas inside and outside. The wood even reaches the bedroom suite defining the sleeping area and finally becoming the bed head.
As reading is a large part of the daily routine of the owners, the central area is surrounded by bookshelves and in addition the studio is fully integrated into the living room creating a corner flooded in light that faces the terrace.
The bedroom suite includes a water area to evoke a relaxed feeling, with the bath next to the bed, and with a door system that turns the bath into a relaxing bench. The shower is flooded with natural light.
Throughout, the rooms have been accessorised with black touches, such as shelves and decorative lamps, creating a further contrast against the white and wood surfaces.
"Because white does not scare us, or make us feel blocked nor we are afraid of staining it. Because we do not want it to be related to trifles nor fashion crazes. Because we believe that the authenticity of white resides in its purity and brightness. Because this is the white we love." Susanna Cots.
This 4th floor apartment is situated in a newly constructed building overlooking Covent Garden piazza. The owner called on Kitesgrove to help furnish it, and we love it so much we couldn't resist asking the designers a few nosy questions.
We were engaged to completely furnish and dress our client’s newly built apartment. She wanted us to create a place of comforting respite from her demanding thespian and travel-heavy schedule.
We were handed the project as a fitted shell requiring everything entirely new from tables, chairs and beds right through to tableware and thoughtfully selected accessories. We spent time sourcing original vintage furniture from the 1950's and 60's - in line with our client’s discerning design taste and our shared appreciation for authenticity.
For this project our client had a strong and principled aesthetic vision for the space that nurtured an inspiring working relationship as we shared many sourcing trips to find unusual antiques and artwork together. Her theatrical background informed much of the design from mixing a vibrant colour palette to layering eclectic accessories.
At Kitesgrove we have an attentive design approach which aims to deliver homes that truly reflect our clients’ lifestyle and wishes. We find that our most successful projects are born out of clients engaging closely in the process where we are able to capture their imagination and the inspiration is mutual. Having said that, we work on a number of development projects and are equally adept at designing for sale. In these cases we draw inspiration from the existing architecture and locality of the space. We take careful consideration of who we imagine might live there and often draw on fine art or a particular unusual piece of furniture or lighting to inspire a theme in the design. We prioritize natural materials and regard comfort and quality as central to our work.
What has been the clients' reaction to the finished project?
Initially the apartment was intended to be let for the periods of time our client was travelling. As she became increasingly involved and enamoured by the design she began to reject this idea feeling that it was all ‘too beautiful’ to allow just anyone to live there. Since the completion of the project, we have received emails of thanks reiterating how inspired and ‘at home’ she feels in the space.
Forget everything you've ever known about student accommodation because a brand new development is launching in Newcastle, claiming to be the very best in the city and providing residents with a 'VIP student experience'.
Plummer House boasts a chic in-house bar, with its very own ice machines, sound system and eye-catching décor, other facilities also include a private cinema, on-site gym and games room, and even a 24-hour concierge team to attend to every whim. There is even a 'cold room' which will take delivery of students' online food shopping if they are not at home to receive it.
The original building was built in 1910 and is famous for hosting Tilley's tea dances in the ballroom. The original key period features have been retained including the beautiful dance floor which will provide the foundations for the inspirational new common room, wooden panelling, elegant cornicing, and full-height sash windows.
And making the very most of the original high ceilings, many rooms will benefit from mezzanine levels and the wide variety of room types available range from individual studios to four-bedroom en-suites. Ensuring that there is something to suit each student and their individual circumstances, there is even a Presidential Suite for the truly discerning student!
Priced from £20 per day, Collegiate AC is now taking booking for Plummer House and the property will welcome its first student residents in September.
A shabby cottage on a sandy beach went from a weekend bolthole to a successful holiday let for one business-minded couple.
A family trip to Camber Sands turned out to be about much more than just building sand castles for Rebecca and Mark Partridge and their three young boys, as they instantly fell in love with the area and decided to put down roots. However, it was Mark who saw the business potential in the property that they found to buy, just a stone’s throw from the beach, and he convinced Rebecca that they should let it out as a holiday home.
Rebecca has worked hard to make the 1930s coastal cottage welcoming and comfortable for anyone wishing to rent it, a mission that has been aided by her other business venture back home in Brighton. Along with business partner Jess Bird, Rebecca runs Nest, a company specialising in vintage children’s furniture.
Now called Sandways, the cottage comfortably sleeps up to 11 people, with three double bedrooms, a children’s bedroom with bunk beds and a further sofa bed in the living room. Outside there is a large decking area and a fabulous garden, complete with donkeys braying in the field that backs on to it. The clean white space is practical yet homely and a far cry from how Rebecca remembers it when they bought it. She says: “It was revolting. I just remember it all being brown, with UPVC windows and just absolutely tasteless.
Rebecca and Mark restored the entire property, re-wiring, re-plumbing and re-cladding along the way. “The en-suite bathroom was just like a little folly, it wasn’t even built-in, just the framework was there,” remembers Rebecca.
With the hard work complete, Sandways is the perfect base for families looking to make the most of what Camber Sands and its mile after mile of sandy beach has to offer.
For more information about renting Sandways visit www.cambersandscottage.co.uk.
Photographs: Simon Eldon. Words: Kelly Lavender. | 2019-04-22T04:06:41Z | https://www.hearthomemag.co.uk/blog/?offset=1497517200287&category=Homes |
Although Methotrexate (MTX) is one of the most commonly prescribed disease-modifying drugs in JIA no questionnaire exists that assesses the knowledge of parents about this drug. A 60-item questionnaire was recently developed to measure rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients’ knowledge about MTX; the Methotrexate in Rheumatoid Arthritis Knowledge Test (MiRAK; Ciciriello et al. (Arthritis Rheum 62:10–1009, 2010)). This study aimed to adapt the MiRAK for parents of children with JIA.
Adaption of the MiRAK involved: 1) email consultations with clinicians working in the field of paediatric rheumatology (Panel 1) to ascertain the potential adaptations of the MiRAK from a clinical perspective, 2) synthesis of clinicians’ suggestions by a panel of experts, researchers and MiRAK developers (Panel 2) to reach consensus on which items needed to be modified and create a draft Methotrexate in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Knowledge Test (MiJIAK), 3) a review of the draft by 5 parents of children with JIA (Panel 3) using the cognitive ‘think-aloud’ method, 4) a second consultation with Panel 2 to review parents’ suggestions and determine the final items.
A total of 9 items remained unchanged, e.g. “Methotrexate is effective at relieving joint stiffness”, 19 were deemed inappropriate in the paediatric setting and deleted, e.g. “It is safe to become pregnant 3 weeks after methotrexate has been stopped”, 32 underwent editorial changes largely to indicate that the questionnaire was about the children with JIA, e.g. “If you forget to give a dose of Methotrexate, you can still take it the next day” became “If your child misses a dose of Methotrexate, they can still take it the next day”, and 1 new item was added. A new 42-item questionnaire was produced and was found to be well understood by parents of children with JIA.
The systematic modification of the MiRAK, a patient-centred MTX knowledge questionnaire, has generated a comprehensive new questionnaire for use in the JIA setting. The wide consultation process, including cognitive testing, has ensured the tool is both relevant and acceptable to clinicians and will therefore be a valuable addition in understanding the parents’ perspective of this treatment in JIA.
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatic inflammatory disorder found in children, with an annual incidence of approximately 10 per 100,000 children . The International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) criteria define JIA as occurring in children under the age of 16 years where arthritis in one or more joints persists for more than 6 weeks with unknown cause . As there is currently no cure, medical intervention aims to manage the illness and its symptoms, principally pain, stiffness and joint swelling . Methotrexate (MTX) is the most commonly used disease modifying drug (DMARD) in JIA and has been widely shown to generate considerable improvement in symptoms . However, MTX is not effective for all children .
Parents play an important role in the management of their child’s illness and there are few chronic diseases as challenging for a child and their parents as severe JIA . One major issue that concerns parents is the possible side effects of their child’s medication . MTX is known to cause a number of unpleasant side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and mouth sores, and these can be distressing for both the child and parent MTX is also used to treat cancer. This requires much higher doses and carries the risk of greater toxicity than low-dose MTX used for JIA. Parents may be alarmed by information about MTX that is not specific to JIA and lists side effects that do not occur with low-dose MTX treatment. Given the potential difficulties around the use of MTX for treating JIA, and the role parents play in supporting the management of the disease, it is important that parents receive accurate information from clinicians about MTX. Assessment of parents’ knowledge regarding medications in JIA reveals that this may be quite limited and consequently, educational interventions able to increase knowledge significantly are necessary .
It is important to have measures specifically designed for parents to capture the unique experiences of caring for a child with a chronic illness, and the knowledge they have about their child’s treatment. Questionnaires can provide a valid and reliable way to evaluate the effectiveness of education efforts and can assist healthcare providers in determining how best to use resources such as staff time when developing education packages and assisting parents. However, there is no comprehensive, validated and reliable measure of MTX knowledge in parents of children with JIA. To date studies have used methods with limited reproducibility and validity including unstructured observations and investigator-designed questions.
This study therefore aimed to adapt a robust measure of MTX knowledge for adult rheumatoid arthritis patients for use with parents of children with JIA. The Methotrexate in Rheumatoid Arthritis Knowledge (MiRAK) questionnaire was developed using grounded approaches involving both clinicians working in the field of rheumatology and patients with RA . The questionnaire consists of 60 items that were based on the words and concepts used by people with the condition, clinical relevance, and the published literature. Respondents answer each statement as either ‘true’, ‘false’ or ‘don’t know’. Scores are calculated by adding together the number of correct responses. The MiRAK has been reported to have excellent psychometric properties including good model fit, supporting internal construct validity; good internal consistency (person separation index 0.84); test-retest reliability (ICC 0.89) and ability to detect change (Effect Size 2.38) .
This study adapted the MiRAK for use by parents of children with JIA using the Delphi technique, expert consensus, followed by cognitive think-aloud interviews with parents of children with JIA.
We used the Delphi technique to obtain feedback regarding which items to include in the revised tool. This process involved 3 panels of experts; a group of paediatric rheumatologists, a panel of researchers working in rheumatology and parents of the children with JIA. The Delphi method has been previously used in health services research [12, 13], including the context of questionnaire construction and validation alongside the use of think aloud interviews .
The think-aloud technique involves asking a respondent to comment on a task while undertaking the task, thus providing rich verbal data on the experience of completing a tool. Think-aloud interviewing is an established method used in the adaptation and validation of questionnaires in health settings [15, 16]. In the present study two interviewers instructed each parent to provide a running commentary on their thoughts about each questionnaire item using an interview schedule. Some probing questions such as “what are your feelings about that item?” were used to encourage parents to continue to think aloud, whilst contributions made by the interviewer during this process were kept to a minimum. Parents were also asked to make any suggestions for additional items they felt should be included.
A convenience sample of 3 paediatric rheumatologists and one rheumatology nurse specialist was recruited to Panel 1. This type of sampling involves approaching only those available during the recruitment period. A second panel consisted of two authors of the MiRAK (a rheumatologist and a professor of public health), a professor in paediatric rheumatology, a professor in health psychology and 2 research assistants working in JIA. The third panel consisted of parents and was recruited via one centre (Great Ormond Street Hospital). Parents were invited to participate if they; were either the mother or father of a child with JIA, had experience of giving their child MTX, were already taking part in the Childhood Arthritis Response to Medication Study (CHARMS), had clinic appointments booked during the recruitment period for this study and were able to understand and speak English. A total of 36 parents were identified as being eligible and were invited to take part in the study, of these 5 agreed to participate. Participating parents were also asked to complete a demographics questionnaire that recorded their age, employment status, level of education, their child’s JIA subtype, and the length of time since their child’s diagnosis. Members of Panel 3 were aged between 35 and 50 years. Two were full-time homemakers, two were full-time employed, and one did not disclose their occupation. All of the parents were married or lived with their partner, and all lived with their child who had JIA. The majority were educated to degree level with two parents educated to postgraduate level. The children of these parents either had extended oligoarthritis, polyarticular JIA or psoriatic JIA. All children were still taking MTX at the time of the study and had been living with the diagnosis of JIA for between 3 and 9 years.
Quantitative data were recorded at each of the following stages using descriptive statistics. Frequencies were used to examine the number of times suggestions were made about the retention, removal or adaptation of an item by both the paediatric rheumatologists and parents.
Members of Panel 1 were sent a pre-designed questionnaire adaptation form that consisted of instructions for clinicians and a list of all the original MiRAK items. There was space for clinicians to make suggestions for editing each item and the document automatically tracked the changes that they made. Members of Panel 1 were instructed to review each item of the MiRAK and recommend whether each item should “stay as it is”, “be deleted”, or “be reworded”. Respondents were also invited to suggest rewording. Responses were then coded by 2 researchers into one of the following groups “modification of original MiRAK item”, “deletion of original MiRAK item”, or “original MiRAK item retained”. Responses from all 4 members were then consolidated.
Results were presented to Panel 2 containing the responses from Panel 1 on each individual item. Considering these results Panel 2 then made decisions on the consistency of the responses across the 4 participants, the consistency of the wording between items, the relevance of the item to JIA and the accuracy of the content of each item. Initially, any items for which there was 100% agreement between the clinicians were retained. The remaining items were put forward for discussion by the members of Panel 2. The development of new items was based on the general rules and principles of item construction used in previous questionnaire development research . Consensus was reached through discussion until a first version of the new questionnaire was agreed upon.
Following consent this draft questionnaire was then presented to parents of children with JIA within cognitive think-aloud interviews. These interviews lasted approximately one hour and each was recorded. Interviews with parents were transcribed and coded using the codes from stage 1 i.e. “modification of item”, “deletion of item”, “item retained”, or “addition of new item”. Where parents made comments about the acceptability of an item, these were coded either “clear”, “acceptable” or “difficult to understand”.
The input provided by the parents was then assessed by Panel 2 to create the final version of the questionnaire. If there was not 100% agreement between the parents in terms of retaining or adapting an item, the two research assistant members of the panel made suggestions about possible alternatives which were reviewed and agreed by the remaining members of the panel.
The study received approval from the GOSH Research Ethics Committee.
Figure 1 summarizes the results obtained from each stage of the Delphi process.
Results from each stage of the Delphi process.
All 4 members of Panel 1 agreed that one of the MiRAK items needed to be removed from the questionnaire, as it was considered not relevant to JIA (“Daily dose aspirin (one tablet or less a day) should not be taken while on methotrexate” - False). Panel 1 also agreed on 11 items that needed to be reworded to make them relevant to JIA; the predominant change was minor (e.g. “rheumatoid arthritis” to “juvenile idiopathic arthritis”). There was consistent advice for 9 items to be retained as in the original questionnaire. The remaining items (n= 39) for which 100% agreement was not reached amongst the clinicians were reviewed by Panel 2.
Panel 2 removed an item originally retained by Panel 1 as it was not considered to have adequate evidence to provide a clear true/false response in JIA (“Methotrexate can reverse joint damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis” - False). Of the 39 items where Panel 1 did not reach consensus, 12 items were removed as they were found to be not relevant in JIA; a further 4 were retained as in the original questionnaire and the remaining items (n=23) were adapted by Panel 2 often with small amendments. (e.g. “You should keep taking methotrexate even when your joints are not painful” was changed to “Your child should keep taking methotrexate even when their joints are not painful”). As a result of this second process the original 60-item MiRAK was adapted to create the first draft of a 46-item Methotrexate in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Knowledge (MiJIAK) questionnaire.
Of the 46 items all parents agreed that 23 items were clear and acceptable. Parents queried the clarity of the wording of 4 items and the relevance of two items. For example, one parent said "That I'd find quite worrying…people may think the liver's going to go wrong" in regards to the item “Scarring of the liver is a common side effect of methotrexate” - False. Parents also suggested 1 additional item to be included, “There's nothing in there about the best time to take MTX, and about food that should or shouldn't be eaten”. As a result a new item was added “Methotrexate should be taken on the same day each week” - True.
In total, 9 items remained unchanged, 19 were deleted, the wording of 32 was changed, and 1 new item was added. The final version of the MiJIAK questionnaire has 42 items and includes a variety of ‘true’ and ‘false’ response scores (29 and 13 respectively). The 42-item questionnaire takes 15 minutes to complete. An additional file shows the questionnaire [see Additional file 1].
To determine the reading level of the questionnaire, the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level tests were performed on the final version of the MiJIAK, including the instructions and each of the 42 items of the questionnaire. A Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score of 49 (higher scores out of 100 indicate easier readability) and a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 10 (i.e. 15 to 16 years old) were found.
The adaption of the MiRAK for use with parents of children with JIA was achieved through the use of consultations with clinicians to identify necessary changes from a medical perspective and researchers to ensure clarity and consistency. These consultations were followed by cognitive think-aloud interviews with parents of children with JIA to obtain opinions from the target population about the clarity and acceptability of the new questionnaire. This resulted in the new 42-item Methotrexate in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Knowledge Test (MiJIAK), which parents found clear to understand and was acceptable to clinicians in the field.
This is the first questionnaire designed to measure MTX knowledge specifically in parents of children with JIA. Such a questionnaire can be used in the context of JIA to highlight the educational needs of an individual or population to ensure knowledge from the parent’s perspective. Ensuring that parents have good knowledge lays the foundation for appropriate administration of medication and potentially reduces anxiety around MTX and its administration. The questionnaire can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions undertaken with parents responsible for administering their child’s MTX.
The think-aloud interviews permit the gathering of critical data about how to adapt the MiRAK using the immediate and honest thoughts of parents. Involving the target group in this way generated insight into the appropriateness of the MiJIAK for use with parents and ensured that the questionnaire had good content validity.
The Delphi method used offered a rigorous process by which to distribute and process data and to reach consensus about which items to include in the revised questionnaire and how best to word them. This method also allowed discussions to take place between members of the panel that could not be present physically, such as those based in Australia.
There are however some limitations in the study’s design. Firstly, the think-aloud interviews generated varying amounts of data from parents. The technique as described by Willis 1999; involves a process of participants engaging with the research by providing a running commentary of their thoughts about a particular topic, which assumes participants are highly cognitively able and can be successfully engaged. The abilities of some of the parents may not have met these requirements, thus generating data that differed in both quantity and quality.
Secondly, any conclusions that were made about adapting specific questionnaire items were based on the suggestions of a small sample of mostly well educated middle aged adults, which may not have been representative of the population. A larger, more diverse sample may have been more appropriate. The questionnaire was found to be suitable for the reading level of 15 to 16 year olds, which may be limiting for some respondents.
Thirdly, this adaptation study does not include the validation and field testing of the revised questionnaire. Further testing in a variety of settings will provide additional data on the validity and reliability of the questionnaire and thus generate data regarding the utility of the tool . Given the rigorous development of the tool, including a strong reliance on the most recent published literature and input from experienced rheumatologists from both the UK and Australia, the tool has very good face and content validity and is likely to reveal important information about the accuracy of the knowledge of parents of children with JIA.
The 42-item MiJIAK is the first MTX knowledge questionnaire designed specifically for parents of children with JIA and can be used to generate insight into the information needs, the quality of information provided to parents, and the outcome of education interventions in this field. Prior to this however, further research to explore the validity and reliability of the revised measure across settings will facilitate the MiJIAK’s application into the research and clinical setting.
This project was supported by funding from Sparks UK (grant references 05 BLF/ICH01 and 08ICH09) and the Big Lottery Fund UK (grant reference RG/1/010135231). The authors would like to acknowledge members of the CHARMS (Childhood Arthritis Response to Medication Study) study team for assistance with carrying out the study. The authors would also like to acknowledge and thank all the parents that took part in interviews for their valuable contribution to the research.
SW contributed to data collection, coordination of the study, data analysis and interpretation, and compiled the first manuscript draft. KB coordinated the study and participated in the design of the study, data collection, data analysis, interpretation and drafting the final manuscript. HM helped to draft the final manuscript. RO, SC and SN were involved in data analysis, data interpretation and drafting the final manuscript. LW and SN conceived the study and LW coordinated clinicians who participated in the study. All authors read and commented on the manuscript. | 2019-04-25T20:45:18Z | https://ped-rheum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1546-0096-11-27 |
The microbial nitrogen cycle is one of the most complex and environmentally important element cycles on Earth and has long been thought to be mediated exclusively by prokaryotic microbes. Rather recently, it was discovered that certain eukaryotic microbes are able to store nitrate intracellularly and use it for dissimilatory nitrate reduction in the absence of oxygen. The paradigm shift that this entailed is ecologically significant because the eukaryotes in question comprise global players like diatoms, foraminifers, and fungi. This review article provides an unprecedented overview of nitrate storage and dissimilatory nitrate reduction by diverse marine eukaryotes placed into an eco-physiological context. The advantage of intracellular nitrate storage for anaerobic energy conservation in oxygen-depleted habitats is explained and the life style enabled by this metabolic trait is described. A first compilation of intracellular nitrate inventories in various marine sediments is presented, indicating that intracellular nitrate pools vastly exceed porewater nitrate pools. The relative contribution by foraminifers to total sedimentary denitrification is estimated for different marine settings, suggesting that eukaryotes may rival prokaryotes in terms of dissimilatory nitrate reduction. Finally, this review article sketches some evolutionary perspectives of eukaryotic nitrate metabolism and identifies open questions that need to be addressed in future investigations.
Nitrate is one of the major nutrients for microbial and plant life on planet Earth. It is the most oxidized form of fixed N-compounds, abundant in many aquatic habitats, and of high importance for both assimilatory and dissimilatory nitrogen metabolism.
Nitrate can also be stored inside living cells at concentrations by far exceeding ambient concentrations, a trait that is known for several prokaryotic and eukaryotic phyla (e.g., Dortch et al., 1984; Fossing et al., 1995; McHatton et al., 1996; Schulz et al., 1999; Lomas and Glibert, 2000; Needoba and Harrison, 2004; Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Mußmann et al., 2007; Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a; Kamp et al., 2011; Bernhard et al., 2012a; Coppens et al., 2014; Stief et al., 2014).
Apparently, the ability to store nitrate intracellularly is widely distributed within the eukaryotic tree of life (Figure 1). Extra- and intracellular nitrate serves for both assimilation and dissimilation. In assimilatory nitrate reduction, ammonium is produced and subsequently incorporated into biomass to build up e.g., proteins and nucleic acids. Dissimilatory nitrate reduction is a process for energy conservation, in which nitrate is used as an electron acceptor in the (near) absence of oxygen (e.g., Fewson and Nicholas, 1961; Strohm et al., 2007; Kraft et al., 2011; Thamdrup, 2012). Dissimilatory nitrate reduction and nitrate storage in particular are physiological life traits that provide microbes with environmental flexibility (i.e., metabolic activity under both oxic and anoxic conditions) and resource independence (i.e., anaerobic metabolism without immediate nitrate supply), respectively. Such life traits are especially important in environments that are temporarily anoxic and/or nitrate-free and they may have developed as a “life strategy” in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Schematized eukaryotic tree of life emphasizing the wide distribution of lineages known to store nitrate intracellularly and use it for dissimilation. Maximum intracellular nitrate concentrations (max. ICNO3) and pathways of dissimilatory nitrate reduction (DNR) are given for taxonomic groups tested positive for either trait. DNRA, Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonium. DNR data compiled from Finlay et al. (1983) (ciliates), Shoun and Tanimoto (1991) (fungi), Zhou et al. (2002) (fungi), Risgaard-Petersen et al. (2006) (foraminifers), Kamp et al. (2011) (diatoms). Max. ICNO3 data compiled from Dortch et al. (1984) (dinoflagellates, haptophytes), Lomas and Glibert (2000) (chlorophytes), Piña-Ochoa et al. (2010a) (gromiids), Piña-Ochoa et al. (2010b) (foraminifers), Kamp et al. (2011) (diatoms), Stief et al. (2014) (fungi). Tree topology adapted from Worden et al. (2015).
Figure 2. Marine microbial eukaryotes known to take up ambient nitrate for intracellular storage and/or dissimilatory nitrate reduction drawn in a conceptual scheme of a natural environment with oxic and anoxic compartments. Organisms and environmental compartments are stylized and not to scale. Scenarios: (1) Benthic diatoms and foraminifers migrate actively up and down between oxic and anoxic sediment layers, or are buried in deep, anoxic sediment layers by e.g., macrofaunal activities, (2) Foraminifers move through different sediment layers and might re-fill their nitrate stores at “hotspots” of nitrate in deeper sediment layers, e.g., macrofaunal burrows, (3) Gromiids reside at the sediment surface or in anoxic subsurface layers, (4) Fungi grow in various sediment layers, (5) Pelagic diatoms sink onto the sediment after phytoplankton blooms and are re-suspended due to spring storms or macrofaunal activities, and (6) Pelagic diatoms are exposed to hypoxic or anoxic conditions inside sinking diatom-bacteria aggregates. Aside from the spatial separation into oxic and anoxic compartments, temporal variation of oxygen availability in the bottom water or inside macrofaunal burrows causes sudden shifts from oxic to anoxic conditions (and back) that may influence nitrate uptake and dissimilatory nitrate reduction by microbial eukaryotes (not shown).
Dissimilatory nitrate reduction pathways such as nitrate reduction to nitrite, denitrification, or Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonium (DNRA; Box 1), are well-studied in prokaryotes (i.e., Bacteria and Archaea). Prokaryotes are an integral part of the microbial nitrogen cycle; and due not least to the increasing use of fertilizers and the subsequent pollution of rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters, they have been the focus of many research activities for nearly a 100 years (e.g., Kluyver and Donker, 1926; Fewson and Nicholas, 1961; Zumft, 1997). In contrast, research on eukaryotes that can switch from oxygen to (intracellular) nitrate for anaerobic energy metabolism when (temporarily) exposed to anoxia or hypoxia is still in its infancy. However, the list of eukaryotes so far found to reduce nitrate dissimilatorily includes major global players such as benthic and pelagic marine diatoms, foraminifers, and fungi (Figure 1), which suggests a quantitative impact on nitrogen cycling at least in the marine realm. The first eukaryote that has been found to respire with nitrate in the absence of oxygen was, however, the freshwater ciliate Loxodes sp., which survives anoxic conditions in lakes through nitrate reduction to nitrite (Finlay et al., 1983). Later on, soil fungi were shown to be capable of incomplete denitrification to nitrous oxide and nitrate reduction to ammonium (Box 1; Shoun and Tanimoto, 1991; Takaya et al., 1999). Further, the fungus Aspergillus terreus isolated from a seasonal oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in the Arabian Sea was shown to perform DNRA under anoxic conditions (Stief et al., 2014). In 2006, it was demonstrated that certain benthic foraminiferal species perform intracellular accumulation of nitrate, which is subsequently denitrified (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006). Only recently, it was discovered that the most important phototrophic group of microbial eukaryotes, the diatoms, also possess a dissimilatory nitrate metabolism. Both a benthic and a pelagic diatom have been shown to perform DNRA after sudden shifts to darkness and anoxia (Kamp et al., 2011, 2013).
Box 1. Pathways of dissimilatory nitrate reduction in eukaryotes.
Denitrification: Reduction of nitrate via nitrite, nitric oxide, and nitrous oxide to dinitrogen (NO3−→ NO2−→ NO → N2O → N2) with organic or inorganic electron donors. Complete denitrification serves as an efficient N-removal pathway in the environment. Incomplete denitrification may begin and end at various points in the reaction sequence and, for example, produce the greenhouse gas N2O.
Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonium (DNRA): Reduction of nitrate via nitrite to ammonium (NO3−→ NO2−→ NH4+) with organic or inorganic electron donors. DNRA does not contribute to N-removal, but rather recycles fixed N in the environment.
Ammonia Fermentation: Reduction of nitrate to ammonium coupled to the oxidation of organic electron donors to acetate and substrate-level phosphorylation. Ammonia fermentation has the same effect on N-cycling in the environment as DNRA.
This review summarizes the current knowledge of (i) the ecophysiology of marine microbial eukaryotes that store nitrate intracellularly and thus are potentially involved in dissimilatory nitrate reduction and (ii) the environmental impact of nitrate storage and dissimilatory nitrate reduction by marine microbial eukaryotes on the nitrogen cycle of our oceans. The review further evaluates some evolutionary perspectives, and closes with a more general discussion of open questions that might inspire further research.
Among the marine eukaryotic microbes discussed here, intracellular nitrate storage was first described for diatoms, in which intracellular concentrations can by far exceed ambient concentrations (i.e., nitrate in the surrounding seawater). The range of intracellular nitrate concentrations varies according to species and environmental conditions. Many benthic and pelagic diatoms accumulate nitrate intracellularly in concentrations up to a few 100 mM, but concentrations can be as low as zero to a few mM (Dortch et al., 1984; Lomas and Glibert, 2000; Needoba and Harrison, 2004; Høgslund, 2008; Kamp et al., 2011, 2013; Coppens et al., 2014).
Nitrate uptake by diatoms has been shown to be temperature-dependent (decreasing with increasing temperature), is so far documented to occur in oxic conditions only, and uptake rates vary between species (e.g., Raimbault and Mingazzini, 1987; Lomas and Glibert, 1999, 2000; Villareal et al., 1999; Tantanasarit et al., 2013). Lomas and Glibert (2000) measured nitrate uptake rates of 18–310 fmol NO3− cell−1 h−1 for six different species grown at moderate ambient nitrate concentrations (< 40 μM). This rate can be even higher at very high ambient nitrate concentrations (Tantanasarit et al., 2013).
Intracellular nitrate is generally thought to be located in vacuoles. In the plant vacuole of Arabidopsis thaliana, for example, nitrate is accumulated via an NO3−/H+ exchanger (Martinoia et al., 1981; De Angeli et al., 2006). Evidence for a similar mechanism in unicellular eukaryotes is missing so far.
Nitrate storage in diatoms has long been assumed to serve assimilation exclusively (e.g., Dortch et al., 1984; Lomas and Glibert, 2000), probably because diatoms are mostly found in oxic habitats where nitrate is not needed as an alternative electron acceptor for dissimilation. The first hint for dissimilatory nitrate reduction in diatoms was a correlation between the nitrate storage capacity and the survival time of benthic and pelagic diatoms after sudden shifts to dark and anoxic conditions (Kamp et al., 2011). However, intracellular nitrate is used up within hours and is not replenished from ambient nitrate under anoxic conditions (see below). Lomas and Glibert (1999) also hypothesized that some diatom populations take up nitrate in excess of nutrient requirements because its reduction may serve as a sink for electrons during transient periods of imbalance between light energy harvesting and utilization.
Foraminifers may store nitrate at concentrations >15,000 times the environmental nitrate concentrations (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006), probably in vacuoles (Bernhard et al., 2012a), and the measured intracellular nitrate pool varies among nitrate-storing foraminifers from ca. 0.1 mM to >375 mM (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a). This variation seems to reflect different physiological and environmental conditions rather than phylogenetic constraints because considerable intraspecific variation is observed among the species that are considered to be nitrate collectors (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a; Koho et al., 2011; Bernhard et al., 2012b). The ability to store nitrate at concentrations above environmental concentrations is so far found within the orders Allogromiida, Miliolida, Rotaliida, and Textulariida (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a; Bernhard et al., 2012a), and seems to be a common trait for foraminifers from very diverse benthic marine environments, such as OMZs, hypoxic basins, continental slopes, shelf sediments, and coastal sediments (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a; Bernhard et al., 2012a). Interestingly, the trait is not restricted to species which often occur in anoxic microhabitats, such as e.g., Globobulimina turgida, but is also found in species living in oxic habitats (e.g., Cassidulina carinata and Pyrgo elongata), and in opportunistic species (e.g., Bolivina subaenariensis and Uvigerina mediterranea; Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a). 15N labeling experiments performed on Ammonia beccarii, Bolivina argentea, Buliminella tenuata, G. turgida*, Fursenkoina cornuta and Nonionella stella have shown that nitrate is taken up directly from the environment (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Koho et al., 2011; Bernhard et al., 2012b; Nomaki et al., 2014), and is not produced internally. The mechanism for nitrate uptake as well as the storage mode is at present unknown, but it must involve an active transport system, as nitrate is moved across the cell membrane against a large concentration gradient. From a thermodynamic point of view, the process of nitrate uptake is exergonic and therefore requires an investment of energy by the organism. G. turgida*, for instance, may accumulate nitrate internally to well above 10 mM in environments where the environmental concentration is less than 20 μM (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006). The Gibbs free energy (ΔG) for nitrate transport across the cell membrane at these conditions is >+15 kJ mol−1 NO3− according to equations in Harold (1986). It is evident therefore that nitrate accumulation among foraminifers can only be a sustainable strategy, if required to sustain processes that are essential for the survival of the organism. It has been shown that the nitrate-respiring foraminifer G. turgida can survive for up to 56 days of anoxia from respiration of its internal nitrate pool (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010b), and the building and maintenance of an intracellular nitrate pool might be seen as an insurance that enables the organisms to sustain an active metabolism even when suitable external electron acceptors are absent in the environment (see below).
Like the foraminifers, gromiids belong to the Rhizaria (Burki et al., 2010; Sierra et al., 2013), and their intracellular nitrate concentrations can also reach >100 mM, which exceeds the ambient nitrate concentration by several orders of magnitude (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a). The ability to accumulate nitrate at these high concentrations appears to be ubiquitous for the gromiids, as it has been found for individuals sampled from hard-bottom substrates, shelf sediments in temperate and arctic regions, as well as in the OMZ along the coastline of Peru (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a). The physiology of the gromiids has only been superficially studied and neither the mechanism behind nitrate accumulation, nor its link to any metabolic pathway has been investigated so far. It is possible that the gromiid-nitrate association represents a system that is functionally different from that of benthic foraminifers because gromiids generally are described as surface dwellers, and thus not buried in anoxic sediment layers like many foraminifers (Jepps, 1926; Hedley and Bertaud, 1962; Arnold, 1972; Matz et al., 2008; da Silva and Gooday, 2009; Rothe et al., 2011).
To date, only a single strain of A. terreus isolated from a marine sediment has been shown to store nitrate intracellularly and use it for dissimilatory nitrate reduction mainly to ammonium (Stief et al., 2014). The intracellular nitrate concentration in this strain reached up to 0.4 mM. Unfortunately, intracellular nitrate storage has not been studied in the large number of soil fungi and yeasts capable of dissimilatory nitrate reduction (Takaya et al., 1999; Maeda et al., 2015). Fungi in general, however, do possess cellular vacuoles and nitrate transporters (Klionsky et al., 1990; Navarro et al., 2006) and are able to take up nitrate from the environment at high rates and store it in vacuoles (e.g., 9 nmol NO3− mg−1 dry weight min−1 in Aspergillus nidulans; Unkles et al., 2004).
For the only ciliate known to perform dissimilatory nitrate reduction, Loxodes sp. (Finlay et al., 1983), intracellular nitrate storage has not been reported.
Marine phytoplankton belonging to these eukaryotic lineages has mainly been investigated with respect to uptake and assimilation of nitrate and ammonium, but intracellular nitrate storage is also reported occasionally (e.g., Dortch et al., 1984; Lomas and Glibert, 2000). The chlorophyte Dunaliella tertiolecta stored nitrate at 2.7–4.9 mM in one study (Lomas and Glibert, 2000), but had intracellular nitrate concentrations below the detection limit in another study (Dortch et al., 1984). Similarly, the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae stored 0–1.8 mM nitrate (Dortch et al., 1984), while the dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum did not store nitrate (Lomas and Glibert, 2000). Among the haptophytes, Isochrysis galbana stored 0.3–13.9 mM nitrate (Dortch et al., 1984) and Pavlova lutheri only stored 0.1–0.2 mM nitrate (Lomas and Glibert, 2000). Clearly, more investigations focusing on intracellular nitrate storage in these lineages are needed.
So far, the benthic diatom Amphora coffeaeformis and the pelagic diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii have been shown to reduce nitrate dissimilatorily. Both diatom strains perform the pathway Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonium (DNRA), as demonstrated with 15N labeling experiments in axenic strains (Kamp et al., 2011, 2013). The DNRA rates of these two diatoms are in the range of 2–3 fmol N cell−1 h−1 during the first hours after exposure to dark and anoxic conditions. However, DNRA rates become significantly lower after only a few hours, which mirrors the rapid consumption of intracellular nitrate after shifts to darkness and anoxia. Thus, diatoms probably use the intracellular nitrate, and its dissimilatory reduction via DNRA, either for short-term survival or for entering a resting stage.
To date, genes involved in dissimilatory nitrate reduction have not been identified in diatoms, but only in denitrifying soil fungi (see below). Intriguingly, fungi use enzymes that are usually involved in assimilatory nitrate reduction in a dissimilatory mode (Takasaki et al., 2004). This could also be true for diatoms. Assimilatory nitrate reductases, nitrate transporters, and components of a nitrate-sensing system have only recently been identified in diatom genomes (Armbrust et al., 2004; Bowler et al., 2008). Identification of functional genes involved in dissimilatory nitrate reduction in diatoms would provide genetic evidence for this metabolic pathway in diatoms.
Direct measurements of nitrate reduction activity associated with nitrate-storing foraminifers have demonstrated a capacity for complete denitrification of NO3− to N2 (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Høgslund, 2008; Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a; Bernhard et al., 2012b). Some species (e.g., Bolivina plicata, Bolivina seminuda, Valvulineria cf. laevigata, Stainforthia sp.), however, seem to lack nitrous oxide reductase and reduce nitrate only to nitrous oxide (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a).
At present, denitrification rates for only 11 different species within the Rotaliida order have been determined. The observation of elevated δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3 values in the intracellular nitrate pool within allogromiid foraminifers from the Santa Barbara Basin (Bernhard et al., 2012a) has demonstrated nitrate reduction capacity associated with members of the Allogromiida order, yet rate measurements in this order are still missing. Rates estimated for the Rotaliida with N2O-microsensors (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Høgslund et al., 2008; Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a,b) or 15NO3− amendments (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Bernhard et al., 2012b) fall in the range of 1.7–83 pmol N cell−1 h−1, and great intraspecific variation is observed. There is a tendency for a log-log relationship between the denitrification rate and biovolume of the organisms, so that large organisms have higher rates than smaller ones, as seen also for foraminiferan cell-specific oxygen respiration rates (Geslin et al., 2011), but the current database is too limited for strong conclusions to be drawn. In general, individual denitrification rates are much lower than the corresponding oxygen respiration rates (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a) and it has been suggested that denitrification is an auxiliary metabolism used for cell maintenance, food collection, and locomotion during temporary stays in oxygen-free environments, whereas oxygen might be required for growth and reproduction (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a,b).
The genes behind the foraminiferan denitrification pathway have not been elucidated. It has, however, been shown with microscopy (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006) and experiments applying bacteria-specific antibiotics to denitrifying foraminifers (Bernhard et al., 2012b) that for some species (e.g., B. argentea and G. turgida*) the foraminifers themselves, and not only the associated prokaryotes, are performing the denitrification reaction. Denitrification in a nitrate-storing allogromiid foraminifer from the Santa Barbara Basin, however, appears to be performed by prokaryotic endobionts and not the eukaryote, as demonstrated by sequence analyses and GeneFISH (Bernhard et al., 2012a). Given the widespread distribution of nitrate-accumulating and denitrifying foraminifers within diverse phylogenetic orders, specific investigations of each group are needed, at best on the genomic level, to confirm or reject the presence of eukaryotic denitrification. It is obvious from the Santa Barbara study that a capacity for nitrate accumulation is not necessarily coupled to a capacity of the eukaryote to utilize this directly for energy conservation through e.g., denitrification.
The best-studied fungi species capable of dissimilatory nitrate reduction are the two soil-living plant pathogens Fusarium oxysporum and Cylindrocarpon tonkinense (Shoun and Tanimoto, 1991; Usuda et al., 1995). The majority of terrestrial fungi, some ectomycorrhizal fungi, and many of the yeast strains screened since the initial discovery of “fungal denitrification” also tested positive for this trait (Tsuruta et al., 1998; Prendergast-Miller et al., 2011; Mothapo et al., 2013; Maeda et al., 2015). A key feature of “fungal denitrification” is the absence of the last reduction step of the denitrification pathway, which makes fungi very important nitrous oxide (N2O) producers in soils (Laughlin and Stevens, 2002; Crenshaw et al., 2008; Chen et al., 2014). Fungi isolated from aquatic ecosystems have received much less attention in terms of dissimilatory nitrate reduction, and conclusive experiments with 15NO3− labeling have been made for only one single strain of A. terreus isolated from sediment in the seasonal oxygen minimum zone of the Arabian Sea (Stief et al., 2014). This strain also has a high N2O yield (approximately 15% of the total amount of N produced), but the main product of its nitrate reduction activity is ammonium (up to 83%, equivalent to 175 nmol N g−1 protein h−1), which is also the case for a number of soil fungi (Zhou et al., 2002). The underlying metabolic pathway has been termed “ammonia fermentation” a process which couples the oxidation of ethanol to acetate, and the reduction of nitrate to ammonium, to substrate-level phosphorylation (Box 1; Takaya, 2009). Thus, two pathways of dissimilatory nitrate reduction have evolved in fungi, apparently also within individual species (e.g., F. oxysporum; Zhou et al., 2002). The prevalence of either pathway is controlled by ambient oxygen levels, with hypoxic and anoxic levels triggering “fungal denitrification” and “ammonia fermentation,” respectively (Takaya, 2009).
Key genes of “fungal denitrification” have been identified and sequenced (Kizawa et al., 1991; Kim et al., 2009). Nitrite reduction to nitric oxide (NO) is mediated by a copper-containing nitrite reductase (NirK), while the reduction step from NO to N2O is mediated by the cytochrome P450 nitric oxide reductase (P450nor). Nitrous oxide reductases are generally absent in fungi, which explains why N2O instead of N2 is the final product of “fungal denitrification” (Takaya, 2009). Dissimilatory nitrate reductases can be present in some denitrifying fungi species, but are less well-characterized than NirK and p450nor (Takaya, 2009). Hence, the minimal denitrification pathway in fungi only comprises the two-step reduction of nitrite to N2O. The stepwise reduction of nitrate to ammonium in fungal “ammonia fermentation” is apparently mediated by assimilatory nitrate (NiaD) and nitrite reductases (NiiA) used in a dissimilatory context, i.e., it is coupled to the fermentation of ethanol to acetate (Takasaki et al., 2004). Meanwhile, several primer sets for the fungal NirK and p450nor have been developed and used for screening fungal isolates for their capability of dissimilatory nitrate reduction (Kim et al., 2010; Maeda et al., 2015; Mothapo et al., 2015; Wei et al., 2015). The availability of these primer sets will enable the detection of denitrifying fungi in environmental samples without prior isolation, cultivation, and functional testing.
The freshwater ciliate Loxodes sp. survives anoxic conditions in lakes through dissimilatory nitrate reduction to nitrite (Finlay et al., 1983; Aleya et al., 1992). A link was made between the anaerobic metabolism of the ciliate and a higher number of mitochondria per cell and a greater surface area of cristae inside the mitochondria compared to specimens exposed to oxic conditions (Finlay et al., 1983; Finlay, 1985). To date, the gene encoding the nitrate reductase has not been identified.
None of the aforementioned nitrate-storing representatives of these eukaryotic lineages (see Nitrate Storage) has been tested for dissimilatory nitrate reduction under anoxic conditions so far.
Dissimilatory nitrate reduction by prokaryotes and eukaryotes typically occurs in environments in which the availability of oxygen and nitrate is variable in space and time. Stable environments are spatially structured into zones with/without oxygen and/or nitrate availability, while dynamic environments are temporally structured into phases with/without oxygen and/or nitrate availability. In aquatic ecosystems, such conditions can be found in sediments, around animal burrows in sediments, in the root zone of aquatic plants, in low-oxygen water bodies, and inside sinking organic aggregates.
In sediments with stable redox stratification, oxygen, as the most favorable electron acceptor in terms of energy, is consumed within the top few millimeters (Revsbech et al., 1980). Nitrate penetrates slightly deeper into the sediment where it is used as an alternative electron acceptor when oxygen is depleted (Sweerts and de Beer, 1989). Microbes that are able to store nitrate intracellularly may thrive well below the nitrate penetration depth, but need to fill up their nitrate stores occasionally. Large sulfur bacteria couple vertical migration behavior to uptake and storage of nitrate at the sediment surface and dissimilatory use of intracellular nitrate deeper in the sediment (e.g., Fossing et al., 1995). Benthic foraminifers and diatoms, both of which are capable of migrating inside sediments, can be abundant well below the nitrate penetration depth (Figure 2; Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Stief et al., 2013). Benthic diatoms exhibit a vertical migration rhythm that is coupled to diurnal and tidal cycles (Consalvey et al., 2004), while foraminifers migrate more erratically or directed to oxygen gradients (Alve and Bernhard, 1995; Geslin et al., 2004; Koho et al., 2011). As a consequence of their migration behavior, benthic diatoms and foraminifers are exposed to elevated ambient nitrate and oxygen levels whenever they reach the sediment surface. Deeper in the sediment where they find shelter from predation and erosion (Kingston, 1999), diatoms and foraminifers face the absence of ambient nitrate and oxygen.
Oxygen and nitrate concentration gradients in sediments can experience rapid and pronounced changes caused by disturbance events. Short-term oxygen and nitrate pulses occur in animal burrows that reach deep into anoxic sediment layers and are intermittently irrigated with oxygen- and nitrate-rich surface water (Kristensen et al., 1991; Wenzhöfer and Glud, 2004). During the resting phase of the animals, oxygen is depleted faster than nitrate, which allows for short-term dissimilatory nitrate reduction in the immediate surrounding of the burrow (Stief and de Beer, 2006). The root zone of aquatic plants exhibits oxygen and nitrate dynamics that are similar to animal burrows, albeit due to periodic changes in the photosynthetic activity of the plant (Frederiksen and Glud, 2006). In the light, roots release oxygen into the surrounding sediment and stimulate nitrate production by microbial nitrification, while in the dark, nitrate is depleted due to dissimilatory nitrate reduction activities (Risgaard-Petersen and Jensen, 1997). It has been suggested that the nitrate-storing and sulfide-oxidizing Thioploca ingrica are able to exploit nitrate pulses in animal burrows to fill up their nitrate stores (Høgslund et al., 2010). Benthic diatoms and foraminifers are often abundant in this dynamic microenvironment in which conditions conducive to nitrate uptake and dissimilatory nitrate reduction alternate (Alve and Bernhard, 1995; Steward et al., 1996).
Hypoxic or anoxic water bodies in which nitrate is available may also host dissimilatory nitrate reduction mediated by eukaryotes. The ciliate Loxodes sp. is abundant just below the oxic-anoxic interface of stratified lakes, where it reduces nitrate dissimilatorily to nitrite (Finlay et al., 1983; Aleya et al., 1992). Marine pelagic diatoms can move up and down through the water column by controlling their buoyancy (Armbrust, 2009) and are thereby exposed to varying ambient nitrate and oxygen levels (Villareal et al., 1993). Rapid and large-scale transport of diatoms through the water column of the oceans occurs when diatoms and bacteria aggregate to form “marine snow” (Thornton, 2002). Sinking organic aggregates also exhibit internal gradients of oxygen concentration due to microbial respiration and transport limitation of oxygen (Ploug et al., 1997). Under dark conditions (i.e., at night or when aggregates sink out of the photic zone) the center of aggregates may become anoxic, which allows for dissimilatory nitrate reduction (Klawonn et al., 2015). Pelagic diatoms finally sink onto the seafloor, where they still host a large inventory of intracellular nitrate (Lomstein et al., 1990) and may survive in dark, anoxic sediment layers for decades (Härnström et al., 2011), thus far longer than the intracellular nitrate pool would last.
The presence of nitrate-storing eukaryotes in sediments leads to large inventories of nitrate that vastly exceed the porewater nitrate contents in some environments, equivalent to what can be observed in sediments colonized with the sulfide-oxidizing bacteria Thioploca sp. or Beggiatoa sp. (Jørgensen and Gallardo, 1999; Sayama, 2001). These intracellular nitrate pools (ICNO3 pools) are measured with a diverse set of methods, such as freeze-thaw cycling, boiling, whole-core squeezing, and centrifugation of environmental samples, which all aim at lysing nitrate-storing cells (e.g., Lomstein et al., 1990; Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Prokopenko et al., 2011; Larsen et al., 2013). In sediments from the Gullmar Fjord, Sweden, for instance, nitrate dissolved in the sediment porewater (PWNO3) accounted for less than 4% of the total nitrate pool (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006). The remaining nitrate, as extracted by boiling the sediment, was most likely present in eukaryotic cells since neither Beggiatoa, nor Thioploca was present. The sediment was inhabited by the nitrate-storing foraminifer Globobulimina pseudospinescens, and the cell-bound nitrate was significantly correlated with the abundance of this organism. However, the intracellular nitrate pool of G. pseudospinescens only accounted for approximately 20% of total nitrate in the sediment, leaving open the possibility that other nitrate-storing foraminifers or diatoms, gromiids, and fungi were present. Settled phytoplankton with nitrate-storing representatives among the diatoms, chlorophytes, dinoflagellates, and haptophytes may contribute to the sedimentary ICNO3 pool that is not accounted for by benthic eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Meanwhile, large sedimentary ICNO3 pools were ascribed to the presence of benthic foraminifers in various marine ecosystems (Figures 3A, 4; Table S1). Intracellular nitrate pools were ~4–26 times larger than porewater nitrate pools (Figure 4; Glud et al., 2009; Prokopenko et al., 2011; Glock et al., 2013; Larsen et al., 2013). In three additional studies, it was assumed that both foraminifers and/or diatoms contribute to the ICNO3 pool in marine sediments (Figures 3A,B, 4; Table S1; Høgslund et al., 2010; Marchant et al., 2014; Papaspyrou et al., 2014).
Figure 3. Vertical profiles of porewater nitrate (PWNO3) and intracellular nitrate (ICNO3) in (A) foraminifer-inhabited and (B) diatom-inhabited marine sediments. Nitrate concentrations are expressed per cm3 of sediment. Note different scales. Data compiled from (A) Risgaard-Petersen et al. (2006) and (B) Heisterkamp et al. (2012).
Figure 4. Inventories of porewater nitrate (PWNO3) and intracellular nitrate (ICNO3) in various marine sediments. Only studies in which the sedimentary ICNO3 pool is ascribed to nitrate-storing foraminifers and/or diatoms are considered. Data compiled from (1) Risgaard-Petersen et al. (2006), (2) Glud et al. (2009), (3) Prokopenko et al. (2011), (4) Larsen et al. (2013), (5) Glock et al. (2013), (6) Høgslund et al. (2010), (7) Marchant et al. (2014), (8) Papaspyrou et al. (2014), (9) Lomstein et al. (1990), (10) García-Robledo et al. (2010), and (11) Heisterkamp et al. (2012). Details on data extraction can be found in Table S1.
In a number of coastal sediments, the total ICNO3 pool has been exclusively assigned to microalgae, in particular to pelagic diatoms that have settled onto the sediment surface (Lomstein et al., 1990) and to benthic diatoms that reside in intertidal sediments (García-Robledo et al., 2010; Heisterkamp et al., 2012; Stief et al., 2013). In natural settings, diatom-associated ICNO3 is diagnosed as a congruent distribution of ICNO3 and fucoxanthin, the marker pigment of diatoms (Stief et al., 2013). In diatom-dominated sediments, the ratio of ICNO3-to-PWNO3 tends to be lower (~5–9) than in foraminifer-dominated sediments (Figure 4; Table S1), but more data need to be collected to confirm this preliminary observation. The pronounced seasonality in intertidal communities of the temperate zone also entails seasonal changes of the diatom-associated ICNO3 pool with high and low values in the cold and warm season, respectively (Stief et al., 2013). It is currently not known whether other nitrate-storing eukaryotes show similar seasonal variation of their ICNO3 contents.
The in situ turnover of the sedimentary ICNO3 pool is indicated by elevated δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3 values (Prokopenko et al., 2011; Bernhard et al., 2012b). These isotope ratios further increase when isolated foraminifers are incubated under anoxic conditions, which confirms dissimilatory nitrate reduction activity fueled by ICNO3 (Bernhard et al., 2012b). Estimated turnover times of ICNO3 vary between ~12 h and ≥1 month (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006; Høgslund, 2008; Glud et al., 2009; Bernhard et al., 2012b), which is considerably slower than the turnover of PWNO3 of only 2–4 h, which is determined in sediments inhabited by foraminifers (Glud et al., 2009; Larsen et al., 2013). This slow turnover of ICNO3 by foraminifers and other nitrate-storing eukaryotes has implications for rate measurements based on 15NO3− incubations (Høgslund, 2008). The labeled and non-labeled nitrate pools may not readily mix within short incubation times, which leads to a significant underestimation of benthic denitrification rates determined with the isotope pairing technique (Nielsen, 1992). Additionally, the unintended release of ICNO3 from eukaryotic cells into the sediment porewater due to crude extraction techniques simulates concentration peaks that might be mistaken for nitrate production zones.
The quantitative role of eukaryote-associated nitrate reduction has only been addressed for foraminifers. The contribution of foraminiferal denitrification to the total loss of combined nitrogen from marine sediments has been estimated for various benthic settings (Høgslund, 2008; Glud et al., 2009; Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a; Bernhard et al., 2012b; Glock et al., 2013). Apparently, foraminifers may contribute substantially to benthic denitrification and in some environments they even surpass the contribution from prokaryotes (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Foraminiferan denitrification and total denitrification in various benthic marine environments. Data compiled from (1) Høgslund et al. (2008), (2) Glud et al. (2009), (3) Piña-Ochoa et al. (2010a), (4) Bernhard et al. (2012b), (5) Glock et al. (2013), and (6) Larsen et al. (2013).
Foraminiferan denitrification is in general estimated from the in situ abundance of live foraminifers and laboratory-based estimates of denitrification rates for individual species, whereas total denitrification is estimated from 15N-enrichment studies, from porewater profiles of nitrate, or from analyzing the distribution of δ15NNO3 in natural settings (Groffman et al., 2006). This approach involves a high degree of uncertainty as (i) there is only limited information about the diversity of foraminiferal denitrification activity (data from only 11 species are available), (ii) the cell-specific activity is typically measured at conditions far from natural environmental conditions, and (iii) foraminiferal denitrification is typically not included in standard techniques used for measuring total denitrification (see above). Therefore, present reports on foraminiferal contribution to benthic denitrification activity should be considered as preliminary attempts. There is certainly a need for methodologies that capture the in situ denitrification activity mediated by eukaryotes vs. prokaryotes.
The last decade of research has shown that the eukaryotes have their evolutionary roots in a largely anoxic ocean (Anbar and Knoll, 2002; Martin et al., 2003). Pronounced atmospheric oxygenation occurred around 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago as a consequence of oxygenic photosynthesis, and is named the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). For a few years, it has been debated whether the first production and local accumulation of oxygen might already have happened 2.7–3.2 billion years ago (Brocks et al., 1999; Lyons et al., 2014; Satkoski et al., 2015). Even after the GOE, however, it was not until ~600 million years ago that widespread oxygenation of the deep ocean occurred (Canfield, 1998; Canfield et al., 2008; Lyons et al., 2014). During this transition period of ~1.8 billion years, oxygen was first produced in oceanic microhabitats, which allowed nitrification, the critical aerobic pathway in the nitrogen cycle that produces nitrate, to proceed. Thus, nitrate was present in the oxic microniches of the Proterozoic ocean, and became available for dissimilatory nitrate reducers living on the edge of the nitrate production zones (Fennel et al., 2005; Canfield et al., 2010).
The occurrence of dissimilatory nitrate reduction in very distantly related eukaryotes (Figure 1) raises the question whether the genes involved were present in the single eukaryotic common ancestor that emerged in the largely anoxic Proterozoic ocean, or, alternatively, whether the dissimilatory nitrate reduction pathways we observe today exhibit multiple origins. Neither of the two hypotheses excludes the mitochondrion as the location for eukaryotic nitrate dissimilation. The mitochondrial proteome is a mosaic assemblage of proteins where some are traced to the last mitochondrial ancestor within the Alphaproteobacteria, and some have been acquired from other prokaryotes and eukaryotes through the course of evolution (Gray, 2015).
There is ample evidence that contemporary mitochondria-related organelles are derived from the same ancestral organelle (Mentel and Martin, 2008; van der Giezen, 2011) and the genes involved in dissimilatory nitrate reduction could have been introduced during this event. The suggested ancestor of the mitochondria within the Alphaproteobacteria (Yang et al., 1985; Williams et al., 2007; Gray, 2015) is a representative of a metabolically versatile class that contains facultative anaerobic species capable of running both aerobic respiration and denitrification, e.g., Paracoccus denitrificans, which is discussed as a candidate for the protomitochondrion (John and Whatley, 1975; Gray, 2015). The metabolic blueprint provided by the protomitochondrial Alphaproteobacteria has been extensively modified and today we observe diverse functions and biochemical pathways tied to mitochondria in different eukaryotic lineages (Müller et al., 2012). Investigations of mitochondrial proteomes in nitrate-reducing eukaryotes may show diverse routes of acquisition of the proteins involved in the pathways. This seems to be the case at least for the fungi.
The fungal nitrate respiration is tied to the mitochondrion and details of the denitrification pathway of the soil fungus F. oxysporum have largely been resolved. The conversion of nitrite to nitric oxide is coupled to the mitochondrial electron transport chain and ATP synthesis and involves a copper-containing nitrite reductase, NirK (Kobayashi et al., 1996; Kim et al., 2009; Long et al., 2015). Because the distribution of the eukaryotic NirK gene is systematic and follows the eukaryotic phylogeny, it is suggested that the trait of nitrite reduction evolved from a single ancestor and was carried into the eukaryotic domain in the endosymbiotic event leading to the evolution of the mitochondrion (Kim et al., 2009; Shoun et al., 2012). Apparently though, the fungal reduction of nitric oxide to nitrous oxide has a different origin (Shoun et al., 2012). This reduction step is mediated by a P450 nitric oxide reductase that is found in both the mitochondria and in the cytoplasm, and it seems that this part of the denitrification pathway has been acquired by lateral gene transfer (Kizawa et al., 1991).
Moving from the fungi in the Opisthokonta to the ciliates in the Alveolata, we also find that dissimilatory nitrate reduction by the ciliate Loxodes sp. is presumably affiliated with the mitochondria (Finlay et al., 1983; Finlay, 1985). Gene sequences of this nitrate reductase are, however, not available and it is, at the moment, not possible to draw conclusions about the origin of the trait.
Nitrate accumulation is dispersed throughout the foraminiferan phylogeny including allogromiid species, which likely evolved in the Neoproterozoic anoxic ocean and are considered to form a basal order within the foraminifers (Pawlowski et al., 2003). This might suggest that nitrate accumulation was present in the most recent common ancestor of foraminifers, albeit lost in some lineages. Usage of the intracellular nitrate may have evolved differently among foraminiferal lineages, since data at present show that the allogromiids share their nitrate with endobionts (Bernhard et al., 2012a), whereas some more recently evolved rotaliids invoke it in their own dissimilatory metabolic pathways (Risgaard-Petersen et al., 2006).
Genes for dissimilatory nitrate reduction in diatoms are not known, but diatoms have remarkable genomes with traces of multiple plastid endosymbiotic events allowing migration of genes from the plastid endobiont into the genome (Prihoda et al., 2012). A large number of genes also seem to be derived from bacteria by lateral gene transfer (Bowler et al., 2008; Armbrust, 2009), including genes for nitrite reductases that are targeted at the mitochondria (Allen et al., 2006). This knowledge of the chimeric diatom genomes paves the way for speculations on lateral transfers of genes involved in the dissimilatory use of nitrate, but the examination of such hypotheses requires further sequencing and bioinformatics efforts.
The extensive lack of information on the genes and enzymes driving dissimilatory nitrate reduction among the eukaryotes also means that we cannot close in on the time of its evolutionary origin. It can be established, however, that an anaerobic energy metabolism coupled to nitrate reduction was possible in the environmental settings at the time of origin of ascomycete fungi (Lücking et al., 2009; Prieto and Wedin, 2013) and foraminifers (Pawlowski et al., 2003; Groussin et al., 2011). Diatoms evolved only 250 million years ago (Sims et al., 2006; Armbrust, 2009) and existing hypotheses of diatom origins tend to agree that the pre-diatom or “Ur-diatom” developed in shallow marine (and thus more oxygenated) environments (Sims et al., 2006; Medlin, 2011). It will be interesting to follow the evolutionary path of dissimilatory nitrate reduction among eukaryotes when more sequence data becomes available.
The study of nitrate storage and dissimilatory nitrate reduction by eukaryotic microbes is still in its infancy. Finding nitrate reduction to nitrite by Loxodes sp. and denitrification by fungi were early milestones reached a few decades ago. More recently though, this research area has gained momentum by the discovery that diatoms and foraminifers are also capable of dissimilatory nitrate reduction coupled to intracellular nitrate storage. Future research activities should address open questions regarding the (i) phylogenetic diversity, (ii) physiology and genetics, and (iii) in situ importance of eukaryotic nitrate storage and dissimilatory nitrate reduction.
The known occurrence of nitrate storage and reduction in distant eukaryotic lineages (Figure 1) suggests that these physiological traits are even more widespread among eukaryotes than previously thought. In particular, those lineages for which nitrate storage has already been documented might be “hot candidates” for performing dissimilatory nitrate reduction under anoxic conditions, e.g., gromiids and dinoflagellates (Dortch et al., 1984; Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a). There is a growing interest in microbial eukaryotes adapted to life under low-oxygen conditions (e.g., Stoeck et al., 2009; Edgcomb et al., 2011; Müller et al., 2012; Bernhard et al., 2014; Parris et al., 2014). An obvious research strategy is, thus, to test known and novel eukaryotic lineages from low-oxygen environments for their ability to store nitrate intracellularly (Step 1) and use nitrate as an alternative electron acceptor (Step 2).
Some fundamentals of the physiology, biochemistry, and genetics of eukaryotic nitrate storage and reduction are still unknown. While 15N labeling experiments have proven intracellular nitrate as an alternative electron acceptor in dissimilatory processes in fungi, foraminifers, and diatoms, there is still a role for intracellular nitrate in assimilation. The exact partitioning of intracellular nitrate between dissimilation and assimilation remains to be investigated in the diverse nitrate-storing and nitrate-reducing eukaryotes. Further unknowns concern the mechanism and energy requirements of nitrate uptake, the intracellular compartment of nitrate storage, and the spectrum of electron donors used for dissimilatory nitrate reduction (e.g., organic vs. inorganic, external vs. storage compounds).
The identification of genes that encode for enzymes involved in dissimilatory nitrate reduction by diatoms and foraminifers is a challenging task that needs particular attention. Knowledge of these genes will not only provide insights into the evolution and biochemistry of dissimilatory nitrate reduction in eukaryotes, but will also enable the development of molecular tools for cultivation-independent investigations directly in the environment. Lessons might be learned from the investigation of denitrifying fungi (Kim et al., 2009; Wei et al., 2015). Several diatom genomes have recently been sequenced, annotated, and interpreted in the context of the cellular nitrogen metabolism (Armbrust et al., 2004; Allen et al., 2006; Bowler et al., 2008). Furthermore, transcriptome sequencing projects of microbial eukaryotes are forthcoming and will provide a rich source of sequence information that can be screened for genes involved in eukaryotic dissimilatory nitrate reduction (Keeling et al., 2014).
The question of dissimilatory nitrate reduction mediated by putative bacterial symbionts in foraminifers (Bernhard et al., 2012a) may also be resolved as soon as eukaryotic and prokaryotic genes for this process can be distinguished. Diatoms and fungi are known to host bacterial endosymbionts too (Foster and Zehr, 2006; Kobayashi and Crouch, 2009), but so far there are no reports on an involvement of these symbionts in dissimilatory nitrate reduction. The relationship between endosymbiotic nitrate reducers and a nitrate-storing eukaryotic host is still enigmatic. It seems paradoxical that a host organism should spend energy to accumulate nitrate intracellularly and then leave it to a bacterial partner without any benefit to itself. In some foraminifers, however, endosymbiotic bacteria are known to use intracellular nitrate for synthesizing amino acids from which the eukaryotic host may benefit (Nomaki et al., 2014, 2015).
The quantitative role of eukaryotic dissimilatory nitrate reduction in the environment is highly uncertain. It has actually been calculated that denitrification by benthic foraminifers equals denitrification by prokaryotes in some marine sediments (Piña-Ochoa et al., 2010a), and calculations are yet to be done for the other eukaryotes. However, the differential measurement of eukaryotic and prokaryotic rates directly in the environment has not yet been achieved due to methodological constraints, and thus novel techniques that capture the uptake and dissimilatory reduction of nitrate in mixed microbial communities in situ need to be developed. Additionally, there is no consensus method available for measuring ICNO3 pools directly in the environment. It should be evaluated whether freeze-thaw cycling, boiling, whole-core squeezing, and centrifugation are equally efficient in lysing nitrate-storing cells in environmental samples. So far, these techniques also lack selectivity in terms of which taxonomic group contributes how much to the total ICNO3 pool.
Given the ubiquitous distribution and high abundance of diatoms, fungi, and foraminifers in marine ecosystems, eukaryotic nitrate storage and dissimilatory nitrate reduction definitely have the potential to contribute significantly to the marine nitrogen cycle. The products of the different pathways of eukaryotic dissimilatory nitrate reduction range from a harmless gas (i.e., dinitrogen) to a strong greenhouse gas (i.e., nitrous oxide) that will escape into the atmosphere. Other products like ammonium or nitrite might be further used by prokaryotes with important roles in nitrogen cycling, such as nitrifiers, denitrifiers, and anammox bacteria. Disentangling the network of nitrogen transformations by eukaryotes and prokaryotes will provide a more comprehensive picture of the marine nitrogen cycle than is currently available.
This review article was conceived, written, and edited by all authors.
This study was financially supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) awarded to AK (KA3187/2-1), a grant from the Aarhus University Research Foundation awarded to SH (AU Ideas), and the Danish National Research Foundation (NR-P; DNRF104). Tinna Christensen is acknowledged for help with Figures 1, 2, Emma Hammarlund is thanked for critical comments on the manuscript, and Karen ní Mheallaigh is thanked for proofreading. The manuscript was improved by the critical comments of the reviewers.
*. ^note that G. turgida was erroneously named G. pseudospinescens in Risgaard-Petersen et al. (2006); see Piña-Ochoa et al. (2010a).
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Copyright © 2015 Kamp, Høgslund, Risgaard-Petersen and Stief. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. | 2019-04-26T12:32:31Z | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2015.01492/full |
It has been a long time since we have seen a new version of Windows Server. It is hard to believe that it has been five years since Windows Server 2003 was released. Well this year we can stop waiting. Windows Server 2008 went RTM this month and now we all have access to the final bits. It has been a long time coming and Microsoft has put a great amount of work into Windows Server 2008 to make it the best Windows ever.
Thousands of changes have been made in Windows Server 2008 compared to Windows Server 2003. Some are very small, but some are quite significant. But the question on everyone’s mind is what does Windows Server 2008 provide to make it a worthwhile upgrade? That is the focus in this article.
There are far too many changes for me to cover in a single article, so I have selected those features and capabilities that I think make Windows Server 2008 a worthwhile upgrade. Other people will look at the changes in Windows Server 2008 and think that I should have mentioned some of the other changes. That is fair, but here I am going to talk about the big changes, the changes that will make your life better and hopefully also make your users happier.
Windows Server 2008 includes an entirely new management interface known as the Server Manager. The Server Manager is a one stop shop for configuring, managing, and monitoring the server. This is not like the Server Manager’s you might have used in the past; this one actually works and its one that you will use everyday when managing your Windows Server 2008 machines.
In the Server Manager, you can install Server Roles (such as DNS, DHCP, Active Directory) and Role services (such as Terminal Services Gateway and RRAS). When the Server Roles and Role Services are installed, the MMC consoles for these services are installed in the Server Manager. You no longer need to create your own custom MMCs!
The Server Manager also exposes the new and improved Event Viewer. This is not your father’s old event viewer with just System, Security and Application nodes. Windows Server 2008 Event Viewer provides you with Event Logs you can use. There are the usual Windows Event Logs: Application, Security, and System. But now you have the ability to see Events for all applications and services installed on the computer. In addition, you can create Custom Views of the Event Logs, so that you can create your own containers for Events based on filters that you choose.
One of the new Event Log features that I like the most is the ability to Subscribe to Events on other machines on the network. This allows you to collect Event Log data from other machines, based on filters that you provide. In this way, you can configure filters for Critical Events for the most important servers on your network. While lacking the sophistication of a full fledged monitoring solution like System Center Operations Manager, it is a very nice built in monitoring solution for those companies that do not want to shell out for SCOM.
Windows Server 2008 can be installed in one of two ways: full installation or server core. The Server Core installation installs a subset of binaries that are required to get the core operating system running. No optional services are installed or enabled. There is no user interface other than the command line. There is no Windows Explorer shell, and all configuration must be done locally at the command line, or remotely using the MMC console or the new Windows Remote Shell (WinRS) remote management application (similar to SSH).
The goal of server core is not to make it more difficult to manage (although it is to a certain extent, because many tasks must be done from the command line and cannot be done remotely from an MMC console). The actual goal of Server Core is to reduce the overall attack surface and to reduce the number of updates required on the server. Since most of the Windows security updates often involve services and applications that you do not even use (like Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer) on a server, you do not need to update these components. And with the greatly reduced number of applications and services that run on server core, the attack surface is definitely reduced.
Server core runs a limited number of Server Roles, so you have to make sure that the server role you are interested in is supported by a server core installation. Also, some of the Server Roles are not fully supported, such as the Web Server role. Server Core does not support .NET managed code, and therefore you will not be able to run the IIS console as a remote MMC. This creates a serious management headache because all IIS configuration on a server core machine must be done at the command line using appcmd.exe. If you are an Apache admin, you will be quite happy. If you are a part time IIS admin, you will probably want to wait on server core.
Server core is definitely a step in the right direction. However, at this time I would consider it a 1.0 release. I am sure the goals of server core were to reduce the attack surface and reduce update requirements, not to make it hard to manage. I expect future updates to Windows Server 2008 will make it easier to manage and allow it to live up to full expectations.
One of the impediments to fully deploying Terminal Services for remote access users was the fact that a great many administrators did not trust the authentication sequence and the level of encryption of the RDP tunnels. Another problem encountered was the fact that many firewalls at remote locations did not allow outbound TCP 3389. Microsoft has solved these problems by introducing Terminal Services Gateway in Windows Server 2008.
Terminal Services Gateway is a type of SSL VPN, in the same way that RPC/HTTP for Outlook access to Exchange Server is an SSL VPN. The SSL VPN type is that of an application protocol proxy. Terminal Services Gateway works with the RDP 6.0+ client to allow encapsulated RDP connections to the TS Gateway computer.
The RDP client actually encapsulates the RDP protocol in two other protocols. First, the RDP protocol is encapsulated in an RPC header, and then it is encapsulated a second time using an encrypted HTTP header (SSL). The protocol used to connect to the TS Gateway is actually RDP/RPC/HTTP. Microsoft most likely did this so that they could use the existing RPC/HTTP code they already had for their RPC/HTTP proxy. When the connection reaches the TS Gateway machine, the TS Gateway removes the RPC and HTTP headers and forwards the RDP connections to the appropriate Terminal Server or Remote Desktop computer.
The figure below shows the interface for creating a Connection Authorization Policy or CAP. CAPs are used to determine which users can access resources through this TS Gateway computer. The dialog box in the figure shows the configuration interface for binding a certificate to the TS Gateway site so that secure SSL connections are allowed.
Terminal Services Gateway also supports Smart Card authentication and you also have the option to enforce NAP client access controls. Terminal Services Gateway is definitely one of the major reasons to upgrade to Windows Server 2008.
The goal of every security admin is to reach least privilege for every user. That is especially true for remote access connections. Security admins like myself lose sleep at night thinking about providing full remote desktop connections to non-administrative users. All it takes is the compromise of one user’s credentials by a dedicated hacker and that hacker has a full desktop environment under his control to compromise your network. That is a scary thought.
But do your users really need full access to a desktop? Or do they only need access to the applications on the desktop? Most likely, they just need access to the applications and data. In that case, Windows Server 2008 provides you with a solution called Terminal Services RemoteApp. Terminal Services RemoteApp allows you to provide access only to specific applications over the RDP channel. In that way, users cannot get into trouble with a full desktop, and if a hacker compromises that user’s credentials, all the hacker has is an application, which has a much lower attack surface than a full desktop.
TS RemoteApps is very flexible. You can control which apps the users can access and how they access the apps on their own computers. TS Remote Apps together with TS Gateway make the Windows Server 2008 Terminal Server a must have for any company interested in a secure RDP based remote access solution.
The figure below shows the main page in the TS RemoteApp Manager console. Setting up TS RemoteApps is quite easy and you will be up and running in very little time.
The figure below shows the icon on the user’s desktop that will launch the RemoteApp. In the Properties dialog box you can see that the link is configured to start an .rdp file that allows specific access to the application.
Windows Server 2008 is the first version of Windows Server that has native IPv6 support as part of a single IP stack. In previous versions of Windows before Vista, IPv6 support was done in parallel with IPv4, and there was no integrated support for IPv6 included in network infrastructure services such as DNS and DHCP. That is no longer the case and now IPv6 is tightly woven into the Windows Server 2008 networking stack and infrastructure services.
In the figure below you can see that the Windows Server 2008 DNS now supports IPv6. You can create Quad A (AAAA) records and you can also create IPv6 reverse lookup zones.
The DHCP service has also been updated to support IPv6. In the figure below you can see that I have created a DHCP scope for Unique Local addresses.
The figure below shows that you can configure network interfaces to use static IPv6 addresses, or have them use DHCP to obtain IP addressing information.
Windows Server 2008 RRAS servers acting as routers can be configured as IPv6 routers and provide information in the routing advertisement messages regarding what prefix information clients can use, and whether or not they should use stateful addressing information from DHCP servers as well.
Windows Server 2008 also supports IPv6 transition technologies, such as ISATAP, 6to4 and Teredo. Any Windows Server 2008 computer can be configured as an ISATAP router by using the Netsh command line interface.
With the proliferation of branch offices in many organizations, many recognized the problem regarding authentication. Branch offices are often provisioned with a domain controller that users can authenticate to a local DC rather than having to go over a slow, or even downed, WAN link, which could cause authentication failures and inability to access even local resources.
The solution was to put domain controllers in the branch offices. While this solved the initial problem of authentication, it introduced a security problem. Since most branch offices do not have the same level of IT expertise as the main office, and most definitely do not have the same level of physical security as the main office, the branch office domain controller became a very weak link in the entire Active Directory infrastructure. Changes made by inexpert users at the branch office could have effects throughout the organization and if the DC at the branch office was stolen, it could potentially compromise all accounts in the organization.
The Windows Server 2008 solution is the Read Only Domain Controller (RODC). An RODC contains a read only copy of the Active Directory database, and the only account information stored on the RODC are for accounts at the branch office. Since no changes to the Active Directory can be made on an RODC, there is no fear that an inexpert user will make adverse changes to the Active Directory. And since there are typically no administrative users at the branch office, there is relatively little risk that the RODC at the branch office will contain admin users accounts that could be compromised in the event that the RODC is stolen.
RODCs can also be configured to cache only certain accounts. And in the event that the RODC is stolen, a list of cached user accounts on the RODC is available to the Active Directory admin at the main office. This allows the Active Directory admin to disable or reset the credentials on these accounts from the main office.
Hyper-V is the Windows Server 2008 hypervisor that allows you to run virtual machines on Windows Server 2008 computers. Hyper-V replaces Virtual Server 2005 and is an integrated part of the operating system, which comes to you at no additional cost. The final bits for Hyper-V are not yet available, so I am going to reserve judgment on Hyper-V at this time. But, from what I have seen so far, I am very impressed with what they have done with Windows Server Virtualization. If you are looking for a no cost virtualization solution, then an upgrade to Windows Server 2008 is a good choice for you.
Network Access Protection allows you to control access from all computers who connect to your network. According to Microsoft, Network Access Protection (NAP) is not so much a security methodology as it is a client health mechanism. NAP allows you to create policies that set a minimum state of client health before that computer is allowed to connect to other computers on the network.
NAP depends on a Windows Server 2008 infrastructure. You will need a Windows Server 2008 Network Policy Server to store your health policies. There are several ways you can control access to the network: IPsec restrictions, DHCP restrictions, 801.x restrictions and VPN restrictions. Hosts that do not meet the security configuration requirements are not allowed on the network using any of these methods. However, NAP does allow you to create quarantine networks that the non-compliant hosts can connect to in order to remediate themselves. Once the NAP client software detects that the machine is in compliance, it can send that information to the NAP server side components which will then inform the NAP client that it is OK to connect to the network.
NAP is an extremely powerful method for access control to your network, and it is something that we have been waiting for since it was announced sometime in late 2003, early 2004. While it took almost five years to get NAP to us, it has been well worth the wait. Many network admins consider NAP the primary reason for upgrading to Windows Server 2008. I would have a hard time arguing with these admins.
The Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) is a true SSL VPN. What I mean by “true” SSL VPN is that SSTP provides full network level VPN access to the corporate network in the same way that the PPTP and L2TP/IPSec protocols provide. However, the advantage with SSTP is that unlike PPTP and L2TP/IPSec, you do not have to worry about firewalls blocking outbound access to your SSTP connections.
SSTP is essentially PPP/SSL. Because the PPP connections are wrapped in a secure HTTP header (SSL), SSTP can pass through any firewall or Web proxy device that allows outbound SSL. No longer will you have to field calls from users at hotels and conference centers who complain that the firewalls in their locations will not allow them to VPN into the network. Another nice thing about SSTP is that you do not have to allow outbound access to SSTP connections just because you allow outbound SSL. There is a value in the CONNECT header that you can configure on your ISA Firewall or other application layer inspection firewall that will allow you to block SSTP connections while allowing other SSL connections.
SSTP is going to make your life a lot easier for remote access VPN connections. I would upgrade to Windows Server 2008 just for SSTP access.
Windows Vista users will recognize the Windows Advanced Firewall. Now you get the same benefits Vista users have with Windows Server 2008. What is even better is that you can use Group Policy in Windows Server 2008 comprehensive centralized management of the Windows Advanced Firewall. If you have not used the Vista firewall yet, you are in for a treat. The Windows Advanced Firewall included with Vista and Windows Server 2008 allows you fine tuned inbound and outbound access control. The outbound access control was the missing piece with the Windows XP firewall. Now you have control on outbound connections so that if you detected on your firewalls that hosts are infected with a worm aimed at a certain port or collection of ports, you can block those ports on each host centrally through group policy.
The figure below shows the New Inbound Rule Wizard. The Wizard, which you can use in the Group Policy Management console, allows you to very easily configure inbound rules. There is also an outbound rule wizard that allows you to block outbound connections, you can control based on UDP or TCP ports, ICMP message types, or you can block on a per-application basis.
One of the most impressive features of the Windows Firewall is how it has simplified the creation of IPsec policies. In the past, setting up IPsec policies was a bit of a hit or miss situation. You would go through the wizards and hope that you had everything set up right. That is no longer the case with Windows Advanced Firewall. The figure below shows the easy to use New Connection Security Rule Wizard that makes it a simple affair to create IPsec domain isolation policies, authentication exemption policies, server to server IPsec connections and IPsec tunnels. The Windows Advanced Firewall has changed setting up IPsec policies from a dreaded event to something I actually look forward to doing. Give it a try, I think you’ll like it.
Another major improvement in Windows Server 2008 is centralized QoS policy management through Group Policy. Previous versions of Windows included a QoS feature, but since it really was not based on standards, not many people (if anyone) every used it. Windows Server 2008 changes the game by introducing a new Policy-based QoS feature that you will actually be able to use right out of the box.
There are two ways you can implement QoS polices – you can hard code throughput values or you can take advantage of Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) values that are configured on your network routers. DSCP is an industry standard method for implementing QoS on corporate networks. However, even if you do not have DSCP enabled routers, or even if you do not use DSCP, you can still set policies so that the local hosts enforce bandwidth controls on TCP or UDP ports, or on specific applications.
The figure below shows a QoS policy that throttles the SMTP protocol on destination port TCP 25. You can select which hosts this policy applies to. For example, you would not want to throttle your SMTP server, but for hosts on your network, you might want to limit the rate of their SMTP traffic. In this way, you can control how much spam infected computers can send before you discover that the machines have been exploited.
Windows Sever 2008 includes hundreds of new capabilities and features, any one of which might be the one that makes it a valuable upgrade for your organization. In this article I focused on a small collection of new and improved features that I think would make it worthwhile for you to upgrade to Windows Server 2008. For more information about Windows Server 2008 and a more complete listing of what’s new and improved, check out the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library. | 2019-04-21T14:09:41Z | http://techgenix.com/windows-server-2008-top-10-reasons-upgrade/ |
Washington, DC (Rooters) — Capitalizing on the recent popularity of social networking applications, the Internal Revenue Service today announced its newest service, a social networking site at WhoYouShouldKnow.gov.
In what is believed to be a first, WYSKster was created without a single dollar of taxpayer money. Former Stanford University Provost and current National Security Advisor Candy Rice’s Palo Alto connections came in handy for what is believed to be a first in government: a venture capital funded government enterprise.
Privacy advocates were concerned about WYSKster’s announcement, but when reached for comment, EPIC President Mark Rottenberg could only be heard weeping softly in the background.
Future versions of WYSKster will incorporate data from President Bush’s Temporary Worker Program, terrorist organizations, and anyone who listens to Air America Radio.
WYSKster is currently in beta and will be available to anyone with a valid social security number shortly after April 15.
Neal Stephenson has a new novel coming out in two weeks: The Confusion: Volume Two of the Baroque Cycle. I still haven’t read Quicksilver: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle, so I guess I better get busy.
And Volume Two is just 823 pages — that’s darn near svelte compared to Quicksilver.
Air America is now live, with the “O’Franken Factor” playing live (requires Real Player).
Back in December, Joe Rospars posted to the Dean blog about sending care packages to the troops. The post linked to AnySoldier.us — a clearinghouse for how to send care packages to soldiers serving in Iraq.
That afternooon my wife put three large care packages together of toilettries, books and other assorted items and we sent them on their way.
Yesterday, we got a thank you note from one of the soldiers, who had just returned home to his wife and two daughters after serving in Kirkuk.
Unreal. Candace Parker, the two-time Naismith Player of the Year, won the dunk contest at the McDonald’s All American Boys and Girls Games.
The catch? This wasn’t the girls’ competition. She beat the guys.
Last year’s winner? A guy you might have heard of: Lebron James.
Candace played her high school ball less than a mile from my house, and is headed to Tennessee next year. She first dunked in a game as a sophomore.
[Obama] may become the first black Democrat able to rise above race in the fashion of Powell and Rice, and in doing so become the embodiment of one of America’s most enduring dreams.
MoveOn.org has a new book out: 50 Ways to Love Your Country. It’s currently #2 at Amazon.com; help make it #1!
Civic activity on either side of the aisle is to be appreciated and encouraged. Get involved.
Nothing like those first few days with a little one in your life. Congrats to Roland and his wife Barb.
When I told my four year-old that we’d be taking a train trip in a month, the look of joy that crossed his face was worth the price of the ticket (a rather reasonable $900 for a family of four, round-trip – within $10 of the cost of airfare for the same trip). When I showed him the virtual tour of the sleeper cabin we’ll be in, he nearly fell over. “COOL!” he proclaimed.
This is a riot. And I just showed it to Jason Krause, the tech reporter for the ABA Journal.
But grassroots, doesnt quite cut it for me. What we really have at our hands are Jazzroots. Combining the power of technologies with the dynamics of Jazz. Often unscripted, often just jamming along, and sometimes not very refined, small flares of activism. Small pieces, loosely joined, to bastardize David Weinbergers latest work of genius, achieve great things, not by cohesion or through a unified leadership, but through persistence and improvisation.
Like Jazz, jazzroots efforts are sometimes rather unpolished, yet appealing.
Carl with a K has an advance copy of what is probably the best post mortem on the Dean campaign. For those who would like to pin the campaign’s demise on the software, or the Internet, or the new supporters… this is well worth a read. The answer is both more straightforward and more depressing than any of those indictments.
Check this out: the good folks at Bloomba get it. They recognize that one of the barriers to adoption is inertia: most people out there are using Outlook, and they don’t even realize that there’s a better answer. So Bloomba is reaching out to execs at small to mid-sized businesses. Tell them what you do, what line of work you’re in — and they’ll send you a copy.
They’ve taken a page from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: if you’re a connector, they want you. If you haven’t given Bloomba a look yet, this is a great chance to do so.
Just finished reading Footprints of God, the latest book from Greg Iles. I’ve written about Iles before — and I can’t think of an author I’d rather read right now.
And what a story Footprints of God is.
How does a guy who’s written historical fiction, spy thrillers, legal dramas, and serial killer thrillers, now turn around and do this?
Finally got around to trying to sync my iPod to the new laptop. The iPod was working, mind you.
About a third of the way through the sync, iTunes stopped making progress. That lasted a good ten minutes, at which point I decided that something was wrong. So I rebooted the iPod (held down the menu and play buttons).
That’s when the chunk-chunk noise started.
An endless cycle of seemingly random iPod error messages appeared on the device, and each time I tried to launch the iPod Updater software I got an error on my PC saying “Can’t mount iPod”. OK — this isn’t fatal, as I have a copy of iPod — the Missing Manual and it told me how to go through the disk diagnostic app on the iPod.
At which point I got to the point that the Missing Manual described as “Bad. Really bad.” The iPod diagnostic was reporting a serious failure with the iPod disk drive.
OK — I’m still in the warranty period (not for phone support, but for mail-in support). So I went to the iPod support site, and followed the steps to initiate a support request.
So I have an iPod that doesn’t work. And I can’t get it fixed because the Apple support site doesn’t work.
Marc Canter wants to know who has the most active workspaces. He has three.
Lots of RSVPs coming in through comments and e-mail, so here’s an update. We have a few options. If you think you can make it next week (reminder: Wednesday night, 7:30pm 7:15pm) to the blogger dinner in Chicago, cast a vote for your preference for dinner. We’ll go with the group majority on this one.
Update: Ben Pao it is!
Ben Pao. Chinese. 6 blocks from TechShow hotel. Entrees are between $12 and $20.
Volare. Italian. 3 blocks from TechShow hotel. Entrees are between $12 and $20.
437 Rush. Italian steakhouse. 3 blocks from TechShow hotel. Steaks are $25+, pasta is $15-$25.
Confirmed attending: me, AKMA, Buzz Bruggeman, Albert Delgado, Jim McGee, Fred Faulkner, Mike Fioritto, Ernie Svenson, Dennis Kennedy, Jeff Beard, Matt Homann, Jenny Levine, Tom Mighell, Shannon Clark, Barry Bayer, Erik Heels, Jack Vinson. I’ll update as others confirm.
Jeff Jarvis is providing marvelous daily summaries of the growing feud between the Bush administration and Howard Stern.
Inc.com’s Norm Brodsky writes about meeting JetBlue’s CEO on a flight from New York to Oakland. But, he wasn’t sitting down. He was working the flight.
That’s an inspiring person to work for. Now I know why so many people I know rave about JetBlue.
Continued love and good wishes to the Cutler family; we had dinner with them this weekend and got to share stories about how they’re doing. They’re so strong during this ordeal — and to hear such good news is a tremendous relief!
In the meantime, I’m off to dinner with the other exec members of DuPage for Dean to reminisce about a hell of a year.
4pm UPDATE: Very preliminary mid-30s turnout projection for Chicago. Official projection at 6 pm. That’s not bad at all. Still trouble with GOP turnout and downstate turnout. Word is DuPage County is experiencing a small spike in Democratic voters.
Transparency. You don’t have to guess what he’s thinking; he’ll tell you.
Candor. He doesn’t pull any punches.
Decisiveness. He has conviction — and the wherewithal to follow through on it — that others will count on.
A sense of humor. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, and he likes poking fun.
Most of all, what you get from reading about him is a sense that he likes who he is, what he does, and the positive effect he can have on other people.
And how can you not like a guy who writes this post?
I first met Hiram Wurf a little over a year ago; I had just written my first few posts about the Dean campaign, and he was a local looking for info. He found my blog, and shortly thereafter he was helping me plan events in the county.
Hiram’s contributions to the Dean effort here in DuPage County are legendary: much of the group’s success is directly attributable to his passion. Now that he has a little free time on his hands (thanks, Howard), he’s channeling some of that passion into a blog, WurfWhile. Be sure to swing by and give him a read.
With my first week at Socialtext under my belt, I am happy to report that it’s as exciting as I’d hoped it would be. As with any growing company, there is a lot that needs to be done (and done yesterday) — but that’s part of what keeps the juices flowing. I’m continuing to get up to speed on the product itself, and now that I’m monitoring changes to my workspaces in my RSS aggregator (now using Sharp Reader), I’m amazed at how well distributed groups can work together.
[Socialtext] offer[s] a middle ground between e-mail and a conventional web page, which makes them useful for collaborative projects, particularly those involving far-flung teams. Rather than maintaining multiple copies of a document and sharing ideas by e-mail, [Socialtext] allows members of a team to pool their thoughts more easily.
We’ve had incredibly rapid adoption of this new tool, especially for group brainstorming and sharing learnings. This has been especially gratifying since most of the team are pretty agnostic when it comes to technology.
Dean fans will recall these three words were the cornerstone of his September 23, 2003 speech in Copley Square, Boston.
“Democracy and freedom, forged through action. That is the story of America.
There’s a certain symmetry. Dean for America. Democracy, Freedom, Action. DFA.
It’s great to see Obama get the national attention ahead of Tuesday’s primary here in Illinois. My wife and I put an Obama sign in our yard a couple weeks ago, and I feel he’s the best candidate we have going into the general election. While there are other strong candidates in the field (and Blair Hull is not one of them; see here), only Obama has the potential to be a superstar on the national stage. He’s a committed lawmaker (the only one in the race who’s actually passed a law), an insanely smart individual, and brings a life story to the race that will earn him instant credibility on a range of issues.
The race will be close. Be sure to get out and vote on Tuesday, regardless of who you want to win.
Turns out the reviews by the pros were less enthusiastic.
I loved the film. Didn’t just like it, loved it. Towards the end, I watched as a son tried to reconcile conclusions about his Dad he’d drawn long ago with seemingly incontrovertible evidence that what he believed to be true was not. (Or maybe it was — but it’s his uncertainty that’s so poignant.) I thought about my relationship with my father (a very good one, thankfully) and my relationship with my two sons (still early, but so far so good!) and how dynamic the relationships are, and how important they are to me.
There are a few memories of time with my Dad that are frozen for me — I can recall every detail about them. There’s the time he showed me how he could write three pages about the sun rising in response to my complaints that I couldn’t write three pages about the Civil War. (Cut me some slack, I was in seventh grade. Three pages seemed like a lot at the time.) I was awed by the skill I didn’t know he had — and not just by the ease with which he did it, but the enjoyment he took in doing it. That’s the day I decided I liked writing.
I remember the weekend he spent with me while I was studying in France. It was the first time he and I interacted not as father and son but as friends. I’m fortunate that I realized at the time just how significant it was — I enjoyed the weekend all the more, and twelve years later, can still tell you what we had to drink for lunch before heading off to the caves for a wine tasting.
And I remember when he held my son for the first time: his first grandson, and the sixth generation in our family in which the first born was male and named Richard. I remember the pride I felt for bringing a new man into the world, the joy I felt at being able to share it with my Dad, and the connection I felt to the generations before us who had played out this exact scene so many times before.
Stories about us are what will keep us around long after we leave. On my last day of sophomore history in high school, Winslow Smith told us that all men search for immortality. Teaching, he said, is the closest a man can come to immortality — because long after the teachers go, with any luck their students will still talk about them. I’ve never forgotten that lesson from Winslow.
That, in a nutshell, is what Big Fish is all about. It’s not the story that matters. It’s what the story says about us — why we tell it, how we tell it — that matters. Some people listen to the stories themselves; hopefully more will hear the storyteller. With any luck, those that love us will keep the stories (and the storyteller) alive.
Details: Wednesday, March 24. So far, confirmed to attend: me, Ernie, Buzz, Jenny, Jim, Dennis, AKMA, and Jeff. I spoke with Buzz today and I think others are coming — but I lost track of the others he named.
Just like a few years ago I would go out of my way to reward companies who had web sites, I am pre-disposed to work with people who have recognized the value of contributing to the weblog community – and as the blog model gains momentum, that will only get easier.
Indeed. Just over a year ago, I was fortunate enough to have lunch with Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield, who talked to me about his plans for Socialtext: combine the weblog concept with easily editable web pages (aka “wikis”) and you’ll have a platform for lightweight and powerful group collaboration.
I’ve been a user of Socialtext for several months — and part of the reason I’m so excited about this opportunity is that I’ve seen the dramatic increase in group productivity that results from using such a powerful tool. The other reason I’m excited is that I’m joining a talented, smart and passionate group of people. I feel very fortunate to join them so early in this journey, and can’t wait to see where the ride takes us.
For those that don’t know Socialtext, it’s a very flexible application (for some customer stories visit here). Groups who need to ensure everyone is on the same page can derive tremendous benefits from using Socialtext. If you want to learn more, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll follow up with you shortly (that’ll give me enough time to work on my elevator pitch!).
I won’t be moving anytime soon — part of the reason for the flurry of activity in the basement last week was to get an office area ready for me to use (alas, it will be ready on Wednesday. But we’re close!).
I want to thank so many of you who contacted me privately during my job search process. Not only do I have my blog to thank for my new position, I have it to thank for the dozens of remarkable people who are most definitely part of my circle of friends — most of whom I’ve never even met. To all of you who wrote with suggestions, names, and wishes of good luck, thank you!
On April 24, tfpl will host a seminar called Knowledge Management: Lessons from Leaders. Among the panelists is Ros Jones, Knowledge Manager at the Financial Services Authority.
I’m not doing as much travel as I used to (and that’s a wonderful thing), but it occurred to me today that magazines are nearly ideal for the 1-2 hour flight. You pick them up in the boarding area, and if you read the whole thing cover to cover, you probably finish around the time you’re taxiing to your gate.
There’s certainly a subscription model opportunity here — but I think the more likely play (at least initially) is the business traveler who is rarely in the same place each week (and might therefore miss a subscribed-to disc in the mail). For $5, don’t you think tens of thousands of travelers would pick this up to watch in flight?
The tendency to hate, really hate, opposing politicians surely is not good for American democracy. It is not rational to hate George W. Bush, just as it was not rational to hate Bill Clinton. But after spending eight years hating Clinton, conservatives who complain about the Bush-haters appear to be hypocrites.
George W. Bush enjoys neither royal nor religious status that would place him beyond criticism. Whether or not he is a real conservative, he is no friend of limited, constitutional government. And for that the American people should be very, very angry.
Interesting: Sunday night, CNN is doing a one-hour inside the Dean campaign special. Included at the link are some pop-ups about campaign staff, a timeline, and other items. Not sure how revealing this will be, but might make for some interesting watching.
Me? I’ll be cleaning the house after my 3 4 year-old’s birthday party. Maybe I’ll TiVo it.
I’m impressed with Kerry’s showing. I’m the last guy to offer up an opinion about how he pulled it off, but like many in this election, I’ve indicated that I want a guy who would beat Bush. I felt Howard Dean was the right guy for that fight — and that the campaign’s strategy was the ideal playbook to take head-to-head. Turns out I was wrong — and Kerry’s strong campaign is evidence that he’s capable of getting the votes needed to get elected.
My admiration for Kerry’s campaign is matched by sadness looking back at the last year. I got involved in the Dean campaign by sending an e-mail more than 18 months ago. I never thought I’d get involved as I did, nor did I think my involvement would garner me any attention — so it was more than a bit surreal to listen to Illinois’s Governor Blagojevich repeatedly thank me by name on Monday for my work on the Dean campaign and for the impact it had in our county.
It’s only fair to assess the campaign through the same lens I looked at others. And when John Kerry fired his campaign manager, I remarked at the time that candidates who couldn’t run strong campaigns didn’t deserve our vote. Kerry had let his campaign corrode from the inside out.
But to his credit, he fixed it.
Dean, on the other hand, didn’t. Two factions grew in Vermont, to the point that they became counter-productive. Dean failed to fix the situation. It became a tense environment, where valuable energy was wasted trying to negotiate competing loyalties and agendas.
That’s no way to run a campaign. And it’s no way to win office.
Hats off to John Kerry. He’s the party’s nominee, which means he’s my nominee.
To look at my basement right now, you’d conclude that I actually know what I’m doing. There’s the table/miter saw (it’s even got a cool laser, though I can’t figure out why), the drill, the cordless screwdriver, the levels, hunks of drywall on the ground… and the more than 600 linear feet of lumber I’ve secured to the ceiling joists to frame out the heating vents so we can hang the ceiling tomorrow. The soffits are almost done (thanks for the link, Allison!) and the drop ceiling should go in pretty smoothly (at least, that’s what I’m telling myself). In the meantime, my wife is painting the walls and cabinets; we’ll install the cabinets tomorrow and get the countertop in over the weekend.
If ever I needed confirmation that my calling was software, this project has provided it. | 2019-04-23T06:51:56Z | http://tins.rklau.com/2004/03/ |
There are a number of quaint little towns and villages in the area. Here are just a few you could visit during your stay. As you will see from the Area map, Invergordon is in a central position allowing access to the north and the south possible. Public buses run through the local area and you should check the Stagecoach timetable for routes and times at www.stagecoachbus.com. The area is also covered by day tickets. We have given an indication of bus numbers and estimated journey times throughout the following list. These are for guidance only - we cannot be held responsible for any changes. Please always check with the bus driver on the day.
From Invergordon to Brora takes just under 2 hours 30 minutes. 25X will take you from Invergordon to Tain where you will have to change to X99 or X98 to take you further north i.e. Dornoch, Golspie or Brora.
Tain is a small town (about 11 miles from Invergordon) which was the birthplace of St. Duthac and his final resting place. Places of historical interest in the town include The Tower, St. Duthus Church and St. Duthuc’s Chapel. The Museum on Chapel Brae has many exhibits relating to Tain’s past and is also the centre of the Clan Ross Association. In 1966 Her Majesty The Queen Mother opened the Rose Garden which was laid out with 900 roses to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Royal Charter being bestowed by King Malcolm Canmore in 1066.
Visit www.tain.org.uk for more information.
Glenmorangie Distillery is located just north of Tain (about 12 miles from Invergordon). They boast the tallest stills in Scotland and produce around (6,000,000 litres) 10 million bottles per annum.
Visit www.glenmorangie.com for further information.
Balblair Distillery is located in Edderton (17 miles from Invergordon). The distillery produces 1,700,000 litres of pure alcohol per year, from locally sourced barley.
Balblair was used in filming the 2012 film ‘The Angel’s share’. The Angel’s share is so called because during the process when the whisky is left to mature, a small amount of the whisky in the barrel evaporates and the content is reduced by a small amount (up to 2%). As the barrels are air tight and stored under very tight secure warehouse conditions no-one can explain why, when the barrel is finally opened there is less in every barrel than there should be, so myth has it that it must be taken by the Angels, hence ‘The Angel’s Share’!
Visit www.balblair.com for further information.
Dornoch is a small town situated on the north shore of the Dornoch Firth, near to where it opens into the Moray Firth to the east. Dornoch has the thirteenth-century Dornoch Cathedral (Scotland’s smallest cathedral), the Old Town Jail (now a shop), and the previous Bishop's Palace which is now the Dornoch Castle hotel. Nearby is Royal Dornoch Golf Club, named the 5th best golf course outside the United States in 2005 by Golf Digest magazine. Legendary golf course designer Donald Ross began his career as a greenkeeper on the Royal Dornoch links. It is also notable as the last place a witch was burnt in Scotland. Her name was Janet Horne; she was tried and condemned to death in 1727. There is a stone, the Witch's Stone, commemorating her death, inscribed with the year 1722. On 21st December 2000, Madonna had her son Rocco christened in Dornoch Cathedral, the day before her wedding to Guy Ritchie in nearby Skibo Castle (a private club).
Visit www.visitdornoch.com for further information.
Ben Bhraggie is a hill which rises 397 metres (1,302 ft) above sea level. The hill dominates the skyline above the village of Golspie and is visible from many parts of east Sutherland. The 100 foot high statue which is perched on top is that of George Leveson-Gower, Marquess of Stafford and first Duke of Sutherland who became notorious through the part he played in the Highland clearances. The statue has come to be known locally as The Mannie.
A network of mountain bike trails, the Highland Wildcat Trails, has been built on the side of Ben Bhraggie. This features black and red graded routes, going from the summit of the hill down to the village of Golspie, including the longest single track descent in the UK at around 7 km.
Visit www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/highland-wildcat-trails-golspie-p317471 for further information.
Brora was once the main industrial centre in Sutherland having at one time a coal pit, boat building, salt pans, fish curing, lemonade factory, distillery, wool mill, bricks and a stone quarry. Stone from the quarry was used in the construction of London Bridge, Liverpool Cathedral and Dunrobin Castle. When in operation, the coalmine was the most northerly coalmine in the UK. Brora was the first place in the north of Scotland to have electricity thanks to its wool industry. Today, very little remains of these industries apart from Clynelish Distillery to the north of the village.
Visit www.brora.name for more information.
Clynelish Distillery started life in 1819 when a distillery was founded in the village of Brora by the Marquis of Stafford, later known as the Duke of Sutherland. This notorious character is more famous in Scotland for his part in the Highland Clearances of the same year, when he evicted around 15,000 crofters from his land in order to farm sheep. It is speculated that he started the distillery to provide a market for his barley and to put the local moonshiners out of business. It is one of the base spirits for Johnnie Walker Gold Label.
Visit www.discovering-distilleries.com/clynelish for more information.
The Fearn Peninsula, Portmahomack, Tarbat Discovery Centre and the Seaboard Villages can be accessed by taking 25X from Invergordon to Tain and changing to 30C there. The journey from Invergordon to Balintore will take approximately one hour.
Portmahomack is a small, picturesque fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated on the Fearn Peninsula. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about three miles from the village and Ballone Castle (now a private home) lies about a mile from the village. There is evidence of early settlement and the area seems to have been the site of significant activity during the time of the Picts, early Christianity and the Vikings. The village is situated on a sandy bay, has a small harbour designed by Thomas Telford and has the unusual distinction of being on the east coast but facing west. Portmahomack lies inside the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation with the associated dolphin and whale watching activity.
Visit www.portmahomackcommunity.org.uk for further information.
The Seaboard Villages are three small, contiguous coastal villages, situated about 10 km southeast of the town of Tain in Easter Ross. They face east onto the Moray Firth.
Visit www.seaboardcentre.com for further information.
From Invergordon to Dingwall takes approximately forty five minutes on a 25 bus, which will also continue to Inverness taking another forty five minutes.
Dalmore Distillery is located just outside Alness (about 3 miles from Invergordon). It sits on the banks of the Cromarty Firth overlooking the Black Isle, the "big meadowland", from which it takes its name.
The Dalmore distillery is owned and operated by Whyte & Mackay Ltd and now stands as their largest distillery as well as being the flagship for the brand. With four pairs of stills, Dalmore produces 4,300,000 million litres per annum and employs eighteen staff at peak times, but still retains its quality and character.
The legend of The Dalmore dates back to 1263, when Colin of Kintail, Chief of the Clan Mackenzie, saved King Alexander III of Scotland from a charging stag. As a reward the grateful King, granted Colin of Kintail the lands of Eilean Donan, the motto ‘Luceo Non Uro’, which translates to ‘I Shine, Not Burn’ and the right to use the 12-pointed Royal Stag as the Mackenzie clan crest. The lease was taken over in 1869 by three Mackenzie brothers, Alexander, Charles and Andrew. As members of the clan Mackenzie they brought with them the iconic 12-pointed Royal Stag emblem, the caberfeidh, which has adorned every bottle of The Dalmore since. In November 1917 the focus shifted from malts to mines at Dalmore when the Admiralty took over the distillery; the US Navy used the warehouses as factories for the production of deep-sea mines. In 1920 they left the distillery again - mostly in ruins - after an explosion and a fire in the warehouses, but not before some 38,000 mines had been shipped from Dalmore. Long before the legal battle about compensation for the damages between Andrew Mackenzie and the Royal Navy was over (the debate eventually reached the House of Lords in 1925) Dalmore resumed production again.
Alness is a small town 3 miles from Invergordon. For most of the 1990’s and early 2000’s Alness regularly entered and won flower competitions such as Scotland in Bloom, Britain in Bloom and others, winning a large number of awards and this also helped regenerate some areas of the town with some housing estates winning separate awards themselves. They have not entered in recent years, however the town is still adorned by flowers maintained by hard working volunteers.
Visit www.alness.com for further information.
Cnoc Fyrish Stands tall over Alness and rises to 1,478 feet. The imposing monument, at the summit, was built in the 1780’s. It is said to replicate the Gates of Negapatam, a coastal fortress near Madras in India, which General Sir Hector Munro, 8th of Novar (who was raised on the estate) had captured from the Dutch and their Indian allies around 1781.On his return home from India, and as the local population were being cleared off their land, employment was a problem and so it was allegedly built to give the locals some work. It was said that Sir Hector rolled stones from the top of the hill to the bottom, thereby extending the amount of time worked and paying the labourers for additional hours.
More details of a suggested walk to the top of Fyrish can be found www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ullapool/fyrish-monument.shtml.
Evanton is a small village 4 miles from Alness. It is more or less enclosed to the north-east and the south-west by two rivers, the Allt Graad and the River Sgitheach.
The Allt Graad, sometimes called the River Glass, is a picturesque river that flows from Loch Glass, near Ben Wyvis, for 9 km (5½ miles) until it passes the northern end of the village, and empties into the Cromarty Firth. However, some 3 km (1.9 mi) before it reaches the Cromarty Firth, it passes through the Black Rock Gorge. The latter is a few hundred metres in length and reaches 36 metres (120 ft) in depth. In April, 2004, ten days of filming took place in the area for the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the Gorge is the setting for the scene where Harry is chased by a dragon.
Visit www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ullapool/blackrockgorge.shtml for further information.
Kiltearn church and burial ground lie on the shore of the Cromarty Firth. The current church is on the main street in Evanton.
Visit www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ullapool/kiltearnchurch.shtml for details of a walk round the area.
The "naked rambler" Stephen Gough was reported and arrested at Evanton in November, 2003. He was engaged in a naked trek through Britain from Lands End to John O’Groats. While walking through Evanton wearing only a hat, a backpack and boots, he was spotted and reported by a local resident. He was sentenced two months later! His arrest meant that he still had one hundred miles to go in order to complete his journey. He completed his journey in January 2004 and repeated the feat in 2006.
The Zulu Herring Boats which were part of the Seaboard fishing fleet before World War 1 are now commemorated by a plaque at Foulis Point on the shores of the Cromarty Firth, strategically placed so as to see the remains of the wrecks at low tide. The boats were left moored there when the Seaboard fishermen answered the call to serve their country, but unfortunately very few of them ever returned and the boats were left to rot. Only three of an estimated dozen or so can be seen to this day – their outlines being visible at low tide about one hundred yards from the shore.
Dingwall lies near the head of the Cromarty Firth where the valley of the River Peffery unites with the the mouth of the Conon, 11 miles from Invergordon. It was formerly an east-coast harbour but now lies inland. On the town's present-day outskirts lies Tulloch Castle, parts of which may date back to the 12th century. In 1411 the Battle of Dingwall is said to have taken place between the Clan Mackay and the Clan Donald. The 18th century town house and some remains of the ancient mansion of the once powerful earls of Ross, still exist. An obelisk, 16 metres high, was erected over the grave of Sir George Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Cromartie, near the parish church of St Clement. It was affected by subsidence, becoming known as the "Leaning Tower", and was replaced by a much smaller replica in the early years of the 20th century. However even this is now marked by signs saying "Keep Out" on the grounds that it is a dangerous structure.
Dingwall is the home of Ross County Football Club, who won promotion to the highest tier in Scottish football in 2012. Despite the town's small population, The team reached the 2010 Scottish Cup Final, when over 17,000 Staggies fans travelled to the match. They won their first major piece of silverware in 2016 by winning the Scottish League Cup.
Major General Sir Hector Archibald MacDonald, KCB, DSO (4th March 1853 – 25th March 1903), also known as Fighting Mac, was a distinguished Victorian soldier. The son of a crofter, MacDonald left school before he was 15, enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders as a private at 17, and finished his career as a major general, "one of only a few British Army generals who rose from the ranks on his own merit and professionalism." He distinguished himself in action at Omdurman (1898), became a popular hero in Scotland and England, and was knighted for his service in the Second Boer War. Posted to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as Commander-in-Chief of British forces, he committed suicide in a Paris hotel in 1903. MacDonald is often said to have been the model for the soldier who appeared on the label for Camp Coffee. "Fighting Mac" remains a national hero in Scotland. A 100 ft high memorial was erected above Dingwall in 1907, as well as another memorial at Mulbuie on the Black Isle, near where MacDonald was born.
The Drover’s Monument commemorates the unique annual migration of livestock, and the unsung heroes who performed it in days gone by. They collected cattle from the Western Isles, Skye or the far North and walked them hundreds of miles to market in all weathers. Some even walked their herds all the way to London to secure the best price. Many of them became cowboys and major ranchers in the U.S. Wild West.
Glen Wyvis Distillery. On the 16th April 2016, 270 years to the day after the Battle of Culloden, The Flying Farmer, John Fraser Mckenzie and his board offered the chance to become part of history by inviting members of the public to invest in the distillery. As a result, GlenWyvis Distillery is now the world’s first 100% community-owned distillery. While the building is completed high on a hill overlooking Dingwall, GlenWyvis Basecamp has been set up down in the town itself in Victoria Restaurant on Dingwall High Street – where you can learn all about GlenWyvis Gin, our plans for GlenWyvis Whisky, and our local heritage tours. Here you can enjoy a tipple of GlenWyvis Gin and learn all about our limited edition malt whisky, Highland Inspiration, released to mark the laying of our foundation stone.
The Black Isle is even more difficult to visit using public transport. You have to take 25X into Inverness bus station. To reach Beauly and Muir-of-Ord you need a 28 bus from Inverness bus station. The journey will take approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. To reach Cromarty from Inverness take 25D (from Longman Road) to Avoch, Fortrose and Cromarty. The journey to Cromarty will take approximately 2 hours 30 minutes.
The Black Isle, despite its name, is not an island but a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water – the Cromarty Firth to the north, the Beauly Firth to the south, and the Moray Firth to the east. It includes the towns of Cromarty, Fortrose and Beauly, and villages such as Muir of Ord and Avoch.
Beauly is a small town 10 miles (16 km) west of Inverness. Beauly is the site of the Beauly Priory, or the Priory Church of the Blessed Virgin and John the Baptist, founded in 1230 by John Byset of the Aird, for Valliscaulian monks. Following the Reformation, the buildings (except for the church, which is now a ruin) passed into the possession of Lord Lovat.
3 miles (5 km) south of Beauly is Beaufort Castle, the chief seat of the Lovats, a modern mansion in the Scottish baronial style. It occupies the site of a fortress erected in the time of Alexander II, which was besieged in 1303 by Edward I. This was replaced by several castles in succession. One of these, Castle Dounie, was attacked and burned by the forces of Oliver Cromwell in 1650 and razed again by the royal army of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland in 1746 during the Jacobite Rising. Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat witnessed this latter conflagration of his castle from a neighbouring hill (he then fled and took refuge in the Highlands before his capture on Loch Morar). In 1994 Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat sold Beaufort castle to Ann Gloag (director of the Stagecoach Group), to pay off debts.
Visit www.visitbeauly.com for more information.
Muir-of-Ord: is situated near the western boundary of the Black Isle, about 20 km west of the city of Inverness, and 10 km south of Dingwall. The Black Isle Show, one of the largest agricultural shows in Scotland, is held every August in a showground near Muir of Ord.
Glen Ord Distillery is located in Muir of Ord. It is the only remaining single malt whisky distillery on the Black Isle. The distillery currently produces 5,000,000 litres of pure alcohol per year.
Visit www.discovering-distilleries.com/glenord for more information.
Cromarty is a small town on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, 5 miles (8 km) seaward from Invergordon on the opposite coast. The town grew around its port, formerly used by ferries, to export locally-grown hemp fibre, and by trawlers trawling for herrings. The port was a British naval base during the First World War and HMS Natal blew up close by on 30 December 1915 with heavy loss of life.
Highland Ferries offer a regular ferry service between Cromarty and Nigg with the Renfrew Rose running from June to September, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily, offering a direct route North from the Black Isle.
Cromarty is architecturally important for its Georgian merchant houses that stand within a townscape of Georgian and Victorian fisherman's cottages in the local vernacular style. It is an outstanding example of an 18th/19th century burgh, "the jewel in the crown of Scottish Vernacular Architecture". The thatched house with crow-stepped gables in Church Street, in which the geologist Hugh Miller was born (in 1801), still stands, and a statue has been erected to his memory.
The burgh is also noted as a base for viewing the local offshore sea life. These include one of the most northerly groups of bottlenose dolphins.
Fortrose is a town about 6 miles (9.7 km) north-east of Inverness. The town is known for its ruined 13th century cathedral, and as the home of the Brahan Seer. In the Middle Ages it was the seat of the bishopric of Ross. The Cathedral was largely demolished in the mid-seventeenth century by Oliver Cromwell to provide building materials for a citadel at Inverness. The vaulted south aisle, with bell-tower, and a detached chapter house (used as the tollbooth of Fortrose after the Reformation) remain. These fragments, though modest in scale, display considerable architectural refinement, and are in the care of Historic Scotland (no entrance charge). Fortrose shares a golf course with Rosemarkie. Set on the Chanonry Ness the course stretches out into the Moray Firth and offers good views of Fort George. The course is well known for its signature 4th Hole "Lighthouse". The lighthouse in question is the Chanonry Point lighthouse which was designed by Alan Stevenson and was first lit on 15th May 1846.
Chanonry Point lies at the end of Chanonry Ness, a spit of land extending into the Moray Firth between Fortrose and Rosemarkie. This is one of the best spots in the UK to view Bottlenose dolphin from the land. The dolphins are often visible off Chanonry point, particularly on an incoming tide when they play and fish in the strong currents. Other wildlife, including porpoises and grey seals, can also regularly be spotted. European otters are occasional visitors.
Avoch is a small harbour-village located on the south-east coast of the Black Isle. Ormond Castle or Avoch Castle was a stronghold built on the site and served as a royal castle to William the Lion; passed on to the Morays of Petty then Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway, upon his marriage to Joanna de Moravia in 1362. Descendants of Archibald, were to take the title of Earl of Ormonde from the castle. Legend has it that the village was founded by survivors of the Spanish Armada. Intrepid Scottish-Canadian explorer Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the first European to explore the great Canadian river now known as the Mackenzie River, crossing North America twice, to the Arctic Ocean in 1789 and Pacific Ocean in 1793, retired to Avoch in 1812 where he died in 1820 and was buried in the old Avoch Parish churchyard.
Take the public bus, 25X, from Invergordon to Inverness, the journey takes approximately 50 minutes.
The direct route between Invergordon and Inverness crosses both the Cromarty Bridge and the Kessock Bridge and bypasses towns such as Beauly, Muir of Ord and Dingwall. The Cromarty Bridge crosses the Cromarty Firth and the Kessock Bridge crosses the Beauly Firth. When the Kessock Bridge was opened, it was the first bridge of its kind in Europe, and won the Saltire Award for Civil Engineering. It was designed by a German and is based on a bridge over the Rhine in Düsseldorf.
Inverness – the capital of the Highlands, with a population of around 55,000, was granted city status in 2000 and is situated at the mouth of the River Ness (which flows from nearby Loch Ness). The city lies at the end of the Great Glen with Loch Ness, Loch Ashie and Loch Duntelchaig to the west. The Caledonian Canal also runs through the Great Glen connecting Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.
Visit http://www.inverness-scotland.com for more information. | 2019-04-18T23:12:56Z | http://visitinvergordon.com/nearby.html |
Dave U. Hall has a sordid history of playing bass-o-guitar in bands with Lester Bangs and Mickey Leigh, including but not limited to Birdland and the Rattlers. In fact, that's him on the back of the Rattlers album cupping his groin! So if you need somebody to cup your groin on an album cover, give me a call and I'll pass along his email address. But yes, so when David bounced me a howdy-doodly-doo, I thought "Power Tree! Sure could however interview!" He responded, " ." And the rest, as they say, is below, with my questions in bold and his answers in regular print.
How did you get involved with Birdland and the Rattlers?
Well, I have known Mickey Leigh since I was twelve years old. We grew up together in Forest Hills and went to the same schools. Therefore, it was that association that eventually brought me to Birdland and the Rattlers.
What kinds of mischief did you and Mickey get into when you were 12?
You know; I feel a little bit reluctant to answer this question. I have kids and I don't want to give them any ammunition to use on me one day (laughs). I guess it would be safe to say; that Mickey and I got into the kind of mischief that children that age often get into. Looking back on it, I suppose it was clean fun compared to the kinds of things that children do today.
Did you know Mickey's soon-to-be-famous brother when you were young? If so, what was he like?
I knew Mickey's whole family. So yes, I did know Joey (as well as Mickey) when I was growing up. Joey was a nice guy. He was a quiet sort of person most of the time unless he was fighting with his brother. Sometimes when Mickey wasn't home, I would hang out with Joey. We would listen to albums. I remember Joey putting on albums like The Stooges and the MC5. He was into a lot of stuff that other people didn't really listen to.
Although we were friendly when I was young, we became really close after the Ramones broke up. That's because besides being a family friend, I was also his computer consultant. I used to go over to his house quite often when I was in the city working with other clients to do maintenance work on his computer. By the way, I was responsible for helping him get his first computer. Joey really loved his Macintosh computer. After he died, I wrote an article about Joey and his Macintosh for a magazine called MacDirectory. I wanted the Macintosh community to know that Joey was one of us. When I received the issue (that the article was in) from MacDirectory and read it, I cried. I really miss him.
How long have you been playing bass? And why did you choose that instrument? Do you play any other instruments?
I started playing electric bass around thirteen years old. I hung around with this guy that nobody's mother liked. He had a brother who played bass (I think he had a Hofner or something). Anyway, I used to go over to this guy's house and see his brother's bass on the bed. I remember holding it once and plucking the strings. It was from that moment on that I fell in love with the instrument. I begged my Mom to get me a bass. The rest as they say, is history. I also play some woodwind instruments. But my main woodwind instrument is the flute. I remember listening to this band called Seatrain. The bass player played bass and flute on the album. There was a song on the album called "Flute Thing" that inspired me to take it up. I guess I wanted to get the high and low frequencies of music (laughs).
Did the Ramones seem revolutionary to you at the time, or were you able to pinpoint their influences - or what?
I didn't even know that the Ramones existed until about 1975. It was around that time that I left college in Boston to gig with a jazz-rock band that was formed up there. One of our first gigs I believe was at CBGB's. I remember at that time; that CBGB's was a place where you could play any style of music. Punk (or new wave) music was just starting to come up but and not at the forefront yet. Actually, I thought what I was doing at the time was revolutionary (laughs). Anyway, It was most likely; that I started to hear the Ramones music at CBGB's the first time. When I first heard them, I don't think that I was too impressed. I mean; you have to understand; I was doing music in 11/8 time and here was this band doing three minute songs loud and out of tune. By the way, and this is a true story. Dee Dee and Johnny used to show up at my gigs. I was never sure if they liked the band or whether they were just in the neighborhood at the time. I remember Dee Dee saying, "We're not here to see you." Anyway, I think it was Johnny who noticed that I had this tuning device. It was called a Strobotuner. The Strobotuner was the first machine that could tune an instrument electronically. Well, guess who started using it for their band after seeing me use it. Maybe I should claim that The Ramones in tune sound was due to me. (laughs).
I guess what I am trying to say, is that in the beginning, I didn't really understand where the Ramones were coming from. Looking back at that particular time, it seems as though rock and roll was really getting away from its roots. It was like all those records that Joey used to play for me when I was a kid just got lost and forgotten. To me, it was the Ramones who bought rock back to its roots. I didn't get it then, but later on I realized that. It was when I got it, that I really appreciated what they were doing and where they were coming from. I love the album Road to Ruin. It is one of my favorite albums of all time.
What was your impression of Lester Bangs? Was he difficult to work with?
I really didn't know Lester in a social way. It was more like a professional relationship. I would basically interact with him at a rehearsal. We would play and work out the songs and then pretty much go our separate ways. That was about it most of the time. As far as rehearsals went, Lester did have a certain way about him that I found unusual. I don't know. Maybe being a rock critic, I thought he might have felt uncomfortable doing what he wrote about other people doing. Lester wasn't your typical front man. I mean; when you go on stage looking like you just got out of bed, you have to wonder what the guy was thinking. But all in all though, I liked Lester and thought he had a lot of soul.
This many years later, what do you think of the Birdland CD?
Well, I originally played those songs way before the album came out and loved all of them. I don't have the CD. However, I do have a few rehearsal tapes that we made and I thought they rocked when I listened to them. You know; now that I think of it, I did go on Amazon.com a few times and listened to snippets of the album in Real Player. It sounded really good. In retrospect, I think one of the positive things about me leaving Birdland; is that had I not left, that album might not have happened and that means that we would have very little today to hear musically from Lester.
What was the greatest professional success of your life? Were the Rattlers a popular touring band?
I think that the greatest professional success of my life (other than making the Rattler's album) was being able to play in all the different bands that I played in. This gave me the opportunity to learn so many different styles in addition to all the experiences that came along with it.
Were the Rattlers a popular touring band? That's hard to say. I guess only to the people that came to see us (laughs).
Did you ever feel like too much attention was put on "Joey Ramone's brother" and not enough on the Rattlers' music?
Yes I did. Maybe the writers (or some reviewers of the album) thought that it would be a good idea to mention that "little brother" stuff or the connection. Maybe they felt that it would sell magazines or hook the reader into reading their article. So it's possible that it helped the band in some crazy way. I'm sure that it hurt us in many ways too. It's hard to say. I think that when you have a brother who is so well known in the same music community you're playing too, it is pretty hard to avoid something like that totally.
To you, did Mickey seemed bothered by the fact that he was constantly compared to his brother?
This unfortunately, was one of the curses that Mickey had to deal with. I know Mickey wasn't too pleased seeing a review of the album or an advertisement in a local paper saying, "Joey Ramones baby brother, or little brother" or some variation of that. I remember once, being on tour and arriving at one of the places for a sound check. Mickey picked up the local paper and read something in there referring to the little brother or whatever thing. He lost it and started ripping the paper into shreds. He was quite fed up with all of it but took it well nonetheless. It was also frustrating having some people write and compare the Rattlers music to the Ramones instead of reviewing the album on its own merit. In my opinion, comparing the Rattlers to the Ramones was like comparing apples and oranges. It was just plain silly.
Same question -- this many years later, what do you think of "Rattled"?
I am very proud of that album. A lot of love went into making that record. When I listen to the album today on my car stereo or on my iPod, the music still seems as current today as when we first did it. I'll never forget when the JEM/PVC record company signed us to do the record. That was probably one of the greatest musical moments of my life.
I was also really happy, when I found out that Dionysus records wanted to reissue Rattled on CD. It gave people that heard of the band, (but never had a chance to buy the album) a second chance to hear the music.
What did you bring to the table in Birdland and the Rattlers? Did you co-write any of the songs? Or bring in ideas? What were the situations like?
When I was in Birdland, I basically brought my talent into the band. Mickey and Lester wrote all of the songs in Birdland. The music (from what I remember) was already pretty much structured. However, I do remember me being able to interweave my style here and there in the music.
As for the Rattlers, I feel I brought a lot more to the table than I was able to in Birdland. Even though certain individuals might not agree and write me off as a fly by night second bass player. I guess it is easy to forget that someone got the clothes together for the band or designed the album cover or helped develop the band's concept or whatever.
As for the music, I didn't write or co-write any songs for the Rattlers in the beginning. When I first got into the band, it was more like learning the songs that the Rattlers already were doing. However, as time went on, the band started to eliminate songs from the set list. Thus, opening up the playing field to contribute. It was then that I started to think about melodies and rhythms that would fit into what we were trying to say as a musical unit.
The problem about writing songs for the Rattlers was that you felt as though you were invading Mickey's territory. Mickey was very critical about anything you brought to the table. So for a while, I didn't bother to bring in anything because I didn't want to get myself aggravated. So I just contributed my style of bass playing. However, I did get credit for co-writing one song with the band. Our first song writing team effort was the song "I Won't Be Your Victim." When the album came out, that sort of became our single along with our music video. I wrote the middle part of the song and the most of the title. Later on, I wrote a song called "Let's Be Friends" that the Rattlers performed before the end of my tenure with them. So as you can see, I did try to contribute to the band.
Mickey mentioned that there is a whole album's worth of Rattlers material that was never released. What is this material like? Do you think there's any chance it ever will be released?
As I mentioned before, when I first got into the band, I learned songs that were eventually eliminated from the set list. I am not exactly sure if it was an album's worth of material we scraped from the list. It is possible however, that the Rattlers may have recorded some songs after I left the band that I don't know about. So it is possible that there may be enough songs for another album. The music that I am aware of was kind of pop sounding. I liked all the Rattlers songs. But I think the rational was that once we decided to go into a certain direction, we wanted the songs that we were doing to have continuity. So eventually some songs that weren't in the vein were scratched.
As far as Mickey releasing the songs, well, that is up to him. In fact, when we talked about this subject once, I remember him saying to me that he wanted to record the "Let's Be Friends" song if he ever did decide to put out unreleased material. I believe he said to me, "We did that in the Rattlers so it should be on the record if we ever do another Rattlers album." So I guess anything is possible. I know he is very busy now writing a book on his brother. Therefore, I don't see Mickey doing a project like that for a while.
What did the Tribe sound like? Did you ever record any material?
I can't really put my finger on it, but they did incorporate a bit of the U2 sound in their style. I think that U2 was really hot at the time so maybe that's why it was in there or perhaps it was accidental. I sometimes wondered if the singer thought he was Bono's alter ego. (laughs).
Do you still keep up with Mickey at all? Why did you end up parting ways after three bands together?
Well, we really never parted ways totally. Mickey and I still speak to each other on the phone or over the Internet. But it seems only when I initiated it (laughs). He still forgets to call me on my birthday which I rib him about every year (laughs). Seriously though; after playing in three different bands with him on and off; he and I would just go our separate ways so to speak. Mickey was a dominating person to work with and sometimes I felt I just needed some space from him to clear my head. However, despite it all, he and I still remain friendly today. One thing I learned in the music business is that business is business and friends are friends. Since we started off as friends, I didn't see jeopardizing a friendship over a business relationship. I guess what I am trying to say; is that I always considered his family my extended family. And family is very important to me.
Did you hear his Stop cd? Any thoughts?
Not only did I hear it, I even played on the record (laughs). If you look at the credits, you'll see that I am listed on it playing flute. I played flute on "With our Hands we Pray." I think that the Stop cd was a stepping stone record for Mickey. The record felt to me as a kind of bridge to a new style and sound he was starting to explore.
Have you played in any other bands since Crown the Good?
Yes. Actually, I tried to start my own band at one point. Right after I left the Rattlers, I wrote like twelve songs. I think that they were all about Mickey (laughs). I hooked up with this drummer who used to play in the Dictators and we went into a recording studio to put the material down on tape. Since we didn't have a full band, I hired some the best studio musicians in New York that I knew at the time to help demo the tapes. I even asked Mickey to play on one or two tracks (definitely one). Anyway, after we made the tapes, it seemed as though we just couldn't get any musicians that we auditioned to duplicate the sound from the tape. Then, the drummer (who was the only permanent member besides me of course) started to have personal problems and eventually betrayed me. So I scraped the project and put the tapes away in storage. After that, I just played as a hired gun for bands that called me up for gigs. However, I was pretty selective with whom I played with. Some things you can't do, even for money (laughs).
What are your main artistic pursuits these days? And what do you do professionally?
Well, back in the 1980's I started to get involved with electronic music. I always had a love affair with technology ever since I can remember. I first worked with drum machines (for my demos) and eventually graduated to analog and digital synthesizers. Then, when MIDI came out, I started to learn how to write and compose music on my computer. I am still very involved with computer music today and teach it as well at a school in Brooklyn. When I am not doing anything musical, I do Macintosh computer consulting. I've also written articles and reviews for the Macintosh in a few computer magazines. I enjoy working with digital photography as well using iMovie and iPhoto.
What does the "U" in your name stand for?
Well, Mickey always used to say to me, "You do this, you do that". So I just substituted the U for You (laughs). Actually, for some reason, I was always the one who was elected to supervise hauling around the equipment. So I used to say to Mickey, "What am I, a U Haul?" So I put the U in my name as a joke to mean Dave U Haul the equipment. | 2019-04-24T00:57:40Z | http://markprindle.com/hall2-i.htm |
If you are a mom who has been dedicated to staying home with your kids to be there with them as they grow, you are not alone! And you should be proud of your commitment to your children.
But that does not mean you should give up on ever going back to college and getting your career on track. Mothers will however find it tough financially to take this step, but a scholarship for stay at home moms provides the money you need to go back to school.
Why would a mom want to go back to school?
It may have been a while since you worked full time and times do change. You can update your skills and become more employable when you do a college degree or certificate.
The skills you learn in college will let you get a good paying job that will help you provide for your family. It will also be highly rewarding for you to finally have the chance to undertake a career that you are interested in.
Perhaps you are someone who likes to keep busy and learn new things. There really is no better way to do it than by going to school. When a scholarship pays for it for you it makes it considerably easier.
Once your children start seeing your desire to learn and better yourself they too will be inspired to do the same in the lives. It doesn’t matter how young they are, good impressions last!
Kids who have parents who do not work or work in unsatisfying careers are much more likely to follow the same path and ultimately, end up unhappy and frustrated. It is up to you as a mother to show your kids the right way to follow their dream!
A degree or other qualification will put you in a great position to get a high paying job. Many fields of work require specific qualifications before becoming employed and in some cases you are destined to be on a low wage forever. This is obviously not ideal if you are trying to raise a family and work at the same time!
When you have a degree you are much more likely to go straight into a job that pays well, rather than having to start at the very bottom of the ladder. It doesn’t matter what field of work you are going after, going to college puts you in a more favorable light with any potential employer.
Without a doubt money is the main thing that keeps moms away from college. Tuition fees alone can cost a fortune, let alone textbooks, travel and other related expenses. The only viable way for many mothers is to find a suitable scholarship.
Unfortunately most scholarships will not be open to moms as they often see you as not being committed enough to complete the degree and then get a job. The only scholarships that you might have a chance at receiving are those that are specifically aimed at moms or parents. These grants will give you the cash you need to embark on the course you’ve always dreamed of.
When you have a scholarship it can be used to pay for your tuition fees. These can be up to $10,000 or even more and often a good grant will actually cover your entire fees. This means all you have to pay for is a few text books every once in a while.
If you choose to study via distance learning on the internet you don’t even have to travel to college. It results in being able to spend more time with your kids, and studying at times that suit you. Even at 2am!
More and more people are taking up online degrees and education and with good reason: the qualifications are nationally recognized (sometimes internationally) and the flexibility simply can not be matched by any other method of learning.
Most large colleges and universities now offer distance education in most areas of study. It is worth asking your preferred college about these options and remember that you are not limited to campuses in your city or state – you can look all around the country for the course you are interested in if you are studying via distance!
Studying is such a rewarding experience. I can highly recommend it, and this is coming from a mother who finally decided to go back to school whilst also looking after my kids. There truly is no better feeling when you receive good marks and can see a bright future for yourself and your family.
Scholarships for mothers will take the financial stress away from attending college. Your kids will be looked after as you are not put out of pocket, and you can concentrate on your studies without worrying about having no cash to continue providing for yourself and your family.
Please send me more information about this scholarship. Where can i apply at?
can i please get more info about the scholarship?
my name is Nicole I was recently accepted into UMA for a 10 month course on medical billing and coding. I have two children and this is an online school and it seems perfect for me even after I graduate I will be able to work from home but I do not have the money or the family support that I need to pursue schooling. is there any kind of help that I can get? I am NOT looking for completely free schooling I do realize I will have to pay something back but I need some kind of grant for single mothers or low-income mothersand I would also need help getting a computer. all the websites that I have checked are referring me to different schools but I am very interested in UMA and since I was already accepted I would like to stick to it. my online classes would start April 6th if I cannot attend this school because of financial difficulties I will be very devastated I need this for me and my children so we can have some stability in our lives and I would like to be a good role model for my children.
Please send more information on this grant/scholarship. Where could I apply at?
Hi, I am 2 kids, 16 & 4 years old. I currently work part time, and need assistance to pay my tuition. Can you tell me how I can apply for a scholarship?
Hi I’m a mother of 4 and would love to receive more information on what I can do to further my education from home. Thank you for your time.
I am a mother of 10 month baby currently i enrolled for Masters degree ,am not working.
Please send me information on applying for scholarships. Thanks!
please send me more information on how to get a scholarship. I have a 3 year old, that was born a micro preemie. Been out of school since 2011, and just enrolled in Berkeley college nyc. Currently have 104 credits.
Please send me information on this grant. Where do you apply for it at?
I currently have 118 hrs toward a Bachelors Degree and would like to finish that degree to be able to move on with a career. My two children are still in college at this time and money for finishing my education is virtually non-existent. A scholarship would help toward completing that goal at 53 years old. I would appreciate any information about scholarships to start school again. My College does have a week-end college and night classes available.
please notify me of any upcoming or current grants, loans, or scholarships I am now in the process of going back to school and in need of financial support..i am a mother of 2 with a child on the way and want to start my career now while I am still young and with so many opportunities that unheard of..someone please notify me thanks!
I would like more information on applying for the Obama scholarships for moms. I have raised 3 children and two step children while my husband was in the Navy. When he retired, we adopted a sibling group of 5, now 14,13,12,11, and 9. My husband died almost 2 years ago, leaving us with just social security. I have a bachelor’s degree, but haven’t worked in the 11 years since we adopted the children. I need to continue my education, so when the children leave home, I can work, assuming someone will hire a retired mom of 10.
Is this applicable to Grandmother’s as well? Do we have to custody of our grandchildren?
I would like more information on scholarships for college.
I would like more information about how I may obtain a scholarship for college. I’ve been a stay-at-home Mom for 21 years and I have four children. My youngest is ten years old. Due to an unexpected illness, my husband is disabled and won’t be able to work much longer. For our family survival, I’ve decided to go back to school to earn an Associates degree, but can’t afford the cost of classes – not to mention all the added costs of gas, food, lab fees, etc.. A scholarship would greatly help to make school possible for us.
I’m a married mother of 2 but we don’t make much. I’m about to lose my job for a year and looking for a new job. I have been accepted to ultimate medical academy online and was wondering if I could get a scholarship or grant.
Hello my name is Kristina and i am a single mother of two children 13 and 9. I have returned to college to furture my education because i have worked in the Health field as a stna for the elder and rehabilitation of all types of surgrey for 15 years now I love it and would like to be a RN so i can do even more.It also does not pay very well and my children are already talking about attaining college so to be able to make a little more money doing what i love would help both me and my children occomplish our dreams. Also now that i have been in college i have had to drop from working full-time and we are struggling to stay a float so any little help would so be appreicated.
My name is Jennifer Miller. I have six beautiful children, 4 boys 2 girls. Everything I do is for my children. I have recently started attending college but am unable to keep going due to lack of funding. I am trying very hard and no matter what I do I just cant seem to make ends meet. I have been out of work for over a year now but have always been activly looking without success. I have no one here for me. I am doing it by myself. I was just awarded the directors award at school for my grade point average of 4.0. I really would love to finish my schooling and become a medical assistant. Please help me. I have no other way.
I only completed the 8th grade in 1994, I was married, and had a baby at the age of sixteen. Finishing high school did not seem important to me back then, and really hasn’t been bothersome to me that I did not graduate. But now my oldest son is a junior and about to graduate next year. When I was ordering his class ring a few months ago, it dawned on me that he was going to get something that I didn’t but could have and should have, so I took the GED test on Jan.29,2013 and I PASSED!I am so proud of myself it’s been nearly 20 years since I was in school, and I want to go to college but can’t afford it. I am married with four boys. PLEASE HELP!
I WOULD LIKE INFORMATION ON COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS/GRANTS FOR SINGLE MOTHERS. I HAVE 28 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN MY FIELD AND IT IS BEING OUTSOURCED AND I CANNOT FIND WORK. PLEASE HELP BEFORE I LOSE EVERYTHING I HAVE WORKED SO HARD FOR.
I would like information on scholarships and grants. I am a mother of two toddlers ages 2.5 and 2. I ‘m currently working on my Master but was dropped from my classes because financial difficulties. I would like to finish my 5 courses. Please send me information…thank you.
Please send me information on the scholarships and grants. I am a mother to 3 wonderful boys and was recently laid off. I am half way thru my college education but can not afford to go back.
I am a mother of three and am very close to getting to transfer from s jc to a private university. All info or help is greatly appreciated!
Hello, I am a newly returning online student and mother in search of scholarship information to help with financial costs to return to school.
I would like to receive some information on scholarships for moms. I’m currently in nursing school, but may have to drop out for a bit due to financial reasons. Thanks!
Where do I get info on applying for the scholarship for moms going back to school?
Please send me grant and scholarship information. Five classes into a MSE had to drop out for financial reasons. Student loans and expenses piled up. Would like to get back to school now that my son is older but can’t tackle more loans right now. Thanks!
But I do need to go to work we need help thank you for your time.
My name is Courtney and i am a stay at home mom of three amazing children and a full time college student majoring in childhood education. I really need help because i am finding that my student loans are racking up and i am afraid of what i might find when i graduate. I could really use help in staying in school without putting myself and my family too far in debt. any help would be greatly appreciated.
My name is Brittany & i am looking to further my education. My studies were cut short when I got pregnant in high school, although I did graduate it isnt the ending i would have liked to had. I ended up loosing that baby and got pregnant again right after high school, so college was a NO especially since we found out we were having TWINS! I am looking to go back to my local community college for Early Childhood Education & need the money to go back so i would love to get this Grant!
Hello my name is Kayla I am 24 year old stay at home mom of three and unable to currently work due to the high cost of day cate I would be paying in to work. Since my eldest two children will be starting school pre k and kindergarten. I would love to go back to school! Before we had moved from our home state I had my CNA. I loved my work bit unfortunantly it expired due to troubling paper work to transfer/renew my certification. My friends and family believe I have a natural ability to help people. Due to the economy and cost to raise a family. It’s unfortunate that I do not have a dime for college. I’d love to further my education in nursing to secure my family financially and secure my children’s future. I would be greatful for any help I can get! Thank you, god bless!
I would love to share this blog to my friends on Facebook, how can I go about that please?
My name is Virannaca, I am a stay at home mom of 2, my husband works nights at walmart. I am 34 and would very much to act on my goals as to become a psycology major but it is really hard with only 1 income. like the girl in #3 i’m in the same boat she is. I want to do online classes since i have a baby at home. any finacial help would be great. I had been wanting to do this now for several yrs. now. so any help will do, thank you.
My name is Nicole, I am a single mom with three kids. I would really like return to school to persue my dreams as an RN, but unable to do so because of my financial situation…i would really appreciate any help you can give me.
My name is Nicole, I am a single mom with two kids. I would really like return to school to persue my dreams as an RN, but unable to do so because of my financial situation…i would really appreciate any help you can give me.
My name is Christina. I have been married for 11 years and have four children, ages 9, 7, 4 and 2. My husband is a master electrician. He has always dreamed of owning his own business but doesn’t have the schooling to support it. The company he works for has no work where we live and he has been working over 1,000 miles away and returning twice a month to see our family. I want to go to school and earn an MBA to make his dreams of owning a business come true but also so he can come home and work near his family again. Paying for plane tickets gets expensive and so we cannot afford for me to pursue this alone.
My name is Zaida. I am a single divorce mom and I am seeking your help in returing back to school. I currently work for the board of education which involves working with students, parents and administrators, I enjoy my job very much, however, I would like to pursue my career in in business education to help me further my career, but unable to becuase I do not have the funds. I am asking if you can please help me pursue my career.
After graduating from Kaiserslautern High School Germany, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do in life. After some thought I knew I wanted to be in the Medical field but what part I wasn’t sure. When I moved back to the states from overseas things did not go the way I planned so I went into the work force with the first job I got to support myself, which was banking. Then years went by and I did really great in banking but it was not my passion.
I had to put off my career in the Medical field for my family. My husband got orders to move to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho from our home state of Georgia. So I had to quit my job in banking. While being jobless I thought now my kids are older and it is moms turn to go back to school and further my education. This is my big chance to be in a place where I can be a full time day student to concentrate on going to school and not working. Even though the drive back and forth from Mountain Home to Boise is a challenge, this is what I desire to do. I also have my husband who is a big supporter of me going back to school to further my education.
I first started off pursuing an associate’s in Medical Specialties which is also a great program, but with the opportunity to be in the Respiratory Therapist program I can further my career and opportunities. Being a Respiratory Therapist comes along a big wide door of possibilities, with this degree I can take it with me where ever I go. I also wanted a career that is in demand and there is a need for it. Back in 2002 I saw firsthand how important a Respiratory Therapist is when I had Pneumonia and just to breathe again when my lungs were clear was like a miracle and one day I would like to be a part of helping someone else like I was helped. Becoming a Respiratory Therapist I will be helping people with breathing problems. I am excited to be a part of helping others and learning about the respiratory system. | 2019-04-25T08:44:03Z | https://mothersscholarships.com/blog/go-back-to-college |
Indian subcontinent has diversity as its middle name. From coral reefs to parched deserts – from endless coast line to mighty Himalyas – from central plateau to sodden lowlands.
Indian subcontinent has diversity as its middle name. From coral reefs to parched deserts – from endless coast line to mighty Himalyas – from central plateau to sodden lowlands. The diversity is clearly present in Tiger’s habitat too. The mighty beast can thrive in any sort of conditions. Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench are forests in the heart of Indian state – Madhya Pradesh. Temperatures are extreme with varied and diverse topography. But this adds the fun and surprise to the itinerary. Get ready for the live encounter with the jungle king and make sure you do not lose any chance to shoot him in the wild. Before you fly back you would spend some time in Khajuraho temples. Built by Rajput Kshatriyas between 9 – 11 Centrury. These 15 days would also give you an opportunity to enjoy the varied perspective on difference in culture of Delhi and Mumbai and everything in between. So do not expect your lenses to be used only for far fetched wildlife but more so for close encounter with colours, culture and complete kaleidoscope. We bet you will be addicted.
Indian subcontinent has diversity its middle name. From coral reefs to parched deserts – from endless coast line to Mighty Himalyas – From Central Plateau to sodden lowlands. The Diversity is clearly present in Tiger’s habitat too. The Mighty beast can thrive in any sort of conditions. KanhaBandhavgarh and Khajuraho are forests in the heart of Indian state – Madhya Pradesh. Temperatures are extreme with varied and disturbing topography. But this adds the fun and surprise to the itinerary. Get ready for the live encounter with the jungle king and make sure you do not lose any chance to shoot him in the wild. Before you fly back you would spend some time in Khajuraho temples. Built by Rajput Kshatriyas between 9 – 11 Centrury.
Upon arrival transfer to the hotel.Overnight at the hotel.
When you arrive at the airport in Mumbai you will be received by the representatives of Nature Safari who will then take you to the Hotel. Overnight stay in Mumbai.
Full day city tour of Mumbai. Overnight stay in Mumbai.
This City tour would actually help you to know that Cosmopolitan City still has heart in the same place. Though the journey from Bombay to Mumbai was the breathtakingly long. But its hard working people have kept only one thing in mind..... GROWTH. This city is Culturally diverse and important for nation's financial success. Mumbai belongs to Konkan Division which is one of the seven divisions in State of Maharashtra. Mumbai is group of islands on the west coast of India. History notes that this group of islands belonged to Fishermen and group of Buddhist monks established an outpost during the Magadh empire. These group of islands have been reclaimed over the last two centuries and called Mumbai. Mumbai got its name from Mumbadevi. The Mumba Devi patrons were salt collectors and fisher folks who originally belonged to these islands. Mumbai has a deep natural harbor, which handles more than half of India's passenger traffic and a large amount of cargo. The city which never sleeps, and its patrons cannot be limited to any time frame other than 24 x 7. Once you are in Mumbai you can't stay aloof from its innate active nature. It has attractive shopping arcades, exciting sport activities, night clubs, discotheques, theaters, music, restaurants and offer picturesque sights. Mumbai is home to world famous Hindi Film Industry known as Bollywood, which is one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. The street side foods like Pani puri, Bhel Puri and Vada Pao are must haves. So next time you are here you are sure to run into Bollywood personality eating your own portion of Vada Pao.
Early Morning transfer to domestic airport to board a flight to Nagpur at 0650 hrs. Meetings and assistance on arrival Nagpur at 0810 hrs and drive to Pench National Park 100 kms 2 hrs drive. Lunch at Resort and afternoon game drive to the national Park. Dinner and overnight at Pench Jungle Lodge.
Breakfast and lunch at Pench Jungle Camp.Morning and afternoon Jeep safari to the National park.
Finally the wait is over.After loathing, Concrete jungles are behind us.You would realize this the moment you are out of the Nagpur airport.The closer you would reach to Pench, more relaxed you would get.That's what jungles do to you.Mother nature welcomes you with open arms and without conditions.This park is located between four different Mountain Ranges - Aravali,Vindhyanchal,Satpura and Maikal.The tracks are smoother, the trees are thicker with dense undergrowth,perhaps one reason why the herbivore population here is larger in size compared to Kanha and Bandhavgarh.The skies are home to eagles and their distinctive calls.And then there are pauses of silence in the jungle.Don't get consumed in this silence with your mind talking to yourself - an opportunity your mind doesn't get often in your cities.Focus on the ground or jungle games so that you and your camera have not left anything to imagination.Try to see with Kipling's eye and you might see Baloo and Mowgli singing "Song of Bare Neccessities".And King khan is there behind the tall grass to spoil their party.You will experience this and much more with the backdrop of luxurious accommodation,friendly service and delectable cuisine in adventurous settings.Spend the night in Pench Jungle Camp and let the night sounds of jungle intrigue you with its offerings.
Finally the wait is over.After loathing, Concrete jungles are behind us.You would realize this the moment you are out of the Nagpur airport.The closer you would reach to Pench,more relaxed you would get.That's what jungles do to you.Mother nature welcomes you with open arms and without conditions.This park is located between four different Mountain Ranges - Aravali,Vindhyanchal,Satpura and Maikal.The tracks are smoother, the trees are thicker with dense undergrowth,perhaps one reason why the herbivore population here is larger in size compared to Kanha and Bandhavgarh.The skies are home to eagles and their distinctive calls.And then there are pauses of silence in the jungle.Don't get consumed in this silence with your mind talking to yourself - an opportunity your mind doesn't get often in your cities.Focus on the ground or jungle games so that you and your camera have not left anything to imagination.Try to see with Kipling's eye and you might see Baloo and Mowgli singing "Song of Bare Neccessities".And King khan is there behind the tall grass to spoil their party.You will experience this and much more with the backdrop of luxurious accommodation,friendly service and delectable cuisine in adventurous settings.Spend the night in Pench Jungle Camp and let the night sounds of jungle intrigue you with its offerings.
Morning after game drive transfer to Kanha Natioanl Park 210 kms / 4 hrs drive.On arrival,check into Chitvan Jungle Lodge.The stay here comes with the guarantee of Relaxed evenings and Home cooked Dinner.
Breakfast and lunch at Chitvan Jungle Lodge.Morning and afternoon Jeep safari to the National park.
Kanha is the largest National Park in India.
This is original Kipling country of which he wrote so vividly in his Jungle Book.The same abundance of wild life species exists today in Kanha National Park, as it must have when Kipling roamed in these parts of jungle.The beginning of your safari before sunrise... You wonder at the Hunting Song of the Seonee wolf Pack written by Kipling in his book.
"As the dawn was breaking the sambhar belled.... Once, Twice and again!!.... And a doe leaped up, and a doe leaped up..... From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup.....This I, Scouting alone, beheld, Once, twice and again.
Get ready for action which starts at the Mukki Gate of Kanha.This entry is just 1.5 miles away from the Hotel.And in this stretch you would see Langoors, Water Streams, Tribal Houses and if you are really lucky then you can even meet Tiger and Leopard.Their presence is also not unheard of in this part of jungle.That is some action isn't it.
The Kanha National Park, stretching over 940 sq km, the vegetation, chiefly made of sal and bamboo forests, grasslands and streams, this park is the sole habitat of the rare hardground barasingha.The Particular species of Barasingha was on verge of extinction and hence it is considered as achievement for Indian forest authorities.
The western half belongs to Banjar Valley and Eastern half is made of Halon Valley.You can hear the stories of the tigers and Deers which are almost centuries old.The naturalists and drives are master story tellers of the jungle.It was year 1955, Kanha National Park came into being.Since then Conservation programs are quite active in this forest.Therefore it is here you feel that this forest is still untouched and has lot to offer in terms of flora, fauna and other vegetations.You would realize this when you would see the jungle chicken and fowl moving around completely unmindful of your presence.It is one of the well-maintained National Parks in Asia,and a major attraction for avid wildlife buffs all over the world.
Kanha boasts of unending list of mammals.Some species have found here are large cattle Gaur,Sambar - Largest Indian deer, Only four-horned antelope - Chausinga, Flying Squirrel - Petaurista philippensis (Elliot)which is quite nocturnal in nature.Other frequent visitors include the Nilgai antelope, the sloth bear, the dhole - Indian wild dog, and an occasional panther.Some 200 species of birds inhabit the park, that include the cattle egret, black ibis, hawk eagle, and the red-wattled lapwing.
Kanha has object of desire for Historians also.Shravantal is an old, water body in the central Kanha meadows, which is related to Epic of Ramayana. As per the tale - Shravan was passing through this forest enroute pilgrimage with his parents.They stopped at this water body for quenching their thirst.King Dashrath was hunting nearby and heard the sound of the Shravan's Pitcher.Dashrath was expert in sound shooting and could shoot impeccably without looking at the subject.He mistakenly took Shravan for a deer and killed him. When he realized his mistake he went to Shravan's parents with water and they died on the spot when they came to know that Dashrath killed their son.As per legend there is "Shravan Chita" where dead-body of Shravan was cremated.Similarly, there is place called "Dashratha Machaan" from which King Dashratha shot down Shravan mistaking him for a deer.
Evening bar be que dinner followed by Tribal Dance. Overnight at Chitvan Jungle Lodge.
The Kanha National Park, stretching over 940 sq km, the vegetation, chiefly made of sal and bamboo forests, grasslands and streams, this park is the sole habitat of the rare hardground barasingha. The Particular species of Barasingha was on verge of extinction and hence it is considered as achievement for Indian forest authorities.
The western half belongs to Banjar Valley and Eastern half is made of Halon Valley. You can hear the stories of the tigers and Deers which are almost centuries old. The naturalists and drives are master story tellers of the jungle. It was year 1955, Kanha National Park came into being. Since then Conservation programs are quite active in this forest. Therefore it is here you feel that this forest is still untouched and has lot to offer in terms of flora, fauna and other vegetations. You would realize this when you would see the jungle chicken and fowl moving around completely unmindful of your presence. It is one of the well-maintained National Parks in Asia, and a major attraction for avid wildlife buffs all over the world.
Kanha boasts of unending list of mammals. Some species have found here are large cattle Gaur, Sambar- Largest Indian deer, Only four-horned antelope - Chausinga, Flying Squirrel - Petaurista philippensis (Elliot)which is quite nocturnal in nature. Other frequent visitors include the Nilgai antelope, the sloth bear, the dhole - Indian wild dog, and an occasional panther. Some 200 species of birds inhabit the park, that include the cattle egret, black ibis, hawk eagle, and the red-wattled lapwing.
Kanha has object of desire for Historians also. Shravantal is an old, water body in the central Kanha meadows, which is related to Epic of Ramayana. As per the tale - Shravan was passing through this forest enroute pilgrimage with his parents. They stopped at this water body for quenching their thirst. King Dashrath was hunting nearby and heard the sound of the Shravan's Pitcher. Dashrath was expert in sound shooting and could shoot impeccably without looking at the subject. He mistakenly took Shravan for a deer and killed him. When he realized his mistake he went to Shravan's parents with water and they died on the spot when they came to know that Dashrath killed their son. As per legend there is "Shravan Chita" where dead-body of Shravan was cremated. Similarly, there is place called "Dashratha Machaan" from which King Dashratha shot down Shravan mistaking him for a deer.
Morning game drive, after breakfast depart for Bandhavgarh, 250kms, 6 hours drive, Evening relax and overnight at Tiger Den Resort.
Morning and afternoon game drives, meals and overnight Jungle Lodge.
Saving the best for the North. Bandhavgarh national Park lies in the North Eastern border of Madhya Pradesh and northern edges of the Satpura Mountain Ranges. This park contains 32 hills and a Natural fort in the centre. Fresh Air of Mountain and blissful aroma of Sai, Dhobin, Saja and Sal trees. Add open jeep in the early morning mist following the yellow and black stripes as the early rays of sun trying to show the way.
Such is the experience at the Bandhavgarh National park. One of the Permanent address of the Royal Bengal tiger.
The national park is mainly known for its tiger population. This is the place where famous White Tigers of Rewa were discoveredThe White tigers were found in state of Rewa and last white tiger Mohun is now stuffed and on display in the Palace of Maharaja of Rewa. The other wild attractions in the park include Nilgai, Chausingha,Chital, Chinkara, Wild Boar, a Fox and a Jackal. The reptile population in the park includes cobras, karaits, vipers, ratsnakes, pythons, lizards and turtles. The two primate species - the rhesus macaque and the Hanuman langur - inhabit the Bandhavgarh Park.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner at the Lodge. Morning & Evening Jeep drive in the park. Overnight In Bandhavgarh.
If Historians love to eat the stories and folktales then Bandhavgarh has to be their main course.
Bandhavgarh has been a center of human activity and settlement for over 2000 years. There are references of Bandhavgarh in the ancient books like the Narad-Panch Ratra and the Shiva Purana. Legend has it that Lord Rama, hero of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, stopped at Bandhavgarh on his way back to his homeland after defeating the demon King Ravana of Lanka. Nala the architect - par excellence, who had engineered a bridge between the isles of Lanka and the mainland, are said to have built Bandhavgarh's fort. Later Rama handed it over this fort to his brother Lakshmana who became known as Bandhavdhish "The Lord of the Fort". Lakshmana is the particular God of the fort and is regularly worshipped in a temple there.
The oldest sign of habitation in the park are caves dug into the sandstone to the north of the fort. Several contain Brahmi inscriptions dating from the 1st century B.C. Various dynasties have ruled the fort - Maghas, Vakatakas, Chandelas and the Baghels. The Baghel Kings, the direct ancestors of the present Royal family of Rewa, established their dynasty at Bandhavgarh in the 12th century. It remained their capital till 1617 and then it moved to Rewa, 75 miles (120Kms) to the north. Without royal patronage Bandhavgarh became more and more deserted royal hunting reserve. This helped to preserve the forest and its wildlife, although the Maharajas made full use of their rights.
Bandhavgarh is justifiably famous for its Tigers, but it has a wide range of other game. The undergrowth is not as dense as in some northern terai forests, but the best time to see the park inhabitants is still the summer months when water becomes more scarce and the undergrowth dies back.
Morning after breakfast drive to Khajuraho airport top board a flight to New Delhi at 1400 hrs. Arrive New Delhi at 1600 hrs and transfer to hotel. Overnight in New Delhi.
Morning: A Visit to old Delhi and Cycle Rickshaw ride are synonymous and must do things when visiting Delhi. The heart of Delhi which beats with hustle and bustle of people at work. You would realize that work is worship in this part of the world. So many people engrossed and unmindful of your presence. However you would get their glimpses of churning butter, chopping fresh vegetables and hand grounding of Indian Spices. If you are lucky you can see the rotis - Indian Bread, expertly being made on Chulha.
Afternoon: Visit New Delhi, seeing the Qutab Minar, a tower of victory built in the 12th century and India Gate - the war memorial. Enjoy the Lutyen's Delhi and Drive past the Rashtrapathi Bhawan, the residence of the President of India, the houses of Parliament and the Government Secretariat buildings.
Morning after breakfast transfer to airport to board a flight back home. | 2019-04-18T19:28:25Z | https://naturesafariindia.com/15-days-land-of-the-tiger-itinerary |
Is it really possible for there to be a one-world government, economy, and religion as the Bible speaks of? When I was going through my formal theological training 20 years ago, I have to admit that I really never saw the probability of some of the things spoken of in the Book of Revelation happening in my lifetime. I thought it was impossible in the world as we knew it in the 90s to ever see a one-world government, or economy, or religion. There were just too many factors that made that type of scenario impossible. Fast forward to the year 2009, and we now live in a world that is ripe for the emergence of a one-world government, economy, and religion.
One of the most difficult things to do is to take that unseen faith in Christ and make it real in our day-to-day lives. Probably the one area the church has failed greater than any other, a huge reason for people not going to church regularly, is its lack of relevance in people’s daily lives. A pastor can stand in the pulpit on Sunday and preach the most theologically-sound sermon ever delivered, but unless he is able to connect with the “person in the pew” it has little impact. The reality is, the “person in the pew” is looking for something to apply to their daily life. They are looking for something to help them through the real-life struggles they are facing. They are looking for a way to make their faith REAL in their very real lives each day.
BUT THOSE MESSAGES NEED TO SOMEHOW TIE BACK TO THE DAILY LIVES OF THE PEOPLE HEARING THEM, AND HOW THEY CAN MAKE THEIR FAITH IN CHRIST REAL IN THEIR LIVES EACH DAY!
Another issue that comes into play are people, saved and lost, who “have heard it all a million times.” This goes back into making the Gospel relevant to the person who hears it, making the Truth of God’s Word applicable to a person’s daily life. I am afraid some who know the Lord, who have gone to church faithfully Sunday after Sunday, have still never made the connection in taking their faith in Christ and making it applicable to their daily lives. Most people who are lost and have rejected the Gospel, in many cases have rejected it because they could never understand how it could make their life different NOW.
My friend, our faith in Christ is not just an eternal insurance policy, it is how we are to live our lives every second of every day, RIGHT NOW! That is where so many Believers fall short in their walk with the Lord, making that unseen faith in Christ real in their day-to-day lives, finding that connection between their faith in the Lord and all of the real-life struggles and battles they face during this journey through life. Too many of God’s children live defeated lives because they have never learned how to tap into the power that resides within them.
It is like the end of that classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz.” If you remember, after the Wizard’s balloon left without her, Glenda the good witch told Dorothy that she had the power to go home all along in her ruby slippers, she simply didn’t know how to tap into that power. That is the same as a Believer who has the Holy Spirit of the living God residing within them from the moment they accepted Christ as their Savior. Unless you purposely tap into that great power, it will simply sit there unused.
Another reason people fail to make their faith real in their daily lives is by not accepting God’s Word for what it is. It is our final authority in all matters. God has given us so many wonderful and precious promises in His Word for us to hold onto and stand on in our hour of need. Far too often we read the words, we understand the words, but we fail to apply those words to our life. This is not just another book, it is the LIVING WORD OF GOD! There is great power in God’s Word. Applying God’s Word to your daily life is the guide to how we make our faith in Him real in our daily lives.
I want to share with you today that if you know the Lord as your Savior, you have the power of the Holy Spirit residing within you and the promises of God’s Word to guide you. The only thing you now lack is…TRUST. You either don’t, or won’t trust God with your life. You have failed to make your faith real in your daily life because you don’t or won’t trust God with it. You aren’t willing to fully surrender your life to Him and are trying to hold onto what you have already given to Him when you accepted Christ as your Savior, your life. The fact is, if you really believe it, you will live it. The rubber meets the road regarding our faith not in what we say but in how we life each moment of each day.
WE MAKE OUR FAITH REAL IN HOW WE LIVE OUR LIFE EACH DAY!
I realize the struggle most people have in trying to make their faith real in their daily lives. The key is to follow God’s Word, to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit, and to trust the Lord enough to live a surrendered life for HIM each day. IT REALLY WORKS! OUR FAITH IS REAL!
I love you and care about you so much..Your faith is applicable to every situation, every decision, every moment of your life. You should never live even one second outside of your faith. Live it every second of every day. The amazing thing is, as you do this day after ay, week after week, month after month, year after year, it will become natural and instinctive to live your faith 24/7.
For those who have never made the choice to follow Christ, have heard the “story” many times but never responded, let me challenge you. Faith in Christ is not just about where you will spend eternity, but also about your life NOW! You will never know the true peace, the true joy, the true abundance of this life, you will never fulfill your God-given purpose during this life unless you come to know Jesus as your personal Savior. All of the answers, all of the hope there is in this life come from that relationship with Christ and no other way. Faith in Christ is NOT just some unseen, mysterious, blind leap in the dark hope, but something tangible that we can experience every moment of this life and for all eternity.
Of course, as people get older, their rebellion does not cease, and often increases. Adults make the choice to break the law, get involved in illicit sexual affairs of every kind in and out of marriage, “escape” through drugs, alcohol, gambling, and a whole host of other addictions that people become enslaved to, not to mention just living in such a selfish way that others get hurt through their choices. Even those in their golden years still live in rebellion in a multitude of ways.
The point I am making today is that because of the sin nature we are all born with, living our lives in rebellion is “natural” and something we all must fight all the time. The reality is, most people choose NOT to fight their rebellion, giving in to their natural desires to do what they want, when they want, and how they want, regardless of the consequences. So many simply choose to just give in to their rebellious nature and don’t even care what the consequences of that rebellion will be.
Of course, this includes a persons spiritual life as well. The first sin was the sin of pride, satan deciding that he wanted to be God. It was an act of rebellion for God’s creation to try and supplant the Creator. God created man with free will. The free will to obey Him or the free will to rebel against Him. Man had ONE RULE to follow in the Garden, ONE! Sadly for us and all mankind, Adam decided to rebel against the one rule God gave him, and thus sin entered into the human condition, and as a byproduct of sin, that rebellious nature we all fight.
Because of man’s broken relationship with God his Creator, his rebellion extended to his spiritual life as well. He no longer honored and revered God, but saw God as the “rule maker.” Man, of course, not wanting to follow any rules, found it easier to simply act like God didn’t exist. God gave man His Word so His creation would know how to live this life in victory. Again, man had no desire to follow anyone’s rules, even God’s, so he quickly dismissed God’s Book.
THE ETERNAL MISTAKE MEN MAKE IS THIS. YOU CAN GO THROUGH THIS LIFE ACTING LIKE GOD DOESN’T EXIST SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO FOLLOW GOD’S RULES, BUT WHAT SATAN FORGETS TO TELL YOU IS THAT ONE DAY YOU WILL DIE AND AT THAT MOMENT GUESS WHAT? YOU WILL BE STANDING BEFORE GOD YOUR CREATOR TO BE JUDGED! YOU WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY GOD WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!
One of the things that drives me every day is knowing that those who are living their lives in rebellion to God, living their lives without Christ, will die at any moment and be judged by God for their sins and cast into hell for all eternity. THAT IS THE REAL FATE OF MEN WHO DIE WITHOUT JESUS! This is not a game. Death is final and there are no second chances. Those who die without Christ are destined to spend eternity in a place created for satan and the fallen angels who followed him. ETERNAL PUNISHMENT IS NOT A SPANKING, OR BEING GROUNDED, OR BEING EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL, OR BEING PUT IN JAIL…IT IS FOR ETERNITY!!!
I am saddened by those I encounter every day who have decided to listen to the lies of satan that there is no God, or that they can live however they want and God doesn’t care. Saddened by those who listen to the lies of satan that the Bible is not God’s Word, thinking if they deny what that Book is, they don’t have to follow it. Saddened by those who have been so blinded by the lies of satan they can’t even begin to comprehend the fact that the moment they die they will be standing before God their Creator to be judged. Saddened because I know those who buy into these lies will be spending all eternity in hell!
How often do we look to the Lord in our time of need, and once things are going better, seem to forget He even exists. When the pressure is on, when the world is crashing down around us, we will usually turn to God for help. We will usually turn to God to save us from, in most cases, the consequences of our own rebellion. God is faithful and loves us, and as things start to get better, we often forget His name.
So many days I address the problems and struggles of every day life with you. Most days, I focus on how to get through the storms of life and be victorious. But today I want to focus on those times when things are NOT going bad. Those times when you are NOT in the midst of a storm or crisis.
Just as we need to turn to God in our hour of need, so we need to turn to God in our hour of blessing. It is usually those times of blessing that we end up getting in trouble because it is in the hour of blessing we often forget God. If you have ever listened to anything I have told you, listen to this.
IT IS USUALLY IN OUR HOUR OF BLESSING THAT WE END UP GETTING IN TROUBLE, BECAUSE IT IS IN OUR HOUR OF BLESSING THAT WE OFTEN FORGET GOD!!!
This is a very simple word for you today. It is not complicated. It is a simple warning for God to NEVER forget the Lord your God. Most of you are not in the middle of any great crisis and your life is going well. Many of you are enjoying the Lord’s blessings in your life. Again I tell you. Don’t forget God in the good times.
I have always used those seasons of blessing to try and focus even harder on my intimate daily relationship with the Lord because there are always going to be problems and challenges in this life. I have tried to strengthen myself in those seasons of rest so that when the storms do come, and they will come, I am better prepared to handle them. You might call it preventive spiritual maintenance.
I love you and care for you and am praying for you. My prayer for you today is that you will recognize your daily need for the Lord no matter how bad things may be presently, or how great things may be. Focus on Him each and every day. Let Him be the center of your life in the good times and the difficult times. He loves you, blesses you because of His love for you, and wants you to never ever forget that He is your God. Don’t forget Him.
I will never forget a September evening 3 years ago. I was in bed getting ready for my night’s sleep. Because of my crazy schedule, my main sleeping hours each day are from around 7-11 p.m. in the evening. I was flipping though the various cable news stations to catch up on some of the day’s news before going to sleep and stopped on MSNBC and their coverage of a problem with a Jet Blue flight from Los Angeles to New York. As I watched this drama unfold over the next several hours with the lives of 139 passengers plus the crew hanging in the balance, I was thinking to myself, what do you do while you are waiting to possibly die?
Jet Blue flight 292 took off from the Burbank Airport for New York’s JFK Airport. Shortly after taking off, the pilot became aware that the front landing gear had not retracted properly after take-off, and was not only stuck in the “down” position, but the wheels were turned sideways at a 90-degree angle. After consulting with all of the various mechanics and FAA people, they decided to go into a holding pattern for several hours to burn off most of the fuel since the plane was full in order to make the cross- country flight. After most of the fuel was burned off, they would then make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport since they had the longest runway to attempt such a landing and a full compliment of emergency ground personnel and equipment to handle whatever would happen to the plane and its passengers upon landing.
Over the course of the several hours the plane was in its holding pattern burning off the excess fuel, a plethora of aviation specialists were giving their insight as to the possible scenarios in making the emergency landing. The consensus seemed to be that when the plane landed and the malfunctioning front landing gear hit the runway, it would most likely snap off leaving the plane to skid to a stop with the front part of the plane on its belly. The other real possibility was that because the wheels were locked down at a 90-degree angle, once the front landing gear hit the runway, the plane would jerk hard to the left and possibly flip over. Either way, it was going to be a very dangerous and perilous time when they finally brought this huge Airbus down on the runway.
As the evening unfolded, it was finally time for the emergency landing of the Jet Blue plane at LAX. A whole assortment of emergency and rescue equipment was on hand along with a well-trained group of over 100 brave men and women who train just for these incidents were standing by prepared for whatever may happen. The pilot slowly brought the plane down on the runway on the main landing gears under the wings, keeping the nose of the plane up as long as possible. Finally, the moment came to lower the nose down onto the crippled landing gear.
Instead of the landing gear snapping off as many experts predicted, plumes of smoke came from the tires as they were literally burning up from the friction of being at a 90-degree angle to the direction the plane was heading. With the plane maintaining a perfectly straight line, the tires burned up and the plane was literally rolling down the runway on the metal landing gear that once held the tires in place. With sparks flying for hundreds of yards, the plane finally came to a complete stop in tact with everyone on board safe. It was a perfect landing and the best outcome anyone could have prayed for! The pilot and cockpit crew did a masterful job. No doubt the hand of God was on that plane and those inside.
Throughout this human drama, I thought about the passengers on board this ill-fated flight. One of the unique features of Jet Blue Airlines is that every seat has a miniature television that is hooked into a satellite system so they can watch real time cable programming. In interviews with some passengers after they reached the ground, it was learned that many on board were actually watching the MSNBC coverage of what was happening to their plane. It must have been surreal to be on board this distressed plane, watching the news coverage of what was actually happening to you. So the crew on board and the passengers were fully aware of what was going on, what the experts were saying about the different scenarios that could unfold when they made their emergency landing, and no doubt, death had to be a very real issue each one was contemplating.
One of the points I make often is the fact that tomorrow is promised to none of us. Each day is truly a gift from God. The reality is those people who boarded that flight in Burbank had no other thought other than in a few hours they would be in New York City. People wake up every day and get in their cars, go through their normal daily routines, thinking about what they have to do next, making plans for tomorrow, simply living life. For some, they never get to that next meeting or appointment, for some, there is no tomorrow.
Life is fragile my friend. It is over before we ever expect it to be. That is why we not only need to live each day to its fullest, but make sure that each day we are living for the Lord. When our brief journey through life is over, the only things that will matter for all eternity are those things we did for the Kingdom. Our purpose in this life is to serve and glorify Him. That is why each day we must focus on making sure that in the midst of living our life, we fulfill our purpose by finding ways to serve the Lord throughout the day.
I love you and care about you so much. Events like the Jet Blue flight drive home the reality of how fragile life is, how quick it can be over. I imagine that there were lots of people praying on that airplane. Probably people praying that hadn’t prayed in a long time. I hope there was someone bold enough during those long, tense hours while those people were waiting to possibly die, that stood up and shared with the passengers and crew on board that death is not the end and that if they would make the decision to accept Christ into their hearts and life by faith, no matter what happened to that plane they would be in His loving arms for all eternity.
My friend, God’s desire is that none be lost, that all come to repentance. As you read these words today I want to ask you if you have the assurance this moment that if you died today you would be forever with Jesus. If you don’t have that assurance, if you aren’t 100% certain that when you die you will be forever with the Lord, now, this moment, you can settle that issue for all eternity. If you would like to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and life by faith, then pray right now, ask God to open your heart, and go to this link: http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html Read the words, pray the prayer, and never doubt again where your eternal home will be!
In closing, let me ask you the question I posed at the beginning. What do you do while you are waiting to possibly die? The reality is, we are ALL waiting to die. Death is an inevitable part of this journey called life. That is why what we do each day is so important. If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, then I would encourage you to pray and seek Him out. He loves you, He died for you, and He wants to have an intimate, personal, and everlasting relationship with you. If you do know Christ as your Savior, then let me encourage you to get busy serving Him. That is what God has called us to do. I know while I am waiting to die, I am doing my best each day to share the Truth of God’s Word and the hope and love of Jesus Christ with the hurting and lost in this world What are you doing?
MUSLIM PRAYER MEETING IN WASHINGTON TODAY! As I shared with you in last Friday’s Devotional, today over 50,000 Muslims will descend on our nations capitol for a prayer rally. My prayer is that the images of 50,000 plus people praying to their false god “allah,” will wake up Christians. This is NOT a Muslim nation, though that is the stated goal of Islam. Their imaginary god “allah” is not the answer to the problems of this nation, the GOD OF THE BIBLE IS! Let this event today be a wake up call to all who call Christ Lord, that time is short and our only hope is to see this nation repent and turn back to the one true God of the Bible and faith in Christ!!!
The God of the Bible is NOT the same as “allah” of Islam!!! Today, I need to dispel the colossal error so many, including our President, make in thinking that God, THE CREATOR, the God of the Bible, is the same as “allah” of the false religion of Islam. Let me insure you understand something at the very start. There is only one God and that is the God of the Bible. “Allah,” is actually the imaginary god created out of the deranged mind of Mohammed when he dreamed up this false religion we know of as Islam 1400 years ago. Allah is nothing but a poor imitation and rip-off of THE GOD and is no more real than Harry Potter is!!! When you study the attributes of the God of the Bible and of allah, it is clear and obvious these are NOT the same person!
Sadly, a Catholic bishop in the Netherlands is asking churches in that country to use the name allah for God to “ease tensions between Muslims and Christians.” You have go to be kidding me!!! I expect this type of foolish thinking from politicians and people of the world, but from a priest? I have a better idea for this dear bishop. Why not tell Muslims to start using the name God for allah since God is real and allah is not!!! Let me help educate this bishop about Islam. Tensions will never be eased between Muslims and Christians since they consider Christians infidels and are commanded in the book Mohammed wrote to kill all infidels! Islam is not interested in easing tensions, it is about death to all who refuse to believe Mohammed’s fantasies!
It is critical that when we are talking with someone and use the name “God,” we call Him the “God of the Bible.” That way, there will not be any confusion to those we are talking to, who you are talking about. Because we are a nation where people are free to worship whatever god they want, and with the influx in the past 100 years of people from every corner of the globe who have brought their false gods with them , not to mention the aggressive marketing and recruiting campaigns by every cult known to the world, simply saying, “God,” is not good enough. That is why you need to start making it a practice in your day-to-day conversation to call God, the God of the Bible.
I am aware of the various names that the Bible calls God by, but there are many false religions in the world that use all of the various names we have for God. There is no way to say, “God,” and be 100% positive everyone understands which god you are speaking about unless you call Him the GOD OF THE BIBLE. Also, when you hear someone use the name God, DO NOT just assume they are talking about the God of the Bible!
I want to expose, for you right now, one of the politically-correct traps that many Christians have fallen into, and it needs to stop now. It is a subtle trap of satan that they have fallen into so they don’t offend anyone. I think it is comical that satan has no problem offending Christians every moment of every day, yet we are supposed to be sensitive to people’s “feelings.” Let me tell you right now, if you are REALLY sensitive to people ‘s feelings, you will tell them the truth of God’s Word so that they don’t perish for eternity.
Many high-profile Christians who talk to large audiences of Christians and non-Christians, those in the public arena, will use the name of God. I have no doubt they are speaking of the God of the Bible. I have no doubt that their Christian listeners understand they are referring to the God of the Bible. But I also have no doubt that those non-Christians hear the name God and believe it to be whatever false god thy may believe in. I can guarantee you when a Muslim hears the name, “God,” he is thinking of allah. Allah is no more the God of the Bible than Mickey Mouse is. They are both fictional characters! I can guarantee you that when a Mormon hears the name, “God,” he is thinking of the god of Mormon theology. The god of the Mormon cult is no more the God of the Bible than Jesus and Lucifer are brothers as that cult believes!
I have a secret to share with you today. The people in this world are looking for hope. The people in this world are searching for answers. The people in this world as just waiting for someone to show them the way. THE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD ARE HUNGRY FOR JESUS!!!
I can honestly say that never before in nearly 20 years of ministry, have I been as excited and encouraged as I am today. Each day, approximately 1/3 of the nearly 2.4 million people worldwide that we reach through Liveprayer.com are not Christians, or going to church. They are just normal people trying to get through the day to day trials of life, and realize that there MUST be more to life, and that something is missing. They have come to Liveprayer through family members, friends, co-workers, or schoolmates.
That is why in just 121 months of being online, over 300,000 people that we know of have accepted Christ as their personal savior. Keep doing your part and sending people the Devotional and telling them about Liveprayer. GOD IS USING YOU TO IMPACT THEIR LIFE FOR ETERNITY!
Here is my word for you today. THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL! There are two keys that I want to share with you. Key number one is that you have to go to the people. We have close to two full generations now that for the most part do not have any church in their life experience. They will not come to church, they will not turn on Christian TV or radio, they will not buy Christian music or books. The church needs to take the message to them instead of hoping they come to the message.
Key number two is how you approach them. If you approach them with open arms, wanting NOTHING from them, only to minister to their needs, they are open to that.
I love you and care about you so much. Jesus not only cried out that the harvest was plentiful, but He added, “the workers are few.” I will be praying for you to meditate on these words today. There are many things that we can do with our life that would be considered “great.” But there is NO GREATER thing we can do than let God use us to help lead a lost soul into an everlasting relationship with HIM!
With all of the turmoil in our world today, with the personal hardships many are facing due to the downturn in our economy, with just the normal trials of day to day life . . . never before in human history has there been such opportunities to see the lost won for Christ.
However, Jesus stated the problem. Even with such a great harvest just waiting to be brought in, there is a lack of workers to get the job done. I am praying for you today that YOU will answer this call that God has on your life to be a worker to help bring in this mighty harvest.
As our Lord told us, we must work while it is yet light, since the darkness is approaching. Jesus spoke in Matthew 24, Paul in 2 Timothy Chapter 3 about the signs of the last days. Only God knows the exact time and moment, but the signs clearly point to the fact that the hour is near. I want to encourage you today.
THE TIME IS NOW, THE HARVEST IS READY, AND GOD IS CALLING YOU TO HELP BRING IN THE HARVEST!!! | 2019-04-24T12:17:12Z | https://lpdaily.wordpress.com/2009/09/ |
10/16/13 Update: President delivers fact filled speech to Senate, announces strategic plan, end to athletic subsidies!
Pac-12 media contract revenues from ESPN/FOX, our Pac-12 network partners, the new Rose Bowl agreement and the new College Football Championship agreement will substantially increase funding for athletics. In several years, there will be net funds transferred from athletics to the broader university community for academic and support purposes. Provost Randhawa and Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis and colleagues will determine future uses of those funds.
Together, these factors will position us to provide an average compensation increase for faculty of 3% or more in each of the next several years beyond 2014.
Good thing UO has a faculty union.
In my view, the administrative governance responsibilities only work when important policies and practices are informed by consultation and advice from the faculty, staff and students. Such consultation and advice can only be meaningful if it takes place in a spirit of transparency and knowledge and in a timely manner. There’s not much use in consulting after the fact – or not much use consistent with these ideas of governance, anyway.
So there’s an essential advisory role for the senate, even on administrative matters – an essential role on those matters that are central to the execution of our mission, like budget and finance, space and capital planning, athletics and of course participation in the selection and the evaluation of academic administrators.
1) I notice that the budget for the Jaqua Center athlete only tutoring has increased from $1.8M in 2012 to $2.3M for 2014. As you know this money is paid by the academic side, specifically out of the Provost’s budget. I’m wondering if you know the reasons for the increase, and whether or not additional increases are forecast?
2) You mentioned that there had been a dramatic increase in the number of “students of color”. I’ve heard that there was a recent change in the definition used to classify these students. Do you know how much of the increase is driven by this change?
Is this still the plan, and if so what is the new target date?
4) You discussed planning for the new board. Who is in charge of drafting the board by-laws, and interfacing with the members, and is there a plan for involving the Senate in those discussions?
I’ll post the answers when I get them.
I hope your academic year is off to a great start. I’ve enjoyed meeting new students and welcoming our outstanding new faculty and staff members to campus at events marking the beginning of school, from “Unpack the Quack” and our neighborhood welcome walk to the annual new faculty picnic. Since the close of our previous academic and fiscal years, we’ve made significant progress on a number of fronts that affect the university, and I’m pleased to take this opportunity to share a few highlights with you.
I frequently mention our dual obligations of access and quality that are the foundation upon which our university is built. As we now plan for the UO’s future, it is critical that we elevate both, for quality that is limited only to those with the means to afford it does not serve the public interest, and access without excellence is a hollow promise.
We are on the right trajectory, as this year’s freshman class demonstrates. Numbers won’t be final until the fifth week of classes, but we can say with confidence that this incoming class will break records in several key areas linked to both quality and access. It is the most academically prepared class we have ever enrolled, with an average 1126 SAT and 3.6 GPA. Nearly 27 percent of freshmen are from underrepresented populations, and among Oregon freshmen, 37.6 percent are Pell eligible. Our total enrollment will hold steady at about 24,500 as planned, with about 5,200 new students, 54 percent of them Oregonians, coming to the UO.
We are focusing intently on reducing financial barriers to attendance for Oregon residents, who continue to be hit by ongoing reductions in state funding that have shifted the burden of paying for education onto the shoulders of students and their families. This year, we increased financial aid to in-state students by 75 percent through scholarships aimed at high-achieving Oregon students, such as Summit and Apex, and the outstanding Pathway Oregon program.
It was a summer of construction around campus, with about $300 million in physical improvements in the works. Recently launched projects include renovations and classroom expansions at Straub and Earl Halls, a major expansion of the Student Rec Center, significant upgrades and expansions of the Science Commons and Research Library and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, and maintenance involving everything from seismic upgrades and new roofs to sewer-system improvements. Soon, the long-awaited renovation of the Erb Memorial Union will begin.
I anticipate that such infrastructure improvements will become easier to realize as we adopt a new governance model that will provide greater flexibility in the way we manage the institution. The long-sought move to governance by local institutional boards was approved by the legislature and signed into law this summer. I am grateful to the Lane County delegation and many other supportive legislators, Governor Kitzhaber and his staff, the UO Foundation, and the UO Alumni Association for their partnership in bringing about this momentous change this spring. The governor has appointed a 14-member board for the UO that reflects a remarkable range of experience and expertise. Ten of our new board members are alumni, and all bring a commitment and dedication to the future of this university that will serve us, and the state, well. I look forward to working closely with them as we determine new ways to finance the institution and support programs and practices that will strategically focus our resources to improve access, elevate excellence, and secure our position among our peer research universities. We must develop the means to better support research, to address threats from sequestration and cuts in federal funding, and to close the innovation deficit that compromises our nation’s capacity to remain the world’s leader in innovation, creativity, and discovery.
At the heart of the university’s ability to carry out its mission are, of course, our faculty and staff. I am pleased that we are beginning the new academic year with new contracts for our union-represented faculty and staff, and with a schedule of compensation increases in place for faculty, classified staff, and officers of administration. At the same time, I recognize the pressures that faculty and staff are feeling from successive years of declining state investment and burgeoning undergraduate enrollment. Your work with our students, in the classroom and in informal settings, is what distinguishes this university and creates the quality educational experiences that will define your students’ futures. Improving the teaching and research environment for our outstanding faculty and staff is among my top priorities, and essential to our success in realizing our aspirations of access, excellence, and innovation.
7/23/2013: Pdf here. May 8th 2013 Senate discussion of this resolution, which passed 19 to 4, here. Video here.
Of course these are just words and not actions. And the words are very different than the angry, dismissive ones we got from Sharon Rudnick and Tim Gleason today, when these subsidies were raised in bargaining.
This letter is now 2 weeks old. So, has Gottfredson’s position on this changed, is he telling different people different things, or did his bargaining team not get the memo?
9/26/2013: As near as I can tell UO has been spending about $50K a month on Sharon Rudnick and Kate Grado from HLGR to do the negotiating with the union, and another $30K or so a month for lawyers and consultants to write Barbara Altmann’s “fact check” website. That’s a lot of money for the rather pathetic FAQ they’ve posted on the union contract, here.
Q. Won’t faculty salaries remain far below our peers and AAU comparators?
A. The salary package — which includes across-the-board raises, merit increases, promotion raises and money for tenure track and tenured faculty equity and NTTF salary floors — will move faculty salaries in the right direction. It is also important to look at total faculty compensation (salary + benefits). When benefits are included the gap closes substantially between the University and our comparator universities.
c. Step 3 (as early as FY 2012/13 and no later than FY 2013/2014), increases based on internal equity and merit.
The total amount of funding made available for salary increases by the College in Step 3 will be at least the amount necessary to increase the College’s average salaries to make up the remaining distance to the average salaries of the OUS 8 comparators.
Q: How long, Provost Coltrane, how long?
9/23/2013: A: Seven years and $70K, best case scenario.
Interim Provost Scott Coltrane’s email about the new faculty contract is here. He offers to answer questions. I’ve got a few, and I’ll keep you posted on the answers. You’ll have a chance to ask him yourself during the public presentation he will have to make as candidate for the permanent UO Provost job.
Meanwhile, here’s the math on how long it will take to get to comparators, and an estimate of what you’ll lose meanwhile – about $70,000, lower bound.
The next contract will need to be 10%, 10% to reach this goal, which the administration has purported to want to achieve since the 1998 Senate White paper.
In the scheme of a $800 million budget, we’re not talking about a lot of money. But it’s not going to happen unless we spend the next 18 months exposing Johnson Hall’s money wasting activities, and convince the new UO board that faculty are more important to their university’s future than more administrative bloat, sports subsidies, and expensive White Stag distractions.
Coltrane Op-Ed supports admin over faculty, sports over academics.
9/15/2013: OK, maybe not exactly, but his selective reporting of data is rather astonishing. His Op-Ed is today’s RG is here, my response is in their comment thread. Please post your comments there, not here.
We all agree that students deserve a meaningful classroom experience and that the UO needs to recruit and hire more tenured and tenure-track faculty. Students, faculty, and our state deserve no less from an AAU research institution. The negotiating teams return to the table on August 29. I’m optimistic that these talks will yield a faculty contract that builds on our areas of agreement and propels us into the next decade as a stronger, more united and more equitable institution.
strengthen the University of Oregon and its academic mission.
We are in this together for the long term and I firmly believe that our new labor contract will be a useful tool to ensure equity and fairness, standardize procedures, and set mutual expectations.
include research as well as teaching. We’d like to think that has always been the practice, but it is useful to reaffirm the general principle. Faculty should have the latitude to delve into controversial issues or explore new and emerging areas in their fields of research without fear of censorship or retaliation. And it is important to reaffirm that faculty shape the content of the curriculum.
President Gottfredson and I also agree with the faculty that shared governance is essential to the wellbeing of the academy. I am certain the contract language will underscore the faculty’s front-line role in this regard. We believe that faculty, working with the President, should have responsibility for setting academic standards, creating new classes, determining what material should be included and how classes are taught. The faculty also assigns grades to students and determines who should be awarded degrees.
increase in support from the current 85 percent pay. The University and the faculty union, United Academics, broadly agree about maintaining the integrity of the tenure review and promotion process and the contract reaffirms procedures to protect that tradition.
ensures NTTF are eligible for professional development funds. The contract will also set down policies for regular review and appointment of non-tenure track faculty with appropriate faculty involvement and oversight. Along with better pay, it’s important for NTTF to have stronger job security and potential for promotion.
deserve no less from an AAU research institution. The negotiating teams return to the table on August 29. I’m optimistic that these talks will yield a faculty contract that builds on our areas of agreement and propels us into the next decade as a stronger, more united and more equitable institution.
Priorities: Later this month, our leadership retreat will address the most pressing priorities for the Provost’s Office during this coming year. The group in attendance will include the Leadership Council augmented by faculty, staff, student, Foundation and Alumni Association leadership. I will present some ideas such as review of the Academic Plan and the Big Ideas, office and classroom space, etc. The group will have an opportunity to add topics and to do an initial prioritization. I have already spoken with Robert Kyr, President of the University Senate, about an online ranking process of these priorities, to be run by the Senate in September, involving the entire community. From all this input, the President and I will settle on the priority topics for this year.
That would have been last September. Just in case anyone needed a reminder about the lack of faculty input into UO’s priorities – a question which Hubin finessed in the accreditation report, and which Rudnick made the mistake of bringing up at the bargaining table. Too bad Coltrane doesn’t start the job until July.
I am delighted to announce that Scott Coltrane, dean of the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences, has accepted my invitation to serve in an interim role as the UO’s senior vice president and provost beginning July 1.
He will succeed Jim Bean, who will leave his current position of senior vice president and provost at the end of June, to return to the Lundquist College of Business. Dean Coltrane will serve in the interim position as we conduct a nationwide search for a permanent senior vice president and provost.
I would like to thank all those who submitted nominations to fill this interim position and I’d especially like to extend my appreciation to members of the Faculty Advisory Council who served as the selection advisory committee for this appointment.
The provost is the UO’s chief academic officer, heading our academic programs and overseeing the quality of our teaching and research. The provost ensures that we maintain a high quality faculty by providing leadership in appointments, promotions, working conditions and tenure.
Dean Coltrane has served since 2008 as the head of our College of Arts and Sciences. He has also served as a member of the Executive Leadership Team and has extensive experience and familiarity with the fundamental issues facing our entire university – from the growth of recent years, to the space and staffing issues we are currently addressing, to facilitating our research mission.
A prominent sociologist, Dean Coltrane’s own research has focused in part on families and fatherhood and the domestic divisions of labor and gender inequality. Prior to joining the UO in 2008, he served for 20 years in a variety of teaching, research and administrative positions at the University of California at Riverside.
Please join me in congratulating Scott Coltrane and welcoming him to his interim role as senior vice president and provost.
Bean keeps his parking spot for 4 more months, but we should have a new interim by July 1. The obvious candidate is CAS Dean Scott Coltrane. Any other ideas? 3/2/13.
UO can’t give raises because of the union?
10/12/2012: I’ve heard many reports of recent statements by Bean and Gottfredson that they can’t pay us the round 2 and 3 Lariviere raises because of the union. At the Head’s retreat, for example. Please post comments or email me about other stuff you’ve heard from admins on this, with what was said, by whom, and when. The more specific the better.
Q: Why aren’t you providing increases to faculty as well?
A: Our faculty recently unionized. Most adjustments to faculty salaries will need to be negotiated with the union as part of our initial collectively bargained contract.
On the other hand UO has the money set aside – for TTF and NTTF – and it’s hard to see how Kitzhaber can let the coaches get 21%+ and then say no to the professors. And the Johnson Hall dwellers are apparently not saying the problem is the money or the Gov – they’re saying it’s unionization.
Is there a legal prohibition against giving raises without a contract, now that we’ve gone union? No.
Labor law does say that, because of the union vote, faculty now have the right to ask the union to file a grievance against the administration for changes in the terms of employment – which would include a raise. I’m no psychology professor, but I don’t think people file grievances about getting raises often enough to even get a note in the DSM.
If there was a pre-existing agreement to give raises, does UO have to follow through with it now that we’ve got a union? Maybe.
The Missouri article stating that UO has the lowest salaries in the AAU has caused quite a stir (we have since verified that they were correct). Low salaries were always thought of as just Oregonian. But 34 out of 34 is a whole other thing. We cannot have this. Richard’s reaction was “this is job #1.” Richard will likely have an announcement on how we are attacking this when politically feasible (after last gavel). Please communicate to your faculty that the Missouri article really got our attention. This may require disruptive solutions.
The ERB is not going to take Bean’s word any more seriously than we do, but there’s more substantive evidence that faculty had reason to expect raises. I’ve got a public records request in for the spreadsheet showing what CAS had planned for rounds 2 and 3 of the Lariviere raises, for each TTF, by name. More than a month, and CAS Dean Scott Coltrane is still refusing to turn it over. If you’ve got a copy please send it along. Thanks!
I’m also trying to get more information on who is advising Gottfredson on labor law – I hope he knows better than to rely on Randy by now. My guess is that it’s Sharon Rudnick of Geller’s favorite firm, Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick. I’ve made a public records request, but Dave Hubin’s office wants to charge me $70 for the contracts – and it will be a lot more for the invoices and memos. You know where this is going – pony up, comrades. | 2019-04-23T20:09:54Z | http://uomatters.com/tag/scott-coltrane/page/3 |
Social Studies teachers avoid ELA writing workshops like the plague. This is an exaggeration, of course, but the statement has some validity. So let’s rephrase the statement: most Social Studies teachers don’t want to attend a workshop that doesn’t address their field perspective. Could it be the lack of workshops focused specifically for writing in the general Social Studies classroom? Or could it be the time-consuming task that accompanies student writing, i.e. endless hours of grading?
Teachers of Advanced Placement Social Studies courses know all too well that writing is going to be a key part of their instruction and a significant student expectation. For training many teachers attend AP institutes or obtain coveted access to the world of AP grading to gain better insight. No such writing assessments are attached to any of the STAAR Social Studies examinations.
The lack of writing prompts on state Social Studies assessments may lead to two misconceptions. The first misconception is that students in Social Studies courses don’t have to write. The second misconception is that Social Studies teachers don’t need professional development in the field of writing. These misconceptions couldn’t be further from the truth. If we examine the new TEKS, writing for Social Studies begins in Grade 2, carries through to middle school, and all successive Social Studies courses that follow.
This doesn’t mean that every teacher needs to assign the age-old five paragraph history essay starting tomorrow. In fact it would benefit teachers to examine the student expectations. For example, students in grade 2 are expected to “create written and visual material such as stories, poems, maps, and graphic organizers to express ideas.” In grade 6, students are expected to “create written and visual material such as journal entries, reports, graphic organizers, outlines and bibliographies based on research.” By the time students get to World History, they are expected to “interpret and create written, oral, and visual presentations of social studies information.” This means that students in every Social Studies class should be writing in various ways to authentically demonstrate the historical information that they are learning.
thinking. Writing clarifies thinking. For that matter, writing is thinking.
As a novice teacher, I assigned the classic history essay because that’s what was assigned to me in high school and in college. I believed that my students should learn to write in the very same way. There were significant problems with this thinking. First, I assigned essay writing without any pre-assessment to gauge their writing skills. Second, I didn’t have a strategic plan for a writing process with my students. Third, it took me an exceptionally long time to grade 175 essays. In fact, it took me weeks. I found myself weary, to say the least, upon returning the essays to the students. By that time, the students didn’t care about it anymore. Last, nothing else was done on my part to address inaccuracies that should have impacted my instruction. In all honesty, I didn’t know how to.
The longer I taught, the more I learned and began to understand that writing needed to be approached differently. I started assigning manageable short response writing. “Snippet” writing became the operative word for short paragraph response writing that the students would complete. I could get the writing responses back to the students in a relatively quick time frame, while assessing if they understood what they were learning. What I was doing, without knowing it, was focusing my attention on formative assessment rather than summative assessment. I was learning how to create a process for writing that worked for both my students and me. The essay wasn’t exactly phased out, but rather worked in over time. Additionally, I staggered the complete essays at intervals for different classes so that I wouldn’t assign myself to weeks of grading purgatory (a useful tip suggested to me by my principal). Overall, it was a lot of trial and error, but I didn’t give up; I just restructured.
In November, the co-creators of the DBQ Project (Document Based Questioning) will lead two workshops at Region XIII specifically geared for Social Studies, but open to teachers of English Language Arts. The hope is that teams of teachers will work together to collaborate and learn strategies to help students become better analytical thinkers. Teachers will be led through DBQ analysis of primary sources to the development process of the written DBQ.
What we recognize most of all is that writing is a process. For the teacher, if it is paired adequately with the content, it will not take away from instruction, but serve to improve it.
Fisher D. & Frey N. (2007). Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for you classroom. Alexandria: ASCD.
Social Studies student expectations referenced: Grade 2 (19)(B), Grade 6(22)(D), World History (30)(B).
Assessment seems to be all anyone is talking about in education these days. Well, okay, a few people might have mentioned school financing, but STAAR, EOC, Reference Documents (the documents previously known as formula charts), and the just-released STAAR sample items… oh you hadn’t heard about those? Yes, they were released by TEA on September 30, 2011, and can be found online. And, since I know teachers in tested grades are going to want to look at those, go ahead. Visit http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/ and look them over, then come back and finish this article in which I am going to give suggestions on utilizing standardized questions to design formative assessment experiences which can be integrated into student notebooks.
Standardized assessments serve a purpose in that they help to judge the effectiveness of different curricula and approaches to instruction, districts, and even teachers; but the results often inform us as to which TEKS a group of students or even an individual student have not mastered without providing insight as to what they do not understand or why. In order to understand students’ thought processes, assessments must be written that allow for open-ended response, problem solving steps to be shown, and for students to be forced to confront common misconceptions side-by-side with the scientifically- based explanation of a phenomena and decide which explanation they hold to be true. When these types of assessments are conducted throughout the learning process for the benefit of both teacher and student, then we call them formative assessments. Renowned National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) author Page Keeley in her book Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning, defines formative assessment as “assessment for learning” (Keeley, 2008). Summative exams such as STAAR are considered to be assessments of learning in that they do not provide learning opportunities to students. Both types of assessments may provide information that informs curriculum and instruction, but it is how the assessments impact a student that is the key. In her book Keeley provides 75 Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques (FACTs). Two types I have chosen to focus on are justified lists and card sorts.
Justified lists can be used as pre-assessments (for example, a biology teacher might ask about producers before beginning a lesson on food webs) or to assess learning after the explanation phase of instruction (as would be the case when a 5th grade teacher uses the producer list). They can be conducted in tandem with a think, pair, share to allow students to discuss and refine their ideas or they can be integrated into a unit assessment in which case the list should include some new examples the students might not have previously been confronted with.
Integrating justified lists into science notebooks is easy. The question, justified list and prompt can be made to fit on half a sheet of paper which students can glue or tape into their notebook at the top so the paper can be lifted up and the rule which the student used and their justification can then be written directly on the notebook paper.
In addition to Science Formative Assessment, Keeley has written a series of books entitled Uncovering Student Ideas is Science. All are available through NSTA at http://www.nsta.org/store/. An example chapter from one of Keeley’s probe books that includes a justified list can be found online at http://www.nsta.org/store/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505/9780873552554. Scroll down just a bit under details and click on the link next to Read Inside.
Another type of formative assessment is a card sort. Card sorts are designed in such a way that students sort a set of cards with either terms or pictures on them into two or more categories. For example, during an 8th grade lesson utilizing the periodic table students might sort terms such as metallic appearance, non-metal, semiconductors, conductors, non-conductors, etc. onto an outline of the periodic table that has been divided into non-metals, metals, and metalloids such as that seen in the 8th grade 2011 Released Question number 3. The cards that students sort could also include the symbols or names of some elements they are familiar with and pictures of some of the more common elements.
To really make students think, make the number of cards unequal in each category. For example have 7 cards belong under non-metals, while only 6 belong under metals. Another way of making the activity more rigorous is to include cards that will not be used. When I taught Biology I included two cards that said “Does Not Contain DNA” and four cards that said “Does Contain DNA” for my sort of characteristics and example organisms for the six kingdoms. When students said they seemed to be missing “Does Contain DNA” cards and that they had cards that didn’t belong anywhere (such as the “HIV” card) they were demonstrating understanding and mastery on a higher level than if they had done a one-to-one matching activity.
Card sorts can be integrated into notebooks through questions or stems about why certain cards were put into categories, such as having students complete the statement, “I placed ________________ in the kingdom _____________ because…” or “We had the hardest time deciding where ____________ goes because…” You can also make the sort one that students cut apart themselves and then glue into a graphic organizer in their notebook so students can review their written justifications while observing the results of their sort. Alternatively, you can use pockets where students can replicate the sort and practice on their own. This is especially useful for more difficult concepts or content that is being introduced for the first time.
Example science card sorts produced by ESC Region XIII are available online at http://www5.esc13.net/science/resources/manipulatives.html.
Notice how, regardless of which formative assessment strategy or technique is chosen, it is the way in which the strategy is utilized and the guiding and probing questions asked by the teacher that provide the depth and rigor required by STAAR. Formative assessments must be developed and designed in such a way that yes, informs instruction, but the main purpose should be for students to recognize and confront their own misunderstandings and begin to correct them. A quiz, given to students working silently and independently that is then graded by the teacher with the only feedback to the student being a grade, is not considered formative.
STAAR 2011 Released Test Questions. Accessed online at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/, October 1, 2011.
Formative assessments are an integral part of the instruction process, providing feedback to both the teacher and student with the goal of improving learning. Without formative assessments, teachers wouldn’t be able to make timely adjustments to instruction to ensure student mastery. These adjustments can be anything from a re-teach for those who did not master the concept to an enrichment activity allowing students to apply their concept/skill in a new way.
Exit tickets (Fisher and Frey, 2004 ) and SOS Summaries (Dodge, 2009) are two quick, easy, prep-free ways to assess FOR learning.
Exit Tickets are slips of paper or index cards in which students respond to a prompt or question pertaining to the day’s lesson. The question or prompt shouldn’t take more than 3-4 minutes to complete. Often they are referred to as “tickets out the door” because students cannot leave the classroom until they have handed the teacher their response. After all the responses are collected, the teacher reviews them and uses the information on them to determine what adjustments need to be made to instruction. The teacher determine which students (if any) need a re-teach, which students need additional practice through a reinforcing or elaborating activity, and which students showed mastery of the lesson and can move onto an enrichment activity. Fisher, D., and Frey, N. (2004) point out that there are three categories of Exit Ticket prompts.
Summarize today’s lesson in 25 carefully chosen words.
Write three things you would say to explain this to a younger child (or adult).
Choose one word that summarizes today’s lesson. Explain why you chose that word.
What would you like to review during the next session?
How did you feel about__?
What did you do to participate today?
What is something you are doing to help yourself learn? Rate your understanding of today’s topic from 1-10 and explain WHY you rated yourself that.
The S-O-S Summary (Dodge, 2009) is a formative assessment that ELAR teachers can use before, during or after instruction.
Before: to assess student attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about a topic.
During: to assess what students are coming to understand about the topic.
After: to assess if attitudes and beliefs have been influenced or changed as a result of new learning and if they can better support their opinion.
Student reads the statement provided by the teacher.
Student decides if he/she agrees or disagrees with the statement.
Student supports their opinion with evidence, facts and examples.
There was a better solution to ______________.
The character was justified when __________.
The story would be different (same) if the setting were changed to __________.
The effect of ___________ was most significant to __________.
______ is similar to ____________.
________ reminds me of ____.
The author has a bias.
The lesson the character (or the author) is teaching is _____.
The passage (or the author) implies/suggests_______.
The tone of the passage is _________.
The writer’s overall feeling toward ______ is______.
_____ is a good (or poor) choice for a title.
Dodge, Judith. (2009). 25 Quick Formative Assessments for a Differentiated Classroom: Easy, Low-Prep Assessments That Help You Pinpoint Students’ Needs and Reach All Learners. Scholastic Inc.
Every day in classrooms across Texas, technology tools are infused with quality instruction to boost engagement, simplify learning task management, differentiate for diverse learning needs and increase learning through exposure to content with multiple modalities. Educators have who embrace the transformative power of learning with technology can also take advantage of the opportunities available for assessment for learning, a.k.a – Formative Assessment.
• Who is and who is not understanding the lesson?
• What are this student’s strengths and needs?
• What misconceptions do I need to address?
• What feedback should I give students?
• What adjustments should I make to instruction?
• How should I group students?
Here are a few notable technology tools that are simple to integrate and get powerful results when it comes to student quickly taking the “pulse” of learning to formatively assess student progress.
Socrative.com is “a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.” In short, it allows teachers to create a variety of short assessments, such as quizzes and exit tickets, that can be taken from any web enabled device. The interface is extremely kid-friendly, even for young students. Best of all, it does not require student accounts, but still provides somewhat detailed student performance data by name via secure e-mailed excel file directly to the teacher. Visit http://www.socrative.com for a preview. The site says it is in beta as of this writing, but you can go to http://t.socrative.com (teacher tool) and http://m.socrative.com (student interface) and grab an account and start assessing right away. Easy to learn… easy to use.
Use Todaysmeet.com http://todaysmeet.com to quickly and easily set up an online place for students to post comments, questions, and answer your prompts. Again, this does site does not require students to have accounts, and the posts expire after a time you decide, allowing for “easy cleanup” while still giving access to absent students. You simply set up the room (one click) and share the URL. Try this site for your next “exit ticket”.
You’ve heard the buzz, and perhaps had some professional work experience in Project Share as a Texas educator, but in case you are unaware, the project is now open for student enrollment and you are encouraged to use the learning management system with your students. (Note: talk to your district and your Education Service Center about student accounts). With the Epsilen platform (Project Share’s engine) you and your students can interact in a robust virtual learning environment that allows you to share files, use forums for discussion, real time chats for, full featured test/quiz making suite (and associated grade tools), wikis for collaborative writing, blogs for student publishing, electronic portfolios with interactive assessment rubrics and much more. Having all of these tools in one, safe, uniform and free platform opens up a treasure trove of formative assessment opportunities. For more information, feel free to check out our blog at http://www5.esc13.net/thescoop/instructionaltech or the State’s official page at http://www.projectsharetexas.org. Also, feel free to contact Region XIII’s Project Share team at [email protected] for more information and to inquire about training.
L. M. Pinkus, ed., Meaningful Measurement: The Role of Assessments in Improving High School Education in the Twenty-First Century (Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education, 2009).
Now that we have had a great start to our school year, what have you been doing for your teachers and their appraisals? At this point you and the other appraisers should have completed multiple walkthroughs for every teacher on campus. Formal appraisals should be well underway, along with help for your teachers who have been identified as needing more assistance. As the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) approaches, what do you need to look for in the classroom to insure success?
Look for student engagement. Are students authentically engaged, compliant, or not engaged in the lesson? Know what each level of engagement looks like before entering the classroom.
When you view weekly lesson plans, are they aligned with the state standards, and are you seeing that same alignment in the classroom instruction?
Do the teachers know what you are looking for in the classroom? Make sure they know up front, and then let them know when you are and aren’t seeing it.
Of course, just because the formal appraisal has been completed, your support for the teachers is not finished. Looking for best practices by means of consistent walkthroughs in every classroom on campus will occur throughout the school year. | 2019-04-25T00:50:31Z | http://www5.esc13.net/thescoop/insight/category/sy11-12/issue-2/ |
But the sad fact is that in medicine, money is tied to prestige, power, public credibility, and medical student interest. If we don’t deal with this problem, medicine will continue to fall hopelessly into the “haves” and the “have nots,” that is, those who “own” lucrative CPTcodes and those who don’t. So the question is how did this inequity come to be and how can it be remedied?
About the same time, neurologists were trying to win control of brain imaging, but they lost the political battle to radiologists. Think how different neurology’s image and influence would be today if neurologists owned all those CT andMRIscans! Instead, they are stuck in work that is time-consuming, patient-centered, cognitively complex, and are forced to make a living on payments from EEGs and EMGs.
No one would suggest that general surgeons, rheumatologists, psychiatrists, or geriatricians make more money than they deserve, but it’s a fact that many of the most highly paid physicians do the least stressful and most repetitive work in medicine. The radiologist sits in a dark room all day without the stress of patient interaction, looking at pictures that, in many cases, have already been read and interpreted by clinicians who needed the results yesterday. The anesthesiologist starts IVs, monitors drips, and measures vital signs. There is an occasional emergency but most of the day-to-day work isn’t very demanding. The gastroenterologist spends his day looking at the cleansed colons of patients who are asleep. The opthamologist spends most of his time doing a single procedure over and over again.
Cardiologists are the most striking example. They have perfected the “I saved your life” routine, when the truth is that most stents are placed in patients who could have been treated equally well with $4 medicines from Walmart. The greatest improvements in heart health are a result of statins, aspirin, and smoking advice – all the domain of primary care. And then there are the dermatologists. How stressful or cognitively demanding is it to freeze keratoses?
While it’s true that we need all of these specialties, it’s time for some of them to earn less. The reason is that many other specialties deserve to be paid more. The average primary care physician, for example, makes one third of the income of the specialists above, yet research clearly shows that, of all medical specialties, primary care provides the greatest value. The more primary care in a population, the better the healthcare outcomes and the lower the overall healthcare costs. No other specialty can make this claim.
Everyone gives lip service to better payment for primary care, but the AMA and many specialists say that this should not be at the expense of other physicians. In a societyalready overburdened by the cost of medicine, physician payment is a zero-sum game. Any increase in the income to underpaid specialists will come at the expense of those who are overpaid, and this should be publicly acknowledged by anyone who purports to support primary care.
The trick, then, is to figure out whose income should go up, whose should go down, and how to politically influence CPT and ICD coding – the language of physician payment – in a way that promotes better, more affordable medicine for America. The historical lesson from the past 20 years is this: the specialties that prosper are those that have positioned themselves to be defined by a few well-paid, narrowly defined, tightly held codes. The medical societies that fight for and defend their specialty’s codes will win. At the other extreme are the specialties that rely on vague, poorly paid, and widely used codes (think E/M). They have no chance. The medical societies that believe this engagement is “fair” are like boy scouts in the middle of a mob turf war.
It is hard to be a physician who spends all day caring for patients who are worried, angry, afraid, depressed, hurting, or dying. It is hard to spend all day cognitively sorting through limitless diagnoses based on the myriad complaints patients present to their doctor. It is often hard to know whether a patient is best treated with a few words of reassurance or if high-tech medical care is needed. And it is really hard to do all of this knowing that, in the payment game, the field is not level and the rules are rigged.
Paul Fischer, MD is a family physician in Augusta, GA. With 5 colleagues, he recently filed suit in federal court against CMS, claiming that agency’s longstanding relationship with the AMA’s RUC, the advisory group whose recommendations have resulted in the current physician payment structure, has broken the law by not requiring the RUC to adhere to the Federal Advisory Committee Act’s management and reporting rules.
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This article is spot on. Turf is king and the well-situated ologists are depriving primary care medicine of the pay they deserve and the care we so desperately need – it’s classic dog-in-the-manger. That is good for the well-placed docs, but bad for everyone else in the food chain.
Nice article but the issues should not be between physicians of different specialties.
The issues are between physicians in general and the power of the government sponsored and endorsed third party payment scheme that puts patients in the middle.
If you state that the power is in the hands of the politically connected, the only way to solve the problem is to get it away from politics, which means directly in the hands of the consumer.
There are many cash and concierge practices that have started over the past few years. Some are expensive, some are very affordable.These practices for the most part bypass the political system and provide excellent care.
So instead of stating that we don’t have a seat at the table, why not just remove the table??
Sorry Dr SH, but I can’t agree. The problem from a pure economics perspective lies in the reality that we have an unbridled fee-for-all problem. You say let patients decide what physicians are worth? Are you kidding? Patients need to be able to place their trust and confidence in the guidance of their cognitive-driven (vs proceduralist-driven) physicians who will do the right things at the right time at the right costs that will manage and reduce the rudderless waste and inefficiencies that will drive us into the poorhouse. As Christensen at Harvard has written, we need to disrupt the system big time. We need to take the runaway freight train of medical costs a thorough disruptive tuneup and then put it back on the tracks much leaner and meaner through evidence-based, common sense deliveries of health care. We can’t keep our current system – acknowledge that and prepare for the future. Either it gets fixed by people empowered to fix it, or the black hole out there will mandate a draconian future for all of medicine and all who practice medicine. The time for turf issues is rapidly drawing to a close, and doctors need to seek a professional equilibrium – or have it shoved down their throats. Just look at what is coming your way via the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). If you want a summary, go to my website and see my see my blog – PCORI, The Dreaded Onrushing Train.
I appreciate the effort but at this point we should just leave the proceduralists to fight it out with the third party payers and market ourselves directly to patients.
Fixing the RUC was the right thing to do ten years ago, now we just need to get out.
Sorry you disagree chris, but the more government and third party get involved in care, the more costly it gets, and the less efficiencies develop. It is basic economics that when a middleman gets involved, costs go up, as they are taking a piece of the pie.
There is no fee for all problem. Fees are already fixed by insurance contracts and Medicare. Where has that gotten us?
Move insurance back to what it was meant to be, Insurance.
Stop ignoring the fact that insurers are not that, but they are health plans that seek to limit costs.
The one area I may agree is the direction of the present system is not sustainable. But that is due to the use of using other peoples money for care, and the entitlement mantra that it creates in patients. We need a switch back to true fee for service, outside of third party control. Leave the decisions to the two parties involved, the patient and the doctor.
You want leaner, so do I. But not by force or government edict. Let docs and hospitals truly compete. What you will see is the same thing that has happened with Walmart generic prescriptions for $4, and LAsik procedures where the prices are a fraction of where they started, as competition was allowed to work its magic.
Get the govt and other middlemen out of healthcare payment. If govt needs to be involved, let them give a yearly HSA stipend to the needy along with a catstrophic policy for the needy and others. But stay out of the day to day mismanagement that has created the system that I have been a part of for 20 years.
Can you cite some credible, peer reviewed references. I am interested in following up any links you can provide.
Dr SH, there truly is no way we should sanely advocate for third-part intrusion into health care. These just muck up health care. It’s visible – it’s palpable and wasteful.
Government? Have you seen the mind-boggling array of bureaucratic pigeon holes that will be spawned by ACA? Do you fully comprehend the fact that the wheel to OUR nation’s financial bus has just been handed over to 12 partisan politicians (the super committee) who will catapult us into a preordained failure-to-commit default following the senseless political comedy about our debt ceiling – all because they can’t agree on anything but party lines? Do you realize that the PCORI (the nice new term for comparative effectiveness research) is made up of 19 people who will be influential, in concert with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in pursuing coverage decisions for more than 300 million Americans? Make no mistake about it – that’s working in favor of government, not physicians and patients. How many more new ICD-10 codes will there be in two years? From 17,000 now to 155,000 (according to one estimate I read). Wow!
That said, exactly where do we turn for sanity and directions that will put health care back on the right track? It has to be a free-market initiative – my own personal view is that the nation’s businesses who pay for health care should step up to the plate big time and take the proverbial bull by the horns. Some have.
But you say there is no fee-for-all problem. How can you say that when the spending we do is judged so horribly inefficient and wasteful because of this ceaseless profusion of over-utilization, over-diagnosis, over-prescribing and over-treatment? You say that fees are already fixed by insurance contracts and Medicare – where has that gotten us? Those fees may be fixed under ICDs, but what has prevented the mass profusion of demonstrably overdone numbers of diagnoses, treatments, procedures and prescriptions? It’s almost Pavlovian – just keep pushing the “done” button and the fee-for-service mill keeps grinding out precious, dwindling health care dollars.
You say move insurance back to what it was meant to be – insurance. And just let them keep paying our dwindling health care dollars without some semblance of control over our spending? That’s no solution without master controls on our out of control cost-generating health spending.
You say leave the decisions to the two parties involved, the patient and the doctor. Yes, just as soon as we have revitalized a lot of doctoring to ensure that doctors are not overutilizing, over-diagnosing, over-treating and over-prescribing, and that patients are no longer getting what they want simply because they demand it. If there are outside factors mandating any of the excesses (as some say medical malpractice does) – then let’s attack the outside catalysts to higher costs. Let’s steamroll them under and clear the way for medicine absent undue costly influences.
You say you want leaner, so let docs and hospitals truly compete. My question is how? Let docs and hospitals truly compete – just like they are doing in Dallas/Ft Worth, where the two big systems are waging a turf war by sucking up all the docs they can into their feeder mechanism? Let’s just see what two giant ACOs can accomplish – if we ever see one of those unicorns.
If I somehow (LOL) come off as passionate about these views, it’s motivated by a lot of very, very good docs I have known for years (almost all primary care) – who have been increasingly staggered by the load of more government, more regulations, more paperwork, less pay, less respect and longer days – all compounded by this growing sense of deprivation from doing what it is they love doing most and the reason they became physicians. So yeah, I’m pretty passionate about this.
We probably agree on much, just not how to get there.
The problem with the skyrocketing of costs began with the third party system and the corporatization of healthcare. Until individuals are held responsible for their health, instead of the taxpayer, costs will continue to go up.
What we want is less government money in the system, so the taxpayer doesn’t get hit. That will not occur with ACO’s which I despise, nor with any managed care system.
If you truly want the system to work, it needs to be from the ground up, with patients choosing their docs, and the docs only concern being their care. Docs can offer testing and treatments, but the patient should always have the authority to say yeah or nay! Just as if you are going to buy a car, and deciding on extras. You get to choose, other than the standard features.
Businesses can help pay for healthcare, but by giving catastrophic insurance along with some HSA money. Then they should stay away and leave care between the doctor and the patient. Get the mismanaged care organizations out of healthcare.
Waste comes from the mismanaged care organizations as a result of their bureaucracy. Every layer adds to costs all thru the system, but they don’t care because whoever holds the purse has all the power.
Overdone procedures will slowly become a thing of the past if people have their own skin in the game. Presently docs answer more to their office managers, administrators, employers, and government regulators than to their patients. Who set up those rules? The answer is govt and insurer collusion.
What should you care what your neighbor spends on healthcare if they are spending their own money? In a free market system people spend their own money.
We agree on getting rid of undue influences in medicine. That would save a tremendous amount of money. But again the biggest influence is the third party system set in place by government collusion. Why do you think the insurers backed Obamacare?
With an open free market the Dallas area would be awash with physician entrepreneurs developing newer and better care at cheaper costs. It happens wherever it has tried. Look again at the cost drop of LASIK and generic drugs. It works if it is allowed to.
I am a solo family practice doc working almost totally outside the system. I am not only passionate about this subject, I live it every day and I also practice what I preach.
You are most definitely right, we probably agree on much. Just on principle I’d readily agree to that because you are one of the front-line soldiers in this system. Because of the negative trends, we’re running out of the most valuable infantry against escalating costs and that is all wrong. In this battle, the people I enjoy knowing and collaborating with most in my efforts are primary care docs. I see it and experience the challenges through them, as I work with them to help look ahead to the future events that will impact them directly. The headwinds you and your primary care colleagues are facing are stiff.
That does not mean I am an enemy of specialists. I am an enemy of going broke on too much of good things.
On personal responsibility, you are spot on. I could just pound a table every time I see a fat little kid eating something nasty, or someone with globs of fat hanging over their belts. I also want to put a fist through the wall every time I see a pharma ad encouraging patients to go piss off their docs with requests for this or that.
Yes we definitely want less government money in the system, because it’s all funny-money anyhow. YES – I also hate ACOs because they’re fad, boutique concepts that hospital systems in Dallas are using to corner turf.
Maybe we don’t agree on all perspectives to the solutions, but I do agree with you that we need to effect change from the foundation up. That foundation needs to be primary care docs who form true doctor-patient relationships with their patients as whole persons – and who have the time to treat the spectrum of whole person issues that constitutes total patient care – cost-effective care that understands what to and what not to do. No way does that include me telling my doc I need an MRI. If I go in to see my doc to manage the whole me, with my blood pressure management, cholesterol control, bum knee and reflux, I don’t want to walk out feeling good across the spectrum of my little maladies, while also knowing that my doc only gets paid for two of the issues she treated. Pay primary care for the cognitive work that it takes to treat whole persons.
A reason I put the burden on businesses is that businesses are holders of clout. We work, we’re at work much of our lives and businesses are a place to put the right pressures and incentives to employees. Businesses can and should create incentives for employees to be patients, to have their doctors, to form solid relationships with their doctors, and then maintain the good relationships. It sure works for me because I like my doc and she likes me. After that, it’s doctors and patients who know each other and who make the system work knowledgeably.
Skin in the game? You betcha! Money talks volumes.
Keep on Dr SH, keep on!
Your mom is eatxcly the type of person needed to participate in the debate. I hope she continues to speak out, as well all should. | 2019-04-26T04:13:18Z | https://careandcost.com/2011/09/01/the-need-for-a-level-playing-field-for-physician-pay/ |
Troubled economic times come without a warning and such situations do not even give enough time to think about a possible befitting solution. At such times, getting an instant payday loan would probably be the most convenient and appropriate solution.As the name suggests, Instant Payday Loans are short-term loans that can be availed instantly. They are cash advances that are supposed to be paid back on the next paycheck day of the borrower. They are small sized loans that help in assisting people to fulfill their immediate financial needs especially when they cannot wait until their paycheck comes. So, it is easier to get financial aid from private lenders in the form of a payday loan and the cash advance can be used to pay off any immediate debts or to make any urgent purchases and can be paid back on time after the paycheck arrives before there is a drop in the credit score due to amassing of interest rates and unpaid credits.
The payday loans are more popularly known by other different names, like – ‘payday advance’, since the amount is taken as an advance ahead of the payday; as a ‘quick cash’ loan or as ‘cash advance’ or a ‘short-term’ loan, since the loan is taken over a short period of time and the cash is given as an advance. It is also called as ‘small-dollar’ loan as small amounts of money is taken as a loan for a short-term and also as a ‘personal loan’, as it is usually taken to fulfill personal financial necessities.
There are a few important criteria that a borrower has to fulfill in order to be eligible for getting an instant payday loan.
1. Jurisdiction - Not all states in the United States are likely to provide a payday loan. Payday loans are legally available only in 32 states in the US and 18 states completely forbid the practice of providing a payday loan. The 3 other states offer different other forms of short-term loans or payday loans at a lower interest rate.
The 32 states in the US that provide legalized payday loans include – Alabama, Wyoming, Alaska, Wisconsin, California, Washington, Delaware, Virginia, Florida, Utah, Hawaii, Texas, Idaho, Tennessee, Illinois, South Carolina, North Dakota, Indiana, Rhode Island, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio, Kentucky, New Mexico, Louisiana, Nevada, Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Missouri.
The states that provide the payday loans at very low-interest rates by setting usury limits include – New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Arkansas, Maine, New Hampshire, Montana, South Dakota, Oregon, and Colorado.
The states where payday loan practice is prohibited or stopped now include - Arizona, North Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vermont.
The US legislation has imposed many rules and restrictions on the practice of providing a payday loan which is dissimilar in different states. While some jurisdictions have very few restrictions regarding the payday loans, a few of them put a limit on the APR, and a few have completely prohibited the provision of payday loans.
So, you will have to be a legal resident of the state that provides a payday loan legally to avail one.
2. Age – You will have to be a legal adult who is 18 years old or above. This is important as minors are not allowed to handle financial contracts on the legal front. You will have to provide the lender with a legal document to prove your age.
3. Residency – It is important that you are a legal permanent resident of the US. It is not requirement for you to be a US citizen. However, you should be permanent US resident and you should provide the legal documents to prove the same to the lender.
4. Active Checking Account – It is essential for you to have an active checking account which is a source of proof for your residency and for your income. This account is also important if you are looking to get an online loan so that the lender can deposit the loan cash in your current checking account by wire and the repayment can also be done in the same way.
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Once you are considered to be eligible under all the above-given criteria and after you provide all the required legal documents, then the lender will go ahead and process your payday loan.
Every state page has all the details regarding the availability of payday loan practice in the respective state. The page will show a list of the regulatory laws with reference to the APR, the usury cap limits, the citations to limit the rate cap on small loans, the list of payday loan lenders who are licensed and authorized by the government, their websites, and contact information. There are also laws regarding the protection of consumers against criminal usury.
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After the verification process is completed successfully, the lender will approve the payday loan. As the name suggests, the borrower will have to repay the loan on the payday i.e. on the day when the next paycheck arrives. The borrower will provide the lender with a post-dated check citing the whole loan amount along with the APR and fees. The borrower will usually come back on the payday or on the day of loan maturity and pay the loan amount as a lump sum to the lender. If the borrower does not turn up, the lender will deposit and redeem the check.
In any case, if the borrower does not have enough funds in the account when the lender has deposited the check, then the borrower will be subjected to the check-bounce penalty in addition to the loan amount. If the borrower still defers paying the amount, then the interest rates will increase and the payable amount will keep getting accumulated.
Recent technology changes and innovations have allowed applying for a payday loan an easier process as it can be done online too. Most of the payday loan lenders provide simple and easy online tools that will enable the borrower to file an online loan application. If the lender needs some documented proof, then the applicant will have to fax them to the lender. Once the loan has been approved, the lender will credit the amount to the checking account of the borrower.
Most of the online tools are very simple so that it is easier for the common man to file an online loan application. The borrower will have to provide the necessary information and details while filling out the online application so that the application can be qualified. When this process is done, the cash is transferred to the account electronically. This becomes easier and convenient as the needed cash will fall into your account in a stipulated time and the borrower can withdraw it from any ATM or use the card linked with the account to make any purchase, etc. At instantcreditloansus.com, we will help you connect with the lenders who will offer very convenient options for you to get an online payday loan.
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There are many people who are not familiar with using the internet or are not comfortable filling an online application, or many a time there are situations where many people do not have an access to the cyberspace or a network connection. A few people are assured and feel secure when they have a P2P conversation and can ask for the tiny details and doubts while filing a loan application.
For such consumers, most of the credit financing companies and the private money lenders tend to provide the option to apply a loan application over a phone call. Bigger financing companies have a toll-free number that will provide 24 x 7 customer care and is always ready to help the consumers to deal with any kind of a trouble while filing for a loan, whereas smaller and individual lenders will assist the borrowers personally or will have a manager do so for them.
Although the online application service is convenient and easier, the alternative telephonic provision for filing a payday loan application is for the consumers who cannot meet their online demands.
• A Convenient Option – Instant Payday loans are convenient. Most lenders provide online options which make it easier and faster to apply for a loan and to get the money into the account.
• Lesser Hassles –Conventional banks carry out a lot of complicated paperwork and a lengthy verification process which usually takes a long time for processing. The payday loan processing is comparatively less and there are no hassles of complicated verification and paperwork.
• No Collateral – Many traditional banks will need you to assign collateral or bring in a cosigner as surety against the loan you have applied for. This not only takes a lot of time and paperwork, it is also a setback for people who do not have much to place as a guarantee. Unlike the banks, payday loan lenders will not ask for any collateral or cosigner. They provide the payday loan as an unsecured loan and so they will apply appropriate APR as surety.
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• Prompt Credits – Getting an online application helps to get a prompt credit for the applied loan. As soon as the application is approved, the lender will promptly transfer the loan amount into the borrower’s checking account. However, even if the payday loan application is filed on a P2P basis, the cash is given to the borrower quickly.
• Round-the-clock Availability - Apart from providing the ‘instant payday loans same day approval’ amenity, the payday loans also offer the facility of being available to the consumers on a 24 x 7 basis. The lenders and the customer care agents are available round-the-clock to answer queries and to provide an instant cash advance loan in times of emergencies. Our representatives at instantcreditloansus.com will be available to provide you with all the required details for your queries.
• Best Solution While In Urgent Need – While processing the loan application, the lenders tend to ask and clarify regarding the situation for which the loan is being taken. If it is a genuine reason especially during emergencies, the payday loan will get approved instantly once all the required documents have been submitted and the formalities have been completed. If you are getting in as an online loan, then even the few intrusive questions will not have to be answered.
Credit scores are the checkpoints which give an idea about your financial history in just a gist. Any due bills or default payments will show up as a scar on the credit history. A low credit score indicates that there have been flaws while repaying a past loan or if there are any unmanageable pending bills. Either of it will be seen as a blemish to the financial credibility of the borrower. So, it is better to keep a track of all your payments and due bills and manage them sensibly so that it does not affect your credit scores adversely as it will be difficult in the future.
However, being irresponsible or being lazy is not the only reasons why a payment got missed out on time. There could be many genuine reasons why a bill payment date got missed out or a payment went beyond your due date. But the banks do not wish to care about your reasons. They will only look at your credit numbers and decide if the loan process can be taken ahead or be rejected. This is not the case with the private money creditors. They will carry out a soft and a meager verification process to check for the authenticity of the borrower. Once the required documentation and verification for short-term loans bad credit has been completed successfully, the loan will get sanctioned instantly. At instantcreditloansus.com, we will make sure that you get a second chance and your application for short-term loans bad credit with the lender will get approved as quickly as possible.
In order to have a good credit score, it is important to pay the bills and loans back on time. The lenders also believe that you would be a responsible person and provide you with the instant loan being assured that you will repay on time. The lenders will provide the loan after scheduling the repayment options like the date, amount, interest rates, fees, mode of payment, etc. Typically, for a payday loan, the borrower pays back on the next payday or when the paycheck comes in.
So, if your payday is once in every 2 weeks, or if your paycheck comes in at the end of the month, then you can plan your repayment schedule according to those days. If you cannot pay the whole loan amount along with the interest and fees at once, it is better to intimate the lender beforehand so that the situation can be worked out and a better deal can be planned in a timely fashion.
There are plenty of financiers and private credit unions that will take advantage of your situation and apply very high-interest rates and charge sky-rocketing amounts of fees. And during desperate situations, people will only look towards having a solution rather than analyzing if it is the best or the right option. So, it is mandatory to think wisely and explore well. Look for the lenders who are state-licensed as they will abide by the regulatory rules imposed by the government with regard to the APR and payday loans. It is also essential to look for the genuine lenders who will provide you with the most appropriate and suitable plan by taking into consideration your income levels, the reason for taking the loan, your credit scores, etc.
It is important that you keep enough balance in the bank account after your paycheck comes so that you can pay back the loan on time and can avoid any check bouncing damages. It is also advised to take a small amount of money as a payday loan. It is better to loan the amount which is exactly needed to deal with the emergency rather than taking a huge amount which becomes burdensome to be repaid on time. Not paying on time will only build up the interest rates and the accumulated loan amount. As it is a non-secured short-term loan that is provided without a credit check, the lenders will apply the interest rates accordingly so that they will not have any loss in their business. So, it is better to take a small-sized loan and pay off the immediate debts and manage well to repay the payday loan with the next paycheck.
At instantcreditloansus.com, we will connect you with the state-licensed genuine money lenders who will provide an appropriate payday loan plan which will be very economical and efficient for you and also, we will make sure that they approve it as quickly as possible for you to meet your critical financial needs instantly. | 2019-04-19T11:04:35Z | https://instantcreditloansus.com/blog/payday-loans-everything-about-what-they-are-and-how-they-work.php |
The Attack class patrol boats were ordered following Australia’s involvement in the Indonesian Confrontation when it became evident that the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) lacked suitable patrol-type vessels. Consequently, an order was placed to have 20 Attack class patrol boats constructed in Australia, including five for Papua-New Guinea.
The order was placed for the vessels in 1965, for delivery by August 1966, but construction proved slow and the first keel was not laid until September 1966. However, once construction got underway the build time was greatly reduced.
The contracts were awarded to two Queensland shipbuilders, Evans Deakin Ltd, in Brisbane and Walkers Ltd, in Maryborough. Both yards had built vessels for the RAN during World War II although no substantial work for the Navy had taken place, in either, since that time.
The hulls were of steel construction and pre-fabricated in seven sections while the upper-works were made of aluminium.
The Attack class patrol boats proved to be capable vessels and were used chiefly in maritime security and surveillance, boarder protection and fishery patrol duties.
HMAS Adroit was laid down and built by Evans Deakin Co. Pty. Ltd. She was launched by Mrs R.I. Peek, wife of the then Flag Officer Commanding the Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral Peek, on 3 March 1968 and commissioned in Brisbane at 11:30 am on 17 August 1968. Appointed in command was Lieutenant Commander G.L. Boyd, RAN and following a brief work up the ship sailed for Sydney in company with HMAS Barbette.
After ammunitioning ship, a compass swing and minor defect rectification the ship sailed for the Jervis Bay exercise area in company with HMAS Barbette for work-up trials. Upon completion of these trials, and following participation in an inshore infiltration exercise, Adroit departed for Brisbane, exercising gun drills and small arms during the passage north.
On 10 September Adroit attended her first official function, the opening of the container terminal at Port Alma. The guest of honour was the Premier of Queensland. Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson and on completion the ship returned to Brisbane and from there transited to Sydney.
HMAS Adroit as she appeared when part of Australian Patrol Boat Squadron 3 (AUSPABRON3). Note the distinctive funnel insignia.
After ammunitioning ship and a compass swing Adroit, in company with HMAS Archer, returned to the exercise area of Jervis Bay where midshipmen from HMAS Creswell joined for training. The ship remained in the Jervis Bay area and on 24 November whilst on SAR duties in company with HMAS Aware she assisted in an attempt to salvage a ditched helicopter from HMAS Albatross.
The ship then returned to Sydney before heading northwards to Brisbane, sheltering en-route for one night behind Mutton Bird Island due to severe weather. Adroit remained alongside HMAS Moreton, an RAN shore establishment on the Brisbane River, until May 1971 before undertaking Fishery Patrols around the Percy Islands. For the duration of that patrol the vessel was manned by members of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR) taking part in annual continuous training. The patrol saw Adroit visit Heron Islet, Great Keppel Island, Makay, Scawfell Island, Brampton Island, the Percy Islands, Bowen and Lindeman Islands before returning to Brisbane.
Adroit remained alongside HMAS Moreton until February 1972 when she sailed for Gladstone with a mixture of RANR and permanent naval forces (PNF) crew. On 29 February, whilst in company with HMA Ships Archer and Bombard, Adroit incurred damage to the port propeller after striking a submerged tree limb. The ship put into Cairns for repairs before proceeding on to Samurai in company with Bombard. En-route, just south of Bougainville Reef, Adroit encountered very heavy seas, losing one of her life-rafts overboard.
On 12 March 1972 Adroit, in company with Archer and Bayonet participated in a ceremonial sail-past at the Port of Alotau. Adroit then returned to Cairns resuming fishery patrols and survey work before shaping course for Brisbane.
From June 1973 until 5 May 1974 Adroit remained at HMAS Moreton before undertaking fishery patrols around the Gladstone, Fraser Island, Bundaberg, Percy Islands and Mackay areas. Early June saw Adroit manned with a mixture of RANR and PNF crew conducting night encounter exercises with HMA Ships Archer, Bombard and Buccaneer. The ships later took part in Exercise KANGAROO 1 before returning to Brisbane where Adroit remained alongside until mid-August at which time she departed for Sydney. There she was placed under the command of LCDR P. Ballestry RANR, for a period of annual continuous training for members of the RANR in the Sydney, Broken Bay area. In September Adroit went into a prolonged refit from which she emerged in February 1975, recommissioning at HMAS Waterhen. On completion Adroit participated in sea acceptance and gunnery trials overseen by members of the the RAN Trials and Assessment Unit (RANTAU).
HMAS Adroit was commissioned at a ceremony in Sydney on 17 Feb 1975. Chaplain's W.J. Bates (left) and H.M. McDonald take part in the commissioning ceremony at HMAS Waterhen. Naval officers from left - Flag Officer Commanding the Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral D.C. Wells, Commander J. More, LCDR P. Wright, and the Flag Lieutenant, Lieutenant T.J. Scott.
The early months of 1975 saw Adroit conducting exercises in the Eastern Australian Exercise Area before shaping a course for Darwin via Gladstone, Cairns and Thursday Island, arriving in mid-March 1975.
On 10 April fishery patrols began in the Port Essington to Gove area of operations. In May, Adroit joined HMA Ships Moresby, Barricade and Buccaneer, for a survey of the Bonaparte Gulf and in the vicinity of Con Bay, Razor Island, Kodan Island, Lesueur Island and Rocky Island. Survey work was often routine in nature and on 10 May a beach banyan and sports day was held on Hidden Island to break the monotony. June saw the continuation of survey work with Moresby in the Bonaparte Gulf before Adroit detached for Darwin for mid-winter leave and to undertake maintenance period. During that time the vessel was manned by a spare crew under the command of Lieutenant C.P. Barr, RAN which responded to a search and rescue call from the trawler Captain A.E. Trivett.
Fishery Patrols resumed and on 6 August and two Taiwanese fishing vessels, the Sheh Wei Number 6 and 7 were intercepted inside the Declared Fishing Zone. Both vessels were arrested and escorted to Darwin for prosecution.
Adroit then took passage, in company with Assail and Advance, to take part in the annual Broome festival. While there, the ships were placed on immediate notice for sea in response to growing civil unrest in East Timor. Following the festival, fishery patrols were conducted around Ashmore Reef and Baudin Island before returning to Darwin for routine maintenance.
Fishery patrols in the north-west fishing zone resumed in October resulting in numerous interceptions of Taiwanese fishing vessels. Regular calls were also made at Broome to embark fuel and stores. On 16 October Adroit was involved in a minor grounding necessitation her return to Darwin for slipping and repairs.
By November the ship was back in the water and engaged in fishery patrols in the north-west area until the end of the month. The patrol was punctuated with fuelling and stores stops at Port Hedland and Dampier.
December saw Adroit conducting its first Gulf Patrols where the Taiwanese fishing vessel Fu Yuan was arrested for fishing inside the Declared Fishing Zone. She was subsequently towed back to Darwin for prosecution.
The Attack class patrol boats provided valuable service to the RAN around Australia in varying sea states and conditions.
In 1976 Adroit resumed the normal pattern of fishery patrols seeking shelter on the 9th and 10th of January in Thursday Island from Tropical Cyclone Kim. Once the danger had passed further patrols were conducted during the return passage to Darwin.
In May a film crew joined Adroit to document the patrol work being undertaken by the Attack class focussing on the interception of illegal overseas fishing vessels within the declared fishing zones of Australia. This proved a novel experience for both the crew and the media team.
June 1976 saw the arrest of more illegal fishing vessels which were escorted into Exmouth. Fishery patrol-work continued in the North West area with welcome respite coming when Adroit’s crew joined US servicemen based at Exmouth for 4th of July Celebrations. Following this welcome interlude several of the crew appeared as witnesses in the trial of the Taiwanese Fishing Vessels Yih Tai numbers 1 and 2.
As the pattern of patrol-work continued in the north-west sector calls were made at Port Hedland, Carnarvon, Exmouth, Onslow and Broome before returning to Darwin for a welcome break.
On 9 August Adroit returned to the Gulf Area with stops made at Thursday Island, Weipa and Kurumba before heading back to Darwin for rest and recreation. During that time just one day was spent at sea when Adroit performed the role of ‘start boat’ for the Darwin to Ambon Yacht Race. She again performed this duty in September 1976, having been selected as the official start boat for the Cairns Centenary Yacht Race.
Participation in Exercise KANGAROO 1 followed where Adroit joined other Attack class boats successfully attacking an amphibious force. A return to Cairns was necessary following an engineering defect that resulted in the port engine being replaced. Upon successful completion of engineering trials the ship returned to Darwin via Gove, Weipa and Thursday Island arresting two Taiwanese Fishing vessels in the Gulf en-route and escorting them to Weipa.
HMAS Adroit during one of her many regional port visits.
Following Christmas leave fishery patrols resumed in the Gulf area where two Taiwanese vessels, the Huey Maw and Fong Kuo 2 were arrested and escorted to Weipa for prosecution. Patrols continued in the area before the ship returned to Darwin in early February for a self-maintenance period.
February saw Adroit back on patrol in the North West Sector calling at Broome and Exmouth before heading south to Fremantle for a three day visit. During the return voyage shelter was sought in Geraldton from Tropical Cyclone Karen before returning to Darwin.
Fishery patrols in the Gulf area, Elcho Island and Millingimbi followed during which time the vessel briefly grounded necessitating a return to Darwin where the ship was slipped in April and both propellers and shafts replaced.
With repairs complete May Adroit was soon back at sea operating in the North West area where she rendezvoused with two refugee vessels originating from Vietnam. Food and water was supplied to the occupants before escorting both vessels into Broome. May also saw Adroit operating in company with HMAS Moresby, Advance and Bayonet conducting surveys of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. Following this activity the ship assisted with a medical evacuation from a Vietnamese refugee vessel taking the casualty to Broome. Later, in June, Adroit was also called upon to assist a Darwin pilot boat which was disabled due to a fire in her engine room. The vessel was taken in tow and recovered to Darwin.
Fishery Patrols resumed in July along the Arnhem Coast and the Gulf area resulting in the arrest of the Taiwanese vessel Tai Yin Shang which was apprehended fishing inside the Declared Fishing Zone before being towed back to Darwin. Mid July provided a welcome change of pace for Adroit’s small crew when 20 Australian Army commandos joined her for an infiltration exercise conducted along the coast near the East Aligator River.
Following a brief self-maintenance period in Darwin the patrol boat returned to the north-west sector in August calling at Port Hedland, Broome and Point Murat en route.
September saw routine patrol work conducted around Ashmore Reef and in the north-west area before proceeding at high speed to Carnarvon on 13 September after a cook on board badly lacerating his leg in an accident in the galley. The vessel then continued on to Fremantle for two days R and R.
In the late 1970s Vietnamese refugee boats were frequently arriving in Australian waters and the Attack class patrol boat crews were routinely being called upon to locate and provide assistance to them. Adroit assisted a number of these vessels and during her return voyage to Darwin in September she assisted yet another in trouble near Vansittart Reef. The vessel was quickly taken in tow to Darwin, where after a brief stop Adroit returned to sea to patrol the northern sector.
Having spent many months on patrol Adroit was in need of urgent maintenance and in October 1977 she shaped course for Cairns via Thursday Island to undertake an intermediate refit. On 12 December 1977 Lieutenant J.D. Napier, RAN, was appointed in command and the vessel remained in Cairns until January 1978.
HMAS Adroit proceeds alongside on completion of a routine patrol.
The new-year saw the crew of Adroit assisting the Cairns Fire Brigade in extinguishing a fire in the cold storage area of Cairns number 1 wharf on 11 January drawing praise for preventing the fire from spreading prior to the arrival of professional firefighters.
The refit completed later in the month and on completion Adroit carried out sea trials between Townsville and Hayman Island before returning to the Gulf area and resuming the normal pattern of patrol work. On completion of that patrol she returned to Darwin.
Adroit remained in Darwin until mid-February before conducting further post refit trials and patrol work in the Beagle Gulf area. There she rendezvoused with HMAS Ardent for drills and manoeuvres as part of an at-sea inspection by the Naval Officer Commanding Northern Australia (NOCNA). After a brief stop at Darwin she resumed fishery patrols in the Beagle Gulf where 4 Taiwanese vessels were intercepted. Late in the month Adroit, in communication with RAAF maritime surveillance aircraft intercepted an Indo Chinese Origin Vessel (ICOV) with refugees aboard. This vessel was apprehended and escorted to Darwin where it was handed over to the relevant authorities.
An Operational Readiness Evaluation (ORE) was conducted in March and later in the month Adroit went to the assistance of HMAS Aware which had developed engine trouble. March also saw a visit by the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral A.M. Synnot RAN, who addressed the crew concerning the importance of patrolling Australia’s northern approaches. This affirmation of the importance of their often long and monotonous patrol work was welcome recognition from the Navy’s senior leader.
Adroit continued patrolling the Beagle Gulf area becoming the first vessel to use the 81 mm mortar to illuminate a contact at night. More contacts were made with ICOV’s 140 nautical miles NW of Darwin and these were subsequently apprehended and escorted before being handed over to local authorities.
May 1978 saw the continuation of fishery patrols in the Beagle Gulf area based from Darwin. The patrol cycle routinely saw Attack class boats coming and going from Darwin as they balanced routine maintenance schedules with the demands of patrol work in northern Australian waters. In late May Adroit was again at sea in the Gulf area calling at Gove for fuel and supplies mid-way through the patrol. During that visit a member of the ship’s company was admitted to Gove Hospital with a burn necessitating the boat to remain alongside until a replacement crew member could join from Darwin. During May Adroit achieved an impressive tally of 130,500 nautical miles since her commissioning ten years prior.
June saw the resumption of fishery patrols with frequent stops at Weipa and Gove. During this patrol Adroit transited through the ‘hole in the wall’, between the islands of Raragala and Guluwuru before returning to Darwin.
In July Adroit operated to the west of Darwin fuelling at Broome, Port Hedland and Exmouth before heading south of Rockingham. During this period Adroit enjoyed a break from patrol duties conducting pilotage training with junior officers from HMAS Stuart. During this evolution Adroit touched bottom requiring her to berth at HMAS Stirling where she was slipped for inspection of her propellers and shafts. Upon completion of the docking the ship underwent a compass swing before heading back to Darwin via Exmouth.
September saw the ship alongside in Darwin undergoing maintenance and her crew on parade as part of an annual inspection of the vessel. This was followed by Adroit sailing in company with HMA Ships Ardent, Assail and Aware to take part in Squadron Exercises (SQUADEX) where all facets of patrol boat force duties were successfully exercised.
The grind of fishery patrols resumed later in the month in the NW area with calls made at Broome for fuel and supplies. During this patrol Adroit was ordered to intercept a Philippine vessel ‘Carlito Flores’ operating in the vicinity of Cuffarelli Island. Following the successful interception the vessel was escorted into Broome and handed over to the local authorities. Fishery patrols were then resumed with a further five Indonesian vessels boarded before the end of the month.
During October Adroit operated chiefly in north-west area boarding a further two Indonesian vessels before having to land a sick sailor in Broome and another in Darwin.
The high tempo of patrol work continued on into November and it was during this patrol that the boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel, Fu Yuan, on 8 November proved to be the catalyst for an inquiry concerning the conduct of a number of boarding operations undertaken by Adroit between April and November 1978. The inquiry resulted in a Court Martial handing down a guilty verdict and dismissing Adroit’s then commanding officer from the service.
Taiwanese fishing vessel, Fu Yuan.
On 14 November 1978 temporary command of Adroit passed to Lieutenant G. Lloyd, RAN during which time the vessel remained alongside in Darwin. Command then passed to Lieutenant S.H. Hooke, RAN on 21 November who was soon back at sea continuing patrol work.
On 28 November Adroit provided urgent medical assistance to the Taiwanese fishing vessel Kao Cheng 21 which was intercepted making best speed towards Darwin and flying the distinctive yellow quarantine flag. The vessel was subsequently boarded and a seriously ill crewman transferred to Adroit and ferried to Darwin where he was transferred by ambulance to hospital. Adroit then resumed her patrol in the Gulf area with a notable rise in morale.
December 1978 was consumed with routine patrol work in the Gulf area with calls being made at Gove, Alyangula and Port Essington before returning to Darwin where a family day was held on the harbour. Adroit then remained in Darwin as ‘stand by vessel’ for the Christmas New Year period.
January 1979 saw Adroit at sea in company with HMAS Ardent conducting trials and fishery patrols in the Beagle Gulf. An early return to Darwin proved necessary to evade Cyclone Greta and to attend to lingering engine problems. With repairs completed the normal pattern of patrol work resumed culminating with three interceptions of Taiwanese fishing vessels before anchoring off Fenelon Island.
February saw a continuation of patrol work in the north-western area of Beagle Gulf and the conduct of a short exercise with HMAS Ardent before anchoring off Mandorah Jetty and then proceeding to Darwin for scheduled maintenance.
Cyclonic conditions again hindered patrol work in March 1979 causing Adroit to seek shelter from Tropical Cyclone Hazel in Broome. By the end of March Adroit had boarded and inspected a further 4 Taiwanese vessels and carried out a successful gunnery exercise with HMA ships Assail and Aware before berthing at Darwin.
In April Adroit shaped course for HMAS Stirling carrying out a fishery patrol en route during which two Taiwanese fishing vessels were inspected and a fuel stop was made at Geraldton. The ship remained at Stirling until 19 April before making the return passage to Darwin. On 28April Adroit sailed with 12 members of the 7th Independent Rifle Company of the Army Reserve embark for an exercise on Bathurst Island. The soldiers were recovered the following day and transported back to Darwin where the ship remained for the rest of the month.
May saw Adroit operate briefly with HMA Ships Perth, Vendetta, Derwent and Barbette before an engineering defect forced her premature return to Darwin. With repairs completed by early June the ship resumed fishery patrols in the Beagle Gulf and Gulf of Carpentaria calling at Gove for fuel and stores. During that time the ship located a large number of Taiwanese Drift netters, boarding and temporarily detaining one of them.
A change of scenery followed in July 1979 when Adroit sailed for the West Coast to participate in Exercise CRABBES FALL with the Special Air Service Regiment. On completion the necessary but mundane fishery patrol work resumed with calls made at Dampier and Port Hedland. The eighteen day patrol resulted in two Taiwanese fishing vessels being boarded before returning to Darwin.
August of 1979 saw the ship alongside in Darwin and being visited by Commodore M Hudson and a Parliamentary Committee in regards to the siting of the proposed new Patrol Boat Base in Darwin. Following this the ship patrolled the Beagle Gulf area until the end of the month.
The following month saw the ship alongside in Darwin where Divisions were held followed by an annual inspection of the ship. On completion Adroit was soon back at sea in company with HMA Ships Ardent, Assail and Aware participating in Exercise DARWEX 79. On completion of the exercise Adroit returned to Darwin undertaking routine maintenance on the slipway.
For the remainder of the year Adroit was an active participant in fishery patrol work around Bathurst Island, the Beagle Gulf and Gove. November saw the apprehension of a Taiwanese vessel which was escorted to Darwin to face prosecution. Assistance was then given to a grounded Taiwanese vessel, the FONG KUO, at Cape Van Dreman. The vessel was successfully re-floated and subsequently repaired in Darwin. Later in the month Adroit returned to Darwin for the trial of a previously apprehended vessel before resuming patrol work in King Sound. There an Indonesian fishing vessel was discovered hiding in the mangroves at High Island, boarded and issued a warning. The ship then shaped course to Broome for fuel and supplies.
Departing Broome in early December, patrols of the Rowley Shoals and the North West Cape followed before taking on fuel at Exmouth. The year came to an end with the investigation of a report of a fishing vessel hiding in mangroves. The vessel, the USAHA HIDUP was located and the crew issued a formal warning. Adroit then returned to Darwin for Christmas leave. | 2019-04-21T20:29:56Z | http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-adroit |
There was a minor kerfuffle in recent days over claims by Tim Flannery (author of “The Weather Makers”) that new information from the upcoming IPCC synthesis report will show that we have reached 455 ppmv CO2_equivalent 10 years ahead of schedule, with predictable implications. This is confused and incorrect, but the definitions of CO2_e, why one would use it and what the relevant level is, are all highly uncertain in many peoples’ minds. So here is a quick rundown.
where CO2_orig is the 1750 concentration (278 ppmv).
Usage: There are two main ways it is used. Firstly, it is often used to group together all the forcings from the Kyoto greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O and CFCs), and secondly to group together all forcings (including ozone, sulphate aerosols, black carbon etc.). The first is simply a convenience, but the second is what matters to the planet. Many stabilisation scenarios, such as are being discussed in UNFCCC negotiations are based on stabilising total CO2_e at 450, 550 or 750 ppmv.
Magnitude The values of CO2_e (Kyoto) and CO2_e (Total) can be calculated from Figure 2.21 and Table 2.12 in the IPCC WG1 Chapter 2. The forcing for CO2, CH4 (including indirect effects), N2O and CFCs is 1.66+0.48+0.07+0.16+0.34=2.71 W/m2 (with around 0.3 W/m2 uncertainty). Using the formula above, that gives CO2_e (Kyoto) = 460 ppmv. However, including all the forcings (some of which are negative), you get a net forcing of around 1.6 W/m2, and a CO2_e (Total) of 375 ppmv with quite a wide error bar. This is, coincidently, close to the actual CO2 level.
Implications The important number is CO2_e (Total) which is around 375 ppmv. Stabilisation scenarios of 450 ppmv or 550 ppmv are therefore still within reach. Claims that we have passed the first target are simply incorrect, however, that is not to say they are easily achievable. It is even more of a stretch to state that we have all of a sudden gone past the ‘dangerous’ level. It is still not clear what that level is, but if you take a conventional 450 ppmv CO2_e value (which will lead to a net equilibrium warming of ~ 2 deg C above pre-industrial levels), we are still a number of years from that, and we have (probably) not yet committed ourselves to reaching it.
Finally, the IPCC synthesis report is simply a concise summary of the three separate reports that have already come out. It therefore can’t be significantly different from what is already available. But this is another example where people are quoting from draft reports that they have neither properly read nor understood and for which better informed opinion is not immediately available. I wish journalists and editors would resist the temptation to jump on leaks like this (though I know it’s hard). The situation is confusing enough without adding to it unintentionally.
Thanks for clarifying this term Gavin. Your explanation covers usage of CO2-e for atmospheric concentrations, which is what Tim Flannery was talking about, but it would probably be useful to explain its usage for emissions as well.
As I understand it, when referring to greenhouse gas emissions, “carbon dioxide equivalent” refers to the amount of carbon dioxide that would give the same warming effect as the effect of the greenhouse gas or greenhouse gases being emitted. It is normally used when attributing aggregate emissions from a particular source over a specified timeframe. It is used in this way at national and international levels to account for greenhouse emissions and reductions over time. Importantly, Article 3 of the Kyoto Protocol states targets for emissions reductions in terms of “aggregate anthropogenic carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of the greenhouse gases listed in Annex A.” [Annex A lists six gases: carbon dioxide (CO2); methane (CH4); nitrous oxide (N2O); hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); perfluorocarbons (PFCs); and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)].
Using this approach, for example, Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors in 2004 totalled 564.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (see http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/inventory/2004/pubs/inventory2004.pdf).The expected carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from burning different fuels can also be calculated using a standard methodology (see e.g. http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/workbook/pubs/workbook2006.pdf).
Also, it may be a useful point of clarification to note that some authors and inventories refer to “carbon equivalents” when discussing quantities or atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Figures for “carbon equivalents” can be converted to “carbon dioxide equivalents” by multiplying by 44/12 to take account of the different molecular weights. The IPCC guidelines use “carbon dioxide equivalents” for GHG but “carbon equivalents” is more meaningful than “carbon dioxide equivalents” when discussing the amount of carbon stored in fossil fuels and sinks such as the deep ocean where the carbon is not in gaseous form.
I am not a climate scientist so could you please clarify whether my understanding is correct?
I don’t yet comprehend how the ‘dangerous’ level can be set so high.
My reasons are solely based on the Eemian intergalcial (Termination II), about 134 kya. At that time it seems that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere peaked at about 292 ppmv (Vostok Ice Core analysis only, average of the three studies on the NOAA Paleoclimatology site). During the Eemian the sea high stand was about 4 meters higher than today’s sea stand.
I conclude that, roughly, any concentration greater than about 280 ppmv eventually leads to sea stand rise, hence we are currently in peril of eventually seeing quite a substantial sea stand rise. If so, that will be quite a calamity, even if it takes centuries to reach the highest stand.
Gavin, for the total forcing how do they get the 5.35 number? I’ve seen various number up to 6.2 (ie http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/Resources/gcc/6-5-3.html) or is it just observation?
Not so sure we haven’t commited ourselves to 450 ppmv- anything lower seems entirely unreasonable from a common sense point on how things are moving along. Also would be hard to define “dangerous” levels- to some we already hit that point, but I think ~2 C warming is the beginning of where “alarming ” is. Of concern now seems to be how feedbacks will react and give us more CO2 or more warming- we’ve gotten more humid from the water vapor feedback from the latest Willett et al (Nature) paper, the decline of CO2 sinks (Le Quere et al 2007). Looks like aerosols will mitigate some warming, but I suspect that even those would decline as we get “cleaner” which ironically could give us more warming.
Thanks for covering this. I’ve seen the statement by Flannery used in several places so far.
Just to clarify – does mean that the ‘danger level’ is 455ppmv CO2_e (total) rather than 455ppmv CO2_e (Kyoto)?
Sorry, I can’t follow the technical explanation too well. Are you saying that Tim Flannery has made incorrect claims that we are ahead of the predicted schedule based on his misreading of the draft report, or are you saying that the media did not accurately report what Flannery meant to say?
Thanks for giving the background to the recent statements on CO2-eq concentration, this has been raising many questions.
If I may add to your explanation though: The figure of 455 ppm CO2-eq comes from converting the value of 2.63 W/m^2 given in WG I Chapter 2, Table 2.12, for the total radiative forcing of “long lived greenhouse gases” to a CO2-eq concentration using the formula that you cite. In your calculation you added the indirect effects of CH4 on stratospheric water vapor but those were classed separately in the WG I report.
What to include, and what not, is, as you have implied, somewhat subjective, but the fact that different radiative forcing agents have very different degrees of persistence into the future, and that the shortest lived components are negative (i.e. cause cooling) is very policy relevant. If all anthropogenic emissions stopped completely tomorrow, total radiative forcing (and warming) would increase – not decrease – due to the rapid removal of aerosols from the atmosphere and the disappearance of their cooling effect. This fact underlies the difficulty that those constructing mitigation scenarios for the 21st century have in coming up with plausible ways of avoiding a warming of 2C.
Of course I agree fully with your final comments on those who leak material from draft IPCC reports. This is usually done inaccurately and out of context. In this case reference to the radiative forcing projections given in the Third Assessment Report shows that there is no basis for saying that long lived greenhouse gases are now 10 years ahead of the projections of a few years ago.
I’m not sure we’re all referring to the same quantity.
The same report shows a 50% chance of a 2 C increase if with a 450 ppm stabilization.
If you’re referring to total forcings, then what is the 50% chance of a 2 C atmospheric level?
Could you comment on how the lifetime of aerosols effects all this.
In particular, as I understand it a reduction in fossil fuel use will lead to a reduction in emissions of aerosols (the majority of which have a cooling affect). Aren’t the atmospheric lifetimes of these aerosols far shorter than that of the warming gases. Won’t this result in a situation where as we reduce CO2 emissions, some of the current cooling effect will be reduced, while most of the current warming effect remains?
Does your analysis above assume that the total cooling effects of aerosols do not decline?
Also, thanks for all your great work.
The low value of CO2eTotal is less comforting if the negative forcings arise from the same activities as the positive forcings (e.g. dirty coal combustion). Then measures that reduce CO2 emissions or clean up local air pollution reduce the masking effects on a short time scale, while long-lived gases remain in the atmosphere, so that CO2e would rise rapidly. This effect would seem to make the headroom between 375 and 450 somewhat illusory.
Data quality analysis as reported in IPCC WG1 Chapter 2 is not adequate for risk assement data used for decisions affecting large populations. In risk analysis, we are not talking about the fate of clouds, we are talking about the fate of people. We need data of known quality! Data with “wide error bars” does not qualify. At the very least, we need a numerical estimate of how wide those error bars are. That number is not in the text, I do not see a protocol for calculating such a number, or the raw data that could be used in such a calculation. I was on the ASTM Technical Committee for Data Quality for Human Health Risk Assessment. I know that numerical estimates of data quality are not easy. Worse, I know what a blow to the ego such an analysis can be, But, this site is not about “easy”. This site is about honest and correct.
If we do not have good estimates of the error bars, then we need to apply safety factors; as we did when we started doing human health risk assessments of National Priority List hazardous waste sites. Put in a safety factor, and 375 might well become the new 450. Certainly, Gavin might not like that when it is first presented to him. But, if we are considering something that affects 6 billion people, then being only 99.9999% certain says that we do not care about an event that kills three times more people than 911. If we are only 99% certain then, we can expect 70,000,000 to die as a result of our ignorance. How many people’s lives are we willing to lose because we did not do our homework on data quality?
I guess this has to be clarified. Was Flannery talking about forcing or greenhouse gas concentration? I think it was the latter. If that’s the case, as people at the Hadley Center have shown, we are already at a concentration of over 450ppm of carbon dioxide equivalents, which is dangerous. Yes, you have aerosols and other factors, but we have no clue how much of a cooling effect they’re actually having. We also know that they will probably be gone in the next 10-20 years. After that happens, the full forcing of greenhouse gases currently in the atmosphere will show, pushing us beyond 2C. It’s also important to mention that we have a 50% chance of avoiding 2C if we keep concentrations (of greenhouse gases minus the cooling) at current levels. Because of keeping these things out of discussion, people are setting absolutely wrong targets (i.e. halving world emissions by 2050).
Gold standard work as ever Gavin. I think the fact that this level is within reach is disturbing enough under any scenario, but the damage occurs when AGW realists like Flannery who is already pilloried by the usual suspects, reach too far beyond the data.
I think the IPCC estimates are biased conservatively, as usually is the case in science, but journalistic hyperbole does the issue a great disservice and makes weakens the effort to turn this thing around. We don’t need that.
Holly, I think the problem is the journalists have no one to verify any claims that their source is quoting from a discussion draft. The people who do know what’s in the drafts and comments have promised not to leak them.
The last round there was a lot of stuff in the press that didn’t turn out to be right.
I’d really appreciate a comment of Gavin in the light of contributions #9, 10, 11 and 12. As Gavin himself stated in his response to contribution #1: GWP calculation for specific time horizonts is good for long lived GHGs but breaks down for short-lived species (e.g. aerosols).
– how easily you can achieve a (not even intentional) distortion of research results into facts without proper context, with all the possibly disastrous impact on the broader public.
2.) I’d really appreciate a similar assessment of ‘thawing permafrost’ or ‘melting’ in general.
Several times I stumbled over the assertion, that there are no surprises to expect from thawing permafrost or, recently, accelerated melting in Greenland as well as in Antartica.
At least, those Dansgaard-Oeschger events did happen. And the record minimum arctic sea ice this year definitely shows what is meant by ‘highly nonlinear behaviour’. So I am curious why permafrost thawing should not involve some nasty surprises.
What is the forcing for C02 without any knock on effects such as increased water vapour?
Good article, but one fact that I think is missing is the choice of time horizon for the Global Warming Potentials (GWP) and the consequences for the calculation of CO2 equivalent emissions.
IPCC reporting obligations still require the use of the older IPCC Second Assessment Report (SAR) 100-year horizon GWP for national inventories, defining a quasi “standard” for comparable CO2 equivalent emissions / total greenhouse gas emissions.
But IPCC papers such as WG1 Chapter 2 (link in the original article, table 2.14, page 212) give different GWP for 20, 100(!) and 500 year horizons alongside the 100 year SAR values, making it hard for laymen (and even experts, sometimes) to find out which GWP to use for calculations.
Congrats Al Gore and IPCC!
… another bloody yank is walking away with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Congratulations to the IPCC and to Al Gore!
But a lot of the “negative” radiative forcing components have atmospheric residence lifetimes of ~week, so are irrelevant to a discussion of CO2_e levels in terms of reaching a stabilisation target.
Congrats on winning the Nobel peace prize to Al Gore, the IPCC, and all of you folks that have contributed towards the research and the reports. AGW-naysayers will sooner or later run out of their excuses.
Mixing sulphates and CO2 in CO2_e(total)?
Don’t they have vastly different time constants of how long they stay present in the atmosphere?
Response to #24 – I accept that. On a narrow point of what the instantaneous forcing is equivalent to, then, yes, you obviously have to include the short-lived aerosols.
However, if we ever get to a stable level of CO2, we won’t be emitting sulphate aerosols any longer, or burning vast areas of rainforest (emitting black carbon). In the context of how close we are to various stabilisation targets, then, I think it makes sense to discount short-lived agents whose release is associated with anthropogenic sources of GHGs.
Of course, this also means that you can have an overshoot scenario. In CO2_e terms you could go over the stabilisation target, but move back down to it by reducing levels of the shorter-lived GHGs such as CH4 and NOx. In that sense the non-CO2/CFC part of the CO2_e is not committed to the same extent. (And the fact that CO2_e(Kyoto) ~455ppmv is not quite as alarming).
If it helps, I’m thinking of a timescale for stabilising GHG levels by 2050.
1. Even the food we produce and eat is not carbon-neutral, considering the huge amounts of fossil fuel used for producing fertilizers,irrigation,transportation,refrigeration,cooking, etc that go into the food production-consumption chain.
2. Where is the carbon sink that can absorb the CO2 of other man-made consumption processes like automobiles, electricity, aeroplanes,trains, airconditioning, heating,manufacturing, mining etc. which are colossal and their effects cumulative?
3. It appears to me that we are doomed like the mythical ICARUS whose wax-fixed wings melted as he showed off his flying before the sun. In short, no amount of fossil-fuel burning – no matter how less – is ultimately sustainable from the point of view of preventing accumulation of CO2 and waste-heat in the environment, and an eventual over-heating and melt down of the planet.
4. Possibly, human knowledge, wisdom, compassion etc. – and a big dose of humility – may show us the path for a sustainable future, based on essential human needs and not human greeds, as Gandhi pointed out long time ago. Has anyone modelled such a future for some 10 billion humans/animals living on this earth – the life-style they can live without destroying the planet ?
I look forward to learning on the above issues.
Fair is fair. Shouldn’t Al Gore send a thank you note to all the right-wing nutjobs who have abandoned the scientific high ground and left him standing there alone. I mean after all, without climate change (which to be fair, he was among the first to embrace), he would just be another washed up politician. Now he has an Academy Award, a Nobel Peace Prize and bookies have cut the odds on his becoming President from 10:1 to 8:1. He couldn’t have done it without the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, Senator James Inhoff, Rush Limbaugh, The Cato Institute, Exx-Mob etc. Come on guys step up and take a bow!
Re different time constants, I believe that is considered when calculating CO2_e.
Thanks, Gavin, for this clarification — I hadn’t checked the numbers for the Stern Review to see if they were internally consistent. Much steeper reductions would be needed to stabilize at 450 ppm if we’re already at 430 ppm, except that we’re already at 460 ppm.
You can see why some of us are confused.
RE: 12 Aerosols from combustion sources will probably not be reduced to climatologically insignificant levels before 2050. That said, any forecasts need to take into account that their influence will be reduced a few percent every year. Thus, we will get to the 450ppm threshold sooner (say 2030 and not 2050) rather than later as the well mixed GHGs continue to increase in concentration. Tropospheric ozone will also decrease, helping a little bit. Due to the long lead times in developing and installing new energy sources, it is doubtful in my mind that we still have time to avoid the 450ppm level. Taking that into consideration, a prediction today that we are committed to passing a dangerous threshhold is not unreasonable.
I pointed out the error concerning RC in Pat Michaels’ American Spectator article to him and he told me that he contacted the Spectator about it to have it corrected. So, presumably (hopefully) that will happen.
How good are the negative and positive forcing predictions in the emission scenarios climate modelors use? Hansen’s paper on where we are is good, but how predictable is the future? Specifically, how good are predictions about the timing of the clean up and then phase out (or beginning of CO2 sequestration) of coal fired power plants? Do the scientists involved think they have a good handle on how this will play out or is it a huge source of unpredictability in terms of future temperatures? What if this story’s actions play out in China and Russia? Do these governments have a plan they haven’t shared? Do the industries that seem to run (at times) our governments have a plan they haven’t shared? Should climate modelers be pouring over the minutes of board meetings?
810,000 tons of pollutant reductions, 79% reduction in sulfur emissions, 69% reduction in nitrous oxides. Two opposing forcings being reduced simultaneously. Sorry, shouldn’t have had that extra cup.
Now the mean radiative forcing since 1850 is 1.6W/m2.
We can say that the correspondant temp increasing is 0.8°C.
We can say also that there is some 0.4-05°C “in the pipe”.
Thus about 1.25°C in some decades.
The consecutive sensitivity is something as 0.78°C.m2/W.
With this sensitivity, for 450 ppm of CO2, we get a temperature increase of 2.63W/m2 * 0.78°C.m2/W = 2.06°C.
My problem is the “0.4-0.5°C in the pipe” which depends on oceanic thermal inertia.
In this perspective what do you think about the SH ocean cooling since 2003?
IMHO, another ongoing problem with the media is the lack of verification due to budget cut-backs. No more double and triple checking. Worse, in a very competitive “what have you got now?” market designed around sound bites and 30-second info-clips, the need to be the first to run with a story is subsuming accuracy in favor of profit.
This is one of the reasons the climate “skeptics” are able to keep their game running.
you can see the difference between NH land and SH ocean.
In this context what do you think about this study of Russel and the influence of southern hemisphere westerly winds on the ocean mixing?
SO, I don’t contest GHG effects, but if there is a greater oceans mixing the warming should be weaker.
Ahhh, so what is being said here is that all things considered via +ve and -ve forcings currently add up to Co2_e of 375 ppmv of net forcing. Does this mean that we need to continue polluting to soem degree or does coal do both for us anyway regardless?
Congratulations to Al Gore and the IPCC. Well done!
American right wing talk radio is spinning up the lies and usual misinformation about Global Warming and Climate Change. Neil Boortz carried on for an hour this morning about how it’s all a lie forged by the anti-Corporatists. Meanwhile, in North Georgia there only remains about 3 months of water in most of the reservoirs. These people can’t believe their own eyes, much less scientists.
I doubt it is entirely that innocent. If you know any journalists at all, then you are fully aware that advocacy reporting is the purposeful objective of many.
Very strange bedfellows. If Richard Lindzen, Pat Michaels and John Christy served on the IPCC at one time or another, then aren’t they also being recognized along with Al Gore?
Capitalists tend to be rational creatures. They will continue to ignore reality as long as it is profitable. As long as those royalty checks from Exx-Mob. keep roling in, they can save up to buy the house on the hill and they don’t need to worry if the rest of the town floods. I think it is important for them to realize that they have handed a very powerful issue to their political enemies. It’s gotten their nemesis Al Gore an Oscar and now a Nobel Prize. Bookies have reduced his odds of becoming president from 10:1 to 8:1. The Truth is a powerful weapon even when it is inconvenient.
Can someone read through this article regarding CO2 future emissions and what cuts are required to see if it is of merit.
I am not scientific and I am one of those you are trying to convince. But when you (and others) use language like that (or find it necessary to whitewash or deny tenure to disagreeing colleagues) I tend to wonder whether you fear your view is indefensible.
The anti’s include reports from the many scientists, including from Canada and Europe, (your colleagues) that point out logical discrepancies that the “for’s” never seem to address other than by denigrating name calling. So who am I supposed to believe, the anti’s, or the name-callers?
The “other” viewpoint should have equal prominence in the news, and I mean equal. But it doesn’t. That fact alone raises red flags.
The “we must prevent the earth from warming” viewpoint predominates in the news, yet no one has ever explained to me why. I remember from elementary school how the earth once had no ice at the poles and the fossil record in northernmost land shows it was tropical, yet the earth wasn’t flooded. Why?
No one has explained why the current warming trend isn’t just another harmless 200-yr cycle. Do we deny cyclical warming and cooling trends?
No one has explained to me why the news a generation ago was constantly lamenting a cooling earth with the same fervency they now lament its warming. Were they wrong then and right now? Or wrong now and right then? Or neither?
On the other hand, that some slight warming has been detected I can accept, but given that, why does it follow that “man” has to do something about it? Why can’t we just live with it?
That is why the subject is debatable, it has nothing to do with “right-wing” which I thought was a political term (and I don’t like politics).
Gavin — Thank you for the response to my comment #2.
Vinod Gupta (28) — These topics, while interesting, are rather off-topic for Real Climate. There are many alternative sites listed in the sidebar under the heading Other Opinions. Some of those may be of more assistance to you.
for new developments regarding bioenergy and the relationships to clean potable water, food and animal feeds.
“The inland ice on Greenland is vanishing much faster than scientists previously believed. This can be seen from new research results from the Danish National Space Center.
“Each year, in the south eastern part of Greenland alone, the glaciers produce a mass of icebergs which is equivalent to a gigantic ice cube measuring 6-1/2 km on all sides. And the reduction of the inland ice is accelerating. At the moment, four times as much inland ice is disappearing compared to the beginning of the decade.
“‘If this development continues, the melt water from the inland ice will make the world’s seas rise by more than 60 cm this century’, says senior researcher Abbas Khan of the Danish National Research Center, who was responsible for the research project. The results were obtained in co-operation with the University of Colorado and have just been published in the international research magazine Geophysical Research Letters.
A question – Why do GWPs vary with the time scale used time constant used? Wouldn’t the radiative forcing of the molecule, multiplied by it’s average lifetime in the atmosphere, give a GWP that is independent of time (as long as the time scale is long enough)? Or is it that we’re only looking at a time frame that is much longer than average lifetime of the gases?
Vinod Gupta: #28 There are answers. 1. We all eat vegan diets, with the plant foods grown organically. 2. We get all our power from solar, wind, geothermal, waves, etc. No fossil fuels at all. This can be done. All we need to do is do it. | 2019-04-25T12:04:26Z | http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/10/co2-equivalents/ |
If you want hot water in your home, then you’re going to need a water heater. This one essential appliance will immediately heat your home’s water supply and then distribute it through your plumbing network. One easy way to get all the hot water that you need is to install one of the best tankless water heaters.
2 How Long Does a Tankless Water Heater Last?
3 What Size Unit Do I Need?
4 How Much to Install a Tankless Water Heater?
5 When Should I Get an Electric Tankless Water Heater?
6 Should I Purchase a Gas Tankless Water Heater?
9 How Much is a Tankless Water Heater?
Tankless water heaters are one of the best investments a homeowner can make to avoid storing and constantly heating water to a specific temperature. It reduces a flooding risk because it eliminates the tank altogether. These are the top-rated models that are proven to get the job done.
Tankless units are generally rated to last for up to 20 years. Some models may be rated to last 25-35 years. This means a tankless heater will last 2 or 3 times longer than the standard tank-style model.
Tankless models usually come with a longer warranty as well. Manufacturers like Noritz offer a 10-year warranty on their models. Some warranties extend to 15 years. You also have an option to purchase an extended warranty at the time of purchase that will cover virtually anything that could go wrong with the equipment for up to 3 years after purchase.
The cost of maintenance must also be considered when looking at the longevity of the tankless design. Most tankless models rarely need to be serviced over the lifetime of the equipment. A standard tank-based unit will have mineral scale build-up on the inside of the tank, requiring it to be cleaned every year or two.
Over 75% of tank-based designs fail because a tank bursts or a leak develops. This means rusty water will cover everything that is in the room. If you have a finished basement, that’s bad news. Installing one of the best tankless water heaters will help to eliminate that potentially costly threat with one simple appliance upgrade.
If you’re trying to determine the size of the tankless unit that you need, then it is important to calculate the average gallons per minute (GPM) that your household will use. You will also want to know what your peak flow output rate will be so that your new heater will be able to handle your demands.
To do this, you’ll need to consider all your water-consuming appliances. You have faucets in the kitchen and in your bathrooms. You might have a dishwasher. Maybe you have a washing machine in the laundry room. Here are the typical flow rates to expect from each fixture or appliance.
Bathroom Faucets: Up to 1.5 GPM.
Kitchen Faucets: Up to 7.0 GPM.
Shower: Up to 2.5 GPM.
Dishwasher: Up to 2.5 GPM.
Washing Machine: Up to 3.0 GPM.
If you have the dishwasher on, the washing machine on, and the shower on all at the same time, then you’d want a unit that could handle up to 8.0 gallons per minute.
Then you’ll want to determine how much you’ll need to heat the water. This is done by calculating the difference between your groundwater temperature and your desired hot water temperature, which is usually 120F.
Let’s use Seattle, WA as an example to determine the heating calculation. The EPA estimates that groundwater temperatures in Seattle are 52F. To create the correct hot water temperature, it would be necessary for the heater to create a 68F change.
It is simple subtraction: 120F – 52F = 68F.
Now you’re ready to go shopping. Just use the flow rate from you GPM estimates and the temperature rise data as calculated in the example below to find a unit that meets your needs. That way you can have hot water you need whenever you want to have it.
Much of the cost that comes with a tankless water heater is due to a higher installation cost. Labor rates vary throughout the United States, with an installation cost of about $1,450 coming from the Midwest to a high of nearly $3,000 along the East and West Coast. Averaging all estimates from all regions, most homeowners should expect a tankless unit installation to cost about $2,000.
If you have a storage tank model already and it needs to be removed, then you can add another $300-$700 to the final cost.
Much of the cost is due to the requirement of adding ventilation access to the unit. If you already have a site with ventilation access available, then you can potentially cut the installation costs quoted above in half.
When Should I Get an Electric Tankless Water Heater?
Electric models are a good option for homes that are in urban centers, have a large-scale generator that provides backup power, or if usage of the appliance is expected to be part-time. If you live by yourself or with a partner and only use a minimal amount of hot water every day, then this is the route to go for you.
If you do not have a backup generator, then it is important to remember that your hot water heater will not operate during a power outage. If you have an extended outage, then it would be difficult to access any water from your home’s plumbing systems.
It also depends on what utilities are serviced at your property. If there isn’t a gas line available to you, then the cost of having one installed could potentially double your final costs. Go with the electric model instead, even if you don’t have a backup generator, to avoid this unnecessary expense.
Should I Purchase a Gas Tankless Water Heater?
If you have calculated your GPM to be above 5, then you should be considering a gas powered model. Natural gas heaters provide more heat and will cost less to operate compared to electric models. Unless you have multiple showers, appliances, or faucets running simultaneously, you should never run out of hot water.
There is also the added benefit of not requiring electricity to operate. This allows you to have access to hot water, even if the power goes out. Some tankless designs do require an electrical connection to operate, but are powered by gas – this design would not offer this specific benefit.
One model that should be considered is an outdoor tankless propane-fueled design. Propane often costs less than natural gas and is much cheaper than electrical models. A homeowner can save up to $25 per month and up to $4,000 over the lifespan of the unit by going with propane.
Tankless units are much smaller than the traditional models that often hold between 50-100 gallons of water. They are also very eco-friendly compared to the traditional design, which can save you money each month while expanding your hot water access. Here are the key differences that you’ll want to consider if you’re deciding between a tank or a tankless design today.
#1. Tankless models require a larger up-front investment. You can pay up to 3 times more for a tankless model at current pricing levels. There may also be higher installation costs if you are converting from a tank to a tankless design. You can make up the pricing difference through cost savings over 12-24 months in many cases, but the initial investment is still going to be greater.
#2. Tankless units hang on the wall. You’ll have a lot more floor space in your garage, shop, or utility room with a tankless unit. Most models hang on the wall and do not require insulation or spacing to operate.
#3. Tankless water heaters do not run out of hot water… usually. With a traditional hot water heater, you know about how long of a shower you can take before the water turns cold. A tankless unit is designed to not run out of hot water, so you can stay in the shower even longer. Only when there are periods of heavy usage will a tankless design offer cooler water.
#4. Tankless designs require ventilation. You’ll need to ventilate a new tankless water heater for it to operate correctly, which a traditional model does not always need, especially if it is an electrically-powered model. This will limit the number of installation points you have in your home, unless you’re willing to run install a ventilation pipe or duct.
#5. Tankless water heaters reduce energy consumption. How much can you save by using a tankless model over a traditional model? For homes using a water heater that is 10+ years old, the savings could be over 50%. The average homeowner will save about 30% on the amount of energy they consume to heat water.
There is one down side to using a tankless model vs. a tank model. Many homeowners rely on their hot water heater as an emergency source of water should they be cut off from services. A tankless design offers no on-site storage, so this resource would disappear.
Tankless models use up to 50% less energy than a tank-based model. The average family of 4 can save about $116 each year by upgrading to a tankless model.
Tankless designs typically use a high-powered burner to heat water on-demand. This means they require a special dedicated and sealed vent system to operate. Most communities require this to be performed by a licensed and bonded contractor due to coding requirements. Natural gas burners need a larger-diameter pipe as well, and this all adds to the initial installation cost.
Most hot water heaters provide about 50 gallons of heated water to use at any given time. Some models may offer 80-100 gallons. Extenders could add 5-10 gallons on top of this. Tankless units remove this limitation.
Many of the smaller tankless units that are available today will only provide enough hot water for a single faucet, shower, or appliance. If you run the kitchen faucet while someone is taking a shower, neither one of you will get hot water. It will be lukewarm at best.
Many tank-based units are rated for about 10 years of life. Most warranties will only cover 4-6 years. Tankless water heaters can last for 20+ years, have a warranty that is more than 10 years, and requires very little maintenance over the life of the unit.
Units are priced on the flow rate they can provide and the temperature change they can produce. Entry-level models are typically priced in the $400 range, producing a 4.0 GPM and a 40- to 50-degree water temperature change. From there, expect to add an extra $100 for every 0.5 GPM and 3 degrees of temperature you need to produce the correct levels of hot water in your home.
Premium tankless hot water heaters are priced above $1,000. Commercial-grade models can be priced above $2,000. These are typically for homes with large families or businesses that are looking for LEED certification.
This is an outdoor-use only model, but it does feature next-gen burner technologies so you still receive a highly efficient appliance. If all you need is a 35-degree shift in water temperature, then you can expect a GPM of 6.8. A 45-degree temperature increase results in a GPM rating reduction to 5.3. In colder climates that need 60+ degrees Fahrenheit of adjustment, the flow-rate can be sub-4.0. It has certain challenges that need to be met, but if your household can do so, then this is a solid buy.
The installation of this unit is a bit frustrating. Many homes will likely need to upgrade their natural gas piping to ¾-inch to accommodate this model. Once installed, achieving a 72F rise in temperature is a simple process without compromising the total GPM which can be achieved. Even with cold source water, it is possible to maintain a 5-6 GPM while heating water up to 120F – though this may be considered a commercial usage of the product for warranty purposes. We found this unit to be sturdy, well-made, and extremely dependable. It will work with PVC for exhaust venting.
EcoSmart offers self-modulating technologies within their heaters, allowing the unit to adjust temperature ratings based on the source input that is being received. This model is so strong that it can provide a 3.5 GPM flow rate at 105F even when the incoming water is just 37F. You have the ability to set your temperature controls with this model as well, in 1-degree increments, so you will receive the right water temperature whenever it is needed. This could be the answer you need. It has earned our strongest recommendation.
Many hot water heaters that are tankless and electric tend to operate on lower PSI levels. It’s not that unusual to see a rating between 80-120 PSI for models that are promoted as a whole-home option. The StiebelEltronTempra 24 offers users a working pressure of 150 PSI that remains very consistent. It does require a 2×50 minimum circuit breaker to be properly installed, pulling 208/240 volts. When properly installed, it can achieve a maximum temperature increase of 92F degrees when measured from a single faucet or fixture.
This model provides just enough support for continuous, but low-flow, hot water for various needs. You get an 11-inch water column that can be manually-controlled from a temperature standpoint for a 30F-35F temperature rise thanks to the maximum 37,500 BTU of support it receives. There is an automatic timer that will shut the unit off after 20 minutes to avoid using too much fuel and it can be wall-mounted in a home if desired quite easily. It weighs just 14 pounds. If you need a portable solution, this is an option that is worth considering.
We did notice that there was a small reduction in water pressure compared to tank-based models when using older high-flow faucets and fixtures. Homes that are still using older equipment may wish to upgrade their fixtures at the same time to take full advantage of what this unit can provide. Unlike some other makes and models, however, we found that this specific unit was surprisingly quiet. Even if you are pulling water at its full capacity, you can barely notice this heater is working when you’re in the same room. It definitely earns our recommendation.
For the average home, we see the GPM rating being more accurate in the 4-5 range. That’s still good enough for the needs of most families, especially if low-flow showerheads have been installed in the home. You won’t be able to run the dishwasher, the washing machine, and take a shower at the same time, but with some schedule management, it does get the job done. This means the square footage of the home matters less than personal usage of hot water. We found that this Takagi model works well for families of 4-5 people, perhaps 6 if a schedule has been highly organized.
Outside of its ability to self-modulate, we really appreciated how this electric model puts control into the hands of the user. It offers a panel which gives users access to digital temperature controls. Instead of spinning a dial and hoping for the best, you have 1-degree precision over the temperature of your water at the faucet or fixture. It has also been designed with stainless steel and copper components, which promotes a greater efficiency for the unit during periods of long-term use. We found it to be a compact, efficient, and durable system thanks to these design benefits.
This infrared tankless electric water heater offers whole-home hot water supports. It features coil-less technology that features quartz, which minimizes corrosion and scale deposits that can occur. It is virtually maintenance free, providing up to a 60% improvement in energy efficiencies. It does require 220 volts at 60 amps in order to operate, so some homes may need to have an electrical installation before this model is installed. There are smaller models that feature 20-amp, 30-amp, or 40-amp setups as well, so every home has the potential to receive endless hot water.
If you have a large household that demands a lot of hot water, then a tankless model might seem like the wrong decision. It’s not when you have this premium water heater working for you. Although it is a large investment, it also provides up to 9.8 gallons of hot water per minute with a 0.96 energy factor. The amount of space that it requires is minimal and it works with PVC or Concentric venting, giving you more options than most. It also has condensing technologies that allow for drainage instead of gas control, which is useful for homes with limited venting space. It’s easily one of the best tankless water heaters available right now.
The best tankless water heater reviews will help you create an endless supply of hot water for your home. Once you get the source water temperature down and know what temperature of hot water you prefer, you’ll be able to find a water heater that can give you blissful showers and much more thanks to its consistent flow rates. | 2019-04-25T14:43:37Z | https://www.waterheaterwatch.com/best-tankless-water-heater-reviews/ |
Lotteries are managed at the state-level in the USA, which means the rules and types of games on offer vary depending on where you live. On this page, we provide the full rundown with a description of every lottery in the United States complete with links to official websites, game descriptions and other key information to know before you play.
While it may be fair to criticize the lottery for offering notoriously poor odds compared to other games of chance, the lottery overcomes that objection by pure brute force with the biggest payouts in all of gambling. No other game in the world comes even close to matching the jackpots generated by major state and multi-state lotteries.
Powerball and Mega Millions in particular capture the imagination with jackpots that occasionally tread into 10-figure (read: billions) territory. Even the smaller, state-exclusive lotteries put other gambling games to shame with multi-million-dollar jackpots paid out on a regular basis.
States gained the authority to sell lottery products online in 2011 after the Department of Justice responded to an inquiry made by New York and Illinois lottery officials back in 2009 asking for clarification on the Wire Act. The DOJ responded with a memo explaining that it views the Wire Act as applying only to sports betting, which cleared the way for states to regulate online lotteries and gambling.
*Note: Texas and California do not endorse online ticket sales, but LottoGopher.com offers a concierge services that will send someone to buy tickets on your behalf. You must be a state resident to buy tickets in each state in which LottoGopher operates.
LottoGopher is a self-described “lottery messenger service” that allows customers to order tickets online, create private groups to pool their resources, track their results and receive payouts on winning tickets.
The LottoGopher business model is a bit of an outlier as it is not officially endorsed by any lottery. As such, LottoGopher exists on tricky legal footing and only operates in two states: California and Texas. Additionally, LottoGopher does not provide its services across state lines in order to remain compliant with federal law. This means the service is only available to residents of both states.
As a “lottery messenger service,” LottoGopher also stresses that it does not buy and resell tickets for a profit (which would be illegal). Instead, LottoGopher offers paid subscriptions for the service ranging from 24 hours to one year. With a subscription in place, you can then order lottery tickets at face value to prompt a LottoGopher employee to go buy tickets from an authorized retailer on your behalf.
State lotteries tend to be fairly predictable with a similar assortment of draw games, scratch cards, keno and so on. Although your exact options will vary depending on where you live, the following games are the ones you’re most likely to find at your nearest lottery retailer.
Odds are you’ve heard of Powerball a time or two. This is the game that hits the national news cycle occasionally when the top jackpot swells past $500 million, then $750 million and even sometimes over $1.5 billion.
Powerball generates some of the world’s largest jackpots by operating as a national game available across most of the United States. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are notoriously low, but that’s exactly how it manages to grow those enormous jackpots before someone wins the whole thing and the jackpot resets.
Mega Millions acts as a sister lottery to Powerball with massive jackpots that occasionally hit the news, two drawings a week and even the same price to play. Just like Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots occasionally blow past the $1 billion mark to set off a frenzy of ticket purchases across the country (which push the jackpot even higher).
The biggest difference between the two is Mega Millions drawings are held on different days of the week. Between Powerball and Mega Millions, lottery players in most states suffer no lack of big jackpots to aim for throughout the week.
Whoever came up with the concept behind Lucky for Life was absolutely brilliant. The idea of winning $1,000 a day for life is understandably appealing, yet it’s not actually a fairly small jackpot compared to the other major multi-state drawings even when you tally up the total value of those payments over 20 or 30 years.
Lotto America is run by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which also runs Powerball and a handful of other games. In Lotto America, players aim for a growing jackpot and have reasonable odds of 1 in 9.63 to win any prize at all.
Lotto America jackpots are much smaller than those offered by Powerball and Mega Millions, but that is offset by much better odds. While Powerball’s jackpot odds are about 1 in 292 million, Lotto America’s top jackpot odds are about 1 in 26 million.
2by2 is operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association but is only offered in a handful of states in the Midwest. The basic concept here is to give players a simple game with reasonable odds, medium-sized jackpots and daily drawings.
While the bigger MUSL lotteries certainly have their appeal, this one aims to give players a sense of having a much better chance (which they do). The overall odds of winning any prize at all in 2by2 are 1 in 3.59 and the odds of winning the top jackpot are about 1 in 105,000.
Almost every state with a lottery offers a variety of smaller, state-specific games with names like Pick 3, Cash 4 and so on. Because these draw games are limited to a single state, they tend to appeal to players by offering better odds rather than massive jackpots. You’ll find these games under a variety of names and formats, but some basic examples follow.
Numerous states hold simple Cash 3 lotteries which have players choose a three-digit number for a chance at winning up to $500. Play for $1.00 to win a max prize of $500 or play for $0.50 for a maximum prize of $250.
Similar concept to cash 3 except players pick a four-digit number for a chance at winning up to $5,000 off a $1 play or $2,500 off a $0.50 play.
This is a daily jackpot game played in numerous states with a default starting jackpot that grows every day there isn’t a winner. Tickets are sold for $1.00 and players choose five numbers. Naturally, the top payout comes when all five numbers are matched.
The exact rules regarding range of possible numbers to choose from, starting jackpot and other details vary, but generally Fantasy 5 acts as a mid-sized draw game with reasonable odds and simple rules.
The big draw games tend to dominate the news cycle, but they only account for a small percentage of all lottery sales. Daily draw games, keno and scratch cards account for a large chunk of all lottery sales.
While Powerball and Mega Millions are out capturing headlines, these other games provide a lowkey but constant stream of sales to lottery retailers and websites.
Probably not a whole lot of explanation needed here – these are the games you buy and scratch to find out if you’ve won. Scratch-offs do a ton of business for most state lotteries. In a recent PA Lottery financial report, for example, scratch-offs accounted for more than two-thirds of all lottery sales by dollar.
A number of states have authorized online scratch card games since 2011 and have reported strong sales through that medium as well. Online scratch cards (also called instant play games in some cases) work similarly to their real-world equivalents, but with graphics and animations that almost resemble slots.
Keno is a high-volume lottery-style game that runs every few minutes in states that offer this game. Keno works sort of like a regular draw game in having players pick numbers, but an automated system makes picks every few minutes with fixed prize levels determined by the number of picks made and number of hits.
In a typical game of keno, a player is asked to choose anywhere from one through twelve numbers out of a range of 1-80. The lottery operator then picks 20 numbers at random from that same range. The more matches a player has with those picked by the automated system, the bigger the prize.
Payouts at the lower end can be as little as $4 while payouts at the higher end can be as high as $1 million if a player makes twelve picks and all twelve are also chosen by the lottery operator. With high potential prizes and a new game running every few minutes, keno remains a popular game to this day. Some lotteries also offer online keno as well.
Video lottery terminals (VLTs) are designed to look and function just like regular slot machines from the player’s point of view, but are run by the state lottery and results are randomly determined by the lottery itself rather than by a random number generator (RNG) like slots are.
The differences between regular slots and VLTs are nearly indistinguishable in many cases. Some VLTs look and feel just like slots while others resemble scratch-off games and keno. In any case, VLTs are a quick way to run through a lot of money, so proceed with caution.
Forty-five states and DC have approved a lottery of some sort to date and just five have no lottery whatsoever. The only states without a lottery are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.
Alabama is one of just a small handful of states with no lottery. This is not particularly surprising given the state’s longstanding opposition to all things gambling. Even Alabama’s three tribal casinos are very limited in the types of games they may offer. There is clearly some level of demand for a state lottery, but it is anyone’s guess as to when or if Alabama will get a lottery.
Much like Alabama, Alaska is not a big gambling state. No casinos, no lottery and no racing betting make this a desert when it comes to gambling. State legislators have looked into introducing a lottery but have so far concluded it would provide little tax revenue to the state relative to what charitable gaming already raises for good causes.
The Arizona Lottery offers drawing games, scratch-off tickets and participates in Mega Millions / Powerball. Minimum age to play is 21 and tickets must be purchased in-person. Money raised by the Arizona lottery funds state educational, health and human services, environmental conservation and economic development programs.
The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery was established in 2009 and to fund educational efforts in the state. AR lottery tickets and scratch cards are sold at brick-and-mortar retailers only and the minimum age to play is 18.
Voters approved the California Lottery in 1984 as a means to raise money for public education and the first tickets were sold the following year. Today, the CA Lottery raises more than $1 billion a year for educational efforts. The CA Lottery sells instant-win scratch cards plus tickets to Powerball, Mega Millions and various state-level drawings.
One could make a strong argument that Colorado is the most scenic state in the USA, so it is not entirely surprising that the CO Lottery was sold to voters as a way to fund efforts to preserve the state’s famed parks, trails and open spaces.
Since selling its first ticket in January 1983, the CO Lottery has raised billions for conservation efforts, grants for outdoor projects and more.
The Connecticut Lottery sells a standard range of lotto products including tickets to the major multistate drawings (Powerball, Mega Millions and Lucky for Life) along with state-specific drawings, instant win scratch-off games and keno. Money raised by the CT Lottery goes to the state general fund and is disbursed from there to a wide range of state functions ranging from corrections to higher education.
Delaware has one of the more comprehensive offerings with multi-state draw games, Delaware-exclusive draw games, keno, instant win scratch games and a parlay-style sports lottery.
The DE Lottery also runs all gambling games inside the state’s three racetrack-casinos. Dover Downs, Delaware Park and Harrington Raceway all offer lottery-controlled video lottery machines, table games, sports betting and online gambling.
The Florida Lottery offers a standard array of draw games, scratch-offs and fast-play games that offer instant payouts to winners. Money raised by the FL Lottery goes to the Educational Enhancement Fund, which in turn allocates money to various education efforts throughout the state. Today, the Florida Lottery raises more than $1 billion a year for education.
The Georgia Lottery offers a full menu of in-person and online games spanning the full range of draw games, instant win scratch-offs and keno. Since launching in 1992, the GA Lottery has raised billions for state education programs designed to assist residents of all ages.
In 2012, the GA Lottery went online with the introduction of “Diggi” instant win games, keno and online ticket sales for Powerball, Mega Millions and Fantasy 5. State-level draw games such as Georgia Five are still sold in-person only.
Hawaii has long resisted gambling in general as a state with a heavy tourism industry and concerns that social costs would outweigh any realized revenue benefits. However, this is a debate that seems to come up every year, so it is entirely possible Hawaii does one day institute a lottery.
Voters approved the Idaho Lottery in 1988 and the first games were sold the following year with money raised going towards state education programs. The ID Lottery sells tickets to its own drawings as well as tickets for Powerball, Mega Millions and Lucky For Life. Other games in the lineup include scratch cards, pull tabs and raffle drawings.
Illinois began selling lottery tickets to standard drawing games in 1974 and had a successful first year, but sales entered a steady slide over the next few years as the newness of it all wore off. The IL Lottery introduced its first expanded game in 1980 and saw an immediate boost in sales. Since then, the Illinois Lottery has expanded its offerings to include state-level games, multi-state drawings, daily drawings and scratch cards.
Illinois also has the distinction of being the first state to sell lottery tickets online. Residents 18 and older can now visit the IL Lottery website to buy tickets, order subscriptions and receive online payouts for prizes under $600.
Interestingly, it was officials from the IL and NY lotteries who also set the stage for online gambling by asking the Department of Justice for a legal opinion on their plans to sell tickets online. The DOJ responded in 2011 with an opinion that not only was their plan legal, but that the Wire Act would be interpreted as applying only to sports betting. This gave states such as New Jersey and Delaware the legal room they needed to legalize the country’s first online casinos.
Voters approved the Hoosier Lottery in 1988, the first scratch-off tickets were sold in 1989 and then the first tickets to draw games were sold in 1990. Money raised by the Indiana Lottery now totals in the billions with revenue funding a number of important causes such as the Build Indiana Fund, the Teachers’ Retirement Fund and first responder pensions.
The Iowa Lottery got off to a quick start in 1985 with its first game, a scratch-off card called “Scratch, Match and Win” selling more than 6.4 million times in its first week. The Iowa Lottery has only grown since then and now provides millions of dollars to three key programs: the state General Fund, Vision Iowa and the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund.
The Kansas Lottery offers a typical selection of games including entries to Powerball and Mega Millions, local drawings, scratch card games and keno. Income generated by the KS Lottery goes to a dedicated gaming revenue fund and from there is divvied up across a variety of economic and infrastructure initiatives.
Kentucky boasts one of the more comprehensive state lotteries in the US with instant win games, keno, draw games and a full menu of online purchase options for residents. Money raised by the KY Lottery funds educational programs in the state.
The KY Lottery online platform is similarly full-featured with draw game tickets, instant win games and keno (every four minutes) all offered through the website for state residents 18 or older.
The Louisiana Lottery keeps things fairly simple with scratch-off games and a handful of draw games on offer. Powerball and Mega Millions are sold in Louisiana alongside a few state-specific draw games with smaller top prizes but significantly better odds. Money raised by the LA Lottery funds the Minimum Foundation Program for public education.
Maine held its first lottery drawing in 1974 and its first big winner came later that year with a local resident winning a $150,000 jackpot in the weekly “Play Me” game. Now, the ME Lottery offers the big multi-state games, a handful of local draw games and instant win scratch-off cards.
The Maryland Lottery offers a wide range of gaming options including daily draw games, tickets to the big multi-state games, scratch-off cards, keno and an electronic racing game called Racetrax. To date, the MD Lottery has raised billions for education, the environment and public health and safety.
Since its first drawing in 1972, the Massachusetts Lottery has raised billions of dollars’ worth of revenue for towns and cities across the state. Games on offer include a standard variety of drawings, instant win games and keno. Tickets may not be purchased online, but the MA Lottery is willing to sell subscriptions to residents and out-of-staters alike over the phone.
Michigan has a comprehensive lottery with many games on offer and an online platform that also offers the same games. Anyone 18 or older can participate in state-level drawings, buy tickets to Mega Millions and Powerball and play instant win games in-person or online from anywhere within the state.
The Minnesota Lottery offers a standard variety of draw and instant win games that raise money for a variety of causes including the state’s General Fund, the Natural Resources Fund, Game & Fish Fund and the Environmental & Natural Resources Trust Fund. Altogether, a little over 62% of all ticket sales are returned to players in the form of prizes.
Mississippi approved a lottery in 2018 and is now in the process of getting everything ready to go. A board of directors has been appointed and the Mississippi Lottery Corporation is now hiring employees and designing games.
The new MS Lottery is set to launch at the end of 2019 or early 2020. Once it goes live, Mississippi will become the 45th state to establish a lottery.
Missouri launched its lottery in 1985 and now sells tickets to an assortment of draw games (including Powerball and Mega Millions) along with instant win scratch games and keno. For the first few years of operation, the MO Lottery dedicated all proceeds to the state’s general fund. Voters changed that in 1992 with an amendment to earmark all revenue exclusively for public education.
Since selling its first lottery ticket in 1987, the Montana Lottery has expanded over the years to offer a range of games including scratch cards and a variety of drawing-style games. Montana Millionaire is the biggest state-level drawing game on offer while Powerball, Mega Millions and Lucky for Live provide access to the country’s biggest jackpots.
The Nebraska Lottery launched in 1993 with the sale of instant win scratch tickets and added drawing games the following year to make it a full-fledged state lottery. Today, the NE Lottery offers an array of scratch card games, tickets to daily drawings and entries to the major multi-state games.
“The potential impact of a lottery on commercial gaming, and therefore the state’s tax revenue, should be well-understood before amending the state’s constitution is considered.
Nevada’s casino industry maintains significant political sway in the state, so the creation of a state lottery remains quite unlikely any time soon.
New Hampshire is home to a robust lottery that offers instant win games, tickets to major drawings and a keno platform that runs a new game every five minutes. Online play was authorized in 2017 to allow anyone 18 or older and located within state lines to play online.
The New Jersey Lottery ranks as one of the 10-largest in the country by ticket sales, which is no surprise given the state’s population and well-established lottery that offers a standard array of games. The NJ Lottery does not sell tickets online, but residents do have plenty of other options with online sports betting, casino games and poker all available.
New Jersey also serves as a useful case study on how legalizing online gambling affects lottery sales. After the first online casinos launched in 2013, the NJ Lottery experienced increased sales for the next four straight years.
New Mexico introduced a state lottery in 1996 and offers an assortment of drawing games, scratchers and Fast Play games (print a ticket and see your results instantly). Income generated by the NM Lottery is used to fund scholarships sending students to public colleges, universities and technical colleges.
With roughly $10 billion in annual sales, the New York Lottery is the biggest in the nation by a longshot. Games on offer include the usual assortment of state drawings, multi-state drawings, daily games and scratchers. Money raised by the NY Lottery funds public education for K-12 and amounts in the billions of dollars every year.
Lawmakers created the North Carolina Education Lottery in 2005 and the first tickets went on sale the following year. Today’s lineup of games includes a mix of draw games and scratch cards along with keno and options to buy tickets to entry games online. Players must be 18 to play in-person or online.
The North Dakota Lottery raises millions of dollars annually for the state’s general fund, but offers a limited selection of games. When the ND Lottery was proposed to voters in an amendment, it was on the understanding that the state would only join established multi-jurisdictional lotteries. This means the ND Lottery only offers multi-state draw games such as Powerball, Mega Millions, Lucky for Life, Lotto America and 2 by 2.
State-specific draw games and instant win scratch cards are not allowed at this time. However, state residents do have the option to buy tickets online through the ND Lottery website and mobile app.
Ohio runs a robust state lottery that sells tickets to draw games and keno along with instant win scratch cards in-person and through cashless machines. Proceeds from the OH Lottery fund educational efforts throughout the state with upwards of one billion a year going to those programs.
In 2018, the OH Lottery introduced the Lottery Card as a tentative first step to enabling online play. Lottery Cards must be purchased in-person and then redeemed later via text.
Oklahoma voters approved a state lottery in 2004 and the first tickets went on sale in 2005 with proceeds earmarked for public education. Tickets must be purchased in-person with cash and the games on offer include instant win scratch-off cards plus drawings including Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto America, Lucky for Life, Pick 3 and Cash 5.
The Oregon Lottery generates significant income for various state services with draw games, keno, instant win scratch-offs and roughly 12,000 video lottery terminals spread across the state. Although online ticket sales are not an option at this time, lottery officials have expressed an interest in online play in order to make the lottery more appealing amid changing demographics.
The Pennsylvania Lottery has expanded significantly since it was established in 1971 and now offers draw games, scratch-off cards, keno and a sports-themed game called Xpress Sports. To date, the PA Lottery has raised billions for programs designed to assist older Pennsylvanians.
Sweeping legislation passed in 2017 authorized the lottery to begin selling lottery products online at PAiLottery.com. The legislation approved a variety of game-types for online play, but PA iLottery initially launched with a focus on instant win games.
Rhode Island held its first lottery drawing in 1974 with $0.50 tickets a weekly game called “The Lot” with a top prize of $50,000. The RI Lottery has expanded considerably since then with a full range of instant games, multi-state drawings, pull tabs and video lottery terminals. The RI Lottery also operates both of the state’s casinos where customers will find table games, video lottery terminals and sports betting.
In South Carolina, customers 18 and over can buy tickets to major multi-state drawings, local drawings exclusive to SC and instant win games at authorized retailers only. As the name suggests, the SC Education Lottery funds educational programs throughout the state. The bulk of money raised goes to higher education and scholarships while the rest goes to K-12 programs and other community education programs.
South Dakota maintains an expansive state lottery that includes a variety of draw games, scratch-off tickets and thousands of video lottery terminals located across the state. Money raised by the SD Lottery goes to the state’s General Fund and from there is allocated to education, infrastructure and environmental causes.
Tennessee got off to a quick start after establishing a state lottery in 2003 with the first year alone raising nearly $64 million for education efforts throughout the state. Since then, the TN Lottery has raised billons for education through draw games, instant win games and keno sold in-person and through vending machines.
The Texas Lottery is one of the biggest in the country with annual sales totaling in the billions despite offering no way to play online. For many years running, the TX Lottery has raised more than a billion dollars for state initiatives such as the Foundation School Fund, Texas Veterans Commission and more.
Utah’s longstanding opposition to all things gambling has extended to the lottery with the state being one of the few remaining holdouts not to authorize a lottery. Although some state lawmakers support the idea of a lottery, opposition remains strong. If Utah does one day get a lottery, it will probably be a result of a voter-initiated referendum.
The Vermont Lottery is one of the most efficient in the country with a staff of fewer than two dozen employees who oversee an organization that provides tens of millions to state educational efforts every year. Despite its small staff, the VT Lottery provides a healthy lineup of games consisting of instant win games, multi-state drawings, state-specific drawings and fast-play games that offer instant payouts.
The Virginia Lottery offers the usual assortment of draw games and instant win scratch cards in addition to selling subscriptions to the three big multi-state games online. Online subscriptions must be purchased for at least two weeks and the minimum deposit to get started online is $20. Money raised by the VA Lottery is put toward K-12 public education efforts.
The Washington State Lottery runs a collection of its own draw games, daily keno games, scratch cards and sells tickets to the major multi-state drawings including Powerball and Mega Millions. This is a fairly standard lottery by all measures but is still a big one with roughly half a billion dollars paid out to winners every year.
The DC Lottery is the country’s smallest in terms of geographic reach, but still manages to achieve annual sales in the range of $250 million. Games sold by the DC Lottery include a variety of daily-draw games, tickets to Powerball and Mega Millions, scratch cards and instant win games played at tap-n-play kiosks.
In 2018, the DC Lottery approved sports betting to take place in-person at authorized locations and through mobile devices.
West Virginia runs a highly profitable lottery that raises more than $500 million a year for education, senior services, tourism and state parks off sales in excess of $1 billion a year. The bulk of the money raised by the West Virginia comes from video lottery terminals which can be found at the state’s four racetracks and at certain businesses with alcohol licenses.
Games run by the WV Lottery include a mix of state-level draw games, multi-state games, scratch cards, keno and video lottery terminals. The WV Lottery Commission also oversees in-person and online sports betting in the state.
The Wisconsin Lottery operates a handful of its own draw games, participates in multi-state drawings and sells instant-win games to people 18 and older. Since launching its first games in 1988, the WI Lottery has raised billions for property tax credits benefitting homeowners throughout the state.
Wyoming tentatively entered the lottery business in 2013 with legislation authorizing draw games only. This means scratch cards and other types of lottery games are off limits for now, but the WY Lottery says it is always researching new ideas for draw-based games. Income earned by the WY Lottery is distributed to cities and towns across the state to use as they see best for their residents. | 2019-04-18T23:02:37Z | https://www.usgambling.com/lottery/ |
As emerging writers, we are told to create action or drama at the opening of our stories. Nonfiction writers, especially biographers, often foreshadow a significant event in their subject’s life, while fiction writers do the same by cherry-picking a critical point on the timeline, but this is not always practical. In general, reader engagement arises by presenting an aspect of the story that generates keen interest. For example, it could be humor or tension that is exemplary of the entire book. The biggest mistake is presenting large amounts of backstory or introductory information at the start. Another version of this misstep is beginning too soon on the timeline. Both of these approaches throw water on the spark of the story. This set up information can be folded into the story at a later time or even removed altogether. In modern times, think about eliminating chapters that begin with the words Foreword, Introduction, Prologue, and Preface—or even Epilogue for that matter because they sap energy from the book. Many readers receive these appendages like homework and skip them to get to the meat of the book.
A book should have a clearly defined purpose, otherwise it’s just a long and wandering diatribe. A nonfiction book has a thesis, while a work of fiction has a story question. Don’t let any fine writing teacher talk you out of this essential element of a book. All art from poetry to painting has a point. When it’s focused—because its creator knows precisely what it is—the reader or viewer becomes involved with the piece. The writer who says “I write to discover what the story’s about” should be pushed down a flight of stairs. This statement is disingenuous and impractical. While writers discover aspects of and hone down a story during its development, there comes a time when the writer makes a firm commitment to the mission of the book and then goes about amplifying it. A smart writer makes it clear in the opening pages and sometimes even the title.
Book openings are like a first date. The writer features what he does well and goes to it often during the course of his relationship with the reader. If the opening is phony, disorganized, or confusing, the reader will never get to the next chapter, and a match made in heaven has been squandered. Quickly establish as many of the following items as possible: the predominant point of view used, the main character(s), the typical setting, and the sequencing. While these aspects help authenticate the story, the latter involves the structure of the book. If the book darts back and forth through time, events, and/or characters, it’s critical to present a pattern from the start. As a result, your story organization will become a silent rhythm in the reader’s mind.
The tone of the story involves everything from word choice, to sentence structure, to the overall attitude of the narrative and characters. Most stories form a conundrum that ranges from solving a mystery to battling the internal complexities of the human spirit. This can be presented on a scale from terrifying to hilarious. Even if the story tone shifts for dramatic effect, the main tone should be delivered at the start. If the story is a romance, then it’s the longing of the heart. If it’s an intense mystery, then it’s a mangled corpse. If it’s an enduring quest, then the journey’s gauntlet must be cast down.
It’s a self-indulgent or inexperienced writer who does not recognize the trend to immediately engage the reader. In fact, it isn’t a trend, but a well-established precept of successful writing. If you are currently writing to figure out what the story is about or where the story begins, then stop! Park your pen and take a moment to do some sketching and outlining before you draft another word. Ask your characters why they’ve entered the room and what they want from the story. If they can’t tell you, then they either need to leave or you need to get to know them better before pushing them along their story line. Once you know their stories and what they want, find the first worst moment on their timeline and begin the story right there.
Be suspicious of a publication that refuses to reveal a reviewer’s name or credentials.
Professional Writing – A number of aspects go into a professionally written review. First, is the staff populated by professionals? This seems obvious, but many review sites are writer mills, allowing virtually anyone who is interested to pen a review. Other review sites barely compose a staff. These are mom and pop shops that tend to hang an Internet shingle for business, purport authority, and write reviews on their own. These are not professionals at work, no matter how slick or jazzy their websites appear. Look at the publication’s staff page, if it even has one. Are there more than a handful of writers? Be suspicious of a publication that refuses to reveal its reviewers’ names. The byline credit is a basic courtesy given to a professional freelancer, and virtually none would work without obtaining a byline for their portfolio. Second, is the review publication consistent across the masthead? A professional review publication has guidelines and an editor who keeps its staff and articles in line. Each review should have consistency, generating both authority and confidence in the publication. Third, does the reviewer address both the book content and the writing? Any sixth-grader can write a book summary, but a professional will critique a book through informed commentary that also addresses the writing itself. If the review narratives appear summary-driven, conversational, or employ a first-person tense, these are not professional writers at work.
Authentic Readership – Are there dedicated subscribers, visitors, and followers of the review publication? A professional review means nothing if no one reads the publication. Weekly, monthly, and annual visitors are metrics that can be easily measured (and provided to the author). Does the publication have a subscriber base? If not (or if it’s insignificant), the publication cannot assert relevance for its work. And if the publication merely dumps its reviews on an on-line aggregator (that next to no one reads), it will not be of any service to the author. Next, validate the publication’s social media following with one of the free analytical tools, such as TwitterAudit for Twitter followers and LikeAnalyzer for Facebook likes. Here’s a dirty little secret about the industry: Many review publications are purchasing Twitter and Facebook followers to create the illusion of having a large audience, when in fact it is only a fraction of what it appears to be. This is useless to the author, as well as unethical on the part of the publication. See our article on this subject: Fake Social Media: More Common Than You Think.
A high price does not guarantee quality or readership.
Cost-Effectiveness – Most authors’ budgets are limited, and spending hundreds of dollars for a book review is not acceptable. Often these reviews are no better than that which you can obtain from a free book review site like The Midwest Book Review, which ranges from good, semi-professional coverage to amateur reviews. A high price does not guarantee quality or readership. A professional book review can be obtained for less than one hundred dollars, but be certain to closely examine the publication’s writing and readership in advance.
…you have to ask: What business is the review publication really in?
Warning: If the publication or its editors are up-selling manuscript editing services or the like, you have to ask: What business is the review publication really in? Are they a review publication, or are they a money-milking operation? The work of an editor and the work of a reviewer should never cross paths. An editor ensures quality, and a reviewer measures it. When the reviewer and editor become one entity, integrity flies out the window. (Hmmm… let us review the wonderful manuscript we just helped you edit… hmmm… not very trustworthy.) Furthermore, many of the side marketing services offered by review publications are built on a promise of viewership and not supported by real data. Ask for site traffic data or evidence of real of readership. For example, The US Review of Books is consistently a top Google search for “book reviews” in a very crowded field and has a strong monthly readership in the tens of thousands, as well as thousands of additional on-line visitors and followers on social media.
Remember, a book review is only the beginning of an essential conversation about the book.
Deciding to purchase a book review can be an effective tool when marketing a book. It can provide pull-quotes for marketing and stock materials for a media kit and press releases. It can even seed eventual sales. Remember, a book review is only the beginning of and essential conversation about the book, but it will neRead this article on creating a feedback loop to help kick-start your marketing efforts.
The US Review of Books is a professional review publication sent to more than 18,000 monthly subscribers, including thousands of additional followers on Facebook and Twitter. The US Review is staffed by professionals and is highly praised by authors and publishers.
It’s been a decade since an art book has taken the grand prize for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, but this beauty kept rising to the top of our judges’ scoring cards. Have you ever seen a book after it becomes wet and dries? It screams, with a puffed chest of curling pages like the arms of a roiling sea monster. Julius Freedman shows us this and more, as he takes on the book as both physical and symbolic object. In a sequence of building images, The Book begins with a book as art in its purest form—its complex leather bindings, the embedded tabs of a dictionary, the pages of sophisticated rag or weave. Then books begin to take flight, with pages misshapen, eventually cracking and splitting from their spines, the print itself escaping, until we enter the realm of collage, yet always tethered to the concept of a book itself.
Is a book a mere extension of our memories, or does it go deeper than its byproduct overlap with our brains? If Gabriel Garcia Marquez created a book to fit his prose, it might result in one of Freedman’s constructions. The organization, as well as thoughtful commentary by Pico Iyer and Jill Gage, strike the right balance with the art presentation. Unique, whimsy, thought-provoking, this beautiful coffee table edition is worthy of any collection. but it is so much more. It envelopes the very concept of the book itself. Bravo.
President Nixon’s legacy, and resulting long shadow over history, rests with two monumental blunders unknown to most people. He took the US dollar off the gold standard, resulting in a global currency destabilization that may soon come home to roost. In addition, he canceled the Saturn V rocket—the largest rocket ever assembled by mankind, the rocket that would have launched astronauts to Mars. Without either of those decisions, the US space program might have already colonized the red planet and would have the money to accomplish it.
After a fifty-year malaise, NASA lacks both the funding and the technological will to get the job done. Although it appears to be catching up for lost time, it has purposefully suffered from a presidential lack of vision leading from Nixon to Obama. In short, the US is decades behind where it should be. Make no mistake about it; going as far back as the Mercury Program days and beyond, Mars has always been the goal. Its similarity to Earth and its close proximity to the mineral-rich asteroid belt make it the ultimate target within our solar system.
Petranek covers the basics of a potential trip to and the colonization of Mars in what appears to be a reprint of a TED lecture rather than any in-depth discussion on the topic. Still, he covers the necessary points regarding why, how, and then what happens next. Achieving Mars will be complicated. If cutting-edge engine technology doesn’t pan out, the trip will be a minimum of six to ten months, all the while exposing humans to an unprecedented level of radiation that doesn’t cease once they reach the planet. On the surface, humans must immediately tend to the basics of food, water, oxygen, and shelter. Temperatures range from 80 degrees to -225 degrees Fahrenheit, and the atmosphere is toxic. Luckily but not easily, Mars has water frozen at the poles, in regolith rock, and perhaps below the surface, and if you can reclaim water, you can make all the oxygen you require.
The author sticks with the theory that travelers to Mars will never return to Earth. This opposes a more ambitious plan for a Mars cycler commuting between planets while carrying passengers and cargo. Regardless of the approach, early arrivals to Mars will need to bring everything they need to survive, but to establish a colony, they’ll need to generate all vital staples on-site, including growing plants to eat and creating parts for repair and construction. Eventually they’ll go about the process of terraforming the surface to sustain life. A few theories regarding this latter transformation are kicked around in this book as well.
At times, the author pays too much homage to private enterprise players such as Elon Musk, but given NASA’s slowed pace and funding, it’s logical that humans aren’t going to reach Mars without the commercial interests of partners. Virtually no great human migration has been accomplished on idealism alone. For example, Christopher Columbus, like the Vikings before him, traveled to the New World in search of treasure for his homeland. Later on, the Pilgrims arrived via private funding with the hope of establishing a regular income stream for their investors.
Mars is the New World, and like the explorers that preceded them on Earth, travelers to Mars will go to change their lives, discover new frontiers for the species, and harvest the planet’s riches. Before long, our descendants will not return to Earth, but become Martians for future generations. This book provides an overview of how that might happen.
If your introduction to Vic Chesnutt was the benefit album Sweet Relief II, you quickly moved past the great celebrity performances and asked: Who is this songwriter and why haven’t I heard of him before? If you still haven’t heard of Chesnutt—or the author of this book for that matter—you’d better go record shopping this afternoon before someone spots your musical blind spot. Regardless, in this haunting, poetic, musical road show memoir, singer/songwriter Kristin Hersh takes us inside her friendship with Chesnutt. Her experience is as insightful to a musician’s life as it is to the human existence—constantly probing and reevaluating self-understanding along with her footing on the planet.
Chesnutt, paralyzed since eighteen years of age, is a songwriter’s songwriter, whose catalogue has been rerecorded and admired for decades. He passed away on Christmas 2009 after an apparent self-induced overdose. He would likely find the sentimentality of that date to be nauseating. There was very little he wouldn’t poke fun of, including himself. He came across as somewhat twisted by life’s cruel blows and ironies, but he was beautiful as well, like a modern sculpture that acknowledges the past but rearranges it in a compelling way. As Hersh says, “he was broken in all the right places.” Listening to his songs, you had the feeling that you were always hearing the real Vic Chesnutt.
Much of this book covers a shared tour when Chesnutt was a decade or more into a brilliant career launch and Hersh was composing one of her best solo albums. You’ll understand Hersh’s must-have Sunny Border Blue better after reading this book. The line between Chesnutt’s everyday discourse and songs will be blurred. From town to town and stop to stop, as their vigilant spouses watch and occasionally mop up after them, Chesnutt and Hersh bounce off each other intellectually and emotionally, achieving spare equilibrium in one of the truly unique musical relationships.
The ending is the curtain fall you expected, although the author fights hard to meter her words while the songwriter fights just as hard to mute her sound regarding the event. Grief doesn’t get processed in a minute, a day, a year. Grief puts a new song in your head, one you never wanted to hear. Hersh sketches the loss, that song.
While a smidge more orientation would have been appreciated in general, this narrative isn’t about place and time. The writing is a lot like Hersh’s songs—focusing on moments, reflections, and the stray-dog objects that compose life. There are lines you’ll never forget, and you can’t help but love the adorable, self-sabotaging, curmudgeon Chesnutt revealed in these pages. You’ll wish you’d been there to absorb his flak backstage or in the southern sun. On balance, this book stands as a testament to the sincerity of his songwriting.
assigning a successor to his duties if he/she cannot perform them.
Your literary executor will not have control of your work’s copyright (i.e. ownership). That will belong to your heirs. However, a literary executor with full power will not have to consult your heirs during negotiation of those rights. If you do not want your literary executor to manage certain work or have specific powers, including exclusive negotiation rights or the assignment of a successor, these aspects should be specifically outlined in the document that assigns your literary executor. One compromise is to have your literary executor act as an experienced advisor to your heirs, consulting with them on all decisions and then implementing agreed upon terms.
Assigning a literary executor is not all about contract negotiation and oversight. It also involves handling your literary papers and letters. Robert Gover had told me that some of his manuscripts and letters were already stored at the Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, and so it made sense to move his remaining papers to that institute—a process that took over a year to bring to fruition. Otherwise, I would have had to locate a respectful archive for his papers.
For the Eric Hoffer estate, his papers had already been stored at the Hoover Institute, but with regular rights inquiries, it was important to have access to existing contracts in order to help avoid copyright conflicts. I began collecting contracts before his initial heir died. (I was not there when Hoffer died, but brought on by his initial heir.) Obtaining copies of existing contracts is a protracted process. In my experience, publishers will be intentionally unhelpful. They have a long history of hiding royalties from authors, as well as assuming rights that they had never obtained. Make sure your literary executor knows everything you do, so he/she can make the best decisions. Slapping a firm letter on a publisher with the power of an informed literary executor is better on any day than filing a lawsuit. The big publishers will out-wait and out-lawyer you every time.
Unless something unusual happens like a late surge in the popularity of your work, managing your literary estate requires the most work immediately following your death. First, there are your papers to deal with. Also, your literary executor might be called upon to assess the value of your literary estate. During probate or later financial inquiries, your literary estate might be measured regarding worth and potential earnings.
Your literary executor might even have to destroy portions of your papers in order to preserve your legacy. If you trust your literary executor, and you should, give him/her that right. He/She will be looking out for you in your absence. As authors, we sometimes hold onto early, inferior manuscripts that we should have burned a long time before our passing. Do you think Emily Dickinson wishes she had a literary executor who might have destroyed the so-so novel of a legendary poet and kept it from being published? From what I’ve learned about her demanding and independent personality, I would guess the answer is yes.
Considering the effort that might be in store for your literary executor, a 10% to 20% payment on royalties is reasonable. (Again, your state laws may limit/specify executor payments.) Your literary executor likely will be doing all of the work, while your heirs cash checks. For Gover, I do it as a labor of love. For the Hoffer estate, I field regular rights and usage inquiries that must be investigated, negotiated, and perhaps declined. It is a nontrivial effort, which the earnings percentage that I receive helps salve.
As I write this article, I realize that I have not yet considered my own literary executor. I have published several books and scripts, and there are various contracts, royalties, and projects in the works at stake. Furthermore, I have specific desires about how I’d like my work to be managed in perpetuity, and I also need to consider the succession for the literary estates that I handle. While I hope to be around for some time yet, I plan on lining up my literary executor and successors well in advance. Many of those people are already obvious to me. I imagine your potential literary executor will be obvious to you. Don’t wait too long. Solidify your literary legacy now.
The above article is practical advice for authors, not legal advice for individuals setting up a will. Probate laws and requirements vary from state to state. Seek professional advice where necessary.
No one likes to think about wills or insurance policies. It’s the stuff that reminds us of our mortality, yet helps define our legacy. Legacy planning requires thoughtful reflection and the selection of the correct, living people to manage it. When you’re gone, you’ll have little control over what happens next. You can either prepare for the best outcome while you walk the Earth or leave your heirs with chaos, feuding, and probate courts. Your heirs will have varying degrees of concern for your legacy, ranging from not-at-all through avarice to sincere compassion for your work. Get control of the process now.
As an author, you have a special addendum to your legacy known as your literary estate. This involves the administration of your published and unpublished work, letters, papers, royalties, and contracts. You’ll need someone you can trust to manage your literary estate who will look after both your interests and integrity as an author. The reason why you don’t see the Ernest Hemingway Big Game Rifle or the Jack Kerouac Touring Tires is because they have the correct person managing their legacies. The person who will manage your literary estate is known as a Literary Executor.
Most people are familiar with an Estate Executor—the appointed person who manages the affairs of a dearly departed. State laws moderate what an estate executor can do and how much he/she can be paid for doing it. This person is often an attorney who knows how to navigate the law and has experience dealing with heirs. Unfortunately, this person has general experience for estates and often little to no experience with the literary world and all of its pitfalls and trap doors. For that, you’ll want to appoint a Literary Executor to administrate your literary estate apart from your general estate concerns.
Your literary executor would optimally be someone who is both involved in the business of publishing and is familiar with you and your heirs. It could be an editor, agent, or fellow writer. He/She should understand both your work and intentions. This is uncovered through knowing you and maintaining an ongoing dialogue about your work. After your death, your literary executor will act in your place, even appointing the next literary executor to succeed him/her.
In the years leading up to his death, bestselling author Robert Gover asked me to become his literary executor. I was the natural choice. He was my writing mentor before I was published. I admired and understood his work. Over the years, we became peers in the industry, and in addition to being published on my own, I edited his latter novels. We were friends, and I came to know his wife and children (i.e. his eventual heirs). This is the optimal of all situations. While you’ll benefit from assigning someone who knows your heirs, aim for a literary executor who understands the business first, and then your work next.
Gover knew that his heirs would trust me and my eventual decisions, but I was powerless in managing his literary estate unless it was official. However, I learned that almost no one had information on this topic. I am a member of the Author’s Guild, which defends authors on various copyright and literary concerns, but even their legal council had no advice other than a general disclaimer that they would not be advising me on this matter. Furthermore, Gover had limited funds near the time of this death, and so hiring the correct yet expensive attorney to draw up paperwork was out of the question. If you own a wealthy literary estate or you possess the financial means, you should hire a publishing-experienced attorney to establish your literary legacy. Unfortunately for most authors, the cost of this attorney would erase any hope of profit and thereby eliminate a primary factor of managing a literary estate in perpetuity.
In the case of Gover’s literary estate, I sought a document that assigned my position. The answer was a simple letter from Gover, declaring me as his literary executor to manage all of the aforementioned factors that go with those duties in the event of his death. In his advanced age, I typed it up for him and had a professional notarize the document. A Notary Public can be found at a nearby bank, post office, shipper, or even an attorney’s office. You might have one in the family. The point was to have Gover assign me as his literary executor (and my appointed duties) in clear language on a document with a witnessed signature. Having secured that, I was a literary executor for the first time. Without that document, all control of his literary estate would be left in the hands of his heirs.
If your literary estate is significant—that which will generate an inheritance tax for example—consider having your literary executor specified in your will. This will require a visit to an experienced attorney. It’s also a good idea to sit down with your heirs in advance and explain to them who will be managing your literary estate if it will not be your heirs directly. You want no surprises. Your death will be an emotional time, and surprises will create unnecessary contentions with or among your heirs. Keep in mind that after your death, your literary executor conceptually will be the steward of your work, but in reality will be working on behalf of your heirs. | 2019-04-21T22:27:16Z | https://theusreview.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/page/2/ |
She often prayed that affection might never bias her judgment, but that reason and religion might govern her in every state and turn of life.
Her first marriage was to Griffith Lloyd, Esquire, of Hemingford Grey in Huntingdonshire, on the first day of February 1667, in the twenty-third year of her age. He was a gentleman of good repute and estate, of great usefulness in his country whilst in commission of the peace; and afterwards, as a reconciler of differences and common patron to the oppressed. He was of a very active and generous spirit, a person of great piety and singular temper, and steady faithfulness to his friends. They lived together about fifteen years (to April 13, 1682) with such a mutual love and pleasure as to be taken notice of by all their neighbours; envied by some and glorified in by others, especially their own relations.
Her second marriage was to myself on May 29, 1697: but with what care and fear and cautious procedure she managed the same, let her own diary say. Sure I am, had not she or some of her particular confidants been fully satisfied of the clear conduct of providence in the whole affair from first to last, it could never have come to pass. What solemn addresses did she make to heaven upon this occasion! And how solemnly did she adjure others to do the like! And how impartially did she compare God’s answers to both! What her yearly remarks were upon this day it is a pleasure for me to find in her diary, but does not concern others.
As to her relative duties, she made great conscience of them and was very exemplary in them.
It was not possible, I think, there should be a more observant, tender, indulgent and compassionate wife than she was. It was never in her temper to desire any greater authority than God had given her.
I cannot but with great affection – and let others pardon me in it – read over her constant and too solicitous concern for me; and how many hours and days of prayer by herself and (by her procurement) with others were observed upon my account for the recovery of my health, and continuance and success in my ministry: to which I am persuaded, under God, I owe my life, and many instances of grace in the course of my preaching. It has grieved me to think how many weary days, and waking nights, and hazardous journeys, and anxious thoughts the ill state of my health has caused her from year to year.
Nor can I, without great thankfulness to God, reflect upon the many comforts of our lives, our mutual endearments and unbroken affection to each other: the peace and pleasure we have had, without the alloy of any one quarrel, passion or dispute, for almost twenty-three years together, which, next to the grace of God, was chiefly owing to her singular prudence and patience, and the excellency of her natural and Christian temper.
Nor must I forget (what others have never known till now) with what meekness and humility and submission – in the most obliging, as well as inoffensive manner – she has sometimes hinted what she suspected amiss in my conversation and conduct. Innumerable infirmities, no doubt, she industriously covered. But in tenderness of affection to me, she would never let any such sin lie upon me which she thought might be observed by others, or prove any blemish to my profession.
In one thing she was apt to be smart upon me, and that was for not dealing faithfully with her in the slips I observed in her own conversation; and would often say she left that guilt upon me which I observed in her, and she not in herself: but I hope my conscience can answer me against that charge.
As a mistress, she was very careful in the choice of her servants (where she could have choice); [and] was always afraid of strife and contention in her family, lest she should be ruffled in her own spirit, and the common interest of religion obstructed by intestine jars and disaffection. She never took any into her service till she had solemnly prayed to and pleaded with God, and submitted herself to his direction. Whenever she treated with any, she did not only acquaint them with the business of the place but also with the religious orders of the family, to which she had their explicit consent.
When once admitted, it was her first and constant care to inquire into the state of their souls; to instruct and catechize; to reprove and encourage; to warn them of the snares and dangers of their age and place; and to enjoin them to take time for secret prayer, reading the Scripture, meditation and self-examination. She always charged it as a duty upon herself to talk over every sermon they heard together, especially on Sabbaths, and to inculcate that upon them, in a particular manner, in which she thought they were most concerned. She sometimes took an account of them together; but at other times, when her health and strength would allow it, she examined them singly and apart, that such as could remember but little might not be discouraged by those that could do better; and that she might have a fairer opportunity of closer application to their particular state, as she saw occasion. By this means she became a servant to her servants and took pleasure in all her pains with them, though oftentimes to extreme faintness.
Her servants themselves will own what natural care she took of them in sickness as well as health. And her diary will abundantly prove how incessantly she prayed for them and suited her prayers to the particular exigencies of every state. How often do we find her there mourning over the unteachableness of some, and melted into tears for them, and lodging her appeals with God as to the sincerity of her endeavours to have done them good; and rejoicing over others, that God had answered her prayers, and blessed her instructions, and brought them under the bonds of the Covenant, and planted them in families and made them blessings there. I cannot remember any that were brought under her care but had learned something of the method of a sermon before they left her; and very many whose memories were improved so far as to bring home all the particular heads of two sermons in a day, though many.
Whenever she inclined to part with a servant, she always consulted God in it; would then take them into her closet and very pathetically advise them, and teach them a proper conduct of life, that they might be acceptable in other services. And such was the success of these her religious methods that I know not of any one servant she ever had but was, first or last, under some awakenings of conscience, and spiritual convictions, and seeming resolutions for God and religion, however they wore off afterwards. It is common with some of them still, upon every occasion, to speak of their mistress’ care of them and prayers with them when the family was left with her, as, in the necessary absence of others, it often was.
If we consider her with respect to her other relations, we shall find her a constant sharer with them in all their joys and sorrows. A more sympathizing spirit is very rarely to be found. She never ceased to pray for them, as parts of herself; [and] was often mourning for their sins and afflictions; rejoicing in the piety of some, and thirsting after the conversion and return of others. When a distance from any, she had a particular talent in writing to them; and such was the pertinency, pathos and pungency of all her letters that everyone valued and was greatly pleased with them. When present with others, she was always feeling which way their pulses beat; insinuating herself into their affections; instilling something proper into their minds; observing, persuading, warning and directing as she thought it necessary. She has an honourable testimony in the consciences (I believe) of all her relations, who honour her memory, and own her a pattern of great integrity, piety, ingenuity and faithfulness. Her animadverting upon her friends (in the manner she used to do it) was so far from offending, that it was oftentimes very pleasing to them: [it] begat in them some awful regard to her person, and a true decorum in their own lives.
Griffith Lloyd (c.1620–82), former Captain of Horse in the New Model Army. Of Welsh descent, he had relatives in Llandeilo Talybont, near Pontarddulais, Glamorganshire. His parents were Maurice Lloyd and Elizabeth Guilliams of Glamorganshire. The surname is written variously in English documents: Floyd, Loyd, Loid etc. Spufford (The World of Rural Dissenters, 1520–1725) is mistaken in asserting ‘We know little of her first husband, a graduate, barrister and JP’, apparently on the strength of Venn and Venn’s entry in Alumni Cantabrigiensis, which relates to a different man. That particular Griffith Lloyd who matriculated at Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1658 was ‘of Wales’, whereas Capt. Lloyd had been known as a Huntingdonshire man ‘of Hemingford’ and ‘of St Ives’ long before that date, and had been appointed by Cromwell as a Commissioner for Cambridge University in 1654; the Griffith Lloyd admitted to Gray’s Inn on April 11, 1660 and called to the Bar June 25, 1667 was son and heir of William Lloyd, Esq. of Lanarthney, Carmarthen; and the Griffith Lloyd admitted to the Inner Temple November 29, 1670 (February 8, 1672?) and called to the Bar on November 29, 1677 was from Masepandy, Merionethshire. Neither of these was Elizabeth’s husband.
They were married at the parish church of Rampton in Cambridgeshire, two miles south-east of Willingham, the adjoining parish. It is understandable that Elizabeth would not wish to be married in Willingham parish church, from where her stepfather Nathaniel Bradshaw had been ejected.
Griffith Lloyd, who was the same age as Elizabeth’s mother, lived six miles away at Hemingford Grey, near St Ives. Griffith Lloyd would certainly have known Elizabeth’s late father, for they had both been captains of horse in the New Model Army, they had fought in the same battles, and it is recorded that both took part in the conventions of army officers at Saffron Walden in March 1647 (Journal of the House of Lords).
This date is incorrect, and the error is reproduced by the Dictionary of National Biography (1886 and 2004) and all other biographies examined. They were married by licence on February 1, 1666 (1665 according to the old calendar). Identifying the year when dates are between January 1 and March 24 is notoriously difficult. According to the official calendar (where the year started on March 25) it was February 1, 1665; by our modern dating, 1666. Probably Samuel Bury was given the already ‘corrected’ date as February 1, 1666, and, thinking it being in the old form, ‘corrected’ it to 1667. The original details in the Vicar-General allegations for the marriage licence sworn on January 24, 1665/6 are ‘Griffith Lloyd, of St Ives, co. Huntingdon, Esq., Bachr, abt 23, & Elizabeth Lawrence, of same, Spr, abt 20; consent of mother [blank] Bradshaw alias Lawrence; at Rampton co. Cambridge’ (Chester, ed. Armitage).
Elizabeth was 21, and so ‘about 20’ as per the licence, but Griffith Lloyd was much older than the 23 years stated therein: in fact, he was twice that age. Where there was a large age difference, it seems to have been something of a practice to put the husband’s age just a few years older than the wife’s; for example, on Elizabeth’s second marriage, Samuel Bury’s age is given (correctly) as ‘34 yeares’ whereas she is described as ‘aged 30 yeares or thereabouts’, though she was actually aged 53.
Lloyd was friends with luminaries in the Commonwealth and Protectorate such as his regimental officer Charles Fleetwood (described by Griffith Lloyd himself as ‘my good friend’), James Berry, John Owen DD and Samuel Disbrowe, who were a generation older than his wife Elizabeth.
There were no children of the marriage but it appears that Griffith Lloyd had at least two children before his marriage to Elizabeth. In September 1668, we find Charles Lloyd, son of Griffith Lloyd, Esq. of Hemingford, Huntingdonshire, apprenticed to Stephen Blackwell of the Fishmongers’ Company. In Griffith Lloyd’s will dated 1680 it is evident that he also had a married daughter, for he remembers ‘my daughter Mrs Elizabeth Filbee’ and ‘my sonne [-in-law] Thomas Filbee’. Clearly, in the words of his will, these children were not considered ‘lawfull issue begotten of my body’.
From 1649 to 1660 some officers in the army were appointed as JPs and there was significant military involvement in the ‘commission of the peace’. In 1655 the country was divided into twelve military districts under the rule of a major-general with a ‘police force’ of several thousand mounted men. Fleetwood was responsible for much of eastern England where he discharged the major-generalship through his deputy Hezekiah Haynes.
Perhaps more than any other officer in the army, Griffith Lloyd was employed as a trusted intermediary, though this was not always a happy situation for him. The following examples show how he was a man of good repute, and a reconciler of differences. For an account of Griffith Lloyd’s military career and his military associates see the footnotes appended to his last will and testament towards the end of this work.
During March 1647 Griffith Lloyd was present at the stormy army meetings at Saffron Walden to consider Parliament’s request to send troops to Ireland. Lloyd then became implicated in drafting and circulating a petition of the army. ‘Lloyd had been employed in drawing up the grievances of the army, and had formulated those of the regiment. Fairfax sent him to explain the proceedings, intentions, and present condition to the officer commanding Rossiter’s regiment…and characterized him as “a faithful man” who could be trusted to give “a full account of all our whole business”’(Firth). However, when this came to the attention of Colonel Rossiter, he informed Parliament, and on March 29 it was resolved by the House of Commons ‘that Lieutenant Griffith Lloyd be forthwith sent for to attend this House’, doubtless to hear of the House’s displeasure. A subsequent hasty parliamentary motion that branded those who signed such petitions as ‘enemies of the state’ led to the serious breakdown of trust between the army and Parliament.
By Act of Parliament 1649, crown lands could be sold to pay arrears due to the army, and in 1651 was made a ‘Petition to the Committee of the Navy by Capt. Griffith Lloyd of Lt.-Gen. Fleetwood’s Regiment that he has contracted for Woodstock Park as part of the Regiment’s arrears’. Woodstock was a confiscated crown estate that had surrendered to Fleetwood’s forces around April 26, 1646. The timber was allocated for the Navy’s use but they had apparently been felling it prodigiously. In 1652, Lloyd, acting for Lt.Gen. Charles Fleetwood, completed the purchase of Woodstock manor, the park and Wooton hundred, Oxfordshire.
In September 1654 Oliver Cromwell appointed Griffith Lloyd and several other army officers such as John Lambert, John Disbrowe, and Edward Montagu as Commissioners for visiting Cambridge University.
In 1656, Griffith Lloyd, an ‘officer of the regiment much trusted by the government’ (Firth), was employed in a confidential mission to Generals-at-sea Blake and Montagu, carrying messages back and forth between them and Cromwell, who wrote, ‘we have thought fit to send this honest man, Captain Lloyd, who is known to us to be a person of integrity’.
In October 1659 the army in England put a stop to the sitting of the restored Rump Parliament, which action set Fleetwood and Lambert at odds with Monck in Scotland. Griffith Lloyd was employed as a negotiator. ‘When the breach between army and Parliament took place…Major Haynes was a whole-hearted supporter of Fleetwood and Lambert, but Lloyd was dubious. In relating the revolution of October 1659 to Montagu, he showed his fear of the results, and complained that “wee live in a very unsettled, distracted ayre”. He endeavoured to apologize for some of Fleetwood’s acts, and was employed by him and Lambert to negotiate with Monck’ (Firth).
Griffith Lloyd appointed his ‘beloved wife Elizabeth’ as sole executor of his will and left monies for many including the poor of Hemingford Grey and St Ives, and Elizabeth’s mother and stepfather Nathaniel Bradshaw and all her sisters, half-sisters and brothers-in-law, and their children. He did not forget his friends and associates from the days of the Civil War and Commonwealth, whether in military, religious or civil orders: he bequeathed ‘into the hands of my good friend Charles Fleetwood Esq. twenty pounds to bee by him distributed according to his discretion amongst poor Officers and Souldiers and their widdowes who have been under his command in the Parliament’s Service either in England, Scotland or Ireland’. As well as Charles Fleetwood himself, he remembered James Berry, who had been a cavalry officer in the same regiment as Elizabeth’s father and rose to became Major-General for Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Wales, and who suffered long imprisonment following the Restoration; he remembered Samuel Disbrowe, who held high civil offices and was brother to the military leader John Disbrowe; and he remembered John Owen DD, the puritan divine and army chaplain most closely associated with the Commonwealth, who had gathered a church that Fleetwood, Desborough, Berry and other army officers attended before the Restoration, meeting at Wallingford House, Fleetwood’s residence. Thus Griffith Lloyd’s will (1680) remembers John Owen, James Berry, Samuel Disbrowe and ‘my good friend Charles Fleetwood’; Fleetwood’s will (1690) in turn remembers Samuel Disbrowe and ‘my ancient friend James Berry’ (Lloyd and Owen had died). Owen, Lloyd, Fleetwood, Berry, and Disbrowe were a close circle of friends from the days of the Civil War and Commonwealth to the end of their lives, and therefore Elizabeth almost certainly interacted with them during her years of marriage to Griffith Lloyd until his death in 1682. Samuel Disbrowe, in particular, lived only four miles from Hemingford Grey, at Elsworth in Cambridgeshire. ‘From 1664 onwards Owen’s wife and children lived primarily at Stoke Newington…Their hosts were Charles Fleetwood and his new wife…Here Owen gathered a small congregation that included various former Cromwellian military officers – Fleetwood, Desborough, Berry, Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Ellaston [sic], and Captain Griffith Lloyd – as well as Bridget Bendish, daughter of Henry Ireton and granddaughter of Cromwell’ – Greaves, DNB (Oxford 2004). ‘To the contemporary onlooker it must have seemed that this church was as much a society of old friends and former associates of Oliver Cromwell as a gathered church…there were at least five former soldiers, their wives, relatives and servants connected with the church. They were Charles Fleetwood, John Desborough, James Berry, Jeffrey Ellaston [sic] and Griffith Lloyd’ – Toon, God’s Statesman (Exeter, 1971).
Actually a little over 16 years. He was 62 years of age, so his death cannot be considered premature.
There is a monument to him with a Latin inscription in the south wall of the chancel of the parish church of St James, Hemingford Grey. The inscription and its translation is given in full in the footnotes appended to Lloyd’s last will and testament towards the end of this work, and includes (in translation) that he was ‘a righteous man who paid due respect to God and men, brave in an unfortunate war, fortunate in sweet peace, liberal to his household (like a father), and a most excellent husband, mourned by his sorrowing widow Elizabeth, daughter of Adams Lawrence and Elizabeth Cutts’.
The care and superintendence that God exercises over his creatures.
Duties towards her relations, whether by blood or marriage.
Internal, in this case domestic; the adjective is only applied to evils.
Owen Stockton’s wife’s sister had married John Meadows (1622–97), ejected from Ousden, Suffolk, and who had been the first dissenting minister to officiate in Stowmarket. In 1688 John Meadows moved to Bury St Edmunds and was to be a great encouragement to Samuel Bury in his first settlement, describing him as ‘his loving friend’. They were both trustees of the first Presbyterian meeting house in Churchgate Street in 1690.
Ezekiel 20:37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.
William Burkitt (1650–1703): ‘The apostle amplifies and sets forth the glorious excellency of that mystery which here he had made mention of; namely, that the Gentiles should have access into the church without an entrance by the door of circumcision, be joint-heirs of the heavenly inheritance with all believers, and together with the Jews taken into the bond of the covenant; and finally, that they were brought into this happy estate by the preaching of the gospel, and by believing and obeying of it’ – commentary on Ephesians 3:4.
Entering gently; insensibly winning favour and confidence.
Remarking by way of criticism or censure. | 2019-04-25T04:52:29Z | https://buythetruth.wordpress.com/about/her-changes-of-life-and-relative-duties/ |
I have written before about synaesthesia and how it effects me personally, and relates to my experience of music, both playing and listening to it.
Synaesthesia is a physiological ‘condition’ (I hesitate to use this word, as I am in no way disabled by it), which literally means “a fusion of the senses”. Its incidence is considered to be about one in every two thousand people, though it may be far commoner, since its “sufferers” do not regard it as a condition for which they should seek help from a psychologist or neurologist. It is more common in women than in men. Musical synaesthesia is “one of the most common [forms], and perhaps the most dramatic” (Oliver Sacks). It is not known whether it is more common in musicians or musical people, but musicans are more likely to be aware of it. I have always had it, and until quite recently, I assumed that everyone else had it. It was only at dinner one evening, when I revealed that Monday is always red, Thursday is a brownish-mauve, and the key of B-flat major is sea-green, and my friends looked at me slightly askance and declared “You’re nuts, Fran!”, that I realised I was one of the one in two thousand….
A quick browse of the internet threw up some interesting articles, including colour analyses of some of Beethoven’s music, including the Kreutzer Sonata and the Pathetique. However, these are not the work of a synaesthete; rather a means of mapping the music in a more visual, easy-to-follow way.
The most common form of synaesthesia is the experience of colours linked to letters and numbers (‘grapheme-colour’ synaesthesia), which is what I have.
Synaesthetes are often highly intelligent, ambidexturous, creative individuals, with excellent memories.
Synaesthetes are not mad! Nor is true synaesthesia a form of hallucination (though the drug LSD can induce temporary synaesthesia): for each synaesthete, their particular experience is unchanging.
Aristotle wrote that the harmony of colours was like the harmony of sounds. This set the stage for a later connecting of specific light and sound frequencies, as Aristotle’s works were translated and incorporated into European scientific study. From the late 15th century, academics, scientists (including Isaac Newton) and musicians were assigning colour schemes to notation, intervals, and the musical scale. Musicians who were genuine synaesthetes include Franz Lizst, American pianist and composer, Amy Beach (1867-1944), who had both perfect pitch and a set of personal colours for musical keys, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Olivier Messaien. Scriabin claimed to have synaesthesia, but it is more likely that he was simply responding to the then salon fashion for “colour music”, and the writings of Russian mystic Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society. Founder of the Futurist movement in art, Marinetti, aspired to have all the senses (he counted five) employed in “interactive synesthetic ecstasy”, and The Futurist Manifesto includes suggestions as to how colours, shapes and sounds combine, which has influenced composers and musicians, as well as artists. English composer Sir Arthur Bliss wrote a Colour Symphony, but this is not the product of a synaesthetic mind. Like Scriabin, he was influenced by the idea of “colour music”, though it was not a mystic association for him but rather a response to the symbolism usually associated with the colours of the English heraldic tradition.
Messiaen’s music, for me, vibrates with colour. The fourth Vingt Regard, which I am studying, is full of chords with rich layers of colours stacked atop one another, flashes of bright gold, orange, royal blue, deep red. Combinations of colours were very important in his compositional process. “I see colours when I hear sounds, but I don’t see colours with my eyes. I see colours intellectually, in my head.” He found that raising a note an octave produced a paler shade of the same colour, while lowering the note produced a darker hue. Only if the pitch altered would the colour change (my experience is identical). His colour associations were very consistent (as mine are), and so to help musicians understand his particular colour schemes, he annotated his scores with the precise colours he perceived. The piano part, in the second movement of his extraordinary and moving Quartet for the End of Time, written in a German PoW camp in 1940-41, contains the instruction to aim for “blue-orange” chords, a difficult concept for a non-synaesthete to grasp, perhaps.
I have yet to meet a fellow synaesthete who is also a musician. The subject fascinates me, in a non-scientific way, and I would be delighted to hear from other musicians who also see colours, either when they listen to music, or when they read it off the score. My experience tends to be more intense when I am actually reading music.
A friend (and lover, as it turned out) of my mother, who fancied himself as a unreconstructed hippie and who used to smoke hand-rolled joints in the back garden of our house in the leafy commuter town of Rickmansworth, gave me a new compilation tape every birthday during the years that he and my mother enjoyed an association. For my 18th birthday, it was a collection of songs from the year of my birth, 1966, which was quite inventive. I used to play it a lot, and it included tracks like ‘Paint it Black’ and ’19th Nervous Breakdown’ (The Rolling Stones), ‘Summer in the City’ (The Lovin’ Spoonful), ‘Shapes of Things’ (The Yardbirds), and ‘Sunshine Superman’ (Donovan). At the time, I was deeply into late 60s bands like The Doors and Jefferson Airplane, and female protest singers such as Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell. The compilation tape, made for a friend, or, more significantly, a boyfriend, became a vehicle for unexpressed or inexpressible emotions and barely-concealed longing.
On a radio programme I caught the other day, one of the guests was lamenting the demise of the compilation tape, now that we don’t have cassette players any longer. But with the advent of iTunes and similar music programmes, it is possible to create compilations and “mixes” once again – and it’s a whole lot easier these days because you simply “drag and drop” the tracks into the new playlist. Newer versions of iTunes have a neat function called ‘Genius’ which will create compilations for you, based on a highlighted track. It looks clever, as if the artificial intelligence of iTunes is able to match certain tracks with others to create a coherent playlist, but in reality all it is doing is using some kind of techie ju-ju and searching by genre and tempo. It copes less well with classical music, for example, pairing a Bach Cantata with a Chopin Prelude.
I still make my own mixes, mostly for listening in the car. I do not have a CD player in the house any longer: when it finally gave up the ghost last year, I didn’t bother to replace it. Instead, all my music is stored on the main house computer and is streamed to a high-quality sound system in the sitting room via the magical gadget that is Apple TV. I also have a very old, now very collectible first generation iPod, on which almost my entire music library is stored. The iPod is so old (barely 10 years!) that its battery no longer charges, but it works off the mains and can be plugged into the hi-fi. So I make ‘mixes’ for long car journeys, a trio of CDs especially for the campervan (when I had it), or for 8-hour drives down the autoroute to the Alps when you need stuff you can sing along to to keep you awake (‘Hallejulah’ by K D Lang was popular at Christmas!). I also keep a CD of my current repertoire for listening to when I’m driving. Then there’s ‘Chopin Favourites’, ‘Schubert Favourites’, ‘Shorter Beethoven’ and ‘Oddments’, a collection of mostly piano music ranging from Bach to John Adams which just seems to fit together nicely. and is enjoyable and stimulating to listen to.
One of the best features of iTunes is that you can purchase a single track, rather than a whole album. So I bought Sheila Chandra’s ‘Ever So Lonely’, hit the Genius button, and hey presto! there was an hour of mostly ‘ambient’ music which seems to suit the late evening when everyone’s had one too many glasses of wine and wants to chill on the sofa. Brian Eno’s ‘An Ascent’ (from the ‘Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks’ album) threw up an even more laid back mix via the power of Genius.
I’ve found a truly charming and very unusual venue for my Christmas concert – and it’s only 10 minutes from where I live.
There are many hidden gems in and around London which serve as music venues. Last summer, I discovered Sutton House, a fine Elizabethan building in Hackney, managed by the National Trust. It boasts a charming, intimate and friendly recital space, and in the interval you can enjoy drinks and strawberries and cream in the pretty courtyard. I was impressed not just by the space but by the audience when I visited last summer: a very different crowd from the Wigmore, and one sensed a great deal of support and enthusiasm from the audience throughout the performance.
Across the river, at Walton, is Riverhouse Barn, a converted 18th century barn, which retains many of its original features. It hosts music events, as well as exhibitions and other arts and drama activities for children and adults.
The Red Hedgehog in Highgate looked so unprepossessing the first time I visited it in winter 2006 that I walked straight past it: from the outside, it looked like a kebab shop! (It has since undergone considerable restoration.) Once inside, it is a little like visiting Schubert’s salon (it is in fact named after the coffee house in Vienna which Schumann, Mendelssohn and especially Brahms and friends liked to visit). It offers a variety of music, poetry and drama events throughout the year and has been host to some eminent performers, including pianist Peter Donohoe and actor Simon Callow.
The great thing about attending a musical event in places such as these is that one can get up close and personal with the performers in a way that is impossible in a bigger venue. Watching the Fitzwilliam Quartet playing Haydn, Shostakovich and Mozart last summer was fascinating: how the players interact with each other, and the soloist (my piano teacher), see the sweat on their brows which are furrowed with concentration, and all the other gestures, big and small, which go into producing music. It reminds us that so much of the music that was written before circa 1850 was meant to be enjoyed in this way: it was salon music, to be played for friends and amongst friends.
The new recital season at the Red Hedgehog opens on 7th October with what promises to be a fine concert celebrating the bicentenaries of two great composers for the piano, Chopin and Schumann. The Red Hedgehog is conveniently located close to Highgate tube station.
Sutton House in Hackney is the regular home of Sutton House Music Society, whose concert programme for the 2010/11 opens next month, and concludes, in June next year, with a performance by my teacher, Penelope Roskell, which includes Schumann’s ‘Papillons’ and the Sonata in G minor.
‘Moderate’, ‘restrained’, e.g. allegro moderato (‘a little slower than allegro ’).
In moderate tempo……. Used chiefly as a direction.
‘Moderato’ is one of those rather nebulous musical terms, like andante (“at a walking pace”). If I ask one of my students what it means, they say “moderately”. But what does it really mean? At the most basic level, it is a tempo marking, slower than allegretto, but faster than andante. The modern metronome gives a marking of 96 to 100, a very narrow range – and I would always guard against assigning a specific metronome mark to a piece marked moderato, or allegro moderato, or molto moderato. Like so much else in music, moderato is not just a tempo marking; it also suggests mood and character. It is personal feeling and sense of music, and one person’s moderato might be rather different from another’s, both in terms of tempo and character.
The opening movement of Schubert’s last sonata is marked molto moderato, literally “very moderately”. And taken literally, that could result in a very slow tempo, virtually alla breve (two beats in a bar), which can make the music appear to drag. Schubert also used the German term mässig, implying the calm flow of a considered allegro. But the word “allegro” suggests a certain character as well as a certain speed, and so the moderato marking is more appropriate, Schubert suggesting in it a graceful strolling tempo. There are many, many different interpretations of Schubert’s marking, resulting in some wildly varying lengths of the first movement. Richter’s is an almost self-indulgent 25 minutes – listening to it, you get the feeling he is thinking about every single note and where to place it; while Maria Joao Pires brings it in at 20 minutes, which feels both fluid and eloquent, and Imogen Cooper at 16 minutes, which is thoughtful and serene. In another recording I have, one which I listen to most often, and used as a benchmark when I was learning the piece, the movement lasts just over 21 minutes, yet at no point is there a sense of the music stagnating, even in the most poignant sections; it moves forward with grace.
When I was learning the sonata a couple of years ago, I had a tendency to play the opening movement “molto molto moderato”! This was partly to enable me to cope with some of the more tricky measures in the development section, but whenever I played it, I had a terrible sense of the music plodding. When I listen to the piece, I always feel the opening movement suggests a great river broadening into its final course before reaching the sea: unhurried but with continual forward motion. There are moments of “other-wordliness” in this movement as well, which demand sensitive rubato playing and some very fine pianissimos. There are storms too, but these are short-lived, and do not disturb the overall, almost hymn-like, serenity of the movement. But no matter how often I practised the wretched movement, it always sounded chunky, and “notey”, as if the river was made of treacle through which one was wading painful step after painful step!
Discussing my difficulty with my friend Michael was more a discussion of the meaning of moderato in a literal sense rather than in relation to Schubert. In the end, Michael suggested I tried playing the movement quicker: the difference was instant. Never mind that some passages were still very rough in my hands, the overall sense of the music was of a relaxed serenity and spaciousness. There was still time to hear every note and to enjoy each one, but there was also a much greater forward propulsion, especially in the climactic passages of the development section, which highlight Schubert’s long lines of melody and the overall evolution of the movement. Armed with Michael’s helpful advice and my renewed interest in the work, it was one of the first pieces I presented to my teacher when I started having lessons again, nearly two year’s ago.
In Chopin’s Ballade in G minor, a piece of fluctuating tempos and ever-changing moods and textures, the first theme is also marked moderato. Here, I would read this marking as a much slower tempo than in the Schubert sonata. The mood is very different too: the key is darker, and the off-beat quaver figures and the rather uncertain harmonies, with the prominent use of diminished and dominant seventh chords to add moments of tension which are not always resolved immediately, create a sense of hesitancy in the music, as if it is not quite sure where it is going. After the fioritura, the opening theme returns, slightly elaborated with a sighing quaver figure, but rather than increase the sense of forward motion, I feel the music becomes more suspended; thus when one reaches the direction agitato, there is a far greater sense of climax. This continues right through to the arpeggiated figures and onwards, in a section marked sempre piu mosso. After the great, memorable second theme is heard, the first theme returns, this time in A minor, and the music returns to the moderato tempo and mood of the opening. Here once again, uncertain harmonies are used to contrive a feeling of suspense, while the insistent repeated low E’s in the bass tether the music even more firmly in one place. This is a useful device for introducing another climax, which seems to suddenly free itself from the restraints of the moderato marking; the restatement of the second theme on a far grander scale than its first appearance. So, one could argue here that the use of moderato at the opening of the piece, and its reappearance later on, is a very deliberate device which serves to create moments of great tension, suspense and climax.
An interesting discussion of tempo came up during the piano course I attended in the spring. One of the students played some Bach, one of the French suites, I believe, the opening movement of which he took at such a lick, we could hardly hear the notes. When asked to put the brakes on, the result was charming: measured and elegant. This led to a discussion about “comfortable tempos”: just as one person’s moderato may be different from another’s, it is also true for presto or allegro. Nimbleness of brain and fingers can result in very lively, speedy, clean playing: if you feel comfortable playing at that speed, good for you. But speed at the expense of accuracy or musicality can wreck a piece.
The opening movement of Poulenc’s Suite in C, which I am currently learning, is marked Presto, and on my recording Pascal Rogé takes it at an alarming presto, far quicker than my 44 year old brain and fingers can manage – at the moment. Thus, I am practising it at a “comfortable” tempo; eventually, I hope that comfortable tempo will be quicker – the music needs to sound light yet sophisticated (its C Major key gives it an innocence which should shine through all the time) – but for the time being I am concentrating on accuracy, with a beautiful sound. It ain’t easy: sometimes just learning the notes is hard enough, without all the other attendant directions and markings one has to take note of and execute!
Posted in General, Practising, Repertoire, Technique and tagged as Chopin G minor Ballade, moderato, musical directions, Schubert, Schubert B flat sonata. | 2019-04-21T02:11:03Z | https://crosseyedpianist.com/category/general/page/221/ |
1. Entitlement to service connection for a knot in the stomach and back causing leg paralysis.
2. Entitlement to an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve in the left lower extremity prior to August 16, 2010, and in excess of 40 percent on and after August 16, 2010.
3. Entitlement to an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve in the right lower extremity prior to August 16, 2010, and in excess of 40 percent on and after August 16, 2010.
4. Entitlement to an initial rating in excess of 20 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the femoral nerve in the left lower extremity on and after December 5, 2016.
5. Entitlement to an initial rating in excess of 20 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the femoral nerve in the right lower extremity on and after December 5, 2016.
6. Entitlement to an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the nerves, all radicular groups, in the left upper extremity prior to December 5, 2016 and in excess of 30 percent on and after December 5, 2016.
7. Entitlement to an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the nerves, all radicular groups, in the right upper extremity prior to December 5, 2016 and in excess of 40 percent on and after December 5, 2016.
The Veteran served on active duty from January 1969 to January 1971.
These matters come before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from rating decisions entered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Cleveland, Ohio.
In July 2007, the Veteran was afforded a hearing with the undersigned Veterans Law Judge via videoconference technology. The transcript has been associated with the record.
Issues considered herein were remanded by the Board for additional development in October 2007, March 2010, and May 2012. Substantial compliance with the Board's prior remand has been achieved and remand of this appeal is not required. See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 270-71 (1998) (remand by the Board confers upon the Veteran or other claimant, as a matter of law, the right to compliance with the Board's remand order).
In Rice v. Shinseki, 22 Vet. App. 447 (2009), the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court) held that a TDIU claim is part of an increased rating claim when such a claim is raised by a veteran or otherwise reasonably raised by the record. The Court further held that when evidence of unemployability is submitted at the same time that a veteran is appealing the rating assigned for a disability, the claim for TDIU was considered part and parcel of the claim for benefits for the underlying disability. Id. An April 2017 rating decision granted the Veteran entitlement to a TDIU; thus, this issue will not be considered herein by the Board.
1. The Veteran does not have a current diagnosis attributable to a knot in the stomach and back causing leg paralysis which is related to service.
2. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's left lower extremity peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve is no worse than mild prior to August 16, 2010.
3. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's right lower extremity peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve is no worse than mild prior to August 16, 2010.
4. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's left lower extremity peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve is no worse than moderately severe on and after August 16, 2010.
5. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's right lower extremity peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve is no worse than moderately severe on and after August 16, 2010.
6. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's left lower extremity neuropathy of the femoral nerve is no worse than moderate on and after December 5, 2016.
7. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's right lower extremity neuropathy of the femoral nerve is no worse than severe on and after December 5, 2016.
8. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's neuropathy of the left upper extremity nerves, all radicular groups, is no worse than mild prior to December 5, 2016.
9. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's neuropathy of the right upper extremity nerves, all radicular groups, is no worse than mild prior to December 5, 2016.
10. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's neuropathy of the left upper extremity nerves, all radicular groups, is no worse than moderate on and from December 5, 2016.
11. The preponderance of the evidence indicates that the Veteran's neuropathy of the right upper extremity nerves, all radicular groups, is no worse than moderate on and from December 5, 2016.
1. A knot in the stomach and back causing leg paralysis was not incurred in or aggravated by active service. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1110, 5107 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303 (2016).
2. The criteria for an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve in the left lower extremity prior to August 16, 2010, and in excess of 40 percent on and after August 16, 2010 have not been met. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1155, 5107 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8620 (2016).
3. The criteria for an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve in the right lower extremity prior to August 16, 2010, and in excess of 40 percent on and after August 16, 2010 have not been met. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1155, 5107 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8620 (2016).
4. The criteria for an initial rating in excess of 20 percent for neuropathy of the femoral nerve in the left lower extremity from December 5, 2016 have not been met. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1155, 5107 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8526 (2016).
5. The criteria for an initial rating of 30 percent, but no more, for neuropathy in the femoral nerve of the right lower extremity from December 5, 2016 have been met. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1155, 5107 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8526 (2016).
6. The criteria for an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the nerves, all radicular groups, in the left upper extremity prior to December 5, 2016 and in excess of 30 percent on and after December 5, 2016 have not been met. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1155, 5107 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8513 (2016).
7. The criteria for an initial rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the nerves, all radicular groups, in the right upper extremity prior to December 5, 2016 and in excess of 30 percent on and after December 5, 2016 have not been met. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 1155, 5107 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8513 (2016).
VA has a duty to notify and assist claimants in substantiating a claim for VA benefits. 38 U.S.C.A. §§ 5100, 5102, 5103, 5103A, 5107, 5126 (West 2014 & Supp. 2016); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.156(a), 3.159, and 3.326(a) (2016).
Proper notice from VA must inform the claimant of any information and medical or lay evidence not of record (1) that is necessary to substantiate the claim; (2) that VA will seek to provide; and (3) that the claimant is expected to provide. 38 C.F.R. § 3.159 (b)(1); Quartuccio v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 183 (2002).
The requirements apply to all five elements of a service connection claim: veteran status, existence of a disability, a connection between the veteran's service and the disability, degree of disability, and effective date of the disability. Dingess/Hartman v. Nicholson, 19 Vet. App. 473 (2006). Such notice must be provided to a claimant before the initial unfavorable decision on a claim for VA benefits by the agency of original jurisdiction (in this case, the RO). Id; see also Pelegrini v. Principi, 18 Vet. App. 112 (2004).
VCAA notice must be provided prior to an initial unfavorable decision on a claim by the RO. Mayfield v. Nicholson, 444 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2006); Pelegrini v. Principi, 18 Vet. App. 112 (2004). Where complete notice is not timely accomplished, such error may be cured by issuance of a fully compliant notice, followed by readjudication of the claim. See Mayfield v. Nicholson, 444 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2006); see also Prickett v. Nicholson, 20 Vet. App. 370, 376 (2006).
The Veteran's claims for increased ratings arise from an appeal of the initial evaluation following the grant of service connection. Courts have held that once service connection is granted the claim is substantiated, additional notice is not required and any defect in the notice is not prejudicial. Hartman v. Nicholson, 483 F.3d 1311 (Fed. Cir. 2007); Dunlap v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 112 (2007). Therefore, no further notice is needed under VCAA.
Concerning the claim for service connection, in an April 2013 letter the RO provided notice to the Veteran regarding what information and evidence is needed to substantiate a claim for service connection, as well as what information and evidence must be submitted by the Veteran, what information and evidence will be obtained by VA, and the need for the Veteran to advise VA of or submit any further evidence that pertains to the claim. Although this was post-initial adjudication, the claim was re-adjudicated in April 2017, curing any defect concerning the timing of adequate notice.
Next, VA has a duty to assist the Veteran in the development of the claims. This duty includes assisting him in the procurement of service treatment records and pertinent treatment records and providing an examination when necessary. 38 U.S.C.A. § 5103A; 38 C.F.R. § 3.159.
The Board finds that all necessary development has been accomplished, and therefore appellate review may proceed without prejudice to the appellant. See Bernard v. Brown, 4 Vet. App. 384 (1993). The claims file contains the Veteran's service treatment records, as well as post-service reports of VA and private treatment and examination. Moreover, the Veteran's statements in support of the claims are of record, including testimony provided at a hearing before the undersigned. The Board has carefully reviewed such statements and concludes that no available outstanding evidence has been identified. The Board has also perused the medical records for references to additional treatment reports not of record, but has found nothing to suggest that there is any outstanding evidence with respect to the Veteran's claims.
For the above reasons, no further notice or assistance to the Veteran is required to fulfill VA's duty to assist the Veteran in the development of the claims. Smith v. Gober, 14 Vet. App. 227 (2000), aff'd, 281 F.3d 1384 (Fed. Cir. 2002); Dela Cruz v. Principi, 15 Vet. App. 143 (2001).
The Board has thoroughly reviewed all the evidence in the Veteran's claims folder. Although the Board has an obligation to provide reasons and bases supporting this decision, there is no need to discuss, in detail, each piece of evidence of record. See Gonzales v. West, 218 F.3d 1378, 1380-81 (Fed. Cir. 2000). The analysis below focuses on the most salient and relevant evidence and on what this evidence shows, or fails to show, on the claim. The Veteran must not assume that the Board has overlooked pieces of evidence that are not explicitly discussed herein. See Timberlake v. Gober, 14 Vet. App. 122 (2000). The Board must assess the credibility and weight of all evidence, including the medical evidence, to determine its probative value, accounting for evidence which it finds to be persuasive or unpersuasive, and providing reasons for rejecting any evidence favorable to the claimant. Equal weight is not accorded to each piece of evidence contained in the record; every item of evidence does not have the same probative value. When all the evidence is assembled, VA is responsible for determining whether the evidence supports the claim or is in relative equipoise, with the appellant prevailing in either event, or whether a preponderance of the evidence is against a claim, in which case, the claim is denied. Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49 (1990).
The Board has reviewed all the evidence in the Veteran's claims file. Although the Board has an obligation to provide adequate reasons and bases supporting this decision, there is no requirement that the evidence submitted by the veteran or obtained on his behalf be discussed in detail. Rather, the Board's analysis below will focus specifically on what evidence is needed to substantiate the claim and what the evidence in the claims file shows, or fails to show, with respect to the claim. See Gonzales v. West, 218 F.3d 1378, 1380-81 (Fed. Cir. 2000) and Timberlake v. Gober, 14 Vet. App. 122, 128-30 (2000).
Service connection may be established for a disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by service. 38 U.S.C.A. § 1110 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (2016). Evidence of continuity of symptomatology from the time of service until the present is required where the chronicity of a condition manifested during service either has not been established or might reasonably be questioned. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (b). Regulations also provide that service connection may be granted for any disease diagnosed after discharge, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disability was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (d).
In order to prevail on the issue of service connection there must be medical evidence of a current disability; medical evidence, or in certain circumstances, lay evidence of in- service occurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and medical evidence of a nexus between an in-service injury or disease and the current disability. See Hickson v. West, 12 Vet. App. 247, 253 (1999); see also Pond v. West, 12 Vet App. 341, 346 (1999).
Service connection may also be granted for disability shown after service, when all of the evidence, including that pertinent to service, shows that it was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (d).
The Veteran's service treatment records indicate no treatment for a big knot or paralysis. The Veteran's separation examination, dated January 18, 1971, indicate no abnormalities. The Veteran's service personnel records indicate that he was in Vietnam from June 7, 1970 to January 14, 1971.
The Veteran testified that immediately upon returning from service in Vietnam, two large knots appeared, one on his front lower quadrant area and one in the same area on the back, with accompanying leg paralysis. He stated that the hospital put him in quarantine for five days and the knots disappeared but that he continues to have intermittent leg paralysis. In a July 2001 statement, the Veteran reported that he was put in isolation immediately after service due to something of an infectious nature. He contends that the knots with associated leg paralysis are the result of exposure to herbicide agents during service.
In December 2004, the Veteran was afforded a VA authorized examination to consider his claims. The Veteran reiterated his contentions concerning the big knot. The examiner indicated that the claimed disability was undocumented by the current examination.
An addendum to the December 2004 examination, dated April 2005, indicates that the Veteran's original peripheral neuropathy was due to his ethanol abuse but that this was exacerbated by his diabetes. There is no indication that the reported big knot led to any current peripheral neuropathy or paralysis.
In July 2007, the Veteran testified that when he arrived at his parents' house after discharge, he had a big knot, like an egg, protruding from his stomach. Later that night, he had a big knot on the back side, opposite from the one in the front. The Veteran could not move his left leg at that time. After five days, the knots went away but he did not regain complete use of his left leg. The Veteran's representative pointed out that this issue was possibly intertwined with his service-connected peripheral neuropathy.
The Veteran was afforded an additional examination in May 2009. The examiner indicated that although the Veteran was in a wheelchair, he was able to stand up and walk with no significant difficulty. He was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy which seemed to be clinically insignificant. There were no findings or complaints concerning the big knot or reported residuals.
An August 2010 VA authorized examination indicates bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy, mild by EMG testing. A September 2010 VA examination for erectile dysfunction did not indicate any findings of a big knot.
A September 2011 VA examination indicates that the examiner found no evidence that the Veteran had a knot in the stomach and/or back that caused paralysis in his legs. She noted that the Veteran had an EMG in September 2009 that revealed no electrical evidence of motor axon loss or lumbar radiculopathy.
A December 2016 VA examination with a January 2017 addendum indicates that the Veteran's claimed big knot with leg paralysis is less likely than not related to active service due to a lack of supporting documents. The Board additionally observes that there is no indication of a finding of a big knot or any residuals thereof on examination.
Thus, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is against a finding that the Veteran has a knot in the stomach and back, causing leg paralysis, which is related to active service. Likewise, the preponderance of the evidence is against a finding of residuals of knots in the stomach and back.
The Board notes that there is no indication that the Veteran's contended big knot with residuals is related to active service except for the Veteran's own statements. In this regard, the Board observes that the Veteran's service treatment records do not indicate treatment for knots and the Veteran admits that the big knot began post-service. The Veteran contends residuals of the big knot but multiple examinations have found that the Veteran has peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremity due to his service-connected diabetes mellitus and, in the past, non-service connected ethanol intake. The Board notes that the Veteran is service-connected for his peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremities and as indicated below, compensated for such disabilities.
As a layperson in the field of medicine, the Veteran does not have the medical competence to identify residuals of a big knot, as this is a complex determination that cannot be made based on lay observation alone. The VA treatment records showing a lack of diagnoses pertaining to specific areas of the body carry more weight than the open-ended claims. See Sanchez-Benitez, 13 Vet. App. at 285.
In sum, taking into account all of the evidence of record, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is against a finding that the Veteran's claimed conditions are related to active service, any incident of active service or are secondary to or aggravated by any service-connected disability. As the preponderance of the evidence is against the claim, the benefit of the doubt rule is not applicable. See 38 U.S.C.A. § 5107 (b); Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 54-56 (1990).
Disability evaluations are determined by comparing a veteran's present symptomatology with criteria set forth in VA's Schedule for Rating Disabilities, which is based on average impairment in earning capacity. 38 U.S.C.A. § 1155 (West 2014); 38 C.F.R. Part 4 (2016). When a question arises as to which of two ratings applies under a particular diagnostic code, the higher evaluation is assigned if the disability more closely approximates the criteria for the higher rating. 38 C.F.R. § 4.7. Otherwise, the lower rating will be assigned.
An appeal from the initial assignment of a disability rating, such as the appeals in this case, requires consideration of the entire time period involved, and contemplates staged ratings where warranted. See Fenderson v. West, 12 Vet. App. 119 (1999).
Under Diagnostic Code 8513, a 20 percent rating is assigned for mild incomplete paralysis. A 30 percent rating is warranted for moderate incomplete paralysis of the minor extremity, and a 40 percent rating is contemplated for moderate incomplete paralysis of the major extremity. Severe incomplete paralysis warrants a 60 percent for the minor extremity and a 70 percent rating for the major extremity. Complete paralysis warrants an 80 percent rating for the minor extremity and a 90 percent rating for the major extremity.
Under DC 8526, a 40 percent rating is warranted for complete paralysis of the anterior crural nerve (femoral) resulting in paralysis of the quadriceps extensor muscles. Further, under DC 8526, incomplete paralysis of the anterior crural nerve (femoral) warrants a 30 percent rating if it is severe a 20 percent rating if it is moderate, or a 10 percent rating if it is mild. 38 C.F.R. § 4.124a , DC 8526.
Under DC 8620, pertaining to neuritis of the sciatic nerve, a 10 percent rating is warranted if paralysis is mild, a 20 percent rating is warranted if it is moderate, moderately severe incomplete paralysis warrants a 40 percent disability rating, and severe incomplete paralysis with marked muscular atrophy warrants a 60 percent disability rating. An 80 percent disability rating is warranted for complete paralysis, where the foot dangles and drops, there is no active movement possible of the muscles below the knee, and flexion of the knee is weakened or (very rarely) lost. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.121a, DC 8620.
The term "incomplete paralysis" with peripheral nerve injuries indicates a degree of loss or impaired function substantially less than the type pictured for complete paralysis given with each nerve, whether due to the varied level of the nerve lesion or to partial regeneration. When the involvement is wholly sensory, the rating should be for mild, or at most, the moderate degree. See Note at "Diseases of the Peripheral Nerves" in 38 C.F.R. § 4.124 (a).
Incomplete and complete paralysis, neuritis, and neuralgia of other nerves of the upper extremities are addressed by Diagnostic Codes 8510 through 8512, 8514 through 8519, 8610 through 8612, 8614 through 8619, 8710 through 8712, and 8714 through 8719. The same concerning other nerves of the lower extremities are addressed by Diagnostic Codes 8521 through 8530, 8621 through 8630, and 8721 through 8730. As set forth below, the Veteran's radial, median, ulnar, sciatic, and femoral nerves are affected. A separate rating for each nerve is prohibited as impermissible pyramiding. 38 C.F.R. § 4.14. Use of Diagnostic Codes 8513 and 8620, however, is most favorable to the Veteran. The Board additionally continues the evaluation under Diagnostic Code 8526, as indicated by the RO's April 2017 rating decision. The maximum ratings he can receive pursuant to those indicated indeed are higher than the maximum ratings allowed by all of the aforementioned Diagnostic Codes, to include those for his other affected nerves.
The Veteran was granted service connection for peripheral neuropathy of his four extremities effective August 19, 2004.
The Veteran was afforded a VA authorized examination in December 2004. The examiner indicated that reflexes and proprioception were normal. Light touch sensation was decreased in the left hand and the inner side of the right wrist. Lower extremity sensation was absent below the knees bilaterally.
An April 2005 addendum indicates that it's impossible to delineate the Veteran's peripheral neuropathy causation factors; ethanol abuse versus diabetes.
In July 2007, the Veteran testified that his left leg gave out about twice a week. He had been riding a Harley Davidson for thirty years but had to stop due to the peripheral neuropathy. The Veteran testified that he had complete paralysis of the left leg from time to time. The Veteran described pain, numbness and tingling in both legs and both arms.
In May 2009, the Veteran was afforded a VA examination. The examiner indicated that the Veteran's extreme poor effort made his manual muscle strength testing impossible to measure although the examiner indicated that he was able to find that the Veteran had no significant motor or sensory deficit in any of his extremities. The examiner reported that although the Veteran came in by wheelchair, he had no significant difficulty with standing up and walking. The examiner diagnosed peripheral neuropathy which seemed clinically insignificant.
An August 2010 VA authorized examination indicates that the Veteran had good radial pulses and normal brachial reflexes of the upper extremity. His biceps and triceps strength was 5/5 bilaterally. He had normal proprioception on the left and he could identify two objects on the right. The lower extremities had good hair growth, normal nails and intact skin with good pedal pulses; quadricep and hamstring strength was 5/5. He had good patellar and Achilles reflexes. The examiner indicated that the Veteran's bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy was mild by EMG testing but moderate to severe by examination and history. EMG testing showed no evidence of peripheral neuropathy of the upper extremities but instead mild carpal tunnel syndrome.
In January 2014, after a full examination with a report of the findings, a VA examiner indicated that the Veteran had moderate incomplete paralysis of the median nerves and moderate incomplete paralysis of the sciatic nerves.
The Veteran was afforded a VA authorized examination in December 2016. After examination of the Veteran and providing a detailed description, the examiner indicated that the Veteran had moderate incomplete paralysis of the radial nerves, moderate incomplete paralysis of the median nerves, moderate incomplete paralysis of the ulnar nerves, moderate severe incomplete paralysis of the sciatic nerves and moderate incomplete paralysis of the left femoral nerve and severe incomplete paralysis of the right femoral nerve.
Relevant treatment records were reviewed. The Board finds that the indications of the severity of the Veteran's disabilities in those records are consistent with findings made in the context of examination reports.
Under Diagnostic Code 8620, prior to August 16, 2010, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is consistent with mild peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerves in the bilateral lower extremities. In this regard, the Board notes that the objective evidence of record, specifically a May 2009 examination report, indicates that the Veteran's peripheral neuropathy was clinically insignificant. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.121a, DC 8620.
On and from August 16, 2010, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is consistent with moderately severe peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerves in the lower extremities. In this regard, the Board observes that there is no indication of marked muscular atrophy or complete paralysis which would warrant a higher rating. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.124a, DC 8620.
Utilizing Diagnostic Code 8513 pertaining to paralysis of the radicular nerves of the upper extremities, prior to December 5, 2016, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is consistent with mild peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper extremities. Again, the Board relies on the objective findings of the May 2009 examiner who indicated that the Veteran's peripheral neuropathy was clinically insignificant. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.124a, DC 8513.
Under Diagnostic Code 8526 considering paralysis of the femoral nerve, on and from December 5, 2016, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is consistent with moderately severe paralysis of the femoral nerve of the left lower extremity and severe partial paralysis of the femoral nerve of the right lower extremity, consistent with the opinion of the December 2016 examiner. Thus, the Board finds that the Veteran's disability warrants a 30 percent disability rating on the right side and the current 20 percent rating for the left lower extremity. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.124a, DC 8526.
On and from December 5, 2016, the Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is consistent with moderate incomplete paralysis of the bilateral upper extremities. The Board relies on the objective findings of the December 2016 examination report in making this determination. There is no indication in the record of severe incomplete or total paralysis of such nerves. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.124a, DC 8513.
In reaching the conclusions above the Board has considered the applicability of the benefit of the doubt doctrine. See 38 U.S.C.A. § 5107 (b) (West 2014); Ortiz v. Principi, 274 F.3d 1361, 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2001); Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 55-57 (1990).
Entitlement to service connection for a knot in the stomach and back causing leg paralysis is denied.
Entitlement to a rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve in the left lower extremity prior to August 16, 2010, and in excess of 40 percent on and after August 16, 2010 is denied.
Entitlement to a rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the sciatic nerve in the right lower extremity prior to August 16, 2010, and in excess of 40 percent on and after August 16, 2010 is denied.
Entitlement to an initial rating in excess of 20 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the femoral nerve in the left lower extremity on and after December 5, 2016 is denied.
Entitlement to an initial rating of 30 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the femoral nerve in the right lower extremity on and after December 5, 2016 is granted, subject to the laws governing the grant of monetary benefits.
Entitlement to a rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the nerves, all radicular groups, in the left upper extremity prior to December 5, 2016 and in excess of 30 percent on and after December 5, 2016 is denied.
Entitlement to a rating in excess of 10 percent for peripheral neuropathy of the nerve, all radicular groups, in the right upper extremity prior to December 5, 2016 and in excess of 40 percent on and after December 5, 2016 is denied. | 2019-04-20T18:56:34Z | https://va-claim.com/2017/11/23/sciatic-nerve-in-the-left-lower-extremity-and-peripheral-neuropathy-of-the-nerves-all-radicular-groups-in-the-left-upper-extremity-denied-femoral-nerve-in-the-right-lower-extremity-granted-citat/ |
Two health care systems are using a matrixed approach to deliver value and results.
Value is the health care industry's buzz word for 2018, and with good reason. The concept is in the process of reshaping the health care industry as leaders look for ways to increase efficiency and performance while also controlling costs. With health care costs on the rise — national health care spending reached $3.3 trillion in 2016, accounting for 17.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the projections for the next 10 years continue at an upward trend — the shift toward value is unlikely to change anytime soon.
According to a report from HealthLeaders Media, 66 percent of health care leaders say their organizations are fully committed and actively transitioning to value-based care or have pilot programs in place. Similarly, 55 percent of hospital executives say it's likely that by 2022 their hospitals will have achieved improvements in value metrics. As Warren Buffet said, "Price is what you pay, and value is what you get." Today's health care leaders are trying to determine what, exactly, value looks like for their organizations, their patients and, more importantly, how to achieve it.
One reason for the increased focus on value is that reimbursement models are shifting. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are moving toward value-based payment systems that would reward hospitals and providers based on the quality of outcomes achieved. The focus on fee for value rather than fee for service means that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements will increasingly be based on the quality of care provided, as opposed to the volume of services provided. Private insurers are also moving toward value-based payment models to incentivize providers to maximize quality and reduce inefficiency in care. In view of this shift, improving patient outcomes becomes a high priority to ensure a higher rate of reimbursement.
Demographic changes are also prompting many organizations to re-evaluate their approach to patient care and how to achieve better outcomes. According to the Pew Research Center, 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, becoming eligible for Medicare. That trend will continue until 2030 when a full 18 percent of the U.S. population will be at least 65 years old. This swell in the number of aging adults and their more complex medical needs will require hospitals and long-term care facilities to be increasingly efficient and effective in how they deliver care to provide positive patient outcomes and get reimbursed in a quality-based payment system.
Given these factors, it's more important than ever for health care organizations to closely track and manage how they provide care – how care is resourced, monitored, coordinated and measured – and strategically assess where they can do better.
Leaders at Adventist Health realized in 2012 that they would need to rethink their operational strategy to position themselves for future growth. The Roseville, California-based health system includes 19 acute care hospitals, 280 ambulatory care clinics, 13 home health agencies and seven hospice clinics. Operating primarily in California, Oregon and Hawaii, Adventist Health employs a workforce of more than 33,000, including 5,000 physicians. Looking at forecasted economic, regulatory and demographic shifts for the health care market, Adventist Health President Bill Wing said it was clear the organization needed to take a targeted approach to remain competitive.
"We ran a five-year financial model that looked at all the impacts from the Affordable Care Act and state and federal regulations," Wing said. "If we did nothing, there would be a $500 million margin erosion. We set a target of having a $500 million operating margin improvement by 2017, with some of that coming from growth and some coming from cost cutting in the form of clinical and operational performance improvement. We also set a goal of being in the top quartile in clinical performance and operational performance."
Adventist Health created what's known as a Value Creation Office, or VCO, to help initiate and drive projects that would help the organization achieve value and hit its goals. The VCO is composed primarily of Adventist Health's C-suite leaders and functions as a steward for a disciplined, data-driven approach to strategy and project development, business analysis and project execution. Its core mission was created out of a recognition that a well-honed data analytics strategy would be central for future development.
"There were three things the VCO was set up to do," Wing said. "The first was to help with data management. We were going through a process of looking through our data analytics strategy, and we knew investments would be needed to move us forward in that space. The second was to create insights, and the third was to accelerate our performance through project management, performance improvement and change management principles."
With these goals in mind, Adventist Health created the VCO with a matrix of leaders from across the organization. Adventist Health, like many other organizations, was often siloed and did not promote cross-talk among different departments, so organizers tried to bring together leaders in a way that would support the sharing of information and strategic alignment.
Toward this end, the organization created the VCO with several layers of leadership governance to support initiatives at every level. There is a group dedicated to day-to-day monitoring of front-line operations; a performance group which meets monthly to review strategic initiatives; and a C-suite governance board to drive the direction of the VCO. Having layered, multidisciplinary representation in the VCO was important to ensure that it could take on the scope of projects that would have an impact on Adventist Health's financial targets.
"In the 2013 timeframe, we were sitting at $2.7 billion in revenue, which represented a 1 percent margin, and we wanted to grow to $4 billion, which would put us at a 4 percent margin," Wing said. "In order to do that, we needed to raise the performance of the system in its entirety."
Adventist Health leaders defined three areas of focus for the VCO that would support its larger performance and financial targets. The first, mission expansion, focused on strengthening Adventist Health's presence in the community and expanding its reach to serve more people. Secondly, care transformation focused on delivering excellence in the coordination of social, behavioral and medical care to improve patient outcomes. Finally, business transformation was designed to standardize, modernize and consolidate business services to add value and minimize variance.
These three goals serve as the guiding force for the VCO, dictating the projects, or charters, they pursue.
Most recently, Adventist Health's VCO pursued a project born out of the discovery of inefficiencies within its pharmacy department. Workflow assessments revealed that much of the pharmacy's work wasn't being tracked appropriately. This led to an effort to identify better ways to measure pharmacy operations and recalibrate workflows to eliminate unnecessary work. The VCO developed a charter for this project that assessed the risks, rewards, financial opportunity and methodology around doing the work, and targeted $5.8 million of value by 2017. The actual value achieved was $12.4 million.
Adventist Health's pharmacy charter, along with other charters set up for clinical documentation integrity and sepsis, made up $29.12 million of value achieved in 2017, in the form of reduced cost or net-new revenue. The sepsis charter, like the pharmacy charter, focused on assessing the workflow of emergency department nurses and physicians, while also developing new ways of gathering data around sepsis and new ways of tracking sepsis patients.
For Wing, this represents a piece of Adventist Health's ultimate goal.
"We started our journey back in 2012 with the need to make about a $500 million cumulative run rate improvement," he said. "We finished 2017 at about $480 million, and we believe that there's at least that much out ahead of us."
At Genesis Health System in Davenport, Iowa, the road to a VCO started in June of 2015 when leaders there decided that they wanted to get more from their data.
Comprised of six acute care hospitals and 642 beds in Iowa and Illinois and a primary care physician base of nearly 250 providers, Genesis has the largest home health agency in the state of Iowa, as well as multiple nursing homes. Like Adventist Health, the organization has seen its margins tighten in recent years, and with the wave of new government regulations and reimbursement policies, leaders like Genesis Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) Rob Frieden were looking for ways to get additional value out of their system.
"We realized that we needed more than just software to see the real changes that we needed," Frieden said. "By putting together a team of diverse roles, we felt we could better leverage the technology we had in place to reach our targeted outcomes."
The Genesis VCO includes a cabinet-level governance layer that includes Genesis Health's chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO) and CIO. A VCO performance group — comprised of the chief medical officer (CMO), chief nursing officer (CNO), director of post-acute care services and the president of each of the six hospitals within the system — recommends to the cabinet which projects the VCO should pursue. Next, the cabinet creates a charter for the project, investigating in detail its potential return on investment and whether it will yield worthwhile results. For Frieden, this aspect of the VCO has allowed the organization to make real progress on its goals.
"With the VCO, we can look at things that we believe we can get value in, but we weren't certain how we could do it before," he said. "It creates a discipline around the chartering process when, as a cabinet, we have an opportunity to scrutinize the numbers. Before we agree to start the work, we go through all the metrics and determine where the real value can be and how big the opportunity is."
Genesis has also pursued value in its pharmacy solutions, specifically financial value. Seeing its pharmacy spend increase by 35 percent between 2013 and 2015, the Genesis VCO established a charter to help bring down those costs. Through the VCO's assessment, the organization discovered part of the reason for the cost increase was the volume of antimicrobials being prescribed and the use of higher cost antimicrobials. The overuse of antimicrobials is known to cause higher rates of C-diff, a digestive tract infection. At Genesis, this practice was leading to longer hospital stays for patients receiving antimicrobials. In addition, at the time, Genesis did not have access to true medication costs or ordering patterns by physicians for specific diagnosis-related groups, leading to medication costs being reverse-calculated from charges to a patient.
The VCO helped initiate a multistep Pharmacy Spend Control program, which helped Genesis accurately track the cost of its medication inventory daily and reduce the rate of hospital-acquired infections and the associated costs to treat those infections. The VCO also helped revamp Genesis' antimicrobial stewardship program, which helps the organization make needed changes to its governance committee and the system's electronic health record (EHR). By mid-2016, the organization had saved more than $710,000 through the VCO's efforts. By the end of 2016, the project had yielded a total of more than $2.5 million in annual cost savings.
A charter to improve the organization's processes around sepsis also yielded strong results, with a total cost savings and/or revenue improvement of roughly $740,000 between April 2017 and March 2018. These savings, in combination with the pharmacy charter and other projects the VCO has pursued, has yielded approximately $3.5 million in net savings or net-new revenue.
For Frieden, the financial results are only part of the total value that the VCO has delivered.
"Not everything around the VCO is about dollars," he said. "It's about asking what is our input, and are we getting an output of improved patient safety, staff efficiency or reduced cost. In the case of the anti-microbial stewardship program, we were putting patients on the right medication, which improved patient safety and helped drive down length of stay. Similarly, with the sepsis charter, we were able to see a reduction in sepsis and we can now identify patients sooner in the sepsis process, which affects patient safety."
The value of the VCO approach is that it provides an overarching governance structure that can drive multidisciplinary, enterprise wide initiatives in a way that more narrowly focused leadership groups might not be able to. Having a resource dedicated to these initiatives also helps with what Frieden calls "relentless follow-up," or the process of continual refinement and improvement until the organization achieves its desired results.
"Historically we have done a lot of IT projects, but they might be owned by pharmacy or nursing, and we can only push so much to get the value in those cases," Frieden said. "The VCO is the only organization that puts numbers in front of everyone, every month. We keep following up until we get the results we expect."
Executive-level representation from across the organization allows the VCO to focus on collaborative, potentially more impactful projects that require the collaboration of IT, clinical and financial resources. Getting input of different groups also helps to ensure projects focus on value in as many areas as possible.
"The VCO allows for a greater level of collaboration, and it allows for different perspectives on what we are trying to achieve," Frieden said. "Prior to the VCO we were more siloed. Having the multi collaborative team allows us to ensure that all interests are met regarding the factors that can drive success."
Creating a holistic understanding of project imperatives is important when trying to enact changes that are intended to have broad-reaching effects. For larger health systems, this holistic approach can also create a sense of cohesion and streamline disparate parts of the organization. For Adventist Health, the value of eliminating data siloes was especially evident when it came to the VCO's mission to help the organization become more data-driven.
"We used to operate as 20 different federated markets," Wing said. "We had data that existed in 20 different instances, and the VCO helped bring the clinical and operational data into one view. Bringing in claims data has set us up to move on data in a more action-oriented way, and we're better positioned to create insights based on data."
Wing also emphasizes the importance of the VCO in helping to create a sense of oneness for large health organizations, where the breadth and scale can create challenges for collective action.
"It's important to get on a journey toward 'systemness,' and to have a willingness to take big swings in order to move the enterprise collectively," Wing said. "Having the right data and the right teams that can facilitate the end goal is important. Start with the end in mind — establish your destination, and re-engineer backward to find a way there."
It is important for the success of the VCO that it works in conjunction with other performance improvement groups within an organization. At Genesis, the VCO works with the Lean performance improvement team and with other internal IT teams to determine who should be responsible for heading up which initiatives. Having this vetting structure helps ensure the VCO maintains a collaborative — versus a competitive — relationship with other performance improvement groups within the organization.
"We have strategic annual planning sessions where we look at all possible projects that Genesis is interested in, and we look at which ones align with VCO capabilities and which can be done by IT and those which organizations can do on their own," Frieden said. "The leadership team helps vet this in terms of what we are looking to get out of the project."
Now that its VCO is firmly in place, Adventist Health is turning its eye to the future and how the organization will integrate the VCO into long-term growth. Part of this process is to build upon the success the organization's leaders have already seen in performance and financial value.
"We reset our targets in 2016 to extend them out to 2020," Wing said. "On the patient experience and engagement side, we want to get to the top decile and try to achieve $400 million more in financial improvement."
Initially, Adventist Health's VCO spent a great deal of time creating a foundation for the organization to become data- and analytics-driven, and Wing believes the organization is better positioned to glean insights from its data because of this work. Going forward, Wing sees the VCO more heavily supporting Adventist Health's care transformation initiative, which includes a focus on clinical leadership, patient engagement and experience, care redesign, population health and clinical workforce. The VCO will identify and develop charters that can support these initiatives.
"Our largest swing for 2020 is care transformation," Wing said. "Eighty percent of the VCO's time will be spent on the care transformation journey. For us, care transformation puts us at the top decile for clinical experience and engagement."
At Genesis, the VCO has also provided direction for the future, as well as a blueprint for how to get from the idea stage of a project to realizing tangible results. Frieden sees the rigor around the charter process and the relentless follow-up to get results among the most valuable things the VCO has provided, and he hopes these practices will become the norm going forward.
"It is unique to have a team that is dedicated to only a few projects at a time, and the focus is to get results," he said. "The VCO has set a new bar in terms of how we go forward with measurement and metrics with everything we do."
Bill Wing has been president of Adventist Health since November 2016 after serving as executive vice president/chief operating officer since March 2014. Wing’s primary focus is ensuring Adventist Health is structured to achieve the system’s strategic vision.
In June 2011, Wing joined Adventist Health as the senior vice president for system performance and strategy where he drove the strategic plan and value-based performance targets for Adventist Health’s markets in all four states and ran the day-to-day operations across the care continuum.
Wing’s accomplishments include developing and implementing a Performance Improvement vision and model that utilized the Baldrige Health Care Criteria; creating a capital demand-forecasting model and physician models aligned to optimize clinical integration; and implementing a strategic information model focused on creating senior level and service line accountability.
Wing holds an MBA in finance from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.
Robert Frieden is vice president and chief information officer of Genesis Health System and leads the organization’s information services division. Robert has responsibility for all information technology, telecommunications and health information management areas of the health system.
Robert was recruited to Genesis Health System in 2001 with the responsibility of implementing an information technology vision that has led to Genesis Health System’s recognition as a “Most Wired Healthcare Organization” the past 13 years.
He is a member of the College of Health Information Management Executives, the Health Information Management System Society, and the American College of Healthcare Executives. | 2019-04-25T08:30:12Z | https://www.cerner.com/perspectives/the-value-proposition |
Objectives Explore associations between maternal and neonatal outcomes and maternal age, with particular reference to adolescent women.
Setting Maternity department of a large hospital in Northern England.
Participants Primiparous women delivering a singleton at Bradford Royal Infirmary between March 2007 and December 2010 aged ≤19 years (n=640) or 20–34 years (n=3951). Subgroup analysis was performed using women aged ≤16 years (n=68). Women aged 20–34 years were used as the reference group.
Primary outcome measures Maternal and neonatal outcomes.
Results The odds of extremely low birth weight (<1000 g) were significantly higher in the adolescent group (≤19 years) compared with the reference group (adjusted OR (aOR) 4.13, 95% CI 1.41 to 12.11). The odds of very (<32 weeks) and extremely (<28 weeks) preterm delivery were also higher in the adolescent group (aOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.06 to 4.25 and aOR 5.06, 95% CI 1.23 to 20.78, respectively).
Women in the adolescent group had lower odds of gestational diabetes (aOR 0.35, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.62), caesarean delivery (aOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.67 and instrumental delivery (aOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.67).
Conclusions This study identifies important differences in maternal and neonatal outcomes between women by age group. These findings could help in identifying at-risk groups for additional support and tailored interventions to minimise the risk of adverse outcomes for these vulnerable groups. Further work is needed to identify the causal mechanisms linking age with outcomes in adolescent women where significant gaps in the literature exist.
A particular strength of this work is that it uses well-established, ethnically diverse, UK-based cohort data in a way that is unique to this study.
A further strength is in the large number of participants available for analysis that enables robust conclusions to be drawn.
Despite the large number of participants, however, this study is limited by small numbers of occurrences of some rare outcomes, particularly in subgroup analyses.
It should also be considered that the generalisability of this study to contexts that are very different in terms of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics is limited.
The impact of maternal age on obstetric and neonatal outcomes has been studied in various parts of the world and with variable results. A WHO multicountry study including 29 low-income and middle-income countries2 found adolescent mothers were at higher risk of several adverse outcomes including low birth weight, preterm delivery eclampsia and infections compared with mothers aged 20–24 years.
Similarly in higher income countries, there is evidence to suggest that health outcomes may be less favourable for younger mothers. Babies born to adolescent mothers have been shown to be at higher risk of preterm birth and low birth weight,3 4 and higher rates of stillbirth and neonatal mortality have also been reported.5 Adolescents have, however, been consistently shown to experience lower rates of caesarean and instrumental delivery6 and therefore are at lower risk of complications associated with assisted births. It is not currently clear from the available literature, however, to what extent differences in birth outcomes between adolescent and adult mothers are predicted by age alone.
A systematic review7 aiming to assess the relationship between early first childbirth and increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes found that there was considerable evidence to suggest that very young maternal age (<15 years or less than 2 years after menarche) had a negative effect on both maternal and fetal growth and infant survival. It is suggested that young women who are still themselves growing may compete with the fetus for nutrients, which may in turn impair fetal growth and result in low birthweight babies or babies who are small for their gestational age. The review also found a moderately increased risk of anaemia, premature birth and neonatal mortality associated with young maternal age. Advanced maternal age (35+ years) has also previously been shown to be an independent risk factor for adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes.8 This suggests that women aged 20–34 years could reasonably be considered as the population less likely to suffer age-related pregnancy complications.
Some work has already been carried out looking at maternal and neonatal outcomes in the Born in Bradford cohort, particularly with reference to maternal ethnicity14 15; however, this cohort has not previously been examined with reference to maternal age.
While these studies have shown some interesting associations between maternal and neonatal outcomes and maternal ethnicity, the impact of maternal age on outcomes is yet to be explored in this cohort. The size and diversity of this cohort allow for detailed analysis to be carried out and factors known to impact on maternal and neonatal outcomes to be controlled for, making this study unique in a UK context. For these reasons, the primary aim of this investigation is to explore the relationship between maternal and neonatal outcomes and maternal age in the Born in Bradford cohort.
Born in Bradford is a prospective cohort study for which participants were recruited during pregnancy. The cohort was originally established in response to concerns regarding the high rates of morbidity and mortality in the city. All women booked for delivery at Bradford Royal Infirmary are offered an oral glucose tolerance test at 26–28 weeks’ gestation. Women were invited to participate in the Born in Bradford study when attending this appointment or when attending other antenatal appointments. Informed consent was obtained, and women were asked to complete a baseline questionnaire providing data on maternal characteristics. Blood and urine samples were also collected from the mothers as well as cord blood samples collected at birth. Recruitment took place between March 2007 and December 2010, and over 80% of women eligible in this period agreed to take part, which represents approximately 64% of the births occurring in Bradford during this period.13 This study uses baseline questionnaire data and hospital maternity data collected by Born in Bradford to examine maternal and neonatal outcomes. The youngest women recruited to the cohort were 15 years old; therefore, data for this study were limited to primiparous women aged 15–34 years at delivery who had a singleton pregnancy; data relating to 4591 pregnancies were available for this analysis. A flow chart describing the Born in Bradford cohort and the subset used for this study is shown in figure 1.
Details of the Born in Bradford cohort and subset used for the present study. This shows participants recruited to the main Born in Bradford cohort study and the subset of these participants whose data is used in the present study.
The binary neonatal outcome variables studied were low birth weight (below 2500 g), very low birth weight (below 1500 g), extremely low birth weight (below 1000 g), macrosomia (birth weight over 4000 g), small for gestational age (birth weight lower than the 10th percentile for the sample),16 large for gestational age (birth weight higher than the 90th percentile for the sample),16 preterm birth (<37 completed weeks gestation), very preterm birth (<32 completed weeks’ gestation), extremely preterm birth (<28 completed weeks’ gestation), outcome of birth (live birth or stillbirth) and Apgar score at 1 min and 5 min (analysed as two groups: <7 and 7–10). Low, very low and extremely low birthweight and macrosomic infants were compared with infants born weighing 2500–4000 g, small and large for gestational age infants were compared with appropriate for gestational age infants and those born preterm or very or extremely preterm to those born ≥37 completed weeks’ gestation. Birth weight and gestational age at delivery were also considered as continuous variables. The maternal outcome variables included in this analysis were diagnosis of pre-eclampsia (diagnosis in this cohort was made when proteinuria is >0.3 mg and blood pressure is ≥140/90mmHg on more than one occasion), diagnosis of gestational diabetes (defined as a 2-hour postglucose load plasma glucose level of 7.8 mmol/L or a fasting plasma glucose level of 6.1 mmol/L)14 and mode of birth (normal vaginal, instrumental (including both forceps and ventouse deliveries) or caesarean section). Distinction between elective and emergency caesarean sections was not available. The outcome variables were collected in the process of routine maternity care and were made available for this analysis via data linkage to questionnaire data.
Outcomes in women aged ≤19 years were compared with outcomes for women in the reference group (20–34 years). Age group of 20–34 years was selected as the reference group as this group is the least likely to suffer age-related complications as discussed in the introduction.
Characteristics of the sample were described, presenting categorical variables as percentages and continuous variables as means and SD. This analysis was carried out both for demographic characteristics and for maternal and neonatal outcome variables. Differences between maternal age groups were explored using χ2 for categorical data and Student’s t-test for continuous data.
Simple linear regression was calculated to predict both birth weight and gestation to last completed week at delivery based on maternal age at delivery.
Logistic regression analyses were used to compare the rate of each of the binary outcome variables for adolescents and the reference group and differences between groups estimated using ORs.
In the multivariate logistic regression model for this study, there is no clear logical or theoretical basis for assuming any variable to be prior to any other, either in terms of its relevance to the research goal of explaining phenomena or in terms of a hypothetical causal structure of the data. For this reason, a simultaneous model of including independent variables in the multivariate logistic regression model was considered to be most appropriate.
Further subgroup analysis was also undertaken to examine the maternal and neonatal outcomes for young women aged ≤16 years compared with the reference group and reported in the same way as the main analysis. Statistical analysis was undertaken using SPSS V.24.
Data were available for 4591 pregnancies for this analysis; characteristics of the participants included in the study are shown in table 1. The majority of participants in the cohort were aged 20–34 years (86.1%) with 13.9% aged 19 years or under. The sample overall was made up of 37.7% Pakistani women, 44.4% white British woman and 17.6% women of other ethnicities. Among women aged 19 years and under only 16.7% were of Pakistani ethnicity and 70% were white British. Women in the adolescent group were also more likely to have been born in the UK or Ireland (88.1%) compared with the reference group (65.5%). There were other significant variations in the characteristics of the sample by maternal age. Women in the adolescent age group were more likely to not be married or living with a partner, to be expecting their first child and to have completed lower levels of education compared with older women. Women in the adolescent age groups were also more likely to have smoked or used recreational drugs during pregnancy; they were also more likely to have drunk alcohol in the first trimester. Women in the reference group were more likely to be overweight or obese, while adolescent women were found to have higher prevalence of underweight. Older women were also more likely to have taken nutritional supplements in the 4 weeks before questionnaire completion compared with younger women. Analysis of continuous variables showed that IMD score decreased as maternal age increased suggesting adolescent women lived in areas of higher deprivation. Adolescent women also booked with a midwife for antenatal care later than older women; there was a mean difference of 1 week between the two groups.
Descriptive analysis relating to maternal and neonatal outcomes is shown in table 2. This analysis suggests that there are several outcome variables that show significant variation by maternal age group. Among the neonatal outcomes, the results show babies born to adolescent women were significantly more likely to have extremely low birth weights or to be born very or extremely preterm. Among the maternal outcomes, lower rates of gestational diabetes, caesarean delivery and instrumental birth were associated with adolescent age.
A simple linear regression was carried out to assess the relationship between birth weight and maternal age. A statistically significant relationship was found (P=0.044). The slope coefficient for maternal age was 3.749, meaning that for each 1-year increase in maternal age, birth weight increases by 3.749 g. The R2 value was 0.001, meaning that only 0.1% of the variation in birth weight can be explained by the model containing only maternal age.
Similarly, a simple linear regression to assess the relationship between gestation at delivery to last completed week and maternal age found a significant relationship (P=0.011). The slope coefficient for maternal age was −0.016, meaning that for each 1-year increase in maternal age gestation at delivery decreases by 0.016 weeks. The R2 value for this regression was also 0.001, meaning that only 0.1% of the variation in gestation at delivery can be explained by the model containing only maternal age.
The crude and aORs for maternal and neonatal outcomes by maternal age group are shown in table 3.
Women in the adolescent age group were found to have a significantly higher odds of delivering extremely low birthweight babies (<1000 g) compared with the reference group (aOR 4.13, 95% CI 1.41 to 12.11) and delivering extremely preterm (<28 weeks) (aOR 5.06, 95% CI 1.23 to 20.78). Adolescent pregnant women experienced lower odds of being diagnosed with gestational diabetes than the reference group (aOR 0.35, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.62). The odds of women in this age group delivering by caesarean section were decreased (aOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.67), as were the odds of having an instrumental delivery (aOR 0.53, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.69) compared with the reference group.
For some outcomes, the number of events occurring in the subgroup aged ≤16 years, was either very small or no events took place. This resulted in either the regression model failing to produce a valid result or the aOR being subject to extremely wide CIs. The results presented do however provide a useful indication of the outcomes that may be important for further investigation. Results of the subgroup analysis are shown in table 4. The only variable to return a significant result in this analysis was for incidence of caesarean section where the odds were lower for women in the ≤16 subgroup (aOR 0.31, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.72).
Analysis of maternal and neonatal outcomes in the Born in Bradford cohort in this study has found some important differences between women in different age groups.
Preterm deliveries may be clinically indicated due to medical factors such as intrauterine growth restriction or spontaneous. Both spontaneous preterm delivery20 and intrauterine growth restriction21 have been shown to be associated with maternal under nutrition, and the links between intrauterine growth restriction and maternal smoking during pregnancy are well established.20 22 23 This study has identified a higher prevalence of both maternal underweight and smoking during pregnancy among the adolescent group compared with controls, suggesting that these may be important mechanisms for further investigation in examining the causes of poorer outcomes in adolescent pregnancies.
In the UK, survival rates for babies born extremely preterm increase rapidly with each additional week the fetus remains in the womb from close to 0 at 22 weeks’ gestation to 92% at 28 completed weeks,24 meaning that neonatal death is a significant concern for babies born in this time period. Mortality data were not available for this study for infants who were born alive; this would be an important area for further study to assess how mortality rates in preterm infants born to adolescent mothers compare with those born to older women.
The linear regression analysis of both birth weight and gestation at delivery showed statistically significant results. This said, the R2 value for both of these analyses showed that maternal age accounted for only 0.1% of the variation in the analysis, meaning that the clinical importance of this finding is limited. It is likely that there are a number of variables that were either not measured in this study or that are currently unknown in the research literature that contribute to these outcomes.
Adolescent women were also found to be at significantly lower risk of caesarean and instrumental delivery in this analysis. Caesarean delivery is associated with higher rates of postnatal complications and increased recovery time for the mother.25 Instrumental deliveries, while necessary to prevent serious neonatal complications, are associated with a higher prevalence of birth injuries and maternal rehospitalisation.26 These results are consistent with a large body of existing work where these outcomes have been found to be associated with maternal age.27 28 It is not known whether these differences are due to biological differences between younger and older women or whether the reasons are more likely to be social or cultural. Further investigation regarding the reasons for difference in mode of birth in women of different ages would be advantageous. The results of this study are consistent with a number of previous similar studies. Results from a study looking at differences in outcomes between adolescent mothers and an older reference group from the North Western Perinatal Survey29 found an increased risk of low birth weight and preterm delivery among adolescent mothers. This study also measured the effect of parity on these outcomes and reported and increased effect in the second pregnancies of adolescents. Analysis in the present study was limited to primiparous mothers only in order to control for the impact of parity in comparison with the control group. There were insufficient numbers of multiparous women in the adolescent group to allow for analysis of these as a separate group in this study; however, the results of this previous study suggest that by excluding second and subsequent pregnancies, the extent of low birth weight and preterm delivery may have been underestimated.
A further study30 comparing adolescent pregnancy outcomes with those of older women found a decreased risk of caesarean section and instrumental delivery in the adolescent group, which is consistent with the findings of this study. This study did however fail to find any association with low birth weight or preterm delivery after adjusting for confounding variables. This analysis did not however look at extreme low birth weight or extreme preterm delivery, which is where the present study has detected differences between groups. Comparison of the results of this study to key indicators published by Public Health England’s Child and Maternal Health Intelligence Network31 suggests that despite the uniqueness of this cohort, the results are generalisable to other areas of the UK. Reported national rates for smoking in pregnancy, low birth weight and stillbirth are similar both among the adolescent population and the population as a whole to those reported in this study.
The results of this study contribute to the wider understanding of neonatal and maternal morbidity and mortality both in a UK context and internationally. This study identifies important differences in the risk of adverse outcomes by maternal age, which align with the United Nations sustainable development goals32 and the targets outlined in the Every Woman, Every Child Global Strategy.33 Preterm births and low birth weights are a major cause of neonatal death and cause more than 1 million deaths globally per year.34 In addition to this, the second leading cause of death for young women aged 15–19 years is complications during pregnancy and childbirth.35 Identifying characteristics that put individuals at higher risk of these complications will help in targeting interventions to populations that are appropriate to their setting.
A significant strength of this study is that it uses a large cohort study, meaning that the majority of statistical analyses do not suffer from problems due to small numbers and the population recruited the cohort is largely representative of the population as a whole. There are however some small difference between the populations recruited and not recruited that should be acknowledged. A lower proportion of mothers aged 20–24 years were recruited compared with those not in the cohort and a higher proportion of South Asian and primiparous women. A lower proportion of mothers at the lower end of the control group may therefore have had some bearing on the prevalence of some outcomes in that group, which is a limitation of this study.
Attempts were made to control for the effect of confounding variables in the multivariate logistic regression model by including a measure of socioeconomic deprivation and ethnicity in the model and by restricting the analysis to primiparous women delivering a singleton. These variables were selected due to their independent association with the outcome variables. Other variables were not included in the model due to a high degree of correlation between variables. There still exists, however, the possibility that the effect sizes detected in this study are influenced by unmeasured or residual confounding variables.
Despite the large numbers overall, there was still only a relatively small number of adolescent women in the cohort, particularly in the subgroup analysis. Stillbirth, premature deliveries and very and extremely low birth weights were also relatively rare events, meaning that this study may have failed to detect differences in outcomes between groups due to being insufficiently powered.
The availability of routine hospital data linked to the cohort data was also a significant strength of this study. The use of this data did however also present limitations in that the analysis was restricted to the variables collected routinely, and there was no opportunity to recover missing data.
This study identifies some important variations in obstetric and perinatal outcomes by maternal age. Extremely low birth weight and extremely preterm delivery were concerns for adolescent mothers. Findings relating to maternal outcomes were also consistent with the existing literature showing lower risk of gestational diabetes, caesarean delivery and instrumental birth. Further work to establish the causal mechanisms behind the links between maternal age and maternal and neonatal outcomes would be advantageous, particularly for adolescent mothers where there are significant gaps in the existing literature.
Born in Bradford is only possible because of the enthusiasm and commitment of the children and parents in BiB. We are grateful to all the participants, practitioners and researchers who have made Born in Bradford happen.
. Maternal smoking and adverse birth outcomes among singletons and twins. Am J Public Health 2000;90:395.
. Adolescent pregnancy and parenting: findings from a racially diverse sample. Psychology Press 2014.
Office for National Statistics, English indices of deprivation 2015.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2015(accessed 17 Nov 2017).
Tommy’s. Premature Birth Statistics, [online]. https://www.tommys.org/our-organisation/why-we-exist/premature-birth-statistics (accessed 17 Nov 2017).
Public Health England, Teenage Parent Outcomes Modelling Tool. http://www.chimat.org.uk/teenconceptions/chimattools(accessed 12 Dec 2016).
United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals.http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html(accessed 12 Dec 2016).
Child EW. Global strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. New York, NY: Every Woman Every Child, 2015.
Contributors KM-D: completion of data analysis and responsible for writing the manuscript. KK: providing specialist input on statistical methods. VJB: providing specialist input on methods and structure, providing comments and making amendments to the manuscript. HS: providing specialist input on methods and structure, providing comments and making amendments to the manuscript.
Funding The research wasfunded by the NIHR CLAHRC Yorkshire and Humber through the White Rose PhD studentship network. The views expressedare those of the author(s), and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR orthe Department of Health and Social Care. The Born in Bradford study presents independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRC) and the Programme Grants for Applied Research funding scheme (RP-PG-0407-10044).
Ethics approval Ethical approval for the study was granted by Bradford Research Ethics Committee (ref no. 07/H1302/112).
Data sharing statement Requests for access to data should be addressed to the corresponding author or to the Born in Bradford programme manager [email protected]. | 2019-04-22T19:16:23Z | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/3/e016258 |
The priests, who were part of the crowd standing beneath Jesus’ cross, revealed their skepticism when they said, “Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42). Those were also the feelings of the Roman centurion who guarded Jesus, until he had second thoughts.
This army officer was a sergeant major who had seen many people die, but had never seen a person die as Jesus did. He had been in charge of Jesus, the prisoner, since the priests turned Him over to the Roman authorities. By his demeanor in the dying hours, Jesus witnessed to His righteousness. Rather than curse His enemies, Jesus prayed for them. He showed mercy to a fellow prisoner and promised him a heavenly home.
The centurion also witnessed God speaking in nature. The Bible tells us, “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion, and those with him who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ÔSurely he was the Son of God'” (Matthew 27:45, 51-54).
Enough was enough. These skeptics had second thoughts and concluded that Jesus was, as He had said, the Son of God. Do you remember what Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself?” This was happening. You can be sure there were many who went home that night convinced Jesus was the Christ.
To a greater or lesser degree, all of us can identify with this centurion, who finally confessed that Jesus was the Son of God. No one hated Jesus more than Saul of Tarsus. He was not only thankful that Jesus had been crucified, but wanted all of his serious followers killed too. To accomplish this, Saul was making a full-time job out of bringing the scattered disciples back to Jerusalem to be persecuted and killed. But God intervened. While on his journey from Jerusalem to Damascus to bring back Christians to be persecuted, Christ confronted Saul. You can read the story of his conversion in Acts 9. Saul of Tarsus, better known to us as the Apostle Paul, became a new man and gave his life to Christ.
The same goes on today. There are millions of skeptics who were taught that Jesus is the Son of God, but walked away from Him. Who could believe that Jesus, dying on the cross and being raised from the dead, paid the price for my sin? the skeptic asked. Prove to me that He is God, and I will believe. Then the day came when the truths learned as a youth got your attention. You remember the peace that dwelt in the lives of your parents and grandparents, and how unsettled your own life was. Gradually you found your way back to the church, and began reading God’s Word. You were no longer 19 when you seemed to know it all. You were in your 40s, and you had experienced a good taste of life. You saw your weaknesses and need for help. You asked, What does this verse, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” mean?
This is not a fictitious story. The pews of our church are filled with such people who walked away from Christ, but came back when they saw their need for a Savior. Here we see the importance of sowing the seed in our children’s minds and hearts. The Sunday school and confirmation classes are more important today than ever as we see fewer and fewer homes assuming responsibility in introducing their children to Jesus Christ. If the homes are failing to introduce their sons and daughters to Jesus, the congregation has an even greater responsibility. We need not fear they will be bored in the classroom and become bitter with the church. Most of us would rather have been out on the playground than in the confirmation classroom learning the basic truths of Christian faith. Teach the children these Biblical truths through which the Holy Spirit works to give them second thoughts in the years to come! Let them walk with Christ in their subconscious minds, and see what will happen when they are spiritually destitute.
For those of you who have never heard the basic teachings of the Christian faith, let me summarize it for you.
1. You are created in the image of God. Among other things, this means you have a mind with which you can think, a will with which you can make a decision, and a soul that is eternal. In God’s eyes, you are a precious and important person, not because of your accomplishments, but because of who you are.
2. You are a rebel, a sinner. You used your mind and will to choose to live a life contrary to God’s will. This means that, by nature, you are out of a relationship with God. Unforgiven sin has separated you from your Creator.
3. God did not give up on you, but sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to suffer, die, and be raised again as a payment for your sins. Full payment has been made for your sins.
4. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, if you will receive Christ as your Savior, He will take away all of your sins and restore you into a personal relationship with God. In this relationship with God, you seek to live according to His will, which is revealed in the Bible Ð your only authority in matters of faith and life.
You might react and say, I am thankful to have this summary of the Christian faith, but it does not make sense to me. May I suggest that you pray and invite Jesus into your life, and then begin to read His Word. I would suggest you get a Bible and turn to the Gospel of John. Find a Christian friend to help you understand its meaning. Attend a church where God’s Word is faithfully taught. Then see what happens to your life! Maybe you will come to the same conclusion the centurion did: Jesus is God’s Son, your Savior and Lord.
To those of us who are Christians, let me repeat what I said at the beginning of this sermon Ð that, to a greater or lesser degree, we can all identify with the skeptic. We have our questions.
Why did my loved one die prematurely?
Why does God permit all of this unrighteousness in the world?
Why do all of these earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes happen?
Why are there famines and terrible diseases in the underprivileged parts of the world?
This centurion, who had second thoughts about Jesus, brings us great joy! Any skepticism about Christ, be it great or small, can be overcome when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives through God’s Word. Remember that the centurion received his second thoughts about Christ at the foot of the cross. That’s where most of these second thoughts come to us.
Let Christ be lifted up in our own lives, in our churches, and in our communities, and there will be many second thoughts which lead to spiritual awakenings.
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).
These are His words of comfort and peace. But today we have another word from Jesus that is stern, one that is frightening and makes us uncomfortable! We don’t like it as well as the others.
Jesus is on His way to the cross. He has been condemned to die by Pilate, beaten and spat on by Roman soldiers, and mocked by the religious leaders. A large crowd followed Him to the cross. Among them were women. Some of these women were Jesus’ followers. One can only assume that Mary and Martha from Bethany must have been there. Then there were Mary, the mother of James; Mary Magdalene; and Salome. These women were at the tomb on Easter. Certainly they were witnesses of Jesus’ crucifixion. We can also assume that some of these women were not followers of Christ. They could have heard their husbands talk about Jesus in a derogatory way, and agreed that He had to be silenced. But whether they were believers or not, they were emotionally overwhelmed with the barbaric practice of execution.
Nothing could be worse than death by crucifixion, so the Bible said they mourned and wailed.
Jesus turned and said to the crying women, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ÔBlessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed'” (Luke 23:28-29). These are stern words that some might consider out of character for Jesus to speak. They are condemning and judgmental. Could such a message come from the lips of our Lord?
These could well have been the years to which Jesus referred when He told them not to cry for Him, but for themselves and their children.
Now we live more than 110 years after Philip Schaff. Have these later years known worse destruction of lives and property than the destruction of Jerusalem? After all, in the last two generations we have witnessed people dying by the millions. I refer to such events as the explosions at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Holocaust in German concentration camps.
It is not for us to argue if today has greater corruption and moral decay than in the Roman Empire. We know it is plenty bad today, and this is our greatest concern, especially when Jesus warns about a coming judgment. God does not wink at sin. He will forgive sin, but He will not condone it.
However, there is a final judgment far worse than any known to humankind. It is the judgment scene at that hour of death when the individual stands before his or her Creator. What do we do with our sin at that time? The Bible says there is that judgment when our Lord comes at the end of the world to “judge the living and the dead,” as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed. Hear once more Christ’s promise, “Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death into life” (John 5:24).
Believers in Christ Jesus will escape this final judgment. But those outside of Christ stand before the Almighty clothed, at best, with their own righteousness, which will not be adequate. Then comes the judgment.
Reading this, some will say, Sounds like old-fashioned, hell-fire preaching, doesn’t it? Doesn’t that preacher know modern humans cannot be scared into heaven? This approach is not effective. Best we leave this approach with the extreme fundamentalists, whose audience is less educated than we folks, who occasionally worship in main-line Protestant churches and want to be edified and not threatened.
The voices that speak these words are common among us, but it is this stern message of Jesus regarding sin and judgment that makes the cross necessary if humans want to be saved. Either we have to pay for our own sins, or Jesus has to pay the price for us. He has paid this price through His sacrificial suffering and death, and offers this redemption to all who will receive Him.
Our Lord wants no one to be condemned. Remember how Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Holy City and said,” O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ÔBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'”Ê(Matthew 23:37-39).
Those words He speaks to every generation. He does not want to condemn. He does not like to deliver these stern words. He would far rather proclaim the good news of salvation in Him. His favorite message is, “He who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). He stands knocking at our heart’s door; but empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must let Him in to our lives.
The women cried, and who of us would not cry to witness such a torturous act as a crucifixion! But the greater sadness is to see Christ rejected by those for whom He died.
Look at our nation as a whole: we rejoice over our advancements in science and technology. We are living longer than ever before. We have money to spend. We are served by all of these new inventions.
But look at our nation spiritually and we see there is reason to mourn. Of course, there are many who confess Jesus as Savior and Lord. Their witness is strong. There are spiritual awakenings. But the Lord who spoke to the Roman Empire and its corruption speaks to our populace, and says to the millions who reject Him, “Repent and receive Me.” This is the Lenten message.
Many parts of the Christian message warm our hearts and send us on our way as confident people, knowing that, in Christ, all is well. Let’s review some of these great Biblical lessons.
The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). This son had walked away from the family. He had spent all of his money and was destitute. Then he decides to go to his father. When the father sees the prodigal coming, he runs to meet him saying, “My son who was dead is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate. These words lift our spirits when we think of a loved one away from any kind of relationship with God. It tells us there is still hope. God will receive him or her. Who are we to give up on this person?
There is the story of Zacchaeus, who was a corrupt tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). The people hated him. Jesus spent time with Zacchaeus and changed his life. With the converted tax collector by His side, Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this man’s house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” When we feel hopelessly lost, God sends us a message, I can and will change your life. Come to me.
There are the inspired words of St. Paul, who said, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. ÔWhere, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:54-47). This is the basis for our comfort as we walk away from the cemetery having buried a loved one.
*God had to send His Son to suffer and die at the cross as a payment for our sins.
The price was astronomical. As Peter says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (I Peter 1:18-19).
Scripture gives us a glimpse of what Jesus went through on His way to the cross. For three years Jesus had walked among His people telling them who He was and why He had come. It was His claims about Himself that irritated the religious leaders. Jesus had healed and rescued many people during His three-year ministry. Now the people around the cross are saying, “He saved others, but He can’t save Himself. He’s the King of Israel! Come on down from the cross and we will believe in Him” (Matthew 27:42).
Others said, “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ÔI am the Son of God.'” He was mocked by the religious leaders, spat on, and struck by the Roman soldiers. But it was not only the religious leaders and soldiers who mocked Him.
Matthew tells us, “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ÔYou are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God” (Matthew 27:39-40).
Play back these words in our minds and we see visitors in Jerusalem who had heard bits and pieces of what was happening to Jesus say, We know religion is good, and we all ought to have some of it. But even religion can be carried too far. Look at that poor man. He must have some ability, but He has let His convictions get the best of Him.
He is too proud to recant, and so He is going to die this terrible death. Another life is wasted. If honest, can you identify with some of this thinking? After all, Jesus made some strong statements that people do not like in a society where tolerance is a primary virtue. He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” He claims to be the Savior of the world. Even good members of the church will say, Such a statement is divisive. It divides friends and family members. Why not be broad-minded and say all religions are equally as good? The Jews have their religion, the Moslems have their beliefs, and we have ours. There is only one God. Who are we to say that Jesus is the way?
Jesus not only taught He was the way. He instructed His disciples to go and spread this Gospel. So we read about John and Peter telling the folks at the Temple, “There is salvation in no other name than in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:12). It is when the Church begins to evangelize Ð making it clear that in Christ alone we are saved Ð that it is confronted with strong opposition. When we deny this teaching, that Christ is the only Savior, are we not thinking like those people who stood at the cross the day Jesus died?
No, we answer, we believe what He said is true for us. We would never mock Him. We just think His teachings are a bit too exclusive for an enlightened age like ours. Our world has grown so much smaller in two thousand years. We must make allowances for others.
Here is another strong statement of our Lord, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ÔShow us the Father?’ Don’t you believe I am in the Father, and the Father is in me” (John 14:9-10)?
He also said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) These words serve as a basis for the Church’s teaching that Jesus is God.
Here again this teaching is too strong for popular acceptance in our culture. Why not say, Jesus is our Master or Jesus is our role model. That leaves room for others like Moses, Mohammed, Buddha. But Jesus claims to be God, and Christians receive Him as the Lord of their lives.
Jesus says, “I am going to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2). Christians live with the assurance of their salvation, because Jesus has promised them a heavenly home which is eternal. And yet, when some church members are asked, Have you come to that place in your spiritual life where you know for sure that if you died today you would go to heaven?, many answer, I hope so. Then they will ask, How sure can we be about life after death? No one has come back to tell us about it.
Teachings like these sent Jesus to the cross. Teachings like these are stumbling blocks for many today, but the Church must be faithful to the Scriptures. The Bible is our only authority in matters of faith and life. God has limited us to proclaim faithfully what has been revealed to us. Take away these inspired truths and there is no basis for our faith. Therefore, there will always be tension between the Church when it is faithful and the society in which it finds itself.
The jeers have come from the crowd in every generation when Jesus is presented as Savior and God. Let the Church succumb to these jeers and comply to a form of Christianity ordered up by our culture, and it is no longer the Church of the New Testament.
In spite of strong criticisms, the Church believers in Christ Jesus) says, Thank you, Lord, for my salvation. I receive you as my Savior and Lord, grateful for your daily presence in my life and the assurance of a place in heaven when I die. While these truths go beyond my understanding, I accept them in faith as the foundation upon which I build my life.
Our salvation cost Jesus Christ His life. He died vicariously for you and me. If we will receive Him as our Savior and Lord, He brings us into a personal relationship with God. Pretty heavy, isn’t it? Yes, it is, but what a message!
In God’s eyes you are precious and important to God, not because of what you have accomplished in life, but because of who you are. That’s why He was willing to die for you.
However, the Gospel writers tell us the details of those horrible hours.ÊThese inspired writings introduce us to some of the people who made upÊthe crowd assembled at Golgotha’s hill where Jesus died. One of theÊpeople in the crowd was Simon of Cyrene.
Cyrene was an important city of Lida in North Africa that had a largeÊJewish population. One of its citizens named Simon was in Jerusalem toÊcelebrate the Jewish Passover. As he stood by the side of the road,ÊJesus, accompanied by the Roman soldiers, passed by. The Lord wasÊcarrying His cross on which He would be crucified. One of the beamsÊweighed about 30 to 40 pounds. Exhausted by the beatings He hadÊendured and the long, uphill walk to the place of execution, JesusÊcollapsed. At that time, a Roman soldier forced Simon to carry the cross.ÊIt could have irritated Simon. To visit Jerusalem was the experience of aÊlifetime for Simon. He had dreamed of the day when he would celebrateÊthe Passover in Jerusalem. Now Roman soldiers had forced him to carryÊthe cross of a criminal.
While carrying Jesus’ cross, something was happening in the mind andÊsoul of this man from Cyrene. He was attracted to Jesus. This personÊwas different. In severe pain, He looked down from the cross and madeÊpreparation for His mother’s care. He looked out over a crowd who wasÊshowing its hate for Jesus and asked God to forgive them. He looked toÊHis side and assured a criminal that today he would be with Him inÊParadise.
Did Simon leave Jerusalem after the Passover as one of Christ’sÊfollowers? Was he in the process of being converted? Had he become aÊChristian? There is no one sentence that would tell us Simon had beenÊconverted, but there is strong support that Simon did become a discipleÊof Jesus. We have to piece his story together, and when we do, there isÊstrong evidence to suggest the Holy Spirit brought Simon to confessÊChrist as his Savior.
Here is some of the evidence that is used to bring us to this conclusion.
Mark, in his Gospel, says, “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the fatherÊof Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country,Êand they forced him to carry the cross.” Let me quote from twoÊprominent Biblical theologians.
Another Biblical theologian, William Barclay, believes Simon was one ofÊthe Christian teachers at Antioch. Putting this together, it is a common viewpoint in the Church that Simon became a Christian and raised hisÊfamily in the Christian faith. This brings us a powerful message.
As we learn from Simon and his relationship with Christ, are we not muchÊlike him? When do we really get serious about Jesus and ourÊrelationship with Him. Is it when good things happen to us? I am sureÊthis is true in some cases. We are thankful for the Lord’s blessings. WeÊstop to thank Him for His goodness, and it draws us into a closerÊrelationship with God. But let’s go a bit further. For many of us, is it notÊmore often when we live with heartache, disappointment, and grief thatÊwe begin to look more seriously at life and wonder where God fits intoÊthe picture? Much of what we had counted on to bring us peace and joyÊhas failed us in the end.
Our material wealth has provided us with the necessities of life and manyÊpleasures, but we have learned there are many things our money will not buy.
When we have been successful in reaching our life’s goals, what are ourÊnew challenges that make life worth living?
When we boast about living for 70 years and never being a hospitalÊpatient, how do we handle the news that it’s time for bypass surgery andÊwe must adjust our lifestyle to accommodate our physical strength. What do I do when my spouse of 10 years has decided that he or sheÊdoesn’t love me anymore and wants out of our marriage? To whom do I turn when my children have forgotten me and seldomÊcome to call on me?
How do I forgive myself for making a mess out of my life? We learn that Christ has the answer to life’s more serious problems. When our souls are filled with guilt, He offers us forgiveness. When life draws to a close, He assures us of a Heavenly home. When humans fail us, He promises never to fail or forsake us.When we have made mistakes, He tells us it’s never too late to start over.When life is boring, He gives us new challenges.
Many crosses can be added to our life’s journey, but Jesus hasÊpromised, “Cast all of your cares on me, I care for you.” If you are aÊChristian, live with that promise. If you are not a Christian, receive ChristÊas your Savior and experience with Simon of Cyrene the joy of walkingÊwith Him each day. First, a peace that passes all understanding will fillÊyour soul. Then, you will have a story to tell to the nations.ÊAmen. | 2019-04-21T08:42:05Z | https://christiancrusaders.org/2001/03/ |
Sistan Baluchestan is a province in East-Iran that has been and is under systematic underdevelopment, geographic and social intervention that targets ethnic demography, systematic killings and executions by the state, and other complex histories of oppression. We have translated Hamid Mafi’s article that was originally written for our Farsi magazine, because we assume that in many other countries, if not in almost all countries, certain provinces have been neglected systematically and historically. But how is it possible to access what is not even meant to be spoken about? This is one of the biggest challenges that we are facing.
In his article, Hamid Mafi looks at these complex layers and tries to disentangle them to enable access to knowledge about Sistan Baluchestan and the way its people are affected by the violence’s inflicted on them.
In the last few months, Sistan Baluchestan, a province located in south-eastern Iran, has witnessed the election of an increasing number of women in city councils and overwhelming popularity for President Hassan Rouhani. Hassan Rouhani won the largest share of provincial votes from Sistan Baluchestan, as was also the case for other “reformists” candidates in prior elections. However, the province has also been suspected of involvement in the recent attack against the parliament building and Khomeini’s Shrine just a few days after the elections in June 2017. Government officials claimed the attackers spoke with an accent of the “western and southern” regions of Iran – implying the provinces of Kurdistan and Sistan Baluchestan.
Not very long after these two attacks, Iran’s state-run media reported a clash between security forces and a “terrorist team” in Chabahar in Sistan Baluchestan . This news, however, was devoid of any details about the clash apart from reports of the murder of a Ministry of Intelligence officer. One day after the armed clash in Chabahar, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched air and ground attacks against the Ghasr Ghand region to allegedly “ambush terrorists”. Simultaneous to security force maneuvers in Sistan Baluchestan, yet another “terrorist group” was dismantled in Kurdistan according to the Ministry of Intelligence. He added that in total 180 terrorist groups were identified and eliminated in a short period.
These maneuvers together with successive news about terrorist groups emerging from the western and southeast regions of Iran reinforced the brutal suppression of some of Iran’s most underdeveloped and impoverished regions under the pretext of targeting “terrorists”.
According to the report published by Management and Planning Organization of Iran, Sistan Baluchestan, Kurdistan and west Azerbaijan are the most deprived provinces of Iran before the Islamic revolution in 1979. Four decades after the revolution, Sistan Baluchestan is still the most deprived region in Iran. Findings also suggest that the province has the highest infant rate mortality and income inequality, the lowest literacy rate, and gross domestic product. It is also last in the social welfare index list among provinces in Iran.
The government has utilized “insecurity” as a pretext for the lack of development and services in these regions. As a result, policy makers have escalated the militarization of the region as a path towards development. And with development, the state hopes to reduce conflicts over time. Both development and militarization however fail to address the key question of why these regions suffer from lack of development and deprivation since the formation of “Modern Iran”.
To better understand the current situation in Sistan Baluchestan, we need to examine how Iran came to at Kurdistan during the first few years after 1979 revolution. During those early years, the Islamic government proposed three solutions to the Kurdish problem: 1) accepting the autonomy of Kurdistan, 2) then destroying the entire region, and 3) forcing negotiations. This approach was verified by Hashem Sabaghian, Interior Minister of the Interim government about this approach after the 1979 revolution. Hamidreza Jalaeipour, who was governor of Mahabad at the time, wrote an article about the “rise and fall of the Kurdish movement”. In this article, he explained the two viewpoints for solving the Kurdish crisis: the policy of security-suppression and compromise- dialogue. “We must see the presence of IRGC in Kurdistan as the security policy and its success versus the compromise viewpoint due to the failure of the interim government to attract young forces”. He also provided three reasons for the continuity of what he called the “crisis”: Guerrilla organizations constituted of Kurdish political parties, the familiarity of party forces with the region, and a special security policy of the government.
Jalaeipour divided the conventional security policy in the Kurdish context posed by different governments after the revolution in two categories. The first was to negotiate with the opposition forces while the military organized attacks in the region. The government then negotiated with various Kurdish officials to not shelter guerrilla forces or would face severe repercussions. He believes that the special security policy of the Islamic republic is the combination of these two strategies. He also added that “the government should manage to service people and ensure their security in the peak of insecurity”. Kurdish forces loyal to the Islamic government were called Jash by the people of the region, and were granted safe conduct in the region by the government. However, it remains unclear how the IRGC organized Jash, how Jash is accountable to the IRGC after a few years, and how this became a model for widespread oppression. This model was specifically employed by Mohammad Boroujerdi, and Mostafa Chamran in Kurdistan, and later expanded to other regions in Iran.
Chamran explains the mechanism within which the employment of Kurdish people occurred. Gendarmes located in the border areas employed only Kurds, including Kurdish nomads. This was to ensure that any mercenary combatants would have knowledge about the region. He also narrated that military forces employed 300 people from two tribes. “Of course, in addition to military activities, regional people see how youths, doctors, engineers are dispatched in order to work on construction and development projects”. A little later, Boroujerdi established the Muslim Peshmerga of Kurdistan and played a key role to suppress the Kurds, as they were “familiar with the geography and the language of the regions”. The trend of employing local people turned out to be successful in the latter years of the 1980’s, as many non-locals were replaced by the Kurds who lived in the region.
Muslim Peshmerga of Kurdistan were also involved in organizing the Sunni clergy. At that time, the clergy had important roles in rural areas, such that many villagers were armed with the support of the village clergy.
The approach developed in Kurdistan remains in existence and has also been spread elsewhere in Iran which have a high proportion of minorities. Muslim Peshmerga of Kurdistan are now officially merged into the IRGC. Today, IRGC together with the army establishes construction sites in the region to not only show its sovereignty, but also emphasize the policy of development and militarization. Security forces also employ over 8000 local people as informers and gunmen.
Since 2000, IRGC has assumed responsibility for securing the northwest and southeast borders of Iran. Rouhani’s government also officially delegated the development of border areas to this military organ. In addition to the IRGC, other governmental foundations such as “Jihad of Construction” organization, Astan Quds Razavi, Barekat and Mostazafan operate in Sistan Baluchestan as they did in Kurdistan in the beginning of the Islamic revolution.
The arming of local clans was the most successful project conducted by the IRGC. This project was named “shooshtari”, after the commander of the IRGC who was murdered in Sistan Baluchestan. Many Baluch activists, religious figures, and even a few authorities have objected to this project. In 2009, Molavi Abdul Hamid, an Imam of Sistan Baluchestan, criticized governmental institutions for holding “security” related seminars and congresses in Sistan Baluchestan. In summer 2013, Tayeb Mollah Zehi, one of the Sunni clerics said that the distribution of weapons by IRGC to the clans resulted in increased robberies and insecurity, and asked the government to collect the distributed weapons. Last winter, another Sunni cleric, Molavi Sarzehi, also denounced the widespread distribution of weapons in the town of Iranshahr. He declared that “we do not want (military) bases such that disintegrate people and intensify insecurity”.
Activities pertaining to the security of the region is not limited to the military operations. Promoting religious and political beliefs of the Revolutionary Guard was also on the agenda. In this regard, 138 Righteous assemblies of Basij were established. 300 thousand people are active in these assemblies. Other activities include identifying those Sunni clerics who did not attend the obligatory military service, and employing them in a so called, “religious kinship.” According to the authorities and analysts close to the government, these projects benefit military institutions within the regime in the following ways: increasing the cooperation of tribal leaders in detaining runaway soldiers, providing immediate support for confronting terrorists, and facilitating the transfer of runaway criminals from Pakistan to Iran. The Islamic Consultative Assembly (i.e., the parliament) in its fourth development plan also proposed employing locals in the security and military apparatus to increase trust with people and enhance “security”. The authors of this plan consider poverty as a key factor driving local residents to joining terrorist groups.
Who’s responsible for implementing the state’s policies in Sistan Baluchestan?
IRGC has therefore offered those who had been formerly arrested as drug traffickers with weapons. Simultaneously, many jihadi camps were established in poor areas (419 camps up to 2016). These Jihadi camps have attempted to build trust among the people by expanding public services to promote the religious and government policies in the region. In other words, they train “loyalists” in Sistan Baluchestan as they did in Kurdistan with “Jashes”. According to the commander of Kosar, a construction base belonging to IRGC, 1245 “deprivation elimination” projects have been conducted in Sistan Baluchestan.
To clarify the factors driving the IRGC interventions in the region, one must consider that 79 percent of Sistan Baluchestan province are originally Baluch and Sunni. Despite these numbers, many Shiite-based projects have been launched in the region. For instance, in the Spring of 2014, 400 Madhab of Ahl al-Bayt of Basij were sent to different areas of Sistan Baluchestan. Moreover, Astan Quds Razavi, a religious and financial institution that is exempt from paying the nation any tax revenues, opened an agency in the province. One of its projects was subsidizing the travel expenses of 2500 low-income people for pilgrimages to Shiite holy sites. Another religious, financial, and military institution that has been based in Sistan Baluchestan is the Barekat institution. Since 2007, Barekat has been active in constructing religious schools, cultural-religious centers, and Islamic seminary schools. These activities have been organized under the rubric of “fighting against deprivation” in the Baluchestan region.
Due to Sistan Baluchestan’s strategic location in Iran, military affiliated institutions have invested heavily in the region. In speeches given by Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, during recent trips to the Sistan Baluchestan, he emphasized that the government should dedicate a special attention to the Makran coasts. To carry out the order of Ali Khamenei, the sixth development plan includes the establishment of the Makran Coast Development organization. Since then, many military forces and their corresponding business entities have been deployed in the province. As a case in point, the largest military apparel production of the Islamic Republic, Naji Pooshesh company, is now based in Sistan Baluchestan. This company provides 100% of police clothing, 50% of Defense department clothing, and 10% of IRGC’s clothes. Under government support, Naji Pooshesh purchased Tasooki Baft Zabol and Faragir Baft Balooch Iranshahr companies to establish itself as the Iranian military clothing pole.
Baluch activists have reported that ownership of certain industries, such as food production (e.g., Protein Arman Jonoob, Sahel Seyd” and Arman Gostar) have been granted to the IRGC. Sixty three thousand hectares of agricultural land has also been allocated to IRGC and the Etka organization, sub-sectors of the Ministry of Defense and the general staff of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to build animal husbandries and industrial complexes.
In line with the militarization of the local economy and security plans in Sistan Baluchestan, IRGC gave sections of repossessed lank for free to the “relatives of the state” in order to design an “agriculture-security belt”. For instance, 160 hectares of Sistan Baluchestan land together with 17 water wells were allotted to Habibollah Dahmarde, a former IRGC commander.
Economical and security related activities of the IRGC are so extensive that it is almost impossible to enumerate them. Shahram Sekandari, deputy economic director of the Quds corps of IRGC explains: in 2017, 7560 projects have been launched by the IRGC. In addition to these projects, the construction of two product processing factories in the north and south of Sistan Baluchestan and recuperation of farmlands were key priorities of the IRGC since the beginning of this year. He also asked the Rouhani government not to report the IRGC’s activities under the government’s name. However, he intentionally neglected to mention how the Rouhani government and IRGC divided the tasks in the poorer and border regions. This agreement which had already been revealed by the deputy chancellor of the deprived and rural areas makes IRGC responsible for those regions in Sistan Baluchestan.
Although it appears that the Islamic Republic may reject Pahlavi era policies, the “development plan” is very similar to prior efforts. Over-reliance on oil revenues, deployment of the assembly industry, promoting consumerism specifically after the Iran-Iraq war, privatization of public services, centralization of development and marginalization of ethnic and religious minorities, repression and terror towards opposition figures, and an attempt to turn Iran into a partner of other economically powerful countries are some of the ongoing policies between the Islamic Republic and Pahlavi regime’s.
The Pahlavi’s approach towards minorities, including those in Khuzestan, Azerbaijan, and Kurdistan, was based on blocking developmental processes, the exclusion of the locals from administrative structures and companies, and employing loyal forces in those areas. As a case in point, the population of Khuzestan increased by 25% over a ten-year period.
The approach described above was reinforced by the Islamic regime after the revolution specifically among Sunnis and other ethnic minorities. Nowadays, these policies are routinely implemented in Baluchestan. We can see from the immigration figures of the inhabitants of these areas that how the demographic-displacement and population change policies are implemented. According to the provincial governor, Sistan and Baluchestan province has the highest migration of families leaving a region among all the provinces in Iran last year. Halimeh Ali, the former representative of Baluchestan in the Islamic consultative Assembly (i.e., the Iranian parliament) said that 2 to 3 thousand families migrated from Sistan Baluchestan only in the first six months of 2013.
While many Baluchis leave their homes to find jobs in other regions of Iran, many others come to Sistan Baluchestan for work. As a case in point, according to the navy commander of the Islamic Republic army, 10 thousand of navy personnel have been deployed in Mokran coasts. A similar deployment has been performed by IRGC to secure the safety of the region.
Alongside the deployment of military staff, the large portion of employees in governmental institutions and education are non-locals. Mohammad Naimi Far, the representative of Sistan Baluchestan in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, said that north of the province, where the population is mostly Shiite and Fars, are twice as likely to be employed within the administrative structure, while we have a shortage of workforces in the south, where Baluchis and Sunnis reside. According to him, most teachers working in the south are non-locals or low-ranking soldiers who move to the northern portion of the region when they gain 2 or 3 years of experience. For instance, 80 percent of teachers in Chabahar are composed of non-locals.
The consequence of this situation in the southern part of the region has led to lower quality education, and led many students to discontinue their studies and widen the education and human developmental gap between the northern and southern regions.
In this approach, Baluchis have lost hope of any future in their regions while forces loyal to the regime find themselves more privileged in the Sistan Baluchestan province. This eventually changes the demographic composition of the region in favor of the government and its loyalists.
The minister of roads and urban development in Rouhani’s government believes that the Sistan Baluchestan province has a very high capacity for population growth, and the government is planning to increase investments. Eshagh Jahangiri, Rohani’s vice president, also announced that government development programs include a plan to build new cities in the province. Similar policies have been replicated in Khuzestan towards the Arab minority population who resides there.
For the last four decades, the Islamic Republic has utilized its development approach to escalate surveillance and political violence in Kurdistan and other vulnerable regions. Beyond Iran’s borders, the government has also escalated political violence against dissidents, including the targeted killings of Sadegh Sharafkandi and Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou. The killing of Kurdish dissidents in Iraq was also carried to quell “insecurity” and ensure the unhindered “development” of the Kurdish region in Iran, according to Iranian policy makers and planners.
The regime’s security apparatus has also increased support for various radical Islamic groups. They have deepened financial and political ties with radical groups to further suppress Kurdish dissidents. While the regime’s assassins have been busy with their activities, proponents of the development approach have attained limited success, such as building military bases for IRGC to facilitate the broader suppression of people in the region. According to the statistics published by the government, the Official unemployment rate is 20 percent. That is why many people choose to become a Kulbar or smuggler in the border regions, despite the government’s heavy military presence along the border.
Nowadays, the regime’s gunmen shoot Baluch youth based on the false pretense of of smuggling goods or drugs. Such acts are committed without any trial or details pertaining to such accusations. With time, the “development” approach has actually offered a guise to facilitate the discreet yet escalating violence against locals committed by the regime’s security forces. | 2019-04-23T16:49:54Z | http://slingerscollective.net/development-and-the-gun-irans-dual-approach-in-baluchestan/ |
This is part 2 (the final part) of a series, be sure to read part 1 as well.
A key to research that can be used and repeated is the careful definition of the major concepts in the study. A hazy definition of a concept may enter into relationships with other variables, but since the concept was ill-defined the meaning of those relationships can be no better than ill-defined. The process by which concepts are defined for scientific purposes is called explication, that’s your ten-dollar-impress-your-grad-professor word of then day. Also in academia the word often substitutes for the word “explanation” becase it sounds much, much cooler. So, now that the intro is covered, let’s jump into part 2!
Author’s note: This post is based on a handout from my grad work and the monograph, “Fundamentals of Concept Formation in Empirical Science,” by Carl G. Hempel (1952) – citation at the end of the post.
A definition of “dissonance” as “any cognitive discrepancy” is less helpful than an extended definition that catalogs the various kinds of cognitions that can be discrepant with one another, the various means by which they might be that way, etc.
Some common reifications in communication research are terms “catharsis,” “dissonance,” “group cohesiveness,” “coorientation,” and “attitude.” So far, none of these things has ever been observed, yet they hold important positions in certain theoretical formulations. The danger is that they may not exist, except in the minds of the theoreticians.
By careful research, some hypothetical constructs that have gradually been converted into variables include “empathy,” “understanding,” “learning,” and “conformity.” However, these concepts are tied to very specific operational definitions, and when they are used to cover other kinds of situations they are simply reified terms.
Marshall McLuhan jumps from discussion of individual differences in perception to statements about national character, historical epochs, and other macroscopic concepts (no surprise there, McLuhan was a bit all over the place).
The term “generation” is a term used appropriately for analyzing families and other kinship systems. It can be is misapplied to differences between age groups in society as a whole in the notion of a generation gap.
Inter-observer invariance – the measure of scientific usage would be that everyone uses the concept to mean the same thing. This level of agreement is practically impossible to achieve. But it is a useful goal to strive for, and careful application of the concept criteria and explanation can move you toward that goal.
A study shows that the strength of an expressed opinion can be increased by reinforcing it through social approval. The author’s conclusion is that reinforcement is a necessary condition for opinion formation. A later study demonstrates that there are conditions under which opinions change without reinforcement. So the definition is watered-down, in that reinforcement becomes a sufficient condition, rather than a necessary one. Finally, it is found that in some instances opinions shift in a direct opposite to the pattern of reinforcement. So, the element of reinforcement is eliminated from the definition of opinion formation, because it is neither necessary or sufficient.
Tentatively define. Try to develop a satisfactory definition via empirical analysis. You may find that it is surprisingly brief and simplified. Simpler is better as long as you are satisfied that it covers what you want the concept to mean, and does not cover anything else. If an empirical definition eludes you, more research may be needed. So turn to meaning analysis and work on a list of lower concepts. Keep in mind, though, that this is an intermediary stage in the development of your concept.
Define operationally. For each element of each concept that you retain in your final definition, you must specify at least one operational definition. The more specific the better, and the more carefully each operation is linked to your conceptual definition by clear reduction statements the better. It is not necessary to attempt to list all operational definitions; indeed, if your concept is not trivial, it will be impossible to list them all. But it is necessary to demonstrate that each element of your definition is amenable to observation in real world experiences. Operational definition consists of stating the observable indicators of the attributes (properties or relations) involved, so that someone else can “know one when he sees one.” Operational definitions might be contrived in the form of interview questions, experimental manipulations, unobtrusive observations, content categories, etc. The key to this final stage of explication is that all your reasoning and linkages be spelled out explicitly, so that someone else reading your work will know what you have done, what you think it represents conceptually, and why.
In the early stages of planning a research project, it is unnecessary to reduce operational definitions to precise terms. What is needed is to demonstrate conclusively that you can do so when the time comes to design an empirical study.
This was Part 2 and the thrilling conclusion to: How to Define Your Concept a.k.a. Concept Explication, be sure to read Part 1.
Citation: Hempel, C. G. (1952). Fundamentals of concept formation in empirical science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
A key to research that can be used and repeated is the careful definition of the major concepts in the study. A hazy definition of a concept may enter into relationships with other variables, but since the concept was ill-defined the meaning of those relationships can be no better than ill-defined. The process by which concepts are defined for scientific purposes is called explication, that’s your ten-dollar-impress-your-grad-professor word of then day. Also in academia the word often substitutes for the word “explanation” becase it sounds much, much cooler.
Selecting the Concept: You have to start with at least a basic idea of what you want to study, or a commonly used label that might be an interesting object of analysis (don’t know what that is? Check out the theory words & definitions post). In the beginning of your quest about the only thing you can choose is what you want to focus on. Your thinking about that concept or focal variable should change quite a bit as you study it. Keep in mind that you should try to select a concept that is amenable to empirical observation, and likely to fit into relationships that are important for mass comm and communication theory. Avoid using operational definitions from other people’s research. You can make your best contribution by a fresh start that might lead to innovative studies.
Literature Review: Once you have decided roughly what your focus is to be (focal variable!!), scour research journals, books, articles, etc. in search of studies that have dealt with it (DO NOT use Wikipedia, a Department Chair clubs a baby seal every time you do). Your goal is to locate the various definitions that have been used. Keep a running list of all the ways that the concept has been defined for research purposes and where. A spreadsheet or Google Doc can be very handy for this. You can ignore purely abstract definitions, those where the concept is given a meaning that doesn’t seem to relate to the real world or any place where your term is used and no definition is provided. There will undoubtedly be cases where your concept has been given some other name – keep track of those too. It is the empirical usage or main idea of the concept that is truly important, not the label that is put on it. However, be sure to note in your writing that the concept can go by different names.
Intelligence is what an I.Q. test measures. Ok, but this still tells me nothing about what intelligence actually is.
Communication development is a nation’s daily newspaper circulation per capita. What? I sort of get it, but still very unclear.
Consensus consists of a majority vote. Right, but what does it mean? 51%? More? Does it apply to other situations?
Mass media are newspapers, books, magazines, radio, television… (Note that this list is clearly able to go on and on, however depending on what you add, can change the meaning).
Legal controls on the press include laws against libel, sedition, obscenity, blasphemy… (There is actually a much longer list that sadly expands).
Communication requires that a symbol be transmitted by one person and received by a second person, and a signal (represented by the symbol) must be shared, at least in part, by the transmitter and the receiver.
Information seeking consists of a person undertaking some action to increase his [or her] input of a specific type of communication content; that he [she] be, to some extent, uncertain what content he [she] will receive; and that his [her] action is to some extent motivated by uncertainty.
In both these cases you can see how clearly we’ve defined the term. It’s not 100% there but we’re way past giving examples or listing things that are part of it.
Income is a property, but socioeconomic status is a relational term. So if you are interested in SES but have data only on income, you should be treating that data as relational. Easy cheesy.
Information seeing can be thought of as a property of an individual. But it may be relational to other forms of behavior. For instance, it preempts other forms of communication, in that a person can only do one thing at a time. So your explication might well lead you into defining a whole typology of forms of communication, which are mutually exclusive. This is very frequent in social research, and provides a rich source of hypotheses.
It should be clear that such concepts as obedience, power, I.Q., liberalism, relevance, and knowledge are relational for most purposes. It should be clear. It isn’t always that way.
Stay tuned for Part 2 and the thrilling conclusion to: How to Define Your Concept a.k.a. Concept Explication coming soon to a mass communication blog near you (this one, in case that was confusing).
There are a lot of terms that get thrown around in the academic lexicon, sometimes they align with those you’ll find in a dictionary, sometimes they don’t. So I thought I’d outline a good handful for you here that will be helpful as you wade through some sweet, delicious mass comm theories (Fig. 1). This article is based on Reynolds’s book: a primer in theory construction (a must have for aspiring theorists), citation at the end of the article, as well as from a grad class I took.
Fig. 1: Sweet, delicious mass comm theory… and a book.
Object of analysis: The system whose properties we are trying to explain. The research problem should determine what attributes of the system we are interested in. If the attributes are those of the individual person (e.g., a personality characteristic, attitude change), then it probably belongs to cognitive theory. If the attributes are those of a group of persons (e.g., community status, rate of diffusion), then it lies in the social systems realm. Societies, communities, large organizations, and primary groups are types of social systems.
Concepts: The most basic elements in theory, they are the attributes of the object that we are trying to explain and those that we are using to provide the explanation. They are abstractions from reality. We also use them in everyday life, of course, but research concepts are supposed to be more precise. Concepts are interesting to researchers only when they vary; we call a concept that can be observed to have different values a variable (as contrasted to a constant). Often called constructs because scientific concepts are carefully constructed from observation.
Conceptual definition: Each concept in a theoretical system (a collection of interrelated theoretical statements) should have a clear and unambiguous definition that is consistently used by the individual theorist and in agreement with the way other theorists define the concept. But that is seldom the case in social science. Careful definition of concepts is where we must begin with theory building (Normally I hate italics, but dammit, that sentence is important, write it down!).
Postulates: Ideas, biases, and strategies of a particular theorist that help to explain why his theory is constructed as it is and why he does the kind of research he does (nothing to do with posteriors). Theses statements are more abstract than assumptions or theoretical statements and not usually testable. They may represent statements about human nature, causation, the nature of data, and the broad type of causal forces in society – in short, what’s important to look at and how you should do it.
Assumptions: These are statements about the concepts used in the theory. Assumptions are taken for granted in the theory being tested. They are not investigated, but the falsification of that theoretical statement may result in the revision of the assumption in the future. Assumptions (or revised assumptions) may serve as hypotheses in subsequent research. Two or more assumptions provide the premises from which the theoretical statements (and hypotheses) are derived through logic.
Theoretical Statement: The statement specifying the relation between two or more concepts (variables). Reynolds calls these relational statements and distinguishes these from existence statements that include postulates, definitions and assumptions. Other people call theoretical statements axioms, theorems or propositions. Seriously, the label doesn’t matter, just so we know what we’re referring to.
Relations: (No not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter) The connection between concepts can be stated in a number of forms: that one variable causes another, that two variables are associated, and more complicated relations are possible.
Operational definitions: The set of procedures a researcher uses to measure (or manipulate as in experiments) a given concept. These should follow clearly and logically from the conceptual definition of the concept. These are less abstract than conceptual definitions. They tell us “how to measure it,” ideally using more than one method.
Reliability: The stability and precision of measurement of a variable. Stability overtime is called test-retest reliability (i.e., do those scoring high at one time also score high at a second point in time). A second form, equivalence, looks at the level of agreement across items (internal consistency) or forms, or between coders doing the measurement.
Validity: The degree to which you’re really measuring what you think you’re measuring. There are two different approaches: you find external independent evidence (e.g., a criterion group known to possess the characteristic) against which to compare your measurement (pragmatic validity), or you look at the extent to which the empirical relationships of the concept to other concepts fit your theory (construct validity).
Hypothesis: A statement of the relationship between two or more operational definitions. It should be capable of being stated in an “if, then” form, and is less abstract than theoretical statements, assumptions, and postulates. The type of research you are doing will largely dictate how to phrase your hypothesis.
Dependent Variables + Independent Variables: The dependent variable is the “effect” that we are seeking to explain; the independent variable is the presumed “cause” of that effect. We often say “x” is the independent variable that is the cause of the dependent variable “y,” (the effect). There are various names for third variables: extraneous variable, intervening variable, mediating variable, etc. that alter the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.
Good. Good. Let the empirical testing flow through you.
Empirical testing: A good theory must be capable of being tested by observation in the “real world.” Most frequently, statistics are used to make this test. Note that we test theory indirectly through hypotheses and operational definitions. It is made even more indirect by the fact that we test the null hypothesis: the statistical hypothesis of no difference – that the relationship is not strong enough to reject chance. If the data is judged to be not strong enough to reject the null hypothesis, then we have falsified the theoretical statement. If the observations are judged sufficient to reject the null hypothesis, then theory merely remains viable or tenable.
Type I and Type II errors: One of the problems of doing research is that you can be wrong in the inferences you make from research evidence. You can be wrong if you decide to reject the null hypothesis and say that the result is consistent with your theory. That’s a type I error. If your results don’t look very supportive and you decide you can’t reject the null hypothesis, you can be wrong too. In that case you incorrectly gave up on your research hypothesis (indirectly falsifying your theory), but there really was support in the “real world” and your research wasn’t good enough to detect it. That is a type II error.
Causality: As you may know by now, this is a “can of worms.” It’s probably better to think of establishing causality between two variables as something that we move toward than to think of it as being capable of being “discovered” through an experiment. Realize that it is better to think in terms of various types of causes than to look for “the cause” of something. To work toward causality, three conditions have to be met: There has to be an association (correlation) between the two variables; a time order has to be established such that the presumed cause precedes the effect; and other explanations have to be ruled out, such as that some third variable causes both of the two variables of interest. If this last is the case, then we say the relationship we thought was causal was really spurious.
Necessary condition: A situation that must be present for some effect to take place. This is one type of cause. Sometimes a necessary condition describes the level of a third variable that is essential for the relationship between two other variables to hold. In this case the third variable can also be called a contingent condition. Third variables that make the relationship stronger or weaker but don’t totally limit its domain (are not necessary conditions) are called contributory conditions.
Sufficient condition: A situation that if present is enough to produce all effects. This implies that there are no contingent conditions. Experiments are probably more suited to finding sufficient conditions than are nonexperimental sample surveys and other methods. Social scientists would like to find necessary and sufficient conditions, but that is a goal, not an immediate reality.
Models and paradigms: Social scientists sometimes find it useful to employ simplified versions of reality to gain insight and to illustrate their theoretical ideas. A model is a conceptual structure borrowed from some field of study other than the one at hand; it needs not include causal statements, but it does specify structural relationships among variables. A paradigm is a conceptual structure designed specifically for the field of application; it also specifies structural relationships. When a model or paradigm incorporates causal statements, it is usually called a theory. Models and paradigms can be assessed on the basis of their usefulness in helping us construct valid theory.
Reynolds, P. D. (1971). A primer in theory construction. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing. | 2019-04-22T07:01:48Z | https://masscommtheory.com/tag/definitions/ |
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