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A dark voice inside Greyson whispered that the end of the world was coming. He awoke on a rocky ledge, sprawled beneath a night sky ablaze with alien stars. Burning comets streaked overhead, leaving behind plumes of oily fire. Above, an unearthly sky shimmered with spiderwebs of ghostly light. Below, a jagged cliff dropped away into eternal darkness.
Bruised and bleeding, Greyson lay on the narrow outcropping, unsure whether he was dead or alive. He stared up at the ethereal lights slashed through with falling stars. Were they the spirits of the departed? Was he among them?
Part of him wanted to give up, just lie there on the rocks and close his eyes forever. Surrender to his injuries. Slip away into the darkness. But Greyson had never been one to give up.
Jaw clenched, he tried to ignore the pain as he rolled over. Every part of his body was cut and battered. His muscles felt as if they were on fire. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to his feet and looked around at the dark cliff face. There was no way off this ledge but up.
Steeling himself, he reached overhead, fingers searching for a hand-hold in the cold rock. With a grunt, he pulled himself up and found a toehold. Taking a breath, he reached up and did it again. And again.
It seemed like hours that he scaled the unforgiving cliff, searching for every crevice and jutting rock he could grip. He panted, too winded to give voice to the pain. As he climbed, memories came back to him in broken fragments.
In the desert, he had tried to save Dru from the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but something had gone wrong. He had lost control, become some kind of a monster. Something nightmarish and inhuman. Something fueled by rage.
He remembered seeing Dru's terrified face in the darkness, her long brown hair blowing back in the wind as falling stars plummeted to earth all around them. The anguish in her voice as she called his name. As the monsters closed in around them.
Greyson remembered brief glimpses of a high-speed chase. A bonejarring crash. The car had tumbled end over end. He had been thrown out through the shattered windshield, over the edge of the cliff, where he had hurtled down into the darkness. How far had he fallen?
Not quite far enough to kill him. But almost.
What had happened to Dru?
He had to find out. No matter what it took. He needed to make sure she was safe.
Just when he couldn't climb anymore, he reached the top of the cliff and collapsed there, panting, every muscle in his body shaking. That was when he found Hellbringer.
The demon-possessed black car, a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, lay on its side, smashed. Its pointed nose cone was crumpled inward, revealing one dark headlight. It stared at him like the eye socket of a skull.
Greyson turned away, unable to face it. He got to his feet and staggered along the top of the cliff, searching for any sign of Dru. Despite the eternal darkness, the hellish skies overhead shed just enough light to see by.
There. Footprints in the dark sand. Dru had circled all around Hellbringer, possibly searching for him, and then headed away. He followed the footprints to the dark mouth of a nearby cave. He recognized it. This cave led out the netherworld through a portal to an abandoned mine in the living world.
If she had searched for him after the crash, there was no way she could have seen him all the way down there. Did she even know he was alive?
He pictured her in happier times, the earnest look in her eyes, behind her dark-rimmed glasses. The integrity in her voice. The slight upturn constantly at the corner of her mouth, as if she wanted to say something funny but was worried it would be highly inappropriate.
A deep need stirred inside him. To get back to Dru. To make things right. To fix things that would otherwise never be fixed.
Beneath a night sky gone mad, he staggered over to the ruined hulk of Hellbringer. The moment he touched the car's hood, a spark jumped between his finger and the steel, connecting them for a split second with a blinding arc of energy.
He jerked his hand away and made a fist, unsure what had just happened.
Like burning coals stirred up from the depths of a dead fire, Hellbringer's headlights began to glow again. Within the cracked, wavy glass, the ruddy glow quickly turned white-hot.
Greyson held up a wounded hand to ward off the blinding glare. This close, he could practically feel the heat from the lights. Brilliant. Searing. But also purifying. Drawing him back to himself, as if a part of him had been missing and he hadn't even known it.
His injured hand, silhouetted in the pure white light, began to heal as he watched. His fingers straightened and strengthened. The swelling shrank away, and the cuts closed, leaving clean, healthy skin.
He lowered his arm and squinted into the headlights, staring back at Hellbringer where it lay sideways among the boulders.
When he summoned up his voice, it came out cracked and gravelly. "Hell of a place to park, buddy."
The demon car flashed its high beams at him.
Gathering himself, Greyson planted both hands on Hellbringer's roof. He had learned from Dru that the speed demon's presence gave him superhuman strength and endurance. But after the exhausting climb up the cliff face, he wasn't sure how much strength he had left.
With a heave that aggravated every complaining muscle in his body, he pushed the car off of its side and back onto its wheels. It landed with a crunch, an eruption of dust, and the rhythmic creaking of steel springs.
Immediately, Hellbringer's dented black sheet metal began to straighten and smooth out. The nose cone uncrumpled. The long spoiler wing above the tail squared up and sharpened to a jet-fighter edge. The smashed windows regrew from the edges of the chrome trim. Hellbringer was healing itself, as it had healed him.
The driver's door screeched open when he pulled on it. He collapsed into the narrow black seat, exhausted, breaths coming hard in his aching chest. But with each painful breath, he could feel his strength returning. As if Hellbringer's very presence made him whole again.
Dru had once explained that his fate was tightly intertwined with the demon car. He never realized just how close that bond really was.
He tilted the rearview mirror and peered at his reflection. Messed up dark hair that could use a trim. Darker stubble. Scratches and bruises that were fading as he watched. That wasn't too strange to accept, considering everything else that had happened to him. But it was his eyes that stopped him.
They were clear and blue. Completely human.
Not the glowing red eyes of a demon.
Hope surged inside him. Dru had done everything she could to break his curse. And here was the proof that she had succeeded. He was no longer one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. No longer a threat to everyone around him.
Now, he was just a regular guy again. Granted, a guy with a demon-possessed muscle car. But at least he was himself again.
He found his leather jacket on the floorboard, where it had apparently ended up during the crash. He slipped it on, feeling more human by the moment as it warmed against his skin. Beyond the windshield, across the rocky plain, the dark cave waited. It was time to find Dru.
The old brass keys were already in the ignition. As he pumped the gas and reached for the keys, Hellbringer's monstrous Hemi engine rumbled itself to life, growling like a wounded animal that refused to die.
Grimacing, Greyson dropped his hand to the gearshift and shoved it home. The pitch of the hell-powered engine dropped to a guttural growl, and the car crept forward. Its headlights shone across the slate-gray rocks as he drove toward the yawning blackness of the cave mouth.
The rocky ground was almost completely flat, but for a machine that was built strictly for devouring highway pavement, it might as well have been the surface of the moon. Every rise and dip in the uneven stone banged through the car's battered chassis.
Greyson steered carefully into the cave, expecting to have to back out at any moment. But the opening was more than wide enough to accommodate the car.
The thudding of the exhaust echoed off the uneven walls, and the impenetrable blackness ahead swallowed up the headlight beams.
This was no ordinary cave, Greyson knew that much. Somewhere inside lay a portal back to the normal world. The last time he was here, when he had traveled through the netherworld with Dru, she had used her crystal magic to open the portal. Without her magic to aid him, Greyson could only hope that Hellbringer's infernal presence was strong enough to carry them through to the other side.
Otherwise, this would be a pretty short trip.
A gusting wind picked up, buffeting the windshield with bits of grit. But the car's aerodynamic form and tall back wing slipped through the wind like a knife. Hellbringer crept onward, deeper into the cave.
Without warning, the car slowed down, as if something was pulling them back. As if the netherworld itself had grasped them with invisible claws, preventing their escape. Gradually, they ground to a halt in the dark tunnel.
An icy spike of adrenaline pierced Greyson. They were stuck. He had to get them out of here, or they would be trapped in the netherworld forever.
He pulled the parking brake tight to keep them anchored, then floored the long-traveling clutch and fed the gas. The diabolical engine roared, and the white tach needle swung up past 3,000 rpm, but it was no good. The tires let out painful squeaks as the netherworld jerked the car back out of the cave, bit by bit.
He kept the gas pedal down. The tach swept past 4,000 rpm.
The invisible forces of the netherworld continued to pull at them like a hungry creature trying to draw them back in. Trying to devour them.
At 5,000 rpm, the entire car shook. Hellbringer's deep reserves of infernal power strained to be unleashed. Greyson knew the demon car so well that he could feel the right launch moment approaching, the sweet spot in the bell curve of torque that would break them free.
But before they reached it, the invisible force of the netherworld yanked them back. It wouldn't let them go.
At 6,000 rpm, the wailing engine shuddered through the car, drowning out all other sounds. All other thoughts. There was nothing left except the burning desire to go. Greyson kept the clutch planted, waiting for the precise moment to release. The white needle strained forward.
"Steady, buddy." Greyson's feet ached to move. Still, he held on.
Now deep in the red zone, the trembling needle fought its way higher. The engine crackled like an endless peal of thunder. Just when he thought the launch moment would never come, he felt it happen.
Now. Greyson dropped the emergency brake and simultaneously lifted his foot from the clutch.
Hellbringer blasted all of its horsepower into the rear wheels, dragging a howl of tortured rubber from the tires. Clouds of white smoke curled out of the wheel wells. But the car went nowhere.
Fear washed over Greyson. Had he miscalculated? Was all of their torque going up in smoke as the tires burned down to molten rubber? Would the netherworld hold them prisoner forever?
"Go!" he yelled at Hellbringer over the deafening engine noise. "Let's get the hell out of here!"
At his command, the shimmering red glow of hellfire pulsed up around the edges of the long black hood, reflecting off the chrome tie-down pins near the nose. The car's front end glowed like iron in a hot forge, as if the engine itself had become a boiling cauldron of unholy power.
The air in front of the windshield shimmered with heat waves. Hellbringer was a car with the heart of a demon. Greyson felt from the gearshift knob a searing connection directly to its infernal power. It pierced through his body like a needle spiking a nerve, connecting to his very essence and making him one with the machine.
With that, the superheated tires found traction. They bit into the cave floor, breaking the car free of the netherworld's grip. Hellbringer launched down the tunnel at mind-bending speed.
Greyson's head snapped back. The acceleration crushed him into the seat. It took everything he had left to slam through the gears and keep the steering wheel centered as the demon car rocketed toward freedom.
In the darkness ahead, a pinpoint of light exploded into a blinding flare of pure whiteness, painfully intense. Greyson squinted against the glare.
When his vision adjusted, he caught a glimpse of the tunnel walls. They seemed different, somehow. Just as dark, but the texture of the rock had subtly changed. In the blue-hued shadows, the tunnel looked less nightmarish and more real.
Ahead, the tunnel ended in bright sky. The exit was ringed with jagged wooden planks.
Hellbringer smashed through the remains of an old wooden blockade hung with skull-and-crossbones danger signs.
They blasted out of the abandoned mine shaft into broad daylight. Hellbringer's nose went airborne for a moment, then tipped sharply downward. Greyson's stomach dropped as they sailed through the air.
They landed with a tooth-rattling bang on a dry slope broken by craggy brown rocks, wildflowers, and tufted green bushes. Instantly, the car began to skid.
On instinct, Greyson pumped the brakes, trying to bring them to a controlled stop. But they headed down the steep slope too fast. He steered around boulders and pine trees, power-sliding through the dirt. Tree branches scraped and banged off the car's long body.
He got their speed under control just as they burst out of the trees over an old gravel trail that had once been a dirt road. Obviously, no one had driven it for years, and now it was overgrown with hardy grass and cactuses. Greyson brought Hellbringer around in a long, gently slipping curve that landed them safely in the middle of the trail.
With a sigh of exhaustion, he rolled the car to a stop, and only then took his sweaty hands off the steering wheel.
"Let's never do that again," he said.
The car defiantly revved its engine, clearly disagreeing with him.
He took a deep breath. The magical connection to Hellbringer left him drained and shaky. He wanted to get out of the car and walk around, but his legs suddenly felt like lead.
Around them, ranks of snow-capped peaks rose above the rugged green carpet of pine trees, growing bluer in the distance beneath an overcast afternoon sky the color of zinc-plated steel. After the madness of the netherworld's alien stars, Greyson relished the familiar, jagged landscape of the Rocky Mountains.
Ahead, the trail switched back and forth down the steep slope, presumably leading to some cracked blacktop county road, and then eventually civilization.
Greyson realized that he'd been here before with Dru, at this exact spot, after they had walked through the netherworld. Her feet had been red and painfully swollen, and he had made her makeshift bandages with folded-up napkins.
He could picture her sitting barefoot on that boulder, looking up at him with thanks, making some comment about wearing the wrong shoes. But he had been captivated by the beauty of her shy smile, the impish look in her eyes every time she took off her glasses.
The thought of Dru made his breath catch in his throat. Where was she now? Did she even know he had survived? What private hell had she gone through?
As Hellbringer descended the dirt trail, Greyson reached down to the chrome crank and rolled down the window. A soft June wind whispered through the pine trees and swirled through the car, carrying the tang of a coming storm.
The galvanized sky finally delivered its downpour as Greyson left the winding mountain roads behind and took the highway toward Denver, where Dru had her crystal shop. The endless curtain of rain obscured the city where it sprawled out beyond the rolling foothills at the edge of the grassy plains.
As he drove, the engine let out a constant mournful howl. The windshield wipers slapped back and forth. The highway flattened out and ran straight into the city, and the facts settled on him like an uncomfortable weight. He had just come back from the netherworld. What did that mean, exactly?
Dru would know. She would formulate some kind of potion, do research in some ancient book, or pull a magical crystal out of a drawer. She would be able to verify that he was finally cured. That everything was okay.
Beside him, the passenger seat was conspicuously empty. Without Dru there beside him, nothing felt right.
His heart beat faster as he headed toward her shop. After the long drive, his strength felt as if it was returning, but he couldn't shake a growing uneasiness that something was terribly wrong. The foul taste of danger lurked in the back of his throat, the way it had when the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse pursued them across the desert.
He wrote it off as nerves, telling himself that he was just worried about what Dru would say. After everything they had been through, after all the danger and destruction they'd overcome in trying to break his curse, he wasn't one hundred percent sure she'd even want to see him again.
Excerpted from A Kiss Before Doomsday by Laurence MacNaughton. Copyright © 2017 Laurence MacNaughton. Excerpted by permission of Prometheus Books.
Dru Jasper, a plucky sorceress who owns her own crystal shop in Colorado, finds herself in the middle of a plot involving undead slime, deadly sorcerers-only parties, and the end of the world in this peppy urban fantasy.In the second installment of his Dru Jasper series, MacNaughton (It Happened One Doomsday, 2016) combines high-stakes drama with elements of comedy and romance. After the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse drove a truck through her shop in the last novel, Dru and her half-demon lover, Greyson, journeyed to the netherworld to save the world of the living. Dru is heartbroken, convinced that Greyson was killed in the battle, but when she finds the crystal she gave him shoved in her mailbox and sees the tail end of his demonic car, she becomes convinced he somehow survived. But Dru's plans to search for him are put on hold when Salem, a snotty sorcerer whose true alliances are murky, almost falls prey to an undead black slime called "scourge." When Dru and her friends find a horrible monster of the undead where Greyson used to live, they discover that the mysteries of Greyson's disappearance and the undead creatures are connected. Can Dru find Greyson and put a stop to whomever is raising the dead before it's too late? MacNaughton's magical world is digestible if not vivid. The strains of comedy, fantasy, and romance blend together smoothly enough, and the characters are cute if not particularly nuanced. But entire chapters of unnecessary scenes make for choppy plot progression. When the crucial action sequences do arrive, they can be difficult to follow, leaving the story without any meaningful buildup or payoff. This bubbly blend of genre tropes has spirit and whimsy with some good pieces in place, but it doesn't quite deliver the goods. | 2019-04-25T20:39:45Z | https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-kiss-before-doomsday-laurence-macnaughton/1124857254?ean=9781633882676 |
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The Committee considered Cosatu’s proposed amendments to the Industrial Development Act. The Department conceded that some of Cosatu’s submissions contained merit and minor amendments were thereby duly effected. The Bill was passed unanimously with amendments. The Committee also passed the Trade Practices Amendment Bill, the Counterfeit Goods Amendment Bill. There was a briefing on the Merchandise Marks Amendment Bill but as the Committee had a problem with Clause 6, it was passed.
Mr Bahle Sibisi (DTI) said that the objective that the Department had in amending the Industrial Development Act was to confine the amendments only to those that were necessary to "set the house (IDC) in order". These changes focused at extending the functions and the operations of the IDC to cover IDC’s activities outside South Africa and to take account of recent changes in industrial development, activities which the IDC principal Act did not cover.
The issues of substance that had been raised in Cosatu’s submission travel beyond the confined and limited technical amendments. The principal Act is an old statute that requires comprehensive review. This review would modernise its provisions to take into account changes in the economic environment, structural changes in the economy, legislative changes such as those contained in the Public Finance Management Act and the Public Enterprise Entities Act and a number of provisions which introduce new principles around the issues of corporate governance.
The IDC is one of the few development finance institutions on the continent that has sufficient capacity to raise funds and participate in developmental projects. He stressed that this ought not to be undermined by changes to the enabling legislation which may not have clear implications.
DTI is of the view that a comprehensive review will enable it to go through a detailed interaction before major amendments are made. It is important that in going through that process there should be a common approach about the areas that need to be provided for in the legislation.
Ms C. September (ANC) asked for clarity on what Mr Sibisi meant by proposing that Parliament should not change the major structure or activities of the IDC by legislation.
Mr Sibisi replied that DTI suggests that the changes that need to be effected have to be focused in certain areas. Other substantive changes may not be appropriate for introduction at present and should be part of the review. The instruments that are available to the Minister provide room for some of the issues to be tackled. He encouraged the Committee to focus its attention on those amendments that deal with IDC’s roles, such as raising of capital for developmental projects.
Dr Rob Davies (ANC) commented that the Committee was originally presented with an amendment Bill whose primary purpose was to allow the IDC to operate outside the country without having to obtain a case by case authorization from Cabinet and also to extend its operations in terms of capital requirements. The Committee has heard the submission from Cosatu which called for a consideration of broader issues. He observed that some of Cosatu’s proposed amendments have merit. He asked if there was any case for a broader review of the Industrial Development Act?
Mr Sibisi replied that there is a need for a broader and comprehensive review of the Act, and that this review would have to be underlined by an interactive process engaging with all interested parties including the IDC and other social partners of the government. This obviously has to take into account the recent changes in the structure of the economy and corporate governance.
To introduce major changes without having had an opportunity to see the effect on the role of the IDC would be problematic. In looking at the detail of the Cosatu submission, some provisions are well suited to be in some form of a mandate and some are suitable for a discussion in a broader review. Others may fit into the anticipated confined amendments that the amendment Bill intended to achieve.
Mr S Rasmeni (ANC) was pleased that the Department is making a commitment for a comprehensive review of the IDC and asked when this will take place.
Mr Sibisi replied that the Department will make a written statement regarding the issue of the broader review of the Act to the Committee.
Mr Sibisi replied that the IDC has existing projects in the Southern African countries. These projects are mainly undertaken with the approval of the Minister on a case by case basis. If legislation is not passed, this would adversely affect the activities of the IDC which are currently expanding.
"Section 3(c): to strive for the retention of existing employment in South Africa and the creation of new employment, including through the promotion of labour-intensive production and the promotion of labour-intensive factors."
Mr Sibisi commented that this is one of the suggested changes that need to be addressed in a broader review of the Act. The Bill contains a provision in Clause 1 which provides that one of the objects of the IDC would be to invest in employment-creating activities in underdeveloped areas. The IDC can extend this into the promotion of employment creating activities in underdeveloped areas. However Cosatu’s formulation might have unintended consequences. What is needed is to insert provisions that will create certainty regarding the scope of operation of the IDC.
Dr Davies commented that it was clear that there was a certain measure of unwillingness from the Department to commit to Cosatu’s proposal particularly in legislation.
Mr Sibisi agreed with the Chairperson’s view and stated that this would be subject to confirmation by his principals.
"Section 3(d): to foster [entrepreneurship especially in the area] the development of small and medium enterprises and co-operatives."
Mr Sibisi commented that the Department does not have any problem or objection to Cosatu’s formulation.
For the purposes of attaining its objectives, and with due regard to its role as a public sector development institution, the corporation shall have the power-….
potential multiplier effects in stimulating other enterprises and sectors. "
Mr Sibisi commented that the proposed amendment is a very focused area in the additional areas in which the IDC is currently not explicitly authorised - except on the basis of case-by-case approval by the Minister of Trade and Industry. The IDC plays a supplementary role in financing activities in the capital goods and services sector. To broaden the powers of the Corporation would cloud the intended objective to extend the IDC’s activities in the area of trade in capital goods. He persuaded the Committee to adopt the amendment as it stands in the Bill.
Dr Davies asked if Mr Sibisi meant that Cosatu’s formulation would mean that the IDC must extend credit facilities to the exporters. Mr Sibisi agreed.
Mr N Bruce (DP) asked if there was a legal construct or definition of the word "co-operatives" because the country has had other co-operatives that were not conducive to economic growth.
Adv Strydom (DTI) replied that there is no definition of the word "co-operatives" as the principal Act does not contain any definition in this regard. He asked if the committee would like to consider adding a substantive provision to describe a co-operative.
Dr Davies replied that there is a new code of legislation on co-operatives. Mr Sibisi agreed that the legislation on co-operatives will define in more detail what constitutes co-operatives.
Dr Davies asked if there were any comments on Cosatu’s proposed amendment to beef up the reporting requirements in Section 19(2) of the Act.
Mr Sibisi replied that the Department would not have a problem with the sentiments expressed by Cosatu in this clause. However, the Department is of the opinion that it is not appropriate to legislate around these issues. The Department’s concern is that there might be unintended consequences to prescribing the reporting requirements by the IDC irrespective of what the broader society might want to know about IDC’s activities. Therefore, to make this a legislative provision might be a problem.
Mr Bruce commented that he would go along with Cosatu’s submission.
Mr Fenyane asked if it was not possible to have this included in the Regulations as it would create problems if it were included in the Bill.
He also proposed that an amendment be effected to Clause 11(2) which reads, "The Minister shall table copies of all such balance sheets, accounts, reports or addresses….". He suggested changing balance sheets to financial statements because the phrase "financial statements" includes income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements. There was no reason to separate balance sheets from the rest of the financial statements. The Public Finance Management Act requires that whenever there has to be reporting it must be done on the basis of financial statements. Mr Bruce supported Mr Fenyane’s proposal as did Dr Davies.
Mr Sibisi replied that the Department would consider Mr Fenyane’s proposal.
"…to this end the economic requirements of the Republic may be met and industrial development within the Republic may be planned, expedited and conducted [on sound business principles] in an economically sustainable manner. "
Mr Sibisi contended that it is better to leave the amendment as is. He added that this proposed amendment forms part of the broader review that the Department needs to engage in.
The Committee resolved that Clauses 1(b) [Section 3(d) and (e)] in would be amended as earlier discussed.
The Committee also resolved that there would be no amendment necessary regarding the debt-equity ratio provision, i.e. raising the limit of borrowing to a 100%.
Mr Tony Tshivhase (Head, Legal Services: IDC) added that there is a special resolution that has since been filed with the Registrar of Companies authorising IDC’s borrowing powers. Therefore, there was no merit in amending this clause.
Mr Fenyane commented that there was technically no problem with the above as the State is the sole shareholder at IDC.
Mr Sibisi suggested that in line with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, that in Clause 2 "the approval of the shareholders previously given at the meeting of the of the shareholders" be substituted with "the approval of the Minister in concurrence with the Minister of Finance".
Mr Bruce did not see any necessity for the change, the word "shareholder" was quite adequate.
The Committee agreed that Clause 2 (c) would also be amended to omit "at favourable interest rates" in ss (o). Finally Clause 11(2) of the Bill, as proposed by Mr Fenyane, would be amended.
Dr Davies read both the Motion of Desirability and the Report adopting the Bill with amendments. All members unanimously agreed.
Mr McDonald Netshitenzhe (Registrar of Patents: SAPTO) expressed his confidence about the Bill and was of the opinion that it should be adopted.
Dr Davies opined that the general concern had been over the concept of "ambush marketing" particularly from people who sponsor major events. The other general concern had been over the penalties being too low.
Mr Netshitenzhe commented about penalties saying that aggrieved parties may avail themselves to civil remedies. He however made an observation that this idea may be self defeating.
Mr Bruce said that he understands that there is a criminal sanction here but did that mean that a company could not take the matter further to a civil court.
Mr Netshitenzhe replied that the company can, but it must be aware of the legal costs and other costs, hence this may be self defeating.
Mr Bruce said that it seemed that the criminal penalties are quite low and a company may consider it worthwhile to go the civil route above the additional criminal sanctions.
Mr Fenyane asked how it is possible to distinguish ambush marketing from ordinary marketing. He said that this may be a very difficult thing to do.
Mr Netshitenzhe replied that ambush marketing is misleading the public to believe that a company owns a particular trademark or is one of the participants in some major event and profits thereby – and does not in turn pay the profits to the owner of the trademark.
Dr Davies commented that it was clear what ambush marketing was in terms of the Bill and its Memorandum. He subsequently moved for the adoption of the Bill without amendments by reading the Motion of Desirability and the committee’s Report. All members unanimously agreed.
Dr Davies recapped the issue and said that if somebody counterfeits a well known mark and passes it off to a South African consumer as though it were a genuine article – that should be an offence. For example, the production of false "Nike" shoes and their sale in South Africa. He said "well known marks" in order to become known or established in South Africa had to go through a process of adjudication in terms of the Trademarks Act.
Mr Strydom (Legal Services, DTI) commented that section 35 of the Trademarks Act requires that in order to establish a mark as a well known trademark requires an exercise of a discretion on the part of the Registrar to make an appropriate decision. He concluded that the reference to section 35 clearly suffices. There are criteria and procedures to be followed which also include a quasi-judicial process that is laid down in that section.
Dr Davies asked if Mr Strydom meant that for something to be recognised as a well known mark in South Africa it has to go through this process, and until it has gone through this process there may be no recognition. Mr Strydom replied that that was correct.
Dr R Rhoda (NNP) asked what criteria would be applied to a trademark that is well known only in Cape Town. Is such a trademark well known in the Republic as a whole? Furthermore, is it possible for an overseas country to use the trademark without authority. Is there any protection that is afforded to small businessmen in proving that their trademark is a well known trademark, because it is costly to litigate in the High Court.
Mr Netshitenzhe replied that the criteria is not exhaustive. However, the trademark must be well known within a particular sector of the public – for example the public of Cape Town excluding the other provinces. He still has to register his trademark because it is only known within a particular sector. A well known mark does not need to be registered. That particular sector may be a small section of the community. The trademark must also not be misleading. He conceded that legal costs are generally very costly in the higher courts.
Dr Rhoda asked what happens in the case of the non-use of a trademark which has already been registered – for an example, non-use for six years since registration, and the mark subsequently becomes used by another person or company.
Mr Netshitenzhe replied that non-use is still part of trademarks law. The Registrar is under a duty to ensure that that trademark is not used by someone unauthorised to use it, but if it is not used for a period in excess of five years it must be removed from the Register. This does not apply to a well known mark since a well known mark does not need to be registered.
Dr Davies proposed that the Bill be adopted without amendments and the Committee agreed. He read the motion of desirability and the Report unanimously adopting the Bill without amendments.
Mr Netshitenzhe said that it is necessary to have the expression "convention country". In terms of the Trademarks Act there is a need to publish countries that are member states of the Paris Convention. This is relevant to when persons apply for trademarks. A person applying for a trademark may claim priority in the member state or the convention country.
In answer to a question about there being any Caribbean countries that are signatory to the Paris Convention, Mr Netshitenzhe said that most of Caribbean countries are not members. They have only recently begun to join due to the Copyright Treaties.
Mr Netshitenzhe said that the object behind this clause is the prohibition of "false trade descriptions". Trademark law stipulates that false trade description constitutes making a false statement to the public such as to convey that goods are manufactured in a certain country. False trade description conveys a false message to traders and consumers. The clause was inserted to ensure honesty in trade.
Mr Fenyane asked if affixing labels "Imported from Italy" on goods manufactured in South Africa constituted false trade description. Mr Netshitenzhe replied that it did.
Mr Netshitenzhe commented that this clause emphasises the point made in clause 2, i.e. trade description should in no way tamper with a trademark. A trademark should be conspicuous that it is a trademark and a trade description ought also to be separable from a trademark.
"sale of imported goods bearing marks in official language, unaccompanied by indication of origin"
Mr Netshitenzhe said that there was a need to protect consumers as this is part of the objective that the section is trying to achieve.
The Committee felt that there was a problem with this clause as it was not easy to identify geographical locations to ascertain from where the goods originated. This might easily create or lead to fraudulent practices being perpetrated.
Dr Davies concluded that there was enough doubt about this clause in the Committee for it to take a decision not to pass the Bill that day.
Mr Netshitenzhe commented that the object behind this clause is to protect state emblems such as national flags and banners against use in trade without the necessary permission. Emblems symbolise patronage to a particular state and may symbolise that certain goods are directly imported from a country whose emblem or banner is reflected or used in the business of a trader. He cited that the use of the name "Nelson Mandela" is being unlawfully used in other countries. There would be a protest made to trade organisations such as the WTO against the use of such emblems. | 2019-04-20T14:27:34Z | https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/715/ |
I spend a lot of time making lists. Sometimes these lists are helpful — to-do lists are always good (as long as I don’t try to put too many things on them). At other times, lists just cause me to run into a wall. This usually happens when I try to use them to figure things out, to categorize and put meaning to a whole lot of options. These attempts most often end up being confusing or distancing, or both.
One of the items on my big To Do list (this is one of the good lists, I think) is “Honoring the Gods of my house.” Which leads me to try to quantify who exactly those Gods are. On numerous occasions I’ve tried to make a list of “Gods I worship,” and this always makes my head spin. The list keeps spiraling out of control, getting longer and longer — I’ve worked with this God! I really like that God! — but when I try to trim it back, I worry that I’m neglecting Someone, that offense will be taken if I leave Someone off, that I’m being unforgivably rude with all of this picking and choosing.
Which is kind of silly. This isn’t Facebook; the Gods probably don’t really care if you unfriend them, unless you’ve already made definite commitments, or you’re undeniably theirs in some way. They have bigger and better concerns. And with a full-time job and the demands of maintaining a household, there is sadly a limit to how much time and energy one has for devotions. So, priorities.
Of course, Bast is primary — first, last, and always. I’m using pesedjet here to refer to the various groupings of Gods that constellate around Her: the Seven Arrows, the triads of Per-Bast and Mennefer, Her several sons, and so on. (This word is typically rendered with the Greek word “ennead,” as in the Ennead of Heliopolis. Both “ennead” and “pesedjet” mean “nine,” and there are ten Gods involved here, but apparently the ancient Kemetics were sometimes flexible in their actual ennead numbers; cf. Wilkinson, Complete Gods.) I’ve done a fair bit of work with and for these Gods, but there’s so much more I could do, so much farther I could go. This group alone could probably take up all of my time.
In addition to Bast, there are the other two Gods of my RPD: Nut and Amun-Ra. They have not been getting nearly enough attention lately, which is something that I need to address.
This is a small group of Gods that…it’s hard to quantify my connection to them as a group. Wepwawet commissioned His oracle from me, and I call on Him frequently. Set is the beautiful Lord of Storms who watches over my house through the winter. Sekhet, Goddess of the Fens, owns the wetland in my fields and has things to teach me. The Lioness Goddesses (all of them together — a sort of multi-entity) give me straight talk and smacks to the head when necessary, as well as uncompromising, tough-love support.
After this is a jumble. There are Gods that I call upon in certain specific contexts (i.e., Serqet for heka to overcome an addiction, Sekhmet for healing), but I don’t have a day-to-day relationship with them. There are Gods that I acknowledge at the larger State festivals (i.e., Wesir, Aset, and Nebt-het during the Mysteries; Hethert and Heru during the Beautiful Reunion); but it feels weird to do so when I don’t have anything to do with them throughout the rest of the year. And there are Gods that I just think are really interesting, and I want to get to know them better (i.e., Satet and Anuket). I keep adding all of these to the list, and I think this is really where things start getting out of hand.
I guess the point that I’m reaching for here is that not every God one has contact with needs to be brought into the circle of one’s intimate God relationships. It’s okay to have a respectful but passing acquaintance with deities, to honor them on their festivals, to make periodic overtures because one needs help or just wants to say hello, but not to add them to one’s regular round of rites and commitments. There’s (rightfully) a backlash against the idea of “Gods as vending machines” — pagans and magicians picking Gods from a list and “using” them for spells and petitions without developing any relationships or acknowledging the deities’ personal and cultural preferences — but I think it’s not offensive to approach a God and ask for help in their area of influence, as long as one does it appropriately: requesting and not demanding, making offerings to please them and to say thank you for their favors, bowing to “the way things are done” with them. Think of people in the past who would make one-off trips to a healing shrine, say, or to an oracle, or who while traveling would propitiate the local Gods for blessings, without ever becoming a full devotee. Courteous professional relationships, rather than personal ones.
When I asked Bast in shrine the other night, “Who are the Gods of my house?” She replied, Whoever you want. Equal parts amused and annoyed, I thought She was just shrugging off the whole issue — me chasing my own tail, as usual. But now I think She actually gave me a straight answer. The Gods of my house are those I invite in to share my home and my daily life — nothing more or less than that.
O You Gods of my house, I praise and adore You.
Hail to You, Bast and Your Pesedjet!
Hail to You, Nut and Amun-Ra!
Hail to You, Wepwawet, Sekhet, Set, and the Great Lionesses!
Hail to You, Renenutet, Bes, and Aset-Tayet!
May You bless me and those I love; may You cast Your light upon my dwelling; may you be friends to me, now and always. You are welcome here, a million times welcome.
I am so very far behind on the Pagan Blog Project, so it’s either appropriate or laughable that I’m picking back up with this topic. But this is my mission at the moment. I’ve been very passive in recent months, just lying back and letting various things go, and whatever happened, happened. Rest is good, and I needed some rest, but I took things a little too far in the opposite direction, and now I need to get back to a middle point — not succumbing to overwhelm and then beating myself up for failing to accomplish everything I want to, but not turning into a bump on a log either.
As I noted in my PBP entry on the eye, the Kemetic word for “eye” is also a pun with the verb that means, among other things, “to do.” So the multitude of Eye Goddesses, the Eyes of Ra, are The Ones Who Get Stuff Done. And as Bast’s daughter and Her Eye in this world, I need to embody that quality as well, if I’m to do Her work.
As part of my current refocusing, I’ve made a list of what belongs in my life — only those things that cultivate Bast’s presence — and also a list of what does not belong. A list of Things to Do and Things Not to Do. And the Things to Do are so varied and beautiful, so satisfying, that I have to wonder why I spend so much time on the things on the Not to Do list. But I think I’m getting better — there’s been a flowering of effort in a number of areas on my To Do list, both practical and spiritual, and work on my goals for the month has been moving forward nicely. Now I just have to keep up this momentum!
Hail to You, Eye of Ra, effective in Your flame! For all of our accomplishments — nekhtet!
Ra in the sky is gracious to you, and he conciliates the Two Lords for you. “Night” is gracious to you, the Two Ladies are gracious to you. Graciousness is what has been brought to you, graciousness is what you see, graciousness is what you hear, graciousness is in front of you, graciousness is behind you, graciousness is your portion — a fresh p3t-cake [offering-cake].
I have my marching orders again: this time, Bast wants me to write about “graciousness.” And as with “desire,” my first reaction was, “…What?” I thought I was mishearing, but it kept coming up. So.
I am one who was gracious to all who reached him.
gracious before the one who encountered him.
Graciousness is also a quality that belongs to Bast — or at any rate, to Bast as I experience Her. I don’t get “blood and perfume” Bast, or wrathful Bast, or playful kitten Bast, at least not primarily, although those aspects are part of Her nature. The Bast who comes to me is regal but not distant, giving and forgiving, wise and subtle and calm (and She certainly does appreciate the finer things in life!) And above all, She is kind. So very kind.
The word for “to be gracious” in Kemetic is hotep, which also has many other meanings. As a verb it can mean to pardon or forgive; to be pleased, happy, or satisfied; to be at peace or to be calm; or to rest, go down, or set as the sun does. (Perhaps this is why “my” Bast is also a sunset Bast.) As a noun, it can mean a boon, favor, or gift; pleasure, happiness, or satisfaction; grace, pardon, or forgiveness; or peace, calm, or safety. It can also mean either an offering table or the offerings themselves.The Pyramid Text utterance quoted above (which appears on offering tables from the Third Intermediate and Late Periods), equates graciousness with the p3t-cake, or offering cake, itself associated with the sound Eye of Heru. The offering, divinized, closes the circuit between humans and Gods — it stands for a great wholeness, just as the Eye, restored, is whole.
And so graciousness is connected with offerings, and thus with the reversion of offerings: the gift given by the Gods that is returned and returned again, around and around, in and out, like breathing. In graciousness the Two Lords (Heru and Set) come together, the Two Lands come together, the cobra and the vulture bestow their protection, day and night are kindly and at peace.
Graciously we receive, and graciously we give, and graciously we live.
May we learn to be gracious with each other every day.
O Peaceful One who turns to peace, as You are gracious, may I be gracious too.
Edward P. Butler, “Horus,” http://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/horus/.
Harold M. Hays, “A New Offering Table for Shepenwepet,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 40 (2003), pp. 47-60. Accessed at: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/16164.
Tamara Siuda, “Kemetic Word of the Day 3: Hotep,” Daily Devotions, May 27, 2003.
I was thinking of writing about festivals for this letter, but I have both too much and too little to say about that at the moment. And after the last F post, I think I want to do something relatively uncomplicated. So I’m going to write about Fedw.
I love Fedw. I love the concept; I love the ritual and the tactile experience of handling and tossing the sticks; I particularly love my own set of sticks (stained to match my shrine cabinet).
Unfortunately, Bast doesn’t share my sentiments.
I say unfortunately, because the Fedw are almost entirely used to receive answers from one’s Parent deity. They can also be used for the Akhu, and some people use them to ask questions of their Beloveds, but mainly they’re a hotline to one’s Parent(s). However, when it comes to me using Fedw with Bast, Her reaction tends to be dismissive at best.
Pfft. Those sticks. You talk to me.
Apparently She wants me to rely on my intuition instead, which is a little daunting but I suppose is good practice. She also may not like the Fedw because it mainly gives very simple, yes-no answers — not enough subtlety for Her. And I’ve heard it said that “Bast doesn’t prophesize,” which makes sense, given how invested She is in the present moment. So three strikes against the Fedw.
That said, I’ve had some success with prosaic questions like “Is it okay to use this polyurethane sealer on Your shrine cabinet?” (No, in case you were wondering.) And She’s sometimes slightly less finicky about me using the sticks to divine for other people. So I get at least a little use out of them!
Hail to You Bast, in all Your mysterious ways.
As for the mountain of Bakhu on which the sky rests, it is in the east of the sky….
A serpent is on the top of that mountain; it is thirty cubits long. Eight cubits of its forepart are of flint, and its teeth gleam….
Now after a while he will turn his eye against Re, and a stoppage will occur in the Sacred Bark and a great vision among the crew, for he will swallow up seven cubits of the great waters; Seth will project a lance of iron against him and will make him vomit up all that he has swallowed.
I’m prostrated in front of my shrine, my face buried in a pillow. I’ve found that it helps to cover my eyes when I’m in the midst of an anxiety attack — if I can’t see anything, I’m less likely to be triggered. But the nonstop circling rush of thoughts continues.
If I don’t, does that serve the Uncreated?
It’s too much for me, that horror running up against the implacable wall of inertia. Silence then, the leaden weight of despair, of nothingness, as I lie face down on the floor of the shrine room.
It’s not determination that gets me up at last. It’s not courage, or duty, or defiance, or the vows I’ve spoken. In the midst of that utter silence, from out of nowhere, I remember: warmth. The memory of quiet joy, the heart opening as I kneel to light the candle and begin the Rite. That tiny, glowing, melting flame alive inside my chest, a sphere of pale, shining gold in deepest darkness. And in the darkness, all I am is that little flame.
It’s the thought of that joy that lifts me to my knees, and then to my feet. After the anxiety and the depression, after the bitter strife, after the tearing anguish and the heart-eating rage, like hope at the bottom of Pandora’s box, somehow joy remains. I don’t know how or why. It’s not something I’ve earned — nothing in this fight against myself has won me the gift of joy. I’ve only battled myself to exhaustion, defeat, and collapse. And yet, at the end of the war, amid the desolation, that single flower blooms, small and simple, but exquisite.
This is what is left when I have nothing left.
And perhaps this is why, that time when I asked Set for strength, He turned me back toward my Mother. The strength of iron, resistant and unyielding, doesn’t serve me well. Instead, the strength to dance, to fall, to bow and stretch, to release, and to be still, waiting for the moment — this is what She teaches.
I kiss my fingertips to the shrine, then turn to collect my W’ab bowl and prepare for the purification.
Hail to You, Bast, most beautiful Lady of Grace. Thank You.
For quite a while now I’ve been fascinated by the symbolism of the eye. Like so much in Kemetic thought, the eye has a dual nature — the function of an eye is to receive light, to take in the world around us, but the eye has a projective quality as well. To see is not just passive but active, as we can tell when we meet another’s gaze. We touch, we recognize, we put meaning to what we see (sometimes overwriting the truth of what’s actually there). We acknowledge the other and assert our own presence. If one or both of us has power of some kind, we probably feel it. You can see a manifestation of that outward-directed force in cultures that have the concept of the “evil eye,” where the arrows of some person’s envious regard can bring about misfortune. Among animals, a direct stare is a challenge; thus cats blink, veiling and unveiling their bright gaze, to show their love. Love, support, affection — all of these are in the eye as well.
Aside from the direct power of the gaze, the act of seeing opens the way for other things to happen or become. Ra’s power of Sia (perception) brings forth and informs Hu (the authoritative utterance); Hu upholds what Sia descries or calls for change. And this is the magical power of Heka, which helps us to shape our world. Perception is also the seed of more concrete physical doing. To solve a problem, you first have to see the problem, then a solution, before you can act effectively. Observation leads to experimentation and new knowledge, which paves the way for new technologies and ways of doing things. The unique individual view creates art. And on and on. The Kemetic word for eye, irt, puns with the verb ir, which means to create, beget, make, construct, do, act or take action, achieve, prepare, or treat. So many meanings — so many different actions!
she is with you into the necropolis.
All of the above is barely a glance at the multivalent image of the eye. The eye is mirror and window, fire and water, the lake of purification and the source of tears that birthed both the human race and the flood of the Inundation. In the circle of the Eye, all things come together. Meeting each other’s gaze, human to human or human to God, we meet each other and are connected, two united in one circuit of exchange. And with the eye of the heart, we know ma’at.
O sole One who made perception, O glorious Eye! May You see me; may You hold me in the pupil of Your eye. And may I see You.
Follow your desires as long as you live and do not perform more than is ordered; do not lessen the time of following your desires, for wasting time is an abomination to your ka.
Bast keeps wanting me to write about desire. In fact, that’s part of why it’s taken me so long to get around to beginning the “D”s — I couldn’t quite figure out what to say. But let’s see what I can make of this.
One thing about the culture of ancient Kemet is that it was very life-affirming, very much about enjoying the gifts of the here and now. The popular conception is that it was a culture obsessed with death, but the truth is that they loved life so much that they wanted to ensure its continuance after the khat went still and the Unseen bodies departed into the Duat. And on the other side, in the Field of Reeds, life was imagined to continue much as it did in this world, with work and play, food and drink, beauty and love.
In general, there’s no tendency toward renouncing worldly desires in favor of spiritual enlightenment — moderation is certainly recommended in the wisdom texts, but not a rejection of the impulse to have, to experience, to enjoy. In the quote at the top of this entry, Ptahhotep instructs us not to work too hard, so as to have enough time in each day to pursue the things we long for. Quite different from the Protestant work ethic! He goes on to say that riches have worth only in that they give us the means to achieve our desires.
So what do I desire? This is the tricky part, and probably what held me up for so long. There are so many things I want to do, to accomplish or experience, but they flicker past, here and gone in an instant, to be replaced by something new. There’s so much I want to revel in, to celebrate, but the days pass by in a whirl, and that window of time for appreciation is often gone before I know it.
But desire is not necessarily whatever catches me in the moment. Merriam-Webster’s notes that “desire,” in distinction from its synonyms, “stresses strength of feeling and often implies a strong intention or aim.” Desire is the deep current of the river pushing toward the sea, pulling the boats along the trail of its shining wake. And if I look through the surface glitter of bright attractions and distractions, I can find the steady underlying flows that unite them.
None of these desires are out of reach; none require wealth or power or fame. All they need is a little slowing down, a little focusing in to hear the call and to be with it. All they need is the good use of my time.
Like to love takes time. Like the fulfillment of desire takes time.
In each beautiful hour, may I remember to follow the desires of my heart.
Nobody remembered to get a picture of the Bloomin’ Onion, though….
Dua Bast! Firstborn of Tem, hail to You on Your day! | 2019-04-20T13:16:29Z | http://www.firecat.net/lapis/category/pagan-blog-project-2012/ |
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“What is a Nexus device?” seems like a very strange question to ask on a site dedicated to all things Android. But that’s not entirely so, because there are plenty of mobile consumers that don’t happen to own a smart device yet, whether we’re talking smartphones or a tablets.
Despite being an integral part of Android, the Nexus brand may not be as well known to new smart device buyers as the iPhone and/or the iPad, or Apple’s mobile devices. Similarly, it may be not clear to some people that the Nexus is an Android device, which brings us to the point of this particular article.
In case you haven’t guessed it by now, a Nexus is a family of smart devices that are sold by Google. Whether a smartphone or a tablet, the Nexus runs Android – in most cases the latest Android version out there – and represents Google’s own vision of what an Android device should look and feel like.
Unlike the heavily marketed iPhone and iPad that are selling by the boatload, Nexus devices are yet to become equally popular when it comes to sales, but Google keeps making them, and for good reason. Without Nexus devices around, we’d hardly have any smartphone or tablet out there running the latest Android software, and Google can’t have that.
If you will, we’ll use the tree-in-the-forest existential question. If a tree falls in the forest but there’s nobody there, does it make any sounds? Similarly, if Google launches an Android OS version, but there’s no device running it to be launched immediately after, will Android make the same noise in the mobile ecosystem?
The Search giant needs to be in a dominant position in the smartphone business, when it comes to market share, in order to have a better chance to position itself on top of mobile search, in order to keep making lots of ad- and search-based cash in the so-called “Post PC” computing era that’s dominated by portable devices. Therefore, to successfully convince potential mobile device buyers to get an Android device, Google needs to have its own smarphones and tablets out there, its own flagship devices to highlight the new features of its latest Android OS versions. In their turn, users get to appreciate the new Android features each new release brings to the table and they aspire to experience them as soon as possible on their existing or future Android devices via custom ROMs and subsequent official releases – we’ll get into the actual software Nexus devices run further down the road.
Without Nexus devices, the alternative would be for Google to wait for its OEM partners to rollout Android updates to consumers, and that would certainly not be beneficial for the company. The latest Android version would only be released months after being officially introduced, with users and developers having to wait longer times to experience the new software. And that could hurt Google in this highly competitive business.
Since we did mention new Android OS launches, we’ll mention that you can expect at least a new Nexus device to come out every time Google unveils a major Android update. Google has gotten us used to expect new Nexus hardware every time we’re moving to a different desert kind, with the next one(s) supposed to come out this May at the Google I/O 2013 developer event when the company will reportedly unveil Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.
What Nexus devices are there?
To date, there have been released seven Nexus branded devices as follows: four smartphones, two tablets and a media device. The most recent Nexus devices have been launched at various times last year including the Nexus 7 tablet by Asus, the Nexus 4 smartphone by LG (review here) and the Nexus 10 tablet by Samsung (review here). Google also unveiled in mid-2012 the Nexus Q, a media device that was quickly killed off, or at least delayed.
As you can see, Google is working with a variety of partners when making Nexus devices, and it’s not conceiving them in-house with Motorola, or at least not yet. But we’ll talk more on that later.
The previous Nexus devices were all smartphones: the HTC Nexus One, the Samsung Nexus S and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and were released in early 2010, late 2010 and late 2011, respectively.
The 2011 Motorola Xoom tablet is also a device that was built together with Google, running at the time of its release the first Android version optimized for tablet use. But the device, one of the first tablets to take on the iPad, or at least to try to do it, was never marketed as a Nexus gadget.
As you can see from the product names mentioned above, Nexus devices don’t have a cohesive naming scheme and that could turn out to be a marketing annoyance in the coming years and I’ll show you why.
The first Nexus handset was the HTC Nexus One, which had a rather logical name. We were expecting a Nexus Two to follow, but legend has it that Samsung did not want to be second to anybody. Consequently the second and third Nexus smartphones were called the Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus, respectively. Finally, the fourth model was unexpectedly baptized the Nexus 4 – not Nexus Four mind you – and we expect this year’s Nexus smartphone to be called the Nexus 5, as long the company making it will not have a different opinion.
That’s all fine and dandy, but while Nexus smartphones numbers represent their generation, moving along to Nexus tablets will complicate things. The Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 are not the seventh and tenth, respectively, Nexus tablets. They’re the first two, only one is a 7 incher while the other sports a 10-inch display.
In case you don’t see the problem yet, then in couple of years we may have a strange mix of Nexus products including the Nexus 7 smartphone and the third-generation Nexus 7 tablet or Nexus 7 3.0.
What matters though is that you remember that Nexus devices are made only by/for Google.
So if Nexus devices are running Android, what are the differences between Nexus smartphones and tablets and all the other Android-running gadgets out there?
So Nexus smartphones are usually high-end devices, but they may lack certain features, including microSD support, which happens to be a deal breaker for some, and even LTE support (see the Nexus 4) which could be a problem in the future if the trend continues.
With Nexus tablets, or at least with some of them, things are a bit different. Because it wasn’t able to really compete against the iPad since Apple launched the iOS tablet, and because the Search company received an unexpected hit from Amazon, which released the Kindle Fire tablet in late 2011, a device running a forked Android version stripped off all Google elements and apps, and sold at cost, Google was forced to come out with a budget tablet of its own, the Nexus 7, in mid-2012.
Therefore the Nexus 7 tablet isn’t a high-end device specs-wise. It’s not targeting the iPad directly, not that you’re likely to feel any performance troubles during daily tablet operations because it still sports some great internal components. The Nexus 10, on the other hand, is Google’s first try at directly fighting the iPad, and therefore it’s offering some higher-end features.
This is where Nexus devices shine and where things will get interesting. Since they run the latest Android OS version, usually getting it a few days/weeks after it’s released, the Nexus smartphones and tablets offer you a pure Android experience without any custom user interface built on top of the OS. And without the bloatware apps.
This way, Google is able to let users enjoy a pure vanilla/stock Android experience compared to OEMs that try to customize the look and feel of Android in order to differentiate themselves from their Android competitors. Because of this practice, non-Nexus devices that run customized Android builds are upgraded to the latest OS much later.
Sure, you’ll say that there are some OEMs out there that are ready to offer you a stock Android experience, which is basically what Nexus devices do. But those OEMs will not be able to offer you equally fast Android updates, since they’ll only have access to the software later compared to Google, who’s building it, and on top of that, they’ll have to coordinate with carriers selling their hardware to release the updated Android ROMs.
Mobile operators and their agendas are other reasons that explain the delay in Android OS upgrades. OEMs can’t push the updates directly and they require an annoying middleman, the carrier. And carriers aren’t really interested in having those updates out as fast as possible to meet the needs of their customers. What they want is to sell as many handsets and tablets, on-contract devices if possible, and that those devices have plenty of bloatware apps installed on them from the get-go.
Once Android updates are ready, carriers still get to approve and disapprove their rollout and will release them at their own convenience, which is usually several months after the Nexus devices have received the latest Android OS available.
Obviously there are some exceptions for Nexus devices when it comes to updates. Since Google, OEMs and mobile operators have different goals in mind which affect Android OS update rollouts and increase fragmentation, some innocent Nexus devices will get caught in the fire. Just check out Verizon’s or Sprint’s Galaxy Nexu models, which aren’t always running the latest and greatest Android OS has to offer.
So now that you have an idea what Nexus devices have to offer compared to their Android equivalents, and especially if you’re just moving away from cellphones / featurephones to smartphones and/or tablets, you may be wondering whether it’s better to buy a Nexus or an Android device. You know, since they’re essentially running the same software.
But there is no right answer. Going the Nexus way is encouraged if you want to have a pure Google Android experience and have access to the latest software updates without installing custom ROMs based on those software releases. In most cases you’ll run Google’s latest OS version after a few days since it becomes official, although some carriers may still get in the way of timely Nexus updates (see Verizon and Sprint in the USA). You won’t have to deal with custom user interfaces built on top of Android and you won’t have to deal with all the pre-loaded apps from carriers and their partners that you’ll find on other Android handsets and tablets.
Furthermore, if you are a software developer looking to create Android apps and/or bringing your existing mobile apps to the Google Play Store, then owning a Nexus device may be a must, in order for you to stay up to date with the latest Android releases and what not. At the same time, owning a bunch of other Android hardware may be required in order for you to optimize app experience on different smartphones and tablets.
If the timeliness of software updates isn’t such an important factor in your Android device buying decision, then going for any other device isn’t a bad thing either. No matter what your budget is, you’ll be able to afford a new Android handset and/or tablet, and you’ll have a rich mobile experience. You don’t need to buy a Nexus to get that. Not to mention that you may be interested in having a device that comes with a microSD slot or LTE connectivity, which would mean they wouldn’t be available by purchasing the latest Nexus devices out there.
The better acquainted you get with Android on these non-Nexus devices, the more likely you’ll be to try out custom ROMs, and there are a lot of them out there – although we’ll never encourage you to install any unofficial software on any device you own – and you’ll get access to Android updates faster than your carrier wants you to.
Aren’t Nexus devices cheaper though?
So if software updates or Android development aren’t going to affect your Android buying decision, handset and tablet pricing certainly matters nowadays.
The Nexus devices are generally high-end handsets and tablets, and you’d expect them to sell at high-end-device prices, right? That’s not entirely so though, because Google has made a clear statement in 2012 that it’s willing to drop prices on its Nexus devices in order to get more and more customers through the Google Play Store door. The thinking here is that, once inside, these customers would use more and more Google mobile services and download more apps and other digital content, thus becoming hooked on the mobile OS. Not only would Google be making some money in the process off of content sales and ads, but Nexus buyers could upgrade to a future Nexus or non-Nexus device in the coming months and/or years, all the while remaining faithful Android consumers.
The Nexus 7 sells at cost at $199 for the 8GB version, while the cheapest Nexus 4 (8GB model) retails starting at $299 when available in Google Play. The Nexus 10 is slightly more expensive, at $399 (16GB version) but still more affordable than its competition.
How is Google able to pull it off? First off, in the tablet sector it has to fight the Amazon threat, not to mention that Apple has its own cheaper tablet as well, so that’s an area where we can’t expect any price hikes for the foreseeable future.
But what surprised everyone in late 2012 is that Google managed to strike an interesting deal with LG to sell the Nexus 4 for a lot less than anticipated, as long as the device is purchased through its Google Play storefront. The device sells starting at $299 and that’s the off-contract price. But carriers and retailers around the world do not get the same preferential treatment.
Will the trend continue in 2013? That’s certainly something we’re interested to see, because while Google is definitely making waves with its Nexus phones and tablets (with price being an important marketing factor,) it’s also indirectly hurting its partners. All the other Android OEMs don’t have a second revenue stream like the Google Play Store to fall back to and they want to make money from handset and tablet sales. And that’s harder to do when Google is selling hot devices with lower starting prices.
And then there are the carriers, who can’t really afford to offer buyers cheap high-end handsets as the Nexus 4 because subscribers would quickly move from postpaid to prepaid plans, which is not what any mobile operator wants.
On the other hand, the tougher the economy, the more attention one pays to the budget for mobile purchases. With that in mind, getting a brand-new high-end off-contract Nexus 4 smartphone is probably one of the best deals one can look forward to – in fact it’s the only such offer available out there, as no other high-end smartphone will sell for as low under the same conditions (new device, without a subsidy and contract). If only Google had enough Nexus 4 units to go around, right?
As you have noticed so far, Google worked with a variety of companies including HTC, Samsung, Asus and LG to release Nexus devices. And that’s certainly the best business practice for the company. Google can’t just partner up with one Android device maker for Nexus handsets and tablets because at the end of the day Google wants to keep its partners happy in order to have as them making as many Android devices as possible year after year.
However, Google failed to use Motorola to build Nexus devices so far. Starting with May 2012, Motorola is officially a Google subsidiary which means that in theory the two companies could create a plethora of Nexus smartphones and tablets and sell them at cost to hook as many new mobile users into Google’s mobile environment.
But Google said it wouldn’t treat Motorola preferentially now that it owns it, and it probably had to show everyone it means that by not creating any Nexus device in partnership with Motorola in 2012. In fact, it looks like it intentionally stayed away from doing so. Moreover, Moto launched several new Android devices in the RAZR family in fall 2012 without equipping them with the then-freshly launched Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS version.
Google execs did say that the Motorola purchase was mainly for its patent chest needed to fight Apple, Microsoft and anyone else that’s attacking Android, although that kind of didn’t work for the company, attractive negative reactions from U.S. and European regulatory commission that went as far as to initiate inquiries into Google’s patent-related business practices.
Will 2013 be the year of the first Motorola Nexus device? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Google’s former CEO and current chairman Eric Schmidt once said that the HTC Nexus One was a one time deal, hinting that a Nexus Two was not in the works. However, a short while after those statements were made, the second-generation Nexus came out, at which point it was clear that Nexus handsets are here to stay. Fast-forward to 2012, and the same Schmidt said that Google is very much interested in hardware.
As you can see, I never said Google is making Nexus devices to counter iPhone sales and to make lots and lots of money off of Nexuses. In fact, to date, no Nexus device has enjoyed impressive sales numbers, at least until 2012. The Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 could see increased sales compared to their predecessors, but we have to take into account here the fact that they’re selling at cost and that the mobile market has increased significantly in the last couple of years, with more and more buyers turning their attention to smart mobile devices. It’s also worth pointing out that Google is not sharing Nexus sales data, so we only have educated and uneducated guess to go with when it comes to Nexus sales performance, particularly for the latest models.
But Google needs to continue to make Nexuses, keep the buzz around them at high-levels and sell as many as possible for the reasons mentioned earlier. It needs to have a competitive mobile OS, it needs to show its latest Android OS version to the growing number of potential buyers around the same time iOS, Windows Phone or BlackBerry OS get new releases in order to have a high number of overall Android activations, it needs to increase its Google Play Store and Google services user base and it needs to rule the smartphone mobile landscape in order to get a comfortable enough lead in mobile search to keep money coming in.
So do expect to see more Nexus devices in the coming years. And whether you pick one up or not next time you’re buying a smartphone or tablet, it won’t necessarily matter for Google, as long as you choose an Android device.
Will you buy a Nexus devices as soon as possible? | 2019-04-23T11:06:20Z | https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-a-nexus-device-148428/ |
San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association President Chris Steele and union members deliver petitions to City Hall.
Now that the runoff elections and an anemic voter turnout are history, it’s time to turn our attention to the November ballot and the most important election in contemporary San Antonio history. This is not about the mood of the nation and how voters feel about the Trump administration or the Republican-controlled Congress.
This is not about the closely watched Congressional, statewide, or local races in Texas. All of those contests offer a remarkably newsy midterm ballot and merit a robust voter turnout, but I am looking closer to home.
The looming challenge for San Antonio and its residents will be found in three ballot initiatives that are the work of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association leadership, all intended to disrupt responsible city government as we know it.
And for Mayor Ron Nirenberg, yet to complete his first year in office, and a City Council with six of 10 members newly elected last year, the political challenge mounted by the firefighters union is proving to be a serious distraction from other city business, one that will tally a high cost in time, energy, and money.
The firefighter union leaders say they are merely seeking reforms to the San Antonio City Charter, but the truth is they are wreaking havoc out of anger that they can’t get what they want at the collective bargaining table, where they have refused to take a seat for more than four years. Union leaders are especially incensed by the City’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 10-year evergreen clause that has long been part of the union contract.
That contract leaves in place all terms of an expired contract when the two sides cannot agree on a new deal. Since firefighter union officials refuse to come to the bargaining table, that clause has protected their membership’s rich array of benefits.
It costs taxpayers $20,000 a year to provide health care benefits for each firefighter, more than three times what it costs to provide health care for the City’s civilian workers. That’s why San Antonio spends 66 cents of every dollar in its treasury on public safety, a difficult standard to maintain and one that limits what the City can spend on many other initiatives it simply cannot afford.
Refusing to bargain, however, has hurt the working men and women in the city’s fire stations. They have not had a pay increase in four years. It’s hard to imagine hardened City negotiators agreeing to a retroactive raise equal to what has been left on the table. Prolonging the standoff serves no purpose.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg exits the media briefing room at City Hall after asking the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Union to join contract negotiations in March.
The union leaders have every right to vigorously oppose the City’s lawsuit through the courts, and in fact, to date, they have held the upper hand as both City officials and union leaders watch the Texas Supreme Court and wait to learn whether it will hear the City’s appeal of a lower court ruling in the union’s favor.
In the meantime, union leaders have struck a match and are trying to set afire City Hall. They are seeking attention at all costs, even if their tactics cause lasting damage.
Decide what? Whether every significant City Council decision should be subjected to an expensive, months-long citywide referendum? Whether the city manager, who presides as chief executive officer over a multibillion enterprise and more than 13,000 employees, deserves to be paid competitively?
Barring legal challenge, voters will decide if the City Charter should include language that limits the salary and tenure of future city managers; forces binding arbitration between the union and the City for a new contract with a union-approved arbitrator; and makes it easier for citizens to force public votes on proposed ordinances and financial decisions. The latter could lead to voters signing petitions every time elected leaders make a tough decision such as, say, a utility rate increase.
A tough campaign is taking shape on the horizon. The union’s media blitz undoubtedly will be fueled by outside money. It will vilify City Manager Sheryl Sculley in ways no male city leader ever seems to endure. If the police union’s prolonged campaign against Sculley is any indication, the ads will be suffused with ridiculously false claims and repulsive personal attacks.
Nirenberg will turn to local business leaders to fund a more reasoned media campaign designed to educate voters, maximize voter turnout, and appeal to reason. The goal will be to convince a solid majority to vote “no” on the three initiatives.
Nirenberg, meanwhile, has continued a tradition started by Mayor Phil Hardberger more than a decade ago of monthly lunches with local CEOs. The most recent gathering was hosted by USAA CEO Stuart Parker. Nirenberg also is using every one of his many public speaking appearances to make his case.
Several former mayors have agreed to join the campaign, and prominent developer and philanthropist Gordon Hartman has agreed to serve as campaign treasurer. Political consultant Kelton Morgan, who has managed all of Nirenberg’s successful campaigns since he was first elected as the District 8 councilman in 2013, will manage the campaign opposing the firefighters union.
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Excellent article. Share it with everyone you know.
Thank you for this piece. I am surely not alone in wanting to scream and stomp my feet when I realize they managed to talk so many people into signing their petition! Surely, a lot of those people meant well, but did not clearly understand the issues.
In California it happens all the time. You just tell the people that in signing they are necessarily supporting the measure, but hope to have the people decide.
Thank you for laying it out in plain English for all to understand. We all need to spread the word.
I’m voting for the initiative to permit voters to oppose ordinance changes like utility rate increases. The Mayor has had ample opportunity to change my mind by taking an aggressive stance for honesty and clarity as a Councilman, the Mayor, and as a SAWS Board member. Instead, he chooses to act in a complicit fashion to SAWS’ misleading information to the public.
The other two petitions are pointless, single-item vendetta issues from the Firefighters’ union.
For the record, Mr. Mayor, what were the actual rate increases you voted on in December? Not the obscure SAWS “bill-effect” for one consumption level, but the actual rate increases contained in the ordinance?
By 2020, SAWS – and the Council – will have raised rates nearly 150% since 2015 for the average usage level, if SAWS estimates are accurate. Water in Block 6 (~12,000 gallons per month) will cost $0.8556/100 gallons, up from $0.3442 (old Block 2). Meanwhile – higher use water in Block 7 (~20,000) will have gone up less than 10% (1.0266 up from 0.9469). Remember – SAWS vigorously touted the “conservation-oriented structure” where high-use customers would pay more – except they didn’t. Right now, today, the rates on water at the 20,000 gallon consumption level are lower than they were in 2015 – SAWS lowered summertime rates on Block 4 water in the 2015 re-structure. Look it up: $0.9469 in 2015, $0.7801 today – and that is after all the “rate adjustments” since then. Those numbers are public record, in the ordinances approved by the current Mayor and several current Council members.
At the time, the Rivard Report chimed in and parroted SAWS claims without critical analysis: https://therivardreport.com/proposed-saws-rate-structure-to-promote-conservation/ But if you actually look at the data, if a customer used more than 20,000 gallons, the bill went DOWN under the “conservation-oriented” restructure.
So yeah, I’m voting for the proposition that lets me roll back these types of ordinances. If I can’t trust the publicly owned-utility to tell the truth, and I can’t count on the media to hold them to task, and I can’t count on my elected officials to do their homework, then I’ll need to do it myself.
One must wonder what the firefighters expect. They have backed candidates who have not won. Their friend on the council has said their latest decision was a move in the wrong direction. Their police officer friends have settled for a future they can live with. Yet they allow leadership that has denied them raises for 4 years and angered many of their former friends in the community. Perhaps I need to listen to their leader. He must be mesmerizing.
….all intended to disrupt responsible city government as we know it.
I wouldn’t make mind being able to vote on my rate or fee increase for water and light. Govt feels they have a right to our money. So I’ll support fire on this initiatives.
Richard, do you feel Valero or HEB has a right to your money? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been paying a lot more for gas lately. Life costs money to continue! Admittedly utility rate increases need to be managed. But voting for these three initiatives, as you say you will do, will end up costing the city — which means you, me, and everyone we know who lives here — a LOT of money and lost civic resources in the long run. The fire fighters’ union has been unwilling to negotiate and has tricked San Antonio voters into supporting their excessive demands. Read the fine print which Rivard has provided here before you “sign on” with your vote.
Thanks, Robert, for putting this issue into focus with clear, accurate information and explanation of the disastrous outcome should any of these measures pass. As you’ve described, if these measures pass, SA’s city government will become a very expensive morass of procedural wastefulness at the expense of tackling the real problems that need addressing in our city.
Please keep us up-to-date on these ballot issues. And please provide articles on how concerned citizens can help defeat these proposed measures by volunteering for block-walking, phone banks, yard signs, etc.
Let us know if there is a central organizing unit fighting these measures so we can get involved. Before. It’s. Too. Late.
This article is does not accurately represent the SanAntonioFirst campaign. Please go to: http://www.sanantoniofirst.com and read the actual petitions. There is nothing contrary to your civic and constitutional rights involved with these petitions. The SanAntonioFirst campaign has the endorsements of LULAC, Tea Party, Independent Texans, SAMBA (San Antonio Making Bureaucracies Accountable), HTA (Homeowner-Taxpayer Association), and many others. These charter amendments will put an end to a corrupt City Hall that disregards the voters wishes, puts San Antonio’s future at risk with massive DEBT, and “behind-closed-doors council meetings and votes” that hurt citizens. We are sure the power brokers and those corrupt politicians that benefit from the current system will line up to go against it, BUT the smart citizens (and they are smart) will read the petition and will decide. The President of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association Chris Steele has offered to debate the Mayor anytime, anywhere on the petitions and the TRUTH.
Lest you forget, the voters of San Antonio just approved the largest bond initiative in city history. Bonds are debt. The voters just voted to increase our debt…willingly! That was my wish and I’m a voter. Are you telling me my wishes doesn’t matter unless they are aligned with yours?
You are willing to destroy this city so you can keep your free healthcare. Shame on you.
1. Non of the props would destroy the city. They would change some things(maybe for a little good maybe for a little bad) but not even close to destroy.
2. The people who get coughed on, spit on, puked on and every other bodily function you can think of…those people should have a health care that is different than the people who sit at the desks.
Our city needs both but they have different jobs and those jobs should be paid accordingly.
You are so right. Arredondo in 1813 did not destroy the city, but it was a hell of place to live 50 years.
1. I want highlight that you just agreed that some of these initiatives are bad.
2. You knew what you signed up for when you chose to be a firefighter. Now man up and pay your fair share.
I didn’t read, in any literature posed on the subject, where the firefighters are against paying for healthcare, nor do I understand that their healthcare is free.
The only clause of the three that has any bearing on the firefighters is the one concerning binding arbitration. In fact, it states that if the City and the Firefighters cannot reach an agreement, then the proceedings will go to a binding, neutral, third party arbitrator. I’d like to call it the “you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit” clause. As in, if you two children cannot get along, then I’ll fix both of you, parenting strategy.
Just my .02 anyway, but I’ve read all I can find on this, and I’m pretty dumb.
I don’t know about the others, but from what I read the Tea Party endorses only the Voter Access initiative. What is the rationale for putting up for vote the salary of the city manager. We don’t do it for the chiefs. What about if we say the chief of the fire department can earn only 1.5x the salary paid to the lowest paid city worker. What’s fair is fair.
I stand with the fire union. What has the mayor accomplished in his first year? Removed the confederate statue, raised our water rates, voted for the gay crosswalk, and what else? I forgot. He was so happy to present the city manager with her bonus check for doing her job. Imagine receiving a bonus for just doing your job.
Now the mayor is telling us he will dedicate himself to defeat the initiatives before they even go to the voter by going to lunch with all the executives in town. He needs to worry about getting re-elected. Drop the lawsuit against the fire union if you really want to reach an agreement. Stop wasting our tax dollars on your frivolous lawsuit against the fire union.
The Firefighers Union plans are insane as usual and I won’t vote for their propositions. I cannot vote for Mayor “Transparency” when he refuses to even tell us such minor thing as where is the beloved HemisFair sign or where is the old statue taken from Travis Park? Silly maybe, but it shows the hypocracy from our Mayor. So I guess I will just stay at home on election day. Anyway who needs a Mayor and Council when Scully runs everything.
I think the Fire Union’s initiative is the kind of self-destructive behavior that has damaged the Union movement in the USA over the last several years.
The example I know a little about is the OCAW’s repeated strikes at the Corn Products Bluebonnet plant in Corpus Christi. The end result was that the plant was closed and dismantled, and all the jobs were lost. When I worked there, as a laborer, I had a few discussions over coffee with a union steward. His best idea was going from 40 hour week to 32 hour week, same weekly wage. It would result in more jobs, he said. I think he didn’t clearly grasp what happens when you increase the production cost of a commodity.
I’ll vote against it. Get back to the table, everybody.
problem is, we can’t easily close up San Antonio and sell off the assets. We can, however, reevaluate the fire department and recognize that today its primary function is to answer EMS calls.
The ballot initiatives are terrible for saving money. San Antonio has below average costs because we elect people to make the most informed decision, which so far they seem to have done. Letting know nothing meddlers get involved will increase everyone’s cost and make outcomes worse. We dont need a race to the bottom. If people don’t like their elected officials decisions, then vote someone else.
The people pushing these initiatives want everything their way, which is worse than now.
Its the elected people who got us into this mess. If they can’t swat away an out-of-control union, what good are they? Will others be better? Not as long as voters continue to elect way-way left of center hacks.
I am afraid. Your article is obviously slanted . If you want to be objective you should report both sides of an issue.
It’s an editorial. It’s supposed to be slanted.
The Mayor, City Council, and the agencies through their authoritarian rule have brought this on themselves. Where to begin?
How about something simple, like Tobacco 21. Okay, tobacco use poses risks, but imposing government supervision and paternity at the cost of individual liberty and responsibility replaces one evil with another. Then, of course, there were the objections which were wholly ignored, not to mention to mention the evils prohibition may spawn.
Joe-above addressed the SAWS rates issue, but there are other rates as well. Consider the rate increase SARA wants. Now, SARA is a bureaucracy and like all organisms it wants to grow. So, it comes up with some project it says we must have and argues it has not received a rate increase in a few years. Is the project necessary? I don’t know, but I do know SARA has effectively received a regular rate increase as the appraiser routinely increases appraised values without regard to actual market values. Land on Broadway north of the Pearl was recently increased upwards of 60%. So as the saying goes, SARA, cry me a river. The Council will undoubtedly approve an increase.
The fire department is also an organism intent on growing and the Council routinely gives the Chief whatever he wants, even approving as user fees income generating taxes which are properly the province of the voters. To satisfy progressive impulses, the Council whimsically renames streets, as was done with Durango and Old Highway 90.
The Confederate memorial was about as innocuous and respectful as you could imagine. (Disclosure: a third generation American from California I have no relatives who fought on either side). If you asked San Antonians, I bet a sizable number did not know there was a memorial, where it was, or even when the Civil War was fought. But the mayor said it had to go. So he had it spirited off in the dead of night and will not reveal where it is.
Then, of course, there was the cabal that sat in secrecy and proclaimed the City would not submit a bid for the Republican convention. Whatever window dressing they put on it, the decision was made before they met, comments by County Commissioner Calvert and former Mayor Hardeberger make that clear.
The list goes on, but for this voter the Mayor and Council have not earned my trust.
What about the fire fighters? It is high time we treat the fire department as it is, not what it was. Today, more than 80% of calls to the fire department are for EMS. (For reasons which should be explored, a fire truck accompanies each call). Fire fighters spend most of their time cooking chili and complaining about pay and benefits.
The union’s logo harkens back to the day when Mrs. O’Leary was lighting lanterns in the shed, an image Chief Hood perpetuates every chance he gets. He once said he place a fire station on each block if he could, and undoubtedly he would. His department is another organism which he seeks to grow at whatever cost the public and be made to bear.
So, we have an authoritarian regime and a union, each of which cares more for its agenda than the citizenry. We can trust neither. That said, the first two proposed amendments are nonsensical. As for Voter Access, I see the risks: there will be a lot of propositions and voters can be swayed by emotional appeals. Will that be different or worse than what we have?
Let me know the next time a civilian breaths toxic fumes I to their body or gets spit in the eye by someone with Hep-C. It happened to me as a firefighter here in SA and I still had to pay $300 out of pocket. Firefighters deal with the sickest people in San Antonio. We should be covered medically. We have been willing to give up quite a bit for that and have brought many options to Sheryl but she continues to refuse.
Let me know the next time a civilian breathes toxic fumes into their body or gets spit in the eye by someone with Hep-C. It happened to me as a firefighter here in SA and I still had to pay $300 out of pocket. Firefighters deal with the sickest people in San Antonio. We should be covered medically. We have been willing to give up quite a bit for that and have brought many options to Sheryl but she continues to refuse.
The city has spent almost 2 million fighting the firefighters over an evergreen clause in their contract. Then they turn around and put one in the police contract. The city manager has one in her contract. So which do they believe??? Are they suing pd and the city manager next over their evergreen clauses??? You cant have both Ron N. If the state rules they are unconstitutional then every city contract you have that has an evergreen is null and void. Be careful what you wish for.
Also the city just reported they had a surplus of 13 million. So they are currently paying the firefighters benefits and running the city and still have a 13 million dollar surplus??? Would be 15 but they wasted 2 million on a lawsuit that according to council members has a 5% chance of winning. Great odds I think. Play the long shot. Its not your money its the citizens. So much for firefighters bankrupting the city.
Finally Ron N wants peoples votes. He begged for them to get elected mayor. Now the citizens of this city want to continue to have their voices heard through votes and he doesnt want that?
Why hasnt the rivard report reported on this??? Seems Rob and Ron are in this together.
This article is extremely misleading and does not reveal all of the facts. I encourage you to do all of the research on this and make the decision you think is best. My husband is a firefighter and he is exposed to tons of chemical and toxins daily. Firefighters have the highest rate of cancer development in a life time compared to any other career and yet the mayor thinks this should be the families burden.
I see nothing wrong in America letting the voters decide! | 2019-04-25T20:03:19Z | https://therivardreport.com/san-antonio-last-november-ballot-initiatives-an-existential-threat/ |
The year of the Earth Pig is here and it signals the beginning of new and brighter opportunities for the months to come. If you are one of the many Filipinos who believe that they will be among the lucky individuals who will enjoy the benefits of fortune this year, starting a business should be first in your list. However, you have to keep in mind that aside from luck, there are other factors that you should take into consideration before you fully reap the rewards of your first entrepreneurial efforts.
For starters, you need to start with the most important question of all: thinking of a great business idea. While this sounds so simple, it sometimes gets complicated especially if you start to fully realize the bigger picture. Indeed, starting a new business in the Philippines can be challenging but it doesn’t mean you have to give up this early. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about securing a big capital. In fact, would you believe that with just PHP 1,000, you can start your own business? How?
Let this article help you take the first steps.
These are the profitable business ideas in the Philippines in 2019 that you should include in your list.
This business idea for home-based entrepreneurs has started to rise in popularity since 2018 and this New Year also promises better opportunities for this entrepreneurial venture. Stay-at-home moms, single mothers, and even full-time office workers find this business idea an ideal way to earn extra cash. The great thing about a home-made desserts business is that acquiring a capital won’t be a problem.
Mango float (frozen mango cake), no-bake chocolate cakes, coffee jelly, home-made ice cream, and other desserts like Filipino favorite leche flan are the most in-demand desserts these days. Aside from the fact that they are easy to make, its ingredients are affordable and can be bought at your local supermarkets.
The needed capital for this business idea will depend on the type of beauty products that you are going to sell. This business is ideal for people living in the city as well as for mom-entrepreneurs who live in the provinces. Why is this included in the list? For one, beauty products such as cosmetics, beauty bars, whitening, and skin moisturizing products, are in-demand for many working Filipinas and students who make sure that they always look great. Additionally, these products are consumable, ensuring repeat customers and regular flow of income.
The only challenging part about this business idea is about which type of product you’re going to choose. Seasoned online sellers suggest that you should sell products that you have actually used or you will most likely to use. This adds credibility to your online shop and also helps your customers trust the efficiency of what you are selling. In other words, never sell a product that you, yourself, don’t even want to try.
Just like beauty products, online fashion stores are a hit for today’s Filipino sellers. Many people in the country want to express themselves through fashion, but most of them can also be very practical. That is, they won’t easily buy fashion items especially if it’s not affordable. So what’s the best thing to do if you want to be an online or offline fashion apparel seller? Source your items from the direct supplier.
If you are near Manila, Taytay in Rizal is the place to go. Many fashion sellers know too well that direct suppliers display their goods weekly in a tiange (bazaar) near Taytay’s local market. Here, prices can go as low as PHP 60 per item, with bigger discounts for bigger orders. Fashionable tops of different designs, pants, dresses, and even locally-crafted footwear can be found in this affordable fashion haven.
Healthy meal plans and packed lunch products are in-demand right now, especially among millennial workers who either don’t have the resources to cook their own meals or they just don’t have the time to prepare them. In many business centers in Metro Manila like Makati, Ortigas, and BGC, professionals rely on ready-to-eat lunch boxes or even pre-planned meals for their everyday food allowances.
The basic meals can be as simple as one cup of rice with a side and the main dish (pork, fish, and vegetables), and most sellers price them at PHP 60- PHP 70. Pre-planned meals cater to the health-conscious markets, allowing them to eat meals according to their specific dietary requirements. The former is perhaps easier and less demanding in manpower and in the capital while the latter requires knowledge in diet and nutrition. Additionally, a bigger operation will require more paper works and permits.
Yes, you can earn from creating a blog and fully developing it into a website. If you are internet savvy and enjoy writing, these two skills can help you be good at this business. Additionally, a simple knowledge in search engine optimization and Google Analytics can go a long way. While it’s essential to learn all these, don’t be intimidated by the unknown world of blogging.
For as low as PHP 5,000, you can create and own your website, and additional effort to work on your page’s content can help you steadily develop it into a fully-earning business idea. In fact, many online entrepreneurs consider blogging as a steady source of passive income. So what should you do to get started? First, choose a particular niche or topic that you want to focus on. Many successful earning blogs are travel blogs, fashion websites, food and cooking, beauty, and even business sites.
Make your content as informative as possible, and don’t forget to keep learning. Read and read as much as you can and you’ll be an expert in no time.
Do you live in a tourist town or in a place that has access to the Philippines’ best travel destinations? Do you have a property (house, room, real estate) that you don’t use? If both answered “yes” to these questions, then this business idea if perfect for you.
Many Filipinos young and old have started venturing into the outdoors, exploring travel sites and destinations in every corner of the country. While they are willing to spend money on experiences, many travelers always make a practical choice to opt for a reasonably-priced accommodation-and this is where Airbnb comes into the picture.
Airbnb is an online directory for properties (condo units, house, rooms) that travelers can rent out at a much cheaper price compared to booking a hotel. The website is pretty popular among local and foreign travelers so many Airbnb hosts (owners of the properties for rent) just have to wait for a booking, confirm it, and earn.
Computers, laptops, and smartphones are expected to require considerable servicing, repair, and maintenance, as people have become increasingly dependent on technology. This small business idea can assure you a steady stream of clients who can’t last a day without their computers or smartphones.
Hopefully, these business ideas will help you get started on your entrepreneurial ventures. Good luck and have a lucky new year!
Black Friday is the biggest sale event of the year, during which online stores from all over the world provide up to 90% discounts. Black Friday, known previously only in the States, has gained a truly worldwide popularity within just a few years. Black-Friday.Global Analysis Team has been closely following this trend for the past several years. In the Philippines – 73% of respondents made it clear that they do know what Black Friday is. The survey suggests that over half of Filipinos will participate in Black Friday this year (over a double increase compared to 2017).
Unsurprisingly, Philippine consumers were buying more actively than usual too. Average Filipino bargain hunter is willing to pay PHP 2800 ($59) in total for his/her Black Friday shopping cart. That is $18 more than Malaysian consumers, and $21 less than Indonesians.
Every year, the world press feeds us with dozens of photos of crowds besieging electronics stores. Surprisingly though, the results of our survey state that clothes, not electronics, are the actual apple of bargain hunters’ eye. Consumer electronics category came second in our ranking. On the other side of the scale books, sports accessories and underwear were the least popular items to buy. When it comes to the most popular shops Shopee, Lazada and Zalora took the three top spots.
Black Friday is well known for its discounts reaching as high as 80-90%. As the average discount in the Philippines online stores reached 61% last year, when forecasting Filipinos’ Black Friday 2018 expenses, it could translate into PHP 4386 of possible average saving.
Clothes, electronics and shoes are the most popular items to buy.
How to be prepared for Black Friday?
First, postpone your biggest fall/winter buys to November – this way you can save hundreds of peso!
Do your research on the prices of the products you want to purchase prior to Black Friday so you know exactly how much you are saving!
When the Black Friday sales start, do not waste your time, ‘cause the highest discounts and the best prices are only valid for a short period of time!
As an emerging developing country in Asia, the Philippines has been showing its business competencies for the past few years. This can be seen by looking into its wealthiest cities. Consisting of 145 cities, below are the Philippine top ten cities owning the biggest amount of economic assets as of 2017.
Makati’s role as the country’s business center is undeniable. The reason for this is clear: there are a lot of international, regional and local corporations and offices of significance in the city. In fact, the number of business corporations in the city has been known to be the highest in the country.
Due to the lure of the city, its population reaches over 500,000 people, which puts the city in the 17th position in the nationwide biggest city category.
On the second place is Quezon City, which used to be the capital of the country during the period of 1948 until 1976. Home to the most prestigious universities in the country, University of the Philippines Diliman and Ateneo de Manila, and key government offices, such as the Batasang Pambansa Complex, the city is known to cater a wide range business endeavours.
Its most recent business district is Triangle Park, which lies on 250 ha area. The place is divided into Commons, Downtown Hub, Emporium, Residences at Veterans and Triangle Exchange. This adds to the city’s popular money making areas: Eastwood City with its business district, Araneta Center with its shopping malls and other commercial centers, Tomas Morato and Timog Avenues with their rows of restaurants and entertainment.
In addition, the main Philippine broadcasting networks, like RPN, UNTV, and GMA Network, are headquartered in Quezon City.
Pasig has a renowned business area called the Ortigas Center, where prominent business headquarters, like Meralco and San Miguel, are located. There are also Kapitolyo, Capitol Commons, St. Francis Square, Tiendesitas known to be the food and shopping centers of the city, Metrowalk as the city leasure hub, as well as Mutya ng Pasig, a three storey public market.
The city also used to hold the Guinness World Record for the largest secondary school in the world, with a population of around 20,000 students in Rizal High School from 1993 until 2005.
Initially named the Spanish City of Manila by the founder, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, in 1571, the city functioned as home to many colonial rulers. No wonder, a lot of historical sites from the 16th century can be found in the city.
Recently listed as a global city by Globalization and World Cities Research Network, Manila is reputed to be one top business and tourism center in the Philippines. With its large business coverage (banking, finances, real estate, etc), the city lures people to come. In fact, Manila is one of the world’s most crowded city with a population of around 1,7 million (based on 2016 census data).
Known as the Sardines Capital, Zamboanga City is home to major sardine factories in the Philippines. That is indeed one of the reasons that makes it the center of business in Zamboanga Peninsula Region.
Other reasons include the presence of big corporations, such as Beauche International and Globe Telecom, and the local government policy that simplifies bureaucracy and attracts more investment in the city business.
Located in Visayas region, this city holds an important role in the area. In its main business district, Cebu Business Park, are big corporations, such as Cathay Pacific, Innove Communications, Jinisys Software, as well as financial offices and banks, like Citibank, Chinatrust, Asia United Bank, and HSBC.
Not only is it the city of commerce, but it is also a modern city with premium residential complex, the Alcoves and Avalon Condo Cebu, and a big shopping mall, Ayala Center Cebu.
This former part of Rizal province has been striving to create conducive environment for investors and provide more job opportunities for its citizens. As a highly urbanized city, Caloocan is equipped with numberous banks and shopping centers, such as Victory Central Mall, Puregold Maypajo and Puregold Monumento.
This city is divided into two: the southern part is mostly for business establishments, while the northern for factories. Widely recognized as one of the country’s shoe capital, leather shoe industries are the dominant businesses in the city.
Blessed with lots of hot springs, resorts equipped with the natural hot water facility can be found all around the city. For that reason, Calamba is known to be the country’s resort capital. The City is known as the Resort Capital of the Philippines because of its numerous hot spring resorts. It is also the hometown of the Philippine National Hero, Jose Rizal.
Located in the northern part of Mindanao, this city is the business center in the area. One of the most well known businesses there is related to tourism: services that provide rafting or kayaking adventures.
There you have it! The lists above are just some of the richest cities in the Philippines. I hope you gained knowledge from this article.
“You’re too passive” – Someone lacking action or initiative.
In writing, teachers advise that we switch from “Passive to Active voice” to make our writing more engaging and less dull.
Even being “Passive-Aggressive” sounds like an “even worse” way of being aggressive. It means you’re angry but lack the courage to express it upfront.
But I know of one “Passive” thing that I bet everyone will surely wish they have—you guessed it—”Passive Income”, a.k.a “Making money while you sleep”.
Cash flow that will buy us the freedom to spend more time with our loved ones, travel, and pursue our passions. It’s not easy to get it right, but once you do, it will open up a whole new world of possibilities and freedom in your life. It’s funny how something “Passive” can sound so exciting.
So if you’re ready, here’s our list of top Passive Income Ideas to get your started.
The Philippines that was once a Commonwealth under the United States has risen as one of the top outsourcing destination in the world. All thanks to Filipinos who are known for their skills, talents, and work ethic as well.
Here’s an interesting fact: Filipinos is 3rd in Asia when it comes to english proficiency. No wonder why foreign investors are establishing a business in the Philippines.
In this infographic, we’re going to go over various qualities and facts what makes Filipinos one of the most preferred employees in the world. Here’s what you need to know about Filipinos.
Sample on how to address an envelope.
Before the invention of cellular phones, writing a letter and sending it via air mail was the best way of communicating to our loved ones. People then must be very patient because they would have to wait for a week just for their letter to reach its destination and it would take another week for them to get the reply. Now, people would be aggravated if their text mates would not reply within an hour. And with the fast changing world most of the youths now don’t even know the Postal code or ZIP code of their own town. Why would they when they don’t need to send letter through the post office anymore, right? Instead of going to a post office to send a letter, we could just send it via e-mail, and as for packages, there are now fast cargo companies that are more reliable.
Most of us don’t even know what a ZIP Code is. ZIP actually stands for “Zone Improvement Plan”. It was first used in the U.S and was adopted by the Philippine Postal Corporation (Phlpost). America uses five digits while the Philippines use only four digits. The main purpose of using ZIP code is to simplify the distribution of mails.
Even if the Philippines is a poor country, there are still a few people here who excelled in the world of business and became billionaires. You want to find out who those people are and how much they are worth? | 2019-04-26T13:20:03Z | https://faq.ph/category/business/ |
As of the date of this writing, the future of the DOL “Fiduciary Rule” remains unclear. Judicial challenges remain, and the Trump administration has not yet expressed its view on whether the rule will be repealed (and how long that will take). Many broker-dealer and dual registrant firms have already spent millions to comply with the rule – but are they choosing the right path for compliance?
Some broker-dealer firms – both wirehouses and IBDs – will choose not to use the DOL’s Best Interests Contract Exemption (B.I.C.E.) and will move their clients (to the extent not grandfathered) to fee-based accounts. Yet, other broker-dealer firms have (e.g., Merrill Lynch, etc.) will embrace B.I.C.E., which contains a proverbial minefield of traps for both firms and their financial advisors.
What does this mean for financial advisors in those firms that utilize B.I.C.E.? Here are my insights and legal analysis. I question why any financial advisor would want to use B.I.C.E., given the likelihood of significant reputational damage that would result for the advisor.
The U.S. Department of Labor issued its final “Conflict of Interest” (“C.O.I.”) regulation in April 2016, with the effective date of its core provisions on April 10, 2017. Under the C.O.I. regulation, fiduciary status is imposed on nearly everyone providing investment recommendations to ERISA-covered plan sponsors and plan participants, as well as to owners of IRA accounts, Keogh plan accounts and health savings accounts. While prohibited transaction exemptions (PTEs) (including the B.I.C.E.) permit the receipt of third-party compensation, as a practical matter firms – and their advisors – should transition to fee-based accounts. Anything less will result in significant reputational risk to advisors, as well as substantially increased litigation risk to both firms and advisors.
B.I.C.E. permits commissions, 12b-1 fees and other third-party compensation to be paid to broker-dealer firms. Much attention has been focused on the voluminous disclosures required under B.I.C.E.; some firms may wrongly believe that they can conduct “business as usual” simply by providing these disclosures. However, the core of the DOL’s rules are found in the 237 words that comprise the Impartial Conduct Standards. These standards impose strict fiduciary duties of loyalty and due care upon firms and advisors, require the receipt of only reasonable compensation, and prohibit misleading statements. And, these Impartial Conduct Standards also apply to recommendations of proprietary funds, principal trades and fixed-index annuities.
Under B.I.C.E. and its Impartial Conduct Standards, recommendations must be given to clients “without regard to the financial or other interests of the Adviser, Financial Institution or any Affiliate, Related Entity, or other party.” “[F]or example, an advisor, in choosing between two investments, could not select an investment because it is better for the advisor’s or financial institution’s bottom line ….” Moreover, neither the firm nor advisor may seek to limit its liability by disclaiming their core fiduciary duty or loyalty, nor may the firm seek to have the client waive the fiduciary duties owed to the client.
The Impartial Conduct Standards also incorporate, as part of a firm’s and advisor’s fiduciary duty of due care, the tough “prudent investor rule” (PIR). The PIR has a decades-long history of interpretation, as it is the core of a trustee’s duty to manage investment under trust law, and it is codified in most states as a version of the Uniform Prudent Investor Act. The PIR requires the advisor to manage risk across the investor’s portfolio, and to consider the risk and return objectives of the portfolio in making decisions. The duties to diversify investments and to avoid idiosyncratic risk are emphasized, in keeping with the findings of modern portfolio theory.
The PIR’s duties to avoid idiosyncratic risk and to avoid waste of the client’s assets bring into doubt the efficacy of several programs already announced by certain firms. For example, an IRA platform for smaller clients consisting only of individual stocks and bonds may render it impossible for an advisor to minimize idiosyncratic risk.
The PIR also poses huge challenges to the use of expensive funds and annuity products, where less expensive alternatives are available. For example, a broker-dealer platform or program in which the financial advisor is confined to the use of higher-cost mutual funds or variable annuities would likely run afoul of the fiduciary’s duty to avoid waste of the client assets, especially where similar lower-cost investments were available in the marketplace. While the use of very-low-total-cost index funds and index ETFs is not explicitly required by the rule, their utilization is certainly implicitly favored and should be viewed as one step that could be taken along the path toward risk reduction for the firm and its advisors.
Academic research has not ruled out the utilization of all active management strategies. However, the research is compelling that high-cost actively managed funds should be avoided by advisors operating under the fiduciary duty of prudence, given the consistent inverse relationship between investment product fees and investor returns. Further research on the ability of very-low-cost actively managed funds to beat appropriately chosen benchmarks is desired, as the current research is insufficient to either support or undermine their utilization.
In private litigation and arbitration, firms and advisors are normally sued not only for breach of contract, but also under state common law for breach of fiduciary duty. In such proceedings broker-dealer firms and their advisors usually deny the existence of fiduciary status. However, when the prudent investor rule is imposed upon one portion of a client’s portfolio, other portions of the portfolio should also be managed prudently given the fiduciary’s duty to consider the client’s other investments and assets.
When fiduciary duties are applicable contractually under B.I.C.E. for the management of IRA accounts, then it more likely that common law fiduciary status will be found to exist for the entirety of the advisor’s relationship with the client – including but not limited to the IRA account and other brokerage and investment advisory accounts upon which advice is provided. In other words, a court or arbitrator is more likely to find that a relationship of trust and confidence exists for non-qualified accounts when fiduciary duties are already imposed upon qualified accounts managed by the advisor.
Given the higher likelihood of fiduciary status under state common law, methods to comply with state common law fiduciary duties should be reviewed.
Once the burden of proof and/or persuasion shifts from the client to the firm and advisor, proof must be offered that the client was not harmed by the receipt of the additional compensation by the firm. As discussed below, given that additional compensation is paid by product providers from product fees, and that higher product fees on average lead to lower returns for investors, especially over the long term, this is a difficult burden of proof to meet.
The “careful scrutiny” of additional fees received by a firm under B.I.C.E.
As indicated above, the receipt by of third-party compensation is likely to be closely scrutinized under B.I.C.E. This is especially true when additional compensation is received by a broker-dealer firm, such as through 12b-1 fees, payment for shelf space and other forms of revenue sharing and/or marketing reimbursements, as this amounts to a form of self-dealing.
If additional fees and costs are received from the recommendation of a particular investment, such additional compensation is necessarily derived from the product’s costs. And here’s the rub … the academic research is strong and compelling – higher product fees and costs result, on average, in lower returns for investors.
“Commissions are better for investors?” Not so fast!
Some financial advisors might argue that mutual fund A share classes are better for investors, as the client does not need to pay ongoing fees – just an upfront commission. Leaving aside for a minute that most class A shares still impose a 0.25% or less annual 12b-1 fee, the impact of the sales commission is often understated.
A 5.75% sales charge requires a mutual fund to earn a 1.20% greater annual return (assuming a hypothetical 10% level return of the fund), if the fund is held for five years. If held for 10 years, the impact of the sales charge falls to 0.59% annually. If held for 15 years, the impact falls to 0.43%. But, here’s the rub – according to the Investment Company Institute the average holding period for stock mutual funds is only four years, and for bond mutual funds only three years. With these average holding periods a 5.75% sales charge translates into an annual fee well above 1.2% a year.
In addition, the application of Modern Portfolio Theory often leads to the need to rebalance a client’s investment portfolio. And, if the financial advisor just deals with mutual fund A share classes, it may very well occur that the advisor would recommend that some of the shares of a fund purchased by a client just a few months or few years before would need to be sold for rebalancing purposes. In essence, commission-based compensation is inconsistent with the application of Modern Portfolio Theory.
Some financial advisors will still argue that breakpoint discounts on mutual fund A share class commissions will significantly lower the commissions paid. Yet, in hundreds and hundreds of investment portfolios I’ve reviewed, implemented by brokers, nearly 90% of them appeared to be structured to avoid breakpoint discounts by spreading out investments among funds from different fund companies. Under a fiduciary standard the level of scrutiny intensifies, and it would be hard for brokers to justify such a practice given the prudent investor rule’s duty to avoid the waste of client assets. Financial advisors who operate under a fiduciary standard will have to justify any action that negates breakpoint discounts; given the existence of the conflict of interest in connection with breakpoint discounts, the burden of proof and persuasion falls upon the financial advisor, not the client. Subjective “good faith” is insufficient to meet this burden, as the actions of the financial advisor are judged under an objective standard.
Lastly, the comparison of “sales commission” to “1% annual fee” is often comparing apples to oranges. When a mutual fund A share class is sold, the broker has no duty to continue to monitor the portfolio. (However, several courts have found that, in situations when trailing compensation exists and continued advice is provided to the investor, fiduciary status existed under state common law, which included an ongoing duty.) In contrast, investment advisors who charge 1% annual fees often provide a large amount of ongoing financial planning and investment advice. And, of course, many investment advisors charge less than 1%, particularly on larger accounts.
Relying on 12b-1 fees? Don’t!
In 2010 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held hearings on whether 12b-1 fees should be continued. While no action was taken by the SEC at that time, since then various SEC officials have indicated that 12b-1 fees remain under review.
Even before the enactment of Rule 12b-1 the SEC had generally opposed the use of fund assets for the purpose of financing the distribution of mutual fund shares, noting that "existing shareholders of a fund often derive little or no benefit from the sale of new shares." Given the substantial evidence that investors fail to understand 12b-1 fees, their uncompetitive nature (as they generally cannot be negotiated), and the indefinite continuation of 12b-1 fees in many instances even if the client no longer desires ongoing investment advice, it is likely that 12b-1 fees will be repealed at some future date.
The DOL’s Impartial Conduct Standards set forth the existing requirement that the both the firm and advisor receive no more than “reasonable compensation.” As a result of this standard, firms will likely benchmark their services and fees against those of other firms in order to ensure that the total fees paid by the client to the firm are not excessive. Yet, as Tim Hauser, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Operations of EBSA at the DOL, explained at a conference in the Fall of 2016, it is very difficult for a plaintiff’s attorney or an agency to prevail on allegations of unreasonable compensation. The courts generally defer to the parties to negotiate fees, provided the negotiation occurs in an arms’-length bargaining and not as a result of self-dealing by a fiduciary, in order that courts not get involved in rate-setting.
Under B.I.C.E. the firm may receive additional compensation from the recommendation of particular products, but the firm must adopt policies and procedures to ensure that individual advisors do not receive differential compensation, bonuses, or awards “to the extent they are intended to or would reasonably be expected to cause Advisers to make recommendations that are not in the Best Interest of the Retirement Investor.” In other words, while firms can receive additional compensation for the recommendation of certain products, the advisor must not receive any portion of such additional compensation. The distinction between compensation received by the firm, versus those received by the advisor, results in a significant disconnect between the interests of the firm and the interests of the advisor.
It is possible under B.I.C.E. to pay advisors additional compensation when a more complex product, that requires additional time to explain, is provided to a client. But plaintiff’s attorneys will likely question advisors on the additional time spent to understand more complex products (which time, in theory, would be allocated among many clients), and to explain the more complex product to a specific client. These plaintiff’s attorneys will likely assert that the amount of additional compensation provided to the advisor could easily become an improper incentive to the advisor under B.I.C.E., given the relatively small amount of additional time spent by the advisor with each individual client.
Where financial products are recommended, due to the vast asymmetry of information between a financial firm and its clients, incentives exist for the firm to pass off low-quality goods as higher-quality ones. Over time, such economic incentives tend to distort a fiduciary’s judgment, as has often been recognized by the courts.
B.I.C.E. effectively limits the ability of individual advisors to receive additional compensation. But under B.I.C.E. firms will still possess the economic incentive to encourage their advisors to promote to clients investment products that pay the firm (but not the advisor) additional compensation. Advisors working in firms that utilize B.I.C.E. must confront the substantial likelihood that their own interests will not align with those of their firms.
The single most important asset a financial advisor possesses is her or his personal reputation. Damage to the advisor’s reputation is the greatest risk individual advisors face today. Such risk is realized should client complaints, usually triggered by the presence of conflicts of interest, lead to resolutions that mandate disclosures of settlements or arbitration awards to current clients of the advisor as well as to future potential clients.
Yet, for the larger financial services firm, reputational risk is far less consequential. Those firms can more easily mask transgressions via nondisclosure agreements with claimants during settlements, mandatory arbitration of individual claims and voluminous documents that are seldom read by clients. Moreover, a firm’s reputation is more easily repaired via marketing and promotion, explaining away past transgressions as due to “rogue advisors” who are no longer with the firm, and the inevitable passage of time that dims consumer’s memories.
Although much research has revealed the ineffectiveness of disclosures due to various behavioral biases consumers possess, fiduciary duties generally impose the burden upon individual advisors to ensure that their clients understand when a conflict of interest is present, as well as understand the consequences of such conflict of interest. Hence, advisors who practice under B.I.C.E. will be confronted with an affirmative duty to ensure client understanding of disclosures that are both voluminous and onerous.
In the competition for clients, firms that use fee-based accounts will possess a huge marketing advantage over firms that utilize B.I.C.E.
Over the next several years many advisors will see a lot of “money in motion.” Triggered by changing fee and compensation structures, enhanced disclosures and the consumer press, clients will increasingly review their relationship with their current advisor and seek out second opinions.
As the distinctions between firms that utilize B.I.C.E. and those that don’t become known, the consumer press will steer their readers to firms that don’t use B.I.C.E. for IRA accounts. Additionally, savvy fee-only firms already provide questionnaires and checklists for prospective clients to utilize when shopping for new advisors. These questionnaires highlight the benefits of compensation structures that are more aligned with client interests.
As studies have demonstrated, the vast majority of consumers prefer fee-based compensation over commissions. Over the past two decades, more and more accounts have transitioned from commission-based to fee-based in reaction to consumer preferences. The DOL’s COI rule only accelerates this trend; fee-based accounts will rise from perhaps 40% of accounts today to 60% or greater within a short time.
In other nations, such as Australia, New Zealand, and England, regulation has progressed much further, in that commissions paid to financial advisors for investment management services are largely banned. While these developments have not yet reached U.S. shores, they are an indication of future policy changes that may occur.
More important, however, will be the adverse result of firms using B.I.C.E. Some firms may see the increased cost of doing business under B.I.C.E. – primarily in the form of increased litigation costs – as just a “cost of doing business.” As abuses take place, the DOL may well re-evaluate whether B.I.C.E. is an effective solution. Should the courts set aside the DOL’s prohibition on the inclusion of clauses in client agreements that negate the ability of the client to participate in class actions, the DOL may become more concerned that B.I.C.E.’s remaining enforcement mechanisms are insufficient to deter bad conduct. As a result, a future administration may seek to sunset B.I.C.E. and require all financial advisors to utilize level-fee compensation methods.
Finally, the most compelling reason to embrace “level-fee” compensation and to avoid B.I.C.E. is simply this – to serve the client in the best manner possible. Firms that embrace level fees, and eschew the receipt of product-based compensation, will truly act as representatives of the client.
Larger firms will use the collective purchasing power of their advisors and clients to squeeze asset manager’s compensation, in order to boost the returns their clients enjoy. These firms may also require annuity and other product manufacturers to create better and more transparent products.
As a result, products will compete – not on the basis of the amount of revenue sharing provided to the product’s distributors – but rather on the basis of each product’s individual merits. The real impact of the DOL’s Conflict of Interest Rule and its exemptions will be upon asset managers. Some financial advisors merely need to adjust the manner by which they receive their compensation.
In conclusion, here is my message to financial advisors (i.e., dual registrants and registered representatives): B.I.C.E. is a minefield that will generate a huge number of explosions. Don’t be around when the minefield starts to erupt. Rather, avoid B.I.C.E. and use a level-fee methodology. It’s the right thing to do – for the firm, its clients and especially for you, the financial advisor.
Ron A. Rhoades, JD, CFP® serves as director of the financial planning program for Western Kentucky University’s Gordon Ford College of Business. He is an assistant professor – finance, an attorney, an investment advisor and a frequent writer on the fiduciary standard as applied to financial services. A frequent speaker at national and regional conferences, he also serves as a consultant to firms on the application of the DOL Conflict of Interest Rules, fiduciary law and related issues. This article represents his views only, and not those of any institution, firm or organization with whom he may be associated. This article is believed to be correct at the time it is written; subsequent laws, regulations, and/or developments regarding the interpretation or enforcement of ERISA, the I.R.C., and DOL regulations should be consulted. Please direct all questions and requests via email: [email protected].
“The phrase ‘without regard to’ is a concise expression of ERISA’s duty of loyalty, as expressed in section 404(a)(1)(A) of ERISA and applied in the context of advice.” 81 Fed.Reg. 21,026 (April 8, 2016).
81 Fed.Reg. 21,027 (April 8, 2016).
“Section II(f)(1) prohibits all exculpatory provisions disclaiming or otherwise limiting liability of the Adviser or Financial Institution for a violation of the [B.I.C.E.] contract's terms, and Section II(g)(5) prohibits Financial Institutions and Adviser from purporting to disclaim any responsibility or liability for any responsibility, obligation, or duty under Title I of ERISA to the extent the disclaimer would be prohibited by Section 410 of ERISA.” 81 Fed.Reg. 21,042 (April 8, 2016).
“[A] Financial Institution and Adviser act in the Best Interest of a Retirement Investor when they provide investment advice ‘that reflects the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims, based on the investment objectives, risk tolerance, financial circumstances, and needs of the Retirement Investor, without regard to the financial or other interests of the Adviser, Financial Institution or any Affiliate, Related Entity, or other party.’” 81 Fed.Reg. 21,053 (April 8, 2016).
Restatement (Third) of Trusts § 90 cmt. f(1), at 308; see id. § 88 cmt. a, at 256 (trustee has “a duty to be cost-conscious”).
Restatement (Third) of Trusts § 90 cmt. m, at 332.
Uniform Prudent Investor Act § 7 & cmt., 7B U.L.A. 37 (2006).
While the U.S. Department of Labor does not possess the ability to impose fiduciary standards on non-ERISA, non-IRA accounts, prudent investor rule experts Max M. Schanzenbach and Robert H. Sitkoff rightfully conclude that “proper diversification requires an assessment of the portfolio as a whole, including the other assets of the investor.” Schanzenbach, Max M. and Sitkoff, Robert H., Financial Adviser Can't Overlook the Prudent Investor Rule (August 1, 2016). Journal of Financial Planning (August 2016).
Schanzenbach, Max M. and Sitkoff, Robert H., Fiduciary Financial AdviserAdvisors and the Incoherence of a 'High-Quality Low-Fee' Safe Harbor (September 16, 2015). Northwestern Law & Econ Research Paper No. 15-18. Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2661833, citing see Restatement (Third) of Trusts § 78 cmt. c(2); Jesse Dukeminier & Robert H. Sitkoff, Wills, Trusts, and Estates 591, 593 (9th ed. 2013).
See Restatement (Third) of Trusts § 37 cmt. f(1); see also Dukeminier & Sitkoff, supra note 9, at 593.
81 Fed. Reg. 21,036 (Apr. 8, 2016).
81 Fed. Reg. 21,027 (Apr. 8, 2016). However, “[d]ifferential compensation between categories of investments could be permissible as long as the compensation structure and lines between categories were drawn based on neutral factors that were not tied to the Financial Institution’s own conflicts of interest, such as the time or complexity of the advisory work, rather than on promoting sales of the most lucrative products.” Id. at 21,037.
81 Fed. Reg. 21,028 (Apr. 8, 2016).
See Bearing of Distribution Expenses by Mutual Funds: Statutory Interpretation, Investment Company Act Release No. 9915 (Aug. 31, 1977) [42 FR 44810 (Sept. 7, 1977)] (quoting SEC, Future Structure of the Securities Markets (Feb. 2, 1972) [37 FR 5286 (Mar. 14, 1972)]).
81 Fed. Reg. 21,007 (Apr. 8, 2016). As stated by the DOL, “ERISA section 408(b)(2) and Code section 4975(d)(2) require that services arrangements involving plans and IRAs result in no more than reasonable compensation to the service provider. Accordingly, Advisors and Financial Institutions – as service providers – have long been subject to this requirement, regardless of their fiduciary status.” Id. at 21,029.
“[T]he standard simply requires that compensation not be excessive, as measured by the market value of the particular services, rights, and benefits the Advisor and Financial Institution are delivering to the Retirement Investor.” 81 Fed. Reg. 21,029 (Apr. 8, 2016).
Paraphrasing Tim Hauser, speaking with the author during a session entitled “Deconstructing the DOL Fiduciary Rule,” where both Tim Hauser and the author were panelists, at the Financial Planning Association’s BE Conference, September 16, 2016.
See, e.g. Brock v. Robbins, 830 F.2d 640 (7th Cir. 1987).
81 Fed. Reg. 21, 033 (Apr. 8, 2016). Under B.I.C.E. both the firm and the advisor possess a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the client. While the fiduciary duty of the advisor to the firm still exists, the duty to the client is paramount. In other words, there is an “ordering” of the fiduciary duties, and any duty of loyalty owed by the advisor to the advisor’s firm is subservient to the primary duty of loyalty owed to the client.
See, e.g., Akerlof, George, "The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism" (1970).
Michoud v. Girod, 45 U.S. 503 555 (1846). The U.S. Supreme Court also stated in that decision: “if persons having a confidential character were permitted to avail themselves of any knowledge acquired in that capacity, they might be induced to conceal their information and not to exercise it for the benefit of the persons relying upon their integrity. The characters are inconsistent. Emptor emit quam minimo potest, venditor vendit quam maximo potest.” [The buyer buys for as little as possible; the vendor sells for as much as possible.] Id. at 554.
Tisdale v. Tisdale, 2 Sneed 596 (Tenn. 1855).
Study on Investment Adviser and Broker-Dealers (As Required by Section 913 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, by the Staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Jan. 2011).
The election of Donald Trump means that finance will get a new wave of deregulation that will (almost certainly) sweep away the DOL fiduciary rule. The watchword for RIAs in this new world: re-differentiation. But let’s first review how we got to this new world.
The challenge for fiduciaries is daunting. Tens of thousands of new fiduciary brokers will soon fly the fiduciary flag, as Merrill tells the country that the thundering herd will give all its customers – retirement and nonretirement accounts alike – ‘best interest’ treatment. The implications of these developments have barely been discussed in the advisory industry.
One exception. Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger took the bull by the horns at its 2016 IMPACT conference (in October). His message: fiduciaries must differentiate what they do. The great challenge is “To re-differentiate ourselves” from those “Wanting to look and act and to appear” to be like us. Merrill’s branding serves as a keen reminder of the relevance of Bettinger’s message.
The November presidential election has clear consequences for the DOL rule. “Historic” October was then overshadowed by the election. Advisors to the president-elect openly say they wish to repeal the rule. Though a rule repeal is neither quick nor easy, a number of possible tactics can be applied to postpone, undermine or eventually repeal the rule. The DOL rule is now on life support.
Meanwhile, BDs are preparing for the DOL rule. New platforms, policies and procedures are under construction in c-suites around the country. Some are transforming the fee-based best interest world. Others will keep commissions. These changes are significant and costly. The central question is how firms will implement these policies absent the DOL rule. The answer is unclear. There is no certainty as to implementation.
There is, however, much “certainty” that, irrespective regulations, firms will communicate their fidelity to customers’ best interests. Merrill has already started. Minor edits to its current communications on the DOL rule will suffice to meet its branding objectives in a world without the DOL rule.
For 20 years fiduciary advisors, regulators and researchers have documented, discussed and bemoaned how investors don’t understand that brokerage sales and product recommendations differ from fiduciary advice. From this perspective, confusion has defined the fiduciary discussion. Is it possible investor confusion could get worse?
With the elimination or dilution of the DOL rule and BICE (and deregulatory winds preventing SEC fiduciary rulemaking), industry voices will reach further. Some voices will be responsible. However, other influential voices will simply suggest fidelity to stringent standards, but lack sufficient policies and procedures to truly implement them. SIFMA and FINRA will communicate their concept of ‘best interest.’ Yet prior writings suggest their idea of ‘best interest’ simply does not comport with common law or trust law standards.
This lesson drives the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard’s Best Practices, which are crafted to raise standards and understanding of what fiduciaries do. The Best Practices affirmation program lets advisors show investors how fiduciary conduct differs from brokerage sales practices. Industry research suggests that the impact of following these practices can be more than clarifying what advice means. It suggests these practices can increase client trust and enhance advisor /client relationships.
“Re-differentiation” should be the ‘best practice’ of any advisor in the DOL/post-DOL fiduciary world that lies ahead.
The fate of the Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rules is clouded in uncertainty because of the presidential election win by Donald Trump. The new rules will become applicable — or as a practical matter, effective — on April 10, 2017. However, Mr. Trump will become President on January 20, 2017, and there are many who believe that the incoming administration will repeal, modify or delay the new rules. Without a clear statement from Mr. Trump, most industry professionals advise the regulated community to proceed as if the rule will apply as originally expected on April 10. But are there ways to minimize certain compliance costs under the Best Interest Contract (BIC) exemption while the uncertainty is sorted out?
The short answer is yes. Fortunately, the DOL staggered the applicability dates of many of the more onerous provisions of the BIC exemption in the final rules. The more cumbersome requirements are not applicable until January 1, 2018. Consequently, investment fiduciaries could focus their compliance efforts on the April requirements and defer compliance with the others until April when more may be known about the fate of the rules and who will lead the Employee Benefits Security Administration.
Best Interest Standard - The financial institution and advisor must act in the best interest of the plan, participant or investor.
Reasonable Compensation - The financial institution, its affiliates and the advisor must receive no more than reasonable compensation.
No Misleading Statements - The financial institution and the advisor must not make any materially misleading statements.
Abbreviated Disclosures – The financial institution must furnish certain abbreviated transition period disclosures . Notably, a written contract that may otherwise be required is not needed during the transition period.
BIC Exemption Officer - The financial institution must designate a BIC exemption compliance officer.
Records and Access - The financial institution must maintain records that enable a determination that the conditions of the exemption have been met, and such records must be reasonably available for examination by the DOL, IRS, plan fiduciaries, participants and certain other parties.
Full Disclosures and Contracts - All BIC exemption disclosures must be furnished and the written contract requirements (in the case of IRAs and other non-ERISA plans) must be satisfied, including the required warranties.
Web Disclosures - In addition to the disclosure and written contract requirements noted directly above, the financial institution must make certain additional web and transaction-based disclosures are published.
Policies and Procedures - The financial institution must have certain documentation, and written policies and procedures in place.
DOL Notice - The financial institution must notify the DOL of its intent to rely on the BIC exemption prior to receiving compensation.
As noted above, the January 1, 2018 requirements are among the most complex and potentially costly to implement. The additional time to comply originally provided by the DOL gives financial institutions the opportunity to prioritize their compliance efforts.
The Department of Labor's new fiduciary rule has inspired plenty of doom-and-gloom predictions from critics who warn that industry profits will suffer and small investors will lose their access to financial advice.
But for RIAs, it’s becoming clear the new rules may actually present significant growth opportunities.
When the new rule takes effect next April, the DoL will extend to IRAs the kind of best interest protections that have long governed 401(k)s and other workplace-sponsored retirement plans. The new rule also makes advice about rolling workplace retirement assets into an IRA as investment advice subject to best interest protections.
• Recent regulatory changes favor RIAs.
Fee-disclosure regulations finalized in 2012, combined with the new DoL conflicts rule, strengthen the wind in the sails of RIAs looking to compete in a $5 trillion marketplace, while creating a higher hurdle for commissioned brokers to advise retirement plans.
• RIAs can attract a greater share of 401(k) plan business.
We believe there is enormous, untapped opportunity for RIAs to advise 401(k) and other workplace retirement plans. Fewer than 10% of RIAs are actively involved in the retirement plan space, according to Cerulli & Associates. When you consider that some plans have tens of millions of dollars, with new money coming in with every paycheck, what’s not to like?
• RIAs can capture more IRA rollovers from 401(k) clients.
The DoL rule not only provides a clearer path for advising retirement plans, but also for advising employees on how to roll assets into IRAs managed by your firm when they leave an employer. If you can justify and document why a rollover is in their best interest, you have a better chance of providing a long-term experience for that client.
• Advisers can gain other business from plan participants.
If an RIA advises the workplace plan of an employee, and is able to retain that relationship when the individual leaves the employer, that RIA has a greater opportunity to discuss and, possibly, oversee assets outside the retirement account.
• Deeper relationships create a competitive advantage.
By developing a broader, more holistic relationship with retirement plan participants, RIAs can create a moat around the client that competitors will find more challenging to break through.
There are also potential challenges for RIAs, however.
Many commissioned brokers, for example, likely will continue serving retirement investors through a best interest contract exemption established under the new DoL rule. Discretionary RIAs have no need for such an exemption, but that important distinction may be lost on most investors.
IRA rollovers, meanwhile, will require some more work.
Before advising a retiree to roll over a 401(k) plan to an IRA account their firm would manage, RIAs will need to compare the investor’s current fund lineup, costs, services and other factors with their own offerings and then determine whether a rollover is truly in the investor’s best interest. And they must fully document that assessment.
• RIAs can be the better choice for the retirement investor.
Compared with the typical workplace plan, RIAs can offer more education and investment services. They also tend to offer access to a wider menu of funds through their custodian.
• More talent and clients shifting to the RIA channel.
RIAs may also benefit from increased movement of broker teams to the RIA world. There have been reports the new DoL rule is prompting more commissioned brokers to break away from their firms to become independent RIAs, creating an opportunity for RIA firms to grow by acquiring firms or tucking in breakaways.
By the same token, smaller RIA firms buckling under the weight of regulation may decide to sell. These firms can become acquisition targets that help other RIAs grow.
Ultimately, the DoL is trying to do the right thing by mandating stronger protections for the millions of Americans responsible for managing their own retirement savings outside the workplace protections of ERISA.
And that’s why I believe that over time, the DoL rule can spell opportunity for RIAs, a group of professionals that have been putting their clients’ interests first for decades under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
The Conflict of Interest Rule (Rule) promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor on April 8, 2016, pertains to only one "kind" of the three kinds of fiduciaries described in section 3(21) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which can be thought of as "Fiduciary Central." That one kind of fiduciary--an ERISA section 3(21)(A)(ii) fiduciary--is a non-discretionary advice-giver.
All three elements described in section 3(21)(A)(ii)--1) a fiduciary 2) that renders (non-discretionary) investment advice 3) for compensation--must be present in order for the Rule to apply to an advisor communicating with a plan participant or an IRA owner.
The Rule broadens the class of entities--which it defines as "Financial Institutions"--that will bear the "fiduciary" moniker come April 10. These include registered investment advisors, broker/dealers, banks, and insurance companies. This definition also includes any employees, contractors, agents, representatives, affiliates, or related entities of a given Financial Institution.
The Rule also broadens the definition of "investment advice." More precisely, "retirement investment advice" that's rendered to 1) participants in ERISA plans such as 401(k) plans, profit-sharing plans, money purchase pension plans, and defined benefit plans, as well as 2) owners of IRAs and participants in non-ERISA plans. Note that the Rule does not pertain to investment advice rendered to those investing in taxable accounts and non-retirement accounts. That retail environment remains within the purview of the SEC.
Determining whether an advisor has rendered "retirement investment advice" in a given situation requires posing a threshold question: Has the advisor made a "recommendation" as defined by the Rule? If there's no recommendation, then there's no investment advice, and since, as noted, investment advice is one of the three elements of ERISA section 3(21)(A)(ii), an advisor's communication will not make it a fiduciary subject to the Rule.
So how does the Rule define a "recommendation"?
4. Whether, in what amount, in what form, or to what destination a rollover, transfer, or distribution from a plan or IRA should be made.
Note that the test of whether a particular communication rises to the level of a "recommendation" is whether a reasonable person--not the recipient of the advice--will view the communication as being a recommendation.
The more individually tailored the communication is to the specific recipient of the advice, the more likely it will be judged to be a recommendation.
A series of actions may comprise a recommendation in the aggregate; it's possible, though, that if viewed individually, they would not.
It doesn't matter if a communication is initiated by a human being or a computer software program such as a robo-advisor.
An advisor's "hire me" communication in a marketing scenario will not be deemed a recommendation; that's true, though, if an advisor describes only its services and fees. If the advisor adds to that description by, for example, suggesting to an IRA owner that a particular product, investment, or platform should be used, then that leaves the realm of a "hire me" communication and enters that of a recommendation.
An advisor's suggestion to select other persons to provide advice is a recommendation.
3. By directing investment advice to a specific advice recipient(s) about the advisability of a particular investment decision or recommendation.
> Any fee or compensation received from any source in connection with, or as a result of, the recommended purchase or sale of a security or the provision of investment advice services.
Examples of fees or compensation include--but are not limited to--commissions, loads, finder's fees, revenue-sharing payments, shareholder servicing fees, marketing or distribution fees, underwriting compensation, payments to brokerage firms in return for shelf space, recruitment compensation paid in connection with transfers of accounts to a registered representative's new broker-dealer firm, gifts and gratuities, and expense reimbursements.
A fee or compensation is paid "in connection with, or as a result of" investment advice if the fee or compensation would not have been paid but for the recommended transaction or advisory service, or if eligibility for, or the amount of, the fee or compensation is based in whole or in part on the transaction or service.
Is any one of four different kinds of communication deemed a "recommendation?" If not, an advisor is not subject to the Rule.
If so, is the recommendation delivered by the advisor in one of three different contexts? If not, an advisor is not subject to the Rule.
If so, is the recommendation deemed "investment advice?" If not, an advisor is not subject to the Rule.
If so, is the investment advice rendered in exchange for "a fee or other compensation?" If not, an advisor is not subject to the Rule.
If so, "fiduciary" status is conferred on the advisor.
Wait, not so fast. If the recommendation is a safe harbor exception/exclusion designated in the Rule, it's not considered investment advice. And if there's no investment advice, one of the three elements of ERISA section 3(21)(A)(ii) is lacking. In that case, the Rule will not apply to an advisor. | 2019-04-18T22:50:37Z | http://retirementsolutionsnow.com/advisornews-february-2017.html |
The words “oath” and “covenant” from D&C 84:39 are clearly drawn from Hebrews, as any one in Joseph’s time would have recognized.
Note that God made oath and covenant, that it’s His (D&C 84:40). Not actually a covenant we make with God! This is one sided when it is made, and then we are told/asked to receive it.
D&C 132:22-25 are very worth looking at, as well as JST Genesis 14!
The language of confirmed is related to oaths and covenants in Bible.
Where else does “oath and covenant” come up together, as a phrase? In the Book of Mormon! But it always means oaths and covenants of robbers, bad secret society. Is the priesthood meant to be thought of as the “good” secret society? The one that counters the bad?
The consequence for breaking an oath or covenant in a bad secret society is usually death! Severe consequence. D&C 84:41 is also severe.
The good secret society. It is a fundamental change in how we relate to other people. [Tangent here about how even when we as Latter-day Saints don’t understand all that this gospel is or how deep and wonderful the covenants are, there is still a change in how we relate to others. There are all sorts of “fringe benefits”that come even from the watered-down version of things. And the real vision is still buried in there, still being carried along by the church members even though we don’t realize it.
“According to” usually means we’re referring to something just talked about, or to something clearly established. This “accords” with that previous thing.
Some sort of “everlasting covenant” talked about in stories of David and others but Hebrews might be only place in NT (Heb 13:20).
Similar to 1 Ne 13 – took plain and precious from gospel, even many covenants. Then took from book.
b/c everlasting covenant from JST Gen 14 = godhood, this makes sense.
covenant is received, as we emphasized earlier. Given by God, oath made by God. Receive covenant, receive oath, over and over. Alma 13, God ordains. God calls. D&C 84:40, D&C 66: , D&C 132:27.
Receive everlasting covenant, not obey everlasting covenant.
Joseph Smith’s creativity with everything (laws on polygamy, etc.) may reflect his position of receiving this higher law and power, like Nephi (in Helaman), Enoch, etc. They had power to move rivers, mountains, create famines, etc.
Are storehouses more Melchizedek or Aaronic?
We’re looking at D&C 68 on our Dews From Heaven blog so I’m thinking more about storehouses, bishops, and high priests. I don’t have many answers or insights yet. In fact, I’m just beginning to ask questions!
My initial question is: What is the connection between a bishop/agent and high priest like Melchizedek, who had the great powers of Enoch, and who taught the people, and who was appointed keeper of the storehouse? Melchizedek’s story (at least in JST Genesis 14) seems to connect his work of preaching and his work of receiving tithes, in that they are both necessary for a transformation of a city into a Zion. Why separate them in the latter-days?
I think the answer might come from the time of Moses.
The office of Bishop belongs to the Aaronic priesthood, and specifically to a literal descendant of Aaron. The Aaronic priesthood was given (or at least, was left) when the people refused the greater opportunities that Moses begged them to received. He worked diligently that his people might repent and behold God; in other words (perhaps): he wanted them to become Zion and be translated to God’s home. They refused that, but God left agents over the temple (the Levites). Is that a fair way to say it? The Aaronic priesthood takes care of the temple, but as I think about that, I remember how they received the sacrifices and tithing of the people in order to take care of the temple and themselves and keep a storehouse.
So perhaps the two roles I see Melchizedek having (teacher and storehouse) were divided into to priesthoods only at the time of Moses. And perhaps this was because the people needed to get the one down before they could get the other down (they needed to be able to tithe temporally before they could do and receive more?
It’s a sort of “lose your life to find it” logic. If you bring all the tithes to the storehouse, blessings will come. If I understand the D&C right, “all” tithes means anything that you have that is more than what you need. Bring everything you don’t need to the storehouse, and you will be blessed. Your lands will grow food well, there will be enough rain, etc. Give up what you don’t need first, then everything you need and more will be given to you.
Ok so back to Aaronic priesthood. Why is this an Aaronic duty (to receive and manage tithes)? At first I felt like Melchizedek was being replaced by a Bishop. But now I see how Melchizedek’s work could be divided into do kinds of work, and perhaps that’s just what happened with Moses and Aaron. How merciful that God didn’t just take the priesthood and covenant (or knowledge of the covenant, rather) away from the people altogether!
So what does it mean to say we have a Melchizedek priesthood? If I look at Melchizedek as someone who built a city, and we give the temporal work to the Bishop, then I guess what is left is teaching in such a way that people are ready to behold the face of God (see D&C 84). Is that fair? But Aaronic priesthood holders teach too. And women, of course. So it isn’t just that they teach. It could be that they have the responsibility to teach, such that if they do not, they are held accountable. It could be that they can perform the ordinances associated with beholding God. It could be… what? What else?
Sealer of heaven and earth, perhaps? And is he receiving that power right then? Or a declaration of what is already the case?
Delivered into his hands by miraculous means, such as those Enoch used?
Now I see how some have read this as Melchizedek giving Abraham goods out of the storehouse. Then Abraham says he won’t take anything from Sodom, because it was God (via Melchizedek) that made Abraham rich, not Sodom. Elsewhere we have it said that Abraham paid tithes, but it’s still an interesting reading. And Melchizedek does seem to have given Abraham goods from the storehouse in JST verse 40.
“The possessor of heaven and earth” is still such an intriguing phrase to me. Does this have any relation to the sealing power described in D&C 128 and elsewhere? The sealer of heaving and earth?
I’m interested on why on earth Alma talks about tithing in verse 15. Is it just to talk about how Abraham (a marker of time for the Nephites) relates to Melchizedek? Does the talk of Abraham paying tithes Melchizedek function something like the discussion in Hebrews 7:4, again setting up a relationship (“Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils”)? Is there actually a reason to bring it up, and even to define it (“yea, even our father Abraham paid tithes of one-tenth part of all he possessed”)? Some, trying to wrestle with verse 16, have wondered if tithing was an “ordinance” which was given after a “manner” so that people “looked forward on the Son of God,” and that somehow tithing was a part of the Holy Order of God? At first I would have ruled out the last one, but right now all of the above seem viable options!
One option I want to explore this morning is that there really is a reason to bring up tithing specifically, right here, because it may actually really have a connection to the priesthood discussion in this chapter.
In the following commentary, I’m going to be looking at both how the JST contains patterns and language similar to Alma 13, and how the details and themes of the JST might shed light on what is going on in Alma 13. The more similar the language and patterns are to Alma 13, the easier I think it will be to use the JST themes to elucidate Alma 13.
“And Melchizedek lifted up his voice and blessed Abram.
This follows our reading that the first step in the “manner” of ordination for Alma is to have faith and choose righteousness, which allows God to call you out for a special work. The language of “high priest after the order” is similar to Alma 13, but here we get connections to Enoch that aren’t in Alma 13. I find the connection to Enoch very significant. It was Enoch who taught a wicked people enough to get them to repent, build up a city, fend off all their enemies, and be translated into Heaven. Being a high priest specifically “after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch” sounds like language we shouldn’t pass over too lightly. What covenant was given to Enoch? And why is Melchizedek connected with that covenant? At the least, it sounds like this high priestly assignment is connected specifically with the work Enoch did: teach and build a city. (Which is what we’ll find out Melchizedek did.) I’d like to know more about this covenant as well, but for now, I want to focus on the basic connection between Enoch, a preacher and city-builder, and Melchizedek, a preacher and city-builder.
Alma 13 discusses “order” a dozen times, and Alma also clarifies that this order of the priesthood is really “after the order of His Son” (see verses 1, 2, 7, 9, and 16). Alma also clarifies that we should see the priesthood as ordained from the foundation of the world (perhaps) rather than a person being ordained from the foundation of the world (see verse 8: “which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end—”).
And it was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name.
To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world.
Nevertheless, in all ages of the world, whenever the Lord has given a dispensation of the priesthood to any man by actual revelation, or any set of men, this power has always been given. Hence, whatsoever those men did in authority, in the name of the Lord, and did it truly and faithfully, and kept a proper and faithful record of the same, it became a law on earth and in heaven, and could not be annulled, according to the decrees of the great Jehovah. This is a faithful saying. Who can hear it?
The sealing power isn’t just sealing generations: it’s when a person on earth can declare something, and it is honored in heaven without any chance of it being annulled by man, mistake, time, etc. (Only another such declaration could change it.) It is a power that seals what is said on earth; or, it seals actions on earth and heaven; or, it approves words/actions in such a way that they have a seal or approval; or, as D&C 128 put it, “a power which records or binds on earth and binds in heaven.” Applying that to families is intensely powerful: someone on earth can declare this or that child to be a part of the Abrahamic Covenent, even if they weren’t literally born as such, and that declaration is honored in heaven!
Anyway, lots to think about. But there may be reasons to just keep in mind that the JST describes Melchizedek as having these powers.
It’s certainly possible to read “entered into the rest of the Lord their God” of Alma 13:12 as equivalent to “translated and taken up into heaven.” But for now, I want to focus on how each passage describes the timing of the event, whether or not the events are the same thing. Both Alma 13 and this JST passage describe something happening as a result of their ordination, or, along with their ordination. I think Kim is right that the experience of being washed clean and entering into God’s rest in Alma 13:11-12 isn’t the same exact thing or at the same exact time as the priest’s ordination to this order of the priesthood. Similarly, I don’t get the sense that this JST passage is suggesting that all three elements of this sentence happened at the same time (faith, coming to this order, and translation). There seems to me to be a progression and sense of the passing of time. Men, over time, showed their faith. Then, they came to this order — that use of the word “coming” implies some amount of time, it seems. And then, after those things, at some point they were translated and taken to heaven. It seems like it would be impossible for these three things to happen simultaneously, since the point of being ordained a priest, especially with all those powers we’ve read about, is to do things on earth! To teach, to preach repentance, to build a city, to defend it miraculously, and to become a Prince of Peace.
But Melchizedek having exercised mighty faith, and received the office of the high priesthood according to the holy order of God, did preach repentance unto his people. And behold, they did repent; and Melchizedek did establish peace in the land in his days; therefore he was called the prince of peace, for he was the king of Salem; and he did reign under his father.
These two seem remarkably similar. Again I’m not taking guesses as to what Alma had on his brass plates, but I do want to note that they have at least 4 points in common: priest/priesthood of/according to this/the (holy) order, obtained/established peace, called the Prince of peace/called the price of peace, people wrought righteousness/they did repent. And if we add in the JST verse just previously analyzed, we have a fifth point: men having faith/having exercised mighty faith.
And hath said, and sworn with an oath, that the heavens and the earth should come together; and the sons of God should be tried so as by fire.
This seems to be part of the covenant, given to Enoch: that the heavens and the earth should come together — that is, I think, that his city would return to the earth when another Zion city was built here again?
And this Melchizedek, having thus established righteousness, was called the king of heaven by his people, or, in other words, the King of peace.
Him whom God had appointed to receive tithes for the poor.
Wherefore, Abram paid unto him tithes of all that he had, of all the riches which he possessed, which God had given him more than that which he had need.
And now finally we get back to tithing, and see why this might actually shed light on why tithing is in Alma 13. If Melchizedek is building a Zion city, it would make sense that he would find a way to have no poor, like Enoch did. Melchizedek was a high priest and keeper of the storehouse. That signals he was not just any high priest, but a high priest like Enoch was, one who was also building a city. When Abraham pays tithes he is helping build that city, yet, strangely, he is not going to be a part of that city.
This distracts me to all sorts of questions I have about Abraham. Was he appointed to stay on earth, like Noah was after Enoch’s city left? (see Moses 7:42). Abraham is even compared to Noah in Abraham 1:19, though I’m not sure exactly what the connection is (“As it was with Noah so shall it be with thee.”) Was Abraham seeking to be someone who built up a city, but instead, was given the promise that he would be a father, rather than just a king? He will have lands for an “everlasting possession,” but his promised city is set in the future: “a strange land which I will give unto thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice” (Abr 2:6). In addition, his seed is assigned to teach the whole world in such a way that anyone and everyone can be a part of Abraham’s family (Abr. 2:9-11). While Abraham sought to be a “price of peace” (Abr. 1:2), he got (perhaps instead) the promise of being a father with a land that wouldn’t be a Zion city for many, many years.
It doesn’t specifically mention priesthood or appointments to any specific calling, but it does mention a covenant, and also a blessing given my Melchizedek. There’s definitely room for speculation anyhow.
But to finish this post off, at the least it seems to be that Abraham gets these things in return for his tithing. He tithes “Abram paid unto him tithes of all that he had … more than that which he had need.” Melchizedek is “the keeper of the storehouse,” and the one “God had appointed to receive tithes for the poor.” And in return, Melchizedek, “being the high priest, and the keeper of the storehouse of God,” “lifted up his voice, and he blessed Abram” with riches, honor, lands. It sounds more like consecration of Joseph Smith’s time: consecrate what you have, and you will be given a stewardship back!
And what does this have to do with Alma 13 and priesthood? I am fascinated that tithing, which at first appeared to have very little to do with the priesthood discussion in Alma 13, might be right at home here. A high priest such as Melchizedek doesn’t just teach the commandments, they are a price of peace. They establish a city. The receive tithes and distribute blessings. Whether or not verse 16 actually belongs where it is, I think that what is going on with Melchizedek and Abraham could actually be called “ordinances.” If I think of this meeting as not just a payment of tithes like we think of filling out a tithing slip, but rather, a moment of consecration where a stewardship is given, and this according to a blessing associated with a covenant, then yes I think I could call that an ordinance or an ordination! Even if Alma didn’t have what we know as the JST of Genesis 14, it might still be important to think of tithing as a moment of consecration, and that Melchizedek is the receiver as something that points out his role as high priest over a Zion city. | 2019-04-19T10:28:15Z | https://whatimthinkingabout.wordpress.com/tag/genesis-14/ |
Are kids suffering from neck pain too early?
What is manual lymphatic drainage and what can it do for you?
Is gluten to blame for your neuropathy?
Do you suffer from nerve pain, stinging, or burning sensations to feet, hands, both? Peripheral neuropathy, or neuropathy, can describe a wide range of disorders characterized by nerve damage to one or more nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord. Often the root cause of neuropathy is unknown, however the Mayo Clinic has been able to link autoimmune diseases and vitamin deficiencies as some of the potential causes.
In people with a gluten sensitivity, eating foods with gluten triggers an autoimmune response, much the same way that the antibodies attack viruses. This leads to intestinal damage and inhibits absorption of nutrients, leading to nutrient deficiencies. According to the Center for Peripheral Neuropathy, gastrointestinal symptoms like an upset stomach, may signify that neurological damage has already been done.
Gluten Free Society calls gluten a "potential neurotoxin". This seems fitting considering that gluten damage can lead to numbness in the hands and feet, as well as dizziness, loss of balance, tremors, and trouble judging distances, and many more symptoms. Gluten neuropathy is when the autoimmune response is the root cause of the nerve damage.
One study published in the Muscle and Nerve journal (December 2006) found that participants with neuropathy who followed a gluten-fee diet, showed significant improvement in symptoms after one year. The control group had worsening symptoms.
But no need to wait one year to see results. Usually, improvements can be felt as soon as 1 week when going on a strict gluten-free regimen. In my practice, I have discussed possibilities of gluten allergies and sensitivities with clients, especially with those that have chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, and cases of neuropathy. They have given positive feedback and saw reduction in their symptoms after eliminating gluten in their diets!
If you suspect that you have any gluten intolerance, the gentlest way to figure it out is by dietary therapy. Avoid all gluten for 2-4 weeks and keep a food journal, documenting everything that goes in your mouth, your symptoms/reactions for each day. After a few weeks, slowly re-introduce it and observe any reactions. Gluten intolerance DOES NOT respond to simple allergy tests like milk or nuts. Abstinence is key!
Peppermint - it's more than just a holiday treat.
During this holiday season, candy canes and peppermints abound! More than just a holiday decoration or tradition, however, peppermint has many wonderful natural healing properties.
Peppermint can help with migraines, boost memory and concentration, relieve inflammation, and aid in digestion. Personally, I use peppermint very often in my practice for keeping the sinuses open, uplifting the mood, and taming headaches.
The antispasmodic properties of peppermint have also been confirmed in clinical trials.
Peppermint is one of the most effective oils of the digestive system. The German Commission E Monographs recommends peppermint oil for obstructions of the bile ducts, gall bladder inflammations and severe liver damage.
Jean Valnet, MD studied peppermint's supportive effect on the liver and respiratory systems. Peppermint helps the circulation as well. More uses for this oil include the treatment of indigestion, flu, catarrh, headaches, toothache, and rheumatism.
Be happy and healthy with peppermint this holiday season!
Regardless of whether your pain is acute or chronic, there are general treatment principles that you can apply to help ease the pain and swelling related to an injury or illness. These approaches are commonly referred to as RICHES - rest, ice, compression, heat, elevation, support. Severe sprains or other injuries should be evaluated by a physician, especially if symptoms worsen.
REST is a period of time in which little to no movement is allowed. This allows your body to heal and repair the injured tissues. During this time, you should also assess pain levels and even take notes to monitor your progress. Once you feel improvement, slowly resume activity. Most minor injuries heal in 1-2 weeks.
ICE is particularly recommended for injuries to the musculoskeletal system. It is a tried and true anti-inflammatory! Typically, a cold treatment should last 10-20 minutes and repeated every hour. Keep in mind that prolonged use of ice treatments may cause damage.
COMPRESSION to an injured area can help prevent swelling. One common form of compression is an ACE bandage applied to the injured area. Make sure it is not too tight, and seek approval from a medical professional.
HEAT may be used for an injury and can help relieve tightness and spasm. Make sure that at least 72 hours as passed post-injury before beginning heat treatments. Applying heat too early in the recovery phase may actually make an injury worse.
-during acute phase of healing.
-if there are any signs of infection (i.e. redness, heat, swelling).
-if you are prone to blood clots or have high blood pressure.
-against the advice of a physician.
ELEVATION of the injured body part above the heart can help decrease swelling, and allows gravity to assist moving fluids back towards the heart.
SUPPORT and protection of the area is critical. It may be necessary to wear protective splints or braces if injury requires.
A good rule of thumb to follow is "When in doubt, use ICE." Within the first 72 hours of an injury, ice is the most effective in relieving pain and swelling.
Remember, always pay attention to your body and its pain signals! If ice is not helping to relieve your painful muscle spasms, switch to heat, preferably a moist heat source. One easy trick is to place moist washcloths in the microwave for a couple minutes and use as local spot treatments. Careful, they may be very hot at first. Moist heat penetrates the muscles easier without dehydrating them! If you choose to utilize heating pads as your heat source, do not use more than 15- 20 minutes at a time, doing so will only cause a reverse reaction. It is very easy to overdo this approach. Monitor your time and try again every hour if needed.
Hope some of these tips help you decide on your next RICHES approach.
This month's issue of Health Magazine has at least 11 advertisements for prescription drugs...11! You can see commercials on the television for prescription drugs every 5-10 minutes. Our country's health system is based on Big Pharma's 'diagnoses' and structured around treating symptoms with an RX pad. What about treating the actual CAUSES of conditions such as rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, depression, allergies, etc?
It is our duty as a society to research/find alternative, natural treatments for such conditions. More importantly, we can prevent most of these conditions through healthy lifestyles. I take full pride and pleasure in knowing that the focused massage treatments I provide, using a variety of techniques based on clients' needs, are an integral part of staying healthy and an effective treatment for pain relief. There is a plethera of information out there offering information, research, articles, etc. that may offer more effective and safer alternatives to the ill side effects of precription drugs. Greenmedinfo.com is one such website that I use frequently.
Now don't get me wrong...there is a place for prescription medications. They have their place and their absolute necessities. However, I urge you to ask questions, do your own research, and don't be afraid to ask your doctor for alternatives. Make sure that you are willing to live with the possible side effects if beginning a new medication.
"Talk to your doctor today about Essential Medical Massage for your symptoms. Possible side effects may include (but not limited to): increased circulation; pain relief; lowered blood pressure; decreased joint pain; increased mobility/range of motion; lowered anxiety; feeling of calmness; happiness!"
Lavender oil has been proven to aid in relaxation and promote sleep, but did you know that lavender oil is also effective against fungus?
Scientists have demonstrated that lavender oil's effectiveness against two important fungal strains: 1. Candida species, which cause thrush, and 2. dermatophytes, which cause athlete's foot and ringworm. Lavender oil attacks these fungi by damaging their cell membranes. In cases of nail infections, for example, lavender oil may be applied topically, directly onto the nail bed where they have little to no blood supply. They are unreachable by medicines taken internally because medicines only work if the infection is in the blood.
The recent increase of drug-resistant fungal infections, especially to those who are immunocompromised, has prompted renewed research of natural remedies such as with this essential oil. Lavendula oil also shows wide-spectrum anti-fungal properties and is a highly potent oil.
-Applied to minor burns and insect bites/stings.
-Used in massage oils for joint and muscle pain relief.
-Chest rub for asthmatic & bronchitic spasm.
-Hair rinse to treat head lice.
And of course my personal favorite, in aromatherapy, lavender oil is an anxiolytic, which induces calmness and relieves anxiety.
Lavender oil smells wonderful so why not keep some on hand for its many medicinal purposes as well!
Stretch your psoas for low back pain relief.
I love talking about the psoas, iliacus...AKA, hip flexors. If you suffer from low back pain, sit a lot through out the day, have tight quads, and stiff knees, then you probably have tight hip flexors.
Stretch these muscles daily and you will discover less pain.
The word trapezius comes from the Greek word for a small table, a reflection of the muscle's relative flatness and four-cornered shape. I like to refer to it as the butterfly muscle.
Many people don't realize that the trapezius covers most of the upper half of the back, extending upward to cover the central part of the back and neck, finally attaching into base of the skull. Not only is this a large muscle but it lays superficial (on top) to deeper back muscles.
The trapezius helps support the weight of the head and neck when you bend head forward or to the side. It functions mainly to move the shoulder. It also supports the weight of the shoulders and must contract strongly to rotate the shoulder blade every time you raise your arm.
Trigger points tend to develop in the trapezius when they are in a state of constant contraction, and/or are too weak to counteract the strong pulling in the pectorals in front of body. A primary source of headaches and neck pain pain arises from trapezius trigger points!
Most people experience trigger points in the upper part of the trapezius. Their effects often cause tension headaches and possibly even dizziness. More importantly, upper trapezius trigger points are capable of inducing satellite trigger points in muscles of the jaw and temple, making it an indirect cause of jaw pain and toothache.
Mid-trapezius trigger points are often a major source of pain at the base of your skull, which you may feel as a headache or sore neck. When neck massage feels good but doesn't get rid of the pain, the problem may be trapezius-related.
Heading down to the lower traps we reach middle back area. If you've ever felt a nagging ache or burning pain in the middle back, trigger points here may be responsible. This is also a common area for weakness, and although trigger points here are a long ways away from the neck, it's one of the many causes of astiff neck. Also, If you have ever noticed someone with "winged" shoulder blades that tend to stick out in back, it is due to weakness in the lower trapezius muscles and serratus.
Faulty Posture - eg. slumping while seated.
Shortened Pectoralis Muscles -indicated by rounding of the shoulders.
Emotional Tension or any activity which keeps your shoulders raised.
Arms held out in front of you for extended lengths of time.
Heavy-breasted women may be especially vulnerable, or those carrying heavy backpacks & purses.
Strengthening the lower traps can help counteract the ill effects of poor posture, including the long hours spent sitting in front of computer. However, it also requires stretching various anterior muscle groups on opposing side of body, to retrain postural muscles.
At Essential Medical Massage, we will guide you through the process of improving posture by demonstrating stretches and strengthening for the trapezius muscle and other affected postural muscles.
You do not have to suffer from headaches, neck tension & pain, TMJ pain, or back pain. Perhaps the source may be trapezius-related!
Come on in and let us find out!
aching, burning, and then stinging in my shins...the 'shin splints' which have ailed me for years since my days as a ballet dancer. Through proper rest, training practices, massage, ice, etc., I have been relatively pain free during my runs. However, after a swift (and uneducated) decision to try out different running shoes with more heel and arch support, the pain in my shins returned in just a couple miles of use. I quickly realized that these shoes weren't allowing me to run in proper form (on mid-to balls of my feet). In fact, I was almost forced to run on my heels because of the bulk in the shoes.
This led me to the Vibram Five Fingers. You have probably seen them or maybe wear them already. I went to a running store where I could be fitted properly and have now worn my Five Finger 'Sprints' for 4 days. The 1st day, I wore them for a couple of hours around the house. By day 2, I felt confident enough to wear them to work (about 7 hours). During those 7 hours, I never once felt the pain in my shins! The slight separation in the toes and the grounding I felt while wearing them felt rather ....well, wonderful!
I look forward to testing them during my runs but also feel a little aprehensive until I know the inflammation in my shins has improved. However, this has proven to be a positive start. Surprisingly, the thought of putting on running shoes with a lot of padding is a bit unappealing.
These shoes may not be meant for everyone or every type/shape of foot. Whether they are healthy options for those who already suffer from plantar fasciitis/heel pain, I cannot say at this time, nor have I read any research on the subject. I would suggest using caution of you have a history of foot pain. However, the delicate muscles in the feet need strengthening, just like any other muscle, and these shoes allow for that.
Vibram Five Fingers is different than any other footwear. Not only do they bring you closer to your environment, Five Fingers deliver a number of positive health benefits-by leveraging all of the body’s natural biomechanics, so you can move as nature intended.
Strengthens muscles in the feet and lower legs – wearing Five Fingers will stimulate and strengthen muscles in the feet and lower legs, improving general foot health and reducing the risk of injury.
Improves range of motion in ankles, feet and toes – no longer ‘cast’ in a shoe, the foot and toes move more naturally.
Stimulates neural function, important to balance and agility – when wearing Vibram Five Fingers, thousands of neurological receptors in the feet send valuable information to the brain, improving balance and agility.
Improves proprioception and body awareness – those same neurological receptors heighten body awareness, sending messages about body mechanics, form, and movement.
Eliminates heel lift to align the spine and improve posture – by lowering the heel, our body weight becomes evenly distributed across the foot bed, promoting proper posture and spine alignment.
Allows the foot and body to move naturally, which just FEELS GOOD.
If you have any of your own feedback regarding these or similar type of shoes, I would love to hear from you. Until then, keep those feet (and legs) happy!
Fascia is very dense covering, interpenetrating every muscle, bone, nerve, artery and vein as well as all of our internal organs including the heart, lungs, brain and spinal cord. The most interesting aspect of the fascial system is that it is not just a system of separate coverings. It is actually one structure that exists from head to foot without interruption. In this way you can begin to see that each part of the entire body is connected to every other part by the fascia, like the yarn in a sweater.
In the normal healthy state, the fascia is relaxed and wavy in configuration. It has the ability to stretch and move without restriction. When we experience physical trauma, scarring, or inflammation, however, the fascia loses its pliability. It becomes tight, restricted and a source of tension to the rest of the body. Trauma, such as a fall, whiplash, surgery or just habitual poor posture over time and repetitive stress injuries has a cumulative effects. The changes they cause in the fascial system influence comfort and the functioning of our body. The fascia can exert excessive pressure producing pain or restriction of motion. They affect our flexibility and stability, and are a determining factor in our ability to withstand stress and strain.
***Since many of the standard tests such as x-rays, myelograms, CAT scans, electromyography, etc, do not show the fascial restrictions, it is thought that an extremely high percentage of people suffering with pain and/or lack of motion may be having fascial problems, but most go undiagnosed.
Sleep is extremely important in order to maintain good health. Sleep may even be more important than exercise and diet, because even more incredibly, we spend up to a third of our lives asleep.
Restorative sleep is necessary to repair damage done to our bodies during the day. Cells get replenished, immune system is boosted, metabolism is regulated, cognitive function improves, toxins and other free radicals are eliminated, hormones are balanced, adrenal glands are restored, etc.
Some causes of insomnia are induced by prescription and over-the-counter medications and/or physical problems such as sleep apnea, rheumatoid arthritis, nerve disorders, restless leg syndrome, and so on. Adrenal hormone imbalances such as high cortisol levels are known to reduce sleep quality. Nutrition deficiencies (such as B vitamins, magnesium, & protein) can affect sleep. Inactivity is also not conducive to sleep.
Among the many variables affecting sleep, however, PERSISTENT STRESS is the most common cause of chronic insomnia! And poor adrenal functioning leads to poor ability to handle stress. It is important to know how to handle that stress, rather than focus on how much stress is in your life.
Here are some wonderful tips for getting a better night's rest!
Relax before bedtime (i.e. dim lights, relaxing bath, quiet music, or read).
Set a schedule -Your natural circadium rythyms are ruled by rising and setting of the sun. Try to go to bed the same time every night/wake same time every morning.
Avoid stimulants -Such as coffee, alcohol, chocolate, sodas, cigarettes.
Exercise - Just 20-30 minutes of activity daily (preferably during early part of the day) will help improve sleep quality. Yoga, stretching, breathing will also help.
Eat Well - Refrain from overeating at dinner time. Include whole natural foods and avoid hydrogenated oils, fried foods, or sugar.
De-Stress - Learn how to handle your stress through such things as meditation, biofeedback, or relaxation techniques. If you tend to worry about things, get in the habit of writing them down on paper, instead of thinking about them all night.
Last but not least, try professional interventions such as massage therapy, chiropractic adjustments & acupuncture.
**Sleeping pills are often addictive and do not allow for natural sleep. More importantly, they reduce the time spent in deep sleep, the most restorative stage of sleep, and can result in rebound insomnia when discontinued.
My clients more often than not tell me that they have the best night's sleep after getting a massage. And those that receive regular massages sessions find that they are better able to manage their stress and do not suffer from the aches and pains that often keep people awake at night. | 2019-04-24T06:18:11Z | https://www.essentialmedmassage.com/blog.html?page=2 |
Hoehn, Katherine Dudley was born 2 August 1955, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 2833 Park Square Pl, Fernandina Beach, Florida 32034. Florida voter ID number 124852353. Her telephone number is 1-904-624-7679. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Katherine I. was born 15 May 1970, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 10111 Sw 66Th St, Miami, Florida 33173. Florida voter ID number 109994039. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, KATHY LYNNE was born 30 July 1954, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 1357 Irving Ave, Clearwater, Florida 33756. Florida voter ID number 118890829. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Katie Jo was born 12 June 1988, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 837 Yorkshire Dr, Deland, Florida 32724. Florida voter ID number 114711715. Her telephone number is 1-386-748-2957. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 June 2014 voter list: Katie Jo Hoehn, 2270 Tropical Ter, DeLand, FL 32724 Florida Democratic Party.
31 May 2012 voter list: Katie Jo Hall, 2270 Tropical Ter, DeLand, FL 32724 Florida Democratic Party.
Hoehn, Kayli Ann was born 13 March 1988, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 10116 Sugar Maple Ln, Fort Myers, Florida 33913. Florida voter ID number 123074927. Her telephone number is 1-513-292-1764. Her email address is [email protected]. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 July 2018 voter list: Kayli Ann Hoehn, 15740 Portofino Springs Blvd, #106, Fort Myers, FL 33908 Republican Party of Florida.
Hoehn, Kelly Ann was born 19 January 1981, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 3445 Golden Eagle Dr, Land O Lakes, Florida 34639. Florida voter ID number 115265463. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 July 2016 voter list: Kelly Ann Hoehn, 4488 Vermillion Sky Dr, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 Republican Party of Florida.
31 October 2015 voter list: Kelly Ann Hoehn, 3518 Grassglen PL, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 Republican Party of Florida.
31 August 2015 voter list: Kelly Ann Hoehn, 29812 Morningmist DR, Wesley Chapel, FL 33543 Republican Party of Florida.
31 May 2013 voter list: Kelly Ann Hoehn, 27145 Firebush Dr, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 Republican Party of Florida.
31 May 2012 voter list: Kelly Ann Hoehn, 1409 Villa Capri Cir, APT 104, Odessa, FL 33556 Republican Party of Florida.
Hoehn, Kenneth Michael was born 29 August 1957, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 842 Paz Pass, Mulberry, Florida 33860. Florida voter ID number 119978923. His telephone number is 1-813-440-9037. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
28 February 2018 voter list: Kenneth Michael Hoehn, 1424 Vinetree Dr, Brandon, FL 33510 No Party Affiliation.
31 May 2014 voter list: Kenneth Michael Hoehn, 1501 Thistledown Dr, Brandon, FL 33510 No Party Affiliation.
Hoehn, Kiara A. was born 21 July 1995, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1710 N 40Th Ave, Hollywood, Florida 33021. Florida voter ID number 126382145. Her telephone number is 1-954-478-0171. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Kiersten Marie was born 8 May 1997, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 8749 Bella Vita Cir, Land O Lakes, Florida 34637. Florida voter ID number 123545085. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, KIMBERLY LYNN born 18 January 1969, Florida voter ID number 100515924 See Marshall, Kimberly Lynn. CLICK HERE.
HOEHN, KIM MARIE was born 1 November 1973, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 6277 72Nd Ave, #B, Pinellas Park, Florida 33781. Florida voter ID number 106958280. Her telephone number is 397-8557 (no area code listed). This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 January 2018 voter list: KIM MARIE HOEHN, 12001 BELCHER RD S, #I138, LARGO, FL 337735036 Florida Democratic Party.
31 May 2017 voter list: KIM MARIE HOEHN, 11625 75TH AVE, SEMINOLE, FL 33772 Florida Democratic Party.
31 May 2012 voter list: KIM MARIE HOEHN, 10760 104TH ST, LARGO, FL 33773 Florida Democratic Party.
HOEHN, KRISTEN ANN was born 11 December 1962, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 4560 Sw 46Th Ave, Ocala, Florida 34474. Florida voter ID number 100483151. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Kurtis James was born 17 November 1973, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 12124 Colony Lakes Blvd, New Port Richey, Florida 34654. Florida voter ID number 117841506. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 May 2012 voter list: Kurtis James Hoehn, 11139 Ragsdale Ct, New Port Richey, FL 34654 No Party Affiliation.
HOEHN, KURT R. was born 23 January 1969, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 2289 Richard Lee St, Orange Park, Florida 32073. Florida voter ID number 102821698. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Kyle Donald was born 23 June 1990, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 8525 Little Swift Cir, Jacksonville, Florida 32256. Florida voter ID number 122721004. His telephone number is 1-585-544-8600. His email address is [email protected]. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 July 2018 voter list: KYLE DONALD HOEHN, 1800 MICCOSUKEE COMMONS DR, APT 114, TALLAHASSEE, FL 32308 No Party Affiliation.
31 July 2016 voter list: KYLE DONALD HOEHN, 1560 HIGH RD, APT 228D, TALLAHASSEE, FL 32304 No Party Affiliation.
HOEHN, LANCE C. was born 30 April 1994, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 1169 Allendale Dr, Oviedo, Florida 32765. Florida voter ID number 118679842. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 September 2018 voter list: LANCE C. HOEHN, 520 SAINT DUNSTAN WAY, WINTER PARK, FL 32792 No Party Affiliation.
22 October 2014 voter list: LANCE C. HOEHN, 2418 DAKOTA TRL, FERN PARK, FL 32730 No Party Affiliation.
Hoehn, Larissa Marie was born 15 August 1991, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 1622 Minerva Ave, Jacksonville, Florida 32207. Florida voter ID number 121077128. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: 3391 Harmon CV Memphis TN 38135-2502. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
29 February 2016 voter list: Larissa Marie Hoehn, 11001 Old St Augustine RD, Jacksonville, FL 32257 No Party Affiliation.
HOEHN, LEONA MARIE was born 5 March 1998, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 2289 Richard Lee St, Orange Park, Florida 32073. Florida voter ID number 121983287. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, LILBURN P. was born 17 September 1932, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 3140 Ne 49Th St, Ocala, Florida 34479. Florida voter ID number 105647997. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 August 2016.
HOEHN, LINDA MAE was born 6 August 1944, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 13203 Dorchester Dr, Seminole, Florida 33776. Florida voter ID number 115075829. Her telephone number is 1-727-623-4351. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 January 2015 voter list: LINDA MAE HOEHN, 15712 REDINGTON DR, REDINGTON BEACH, FL 33708 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, LUCY was born 10 January 1941, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 9181 Bal Bay Pt, Boynton Beach, Florida 33473. Florida voter ID number 112006096. Her telephone number is 1-561-809-3214. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Lynn M. was born 23 July 1957, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 17407 Raintree Ct, Montverde, Florida 34756. Florida voter ID number 104871102. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, MARCUS ANTON was born 5 October 1996, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 3489 Nw Cr 348, Mayo, Florida 32066. Florida voter ID number 121969693. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 June 2016 voter list: MARK ANTON HOEHN, 3489 NW CR 348, MAYO, FL 32066 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, MARGARET CHRISTINE was born 13 April 1952, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 818 Carol St, Wildwood, Florida 34785. Florida voter ID number 108296271. Her telephone number is 1-352-748-5638. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 July 2018 voter list: MARGARET C. HOEHN, 3742 CR 511A, WILDWOOD, FL 347858331 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, MARILYN R. was born 30 January 1928, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 224 Eagleton Estates Blvd, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33418. Florida voter ID number 112389037. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, MARJORIE K. was born 11 June 1922, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 6951 Nw Hartney Way, Pt St Lucie, Florida 34983. Florida voter ID number 108148329. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 August 2014.
HOEHN, MARK ANTON born 5 October 1996, Florida voter ID number 121969693 See HOEHN, MARCUS ANTON. CLICK HERE.
Hoehn, Mark J. was born 18 April 1968, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 101 James Lee Blvd E, Crestview, Florida 32536. Florida voter ID number 120439271. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: 8405 Killians Greens Dr Las Vegas NV 89131-6717. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Martin Reginald was born 3 March 1921, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 7014 Nw 39Th Ave, Gainesville, Florida 32606-5724. Florida voter ID number 100417437. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2016.
HOEHN, MARVIL J. was born 6 January 1935, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1219 Carolina Ave, Lynn Haven, Florida 32444. Florida voter ID number 100611214. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 May 2012.
Hoehn, Marvil Jean was born 6 January 1935, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 11844 Hidden Stagecoach Ct, Jacksonville, Florida 32223. Florida voter ID number 121133955. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 30 April 2017.
HOEHN, MARY E. was born 30 January 1934, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 8650 Sw 95Th St, #E, Ocala, Florida 34481. Florida voter ID number 105727590. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Mary Eleanor born 17 December 1944, Florida voter ID number 101186068 See Gasperino, Mary . CLICK HERE.
HOEHN, MELONY S. was born 1 December 1979, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 107 Marlin Cir, Panama City Beach, Florida 32408. Florida voter ID number 100734304. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 December 2014.
Hoehn, Michael E. was born 23 May 1949, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 17407 Raintree Ct, Montverde, Florida 34756. Florida voter ID number 104796369. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, MICHAEL GARY was born 24 January 1948, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 4957 Broadstone Cir, West Palm Beach, Florida 33417. Florida voter ID number 112345548. His telephone number is 1-561-640-9256. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 January 2015 voter list: MICHAEL GARY HOEHN, 1161 TROPICAL DR, JUPITER, FL 33458 Florida Democratic Party.
HOEHN, MICHAEL JAMES was born 19 June 1958, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 9071 Tamiami Trl S, #41, Venice, Florida 34293. Florida voter ID number 122730074. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: PO BOX 17374 SARASOTA FL 34276. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Michael W. was born 18 January 1992, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 12730 Sw 31St Ave, Archer, Florida 32618. Florida voter ID number 120275796. His telephone number is 1-352-331-5635. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, MICHELE R. was born 12 September 1968, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 2289 Richard Lee St, Orange Park, Florida 32073. Florida voter ID number 102807701. Her telephone number is 1-904-276-6059. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, MICHELLE DAWN was born 9 January 1969, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 4301 80Th Ave, Pinellas Park, Florida 33781. Florida voter ID number 107038518. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
22 October 2014 voter list: MICHELLE DAWN HOEHN, 1401 39TH AVE N, ST PETERSBURG, FL 33703 No Party Affiliation.
HOEHN, MITCHELL EDWARD was born 16 January 1960, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1000 Palos Verde Dr, Orlando, Florida 32825. Florida voter ID number 123141570. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: 1000 PALOS VERDE DR ORLANDO FL 32825-8339 UNITED STATES. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 July 2016 voter list: MITCHELL EDWARD HOEHN, 332 STREAMVIEW WAY, WINTER SPRINGS, FL 32708 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, MONICA ASHLEY was born 6 January 1985, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 19844 50Th St N, Loxahatchee, Florida 33470. Florida voter ID number 111919784. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: PO BOX 647 LOXAHATCHEE FL 33470. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 May 2017.
Hoehn, Monica Lee was born 22 March 1944, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 15470 Los Reyes Ln, Naples, Florida 34110. Florida voter ID number 103150369. Her telephone number is 1-239-455-5003. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 May 2018 voter list: Monica Lee Hoehn, 11926 HEATHER WOODS CT, Naples, FL 34120 Republican Party of Florida.
Hoehn, Morgan Joshua was born 15 October 1993, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 552 Bayberry Lakes Blvd, Daytona Beach, Florida 32124. Florida voter ID number 122541882. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 September 2018 voter list: Morgan Joshua Hoehn, 100 Manatee XING, APT 307, Daytona Beach, FL 32119 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, NANCY ANN was born 29 January 1958, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 13732 Meadowpark Ave, Orlando, Florida 32826. Florida voter ID number 107643179. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: APT 175 509 S CHICKASAW TRL ORLANDO FL 32825 UNITED STATES. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 December 2015 voter list: NANCY ANN HOEHN, 3415 BELLINGHAM DR, ORLANDO, FL 32825 Republican Party of Florida.
Hoehn, Nancy B. born 9 June 1942, Florida voter ID number 104693906 See Vanneck, Nancy B. CLICK HERE.
HOEHN, NANCY E. was born 18 May 1930, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 7126 Sw 91St Ct, Ocala, Florida 34481. Florida voter ID number 108304713. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: 2000 BOARDWALK PLACE DR, APT 466 O'FALLON MO 63368. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 December 2017.
Hoehn, Patricia was born 24 May 1961, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 238 Plumoso Loop, Davenport, Florida 33897. Florida voter ID number 125654987. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Patricia was born 24 May 1961, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1531 Kish Blvd, Trinity, Florida 34655. Florida voter ID number 106616734. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 30 June 2017.
Hoehn, Patricia K. was born 19 June 1946, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 103 Se 139 Ave, Old Town, Florida 32680. Florida voter ID number 107195331. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 May 2012 voter list: PATRICIA K. HOEHN, 3503 58TH AVE N, #46, ST PETERSBURG, FL 33714 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, PATRICK ALLEN was born 6 August 1985, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 10524 Demilo Pl, Apt A10 301, Orlando, Florida 32836. Florida voter ID number 119051278. His telephone number is 1-773-837-7302. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 April 2017 voter list: PATRICK A. HOEHN, 10836 MYSTIC CIR, APT 204, ORLANDO, FL 32836 No Party Affiliation.
HOEHN, PATRICK E. was born 18 October 1963, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 19844 50Th St N, Loxahatchee, Florida 33470. Florida voter ID number 120225917. His telephone number is 1-561-441-9547. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: PO BOX 647 LOXAHATCHEE FL 33470. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Patrick Joseph was born 1 June 1989, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1430 Bartow Dr, #302S, Celebration, Florida 34747. Florida voter ID number 122764613. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Payton Thomas was born 5 February 2000, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 6305 Bridgecrest Dr, Lithia, Florida 33547. Florida voter ID number 125487440. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Phillip R. was born 2 May 1969, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 4495 White Rd, Melbourne, Florida 32934. Florida voter ID number 100915322. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: PO BOX 120646 W Melbourne FL 32912-0646. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 July 2018 voter list: Phillip R. Hoehn, 1820 Kansas Rd SE, Palm Bay, FL 32909 No Party Affiliation.
Hoehn, Rachael A. born 30 April 1984, Florida voter ID number 100302008 See Christie, Rachael Ann. CLICK HERE.
HOEHN, RAYMOND G. was born 15 July 1926, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 9181 Bal Bay Pt, Boynton Beach, Florida 33473. Florida voter ID number 117464610. His telephone number is 1-954-428-8510. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, REBECCA A. was born 23 August 1964, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 2609 Sw Acco Rd, Pt St Lucie, Florida 34953. Florida voter ID number 108182334. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, RICHARD A. was born 21 February 1955, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 13203 Dorchester Dr, Seminole, Florida 33776. Florida voter ID number 116462046. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 March 2015 voter list: RICHARD A. HOEHN, 15712 REDINGTON DR, REDINGTON BEACH, FL 33708 Florida Democratic Party.
HOEHN, RICHARD DONALD was born 16 October 1972, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 4009 Stonefield Dr, Orlando, Florida 32826. Florida voter ID number 113203166. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, RICHARD W. was born 6 July 1950, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 520 Saint Dunstan Way, Winter Park, Florida 32792. Florida voter ID number 107782453. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Rita was born 10 October 1919, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 200 Deer Lake Cir, Ormond Beach, Florida 32174-4261. Florida voter ID number 108436398. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 May 2013.
Hoehn, Robert Andrew was born 24 December 1941, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 4731 Bonita Bay Blvd, #101, Bonita Springs, Florida 34134. Florida voter ID number 114177961. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Robert E. was born 5 December 1939, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 18122 Webster Grove Dr, Hudson, Florida 34667. Florida voter ID number 106652343. His telephone number is 1-727-868-1070. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, ROBERT H. was born 19 June 1921, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 6043 Calle Del Mar, West Palm Beach, Florida 33415. Florida voter ID number 112363839. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 May 2012.
HOEHN, ROBERT KEITH was born 10 December 1970, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 6043 Calle Del Mar, West Palm Beach, Florida 33415. Florida voter ID number 112017583. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 May 2017.
Hoehn, Robin Lynn was born 26 August 1962, is female, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 2112 S Cypress Bend Dr, Apt 205, Pompano Beach, Florida 33069-4452. Florida voter ID number 117030964. Her telephone number is 1-954-531-3591. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 June 2015 voter list: Robin Lynn Hoehn, 2112 S Cypress Bend Dr, APT 205, Pompano Beach, FL 33069 No Party Affiliation.
Hoehn, Ronald Louis was born 13 September 1952, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 764 Heathrow Ave, Lady Lake, Florida 32159. Florida voter ID number 124056667. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Ruby Marie Wolff was born 7 February 1944, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 2906 Sw 130Th Ter, Archer, Florida 32618. Florida voter ID number 100389487. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, SALLIE L. was born 15 May 1932, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 3140 Ne 49Th St, Ocala, Florida 34479. Florida voter ID number 105647996. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 August 2015.
HOEHN, SARA A. was born 15 July 1981, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 3742 Cr 511A, Wildwood, Florida 34785-8331. Florida voter ID number 108308796. Her telephone number is 1-352-748-5638. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Sarah D. was born 24 August 1990, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 1531 Kish Blvd, Trinity, Florida 34655. Florida voter ID number 115607904. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 30 June 2017.
Hoehn, Sarah Dulcie was born 24 August 1990, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 238 Plumoso Loop, Davenport, Florida 33897. Florida voter ID number 125886758. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, SARA M. was born 9 December 1987, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1409 S Berthe Ave, Panama City, Florida 32404-9671. Florida voter ID number 114054588. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Scott Robert was born 3 July 1982, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 700 Front St, Welaka, Florida 32193. Florida voter ID number 118009530. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 May 2013.
Hoehn, Sharon Dawn was born 6 February 1956, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 3206 45Th Way E, Bradenton, Florida 34203. Florida voter ID number 105497138. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, SHEILA MARIE LEA was born 14 August 1973, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 4009 Stonefield Dr, Orlando, Florida 32826. Florida voter ID number 112742348. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, Stephanie Nicole was born 29 December 1987, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 9737 Tranquility Lake Cir, Apt 405, Riverview, Florida 33578. Florida voter ID number 114052633. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 December 2018 voter list: Stephanie Nicole Hoehn, 238 Plumoso LOOP, Davenport, FL 33897 Florida Democratic Party.
30 November 2018 voter list: Stephanie Nicole Hoehn, 9737 TRANQUILITY LAKE Cir, APT 405, Riverview, FL 33578 Florida Democratic Party.
31 August 2016 voter list: Stephanie Nicole Hoehn, 1531 Kish BLVD, Trinity, FL 34655 Florida Democratic Party.
HOEHN, SUSAN LUELLA was born 30 December 1954, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 2324 Malysa Pl, Pensacola, Florida 32504. Florida voter ID number 104042604. Her telephone number is 1-850-434-6622. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
28 February 2019 voter list: SUSAN LUELLA HOEHN, 15930 INNERARITY POINT RD, PENSACOLA, FL 325078314 Republican Party of Florida.
31 December 2018 voter list: SUSAN LUELLA HOEHN, 3821 SCENIC HWY, PENSACOLA, FL 32504 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, TARA ANN was born 9 December 1987, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 10936 Johnson Blvd, Youngstown, Florida 32466. Florida voter ID number 114266582. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 August 2017.
Hoehn, Taylor N. born 14 November 1991, Florida voter ID number 119447444 See SCHWARZ, TAYLOR NICOLE. CLICK HERE.
HOEHN, TERENCE M. was born 14 January 1963, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 15136 Nw 308Th St, Okeechobee, Florida 34972. Florida voter ID number 101717581. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 May 2016 voter list: Terence M. Hoehn, 5651 NW 107th Ave, Coral Springs, FL 330763107 Florida Democratic Party.
31 May 2015 voter list: Terence M. Hoehn, 5651 NW 107th Ave, Coral Springs, FL 33076 Florida Democratic Party.
Hoehn, Terence W. was born 29 July 1963, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 9335 Meadow Crest Ln, Clermont, Florida 34711. Florida voter ID number 104958143. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, TERESA ANN was born 23 January 1963, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 3907 Dolphin Dr, Panama City Beach, Florida 32408. Florida voter ID number 100629545. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 May 2012 voter list: TERESA ANN HOEHN, 17462 Front Beach RD, #16C BOX 122, PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL 32413 Florida Democratic Party.
HOEHN, THEODORE SCOTT was born 20 March 1958, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 1513 Atapha Nene, Tallahassee, Florida 32301-4738. Florida voter ID number 104995877. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, THOMAS J. was born 28 February 1954, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1357 Irving Ave, Clearwater, Florida 33756. Florida voter ID number 106995943. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 May 2012 voter list: THOMAS JOSEPH HOEHN, 1357 IRVING AVE, CLEARWATER, FL 33756 Republican Party of Florida.
Hoehn, Thomas James was born 26 November 1993, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 15470 Los Reyes Ln, Naples, Florida 34110. Florida voter ID number 119080559. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 December 2018 voter list: Thomas James Hoehn, 11926 HEATHER WOODS CT, Naples, FL 34120 Republican Party of Florida.
Hoehn, Thomas Joseph was born 23 March 1983, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 238 Plumoso Loop, Davenport, Florida 33897. Florida voter ID number 106595266. His telephone number is 1-407-810-2966. His email address is [email protected]. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 January 2018 voter list: Thomas Joseph Hoehn, 16340 Cagan Oaks, APT 308, Clermont, FL 34714 No Party Affiliation.
31 August 2016 voter list: Thomas Joseph Hoehn, 511 Avenida Cuarta, APT 212, Clermont, FL 34714 No Party Affiliation.
30 September 2015 voter list: Thomas Joseph Hoehn, 511 Avenida Cuarta, 212, Clermont, FL 34714 No Party Affiliation.
Hoehn, Thomas Walter was born 22 May 1960, is male, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 1508 Michigan Ave, Apt 2, Miami Beach, Florida 33139. Florida voter ID number 126003757. His email address is [email protected]. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 January 2019 voter list: Thomas Walter Hoehn, 1535 Meridian AVE, APT 3, Miami Beach, FL 33139 Florida Democratic Party.
HOEHN, TIMOTHY D. was born 21 October 1959, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 4560 Sw 46Th Ave, Ocala, Florida 34474. Florida voter ID number 115444323. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 22 October 2014.
HOEHN, TINA L. was born 23 October 1963, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 19844 50Th St N, Loxahatchee, Florida 33470. Florida voter ID number 112207368. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: PO BOX 647 LOXAHATCHEE FL 33470. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, William was born 24 September 1933, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1022 Ne 39Th St, Apt 1, Oakland Park, Florida 33334-2950. Florida voter ID number 115451303. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 June 2015 voter list: William Hoehn, 1022 NE 39th St, APT 1, Oakland Park, FL 33334 Republican Party of Florida.
Hoehn, William Henry was born 25 December 1942, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 2906 Sw 130Th Ter, Archer, Florida 32618. Florida voter ID number 100389488. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, William Joseph was born 18 January 1954, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 11545 Holmes Dr, Clermont, Florida 34711. Florida voter ID number 104916649. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn, William Michael was born 27 July 1945, is male, registered as No Party Affiliation, residing at 1530 S Ocean Blvd, Laud By The Sea, Florida 33062. Florida voter ID number 122967223. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHN, WILLIAM P. was born 8 April 1932, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 7126 Sw 91St Ct, Ocala, Florida 34481. Florida voter ID number 108304714. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: 2000 BOARDWALK PLACE DR UNIT 466 O FALLON MO 63368-3900. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 October 2018.
31 May 2012 voter list: WILLIAM P. HOEHN, , , FL Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHN, ZOLA LOUISE was born 24 May 1998, is female, registered as Florida Democratic Party, residing at 1513 Atapha Nene, Tallahassee, Florida 32301. Florida voter ID number 122942523. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
Hoehn-Bral, Susan Christine was born 1 July 1966, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1240 Admirals Walk, Vero Beach, Florida 32963. Florida voter ID number 123862994. Her telephone number is 1-563-381-7633. The voter lists a mailing address and probably prefers you use it: 2715 W 66Th St Davenport IA 52806-1512. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
31 August 2017 voter list: SUSAN CHRISTINE HOEHN-BRAL, 6721 EASTPOINTE PINES ST, PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL 33418 Republican Party of Florida.
HOEHNDORF, NORMA SHONERD was born 10 November 1937, is female, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1910 Del Norte Dr, The Villages, Florida 32159. Florida voter ID number 108304929. Her telephone number is 1-352-753-6461. Her email address is [email protected]. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
HOEHNDORF, WILHELM FRIEDRICH was born 27 May 1939, is male, registered as Republican Party of Florida, residing at 1910 Del Norte Dr, The Villages, Florida 32159. Florida voter ID number 108304930. His telephone number is 1-352-753-6461. This is the most recent information, from the Florida voter list as of 31 March 2019.
30 June 2015 voter list: WILHELM F. HOEHNDORF, 1910 DEL NORTE DR, THE VILLAGES, FL 32159 Republican Party of Florida. | 2019-04-22T18:25:02Z | https://flvoters.com/pages/h107838.html |
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This is our guide to the tedious K1-Fiancé Visa I-129F petition. Both the petitioner and foreign fiancé will have to provide a significant amount of documentation to prove to immigration officials that your relationship is not fraudulent. We would recommend starting to plan out what you intend to provide at least six months ahead of your application submission.
Disclaimer: this is only our interpretation of the requirements. This is the guide that we would be following with our own application, but that does not mean it is complete or perfect. There is a lot to become knowledgeable about throughout the I-129F petition. So we would urge you to undertake your own research as well, and make sure you are familiar with the US Department of State’s guide to the application as well. If you have decided to go ahead with the process, congratulations, we hope that this guide helps you with your petition filing process.
Who Can File For The I-129F Petition?
Cover Letter: This states who you both are. The US citizen applicant is the petitioner, and the potential immigrant (foreign fiancé) is the beneficiary. In your cover letter you’ll want to include a detailed index, listing each topic and page number. It should provide information for everything included in the packet. Be sure that the US citizen petitioner signs and dates every page.
Filing Fee (Payment): Check or money orders are accepted forms of payment. To prevent any delay of filing your forms, always refer back to the USCIS webpage to confirm the most recent cost quote, because It can change at any time. Regardless if you underpay or overpay, the incorrect amount will result in a referral for evidence RFE which will prevent your forms acknowledgement for approval.
Form I-129F Petition For Alien Fiancé: This form will need to be completed by the US citizen petitioner. It would be recommended that the foreign fiancé beneficiary is available to answer any questions the petitioner may have while this form is being completed. It will require information that the petitioner may not entirely know yet, and you really don’t want to provide inaccurate answers since there will be an interview at the beneficiary’s nearest US consulate.
Form G-1145 E-Notification Of Application: The G-1145 form is optional to provide, but is highly recommended. Considering this petition gets you on the path to closing the distance, you will want to receive instant notifications along the way. This will get you updates through email or text correspondence as opposed to letters by post. Be mindful that notifications may not be received right away; it can take some time between notifications.
How You Met: This in compliance to question #18 on Form I-129F. Make sure your title acknowledges this. Providing a few sentences is fine, but it would be best to write a formal letter explaining in as much detail as to how you first met one another in the last 2 years. Be sure that the US citizen petitioner signs and dates this page.
Letters Of Intent: Both of you, the US citizen petitioner and the foreign fiancé beneficiary will need to provide individual declarations, stating that you intend on marrying this person and therefore are petitioning to do so. These declarations must be very clear and concise, proving your intent to marry within 90 days of arrival into the USA on your approved K1 Visa. Be sure that the US citizen petitioner signs and dates their page, and the foreign fiancé beneficiary signs and dates their page.
For exact guidelines on these photographs, you can find more information on the US Government website here. This page even provides photo examples of what is accepted and what is not. Despite all of the small details, passport photo regulations are relatively similar between countries, and you are able to have these taken either by a photographer, or automated booth for a very reasonable price. We would recommend to insert each photo into its own clear plastic sleeve or zip lock bag. Label that sleeve/bag ex. ‘photo of US citizen’. Staple or attach the sleeve/bag with a paperclip behind or in front of each person’s own Biographic Information pages, the G-325A forms.
Proof Of US Petitioners Citizenship: Provide a certified copy of the US citizen petitioners birth certificate or naturalization certificate. This will verify that you are in fact legally able to sponsor a immigrant person, like your foreign fiancé beneficiary, to enter the States.
Dissolution Of Previous Marriages: Provide certified copies of any divorce or death decree’s that prove any previous marriages (for either person) have been dissolved.
This is really a joint responsibility for couples to provide, as it significantly affects the foreign fiancé beneficiary more than the US citizen petitioner. This is probably the most vague aspect of the application, and the one that couples often worry about the most. And, unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules about what counts as evidence of a substantive and ongoing relationship. So, it can be tempting to include as much information as possible, but we would recommend steering clear of this approach.
Instead, be selective of what you include, and focus on the items that you believe are most convincing in regards to your relationship. Below, we have listed some of the best forms of evidence that you can provide. Remember, not to use this as a checklist, but as a guide to help you decide on the evidence you have available to you, and that you believe is worth including.
It may seem a lot, but that concludes our list of documents that any K-1 fiancé visa petitioner is responsible for providing as a part of the process. Our main recommendation is to keep everything simple. Labelling and organising as much as you can to reduce any processing times. These should be provided in conjunction with your partner’s (foreign fiancé beneficiary’s) documents, as a single application. When you put the all of the parts together, it can seem like an overwhelming amount of paperwork.
That is why we recommend starting to collect these documents early, and getting as much information on the process as possible before you apply. It doesn’t hurt to add in as your last page to your paperwork, a formal thank you letter from you both, thanking the immigration officer for their time. Hopefully, with some of the tips we have given you in these guides you should be in a great position to get started with your application!
After USCIS approves your petition, it will be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will give you a case number and send your petition to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate where your foreign fiancé beneficiary lives. If you have any questions on the K-1 Fiancé Visa process, let us know in the comments below! We certainly aren’t experts, but are always willing to help people in a similar position, or a least point you in the right direction for further help.
Thanks for this very straightforward and detailed blog post! I do however have a question for you. My Fiancée is an American Citizen, and I’m an Australian Citizen. We plan on closing the distance between us, and I will hopefully be moving across to America next year under this visa. Once the NVC forwards the petition on to the US Consulate, will they contact me with exact details (day/time) for the interview, or is that something that you schedule yourself? If it’s something you organise yourself, is there a time frame to do this by? I’m asking this because my Fiancée is currently a student, and will be finishing her degree in May of 2016. She doesn’t yet have a full time job (to prove financial support), but will do so after she graduates. If there isn’t a time frame then we would be able to wait until she has the job before I attend the interview, but if not we will need to work out another way to show I will be able to be financially supported. I hope that made sense?
If you could provide any information/assistance that would be greatly appreciated!
My apologies! Once the USCIS approves a K-1 petition and you hear from the NVC, you and your foreign fiancé have four months from USCIS’s date of approval to now act on the approved petition (i.e. obtain a K-1 visa). The K-1 visa then has its own legality terms after that. A consular officer has the discretion to extend that deadline (but not obligated). This is presumed that the consular believed that your delay is caused by circumstances beyond your reasonable control.
We highly recommend to include a completed Form G-1145 with the petition. If you include this form with your petition USCIS will send an e-mail (and also a text message if you have a U.S. mobile number) containing your receipt number. You can use the receipt number to check the status of your petition online periodically.
Going through the petition process at the moment, filing out all the forms.
I was just wondering about the ‘Alien Registration Number’. What is it and where would I find mine?
I wish you all the luck in the world during your application process, it’s very daunting and tedious! Here is a great link provided by the US government website that explains in great detail about A-Numbers and how you can obtain one properly. I hope this helps!
Me and my fiance have just applied for the K-1 visa. She’s a US citizen and I am from India. We have been in a relationship for 2+ years. Now, we are on the process of documenting chat records and so on. I have read in a few forums that age difference can be a huge red flag in visa applications. Giving that she’s older than me, we are trying to get all the evidence to prove that our relationship is not fraudulent. Is it going to be a huge deal with our application? What all steps can we take to prove our sincerity? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.
I understand that having an age gap can present a red flag to any immigration officer looking over a petition or an application. If the evidence you provide is substantial it will prove that your relationship is genuine and the age is not a cause for concern. I would suggest sharing lots of photographs proving that you have not only met in person – particularly ones where you don’t look staged by posing next to each other. Anything that looks natural like hugging/ kissing/walking hand in hand together should be the majority of your photos so there is a clear indication of the love you have for each other. Paired with immense financial proof that a wedding is being planned e.g. venue hire contract, wedding dress & ring receipts, etc.
The evidence you provide is always going to be the make or break in the final decision. It is up you as the applicants to provide your supporting documents, so just be conscientious of the ones you pick. These documents are what help the officer gauge the authenticity of your relationship.
I hope this helps, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
just wanted to know if a passport would suffice as prof of citizen ship in US?
So sorry for the delayed response! We’ve been so busy with the holiday season, our wedding, and my birthday. Passports are a great proof of American Citizenship in the US.
I live in Zambia and my feyance lives in US we wanted to apply for k1 visa and wante dthe pastor to give us the recommendation letter regarding our relation ship. can any one give me a sample of recommendation letter from a pastor?
I’m sorry but we do not have sample letters to provide for anyone as we need to protect ourselves against being held liable for any application that may be refused. We’d be more than happy to look at a completed draft that you share with us. We can comment about what you should add or remove, but we ourselves cannot go beyond that.
I would recommend checking out the Expat forum, you can specifically join the USA Forum to find letter samples to use in your K-1 Visa. In the past they have provided a wealth of information to us. As their members have applied from a wide variety of circumstances, the forum has a much greater collective knowledge about individual and specific situations.
Hello authors. Thank you very much for helping everyone. I’m Algerian American and I’m planning to apply K-1 for my future fiance then wife. I live in the US and she lives in Algeria. My understanding is that I only need to file 129 form and g325, but just she doesn’t have to send her application until she gets notice from consulate. Is that right?
Do I have to have letter of intent and how we met letter or how we met is enough?
Each of you need to complete a G-325A form, it’s one per person and provide a US sized passport photo from each of your for those forms. You as the American petitioner will need to fill out the I-129F form, but it’s one form for the both of you. So in total you will have two completed G-325A forms, one for you and one for your fiancé, and one I-129F form for you both as a couple.
|she doesn’t have to send her application until she gets notice from consulate. Is that right?
Yes. Once USCIS approves your petition it will be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will mail you a case number & a letter informing you that your petition will be sent to the US Embassy (or consulate) where your fiancé lives. At this point, following the steps included in your letter, your fiancé can then apply for her K-1 Visa and ready herself for her interview.
|Do I have to have letter of intent and how we met letter or how we met is enough?
A letter of intent is vital to your petition – this is how you convince the USCIS officer you are planning to marry. How you met is part of your required evidence and it will be more than just letter. You’ll want to include photographs you have together, previous flight or travel itineraries to see each other, letters/emails/cards you have sent each other, proof of how you communicate and maintain your relationship despite the distance, etc. The letter of intent and proof of having met are two separate things that need to be included in your petition, one does not replace the other.
Please be sure to read through the guidance page thoroughly to ensure you have prepared your documents to their liking and expectation, http://1.usa.gov/1tso4hM. Especially double check the supporting documents that need to be included with your petition. Also please check out this amazing forum http://bit.ly/1OrsP55, it has really great information about the K-1 visa process and it also gives you access to example letters that you’ll want to include in your petition.
Hi! Thank you for your helpful blog. We are putting the K1 package together and wonder does the petitioner need to sign also the documents proving the relationship (boarding passes, travel initiatorys)? What about the copy of the passport, does he need to sign that ? Thank you!
We apologise for the delay, we’ve moved across the UK and have had no internet up till now. May I ask if this is still a concern needing our assistance? We want to make sure we can help you if need be.
Thanks for the helpful instructions and information!
I, and my fiancé are working on our I-129F Package these days.
I was so concern about the file I-129F signature.
Does the petitioner need to sign all 6 pages or only the page that they mentioned to be signed !?
2- After the application approved does the petition need to send the affidavit of support to the foreign fiancée directly? Or he has to send it to the USCIS so they approve that too then send it to the Alien fiancée!?
I’ve been ill and resting at home. I realise the urgency in your matter, however I do not want to assume that you’ve figured this out. Is this still needing to be answered?
Does it matter when we date our forms or letters that require a date? Let’s say if we are mailing out stuff on 1 March, can we date our stuff 15 January?
Hi this really helps we are planning on applying for the petition soon I just want to ask I am in the uk and he is in the usa when he and I signs I cant actually be there is there somehow he can send the forms or email to me and I can print off and sign then send it back in a email/scan? Also the first amount to pay is that when we send the petition off? How much is it now do you know?
The petition form is filled out by your fiancé (the US petitioner) – as the applicant, you don’t need to sign this form. There is a filing fee of $535 that is payable by cheque when the petition is posted. Further details about sending off the petition & payment can be found by downloading the “Instructions for Form I-129” PDF here: https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f. | 2019-04-22T21:05:43Z | http://lovemybrit.com/k-1-visa-petition/ |
VA Students | SSU -Business Administration, BBA, MBA, MSIT, Certificates, Professional Programs.
Southern States University is dedicated to supporting our military and their spouses. Pursuing an education can be difficult for these courageous men and women who are often faced with demanding and dynamic schedules. Finding a school that understands and will support you is important, its also important to choose a school that makes the most of your Tuition Assistance or G.I. Bill® Benefits.
Southern States University’s Associate of Business Administration is a two-year degree program that provides students with an academic foundation built upon general education and business courses at the lower-division level.
The lower division introductory general education courses are designed to promote skills in critical-thinking, writing, reading, and communications in addition to the basic use of computers. Specifically, the program provides students with a basic knowledge and understanding of the humanities, arts, math, sciences, and social sciences; while the lower division introductory business courses are designed to provide students with a basic knowledge and understanding of business fundamentals and practices.
The program is structured so that success in the lower division courses will improve the student’s confidence and ability to succeed in the more challenging and focused upper division courses if a student wishes to transfer into a bachelor’s program. This foundation in the program allows a graduate to explore a career in business. Successful completion of the program requires 90 Quarter Credits.
The Bachelor of Business Administration is a four-year degree program in which students will be prepared with an academic background, in addition to practical experiences necessary to survive in today’s challenging business environment. The general education and lower division courses provide a strong academic foundation that includes humanities, arts, science and business courses, so that the student has the propensity to succeed in the more challenging and focused upper division courses. SSU’s upper division courses are designed with the business needs of today and tomorrow in mind, and provide students first with an introduction, and then with more in-depth business principles and practices, along with the skill set required to succeed in today’s business world. The program requires successful completion of 180 quarter units.
Southern States University’s Master of Business Administration is a two-year program designed to help prepare students for dealing with a world of business and industry that is constantly changing and evolving. With its emphasis on providing a solid academic and theoretical business foundation combined with modern management skills, the program is structured to ensure its students acquire an in-depth understanding of the structure of the global economy, as well as the practical business decision-making skills required to cope with the ever-increasing complexity of business activities in this global economy. In addition to its educational focus on globalization and international business knowledge and skills, SSU is uniquely positioned to offer an MBA program that brings together aspirants from countries all around the world to study in a collaborative spirit. In consideration of students’ tight schedules and responsibilities, SSU’s MBA courses are offered on weekday evenings and Saturday mornings and afternoons. In addition, the MBA program can be offered up to 100% online.
Southern States University’s Master of Science in Information Technology is a two-year program that prepares students in the field of information technology. With its emphasis on providing a solid academic and theoretical foundation combined with modern IT skills, the program is structured to ensure its students acquire an in-depth understanding of the IT field, as well as the technical skills required to cope with the ever-increasing complexity of IT issues in the modern world. In consideration of students’ tight schedules and responsibilities, SSU’s IT courses are offered on weekday evenings and Saturday mornings and afternoons.
Choose below which graduate program you’re interested in!
Choose below which undergraduate program you’re interested in!
The Certificate in Information Technology program is designed to give participants the knowledge, skills, and abilities to begin a career in an IT-related field. The certificate addresses the role of IT in organizations and the various technologies comprising the broader area of information technology, and their interworking. A total of seven courses at the graduate level build strong foundation skills in core subject areas and develop analytical, critical, and creative thinking. Elective courses guide students into functional IT subjects, or allow a broader focus, affording students the ability to develop skills necessary to take on the many challenges present in this constantly evolving field. Students who join the program should expect to acquire the core knowledge and skills needed to understand and assist in the development and management of IT systems.
To receive the Certificate in Information Technology from Southern States University, students must successfully complete the four (4) required core courses and three (3) electives for a total of 26 credit hours, which is equivalent to 260 contact hours. Students must complete the requirements within a five (5) quarter period.
Demonstrate a good understanding of the role of IT in organizations and the various technologies comprising the broader area of information technology, and their interworking.
Demonstrate understanding of the information systems life–cycle.
Exhibit information systems project management skills.
Assist in the design a complete IT system with database, networking, and other technologies and tools comprising IT.
Have the skills necessary to obtain at least an entry-level job in an IT-related position within one year of graduation from the program.
SSU has updated and released the next edition of the SSU GENERAL CATALOG . In your first term with SSU all you will be asked to sign a form indicating receipt of this digital document as part of your in-processing.
These forms are provided for you to complete and submit via email to save you time.
You will receive a receipt once processed.
The DVA and the DoD have a one-stop source of benefit information and personal data for veterans and their dependents. The website www.ebenefits.va.gov is available now. Signing on for “premium” registration can take up to a week, but “basic” registration is relatively quick. With “premium” registration you will be able to check on the status of your compensation and pension, view your DVA payment history, apply for the home loan certificate of eligibility, and request copies of your military record. Your premium registration information will come in a letter from Department of Defense, Human Resources Activity, Defense Manpower Data Center about a week after you make your online request. Follow the directions in the letter to complete your registration. Note: your user name may change to firstname.lastname (all in lower case) after registration.
The 2016 Federal Benefits for Veterans, Dependents and Survivors is available online.
These links lead to some of better-known veteran service organizations. You should not only look at the general organizations (such as Veterans of Foreign Wars- VFW) but also specific organizations dedicated to helping veterans of a specific conflict, disability, or background.
California Department of Veterans Affairs (CDVA) Listings.
You are strongly encouraged to seek assistance from these organizations in gaining any benefits that you or your dependants are entitled to based on your service. This listing doesn’t imply endorsement of any particular organization by SSU.If you would like your veteran organization listed with us, please contact our Veteran Services Officer.
Please plan ahead. The DVA pays the Chapter 33 Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) one month in arrears: meaning you won’t get the housing money for June until July at the earliest. Additionally, active duty members (including those on terminal leave) and their dependents with transferred entitlement to Chapter 33 will NOT receive BAH until the period of active duty has ended. Finally, effective 1 August 2011, the DVA will not pay educational benefits, including BAH during intervals between terms.
You deserve an education worthy of your service. Make your investment in your education count when you attend Southern States University.
You’ll find that SSU offers one of the lowest tuition costs available online and is approved for Military Tuition Assistance and veterans GI Bill benefits. Whether you use Military Tuition Assistance, veterans benefits, tuition reimbursement, cash, third party billing or financial aid, you’ll have help every step of the way.
Learn more about your education benefits*.
* Please note: Military.com is not affiliated with the United States government. The U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Coast have not approved, endorsed, or reviewed this website.
Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) Calculator. Follow the link to learn an estimate of how much BAH you can receive on a monthly basis.
(MyCAA) The My Career Advancement Account Scholarship Program is a workforce development program that provides up to $4,000 of financial assistance to eligible military spouses who are pursuing a license, certification, or Associate’s degree in a portable career field and occupation.
Sign up for MySECO (Spouse Education and Career Opportunities) which focuses on education and career preparation for military spouses.
Please be advised that final approval for transfer credits will be determined on a case-by-case basis depending on individual student’s prior military/learning credits and applicability to desired programs.
Take your DSST Exam at SSU’s own testing center in Irvine ,San Diego, Las Vegas.
Request a Joint Services Transcript to see how you can maximize your experiences.
The Military Education Outreach (MEO) Team acts as a liaison between the military education community at Department of Defense (DoD) installations worldwide and the university. The team visits installations to meet with current students, attend education fairs and base graduation recognition ceremonies, and meet with education staff to ensure SSU students have the support and resources they need to be successful.
How can I find out the latest changes on the Post-9/11 (Chapter 33) GI Bill?
There were major changes made to Post 9-11 (Chapter 33) benefits on 4 January 2011 due to a revision in the law. The DVA has posted these changes on their website. It is important to keep checking the page as the law does change periodically and the benefit amounts and periods for payment can (and do) change without notice.
What documents should I provide to SSU's Veteran Services Officer in order to start processing for my benefits?
Gathering all of these documents prior to applying for benefits with the Veteran Services Officer will dramatically speed up your processing.
You need to bring us a copy of your VONAPP (Veteran Online Application) for benefits if you just started the process. If you already have your Certificate of Eligibility letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), bring that in instead.
The Member Copy 4 (the long version with the character of service on the bottom) of the DD214.
Copies of your military transcripts (SMART, AARTS, CCAF, DD 295): summaries are preferred.
Bring a voided check from the account where wish your benefits to be deposited.
Sign the SSU Veteran Student Statement of Understanding (SOU*).
Complete the SSU Veteran Benefit In-take Sheet*.
Have your Social Security Number (SSN), a physical address, an email address that you check regularly, and a valid phone number. Ensure that emails from anyone “@ssu.edu” are not blocked. Email is our primary means of contacting you with concerns about your benefits.
FOR EACH TERM: Once you have registered, complete the online declaration form* and email it to the Veteran Services Officer to declare your classes for benefit payment. This final step is what will actually start your benefit processing for the term.
If you are a Chapter 35 (Survivors’ and Dependents’ Assistance) recipient, you must also bring us the DVA file number for your case with suffix.
Always bring us any correspondence you receive from the DVA.
*These forms are available on this site.
Why do I have to declare my classes each term and why do I have to tell you about my adds and drops?
The various GI Bill programs are all elective benefits, meaning that you have to ask for them, they are not automatic. The Veteran Services Officer cannot determine by himself if you wish to receive benefits or not. You have to make an affirmation that you wish your benefits to be expended. Some veteran students may plan on taking advanced degrees in addition to those offered at SSU and choose not to use benefits for our classes, but save them for future courses or programs. By declaring classes you are positively stating to us that you wish to “spend” your benefits with us.
Quickly declaring classes with the Veteran Services Officer is especially important for Chapter 33 (Post-9/11) and Chapter 31 (Vocational Rehabilitation) students. Chapter 33 and 31 students get their tuition paid as part of their benefits but because of the typical processing delay, their payments won’t be received in time to prevent them from erroneously being dropped for non-payment. THE SOLUTION: Chapter 33 and 31 students must declare their classes using the online form as soon as possible, but always within five days of term start.
Students under other benefit programs would also benefit from rapid declaration – it allows us to start the processing of your record: the first step toward getting that benefit check! Remember, if you are under any DVA benefit other than Chapters 31 and 33, you will have to pay for your own tuition, out of pocket.
Adds and drops affect the amount of your benefits. We need to find out about these immediately so that we can adjust your account with the Department of Veteran Affairs. Otherwise you may become deeply indebted to the government or you may not receive your needed benefits in a timely manner. SSU does have systems in place to “catch” such changes, but they do take longer than if you simply let us know when you make those changes. Delay = Debt.
How long does it take to process my application and receive benefits?
It depends on a number of factors, but please remember that the DVA pays “in arrears” meaning that they pay AFTER each month of schooling is complete – not before – so even the fastest possible processing will still mean you will not see any payments until at least a month after the term starts.
Processing benefits is a two-part process. First, the Veteran Services Officer here at SSU has to submit a certification of your classes to the DVA. We will do this as quickly as possible but it may take a week, especially during peak enrollment periods. Once your certification is submitted, the DVA can take from 6-8 weeks to generate your initial payment. This means it is important that you save up enough to meet your obligations for up to three months if you do not plan to work while attending school.
What does that percentage on my Certificate of Eligibility letter mean?
The DVA “Certificate of Eligibility” letter* informed you that you were entitled to a given percentage of Chapter 33 benefits based on your length of service as determined by the DVA. If you are at less than the 100% rate, you are responsible for the difference in tuition and fees – you will also receive only that percentage of the BAH each month and your annual book stipend will be reduced to match the percentage.
For example: Let’s assume you have a $1000 tuition bill for a full-time load and you have been rated at 70% benefit entitlement by the DVA. The DVA will send SSU 70% of your tuition ($1000 * .70 = $700) and you will owe SSU the remaining 30% of your tuition ($1000 – $700 = $300). This percentage of payment also applies to all approved fees. You would also receive 70% of the current BAH each month: so assuming $2100 BHA per month, that would be $1470.
DVA would still pay 70% of the tuition for the courses – $700, you would still own $300.
Your BAH would be the 70% of full amount ($1470) times 80% (75% load rounded to the nearest 10) or $1176 per benefit month.
Note: Only the DVA can perform these calculations and determine the percentage of eligibility. The SSU Veteran Services Officer only reports the tuition, fees, and course load. The VSO doesn’t have access to how these calculations are performed: students need to request an “audit” of their account from the DVA if they have questions or call 1-800-827-1000 to speak to a representative.
I just received a direct deposit from the DVA in my bank. Can you folks at Veteran Services tell me what it is for?
No, we can’t. We might be able to guess what that payment could have been for – but all it would be is a guess. The DVA does not report to us any payments made directly to students (just as they don’t tell us what the overpayments are for). The only person the DVA will tell about your payments or overpayments is YOU. You will have to either call the DVA at 1-800-827-1000 and ask them to “audit your account” or go online at DVA Right Now and ask them to perform the audit.
Unfortunately, at this point in time the DVA doesn’t have the capability, even under the eBenefits site, to give you details on the reason for payments. They are aware of how important this is and they are working at developing a system that can handle it.
What is the current BAH rate for Chapter 33 in San Diego?
Monthly Housing Allowance payment amounts are based on the Department of Defense’s Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) rates for an “E-5 with dependents” for the zip code of the school. BAH rates can be found at this website (ignore the security warning that pops-up, military sites don’t follow typical internet protocols). Currently (2017) in San Diego, the monthly BAH rate is $2532.00 as of 2018.
Monthly Housing Allowance amounts are prorated based on a student’s benefit level (determined by the DVA based on length of service) and may be further reduced based on a less than full-time rate of pursuit, rounded to nearest multiple of 10. Benefits are only payable when the rate of pursuit is more than 50%, and the student is not on active duty.
What load do I need to take in order to receive Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) under Chapter 33, the Post-9/11 GI Bill?
To receive this benefit during our typical (ten-week) terms, you must attend classes at over the half-time load. At SSU, this means for undergraduate veteran students, you have to take more than six APPROVED credit hours of class during the term. For graduate students, you must take more than four credit hours during the term. In other words, both undergraduates and graduates must take a minimum of two four-credit courses that directly lead to your degree in order to get BAH benefits. So long as you maintain over a half-time course load of approved courses, you will receive the benefit, however, if you drop a class and fall to half-time or below, your benefit will stop effective on the class drop date.
Should SSU later develop interim courses of fewer than ten weeks in duration, a different means of determining sufficient attendance will be promulgated.
I am under Post-9/11 GI Bill, how do I get paid BAH?
Your Chapter 33 BAH payments will be made via direct deposit by the DVA. The DVA pays benefits “in arrears,” meaning your payment will be received in the month after it was earned. So, for example, your September BAH deposit will be made in first part of October. Note: you will not be paid BAH if you are currently on active duty (even if on terminal leave) as your service branch is already providing you with that benefit. This is also true in the case of dependents with transferred benefits.
Where does my Post-9/11 GI Bill money go for books, supplies, tuition, and fees?
A direct deposit by the DVA will be made in your personal bank account for your book and supply stipend – the amount varies depending on the course load you are carrying until you hit the annual maximum benefit of $1000. The DVA pays the school directly for tuition and fees. If you have paid for some of the fees the DVA will pay for, or if you are receiving any fee waivers, you will be sent a refund check from the school.
The DVA will not pay for any extraneous fees: fees for things like parking, student activity cards, and for course tuition fees for non-approved courses. Those fees are your responsibility.
How does dropping a class affect my GI Bill benefits?
Classes dropped during the “drop period” (based on the catalog deadline dates) do not count toward the “training time” requirements of the DVA – whether or not a refund of tuition was given. This can affect your benefits. For example: if you were to receive tuition and BAH under Chapter 33 (Post-9/11) because you started the term with nine units and then you dropped a 4.5-unit class at the end of the drop period, you would face an overpayment action. The DVA would consider that you were only enrolled in 4.5 units (9 – 4.5 = 4.5) for that term so you would not be eligible for BAH payments and you would have to pay back any BAH received for the term. Additionally, you would owe the DVA for the tuition payment made to SSU for the dropped class – even if you are not entitled to a SSU refund of that money!
Classes dropped after the drop period but on or before the “last day to drop with a ‘W'” date in the catalog will receive a “W” grade which the DVA considers to be a “punitive grade” meaning the drop affects your academic progress and/or GPA. Such punitive grades do NOT result in a DVA overpayment action unless the punitive grade directly leads to termination from the College due to unsatisfactory progress. However, from that course drop date through the end of the term your training time will be calculated without the dropped class – meaning a Chapter 33 veteran may have BAH stopped toward the end of the term if the dropped class brings the veteran down to half-time or less.
You cannot drop a class after the “last day to drop with a ‘W'” date in the catalog. You will receive a grade for the course.
Can I repeat a course and still be paid benefits?
Yes, if you failed a course, you can repeat it and still receive benefits, so long as the course is required for your degree. If you received a “D” you may be paid if the course is a required for your degree and you need a grade of “C” or above to meet the graduation requirements.
You cannot receive payment for courses taken elsewhere and repeated here. That is why you must get official copies of your transcripts to the Registrar and a copy to the Veteran Services Officer as soon as you can after enrolling in our program.
I am under Chapter 33 and I plan on taking all online classes for the term. Will I still receive BAH?
You are still eligible for BAH, but at a significantly reduced rate. The DVA’s rules on distance (online) learning and the housing allowance say that students whose enrollment is exclusively online are only eligible for a maximum of 50% of the national average of the monthly housing allowances times the percentage of entitlement AND the rate of pursuit, all rounded to the nearest multiple of 10 percent. If a student’s enrollment for the term has both online (distance learning) and resident training (standard classroom instruction) and they are taking more than a half-time load, then the monthly housing allowance can be paid for the period of residence training at the local rates.
NOTE: Basic eligibility requirements for Monthly Housing Allowance benefits (that is, that veteran students must maintain a rate of pursuit greater than half-time (>50%) remain unchanged.
Is it better for me to withdraw from a class or take a failing grade when it comes to my GI Bill benefits?
This is an important question that potentially affects your GI Bill benefits as well as your academic progress. You should speak to your academic counselor to determine what impact a failing grade or withdrawal will have on your academic status and call to the DVA for specific details before you make a final decision. This answer provides general guidance only.
The key point from a benefit standpoint between a “W” grade and a failing one is when the class is considered to have ended. When you choose to drop a class and receive a “W” grade, your training time credit for that class ends on the date of the drop. If you continue in the class and end up with a failing grade, your training time credit for that class continues until the scheduled end date of that class. Dropping training time credits can impact your GI Bill benefits, especially for Post-9/11 veterans.
Let’s consider two students, Juan and Julie. Both are Post-9/11 veterans who have nine credit hours of training time and both are doing very poorly in a 4.5-unit history class this term. Juan decides to drop the class after the drop period but two months before the end of the term, Julie stays in class and ends up with an “F” grade. How did their decisions affect them?
Juan’s training time drops to below half-time on the date of his course drop (9 units – 4.5 units = 4.5 units, defined as less than half-time in the catalog). His eligibility for BAH stops at this point for the rest of the term. He loses two months of BAH — over $4000. The DVA will not try to take back his BAH from the first part of the term and they won’t ask for the tuition back for the dropped course because the “W” is considered a punitive grade (see FAQ “How does dropping a class affect my GI Bill benefits?”).
Julie continues to receive BAH until the end of the term. The DVA will not take back the tuition for a failed course. Julie can then re-take the class and receive payment for the second attempt under certain circumstances (see the FAQ “Can I repeat a course.”).
As you can see – this is not a decision to be taken lightly. Please consult your professor, the DVA, and your academic counselor before making your final decision.
Can I apply for other financial aid while I am using my GI Bill benefits? | 2019-04-20T07:07:05Z | https://www.ssu.edu/va-students/ |
This article is about historical rolls of arms as presented in the works State Arms of the Union (1876) and Series 1882BB National Bank Notes. For the present coats of arms of the United States, see Armorial of the United States.
Historical coats of arms of the U.S. states date back to the admission of the first states to the Union. Despite the widely accepted practice of determining early statehood from the date of ratification of the United States Constitution, many of the original colonies referred to themselves as states shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed on 4 July 1776. Committees of political leaders and intellectuals were established by state legislatures to research and propose a seal and coat of arms. Many of these members were signers of the Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, and United States Constitution. Several of the earliest adopted state coats of arms and seals were similar or identical to their colonial counterparts.
State Arms of the Union, illustrated by Henry Mitchell and published by Louis Prang (known as the father of the lithographic industry), offers historically accurate renderings of the state's coats of arms as they existed in 1876. An accomplished engraver with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for 40 years, Mitchell was responsible for engraving several coats of arms for official state use as well as arms for well-known educational and philanthropic organizations. The illustrations are presented alongside proof impressions from the engraved dies used to print the state arms on the first issue of United States National Bank Notes.
Heraldic arms were worn (embroidered) on a coat which knights wore over their armor, hence coat of arms, a term which dates back roughly 1,000 years to jousting tournaments.
A state coat of arms may exist independently of the seal, but the reverse is not generally the case. A seal contains a coat of arms or other devices whereas a state coat of arms constitutes the bulk of a seal, except for the wording identifying it as the "Great Seal of the State of..." A "seal" has been described as the design impressed on public or legislative official documents, whereas a coat of arms generally appears for illustrative purposes. Examples include flags and banners, and state militia uniform caps and buttons, as well as specifically-designed regimental coats of arms for U.S. Infantry Regiments, and National Guard units.
A coat of arms of a nation or state is usually the design or device of the obverse of its seal. It is an official emblem, mark of identification, and symbol of the authority of the government of a nation or state. A nation or state's coat of arms is oftentimes referred to as the national or state arms.
The design of a state coat of arms or seal has generally been authorized by a provision in the state constitution or a legislative act. In most instances a committee (more often than not consisting of three members) was appointed to study the issue, seek advice from qualified artists, historians, legal scholars, etc., and report back to the authorizing legislative body with a design for their approval. Historically, this committee has consisted of notable members of society and elected officials.
The first committee to design the Great Seal of the United States was appointed on 4 July 1776 by the Second Continental Congress and consisted of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson. Their design was rejected on 20 August 1776. The second committee (James Lovell, John Morin Scott, and William Churchill Houston) design met with the same fate. It was the third committee (Arthur Middleton, Elias Boudinot, John Rutledge, who consulted with William Barton) that submitted a design which was approved on 20 July 1782.
Individual states approached their coats of arms and seals in a similar manner (i.e., seeking direction from the statesmen and scholars of their community). A few of those involved in the design of state arms and seals include (but is not limited to): John Jay and Gouverneur Morris (New York); Francis Hopkinson (New Jersey); David Rittenhouse and George Clymer (Pennsylvania); and George Mason, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin West, and Thomas Jefferson (Virginia).
One of the more compelling legislative actions recognizing the legal importance/authority of the state seal and arms occurred in February 1873 when a joint session of the United States Congress refused to recognize Arkansas's electoral votes in the November 1872 presidential election. The official tally of the state's electoral votes was submitted with an invalid seal (bearing the coat of arms of the office of the Secretary of the State of Arkansas versus the seal of the state of Arkansas bearing the state arms).
Courts and state legislatures also opined on the inappropriate uses of state seals and arms. Most states barred their use for any kind of advertising.[nb 2] Reproduction for corporate use was similarly prohibited and such infractions were classified as offenses against public property. The 2003 Code of Federal Regulations pertaining to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives prohibits the use of state seals or coats of arms in product branding so as not to mislead the public into thinking that a commercial product has been endorsed by a government organization.
Ohio's seal depicts Mount Logan (elevation 1,243 ft (379 m)) and nearby summits in Chillicothe.
A state coat of arms provided an opportunity to convey the natural and industrial resources available to its residents. Common themes depicted in state arms include farming, industry, transportation (e.g., boats, trains, and wagons), and nature (e.g., sunsets and mountains). The Ohio and Indiana state arms depict fairly substantial mountains in the distance. In reality, the highest points in Ohio and Indiana are Campbell Hill (1,550 feet (470 m)) and Hoosier Hill (1,257 feet (383 m)) respectively.
The Florida state arms also depicts mountains in the distance but the highest point in the state is 345 feet (105 m) feet high. In addition to the distortion of local geography, the image also contains historically inaccurate information. The period depicted in the state arms (c. 1830) was a time when the local Seminole Native Americans were hostile toward white settlers; the warm greeting (e.g., flower petals strewn on the ground) offered by the Seminole to the arriving steam ship would have been highly improbable. Furthermore, the Seminole woman depicted would not have worn any headdress, particularly one of northern and western Seminole tribes.
Published in 1876 by Louis Prang and illustrated by Henry Mitchell, State Arms of the Union contains a chromolithographed title page depicting the Great Seal of the United States and seven color plates with 45 state and territorial coats of arms. The book was likely published for the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.
Louis Prang was born 12 March 1824 in Breslau. At the age of 13 he began apprenticing for his father and learned to dye and print calico, as well as wood and metal engraving. Prang emigrated to Boston in 1850 and became an illustrator for a number of local publications. Starting a business partnership in 1856 to manufacture copper and lithographic plates, Prang became sole proprietor in 1860 and named the company L. Prang & Co. He specialized in color printing, more specifically “chromolithography” Prang spent over four decades studying and creating a standard of colors and engraved and printed maps, prints of contemporary celebrities, and color reproductions of famous works of art.
In 1875 Prang was responsible for introducing the Christmas card to America. He created an annual design competition for his Christmas cards (run between 1880 and 1884), and judges included John La Farge, Samuel Colman, Stanford White, and Louis Comfort Tiffany. Some of the notable winners included Elihu Vedder, Rosina Emmet Sherwood, Edwin Blashfield, Thomas Moran, and Will Hicok Low. Prang has become known as the "father of the American Christmas card", as well as the "father of the lithographic industry".
Henry Mitchell was born in New York in 1835 and went to school in Philadelphia. At the age of 10 he began working with his uncle to learn the trade of gem and steel engraving. By the age of 20 (1855), Mitchell had engraved the official seals for the Kingdom of Hawaii.
In 1868 Mitchell joined the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and for 40 years engraved stamped envelopes. Through his BEP work, Mitchell was also responsible for engraving the seal of the Secretary of the Navy and the Internal Revenue Service. He also engraved the state seals for Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Outside of state and federal government engraving, Mitchell engraved the seals and coats of arms for many well-known institutions which include Harvard University, Society of the Cincinnati, and Boston Public Library. He engraved the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition award medal (1876) which was struck in the Philadelphia Mint. In 1891, Mitchell was invited by the Secretary of the Treasury to join a committee to evaluate the artistic design proposals for a new issue of U.S. coins. The two other members were Charles E. Barber, Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
In addition to being considered an expert on heraldry, Mitchell was regarded as one of the best engravers and medal designers in the United States.
The National Bank Act (12 Stat. 532) authorized the issue of a national currency. Historical vignettes on the front and back were the same by denomination (e.g., Landing of Columbus was on the reverse of all $5 notes) and the state coat of arms (located on the reverse left side) was coordinated with the geographic location of the issuing bank. Records do not clearly state who bore the responsibility for the design of the state arms (i.e., the U.S. Treasury Department, or the three bank note companies contracted for engraving and printing). It appears that the first dies (for New Jersey, Missouri, Minnesota, and Vermont) were completed by the American Bank Note Company by 9 October 1863 based on their own drawings. State arms appeared on the reverse of the Original and 1875 Series notes (first and second issue of the first design), and the 1882 Brown Back Series (the second design) of National Bank Notes.
The main table contains four columns. Location refers to either the territory or state and is linked to the most relevant article (e.g., Seal of... or Coat of arms of...). All but one of the illustrations are included in a relevant article. Coat of arms contains the State Arms of the Union illustrations. National Bank Note contains the state arms found on U.S. National Currency between 1863 and the 1890s. Information lists the date of statehood and/or territorial organic act date and the date the state or territorial arms were accepted by constitutional convention or legislative assembly.
When State Arms of the Union was published in 1876, some existing arms were not included (e.g., Arizona and Washington Territory). At the time, Alaska was classified as the Department of Alaska (1867–84) and became the District of Alaska (1884–1912) before becoming the Territory of Alaska (1912–59). The Alaska territorial seal was designed in 1910 and adopted in 1913. On 3 January 1959 Alaska became the 49th U.S. State. The Oklahoma Territory (1890–1907) Organic Act was approved on 2 May 1890, and a territorial seal was adopted on 10 January 1893. Hawaii, formerly the Kingdom of Hawaii (1795–1893), Republic of Hawaii (1894–98), and then Territory of Hawaii (1898–1959) became the 50th U.S. State on 21 August 1959. None of the territories or states mentioned above had a coat of arms represented on national currency.
^ Tickner et al. v. Roberts , 11 La. 14 (Louisiana Supreme Court March 1837) ("...notarial instruments were required to be authenticated by a seal, containing the coat of arms of the territory, the name and surname of the notary, his official capacity, and the place in which he exercised his office...the protest in this case, lacking the seal, which the law of that State prescribed, it appears to us, ought not to be received in evidence in our courts."). .
^ For example, see Commonwealth v. R.I. Sherman Manufacturing Company , 189 Mass. 76 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court 8 Sep 1905) ("The Massachusetts statute prohibiting the use of its arms or seal for advertising or commercial purposes is not in conflict with the clause of the Constitution of the United States investing Congress with power to regulate commerce among the several states"). .
^ Although the pictured example is from a 1776 colonial note, the arms depicted was designed and adopted on 25 October 1711.
^ a b c d Although the example used is a Series of 1882 Brown Back, the coat of arms on the first issue 1860s notes used the same engraved dies for the arms.
^ Any missing images in this column indicates that at that time of publication (1876) a given territory had not attained statehood and/or did not have an official territorial coat of arms.
^ The date listed for the adoption of the state arms refers to the design illustrated in State Arms of the Union. Column sort function is chronological based on the date of statehood (ratification of the U.S. Constitution) or territorial status (Organic Act).
^ The Kansas state coat of arms on the back of the 1882BB was engraved by Timothy House of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
^ The Kentucky coat of arms on the back of the 1882BB was engraved by Alfred Jones of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
^ The illustrated Louisiana coat of arms represents a small design change in 1864, but the concept and design elements were in place since 1813.
^ The Louisiana coat of arms on the back of the 1882BB was engraved by Louis Delnoce of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
^ The illustrated coat of arms of Maryland was the tenth version of the seal, and a restoration to the description offered by Lord Baltimore on 12 August 1648).
^ The Maryland coat of arms on the back of the 1882BB was engraved by W.W. Rice of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
^ In 1861 Mississippi adopted a coat of arms and state flag. However, in 1865 the approval was rescinded leaving Mississippi without official state arms until 1894. On 6 February 1894 the proposed design for the state coat of arms was approved.
^ The Missouri seal and arms were designed by Judge Robert William Wells.
^ According to the State Constitution of Montana, in the event of a transition from a Territorial to State government, the Territorial Seal would remain effective until expressly changed by legislative action.
^ The illustrated arms represent the change from the territorial to state arms. However, the BEP engraved arms were never updated.
^ New Jersey coat of arms was designed by Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere.
^ The New Mexico coat of arms (territorial or state) was never used on National Bank Notes.
^ North Dakota was admitted to the United States on 2 November 1889 (after the 1876 publication of the State Arms of the Union).
^ While the seal of Ohio had experienced several unauthorized varieties in use, in 1868 legislature reverted the official design to the initial seal from the state constitution of 1803.
^ The Rhode Island state coat of arms on the back of the 1882BB was engraved by Timothy House of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
^ South Dakota was admitted to the United States on 2 November 1889 (after the 1876 publication of the State Arms of the Union).
^ The Tennessee state coat of arms on the back of the 1882BB was engraved by Timothy House of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
^ On 25 November 1862, Vermont legislature formally recognized the existing seal and coat of arms.
^ The coat of arms was engraved in Paris and not ready until 4 September 1779.
^ The Virginia coat of arms on the back of the 1882BB was engraved by James Bannister of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
^ The Washington Territory seal was authorized (but never described) during the first session of the Territorial Legislature on 28 February 1854 The coat of arms appearing on National currency was a new design adopted after statehood.
^ Drawings by Joseph H. Diss Debar.
^ Pinnock, William (1840). A Catechism of Heraldry: Explaining the Nature and Use of Arms and Armoury. Whittaker and Co. p. 3.
^ Clark, Hugh; Wormull, Thomas (1854). An Introduction to Heraldry. Henry Washbourne & Co. p. 1.
^ Clark, Hugh; Wormull, Thomas (1854). An Introduction to Heraldry. Henry Washbourne & Co. p. 3.
^ Nainfa, John A. (1909). Costume of Prelates of the Catholic Church: According to Roman Etiquette. John Murphy Company. p. 139.
^ Crabb, George (1823). Universal Technological Dictionary or Familiar Explanations of the Terms Used in All Arts and Sciences. 2. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. p. 466.
^ a b c Tannehill, Joseph W. (1917). Ohio Interrogation Points. Vic Donahey (Auditor of the State). pp. 19–20.
^ Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (1985). State of Wisconsin Blue Book (1985-1986). Department of Administration (Wisconsin). pp. 958–960.
^ Moore, Opha (1907). The Great Seal of Ohio. The Ohio Illustrated Magazine. 2. The Ohio Magazine Publishing Company. pp. 252–53.
^ Crabb, George (1823). Universal Technological Dictionary or Familiar Explanations of the Terms Used in All Arts and Aciences. 2. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. p. 466.
^ a b Harris, John T. (1916). West Virginia Legislative Handbook and Manual and Official Register. The Tribune Printing Co. pp. 350–51.
^ Utah Military Department (1902). Regulations for the National Guard of Utah. p. 79.
^ Adjutant General's Office (1901). Rules and Regulations Governing the Kansas National Guard. W.Y. Morgan, State Printer. p. 108.
^ Swinton, William (1870). History of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, State of New York. Fields, Osgood, & Co. p. 3.
^ a b "The Texas State Seal". Texas Secretary of State. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
^ a b c Hunt, Gaillard (1911). The History of the Department of State. The American Journal of International Law. 5. Baker, Voorhis & Company. pp. 415–32.
^ a b Preble, George H. (1917). Origin and History of the American Flag. 2. Nicholas L. Brown. p. 616.
^ Grimes, J. Bryan (1907). The Great Seal of the State of North Carolina. R.D.W. Connor, Secretary. p. 26.
^ a b Pilcher, James E. (1902). The Seal and Arms of Pennsylvania. W.I. Stanley Ray (State Printer). p. 6.
^ The Encyclopedia Americana. The Encyclopedia Americana Corporation. 1919. p. 362.
^ Journal of the Thirteenth Senate of the State of New Jersey. Morris R. Hamilton. 1857. p. 45.
^ Evans, 1910, p. 31.
^ a b "Use of the Great Seal of Utah". Utah Department of Administrative Services. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
^ a b Counting Electoral Votes: Proceedings and Debates of Congress Relating to Counting the Electoral Votes. Government Printing Office. 1876. p. 407.
^ Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. 2. Bureau of the Census. 1975. p. 1069.
^ Hinds, Asher C. (1907). Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United States. 3. Government Printing Office. p. 272.
^ Use of Seal and Coat of Arms by Corporations. The Corporation Journal. The Corporation Trust Company System. 1915. p. 53. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
^ Offenses Against Public Property. Laws of the State of Delaware. 28. Chas. L. Story. 1915. p. 687.
^ Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms. Code of Federal Regulations. Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. 2003.
^ Galbreath, Charles Burleigh (1902). "Seals and Ohio flag". Monthly Bulletins of the Ohio State Library. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio Board of Library Commissioners. 2 (4): 1–5 – via Google Books.
^ Huntoon & Shiva, 2013, p. 12.
^ Ferriter, Robert M. (2009). "United States Interstate Mapping System" (1 ed.). Robert M. Ferriter Publications: 205. ISBN 9781434371133.
^ Ferriter, Robert M. (2009). United States Interstate Mapping System (1 ed.). Robert M. Ferriter Publications. p. 202. ISBN 9781434371133.
^ Ferriter, Robert M. (2009). United States Interstate Mapping System (1 ed.). Robert M. Ferriter Publications. p. 162. ISBN 9781434371133.
^ a b c Davis, T. Frederick (1924). "Florida's Great Seal: Its Historical Inaccuracies". Publications of the Florida Historical Society. Florida Historical Society. 3 (2): 16–19. JSTOR 30138842.
^ "State Arms of the Union". Antiquarian Booksellers Association. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
^ a b c d e "Louis Prang, Father of the American Christmas Card". New York Historical Society Museum & Library. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
^ a b c d "Louis Prang Paper (1848 – 1932)". Archives of American Art/Smithsonian. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
^ a b c d "Printer Louis Prang issued 'Checks'". Bank Note Reporter. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
^ a b Louis Prang Dead. The American Stationer. 65. Lockwood Trade Journal Company. 1909. p. 3.
^ Proceedings of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Annual Meeting. Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. C.M. Barrows Company. 1910. p. 53.
^ a b Proceedings of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Annual Meeting. Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. C.M. Barrows Company. 1910. p. 54.
^ a b c Death of Henry Mitchell. Geyer's Stationer. 48. 1909. p. 4.
^ a b c d Proceedings of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Annual Meeting. Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. C.M. Barrows Company. 1910. p. 55.
^ a b c d e f Obituary – Henry Mitchell, Engraver. The Numismatist. 22. American Numismatic Association. 1909. p. 310.
^ Making the Government's Stamped Envelopes. Harper's Weekly. 51. Harper & Brothers. 1907. p. 249.
^ Dammann, Theodore (1929). The Great Seal and Coat of Arms of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Blue Book. The State Printing Board. p. 876.
^ Giberti, Bruno (2002). Designing the Centennial. The University Press of Kentucky. p. 161. ISBN 0813122317.
^ Annual Report of the Director of the Mint. Government Printing Office. 1891. p. 70.
^ "New Designs for our Silver Coins". The Times (Philadelphia). 30 May 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 9 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Current News of the Fine Arts". The New York Times. 19 August 1894. p. 19. Retrieved 9 August 2014 – via Newspapers.com.
^ a b Blake, George Herbert (1908). United States paper money. George H. Blake. pp. 22–23.
^ Proceedings of Select Committee. Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives (First Session, Thirty-Eighth Congress). Government Printing Office. 1864.
^ Proceedings of Select Committee. Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives (First Session, Thirty-Eighth Congress). Government Printing Office. 1864. p. 274.
^ Zieber, 1895, p. 117.
^ a b Zieber, 1895, p. 112.
^ Shankle, 1941, p. 183.
^ Shankle, 1941, p. 184.
^ Zieber, 1895, p. 118.
^ a b c d e Organic Acts for the Territories of the United States. Government Printing Office. 1900. p. 3.
^ Kingsbury, George W. (1915). The History of Dakota Territory. The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 268.
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Stauffer, David M. (1907). American Engravers Upon Copper and Steel. The Grolier Club of the City of New York. | 2019-04-18T15:24:45Z | http://hitchhikersgui.de/Historical_coats_of_arms_of_the_U.S._states_from_1876 |
Hi David, here is Rinpoku-Pc's setup, if you don't like it you can pick a different one.
Is it possible to post Ekay-Jay's full set up though? Only got the suspension screenshot in what you shared before and would like to see the rest. I'd prefer to use Ekay's since he's using a wheel.
That cars only good TT. Pretty shite setup to be fair. I ran 1/4 wings on my own setup and beat it in private test quite easily with 35%brake ducts and 25% radiator. Only thing making this fast is optimum track and 0% ducts/rad and driver, obviously.
I suspect with patch 4 these hard tyre setups will be irrelevant. We'll all be on softs like assetto.
Thanks for the share blink. Not criticising you, obviously.
Sorry, it is kind of a c*** shoot. The setup worked for plok, interesting he tried asymmetric setup, never worked for me. For most tracks you will still be running hard tires with the new patch. The Huracan is pretty good now.
For most tracks you will still be running hard tires with the new patch.
Agreed! At least with my tests so far, it seems that the softs have become a lot faster than before, with a much wider range of working temperatures, but the hards are still a little faster, for the temps they are supposed to work with. At least that's what I'm seeing so far.
Hi cpcdem, have you had a chance to run the softs on one of the cooler tracks in TT like Hockenheim GP? The fastest time since Patch 4.0 is still running Hards there.
It's exactly where I tested! With patch 3 and the 488, I had managed a 39.1 (hards), now after patch 4 with the softs I did a 39.7 and with hards a 39.4 I think. Not mentioning those times for comparison with patch 3, with more laps maybe I'd manage better, but just wanted to point out that softs didn't feel better than hards, but about the same. First part of the lap, times were identical, but after the middle I felt I was losing a little grip with the softs. Hards were more consistent for me.
Of course others may have different results, but personally I definitely not see anything like "softs are much better than hards now".
a friend of mine is really struggeling with the Acura NSX Gt3 on Laguna Seca. It would be very nice if you could help him out with a good setup.
Hi TrueValue, here is Berserkers run, no changes to the dampers, really stiff springs and increased negative front toe.
OK, here is Ale28's setup.
Thank you sir. Are pc times typically faster than console times?
Hit or miss, depends on popularity of the car/track. The Cayman run you have is mostly Default, rear camber -.2 less on rear, arb down 5 rear, tc and abs that's it. The car runs very good at Default setups. Check out the RBR times for this car, on PC it's 1:36.401, what is it on your platform?
Hi sim26, here is the esteemed ProffessorMeowington Phd's setup. No changes to the Dampers.
Ok, well if you haven't looked it up already you would be 7th at Laguna Seca and 15th at RBR, pretty good don't you think?
Hi blink I'm back again. Looking for anything on the GTA cars please buddy.
Hi jan2726, welcome back. Which GT4 and track are you interested in? The Cayman is still good but at RBR the KTM is now closer.
Search the WMD Portal for what you want, use runs made 11/29 or later. I'll get what you decide on.
I fell in love with the Bentley GT3 in pcars 1, haven't had much time to test it in #2.
Questions ...how does it measure up against the rest of the group ?
There are two to choose from now , anyone know which is better ?
And finally does anyone have a decent base tune ?
Well that is closer to your goal.;) Still off the TT Default runs made on PC but maybe you are running a Custom race with different track conditions?
Hi blink not gt4 sorry I mean the vintage GT A. The old tourers Ferrari 365 GTB4 Competizione. Nissan fair lady 240zg, Chevrolet camaro 69, jaguar E type v12, Ford Mustang 66 RTR.
Got a club league race starting with them. I was a bit off the pace with the default stable.
Track wise anything that's there. Nurb gp?
There are actually 3 to choose from considering the endurance version, but they should all be identical. Unfortunately the Bentley is a bit slower than the other cars but it's getting a little hp buff with patch 4.
Hi maxx69, the Bentley isn't competitive. It received a slight horsepower increase with Patch 4.0 but still on most tracks it is in the back half of the GT3s. All 3 of the Bentleys are the same, I would pick the Endurance one because I like the Yellow livery.
Use the WMD Portal to search for the track you are interested in and I can get the setup for you.
I use to pick the endurance version as well, but I like the british racing green type of livery. Such a shame it's not as competitive as the other cars.
Ok, sorry, the Camaro seems to be the favorite. Here is the Nurburgring setup. Sorry, there just aren't many runs at this track. There are more runs at RBR and Laguna Seca. The run I have posted is mostly Default Loose but at least he made some changes to the dampers.
Cheers blink. Guess I'm just off the pace in these bloody cars then.
There were barely 30 runs total with these cars at Nurbrurgring GP, around half at least were Default and most barely had any adjustments if they were adjusted. It is probably because most people agree with you that the handling of these cars is "bloody" awful.
Thanks for the info concerning the beautiful Bentley , guys .
Still think I'm going to drive it in our next championship amongst a sea of Ferrari's no doubt .
First race is at Le Man's Bugatti circuit which should neutralize the bhp issue.
Yeah, on PC it's the Audi R8 at 1:36.168 then Porsche GT3 R at 1:36.239 followed closely by the Ferrari, BMW and Huracan in the low 1:37s. Bentley, Nissan and AM Vantage in the mid to high 1:38's.
Just did a 15min qualifying in the Bentley on default stable setup (ish ...removed some fuel and zero front wing and 6 rear ) around Bugatti and was in the 1:38s on Hard's .
So with some setup and practice I think I can shave a couple seconds off .
Car feels pretty good on default to be fair .
Good for you, the 138.880 run on PC TT(1/7 Aero) is a Default Stable so you are there. The Huracan, R8 and Ferrari are quicker since the Patch 4.0. Someone ran the Bentley with the new patch to a 1:22.766 at Laguna Seca, only 3 tenths behind the patched Huracan so if you want to spend the time on your favorite car there is hope, track dependent of course.
I'm searching for a decent setup on the Ginetta g40 gt5 at Brands GP. Any advice would be much appreciated.
I found my Donington set up faired pretty well here, but think I can squeeze another half second out with a few tweaks!
Yup, ps4 guys still waiting on that patch!
Ok, here is the Patch 3.0 run by RWB Warmos. It's not the first time I have seen this but it is unusual, he has increased the front toe from -0.1 to -0.4 which should make it more stable in a straight line but resist turning/cornering so you may want to look here if you have problems with this setup.
Thanks for this blink. Will give a go soon and give feedback. I might have a fiddle with camber to help sort out the midcorner understeer that seems endemic of these cars. Very different to the gt3s!
Ok, but that front ARB at 180 and the toe at -.4 would seem counter to what you want. You can only reduce the ARB to 140 but there is room in the front slow bump to move up from the 7600.
Increased toe in a bit and reduced front arb. Also got tyre temps evenly around 1.6 bar.
Still struggling to get under 1.40, but going to do a 10 lap test tonight to see how I do with fuel drop and tyre wear.
Reckon I'd have a pretty competitive race trim against most folks with that.
Ok, the front -0.4 toe seems too much and might cause the inside edges of your tires to wear out in a race(I think), normally most cars can be cornering with -0.1. If you want to turn in quicker increasing the slow bump could help a car that is understeering.
Look at the setup, the tires are doing all the work in turning. The slow bump is reduced, toe is high at -0.4 and camber is -3.8 all these together would seem to me will cause your tires to wear out too quickly in a race.
Ok, I have never driven this car before. I can't do more than 1 lap. You are probably braking too much in my opinion. This is what I was doing. After driving mostly 500 horsepower or more cars most of the time I wasn't paying attention to the fact that I was now driving a 160 horsepower car. I would brake too hard and then I didn't have the power to accelerate so to me the key to a good time with this car is to ease on the brakes so you don't kill your momentum. Let me know if you want my setup.
Great advice blink with the braking and maintaining momentum, but I think you mixed up negative and positive toe. With a negative toe (toe out) your cornering ability increases at the cost of straight line stability.
Apologies, yeah, I tried to correct it in my following post. I guess I could have edited but what the heck I've made worse mistakes. With the high toe and high camber your tire wear should increase which I guess is ok for TT but I don't think it is necessary. The top 2 drivers used this setup but they were only a little better than 1 tenth quicker than a default Loose at -0.1, perhaps because they also reduced their slow bump to 7600. I also shifted the brake bias more toward the rear because at the track there wasn't really a corner where you wanted to be hard on the brakes and I wanted as much turn in under light braking as possible. I really blew the first right hander into sector 3(at least they let you use the cubing now PC2) and braked incorrectly into the next left. I had to do this in pieces, never completing a lap. Then I made all my adjustments and steeled myself to make an attempt at a full lap which is possibly why I blew sector 3 so badly, hadn't seen it with this car. Since 12/02/17 I have managed to complete a grand total of 4 laps on a road course. The first was a BMWV12 LMR at Silverstone National which I f'd up. The second was a Boss 302 R at the same track which I improved my time on. The 3rd was a Toyota Rocket Bunny Street at Mojave Coyote Noose(don't ask) and now this one.
Hi mcooley9891. You get Soft, Medium and Hard Corsas for the road cars but the GT3 and most others you get Hard or Softs. Some other cars get Track and others Slicks that's it. The game has rules that comply with sanctioning body requirements for various classes so you are stuck if you want the game to be realistic. This is my understanding and it might be wrong.
Cheers Blink, and thanks for the correction on toe/turn in/straight line stability relationship Rich.
I have been boning up on this stuff on iracing, so good to know my understanding is correct on that front.
Blink, you do too much sterling work for that minor error to be a problem!
I have raced predom gt3 and group a cars, both of which have plenty of grunt, so dealing with a car with 2/3 less power is a different experience. Love the challenge.
Momentum is everything, so corner entry seems key, and like you say, Brands has flow to it, not requiring much heavy braking.
Moving break balance to rear seems best option for reduction in understeer.
Also, I'm going to increase toe in and increase slow bump to help corner speed, while improving tyre life by reducing 'scrub' from toe angle.
Might look at camber as well, but let's see how we go tonight.
Ok, here is what I tried to run. Brake Balance 58/42, only made 1 attempt so you're right, could have gone more without worrying about locking up the rear. Probably could have further reduced rear camber as well, not much power to worry about sliding out under power.
I gave your setup a try and its pretty damn good. I'm down in the 1.38.1s now, so significant improvement!
I ran a click firmer on rear ARB for back end stability and a touch more camber as compensation, tyre wear was managable over 10 laps(though tyre heat was becoming an issue due to sliding a bit).
Cool. I think we get used to driving the high powered race cars and when we jump into the lower powered, along with limited adjustability, cars we aren't ready. That's the way it is for me anyway.
On a completely different animal - have you got any setups floating around for any Group c monsters? Porsche 962 at Brands GP setups at all?
A Patch 3.0 run by Joe Frietas at 1:16.042 for the 962 C, nothing for the Langheck. Interested?
Here is Joe Frietas Brands Hatch GP run. Are you a purist? If not you can possibly do better by switching off the spool and going with the Clutch LSD.
Thanks Blink. Interesting you ask, I am a bit of a purist and try to replicate my sim racing with reality as much as possible.
I've been reading a technical analysis of the Porsche 956/962s in Motorsport magazine and they mention this car had a fixed spool diff.
Ok ScoobyDave, you've probably already read this article too but just in case here it is.
I probably don't know what you want.
Instead of this? Or in addition to this?
Picked just a random screenshot with random Car.
In the time trials i couldnt loan a setup from a contender. Would be nice if that was possible. Now in the time trials you just see the same cars all over in every track top 30 setup.
But arm there is no way to borrow a setup from a slower car.
I can pm you me setup?
Hi Kilg0re NL, the best TT run on PC is a 1:39.980 for this car. The other GT3s on PC are running 1:25's to 1:38s at Bugatti. This is not to say with a lot of dedication you can't get the SLS to do better but the newer cars have such an advantage that you will most likely always be slower. Let's take a look at the 1:39.980 run and see if there is anything that might be helpful. By the way, the Default Loose runs on PC are in the 1:40s. As you can see he has added a lot of downforce especially on the rear and his front springs are also considerably stiffer. He has effectively turned both TC and ABS off and made no changes to the LSD. All this to gain 0.259 seconds over a Default Loose run.
I wish they had done that but unlikely, sorry.
Corvette C7.R GT3 Spa Francorchamps.
Hi sim26, Franz Lembeck's Huracan run at Brands Hatch GP.
Hi sim26, Lapin's Donington Park GP Huracan run.
Hi NonEven, here is Rinpoku-pc's Nordschleife run.
Hi Pissan777, V8 Supercar at Silverstone, Patch 3.0.
Hi Rob, Patch 3.0 SLS.
Could I request a setup for the Pagani Zonda R on the Nordschleife night time run? I prefer the Zonda but would take any decent setup for a Pagani on this race.
Rinpoku's run is a Default.
That's what I was afraid of. haha. Thank you.
Hey, keep an eye on this thread.
Hello again Blink :) Is it possible to get a setup from Zhuhai for the Mercedes AMG GT3 (The newer model).
Just curious as to what is number 1 on TT for Ginetta G57 for PC and Xbox for Donington National (PS4 57.494), and what are there set ups?
Hi Skellen08, you can always check here http://cars2-stats-steam.wmdportal.com/index.php/leaderboard?track=3100947921&vehicle=1433352906 to see what the PC times are but I don't know of anyway to get the Xbox TT times. I can get the PC setups for you but not the Xbox.
You don't have the patch yet so no new tire model and since you don't have the patch no access to the improvements made.
Thanks Blink, and yes please to the set ups.
Ok, here is Cluck's setup for Bathurst with the R32. Cluck is usually so good here that he just runs Default setups but for this car he is using a custom.
OKC, sorry, I had to go back to a Patch 3.0 run to find a setup with any changes. He has really lowered camber so look at increasing camber if you have issues.
Sorry HUSARIA, this is it, patch 3.0, tire pressures need to be lowered.
Thanks Blink. After I got home I practiced for about an 1 1/2hr. Tinkering w/ the RBR tire pressure, brakes etc.. the best I could do was a 57.776. Quite a drop off from the custom race last night of 55.5. IDK if it was fatigue, the career weather or what bu5 I was not good. I was running AI at 70 and aggression 65. I’ll try again tomorrow but I just can’t get comfortable w/ this car. Maybe I’ll change the car and try Brno settings at RBR.
Hey, I am doing better. What are the weather conditions you have so maybe I can duplicate them? Also, try Hockenheim and Oschersleben.
I’ll check the temp. It was basically overcast and a bit cooler. Not wet at all. That time is awesome!! I’m glad to see you’re able to branch out from strictly ovals now too. I’ve got a question. With the tire pressures set at 14.50 the right front was really a lot lower after they got warm. Should I bump this up?
Oh wow I just realized that I had been using softslicks in the custom race. Maybe that’s the difference!
Cool! Soft slicks don't work for me at all!
It’s actually the first time I had tried them. I’ve got to get better on the Hards/real tires for the series.
Ok. Better now, just doing runs against top 10 guys in TT. Hey, I'm really not interested in doing laps here. If you can't beat my time with your setup I can give you my setup which is really conservative(i.e. not Loose). My setup has almost too much understeer, which I believe you to like better than the oversteer setups you mostly get from TT.
Hockenheim Short. You should do well here.
Oschersleben B, good to go as well.
I just finished the RBR race with the Hockenheim set up. Practice was P1 55.297, qualifying was P1 55.406, finished the race P2 with best lap a 55.819. I officially hate turn 1 as well as the next to last corner lol!
Hey, I have a pretty good setup for Hockenheim now too. Some differences from f.peters.
Cool, so far good winners.
Oh that’s so awesome! I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Mopar muscle. My dad bought a ‘71 340 new but sold it a year or so before I got my drivers license. Probably a wise move. It was Gun Metal grey with black decals/trim.
Those two Hockenheim setups are a blast! I only got to do a quick 10 min. On each but they were both so fun. The first setup I did a 109.760, the second I did a 110.214. Both can be improved upon greatly. I’m really liking the Cayman on this track! The handling seems to be so different. You just kind of throw it around and it sticks.
Hockenheim turned out to be a wet race. I put it on the pole but I spun on lap 3 and 7 and finished P8. Oh well.
On to Oschersleben B! What a GREAT TUNE! I have to increase the AI quite a bit after dominating this race. Fast lap was a 109.818 and won race easily. With the win I moved into 1st by 4 points. On to Brno!
Congrats Demon! Have a great race.
How did you manage with the 1st turn at Oschersleben B? Is that where the A.I. were having issues?
Tricky to be sure. I had trouble hitting my braking point consistently. I kept chickening out and bailing too early. Much better than too late though. The AI were not really a factor for the race. That’s why I have to bump them up quite a bit for Brno.
Hi Big, here is the Ginetta.
Hey Bashmo, here is TX3 Stu's run, it looks as though he is using mostly the Engine Braking at 1 to slow the car instead of brakes, just easing off the accelerator.
OK, Daytona Road Course F40 LM.
All the runs are mostly old, might as well go with Stu's.
Hi guys, I'm looking for a good setup for Bathurst with the Audi gt3 lms. Hopefully I'm here in the good section for this question.
Hey, most of the runs are really old, don't know how the more recent patches have affected the car.
Well, you know when I started doing this it was just to give the console users a heads up about the Loose setups they didn't have at first. Then when the 3.0 patch was released I still hadn't realized how difficult it was for console users to use the setup sharing feature on their platforms and failed to anticipate the volume of requests so my way of just posting them as received quickly became cumbersome as it went to multiple pages so I modified it so at least you could get to the correct page where the setups were located. Then in the patch 4.0 thread Kilgore wanted the setups in Alphabetical order which helped a little in some ways and then in patch 5.0 I used Kilgore's alphabetical listing and added david's shortcut link so you could go directly to the specific setup which I hope has made it better. :) Of course I am open to suggestions to make things easier.
Lotus 78 Ford, Hockenheim Classic.
BMW M3 Sport EVO Group A, Monza.
Lotus Type 78 Cosworth, Sakitto GP.
BMW M6 GT3, Texas Road Course.
Porsche 911 GT3, Catalunya GP. | 2019-04-22T08:05:48Z | http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/archive/index.php/t-58129-p-2.html?s=8f856a5c4ef7eb09f22b839532f0e1f4 |
Screening for hyperaldosteronism should include assessment of plasma aldosterone and plasma renin activity or plasma renin (Supplemental Table S7).
For patients with suspected hyperaldosteronism (on the basis of the screening test; Supplemental Table S7, Item iii.), a diagnosis of primary aldosteronism should be established by demonstrating inappropriate autonomous hypersecretion of aldosterone using at least one of the manoeuvres listed in Supplemental Table S7, Item iv. When the diagnosis is established, the abnormality should be localized using any of the tests described in Supplemental Table S7, Item v.
In patients with primary hyperaldosteronism and a definite adrenal mass who are eligible for surgery, adrenal venous sampling is recommended to assess for lateralization of aldosterone hypersecretion. Adrenal vein sampling should be performed exclusively by experienced teams working in specialized centres (Grade C)..
If pheochromocytoma or paraganglioma is strongly suspected, the patient should be referred to a specialized hypertension centre, particularly if biochemical screening tests (Supplemental Table S8) have already been found to be positive (Grade D).
For patients with positive biochemical screening tests, localization of pheochromocytomas or paragangliomas should employ magnetic resonance imaging (preferable), computed tomography (if magnetic resonance imaging is unavailable), and/or iodine I-131 metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scintigraphy (Grade C for each modality).
An excess of aldosterone as a cause for hypertension (primary aldosteronism) has traditionally been considered relatively rare (approximately 1% of hypertensive patients). However, recent studies using improved diagnostic methods have suggested that forms of hyperaldosteronism are much more prevalent, perhaps occurring in up to 15.5% of hypertensive patients and even 1.5% of normotensive subjects (1-6). Primary aldosteronism, is often caused by an aldosterone-producing adrenal adenoma, idiopathic hyperaldosteronism/bilateral adrenal hyperplasia, unilateral hyperplasia, and less commonly adrenal carcinoma and familial hyperaldosteronism (glucocorticoid remediable or non-remediable). Differentiation between unilateral and bilateral forms of aldosterone hypersecretion has important treatment implications. Unilateral forms might be amenable to improvement or even cure with adrenalectomy. In contrast, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists are the treatment of choice for bilateral hypersecretion and in patients who are not able or not willing to have surgery.
Hyperaldosteronism may be associated with the full spectrum of the hypertension severity, from mild to severe. Often, primary hyperaldosteronism is asymptomatic. Symptoms attributed to primary aldosteronism are nonspecific and have classically included weakness, cramps, and nocturia. While hypokalemia is suggestive of primary aldosteronism when present, its absence should not be relied on to exclude the diagnosis. In some reports, hypokalemia has been found in less than 50% of confirmed cases of primary aldosteronism (4,7). Although plasma and urinary aldosterone concentrations are elevated, and the plasma renin activity concentration is very low, individual values of these parameters have low sensitivity and specificity.
The ratio of plasma aldosterone concentration to plasma renin activity may be determined as a screening test (8-11). We express plasma aldosterone in pmol/L (conversion factor from ng/dL: multiply by 27.74) and plasma renin activity in ng/mL/h (conversion factor from direct renin/renin mass assay in ng/mL: multiply by 0.206; this conversion factor varies among laboratories). Standardization of units is further complicated because some laboratories now measure renin mass/direct renin rather than plasma renin activity. There is no easy conversion, because the percentage of active renin varies considerably. When analyzing the ratios, it is extremely important be familiar with locally used units so there is no confusion/errors in interpretation.
We selected a ratio (greater than 750 pmol/L/ng/ml/h (1)) for screening to be consistent with other organizations; therefore, we recommend confirmatory testing for those with higher ratios. The most appropriate method of measuring renin remains a contentious issue (12). It is increasingly common to measure direct renin/renin mass (or renin concentration) in place of plasma renin activity. While direct renin/renin mass measurements are considerably easier to perform, renin activity may be more precise, particularly when active renin concentrations are low. The test results and the units in which these results are expressed will depend on local laboratory services. The various units in which the results may be expressed may bewilder the clinician and as such, a table with estimated conversion rates is appended (Table 5). Because of possible laboratory-to-laboratory variation in technique and reference ranges, clinicians who use these conversion factors should confirm these conversion values with their local laboratories.
Uncorrected hypokalemia (K+ <3.3mmol/L), severe sodium restriction, and administration of renin-angiotensin inhibitors, diuretics and DHP-calcium channel antagonists may cause false-negative ratios and beta-blockers can cause a false positive (13). Other factors that can interfere with interpretation include renal dysfunction, oral contraceptives, NSAIDs, and in particular mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. If possible, alpha blockers, hydralazine, and/or verapamil should be used for blood pressure control while testing since they have minimal interference with biochemical testing (but this may not be possible depending on the risk and clinical situation). The ratio should be measured in patients that have been ambulatory for at least 2 hours using morning specimens drawn after sitting for at least 15 min (1,4,14). The value of these ratios appears to be primarily in defining a subpopulation with a high rate of confirmed primary aldosteronism (29% to 93%). Aldosterone levels below 330 pmol/L are rarely associated with hyperaldosteronism, even if the ratio is elevated.
Options for confirmation of autonomy of aldosterone secretion include one or more of those cited in the recommendations above (4,15-17). This includes oral sodium loading, intravenous sodium loading, or captopril suppression testing. In all cases, aldosterone supressibility, ascertained through plasma or 24hr urine aldosterone, is a normal finding. Few studies have assessed the comparative utility among this repertoire of testing options (17). In the presence of familial hyperaldosteronism, glucocorticoid-suppressible hyperaldosteronism should be ruled out with genetic testing.
When the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism is confirmed, differentiation among possible causes should be attempted using functional assays and/or adrenal imaging (18-20). Regarding imaging, CT scanning is the first imaging test of choice due to sensitivity; specificity is reduced because of incidentalomas (22,23). Adenomas greater than 1 cm in diameter are more readily detected, but those smaller than 1 cm in diameter are difficult to detect. Regarding functional testing, direct measurement of aldosterone secretion using AVS is widely considered to be the gold standard technique to determine lateralization (24-27). If AVS is not available, localization with 131iodine-labelled iodocholesterol under dexamethasone suppression can be performed, but is not widely available and may yield false negative results if the lesion is < 1.5cm (23). Even so, use of AVS might be limited because of technical challenges and reportedly high procedural failure rates, because of difficulties in localizing the adrenal veins (especially on the right side) because of small vessel size and variations in anatomy (30). In a retrospective study of 5 centres using the German Conn’s registry, successful bilateral catheterization was only achieved in 30.5% of cases (31). Performance appeared to be related to technical proficiency. Accordingly, when strictly performed by experienced teams in specialized centres with high throughput, some have reported impressive AVS success rates of > 90% (28,33-38). Therefore, AVS should be exclusively performed at experienced centres to minimize the risk of potential failed catheterizations and unnecessary procedural complications.
Numerous studies have reported significant discordance between conventional cross-sectional imaging with CT and AVS.63-68 Accordingly, reliance on imaging alone to determine lateralization might result in inappropriate treatment decisions and both imaging and functional testing are recommended in most cases.
Aldosterone-producing adenonas can usually be removed by unilateral adrenalectomy, usually laparoscopically, with good surgical and hypertension outcomes along with normalization of potassium levels (41-43). However, a significant proportion of such patients remain hypertensive and, therefore, warrant close follow-up especially if strong family history of HTN, multiple medications required pre-op or BP control, older age, and longer duration of HTN (41,43-45). Aldosterone antagonists, particularly spironolactone in low to moderate doses, are quite effectivein idiopathic/bilateral hyperplasia hyperaldosteronism and moderately effective even in those who are not surgical candidates or refuse surgery for aldosterone producing adenomas (46), reducing both blood pressure, normalizing potassium, and the need for multiple drug therapy (12,46). Blood pressure lowering responses to other potassium-sparing diuretics, ACEIs, ARBs and calcium channel blockers are modest-to-moderate (47).
Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGL) are an infrequent cause of hypertension (less than 0.3%) (37,38). The prevalence is greater among patients with adrenal incidentaloma (4%) (50,51). Because of the low incidence of pheochromocytoma/PPGL, the significant risk of severe adverse sequelae (stroke, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, CHF, cardiomyopathy, and particularly abrupt onset of malignant hypertension), and specialized therapeutic interventions, we recommend referral of individuals suspected of having pheochromocytomas/PPGL to centres with experience in their management.
Pheochromocytoma/PPGL may present with a wide spectrum of clinical features, including those that are not generally attributed to excess catecholamines (41). Paroxysmal or severe sustained hypertension, labile hypertension, hypertensive crises triggered by beta-blockers or monoaminoxidase inhibitors, surgery, anesthesia, or symptoms such as severe headache, palpitations, sweating (a common triad of symptoms), pallor, tremulousness, syncope, weight loss, abdominal pain, paroxysmal hypertension with micturition, require investigation for pheochromocytoma/PPGL (49,52,53). Other suggestive signs include orthostatic hypotension, tachycardia, palpable flank mass, polycythemia, hypercalcemia, shock, port wine hemangiomas (von Hippel-Lindau disease), thyroid tumour, and mucosal neuromas, cafe au lait spots or the presence of several axillary freckles. It is important to note that persons with pheochromocytomas/PPGLs may also be normotensive and asymptomatic, particularly those with familial forms (about 10% of cases) (52). About 10% of Pheochromocytomas/PPGLs are extra-adrenal, bilateral, familial, malignant, recurrent, in children, and present with stroke (Rule of 10’s).
The differential diagnosis of pheochromocytoma/PPGL does include panic attacks, migraines, carcinoid, thyrotoxicosis, sepis, MI, dysautonomia, CNS lesions, certain drugs, cocaine, and drug/toxin withdrawal and a newer entity called pseudopheochromocytoma. However, these are diagnoses to consider once Pheochromocytoma/PPGL is ruled out.
Currently, the most widely used screening approach is a 24 h urine collection for the assessment of urinary fractionated metanephrines (catechol-0-methyltransferase metabolites of catecholamines), which are reported to have a sensitivity over 90% (48) and urinary catacholamines (sensitivity over 80%). Because of lower sensitivity, we advise against using urinary or plasma VMA measurements as screening tests. Concurrent collection of urinary creatinine concentration permits a creatinine correction to adjust for completeness of the 24 h collection (54,55).
However, in other cohorts of patients with pheochromocytoma/PPGL, urinary metanephrine testing has been reported to be less sensitive (56). Assays of plasma metanephrines measurements have exhibited a high sensitivity (56-58). However, this assay is not widely available. A negative plasma fractionated metanephrine measurement can be used in a low-risk setting to rule out pheochromocytoma. This is based on a systematic review (59) that demonstrated a pooled negative likelihood ratio of 0.02 (95% CI 0.01 to 0.07) for a negative plasma fractionated metanephrine measurement in predicting pheochromocytoma/PPGL in patients with sporadic pheochromocytoma (low-risk group) (60). Given the low specificity a positive result in a low-risk setting (refractory hypertension) should be interpreted with caution.
When borderline results are observed (only one panel of tests is abnormal, no hard clinical findings are present, mild elevation in results, false positive concerns), the 1st step is to repeat the testing. The clonidine suppression test is an option for differentiating pheochromocytoma from other conditions if the above approach is still equivocal. In three separate assessments, it was associated with sensitivity estimates of 73% to 100% and specificity estimates of 74% to 100% (61-53). Concerns regarding the glucagon stimulation test have included low sensitivity, false positives and the triggering of hypertensive episodes, and thus is seldom used or required (63,64).
Localization of pheochromocytomas/PPGLs should include CT +/- MRI imaging and if indicated, 123 or 131 iodine MIBG scintigraphy, octreotide scanning or PET scanning. MRI is associated with a sensitivity of 98% to 100% for adrenal pheochromocytomas and 88% for extra-adrenal lesions (65,66). While aggregate estimates for the sensitivity of CT and MIBG imaging are 89% and 81%, respectively, they are much lower for bilateral (66% and 62%) and extra-adrenal (64% and 64%) pheochromocytomas/PPGLs (65). A combination of anatomical (MRI or CT) and functional imaging (MIBG) may often be desired because of reported low specificity of MRI and CT (50%) and higher specificity of MIBG (88% to 100%) (67-69). MIBG/Octreotide/PET scanning may (70) be useful to detect metastatic disease for persons with malignant pheochromocytoma/PPGL (71-74).
The assessments of therapeutic interventions for managing pheochromocytomas/PPGLs are based on small case series, at times with comparisons with historical controls. While these reports are methodologically weak, it is important to note the historically high mortality rates associated with this diagnosis when untreated or unsuspected (75,76), particularly if resected before the use of perioperative alpha-blockade (mortality of 25% to 50%) or if surgery occurs in persons with unsuspected pheochromocytoma (77,78). This compares with the currently low perioperative complication rates and expectations of a cure when benign pheochromocytomas/PPGLs are laparoscopically resected (52,79-81). In addition to alpha blockade 10-14 days pre-operatively, it is vital to have adequate volume replacement and liberal sodium intake since volume contraction is common in this condition. Other anti-hypertensives can be added as necessary but diuretics should be avoided if possible. Oral beta-blockers, usually necessary, should only be started after a few days of adequate alpha blockade to control tachycardia and prevent arrhythmias during surgery.
Alpha-blockade with prazosin, doxazosin or phenoxybenzamine has been studied following diagnosis and as part of preparation during the preoperative period (82-85). While prasozin was associated with blood pressure reduction and diminished symptoms, it did not prevent blood pressure rises during surgery, and intravenous phentolamine was often required. Currently, phenoxybenzamine is the oral alpha blocker of choice pre-operatively (it is a non-selective, irreversible alpha blocker) but it has no DIN number and requires Health Canada special access (86-92). Three controlled case series have reported favourable effects on blood pressure control, need for intravenous phentolamine, blood loss and volume replacement of approximately one month of preoperative administration of the catecholamine synthesis blocker alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine (metyrosine) (93-95). Metyrosine can be considered if a inoperable/malignant Pheochromocytoma/PPGL is present and as an adjunct to alpha blockade pre-operatively in rare instances. Again, it has no DIN number.
Laparoscopic resections of pheochromocytomas/PPGLs, when compared with nonrandomized, conventional transabdominal adrenalectomy control subjects, have been associated with longer procedure times, comparable or less intraoperative cardiovascular instability, less blood loss and more rapid convalescence (80,81,96). Our recommendation to administer intravenous volume expansion in the perioperative period to avoid postoperative shock is supported by evidence from only small case series (97,98). However, it is also supported by pathophysiological rationale, including vasodilation after excision of the tumour, the residual effects of pre- and intraoperative alpha-blockers and intra- operative fluid loss.
Undetected pheochromocytoma during pregnancy carries a particularly high risk for both mother and fetus (99). Nuclear scanning and CT scanning is contraindicated so MRI is preferred for imaging/localization. Management depends on gestational age and should be individualized, but carried out in centres with experience in the management of both high-risk obstetrics and pheochromocytoma. In early pregnancy, if a decision is made to terminate the pregnancy, this should be carried out under alpha- and beta-blockade, followed immediately by tumour resection. In late pregnancy, alpha- and beta-blockade, followed by elective cesarean section and immediate tumour resection is recommended.
Patients with inoperable or metastatic malignant pheochromocytomas may be considered for treatment with combination chemotherapy and/or high doses of 131 iodine MIBG or Indium-111 labeled octreotide. The combination of cyclophosphamide, vincristine and dacarbazine has been associated with tumour and bio- chemical response rates of 57% and 79%, respectively, and improved performance status and blood pressure control (100,101). The possible but uncertain benefit of chemotherapy should be balanced against recognized chemotherapy-induced toxicity. High dose 131-Iodine MIBG has been associated with reduced symptoms, tumour size and possibly death (61). The methodology employed to assess the benefits of both of these approaches is not strong.
For patients with pheochromocytomas/PPGLs long-term follow-up studies measuring urinary or, where available, plasma metanephrines should be performed because recurrence after laparoscopic partial or unilateral adrenalectomy may occur and especially more frequent with the familial forms. Genetic testing of first degree family members for the familial forms should be considered for those with a family history of Pheochromocytoma/PPGL, <50 years in age, multiple lesions, malignant lesions, and bilateral Pheochromocytoma/PPGLs.
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None of us were born knowing how to control big emotions and our children will take a while to learn. This is okay – time is something they have plenty of. In the meantime, the job for us as the adults in their lives who care about them, is to nurture their ability to manage their emotional responses in healthy, adaptive ways.
Of course, it would be a lovely thing if the small humans in our lives were born knowing how to stay calm, or with the capacity to respond to disappointments with the adorability of a sleepy kitten, but that’s just not how it was meant to be. Young children don’t have the words to describe what they want, or to explain how they feel. The sheer frustration of this can make them vulnerable to being barreled by the big feelings that can overwhelm any of us from time to time.
Self-regulation is being able to manage feelings so they don’t intrude heavily on relationships or day-to-day life. This might involve being able to resist ‘losing it’ in upsetting or frustrating situations, or being able to calm down when big feelings start to take over.
Self-regulation is NOT about ‘not feeling’. Locking feelings away can cause as much trouble as any outburst. There is nothing wrong with having big feelings. All feelings are valid and it’s okay for kids to feel whatever they feel. What’s important is how those feelings are managed. The key is to nurture children towards being able to acknowledge and express what they’re feeling, without causing breakage to themselves, their friendships or other people.
When children are able to regulate their emotional responses, they become less vulnerable to the ongoing impact of stress. They are also more likely to have the emotional resources to maintain healthy friendships, and the capacity to focus and learn. Research has found that the ability to self-regulate is a strong predictor of academic success.
Every outburst is an opportunity to steer them in a different direction and to strengthen the skills they need to name and manage their emotions in a way that works for them, without the seismic fallout that can happen when kids are unable to regulate their emotions.
High emotion and tantrums are NOT a sign of bad parenting or bad kids. They are never that. Taking tantrums or wild behaviour personally can make it more difficult to use them as an opportunity to nurture valuable skills in your child. It can be easy to feel judged when our kiddos choose the top of the escalator on a busy Saturday morning to throw themselves on the ground because you peeled their banana all the way to the bottom and nothing – nothing – can ever be the same again, but you are raising humans, and it’s hard and it’s important and the path is a crooked one with plenty of uphills, downhills, and hairpin curves. Some people will never understand. Let that be their problem, not yours.
My child does body throw-downs like they invented the move. When is the lack of self-regulation a problem?
All kids are different, and they will develop according to their own schedules. As anyone who has small humans in their lives will know, there are some things they just won’t be hurried on – breakfast when you’re in a hurry, stories at bedtime, and of course, the potentially life-altering decision of what to have on their toast. And self-regulation – they won’t be hurried on that either. All good things take time, and when you’re trying to master an art, patience is required from your entire support crew.
By school age, most kids tend to have the foundations for self-regulation. This doesn’t mean they’ll get it right all the time – they won’t. What it means is that by about age five, most kids tend to be fairly able to regulate their emotions most of the time. By this age, they can generally wait a short while for something they want, take turns, focus on what’s being said to them, and they are less likely to bring out their wild side when things don’t go their way.
Not all kids will grow out of difficult emotional behaviour by school. Sometimes, difficulties with self-regulation are just a matter of emotional immaturity. Sometimes, it can be a sign that there might be an underlying issue. Some of the common ones are ADHD (difficulty focusing and frustration with not being able to complete certain tasks can lead to high emotion), anxiety (tantrums or aggressive behaviour can be driven by anxiety – it’s the fight part of the fight or flight response), or learning difficulties (again, driven by frustration).
Of course, just because your child might be struggling with self-regulation, that doesn’t necessarily mean there is an underlying issue. It’s just something to keep in mind if there is a constant struggle with self-regulation that doesn’t seem to show much improvement by school age. Remember though, all children will develop at a different pace, and all will struggle with self-regulation until they strengthen the skills. Regardless of age or stage of development though, opportunities to strengthen the capacity for self-regulation is something that all children and teens will benefit hugely from.
Gradually. And with plenty of support from a very dedicated and wonderful crew – modeling, coaching, and responding in a way that makes it safe for kids to explore and experiment with their own responses.
The part of the brain that is heavily involved in regulating big emotions and considering consequences – the pre-frontal cortex – won’t be fully developed until sometime in the early 20s. Until then, the brain is wide open and hungry for experiences that will strengthen it in a way that will support them as healthy, strong adults.
We can see signs of emotional regulation in babies, such as when the soothe themselves by sucking their thumb. By about age two, most toddlers are able to wait a little while for something they want, or listen when they are being spoken to. As children grow and experiment more with self-regulation, they will be more able to widen the gap between a feeling and response.
My teen is moody and explosive. What’s going on?
By adolescence, you might notice that your teens are having more difficulty than ever with self-regulation. This is a very normal part of adolescence. During adolescence, the teen brain is powered up with about a billion new neurons. This is to give them the brain power they need for the developmental mountain climbing they’ll do during adolescence – new skills, new experiences, new relationships, new milestones. With so many new brain cells looking to strengthen and connect, things can get a bit hectic up there, which can drive behaviour that is far from adorable. They probably wish it could be different too. Remind yourself that they are being driven by a brain under construction and gently hold the boundaries. (And I know this isn’t always easy!) And then write this on your mirror where you’ll see it every day or whenever you retreat to the bathroom for a deep breath or a chardonnay: ‘It’s a stage. It will end.’ Like all stages, when they have done the important developmental work they need to do, they’ll come back stronger, wiser, more wonderful and more capable than before. For more information on teenage flare-ups and how to deal with them, see here.
What can I do to help my child learn how to self-regulate?
Explain where their big emotions come from.
‘Feelings are important and it’s always okay for them to be there, but when feelings get too big, they can make the thinking, calming part of your brain take a little break until the big feelings are gone. That’s not good for anyone. This is when you can end up making silly decisions or doing things that land you in trouble. Your brain is strong, healthy and magnificent, but it’s important to learn how to be the boss of it, even when you have big feelings. To do this, you need to strengthen the thinking part of your brain at the front of your head. It does a fabulous job when it’s on, but we need to make it stronger so it stays in charge even when the big feelings come. This will take a little practice but for sure you can do it. You’re pretty amazing like that.
So how can you be the boss of your brain when big feelings take over? One of the most powerful ways is to breathe strong, deep breaths. Remember how big feelings can get a little bossy and tell the thinking, calming part of the brain that it’s not needed? Well thankfully, strong deep breathing relaxes your brain enough, so the thinking part can do the magical things it does – calm down your big feelings and help you to make sensible decisions. There’s a teeny problem though – it’s too hard to do new things when you’re really upset, so the way around this is to practice when you’re calm. The more you practice strong deep breathing when you’re calm, the easier it will be to do when you’re feeling upset. And the more you remember to do it when you’re upset, the stronger your brain will be.
Pretend that you have your hands wrapped around a mug of hot cocoa. Breathe in through your nose for three seconds, as though you’re smelling the deeeelicious chocolatey smell. Then breathing out through your mouth for three seconds, as though you are blowing it cool. Keep doing this four or five times, until you start to feel yourself relax.
Using your finger, imagine that you are writing the figure ‘8’. You can do it anywhere you like – on your arm, your leg, your tummy, a soft toy gorilla – anywhere. As you draw the top of the 8, breathe in for three. When you get to the middle, hold for one. Then, as you trace the bottom part, breathe out for three. Let it be a really smooth, relaxing movement, and repeat it a few times. Ahhhh … bliss.
And now to strengthen their brain … Mindfulness.
The research on benefits of mindfulness could fill a small city. Mindfulness works by changing the structure and the function of the brain. First, it strengthens the part of the brain that drives high emotion, so that reacts less automatically or impulsively. Second, it strengthens the pre-frontal cortex – the thinking part of the brain that is able to weigh in and calm big emotions and consider consequences. Finally, it strengthens the connections between the two, meaning that in times of high emotion, the pre-frontal cortex will be quicker and more able to work with the emotion centres of the brain to find calm.
It’s critical not to expect more of children than they are capable of, given their stage of development. Young children just don’t have the capacity to be calm and reasonable all the time. Punishing them for a lack of self-regulation is like punishing them for not being able to fly. It won’t help anything and will run the risk that shame will get in the way of them feeling safe enough to explore a different way to respond. Ideally, it’s best for them to learn the best way to respond by figuring out for themselves the best way to be. Doing something because they know it’s the right thing to do, will be a more enduring and more powerful response than anything that is driven by a fear of the consequences.
But don’t let them outsource the job.
It can be so tempting to smooth the rough edges for them when they have an outburst, but this won’t be doing them any favours. In fact, it will rob them of the opportunity to learn a valuable skill – how to manage their emotions themselves. When we move in too quickly to soothe it or ‘fix it’, we’re not giving them the space and opportunity they need to learn how to self-soothe. This doesn’t mean we leave them to it. What it means is not rushing in too quickly or working too hard to calm them when they get upset and behave poorly.
Let them ‘borrow’ your prefrontal cortex.
When things get wild, try to dampen things down with some pre-frontal cortex sensibility and calm. (The pre-frontal cortex is the calming, thinking part of the brain.) For young children, the pre-frontal part of the brain is still developing, which is one of the reasons it can be sent so easily offline when they are in high emotion. What you can do, is loan them yours. The way to do this is to stay calm, be a strong, supportive presence, and wait for them to catch up. Continue to have boundaries, but before you talk about a better way to do things, lead them gently out of the chaos and into a space that’s calm and settle.
There’s so much for our kiddos to learn, and they will all have their strengths and the things they need a little more coaching on. If your little person needs a hand learning how to regulate their emotions, think of this as just another skill that needs nurturing, rather than ‘bad behaviour’. Shifting the focus from ‘a bad behaviour that needs changing’ to ‘a skill that needs strengthening’ is more empowering for you and your child. It takes the shame away and makes it easier for your child to hear the important learnings you need them to know. It will set the scene for you to work on this more as a ‘team’ and less ‘you vs them’.
Provide a ‘scaffold’ between the behaviour that is and the behaviour you want.
The idea of a scaffold is to provide a bridge between what they know and are capable of, and the skills they need to learn. Give your child just enough to move them forward. Let’s say there is a clashing of minds between your child and a friend over – who’s going to be the policeman and who is going to be the baddie. Your child is getting upset because he has to be the baddie ALL THE TIME because the other child, ‘steals the police costume ALL THE TIME because she thinks she is the boss of the police costume, and I never get to be the police so I always have to be the baddie and that’s not fair because she thinks that the police are allowed to use the yellow cup but the yellow cup is MINE!’ Sounds reasonable.
In this situation, scaffolding might involve coaching the children on the words to use, as opposed to resolving the situation for them. This might not always go in a smooth steady line, but when you’re four and there’s a police costume on the line, it’s not just about who gets to wear the good gear, it’s about power, voice, feeling heard, fairness and feeling validated. If coaching on the conversation doesn’t lead to an outcome that both people are okay with, scaffolding might involve making suggestions, such as taking turns, or playing something else. The idea is that next time a conflict arises, the child can be encouraged to remember the things they tried last time. ‘Do you remember when you had the argument about the policeman’s costume? What were some of the things you did to work through that?’.
Expose them gently to manageable amounts of stress.
Gently expose them to situations that call on their need for self-regulation. The brain builds by experience, and the more experiences they have, the stronger they will be.
Teach them to ‘step back’.
This is a valuable skill for all kids and teens. Stepping back puts distance between them and their behaviour, enough to let the see the bigger picture, or parts of the picture that might be out of their close-up view. When there has been an incident of high emotion, and they are on their way to finding calm, ask them to imagine stepping back and watching what happened as though it was a movie. ‘If someone was doing what you were doing, what would you think of them.’ ‘What do you think they are feeling/thinking/needing?’ ‘What would you want to say to them?’This is a great skill that will build empathy and strengthen that part of the brain that can look logically and rationally at a situation. Don’t worry if they don’t get it straight away, or if they need a little coaching. The more opportunities they have to ‘switch it on’, the more likely it is that they will be able to do this themselves eventually.
Provide the opportunity and support for self-reflection.
Self-reflection is a skill that many adults haven’t yet mastered, but it’s such an important one. When children can explore their behaviour and their feelings in a safe, non-judgemental environment, they are going to find their own answers and wisdom. There are no lessons or learnings that are more meaningful than the ones we find ourselves. To nurture their capacity for self-reflection, calmly and gently, in a non-judgemental, non-critical way, help them to explore their experience. Encourage them to get a sense of what happened when things got out of control. At what point did things start feeling bad? What happened? What happened in their body? How can next time be different?
Accept where they are, but that’s not the ending.
This involves two things that seem to be opposed – acceptance on the one hand, and pushing for change on the other. When they are used together, they can be more powerful than each on its own. To do this, acknowledge that your child is doing his or her their best, ‘I know that you’re doing the best you can right now, and I also know that you can do better.’ The acceptance that comes with this provides a safe, non-judgemental space to experiment with a new way to be. The idea is to teach them the skills they need, while at the same time holding them strong with a gentle, loving acceptance and a belief in what they are capable of. This focuses on the strengths and the opportunity, not the deficiency.
Although some kids naturally have a more even temper, all kids will need a hand to build strong self-regulation skills. Nobody was born with these already established, and all kids will take time to build them up. Remember though, all kids are different. What they lack on one front, they’ll make up for in another. Being able to regulate their feelings and behaviour, self-soothe, and stop very valid feelings spinning out of control are big jobs for all kids, but important ones for them to learn.
You mentioned out-of-control worry. What guidance can you offer for a 6-year-old who feels life-numbing anticipatory anxiety? She fears thunderstorms, imaginary creatures under her bed, etc.
Annelle here is an article with some strategies to try. The fears your daughter has are quite appropriate for her age, but it sounds as though the degree of anxiety she has in relation to them are really intruding on her day to day life. Take your time over the article and try the strategies. Here is another one that can help her to understand what happen’s in her body when she feels anxious and why anxious thoughts can be so convincing https://www.heysigmund.com/anxiety-in-kids/. Hopefully this will help to bring your daughter some much needed comfort.
These articles are very helpful and well written, as well as backed up by research. I have raised 6 children, have 16 grandchildren and a great grandchild. I have worked in the field of early care and education for over 30 years and still do ECE professional development as a consultant. I pass these articles along to families and teachers and use them in my work. Thank you for your free newsletter.
You’re very welcome Carol. You have a world of experience on this. It means a lot to know that the articles are helpful. Thank you for passing them along.
I love your articles. I am a family outreach counsellor and use your articles direct with families as they are written in such a “down to earth” non jargonistic manner.
Thanks Helen. It’s important work you’re doing. I’m pleased the articles are helpful for you and the families you work with.
I really liked the way you described what happens when people aren’t regulated and how to explain it. Nicely done.
Wow! Why is life so challengingly easy?
This article is so thorough and spot on. These are great reminders, even for parents who know all of this stuff on an intellectual level but can forget on an emotional level when things get tough.
This is a great article and I will probably reread it a few times. I have an emotionally explosive 6 yo and have worked really hard with her, but I feel like I just can’t get past a certain point with her. I got a CBT workbook and went through it with her and her older sister, and we did see a reduction in her violence toward her sister and other kids (ie-she doesn’t bite people hardly ever anymore, and she was able to get through her birthday party without hurting any of her guests, which is a win). However, she still hurts her sister more than she should (whenever her sister disagrees with her and I am not in the room, basically), and when she is upset, I try to validate her feelings, ask her to blow on the hot cocoa, ask her to try going to a sit spot and take a few minutes to herself, etc, but she is usually so riled up that all she does is shriek at me, telling me to leave her alone, stop talking, etc, etc. We have a lot going on this year–we are homeschooling (she is in 1st grade), I am pregnant, and Daddy is deployed to Afghanistan. I understand this is tough, it is tough for all of us. I literally feel like if I am not with her at every moment of the day, I can count on her having some kind of altercation with her siblings (especially her older sister) and hurting them. This usually happens if I am upstairs putting the toddler down for his nap, and then I have to spend a half hour getting everyone to calm and understand what they could have done differently, etc. They are capable of having fun together, but they need constant supervision to prevent fights. I am exhausted. She has already sent her sister to urgent care twice since my husband left, with injuries. (Luckily, nothing too severe, but still, wraps and braces were required) This is just going to be a tough year. I am due at the end of January, my husband may or may not be able to be here, and within 3 weeks of his return in June, we have to hand over the keys to our landlord and move cross country. Any ideas to help me when she is in complete breakdown mode and can’t hear anything I’m saying? Thanks in advance!
It sounds like your daughter is going through a difficult time at the moment. When she is in complete breakdown mode, she won’t be able to hear anything you’re saying and will possibly get more frustrated if you try to reason with her. The part of her brain that can hear logical, rational information is ‘offline’ when big emotions take over. That doesn’t mean you don’t draw boundaries about angry, hurtful behaviour, but in the thick of that high emotion just isn’t the time to do it. When she is feeling big feelings, that’s the time to validate her, ‘I can see how angry/annoyed/frustrated are because your sister wanted to play with your toy.’ When you can name what they are feeling, it starts to calm the nervous system. If you can, take her away from the situation and stay with her until she calms down. In that moment, you don’t have to fix anything and you don’t have to change anything. When she is calm, that’s when you can put in place strategies like stepping back, or asking her what she thinks she might need to do to put things right, or talk to her about different ways she could handle things. Also let her give you her version of what happened when she is calm. Even if it is very one-sided, let her know that you hear her – her take on things is important too, even if it is missing some important pieces of information. This will open the way for her to hear you on the things she needs to know. Here is an article about anger and teaching kids how to be the boss of their brain that might be useful https://www.heysigmund.com/raising-kids-emotionally-intelligent-kids-teens-anger-how-to-be-the-boss-of-your-brain/.
Something else to keep in mind is that anger always has another emotion driving it. The common ones are fear, jealousy, anxiety etc. So, if your daughter gets angry at her sister because her sister takes her toy, it may be that she’s scared her sister will break the toy, never give it back etc. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to feel angry, but if you can get to the emotion that’s driving the anger and speak to that, it can be really powerful. For your daughter, there may be all sorts of different emotions driving her anger at different times. If her dad is away, she may be feeling anxious, sad, confused, scared – it’s difficult to know. Her biggest priority is feeling safe, and feeling as though her world is predictable and that the people she loves are okay. I understand the reality is that her world might be a little unpredictable, but whatever you can do to speak to those needs will help. ‘We’re okay. Daddy’s safe and happy and he misses us but he’ll be home soon.’ For kids, time can be difficult to understand. Six months doesn’t mean much, for example. It might help you have a calendar so she can see exactly when he is coming home, and can count down the days, if you think that might help. Here is an article that can help with when aggression is driven by anxiety https://www.heysigmund.com/anxiety-or-aggression-children/.
The most important thing is that you don’t take this personally. As a parent, I know that that feels impossible sometimes, but know that you are doing a great job. You are involved, open and so loving. At six, she is still learning how to deal with her big feelings. It takes time, and that’s okay. She sounds as though she has a very strong and wonderful spirit. You don’t want to shut that down, it’s just a matter of channelling it in the right direction.
Karen, I really appreciate your article. I teach sixth grade, a year when many children experience the challenges discussed here. Where I work now struggles between meting out various “behavioural” consequences for these difficulties and using something like the approach you have articulated so well above. My experience of trying to get from the one to the other is like someone blindfolded in a maze alone. I thank goodness that I keep trying, and I keep trying. Reading your article helps to sustain me and calm down once again. I am grateful for that.
I am missing one idea. A key understanding for me is that children first learn to sooth themselves as an infant and a toddler from the ways that adults sooth them through their daily experiences. I work with a population whose parents and grandparents went through experiences in their childhoods where they could not receive that very comfort and soothing they needed daily to deal with the all to normal ups and downs of their lives then. Some parents held onto these skills for soothing the young. Others are taking steps to relearn them. However, the loss of these experiences at such a young age is clear to me in the behaviour of some of my students. Blame is a useless avoidance. Compassion helps me to stay with a fellow human and not desert them in their moment of human need. It is a tall order and I am not that good at it. As I wrote above, I’m the blind man, alone in maze, trying to find my way out, step by step.
My effort is to find a way to support students who show these (I’ll learned to call them) “developmental delays.” Yet my experience tells me that the challenge of just establishing a rapport with a student, in order to begin this process, is challenge. Not impossible, however it demands patience. I must use the very self soothing that the student needs to learn, to move us along successfully. In that way, I model the very skills that I am encouraging the student to practice. I also try to partner with parents in this approach. Again, it takes patience and may or may not work out, however if it is successful, it makes the task much more successful.
Thanks again for your article Karen. Like I said, I am encouraged and heartened by it.
Michael this is such important work you’re doing. You are right about the importance of early experiences, but a loving, caring adult has enormous potential to make a difference later. The window to learn appropriate behaviours and ways to respond doesn’t close – it gets smaller, but it doesn’t close. When children are young they develop attachment styles. These are related to their feelings of safety in the world and they are established by learning that the adults in their lives will be responsive to their needs and will be there to support them when they start to explore the world outside of themselves, or when they feel big feelings – upset, scared, angry, uncertain.
The problem is that for these kids, there is likely to be some ‘unlearning’ that needs to happen first. Even if their parents love them deeply and are deeply committed to doing what is best, the children may have learned as little people that when they are frightened, uncertain, angry, sad, confused, that the level of support they need to feel safe and secure just isn’t there. As you’re seeing, this can make it difficult to learn the appropriate ways to respond and deal with big feelings later on. The good news is that this can be relearned. It takes time, because there is unlearning and new learning that needs to happen, but don’t underestimate the capacity of a loving, supportive adult to make a massive difference. Keep doing what you’re doing. As you said, sometimes you will see this working and sometimes you won’t. You can see the way that the experiences of one generation will play through in the next and you can never know how many lives you will be changing when you make a difference to one.
I grew up in a family that suppressed negative emotions. For example, I might have said to my mother ‘I feel sad or scared’ and she would encourage me to be happy and think of nice things – we never talked about being sad or scared and I learned not to express it. I’m sure she thought she was doing good but I feel as though as an adult I have difficulty not only expressing but also experiencing strong emotions – good or bad. Lots of emotions are towering and seem to engulf me – they can be difficult to handle and cause me anxiety – even lovely ones that I want more of like the love I feel for my spouse. Any insight on this and how I could tackle it, it does interfere with my life and relationships.
The techniques in this article would also work for you. Try getting into a regular mindfulness practice. Try for at least 10 minutes a day and if you can do two 10 minute sessions, that would really help to strengthen you. Try the Smiling Mind app, or here is an article about the most basic way to practice mindfulness https://www.heysigmund.com/mindfulness-what-how-why/. This will help you to start to recognise what you are feeling or thinking in a way that feels safe for you. In relation to expressing your emotions, try for baby steps – a little at a time. If you want to express love, start slowly, with with people you trust. To start to experience positive feelings more, here is an article that will help with that https://www.heysigmund.com/hardwiring-for-happiness-how-we-can-change-our-brain-mind-personality/. As with anything, learning how to safely express and feel big feelings takes time. Be patient and be gentle with yourself and start trying a couple of these strategies regularly. It is never too late to learn how to do the things that are good for us.
I will work on it gently. Thank you Karen, this is important work you are doing.
Thanks Franciska! Yes it can be a delicate line, but the main thing to remember is that when they are emotional, they’re just not able to take in the information they need for growth and learning. The best time to move in with explanations or teaching is when they are calm and when they feel reconnected to you. Rather than redirecting thoughts when you get a sense they are emotional, try hearing their thoughts so they can feel heard and validated. This will help to calm them and take away their need to defend their position, which can sometimes make them even more emotional. We can all be a bit like that. Once they are calm, that is the time to redirect. This can take time – if they feel strongly about something, they won’t necessarily change their mind by speaking it. When we validate their thoughts (I understand why you feel like that/ I can see how upset/angry/sad you are), it starts to open the way for them to feel safe enough to explore those thoughts and the consequences of what they do with them. It’s always okay for thoughts and feelings to be there – it’s what we do with them that matters. It’s time and patience, and feeling okay when things don’t quite go to plan. It’s all part of the adventure!
Hello. Thank you for the very informative article. I will definitely put it to use. I have an 8 year old son who witnessed the accidental death of his Father (his hero) at the age of 5yr 10mnths he was in Grade R at the time and living with his Father. He was forced to go through big changes in a short time as he had to come back to live with me his Mom, change schools and also deal with the memorial, the funeral and going for counseling. He received counseling for 6 months after which they told me he was healed. He was behind in Grade R n refused to work many days n broke down a lot yet they told me he was ready for Grade 1. Grade 1 did not go well at all n his teacher as well as the principal of the school were not understanding at all n in the end made matters much worse. In the end I took matters into my own hands n took him to an educational psychologist who found that he had shut off totally around his Father’s death n wasn’t keeping any information in. He couldn’t even remember what happened the day before. I then put him in a remedial school where he receives therapy once a week. He repeated Grade 1 this year and although we had many break down and total melt downs he is through to Grade 2. The problem is still his attitude towards work and also his motivation, I think the first year of Grade 1 in the first school did more damage than we all realized. He is such a bright happy boy most of the time and I really need help to help him. Can you please help?
Bronwyn your little man has been through so much, and it will take time for him to make sense of what has happened in a way that can feel okay for him. Does he talk very much about his father or any memories he has? Does he want to talk about it? Or has it been shut off? Don’t push him to speak if he doesn’t want to, but try to give him space to talk about it so he feels it’s okay to talk about his dad or the things they did together. (Maybe a photo of his dad if he’s open to this and if there isn’t one already so that he can feel that you’re okay with him talking about it?) If painful thoughts or memories come to him when he opens his mind a little, it makes sense that he would shut off all information. It sounds like it would be really important for him to speak to a counsellor who specialises with children and grief. A counsellor will help him to process the memories he has in a way that feels safe for him, so he doesn’t have to shut everything down. It’s important that this is done with someone experienced, as you don’t want to retraumatise him by having him talk about things before he is ready. Those early years are so important at school, but with the right support he can certainly catch up. To find the right support, there should be a professional body of psychologists or counsellors in your country. Speak to them, and they should be able to guide you to someone in your area. I hope this helps. Your son has been through a traumatic experience, but with time and support, he’ll get there.
I’m so pleased I found your article. Thank you so much.
I grew up in an emotionally abusive home, not that I knew this at the time, I was constantly gaslighted and used and it’s left me a bag of nerves, became agoraphobic at 21 (now 40) thankfully got into therapy at about 30 which changed my life, managed to do no contact with the parents through that, met a wonderful man and dispite my biggest fear of passing on all my fears to a child, had a gorgeous baby boy who is now 5 and we are expecting a little girl in May. My little boy is having some issues. I can’t tell if it’s my standard overthinking or wherther I should be as frightened as I feel for the signs of anxiety that he is showing.
He is bright, happy, thriving, outgoing, cheeky and super caring. He is literally over the moon that he has a little sister coming- we have had 5 miscarriages since he was born and although he didn’t know when we were going through them, he now knows that they happened.
He seems to have picked up my ways of being a worrier..has a big sense of right and wrong and can often sound like a little health and safety officer! The bit that’s got my fear rolling again is that he’s experiencing what I can’t decide whether to name panic attacks (the dreaded words that stole so much of my life and although I have more or less beaten them I still practice some avoidance.. planes, lifts… big crowds) or separation anxiety.
He adores staying at his nannys but, and he’s very good at explaining, out of the blue one day he got ‘that horrible feeling’ his heart pounds, while he was there and had to come home.. that happened the next two times too.. so he said he didn’t want to go back and only felt better when he got home. He got it when he thought he lost me in a shop for a second too.. and when I was a couple of minutes late collecting him from swimming.
He’s happy at school and loves other parents picking him up for play dates etc.
I told him, I know that feeling and it’s horrid isn’t it! But it is only a feeling and feelings can’t hurt us! Why you feel that Boom Boom! Of your heart .. that is your mummy saying I love you love you love you!! This made his smile. I promised him if he gets that feeling he can call me and I’ll come and get him. Anyway he has stayed all night and had a ball and I’m going to collect him in a minute.. and I’m so proud of him faving his fear like that I could burst!
Do you think I’m doing things right? Is there anything else I can do?
My worst fear is that he would be like me and live in fear.
Pru you are doing everything right! What a beautiful way to explain his racing heartbeat. It is the physical feelings that come with anxiety or panic that can feel so scary – for kids and adults. It’s great that he is able to tell you what he is feeling. Here is an article that might help. It explains where anxiety comes from and helps to normalise it for them. It can be really empowering for kids to understand this, because it stops it feeling so scary. Here is the link https://www.heysigmund.com/anxiety-in-kids/. Here is another article about what to do when he is feeling anxious, and to help your own feelings of anxiety or worry from getting in the way https://www.heysigmund.com/building-emotional-intelligence-what-to-say-to-children-with-anxiety/. And finally, some things he needs to know to realise the many wonderful strengths that are in him https://www.heysigmund.com/kids-with-anxiety-need-to-know/. I hope these help. Keep doing what you’re doing though – you sound as though you’re doing a wonderful job.
What about a 5 year old child who is quite sensitive, but *hates* feeling out of control, and redirects any feeling like fear, anxiety, or sadness into anger? He would rather be angry than cry. For instance, when he watches a new movie or reads a new book, and the main character (who isn’t a strong hero kind of character, maybe just a regular kid or a small animal) gets into a scary or sad situation, he will leap off the couch and yell at me that the book needs to stop, the movie needs to be turned off; that he hates it and hates me for reading it to him.
He attacks me with his fists and his words when he is emotionally upset. No matter how I try to reassure him that it all turns out all right in the end and I will hug him through it.
Or if he is upset about a real life situation (like having to go home from a friend’s house, or being scared of a new environment) and I ask him to use his words to talk it out, he would rather lash out in anger and bury the sad or anxious feeling instead of feeling it. We have him go to his room and practice taking deep breaths until he is calm (he decides when he is OK to come out again). Because if we stay with him and try to help him through his big emotions, it escalates into a tantrum.
We tell him it is OK to be angry, or sad, or upset, but it isn’t OK to hurt other people with his body or his words.
I am just worried about him burying his emotions like that. I want him to know it is OK to cry and be sad, and that I won’t judge him for it. But he would rather redirect it into anger.
Here is an article that might help https://www.heysigmund.com/anxiety-or-aggression-children/.
I am a mother to a 5 year old. I struggle with serious and persistent mental illness myself and emotion regulation is a serious battle for me often. I have heard him say things like “why cant I act like that if you do” etc. It is difficult to explain. But I am trying my best to model appropriate actions to big emotions. I often used to find myself pushing through my emotional pain to keep him entertained. Even though I was suffering I kept playing with him or doing whatever needed to be done. Now I am learning that it is OK for me to say “Mommy needs a break so I can feel ok” so that I can sit in silence to breath or do some sensory deprivation which can be helpful to me. Im trying to allow him time to use imaginary play while I decompress while also letting him see that it is ok to take some time for yourself. We also listen to the Bedtime FM “Peace Out” Childrens guided meditations podcast nearly every day. It is my favorite guided meditation ever, even as an adult, because my inner child is a very real part of me and this podcast is so helpful for me as well. We are learning and growing together and I am so blessed with my boys presence.
Thank you for sharing this information. I often wonder how my life could have been different had I learned effective coping mechanisms as a child.
Great article, Karen. There’s so much to like about it. I particularly focused on the 2 breathing techniques regarding hot chocolate and the figure 8.
I will be sharing this fine article on my social media sites.
Thanks so much for this valuable article. I’d like to share it on email with my cohort, how can I do that?
Thanks Mary. If you copy the link and paste it into your email, it will direct your cohort to the page.
Thank you for this article! I have a 6 year old who is very affectionate, compassionate and smart. He started the first grade last September and started having angry tantrums at school. He has always been very jealous of his younger brother, and we have sort of worked towards the conclusion that he is really unhappy not being the center of attention.
Since the early months of school we have been able to get him to have these tantrums less frequently, but they still occur. He seems to have an anger scale of 0 or 10 with nothing in between.
Often if kids at recess aren’t playing the way he wants to, like they don’t let him control the game, or he doesn’t like the rules they are using, he will walk off and play alone. This seems like self regulation but I worry that he is isolating himself and not learning compromise and middle ground.
Could you please reference some further reading that you think might help me better understand how to help him navigate these emotions, and where they might be coming from?
How would you recommend assisting a 9 year old boy whom I believe is prepubescent cope with his feelings of not being good enough. His negativity is so strong right now. He believes nothing is good enough, people are picking on him (parents, siblings, peers), etc. | 2019-04-26T14:39:14Z | https://www.heysigmund.com/how-to-self-regulate/ |
A type of mortgage-backed security that creates separate pools of pass-through rates for different categories of bondholders with changing adulthoods, called tranches. The refunds from the pool of pass-through securities are used to retire the bonds in the order specified by the bonds ‘ prospectus.
The entity which creates a CMO is proprietor of mortgages, CMOs being wholly separate from the establishment. The investors purchasing CMO issues would have payments based on pre-decided regulations.
Traditionally a mortgage loan involved a bank offering a loan to the borrower/homeowner and the bank retained the default hazards. During the roar period from 2000 to 2007, the blessing of machine-controlled loans damaged the reappraisal and certification system for loans. There were disconnected diminution in mortgage criterions. A “ Elephantine Pool of Money ” ( Beginning: Peabody AwardA winning plan, A NPR ) in fixed income securities worldwide was seeking output higher than the T-bills in the United States. With this in pool turning at rapid rate in this period the supply of comparatively safer investings was left behind. New fiscal instruments and investings were developed by assorted investing Bankss with higher and safer recognition evaluations, Collateralized Debt Obligations ( CDO ) and Collateralized Mortgage Obligations ( CMO ) being the outstanding 1s of those. Therefore this pool was connected to the US mortgage market by the Wall Street. The continued demands for these merchandises such as MBS and CDO drive down the loaning criterions. With the wash uping supply of mortgages at traditional loaning criterions, these inventions became unsustainable.
With the reaching ofA securitization theoretical account, the mortgage loans could now be sold by the Bankss and administer recognition hazard over a pool of investors through these MBS merchandises. By selling motgages the Godheads of mortgages replenished their financess instantly alternatively of keeping them to adulthood. These arising Bankss could now leverage by bring forthing more loans through the replenished financess. This created increased focal point on increasing figure of minutess with no concerns to quality. The securities selling accelerated to treble the sum in the first half of the decennary.
In 2007 nevertheless, securitization market started to close down making a immense inaccessibility of beginnings of financess. The defects in the techniques adopted for measuring hazards did non came out to the market until millions of dollars of mortgage securities have been sold. By the clip the mistakes were understood and investors halted purchasing subprime securities, the crisis was already surging.
Investing could acquire even more unsafe with the turning complexness in the advanced and structured fiscal merchandises. The complexness of these leveraged merchandises over traditional mortgage theoretical accounts built from simple mortgages contributed to the crisis. Mortgages were sliced and tranched through merchandises like mortgage-backed securities, A asset-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligationsA or collateralized debt obligation.A This merchandises being so opaque, it is seldom wholly comprehendible to common people. This besides led to ambiguity in understanding hazards by Bankss and recognition evaluation bureaus.
All engineered merchandises have underlying securities which are portion of capital markets. The hazards of these merchandises are defined by these securities and non on the fiscal structuring of the merchandises.
A type of structured ABS whose payments are derived from a portfolio of fixed income underlying assets. These securities are split into different categories based on hazard, payments made in order of senior status.
Collateralized debt duties were considered the blessings to the Wall Street, but shortly became the load. CDOs were created to increase customizability in hazards and returns on investings. In a basic CDO a bank will buy these duties and split into trenches which are grouped harmonizing to their hazards and are sold into the market to the investors with higher hazard investors acquiring higher premium.
CDOsA are by and large made up of variousA adoption instruments, but with the false premiss of ever lifting place values, mortgages became the outstanding implicit in instrument for CDOs. Between 2003 and 2006, the exposure to subprime mortgage bonds increases on new issues of CDOs which were based on ABS and MBS. Wall Street collected these mortgages and pooled them with other debts. The pool would so be sliced into hazard degrees ; top tranches being paid foremost, and so on.
The ABS CDOs are chiefly backed by lower-rated mortgage bonds, and with happenings of defaults in these subprime mortgages CDOs backed by these underlying carried hazard of terrible evaluation downgrades and expected possible hereafter losingss.
This theoretical account worked good until the lodging bubble started to split around 2007 and residential values fell steeply. With the prostration of the lodging bubble house values dipped below originalA debt degrees. The consequence multiplied with rising unemployment rates and fuel monetary values As the underlying of the CDO ‘s diminution in value, Bankss and other establishments keeping CDOs face trouble in pricing their CDO retentions. Investing started the selling out of the securities based on these. This put a downward force per unit area on the value of the CDOs as the implicit in assets, or collateral, was weakening. There was rapid exiting of CDOs and the active market for these faded off.
The CDO market lost liquidness and ask monetary values rose excessively high over commands were excessively low. These immense differences affected equity balances in the fiscal establishments taging these securities. Investors in these establishments saw the diminution of security. The subprime mortgages were among the first in the pool of CDO tranches to neglect, nevertheless the lodging market along with these were blamed for the recession.
From 2003 to 2006, new issues of CDOs backed by asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities had increasing exposure to subprime mortgage bonds. Mezzanine ABS CDOs are chiefly backed by the BBB or lower-rated tranches of mortgage bonds, and in 2006, $ 200 billion in first balcony ABS CDOs were issued with an mean exposure to subprime bonds of 70 % . [ commendation needed ] A As delinquencies and defaults on subprime mortgages occur, CDOs backed by important first balcony subprime indirect experience terrible evaluation downgrades and perchance future losingss.
ASSIGNMENT OF CDOS OR THE SECURITIES INCLUDED THEREIN IS NOT ALLOWED UNDER CALIFORNIA LAW IN CERTAIN INSTANCESA In 1979 the State of California passed several consumer protection Torahs. One of those Torahs isA California Business and Professions Code subdivision 17351 ( BP & A ; C 17351 ) . That codification precludes the assignment of a contract secured by existent belongings one time one of the parties to the contract is in default. It that a Collateralize Debt Obligation ( CDO ) is a contract that is secured by multiple belongingss. Therefore, pursuant the footings of subdivision 17351, one time one of the parties went into default on one of the loans that is included in the CDO, the full CDO bundle could non hold been assigned, i.e. , the CDO would hold to stay in tact and with the fiscal instution in which it resides. What is stating about BP & A ; C subdivision 17351 is that it was passed by the California State Legislature to forestall the exact job that occurred due to the collateralization of the mortgages. An interesting expression at BP & A ; C subdivision 17351 is found in an article in 11 Main Law Rev 391. That article states that the ground for the transition of BP & A ; C subdivision 17351 would be to promote restricting a fiscal instutions financing minutess to consumers with good recognition. I would surmise that the cardinal issue would be whether or non misdemeanor of BP & A ; C subdivision 17351 resulted in a null transportation of the Promissory Note or whether it was a rescindable dealing. Were the latter to be true it might really good be that foreclosures that have already occurred could be reversed or otherwise the foreclosing party could be sued for amendss. Were the former to be true so a party that is capable to foreclosure would hold an extra defence in that the party set abouting the forclosure would non be the proper party, were it found that the promissory note that provides standing to prevent had been assigned after one of the parties to that note were in defaultA ORA if one of the parties to one of the other notes that were in a common CDO with the note that is the topic of the foreclosure were in default- at least in California.
Collateralized debt obligationsA ( CDOs ) were the genius of Wall Street, and shortly became its load. Although CDOs were ab initio created to supply returns on investings with customizableA hazard, they ended up going a liability for all involved. They even contributed to theA subprime meltdown.
Basic CDOs are investment-grade securities backed by a pool of bonds, loans and other assets. A financialA establishment, such as a bank, will buy these CDOs and split them intotranches, or piecesA of the CDO that are grouped harmonizing to hazard and are available for purchase. Tranches are so sold to investors based on their coveted sum of hazard, with a higher hazard trancheA paying out a higherpremium.
Wall Street would roll up these single mortgages from the Bankss and pool them with other signifiers of debt. As an sum, the pool would be sliced into hazard degrees, or tranches, with the top tranche acquiring paid foremost, and so on. Thus, the investing bank could offersyntheticA securities to its institutional client base, and the securities would run into whatever hazard parametric quantity ( investing class evaluation ) the fiscal establishments sought.
This method worked good until theA lodging bubbleA began to split in 2007, and place values started to fall sharply with the addition in five-yearA adjustable rate mortgagesA ( ARMs ) . Homeowners whoA had enjoyed aA low involvement rate all of a sudden saw these rates reset, making significantly higher mortgage payments. ThisA consequence was compounded byA lifting unemployment rates and gas monetary values, every bit good as low nest eggs and mounting home-equity debt. This isA the background that affected theA fixed-incomeA market.
A new accounting regulation calledA grade to marketA ( MTM ) accounting added to the already constructing fiscal storm. This fiscal rule dictates that investing securities should be valued every one-fourth based on monetary values readily observed in the market. Since the CDO market was no longer liquid, ask monetary values were excessively high and commands were excessively low. When taging these securities to market monetary values, fiscal establishments had to tag them down to their command monetary values, which affectedA equityA balances in these fiscal establishments.
Let ‘s take a expression at how the recognition fiasco unfolded: First, commission-based mortgage agents talked credit-impaired John Doe into a more expensive house ( and therefore more debt ) than he could afford. Banks gave Doe the mortgage since they seldom saw place values depreciate. Since Doe had a house that was appreciating in value, he was able to acquire more recognition and higher loans to buy other goods. The Bankss sold these debts to investing Bankss, which aggregated them and divide them into different categories called collateralized debt duties ( CDOs ) and sold the different investing categories to fiscal establishments.
Legally, a CMO is aA particular intent entityA that is entirely separate from the establishment ( s ) that create it. The entity is the legal proprietor of a set of mortgages, called aA pool. Investors in a CMO purchase bonds issued by the CMO, and they receive payments harmonizing to a defined set of regulations. With respect to nomenclature, the mortgages themselves are termedA collateral, the bonds areA tranchesA ( besides calledA categories ) , while theA structureA is the set of regulations that dictates how money received from the collateral will be distributed. The legal entity, collateral, and construction are jointly referred to as theA trade.
The job was that even though lodging monetary values were traveling through the roof, people were n’t doing any more money. From 2000 to 2007, the average family income stayed level. And so the more monetary values rose, the more tenuous the whole thing became. No affair how slack loaning criterions got, no affair how many alien mortgage merchandises were created to shoehorn people into places they could n’t perchance afford, no affair what the mortgage machine tried, the people merely could n’t swing it. By late 2006, the mean place cost about four times what the mean household made. Historically it was between two and three times. And mortgage loaners noticed something that they ‘d about ne’er seen earlier. Peoples would shut on a house, mark all the mortgage documents, and so default on their very foremost payment. No loss of a occupation, no medical exigency, they were submerged before they even started. And although no 1 could truly hear it, that was likely the minute when one of the biggest bad bubbles in American history popped.
Borrowing under a securitization construction.
Complex investings may hold hazards that are non evident, or easy to understand. As a consequence, it might be hard to find how the investing willA make money.A For illustration, when an investor buys a simple equity common fund, the investor will do money if the market goes up. However, in aA fund of hedge fundsA it is following to impossible to find how the investor will do money. It is basically unknown. Similarly, A principal protected notes ( PPNs ) are besides derivative merchandises, A an theyA include aA combination of warrants andembedded options. As such typical investors have no apprehension of how to measure a PPN. They do non cognize whether it is a “ good ” investing or if they are paying excessively much for the product’sA implicit in characteristics.
The more complicated the merchandise, the less crystalline the hazards. This was made evident by the subprime muss. Many investors might hold understood the potency for a hapless existent estate market and the possibility ofA foreclosures. However, while many investors owned securities that were based on subprime mortgages, they were incognizant that these securities were so vulnerable to a hapless lodging market. As such, they were non able to do the connexion that foreclosures inA Cleveland, A AtlantaA orA Los AngelesA would negatively impact the investings they purchased locally.
In Carole Bernard and Phelim Boyle ‘s research paper titledA Structured Investment Products And The Retail InvestorA ( April 2008, Social Science Research Network ) , it says “ consumers frequently select a complex merchandise when a simpler one is preferred. These mystifiers are non unrelated since some of the most complicated merchandises are the most overpriced and carry the highest committees. ” The researchA shows what common sense implies: uninformed, naA?ve consumersA can beA strategically exploited by manufacturers of fiscal merchandises.
Ask yourself these inquiries: How is the money to be invested? Can you understand how the merchandise will bring forth returns? What would do you to lose money? Can you double the consequences in a simpler manner?
There is nil to coerce an investor to purchase an investing merchandise he or she does non understand. If you can non explicate it to a friend, so it is likely excessively complicated.
If an adviser is urging it, ask inquiries. Cipher of all time loses money by inquiring excessively many inquiries.
If the adviser can non explainA a productA adequately, stay clear. The more complicated the merchandise, the more investing cognition and experience you will necessitate to purchase it.
Watch out! The most complicated merchandises are oftenA sold to unworldly and unsuspicious investors who can non adequately measure them. | 2019-04-24T12:01:26Z | https://doosanmoxy.com/the-entities-that-create-collateralized-mortgage-obligations/ |
Apicomplexan parasites employ a unique form of movement, termed gliding motility, in order to invade the host cell. This movement depends on the parasite’s actomyosin system, which is thought to generate the force during gliding. However, recent evidence questions the exact molecular role of this system, since mutants for core components of the gliding machinery, such as parasite actin or subunits of the MyoA-motor complex (the glideosome), remain motile and invasive, albeit at significantly reduced efficiencies. While compensatory mechanisms and unusual polymerisation kinetics of parasite actin have been evoked to explain these findings, the actomyosin system could also play a role distinct from force production during parasite movement.
In this study, we compared the phenotypes of different mutants for core components of the actomyosin system in Toxoplasma gondii to decipher their exact role during gliding motility and invasion. We found that, while some phenotypes (apicoplast segregation, host cell egress, dense granule motility) appeared early after induction of the act1 knockout and went to completion, a small percentage of the parasites remained capable of motility and invasion well past the point at which actin levels were undetectable. Those act1 conditional knockout (cKO) and mlc1 cKO that continue to move in 3D do so at speeds similar to wildtype parasites. However, these mutants are virtually unable to attach to a collagen-coated substrate under flow conditions, indicating an important role for the actomyosin system of T. gondii in the formation of attachment sites.
We demonstrate that parasite actin is essential during the lytic cycle and cannot be compensated by other molecules. Our data suggest a conventional polymerisation mechanism in vivo that depends on a critical concentration of G-actin. Importantly, we demonstrate that the actomyosin system of the parasite functions in attachment to the surface substrate, and not necessarily as force generator.
Apicomplexan parasites employ a unique form of movement, termed gliding motility, to disseminate and invade host cells. The current model for gliding motility is centred on the actomyosin system of the parasite in force generation during this process. According to the ‘linear motor’ model, micronemal transmembrane proteins, such as MIC2, are secreted at the apical pole of the parasite and act as force transmitters by interacting with the substrate surface and the actomyosin system, similar to the role of integrins in other motility systems . Accordingly, this model predicts a smooth actomyosin dependent rearwards translocation of the microneme-substrate complex, which results in forward gliding on the substrate or into the host cell . However, recent reverse genetic approaches demonstrated that parasites remain motile in the absence of what were thought to be key components of the motility machinery, including parasite actin [3–6]. In an attempt to reconcile these data, we proposed a novel, hypothetical model based on gelation/solation , where actin/myosin is required for force transmission rather than force production . This model predicts the generation of an osmotic gradient that results in membrane tension and retrograde membrane flow. In order to regulate membrane balance, the parasite then either sheds membrane at the posterior end, as previously observed , and/or recycles the membrane via endocytosis, as suggested for other systems [8, 9].
Many other eukaryotic cells move by crawling, a process powered by the controlled assembly and disassembly of the actin cytoskeleton in proximity to the plasma membrane [10, 11]. While it was previously assumed that the majority of the force for the retraction of the cell rear is powered by myosins, several alternative mechanisms can operate within the cell that also power motility [10, 11]. For example, the motility of Caenorhabditis elegans sperm occurs in the absence of any actin and therefore myosin activity ; instead, force is generated by controlled polymerisation of the major sperm protein. Furthermore, when tumour cells are confined within a microenvironment, motility depends on an osmotic engine and can be independent of actomyosin activity . Finally, migrating cells can employ various migration modes in response to their microenvironment , which allows them to move even in the absence of adhesive coupling . For example, crawling cells, such as Dictyostelium and human leukocytes, can swim efficiently when suspended in a viscous medium [16, 17], demonstrating that adhesion to a solid substrate is not always necessary for movement . It is thus possible that motility can be driven purely by surface membrane flow, which itself results from a secretory-endocytic cycle acting as a fluid drive from the anterior to the posterior end of the cell . In support of membrane flow, many motile cells show a distinct capping activity of surface ligands . Furthermore, surface capping depends on vesicular transport, and both on actin and microtubule function . In good agreement with these observations, numerous modulators of endocytic and secretory trafficking have been demonstrated to be key regulators of cell motility , leading to the hypothesis that membrane transport and retrograde flow during motility are rate-limiting for cell forward translocation .
In the case of apicomplexan parasites, a recent study demonstrated that retrograde membrane flow of malaria sporozoites occurs even at relatively high concentrations of the actin-disrupting drug Cytochalasin D (CD) . Furthermore, biophysical studies on malaria sporozoites have demonstrated the discrete, localised turnover of attachment sites that are not evenly translocated along the surface of the parasite . This involves the formation/disengagement of adhesion sites at the front and rear ends of the zoite, while the sporozoite undergoes a stretching phase. Interestingly, actin is important for the definition and release of the attachment sites , raising the possibility that apicomplexan motility may be similar to amoeboid-like crawling.
In T. gondii, an alternative explanation for the observed phenotypes for mutants of the actomyosin system is the possibility of functional redundancy of actomyosin components . While redundancies cannot be ruled out, in particular for myosins and micronemal proteins [3, 4], even the removal of ostensibly critical structural proteins does not completely block gliding motility or host cell invasion. For example, removal of the gliding-associated protein GAP45 results in the relocation of the remaining MyoA-complex components to the cytosol and severe disruption of the inner membrane complex (IMC), within which the motor complex is normally anchored [3, 25]. While these gap45 conditional knockout (cKO) parasites are completely blocked in host cell egress, they remain motile and can invade host cells . These surprising findings have led to a reassessment of the mechanisms underlying parasite motility and host-cell invasion, as recently reviewed . In fact, not only do the roles of the individual components need to be reanalysed, but also their orientation and organisation within the parasite .
Here, we show that, during motility, the actomyosin system of the parasite functions in attachment to the surface substrate, and may, therefore, act as force transmitter rather than a force generator. We provide evidence that retrograde membrane flow, which may play a role in force generation and motility, does not depend on an intact actomyosin system.
We previously reported that ACT1 is undetectable in act1 cKO parasites 72 h after rapamycin-induced removal of act1 . A subsequent study suggested that residual actin may, in fact, be present in some of these parasites as long as 5 days after rapamycin treatment . This led us to re-address the question of residual actin levels in the act1 cKO parasites, using additional antibodies and additional controls.
We began by comparing the specificity of different antibodies, from various labs, raised against apicomplexan actin (Additional file 1: Figure S1). While immunoblot analysis suggested that all antibodies are highly specific for T. gondii actin without recognising host cell actin (Additional file 1: Figure S1A), some of the tested antibodies demonstrated significant cross-reactivity within the parasites when used for immunofluorescence analysis, as previously reported . We performed IFAs at 4 days (96 h) and 8 days (192 h) after rapamycin induction (Fig. 1b, c and ). Notably, we found that the polyclonal antibodies employed previously to quantify actin levels in the act1 cKO parasites showed a strong and persistent signal in proximity to the IMC of the parasite. This signal remained unchanged between 4 and 8 days after rapamycin treatment, even though the parasites are no longer expressing levels of actin above background within 4 days of induction (see below). Since this apparent cross-reactivity would interfere with accurate quantification of actin levels, we focused on two other antibodies that were highly specific and showed no cross-reactivity (Additional file 1: Figure S1).
Consistent with other studies, we found that actin levels in wildtype (wt) parasites were somewhat variable (Fig. 1a, b). Similar results were obtained with other housekeeping genes such as myosin light chain 1 (MLC1, Fig. 5a) and aldolase (not shown). Importantly, no overlap of actin levels could be observed between controls and act1 cKO parasites as early as 48 h after rapamycin-induced excision of act1 (Fig. 1a, b). At earlier time points (24–36 h) post induction, significant amounts of ACT1 were still detectable and protein levels were highly variable between vacuoles (Fig. 1a, b). Nevertheless, ACT1 levels were significantly reduced in comparison to control vacuoles. Importantly, 96 h after rapamycin induction, no ACT1 was detectable in YFP+ parasites. Lack of ACT1 detection by IFA correlates well with a recent study suggesting that no F-actin can be formed approximately 48 h after the removal of act1 , the inference being that G-actin levels fall below the critical concentration required for polymerisation.
In good agreement with this result, quantitative immunoblotting of act1 cKO parasites at different time points post-induction demonstrated the loss of all or nearly all of the ACT1 as early as 72 h post induction (Fig. 1c, d), confirming previous results .
In summary, our quantification demonstrates that actin is depleted in the act1 cKO parasites between 72 and 96 h post induction. Based on these observations, assays were performed in a time course up to 96 h after addition of rapamycin to adequately readdress the effects of ACT1 loss.
We previously demonstrated that parasite actin is required for apicoplast maintenance and host cell egress . These phenotypes were followed over time after act1 excision to estimate the time when G-actin levels are below the critical concentration in order to form F-actin. Significant numbers of act1 cKO parasites started to lose their apicoplasts as early as 24 h post-induction, indicating that once G-actin levels drop below a critical concentration, the apicoplast cannot be maintained during parasite replication (Fig. 2a, b). By 96 h after rapamycin induction of act1, we were unable to see any parasitophorous vacuoles that had a normal number of apicoplasts (Fig. 3b). Similar to apicoplast maintenance, host cell egress is significantly decreased as soon as 36 h post induction and was completely blocked 96 h post induction (Fig. 2c, d).
Next, we analysed the capability of act1 cKO parasites to move by gliding motility and to invade the host cell at different time points after rapamycin induction (Fig. 2e, f). In good agreement with previous results , overall motility and host cell invasion were significantly reduced in the act1 cKO parasites, with less than approximately 25% being motile and capable of invading host cells compared to control parasites (Fig. 2e, f). This phenotype was observed as early as 48 h after rapamycin induction, at a time point when significant amounts of actin were still detectable (Fig. 1). Interestingly, and in striking contrast to the results with apicoplast inheritance and egress, gliding and invasion rates remained constant at 48–96 h post induction, suggesting that once actin levels fall below a critical concentration, these phenotypes are not further affected. The simplest explanation for this result is that apicoplast maintenance and egress are completely dependent on actin, whereas gliding and invasion can occur independent of actin, albeit at significantly reduced efficiencies.
A recent study demonstrated the essential role of actin and the unconventional myosin F (MyoF) in directed dense granule transport . To assess if potential, residual F-actin in act1 cKO parasites is capable of serving as a track for MyoF-dependent dense granule transport, dense granule motions were tracked at various times after actin excision. In good agreement with the results obtained for apicoplast replication, parasite egress, parasite gliding and invasion, we observed an approximately 50% reduction in the percentage of granules moving in a directed manner from 37% in control to 14% as early as 18 h post excision (Fig. 3a, b). At 36 and 72 h post excision, directed granule motion was completely ablated (Fig. 3b, c) given that the percentage of trajectories in each population was indistinguishable from simulated pure 2D diffusion analysed using the changepoint algorithm (See Methods for details) (Fig. 3b; hashed bars).
The observation of diminished granule movement soon after induction provides further evidence that apicomplexan actin in vivo requires a critical monomer concentration (G-actin) in order to form sufficient F-actin to serve as a substrate for myosin motors such as MyoF. We therefore conclude that act1 cKO parasites are a powerful tool to analyse actin-independent motility and invasion processes.
Intriguingly, the phenotypes described above differ significantly from the effects caused by incubating parasites in the presence of drugs used to modulate F-actin turnover, such as CD or Latrunculins. For example, treatment of intracellular parasites with CD results in the formation of huge residual bodies, where organelles such as the apicoplast or secretory organelles accumulate [30, 31], which is not observed in the case of the act1 cKO parasites .
Our finding that parasites remain motile in the absence of ACT1 further suggests that CD might act on an unknown target, a hypothesis supported by an earlier study in which CD resistant parasites were isolated that do not have any mutations in TgAct1 . To test this hypothesis, we generated a parasite line where endogenous actin has been replaced with a LoxP-flanked copy of act1 containing a mutation (Ala136Gly) that confers CD resistance and can be excised in a DiCre-dependent manner (Fig. 4a). Consequently, these parasites only express CD resistant actin before removal of act1 CDr . We compared the CD sensitivity of this new parasite line, called act1 CDr cKO, to that of control (RH) parasites, CytDr parasites and the act1 cKO parasites. Interestingly, the gliding rates of all parasite lines, including CytDr parasites, were significantly reduced at higher concentrations of CD (1–4 μM) and it appeared the ACT1-specific effect was limited to ≤ 0.5 μM CD (Fig. 4b). The observed reduction in motility of CytDr parasites is consistent with a previous study, demonstrating loss of motility in the presence of 1 μM CD . Importantly, in the absence of ACT1 or ACT1CDr, parasites remained sensitive to CD (Fig. 4b); in both cases, the gliding rate was reduced from approximately 20% in untreated parasites to 1% in the presence of high CD concentrations, indicating that CD was acting on (a) yet unidentified target(s) in a non-ACT1 specific manner in T. gondii. Conclusions drawn from experiments using high concentrations of CD should, therefore, be interpreted with caution. Next, we tested the parasites’ ability to glide in the presence of the F-actin polymerisation drug Jasplakinolide (Jas). Jas was previously found to block attachment and motility of P. berghei sporozoites . At lower concentrations, T. gondii tachyzoites are inhibited in both circular and helical gliding but exhibit a counter-clockwise twirling motion . In agreement with previous findings, we found that forcing polymerisation blocks motility in wt parasites, whereas no significant reduction is observed for the act1 cKO (Fig. 4c). We also tested latrunculins A and B, independent F-actin disrupting drugs that have been previously described to act on apicomplexan actin . Surprisingly, even at 1 μM, we were unable to observe any significant effect on gliding rates (Fig. 4d), demonstrating that latrunculins are not acting on Toxoplasma tachyzoite actin. This conclusion supports previous observations for Plasmodium berghei gliding motility . In addition, the PfACT1 crystal structure suggests that latrunculins should not effectively bind apicomplexan ACT1 .
In summary, the experiments presented above demonstrate that, in the absence of actin, less than 25% of parasites remain capable of gliding motility and host cell invasion and establish act1 cKO parasites as a valuable tool for understanding the role of actin in the invasion and gliding mechanisms of T. gondii. The observed phenotype for the act1 cKO parasites is very similar to the phenotype observed for a clonal knockout for myoA . We therefore re-addressed the role of myosins during gliding motility.
It was previously suggested that MyoC can compensate for MyoA motor function in myoA KO parasites [3, 39]. In addition, it has been shown that MyoA and MyoC can interact with the same light chain, MLC1, and expression of MyoC from a heterologous promoter demonstrated a certain degree of MyoC association with the parasite pellicle in the absence of MyoA .
In order to address if the localisation of MyoC at the IMC in the myoA KO parasites depends on the level of MyoC expression, we expressed a second copy of TyMyoC under the control of either a strong promoter, p5RT70 , or its own promoter, pMyoC, and compared its localisation with that of an endogenously tagged version (Fig. 5a).
While strong expression of MyoC results in efficient relocalisation from the parasite basal end to the periphery of the myoA KO parasites (Fig. 5a, b), as previously reported , expression of MyoC under its own promoter or endogenously-tagged MyoC showed only slight relocalisation, with the majority of the protein being correctly localised to the basal ring of the parasites. This demonstrates that the localisation of MyoC to the IMC is critically dependent on strong expression levels of the protein, which are not reached with native MyoC expression levels in the myoA KO parasite (Fig. 5b). We next analysed propagation of these parasite strains using plaque assays and found that the relative plaque size is larger in myoA KO parasites strongly overexpressing MyoC compared to parasites expressing MyoC under the control of pMyoC (Fig. 5c). This demonstrates that overexpression of MyoC can partially complement the phenotype of the myoA KO parasites (Fig. 5c). Since the localisation of MyoC to the IMC is apparently critical for complementation of the myoA KO parasites, we decided to analyse mlc1 cKO in more detail, given that MLC1 is thought to be required to anchor both MyoA and MyoC to the pellicle [3, 39].
We previously analysed the mlc1 cKO 96 h after rapamycin induction; based on qualitative immunofluorescence analysis, no MLC1 was detectable at this time point . To verify that MLC1 is depleted at 96 h, we quantified MLC1 protein levels by IFA, analogous to ACT1 quantification described above (Fig. 6a). We confirmed that, as early as 48 h after induction, no MLC1 can be detected in the cKO parasites; this was also confirmed using immunoblot analysis (Fig. 6a, b). We succeeded in keeping mlc1 cKO parasites in cell culture for several weeks by mechanically releasing parasites and enriching the culture using FACS, demonstrating that MLC1 is essential for egress but dispensable for the following rounds of invasion and replication (Fig. 6c).
Next, we were interested in the localisation of MyoA and MyoC in mlc1 cKO parasites. To determine this, we generated two independent lines for colocalization studies, one expressing Ty-tagged MyoA under the control of its endogenous promoter (pMyoA) and another with endogenously Ty-tagged MyoC (Fig. 6d–f). MyoA is completely undetectable at the parasite’s pellicle 72 h after rapamycin-induced excision of mlc1 (Fig. 6d, e), demonstrating that MLC1 is crucial for the localization and stability of MyoA. In contrast, MyoC remains present and shows a normal localization at the basal end of the parasite in the absence of MLC1 (Fig. 6f).
In summary, we have generated and validated important parasite strains that can be used to analyse the role of the actomyosin system during gliding motility and host cell invasion and to investigate alternative mechanisms for these essential processes.
We previously demonstrated that conditional mutants for act1, mlc1 and myoA invade the host cell via the tight junction, demonstrating that these parasites still use an active invasion mechanism and are not passively taken up by the host cell via phagocytosis . However, kinetic analysis of myoA KO parasites demonstrated that both gliding speed and penetration times are significantly reduced, validating a direct function of MyoA during these processes. We were interested how act1 cKO, mlc1 cKO and myoA KO would compare during gliding motility and invasion.
To date, characterisation of gliding motility mainly depends on trail deposition assays, which allow a good estimate of overall motility rates. However, motility rates can be reduced by several factors, such as reduced or increased parasite attachment to the surface, and does not allow a firm conclusion regarding the function of a protein during this process. We speculated that parasites depleted in crucial parts of the actomyosin system should move significantly differently in terms of gliding speed and/or average distance travelled.
Therefore, we performed time-lapse analysis of gliding parasites (Additional files 2–7: Movies S1–S6; Fig. 7a–c) to assess the ability of parasites to generate the necessary force for motility in the presence and absence of the actomyosin system of the parasite. We confirm that myoA KO parasites show significantly lower trajectory length (~7 μm, corresponding roughly to one parasite length) and an average speed of approximately 0.3 μm/sec, as reported previously . Intriguingly, in the case of act1 cKO and mlc1 cKO parasites both average trajectory length and speed are increased compared to myoA KO parasites (Fig. 7a, b). While helical motility was significantly affected, with shorter average trajectories and reduced speed, circular gliding motility appeared relatively normal for mlc1 cKO and act1 cKO parasites (Fig. 7a–c). In good agreement with the gliding data, we found that host cell invasion can occur rapidly in act1 cKO and mlc1 cKO parasites, though several slow invasion events can be observed (Additional files 8–11: Movies S7–10; Fig. 7d, e). As is the case for gliding motility, the invasion of myoA KO parasites appears to be more strongly affected, with slower invasion events compared to act1 cKO and mlc1 cKO. This demonstrates that the parasite is capable of producing the force for motility and invasion in the absence of the actomyosin motor and suggests that actomyosin may instead be required to coordinate the force, most likely by regulating attachment sites, as observed in Plasmodium sporozoites [22, 34] and other diverse motility systems .
Next, we employed a Matrigel-based 3D motility assay to characterise the motility phenotypes of the mutants generated under more physiological conditions. In good agreement with the time-lapse analysis of parasites gliding in 2D , a significantly decreased proportion of the myoA KO parasites was able to move in Matrigel compared to the parental line (39.5 ± 2.5% for LoxPMyoA parental, n = 2795 trajectories analysed vs. 5.1 ± 0.9% for myoA KO parasites, n = 3825 trajectories analysed) (Fig. 8a, b). Of the myoA KO parasites that were classified as motile, there was also a significant reduction in mean trajectory displacement and mean instantaneous speed compared to the parental line. Overexpression of Ty-tagged MyoC driven by the p5RT70 promoter in the myoA KO parasites was able to restore the percentage of moving parasites to wt levels and produce a modest increase in the mean trajectory displacement but not instantaneous speed (Fig. 8a, b; see also Additional file 12: Figure S2 for a comparison of the trajectory displacement distributions for the three lines). When we extended the analysis to examine mlc1 cKO and act1 cKO parasites, the results likewise closely mirrored those of the 2D assay (Fig. 7) – excision of mlc1 or act1 significantly reduced the percentage of moving parasites and mean trajectory displacement, but did not affect the mean instantaneous speed compared to their respective parental lines (Fig. 8c–f). Of note, it appears that mean trajectory displacement is more impacted in a 3D environment than in 2D, with few mutant parasites showing a displacement of more than one parasite length (Additional file 12: Figure S2), perhaps because they have to overcome more resistance in order to move in the Matrigel.
To test the role of actin and the glideosome in attachment to surfaces, we employed flow chambers coated with collagen (Fig. 9). To this end, we tested the ability of the myoA KO, mlc1 cKO and act1 cKO parasites to withstand shear flow stress. While surface attachment of myoA KO parasites was similar to wt controls, both the mlc1 cKO and act1 cKO parasites were unable to promote efficient attachment to the surface and were removed even at very low shear flow rates (Fig. 9a–d). Only RH and the myoA KO can withstand shear forces up to 15 dyn/cm2, which is within the range of arterial shear stress . These results suggest that the reason many act1 cKO and mlc1 cKO parasites cannot initiate gliding (Fig. 7c–f) is that they cannot attach sufficiently to the surface. These data suggest that the actomyosin system is required to coordinate the formation and release of attachment sites observed in a variety of other motility systems , including Plasmodium sporozoites [22, 34].
Apicomplexan parasites are known to translocate beads from the apical to the basal end and such ‘capping activity’ has been directly implicated in the motility of many cell types, including Plasmodium sporozoites . Interestingly, treatment of sporozoites with CD had no significant effect on the speed of retrograde flow, while the force generated at the attached bead was reduced . This could also be explained by the reduced formation of attachment sites, meaning a failure in force transmission rather than production. We therefore wished to analyse if retrograde membrane flow can occur in absence of the actomyosin system.
We modified a bead translocation assay first developed by King et al. over 30 years ago . Incubation of parasites with latex nano-beads leads to efficient binding of beads along the surface of the parasites and, within 10 min, 51% of parasites translocated beads to the parasite’s basal end (Fig. 10a). We next tested the role of the actomyosin system in the process of bead translocation, using either pharmacological perturbation or parasite mutants. In these experiments, we classified parasites as either ‘unbound’, ‘bound-uncapped’ or ‘capped’ (Fig. 10a). When parasites were kept in Endo buffer, which is known to diminish microneme secretion and motility , we found that a significant number of parasites were incapable of binding and translocating beads (Fig. 10c). When we tested the role of the actomyosin system in bead translocation (Fig. 10b, c), no abrogation of bead translocation was observed, suggesting the presence of retrograde flow in absence of the actomyosin system. Interestingly, in the mlc1 cKO, myoA KO or parasites treated with CD, fewer beads appeared to bind to the parasite surface (Fig. 10c), confirming a role of the actomyosin system in attachment. Nevertheless, capping in the act1 cKO occurred normally compared to RH when we assume that capped beads must have firstly bound. Similarly, the addition of CD had only minor effects on capping in the wt parasites. Overall, this demonstrates that bead translocation, and therefore the establishment of retrograde membrane flow, can occur independently of the actomyosin system of the parasite.
In this study, we set out to reconcile currently conflicting interpretations regarding the role of the apicomplexan actomyosin system during gliding motility and host cell invasion . While there is no doubt about a critical role of the actomyosin system during motility and invasion, alternative models and mechanisms regarding the exact function of this system have been put forward based on biophysical, reverse genetic and inhibitor studies [3, 21, 22, 26, 38]. Indeed, several observations cannot be easily reconciled with the canonical linear motor model: (1) Biophysical studies on malaria sporozoites demonstrate the discrete, localised turnover of attachment sites that are not evenly translocated along the surface of the parasite . Adhesion sites are formed/disengaged at the front and rear ends of the zoite, while the sporozoite undergoes a stretching phase. Interestingly, actin is important for the definition and release of the attachment sites , raising the possibility that apicomplexan motility is similar to amoeboid-like crawling. (2) Eimeria sporozoites show different types of motility (bending and pivoting). While pivoting appeared substrate- and actin-dependent, bending showed resistance to the actin-disrupting drug Cytochalasin B . (3) A recent study demonstrates that retrograde membrane flow of malaria sporozoites occurs even at relatively high concentrations of the actin-disrupting drug CD . (4) Reverse genetic approaches demonstrated that parasites remain motile in the absence of molecules thought to be key components of the motor machinery, including parasite actin [3–6].
In the case of reverse genetic studies, other groups have suggested that the observed phenotypes are due either to the presence of redundancies within the repertoire of genes involved in motility and invasion or to an unusually stable actin (encoded by a single copy gene ), which persists many days and parasite generations after gene excision and can polymerize via an unusual isodesmic process that does not require a critical monomer (G-actin) concentration [27, 48]. While isodesmic polymerisation has been demonstrated in vitro, its in vivo relevance is unclear . Previous polymerisation studies used G-actin produced in heterologous protein expression systems. However, a recent study demonstrated that apicomplexan actin is not properly folded when heterologously expressed due to differences in the chaperonin T-complex . Furthermore, a recent study suggests that Toxoplasma actin is capable of forming F-actin structures in vivo that depend on a critical monomer concentration and demonstrates that F-actin is involved in multiple essential processes during intracellular parasite growth such as daughter cell assembly, vacuole organisation and parasite egress . Using a conditional knockout for act1 it was demonstrated that no ACT1 filament formation can occur as early as 48 h after removal of act1 . Finally, although apicomplexans possess actin-like proteins, it is unlikely that they can compensate for ACT1 and form filaments [27, 51]. Here, we performed a careful quantification of actin levels at different time points in the act1 conditional knockout and find that actin is still detectable at 48 h, but fully depleted by 96 h after induction with rapamycin.
In good agreement with previous studies [3, 29], we observed essential roles of actin in apicoplast segregation, host cell egress and dense granule motility upon deletion of act1, while parasite motility and host cell invasion still occur, albeit at significantly reduced levels. Since these findings were in direct conflict with a number of studies that use actin-modulating drugs to probe for actin function, we also performed an analysis of the effects of the actin-disrupting drugs CD, LatA, and LatB, and the actin-stabilising drug Jas on wt and act1 cKO parasites. While the effect of Jas appears to be specific for actin, since treatment of act1 cKO parasites showed no effect of this drug, we find that CD is not uniquely specific for actin, since similar effects on parasite motility can be observed irrespective if wt, act1 cKO or parasites expressing ACT1CDr were analysed. While CD is certainly acting on parasite actin, as indicated by the significant differences between wt and CytDr parasites, we find that concentrations above 0.5 μM CD lead to significant, non-actin-dependent effects on parasite motility, confirming previous studies . In contrast, latA and latB, previously used to analyse the role of apicomplexan actin , appear to have no effect on tachyzoite actin, as noted previously. Together, these data indicate great care should be taken in choosing the correct concentration for actin-modulating drugs, especially when using CD, where an independent, unknown target(s) appears to be present in T. gondii .
Though all myosins are thought to depend on F-actin to function as a motor and, therefore, the act1 cKO likely reflects the cumulative phenotype of all myosins, we were interested in the extent of redundancy between MyoA and MyoC, since previous studies indicated that MyoC can complement a MyoA deficiency [3, 39]. While we confirm that MyoC can partially complement for MyoA function, this complementation appears to depend on overexpression and consequent localisation of MyoC at the IMC. Indeed, our localisation analysis of MyoC in wt and myoA KO parasites demonstrates that, under physiological conditions, no significant relocation of MyoC to the IMC can be detected. In contrast, strong overexpression leads to redistribution of MyoC to the IMC, as described previously . This redistribution appears to be also critical for functional complementation, leading to a higher ratio of motile parasites and host cell invasion. However, MyoC cannot compensate for MyoA function completely, since the parasites overexpressing MyoC remain as slow as uncomplemented myoA KO parasites. These results are also in good agreement with a recent study demonstrating that MyoA is the central myosin involved in host cell invasion and that, in the absence of MyoA, host cell membrane dynamics play an important role in invasion . Importantly, deletion of mlc1 results in a complete loss of the motor complex at the IMC, therefore representing a functional double KO for MyoA and MLC1. This mutant can be kept in cell culture indefinitely when the strong egress phenotype is bypassed by artificially releasing the parasites, followed by enrichment of the population using FACS, demonstrating that MLC1 is not essential for motility and host cell invasion per se. Indeed, mlc1 cKO parasites behave similarly to act1 cKO regarding motility and attachment to the surface.
Together, this analysis suggests a role for the actomyosin system during parasite motility that is distinct from the canonical linear motor model. We hypothesise that, rather than being the force generator during motility, the actomyosin system is instead involved in the regulation of attachment sites that are required to transmit the motility force to the substrate. To address this hypothesis, we used the above mutants to analyse different parameters that are likely crucial for efficient parasite motility such as attachment strength and retrograde membrane flow. We found that most act1 cKO and mlc1 cKO parasites remain immobile. However, those that move do so at speeds similar to wt parasites, albeit with shorter trajectories, suggesting that the actomyosin system is required to initiate and maintain motility. In a 3D environment the motility defects are stronger than in a 2D environment, with most parasites showing a displacement of less than one parasite length (7 μm). In contrast, these mutants are virtually unable to attach, as measured under flow conditions, indicating an important role in the formation of attachment sites, as previously suggested . Unlike the mlc1 cKO and act1 cKO, myoA KO parasites show strong attachment to the surface, but significantly reduced speeds that cannot be compensated by overexpressing MyoC. We interpret these data to indicate that actin is required to form attachment sites, whereas MyoA might be required for the regulated release of these sites, leading to efficient force transmission during motility. A role for myosins in regulating adhesion and thereby traction force has recently been demonstrated . Here, the balance between myosin contraction and adhesion strength determines the frequency of motility initiation . A similar regulation of myosin contraction might occur in the case of apicomplexans in order to initiate motility and failure to do so could result in reduced motility rates. In this scenario, how is the motility and invasive force produced by the parasite? Previous studies implicated the generation of a retrograde membrane flow in parasite motility . Interestingly, the flow itself is relatively resistant to actin-modulating drugs. Here, we modified a bead translocation assay as an indicator of retrograde membrane flow to analyse the role of ACT1, MLC1 and MyoA in establishing membrane flow. Surprisingly, while fewer beads bind to the surface of the parasite in the absence of these proteins, bead translocation itself appears to be not significantly affected, again indicating a role of the actomyosin system in the formation of attachment sites (in this case for latex beads), but not in bead translocation. Future experiments and tools will be required to carefully address the role of retrograde membrane flow in force production and its exact role, if any, during motility and invasion.
In conclusion, our study demonstrates the importance of the actomyosin system during motility and invasion. It is worth noting that, in physiological settings, this system is absolutely essential for parasite viability. In fact, in vivo experiments with myoA KO parasites demonstrate the complete inability of these parasites to establish an infection or to induce an adaptive immune response (our unpublished results). However, it is important to understand the molecular functions of the components of the gliding and invasion machinery in order to obtain a clear picture of how the individual components of this fascinating system work together to allow the parasite to move, invade into and egress from the host cell.
All primers used in this study are listed in Additional file 13: Table S1 and were synthesised from Eurofins (UK).
The act1 ORF containing the mutation C408G at the nucleotide level which confers the amino acid mutation of A136G was synthesised by GenScript (USA). Both the original LoxPAct1 geneswap vector and the synthesised plasmid were digested with XmaI and PacI to replace act1 cDNA.
To generate p5RT70-Ty-MyoC, the myoC ORF was amplified from cDNA using the primers myoC ORF fw/rv. The fragment was cloned via AvrII and PacI into the parental plasmid p5RT70-Ty-KillerRed. To put myoC under its endogenous promotor a 1 kb fragment upstream of the start codon of myoC was amplified from genomic DNA using oligos pmyoC fw/rv and cloned using as template vector p5RT70-Ty-MyoC via KpnI and AvrII.
This vector was generated by cloning two 5’UTR fragments obtained by amplifying genomic DNA and a fragment of myoC gene using pBSSK + pSag1-Ble-Sag1 as a template vector. Fragment 1, pMyoC, was obtained by amplification of a 1 kb fragment upstream of the start codon of myoC, via HpaI-NotI sites using oligos pmyoC 2 fw/rv. Fragment 2, 5’UTR myoC, was obtained by amplifying a region of approximately 1.5 kb located 1 kb upstream of the myoC start codon. Amplification was done using primers 5’UTR myoC fw/rv and cloned via Kpn1-XhoI. Finally, a 2.2 kb fragment of myoC was amplified using primers myoC gene fw/rv with a Ty-tag included in the forward primer. Subsequently, cloning was performed using enzymes SpeI/NotI.
To express myoA under its endogenous promotor a 2 kb fragment upstream of the start codon of myoA was amplified from genomic DNA using oligos 5’UTR myoA fw/rv and cloned using as template vector p5RT70-Ty-MyoA via KpnI and EcoRI.
Human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs) (SRC-1041, ATCC®) were grown on tissue culture-treated plastics and maintained in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% foetal bovine serum, 2 mM L-glutamine and 25 mg/mL gentamycin. Parasites were cultured on HFFs and maintained at 37 °C and 5% CO2. Cultured cells and parasites were regularly screened against mycoplasma contamination using the LookOut® Mycoplasma detection kit (Sigma) and cured with Mycoplasma Removal Agent (Bio-Rad) if necessary.
To generate stable expressing parasites, 1 × 107 of freshly lysed RH ∆hxgprt or RH-DiCre ∆ku80 parasites were transfected with 20 μg DNA by AMAXA electroporation. Selection was based on mycophenolic acid and xanthine, as described previously , or bleomycin.
The conditional act1 KOCDr strain (RH-DiCre ∆ku80/endogenous act1::loxPact1 CDr loxP, referred to as loxPAct1 CDr ) was generated by replacing the act1 cassette in the LoxPAct1 geneswap vector with a synthesised act1 cassette containing the mutation Ala 136 Gly . Integration after transfection was confirmed by PCR using primer sets (1-1’) for act1 ORF (gDNA vs. cDNA), 5’UTR integration and cre-mediated recombination with primer sets (2-2’) and 3’UTR integration (3-3’).
For stabilisation of p5RT70-Ty-MyoC, pMyoC-Ty-MyoC and pMyoA-Ty-MyoA, RH ∆hxgprt and myoA KO parasites were selected using bleomycin. The vector pBSSK + pSag1-Ble-Sag1 was co-transfected with each respective construct in the proportion (2:1), and selection was carried out as described previously .
act1 cKO and mlc1 cKO were obtained by addition of 50 nM and 100 nM of rapamycin to the parental lines, respectively. Strains were incubated for 4 h at 37 °C and 5% CO2, and cultured as described previously . To increase the population of these lines since they have an egress phenotype, act1 cKO and mlc1 cKO parasite media was swapped for DMEMcomplete supplemented with 2.5% dextran sulphate after 24 h to enrich egress mutants .
Immunofluorescence analysis was carried out as previously described . Briefly, parasites were allowed to invade and replicate in an HFF monolayer grown on glass coverslips. The intracellular parasites were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min at room temperature. Afterwards, coverslips were blocked and permeabilised in 2% BSA and 0.2% Triton X-100 in PBS for 20 min. The staining was performed using the indicated combinations of primary antibodies (Additional file 14: Table S2) for 1 h. Followed by the incubation with secondary AlexaFluor 350, AlexaFluor 488, AlexaFluor 594 or AlexaFluor 633 conjugated antibodies (1:3000, Invitrogen – Molecular Probes) for another 45 min, respectively.
Super-resolution SIM was carried out using an ELYRA PS.1 microscope (Zeiss). Images were acquired using a Plan Apochromat 63×, 1.4 NA oil immersion lens, recorded with a CoolSNAP HQ camera (Photometrics), and analysed using ZEN Black software (Zeiss) and ImageJ software.
Extracellular parasites were pelleted and then resuspended in RIPA buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl pH 8; 150 mM NaCl; 1% Triton X-100; 0.5% sodium deoxycholate; 0.1% SDS; 1 mM EDTA), incubation for 5 min on ice was used to lyse the cells. Afterwards, samples were centrifuged for 60 min at 14,000 rpm at 4 °C and laemmli buffer was added to the supernatant. A total of 5 × 106 parasites were loaded onto an SDS acrylamide gel while, for act1 cKO down-regulation, only 1 × 105 parasites were loaded. Western blotting was performed as described previously using IRDye680RD or IRDye800RD (Li-Cor) secondary antibodies.
Proteins were detected using the Li-Cor Odyssey and quantified using infrared detection of the protein of interest on Image Studio 5.0 (Li-Cor).
Wt and parental LoxP strains were used as controls. For knockout lines, parasites were induced with rapamycin as described previously and cultured for 24 h on HFFs prior to fixation. An IFA was conducted using the respective primary antibody; TgACT1 (Soldati, 1:100) or TgMLC1 (Soldati, 1:2000) and AlexaFlour 594 (Molecular Probes, 1:3000) as the secondary antibody. Images were obtained using a DeltaVision® Core microscope equipped with a CoolSNAP HQ2 CCD camera and were saved as single red and green channel files. Freeware CellProfiler 2.1.1 software (www.cellprofiler.org) was used to analyse and quantify fluorescence intensities. Greyscale images were imported to the program for analysis. The pipeline was adjusted to detect objects within the range of 5 to 40 pixels. Objects were identified using a global threshold strategy with a three class-Otsu threshold and weighted variances. Under these parameters, we identified in each image YFP-expressing parasites (generated by the DiCre cassette after correct gene excision) and the red coloured region of interest (corresponding to ACT1 and MLC1, respectively). The red signal was quantified on the basis of the total pixel occupied by the YFP expressing objects. The intensity of the red channel was measured for each object and exported to an Excel spreadsheet. The data obtained was filtered manually using area and integrated intensity parameters to include all parasites in a vacuole and exclude clustered vacuoles or random objects. Intensities from 60 vacuoles per time point were quantified and processed to remove the calculated internal background. The background fluorescence of the host cells was calculated using a YFP+ strain that was allowed to replicate under the same conditions as the tested parasites. However, no antibodies were added to the coverslips and, from this, the auto-fluorescence of the host was calculated and plotted as a horizontal dotted line.
An IFA was performed in myoA KO and RH ΔKu80 lines expressing MyoC under different levels (p5RT70-Ty-MyoC, pMyoc-Ty-MyoC and endogenous tagged MyoC). Primary antibody against Ty-tag was used to localise MyoC and DAPI as a DNA marker. Images were obtained using ELYRA PS.1 microscope (Zeiss). All 3D SIM images were collected at the same exposure and resolution parameters. Images were obtained using Zen Black (Zeiss) and analysed using ImageJ. Vacuoles to be analysed were visually identified and traced using the drawing tool. Measurements obtained were area, integrated density and mean grey value. Background measurements were obtained by selecting a portion of the image with no signal. Data was plotted by using the corrected total cell fluorescence (CTCF) which was calculated using the following formula: [CTFC = Integrated density – (Area of selected cell × Mean fluorescence of background readings)] .
Was conducted as described previously . Briefly, 1 × 103 parasites were inoculated on a confluent layer of HFFs and incubated for 5 days, after which the HFFs were washed once with PBS and fixed with ice cold MeOH for 20 min. HFFs were stained with Giemsa with plaque area measured using Fiji software. Mean values of three independent experiments ± standard deviation were determined.
Gliding assays were performed as described before . Briefly, freshly lysed parasites were allowed to glide on FBS-coated glass slides for 30 min before they were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA) and stained with α-SAG1 under non-permeabilising conditions. Mean values of three independent experiments ± standard error of the mean (SEM) were determined. Where actin-modulating drugs were used, parasites were pre-incubated for 10 min in the respective concentration before the start of the assay.
For the assay, 5 × 104 freshly lysed parasites were allowed to invade a confluent layer of HFFs for 1 h. Subsequently, five washing steps were performed for removal of extracellular parasites. Cells were then incubated for a further 24 h before fixation with 4% PFA. Afterwards, parasites were stained with the α-IMC1 antibody . The number of vacuoles in 15 fields of view was counted. Mean values of three independent experiments ± SEM were determined.
Egress assays were performed as described previously . Briefly, 5 × 104 parasites were grown on HFF monolayers for 36 h. Media was exchanged for pre-warmed, serum-free DMEM supplemented with 2 μM A23187 (in DMSO) to artificially induce egress. After 5 min, the cells were fixed with 4% PFA and stained with a-SAG1 antibody; 200 vacuoles were counted for their ability to egress out of the host cells. Mean values of three independent assays ± SEM were determined.
Prior to sorting, mlc1 cKO parasites were scratched, syringed through a 25-G needle and filtered through a 3-μm Millipore filter (Millipore Merck) for purification of the sample. An S3e™ Cell Sorter (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.), equipped with 488, 561 and 640 nm lasers, was used to sort mlc1 cKO/YFP expressing parasites. Parasites were sorted into 5 mL tubes. The temperature for sample loading stage and collection area was set at 37 °C for culturing parasites and at 4 °C for western blot analysis. Before sorting parasites, the equipment was calibrated using ProLine™ universal calibration beads (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.). Gates were adjusted to separate and collect YFP expressing population (mlc1 cKO). For the long-term culturing parasites experiment, sorting was performed in single cell mode in order to obtain the purest population possible. After sorting, parasites were cultured under standard conditions described above. For western blot analysis, sorting was performed in enrichment mode to obtain the highest number of parasites possible.
Time-lapse video microscopy was used to analyse the kinetics over a 2D surface similarly to as previously described . Briefly, Ibidi μ-dish35mm-high were coated in 100% FBS for 2 h at room temperature. Freshly egressed parasites were added to the dish. Time-lapse videos were taken with a 20× objective at one frame per second using a DeltaVision® Core microscope. Analysis was made using ImageJ wrMTrckr tracking plugin. For analysis, 20 parasites were tracked during both helical and circular trails with the corresponding distance travelled, average and maximum speeds determined. Mean values of three independent experiments ± standard deviation were determined.
Parasites contained in heavily infected HFFs were scratched and passed through a 26-G needle three times to release parasites artificially. Parasites were added to HFFs grown in Ibidi m-Dish35mm-high. Invasion events were observed after approximately 5 min when parasites had settled and penetration time was determined. Time-lapse videos were recorded at 40× objective at a rate of one frame per second using DeltaVision® Core microscope. Invasion events and time were manually tracked and calculated.
Tachyzoites were prepared and assayed as previously described . Briefly, the rapamycin-induced populations were harvested by syringe release of infected HFF monolayers using a 27-G needle, filtered through a 3-μm Nuclepore filter, and gently centrifuged at 1000 × g for 4 min. The tachyzoite pellet was washed and resuspended at a final concentration of 1–2 × 108 tachyzoites/mL in 3D Motility Media (1× Minimum Essential Medium lacking sodium bicarbonate, 1% (v/v) FBS, 10 mM HEPES pH 7.0 and 10 mM GlutaMAX L-alanyl-L-glutamine dipeptide) supplemented with 0.3 mg/mL Hoechst 33342. The tachyzoite suspension was then mixed with three volumes of 3D Motility Media and three volumes of Matrigel (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA), pre-chilled on ice. Motility in Matrigel was imaged, tracked and processed using Imaris × 64 v. 7.6.1 software (Bitplane AG, Zurich, Switzerland), as previously described . Three independent biological replicates, each with three technical replicates, were performed. Parameters calculated from 3D motility assays were analysed using two-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparisons test and with the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test using GraphPad Prism v. 6.01 (La Jolla, CA). Under our imaging conditions, trajectory displacements less than 2 μm (i.e. slightly less than one-third the body length of a parasite (~7 μm)) cannot be distinguished from Brownian motion as measured empirically with heat-killed parasites , and so a cut-off of 2 μm was applied to exclude stationary parasites. Longer displacements were considered parasite-driven and used for more detailed analysis of motility parameters.
Ibidi live cell dishes (29 mm) were coated with 0.1% poly-L-lysine for 30 min and washed with MilliQ water. Fluorescent latex beads (FluoSpheres®, 0.04 μm, Invitrogen) were diluted with 5 μL in 400 μL Hanks Balanced Salt Solution + HEPES (25 mM) (described hereafter as H-H buffer) and sonicated twice for 2 min. After a short spin (10 s, 6000 × g), the supernatant was recovered and left on ice for 30 min before use. Parasites of interest were harvested (by scratch, syringe and filtration). Parasites were pelleted for 5 min at 3000 × g, washed and resuspended in cold 250 μL H-H buffer to achieve 107 parasites/mL. Parasites were then transferred to poly-L-lysine-coated dishes and left on ice for 20 min; 5 μL of diluted beads were added to 250 μL of H-H buffer and added to the parasites. Immediately, the dish was incubated at 37 °C for 15 min. The experiment was stopped by addition of 2 mL of 4% PFA and incubated at 4 °C for 10 min. The PFA was washed gently and parasite nuclei stained with Hoechst 0.01%. For time course, the parasites were fixed at different time points after the addition of the beads. For the drug and buffer assays, parasites were incubated for 10 min in the buffer of interest before their incubation on the coated dish. Bead dilution and the rest of the experiment were also made using the same buffer (Endo Buffer or H-H buffer + 0.5 μM CD).
For each experiment (n), an average of 1000 parasites were analysed. Total numbers of parasites, number of parasites without beads, with beads bound and with beads capped were quantified (e.g. For RH n1, a total of 1615 parasites were counted, within those, 63 were not interacting with the beads, 1062 had beads around them and 490 had capped beads). For each condition, experiments were performed in three independent experiments n = 3. Mean values of each interaction type for three independent experiments ± SEM were determined and compared to RH.
LoxP strains were induced to generate KOs as previously described in Egarter et al. . Fresh extracellular parasites (4 × 105 in total, consisting of approximately equal numbers of control and KO) were loaded into collagen IV coated fluidic chambers (Ibidi IB-80192) and allowed to attach at 37 °C for 20 min. PBS was pumped through the chamber using an ‘open loop flow’ microfluidic pump (KD Scientific Legato 200 syringe pump) system, similar to that described previously , to control flow rates and generate fluidic shear stress. In our setup, a flow rate of 1 mL/min achieves 3 dyn/cm2 shear stress at the surface of the channel. Flow at 0.1 mL/min (equivalent to 0.3 dyn/cm2) was used to remove all non-attached parasites. At each fluidic shear stress level, control and mutant parasites were counted from five fields of view per experiment. Parasite count after the 0.1 mL/min wash was taken as 100% of attached parasites. Counts at all other rates of flow were normalised to the 100%. Data collected was analysed using Excel to assess the significance of differences between control and mutants using Student t-test and further analysed using GraphPad Prism v. 6.01 software to display data as trends. Parasites in the chamber were monitored via a Zeiss Axio Vert.A1 microscope setup with a 40× objective combined with an AxioCam ICm1 camera and Zen capture software.
We would like to thank members of the Meissner lab for thoughtful discussions. We would also like to thank Prof. David Sibley (Washington Univeristy, St. Louis), Prof. Dominque Soldati-Favre (University of Geneva), Prof. Artur Scherf (Institut Pasteur, Paris), Dr. Jake Baum (Imperial College, London) and Dr. Maryse Lebrun (University of Montpellier) for generously providing antibodies and parasite strains.
This work was supported by an ERC-Starting grant (ERC-2012-StG 309255-EndoTox) and the Wellcome Trust 087582/Z/08/Z Senior Fellowship for MM, and US Public Health Service grant AI054961 for GEW. The Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology is supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust (085349). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files, or are available from the authors on reasonable request.
JW and FLB performed experiments analysed results and interpreted data of mutant parasites characterisation; participated in the writing, revision and edition of the manuscript. SG and GSP carried out and analysed retrograde flow and flow chamber experiments respectively. JML set up and analysed 3D motility experiments. AH designed and analysed experiments of dense granules motility. SE and NA generated and analysed the studied mutant lines. GW conceived the 3D motility project, designed the study, analysed results, interpreted data, and drafted and revised the article. SRN and DMW analysed dense granule motility data and revised the article. MM conceived the project, designed the study, analysed results, interpreted data, and wrote the first manuscript. All authors participated in the revision of the manuscripts and approved the final version.
Periz J, Whitelaw J, Harding C, Lemgruber L, Gras S, Reimer M, et al. Toxoplasma gondii establishes an extensive filamentous network consisting of stable F-actin during replication. bioRxiv. 2016. doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/066522.
Coleman BI, Gubbels MJ. A genetic screen to isolate Toxoplasma gondii host-cell egress mutants. J Vis Exp. 2012;60. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3350636/. | 2019-04-21T20:30:50Z | https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-016-0343-5 |
Abstract: In late 2016 thirty British politicians, officials and former officials, officers, and experts met to discuss ways in which the UK foreign policmaking leaves the country vulnerable to strategic errors.
Abstract: On October 13, 2014 in Corniche Street, Alexandria a police superintendent at a checkpoint and a navy officer engaged in a fist fight. The army officer contacted the military police which took the police officer and superintendent at the checkpoint to an army base where they were requested to stand hours in the sun as a form of punishment (Madgy et al., 2015). While many insist that these are individual incidents (Abdel- Aal, 2015). This is only one incident of at least 6 of clashes between members of both institutions since the 2011 uprising (Madgy, 2015). These incidents that point to the different security institutions’ extensive powers and the divisive structure in which they are based, a structure that was once called a “mamluk state” (al- Sherif, 2012). This points to the failed processes of state-building at the core of the institutional weaknesses in Egypt.
Abstract: Although the January 2016 Sarinah mall attacks in Jakarta demonstrate the need for continued vigilance, this paper argues that Islamic extremism and fundamentalism are not on the rise in Indonesia. In fact, Islamic extremism in Indonesia reached its height in the early 2000s, with radicalized groups participating in religious conflicts in Eastern Indonesia and carrying out large-scale terrorist attacks, such as the bombings in Bali in 2002. Since then, the capacity of the security apparatus has markedly improved, leading to the crippling of terrorist networks. Today, the majority of Islamists engage in above-ground non-violent activities and pose little threat to the country’s stability. This paper views fundamentalism and extremism as symptoms of broader problems in Indonesia, and argues that addressing these issues should help to further reduce the problems of religious fundamentalism and extremism.
Abstract: The Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, FDLR)—including its armed wing, the Forces Combattantes Abacunguzi (Abacunguzi Fighting Forces, FOCA)1—is among the most enduring armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Several members of the group’s top leadership are suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, making the FDLR’s continued presence in the DRC a recurring point of contention between Kinshasa and Kigali and a source of tensions for the Great Lakes region as a whole (Omaar, 2008, pp. 65– 66, 236–312). Maj. Gen. Sylvestre Mudacumura, the group’s military commander, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed in the DRC itself (ICC, 2012). The group’s presence has also led to the emer- gence of local armed groups that claim to protect communities, further complicating security dynamics in the eastern DRC (Debelle and Florquin, 2015, p. 206).
Abstract: A change in the Baltic Sea regional security situation has already taken place and is having direct and indirect impacts on the countries in the region. Potential risks to stability in the Baltic Sea Region have been activated, although they are not yet, and hopefully never will be actualized in the form of open military conflict. Russia’s self-perception as a target of Western aggression is a way to legitimize assertive foreign policy towards the West in general and to continue military posturing in the Baltic Sea Region, where both the risks and possible gains for Russia are the greatest. Considering the full-spectrum approach to conflict and the web of relationships that exists throughout the Baltic Sea Region, it is possible to conclude that beyond a certain point, all Baltic Sea littoral states will not only be impacted but drawn into a conflict occurring in the region.
11. Porous Borders: The Study of Illegal Markets from a Sociological Perspective.
Abstract: The Afghanistan of today would surprise most outsiders, even those who closely follow developments in the country. We are often wrongly branded as a failing state with a struggling government whose young people are fleeing en masse for Europe and whose military has lost control of the security situation. While anecdotal evidence can always be found to lend isolated support to such claims, this sweeping characterization offers a distorted picture of reality.
Abstract: The existence of a police component in UN peace operations is not a novelty. It goes back half a century ago and was first introduced in the Congo in the 1960’s. Embedding police components in UN missions became more extensive at the end of the 90’s. Over the years, with the change of the context of conflicts (from interstate to intrastate) peace support operations have evolved and are now very much shaped to reflect political and security developments on the ground. International policing efforts are an extremely important factor in establishing and maintaining international security today. Although military peace support operations and national military contributions are predominant, not all security problems can have a military solution. Regardless of the security context, police functions and mechanisms are extremely necessary for a successful peace support operation.
Abstract: In the contemporary political environment, the added value brought by leaders to the electoral performance of the parties appears to be significant and growing. However, the impact of leader evaluations on the vote choice is likely to vary from one voter to another. This article explores the influence of voter characteristics on the magnitude of leader effects in the context of the 2012 legislative elections in Romania. Five such characteristics are considered: objective political knowledge, subjective political information, party identification, political engagement, and time of voting decision. For this purpose, the paper employs data from the 2012 Romanian Election Studies (RES) three-wave panel survey. The analyses prove a significant influence of political knowledge and party identification and negligible effects of the other three voter characteristics considered. Thus, political knowledge appears to stimulate the manifestation of leader effects. Similarly, voters holding partisan ties appear to experience higher levels of personalization. The implications of these findings are discussed extensively.
Abstract: For more than half a century, the United States has played a leading role in shaping order in East Asia. This East Asian order has been organized around American military and economic dominance, anchored in the U.S. system of alliances with Japan, South Korea, and other partners across Asia. Over the decades, the United States found itself playing a hegemonic role in the region—providing security, underwriting stability, promoting open markets, and fostering alliance and political partnerships. It was an order organized around “hard” bilateral security ties and “soft” multilateral groupings. It was built around security, economic, and political bargains. The United States exported security and imported goods. Across the region, countries expanded trade, pursued democratic transitions, and maintained a more or less stable peace.
Abstract: General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Egypt’s ruler since July 2013, brooks no dissent. Having “saved” Egypt from the Muslim Brothers, he has ruled by decree in the absence of a parliament, supported by a handpicked technocratic cabinet. His security apparatus muzzles the press, keeps dissident voices off-air, arrests secular as well as Islamist critics, and clamps down on civil society. He has built ten new prisons to accommodate the overflow, as political prisoners may now total 60,000. As typical of military rulers, he announces grandiose projects – the new channel in the Suez Canal, the Dabaa nuclear power plant, million-unit agricultural and housing schemes, and a multi-billion dollar new capital city – without taking into consideration their cost, integrating them into long term plans, conducting comprehensive feasibility studies, or examining their social and environmental impact.
Abstract: Traditionally, there is a partisan split on foreign policy in the United States: Republican candidates and voters worry more about terrorism, defense and national security than Democratic candidates and voters, thereby putting more stock in foreign policy issues, which manifests itself in the aggressiveness—of lack thereof—of each party’s foreign policy platform. But the candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election can be categorised by more than just party: a line can also be drawn between conventional candidates—Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Republicans—and unconventional candidates—Donald Trump, a Republican, and Bernie Sanders, a Democrat. Should a conventional candidate be elected president, U.S. foreign policy would be based on predictable adaptation to the changing international environment. An unconventional candidate, however, would be a wild card, whose actions would be difficult to predict.
Abstract: West Papua is the most violent area of Indonesia. Indonesian security forces battle the country's last active separatist insurgency there. The majority of Indonesia's political prisoners are Papuans, and support for independence is widespread. But military repression and indigenous resistance are only one part of a complex topography of insecurity in Papua: vigilantism, clan conflict, and other forms of horizontal violence produce more casualties than the vertical conflict that is often the exclusive focus of international accounts of contemporary Papua. Similarly, Papua's coerced incorporation into Indonesia in 1969 is not unique; it mirrors a pattern of long-term annexation found in other remote and highland areas of South and Southeast Asia. What distinguishes Papua is the near-total absence of the state in indigenous areas. This is the consequence of a morass of policy dysfunction over time that compounds the insecurity that ordinary Papuans face. The author illuminates the diverse and local sources of insecurity that indicate too little state as opposed to too much, challenges common perceptions of insecurity in Papua, and offers a prescription of policy initiatives. These include the reform of a violent and unaccountable security sector as a part of a broader reconciliation process and the urgent need for a comprehensive indigenous-centered development policy.
Abstract: Calls for greater coherence in the international community's support for security sector reform (SSR) have become commonplace. This reflects frustration at the stovepiped contributions that frequently seem to characterise international SSR engagement. Perhaps more damaging, incoherent approaches may only be the visible symptom of a more profound problem – the inability or unwillingness of the international community to engage collectively with complex political dynamics when designing and implementing SSR programmes. The nexus between difficult SSR politics and incoherent SSR support has multiple dimensions. On the one hand, an SSR process may challenge (or reinforce) inequities in power relations that exclude certain groups and interests. Competing interests therefore provide a sub-text to any reform process. On the other hand, SSR assistance from external actors is itself highly political (and is certainly viewed as such by 'recipients'). This tension is reflected in harmful accusations that SSR represents a Trojan horse for the imposition of foreign values and influence. By failing to acknowledge these political sensitivities in SSR policies and programmes, external interventions can at best have a marginal impact on national security dynamics. This Horizon Paper therefore attempts to provide additional clarity to the concept of coherence and its utility in supporting more effective SSR.
Abstract: Most of today's armed conflicts take place within states and are waged by at least one NSA fighting state forces and/or other NSAs. In these conflicts, frequent violations of humanitarian norms are committed by both state and non-state parties. NSAs also frequently control or heavily influence areas where civilians live. Consequently, efforts to protect civilian populations should address not only the behaviour of states, but also that of NSA.
Abstract: The open Internet has been a boon for humanity. It has not only allowed scientists, companies and entities of all sorts to become more effective and efficient. It has also enabled an unprecedented exchange of ideas, information, and culture amongst previously unconnected individuals and groups. It has completely revolutionized on a global scale how we do business, interact and communicate.
Abstract: Private military and security forces, in various forms, have been around for as long as there has been war and insecurity. In the fi rst and second centuries BC, Carthaginians used Numidian mercenaries, in the fifth century the Romans used Germanic mercenaries on their northern borders, the Byzantines hired the Spanish in the fourteenth century, the English used Prussian “Hessians” in the American War of Independence, and the Swiss Guard have been providing protective services to the Vatican since 1506. These forces were used by strong regional and local powers to safeguard or expand territory or other spheres of influence under their control.
Abstract: Cyber security encompasses borderless challenges, while responses remain overwhelmingly national in scope and even these are insufficient. There are enormous gaps in both our understanding of the issue, as well as in the technical and governance capabilities required to confront it. Furthermore, democratic governance concerns – particularly regarding control, oversight and transparency – have been almost entirely absent from the debate. These concerns are exacerbated by the enormous role played by private actors (both alone and in cooperation with governments) in online security of all types. Given the pace at which states and private companies are reinforcing online security and preparing for cyber war, addressing democratic governance concerns has never been more pressing. They are the primary subject of this paper.
Abstract: Analysts at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) together with colleagues at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), are playing a leading role in deriving new, timely, and valueâ€added information of global security and earth science relevance from a variety of open-source geospatial tools that include digital virtual globes like Google Earth together with satellite imagery available from commercial vendors via the internet Cloud. This article provides some discovery exemplars, by CISAC researchers and others, which have only quite recently become possible through the use of such tools.
Institution: Kolleg-Forschergruppe "The Transformative Power of Europe"
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Abstract: Already-weak states in Libya and Yemen crumbled as struggles for control over their security sectors became central to transitional politics after the popular uprisings of 2011. Instead of being reformed and upgraded to enhance the fragile legitimacy of interim governments, the security sectors collapsed by 2014. Libya and Yemen are now caught in a vicious circle: rebuilding effective central states and cohesive national identities requires a new consensus on the purpose and governance of security sectors, but reaching this agreement depends on resolving the deep political divisions and social fractures that led to civil war in both countries.
Abstract: The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition movement and one of its oldest, is squeezed between an unprecedented crackdown from the security state and a young generation pushing for more assertive action against the regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. As a movement that has long espoused evolutionary change morphs into one that advocates revolutionary change—and struggles with whether that means adopting a strategy of violence against the state—the implications for Egypt and the entire region are massive.
Abstract: This Report, the outcome of an EUISS Task Force on sanctions, offers valuable insight into a practice that is now part and parcel of the Union's ‘security’ policy toolbox. It aims to shed more light on an EU policy area that is still under-researched at a time when sanctions are becoming more important in terms of their number, scale and political salience.
Abstract: Since the tragic bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq in 2003, a concerted effort has been made to improve and strengthen security arrangements across the UN system. However, too often, security issues are perceived as primarily technical matters that are not prioritized as strategically and politically important. This report takes stock of the strategic impact of safety and security for effective peace operations by outlining the evolving, increasingly hostile security context into which operations are being deployed and its implications for personnel. The authors assess existing UN management structures, policies, and processes to identify potential areas of reform. As they examine the diverse range of challenges and considerations for improving security of UN peace operations, they argue that effective security is about protecting UN personnel while enabling, not limiting, operational activity.
Abstract: The new threat landscape the transatlantic community faces means that NATO must adapt its strategy to remain relevant. While many transatlantic policymakers and thought leaders have called for a new strategy for NATO, few have outlined what that strategy should actually entail. This report proposes that NATO adopt a new strategy called "Stability Generation," built on the concept of ensuring stability in the NATO region and reducing the threat of significant conflicts in NATO's neighborhood. To accomplish this, NATO must add resilience as a core task to its existing tasks of collective defense, crisis management, and cooperative security. NATO must also enhance capabilities in the East against conventional and hybrid conflicts, in the South against instability arising from conflicts and extremism in neighboring countries, and across the Alliance to decrease vulnerabilities and enhance resilience, particularly with respect to cybersecurity.
40. From 9/11 to Da'esh: What Role for the High Representative and the External Dimension of EU Counter-Terrorism Policies?
Abstract: Under certain conditions, such as security crises, an integrated external EU counter-terrorism policy can emerge without leading to the supra-nationalisation of policy-making. This paper analyses the role of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy with the objective of assessing the influence that such figure can have on the governance of EU counter-terrorism policies. It does so by assessing the EU’s response to three security crises, namely: the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent bombings in Madrid (2004) and London (2005); the Arab Spring and the following destabilisation of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA); and the emergence and spread of Da’esh.
Abstract: This paper introduces Central Asia’s geopolitical significance and explores several inter-related security challenges. For each security issue, this paper provides a brief overview of the issue, explains why or how it developed and looks at the issue’s significance within the broader security environment. The paper then turns to Canada’s role in Central Asia and addresses opportunities to expand engagement in the security realm.
Abstract: Regional security is being adversely affected by a worsening perception gap between China and other regional powers in the Indo-Pacific. What China sees as the legitimate defence of its interests others in the region see as assertive behaviour. There are some real differences in interests between China and other regional players in the Indo-Pacific, but tensions can also be moderated by efforts to address the perception gap.
Abstract: On the occasion of the April 2015 Global Conference on Cyberspace meeting in The Hague, the Global Commission on Internet Governance calls on the global community to build a new social compact between citizens and their elected representatives, the judiciary, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, business, civil society and the Internet technical community, with the goal of restoring trust and enhancing confidence in the Internet. It is now essential that governments, collaborating with all other stakeholders, take steps to build confidence that the right to privacy of all people is respected on the Internet. This statement provides the Commission’s view of the issues at stake and describes in greater detail the core elements that are essential to achieving a social compact for digital privacy and security.
Abstract: With the world focused on the nuclear crisis in Iran, it is tempting to think that addressing this case, North Korea, and the problem of nuclear terrorism is all that matters and is what matters most. Perhaps, but if states become more willing to use their nuclear weapons to achieve military advantage, the problem of proliferation will become much more unwieldy. In this case, U.S. security will be hostage not just to North Korea, Iran, or terrorists, but to nuclear proliferation more generally, diplomatic miscalculations, and wars between a much larger number of possible players. This, in a nutshell, is the premise of Underestimated: Our Not So Peaceful Nuclear Future, which explores what nuclear futures we may face over the next 3 decades and how we currently think about this future. Will nuclear weapons spread in the next 20 years to more nations than just North Korea and possibly Iran? How great will the consequences be? What can be done?
48. The Ethics of Drone Strikes: Does Reducing the Cost of Conflict Encourage War?
Abstract: Armed unmanned aerial vehicles—combat drones—have fundamentally altered the ways the United States conducts military operations aimed at countering insurgent and terrorist organizations. Drone technology is on track to become an increasingly important part of the country’s arsenal, as numerous unmanned systems are in development and will likely enter service in the future. Concerned citizens, academics, journalists, nongovernmental organizations, and policymakers have raised questions about the ethical consequences of drones and issued calls for their military use to be strictly regulated. This level of concern is evidence that the future of drone warfare not only hinges on technical innovations, but also on careful analysis of the moral and political dimensions of war. Regardless of whether drones are effective weapons, it would be difficult to sanction their use if they undermine the legitimacy of U.S. military forces or compromise the foundations of democratic government. | 2019-04-21T05:40:17Z | http://www.ciaonet.org/catalog?f%5Btopic%5D%5B%5D=Security&per_page=50&search_field=all_fields&sort=score+desc%2C+pub_date+desc |
The invention provides a process for the preparation of high purity bone mineral wherein the organic matter is degraded by heating with ammonia or a primary amine, characterized in that the solubilized degradation products are extracted by washing with flowing water at temperature below 60.degree. C., such heating with primary amine and washing steps optionally being repeated, whereby substantially all organic matter removable by these steps is removed, the bone mineral so treated being heated in air at temperatures between 250.degree. C. and 600.degree. C.
4314380 February 1982 Miyata et al.
4434094 February 1984 Seyedin et al.
4654464 March 1987 Mittelmeier et al.
Stegemann, et al. "Uber die anorganische Knochensubstanz nach Formamidaufschluss", Bd. 320 (1960) 272. .
Skinner, et al., Calc. Tiss. Res. 10 (1972) 257. .
Williams, et al., Science 119 (1954) 771. .
Losse, et al., Nature 177 (1956) 1032. .
Hurley, et al., Military Medicine (1957) 101. .
Kershaw, The Pharmaceutical Journal 190 (1963) 537. .
International Search Report (WO 86/07265). .
International Search Report (WO 89/01347). .
Partial European Search Report (EPA 147,021). .
Solomons, T. W. Graham, Organic Chemistry, 2nd Ed. 1980..
1. A process for the preparation of high purity bone mineral wherein the organic matter in degreased bone is degraded and solubilized by heating with ammonia or a primary amine, characterized in that the solubilized degradation products are extracted by washing with flowing water at temperatures below 60.degree. C., such heating with primary amine and washing steps optionally being repeated, whereby substantially all organic matter removable by these steps is removed so as to provide bone mineral having an organic impurity content less than 150 parts per million and a protein content less than 135 parts per million, the bone mineral so treated being heated in air at temperatures between 250.degree. C. and 600.degree. C.
2. A process as claimed in claim 1 in which the primary amine is an aliphatic or alicyclic amine having one or more primary amino groups.
3. A process as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 in which the bone is heated with the primary amine or ammonia at a temperature in the range 100.degree. to 150.degree. C.
4. A process as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 in which said flowing water flows at 1 to 50 cm per hour.
5. A process as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 in which the final heating is in the range 350.degree. to 500.degree. C.
This invention relates to bone mineral products of large specific surface area.
Bones from slaughtered animals are an inexpensive raw material available in large quantities. They contain 50 to 60% of very fine crystallites of a form of hydroxylapatite bonded by collagenic tissue and containing significant qualities of proteinaceous and other matter as well as associated fat and muscle tissues. Such a hydroxylapatite, if it could be isolated in a pure state without changing its essential crystal structure, would represent a highly biocompatible remodelling bone implant material.
Natural bone mineral comprises hydroxyapatitelike crystallites with a particular degree of crystallinity, habit and size (irregular platelike morphology, 5-10nm in thickness 10-50 nm in length) and surface chemistry resulting from the calcium to phosphate ratio (37.5-38.0% calcium and 15.5-5-19.0% phosphorus). The inorganic phase of bone contains porosity including ultrastructural interstices (10-100 nm) between the crystallites occurring naturally and produced by removal of the organic phase, and microscopic spaces (1-20 microns) including osteocyte lacunae, canaliculi, vascular channels, volkman's canals, and the canals of haversian systems (100-500 nm). The specific surface area, which is a measure of porosity is in the range 50 to 100 m.sup.2 /gm as determined by mercury porosimetry. The crystallinity of bone mineral can be characterized by X-ray diffraction and the porosity and crystallite morphology and size by electron microscopy. We have found that the composition and structure of natural bone mineral cannot be duplicated by calcium phosphate products formed in vitro or by naturally occurring hydroxyapatites prepared previously.
Hitherto two methods for the purification of natural bone mineral have been proposed namely calcination and solvent extraction.
The temperatures needed during calcination for the incineration of the organic constituents of the bones are rather high. This leads to extensive recrystallization of the mineral part with formation of much coarser crystals The so formed material exhibits a small specific surface and is not superior to any chemically precipitated hydroxylapatite.
It should be emphasized that bone mineral which has been subjected to a treatment which results in significant increase in crystal size is much less readily remodelled on implantation since osteoclasts and osteoblasts cannot readily perform on such large crystals the dual function of mineral resorption and generation of new bone. Such implanted inserts may thus remain unchanged indefinitely eventually giving rise to undesirable effects. On the other hand, many synthetic tricalcium phosphate products tend to be resorbed too rapidly for osteoblasts to regenerate new bone.
In the prior extraction process the proteins are extracted from degreased bone with a suitable solvent. The resulting bone mineral is then washed to remove the solvent.
Stegemann and Jung (Hoppe Seyler's Z. physiol. Chem. 320 (196) 272) used formamide for the protein extraction. This method proved to be impractical, the solvent being unstable under the conditions of hot extraction.
The sometimes recommended extraction with hot water instead of water washing after extraction was found to promote undesirable crystal growth (Skinner, Kempur and Pak: Calf. Tiss. Res. 10 (1972) 257).
The generally preferred method according to the prior art consists of the extraction of degreased bone with boiling ethylene diamine followed by washing with water. This method has been introduced by Willia's[and Irvine Jnr. (Science 119 (1954) 771) and later used by Losse and Hurley (Nature 177 (1956) 1032; Military Medicine (1957) 101) and by Kershaw (The Pharmaceutical Journal 190 (1963) 537). A patent for this process has been granted to Armour & Co. (U.S. Pat. No. 2,968,593 (1961)).
It has generally been claimed that extraction with ethylenediamine yields pure bone mineral. However, on repetition of this method we have always found that the products contain between 0.1% and 1% of organic residuals, which can often lead to undesirable immunological response on implantation.
According to the present invention we provide a process for the preparation of high purity bone mineral wherein the organic matter in degreased bone is degraded and solubilized by heating with ammonia or a primary amine, characterized in that the solubilized degradation products are extracted by washing with flowing water at temperatures below 60.degree. C, such heating with primary amine and washing steps optionally being repeated, whereby substantially all organic matter removable by these steps is removed, the bone mineral so treated being heated in air at temperatures between 250.degree. C. and 600.degree. C.
Some earlier methods tried to extract the bone protein with hot ethylene diamine without water washing. This method is not very effective. Following the present invention the degreased bones are treated with hot amines (or acueous ammonia to degrade and solublize the originally insoluble proteins and the extraction of the solubilized degradation products takes place during washing with water.
We have found that this washing process is most important, since it not only causes the extraction of free soluble organics, but also the desorption of adsorbed degradation products. Due to the large specific surface of the bone mineral, adsorption is a very important effect preventing purification. Consequently washing with water has to be very extensive.
The final heating to sole hundred degrees centigrade brings about further desorption. At the same time, remaining organic contaminants are at least partially destroyed by oxidation.
Because bone mineral exists in an extremely fine crystalline state, it is not very stable and is subject to recrystallization. All operating conditions must be selected to avoid undue crystal growth.
Any vertebrate bone can be used as the starting material for the present process. Bovine femur is a preferred raw material. The bones must be free from other tissues, such as marrow, cartilage or periosteum. Cortical as well as cancellous bone may be used in the process yielding macroscopically different types of end product. The bones must be ground or cut into pieces. The shape and size of the particles are generally determined by the requirements of the end product. Since all treatments are largely diffusion-controlled, finer communication of the material facilitates the process.
The bones must substantially be completely degreased, since residual fats and their reaction products with amines will not readily be removed during the subsequent treatments. Degreasing is preferably performed by solvent extraction, suitable methods being known to those skilled in the art.
In general, degreasing can be effected by refluxing the bone material in the solvent which conveniently boils in the range 80.degree. to 120.degree. C., e.g. about 100.degree. C. Suitable solvents include hydrocarbons such as toluene and methylcyclohexane.
Primary aliphatic or al cyclic amines are generally water soluble and are preferred as reagents for the protein degradation. These amines may possess more than one amino group per molecule and/or may contain other functional groups, e.g. hydroxyl groups. They preferably have 2 to 6 carbon atoms. Examples are cyclohexylamine, ethanolamine and ethylene diamine. Ammonia itself is also a suitable reagent. An addition of up to 50% water is often advantageous.
The degradation reaction may be performed by putting the degreased bone in a flask or vessel, adding enough reagent liquid to cover it and heating to a temperature between 80.degree. C. and 200.degree. C., preferably between 100.degree. C. and 50.degree. C. If ammonia or a low-boiling amine, such as ethylamine, is used, the reaction must be performed under pressure, preferably in an autoclave. Any more elaborate apparatus may also be used as long as the bone is in contact with hot reagent.
The duration of the heat treatment depends on the particle size of the bone, the reactivity of the amine and the reaction temperature, and may be between 2 and 200 hour. With bone pieces about 1 cm in diameter, using aqueous ethylene diamine as the reagent and a reaction temperature of 118.degree. C., a reaction time of 50 hours gives very satisfactory results.
After the degradation reaction the reagent, which now already contains a proportion of the degradation products, is drained off. The treated bone is transferred to a rinsing bath. After removal of most of the residual reagent the velocity of the continuous water-flow is adjusted to between 1 and 50cm per hour, 10cm/hour being a preferred velocity. A faster water-flow may be used, but this may not accelerate the process. To avoid recrystallization, the water temperature should not exceed 60.degree. C. The water temperature should not, however, be unduly low if efficient extraction is to be achieved and is preferably above 10.degree. C. A temperature of approximately 20.degree. C. is preferred. The presence of amines in the washing water can easily be detected by pH measurement. Even after complete elimination of the reagent amine, desorption of degradation products still takes place. The washing process is therefore continued for 5 to 25 days, the duration depending largely on the particle size of the bone.
To achieve particularly high purity, the amine treatment and the washing must be repeated. When relatively large pieces of cortical bone are processed, repetition of the treatment may be necessary.
The final and essential step in the treatment of the bone mineral consists of dry heating to temperatures between 250.degree. C. and 600.degree. C., preferably not greater than 550.degree. C., more preferably between 350.degree. C. and 500.degree. C., for several hours. The higher temperatures are more effective in removing contaminants but tend to increase the risk of recrystallization with consequent increase of crystal size. Heating in an oxygen-enriched atmosphere promotes the beneficial oxidation of organic residues.
The bone mineral produced by the process of the invention is a white, chalky, brittle material, showing the macrosttucture of the original bone. On examination under the electron microscope, crystalline platelets no thicker than 100 .ANG. units and 200 to 400 .ANG. in diameter may be seen. By X-ray diffractography the presence of a hydroxylapatite lattice structure is confirmed. The width of the interferences is in agreement with the above-found crystal size. By mercury porosimetry a specific surface of 60m.sup.2 per g. has been measured.
The protein content is below the detection limit of the Lowry method (135opm) and the overall content of organic impurities 's certainly below 150 ppm. In contrast, repetition of the methods described in the above literature shows that the products in general contain substantial contents of organic impurities, normally above 1000ppm and often significantly more.
According to a further feature of the present invention we provide a bone mineral for use in medicine having substantially the crystal structure and mineral microstructure of natural bone permitting physiologically controlled, cell mediated remodelling on implantation, while having in organic impurity content below 150 parts per million. The bone mineral produced by the method of the invention shows, in fact, no organic impurities on electron microscopic examination at a magnification of 100,000.
In contrast to previously proposed natural or synthetic bone mineral materials, the product according to the invention is readily remodelled by the action of osteoclasts to effect resorption of bone mineral and the action of osteoblasts to produce new bone to eventually replace the implant.
The bone mineral according to the invention may thus be used as a remodelling implant or prosthetic bone replacement, for example in orthopedic surgery, including hip revisions, replacement of bone loss e.g. in traumatology, remodelling in maxillo facial surgery or filling periodontal defects and tooth extraction sockets. In this context, the bone mineral may have adsorbed or absorbed therein one or more physiologically active substances.
Physiologically active substances which may be adsorbed onto the bone mineral are preferably at least partially water-soluble and include antibacterial substances such as antibiotics, e.g. penicillins, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides etc., sulphonamides and, in particular, condensation products of formaldehyde with taurinamide or N-substituted taurinamide. The latter compounds may be represented by the formula ##STR1## where R.sup.1 is hydrogen or a C.sub.1-4 alkyl group and R.sup.2 is hydrogen or a group of the formula ##STR2## wherein R.sup.1 has the above meaning.
The compound of formula(I) in which R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are both hydrogen is taurultam while the compound in which R.sup.1 is hydrogen and R.sup.2 has the formula (II) is taurolidine. These compounds act as methylol transfer agents and are effective not only in destroying both gram negative and gram position bacteria but also in inactivating both endotoxins and exotoxins produced by the bacteria.
Other useful physiologically active substances include proteins and polypeptides capable of assisting bone regeneration especially non-collagenous proteins derived from bone matrix and bone cells. These include mitrognic factors such as skeletal growth factor and morphogenic and angiogenic factors as well as transforming growth factors, .alpha. and .beta. types 1 and/or 2. Type 2 is especially important.
It has been found that while it is important in most instances to avoid significant modification of the size of the bone mineral crystallites, in order to ensure that the bone pieces when implanted, are readily converted into natural bone, there are certain environments, notably the highly vascularised maxillo facial region, where there may be some benefit in slight modification of the structure of the bone mineral to delay unduly rapid resportion. We have found that in this context it may be beneficial to increase the temperature of the final heating step to above 600.degree. C., namely to a temperature between 600.degree. and 700.degree. C. Over this temperature range, there is modest increase in crystal platelet size and an increase in pore size. It is possible in this way to provide the surgeon with a range of bone mineral prosthetic products having different physical and physiological properties, by varying the temperature of the final heating step.
Femurs of freshly slaughtered rattle are sawed into slices 1 cm thick. These slices are cleaned by repeated boiling in water and by cutting off appending soft tissues. The material is dried at 100.degree. C. in a circulating air even overnight.
Cortical and cancellous bone are processed separately. The cortical bone rings are cut into pieces 1 cm wide. The cancellous bone slices are sawed into plates 15 mm square.
The dried bone is transferred to a Soxhlet extractor modified for hot extraction and is extracted for 72 hours with boiling toluene The degreased bone can be stored after drying at 80.degree. C. in closed containers.
1700g degreased cortical bone, 1000 ml 99% ethylene diamine and 150 ml deionized water are heated under reflux in an Erlenmeyer flask immersed in an oil bath for a period of 50 hours. Boiling begins at 115.degree. C. The temperature of the boiling mixture rises to 119.degree. C. towards the end of the treatment.
After cooling, the reddish-brown amine reagent is decanted, and the bones re-rinsed three times with cold, deionized water.
The bone material is transferred to a glass cylinder fitted with a gritted glass support near the bottom. A continuous flow of water is passed through the porous glass disk and the layer of bone material.
The crude bone mineral is dried at 100.degree. C. in a circulating air oven and ground on a roller mill to particle size below 2 mm.
The above-described amine treatment is repeated in exactly the same way using the pretreated material, but the subsequent washing is extended to 15 days.
The resulting bone mineral is dried at 160.degree. C. and then heated to 350.degree. C. in a porcelain pan for 20 hours.
1102g of white granular, pure bone mineral are obtained. The material can be separated by sieving into fractions of more uniform particle size.
Principally the same methods described in Example 1(b) are used. 600g degreased cancellous bone plates from Example 1(a), 1500 ml 1 99% ethylene diamine and 75 ml deionized water are heated under reflux for 50 hours. The treated bone is washed with water during 6 days.
The wet bone is subjected to a second similar treatment with 1500 ml ethylene diamine, an addition of water being omitted. The subsequent washing is prolonged to 17 days.
The final drying and heat treatment at 350.degree. C. is performed in exactly the same way as described in Example 1(b). 366 g of pure, white, extremely friable, cancellous bone mineral are produced.
1700g degreased cortical bone pieces are treated with ethylene diamine/water mixture as described in Example 1(b) and washed during 6 days.
The wet raw bone mineral is subjected to a second similar treatment using 1000ml ethylene diamine and 50 ml water, followed by a 10 day water washing.
To achieve highest purity, the wet bone mineral pieces are boiled 5 days in 1 liter pure ethylene diamine and then extracted in a slow stream (1 liter/hour) of cold deionized water for 22 days.
The product is finally dried overnight at 160.degree. C. and then heated to 400.degree. C. during 25 hours.
1085g of faintly reddish, brittle bone mineral pieces are yielded. Eventual organic contaminations could not be detected, their concentration being below the analytical detection limit.
Granular bone mineral with a particle size between 1 and 2 mm was prepared using the procedures described in Example 1. The material was characterized by electron microscopy, X-ray diffractography and mercury porosimetry. Each of these methods measures a different property of the material. Using electron microscopy it was found, that the material consists of crystalline platelets about 200 to 400 .ANG. units in size (20 to 40nm).
Their thickness appear to be at most 100 .ANG. units (10nm), since the crystals are still permeated by the electrons. The crystal size distribution seems to be rather narrow, but due to the insufficient disagglomeration a more quantitative evaluation was not feasible. FIG. 1 is an electron micrograph of the bone mineral of the invention at a magnification of 100,000.
By X-ray diffractography it was found, that the material had pure hydroxyl apatite crystal structure. No interferences of other lattice structures was observed. Using the Laue-Scherrer relation the average crystal size in the 002-direction could be estimated to 315 .ANG. units (31.5nm) with confidence limits of 276 and 362 .ANG. units (27.6 and 36.2nm).
When the measurement was discontinued at 1000atm the pore volume still rose with pressure. This means, that the material contains pores with diameters below 150 .ANG. units (15nm), that were not penetrated earlier. The pore volume and inner surface given above should therefore be considered as lower limits.
Samples of the described material were heated for 18 hours to temperatures between 600.degree. C. and 800.degree. C. in an electric furnace and were then analyzed in the same way as the original product. The results are summarized in Table 1 hereinafter.
With rising heating temperature the crystals and the pores grow larger while the inner surface shrinks.
After heating to 600.degree. C. the small pores with diameters less than 15nm have disappeared in favor of larger pores.
After heating 650.degree. C. a very wide crystal size distribution and two predominant pore sizes with diameters of 34nm and 130nm are observed.
Raising the temperature from 700.degree. C. to 800.degree. C. decreases the pore volume abruptly from 0.216cm3/g to 0.042cm3/g probably due to the commencement of sintering.
Heating in the above temperature range used causes crystal growth but no change in the crystal lattice structure. This could be independently confirmed by thermodiffractography: At about 650.degree. C. the formerly broad interferences rapidly become sharp without changing their directions. | 2019-04-26T06:44:54Z | http://patents.com/us-5167961.html |
Beth's Gallery It's definitely an improvement on the iPhone. It'll take some getting used to as a gallery on the computer, but it's nice and the photos look good.
Nikki's Gallery I'm really glad to know it looks good on a phone or tablet.
irenecollingphotoart.com I don't know what problems were solved by the changes. Occasionally, when I was away from home, I used my phone or tablet to look at BP. I never had any problems in the past.
Now, depending upon orientation of device and photo, the pictures don't maintain aspect and are distorted. A landscape photo viewed on a portrait oriented device is squished to fit the narrow screen. A portrait photo viewed on a device held horizontally is stretched to fill the wider screen.
You have to keep rotating the device for pictures to look correct.
Terry's Gallery I really love the new look of my gallery on my PC. The black background looks great! However, on my iPhone, my pics won't open, I just keep getting that little busy circle thingy.
Ken's Gallery Jim, I'm not sure if you're aware, but folks can now do a right mouse click, save-as. I just did it for one of my photos. Previously, the BP site would not allow someone to download direct. True, folks could get a screen capture but now it's just the basic right mouse click, save-as. I only upload at 800 pixels on the wide side so even if folks are getting my image, it's a small one. But I'm not sure if others are aware that it's now easy for anyone to download the images.
I agree with Ken, I wish the right click would be disabled. If I right click on a photo in my gallery, without enlarging it, I get the option "Save As". I did that, and every photo on the page was saved in a folder. If I open up an image, I can choose "Copy image".
Do we get to comment anywhere? I haven't had time to play around with the new layout yet.
I don't like that the titles get partially hidden behind the badges in the slideshow.
But, I do like the black background!
Ken's Gallery Eivor, you can comment via the "Recent Contest Entries" area.
I'm not sure how to comment if you go to a person's gallery, though. If our galleries were laid out like "Recent Contest Entries", then we could. More to come, I'm sure, with the new layouts. A work in progress.
Ray's Gallery Terry...I'm having the same problem on my iphone. Pictures will not load.
Jill's Gallery When you hover over an image you can click on View Details. Look above the image when it opens up and there is the Discuss link. Jim posted a video on Youtube as a tour of the new galleries that explains it all.
Jill's Gallery My images are right click protected...I bet there are several things that are in progress.
Rudi's Gallery This a fresh gallery image for sure. Would love to see the awards one might have won (Editors pick, Finalist, etc.) stand out a bit more. Only shows when you hover over or click on the photo.
Ken's Gallery Jill, I can still do a right mouse click, save image. I personally don't have a problem with this, as I only upload low-res images. And sites like Facebook have the same right mouse click option.
Beth's Gallery I'm not having any problems opening my images on my iPhone and they are all oriented correctly.
I love my gallery's new look. It looks clean and sharp. I am not having any problems with the images on my phone.
Harriet's Gallery I am not a phone or iPad person so the image quality does not make any difference to me. However, I like a lot of things about the new look. I just discovered that I can go to my photos to manage or enter and I can see which ones have the EP from there. This helps me determine if I want to enter a photo for the first time or resubmit. It will take some getting used to but that's life. Take the good with the not so good as long as the good out weighs the not so good.
Ken's Gallery I like the new look too. I know many would prefer to have the badges visible, and maybe there's a way to have this as a toggle on/off option. My quick recommendation would be to put the same navigation control at the bottom, so that I can go to the next page without having to scroll back to the top to click the next page. The photos certainly look great against the black background.
Beth's Gallery Good suggestion, Ken, about putting the same navigation control at the bottom so you don't have to scroll to the top each time. I was thinking about it.
Dayna's Gallery Loving the new look! WOW!
Melinda's Gallery I must be in the minority. I HATE the new look! It lacks the class that the old look had. I hate that I cannot see the awards at a glance, and if I choose to put a lengthy description in, it all but obliterates the image! I would never have complained about the new badge design had I known that it was a step toward this overall new look. Doesn't matter WHAT the badges look like anymore, IMO. These new galleries are, except for the back ground color, identical to those at Viewbug and other photo websites, not at all distinctive. I hate the way the images all blur together rather than having a substantial amount of white space on the page. I've always liked the contest at BP but I can get a high quality contest at Viewbug, too, plus being able to market my images. Is there any reason for me to pay for both anymore? Not that I can see. I expect I'll be leaving when my time expires. I'm disappointed to say the least.
irenecollingphotoart.com Harriet, yes you can see an EP badge on the Manage Photo page and you can see if you've received the new All Time Photo award. But Finalist and gold winner awards do not show up on thumbnails. You have to open each photo to see if it was a previous winner.
natashaplissimpressions.com Melinda, you are not alone. I can sign under every word you wrote and I am very surprised that majority of members (so far) love the new gallery.
What disappoints me most is an absence of space around the images. Can anybody imagine paintings or photographs in galleries joined together like this? And by the way, on contest entry pages images have some space around them and the whole look is just great.
And what about the award badges? There has been so much talk about them and … Who can see them now? I’d love to see the awards at a glance and show them to my friends.
Unfortunately, I renewed my gallery 2 months ago hoping it would look much better than at that time.
irenecollingphotoart.com Melinda and Natasha, I agree with you. I want some space between photos. Right now, the galleries look like one big collage rather than a show case for individual images.
Jill's Gallery I cannot share my contest entries on FaceBook now. I usually copy and paste the address into the Update Status box on my personal page and then share it to my Photography page. The share button has never worked for me, all I get is a box advertising BetterPhoto...Now that is all I get no matter what version of my image I try and use. Hope they can fix this, I do not like posting images directly on Facebook and have always shared my Betterphoto posts because they could not be copied.
Jill's Gallery Ken, I use Google Chrome and if I try and right click on any of my images I get the copyright warning...Maybe it doesn't work with other browsers?
I cut and pasted this from Melinda's post ... and if I choose to put a lengthy description in, it all but obliterates the image.
I also have gone to great lengths to share a description, a story or congratulations to all members on my past images and now it's just a big mess. I have to find each photo and delete the information. Not happy as due to illness, I don't have much time for photography or BetterPhoto so it's even more upsetting & frustrating.
So due to health, won't be winning any prizes for participation.
I do like right click for spell check. Not happy though, if others are correct about it giving access to our photos.
Yes, some photos I've viewed of others are stretched or distorted on my PC.
I pray all these glitches and I'm sure more to come can be corrected & all BetterPhoto members will be happy again.
Thank you Jim for trying to make changes for a better experience for everyone, but changes are difficult and mistakes will be made. Hoping I can adjust to all this confusion & extra work due to them.
Also another glitch... there are TWO gallery buttons side by side on everyone's image page that do the exactly same thing... takes you to the page you are already on.
If things are difficult for a member to figure out on how to look at their own images, find badges, etc ~ how much more difficult would this experience be for a visitor or viewer???
Nikki's Gallery Sorry you are not in the best place health wise, Sharon, but I wouldn't worry about awards being linked to participation. BetterPhoto has never been about that and I'm sure it's not changing to become a site where the images with the most comments or favorites win the awards.
Deserving photos often get passed over, but that's just a matter of personal taste and there being too many good photos out there - not a case of weaker images with more "likes" or something like that "surpassing" them.
Nikki's Gallery Well, maybe I stand corrected. I just read Jim's latest email. But I would hope these will be "new" awards that are clearly popularity and participation based and that they will not replace the "old" ones that were presumably based more on image quality.
Sorry for any confusion. I have always thought the judging here on BetterPhoto was fair and I'm grateful for every win I've received. If it was on popularity or number of comments, loves, etc, I would not have won a thing so far. Lol.
I've always had health problems and because of that I found my passion for photography and BetterPhoto. They have both made my life much brighter and a way of seeing the world differently. I've made dear friends here at BP & love the members, staff & Jim.... so my experience here is a blessing not a curse.
In all honesty though, I do have to admit keeping up with the changes are difficult for me.
There was a comment in Jim's email this morning about participation to SCORE TO WIN that I was referring to. Meant to be a joke, but I guess it did not come through that way. I'm sorry.
The email is below and hope this makes things clearer. All I want is for the very best for BetterPhoto & it's members, as without you I don't know where I'd be.
ANNOUNCING... the "Most Rockin' BetterPhoto Member" game!
Have you ever noticed that "Score" number in your Profile?
Have you wondered what that number was all about?
Well, as much as LOVE can be measured!! It's really a score on how much you do at BetterPhoto... a way to give kudos to those who contribute a lot!
To further celebrate our 20th Anniversary, the game is on!
* Answer questions with care, considerateness, and supportive encouragement.
* Take an online photography course and learn how to make even better photos.
* Simply upload your photos to share or enter into the contest.
* Get and keep a PRO Website or Deluxe Website.
* Get a Classic Gallery.
* You also get points when people LOVE your photos (clicking the heart)... so share photos and encourage others to love your photos.
* And you get points when other photographers FOLLOW you (and when you follow others). Check the "My Photo Shows" section of your Profile to see these.
Take your pick of the above, take a 5 minute break, and have fun sharing the joy and inspiration.
Awards will go to both highest score... as well as the most improved score this month (from March 16 to April 16th).
irenecollingphotoart.com Jim said this issue is being worked on but I'm surprised that none of you have mentioned being routed to a blank error page after commenting on a photo. It's really annoying because I have to go out of BP, come back in and then find where I left off.
Tonight I discovered another oddity.
If I open a photo from a BP gallery "New Arrivals, Contest Entry's etc." then comment, I can use the back arrows to get back to the BP gallery that I stated from.
If I go to someone's personal gallery, click view details, open the photo, leave a comment then click the back arrow I get the "gallery not published" message.
Commenting on the same photo from the same photographer I got different results depending upon whether I started at the BP gallery page or the photographers own gallery page.
irenecollingphotoart.com Sharon, don't you hate it when you try to make a joke; others don't realize the humor and take you seriously?
I'm with you on this one. I comment and participate when I have time and I feel moved to comment. I don't plan to go out of my way to win some kind of recognition.
I'll leave that honor to someone who has more time and incentive than I do.
Carol's Gallery I like the black background and I don't mind the streamlined look of the gallery, however I do not like not being able to easily see the badges/awards. Just my opinion. I get why they wanted to make it more mobile friendly, but my website takes longer to load now and I rarely use my phone to look at websites so to change everything to make it more mobile friendly and in the process make it less computer friendly doesn't seem like a great trade off for me, but again, just my opinion. I do however like some of the changes, so I guess I'll just wait until everything has worked itself out.
Ken's Gallery FWIW, I have the iPhone 6 and for my gallery, all the photos are in a vertical stack in a single column on the left. The horizontal navigation bar is fine and there's room for two more columns of thumbnails, even though it's just black space.
The word "Discuss" is almost impossible to see with the black or dark grey background. It does stand out when using the white bg.
The team has made some good progress this week.
* The gallery should work on iPhone 4 and 5 now. YAY!
Ken, please try again on your iPhone. I believe you will see one single column of images fitting across your screen. It should look good now.
* A second copy of the page number links is at the bottom of the page now.
* After viewing big images or the slideshow, you should no longer see that blank "No such gallery" page. You'll stay in the gallery. YAY!
* The blue buttons at the top are fixed so the last one correctly points to "Contact" page.
If you see anything different, feel free to take a screen capture (I do that by holding in my power button on my iPhone, then clicking the main application button on the lower front of the phone... snap.. I got a picture of my screen). Upload it here or email it to Support.
And thanks for all the feedback. We're working on it.
P.S. Now we will see if we can fix the bug where the image is being squished upon enlargement view on smartphones.
Terry's Gallery My gallery does open on my iPhone 5s now!! :) Thanks for the great progress you and the team are making, Jim!!
Peggy's Gallery My gallery now opens on my Samsung Galaxy, and it looks great! Yay!
Way to go, Jim and BP staff!
Ken's Gallery Jim, thanks! And yes, I now have one column of thumbnails. Has there been any thought of having two (or three) columns of thumbnails? That would mean reducing the image size of the large thumbnails, but I think the display would still look good. That would place a lot more photos at our finger-tips. For example, right now I can scroll thru 30 photos in the single column. But if there were three columns, then I could see 90 images. If a 2nd column, then 60 images. Just a thought. I appreciate you fixing the bugs and keeping folks updated. Good luck!
Nikki's Gallery I'm so glad you are getting all the phone problems resolved, Jim.
I only use my phone for the occasional call, so I'm still interested in how the galleries look on a desktop. I would love to have the option to have my images display in rows instead of having the collage (also called jigsaw by some) look?
Peggy's Gallery Agree with Nikki ... I would also like the option, on a desktop, to have my photos display in rows (all the photos in equally sized boxes), or in a single continuous line (as they appear on my phone).
Melinda's Gallery I have to agree with Nikki, too. The jumbled collage makes my gallery much weaker than it used to be. I'm someone who will never be able to afford a smartphone (my mom pays for my old flip phone) so I really value having a great look on my desktop computer. Please, Jim, please, do something to help those of us who are a bit old-fashioned!!
I agree with Nikki......Not a fan of the "jigsaw" look.
Melinda's Gallery I know that a lot of websites, including my photo website, have two formats, one for desktop computers and one for mobile phones. Wouldn't it be possible to do that here?
Lindley's Gallery I agree with others - I don't care for the collage look of the display, and I would like to be able to see the badges again (without clicking or hovering).
natashaplissimpressions.com I agree with Nikki, Peggy, Melinda and Bob. The longer I look at the new “improved gallery” the more I dislike it. And it’s not a matter of being old fashioned which I am certainly not. On my big screen desk top this new display looks shocking in a negative sense. Any gallery has to showcase every piece of art in the best possible way. That’s why background color, right space, framing and even the colors of the adjacent paintings or photographs mean a lot.
Jim, I hope we can have one more option in addition to a FLASHY JIGSAW COLLAGE which certainly attracts a lot of people. Another option should be a GALLERY-LIKE DISPLAY with rows of photographs in right size boxes enhanced by the AWARD BADGES which we worked hard for and really proud of.
Melinda's Gallery I have to add that it really is quite dismaying not to be able to see at a glance where my latest EP was handed out. A lot of us like to track the progress of the monthly contest in this way.
Larry's Gallery I also agree with all the remarks on the dislikes of the new “improved gallery”. If I forward the gallery to anyone interested in my photos all the gallery looks like now is bunch of mixed of pictures that anyone can do making a collage.
Tracy's Gallery Comment removed by moderator.
Michele's Gallery I'm trying not to be too disappointed over the new galleries and just seeing what everyone else thinks. Reading these past few posts, I'm adding myself to the list of those who would like to see a choice with our galleries. I'm not a fan of the jumbled look and I do miss seeing the badges at first glance. Not only my own, but others as I look at their galleries. Even looking at galleries is not as enjoyable anymore, because of the confused look to the display of the photos. Having the "next" page numbers on the bottom would be nice also. I know you are listening, Jim, and we thank you for that and for the hard work you and your team are putting into this. Hope to hear your thoughts soon.
irenecollingphotoart.com I'm happy to know that many of you also dislike the jig-saw; collage type gallery look. Love your responses, and agree with each of you.
Jill's Gallery Mixed emotions about all this new stuff. I love being able to see images bigger...but after I messed up the order of my images, trying to sort them is a nightmare. The whole drag and drop thing is fine for those who only have a couple hundred images, but try it with having 2000!. On my personal website, I have the option of opening all my images in one nice big page and can move entire block of images at a time...having to move images one at a time takes forever!
Before I had my Winners all in one area, then my Finalists, and then POTDs...Now some of my images which have POTD and Winners only show the POTD...The All Time EP medal takes the place of the Winners or finalists medals...And there is nowhere to see your Finalists without having to open every image...I really loved being able to see all the awards I got for each image, now it takes several moves to get to that point...Just seems to be too many things going on now. I liked clean and simple...Now I would never send anybody to my BP gallery to see my work.
Beth's Gallery I'm not a fan of the jigsaw look either.
Cindy's Gallery I agree with everyone above regarding my dislike of the jigsaw gallery without the option of seeing the badges. Our galleries were clean and simple and I'd like the option to continue to display our galleries as before. I've been trying to put my finger on why I dislike the new style so much and its because the jumble of images feels overwhelming and looks disorganized. Its uncomfortable for me to view as a result.
I don't mind the jigsaw so much, other than not being able to see the badges. I like looking for gold - I use those to study. What I don't like is clicking an image for enlargement, and seeing all the clutter from the jigsaw around the enlarged image. It really detracts from the image being viewd.
Ray's Gallery I too would like to be given options in regards to how our galleries are displayed. I appreciate the fact that I can now view my gallery on my iphone, but was surprised that all the pictures were in one single row. I like Ken's idea of possibly having 3 rows. I also agree with many of you that the awards we all worked so hard for should be visible upon opening our galleries. I do appreciate the hard work Jim and his team are doing. Some of the changes have clearly been well received. But I am also seeing that there are aspects of the new gallery that are unpopular as well. Since this is the case, I'm hoping that we can simply be given options to display our galleries as we'd like. I think this would work well for the majority of BP members, and would certainly be much appreciated.
Hope to hear back about some of our other concerns soon!
Nikki's Gallery As you look for ways to display the badges again, Jim, please don't forget to look for a way for us to lose the jigsaw look. Staff Favorites just came out and I visited a couple of galleries but just gave up in dismay. Not only can I not see the badges easily, that mishmash of images makes it impossible for me to step back through the entries with any sense of organization.
Joannie's Gallery I totally agree with Nikki on the difficulty of seeing our own badges let alone someone elses! Nikki said the staff faves were out and I hadn't checked my e-mails so I went to my gallery and had to roll over each image instead of seeing them immediately and some of March images were patched in with Feb. Please Jim, make is more user friendly! Thank you!
While I appreciate all the hard work done by Jim and the BP staff, add my voice to those who prefer the former "gallery" look with space around the photos and badges/awards clearly visible. I worked hard to earn them and it was motivating to see them, as well as seeing where I stood on monthly EP,s.
I have to agree with others on not liking the jigsaw look & when you click on a photo there is a mishmash of photos behind it and the X button to close it is not on the photo but off the right top corner of the gallery. I can't find anyone's Staff Faves & still have a hard time trying to comment. I was able to upload a photo from my Android Smartphone & you quickly added the name of it to the list so thank you very much for that. I also had a system for sorting my photos by Wins, Finalists, Stave Faves & EFPs but no longer is there a way of keeping it neat & tidy as before. I'm afraid to share with my friends as it is confusing for me so can't image how they would be able to navigate. I know Jim you're doing your very best & appreciate that, but must point out my dislikes. I want the very best for BetterPhoto & it's members. A choice for the old format would be awesome!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend & happy shooting to all.
PS: I found this on another Q&A and found it interesting. Are we judged on images 1024 pixels or 800 pixels? It will make a difference on how tightly an image is cropped. I guess I should direct this question to Jim by email.
Here's one very cool thing I forgot to relay to you all... the large size is now 1024px on the long end (not 800). So you can save as JPEG 1024px on the long end, before uploading.
Also, rotate your photo before uploading, if it needs it.
Melinda's Gallery "TIFF (in Internet Explorer only)"
Surprised to see this because FYI: I've been uploading TIFFS in Google Chrome successfully for quite a while.
You can upload at 1024 now! The judges see the size you see - so uploading at 1024 will be more impactful than uploading a small photo. But they still vote yes on a smaller photo when it's outstanding.
If you downsize your images before uploading, I would adjust it to fit 1024 on either dimension.
Nikki's Gallery Thanks for this information, Jim. Two questions.
1) You said, "If you downsize your images before uploading, I would adjust it to fit 1024 on either dimension."
By "either dimension" do you mean either the short or the long side or do you mean "adjust it to fit 1024 on the long side whether the image is horizontal, vertical, or square"?
2) Is this affecting, immediately, retroactively and going forward the image quality as displayed and, therefore, viewed on our monitors?
Was this my imagination or do your older images that are already uploaded not "lose quality" for the viewer?
Peggy's Gallery Thanks for this info, Jim.
What happens if you do not resize before uploading? (I never do.) Does the uploader automatically resize? Does it now resize to 1024 px on the long side?
Nikki's Gallery oops - sure wish I could edit for typos here!! That last sentence should have read "NOW lose quality" rather than "not lose quality".
Beth's Gallery Regarding badges being visible, EP badges are showing up under the image in the manage/edit section of "My Photos" but SFs and beyond are not showing up. Jim, can those badges be added or replace the EP?
Nikki's Gallery Beth says, "or replace the EP?"
1) Yes, I mean "adjust to fit within 1024".
2) On all main BetterPhoto pages (viewing recent entries, etc.), the image will show just as uploaded. So it won't look soft unless it was that was before uploading. On your Classic Gallery, there's a known problem but it's JUST IN THE SLIDESHOW view. When viewing the large version (before hitting the Play button to start the slideshow), the photo should be limited to 1024. Some 800px or less photos will show softening here; and images in the slideshow (known problem) get even bigger. We have it on the big list to limit this displayed size.
When you click on the "View Details" link, it should show your photo as is (without any problematic enlarging).
In the meantime, best views are a) at BetterPhoto galleries such as Recent Entries... or b) when you click the "View Details" link.
The gallery page itself (with the thumbnails, slideshow, etc) is the only problematic place.
Peggy, you can continue to NOT downsize before uploading. That works just fine.
Beth, it should only show the Editor's Pick where the photo is not a prize winner, finalist, or staff fav... In other words, it should work as you suggest. But you're not the first person to say this. Problem is: it's hard for me to find photos to test this out, and see what, if anything, is going wrong.
Can you please take a screen capture of a page with photos that you KNOW are more than Editor's Pick, but are only showing the EP badge - you can either attach it here or email it to support.
I'm not Beth, but here's one, Jim. My most recent Finalist which still shows only the EP. I actually can't find a single badge that is not EP in my entire member center.
Nikki's Gallery Also, I just uploaded the image in question resized to 1024 on the long side and compared the "View Details" display in side-by-side tabs. No noticeable difference, so that is good. Thanks, Jim.
Here's one of mine that was a second place winner, but is showing the EP bade in the "Manage/Enter" function.
Gradually learning to navigate my own & others galleries more each day. The Platinum Uploader is very fast which is great.
Nikki, I found no change either. Guess I have to go to recently uploaded to check side by side images. I did it before right from my Photo Manager. Now when I click on the photo, I can't click on an arrow to the right or to the left to compare quickly. I had to click each photo separately from Photo Gallery & look very carefully to see if they were the same or not. Takes more time & I don't think as effective or convenient as the old way. BUT good to know there is no difference.
To save wear & tear on my neck I have my screen photos & print enlarged quite a bit, so I don't put my neck out trying to see things with these ole eyes. Progressive glasses are not the best ... maybe time for glasses just for computer.
So I assume things look different to different people depending on the size of their screen monitors???
I like that you can see if you an EFP in Photo Manager, but thus far, it doesn't go any higher than EFP as far as I can see.
Beth's Gallery Jim, Nikki and Peggy uploaded examples of the EP badge being the only one in view so I won't.
Ed's Gallery I'm with Beth.
I'm not a fan of the jigsaw look either! I also don't like that the badge that shows when you hover over an image is the All Time Editor's pick badge, not the Grand-Prize, First or Second Place badge. One has to open the image to see those.
Nikki's Gallery And once you do open it, Jessica, there is no easy way that I can see to get back where you were. There is no way to close an image once you View Details except by using the browser back button, and that takes you back to page 1, not the page you were on. So looking at an image in the detail view, which is what you have to do if you want to see or do anything (like maybe comment?!), brings you to a standstill in terms of browsing your own or anyone else's gallery.
Nikki's Gallery Is there any progress on this? I continue to find the jigsaw look unfortunate to say the least.
Patrick's Gallery It seems that the number of entries are way up this month, so you must be doing something right, Jim. I, however, don't like the jigsaw-like gallery either, and the site is not user friendly for people with limited computer skills- I would think that it would be super difficult for visitors to navigate I commend you and your staff in trying to accommodate members' wishes and suggestions.
Jill's Gallery I agree with Melinda," I realized it as I was browsing through my "Photos That I Love." On that page, there is more "white" space between images, the titles appear under the images, AND the awards appear. This would be a lovely way to display images in our galleries! Sort of a combination of the old and the new..."
My gallery doesn't display correctly on my Android. Well, more accurately, if a select an image to enlarge, it doesn't display correctly. The badge and image text are off the screen on the right, with just the right left edge visible. I can't swipe left of right to pick up the rest of the view.
Harriet's Gallery I just checked the QA page and saw all the activity on this thread. Lots things to think about. I don't much care for the jigsaw look but I can live with it but I, along with a whole lot of others, miss seeing the badges. Now they disappear unless the mouse scrolls on top of them. I wish this could be fixed. Most people my age like they way things used to be but in this case, I think the way things used to be is a whole lot better in many ways. I enjoy BP as do the rest of the people who posted on this thread. Most of us are not going anywhere but we do have our opinions and most are of the same opinion. Please bring back a way for the badges to be displayed permanently. | 2019-04-18T11:23:16Z | http://www.betterphoto.com/forms/QnAdetail.asp?threadID=38908 |
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The miraculous spirit contacts received by our INIT group between 1995 and 2000 were made possible by The Seven, especially the one calling himself “Technician.” They protected us from dark and troubled spirits while transducing subtle energies of finer spirit to interact with our carnal energies and with the dense electromagnetic energies of our equipment. In other words, they made ITC possible by opening a bridge between the material world and the astral world of spirit.
I am not energy and I am not a light being. You are familiar with the picture of two children walking across a bridge, and behind them is a being who protects them. This is what I am to you, but without the wings. You can call me Technician, since that is my role in opening this communication bridge. I am assigned to Planet Earth.
Seth 3, Ishkumar and others are also “technicians” just like the one you are familiar with. Some of us call them great souls or creators. They live on our plane (third astral level) and yet are really not among us. They can ascend to higher planes and again “bend down” to our level. Their power is almost unlimited and so is their wisdom and goodness. Their entire being is illuminated by understanding and forgiveness. It is impossible to describe the good feeling that overcomes the person who faces them and can speak to them. We seek council with these higher beings to determine the information to send to Earth. The meetings take place in a round room with transparent walls. During the talks the room revolves and lights, colors and shapes of breathtaking beauty pass by on the outside. Soft “music of the spheres” is heard in the background.
The Seven have been on my mind almost daily since the miracles of INIT. I’ve churned and processed their wise, rational, often-mind-boggling messages for more than a decade, and the best I can figure (as I wrote in the previous post, Part 4) is that The Seven of ITC are either some of the stranded Edenites (‘sons of God, according to Biblical writings) who died and maintained an interest in Earth… or more likely the same as the Seven Archangels described by Enoch and other Biblical writers. They told our INIT group early on that names were not important to them but, when pressed, said we could call them Technician, Ishkumar, Nsitden, Lagelnev, Mrekklin, and Thfirrin. (I’m not sure about the name of the seventh… maybe Seth3???) But I suspect they’re the same as the archangels… Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael, Gabriel, and Remiel… using new IDs for modern times.
This picture shows Nsitden in, I believe, two of his forms—in a subtle, genderless human-like spirit body in which he glows in rainbow colors (foreground), and as a lighter, more angelic being (right).
Lagelnev, a spirit of the natural world, formed by ancient human beliefs.
Nsitden comes from another planetary system, responds to human emotions, helps people communicate with their feelings and seems unconditionally kind from a human perspective. Mrekklin comes from a parallel world. Lagelnev is a spirit of nature, not to be confused with one of the elementals, but formed by the faith of humans (not necessarily the faith of today). Technician is interested in science and acts as a guide and gatekeeper to other dimensions. Ishkumar was once, long ago, human, so unlike Technician, can relate to humans, and understands and relates to pain.
Your lives are like the lives of flies….
By the time of INIT (1995-2000), my ITC colleagues and I had learned that it takes a lot of effort for our spirit friends to transduce their thoughts into voices that seem fairly normal to us on Earth. Compare the voice of Technician as it came through in 1987 and then in 1996, again in Luxembourg.
Here’s the complete transcript of the latter contact followed by a “written-between-the-lines” interpretation.
1 – In the course of bygone decades, of thousands of earthly years, beings interested in the human species meet to decide on the continuation of the project. You must not imagine that only The Seven implicated in the actual development of INIT are there. No, it is a coming together of all entities interested in mankind. The interests are various.
2 – We, the Seven of the Rainbow People, have decided to help and support the way chosen by you, in INIT. It is the way of morals, which means to understand, to acknowledge, to devise, and to act. It is not to be mixed up with religion, which means to believe. However, the two can be complimentary. But they are independent one to the other.
3 – You already know that also Pharisees, ghouls, swindlers, thieves, yes, even murderers, have their interested supporters here among the dead. And as the word “higher being”–notice that we never gave us this name ourselves–does not stand, as it is often misinterpreted by falsely religious people (to be) purified, rid of all sin, whatever the word “sin” means for them. There are also entities here interested in that situation.
4 – This is the seventh time that we accompany and guide you on your progress towards a free, wealthy and sane future in which humanity would have stripped off the chains of intolerance and cruelty. A future in which it will be able to establish fruitful and durable relationships with the Light, ethereal realms of existence. Our and your opponents tried to prevent this by all means.
5 – Your meeting in Tarrytown is a decisive one–men and women of wit whittled out together to make true the dream of a strong international association based on morals and on ethics, not only by giving it a fundamental constitution and sheltering it this way from the wind, the rain and the storms of pernicious attacks, but also by strengthening love and friendship true, the best qualities of mankind.
6 – The first step was made in Dartington. In those weeks, some of your best were cruelly hit by illnesses, diseases, and personal problems in order to keep them away from their valuable work. Be assured, even if we cannot avoid the plague, we can control the gravity. Whatever has happened, do not lose courage. We are there. You are in the right way. You are a small number, but much depends on you and your decisions on those days. We trust in you.
1 – Since the fall of Atlantis some 4 or 5,000 years ago, after human nature had run wild, different types of spirit beings have developed a fascination with humanity for different reasons. The Seven have long been “assigned” by higher forces to monitor, guide, and support our world.
2 – The Seven can resonate (and collaborate) with certain people and groups who correctly understand the messages coming to our world from finer realms and use the knowledge to help the world… which could be called “moral” behavior.
3 – Not all spiritual influences on our world are beneficial, though. Humans who are malevolent or spiritually confused also receive “help” from more negative invisible forces.
4 – One goal of The Seven is to enlighten and enrich humanity by forging lasting ties with us, but there are always negative forces at work trying to disrupt the connection. Through the centuries, The Seven have come close to our world to attempt the connection with six groups or nationalities since Atlantis, the first being Babylon and the most recent (I believe) being the Semites, or Jews.
5 – By connecting with INIT via ITC, in this modern era of mass communication and the gradual breakdown of barriers that divide races, nationalities, and religions, the Seven hoped at last to reach all humanity. This was their seventh attempt….
6 – … but the challenges were formidable. The “plague” of dark, troubled thoughtforms around the world and among humans was imposing.
So, alas, the exceptional ITC contacts by The Seven broke down for INIT around 2000… and the main receiver, Maggy Fischbach, continued to get contacts from them for several years.
Children of Earth, people of Terra! Often, when we come to take you home at the end of your earthly lives, we notice that you are in great haste. Like someone who unexpectedly has guests coming, you dash to and fro and try to get some order in the chambers of your spirit and your heart. You quickly get things out of the way which you left lying around carelessly for a long time. You hide other things under the furniture and the carpet because you are ashamed that you neglected them. Dear people! We come only to greet you, not to judge you. The pupil is not being judged after an hour of testing, but only after his entire period of learning…. Once you get back to us, you will feel like the child who sits smiling and securely on its mother’s lap. Therefore, do not make this time of your transit unnecessarily difficult for each other. Lighten your hearts and take off your masks in front of each other and you will be prepared on the day we take you home.
Children of Earth, People of Terra…, have no fear of doubt. It is not love alone that advances the world but also doubt. Doubt is the price of freedom. There is doubt that is just and results in enlightenment, and there is poisoning doubt that only sows discord. If doubt works against you, your life becomes confused. If doubt is on your side, life becomes an adventure.
Fear of death is one of the most distressing concepts of human culture. It is based on the conscious belief that your bodily existence offers life and security, which it never wants to lose. Fear of death therefore is evidence of the mind having lost its roots. It shows a spiritual being who has far removed itself from its higher self. You owe this mentality largely to an intellectual and scientific way of thinking. It wants all thoughts reduced to a comprehensible level of material existence. Heaven is in man, and those who have heaven within themselves go to heaven. Heaven is in all those who recognize what is of God and let themselves be guided by the Divine. The priority and basic concern of every religion has always been the acknowledgement of God.
It makes no difference what religion you belong to. . . What matters is the victory of reason and understanding over materialism and irrationality at the End Time.
We have often given you the real purpose of ITC contacts: Mankind at the end time should be led back to the principle. Light and darkness shall unite and form a whole again. What people experience now is not the actual beginning of the apocalypse, but only the first symptoms.
While The Seven may be among the most powerful spiritual forces watching over our world, and while their ITC contacts may someday be recognized as among the greatest miracles of our age… finer spiritual energies make their presence known in our world, continually, in many ways.
This entry was posted in After we die, what then?, Heaven and Earth, Inner exploration, ITC, Other-worldly matters, Our ancient heritage, Our paradise destiny, Science and Technology, Society and ethics, Spiritual realms and tagged angels, Atlantis, dying, end times, ethereal beings, ITC contacts, morality, negative spirits, rainbow people, seven archangels, the human destiny. Bookmark the permalink.
I must ask you one question. Why have you not continued your ITC work? I know the answer must be a difficult one, but I would just like to know.
Thanks for all of your insight and knowledge in this field. I eagerly anticipate your weekly emails.
When the exceptional contacts were discontinued, I eventually decided that I could do more good in ITC by spreading the word of the wide-ranging things we learned from our spirit friends, than I could do by experimenting with recording devices and high-tech receiving equipment, with just mediocre results.
When Polaroid stopped making film, of course, that brought an end to my spirit face photography.
So, I’m still involved in “ITC work,” just not the experimenting aspect of it. More the writing and researching aspect.
Thanks for answering my questions. You’re the best, my friend. Also, I hope that you have been watching the Gold & Silver investing scene. I have been actively investing in both metals and I know that there is a lot of money to be made in this arena. I have always been very interested in the experimenting side of ITC but have never known anyone experienced and knowledgeable in this field, that was willing to help me in this endeavor. Sorry for my ramblings.
Mark M, Mark W mentioned that he receives weekly e-mails from you. By chance, do you have an e-mailing list for updates on the latest ITC research or developments? Your work is beyond fascinating and clicks with me in a way that nothing else ever has. I believe it’s because it has triggered my own spiritual awakening. I have bought and read all 4 of your ITC-related books in chronological order – C.B.T.L., Miracles in the Storm, Spirit Faces & The Project.
Secondly, I saw that you were discussing prospects for silver investments! I happen to be an individual investor that actively-watches and makes frequent decisions on market movements (my BBA was in Finance with a concentration of Investments & Capital Markets). I love commodities, and precious metals are my favorite asset class. I am extremely bullish on, or optimistic about, the prospect of silver. It’s extremely important, in my view, to accumulate silver for the long run. Setting aside a long-term budget for periodic silver purchases is the ideal thing to do! If you have time, I truly recommend that you accumulate and dollar-cost average over a period of many years. Also, I know that this next metal is slowly slipping into the mainstream psyche as a long-term investment opportunity – copper. Copper prices are hovering at a very low point right now and it may be time to take advantage of this as well. Gradually-accumulating fine copper bullion through trusted sellers is a very wise decision. There are beautiful copper bullion bars out there, available in many different sizes. In the short-term, there is not a very good chance to make quick profits off of either of these medals. But 20 or 30 years from now, I think these types of investors will look back and thank themselves greatly.
But looking at the bigger picture – I think that those who immerse themselves in a life of love, kindness and a mindset geared towards that eternal, non-vibrating light (the source of all life) – will be the ones that thank themselves the most. As Mark once said, it is like a “homing beacon” that we can consciously set to ensure that we awaken in a paradise world upon the expiration of our physical lives.
Mark, all my best to you. I truly cannot wait for the times of humanity’s spiritual awakening and their realization of what really does happen beyond our dense world.
The weekly emails MarkW referred to are notifications of new posts on this blog, sent out automatically to subscribers. That’s the only ITC report I’ve been sending out in recent years.
As far as silver, yes, I’ve bought some of the physical metal too in recent years, and plan to get more.
As you say, though, our spiritual investments are the ones that will reap the greatest rewards. Very well expressed! Thanks!!
Hi Mark – it’s been a while since I’ve asked a question (but I’ve been busy expanding my awareness). This leads me to my question – I’ve been reading the teachings of Silver Birch recently. The wisdom expressed through his teachings really ring true with my own internal logic. Have you studied Silver Birch’s teachings? If so, do you find any of his core teachings to be at-odds with the things you’ve learned from your years of ITC?
I’ve heard of Silver Birch but have read very little of the information… so unfortunately I can’t comment about how well those teachings jive with what we learned through ITC contacts.
Mark – it doesn’t seem to. That said, your communications came directly from the source (of who they said they were). Silver Birch (and others) came through mediums. Was there anything you learned through ITC that would cause you doubt over mediums (in general)?
David, most mediums filter information through their minds as it comes into our world. So their messages are colored to a lesser or greater degree (often hard to determine how great a degree) by their religious beliefs and levels of understanding. I’m always discerning with channeled information, other than very basic descriptions of and simple messages from departed loved ones.
Deep, esoteric information is far more prone to “rough translation” as it passes through a medium’s mind.
If you can find a good Direct Voice medium (a rare skill), you’d have better luck getting pure information, since the spiritual being employs mostly the medium’s voicebox, not his or her mind.
Of course, a genuine ITC bridge, forged by ethereal beings, astral spirits, and resonant humans all working in close collaboration to get information through technical equipment provides the most reliable information, but such a bridge doesn’t seem to be available at the moment.
Thanks again Mark. Spirit Guides (such as Silver Birch & White Eagle) seem to form much of the foundation of Spiritualist teachings, yet I understand what you’re saying about the “mode” of how those communications came to us (versus ‘direct voice’ and/or ITC). That said, it seems that when we look for that same ‘high-level’ of teaching & wisdom (from direct-voice and/or ITC) we come up lacking (versus the level that was provided via the aforementioned Spirit Guides above) – or, am I missing some significant teachings you can point me towards?
Thanks again for this forum Mark!
Hi David… the best source?
Probably that involves each one of us going within.
Opening the channel between our carnal mind and our soul, through meditation and inner work.
Unfortunately,that could take a lifetime of dedication for most of us to master.
So I know what you (and many of the rest of us) are looking for… reliable answers to life’s deepest questions.
The best advice I’ve heard is to continue searching with a discerning eye and a sensitivity that lets you feel resonance with certain sources.
I know what you’re saying, I was just wondering if (through ITC) anything ever came through that talked about any particular spiritual teachers (that may have added validation to any of the writings of Kardec or other mediums).
The Scole experiments included speaking (“through” mediums) as well as with direct-voice and a variety of other phenomenon (but still no references to any particular spirit guide teachings,etc. – at least not that I remember reading about).
David, I recall that the Frederic Myers spirit world model was embraced by the folks at Timestream (in the mid-astral realm).
Thanks Mark (yes – sounds like they don’t leverage “name-dropping” like we seem to do on the earth plane). It would seem that Leslie Flint’s style of mediumship was sort of a version of ITC(?) . I’ll head towards the Freric Myers information next – thanks again!
I read up on Frederic Myers. I found his information very thought -provoking and extremely intelligent. I felt compelled to add your name macyafterlife.com to shared link regarding Myers. I then decided to facebook friend you and noticed you are not on facebook … Please advise if you prefer me to remove your name from this facebook shared comment.
It’s fine to include me on facebook, even if I’m not a member there.
Thanks Mark. Will leave all as is!
Tjpalmer.org has an interesting (and free) thesis on Frederic Myers’ work (science of spirit possession) – Meyers did a lot of investigating into the science of the afterlife – it’s amazing the amount of information that’s out there (for the initiated).
Thanks David, I look forward to visiting the tjpalmer site. Have long been interested in Frederic Myers’ spirit world model….
Have just ‘discovered’ your work and was prompted to comment on Polaroid’s discontinuation of film which affected many enlightening/enhancing projects such as 3S and VRIC. I do not think this was entirely due to the digital revolution but more to do with the unique discoveries about our reality some clever humans were making independently,using this equipment. Inventive humans could produce such film, I wondered? But then, there are so many systems of control in the process of marketing and distribution it would prove unprofitable as it would have a very limited demand.
Polaroid was perhaps the only unmonitored photography, independent of lab scrutiny, unless one had a fully equipped darkroom and that’s just too much freedom to be permitted either genius individuals or the masses.
Mark – I only just recently started reading about Myers. I started by reading that thesis on the Palmer site (just finished it today) – makes me want to read more though – he approached the subject very scientifically. It’s kind of hard to understand why he’s not more well known (but then again, given the mainstream’s lack of curiousoty, it’s not really that hard to believe). But I will say that I found it extremely interesting and very well investigated.
David, once you’re on the tjpalmer site, how do you access the information about Frederic Myers? I can’s seem to find it. Thanks.
I don’t see the thesis on the blog. Do people have to buy the book to see what you’re referring to? If it’s free on the blog, please include a complete link to the article or ‘thesis.’ Thanks!
Once you google it, the PDF should pop-up.
Thanks David, looks like Ricky found the link and shares it in the next comment……..
You seem to be good at filling in some of the holes on this website.
Mark – that’s a long book – have you read it already? (want to insure its worth the investment in time to read). Thanks in advance.
David, I read it many years ago. Can’t guarantee it for everyone, but for me, at that time in my life, the book was a game-changer.
Thanks – already started reading it (it sucked me right in).
Wow – what a great book. Written by two physicists who give the facts of the quantum enigma – goes a long way to understanding why (just about anything) is possible. Well written and engaging. It also deals with the topic of how the scientific community shuts down any meaningful research / discussion by their treatment of fellow scientists, etc. I “did” have to buy this book (the kindle edition was 9.95) – but I’m really glad I read it. It really supports the fact that we may well live in a strange world (and uses known, undisputed quantum world facts to help explain that what we “do know” is enough to allow for a world of possibilities).
Sounds like a good scientific approach to afterlife matters… which is generally an oxymoron.
My pleasure. The fear that those in the scientific community feel (when speaking of anything related to the paranormal) is fascinating all by itself. Instinctively, one would think that a real scientist would simply want to uncover the “truth of reality” (whatever that might turn out to be) – but history has obviously proven the exact opposite.
You can see the great care the authors took in trying to sanitize themselves from the retribution that they knew they would be subjecting themselves to by simply writing this book (even though they did a fine job at simply sticking to the “facts”).
Have you read Mark’s books? If so, I highly recommend them. I plan to read George Meek’s books at one point, but it will probably be a while, as I am reading other books at the moment.
If you read Mark’s books, hopefully you’ll come to the same realization that I did: Mark and his colleagues of past decades, from around the world, have uncovered and worked towards something grander and more incredible than most peoples’ minds can handle. For my particular case, it’s a type of spiritual understanding that I never thought I’d have.
Ricky, what a pleasant surprise to find that comment!
Finally found “The Project” on Amazon (and ordered it) – I’ve read a lot of excerpts, but look forward to reading the whole book….thx.
It’s a great book! I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did. The amount of thought that this book provokes is truly something to behold. I think it’s a book that makes a lot of people reach their “boggle point”, but if you can stretch and open your mind just past that point, you’ll realize that there are incredible things at work in the universe. I know I did!
If you don’t mind, I’d really be curious to hear your thoughts on the book, as I don’t have much of an opportunity to discuss it with other people who have also read it. Mark put something really spectacular together here. The order I personally read Mark’s book in are in chronological order: Conversations Beyond the Light, Miracles in the Storm, Spirit Faces and the Project. I haven’t read the books he wrote before he became in ITC, however.
“The Project”, I think, brings all of his books together and paints a grand picture for us. Happy reading!! | 2019-04-21T16:46:04Z | https://noblesavageworld.com/2011/11/26/the-human-story-5-the-seven-ethereals/ |
The sun was out at Old Trafford and for subscribers to pathetic fallacy the result and the mood matched the weather in the end. In truth, the final score probably flattered what was, for the most part, an indifferent display from the hosts. Nevertheless, in a season where goals at home have been hard to come by, it was encouraging to witness a United side far from their best score four goals in front of their home fans.
After a careless free-kick was dispatched expertly by Ashley Westwood leaving the hosts trailing early on, United’s main man this season, Wayne Rooney, dragged United in front before the break with a deft header and an unstoppable penalty. The improving Juan Mata, clearly more comfortable in his natural position added a third after half time and the scoring was rounded off following good work from Adnan Januzaj to find Chicharito doing what he does best.
Moyes clearly had the mouth-watering clash with Bayern Munich in mid-week in mind which was reflected in the substitutions made. A vastly improved performance will be needed if United are to make an impact in that tie, but there were certainly some positives on show against Aston Villa nonetheless. Here are five things we learned from the clash against Paul Lambert’s men.
The best eleven men to represent the club is always a matter of opinion and can invariably differ depending on the opposition. But for United, lamentable indecisiveness has certainly been detrimental. Saturday’s tie against Villa signalled the 47th different cocktail of players this season, and whilst a new manager finding his feet will usually incur some experimentation, the Red Devils have arguably chopped and changed far too often this campaign.
Regrettably, it’s not just been the players, but the system of play which has seemingly had little coherent direction. Moyes’ men have played well at times this season but have played badly far more often. In this regard, an unsettled side and a formation lottery are certainly large contributors to the poor form and, in particular, the inconsistency.
United were able to coast to victory despite being far from their best, but had Benteke had even a half-good game the story could certainly have been very different. The reds have got away with it to an extent against some of the ‘lesser’ sides this season but have been horribly exposed against stronger opposition on a number of occasions.
In the modern era a strong squad is essential, but consistency of selection and clarity of direction are equally as important to a successful side. Big decisions need to be made in this regard, but enough time has now elapsed to make them.
Two of the main concerns have been the balance of Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie starting together along with whether to adopt a wide 4-4-2 or a more narrow 4-2-3-1. Whilst in the first instance there is nothing to say that Rooney and Van Persie can’t operate as a partnership if given time, the trend this season has been that performances and goals have improved when one has been absent for whatever reason.
United scored four on the opening day away to Swansea with Rooney only coming on as a late substitute, scored five away at Bayer Leverkusen with Shinji Kagawa playing at no.10 and again yesterday, with Van Persie sidelined, a less than impressive United still managed to put four past Villa.
As much as fans salivated over the prospect of Rooney, Van Persie, Mata and Januzaj operating as a front four, the balance has been somewhat ineffective to date, and for good reason too. All four players’ inclination is to drop deep in search of the ball to feet, there is no threat in behind, and no real pace.
Against Villa both Rooney and Mata noticeably made runs in behind the defence and were found on a few occasions. It afforded space and time for the midfield to work and facilitated an encouraging performance from Shinji Kagawa.
Rooney’s power and pace make him a much more effective runner in behind than Robin van Persie and so the balance of that particular partnership may be better suited in reversal of the norm, with Rooney up top and Van Persie floating behind.
That said, to get the best out of Mata, it may be that one of the two needs to be sacrificed for the benefit and balance of the side. Conversely, should Moyes wish to persist with both Rooney and Van Persie, questions have to be raised as to Mata’s suitability to the manager’s direction moving forwards.
In truth, the lack of a settled unit has been one of the more regrettable aspects of what has been a disappointing season. Nevertheless, Van Persie’s injury may prove a blessing in disguise and Moyes may have stumbled across the way to move forwards with Mata and Rooney’s link-up already obvious.
Sacrificing Van Persie or Rooney would be a huge decision, but in terms of the balance of the side, there were further signs against Villa that it may benefit the club as a whole.
Following the brief elation of his signing, it’s unquestionably been a slow start for Juan Mata in a red shirt. The diminutive Spaniard has undoubted talent, but David Moyes is yet to see the best of the playmaker thus far. There are arguably a number of factors involved, from a lack of football at Chelsea to new surroundings and new teammates, but Mata is certainly more comfortable and most effective when getting on the ball in little pockets as opposed to shunted out wide.
Van Persie’s ill-timed injury on the back of a match winning performance has facilitated a shift inside to more homely surroundings for the former Chelsea man, resulting in signs of the form that won him two player of the season awards starting to materialise. The Spaniard has certainly been more involved and more effective in the last few games when afforded the freedom of the no.10 role.
Although scrappy, the delight and relief on Mata’s face was obvious as he opened his United account and it is hoped that the player can now kick on and begin to influence games to the extent that he has demonstrated to be capable of in the past.
With a lack of pace, Mata is ill-suited to playing wide, out of the game for long periods and tracking full-backs. This is a special creative talent who needs to be on the ball as much as possible, whether that’s directly behind the striker or as part of a narrow three.
Pertinently, though, the Spaniard also needs further assistance from his teammates. A player of Mata’s technical ability is comfortable in tight areas surrounded by opposition players, and his colleagues need to place more trust in his ability. Far too often, the easy ball into space out wide is played from the midfield as opposed to a sharp incisive ball into someone’s feet through the middle.
It is not necessarily that the pass into the playmaker is not seen, rather that the defenders enclosing Mata may put the passer off, but his ability needs to be trusted. Not only is the Spaniard capable of operating in tight circles, but it will also draw defenders in, creating more space for others.
As discussed, the position in which Mata’s long-term future lies is an interesting question, but for now it’s important to continue to get the Spanish international on the ball as much as possible in areas where he can hurt the opposition. With a goal to his name and having been brought down for the penalty, there were indications against the Villa Park outfit that Mata can play an integral role in his favoured position.
The Japanese man is certainly one who seems to polarise opinion amongst the fans. Parallels with Mata are inescapable for a player who’s preferred role is also centrally behind the striker. But not for the first time, against Aston Villa Kagawa demonstrated that he can affect games drifting inside from the left.
The former Dortmund man’s cross for Wayne Rooney’s opener was full of quality and precision and it was his pass that found Juan Mata before the Spaniard was brought down for United’s penalty just before the break.
Link up between Kagawa, Mata and Rooney has been noticeably encouraging when they have been deployed together and their inclination to play one and two-touch football invariably benefits the tempo of United’s play.
Much like Juan Mata, Shinji’s quality has never really been in question, but the pair’s suitability to United’s traditional style of play can be. Both are unsuited to the customary wide births that demand pace and width.
Nevertheless, as discussed United’s style of play may well shift towards a more narrow system and Kagawa has undoubtedly shown promising signs in recent performances. The Japanese playmaker will have expected to feature more since his move from Germany, but to his credit he has knuckled down and delivered in recent weeks. With Mata ineligible and a good record against Bayern Munich, it is hoped that Shinji may be afforded the opportunity to make his mark in a big tie for United in mid-week.
Not for the first time this season, Wayne Rooney put in a man of the match performance to help his team towards three points. The former Everton man’s season started under a cloud of uncertainty but he has gone on to be United’s best performer for much of the campaign.
Negotiation tactics and indiscretions aside, given the striker’s current form most would certainly admit to being happy that Rooney has signed another long-term deal. The two goals against Villa make United’s talisman the fourth all time Premier League goalscorer with 171 to date.
One of Rooney’s frequent attempts at the spectacular finally came off against West Ham United and even beyond the two goals the striker looked a constant threat against Paul Lambert’s side. The striker linked well with both Juan Mata and Shinji Kagawa and his direct running up top gave them both more space to operate allowing them to have a greater effect on the game.
There is a myth that Rooney’s best position is no.10. Admittedly, when deployed in that role the striker’s defensive qualities are unquestionable, but Wayne is invariably far more effective playing right at the top of the pitch, as two goals against both West Ham United and now Aston Villa clearly suggest.
In this regard, as mentioned it may be interesting to see Van Persie deployed behind Rooney to see if the balance of the partnership may improve once the Dutchman returns to fitness. Either way, the last few games have shown enough to suggest that Mata and Rooney can provide a potent partnership moving forwards.
In light of a more than disappointing season so far, and the sheer commercial and public gravity of the football club, David Moyes’ position was always going to come under scrutiny. When you manage a club like Manchester United, it simply comes with the job.
The manager’s performance so far in his short tenure is in some areas indefensible and others inexcusable, but what can be defended is the Scot’s right to be given a fair amount of time.
As much as Sir Alex Ferguson over-achieved with the current squad, David Moyes has so far under-achieved. Most were realistic and had no expectations of the title, but to the same end, sitting so far adrift of a Champions League spot is unacceptable. In that sense, fans’ disgruntlement is understandable. Nevertheless, the integrity and support of the masses should never be tarnished so publicly by the opinions and frustrations of the few.
Fans have the right to be disappointed with David Moyes thus far, he has under-achieved. But flying a plane with a banner for all the world to see reflects negatively against all associated with the club. It lacks class and is in no way befitting of a club like Manchester United.
The fans have been absolutely outstanding this season in support of the club and for the most part in support of David Moyes. It was refreshing and fitting that the manager walked out early to a standing ovation from the Theatre of Dreams.
Whether Moyes truly is the right man for the job remains to be seen, but as long as he remains Manchester United manager he should be backed. That is not to say that he should be immune from criticism, but that all associated with the club should present a unified front to the outside world. Tarnishing the manager so publicly was a media dream that will likely have had absolutely no effect on Moyes’ position.
Of course, in the modern era it can be frustrating for fans when it is hard for them to feel as though their opinions are being heard, but it is naïve to think that the United hierarchy require a plane over Old Trafford to be aware of the feeling amongst the club’s fans.
That said, for David Moyes improvement needs to start materialising but having taken on the biggest job in football, the man who steadily grew Everton into a strong football club deserves time. Just how much time, however, may be an interesting thought.
Stability is not necessarily a prerequisite of success, many teams have been very prosperous with numerous managerial changes. Indeed, Sir Alex Ferguson was not successful because he was at the club for a long time, he was at the club for a long time because he was successful. One only needs to look over to the stagnation at Arsenal to see that sometimes change may benefit a football club, and there are dangers in placing faith in someone for too long, particularly if they are the wrong man.
Many are anxious about affording Moyes funds, but his record of buying players at Everton was remarkable on such a tight budget. He may have acquired the nickname ‘Dithering Dave’ for his extensive scouting operation but the evidence is that it invariably sources quality talent. The likes of Baines, Coleman, Mirallas and Jagielka were all acquired for relatively minimal fees so there is not much to suggest that given the funds Moyes will not find the right players for his desired approach moving forwards.
Progression needs to be made and if none is seen come next January then Moyes’ position should rightly come into doubt. For now, however, it should be acknowledged that the Scot has taken on the impossible job and he should be supported in his attempts to right the wrongs.
A good article and I would agree with a lot of the points. The season has been really painful, but we have no divine right to be at the top of the table. The fans will have to learn to endure these hard times. We have been really blessed over the years to see a lot of success with Ferguson. The plane banner was an utter nonsense, but doesn’t speak for the majority.
Moyes has underachieved but I do feel for the man. I think he deserves more time to build his own side now and to get his own ideas across. I think it was difficult taking over a squad that really wasn’t good enough to win the title last season. Ferguson was incredible and that’s why he achieved something with the squad.
Moyes is also fighting the fact that many of the players are already looking away. I believe there has just been many things going against Moyes, which has made it difficult to really succeed this season. We have experience players who have let us down, like Vidic and Ferdinand. Its difficult to motivate a squad that knows its coming to an end for them at Man Utd.
So far Moyes is not up to it. Some good points, but what is very obvious is that they play well when Kagawa is somewhere close to playing in the middle… and now with Mata and yes even Rooney. The style and speed they dessimate opponents is clear to see. More playing time together… Kagawa is by far United’s best player for movement speed of though Mata is close. Van Persie is number one if fit but no question Rooney likes the Kagawa Mata team… and yes Januzaj as a sub. Hernadez looked very sharp and was playing the ball around nicely.
Very good article. Constructive and just about the most realistic assessment of our season and Moyes’ performance so far that I’ve read.
We (fans) wait days, hours, minutes to see Januzaj playing. Is the same as Messi fans who can not wait to see him on the pitch. What if he does not play, all fans will be boring. I feel for Januzaj same as the Messi fans feel. I feel boring when Januzaj is not part of the game. I wait days, hours, minutes to see Januzaj and when I see that he is not on the first team I make nervous, I think he is not young any more.
@Miri Januzaj is a player for the near future. He has shown that he is almost ready for the big stage, but he still needs time to be fully physically and mentally ready. We cannot allow him to burn out, and we have to be very careful with him if we want him to develop and become the player we know he will be for the long term. He should not be starting every game at this stage. Maybe next year, but definitely not this. He should, however, get plenty of game time to get more experience and improve himself. So playing against weaker teams and coming on from the bench against strong teams , not unlike what Moyes is doing now, is best for him at the moment.
at best there are poor tactics with no strategy.
Time and time again he has failed to show either. How do you explain a record number of crosses against Fulham at OT with no recognised Arial threat of the ball and then when we do have someone who has been known for his Arial threat (Fellaini)we don’t put any crosses in. Square pegs round holes , putting Matta out on the wing where he is infective at best and a liability. Its funny that Morhino said that he wanted a defensive winger rather than have Matta out there so he was happy to take £37000000 for him. | 2019-04-19T18:46:41Z | https://www.stretfordendarising.com/5-things-we-learned-manchester-united-4-1-aston-villa/ |
Holiday Giveaway Week – Wedding Planning Extras!
To enter to win leave us a comment here letting us know what parts of your wedding planning have been the most enjoyable and the most challenging so far, and if you have any words of advice for your fellow brides. We’ll accept entries all day long, and randomly choose our winner this Friday, December 24th. Good luck everyone, and thanks for entering!
Cut the Cake Designs makes fun recipe card and Rolodex style guest books in fabulous color and prints that are sure to liven up your wedding decor and make for cherished keepsakes. Today they’re generously giving away a $50 credit to their online store so our winner can choose the guest book color and design that will best match their wedding day. Love it!
If you pay any attention at all to celebrity weddings, you’re sure to know the name Mindy Weiss. Wedding planner to celebs like Gwen and Gavin, Ellen and Portia and most recently Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, Mindy and her team can plan a party like nobody’s business! Today Mindy is sharing two of her very own wedding planning products – her The Ultimate Wedding Organizer and Bridal Emergency Kit, both of which we think would come in handy for every bride, celebrity or otherwise! Thanks Mindy!
With all the lovely gifts and help you’ll receive throughout your wedding planning, we think you can NEVER have too many thank you notes on hand, and these are just about as sweet as they come! Ephemera Custom Letterpress & Calligraphy created these “Love” and “I like you” letterpress notes and is giving away a set of each to today’s lucky winner. Be sure to check out the Ephemera website to see even more of owner Tara Bliven’s whimsical wedding designs.
One of the most fun parts of wedding planning has got to be choosing the decor theme and details for all of your wedding events. We love the Southern California and online shop the Acme Party Box Company for all the wonderful ideas and products they have available, no matter what kind of party you’re throwing. Today they’re giving our lucky winner a selection of their most popular party favors – Lavender Sachets, Garden Seed Pops, Garden Lapel Pins, Organic Soaps, and their adorable fabric Flag Bunting. Nice! Visit www.AcmePartyBox.com to find your own version of party hostess heaven.
Don’t forget to also enter to win our Fashion, Food and Beauty giveaways here on What Junebug Loves, and our Photography Giveaway on Photobug! And thank you ever-so-much to Cut the Cake Design, Mindy Weiss, Ephemera Custom Letterpress and Acme Party Box Company for today’s giveaway prizes!
Our wedding planning has fallen together so organically! The first venue we looked at was the absolute perfect place and I stumbled upon my dress completely by accident. Groupon has provided discounts on many things from our rings to our invitations. The thing I’m most worried about is finding the perfect officiant. With a week off, it’s time to start the search!
The part of the wedding I enjoyed was finding a venue for our destination wedding. We narrowed it down to 2 places..one in Costa Rica & the other in Mexico. Its going to be hard to choose but we know either one will be great. I’m the groom, so the advise I have for brides is let your groom be involved. I’m actually enjoying this planning stuff & I’m pretty sure other grooms would too. Have a great holiday everyone!
the most joyous part of planning has been bringing together all of our family and friends who are our biggest cheerleaders. it is so fun to gather opinions, share ideas, and involve them in the planning process. on the flip side, this can also be one of the most challenging things! with so many voices, i find myself having to steer through the noise and remember that our day will be special, no matter what little details are incorporated or missed.
So far, planing the honeymoon has been the most stressful! There are just so many wonderful, beautiful places to choose from and I’m having a hard time choosing where to go! My advice to other brides is to not let anyone else tell you how your wedding should be – keep it reasonable, but it is, after all, you and your FH’s big day.
The most challenging part has been planning a wedding in a different city than the one in which I’m living. Though Richmond is only 2 hours away, it is so difficult to get there on weekends for tastings and things that you NEED to be there in person for.
Oh please, please, please! The most enjoyable part of wedding planning so far has been designing our own stationery and website. Neither of us are designers or artists by trade (or even by hobby) so it has been a fun way to learn something new together and exercise our creative sides. The most challenging part of wedding planning so far has been finding the photographer. We’re both really into photography ourselves, so we went through more than a hundred photographers’ websites to find just the right one. Even the more prominent photographers seemed to have the same portfolios as everyone else, so it has been hard to find someone who would be able to shoot our wedding the way we would do it, if we could clone ourselves. We finally whittled it down to a shortlist of 10 photographers and are just now starting to meet the candidates. It’s been exhausting and at times frustrating, but hopefully the results will be worth it! Words of advice for fellow brides: Fight the temptation to be a control freak, especially where bridesmaids and vendors are involved. The nicer you are, the more enjoyable the planning experience will be for everyone, and the more motivated your support staff will be to give you the day of your life. It’s really hard to relinquish control for such an important day, but it really does help relieve stress if you can effectively delegate and let go of little things.
I have been engaged for just over a year now and we are getting married in May 2011. I have loved the planning process so far and my favorite part has been designing the overall feel of our day. The not so favorite part, making the guestlist, I wish I could just invite everyone! Advice to brides, take your time to plan and to enjoy being a fiance.
My favorite part of wedding planning has been designing/making the reception decor. We’re going very DIY, and it’s turning out great! very personal and unique. The not-so-fun part has been guest list issues. I’d love to invite everyone, but it’s just not possible. I cringe when my cousin’s cousins say they can’t wait to see my dress, or a friend of a friend of a friend asks for planning details. But I do think our more “intimate” wedding will be wonderful!
The wedding trickiest thing right now while planning the wedding is deciding the centerpieces. Since its an outdoor wedding and the venue suggests that it can get windy, candles and tall centerpieces have lead to a disaster. Now we’re looking for the just the right piece to be the focal point of the table. Thanks!
getting to look at all the pretty inspirational pictures on sites like Junebug!
The most enjoyable and most challenging wedding-planning experience so far has been searching for and choosing the musicians and band for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception! Our venue is outdoors, and there are county noise ordinances that restrict us to only acoustic or minimally amplified music. This didn’t seem like a problem when we booked the venue. But! Let me tell you! The bands that can/will play acoustically are few and far between, scattered among plenty of amazingly awful Wedding Singer-type wedding bands that overcompensate with volume! We spent many nights on the couch crying from laughter while listening to online demos, only to go to bed frustrated and discouraged that we would never find anything. Thankfully, we did stumble on to a wonderful, laid-back, acoustically-capable, flexible group and we put a deposit down on them last week. But, I will never forget my fiance’s face with tears rolling down it from laughter!
The most challenging has been making the guest list and getting all the correct addresses together. The blessing has been being able to spend that time with family working together on our little wedding projects.
Most enjoyable has been the “research” – i.e. looking at all the beautiful bridal blogs I never knew existed before. Least enjoyable – actually having to make decisions about things.
ohh… love love this giveaway! we could really use the ultimate wedding organizer, so many moving pieces! we’re currently making our own invitations so designing and putting that together has been so fun! the challenge we are having right now is choosing a photographer within our budget! so many good ones, so hard to choose!
The most enjoyable part of the wedding planning has been the little details and personalizing everything! The most challenging as been sticking to the budget! My advice: plan and book this in advance as much as possible!
The best part of planning the wedding has been finding out all the things my fiance actually cares about! He has great style, and I love that he’s willing to give me some opinions! The hardest part has been finding a way to accommodate all the people we love and make them feel as special as we do that they have joined us on our big day. We have big families and lots of friends so balancing lots of people and making it personal is proving to be a challenge. Advice: take some time to do NON-wedding related stuff occasionally and relax!
The easiest part of the wedding planning was finding my dress because I could do it from home. We’re planning a destination wedding in the NC mountains, and planning everything from Florida is really difficult. Luckily everyone has been willing to help me long distance. My advise is to plan at least 2 trips to your destination if possible. We only visited to find our venue and have done the rest by phone and email.
I have enjoyed planning all of the unique details of the wedding. The little bits that make it OUR wedding, and not just another wedding. I just wish I had learned to ignore all the so-called “rules” and go with what I want a teensy bit earlier than I did. I also enjoyed all the chances to spend time with my sister, mom, and friends over planning.
I love all aspects of planning! However, the hardest part is balancing the guest list and creating seating charts that work for everyone. My advice is to take time out to spend with your fiance, maybe a relaxing weekend away or a date night where you don’t talk about the wedding. Don’t let the planning consume you, enjoy it!
the most fun part has to be trying on pretty dresses!! the least enjoyable is the anxiety and the fear that things will not turn out right!
I have both loved and hated all the wedding blogs. I love looking at other weddings and getting ideas of my own, but I hate how much time I spend glued to the computer! I also wish my family lived closer to be part of the planning process.
My fiance and I want to have a wedding that embodies us as a couple, glory and splendor, but since we’re paying for this ourselves, we’re also keeping a close watch with money. It’s tough to realize what I want costs far more than I ever imagined and to think creatively how to still get what I want but keeping it budget-friendly. The great thing is that I have a super-involved fiance that really strives to make me happy and give me the wedding I want. That alone nearly makes all the money talk seem like nothing!
I think this is the giveaway we could use the most! Definitely trickier than I thought to plan a wedding! Let’s see, I think the most enjoyable part of wedding planning so far has been researching the caterers. We sampled foods from four different caterers (yum!) and then felt like we were able to make a very educated decision. That’s my advice to others- do as much research (and as many tastings!) as you can before you make any decisions. Designing a Save the Date and website have been the most challenging because I’m not a designer and I’m still getting the hang of web work. It’s still been exciting, though!
The most enjoyable part of planning so far has been selecting our wedding planner! Ashley Baber of Ashley Baber Weddings! We are so excited to have her by our side!
By far the most enjoyable part about wedding planning has been spending time with my fiance- writing vows, shopping for rings, planning the honeymoon, and of course being so excited to get married and live together! The most challenging and stressful has been to stay within budget- to be able to have our family and friends there but not spend a fortune. Words of advice: spend a night a week with your fiance and dont talk about the wedding. Don’t forget what the wedding is all about- enjoy the excitement of starting your new life together!
My mom is super crafty so I’ve loved coming up with ideas to make things that add a vintage feel to my wedding. We’re using bud vases on the tables and saucers for dessert plates, so we’ve been searching thrift stores trying to find them. It’s always fun when we call the other up to announce a good milk vase find! My advice would be to take on some DYI projects, but do them far in advance.
Most challenging – finding time off from work to get everything done! Most enjoyable – reading pretty bridal blogs like this one and attending creative wedding events.
Most enjoyable? My dress! Least enjoyable? The wedding venue. They are driving me bonkers! & won’t return phone calls when they say they will. :( Grrr!
I have loved the whole wedding planning process. The hardest part for me was choosing the color scheme for my winter wedding because it really sets the tone. The parts that I have enjoyed the most is just bringing family and friends together to help. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone I love in the same place and marrying the man of my dreams!
I just started the process of planning a wedding, but I’ve definitely enjoyed learning what my future husband is most excited about. He’s got ideas of his own that I never would have expected, and I can’t wait to see how our ideas turn out. The most challenging part is figuring out the location. We live in different states and met at college, so we’ve got lots of traveling in our future!
I love love the planning and finding details that really will create our day to truly be our own! The hardest part I would say is finding a venue. All the places I really loooovve and want to use are so expensive! I can’t find one that I love that fits my budget.
The most challenging part about wedding planning so far was finding the perfect venue. I was torn between an okay venue with a nice price tag versus a beautiful venue that I loved with a slightly over budget price tag. I was so close to choosing the one that was cheaper, but I followed by gut and went with the venue that I loved and I’m so happy I did! The most enjoyable part about wedding planning has been wedding dress shopping! It was great being about to bond with my bridesmaids! Advice: start planning early!
The most enjoyable parts of planning have been choosing all the details. The pillows, the baskets the decorations. I however have very expensive taste and a very very small budget. So the biggest challenge has been finding a way to pay for everything. With the help of a talented friend and recycled materials I was even able to create ring bearer pillows I found on the internet for $40 for under $3. My advice to other brides is not to compromise on your design, but to think outside of the box to make it happen.
The most challenging part of the wedding planning was to find the perfect groom. There are a lot of frogs out there, but I finally found my prince. :) The most enjoyable part about planning is starting our life together. And we’re trying not to miss the forest for the trees. It’s easy to get wrapped up in all the cute details that all add to the budget, but at the end of the day, the wedding is about celebrating our love and life we will build together. My advice is to not get caught up in the petty things and enjoy every minute of it! [Hopefully] you only get engaged and married once!
the most enjoyable part of planning was all of the family coming together with their skills to help, while the most challenging part was the catering! words of advice: ladies, this is your wedding, but not your marriage. keep that in mind throughout the process!
Planning a wedding has truly been a bitter sweet experience. It has been such a great feeling to plan my own wedding (with help from others of course). Best part of planning has been registering!!!! I have shed some tears because reception halls were booked on our date or because something little didn’t work out. BUT…. My advice to other brides is to get the hard stuff done so that you can focus on the actual celebration. Thats what weddings are all about CELEBRATING! | 2019-04-18T15:11:45Z | https://junebugweddings.com/wedding-blog/holiday-giveaway-week-wedding-planning-extras/ |
Harvard Kakooza, J.B., Tusiime, I., Odoch, H. and Bagire, V., 2015. Management Practices and Performance of Public hospitals in Uganda. , 1(7), pp.22-29.
APA Kakooza, J.B., Tusiime, I., Odoch, H. & Bagire, V. (2015). Management Practices and Performance of Public hospitals in Uganda. , 1(7), 22-29.
Vancouver Kakooza JB, Tusiime I, Odoch H, Bagire V. Management Practices and Performance of Public hospitals in Uganda. . 2015 Jan,1(7):22-29.
MLA Bosco Kakooza,John et al. "Management Practices and Performance of Public hospitals in Uganda." 1.7 (2015): 22-29.
Chicago Kakooza, John Bosco, Tusiime Immaculate, Odoch Hojops, and Bagire Vincent. "Management Practices and Performance of Public hospitals in Uganda." 1, no.7 (2015): 22-29.
Abstract: The Daily Monitor publications ran serialized articles showing the awful state of government hospitals across the country. While the Ministry of Health insists that the problem is not as bad as it is depicted, the level of service delivery in public hospitals has come under serious public scrutiny espousing the cause for concern about policy, practice and research. There should be glaring gaps in management practices as a possible explanation. In this study, we investigated impact of management decision making, structure, processes, communication and management style on hospital performance. The study has emphasized good management as the determinant of better performance of hospitals in the Ugandan context. Findings of this study challenges policy makers to strengthen management processes in addition to mobilizing financial, human and capital resources for hospitals. The study extends the debate on application of management theory with practice in the health sector in the Ugandan context.
Good management practices are expected to translate into improved service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness in any organizational context. Management practices are interconnected in such ways that they enable efficient functioning of organizations. Management is a wide field with specific disciplines of organizational endeavor and practices varying across firms and industries. Management practices cut across organizational functionality in any discipline. There is inadequate research that has focused specifically on management practices that can sustain efficiency and effectiveness in African organizations (Bagire and Namada, 2015). Ghosal (2005) has posited that several scholars have lately voiced their concerns about the current state of management research and pedagogy. Accordingly, Donaldson (2002) as well as Pfeffer and Fong (2002) stated that there is a lack of impact of management research on management practice. Ghosal (2005) is more explicit in saying that “theory has had negative effect on practice of management; management theories are more causal or functional”. The academic fraternity has to critically appraise existing management theories and practices to discover those factors and practices that could strengthen and sustain organizational performance in various African contexts. This study was motivated to examine management practices in the medical sector giving national wide concerns on quality service delivery in public institutions.
The performance of public hospitals in Uganda and indeed the entire health sector is a cause for worry from the perspective of the management knowledge. Bloom et al (2009) have stated that management in hospitals is very poor compared to that of other institutions; it is even worse in public than private hospitals. In the few months of the 2012/13 fiscal year, the performance of the health sector in general and hospitals in particular emerged as an issue of national concern. The outcry has been on lack of funds; the mass media relayed realities of appalling facilities, rundown equipment and apathy among health workers. From the view of management scholars, the system in these public health institutions must be flawing. The government was put on spotlight as a reason for the declining service delivery with rundown facilities, dilapidated premises, unused equipment, congested wards, slow service processes, lack of adequate staffing coupled with low motivation among the available staff and lack of supervision (Okara, 2012). The Daily Monitor publications ran serialized articles showing the state of government ambulances across the country, most of them rotting in parking yards due to lack of repair, fuel or outright neglect (Daily Monitor, September, 9th, 26th, 29th 2012). The blame game regarding the state of public hospitals continues. While the Ministry of Health insists that the problem is not as bad as it is depicted, the level of service delivery in public hospitals has come under serious public scrutiny espousing the cause for concern about policy, practice and research. There should be glaring gaps in management practices as a possible explanation.
The study was guided by the various organizational management theories among which the Systems Theory and the Top Echelons Theory. The Systems Theory presupposes that organizations are built from many parts that must be coordinated to achieve functionality (Laszlo and Krippner, 1997). According to Hambrick and Manson’s (1984) Top Echelons Theory, organizations are a reflection of their top managers. When an organization is shrouded into poor performance, this means that the top managers have managerial gaps.
A management system is the framework of practices through which an organization can fulfill all tasks required to achieve its objectives. The management practices comprise into processes and procedures. A more complete system would include policy structure, decisions points, framework of resource allocation, accountability, communication, schedule for activities to be completed as well as auditing tools to implement corrective actions and creating an upward spiral of continuous improvement. Usha et.al., (2010) have posited that quality management may include what they call soft practices like supervision, inspiration, spirituality leadership and counseling while hard practices include those with physical evidence like communication, structuring and managing facilities. In this study, we considered management decision making, structure, processes, communication and management style.
According to Provan (1985), decision system should be enhanced in the structure. For instance, the power a board yields will affect the CEO’s decision ability to play a key role in implementing policy. This should also minimize technical complexity to enable operations run smoothly. The regulatory pressure also affects decision-making. When the organization is highly regulated and controlled, perception of uncertainty always looms, hence no policy implementation becomes effective. Strategic decisions are non-programmable decisions that involve the commitment of substantial resources at the level of the total enterprise (Ghemmawat, 1991, cited in Wally and Baum, 1994). The process of choice or decision-making can be conceptualized as involving three intertwined activities namely, intelligence activity, design activity and choice activity (Wally and Baum, 1994). Intelligence activity is environmental scanning that involves gathering and processing of information. This information gathering provides cues for recognizing potential decision situations and formulating alternatives.
When performing design activity, decision makers analyze the formulated alternatives to determine likely outcomes and identify alternative outcomes that will satisfy the needs or goals associated with decisions. When performing choice activity, decision makers make judgments, choosing among the identified alternatives. Individual differences among strategic decision makers affect strategic decision-making activities (Hambrick and Finkelstein, 1987). In addition, historically developed organizational and environmental structures constrain strategic decision-making activities (Hitt and Tyler, 1991). Decisions of major consequence occur in response to real life situations. Often these situations are very complex and require decision-making that occurs over lengthy periods. The theoretical framework based on two systems of reasoning draw a distinction between the reasoning processes employed in making these decisions (e.g. Sloman, 1996). One system is purposeful and rational, the other is automatic and affective (Hamilton, Sherman and Maddox, 1999). These systems can coexist and influence decision-making behavior in organizations. The first system or the experiential system describes a fast, effortless, intuitive reasoning process that is subject to emotional influences and is often utilized to make many decisions in a near simultaneous manner. The second system or the rational system describes a slow, effortful, logic-based process that results in decisions made sequentially rather than simultaneously.
The structural form of the organization is an essential factor in determining performance. Ansoff and Mcdonnel (1991) define structure as the arrangement of tasks, roles, authority and responsibility through which a firm does its work. This does not differ much from view of Thompson and Strickland (2001) who posit that structure is no more than the managerial device for facilitating and implementing organizational activities. Structuring refers to activities of setting up organizations and ensuring smooth internal functioning. The key outcome here is having functional units involved in specified processes and roles. Structure specifies the authority levels and hierarchy, task grouping, coordination and those necessary resources to run the organization. Structuring should lead to rational decision making, clear levels of management and enhanced efficiency.
Ruekert et al (1985) emphasize that many organizations give more attention to planning and strategic programs than recognizing the diversity of organizational structures available for implementing such plans; identifying likely impact of structure on the variety of performance dimensions and examining a set of contingent environment factors, which moderate the effects of structure on performance. Thompson and Strickland (2001) and Ruekert (1985) propose operationalization of structure in terms of centralization (decisions shared in the social system), formalization (extent activities are governed by rules, procedures and contracts), complexity (special arrangement of work flow) and standardization (prescribed procedures and practices). These have a common thread with Miller’s (1986) description and that of Galan and Sanchez-Bueno (2009).
Effective communication has long been credited as a prime factor in the attainment of high levels of organizational effectiveness (Greenbaum, 1974). Organizational communication consists of various message sending and receiving phenomena affecting formal social units in which individuals work toward common goals. Organizational communication is defined as a system in terms of purpose, operational procedures, and structure. Zawacki (1974) argued that the achievement of organizational goals is the main purpose of organizational communication; and for organizations to achieve this, they have to employ appropriate communication networks, communication policies and communication activities. However, Bacharach (1977) shows the view that the effect of organizational size, shape, decentralization, routinization and boundary spanning on the frequency of communication between departments heads and subordinates must be well analyzed. Bacharach (1977) discovered that in fewer complexes, in less formal and more decentralized organizations, communication is greater than in complex, formal, centralized organizations. Thus, findings of Greenbaum (1974) demonstrates that even similar organizations might be different in communication dimensions; it was determined that considerable skepticism presently exists between managers and theorists with regard to what barriers are separating theory and practice actually and how they might be overcome.
Waldman et al. (2011) confided that management is difficult to conceptualize, especially, by top executives whose leadership capacity must be used in order to inspire lower organizational levels. Effective management must be seen in participative leadership, as it is stated “research that focuses on management practices while excluding considerations for a firm’s leadership qualities is committing an important error of omission” (Waldman et al., 2011). Judge and Piccolo (2004) state unequivocally from a meta-analysis study that good leadership is a tenet for successful management practice. Managers with a style of involvement, participation and consultation will share vision and inspiration among their juniors and in turn improve employee satisfaction through a family-friendly work place. There should not be a management of the status quo, but ongoing learning and adaptability. This has been reaffirmed by Bloom, Genakos, Martin and Sadun (2011).
Management style among other practices is influenced by cross-cultural differences by acts, perceptions and expectations for management practices. Culture influences good management practice. For instance, Waldman et al. (2011) dismisses an earlier study by Bloom et al. (2011) for narrowing management practices to monitoring, targets and incentives against hard practices like team-based leadership which is universal to effectiveness. Rowold and Schlutz (2009) also emphasized transformational and transactional leadership as basic tenets in any management style.
Hospital management has been defined to include the responsibility and accountability for the overall operation of the organization (Bohen, 1995). More specifically, hospital management has been conceived as a shared process of top-level organizational leadership, policymaking and decision-making. Hospital management was regarded by scholars as a unique form away from the conventional management. Although the governing board has the ultimate accountability, the CEO, senior management and clinical leaders are involved in top-level functions (Bader, 1993; Alexander et al. 2003).Most hospitals have their own management board and a professional team of executive managers. They constitute the axis of “hospital management” together, which is the process of steering the overall functioning and effective performance of a hospital; defining the hospital’s mission, setting its objectives, supporting and monitoring their realization at the operational level (Flynn, 2002; Eeckloo et al., 2004). Efficient management of hospitals requires responsible and effective use of funds, professional management and competent governing structures (Ditzel et al., 2006).
The size of the hospital board is an important element in its overall management structure. It has been argued that a board’s ability to monitor and make important decision improves with its size. This is because there is a need to ensure diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, expertise and experience within the board. However, Hermalin and Weisbach (2003) argued that there is a possibility that larger boards can be less effective than small boards. When boards consist of too many members, agency problems may increase as some directors may tag along as free-riders. Maintaining a small board size is likely to result in the board’s ability to give more effective oversight for the management of the hospital. Jensen (1993) argues that there should be an upper limit to board membership to make it an effective governance mechanism. In practice, determining an optimal board size may be dependent on the size of the hospital and its scope of operation. However, Lipton and Lorch (1992) recommended limiting the number of directors to seven or eight, as numbers beyond that would be difficult for the CEO to control.
Performance of hospitals has not had consensus among scholars. Provan (1985) has outlined performance in hospitals in terms of bed occupancy, costs, mortality rate, payroll ratios, accreditation, growth, resource acquisition. He however concedes that these measures lack generalizability. Bloom et al. (2009) state that management in hospitals is poorly alike with that of manufacturing firms. What is more, public hospitals have worse practices than private ones. In the public hospitals, hospital administrators must make decisions that foster the highest standards of patient care and achieve financial performance, as measured by more traditional metrics such as return on equity, return on assets, occupancy rates. Hence, strategic decisions made by hospital administrators have considerable consequences. Healthcare institutions pose unique problems for management since organizational decision makers must consider elements such as patient access to services, reliability and quality of care. These elements distinguish hospitals from other types of consumer organizations since failures in these areas, even on a small scale, could result in the loss of life (Ray, Plowman and Mcdaniel). Furthermore, hospitals are further distinguished by diverse training, experiences, and responsibilities; inherently present issues about how to work together (Ashmos, Huonker and McDaniel, 1998).
H1 Management practices will have a significant relationship with hospital performance.
H1e: Communication will have a significant positive relationship with performance.
We used a cross sectional survey design. Cross sectional studies view the existence of phenomena at a given point in time when data is collected. The population identified for this study was public hospitals in Uganda. The choice was based on the public and outstanding outcry that facilities and performance in public health institutions were more appalling compared to the private ones. The sampling frame for this study was all the listed 52 public hospitals in the country. The unit of analysis was the hospital. We chose to have four respondents per hospital to eliminate common internal biases that could lead to skewed data. The respondents were the medical superintendent, as the chief administrative and medical head of the hospital; others were the hospital administrator and two senior medical officers. Primary data was collected from the respondents using a structured questionnaire on a five point Likert scale. We considered both tangible and intangible measures of performance. The total respondents expected and thus questionnaires rolled out were 208. We had 137 questionnaires back from 40 hospitals.
We first determined the Pearson moment correlation coefficients among the management constructs and performance. The results are in the table 1.
The correlation analysis with all the domains showed positive and significant coefficients. Among the sub-variables and performance, the highest association was between management communication and performance, followed by management style and performance. The lowest association was identified between decision-making and performance. Our focus here is drawn to management practice and performance as the main variables on which further analysis will anchor. The association between the aggregate management practices has a stronger effect on performance than any other associations. We shall discern the issues behind this pattern in the discussion after examining the regression results.
We used linear regression analysis to determine the independent effect of each of the management sub variables. The regression results are presented in table 2.
In table above, we tested for the independent effect of each of the sub-variables of management before testing the composite variable. As noted from various scholars, the various components of management come into play as functional areas contributing to the aggregate management. In the same vain, each aspect of management may influence performance in specific ways. Thus, for each sub-variable, we controlled for age in years of the hospital, bed capacity and board size in the first model then entered and tested its independent effect. The control variables were not statistically significant in this analysis. The results showed that all the sub variables were statistically significant. Their account to the variation in performance however differed.
Communication emerged with the highest independent effect on performance accounting for 64.4%; structure followed predicting nearly 56.5% variation in hospital management. The lowest effect was from decision making at R2=.458. The rest of the variables had moderate effects. Management practices as a composite variable accounted for 76.4% variation in hospital performance and statistically significant at p=.000. The standard error of the estimate was .511.
We thus fail to reject H1 and all sub-hypotheses. We conclude that management practices significantly influence hospital performance. The result also confirm that decision-making, management processes, structure, style and communication significantly influence hospital performance.
The anecdotal evidences of management practices that influence the performance of public hospitals in Uganda indicated that each component had varying contribution towards explaining this pedagogy. This study revealed that the public concerns have not factored management practices as possible factors to explain the hospital phenomena. The local press and public voices have pointed at lack of funding, equipment, lack of drugs, weak supervision, political interference and lack of adequate staffing. We however, provide an empirical framework showing how management practices are significant. The result showing that communication had the highest effect independently agrees with Greenbaum (1974) who called it a prime factor. Communication has long been counted as key factor in organizational effectiveness. It links the sub-systems of the organization to enable different actors do their work that knits into coherence. Communication leads to achievement of goals (Zawacki, 1974) and therefore the large coefficient in this study is not farfetched. Hospitals are complex systems where quick and efficient communication is necessary for work processes to go on uninterrupted.
The finding that decision-making had the lowest prediction power to performance in our study may not be generalized. It is explained by taking Provan’s (1985) conclusion that decision system is supported by the structure. We noted that the decision hierarchy in hospitals was not well defined. The boards, which would be expected as key decision makers in management, were weak; key decisions were said to come either from the ministry or from the district authorities. Hitt and Tyler (1991) who emphasized that structures constrain decision-making also support this. From our discernment, it was also possible that given the nature of specializations by medical personnel, many operational decisions emerged from their work centers and tasks. The conclusions by Kaissi (2008) and Ray et al (n.d) on participation in decision-making are vital to this finding. The lack of participation and involvement of the various technical groups like nurses, doctors, pharmacists, engineers etc. in general management decision making would never lead to quality decisions in the hospital.
In view of Hambrick and Mason’s upper echelons theory, hospital superintendents as CEOs bear the image of the hospital. However, the lack of consensus on performance measurements in hospitals limits how much they can count in their managerial prerogative. As noted by Hamilton, Sherman and Maddox (1999) some processes are purposeful, others rational or even automatic. I complex hospitals these coexist and influence managerial behavior. These findings also have common threads with aspects of Thompson and Strickland’s (2001) operationalization of structure in terms of centralization, formalization, complexity and standardization. All these seemed to apply in the hospital system as seen in the close coefficients of the sub variables except communication. The debate between Waldman et al. (2011) and Bloom et al. (2011) may support these results. We agree with the opinion of Ditzel et al. (2006) that efficient management of hospitals requires configuration of effective use of funds, professional management and competent governing structures.
The study has emphasized good management as the determinant of better performance of hospitals in the Ugandan context. We recognize that performance of public hospitals had been narrowly interpreted and thus seen as negative on the larger scale. Many underlying measures have been neglected. We assessed both tangible and intangible indicators. The results attested that hospitals are performing poorly on some measures and above average on others. The outstanding concerns were on service delivery, which was grossly poor in the eyes of the public.
Our direction of study was to test for the influence of management practices away from the anecdotal evidences of lack of funds, poor staffing and other general factors. There were imminent gaps in planning, decision-making, teamwork, accountability, human resource management, communication, management structures and style. Thus, we infer that the weak management practices are restraining the efficiency and effectiveness of quality services delivery. This study has empirically reaffirmed the public outcry on the performance of public hospitals in Uganda but provided to policy makers, practitioners and future researchers a new lens to understand the problem. Managers in the hospitals will recognize the gaps that are pertinent in their work. We opine that even where resources are inadequate it is upon hospital managers to communicate to key stakeholders especially the public and within limits provide a service that will be appreciated. Policy makers are challenged to strengthen management processes in addition to mobilizing financial, human and capital resources for hospitals. The study extends the debate on application of management theory with practice in the health sector in the Ugandan context. These results could be generalized to the African reality.
The study of this magnitude was faced with methodological limitations; the operationalization of the study variables could have had some interpretation shortfalls. Much of the extant literature that we accessed was in non-African contexts and in business organizations. Therefore, our results should be interpreted in light of the setting that we studied. Our conceptual framework was anchored in management theory albeit not strongly as relevant literature was scanty. We however, contend that the findings of this study bear credence and will provide key insights for managers, policy makers and scholars.
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The findings showed a positive and significant relationship between managerial skills and corporate strategic planning. | 2019-04-19T18:17:54Z | https://researchleap.com/management-practices-and-performance-of-public-hospitals-in-uganda/ |
A 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig with a flat and thin head lies at the heart of Midwest finesse fishing, and Joey and Katrina Doza of Republic, Missouri, have begun crafting state-of-the-art ones. They call them Jade's Jigs.
The Jade's Jigs are crafted from bismuth and tin rather than lead. The Dozas hand-pour the bismuth-and-tin compound into a Do-It Midwest Finesse Jig Mold.
Because the Jade's Jigs are made from a bismuth-and-tin alloy, they are approximately 1/100 of an ounce lighter than a lead jig. Lighter, of course, catches the fancy of many Midwest finesse anglers. Lighter is one of the primary axioms of Midwest finesse fishing. Since the 1960s and 1970s, we have noticed that a lighter jig is almost always better than a heavier one. A lighter jig also facilitates the no-feel aspect of all of the Midwest finesse presentations.
At the top is a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Jade's Jig with a No. 2 black-nickel 32775 Mustad hook. The second is a red one with a No. 2 black-nickel Mustad 32775 hook. The third is a chartreuse one with a No, 2 Eagle Claw 500BP - Lil' Nasty hook. The fourth is a red one with a No. 2 Eagle Claw 500BP - Lil' Nasty hook.
The Dozas manufacture their 1/16-ounce jig with either a black-nickel Eagle Claw 570 hook or a black-nickel Eagle Claw 500BP — Lil' Nasty, which is a sickle-style hook. The standard size hook is a No. 2, but if a customer prefers another size, the Dozas can make a 1/16-ounce jig with a No. 4, a No. 1 and a 1/0. And if a customer has a preference for another brand or style, the Dozas' mold will accommodate a Gamakatsu 114 hook, a Mustad 32775 hook, and an Owner 5313 hook. In addition to their 1/16-ounce-size mushroom-style jig, the Dozas make a 3/32-, a 1/8-, and a 5/32-ounce-size mushroom-style jig.
Currently, the 1/16-ouncer is available in nine colors: black, black with blue flake, brown, green chartreuse, green pumpkin, pearl with flake, red, root-beer with flake and white. If anglers request other colors, the Dozas will accommodate those special requests of colors.
A package of 10 painted 1/16-ounce Jade's jigs costs $11.00, and the shipping is free in the continental United States. A package to 10 unpainted 1/16-ouncers cost $10.00, and the shipping is free in the continental United States. The Dozas note that the unpainted jig does not have the pouring spur filed down.
Anglers can purchase them by emailing the Dozas at [email protected], or mailing them a request to 813 E. Valley View, Republic, Missouri, or telephoning or texting them at 417-841-7997.
While we were in the early stages of working on this gear guide, Joey Doza sent us a 4,366-word epistle on Oct. 22 that details how, why, and when he created Jade's Jigs. We were so touched by it that we thought that other Midwest finesse anglers might relish his words as much as we relish them. Therefore, we elected to publish them in the endnotes of this gear guide about his jigs.
I would like to tell you a little about myself just so you can get a background of where I come from.
I am 38 years old and I have lived in the Springfield, Missouri, area my whole life. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 17 years. My full-time job is a captain with the Springfield Fire Department. I am also a registered nurse and a paramedic. I work part time as a hospice nurse. I have two teenage daughters that are very active. My youngest daughter, however, has a congenital brain malformation and is special needs. She has seizures and other medical issues that my wife and I deal with daily. It has gotten to the point that my wife and I decided that she needed to cut back at her full-time job so one of us could always be home to take care of her. As you can tell, my life is pretty hectic. My wife and I were discussing the ways that we could make up the difference in money that she would be losing by working part-time. I thought it would be awesome if we could do something we enjoy at home with our daughter, Jaiden, and make a little extra money. I've always wanted an excuse to buy a jig mold and make my own jigs; so this seemed like a perfect opportunity. This is how the idea of Jade's Jigs got started. Please don't think I'm telling you this for sympathy or for anybody to feel sorry for me. I wouldn't change anything in the world. I just wanted you to understand my background.
I can't take any credit for the style of jigs that I make. Do-It Molds, Finesse News Network and In-Fisherman's Midwest Finesse column should be getting all the credit for sharing this style of fishing with the whole world.
I initially started doing research on using lead to make jigs. I was terrified after reading about how toxic it is and the dangers of pouring it. I was concerned about using lead because of all of the bad things that I see as a fire captain and as a hospice nurse. I did not want to turn my house into a hazmat site. Ultimately, I discovered an alloy made of bismuth and tin. The hazards appeared to be much less than lead and more environmentally friendly. The drawbacks include a much higher cost than lead, it is harder to pour than lead, and it has a low melting temperature. I temper the powder paint on my jigs; so I had to do a lot of experimenting to get the paint to cure without melting the jigs. In my opinion, it's not worth painting a finesse jig if you don't cure it. The curing process makes such a difference in the durability of the paint. I've used other jigs before that were not cured. The paint chipped off of them after a couple of casts. I temper my jigs in an upright position so they don't get a cone head. I also file the rough areas on top of the jig where the spur was cut off in order to leave a smooth finish. I make sure the eyes are clean on my jigs. I find it really annoying when I'm fishing and I have to waste time trying to clean the paint out of the eye of a hook.
I believe there are a lot of advantages to using the bismuth-tin alloy versus lead. They are environmentally friendly and safer to handle. There are certain waters that are lead-free where my jigs can be used and lead jigs cannot be used. There are also factors that I believe make my jigs perfect for the finesse style of fishing. The bismuth-tin alloy is approximately 20 percent lighter than lead. Therefore, you can fish a slightly larger jig head and maintain the lighter weight that is optimal for finesse fishing. I think the larger head helps to create a flush fit and a more natural look with the bait you are using. It helps to prevent gaps between your jig head and worm. This can also help prevent snags. I believe the larger, lighter head displaces more water which can attract and help fish to find your jig. A lot of my strikes occur while my jigs are slowly falling or gliding through the water column. This lighter weight, along with the flat head of the jig, decreases the sink rate. This gives the fish a greater opportunity to pick it up during the fall. I think these factors really facilitate the Midwest finesse swim-glide-and-shake retrieve.
There are some great qualities to the Do-It Midwest Finesse Mold: It makes a head that is flat with rounded edges. A customer told me that he thought the rounded edges and shape of the jig really helped it to skitter on the bottom, giving the jig a natural-looking movement. Moreover, the flat head and rounded edges help the jig to stand upright, and they prevent snags. The flat profile of the jig contributes to the slower sink rate. This summer I took a round-head crappie jig that was slightly lighter than a heavier jig that I had made with the finesse mold. I dropped both of the jigs at the same time into six feet of water at a swimming pool, and the slightly heavier Midwest finesse jig was always the last one to hit the bottom of the pool. In essence, the flat head displaces more water than the round head, which slows the sink rate. There is a stainless steel wire keeper that helps hold a soft-plastic bait on the hook. I like a thin-wire keeper because I think it is easier to slide Z-Man Fishing Products' ElaZtech baits over them. A soft-plastic bait, such as a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man's ZinkerZ, is locked in place by the angled part of the keeper. I also think this style of wire keeper helps to keep the soft-plastic bait from flaring towards the top of the jig like they do with some of the jigs that possess a bait keeper with larger barbed collars. Because ElaZtech baits are so flexible and stretchy, I have a difficult time getting them onto the barbed collars of a regular jig, and therefore, they will not stay affixed to them very well. I like to use a drop of superglue to hold the soft-plastic baits securely to the head of the jig.
I make 1/16-, 3/32-, 1/8-, 5/32-, 3/16-, and 1/4-ounce size jigs, and because they are made with a bismuth-tin alloy, they are 20-percent lighter than a lead jig, and in other words, the 1/16-ounce size one is about a 1/20-ounce jig.
I have been experimenting with several different styles of hooks. I really like the light-wire hooks for Midwest finesse tactics and gear. The sharp, light-wire hook seems to help with hook penetration when using lighter fishing line and gear. Most of my hook sets are more of a pressure set compared to a power set. I also think a little flex in the hook is beneficial with this gear. It goes along with the same principle of using a lighter and more flexible rod. I've caught some very nice black bass in current, and I have had customers send me pictures of very large fish that they've caught with these hooks. I can use this to disprove people who say that you need a very stiff hook to land big fish. I think that defeats the purpose of the finesse-style of fishing. If you can't get good hook penetration, it doesn't matter how stiff of a hook you have. Most of the hooks I use have the black-nickel finish. This seems to help with corrosion and is a very natural color. Some of the bronze and colored hooks I have seen seem to corrode a little after time. This is especially true if using a soft-plastic bait that is impregnated with salt.
I can use several different styles and sizes of hooks in the Do-It Mold. I've been having a lot of success with the sickle-style hooks. These hooks are super sharp and have excellent penetration. The points of these hooks are slightly curved inward. I think this helps the hooks to stay sharper for longer periods as well.
Now to the good stuff by explaining how I learned about these jigs and how I fish them. I love to read local forums about fishing. So many people unselfishly provide valuable information about fishing. And about four years ago, I kept reading about guys using a Midwest finesse rig on the Ozark Anglers Forum (see //forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/60811-ned-jig-heads/). I always liked the idea of using finesse-style gear for bass fishing. So on a beautiful spring day in the Ozarks, I decided to head to the river and give the Midwest finesse thing a try. I took a 1/16-ounce crappie jig, cut a soft-plastic worm in half, and threaded it on the jig. I got to the river and paddled my kayak near a group of submerged trees. The trees were located just where the water starts to get deep at the end of a run. There was a slow eddy on the downstream side of the trees. I made multiple cast near the trees and tried to glide the jig to the bottom with a little shake of my rod tip to the fishing line. There was only one problem. I couldn't get the jig to the bottom of the river. The smallmouth bass and rock bass would bite the jig on just about every cast during the initial fall, which is an excellent problem to have. I couldn't believe this little jig was working so well. I initially attributed the success to the excellent fishing hole. I was running out of time and was forced to head down river and leave fish that were still biting. And I quickly discovered this rig caught fish galore everywhere as I headed downstream — even around places where I had never caught fish before. It was one of the best fishing trips I ever had. That fishing trip turned me into a Midwest finesse rig maniac.
I'm the perfect example of how you don't need to invest your precious savings account into a bunch of fancy gear to be successful with Midwest finesse rigs. As I mentioned earlier, my life is very hectic, and I have to take advantage of any opportunities that I have to go fishing. I am blessed to have some wonderful Ozarks rivers and streams filled with quality smallmouth bass, spotted bass, largemouth bass, and rock bass near where I live. I mainly fish the rivers out of a very simple kayak. I don't have much room for tackle and gear, but I never leave home without a variety of Midwest finesse rigs. If I can't catch a fish on these jigs, then I know that the fish are just not biting. I use a medium-light-power spinning rod with a medium-sized spinning reel. I like to use a seven- foot rod to assist with the high sticking technique used for fishing in current. I use 10-pound braided line with either a six- or eight-pound fluorocarbon leader. I would like to emphasize that I am a catch-and-release fisherman.
My style of finesse fishing may be a little different from people who fish in lakes or larger bodies of water. However, the same principals apply. The main difference is that I have current working on my side. In my opinion, there is nothing better than fishing in current. I started to become more successful at finesse fishing when I learned how to read current and understand how the fish relate to the current. Finding the right structure in relation to the current, whether it be wood or rock, is also a key component.
Black bass are smart predators and stage in certain locations to ambush their prey. I typically use a 2 1/2- to three-inch soft-plastic worm in natural or crayfish colors, such as green pumpkin, watermelon, and peanut butter and jelly. I use a jig that is heavy enough to keep my jig bouncing off of the bottom in the current without it stalling or getting hung up. I usually use a 1/16-ounce size jig, and I might use a 3/32-ounce size if the current is heavier. I use the swim-glide-and-shake presentation, but I let the current do most of the work for me. I typically make my casts at a 45-degree angle upstream or downstream, trying to prevent from spooking fish by casting directly over them. I'll let the rig slowly glide to the bottom, and many of the bites occur as the rig is sinking or bouncing along the bottom. I try to keep the slack out of the line by reeling, but not too much to move the jig. Remember, the more natural the bait is with the current, the better. I'll often shake the rod tip to give the jig a little extra action and momentum. This also helps to keep the rig from hanging on the bottom. A lot of bites will also come when the rig is near the end of its drift. At this point a little tension is put on the line and the rig may swing or slightly lift in the current. This slight change in momentum seems to provoke a fish to strike. I usually don't feel a bite, and because of that I leave just enough slack in my line that the rig is not directly affected by my rod tip. I try to move the line, not the rig. Most of the bites are detected from a pressure sensation. When my line starts to feel heavy, I reel into the pressure and let the pressure from my medium-light rod set the hook. I'm always careful not to release the pressure once the fish is hooked. This is where a good quality jig and hook make a huge difference. Sometimes a strike can be detected if the line unexpectedly stops moving, or if the line does something different than what the natural flow of current would do to it.
I love fishing the tail ends of riffles and runs. There is usually good structure and eddies in these areas. River bends and any place where there is a current break are ideal locations to fish. A large rock or island may provide a good current break. Drop offs are great areas to cast a Midwest finesse rig along the shallow side of a drop off and allow the rig to glide off into the deep water, and if your line stops or you feel pressure, then the fight is on. Current seams are another great locale to find and catch black bass in rivers. If you look closely at an eddy, you will see an area where the fast and slow water meet. A lot of times there will be turbulence, bubbling water, or swirling water right at the current seam. The trick here is to keep your line out of the fast water and over the current seam as much as possible. Black bass abide in these seams, and they forage there, too. If the line gets caught up in the fast water, it will move the rig at an unnatural speed, and not entice a black bass to engulf it. At these seams, I like to use my seven-foot rod. I try to cast my rig to the top of the current seam. I then raise my rod tip up and high stick it enough to keep my line directly over the current seam. This prevents the line from being swept away by the fast water and allows it to flow into the black bass' domain, provoking them to engulf it. Most anglers, however, pass right by these golden spots because the water is usually fast and hard to hold a boat in. But if you can place your boat on the current seam, or in the slower eddy water, then it is relatively easy to hold position. Hold on though, because once a giant smallmouth bass realizes he's hooked, he's going to use every fighting muscle he has to get into the fast current and take you for a ride. There are usually good opportunities to bank fish around these locations as well. I have discovered that I catch a lot more fish with my finesse tactics when I slow down and focus on these ideal locations.
Another great quality about these jigs and Midwest finesse rigs is that they will catch numerous species of fish, and the action is often non-stop. Besides black bass, these jigs will regularly catch bluegill, crappie, walleye, catfish, and rock bass. I haven't read about many people using Midwest finesse rigs to catch rock bass, but this is my go to bait for them. One of my favorite rock bass locales is around a depression in the river's gravel bottom, which is formed from the undercut current where a small creek enters the river. I have caught a lot of fish where a smaller body of water, such as a creek or spring, enters a larger body of water. Around these areas, I cast my Midwest finesse rig upstream and onto the shallow part of the depression and allow the rig to glide into the depression. Most of the time, the rock bass engulf the rig as it glides into the deep part of the depression. If they fail to engulf it while it is gliding to the bottom, I let it get to the bottom, and then I reel in the slack line and lift my rod tip, and often a rock bass engulf the rig on the lift. On one outing, I caught 16 rock bass in 20 casts.
When the riverine black bass are abiding in their wintering holes, the Midwest finesse rig is an excellent tool for catching them. During the cold months of the year, I focus on deep-water holes with structure. Springs are also good locations to fish during the coldest spells of the winter, and that is because the spring water is warmer than the river's water. The catch rate may be slower, but most of the fish that I catch during this season are good-size ones.
I am sorry that this email is so lengthy. I just wanted Midwest finesse anglers to know that I have a true passion for their style of fishing. I take pride in every jig that is made, and it shows in the quality of my jigs. The best part about selling these jigs is getting to meet people who have a common love and respect for nature.
In this email, I have explained why I think my jigs are more effective when they are affixed to a Midwest finesse rig than other jigs. But I must confess that my observations have not been tested by any sort of scientific method. There a lot of individuals and tackle companies who make barbed and lead jigs, and I don't want to offend them or make false claims. | 2019-04-20T10:55:54Z | https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/jades-jigs/154519 |
Artificial intelligence has close connections with philosophy because both share several concepts and these include intelligence, action, consciousness, epistemology, and even free will. Furthermore, the technology is concerned with the creation of artificial animals or artificial people (or, at least, artificial creatures) so the discipline is of considerable interest to philosophers. These factors contributed to the emergence of the philosophy of artificial intelligence. Some scholars argue that the AI community's dismissal of philosophy is detrimental.
Can a machine act intelligently? Can it solve any problem that a person would solve by thinking?
Are human intelligence and machine intelligence the same? Is the human brain essentially a computer?
Can a machine have a mind, mental states, and consciousness in the same way that a human being can? Can it feel how things are?
Questions like these reflect the divergent interests of AI researchers, linguists, cognitive scientists and philosophers respectively. The scientific answers to these questions depend on the definition of "intelligence" and "consciousness" and exactly which "machines" are under discussion.
Turing's "polite convention": If a machine behaves as intelligently as a human being, then it is as intelligent as a human being.
The Dartmouth proposal: "Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it."
Newell and Simon's physical symbol system hypothesis: "A physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means of general intelligent action."
Searle's strong AI hypothesis: "The appropriately programmed computer with the right inputs and outputs would thereby have a mind in exactly the same sense human beings have minds."
Hobbes' mechanism: "For 'reason' ... is nothing but 'reckoning,' that is adding and subtracting, of the consequences of general names agreed upon for the 'marking' and 'signifying' of our thoughts..."
1 Can a machine display general intelligence?
2 Can a machine have a mind, consciousness, and mental states?
3 Is thinking a kind of computation?
4.1 Can a machine have emotions?
4.2 Can a machine be self-aware?
4.3 Can a machine be original or creative?
4.4 Can a machine be benevolent or hostile?
4.5 Can a machine have a soul?
Can a machine display general intelligence?
Is it possible to create a machine that can solve all the problems humans solve using their intelligence? This question defines the scope of what machines will be able to do in the future and guides the direction of AI research. It only concerns the behavior of machines and ignores the issues of interest to psychologists, cognitive scientists and philosophers; to answer this question, it does not matter whether a machine is really thinking (as a person thinks) or is just acting like it is thinking.
Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.
Arguments against the basic premise must show that building a working AI system is impossible, because there is some practical limit to the abilities of computers or that there is some special quality of the human mind that is necessary for thinking and yet cannot be duplicated by a machine (or by the methods of current AI research). Arguments in favor of the basic premise must show that such a system is possible.
The first step to answering the question is to clearly define "intelligence".
The "standard interpretation" of the Turing test.
If a machine acts as intelligently as human being, then it is as intelligent as a human being.
One criticism of the Turing test is that it is explicitly anthropomorphic. If our ultimate goal is to create machines that are more intelligent than people, why should we insist that our machines must closely resemble people?[This quote needs a citation] Russell and Norvig write that "aeronautical engineering texts do not define the goal of their field as 'making machines that fly so exactly like pigeons that they can fool other pigeons'".
Recent A.I. research defines intelligence in terms of intelligent agents. An "agent" is something which perceives and acts in an environment. A "performance measure" defines what counts as success for the agent.
If an agent acts so as to maximize the expected value of a performance measure based on past experience and knowledge then it is intelligent.
Definitions like this one try to capture the essence of intelligence. They have the advantage that, unlike the Turing test, they do not also test for human traits that we[who?] may not want to consider intelligent, like the ability to be insulted or the temptation to lie[dubious – discuss]. They have the disadvantage that they fail to make the commonsense[when defined as?] differentiation between "things that think" and "things that do not". By this definition, even a thermostat has a rudimentary intelligence.
Hubert Dreyfus describes this argument as claiming that "if the nervous system obeys the laws of physics and chemistry, which we have every reason to suppose it does, then .... we ... ought to be able to reproduce the behavior of the nervous system with some physical device". This argument, first introduced as early as 1943 and vividly described by Hans Moravec in 1988, is now associated with futurist Ray Kurzweil, who estimates that computer power will be sufficient for a complete brain simulation by the year 2029. A non-real-time simulation of a thalamocortical model that has the size of the human brain (1011 neurons) was performed in 2005 and it took 50 days to simulate 1 second of brain dynamics on a cluster of 27 processors.
Few[quantify] disagree that a brain simulation is possible in theory,[according to whom?] even critics of AI such as Hubert Dreyfus and John Searle. However, Searle points out that, in principle, anything can be simulated by a computer; thus, bringing the definition to its breaking point leads to the conclusion that any process at all can technically be considered "computation". "What we wanted to know is what distinguishes the mind from thermostats and livers," he writes. Thus, merely mimicking the functioning of a brain would in itself be an admission of ignorance regarding intelligence and the nature of the mind.
A physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means of general intelligent action.
The mind can be viewed as a device operating on bits of information according to formal rules.
A distinction is usually made[by whom?] between the kind of high level symbols that directly correspond with objects in the world, such as <dog> and <tail> and the more complex "symbols" that are present in a machine like a neural network. Early research into AI, called "good old fashioned artificial intelligence" (GOFAI) by John Haugeland, focused on these kind of high level symbols.
These arguments show that human thinking does not consist (solely) of high level symbol manipulation. They do not show that artificial intelligence is impossible, only that more than symbol processing is required.
In 1931, Kurt Gödel proved with an incompleteness theorem that it is always possible to construct a "Gödel statement" that a given consistent formal system of logic (such as a high-level symbol manipulation program) could not prove. Despite being a true statement, the constructed Gödel statement is unprovable in the given system. (The truth of the constructed Gödel statement is contingent on the consistency of the given system; applying the same process to a subtly inconsistent system will appear to succeed, but will actually yield a false "Gödel statement" instead.) More speculatively, Gödel conjectured that the human mind can correctly eventually determine the truth or falsity of any well-grounded mathematical statement (including any possible Gödel statement), and that therefore the human mind's power is not reducible to a mechanism. Philosopher John Lucas (since 1961) and Roger Penrose (since 1989) have championed this philosophical anti-mechanist argument. Gödelian anti-mechanist arguments tend to rely on the innocuous-seeming claim that a system of human mathematicians (or some idealization of human mathematicians) is both consistent (completely free of error) and believes fully in its own consistency (and can make all logical inferences that follow from its own consistency, including belief in its Gödel statement). This is provably impossible for a Turing machine[clarification needed] (and, by an informal extension, any known type of mechanical computer) to do; therefore, the Gödelian concludes that human reasoning is too powerful to be captured in a machine[dubious – discuss].
However, the modern consensus in the scientific and mathematical community is that actual human reasoning is inconsistent; that any consistent "idealized version" H of human reasoning would logically be forced to adopt a healthy but counter-intuitive open-minded skepticism about the consistency of H (otherwise H is provably inconsistent); and that Gödel's theorems do not lead to any valid argument that humans have mathematical reasoning capabilities beyond what a machine could ever duplicate. This consensus that Gödelian anti-mechanist arguments are doomed to failure is laid out strongly in Artificial Intelligence: "any attempt to utilize (Gödel's incompleteness results) to attack the computationalist thesis is bound to be illegitimate, since these results are quite consistent with the computationalist thesis."
More pragmatically, Russell and Norvig note that Gödel's argument only applies to what can theoretically be proved, given an infinite amount of memory and time. In practice, real machines (including humans) have finite resources and will have difficulty proving many theorems. It is not necessary to prove everything in order to be intelligent[when defined as?].
Lucas can't assert the truth of this statement.
This statement is true but cannot be asserted by Lucas. This shows that Lucas himself is subject to the same limits that he describes for machines, as are all people, and so Lucas's argument is pointless.
After concluding that human reasoning is non-computable, Penrose went on to controversially speculate that some kind of hypothetical non-computable processes involving the collapse of quantum mechanical states give humans a special advantage over existing computers. Existing quantum computers are only capable of reducing the complexity of Turing computable tasks and are still restricted to tasks within the scope of Turing machines.[clarification needed]. By Penrose and Lucas's arguments, existing quantum computers are not sufficient[clarification needed][why?], so Penrose seeks for some other process involving new physics, for instance quantum gravity which might manifest new physics at the scale of the Planck mass via spontaneous quantum collapse of the wave function. These states, he suggested, occur both within neurons and also spanning more than one neuron. However, other scientists point out that there is no plausible organic mechanism in the brain for harnessing any sort of quantum computation, and furthermore that the timescale of quantum decoherence seems too fast to influence neuron firing.
Hubert Dreyfus Hubert Dreyfus's views on artificial intelligence and expertise depended primarily on implicit skill rather than explicit symbolic manipulation, and argued that these skills would never be captured in formal rules.
Dreyfus's argument had been anticipated by Turing in his 1950 paper Computing machinery and intelligence, where he had classified this as the "argument from the informality of behavior." Turing argued in response that, just because we do not know the rules that govern a complex behavior, this does not mean that no such rules exist. He wrote: "we cannot so easily convince ourselves of the absence of complete laws of behaviour ... The only way we know of for finding such laws is scientific observation, and we certainly know of no circumstances under which we could say, 'We have searched enough. There are no such laws.'"
Russell and Norvig point out that, in the years since Dreyfus published his critique, progress has been made towards discovering the "rules" that govern unconscious reasoning. The situated movement in robotics research attempts to capture our unconscious skills at perception and attention. Computational intelligence paradigms, such as neural nets, evolutionary algorithms and so on are mostly directed at simulated unconscious reasoning and learning. Statistical approaches to AI can make predictions which approach the accuracy of human intuitive guesses. Research into commonsense knowledge has focused on reproducing the "background" or context of knowledge. In fact, AI research in general has moved away from high level symbol manipulation or "GOFAI", towards new models that are intended to capture more of our unconscious reasoning[according to whom?]. Historian and AI researcher Daniel Crevier wrote that "time has proven the accuracy and perceptiveness of some of Dreyfus's comments. Had he formulated them less aggressively, constructive actions they suggested might have been taken much earlier."
Can a machine have a mind, consciousness, and mental states?
A physical symbol system can have a mind and mental states.
A physical symbol system can act intelligently.
Searle introduced the terms to isolate strong AI from weak AI so he could focus on what he thought was the more interesting and debatable issue. He argued that even if we assume that we had a computer program that acted exactly like a human mind, there would still be a difficult philosophical question that needed to be answered.
Neither of Searle's two positions are of great concern to AI research, since they do not directly answer the question "can a machine display general intelligence?" (unless it can also be shown that consciousness is necessary for intelligence). Turing wrote "I do not wish to give the impression that I think there is no mystery about consciousness… [b]ut I do not think these mysteries necessarily need to be solved before we can answer the question [of whether machines can think]." Russell and Norvig agree: "Most AI researchers take the weak AI hypothesis for granted, and don't care about the strong AI hypothesis."
Before we can answer this question, we must be clear what we mean by "minds", "mental states" and "consciousness".
The words "mind" and "consciousness" are used by different communities in different ways. Some new age thinkers, for example, use the word "consciousness" to describe something similar to Bergson's "élan vital": an invisible, energetic fluid that permeates life and especially the mind. Science fiction writers use the word to describe some essential property that makes us human: a machine or alien that is "conscious" will be presented as a fully human character, with intelligence, desires, will, insight, pride and so on. (Science fiction writers also use the words "sentience", "sapience," "self-awareness" or "ghost" - as in the Ghost in the Shell manga and anime series - to describe this essential human property). For others[who?], the words "mind" or "consciousness" are used as a kind of secular synonym for the soul.
For philosophers, neuroscientists and cognitive scientists, the words are used in a way that is both more precise and more mundane: they refer to the familiar, everyday experience of having a "thought in your head", like a perception, a dream, an intention or a plan, and to the way we know something, or mean something or understand something. "It's not hard to give a commonsense definition of consciousness" observes philosopher John Searle. What is mysterious and fascinating is not so much what it is but how it is: how does a lump of fatty tissue and electricity give rise to this (familiar) experience of perceiving, meaning or thinking?
Philosophers call this the hard problem of consciousness. It is the latest version of a classic problem in the philosophy of mind called the "mind-body problem." A related problem is the problem of meaning or understanding (which philosophers call "intentionality"): what is the connection between our thoughts and what we are thinking about (i.e. objects and situations out in the world)? A third issue is the problem of experience (or "phenomenology"): If two people see the same thing, do they have the same experience? Or are there things "inside their head" (called "qualia") that can be different from person to person?
Neurobiologists believe all these problems will be solved as we begin to identify the neural correlates of consciousness: the actual relationship between the machinery in our heads and its collective properties; such as the mind, experience and understanding. Some of the harshest critics of artificial intelligence agree that the brain is just a machine, and that consciousness and intelligence are the result of physical processes in the brain. The difficult philosophical question is this: can a computer program, running on a digital machine that shuffles the binary digits of zero and one, duplicate the ability of the neurons to create minds, with mental states (like understanding or perceiving), and ultimately, the experience of consciousness?
John Searle asks us to consider a thought experiment: suppose we have written a computer program that passes the Turing test and demonstrates "general intelligent action." Suppose, specifically that the program can converse in fluent Chinese. Write the program on 3x5 cards and give them to an ordinary person who does not speak Chinese. Lock the person into a room and have him follow the instructions on the cards. He will copy out Chinese characters and pass them in and out of the room through a slot. From the outside, it will appear that the Chinese room contains a fully intelligent person who speaks Chinese. The question is this: is there anyone (or anything) in the room that understands Chinese? That is, is there anything that has the mental state of understanding, or which has conscious awareness of what is being discussed in Chinese? The man is clearly not aware. The room cannot be aware. The cards certainly aren't aware. Searle concludes that the Chinese room, or any other physical symbol system, cannot have a mind.
Searle goes on to argue that actual mental states and consciousness require (yet to be described) "actual physical-chemical properties of actual human brains." He argues there are special "causal properties" of brains and neurons that gives rise to minds: in his words "brains cause minds."
Gottfried Leibniz made essentially the same argument as Searle in 1714, using the thought experiment of expanding the brain until it was the size of a mill. In 1974, Lawrence Davis imagined duplicating the brain using telephone lines and offices staffed by people, and in 1978 Ned Block envisioned the entire population of China involved in such a brain simulation. This thought experiment is called "the Chinese Nation" or "the Chinese Gym". Ned Block also proposed his Blockhead argument, which is a version of the Chinese room in which the program has been re-factored into a simple set of rules of the form "see this, do that", removing all mystery from the program.
Responses to the Chinese room emphasize several different points.
The systems reply and the virtual mind reply: This reply argues that the system, including the man, the program, the room, and the cards, is what understands Chinese. Searle claims that the man in the room is the only thing which could possibly "have a mind" or "understand", but others disagree, arguing that it is possible for there to be two minds in the same physical place, similar to the way a computer can simultaneously "be" two machines at once: one physical (like a Macintosh) and one "virtual" (like a word processor).
Speed, power and complexity replies: Several critics point out that the man in the room would probably take millions of years to respond to a simple question, and would require "filing cabinets" of astronomical proportions. This brings the clarity of Searle's intuition into doubt.
Robot reply: To truly understand, some believe the Chinese Room needs eyes and hands. Hans Moravec writes: 'If we could graft a robot to a reasoning program, we wouldn't need a person to provide the meaning anymore: it would come from the physical world."
Brain simulator reply: What if the program simulates the sequence of nerve firings at the synapses of an actual brain of an actual Chinese speaker? The man in the room would be simulating an actual brain. This is a variation on the "systems reply" that appears more plausible because "the system" now clearly operates like a human brain, which strengthens the intuition that there is something besides the man in the room that could understand Chinese.
Other minds reply and the epiphenomena reply: Several people have noted that Searle's argument is just a version of the problem of other minds, applied to machines. Since it is difficult to decide if people are "actually" thinking, we should not be surprised that it is difficult to answer the same question about machines.
A related question is whether "consciousness" (as Searle understands it) exists. Searle argues that the experience of consciousness can't be detected by examining the behavior of a machine, a human being or any other animal. Daniel Dennett points out that natural selection cannot preserve a feature of an animal that has no effect on the behavior of the animal, and thus consciousness (as Searle understands it) can't be produced by natural selection. Therefore either natural selection did not produce consciousness, or "strong AI" is correct in that consciousness can be detected by suitably designed Turing test.
Is thinking a kind of computation?
The computational theory of mind or "computationalism" claims that the relationship between mind and brain is similar (if not identical) to the relationship between a running program and a computer. The idea has philosophical roots in Hobbes (who claimed reasoning was "nothing more than reckoning"), Leibniz (who attempted to create a logical calculus of all human ideas), Hume (who thought perception could be reduced to "atomic impressions") and even Kant (who analyzed all experience as controlled by formal rules). The latest version is associated with philosophers Hilary Putnam and Jerry Fodor.
This is John Searle's "strong AI" discussed above, and it is the real target of the Chinese room argument (according to Harnad).
Be kind, resourceful, beautiful, friendly, have initiative, have a sense of humor, tell right from wrong, make mistakes, fall in love, enjoy strawberries and cream, make someone fall in love with it, learn from experience, use words properly, be the subject of its own thought, have as much diversity of behaviour as a man, do something really new.
Turing argues that these objections are often based on naive assumptions about the versatility of machines or are "disguised forms of the argument from consciousness". Writing a program that exhibits one of these behaviors "will not make much of an impression." All of these arguments are tangential to the basic premise of AI, unless it can be shown that one of these traits is essential for general intelligence.
Can a machine have emotions?
If "emotions" are defined only in terms of their effect on behavior or on how they function inside an organism, then emotions can be viewed as a mechanism that an intelligent agent uses to maximize the utility of its actions. Given this definition of emotion, Hans Moravec believes that "robots in general will be quite emotional about being nice people". Fear is a source of urgency. Empathy is a necessary component of good human computer interaction. He says robots "will try to please you in an apparently selfless manner because it will get a thrill out of this positive reinforcement. You can interpret this as a kind of love." Daniel Crevier writes "Moravec's point is that emotions are just devices for channeling behavior in a direction beneficial to the survival of one's species."
However, emotions can also be defined in terms of their subjective quality, of what it feels like to have an emotion. The question of whether the machine actually feels an emotion, or whether it merely acts as if it is feeling an emotion is the philosophical question, "can a machine be conscious?" in another form.
Can a machine be self-aware?
"Self awareness", as noted above, is sometimes used by science fiction writers as a name for the essential human property that makes a character fully human. Turing strips away all other properties of human beings and reduces the question to "can a machine be the subject of its own thought?" Can it think about itself? Viewed in this way, a program can be written that can report on its own internal states, such as a debugger. Though arguably self-awareness often presumes a bit more capability; a machine that can ascribe meaning in some way to not only its own state but in general postulating questions without solid answers: the contextual nature of its existence now; how it compares to past states or plans for the future, the limits and value of its work product, how it perceives its performance to be valued-by or compared to others.
Can a machine be original or creative?
Turing reduces this to the question of whether a machine can "take us by surprise" and argues that this is obviously true, as any programmer can attest. He notes that, with enough storage capacity, a computer can behave in an astronomical number of different ways. It must be possible, even trivial, for a computer that can represent ideas to combine them in new ways. (Douglas Lenat's Automated Mathematician, as one example, combined ideas to discover new mathematical truths.) Kaplan and Haenlein suggest that machines can display scientific creativity, while it seems likely that humans will have the upper hand where artistic creativity is concerned.
In 2009, scientists at Aberystwyth University in Wales and the U.K's University of Cambridge designed a robot called Adam that they believe to be the first machine to independently come up with new scientific findings. Also in 2009, researchers at Cornell developed Eureqa, a computer program that extrapolates formulas to fit the data inputted, such as finding the laws of motion from a pendulum's motion.
Can a machine be benevolent or hostile?
This question (like many others in the philosophy of artificial intelligence) can be presented in two forms. "Hostility" can be defined in terms function or behavior, in which case "hostile" becomes synonymous with "dangerous". Or it can be defined in terms of intent: can a machine "deliberately" set out to do harm? The latter is the question "can a machine have conscious states?" (such as intentions) in another form.
One issue is that machines may acquire the autonomy and intelligence required to be dangerous very quickly. Vernor Vinge has suggested that over just a few years, computers will suddenly become thousands or millions of times more intelligent than humans. He calls this "the Singularity." He suggests that it may be somewhat or possibly very dangerous for humans. This is discussed by a philosophy called Singularitarianism.
In 2009, academics and technical experts attended a conference to discuss the potential impact of robots and computers and the impact of the hypothetical possibility that they could become self-sufficient and able to make their own decisions. They discussed the possibility and the extent to which computers and robots might be able to acquire any level of autonomy, and to what degree they could use such abilities to possibly pose any threat or hazard. They noted that some machines have acquired various forms of semi-autonomy, including being able to find power sources on their own and being able to independently choose targets to attack with weapons. They also noted that some computer viruses can evade elimination and have achieved "cockroach intelligence." They noted that self-awareness as depicted in science-fiction is probably unlikely, but that there were other potential hazards and pitfalls.
Some experts and academics have questioned the use of robots for military combat, especially when such robots are given some degree of autonomous functions. The US Navy has funded a report which indicates that as military robots become more complex, there should be greater attention to implications of their ability to make autonomous decisions.
The President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence has commissioned a study to look at this issue. They point to programs like the Language Acquisition Device which can emulate human interaction.
Some have suggested a need to build "Friendly AI", meaning that the advances which are already occurring with AI should also include an effort to make AI intrinsically friendly and humane.
Can a machine have a soul?
In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children: rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates.
Some scholars argue that the AI community's dismissal of philosophy is detrimental. In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, some philosophers argue that the role of philosophy in AI is underappreciated. Physicist David Deutsch argues that without an understanding of philosophy or its concepts, AI development would suffer from a lack of progress.
^ McCarthy, John. "The Philosophy of AI and the AI of Philosophy". jmc.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
^ Russell & Norvig 2003, p. 947 define the philosophy of AI as consisting of the first two questions, and the additional question of the ethics of artificial intelligence. Fearn 2007, p. 55 writes "In the current literature, philosophy has two chief roles: to determine whether or not such machines would be conscious, and, second, to predict whether or not such machines are possible." The last question bears on the first two.
^ a b c d This version is from Searle (1999), and is also quoted in Dennett 1991, p. 435. Searle's original formulation was "The appropriately programmed computer really is a mind, in the sense that computers given the right programs can be literally said to understand and have other cognitive states." (Searle 1980, p. 1). Strong AI is defined similarly by Russell & Norvig (2003, p. 947): "The assertion that machines could possibly act intelligently (or, perhaps better, act as if they were intelligent) is called the 'weak AI' hypothesis by philosophers, and the assertion that machines that do so are actually thinking (as opposed to simulating thinking) is called the 'strong AI' hypothesis."
^ See Russell & Norvig 2003, p. 3, where they make the distinction between acting rationally and being rational, and define AI as the study of the former.
^ Turing 1950 and see Russell & Norvig 2003, p. 948, where they call his paper "famous" and write "Turing examined a wide variety of possible objections to the possibility of intelligent machines, including virtually all of those that have been raised in the half century since his paper appeared."
^ Turing 1950 under "The Argument from Consciousness"
^ Russell and Norvig would prefer the word "rational" to "intelligent".
^ Russell & Norvig (2003, pp. 48–52) consider a thermostat a simple form of intelligent agent, known as a reflex agent. For an in-depth treatment of the role of the thermostat in philosophy see Chalmers (1996, pp. 293–301) "4. Is Experience Ubiquitous?" subsections What is it like to be a thermostat?, Whither panpsychism?, and Constraining the double-aspect principle.
^ Eugene Izhikevich (2005-10-27). "Eugene M. Izhikevich, Large-Scale Simulation of the Human Brain". Vesicle.nsi.edu. Archived from the original on 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
^ Gödel, Kurt, 1951, Some basic theorems on the foundations of mathematics and their implications in Solomon Feferman, ed., 1995. Collected works / Kurt Gödel, Vol. III. Oxford University Press: 304-23. - In this lecture, Gödel uses the incompleteness theorem to arrive at the following disjunction: (a) the human mind is not a consistent finite machine, or (b) there exist Diophantine equations for which it cannot decide whether solutions exist. Gödel finds (b) implausible, and thus seems to have believed the human mind was not equivalent to a finite machine, i.e., its power exceeded that of any finite machine. He recognized that this was only a conjecture, since one could never disprove (b). Yet he considered the disjunctive conclusion to be a "certain fact".
^ Graham Oppy (20 January 2015). "Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 27 April 2016. These Gödelian anti-mechanist arguments are, however, problematic, and there is wide consensus that they fail.
^ Stuart J. Russell; Peter Norvig (2010). "26.1.2: Philosophical Foundations/Weak AI: Can Machines Act Intelligently?/The mathematical objection". Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-604259-4. ...even if we grant that computers have limitations on what they can prove, there is no evidence that humans are immune from those limitations.
^ Mark Colyvan. An introduction to the philosophy of mathematics. Cambridge University Press, 2012. From 2.2.2, 'Philosophical significance of Gödel's incompleteness results': "The accepted wisdom (with which I concur) is that the Lucas-Penrose arguments fail."
^ LaForte, G., Hayes, P. J., Ford, K. M. 1998. Why Gödel's theorem cannot refute computationalism. Artificial Intelligence, 104:265-286, 1998.
^ Russell & Norvig 2003, p. 950 They point out that real machines with finite memory can be modeled using propositional logic, which is formally decidable, and Gödel's argument does not apply to them at all.
^ Hofstadter 1979, pp. 476–477, Russell & Norvig 2003, p. 950, Turing 1950 under "The Argument from Mathematics" where he writes "although it is established that there are limitations to the powers of any particular machine, it has only been stated, without sort of proof, that no such limitations apply to the human intellect."
^ Litt, Abninder; Eliasmith, Chris; Kroon, Frederick W.; Weinstein, Steven; Thagard, Paul (6 May 2006). "Is the Brain a Quantum Computer?". Cognitive Science. 30 (3): 593–603. doi:10.1207/s15516709cog0000_59. PMID 21702826.
^ Turing 1950 under "(8) The Argument from the Informality of Behavior"
^ a b c Turing 1950 under "(4) The Argument from Consciousness". See also Russell & Norvig, pp. 952–3, where they identify Searle's argument with Turing's "Argument from Consciousness."
^ Cole 2004, 4.2 ascribes this position to Ned Block, Daniel Dennett, Tim Maudlin, David Chalmers, Steven Pinker, Patricia Churchland and others.
^ Searle 1980 under "5. The Other Minds Reply", Cole 2004, 4.4. Turing 1950 makes this reply under "(4) The Argument from Consciousness." Cole ascribes this position to Daniel Dennett and Hans Moravec.
^ a b c Turing 1950 under "(5) Arguments from Various Disabilities"
^ Turing 1950 under "(6) Lady Lovelace's Objection"
^ Turing 1950 under "(5) Argument from Various Disabilities"
^ Katz, Leslie (2009-04-02). "Robo-scientist makes gene discovery-on its own | Crave - CNET". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
^ a b Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man By JOHN MARKOFF, NY Times, July 26, 2009.
^ The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era, by Vernor Vinge, Department of Mathematical Sciences, San Diego State University, (c) 1993 by Vernor Vinge.
^ Call for debate on killer robots, By Jason Palmer, Science and technology reporter, BBC News, 8/3/09.
^ Science New Navy-funded Report Warns of War Robots Going "Terminator", by Jason Mick (Blog), dailytech.com, February 17, 2009.
^ Navy report warns of robot uprising, suggests a strong moral compass, by Joseph L. Flatley engadget.com, Feb 18th 2009.
^ AAAI Presidential Panel on Long-Term AI Futures 2008-2009 Study, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Accessed 7/26/09.
^ Turing 1950 under "(1) The Theological Objection", although it should be noted that he also writes "I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support"
^ Deutsch, David (2012-10-03). "Philosophy will be the key that unlocks artificial intelligence | David Deutsch". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
Cole, David (Fall 2004), "The Chinese Room Argument", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
Dreyfus, Hubert (1979), What Computers Still Can't Do, New York: MIT Press .
Gladwell, Malcolm (2005), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Boston: Little, Brown, ISBN 978-0-316-17232-5 .
Haugeland, John (1985), Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press .
Hofstadter, Douglas (1979), Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid .
Horst, Steven (2009), "The Computational Theory of Mind", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University .
Kurzweil, Ray (2005), The Singularity is Near, New York: Viking Press, ISBN 978-0-670-03384-3 .
Lucas, John (1961), "Minds, Machines and Gödel", in Anderson, A.R. (ed.), Minds and Machines .
McCarthy, John; Minsky, Marvin; Rochester, Nathan; Shannon, Claude (1955), A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, archived from the original on 2008-09-30 .
Page numbers above and diagram contents refer to the Lyceum PDF print of the article.
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Hanzi (汉字 or 漢字) is the Chinese word for “Chinese character.” The Chinese language has been written in hanzi for a very long time. As the Chinese tell me, hanzi have been in use since approximately 3000 years before the Big Bang. It’s quite a tradition.
When an institution has been in place for that long, it can be incredibly hard to implement change. For example, when the new Communist emperors wanted to reform and “simplify” hanzi, some old fuddy-duddies opposed. Still, significant change was effected, but only in the writing system of mainland China. The two bastions of traditional characters to this day remain Hong Kong and Taiwan, two territories well known for their linguistic backwardness — many of the people there can’t even speak good Beijing Mandarin!
The PRC’s Emperor Mao had an even more radical scheme. He was in favor of eventually replacing Chinese characters with pinyin — a romanized form of Chinese. This idea was so upsetting that some experts believed it may reverse the Big Bang itself. It is also one of the stronger pieces of evidence that Emperor Mao’s personal doctor cited for his belief that in his later years Mao suffered from WTF Syndrome.
But allow me to get to my point. While those are all old issues better forgotten by fashionable people, there are new issues. More radical issues. No one is trying to further simplify Chinese or replace it with pinyin, but something else upsetting to the fuddy-duddies is happening. English is creeping into Chinese!
Now, I’m not talking about English being thrown in here and there, like someone saying “sorry” instead of “dui bu qi,” the cultural equivalent of an American saying “amigo.” Those are inevitable results of internationalization. They’re different. I’m talking about an English word becoming the preferred nomenclature, in Chinese.
Pose. When Chinese people take pictures, they might tell those having their picture taken to strike a pose. The traditional Chinese way to say this is “摆个姿势“. Nowadays, though, you frequently hear young people say “摆个pose”. Why the word “pose” might be singled out for adoption I have no clue.
High. When young Chinese people talk about a feeling of excitement, they often use the word “high” in its adjectival form, as in “很high的感觉” (a ‘high’ feeling). This usage is not related at all to drugs.
Cheese. The traditional Chinese word for “cheese” is 奶酪. In recent years phonetic transcriptions of the English word have cropped up on trendy menus (mighty catalysts of monumental linguistic change, as we all know), like 芝士 and 起士, but the actual word for cheese you hear coming from young Chinese people’s mouths is quite different. It is undeniably the English word “cheese,” although the final /z/ sound is often pronounced as an /s/ sound.
To Chinese language purists, this English creeping into Chinese must all be very terrifying. Why? Because English words cannot be written in Chinese characters! What’s the big deal about that? Well, Chinese is always written in Chinese characters! And only in Chinese characters! The reason, as mentioned before, has something to do with the Big Bang and the stability of the space/time continuum. The fate of the universe, it seems, rests precariously on the tongues of this new reckless generation of Chinese youngsters. Yikes!
I think you’ve seen what happens when English “creeps” in … you can look to Japanese culture/language for that. I STILL remember when you described the Japanese way to say “Broadband Internet” as “Brwode-Band-Een-ter-neta”. But then you have Taiwanese ‘reckless’ teenagers sippin’ on pearl iced tea who greet “mushi-mushi” when they answer their phone.
The post brings to mind the question I was pursuing answers to when I came across your site. Since I don’t want to pester you with a “cold call” email, I thought I’d ask about your impressions on China and Japan here.
I’m presently teaching myself Japanese out of interest and.. whether the perception is correct or not.. the notion that it’s easier to teach myself more Japanese on my own than Chinese. I’ve recently become more interested in Chinese culture, however. Living in St. Louis, there is also a much higher population of Chinese people than Japanese. While I enjoy Japanese and am curious about Chinese, I figure it’s best to dedicate my studies to one or the other, rather than both at once. It seems to me that Chinese would be of more use in areas with high Asian concentrations here in the U.S. than Japanese.
I’m also curious about your experiences abroad. My wife and I would like to tour both China and Japan. She’s not quite the traveller I am, however, and I would like to spend more of our eventual tour where she’d probably feel a little more comfortable. As such, I figure it would make sense to focus on learning the language of the country we might spend more time in.
Having travelled and lived in both Japan and China, do you feel one is more “hospitable” to foreigners than the other? I’d be interested in your impressions. You’re welcome to email if you like, or just post a response. As I said, I didn’t want to assault you out of the blue with an email or something. 🙂 Thanks.
This is nothing new–English has been creeping into Chinese for decades. It’s only a relatively recent phenom in Mainland b/c the country didn’t seriously open up to the outside until the 1980s. However, the same thing has been going on in Hong Kong and Taiwan (in Taiwan’s case, probably from the Vietnam War era).
Onikaze, quick comment.. if you want to be able to speak to Chinese people in the US, you should learn Cantonese, most overseas Chinese came from Hong Kong/Canton. Recently, however, that dialect is becoming less and less useful as time passes, so stick to Mandarin, but don’t expect to be able to go to Chinatown and speak it to shop keepers/people on the street.
Do expect to be able to go to Chinatown and speak Mandarin to shop keepers and restaurant servicers. The population composition has changed so much in major US (and Canadian) cities that Mandarin is spoken all over the places. The newer immigrants (from Mainland and Taiwan) may not live in those streets but they have become the major consumer force. This is even true in HK and southeast Asia nowadays.
The funniest thing is when you are speaking Chinese and you don’t know the word for what you want to say — I take a cue from my Chinese friends and just pronounce the word in a Chinese way! E.g. ÄãµÄah-sine-men ÄѲ»ÄÑ£¿(assignment). They normally don’t even notice, since many study related words they use the English. Assignment, exam, test, report, lecturer, tutorial etc. (These are Chinese studying in New Zealand).
I even tried this in China with Tibetan high school students who were too shy to speak English to me (even though their English is better than my Chinese and Tibetan!). I would speak in Chinese but many of the nouns I used would be in English. They would respond in Chinese, giving me the words that I didn’t know. Good for my study but not their’s. It’s amazing how even students in countryside schools can understand so much English! It is a bit of worry for these minority groups, some TIbetans my age could only speak English and Chinese, and not Tibetan anymore, because they are taught English and Chinese for longer.
I think it was in early 80’s when the phrase “bye” was first introduced to the mainland Chinese. Before then, everyone used “ÔÙÒ”.
Soon after the American style denim jeans were introduced. At first everyone calls them “Å£×ÐÑ”, but soon the street merchant realized that if they actually use “Jeans”, they would get more business and inflat the price.
The phrases of “cool” and “party” are more popular in China than U.S.
Instead of saying “¸ç”, they start to use “dude”.
What I’ve seen is a little different from you describe.
John, care to elaborate on why you think “¿á” and “cool” are different?
I thought they were and the translation came from HK or Taiwan which might have led one to think they were HK or TW words.
Maybe it depends on which city, but from my experience in San Francisco Chinatown I heard nothing but Cantonese from people walking around on the street.
I think sometimes ¿á is used to mean something that seems similar to “cool,” but its main meaning is actually quite different. The Chinese word Àä¿á influences the meaning of the word ¿á a lot, I think, as it is often used to describe men of the “strong and silent” type. You know, the kind of guy who looks tough, doesn’t smile, and says little.
“ÎÒϲ»¶¿áµÄÄк¢” translating it as “I like cool boys” would simply be incorrect in my view.
Likewise, in English you could say, “I think Jackie Chan is cool,” but no Chinese person would ever say, “ÎÒ¾õµÃ³ÉÁúºÜ¿á”. The guy’s always smiling and acting goofy, so he just isn’t ¿á, regardless of whether or not you like him.
So I think it’s a case of a Chinese word being modeled to sound like an English word, but still maintaining a lot of its own separate meaning.
You are on drugs if you think that “high” is not used to describe intoxication.
My point was that while saying you’re “high” in English has been reserved largely for drug use, it’s not in Chinese. And I have never personally heard it used that way, although I’ve heard it used many other times in other contexts.
Thanks for the clarification, John. I agree with you to some extent, but I believe I have heard Chinese people say “ku” or “cool” in place of “°ô”, which doesn’t fit with your interpretation of the current use of the word.
Yeah, I guess I have to admit there’s some overlap.
Actually, I had a discussion about this with my senior students. Living in Shenzhen, there is definitely a ton of English everywhere. The interesting thing is that when I asked them about it, they denied they were doing it! I had a whole classroom of senior 2’s telling me that “°Ý°Ý” wasn’t English.
I played along and asked them if English words would ever be “allowed” in Chinese. They said no, because China has 5000 years of history. Go figure.
While the influx of English into Chinese is certainly interesting, I find certain peoples’ attitudes towards it much more interesting.
The word that they use for “high” for when there are drug connotations is uî^ or “head shaking,” as in that’s what people like to do after doing a hit of E or KËûÃü.
Oh please. I’ve yet to meet a single Taiwanese person under the age of 60 who couldn’t speak intelligible Mandarin, even if Taiwanese were their preferred dialect. The same cannot be said for the mainland.
“High” is not used in Chinese to describe drug high because people don’t know this further reaching origin. They see Americans call an excited or hyperactive person high and they took it to mean jolly. Sometimes you guys say so-and-so is so high after that perfect score… you may not literally inferring he used drug, right? I’m sure the drug user soceity of China also has the real menual on high.
I see your reasoning on cool vs. ¿á but don’t know what you are high from — kidding. I think you got it wrong. When ¿á is said, it no longer means Àä¿á. It was borrowed from there to produce an extremely cool (sound and meaning)translation of cool. As to Jackie Chan and other examples, that’s just different coolness by different observers. Cool is such a subjective word sometimes it’s cool just to be different.
There are other examples of Hanzifized English words with somewhat meaningful characters, such as Íи££¨TOFLE£©£¬¶¡¿Í£¨D.I.N.K.£©£¬¿ÉÀÖ£¨cola£©. These were old.
If there is not a character for high already, I wouldn’t be surprised to find oneday a º§£¬ that would be ¿á.
Similarly in English, COOL in such contexts has lost it’s original meaning of nicely felt temperature, right? So ¿á here no longer means Àä even though it originated from Àä¿á. the parallel is astonishing.
Thanks for backing me up on the “high” issue.
Maybe you missed the Big Bang references, but I wasn’t being exactly serious there.
I know ¿á is not the same as Àä¿á. I used the word “influences.” I think ¿á is a word influenced by two cultures, and the result is a word that’s somewhere in the middle. You mention “different coolness by different observers.” Well, one one “observer” is one culture speaking one language and the other “observer” is another culture speaking another language, I think it amounts to two words meaning not quite the same thing.
John, you should compile of Chinese slangs and their English counter parts, vice versa.
In a related example, I’ve seen Chinese product names that adopt the Japanese possessive particle ¤Î (no) as a substitute for 的. No idea how a Chinese would pronounce it though.
I find my Americanized Chinese friends amusing when they freely (perhaps subconsciously) mix English words into Chinese speech. (e.g. “我已經跟他argue過了”… given that there are plety of Chinese equivalents for “argue” I suspect this one was subconscious).
It would be interesting if we reached a breaking point where romanized words just had to be used instead of hanzi. On the other hand, consider all of the Chinese dialects that don’t have written equivalents, or whose non-Mandarin written forms are rarely used (e.g. Cantonese).
I know the whole post was written tongue-in-cheek but I can’t tell if you’re trying to be serious about this or not?
Also, it just occurred to me how ironic the title of this post is. you made a new word (hanzify) by taking a chinese word and adapting it to english. was that intentional?
A good place to look are Hong Kong comics. They use “non-standard” characters all over the place to encode the Cantonese sounds/words that don’t have equivalents in Mandarin.
Can anyone enlighten me to the way the word “feel” has been appropriated by the Chinese language as used in popular Chinese culture? I’ve noticed the word used in very uncomprehensible (to me) ways on Chinese t-shirts, the names of DVD’s. Things like “Feel 100%” and “Christy Chung – Feel”, etc. What is meant or understood by the word in these contexts? It certainly isn’t native English use of the word. Thank you.
I’m with JR. Isn’t a national standard language a relatively new invention? I thought everyone got together in the first national assembly in 1911 and pretty much sort of decided that the Beijing dialect would be standard. And this was quite controversial, so much so that it started a fist fight between two prominent parliamentarians. Before then, I thought that there were strong local prestige zones, just like there were economic zones. So that in the old Suzhou area the Wu dialect would be the prestige dialect, not the Beijing dialect. We can imagine the beautiful, thriving linguistic heterogeneity, all living under a unified literary language (ÎÄ×Ö). So it seems rather healthy that Cantonese is still a prestige dialect. Look, though, if you go to Wenzhou, for example, you will also find a very strong sense of local identity coalesced around an ancient local dialect and, at least a few years ago, old people who still didn’t really speak Mandarin or didn’t care to. And really all the linguistic diversity in China is amazing and wonderful.
I would be really grateful if someone with solid knowledge of the development of a national standard language in China would chime in– I could be way off. I know that in Europe, most places the national standard language is something that grew up around the nation state, something to which our brains are just irrevocably tied. It’s difficult to imagine politics and social fabric without a modern nation state, and so it’s difficult to imagine them without a national language. But in Germany, for example, standard Hochdeutsch wasn’t invented until the 1870s, to my knowledge.
I thought that in the past ÎÄ×Ö was really the national binding force of the literati. Was the pronunciation really that uniform around the empire? And what about Manchu? Weren’t most important documents kept in Chinese and Manchu well into the 19th Century?
I think it goes through an ellaborate process. First people use foreign words in conversations for whatever reason, lazyness, clarity, fashion, arragance, coolness, and what not. After a short while the popular press (comic strips, tabloids) strives to impress by putting either the English or an invented hanzified version in writing, mixed use and switch hitter will rule in this period. If one particularly cool translation catches people’s taste bud it will spread like wild fire. However, it takes ages before the official press including book publishers accepts such imported goods and when it does it invariably is going to be the well accepted Chinese word. Has anyone ever seen the English version of “Bye-Bye” or “No” in the People’s Daily or ÈËÃñÎÄѧ? I’m not even sure if the Chinese word ¿á made it yet — can anyone tell us, please?
I’m certainly not the person to compile a slang list… I’ll leave that to the more qualified.
Of course it’s not serious!
You’re just now discovering the many, many layers of meaning carefully crafted into my blog entries???
I just asked a friend who says they just see “feel” as meaning “¸Ð¾õ”.
I’m no expert, but I’ve done some research regarding the evolution of the Chinese written language. The normal pattern seems to be that the transition to “modernity” involved the creation of a national language and the establishment of a vernacular.
In China the ¹úÓï movement (for a spoken standard) had gained momentum by the early 1900s. On the heels of that movement was the °×»° movement, which advocated the use of the written vernacular in place of the traditional ÎÄÑÔ.
Hu Shi began a literary revolution in 1917, advocating baihua. In 1922 In 1922 the Chinese Ministry of Education decreed that elementary textbooks were to henceforth be written in the vernacular.
So the establishment of a unified spoken language and a standard written form based on the vernacular are closely related, but still separate.
Hmmm, maybe that doesn’t totally address your question. I was just looking at my old senior thesis from college and I was surprised at all the stuff I used to know, and it sort of related….
The standard adopted then was actually ¹úÓï based on the northern dialect spoken by the elite society in Shanghai (and on the campuses of Tsinghua and Beida also), which is the predecessor of the ¹úÓï being used in Taiwan today. You can appreciate this standard language by watching old Chinese movies of the 1930s. Then PRC decided on a different one: Putonghua, based primarily on a cleaned-up version of Beijing dialect.
That is the case today, and ever since the big bang, but also dynamically changing all the time. Now the western commercialism is destroying the heterogeneity by driving out the Wu dialect but at the same time destroying the homogeneity of Putonghua by inserting OK, COOL, HIGH, PARTY, DATE, CHURCH, FEEL, all these capitalist spiritual pollutions. Oh, no, thay are trying to reverse the big bang.
Seriously, ÇØʼ»Ê unified ÎÄ×Ö but did not do the same to ÕZÑÔ. Some (economists) think it was a failure, others (linguistists) think it was a good thing, that he didn’t. Me? I don’t know what to think of it. Is Chinese ÕZÑÔ going to finally be unified by the crushing force of economical modernization? Yes, possibly, and it’s happening. Is Chinese going to be ruined by the “crushing” force of English invasion? Fat chance!
Impossible. This is evident in some of the old °×»°ÎÄ novels.
Disclaimers: 1. The above was from a nonprofessional; 2. It feels soooo good for a lazy bone to be able to insert foreign words at will without having to translate them so what’s the fuss?
This is a really good time to ask a question I’ve had for a while. So I have a bunch of Kelly Chen CDs (shut up, I know). On 99% of the songs she sings Mandarin vocabulary with Cantonese pronunciation (e.g. saying 不 “bat” instead of ßí “mh”). I was under the impression this would sound very unnatural. What is up with that? Is that normal for Cantonese singers, or is Kelly just being weird?
oh the joys of using foreign words in speech. sometimes i find some chinese words are so much easier to use than the english equivalent. my favourite at the moment is; Âé·³, as in “sorry honey, i was going to get some fruit on the way home but it was Âé·³”.
….and you know whats strange for me right now, i’m so immersed in studying my chinese lately that i can’t really remember how i would say that sentence with out using Âé·³. weird.
If Âé·³ gets you so high, try also ÂíÂí»¢»¢.
There are 7 accepted dialects still alive in China today, all (except Min) are said to have developed from Middle Chinese which refers to a spoken dialect dating back to 601 AD with the publication of the standard dictionary Qieyun. Not much is known about how Middle Chinese was pronounced back then, but linguists have peiced an approximation together based on literary works (rhyme books) and this dictionary.
Dialects have always existed in China, but the main uniting factor has always been the writing system unified by the first emporer of Qin.
Wow, it was really fun reading the informative comments and taking in the different personal angles! Great blog, John.
You may know some Chinese people that do drugs or get drunk and use the word ‘high’ to describe the feeling. (I’d guess they’ve been influenced by English speakers.) But that doesn’t make said usage a trend for the whole language. Sorry, man.
I just thought that you shouldn’t have used the word “all”. Many people do look at your site as something more than a joke and take your word very seriously. You are a linguist and a very good Chinese speaker and you are respected. I thought you should be more careful with your wording. Someone might laugh when they hear about someone getting high because acording to John it just means “excited”. Now if the guy was really high he might think that those around him are laughing and accepting the behavior. Argue how you like but people do use the word that way. People should be careful about how they react to such statements.
I don’t think this will happen. Ever since I arrived in Shanghai a few months ago (not long, I know) I have been surprised by the ways I’ve found my colleagues using their Shanghai»° to “greasen” the wheels of business. When I am around to observe negotiations they will often speak in Mandarin out of courtesy to me; but when the conversation begins to get heated or special deals have to be cut, they will switch to the local dialect. I think they do this to represent friendliness and good intentions towards each other, however insincere these are. I don’t think this is a coincidence; many economically developed parts of China enjoy thriving local dialects: Guangdong, Hong Kong. In fact, I found Hong Kong to be nearly impossible to travel in for that very reason: so many Chinese people, so few who spoke decent Mandarin!
Applied to a person, the English word “cool” suggests to me someone confident, economic with words, and perhaps even a little “cold”. And by the way, don’t forget that ¿á (like cool) can be applied to more than just people.
One of my favourite hanzified words is ºÚ¿Í (hacker), because is seems quite meaningful in chinese — a system cracker could be considered an uninvited “guest”. Furthermore, the chinese word ´Ì¿Í (assassin) also contains this “guest” character.
I disagree–they do it because that is the language they are most familiar with, and the parties are from the same place. If they were doing business with someone oustide their province/city/village they would use Mandarin.
It seems to me from the timing of the switch to local dialect that it is meant to ingratiate the speaker to the listener, implying that they are from a similar group and should be more willing to make concessions to each other during a tough point in the negotiation. I suppose that the switch is unconscious, but I don’t think that it is completely random, as I said, because of the timing and because of the inside/outside implication that you mention.
If they were negotiating with an outsider, you are right, it would be in Mandarin; and because they wouldn’t have access to this linguistic bargaining “technique”, the deal would be less likely to go through, or at least it would be a tougher bargain.
Micah, using Shanghainese among themselves could be for inducement (Micah) and comfort (Prince Roy) and privacy too (Gin), all of which do reduce the bargain cost, true. However, the bigger argument in Coase’s theory (I, as a noneconomist and nonlinguist, have just been exposed to it by the link you gave) is the overall transaction cost which he points out as being greatly reduced by the organization of a corporation (firm). This, at least metaphorically, can speak to my case. Unified spoken language will reduce transaction cost just as unified written language by Qinshihuang did.
The bigger point is that you have to examine this issue macrospically. What you observed in a span of several monthes can only be considered a single data point. To see changes in a language that barely budged over several thousand years, one needs to take data across decades. People who follow it see tremandeous increase of Mandarin’s market share in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. The changes have been astronomical multiples greater than 20 years prior. That is why I proposed that it is happening, with a qualifier of “possibly” because a mere quarter of a century may prove too brief. Now in Shanghai the role of Shanghainese has been reduced to business small talk and the Shanghai folks are willing to talk just as seriously with non Shanghainese speakers. This was not the case 25 years agao during the cultural revolution in which Shanghai was even a prominent player; legend had it that a lowly Shanghai bus conductor will not respond to an inquiry for directions etc. unless it is raised in authantic Shanghai dialect. How that has changed and how the same has taken place in HK and in Chinatowns in Toronto, Chicago, LA, and Houston! It remains to be seen, though, whether it’s a sheer number’s game which I doubt it is and whether the change will be sustained.
Tim H, if your read my words carefully I was actually with you. Or was my argument too perplexed, hmmm? When Emperor John branded me into his camp, I did not raise my hand and object to his majesty. Haha, that’s just me. In the cultural revolution when Chairman Mao’s men told me I was his good student, I…ahum…… .
That was a typo. Macroscopically.
There are tons of studies on this kind of language switching “code-switching” in polygloss situations… anyway, I haven’t seen any done on particular Chinese dialects except for an undergrad essay on hakka, cantonese and mandarin usage in one family. What I want to say is that Micah’s interpretation is quite reasonable — it’s a common reason to switch to a native dialect if you want the proceedings to be more informal and less distant. Normally in European countries they want the distance so they start off in the same dialect then switch to the ‘high’ language when they get to talking business.
I think that simplified chinese is the most horrible invention ever conceived by man. I feel it denigrates the language by attempting to dumb down how characters are written, so that the ‘the peasants’ can learn how to read and write. I find this incredibly patronising on the part of the communist party, and they have in one fell swoop destroyed whatever little culture that was left after the cultural revolution. Just another thing the Communists did for us.
This grievance is compounded by the fact that not only are simplified characters ugly, their very association with ‘mainlanded-ness’ makes it instantly ‘cheapened’. The closest analogy I can possibly relate this to is akin to the difference between American English and well…English. Why spell colour ‘color’? It serves absolutely no purpose at all but to distort the language from it originated from (I get the feeling I won’t be making any AMerican friends today.) Reading classics in simplified chinese is like reading Shakespeare in bloody American English. A hideous thought.
The Communists simplified the characters in 1956, well before the Cultural Revolution. It also wasn’t the first character reform in Chinese history. Why aren’t you outraged that characters aren’t still written in their earliest forms?
Chinese people say ÇÑ×Ó “qie zi” meaning eggplant when they take a picture. That’s why you hear the zi sound and you have to admit saying eggplant is funny too.
I think Gin is more accurate than the rest of you. But I think the real catalyst for change is technology, TV, cinema, radio, music concerts, etc. Also, the changes will be better understood if the standard of measurement is generation. A generation ago you would have heard haka spoken everywhere in Fukuoka, but today one hears in conversational Japanese the national language. I think this is the trend in most countries, or will be.
An irony of inporting English words into foreign languages is that the word is probably not “English”; that is, is not a vocabulary term used or descended from a term used by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of England. Also, I would agree with Gin also about ¿á. Once a word becomes popular in a new language setting, it will take on a life of its own determined by the new speakers.
Cool. Now I feel high.
“…the real catalyst for change is technology, TV,…” Don’t forget the internet, which is even having an impact on trranslating foreign languages. I remember John described using Google to accomplish looking up Chineese words.
“Once a word becomes popular in a new language setting, it will take on a life of its own determined by the new speakers. ” “Feel” in Alaric’s examples?
That “cheese” became “ÇÑ×Ó” causes me to giggle everytime.
Once a word becomes popular in a new language setting, it will take on a life of its own determined by the new speakers.
Well, yeah. That’s sort of a given.
My point was that I believe the Chinese sort of altered the word ¿á to make it overlap with the English word “cool” while still retaining some of its original nuances. That makes it different from most loanwords. Compare it to ɳ·¢ or something.
I understand your point of view, but I think our view will be colored by whether this is a loan word from English or is a Chinese equivalent word of an English word. If one views this as an equivalent word to the English “cool”, then I would agree with you. But if one thinks this is a loan word in which an hanzi was found that had a meaning similiar to the English, then I would disagree with you.
This may appear as hair-splitting, but I do not think so. My own opinion is that it is a loan word because of the nature of the word itself. It is more slang, used by young people and is more fashionable, all characteristics of a loan word; rather than an attempt to find an equivalent word in Chinese for an English word, equivalents will usually be assoicated with attempts of to translate.
But no matter which direction it takes, you will be right in that this particular word is different from most because it has both a sound similiarity and a root meaning that has similiarities in both languages.
And I maintain that it is a transliteration (yes I said translation before) well done, siding with a loan word rather than a equivalent. My reasoning for not calling it a equivalent is that before, nobody in China would say ÁÖÔòÐì×î¿á,ÑϽûѻƬ or Õâ¸öëÖ÷ϯÏñÕ¿ᰡ. There were Àä¿á, ÑÏ¿á, ¿áÐÌ but never the lone word ¿á as an adjective. John says “the Chinese sort of altered the word ¿á to make it overlap with the English word” cool, very true but they have discarded the Àä aspect. The nuances may be there but definition-wise it no longer relates to the original Àä¿á (Brad correctly pointed out it relates to “°ô” and in my youth we said “¾ø¶Ô¸Çñ”–tranlation: absolutely tops). If a Chinese or British commentator says ÁÖÔòÐì½ûѻƬ–¿á, you would not take it to be a snear with any connotation of his act being cold or cruel.
By the way, cruelty can be TRANSLATED as ¿áÐÐ, short for ²Ð¿áÐÐΪ.
What are we arguing again?
I really don’t see the point in arguing this, though. We all know what the words mean, we just don’t agree on the degree to which ‘¿á’ and ‘cool’ differ in usage. You’re more tolerant in your judgment, and I’m being super picky. Why? Because I have to be — I’d sound like an idiot if I used “¿á” in Chinese the same way that I use “cool” in English.
Are you sure that this “creeping English” isn’t just a fad in Shanghai? We both know the Shanghainese love to prove how modern and worldly they are. I seriously doubt you’d find these same linguistic trends in rural parts of China, where the bulk of the population lives. And while I’ve heard “pose” used as you described, I haven’t heard “kitty” or “high” used. Moreover, I would rank “cheese” up there with “chocolate,” “salad,” “sandwich,” “hamburger,” and a host of other words that are transliterated because they represent a foreign substance or idea. It would be more significant if “noodles” came to replace the Chinese word.
Hmmm…I guess I must sound like an idiot. I actually do use “¿á” in Chinese the same way I would in English. If anyone laughs, my excuse will be that I was really saying “cool” with a Chinese accent.
You are right in that we are arguing over not much of a difference. And you defined the difference quite accurately.
Problem is, after the rounds, I seem to sense that the “influence” in “¿á” is in your mind only. Do the Chinese young people have the trace of influence by Àä¿á in their mind? Back to your original example, “ÎÒϲ»¶¿áµÄÄк¢” Do you really think today’s Chinese young girls would mean someone different from what Western girls consider “cool”? If a polling finds mature female students say there are only three types of boys, ˧µÄ£¬¿áµÄ£¬ÆäÓàµÄ£¬would you then be willing to accept that as being not a bit different from American girls categorizing boys as hot, cool, and the rest? This should be a good linguistic experiment.
“Hacker” is now “ºÚ¿Í” as Todd cited above. The cleverness in this translation mirrors the ¿á translation. But so does the potential complication: ºÚ has a nagative origin, as in ºÚÊÖ£¬ºÚÔô, ºÚ°ï. Are you going thus to assume “ºÚ¿Í” in Chinese refers only to the hackers that are doing illegal hacking and excludes the legit hackers (the kind employed by banks, law enforcement, etc.)?
BTW£¬am I wrong in assuming the word “legit” is a “simplified” English word? I’m sure “fridge” is a simplified one.
I think the main difference between English word “cool” and Chinese word “¿á” is that the English word has a much broader application. Do you disagree with this? I don’t see how anyone could.
Similarly, I think any student of Chinese would be making a mistake to use ¿á in the same way that they would use “cool” in English, because the range of application is different.
That’s why I say they’re not the same.
I agree. Though “¿á” is younger than “cool” and since these are primarily “pop” words, the Chinese youngsters possibly may expand ¿á’s “coverage” or broadness of application. Similarly, I have argued that “high” in Enlgish covers drug high, drink high, and hyper personality whereas Chinese MAY NOT HAVE learned the intoxication applications, yet.
Your point on the good-ole “know” is right on.
It’s impossible to prove conclusively one way or the other, though. You can’t ask people what’s going on in the subconscious when they use a word. And a non-native speaker’s opinion can never be the voice of authority on issues of “feeling” regarding a Chinese character.
At the risk of overkill, I just wanted to add that I asked my Chinese co-workers to tell me what ¿á meant to them, in Chinese.
The first thing they said was “¸úÓ¢ÓïÒ»Ñù.” I insisted that they explain, though, and the essence of their definition was Àä. They said you could not describe a Ñô¹âÄк¢ as ¿á.
That differs a lot from English, because in English someone’s perceived “coolness” is based on the speaker’s own standards of what is cool, and not at all on society’s standards (although admittedly, the two influece each other in both cases).
Just a few more comments. Quibbling over the details is done quite often in my profession, engineering. It helps sharpen our focus and understanding of the issue. The posts from Gin, yourself and others are quite usefull for me, at least.
I am puzzled by your last posting on 5 Nov at 11:16 am. The question is not the range of meanings of “cool” in English vs. the range of meanings of ¿á in Chinese, but rather is ¿á in certain applications the loan word “cool” from English. I believe that was the original comment you made, that it was different and therefore not a loan word. I doubt that most loan words in the second language will have the same range of meanings as that word has in its original language.
I do not have any practical experience with the word “cool” or the word ¿á. Most of the people I do with, in both the English speaking world and the Chinese speaking world, are professionals (Engineers and the like), business people and government officials. Either of those words does not come up in normal conversation. But recently I did have one contact with this word. It was through a round about email concerning another subject, but an individual who is teaching English somewhere in the Pearl River Delta area (I am not sure whether it was Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, or some other there abouts) put for the word ¿á, coming forth from his students. It appeared to me that either in his mind or in the mind of his students that ¿á was much closer to the English use than what you have described. If that is accurate, then there are two questions that come to mind: 1) do you have too narrow of a definition of its usuage, and 2) is there a regional difference in the usuage of ¿á ?
I would support using ºÚ¿Í over º¦¿Í, since the former describes the mysterious and underground nature of that profession while the latter only calls them pesty. And the complication factor I was worrying about would be even more pronounced in the latter.
For a look at when “hacker” was just entering mainstream Chinese, check out the novel ¡¶ÊÀ½çÄ©ÈÕ¡·, an apocalyptic thriller from the early nineties. The protagonist muses on a few different versions; he likes “º£¿Í”, since it captures the unknown origins of a visitor, and still has a whiff of the dark side with its connections to º£µÁ. Apparently at the time there was no non-English term in Japanese, either–are there non-phonetic-translations in other languages?
My favorite appropriated English is “Сcase”, which for the longest time I thought was “Сkiss”, and although I knew what people meant, I couldn’t imagine how the expression got the meaning it has.
OK, let me lay it out one more time. To be honest, I didn’t think everything completely through as I was replying to most of those comments; I just wrote whatever came to mind at the time. If what I write below contradicts something I said above, it’s because I hadn’t thought it through enough before.
¿á is a loanword. It hasn’t been used in Chinese as a single character in recent history until the influence of the English word “cool”.
¿á has a more limited range in Chinese than the English “cool”. This is probably due to the fact that it is a young word (as Gin said).
In my view, the Chinese word ¿á is influenced by the original uses of the character ¿á. But that could also be attributed to literal interpretation of the English word “cool” or of adopting the earliest definitions of the English word “cool”.
As for your final two questions, 1) I don’t know, and 2) I don’t know.
Your analysis is pretty decent. If I jerked your chain, I apologize; although jerking chains is not all that bad. But what I find remarkable is so many postings on an item concerning language. Rather remarkable and rather interesting.
Speaking of simplification in English, for those who have not set foot on US soil for a while, have you heard of the abbreviation BOGO?
To talk more under this post when I have already talked too much. I would like to add that there are other important driving forces for the increase of popularity of Putonghua in addition to technologies: not the least are transportation and education. The China of yesteryears was not mobile at all given the conservative culture and terribly unsmooth land. Today Shanghai’s and Canton’s workforce is from everywhere. When one in every 3 households employ an Ayi or nanny from far-away provinces, the power base for Shanghainese is weakened at the grass-roots. The advancement of education transforms Putonghua’s role in a greater degree than advertised. When I was in elementary and high school in my mid-sized home city in the not-so-distant past, teachers who spoke down-to-the-earth local dialect or “vinegarized Putonghua (´×ÁïÆÕͨ»°)” counts for the majority. In contrast, kids born after 1980 likely could never have spoken a word of their local dialect in his/her life. If linguists are worried about distinction of some dialects, they should be and they better do some perservation work now.
Similar to Putonghau’s winning over local languages due to modernization in China, we all know the globaliztion trend is also promoting English as an “international language.” CNN, Yahoo, Sina, Google, the airlines, the schools are all contributing to this. Look, even Pre-K is being taught by high-salaried, high-nosed Johns and Waynes, who are certainly contributing their share.
For more on cool vs. ku, see Time magazine November 1, Asian edition.
Thanks for the tip, but I didn’t find such an article anywhere on Time Asia for Nov. 1st. Unfortunately, searching for it is kind of difficult because I can only access Time via proxy. If anyone else wants to post the correct link, it would be appreciated.
Anyway, language change will keep marching on as long as children keep learning language, right? Not much you can do but enjoy the ride.
Also, If anyone knows anything about Hangzhouhua, would you drop me a line? I am studying abroad there next semester and hope to do a project on how well Putonghua has done entering into dialectical areas. The thing is, apparently Hangzhouhua is actually a kind of guanyu (Mandarin) from back when the Song moved their capital there, even though it’s surrounded on all sides by Wu dialect.
Then came the “purification” of Chinese language (meaning: importation of Japanese words with Chinese pronunciation) after 1920’s.
Note in particular the third example. Is the word “high” describing Rojam (a popular Shanghai disco)? Rojam is a place, not a person. So high as a condition that a person reaches using drugs is probably not what is being meant here.
In addition to the use of English words there is also the use of acronyms and abbreviations such as KTV and DVD. A popular one in Taiwan that is not even really used in English is DM which stands for “direct marketing” and refers to advertising leaflets. | 2019-04-19T23:29:04Z | https://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2004/11/02/to-hanzify-or-not-to-hanzify |
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This is the eighth piece to be published on the Get The Guy blog from my brother Stephen. Steve helped co-write the Get The Guy book and is a wealth of knowledge on dating and relationships.
It has been our experience that most people seeking a relationship aren’t really ready for one.
This week’s post details why that is, and the two key mindsets you must take on if you’re single. It’s an empowering message that will reground you with where you are, allow you to have more fun, and help you in building a foundation for an incredible relationship.
One of the best shortcuts for having good relationships is to choose well in the beginning.
Yet how easy it is to fall at that simple hurdle.
It’s easy to dive into romantic situations that are terrible for us. We pursue situations where we know we are mismatched – where our values are so wildly opposing that the relationship is set on a one-way train ride to a massive crash from the outset. Or he has completely different ideas about how he wants his dating life to be over the next five years. Or he carries on with obnoxious behaviours that you know you can’t put up with for more than a few months.
Even if doom isn’t always written in bold letters, we can see the signs early on.
Yet we ignore it. Because maybe the some of the time he’s amazing. Or because it’s just good to have someone to “cuddle” on a regular basis. Or it’s much more simple: it just beats being on our own.
So we ignore the signs. Paper over the cracks. Rather than stand up for ourselves and assert our standards, we quickly compromise, and hope that the niggling feeling of dread will dissolve if we distract ourselves for long enough.
So why do we get into relationships with the wrong people?
I believe a huge part of this is because we are just bad at being single. We don’t see being single as a desirable position.
One of the best ways to choose good relationships therefore is to be single from a position of power.
In the HBO show True Detective, (relax, no spoilers ahead) Matthew McConaughey’s character has just had a date with a woman and isn’t sure if he wants to pursue things further. When he’s asked by a friend why he doesn’t just dive into this new relationship regardless, he gives two reasons: Because he knows what he wants, and because he’s ok with being alone.
(Sidenote: If you watch the show, you’ll know that McConaughey’s character is no role model, and what’s quoted above probably covers the only healthy relationship advice to be extracted from a world in which all the characters seem to have, to say the least, ‘troubled’ relationships).
The best soundbite I know for choosing good relationships is the following: Be unselective about who you meet, but be very selective about who you invest emotion in.
Check out Matt’s latest video for more on this.
It’s great and crucial to meet as many people as possible when single. But when it comes to deciding who to invest time and emotion in, we should always be gradually investing and assessing the feedback we get.
Do they invest back in us? Are they enjoyable to be around for more than a day? Do they bring something unique to our life that no-one else does? Do they complain/criticize/bring negativity? Or do they encourage/inspire/try to add to our enjoyment of every day?
All of these things are important, and we forget them at our own peril.
We also need to be able to communicate what we want. If someone violates your deepest standards early on, be up front immediately. This is important because (a) sometimes a guy won’t even know he’s violating your standards, and (b) you’ll quickly find out how much effort he’s willing to make when he realises he has.
Most people hide from this kind of direct communication early on because they think it’s going to scare the person off. But it’s much quicker to be up front early about the things that matter – if they’re a big deal now, they’ll be a bigger deal later on.
Remember: Give him the chance to live up to your standards; and if he doesn’t take the opportunity, always have the power to walk away.
I’d go one further than this. The people who do best at choosing healthy relationships know more than just how to merely exist alone: They know how to love being single.
They don’t see their single status as a virus that has to be immediately cured.
Yes, they love relationships. But they also realise that relationships don’t fix or solve other areas of their lives that need attending to.
People who do single well surround themselves with great friends and a social world that brings them actual pleasure (i.e. they don’t just make themselves busy for the sake of it), they have work and passions that make them internally fulfilled – their life has meaning independently of whether or not they have someone to share it with.
This is the only healthy position from which to come to a relationship.
Most people initially come to Matt’s seminars or read his book hoping that he’ll teach them how to be fulfilled by acquiring a relationship. And yet a brief scan of the Amazon reviews and countless testimonials over the years always tells a different story: After finishing the book or one of Matt’s programs, people always comment that they now love being single so much they stopped feeling the need to grab the nearest relationship.
In fact, they now feel like they have to be convinced to get into a relationship.
Modern culture tells us that we find the right relationship and then become fulfilled. It’s actually the opposite: when you become fulfilled by your life it is much easier to have the right relationship.
Does this seem like a lot of work? It actually saves time.
We can either spend 6 months in a ‘band-aid’ relationship designed to shield us from our other problems i.e. those mediocre relationships that inevitably crumble within a year. OR we can spend 6 months building an incredible foundation from which we can attract someone who meets our most important criteria.
The first path is merely a delay of future pain. The second is the foundation of future fulfillment.
What other ways do you fulfill yourself when you’re not in a relationship? Let me know in the comments below.
What Do Men REALLY Think About Women Making The First Move?
« Are My Standards For A Guy Too High?
Oh my gosh, Stephen, no. I love your articles. You’re generally articulate, thoughtful, straightforward, vaguely amusing and prone to describing big, strong, sweaty guys rowing down rivers while shirtless with muscles straining and bodies glistening (or that’s how I imagine it anyway). But I completely disagree with you on this one. Happiness, like any other emotional state, is completely transitory.
There will be moments in life that you love, that bring you joy, that make you happy. And then the real world will intrude and Murphy will pay you that inevitable visit and suddenly you’re desperately clinging to the belief that it has to get better than this at some point if you just hold on long enough and try hard enough. No one lives a life that they love — at least no one that I know, except those lucky bastards, the pathologically narcissistic.
But then, I also don’t know anyone whose relationship I’d want or whose life I envy, so maybe I’ve just been super, duper unlucky when it comes to meeting people. I think you carve out a life that isn’t just one of “quiet desperation” and try to find people who have honor and integrity and make things more interesting and do your best to be a good friend/lover/mother/etc. to them.
I think you might be slightly deranged. Probably in a good way, but just thought you should know.
I’m so pleased that I came across this article, as it’s the kick up the posterior that I’ve been needing. I’m in this type of relationship at the moment and have been wanting to end things for a few weeks now but haven’t had the heart to do it. I fell into a relationship with this guy even though I wasn’t all that keen on him initially and even though I care about him, I know that he’s not the right one for me. I had been single for aeons before I met him and hadn’t had that many relationships. I think that I just wanted to experience being in a relationship because I was tired of being single and he happened to come along and was interested. Reading your article has made me realise that there is no point in continuing to “paper over the cracks” and stay in a relationship who ultimately, isn’t a suitable match. In fact, it isn’t fair on either of us. Also, you’ve made me feel less afraid of ending things and going back to being single again. I’m not going to be a cowardly custard:) I’ll embrace my single state and concentrate on filling my time and life with all things which bring me joy and fulfillment. Thanks so much and all the best!
Not only is your blog high calibre but so are your thoughts! I just got out of a nasty ‘almost-happen’ with a guy who I fell head over heels for, but (like your other article listed in point 2) – we spoke 2 different languages making communication a right nightmare! Because of that experience it’s confirmed the communication style of the partner I want!
Fresh from that break up, I’m re-learning the joy of singleness and not rushing my heart to heal. I am ignoring the nagging within that worries about attending the right social events to meet men, when I need to remind myself that I am a highly extroverted warm personality who meets at least 2 new men a week! Also, something else I realised is that I tend to equate free-alone-time with social rejection, which is so so silly! I now see it as time for me to exercise, get creative (I am a poet/performer) or read all the books on my bucket list. I am a much more interesting conversationalist after I have invested quality time into feeding my brain. (I want a man who loves my mind and can keep up with my intellect ;).
The site content is OK, very good, very interesting. By the way electronic products class article? I would like to take a second look!
my current situation. It was the dose I needed.
I am very impressed with you Hussey brothers.
Thanks for this article Steve. You (GTG Team)have performed a Jedi Mind Trick.
Your attractive and straightforward delivery of your messages has helped me to take in information I didn’t believe from other Personal Development teachers. I am now re-visiting them and exploring as many sources as I can.
I’m learning that in all areas of life, however you feel about them, whatever is or is not happening, its all about you. Full stop.
You decide how you perceive things, you decide what matters, you decide how you want things to develop, you create the conditions and therefore the outcomes. And by keeping on creating/ inputting more of what we want into things, we get more of what we want out of them. If you are happy with whats inside and it is strong, whats outside cannnot seriously shake you and you need nothing external to validate you as whatever it is you want to be (though its really nice to get it).
And we gradually embrace the fears – they just mean something is important and you become the better for facing them.
Oh My God!! This article is amazing, Steve you are great! Part of my friends make me feel wrong about me being single right now, but I always knew deep inside- it’s better to be alone than in a wrong relationship! Especially because I had great relationships, which proves me I mustn’t settle for less then I deserve. I fulfill my life with studying acting&theater and play in shows. I attend yoga and salsa every week and I joined an ambassadors program of my country that is running in my university.
Good post today. Point One: Why do we get into relationships with bad people? I’ll answer. I see the signs but I never think they are going to be *that* bad. Or I’m trying to accept their flaws, because those flaws aren’t necessarily dealbreakers. Other times some people don’t show their true, true selves for quite some time. It’s hard to date someone for weeks at a time and keep your emotions at a distance all that time. I mean I can, but then if they turn out to be a good guy I can’t switch my emotion back on then, just because they are.
Second point and a good one! When I’m loving my single life, I’m loving it and want to be left alone. I don’t want a good guy coming along then messing with my vibe. And I’m not generally hanging out with men during those times. But even if I were, when I’m single like that, really, really enjoying myself (sewing classes, yoga, cooking classes) I don’t want to date anyone. And men get that.
Thanks so much A. I think on your first point: this is why it’s crucial to always communicate your standards as you go along. When someone violates them you tell them, and then see whether they are willing to change those behaviours. If they aren’t, then you know not to invest much further.
On your second point – yes, loving the single life is great, but it doesn’t have to mean you will have no interest in men. It just means being open to something amazing when it comes along, instead of trying to shape someone into your version of amazing even when they’re not.
I have standards, but he’s not always violating them. Maybe someone else’s standards but not mine. But then I think about it and wonder, well, maybe those should be my standards. My standards aren’t so hard and fast. Honesty might be a standard, but what if he streams videos without paying? Heck, I don’t care. But . . . then what if his version of some stories only shows his POV and not others? Easy to bounce an out-and-out liar . . . but it’s not always that clear cut.
But maybe I should drop them at the streaming videos level. I’m thinking I might. Deleted one guy’s number last night on a feeling. I think I’m waiting too long for more ‘evidence’.
Thanks again! You’ve really helped me and I greatly appreciate your responding here.
I really appreciate your blog and the tips to help all the trouble singles because I am one of them. I really need to embrace the single life as you’ve describe before even thinking about a relationship.
The dilemma here is I’ve never been in one! It’ll be interesting when I do get into a healthy one…maybe it’ll be smooth sailing? No one know….
I left a reply to a post Stephen wrote a couple of weeks ago about making the first move on dating websites and how i did just that and have been seeing this guy for the past 6 months.
What a difference a week or two makes. I find myself on the verge of breaking up with him and I read Stephen’s article realising that I need to believe again in being single and not fear it. I am one of those people who has a strong instinct and need to settle down and have a family and after about 10 years of being single, I really wanted this relationship to work. But I can’t hang on to it if it isn’t right.
I take strength from Matt, the blog and all the ladies that reply. Thank you.
My issue is that I’m happy being single. I’ve been happy single for a long time and have had no interest in changing that.
Lots of people have been interested in me, but I’m too busy doing my own thing.
The reason I started researching dating and found MH is because of ONE guy. The first and only guy I’ve wanted to make a part of my life. Unfortunately he is not interested.
I’ve been trying to follow MH’s advice and meet lots of people. However this article makes me wonder if I should actually go back to just being single and happy and pretend ‘Mr Different’ never happened.
That’s exactly what I mean. When I’m happy being single, I’m not interested in a relationship. Too busy doing my own thing. And my ‘things’ can take some time, too.
I wish there was a way to be in both modes at once or be able to switch quickly between ‘happy being single’ and ‘open to a relationship’ but I think they are mutually exclusive, at least for me.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Resonated for me.
Thanks for this article its great advice as always. I have no problem being single in fact I enjoy it I have great friends, and my life is full and busy so I am in no rush to get into a relationship just for the sake of getting into one. Life is good!
Thank you for making everything so clear and deep in so few words! :) YOu really went down to the bottom. You are absolutely right, people that settle for a relationship that don’t match what they really want&deserve end up loosing a lot of time they could have spend working on themselves, on their issues and to have a healthy relationship after.
It’s really common to see people depending on their partner to feel fulfill. They get their identity out of their boyfriend and the day he leaves or it doesn’t work out they feel like they lost their purpose in life. I think we really need to get this more and more in our head that nothing external to us will give us long term happiness. We need to learn to feed ourselves with self-love and be okey standing on our feet alone. It’s like we are all stars in the sky, we shine by ourself and don’t need our partner to shine yet when both stars put together we shine brighter ;) Hihi I like looking at it like that!
What a great comment. Thanks so much for your kind words Maya. I really appreciate it.
Thanks Stephen….very helpful insights in this article….the advice leads me to a greater understanding of being single… and being in a relationship.
Thanks D. Glad to help.
“Better to be alone than in bad company”.
I have a third power position called “being the master of my own timeline” in other words, not rushing on the the classic “get a boyrfriend/ get married (or serious)/and build a family pattern (or even worrying about it).
I’m turning 25 this friday (woohoohoo!! made it alive in this crazy world so far!!!) and many people of my sorroundings (family, pregnant or married girlfriends etc) are “reminding” me that “time is ticking” and that I should consider starting ‘a boyfriend spree’ “before it’s too late”… too late for what? (I ask)… I mean just because it’s the predetermined lifestyle that mass media, cultures and even our own families have been drilling our brains with all our lifetime doesn’t mean it’s THE lifestyle we all have to live.
I hate watches and don’t posess any, I also think that aside from the TRUE predetemined timeline we’re assigned in this world: Birth and Death, I’d rather enjoy what I CAN control such as discovering myself, enjoying my runs, music, reads and ESPECIALLY quality time with my loved ones and meeting people that could become loved ones; rather than worrying about a checklist containing things that don’t even EXIST in my life.
Keep Rocking anddddd hasta pronto!
Kindest regards!! And thank you for the sweet words!
Thanks so much Randa. That’s lovely to hear. Love the idea of “being the master of my own timeline” and living to your own standard.
I was ok to be alone for awhile. Then I realized I was running out of time….made me desperate. I battle with this balance daily. I know now the work will be worth it. Thanks for acknowledging that it can be “hard work”.
Ps hope your special person comes soon…you certainly deserve for “it” to happen.
Thank you so much Leecis. There is always time to meet new people.
I rarely comment on any articles or videos ( I do, however, enjoy them all!) but this one really stands out and resonates so much with me on a deep level that I had to say something! All relationships that I’ve ever entered into have been with guys that I could definitely see warning signs with-but failed to take heed to any them or even consider how they might have an impact on a relationship. It was easier, in the beginning for me to overlook major things in hopes that they would they would fade or that we would somehow work through them. I thought maybe I could help these guys overcome certain issues they had because I saw potential in each of them and the ability for them to be a better man-not just for me, but for their own sake as well. I remember hearing this quote once ( I have no idea where it’s from) and it was ”it’s a lot easier for someone else to pull you down than it is for you to pull them up”- and it was referring to a person who was choosing to suffer with an array of problems, but that had no intention of addressing them. I spent years with certain guys I knew I had no business being with due to their issues and very different viewpoints (which I wasn’t trying to change those btw. I just thought they wouldn’t be a big deal if we loved each other. Wrong! lol.) and in the long run I allowed it take a toll on myself esteem and ultimately my happiness. It’s not worth it to be in a relationship with someone that doesn’t mesh with well you and that doesn’t enrich your life and/or that has issues that are above and beyond what you can handle. They don’t have to be perfect of course- that’s unattainable, obviously, and I’m far from perfect. Thinking back I can remember barely liking anything about these men but hoped that I could grow to love them and that they could grow to love me all in good time and I tried very hard to force it but I couldn’t make it happen. Nothing good can ever come from forcing love to blossom when you see red flags. Now I can see that I was just being delusional lol.
Fantastic, fantastic article Stephen!! :) Very insightful and helpful! Thank you for addressing these topics!
”it’s a lot easier for someone else to pull you down than it is for you to pull them up” – Very wise.
Lauren, thank you so much for everything you wrote here. It sounds like all of your experiences have taught you a lot about how to be happier single and to pick better relationships. I think you always have the ability to find and pick amazing relationships, no matter how much you are immersed in the single life. Both can be completely fulfilling in many ways. If you want that connection with someone though, be confident in seeking it out and don’t shy away from connection because of past experiences. Always be willing to give someone new a chance.
I’m so glad this article resonated with you in such a meaningful way. It means a lot to get feedback from people who find it useful, so thank you sincerely for writing your thoughts here.
First of all, congratulations for your amazing article.
I really feel like now, right now after reading it, I have the tools to get a great guy. It’s genually empowering and open-minding, not the typical “magic” solutions we are poorly sold, but real and workable material that I can actually use and practise.
Thanks a lot and keep on with the great word!!
I’ve been working hard to try to do all that you mentioned in this article for the past two months. Its a great that you had to write about this which serves as a reminder to me to keep working on being happy being single. after realizing that I was about to settle for a relationship with a guy that wasn’t really worth it because he was violating one of my deepest standards; I decided to work on my self and explore what my values are and what I really want.
One of the many ways I fulfill my self is doing the things I love, I love taking pictures and playing piano. so i’m taking a piano class for fun and its really great, I get to play pieces I love, and I go out for photography when the weather is jst right for an intriguing photo. all that makes me really happy and fulfilled and i’m loving life. ofcause there are times when I feel it’d be better sharing all this with someone, but oh well. as long as i’m happy. Thanks again for putting this up.
I genuinely believe that this is the greatest article of content that has been shared on this site. Much growth has been catalyzed by many of Matthew’s avenues of council, but I feel that this subject is absolutely the root issue of it all, is absolutely true my own experience. I absolutely adore being single for SO many reasons! There are MANY ways I am fulfilled during the single times of my life- I love the freedom and boundlessness of a single life; the opportunity to travel the world and soak in the experiences and moments on my own time table. I love the overflow of emotional energy I am able to invest and direct into the lives of beloved family and friends across the globe. I am also able to be so focused in my personal endeavors and make huge progress towards goals and dreams. There is a strong sense of confidence and strength as a result of all of that :). Great article Stephen!
I couldn’t agree more Shaina!
Are My Standards For A Guy Too High? | 2019-04-26T13:55:50Z | https://www.howtogettheguy.com/blog/two-power-positions-single-people-need-to-have/ |
In this post I will cover my top 7 trail shoe choices for 2016. I will also cover and explain the criteria I used to select my top 7.
Click here to see my updated list for 2018!
Many hikers carry a pack with a base weight of 15-25 lbs.
Given these conditions, I can rule out any option that is a boot and/or has Gore-Tex. Why? Boots are way too heavy and do not breathe well. This will cause blistering and other foot problems. Gore-Tex (GTX), from my anecdotal accounts alongside many others, drenches your feet from the inside out. Not only does GTX trap heat into your shoe or boot, if you do get them wet, good luck drying them out. It could take days. If you’ve ever been in prolonged rain with GTX boots on, you’ll know they will eventually get wet. I don’t want to go too far on this point, but GTX is sold like crazy, and doesn’t do what people think it does.
Now that we’ve ruled a few choices out, here is what I do look for.
Affordable: When you factor in the amount of miles a hiker will cover on the PCT, and/or the number of miles a hiker will cover on the JMT including training, the price of a shoe is important. The price of trail shoes has gone up recently, with some shoes sold for prices that can’t be justified for what they offer.
Availability: This is more of an issue for those on the PCT and not on the JMT. JMT hikers only need one pair of shoes for the actual hike, and probably one or two for their training miles. PCT hikers are going to need at least 3 or 4 pairs while they’re hiking the actual trail. Some hikers will buy all of the shoes ahead of time and ship them ahead. For those that don’t, they need to be able to find shoes in their size at places like REI on their days away from the trail.
The Nike Wildhorse 3 is my top choice for JMT and PCT thru hikers for 2016. These shoes have been on my foot for nearly every hike I’ve taken since I purchased them in August, and are going strong well past 300 miles. You can read my review here. The Wildhorse 3 is lightweight at 10.3oz, is very breathable, offers great protection with a forefoot rockplate, and has an 8mm drop. I’ve worn the Wildhorse 3 on long days in the Sierra, on a Rim To Rim To Rim hike of the Grand Canyon, on ice and snow, and just about any other trail condition you’re likely to cover on a thru-hike. The toe box of the Wildhorse 3 is wide, and the fit and feel is hotspot free. I’m planning on a Northbound hike of the JMT this summer, and this shoe is the odds on favorite to be on my feet.
My second choice for JMT and PCT thru hikers of 2016 is the New Balance Leadville v3. This shoe is very similar to the Nike Wildhorse, and as such, places very high on my list. In your decision between the two, you might want to try both of them on and see which one feels better on your feet. You can read about the specs on the NB Leadville v3 here. The New Balance Leadville v3 wieghs in at 10.4oz, is very breathable, and protects your feet with a forefoot rockplate. The Leadville has a stable 8mm drop and adds a medial post. The shoe uses phantom fit for a socklike feel to keep you free from blisters on the trail. The outsole on the v3 is Vibram, which should offer a great deal of grip and durability.
The Altra Lone Peak 2.5 is my third choice for hiking footwear on the PCT and JMT. Over the past few years, this has been the shoe that seems to be gaining the most in terms of popularity. Read a full overview of the Lone Peak 2.5 here. When the first Lone Peak came out, I almost never saw another runner or hiker wearing them…now, they’re everywhere. This summer on the JMT, the 2.0 version of the Lone Peak was on a lot of feet, and with the improvements made for the 2.5, I expect to see a lot more for 2016. So, what makes the Lone Peak so special? It’s lightwieght at 10.1oz, has a very stable 0 drop platform, has a wide footshaped toebox, is very breathable, and is one of the most seamless fits you’re going to find. The midsole is very protective with a rockplate and the outsole provides great grip. Why doesn’t the Lone Peak 2.5 place 1 or 2? Durability of the outsole has been an issue, with shoes not being able to reach 400 miles. This isn’t a problem for the JMT, and for the comfort, not a bad tradeoff for PCT hikers. The other small issue, is that it takes a little bit of time to adjust to a 0 drop shoe. This is not a problem for those that start training with the Lone Peak, but can present a small issue for those picking up a pair while on trail. These two complains are not large ones though, and I might just be wearing the Lone Peak 2.5 on my NOBO JMT hike this summer. It’s an incredible shoe.
The Pearl Izumi n2 is a great ultra running shoe, just like the first three on this list. Built on the unique E-motion platform, the dynamic offset of the n2 makes for a very nice ride. There is also an m2 version of this shoe that offers a medial post for additional stability (the m2 is my go-to shoe for longer trail runs). I highly recommend both versions at the number four spot in my suggestions for JMT and PCT shoes. The n2 comes in at 10oz, and is very stable with it’s wide base, the midfoot cushion feels a little soft with a heavier pack on, but is just right on those lighter days. The drop on this shoe is listed at 8mm, but feels a bit lower due to the E-motion dynamic offset I mentioned earlier. These shoes run small, so order one 1/2 size up. Even when ordering up, the toe box can feel lacking in vertical volume. I like this feel for running, but not as much for hiking. If you have a low volume foot, this could be your favorite shoe. The lacing and overlays on the n2 wrap the foot as well, if not better, than any shoe on this list. The outsole is incredible durable, and is grippy on dry surfaces. I’ve slipped a little on wet surfaces, but that is expected with such a hard and durable compound. The forefoot has an ESS compressed EVA rock plate that offers more than adequate protection.
The Saucony Peregrine is a shoe that I’ve seen grow in popularity over the years on the Pacific Crest Trail. Living only few miles from the PCT, I get to see a ton of hikers passing through from April to July. One of my favorite things to do is observe their gear choices. Naturally I gravitate towards footwear. About three years ago, I started seeing the Peregrine pop up on a few thru hikers, and it’s only grown in popularity since then. I was an early adopter of the Peregrine for trail running and ran in the Peregrine 1 and 2 after having a lot of success on the road with the Kinvara 1 and 2. What makes the Peregrine a solid addition to my list at number 5 starts with it’s incredible platform. At only 9.4oz, the Peregrine 6 is super light! It also has a minimal 4mm drop and a very comfortable flexfilm upper. The Peregrine 6 uses the shock absorbing Everrun compound in the and employs the EBO rockplate in the forefoot. The Peregrine has proven to be a durable shoe over the years, and this version looks to be no different. The biggest change over previous models will be the addition of the new PWRTRAC outsole. The toebox on the Peregrine Models will feel more narrow than the other offerings on this list, which is why I have it at number 5. If you have a narrow foot, this could be the shoe for you.
For years now, the Brooks Cascadia has been the king of the JMT and PCT in regards to footwear. That all changed this last summer though, when the version 10 had some serious durability issues. The problem was widespread, with the overlay at the bottom of the lowest eyelet causing a weird crease at toe-off with the forefoot. This design caused rapid deterioration and holes would form on top of the forefoot for many wearers within 150 miles. Aside from the durability issues, people seemed to love the Cascadia 10. The Cascadia 6-9 didn’t seem to have any of these durability issues, and from many accounts, would last well past 500 miles for PCT thru hikers! The Cascadia 11 seems to have remedied the issues with the 10, and comes revamped with a brand new upper. The midsole and outsole remain unchanged, and in many eyes, that will be a very good thing. The Brooks Cascadia is available at just about every REI, which makes them a very popular choice for thru hikers, as theyre readily available in most sizes. The Cascadia 11 comes in at 11.6oz with a 10mm drop. The shoe looks to have a very breathable upper, much like previous version. the 4 pivot system on the midsole is tried and true, as is the ballistic rock shield in the forefoot. I expect to see a ton of the Cascadia 11 on the PCT come April. The reason they rank at number 6 for me is that they run a bit narrow. From the midfoot to the toebox, the Cascadia has always been a little too tight for my footshape. Like the Peregrine, this shoe could be the perfect match for those with narrow feet.
The La Sportiva Wildcat is another shoe that can be readily found at REI, which is a reason I see it on a lot of PCT hikers, even though it’s a few years old. The Ultra Raptor is a different model, but very similar shoe to the Wildcat. You can read a review of the Ultra Raptor here. The main differences between the shoe are the uppers and the compound used on the outsole. The Wildcat uses La Sportiva’s Frixion Blue, which is more durable but less grippy than the Frixion Green used on the Ultra Raptor. Both shoes come in at 15oz and offer great stability. The Ultra Raptor with an 8mm drop, and the Wildcat with 12mm. Both shoes use a Memlex compund in the midsole with a plastic shank in the arch. The Ultra Raptor has better forefoot protection with added comrpessed EVA. Like the Cascadia and Peregrine, this shoes run a little more narrow than options 1-4, and are best for those with narrow feet. I will say that both models have a “forgiving” toebox even though they are narrow, and I’ve never had issues with blistering.
I hope you’ve found this review useful if you’re planning a trip on the JMT or PCT. Let me know what you think of my list, and if you think I’ve missed anything. I always love hearing about footwear from other hikers, so be sure to leave me a comment.
Great review, seriously. We just got the pearl izumis for our thruhike of the PCT but the altra’s are a close second. And we hadn’t actually tried on the nike’s so that is our next step.
Thank you! I’ll be very interested to read your other gear selections for the PCT and how the Pearl Izumis handle during your training.
Yeah! Kyle is already thinking he is going to return his and try a size smaller, turns out he sized them too big. And he is going to try some of the Nike options. I’m still liking mine, but I did wear them on a training walk yesterday with weight and my legs ached afterwards. I think that’s just getting use to a new pair of shoes… That’s why we are breaking them in now so when they are sent to us they won’t be brand new!
That’s a good call. It’s great that you guys are putting them through the paces before hitting the trail.
Excellent trail shoe review, Drew. I have a couple questions which you may have already answered in other posts that I have missed, but since I’m here I figure I might as well ask.
You mention the trail shoes on the list could handle the snow on the high sierra passes. Although I rarely do snow hikes, I typically wear boots when I do and my feet have stayed dry.
Last year, I accompanied a couple gals for a snow hike to Baden Powell and we had to turn back short of the summit due to the deep snow up to our knees and thighs. Even though we all were wearing hiking pants covering the tops of the shoes, the gal wearing trail runners kept getting snow in her shoes due to all the postholing and was miserable. My feet stayed dry. Granted, I otherwise prefer trail runners over boots any day of the week but was wondering what your experiences have been wearing trail runners in the snow. Thanks Drew!
Thanks, James!! I use the Wildhorse 3 for all of my day hikes, short and long. I also mix in the Lone Peak and Leadville, but the Wildhorse is my favorite. My list for shorter hikes would be the exact same. I’m not as particular for shorter hikes though, as my feet don’t swell and I don’t encounter as much landscape variation. None of the shoes on this list would be good for exclusive snow hiking, just adequate for covering snowy passes. I’ve worn the Wildhorse and a few other shoes with microspikes, and they all seem to handle quite well. For deeper snow, I wear a GTX shoe. Like you, I prefer a trail runner. Last year, I wore the La Sportiva Crossover 2.0 and loved it ( I have a review here on the blog). It handled winter ascents of Baldy and Baden Powell without issue. This year, I’m wearing the Salomon XALP Carbon. It’s another great shoe, and a little more rugged than the Crossover. I took them up to Baldy this weekend, and will be testing them on San Gorgonio and Baden Powell later this winter. The nice thing about both shoes is that they’re essentially trail runners with a zip up bootie and GTX lining. This gives me the same low cut trail runner comfort with the added protection from deep snow.
Thanks for the detailed reply Drew and for your informative posts in general. I really appreciate that! Cheers to you and the team and here’s to a great new year!
Thanks, James! Have a happy new year!
Thank you for a great review. I would be interested in your comments on the width fitting of the Leadville V3. I was once a great fan of New Balance but was extremely disappointed with the poor level of design of their earlier trail shoes. I tried their 814s and found them to be way to narrow in the toe. The 4e, which I require, was built to a 2e width. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t use the ‘tried and tested’ last from their 1080 shoe. I eventually ventured back to New Balance and purchased a pair of Leadville v2 but found the company still hadn’t addressed the problem of the tight toe box (a 4e felt like a 2 e) and the heel felt too wide and not deep enough. Have these design shortcomings being addressed in the Leadville v3?
It’s tough for me to say, as I don’t wear a 2E or 4E. I’m a true D width, but love a wide toe box. I liked the toebox on the v2, but like you, felt that the heel was too wide and too shallow. The heel on the v3 is much better than the heel on the v2. It feels much more secure, and fits nicely. The toebox on the v3 is very similar to the toebox on the v2, so I’m not sure if you’ll feel a change there.
Do you use the shoe “as is” or do you supplement with an insole? If so, which one do you go for?
It depends on the shoe. I really like the Superfeet Carbon though. I wear the SF Carbon in my Nike Wildhorse and Leadville. I can’t add them to the Altra shoes due to the wide toebox.
Thanks for the continuing excellent blog! I have been hunting through your reviews to find something about hiking boots. I know you use trail shoes rather than boots – but have maybe missed something?
My hiking includes some trails – but usually less well prepared (cleared etc.) than some which you feature – from what I can gather, but also a lot of bush walking where I think more protection is needed from both the terrain and a variety of fauna – despite sometimes high temperatures.
Are there any reviews I have missed? – if not, would love to read your comments about hiking boots some time.
I don’t wear boots at all. I wear the Salomon X Alp Carbon for winter snow ascents, but am just not a fan of traditional boots. I’ve looked at getting some for the types of trails you mentioned you tend to frequent. Andrew Skurka wore a pair of Merrell Capras for a hunting trip he took a few months back. You might be able to find a review on his blog about those. I know lot of people who wear and love the Salomon X Ultra Mid, but don’t know how tough they are. I know they’re very durable and do well on standard trails. When I go on the tough trails you mention, I usually just wear long pants and a high trail gaiter. There is something about a high ankle cuff that I just don’t like. I also don’t like the heat, friction, and slower drying times of the boots. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
Thanks for the reply and suggestions. I certainly agree with the long drying time! look forward to the next post.
I used the Wildhorse 3 on the JMT in 2015, felt very comfortable, didn’t sweat and didn’t develop any blisters, not even hot spots and all that by using very thin bamboo socks. I replaced the stock insoles by blue superfeet and that added more stability and made my feet feel less tired after a long day. One slightly negative point I have to add though: The paths on the JMT are often covered with a lot of dust and fine sand and the open mesh of the Wildhorse lets a lot of that through so that you have to empty your them about three times a day. Otherwise these are great shoes. Pardon my english, I’m not a native speaker.
Thanks for the comment, Walter. Spot on! I wear mine with Superfeet Carbon, so I can agree on the preference for added stability with a pack on. Like you, I find that the WH3 gets a lot of dust and debris with the open mesh and non-gusseted tongue.
Regarding the Wild Horse 3’s — do you find the addition of the Superfeet insert to cause excess heel movement given the added height? I just picked up a pair as well as the orange SF and without tying a heel lock with my laces it feels as if there may be some movement. Any issues on that end for you? Also what type of sock are you using/planning to use in this for distance with a pack?
I only use the Carbon Superfeet as they have minimal heel lift. The Green, Blue, Orange, and Copper add substantial height to the heel which really can alter the fit of a shoe. I tried Blue and Orange, and like you, had too much heel slip. The shoe is designed for your heel to sit in a pocket of the heel counter and adding height with an insert really messes with that geometry. You also have to consider that the heel to arch of your insert is now rigid, where it once was malleable. Carbon are the only Superfeet inserts that work for me and don’t get in the way. I still prefer no inserts though, and only wear the Carbons when I carry a heavy pack. I feel I don’t need an insert with a standard day pack.
Much appreciated for the feedback. Sadly I learned that lesson on a 20 mile loop to Mt. Wilson. Training for my JMT in July and just trying to find the right shoe, insert, sock combo — absolutely love the Wildhorse 3 though.
It took me some time to get the footwear just right, too! It’s a learning process for sure. I used to wear drymax socks, but found the sythetic fibers to dry slowly and get clammy without a machine wash. The Darn Tough merino wool socks were great on the JMT, and they’re pretty much the only sock I wear now.
Thank you. This review is very helpful. I will be hiking JMT August6-Sept 5 starting in Yosemite. This is my third time. Any overlap…I will look for you. Wow 11 days….that is Amazing!!! I really enjoy your posts.
That’s great to hear! Very cool that you’ll be walking the JMT a third time!
Great review Drew. Gearing up for NOBO JMT this summer… I jog in Altra’s but am torn between the Wild Horse and Lone Peak for the JMT. My concern with the Wild Horse is the toe box – I have a wide foot and thus am a loyal Altra fan, but it sounds like you have a wider foot and have been satisfied with the Wild Horse? I would just try them on in store and not bother you but I wear a size 14/15 (yep, those sasquatch footprints are actually mine)… Rarely, if ever, in stock. Thanks in advance!
Great to hear that you’ll be hiking NOBO! I really want to head back to the JMT to hike north. Altras are very popular on the JMT, so you can always go with those. The Wilhorse has a wide toe box, but it has low vertical volume. It feels great compared with other shoes, but might feel a little snug at first coming from a pair of Altras. You can try a size 15 and see how they work for you though. I prefer the durability, grip, midsole ride, and upper of the Wildhorse. I prefer the last of the Altra though. It’s a tradeoff, but if I had to hike the JMT tomorrow, the Wildhorse would be on my feet.
I have never done a long hike like the PCT but many 40 – 60 mile trips in the Winds and Tetons. Many of these were with heavy packs full of climbing gear, so ankle support is a big issue. I’m curious about people’s experience with rolling their ankle using shoes like this.
I’ve noticed that some people don’t have any problems with blisters, and others get blisters just by thinking about blisters. I’m one of those fortunate ones who very rarely get blisters – only a few over 40 years. But I occasionally roll my ankle while hiking.
I switched to a low top shoe – 5.10 Camp Fours, and had good luck with them. For some reason the design stops my ankle from rolling before any damage is done.
I’m doing less climbing and more “just hiking” so I’m interested in trying a lighter shoe, but I need the ankle support. Interested in what people’s experience with this is.
P.S. – A few weeks ago met a hiker in the Winds doing the CDT BAREFOOT!
Hey Arlo! I haven’t heard of any increased risk of ankle rolling due to low cut shoes. I was looking for some research on the topic, but haven’t been able to find any. My opinions and insight here are purely anecdotal. I think that weak ankles, poor balance, too much weight, and overall leg weakness will have a greater impact on ankles than the height of ones shoe. To me high ankle shoes and boots are more about protection. They protect from scree, branches, etc, and can also keep snow and ice out in winter conditions. For me, that protection is useless 10 months out of the year, and especially on summer walks of the JMT and PCT.
Thanks for your excellent article on Footwear! I’m experimenting with a different shoe this year. I’ve been wearing the Under Armour Overdrive Fat Tire ultra light hiking boot with ankle support. Fairly light at around 15 ounces a pair. Probably the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn in my life! Trail traction is incredible. Just trying to figure out if I can get it to work for the PCT. I’ll probably also have custom insoles installed as well. Kind of spendy at 250 to $350 for two sets of insoles but could make all the difference. If I eventually go with these I’m going to try to get some corporate support (read; free shoes) from Under Armour. Kind of expensive at $160 a pair X how many pairs I’ll eventually need. Im really putting them through the ringer thos week hiking in wet snow and seeing how quickly they dry. Any additional thoughts or things to look for in my decision process are welcome.
No problem! I’m glad you found it useful. Thanks for sharing your account of the UA Fat Tire. I’ve seen them in a few online stores, but have never tried on a pair. As for custom insoles, have you ever tried Superfeet? I use Superfeet Carbon, and at $55 a pair, they’re a steal. Superfeet also makes more structured pairs (Green and Blue models). They might be worth a try before dropping $300. The best part is that they’re available at REI. So for a PCT hiker, you can just pick up a new pair when yours go bust, instead of having to contact your podiatrist to ship a new custom pair ahead on the trail to you. As for sponsorships, that’s a good plan for a PCT through hiker. I don’t know if UA does sponsorships, but it’s worth a try. I know Altra does. Good luck on your upcoming hike!
Thanks much for the recommendation on Superfeet and the Blue-Green options. I’ll do some research in case I get a salesperson who is not very familiar with the product differences, although my half-dozen purchase trips to the REI in Bend, OR have turned up nothing but amazing and experienced sales help.
The staff at REI are great and are usually very knowledgeable about the Superfeet options. They tend to focus on the level of support though. One thing they don’t mention is the increase in heel height. The Green and Blue will raise your heel a few millimeters. I like a 4-8mm drop in my shoes, so an insole like that is not so nice. The Carbons only add a few mm, so they tend to play nice with my calves and achilles!
Thanks again. I’ve heard about heal drop, which shoes have positive and negative numbers, but frankly I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around the overall physiological implications and what it may mean to me specifically as I tackle the PCT. I’ve been hiking and backpacking for 40 years in a variety of boots and shoes and it’s really been just in the last year (for me) that the concept of heal drop has been appearing on my radar. Thanks for mentioning it. I’m just going to have to do some deep digging to figure out how it will affect me on my, “wee walk through the bramble and woodland,” and experiment with adjusting footwear, insoles and walking style to keep me healthy and moving forward on the trail.
I’ve never tired the Raptor Grid TR. I’m with the PCT thru-hikers. Trail shoes are for more practical for designated hiking trails than a clunky boot. If you have an orthotic that works for you feet, you should probably stick with it. A lot of PCT hikers wear Superfeet inserts in lieu of a personal made orthotic.
Altra makes a mid version of the Lone Peak. That’s the only shoe that comes to mind.
Has anyone used the Scarpa Zen shoes? They’re built like a brick (suede with thick tread). Also, anyone try to Odyssey pro from Salomon. They are a total mesh upper with large surface area tread.
I have a pair for casual wear but don’t like the thick suede uppers for hiking. The Odyssey is a nice fitting shoe, but the outsole just didn’t work for the terrain I hike on. | 2019-04-22T20:38:31Z | https://trailtopeak.com/2015/12/22/top-7-trail-shoes-for-the-john-muir-trail-and-pacific-crest-trail-2016/?replytocom=17164 |
The much-anticipated Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2014 has made it out of committee, as expected. There are believed to be over 300 co-sponsors of the bill, in the House and Senate, and the bill should become law, on the fast-track, sooner, rather than later.
The provisions of the Act allow the Secretary of the Treasury to deny access, to US financial markets, of any foreign financial institution that facilitates Hezbollah's terrorist financing program. In the Western Hemisphere. Hezbollah Latin America launders its narcotics and arms trafficking profits through Venezuelan banks, and on into Panamanian financial institutions, from where it is transferred to Hezbollah-controlled accounts in the Middle East and Central Asia.
This means financial institutions in North America and Europe, whose customers are engaged in trade and commerce in Venezuela and Panama, should adjust their risk levels accordingly, for a ruling by Treasury, to the effect that a specific bank is working with Hezbollah, and is therefore blocked from the US financial structure, could be costly, not only to your clients, who may have receivables outstanding, but your bank itself could sustain a major monetary loss.
It may be prudent, at this time, to review the scope of your exposure, especially regarding Venezuela, whose banks are most likely to be sanctioned first, without any prior warning, and to take immediate action to reduce risk to the lowest possible level.
If you have been reading how outgoing Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli has signed two dozen eleventh-hour pardons for corrupt government officials, lawyer-PEPs, known career criminals, as well as for over forty police officers who used excessive and lethal force on demonstrators, rest assured that all those pardons are presently on hold. The legislature must approve them, and all indications are that they will not be validated.
The outgoing ministers, who have been implicated in the insider trading scandal involving Financial Pacific, may have to face justice in Panama after all, as their pardons will not survive. That is, if the US or Canada don't charge them first, for many of the victims were American and Canadian nationals.
Incoming President Varela, who is about to take office, has stated that Martinelli's pardons will not stand. Martinelli did manage to get approval, through, for thirty bodyguards for himself, and an additional dozen for his family. We wonder what he is afraid of ?
Russell Adler, the A in Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, Scott Rothstein's law firm, where Rothstein perpetrated a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, has been sentenced to two and one-half years in Federal Prison, for his role in making illegal campaign contributions, to presidential and senatorial election candidates, intended to influence and curry favor among elected government officials. He must also serve two years of Supervised Release, after he has completed his prison term.
Adler, who was not charged with any direct involvement in Rothstein's investment scheme, which sold interests in ficticious court settlements, pled guilty to Federal Election Campaign Law violations. On June 19, 2014, the Supreme Court of Florida disbarred Adler, who had been engaged in the practice of law in Florida for more than 25 years. He reportedly owes more than $400,000, in Federal taxes. He recently asked the Court to impose a non-custodial sentence in this case, asserting that his involvement was an isolated, aberrant event, in an otherwise outstanding law career, but the Court, at sentencing, reportedly questioned how he could not know about the Ponzi scheme operating at his firm, where counterfeit court documents were prepared, and bogus financial statements were created.
A note to any unindicted participants on the Rothstein Ponzi scheme; at the sentencing, the prosecutor reportedly mentioned that there will be more defendants named.
Compliance officers conducting due diligence investigations on potential bank clients generally pas over innocuous Internet information, such as social media, or client-created content, but they do stop and review information from third parties. This so-called positive content may be as bogus as the client's cover story about what he really does for a living, namely financial crime or narcotics trafficking.
Anytime your Internet research lands upon what appears to be something positive that your target has done, check carefully, for the site may just have been cleverly presented to give you the impression that a third party has posted it. In truth and in fact, the positive information about your target may have been posted by a reputation restoration firm, cleaning up their client's dirty image. You may have to read between the lines, though.
For example, for those readers who have been following my stories about the escapades of the convicted fugitive Dutch white-collar criminal, Okke Ornstein, you will see, if you Google him, that he claims to be an award-winning journalist in Europe. A closer examination, however shows that a business associate of his merely recommended him for the honor, and there's no evidence that it was ever awarded, because it was not. These tactics, by reputation restoration firms trying to clean up their customers' lives online, also include blatant false information, which appears to be legitimate, because it was posted by a third party, or organization, but actually was a clever invention, with no factual basis.
Always verify anything you read on the Internet, through a trusted source; this may mean contacting legitimate information outlets via telephone or email, but it may be the only way that you can learn that the good items online are fabrications.
AVOIDING THE REPUTATION RESTORATION MINEFIELD IN KYC INVESTIGATIONS* .
More details are available in the article I have posted to this blog on June 18, 2014, which can be seen by accessing the link below**.
The attorney for Russell Adler, the law partner of convicted billion-dollar Ponzi schemer, Scott Rothstein, has asked for probation and/or home confinement (house arrest) for his client, who entered a guilty plea to Federal Election Campaign Law violations, in US District Court in Fort Lauderdale*. Attorney Adler fronted for a significant amount of illegal contributions, to both US Presidential, and Florida Gubernatorial, campaigns.
(1) That his crimes constituted aberrant behaviour, in an otherwise completely law-abiding life.
(2) That he has a severe medical condition, namely diabetes.
(3) That, if not confined in prison, he can make restitution payments to the victims of the Ponzi scheme.
(4) That he pled guilty to a non-violent crime, and that he is not a danger to the community.
(A) This was a $1.2bn Ponzi scheme, and the principal actor received a 50-year sentence.
(B) Attorneys, as professionals in whom the system places a great deal of trust, are held to a higher standard of care than other defendants.
(C) The Court has sentenced a number of minor participants in this Ponzi scheme to prison terms, including attorneys, and even sent them directly to be incarcerated, after sentencing, without giving them time to get their affairs in order. This demonstrates that the Court is exercising a firm hand, and seeking to deter others who might be tempted.
(D) The defendant sought to game the political system, for his partner, through campaign contributions, which may have prolonged the Ponzi.
(E) The defendant enjoyed an extremely affluent standard of living as the direct result of the Ponzi scheme.
It is humbly suggested that he serve a portion of his sentence at a halfway house, provided that he is eligible, and that there is room for him, but he should not get a pass on incarceration.
* Case No.: 14-cr-60050-JIC (SD FL).
** Adler has filed objections which, if adopted, would reduce his guidelines range to 24-30 months.
The trial judge in Richard Chichakli's criminal case, in US District Court in New York, conducted a competency hearing on June 24. The defendant's appointed counsel had expressed to the Court his concerns about Chichakli's ability to assist his lawyer, and a medical professional had examined him, and rendered a report, which has not been made public, due to privacy laws. Chichakli insisted on representing himself at trial, though he has no legal training or experience, and as an experienced accountant was surely well aware of the pitfalls of acting as his own attorney, in Federal Court, but whether he is competent to proceed has become an issue.
The Court's decision will affect all subsequent proceedings. The defendant has already been convicted of OFAC sanctions violations; he has not yet been sentenced, due to a flurry of post-trial motions that he has filed since his trial. The Court has laid down a briefing schedule for both sides, during the month of July, regarding his motion for a new trial, but there are numerous other motions which require disposition, and there has not been any ruling upon any of them.
Court observers of the Viktor Bout and Richard Chichakli cases, especially those who have anticipated that one or both of the defendants would reveal the extent of their association with the American intelligence community, and participation in operations whose exposure might be viewed unfavorably in the court of world opinion, are watching the Chichakli case closely.
President Ricardo Martinelli, according to reliable Panamanian sources, intends to pardon all the ministers in his government who have made illegal stock profits in the Financial Pacific insider trading incident. It is rumored that he will make the announcement this Friday; Martinelli himself reportedly also participated in taking huge profits, regarding the Petaquilla Mine, based upon inside information not available to the investing public.
The Supreme Court of Justice, Panama's highest court, has the power to set aside a presidential pardon, and it has done so in the past where warranted. Incoming President Varela, who was elected this year on a reform platform, could choose to prosecute the ministers implicated in the scandal, and petition the Court, so don't think that the guilty parties will escape prosecution.
The victims include American, Canadian & European investors; whether American or Canadian securities regulators will bring civil or criminal charges, in their respective countries is not known. A number of the ministers have had their US visas revoked, but still enjoy the ability to enter Canada, where they have reportedly invested millions of dollars. If you have not read my recent article on their investment there, you can access it here*.
Compliance officers at Miami-area banks whose customers trade with Venezuela will shortly have a new sanctions risk to deal with: The Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced* yesterday that its has granted permission for the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea, to open an embassy in Caracas.
The financial crime and sanctions consequences of a North Korean diplomatic mission in Venezuela cannot be assessed at this time, but the possible impact could be serious. North Korea, which labors under severe US and international sanctions, is known to use its embassies and consulates to move counterfeit money, sell narcotics and counterfeit prescription drugs, and evade sanctions. This embassy could serve as a window through which North Korea could covertly access the US financial structure, with Miami first on the list.
How can a Miami bank be sure that the Venezuelan company purchasing goods or services from its customer is not fronting for a North Korean purchasing agent ? The opening of the embassy increases the risk that US nationals, and corporate entities, could later be subject to regulatory fines and penalties, for unwittingly trading with North Korea, especially when they do not now operate an effective compliance department, as many American import-export companies sadly do not have.
Again US banks must raise the risk levels for dealing with Venezuelan customers.
* Published in Official Gazette No. 40.438 .
If you weren't watching all the tumult in northern Iraq this week, you may not have noticed that President Barzani, of the Kurdistan Regional Government, has bluntly stated that the time is ripe for the autonomous Kurdish Region to go its own way, meaning become independent of the Central Government of Iraq, as a sovereign nation.
While that is a positive development amid the otherwise deteriorating situation in Iraq, it could also upset those Iranian individuals, and companies, who prefer that their large accounts in Kurdish banks not be required, by newly-appointed regulators or compliance officers, to be identified as Iranian, or to prove legitimate Source of Funds, or the identities of Beneficial Owners. While the present autonomy of the region has fostered a total lack of AML/CFT and sanctions compliance regarding Iran, this could rapidly change with independence. Money launderers prefer to move endangered funds long before they are at risk.
Therefore, should your compliance staff notice any large transfers, coming from financial institutions in the KRG, or originating from there, and passing through one or more intermediary banks, you might want to institute enhanced due diligence procedures, on the funds, the remitter, and the recipient. The last thing you want in 2014 is to be nailed for Iran sanctions evasion activity, and Iranian commerce with the KRG, and the fact that Iranian funds transfer into and through Erbil, into your bank, is a real possibility.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has published a redacted version of the "Memorandum for the Attorney General," dated July 16, 2010, which details the legal authorities that were relied upon in the drone killing of of Anwar Al-Aulaqi, a terrorist who was an American citizen. It was released in the case styled New York Times, et al v. Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency, Case No.: 13-422 (2nd Cir. 2014), as an appendix to an Opinion, in a Freedom of Information Act case seeking release of the Memorandum, which was a classified document in its original form.
The subject of the Memorandum, which contains extensive citations to authority, and presents its arguments in the manner of a law review article, is: Applicability of Federal Criminal Laws and the Constitution to Contemplated Lethal Operations Against Shaykh Anwar Al-Aulaqi. Its author, who has recently been appointed to a Federal judgeship, has presented a scholarly analysis, with footnotes, of all relevant case law, and has concluded that sufficient authority exists for attacks upon American nationals who pose a terrorist threat to US citizens.
Readers who wish to review the lengthy Memorandum, can find it here.* Please note that it appears after the pleading, starting on what would be page 67 of the document. The blank segments are portions said to be redacted on national security, or intelligence, grounds.
Buffalo, New York-based M & T Bank, has been ordered by a Federal Judge to forfeit $560,000, representing the amount of drug profits reportedly laundered through one of the bank's Maryland branches. Additionally, approval of a proposed purchase of a New Jersey savings & loan has been delayed. Reports in local media state that the bank has incurred $60m in new costs, for compliance staff and AML programs.
(1) One month of incarceration.
(2) Eight months of home confinement (house arrest).
(3) Two years of Supervised Release, the Federal system's post-prison supervision program.
(4) Forfeiture of $5000, the approximate amount of money that she was paid by a representative of the traffickers.
The money laundering charges brought against her were dropped, and she was allowed to plead to a single count of Failure to File Currency Transaction Reports (CTR). I fully understand that she was cooperating with law enforcement, as several of the pleading in the court file are sealed, and unavailable to the public, but as the head teller, she should be held to a higher standard than a minor bank employee.
While there may be mitigating circumstances here, Her sentence sends the wrong message to the financial community: that, if caught, you will only suffer a minor inconvenience, provided that you cooperate with the authorities. Future prospective employers, when seeing what she pled guilty to, may very well dismiss the seriousness of the case as simple negligence, especially after the passage of time. Please, let the punishment fit the crime.
If you are following the progress, through Congress, of the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2014*, you know that it has sufficient traction for swift passage. The bill, which details the sordid activities of the Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization, from the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, to its military support for the dictatorial Syrian regime, has real teeth, and could prove fatal for those Venezuelan financial institutions that have been assisting it in terrorist financing.
"(A) Knowingly facilitates the activities of Hezbollah, including its agents, instrumentalities, affiliates, or successors.;"
"(B) Knowingly facilitates the activities of a person acting on behalf of, or at the direction of, a person described in subparagraph (A);"
"(C) Knowingly engages in money laundering to carry out an activity described in subparagraph (A) or (B);"
"(D) Knowingly facilitates a significant transaction or transactions that provide significant financial services, to carry out an activity described in (A), (B) or (C)..."
Considering that a number of Venezuelan banks, both in Caracas, and in their overseas activities, notably in Panama, have been engaged in providing material assistance to Hezbollah, in the repatriation of drug profits back to its Middle East headquarters, this new law will give Treasury the discretionary ability to shut out those banks from the American financial system. Such a move would, in essence, be fatal to their operations, as their clients would, en masse, flee the banks for those who could still maintain correspondent relationships with US banks.
Therefore, in an overabundance of caution, compliance officers at American banks, and NBFIs, that have any financial exposure, outstanding indebtedness, extension of major credit, or investments in Venezuela, should review their potential exposure, with an eye to reducing it, for risk management purposes. One can only imagine the consequences, should one of your Venezuelan correspondents be so designated, given ongoing transactions, funds outstanding, and pending international transactions.
There is a potential for major losses here, so exercise prudent risk management, and examine your current situation, regarding both Venezuelan banks, and Venezuelan customers, as any US-imposed restrictions will certainly interfere with your bank clients' ability to cover their obligations to American financial institutions.
Richard Chichakli, in yet another Pro Se post-trial filing, has moved to vacate the judgment entered by the Court after the jury verdict, pursuant to Rule 33(b)(1), F.R. Crim. P., and has requested a new trial, based upon what he labels as newly-discovered evidence. he alleges that government witness Henry Gayer, who was an officer at the Miami aviation firm where Chichakli attempted to purchase an aircraft, committed perjury.
(1) The defendant asserts that the government witness, Gayer, perjured himself in his trial testimony.
(2) That his testimony hurt the defendant.
(3) That the testimony was material in obtaining a conviction.
Chichakli says that Gayer lied, when he stated under oath that he did not know about the defendant's OFAC status, which precludes business transactions with US persons, and that the Government knew that he was lying. The defendant states that the trial contains admissions by Gayer, to the effect that he knew about Chichakli's SDN status, and was aware of the blocking order against the defendant.
According to Chichakli, the Government was complacent with the lies, in order to sway the jury into convicting him, using false testimony. Therefore, he argues, he was wrongfully convicted. There are a number of pending motions, most filed post-trial, and most filed by the Defendant.
Where newly-discovered evidence is alleged, the defendant in a federal criminal case has, pursuant to the rule, three (3) years after entry of the verdict to move for a new trial. Whether the contrary trial testimony constitutes newly-discovered evidence will be determined by the Court, but if there is an adverse ruling, the motion will probably be dismissed, as any other grounds for a new trial must be filed within fourteen days after the verdict, according to Rule 33(b)(2).
* United States vs. Bout, et al, Case No.: 09-cr-01002-WHP (SD NY).
As promised, I have created an interactive Webinar to discuss the methods that I employ to cut through the Internet trash created by reputation damage control firms. You can find the details below. Participating with me on the presentation is my good friend, Robert Goldfinger, who will explain some of the more technical issues, as well as our solutions. The Webinar is complimentary.
Due diligence and enhanced due diligence investigators.
Compliance officers and BSA/AML officers.
Individuals responsible for SAR filing.
Audit and Risk Management Specialists.
o When disinformation runs rampant on the Internet, can you perform due diligence ?
o Are there techniques and methods to cut through the glut of internet fluff, and identify your target ?
o Can technology aid you in evading material generated by reputation damage control firms ?
o Do you discard the off-the-shelf resources that are no longer effective, and what do you replace them with ?
o What are the most efficient ways to utilize negative news for due diligence and compliance ?
Working as a securities regulator in the Republic of Panama can be hazardous to your health. An attempt was made this week, upon the life of Gustavo Gordon, an investigator with the Superintendent of Securities in Panama. he was stabbed three times, but survived, and is presently in hospital, recovering from his wounds.
Sr. Gordon was, at the time of the attack, en route to the office of Financial Pacific, the investment firm alleged to have facilitated millions of dollars in illegal insider trading profits, reportedly taken by outgoing President Ricardo Martinelli, and several of his ministers; Gordon was investigating the case. The role played by the American broker, Gary Lundgren, who is closely linked to President Martinelli, is reportedly part of the investigation.
everyone involved in the case has been targeted. The Superintendent of Securities, Alejandro Abood, resigned after receiving 40 death threats at his home. Another government regulator investigating the case, attorney Vernon Ramos López, is missing and presumed dead. The attack upon Gordon took place in a park near the former offices of Financial Pacific, where he was expected to continue to examine the company's books and records, as the lead investigator in the case.
The case has drawn attention from international human rights groups, as the whistle blower, Maytee Pelegrini, a former financial pacific employee who is being held incommunicado by the authorities, without being allowed to met with her attorneys, or the media, has alleged that the government is engaged in a massive cover-up of the facts, due to the involvement of so many senior government officials. Many Panama observers are awaiting the arrival of the country's newly-elected president, Varela, who is a reformer, to see whether there will be criminal charges filed.
Here's another reason why bankers must, for their own protection, be able to identify a potential Ponzi scheme early one: Insurance companies will assert that you were a part of the scam, and decline coverage for your losses.
In a case now pending in US District Court in Florida, a hedge fund that participated in Scott Rothstein's bogus investment scheme, which was actually a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, sought to recover its losses from its insuror. The company denied coverage, alleging that the hedge fund had cut corner when it came to actually verifying the existence of the out-of-court settlements that were the basis for the investments, as well as failing to confirm funds allegedly on deposit in trust accounts.
What obviously happened here was that the hedge fund, earning obscenely high "returns" routinely signed off on the due diligence that it was required to perform, without doing it. Now the insuror is using the hedge fund's negligence to deny payment. Translate that to a bank-customer situation, and understand that a client relationship officer, elated with high cash flow from a client, will take shortcuts when it comes to compliance. When the Ponzi scheme implodes, the bank could be left with a huge loss. All bank officers should receive extensive training in the red flags of Ponzi scheme activity.
The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear Argentina's appeal of a lower court decision that required that South American nation to honor outstanding Sovereign bonds that the country defaulted upon a decade ago, ahead of any other government debt. The holders of these bonds, who had refused to accept severely discounted debt in exchange, are seeking payment, and pursuing Argentina's global assets.
For political as well as fiscal reasons, Argentina has sought to evade its obligations, and if it ends up paying out $15bn to these creditors, or alternatively, it defaults, the net results will not be good for the Argentinian economy, rate of unofficial international exchange of its currency with the dollar, and fears in the international financial community over receiving full payment on future indebtedness issued by the country. Under the circumstances, and considering the knock-on effect of this decision, it is prudent to raise County Risk on Argentina at this time.
The Iraqi Ministry of Communications has advised that it will be blocking access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, ostensibly to prevent the ISIL from communicating with its followers. The problem is, for compliance officers who need to conduct KYC on Iraqi nationals seeking to open accounts with them, any interference with social networking sites in Iraq may result in the inability to access potential negative information, or obtain verification of information proffered by the client.
Given that a number of banks in northern Iraq have reportedly been looted by the ISIL, a large swath of Iraqi territory is now under control of that terrorist organization, and the country fears an invasion of its capital, you may see an influx of wealthy Iraqis, bearing "flight capital" in US Dollars, but it is imperative that you positively confirm their Source of Funds, prior to account opening. This may prove to be impossible at this time, requiring you to decline the business. Remember, there are a lot of dirty dollars still hiding in Iraq, stolen from the US Government reconstruction program, from illicit war profiteering, bribes and kickbacks, and other illegal acts.
In the present climate of civil litigation against bankers, those who allow AML or CFT deficiencies that result in regulatory action, and who are failing to maintain an effective and robust compliance program at their bank, are at risk. I have seen seven major civil law firms posting news releases this week, seeking to contact existing shareholders of The Bancorp Inc., the bank holding company of Bancorp Bank. Readers who have not yet read my recent article about regulatory action against the bank can find it here; it was posted on June 11. Scroll down to access it, or click on the link on the lower right-hand corner of this blog, where the titles of prior articles appear as hyperlinks. It is fifth from the top.
The value of the bank's stock continues to fall, increasing the measure of damages for the potential plaintiffs. Securities consultants have retreated from their pre-Consent Order recommendations for investors to purchase Bancorp stock, which may cause even further decline in the stock's market price.
Reports from individuals with personal knowledge indicate that the Customer Identification program at Bancorp Bank did not meet the generally accepted standards of banking best practices, and in many instances, not even the full names of customers were not obtained at account opening, which may indicate that there was compliance malpractice. The utter arrogance of any bankers who do not believe they must properly identify their customers amazes me in the post 9/11 environment. If you are contacted by any former Bancorp compliance staff seeking employment at your bank in the future, please show them the door.
Which bank officers and directors are to be named as parties defendant is not known, but senior bank management are generally the usual targets of such litigation, as well as those in command of the compliance program. A Bancorp press release claims that it has already implemented "multiple upgrades", and hired a "qualified" BSA/AML officer, but one certainly wonders whether these statements are merely for public relations purposes, and whether there is any factual basis for them.
The trial judge in Richard Chichakli's Federal criminal case has scheduled a competency hearing for June 24, in the US District Court in Manhattan. He has been examined by a qualified medical professional, and a report filed, though not publicly available. Apparently there was also some issue about the examiner, regarding what connection he had to defense counsel, Mr. Dinnerstein, but that does not appear to be improper, as counsel's prior contacts with the individual were fully disclosed to the Court in a letter, which is in the court file.
It may be important to note that the Court has not yet made a ruling upon any of the defendant's post-trial motions, including a motion for a new trial. Until those motions are disposed of, Chichakli cannot be sentenced.
It is probable that any determination or finding, by the Court, that the defendant is not competent, either to assist in his own defense, or on a broader basis, will again raise the issue of whether the Government does not want certain information, detailing certain activities of Viktor Bout and Richard Chichakli, on behalf of the the shadowy American intelligence community, to be publicly disclosed at a retrial of this case.
Was Chichakli working covertly for the United States while under OFAC sanctions ? It is assumed that much of this information is classified, but that which is not, if made known to the Court, could possitively affect a jury's impression of this defendant, and perhaps even affect the Court's assessment, favorably, for the purposes of sentencing. Is that why he has tried so hard to get in into the record ?
Readers of this blog have been writing and asking about the status of this case, so we are providing an update.The June sentencing of the owner of Mutual Benefits Corp., the life settlement firm that was a $1.2bn Ponzi scheme, has been reset to July 18th at 9 AM. Counsel for Joel Steinger had requested a delay, to allow him to properly prepare for the hearing, to which the Court has now assigned two hours.
Given the ten year sentence recently meted out to the former Mutual Benefits trustee, Fort Lauderdale attorney Anthony Livoti, many court observers believe that Mr. Steinger will receive a life sentence, rather than the 50-year sentence some have calculated that he will get, because the length of the sentence given to Livoti was twice what was expected. Given that Mutual Benefits was reportedly the largest life settlement operating in the United States, and investors sustained huge losses, the sentences of those involved have been lengthy. We will update you when more information becomes available.
Stuart Rosenfeldt, a name partner in Fort Lauderdale Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's law firm, entered a plea of guilty this week, to a number of charges, in a US District Court in Florida. Rosenfeldt admitted that he engaged in bank fraud to maintain the ongoing Ponzi scheme, that he broke Federal campaign contribution laws, and that he violated the rights of individuals, to preserve the secrecy surrounding an affair that he has been having.
The defendant faces a maximum of five years in Federal Prison. Sentencing has been set for September 24, and he remains free on bond.
If you have been following the news from Iraq this week, you know that the Islamic terrorist group, ISIS has seized billions of Iraqi Dinars, in Mosul, at a facility of the Central Bank, and then raided all the private banks in the city, stealing a large amount of cash and gold bullion.
Twenty months ago, I warned my readers that Country Risk levels for Iraq had reached the level where all financial exposure and investment there should be terminated. Now, with the terrorists closing in on the capital, I am hoping that everyone took that advice to heart, and is no longer exposed there.
The United States has announced plans to evacuate the American Embassy, if necessary. Is this Saigon 1975 revisited ?
Delaware-based Bancorp Bank, one of the largest issuers of prepaid cards, has stipulated to the entry of a Consent Order, reportedly due to fatal weaknesses in the bank's BSA compliance program. Its holding company, The Bancorp. Inc., in an 8-K filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, has disclosed that the Order, based upon a stipulation, became effective on June 5, 2014; the value of its parent's stock immediately declined 28%.
A Pennsylvania law firm is notifying investors in the bank's securities to join in a proposed class action civil suit against the bank holding company, the stated grounds being the BSA deficiencies.
(1) Appoint a qualified BSA/OFAC officer.
(2) Revise its written BSA Compliance Program, and develop additional procedures for monitoring and reporting suspicious transactions.
(3) Perform a look-back into previous account activity.
(5) Adopt an independent testing program, to insure adherence to better BSA standards.
(7) Augment Board of Directors oversight on BSA activities.
(A) Sign or onboard new independent sales organizations.
(B) Issuing any new non-benefit related reloadable prepaid card programs.
(C) Originating any ACH transactions new merchant-related payments.
These are, in essence, total restrictions upon the bank's ability to expand its book of business, until it gets it right on compliance issues. One can only hope that the bank's leadership gets the message, because in the current law enforcement climate, they may be at risk, individually, for indictments down the road, if they fail to meaningfully raise the level of AML compliance to banking best practices, and get caught with their proverbial pants down again.
WHY WERE VIDEO CAMERAS IN RICHARD CHICHACKLI'S FEDERAL CRIMINAL TRIAL ?
Just when you thought that Richard Chichakli had completely exhausted all possible grounds for a new trial, he drops a bomb. In a letter to the Court*, dated May 31, 2014, the defendant inquires about the unusual presence of video cameras in the courtroom during the trial. He claims, for the first time, that the presence of a camera in the courtroom seriously distracted him, and was prejudicial at his trial.
Media photography, both still and video, is prohibited by law in the Federal Court system, in the trial courts. A pilot program, a couple of years ago, was strictly limited to a small number of Districts, in civil cases only, and it has expired.
(1) On whose authority was the video recording camera installed ?
(2) For what purpose was the video recording installed, and for whose benefit was the recording made ?
(3) Why was the camera only pointing at the defendant, and not to the other courtroom participants ?
(4) Who is using, or used, the recording ?
Finally, the defendant demanded a copy of the recording.
(A) The video equipment was sitting in that courtroom for another case, to provide a closed-circuit live feed for a case where there was great public interest, ACLU vs. Clapper, and an overflow courtroom was available to accommodate them. The trial judge has the authority to order this type of arrangement, for the purpose of public access to the courts.
(B) There was no recording made of the Chichakli trial. In any event, the video unit does not record proceedings; no tape are made of proceedings making use of live video feed. There was no recording of the Chichakli case, or any other case, in that courtroom.
(C) The camera was pointed at the podium, where counsel in the other case were making oral arguments. (Remember, Chichakli, being Pro Se, was at that podium during his trial).
Thus, no Federal laws and rules of procedure were broken, regarding unauthorized recording of a Federal criminal trial.
The Court's ruling: Chichakli's argument, that he has suffered prejudice, was frivolous.
* Case No.: 09-cr-1002-WHP (SDNY).
WILL OWNER OF LIFE SETTLEMENT PONZI SCHEME FIRM GET A LIFE SENTENCE WITHOUT PAROLE ?
Joel Steinger, the owner and behind-the-scenes CEO* of the defunct Billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, Mutual Benefits Corp., has, through his counsel of record, asked for a delay in his sentencing. His attorney, in a motion filed in US District Court, in a filing, has disclosed that Steinger's suggested sentence, as computed under the US Sentencing Guidelines, is life in prison. With the abolition of Parole in 1987, a life sentence is exactly that; no release is permitted prior to death in custody, as there is no provision for Gain Time for a life sentence.
Perhaps as a means to suggest an alternative sentence to the Court, the attorney has also stated that the statutory maximum sentence available is fifty (50) years, which also amounts to life in prison, as Mr. Steinger, due to his present age, would pass on before he was eligible for release. Either way, the outcome is the same. Is this a Draconian sentence, given the damage done to the victims, many of whom lost their life savings ? You be the judge.
One of the reasons that counsel wants a delay is to obtain information on Substantial Assistance that Mr. Steinger reportedly rendered to the US Attorney in Fort Lauderdale. Apparently, the primary source of this favorable information is working outside the United States, and not in communication with counsel. He is obviously looking to soften the blow at sentencing. The US Attorney has not filed a request for a Downward Departure, due to the rendering of Substantial Assistance, so whether this ploy will be effective is doubtful, but counsel has the obligation to zealously represent his client, even though he has been reviled by his many victims.
The June 6 sentencing data previously scheduled has come and gone, but without a ruling on a new date. Will will advise our readers as soon as any new information is publicly available.
* Peter Lombardi, who served as the official company head, as Steinger's criminal convictions, and regulatory rulings made him ineligible to serve, was sentenced to 20 years, but his sentence was later reduced to 80 months. He will be released next month, after having served less than seven years in Federal Prison.
HOW MANY MONEY LAUNDERERS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE ARE PARKING THEIR DRUG CASH IN FREE ZONES ?
Most businessmen engaged in international trade are familiar with the benefits of free zones, arrival destinations where goods not yet sold can be parked, free of customs duties, by their owners. These free zone facilities have, of late, acquired a new class of clientele: high net-worth individuals who store their rare art and antiques, classic automobiles, and other top-drawer possessions there, indefinitely. Geneva, Singapore and Luxembourg are all potential recipients of these personal property items, in their respective free trade zones. Why is this troubling from the a financial crime perspective ?
If I am a money launderer for a drug trafficking enterprise, and I find that myself or my clients are under the law enforcement microscope, I may consider parking my clients' drug cash in a free zone warehouse for a period of time, until the law enforcement agency investigating me scales back its inquires, due to a lack of evidence of ongoing bulk cash smuggling or money laundering.
Of course, I would choose to disguise my cash, as a valuable art or stamp collection, or antiques, while all the time concealing the money inside worthless items that I am claiming is a priceless accumulation of value. Alternatively, I might actually purchase that Old Master, and store it for a number of years, with art listed an only pieces of lesser value, purchases for long-term appreciation. Remember well, in the world of money laundering, you are only limited by your imagination.
As the use of free zones, for storage of prized items, rather than in-transit goods, becomes more common, expect to see financial criminals hide their profits there, effectively withdrawing them from circulation, and effectively preventing them from being seized and forfeited by law enforcement agencies, who are looking in the financial world for the money.
WILL MIAMI'S ROLE AS A MONEY LAUNDERER'S TRANSIT HUB INCREASE, DUE TO DIRECT ACCESS TO THE MIDDLE EAST ?
One of the things that career money launderers constantly look for, in the print media, is articles that detail the opening of new international airline routes. Why ? Because money laundering depends, in large part, upon the ability of its participants to funnel illicit funds over, and through international borders, both during the wash-dry-fold laundering cycle of placement-layering-integration, as well as subsequent investment of clean criminal capital.
Today's news, that the first non-stop service between Miami and the Arab countries of the Middle East, begins this afternoon, will certainly be noticed, for flights leaving the United States are rarely monitored, other than by the airlines that must insure that passenger have valid passports to travel. The ability to transport financial instruments, precious gems, or even bulk cash, directly into the financial centers of the Middle East, will eliminate the risks of changing planes in Europe.
Alternatively, legitimate financial transactions, albeit with laundered criminal profits, residing in lawyer's briefcases arriving at MIA from the Middle East, will be facilitated by the new service. Even if the arriving pasengers' bags & baggage are searched by CBP, documents are seldom examined or read, especially if they are in the possession of professionals.
While the new airline route will certainly facilitate the development of legitimate business between Florida and the Middle East, we need to be mindful of the potential financial crime consequences. Let us hope that the appropriate law enforcement agencies are reading this blog today, for I can guarantee you that their financial criminal adversaries already know about the new flights, and may have made reservations already. Has anyone looked at the passenger lists ?
The new Palestinian Unity Government, formed through a merger of Fatah and Hamas, may have been endorsed by both the EU and the US, but there are potential sanctions evasion dangers for any American entities who engage in any financial transactions with any agencies of the Palestinian Authority. Let me explain the problem.
Here's where it gets complicated: a former Palestinian negotiator, who has now broken his connection with the PA, has stated that the apolitical "technocrats" who are reportedly now operating the new combined government are indeed political, because the leadership of the PA has boated that they are lying to American representatives. The new government includes Hamas.
Note well that the Guidelines specifically warn about dealing with Hamas agents.
This raises the issue; are any of those technocrats in the new unity government Hamas ? If so, any US person, company or bank, who deals with them could be violating sanctions. My advice is that any American bank that is, in any way, involved in any financial transactions with anyone in the new Palestinian government, obtain absolute proof that their contact is NOT, now has he ever been, affiliated with Hamas. You might want to consider a sworn statement , such as an affidavit, but you want the notary not to be from the PA; I suggest some foreign NGO or other official from a European agency, just not any Palestinians, please, lest another Hamas agent notarize it.
Cleaning up their clients' negative information, be they articles about their arrests, reports of fraudulent conduct, judgments, victim complaints, or regulatory fines & penalties, is but one dirty job that reputation damage firms perform; they also create lies about their customers' adversaries on the Internet. This is done by swapping out the identity of individuals who actually are guilty of negative acts, and inserting the names of their customer's enemies, into each website.
The end result is striking; you read, in a wide variety of legitimate newspaper articles, some really disgusting and incriminating news about someone. The truth is, he never committed any of those crimes, but his name appears in the copy. Sometimes, if you read on, you find that the correct name of the offender later appears, but in some cases, the disinformation is complete.
I saw this technique when I wrote about the case of Michael Burnbaum*, the convicted former Miami lawyer who attempted to later practice criminal law in New York and New Jersey, and was subsequently disbarred in the State of Massachusetts, for failing to inform it of his cocaine trafficking record. He must have crossed someone in a big way, because pages of articles, showing Mr. Burnbaum as the defendant in a large number of criminal cases, which were not his, appeared on the web.
The use of such techniques obviously constitutes libel, but for compliance officers performing KYC, it presents a serious problem. What if your prospective bank customer denies that any of the material you found is true ? What will you do ? Do you have the time to search out the true identity of the guilty parties, or will you decline the customer, and lose his potential business, and risk the information later coming out, to your dismay ?
The bottom line: if its on the Internet, it may not only be false, it may be part of a well-orchestrated campaign to slander someone who is innocent. If there ever was a reason to stop using the Internet to perform KYC, this is it.
*Who Turned the Tables on Internet Polluter ?
PRIVATE BANKS FROM ANDORRA ARE QUIETLY OPERATING IN MIAMI: A PROBLEM ?
Even though I have been advocating for years that compliance officers be knowledgeable about all the operational tax havens in the world, I would wager than a number of those who work in Miami are not aware of the fact that The Principality of Andorra, according to a number of reports of regulatory and monitoring organizations, still does not meet international anti-money laundering standards. They may not even know that, though Catalan is the official language, French, Spanish and Portuguese are widely spoken.
Three banks from Andorra have, without publicity, opened, or bought into, financial service firms in Miami. Two of the companies advertise that they are involved in wealth management, and the third has designated itself a capital management firm. These companies are not branded, so as to inform the casual observer of their ownership by private banks in Andorra. On a risk management basis, I find this a cause for concern.
First of all, why Miami ? If these private banks were seeking to penetrate the American market, they would be focusing their attention in New York, or other major US cities where American investors work and live. The Miami offices are obviously targeting high net worth Latin American nationals, many of whom have ties in Miami, due to its proximity to Latin America and its large number of Spanish & Portuguese-speaking businessmen.
What troubles me is that money launderers with imagination could exploit the Miami-Andorra connection, as a possible vehicle to move criminal proceeds out of the Continental United States, or alternatively, to climb onto the pipeline of funds coming into America, to invest laundered drug profits in the US, through these Miami firms. Will American compliance officers drill down to learn who owns these companies ? I have my doubts.
Andorra, which advertises its ten per cent corporate income tax, actively seeks out non-resident businesses intending to operate in the EU, and domicile their company in Andorra. My concern is that Colombian, Mexican and Venezuelan drug trafficking organizations may find a way to clean and invest their US-based "flight capital" through these Miami-based Andorran financial service firms, and that some of it will also be coming into the United States, after having been sufficiently sanitized in Andorra, and given a new identity.
WILL VIKTOR BOUT EVER PLAY HIS TRUMP CARD ? | 2019-04-24T20:35:40Z | http://rijock.blogspot.com/2014/06/ |
And I - I think when you—now that we`ve carried it forth, where we actually can look at DNA and see what it`s like in a chimpanzee, and you see all these things, the thought of anyone interfering, oh, boy. It just—it seems whacko.
The enormous scientific problems with evolution are inconsequential. Watson couldn’t even begin to tell us how the chimpanzee evolved. But he’s certain it must have. And Rose laps it up as usual. Religion drives science, and it matters.
I think you're overlooking the fact that statements made by Watson, Dawkins, etc. are a response to claims made by ID proponents and creationists.
For example, a designer could have created this world with the intention of making appear *as if* the biosphere evolved. However, Watson is not considering this scenario as it's explicitly denied in the case of creationists and implicitly denied in the case of in the claims of cdesign proponents.
As such, his statement doesn't take this possibility into account.
For all we know, an abstract designer (who has no defined limits) or an supernatural, all knowing and all powerful designer could have created the universe 30 seconds ago, compete with the appearance of age, along with false memories that I actually wrote the previous paragraphs. Yet we do not see ID proponents or creationists making this claim.
Furthermore, this sort of argument is parochial in that a designer with enough intelligence and foresight to design this particular biosphere would also also have enough intelligence and foresight to realize we would reach the conclusion that this particular biosphere evolved based on the specific patterns we observe across multiple, independent lines of evidence.
In fact, given what we observe, Watson would probably make the following statement regarding a claim that designer wanted to trick us into thinking the biosphere had evolved, but did not in reality….
And I - I think when you—now that we`ve carried it forth, where we actually can look at DNA and see what it`s like in a chimpanzee, and you see all these things, the thought of anyone interfering, oh, boy. It just—it seems brilliant.
However, none of these assumptions are present in the claims of cdeisgn proponents or creationists.
In other words, you'd need to assume the designer (a) build the biosphere in precisely this way to fool us, knowing what conclusions we would reach, (b) was blindsided that the particular design it selected would lead us to conclude that the biosphere had evolved or (c) the designer was severely constrained / limited in that it had no choice but to design the biosphere this way.
But these assumptions are conspicuously absent from any designer promoted on this blog.
Scott: "For example, a designer could have created this world with the intention of making appear *as if* the biosphere evolved. However, Watson is not considering this scenario as it's explicitly denied in the case of creationists and implicitly denied in the case of in the claims of cdesign proponents."
Scott: For all we know, an abstract designer (who has no defined limits) or an supernatural, all knowing and all powerful designer could have created the universe 30 seconds ago, compete with the appearance of age, along with false memories that I actually wrote the previous paragraphs. Yet we do not see ID proponents or creationists making this claim.
Tj: True. I guess it is possible, but we don’t make this claim because there is no basis for it. He told us what He did in His Word and this is not what He said.
By the way, the God of the Bible has defined limits. He cannot lie or do anything wrong.
Scott: Furthermore, this sort of argument is parochial in that a designer with enough intelligence and foresight to design this particular biosphere would also also have enough intelligence and foresight to realize we would reach the conclusion that this particular biosphere evolved based on the specific patterns we observe across multiple, independent lines of evidence.
TJ: It is only after we strayed from God’s Word and it’s clear teaching that we have come to this wrong conclusion. For most of history, His plan worked perfectly fine. People naturally concluded that this world was created. The reason it doesn’t work now is that scientists have decided to eliminate God as a possible cause for the creation. They ignore His Word and interpret evidence and make assumptions based on the principles of naturalism that exclude God from the start. God is not responsible for men arriving at wrong conclusions when they reject His revelation.
For instance, we reject a global flood so we interpret the rock layers as having formed over millions of years of history as opposed to a few thousand years ago in the flood. We interpret the fossils in the rocks as evidence for evolution and common descent as opposed to the order of burial during the flood.
It is ironic that the intelligentsia of our society are mostly not intelligent enough to see God's fingerprints in nature.
Scott: However, none of these assumptions are present in the claims of cdeisgn proponents or creationists.
TJ: Did you ever hear of personal responsibility? Like I said, God is not responsible for your refusal to believe what He did reveal to you in His Word. He tells us that we are all without excuse because it is evident that there had to be a Creator. True knowledge of creation is not limited to 19-21st century evolutionists. If this were the case, it would mean that God misled people for thousands of years because, until the 20th century, most people believed in a Creator. But if He created using evolution, then, for all these years, we have been misled by God into thinking that He created the world in 6 days. The need for a Creator is a logical conclusion that any person should be able to arrive at. If you leave God out of the picture and try and think up a way it could have happened by all natural means, then of course you will arrive at different answers and you might think that God deceived you, but you would be wrong. Why? You are making a big assumption here – namely that your interpretation of nature, your theory about the origin of life and the world is correct.
Take ape DNA. God tells us that He created each animal after it’s kind. Humans were created directly from the dust of the ground. A common designer explains much of the common DNA, but if you refuse to consider God to explain this current belief of science(not a fact as things keep changing), then God is not be be blamed for your naturalistic interpretation of the evidence.
TJ: Of course this is wrong. He knows all things and it is not His responsibility to do any more than He did. First Cause, nano-molecular machines, specified information, irreducibly complex systems, self-consciousness, codes, designs so complex we can’t even understand them, designs so amazing we wouldn’t have even believed it possible had we not seen it first in nature, etc. The evidence for God is all around you if you have eyes to see it. But you refuse.
Plus I find it interesting that the vast majority of people still do believe in a Creator who designed the world. Seems like most people are not having any trouble getting His message.
Scott:(c) the designer was severely constrained / limited in that it had no choice but to design the biosphere this way.
TJ: From what the Bible reveals about God, I would presume this is wrong. First of all the Designer is not an it. God is a personal God and you and I were made in His image. I would also presume that He created this world in the best possible way. The Garden of Eden was a perfect place to live. He never makes mistakes. Besides, I think He did a pretty good job – fine-tuning the universe for life, amazing designs, breathtaking beauty, a world where science is possible and natural theories can be expressed by mathematical equations, etc. I don’t see this as being limited, but I see it as a big reason to give praise to the Creator for His great work!
Scott: But these assumptions are conspicuously absent from any designer promoted on this blog.
TJ: And there are good reasons for that. The designer you are describing does not exist.
It's not clear where you're disagreeing with the substance of my comment.
Scott: I think you're overlooking the fact that statements made by Watson, Dawkins, etc. are a response to claims made by ID proponents and creationists.
TJ: … but we don’t make this claim because there is no basis for it. He told us what He did in His Word and this is not what He said.
In other words, you seem to agree that creationism doesn't argue for a designer that would trick us.
Nor do we have an explanation as to why a designer would want to fool us in the case of the biosphere, but not in the case of atoms, the movement of objects, etc. As such, we discard it.
So, again, Watson isn't considering this scenario in his interview . As such the quote isn't a universal claim, as Cornelius is making it out to be.
TJ: It is only after we strayed from God’s Word and it’s clear teaching that we have come to this wrong conclusion.
As for the remainder of your comments, you're presenting an argument from authority based on the Bible, not an argument based on evidence.
For example, you have't explained what caused us to "stray from God's word" at this particular time, in this particular case.
Did we wake up on day and decide to disobey God? Is there some sort of cosmic battle of good and evil raging here on earth, where one must take sides, even if they do not realize it? As such, our minds have been clouded by sin?
There you have it folks. This is religion.
You could also assume that scientists that follow evolution are wrong completely. There is plenty of proof out there to refute evolution, yet things refuted are still taught as fact.
The common point that I see you evolutionists poking at is that a creator wouldn't have done things the way they are because they are too non-sensical to us. Well let me ask: Who made you god? As far as I know the idea of an all powerful creator is just that, he is all powerful. Understand that to put your own logic to something that should have the power to create the universe as if it were a side thought is preposterous, as while he may share some of our thought patterns, he by no means has to follow them or does follow them.
Take a minute to think that whatever happens in this world is NOT logical, and will not follow what you think it would, because the world was not created in a realm even close to your comprehension and logic. I beleive therefore that evolutionists on a whole are a SCARED and EGOTISTICAL group of people who think that everything has to fit in their realm of logic or it couldn't be. WAKE UP and stop acting like a little child who throws a hissy fit when they don't get what they want. You seem to think that boo-hooing and insulting those who actually might have it right will make your way of thinking right.
A prime example of insanity is trying something over and over trying to get the same result. Thus, by that logic, evolutionists are by far insane, as are creationists for trying to prove them wrong.
What CH writes here, to me, seems extremely well thought out in most cases, and very logical. Yet you all have the gall to come in here and throw ad hominem attacks at him instead of showing examples of science. This further compounds my thoughts that you all are acting like spoiled children who don't get their way.
Lastly, chew on this for a while: Life itself defies every single law of nature, as does the absolute order in the universe, down to the most infinitesimal particle. Science cannot and will not ever prove otherwise, because to do so they would have to accept the supernatural. Even Einstein recognized that it was too ordered to be random, and I'm pretty sure there hasn't been anyone smarter than he since he died.
God night, and don't bother replying to what I said. It wouldn't be anything more than mudslinging anyway.
Fianna: You could also assume that scientists that follow evolution are wrong completely.
Wrong about what? Please be specific.
Again, You haven't actually addressed the substance of my comment, as I already addressed the scenario where "scientists that follow evolution are wrong completely".
They question is, how would you explain it. Why should this actually be the case? Nor was Watson considering a designer that was trying to fool us in his quote.
Specifically, if on one hand, God could have designed the biosphere in some other way, but intelligently and intentionally chose to design specifically what we observe, and on the other hand, God knew we'd reach a "completely wrong" conclusion because he intelligently and intentionally chose to design it that way, then what other conclusion are we supposed to reach?
Fianna: The common point that I see you evolutionists poking at is that a creator wouldn't have done things the way they are because they are too non-sensical to us. In fact it would be quite brilliant.
Again, It would look perfectly sensible if the designer was trying to fool us into thinking the biosphere had evolved. However, this isn't the designer being presented by creationists or cdesign proponents. As such, such "evolutionists" are not considering this scenario when making this sort of comment.
Nor do we have an explanation as to why a designer would try to fool us in the case of the biosphere, but not atoms, the motion of objects, etc.
Once more, who made you privy to the thoughts and reasonings of god? The god you believe to be at the heart of the ID argument is horrifyingly stereotypical, and limited in scope to the point that it can fit within human understanding. A god that fits within understanding isn't a god, it's a farce. 2000 years of distortion made that possible, yet you as scientists should be held to a higher standard. I'm ashamed that you stick to a stereotype when you should be looking past that for the real contender to your theories.
I can't hardly blame you. Your theories have no way to stand against a God that defies understanding, a true God to whom our universe is merely a week's task to create. You CANNOT fathom the idea that there is something beyond you because it does not fit within your preconceived notions of the world and your own understandings.
Let me put it bluntly: THE WORLD WASN'T DESIGNED TO FIT TO WHAT YOU WANT! TO BELIEVE SO AND CONTINUE BELIEVING THAT IT CAN FIT WITHIN YOUR UNDERSTANDING IS THE ABSOLUTE PINNACLE OF HUBRIS.
Fianna: Once more, who made you privy to the thoughts and reasonings of god?
Exactly how is this relevant to the issue I raised? Are you saying it might be the case that God want's to fool us?
Otherwise, it seems you've merely objecting to the idea that we live in a comprehensible universe.
However, if we live in an incomprehensible universe, how do you explain our ability to make progress?
Is that just what God must have wanted?
Remember, ID claims that an INTELLIGENT designer is responsible for life as we see it.
There are a lot of things in this world that no INTELLIGENT designer would have designed.
Same thing for a MORAL designer.
But if you're claiming that the world was designed by a stupid, immoral designer - well, you may have a point there.
Belief that our own intelligence is a landmark by which to judge others, especially a being of higher existence, is asinine and egotistical in the extreme. Further more believing that our morals are also on the same level with that of a creator being is foolish in the extremes.
I wonder, what does the idea of a creator look like in your small worldview? A man with a beard in the clouds? A child with a magnifying glass on an anthill?
Oh how foolish you are to believe that a being who could create all of existence in seven days would be constrained by the same morals and intelligence as we are. The only thing we have that is comparable as an attribute is the ability to love, which pales in comparison beside the love of our creator.
Love, which by the way, happens to be the antithesis to all evolutionary thought, you just haven't looked at it far enough to understand.
I myself don't fully understand it, but that's because WE ARE NOT MEANT TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING! Come back with a real argument after you've mulled over that for a while. Or don't, because you've likely calloused yourself to anything but evolution.
CH is right, you all can't see past the tinted glasses(erm, blinders) of evolution.
"I wonder, what does the idea of a creator look like in your small worldview? A man with a beard in the clouds? A child with a magnifying glass on an anthill?"
Fianna: "I wonder, what does the idea of a creator look like in your small worldview?"
Morals of Hitler, only worse.
"Is there some sort of cosmic battle of good and evil raging here on earth, where one must take sides, even if they do not realize it? As such, our minds have been clouded by sin?" | 2019-04-23T12:27:46Z | http://darwins-god.blogspot.com/2012/03/heres-where-dna-co-discoverer-james.html |
This article explains best practices for system administration in a Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 environment, including regular maintenance tasks.
SQL Server utilizes a structure called a backup device to manage backups. These are logical names that point to physical files on the local hard disk or a network share. The backup devices allowed by SQL Server are tape, disk, and pipe (Note: Backups can also be written to and restored from physical files directly, without creating backup devices).
"If a DBA maintains proper backups and can guarantee recovery of data up to the point required by the business process, they have done the job they were hired for. A solid backup plan is the first thing a DBA is required to do. If a DBA does absolutely nothing else in your company, he/she has earned their money by providing a solid backup plan and protecting your data. Every other activity is a simple bonus on top of this."
Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of managers, users and administrators than a server crashing and data becoming corrupted. A few short years ago, this would have been relatively important. But nowadays, it is absolutely vital and is one of the most serious things that can happen to a company. This is because, the data contained in the databases represents the competitive advantage of a company and its entire lifeblood. Losing key data can be catastrophic to a company.
1. How frequently does the data change in our system?
2. What is the downtime allowed for the production server in case of failure?
3. For determining the maintenance window, what is the time of the day, week and month when the database server is likely to have minimum activity - i.e. minimum updates?
4. How much is the enterprise willing to invest in data backup strategies? This is directly answered by addressing the question - how crucial is the data? Is it mission critical?
5. How much data loss is acceptable to the company?
6. How do we plan to recover the data in case of a failure?
Disk File Backups: Disk backups will store the data on a physical disk i.e. simply a hard drive or a disk array. Disk backups can be performed locally or over the network. They are the most common and easiest medium for storing backups. Once a database has been backed up to a disk file, it can in turn be backed up to tape as a part of the regular enterprise file system backup (on tape). Thus, in case of corrupt or lost data, the disk files will have to be restored from tape and then restore the database into SQL Server from the disk files.
Tape Backup: When you back up databases directly to a tape, the tape drive must be attached locally to the SQL Server. Backing up to remote tape devices is not supported. However, you can have multiple tape devices attached to a single SQL Server. These tapes can then be moved to another location for off-site storage.
Named Pipe backups: SQL Server provides the ability to backup data to a named pipe to allow users to take advantage of the backup and restore features of third-party software packages.
Creating or deleting database files.
If you attempt to start a backup operation when one of these operations is in progress, the backup operation aborts. If a backup operation is already in progress and one of these operations is attempted, the operation fails and the backup operation continues.
While online backups are supported, you can't do online restores. During a restore operation, the database must not be in use.
Your decision as to when and how often you back up your database depends on your particular business environment and the degree of importance of the application. There are also times when you may need to perform unscheduled backups.
The system databases need to be backed up just as user databases are backed up. This allows the system to be rebuilt in the event of system or database failure, for example, if a hard disk fails. Please note that it is always a good practice to create a separate maintenance plan for backing up the system databases and not mix it with the user databases. Within that too, backup the master separately from the other system databases. This is because only full backups of master database are allowed.
The system databases in SQL Server are: master, msdb, model, tempdb, distribution. It is important to have regular backups of these system databases, however, it is not necessary to back up the tempdb system database because it is rebuilt each time SQL Server is started. When SQL Server is shut down, any data in tempdb is deleted permanently. For this reason, do not store any application specific data in the tempdb database. Leave it exclusively for use by SQL Server.
Again, model database needs to be backed up only if it is customized. Similarly distribution database comes into picture only if the server is configured as a Replication Distributor.
Master: The master database contains system information and high-level information about all databases on an SQL Server. If the master database becomes damaged, SQL Server may fail to start and user databases may become unavailable. There are many operations which change the content of the master database - like creating and altering databases, adding and modifying logins, creating linked servers etc. But since one cannot keep backing up master after every such operation, schedule the master database to be backed up on a regular basis (for example: once every night, or once every week depending on the frequency of such changes to the database). This will backup the changes made to the user databases and SQL Server, which can then be recovered in case of a master database corruption.
Backup can not be performed on this database. This sub task is ignored.
Model: The model database is a template, used by Microsoft SQL Server when creating other databases, such as tempdb or user databases. When a new database is created, the entire contents of the model database are copied to the new database. Back up the model database if you modify it, to include the default configuration for all new user databases. If the master or msdb databases are rebuilt, the model database is also rebuilt and therefore changes are lost.
Msdb: The msdb database is used by SQL Server, SQL Server Enterprise Manager, and SQL Server Agent to store data, including scheduled job information, backup and restore history information, DTS packages.
Distribution: The distribution database is used by the replication components of SQL Server, to store data including transactions, snapshot jobs, synchronization status, and replication history information. A server configured to participate either as a remote distribution server or as a combined Publisher/Distributor has a distribution database.
Consult SQL Server Books Online regarding the backup/restore strategies of distribution database in different kinds of replication scenarios.
User databases should be backed up on a regular basis. Also, it needs to be performed after a new database or index is created and when certain non-logged operations are executed.
Backing up only the database: With this strategy, the entire database is backed up regularly. In case of failure, all the committed transactions that occurred after the most recent database backup, are lost. The primary advantage of using only complete database backups is simplicity. Backing up is a single operation, normally scheduled at regular intervals. And should a restore be necessary, it can be accomplished easily in one step.
The database is small. The amount of time required to backup a small database is reasonable.
The database has few data modifications.
You are willing to accept the loss of changed data if the database fails between backups and must be restored to its previous state.
Backing up the database and the transaction logs: With this strategy, the entire database is backed up less frequently; the transaction log is backed up frequently between database backups. In case of failure, you will be able to recover all backed-up transactions and possibly even committed (complete) transactions that occurred since the last transaction log backup. Only uncommitted (incomplete) transactions will be lost.
The database is considerably large or predicted to grow large in the near future.
There are substantial updates/data modifications taking place on the database.
In case of a disaster, the need is to recover the database to as recent a state as possible - thus not to lose any transactions taken place on it.
You cannot afford to lose changes since the most recent database backup.
Differential database backups: This strategy is used to augment either the database backup strategy or a database and transaction log backup strategy. Differential backups consist only of the portions of the database that have changed since the last database backup. The first stage in this strategy is always to take a complete database backup. Then you can schedule the transaction logs as usual. But the interesting part is that now onwards, instead of scheduling a complete database backup, we would now schedule a differential backup after the day's transaction log backups. The differential backup strategy combined with the transaction log backup strategy, reduces the number of transaction log backups that need to be restored while rebuilding/recreating a database.
The amount of time spent in recovering the database by applying all the transaction logs is not acceptable.
File or filegroup backups: File or filegroup backups are a specialized form of database backup in which only certain individual files or filegroups from a database are backed up. This is usually done when there is not enough time to perform a full database backup. To make use of file and filegroup backups, transaction log backups must be created as well.
The databases to be backed up are Very Large Databases (VLDB) which are partitioned among multiple files.
For example, if you have only one hour to perform a database backup that would normally take four hours, you could create the database using four data files, backup only one file each night, and still ensure data consistency. Transaction log backups could be performed at short intervals during the day.
The master database has been rebuilt using the Rebuild master command prompt utility.
The model, msdb, or distribution database has been damaged, for example, due to media failure.
If model has been modified, it is necessary to restore model from a backup when you rebuild master because the Rebuild Master utility deletes and re-creates model database.
If msdb contains scheduling or other data used by the system, it is necessary to restore msdb from a backup when you rebuild master because the utility deletes and re-creates msdb, which results in a loss of all scheduling information, alerts, DTS packages etc. If msdb is not restored, and is not accessible, SQL Server Agent cannot access or initiate any previously scheduled tasks. For example, if database backup operations are scheduled to run automatically using SQL Server Agent, a damaged msdb will prevent those backup operations from occurring.
The distribution database is not rebuilt automatically when the Rebuild Master utility is used to rebuild master; therefore it is not necessary to restore distribution after rebuilding master. If the distribution database is still intact, distribution can be re-created automatically by attaching the database to Microsoft SQL Server. Alternatively, a backup of distribution can be restored instead.
However, if distribution is not re-created by restoring a backup or attaching the database, the SQL Server replication utilities will not run, preventing data replication. If the distribution database is used for replication by many Publishers, this can affect many systems.
You cannot restore a database that is being accessed by users. Therefore, when restoring msdb or distribution databases, SQL Server Agent should be stopped. If SQL Server Agent is running, it may access msdb or distribution databases.
Disaster recovery is the process by which information systems are recovered in the event of a catastrophe: a natural disaster such as a fire, or technical disaster such as a two-disk failure in a RAID-5 array. Disaster recovery planning is the work devoted to preparing all the actions that will occur in response to a catastrophic event. Disaster recovery assessment is the simulation of a catastrophic event and/or the evaluation of the disaster recovery plan's capability to deliver the specified recovery needs.
1. Are you certain you can recover, in case of a catastrophe wiping out your 24/7 data center?
2. How long will it take you to recover and have your system available for normal functionality?
3. How much data loss can your organization tolerate?
4. How much are we ready to spend in order to achieve the required level of recovery?
Ideally, the disaster recovery plan should state how long the recovery should take, and the final database state the users can expect. It is typically important that management be kept clearly informed of these specifications. Disaster recovery assessment should be able to substantiate the specification.
A disaster recovery plan can be structured in many different ways and can contain many types of information (how and where to get the required hardware, the configuration of the servers, service pack information, who is to communicate what, who are the people to be contacted in the event of a disaster, how are they to be contacted, who owns the administration of the plan, and so on).
DRP for Backing up only the Database Strategy: If the backup strategy is to make complete backups of the databases, then recovery will be performed up to the point when the last full backup was taken.
To recover the database in case of a disaster, simply rebuild the server, restore the last complete backup taken, overwriting the corrupted version of the database.
DRP for Backing up the database and the transaction logs Strategy: Restoring a database that has been backed up using a database and transaction log strategy involves two steps. First rebuild the server, restore the most recent complete database backup. Then apply all of the transaction log backups that were created since the most recent complete database backup.
DRP for The Differential Backup Strategy: Recovery using this strategy requires that you restore the most recent complete database backup and the most recent differential backup. If transaction log backups are also made, only those created since the most latest differential backup need to be applied to fully recover the database.
DRP for The Filegroup Backup Strategy: Recovering using this strategy requires you to first rebuild the server, restore all file and filegroup backups, followed by the restoration of all the transaction log backups taken between the earliest file or filegroup backup and the end of the latest file or filegroup backup.
1. Automate all possible jobs and maintenance plans on the server for things like database backups, integrity checks, automatic shrinking, transaction log backups, etc. You could do this by creating Maintenance Plans in SQL Server, which would automatically generate and schedule the required jobs. (For more details on Maintenance Plans, refer to Appendix A).
2. Install SQL Mail on all your production servers and set it up to send you notifications on your email (or cell phone or pager - whatever is convenient).
3. Through SQL Mail, set up email notifications for all the jobs and maintenance plans on the production server - for every database. Also set up email notifications for you to be notified in case of a severity alert - like file growing large and thus reducing disk space, etc.
4. Always keep a script of the functional database schema in a secure location on the network. This comes in handy if you need to know the structure of the database in production or you need to recover a database, which does not have any backup left.
5. Set the MSSQL and SQL Server Agent services to Auto-start when the server starts.
1. Make a list of all the sa passwords for each server and save it in a secure place.
2. Make a list of all the passwords for each login created on the production boxes.
3. Save the SQL Servers and Windows' configuration information in a secure place. This information is needed to rebuild an NT & SQL Server box in case of a disaster.
4. Perform a test restore of a database backup. This is done in order to prepare for unforeseen situations.
5. Save information about any changes made to a server - hardware or software.
6. Maintain system logs in a secure fashion. Keep records of all service packs installed for both Microsoft Windows NT Server and Microsoft SQL Server. Keep records of network libraries used, the security mode, sa passwords and service accounts.
7. Assess the steps in recovering from a disaster ahead of time on another server, and amend the steps in your Disaster Recovery Document, as necessary to suit your environment.
8. Audit Database Access: You should periodically perform a review of who has access to your production databases and what type of rights they possess. Doing so can prevent unauthorized access to production data.
Check the connectivity of each server over the network. You could do this by pinging the SQL servers twice a day or by clicking the servers name in your Enterprise Manager and seeing if it is able to connect.
Check whether the services are running. For each server, go to its SQL Service Manager and check whether the SQL Server Agent and MSSQL Server services are running (showing a green light). If not, start those services. (You could also check these from the Control Panel or Enterprise Manager).
Check whether the scheduled tasks on the production servers are running normally. You could check this from the Enterprise Manager of each server or your email (if you have set up SQL Mail to notify you).
Check the hard disk space available on the SQL Servers. If system drives run low on space, they crash.
Check all the database and transaction log space on each server. If the database or transaction log space runs out, the transactions will fail.
Check NT event Logs for any error messages. SQL Server writes to the NT application log in case of application errors or SQL errors and also warns you before a problem becomes critical.
Check SQL Error Logs for any errors occurring within SQL Server. SQL Server warns you through these logs before the problem becomes critical.
Run disk defragmentation utilities: You should periodically run disk defragmentation utilities on your server's hard disks. A high degree of hard disk fragmentation can lead to decreased hard disk performance.
While backing up or restoring databases manually from Query Analyzer using BACKUP or RESTORE commands, use the WITH STATS option. This option serves as a progress bar and displays the percentage of work done continuously.
Spread your backups across multiple backup devices residing on different hard disk drives. This lets SQL Server take advantage of parallel IO, and improves the backup and restore performance.
SQL Server 2000 lets you specify passwords for your backups. Use this feature effectively to prevent unauthorized access to backup files.
Consider implementing a combination of transaction log and differential database backups to reduce the time it takes to recover from a failure. This approach reduces the amount of transaction log that must be applied while restoring a database.
The Database Maintenance Plan Wizard can be used to set up the core maintenance tasks that are necessary to ensure that the database performs well, is regularly backed up in case of system failure, and is checked for inconsistencies. The Database Maintenance Plan Wizard creates SQL Server jobs that perform these maintenance tasks automatically at scheduled intervals.
Reorganizing the data on the data and index pages.
Compressing data files by removing empty database pages.
Updating index statistics to ensure the query optimizer has up-to-date information regarding the distribution of data values in the tables.
Performing internal consistency checks of the data and data pages within the database to ensure that a system or software problem has not damaged data.
Backing up the database and transaction log files. Database and log backups can be retained for a specified period. This allows you to create a history of backups to be used in the event that you need to restore the database to a time earlier than the last database backup.
The results generated by the maintenance tasks can be written as a report to a text file, HTML file, or the sysdbmaintplan_history tables in the msdb database. The report can also be e-mailed to an operator.
It is always recommended to create a separate maintenance plan for the system databases and a separate one for the user databases. This is so that when the backup policies are reviewed depending on the usage of databases, the system databases are not affected due to the changes and their backups are performed uninterrupted.
Create an operator (with a valid MAPI account) in SQL Server, and make him/her receive all the reports sent by maintenance plans via email. This way he/she would know if a job fails or succeeds each time it is run.
In the Integrity tab of the maintenance plan wizard, if you check the Attempt to repair any minor problems, remember - this would bring the database in single user mode. And if there are many users using it at that time, this operation would fail.
This is all for now people. Hope you find this information useful. Feel free to mail us your comments, suggestions, feedback or sign our guest book. Be sure to check back once in a while, as we will be updating this article periodically.
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Interestingly, I find the flock of birds uplifting, without any menace. They're rising up; their flight speaks of enlightenment to me.
Timing is everything and your dance with these birds was our good fortune. Thanks for sharing!
When you have a desire to photograph Kansas again, come to western Barber County and the interesting and picturesque Gyp Hills. An often overlooked portion of the country, it is a little different than anywhere else.
Years ago, as a kid, my folks would take us to Raton as a vacation where we'd attend the races and enjoy the area. A few years back, you mentioned their attendance in a blog and pics covering a ranch tour in the Folsom area.
Happy Birthday and Happy Holidays! LookIng forward to seeing more of your blog and photos this upcoming new year. All the best!
Hope your trip to NYC went well. Looking forward to new blogs.
On another of my many lonely nights looked and found you wonderful blog....Thanks. It helps. I miss Jack so much. Traveling with you is wonderful.
Such a great day!!! Polyphony Marimba makes music to nourish our souls. I am so blessed to have such magical music emanating from within the familial circle.
Thanks for requesting my assistance on this shoot. I'm happy to have been available to be your assistant on this shoot.
Can't wait to hear the new CD from Polyphony Marimba!
I linked to your blog about Raton... on... http://swankiewheels.blogspot.com/2015/07/update-twoarizona-national-scenic-trail.html, if you don't approve, let me know. I love this place.
Great pictures, Tim! Thanks for the link to our online portfolio from the Mitchell page.
Fantastic pictures! Looks like the weather couldn't have been better.
Sounds so wonderful. Glad you had a great getaway!
Would be great to hear some new songs from you! Maybe a new record?!
Thanks a bunch, Tim! A great photo! You do amazing work. I look forward to your review of the show on opening night! Everyone has worked very hard on Cotton Patch Gospel, and I know it is going to be a real crowd pleaser! Thanks again!
Way to go on capturing the moment with your photos. Everytime I see the pictures, I remember what I felt like during that part of the race! I really appreciate the commentary, Great journalism!
Tim looks like you had a lot of fun in the mud and I like to photograph woman drives also... It is intresting to see them loven the mud too. I got my best shots of the mud with camera set in three shot mode so that I was shooting every few seconds... realy that was all their was time for. I did a couple of vidoes and the lenght of time to shot is about 7 seconds.So I would get one at the start one in the mud and one heading out of the course. It is funny to see all of the friends and families at these events but it is... good,clean, fun... well maybe not so clean but good, real good.
That was the best little sanger' there in that red dress. That is as country as country gets Sir. Patsy wore fringe with pride. So did her bff Loretta. Fashion discussion ISN'T for men. Sorry.
It's been awhile. Congratulations on your continued success with your art.
Thanks, my friend. Your eye and evocative words have a great calming effect in our bustling world. I enjoy your work immensely.
Tim, this is very kind, and you are absolutely right about these great actors!
Congrats my friend. A beautiful home with a strong landscape. And the studio...now you are talking lovely morning, and soon,the October light.
Be well my friend and enjoy!
I just saw your note on changing e-mails and came over to see your work and of course, it is wonderful as usual. Congratulations on the move! I am happy to see that you have a studio for your most creative moments. Keep going and growing and I will keep checking.
HEYYYY that is my papa walter!!! He looks mean in that picture but he is actuly really nice and funny. But he does not just dress western for fun he is a real cowboy and own many race horses!!
It was a pleasure meeting you and Christina.
Your pictures of Emilio came out so wonderful. They will be treasured.
I'm a Master's student at UNM studying the geologic evolution of landscapes on the Plains of NE New Mexico. It's really great to see how beautifully you've captured some of this region's iconic landforms...awesome.
This is my favorite blog of yours to date.... Such a sweet homage to our family gathering and our life together. xoxoxo!
Tim, thank you for the great review. I'm having a great time with it and I would be lying if I didn't admit to hoping for more than just a blog at some point!
I've shared your website on my blogroll. Northeast NM can always use good publicity and your site surely helps the cause!
I love your review of Janice's blog. I agree with you on how enjoyable it is; her verbal imagery is wonderful and often witty.
Great article! I'm glad you mentioned Max Evans and his penning the term "Hi-Lo Country". I am a huge fan of his and have always thought it would be a great way of marketing the area by defining its terrain. The way I understand it, "Hi-Lo" was based on actual events in Des Moines and maybe Mount Dora?
Oh my gosh, Tim! These pictures of the rodeo and bull ride are awesome! I did notice the guy sitting on the gate! Was wondering if HE landed on his feet! Great sequence! Love your photography! But you already know that!
Catch, caught my eye...enjoyed all NY pics.
What a pleasure to view your photography! The new magazine is a work of art, it is appropriate that you have your photo journal. Poring over the pictures of the people and horses makes me miss my horse.
No horses in New York city?
If you don't get a shot of a horse drawn carriage in Central Park then you might lose your "Cowpoke Card".
Whatever would you do with your hat?
Tim!!! Your photos are amazing! I am completely left-brained and have a near total lack of imagination and creativity but I know beautiful when I see it. Great work.
add to faves: the perigee moon behind the rock.
I enjoy so much seeing your images and reading your stories...as you know my love and respect for photography began as a photojournalist...and that remains.
For me though it's your writing along with the images that make what you do such a personel story of you and your subject.
I believe you approach life in the use of camera...with Reverence.That approach reminds me of how Ansel Adams communicated his respect for the medium...with Reverence and Grace.
I've spent at least an hour looking at all the images you have here, and reading the narrative.
Wow! Your work continues to amaze me. I absolutely love your abstract work.
Thank you for all you do for your students and the communities you support. Would you have time to teach a begining photography class?
I really think that you take wonderful pictures, and know just when to capture the moment that offers the most life.
I'm glad I have you for a teacher, but I wish you would teach! a photography class too!
Glad NM Magazine is allowing you to post your photos taken for them online (i.e. nice of them to let you have your photos) :) I was looking at their online version, came across the "Mancation" article and the picture of Harvey, Ryan and ? and Googled you. That led to perusing the website, when it dawned on me that I did indeed know you. When I saw the posts on Darien, I made a mental note to indeed purchase that issue of NM Magazine--So I guess it all just worked together in a big circle! Thanks for the snapshots of home!
Good to see you are still working hard. I love looking at your photos. It's a window into who Tim is. Encompassing the natural light on a subject seems to be your strongest asset as a photog. Keep up the good work and I hope everything is going well schoolwise.
Good morning, Tim. I started a note once already this morning but somehow made it disappear. Just wanted to thank you for your photography. Someone asked last week if I missed NM and I replied that I didn't really miss it but did miss the people I knew there. Your photos reminded me that I really do miss so much about NM, not just folks like you and Chistina but the wonderful land, the horses and cattle, the sunsets and nighttime skies, the bigness of it all, and the sense that you never really knew what might come next. I don't know how to explain that last thing but there was a sort of adventurous quality to life there, and unexpectedness, that I don't experience here. And I miss that!
I've been busy with a garden, my orchard, and lots of stuff to can and preserve. Am dehydrating apples this week. Lost most of my pecan crop due to a very hot and dry summer, which is very disappointing since it looked like there would be many this year due to our early rains. No such luck.
And as of the first of September, I'm part time vicar at the little Episcopal church about ten minutes from my home. They are great people, and I'm really enjoying serving with them. Did my first Blessing of the Animals service on Saturday: only cats and dogs and one rabbit. I was hoping for something exotic to show up, or at least a horse or cow!
So, once again, thanks for the chance to revisit NM and to discover that I did leave a bit of my heart there! And congratulations on the good work you are doing and all the opportunities you are having to publish your work. Proud to know you!
We've got a lot more photos coming!
Keep watching the website and the facebook page.
It takes a little while to get all these processed!
First time I've looked through your blog. Christina had told me about the Taos church shot and it is wonderful. I'm writing about Adobe Lightroom-I have it but have not used it-but more importantly, a commercial photo friend of mine in KC really thinks it's more user-friendly and he loves it. (He does the ad work for Kendall-Jackson.) Good luck with everything.
P>S> I'm now also shooting Nikon. My son talked me into getting the D700, which he then gave me the lens for. He's been into Nikon digital for years.
Thanks for writing a message in my guestbook. I normally don't get very many messages. Again thanks and your site is looking good. See ya!
I spent some time viewing all the photos, they reminded me why I love New Mexico. I'm starting to get comments on the photos and web pages Mike did for me. Now I just need to finish the assignments he gave me!
Tim, your b&W's are awesome. Please give my best to Leo and Mike: such unforgetable personalities! Again, I have spent a special evening with your many talents.
wow .... the picture is so cool ... I love you I want to learn as the result of his photographs have a beauty of a very good value ... when I taught?????????
Too untamed for women? Nice. I guess that didn't consider RANCH women!
HEY!! Ok this is... Interesting, coincidental whatever you want to call it; I read your article in Western Horseman, did some research and found out you live just down the road from me. Sheesh. I am really getting into photography this year, I will try and stop by Studio C asap!
It has been pointed out, with biting humor, that a large percentage of profile pictures on the web are black and white and taken from a high angle. Black and white photos definitely have more depth of shadow while color often makes faces look like flattened blobs. Some more than others.
Hello..just wanted to say your photograohy is amazing and as a Native Ratonian you have captured the people and places of a little corner of heaven called Northern New Mexico.
Raton is my Hometown but grew up part of my life in Huntington Bch, CA but NM was always calling me home I visit every chance I get and hope to come home someday for the rest of my life. There is an old saying you can leave but you will always come back.
Love the shot you call your last in a Taos Series. The clouds don't wait to be noticed.
Guess it's been about 20 years. Sorry we lost touch after I left the music video scene in Nashville. Lots has changed, but I was just reflecting and just decided to give a search for you.
I'm in Atlanta, still in the tv biz - just selling gear these days and editing for a hobby. Beautiful wife and 3 kids. Life's good.
Really like your pics, site and blog and have always enjoyed your music. Would love to catch up when you have time in the new year and hear what else is new with you.
Love the school portrait (We have LifeTouch in CT, too...and the free photo for teachers!) and am happy to ear that you are setting up a studio for portraits. Can't wait to see what comes out of it. Best to you and Christina - hope you had a wonderful T'giving.
I love it.... and I see the flip..... looking forward to working abstracts again. You inspire me.
What an honor it is to have you photographing the second annual Capulin Half Marathon and 5K. The art of capturing and relaying emotion is a skill that can't be taught, it must be found. You've found it Tim. Thanks again for shooting the race and I'll never again mistake you for a dead deer in the middle of the road.
may have heard of my nephew Clifford Gilbert.
when he was brand inspector.
On September 22, 2009 www.timkellerphotography.com appeared as entry number seven on the front page of Google for the generic search term "Tim Keller".
I have emailed a screen capture to you - you should get it tomorrow. As your competitor for that search term occupies the first several pages, this is quite an accomplishment.
You had some amazing images entered in the show. I enjoyed each of them and am inspired by your landscape work especially. Thanks for sharing.
Tim-- Your website is great! It really shows off your talent.
Tim, your images are divine!! I enjoyed each one. You are a lucky and talented man.
I love the image link back to the galleries in this blog update. You've done a great job. Congratulations!
Congratulations! It's a wonderful thrill to see your artistry receive such high praise.
Your website is looking good. It's moving up higher in Google and you have a lot of interesting stuff on here. We are having a good time in Houston and I am working on my own website. Well see ya!
Seeing all that open space in so many thoughtful photos makes me want to be there. Maybe next spring we could take a driving trip to your part of the world, that is if you're around.
I too, love photography, but certainly haven't taken it to the level you have. I have a little Canon 850IS.
The boys and I are lunching at the Danielson Cafe, having just visited your showing at the Mitchell. Very nice work, on your part as well as the Mitchell's.
I still feel that "Distance" is your finest. Of course, that's the one hanging in my house!
Congratulations, Tim. It looks like an elegant venue and your work is marvelous...so stark just like the country around Raton/Trinidad/Des Moines. I hope to see them in person next time I come to Raton.
Hi Tim! So sorry we missed the opening but can't wait to get to the Mitch to see it in person. I'll be taking my husband and father-in-law, Cody and Tim Morrow, epecially! I really think they'll be pleased to see the ranch displayed so beautifully (beside the fact that we're all happy to see Chato, late Sen. Johnny Morrow's horse, captured in "Lee")! Thanks for displaying this often forgotten corner of the state in such a special way.
Wow, Tim! I sure wish we could have made it to your opening. The photos look great and the gallery is amazing! I noticed my favorite old house front and center in one of your shots. Glad it was such a wonderful evening for you. Hi to Christina and the dogs! We miss NM!!
I knew you were going to have a show, but I have to tell you it's really exciting to see it all set up with your prints hanging. Congrats on your continued success!
Hey Tim, This is gorgeous. You are really doing a lot with your photography and I am proud of you. Keep going... I'm waiting for the day that I can go to a museum in California, New York, or whereever and find your work. This cyber tour was pretty cool and the display looks good. Keep it up!
I love this cyber tour of the show. It is a wonderful show and highly recommended for real time visiting. If you can get to the museum do it!
A hobby turning into another profession. And happiness too! What more could one ask. Proud of you. Keep up the great work in all of your endeavors.
Looks like a great display! I would say the Mitchell is a fine achievement - a definite milestone. Good work!
Tim, the evening was really special, a grand re-opening experience for all of us who love and appreciate the Mitch. Your photos evoke much more than mere recognition of people, places, and things. They touch the heart, the emotions, evoking an emotional, philosophical response. Thanks for your perspective, talent, and vision!
Your photos are a treat.
Have you spoken to the Mitchell about updating their online events schedule...?
I remember when I commented on your first photo in PN. You have gone a long way in a short period of time. Your website rocks!
Someone once told me (not so long ago) that all the pictures had already been taken. Your new photo "Lee" stands in testament to the opposite.
My folks attended the Grand Derangement concert and had a blast! They picked up a Shuler brochure at the "A Christmas Carol" play and quickly seized upon the Celtic theme of the band. Their attendance of the play was their first time at the Shuler, which lead to their next. Now they wish to become members. How to get people to take the first step - that is the question!
Hey Tim, whats up. I've been looking at your website a lot. It's pretty cool.
Echoing the words of others, you have a very nice web site for presenting your fine work. My mother Beatrice Ann Trujillo was born in Capulin in 1920 and is the daughter of a Martinez from Folsom-Des Moines. My Great Grandfather Hermenegildo Trujillo and his sons homesteaded upon Torres Mesa overlooking Johnson Park in the 1890s. In 2005 I was last in the area site-seeing, researching. It is truly a great landscape and historically, just as remarkable.
I read your article in the Raton Range and found it to be very interesting. Also a very nice web-site. Maybe after christmas I will look into purchasing the pictures of the horses near my grandma's ranch. Hope all is going well.
Congratulations on a very beautiful and professional site. I enjoy seeing your world through your eyes and look forward to watching your growth continue.
Tim - this was my first time to visit your website.....WOW!!!!! enough said.
I love your St. Anthony blog entry. The wonderful gift of your images returned to you and the final word. Believe.
I love your photos. Very professional. You designed the website? I'm very impressed. I'll check out the magazine, too. I am still reading the poetry, and enjoy it. The one about your Mom was very touching.
I really admire how energetically you've jumped off of the web publishing cliff, Tim. Presenting your excellent work within your own universe here is an important step. The medium really suits your multiple interests and talents. Just remember to come up for air once in a while!
Thanks for the suggestion, Janice. I'm still learning all this html code, but I'd just learned how to link a blog item straight to a display window, so your timing's good: it's a done deal.
Congrats on the public art install nomination! How about a link to the selected photos... I found Distance but I don't see Raton Junkyard 18 on the site.
Can't wait to pick up "Bringing Up The Rear" late next week!
Great work. Thanks for sharing the site with us. You live in a beautiful part of the country and you have photographed it beautifully. Keep up the great work.
I am immensely proud of your work as a photographer. What's more, I am inspired by how naturally you've found your groove. I hope to follow in your footsteps one day.
The site is awesome and beautifully organized. The photos are great. Keep up the great work. Glad to see that Terry has seen the site.
Looking forward to visiting your beloved NM in the spring!
The buzz is great! I can't wait for your article in Western Horseman to hit the stands. Can you post information in your blog about how to order a single copy if that can be done? I'm betting a lot of your fans would like such a thing.
Hey cousin, Photos are great! Glad you are enjoying the new camera. Enjoy the holidays and will write in length later.
Congratulations Tim on a beautiful site, you know how I love photography and I enjoy seeing this beautiful country through another photographers eyes. I still have a lot to learn and will take critiques on my work from you anytime, you have a wonderful gift.
No, Terry, that grasshopper jumped up there for me all by himself. You have an eagle eye.
Wow, great stuff Tim. The site is fantastic. Did you put the grasshopper on the Blue Cadillacs bumper?
That jumble would be pinon. Tilde troubles.
Terrifico Teo! Your artistry has trebled and octupled, I'm awed and admirable. The pictorials of the NM experience are as palpable as pinon smoke.
Congratulations Tim. This is a beautiful website. As with your photography it is done with great care, creativity and attention to detail. Good luck in this venture.
Spectacular site; beautifully organized, easy to navigate, and a grand manifestation of your talent from your heart behind the lens. Will happily share with friends. Thank you for adding such beauty to our world.
Wonderful, Tim! Congratualations on the web site. I'm so pleased that you have found your "calling" and glad that is it being so rewarding. And that you are sharing your work so publically so that all can be touched by the beauty of each photo. Thank you!
Congratulations!!! Your new website is just gorgeous. Your images are stunning. Thanks for hanging your first photography show at Studio C ~ArtSpace & Gallery here in Des Moines, New Mexico. Kudos to your web-master Mike Schoonover.
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Including Additional Sample Questions for You to Practice!
One of the best CASPer test prep strategies is reviewing sample CASPer questions and answers. In this blog will go over 5 official CASPer sample questions and provide our expert response and analysis.
You are an employee at a retail store and you overhear an interaction between a customer and another employee at the cash register. The customer is here to return an item; however, she does not have a receipt for the purchased item and claims to have paid in cash. Despite assurances by the customer that she did buy the item at your store, your colleague informs the customer that, while she can provide store credit or an exchange, store policy does not allow refunds of more than $20 without a receipt. The customer informs your colleague that she really needs a refund given that this was a birthday purchase for her daughter, but now she desperately requires that money to buy her daughter’s prescription medication. While the manager can override the store policy, she is away until next week. Your colleague turns to you for advice given that you have been working at the store for longer than she has.
1. What do you tell the other employee – go ahead and give the refund, or abide by store policy? Justify your answer.
2. Assume you advise the newer employee not to give the refund, but she does anyway. Do you report this to your supervisor? Why or why not?
It would depend on the store policy, since upholding such policy is my duty as an employee. If there was a discretionary rule whereby an employee can provide the refund, given that they have justification for doing so, then I would not report her. I would instead encourage her to document the event so that she can submit a report to management. If it was clearly against the rules, and my advice was in line with store policy and procedures, then I would give her the opportunity to do the right thing and report her actions to the manager. I would gently remind her of her ethical responsibility and her responsibility as an employee, as a way of encouraging her to uphold such standards. I would follow up with her and, if she has not reported the incident, then I would report to the manager without hesitation.
3. If you were asked to establish a policy around refunds for a new store, what aspects would you take into consideration?
With regard to setting a refund policy, my goal would be to provide the best shopping experience to customers without compromising the store from a business perspective. Prior to establishing a new policy, I would love to hear from our customers to learn what they would like to see in a return policy; I would solicit such information in the form of a survey, to determine what seems fair and appropriate from their perspective. I would also send the survey to employees and upper management to get their input. Additionally, I would look into refund policies at other stores, to see how a proper balance between customer and business needs is met. My priority would be making the return policy transparent, uncomplicated, and in the best interest of the shopper. With regard to transparency, I would clearly outline the return policy on the store’s website and place a copy by the store’s cashier. I would have training sessions so that employees can learn and disclose our policies at the point of purchase. With regard to ensuring the policy is uncomplicated, I would construct a policy that is simple, universal, and that does not include a lot of rules. Ideally, I would limit the policy to 4-5 rules that protect both the customer and our store. Additionally, I would provide an electronic as well as a printed receipt to customers, so they can access their receipt from anywhere; that way, that the issue presented in the scenario would be much less likely to arise again in the future. With the customer’s consent, I would also establish an in-house database, where items purchased by a customer can be looked up on our system; this would be a service provided to the customer and they would have to enroll, given laws around privacy and maintaining their personal information in our database. Finally, with regard to having the policy lean more in favor of the consumer, I would have a “no questions asked” policy if they are returning one of our products.
Analysis: Why are these strong answers?
There are a number of consistent features in these responses (which you will also see in the other expert answers, below). First, none of the responses accept the prompt as the full or final say on the matter; rather, they demonstrate an understanding that the information provided may be partial, or even incorrect. Showing a bit of skepticism toward the prompt ensures you don’t act prematurely or based only on assumptions, which is a hallmark of critical thinking. Most problems are more complex than they may seem on the surface; suggesting that additional information-gathering is likely required will highlight your ability to question assumptions, to be mature in your reflection on the issues, and to seek out additional perspectives, resources, or sources of knowledge. These answers propose various avenues for gathering such information, support, or confirmation of protocol, pointing to your willingness to seek guidance from, or collaborate with, those with more experience than you may have. Additionally, thinking through the consequences of pursuing such avenues shows your ability to speculate on multiple potential outcomes, demonstrating your ability to envision the repercussions of various actions based on the information you collect in your investigation.
These answers acknowledge that there are multiple concerns and parties that must be considered and balanced; both the store’s policy and the customer’s needs are taken into consideration. Establishing this balance indicates your inquisitiveness, open-mindedness, and ability to hold multiple priorities and give each its due consideration. Note that the responses also go beyond merely telling the reader what will be done, by using demonstrative prose to show the reader how such actions will be taken (describing appreciation for the customer’s patience, speaking in a “non-judgmental and non-confrontational manner”, sympathizing with the customer’s dilemma, etc.). Making notes on your demeanor, gestures, and tone, specifying that you will have sensitive conversations in private, and explaining your active listening techniques all give your reader (and, thus, your evaluator) a more complete picture of how you carry yourself and how you interact with others. As many scenarios contain personal, ethical, or otherwise sensitive issues, you want to ensure the evaluator has the clearest image possible of you fulfilling your role. They can’t make assumptions about your communication skills or how you carry yourself, so it is up to you to demonstrate such things in your prose.
Finally, the responses indicate a later follow-up to ensure the situation is truly resolved and/or to ensure the same issue doesn’t arise again in the future. This shows that you understand the complexity of the issues and acknowledge that lasting change requires vigilance – we cannot simply walk away and assume everything will be fine at the end of the scenario.
Together, these elements demonstrate the exact kinds of qualities sought by professional programs and schools of all sorts, regardless of whether you’re going into medicine, dentistry, nursing, veterinary medicine, or any other program that requires you to complete a CASPer test. These programs are all seeking candidates that are mature professionals who can communicate clearly, stand by their ethical convictions, and uphold the mission, vision, and values of the school in question. In short, they want to see if you are a “good fit” for their program, which isn’t something easily determined by simply reviewing your GPA, standardized test scores, or CV/résumé.
Here are four more CASPer scenarios with expert answers. See if you can identify the qualities discussed above as you review these. Additional sample scenarios and questions for you to practice follow these responses.
You are a member of a study group and you observe members of your group having a heated conversation. Mike and John are confronting Sarah about her inconsistent contribution to the study group. Mike and John are upset that Sarah did not contribute to the study session today and accuse her of not being prepared. Sarah defends herself by saying that she has been busy writing an important paper. Mike and John inform her that they also had the same paper due and, despite that, were able to show up prepared for the session. They then accuse her of regularly coming to tutorials unprepared, suggesting that she’s only learning from the information that they have provided during the study sessions. Sarah informs them that she has been under a lot of stress and that they are not being fair to her. She prepares to leave due to their “negativity”.
1. You are a member of the study group and have not participated in the interaction so far, but now the group is looking to you. How would you diffuse this situation?
This is a difficult situation to be placed in, and one that requires some conflict resolution as well as a non-judgmental approach toward all my colleagues. As a member of the group, my primary concern is diffusing the tension while maintaining collegiality within the group and moving toward successful completion of our coursework. There is a clear difference in perspectives and its important to mediate the conversation. The most important first step is to actively listen to both sides to promote understanding, so I would ask probing questions to understand why the different parties feel the way they do, and to more fully understand everyone’s perspectives and priorities. For everyone to be able to voice their concerns, they must feel that they are in a safe, fair, and accepting space. I would validate Mike and John’s feelings with regards to their frustrations about feeling that Sarah doesn’t come prepared; but I would also validate Sarah’s feelings around being occupied with other material. Sarah has also indicated that she has been under a lot of stress, so I would speak privately with her, in order to determine whether she was dealing with a personal matter or emergency. I would help her identify any barriers which may be impeding her ability to prepare for these sessions. Based on the information provided, I would refer her to campus resources for support, if appropriate (e.g., academic counsellor, mental wellness office, accessibility services, etc.). After speaking with all parties, I would help reset group expectations by reaffirming our goals, expectations, and roles within the group, while also fostering a collegial environment by demonstrating respect and understanding. After everyone’s expectations are established, I would follow up with my colleagues at our next study session to ensure we are all on track. As well, I would again speak with Sarah privately to check in on her overall wellbeing.
2. Do you agree with the two students who are upset with Sarah? Why or why not?
As mentioned above, I can understand where the two male students’ frustrations are stemming from. Their feelings need to be validated, but, as stated above, both the perspectives of Sarah and the male students needs to be explored and shared with each other. Once that is done, common ground needs to be established regarding expectations. If Sarah has indeed not been preparing for the sessions, and this was not due to extenuating circumstances, then I would agree with the two male students’ feelings, because, as a member of the group, everyone needs to contribute equally. However, it is important to obtain Sarah’s perspective and to help her overcome barriers which are hindering her contribution. While I understand the other students’ frustrations, they may be upset over something completely out of Sarah’s control.
3. What suggestions can you make to help the group function better going forward?
As mentioned above, airing of grievances is important followed by establishing clear expectations. Allowing all parties to air grievances, and making space for other members to defend themselves, gives everyone an equal opportunity to share their perspective. Setting expectations allows everyone to be aware of minimum requirements to be part of the group. Such expectations can be determined collectively, with everyone offering input on their perceived “best practices” for group membership. Finally, for the betterment of the group’s experience, exploring barriers which are hindering group members from participating is in everyone’s favor and should be pursued as a group. Once barriers are identified, then strategies to overcome these barriers can be implemented, allowing all group members to be contributing members. If at any time I felt as though professional support or advice would be beneficial to this process, I would reach out to our professor, TA, or other authority, to see what advice they might have for ensuring group cohesion.
1. Would you recommend he take paternity leave? Why or why not?
This is a challenging and sensitive situation, wherein Tom feels like he must choose between his career and spending time with his partner and newborn child. Prior to making a decision, I would need to gather more information. First, I would like to know the company’s policy with regard to paternity leave, so I would consult Human Resources (HR) and I would encourage Tom to speak with both HR and his boss to understand their perspective on paternity leave. I would also have a private and non-judgmental conversation with Tom, to discuss his priorities. Does he prioritize spending time with his family or does he prioritize his career in terms of a speedy trajectory to promotion? This information would inform my advice. If he feels strongly about spending time with his partner and newborn, given that this is a special time that only happens once, I would encourage him to spend time with his family. If he feels that prioritizing his career for the best interest of providing for his family and that sacrificing spending time with his wife and newborn is acceptable, then I would support his decision. Ultimately, the one with the most insight would be Tom and I would help guide his decision. Information collected about the company would help inform Tom of the potential consequences of taking paternity leave based on whether the company is supportive or unsupportive of paternity leave. This will also help inform his decision. That said, I would encourage Tom not to rely on hearsay regarding his other colleague’s supposed punishment for taking paternity leave, as there are any number of reasons why he may have been kept in his position – we simply don’t have (and may not be able to access) all the facts around that event.
2. What strategies could you offer to help him make a decision that he feels comfortable with?
As stated above, I would encourage him to gather concrete information about the company and their policy and culture around paternity leave. He would be able to do this by speaking with human resources, with his boss, and with colleagues who have taken (or given up) paternity leave. This will help inform his decision with regards to impact on his job projection and promotion. Once this information is collected, I would brainstorm with Tom around his current priorities and what sacrifices he is willing to make to fulfill his goals. The decision would be whether to take paternity leave to prioritize spending time with his wife and newborn while potentially delaying career progression vs. not taking paternity leave sacrificing spending time with his wife and newborn for career progression, which would provide financial security for his family in the long-term. This is a personal decision, and I would support Tom by making sure he collects all the necessary information required to make this decision.
3. Maintaining work-life balance can be challenging. Why do you think people struggle to find balance?
There are many demands on our time and we often struggle to maintain an acceptable work-life balance. Work-life balance is often defined as time allocated to one’s career vs. time allocated to other personal aspects of one’s life, such as family, recreation, and self-care. The assumption is that work requires energy expenditure and life activities recharge one’s energy. There are many reasons why individuals struggle with maintaining an acceptable work-life balance, including having a demanding job, poor time management or scheduling skills, unrealistic expectations by employers, and financial pressures. One unique challenge of the present era is also the expectation that employees are effectively “on call” at all hours; with email, text, and social media communication, employees rarely “clock out” at 5pm and leave work until the following day. It is important for individuals to identify the specific reasons behind their personal situation and try to have a more balanced approach to life. As well, employers bear some responsibility here, and should be mindful of the time demands they place on employees. Overall, it is important to recognize that a poor work-life balance can often have negative effects on individuals and can impact their work performance and their overall health, so a good work-life balance is in the best interest of everyone involved.
You are sitting in a meeting with Frank and Julia, two of your co-workers at a financial firm. Frank wants to talk about a member of his team, Jason, with regards to some concerning behavior of late. Frank is concerned that Jason has been showing up late to work and has been seen dozing off during meetings. Despite this behavior, the team’s overall performance has been very positive. Julia weighs in on the conversation, saying that our company encourages flexible working conditions, where employees can maintain their own schedules as long as they maintain good performance with positive reviews. Frank further elaborates that Jason has been acting a little distant of late and avoiding any personal questions about his family; he’s worried that this behavior could be a sign of something more serious. While Julia seems concerned by this disclosure, she informs Frank that, as long as Jason has not shared any specific struggles with Frank, it would be a transgression of boundaries to approach Jason about personal matters.
1. What advice would you give to Frank about his team member, Jason?
Based on the information provided, I would be concerned about the well-being of my co-worker’s team member. I would inform him that it sounds that his team member might be experiencing personal problems, which may be impacting his behavior and potentially his mental health. It may also be that Jason’s job satisfaction has declined recently, leading him to distance himself somewhat from his work and co-workers. However, I would caution against making assumptions and encourage Frank to speak with Jason in a private and non-judgmental manner, creating a safe space for confidential disclosures of potentially personal matters. I would suggest that he share his concerns with Jason and give him an opportunity to share any personal struggles with him, if he is comfortable doing so. There could be alternative explanations to his recent behavior, such as a new and/or untreated medical condition, in conjunction with trying to maintain a semblance of privacy. However, given that mental health deterioration related to personal stressors (including physical health, personal struggles, poor work-life balance, etc.) could lead to catastrophic results, it’s important to reach out to Jason as a concerned member of the same team. If his team member is experiencing personal problems at home, Frank can offer him support and refer him to counseling. Additionally, Jason may benefit from some time off work, regardless of the reason for his recent behavior. In any case, it is important to address the issue for Jason’s sake, in the interest of his own well-being, and to help him see that he is supported by his team.
2. Do you agree that taking any additional action in this situation would be considered “overstepping boundaries”? Why or why not?
In this scenario, it would depend on intent and approach. If the intent of probing for more information is mere curiosity, it would be considered “overstepping boundaries”. However, if the intent of probing for more information is to ensure the safety and well-being of the team member, then no, I would not consider this “overstepping boundaries”. Additionally, the setting and method of approach needs to be sensitive to the privacy and comfort of the team member. This conversation should take place in a private setting and be confidentiality maintained – and this should be clearly communicated to Jason, so that he feels safe making any disclosures. While the lines of such boundaries can be complex, when a team member’s mental or physical health or well-being may be at stake, a careful and sensitive approach is better than disinterest or apathy.
3. Imagine you heard rumors that Jason was being bullied at work, would this change your reaction to the situation? Explain your response.
It would not change my approach to the situation. I would start by gathering more information, since I cannot act on rumors. In order to do that, I would meet directly with Jason in a private setting and speak with him in a non-judgmental and non-confrontational manner. I would also inform him that all information discussed would be confidential and demonstrate my investment in his well-being through active listening and a compassionate approach. While it is important to address any behavior that creates a negative work environment, my ultimate concern would be Jason’s well-being. As such, in our initial meeting, I would focus on this, and – if necessary – follow up with a full investigation into the bullying allegations.
You are a member of a study group and you observe two members of your group, John and Steve, having a heated conversation. John looks stressed and is upset that the group project is not yet close to being complete, despite being due at the end of the week. When Steve asks John what is stressing him out, he says he is overwhelmed by the amount of work which was redistributed to group members when Marshal, another group member, had to leave the group due to a medical condition. While Marshal’s medical condition is severe and required hospitalization, John is upset that Marshal knew how important this project is to everyone’s grades and thinks it’s unfair for the other members of the group to have to take on the work Marshal was supposed to complete. To make matters worse, Steve discovers a recently posted picture on Marshal’s Facebook page showing him at a pool party, which further angers John. With the current arrangement, the work submitted by the group would award Marshal the same grade as the others, despite not completing the same amount of work. John suggests Marshal has been dishonest about his medical condition to get out of work, while Steve reminds John that this picture could have been taken a while back. Steve turns to you and asks you to decide how to proceed from here.
1. What do you recommend to your group members?
This is a moral and ethical dilemma. While it may appear that Marshal has been using his medical condition to try and get out of work, it is important to take a step back and not jump to any conclusions. At this stage, I would like to know whether the photo posted on Facebook is a new or old photo; in order to do that, I would try to contact Marshal. Ideally, I would like to speak with him in a private, non-confrontational, and non-judgmental manner. If this is an old photo from when he was feeling better, then all is resolved. However, if it comes to light that this is a new photo, then I would ask him if he feels that his health has improved to the point where he can come back to the group to contribute. Just because he was able to attend one party, that does not necessarily mean that he is well enough to come back to school. Perhaps he has been discharged from hospital but is still recovering and went to the party to try to remain social to help with his mental health and general well-being. If Marshal has been dishonest about his medical state, I would first encourage him to try to make up for this by returning to the group and completing the work that had been assigned to him. If he refuses to do so, then I would not hesitate to report the situation to the course professor. Additionally, regardless of Marshal’s situation, I would suggest that the group seek an extension from the professor, given the abrupt loss of a group member and the necessary re-distribution of workload.
2. Do you think it is okay to report a concern to a supervisor based on a suspicion? Why or why not?
I think that, prior to reporting a concern, it would be my responsibility to investigate the legitimacy of the claim to the best of my abilities. If I find evidence to support that concern, then I would report that concern to a supervisor. Ultimately, the supervisor would use the provided evidence to further investigate the concern and approach the claim in an unbiased manner. Often, supervisors have more resources available to them to fully investigate such matters and to come to a rational and unbiased conclusion.
3. Do you believe that one false or inappropriate post on social media can have a lasting effect on someone’s career? Explain your response.
I do believe that one false or inappropriate post can have a detrimental effect on someone’s career. A recent example involves Kevin Hart, a well-known comedian. He was scheduled to host the 2018 Oscars, when a series of old homophobic tweets re-surfaced from 2010. As a result, he decided to step down from hosting the Oscars, which would have been a great addition to an otherwise distinguished career. Posts on social media usually reflect our beliefs and, as such, are used to determine the moral caliber of a person. In this case, the posts were from 8 years ago, but expressing discriminatory views at any time can negatively impact someone. While I understand that individuals do change and grow with time, in this case, the burden of proof would be placed on Kevin Hart to show that he has changed – through his actions and specific views – before he is allowed to host any prestigious and public events again.
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You are the captain of your high school basketball team.
You are the captain of your high school basketball team. Your team has been preparing all season for regional championships, which are now one week away. You get a call from your mother, in distress, saying that her sister has died unexpectedly. This sister - your aunt - has not been close to the rest of the family and you barely know her. The funeral is on the same day as your regional championships, and the events are four hours apart by car and you do not have a driver's license.
1. Do you attend the funeral or the basketball game? Why?
2. Describe a time when you had to make a similarly challenging decision.
3. What is your strategy for managing conflicting demands in your life? How did you develop this strategy?
You are the company co-founder.
Your best friend has recently approached you to join his new test preparation company. He tells you, "This is going to be super easy, because there are a lot of other companies out there that we could model. We should simply find the most successful company and do what they do best." You agree to join him as a co-founder.
1. As you get involved, you notice that your friend is practically copying material from competitors and claiming the material as his own to speed up the growth of his business. How would you approach your friend about this?
2. Would you report a close friend or family member to superiors if you became aware of them acting unethically and/or illegally? Why or why not?
3. What are the implications of a practicing professional, such as a medical doctor, a nurse, or a pharmacist, acting unprofessionally, within or outside of his/her professional role?
1. Describe what this quote means to you.
2. How is this quote important and relevant to your role as a future practicing professional?
3. Describe a time when you openly criticized a superior or an authority figure. What were the results of your actions?
Disclaimer: Please note that the first 5 questions are our interpretations of the video scenarios posted on the test administrator's website and can be viewed at takecasper.com. The remaining questions are created by BeMo. Each respective source is the copyright owner and the material is shared here under the fair use clause of Copyright Act. BeMo doesn't affiliate or endorse CASPer, McMaster or Altus. To take the test, contact the administrators directly. | 2019-04-26T10:44:19Z | https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/blog/free-sample-casper-questions |
Objective To determine if the comparison of acute and chronic workload is associated with increased injury risk in elite cricket fast bowlers.
Methods Data were collected from 28 fast bowlers who completed a total of 43 individual seasons over a 6-year period. Workloads were estimated by summarising the total number of balls bowled per week (external workload), and by multiplying the session rating of perceived exertion by the session duration (internal workload). One-week data (acute workload), together with 4-week rolling average data (chronic workload), were calculated for external and internal workloads. The size of the acute workload in relation to the chronic workload provided either a negative or positive training-stress balance.
Results A negative training-stress balance was associated with an increased risk of injury in the week after exposure, for internal workload (relative risk (RR)=2.2 (CI 1.91 to 2.53), p=0.009), and external workload (RR=2.1 (CI 1.81 to 2.44), p=0.01). Fast bowlers with an internal workload training-stress balance of greater than 200% had a RR of injury of 4.5 (CI 3.43 to 5.90, p=0.009) compared with those with a training-stress balance between 50% and 99%. Fast bowlers with an external workload training-stress balance of more than 200% had a RR of injury of 3.3 (CI 1.50 to 7.25, p=0.033) in comparison to fast bowlers with an external workload training-stress balance between 50% and 99%.
Conclusions These findings demonstrate that large increases in acute workload are associated with increased injury risk in elite cricket fast bowlers.
Compared with players in other positions, the higher absolute workload of fast bowlers is also associated with greater injury rates. Over a period of 10 Australian cricket seasons (2001–2011), fast bowlers, batsmen, wicketkeepers and spin bowlers recorded injury rates of 18%, 7%, 4% and 6%, respectively.6 A survey of all West Indian cricket matches between June 2003 and December 2004 concluded that 40% of all injuries were sustained by fast bowlers and that fast bowlers missed a combined total of more than 234 days of play due to injury.7 Similar research in South African cricket has shown that 33% of all injuries over a 3-year period were sustained by fast bowlers.8 It is clear that the performances of international and domestic cricket teams have been hindered due to the high injury rates sustained by fast bowlers.
Relationships between fast bowling workloads and injury have been reported previously in first-class cricketers.5 ,9 Often, these relationships are determined based on the number of balls bowled in a week and the likelihood of injury within that week. However, a delay of up to 3–4 weeks between high workloads and increased injury risk in fast bowlers has been documented.5 The 14-day, 21-day and 28-day periods following bowling volumes of greater than 50 overs in a match showed injury risks of 9%, 13% and 16%, respectively.5 Moreover, when bowling volumes were greater than 30 overs in the second innings of a multiple day match, the risk of injury rose to 22% during the 28-day period following the match.5 While the total workload on the bowler was not included in this study (ie, no training data were included in the analysis), the results clearly demonstrate that there is a delay in the increased risk of injury following high workloads.
In a more comprehensive analysis of workloads, which did include training deliveries, relationships were found between bowling volumes and risk of injury.9 Interestingly, this research suggests a ‘window’ of deliveries (between 123 and 188 deliveries per week) where fast bowlers have decreased likelihood of injury within the week that the bowling volume occurs. The average weekly bowling volumes below (relative risk (RR)=1.4) and above (RR=1.4) this ‘window’ show an increased risk of injury.9 Furthermore, in the same study, it was demonstrated that bowlers with an average of less than 2 days (RR=2.4) or more than 5 days between bowling sessions (RR=1.8) were at a significantly increased risk of injury than bowlers with an average of 3–4 days between bowling sessions.9 These results suggest that underbowling and overbowling may increase the risk of injury.
The analysis of bowling volumes by counting balls bowled in isolation does not encompass other aspects that produce total workload, such as fielding, batting and other conditioning requirements. Furthermore, links between perceived effort (which can encompass all aspects of training) and injury have been established in other sports.10–13 However, until now, no study has investigated the relationship between external (eg, bowling volumes) and internal (eg, perception of effort) measures of workload, or the relationship between internal measures of workload and injury in elite cricket fast bowlers.
Estimates of workload are often referred to in absolute terms (ie, the amount of work the athlete has performed in a week)10–12 or in simple relative terms (ie, the amount of work the athlete performed this week compared with last week).13 However, no study has assessed whether comparing what an athlete has performed in a week (acute workload) with what the athlete has been prepared for (chronic workload) is an appropriate model for evaluating workload and predicting injury.
Previous studies have assessed a model designed to predict ‘performance’ by comparing acute and chronic workloads.14–16 In this model where performance is estimated as ‘fitness’ minus ‘fatigue’, the chronic workload represents a marker of ‘fitness’, while the acute workload represents a marker of ‘fatigue’. The difference between the positive function of fitness and the negative function of fatigue provides either a positive (ie, chronic workload is above the acute workload) or negative (ie, acute workload is above the chronic workload) training-stress balance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if the assessment of internal and external workload and the comparison of acute and chronic workload is associated with subsequent injury in elite cricket fast bowlers.
The sample comprised all 28 fast bowlers (mean±SD age, 26±5 years) that were contracted to either the New South Wales (NSW) or Victorian cricket squad between 2006 and 2012. Data were collected over five Australian domestic cricket seasons (preseason through competition phase); of those five seasons, 11% (3) of the participants played three seasons, 33% (9) played two seasons and 57% (16) played one season—equating to 43 individual seasons of cricket in total.
Injury reports were updated and maintained by medical staff from NSW and Victoria. An injury was defined as any non-contact injury that resulted in a loss of either match-time or greater than one training session over a 1-week period. All ‘soreness’ reported by players was excluded from the analysis.
Data were categorised into weekly blocks running from Monday to Sunday. A fast bowler who performed no external or internal work (ie, 0 balls bowled or 0 arbitrary units) would not have produced a workload and therefore not have produced a risk of injury due to overload. However, these data were included in the analysis—in order to give insight into the risk of injury in the week following no work. One-week data, together with 4-week rolling average data, were calculated for external and internal workloads. The 1-week data represented the acute workload (ie, ‘fatigue’), while the 4-week rolling average represented the chronic workload (ie, ‘fitness’). Training-stress balance ranges (expressed as a percentage) were calculated by dividing the acute workload by the chronic workload. Weekly workloads that were below 1 SD for the individual's chronic workloads were removed from the analysis. This was performed so that the analysis would not consider small absolute increases of acute workload at low chronic workloads (ie, if a fast bowler had a chronic external workload of six deliveries, a 300% increase would be an acute workload of 18 deliveries). This could be considered a low increase in absolute workload (12 deliveries); however, it would be expressed as a highly negative training-stress balance (300%).
Data were categorised into discrete ranges based on the total number of balls bowled and the internal workload performed per week. Internal workload ranges were divided into 500 arbitrary unit increments. In this respect, 500 arbitrary units of internal workload represented approximately one hard session of training. External workloads were divided into five-over increments (ie, increments of 30 balls bowled). Injury likelihoods were calculated based on the total number of injuries sustained relative to the total number of players exposed to the workload. Injury likelihoods were calculated for the present week (ie, the week in which the workload was performed) and the following week.
The likelihood of sustaining injury was analysed using a logistic regression model, with injury as the dependent variable, and acute and chronic workloads for internal and external workloads as the predictor variables. Additional predictor variables included the training-stress balance for internal and external workloads. RR and 95% CI were calculated to determine which workload variables increased or decreased the risk of injury. A value greater or less than 1 implied an increased or decreased risk of injury, respectively.
A summary of descriptive statistics for all participants’ workload variables over the duration of the study is shown in table 1.
The relationships between injury risk and acute and chronic external workloads are shown in figure 1A,B, respectively. There was a relationship (p=0.0001) between acute external workloads in the current week and injury, with higher external workloads associated with a lower injury risk. No relationship (p=0.172) was found between acute external workloads and injury in the subsequent week. The relationships between higher chronic external workloads in the current week (p=0.002) and subsequent week (p=0.017) were associated with lower injury likelihoods.
Likelihood of injury at acute (A) and chronic (B) external workloads, and acute (C) and chronic (D) internal workloads.
The likelihood of injury in response to acute and chronic internal workloads is shown in figure 1C,D, respectively. No relationships were found between either acute (p=0.176) or chronic (p=0.210) internal workloads and injury in the current week, or between acute (p=0.109) or chronic (p=0.381) internal workloads and injury in the subsequent week.
Figure 2 shows the likelihood of injury at positive and negative training-stress balance ranges in the current week. No relationship was found between injury and internal workload training-stress balance (p=0.230), or injury and the training-stress balance for external workload (p=0.556) in the week that the training-stress balance was measured.
Likelihood of injury in the current week for positive and negative training-stress balance ranges.
In relation to the external workload, a negative training-stress balance was associated with an increased risk of injury (RR=2.1 (CI 1.81 to 2.44), p=0.01) in the following week. Negative training-stress balance accounted for 51% (322) of all recorded training-stress balance ranges. Sixty-three per cent (22) of all injuries occurred 1 week after a negative training-stress balance. Bowlers with an acute workload of more than 200% compared with chronic workload had relative injury risks of 3.3 (CI 1.50 to 7.25, p=0.033) and 2.9 (CI 1.14 to 7.40, p=0.044) in comparison to players with a training-stress balance between 50–99% and less than 49%, respectively (figure 3).
Likelihood of injury in the subsequent week for positive and negative training-stress balance ranges.
In the subsequent week, a negative training-stress balance for internal workload was associated with an increased risk of injury (RR=2.2 (CI 1.91 to 2.53), p=0.009). Negative training-stress balance accounted for 47% (344) of all recorded training-stress balance ranges. Fifty-seven per cent (27) of all injuries occurred 1 week after a negative training-stress balance. Fast bowlers with an internal workload training-stress balance of greater than 200% had a RR of injury of 4.5 (CI 3.43 to 5.90, p=0.009) and 3.4 (CI 1.56 to 7.43, p=0.032) compared with those with a training-stress balance between 50–99% and 0–49%, respectively. Additionally, fast bowlers with an internal workload training-stress balance between 150% and 199% had a RR of injury of 2.1 (CI 1.25 to 3.53, p=0.035) in comparison to fast bowlers with a training-stress balance between 50% and 99% (figure 3).
This is the first study to investigate the relationship between acute and chronic workloads and injury risk in elite cricket fast bowlers. We used a performance model14–16 that has previously been described to quantitatively estimate the training preparedness of an athlete by calculating the difference between chronic workload (ie, fitness) and acute workload (ie, fatigue).16 While Banister et al16 stated that preparedness for competition grows as the chronic workload outweighs the acute workload, our results indicate that injury risk increases as the acute workload outweighs the chronic workload. Furthermore, the greater the increase in acute workload relative to chronic workload, the larger the increase in injury risk in the following week. This is highlighted by the threefold and fourfold rises in injury risk for external and internal workloads, respectively, when the training-stress balance exceeded 200%. These findings demonstrate that sudden increases in workload, above which fast bowlers are accustomed, increase the likelihood of injury in the following 1-week period.
The present study also highlights that greater external workloads over a 1-week and a 4-week period results in a decreased risk of injury during the week of exposure. However, the relationship between greater acute external workloads and lower injury risk in the current week may not necessarily be causal. That is, injuries may occur due to a myriad of factors that are unrelated to training or competition workloads.2–4 ,18 ,19 Indeed, it is possible that fast bowlers sustained an injury, and as a result of that injury, recorded a lower external workload in the current week.
The results showing that higher chronic external workload produced a lower injury risk could corroborate our findings in relation to the 1-week delay in injury risk after a negative training-stress balance. That is, higher external workloads over a chronic period are likely to result in positive physical adaptations,14–16 potentially minimising the influence of fatigue and therefore reducing the risk of injury. Our findings suggest that increases in chronic workloads should be performed systematically, in an appropriate sequence and combination.20 However, this could be challenging, given that cricket is scheduled with extended periods of 20-over cricket, which elicits the lowest workload.1 These low workloads possibly make it difficult for fast bowlers to attain sufficient chronic external workloads to promote the positive physical adaptations required to tolerate the physical demands of multiple day cricket.1 Future studies should assess the time of season at which injury rates are highest to see whether sudden changes in the format of cricket (ie, 20-over to multiple day cricket) are associated with increased injury risk.
Our results demonstrate that the monitoring of acute and chronic workloads can offer valuable insight into the likelihood of injury. However, viewing either acute or chronic workloads in isolation does not seem to be as valuable as comparing the workload to which an athlete is accustomed, to the workload to which that athlete has been subjected (ie, the training-stress balance). Although the current study opted for acute and chronic workloads of 1 and 4 weeks, respectively, the most appropriate and valid method of developing a training-stress balance is still unknown. Given that periodisation models have traditionally used 1-week microcycles and 4-week mesocycles,20–24 it could be argued that this arbitrary method is the most convenient way for coaching, conditioning and sports medicine staff.
While previous studies have investigated the relationship between injury and external workloads, such as the amount of training9 and competition5 ,9 deliveries that a fast bowler performs, this study is the first to display a link between internal workloads and injury in cricket fast bowlers, although internal workloads were only significant when viewed as a training-stress balance. Internal workload also encompasses all aspects of training and competition, such as conditioning and fielding requirements, perhaps explaining the higher training-stress balance injury likelihood compared with external workload. In addition to this, there is a component of the internal workload that measures an athlete's response to a given amount of work (RPE). This may result in an uncoupling of the internal workload from the external workload (eg, if a bowler manages the external workload well (low RPE), this may result in a lower injury risk than if the bowler does not cope with the same external workload (high RPE)). Therefore, coaches and medical staff should gather information on the internal and external measures of workload in order to gain insight into the likelihood of injury, as well as the preparedness of elite cricket fast bowlers.
The training-stress balance for internal and external workloads revealed few relationships in the current week, with injury risk being lowest at training-stress balances of greater than 200% for internal workload and 100–149% for external workload. These results may be of importance when fast bowlers are placed in match situations that require a high workload. Provided that bowlers are not suffering from residual fatigue incurred during the previous week, high workloads resulting in high fatigue may be achieved with minimal injury risk. However, the 1-week delay in injury risk that this high fatigue produces leaves that particular bowler exposed to injury at a later date. Future research should investigate appropriate recovery strategies after high fatigue, which could reduce delayed injury risk.
In summary, we investigated the relationship between internal and external workloads and injury risk in elite cricket fast bowlers. We extend upon the work of others,5 ,9 and the understanding of external workloads and injury risk, by also applying an accepted performance model16 in a novel fashion. The results of this study demonstrate that a high chronic external workload is protective of injury. Our results also demonstrate that injury risk increases significantly in the week following sharp increases in acute workload. Furthermore, the monitoring and comparison of acute and chronic workloads can offer valuable insight into the likelihood of injury. It is clear that a negative internal and external training-stress balance is associated with subsequent injury, which highlights the importance of monitoring internal and external workloads and acute and chronic workloads to minimise the risk of injury in elite cricket fast bowlers.
Elite cricket fast bowlers have an increased risk of injury in the week following a negative training-stress balance.
Greater increases in acute workload relative to chronic workload lead to greater injury likelihoods.
Higher external workloads over acute and chronic periods are associated with a reduced risk of injury.
How might this impact on clinical practice in the near future?
Increases in chronic workloads must be performed systematically, in an appropriate sequence and combination, in order to reduce injury likelihoods.
Acute and chronic workloads must be monitored and compared, as the training-stress balance is associated with increased injury risk in elite cricket fast bowlers.
Data pertaining to external and internal workloads should be gathered and modelled as a training-stress balance.
Adequate recovery strategies must be implemented in the subsequent week to workloads that elicit high fatigue.
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Contributors TJG and PB undertook the planning for this project, with advice from JWO. Data were collected and entered by PC and DB. BTH was responsible for additional data entry and data analysis. Responsibility for the content of this paper lies with BTH, TJG and PB.
Funding This work was supported and funded by Cricket Australia. | 2019-04-21T02:40:10Z | https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/48/8/708?ijkey=8a422daf00ce8463d153c26b75ee6007cc71dc20&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha |
Neither the arduous genesis of the concept, nor the refinement of the sketch, nor the battle for quality of execution, nor even unforeseen uses, those mutations of real life, provoke as much reflection as that one pure moment when the world seems perfect. The question I wish to raise in this article is what happens when we approach architecture from the opposite direction – not from a longing for perfection, but from the viewpoint of the ravages of time.
Time, it is said, is nature’s way of making sure not everything happens at once. Nowadays, however, it can no longer be relied on to do so effectively. The British physicist Julian Barbour, in seeking a ‘theory of everything’ to unite quantum mechanics and relativity, argues that the universe is just ‘one big bunch of nows’. Several articles in the September 2002 special edition of Scientific American postulate that the relativity of time is a human construct. In the transition from a humanist world view (in which the unfolding of the inner self prevails) to one in which the central issue is the processing of information, time becomes increasingly defined as a social contract rather than an actual fact. Some speak, in a fine oxymoron, of The End of Time.
Still, we need neither theoretical physics nor philosophy to realize the extent to which time has become ever more compressed into an everlasting here and now. We live in a culture of perpetual now-ness where what matters is the updating, rather than the creation, of information. Our days are spent checking for news: the doormat, the newspaper, the mailbox, the answering machine, voice mail, SMS alerts, teletext, stock prices, the diary, electronic newsletters, ICQ messages… it is an incessant bombardment. There is always something new to check. What typifies all these forms of communication, however up to date, is their asynchronicity. Nobody is hanging on at the other end of the line or sitting opposite you waiting to receive your answer. To respond, you in turn leave a message. This disconnection of communication from real contact is a crucial factor in the progressive subjectivization of time. Every message is stamped with its time of arrival. Your personal universe turns into a realm of time management, system maintenance and the meeting of deadlines.
There may however be an even more significant factor behind the triumph of the here and now. That factor is the simultaneity of different life styles. For adherents of the ‘flex’ way of life, everything is simultaneous. Whereas production and reproduction once inhabited quite separate realms, now work, relaxation and private life are everywhere at once. You take your work home with you, you structure your own day at the office and fire off an e-mail to a friend, to the real estate agent or to the tax consultant whenever you feel like it. Everyone has his or her personal To Do list. How else can you survive in a world where you have to think of everything at the same time, while you are continually bombarded with distractions?
And, just as individual life has become a concatenation of what were once strictly distinct levels of experience, society too has become a patchwork of different time experiences. Even in suburbia, renowned from the start for its monoculture, we see an emerging mosaic of black and white schools, full and empty parking spaces, fading children’s playgrounds, moribund churches and flourishing mosques. It is the result of a clouding of the collective sense of time in the multicultural society. Conflicts flare over the organization of time. Pungent cooking smells in the early morning. Five times a day to the house of prayer during Ramadan. Anger over Santa no longer paying his customary visit to the ‘black school’. Sentimental thoughts of combining the Islamic fast-breaking with Christmas. Everyone is more wide awake than ever, but nobody knows what time it is for someone else. What we learn from the situation is either that time is the fundamental order that binds everything together, or that it isn’t. An unquestioned acceptance of the clock, the diary and the calendar is making way for a system of temporary and arbitrary agreements which are made on purely pragmatic grounds and which only remain valid as long as it suits people. This is the culture that fosters the dissatisfaction that has erupted so virulently in recent times. This too is the heart of the matter of integration. Far more than a shared language, it is a shared time that enables people to live in harmony and to respect one another. Some biologists hold that an empathy with another individual’s use of time is what makes the real difference between the human and the animal. And although the perception of time scarcely rates a mention in the current fierce debates on integration, it is an area that can only be understood in terms of a wide diversity of social attitudes.
What reaction patterns can we detect in the current discourse on society? It is no longer a discussion about Left or Right, Socialist or Conservative. Although it is certainly possible to treat time as a divisive issue, choosing a position is not so much a matter of striking a balance between social justice and individual freedom. More and more, people are adopting positions in a (usually unconscious) reaction to today’s fragmented temporal order. As such, these are not ethical or material reaction patterns, but temporal ones. On the one hand, there is the progressive approach in which the right to self-determination with regard to time is central and the tendency towards further atomization of time is not really disputed. According to this way of thinking, it is up to those who think differently to become just as liberal, enlightened and individualistic. On the other hand, there is a powerful conservative tendency which expresses itself primarily in terms of the preservation of values and standards. But its real aim is to counter the further fragmentation of time with a desperate appeal to the needs of society. This mentality betrays a latent jealousy towards those groups who still display the social cohesion inherent in a strongly shared sense of time. After all, the only family that could still be termed the ‘cornerstone of society’ is the average immigrant family. The conservative tendency would dearly like to see greater ‘family reunification’ among native-born Netherlanders.
Besides these two conceptual assessments of what is going on in society, there is also the limit of tolerance that can be reached. How much loss of time can we still put up with – on public transport, in traffic jams, on the telephone, listening to muzak and repeated ‘Please hold the line’ messages? How much incomprehension can one tolerate about the breakdown of old customs such as shopping hours and public holidays, or the breakdown of the arbitrary borders of human existence by in-vitro fertilization and euthanasia?
All things considered, the whole cultural discourse is about the question of how far we can go in personalizing time towards a regime of total arbitrariness. Is there anything that still binds us together? Absolutely, and not infrequently such things are experienced as a foregone conclusion, as a tyranny of cliches: the obligatory networking via Christmas and New Year’s cards, the commercial enterprises of Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day, the annual mega-events of the Oscar awards and the Eurovision Song Festival. The elections. The Tour de France. And, of course, the constantly updated ‘Breaking News’. Criticism is frequently heard of the gratuitous significance of a news channel that does not serve truth but is driven by viewer statistics. But the hidden significance of this journalistic circus might just be the daily synchronization of society. The passive news consumer can observe daily how his fellow citizens remain equally passive in the face of the same news reports. It is a rarely analysed yet vital function of the press. The volatility of the media is the ultimate indicator of a nation’s durability.
This brings us to the concept of synchronicity, the extent to which each person’s clock can keep the same time as another’s. It is not long since all humanity shared such a moment. I refer to the Millennium, of course, and in particular to the Bug scare. The First of January 2000 was first supposed to be a universal party, followed by a universal catastrophe. It turned out, however, to be a moment like any other, a gigantic flop, the ultimate rude awakening, leaving ruins in its wake such as the Millennium Dome in London. The New Economy slammed into a brick wall. Now, in the anonymous year 2003, there is nothing on the calendar (apart from the threat of war, of course) to bring us together. We shall have to do it ourselves. For a society, the daily ration of news, celebrities and commercial violence can never be enough. Time is not held together by vague sentiments but by concrete actions. Interventions at a wider level than the individual are needed to promote the rediscovery of shared time. I could describe it as a ‘Delta Plan’ to halt the further disintegration of time, if that didn’t sound so parochially Dutch. So let’s call it a Grand Projet, a project to heal time.
The battle for time leaves us orphaned. If it is true that every form of society is ultimately founded on a shared time, then the question arises whether continued submission to a divisive time might not eventually lead to the impossibility of society, at any rate, as something that rises above the immediate pragmatics of controlling and coordinating, and gains a life-motivating, identity-imparting significance. This brings us to the ethical significance of shared time. Technically speaking it is quite conceivable that an entirely atomized and rationalized time might produce a perfectly functional society. It is not unimaginable that a continued commercialization of time into a system of asynchronous transactions might lead to a peaceful, or perhaps sedated, world. Such a system might run smoothly enough if its control mechanisms were perfected. But the question is of course whether that is desirable. Whether it is nice. And whether there aren’t other alternatives.
The tenet of this pamphlet is that it would be better not to carry out this sinister social experiment but to investigate how to repair the synchronicity that forms the foundation of social cohesion. That’s what matters: the synchronization of the experience of time to a level where you can recognize yourself in another; in his or her world view, life rhythm and ideals. For what starts as tolerance towards someone else’s lifestyle may end in indifference towards that other person’s time. The emancipation of time from the chains of faith and ideology has had a liberating effect on the individual’s right to self-determination, but has produced a society in which people have become their own time units, shut up in their time capsules and communicating with one another only in protocols. Indeed, extremely precise clocks are needed for those protocols. But sharing a clock is not the same as sharing a sense of time. A clock only helps you share clock time, not the duration, the experience, the sensation of existence. The clock only facilitates communication, not participation in another’s life. People will soon be asking what time something happened rather than how it felt. Nobody will know what the time is for someone else. Perhaps this is the true reason for the increased concern for the need for integration. The problem isn’t language. It is not the sharing of values and standards. It is primarily the failure to share time. Thus poor integration is not a problem of the other and the others, but a problem of ourselves. Nobody is able to say clearly what people are supposed to be integrating into, because we no longer know. It wouldn’t be the first time that a conversation ostensibly about the faults of the other has in fact been a conversation about ourselves. The accusation levelled most fiercely at present concerns the avoidance behaviour of some people. Yet avoidance is precisely the consequence of disintegrating time, and thus applies to us all.
It must be admitted, however, that the situation sketched above is far from being a fate to which humanity is meekly letting itself be led. Besides all the protests against globalization and excessive submission to market forces, which contain an implicit critique of the prevailing time perspective, there are countless forms of resistance where time is an explicit issue. It is the resistance of self-imposed slowness. In art, film and architecture, we can point to countless examples of works that consciously aim to decelerate movement and the viewer’s experience. Deceleration is meant to lead to contemplation, reflection, tactility and value. In the political arena, too, voices are regularly heard in favour of countermanding the devastating pace of life and opting for deceleration. It is a concept that is invariably linked to the ‘quality of life’, with the implication that haste impairs that quality. Even some businesses have now discovered slowness; not as a critique of capitalism, but as a commodity with good prospects of success in certain market segments. Fashion, body care, interior design, Slow Food: many different areas are profiting from the sense of unease by offering SlowTM. Even slowness can become a brand.
But slowness is not the same as shared time. Slowness can just as easily become a consumer product, a question of style and status; something you use to express your individuality, and hence a function of atomization. Slowness can also, in true Dutch style, be turned into a highly intensive project. Slowness is a way of flaunting your privileges. It has nothing to do with community formation. That can only be fostered by the reinstatement of chronomunitas, a community of time which is stronger than chronocracy, the dominance of time. In a community of time, time is not necessarily slower but it gains more significance due to the shared experience. This makes it fuller and more intense; it gains a historical and future perspective. A community of time does not fret about the waste of time because it continually generates time.
The question now is whether this vision of a community of time could lead to a real turning point in the current process of temporal fragmentation. Can time become public again? Will it be necessary to appoint a protector of public time, in the same way as for the public domain? Should that protector be the State, from whom we have the highest expectations in the case of public space? Must it also take responsibility for saving public time? At what levels could such a community of time be created? At the psychological level, where time is experienced? At policy level, where time is organized? Or at design level, where the creation of time also acquires shape? Below are some considerations with respect to the last of these three directions.
You can try to change the way people think about time and thus cultivate a new mentality based on the necessity of shared time. You can also try to organize society at various levels in such a way that the time factor becomes a theme of politics and administration and due weight is given to the importance of social synchronicity. But is it also possible to give the time factor visual form? Can the abstraction on which the whole of the above argument has been based be a source of inspiration for those shaping the look of the world, for the representations of values that we encounter daily? Can time be made visible in our environment, and can it be used in the design of clothing, interiors, buildings, cities and landscapes? And is such design capable of bringing people closer together? Can the conceptual counterpart of time – the order of space, material and form – make time?
Sure it can. In the case of our second skin, fashion, that is immediately clear. Few cultural expressions make such a potent contribution to a group identity as clothing. In the right gear, you’re part of the scene. Appearances are not only an expression of individual personality but are also a coded signal for various kinds of desired contact. There is still much that could be achieved in this area by means of colour, shape, difference, logos and all that. It would be a start. The most elementary form of synchronicity is a date.
And what about the third skin? Architecture is not without experience in this domain. I need only mention a few properties that architecture has always possessed to clarify this. If one interprets time as heritage, there are countless examples of the immortalization of values in stone and ornament. Memories were evoked, as it were, by form. The future, too, has a rich tradition of built imagery. The architects who designed as a way of proclaiming the future literally fabricated time. It must be said, however, that architecture has almost entirely lost this function, knowing neither which memories are worth petrifying nor which future is worth the effort of proclaiming. All that remains is the engineering of consent by way of neoclassicism, of community spirit by traditionalists, of the calming perspective by the Disney Corporation; or, at the other end of the spectrum, a vague fascination with the new, strange and far-off – the megastructures, the blobs and the deconstructivism. Architecture has largely abandoned its functions of commemoration and midwifery, and thus reflects the poverty of the historical consciousness. How can you build for tomorrow if you live purely in the here and now? The same applies to art in public spaces, which lost its memento mori function half a century ago. History and the future used to make time into a collective good, but the present day privatizes time.
Here’s another angle. If time is seen as a coefficient of efficiency, then architecture is a brilliant metaphor for this. There can be few fields where the struggle for time, the hunt for speed and the respect for haste have been so strikingly expressed. A professional field currently on the rise in the Netherlands sports the name ‘mobility aesthetics’. This discipline aims to give standing and visual form to a culture of motion, and offers a sequel to the non-aesthetic of mobility that prevails at high-visibility motorway locations, where two principles apply: the speed of access to and from the transport network, and the size of the logo on the cornice. The mobility aesthetic does not make time, but aspires to a more pleasant way of spending it.
Then there is the architecture that works on the basis that everything is fluid and will forever remain so. It is the architecture of the flex office and the drive-through restaurant. Its repertoire includes sliding walls, snap-on modules, system ceilings, tidal traffic flow schemes, multifunctional buildings and programmatic intensification. In fact, it is an architecture that has no intention of representing anything, but aims only to serve the evanescence of every idea, every programme and every life.
Digging a level deeper than the outward form, we may discern time as an organizational principle of our existence. Actually, the built environment is always a reflection of that. Indeed, it bolsters that organization. Just as time gradually spread by way of mechanical clocks and watches, so sources of heat and water have spread. Where people once huddled around an open fire or the village pump, and shared their joys and woes at the first signs of spring or of winter drawing on, now everyone can bask in a private mental universe at his or her own radiator or washbasin. The impact of technological advances on the individualization and hence the desyncrhonization of time cannot be overestimated. Scarcity makes time into a collective good, while abundance privatizes time. In that respect, architecture has less and less capacity to create collective time. But enormous quantities of private time are being produced.
One thing is clear, time has long been present in architecture and it will remain so as long as architecture is accommodating, aspires to cultural significance or is ambitious. Indeed, there is still much to be achieved in this area with a greater awareness of the temporal dimension. But the real question is this: is it possible to conceive of an environment that not only calms, accelerates, accommodates or privatizes time, but which also makes ‘public time’ by explicitly taking the necessity of doing so as its point of departure? Is it possible to conceive of an architecture that does not separate by setting boundaries, but which unites people by telling stories relevant to these times? An architecture that synchronizes? An architecture that is not finished when the design has been translated into material form and handed over, but just begins at that point? This would be a Time-Based Architecture, an architecture in which process and duration is just as important as form. This architecture would adopt the process of becoming as part of its meaning. It would be programmable and reprogrammable, and would employ reusable technology to that end: monitor screens, polymers, projection techniques, sensory systems or electromagnetic fields. But much more is possible than this widespread introduction of new media. It would admittedly permit a mobile and interactive image, but that in itself says nothing about the content of the image. At that level, too, use could be made of the time factor. | 2019-04-20T16:20:31Z | http://volumeproject.org/time-based-architecture/ |
BITSTOCK - A P2P Micro Currency / Stock Exchange / Escrow / Payment Gateway.
Bitcoin Forum > Bitcoin > Project Development > BITSTOCK - A P2P Micro Currency / Stock Exchange / Escrow / Payment Gateway.
This gets a little long at the other end, so get youself a cupa and make youself comfey. I've been contemplating a couple of ideas for sometime now, that have eventualy gelled into one unified whole and I think it might now be worth the time to share it with you.
On one hand I had wondered if the bitcoin network and protocol could be re-modeled and co-opted to create a useful smaller network for a company to trade shares and originaly I was thinking that it would use the standard protocol and be modified so it had a smaller limit to the number of total units of trade that would be created. Where as the bitcoin network has a target of 21 million total coins, the company 'bitstock' (seems like an apropriate term to coi.. er... stock) would only need, say, 1 million, or even 10 thousand.
Anyhow, I concieved this with some concerns about how coins on one network would be prevented from being exported on another. As I understand it, this is no a concern anyhow. The basic idea, was to allow a business to permit the tracking of it's equity by implementing this micro-currency to represent it's shares and those could in turn be bought and sold with regular bitcoin.
Due to more recent experiences with the liqidity issues of bitcoin, with respect to trading them in with of regular currency and then after the MtGox incident, I began contemplating another seperate idea, which involves implementing the functions of a trading exchange in the same manner as bitcoin using peer to peer technology. Like MtGox, only over P2P. Then I wondered, if such a trading exchange application, couldn't also be incorporated into the bitcoin interface. After some more pondering, I realized, that both these ideas were begging to be amalgamated. The bitstock I realised should become a seperate protocol in it's own right and the network and blockchain modified to handle some slightly different data. I should make one thing clear from the outset, that is: The bitcoin network and protocol would stay exactly as is and this idea is only a complementary support, which itself, demands bitcoin trading in order to work.
Whereas a bitcoin only has one long identifier of it's uniqeness, the bitstock would have less need for such a large range of unique identifcation, but some of the identity string, could be reserved for a secondary, client assigned identity. The client bitstock application as I envisage, would be able to trade in a large number of individual stocks, comodities, and currencies. Anybody who has something to trade, such as produce, services and even their own company shares, could list them on this virtual stock exchange. The individual trading units, would deliberately have their own block chain (only because I think they would have to) and the units of bitstock, would be asigned an identity according to what type of commodity/currency/stock it is being used to payfor.
You can imagine a whole table of comodities, currencies and stocks, that each person or company may have holdings in, allong with of course, bitcoin itself, which would stand as the base unit of value, against which all the others are calculated. The bitstock could be very effective in establishing business to business trading pathways, where bitcoin can be traded between companies for the multitude of bitstock commodities and services on offer. Companies who provide payment gateways for their regular local currencies, can also list the currency they support. Apart from improving liqidity of bitcoin by diversifying it's pathways to liquidity, while building strong bridges of B2B trading, it could also open a much easier and more fertile path to listing a startup for seed capital. Once you have a company listed and its business plan is published (publishing could perhaps even be provided as an intergrated network service), investors, stock brokers or VC's, may speculate and trade to their hearts content.
When the company returns dividends, the shareholders need to be paid fairly, so the bitstock network might implement a means by which the company automatically divides the proffit and sends bitcoin in exact proportion to the amount of shares each shareholder has. Proffits of course, will be made in bitcoin. If they are made in other currencies, then they must be converted into bitcoin to satisfy the rules of the bitstock network. The reason for this is that bitstock would only be generated by the node of the company or person trading this particular stock or commodity they list. There will be no mining for bitstock in this network. Instead you have to have a ballance of bitcoin proportional to the value of the companys soluable equity. That will be measured in bitcoin only. The bitcoins you have may be spent, in just the same manner as any company uses running capital, but unless you make a profit somehow, you cant buy back more bitcoin than you spend. You dont make a measured turnover letalone profit; not until it is converted to bitcoin in the trading wallet.
The value of your companies shares may rise or fall independantly of it's total bitcoin but not the amount of them that you release. You can only sell at agreed market value and you could only buy back what you have in bitcoin to spend. As far as the client software is concerned, you are just another trader. The companies bitcoin is no better than anybody elses. Just as the bitcoin network prevents double spending, the bitstock network prevents insider trading. Any transaction on the books must be have bitcoin on one side of the ledger. I can well invisage this being incorporated into, or fleecing the opensource code of a good double entry book keeping application, like GNUcash. The point of double entry is everything id accounted in a zero sum system. Every payment from one place is made to some other place and every budget category, is an account, with in and out ledgers. If everything paid for by the company must be taken in bitcoin to be written off as expense, then you ultimately need bitcoin to cover everthing. That's what justifies selling your bitstock shares for bitcoin though.
When you release some shares, it reduces the overall value of them, but since they are released by selling them for bitcoin, you have more trading currency to work with. The bitstock network will not allow bitstock to be bought or sold with anything other than bitcoin but only provides a seperate protocol and network, for liquidating one currency or comodity against another, via the exchange of bitcoin. The number of bitstock units in play at any moment is a zero sum game when played against all the bitcoin equity in the trading companies wallet ballance and material equity. The network can see to it that all of a companies trades from their trading wallet are listed publicly in a running budget ballance sheet, so that shareholders can scrutinise every transaction made, with assets, liabilities, trading ballance, existing shares and their current value, all on display.
The managers may buy assets for the company with local currency cash and not record it, but that will only give their shareholders a free gift. Instead, to account for a purchace, they must use bitcoin or spend bitcoin out of the trading wallet, to buy other currency. Now it's on record they have accounted for their spending and can make purchaces that they need. The management cant however sell anything out of the company ballance sheet, that isn't already accounted for in terms of bitcoin. That of course goes for bitstock too. You could try to run a cash sideline, tradeing out company resources for a local currency, but that will just weaken the proffit you can record and the value of your stock. It's nothing that any company cant already do, for that matter. In this system at least, you are held accountable to much tighter scrutiny and shareholders are granted the means to track all variables of the companies net worth, by deliberately making them reducible to one common unit of P2P currency (our beloved bitcoin), while shares are floated in a way that is also universaly acountable. Only bitcoin in. Only bitcoin out. all assets, liabilities, profits and shares accounted for.
Hopefully companies will eventualy be able to trade for almost all of their requirement B2B+P2P and very little will be needed to be reduced to fiat currency. Their stock can be listed, allong with their produce or services and anybody trading in bitstock can have a smorgasboard of portfolio choices. The existing currency exchangers will not need to maintain central user databases nor have login accounts with all that personal information. Instead they can concentrate on providing a gateway to buy and sell bitcoin for regular currency and list their currency options as on the exchange network. The bitcoin economy could then be rid of a serious bottleneck, causing security and liquidity issues.
The bitstock client, will obviously need to incorporate a regular bitcoin payment client frontend at the very least, but it should also incorporate a gateway to transact localy with a regular bank account. Local currency liquidity is a serious shortfall at the moment and the option of third party centeral websites to play intermediates, is a huge drawback for liquidity and security, while it undermines the benifits of P2P currency. Regular currency exchangers should offer the equivilent to POS, requiring only your direct deposit details, encoded over the network, never stored on their system and never human readable, but simply triggering the authorisation of their client to buy BTC at the listed price and given quantity, while ensuring they are paid. Selling bitcoin is the reverse process, authorising a direct deposit payment and negotiating both the bank payment details and the bitcoin transaction.
With currency, as with any comodity or stock, bitstock acts at an automatic escrow as well. It only releases the bitcoin in reciept of the stock being sold. The trading client nodes will agree by the buyer taking an offer on the market, and confirming the bitcoin is availble in their wallet, then signaling the buy to the sellers client node. That locks in both payment and supply so no more human intervention is permitted. Only with a multi-commodity P2P network or two seperate networks, is it possible to monitor both comodities in a transaction and make sure one agreed unit of trade gets exchanged for another. That in my view has the makings of a universal online stock exchange and bank to network, network to bank trading gateway, to go with the wonderfull, universal bitcoin currency we already have.
OK that was an overwhelming intro. I'll leave it at that and wait to hear what confusion I've mannaged to cause. Needless to say, your input and queries are greatfully welcomed.
Re: BITSTOCK - A P2P Micro Currency / Stock Exchange / Escrow / Payment Gateway.
How can you have a "stock exchange" with a limited amount of shares to be created for an infinite amount of companies?
I'm not to sure where the infinite amount of companies comes in. It's already hard enough to choose from all the different brands of dish washing detergent. I hope they won't ALL be cleaning product manufacturers.
The calculations I heard of, gave bitcoin the divisibility to trade with something like three times the GDP of the entire world in units the size of a few cents. Of course that doesn't make them infinite, so if an infinite number of bitcoiners ever arrive (because they'd be so rich and successful and have so many children ), then there won't be enough bitcoin either. Given that's a problem for anything used as a commodity of trade, bitstock is no different. Even quarkcointm would be finite. In fact, bitstock would not actually be a commodity of trade as such, but a tethered unit of value (in equity) and a record of public accountability.
Without even doing the math, it's clear that the number of shares for any one commodity or stock, don't have to have even the tiniest fraction of potential volume that bitcoin do. One way to see this, is to realize that every share of bitstock is bought with bitcoin. Say we limit the unit quantity (for a single commodity) to one million bitstock. Given that we are dividing the entire network capacity by 21, for one company to exhaust their share trading headroom, their stock would collectively have to be 1/21 of the entire trading capacity of bitcoin, with share prices as small as the minimum value of bitcoin possible. If 21 companies did this at the same time, all the bitcoin in the world would not cover their share value. Remember, the only thing that allows the network to create bitstock, is the sale of bitstock for an agreed amount of bitcoin.
You can only buy as much stock in anything as there is currency to cover it. The share value doesn't have to be, and isn't tied to any particular sum of bitcoin. While there will have to be less in circulation of any one bitstock commodity, the total capacity of the whole bitstock network is at least as divisible as bitcoin. Shares worth $2.00 will convert to the current trading value of bitcoin, and buy the equivalent value in some other commodity at say $0.50. So you'll get 4 times the number of shares, but no bitcoins will be lost or added to the bitcoin network and no minimum units of trade (or overall value) will be added or lost in the bitstock economy. They are both zero sum closed loops, with finite capacity. If all the companies stocks and commodities together could exhaust the capacity of bitstock, then it could exhaust the capacity of bitcoin too, if bitcoin were used to buy it from the stock exchange.
Think of bitstock as an automatic receipt for bitcoin. It can be divided just as finely as the existing bicoin, but never increased in quantity beyond the amount of bitcoin in circulation. So just like a receipt, you can never write out one for more than you are payed. I could be wrong, but if there ever looks like we are getting close to an infinite number of companies, we can sell all our bitcoin and go back to an infinite regression of debt, using fiat currency.
Have you looked at Open Transactions?
Because Open Transactions didn't really have markets yet when I went looking, and because I only have one incoming port, already in use, I have so far been using IRC bots. I have had difficulties in the past in reliably getting hosting that can run stuff I compile myself and wasn't ready to splurge on a high end hosting solution, plus I don't like the idea of running financial applications on servers that someone else physically controls.
What I have done so far is simply open for each type of currency or share an account in each of the others, so that for example any bitcoins someone exchanges for General Mining Corp (GMC) shares go into General Mining Corp's bitcoin account, any Britcoins (UKB: United Kingdom Britcoins) someone exchanges for General Mining Corp (GMC) shares go into General Mining Corp's britcoin account and so on.
The bots thus act as kind of asset reserves, each asset type having its own reserves of each of the other asset types with which it can "back" itself (by using those reserves to "buy back", aka "redeem" it own shares/coins).
The main test/demo bot is NickelBot, which lurks in various #bitcoin-related channels on Freenode IRC.
I am also partway through coding a simple perl bot for Crossfire RPG that uses the same back-end shell-scripts as the IRC bots to make similar functionality available inside the RPG (Role Playing Game).
Open Transactions uses a package that can create RPC stuff for many languages, so I am also partway through putting an Open Transactions client into an eggdrop IRC bot using tcl rpc calls.
As more and more asset types based on bitcoin code come into existence all the time the need for systems to handle trading between any and all of them keeps growing. I originally stumbled upon bitcoin while searching for forex-and-commodity market system sourcecode. at that time I had been working on IRC bots and Crossfire RPG bots that would automatically trade, basically all sitting around chatting about various stuff they have in various warehouses on various planets, or in various stashes requiring various amounts of complicated/expensive shipping to move them from one repository to another, wheeler-dealing with each other each trying to increase its player/owner's holdings of whatever assets/items/currencies that particular player happened to want it to maximise for them.
Shifting focus to abstract units of value such as bitcoins is actually a bit of a simplification compared to my original aim which had been complicated by transport costs and amount of time needed to transport stuff and of course also even the potential for bad things to happen enroute (cutting off of supply lines, bandits lurking along the trade routes etc).
I am not a big fan of forcing everything to be priced/valued in terms of just one thing. In my Digitalis D'ydii Cluster on BBSes decades ago I always allowed players to pick any item from price lists to use as measure of the price of everything else, so that for example a player interested in obtaining tons of fuel to get the heck off the planet could view everything's value in terms of tons of fuel, or a player interested in shipping stuff could view all values in terms of tonlightmonths of transportation or whatever.
Not yet, but I soon will.
How about a simple server on your own system, just for your code and have the hosted web server, pull the CGI calls from downstream? I know you can get separate virtual IP services. Or maybe just putout for a fixed IP. You should get enough bandwidth for a proof of concept. Then donations for the upgrade. If it looks like your doing something useful (and it does), hell what's wrong with a little begging?Just look at my sig.
Yup! Sounds like it would be an approximite work-a-like to the concept I had in mind, unless its not a P2P client. We really need a block chain for proof of work.
You got it goin' on dude. Proof of concept is eminent.
Somebody round here is working on (or made) an interface for actually using bitcoin for trading in game. I s'pose it just monitors the game units of credit and passes the bitcoinage on in proportion to any trade it makes in game, like playing poker with match sticks over the table, while passing money under it.
Sounds great. Dunno what 'eggdrop' is (other than how you make breakfast when you wake up still drunk). You can go almost anywhere with RPC though. But IRC for the P2P seems like a bit of a fudge. Still, would show how the system functions from a users POV.
As more and more asset types based on bitcoin code come into existence all the time the need for systems to handle trading between any and all of them keeps growing. I originally stumbled upon bitcoin while searching for forex-and-commodity market system sourcecode.
It's like watching raindrops before the ground is completely wet, just before the advent of a torrential downpour. Just began inquiries about forex myself, which I discovered, as I tried finding ways to liquidate bitcoin for pig penny's. Never got around to opening the practice trading account though. I'm too busy with bitcoin ideas.
at that time I had been working on IRC bots and Crossfire RPG bots that would automatically trade, basically all sitting around chatting about various stuff they have in various warehouses on various planets, or in various stashes requiring various amounts of complicated/expensive shipping to move them from one repository to another, wheeler-dealing with each other each trying to increase its player/owner's holdings of whatever assets/items/currencies that particular player happened to want it to maximise for them.
WOW!! If you could get them to reproduce, you could get some of you best game playing years in for centuries after you kick the bucket. If the humans go extinct after killing the wildlife and environment, your bots could be playing away for who knows how long in solar powered homes where PC's got left running.
It's a simplification to getting loans, making payment by credit card and using PoxPal too. Wait till it's fairly liquid. I used to play TTD/OpenTTD a lot. Just realised you could to the same sort of thing with that.
I am not a big fan of forcing everything to be priced/valued in terms of just one thing. In my Digitalis D'ydii Cluster on BBSes decades ago I always allowed players to pick any item from price lists to use as measure of the price of everything else, so that for example a player interested in obtaining tons of fuel to get the heck off the planet could view everything's value in terms of tons of fuel, or a player interested in shipping stuff could view all values in temrs of tonlightmonths of transportation or whatever.
There's a very good reason for implementing this common denominator system. More than one actually. Firstly, BTC is the one which will be available to all nodes and the only one which is instant free P2P digital currency. If there has to be a unit that all are measured in, then BTC is the one. The reason there must be a single common unit, is so that the trading between bitstock and bitcoin are kept in sync. The bitcoin economy is a closed loop (with respect to existing bitcoin at least). bitstock is closed too but only with respect to all other bitstock. Bitcoin are not on the same tally sheet. You cant take wheat say, as payment for bitstock. Why? Because wheat or candy, or horse poo, cant be made accountable. Shareholders have to pay for bitstock with bitcoin, for the sake of accountability. So company owners have to buy with bitcoin, so the books will balance. And if they don't the public record will show. That's OK for honest companies, because one of the many things they can buy, is other currency. It's no problem even to automate trades for reasonable margins to maintain a predictable float of working capital.
Also the tax man should love this (and get off bitcoins back). Anybody who says bitcoin is too anonymous, and cant be held accountable is wrong. If you have a P2P stock exchange system and double entry account balancing between a single currency's economy and the commodities/stocks/assets of the company listed on this single exchange economy, you can always keep stringent control in real time, of whether the books balance. Governments can audit with a bot and get off the honest guy's back. NOW! Once they are satisfied that bitcoins can be accounted for, they may just turn on the fed (their ruthless captors) and run to bitcoin for cover (and revenue). Having one unit of trade, either in or out of the bitstock network is a seriously major feature, because it keep all company equity to a known value.
Besides, there has to be some rule that regulates how and when the client node gets to write bitstocks into the network. When they are created, they need to also be like bitcoin, and not be like fiat money. The asset type or commodity they're paid for with, needs to be of a fixed limited quantity. all other commodities / currencies are unknown variables. You cant tell how much wheat (or oil, or orange juice) a company has. If opens to trade, it had better offer what it has in bitcoin. or else it wont be counted as an asset. Owners can value and buy with bitcoin, into their own existing assets, to float bitstock for sale and to show true company value. Otherwise the shares will be less attractive.
For over a decade now, I have toyed with a technological idea for a processing system to harvest honey. I used to keep bees as a young lad, and combined a few ideas to avoid heat and ventilation issues. That made it feasible to incorporate a molded wax frame, timber-less frame and disposable honeycomb system, to avoid expensive equipment costs in making frames and extracting honey. Instead of a complex centrifugal extractor, lots of handling (uncapping loading extractors etc.), the comb could be simply squashed to release the honey and the wax melted down for re-molding and for an added cash crop of wax. That coincided with growing concerns over health regulations as each beekeeper tended to run their own extracting plant and the conditions were not always perfectly sanitary. My system afforded itself to mass production and outsourcing of the extraction with much better efficiency. A larger scale plant like this would put such a company between the beekeeper and the large honey wholesalers.
Then a few years back, the prices went through the floor. Beekeepers couldn't sell their produce for the cost to bring it to market. This was strange as the prices on the supermarket shelf was still about the same. It all came down to greed and market monopolization. I considered if I could ever be in the position to set up the honey plant, how I could restore the balance. How it could be financed without going to the banks. The beekeepers, I decided, would have to be shareholders. But being cash poor they would be just as stuck. I realized that if it could be done it would be something like a cooperative. It then struck me, to permit... no INSIST, that equity in the company could only be paid with honey. I would sell shares not for money, but for honey. The beekeepers would have the upper hand and the marketers would have to by honey at a fair price. They could not buy shares on the open market to 'future proof' their monopoly either.
I never went further with this idea for lack of numerous needs and other interests, but it always reminds me, that any commodity can be traded as currency in a controlled system and demand for that commodity can be created if you would trade company equity for it. The simplest implementation of a bitcoin like network, struck me as a way to distribute units representing company shares that could be bartered for any commodity or currency you want to create a demand for. In this case the software will require require bitcoin to be paid for with bitstock and vice versa, because the ability to account with a single common denominator in a zero sum network is the way we keep the books balanced at all times.
Everything WILL be valued in terms of everything else though. By using a common denominator (that is - common to all), each commodity may float freely as market demand would dictate, but at any given time, they will ALL have a relative value to each other, which can be calculated by converting to a common reference value. Anything that goes up 3 BTC, will also go up by 3 BTC relative to everything else. The software can and would, still show all manner of comparisons and even incorporate an embedded spreadsheet or dynamic tables. You may even be able to buy a quantity of A for an equivalent quantity of C, while bitccoin B is used by the buying node, to pay for the commodity you are trading, then in exchange it is passed directly to the the node with the commodity you wish to buy, who will automatically trade C for exactly the same amount of bitcoin. To you it will seem like you simply bartered some A for some C and your bitcoin balance B, will remain just the same. But even a balanced swap will cause a matching set of transactions, that will create events broadcast to all nodes using bitstock. This way all nodes can evaluate the network data for any commodity they might care to monitor. Your own portfolio would have rich real time budgetary details, for each company who's bitstock you hold. Other commodities like gold, wont have budgets but may have other useful performance statistics.
But dude, I gotta say, you got some pretty good background for a project like this. Maybe you should wind down the in game 'toy currencies' and play in the big sandpit. Of course monetizing games would still be a good lead in path for both gamers and software companies to accept licence payments. They also have some of the best commodities to trade online, being that they're digital and all.
Game vs non-game-aka-real: Martian BotCoin is a euphemism for Martial BotCoin and part of the game's timeline includes the discovery of Earth in time for the Battle of Britain and, upcoming (some say in 2063), the Pointy Eared Aliens Nexus. Foiling the prognosticators who posit a huge catastrophe between now and the Pointy Eared Aliens Nexus is part of the game.
P2P: Martian BotCoins, United Kingdom Britcoins, Canadian Digital notes etc etc etc are all implemented using minimally modified bitcoin code, and a post just minutes ago about Multicoin (nee Freecoin) hints that maybe they will be more public more soon than the minimal mods made to plain old bitcoin code had led their proponents to expect. | 2019-04-19T19:33:35Z | https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=23844.0 |
अमोल व माझी ओळख २००८ पासूनची. माझी जन्मपत्रिका बघून त्याने काही अचूक अंदाज वर्तवले आहेत.
माझी धनु लग्नाची पत्रिका असून दशम स्थानआतील कन्येचा बुध व्यवसायास अनुकूल आहे अन मी नक्कीच व्यवसाय करेन असे त्याचे मत होते.
नवीन नोकरी हातात नसतानाही नौकरी सोडून देण्याचा माझा विचार मी त्याला बोलून दाखविला. जून पर्यंत थांब कारण तुझे बदलाचे योग तेव्हाच आहेत हा त्याचा सल्ला मी फारसा गांभीर्याने घेतला नाही. मी माझ्याच क्षेत्रातील व्यवसायास सुरुवात केली. अमोलच्या अन्दाजाप्रमाणे जुन २०१२ मध्ये नोकरीतील बदल दिसून आला. माझी प्रश्नकुंडली मांडून त्याने दिलेल्या ३ तारीखांपैकी १ तारीख अचूक जुळून आली. ज्योतिषशास्त्र इतके पण अचूक असू शकते ह्यावर माझा विश्वास बसला. गुरु मीनेत आला कि माझे घर होईल असा पंतांचा अंदाज होता! मला मात्र काही कारणामुळे तसा विश्वास नव्हता. पण माझे नशीब खरेच बलवत्तर होते. अनेक अडचणीतूनही मी घर घेतले.
That day I won’t forget in my life when I unexpectedly lost my job and it was really difficult for me to accept. I was more worried because my marriage had been arranged and my engagement day was getting closer. I approached Amol Kale. He studied my horoscope and predicted that I would get another job in next ‘two days’. I was astonished when I received new job offer literally in two days. I want to thank to Amol Kale from bottom of my heart for his moral support through his Astrological predication.
I am from media profession and spiritual by nature. I did experience some problems in my early life and could not find the reason for those till I met Amol. He explained me the facts based on the past which was amazing. His urge to explain the things on account of your stars, with the happening things in your present can not be refused. I don’t feel like to go into much detail with the incidents… because problems are common, how we treat them in a right way is big deal. He predicted many things which came true. Now I treat him as my spiritual guru. I pray…may god give him more and more power to heal and guide people in future.
I have known Amol for the last 5 years and he is a trusted advisory who has helped me through the years. He has not only given me guidance and direction about life and the way one should live it happily. His predictions have always been accurate and have helped me mould my life in the right direction. He is one of the best persons I have known who is always ready to help.
The 2 most important days in your LIFE are the day you were BORN and the day you find out WHY.. This question "WHY" has been hovering me and Amol has helped me get in terms with it. Few things that i was not aware of Amol made me realize and I would like to Thank him with all my heart for the wonderful insight he has provided with respect to my horoscope. With your support and guidance I am sure I will get past through all the downs :) Would like to Thank you once again.
"I was introduced to Mr. Amol Kale, by my close friend and I'm thankful to God, that I got an opportunity to meet the Genius in Astrology. I had few unanswered questions hovering in my mind, for which I was desperately looking for someone to get them resolved. At times in life you come to a juncture where all you need is a direction and clarity of what is good for you. After consulting Amol I was not only touched by his insights for details, his predictions and foresight vision, but also glad to interact with a kind-hearted person. I would take this opportunity to mention that he was the first person who explained to me that few happenings in my current life have a connection with events in my past life. Many of his resolutions have worked for me and it’s great to know that you have a person like him, with whom you can approach with your concern as a friend. Thanks Amol!!!"
I have experienced Amol’s predictions to be always perfect whenever I have consulted him over various situations in the past. I would like to share an experience with you. In June 2007, I resigned from my job and decided to move out of Hyderabad. I consulted to Amol. He convinced me to be patient and not to leave job till November. As not being the right time. I rejoined the company and decided to work for next 3 to 4 month. In Nov 2007 he predicted that I will leave the town in coming 15 days for good. And it just happened the same way. I am thankful to Amol for his guidance.
I have been in close company of Amol, His journey as an Astrologer comes with a big price. His constant penance to understand the basis of life structure and decoding the life purpose has been a larger part of him. Naturally this is one of the greatest reason he is a good guide. As an Astrologer he only seeks complete satisfaction of the problem that so ever comes to him. My bank account was hacked and a lac rupees were stolen from my bank, Amol predicted I will be getting my money back with a deduction around 10 K and me exactly got 88 K from the police. Many such incidents were I have taken guidance from Amol; he has taken things to detail and precision. I am thankful to have a friend and a guide like Amol. Best wishes.
I am studying medical astrology from Amol. He is having an interesting personality, mysterious combination of professional artist, spontaneous astrologer and spiritual aspirant. Since I had heard a lot about him, and few of my friends are having some issues, I show him their horoscopes and asked his opinion, and was really amazed by the accuracy of his predictions about the past of the people whose horoscope I shared with him.
His lectures on medical astrology, explores the spirituality within. During the lecture, the way Amol decodes and simplifies the various complicated theorems of astrology is extremely incredible. It changes meaning of lot of terminologies for us and also dismisses our earlier beliefs about use of astrology. Earlier I had a very casual approach towards astrology just being a mean for some fun, but now the overall interaction gave a complete new horizon to look at the events in the life.
I came in contact with Amol when I was staying in Vashi, in the year 2000. I learnt from somebody that he can foretell, based on kundali. That time I had only heard about the words like astrology and kundali. So like any other common person I was very much intrigued and urged him to prepare my kundali. I was really surprised when he predicted about me, my nature, my likes and dislikes since it were almost matching.
Here I would like to share a few experiences.
1) When my marriage was fixed, I approached him to prepare my to be wife’s kundali. I told him about her family background. By looking at the kundali, he could foretell that the date of birth of my to be wife was wrong since it was not matching with the family background I had described to him. Then I called back my wife and told her about this. She was also unaware about this since she never felt to cross check her date of birth (The date of birth on school leaving certificate was put different than the actual date for admission purpose). Then from hospital records, we could get the correct date of birth.
2) The other experience was when I was trying for the overseas jobs. That time I was not in contact with him. But one day his elder brother told me that he had left a message for me. When I contacted him, he told me that there could be a problem with the documents. I was surprised because I really had a very tough time preparing my documents. I felt as if he had some intuition about me.
We attended the session of BHUTA SHUDDHI on 30th July 2017. Thank you to Mr. Amol Kale who has open up complete different aspect of human body mechanism in very simple but unique way. Which will definitely help us to enhance the knowledge & improve the quality of life - human body at it best level Eagerly waiting for the upcoming session of BHUTA SHUDDHI.
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The City of St. Augustine has assumed management of the city's 450th commemoration.
City Manager John Regan, with an in-house management support team, has directed an official logo design, web page, and procedural outline for City Commission review in 3 p.m. workshops before its regular 5 p.m. meetings the second and fourth Mondays monthly.
Regan's outline includes as "key partners" the county Visitors and Convention Bureau, County Chamber of Commerce, and County Tourist Development Council.
Among the city plans: hiring fundraisers, public relations, and event managers.
Following a format developed by the private First America Foundation which dissolved recently, the city plans no committees but will have Partnership and Request for Event forms for organizations interested in programs or projects for the 450th.
450 Community Corps Chairman George Gardner is referring all inquiries to the city manager's office, 904-825-1006, [email protected].
Easy does it, says the executive board of the 450 community corps, as the corps ramps up amid confusion over planning for the city's 450th anniversary.
An early general meeting of the corps was considered, to assure the community that programs and projects will be developed - with some already under way - despite a lack of accomplishment by the private First America Foundation designated by the city last August.
But the board favors getting some "solid initiatives" under way first. "Better to deliver than to promise," one member said.
Among projects: Tour guide testing/training revision, citywide beautification, a period clothing rental program, and a black 18th century militia.
This is the first meeting of the 450 Community Corps board in nearly two years, and the last general meeting was in February 2009, as the corps stepped back to an assisting role rather than appearing to compete with city efforts.
Attending the June 7 board meeting were George Gardner, Scott Manny, Eric Johnson, and Gerald Eubanks. Absent were Roy Jaeger (out of town), Nancy Birchall (resigned due to directorship with First America Foundation), and Bob Russell.
Management of our city's 450th anniversary is being shifted to a community-based non-profit foundation.
City officials agreed to the shift, realizing a government-appointed steering committee would be subject to Florida's Sunshine Law, limiting efficiency in day-to-day discussions and operations.
City Manager John Regan said the shift "moves us from the conceptual to the developmental and implementation phases." A formal agreement will designate First America Foundation, Inc., as the city's official foundation. Regan said $275,000 in "seed money" will open the foundation's bank account.
Attorney and former St. Johns County Chamber Chairman Don Wallis and Jacksonville businessman and city resident Colin Bingham developed the foundation plan, similar to that of the Jamestown 2007 commemoration. The foundation's first chores: reaching out to governments, the community, and businesses.
Last October, formal planning for our 450th began with a flurry of activities under the direction of our City Commission, with former Historic Tours of America National Museum Director Dana Ste. Claire at the helm as 450th Commemoration executive director.
A commission workshop, Regional Steering Committee meeting, community general assembly, and start of a seven-part First America program series got things started.
The 450 Corps Executive Board authorized a name change to 450 Community Corps, and accepted Dana's request to "assist in the organization of events and community resources for the 450th Commemoration."
Its mission: "to generate community interest, ideas, and potential sponsorships to help support the 450th Commemoration Commission," and specifically, to be "responsible for the recruitment, coordination, and training of volunteers, as well as general information services."
The 450 Community Corps has since gathered more than 300 volunteer applications, while the 450 Commission office has identified at least 40 potential committees. A major Regional Steering Committee meeting is planned for April, when Dana will outline plans for developing those committees.
Two committees are already recognized and well under way: the Maritime Activities Committee - originally the 450 Corps' Ship Committee - focused on construction of a 16th century tall ship, and Romanza, developing an annual music and arts festival patterned after Charleston's Spoleto.
A third committee is quietly developing its plans for a period clothes closet - period dress to be made available to both reenactors and newcomers to living history interpretation, to encourage participation in those many events.
Visit our Idea Vault and vote for your favorite projects and programs for our 450th commemoration.
11/02 Monday 5:30 - Flagler Auditorium - 450 "General Assembly"
The 450 Community Corps, its Ship Committee, and the Romanza Festival Committee we spawned are each scheduled to make brief presentations at Wednesday's Steering Committee meeting.
A general 450 Community Corps meeting will be scheduled after this round of sessions to begin efforts in cooperation with the formal organization.
The "450 Community Corps," proposed by your executive board and supported by 450 Director Dana Ste. Claire, makes it clear that our Corps - perhaps perceived as a "maverick" organization to get commemoration planning under way two years ago - is today a part of, and not apart from - the great challenges ahead.
"The 450th Community Corps is dedicated to the success of the St. Augustine 450th Commemoration by encouraging active community participation, promoting projects and programs, and assisting individuals and organizations in achieving these goals."
It's unfortunate that we have not met as a full organization for seven months. But rapid developments in the organization of an official 450 effort brought continued delays.
Be assured that all the effort you put into generating community interest and developing an awesome list of potential programs and projects is not wasted. Dana has asked us to make a presentation at the next Steering Committee meeting - in late September or early October. At that meeting, he plans to present a strategic plan and organizational outline to move our community's efforts forward.
Our next general meeting will follow that Steering Committee meeting. In the meantime, your board will continue to develop a business plan and achievable strategic objectives, and to update our 450 Community Corps citizen/organization database.
We will shortly be sending you an outline of proposed Value, Vision and Mission statements, and Talking Points and Program Ideas. We look forward to your feedback.
We've all heard "It Takes a Village ..." It's critical that we all get out the word. Our Corps and the commemoration effort involves our entire county and all its diversity.
A name change to 450 Community Corps, a mission statement, and updates on projects already under way, will be brought to a general meeting of the 450 Community Corps by its board of directors in the near future.
The name change will avoid confusion with the federal commemoration organization, and the mission is to encourage active community participation, promote projects and programs, and assist individuals and organizations in their development.
Among the exciting projects under way are construction of a 16th century caravel, the "San Augústin," a Charleston Spoleto-style festival its steering committee is calling "Romanza," a St. Augustine song being developed by a New York songwriter, a commemorative stamp, photo and artifact exhibits, and La Compania de Juan Ponce de Leon (company of Ponce de León), to interpret the explorer's exploits.
The 450 Community Corps board of directors is focused on project development not for the upcoming commemorations specifically, but as legacy programs. They'll be put in place when they're ready, become part of the commemorations if adopted by the federal commission, and continue beyond our 450th as features of our oldest city's experience.
The work of the 450 Community Corps is inspired by comments from a number of residents that the community has not been included in formal discussions so far, and that many worthwhile projects will take time to plan and develop.
Waiting for formal efforts to begin for our 450th anniversary has been almost as long as our founding settlers waiting for Spain's annual situado (subsidy), and while ours ($500,000 a year with the Federal St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission) is not likely before next spring, the people part begins Thursday, June 18.
Mayor Boles' 14-member Working Committee of community leaders will meet with Consultant Jeanne Zeidler in public session from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. at Flagler College's Ringhaver Center.
"This will be a presentational meeting," City 450th Commemoration Executive Director Dana Ste. Claire says, "with presentations by Mayor Boles and (Williamsburg VA) Mayor Zeidler," executive director of the Jamestown 2007/400th Commemoration.
The 450 Corps Executive Board (George Gardner, Scott Manny, Nancy Birchall, Bob Russell, Roy Jaeger, Gerald Eubanks, and Eric Johnson) has met twice since our last general meeting in February, looking at ways for us to move forward. Consensus: we already have several committees developing programs, and good signs from Dana of our fit into the commemorations.
We have always been hamstrung on gaining credibility to effectively raise funds for programs. Dana has pledged that, while fundraising is critical to the commemorations, it will be our community resources that pull off their success. I'm confident we have the right players in place - with Dana the official element and the passion of our 450 Corps in support.
We'll schedule a general meeting of the 450 Corps soon after Thursday's formal 450 meeting, with a location and time better suited for public gathering.
The executive board of the 450 Corps will produce a short-list of 8-10 action ideas from nearly 100 submitted over the past year to the 450 Corps. That list will be brought to the full membership for consideration at a public meeting as soon as possible.
The board, after meeting with official 450 Interim Director Dana Ste. Claire, decided this is the best course to move forward while official planning for the commemoration continues. Ste. Claire anticipates a federal commission and local strategic plan will not be in place before the end of summer, and the 450 Corps' role in the official plan is still unclear.
Board members agreed that the 450 Corps role at this time should not be to raise funds and develop projects for the official commemoration, but rather to motivate and assist organizations and individuals in the development of programs and projects which will stand the test of time, to be field-tested before, and survive as legacies after, the commemoration. Examples include the building of a 16th century ship, for which a 450 Corps committee was developed months ago, and Ste. Claire said recently should be "a signature commemoration project."
The best will rise to the top. Among funding opportunities are grants of up to $20,000 in the federal commission legislation, as well as Tourist Development Council annual grants. Organizations and individuals with "shovel-ready" programs will stand the best chance when these opportunities arise.
Board members include George Gardner, Scott Manny, Bob Russell, Nancy Birchall, Eric Johnson, Gerald Eubanks, and Roy Jaeger.
Exciting potential projects, a revised mission statement, and restructuring evolved from the citizen 450 Corps meeting Thursday, February 19.
A Spoleto-style arts festival, a St. George Day, and an exhibit of Spanish masters in art were among ideas presented by or brought to the corps, joining an already active 16th century ship project. Each has strong advocates to develop their ideas. Chairman George Gardner said such projects can be developed now and extended beyond the commemoration period regardless of what shape the formal 450th organization takes.
A revised mission statement was prompted by that continuing uncertainty over an eventual formal organization. The tailored down version is still being tweaked. The original statement assumed the work of the 450 Corps would be folded into a formal organization.
The revision: The mission of the 450 Corps is to generate and facilitate programs and projects commemorating the 450th anniversary of the founding and history of St. Augustine, our Nation's oldest continuously occupied European settlement.
And our regular monthly meeting time, 8 a.m., and limited location are difficult for many citizens to attend. George asked for names of folks interested in serving on a smaller executive board, to work through plans and ideas for presentation to larger community meetings at better times and larger location. Contact him at [email protected].
The next citizen 450 Corps meeting will be Thursday, Feb 19, at 8 a.m. Page Edwards Gallery in the Oldest House complex. All meetings are open to the public. We'll be discussing a mission statement for the 450 Corps and progress reports from current committees, listed below.
Provisional chairs have been named for just some of the many potential citizen committees for our 450th. These are not "official" committees - there�s no official organization for the upcoming 500/450 commemorations yet. But these are start-ups to begin developing programs and projects, which will certainly be the meat and potatoes of the commemoration period.
The answer is keep doing what you're doing and be cheerleaders for a three-year commemoration of our history.
The question to Mayor Joe Boles was how the citizen 450 Corps can fit with his plans for our 450th, and the answer came during a spirited dialog with some two dozen members and citizens at its monthly meeting January 22.
The mayor, who recently formed a panel of community leaders to advise consultant Jeanne Zeidler in developing an organizational structure, said our city's been busy pushing legislation for a federal commission, developing contacts with our sister cities and with America's growing Hispanic leadership, and understanding protocol to invite world leaders to the commemoration.
Boles envisions a "three-year lineal World's Fair, because we don't have the ground to condense all our history into one year." Among his thoughts: getting international governments and organizations to adopt buildings on our Citizens for Historic Preservation (CPSA) endangered historic structures list, restore them as hospitality venues during the commemoration, and then turn them over to our city.
"The 450 Corps has developed a great list of program ideas," the mayor said. "The time will come to plug in all those activities."
Mayor Joe Boles is scheduled to meet with us Thursday, January 22 to dialog concepts for the 450th Commemoration. The meeting is at 8 a.m. at the Page Edwards Gallery in the Oldest House complex, and is a public meeting.
The Jaycees of the 1960s "were our city," one 450 Corps member noted as members discussed next steps in our efforts during our December meeting. Full minutes of the meeting, as well as all 450 Corps meetings, are on our Forum page.
Jaycee events were for community, while events today are aimed at tourists, another noted, and the 450th should be for community. A strong start will be fundraising, not so much for the money as the people count, with all contributors listed on our web site to grow the list of support. One suggestion: modest contributions be supporters, larger contributions sponsors, and the biggies - corporate contributors - be underwriters of the 450th commemoration.
More than 200 citizens have signed up with interest in various committees, and 450 Corps will focus in January on getting specific subcommittees going. General categories include Logistics - guest services, security, traffic, etc.; Marketing - promotion, fundraising, public relations, etc., and Events - projects, programs, etc.
Roy Jaeger is developing a 450 Corps mission statement; 450 Corps members will plan to meet with consultant Jeanne Zeidler during her visit in January; Roy and Nancy Birchall will focus on organizing the marketing/fundraising/PR subcommittee, and George Gardner will sort out events subcommittee interest to begin organization of that subcommittee.
The 450 team is in harness. Announcement by Mayor Joe Boles of a 16-member working group and consultant for our 450th Anniversary has cleared the air and set the course for planning this major commemoration period.
Boles presented a list of local leaders to advise Jeanne Zeidler, former executive director of the Jamestown 400th Commemoration, who will consult on organizing our commemoration. Our County Commission is being asked to fund the consultant fee of $20,000 from bed tax monies, while our city will provide office space.
Like a well-disciplined team of horses before the carriage, the 450th Commemoration Working Group and Zeidler will ramp up the government side, while the citizen non-profit 450 Corps will work in our community, generating interest, programs, and projects with our citizens, businesses, and community organizations.
The 450 Corps will meet in public session Wednesday, December 17, at 8 a.m. in the Page Edwards Gallery at the Oldest House complex, to set the framework for development of numerous subcommittees. One already at work, the Ship Subcommittee, will meet a day earlier - Tuesday - same time and place, to continue its work.
The 450 Corps will move ahead with plans and programs without waiting for city or federal officials to create a formal organization. Meeting Oct. 15, members decided to proceed with plans to build a 16th century caravel to be named San Augústin, to seek volunteers for subcommittees on events, logistics, and marketing, and to begin fundraising efforts.
The city is waiting for federal legislation for a 450th Commemoration Commission, and there are no plans for a follow-up to a community meeting held in June.
A replica 65-80-foot caravel - workhorse of early Spanish explorers - is expected to cost more than $2 million, but 450 Corps believes it will draw sponsorship and contributions as a centerpiece for our commemoration.
In addition to committee opportunities, 450 Corps is seeking volunteer graphics artists for logo designs and brochures. Contact [email protected].
The 450 Corps Ship Committee has the endorsement of St. Johns County's Historic Resources Review Board in an effort to "establish a wood lot where timber logs salvaged from developers or lost to tropical storms can be recycled into invaluable ship building timber."
Board Chair Don Reis said, "The members not only see the opportunities offered by your program, but also can identify other future possibilities that might flow out of it, all with long term benefits for the community."
The Ship Committee, developing plans for construction of a 16th century replica ship for St. Augustine's 450th Anniversary, is seeking a 2-5 acre woodlot "to store logs in the rough in preparation for milling with a portable sawmill." C ommittee Member Sam Turner, director of the LAMP Boatworks at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, said the timber could be used as well "to support and partner with other organizations that have unusual lumber requirements," including LAMP projects and restoring historic buildings.
His vision includes woodlot use "to mill the trunks into slabs, planks, and beams that will in turn be stacked and cured on site in preparation for use in ship and boat construction. Scraps and off-cuts, a byproduct of the milling process, will be burned to produce charcoal that in turn will be used in blacksmith forges producing iron ship and boat hardware such as nails, bolts, and rudder mountings in support of this project."
Our next 450 Corps meeting will be Wednesday, Sept 17, at 8 a.m. in the Page Edwards Gallery on the Oldest House grounds. Enter the Charlotte Street walk-in gate from Oldest House parking lot. All meetings are open to the public.
450 Corps member Maury Kaiser has not only volunteered to head up a committee for a 16th century replica ship for St. Augustine, he's also anted up the first $450 in a campaign to get $450 from 450 St. Augustinians to help support the project.
Maury heads up the LAMP volunteers building boats for the 18th century replica Galveztown, being built in Malaga, Spain. The ship is expected to visit us in 2011 to collect her boats.
The 450 Corps meeting August 6 brought support for establishing committees to target anniversary planning areas and reduce the frequency of general meetings. Bob Fuller will head up the fundraising committee, while additional committees are being developed. A general meeting September 17 will sort out these plans.
The 450 Corps will be discussing, at its 8 a.m. meeting Wednesday, how to distribute 2,000 bumper stickers - 4-inch round stickers of the 450 logo with the 450 website along the lower edge. The stickers were funded through a contribution.
Also on the agenda, next steps in moving forward with commemoration planning. Possibilities raised in the past include establishing subcommittees; hosting community meetings; contacting organizations, and developing a fundraising plan.
A report to city commissioners on the citizen 450 Corps efforts over the past 10 months has led to debate on establishing an official 450th steering committee.
Following a briefing at the commission's July 14 meeting by corps member Dr. Susan Parker, director of the St. Augustine Historical Society, Commissioner George Gardner - also a member - urged early formation of an independent non-profit 450th corporation, recommended a year ago by an exploratory panel. Mayor Joe Boles countered that the committee should be government-appointed and operate in the sunshine, and that real interest in planning needn't get under way "until 2-3 years out, because it's hard to get interest stirred up much earlier,"
Gardner has pressed for early formation of a committee to begin tackling long-term projects and programs. Boles suggested a follow-up meeting to the June 25th "Community Kickoff" could be held in August or September, and acknowledged Vice Mayor Don Crichlow's recommendation that "some form of organization" be presented at that meeting.
Organized last October, the 450 Corps is a non-profit 501 (c) (3), has distributed 5,000 "idea-gathering" brochures, created this website, and is preparing to distribute bumper stickers using an adopted 450th logo.
An update on the history and activities of the 450 Corps will be presented to City Commissioners at Monday's regular commission meeting. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Corps member Dr. Susan Parker, Director of the St. Augustine Historical Society, will note that the Corps "stands ready to assist and be part of an anticipated formal steering committee for an outstanding commemoration period."
Organized last October, the 450 Corps is a non-profit 501 (c) (3), has distributed 5,000 "idea-gathering" brochures, created a website, and is preparing to distribute bumper stickers using an adopted 450th logo.
Strong messages from our state's premier historian and the director of Jamestown's 400th Commemoration Commission greeted some 200 citizens at the June 25th Community Kickoff for St. Augustine's upcoming 450th Anniversary.
The University of Florida's (and St. Augustine's) Dr. Michael Gannon: "We had the first church, the first school, the first hospital, public market and town plan. By 1600 there were 120 shops and houses here. We have to take this opportunity to tell the story."
Williamsburg VA Mayor Jeanne Zeidler, who directed last year's Jamestown commemoration: "We had a federal commission, a state commission, a local host committee with 140 members scattered over a range of subcommittees, 140 public/private partners, 181 communities signed on, and 3,000 volunteer shifts on the climactic commemoration weekend. It's a big job."
Mayor Joe Boles emceed the kickoff, which also included Visitor and Convention Bureau Director Glenn Hastings and Economic Development Director Nick Sacia.
Gathering names and interest in volunteering was a major purpose of the event. To get on board, contact our city's Public Affairs Director Paul Williamson by email or at 904.825.1004.
Bumper stickers - 450 Corps is considering bumper stickers as both a fund-raiser and good advertisement for our 450th as residents begin their summer travels and visitors link us to their hometowns. Using the circular logo we've adopted, we're thinking of offering it both as a standard sticker and in a circular design. Give us your thoughts in the Forum.
Community meeting - Wednesday, June 25 from 7-8 p.m. is our opportunity to hear about and comment on planning for the 450th anniversary of our Nation's Oldest City.
© Copyright 2008 by The 450 Corps, Inc. | Made possible through generosity of Harbor Community Bank and VisitStAugustine.com.
Website Design and Hosting provided by St. Augustine Web Design in beautiful St. Augustine, Florida. | 2019-04-18T16:49:37Z | http://oldcity450.com/progress.php |
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All I needed was someone to care 4 me, All I needed was someone who’d b there 4 me, All I ever needed was someone who’d b genuine, All I ever needed was someone like U.. Happy Propose Day.
I love you for not what you are but what I become when I am there with you. So be with me forever… Happy Propose Day!
Happy Propose Day my love.’have one problem,Can you tell me the solution?I am not getting proper way to.. Propose You. I am not kidding. I am serious.
Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear. Happy Propose Day!
I want to be with U until the sun falls from the sky. Happy Propose Day..
Adoration is similar to a cloud. Adoration is similar to a fantasy. Affection is single word and everything in the middle. Affection is a tall tale work out as expected. Since I discovered Love when I discovered You.
Without You Life Is Black Not White Without You The World Has No Hope No Light Without You I Can’t Go Left Or Right Without You I Lose my Sight Thank You My Dear I Love You.
No one in the world without love but there may be people without proposing that love. Happy Propose Day!
High when I see you I know the reason why so let me hold your hand and make you mine for that would intoxicate me like sweet wine.. Happy Propose Day!
Sweet person Innocent person All the definition of my life. Start with you ends with you. I love you baby.
When I dream, I dream of you may be one day, dreams will come true. Love You! Happy Propose Day!
Life tallies every one of the streets we travel. Some are smooth, some are harsh. Total I would rather overlook. Be that as it may, there is one street I wont lament the street where we met and got to be companions. Happy Propose Day!
I Have Spent Many Sleepless Nights,In Your Love And I Don’t Want,My Son 2 Do Same 4 Your Daughter,So Lets Make Them Brother And Sister …Happy Propose Day.
All I wanted was sum1 2 care 4 me,All I wanted was sum1 who’d b there 4 me,All I ever wanted was sum1 who’d b true,All I ever wanted was sum1 like U… Happy purpose day!!!.
Love is not made by the time. It’s made with person with whom the time is spent… Happy Propose Day!
If you want to propose any girl and you don’t have any idea, how to do that, first of all doing call before one day of propose and ask to you want to meet her. You can schedule a dinner at the good restaurant if she is ready. Bring some unique gifts for her. And when you get a chance you doing propose in a proper manner. After doing propose your work is done perfectly, now you wait for her answer for your proposed. Many couples don’t have an idea about which type of gift you give your partner at the particular moment. Lovebirds use the coffee Mugs with personalized photos, chocolate hampers, etc.
I’m In a Imbalance State of MindWhat to Give You Because ThereIs Nothing More Beautiful &Sweeter than You. Wish YouA Happy Propose Day My Love.
Happy Propose Day 2uAll I wanted was someone,To care for me,All I wanted was some-1,Who’d be there for me,All I wanted was some-1,Who would be true,All I wanted was some-1,like you..Love You so Much..Happy Propose day.
The sweetest way to propose, Excuse me, do you have a band aid, because i scrapped my knee when i fell in love with you Will you be mine… Happy Propose Day!!!
Life counts all d roads v travel.sum r smooth,sum are rough .sum i would rather forget.but theres one road i wont regret, the road where we met and became friends.
I’m In a Imbalance State of Mind What to Give You Because There Is Nothing More Beautiful & Sweeter than You. Wish You A Happy Propose Day My Love.
I Want To Lock My Heart And I Want You To Be My Key, Happy Propose Day Sweetheart!
I do not know why, I like you, I do not know why, I feel sad on a day when i not see your face, I only know one thing that, I do not bear any meaning without you. If i know what love is, It is bcoz of you. Happy Propose Day.
Happy Propose Day!.. I Think About You All The Time.. Will You Be Forever Mine? I Must Say I Adore You.. I Can Not Live My Life Without You.. It Would Be Long And Dreary Happy Propose Day.
With Every Beat Of My Heart, Will Love You More And More, After Years Of Togetherness This Is My Solemn Vow For You, My Love!
Baby you are my love You are my life I am lucky to have you I love you baby. Happy Propose Day.
U are remarkable U are minding and U are the Best.And I am d most fortunate to have U in my life! Happy Propose Day my sweet heart…!!
Love is missing someone whenever you’re apart, propose day messages but somehow feeling warm inside because you’re close in heart.As we are.
Word Have Not Enough Strength To Express My Love Towards You. My Eyes Are Enough To Express It! Happy Propose Day Dear!
On Propose Day.. I Think Of You.. The Smile That You Bring To My Face.. The Laughter And Joy When We Are Together.. You Are The Missing Puzzle Piece In My Life.. Will You Spend It With Me Forever? Happy Propose Day.
I show some kindness n that is valid, Be that as it may, now it has gone from me to you, So tend to it simply as i do, because I have no heart and u have two.
I Always Lose Control When You By My Side, U Have Become The Light Of My Life. I Always Enjoy The Time I Spend With You, I Think I’m Falling In Love With You.
All I wanted was Someone to care for me, All I wanted was Someone who’d b there for me, All I ever wanted was Someone who’d b true, All I ever wanted was Someone like You, Happy Propose Day.
My Heart To You Is Given Goodness Do Give Your To Me We Will Lock Them Up Together Furthermore, Throw Away The Key Happy Propose Day.
I have a heart and that is true, but now it has gone from me to you, so care for it just like I do, because I have no heart and you have two. Happy Propose Day!
We’ve Known Each Other, For A Long Time, But I Never Truly Noticed, All The Magic In Your Eyes, I’ve Been Around You, A Thousand Times Before, What’s more, You’ve Always Been A Friend To Me, But Now I’m Wanting More Consider It Happy Propose Day.
No ballads no extravagant words I simply need the world to realize that I LOVE YOU my Princess with my entire being. Happy Propose Day.
You Are The Happiness Of My Life, You Are The Smile Of My Lips, I Am Alive To See You Anytime, Your Cute Smile Give Me Power Please Dont Ever Leave Me Happy Propose Day.
All I wanted was sumone to care 4 me, All I wanted was sumone who’d b there 4 me, All I ever wanted was sumone who’d b true, All I ever wanted was sumone like U… Happy Propose Day.
My Eyes Are Eager To See You, My Ears Are Eager To Listen You, My Lips Are Eager To Kiss You, & My Dreams In Night Are Eager To Welcome You Happy Propose Day.
Your eyes are like the blue ocean, your lips are like the sweetest part of nature. I want to be with you all the time. Happy Propose Day to My Love.
Love comes again and again for those who know what life is love comes only once for those who know what Love Is.
Holding hands on this beautiful evening I want to tell this to you with deepest meaning, you mean world to me. So, ‘WILL YOU BE MINE’? As my life without you will not be so fine.I love you from the bottom of my heart. Please accept my love sweetheart.
If I reached for your hand, will you hold it? If I go for your lips, will you kiss me? If I hold out my arms, will you hug me? If I capture your heart, will you love me?
My Eyes Are Eager To See You, My Ears Are Eager To Listen You, My Lips Are Eager To Kiss You, and My Dreams In Night Are Eager To Welcome You Happy Propose Day.
As Days Go By As days go by, my feelings get stronger, To be in your arms, I can’t wait any longer. Look into my eyes & you’ll see that it’s true, Day & Night my thought r for U.. Happy Propose Day.
Love Is A Gift,If U Receive It,Open & Appreciate It..If Not,Don’t Worry..Sumone Sum where Is Still Wrapping It For U.. Happy Propose Day..
U are unique U are caring and U are the Best.And I am d luckiest to have U in my life! Happy Propose Day my sweet heart…!!!
We have a collection of Propose Day wishes, Propose Day Quotes, Propose Day Messages, Propose Day Images, Propose Day SMS and Propose Day Pictures. If you are not able to propose on face to face, you’re loved once then chose the appropriate messages, quotes or images from our collections and impressed your partner. You can share it with your friends and family.
Affection assembles the enjoyment in, the tragic in separated, and the delight in a heart. Cheerful Propose Day my affection.
I still remember the moment.. when for the first time our eyes met..and I felt butterflies in my stomach…since then my heart longs…to be iwth you always.. Be Mine Forever.
Did you like this excellent collection of Propose Day wishes, Propose Day Quotes, Propose Day Messages, Propose Day images, Propose Day SMS and Propose Day Pictures? If you liked it, then don’t forget to share it with your friends and family. Thanks for visiting. Happy Propose Day. | 2019-04-26T15:54:38Z | https://freequotesideas.000webhostapp.com/this-is-top-100-happy-propose-day-2017-wishes-quotes-messages-images-sms-and-pictures-503/ |
(269) F. Nomura, T. Tanabe, Takeo Ohsaka, T. Gunji, F. Matsumoto, Optimization of Calcination Temperature in Preparation of a High Capacity Li-Rich Solid-Solution Li[Li Ni Co Mn ]O Material and Its Cathode Performance in Lithium Ion Battery, AIMES 2018, 2018.10.1-4, Cancun, Mexico.
(268) T. Tsuda, N. Ando, T. Tanabe, K. Itagaki, N. Soma, S. Nakamura, N. Hayashi, F. Matsumoto, Improvement of High Rate Performance of a Lithium Ion Battery Composed of Laminated LiFePO4 Cathodes/ Graphite Anodes with Porous Electrode Structure Fabricated with a Pico-Second Pulsed Laser, AIMES 2018, 2018.10.1-4, Cancun, Mexico.
(267) F. Ando, Toyokazu Tanabe, T. Gunji, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, An Electrochemical Dealloying of Ordered Intermetallic Platinum-Lead (PtPb) Nanoparticles Supported on TiO -Deposited Cup-Stacked Carbon Nanotube for Highly Efficient Catalysis Toward Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Acidic Media, AIMES 2018, 2018.10.1-4, Cancun, Mexico.
(266) 安藤風馬, Effect of the d-Band Center on the Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity of Electrochemically Dealloyed Ordered Intermetallic Platinum−Lead (PtPb) Nanoparticles Supported on TiO2-Deposited Cup-Stacked Carbon Nanotubes The 28th Annual Meeting of MRS-J, 2018. 12. 19, 北九州国際会議場.
(265) 郡司貴雄，井澤 佑，松本 太，コア-シェル構造を有する電極触媒の創?とCO2 還元反応における選択性，表面技術協会第139回講演大会，2019.3.18-19, 神奈川大学.
(264) 横井健?，河合陽賢，林 遥介，松本 太，耐薬品性無電解Sn-Ni 合?の作製および評価，表面技術協会第139回講演大会，2019.3.18-19, 神奈川大学.
(263) 鈴?彗之，郡司貴雄，?坂武男，松本 太、AlCl3-EMIC イオン液体からのアルミニウム電気めっきにおける添加剤の効果(4) −添加剤の分?構造と光沢性の関係−，表面技術協会第139回講演大会，2019.3.18-19, 神奈川大学.
(262) 津?喬史，安東信雄，?原悠太，中村 奨，板垣 薫，杣 直彦，林 成実，郡司貴雄, ?坂武男，松本 太, ピコ秒レーザーを?いた三次元表?構造を有する?あき電極の作製及びリチウムイオン?次電池への適?，表面技術協会第139回講演大会，2019.3.18-19, 神奈川大学.
(261) 林 遥介，?品愛都，横井健?，河合陽賢，郡司貴雄，?坂武男，松本 太, ??触媒型無電解Ni-Sn めっき被膜の作製と耐薬品性の検討, 表面技術協会第139回講演大会，2019.3.18-19, 神奈川大学.
(260) 郡司 貴雄，難波 功洋，大坂 武男，松本 太，種々の助触媒を担持したTiO2光触媒のCO2還元反応における選択性, 電気化学会第86回大会, 2019.3. 27-29 京都大学吉田キャンパス.
(259) 郡司 貴雄，井澤 佑，大坂 武男，松本 太，CuxSny金属間化合物コア-Snシェル構造の合成と電気化学的CO2還元反応, 電気化学会第86回大会, 2019.3. 27-29 京都大学吉田キャンパス.
(258) 安藤 風馬，田邉 豊和，郡司 貴雄，金子 信悟，大坂 武男，松本 太，担持体および第二元素を用いたPt系金属間化合物ナノ粒子のPt d-バンドセンターのチューニングによるORR活性の向上に関する検討(4)，電気化学会第86回大会, 2019.3. 27-29 京都大学吉田キャンパス.
(257) 野村 文洋，津田 喬史，田邊 豊和，金子 信吾，大阪 武男，松本 太，Li2MnO3-LiMO2 Li過剰系固溶体正極材料の合成における焼成条件と充放電容量およびサイクル安定性の関係，電気化学会第86回大会, 2019.3. 27-29 京都大学吉田キャンパス.
(256) 津田 喬史，安藤 信雄，石原 悠太，中村 奨，板垣 薫，杣 直彦，林 成実，郡司 貴雄，大坂 武男，松本 太，ピコ秒パルスレーザーを用いて作製された穴あき厚塗り塗工LiFePO4電極の出力特性及び充放電メカニズムの検討，電気化学会第86回大会, 2019.3. 27-29 京都大学吉田キャンパス.
(255) 渡邉 達也，津田 喬史，安藤 信雄，中村 奨，板垣 薫，杣 直彦，林 成実，郡司 貴雄，大坂 武男，松本 太，積層型穴あきグラファイト電極を用いたリチウムイオン電池における不可逆容量のキャンセルによる電池容量の向上，電気化学会第86回大会, 2019.3. 27-29 京都大学吉田キャンパス.
(254) Futoshi Matsumoto, Tanabe Toyokazu, Application of porous electrodes prepared with picosecond pulsed laser to lithium ion battery, 22nd Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, 2018. 4.17, Waseda Univeristy.
(253) Takashi Tsuda, Nobuo Ando, Naoto Mitsuhashi, Toyokazu Tanabe, Kaoru Itagaki, Naohiko Soma, Susumu Nakamura, Narumi Hayashi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Fabrication of Porous Electrodes with a Picosecond Pulsed Laser and Improvement of the Rate Performance of a Porous Graphite Anode, LiFePO4 and LiFePO4/Activated Carbon Cathodes, 22nd Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, 2018. 4.17, Waseda Univeristy.
(252) Fuma Ando, Takashi Tsuda, Toyokazu Tanabe, Takeo Ohsaka, Futoshi Matsumoto, Relationship between d-band center of Dealloyed PtPb Ordered Intermetallic Nanoparticle Deposited on TiO2/ Cup-Stacked Carbon Nanotube and ORR Activity in Acidic Aqueous Media, 22nd Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, 2018. 4.17, Waseda Univeristy.
(251) Fumihiro Nomura, Takashi Tsuda, Toyokazu Tanabe, Takeo Ohsaka, Futoshi Matsumoto, Optimization of Calcination Temperature in Preparation of a High Capacity Li-rich Solid-Solution Li[Li0.2Ni0.18Co0.03Mn0.58]O2 Material and Its Cathode Performance in Lithium Ion Battery, 22nd Topical Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, 2018. 4.17, Waseda Univeristy. 233rd ECS meeting, Washington State Convention Center, 2018.5. 13-17, Seattle, USA.
(249) F. Nomura, T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, F. Matsumoto, Effect of the Cooling Process on the Structure and Charge/Discharge Cycling Performance in Li[Li Mn Ni Co ]O Li-rich Solid-Solution Layered Oxide Cathode Materials for Li-Ion Battery, 233rd ECS meeting, Washington State Convention Center, 2018.5. 13-17, Seattle, USA.
(248) T. Tsuda, N. Ando, Y. Haruki, T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, K. Itagaki, N. Soma, S. Nakamura, N. Hayashi, F. Matsumoto, Study on Li Metal Deposition, SEI Formation on Anodes and Cathode Potential Change during the Pre-Lithiation Process in a Cell Prepared with Laminated Porous Anodes and Cathodes, 233rd ECS meeting, Washington State Convention Center, 2018.5. 13-17, Seattle, USA.
(247) 安藤 風馬, 田邉 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信吾, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 担持体および第二元素を用いたPt系金属間化合物ナノ粒子のPt d-バンドセンターのチューニングによるORR活性の向上に関する検討(3), 2018年電気化学秋季大会, 2018.9.25-26, 金沢大学.
(246) 郡司 貴雄, Noh Seung, 安藤 風馬, Byungchan Han, 大坂 武男, 田邉 豊和, 松本 太, Pd系金属間化合物ナノ粒子の電極触媒活性, 2018年電気化学秋季大会, 2018.9.25-26, 金沢大学.
(245) 野村 文洋, 津田 喬史, 田邊 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 組成探索に基づくLIB用Li2MnO3-LiMO2 Li過剰系固溶体正極材料の高性能化および合成条件の最適化, 2018年電気化学秋季大会, 2018.9.25-26, 金沢大学.
(244) 安藤??，?邉豊和，郡司貴雄，??信吾，?坂武男，松本 太, 担持体および第?元素を?いたPt 系?属間化合物ナノ粒?のPt d-バンドセンターのチューニングによるORR 活性の向上に関する検討, 表面技術協会第138回講演大会, 2018.9.13-14, 北海道科学大学.
(243) 津?喬史，安東信雄，松原?樹，中村 奨，板垣 薫，杣 直彦，林 成実，松本 太, ピコ秒レーザーを?いた三次元表?構造を有する?あき電極の作製及びリチウムイオン?次電池への適?, 表面技術協会第138回講演大会, 2018.9.13-14, 北海道科学大学.
(242) Fuma Ando, Toyokazu Tanabe, Takao Gunji, Shingo Kaneko, Tsuyoshi Takeda, Takeo Ohsaka, Futoshi Matsumoto, Effect of the d-Band Center on the Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity of Electrochemically Dealloyed Ordered Intermetallic Platinum−Lead (PtPb) Nanoparticles Supported on TiO2-Deposited Cup-Stacked Carbon Nanotubes, 「グリーンエネルギー変換工学」第７回国際セミナー, 2018.8.22-23, 山梨大学.
(241) 津?喬史，安東信雄，松原?樹，中村 奨，板垣 薫，杣 直彦，林 成実，松本 太, ピコ秒レーザーを用いて作製された穴あき電極のリチウムイオン二次電池への適用および高出力化, 化学電池材料研究会 第42 回講演会・夏の学校, 2018.8.6-8, 京都.
(240) 野村 文洋, 津田 喬史, 田邊 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 組成探索に基づくLIB用Li2MnO3-LiMO2 Li過剰系固溶体正極材料の高性能化および合成条件の最適化, 化学電池材料研究会 第42 回講演会・夏の学校, 2018.8.6-8, 京都.
(239) 安藤 風馬, 田邉 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信吾, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 担持体および第二元素を用いたPt系金属間化合物ナノ粒子のPt d-バンドセンターのチューニングによるORR活性の向上に関する検討,電気化学会関東支部第36回夏の学校, 2018.8.30-31, 八王子セミナーハウス.
(238) 野村 文洋, 津田 喬史, 田邊 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 組成探索に基づくLIB用Li2MnO3-LiMO2 Li過剰系固溶体正極材料の高性能化および合成条件の最適化, 電気化学会関東支部第36回夏の学校, 2018.8.30-31, 八王子セミナーハウス.
(237) 津?喬史，安東信雄，松原?樹，中村 奨，板垣 薫，杣 直彦，林 成実，松本 太, ピコ秒レーザーを用いて作製された穴あき電極のリチウムイオン二次電池への適用および高出力化, 電気化学会関東支部第36回夏の学校, 2018.8.30-31, 八王子セミナーハウス.
(236) 松本 太, 電気化学反応・電極反応のメカニズムと電気化学測定法および電極／溶液界面の解析〜電気化学の基礎、いろいろ組み合わせた各種測定法、ＣＶ法、交流インピーダンス法〜, Science＆Technologyセミナー(東京・流通センター), 2018.4.19.
(235) 松本 太, リチウム電池用水系バインダーの高電圧高容量正極への適用とその性能評価『リチウム電池用水系バインダーの高電圧正極での適用と性能評価』, 技術情報協会セミナー (東京都，五反田), 2018.4.25.
(234) 松本 太,「リチウム過剰系正極への水系バインダーの適用と長寿命化」リチウム過剰系正極材料のサイクル特性向上技術, 技術情報協会セミナー (東京都，五反田), 2018.5.10.
(233) 松本 太, 次世代電池のキーテクノロジと材料開発〜穴あき電極、バインダー活物質材料のコティグなど〜, 電気・電子材料技術セミナー Insulation 2018 −EV 技術 と関連材料技術 と関連材料技術−,電気機能材料工業会, 2018.11.29, 東京・亀戸.
(232) 郡司貴雄、「金属間化合物ナノ粒子の創生と電極触媒反応への適用」, 第124回電気化学会関東支部サイエンスレクチャー, 2019. 2. 20, 東京.
(231) F. Ando, T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, Improvement of Electrochemical ORR Activity and Its Durability with Pt Electrocatalyst Nanoparticles Anchored on MO x /Cup-Stacked Carbon Nanotube in Acidic Aqueous Media, 231th ECS meeting, 2017.5.28-6.1, New Orleans, USA.
(230) T. Tsuda, F. Ando, Y. Mochizuki, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, K. Itagaki, N. Soma, F. Matsumoto, Fabrication of Porous Current Collectors for Li Ion Capacitor with Pico-Second Pulse Laser and Acceleration of Li+ Ion Pre-Doping Reaction to Laminated Graphite/Porous Current Collector Anodes, 231th ECS meeting, 2017.5.28-6.1, New Orleans, USA.
(229) F. Matsumoto, N. Tamura, T. Tsuda, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, and T. Ohsaka, Dependences of Discharge Capacity, Retention of Discharge Capacity, Average Discharge Voltage and Energy Density, and Rate Capability on the Composition of XLi2MnO3-YLiNi1/2Mn1/2O 2-(1-x-y)LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 Li-Rich Solid-Solution Cathode Materials for Li-Ion Battery (II), 231th ECS meeting, 2017.5.28-6.1, New Orleans, USA.
(228) F. Matsumoto, T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, T. Tsuda, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, Evaluation of Key Factors for Preparing High Brightness Surfaces of Aluminum Films Electrodeposited from AlCl3-1-Ethyl-3-Methylimidazolium Chloride-Organic Additive Baths231th ECS meeting, 2017.5.28-6.1, New Orleans, USA.
(227) F. Ando. T. Tanabe, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, Development of Metal ixide-Supported Metal and Ordered Intermetallic Nanoparticles to Enhance the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in PEMFC, Advances in Functional Materials, 2017.8.14-17, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA.
(226) 津田喬史, 安東信雄, 三橋直人,中村奨, 田邉豊和, 板垣薫, 杣直彦,林成実, 松本太, 積層型穴あきグラファイト電極における電極上の開口条件および反応温度とLi+イオンプレドープ速度との関係, 2017年電気化学秋季大会, 2017.9.10-11, 長崎大学.
(225) 安藤 風馬, 田邊 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 担持体および第二元素を用いたPt系金属間化合物ナノ粒子のPt d-バンドセンターのチューニングによるORR活性の向上に関する検討，2017年電気化学秋季大会, 2017.9.10-11, 長崎大学.
(224) 劉 雨彬, 入井 友海太, 槇 文彦, 田邉 豊和, 宮本 康暉, 大坂 武男, 松本 太，水系バインダー適用のためのLiNixCoyAl1-x-yO2 (x > 0.9) 高容量正極材料粒子の表面コーティングと充放電特性の安定化, 2017年電気化学秋季大会, 2017.9.10-11, 長崎大学.
(223) 田邉 豊和, 中森 勝俊, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 混合原子価スズ酸化物を用いた純水及び犠牲剤水溶液からの可視光照射下水素発生の検討（神奈川大学2017年電気化学秋季大会, 2017.9.10-11, 長崎大学.
(222) 高分解能透過電子顕微鏡を用いた高酸素還元触媒活性を有するPtPb/TiO2/カップスタックカーボンナノチューブの触媒表面の状態解析, 安藤風馬，田邉豊和，郡司貴雄，金子信悟，大坂武男，松本 太, 表面技術協会第136回講演大会, 2017.9.14-15,金沢工業大学.
(221) 置換析出により作製したビスマステルライド系薄層の熱電変換特性, 金子信悟，國谷翔太郎，矢�ｱ将志，大坂武男，田邉豊和，松本 太，表面技術協会第136回講演大会, 2017.9.14-15,金沢工業大学.
(220) Fuma Ando, Toyokazu Tanabe, Takao Gunji, Shingo Kaneko, Takeo Ohsaka, Futoshi Matsumoto, Improvement of Electrochemical ORR Activity and Its Durability with Pt Electrocatalyst Nanoparticles Anchored on MOx/Cup-Stacked Carbon Nanotube in Acidic Aqueous Media, The 6th International Seminar for Special Doctoral Program “Green Energy Conversion Science and Technology”, 2017.9.13-15, Nagano, Japan.
(219) 津田喬史, 安東信雄, 三橋直人,中村奨, 田邉豊和, 板垣薫, 杣直彦,林成実, 松本太, 積層型穴あきグラファイト電極における電極上の開口条件および反応温度とLi+イオンプレドープ速度との関係, 2017年電気化学関東支部夏の学校, 2017.9.25-26, 八王子大学セミナーハウス.
(218) 安藤 風馬, 田邊 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 担持体および第二元素を用いたPt系金属間化合物ナノ粒子のPt d-バンドセンターのチューニングによるORR活性の向上に関する検討，2017年電気化学関東支部夏の学校, 2017.9.25-26, 八王子大学セミナーハウス.
(217) 劉 雨彬, 入井 友海太, 槇 文彦, 田邉 豊和, 宮本 康暉, 大坂 武男, 松本 太，水系バインダー適用のためのLiNixCoyAl1-x-yO2 (x > 0.9) 高容量正極材料粒子の表面コーティングと充放電特性の安定化, 2017年電気化学関東支部夏の学校, 2017.9.25-26, 八王子大学セミナーハウス.
(216) Y. Liu, T. Tanabe, K. Miyamoto, Y. Irii, F. Maki, T. Gunji, S. Kaneko, S. Ugawa, H.-J Lee, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, Synthesis of Water-Resistant thin TiOx Layer-Coated High-Capacity LiNiaCobAl1-a-bO2 (a> 0.85) Cathode and Its Stable Charge/Discharge Cycle Cathode Performance to Apply a Water-Based Hybrid Polymer Binder to Li-Ion Batteries, 232th ECS meeting, 2017.10.1-5, National Harbor, MD, USA.
(215) F. Ando, T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, T. Tsuda, S. Kaneko, T. Takeda, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, Relationship Between ORR Catalytic Activity and D-Band Center of Pt Nanoparticle Deposited on Metal Oxide Support Materials, 232th ECS meeting, 2017.10.1-5, National Harbor, MD, USA.
(214) T. Tsuda, N. Ando, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, K. Itagaki, N. Soma, S. Nakamura, F. Matsumoto, Improvement of Rate Performance of LiFePO4 Cathode with Porous LiFePO4/Activated Carbon Hybrid Electrode Structure, 232th ECS meeting, 2017.10.1-5, National Harbor, MD, USA.
(213) 安藤 風馬, 田邊 豊和, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 固体高分子形燃料電池用酸素還元電極触媒の触媒活性と電極触媒表面の電子状態の関係の解明, 7th CSJ Chemistry Festa, 2017.10-17-19, タワーホール船堀, 東京.
(212) 津田喬史, 田邉豊和, 安東信雄, 中村奨, 板垣薫, 杣直彦, 林成実, 松本太, 穴あきLiFePO4/活性炭ハイブリッド電極構造によるLiFePO4正極の高出力化, 7th CSJ Chemistry Festa, 2017.10-17-19, タワーホール船堀, 東京.
(211) T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, The Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity over Pd-base Intermetallic Compound, International Symposium on Novel Energy Nanomaterials, Catalysts and Surfaces for Future Earth- Material Research, Characterization and Imaging by In situ/Operando XAFS and X-ray Techniques -, 2017.10.28-30, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo.
(210) F. Ando, T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, Relationship between ORR Catalytic Activity and d-band Center of Pt and Pt-based, Alloy Nanoparticle Deposited on Metal Oxide Support Materials, 2017.10.28-30, The University of Electro-Communications,Tokyo.
(209) F. Nomura, L. Yubin, T. Tanabe, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, Optimization of Calcination Conditions in Preparation of a High Capacity Li-rich Solid-Solution Li[Li0.2Ni0.18Co0.03Mn0.58]O2 Material and its Cathode Performance in Lithium Ion Battery, 2017.10.28-30, The University of Electro-Communications,Tokyo.
(208)安藤 風馬, 田邊 豊和, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, Ptナノ粒子およびPtPbナノ粒子/TiO2/カップスタックカーボンナノチューブの電極触媒特性と耐久性の向上, 平成29年度 神奈川県ものづくり技術交流会, 2017. 11.8, 神奈川県立産業技術総合研究所.
(207) 津田喬史, 田邉豊和, 安東信雄, 中村奨, 板垣薫, 杣直彦, 林成実, 松本 太, 穴あきLiFePO4/活性炭ハイブリッド電極構造によるLiFePO4正極の高出力化, 平成29年度 神奈川県ものづくり技術交流会, 2017. 11.8, 神奈川県立産業技術総合研究所.
(206) 津田喬史, 田邉豊和, 安東信雄, 中村奨, 板垣薫, 杣直彦, 林成実, 松本 太, ピコ秒レーザーを用いた穴あきグラファイト負極の作製およびプレドープ反応の促進, 第27回日本MRS年次大会, 2017. 12.5, 横浜情報文化センター.
(205) 安藤 風馬, 田邊 豊和, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, Pt/酸化チタン/カップスタックカーボンナノチューブ上での酸性水溶液中における酸素還元反応の促進および耐久性の向上, 第27回日本MRS年次大会, 2017. 12.5, 横浜情報文化センター.
(204) 安藤 風馬, 田邊 豊和, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, Pt/酸化チタン/カップスタックカーボンナノチューブ上での酸性水溶液中における酸素還元反応の促進および耐久性の向上, 第27回キャラクタリゼーション講習会「触媒および表面の解析に役立つキャラクタリゼーションの基礎と実際」, 2017. 12.8, 熊本大学.
(203) 津田 喬史, 安東 信雄, 松原 一樹, 中村 奨, 田邉豊和, 板垣 薫, 杣 直彦, 林 成実, 松本 太, ピコ秒レーザーを用いて作製された穴あき電極のリチウムイオン二次電池への適用および高出力化, 電気化学会 電気化学会第85回大会, 2018.3.9, 東京理科大学葛飾キャンパス.
(202) 劉 雨彬, 田邊 豊和, 大坂 武男, 浅井 悠太, 鵜川晋作, イ ホジン, 松本 太, 水系バインダー適用のための Li過剰系固溶体正極材料の組成探索および水暴露後の正極粒子の表面構造解析, 電気化学会 電気化学会第85回大会, 2018.3.9, 東京理科大学葛飾キャンパス.
(201) 津田 喬史, 安東 信雄, 一色 晃太, 中村 奨, 田邉豊和, 板垣 薫, 杣 直彦, 林 成実, 松本 太, 穴あき LiFePO4/活性炭ハイブリッド電極構造による LiFePO4正極の高出力化および反応機構解析, 電気化学会 電気化学会第85回大会, 2018.3.9, 東京理科大学葛飾キャンパス.
(200) 安藤 風馬, 田邉 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 大坂武男, 松本 太, 担持体および第二元素を用いた Pt系金属間化合物ナノ粒子の Pt d-バンドセンターのチューニングによるORR活性の向上に関する検討(2), 電気化学会 電気化学会第85回大会, 2018.3.10, 東京理科大学葛飾キャンパス.
(199) 田邉 豊和, 近藤 託弥, 宮内 雅浩, 金子 信悟, 大坂武男, 松本 太, Pt-M合金微粒子担持 TiO2ナノロッドにおける高効率IPA分解反応, 電気化学会 電気化学会第85回大会, 2018.3.10, 東京理科大学葛飾キャンパス.
(198) 野村 文洋, 津田 喬史, 田邊 豊和, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 組成探索に基づく LIB用 Li2MnO3-LiMO2Li過剰系固溶体正極材料の高性能化および合成条件の最適化, 電気化学会第85回大会, 2018.3.10, 東京理科大学葛飾キャンパス.
(197) 安藤 風馬, 田邉 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 高分解能透過電子顕微鏡を用いた高酸素還元触媒活性を有する PtおよびPtPb/TiO2/カップスタックカーボンナノチューブの触媒表面の状態解析, 電気化学会第85回大会, 2018.3.10, 東京理科大学葛飾キャンパス.
(196) 國谷翔太郎，金子信悟，大坂武男，田邉豊和，松本 太, 置換析出によって作製したビスマステルライド系薄層の作製条件依存性, 表面技術協会第137 回講演大会, 2018.3.12, 芝浦工業大学豊洲キャンパス.
(195) 松本 太, “Pt系金属間化合物の電極触媒への適用 —ナノ化，コアシェル化，合金化などによる白金低減化技術ー“ 白金代替触媒および 触媒開発における白金使用量の低減化, 技術情報協会セミナー (東京都，五反田), 2017.4.11.
(194) A. J. Jeevagan, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, and F. Matsumoto, Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Supported PtAu Catalysts and Their Electrocatalytic Activity for Formic Acid Oxidation, 229th ECS meeting, 2016.5.29-6.2, San Diego, US.
(193) F. Matsumoto, S. Kaneko, T. Gunji, and T. Tanabe, The Effect of Brighteners on the Fabrication of Electroplated Bright Aluminum Films Using an AlCl3-Emic-Toluene Bath (2), 229th ECS meeting, 2016.5.29-6.2, San Diego, US.
(192) T. Gunji, R. Wakabayashi, H. D. Abruña, F. DiSalvo and F. Matsumoto, The Effect of Alloying of Transition Metals (M = Fe, Co and Ni) to Palladium Catalyst on Durability of Electrocatalytic Activity of Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Media, 229th ECS meeting, 2016.5.29-6.2, San Diego, US.
(191) F. Ando, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, T. Takeda, T. Ohsaka, and F. Matsumoto, Enhancement of the Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) on a PtPb Nanoparticle /TiO2/Cup-stacked Carbon Nanotube Composite in Acidic Aqueous Solutions based on the Electronic Interaction between PtPb and TiO2, 229th ECS meeting, 2016.5.29-6.2, San Diego, US.
Nanoparticles towards Electrooxidation of Formic Acid, 電気化学会関東支部第34回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2016.9.8-9.
(189) 安藤風馬, 田邉豊和，金子信悟，大坂武男,松本 太, Development of Metal Oxide-Supported Metal and Ordered Intermetallic Nanoparticles to Enhance the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in PEMFC, 電気化学会関東支部第34回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2016.9.8-9.
(188) 劉 雨彬, 田邉豊和，金子信悟，大坂武男,松本 太, Cu-Sn Bimetallic Nanoparticles supported on carbon for Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to CO in Aqueous Media, 電気化学会関東支部第34回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2016.9.8-9.
(187) 田邉 豊和, 宮澤 亘, 郡司 貴雄, 伊藤 皇成, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 宮内 雅浩, 松本 太, TiO2ナノロッド還元反応サイトへのPt-Pb 合金微粒子助触媒の選択的担持と担持結晶面の酢酸光酸化分解反応への影響, 日本金属学会 2016年秋期講演大会(第159回),大阪大学, 2016.9.21-2.
(186 K. Miyamoto, T. Gunji, Y. Mochizuki, S. Kaneko, T. Tanabe, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, The Examination of the Composition of xLi2MnO3-yLiNi0.5Mn0.5O 2-zLiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 Solid-Solution Cathode Materials Exhibiting High Capacity, Discharge Voltage and Rate Performance, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(185) T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, and F. Matsumoto, the Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity over Carbon-Supported Pd-Based Ordered Intermetallic Compounds, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(184) F. Matsumoto, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, and T. Ohsaka, Facile Route for the Preparation of Ordered Intermetallic Pt3Pb-PtPb Core-Shell Nanoparticles and Its Enhanced Activity for Alkaline Methanol and Ethanol Oxidation, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(183) T. Ohsaka (Kanagawa University, Tokyo Institute of Technology), S. H. Noh, M. H. Seo, J. Kang, T. Okajima, B. Han, F. Matsumoto, Design of Metal Structure Encapsulated in N-Doped Carbon Layers As Tunable Catalyst for Electrochemical Applications, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(182) T. Tanabe, M. Hashimoto, T. Tanikawa, T. Gunji, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, and F. Matsumoto, Mixed Valence Tin Oxide Sn3O4 : A Visible-Light Driven Semiconductor for Photocatalytic Water Splitting Under Visible Light Irradiation, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(181 T. Tanabe, W. Miyazawa, T. Gunji, M. Hashimoto, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, Site-Selective Binary Alloy Nanoparticles Deposition on TiO2 Nanorod for Acetic Acid Oxidative Decomposition Under UV-Vis Irradiation, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(180) T. Gunji, S. Kaneko, T. Tanabe, T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, the Relationship Between Brightness of Aluminum Films Fabricated Using an AlCl 3-1-Ethyl-3-Methylimidazolium Chloride-Toluene Bath and Molecular Structure of Additives, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(179) K. Miyamoto, Y. Honma, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka, S. Ugawa, H. J. Lee, Y. Ootsuka, F. Matsumoto, the Application of a Water-Based Hybrid Polymer Binder to a High-Voltage and High-Capacity Li-Rich Solid-Solution Cathode and Its Performance in Li-Ion Batteries, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
Oxygen Reduction Reaction in PEMFC, PRiME2016, 2016.10.2-7, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, USA.
(177) 安藤風馬, 田邉豊和, 郡司貴雄, 金子信悟, 大坂武男, 松本 太, Pt系ナノ粒子/TiO2/カップスタックカーボンナノチューブの電極触媒特性と耐久性の向上, 平成28年神奈川県ものづくり交流会, 2016.10.26, 神奈川県産業技術センター, 海老名.
(176) 松本 太, 田邉豊和, 郡司貴雄, 金子信悟, 大坂武男, AlCl3-EMIC イオン液体からのアルミニウム電気めっきにおける添加剤の効果−添加剤の分子構造と光沢性の関係−, 平成28年神奈川県ものづくり交流会, 2016.10.26, 神奈川県産業技術センター, 海老名.
(175) 松本太, 中村亮介, 望月康正, 郡司貴雄, 田邉豊和, 金子信悟, 大坂武男, 板垣薫, 杣直彦, 孔空き集電銅箔を用いたLi+イオンドープ反応の高速化のための孔デザインの最適化, 第57回電池討論会, 2016.11.29., 幕張メッセ.
(174) 小山 昇，山口 秀一郎，古館 林，望月 康正，羽田 睦雄，大坂 武男，岡島 武, 松本 太, "多重インピーダンス計測によるリチウム二次電池モジュール劣化度診断の簡便法の開発", 第57回電池討論会, 2016.11.29., 幕張メッセ.
(171) 矢�ｱ将志，金子信悟，郡司貴雄，大坂武男，田邉豊和，松本 太, 置換析出に基づくビスマステルライド系薄層の作製とその熱電変換特性, 表面技術協会第135回講演大会, 2017.3.9-10, 東洋大学川越キャンパス.
(170) 郡司貴雄，川崎大樹，伊藤拳人，金子信悟，田邉豊和，松本 太, 多重定電流パルスめっき法を用いて作製したNi/Cu およびNi/Ni-P 多層膜の断面観察と耐摩耗性の膜厚依存性, 表面技術協会第135回講演大会, 2017.3.9-10, 東洋大学川越キャンパス.
(169) 田邉 豊和, 伊藤 皇聖, 郡司 貴雄, 宮内 雅浩, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, Pt-Pb合金微粒子/TiO2ナノロッド光触媒によるVOC完全酸化分解反応,日本金属学会2017年春期大会, 2017.3.15-17, 首都大学東京.
(168) 田邉 豊和, 伊藤 皇聖, 郡司 貴雄, 宮内 雅浩, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, TiO2ナノロッドの露出面制御とPt-Pb合金微粒子担持による高効率なVOC酸化分解反応,電気化学会第84回大会, 2017.3.25-27, 首都大学東京.
(167) 郡司 貴雄, 田邊 豊和, 安藤 風馬, 大坂 武男, 松本 太, 白金フリーを志向した新規電極触媒の創生および酸性水溶液中における酸素還元反応と触媒の構造・電子状態の相関, 電気化学会第84回大会, 2017.3.25-27, 首都大学東京.
(166) 津田喬史, 井波祐貴, 中村亮介, 安藤風馬, 望月康正, 郡司貴雄, 田邉豊和, 金子信悟, 板垣薫, 杣直彦, 松本 太, Liイオンキャパシタ用電極作製のための穴空き集電銅箔を用いたLiイオンドープ反応の高速化および穴空き集電箔のリチウムイオン二次電池への適用, 電気化学会第84回大会, 2017.3.25-27, 首都大学東京.
(165) 松本 太, 田邉 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 望月 康正, 金子 信悟, 大坂 武男, 鵜川 晋作, 大塚 巧治, イ ホジン, 水系バインダー適用のためのLiNi0.5Mn1.5O4高電圧正極材料粒子の表面コーティングと充放電特性の安定化, 電気化学会第84回大会, 2017.3.25-27, 首都大学東京.
(164) 松本 太, 高電圧・高容量正極材料への水系バインダーの適用と性能評価, 『リチウム二次電池向けバインダーの高電圧対応設計と最適選定 』, 技術情報協会(東京, 五反田), 2016.7.7.
(163) 松本 太, 固体高分子形燃料電池用金属間化合物ナノ粒子電極触媒の合成と電極触媒活性の向上, 都市環境学部第365回応化コロキウム, 首都大学東京, 2016.7.29.
(162) 田邉 豊和, 可視光水分解を指向したSn酸化物光触媒の創製と合金微粒子の反応サイト選択担持による反応高効率化, 電気化学会関東支部第34回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2016.9.8-9.
(161) 金子信悟, 松本 太, "めっき膜の物性向上に向けた体系的研究—物性と結晶構造の関わり—", ファインプレーティング研究会, (関東学院大学, 関内), 2016,10.4.
(160) 松本 太, 企業講演会"電気化学反応と測定・解析",サン工業株式会社 (長野県，伊那市), 2016.10.21.
(159) T. Tanabe, Controlled deposition of Pt-Pb alloy nanoparticles on TiO2 nanorods: improved photocatalytic activity with site-selective co-catalyst loading, BIT's 6th Annual World Congress of Nano Science & Technology – 2016, 2016.10.26-28, Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium, Singapore.
(158) T. Tanabe, M. Hashimoto, T. Tanikawa, T. Gunji, S. Kaneko, T. Ohsaka and F. Matsumoto, Visible light-driven water splitting using mixed-valence Tin oxide semiconductor photocatalyst, EMN Meeting on Energy and Sustainability, 2016.11.28-12.2, Osaka, Japan.
(157) Futoshi Matsumoto, Application of Ordered Intermetallic Compounds to Polyer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells as Electrocatalysts, Exchange Sympodium of National Taiwan University and Kanagawa University, Taiwan, 2017-3-11.
(156) 松本 太, リチウムイオンキャパシタ用電極作製のための穴空き集電銅箔を用いたLi+ドープ反応の高速化および穴あき集電箔のリチウムイオン二次電池への適用, リチウムイオンキャパシタ、リチウムイオン二次電池 プレドープ・穴あき集電箔が開く次世代電池の未来横浜企業経営支援財団第219回産学交流サロン(横浜市), 2017.3.24.
(155) 松本 太, 高電圧・高容量正極材料への水系バインダーの適用と性能評価, 技術情報協会セミナー(五反田、東京) 2017.3.23.
(154) K. Uehara, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, and F. Matsumoto, The Effect of Brighteners on the Fabrication of Electroplated High-Bright Aluminum Films Using AlCl3-Emic Ionic Liquids, 228th ECS meeting, 2015.10.11-15, Phoenix, US.
(153) T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, and F. Matsumoto, Photocatalytic Decomposition of Various Organic Compounds over WO3 Supported Ordered Intermetallic PtPb Co-Catalyst, 228th ECS meeting, 2015.10.11-15, Phoenix, US.
(152) T. Kuzuoka, T. Kouno, T. Koyama, Y. Morita, K. Yamazaki, S. Kaneko, T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, and F. Matsumoto, Development of Moving Micro-Machines That Use Hydrogen Peroxide and Glucose as Fuels, 228th ECS meeting, 2015.10.11-15, Phoenix, US.
(151) Shingo Kaneko (Research Institute for Engineering, Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Japan), Yuichi Sato, Futoshi Matsumoto, Junwei Zheng, Decheng Li, Size-regulated Precursor-Based Synthesis of Lithium-Rich Layered Cathode Material Deriving High Rate Capability, 66th Annual meeting of International Society of Electrochemistry, 2015.10.4-9., Taipei, Taiwan.
(150) 橋本真成, 田邉豊和, 谷川龍弘, 郡司貴雄, 金子信悟, 阿部英樹, 松本 太, 水分解を指向した可視光応答型Sn酸化物光触媒の合成と触媒活性, 第5回CSJ化学フェスタ2015, 2015.10.13-15., タワーホール船堀, 東京.
(149) 橋本真成, 田邉豊和, 谷川龍弘, 郡司貴雄, 金子信悟, 阿部英樹, 松本 太, 混合原子価スズ酸化物光触媒Sn3O4: 可視光によるメタノール水溶液からの水素生成, 第25回日本MRS年次大会, 2015.12.8-10., 横浜開港記念会館, 横浜.
(148) 橋本 真成, 田邉豊和, 谷川龍弘, 郡司貴雄, 金子信悟, 阿部英樹, 松本 太,可視光応答性混合価数Sn 酸化物の高純度合成と犠牲剤水溶液からの水素発生の検討, 第 22回シンポジウム, 光触媒反応の最近の展開, 東京理科大学野田キャンパス, 2015/12/4.
(147) 郡司 貴雄, 橋本真成, 田邉豊和, 野澤寿章, 金子信悟, 松本 太, WO3光触媒担持金属間化合物PtPb助触媒による有機物の分解反応の検討, 第25回日本MRS年次大会, 2015.12.8-10, 横浜開港記念会館, 横浜.
(146) Toyokazu Tanabe, Wataru Miyazawa, Takao Gunji, Shingo Kaneko, Masahiro Miyauchi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Site-selective Pt-Pb nanoparticles deposition on TiO2 nanorod photocatalyst for acetic acid oxidative decomposition under UV-Vis irradiation, PACIFICHEM2015, 2015.12.15-20, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
(145) Toyokazu Tanabe, Masanari Hashimoto, Arockiam Jeevagan, Takao Gunji, Shingo Kaneko, Hideki Abe, Futoshi Matsumoto, Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from aqueous methanol solution using mixed-valence Sn3O4 under visible light irradiation, PACIFICHEM2015, 2015.12.15-20, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
(144) 郡司 貴雄,田邉 豊和,金子 信悟,松本 太, Pdをベースとした種々の合金触媒のアルカリ性水溶液中における酸素還元反応の触媒活性, 電気化学会第83回講演大会, 大阪大学, 2016.3.29-31.
(143) 安藤 風馬,郡司 貴雄,田邉 豊和,金子 信悟,松本 太, Pt系ナノ粒子/TiO2/カップスタックカーボンナノチューブの電極触媒特性と耐久性の向上, 電気化学会第83回講演大会, 大阪大学, 2016.3.29-31.
(142) 松本 太, 井波 祐貴, 郡司 貴雄,望月 康正, 金子 信悟, 田邉 豊和, Liイオンキャパシタ用電極作製のための穴空き集電銅箔を用いたLiプレドープ反応の高速化, 電気化学会第83回講演大会, 大阪大学, 2016.3.29-31.
(141) 郡司 貴雄, 田邉 豊和, 金子 信悟, 松本 太, 金属酸化物上に担持したPt系触媒の酸素還元反応に関する触媒活性, 電気化学会第83回講演大会, 大阪大学, 2016.3.29-31.
(140) 本間 陽平, 郡司 貴雄, 松本 太, 望月 康正, 田邉 豊和, 金子 信悟, 鵜川 晋作, 大塚 巧治, イ ボジン, 水系バインダー適用のための高電圧正極材料粒子の表面コーティングと充放電特性の向上, 電気化学会第83回講演大会, 大阪大学, 2016.3.29-31.
(139) 田邉 豊和, 橋本 真成, 谷川 龍弘, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 松本 太, 混合価数酸化物Sn3O4光触媒を用いた各種犠牲剤溶液からの水素発生及び酸素発生の検討, 電気化学会第83回講演大会, 大阪大学, 2016.3.29-31.
(138) 金子信悟，守屋世界，田邉豊和，松本 太, 湿式法により作製したビスマステルライド系薄層の結晶構造と熱電変換特性の関係, 表面技術協会第133回講演大会, 2016.3.22-23, 早稲田大学西早稲田キャンパス.
(137) 郡司貴雄，上原一真，金子信悟，田邉豊和，松本 太, AlCl3-EMIC イオン液体からのアルミニウム電気めっきにおける添加剤の効果(3) −添加剤の分子構造と光沢性の関係−, 表面技術協会第133回講演大会, 2016.3.22-23, 早稲田大学西早稲田キャンパス.
(136) T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, F. Matsumoto, K. Sasaki, A. J. Jeevagan, Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reactions and Stable Long-term Activity on TiO2-supported Dealloyed PtCu Nanoparticles in Acidic Aqueous Solutions, 227nd Meeting of ECS, Chicago, US, 2015.5, 24-28.
(135) 郡司貴雄, 田邉豊和，金子信悟，松本 太, PtPb金属間化合物ナノ粒子を助触媒とした光触媒の合成と有機物分解反応の触媒活性の検討, 電気化学会関東支部第33回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2015.8.26-27.
(134) 橋本真成, 田邉豊和，金子信悟，松本 太, 可視光応答型Sn3O4光触媒の高純度合成と犠牲剤溶液からの水素生成反応, 電気化学会関東支部第33回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2015.8.26-28.
(133) Toyokazu Tanabe, Wataru Miyazawa, Takao Gunji, Shingo Kaneko, Masahiro Miyauchi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Site-selective deposition of Pt-Pb bimetallic alloy nanoparticles on rutile TiO2 nanorod for acetic acid decomposition under UV irradiation, First International Symposium on Recent Progress of Energy and Environmental Photocatalysis (Photocatalysis1) Tokyo University of Science, Japan, 2015. 9.3-4.
(132) Toyokazu Tanabe, Hashimoto Masanari, Arockiam John Jeevagan, Takao Gunji, Shingo Kaneko, Hideki Abe, Futoshi Matsumoto, Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from aqueous methanol over mixed valence tin oxide-Sn3O4 under visible light irradiation, First International Symposium on Recent Progress of Energy and Environmental Photocatalysis (Photocatalysis1) Tokyo University of Science, Japan, 2015. 9.3-4.
(131) 金子信悟，川崎大樹，伊藤拳人，田邉豊和，松本 太, Cu/Ni多層めっきにおけるめっき層の構造と耐摩耗性の関係(2),表面技術協会第132回講演大会, 信州大学長野キャンパス, 2015. 9.9-10.
(130） 郡司貴雄，田邉豊和，金子信悟，宮内雅浩，松本 太, PtPb金属間化合物助触媒/WO3光触媒の合成と触媒活性(2),表面技術協会第132回講演大会, 信州大学長野キャンパス, 2015. 9.9-10.
(129) 松本 太, 上原一真, 方 雪琴, 金子信悟，田邉豊和, AlCl3-EMICイオン液体からのアルミニウム電気めっきにおける添加剤の効果(2),表面技術協会第132回講演大会, 信州大学長野キャンパス, 2015. 9.9-10.
(128) 田邉 豊和,橋本 真成,谷川 龍弘,郡司 貴雄,金子 信悟,松本 太, 可視光応答型Sn3O4光触媒の高純度合成と犠牲剤溶液からの水素生成反応, 電気化学秋季大会, 埼玉工業大学, 2015. 9.11-12.
(127) 郡司 貴雄, 田邉 豊和, 金子 信悟, 宮内 雅浩, 松本 太, PtPb金属間化合物ナノ粒子を助触媒とした光触媒の合成と有機物分解反応の触媒活性の検討,電気化学秋季大会, 埼玉工業大学, 2015. 9.11-12.
(126) 松本 太,郡司 貴雄,安藤 風馬,竹田 剛士,藤間 光,田邉 豊和,金子 信悟, PtPb/TiO2/カップスタック型カーボンナノチューブの合成と電極触媒反応への適用 電気化学秋季大会, 埼玉工業大学, 2015. 9.11-12.
(125) 松本 太, “電気化学反応と測定・解析“, Science & Technology株式会社主催(東京，大井町), 2015.12.17-18.
(124) Futoshi Matsumoto, Application of Ordere Intermetallic Nanoparticles to Electrocatalyst of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell, Energy Material Nanotechnology Meeting 2016, Orland USA, 2016.2.21-25.
(123) 松本 太, “リチウム二次電池電極用バインダーにおける高電圧化への適用・評価と電極板製造工程での不良低減・安全性向上のポイント “,株式会社AndTech主催(東京，千代田区), 2016. 3. 25.
(122) 田邉 豊和, 亀岡 聡, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信吾, 蔡 安邦, 松本 太, Cu3Au前駆体ナノポーラスAuにおける残留Cu状態解析, 日本金属学会2015年度春期講演大会, 東京大学駒場キャンパス, 2015. 3.19.
(121) 加藤 めぐみ, 南齋 勉, 井川 学, 松本 太, 油滴の自発的走行に及ぼす界面活性剤の影響, 第24回 非線形反応と協同現象研究会, 東京電機大学 東京千住キャンパス, 2014.12. 6.
(120) Arockiam John Jeevagan, Takashi Tsuda, Govindachetty Saravanan, Takao Gunji, Masanari Hasimoto, Shingo Kaneko, Masahiro Miyauchi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Visible Light Driven Decomposition of Organic Compounds by Two Different CoCatalysts, 225nd Meeting of ECS, Orlando, USA, 2014.5, 12-16.
(119) Masanari Hasimoto, Arockiam John Jeevagan, Takashi Tsuda, Govindachetty Saravanan, Takao, Gunji, Shingo Kaneko, Masahiro Miyauchi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Photocatalytic Activity of Pt3Ti/WO3 Photocatalyst Under Visible-Light Irradiation, 225nd Meeting of ECS, Orlando, USA, 2014.5, 12-16.
(118) B. Nanzai, M. Kato, Y. Okawa, M. Igawa, F. Matsumoto "Spontaneous motion of oil droplet in aqueous solution: Effect of contact angle and interfacial tensions under various conditions" P4 Gordon Research Conference 2014：Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities in Chemical Systems (July 2014, Girona, Spain).
(117) 岸岡真也，大園裕也，渡邊庄元，松本 太，��田 伶子，鈴木 優季子,芳香族ジアミン類縁体のAu(111)での電解重合:構造と酸素還元触媒反応, 2014年電気化学秋季大会, 北海道大学, 2014.9.28-29.
(116) 田邉豊和, Manikandan Maidhily, 梅澤直人, 松本 太, 阿部英樹, 可視光水分解反応を指向した混合価数Sn3O4光触媒の開発, 2014年電気化学秋季大会, 北海道大学, 2014.8.28-29.
(115) 松本 太, 若尾駿志, 望月康正, 金子信悟, 渡辺充広, 馬場邦人, 村上更,大村雅也, 神田雄介, 粗面化アルミニウム集電体を用いたリチウム二次電池用正極/水系バインダー薄膜性能評価, 2014年電気化学秋季大会, 北海道大学, 2014.9.28-29.
(114) Arockiam John Jeevagan, Takao Gunji, Toyokazu Tanabe, Shingo Kaneko, Futoshi Matsumoto, Pd3Pb Ordered Intermetallic Catalyst for Improved Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Environment, 2014年電気化学秋季大会, 北海道大学, 2014.9.28-29.
(113) 郡司貴雄,坂井啓介,鈴木優季子,田邉豊和,金子信悟,松本太, 種々の金属酸化物に担持した白金系金属間化合物ナノ粒子の電極触媒活性, 2014年電気化学秋季大会, 北海道大学, 2014.9.28-29.
(112) 郡司貴雄，臼井 将，金子信悟，田邉豊和，松本 太, Pt3Pbコア-PtPbシェル構造を有するナノ粒子の合成と触媒表面構造と燃料電池用電極触媒活性の関係, 表面技術協会第130回講演大会, 京都大学, 2014.9.22-23.
(111) 松本 太，葛岡拓也，小山朋大，金子信悟，田邉豊和, 電気化学反応・酵素反応を用いたマイクロ自律移動体の開発, 表面技術協会第130回講演大会, 京都大学, 2014.9.22-23.
(110) 郡司貴雄, 田邉豊和，金子信悟，松本 太, 金属酸化物担持白金系金属間化合物の燃料電池用電極触媒への適用, 電気化学会関東支部第32回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2014.8.28-29.
(109) 橋本真成, 田邉豊和，金子信悟，松本 太, 白金系金属間化合物を助触媒とした光触媒の合成と光触媒活性の評価, 電気化学会関東支部第32回夏の学校, 八王子セミナーハウス, 2014.8.28-29.
(108) Y. Sato, S. KANEKO, F. MATSUMOTO, B. XIA, Q. ZHANG, G. FANG, W. LIU, H. SUN, J. ZHENG and D.Li, High Rate Capability of Lithium-Rich Layered Li1.2Ni0.18Mn0.59Co0.03O2 Cathode Material Prepared from Size-Regulated Precursor Fine Particles, 10th IUPAC International Conference on Novel Materials and Their Synthesis, 鄭州, 中国, 2014.10.11-15.
(107) T. Gunji, K. Sasaki, A. J. Jeevagan, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko and F. Matsumoto, Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reaction and Stable Long-Term Activity on TiO2-supported Dealloyed PtCu Nanoparticles in Acidic Aqueous Solutions, 第24回日本MRS年次大会, 横浜開港記念会館, 2014.12.10-12.
(106) A. J. Jeevagan, T. Gunji, M. Hashimoto, T. Tanabe, S. Kaneko, and F. Matsumoto, Synthesis of Pt and Pd Based Intermetallic and Bimetallic Nanoparticles on Semiconductors and Their Photocatalytic Activity, 第24回日本MRS年次大会, 横浜開港記念会館, 2014.12.10-12.
(105) 郡司貴雄，田邉 豊和，金子 信悟，松本 太, Pt系金属間化合物を用いた固体高分子形燃料電池用高性能電極触媒の開発, 4th CSJ Chemistry Festa, タワーホール船堀, 2014.10.14-16.
(104) 郡司貴雄，大場匠悟，田邉豊和，金子信悟，松本 太, マイクロ波ポリオール2段階法を用いたPt3Pbコア-PtPbシェル構造を有するナノ粒子の合成と電極触媒活性の向上, 平成26年度神奈川県ものづくり技術交流会, 神奈川県産業技術センター, 2014.10.23.
(103) A. J. Jeevagan, T. Gunji, M. Hashimoto), S. Kaneko, F. Matsumoto, Synthesis of Pd-Based Nanoparticles and Its Photocatalytic Activity for Organic Compounds Decomposition, 226nd Meeting of ECS, Cancun, Mexico, 2014.10, 5-10.
(102) A. J. Jeevagan, T. Gunji, M. Hashimoto, S. Kaneko, M. Tanaka, and F. Matsumoto, Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxides-Supported Binary Catalysts and Its Electrocatalytic Activity, 226nd Meeting of ECS, Cancun, Mexico, 2014.10, 5-10.
(101) T. Tanabe, T. Gunji, K. Sasaki, A. J. Jeevagan, T. Tsuda, S. Kaneko, G. Saravanan, H. Abe, M. Tanaka and F. Matsumoto, Enhancement of Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Reduction Reaction on TiO2-Supported Pt-Based Intermetallic Compound Catalysts, 226nd Meeting of ECS, Cancun, Mexico, 2014.10, 5-10.
(100) A. J. Jeevagan, T. Gunji, T. Tanabe, S. Usui, T. Tsuda, S. Kaneko, G. Saravanan, H. Abe, M. Tanaka and F. Matsumoto, Enhancing Alkaline Ethanol Oxidation on Ordered Intermetallic Pt3pb-Ptpb Core-Shell Nanoparticles Prepared by Converting Nanocrystalline Metals to Ordered Intermetallic Compounds, 226nd Meeting of ECS, Cancun, Mexico, 2014.10, 5-10.
(99) 松本 太, 小瀬村 峻也, 井戸 功二, 望月 康正, 田邉 豊和, 金子 信吾, 鵜川 晋作, イ ホジン, 高電圧・高容量 Li 過剰系固溶体正極材料への水系バインダーの適用と性能評価, 第55回電池討論会, 国立京都国際会館, 2014.11.21.
(98) 渡辺 司, 田中 学, 望月 康正, 松本 太, 川上 浩良, 全固体型リチウムイオン電池の電解質応用を目指したイオン伝導性高分子ナノファイバーの作製, 第55回電池討論会, 国立京都国際会館, 2014.11.21.
(97) 橋本真成, 田邉豊和, 宮内雅浩, 阿部英樹, 郡司貴雄, 松本太, 金属間化合物を助触媒とした光触媒による CO2還元反応, 第21回シンポジウム「光触媒反応の最近の展開」, 東京大学生産技術研究所コンベンションホール, 2014.12.12.
(96) 松本 太，方 雪琴，金子信悟，佐藤静夏，田邉豊和, AlCl3-EMICイオン液体からのアルミニウム電気めっきにおける添加剤の効果, 表面技術協会第131回講演大会, 関東学院大学, 2015.3.4-5.
(95) 葛岡拓也，小山朋大，金子信悟，田邉豊和，南齋 勉，松本 太, 酵素反応を用いたマイクロ自立移動体の開発(2), 表面技術協会第131回講演大会, 関東学院大学, 2015.3.4-5.
(94) 小瀬村俊也，大場匠悟，金子信悟，望月康正，田邉豊和，松本 太，鵜川晋作，イホジン, 高電圧・高容量Li過剰系固溶体正極材料への水系バインダーの適用と電池性能の向上, 表面技術協会第131回講演大会, 関東学院大学, 2015.3.4-5.
(93) 伊藤拳人，森田千絵，金子信悟，田邉豊和，松本 太, Cu/Ni多層めっきにおけるめっき層の構造と耐摩耗性の関係, 表面技術協会第131回講演大会, 関東学院大学, 2015.3.4-5.
(92) 小林拳人，金子信悟，川上博司，齋藤美和，田邉豊和，松本 太, 湿式法により作製したフレキシブル熱電材料の熱電変換特性, 表面技術協会第131回講演大会, 関東学院大学, 2015.3.4-5.
(91) 松本 太，小瀬村 峻也，井戸 功二，大場 匠悟，望月 康正，田邉 豊和，金子 信悟鵜川 晋作，イ ホジン, 水系バインダー/種々の増粘剤を用いて作製した高電圧・高容量Li過剰系固溶体系正極の電池特性, 電気化学会第82回大会, 横浜国立大学, 2015.3.15-17.
(90) 田邉 豊和, 宮澤 亘, ジョン ディーバガン アロキン, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信悟, 宮内 雅浩,松本 太, Pt-Pb合金微粒子担持ルチル型TiO2ナノロッド光触媒の合成及び助触媒担持法の違いによる酢酸の光酸化分解活性への影響, 電気化学会第82回大会, 横浜国立大学, 2015.3.15-17.
(89) ジョン ディーバガン アキロン, 田邉 豊和, 郡司 貴雄, 金子 信吾, 梅澤 直人, 阿部 英樹, 松本 太, 可視光応答型Sn3O4光触媒粉末における助触媒担持効果と犠牲剤水溶液からの水素生成, 電気化学会第82回大会, 横浜国立大学, 2015.3.15-17.
(88) 郡司 貴雄,田邉 豊和,金子 信悟, 松本 太, 種々の金属酸化物に担持した白金系金属間化合物ナノ粒子のORR触媒活性, 電気化学会第82回大会, 横浜国立大学, 2015.3.15-17.
(86) 松本 太, 固体/溶液界面における電子移動反応を利用したエネルギー変換〜研究機関の役割と共同研究〜, 古河電工株式会社, 2014.10.22.
(85) 松本 太, Pt系金属間化合物の固体高分子形燃料電池用電極触媒への適用, 大学／産技センター連携「電気化学応用エネルギー技術フォーラム」平成26年度神奈川県ものづくり技術交流会, 神奈川県産業技術センター, 2014.10.23.
(84) 松本 太, Pt系金属間化合物の固体高分子形燃料電池用電極触媒への適用,名古屋カンファレンス「未来を動かす電子移動化学」日本化学会東海支部, 名古屋工業大学, 2014.12.12.
(83) 松本 太, Pt系金属間化合物の固体高分子形燃料電池用電極触媒への適用,電気化学会関東支部サイエンスレクチャー, 電気化学会(市ヶ谷), 2015.2.10.
(82) 松本 太, 固体/溶液界面における電子移動反応を利用したエネルギー変換, JSR株式会社先端材料研究所, 2015.3.6.
(81) Genki Kobayashi, Yuta Irii, Futoshi Matsumoto, Atsushi Ito, Shinji Yamamoto, Masaharu Hatano, Yuichi Sato, Surface and Bulk Structures of Li-Rich Layered Oxides, xLiMO2 – (1-x)Li2MnO3, Coated with Al2O3, The 64th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry(Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, 2013.9.8-13).
(80) Yuichi Sato, Genki Kobayashi, Yuta Irii, Nobuya Kitada, Futoshi Matsumoto, Ryo Ohtsu, Kohei Shibukawa, Atsushi Ito, Shinji Yamamoto, Yasuhiko Ohsawa, Surface Modification Effect on Electrochemical Performance of Li-rich Layered xLi2MnO3-(1-x)LiMO2, The 64th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry(Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, 2013.9.8-13).
(79) Arokim John Jeevagan, 郡司貴雄,臼井将, Govindachetty Saravanan, 津田喬史,金子信悟,小林玄器,松本太，Methanol and Ethanol Oxidation on Ordered Intermetallic Compounds in Alkaline Media(電気化学会2013年度秋季大会), 東京工業大学, 2013.9.27-28.
(78) 松本太, 鈴木優季子, 村越恵理香, 斧淵俊明, Govindachetty Saravanan, Arokim John Jeevagan, 金子信悟, 小林玄器，遷移金属イオンをドープしたマンガン酸化物の空気電池用空気極触媒への適用(電気化学会2013年度秋季大会), 東京工業大学, 2013.9.27-28.
(77) 小林玄器,渡邉明尋,松本太,佐藤祐一, Li過剰系正極Li[Li0.2Ni0.18+xCo0.03Mn0.58-x]02の充放電挙動と電極特性(電気化学会2013年度秋季大会), 東京工業大学, 2013.9.27-28.
(76) 郡司貴雄, Govindachetty Saravanan, 臼井将, Arokim John Jeevagan, 津田喬史, 金子信悟, 小林玄器, 松本太, 金属間化合物の固体高分子型燃料電池用カソード電極触媒としての適用(電気化学会2013年度秋季大会), 東京工業大学, 2013.9.27-28.
(75) 津田喬史，Govindachetty Saravanan，橋本真成，Arokim John Jeevagan，郡司貴雄，金子信悟，小林玄器，松本太,金属間化合物助触媒/光触媒の合成と触媒特性(電気化学会2013年度秋季大会), 東京工業大学, 2013.9.27-28.
(74) 松本 太，井澤圭介， 金子信悟， 持田由幸， Govindachetty Saravanan，Arockiam John Jeevagan，木村元彦，小林玄器，佐藤祐一, Ni/Cu多層膜の耐摩耗性の膜厚依存性および中間層の影響(表面技術協会第128回講演大会)，福岡工業大学，2013.9.24-25.
(73) Takao Gunji, Govindachetty Saravanan, Shingo Kaneko, Genki Kobayashi, Futoshi Matsumoto,,Enhanced Catalytic Oxygen Reduction Performance from Titania Supported PtPb Nanoparticles, 224nd Meeting of ECS, San Francisco, 2013.10, 27-11.1.
(72) Arockiam John Jeevagan, Govindachetty Saravanan, Toshiaki Onobuchi,Yukiko Suzuki, Erika Murakoshi, Shingo Kaneko, Genki Kobayashi, Futoshi Matsumoto , Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction and Water-Oxidation on Transition Metal Ions-Doped MnO2, RuO2 and IrO2 in Alkaline Aqueous Solutions, 224nd Meeting of ECS, San Francisco, 2013.10, 27-11.1.
(71) Takashi Tsuda, Govindachetty Saravanan, Arockiam John Jeevagan , Masanari Hashimoto, Shingo Kaneko, Genki Kobayashi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Synthesis of Intermetallic Nanoparticles as Co-catalyst on Anatase TiO2 and Its Photocatalytic Activity, 224nd Meeting of ECS, San Francisco, 2013.10, 27-11.1.
(70) Toshiaki Wakao, Yasumasa Mochizuki, Govindachetty Saravanan, Arockiam John Jeevagan, Kunihito Baba, Mitsuhiro Watanabe, Yusuke Kanda, Koh Murakami, Masaya Omura, Genki Kobayashi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Stable Charge/Discharge Cycle Performance of LiFePO4 Cathode Prepared with Carboxymethly Cellulose Binder, 224nd Meeting of ECS, San Francisco, 2013.10, 27-11.1.
(69) Arockiam John Jeevagan, Naoyuki Sawano, Govindachetty Saravanan, Takao Gunji, Shou Usui, Taiki Kojima, Shingo Kaneko, Genki Kobayashi, Futoshi Matsumoto, Two-step Microwave Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Ordered Intermetallic PtPb Nanoparticles on Carbon Black, 224nd Meeting of ECS, San Francisco, 2013.10, 27-11.1.
(68) 津田喬史, 橋本真成, Arockiam John Jeevagan, 郡司貴雄, 金子信悟, 宮内雅浩, 松本 太, 金属間化合物ナノ粒子助触媒/WO3光触媒の合成と触媒特性(第20回記念シンポジウム「光触媒反応の最近の展開」)，東京大学生産技術研究所コンベンションホール，2013.12.13.
(67) 松本 太, 郡司貴雄, FC EXPO 2014, 金属間化合物ナノ粒子の固体高分子形燃料電池用電極触媒への適用，東京ビックサイト，2014.2.26-28.
(66) 松本 太，津田喬史，橋本真成，Arockiam John Jeevagan，金子信悟2，宮内雅浩, PtPb金属間化合物助触媒/WO3光触媒の合成と触媒特性, 表面技術協会第129回講演大会，東京理科大学野田キャンパス，2014.3.13-14.
(65) 松本 太，若尾駿志, 望月康正, 金子信悟, 渡辺充広, 馬場邦人, 神田雄介, 大村雅也, 村上 更, 粗面化アルミニウム集電体を用いたリチウム二次電池用正極/水系バインダー薄膜の作製と性能評価, 表面技術協会第129回講演大会，東京理科大学野田キャンパス，2014.3.13-14.
(64) 佐藤 静夏, 藤井大地, 金子信悟，松本 太, アルミニウム電気めっき膜の陽極酸化による規則性ポーラス構造の作製, 表面技術協会第129回講演大会，東京理科大学野田キャンパス，2014.3.13-14.
(62) 森田千絵, 井澤圭介, 金子信悟，佐藤祐一,松本 太，Ni/Cu多層膜におけるCuおよびNi層の結晶性と耐摩耗性の関係, 表面技術協会第129回講演大会，東京理科大学野田キャンパス，2014.3.13-14.
(61) 横溝美衣子, 金子信悟, 望月康正，嵐田敏彦, 笹元貴弘, 松本 太，スパッタリング法を用いたリチウムイオン伝導固体電解質リン酸リチウムオキシナイトライド（LiPON）薄膜の作製と性能評価, 表面技術協会第129回講演大会，東京理科大学野田キャンパス，2014.3.13-14.
(60) 橋本 真成, 津田 喬史, 郡司 貴雄, Arockiam John Jeevagan, 金子 信悟, 松本 太, 白金系金属間化合物を助触媒とした光触媒の合成と光触媒活性の評価(2), 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(59) 郡司 貴雄, 津田 喬史, Arockiam John Jeevagan, 金子 信悟, 松本 太, 金属酸化物担持白金系金属間化合物の燃料電池用酸素極触媒への適用, 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(58) 郡司 貴雄, 佐々木 謙悟, 津田 喬史, Arockiam John Jeevagan, 金子 信悟, 松本 太, 酸化チタン担持白金系合金触媒を用いた酸素還元特性の向上, 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(57) 鈴木優季子, 坂井啓介, 入井友海太，郡司貴雄, 津田喬史, Arockiam John Jeevagan, 金子信悟, 松本 太, 空気電池用空気極触媒としてのカーボン担持高分散金属酸化物の合成とBifunctional 特性, 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(56) 金子信悟, Bingbo Xia, 松本 太, 佐藤祐一, Junwei Zheng, Decheng Li, 高レート特性を発揮するリチウム過剰層状正極材料のサイズ制御前駆体に基づく合成, 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(55) 郡司 貴雄, 臼井 将, 津田 喬史, Arockiam John Jeevagan, 金子 信悟, 松本 太, マイクロ波ポリオール2段階法を用いた Pt3Pb コア-PtPb シェル構造を有する ナノ粒子の合成と電極触媒活性の向上, 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(54) 郡司 貴雄, 津田 喬史, Arockiam John Jeevagan, 金子 信悟, 松本 太, マイクロ波ポリオール 2段階法を用いて 調製したPt系金属間化合物の電極触媒特性, 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(53) 岸岡真也，大園裕也，渡邊庄元，松本 太，��田 伶子，鈴木 優季子, 芳香族ジアミン類のAu(111)での電解重合：構造と酸素還元触媒反応, 電気化学会第81回大会，関西大学, 2014.3.29-31.
(50)松本 太， “機能性ナノ粒子を用いた新しいエネルギー変換材料の創出“, 神大テクノフェスタ, (神奈川大学),2013.12.6.
(49) Genki Kobayashi, Kohei Shibukawa, Yuta Irii, Futoshi Matsumoto, Atsushi Ito,Yasuhiko Ohsawa, Masaharu Hatano, and Yuichi Sato, Surface Coating Effect on Electrochemical Performance of Li-Rich Layered Li[Li0.2Ni0.18Co0.03Mn0.58]O2, (Poster) IMLB 2012, Korea, Jeju, 2012.6.19.
(48) Y. Irii, G. Kobayashi, T. Kataoka, T. Ikehara, F. Matsumoto, A. Ito, Y. Ohsawa, M. Hatano, and Y. Sato, Study on Phase Diagram of Li-Rich Layered Li[Li0.2Ni0.18Co0.03Mn0.58]O2 (Poster), PRiME 2012(222nd Meeting of ECS), Hawaii, 2012.10, 8.
(47) K. Izawa, F. Matsumoto, M. Kimura, M. Fukunishi, G. Kobayashi and Y. Sato, The Wear Resistance Property of Cu/Ni Multilayer Films Prepared by Electrodeposition in Single and Dual Baths, IUMRS-International Conference on Electronic Materials (IUMRS-ICEM 2012), Pacifico Yokaohama, Yokohama, 2012.9.23-28.
(46) F. Matsumoto and H. Abe, Application of Ordered Intermetallic Phases to Electrocatalysis, IUMRS-International Conference on Electronic Materials (IUMRS-ICEM 2012), Pacifico Yokaohama, Yokohama, 2012.9.23-28.
(45) Yuichi Sato, Atsushi Ito, Masaharu Hatano, Hideaki Horie, Yasuhiko Ohsawa,Genki Kobayashi , Futoshi Matsumoto, RETENTION OF HIGH CAPACITIES OF A LI-RICH SOLID SOLUTION LAYERED CATHODE MATERALS (Li2MnO3–LiMO2) FOR LI-ION SECONDARY BATTERIES VIA ELECTROCHEMICAL PRE-TREATMENT, IUPAC 8th International Conference on Novel Materials and Synthesis (NMS-VIII) & 22nd International Symposium on Fine Chemistry and Functional Polymers (FCFP-XXII), Xi’An, 2012.10.14-19.
(44) 小林玄器，入井友海太，北田暢也，大津 諒，渋川晃平，松本 太，伊藤淳史，大澤康彦，山本伸司，佐藤祐, 酸化物表面修飾を施したリチウム過剰系正極xLi2MnO3-(1-x)LiMO2の電気化学特性 (第53回電池討論会), ヒルトン福岡シーホーク, 2012.11.14-16.
(43) 小林玄器, 入井友海太, 北田暢也, 松本 太, 伊藤淳史, 山本伸司, 秦野正治, 佐藤祐一, リチウム過剰系正極材料における表面修飾の効果(電気化学会第80回大会), 東北大学, 2013.3.29-31.
(42) 斧淵俊明, Govindachetty Saravanan, 小林玄器, 松本 太, 種々の遷移金属をドープしたマンガン酸化物の合成と空気電池用酸素極触媒への適用, (電気化学会第80回大会), 東北大学, 2013.3.29-31.
(41) 津田喬史, GovindachettySaravanan, 小林玄器, 松本 太, 白金系金属間化合物担持光触媒の合成(電気化学会第80回大会), 東北大学, 2013.3.29-31.
(40) 井澤圭介, 木村元彦, 福西美香, 小林玄器, 佐藤祐一, 松本 太, Cu／Ni 多層めっき膜における耐摩耗性向上およびナノ周期パターンの制御（表面技術協会第127回講演大会）, 日本工業大学，2013.3.18-19.
(39) 森田雄二, 河野智洋, 小林玄器, 佐藤祐一, 松本 太, 電気化学反応を用いたマイクロ自立移動体の開発（表面技術協会第127回講演大会）, 日本工業大学，2013.3.18-19.
(36) ＜国際学会招待講演＞Futoshi Matsumoto, Hideki Abe, Application of Ordered Intermetallic Phases to Electrocatalysis, PRiME 2012(222nd Meeting of ECS), Hawaii, 2012, 10, 9.
(30) 松本 太，“リチウムイオン２次電池におけるシリコン負極材を利用した電極の特性とバインダー”、「リチウム二次電池におけるシリコン系負極の結着性向上技術 〜バインダーの分散、劣化機構/集電銅箔の表面処理／電極剥離対策〜」、技術情報協会セミナー(東京、大井町), 2013.3.27.
(27) 松本 太, 阿部秀樹，紀之定 壮大，五十嵐優也, 有機分子の酸化および酸素分子の還元反応における電極触媒Pt3Ti金属間化合物ナノ粒子の検討, 2011年電気化学秋季大会(朱鷺メッセ・新潟コンベンションセンター), 2011.9.9.
(25) F. Matsumoto, H. Abe, S. Kinosada, Preparation and Characterization of Carbon-supported Ordered Intermetallic Pt3Ti Nanoparticles for the Oxygen Reduction in PEFCs, Electrochemical Society, 220th ECS Meeting(Westin Boston Waterfront and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center), 2011.10.10.
(24) A. Watanabe, F. Matsumoto, G. Kobayashi, M. Fukunishi, Y. Sato, A. Ito, Y. Ohsawa, Relationship between Electrochemical Pre-Treatment and Cycle Performance on Li-Rich Solid-Solution Layered Li[Ni0.18Li0.20Co0.03Mn0.58]O2 Cathode Materials for Li-Ion Secondary Battery, Electrochemical Society, 220th ECS Meeting(Westin Boston Waterfront and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center), 2011.10.10.
(23) 松本 太，渡邉明尋，佐藤祐一，小林玄器，伊藤淳史，大澤康彦，秦野正治，固溶体系正極材料Li[Ni0.18Li0.20Co0.03Mn0.58]O2 における電気化学段階的前処理条件と充放電特性の関係，第52回電池討論会（タワーホール船堀）, 2011.10.17-20.
(22) 松本 太, 阿部秀樹，紀之定 壮大，小林玄器，金属間化合物を用いた固体高分子形燃料電池用電極触媒の開発, 第52回電池討論会（タワーホール船堀）, 2011.10.17-20.
(21) 伊藤淳史, 蕪木智裕, 大澤康彦, 渡邉学, 真田貴志, 千葉啓貴, 秦野正治, 堀江英明, 松本太, 佐藤祐一, 高容量電池用固溶体正極の電気化学特性, 第52回電池討論会（タワーホール船堀）, 2011.10.17-20.
(20) 木村元彦, 松本 太, 福西美香, 小林玄器, 佐藤祐一, Cu/Ni多層膜の耐摩耗性の向上における中間層の効果, 表面技術協会第125回講演大会(東京都市大学), 2012.3.13-14.
(19) 河野 智洋, 松本 太,小林 玄器, 電気化学反応を利用した自立型移動体（マイクロマシーン）の開発, 電気化学会第79回大会,(アクトシティ浜松), 2012.3.29-31.
(18) 松本 太, 市村 尚之, 小林 玄器, 固体高分子形燃料電池用アノード触媒としての白金系金属間化合物の高電位状態での安定性, 電気化学会第79回大会,(アクトシティ浜松), 2012.3.29-31.
(17) 小林玄器，渋川晃平，入井友海太，松本 太，佐藤祐一，伊藤敦史，秦野正治，大澤康彦, 酸化物コーティングを施したLi過剰系固溶体正極Li[Li0.2Ni0.183Co0.03Mn0.583]O2の電極特性, 電気化学会第79回大会,(アクトシティ浜松), 2012.3.29-31.
(15) 松本 太, 金属間化合物の電極触媒への応用, 2011年電気化学秋季大会(朱鷺メッセ・新潟コンベンションセンター), 2011.9.9.
(12) 松本 太，CMC・アクリル酸バインダーの特徴と電池特性に及ぼす影響,「リチウムイオン電池バインダーの設計・調整および分析・評価手法」セミナー,サイエンス&テクノロジー（東京, 東京流通センター）, 2012.1.26.
(10) 福西美香，松本 太，佐藤祐一，一浴法，二浴法によるCu/Niナノオーダー多層めっき膜の耐摩耗性，表面技術協会，第122回講演大会(東北大学), 2010. 9. 5.
(9) M. Fukunishi, F. Matsumoto, Y. Sato, The Influence of Impurities of Cu/Ni Multilayers Prepared by Electrodeposition in Single and Dual Baths on Wear Resistance，MRS-J, 20th MRS-Japan Academic Symposium (Yokohama Media & Communications Center), 2010.12.20.
(8) Y. Irii, F. Matsumoto, Y. Sato, Y. Ohsawa, A. Ito, Improvement of the Thermal Stability and High Rate Cycle Performance of Li[Ni0.18-xLi0.20Co0.03-yMn0.58-zMx+y+z]O2 Cathode of Li-ion Battery by Metal Substitution，MRS-J, 20th MRS-Japan Academic Symposium (Yokohama Media & Communications Center), 2010.12.20.
(7) A. Watanabe, F. Matsumoto, Y. Sato, Y. Ohsawa, A. Ito, Effect of Electrochemical Pretreatment on Battery Performance of Li[Ni0.18Li0.20Co0.03Mn0.58]O2 Cathode Materials for Li-ion Battery (I)，MRS-J, 20th MRS-Japan Academic Symposium (Yokohama Media & Communications Center), 2010.12.20.
(4) 松本 太, 阿部秀樹，紀之定 壮大，Pt3Ti金属間化合物を用いた固体高分子形燃料電池用電極触媒の開発，,電気化学会第78回大会(横浜国立大学), 2011.3.29. (8) 渡邉明尋，松本 太，佐藤祐一，大澤康彦， 伊藤淳史，リチウムイオン二次電池用固溶体正極活物質Li[Ni0.18Li0.20Co0.03Mn0.58]O2における電気化学段階的前処理と充放電特性の関係，電気化学会第78回大会(横浜国立大学), 2011.3.29.
(3) 北田暢也，入井友海太，松本 太，佐藤祐一，大澤康彦， 伊藤淳史，リチウムイオン二次電池用固溶体正極活物質Li[Ni0.18Li0.20Co0.03Mn0.58]O2のレート特性の向上，電気化学会第78回大会(横浜国立大学), 2011.3.29.
(2)福西美香，河野琢磨，松本 太，佐藤祐一，CMCバインダーを用いたリチウムイオン二次電池用シリコンアノードにおける充放電特性のアノード被膜形態，表面技術協会第123回講演大会(関東学院大学), 2011. 3. 17. | 2019-04-21T06:19:35Z | http://apchem2.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/matsumotolab/index51.html |
I truly value every day, and I can say I try very hard to never wish time away.......but this February has been a cruel month and I am not sorry to see this page of the calendar turn.
It has been a sad month, filled with anniversaries and birthdays of loved ones passed. I have experienced more sickness from treatment this month than I have in a long time. It has been unusually cold and snowy and rainy here in the south. I have worked extra hard to keep my spirits up, but several of my friends are dealing with illness right now. So there, I have whined, thrown my pity party.
But, I have to say there have been good moments too, our gig last week, Valentine's dinner with friends, lunch with friends., It has been yin and yang......it has been life......and in the scheme of things, all has been as it should be. It is cold and rainy tonight, but we are promised a couple of days of warmth, tomorrow and Sunday.
visit us all these few weeks, wishing sunshine and blue skies for everyone this weekend.
Today has been the best day I have had since treatment on the 14th of this month......it is such a mystery, these infusions and the aftermath they leave behind. I wish I had answers or could find someone who had them......so far three years and no such luck.
But, there were blue skies today and sunshine......and I am grateful.
Tomorrow is Friday, the last day of February.......may your weekend be full of sunshine, may there be warmth and signs of spring to give you hope, may you laugh out loud every day.
The first daffodils of spring, blooming in the freezing cold today and promptly moved to my kitchen window sill. I have been a little down today, but when I see those daffodils my mood brightens.
In a couple of weeks, time will move to Daylight Savings and before we know it, winter will be no more. Spring 2014 will find us all, I hope she is a beauty this year.....full of color and clear blue skies.
With temps in the teens tonight, it is a wonder anything is blooming, but Mother Nature is a tough old broad.
I hope daffodils bloom in your neighborhood soon.
Classes today were based on communication, intuition and spirituality.........yes we can teach all of that and so much more in a yoga class. Communication......so many of us have difficulties speaking what we think and feel, or speaking before we think......or not listening.
But, when we bring awareness to those issues.....when we breathe and move and meditate on them, we can bring about change.
Many don't believe in intuition or think they have none......but it's about trust.....trusting yourself, listening to that inner voice and understanding that the answers we seek, we already know.
are ready.......it comes when you can finally be still and listen and trust.
As a teacher, I don't always get the same benefits from class that my students do, but I love teaching the class I taught today.......I get as much or more than the students do.
Several in the class will be leaving soon, they have been sheltered, and taught skills that hopefully will serve them well when they enter the real world again. I have said countless prayers for these students and those that came before them, every day I send them love and blessings for the life they seek.
My classes leave me exhausted, there are days I am not sure I can make it home.....this is not a job for the faint of heart. But, I believe in what I do......most importantly, I believe in those I teach.
A warm tender hand, a loving hug, a gentle smile........let the healing began. May we all have that person in our lives.
I promised a picture, here we are in Frenchie's Friday night. The crowd was awesome, a full house, and the food was , can we say INCREDIBLE.
If you are ever in Kosciusko, Ms. do yourself a big favor and eat there. The shrimp and grits were the best I have ever had.......and I have had wonderful shrimp and grits in many places. Fried chicken and waffles looked good too.
We had so much fun, I hope they ask us back soon.
I know sometimes that our friends and family think we must be crazy, after all Rick and I are not "chicken springs" (spring chickens) we have a comfy cozy home......why do we load Ingrid with so much sound equipment and instruments that there is barely room for us and our clothes.....drive for hours, unload, set equipment up, play our music for two hours, tear it all down, reload Ingrid and go home.
It ain't about the money........ask any singer songwriter and they will tell you, ( if the fire burns in their belly) that it has nothing to do with the money. (though we do love those ASCAP deposits). We do it, because we have to, it is a part of our DNA, of who we are as humans.......we do it whether anyone listens, we do it because if the songs aren't played and sung, then something dies within us.
I endure monthly treatments, days of side effects from them, just so my lungs will function and I can sing, play and teach.......just so I can live, not just breathe.
We have friends who do a couple of songs now and then, maybe share a stage with someone, but until you have experienced the bone tired fatigue of lifting speakers, and loading equipment, ( in four inch heels, with make-up) and then singing your heart out for and hour or two......you just won't get it. It is some ancient primal call within us.......this need to share our songs and tell our stories.
We played to a full house last night of strangers, it's easy to play to your friends they love you no matter what. Strangers may not even be kind.......but they were to us last night, they loved our music, our songs. Their love and kindness fed the beast within us, filled our needs and gave us one more reason why we do what we love.
A very long good day.....Rick's book signing was a hit, our gig was awesome......we are beyond tired. There is no place like home and your very own bed. The folks in Mississippi were wonderful.
Will give details and post some pictures tomorrow night.
Sleep beckons and I am willing.
Today has been my best day since treatment last week, though even today I spent couch time before going to teach for a few hours. If you are still at that place in your life where your energy is boundless, where health issues are someone else's.......I envy you. All I can tell you, is please don't take your energy or health for granted. Both are priceless gifts that should be cherished.
My classes today were based on the third chakra, the solar plexis, the energy point that deals with confidence, self, and transformation. It seemed the perfect class for my students, being at an addiction center can take away all your confidence, and change or transformation can be terrifying. Finding one's self through the jungle of addiction is something of a miracle.
Several students came up to me after class, telling me how much yoga was helping, how they loved class. Seeing their faces and joy in their eyes always assures me, I am in the right place, on the right path. Knowing that my knowledge can help, that my skills can encourage makes my difficult days more bearable.
Thank you all once again for you thoughts and prayers, for myself and my friend Louis.
Blessings of joy, and good health to everyone.
Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes......as many of you know, treatments can be a bear.
Normally, I do my treatment on a Wednesday and I have four days to recover before going back to work. Because of our weather last week, I did treatment on Friday, and foolishly went back to work on Monday and Tuesday......last night was not a good night. Yes, I have learned my lesson......and it didn't help that Friday was Valentine's Day and after I had been at the hospital for most of the day we went out to dinner.......I know, but after spending Rick's birthday and Valentine's day at the hospital.....I just wanted things to be normal. So, confession is good for the soul......there you have it.
I am just like so many of you, I push when I shouldn't.....and we pay dearly for it, don't we?
So once again, thank you for your kindness and love. I do have a a favor to ask of you all tonight. My chair buddy, for the past three years, is not doing so well......please send him some of that incredible love and healing energy when you can. Some of you may have remembered his picture that I posted, his name is Louis.
Today has been a couch day, and I feel much better tonight. Blessings to all of you.
This is Rick posting on Jilda's behalf. She's not feeling well tonight so she asked me to put something up for her. I love this quote and I knew she would too.
Today is the soonest that I have gone back to work after a treatment.....mistake.
Normally my treatment is on Wednesday, and I go back to work on Monday. This past week the treatment was on Friday (because of the snow) and I went back today.......I am feeling the difference that two days make.
But, the classes were good today, my students missed me, and I missed them.
Tonight in celebration of February being heart month, we did a class on the heart chakra.
We opened our hearts physically and emotionally, we showed compassion to ourselves.
I am about to show myself compassion and go to bed.
Yesterday and today were couch days, pretty typical after treatment......the energy just goes somewhere else, it eventually comes back, it takes a few days.....for life to get back to ordinary.
I use to avoid that word ordinary......it was the last word that I wanted to associate with. But these past few years, ordinary has become magical. Ordinary days are the days that keep life as it should be. I mentioned to a friend today that I think we all crave ordinary.
"glamorous" life that we are missing out on.....so we push, and worry and fret......and think that the unimportant, the ordinary is not worth out attention.
But the ordinary is the glue, ordinary is substance.....those days make us appreciate the extraordinary ones. The ordinary days form who we are, what we become.....they define us.
Those are the days we fight our battles, love those around us, and work our daily jobs.
The ordinary prepares us for those moments that are fleeting, the moments that carry us to the moon or to the pits of despair.
These days, I celebrate ordinary........they are important days.
Today was Rick's brother Darrin's birthday. Darrin died a few years ago, and honestly I tell people often that he was my brother, not my brother-in-law. I was his big sister, he confided in me, talked about his dreams and his fears. He died much too young, with a future that seemed so bright, his candle blown out by a life he was not ready for.
My oldest brother Herbert's death anniversary is tomorrow.......I miss him so very much, eight years since his passing. He was a typical big brother, protective, loving and kind. He loved life as much as anyone I have ever known.
Rick and I have talked about our parent's deaths and the sadness in our hearts, but losing siblings in many ways was more difficult. Deep down inside, I knew our folks would not be with us forever, but I never thought about our siblings dying.
A rough day for both of us, my typical day after treatment, plus our remembrances of our brothers. Tonight, sending love to Darrin and Herbert......we will always love you.....we will always miss you.
Treatment #26 and Valentine's Day.........the treatment should have been Wednesday, but with the snow and the road closings.....well, it was today. We had already made reservations with friends a few weeks ago......nothing was going to mess with my Valentine's Day. Seems we are getting in some kind of weird timing with the treatments, first we spent Rick's birthday at the treatment center, now Valentine's Day, next month is my birthday let's hope March is different.
We had dinner with our friends, Jonathan and Diana at one of our favorite places to eat and play......Local Color Cafe. We listened to Rick Carter and his friends play an amazing show.
It has been a great Valentine's Day......but, I had to be at the hospital this morning at 8:30, and it is now past mid-night......I am way past exhausted.
I hope all of you had a Happy Valentine's Day.
This is what we woke up to this morning.....around six inches of snow......and sunshine.
Most of the snow has melted this evening, the day time temps were in the 40's.
But we had a wonderful morning, Jordan and his mom, Samantha came over. We hiked in the snow, played with the dogs and Rick made waffles for breakfast.
It was the perfect snow day.
The snow started just a few hours ago, the weather guys are saying maybe 7 inches by morning. It is the good kind, wet, sticky big flakes, no wind, but some lightening.
As snow always does, it brought a peaceful silence and ethereal beauty. Typical Alabama weather......should be in the upper 60's by Monday. We will enjoy this gift, who knows when it will come again.
Our weather has become some sort of "Hotel California".......ice and snow last night, melted this afternoon, pouring rain tonight, more snow tomorrow......and almost 70 degrees by Monday.
My treatment has been cancelled for tomorrow because of the weather, hopefully, we reschedule for Thursday or Friday.
Classes were wonderful today, one of those days when awareness and the understanding that there is much more to yoga than poses, was the norm. The energy in each class was palatable. It was a good yoga day.
Here's hoping that the coming storm shrinks to nothingness and that we all see the sun soon and feel its golden warmth. Time for a sun dance.
well, we have gone from a winter storm advisory to a winter storm warning.......ice, not snow.
Things could be really interesting by this time tomorrow.....will keep you posted.
It is starting to rain, suddenly tonight, precipitation on a tin roof is not a happy sound.
the generator is primed......ice storms don't give you that warm fuzzy feeling like a couple of inches of snow.
A few brave souls came to yoga tonight, I think everyone is so gun shy after the winter storm a couple of weeks ago, no one wants to chance being stranded.
I am ready for a long winter's rest, my warm cozy bed is calling.
A winter storm advisory.....issued yesterday for our neck of the woods tomorrow and Tuesday.
It has been an interesting winter, because for the first time in many years, we have had an actual winter........I hear complaints daily, but for me I have enjoyed this gift. I love the seasons, all four of them.....though here in Alabama, we rarely have four. Most years, we have a very short spring, a very long summer, a short fall and a few winter days. I am trying to savor what each day brings and be in the moment, enjoying the chill in the air, the warm soups and stews, the feel of a wool sweater and the looks of a great boot.....and yes, appreciating every snow flake that dares to fall.
I know my friends in the east and the north think I am crazy, but your winters are much like our summers, too much of a good thing.
Our think tank musical group met today, so much talent......and they are friends and colleagues.......it was a great meeting today. We all get so excited about our music.
Though even at the meeting, talk of slow creativity caused by the dreariness and cold weather.....we have to remind ourselves, this too shall change.
Sunday night, it's always a time for me to get ready for the coming week, making sure my blankets and yoga mats are clean, our laundry is done, the house is clean, the pantry is stocked. This week is treatment week, so all my cozy throws are clean, my pjs are ready to lounge in, my books are ready to read. Wishing you all a brand new week to start the things you have been meaning to do, to do one thing good for yourself, to take five minutes and breathe......may the weather gods smile on us all.
A friend shared a post with me on Facebook tonight........"Music belongs in public schools."
I agree with that post. Thanks to an incredible music teacher that I had in the seventh grade, my life changed forever.
Emily Aull of Stockton School, Chicago, Ill took notice of a skinny shy southern girl and helped me find my voice. In a school where I knew no one, and culture shock hit me daily, Ms. Aull showed me a path that I have stayed on my entire life. She taught me that my voice was just that, mine.....no one else's. Through music, I found my confidence and passion and a gift that I have cultivated my entire life.
I cannot imagine my life without music.......theory taught me mathematics, leaning folk music and its history created a love for things and places that are different, playing guitar and piano instilled determination, singing taught me freedom.
Music has taken me to places I would never have gone, allowed me to meet people that were life changing, broadened my views and my world, let me express emotions and feelings that I didn't know existed. Music has created dreams and the opportunities for them to come true.
And more times than I care to remember, music was the constant in my life that encouraged me to go on, to never give up.
Music belongs not only in public schools, but in our daily lives.
I think this winter and its cold gray days has subdued many of us.......record cold for us here in the south, record snows for others east and north of us. Today, the sun came out and though the birdbath is still frozen and there is talk of more snow tonight, it seemed warmer.
Rick and I met our friends Kaye and Jamie for lunch today in Birmingham, we met at one of our favorite places, had platters of tasty fish tacos and enjoyed each others company.
It is always good to see friends.....we talked about books we had read, of the coming spring and our hopes for a bountiful harvest of food and flowers......and we laughed.....out loud.
The four of us needed this day......of sunshine, laughter and friendship.......it reminded us that even in the cold......we could find warmth with our friends......and bask in each other's love and joy. We greeted each other with hugs, we said our goodbyes with hugs......nothing that the local news media would find interesting but for us......it was a good day.
Wishing you all at least one good day this weekend.......hopefully, two.
I saw a robin today.....the first since last summer. My mom always looked for the first robin of spring, she insisted that when you saw a robin, spring was just around the corner. So, I saw a robin and we had snow flurries.......I think Mother Nature is confused.
I know that birds are nesting now, this morning after I filled the bird feeders, a cardinal swooped down on a piece of Calliou's hair lying on the ground. The cardinal looked so happy with that long collie hair in his beak, who knows what decorating thoughts were going through his head.
There has been much activity at the feeders these past few days, I swear the birds are inhaling suet. Every morning there are dozens of birds on the ground, in the bird bath, and flitting from one feeder to the next.......it is a wild dance of greed and hunger. There is constant chatter and song, I wish I knew what they were saying.
gulp their seed......watching them is very much like seeing planes land at an airport.....they fill the perches on the feeders, while others wait their turn on tree branches.......one of them must be the air traffic controller, there is an order to their chaos.
Morning coffee and bird watching.......it's the best way to start your day.
I have found myself nesting this winter, and when not nesting, I was thinking about nesting.......to be honest it has been some time since I have had the energy or want to, to nest......to spruce up the house, to rearrange, to recreate our living space. It started back in the fall, when I cleaned out the book shelves.......that slight itch, to transform and change the old home place.
It has grown stronger these winter months, that need, that want to cozy up this place where we live. I have cleaned out closets, cabinets, and drawers........next will be the kitchen pantry.
And then, I think a visit to the paint store will be in order. I love to paint walls......I even love the prep work, you know all the taping and moving stuff around. Painting walls for me is work that is mindful, calming, meditative.....each slow stroke of color brings peace to me.
Seeing the transformation of painting a wall, smelling that fresh coat of paint.....and knowing that our little world will be much more beautiful brings a smile to my face. I am feeling adventuresome, looking at metallic washes for the bedroom and a deep ebony for the kitchen cabinets.....it will be interesting to see what takes place these next few months. I will keep you posted and maybe even post a few pictures. One of the benefits of living in a small cottage.......not so hard to redecorate.
A better day today........lots of new students......interesting to see their faces after class. Many of them told me they had taken yoga before, I warned them I teach quite differently than most. I am big on breath work and relaxation. I teach yoga as a tool that can help in their recovery process, I teach to point them inward, I teach to help them find stillness and peace in the center of their storm. I teach them, because I love them.
It seems every day locally or nationally, there is news of someone's death because of addiction.......no one decides when they are children that they want to become an addict.
But there are days, because of where I teach that it seems so widespread, that it can become overwhelming, numbing........frightening.
I tell myself that if I can help one person, if I can make a difference in someone's life.....then my life will not be in vain......I have done more than just take up oxygen. Purpose......it is our reason for being here......service......it is our purpose. I have friends who do mission work here and abroad, friends who volunteer and work diligently for their personal causes........we all do what we can do......we do, hopefully, what and where our heart leads us.
I have given a great deal of energy today and yesterday.......the out of sorts I believe that I have felt is just my body telling me to rest. Tomorrow, no classes......tomorrow, I rest.
and "gone through the motions of the day"......but still there is that feeling of all not being in balance.
Maybe you have had a day like this, nothing bad happened, nothing has really gone wrong.....yet, there is that nagging, tugging feeling........hopefully a good night's sleep will take care of the willies. To all of you tonight, stay warm, stay safe, good night, sweet dreams.
I love Ground Hog's Day.......the movie and the actual day. I figure that fuzzy wacky creature can predict the weather as well as we can......and Phil, who is the official groundhog saw his shadow today.......six more weeks of winter.
It is pouring rain tonight, and thunder and lightening.......my grandmother Mamie always said if you had thunder and lightening in December, January or February it would snow on the same day the next month. She nailed it in January......let's see how February 6 goes (thunder and lightening on Jan. 6) and March 2 .
The Farmer's Almanac is usually pretty accurate in its weather predictions. When you think about in years and centuries past, there were no satellites up in the heavens, no radar or weathermen.......just common folks being very alert to their surroundings and changes in nature.....intuition and physical sensations played a part as well.
So we have the next six weeks to see if Phil was correct.......I know most would love an early spring and summer......but this winter for me, has not been bad. I love winter clothes, and foods and a fire in the fireplace......the bareness of trees, the technicolor sunsets and clear starry nights are worth the cold.......and living here in Alabama, the heat and humidity in summer are as distasteful to me as the cold is to others.
So tonight, Happy Ground Hog's Day......and never fear, spring will come . | 2019-04-20T22:54:13Z | http://jildawatson.blogspot.com/2014/02/ |
A few weeks ago I made a decision that I wasn’t going to tell anyone anymore about my (exciting, fun, adventurous, bucket listy) purchase of my new motorcycle. Although I was SUPER proud of having bought it after riding had been on my bucket list since high school, the comments and opinions I got when I told people really started to piss me off.
Although I know that these types of phrases technically come from a loving place, they annoyed me to the point of argument.
Like duh…like I hadn’t thought about the safety issues. Like I didn’t know already that they were dangerous. Like I hadn’t heard the same story of that one guy on that one road who died on a bike. It’s not a secret that motorcycles can be dangerous, so I felt like why the need to rain on my awesome new motorcycle parade with these quips.
And thought…”That’s it!!!” That’s the quote that is going to be the reference for my blog post about my motorcycle. That ME living my life fulfilled and the way I want is somehow threatening to people because they just don’t have the guts to do it. And I had it in my head, the exact way to talk about it. Which basically just showed how awesome I am for doing it and how lame they are for telling me to be safe.
But something wasn’t right. I was too upset about what they were saying. I was wanting to be mean and “show them.” Which I know is an indicator for me to look inward. So I did the only thing a spiritual being in this situation can do. Reflect.
Why was I getting so upset at their concern for my safety? Why did it bother me so much they had a different opinion about it than me? And then it hit me.
It pissed me off because I was afraid they were right. I was scared too. I was afraid I’d die. Or get injured. Or something terrible would happen to me. Everything they brought up were fears I already had. It was like my fears telling me that these terrible things were definitely going to happen, and if I went for it, I’d be asking for it. Like “See…we TOLD you and you didn’t listen.” So every time someone would say something, it got added to the pot of my fears that already existed.
Which left me conflicted. Because learning to ride a motorcycle has been one of the proudest things I’ve ever done.
DESPITE these fears, despite the lack of support from family or friends, despite not having anyone I know to show me the ropes, despite how much it’s not accepted by society, or the motor safety division, I wanted to do it. I wanted to see for myself. I wanted to have that experience of shifting gears and rolling on the throttle and having the wind in my hair and the smell of the trees in my nose as the beautiful mountain landscape whizzes by me.
I wanted to see for myself if it lived up to my fantasies.
It wasn’t that they were bad for telling me to be careful, but what it did instead was force me to stand behind my decision. To be firm. And proud. In the face of disagreement. And this lesson is perhaps one of the most important thus far.
It’s easy to blame other people when we feel upset. It’s easy to look outward when we’re hurt. But rarely, if ever, is it about other people. We have a whole world inside our minds and the more willing we are to look at it, the less suffering we’ll feel.
Yes I still get scared. Yes it still bugs me when someone reacts that way to me telling them I ride. But I know now that the place to look is my own leadership of my own life, and be proud of my decisions regardless. To make them for the right reasons. And to live MY life.
This is a Wildheart life. And I’m proud I did it.
I don’t know if I’ll do it forever. And it doesn’t matter to me. That I’ve done it at all and had that experience and taken it all into my own hands. Is what matters to me. There has been nothing like that feeling of riding my bike by myself for the first time. It got me. Boots chaps and sinker.
So the next time you want to get mad at someone who has a different opinion you do. The next time your blood boils at something someone says, the next time you’re more upset than usual at a situation take some time to reflect. Might be a good time to re-evaluate what you stand for. Stand up for what you believe in and you won’t need others to. The more you believe in what you’re up to the less it’ll matter whether or not other people think it’s a good idea.
What is something in your life you’re needing to stand behind? Leave a comment below.
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After all this, frustration isn’t even scratching the surface anymore. At this point, it’s more of a “You don’t “get” it, and it’s clear you won’t, so whatever.” Really, it’s not the most inspiring thing to say, but I learned a long time ago, whether it be racism, some other prejudice (“All military people are stupid, and that’s why they join the military, because they’re too dumb to get into college on their own!”), or just a general close-mindedness, as the comic Ron White says, “You can’t fix stupid”.
Contrary to what logic and common sense would dictate (“Ignore them!”), I actually enjoy very much listening to my detractors. It, combines with my extreme arrogance and competitive nature, encourages me to greater success. I find that listening to your detractors is a far greater motivator than listening to your supporters. It’s your detractors that will tell you exactly what is wrong with your business model and how to fix, so you can succeed to an even greater extent.
I quote from TransFormers the Movie (1986).
AHH HAHAHHAH! And hence the reason I can keep writing blog posts. Everything I do reminds me of something. Love this.
Ooooooh! A motorcycle + those that care about you telling you to be careful? Kinda like dating a guy you know deep down you shouldn’t, huh?
Degree of recklessness depends on you!
Hmmmm. And from this perspective, you can’t expect your loved ones to be on board.
Hey lady…I totally agree. I think all the people who said it said it out of love and worry and concern for my safety. And what I came to was that me getting upset had nothing to do with them, or their love, but rather the idea that I had to make my own choices despite the opinions and fears I had myself.
I love the concept of reconsidering it everyday. That’s how I look at it too. It’s a choice, every single time I get on that bike. Thank you so much for chiming in!
If you feel the need for speed and exhilaration then a bike is probably one of the vest things you could ever get involved with. Personally I can’t let go of the fear that I could through no fault of my own end up a para/quadriplegic so easily, so it ruins it for me. Not so worried about the dying bit cause it’d be fast.
I totally hear you. And that fear is what took me so long to try. And then there came a point where I felt like “if not now, then when.” I just want to try. To say I did. And see how I feel on that bike. Otherwise, I’d ALWAYS wonder. And like I mentioned in a comment earlier, if I never get on a bike again I’d be fine.
This gets thrown in the category of things I can cross off my bucket list. Thanks for your comment and support, always.
Interesting blog. Although I would definitely think that the people trying to talk you out of it care for you and don’t want something bad to happen to you that could be preventible.
Clark told me a while ago that he wanted a motorcycle and I talked him out of it. Not because I don’t want him to do something he is interested in but because I don’t want to get a call from the police telling me that I’m now a single parent. I don’t want our kids growing up without a father. Think of what would happen if you do get in an accident, which unfortunately is highly likely because of all the terrible drivers out there. Who would be getting the call that you were injured? Who would have to sit beside your hospital bed praying that you make it through? Car accidents are very common but at least you have thousands of pounds of steel protecting you. On a bike it’s just you. I’m all for taking risks and doing what you want to do but I also think you need to balance how an injury to you would affect your family and the people that love you.
I totally hear where you’re coming from with this. For sure. And I definitely thought about this and many many other things before I got my bike. And I think what it really came down to for me is that if I make my decisions based on what other people might think or feel, I’d do nothing. Most of what I’ve done has been a risk. I do understand that this is a bigger risk than a lot of other things, but in my mind it all goes into the same category. If there is something I’m really called to do and curious about but I don’t do it because of the possibility of hurt, then where do I draw the line. Why go get in an RV? Why shoot guns? Why fall in love? Why travel around the country totally alone? Why hunt? All things dangerous and risky that people will tell you not to do (except maybe the love part). Also all things that have totally changed my life.
I don’t love thinking about anyone getting calls from the police based on anything I do. I don’t love the idea of what could happen to me. But at the end of the day, I know it’s my choice to make. I don’t have children yet. And yes of course there are people who love me that would hate to see anything happen to me, but that’s not how I want to live my life.
This decision was a really long, thought-out decision. A lot of what you brought up had me not doing it sooner. I like to think of myself as a grounded free-spirit. A safe risk taker. And if I never ride my bike again, I’d be fine. For me, that isn’t the point. I wanted to learn. To see for myself. And I’m glad I did.
I don’t think the other things you mentioned are anywhere near as risky as riding a motorcycle. But, when I read your blog I was reacting to the thought of you riding a motorcycle in LA. That is insanely dangerous and I witnessed a horrific motorcycle crash last year so I’m totally biased. I’m sure where you are there is a lot of wide open road and way less hazards and it is much safer then here. I’ve also gone skydiving twice so I guess I’m not really one to talk. Ha!
I love it!!! I really do love it!!!
Whoa you have to drive in the streets of your city to pass?! That’s pretty cool that they’re making sure you have the proper safety skills. Good luck!
I think this is a great post, particularly writing around the two quotes the way you did. I haven’t gotten as much ‘flak’ for riding a motorcycle, which surprised me. I really thought my parents would be really not ok with it. Mom just said, you’re braver than me, kid. (me: or crazier, not sure which!) But when you have a good ride, it does feel damn good. I get home from a ride and I feel like I can do anything!
When I do get statements like the ones above, I usually just say, ‘I hear you, they can be and I appreciate your concern’. But like Kelly said, a lot of the danger does come from cars not ‘seeing’ two-wheeled riders. My boyfriend has been hurt, I’ve been hurt, my dad got hurt – we still get back on because damn it’s fun! That recklessness is part of the thrill. I do my job every day, pay my bills, eat healthy, exercise, do all these dutiful things – please!! I need SOMETHING to shake me up! :) and I’m proud of you! I’ve been riding for two years and my stomach still flops a little when we get started on a ride!
Hey lady…I hear you about how it feels getting home from a ride. I smile too. And I love what you say when you get resistance. I think I’ll steal it. Because the bottom line for me is I DO appreciate the concern. I DO appreciate that I have people in my life who love me and want me around.
What annoys me the most is that people who had his own bike and rode it happily until, yes, they fall from their bike or had an accident. Then they got scared, they became afraid of the bike and… they sold the bike and return to the use of the car or the public transport. And they told me about their bad experience and told not to have a bike: “it’s dangerous, you know”. And it pissed me off: “alright, it’s dangerous, I do know; but you DID have your own experience! Let me have mine!”. I will decide if I don’t like it; if it’s not the way I thought it was gonna be. If one fine day I had an accident I will decide if I get rid of my bike or I come back to it a little bit wiser and stronger.
I want to have my bike. I want to have the experience. I want to decide what I want to do about it.
Your blog is great, I totaly feel reflected in it. I feel just the same and I agree every single word in it. I LOVE it.
All the best, take care of yourself and greetings from Madrid.
Great thought-provoking and heartfelt post, Sally, and the comments it has inspired are so varied! I’m damn proud of you. I think it’s great. You’re one to find your limits – the edges of your being – and push them a little bit every day. I’m a firm believer that doing things that exhilarate you, even scare you, brings growth. Sure, riding a motorcycle is risky, but it’s a calculated risk. Like the rest of life, if you’re doing it right. As with any big decision – starting a business, moving abroad, joining a derby league, buying a house, getting into a new relationship – you educate yourself, do your homework, save the money, invest in whatever will make you feel safe, talk your crazy idea through with people you trust, and generally do everything you can to prepare… then GO FOR IT.
“Everything I’ve done in life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.” -Earl Warren.
Ride on, Sally. Ride on.
I had entire body chills reading this entire thing. Thank you Joy, for your words.
I agree, there are so many varied opinions on here, which I love because I don’t get to just blindly feel how I feel. I actually have to think about it.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s not just jumping in without considering the waters. It’s thinking about, researching the pool, learning to swim, knowing where your safety jacket is, knowing who to go to to teach you what they know, and then ultimately, jumping in hoping that all that you’ve prepared for gets you to the other side of the pool.
I wish I could squeeze you right now. I am in spirit. Love this. Love the Earl Warren quote. Love you and am so proud of your own #wildhearting ways. See you on the flip side.
As usual, this post is very timely. My bro-in-law (BIL) recently bought a motorcycle. He had been wanting one for several years. My sister, his wife, wasn’t really keen about the idea since they are planning on starting a family within the next year. She has the wisdom to know that she could weigh in on the idea, but ultimately buying a motorcycle is his choice.
My husband was in a bad motorcycle accident while in college. He’s lucky to be alive and functioning at a high capacity. My husband was initially upset that BIL wouldn’t consider my husband’s experience / accident and make a different choice. My husband subsequently realized that like so many life-situations, you can’t imprint your experience on someone else. Everyone has to experience life in their own shoes (or chaps). We told BIL to always wear his helmet and not to assume other drivers see him, ever.
When we all were discussing the pros and cons of the motorcycle I must admit that deep down inside I was labeling BIL as immature and hard-headed; how could he look past the dangers and my sister’s concern? Thank you for sharing your experience and insights. I realize it is possible BIL did weigh the concerns and objections and did not choose to defy or hurt his loved ones, he chose LIFE for himself, on his terms, knowing the risks.
Those mountains are beautiful!! I’m so glad you did this.
I often blame people for making me upset or ruining my day/evening. That kind of behavior can leave people you live with walking on eggshells, and then you walk on eggshells for their feelings and it’s not fun.
Also, the Pressfield quote reminds me of how jealousy can feel.
Also, I need to stand behind my attitude towards applying for my first big girl job. Lots of people are giving me opinions on what I should do, what I should accept or turn down, what would be “good for me” and I have to take it all with a grain of salt and not simply absorb and adhere (and feel awful!). Everyone is a mystery (in a good way!) so I can’t really judge others and their opinions either.
HECK YES. And thank you for sharing that. Anytime I hear “you SHOULD” anything, I sort of shut down. I think it’s important to hear it, and then make the decision on your own if it resonates or not. Love this. Behind you supporting you lady.
As with most of your posts, I can completely relate! As you know, I went through a very similar experience with my decision to move over 3,000 miles from the only home I’ve ever known — for no apparent reason to outsiders.
All as if I had NO IDEA Seattle is known for its rain – or the thought of missing people or the distance never crossed my mind. Explaining, and constantly defending my decision, was quite possibly the only negative experience in this whole move. And even after the decision was made and I’ve now been here for 2+ months – the negativity doesn’t necessarily stop. But my listening to them certainly did stop because like with your motorcycle — and ALL scary decisions — we have to find out for ourselves. And all this negativity in our heads and from others almost always comes from fear.
And like you, I choose not to let fear get in the way of me living the life I want – not anymore.
Oh my gosh girl…SUCH a great point and looking back it was the same with Montana.
“Why Montana? It’s in the middle of nowhere. Hope you like being freezing cold. Aren’t the winters brutal? You’ll be back. You say you like it now but wait until January then talk to me” and on and on and on.
Same exact feeling. Like DUH!!!!! Why bother even telling me that? Is it really for MY benefit? Is it really because you think I haven’t realized that Montana is cold? I wonder what it is that makes us all do that.
But like you…we all just have to make our own choices despite any of the negative talk (oftentimes cloaked in a “I’m just looking out for you” wolf suit). Coming from my mom, I believe that. But coming from people who barely know me…not so much.
So proud of you for your move and so happy to hear that you’re loving it. You brave, courageous WILDHEART.
Much love. See you SOON!
Anybody, no matter how much they love their decision/path, is going to get upset when all they feel from every quarter is misunderstood.
Hey Gigi…ooooooooooh! Thank you so much for your comment and the addition about Torre’s point of view. I love that and it’s so true. There is definitely a difference between loving someone and “getting it” or supporting their decisions.
Living it! I travel the world full-time with my business and my small dog. Published a memoir last summer about life, love, and dating. Just announced my intention to write a book about living a badass life.
At the end of the day, the dream = inspire people, love people, widen people’s perspectives.
I actually started following you because I think in the coming months I’m going to need someone awesome (read: a coach) to bounce some ideas off. Your name came up when I was asking around, so I’ve been lurking on your blog.
Sounds like we’d be a GREAT fit for coaching. Want a free 20 min seshy to find out? Sign up here…http://sally-hope.genbook.com.
Also…I want to include you to be on the list for my Live Wildheart group, to give you more info when I have it, since I think you’ll be a PERFECT addition. You down?
Riding a motorcycle is a recognized risky activity because of the chances for significant physical injury. That’s why people give you flack or ‘rain on your parade’. They love you and don’t want to see you physically injured.
To me, this feedback IS an expression of loving concern. It is very different than being critical or negative about other choices, such as where to live, what career to pursue, or who to marry.
I would love to see a discussion here about this issue: when is a choice only yours to make, and when do you need to consider the broader issue of potential impact on others? I think a good question to ask might be this: If the worst case scenario happened as a result of my risky choice, would I be the only person absorbing that consequence or would it affect others that I love, and how.
I agree that it is important to fulfill your dreams, and even push yourself beyond fears (yours and others). I respect efforts made to be as safe as possible. I’m not even lobbying for a different choice here. I’m just saying this: “Make your choice, but don’t pretend that your choice doesn’t affect me.” It does.
Motorcycle is to Sally as ??? is to Dean?
I guess that’s something we should all continually ask ourselves. Once we know the answer we have no choice but to saddle up and RIIIIIIIIIDE!
I love central Cali! I love the visual of you throwing the fist pump. Although I’ve never actually done it…I’ve done something similar and I know the feeling. I love getting my bike and myself prepared for a ride.
And that is a GREAT question. What is something that is so out of your norm or the world you grew up in, that doing it would push you beyond what you thought possible. Life coaching?? Hahaha.
Well..I grew up with a dad who was addicted to anything with a motor..he taught me how to drive a car wayyy before I had a license! He would sit me on his lap, and I’d steer the wheel..So when I turned 15 I got my license..and he and I would go on road trips once a year..skiing in Colorado, camping in Wisconsin..and I’d drive half the time..he talked me through a crazy wind storm on the open prairies..taught me how to drive on snow and ice covered roads..and gave me confidence that stayed with me..
So of course he ended up “lending” me a 450 cc Honda…(automatic)..and let me drive it without a license..prbly not so smart..but what the hell..I only drove it out at the family cabin..on the quiet back roads..one time I had a friend on the back..and I hit a sandy patch on a turn..and we flipped into the ditch…we had a few scrapes..but we weren’t deterred..!
Risk is a part of life..I read a lot of responses on here about the risk of driving a motorcycle..that you’re “increasing your chances of injury or death” well maybe- but what about crossing the street in rush hour..or running in a marathon in Boston?
When you’re number is up- that’s when you go..If you spend all your life worried about what may happen- you are not really living..
I don’t ride that motorcycle anymore…but I am doing other “risky behaviours” according to other people like..taking a 15 hour plus flight half way around the world..and riding scooters on the Thailand highways when the death toll is extremely high..but I ride safely..slower then usual, I don’t ride during a monsoon rain..and I def. don’t ride after a drink..I trust my instincts..and if I feel really fearful in a situation: like when I discovered I had no headlights as dusk was falling..I drove slowly in between two other drivers..and made it back safely..
Yah..I’m afraid of taking the plane home..I was afraid of coming here..YES I was terrified driving on the Interstate in a blizzard from Winnipeg to Madison..but I didn’t turn back….and I’m proud that I push through my fears..and considerately appreciate others’ opinions..to do the things that I want to do..cuz after all it is MY LIFE.
Miss Rachel…I got chills reading your post. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. There are so many ways to look at this topic, and at the end of the day each person needs to feel good about their decisions. Sounds like you do.
I also hold the belief that you’re number is up…that’s it. It could be old age or something totally risky. Yes, we can eliminate risk factors, of course, but that doesn’t guarantee that we’re safe from freak accidents or any of that. And it’s the choices that we make in the meantime and make up the collective experiences of our lives.
I, like you, have done a lot of things that really really scared me at the time (traveling in an RV with no plan, traveling alone, moving to Montana, etc), and they are ALL things that have irrevocably changed my life to the positive degree. I wouldn’t take any of them back. And I’m proud I didn’t back out or turn around too.
Thanks for being my soul sister in this way. I sure do hope you sign up to be a part of the Wildheart Revolution and my new Wildheart Community I’m building.
Either way, you’re rad and thank you for being a part of this site and adding your opinion. I appreciate you!
You sound like a terrific lady. Enjoy your motorcycle and don’t let the negative comments bother you. I am a 76 year old man from Oklahoma who rode motorcycles for most of my life and never had an accident. Riding is something that you really can not explain to someone who has never experienced it. To me, it is freedom from almost everything else in life.
Hey Gary! Thank you so much for chiming in and adding to the conversation! How’d you find me?
Don’t remember exactly how I found you, but it was on utube when you ladies were traveling in the motorhome. I really enjoyed your weekly videos and looked forward every week for a new one. My late wife and I traveled in motorhomes for over thirty years and enjoyed every minute of it. I thought you ladies were having the time of your life and helping others along the way just made me even more proud to be an American and see the younger generation being so smart and caring for other people. I don’t always read all of your posts, but the motorcycle story just touched me and I felt I had to say something. I love motorcycles and motorhomes. Have given up my cycle but still have a motorhome. Best Wishes to you in your new endeavor.
That is EXACTLY the reason I now own a bike (Suzuki GS500F) and am signed up for the MSF training course. There’s another good quote that goes along the lines of that some people aren’t willing to trade the thrill of life for the safety of existence. Most people watch TV too much, are overweight, on track for diabetes/heart disease/stroke/etc. and are too consumed by consumerism to realize that they are asking you to not live while they are really just dying as slow as they can. Nobody survives this life, so why not go out and live it? I used to work with a machinist who fought in Vietnam, owned a lot of guns, rode motorcycles all the time, and even had a Boss Hoss (a bike with a V8 Corvette engine in it with over 400 horsepower). How did he die, you ask? Lung cancer. I’d rather ask how he lived.
At any rate, many of their concerns don’t reflect the true reality of the situation. Somewhere from 40% to half of all fatal motorcycle accidents involve alcohol. About as many involve the rider not wearing a helmet, and around 1/3 of them involved reckless speeding. About 1 in 5 involve an unlicensed rider. Half of the fatal accidents involve another vehicle (car), and of those around half were due to a driver turning left into a riders right of way.
Seeing the above odds made me realize that my odds of dying on a bike are much lower than the advertised 37 fold increase over driving a car. All the “squids” out there on their 1000cc donorcycles wearing no protection and popping wheelies at 60 contribute quite a bit, and they as well as the idiots who drink and ride/drive should not even be included in the calculations IMHO. Including them is like weighting the car statistics where drunk drivers and other idiot drivers count for 50% or more. I want to see the statistics on the number of responsible MSF trained riders who wear ATGATT who are killed: I bet over 90% of them are murdered by inattentive drivers. The more abnormally (in a good way) you ride the less the statistics apply to you.
Sorry for the long post(rant). Just thought I’d chime in with my 2 cents on how I approach the issue. Keep riding and keep living. | 2019-04-18T19:14:46Z | https://sallyhope.com/uncategorized/motorcycle-riding-and-blaming-others-for-our-problems-psst-not-cool/ |
Allegations that a U.S. soldier suspected of killing 17 Afghan civilians briefly returned to his base in the midst of the attacks are among the developments that have surfaced in the case in recent days.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 38, is accused of walking into two villages near an Army outpost in Kandahar province’s Panjwai district and killing men, women and children on March 11. U.S. authorities have said Bales acted alone, leaving at night and eventually surrendering at his base.
The U.S. military has charged Bales with 17 counts of murder with premeditation, for which he could face the death penalty. He also faces six counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault and is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after being flown from Afghanistan a few days after the killings.
Two senior U.S. officials told CNN that Bales sneaked off his remote outpost twice during his alleged rampage, entering one village during each trip.
One U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation said an Afghan guard allegedly spotted Bales leaving his outpost around 1 a.m. It is not clear why Bales' superiors weren’t alerted, and the official said Bales was not noticed when he allegedly returned to the compound an hour later.
During the roughly 30 minutes when he was on the base, he woke at least one roommate and claimed he had been killing Afghan civilians off the base, which his roommate dismissed as nonsense, the official said, according to CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh.
The official said a different Afghan guard saw Bales leave the base a second time. He alerted his command that someone had left the outpost, and U.S. troops formed a search party, according to the official.
About 3:30 a.m., the official said, a surveillance camera spotted Bales returning to the base, and the search team found him just outside the compound.
Afghan guards also told reporter Yalda Hakim of Australia’s SBS network that Bales left twice.
The U.S. official said Bales was supposed to have been on duty guarding the base that night and would have had full body armor and weaponry as standard.
U.S. officials haven’t suggested any motive in the slayings. Bales has maintained his silence on the killings, the U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation said.
An Afghan general charged with leading Afghanistan’s investigation into the killings told Yalda Hakim, the Australian reporter, that villagers have alleged that Bales was upset over an injury to a U.S. colleague.
In response to these suggestions, the U.S. official said that a soldier at the base had lost a leg in an explosion three or four days earlier, but that there was no reason to believe Bales had been present at the scene of that blast.
The official said he did not think alcohol had fueled the crime. "I do not think that drinking played a big role, but there may have been some level of drinking," the official said.
The U.S. military says there is no evidence that more than one man was involved in the shootings. But Australian reporter Hakim - the first Western journalist to visit the scene - said some survivors and relatives of survivors told her that they believe more than one U.S. soldier was present when the killings took place. Others speak of seeing a single American soldier leaving the camp that night.
Mohammed Wazir, a man whose relatives were killed, told CNN he doubts the massacre was the act of a single man.
"The Americans insist there was one killer, but we insist there was more than one," he said. "The Americans should stop lying. They should confess what the reality and truth is. We want justice to be done. We want it from God."
Over the weekend, the U.S. government paid a total of $860,000 to the families of victims, Afghan officials said - $50,000 for each of 16 dead, and $10,000 for each of six wounded.
On Monday, two men whose relatives were killed told CNN they refused the money.
"We want justice. We want our courts to make the decision, so the people who are involved are prosecuted. This happened in Afghanistan and we lost our family members here in Afghanistan, so we want these people to be prosecuted in front of us, so we can watch them while they are being hanged," said Mohammed Wazir.
But the governor of Kandahar, Tooryalai Wesa, said all four families who lost relatives on March 11 sent representatives to the meeting and accepted money.
The dead have been identified as Mohammad Dawood Abdullah, Khudaidad Mohmmad Jama, Nazar Mohammad Taj Mohammad, Payendo, Robina, Sahtarina Sultan Mohammad, Zuhra Abdul Hameed, Nazia Doost Mohammad, Mosooma Mohammad Wazir, Farida Mohammad Wazir, Palwasha Mohammad Wazir, Nabia Mohammad Wazir, Asmatullah Mohammad Wazir, Faizullah Mohammad Wazir, Esa Mohammad Mohammad Husain and Akhtar Mohammad Murad Ali.
The number of victims has been a source of confusion. Afghan officials initially said there were 16 fatalities, but U.S. military prosecutors charged Bales with killing 17. The charge sheet listed four women among 17 victims, while initial U.S. and Afghan reports listed three women among 16 dead.
A NATO spokesman, Col. Gary Kolb, said last week that investigators felt they had evidence to charge Bales with 17 counts of murder.
Gen. John Allen, the American commander of the International Security Assistance Force-Afghanistan, put the number of dead at 17.
"We should not be surprised, as the investigation went forward, that an additional number was added to that (original 16)," Allen told reporters Monday at the Pentagon. "As the investigation goes forward, we'll get greater clarity on that."
Afghans are insisting that Bales be returned to Afghanistan to face trial, with villagers and lawmakers questioning the U.S. military's account of what happened. But a military official in Afghanistan has said that Bales will face military justice in the United States.
Bales could face the death penalty if convicted of any of the murder counts against him.
If and when the case comes to trial, Bales' lawyer, John Henry Browne, said, it is going to be "extremely difficult" for the prosecution.
"They have no murder scene, no forensics," Browne said outside his Seattle office. "I'm going to make them prove every claim."
Military law experts acknowledge that proving the case may be difficult, in part because the victims were buried quickly according to Muslim practice, which made autopsies impossible. It also will be difficult to bring Afghan witnesses to the United States and get them to testify.
U.S. military investigators have not been given access to the crime scenes, preventing them from collecting DNA and other evidence. However, Afghan investigators may have passed along DNA evidence they collected, an official said. Prosecutors presumably would want to tie victims' DNA to blood found on Bales' clothing.
Allen, the general in charge of the war, says the current plan to withdraw most foreign troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 has not changed.
"In the long run, our goals can only be achieved and then secured by Afghan forces," he told the House Armed Services Committee last week. "Transition, then, is the linchpin of our strategy, not merely the 'way out.'"
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was not swayed by a New York Times/CBS News poll that concluded that 69% of Americans want U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan now.
"We cannot fight wars by polls," Panetta said Tuesday. "There's no question that the American people have tired of war just like the Afghan people have tired of war," but the U.S. government would continue with its strategy in Afghanistan, he said.
"We have to operate based on what we believe is the best strategy to achieve the mission that we are embarked on," he said. "And the mission ... is to safeguard our country by ensuring that the Taliban and al Qaeda never again find a safe haven in Afghanistan."
CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen notes with alarm the rising number of attacks on NATO troops, particularly Americans, by Afghan police officers and soldiers who are supposed to be allies.
"This pattern of attacks raises a fundamental problem for the plans of the United States and other NATO countries to draw down their forces over the next two years," Bergen wrote in an analysis for CNN. "That plan is, in part, predicated on the idea that as Afghan forces take the lead in security operations, they will be supported by small numbers of U.S./NATO advisers embedded in Afghan army and police units. Those advisers will be quite vulnerable to attack."
Dr. James M. Lindsay, a senior vice president at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an essay for CNN that the war has outlived its purpose and has become too costly.
"Even if the objectives of the stay-the-course camp could be achieved, they aren’t worth it in terms of blood and treasure," he wrote.
Who said there is more than one? All evidence says there was only one guy. One little girl said she saw lights outside so she thinks there was more than one, but nobody saw more than one guy. You say it is most likely true based on nothing but your gut feelings which won't hold up in a court of law.
Letting Bales take all the responsibility for the killing of these innocents would be like having all the members of the Nazi hierarchy in your hands and allowing them to go free while making some insignificant Sargent in one of the concentration camps face capitol murder charges for killing 17 inmates in one of those camps. If there is any real blame, and there is certainly more than enough of it to go around, it goes to the International Military Industrial Complex which profits from and feeds upon all the carnage of one endless war after another. For all intents and purposes our Armed Forces are filled with the same population of disenfranchised poor youth as AlQueda and the Taliban are. Each believing, in their own way, they are fighting a war guided by some nebulous God who is greater than the God of Evil incarnate which they believe is the enemy of all that is Holy.
I remember far worse acts than Bales is accused of which were committed during the Viet Namese War and which resulted in nothing but House Arrest and a discharge for the soldiers who were involved. However those politicians and corporate heads who were really responsible for the actual War taking place were never held accountable. And as calious as it may sound, the death of 17 innocents including 9 children, is hardly a drop in the sea of devastation this country has inflicted upon Iraq and Afghanistan with the use of depleated uranium. A weapon whose victims lives are destined to be destroyed till virtually the end of time because that is how long the effects of that Weapon of Mass Destruction will lasts.
Easy, keyboard warrior. Before you go patting yourself on the back, remember, this guy murdered 17 civilians. Remember that before you get all righteous and preachy.
You know what I am a veteran and I agree with you. But also as a former soldier we see ourselves as a necessary force-like the police. Nobody likes the police until they need a cop right? I would love to live in a utopian world with no military needed. But on the other hand for those who wish there was a better way I say we have to start it. I support the organization Veteran's For Peace.
I wish your comments were sent to the President, all members of Congress and all military members of the military, Colonel and higher.
The only other comments I would add are that children have grenades and weapons AND if he is to be tried by the Afghans; then every single soldier should be tried as well.
just shoot him in the head.
I don't give a crap if they don't want us there... it was THEIR country that harbored terrorists that attacked the United States. Too freakin bad for them. Guess they should have not allowed them to train in their country.
Most comments by people on this story leave the impression that the only exercise they get is to jump to conclusions. The "shoot him", "hang him", blah, blah, is nothing but an opportunity for anti-American slurs. Anyone with the slightest intelligence (which is not apparent in most comments) will wait for EXACT proof. The $860,000 is a huge mistake!
I am simply appalled at the quick rush to judgement of Sgt. Bales... But wait, how long has Major Hassan (the murderer of 13 Americans right here in the good ole USA) been waiting for his COURT MARTIAL? What's the difference? Why is a muslim getting a court martial and Sgt. Bales is being threatened with death? Did I miss something???
You missed quite a bit.
One case is a domestic incident, involving a U.S. soldier (born "right here in the good old USA") on a U.S. military base, (allegedly) shooting other U.S. soldiers, in the U.S. The other is an international incident, involving the (alleged) murder of 17 civilians by a foreign soldier on their soil. That said, here in America, murder is murder, and so BOTH (alleged) murderers are being court-martialed in the U.S., and BOTH face the death penalty.
As to why we're so quick to rush to judgement, I think it's because he shot little girls while wearing our flag on his arm.
Nice response, stateschool. I think this will also throw a lot of light on PTSD, and how its come to light how the military docs have been handling things. I myself have no problem with how this thing has been handled so far, so good, with all the responses, including the payments. His PTSD is a point of law at this time–the degree of the murder. But it is after the horse is already out of the barn, and those innocent people are murdered in their beds. I'm just so glad to see our government will at the least, take responsibility for our military personnel.
Why should there be a draft when this country and our military are supposedly based on FREEDOM? Yes, as in I am free to NOT go into the military if I do not choose to do so. I can FREELY choose an education instead of going to risk my life for idiots in government who are making selfish decisions, and whom do not even let their own children serve. So no thanks, I am FREE to do what I want. By the way, who's gonna pay for the "mandatory 2 year service" program that you speak of?
get out of afghanistan NOW!
war should be RARE!!! this sort of sustained conflict is nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stalin, of all people, once made a comment about incidents such as this. "One dead child is a tragedy...but a million dead children is just a statistic." Which is why I find it utterly surreal that so many are capable of being surprised that these killings occurred and what is far worse that they believe this is just ANOTHER isolated incident in the "wars of liberation" which weapons manufactures have loved bringing to the world from the safety of their board rooms. How, I can only ask, is it that one soldier, who has been trained to be a professional killer and placed in harms way for tour after tour by corrupt politicians who profit from war, is solely responsible for reaching his own meltdown point? And how can any reasonable person think that what Bales may have done, and probably did do, even comes close to the REAL war crimes of those who ordered the wholesale bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan and who have made money off of the killing of hundreds of thousands, if not more, women and children who ended up being classified as nothing but "acceptable levels of collateral damage"? Bales may actually have been a hero once in his life but tragically for all, he will never be remembered that way now. Whereas human vampires in the hierarchies of government and business who have made fortunes from inflicting unimaginable agonies and mega-deaths upon humanity are allowed to not only ENJOY NO RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THEIR CRIMES but the protection of police forces, courts and the "professional psychiatric community" which never raises questions about the sanity of decisions made by those who are rich and insane with power...and the very epitome of cowardice.
tom, whats really scary is that you believe what youve written.
Fry him and say : "the American justice don't understand either ",what lame excuse for a criminal ,a monster who killed children...went to the base comeback and commit the mostruosities he did! not matter who he blames he commit a terrible crime against children!
I would like an update on this story from CNN. It seems to have dropped out of the news and I would be interested to know how the investigation is going and what the US Military intends to do about it.
If it was an Afghan who did this to American children, what would be the outcome? | 2019-04-26T02:03:45Z | http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/29/afghanistan-massacre-what-weve-learned-in-the-past-week/ |
To Cite: Moudi B, Heidari Z, Mahmoudzadeh-Sagheb H, Hashemi M, Metanat M, et al. Association Between IL-10 Gene Promoter Polymorphisms (-592 A/C, -819 T/C, -1082 A/G) and Susceptibility to HBV Infection in an Iranian Population, Hepat Mon. 2016 ; 16(2):e32427. doi: 10.5812/hepatmon.32427.
Background: IL-10 can play a vital role in immune response against HBV. Three biallelic SNPs from the transcription start site control the transcription of the IL-10 gene. An association between susceptibility to HBV and IL-10 polymorphisms has been suggested in patients with HBV infection.
Objectives: The present study was designed to study the association between polymorphisms in interleukin-10 (-1082 A/G, -819 T/C and -592 A/C) promoter gene and chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
Patients and Methods: 221 chronically infected patients and 200 healthy control subjects were enrolled in the study. Three biallelic (-1082 A/G, -819 T/C and -592 A/C) polymorphisms in the IL-10 promoter gene were determined by PCR-RFLP method.
Results: Persistent HBV infection was associated with IL-10-1082 AG (P = 0.001) and GG (P = 0.004) genotypes and G (P = 0.000) allele. IL-10-819 T/C and -592 A/C genotype and allele frequencies did not show any correlation with the risk of chronic hepatitis B infection.
Conclusions: These results suggest that polymorphisms in interleukin-10 gene promoter influence clinical outcome of HBV infection and susceptibility to HBV infection.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the most common cause of acute hepatitis and chronic liver diseases worldwide, especially in Asia and Africa (1). Almost 2 billion people around the world are infected with hepatitis B virus and 350 million of them remain chronically infected (2, 3). Studies have shown that HBV infection leads to liver damages. This situation may result in cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in about one third of subjects with chronic HBV. The remaining two thirds are at increased risk of developing liver damage (4, 5).
Pro-inflammatory T-helper 1 (Th1) and anti-inflammatory T-helper 2 (Th2) cells regulate the cellular immune response (6). Th1 and Th2 cytokines, such as interferon gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin 6 (IL-6), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interleukin 16 have important effect on viral hepatitis infection (7-9). In this balance, it seems that Interleukin-10 (IL-10) can play a vital role in immune response against HBV.
Interleukin-10 is produced by Th2 cells, regulatory T cells, macrophages and various cell types in the liver (including hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, sinusoidal endothelial cells and liver-associated lymphocytes). IL-10 can suppress host Th1 immune response by inhibiting the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-2, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma in Th1 cells (10). IL-10 also has anti-fibrotic properties (11). In patients with chronic hepatitis, production of inappropriate amounts of IL-10 was reported to be associated with infection clearance (12, 13).
In human, the gene encoding IL-10 contains five exons and spans 5.2 kb on chromosome 1q31-q32 (14).
Recently some polymorphisms, mainly single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with biological significance have been reported in the IL-10 gene. These polymorphisms may influence the level of interleukin-10 production. Production of IL-10 is regulated at transcriptional, posttranscriptional and translational levels (15).
The polymorphisms in promoter region are more important than others, because promoter can regulate gene transcription (16-18).
Three biallelic SNPs from the transcription start site control the production of IL-10. These SNPs are located at positions –592 (rs1800872, A/C), –819 (rs1800871, T/C) and –1082 (rs1800896, A/G) (19, 20).
These SNPs form three different haplotypes of CCA, ATA and CCG. The incidence of ATG haplotype is scarce. Alleles –592C/–819C and –592A/–819T are inherited together (18, 19, 21-24). The –592C, –819C and –1082G alleles have been associated with high levels of IL-10, while CCA and ATA haplotypes produce medium and low levels of IL-10, respectively (19). Therefore, IL-10 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of HBV. It seems that allelic variation in these polymorphisms may be associated with progression of HBV infection (25). Heterogeneity in the promoter region of IL-10 gene has a role in determining the response of chronic hepatitis C to IFN-α therapy (26). Also the results suggest that IL-10 gene polymorphisms may cause an imbalance between the pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine responses. This phenomenon may influence susceptibility to HCV infection (27).
The natural history of HBV is different among individuals (28). Therefore, it is necessary to investigate whether IL-10 polymorphisms could serve as a suitable candidate to predict chronic HBV infection.
The association between outcomes of hepatitis B infection and these SNPs/haplotypes has been investigated in some populations (28-30). The results suggest that there is a vital role for IL-10 variations in outcomes of HBV infection. However, in some studies on polymorphism of IL-10 and HBV infection, there was no significant association (31, 32).
Turner et al. showed that the -1082 GG genotype is associated with high IL-10 production and polymorphisms at position -592 and -819 has no independent influence on IL-10 production (19).
In another study, Gao et al. indicated that IL-10 -1082 AA was associated with an increased risk of persistent HBV or HCV infection. He indicated that the IL-10 -592 AC genotype is associated with hepatocellular injury (32). Also Yan et al. showed that 592-C and 819-C alleles may increase hepatocellular injury (33).
Regarding the effective role of IL10 in regulation of T-cell activity and its impact on chronic viral infections, in the present study we investigated three SNPs (rs1800872, rs1800871 and rs1800896) of the IL-10 promoter in a sample of Iranian population to determine the influence of host genetic factors in chronic HBV infection. We evaluated differences in allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies using a case-control study design.
To determine the association between IL-10 promoter polymorphisms and chronic HBV infection, blood samples were collected from 221 patients with chronic hepatitis B from blood transfusion organization outpatients’ clinics in Zahedan, Iran, between July and December 2014 (122 males and 99 females, aged 12 - 67 years, mean age of 29.81 ± 8.05 years old). The study was approved by the ethics committee of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (No. 6809) and performed in Infectious diseases and tropical medicine research center, Zahedan, Iran. An informed consent was obtained from each participant.
Chronic hepatitis B was defined by positive results for HBsAg in a minimum of six months. All subjects with positive results for HBsAg with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and HBV-DNA with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were selected as patients. Criteria for chronic infection of hepatitis B were as follows; HBsAg positive > 6 months, serum HBV DNA > 20,000 IU/mL and persistent or intermittent elevation in AST and ALT levels; we did not have liver biopsy results. All patients’ blood samples had an elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) of at least 2-fold higher than upper limits of normal value.
Exclusion criteria were coinfection with HCV, HEV, HAV or HIV, hepatorenal syndrome, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and active alcohol abuse.
The control group consisted of 200 healthy subjects (109 males and 91 females, aged 17 - 67 years old, mean age of 31.11 ± 7.54 years old), none of whom had any history of hepatitis B infection. The control group comprised anti-HBs and anti-HBc positive healthy volunteers (resolved HBV). Patient and control populations were of the same geographical area. There was no difference between groups regarding gender and ethnicity.
Genomic DNA was extracted from a 2 mL sample of whole blood collected into EDTA. Extraction was performed using the salting-out method.
The 3 biallelic IL-10 promoter polymorphisms were detected by PCR-RFLP method using primers that amplified a short fragment of DNA containing the polymorphism.
One pair of primers (forward: 5'-GGTGAGCACTACCTGACTAGC-3', reverse: 5'-CCTAGGTCACAGTGACGTGG) was used to amplify relevant fragment and analyze the 592(C/A; rs1800872) variation. Amplification was performed in a volume of 20 µL containing 1 µL of each primer, 100 ng of template DNA and 10 µL of 2X Prime Taq Premix (Genet Bio, Korea) and 7 µL ddH2O. Polymerase chain reactions were run for 30 cycles; initial denaturation for 5 minutes at 95°C, denaturation for 30 seconds at 95°C, annealing for 30 seconds at 60°C, extension for 30 seconds at 72°C and final extension for 5 minutes at 72°C. The product (10 µL) was digested with RSaI (Fermentas, Vilnius, Lithuania) restriction enzyme at 37°C for 16 hours, subjected to electrophoresis in 2% agarose gel (Invitrogen, The USA), and stained with ethidium bromide (Figure 1). IL-10 A-592 allele gives 2 fragments of 236 and 176 bp and IL-10 C-592 allele gives a single 412-bp fragment.
Lane 1, marker; lanes 2 and 5, homozygous CC subjects (C allele does not digest with RSaI); lanes 3 and 6, heterozygous AC subjects; lanes 4 and 7, homozygous AA subjects (A allele digests with RSaI to produce 236 bp and 176 bp fragments).
Another pair of primers (forward: 5’-CCAGATATCTGAAGAAGTCCTG-3’, reverse: 5’-TGGGGGAAGTGGGTAAGAGT) was used to amplify relevant fragment and analyze the 819 (C/T; rs1800871) variation. Amplification was performed in a volume of 20 µL containing 1 µL of each primer, 100 ng of template DNA and 10 µL of 2X Prime Taq Premix and 7 µL ddH2O. Polymerase chain reactions were run for 30 cycles: initial denaturation for 5 minutes at 95°C, denaturation for 30 seconds at 95°C, annealing for 30 seconds at 57°C, extension for 30 seconds at 72°C and final extension for 5 minutes at 72°C. The product (10 µL) was digested with RseI (Fermentas, Vilnius, Lithuania) restriction enzyme at 37°C for 16 hours, subjected to electrophoresis in 2% Agarose gel (Invitrogen, The USA) and stained with ethidium bromide (Figure 2). IL-10 C-819 allele gives 2 fragments of 443 and 116 bp and IL-10 T-819 allele gives a single 559-bp fragment.
Lane 1, marker; lanes 2 and 5, homozygous CC subjects (C allele digests with RseI to produce 443 bp and 116 bp fragments); lanes 3 and 6, heterozygous TC subjects; lanes 4 and 7, homozygous TT subjects (T allele does not digest with RseI).
To amplify relevant fragment and analyze the 1082 (G/A; rs1800896) variation, we used this pair of primers (forward: 5’-CCAGATATCTGAAGAAGTCCTG-3’, reverse: 5’-CTCTTACCTATCCCTACTTCC). Amplification was performed in a volume of 20 µL containing 1 µL of each primer, 100 ng of template DNA, 10 µL of 2X Prime Taq Premix and 7 µL ddH2O. Polymerase chain reactions were run for 30 cycles; initial denaturation for 5 minutes at 95°C, denaturation for 30 seconds at 95°C, annealing for 30 seconds at 55°C, extension for 30 seconds at 72°C and final extension for 5 minutes at 72°C. The product (10 µL) was digested with MnlI (Fermentas, Vilnius, Lithuania) restriction enzyme at 37°C for 16 hours, subjected to electrophoresis in 4% agarose gel (Invitrogen, USA) and stained with ethidium bromide (Figure 3). IL-10 A-1082 allele gives 2 fragments of 134 and 65 bp and IL-10 G-1082 allele gives 3 fragments of 112-bp, 65 bp and 22 bp.
Lane 1, marker; lanes 2 and 5, homozygous AA subjects (A allele digests with MnlI to produce 134 bp and 65 bp fragments); lanes 3 and 6, heterozygous TC subjects; lanes 4 and 7, homozygous GG subjects (G allele digests with MnlI to produce 112 bp and 65 bp and 22 bp fragments).
Statistical analysis was performed using the statistical software package SPSS 20. The genotypic and allelic frequencies observed in patient and control groups were calculated by direct counting. The associations between allelic and genotype frequencies and HBV, as well as the odds ratio (OR) for susceptibility to infection were obtained by χ2-test and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) from logistic regression analyses. Quantitative data presented as mean ± standard deviation. A P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
IL-10 SNPs -592 A/C, -819 T/C, -1082 A/G allele and genotype frequencies in HBV patients and healthy control are shown in Table 1. Genotype distribution of all polymorphisms did not deviate significantly from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
-1082 G allele was significantly represented in HBV patients groups in comparison to healthy group (40.7% vs. 29%, P < 0.0001). We found higher frequencies of AG and GG genotypes at IL-10-1082 in HBV patients than healthy controls. These genotypes were associated with increased susceptibility to HBV (P = 0.001; OR = 0.51; 95% [CI], 0.34 - 0.77, P = 0.004; OR = 0.37; 95% [CI], 0.19 - 0.73).
None of the IL-10 -592 A/C and -819 T/C alleles or genotypes was associated with HBV group.
Combination of different alleles of the IL-10 SNPs -592 A/C, -819 T/C, -1082 A/G generates three haplotypes -592C,-819C,-1082G; -592C,-819C,-1082A; and -592A,-819T,-1082A (CCG, CCA, ATA respectively) (Table 2). CCG haplotype was significantly more frequent in HBV group in comparison to the control group (40.3% vs. 26.5%, P = 0.014 and appeared to be associated with susceptibility to HBV (OR = 0.56, 95% CI, 0.35 - 0.89).
There were no significant differences in demographic parameters between HBV cases and healthy controls (Table 3).
This was the first study demonstrating the association between polymorphisms of promoter genes of IL-10 (-592 A/C, -819 T/C, -1082 A/G) and susceptibility to HBV in Iranian populations. Our strongest findings were among variants of IL-10, especially the SNP 1082 (A/G; rs1800896), which has a strong association in this sample of Iranian population. There was also an association between CCG haplotype of IL-10 and HBV infection outcome.
HBV and HCV infected individuals are living with chronic liver disease with different severity such as hepatocytes lesions, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (34).
It is believed that host genetic factors relating to genetic polymorphisms are responsible for clinical outcomes of disease (25, 28, 35). Also differences in the susceptibility to disease can be attributed to the virulence of an organism.
There was evidence that HBV infection outcome was influenced by SNP variants of the cytokines. Cytokine production differs among Individuals. This is associated with SNPs in the regulatory regions of cytokine genes (36).
IL-10 is produced by lymphocytes and monocytes and the level of its production determines immune regulation and plays an important role in hepatitis pathogenesis. Expression of IL-10 is genetically controlled. Studies have shown that IL-10 gene polymorphism is a key player in differential expression of IL-10 and would affect body’s immune response to HBV and susceptibility to HBV. Therefore, these polymorphisms can cause individually differences in immune response and lead to different host immune function (19, 37, 38). Therefore, IL-10 polymorphism determination is important for predicting susceptibility to HBV infection.
Although IL-10 variants have been associated with hepatitis C recovery (39), based on our researches, this is the first finding in Iran, since IL-10 variants have not been implicated with HBV pathogenesis before. In HCV infection some studies on various ethnic groups deny a positive association and others indicate such a link (26, 40, 41).
This study demonstrated a significant association between the IL-10 -1082 A/G polymorphism and HBV infection susceptibility in a sample of Iranian population. The other IL-10 polymorphisms were not associated with HBV infection.
In our study, only -1082 G allele was significantly represented in HBV patients. Chronic liver disease raises inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses. These events are responsible for high IL-10 levels. Previous in-vitro studies showed that the -1082 G allele corresponds to higher IL-10 protein expression. Moreover, proinflammatory IL-10 levels increased with HBV infection progression, as compared to controls. However, the -1082 GG, AG and AA genotypes are related to high, intermediate and low IL-10 production in patients with HBV, respectively (19). The -1082 AG and GG genotypes are associated with HBV risk and can increase susceptibility to HBV in subjects. On the other hand, increased levels of IL-10 have been shown in chronic HBV patients (19), indicating that individuals carrying -1082 G allele have a risk of HBV infection. Our findings indicated that GG and AG genotypes were more prevalent in patients in comparison to healthy subjects. These results were in accordance with those reported by Turner et al., Eskdale et al. and Truelove et al. (19, 24, 42). They showed that susceptibility to HBV increases in patients with G allele and other studies in India (43) and Chinese (44) populations did not report the same result. In these populations, IL-10 -1082 A/G polymorphism was not related to chronic HBV infection.
Recently Baghi et al. (45) reported that IL10 promoter gene polymorphisms predisposed cirrhosis in infected hepatitis B patients. They showed that the -592A/C, -819T/C polymorphisms and CCG/ATA haplotype of the IL-10 gene promoter were significantly more common in patients with HBV related cirrhosis. Earlier, Sofian et al. (46) revealed that genotypes and haplotypes of IL-10 gene promoter (-1082,-819,-592) were not significantly different among controls and chronic HBV patients. They did not find any correlation between IL-10 gene promoter polymorphism and HBV infection; however, their study size was relatively small compared to our study.
These different findings are related to sample size of studied populations and/or different ethnical backgrounds. Our study was conducted in south-east of Iran. In this area, diversity of the resident population is higher than other parts of Iran and this could be the reason of these discrepancies in various studies.
However in Asian population the -1082GG genotype was rarely found (32, 47, 48). In this study, analysis of genotypes showed that subjects with -1082GG are susceptible to HBV compared to the -1082 AA genotype. In this regard, Reuses et al. noted that the -1082 GG allele produces higher levels of IL-10, which compromises immune response to infection (20).
In this study, it may indicate complexity of the immune response in humans. Also this may have been due to low number of subjects. By the way, analysis of this polymorphism in HBV infection has shown conflicting findings (28, 29, 32, 37).
It seems that IL10 variations have an important role in HBV infection. Shin et al. indicated that IL-10 -592C allele (high IL-10 producer) accelerates chronic HBV infection (49). In contrast, Cheong et al. showed that individuals with IL-10 -592A allele (low IL-10 producer) had an increased susceptibility to HBV (29). Also studies indicated that IL-10 -592AA genotype exerts a protective effect against HBV infection (19). Peng et al. showed that IL-10 intermediate producer genotypes or haplotypes cause HBeAg seroconversions in patients (28).
We did not find any significant association between IL-10 alleles, -592 A/C and -819 T/C or genotypes and susceptibility to HBV infection in patients compared to the healthy control subjects. It shows that -592 A/C and -819 T/C do not influence susceptibility to HBV infection. These two polymorphisms are in linkage disequilibrium. It means that polymorphisms at position -592 and -819 have no independent effect on IL-10 functions. It is believed that IL-10 production is independent from -592A/C and -819T/C polymorphisms (19).
In field of polymorphisms at position -592 and -819, our results were in agreement with previous studies in Chinese (32, 44) and Indian (43) populations. In Chinese researches the IL-10-592 A/C polymorphisms did not differ significantly between HBV carriers and healthy volunteers groups. However, the capacity for IL-10 production depends on genetic polymorphisms and polymorphism at position -592 of the candidate gene in patients with HBV does not emerge as a probable biomarker for determining the disease. In addition, no significant differences were detected between Indian HBV patients and healthy controls in distributions of IL-10 genotype at the −592, −819 and −1082 positions. However, according to the odds ratio it seems that heterozygosity of genotypes −592 A/C and −819 T/C is associated with liver chronicity and increased risk of persistent infection.
Conversely, Afzal et al. (27) reported that in Pakistani population, IL-10 -819 T/C and -592 A/C promoter polymorphism, at the allele level but not in genotype distribution, were significantly different in patients with hepatitis in comparison with healthy controls. In this regard we did not see any significant differences in neither alleles nor genotypes frequencies. Our results suggested lack of association of IL-10 -819 T/C and -592 A/C alleles as well as genotypes with HBV.
Wu et al. also showed that IL-10 -1082 GG genotype is associated with lower HBV viral load in comparison to patients with A allele (50). Gao et al. reported that IL-10-592 and IL-10-1082 polymorphisms are not different at the allele level between cases and control (32). A meta-analysis in 2010 indicated that IL-10-1082 polymorphism was not related to HBV infection in Asia (51). In another study conducted by Zhang et al. no significant differences were discovered in IL-10 gene promoter polymorphisms among chronic HBV patients and controls. But their study indicated that -592AA and -819TT genotypes were more prevalent in chronic HBV patients (52).
Consequently, we can obtain a suggestive evidence of association with hepatitis B for IL-10-1082 promoter polymorphism at the allele and genotype distribution, but not for IL-10-592 and -819. Some disagreements between these studies indicate the possible impact of genetic background of different populations. These studies suggest that different IL-10 gene polymorphisms can affect cytokine responses, which may in turn influence susceptibility to HBV infection.
Analysis of haplotype could explain the effect of these three SNPs on susceptibility to HBV. In previous studies, the CCG haplotype was associated with increased IL-10 production compared with the ATA and CCA haplotypes (19). In the current study, IL-10 haplotype distribution indicated that the frequency of the CCG haplotype among HBV patients was higher than that of healthy subjects.
Our findings were in agreement with the results reported by Turner (19). He indicated that the CCG haplotype frequency in hepatitis cases was higher than the controls. Nonetheless, Afzal et al. indicated significant differences between patients and controls regarding ATG and CCA haplotypes (27). Also in some studies from Caucasian, Italy and Japan, IL-10 haplotypes were not distributed differently between controls and patients (47, 49, 53). It may be due to different ethnicity background of those populations. When we analyzed haplotypes, individuals with IL-10/CCG haplotype were genetically predisposed to develop HBV. In addition, IL-10/ATA haplotype was more common in controls than patients. It means that individuals with this genetic variation are less likely to develop HBV and subjects with haplotypes having the G allele are in increased risk of HBV infection. On the other hand, several factors such as sample size, patients’ selection and different gene-gene interactions can cause conflicting results of these studies.
It seems that different cultural backgrounds such as decreasing body mass index and smoking may have effects on decreased IL-10 production (20). Moreover, epidemiological and geographical factors can cause conflicting results. Study conditions (such as number and characteristics of subjects and HBV genotype variations) can affect the results as well.
In summary, our study showed that IL-10 gene polymorphism has an influence on HBV infection. The polymorphism of IL-10 -1082 showed a significant association with susceptibility to chronic HBV. The IL-10 -1082 AG and GG were associated with increased risk of persistent HBV. IL-10 polymorphism appeared to play an essential role in human HBV susceptibility to infection. Some of our results are in agreement with earlier publications on IL-10 promoter polymorphism and HBV infection. Other observations from this study are contrary to previous findings in other populations. There are different IL-10 binding receptors and homologues to IL-10 (54). So it is difficult to specify the real effect of genetic polymorphisms on disease susceptibility. These phenomena can affect the association between IL-10 promoter polymorphisms and HBV infection. Further researches on functional implications of IL10, specifically regarding immune response to HBV, are warranted. Moreover, we believe that our findings may stimulate further investigations on a larger size to assess the association of these polymorphisms in HBV patients.
The authors would like to thank all participants who willingly participated in this study. We appreciate all who helped us in this work, especially in the blood transfusion research center of Zahedan, Iran.
Authors’ Contribution: Bita Moudi, Zahra Heidari and Hamidreza Mahmoudzadeh-Sagheb conceived and co-designed the study, supervised all the experimental design, analyzed the results and drafted the manuscript. Mohammad Hashemi and Parisa Farrokh contributed in study design and genetic assays. Soheila Khosravi and Malihe Metanat performed patient selection and participated in data collection. All authors read, modified and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Financial Disclosure: None of the authors had any financial or other interest in dissemination of this article.
Funding/Support: This project was supported by the vice chancellor of research and technology of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZUMS) and infectious diseases and tropical medicine research center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. | 2019-04-26T08:24:25Z | http://hepatmon.com/en/articles/15546.html |
Viewpoints | Eastern Queens Alliance, Inc.
Idlewild Park: Under Attack by th PANYNJ?
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These comments are made in response to the Federal Register notice on the above cited draft order (Fed. Reg. page 49596, 8/14/2013). The Order defines and/or redefines the guidelines for EA, EIS, and Categorical Exclusions. It is our contention that it weakens the requirements for public input about topics, projects, etc. that are of vital concern to the communities affected by Airport-related actions. It serves to broaden the circumstances under which the FAA can avoid environmental review of operational changes, including flight paths, runway extensions, land acquisition and a whole host of other measures outlined under Categorical Exclusions.
The Eastern Queens Alliance, Inc., a federation of civic associations in Southeast Queens, is adamantly opposed to any weakening of the policies, procedures and guidelines that would require the FAA, LOB/SO’s and those entities who must seek approval from the FAA to include stakeholders in the decision making process regarding, in particular, but not limited to, contracts, leases, construction, installation actions, procedural actions, permits, airport layout plans, regulatory actions etc. While the preamble states the purpose of this Order is to “ 1) provide clear, concise, and up-to-date discussion of the FAA’s requirements for implementing NEPA; and 2) clarify requirements in order to facilitate timely, effective and efficient environmental reviews of FAA actions including NextGen improvements” a close read indicates that 1) it tends to obfuscate the requirements by constantly referring the reader to the Desk Reference and other documents containing critical related documentation that supports the rules and 2) it weakens or eliminates, in many cases, the need for public comment and public involvement by placing many items/actions/projects that may have significant environmental impact to the neighboring airport communities under “Categorical Exclusions” excluding them only if “Extraordinary Circumstances,” a vague term at best, are declared.
But who defines “an adverse effect” or a “significant effect” if there is no requirement for public input, involvement or engagement? The Order appears to leave that determination up to the “Responsible Administrator”. This results in important decisions being made by one person, who is making his/her determinations based on language that is vague or highly subject to interpretation. This is unacceptable to the Eastern Queens Alliance and its constituent communities.
In addition, the Order states that “preparation of an EA should involve the public to extent practicable”. We ask: What does that mean? It states that “Scoping is not required for an EA;” We ask: Why? It also states that Circulation of a draft EA is not required, but is optional at the discretion of a responsible FAA official. In addition, public meetings or hearings are not required for an EA. This language serves to eliminate the need for public consideration and involvement, and gives the FAA license to make unilateral decisions without consulting those upon whom they will be making major impacts. For example, according to the language in this document, the proposed 4L/22R Runway Extension at JFK airport would have been approved without any obligation to inform or listen to the public unless the “Responsible FAA Administrator” determined that this project falls into the category of “extraordinary circumstances.” In deed, we are deeply concerned about the statement on P 1-3 in this document that “the procedures in this Order apply to the fullest extent practicable to ongoing activities and environmental documents begun before the effect date.” Since no final decisions have yet been issued on this project, it appears that the intent of this Order may be to avoid the need to consider the public concern about this and other similar projects.
New York City airports are in extremely close proximity to densely populated areas. This results in significant impacts to the human and natural environment by sometimes what the FAA might consider to be seemingly minor changes at the two major airports. We believe that those who live in the New York City, particularly in the Borough of Queens with JFK International Airport and LaGuardia, will be significantly impacted by many of the items listed under “Categorical Exclusions.” Indeed, this Order seems to categorize the very actions that we are deeply concerned about under this CATEX. It is imperative that those who most assuredly will be impacted be involved in the decision-making process as important stakeholders regarding operational changes airports..
Purchase of an avigation easement to establish a runway protection zone ….provided it does not require extensive business or residential relocations.
Any navigation performance…that in determination of the Administrator, would result in measurable reductions in fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, noise on preflight basis…irrespective of the altitude of procedures.
In summary, this order serves to evade community and general stakeholder input on major airport-related issues. The Eastern Queens Alliance maintains that the FAA Administrator should not be empowered to determine whether such critical issues as flight patterns, runway extensions, and airport layout plans fall under "Categorical Exclusions" or “extraordinary circumstances.” At minimum, those items should require an EA that requires informing stakeholders and stakeholder input. In areas such as Queens, NY and other densely populated urban areas, on which operational and procedural changes at the large major airports are likely to seriously negatively impact the quality of life of massive numbers of residents, it is imperative that potential impacts be rigorously scrutinized by both the experts and the public during an open, transparent environmental review process, involving all stakeholders. Not to do so is irresponsible at best and a serious violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the environmental review process set in place by NEPA. In Southeast Queens, it is also tends to be a violation of environmental justice policies and procedures.
For the more than ten years, the Eastern Queens Alliance (EQA) has been working to save Idlewild Park Preserve. In 2003, we protested against the rezoning of 25.4 acres of the parkland that the city sold to International Air Cargo, Inc. to build an air cargo industrial park. It turned out this was a “done deal.” Now we are struggling to preserve over 700 trees on the western side of this valuable 325 acre preserve which forms the headwaters to Jamaica Bay. Is this a “done deal” too?
The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey (PANYNJ) has flagged 722 trees for removal. In fact, they have been in negotiation with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (NYCDPR) to remove the trees. Half of the trees they claim are current hazards to aviation. But one has to question: Why now? The trees didn’t miraculously have a growth spurt within the last several months or year or two. What makes them suddenly a hazard? Is it possible this is just a pre-emptive strike in anticipation of the proposed extension of Runway 4L/22R which has not yet been approved? The other half they claim will need to be removed if the runway is extended. Most of these trees don’t appear to be over 35 feet tall. Many are not taller than the two-story houses just a block away. There are those that are shorter. Is all of this then just a ploy to prepare for the Extension of Runway 4L/22R which, if completed, will result in aircraft flying much lower over our communities—perhaps 100+ feet lower? Is this a case of environmental injustice? Will Idlewild become just an extension of the JFK runways rather than the valuable ecological preserve that it is? In effect, this is what will happen if these trees are removed, clearing a huge swath of land through Idlewild Park Preserve between 228th Streets and Springfield Boulevard on the western side of the park!
The PANYNJ is moving swiftly ahead on the proposed plan to extend JFK Runway 4L/22R for which the final Environmental Assessment (EA) has not been approved. How is this possible? A final EA needs to be issued. Comments to the draft EA need to have been answered. This has not happened. EQA has called for a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposal which requires much more public involvement. The PANYNJ needs to follow NEPA guidelines and honor Environmental Justice Policies. It needs to give full consideration to the communities it is so negatively impacting.
The Eastern Queens Alliance has called for the restoration of much of the degraded wetlands in Idlewild and are eagerly awaiting the construction of the Idlewild Park Preserve Environmental Learning Center which Borough President Helen Marshall made possible through the allocation of $5 million in the 2009 budget. Until then, we offer the forerunner of that center out of a small office trailer on the western edge of Idlewild. Idlewild Park Preserve is an integral part of that center. The park serves as a natural laboratory where learning about the importance of the environment, how to take care of it, and enjoy nature at its best happens.
Over the years we have planted trees, shrubs and wetland plants, built trails, took children on field trips through our environmental education program, and collaborated with NYCDPR on the building of an Idlewild canoe/kayak launch. Concerts, fitness classes and tours have also taken place here. Much of this has been possible through the acquisition of small grants. Now all of this is threatened by the “taking of parkland” by the PANYNJ for the airport.
Idlewild is a critical ecological area in Southeast Queens, in the Jamaica Bay watershed and in the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Why are we working to save the park and restore the wetlands? Wetlands perform very important functions. The EPA tells us that wetlands provide flood protection by serving as natural sponges that trap and slowly release surface-water, rain, snowmelt groundwater and floodwaters. The trees, root mats and other wetland vegetation slow the speed of floodwaters. The combined water storage and slowing action lowers floodwaters and reduces erosion. Where wetlands lie downstream of urban areas, they counteract the large volume of surface water runoff that you get from pavement and buildings. The wetlands in Idlewild Park are critical in flood protection of the low-lying communities of Springfield Gardens and Rosedale areas. In fact, the destruction of wetlands over the years probably contributed to much of the flooding that our neighborhoods have experienced.
"It is important to note, the wetlands in the Idlewild Park Preserve also contain the largest expanse of high quality marsh along the shores of Jamaica Bay. The tidal creeks running through the park are the most extensive in, and provide the largest volume of freshwater to, the Bay." These wetlands help to protect our open waters from pollution by serving as natural filters, replenishing groundwater, and controlling shoreline erosion. There has been much talk within the last few years about saving Jamaica Bay. Saving Idlewild Park Preserve is a critical component in that process. The powers-that-be need to realize this.
Also, be aware that more than one-third of the threatened and endangered species in this country live only in wetlands. The EPA tells us that nearly half use the wetlands at some point in their lives, particularly for nesting, feeding and breeding.
Furthermore, wetlands provide wonderful parkland for recreation, the enjoyment and appreciation of nature, and are great resources for environmental education.
Finally, Idlewild Park lies just south of the Springfield Gardens and Rosedale communities and immediately north of JFK Airport, or Rockaway Boulevard. It serves as a natural buffer between the airport, airport-related businesses and the residential communities. We need to protect our communities against unbridled encroachment.
Idlewild Park has been designated as a Forever Wild Preserve by the Department of Parks and Recreation of NYC. In that title, they recognize that it needs to be protected, along with other such natural areas, against the constant threat of infringement and degradation in the name of development.
The Eastern Queens Alliance is adamantly opposed to the siting of the NYPD Impound Lot on Rockaway Boulevard in Springfield Gardens, NY. For the past several years, the stretch of land along Rockaway Boulevard, just north of JFK Airport, has attracted projects that pollute the air we breathe, pollute our ground water, and only bring more smog, congestion and traffic into our area. None of them benefit the community. For example, the Economic Development Corporation pushed through the construction of the International Air Cargo Center which was constructed on 25 acres of alienated park land on Rockaway Boulevard. The siting of Logan Bus Depot and Quick Courier on the south side of Rockaway Boulevard was also approved. And now we face the siting of the NYPD impound lot which is proposed for a 13 acre open space area that contains 2.2 acres of wetlands. In addition, the MTA is planning to put a storage parking facility for out-of-service buses where the Nassau Expressway meets Rockaway Boulevard. This is very close to the two other EDC projects and the impound lot – and right across the street from the former Green Bus Garage, now operated by an MTA operating subsidiary. All of these projects are diesel-intensive, thus adding to the toxic mix of respirable particulates in the air we breathe here in the Brookville, Rosedale and Springfield Gardens Communities. They also all contribute to toxic runoff. We believe that this constant barrage of projects that negatively impact our community constitutes a violation of environmental justice policies.
Although the community has been calling for a cumulative risk assessment to take into account the many projects proposed and sited along this strip to evaluate the total cumulative impact, none has been completed. Our air and water quality are being negatively impacted despite “negative declarations” in the individual EIS’!
The site in question is valuable open space. It is not, as EDC claims, just empty space ripe for development. It along with the other green spaces that are being gobbled up along the northern edge of JFK airport have served as natural, green, environmental buffers between the airport, related services in the vicinity and the residential community. While communities all over the country are striving to preserve their open space for ecological, health, aesthetic, and economic reasons the city seems to have targeted this strip for projects that contribute to pollution rather than help prevent it. What is happening in our community is diametrically contrary to the Mayor’s PlanNYC that calls for greening of the city. The Mayor recognizes that trees and plants help to clean the air of pollutants, this being the motivation for the Million Tree initiative. We know that increasing, rather than decreasing the vegetation, the greenery in our community, is critical to the health of the residents in Southeast Queens who live in the JFK airshed. Yet what we are witnessing is a degreening of our community. While the city plants a million trees, thousands of trees and shrubs are being destroyed in this area.
Furthermore, the NYPD Impound project calls for filling 2.2 acres of freshwater wetlands. While these wetlands do not have a surface connection to other water bodies in the area, it is highly likely that they are connected to the system of ground water that is an integral part of the Jamaica Bay Watershed. We know that wetlands are natural sponges and filtering systems that aid in the prevention of flooding and poor water quality. Even small areas in our community should be preserved to help combat the flooding that plagues Southeast Queens. Yet the proposal for this project dismisses the importance of these wetlands by labeling them “non-jurisdictional”.
In fact, the letter it cites from the USACE states that the “site contains jurisdictional waters of the United States based on: the presence of wetlands determined by the occurrence of hydophytic vegetation, hydric soils and wetland hydrology according to criteria established in the 1987 Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual.” It seems to note that the only reason that they are considered, for the time being (perhaps five years) “non-jurisdictional” is the result of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. US Army Corps of Engineers, No. 99-1178, Jan. 9 2001, which ruled that the designation of “jurisdictional” cannot be based solely upon their use by migratory birds.” The USACE also makes a point of saying, “It is strongly recommended that the development of the site…avoid ,,,the discharge of dredged or fill material into the delineated waters of the US….If not, authorization from their office many be necessary.” Clearly USACE doesn’t view these 2.2 acres as just a mud puddle as we were given to believe at the Public Hearing.
The EQA maintains that these wetlands should be preserved, not filled for an impound lot. A close reading of the EAS would seem to support this view when it maintains that the “center of the project site “is a wetland which appears to be supporting a diversity of wetland plant species; that a review of historical aerial photographs indicates that the project site “might have been retained to serve as a storm water detention area, receiving runoff from all of the surrounding paved services;” and that the project site contains 7 metal plate covers that are associated with “some type of storm water drainage system that discharges to the project site.” Yet this project would cover this site with an impervious surface, contrary even to recommendations and BMP’s in the Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan. What’s to become of this critical flood control function of this site if the impound lot becomes a reality?
Per mitigation policy, at least acre for acre mitigation should be provided to account for any wetland loss. This policy is not being honored in the plan.
b. Displacing freshwater wetlands in the upper watershed … impeding the natural wetland filtration process.
c. Displacement and fragmentation of habitat…by land filling of ecologically sensitive areas, especially tidal…and freshwater wetlands and riparian areas in the upper watershed.
d. Covering of soils with impervious concrete and asphalt surfaces, thereby decreasing ground water infiltration, while increasing the volume and rate of storm water runoff.
This is also an objective of the Alliance and is in concert with our efforts in Idlewild Park Preserve and all of the adjacent wetlands and open space in the area, It is towards these ends that we created a master plan for the Idlewild Preserve and ecological system and have been constantly seeking funds for the restoration of wetlands and upland areas in Idlewild replete with trails, boardwalks and open classroom areas that would not only return ecological function, but provide for environmental education, recreation–including waterfront access, and simply the enjoyment of the natural environment. It is for this reason that for the last several years we have also been calling for 1) the turning over of the Thurstin Basin area to NYCDPR for the development of a waterfront park, 2) the turning over of all the DCAS properties immediately adjacent to Idlewild Park Preserve to NYCParks as recommended by NYC Wetland Transfer Task Force, and 3) a moratorium on the further elimination of open space along Rockaway Blvd.
This project not only flies in the face of all that the Eastern Queens Alliance has been advocating for over the last six years, and discusses in its Whitepaper for Quality of Life in Southeast Queens, but it flies in the face of Environmental Justice Policies, the recommendations of the Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan, the Recommendations for the Transfer of City-Owned Properties Containing Wetlands promulgated by the NYC Wetlands Transfer Task Force, the Mayor’s Plan NYC initiative as well the recommendations adopted by the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary, and a Community Board 13 resolution. We, therefore, strongly object to the siting of the NYPD Impound Lot on Rockaway Boulevard in Springfield Gardens.
The Eastern Queens Alliance, Inc. is a federation of civic associations in Southeast Queens formed for the purposes of educating, raising awareness, mobilizing energies and generating community involvement in developing solutions to issues that cut across neighborhoods or community boundaries within Southeast Queens, including issues related to the environment, health, culture, public safety and other quality-of-life concerns. Go to the parent website for further information.
In a December 2007 policy report entitled Grounded:The Impact of Mounting Flight Delays on New York City’s Economy and Environment, NYC Comptroller, William C. Thompson, cites two studies which concluded, “that is airports were classified as stationary source of emissions like a power plant, commercial incinerator or large industrial manufacturing site, they would rank among the dirtiest fixed sources for pollution in a given community.” His report goes on to acknowledge that “The impact on air quality has been especially pronounced at Kennedy Ariport…because of the far greater increase in flights at Kennedy and because the increase there is attributable to full size aircraft…” He also acknowledges that “with the FAA projecting a doubling of U.S. airline passengers between 2005 and 2025, pollutant emissions are destined to grow, even as new more fuel-efficient aircraft are added to airline fleets and older, dirtier planes are retired…” Significantly, Thompson states, “As the volume of air traffic has increased and taxi-out periods have lengthened, air pollution in the vicinity of the airports…has become a growing concern, especially for the residents of …Springfield Gardens, and other neighborhoods adjacent to the airports.” We applaud the fact that the Comptroller is recognizing airport related pollution as a critical issue in our communities.
Residents in Southeast Queens are not surprised by any of the findings of the report. We have been convinced that the communities of Southeast Queens located adjacent to the JFK airport are, and have been, the victims of air pollutants from the JFK Airport. We have been convinced that adding airport-related and non-airport related pollution emanating from the industrial sector surrounding the airport creates quite a toxic soup for those residing in the vicinity. The neighborhoods adjacent to JFK not only have a concentration of air transportation related industries, but a significant absence of green spaces that is fast dwindling as more and more industrial landlords press for space. Summer evenings are sometimes interrupted by the permeating odors of jet fuel. Many who don’t live in the area say they notice fumes when entering Southeast Queens.
• Are the particulates in the Southeast Queen’s neighborhoods at a level that can impact the health of our residents?
• Are there chemicals associated with these particulates? What are they?
• Do these chemicals have a negative impact on the health of the residents in Southeast Queens and other areas in the immediate vicinity of the airport?
The residents of the Southeast Queens’ neighborhood would appreciate answers to the above questions. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation does monitor air pollutants in the New York City area. It is questionable, however, whether the monitoring provides an adequate picture of the situation in Southeast Queens. The monitoring stations located in Maspeth and Flushing are a considerable distance from the source of the pollutants. It is arguable that there is significant dilution and fallout occurring before reaching the measuring sites. The recorded information then does not reflect the immediate area. This lends support to the argument that the Eastern Queens Alliance has been making for monitoring in the areas immediate to all significant sources of the pollution in the vicinity.
The health effects caused by air pollutants can be minor to major respiratory problems. NYC has a higher rate of hospitalizations due to asthma (NYC Asthma Facts 2nd Edition 2003) than the rest of the US. The same document provides data indicating a fall off of asthma hospitalizations in the Southeast Queens area. Is this really the case, or are we seeing support for the no confidence in the health care systems stance in these areas? It is an accepted position among the residents that if you have private insurance, then you go to nearby hospitals in Long Island instead of those in the city. The Southeast Queens residents are more likely to utilize nearby Long Island hospitals such as Franklin General and Long Island Jewish instead of a city hospital. Does this means then that there is not adequate capture in the statistics of those hospitalizations for Asthma or other illnesses related to air pollution?
Particulates originating from diesel or similar combustion are believed to be associated with a variety of mutagenic and carcinogenic chemicals including polyaromatic hydrocarbons and nitroarenes. Studies in rats have found that diesel exhaust can produce neoplastic and inflammatory responses. The particles from such emissions have been shown to be in the 2.5 micron to 5.0 micron range. A particle size that can easily penetrate the lower level of alveoli and does great damage to lung tissue.
The Eastern Queens Alliance has been calling for substantive answers to the above-raised questions. In the Eastern Queens Alliance White Paper: A Comprehensive Plan—Maiximizing Quality of Life in Southeast Queens published in 2005, the Alliance called for high quality community health care facilities for community residents. It calls for mandated, regular, on-going monitoring of the hazardous air pollutants in Southeast Queens and reduction of the same. It is also calls for the establishment and strict enforcement of regulations aimed at encouraging efficient and less polluting vehicles in the area. The Alliance urges the city and transportation agencies to introduce natural gas and/or hybrid vehicles for passenger vehicles, buses and trucks throughout the commercial and industrial areas. It also takes the position that Federal laws must require less-polluting upgrades on aircraft frequently flying into non-attainment areas like Kennedy and LaGuardia, especially in close proximity to residential areas. In addition, the Alliance is calling for the Department of Health to focus on the causes and prevention of respiratory illnesses in areas in close proximity to major industrial pollution sources.
South East queens Located adjacent to the JFK airport is perceived to be the target of air pollutants from the JFK Airport and associated industries. The area has a concentration of transportation airport-related industries and a significant absence of green spaces. Summer evenings are sometimes interrupted by the permeating odors of jet fuel. Airplanes and other combustion source engines are a recognized source of particulates.
Are the particulates in the southeast queen’s neighborhood at a level that can impact the health of our residents?
Are there chemicals associated with these particulates?
What are these chemicals associated with the particulates?
Do these chemicals have a negative impact on the health of the residents in Southeast Queens and other areas in the immediate vicinity of the airport?
The residents of the Southeast Queens’ neighborhood would appreciate answers to the above questions. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation does monitor air pollutants in the New York City area. It is questionable as whether or not the monitoring provides an adequate picture of the situation in Southeast Queens. The monitoring stations located in Maspeth and Flushing are a considerable distance from the source of the pollutants. It is arguable that there is significant dilution and fallout occurring before reaching the measuring sites. The recorded information then does not reflect the immediate area. This lends support to the argument that the Eastern Queens Alliance has been making for monitoring in the areas immediate to all significant sources of the pollution in the vicinity.
The health effects caused by air pollutants can be minor to major respiratory problems. NYC has a higher rate of hospitalizations due to asthma (NYC Asthma Facts 2nd Edition 2003) than the rest of the US. The same document provides data indicating a fall off of asthma hospitalizations in the Southeast Queens area. Is this really the case, or are we seeing the result of a seeming no confidence in the health care systems belief among many in these areas? It is known among the residents that if you have private insurance, then you would go to nearby hospitals in long island instead of those in the city. The Southeast Queens’ residents are more likely to utilize nearby long island hospitals such as Franklyn General and Long Island Jewish instead of a city hospital. Does this mean then that there is not an adequate capture of those hospitalizations for Asthma or other illness related to air pollution?
The Eastern Queens Alliance has been calling for substantive answers to the above-raised questions. In the Eastern Queens Alliance White Paper: A Comprehensive Plan—Maiximizing Quality of Life in Southeast Queens published in 2005, the Alliance calls for high quality community health care facilities for community residents. It calls for mandated, regular, on-going monitoring of the hazardous air pollutants in Southeast Queens and reduction of the same. It is also calls for the establishment and strict enforcement of regulations aimed at encouraging efficient and less polluting vehicles in the area. The Alliance urges the city and transportation agencies to introduce natural gas and/or hybrid vehicles for passenger vehicles, buses and trucks throughout the commercial and industrial areas. It also takes the position that Federal laws must require less-polluting upgrades on aircraft frequently flying into non-attainment areas like Kennedy and LaGuardia, especially in close proximity to residential areas. In addition, the Alliance is calling for the Department of Health to focus on the causes and prevention of respiratory illnesses in areas in close proximity to major industrial pollution sources.
Currently, the Alliance is designing a community air quality study and is seeking to partner with a local university in the implementation of this effort. | 2019-04-22T00:53:15Z | http://easternqueensalliance.org/viewpoints/index.html |
BTS Pleural Guideline Group ii18 Management of spontaneous pneumothorax: British Thoracic Society pleural disease guideline A MacDuff, A Arnold. Guidelines for the management of spontaneous pneumothorax. Standards of Care Committee, British Thoracic Society. BMJ. Jul 10;()– Management of spontaneous pneumothorax: British Thoracic Society Pleural Disease Guideline MacDuff A(1), Arnold A, Harvey J; BTS Pleural Disease .
Catheter drainage of spontaneous pneumothorax: Treatment of AIDS-related spontaneous pneumothorax. Do not close the catheter. Other catheters can be used if they have several holes in the last 10 cm of the catheter tip.
Remove the needle from the catheter and connect the catheter to a 50— ml syringe Luer lock. Usually it is not necessary to drain a haemothorax before transportation to a hospital.
This recognition and management of this complication is discussed later in the session.
Effectiveness of bleomycin in comparison to tetracycline as pleural sclerosing agent in rabbits. Usually seen in trauma patients and in connection with mechanical ventilation btss resuscitation.
Parietal pleurectomy for recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax.
Consider spontaneous pneumothorax as a cause for acute chest pain and dyspnoea in young smokers as well as in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Needle aspiration is less likely to succeed for secondary pneumothoraces 15 and is only recommended in this setting if the patient has a small pneumothorax cm in size and minimal symptoms. Surgical management of pneumothorax in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
Immediate and long-term results after surgical treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax by VATS. Symptomatic patients and those with large pneumothoraces, whether primary or secondary, require intervention. Patients discharged from the Emergency Department following a spontaneous pneumothorax should ideally be reviewed by a respiratory physician after 2 weeks.
Safer insertion of pleural drains. Subcutaneous emphysema may be present a crepitation on pressing the skin. Leave a Reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment. A comparative study of the physiology and physics of pleural drainage systems. Results from 82 patients. However, it is highly user dependent and for patients with suspected spontaneous pneumothoraces, radiography has the advantage of identifying unexpected causes of pleuritic pain eg infection, carcinoma.
Time course of resolution of persistent air leak in spontaneous pneumothorax. Evidence for destruction of lung tissues during Pneumocystis carinii infection. Copyright and License information Disclaimer. For patients with COPD, fixed concentration oxygen should be administered. Pleural abrasion via axillary thoracotomy in the era of video assisted thoracic surgery.
The pain radiates to the ipsilateral shoulder. Pneumothkrax BTS guidelines recommend use of a cannula no greater than 16G in diameter for aspiration though evidence that larger cannulae are more likely to cause a persistent pleural leakis limited. The risk of percutaneous chest tube thoracostomy for blunt thoracic trauma. These are solid objects and on the left side the apex of the heart lies close to the insertion point! It is safest to make an incision with a lancet and then use the finger to make the way to the pleural space.
Nd-YAG laser pleurodesis via thoracoscopy.
Management of spontaneous pneumothorax-a Welsh survey. The most useful investigation is the PA chest radiograph despite the fact that it tends to under-estimate the size of a pneumothorax by virtue of it being a 2-dimensional image of a 3-dimensional structure. Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. Bbts pulmonary vascular tbs as a cause of re-expansion edema in rabbits. Closing the gap between research and practice: Management of spontaneous pneumothorax with small bys catheter manual aspiration.
A radiograph taken during expiration may be helpful. Active treatment drainage or aspiration is indicated in other types of pneumothorax if one of the following conditions is fulfilled: Minimally invasive management for first and recurrent pneumothorax. Whichever technique is used the landmarks are the same. Onset of symptoms in spontaneous pneumothorax: Subcutaneous and mediastinal emphysema. Guidelines for the management of spontaneous pneumothorax. Acute ventilatory failure from massive subcutaneous emphysema.
Results of a Department of Veterans Affairs cooperative study. Role of CT in the management of pneumothorax in patients with complex cystic lung disease.
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William Jaeger, partner and owner of Freemark Abbey Winery, has a crop of Riesling grapes that are close to ripening with a possible rainstorm approaching. ✅. William Jaeger. spouse and proprietor of Freemark Abbey Winery. has a harvest of Riesling grapes that are close to maturing with a . FREEMARK ABBEY WINERY CASE ANALYSIS. Subject: Quantitative Techniques III Professor: Prof. Bhavin J. Shah Group No: 3 Date.
If he harvests the grapes now. With so many options. Jaeger if he decides not to harvest and the storm does come down on his vineyard. Now to observe the options available to Mr. We’ll occasionally send you account related and promo emails. Jaeger come to a determination? Now that all the possible net incomes have been found for the storm really go oning.
Neither option is very enticing compared to the other options so far, but that is part of the risk.
On the other hand, if the mold is not present in the storm, then he runs the risk of oversaturating the grapes which would result in a thin, lower quality wine. There is a opportunity that the storm will really look.
Jaeger to leave the grapes on the vine to mature longer, thereby giving them a better quality to make better wine. Finance General Management Marketing. No Storm Now to detect the options available to Mr. He considers renegotiating the television contract.
If he harvests the grapes now, he will avoid the rainstorm altogether, and have a respectable type of grape that would get him a good return on his decision. This is the least risky of the options because he knows what he can get if he harvested the grapes right now.
It is therefore, my recommendation that he wait to harvest his grapes to see if the storm comes, and what comes of the grapes at that time. Accessed December 31, As you can see, this holds the greatest opportunity for profit.
Click to learn more https: Hi there, would you like to get such a paper? On the other manus.
Jaeger has 3 more possibilities open to him. With the storm not coming, this still allows Mr. How to cite this page Choose cite format: William Jaeger, partner fredmark owner of Freemark Abbey Winery, has a crop of Riesling grapes that are close to ripening with a possible rainstorm approaching.
We’ll occasionally send you account related and promo emails. The monetary values at which the vino would sell at each sugar content degree is as follows: Addressing the possibilities available to Mr.
The determination does come with higher hazard. How about getting full access immediately? Neither option is really alluring compared to the other options so far. Freemark produces 1, cases per year of Riesling wine, which equates to 12, bottles. So the profit margin for the grapes containing the mold is as follows: Addressing the possibilities available to Mr. The decision does come with higher risk, but the odds are in Abbfy.
Recall that the chances that the storm would hit wereso that is what should be used to figure the total EMV of the decision to not harvest. We have received your request for getting a sample. Storm with No Mold: Cite View Details Educators Purchase.
Their relative prices would depend on the uncertain preference of consumers two years later, when the wine is bottled and sold. This is the least hazardous of the options because he knows what he can acquire if he harvested the grapes right now.
Bradley and William S. Jaeger if the storm does non incorporate the cast. Finance Globalization Health Care.
View and Download Siemens 6RA22 operating instructions manual online. Converter with microprocessor in circulating-current-free inverse-parallel connection. Siemens 6RA22 Pdf User Manuals. View online or download Siemens 6RA22 Operating Instructions Manual. Siemens 6RA22 Manual – Northern Read more about northern, siemens, manual, industrial, industrialreliable and spares.
This is a 40 A unit specially modified for this application. In diesem Fall ist der Drehzahlregler auf unkritische Werte einzustellen. The ramp time setting range can be adjusted by means of capacitor C Ende des Drehzahlabgleiches bei Betrieb ohne Tachogenerator. Please allow additional time if international delivery is subject to customs processing.
Plug-in type terminal blocks are provided for the signal connections. When carrying out work on the connected load, the equipment main switch or the plant-side automatic circuit-breaker must be secured in the OFF position by means of a padlock.
Sign up for newsletter. Folgende Voraussetzungen liegen zugrunde: The permissible P gain is lower for EMF control tacho-less operation than for speed control with tachogenerator. Der Feldstrom-Sollwert wird mit dem Potentiometer “V” eingestellt. This item may be a floor model or an item that has been returned to the seller after a period of use. In particular the general erection and safety regulations e.
You have clicked on the “? Only qualified personnel should work on or around this equipment after becoming thoroughly familiar with all warnings, safety notices and maintenance procedures contained in these operating instructions.
Description Postage and payments. In dieser Stellung wird Stromgrenze Null vorgegeben.
Your country’s customs office can offer more details, or visit eBay’s page on international trade. Measure motor speed and turn potentiometer “V” cw until the loaded motor speed equals the no-load speed.
Condensation is excluded, since the components are certified for humidity rating F. The machine manufacturer must be consulted before choosing the smoothing reactor required in the armature circuit.
Reglerfreigabe wird vorgegeben, LED “Rf” leuchtet. Rated DC current Phase fuses Field fuses e.
Connect the equipment as shown in the appendix Reference input and adjustment of the maximum operating speed refer to 7. The commutating reactors recommended guarantee conformance with VDE Specifications as regards to reaction on the system, and can be matched to the relevant machine rating. The specific requirements regarding equipment earthing shall be taken from the appropriate safety regulations e.
For mwnual with take-over field weakening operation both units can be combined with a field weakening controller U For housing dimensions and fixing dimensions, see Section 5.
Report item – opens in a new window or tab. The rear of the U-shaped housing is bolted to the mounting surface.
All connections are brought out to the lower equipment side. This arrangement can save space if several drives are to be combined to form a unit. Insbesondere sind sowohl die allgemeinen Errichtungs- und Sicherheitsvorschriften zu Arbeiten an Starkstromanlagen z. Before commencing maintenance or commissioning work all energy sources of the converter power supply shall be switched off and locked.
Further measures may be necessary for special applications or operating conditions.
The position of jumper plug C4-C5-C6 determines whether the reference signal is entered via the ramp generator or applied direct to the speed controller: Modules contain electrostatically sensitive components Contact addresses For orders: Your subscription request is being processed.
This amount is subject to change until you make payment. Bei negativer 6ea22 ist der Tachogenerator umzupolen. Allowable degree of fouling 2 for modules and power section. No external references or actual values are required. Please log in and try again. In this case, the R and R bridging resistances 0 ohms must be mabual. Add to Watch list Watching Watch list is full.
Fortune Fortune and love befriend the bold. Help keep our servers running In special cases e. CAUTION Incorrect installation of the units, inadequacy of the cooling air inlet or an inadequate clearance with respect to other equipment can lead to destruction of the equipment as a result of overheating. Some tips for better mznual results Please give me a feedback.
The Genee Vision is a powerful visual presentation and training tool. It’s powerful zoom function, 22x optical and 10x digital allows users to view text. Genee Vision HD – Quick Start Guide Genee Vision – Manual | Quick Start Guide Genee Vision – Software and drivers. Video Cap. We want customers to get the most out of ours products so we have put together a range of helpful resources to assist you. If you experience.
Reduce preparation times for meeting by not having to photocopy. Combined with the digital zoom you can zoom up to x.
Description Applications Benefits Specifications Reviews 0. Genee Vision Elite — Visualiser Visualisers. Special software is required for this operation.
The Presenter can personalise the presentation by annotating over the live Visualiser feed, zooming in and out to view every detail, moving the Visualiser camera around to show different angles or by adding more objects for comparison. The possibilities are endless. The Genee Vision is powerful, robust and full of useful features that will enhance your presentation including: Great for dark rooms The Genee Vision is equipped with two LED arm lights as well as a backlight that sheds light on objects so you can display information from things like 3D objects, books, photo films and x-rays even in a dark room.
Page 7 Connect to the first video equipment with S-Video input. Use the computer RS cable 9-pin to 9-pin to make the connections shown below to control the visualiser from an external computer.
The Genee Vision is an affordable desktop visualiser. To prevent fire or shock hazard, do not expose the unit to rain or moisture. The Genee Vision is powerful, robust and full of useful features that will enhance your presentation including:.
Rotate the camera head clockwise until the camera head is parallel to the camera stand. Fold the right arm light down first onto the base, then the left arm down. Refer to qualified personnel for service only. Seamless Integration A Genee Vision Visualiser seamlessly integrates with your projector, interactive whiteboard, interactive touch screen and video conferencing system. We’ll assume you’re ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Connect to the first video equipment with S-Video input.
Genee Vision — Visualiser. To prevent electrical shock, do not open the cabinet. Please call us for additional information. Effortless The Genee Vision allows you to effortlessly 610 source materials, pictures and 3D objects and present them to your audience. Animation When the Visualiser is combined with the Geneemation stop-motion animation software it can be used to create stop-frame animation.
With all these possibilities and many more, the Genee Vision Visualiser has to be one of the most flexible presentation tools available. Also See for Manual – 27 pages. Reviews There are no reviews yet.
Request demo Request Callback. Easy to use Not all of us are experts when it comes to understanding new equipment, however, the Genee Vision is extremely user friendly. Don’t show me this message again. Page 8 Use the computer RS cable 9-pin to 9-pin to make the connections shown below to control the visualiser from an external computer.
Combine with split screen and freeze frame to view genee sides of an object then remove object from underneath camera. Add to my manuals Add.
For technical assistance please call or email Tel: FOCUSING When the visualiser is turned on the focus automatically adjusts to the stage, it is not necessary to readjust the focus if you are only working with flat materials text, photos, etc.
The ability to see, understand and question are key attributes in the learning process. Audiences prefer to be involved rather than be just watching endless static presentations. If you cannot switch tenee inputs by pressing this button, you need to manually program the RS code into the visualiser.
Page 15 FOCUSING When the visualiser is turned on the focus automatically adjusts to the stage, it is not necessary to readjust the focus if you are only working with flat materials text, photos, etc.
Got it, continue to print. Page 24 For technical assistance please call or email Tel: The one touch buttons provide easy access to the Visualiser functions and if you prefer to be mobile, you can even use the intuitive remote control. Page of 24 Gennee. Also See for Genee Genee Manual 27 pages. You can take pictures and record videos, which can then be uploaded to an online resource area or kept for future reference. Only 3D object require a focus adjustment.
Please connect the projector RS cable between the projector and the visualiser first. Enter text from picture: Great for magnification The powerful 22x optical zoom function allows you to see detail that is not often visible to the human eye.
Find the most up-to-date version of IETF RFC at Engineering IETF RFC ‘The Network Access Identifier’. . IETF RFC “UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO “. . 3GPP TS “Wireless Local Area . References IETF RFC ‘Criteria for Evaluating AAA Protocols for Network Access’. IETF RFC IETF RFC ‘The Network Access Identifier’.
Any explicit references within that referenced document should also be listed: Relationship with other existing or emerging documents:. Configure the following parameters as desired, then click Apply. Committed to connecting the world. For details, see Configuring Hotspot Advertisement Profiles. Other for any supplementary information: The hotspot realm uses EAP Notification messages for authentication.
Iehf an existing profile from the list of profiles on the profile details pane or create a new profile by entering a profile name into the entry blank, then clicking Add.
Relationship with other existing or emerging documents: Name of the NAI realm. The realm name is often the domain name of the service provider.
Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol. All RFCs always remain available on-line. Select one of the options below to identify the EAP authentication method supported by the hotspot realm. EAP Method – Identity.
Justification iwtf the specific reference: Other useful information describing the “Quality” of the document:. Other useful information describing the “Quality” of the document: To send the values configured in this profile to clients, you must associate this profile with an advertisement profile, then associate the advertisement profile with a hotspot 2.
Authentication with a single-use password. In the profiles list, expand the Wireless LAN section. Justification for the specific reference:.
Feedback Contact Us Accessibility. Clear description of the referenced document:. The degree of stability or maturity of the tfc. Credential – Soft Token. Current information, if any, about IPR issues:.
Credential – Hardware Token. EAP Method – Notification. Comments on RFCs and corresponding changes are accommodated through the existing standardization process. Reserved for Future use.
Current information, if any, about IPR issues: Any explicit references within that referenced document should also be listed:.
EAP Method – Crypto-card. The degree of stability or maturity of the document: Other for any supplementary information:. Clear description of the referenced document: The specified iehf ID uses credential authentication.
text mode) Added the password of ‘support’ user for D-Link DSLU and possibly other nec versa mt nikon d 80 pdf Auto to manual conversions rus. Connectivity • Built-in ADSL2+ modem for connecting to your high-speed broadband Internet connection • Four 10/ BASE-TX MDI/MDIX RJ port to. D-Link DSLU (last letter is region version as far as I Out of the box device came with really old firmware so I downloaded latest from FTP.
Solid Green Powered device connected to associated port Joined Feb 18, Messages 8, Solid Green WAN port is connected. Manuual give multiple routers the same model number, and have no hardware version checking in their firmware updates. Slow Flashing DSL attempting synch. The wireless modem router front panel contains control buttons and status LEDs. Big Giveaway – Win prizes worth R3, Here are what green lights should be on if everything is working: Red If It Can’t.
Added ability to specify the address of PPTP-server host name. Blocked access to the device for Telnet using the account “user”. I just had a similar issue with a Mega router where an XP pc with wireless USB dongle could not access the internet.
Thread starter calvincoetzee Start date Dec 9, Tags u d-link dlink dslu firmware. Correction of errors in the function of PPTP-client.
Joined Dec 15, Messages 18, Joined Mar 10, Messages 2. On 25540u page “Device Info” added information on the release date Release Date. The algorithm works with SYN packets in networks of providers.
You may get a better response from the forum if you post a new thread with a subject such as “d-link router disconnects all the ddsl as this thread is more about a specific model and your issues could be more generlised – e. Tim the Techxpert Expert Member Dec 10, June 7, File Name: January 20, File Name: What’s new New posts New profile posts Latest activity.
July 30, File Name: The DSL status light will flash. As you can see, Power and DSL lights should be a solid green. Joined Oct 23, 240u 5, A factory reset managed to reset the device IP back to the default value, however the landing page now prompts for a firmware flash.
Big Giveaway – Russ prizes worth R3, Set the firmware version, not related to your device, can lead to unusable. November 29, File Name: If you use PPPoA-connection does not open some sites corrected. Members Current visitors New profile posts Search profile posts.
When in use, the Ethernet as well as Internet light will be Latest firmware is at ftp: Correction of errors when trying to use PPTP-client as the default gateway. Forums New posts Search forums. Forums New posts Search forums. After the power light turns solid white or green, your device is manjal and back up and running, now with the default password listed above for your model. Thread starter Barge Start date Dec 1, Multicast traffic is now blocked by a wireless interface 3. Device is either off or DSL failed to connect.
Barge Well-Known Member Dec 3, November 7, File Name: November 25, File Name: Just a friendly warning Thanks for the replies, Ru went ahead and made contact with D-Link who kindly emailed me the firmware for the device.
Maccaferri Strong Face gabions are an excellent solution for use when a. Whereas Maccaferri Double Twist woven steel wire mesh gabions are used in demanding engineering and geotechnical applications, welded gabions are. A Maccaferri gabion is a name given to a type of gabion produced by the Maccaferri family. In , in Casalecchio di Reno near Bologna, Italy, for the first time.
Installation Gabions are gaboins to site flat-packed, where upon they are assembled, placed into position, and filled with a hard durable rock. Brochures Maccaferri Gabions Brochure. We are the undisputed global leader in the manufacture, design and supply of gabion baskets.
MacSoil MacSoil is a prismatic or trapezoidal gabion element engineered from double twisted hexagonal woven steel wire gabilns. Slope analysis mass wasting landslide Deformation monitoring automated. Maccaferri gabion baskets are made from high quality steel wire, which is heavily galvanised to provide long term corrosion protection. Geotechnical engineering Building materials Warfare of the Middle Ages.
This maccafdrri has brought the Maccaferri technology and technical expertise to all countries of the worldwith a direct presence in more than forty countries on all continents. Please contact your local Maccaferri subsidiary for details on the compliance and certification in your area. On-site Cone penetration test Standard penetration test Monitoring well piezometer Borehole Crosshole sonic logging Nuclear densometer test Static load testing Trial pit.
Maccaferri Gabions are a durable and adaptable option for soil erosion and bank stabilisation projects. Maccaferri Gabions are a trusted, technically sound way to retain earth and combat soil erosion.
Gabion — Strong Face Maccaferri Strong Face gabions are an excellent solution for use when a gabion wall, or revetment gahions a stronger than normal face. Shop My Account Login Register. Retrieved from ” https: Onsite Installation Training To protect the quality of your project, Geofabrics provides on-site installation training as well as guidelines and diagrams to assist contractors.
September Learn how and when to remove this template message. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Friday, 25 May – 8: Hard dense quarried stone in the size range of mm to mm is normally used to fill gabion baskets. Macaferri are increasingly being used in architectural applications as well.
Maccaferri Gabions are rectangular woven wire mesh baskets that can be gabins with rock to create flexible, permeable structures such as retaining walls for architectural, mining, industrial and road projects. Redbank Station Slope Repair. Applications Gabions can be used in a variety of different applications from mass gravity retaining walls in highway projects to architectural feature walls.
Roma Flood Levee Stage 2.
Maccaferri Gabion baskets are rectangular wire mesh cages manufactured gabins double twisted hexagonal mesh that are site filled with hard durable rock to form an earth retaining structure. The tubular units are filled with gabion stone at the project site and laced tightly shut. Cone penetration test Standard penetration test Monitoring well piezometer Borehole Crosshole sonic logging Nuclear densometer test Static load testing Trial pit. Our new PA6 polymer coating has been added to our range of protective gabion to offer a solution to those projects that require improved environmental and technical performance to the existing PVC and HDPE coated mesh products on the market.
ReadyMac The ReadyMac Gabion is a specific basket, prefilled with gabion stone, ready maccafefri be deployed straight into the works. The units can be used where there are higher loads within the gabion structure or in situations where a higher abrasion resistance is required on the face of the gabion.
Advantages Maccaferri Gabions can be stepped, vertical or battered to suit your project.
jaccaferri Maccaferri Gabions can withstand high shear stresses and earth pressures and can be easily adapted to site conditions. Identical in concept to our regular gabions, Jumbo Gabions are just much larger! Maccaferri Gabions have been widely used across Australasia for over 50 years. Tuesday, 27 March – 3: There are numerous uses for these modular units and are typically used to form flexible, permeable and monolithic maccaferi such as retaining walls, channel linings, hydraulic control structures and erosion protection.
Gabions have also been shown to provide a good balance between engineering requirements and environmental considerations for earth retaining walls in rivers, along roads and railways. Soil liquefaction Response spectrum Seismic hazard Ground—structure interaction. Their strength comes from a double twisted hexagonal mesh of steel wire, reinforced by heavier gauge wire along the edges and internal diaphragms. Views Read Edit View history. Keep up to date with the latest from Geofabrics by subscribing to our newsletter.
Gabions can be used in a variety of different applications from mass gravity retaining walls in highway projects to architectural feature walls. Jumbo Gabion Our Jumbo Gabions are used on large scale civil engineering projects where large volumes of gabions are to be constructed.
Before World War IIa process of diversification started with acquisitions in various industrial fields, but the erosion control sector remain the core business.
They are also permeable eliminating the main cause of instability of soil retaining structures. Maccaferri gabions are cages which are engineered from double twisted hexagonal woven steel wire mesh. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Maccaferri family purchased a patent for a new type of box gabion, so called Palvis Gabbioni a scatola Palvis and started the industrial production and introduction on a vast scale of gabions and mattresses for civil engineering use.
Our gabions are manufactured in our factories around the world. Inin Casalecchio di Reno near Bologna, Italyfor the first time large amounts of wire mesh Maccaferri sack gabions were used to repair dams destroyed by a flood of the river Reno.
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2 1. ABOUT THE TRAINING SITE DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY ASELSAN A.Ş. As a developer of statü of the art Land, Air, Naval and Space. Aselsan Staj Aselsan Staj. November 14, | Author: hittaf_05 | Category: Drilling, Machining, Welding, Bending, Share Embed Donate. Report this link. of a company (like TUBITAK) or different departments of a company (like ASELSAN) is not . You report should start with a Cover Page and Table of . of the grades on the “Staj Değerlendirme Formu” must be at least 7.
The contact scheme incorporates a brush assembly aslesan make direct electrical contact with the electrically conductive paths of the coded disk to read address information.
In addition, increasing gain adds components, cost, complexity. At about 1 0E slip at the knee ofthe curve we get maximum torque and power transfer from the motor.
On the side of the conductor where the lines of flux are not opposing each other, the magnetic field will be made stronger. The number of notches corresponds to the number of poles in the stator. For example, assume the command signal was to drive the load at rpm.
As movement is increased increasing frequency of motion the far end of the yard stick will bend in aselean attempt to keep up with your hand movements. The rotor construction enables this type of motor to rotate at the same speed in synchronization as the stator field.
We can see by this curve that the aelsan produces zero torque at synchronous speed because there is no slip. If the volume knob is low, the sound is soft low gain; if the volume is turned up high, the sound is loud high gain.
And in order that the machine will perform without excessive overshoot, settle within adequate time periods, aslesan have minimum steady state error, the servo must be adjusted or compensated. Second week I always go to the maintance and repair division and I repair 3 servo motor driver box, I learnt doing perfect soldering in there.
If the frequency of the sound heard is low base drumthere is no difficulty in hearing the sound. Electronic processing can be used to transform this signal into a square pulse train. WEB sayfalarndan indirilen belgelerle bir staj defteri oluturulur. What applications use the closed loop technique? If you are thinking in terms of conventional currentflow positive to negative then, using your right hand point your thumb in the direction of the current flow and yourfingers will wrap around the conductor in the same direction of the flux lines.
Field proven servo systems developed by ASELSAN are presently deployed in dozens of systems ranging from 20 kg precision stabilized positioning systems to 20 ton main battle tank turrets.
Systems that assume motion has taken place or is in the process of taking place are termed “open loop”. Gain is a ratio of output versus input. On the side of the coil where the lines of flux oppose each other, the magnetic field will be made weaker. A command signal which is issued from the user’s interface panel comes into the servo’s “positioning controller”. An open loop drive is one in which the signal goes “in one direction only”. The self excited motor may be called reluctance synchronous includes a rotor with notches, or teeth, on the periphery.
Therefore, a servo involves several devices. These additional components do add to initial cost an increase in productivity is typically not considered when investigating cost. Size px x x x x In its saelsan located in Macunk9y and in its ,ranch offices in: As an example, sselsan a home stereo system.
The current from the DC power source flows from the positive lead, through the brush labeled A1 through one commutator section, through the armature coil, through the other commutator section, through the brush labeled A2 and back to the negative lead.
Lack of understanding does give the impression to the user of difficulty. The number of lines is determined by the positional accuracy required in the application.
These low power level signals must be amplified: A low torque to rapogu ratio limits this motor type to less demanding incrementing start-stop applications. Those that require control over a variety of complex motion profiles. This other “device” is either a tachometer, resolver or encoder providing a signal which is “sent back” to the controller. The first assumption is that power is applied onto the motor and the second is that the motor shaft is free to rotate.
This power is supplied to the servo control amplifier from the “power supply” which simply converts AC power into the required DC level.
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A method for defining patterns in an integrated circuit comprises defining a plurality of features in a first photoresist layer using photolithography over a first region of a substrate. The method further comprises using pitch multiplication to produce at least two features in a lower masking layer for each feature in the photoresist layer. The features in the lower masking layer include looped ends. The method further comprises covering with a second photoresist layer a second region of the substrate including the looped ends in the lower masking layer. The method further comprises etching a pattern of trenches in the substrate through the features in the lower masking layer without etching in the second region. The trenches have a trench width.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/666,031 (filed 28 Mar. 2005). The entire disclosure of this priority application is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/932,993 (filed 1 Sep. 2004; Attorney Docket MICRON.293A; Micron Docket 2003-1435.00/US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/934,778 (filed 2 Sep. 2004; Attorney Docket MICRON.294A; Micron Docket 2003-1446.00/US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/931,771 (filed 31 Aug. 2004; Attorney Docket MICRON.295A; Micron Docket 2004-0068.00/US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/934,317 (filed 2 Sep. 2004; Attorney Docket MICRON.296A; Micron Docket 2004-0114.00/US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (filed concurrently herewith; Attorney Docket MICRON.313A; Micron Docket 2004-1065.00/US), U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/662,323 (filed 15 Mar. 2005; Attorney Docket MICRON.316PR; Micron Docket 2004-1130.00/PR), and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/134,982 (filed 23 May 2005; Attorney Docket MICRON.317A; Micron Docket 2004-0968.00/US). The entire content of all of these related applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit fabrication, and more specifically to masking techniques.
Integrated circuits are continuously being made smaller as demand for portability, computing power, memory capacity and energy efficiency in modern electronics grows. Therefore, the size of the integrated circuit constituent features, such as electrical devices and interconnect line widths, is also decreasing continuously. The trend of decreasing feature size is evident in memory circuits or devices such as dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”), flash memory, nonvolatile memory, static random access memory (“SRAM”), ferroelectric (“FE”) memory, logic gate arrays and so forth.
For example, DRAM typically comprises millions of identical circuit elements, known as memory cells. In its most general form, a memory cell typically consists of two electrical devices: a storage capacitor and an access field effect transistor. Each memory cell is an addressable location that can store one binary digit (“bit”) of data. A bit can be written to a cell through the transistor and read by sensing charge on the storage electrode from the reference electrode side. By decreasing the sizes of constituent electrical devices and the conducting lines that access them, the sizes of the memory devices incorporating these features can be decreased. Thus, storage capacities can be increased by fitting more memory cells into the memory devices.
As another example, flash memory (for example, electrically erasable programmable read only memory or “EEPROM”) is a type of memory that is typically erased and reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time. A typical flash memory comprises a memory array, which includes a large number of memory cells. The memory cells include a floating gate field effect transistor capable of holding a charge. The data in a cell is determined by the presence or absence of the charge in the floating gate. The cells are usually grouped into sections called “erase blocks.” The memory cells of a flash memory array are typically arranged into a “NOR” architecture (each cell directly coupled to a bit line) or a “NAND” architecture (cells coupled into “strings” of cells, such that each cell is coupled indirectly to a bit line and requires activating the other cells of the string for access). The cells within an erase block can be electrically programmed in a random basis by charging the floating gate. The charge can be removed from the floating gate by a block erase operation, wherein all floating gate memory cells in the erase block are erased in a single operation.
The pitch of a pattern is defined as the distance between an identical point in two neighboring pattern features. These features are typically defined by openings in, and spaced from each other by, a material, such as an insulator or conductor. Thus, pitch can be understood as the sum of the width of a feature and the width of the space separating that feature from a neighboring feature.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for defining patterns in an integrated circuit comprises defining a plurality of features in a first photoresist layer using photolithography over a first region of a substrate. Pitch multiplication is used to produce at least two features in a lower masking layer for each feature in the photoresist layer. The features in the lower masking layer include looped ends. A second photoresist layer covers a second region of the substrate including the looped ends in the lower masking layer. A pattern of trenches is etched in the substrate through the features in the lower masking layer without etching in the second region. The trenches have a trench width.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of making a plurality of conductive lines in an array comprises providing a film stack. The film stack includes a substrate in contact with a plurality of conductive plugs, an insulating film overlying the conductive plugs, a lower mask layer overlying the insulating film, and an array of spacers formed over the lower mask layer. A sacrificial film is deposited over the lower mask layer and the array of spacers. A secondary mask is formed over a portion of the sacrificial film. The secondary mask defines an opening in the array of spacers. The lower mask layer and the sacrificial film can be etched selectively with respect to the secondary mask. The sacrificial film is etched and a portion of the lower mask layer is exposed. The method further comprises etching the lower mask layer and exposing a portion of the insulating film. A plurality of trenches are etched in the insulating film, the lower mask layer, and the sacrificial film to expose at least a portion of the conductive plugs. A blanket metal deposition is performed. A planar surface is then formed, alternating between metal and insulating film in a damascene process.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of pitch multiplication for damascene features in an integrated circuit comprises providing a substrate. A first masking process is performed to define an array of spacer lines over the substrate. The spacer lines are separated by a plurality of gaps. A second masking process is performed to block a portion of the spacer lines and that defines a plurality of interconnects in a logic region of the integrated circuit. A plurality of trenches are etched in the gaps between the spacer lines. A metal layer is deposited to form a plurality of metal lines in the gaps between the spacer lines. The integrated circuit is provided with a substantially planar surface in a damascene process.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of forming integrated circuit components on a substrate comprises using a lithographic technique to pattern a first resist layer and define a plurality of lines. A pitch multiplication technique is used to form a pattern of spacers around a region defined by the plurality of lines. The spacers comprise elongate loops having loop ends. A second resist layer is deposited over the loop ends to define a blocked region of the substrate. The method further comprises selectively etching through the spacers to from a plurality of trenches in the substrate without etching in the blocked regions.
Exemplary embodiments of the integrated circuits and integrated circuit fabrication techniques are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which are for illustrative purposes only. The drawings comprise the following figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale. In the figures like numerals indicate like parts.
FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view of a substrate having a plurality of mask lines formed thereon.
FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view of the substrate of FIG. 1A after an anisotropic etch process transferring the mask pattern into a temporary layer.
FIG. 1C is a cross-sectional view of the substrate of FIG. 1B after removal of the mask lines and an isotropic “shrink” etch.
FIG. 1D is a cross-sectional view of the substrate of FIG. 1C after blanket deposition of a spacer material of mandrels left in the temporary layer.
FIG. 1E is a cross-sectional view of the substrate of FIG. 1D after a directional spacer etch process to leave pitch-multiplied features or spacers.
FIG. 1F is a cross-sectional view of the substrate of FIG. 1E after removal of the mandrels.
FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of an exemplary partially formed integrated circuit.
FIG. 3 is a schematic, cross-sectional side view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 2 after forming a plurality of pitch-multiplied features in and over the substrate.
FIG. 4 is a schematic, cross-sectional side view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 3 after forming an insulating film thereover.
FIG. 5 is a schematic, cross-sectional side view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 4 after forming a hard mask layer thereover.
FIG. 6A is a schematic, cross-sectional side view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 5 after forming a plurality of spacers thereover.
FIG. 6B is a schematic top view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 6A.
FIG. 7 is a schematic, cross-sectional side view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 6A after deposition of a bottom antireflective coating (“BARC”) thereover.
FIG. 8A is a schematic, cross-sectional side view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 7 after formation of a second photoresist pattern thereover.
FIG. 8B is a schematic top view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 8A.
FIG. 9 is a schematic, cross-sectional side view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 8A after etching the bottom antireflective coating.
FIG. 10A is a schematic, view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 9 after etching the hard mask layer through the spacers and the second photoresist pattern; the view is a cross-section taken along a line perpendicular to a spacer loop.
FIG. 10B is a schematic view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 9 after etching the hard mask layer through the spacers and the second photoresist pattern; the view is a cross-section taken along the length of a spacer loop.
FIG. 11 is a schematic, cross-sectional view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 10A after etching insulating film and removing the photoresist, the BARC and the spacers.
FIG. 12 is a schematic, cross-sectional view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 11 after deposition of a conductive material thereover.
FIG. 13 is a schematic, cross-sectional view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 12 after a chemical mechanical planarization process is performed.
FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for forming certain of the integrated circuit structures disclosed herein.
FIG. 15 is a schematic top view of a partially formed integrated circuit including spacer loops and a metal layer.
FIG. 16 is a schematic, cross-sectional view of the partially formed integrated circuit of FIG. 13, further including an overhead contact between the array region and the peripheral region.
FIG. 17A is a layout view of a first mask formed by a photolithographic process; the first mask defines a plurality of mandrels.
FIG. 17B is a layout view of a spacer pattern obtained by performing a pitch multiplication technique on the mandrels of FIG. 17A.
FIG. 17C is a layout view of a partially formed integrated circuit formed by application of a second metal mask to the spacer pattern of FIG. 17B.
The continual reduction in feature size places ever greater demands on techniques used to form the features. For example, photolithography is commonly used to pattern features, such as lines, on a substrate. The concept of pitch can be used to describe the size of these features. Due to optical factors such as light or radiation wavelength, however, photolithography techniques have a minimum pitch below which features cannot be formed reliably. Thus, the minimum pitch of a photolithographic technique can limit feature size reduction.
Pitch doubling is one method proposed for extending the capabilities of photolithographic techniques beyond their minimum pitch. Such a method is illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1F and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,810 (issued 12 Jul. 1994), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. With reference to FIG. 1A, photolithography is first used to form a pattern of lines 10 in a photoresist layer overlying a layer 20 of a temporary or expendable material and a substrate 30. Common wavelengths which are used in performing the photolithography include, but are not limited to, 157 nm, 193 nm, 248 nm or 365 nm. As shown in FIG. 1B, the pattern is then transferred by an etch step, such as an anisotropic etch step, to the temporary layer 20, thereby forming placeholders or mandrels 40. The photoresist lines 10 can be stripped and the mandrels 40 can be isotropically etched to increase the distance between neighboring mandrels 40, as shown in FIG. 1C. A layer 50 of spacer material is subsequently deposited over the mandrels 40, as shown in FIG. 1D. Spacers 60 are then formed on the sides of the mandrels 40 by preferentially etching the spacer material from the horizontal surfaces in a directional spacer etch, as shown in FIG. 1E. The remaining mandrels 40 are then removed, leaving behind only the spacers 60, which together act as a mask for patterning, as shown in FIG. 1F. Thus, where a given pattern area formerly defined one feature and one space (each having a width F, for a pitch of 2F), the same pattern area now includes two features and two spaces, as defined by spacers 60 (each having a width ½F, for a pitch of F). Consequently, the smallest feature size possible with a photolithographic technique is effectively decreased by using the pitch doubling technique.
While the pitch is actually halved in the example above, this reduction in pitch is conventionally referred to as pitch “doubling,” or, more generally, pitch “multiplication”. That is, conventionally “multiplication” of pitch by a certain factor actually involves reducing the pitch by that factor. The conventional terminology is retained herein. Note that by forming spacers upon spacers, the definable feature size can be further decreased. Thus, pitch multiplication refers to the process generally, regardless of the number of times the spacer formation process is employed.
Because the layer 50 of spacer material typically has a single thickness 90 (see FIGS. 1D and 1E), and because the sizes of the features formed by the spacers 60 usually corresponds to that thickness 90, the pitch doubling technique typically produces features of only one width. However, integrated circuits often include features of different sizes. For example, random access memory circuits typically contain arrays of memory cells and logic circuits in the so-called “periphery”. In the arrays, the memory cells are typically connected by conductive lines and, in the periphery, the conductive lines typically contact landing pads for connecting arrays to logic. Peripheral features such as landing pads, however, can be larger than the conductive lines. Additionally, peripheral electrical devices such as transistors are preferably larger than electrical devices in the array. Moreover, even if peripheral features can be formed with the same pitch as the array, the flexibility required to define circuits will typically not be possible using a single mask, particularly if the patterns are limited to those that can be formed along the sidewalls of resist patterns.
Some proposed methods for forming patterns at the periphery and at the array involve three separate masks. For example, in one method, a first mask and pitch doubling are used to form a spacer pattern, which typically comprises spacer loops in one region of a chip, such as the array region of a memory device. Then, a second mask is performed to form a second pattern in another region of the chip, such as the peripheral region of a memory device. This second peripheral pattern is formed in a layer overlying the spacer pattern. This covers the central portion of the spacer loops while the looped ends of the spacers are left exposed to an etching process. Then, a third mask is performed to form a third pattern that includes interconnects in and/or from the peripheral region. Both the “chopped” spacer pattern and the third pattern are then transferred to an underlying masking layer which can be etched relative to an underlying substrate. This allows features having different sizes—as compared to each other and as compared to the spacer loops—to be formed in the circuit peripheral region. Such features include, for example, interconnect patterns. These features can overlap with the spacer loops, can be consolidated with features in the circuit array region, and can be subsequently etched.
In accordance with the foregoing, improved techniques have been developed for forming features of different sizes, especially pitch-multiplied features having overlapping patterns.
In certain embodiments, part of the feature pattern to be transferred to a substrate has a pitch below the minimum pitch of the photolithographic technique used for processing the substrate. Additionally, certain embodiments can be used to form devices having arrays of electrical devices, including logic or gate arrays and volatile and non-volatile memory devices such as DRAM, read only memory (“ROM”), flash memory and gate arrays. In such devices, pitch multiplication is usable to form, for example, transistor gate electrodes and conductive lines in the array region of the chips, while conventional photolithography is usable to form larger features, such as contacts, at the peripheries of the chips. Exemplary masking steps in the course of fabricating a memory device are illustrated in the figures and are described herein.
FIG. 2 shows a top view of an exemplary partially fabricated integrated circuit 100, such as a memory chip. A central array region 102 is surrounded by a peripheral region 104. It will be appreciated that, after the integrated circuit 100 is fabricated, the array 102 will typically by densely populated with conducting lines and electrical devices such as transistors and capacitors. Pitch multiplication can be used to form features in the array region 102, as discussed herein. On the other hand, the peripheral region 104 optionally includes features larger than those in the array region 102. Conventional photolithography, rather than pitch multiplication, is typically used to pattern these larger features, examples of which include various types of logic circuitry. The geometric complexity of the logic circuits located in the peripheral region 104 makes using pitch multiplication difficult. In contrast, the regular grid typical of array patterns is conducive to pitch multiplication. Additionally, some devices in the peripheral region 104 may require larger geometries due to electrical constraints, thereby making pitch multiplication less advantageous than conventional photolithography for such devices. In addition to possible differences in relative scale, the relative positions, and the number of peripheral regions 104 and array regions 102 in the integrated circuit 100 can vary in other embodiments.
FIG. 3 shows a partial cross-sectional view of the partially fabricated integrated circuit of FIG. 2, including portions of the array region 102 and the peripheral region 104. Using a photolithography technique, a plurality of trenches are etched into a substrate 108, and these trenches are filled with an insulator 105, such as an oxide. The insulator 105 is a field isolation layer, and in an exemplary embodiment is a shallow trench isolation (“STI”) layer deposited in a high density plasma (“HDP”), spin-on dielectric (“SOD”), flow-fill or TEOS process. In an exemplary embodiment, the SOD is deposited and densified.
An upper interlevel dielectric (“ILD”) insulator 106 is formed over the substrate, and contact is made through the ILD 106 by etching contact holes and filling with conductive plugs 110. In one embodiment, the conductive plugs 110 comprise polycrystalline silicon, although other electrically conductive materials can be used in other embodiments. Portions of an etch stop layer 112, such as a nitride layer, are disposed over the insulator 106; the etch stop layer 112 is used in the formation of the conductive plugs 110. In certain embodiments, the insulator 105 is aligned with the substrate/plug interface. However, in other embodiments the insulator 105 extends slightly above the substrate/plug interface, as illustrated in FIG. 3.
In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the feature size in the array region 102 is smaller than the feature size in the peripheral region 104. In one embodiment, the conductive plugs 110 have a feature size of approximately 50 nm. In a preferred embodiment, the conductive plugs 110 have a feature size between approximately 30 nm and approximately 100 nm. More preferably, the conductive plugs have a feature size between approximately 32.5 nm and approximately 65 nm. Other feature sizes for the conductive plugs 110 can be used in other embodiments. Additional details regarding the techniques used to form the conductive plugs are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______(filed concurrently herewith; Attorney Docket MICRON.313A; Micron Docket 2004-1065.00/US).
As illustrated in FIG. 4, an insulator film 114 in which damascene trenches are to be formed is deposited over the film stack illustrated in FIG. 3. In one embodiment, the insulator film comprises an un-doped oxide film, such as an oxide film deposited from tetra ethyl ortho-silicate (“TEOS”), while in other embodiments the insulator film comprises a doped oxide film, such as BPSG or PSG. Other non-oxide insulators can be used in still other embodiments. In an exemplary embodiment, the insulator film 114 is deposited to a thickness corresponding to the conductor height to be formed in the integrated circuit.
As illustrated in FIG. 5, a hard mask layer 116 is deposited over the insulator film 114. In one embodiment, the hard mask layer 116 comprises amorphous silicon, although other materials can be used in other embodiments.
As illustrated in FIG. 6A, a plurality of spacers 118 are formed over the hard mask layer 116. In an exemplary embodiment, the spacers are formed using a pitch doubling technique such as that illustrated in FIGS. 1A through 1F, using the disclosed photoresist mask, transfer to a temporary layer, isotropic etch and spacer process. In an exemplary embodiment, the spacers comprise a low temperature oxide material that can be etched selectively with respect to the underlying hard mask layer 116. For example, in one embodiment the spacers are deposited at a temperature less than about 400° C. In another embodiment, the spacers are deposited using an atomic layer deposition process. Exemplary materials for the spacers include silicon oxide, silicon nitride, polycrystalline silicon and carbon.
Between the spacers 118 are gaps 120 that correspond to regions of the integrated circuit where conductive material is to be deposited. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6A, the gaps 120 are vertically aligned with the conductive plugs 110.
In an exemplary embodiment, the spacing between the spacers 118 and the gaps 120 varies between the array region 102 and the peripheral region 104 of the integrated circuit 100. This is further illustrated in FIG. 6B, which schematically shows a top view of the spacers 118 and the intervening gaps 120. FIG. 6B also illustrates that the spacers 118 generally follow the outline of the lines formed in the photo definable layer, thereby forming a plurality of looped ends 124.
As illustrated in FIG. 7, a BARC 122 is applied over the spacers 118. The BARC 122 is optionally applied in a spin-on process, thereby providing a substantially planar surface. After the BARC 122 is applied over the spacers 118, a second mask is applied. The second mask results in a pattern of photoresist 126 being deposited over the integrated circuit. The photoresist pattern defines a blocked region that blocks the looped ends 124 of the spacers 118 and defines one or more openings 128 in the peripheral region 104. This is illustrated in FIGS. 8A (side view) and 8B (top view). As illustrated in FIG. 8B, in an exemplary embodiment the second mask is spaced apart from the spacers 118 by a gap 120 a, and is spaced apart from the spacer looped ends 124 by a gap 120 b. The gaps 120 a, 120 b accommodate misalignment of the second mask with respect to the spacer pattern.
In an exemplary embodiment, the minimum width of the openings 128 depends on the native resolution of the photolithographic process, which in one embodiment is as low as 100 nm, which in another embodiment is as low as 65 nm, and which in another embodiment is as low as 45 nm. Other dimensions can be used in other embodiments. In an exemplary embodiment, the spacers 118 in the circuit array region 104 are sufficiently spaced apart to allow contacts 132 to be “landed” to provide interconnections to other levels of the integrated circuit.
In an exemplary embodiment, after the second mask is performed, the BARC 122 is etched, as illustrated in FIG. 9. In a modified embodiment, the pattern defined by the second mask, including the blocked region, is transferred to an intermediate layer before etching the BARC. In such embodiments intermediate layer or the BARC alone is used to block the looped ends 124 of the spacers 118.
The BARC etch is followed by an etch of the hard mask layer 116, which can be selectively etched with respect to the spacers 118. The resulting structure is illustrated in FIG. 10A (which is a cross-sectional view taken along a line perpendicular to a spacer loop) and in FIG. 10B (which is a cross-sectional view taken along the length of a spacer loop). In one embodiment, the hard mask etch is a dry etch process. This is followed by successive removal of the photoresist 126 and BARC 122, followed by an oxide etch. In such embodiments, the oxide etch will remove both the spacers 118 and exposed portions of the insulator film 114. The conductive plugs 110 provide an etch stop. The resulting structure, which is illustrated in FIG. 11, includes a pattern of trenches exposing the conductive plugs 110 in the array region 102, and a pattern of other openings 128 in the hard mask layer 116 in the peripheral region 104. This sequence advantageously lowers the effective aspect ratio for the trenches. In a modified embodiment, the insulator film 114 illustrated in FIGS. 10A and 10B is etched without prior removal of the spacers 118. The BARC 122 is optionally omitted in embodiments wherein the substrate material is not reflective.
Regardless of how the trenches are formed, the etch processes illustrated in FIGS. 10A, 10B and 11 advantageously consolidate two mask patterns: the pattern formed by the spacers 118 in the array region 102, and the pattern formed by the photoresist 126 in the peripheral region. This effectively forms a superposition of two distinct patterns, which allows etching through the gaps 120 between the spacers 118 in regions of the integrated circuit 100 not covered by the second photoresist layer 126.
As illustrated in FIG. 12, in an exemplary embodiment conductive material 130 is then deposited over the partially formed integrated circuit. Optionally, the hard mask layer 116 is removed before deposition of the conductive material 130. Suitable conductive materials include, but are not limited to, titanium, titanium nitride, tungsten, tantalum nitride and copper. In an exemplary embodiment, the conductive material 130 is deposited to a thickness sufficient such that the widest trench width in the periphery is filled. After deposition of the conductive material, a chemical mechanical planarization (“CMP”) process is used to separate the conductors in the trenches and provide the integrated circuit with a planar surface. The resulting structure is illustrated in FIG. 13.
A flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for forming certain of the integrated circuit structures disclosed herein is provided in FIG. 14. As illustrated, a plurality of features are defined in a first resist layer in an array region of the memory device in an operational block 150. Examples of resist layers that can be used to define the features are photoresist layers and imprinted resist layers. Based on these features, pitch multiplication is used to define a plurality of spacer loops in a lower masking layer in an operational block 152. In a modified embodiment, the spacer loops are formed over the patterned resist features, although this is less preferred because resist is generally unable to withstand spacer deposition and etch processes. The ends of the spacer loops are blocked with a second resist layer that also defines features in a periphery region of the integrated circuit in an operational block 156. After the second resist layer is applied, an insulating layer in the gaps between the spacers is etched, the etching being performed in a pattern defined by the second resist layer in an operational block 158. A metal fill and subsequent CMP process can then be performed over the partially-formed integrated circuit in an operational block 160, thereby allowing metal lines to be formed in the integrated circuit array region (operational block 162) and electrical interconnects to be formed in the integrated circuit peripheral region (operational block 164). The interconnects are optionally used to connect integrated circuit components, such as logic components, within the periphery. Alternatively, the second mask can define other patterns, such as capacitors, contacts, resistors, simultaneously with blocking the spacer loops.
In certain embodiments, the peripheral interconnects are also optionally used to form electrical connections between the array region 102 and the peripheral region 104. This is illustrated in operational block 166 of FIG. 14. For example, such contacts can be formed in a plane above the damascene structure illustrated in FIG. 13. An example of such an “overhead” contact is provided in FIG. 16. As illustrated, the overhead contact includes a plurality of contacts 146 connected by an interconnect line 148.
FIG. 17A through 17C provide a top-down view of an exemplary embodiment of the methods illustrated in FIG. 14. In particular, FIG. 17A illustrates a first mask 134 defined by a photolithographic process. In one embodiment, the first mask 134 is defined in a layer of photoresist material, although in other embodiments the first mask 134 is transferred to another layer, such as an amorphous carbon layer. FIG. 17B illustrates a spacer pattern 136 created by first shrinking the first mask 134 using an isotropic etch process, and then performing a pitch doubling technique on the shrunken first mask. Application of a second metal mask 138 yields the exemplary structure illustrated in FIG. 17C. This structure includes widened portions in the spacer pattern configured to receive contacts 139 from other layers of the integrated circuit.
Certain of the integrated circuit fabrication techniques disclosed herein offer significant advantages over conventional techniques. For example, conventional methodology requires three separate masks to define the array region, to define the peripheral region, and to remove the looped ends of circuit features. In contrast, certain of the techniques disclosed herein allow pitch reduced features to be formed in a damascene process that uses only two masks. As described herein, in exemplary embodiments the looped ends of array features can be blocked with the same mask that is used to define periphery features.
In another aspect of certain embodiments, rules are provided to facilitate circuit designers to implement the integrated circuit fabrication methods disclosed herein. The configuration of the masks indirectly corresponds to the integrated circuit patterns that are formed, particularly when the gaps between the spacer loops, some of which are enclosed and some of which are not, define the circuit features of interest. Such features can be formed as disclosed herein using pitch multiplication and damascene techniques. The rules discussed below provide a circuit designer with guidelines for building a circuit that is formable using the techniques disclosed herein. As described herein, building a circuit is compliance with these rules allows mixed use of interconnects with varying pitch size while using only two masks. Specifically, a spacer layer mask, or “spacer”, is used to define pitch-reduced spacers between dense interconnect lines in the circuit array region, and a metal layer mask, or “metal”, is used to define the interconnect pattern in the circuit periphery region.
In an exemplary embodiment, the design rules for defining the spacer and metal are based on two scaling factors. For a given lithography, F is the minimum feature size that can be resolved, and D is the maximum misalignment allowed between the two masks. The variable x is a pitch multiplication scaling constant corresponding to a feature size of the spacer loops used to define the metal lines (0<x<1). Because a single pitch-multiplication technique is used, the actual interconnect pitch achievable using the techniques disclosed herein is F.
In one embodiment, the spacer loops are drawn in a plurality of distinct closed loops that to not overlap or cross. Two exemplary spacer loops 140 are illustrated in FIG. 15, which is a top view of an exemplary in-process integrated circuit simplified for illustration. As illustrated, the spacer loops have a minimum width of xF, and have a minimum space of (1−x)F.
In such embodiments, a plurality of metal features 144 are defined by a plurality of spacer loops 140. Because a damascene process is used in the preferred embodiments, the gaps between the spacer loops, some of which are enclosed and some of which are not, define the metal features 144 that will subsequently be deposited (for example, by physical vapor deposition or chemical vapor deposition) or electroplated with conductive material. In addition, metal features 142 are defined only one side by the spacer loops 140. The metal features 144 that are defined on both sides by the spacer loops 140 have a minimum width of (1−x)F. The metal features 142 that are defined on only one side by a spacer loop 140 have a minimum width of ((1−x)F+D). Metal features can also be formed without restriction by a spacer loop 140 with a minimum width corresponding to the minimum resolution of the lithography technique F. As illustrated in FIG. 15, the metal features 144 have a minimum spacing of xF if separated by a spacer loop 140, and the metal features 142 have a minimum spacing of F if separated by empty space or by a spacer loop 140 on only one side. If a metal feature 142 or 144 is present on both sides of a spacer loop 140, then the metal is drawn in contact with (that is, the metal occupies directly adjacent real estate with) the spacer loop 140. If the metal feature 142 is present on only one side of the spacer loop 140, then a minimum space of min(D−xF, 0) separates the metal feature 144 from the spacer loop 140.
The circuit design rules expounded herein are based on the integrated circuit fabrication techniques disclosed herein. In particular, using an oversized spacer mask to define subsequently pitch-reduced features limits the spacing of metal lines that are defined by the pitch-reduced features.
Separately defining the metal and spacer layers according to the rules provided by the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein allows circuit designers to build an integrated circuit based on the actual circuit features that will appear on the wafer. These rules advantageously account for the inherent limitations that arise when pitch multiplication techniques are used to form circuit features. The use of the scaling parameter x allows these design rules to work with future pitch multiplication technologies capable of producing smaller feature sizes.
Certain embodiments disclosed herein are usable to form a wide variety of integrated circuits. Examples of such integrated circuits include, but are not limited to, circuits having arrays of electrical devices, such as memory cell arrays for volatile and non-volatile memory devices such as DRAM, ROM or flash memory, NAND flash memory, and integrated circuits having logic or gate arrays. For example, the logic array can be a field programmable gate array (“FPGA”) having a core array similar to a memory array and a periphery with supporting logic circuitry. Therefore, the integrated circuit formed using the techniques disclosed herein can be, for example, a memory chip or a processor, which can include both a logic array and embedded memory, or other integrated circuits having a logic or gate array.
While the foregoing detailed description discloses several embodiments of the present invention, it should be understood that this disclosure is illustrative only and is not limiting of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the specific configurations and operations disclosed can differ from those described above, and that the methods described herein can be used in contexts other than integrated circuit fabrication.
etching a pattern of trenches in the substrate through the features in the lower masking layer without etching in the second region, the trenches having a trench width.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the features in the lower masking layer have a feature size between approximately 30 nm and approximately 100 nm.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the features in the lower masking layer have a feature size between approximately 32.5 nm and approximately 65 nm.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate includes a component array including a plurality of electrical components, each having a feature size substantially equal to the trench width.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the integrated circuit is a flash memory device.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the features in the first photoresist layer comprises performing photolithography with light having a wavelength chosen from the group consisting of 157 nm, 193 nm, 248 nm or 365 nm.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second photoresist layer comprise the same photoresist material.
isotropically etching the spacer material.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate is an insulator.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein etching is conducted while the second photoresist layer covers the second region.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising patterning the second photoresist layer in a third region of the substrate.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first region includes an array region of a memory device, and the third region includes a periphery region of the memory device.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the third region includes an interconnect area in the second photoresist layer adjacent the features in the lower masking layer, wherein a metal is subsequently deposited in the interconnect area to provide an electrical connection from the periphery region of the memory device.
forming a planar surface on the metal layer down to the insulating layer in a damascene process.
forming a planar surface alternating between the metal and the insulating film in a damascene process.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the trenches form an array of overhead bit lines.
17. The method of claim 15, further comprising removing the spacer array before etching the plurality of trenches.
18. The method of claim 15, further comprising removing the spacer array, the resist mask and the sacrificial film before etching the plurality of trenches.
19. The method of claim 15, wherein the array of spacers has a plurality of looped ends, and wherein the resist mask covers the looped ends of the spacer array.
20. The method of claim 15, wherein the array is a memory array.
21. The method of claim 15, wherein the array is a logic array.
22. The method of claim 15, wherein the sacrificial film is an insulating film.
23. The method of claim 15, wherein the sacrificial film is a bottom antireflective coating.
24. The method of claim 15, wherein the spacers are selected from the group consisting of silicon oxide, silicon nitride, polycrystalline silicon, and carbon.
25. The method of claim 15, wherein the spacers are deposited using an atomic layer deposition process.
26. The method of claim 15, wherein the spacers are deposited at a temperature that is less than approximately 400° C.
27. The method of claim 15, wherein the spacers have a feature size between approximately 30 nm and approximately 100 nm.
28. The method of claim 15, wherein the spacers have a feature size between approximately 32.5 nm and approximately 65 nm.
29. The method of claim 15, wherein the spacers have a feature size substantially equal to a feature size of the conductive plugs.
30. The method of claim 15, wherein the sacrificial film forms a substantially planar surface over the array of spacers.
providing a planar surface on the metal layer to isolate the metal lines in the trenches.
32. The method of claim 31, wherein the spacer lines have a plurality of looped ends, and wherein the looped ends of the spacer lines are blocked.
33. The method of claim 31, wherein the integrated circuit is a flash memory device.
34. The method of claim 31, further comprising connecting the interconnects with a periphery region of the integrated circuit.
35. The method of claim 31, wherein the spacer lines and the gaps have substantially the same width.
36. The method of claim 31, wherein the spacer lines comprise an oxide material.
selectively etching through the spacers to from a plurality of trenches in the substrate without etching in the blocked regions.
removing the second resist layer before etching the trenches.
39. The method of claim 37, wherein the second resist layer comprises amorphous carbon.
40. The method of claim 37, wherein the substrate includes an upper insulator.
41. The method of claim 37, wherein the first and second resist layers comprise the same resist material.
42. The method of claim 37, wherein the spacers have a feature size between approximately 22 nm and approximately 45 nm.
43. The method of claim 37, wherein the spacers have a feature size between approximately 30 nm and approximately 100 nm.
44. The method of claim 43, wherein the spacers have a feature size between approximately 32.5 nm and approximately 65 nm.
45. The method of claim 37, wherein the spacers have a feature size substantially equal to a feature size of the trenches.
planarizing on the metal layer to form a planar surface that alternates between the metal and an insulator.
47. The method of claim 46, wherein the metal layer is deposited in an electroplating process.
48. The method of claim 46, wherein the metal layer comprises a conductor selected from the group consisting of copper and nickel.
49. The method of claim 37, further comprising patterning the second resist layer in a peripheral region of the substrate adjacent to an array region, wherein the spacers are formed in the array region of a memory device.
50. The method of claim 37, wherein the integrated circuit components form a flash memory device.
forming a plurality of contacts over the conductive material, wherein at least one of the plurality of contacts is positioned within the patterned mask loops, and wherein at least one of the plurality of contacts is positioned in the gap region separating the patterned mask loops.
69. The method of claim 68, wherein the lithographic mask intersects the plurality of patterned mask loops at a right angle.
70. The method of claim 68, wherein a portion of the plurality of patterned mask loops has a first loop width in a first region, and has a second loop width in a second region, wherein the second loop width is greater than the first loop width.
71. The method of claim 70, wherein a contact is positioned in the second region.
72. The method of claim 68, wherein the plurality of patterned mask loops comprise silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
73. The method of claim 68, further comprising connecting at least a portion of the plurality of contacts to an array of conductive lines. | 2019-04-23T00:36:53Z | https://patents.google.com/patent/US20060216923A1/en |
Master of the complex sale, Rick Page is the author of the bestselling book, Hope Is Not a Strategy, and one of the most sought-after sales consultants and trainers in the world.
He has taught his breakthrough selling strategies to thousands of people in 150 companies across 50 countriesan amazing platform that has helped his message spread like wildfire. This paperback edition of Page's runaway sales bestseller schools readers in Page's simple, six-step process for making the saleno matter how complex the deal or how many people are involved in the buying decision.
Identify and sell to a prospect's business "pain"
Rick Page founded The Complex Sale, an Atlanta-based company that provides sales consulting and training worldwide.
Things were going fine in this sale at the beginning but now you feel something's not right. The prospect didn't call back for three days and then suddenly came up with a new requirement—one you can't meet. There's a new person on the evaluation committee you don't know. And you've just discovered that of the two people on the committee who seemed to like you, one is helping the competition and the other is not respected within the company.
The capabilities presentation was uncoordinated and unfocused, and you spent too much time on the wrong topics. Countless hours have been spent coming up with a proposal and the executives are still not accessible. Nothing seems to be driving the prospect to a final decision, but the client is asking for a discount. This deal is out of control.
Many more prospects like this in the forecast and you'll have to tell the CEO a bad quarter is on the horizon. Or that you'll have consultants on the bench with nothing to do. And to make matters worse, your account manager has forecast this business for the current quarter.
Once again, overoptimism has overcome critical thinking.
A meteor shower of change is hitting the world of selling, and many salespeople find themselves and their deals spinning out of control.
In the last ten years, the art and science of selling have evolved through several generations, from moving commodities to selling strategic solutions to business partnerships. Unfortunately, some salespeople and managers don't change. They are sales dinosaurs—an endangered species.
1. Product commodification. The shrinking half-life of technology means that the window of competitive advantage for products is getting narrower. This means that differentiation often lies in the extended solution, including services, integration, partnerships, supply chain, financing—or trust.
2. Disintermediation. The disappearance of the traditional middleman is a result of commodity buyers focusing on driving costs out of the entire supply chain. But some types of buyers still recognize and pay for value. Which strategy do we employ? The answer lies in a sales model for selling the way each customer buys.
3. e-Commerce. The Internet will eliminate some salespeople and change others. For repeat orders and products where clients can understand the benefits of the product and configure the order themselves, the Internet will replace the salesperson. Whether they then move to more productive tasks of winning competitive business or helping the clients manage more complex solutions depends on how well the salesperson can learn to add new kinds of value. It's grow or go.
4. Customer relationship management. A system is not a strategy either. Although effective in the customer service area, there is a high failure rate of sales force automation systems among field sales forces. The missing link between a repository of customer information and competitive advantage is a sales process that prompts the salesperson for the political, competitive, and consultative information early enough to drive an account strategy that leads to trust in our company, our products or services, and our people.
5. Business partnering. There are two types of business partnering. One is teaming with other firms to provide an integrated solution. The other is teaming with clients to solve problems for their customers or constituents. Both mean new sales models for new ways of doing business where the common foundations are shared rewards and trust.
The evolutionary changes facing today's salespeople mean reengineering personal careers so they can bring greater value to their clients. For individuals, this means personal growth and development from often coercive relationships with customers, to collaborative problem solving, to helping clients co-manage their business. For sales managers, it means restructuring sales teams and account strategies. For CEOs, it means changing sales models and messages to new industry markets, competitors, and technology. For consulting partners, it means more proactive ethical competition for fewer high-value accounts. What is actually happening now is computerized relationship management.
You need to move your strategies to the next level, your client relationship to the next level, and yourself to the next level of sales competency.
The salesperson today who thinks he or she is through learning, is through. Look for their footprints in the shale.
Today's complex sale encompasses more than just multiple buyers. In the last ten years, the traditional definition of the complex sale has exploded to include new challenges that are overwhelming those salespeople and managers—unless they have a plan to simplify the process.
Buyer preferences for integrated solutions, rather than products, require teams of multiple sellers both inside and outside the vendor organization to help clients discern benefits and differences in complex products or services. Multidepartmental buying committees create shifting requirements and politics in ever-changing competitive evaluations, the primary focus of this book.
Not returning phone calls. They used to call you back in two hours. Now it's two days. And when they do call you back, their voice is now chilled and formal. Of course, the worst is pure silence: Someone who was planning to buy from you would be asking more questions.
No access to power. You suggest, "My boss will be in town next week to meet your boss. Can we arrange that meeting?" "No, I don't think that will be necessary," is your contact's response. Clients who are thinking about buying from you would probably jump at the chance for managers to meet. Bottom-up selling is the hard road.
New requirement late in the buying process. Suddenly, a new issue appears in the evaluation process. A requirement you can't meet. Where do you think it came from? It came from the competition. You are now on their agenda. Do you think the client is asking you for this response to help you get the business? The veteran salesperson knows better. All the client is doing at this point is putting the logical justification on the emotional decision not to buy from you.
Of course, the rookie salesperson, wanting to be responsive to the client, dashes back to the office and cranks out a twenty-page response to the client's request, not realizing that is simply giving the client the bullets with which to shoot you.
Analysis paralysis. The client evaluates and evaluates but doesn't move forward to a decision. And you are running out of things to do. You've sent them the literature and done a presentation, a technical review, and an executive-level overview. You've also had a visit to the client site and corporate headquarters, and yet they appear no closer to purchasing than when you started.
This baffles many salespeople and especially sales managers, but the answer is actually quite clear. There is nobody powerful enough pushing the evaluation to a conclusion, or no business problem painful and urgent enough to cause it to happen. If business pain or political power for sponsorship is missing from the evaluation, it will sit on your forecast forever. Unfortunately, the sales manager will probably go away before the deal does.
Rosy forecasts. Some salespeople don't want to ask the tough qualifying questions because it will spoil a perfectly good forecast. The account sits on the forecast and it looks good... until disaster strikes.
Blind spots. Missing information or assumptions about issues, competition, or politics usually end up on a lost sales report. The best salespeople are often the best detectives. They ask the right questions earlier than their competition.
Selling to unqualified prospects. Picking the right battles is the key to resource allocation. Most salespeople in the complex sale work, at most, ten to twenty opportunities in a year, sometimes as few as one. Picking an unqualified prospect can be a tremendous drain of resources.
"Quote and hope" proposals. The client issues a request for proposal (RFP) and a new salesperson thinks, "Great, somebody's going to buy something," so he dashes back to the office and cranks out a huge response.
The salesperson jumps on a white horse and gallops out to the client. But the drawbridge to the castle is up, so he circles around the walls trying to get access. No way. In frustration, he heaves the proposal over the wall hoping it hits someone important. There it lands, plop, in the middle of the courtyard. He hopes somebody picks it up and becomes so excited a contract is heaved back over as he waits on the other side.
This is not control selling. These are sales SCUDs—unguided sales missiles. What you need is a laser-guided missile to focus the right issues on the right people rather than lobbing expensive proposals over the wall. Proposals don't sell, people do. The win rate of responses to unsolicited proposals is very low. The veteran knows that if you didn't help define the requirements, someone else probably did.
Ineffective team selling. In many cases technical product or service teammates are involved on a sales team. Their number one complaint is that the sales reps keep the strategy to themselves. The rest of the sales team doesn't know the plan, the strategy, or what issues to emphasize to which key buyers in time to prepare. The result is often a misguided or canned presentation that misses the mark.
Dashing to the demo. The key to consultative selling is to determine clients' needs first. It's even better if you help them determine what their needs are. If you first learn of an opportunity when the requirements definition lands on your desk, you have already missed the first step in the sales cycle. You are, to some degree, already out of control, especially if somebody else wrote the requirements.
In order to link your solutions into the client's business problem you must have an understanding of the industry, culture, competitors, clients, and politics. In product-oriented companies, especially those with product superiority, the product sometimes serves as a crutch, and salespeople get the feeling that, "If we can just show this to them, they'll be overwhelmed."
This approach may work for a while if you have clear product superiority. But in today's high-tech world, product superiority may last only a matter of months, and competitors quickly reach "demo parity." In this approach, all the linking of capabilities to benefits is left up to clients or their consultant. It's almost impossible to give a tailored, focused presentation when you haven't spent time face-to-face with the client before the presentation.
Moreover, a needs analysis can be much more than just a discovery process. The competitive battle is often won in the face-to-face meeting before the presentation. The outcome of the majority of sales are pretty well determined before the capabilities demo.
Little white lies. Joe Isuzu was a character in an automobile commercial in the United States several years ago who told outrageous, giant lies that couldn't possibly be true. It produced quite a funny commercial. In reality, the person who gets lied to the most, is often the salesperson. Or sometimes the information they get ends up not being the truth, which is different, but just as disastrous.
While I was on a sales call to a distillery in Kentucky, the chief financial officer and the chief information officer both made the statement in polite conversation: "I'm not sure where the project stands right now." After leaving the prospect, I said to the salesperson, "This is my first call on this account, but it doesn't smell right. If the top two officers of this company don't know where a project of this magnitude stands, there is no project. Or they may be dodging the question."
We created an opportunity to stop back by that afternoon to drop off some additional information for a project team member, and guess what we found? Those two officers were in a meeting with our competitor negotiating a contract! We were the safety net in case they couldn't come to terms with the competition.
Why is it so difficult for salespeople to get an accurate understanding of where they are in the complex sale? The reason is that it's to the customer's advantage to keep you in the dark. As long as they can do that, they have control. And if you knew where you really stood in these sales, you might go away, and they don't want that to happen—yet.
Rarely does a client say to a vendor, "You really don't have a chance of winning this business. You need to try somewhere else." It's to their advantage to keep at least three vendors in the hunt. Why?
1. Due diligence. They need to show they studied the leading vendors in the marketplace. In case this project fails, they don't want to be accused of not having made a studied decision.
2. Price leverage. After the vendor is selected, the acquisition phase starts, and they will need multiple vendors at that point to drive the price down. This is called "commodification."
3. Safety net. If they can't come to legal terms and conditions with their first choice, they will need a backup alternative.
4. Lack of knowledge. It's not always an intentional lie. Perhaps they tell you what they think is true, and they get fooled. Many of these clients have never been in evaluations where political activity has erupted.
5. Lack of courage to tell you you're losing. Maybe they like you personally, but your company or your solution is not winning, and they just can't bear to give you the bad news.
The average competitive salesperson gets a great deal of misinformation or, in some cases, no information. Information is the radar of strategy. Without it, many salespeople are flying blind through a cloud bank.
Because misinformation is such a critical part of the complex sale, anyone who takes one person's opinion on anything will be a perpetual victim. Information must be constantly cross-checked and triangulated by multiple sources to get to the real truth and to find out who consistently has it and who doesn't.
Who do we go see when we discover our deal is out of control? The sales manager, of course.
You say, "Boss, we've got to talk. I've been meaning to travel with you more, and I've got a good place we can start. Oh, by the way, put on your asbestos gloves, because this account's on fire."
Salespeople used to come into my office and say, "You've got to call this CEO and tell him his people don't understand their own requirements. They're believing all the lies of the competitors. They're using the wrong process, and they're going to make the wrong decision."
"Let's see. I'm supposed to call their CEO, whom I've never met, and basically say, 'Your people are stupid. And since they work for you, you must be stupid, too. So could we have lunch and do business?'" Obviously, this strategy has little chance of success and may scorch the earth in this account forever.
Instead, I'd sit them down and ask a few questions.
"Did we help generate the requirements?" "No."
"Was our point of entry high or low?" "Purchasing agent."
"Did we remember to trap this competitor's weakness with our friends? You know if they present first, they're hard to beat. But a few well-placed questions causes their presentation to come apart." "No, we didn't do that."
"Did we have a team strategy session before the presentation?" "There wasn't time."
They haven't delivered what they've sold. "Did we remember to raise the reference issue?" "No."
At this point, I advise salespeople all they can do is what General Custer did when he was completely surrounded, and his chief scout asked, "General Custer, what's our strategy?"
He replied, "First thing we need to do is make a note to ourselves—never get in this situation again."
I would tell salespeople, "You took a bullet a while ago, you just didn't know when to die and fall down."
It is possible, but not probable, to turn this deal around at the last minute. Multimillion-dollar deals have been turned around in the last hour. But the key is not to get into this position in the first place. Early prevention beats error correction. There are many things that can be done to gain better control of the complex sale from the very beginning—if we have a process.
We can never really gain "control" of the client's evaluation; there are too many variables, and we have no authority. But better control at each point means we can allocate our resources and time where we have a reasonable chance of winning. "Control" doesn't mean manipulation. It means understanding the client's problem better, linking our solution to those problems in a professional manner, and earning trust by outperforming the competition.
Excerpted from Hope Is Not A Strategy by Rick Page Copyright © 2002 by Rick Page. Excerpted by permission of McGraw-Hill, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Hope Is Not a Strategy: The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale 4.7 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 6 reviews.
Hope is Not a Strategy provides your team with B2B sales strategies and techniques that will make them more consultative sales professionals. It is a book for the strategic thinker and will enable you to build a world class sales organization.
Exceptional job in exploring theory and laying out a foundation for basic selliing teqniques. Principles are easy to apply to many retail sales oriented businesses. I'd encourage anyone in sales to read this book, twice.
This is an excellent handbook for salespeople in search of a simple summary of the principles of selling complex and costly products and services in a difficult environment. Author Rick Page offers nothing startlingly new, but he does a good job of collecting and presenting the most noteworthy points from collective conventional wisdom about selling. He illustrates these points with amusing, memorable anecdotes. His book is well written, well organized and quite readable. He probably has a point or two to offer even the most experienced and successful salesperson. Noting that chapter six summarizes the meat of the book in just three pages, so ¿ until you have time to read the book ¿ time-pressed salespeople could start by glancing at this section to begin to learn what really matters most in a complicated sales effort.
Each Detail Completes Our Winning Sales Arsenal Required for simplifying the Complex Sale! Do you have multiple people involved in the buying decision creating layers of decision making? Then read this with a highlighter, since Rick Page lines out the strategy keys for you therein. Page gives examples, and punches the point home w/ poignant humor, so my memory hangs on to the lesson. This is complimentary to tactical sales skills courses and books from the likes of Dale Carnegie, Solution Selling, Xerox's SPIN, etc. The CEO of The Complex Sale has penned a sales classic, a reference book on my shelf.
This book put a framework and structure around the selling process in an organized and straightforward fashion. The examples are familiar but relevant and structured to make the author's point. From a reference stand point I have several bookmarks and notes already made from this book to help refocus my selling efforts when necessary. This book is a 'strategy' book, and as such, there is limited tactical advice. | 2019-04-24T04:56:17Z | https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hope-is-not-a-strategy-rick-page/1101367523?ean=9780071418713 |
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Known as "The Little Arab"
St. Mary of Jesus Crucified, OCD, born Mariam Baouardy (alt. sp. Bowardy), was a Discalced Carmelite nun of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. She was canonized in Rome on May 17, 2015, along with St. Maria Alphonsina Ghattas—both of whom had mystical experiences and lived and died in the Holy Land during the second half of the 19th Century. (Her feast day was set for August 26th). Born to Greek Catholic parents from Syria and Lebanon, Sr. Mariam, also known as “the Little Arab,” was a mystic who experienced the stigmata and was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church. She was born on January 5, 1846 (the eve of Epiphany), in the village of I'billin, the region of Southern Syria in the Ottoman Empire, now in Israel, to Giries (George) Baouardy and his wife, Mariam Chahine, both of Damascene ancestry. Mariam was their thirteenth child and first daughter (none of her preceding brothers had survived infancy). Their grief was immense at the loss of all twelve of their children. Broken-hearted, but full of hope, the mother had an inspiration that she confided to her husband: "Let us go to Bethlehem on foot, and ask the Blessed Virgin for a daughter. Let us promise her that if our prayers are answered, we will name her Mariam…” They traveled the 70 miles to Bethlehem and were later blessed with the birth of Mariam. She was joined by a new brother, Boulos, two years later.
However, when Mariam was only two years old and her brother an infant, both her mother and father died within a few days of each other of an unknown disease. An aunt later related to Mariam her father`s last words. Looking at a picture of St. Joseph, he murmured. "Great saint, here is my child; the Blessed Virgin is her mother; deign to look after her also; be her Father." A maternal aunt, living in Tarshish, took her younger brother Boulos into her home; Mariam was adopted by a paternal uncle in her hometown of Ibillin and raised in a loving home in comfortable circumstances. The brother and sister were never to see each other again. As a child she had a marked spirit of religious fervor. One incident from the time of her childhood revealed significant insight into her character and clearly indicated the direction of her life to come. It took place in her uncle’s orchard amidst the apricot, peach, and pecan trees. She kept a small cage filled with small birds, a gift given to her. One day she decided that her little beloved birds needed a bath. However, she unintentionally drowned them in spite of her well-intentioned efforts. Their death broke her small heart. Grief-stricken, she eventually decided to bury them when deep inside she heard a clear voice, “This is how everything passes. If you will give me your heart, I shall always remain with you.” These words penetrated and took root in the young heart of Mariam.
When Mariam was eight, her uncle and his wife moved to Alexandria, Egypt, to improve their situation. Later in a “dream” that she was always to remember, she saw a merchant come into her uncle`s house and offer a fine big fish for sale. She understood that the fish was poisoned, and then she woke up. "It was only a dream!," she told herself. But in the morning a man did showed up to sell a fish just like the one in her dream. She warned her uncle, who nevertheless stubbornly persisted in wanting to buy the fish. Mariam wept and insisted that her uncle not eat the fish, and since he would not give in, she insisted that she should take the first bite, happy to sacrifice herself for the others. In the face of her persistence, her uncle and aunt finally opened the fish, and to their great astonishment and surprise the fish was indeed poisoned, as it had swallowed a small poisonous snake! The Blessed Virgin was a big part of her life. In her honor, from the age of five, she fasted every Saturday, taking only the evening meal. In the springtime she would gather flowers—choosing the loveliest and most fragrant from the garden or on the hills of Ibillin to place before the icon of the Blessed Virgin. One day she found that the cut flowers had taken root in the vase. She showed her uncle who, in turn informed the local pastor. In an effort to keep her humble, he scolded her as though her sins were responsible for this phenomenon. Mariam fell on her knees, humbled herself, and asked pardon for her sins. "What do you think will become of this child?" wondered the pastor, the relatives, and the neighbors at the sight of such spiritual piety and devotion from a five year old child.
In 1858 when she was 13, in keeping with tradition, she was engaged by her uncle to his wife's brother, who lived in Cairo. In her great distress, she could not sleep the night before the wedding ceremony, and she prayed fervently that God might intervene, or show her His holy will. In the depths of her heart she again heard a familiar voice, “Everything passes! If you wish to give me your heart, I will remain with you.” Mariam knew it was Jesus’ voice, the only spouse she would have! The remainder of the night was spent in deep prayer before the icon of the Virgin Mary, beseeching her for her help. Having dozed off for a moment, she suddenly heard within her a voice which said “Mariam, I am with you; follow the inspiration I shall give you. I will help you.” In the morning Mariam informed her Uncle that she would not marry. He first tried to reason with her, explaining the material advantages and benefits of a prearranged marriage. Her adoptive uncle then flew into a wild rage when he saw that Mariam would not marry but would remain a virgin. He beat her and screamed at her for her insubordination and disobedience. This did not change Mariam’s mind, and she withstood the beatings and insults hurled at her by her uncle. Mariam’s heart was deeply saddened that she had upset her uncle, but she stood firm in her resolve, for her love for God was greater than anything else.
In punishment, her uncle then resorted to treating her as the lowest household servant, giving her the most difficult kitchen tasks, and subjecting her to a position lower than his hired help. Mariam sank into a deep sense of desolation and desperation. In her suffering she wrote to her younger brother, Boulos, then living in Nazareth, and invited him to come and see her in Alexandria. The young male servant she asked to deliver the letter then attempted to woo her. She rejected his proposal, which caused the young man to fly into a rage. He drew a knife and cut her throat. Thinking her dead, he dumped her body in a nearby dark alley. It was the feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8, 1858. What followed was a strange and beautifully-moving story, told years later by Mariam to her Mistress of Novices at Marseilles, France: “A nun dressed in blue picked me up and stitched my throat wound. This happened in a grotto somewhere. I then found myself in heaven with the Blessed Virgin, the angels and the saints. They treated me with great kindness. In their company were my parents. I saw the brilliant throne of the Most Holy Trinity and Jesus Christ in His humanity. There was no sun, no lamp, but everything was bright with light. Someone spoke to me and said that my book was not finished."
Mariam never saw her aunt and uncle again. They knew nothing of the tragedy and they thought that Mariam had run away to escape their ill treatment and to perhaps become a nun. They had every interest in keeping silent about their adopted child, as she could only bring them dishonor by her refusal to marriage. She was only thirteen and was now on her own. At first she supported herself by working as a domestic servant. An Arab Christian family named Najjar hired her to work for them. They gave her food, room and a small salary. She lived as one of the poor, with just one dress, and she gave her salary to the poor, except for a few piastres to provide oil for the little lamp that burned before an icon of the Blessed Virgin. Her spare time she devoted to the less fortunate. Hoping to see her brother, and especially desiring to walk in the footsteps of the Lord and to visit His holy places, after about a year she left and joined a caravan that was heading for Jerusalem. One day, when she was fifteen years old, a handsome young man approached her and spoke to her in praise of perfect chastity. Some days later he met her again, said his name was John George, and offered to show her the way to the Holy Sepulcher. Having arrived at the holy place, she promised her mysterious guide that she would take a perpetual vow of virginity if he would do the same. And thus it was that at the sacred edifice, on the very place of the glorious tomb of the risen Lord Jesus, these two young people became "children of the Resurrection" by pronouncing the definitive vow of chastity. Before taking leave of Mariam, John George recalled to her the main stages of her life as the Blessed Virgin had sketched them for her in the grotto of Alexandria. Ten years later at Mangalore, India, Mariam was to see her "spiritual brother" again; this was shortly before her perpetual profession in Carmel. The young religious then understood that John George was an angel that the Lord had sent her, to help guide her, as he had in former days to the young Tobias. After her stay in Jerusalem, Mariam returned to Jaffa to go from there to Saint Jean d`Arc; however, the boat she was travelling on was forced by inclement weather to change direction and to port in Beirut. Feeling it was perhaps the will of God, she once again took up an occupation as a household servant.
There she felt inspired to make a vow of perpetual virginity at the Holy Sepulcher. She then took a boat in Jaffa with the intention of heading to Arc in France. Due to poor weather, however, the boat had to stop at Beirut. Taking this as a sign from God, she disembarked and found work as a maid. Two exceptional facts stand out during this period. She had been working for scarcely six months when suddenly she was struck with total blindness. This lasted for forty days. Once again Mariam turned to the Blessed Virgin, "See, my Mother," she said, "all the trouble that I am causing in this house. I was not even better cared for by my parents. Oh, if it would please you and your divine Son, give me back my sight!" Immediately something fell from her eyes and they opened, and she could then once again see.
A couple of months after that, she suffered a tragic fall when she was hanging clothes on the terrace. At first the family for whom she was working thought she was dead; her bones seemed to be badly broken and crushed, and the doctors gave no hope of recovery. Her employers cared for her as for their own child. A month later, in front of her little night lamp that she kept burning before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she saw—as did St. Therese of the Child Jesus later on—the Blessed Virgin smile at her, recommending three things to her, obedience, charity and confidence. A perfume and light filled the room. Mariam was cured, and she immediately became hungry. The family and neighbors came flocking in, and at the sight of the prodigy everyone, Christian and Moslem, went down on their knees, giving thanks and proclaiming God`s miracle through the Virgin Mary.
These facts were later confirmed in a letter in 1869, when the prioress of the Carmel of Pau where Mariam was then a sister, wrote to Sister Gélas, the superior of the Daughters of Charity of Beirut, asking her to verify the accuracy of these facts, and the superior confirmed that the events had happened exactly as stated, and even added some further details. At age eighteen, circumstances led her to leave Lebanon for Marseille, France at the beginning of May, 1863. There she became a cook for an Arab woman named Madame Naggiar. Each morning Mariam usually went either to the church of St. Charles or to the church of St. Nicholas, the latter being of the Greek Catholic rite, which was her rite. In this church she once again enjoyed the sumptuous ceremonies of the confessor she chose a Lebanese priest, Fr. Philip Abdou, who was the rector of the church.
During one of her first communions there, she was rapt in a wonderful ecstasy. Her mistress, when informed of it, came for her in her carriage. The phenomenon lasted for four days, and the doctors did not know what to make of it. Mariam acknowledged later that she had gone through heaven, hell and purgatory. While in ecstasy she received the order to fast for one year on bread and water to expiate the sins of gluttony in the world, and to wear poor clothing to expiate the sins of immodesty and luxury. As stated earlier, while Mariam was in the marketplace of Jerusalem, she had been approached by a handsome young man who gave her excellent counsel. In Marseille, one morning when she was going up to Notre Dame de la Garde for Mass, she saw she was being followed by a man who was holding a child by the hand. This happened several times. Troubled by such persistence, Mariam approached the stranger and asked him to please stop following her. Surprisingly, the stranger answered with a beautiful smile and said: "I know that you want to enter the convent, and I will follow you until you are in the convent."
From that moment onward, Mariam felt herself called to the religious life. Who was this stranger? The young girl had no doubt that it was St. Joseph. In her efforts to follow her vocation, Fr. Abdou was of great help to her. But, as always in her life, the stages were many and laborious. The young Palestinian went first to the Daughters of Charity and applied to enter. Forestalled by Madame Naggiar, who did not want at any price to be deprived of her cook, they refused under the pretext that she was a servant. Mariam then went to see the Poor Clares, whose style of poverty and silence appealed to her immediately. But her delicate health did not allow her to enter the cloister; she had been so greatly weakened by her fast that she had been given the sacrament of the sick. But once again, rapidly and contrary to all expectations, she found herself cured.
She made a fresh attempt to enter the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, founded by Emily de Vialar. For it was St. Joseph who had appeared to her repeatedly in the street encouraging her to become a nun. The motherhouse and novitiate were located at "the Capelette" in the suburbs of Marseille. The little Palestinian could neither read nor write, and she spoke only Arabic. She was accepted, however, because the novitiate in fact had a few Palestinians among its numbers, and the Congregation had several communities in the East, especially in the Holy Land. Upon entering, she was familiarly called “Mariam the Arab,” or ”the little Arab.” She remained a postulant for two years. Thus the first part of the vocation that had been given to her by the Blessed Virgin had been realized, for she was now a daughter of St. Joseph.
Her fellow sisters were always amused by her broken French, but they were most impressed by her remarkable virtues and piety. Fortunately for Mariam, two women of great virtue were directing the Capelette at that time, the Superior General, Mother Emily Julien, and the Mistress of novices, Mother Honorine Piques. They were excellent spiritual guides for Mariam. To their surprise, they soon began to notice some strange phenomena in the little Arab. In January 1866, when Mariam was twenty years old, Mother Honorine came upon her in the dormitory, prostrate, with her face to the floor and her left hand covered with blood. From Wednesday evening to Friday morning each week, there soon was added another remarkable phenomenon, the stigmata. The stigmata of the heart was the first to be manifested (in August, 1866, at Marseille). She was praying in the chapel one evening, when, in the tabernacle she saw Jesus, who appeared to her with His five wounds and the crown of thorns. It seemed to her she saw coals of wrath in His hands. She heard Jesus say to His Mother prostrate at His feet: "Oh, how My Father is offended!" The little postulant then sprang toward Jesus and, putting her hand on the wound of His Heart, exclaimed, "My God, give me, please, all these sufferings, but have mercy on sinners." Coming out of the ecstasy, she saw her hand covered with blood and experienced a severe pain in her left side (the latter would bleed every Friday).
On March 27, 1867, the other stigmata appeared. The privileged one of the Crucified confided to the mistress of novices: "It seemed to me that I was gathering roses to decorate Mary´s altar: these roses appeared to have thorns on both sides, and the thorns were thrust in my hands and into my feet. When I came to myself, my mouth was very bitter, my feet and hands swollen: in the middle of my hands and on my feet there were black bumps." The following day, Thursday, the sufferings continued to increase until Friday. It was the Feast of the five wounds of Christ. In the morning, about ten o'clock, the black scabs fell off, the crown of thorns appeared on her forehead, and blood flowed from her head and feet. The prodigy was renewed during the months of April and the first two weeks of May. It ceased upon an order of the mistress of novices. This latter, in order to put an end to the rumors that were circulating in the community, asked the postulant to obtain from God that nothing would appear exteriorly. To the great joy of the stigmatist, the wounds closed and healed up.
Faced with such facts, Mother Honorine acted with as much prudence as understanding in regards to both the ecstasies and also the stigmata. Obedience being, in such cases, the litmus test of the Church, she thus forbade Mariam to have ecstasies during the day and in the presence of the religious. Even during the night she was not to get up, and she was not to attract attention. Mariam obeyed, and God, Whom loves obedience, seconded and approved of her actions . The Mistress of novices, seeing that she was dealing with a person extraordinarily fashioned by the Holy Spirit, asked the child to relate for her what she remembered of her childhood and adolescence. Everything was put in writing. One copy would later be sent to the Carmel of Pau with this note of Mother Honorine, "I am sending you copy of what I myself have gathered together from what she related to me, not without much resistance, but complying solely through obedience. She asked of me the greatest secrecy which I have guarded until this day... I have omitted everything I did not entirely understand, because of the difficulty this dear child experienced in explaining herself in French."
Mother Honorine fell ill, and was replaced in the novitiate by Mother Veronica. This religious was to hold a large place in the life and heart of Mariam. She was English and a convert from Anglicanism. After seventeen years of religious life with the Sisters of St. Joseph, she was later to enter the Carmel of Pau with Mariam, and it was in her arms that “the little Arab” would die, at the Carmel of Bethlehem. Mariam, had foretold that, contrary to all expectations, Sister Veronica would become mistress of novices at the Capelette. She held this office for one month, until the reception of the Indult permitting her to enter Carmel. And it was at Mother Veronica’s wish that Mariam`s stigmata disappeared at Marseille, and in accordance with Mariam’s prophecy at that time, the stigmata would not reappear until the following Lent, at Pau.
As may be imagined in such a large and diverse community, Mariam became an object of contradiction. While the majority of religious were favorable to her, there was a group of Sisters who were in opposition to her because of the extraordinary mystical graces that was receiving. For such is a common problem with mystics and victim souls who are called to religious life. After all, is such a person with such strange manifestations suitable for an active congregation? And then, with regard to such phenomena, were they authentic? The day came for the vote for admission to the novitiate. Of the seven eligible to vote, there were two abstentions, two in favor and three against. Mariam was not admitted!
It was a hard blow, first of all for Mother Honorine, who had good reasons to believe in her manner of life. As for the Superior General who, absent at the time of the vote, declared later at her return that, had she been present, that would never have happened. Later, on December 12, 1868, the Mother Superior wrote to the Prioress of the Carmel of Pau, "Our ecclesiastical superiors did not believe we should keep her in our midst, saying that a cloister was a better place to hide such souls. Our sisters obeyed. And so you now have this privileged soul. May God be praised for it!" Obviously the blow was hardest for Mariam. What was to become of her? Unknown to her the Holy Spirit was preparing the next course of action for her. Mother Veronica, who had received from Rome the authorization to become a Carmelite nun and transfer to the Carmel of Pau, proposed to Mariam that she might introduce her to the Mother Prioress. Mariam agreed so Mother Veronica wrote and the reply was immediate and positive. In her letter of introduction, Mother Veronica had passed over in silence Mariam`s extraordinary mystical privileges, but she had added, "She will obey even miraculously."
Having both gained admittance into the Carmelites, the two religious presented themselves at the door of the Carmel of Pau, France on Saturday, June 15, 1867. Mariam knew nothing at all of Carmel or of St. Teresa. But that day she understood that the mysterious words of her miraculous nurse at Alexandria were realized, "You will be a child of St. Joseph before becoming a daughter of St. Teresa". In 1870 she went with the founding group to establish the Carmel of Mangalore in India. It was there in Mangalore that Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified made her profession. She returned to the Carmel of Pau, France in 1872. Three years later she went to the Holy Land where she built a monastery in Bethlehem and began the planning for another at Nazareth.
Those who read her life discover that Mariam had experienced ecstasies all her life: from her early childhood, in the garden, in her home, and in the church of Ibillin; during the bloody night at Alexandria, at her employers in Beirut and Marseille. In the church of St. Nicholas she was rapt in an ecstasy that lasted four days. But it was especially from the time she entered religious life that the phenomena began to be intensified. At the Capelette, when she was with the Sisters of St. Joseph, she was found in ecstasy in the chapel, at recreation, and especially at night in the dormitory.
After she entered Carmel, we note a crescendo, to the degree that at Mangalore the ecstasies occurred almost daily: she had as many as five a day. At Bethlehem, during her last years, they were still more frequent, but at the same time more serene and more painful. The ecstasies would sometimes occur suddenly, and at other times progressively. "There are times," she said, "when I can do absolutely nothing: no matter what I do to prevent it; and at other times I can distract myself a little in order not to go off." In fact she did struggle against the raptures. In her ignorance of mystical things she did not even suspect the privilege she enjoyed for she spoke of her ecstasies as “sleep” And how she fought against going to “sleep”! She begged Father Manaudas, her spiritual director, to forbid her to sleep. "My child," the priest replied, "do not worry; you can go to sleep in all security." She began to cry. She made the same request to Bishop Lacroix, who ordered her to abandon herself to God instead of struggling against such a sleep. It was in fact a real struggle. In order to resist the rapture she moved around, she shook herself, she dashed to the fountain to wash herself, she worked more diligently. She even tried pricking her skin with pins, and in refectory she put burning hot food into her mouth. Nothing helped.
To the mistress of novices, who asked her how she could easily go to sleep, she replied innocently: "I feel as though my heart is open; as though there was a wound in it; and when I have certain ideas and impressions of God which move me, it feels like someone touched the wound in my heart, and I fall in weakness, I lose myself." During her professions ceremony at Mangalore, November 21, 1871, it required an order of the prioress to awaken her so that she could pronounce the vow formula. On June 28, 1873, at Pau, the prioress went into the little one´s cell after the recitations of matins. The latter was seated before the open window: she was in ecstasy. She said to the mother prioress: "The whole world is asleep, and God so full of goodness, so great, so worthy of all praise, and hardly no one is thinking of Him! See, nature praises Him, the sky, the stars, the trees, the grass, everything praises Him, and man, who knowledge of His benefits, who ought to praise Him, sleeps! Let us go, let us go and wake up the universe!" She skipped out of her cell: "Let us go and praise God, and sing His praises. Everyone is sleeping, the whole world is asleep, let us go and wake them up. Jesus is not known, Jesus is not loved. He, so full of goodness, He who has done so much for man!"
During her ecstasies, her body sometimes remained supple, but often it became rigid, remaining in the same position that it was at the beginning of the ecstasy. During this time, nothing and no one could make her move. It was impossible to have her sit or lay down, or to take her from her any object she was holding, or to lower her raised arm. Only obedience could overcome this immobility. She was also completely insensible to any external stimulus. Once, she injured her knee with a nail, which caused her much pain and she could not help but to limp when walking due to the pain. Suddenly she was rapt in ecstasy, and remained for two hours on her knees.
"I am in God, and God is in me. I feel that all creatures, the trees, the flowers belong to God and also to me. I no longer have a will, it belongs to God. And all that is God´s is mine." Only love can fill the heart of man. The just man is satisfied with love and a pinch of earth, but the wicked man, with all the pleasures, honors, riches (he can acquire), is always hungry, always thirsty. He is never satisfied. "Pay attention to little things. Everything is great before the Lord. The Lord does not want robbery in the sacrifice. Offer and give Him everything. "In heaven, the most beautiful souls are those that have sinned the most and repented. But they made use of their miseries like manure around the base of the tree." "Be very charitable; when one of your eyes sees what is not right, shut it and then open the other one! Change everything into good." "If you love your neighbor, it is by this that you will know if you love Jesus. Each time you look at your neighbor without seeing Jesus, you fall very low."
We see in the lives of many mystic saints that an ecstatic, while in ecstasy, can be drawn a little above the ground through a supernatural and mysterious grace. However, Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified was one of the only ones, along with Saint Joseph of Cupertino, to make real flights. The phenomena was verified for the first time on June 22, 1873 in the garden of the Carmel of Pau. Noticing her absence at supper, the mistress of novices looked for her in vain in the cloister and the orchard, then another nun heard a song: "Love! Love!" She looked up and discovered Mariam balancing herself without support at the top of an enormous lime tree. Advised of this, the prioress arrived and confronted with this phenomenon she initially did not know what to do. After a prayer she addressed the little one: "Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified, if Jesus wishes it, come down through obedience without falling or hurting yourself." At the simple word obedience, the ecstatic descended in fact "with the radiant face" and perfect modesty, stopping on some of the branches to sing Love. "Hardly was she on the ground," noted a witness, "and as if to make amends to our mother and sisters for our anxiety in looking for her and in seeing her perched up so high, she embraced us with a sort of enthusiasm and affection impossible to express."
Eight ecstatic levitations were documented: Beginning in 1873 on June 22, July 9, 19,25, 27, 31, August 3, 1873 and finally on July 5, 1874. "How did you manage to climb like that?" the mother prioress asked her. And she replied: "The Lamb held out His hands to me:" Some of the nuns wanted to make sure of this so they spied on her. One day a lay sister who was working in the garden was witness to the flight: "She had taken hold of the tip of a little branch that a bird would have bent; and from there, in an instant, she had been lifted on high." On July 5, perched on the lime tree, she addressed the mother prioress: "I was on that one there and I came up here. Look, see, my alpargates (a kind of soft slipper) are still there." On July 19, 1873, when the order was given for her to descend, she hesitated a moment. She begged to be allowed more time with the Lamb. "No," insisted the prioress, "through obedience, come down." She obeyed, but the shadow of hesitation had been fatal: the vision had disappeared. "The Lamb went away." Sighed the sister, "He left me alone to come down." In fact, because of her hesitance in obedience it was with effort that she got down to the ground and for four days of grief she expiated that unhappy moment. On July 25, the levitation lasted from four to seven o'clock in the evening; on July 31, it lasted from the end of recreation, which follows supper in the evening, until nine o'clock. This phenomenon occurred only at the Carmel of Pau.
In a letter dated February 14, 1927, Father Buzy, the Carmelite´s biographer, wrote the following statement to bishop Oliver Leroy: "Sister Mary used to raise herself to the top of the trees by the tips of the branches: she would take her scapular in one hand, and with the other the end of a small branch next to the leaves, and after a few moments she would glide along the outside edge of the tree to its top. Once up there, she would remain holding on to branches normally too weak to bear a person of her weight." The following are some depositions given by witnesses at process: "Sister E., now deceased, told me that one day when she happened to be in the garden with the servant of God, the latter said to her: "Turn around." She had hardly turn her head when looking back again, she saw the little one already seated on the top of the lime tree, on a little branch, balancing herself like a bird and singing divine love. Another person declared: "Once I saw her in ecstasy at the top of the lime tree, seated at the tip of the highest branch, which, normally would never have been able to support her. Her face was resplendent! I saw her come down from the tree like a bird, from branch to branch, with great nimbleness and modesty."
First let us read, in the memoirs of Mother Veronica at the Capelette, the description of the first stigmata of the little Arab: "On the first Thursday, May 2, 1867, when I went to see Mary, I found her sitting near her bed in great pain. She showed me her side, her feet and her hands. On these latter, in the place where they had been imprinted, that is to say on the upper part, there was a sort of blister, which formed the head of the nails, and in the palms the spot was black and swollen. At the place on her side, a little above the heart, there was the form of a cross all red and inflamed; and in the middle three small blisters with a little hole…I spent the night near her, and at five o'clock in the morning blood flowed from the wounds in her hands which I bathed, and the pain seemed to be alleviated. The blood flowed from the palm. The fingers were contracted and curved around, as if the nail had really gone into the palm, she could not extend them, nor take hold of the glass when I gave her a drink from time to time.
At about nine o'clock blood flowed from the crown of thorns all around her head. I can solemnly attest that I saw blood coming from the holes of the thorns, one of which, in the center of her forehead, opened before me, and blood gushed from it. While I was washing it, it closed again, leaving her forehead without any mark, except the traces of blood. Her feet were white; one would have said the feet of a corpse, and the toes were stretched like those of one crucified. The wounds on the upper part bled, as did the wound on her side. After three hours she was completely herself again, experiencing only a little weakness. I told her to get up, which she did by herself, and that evening she came to supper with the community." In the notes of the Carmel of Pau, we read that on Thursday, February 27, 1868: "She could not get up, she was suffering so much in her hands and feet. We took her to the infirmary. All that evening when passing near there, we would smell a strong sweet fragrance, but we could not detect its source. The novice´s veils and mantle also had a pleasant odor. The night was a bad one for her and the next morning blood began to flow from her feet and hands. The crown of thorns bled profusely at two different times, then the wound in her side, all with unspeakable pain. At noon all the bleeding stopped but the wounds remained open and became deeper each day, which prevented her from walking or putting her feet on the floor, for forty days. She could hardly bear any contact with the linens used to wrap her wounds, especially on Friday and Saturday. From that day until the following Friday, the wounds only oozed, but on Thursday of each week, a large pimple formed, black like a nail, which grew in size until Friday, then at the hour she designated in advance, this sort of blister fell off and the blood flowed; afterward the wound closed until the following week."
During the Mangalore period, we have above all the testimony of Father Lazare, a Carmelite and her director. On November 24 and 25, 1871, he attentively examined the stigmata. From his report we selected some precise statements: "The hands were swollen on the palm and the wounds were open; but all around the edge of the wounds there was a little coagulated blood, no doubt because this wound had begun to open several days before. On the inside of the hand there was a sort of button, forming the head of the nail. The flesh of the palm seemed to have been separated violently; it was torn, if I may thus express it, on the inside there were no tears, only the head of the nail was visible. The feet were similarly pierced through and through. The wounds were fresh, the flesh torn perhaps more than on the hands. One of the perforations was exactly in the middle of the sole of the foot, and there it ended with a quite newly formed small round hole, just as if the point of a sharp nail had been driven through it and then pulled out. It was the same with the other foot."
Lastly, for the Bethlehem period (1875-1878), we have chiefly the testimony of the mistress of novices, mother Mary of the Child Jesus. The stigmata appeared during the Lent of 1876. On March 3, the first Thursday of Lent, the little one called the mother into her cell and said to her: "See my humiliation; I don't anyone to come here, look at my hands." And the witness stated precisely: "We were able to ascertain that the blackish swelling, that looked like a large nail in the palm of her hands and also on the top of the hand, was formed much more quickly than during the Lent of 1868. Towards nine o'clock, the marks were still darker and more extended; her contracted fingers prevented her from using her hands. At noon, we saw the same thing on the upper part of her feet, but she absolutely refused to let us cover them with linen, which would greatly increase her suffering."
The following day the stigmatist was covered with a sweat of blood. On Friday, March 10, the mistress of novices and the sister infirmarian saw the crown of thorns take form on her bloody forehead. The same phenomenon on Friday, March 24: Here is their testimony: "About five thirty, all around the front of her head was bleeding; she had a sort of crown of little button shaped holes, some of which were still open as we looked on. During this time she wiped the blood from them. She got up right after that and all traces disappeared." Holy Week was frightful. Every part of her was bleeding: head, heart, hands and feet. During the course of her life she came to relive and act out certain scenes of the passion. She became the crucified spouse of a crucified God! Identified with her Spouse to the very details of Good Friday! "When she was in the state, she could have been called an 'ecce homo,' " declared Mother Honorine, in 1867 at the Capelette.
The next year at Pau, France, on Good Friday April 10, 1868, the stigmatist was truly on the cross; all her wounds reopened and the blood flowed from her head as well. We cannot conceive the intensity of the suffering she experienced. First she felt her legs pulled one after the other; and the same with her arms; then she felt her nails being driven in…Later, the heart bled as usual, and immediately after that, the wounds began to heal. She remained very weak all week and continued to suffer from her knees which were injured, swollen and full of bumps, perhaps resembling those our Lord must have had after all His Falls.
"She was groaning and she trembled in her whole body. It was heart rending to see her like that. She often repeated these words: "My God, do not abandon me; my God I offer it to You! Pardon, my God, pardon!" At a quarter past two in the afternoon she began a painful agony; we were all around her. Her legs were stiff, her feet down and crossed one over the other; her arms extended in the form of the cross, were supported by two of the sisters; her chest was distended, she even emitted a few sighs, as though she were breathing forth her soul…After three and a half hours, she had a little relief and spoke again to those "children" (angels) saying to them: "Have pity on me, call me today." She also experienced transports of desire and love: "Call me so that I may leave this earth!" Then she was heard to say: "Fiat, Jesus!" We then had the impression that the crucified one was descending from the cross and from Calvary in order to prepare for the Easter joys. "Don Belloni, confessor of the stigmatist at Bethlehem, asserted that when holding one of her hands against the light, the flesh appeared transparent at the place of the stigmata.
Besides being deeply grounded in humility, in her ignorance she did not realize that the stigmata was a privileged grace from God; she looked upon it as an illness and begged God and Blessed Virgin to take from her what she called "the wretched marks." According to her prediction, the wounds reopened the following Lent, at the Carmel of Pau. They caused atrocious suffering and flowing of the blood. That was renewed every Friday during the Lent of 1868. The Carmelite nuns were admitted to see the prodigy; and the superior of the Carmel, Fr. Guilly entered the enclosure. He verified the phenomena, he put his finger on one of the wounds: at this contact the novice´s entire body shuddered. On Holy Saturday the Stigmata disappeared. The wounds appeared again at Mangalore. On November 20, 1871, the eve of her profession, the little one confided to the mistress of novices: "If I tell you something will you keep my secret?" - "Yes." - "Look, this illness that I fear so much has returned." And she showed her her swollen hands and feet. The day after her profession the stigmata bled profusely. Frightened, the sister earnestly begged God to cure her. This time again she was heard. For more than four years she experienced nothing.
The last period of stigmatization took place at Bethlehem in April 1876. It was the longest and most painful. It made witnesses think they were on Calvary before the spectacle of Crucifixion! Sister Mariam said: "Do you know? Five rosebushes are blooming, quick, quick. They have given the roses to others, and the thorns to me." And she added with a smile: "We do not like that; here we give at least a few roses! And not to let me smell the perfume at all, nothing but thorns! Oh, well - I deserve it! That Jesus may be content, that is all I desire. I accept all the thorns on my body, but tell the Master of the rosebushes to close the roses." After these red flowerings at Marseille, Pau, Mangalore, and Bethlehem, the "five roses" of her Stigmata were closed for the last time on April 26, 1876.
Mariam's devotion to the Holy Spirit was not common in her time. And yet her spiritual journey seemed to be guided by the Spirit in unprecedented ways. Inspired by having received a special prayer to the Holy Spirit during one of her ecstatic experiences, she was convinced that devotion to the Holy Spirit, who was then commonly known as the Paraclete, was needed by the whole Church. She even sent a petition to Pope Pius IX asking him to cultivate a greater devotion within the Church to the Holy Spirit. No one knows what the pope thought of this at the time, but 20 years later Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical about devotion to the Paraclete. Concerning devotion to the Holy Spirit she wrote: "The world and religious communities are seeking novelties in devotions, and they are neglecting true devotion to the Paraclete. That is why there is error and disunion, and why there is no peace or light. They do not invoke light as it should be invoked, and it is this light that gives knowledge of truth. It is neglected even in seminaries. Every person in the world that will invoke the Holy Spirit and have devotion to Him will not die in error." | 2019-04-22T18:24:46Z | http://www.sttheresechurchalhambra.org/?DivisionID=20008&DepartmentID=22710 |
Under the licensing model, a domestic manufacturer (licensor) grants licence to a foreign manufacturer (licensee) to use its intellectual property such as patent and trademark.
It is under contract manufacturing that a firm outsources the production of its goods and services to foreign firms and concentrates on marketing operations in international business. On the other hand, in the licensing and franchising models, a company grants intellectual property rights to a foreign firm, and in a joint venture, two or more firms pool their resources to launch a new business enterprise.
The model in which two or more firms pool their resources to form a new business entity that is legally separate and distinct from its parent companies is known as a joint venture. On the other hand, contract manufacturing is an outsourcing process, and the licensing and franchising models are those in which intellectual property rights are granted to foreign firms for a fee.
Which of the following is not an advantage of exporting?
Exporting involves selling of goods to other countries. It has various advantages, such as lower risks, less requirement of investment and easier way of entering into international markets. However, the limited presence that it offers exporting firms in international markets is a disadvantage of exporting.
Which one of the following modes of entry requires higher level of risks?
It is the joint venture model that requires a very high level of risk. This is because, in a joint venture, two or more firms join together to share their technology and trade secrets. This in turn raises the possibility that the shared information or secrets might be revealed.
Which one of the following modes of entry permits greatest degree of control over overseas operations?
A wholly owned subsidiary exercises all the decision-making powers and complete managerial control over the overseas operations of its parent company. A wholly owned subsidiary is created by a company by buying up the entire equity of a foreign firm.
Which one of the following modes of entry brings the firm closer to international markets?
The mode of entry that brings a domestic firm closer to international markets is contract manufacturing. This is because contract manufacturing enables the firm to be associated with international markets and reap benefits from the opportunities available. On the other hand, modes such as licensing and franchising and joint ventures do not allow much access to foreign markets.
Which one of the following is not amongst India's major export item?
India is mainly involved in exporting textiles and garments, basmati rice, and oil and petroleum products. However, franchising is not a part of Indian exports. It is a mode of entering into international business by granting intellectual property rights to a foreign company.
Which one of the following is not amongst India's major import items?
The major items of India's imports are oil and petroleum products, machinery, pearls and precious stones. However, Ayurvedic medicines are not a part of Indian imports. India is the world's largest exporter of Ayurvedic medicines.
Which one of the following is not amongst India's major trading partner?
The USA, UK and Germany are India's major trading partners. New Zealand is not among India's top trading partners.
Differentiate between International trade and International business.
International trade refers to the exchange of goods and services across the international boundaries of countries.
International business includes movement of capital, personnel, technology and intellectual property such as trademarks, know-how and copyrights, besides international trade.
International trade involves the movement of finished goods and raw material as exports and imports across countries.
International business involves the movement of goods and services, emigration and immigration of human capital, and exchange of technology, technical know-how, copyrights and trademarks.
What is international business? How is it different from domestic business?
International business consists of all the trade and manufacturing activities that take place across national boundaries. These activities involve the exchange and movement of goods, services, capital, technology, skills and patents across countries. The following table highlights the key differences between domestic and international businesses.
Trade within the national boundaries of a country.
Trade between two or more countries.
High factor mobility within the country.
Low factor mobility across national boundaries.
Markets are homogeneous due to similarity in tastes and preferences across markets.
Markets are heterogeneous due to differences in customers, preferences, languages, etc.
Subjected to rules, laws or taxation system of one country.
Subjected to rules, regulations and laws of many countries.
Domestic currency is used for payment.
Foreign currency is used for payment.
Discuss any three advantages of international business.
The following are the advantages of international business.
(a) Medium for earning foreign exchange: By facilitating the exchange of goods and services in the international market, international business acts as a medium for acquiring sufficient foreign exchange reserves for nations. This in turn enables them to import goods that may not be available domestically—for example, technology, capital goods and petroleum products.
(b) Tool for speeding up economic growth: As international business provides a big platform to countries and local producers to cater to the needs of an international consumer base, it helps in promoting their growth prospects. It also helps in increasing employment opportunities for the people living in these countries.
(c) Means of improving living standards: International business facilitates the consumption of goods and services that are produced in other countries. This in turn helps the people living in the importing countries to enjoy a higher standard of living and facilitates the growth and development of the exporting countries.
"International business is more than international trade". Comment.
International business refers to the business transactions that take place across national boundaries. It encompasses all international activities including manufacturing and movement of goods, services, capital, personnel and intellectual property. On the other hand, international trade is an activity that is confined to just import and export of goods. It is itself a small part of international business. Therefore, we can say that international business is much bigger than international trade.
The following are some of the major operations that are a part of international business and help in distinguishing it from the international trade.
(a) Import and export of services: Trading of services is an important constituent of international business. Services that are a part of international business include travel and tourism, entertainment, communication, transportation, construction, advertising, R&D and banking.
(b) Licensing and franchising: International business includes activities related to licensing and franchising. Under licensing, a foreign firm is granted intellectual property rights by a home company, so that the firm abroad can produce and sell goods under the home company's trademarks, patents or copyrights in exchange of a fee. Similarly, under franchising, a home country grants a foreign firm the right to produce and sell goods under a common brand name using the same operations support system in exchange of a fee.
(c) Foreign investment: It refers to the funds that are invested abroad for some returns. It is an important part of international business and involves two components, as follows.
(i) Direct investment: It refers to an investment made directly in the plants and machinery of a foreign company so as to undertake production by acquiring controlling rights.
(ii). Portfolio investment: It refers to an investment made in securities or by providing loans to a foreign company with an objective of earning profits in the form of dividends or interests on loans.
What is the major reason underlying trade between nations?
The following are the important reasons that encourage nations to engage in trade.
(a) Difference in resource endowment: Every country is endowed with different kinds and combinations of resources. Thus, in order to obtain the resources which are not domestically available but are available in other countries, nations trade with one another.
(b) Aim of attaining specialisation: Because of the availability of distinct resources, culture, labour force and technical know-how, every country has a specialisation in particular types of products. Thus, countries trade with an aim of attaining specialisation in the goods in which they have a superior technical know-how or the goods that can be produced only with the domestically available specific resources which are not available in other countries.
(c) Difference in labour productivity and production cost: Production costs and labour productivity differ from one country to another. Thus, countries export the goods which they can produce efficiently at a low production cost. On the other hand, they import the goods which they are not able to produce efficiently at a lower cost.
"What benefits do firms derive by entering into international trade". Comment.
The following are some of the benefits that firms enjoy by entering into international trade.
(a) Higher profits: International trade allows firms to earn higher profits by taking advantage of the price differences prevailing between countries. For instance, if the price of a commodity in the domestic market is lower than that prevailing in international markets, a firm can benefit by selling the commodity in international markets.
(b) Growth prospects: Often, firms face a saturated domestic demand. In such cases, international trade provides a platform to them to increase their consumer base by opening up the route to overseas markets. This increases their growth prospects.
(c) Higher capacity utilisation: Sometimes, the production capacity of a firm may exceed the demand for its product in the domestic market. Therefore, in such cases, trading in international markets helps in utilising its capacity fully (by serving a larger consumer base). This in turn helps the firm to improve the profitability of its operations and benefit from the economies of scale by lowering production costs and increasing the per unit profit margin.
(d) Method to escape high domestic competition: International trading allows firms to escape the stiff competition in domestic markets. If domestic traders face high competition in domestic markets, they can turn towards international markets to sell their products and earn higher profits.
(e) Enhanced business perceptions: Every business firm strives to achieve long-term growth and expansion. This objective is aligned with the objective of stepping into international markets. Hence, companies aim at diversifying their products to enter into foreign markets to reap the benefits of overseas trading, and also to achieve growth.
Discuss as to why nations trade.
In what ways is exporting a better way of entering into international markets than setting up wholly owned subsidiaries abroad.
Exporting refers to the process of selling goods and services to companies in other countries as per their requirements. It involves the movement of goods by air or sea from the home country (where the goods are produced) to other countries (which import these goods). On the other hand, a wholly owned subsidiary is a firm in which a parent company makes an equity investment to acquire full control over it. Despite the fact that a parent company has full control over a wholly owned subsidiary abroad, the exporting model is a better way of entering into international markets. This is because of the following factors.
(a) Lesser complexities involved: Compared with setting up a wholly owned subsidiary, exporting is a much easier way of entering into international markets. This is because export management is a much simpler and easier process without complexities. On the other hand, the management of a wholly owned subsidiary is a complex and rigorous task.
(b) Less investment required: The amount of time and money required to be invested in an export business is less than that in a wholly owned subsidiary. This is because subsidiaries involve setting up manufacturing plants and starting operations in other countries, which require large amounts of money and effort. Thus, export is a favourable mode of entering into international markets.
(c) Less exposure to risks and losses: As exporting requires a smaller investment, the risk involved is negligible. On the other hand, in the case of a wholly owned subsidiary in another country, the parent company owns 100 per cent share, and thus, it bears the entire risk in case of failure of the subsidiary. Hence, exporting is said to be a better mode of entering into international markets.
Enumerate limitations of contract manufacturing.
The following are the major limitations of contract manufacturing.
(a) Difficulty in adhering to international quality standards: There are numerous reasons why local firms (which have received contracts for manufacturing goods) may find it difficult to follow the instructions of international companies. As a result, they might fail to produce goods strictly as per international quality and standards. If international companies pass on these inferior goods to their customers, this might hamper their goodwill and brand name.
(b) Lack of freedom over decision-making process: In contract manufacturing, local manufacturers lose their power to alter their production process according to their own decisions. This is because, in contract manufacturing, it becomes an obligation for the manufacturing company to follow the instructions given by the foreign company which is its client. This results in a lack of freedom for local manufacturers as they cannot take any decisions on their own.
(c) Possibility of incurring losses due to contracted prices: A contract signed between a local contract manufacturer and an international company is binding. Local manufacturers have to abide by the contract clauses and sell the output only to the foreign company at the predetermined prices. They cannot sell the output in the local market. This narrows the scope of local manufacturers for earning profits in case the domestic prices are higher than the prices in the contract with their international clients.
Discuss briefly the factors that govern the choice of mode of entry into international business.
International business is basically concerned with trading of goods and services across national boundaries. In order to enter into international business, firms have various modes available to them. The following are the different factors governing the choice of a mode of entry into international business.
(a) Complexity: Complexity is a major factor governing the choice of a mode of entry into international business. The level of complexity differs from one mode to another. For instance, the degree of complexity in setting up a wholly owned subsidiary abroad is higher than that in starting an export and import business. Thus, for businesses which want to avoid complexities in their operations, certain modes are better than others.
(b) Risk involved: Different modes of entry into international business involve different levels of risks. For instance, the risk involved in the contract manufacturing, exporting and licensing modes are comparatively negligible. On the other hand, the risk is comparatively higher in setting up a wholly owned subsidiary for entering international trade. Thus, generally, modes with lower risks are preferred by companies.
(c) Ownership and control: Some entrepreneurs prefer to have full ownership and decision-making control over the foreign firm involved in their international business. A wholly owned subsidiary gives full decision-making control to the parent company over its foreign subsidiary. On the other hand, modes of entry into international business such as licensing and exporting do not offer ownership rights to the parent company.
(d) Investment: Every mode of entry does not require the same amount of investment. For instance, the level of investment required for setting up a wholly owned subsidiary is higher than for engaging in importing and exporting or for licensing a foreign company. Thus, the mode of entry preferred by a firm depends on its capacity and readiness to make an investment.
Why is it said that licensing is an easier way to expand globally?
The following are the important reasons put forward in favour of licensing as an easier way for a company to expand globally.
(a) Less expensive: The licensor need not make huge investments abroad, and thus it is a relatively less expensive mode of entering into international markets.
(b) Lesser risk of government intervention: The business in the overseas market is managed by the licensee, who is a local person. Thus, licensing involves lesser risk of government intervention in the operations.
(c) Better knowledge and contacts: As the licensee is a local person, he or she has a better knowledge of the market conditions in his or her country than the licensor. This in turn helps the licensor to conduct the market operations smoothly and expand globally.
Discuss the major trends India's foreign trade. Also list the major products that India trade with other countries.
Foreign trade primarily involves the export of goods from countries and the import of goods by countries. In India, import and export of goods form an essential part of the overall economic activities. This can be seen in the increase of foreign trade in India's GDP from 14.6 per cent in 1990-91 to 24.1 percent in 2003-04. Exports and imports have been increasing continuously since then.
The following table shows the major trends in India's foreign trade.
From the table, the following facts can be derived.
(a) Since 2004-05, there has been a continuous rise in the values of both exports and imports. As we can see, the total value of exports was Rs. 3,75,340 crore in 2004-05. However, the value increased to Rs. 11,42,649 crore in 2010-11. Similarly, the value of imports increased from Rs. 5,01,065 crore in 2004-05 to Rs. 16,83,467 crore in 2010-11. Thus, from the table, we can infer that the country has registered an impressive growth in foreign trade since 2004.
(b) Despite the tremendous increase in both exports and imports, a trend of increasing negative trade balance was seen during the same period. This negative trade balance depicts the excess of imports over exports. As we can see, the trade balance was negative in all the years mentioned and was continuously rising negatively. We can, thus, infer two important facts.
(i) The value of imports was always more than that of exports.
(ii) The rate of increase in imports was always higher than the rate of increase in exports.
However, it can be concluded that both imports and exports have experienced a phenomenal growth during the last few years. The total value of exports has been lower than the total value of imports (as inferred from the negative trade balance in the last seven years).
To analyse the major components in India's trading, we can study the following table.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the table above.
(a) India mainly exported products such as manufactured goods; petroleum, crude and related products; gems and jewellery; and engineering goods. In other words, India was primarily engaged in the export of finished goods.
(b) Manufactured goods were a major component of Indian exports as they made up 68 per cent of the total exports. The share of gems and jewellery and petroleum products in the total exports was also significant.
(a) India mainly imported petroleum, oil and lubricants, capital goods, gold and silver, etc. In other words, India was primarily engaged in importing raw materials.
(b) Petroleum products were a major component of Indian imports as they made up 28.6 per cent of the total imports. The share of capital goods and gold and silver was also significant.
Differentiate between contract manufacturing and setting up wholly owned production subsidiary abroad.
A firm hires a local manufacturer in another country on a contractual basis to produce goods as per its requirements.
The parent company buys equity in a firm in another country and acquires full control over it.
The firm has limited control over the local manufacturer.
The parent company has full control over its operations in another country through the subsidiary.
Negligible investment is made abroad.
The parent company buys up the entire equity of the firm abroad and makes this firm its subsidiary.
What is invisible trade? Discuss the salient aspects of India's trade in services.
Invisible trade basically refers to the trading of services. In other words, as services are intangible and cannot be touched or seen, the trade in services is also known as invisible trade. This trade includes services such as travel and tourism, communication and intellectual property rights. In India, the trade in services has been increasing over the years. This can be seen from the following table that depicts the share of three major components (i.e., travel, transportation and insurance) of trade in services in India.
(a) The trade in three major services (foreign travel, transportation and insurance) increased significantly during the last four decades. Out of the three, a spectacular increase was witnessed in the export of foreign travel - from Rs. 15 crores in 1960-61 to Rs, 18,873 crores in 2004-05.
(b) The imports of the three services also increased manifold. Major increases were recorded in foreign travel (from Rs.12 crores in 1960-61 to Rs.16,111 crores in 2004-05) and transportation (from Rs. 25 crores in 1960-61 to Rs.10703 crores in 2004-05).
The following table highlights the major components of service exports of India.
The following trends can be seen from the table above.
(a) The change in the composition of exports has been phenomenal with a major shift from travel services to software services in the past few years. The software sector, which had only 10.2 per cent share of exports in 1995-96, enjoyed the highest share with 48.9 percent in 2003-04 and 41.7 percent in 2010-11. On the other hand, the share of travel and transportation declined from 64.3 per cent in 1995-96 to 22.2 per cent in 2010-11.
(b) In 2010-11, the share of miscellaneous items increased tremendously to 34.2 percent from 22.9 per cent in 1995-96..
Distinguish between licensing and franchising.
The licensor grants licence to a foreign company (licensee) to produce and sell goods under the licensor's logo and trademarks for a fee.
The franchiser grants a foreign firm (franchisee) the right to operate a business using a common brand name for an initial or a regular fee.
Operations are related to production and marketing of goods.
Operations are related to the services business.
List major items of India's exports.
The following are a few major items exported from India.
What are the major items that are exported from India.
India is well known for exporting both primary goods as well as finished products. It has a comparative advantage in exporting a few primary products such as tea, basmati rice and semi-precious stones, and a few manufactured goods such as leather, medicinal and pharmaceutical products.
List the major countries with whom India trade.
Today, India is growing at a fast pace with regard to foreign trade and exchange. The major countries that are involved in trade with India are the US, UK, Belgium, Germany, Japan and China. | 2019-04-24T21:57:53Z | https://www.tetsuccesskey.com/2015/08/chapter-11-international-business-i.html |
Description: A group of evil mages known as the Blood Seal possessed a profound skill to seal demons within living organisms. They discovered a way to seal demons within plantlife after capturing the demons from various places in the world. The demons sealed within the plants surrounded the home base and acted as a first defense if their private headquarters were ever attacked. An attack on the Blood Seal organization made by Yona and her mentor, out for a personal vendetta, made it necessary to use similar sealing techniques. During the attack, Johann, sealed one of these demons within Yona’s body to ensure the survival of the young woman. Prior to being sealed within a tree by the Blood Seal, Ketsueki was a lesser demon who used blood to fuel his powers.
To further his dark power, the bloodlusting demon was often thought to be a vampire because he was dependant on night to obtain his victims through secrecy. It was through local folklore that his reputation as a vampire grew and he was captured and sealed away by the Blood Seal members. The demon, Ketsueki had been trapped in that tree for two hundred years before gaining freedom/mobility through Yona’s body. Instead of living as bound to the Blood Seal organization and to Shadow Island itself, Ketsueki now has a host for transportation and for seeking out his own desires. Ketsueki’s current personal desires include growing in strength through the blood of his victims and progressing to become a higher level demon in the eyes of his own kin.
Ketsueki is able to take over Yona’s body, using it to an extent to get what he wants. His goal is destruction, death, and restoring his name back to the time when he was a part of local folklore and fears. He has a chaotic evil alignment and essentially does as he pleases and as he is capable of. He sees Yona as not in control of her body but merely his host for the time being. He can take over her body in small ways, giving Yona great power and strength, working to earn her trust in small amounts so that he can manipulate or forcefully take control of her body on a regular basis. In such a state induces an insatiable yearning for spilling blood, ingesting blood, or mass killing. It is only through Yona’s own will power and mind strength that she is able to fend Ketsueki off and control how much or how often he takes over her body. With training and practice, Yona does become better, can access the demon's power and abilities and through internal bargaining can control Ketsueki to an extent. However, Ketsueki is his own entity and will do as he desires and so chooses (represented when necessary through rp or plot). He only acts as an equal or as a subservient demon if another stronger demonic presence is around. Yona might be able to access some of his abilities when he is not in control but for rp sake, the spells he can use are most effective when he uses them. As a final note, they do share HP and MP.
Blood-scourge: In the presence of an extremely violent or bloody event, through the spilling or ingesting of blood, or through weakening Yona herself with reduced 10% HP if there is no blood around, Ketsueki/Yona can deal increased magical damage by 50%.
Predator Speed: Ketsueki is swift and moves somewhat like a shadow when he so chooses. In low light or in the dark, his speed increases to 50% and he can do so in relative silence like a predator.
Charming Gaze: Ketsueki's color changing eyes give him the ability to charm (to make targets friendly towards him or much more agreeable) or read the surface thoughts of those below the user rank of the body he is in (below Yona's user rank), with OOC permission if used on players or their owned NPCs. He can in no way use mind control on NPCs or PCs, this ability allows him to have specific targets view him as a friend for a duration of 3 posts.
Ketsueki can see in the dark, but this renders him unable to see color in dark settings unless a natural or magical light is additionally applied.
Downside: For an increase of speed of 50%, the user must be focused on the target, making them lose all peripheral and long distance vision (vision farther than user rank burst range) for the duration of the spell.
Description: The spell is cast swiftly and appears as dark wine-red claws shoot out and extend from the user's hand(s) (He can choose to use one or two hands). The claws can deal melee damage of user rank. Even from a distance, Ketsueki's dark-colored knife-like claws can stretch out and lunge into a target's body. The claws of Ketsueki's hands shoot out to a single target range. They extend out to impale the target wherever aimed. The claws work like the roots of a tree, drawing out the blood of the target and then drawing that blood into Ketsueki, and dealing user rank damage to the target. The blood drawn in through the claws from the target is used to increase the power of Ketsueki. A 70% increase to spell damage based on user's rank because this is a ranking signature spell. This lasts for the duration of the spell.
Description: This spell is a single target spell and follows all single target spell rules. The only case of being able to be a multi-target spell is if this spell strikes the killing blow on a foe. If this spell is responsible for killing a target, then Ketsueki/Yona is able to use this as a multiple target spell and attack one additional target within range, in this case however only dealing multiple target damage. Ketsueki/Yona first makes a goring bite and claw attack. When complete, if there is a nearby target, Ketsueki/Yona may leap or bound to them if they are within range and launch a secondary attack dealing the multiple target damage. The damage buff is 70% for this spell given the ferocity of the attack.
Description: Ketsueki/Yona are able to use this spell on multiple targets, choosing up to 5 creatures, animals or people. They stop and take an obvious and very deep breath. Through their nose, one can see the silvery mist that is the life essence of their targets. It is a non-bloody attack that deals damage to HP. If done multiple times over the course of several posts, it gives the appearance that Ketsueki/Yona is drinking in the life of the targets until there is nothing left. In addition to taking damage, if the targets are hit by this spell, the targets are given a debuff that slows them by 60%, a symptom of feeling groggy or tired and weak from the attack.
Description: In 2 posts or less from taking damage, Ketsueki/Yona can apply this healing spell. This spell seals up wounds from the inside out and if limbs are severed they are regrown. It heals 80 HP of damage done and can even repair damaged clothing if any were torn in conflict. Ketsueki/Yona can use a 60% buff to healing effectiveness for the duration of this spell and heal for a grand total of 128 (80+48) HP.
Downside: For instilling fear that gives a single target a 25% speed debuff, a 25% debuff to user's range is applied.
Description: The evil within Ketsueki begins to appear in a physical form. It gives Yona's skin a shadow like appearance and texture, being dark and smokey. Ketsueki's claws grow from Yona's hands and strikes appear to slide through weapons, armor, and even thin objects like tables and doors, dealing damage even when defenses seem high. The form is still substantial but this allows her to instill fear, and deal serious damage. The fear is for plot and has no % associated with it unless the downside is activated. Striking with claws goes through opposing weapons or physical objects of less than 1 foot thickness or 0.3 m. They can go through spells or magical barriers if the negated spell MP cost is paid. It cannot go through any spells without OOC permission and if permission is given, the MP cost for negating the effects of a magical barrier spell for example, must still be paid. The smoky claws of the demon driven by darkness and evil gain a magical damage increase by 65%.
Downside: Ketsueki/Yona can choose to take a 50% decrease to the spell range in order to get a 25% increase to speed and a 25% increase to magical attack damage from this spell.
Description: Enormous wings made of bone and thin black flesh appear from the entirety of Ketsueki/Yona's back. The wings are in fact larger than Ketsueki/Yona's body is and the bone protrusions from the edges of the large wings are dangerously sharp. The wings are somewhat unwieldy, making it challenging to walk or make intricate flight patterns amidst or out of a battle. Still the wings allow Ketsueki/Yona to swoop down and lift up creatures up to double Yona's size. From no more than Single Target range, Ketsueki/Yona drops the creature (animal or person) from the air and allows them to splat helplessly upon the ground. With the wings being sharpened by protrusions of bone as they are, Ketsueki/Yona gets a 30% increase to damage dealt when the target struggles or attempts to fight this spell. Ketsueki/Yona gets another 30% resistance to magical attack damage to protect herself while she has wings out.
Downside: In giving up 50% of Ketsueki/Yona's speed, they can apply a debuff which reduces the speed of targets by 50%.
Description: A dewy red mist appears and fills the area. The potent smell of iron is in the air, the smell of blood. Within the mist, the targets hear the screams of all those who have been feasted upon by the demon, their souls lost in torment. Within the mist, the targets seem catch glimpses of horrified faces, children, men, and women, yet when they look closer, the faces appear to fade away, making the targets question if they were ever there. This dewy mist hinders sight, smell and rational thought for the targets. Being frightened or confused will immobilize them for one post as they try to get their bearings on just where they are and where their enemy is. It doesn't help that the bloody mist is dealing damage on top of everything else the targets have to put up with.
Description: Ketsueki/Yona lifts up one of her arms, fist closed and palm facing down (pronation). A cut behind the fist splits open, and from this slash at the wrist spurts of blood emerge. A series of kunai form from the blood, hardening like steel, and shoot projectile style from the wrist towards the targets. Up to 6 Blood Kunai can be formed per post. If struck by the blood kunai, the target's blood will mingle with the kunai blood, giving him a poisoning effect. This effect reduces his magical resistance to spells by 65%, meaning as long as this spell is in effect, the target will take more damage.
Downside: For a decrease in range by 25%, there can be applied a 25% decrease to enemies' speed.
Description: This spell appears as a series of crimson and yellow bubbles floating about the area. Each bubble is about the size of 0.3m. Upon bursting, they can either buff an ally or debuff an enemy. The red bubbles' buff is 35% increase to magical damage and the yellow bubbles' debuff is 30% decrease to enemy speed. It deals typical area of effect damage for the duration of the spell.
Description: Once this spell is cast, Ketsueki/Yona only need to target someone for it to take effect. Ketsueki/Yona must choose to affect a specific part of the body. In that specific area, the muscle and sinew degrade and liquify. It causes intense pain and pressure and because the muscle is destroyed, the part of the body cannot be moved (example is if the foot is targeted, the foot is rendered useless). It can be healed with magical means but it deals damage over time until healed. This spell uses the blood within a person to attack the muscle so in this case, so it deals an additional 65% damage.
Description: Ketsueki/Yona clench their fists and as blood gathers within their hands, the throbbing in their arms and hands clearly evident; using the iron found in blood, two scimitar blades appear. One in each hand, these scimitars are dark black, bright red, or a glossy shade in-between. Made of blood, they are surprisingly strong, working like iron with an unusual sheen to them. As they slash, the dual wielded blades deal their devastating damage. They can bypass armors, shields and magical defenses and are weapons to be feared.
Description: A massive aura manifests around the user, displaying like vines of a plant, but red and full of the powerful scent of iron heavy blood. The vine tendrils are covered in thorns and dig into the skin of those that are ensnared. The aura grabs and lashes out at nearby targets. It can lash and deal damage or grab hold and immobilize an enemy for one post.
b]Description:[/b] By pointing out and selecting a target, Ketsueki/Yona can pinch their fingers together and form large clots in the blood. These clots can be formed to deal damage, to prevent use of specific limbs, and to put an target to sleep. The target will be asleep for 1 post duration and will feel the effects of the following debuff for 4 more posts. Due to feeling groggy, the 4 posts will reduce the targets’ strength and speed by 30%.
Description: In order to heal self, or one ally, Ketsueki/Yona can use their own demonic white blood cells. If blood contact is made in some way on an ally, rapid and painless healing can ensue. Natural infection and immunity defenses are boosted while this happens giving a 25% resistance to magical damage for the duration of the spell. The effectiveness of the spell's healing is also increased by 40% because of the demonic essence in the blood.
Downside: For an increase of 30% range in the spell area, there will be a sacrificed 30% in speed for Ketsueki/Yona.
Description: All plant life within the area abruptly withers and dies, hardening in texture and darkening in pigment. Then the dark-colored dead wood turns black and rises up, appearing as bat like imps or small clawed demons. The small creatures are mindless, shaped only from dead wood and magic. The Niche'voya cause fear, confusion, and attack mercilessly to shred and destroy all hope of rescue or survival within this area. Furthermore, this spell also increases the user's spell damage by 90% for the duration of the spell.
Downside: For a decrease in speed of 50%, Ketsueki/Yona has an increase the range by 50%.
Description: Enormous wings sprout from the back, and what first looks like vines and leaves, shines in light like metal. The vines and leaves which form these wings incorporate the iron from Ketsueki/Yona's bloodstream, making them powerful as a defense and offense. The wings are the size of her entire body and gleam with barbed-wire like edges. She gains the ability to fly and once per post attack in burst range, using the wings like magical blades to slice at enemies. The defense the wings provide is a 90% buff to Ketsueki/Yona's magical defense.
Description: By spilling some small amount of Ketsueki/Yona's own blood, Ketsueki/Yona is able to open the gateway of death. The gateway is circular or oval shaped, presenting at first as a glowing skull. The mouth opens quickly until the mouth of the skull is all that is visible and the gateway has swallowed its target whole. A portal to hell appears within single target range either behind, beneath or simply near to the target (which can be one's self). The target is teleported into hell for the duration of the spell (or longer if they choose to for plot or rp purposes). While there, the target not being user himself, the target will take damage over time from either the devils and demons which reside there or the general fiery temperature in that realm. At the spell's end, or by user's choice, the gateway of death becomes the gateway of life, offering the victim a way out of hell and back to the material plane from the exact spot where they were removed. This spell cannot be used on PCs or NPCs controlled by PCs without explicit permission OOC by those PCs. This spell can be used to negate a single spell cast provided that the spell cost is paid for by the user and only up to the user's rank.
Description: Once cast, this spell's effects can be used against no more than two targets per post for the duration of the spell. This is because Ketsueki/Yona has only two hands and they are necessary for this spell. On a target (or two) within burst range, Ketsueki/Yona's arms launch outwards and their hands plunge into the chest of a target, squeezing their heart inside of their chest and bypassing the bones without fracturing them (clearly a part of the magical intent of the spell). Ketsueki/Yona immobilize their targets for one round. It deals damage to the target(s) during the post and at the end of each of the user's post Ketsueki/Yona must choose a new target(s) and release the target(s) that she has before being able to repeat the attack on a new target in a new post. Due to the lengthy duration, possibility of the target(s) being attacked more than once is possible, but immobilization can only occur in that case on every other post, in order to maintain the one post maximum for immobilization and give other PCs a chance to appropriately react.
Description: This spell has a menacing appearance and happens very quickly. A ring of velvet and wooden coffins double the size of a mage appear around a group of targets, forming a sort of fence. They topple over backwards and from inside steps out an equal number of clones of the targets inside, though these clones have extraordinarily pale skin, fangs, and solid black eyes. These clones attack the targets within with voracity and bloodlust, not able to communicate, only hissing and screaming as they work to rend the flesh. The vampiric clones are frightening and disorienting to behold, showing the targets who they might be if they too were corrupted by demons. What proceeds is an impossible blood bath. Furthermore, this spell also increases the user's spell damage by 105% for the duration of the spell. | 2019-04-19T10:29:53Z | https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t34002-yokai-of-the-blood-tree |
Water ferns have tiny hairs that are super hydrophobic. Their properties, if applied in real life conditions to a sail boat, for example, could lead to a reduction of up to 10 percent of the boat’s fuel consumption by reducing friction.
Until now, the researchers didn’t quite understand how aquatic ferns work, but some scientists from the University of Bonn, Rostock and Karlsruhe showed the exact process in the journal Advanced Materials.
The scientists used the water fern salvinia molesta, which is extremely hydrophobic. Using such properties in swimsuits, for example, could make them quick-drying and ships would be very efficient. The salvinia molesta surrounds itself by a skirt of air, preventing the plant from coming into contact with the liquid. And the effect lasts a few weeks.
Hydrophobic materials had been discovered, but their properties don’t last that long – not to mention as long as to be put on ships who cruise for weeks/months. The best such material only has a few hours of stability, after which it vanishes. The challenge is to make hydrophobic materials that last at least as water ferns do.
The professor also estimates that, by being huge fuel-guzzlers, ships could make a difference in the worldwide fuel savings if they’re “tuned” to be more efficient – “probably one percent of the fuel consumption worldwide could be saved this way,” he says.
Today, some antifouling coating method (but not bio) increases the ship's efficiency by reducing drag while also protecting the ocean from biocides that may leak.
Instead of biocides, used by much of the industry to keep barnacles off of the hull, a special silicone-based paint is used. The silicone paint covering the part of the hull below the waterline is credited for lowering the water drag enough to save 1200 tons of fuel per year for the 'Emma Mærsk' ship.
Australian Navy has approved the use of an Adelaide designed electronic shark deterrent following an attack on one of its divers last year.
The Adelaide-based Shark Shield company said the Navy accreditation and clearance followed seven months of testing after able seaman Paul de Gelder was attacked by a shark during a training exercise in Sydney Harbour in February, 2009 and lost his right hand and right leg in the attack.
The basic Shark Shield device weighs about 380 grams and is small enough to fit into a person's hand. Another version has been designed to be fitted to surfboards.
The Australian Navy approval should spark an increase in international and local orders for the Shark Shield technology, the company said.
Chairman Grant Price said the device emits electric impulses that cause great discomfort to sharks.
Sharks have hundreds of electro-receptors in their snouts, which pick up the minute electrical impulses emitted by living creatures in the water.
A Shark Shield emits impulses of greater intensity which cause sharks discomfort at a range of up to 8m.
If the shark moves further into the field they experience muscle spasms that are enough to deter an attack.
Mr Price said the Navy had chosen the Shark Shield as the most effective technology available.
"The Navy tested our product under a variety of conditions for seven months and has found it meets all criteria to improve the safety of its divers," he said.
"We are receiving enormous international interest in our device and expect general inquiries to translate to firm agreements as it becomes known that the Australian Navy relies on our technology.
"We are also hoping to extend the relationship with the Navy to supply Shark Shield to other military personnel."
Mr Price said Australia was known to have some of the most shark-populated waters on the planet, so what was seen to work in Australia had international credibility.
The device could also be used for swimmers, kayakers and fishers.
SeaOrbiter is a unique vessel in the world, developing a new concept for man’s underwater observation, continuously twenty-four hours a day. It will permit a better understanding of marine phenomena and a new inventory of ocean wealth for the preservation of its resources, as well as those of our planet. It is at once a revolutionary and indispensable human adventure for future generations.
It is also a true platform of communication, within educational reach, the motor of a new adventure proposed to men around the Mediterranean, Europe and the world to fully understand the ocean and its ecosystems, to respect and to live in harmony with them.
SeaOrbiter is today accompanied by a large committee of internationally renowned experts coming from multiple domains of state-of-the-art competence, as well as by numerous manufacturers linked to maritime technologies throughout the world.
This project, of great symbolic weight, created by architect Jacques Rougerie, is above all a “gift to the generations to come”.
By combining the latest technology and the taste for adventure, we propose to them a maritime adventure unique since Cousteau. To promote a new message of hope for humanity.
CHS (Canadian Hydrographic Service) gives us its agreement to display their nautical raster charts (a set of 768 charts, 1618 charts including sub-charts) in the Marine GeoGarage.
This web application has been produced by MAGIC INSTINCT Software based on Canadian Hydrographic Service ("CHS") data, following any minimum standards/guidelines that may been established by CHS, pursuant to CHS Digital VAR Agreement N° 2010-0331-1260-M.
The incorporation of data sourced from CHS in this product shall not be construed as constituting an endorsement by CHS of this product.
This product does not meet the requirements of the Charts and Nautical Publications Regulations under the Canada Shipping Act.
Certified charts and publications, corrected and up-to-date, must be used to meet the requirements of those regulations.
Ocean levels are rising around the globe, so rather than tethering our buildings to the sinking shoreline why not suit them for a life at sea?
That’s the approach behind the Water-Scraper, a futuristic self-sufficient floating city. A special mention in this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Competition, the design expands the concept of a floating island into a full-fledged underwater skyscraper that harvests renewable energy and grows its own food.
Touted as a self-sufficient floating city, Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum’s Water-Scraper utilizes a variety of green technologies. It generates its own electricity using wave, wind, and solar power and it produces its own food through farming, aquaculture, and hydroponic techniques.
The surface of the submerged skyscraper sustains a small forest, while the lower levels contain spaces for its inhabitants to live and work. The building is kept upright using a system of ballasts aided by a set of squid-like tentacles that generate kinetic energy.
As anyone who has seen Waterworld will attest, it’s a grim future indeed — which is why it’s essential that we do what we can to stem the course of the world’s rising tides.
The digital era of seamless global navigation has become a reality now.
The enormous task facing hydrographers surveying the world's continental shelves (many areas of which have never been surveyed) helped by the progress of electronics (multibeam, Lidar...) leads the way for navigational safety, changing the antique nature of many nautical charts available for better quality information.
The growing interest in electronic charts (fuelled by the ECDIS mandate), means that all shipping vessels must consider how to implement a suitable policy that addresses both electronic and paper products for the bridge.
The International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requires that, "All ships should carry adequate and up-to-date charts, sailing directions, lists of lights, notices to mariners, tide tables, and all other nautical publications necessary for the intended voyage".
IMO's push for e-Navigation and the introduction of a mandatory carriage requirement for ECDIS from 2012 could help to reduce the possibility of vessels sailing with charts that do not represent the most accurate and up-to- date representation of their navigational environment.
The concept of e-Navigation (proposed by IMO member States in 2006) is a process for the harmonisation, collection, integration, exchange and presentation of maritime information.
There are many reasons for moving to Electronic Charts.
Safety is certainly the first one but paper is also getting more expensive every year and chart-correcting skills harder to find. By the way, it's quite obvious that as take-up grows, costs will be lower so savings will be stronger.
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office has always been a pioneer and experimenter.
UKHO stepped into the new era of digital maritime navigation with its first system incorporating a digitised catalogue, product viewer and passage planning tool ensuring a safer and more efficient navigational aid for the mariner.
Fortifying the future transition to digital navigation, Admiralty e-Navigator organises, updates, and brings together all the paper and digital information required in the safe planning of voyages, proffering access to a wealth of information as well as the capacity to organise, maintain, and display all requisite data on the bridge instantaneously.
Underlining how the Admiralty e-Navigator is designed to provide seafarers with not only comprehensive navigational data, but also intelligence which will significantly improve the ability to sail more safely and efficiently, Mr Robinson indicated the importance of electronic systems at the forefront of shipping’s future.
With instant access to navigational data for route planning as well as automated updates, such a product is revolutionising the maritime world.
Also incorporated into the e-Navigator as well as tide and weather data is Admiralty Information Overlay (AIO), the only global digital service that includes worldwide Temporary and Preliminary Notices to Mariners, ensuring even greater standards of safety for international shipping.
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has also launched the Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS).
AVCS will provide the international mariner with an integrated global set of Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) schemed in folios along the major shipping routes and covering the world's top ports, with ordering, flexible licensing and updating services.
The transmission of digital chart data, whether by satellite or using other broadcast systems, is quite obviously the fastest way of getting the latest corrections on to a vessel bridge.
For example, the ChartCo Broadcast service, which uses the Inmarsat point to multi-point service, has recently introduced ChartCo Select which offers to deliver updates to UKHO's Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS) cells across both its Broadcast and Select delivery services.
The ENCTrack service from Datema includes a licensing setup which allows a vessel to access all ENC charts for planning purposes before actually paying for them.
Charts are available at all times, removing the need for ordering, and the ship is free to deviate from its original plan without being restricted by the ENCs it had previously ordered.
The basis of payment for the ENCTrack service is a tracking system which automatically compares the position of the ship to its chart holdings, transferring the position via satellite, and orders additional charts if the vessel sails out of its existing license area.
For its part, the Alliance for Safe Navigation lead by Jeppesen (C-Map) consists of industry leaders that all share a commitment to boating safety.
The goal of the alliance is to raise the boating community’s understanding of and appreciation for up-to-date navigational information.
The alliance encourages mariners to recognize the large number of changes made to their charts and to keep their electronic and paper charts accurate, which is inexpensive and easy to do.
By the way, e-Navigation.com is a service developed by Jeppesen to support the maritime community as it prepares for the ECDIS mandate, and the expanding field of e-Navigation.
Are NOAA nautical charts water depths in fathoms, feet or meters?
On paper maps, the general information block of the chart shows the chart title, usually the name of the navigable water in the covered area, the type of projection and the unit of measurement (1:40,000, Soundings in Feet).
The numbers that appear all over the water portions of the chart are soundings.
They show how deep the water is at that point.
Large block letters at the top and bottom of the chart indicate the unit of measurement used for soundings.
So NOAA SOUNDINGS can be in FATHOMS (1 Fathom = 6 feet), FEET, or METERS (1 Meter = 3.28 feet).
Most are in feet but it depends on location and age : U.S. charts began switching from feet and fathoms to soundings in meters using the international standard for measuring depth.
Soundings in meters can be quickly converted to feet, by dividing by 3: the math isn't accurate, since a meter is slightly more than 3 ft. long, but it gives a quick, conservative estimate of the depth in feet.
SOUNDINGS IN FATHOMS indicates soundings are in fathoms or fathoms and fractions.
SOUNDINGS IN FATHOMS AND FEET indicates the soundings are in fathoms and feet.
For spot depths, the fathom will be the larger number while the fraction of fathoms or feet will be the smaller subscript number.
For example, you might see a spot depth on the chart of 42.
This indicates a depth of 4 fathoms and, if the soundings are in fathoms and feet, the small 2 indicates two feet, so in this case the depth is 4 fathoms plus 2 feet or 26 feet.
A similar convention is followed when the SOUNDINGS are in METERS or meters and tenths.
The larger number on the spot depths are in meters while the smaller number is tenths of a meter.
What about the level of water (tidal datum) ?All depths indicated on charts are reckoned from a selected level of water called the chart sounding datum.
For NOAA charts the datum is usually Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW).
This is the average height of the lower low waters of each tidal day over a 19-year period.
Older charts use Mean Low Water and foreign charts can use other tidal datums.
The MLLW datum is lower than Mean Low Water (MLW). It is more conservative with the goal of being more safe.
You must understand the soundings and tidal datum for the chart you are using and take into consideration the height of tide and the tidal range to avoid grounding.
You also must be aware that there will be certain times of the year or weather conditions which can make the actual depth less than that depicted on the chart.
Note : If the tide table show a minus sign (like, "-1") that means that you need to subtract that number from the chart's water depth.
Similar depths are connected by dark blue Contour Lines (isolines or isobaths).
If there's no depth shown at a particular location, you can glance along the contour lines nearest the location until you see a number for the depth.
Typically, the area inside either the three fathom or one fathom contour line is tinted blue to provide quick identification of shoal water.
In the Marine GeoGarage, as we display the different charts in a seamless process, the general information for the chart may be masked by another chart.
So it could be impossible to get the info about the soundings unit.
In some article of the last edition of Digital Ship, Andy Norris explores some common problems with ECDIS operation and chart management, specifically determining update status, loading charts and route planning.
One of the greatest obstacle to the implementation of mandatory ECDIS will be the hurdle of educating seafarers appropriately in use of the technology.
Many user shortcomings are today being blamed on the consoles and charts.
Norris cites inability to determine when an ENC was last updated as a frequent complaint. Firstly, he describes this challenge as far smaller than doing the same with paper charts.
Many ECDIS are updated simply by inserting a disk and following on-screen commands.
Despite the automation, Norris still advises users to: "keep a manual log of when a disk is loaded, together with a note on whether any problems occurred during the update process."
Finding and loading the appropriate charts from a chart catalogue is described as a necessary learned skill.
Once the correct chart is found in the library (including the largest available scale of any chart on, or immediately adjacent to, the planned route), it can be acquired very quickly, and much more easily than a paper chart.
It is often either a question of obtaining a code via email, or - in some cases - opening it (the purchase order and billing are arranged after the fact).
Finally, issues related to route planning are addressed.
Among the biggest problems here is dealing with the small screen of an ECDIS compared to a paper chart.
Here, Norris advises planning a route starting with a zoomed out image that spans full ocean crossings via great circles as waypoints, then refining the route later in larger scale charts.
He concludes by urging mariners to undertake both a manual check and an ECDIS automated check for hazards along the route.
Significant differences in the skills need to use ECDIS compared with using paper charts required a “major adjustment” in the approach needed to ensure safe navigation, he said.
Once mastered, ECDIS provides the means to improve navigational safety but this is not achieved just by the completion of a short course.
“The skills have to be developed and honed in the context of the knowledge gained at the course and other sources of guidance. The use of ECDIS, in general, is not paper chart techniques transferred to a screen,” he said.
The use of ECDIS is a total change from using paper charts and the transition from paper charts to electronic poses a challenge for the industry, particularly for those who have no current experience of electronic charts.
Important bridge procedures are significantly affected, and these require careful analysis and consideration if ECDIS assisted groundings are to be avoided.
Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are expanding in the World Ocean as a result of climate change and direct anthropogenic influence.
OMZ expansion greatly affects biogeochemical processes and marine life, especially by constraining the vertical habitat of most marine organisms.
Currently, monitoring the variability of the upper limit of the OMZs relies on time intensive sampling protocols, causing poor spatial resolution.
The French Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) and the Instituto del Mar del Perú (IMARPE) have developed an innovative acoustic method to observe the evolution of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) in the world's oceans.
This new technique makes it possible to measure these oxygen-free (anoxic) zones, which are home to many marine organisms, in greater detail.
The researchers measured the vertical distribution of marine organisms, such as plankton, crustaceans and fish, in the water using routine underwater acoustic observation techniques along the Peruvian coast.
The measurements, made with the help of echo sounders, allowed them to determine the oxycline, which delimits the top of the OMZ, with high precision.
Combining the data obtained in this way with regular hydrological measurements, they managed to compile high-resolution maps that are 50,000 to 100,000 times more precise than common hydrological profiles.
As well as shedding new light on the state and spread of OMZs, the scientists were also able to calculate precisely the size of the habitat available to the Peruvian anchovy, for instance, providing information that might be of interest for fisheries management.
'This method ... allows performing integrated studies since acoustic data provides information on most ecosystem components [...], to which we can add ancillary information (satellite data, vessel monitoring system, top predator tagging...),"
Such integrated approaches are crucial to implement the ecosystem approach to fisheries.
"Our methodology can also be applied to other ecosystems, e.g. oceanic dead zones, and opens new perspectives for comprehensive multiscale studies on the impact of physical forcing on organisms."
OMZs are a naturally occurring phenomenon, found at depths of about 100 to 1,000 metres. They are home to numerous organisms that are specially adapted to the low-oxygen environment, including not only anaerobic bacteria but also larger organisms such as vampire squid. Oxygen-loving organisms, however, cannot survive in these zones.
OMZs currently cover about 10% of the planet's surface.
But they have been spreading for the past 50 years due to global warming and humankind's impact on the seas through rising levels of chemical nutrients (eutrophication), for example.
This opportunistic method could be implemented on any vessel geared with multi-frequency echosounders to perform comprehensive high-resolution monitoring of the upper limit of the OMZ.
IRD's approach is a novel way of studying the impact of physical processes on marine life and extracting valid information about the pelagic habitat and its spatial structure, a crucial aspect of Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management in the current context of climate change.
The findings open up new perspectives for the study of the oceans as well as the management of fisheries resources. | 2019-04-26T04:07:37Z | https://blog.geogarage.com/2010_05_09_archive.html |
Proteins interact through specific binding interfaces that contain many residues in domains. Protein interactions thus occur on three different levels of a concept hierarchy: whole-proteins, domains, and residues. Each level offers a distinct and complementary set of features for computationally predicting interactions, including functional genomic features of whole proteins, evolutionary features of domain families and physical-chemical features of individual residues. The predictions at each level could benefit from using the features at all three levels. However, it is not trivial as the features are provided at different granularity.
To link up the predictions at the three levels, we propose a multi-level machine-learning framework that allows for explicit information flow between the levels. We demonstrate, using representative yeast interaction networks, that our algorithm is able to utilize complementary feature sets to make more accurate predictions at the three levels than when the three problems are approached independently. To facilitate application of our multi-level learning framework, we discuss three key aspects of multi-level learning and the corresponding design choices that we have made in the implementation of a concrete learning algorithm. 1) Architecture of information flow: we show the greater flexibility of bidirectional flow over independent levels and unidirectional flow; 2) Coupling mechanism of the different levels: We show how this can be accomplished via augmenting the training sets at each level, and discuss the prevention of error propagation between different levels by means of soft coupling; 3) Sparseness of data: We show that the multi-level framework compounds data sparsity issues, and discuss how this can be dealt with by building local models in information-rich parts of the data. Our proof-of-concept learning algorithm demonstrates the advantage of combining levels, and opens up opportunities for further research.
The software and a readme file can be downloaded at http://networks.gersteinlab.org/mll. The programs are written in Java, and can be run on any platform with Java 1.4 or higher and Apache Ant 1.7.0 or higher installed. The software can be used without a license.
The functions of many proteins depend highly on their interactions with other proteins. Complete protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks provide insights into the working mechanisms of proteins at a global level. While high-throughput experiments such as yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) [1–4] and tandem-affinity purification with mass spectrometry (TAP-MS) [5, 6] have enabled the survey of whole PPI networks, the resulting data are noisy with a lot of false positives and false negatives [7, 8].
The construction of more reliable PPI networks has been assisted by computational techniques. These techniques usually employ a supervised [9–12] or unsupervised and topological [13–16] machine learning method to predict the interaction of proteins. While some of the methods could predict PPI networks with high accuracy, they do not explain how the proteins interact. For instance, if protein A interacts with both proteins B and C, whether B and C could interact with A simultaneously remains unknown, as they may or may not compete for the same binding interface of A. This observation has led to the recent interest in refining PPI networks by structural information about domains [17–19]. It has also called for the prediction of protein interactions at finer granularities.
Since binding interfaces of proteins are enriched in conserved domains in permanent interactions , it is possible to construct a second-level interaction network with protein interactions annotated by the corresponding domain interactions. An even finer third-level interaction network involves the residues mediating the interactions (Figure 1, visualization of (a) by VMD ).
Schematic illustration of multi-level learning concepts. (a) The three levels of interactions. Top: the PDB structure 1piw of the homo-dime r yeast. NADP-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase 6. Middle: each chain contains two conserved Pfam domain instances, PF00107 (inner) and PF08240 (outer). The interaction interface is at PF00107. Bottom: two pairs of residues predicted by iPfam to interact: 283 (yellow) with 287 (cyan), and 285 (purple) with 285. (b) The three information flow architectures. i: independent levels, ii: unidirectional flow (illustrated by download flow), iii: bidirectional flow. (c) Coupling mechanisms for passing information from one level to another. 1: passing training information to expand the training set of the next level, 2: passing predictions as an additional feature of the next level, 3: passing predictions to expand the training set of the next level.
As will be described in the next section, some recent studies have started to perform interaction predictions at the domain and residue levels. The data features used by each level are quite distinct. While protein level features are mostly from functional genomic and proteomic data such as gene expression and sub-cellular localization of whole genes and proteins, domain level features are mainly evolutionary information such as phylogenetic-occurrence statistics of the domain families, and residue level features are largely structural or physical-chemical information derived from the primary sequences.
In the literature of domain-level prediction, the term "domain" is usually used to mean a domain family, which could have multiple occurrences in different proteins. In this study we use the terms "domain family" and "domain instance" to refer to these two concepts respectively, in order to make a clear distinction between them. For example, PF07974 is a domain family from Pfam, where ADP1_YEAST.PF07974 is a domain instance in the protein ADP1_YEAST.
Since the data features of the three levels describe very different aspects of the biological objects, potentially they could contribute to the prediction of different portions of the interaction networks. For example, some protein interactions could be difficult to detect using whole-protein level features since they lack fine-grained physical-chemical information. These can be supplemented by the residue level features such as charge complementarity.
Likewise, for the protein interactions that occur within protein complexes, there could be a high correlation between the expressions of the corresponding genes. With proper gene expression datasets included in the protein features, there is a good chance of correctly predicting such protein interactions. Then if one such interaction involves a pair of proteins each with only one conserved domain, it is very likely that the domain instances actually interact.
One may worry that if the predictions at a particular level are inaccurate, the errors would be propagated to the other levels and worsen their predictions. As we will discuss, this issue can be handled algorithmically by carefully deciding what information to propagate and how it is propagated. With a properly designed algorithm, combining the predictions and utilizing the data features of all three levels can improve the predictions at each level.
In this work we propose a new multi-level machine-learning framework that combines the predictions at different levels. Since the framework is also potentially useful for other problems in computational biology that involve a hierarchy, such as biomedical text mining (a journal contains papers and a paper contains key terms), we start with a high-level description of multi-level learning and discuss three key aspects of it. Then we suggest a practical algorithm for the problem of predicting interactions at the protein, domain and residue levels, which integrates the information of all three levels to improve the overall accuracy. We demonstrate the power of this algorithm by showing the improvements it brings to the prediction of yeast interactions relative to the predictions from independent levels (Software available [additional file 1]).
Two main ingredients of protein-protein interaction predictions are the selection of a suitable set of data features, and an appropriate way to integrate them into a learning method. Many kinds of features have been considered , including sub-cellular localization , gene expression [23, 24], and phylogenetic profiles . With the many different kinds of data features, Bayesian approaches and kernel methods [9, 12, 26] are natural choices for integrating them into a single learning algorithm. The former unifies the whole inference process by a probabilistic framework, while the latter encodes different kinds of data into kernel matrices that can be combined by various means .
Domain family-domain family interaction predictions are related to the more general goal of identifying protein interaction interfaces. While some studies tackle the problem using features at the domain level only , most other work assumes that a set of protein-protein interactions are known a priori, and the goal is to predict either domain family interactions (i.e., which domain families have their instances interact in at least one pair of proteins) or domain-instance interactions (i.e., through which domain instances do proteins interact in known interactions) [28–49]. The data features are mainly derived from statistics related to the parent proteins. For example, for a pair of domain families, the frequency of co-occurrence in interacting proteins is an informative feature, since a higher frequency may indicate a larger chance for them to be involved in mediating the interactions.
At a finer level, identifying protein interaction interfaces involves the prediction of residue interactions, which could be divided into two sub-tasks: 1) predicting which residues are in any interaction interfaces of a protein , and 2) predicting which of these interfaces interact . Data features are mainly derived from the primary protein sequences or from crystal structures if they are assumed available. Docking algorithms represent related approaches, but have a fundamentally different focus: Their goal is to utilize largely physical information to deduce the structure of the complex from the unbound protein structures, a considerably harder problem. Therefore, we do not consider them in this article and focus on large-scale techniques.
From a theoretical perspective, our multi-level learning framework is loosely related to co-training and the meta-learning technique stacking . We will compare them with our framework after introducing the information flow architectures and the coupling mechanisms in Sections and respectively. Also, our framework by nature facilitates semi-supervised learning . We will briefly discuss semi-supervised learning and its relationships with PSI-BLAST in Section.
Objects: a set of proteins, each containing the instances of one or more conserved domains, each of which contains some residues. Each protein, domain instance and residue is described by a vector of feature values. Some additional features are available for pairs of objects, such as the likelihood for a pair of proteins to interact according to a high-throughput experiment.
Gold standard positive sets of known protein-protein, domain instance-domain instance and residue-residue interactions. As in other studies on protein interaction networks, we use the term "gold standard set" to mean a set of sufficiently reliable data useful for the prediction purpose, instead of a ground-truth set that is absolutely correct. The positive sets could be 1) contaminated with false positives, and 2) incomplete, with false negatives, and a pair of upper-level objects in the positive set may not have any corresponding lower-level object pairs known to be in the positive sets.
Gold standard negative sets of non-interactions at the three levels.
We assume no crystal structures are available except for the proteins in the gold-standard positive sets, so that the input features cannot be derived from known structures. This is a reasonable assumption given the small number of known structures as compared to the availability of other data features.
The objective is to use the gold standard sets and the data features to predict whether the object pairs outside the gold standard sets interact or not. Prediction accuracies are estimated by cross-validation using holdout testing examples in the gold standard sets not involved in the training process.
In this study we focus on kernel methods for learning from examples and making predictions. The main goal of this study is to explain how the predictions at the different levels can be integrated, and to demonstrate the resulting improvements in accuracy. We do not attempt to boost the accuracy at each individual level to the limit. It may be possible to improve our predictions by using other features, learning algorithms, and parameter values. As we will see, the design of our algorithm provides the flexibility for plugging in other state-of-the-art learning methods at each level. We expect that the more accurate the individual algorithms are, the more benefits they will bring to the overall accuracy through the multi-level framework.
In order to develop a method for predicting interactions at all three levels in a cohesive manner, we need to define the relationships between the levels, which is the topic of Section. We first describe two information flow architectures already considered in previous studies, and then propose a new architecture that maximally utilizes the available data. In Section we discuss various possible approaches to coupling the levels, i.e., ways to pass information between levels. In Section we discuss the data sparsity issue. In particular, we describe the idea of local modeling, which is also useful for network predictions in general. Finally, in Section we outline the actual concrete algorithm that we have developed and used in our experiments.
A traditional machine-learning algorithm learns patterns from one single set of training examples and predicts the class labels of one single set of testing instances. When there are three sets of examples and instances instead, the most straightforward way to learn from all three levels is to handle them separately and make independent predictions (Figure 1bi). We use this architecture to setup the baseline for evaluating the performance of the other two architectures.
A second architecture is to allow downward (from protein to domain to residue) or upward (from residue to domain to protein) flow of information, but not both (Figure 1bii). This architecture is similar to some previous domain-level interaction methods described above, which also use information from the protein level. However, in our case protein interactions are not assumed to be known with certainty. So only the training set and the predictions made from the training set at the protein level can be used to assist the domain and residue levels.
A third architecture is to allow the learning algorithm of each level to access the information of any other levels, upper or lower (Figure 1biii). By allowing both upward and downward flow of information, this new architecture is the most flexible among the three, and is the architecture that we explore in this study. Theoretically, this architecture is loosely related to co-training , which assumes the presence of two independent sets of features, and each is capable of predicting the class labels of a subset of data instances. Here we have three sets of features, each of which is capable of predicting a portion of the whole interaction network. Practical extensions to the ideal co-training model allow partially dependent feature sets and noisy training examples, which fit our current problem. Learning proceeds by iteratively building a classifier from one feature set, and adding the highly confident predictions as if they were gold-standard examples to train another classifier using the other feature set. The major difference between our bidirectional-flow architecture and co-training is the presence of a hierarchy between the levels in our case, so that each set of features makes predictions at a different granularity.
To design a concrete learning algorithm, we need to specify what information is to be passed between different levels and how it is passed. Here we suggest several possibilities, and briefly discuss the pros and cons of each of them.
One simple idea is to pass training data to other levels (Figure 1c, arrow 1). This can be useful in filling in the missing information at other levels. For example, many known protein interactions do not have the corresponding 3D structures available, so there is no information regarding which domain instances are involved in the interactions. The known protein interactions can be used to compute statistics for helping the prediction of domain-level interactions.
The major limitation of passing only training data is that the usually much larger set of data instances not in the training sets (the "unlabeled data") would not benefit from multi-level learning. In contrast, if the predictions made at a level are also passed to the other levels, much more data instances could benefit (Figure 1c, arrow 2 and 3). For instance, if two domain instances are not originally known to interact, but they are predicted to interact by the domain-level features with high confidence, this information directly implies the interaction of their parent proteins.
Algorithms adopting this idea are semi-supervised in nature , since they train on not only gold-standard examples, but also predictions of data instances that are originally unlabeled in the input data set. Note that the idea of semi-supervised learning has been explored in the bioinformatics literature. For instance, in the PSI-BLAST method , sequences that are highly similar to the query input are iteratively added as seeds to retrieve other relevant sequences. These added sequences can be viewed as unlabeled data, as they are not specified in the original query input.
To pass information between levels, a first approach is to combine the learning problems of the different levels into a single optimization problem. The objective function could involve the training accuracies and smoothness requirements of all three levels. This approach enjoys the benefits of being mathematically rigorous, and being backed by the well-established theories of optimization. Yet the different kinds of data features at the different levels, as well as noisy and incomplete training sets, make it difficult to define a good objective function. Another drawback is the tight coupling of the three levels, so that it is not easy to reuse existing state-of-the-art prediction algorithms for each level.
Another approach is to have a separate learning algorithm at each level, and use the predictions of a level as an additional feature of another level (Figure 1c, arrow 2). For example, if each pair of proteins is given a predicted probability of interaction, it can be used as the value of an additional feature 'parent proteins interacting' of the domain instance pairs and residue pairs. In this approach the different levels are loosely coupled, so that any suitable learners can be plugged into the three levels independently, and the coupling of the levels is controlled by a meta-algorithm.
A potential problem is the weighting of the additional features from other levels relative to the original ones. If the original set of features is large, adding one or two extra features without proper weighing would have negligible effects on the prediction process. Finding a suitable weight may require a costly external optimization or cross-validation procedure. For kernel methods, an additional challenge is integrating the predictions from other levels into the kernel matrix, which could be difficult as its positive semi-definiteness has to be conserved.
The idea of having a meta-algorithm that utilizes the predictions of various learners is also used in stacked generalization, or stacking . It treats the predictions of multiple learners as a new set of features, and uses a meta-learner to learn from these predictions. However, in our setting, the additional features come from other levels instead of the same level.
A similar approach is to add the predictions of a level to the training set of another level (Figure 1c, arrow 3). The resulting training set involves the original input training instances and augmented training data from other levels, with a coefficient reflecting how much these augmented training data are to be trusted according to the training accuracy of the supplying level. This approach also has the three levels loosely coupled.
A potential problem of this training set expansion approach is the propagation of errors to other levels. The key to addressing this issue is to perform soft coupling, i.e., to associate confidence values to predictions, and propagate only highly confident predictions to other levels. For kernel methods, this means ignoring objects falling in or close to the margin. This approach is similar to PSI-BLAST mentioned above, which selectively includes only the most similar sequences in the retrieval process.
In this study, we focus on this third approach. It requires a learning method for each level, while the control of information flow between the different levels by means of training set expansion forms the meta-algorithm. Since each level involves only one set of features and one set of data instances, traditional machine learning methods can be used. We chose support vector regression (SVR) , which is a type of kernel method. We used regression instead of the more popular support vector machine classifiers because the former can accept confidence values of augmented training examples as inputs, and produce real numbers as output, which can be converted back into probabilities that reflect the confidence of interactions.
Features for object pairs: it is not easy to construct features for pairs of objects, since most available data features are for single objects. This is particularly a problem for kernel methods, which require a kernel matrix to encapsulate the similarity between each pair of data instances. For network data, this means a similarity value for each pair of object pairs. While methods have been proposed to construct such kernel matrices , the resulting kernels, while formally correct, are difficult to interpret.
Time complexity: working with pairs of objects squares the time requirement with respect to the number of objects in the dataset. While state-of-the-art implementations of kernel methods could easily handle thousands of proteins, it would still be challenging to deal with millions of protein pairs, let alone the even more daunting numbers of domain instance pairs and residue pairs.
Space complexity: the kernel matrix has a size quadratic in the number of data instances. With n objects at a level, there are O(n2) pairs and thus the kernel matrix contains O(n4) entries.
Sub-clusters: the two classes of data instances may contain many sub-clusters that cannot be handled by one single global model. For instance, proteins involved in permanent complexes may use a very different interaction mechanism from transient interactions in signaling pathways.
To avoid these problems, one alternative is local modeling . Instead of building one single global model for all object pairs, one local model is built for each object. For example, if the dataset contains n proteins, then n models are built, one for each protein, for predicting whether this protein interacts with each of the n proteins. The advantages of local modeling are obvious: 1) data features are needed for individual objects only, 2) the time complexity is smaller than global modeling whenever the learning method has a super-linear time complexity, 3) much less memory space is needed for the kernel matrix, and 4) each object can have its very specific local model. For all these benefits, in our experiments we only considered local modeling.
Local modeling is most useful when the training data are abundant and evenly distributed across different objects, such that each object receives a reasonable amount of positive and negative examples to train its local model. However, when the training data are sparse and uneven, some objects may have insufficient (or none at all) training examples. For instance, among the millions of yeast protein pairs, there are only a few thousand known interactions, so many proteins have very few of them.
Our proposed solution uses concepts related to semi-supervised learning: use high confidence predictions to augment training sets. Suppose protein A has sufficient known positive and negative examples in the original training sets, and the local model learned from these examples predicts with high confidence protein B to be an interaction partner with A. Then when building the local model for B, A can be used as a positive training example. Predicted non-interactions can be added as negative examples in a similar way. This idea is consistent with the training set expansion method proposed above for inter-level communication. As a result, the information flow both between levels and within a level can be handled in a unified framework. The expanded training set of a level thus involves the input training data, highly confident predictions of the local models of the level, and highly confident predictions from other levels. Practically, training set expansion within the same level requires an ordered construction of the local models. Objects with many (input or derived) training examples should have their local models constructed first, as more accurate models are likely to be obtained from larger training sets. As these objects are added as training examples of their predicted interaction partners and non-partners, they would progressively accumulate training examples for their own local models.
We now explain how we used the ideas described in the previous sections, namely bidirectional information flow, coupling by predictions passing, and local modeling with training set expansion, to develop out concrete learning algorithm for prediction of protein, domain instance and residue interactions. We first give a high-level overview of the algorithm, then explain the components in more detail.
Setup a learning sequence of the levels.
Use the model learned for the first level in the sequence to predict interactions at the level.
Propagate the most confident predictions to the next level in the sequence as auxiliary training examples.
Repeat the previous two steps for the second and third levels, and so on.
We use training set expansion with support vector regression (SVR) to perform learning at each level. Each pair of objects in the positive and negative training sets is given a class label of 1 and 0, respectively. An SVR model is learned for the object (e.g. protein) with the largest number of training examples (denoted as A). The model predicts a real value for each object, indicating the likelihood that it interacts with A. The ones with the largest and smallest predicted values are treated as the most confident positive and negative predictions, and are used to expand the training set. For example, if B is an object with the largest predicted value, then A and B are predicted to interact, and A is added as an auxiliary positive training example of B. After training set expansion, the next object with the largest number of training examples is re-determined, its SVR is learned, and the most confident predictions are used to expand the training set in the same manner. The whole process then repeats until all models have been learned. Finally, each pair of objects A and B received two predicted values, one from the model learned for A and one from the model learned for B. The two values are weighted according to the training accuracies of the local models for A and B to produce the predicted value for the pair. Sorting the predicted values in descending order gives a list of predictions from the pair most likely to interact to the one least likely. The list is then used to evaluate the accuracy by the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) . We have tried a range of values for defining the most confident set of predictions (results available at supplementary web site), and the general trends of prediction accuracies were observed to remain largely unchanged.
One way to setup the learning sequence is to use the above procedure to deduce the training accuracy of the three levels when treated independently, then order the three levels into a learning sequence according to their accuracies. For example, if the protein level gives the highest accuracy, followed by the domain level, and then the residue level, the sequence would be "PDRPDR...", where P, D and R stand for the protein, domain and residue levels, respectively. Having the level with the highest training accuracy earlier in the sequence ensures the reliability of the initial predictions of the whole multi-level learning process, which is important since all latter levels depend on them. Notice that after learning at the last level, we feedback the predictions to the first level to start a new iteration of learning.
In our computational experiments we also tested the accuracy when only two levels are involved. In such situations, we simply bypassed the left-out level. For example, to test how much the domain and residue levels could help each other without the protein level, the learning sequence would be "DRDR...".
The mechanism of propagating predictions from a level to another depends on the direction of information flow.
For an upward propagation (R→D, R→P or D→P), each object pair in the next level receives a predicted likelihood of interaction from each pair of their child objects. For example, if predictions are propagated from the domain level to the protein level, each pair of domain instances provides a predicted value to their pair of parent proteins. We tried two methods to integrate these values. In the first method, we normalize the predicted values to the [0, 1] range as a proxy of the probability of interaction, then use the noisy-OR function to infer the chance that the parent objects interact. Let X and Y be the two sets of lower-level objects, and p(x, y) denotes the probability of interaction between two objects x ∈ X and y ∈ Y, then the chance that the two parent objects interact is 1 - ∏x∈X, y∈Y(1 - p(x, y)), i.e., the parent objects interact if and only if at least one pair of its children objects interact. In the second method, we simply take the maximum of the values. In the ideal case where all predicted values are either 0 or 1, both methods are exactly the same as taking the OR of the values. When the values are noisy, the former is more robust as it does not depend on a single value. Yet its value is dominantly affected by a large number of fuzzy predicted values with intermediate confidence, and is thus less sensitive. Since in our tests it does not provide superior performance, in the following we report results for the second method.
For a downward propagation (P→D, P→R or D→R), we inherit the predicted value of the parent pair as the prior belief that the object pairs from the two parents will interact. For example, if we are propagating information from the protein level to the domain level, each pair of domain instances has a prior belief of interaction equal to the predicted likelihood that their parent proteins interact.
In both cases, after computing the probability of interaction for each pair of objects in the next level based on the predicted values at the current level, we again add the most confident positive and negative predictions as auxiliary training examples for the next level, with the probabilities used as the confidence values of these examples.
In the actual implementation, we used the Java package libsvm for SVR, and the Java version of lapack http://www.netlib.org/lapack/ for some matrix manipulations.
We tested the effectiveness of multi-level learning by predicting protein, domain instance and residue interactions of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Data features were gathered from multiple sources (Table 1), including phylogenetic profiles , sub-cellular localization , gene expression [24, 63], and yeast two-hybrid [1, 4] and TAP-MS [5, 6] networks. Each of them was turned into a kernel matrix and the final kernel was the summation of them, as in previous studies [12, 26].
Data features at the protein level.
A gold standard positive set was constructed from the union of experimentally verified or structurally determined protein interactions from MIPS , DIP and iPfam with duplicates removed. The MIPS portion was based on the 18 May 2006 version, and only physical interactions not obtained from high throughput experiments were included. The DIP portion was based on the 7 Oct 2007 version, and only interactions from small-scale experiments or multiple experiments were included. The iPfam portion was based on version 21 of Pfam . A total of 1681 proteins with all data features and at least one interaction were included in the final dataset, forming 3201 interactions. A gold standard negative set with the same number of protein pairs was then created from random pairs of proteins not known to interact in the positive set [9, 32].
We included two types of features at the domain level: co-evolution and statistics related to parent proteins (Table 2). These are similar to the features used by previous studies for domain family/domain instance interaction predictions [28, 47, 68].
Data features at the domain level.
*: These two features were used with the unidirectional and bidirectional flow architectures only since they involve information about the training set of the protein level.
The gold standard positive set was taken from iPfam, where two domain instances are defined as interacting if they are close enough in 3D structure and some of their residues are predicted to form bonding according to their distances and chemistry. After intersecting with the proteins considered at the protein level, a total of 422 domain instance interactions were included, which involves 272 protein interactions and 317 domain instances from 223 proteins and 252 domain families. A negative set with the same number of domain instance pairs was then formed from random pairs of domain instances in the positive set. All known yeast Pfam domain instances of the proteins were involved in the learning, many of which do not have any known interactions in the gold standard positive set. Altogether 2389 domain instances from 1681 proteins and 1184 domain families were included.
We used three data features derived from sequences (Table 3). Charge complementarity and other features likely useful for interaction predictions are implicit in the sequence profiles. The features are similar to those used in a previous study . However, as we do not assume the availability of crystal structures of unlabeled objects, the secondary structures and solvent accessible surface areas we used were algorithmically predicted from sequence instead of derived from structures. We used SABLE to make such predictions. Information about empirical kernel map and constant shift embedding can be found in and , respectively.
Data features at the residue level.
In a previous study , the feature set of a residue involves not only the features of the residue itself, but also neighboring residues closest to it in the crystal structure, which allows for the possibility that some of them are involved in the same binding site and thus have dependent interactions. In the absence of crystal structures, we instead included a window of residues right before and after a residue in the primary sequence to construct its feature set. We chose a small window size of 5 to make sure that the included residues are physically close in the unknown 3D structures.
The gold standard positive set was taken from iPfam, where the interacting residues are determined based on their proximity in known crystal structures of interacting proteins. Since there is a large number of residue pairs, we only sampled 2000 interactions, which involve 228 protein pairs, 327 domain instance pairs and 3053 residues from 195 proteins, 279 domain instances and 224 domain families. Only these 3053 residues were included in the data set. A negative set was created by randomly sampling from these residues 2000 residue pairs that do not have known interactions in iPfam.
We used ten-fold cross validation to evaluate the performance of our algorithm. Since the objects in the three levels are correlated, an obvious performance gain would be obtained if in a certain fold the training set of a level contains some direct information about the testing set instances of another level. For example, if a residue interaction in the positive training set comes from a protein pair in the testing set, then the corresponding protein interaction can be directly inferred and thus the residue interaction would create a fake improvement for the predictions at the protein level. This problem was avoided by partitioning the object pairs in the three levels consistently. First, the known protein interactions in iPfam were divided into ten folds. Then, each domain instance interaction and each residue interaction was put into the fold in which the parent protein interaction was assigned. Finally, the remaining protein interactions and all the negative sets were randomly divided into ten folds.
Each time, one of the folds was held out as the testing set and the other nine folds were used for training. We used the area under the ROC (Receiver Operator Characteristics) curve (AUC) to evaluate the prediction accuracies. For each level, all object pairs in the gold standard positive and negative sets were sorted in descending order of the predicted values of interaction they received when taking the role of testing instances. The possible values of AUC range from 0 to 1, where 1 corresponds to the ideal situation where all positive examples are given a higher predicted value than all negative examples, and 0.5 is the expected value of a random ordering.
We compared the prediction accuracies in three cases: independent levels, unidirectional flow of training information only, and bidirectional flow of both training information and predictions. For the latter two cases, we compared the performance when different combinations of the three levels were involved in training.
For independent levels, we trained each level independently using its own training set, and then used the predictions as initial estimates to retrain for ten feedback iterations. This iterative procedure was to make sure that any accuracy improvements observed in the other architectures were at least in part due to the communications between the different levels, instead of merely the effect of semi-supervised learning at a single level. For unidirectional flow, we focused on downward flow of information. The levels were always arranged with upper levels coming before lower levels.
Table 4 summarizes the prediction accuracies of the three levels. All numbers correspond to the average results among the ten feedback iterations. Each row represents the results of one level. For unidirectional flow and bidirectional flow, the levels involved in training are also listed. For example, the PR column of unidirectional flow involves the use of the protein-level training sets in setting up the initial estimate of the residue interactions. This has no effect on the predictions at the protein level since information only flows downward. The cell at the row for protein interactions is therefore left blank. The best result in each row is in bold face.
Prediction accuracies (AUC) of the three levels with different information flow architectures and training levels.
We first notice that the results for independent levels are consistent with our expectations. Having many diverse data features, the protein level has a satisfactory accuracy. On the other hand, the accuracies of the domain and residue levels were relatively low due to their weak and noisy features. Note that we are predicting whether two arbitrary domain instances or two arbitrary residues interact, rather than only those in known interacting protein pairs. This setting is more realistic for organisms with no known protein interaction network, and the problem is significantly harder than when the protein interaction network is available.
Downward flow of training information did help the prediction of domain instance interactions. However, the results of the residue level are quite unsatisfactory, with accuracies even lower than those with independent levels no matter assisted by the training examples of the protein level or domain level. In contrast, the results for bidirectional flow are encouraging. In all cases, the accuracies are higher than the other two architectures. For example, while using the domain level to help the residue level decreased the accuracy of the latter from 0.5675 to 0.5128 with unidirectional flow, the accuracy was increased to 0.6182 with bidirectional flow. As an illustration of the difference in performance of the three architectures, the various ROC curves of protein, domain and residue interaction predictions are shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4, respectively.
Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves of protein interaction predictions with different frameworks and training levels.
Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves of domain interaction predictions with different frameworks and training levels.
Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves of residue interaction predictions with different frameworks and training levels.
The improvements for both the domain and residue levels are quite dramatic, with maximum AUC gains of more than 0.15. This clearly shows the benefits of passing not only training information, but also highly confident predictions. Consider a domain instance pair in the testing set of a certain fold. Since the corresponding parent protein pair must not be in the training set at the protein level of the fold, the passing of training information does not directly help predict the interaction status of the domain instance pair. On the other hand, if the interaction status of the protein pair is predicted correctly with high confidence, passing this information to the domain level can make a direct influence on the prediction of the domain instance interaction. For instance, if the protein pair is correctly predicted as not interacting, the domain instance pair would probably be correctly predicted as not interacting, too.
In general, it is observed that levels with a higher raw accuracy with independent levels could offer a bigger improvement to the other levels. For example, the protein level increased the accuracy of the residue interaction predictions from 0.5675 to 0.6581, while the domain level could only increased it to 0.6182. However, it is also crucial to note that although the domain level has a low accuracy with independent levels, it could still make good improvements to the prediction of residue interactions. This observation supports our design of passing only highly confident predictions in avoiding the propagation of errors. The combination of all three levels has the potential to further improve accuracy. For both the protein and residue levels, the best results were obtained when all three levels were involved in training. In particular, while each of the protein and domain levels improved the residue level by a certain amount, the combination of them provided yet another significant amount of improvement.
As a concrete example of information flow between the three levels, several of the interacting residue pairs between the hexokinase 1 (PF00349) and hexokinase 2 (PF03727) domains of the hexokinase isoenzyme 2 (HXK2) protein are correctly identified with high likelihood of interaction. For example, residue 46 in the hexokinase 1 domain and residue 278 in the hexokinase 2 domain are predicted to interact with a score of 0.89 out of 1.0. This might be partially due to the charge complementarity of the two residues in their PSI-BLAST profiles, with the most conserved residues being the positively-charged arginine and the negatively-charged aspartic acid at the two positions, respectively. The detecting of such residue interaction helps raise the likelihood of the corresponding domain interaction from a score of 0.27 to 0.72. In turn, this helps detect the self-interaction of the glucokinase (GLK1) protein, which also has the two domains. The interaction was verified in a two-hybrid assay .
The experimental results have demonstrated the great potential of linking up the prediction problems at the different levels. This initial success encourages deeper investigations of the idea along various directions. Algorithmically, other approaches to combining the different levels, including combined optimization and predictions as extra features, need to be studied. Currently the features at the domain and residue levels are weak, as reflected by their low accuracy when learned independently, and the small improvement they could cause to the protein level. It is interesting to study ways to improve the predictions at these two levels, and more directly extract the complementary information hidden in these levels that are useful for the protein level.
The current study is limited by a highly disproportionate dataset, with much more training examples at the protein level than the domain level. Together with a much weaker feature set, the raw accuracy at the domain level is much lower than the protein level, and the former could only slightly improve the predictions of the latter in the multi-level learning framework. It is hoped that as more structures of protein complexes are solved, the disproportionality would be alleviated. In the meantime, it is interesting to study ways to derive other features that could better predict the domain interactions, and the mechanism by which the domain-level information improved the protein-level predictions.
In this article we have pointed out some important issues of both multi-level learning and network prediction, including data sparseness and the existence of sub-clusters. While we have proposed methods to tackle them, a detailed analysis of how these issues affect prediction performance and what other algorithmic strategies for tackling them are yet to be studied.
To predict the whole interaction network, it is needed to reduce the time and space requirements. One possible way is to intelligently select what data to exclude, such as residues that are predicted to be buried deep inside the core of a protein. Another idea is to group objects into interaction groups so that each cluster can be handled independently.
More insights could be gained by studying some theoretical aspects of multi-level learning, such as the hierarchical structure of the prediction problems, and the issue of noisy and incomplete training sets. With multiple levels, performance evaluation is very tricky. As we discussed, careless definitions of training and testing sets could produce biases to the resulting performance. It is instrumental to study the optimal way of evaluation.
Biologically, there are many interesting follow-up questions to be studied. The intricate interactions between the different levels are not yet clear, and could form a larger study of how the predictions change after receiving information from the other levels. One could compare different kinds of data features at the three levels and identify the ones with the greatest complementary effects. Another direction is to choose different kinds of residue samples (e.g., only charged residues) and inspect the relative improvements they provide to the protein and domain levels, to determine the residues that are more significant in a protein interaction.
In this article we have introduced the approach of integrating protein interaction prediction at the protein, domain and residue levels. We have described the potential benefits of this multi-level learning framework due to the availability of distinct and complementary data features at each level. We have defined three information flow architectures for learning from the different levels, and proposed various ways to couple the levels in terms of what and how information is passed between them. We have focused on the training set expansion method, which is a meta-algorithm that passes predictions of a level as augmented training examples of other levels. To avoid the propagation of errors, we have discussed soft coupling, which associates confidence values to predictions and passes only highly confident predictions other levels. The confidence values are used as the inputs of support vector regression. For learning the interaction network at each level, we have compared global and local modeling, which has also highlighted the issue of data sparsity. We have performed computational experiments using yeast data, and shown that the bidirectional flow of supervised and semi-supervised information between the different levels improved the predictions over independent levels and mere downward flow of training information. The evaluation procedure involved special experimental procedures including training-set balancing and consistent cross validation. Finally, we have suggested a number of follow-up research topics.
We acknowledge support from the NIH, the AL Williams Professorship funds, and the Yale University Biomedical High Performance Computing Center.
All authors conceived the project and design. KY and PK prepared the data. KY implemented the algorithms, performed the computational experiments, and analyzed the results. KY and MG wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the document. | 2019-04-24T10:05:35Z | https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2105-10-241 |
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During this brainwave entrainment session Dr. Patrick Porter (PHD) will help you to integrate the 9 essential segments of the Journey of the Soul Program.
Your other-than-conscious will help you to create good health, incorporate strategies to build wealth and take control of your finances... just to name a few.
This session prepares you for the foundation of the 9 core areas of the Journey of the Soul training assisting you in living a better life now.
Expand your mind and tune into the frequencies that will allow you to experience the subtle energies and shift that enable you to commit to the journey of your soul!
Create the health, the wealth, and the relationships you've always desired with the power that resides deep within you!
Access your "true self" and shed years of anxiety and frustrations that have been hindering you from living a truly joyful abundant life!
Purge your body of negative thought, concept, belief that has prevented you from experiencing the vastness and fullness of your spiritual nature!
Allow your true nature to shine as brightly as the sun into every area of your life!
Your life will transform from the inside out as you eliminate consumerism and master the time in your life.
With the media controlling everyone you will develop strong beliefs that will guide your behaviours from the inner urges of your soul.
During this brainwave entrainment session Dr. Patrick Porter will help you work through any judgements you might have of yourself or what others think of you.
On this journey you will align with the simple balance of life that will bring you the greatest joy by releasing the past embracing the present and looking forward to the future.
See everything in crystal clear clarity and gain a deeper understanding about yourself, the world around you, and how you can achieve the kind of lifestyle you've always dreamed of!
Eliminate any thought of consumerism, take value in your life experience, do things on your own terms! Negative thoughts, concepts, or beliefs of others will have no control over you at any level of the mind!
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Learn how to make the absolute necessary choices so you can make the changes to build the type of relationships, income, or lifestyle you've always desired... regardless of what others say or do!
Transform your life by tapping into resources you didn't even know you had!
Imagine awakening your passion and listening to your inner wisdom and exploring your life from the inside out.
It is said that spirit is simple, man is complex.
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Leaving you free to do something new.Negative emotions such as fear, frustration and anger will no longer serve you and you will no longer serve them. You will allow your guidance system to keep you on purpose and stay in touch with your passion.
What would you be doing RIGHT NOW if you could do anything?
Release all fear, all frustration, all physical emotions that stop you from expressing your soul's passion and becoming the great person you are destined to be!
Explore your soul's passion and bring about the abundance that is your birthright!
Awaken within you the possibility that there are greater possibilities in all relationships, that you can draw to you, through you, and around you, your abundance!
Empower your soul to direct you to the right people, the right experiences, the right encounters so that it will all work out in divine order!
Increase, improve and experience the abundance of your soul... appreciate, and honor your body!
Dr. Patrick Porter will teach you how to unlock your true potential on this guided imagery program that will work to shift your attitude so that results follow you like your shadow.
You will learn how the master mentors do things at the deepest levels of your mind by using your strengths to magnetize into the world a support team that will help you get from where you are to where you want to go in the safest and quickest amount of time.
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Attune into the power and resources of your soul to accomplish any career goal you may have in life!
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Develop a dynamic attitude within yourself that completely eliminates the hold that negative thoughts and concepts have over you and become an unstoppable force to be reckoned with!
Bring remarkable change into your personal and professional lives effortlessly through the transformative power of your soul!
Dr. Porter will guide you through this lesson by understanding the resources you have within your soul.
You might not be able to control the weather but you will learn to appreciate nature’s gift.
You will create the re-connection with the world that will empower you to take an active role to reduce your carbon foot print and really understand what the environment means to you from the inside out with your newfound appreciation for the real value of the things that nature has provided for you.
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Find a natural way to release stress and tension from your body, cleanse your system of all harmful elements, and be in tune with Mother Nature by tapping into the power laying dormant within you!
Achieve the elusive balance between yourself and Mother Earth to bring about peace, tranquility, and harmony into your life!
Experience the world through new, enhanced senses! No longer will negative emotion take hold of you and hinder you from living life as it should be lived!
Attract and connect with like-minded individuals in the world naturally and effortlessly as you find a balance between yourself and Mother Nature!
During this experience Dr. Porter will help you to understand the consciousness that is you.
How as a spiritual being you are having a physical experience and how evolution in consciousness is the key to your connectivity to all things seen and unseen.
You will explore your intuition and allow the happiness of your spirit to show up in your life in ways that you can’t imagine with inner resources you didn’t know you have as you realize that service to humanity is service to divinity.
Discover the spiritual DNA within you that controls your worldly consciousness and experiences, and learn how you can shape your own reality as you see fit!
Move freely through your thoughts and allow yourself to experience the joy and acceptance of life itself!
Achieve ultimate peace and tranquility of the soul and never allow negativity to ruin your life experiences ever again!
Transcend beyond your physical limitation and limiting beliefs and become more attuned to your true spiritual self!
Experience the divine pleasures in life that you so rightfully deserve as you find yourself on the spiritual path to nirvana!
You can rise above your circumstances and better yourself through opening to the brilliance of your soul and move beyond personal development.
In this summary session Dr. Porter using the journey of the soul concepts to guide you through exercises that will put your life into perspective.
You will unleash the power of thought and action and strive to balance your life.
You will go to that quite place of power within where your spirit is magnificent.
It is there your soul’s determination to conquer both boundaries and limitations will drop away.
You will awaken to find there is nothing stopping you from changing your life.
As you connect with your soul’s purpose and let go of your limiting beliefs and exhibit the behaviours and take the actions necessary to achieve the outcomes that you desire.
Rise above your current situation, the circumstances of your life, and better yourself beyond personal development!
Attract wealth, health, and abundance as naturally and as automatically as breathing!
Find all your limiting beliefs melt away instantly as you become the change that you want to see in the world!
Change your life and conscious reality inside out as you connect with your soul's true purpose!
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If you order "Journey Of The Soul" before closing this page on December 16, 2014, you’ll receive all 10 advanced brainwave entrainment audios for a mere $300 $67 $47.
© Copyright 2016 - Stephanie Leigh Mulac - All Rights Reserved Worldwide. | 2019-04-21T05:26:28Z | http://stephanieleighmulac.com/journey-of-the-soul/ |
IMPORTANCE Bacteria are ubiquitously found as surface-attached communities and cellular aggregates in nature. Here, we address how bacterial adhesion is coordinated in response to diverse environments using two complementary approaches. First, we examined how Rhodopseudomonas palustris, one of the most metabolically versatile organisms ever described, varies its adhesion to surfaces in response to different environmental conditions. We identified critical genes for the production of a unipolar polysaccharide (UPP) and showed that UPP is important for adhesion when light and organic substrates are used for growth. Looking beyond R. palustris, we performed the most comprehensive survey to date on the conservation of UPP biosynthesis genes among a group of closely related bacteria that occupy diverse niches. Our findings suggest that UPP is important for free-living and plant-associated lifestyles but dispensable for animal pathogens. Additionally, we propose guidelines for classifying the adhesins produced by various Alphaprotebacteria, facilitating future functional and comparative studies.
Diverse bacteria produce cell surface adhesins that facilitate attachment to biotic and abiotic surfaces (1, 2). Some of the earliest observations of bacterial adhesion reported bacterial “stars,” later termed rosettes, in which cells aggregate by attaching to each other at a single pole (3). Similarly, initial observations of bacterial adhesion to abiotic surfaces also noted polar attachment (4). It has since been recognized that the same polar adhesins responsible for rosette formation in many alphaproteobacterial species also mediate irreversible attachment to surfaces and thereby act to initiate the formation of surface-associated communities known as biofilms (1, 5, 6).
Polar surface attachment in Alphaprotebacteria has been most well studied in the freshwater bacterium Caulobacter crescentus (5, 7–10) and more recently in the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens (11–13). The polar adhesin of C. crescentus and other members of the order Caulobacterales is called holdfast (1, 14). The polar adhesin of A. tumefaciens has been termed unipolar polysaccharide (UPP) (11). These two unipolar adhesins are distinct but share certain genetic, biochemical, and functional characteristics (1, 11). The synthesis of both adhesins involves a Wzy-dependent polysaccharide synthesis and export pathway. For holdfast, this pathway is encoded by the holdfast synthesis (hfs) gene cluster (8, 15). For UPP, the pathway is partially encoded by the core upp biosynthesis gene cluster, with other components encoded separately in the genome (11). The hfsEFGHCBAD and uppABCDEF gene clusters each have distinct organization and content (i.e., synteny) (Fig. S1). Only hfsD and hfsE have close sequence similarity to uppC and uppE, respectively (Table S1), although other genes likely encode functionally analogous proteins between these two gene clusters. A contrasting feature of these two adhesins is that holdfast-mediated adhesion requires proteins encoded by the holdfast anchor (hfa) operon, which keeps holdfast attached to the cell (16). No apparent homologs of hfa genes are encoded by A. tumefaciens (11) or most other Rhizobiales species (Data Set S1). Holdfast and UPP also exhibit some biochemical similarity, as both contain N-acetylglucosamine (7, 11), allowing the adhesins to be visualized by fluorescence microscopy after staining with the fluorophore-conjugated wheat germ agglutinin (5, 17).
Beyond C. crescentus and A. tumefaciens, polar polysaccharide adhesins are also a common morphological trait across ecologically diverse Alphaprotebacteria (1, 14, 18), especially among Rhizobiales species (19–25). However, the genetic and biochemical diversity of the adhesins across this clade is unclear. Furthermore, the potential environment-specific production and/or function of these adhesins remain largely unexplored. Here, we examine polar adhesin production by the Rhizobiales member Rhodopseudomonas palustris. This purple nonsulfur bacterium was first reported to produce a polar adhesin almost 50 years ago (26), but the genes involved in its biosynthesis were never characterized. Additionally, R. palustris is renowned for its metabolic versatility (27), a feature that allowed us to investigate if adhesin production is coordinated by different metabolic modules. We show that the putative R. palustris uppE (RPA2750) and uppC (RPA4833) orthologs are required for synthesis of a UPP adhesin. UPP is differentially required for R. palustris biofilm formation under various conditions but is particularly influential under photoheterotrophic conditions, in which light energy and organic substrates are used to support growth. Moving beyond R. palustris, we also explored whether UPP is associated with different bacterial lifestyles by performing a comparative genomic analysis across diverse Rhizobiales species. Our results indicate that UPP is a conserved ancestral trait of the Rhizobiales, and that upp genes have been independently lost multiple times during the evolution of the Rhizobiales clade. Based on our analysis, we propose that genetic synteny of adhesion biosynthesis genes is a valid criterion on which to designate the polar adhesins of various Rhizobiales members as UPP.
Genomic organization of the putative R. palustris CGA009 core upp gene cluster.R. palustris has long been known to form rosettes (26, 28); however, the genetic loci responsible for polar adhesin biosynthesis remain uncharacterized. Recently, bioinformatic analysis revealed that R. palustris contains a putative upp gene cluster (23). Such clusters have been shown to function in UPP production in other Rhizobiales species (12, 24). We confirmed that R. palustris CGA009 encodes a putative upp gene cluster using a TBLASTN reciprocal best-hit approach with the A. tumefaciens C58 UppABCDEF proteins as query sequences. We identified four adjacent genes in R. palustris with close identity to A. tumefaciens uppABDE (Fig. 1A and Table S2). The candidate orthologs for both uppC (RPA4833) and uppF (RPA4581) are outside the putative R. palustris uppABDE cluster (RPA2753 to RPA2750) (Fig. 1A). As expected based on species relatedness, the synteny of the putative R. palustris upp gene cluster is more similar to that of the A. tumefaciens upp gene cluster than to the C. crescentus hfs gene cluster (Fig. S1). We did not identify any candidate hfa homologs in R. palustris (Data Set S1), which are required for holdfast anchoring in C. crescentus and which are similarly absent in A. tumefaciens (11).
Synteny of A. tumefaciens C58 and R. palustris CGA009 core upp gene clusters and proposed protein functions. (A) Genes (arrows) are colored based on functional prediction and sequence similarity (>50% query cover, >25% identity, >40% positives, and an E value <1 × 10−20). Double slashes represent large (>100 kb) genomic regions not shown in the figure. (B) Model of the proposed Wzy-dependent synthesis and export pathway for UPP based on references 15, 29, and 30). Rhizobiales core upp gene clusters lack an important Wzx-like flippase (white), which is contained elsewhere in the genome. Gray hexagons represent repeat saccharide units of the UPP. IM, inner membrane; PG, peptidoglycan; OM, outer membrane; PCP, polysaccharide copolymerase; OPX, outer membrane polysaccharide export; PHPT, polyisoprenyl-phosphate hexose-1-phosphate transferase.
The putative R. palustris uppABDE, uppC, and uppF genes are predicted to encode a partial Wzy-dependent polysaccharide export pathway (Fig. 1B). Wzy-dependent pathways are broadly distributed across Gram-negative bacteria (29) and have been most well characterized in lipopolysaccharide and capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis and export in E. coli (30). We propose a Wzy-dependent model for UPP synthesis and export based on the current understanding of Wzy-dependent pathways (Fig. 1B), similar to what has been proposed for Wzy-dependent holdfast production (15). Briefly, an iterative multienzyme process assembles repeat saccharide units on the inner membrane (IM)-associated lipid carrier undecaprenyl phosphate (und-PP). The assembly is then translocated across the IM and into the periplasm, where the repeat saccharide units are transferred from und-PP to add to the growing polysaccharide chain on another und-PP carrier. Ultimately, the polysaccharide chain is exported onto the cell surface (Fig. 1B). It should be noted that for UPP, certain enzymes thought to be required for synthesis are encoded outside the core upp cluster, such as a flippase (Fig. 1B, white), which is responsible for translocation across the IM. This genetic arrangement is distinct from that of C. crescentus and most other Caulobacterales species, which encode putative Wzx-like flippases (HfsF) in their hfs gene clusters (Fig. S1) (15, 17, 31).
Visualization of R. palustris unipolar adhesin.To facilitate genetic and phenotypic characterization of the R. palustris adhesin, we first tested if we could visualize adhesin on wild-type (WT) R. palustris cells using the fluorophore-conjugated lectin WGA-488. Adhesins produced by diverse Alphaprotebacteria have been shown to bind WGA (5, 7, 32), which itself binds N-acetylglucosamine residues. When we stained R. palustris with WGA-488, we observed fluorescence at single poles of some individual cells and at the center of every rosette (Fig. 2A). WGA-488 can potentially stain N-acetylglucosamine present in peptidoglycan if the outer membrane is compromised, but we seldom observed nonpolar cell body staining under standard photoheterotrophic conditions. From this, we conclude that we are indeed staining the unipolar adhesin produced by R. palustris, which contains N-acetylglucosamine, similar to the UPP of other Rhizobiales species (11, 23, 24), as well as Caulobacterales holdfast (7, 17).
uppE and uppC are required for UPP biosynthesis, cell-cell adhesion, and biofilm formation. (A) Epifluorescence microscopy of cells stained with WGA-488 after 2 days of growth under standard photoheterotrophic conditions. Scale bars, 5 μm. (B) Normalized total WGA-488 fluorescence from batch UPP quantification following 3 days of growth under standard photoheterotrophic conditions. Different letters indicate significant differences between strains (P < 0.05; one-way analysis of variance [ANOVA] followed by Tukey's multiple-comparison test; n = 4 to 5). (C) Biofilm formation levels (A570) were quantified by CV staining of adherent biomass following 4 days of growth in microtiter wells under standard photoheterotrophic conditions. All strains grew equivalently, so A570 values were not normalized. Different letters indicate significant differences between strains (P < 0.0001; one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple-comparison test; n = 10 or 15, pooled from three independent experiments). (B and C) Symbols indicate biological replicates and lines indicate the means. Time (t) of sampling following inoculation is indicated in lower left corner.
UppE and UppC are required for R. palustris UPP biosynthesis, cell-cell adhesion, and biofilm formation.We next addressed the genetic requirements underlying polar adhesin production in R. palustris. In A. tumefaciens, uppE (12, 13) and uppC (C. Fuqua, personal communication) are essential for UPP biosynthesis. Similarly, the uppE ortholog (gmsA) of the root-nodulating symbiont Rhizobium leguminosarum is necessary for root hair attachment (20). In C. crescentus, the putative uppC homolog hfsD is required for holdfast-mediated attachment (8). Thus, we chose the putative uppE and uppC orthologs of R. palustris as targets for in-frame deletions to determine whether they are required for adhesin synthesis.
Deletion of either the putative uppE or uppC ortholog eliminated both rosette formation and WGA-488 binding (Fig. 2A). Complementation of each mutant from a plasmid restored rosette formation as well as unipolar WGA-488 binding to single cells and at the center of rosettes (Fig. 2A). In addition to microscopic visualization of the adhesin on cells, we also developed an assay to quantify adhesin production at the population level by measuring total WGA-488 fluorescence in batch culture samples. Similar to trends observed by microscopy, total WGA-488 fluorescence was significantly lower in the putative ΔuppE or ΔuppC mutant cultures than in the WT and complemented cultures (Fig. 2B). Overall, these results demonstrate an essential role for both of these orthologs in adhesin production in R. palustris. Based on these results, we henceforth refer to these genes as uppE and uppC and to the R. palustris unipolar adhesin as UPP.
Having established that uppE and uppC are critical for R. palustris UPP synthesis and rosette formation, we next assessed if R. palustris UPP contributes to biofilm formation. After 4 days of standard photoheterotrophic growth, the ΔuppE and ΔuppC mutants showed significantly less biofilm formation than the WT and complemented strains (Fig. 2C). Thus, we conclude that UPP is the primary adhesin facilitating biofilm formation under standard photoheterotrophic conditions.
Survey of UPP-mediated biofilm formation across environmental conditions.R. palustris is metabolically versatile, allowing it to adopt distinct lifestyles to thrive under diverse conditions. When growing anaerobically in light, R. palustris performs anoxygenic photosynthesis to transform energy (27). During phototrophic growth, R. palustris can obtain carbon by consuming organic substrates (photoheterotrophy) or by fixing CO2 (photoautotrophy) (27). It can also grow by aerobic respiration in the dark (chemoheterotrophy). Additionally, R. palustris is a diazotroph, meaning it can grow with N2 gas as the sole nitrogen source by the process of N2 fixation (33). While R. palustris has almost exclusively been studied under freshwater conditions, it was recently noted that an environmental isolate could grow in salt concentrations of up to 4.5% (34).
The metabolic versatility of R. palustris provided an opportunity to assess whether UPP-mediated surface attachment and biofilm formation are favored by some growth conditions over others. To address this, we examined UPP production and biofilm formation under various growth conditions for both WT R. palustris and the ΔuppE mutant. We proceeded with only the ΔuppE mutant because we did not observe any phenotypic differences between the ΔuppE and ΔuppC mutants (Fig. 2). We chose growth conditions that encompass both the metabolic capabilities of R. palustris (e.g., N2 fixation and photoautotrophy) and abiotic conditions it might normally encounter (e.g., low inorganic phosphate [Pi] and high salinity). Total WGA-488 fluorescence values were not compared across conditions, as they were not always reflective of UPP synthesis. For example, some growth conditions, such as low Pi, resulted in occasional staining at both poles and at what appeared to be cell division septa, suggesting that WGA-488 was staining N-acetylglucosamine moieties in peptidoglycan (Fig. S2).
UPP-assisted biofilm formation is favored by R. palustris in adverse photoheterotrophic environments.We first examined if biofilm formation was stimulated or inhibited in response to three adverse photoheterotrophic conditions. These conditions are considered to be less favorable for R. palustris growth due to nutrient limitation (low Pi), less-preferred nutrients (N2 fixation), or osmotic stress (high salinity). Thus, we used these conditions to assess whether biofilm formation might function to increase R. palustris survival under suboptimal conditions or to foster persistence in favorable environments (2, 35). We also examined if UPP is utilized by R. palustris across these growth conditions. Two main trends were observed under all three adverse conditions. First, WT R. palustris formed more biofilm under all adverse conditions than standard photoheterotrophic conditions (Fig. 3A), even though standard conditions supported the highest growth rates and highest cell densities (data not shown). Second, UPP contributed to biofilm formation under all photoheterotrophic conditions, as the WT formed more biofilm than the ΔuppE mutant in each case (Fig. 3A). These biofilm trends were consistent with microscopy results, which showed that WT R. palustris exhibited comparable WGA staining patterns under standard and adverse photoheterotrophic conditions (Fig. 3B). Beyond this, there were also condition-specific phenotypes observed.
UPP is important for biofilm formation across photoheterotrophic conditions. (A) Biofilm formation levels were normalized to final planktonic cell density (A570/OD660) and then made relative to normalized WT standard photoheterotrophic values, which was set to 1. **, P < 0.01; ****, P < 0.0001; ns, not significant; based on multiple unpaired, two-tailed t tests without assuming equal variance and followed by Holm-Šídák correction for multiple comparisons; n = 10, pooled from two independent experiments. Significance is only indicated for pairwise comparisons between WT and the ΔuppE mutant under each condition because the assumption of homogeneity of variances was violated in comparisons across conditions. Results from other statistical analyses comparing across conditions are listed in Table S3. (B) Epifluorescence microscopy of cells stained with WGA-488 after 3 days of photoheterotrophic or chemoheterotrophic growth and after 8 days of photoautotrophic growth. Scale bars, 5 μm. (C) Biofilm formation normalized to final planktonic cell density (A570/OD660) following 4 days of photoheterotrophic growth with 1.5% sea salts or 1.5% NaCl. Different letters indicate significant differences between groups (P < 0.05; two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple-comparison test; n = 5). (D) Relative biofilm formation (A570/OD660) after 10 days of photoheterotrophic or photoautotrophic growth, with WT values under standard photoheterotrophic conditions set to 1. Different letters indicate statistically significant differences between groups (P < 0.05; two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple-comparison test; n = 4 to 5). (A, C, and D) Symbols indicate biological replicates, and lines indicate the means. Time (t) of sampling following inoculation is indicated in lower left corner.
Under low-Pi conditions, the ΔuppE mutant formed loosely attached lawns at the bottom of microtiter wells. These lawns were easily disrupted and washed away. Such lawns were not formed by the ΔuppE mutant under standard conditions and were unlike all WT photoheterotrophic biofilms, which were firmly attached to the sides and bottom of the wells. The genetic and biochemical basis for these loose biofilms remains to be determined. Stimulation of biofilm formation in response to Pi limitation has also been observed in A. tumefaciens (12, 36). This common observation raises the possibility that increased biofilm formation is a conserved response to Pi limitation across some Rhizobiales species. It has been speculated that low Pi serves as a signal to A. tumefaciens that plant surfaces are nearby, as plants sequester Pi, locally depleting it from the rhizosphere (36). Given that no symbiotic association between R. palustris and plants has been identified, it is possible that biofilm formation serves a different function in this species, such as increasing survival when essential nutrients, such as Pi, are limiting.
We also observed 2-fold higher biofilm levels by WT under N2-fixing conditions than under standard conditions (Fig. 3A). N2 fixation is energetically expensive compared to using other nitrogen sources, such as NH4+, and is therefore tightly regulated (33, 37). We hypothesize that increased aggregation under N2-fixing conditions might function to help retain costly NH4+, which can passively diffuse out of cells as NH3 (38).
In contrast to all other photoheterotrophic conditions, ΔuppE mutant biofilm levels were 13-fold higher under 1.5% sea salt conditions than WT cells under standard conditions, despite lacking UPP (Fig. 3A). Similar trends were seen with 1.5% NaCl, confirming that the enhanced biofilm formation of both the WT and the ΔuppE mutant was due to high salinity and not another component of the sea salt supplement (Fig. 3C). The high ΔuppE mutant biofilm levels under high-salinity conditions suggest that additional factors besides UPP contribute to this response. Thus, while UPP-mediated surface attachment contributes to robust biofilm formation by R. palustris during photoheterotrophic growth, UPP is less crucial under high-salinity conditions.
UPP-independent biofilm formation is stimulated by nonphotoheterotrophic conditions.We also examined UPP production and biofilm formation under chemoheterotrophic and photoautotrophic conditions. Under chemoheterotrophic conditions, UPP was not necessary for biofilm formation, as WT and the ΔuppE mutant formed similar levels of biofilm. We were surprised by this result, as it suggested that biofilm formation was entirely UPP independent. Aerobically grown bacteria typically adhere near the air-liquid interface (39). However, the adherent biomass of both the WT and the ΔuppE aerobic biofilms was at the bottom of the microtiter well, suggesting that R. palustris might preferentially form biofilms at microaerobic or anaerobic zones. In support of this, the adherent biomass was pigmented, indicating the production of bacteriochlorophyll and carotenoids, which is stimulated in response to low O2 (40). Additionally, chemoheterotrophic conditions seem to favor biofilm formation, as WT and ΔuppE biofilm levels were approximately 12-fold higher than those of the WT under standard photoheterotrophic conditions. (Fig. 3A). Separately, although WGA-488 staining was observed on some single cells, we did not observe any rosettes under chemoheterotrophic conditions (Fig. 3B). It is therefore possible that UPP is produced but is dispensable for chemoheterotrophic biofilm formation.
During photoautotrophy with sodium bicarbonate as the carbon source and thiosulfate as an electron donor, R. palustris has a specific growth rate approximately one-fourth that of during photoheterotrophic growth (41, 42). Because of the slower growth, we extended photoautotrophic incubations from 3 days for epifluorescence microscopy and 4 days for biofilm assay to 8 days and 10 days, respectively, in order to allow cultures to reach final densities similar to those observed after 3 to 4 days of photoheterotrophic growth. After 8 days of photoautotrophic growth, we observed WT rosettes that stained very little or not at all with WGA-488, suggesting that less UPP is produced or that UPP composition is different under these conditions (Fig. 3B). Under photoautotrophic conditions, the WT and the ΔuppE mutant showed similar levels of biofilm formation (Fig. 3D), suggesting that biofilm formation was UPP independent. Similar trends were seen in parallel control cultures for which we allowed for 10 days of photoheterotrophic growth (Fig. 3D), unlike results from the 4-day photoheterotrophic experiments, where the ΔuppE mutant formed less biofilm than WT (Fig. 3A). There are multiple nonmutually exclusive explanations for why the difference in biofilm formation between the WT and the ΔuppE mutant after 4 days was not also observed after 10 days. Because UPP is thought to mediate the initial irreversible surface attachment of cells (5), prolonging the incubation period may have led to some degradation of UPP and/or might have allowed sufficient time for as-of-yet unknown adhesins or other factors, such as DNA release following cell lysis, to facilitate attachment. Such factors could also contribute to the increased biofilm formation observed across the different conditions tested herein.
Overall, our survey of R. palustris biofilm formation across growth conditions can be summarized as follows. UPP mediates biofilm formation under photoheterotrophic conditions, especially those photoheterotrophic conditions that are less favorable to growth. Under certain photoheterotrophic conditions, such as high salinity, biofilm formation involves additional factors that are independent of UPP. Finally, chemoheterotrophic and photoautotrophic conditions also stimulate biofilm formation but in a manner that appears to be independent of UPP.
Conservation of core upp biosynthesis genes across Rhizobiales species.Beyond C. crescentus, R. leguminosarum, A. tumefaciens, and now R. palustris, the characterization of polar adhesins in other Alphaprotebacteria has been cursory. Historically, all polar adhesins were referred to as holdfast. However, designation of alphaproteobacterial adhesins has been complicated by functional differences. For example, the polar glucomannan adhesin of R. leguminosarum plays a unique role in root hair attachment but is not required for attachment to abiotic surfaces (19, 20). The R. leguminosarum glucomannan biosynthesis gene cluster is orthologous to the A. tumefaciens uppABCDEF cluster, which A. tumefaciens uses to attach to both biotic and abiotic surfaces (5, 11, 12). Thus, R. leguminosarum polar glucomannan and A. tumefaciens UPP are homologous adhesins with functional differences. Also contributing to the ambiguity in classifying previously identified Rhizobiales polar adhesins is the compositional diversity (1, 12, 20–22). For example, A. tumefaciens UPP contains N-acetylgalactosamine in addition to N-acetylglucosamine (12), the R. leguminosarum glucomannan adhesin contains primarily glucose and mannose (19), the Bradyrhizobium japonicum polar adhesin contains galactose and lactose (22), and the Hyphomicrobium polar adhesin likely contains galactose and mannose (21). We therefore propose that alphaproteobacterial adhesins be classified according to genetic synteny. Based on the synteny (Fig. 1) and functional requirement of upp orthologs for adhesin production (Fig. 2), we conclude that R. palustris produces UPP.
With the criterion of genetic synteny in mind, we explored the phylogenetic distribution and genomic organization of the core uppABCDEF orthologs across 22 Rhizobiales species, representing the lifestyle diversity of this clade (Fig. 4). The topology of this tree is largely consistent with the alphaproteobacterial phylogeny inferred from a concatenation of 104 protein alignments (43). Our analysis revealed broad conservation of putative upp gene clusters, indicating that UPP is an ancestral trait of the Rhizobiales clade. Almost all of the Rhizobiales plant symbionts, including the plant pathogen A. tumefaciens, the root-nodulating diazotrophs R. leguminosarum, S. meliloti, Mesorhizobium loti, and B. japonicum, the stem-nodulating photosynthetic diazotroph Bradyrhizobium sp. strain BTAi, and the leaf epiphyte Methylobacterium extorquens, contain complete or near-complete upp gene clusters (Fig. 4). The exception to this trend is the root-nodulating diazotroph Azorhizobium caulinodans (44), which does not contain a upp cluster (Fig. 4 and Data Set S2). We were also unable to identify a upp cluster in Xanthobacter autotrophicus, a free-living diazotroph closely related to A. caulinodans (Fig. 4). This absence suggests that the upp cluster was lost before these lineages split. Despite the absence of a upp cluster in A. caulinodans, it still appears to produce a polar adhesin and form rosettes (25). Upon closer examination of the A. caulinodans ORS571 genome, we identified a putative Wzy-like polysaccharide biosynthesis gene cluster with high similarity to the Vibrio fischeri symbiosis polysaccharide (syp) locus (Data Set S3) (45). These putative syp homologs seem to have been acquired horizontally and might have been coopted for polar polysaccharide synthesis in A. caulinodans.
Conservation of core UPP biosynthesis genes among Rhizobiales species. A maximum likelihood phylogeny was inferred based on a concatenated alignment of 6 conserved housekeeping proteins using an LG+G+I substitution model (58) with four discrete gamma categories and invariable sites in MEGA6 (56). The tree with the highest log likelihood is shown. Node values indicate branch support from 100 bootstrap replicates. Scale bar represents the number of substitutions per site along branches. Leaf and mouse symbols indicate known plant and animal symbiotic relationships, respectively.
While UPP is well conserved in plant-associating Rhizobiales species, the opposite is true for animal pathogens. This trend was first noted upon the initial discovery of the upp gene cluster in R. leguminosarum, which noted that this cluster is absent in the Rhizobiales intracellular mammalian pathogen Brucella melitensis (20). Rather than being entirely absent (20), our data corroborate more recent bioinformatic evidence (23) that Brucella spp. contain a cluster of 3 putative upp orthologs (uppBCE) (Fig. 4 and S1, and Data Set S2). It is not known whether this partial upp cluster is involved in the synthesis of a functional UPP. In the closely related intracellular animal pathogens of the genera Bartonella, upp orthologs are completely absent (Fig. 4 and Data Set S2). In contrast, the soil-dwelling opportunistic human pathogen Ochrobactrum anthropi (46), which is more closely related to Brucella than Bartonella, contains a complete uppABCDEF gene cluster (Fig. 4). Ochrobactrum spp. are thought to be rhizosphere community members but are capable of infecting animal hosts (46, 47). We hypothesize that the entire upp cluster was first lost in the Bartonella lineage during adaptation to an intracellular lifestyle after diverging from Brucella/Ochrobactrum. More recently, the Brucella lineage has similarly lost multiple upp orthologs during its transition to becoming intracellular pathogens. The independent loss of upp orthologs in both Bartonella and Brucella would suggest convergent evolution upon adaptation to intracellular niches within animal hosts, supporting the hypothesis that UPP is not important for such lifestyles. Conversely, the conservation of upp orthologs in plant symbionts and free-living species suggests that UPP is beneficial in other diverse environments. Considering this, we hypothesize that Ochrobactrum anthropi has retained the complete upp cluster because it is typically free-living in the soil and thus benefits from producing UPP.
Unipolar adhesins are also used by Alphaprotebacteria outside the Rhizobiales. In the order Caulobacterales, hfs and hfa gene clusters for holdfast synthesis are well conserved (17, 31). Despite the differences in synteny between the upp and hfs gene clusters (Fig. S1), both encode Wzy-dependent pathways for polar polysaccharide synthesis and export, and uppC and uppE show sequence similarity to hfsD and hfsE, respectively (Table S1). Because of these similarities, we hypothesize that holdfast and UPP share an evolutionary origin and that the upp and hfs loci diversified in genomic organization following divergence of the Rhizobiales and Caulobacterales clades.
Other alphaproteobacterial species of the marine Roseobacter clade within the order Rhodobacterales also produce polar adhesins and form rosettes but do not contain either upp or hfs or hfa homologs (18) (Data Sets S1 and S2). The polar polysaccharide adhesin of the Roseobacter species Phaeobacter inhibens contains N-acetylglucosamine based on WGA binding, indicating that the biochemical composition is at least somewhat similar to that of UPP and holdfast (32). In this case, polar adhesion synthesis is encoded on a plasmid, since plasmid curing prevented P. inhibens rosette formation and diminished attachment to abiotic surfaces and algal cells (6). Furthermore, genetic disruption of the plasmid-encoded putative rhamnose operon lowered biofilm formation (48). Plasmids encoding putative rhamnose operons are widely distributed among other Roseobacter species (48), suggesting that polar polysaccharide synthesis and export in this clade are genetically distinct from those of UPP and holdfast. It is not clear whether acquisition of these plasmids led to the loss of gene clusters similar to either upp or hfs loci.
While polar polysaccharide adhesins are a common morphological trait across ecologically diverse Alphaprotebacteria, there is considerable genetic, compositional, and functional variation, which likely reflects adaptation to different niches. We propose here that genetic synteny of biosynthetic loci is a suitable criterion on which to base classification of polar adhesins. This criterion bypasses uncertainty arising from compositional differences while highlighting the shared underlying biosynthetic pathway. As such, holdfast and UPP are distinct adhesins despite facile similarities. Likewise, the A. caulinodans adhesin and the Roseobacter rhamnose adhesins should each receive their own designation, as they are genetically distinct from both holdfast and UPP, as well as from each other. Adoption of a unified classification scheme will facilitate both the comparison of adhesins and the exploration of functional differences within and between adhesin types.
Bacterial strains and growth conditions.All R. palustris strains were derived from CGA009 (27) and are listed in Table 1. Unless otherwise indicated, R. palustris was grown statically in 10 ml of defined photosynthetic medium (PM) (49) in sealed 16-ml anaerobic tubes with argon gas in the headspace. All R. palustris cultures were incubated at 30°C. All phototrophic cultures were illuminated with a 60-W light bulb. For all heterotrophic conditions, PM was supplemented with succinate as the sole carbon source (15 mM in liquid cultures or 10 mM in agar). Incubation in PM with 15 mM succinate and light are here referred to as standard photoheterotrophic conditions. For low-inorganic phosphate (Pi) conditions, PM was modified by replacing Na2HPO4 and KH2PO4 (12.5 mM each) with equimolar concentrations of Na2SO4 and K2SO4. A 1:1 molar mixture of Na2HPO4 and KH2PO4 was added for a final Pi concentration of 30 μM. For N2-fixing conditions, (NH4)2SO4 was omitted from PM, and argon was replaced with N2. For high-salinity conditions, PM was supplemented with 1.5% (wt/vol) sea salts (Sigma) or NaCl. For chemoheterotrophic conditions, cultures were grown in 10 ml of aerobic PM supplemented with 0.05% yeast extract in addition to 15 mM succinate in 50-ml Erlenmeyer flasks shaken at 225 rpm in darkness. For photoautotrophic conditions, anaerobic PM was supplemented with 60 mM NaHCO3 as the inorganic carbon source and 30 mM Na2S2O3 as an inorganic electron donor. Plasmid-harboring R. palustris strains were grown with 50 μg/ml gentamicin in liquid culture and 100 μg/ml gentamicin on agar plates. The Escherichia coli strains used for cloning (DH5-α and S17-1) were grown aerobically in Luria-Bertani medium (BD) supplemented with 15 μg/ml gentamicin when necessary.
R. palustris strain construction.All plasmids and primers are listed in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Deletion vectors for uppC (RPA4833) and uppE (RPA2750) were generated by PCR amplification of the genomic regions flanking the gene to be deleted, as described previously (41). PCR product pairs were fused by overlap extension PCR and cloned into pJQ200SK (50). Vectors were introduced into R. palustris by conjugation with E. coli S17-1 (51) or by electroporation (52). Complementation vectors for uppC and uppE were generated by PCR amplification of each gene along with the putative ribosomal binding site. PCR products were cloned into pBBPgdh (53), and complementation and empty pBBPgdh vectors were introduced into R. palustris by conjugation with E. coli S17-1.
Epifluorescence microscopy and image analysis.Unless stated otherwise, R. palustris cultures used for microscopy were grown in liquid without agitation for 2 to 3 days, except for photoautotrophic cultures, which were grown for 8 days. Culture samples were centrifuged, and the cell pellet was resuspended in 0.1 mM phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (Fisher Scientific) to an optical density at 660 nm (OD660) between 0.6 and 0.9. Wheat germ agglutinin Alexa Fluor 488 conjugate (WGA-488) (Molecular Probes) was added to cells suspended in PBS at a final concentration of 2 μg/ml and incubated in darkness at room temperature for 15 min. Cells were washed with PBS three times to remove unbound dye and then resuspended in PBS. Cells were imaged on agarose pads using a Nikon Eclipse 90i light microscope equipped with a 100× oil immersion objective and a Photometrics Cascade 1K electron-multiplying charge-coupled-device (EMCCD) camera and processed using the Nikon NIS-Elements software. Images were subsequently analyzed using the ImageJ distribution Fiji (54).
Batch UPP quantification via total WGA fluorescence.R. palustris cultures were grown under standard photoheterotrophic conditions for 3 days to early stationary phase. A 400-μl sample of each culture was centrifuged, and the cell pellet was resuspended in 400 μl of PBS. A 100-μl aliquot of each cell suspension was set aside for use as the unstained control. WGA-488 was added to the remaining 300 μl of resuspended cells to a final concentration of 1.5 μg/ml and incubated in darkness at room temperature for 15 min. WGA-488-stained cells were washed three times with PBS and then resuspended in 120 μl of PBS to account for cells lost during washes. A 100-μl aliquot of the stained cells and the reserved unstained samples were each transferred to empty wells of a black polystyrene 96-well μClear flat-bottom microtiter plate (Greiner Bio-One). Fluorescence (top-120, excitation 485/20; emission 528/20) and the OD660 were measured using a Synergy H1 microplate reader (BioTek). Fluorescence readings were normalized to cell densities (relative fluorescent units [RFU]/OD660), and background fluorescence was removed by subtracting RFU/OD660 values of unstained samples from the WGA-488-stained samples.
Crystal violet microtiter plate biofilm assay.Biofilm formation was quantified using a modified version a crystal violet microtiter plate assay (39). Briefly, starter cultures were grown under standard photoheterotrophic conditions supplemented with 0.1% yeast extract. A 1.5-μl volume of stationary-phase culture was used to inoculate the wells of a lidded untreated polystyrene 24-well plate (Corning) containing 1.5 ml of the specified sterile medium. All plates were incubated statically at 30°C. For anaerobic phototrophic growth conditions, plates were incubated in a BD GasPak EZ container with two EZ anaerobe container system sachets (BD) and illuminated by two 60-W light bulbs, one on either side of the container. For chemoheterotrophic growth, plates were incubated aerobically in darkness. For all heterotrophic growth conditions, plates were incubated for 4 days. For photoautotrophic growth conditions (and paired heterotrophic controls), plates were incubated for 10 days. After incubation, plates were shaken at 150 rpm for 3 min on a flat-bed rotary shaker to disrupt loosely attached cells. A 400-μl aliquot of culture was removed for quantifying cell density (OD660) for normalization. Then, 400 μl of 0.1% (wt/vol) crystal violet (CV) was added to each well, and plates were incubated statically at room temperature for 15 min. Wells were then washed 3 times with 2 ml of deionized water to remove unbound CV. Next, 750 μl of 10% (vol/vol) acetic acid was added to each well, followed by shaking at 150 rpm for 3 min to solubilize bound CV. A 150-μl sample of solubilized CV was transferred to a 96-well plate, and absorbance at 570 nm (A570) was measured. Uninoculated wells containing sterile medium were treated the same way as described above to determine background A570, which was subsequently subtracted from all A570 measurements.
Identification of orthologous core upp gene clusters and phylogenetic analysis.The putative orthologs of the core UPP biosynthesis genes in R. palustris CGA009 (GenBank accession no. BX571963.1) were initially identified by reciprocal best-hit analysis using the UppABCDEF proteins of A. tumefaciens C58 (GenBank accession no. AE007869.2) as the query sequences for a TBLASTN search against the translated nucleotide database of R. palustris CGA009. The best hits in R. palustris CGA009 were subsequently used as query sequences for a BLASTX search against the proteome of A. tumefaciens C58. All putative R. palustris orthologs showed >50% query cover and an E value of <1 × 10−20 (Table S2). Previous studies noted that the core uppABCDEF biosynthesis gene cluster is conserved among several Rhizobiales species (20, 23), which was confirmed by using BLASTP with A. tumefaciens C58 UppABCDEF proteins as query sequences (Data Set S2). Several additional species that contain complete or near-complete upp gene clusters were also identified using BLASTP (minimum threshold for homology of query cover, >50%; E value, <1 × 10−10) (Data Set S2).
For phylogenetic analysis, amino acid sequences for 6 conserved housekeeping proteins, GyrA, GyrB, RpoA, RpoB, FusA, and RecA, from 26 alphaproteobacterial species were individually aligned using MUSCLE (55) with default settings in MEGA6 (56). Gaps and ambiguous sites were removed from alignments using Gblocks (57), with a minimum block length of 10 positions, and gaps were allowed at a position for no more than half of the sequences. The sequences were subsequently concatenated in the order shown above. The final concatenated alignment contained 4,379 amino acid positions (92% of the original positions). Phylogeny was inferred for the concatenated amino acid sequence using the maximum likelihood method based on the Le and Gascuel (LG) model (58), with 4 discrete gamma categories, which allowed for some sites to be evolutionarily invariable, implemented in MEGA6 (56). The LG+G+I model was selected because it was the best-fitting substitution model based on having the lowest Bayesian information criterion score. Initial tree(s) for the heuristic search were obtained by applying the neighbor-joining method to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using a Jones-Taylor-Thornton model.
Statistical analysis.All statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism version 6.07. Additional information about statistical analyses is in the figure legends. For Fig. 3A, multiple statistical analyses were performed to reach a consensus for comparisons across growth conditions, which are summarized in Table S3.
We thank Yves Brun for use of microscopy facilities and reagents, Clay Fuqua for sharing unpublished data, and members of the Brun and Fuqua labs for thoughtful discussions.
This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, under award DE-SC0008131, and the Indiana University College of Arts & Sciences.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.03035-16.
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It’s been more than a decade since I got involved in the design and development of digital payment systems. My focus has always been primarily that of a cryptoanarchist - privacy and functionality first, regulatory compliance second. Since I got involved in this field, a major innovation took place: Blockchain cryptocurrencies. This innovation injected hundreds of thousands of new people into the realm of cypherpunk ideas and online “less regulated” commerce. Thousands of new developers are now working on new tools and I applaud that. However, in engaging with many of these new faces I discovered that their understanding of what other technologies exist - or have existed - beyond the blockchain is wanting. In almost every conversation I find out that terms like “digital bearer certificate”, “verifiable book money”, “blind signatures” and a host of others are virtually unheard of. The generation change from pre-blockchain age to blockchain age has come with a lot of old knowledge being lost. But in my opinion it is knowledge that is still useful, and possibly even crucial. Hence I decided to write this text, touching upon some of these forgotten technologies, and specifically recording my own contributions in the field. May it help everybody to widen their box of thought and find inspiration for better solutions, and to gain a better understanding of the problems to be solved.
Let’s start with defining “digital money”. Digital money is the digital representation of money, which is in turn a medium of value transfer and storage. Digital money allows making payments and to keep value for a time. Digital money can represent currencies like the US Dollar or the EURO, or precious metals like gold or silver. A “digital currency” is something different: Instead of representing some other money, digital currencies themselves have a monetary function as in being able to create and regulate the supply of money. Digital currencies are digital money plus monetary control.
The most basic form of digital money is “digital book money”, commonly known under the term “e-money” or “electronic money”. This includes most of the payment systems we use today, from giro money on your bank account, to PayPal, credit cards and various internet payment systems. Digital book money works by the operator keeping a record of accounts and balances that are controlled by the users of the system. In the simplest form this is a simple table stating which users has how much money in their account.
Digital book money has a bad reputation in some circles because it does nothing to prevent operators from manipulating the money kept, invent it, steal it, or make transfers without user consent. This however is not a fair description of more advanced digital book money systems. More modern systems are verifiable and auditable. As an example, systems that derive from OpenTransactions implement mutually signed transactions and balances which allow both the operator as well as the user to present a cryptographically signed, fixed order, immutable history of transactions and the balances they result in. This works by each account keeping the hash of the last transaction, balance, and signatures by both user and operator of these values. Each new transaction includes the hash of the last transaction, the balance before the transaction is executed, the balance after the transaction is executed, additional transaction details (like the destination account of value transaction and its amount), and the signatures of both the operator and the user (account owner). This way both the operator as well as the user have a signed statement showing the state of an account which can be demonstrated to a third party in case of suspected abuse. Further developments in that sphere concern the auditability of the sum of all balances in a system by forming a merkle tree out of the accounts and their balances as the leaves, and then taking sums in the nodes of the tree. That merkle tree is then added into a hash chain and the head of that chain published. Now auditors that know the signed statements of some accounts can verify that the published accounting is probable true, and that the operator is not inventing or stealing money. Any account holder can verify that public accounting for himself, and publish a proof of any discrepancy if such exists. There have also been discussions about using bullet proofs to the same end. Taking these modern developments into account, digital book money systems present a very efficient, extremely cheap to operate, and publicly verifiable means to provide infrastructure for person-to-person transfers. They do however provide no privacy nor are they permission-less.
Instead of operating a single centralized record of accounts and balances that is modified by a single entity, blockchain cryptocurrencies replicate those records across many entities of unknown trustworthiness. Changes to the records are executed by those entities by applying new transactions to the current state of record, while adhering to a protocol that defines validity of transactions and access control to records (usually through the use of digital signatures). A complete history of valid transactions is distributed over all entities taking part in operating a blockchain cryptocurrency, allowing each to calculate the current state of records for the system.
The order in which transactions are processed is a crucial element of any system that changes global state. For systems operated by a single entity, that entity can define and assure order easily on a first come, first served basis. In a distributed system of untrusted parties, additional efforts must be taken to ensure that all parties execute transactions in exactly the same order. To this end, the system must select an authoritative party (the “leader”) that defines the order of transactions. In blockchain based systems, this party is only authoritative for a short amount of time and replaced with an unpredictable other party for the next time slot. Various methods for leader selection exist. Some systems use election protocols, others use proof-of-stake or proof-of-work protocols. Common to all of these methods is that they result in one leader being selected to define the order of transactions for a short amount of time, leading to the synchronization of transactions and state for the whole system. Additionally, blockchain cryptocurrencies have a money-creation function which usually works by rewarding the leader by allowing it to create some defined amount of new money in return for its work. It is important to note that the definition of which rules apply to verify transactions, select leaders, and create new money are purely defined in software and become valid only due to the consensus of participating parties.
The remainder of this text deals with “Digital Bearer Certificates” (DBC for short). I’ll try to describe both the technology itself as well as the history of DBCs as experienced by me.
A DBC is nothing else but a string of bits that are ascribed value. It directly represents the money, without reference to any account, instead it is the money itself. Consider a DBC to be a digital bank note that can be directly transmitted between parties, does not require any account to be linked to a user, nor a widely distributed global state of the system.
First, it needs to be verifiable as being a DBC issued by some party. This is usually done by the issuer signing the DBC with a key. Second, it needs to be unique. A string of bits can be copied without limitations, but only one of those copies carries value. This is achieved by being able to exchange one DBC for another at the issuer, and recording the original DBC as being de-validated.
A typical DBC encodes the currency or asset in which it is denominated (the “Denomination”), the number of units of that denomination that it represents (the “Amount”), a random nonce, and a signature by the issuer.
A typical DBC system consists of two types of entities: The Mint, which issues the DBCs. It must be able to verify that DBCs presented to a mint have been issued by that mint, which is usually done by verifying the signature. It furthermore has to be able to ensure the uniqueness of a DBC, usually by keeping a record of DBCs that have been de-validated already. The record of de-validated DBCs is usually called “Spendbook”. And the User that interacts with the Mint and other users by transmitting DBCs.
In a typical transaction, user A would send a DBC 1 to user B, user B would then communicate with the mint to exchange DBC 1 into a new DBC 2. The mint recording DBC 1 as being de-validated. Should user A try to exchange DBC 1 at the mint at a later moment, the mint would recognize it as de-validated, refusing the replacement. This basic protocol ensures that a DBC cannot be used more than once in a transaction.
DBC systems typically are extremely cheap to operate and allow very fast finalization of transactions, as well as allowing many transactions to be processed in a short time. Typically the time to finalization of a transaction only barely exceeds the network latency between the user and the mint, and mints running on commodity laptop hardware can typically deal with thousands of transactions per second. The cost of operation is determined mostly by once creating and once verifying a digital signature per DBC, storing a unique identifier for each DBC (around 32 bytes per DBC), and transmitting the DBC over the network twice (a DBC usually being smaller than 250 bytes). This makes DBC systems prime candidates for extremely fast and cheap micro payments.
Let’s go into a little more detail.
bool Append_iff_unknown(value) : Append a value to a spendbook if and only if that value is not yet present in the spendbook. Return true if the value has been appended, false if the value has not been appended.
The value added to the spendbook is usually a cryptographic hash of a DBC.
A mint must be able to verify that a DBC was issued by it. To this end, DBCs carry a digital signature by the mint. On being presented a DBC, the mint verifies the signature and only then tries to record it to the spendbook. Only if signature verification and spending (Append_iff_unkown) are successful then DBC has been valid. Early experimental mints used simple HMACs with a secret value for signatures. Later developments used RSA, DSA and ECDSA signatures with published public keys that would allow users to pre-verify a DBC before sending it to the mint.
Blind signatures allow for the signer to sign data in such a way that the signature can be publicly verified, but without the signer knowing what data it signed. This involves a protocol in which the user “blinds” the data, sends the blinded data to the signer, the signer creates the signature, and then the user un-blinds the data and signature and provides it to a third party for verification. The signature over the original data would show as being validly signed by the signer, without the signer knowing at the time of signature what data it signed. Blind untraceable signatures furthermore allow a signer to sign data so that it will not be able to know what data it signed, nor be able to find out when the signer made the signature even if both the un-blinded data and the signature are known to the signer afterwards. This allows for the construction of mints that can issue DBCs in such a way that the mint has no way to link input and output DBCs, nor be able to determine in any way when it signed a DBC or for whom. To emphasize this: Blind signatures allow the construction of DBC systems that allow for fully anonymous and untraceable transactions, verifiable by the user, without the mint having to be honest to maintain anonymity and un-traceability. However, blind signatures make the mint vulnerable to be defrauded by users. The blinding and un-blinding steps above are controlled by the user alone, with the Mint not knowing if the encoded denomination and amount is valid. The way to secure a Mint against this was usually to have the user provide many different blinded DBC candidates for signing, then the mint randomly requires the user to prove the content of all but one of those candidates, and then signing the remaining DBC if all other candidates were valid. In case a user would be discovered presenting a fraudulent DBC candidate to the Mint, some punishment would be exercised by the mint.
Issue: Create a new DBC by encoding denomination, amount and a random nonce, and sign it with the mints key.
Spend: Destroy a DBC by verifying the signature, and recording the DBC in the spendbook.
Reissue: Spend a user provided DBC, and issue a new DBC on success. Return the new DBC to the user.
Split: Spend a user provided DBC, and issue two or more new DBC so that the sum of amounts of the new DBCs equal the user provided DBC. Return the new DBCs to the user.
Combine: Spend the user provided DBCs (plural!). Issue a new DBC so that its amount equals the sum of amounts of the DBCs provided by the user. Return the new DBC to the user.
More advanced implementations would only expose a “Reissue” function to the user which would be able to deal with any number of user provided DBCs and any number of output DBCs.
This DBC system was available on an IRC network frequented by cypherpunks in the early 2000s. Users could directly send each other DBCs through IRC, and interact with the Mint through IRC as well. Yodelbank offered DBCs that presented value in a variety of digital gold currency systems. Users could buy and sell DBCs for egold, 1MDC, pecunix and several other currencies. Yodelbank encoded DBCs in a human-readable format and signed them with HMAC. This allowed users to transact without the need for any special software, just copying and pasting short lines of data.
Invented and founded by David Chaum. It used blind signatures to provide un-traceablity for users. Users would open an account with Digicash and withdraw value in the form of blindly signed DBCs. The user could then transfer DBCs to other users which could then pay those in to their account. Digicash only broke the traceability between the sending and receiving user, but did not provide anonymity to use the system. It also required software on the user’s computer to be used.
My involvement with DBC systems started with being exposed to the Yodelbank system when being a resident of the Invisible IRC Project where it ran. I wanted a system that was more powerful and functional, and solved some shortcomings of it. Hence I ventured into implementing my own DBC software. Though I wrote the software, I never operated a public Mint due to legal reasons. Others however used my software to operate small mints that facilitated transactions in closed user groups, and even a small public mint that never caught any traction. With the advent of blockchain cryptocurrencies, this public mint disappeared. eCache did however have some influence on other systems, such as some ideas being picked up again by Vouchersafe and OpenTransactions. Both of these systems originate from the same group of users that discussed DBC systems on IIP and are still operational and in active use. No eCache system is operational as far as I know. There have been no changes to the design after 2008, though some new ideas will be touched on at the end of this text.
Recording every spent DBC not just requires storing potentially a lot of data over time, but also increase the resources spent on verifying if a DBC has already been spent. For this reason eCache DBCs expire at some point after which they are invalid. Every eCache DBC thus encodes a future date at which the DBC will become invalid if not reissued before. The default expiry date was at least one year in the future. The spendbook can now be implemented by an expiry-indexed set of bloom filters that can simply be deleted after the expiry time has been reached.
Only recording spent DBCs (in contrast to recording issued and spent DBCs) requires that the signing key of the Mint is kept very secure. eCache solved that by implementing the signature verification and signing operation in an HSM (Hardware Security Module) that would furthermore keep track of input and output amounts of a transaction. Furthermore the signing key would be rotated every few weeks. For each key, eCache tracks the total amount of value signed with it, subtracting from that amount with every signature verification. That way the Mint can make sure that it is not presented with DBCs generated from a stolen signing key.
eCache DBCs encode information about who can spend the DBC, that is: Who the owner is. This is simply a hash of a public signing key that is used to verify any transaction in which that DBC is used. Any transaction command from the user to the mint has to be signed by the private key that corresponds to the public key encoded in the DBC, otherwise the mint will not process the transaction. This allows the mint to record a proof that the DBC has been spent legitimately by its owner, and not destroyed by the mint without user consent. Furthermore the eCache DBC allows a second owner which becomes valid after a defined date which is also encoded in the DBC. This means that eCache DBCs record an owner that can spend them before a user defined date X, and another owner that can spend it afterwards. Owners are only identified by public key, for every DBC a new owner key pair is generated, and usually not reused. In a mint transaction, all input DBCs must be owned by the same owner public key. Combining multiple DBCs with different owners will require that input DBCs are first reissued to the same owner individually, and then combined in a later transaction.
Standard eCache DBCs are signed using ECDSA with a public key that is known to users. This allows the pre-verification of DBCs by users before even talking to the Mint.
Any response by the Mint to a user is signed so it can be verified by anybody that it actually came from the Mint.
Any time the same parameters for a transaction are sent from a user to the mint, the exact same response would be returned. This prevents newly created DBCs to be lost, but it also allows for the user to publish his transaction request and have it be verified by anybody. Combined with signatures done with ED25519 and DBC templates (see below) this can be implemented trivially by only caching the result branch of a transaction, indexed by the hash of the transaction input. The transaction cache expires after a week, giving ample time to question the honesty of the mint, or recover from untimely loss of connectivity.
Both input DBCs are unspent and valid.
The first input DBC is unspent and valid, the second is not.
The second input DBC is unspent and valid, the first is not.
Constructing transactions like this allows for lock-free writing to the spendbook (which also allows for the easy distribution of the spendbook) without the requirement of rollbacks or introducing complexities that can introduce race conditions.
Since transactions are publicly recorded for verification and auditing purposes (see below), trivial tracing has to be prevented. For this reason the nonces and ownership included in the DBC templates are encrypted to a secret that is itself encrypted to the mint and included in the signed transaction. Both user and mint can decrypt the secret in the future to reveal the exact nonce and ownership in the output DBC, if that need arrives.
eCache mints publish a record of all transactions in an unchangeable, append-only data structure. It is implemented as a hash-chain in which every entry includes the hash of the previous entry. This prevents re-ordering of the history. The current head of the chain can be requested from the mint any time, returning the head, current time, and a signature of both. The complete history can also be downloaded and verified.
Public key of the signing key pair that the mint uses. These entries include the time range in which the public key is valid.
Changes to the backing capital of the mint. If value is added or removed from the capital this is recorded.
Changes to the issued capital of the mint. If the total value of issued DBCs changes then this is recorded. The issue capital must always be less then the backing capital and the difference defines the maximum size of the spend pool (see below).
Spend transactions: The user-provided transaction, including all input DBCs, output DBC templates, encrypted shared secret and owner signature. Furthermore the mint adds the result branch selected (see above).
DBC spend: The spent DBC, including signature. Directly follows the Spend transaction.
DBC issue: The newly issued DBC but without signature.
The history log allows for the recording of proof of mint operations. Transactions now become publicly verifiable if the user so wishes. Should the mint be suspected of dishonesty, the user can publish his transaction. The result of the transaction, and if so requested even the output DBCs, can be validated publicly. Furthermore the current capital of the mint becomes verifiable, making it possible to audit its backing versus issued DBCs.
Not all transactions with the Mint are recorded immediately into the history log. Spend operations are instead kept secret in pool of unrecorded transactions. The total amount represented by DBCs spent in those transactions is lower than the difference between backing capital and issued capital. Whenever a spend transaction reaches the mint it will first be recorded in the spend pool. Furthermore a hash is derived from a mint-kown secret and the hash of the transaction and recorded in the history log. When the amount of capital in the spend pool reaches a defined threshold, or the total number of transactions in the pool reaches a defined threshold, a random transaction from the pool is selected, removed from the pool and recorded in the history log. The combination of history log, signed transactions, concealed unique values and spend pool allows public verification on demand, while making public tracing of transactions hard. Care must be taken by the users to use common DBC amounts to prevent tracing through unique amounts.
The combination of ownership and publicly verifiable mint signatures allows for transactions in which the recipient can do a check against double-spends without having to communicate with the mint. The recipient only has to keep record of the DBCs sent to it that have a specific owner. If a DBC is presented twice a double spend is detected, if the DBC is unique and carries a valid signature by the mint the recipient can be sure that the DBC will be accepted by the mint for reissue at a later point in time. Since DBCs can include two owners that are exclusive to each other and cover two defined time spans, it is also possible to pre-generate DBCs to be used in an offline manner at a later point in time. The user simply generates DBCs for the intended recipient that after a certain time fall back to be reissue-able by the user’s key. This allows transactions between two parties in which both can be offline for a defined, possibly very long, time span without needing to interact with the mint. This makes the system very usable for scenarios of mobile point of sales transactions and simple hardware implementations, such as in the case of payment cards, public transport tickets, etc. Furthermore it makes the system much less vulnerable against denial of service attacks. To clarify: There are only two cases which require one of the transaction parties to talk to the mint during the transaction: The recipient is unknown, or the payment amount is unknown. In all other cases the transaction can be structured so that no communication with the mint is required during the transaction.
The public history log allows the recovery of the mint using only public data. The only DBCs that are at risk for double spend at that point are those in the spend pool. If the pool entry secret is known even those DBCs can be prevented from being double spent.
One feature that can be implemented in DBC systems is true anonymity and untraceablity of transactions. eCache implemented a second class of DBCs that would carry blind signatures instead of standard ECDSA signatures. The limitation was that it was only possible to reissue ONE standard DBC into ONE blind DBC, and vice versa. To make this possible in a single transaction, only specific amounts were supported. Instead of allowing any amount being represented by a DBC, the mint had one key per denomination and amount. A published list of keys and their respective values could then be used by both the mint and recipients to determine what amount and denomination a blind DBC had, simply by testing the signature. This way a direct conversion between DBCs with standard or blind signature was possible without risk of the mint being defrauded. However, when challenged the mint could not possibly prove from the history log that a spent DBC was actually the result of a previously recorded issue operation, leaving the possibility that the mint could overissue DBCs undetected. The user could however still challenge the honesty of the mint by revealing the used blinding parameters.
The issue of auditability of blind signature DBCs lead to the creation of the JarMix protocol. The goal here was the preservation of untraceability and anonymity of the user’s payment while at the same time being able to audit the mint’s issuing behavior. To this end a new entity is introduced that is independent of the mint: The Mix. The Mix is an entity independent of the Mint that only serves the purpose of increasing the anonymity and untraceability of user payments. The mental model here is a jar of coins into which the user can put one coin in and get a random other coin out. For this end, the mix operates the “jar of coins”, a pool of valid DBCs with unique ownership keys per DBC. A user contacts the mix and requests the swap of DBCs. The mix returns a signed statement containing the public keys of ownership for both the DBC in the pool and the expected DBC from the user. The user then creates a matching transaction for the mint, producing a DBC to the mix as owner. That transaction is encrypted to the mint and given to the mix. The mix appends its ownership public key and forwards the packet to the mint. The mint then decrypts the transaction, verifies that the ownership of the output DBC matches the attached ownership key of the mix, and returns the new DBC to the mix. It is important to note here that all responses by the mint are signed by the mint. On receiving the reply from the mint, the mix returns the previously agreed on DBC and ownership private key to the user. At this point the mint does not know which DBC the user received, and the mix does not know which DBC the user spent. Nor does the history log allow the mix from learning anything about the input DBC because that transaction is still kept in the spend pool (with ownership of output DBC being a concealed value). The user needs to trust the Mix to not spend the DBC on his own until it has been reissued. To keep Mixes honest, auditors can do test transactions through the mix, increasing the risk for dishonest mixes to be discovered. For increased privacy, and decreased risk of fraud by mixes, the user would reissue mix-DBCs through other mixes, with a short delay in between. The result of a chain of mix operations would be that no mix nor the mint could easily connect the original input DBC with the newly generated output DBC. At the end of a chain of mix transactions the user then reissues the last mix-DBC at the mint directly. The anonymity set and level of untraceability at that point depend on the combined trust in the mixes, and the number of mix transactions done by other users - similar to the level of privacy provided by mixes for communication. Various extensions have been described to extend JarMix so that the mix cannot double spend the DBC it returns to the user. They are beyond the scope of this document.
eCache (and JarMixes) simply subtracted a unit from the input amount based on the number of DBCs issued as a result of the transaction, allowing for trivial prediction of fees.
While eCache itself is not in use anymore, lessons learned from designing and developing the system have influenced other developments. One of these examples is Mute, a secure messenger developed in 2016. DBCs are very useful for micro payments. The requirements for processing, storage and bandwidth are very low, while at the same time allowing the system to operate for extended periods of time without the users having to communicate with the mint. And DBCs are just a few hundred bytes in size. For these reasons Mute used blind (untraceable, anonymous) DBCs to allow users to pay for the service on a per-message basis - using DBCs as digital stamps. Users would purchase some amount of the internal stamp currency, turn it into blind DBCs owned by any one of the Mute servers, and then include those DBCs into messages. The Mute servers would verify the Mint’s signature and check for double spend. On successful verification, the message would be forwarded.
DBC systems are flexible and easily extended to support further use cases. While the ownership feature described above is powerful, it can be adapted for more complex protocols. An example for that is the experimental extension developed for eCache.
Instead of simply recording the public key for transaction signatures, the hash of a “contract” was recorded in the DBC. A contract is a boolean expression describing the conditions under which a DBC will be reissued.
Furthermore the contract can apply to more than a single DBC transaction. eCache supported “combined” transactions in which two or more DBC transactions could be presented to the mint at the same time, the conditions of each of the input DBCs referring to the output DBC templates of the other transaction. This allows creating schemes that allow swapping the ownership of two certificates presented by two different users.
For example, a DBC issued for the denomination “gold” for owner A and another for the denomination “EURO” for owner B can be simultaneously processed if and only if the respective output DBCs would be “gold” for owner B and EURO for owner A. This essentially implements a swap or sales.
To facilitate processes like these eCache in addition implemented an “Issue Book” which cached newly issued DBCs created in combined transactions. It allowed anybody knowing the output DBC template to retrieve the signature for it. That way a user could pre-sign a transaction, give it to another user for combining it with his transaction and sending it to the mint, and then ask the Mint for the signature to be able to recreate the result of the transaction.
A central question for digital money systems is that of the issuer risk, that is: Risks introduced by the issuer. These can include manipulation of issued capital outside the bounds of backing capital, the operation outside of protocol, and unavailability due to the mint ceasing operation or being forced to close down. It is the issuer risk that is the main problem that blockchain cryptocurrencies have strongly mitigated. For DBC systems, one possible approach would be to separate backing from issuing, and make backing access dependent on continuous successful verification of mint operations. eCache could be used in this context since it allows users to demonstrate mint dishonesty, and everybody to audit the issued capital.
Watching and participating in the digital money sphere over the last decades is only part of the story, the other is an interest and excitement on where things will go. For me there seems to be an evolutionary path that has the “issuer risk” as the attractor. Issuer risk is the risks faced by a user of a digital money system of not being in direct possession of an intrinsic value, but instead rely on some entity for keeping and transmitting value.
In the beginning, issuer risk was overcome by trusted issuers and a legal system. The issuer would be liable to the users of his system, and the legal system would both regulate his behavior and practice, and also promise redress in case the issuer would defraud the users. Added onto that was the idea of issuer insurance, basically guaranteeing the deposits of users up to a certain amount by other issuers taking over the liability in case of issuer failure.
Trustless blockchain cryptocurrencies. Here the system itself says good-bye to any notion of backing or intrinsic value. Instead, only virtual fiat money was issued, by the system itself, held exclusively in the system, regulated purely by protocol implemented in software. Instead of trusting a single entity, or a system of institutions, the trust in these “trustless” systems is distributed over those parties that cooperatively but independently operate the system. These parties being, realistically, the miners. It needs to be kept in mind that “the miners” is no pre-defined group, it just happens to be the set of entities currently engaged in mining cryptocurrency, and that set is highly fluid. One miner disappearing can be replaced by a dozen new miners starting the activity - without any coordination whatsoever. This construction is believed by many to solve the issuer risk forever. I tend to disagree. Yes, it is for sure a much more resilient setup, but for me it is less then certain if that makes the system immune to regulatory attack, blocking, subversion. Yes, you will always be able to prove that you still have cryptocurrency, but its exchange value might be close to zero, and it might not be transmittable at all. It should be noted that in verifiable DBC systems the fact of still having valid DBCs is true even if the mint is taken down. And these DBC systems are recoverable: Another entity is able to just continue operating from the known public state. The main essential difference being that in blockchain cryptocurrencies the backing still remains, while in pure DBC systems that abstract another currency this would not be the case. One of the areas of research hence could be thinking about distributed monetary control for DBC currencies.
That is where we are at. We went from trusted, to verifiable, to possibly trustless. The word I am missing in that enumeration is “trustworthy”. So far, we have failed to build systems that are worthy of our trust. When we have trustless however, do we really need trustworthy anymore? My view is that building trustless systems is very limiting from perspectives on complexity, economics, privacy and adaptability. Trustless systems are necessarily huge, needing many persons to cooperate according to the same protocol. This makes them vulnerable to error of specification and a changing environment. They are also inherently expensive to operate and likely will never be as fast and cheap a DBC systems. Let alone that they are likely never going to achieve the same strength of privacy - anonymity and untraceability - then blind DBC systems can reach.
I do however have an intuition that we might find ourselves evolving past trustless systems towards trustworthy systems relatively soon. Let me throw a few ideas and sketches at you.
A few decades ago, people started working on something called “Trusted Computing”. The idea there is simple (the technology isn’t): Create computer hardware that can prove to a remote user that it is exactly one specific kind of computer, with one specific kind of hardware and hardware settings, running exactly one specific program. This means that you could verify from afar that a computer is doing exactly what you would expect. This is called “attestation”. Then came the cloud. Now hardware manufacturers are incentivized to push trusted computing even further, and make it widely available in their server processors. The next step taken was encrypted RAM. Here the processor itself would encrypt all access to RAM, preventing even somebody with physical access to learn the contents of memory. The key to encrypt the RAM would be generated by the processor itself, and never be made available to any other hardware or software. Examples for this are SGX, SME and SVE. Combine attestation and encrypted RAM, and you find yourself with a remote box that can process secrets. Secrets that nobody could learn or manipulate other than through the software running on the box - software that itself would be attested. I call this “black box computing”. The moment these technologies are mature (they aren’t right now), we will be able to set up black box computers anywhere, remotely, and be sure that our software runs as expected, and our secrets are secure on them - even against physical attack. This leaves us with the question if we should trust the software running on those machines. And the answer is as always: Trust but verify. Amazing advances have been made over recent years in the field of formally verified software. Software for which we can make mathematical proves that it performs one specific activity, and no other, even when presented with evil input. Please sit for a second and think about this: A formally verified program, running on a remote trusted computer, with no access to RAM but by the verified program. Should we reach that stage, and I’m very confident we will, our environment for running digital money systems will change dramatically. We will again be able to rely only on verifiable and recoverable systems, and they will be able to easily move from machine to machine, control money supply, and adapt as needed. And these systems will be cheaper, faster, more private and more powerful than anything done with blockchains today. There will be DBC systems again.
Until then, there is more to do. Recently there have been developments to create distributed DBC mints that are resilient to byzantine failure of a minority of participating nodes. Distributed DBC mints that are able to do blind signatures or employ JarMix for untraceability. It will be exciting to see what comes out of this. I have the feeling that the time of DBCs is still to come. | 2019-04-24T14:12:01Z | https://opaque.link/post/digitalmoneydbc/ |
"In Search of Spring" is what I am after.
And after what seems like ages, this weekend did bring a weather where I was not under the illusion, regarding our relocation to the North Pole.
"Are we moving to North pole or are we not?"
And if you squint your eyes and peer at this picture, you will even see a robin in those bare branches. And see the snow is melting off those roofs. Maybe we are not at 90.0000° N, 0.0000° W after all.
Since my rants about the weather in every post might seem a tad boring,let me give a positive spin to this whole snow storm thing. Though on the onset this whole pile of snow, piling over with each storm, might sound like a bad thing, it has its own advantages. Like it renders driving around to fulfill "life's necessities" unnecessary. This means you get a lot of time to realize how unnecessary those necessities really are.
This meant that I could spend two whole days, holed up, doing nothing but drinking tea and finishing "Gone Girl".
I could also spruce up the study and bring some order to the chaos of what is called crayons, markers, glues and other crafty stuff.
And then when the roads were deemed fit, I could go to IKEA to get these orange clamp lights which I think is one of life's necessities.As is IKEA.
This corner reminds me of friends who have moved continents and are enjoying warm weather while we freeze. They are missing all the fun.
Add some minced coriander leaves to the prepared mix.Use this speedy salsa for the soup.
Heat 2 tsp Olive Oil in a deep, heavy pan.
Add a pinch of red chilli powder and about 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds to the oil and let them briefly sizzle.
When the cumin sizzles, add chopped onion(half of a medium sized onion) and fry till soft.
Now add your salsa. If you don't have the home made salsa, open a store bought jar. If you like it hot add chili powder or use a HOT salsa.
Cook the salsa for couple of minutes, stirring constantly so that it does not burn or stick.
Note: I prefer using canned beans for this soup and I almost always skip the corn. If you are using dried black beans, I suggest, you soak the beans overnight and cook them before adding to soup.
Bring this soup to a full boil and reduce heat to medium low.
Squeeze in a few drops of lime.Simmer the salsa soup until the corn/bean is completely cooked. For me this happens quick as I always used canned beans.
Turn off heat and stir in a bunch of chopped cilantro.
Ladle your finished salsa soup into individual soup bowls. Top with avocado chunks and toss a bit of cheese on top of that. I don't add any cheese as we like this soup light.
Top with a few tortilla chips or papad instead of croutons.
Everyone who reads this blog, probably knows Monica Bhide. She is a very successful food writer with many books to her name. While her recipes are no doubt lip-smackingly delicious, what I like best is her writing. Her website describes her as "A storyteller at heart" and I can agree no less.
To know more about her, you can read her bio.
Now, all of you know that today is Valentines' Day. It is a day after my own heart and I love the idea of cute teddy bears holding on to chocolates and hearts for dear life. Okay, just kidding, I love no such thing. So, to distract you from a bunch of over-priced red roses or diamond hearts or even teddies, I have decided to give away a copy of Monica Bhide's book "Modern Spice" to one lucky reader of this blog. After all, there is no love greater than the love of food. And after all, I love you all so much.
To take part, leave a comment on this post, saying "what is your favorite spice and how you use it" and yes, don't forget to mention your e-mail id.
And here is a conversation with Monica Bhide which I had over e-mail.
Monica, I always find your story of changing careers from engineer to food writer very interesting. How did it all happen ? Little of the back story please.
Like many Indian immigrants, I came to the US to study. I earned two Masters' degrees and worked for a Big Six consulting company for a long time. The job paid well into the six-figures and I really loved the people I worked with but somehow at the end of the day, it felt as though something was missing. I kept feeling like I was placed on this earth to do something other than, say, leadership training! Mind you, not that there is anything wrong with that, it was just not my life's calling. Then, out of the blue, a very dear friend of mine passed away. She was only 35 and it really shook me to the core. It was a devastating loss and also a reminder of how short and fragile and precious life is. Her death made me rethink my whole life. So one day, I went in and quit. I gave up my engineering career to pursue my calling to tell stories.
When you took the courage to change your career, did you face any setbacks ? How did you overcome them ?
It wasnt really courage. It was not an option. I felt as though a part of my spirit was dying each day and I had to change something if I wanted to feel alive again. There were setbacks, there always are, but I think the key was to focus on the goal and not the obstacles. There were days that I would worry so much about how I would make this new career work, I lost so much sleep over how I would make money. It was a long time before I realized that all I could really do, all I could really control was my work. I had to work and write and keep writing. Eventually, the obstacles would take care of themselves.
Do you apply your scientific and engineering skills in your creative career too ? How?
I get in trouble when I do this! It works great for the how-to stories but I have to leave that part of my brain behind when I am writing essays. My agent always makes fun of me-- he says he can see the engineer come forth when I am outlining a book, and then disappear when I begin to write and the writer takes over!
You are an acclaimed writer with several books in your name and so clearly you are a success. But what is your advise to the food writers starting out ? Is it wise for them to give up their day job to pursue a career in writing ?
Ah, the million dollar question -- giving up the day job! I really dont know how to answer that one since everyone's circumstances are so different. In my case, we had saved up and I had a very supportive spouse who was willing to support me while I tried to find my legs in this new business. It is a tough choice and I think it is best to sit down and really make an educated, informed decision.
Do you have any pearls of wisdom to share with us food bloggers ?
Write daily, write consistently, write because you love to write and never, ever, ever give up.
Of all that you have written, pick a favorite.
Today if you happen to meet your 20 old self, what would you tell her ?
Unlike where I live amidst snow, bitter cold and temperature dropping to negative, winter is a joyous time in the plains of Bengal. Because it is not really "cold" cold but merely a delusion of being "cold". Also this is the season when it is not really hot and you are not sweating at the mere prospect of a bus ride. That is a lot of "not"s. In fact winter is so pleasant that you can wear a sweater or wrap a shawl or sit in the sun after a bath in a bucket of water warmed by the same sun and yet not lose an ounce of body fluid by perspiration.
Of course this luxury is only for the plains and the lower range of Himalayas in the far north of the state get severely cold and suffer from a case of proper winter. But we will not talk of severe winters as they are not as fun as the mild ones.
So in the plains of Bengal, winter is the season to show off napthalene scented Kashmiri shawls and to indulge in heavy eating. Not that the other seasons see any less of the last bit but Bengalis love to think that a cold weather demands more of fatty food, sweet desserts and variety of dishes made with fresh vegetables like cauliflower, sweet peas and carrots which grace the markets only in the months of December and January. Okay, okay, now you do get these vegetables around the year but even then you cannot deny the pleasure of aloo-phulkopi chingri'r dalna, narkel-khejur gur pur diye pati shapta, piyaajkoli diye maach and beet-gajor er chechki on a winter afternoon which has the prospect of a nap under sun soaked quilt later.
The erudite Bangalis also believe(and rightly so!) that the umpteen cups of hot tea or coffee gulped down to abate the so-called-cold, needs to be served with some deep fried deliciousness on the side. So, croquettes are fried, stuffed kochuris are rolled out and battered fish sizzle in a kadhai full of oil.
Now, though it is the Egg Roll, Fish Fry, Chicken Kobiraji, Beguni and Aloor Chop which are the more famous deep fried snacks, there are several humble counterparts that are made at home with minimal effort and with ingredients easily found in a home pantry.
"Chire Bhaja" or "Crisp Fried Poha" or "Crispy Beaten Rice" tops the chart in that category. It was the most frequent snack made by Ma, winter or no winter and especially on the arrival of an impromptu guest for cha. And guests were almost always impromptu in those times. Like most mothers of that generation, my Ma believed in the code of conduct set by the ancient Sanskrit verse "Atithi Devo Bhavah" which means "A guest is like God". Translated it meant -- "it is necessary to ply all guests with food and beverage irrespective of their desire to consume food".
In summer this meant sherbet, sondesh and mangoes and when the weather turned cooler it was always tea and fried goodies. Since we lived in a small town, where getting shingara and mishti from the stores was as long winded as placing a telephone call, Ma always served something made at home. It could be nimki, which she would make by jarfuls every few months, or home made sabu papad and chips, which were made in winter. Most of the time those jars would be emptied by us, without her knowing, and so she had to resort to the default choice of "Chire Bhaja" on many a evenings.
It was quick, easy and inexpensive. All it needed was chire or beaten rice which was a pantry staple, raw peanuts and gallons of oil. Heat enough oil in a kadhai --> fry the peanuts and remove--then fry the chire in a kadhai full of oil until those flat dry pieces puff up snowy and crisp. Simple.
During winter when the sweet peas were a plenty and Ma already had some shelled peas at hand, she would throw in boiled and lightly sauteed peas with the chire bhaja. That Koraishuti diye Chire Bhaja was my favorite. Sometimes if she had left over grated coconut after the pati shapta stuffing was done, she would mix the fluffy, soft "narkel kora" with the fried chire and sprinkle a little sugar on it. That gave the savory chire bhaja a sweet undertone which instantly took my fancy. The dregs of sugar and salt mixed with the oil at the bottom of the bowl was a delight to lick and it was perfectly ok to wipe down those oily fingers on the pleats of skirts or the sari, whichever was easily available.
Oil, then was not a bad word. Chire Bhaja needs to be fed oil. Period.
But now, it is the oil which makes me freak out every time I have to fry chire. The result, I would rarely make chire bhaja, hyperventilating at the memories of oil stained fingers until my Ma-in-law showed me a less oily way to fry this stuff. She would first dry roast the chire in a kadhai and only then fry it in oil. This step cut down the oil dramatically. The chire turned crispy even with very less oil. Voila !! A trick worth learning.
I went a step further, as is my habit to always take a different step for better or worse, and these days I toss the chire with little oil and roast in the oven as the first step. Only then do I fry it in very little oil in the Kadhai. Works wonders every time. Well, I mean not exactly same "wonder" as frying in gallon full of oil. And the oily dregs of sugar-salt-pepper are missing. And definitely that more oily chire baja tasted better than this less oily one. But this was one tastes very good too. Only a teeny-tiny bit less good.
We will settle for that I say.
Toss 3 cups of chire/thick poha/flat beaten rice with 1 tbsp of Vegetable oil.
Next spread them in a layer on an oven safe tray and bake in the oven at 300F. After the first 7-8 minutes, take it out and toss it around. Pop in the oven for next 7-8 minutes. keep a watch to see that the chire is not getting brown and burnt.
Now heat 2 tbsp of oil in a small kadhai.
When the oil is hot add about 1/4th cup of peanuts and fry till light brown. Remove the peanuts and keep aside.
To the same oil, add a cracked red chilli and a small piece of ginger julienne.
Add the crispy baked chire gradually, tossing it in the oil. Sprinkle little salt while tossing. The chire will puff up a little more.
After the last step, where you have poured out the chire and added salt/pepper etc., add a fist full of grated coconut and about 1/2 tsp of sugar to the piping hot chire bhaja. Toss quickly and eat.
Option 3 -- Koraishuti diye Chire Bhaja or Crispy Poha with Green peas.
If using fresh peas, then shell and boil the peas till tender. If using a bag of frozen peas, then microwave the peas till just done. I love these sweet peas ad so we will be generous and use 1 cup of cooked peas.
Now heat 2 tsp of oil in a small kadhai.
When the oil is hot add a cracked red chilli and a small piece of ginger chopped in julienne.
Now add the cooked peas and toss with salt and black pepper powder. Saute for a couple of minutes. Take out the peas and keep aside.
Add about 2tbsp oil to same kadhai and heat.
Add the crispy baked chire gradually, tossing it in the oil. The chire will puff up a little more.
Now switch off heat and pour out the fried chire in a bowl. Add the sauteed peas. Sprinkle with more salt and black pepper powder to taste.
When I was a small child, I did not sing. Rather I assumed that "I cannot sing". It must have been a true assumption since years later when I tried to sing lullaby to my daughters, they protested and later told me to not sing when they are trying to sleep!
However my father, like all fathers, did not believe in my lack of singing talent as a 5 year old. He was a connoisseur of Rabindra Sangeet and though he himself could not sing a single note in key, he made it up by being an ardent listener. Rabindra Sangeet was the only music that played in our house in those days. The few Hindi songs that I heard were either over the neighborhood loudspeaker or on Binaca Geetmala on Bibidh Bharati. The only voices that boomed through our tape recorder was that of Debobroto Biswas, Suchitra Mitra and Kanika.
This overdose of Rabindra Sangeet at home, made me kind of detest Tagore's Songs. Yes, a blasphemy, but honestly I did not get most of the Tagore songs as a child. There were few like "Purano sei diner kotha" and "Aakash bhora surjo tara" which I really liked but most others, played day in and day out sounded monotonic to my ignorant ears.
As a result when my Father wanted me to learn Rabindra Sangeet, as most Bengali Fathers would, I protested. I said "I cannot sing", which might have been true but not something that could not have been worked on with some training. But I steadfastly refused any training and even with an opportunity to learn at Tagore's ChitraBhanu, I did not succumb to the pleasures of learning music. Even at the compulsory music class in school, I mouthed words, keeping my voice low, assuming that I cannot really sing.
Many, many years later, I kind of started appreciating Tagore's songs. I partly understood the words, the poetry and the music or at least I thought I did. My understanding was not even close to my Father's love for Tagore's songs but at least I realized why he might have wanted me to learn Rabindra Sangeet.
So, as most Bengali Mothers are wont to do, I enrolled my daughters in a Bengali music class.
I have always heard that most parents want to fulfill their wishes through their children. I thought it was a selfish thing to want. Now, I know, it is not always so. With their years of trudging through the swirling waters of life, when parents eventually realize what happiness those wishes and trainings could bring, they want to plant a love for that wish in their child's heart. So a parent who dropped out of school makes sure that the offspring gets to finish academics, the one who hardly practiced the piano and wishes she could play music for her own solace persuades her child to practice piano every day and the one who never learned to sing wants her daughters to sing.
It is not that we parents want our children to become like us, we think it will do them good to be what we aren't.
With that wish in my heart, I suggested gaaner school aka music school to my daughters. Of course my father has been subtly suggesting the same all along.I must say that I was lucky enough to find a music teacher in my neighborhood, who is not only fantastic but also knows how to work with kids very well. So once a week, after school, in the evening, she fills my daughter's life with music they don't hear everyday.She teaches them children's songs along with Vedic songs often interspersed with Rabindra Sangeet. The result is that both LS and BS look forward to their Friday Bangla Gaaner school where they go along with little friends they have known since birth.
For this Saraswati pujo, their music teacher has taught them Tagore's "Modhuro Dhwoni Baaje". And when these little kids sing this difficult Bengali song, pronouncing the words just right, my heart is filled with an unknown happiness.
My Dad was in tears hearing their rendition which I had sent him over e-mail.After all they are little kids, growing up far from Tagore's land and probably do not understand meaning of half of the words of this song. Their singing is not perfect but it is beautiful.
For my father, it is probably a wish come true.
Now back to this very Bengali Mutton Stew which LS loves. BS too loves the stew as long as she does not have to eat the mutton. She is turning into a vegetarian these days. In winter vegetables like carrots and beet makes this the perfect winter stew.
Usually I make the stew this way. But this time I followed the recipe for Leela Majumdar's "Brown Stew" narrated in her inimitable style, from her cookbook which I read more for the comfort it brings than recipes. This is truly the most heart warming soup you can make, with minimal effort on your part. It tastes best with mutton but is good enough with chicken too.
As the author says, do not overload this stew with vegetables. The vegetables should be in proportion with the meat you use.
When the whole spices sputter, add the mutton pieces. The pieces should be in a single layer and not crowd the pan.
Saute at high heat until the mutton pieces are browned. If the mutton releases water, cook until the water is dried off and the mutton has lost its raw coloring. Take out the mutton and keep aside.
To the same oil, add the onion and fry for 2-3 minutes until onion softens a little.
Add all the other chopped vegetables, sprinkle salt and let the vegetables brown a little. It is not really necessary to fry the vegetables, just gently saute for a few minutes.
Now add the browned mutton pieces.
Add about 5 cups of water, salt to taste and mix everything with a ladle.
At this point add 2 fat clove of garlic chopped in slices and an inch of ginger grated. Let the stew come to a simmer.
Close the pressure cooker. After the first whistle or once the pressure is built up, lower the heat and let the stew cook at low medium heat for about 10 minutes. After that raise the heat and cook for 5-6 more minutes. Switch off and let the pressure cooker release steam naturally.
Once the pressure cooker lid can be opened, carefully open the lid and check if meat is done. If not, you have to close the lid and cook for another 6-8 minutes.
If the meat is done, taste the stew and add cracked black pepper and salt to taste. If the stew looks a bit runny, open the lid and put it on heat again to cook off some of the excess water.
Serve with a dollop of butter and with a piece of crusty bread or rice on the side.. | 2019-04-26T15:52:15Z | http://www.bongcookbook.com/2014/02/ |
There is a fiery message burning in my bones. It is a message every Christian needs to hear, especially in this age of overpowering temptations and excruciating hurt.
The message I bring to you from the Lord is simply this: God has not forgotten you! He knows exactly where you are, what you are going through right now, and He is monitoring every step along your path. But we are just like the children of Israel who doubted God's daily care for them, even though prophets were sent to deliver wonderful promises from Heaven.
God's people sat in darkness, hungry and thirsty, praying for deliverance and comfort. God bottled every tear, and He heard their cry and answered, "I will preserve thee... You shall no longer hunger and thirst... I will have mercy on you and lead you by springs of living water... for the Lord will comfort his people and have mercy on all the troubled ones..." (Isaiah 49). Did Israel rejoice in these promises sent directly from the throne of God? Did God's people quit their fretting and begin trusting in the Lord to see them through? Did those who were hurt and confused believe a single word of these promises? No!
"But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me" (Isaiah 49:14). These were not reprobates or sons of the devil. Rather, they were those "who sought the Lord... the sons of Abraham... those who knew righteousness... in whose heart was the law of God..." How much clearer must God make His Word to these stubborn, unbelieving children? God was greatly concerned because they were not appropriating or hearing His promises. You can almost sense the impatience of the Lord in rebuking their unbelief. "I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of men... and forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and thou hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy..." (Isaiah 51:12-13).
Does it all sound familiar? Here we are today as the children of the same Holy God, having in us the glorious promise of Holy Ghost comfort; yet we go about daily fearing the oppressor. We know what our Lord has promised us: guidance, peace, a shelter from the storm, a way where there seems to be none, a supply for every need, healing for every hurt. Do we believe any of it? Do we just put these promises out of our minds and go on our way, worrying and fretting and taking matters into our own hands? I'm afraid so! And we are all alike. We get in a tight place; we get lonely and depressed; we fall into temptation and yield to lust; we make tragic errors and live in guilt and terror; and through it all, we choose to forget all that God has promised us. We forget we serve a God who laid the very foundations of this earth. We forget our Father is all powerful, and that all things that exist were made by Him. We see only our problems. Our fears shut out the vision of His power and glory. We get afraid; we panic; we question; we doubt.
We forget in our hour of need that God has us in the palm of His hand. Instead, like the children of Israel, we are afraid we are going to blow it all and be destroyed by the enemy. How difficult it must be for our loving Father to understand why we won't trust Him when we are down and in need. God must think to Himself, "Don't they know I have graven them upon the palms of My hands... I could no more forget them in their hour of need than a mother could forget her suckling child... and even though a mother could forget her child, I cannot forget a single child of mine" (Isaiah 49:15-16).
Again and again God came to Israel pleading for their confidence and trust in times of crises. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not!" (Isaiah 30:15). God said to them, "You didn't ask at My mouth, praying for help and guidance. You didn't wait for Me to help. You didn't return to Me for help and strength when you really needed it. You didn't accept My counsel; you didn't wait for Me to work; you didn't wait for that quiet word behind you that whispers, 'This is the way; walk ye in it.' You didn't believe My strong arm could deliver you. You didn't call upon My name of rest in the shadow of My palm. No! You took matters in your own hand; you depended on others; you trusted in your own thoughts. You conceived chaff and were burnt by your own fire."
God seems finally to shout at Israel, "Seek ye out the book of the Lord, and read: not one promise shall fail... for my mouth it hath commanded... so strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you... sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isaiah 34:16, 35:3-10).
It seems to me that even the New Testament echoes God's displeasure with unbelief: "Ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:6-8).
Jesus worried that when He returned to this earth, He would not find any faith left. He had just finished a message about how certainly God answers prayer. He had just promised that the Heavenly Father would speedily "avenge and answer his own elect, which cry unto Him day and night." It must have been with a heavy heart that Jesus spoke the following: "I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:7-8).
Can it be that we continue in our hurting - continue in our sinning - continue living in defeat and failure - simply because we really do not believe God answers our prayers anymore?
Are we as guilty as the children of Israel in thinking God has forsaken us and given us over to our own devices to figure things out for ourselves? Do we really believe our Lord meant it when He said God will act just in time, in answer to our prayer of faith? Jesus implies that most of us, even though called and chosen, will not be trusting in Him when He returns. Some of God's people have already lost their confidence in Him. They do not believe, in the deepest of their souls, that their prayers make any difference. They act as if they are all on their own.
Instead of submitting to the Lord in quiet confidence and rest in His promises, we try so hard to work out our own solutions. And when our way of doing things blows up in our faces, we get angry with God.
A young divorcee confessed, "I almost went out to get stone-drunk tonight. I've been praying for a whole year now for my husband to return, but instead of coming back to me, he has taken up with another woman. God didn't answer my prayer, so I thought I'd go out and get drunk to show Him how angry I am." What a pity! She was ready to take it out on God because He wouldn't answer her prayer her way on her time schedule. Like so many others who beg God for favors, she wanted only one thing: relief from her loneliness and release for her sexual drive. She didn't want more of Jesus, more holiness and Christian character. No! She simply wanted a man at her side. I knew immediately that God could not answer that woman's prayer. She was not ready to receive her husband back. She was till an emotional cripple, and she would have blown it a second time. Then all she would have left would be another failure, and her despair would be compounded. God had not forsaken her; He was actually being merciful to her. He was saving her life, but she couldn't see it.
Be honest now! Has your faith been weak lately? Have you almost given up on certain things you have prayed so much about? Have you grown weary with waiting? Have you thrown up your hands in resignation as if to say, "I just can't seem to break through. I don't know what is wrong and why my prayer is not answered. Evidently God has said no to me."
What about all the lonely people in the world who are torn apart by their solitude? The young unmarrieds who spend months and even years praying for a loving mate? Others would be satisfied if God would answer prayer and give them just a friend. They cry at night. The telephone becomes their life line, and when things get unbearable, they call someone - anyone - just to talk for awhile. Does God still answer those kinds of prayers? You know - the old-fashioned kinds where Christian girls still pray in a Christian husband - and boys pray in the Christian wife? Can God miraculously send into lonely lives friends, mates, in answer to prayer and faith? I still have to believe God works that way. Yet I know for a fact, after interviewing hundreds of lonely people, that few of them really believe God's promises.
Show me a lonely, hurting child of God who puts character and growth ahead of all other needs, and I'll show you one who is sure to be fulfilled. Instead of praying with faith, instead of reading God's Word and growing in strength, instead of committing their future to His keeping - most lonely people watch TV, read junk magazines, and grow spiritually dull. Their faith is weak because they are spiritually crippled. They pray only in quick snatches. They wallow in self-pity and self-condemnation. They are stunted and unbelieving, ready to think God has picked them out of the crowd to be treated wrongly. God can't answer their prayers because they are not ready for friendship and true love. They would mess it up in a short time because unbelief with God always leads to instability in human relationships. I say to all lonely people: Get back to the secret closet! Get back to simple, childlike faith! Start yearning for Jesus - more than for a friend or mate. God will, according to His own Word, meet your every need.
Almost everywhere I go today I hear Christians, even ministers, tell me there is something missing in their lives. A pastor friend summed it up like this, "David, I start to hunger after the Lord. I get a broken spirit; I weep and cry for hours. I feel like something in me is seeking expression. Like a birth about to take place. I want more from God and more out of life. I want to be holy. I want to know God and get through to Him. I pray that what I feel won't dissipate but will keep growing until I break through. But, sadly, in a few weeks I lose my broken spirit. I go back to my old fears and dryness. I get so close, but I never go all the way. Then I say to myself - What happened?"
Does that describe what you go through? Do you feel like you are just outside the gate; so close, about to break through to a life of joy, faith, answered prayers, and victory? Is there something in you that keeps condemning you, as if you never do enough to please God? At times do you think to yourself, "I'm just not doing anything. I'm not getting anything accomplished. I'm not growing. I'm not making real progress?"
I am of the opinion that in all of us, just beneath the surface, there lingers a horrible thought, "Oh God, help me or I'm going to blow it all." We never say it, but we think it. "God, I'm so weak, so susceptible to my besetting sin, so ignorant about winning over temptation, so confused about prayer and how to overcome the devil - I'm afraid I'll do something stupid and ruin everything."
What does it all mean when prayers go unanswered? When hurts linger? When suffering is permitted to continue, and God seems to be doing nothing in response to our faith? Often God is loving us more supremely at that time than ever before. The Word says, "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth." A chastening of love takes precedence over every act of faith, over every prayer, over every promise. What I see as hurting in me could be His loving me. It could be His gentle hand spanking me out of my stubbornness and pride. God could be saying to me, "I've promised to meet your every need. I told you I would do anything you asked of Me in faith. You need to submit to s season of chastening; it is the only way I can make you into an experienced vessel of love. You can ask to be delivered, but it will only delay your spiritual growth. Through this suffering you will learn obedience, if you submit."
We have faith in our faith. We place more emphasis on the power of our prayers than we do on getting His power into us. We want to figure out God so we can read Him like a book. We don't want to be surprised or bewildered. And when things happen contrary to our concept of God, we say, "That can't be God; that's not the way He works."
We are so busy working on God, we forget He is trying to work on us. That is what this life is all about: God at work on us, trying to remake us into vessels of glory. We are so busy praying to change things, we have little time to allow prayer to change us. God has not put prayer and faith in our hands as if they were two secret tools by which a select group of "experts" learn to pry something out of Him. God said He is more willing to give than we are to receive. Why are we using prayer and faith as "keys" or tools to unlock something that has never been locked up? It's all freely given. It's been out-poured. It's a storehouse with all the doors and windows opened, with a Father who is already at work daily loading us with His benefits. When Jesus said, "Knock, and it shall be opened," He was talking about your door, not His. Knock down all your own doors. You need no key to enter His presence.
Prayer is not for God's benefit; it is for ours. Faith is not for His benefit, but for ours. God is not some eternal, divine tease. He has not surrounded Himself in riddles for men to unravel, as if to say, " The wise will get the prize."
We are so mixed up on this matter of prayer and faith; we have had the audacity to think of God as our personal "genie" who fulfills every wish. We think of faith as a way to corner God on His promises. We think God is pleased by our efforts to back Him against the wall and shout, "Lord, You can't go back on Your promise. I want what is coming to me. Your are bound by Your Word. You must do it or Your Word is not true."
This is why we miss the true meaning of prayer and faith. We see God only as the giver, we are the receiver. But prayer and faith are the avenues by which we become the givers to God. They are to be used, not as ways to get things from God, but as a way to give Him those things by which we can please Him.
Do you want a promise or do you want the Promisemaker? Do you want answers to prayer or do you want Him who works all things together for good? Can you imagine a wife who sticks with her husband only for the benefits she receives? She enjoys the prestige of her renowned husband, using his name freely to enhance her own position. She enjoys all the luxuries he provides; she constantly spends on his credit cards. Yet she takes for granted the one who loves her so. She has little time to spend with him; she is so preoccupied with her own comfort and pleasure. How long before the world knows she uses her husband, that she is more interested not so much in him, but in what he provides? Beloved bride of Christ, is that not the way we treat our Master? We demand the use of His credit cards, while showing so little interest in His love.
All the promises are given to us so we can become partakers of Him. He wants to get His divine nature of love into our puny bodies.
Do I believe all the promises are mine? Yes! Do I believe God still answers prayer? Yes! Do I believe He will comfort me; deliver me; give me the things I need to be free and fulfilled? Yes! But all that God does in me and for me depends on one thing: I must believe that He hears me when I call, that He bottles every tear, that He is more willing to give than I am to receive, that He is most anxious to answer every prayer that will help me be more like Himself, that He will never withhold anything that I need any longer than I can bear to be without it.
God has not forsaken me - nor you! A thousand times no! He is right now wanting us all to believe He is working all things out for our good. So quit trying to figure it out; stop worrying; stop doubting your Lord! The answer is coming! God has not shut His ear! You will reap - in due season - if you faint not! | 2019-04-26T06:52:36Z | http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=38085&forum=34 |
For most Chiefs fans, the person to blame (besides the refs) after their latest postseason horror show is Andy Reid . The Chiefs went from Super Bowl frontrunners to Super Bowl contenders to, in the blink of an eye, quarterback brokers.
Boeing has remained a top pick of mine for some time now, largely due to the stability of the company's cash flows and the ability of Boeing to continue to improve on operational efficiencies while maintaining world-class order numbers year in and year out.
The stock decreased 1.15% or $0.47 during the last trading session, reaching $40.26. Sei reported 2.82 million shares. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has risen 37.41% since January 9, 2017 and is uptrending. portfolio. 4,464 were accumulated by Huntington Commercial Bank. Chesapeake Energy Corp (NYSE: CHK ) has an ABR of 3.5 which is the combined stock view of 17 analysts poll results.
In the index of passports of 2018, Armenia has climbed two notches to take the 76th spot with the opportunity to visit 59 countries without a visa . Just ten years ago it was ranked in second place with Finland and Portugal. The world's best passports provide worry free access to up to 161 countries while the worst passports will only allow you to enter 26 countries.
Kakaku.com, Inc. (OTCMKTS:KKKUF) has 0.00% since January 7, 2017 and is. Morgan Stanley invested 0% of its portfolio in OHR Pharmaceutical, Inc . Roth Capital now has $7.00 price target on the biotechnology company's stock. Insider ownership increased by a total of 0 shares, which suggests that OHRP's key executives are feeling more optimistic about the outlook for the stock.
The company estimates the new version of the best-selling vehicle in the United States will get a fuel economy rating of 30 miles per gallon. Filipe notes that peak torque comes at just 1,750 rpm with torque delivery continuing throughout the rpm range - ideal for towing or hauling heavy loads over long distances.
The stock has a market cap of 1.3 Billion. The institutional investor held 977,144 shares of the oilfield services and equipment company at the end of 2017Q3, valued at $44.98 million, down from 1.80 million at the end of the previous reported quarter.
Could Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) Go Down After Making 52-Week High?
Investment Centers Of America Inc who had been investing in Valero Energy Corp New for a number of months, seems to be less bullish one the $41.23B market cap company. Clarivest Asset Mgmt Limited stated it has 6 shares. Cowen & Co maintained the stock with "Hold" rating in Wednesday, August 30 report. Wexford Capital Lp owns 207,266 shares.
Both WestJet and Sunwing confirmed that their planes were involved in the collision at Toronto Pearson International, the second such incident at the airport in five months. A spokeswoman for WestJet says everybody was safely evacuated from the plane via emergency slides and nobody on board was injured. 'Due to the position of the aircraft on the laneway, WestJet guests required evacuation via emergency slide.
Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. has a 1-year low of $17.46 and a 1-year high of $33.95. The stock decreased 0.32% or $0.78 during the last trading session, reaching $239.79. ARMK comes in with a P/S ratio of 0.73 that's below 1, potentially implying that it could be cheap relative to the overall sector (2824.27) and its peers (3.18).
That's a potential 8.73 increase relative to where Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE:LXP) has been trading recently. It has underperformed by 6.57% the S&P500. The firm has "Buy" rating by Cantor Fitzgerald given on Monday, June 12. The stock has "Neutral" rating by BTIG Research on Thursday, August 25. Brookfield Asset Inc invested in 2.89 million shares or 0.71% of the stock.
It has underperformed by 4.78% the S&P500. Matt Sirovich decreased its stake in Fidelity National Financial (FNF) by 43.65% based on its latest 2017Q3 regulatory filing with the SEC. As per Friday, October 27, the company rating was maintained by Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Monness Crespi has "Buy" rating and $45 target. (NYSE:MO) earned "Buy" rating by Stifel Nicolaus on Monday, June 27.
It has underperformed by 2.55% the S&P500. Iguana Healthcare Management Llc increased Tesaro Inc (TSRO) stake by 66.67% reported in 2017Q3 SEC filing. The firm has "Hold" rating given on Thursday, July 20 by Stephens. Keefe Bruyette & Woods has "Buy" rating and $23.0 target. The stock has "Overweight" rating by Barclays Capital on Wednesday, October 18.
Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Senior Housing Properties Trust from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, January 5th. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Chase Invest Counsel Corp holds 0.19% or 2,386 shares in its portfolio. LSV Asset Management now owns 5,666,676 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $72,930,000 after purchasing an additional 601,200 shares in the last quarter.
Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 272,548 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $15,102,000 after acquiring an additional 10,318 shares during the period. (NYSE:PX) or 76,031 shares. Loring Wolcott Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors Llp Ma invested 0% of its portfolio in Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN).
It has outperformed by 35.38% the S&P500. Montag A & Associates Inc increased its stake in Conocophilips (COP) by 47.11% based on its latest 2017Q3 regulatory filing with the SEC. Another trade for 6,374 shares valued at $413,864 was made by Nichols Rodney P. on Thursday, December 14. Investors sentiment increased to 1.32 in Q3 2017.
When the session continued, the stock hit a new high of $87.15 and recorded a low of $86.60. Investors and Traders continue to monitor technical levels of shares of The Progressive Corporation (PGR ). The direction of this stock is getting Weakening.This is an indicator for investors to know whether the stock is heading towards a Buy or Sell, or whether the Hold is advancing towards a Buy or a Sell.
During a presentation at 2018's Consumer Electronics Show , Pizza Hut announced plans for an automated delivery auto and the Twitter account for sci-fi Netflix series Black Mirror reminded us why that is a awful idea. Toyota envisions the e-Palette will serve a variety of potential uses, allowing businesses to deliver goods, transport people, or use the vehicle as a mobile storefront or office.
The big difference now is that the EMotion doesn't need a range extender to keep it moving down the road, instead the EMotion is a fully-electric vehicle. Inside an iPad like screen is sits in the middle of the center console. A version with a 27-inch rear curved screen is called Chauffer Edition and buyers can opt for a rear bench seat allowing the vehicle to haul five people.
Automotive is a new expansion area for Alexa and other voice assistants. Toyota announced the partnership Tuesday, saying the cloud-based voice assistant would be included in vehicles equipped with the Toyota Entune 3.0 App Suite and Lexus Enform App Suite 2.0, allowing riders to interact with Alexa in the auto.
Kodak's share price almost doubled, to $6.02, in midday trading Tuesday. Kodak wants photographers to register their photographs with its new blockchain platform, which will track down unlicensed images, so that the photographers can get paid for their work.
The Senate action comes days after the Justice Department reached a tentative agreement with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to provide additional information related to his investigation of how the probe now led by Mueller may have acted on information in the dossier, including whether it was the primary basis for launching surveillance of Trump campaign officials.
Duke Realty Corporation (NYSE:DRE) has risen 24.81% since January 9, 2017 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 164.19% the S&P500. G2 Investment Partners Management Llc decreased Sodastream International Ltd (SODA) stake by 32.56% reported in 2017Q3 SEC filing.
Starbucks Corp. has introduced a lighter espresso to its more than 8,000 USA locations. The new brew, which Starbucks described as "smooth without the roasty edge", is now an option in all espresso-based beverages, including lattes, cappuccinos, flat whites, macchiatos and Americanos.
Germany's industrial economy remains on a positive path despite a setback in manufacturing orders in November, economists said following the release of data that point to a continued strong economy in the new year. German factories registered a 0.4% drop in orders. In the meantime, the Germany's trade surplus is expected to rise to Euro 21.3 billion in November from Euro 18.9 billion in October.
The stock increased 0.70% or $0.31 during the last trading session, reaching $44.74. About 2,780 shares traded or Infinity% up from the average. It is up 19.47% since January 9, 2017 and is uptrending. Hsbc Holding Public Limited Company, United Kingdom-based fund reported 5.63 million shares. Needelman Asset Management has 32,845 shares for 3.07% of their portfolio.
Comerica Bank who had been investing in Mcdonalds Corp for a number of months, seems to be less bullish one the $138.66 billion market cap company. The stock decreased 0.07% or $0.12 during the last trading session, reaching $173.93. Dana Inv Advsr holds 0.24% of its portfolio in McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) for 33,718 shares. Therefore 71% are positive. Microsoft Corporation had 141 analyst reports since July 22, 2015 according to SRatingsIntel.
She added: "As we increase our understanding of pollution and non-recyclable plastics on our streets and in our seas, its impact on wildlife, then educating the public on how they can play their part is going to be critical". "But unfortunately, the ban does not cover a long list of products, such as sunscreen, lipstick and paints - and of course microbeads are only one part of the huge plastic pollution problem we now face".
The company pledged past year to invest more than $7 billion to modernize its business. It also increased its holding in Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) by 17,193 shares in the quarter, for a total of 119,865 shares, and has risen its stake in Vanguard Whitehall Fds Inc (VYM).
ValuEngine raised shares of Kohl's from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Monday, October 2nd. The rating was upgraded by Gordon Haskett Capital Corporation to "Buy" on Thursday, November 9. Excluding the company's previously disclosed fourth quarter tax settlement of $30 million, diluted earnings per share are expected to be $3.98 to $4.08, compared to its prior guidance of $3.60 to $3.80.
Now Jamie Dimon says he regrets calling bitcoin a "fraud"
He called the digital currency a "fraud", predicted that governments would "crush it" and even threatened to fire any of his bankers if they traded it. The value of digital currencies have surged this year, with everyone from regulators to top bank executives taking note. It traded at $909 U.S. a year ago and breached $19,000 United States in December.
The majority of that net worth comes from the 78.9 million shares of Amazon stock he owns. Now he's won another title over the Microsoft founder: the richest person in history. Had he held on to that money, his net worth today would be well over $150 billion. Adjusted for inflation, $100 billion in 1999 would be worth $148 billion today.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow still reigns as the most used at 28.6 per cent, but has fallen marginally from last month when it was at 29.7 per cent. Running third is Android Lollipop at 25.1%. Even though it is no longer the latest version of Google's operating system, there are new handsets that are still shipping with Android Nougat pre-installed, which may further contribute to the increase in its market share.
It had already emerged over the weekend that the former England global had been accused of bullying Newcastle's young winger Yasin Ben El-Mhanni, but it is now thought further allegations have been made against him. Beardsley is in his second spell as a coach at St James' Park, having returned to the club in 2009 after leaving three years earlier. It is not the first time he has found himself at the centre of claims of unfair treatment during his time working with Newcastle's youth players.
More interesting news about The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ) were released by: Investorplace.com and their article: "Why "Star Wars" Provides New Hope for Walt Disney Co Stock" published on January 03, 2018 as well as Usnews.com's news article titled: "Expect Disney Earnings to Take a Big Hit" with publication date: December 21, 2017.
The stock increased 1.14% or $1.97 during the last trading session, reaching $175. (NYSE: TWX ) news were published by: Seekingalpha.com which released: "AT&T: Great, With Or Without Time Warner" on December 26, 2017, also Businesswire.com with their article: " Time Warner Inc ".
China producer and consumer prices data is due Wednesday, while a reading on the country's money supply is expected in coming days. Lackluster inflation pressure in Europe has been accompanied by a strengthening economic recovery across the continent and solid economic growth in China and the United States, fueling risk appetite.
The empty plane's wing burst into flames after the collision, causing panic among passengers on the WestJet aircraft. A WestJet aircraft with 176 passengers and crew aboard was in queue for the gate when a Sunwing plane carrying no passengers backed into it, the CBC News reports .
Can iShares Trust - iShares Global Healthcare ETF (ARCA:IXJ) Grow Their Earnings?
Developed by Donald Lambert, the CCI is a versatile tool that may be used to help spot an emerging trend or provide warning of extreme conditions. CCI is relatively high when prices are much higher than average, and relatively low when prices are much lower than the average.
The Cleveland Browns" inept 0-16 season has brought fans down to FirstEnergy Stadium today for the "Browns Perfect Season Parade 2 .0'. It's not just the 0-16 record this season, but the 1-31 record since 2016, the 4-44 record since 2015, the 11 years since a winning season, and the 15 years since a playoff appearance.
Tesco has posted its fastest sales growth since June 2017, seeing sales up 3.1% in the 12 weeks to 31 December, according to the latest United Kingdom market share data by Kantar Worldpanel . However, its market share fell by 0.2 percentage points year on year to 28% in the period. Online sales grew 5 per cent, resulting in the channel hitting a high of 6.4 per cent share of all grocery sales in the final quarter.
VTech will pay $650,000 as part of the settlement with the commission, the release added. The US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ( COPPA) requires that companies collecting personal information from children under 13 follow steps to ensure that the data is protected, including disclosing to parents the information it collects, how the information will be used, and seeking verifiable parental consent.
Indian custom officials have reportedly held around 2,000 shipping containers filled with solar modules at four seaports and have demanded 7.5% customs duty on them. On December 20, 2017, the USA government had chose to take India to the global trade body for allegedly not complying with the the WTO's policies on solar power.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has taken a very serious view of this unprecedented episode. The pilot and the co-pilot are said to be in a relationship. The incident was reported when a scuffle between the pilot and the co-pilot began as the flight was scheduled for take-off to Mumbai, on January 1.
The stock increased 0.63% or $0.36 during the last trading session, reaching $57.77. About 5.76 million shares traded or 130.63% up from the average. (NYSE:D) to report $0.89 EPS on February, 7.They anticipate $0.10 EPS change or 10.10 % from last quarter's $0.99 EPS.
Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. Just Group PLC has a 12 month low of GBX 119.55 ($1.62) and a 12 month high of GBX 173 ($2.35). The 1 year high for the stock price is 3133 GBX while the year low share price is now 2428 GBX. The shares were purchased at an average price of GBX 924 ($12.53) per share, with a total value of £73,920 ($100,244.10). | 2019-04-24T19:55:10Z | http://newburghgazette.com/economy/page/548/ |
TO GLORIOUS AND HAPPY MOMENTS!
The pictures, the sounds, the words and the feel of this day’s events would put many Telenovelas to shame. The pace was quick and the events seemed to be moving one right after the other if not even simultaneously. We could barely catch our breath in pursuing this story and what a story it totally turned out to be.
The learned, the nosy, the soothsayers, the bettors, the know it alls and most of the country were glued to their TV and/or radios so as not to miss this fast-unfolding event. Even the businessmen had their office TV sets on just to monitor the unfolding of the drama. The increased tempo was almost crescendoing to a climax that would leave everyone spent. Well, they have been that for several days now but plod along, afraid to miss a single beat, everyone did.
It began early enough in the morning. I received a phone call stating that Defense Spokesperson Karen Jimeno was rushed to the hospital a day before because she was feeling very ill. A quick call to Karen established that she was indeed in the St. Luke’s Hospital, brought there by her husband Evan, since Wednesday. She said that she was fine now but was connected to an intravenous tube that fed her both her medicines and food. She continued to say laughingly that she was sticking with the Defense Panel despite the pronouncements of Senator-Judge Franklin Drilon that the Defense was disentigrating. She will be in the hospital for a few more days. Nothing serious, just fatigue, she laughed. I heaved a sigh of relief. “My love” was okay.
In another hospital, Medical City, the Defense Attorney and the Chief Justice, Renato Corona, were discussing his appearance in the Senate for the Impeachment Trial later. For almost two hours, the huge blue ambulance remained parked at the side-entrance of the hospital waiting for its precious cargo, the Chief Justice.
At the Conference Room of the Presiding-Judge, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, was presiding over a caucus that would, in most likely, seal the fate of the Chief Justice regardless of what condition he was in and whether he appeared or not. It does sound ominous, doesn’t it? It is!
At 12:15 pm and in front of a phalanx of several more television vans, the blue ambulance of the Medical City hospital began its long journey towards the Senate grounds for the Chief Justice’s appointment with destiny. Following it were many more vehicles. On the other side of the building were more television vans ready to cover his motorcade as it entered the GSIS and Film Center area. Some of the media men were unsure as to what van he was on. They kept running back and forth the huge grounds of the hospital just to make sure but the ambulance was long gone.
The Senator-Judges, the Prosection and the Defense Panels, the VIP guests, the media and anyone else who could get tickets for this penultimate events began troooping into the Senate Hall much earlier than they used to do before. The Senator-Judges to their chambers. The Defense straight to the Defense waiting room and the Prosecution, to their’s.
The blue ambulance, lights flashing, turned the corner of the GSIS grounds at 1:15 pm. Suddenly everyone along the way and in the Senate perked up, excitement was in the air. The Chief Justice came to keep his word. Surprisingly, the ambulance was stopped at the entry point of the Senate grounds to be searched. Maybe, the over zealous security force of former General Balajadia (Senate sergeat at Arms, was making sure that the Chief Justice was on board. After a few minutes, the motorcade was allowed to proceed.
The ambulance turned towards the underground parking area of the Senate with lights still flashing. All cameras were trained towards it so as not to miss a single moment of posterity. It stopped and remained near the elevator entrance. Lights still flashing. Time stood still. No one came out. People wondered. Still no one came out. Cameramen were now not sure of what to cover. After about ten minutes, (Around 1:30 pm) the door to the ambulance opened. People began to crowd in. Onlookers were waved aside. The mediamen had something to focus on, finally.
The Chief Justice, seeming tired and out of it all, stepped out and was assisted by his family and security. He did not pause for any interviews and/or comments. He went straight to the elevator to proceed to the second floor to join the other Defense people in the Defense Waiting Room. On the way, mediamen, security men, reporters, on-lookers all jostled for a better look at the man of the hour. It did not seem like his future was at stake but, rather, a celebration of life.
At 2:00 pm, the Presiding-Judge led the procession of Senator-Judges into the Senate Hall. All had faces on of pure nonchalance. To look at their faces, you’d think nothing was special with the day’s scheduled hearing. Majority Floor Leader Sotto led the day’s prayers. I must say that his prayer was truly a sincere one. At the very least, that is the way I read it.
Only 22 Senator-Judges were present. The Defense in a manifestation made at the caucus asked that some evidence be corrected as to their markings. This was approved. Then the Chief Justice was called in as the Conitnuing witness.
Meanwhile, in the corridors of the Hall, a wheelchair was brought to the Defense waiting room. But, when the Chief Justice came out, there was no need for it. The Chief Justice walked on his own placing a hand on Mrs. Corona and the other on a security aide. All could see that he was weak. Yet, he braved the gauntlet of mediamen who covered his every step towards the Senate Hall.
impeachment court on Friday for his abrupt departure from the session hall on Tuesday, but denied that he had walked out on the chamber. Corona aologized to the court, the public, the prosecution and his own defense team for the departure.
“Ako po’y nagpapakumbaba at humihingi ng inyong paumanhin sa nangyari nung Martes. Hindi ko po inaasahan na ganun ang mangyayari, kaya lang po alam ninyo ang pinagdaanan namin, particularly pinagdaanan ko nung nakaraang halos anim na buwan (I am humbling myself and asking your pardon for what happened on Tuesday. I did not expect that would happen, but you know what we have been through, particularly what we have gone through in the past almost six months),” Corona said.
In an interview, Former Senator Rene Saguisag, reacting to Corona’s apology to the Senate, said the Chief Justice “could have told JPE [Enrile] what he was saying now, instead of imperiously excusing himself last Tuesday.” He described it as “a sheer glaring afterthought, reached after three days.” Saguisag, in a message sent to media, said, “He could have told the Sgt.-at-Arms that he felt unwell, instead of asking if he was being arrested, or Mrs. Corona could have said that he needed medical attention, instead of asking about martial law while the engines of their three vehicles were running.
“He could have gone to Makati Medical Center but chose Medical City where a son-in-law is associated.” Saguisag concluded by asking, “How long will the Coronas abuse our patience? Quo usque tandem abutere patientia nostra? We can tell when Rene lies, his lips move.” This was the unkindest cut of all since all could see (both pro and con) how the Chief Justice really was and after the pronouncement of his doctors on his condition. We pray this never happens to him as he, himself, is already weak.
After apologizing, Corona announced that the waiver he signed last Tuesday, allowing authorities to look into all documents pertaining to his assets, was now unconditional—meaning, it was not premised on his challenge earlier for Senator-Judge Frank Drilon and all 189 complainant-congressmen in the impeachment case to sign similar waivers. This would have been the biggest moment of the Chief Justice in the last hearing had he not placed any condition on it. But, still, this was greeted with screams from the gallery. It showed that the Chief Justice was being real while all those he challenged to do the same, looked for reasons why they wouldn’t. The tables of public opinion had turned in his favor but it might have been too late.
As the Chief Justice Renato Corona finally submitted his unconditional waiver to the impeachment court, allowing authorities to publicly release details of his peso and dollar accounts, the court, however, through Presiding Judge Juan Ponce Enrile, merely “noted” the waiver and said that, being merely a “hearer of facts” and not a “producer of evidence,” it cannot act on it.
Corona presented his waiver before the impeachment court, adding he will no longer wait for the 189 lawmakers and Senator Franklin Drilon to sign their waivers. This was a total reversal of his earlier condition of allowing the Senator-Judges and the Prosecution to see his bank accounts.
The Presiding Judge hastily called a break to didcuss the waiver of the Chief Justice and his suggestion to call on the Bank managers to testify and verify his statements before the Court.
And then another sub-plot emerged. Maybe, a blessing is a better word. During the break in the proceedings, as the Senate met to discuss the unconditional waiver on bank secrecy offered by Corona, the Chief Justice’s wife, Cristina, walked up to her cousins, the siblings Ana, Carmen, Isabel, Francheska and Eric Basa and embraced them one by one. The Corona’s daughter, Carla, also approached the siblings to hug them.
My dear friend, Maria Fatima Nebrida (Baby Nebrida) brokered the reconciliation. She was also responsible for the Octave Masses that have been said for the Chief Justice lately. Baby was the classmate of Cristina in school and a friend of the Basas. She approached one of the Basas and asked whether they wanted to reconcile with the Coronas. They replied in the affirmative. She then went to Cristina Corona to ask the same and with a shine in her eyes, she also affirmed that she did.
It will be recalled that the hearing prior to this, the Basas were heard saying scathing remarks about the Coronas and praising their own Jose Basa to high heavens. A reconciliation of any sort was not expected by anyone after those remarks.
Of the many shining moments during this hearing, this may be considered as a another one. The Basas and Cristina with her children hugged and the tears overflowed. It was not a perfunctory hug but a real and emotional one. The floodgates of anger and hatred had been opened to show that blood is, certainly, far stronger than water. The tears kept flowing and the joy they all felt was reflected behind the veil of tears and recorded for eternity.
The Chief Justice wondering what was happening was informed by Baby of the event and he also expressed joy. Cristina later took the siblings to the witness stand, where Corona continued to sit during the break. The Chief Justice also embraced the siblings. It would seem that the feud between the two families, triggered by a property dispute between Cristina and her uncle, the late Jose Basa that has stretched for three decades and dragged into the Impeachment Trial of Corona is now all finished and over with. At least, for now.
The trial re-convened and, “This court is not a producer of evidence. It is a hearer of facts … So therefore given the fact that the defense has already indicated they will not anymore propound direct questions on the honorable Chief Justice and will terminate presentation of evidence and the prosecution indicated on record they wil not do anymore cross, it is the understanding of this court that in effect both sides of this adversarial proceeding is actually submitting the evidence, the case for decision,” said Senate President Enrile.
That done, the Defense told the court it was skipping direct examination of its star witness; and the prosecution scuttled the cross examination, prompting Enrile to direct Senator-Judges to field their clarificatory questions. Six senators fielded questions: Miriam Santiago, Francis Pangilinan, Drilon, Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero and Jinggoy Estrada.
Earlier, Defense lawyers of the Chief Justice said they might waive the direct examination of the magistrate given his physical condition. Lawyer Ramon Esguerra said they want to spare Corona a “stressful situation. I don’t think so. I don’t want him to go through another stressful situation so we try to avoid as much as possible a situation like that,” Esguerra told reporters in an ambush interview.
Questioned by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, Corona said the dollars had built up from interest since he first opened the accounts in the 1960s. Corona stood pat that all the money was acquired legally — from salaries, savings, interest on deposits, foreign exchange investments and commingled funds, including his wife and three children’s — over the past 40 years.
Senator-Judge Jinggoy Estrada was next at the podium to ask questions of the Chief Justice. Corona acknowledged having $2.4 million in dollar deposits and P80.7 million in three peso deposits, or around P180 million in total deposited in various banks. He stressed that all the money was acquired legally — from salaries, savings, interest on deposits, foreign exchange investments and commingled funds, including his wife’s and three children’s — over the past 40 years. The dollars had built up from interest since he first opened the accounts in the 1960s, he said.
Asked further by Estrada asked whether he, at any one time, ever had $12 million in the banks, Corona said, “no” and stressed that, “the biggest I got was the $2.4 million.” The peso deposits, on the other hand, came from proceeds from the sale of the Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. property to the city of Manila, which amounted to P34 million; the interest earned by this money for 11 years, which amounted to P11 million; and the commingled P15 million from his children — Carla, Francis and Charina. “We did this to get a higher interest from the bank,” he said.
Corona added that the peso accounts also included the so-called “Corona fund,” which he said was from his mother and was used for her hospitalization and burial expenses. He said they had also drawn P15-20,000 a month for the treatment of his brother Arturo.
Asked why the dollar accounts were not declared in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, Corona said: ““I believe that the dollar deposits need not be reported in the SALN because of RA 6426,” or the Foreign Currency Deposits Act.
Corona himself acknowledged that “there seems to be a conflict” between the FCDA and the SALN law, which requires public officials and employees to bare all their wealth.
Asked about his relationship with Associate Justice Carpio, his perceived replacement as Chief Justice if convicted, Corona replied that they were civil with each other. Corona’s impeachment brought to the fore his damaged relationship with Carpio. In a scathing speech before SC employees in January, Corona said one of those who lobbied for his impeachment is an associate justice who has been itching to get the position from him.
Lawyers knew he was referring to Carpio. But while they were aware of the differences that set the two apart, some of them were not prepared for the nasty, publicized fight. “It was a tragedy. Ambition got in the way,” said the lawyer who saw the old photo of the two former buddies displayed in the old CVC office.
In the old office of one of the country’s biggest law firms, a picture of two men in their target-shooting gear hung on display. One of them was a co-founder of the firm, whose most prominent client was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The other was his shooting buddy and schoolmate, whose boss was also Mrs Arroyo. When the law firm left its old office in Makati in 2010, it left the picture behind. Suffice it to say that the photo could not be seen in the new office anymore.
This only excacerbated his conflict with Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales. He accused her of being used by Malacanang to ruin his reputation when she testified last week in the Senate impeachment court. Corona claimed the Ombudsman, through a “clerk of court,” once asked him for an exorbitant “special budget” that is “at least” double that for retiring Justices. The regular budget for retiring Justices is between P500,000 and P600,000.
“I never wanted to have a press con,” Morales told reporters. “This time I’m raring to talk to you because I feel that I have been maligned.” The ombudsman denied being used by anybody when she testified last week in the Senate impeachment court. The Ombudsman also denied that she decided to present the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report on Corona’s alleged 82 dollar accounts without it being authenticated. Morales said she went to the impeachment court with a verified document. “I didn’t pick it up from the gutter. It was handed to me by the AMLC head,” she said.
Senator-Judge Franklin Drilon never let up. He insisted that Corona had hidden wealth that he never mentioned in his SALN. He even prepared a Powerpoint presentation to match what he was saying. His obvious bias was too much to take. It was obvious that he was never prepared to listen to what the Chief Justice had to say because he was in a totally different world or had a totally different agenda.
Lead Defense Counsel Serafin Cuevas then asked the Impeachment Court to excuse the witness since he was beginning to feel bad again. The Presiding Officer automatically approved it. He seemed in a definite hurry to get things over and done with.
The Presiding Judge then reiterated the guideline for the Hearing on Monday where the summation of evidences was to be delivered by both panels. He then immediately adjourned the 42nd day of hearings!
But in this never-ending story, those who thought the drama had ended when Enrile discharged from the stand a “very, very tired” chief justice, had another think coming. The police suddenly announced they were investigating a complaint that the license plate on the service vehicle Corona was using, and parked at Medical City’s basement, was stolen. Defense lawyers were as quick to say that Corona had merely rented the vehicle, and the one who should be explaining the origin of the license plate is the car rental company.
Authorities are verifying a complaint that the plate number of the Chevy Suburban service car of Chief Justice Renato Corona was stolen from another vehicle. Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (HPG) Director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said a certain Bonifacio Gomez Jr., President and Chief Operating Officer of Nutrifarm, lodged a complaint in their office last May 23 that the plate used in Corona’s service car – ZEE-868 – was similar to the plate of his L-300 van.
“While he was watching the Corona trial on television, he was surprised to see that the vehicle used by the Chief Justice had the same license plate as his van,” Espina said in a phone interview on Fiday. The two shared one license plate and a verification from the Land Transportation Office showed that the registered owner of the license plate was Nutrifarm.
The police will now investigate and check the papers of the Suburban car. Earlier, Supt. Edwin Butacan, HPG spokesman, said the vehicle could be impounded. Corona’s Defense Lawyer Tranquil Salvador III said the car being used was by the chief justice was not his own but was just rented. Espina stressed that this was not an attack on the Chief Justice, who is being tried before the Senate impeachment court. “We have to act on the complaint and check.” I guess they will never stop.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice arrived back at the Medical City to finally rest. The nation, meanwhile, differed in their views and reading of the just concluded hearings. The Prosecution were raving that they had been provided its biggest gain against the chief justice, with his own admission that in all, he had $2.4 million in foreign currency deposits and P80 million in peso accounts—amounts substantially larger than those he declared in his Statement of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth.
Others, on the other hand felt that this was Corona’s greatest moment. He faced them all and certainly did it his way! Along the way, he dared one and all to do what thedemanded he do, open all their bank accounts. To date only three Congressmen have done so. Some have proclaimed that they were not the subject of the hearing and so had no reason to do that. Such a mockery. uch double-faced standards I have yet to see.
In the meantime, the closing arguments of one hour each for prosecution and defense will be heard on Monday. This brings to mind a specific point, is this trial basede on the rule of law or just plain politics? If it based on the rule of law and the evidences presented to the Court in the course of the hearings, I will boldly say that the Chief Justice will be acquitted. If it is based on politics and power, the Chief Justice will be convicted.
We dare not even think of the fairness and probity of the Senator-Judges any longer. That has long been gone from day one for some. That there will be some honorable and fair men among the Senators, we can only pray. Tuesday is the day we will see who has been paid or not.
Today’s hearing was filled with high and low moments to glorious and happy ones. That would, of course, depend on which side of the Senate Hall you are in. The daily vigil will soon be over. Will that spell the end? I strongly doubt it. The repurcussion will be loud and strong. The nation is not blind though Lady Justice is! The people will be the final arbiter of truth and fair play and not 23 men and women who feel that they were elected to judge only the way they want to and not the way it should be.
In the almost six months that judicial independence and the rule of law have been stripped, mocked and crucified at the altar of those who seek more and more power, we have been a witness to how one man’s reputation can be destroyed, an individual’s rights trampled, and an institution’s integrity challenged.
It was a picture painted with so much pain and blood and it was the Filipino people who slowly died in the process. It was excruciatingly painful and slow a death for some. For others still, instantaneous. They never knew what hit them. Lifestyles were completely turned around. Some went in hiding. Some bared their hearts out in public. One thing was shared by all; life in the country and, specially in the Judiciary, will never be the same again! | 2019-04-24T00:32:16Z | https://blogwatch.tv/2012/05/day-42-cjtrialwatch-of-high-and-low-moments-to-glorious-happy-moments/ |
I have a 17" Intel iMac w/ 2GB RAM and 256MB of video ram. Lately, the system has become extremely unstable. It'll lock up completely to the point where I have to hold down the power button to force a shutdown. Sometimes, when the system isn't locked up, it still won't shutdown or reboot. It'll get to the point where the Finder shuts down and all I'm left with is the desktop wallpaper, but it'll just hang there until I force a shutdown with the power button. I have to force a shutdown and reboot 3-4 times a day. The complete lockup occurs most frequently when trying to view video files (video podcasts either downloaded through iTunes or with Democracy.) However, even if I never attempt to play a video, the system still won't shut down or restart normally (using Shutdown... or Restart... in the Apple menu.) Also, one time (only once so far), when the system froze, I got a bunch of weird squiggly lines all over the screen, completely obscuring what was on the screen.
Have you tried swapping RAM modules? I assume you have 2x1GB SODIMM installed. You could take one of them out, try it, then if it still does it, take that one out, and put the other back in. If it still does it then its not the RAM, or I'd find it hard to believe that 2 sticks of RAM went bad.
If you bought 3rd party RAM, take that RAM out first and leave the Apple RAM in. Bad RAM modules can make a Mac to funky things.
I am getting this error in syslog in MMC for ECC 6.0 on windows with db2.
SAP-Basis System: > 1 possible network problems detected - check tracefile and adjust.
but where as message server is running successfully.
Below is my trace please help me to solve this issue.
trc file: "dev_disp", trc level: 1, release: "700"
<ES> block size is 1024 kByte.
Error 15 while initializing OS dependent part.
If yes wht shall i change it to ?
So, the problem is that I cannot get any other view in iTunes other than LIST. The grid view is completely non functional and is grayed out. The cover flow only shows as a black screen without any logo (such as the familiar music symbol). I never had this problem in iTunes until I upgraded to 8.1.
It is curious that when I select tunes from my **own playlists*, the grid view appears both in the "view choices" and its respective icon is NOT grayed out. That does not happen when I select genious playlist: then the icon is grayed out and there is a grayed out "View choice" in the pull down menu. The same problem exists in my own playlists whenever I select cover flow, however. It is always black without any images or logos displayed. It's an active choice in the pull down menu, and you can click on its icon...but nothing appears.
As best I can tell, my iMac meets all criteria. However, it is not clear to me that it meets the criteria for playing videos (processor speed). I can't tell what this processor speed is; where do I discover that? Under "About this Mac," it says I have *_512 MB SDRAM_*; is that the answer that denies this functionality?
*"The grid view is completely non functional and is grayed out. The cover flow only shows as a black screen without any logo (such as the familiar music symbol)."* Your video card may not support cover flow.
Perhaps, but this is not obvious to me. As I posted earlier, iTunes demonstrated cover flow capability in its prior version. Did it change once 8.1 and now 8.1.1 came out?
4/15/08 2:04:42 PM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!
4/15/08 2:04:54 PM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!
4/15/08 2:05:06 PM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!
4/15/08 2:05:18 PM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!
4/15/08 2:05:30 PM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!
4/15/08 2:07:30 PM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!
4/15/08 2:07:42 PM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!
Anyone else seeing these? Last time it happened it Excel was trying to open a spreadsheet.
I'm getting these hard hangs as well.
"kernel: NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel exception! status = 0xffff info32 = 0x3 = Fifo: Unknown Method Error"
…lead me here. I've had a handful of hangs, usually once every couple days. I noticed on my last MBP (2.3, 2GB RAM) I had the full system kernal panics while on a 3-person audio Skype call after windows weren't rendering properly.
Today my hang was while the system was not being actively used, right after editing some audio with Rogue Amoeba Fission. I let it go for 20mins to see if it would recover, and it did not. I used Cntl-Cmd-Power to force a restart - and that took 10-20secs to actually kick in.
I have not tried removing a cable to kick start, I'll try that.
Main Problem: System Instability. I've managed to get the OS installed, and was able to eventually get VirusScan, Windows Updates, Chipset drivers, and other drivers installed. However, this was a painful process, with several BSOD's, program crashes, and other lock-ups. After doing so, the system is still unstable.
I am not OC'ing - using Standard Mode. The only change I made in the BIOS was to switch the SATA Mode to "RAID Mode". I did this prior to OS installation, per instructions. And during OS install, I loaded the Intel SATA controller, per instructions.
OS install was unusually rocky. First attempt failed. Second attempt worked, but took longer than it should have. After installation... crashing, instability, and BSODs.
Checked Memory a couple times, via Microsoft's memory checking tools. Also reseated all DIMMs, to no avail.
After some amount of troubleshooting, I saw that my memory was being reported as: F3-12800CL9-4GBXL DIMMs. I assume this is correct, and that the "Model" I bought (F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL) just describes the whole package of 4 DIMMs. However, the one thing that is incorrect is that the timing is reported in the BIOS as 11-11-11-28. The timing specs on my RAM are 9-9-9-24. Overriding this in the BIOS to those numbers (for TCL, tRCD, tRP, tRAS) did not make any difference. Instability continued. The memory speed and voltage seems to have been set properly to 1600/1.5V.
The other thing to note here is that I just bought the MSI Z77A-G45 to replace an ASUS P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3, which was experiencing the same (but less frequent) instability. I've been using it for a couple months, and decided to try my luck with a different motherboard. Only this one is worse. The only components that were reused were the CPU and RAM (and optical drive, PSU, and Case, if that matters), and the only other thing in common was that I had both set up in RAID Mode.
Thoughts on how I should proceed?
Also just to confirm, to change the timing, I assume I change this in the BIOS, under DRAM Timing Mode, switch to "Link" (from "Auto"), correct? And when I do this, it enables the "Advanced DRAM Configuration" section. If I double-click that, I can specify 9-9-9-24 (for tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS). Former values were 11-11-11-28. I assume I leave all other fields at "Auto"? What is the "-2N" in the CAS Latency description on the GSkill site?
Their XMP profile is buggy (in fact that's the DDR3-1333 profile).
After visiting my local Genius Bar twice (and getting two different answers), I erased and reinstalled Snow Leopard 10.6 on my late-2006 "white plastic" iMac.
I reinstalled the version of SL that came with the iMac, then upgraded it twice to OS 10.6.8. Software Updater says all of my OS components are up-to-date.
My video-corruption problems ("ghosting", "tearing", pixelation of icon, then the kernel CRASHES within 20 minutes) appear when I boot normally. But they permanently disappear when I reboot into the Safe Mode!
What extensions, StartUp items, software daemons or gremlins DO NOT load in Safe Mode? Shouldn't one of them be the cause of my problem? Or does Safe Boot work on a hardware-level, too?
This happens on ALL accounts, both Admin and regular users. No external devices are connected except the wired mouse and wired keyboard.
I've zapped the PRAM three times, and I've unplugged it for hours. Disk Utility shows everything is good, too. There's about 50 gigs left on the internal 750 GB hard drive.
The so-called "Geniuses" both ran their Triage OS off an external drive and my iMac hardware passed ALL of their tests. One said it just needed a reinstall (a free fix!!), and the other said my video card is bad ($800, and I have to use an outside repair shop).
Can someone give me an idea how to proceed? I've been working in Safe Mode for days, but that prevents me from using: Sound, my home network, fonts, Preview, editing in iPhoto, etc.
I read the linked post about QE, but I don't see how it could help me troubleshoot my problem. Could you clarify: is QE a piece of "software" (that is, a file -- like an extension)?
If QE IS a piece of software that is disabled in a Safe Boot, I should be able to move it to my Desktop and restart. If my video problem is eliminated, the QE software is the problem, right?
But then, if my problem is caused by a file/extension, why would the problem occur (and be eliminated in a Safe Boot) right after I re-installed the OS? Shouldn't all the System software be pristine right after re-installation? But since it's NOT fixed by the re-installation, it seems like a hardware problem -- like the expensive video card. That's what's confusing me.
So, I'm proceeding as if the problem is caused by a file being loaded into memory and I'm trying to disable the items that don't load in Safe Boot Mode one-at-a-time. I just need a specific list of what those items are (and their locations on my hard drive).
In OS/9, I used Conflict Catcher to do this automatically, but I haven't found an OSX app to do the same. So I'm trying to do it manually.
Please excuse my layman's terms. Any help is appreciated.
I've got a PowerMac G5 2.0 GHz from May, 2004. It has the original ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. I recently had to replace the logic board (with a working used one). That worked fine for months, but now I'm getting video problems. I'll get flashing vertical stripes of short horizontal bars. Sometimes it seems that if I jiggle the display connector at the computer, the screen settles down for a while, but it is not completely certain that this is cause and effect. I hooked up a TV to the DVI port (using Apple's DVI-Video adaptor) and got the same issues, so it's not the display or the cable. I'm hoping that it's a graphics card problem, and not the "new" logic board. Is there a troubleshooting procedure, short of buying and trying a new graphics card, that would let me narrow down the problem?
What you describe sounds like a failing graphics card. My particular troubleshooting process is to swap in another one to see if it works. It's handy to have a few extra parts. Short of that, you might try downloading ATIccelerator and using it to downclock the card. Downclock both the GPU and memory by 5 to 10%. If it helps, that would give a more clear indication.
Applying fresh thermal compound is not an optional step. Maybe wait to see what others have to say about this suggestion before purchasing the compound. The fact that it isn't doing it all of the time leads me to believe that it might not be too late, but I don't know how common it is to bring them back once they start showing problems.
Before anything, I might try reseating the card and not just wiggling it from the outside. Take it out, blow out the dust with some compressed air, and verify that the fan moves freely. Clean the contacts on the card with a pencil eraser. Also verify that the fan is actually working when you put it back in.
There might be something else obvious to try that totally eludes me at the moment. Hopefully, you'll get some better feedback than this. Good luck.
happen when the laptop is running without an external monitor or if plugged into an HDMI output device.
have DVI connected monitors. Driver updates do not appear to resolve the issue.
Has anyone experienced this in their environment? Note that this happens on imaged workstations and workstations installed from a vanilla Windows 7 or 8 CD.
Try installing the client without Silverlight and see if it helps (this is only used for the Application Catalog).
The change to RFC parameters is not possible for source systems with manual meta data adjustment and data transfer from files.
It turns out that my iPod doesn't like to have its files managed manually. I had been having this freezing video(any video) problem for several months. I was at my wits end after trying numberous restores, all of the 'R's, and any other trick from the forum. I just decided to try disabling the manual file management and this seems to have done the trick. No more freezes at all. So, for me, manual file management isn't an option.
Does that mean somewhere there is a problem starting my pc up from "coldstate".
Looks like it. The memory does not seem to be the problem (two different kits @DDR2-800 and the same results).
Is there no diagnostic test you can get for ur psu?
Good Diagnostic Equipment to really test a PSU will probably be more expensive than buying a new one.
If it was my psu, wouldnt my pc not boot at all, instead of booting and showing red LED's?
It is usually not the whole PSU that breakes down. One component inside the PSU can be problematic causing (as an example) a problem on the +5V circuit. The result is that another part of the mainboard does not get enough power to work properly which then causes a chain of other problems (system shutdown/reboot).
Is is hard to find such causes without testing all the components involved systematically (by replacing one by one for testing). I am not saying that it is definately the PSU (it could as well be the mainboard, or some component on it, your video card, your processor or even a drive causing this.
i know this may not seem the right place, but ive checked all the publisher's websites and their help is very limited, at least for mac anyway.
2) in the game 'quake 3' (which also opens up with trailers) it gets worse because whenever i load it in os x it goes to a blank screen and from then on no frantic clicking or escape buttons work. only applealtesc (force quit) force quits it, and strangely pressing enter does the same. The weirdest part is that now it works fine in os 9 with all the trailers and all, but in os x this event doesnt even allow me to play the game itself.
does anyone know anything of these settings and how i might change them?
if i at some point put the refresh rate too high in one of the games or during a cinematic / in the application that runs the cinematics is there no way i can change that outside of the application/game?
I have an Intel Mac Pro that has a strange video problem. It can work fine for hours and then for no reason change resolution and size with blurry shadows, making it virtually unreadable and certainly unusable.
Unplugging the monitor and plugging it back in works 95% of the time to get it back.
I have replaced the monitor and all cabling, the person has moved to another location since the problem began, eliminating power possibility.
I have replaced the video card with a hot spare and mounted it in a different slot on the main board.
The problem remains. I took the video card and put it in another machine which has not had an issue.
What else haven't I tried beside replacing the mainboard? What suggestions do you have?
And there is nothing in there to tell us which Mac, video card, monitor, and other facets.
If your Mac really is still using 10.4.11 then it is 1,1 1st generation and limitations on replacing video.
Reset SMC of course, and try a clean install somewhere to test that out.
Hello friends, I am trying to clone the captured video and run it at the same time.
though if you remove below given part from "main" then it will capture.
clone.open(((SourceCloneable)ds).createClone());but I want to capture as well as play at the same time. What to do. Please tell me???
Please provide the error/exception stack trace.
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.
I accidentally downloaded a song to the Ipad device from the cloud (from my Itunes library). Can I delete this one song?
Thanks for Helping to install Expense manager on my 6234. | 2019-04-20T08:29:29Z | http://www.deskdr.com/dr/system-instability-possible-video-problem.html |
Without good policies it will be difficult to provide guidance to research and innovation systems. However, policies need to be followed through and implemented to have the desired effect. We studied the policies and strategies in place to support research and innovation systems for health in Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania, and looked at the extent to which these policies and strategies have been implemented.
We reviewed documents and reports and conducted in-depth interviews with 16 key informants representing various actors of the national research for health systems.
The results illustrate that there are various policies and strategies governing research and innovation for health in the three countries. However, implementation of these policies and strategies is generally rated as being poor. The reasons highlighted for this include lack of policy coherence, lack of enforcement and accountability mechanisms, and a lack of financing for implementing the policies. These contextual factors seem to be of such importance that even the increased stakeholder involvement and political leadership, as mentioned by the interviewees, cannot guarantee policy implementation.
We conclude that due to the contextual realities of the study countries, there is need for greater focus on policy implementation than on developing additional policies. Government institutions should play a central role in all stages of the policy process, and should ensure implementation of defined policies. Strong mechanisms, including financing, that strengthen the position and role of government in policy coordination and the oversight of the policy process will help increase efficient and impactful implementation of research and innovation for health policies.
The important roles played by research and innovation in health delivery cannot be over-emphasised. According to Prof Miriam Were of Kenya, ‘health research [should not] only be about finding out what is new but also [about] ways of applying what is known and making use of available evidence’ . Policies are put in place to provide a framework for attainment of multiple and often competing socio-economic objectives. According to the research system for health framework of the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED), policies, priorities, and management make up three critical pillars of a research and innovation system. A number of authors agree that without good policies it will be difficult to provide guidance to any research and innovation system [3-5]. However, policies need to be followed through and implemented to have the desired effect. There is increasing academic, policy, and practice interest in how to attain such effective policy implementation .
Seeking to understand implementation of research and innovation for health policies requires an attempt to delineate and discuss what national research for health systems are. This helps to clarify important aspects of health policy implementation such as the scope of health, the individual and institutional stakeholders involved, the resources being allocated to the task, and the impact being made by policy implementation . A policy defines a vision for the future, establishes targets and points of reference for the short and medium term, outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups, and builds consensus and informs people .
This paper reports on a study that reviewed existing policies supporting research and innovation systems for health in Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania. The main research question for the study was ‘what are the policies and strategies in place to support research and innovation systems for health in the selected countries and to what extent these have been implemented’. The three countries’ involvement in the Research for Health Africa (R4HA) Programme, a programme focusing on strengthening research systems for health, implemented by COHRED and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency, made them good and convenient candidates for accessible, current, and relevant data on research and innovation systems for health which could be generalised to similar contexts, in an analytical rather than statistical sense. Further, the rationales for the inclusion of these countries in the R4HA programme are also appropriate bases for inclusion in this study. These were to include a diversity of experience and context through including a good spread of countries with different research for health systems (influenced through their respective colonial histories), and ensuring a good geographic spread by selecting countries with membership of three different Regional Economic Communities.
In this study, innovation is defined broadly as the creation and use of new, better, more effective, and more acceptable products, technologies, processes, and ideas . We are also in agreement with neo-Schumpetarian thinking , which argues that systems of innovation do not emerge from industrialisation or technological advancement efforts only, but as Edquist notes, from processes that are ‘lengthy, interactive and social; [and in which] many people with different talents, skills and resources have to come together’. Innovation systems require deliberate development and embedding within country-specific institutional and technological contexts [11,12].
The WHO defines a health research system as ‘the people, institutions, and activities whose primary purpose is to generate high quality knowledge that can be used to promote, restore, and/or maintain the health status of populations. It can include the mechanisms adopted to encourage the utilization of research’ . The WHO framework for health research systems acknowledges that health research systems overlap with health systems and other research systems to varying extents depending on the context . This is indeed the case in Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania, as shown in Table 1, and is taken into account when reviewing policies for research and innovation for health.
Source: Table developed by authors based on documents cited in the Table.
Policy implementation can be considered as the process of carrying out a government decision . In defining policy implementation, many scholars have found it useful to make the conceptual distinction between the policy implementation process and policy outcomes, even though these are interactive in practice . The implementation process involves action on behalf of the policy, whereas policy outcomes refer to the ultimate effect on the policy problem. Implementation is an iterative process in which ideas, expressed as policy, are transformed into behaviour, expressed as social action . The social action transformed from the policy is typically aimed at social betterment and most frequently manifests as programmes, procedures, regulations, or practices.
Implementation has long been recognised as a distinct stage in the policy process, unique for representing the transformation of a policy idea or expectation to action aimed at remedying social problems . Reflecting a process involving change over time, implementation is characterised by the actions of multiple levels of agencies, institutions, organisations, and their actors and is influenced by context throughout. As Parson suggests, ‘a study of implementation is a study of change: how change occurs, possibly how it may be induced’.
Understanding the policy implementation process is important in part because many social programmes are publicly funded, and they are initiated and influenced by public policy. Assessing policy or programme implementation is also important for informing on-going decision making and exploring the extent of achievement of targets as well as how things can be done differently in more effective and impactful ways.
There is a growing body of evidence on developing country research for health systems in general and African research for health systems in particular. For empirical insights in Africa see, for example, Kalua et al. , Moran et al. , African Union Commission – UNIDO , Berger et al. , Singer et al. , Mugabe , and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership , all of which, singly and collectively, make important contributions to the research and innovation for health knowledge base, particularly looking at the potential role of technologies and innovation in health systems and evidence-informed policymaking. They divert from the conceptual model of a linear process where evidence is generated, findings are made available, and eventually decisions are influenced. In reality, the process of evidence translation into decision-making within government or other institutions is rather more complex . However, with a few exceptions, such as that of Mugabe , the majority of the studies and documents focus on the policymaking process itself. They study how policymaking is influenced by such a non-linear process characterised by negotiations among multiple actors, with their impact on knowledge uptake. This paper focuses specifically on the implementation of research and innovation for health policies unpacking, among others, the role of national and institutional contextual factors, policy content, and approaches. It does not seek to judge the content of the policies or propose alternative ones, but rather focuses on the process and context of successful policy implementation.
We used both qualitative and quantitative methods to generate insight on policy availability and implementation and reviewed documents and reports. We gathered stakeholder insights, perceptions, and awareness of barriers to and facilitators of policy implementation through questionnaire-led interviews. Thematic analysis guided by themes emerging from the findings was employed for interrogating and analysing the data .
Between April and July 2014, a total of 34 questionnaires were emailed to the R4HA programme partners and other stakeholders who were not only a convenient sample, but are strategic and key actors in the health arena in the study countries. A mix of respondents was selected, representing actors from Government, regulatory agencies, and research (Table 2). These are people who are either tasked with policy implementation or directly affected by such implementation. The mix of interviewees enabled views of different aspects of the policy process to be received. The successful uptake or implementation of policies was based, rather than on key indicators, upon the perceptions and subjective experiences of this group of interviewees. Twenty-one respondents acknowledged receipt of the study questionnaire and expressed willingness to participate in the study. Finally, 16 respondents took part in the study, with 9 self-completing the questionnaire, while telephone or Skype interviews guided by the questionnaire were held with 7 respondents. The respondents’ diverse backgrounds and intimate involvement in research and innovation for health systems allowed engagement with and exploration of opinions and evidence on different aspects of the policy process. Table 2 below gives a breakdown of the respondent details.
Source: Table developed by authors.
aSome respondents fit into different categories hence higher count than total numbers of respondents per country.
The literature search targeted websites of organisations such as the WHO, World Bank, COHRED, UNESCO, NEPAD, the African Union, and specific government departments in the study countries in order to garner both broad and country-specific data on research and innovation for health systems. The search terms used included ‘health research’, ‘health innovation’, ‘health policy’, ‘policy implementation’, and ‘innovation policy’, and were used in combination with the countries and listed organisations.
The literature search resulted in a number of key documents on research for health and innovation in the three countries. A variety of policies and strategies were identified in areas such as industry, higher education, science, technology and innovation, and information and communications technology, all of which can have an impact on health. Table 1 lists the identified policies and strategy documents. The table also lists the national constitutions, which have a provision for the right to health, though the extent to which health is covered varies per country.
‘The weaknesses are actually in the entire process from problem identification to policy evaluation, but they become more visible at the implementation stage because that is where everything matters … that is where needs are met or not’.
‘… have a tendency to remain good on paper. With implementation, things move from paper to practice, and you can’t hide that’.
Across the three countries, the two areas that were said to receive the most attention (in terms of human, financial, and institutional resource allocation) are problem identification and policy formulation, perhaps partially, as one respondent from Mozambique put it ‘because there is donor pressure for this to happen’. Policy adoption was also rated as receiving a fair amount of attention. On the other hand, policy evaluation, like policy implementation, was said to be poor for reasons including lack of dedicated resources for policy evaluation and limited direct usage of results from evaluation activities. Half of the respondents identified this state of affairs as problematic, stating that accountability and transparency (trustworthiness, openness, and confidence in the systems) accruing from evaluation were significantly important for all stages of the policy process, including having the potential to stimulate better policy implementation. Meanwhile, the source of the resources for the different stages of the policy process was said to have a major bearing on the extent to which the policies got implemented. In Mozambique, resources from the government and other local sources were said to be more effective in implementation of long-term capacity building for both their health sector strategic plan and the science, technology, and innovation strategy than external donor resources.
‘Our experience is that money from the government is more useful for long term projects, while that from donors is good for short term projects. The R4HA funding is one example of short term funding coming in to fill gaps not covered by the government’.
Contextual realities are important for policy implementation efforts. Interviewees were asked to review a number of key factors influencing policy development and implementation and indicate whether attention to these issues has stayed the same, improved, or worsened over the past 5 years. Table 3 shows, across the three countries, the opinion of the interviewees. The contextual issues relating to the policy process have at best remained the same, but in most cases, they have worsened.
Source: Table developed by authors from analysis of findings.
‘If we are to meet or exceed expectations in implementation of research and innovation policies for health (or any other policies), resources must be provided to strengthen government’s role in policy coordination and ability to hold actors in the policy arena to account’.
‘We have heard a lot about the need for political will if policy implementation is to happen, but I would say, there is need for political skill as well. The will alone is not enough. We need different thinking’.
‘Government departments need to assure donors, private sector, communities, and other stakeholders that they can be trusted to deliver efficiently and to utilise resources in a transparent manner’.
The results show that implementation of research and innovation policies and strategies for health are influenced by institutional, sectoral, and national contexts. Three key themes emerge from the research: content, context, and approaches.
This study confirms that analysis of policy processes involves more than seeking an understanding of the mechanics of decision-making and implementation, but requires an unpacking of the underlying health priorities, policy content, and context, and the approaches to implementation of the policies .
The content, context, and approaches of the policy processes are products of issue framing, which is the way in which boundaries are drawn around problems, how policy problems are defined, and what is included and excluded. While problems and solutions related to health systems immediately lead to a focus around disease problems and proposed solutions through health delivery systems, the findings of this study confirm that the problems also encompass broader questions about health system organisation, and new forms of social, political, or economic arrangements . Understanding and addressing these broader dynamics is necessary if policies for research and innovation in health are to be implemented effectively.
Health systems are complex and embedded in rules-based institutional arrangements, while sustained through social norms and informal practices . Attitudes of the various individual and institutional players influence how policies for research and innovation for health will perform. This study confirms that, while research and innovation for health are becoming an area of increasing interest in the study countries, the main focus of the health sector is adoption and/or adaptation of research and innovation products from elsewhere . This therefore means policies for research and innovation if not geared to promote innovation may not have much implementation or impact due to limited research and innovation happening in the first place. On the other hand, statements of intent to promote research and innovation as enshrined in some of the policy documents in Table 1 are only part of the story if there is no follow-up provision of resources and other mechanisms to direct the practice.
‘Policies are usually forgotten as people focus on projects, some of which have no relation at all to national development goals, but because they come with funding, these projects are implemented. Policies with no financing mechanisms will not go anywhere’.
The above was also said to result from, or to be exacerbated by, the fact that the body of research and innovation for health knowledge is still emerging in the study countries, limiting their ability to predict the performance of policies and offer advice to policy and practice. Much of the evidence on the impact of alternative forms of health sector organisation (still) comes from advanced market economies, where institutional arrangements and behavioural norms are relatively stable .
This study confirms what policy scholars have established, namely that the policy process is political, from agenda setting to exploring possible problem resolution options, weighing up costs and benefits, making a rational choice about best options (decision-making), implementation, and evaluation [5,22,24]. ‘Evidence’ is called upon at any or all of these stages, but it was clear from this study that what constitutes good evidence for one level or one set of stakeholders is not necessarily the same for the other levels and stakeholders. For example, as one respondent from Senegal noted, ‘local government and those in district hospitals and clinics tend to respond more to local constraints and support local innovations, while being sceptical of the relevance of ideas from the top’. This study also challenges schools of thought which posit that the increased ability to generate and diffuse information rapidly through information technology will lead to emergence of a homogeneous knowledge economy . The study shows that, while in the study countries there are communities of practice with overlapping understandings of (and roles in) research and innovation for health, their location on the policy process continuum has an overriding influence not only on the tools they deploy to implement policy, but what informs their view of the entire policy process. Input, perceptions, and voices of different stakeholders at various tiers are thus a critical part of the content for policies and approaches to implementing the policies. Related to this is the fact that the implementing officials are motivated by different individual, professional, and institutional factors, which need to be understood. There is therefore a need to understand the evidence which influences decision-making at each of these levels and, in addition, how the levels interact with each other [4,5].
This paper addresses the status of policy implementation for research and innovation systems for health in three African countries. The research shows that Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania have a range of policies and strategies in place to support and guide research and innovation for health. However, implementation of these policies and strategies is generally rated poor. The reasons highlighted for this include lack of policy coherence, lack of enforcement and accountability mechanisms, and a lack of adequate financing for policy implementation.
We conclude that, due to the contextual realities of the study countries and many other low-income countries, as well as the rapidly evolving nature of the research and innovation for health terrain, there is a need to focus on the policy implementation process and not only on developing more policies. Government institutions should play a central role in all stages of the policy process and should ensure implementation of defined policies. Strong mechanisms, including financing, that strengthen the position and role of government in policy coordination and oversight of the policy process will help increase efficient and impactful implementation of research and innovation for health policies and strategies.
The authors acknowledge the financial support extended by COHRED for this study, and the stakeholders from the Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania who provided input to the study. The views expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of COHRED, implementer of the Research for Health Africa (R4HA) Programme.
DE, SdH, and JM developed the study proposal. JM collected the data and drafted the manuscript. DE and SdH contributed to the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Were M. Making health research more effective. http://www.cohred.org/perspectives/making-health-research-more-effective/.
COHRED. Working with country partners. Conducive environment and research leadership http://www.cohred.org/approaches/#conducive.
Mugabe J. Accelerating health research for Africa’s development, IAVI Policy Brief. 2013. International Aids Vaccine Initiative. http://www.iavi.org/publications/file/110-accelerating-health-research-for-africa-s-development.
World Health Organization. Health policy. http://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en.
World Health Organization. Health research systems analysis: concepts and indicators. http://www.who.int/rpc/health_research/concepts/en/.
The WHO Health Systems Framework. http://www.wpro.who.int/health_services/health_systems_framework/en/.
European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). Joint programme of the action. http://www.edctp.org/fileadmin/documents/JP_public_version.pdf. | 2019-04-20T10:57:40Z | https://health-policy-systems.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12961-015-0010-2 |
The Best Western Los Alamitos Inn & Suites is ideally located in the center of Los Alamitos. Come and experience our hotel near the major tourist attractions. Best price guaranteed and exclusive deals.
Our proximity to Seal Beach, Long Beach, Aquarium of the Pacific, Disneyland & Knott's Berry Farm are just a few of the great perks that set us apart from other hotels in the area.
Begin your stay in Los Alamitos at the Best Western Inn & Suites and enjoy an unforgettable visit.
When your travels take you to Los Alamitos, stay at the Best Western Inn & Suites. We love having you here!
Our gem of a hotel is located within minutes of Rossmoor & Seal Beach.
No matter what time of the year, we know you will love the Best Western Inn & Suites. Located in Orange County, California!
First impressions are the most important, and our chic newly renovated lobby is no exception to that rule.
Rise & shine with a complimentary full hot breakfast served in our lobby's breakfast area from 6:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Make yourself at home in our "Executive Suite." This suite offers a full size fridge, stove, sink, kitchen table, living room area with a pull out sofa bed & a separate bedroom with a King size bed. Great for long term stays, a small family & if you enjoy cooking inside rather than going out.
Executive Suite - Dining room area.
If you're looking for a little extra space to stretch out and relax, book our Executive Suite. This suite has everything an apartment would offer!
Executive Suite - King size bedroom.
Upgrade yourself to our Double Queen Suite for added comfort during your stay. This room type has two separate rooms, a living room area & the bedroom with 2 queen size beds. Great room for a family of 4+.
Use the separate living room in our Double Queen Suite for entertaining, and keep your sleeping area private with a door that divides the living room area from the bedroom area.
Double Queen Suite living room area includes a pull out sofa bed, coffee table & an additional t.v for those families who have both children & adults with different preferences when it comes to t.v channels.
Double Queen Suite - Bedroom area.
Settle in for the evening & and relax in our spacious King Suite living room area. This suite has a door that divides the living room area from the bedroom.
King Suite - Bedroom area which is divided by a door from the living room area. Great for families!
King Suite - Bedroom area.
King Suite - Open layout! This suite is for the guest who enjoy more of an open layout rather than a dividing door. Great for business travelers & if you're looking for a spacious upgrade from our Standard King.
King Standard Business Room - Very spacious standard room!
Splash around and have fun with the family in our outdoor pool for endless hours of FUN!
Relax and let the warm water calm you and leave you feeling rejuvenated. Our outdoor spa has a gorgeous view of the Orange County sunsets in the evening!
We installed the ADA mobility accessible pool lift system to help those with disabilities not miss out on any of the action. At our hotel all guest matter!
Whether you are checking your email, printing boarding passes/tickets for the local attractions or simply just browsing the web feel free to do so at our Business Center which is located in our lobby. Print or fax anything at the hotel's expense! The Business Center hours are from 6:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
***Chairman's Award for quality standard excellence. Free hot breakfast 32-inch plasma TV in suites near Cypress / Long Beach and Anaheim*** The Best Western Los Alamitos Inn & Suites, is located in the heart of Orange County featuring deluxe business suites with plasma televisions. The Best Western Los Alamitos Inn & Suites is conveniently located in proximity to key area attractions including Los Alamitos Race Track, Disney Land, Knott's Berry Farm, Seal Beach, Long Beach Aquarium, and Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base. Guests will appreciate the easy access to area restaurants, stores as well as the Long Beach Airport or Los Angeles International Airport. The hotel features an outdoor pool, hot tub and complimentary full breakfast. Each well-appointed room features high-speed Internet access, cable television with HBO®, microwave and refrigerator. Business suites are also available upon request featuring a 32-inch plasma television and an over-sized working desk. The hotel's friendly, multi-lingual staff is ready to ensure a comfortable and memorable stay. Make an online reservation today at this Orange County hotel in Alamitos, California! Enjoy your stay.
Somewhat noisy due to the proximity to Los Alamitos Blvd. The parking isn't good, there's one parking space for each room. I was told that on weekends sometimes you get blocked by others parking behind you (I didn't see it during our weekday stay). Rooms are small but adequate. About right price wise. The Ayres hotel down the street is nicer but more pricey.
Two nights here to see a splendid Mary Blair exhibition and spend a day at Knott's Berry Farm. Located a few miles from each of our destinations. Pleasant hotel, professional staff (especially front-desk person Jose). Quiet, clean, spacious room (we even had a little balcony!) Full breakfast part of the room charge. We were very happy.
very friendly and helpful staff. the location is great. next to places to eat and also places to shop and i also love that the beach is a close drive from the hotel.the staff helped me get a refund for an over booking.
"Great Location & Great Property"
Pros: Spacious double queen rooms with ample room, including a table and two chairs and a desk with the extra room and it didn't seemed cluttered. The closet was bigger than the one I have at home and was nice to hang up my clothing and they have luggage racks to put your bags on inside the closet. The toiletries were of good quality and were ample in supply and diverse. Had enough towels of all sizes that you didn't have to call down for any more and there were four pillows per bed and that was more than enough for one person per bed. The beds were comfy and soft, even though I like a harder mattress I was able to get a good night sleep on this one. TV has basic cable and HBO available complimentary. Plugs galore, in the lamp on the center night stand was two plugs for adapters and one slot for a USB cord and on the nightstand it had two plugs for adapters for plugging in your electronics. Better too many than never enough. Came with a fridge and microwave, we were on the third floor and was quiet and wasn't bothered by outside noise. Shower had hot water anytime day or night so you were never stuck with an ice cold shower. At check-in we requested a later 1p checkout, it was confirmed right away and not having to call down in the morning like most places so we got to sleep in.
"Nice, clean hotel conviently located"
We stay at this location frequently. Staff is always friendly and willing solve issues that arise. Located close to amenties and activities. Disneyland and Knott's are within a 20 min drive. Beach is about 15 min.
My favorite Best Western, Great room and great staff make it a great place to stay. It's a smaller Best Western but nonetheless it is the best. Just don't go when I do because I want my favorite rooms and want to make my waffles 1st!
Good morning, Thank you for letting us know how your stay was with us. Thank you for choosing us, we hope to see you soon for your first waffle!
"Pretty good for the $$"
I can't tell you how impressed I was by getting TWO luggage racks! I never understood why a 2-bed room would only have one rack. There are obvious two people sleeping there. Good job, Best Western! Also something you don't see much of any more: A real blanket! I despise those comforter/sheet thinging: They are too warm for me and I end up taking them off and just sleeping under the two sheets. Give us back our blankets! :-) I was pleasantly surprised to see two bottle for your hair: shampoo AND conditioner. Please don't tell me you can add conditioner to shampoo. Nope, doesn't work. There was a coffee maker, a microwave and a fridge. Nice! (It might just have been only our room, but there was no place to plug in the coffee maker where it was actually situated. You had to move it to the desk to find a plug. ??? The other cons: No lotion in the bathroom, and only regular coffee--no decaf. The breakfast was exactly as you would expect but come on: those napkins? I could literally see through them. I understand wanting to save $$, but when a guest has to use 7 or 8 of them, you are not really saving much. The room as clean and presentable (Oh, the TV remote was on a paper holder--for sanitary reasons? Not sure, but it was not sealed so maybe they just reuse the same one over and over.) The hotel is very convenient to the 605 freeway and Knott's Berry Farm. (Go there for their chicken dinner!) Front desk staff were friendly and professional. I would definitely use it again when I'm in the area.
Good morning, thank you for leaving us feedback regarding your most recent stay with us. We are happy to hear you enjoyed your in room amenities.
Thank you so much for taking the time to review us. We appreciate it and hope to see you again soon.
We stayed at BW Los Alamitos Inn & Suites 7 days. Our room was always clean as well as the rest of this hotel. Breakfast was the same each morning, but had a lot of variety to choose. Staff was helpful, pleasant and courteous.
We're so happy to hear you enjoyed your stay and hope to see you again very soon.
We found our room to be very clean, and well maintained. Check in was fast and easy. There was plenty of parking while we were there. Pool and spa looked well maintained, BUT they don't keep any towels at the POOL/SPA?!?!? You have to bring your own from your room. Very annoying but not a show stopper or anything.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. We appreciate the feedback about the towels and will look into having a cabinet to hold the towels at the pool. We hope to see you again soon.
Seems to me there's a problem at this hotel. If you book from 3rd party they'll put you up in a smoking room. So if you want a non smoking cleaner room you better book directly with them and you'll pay the higher price. I feel they're taking advantage of my parents who are there now and told them they sold out on rooms but from what I see on booking.com and their own website there's non smoking rooms left. Buyer beware!!!
"Aside from the pillows it's good!"
Hotel is very clean. Rooms are a good size. Adrian at front desk is awesome. So friendly and helpful. Breakfast was excellent. Only downfall was the Pillows are hard and bulky. Did not sleep well and woke with a kinked neck. If they changed up the pillows it would be perfect!
We have stayed at Best Western Los Alamitos Inn in the past and have found it convenient for business in the Long Beach/Seal Beach area. It has had some remodeling since our last visit and has a pleasant fresh look.
Good morning, thank you so much for leaving us feedback regarding your stay. We are so happy to be able to provide a clean and safe environment for you. We hope that you have a great day and consider staying with us again. The remodeling, we are so glad you noticed, our entire team worked really hard to get it finished nicely. Thank you!
Room was good size and beds very comfortable. Check in made us stand outside in the cold. (47 degrees) Other employees very helpful. They were redoing checkin/breakfast area so room was closed. Breakfast was plentiful when it was provided; 2 of 3 mornings was a table outside with cold cereal, milk, some fruit, yogurt and granola bars.No coffee or tea. Not the “full breakfast”. Wish they had told us that before. Why redo a lobby between Christmas and New Years?
Good afternoon SFtripper81, thank you for leaving us feedback. We want to thank you for staying with us. We apologize for having you stand outside for check-in, but for your safety, the lobby was closed during construction. While not the ideal time, it was something we were really passionate about finishing before the new year. We hope you can understand. Again, thank you for staying with us.
BW, Los Alamitos is a comfortable, convenient, quality hotel for visitors to the Los Alamitos area. Easy access to area beaches, attractions, without being in a tourist trap. Very friendly helpful staff; nice breakfast. Not far from Long Beach airport.
Good morning Carol S B, thank you for leaving us feedback regarding your stay. We hope you enjoyed your stay and consider us again for your next stay. Have a great new year!
"Clean motel with great breakfast in convenient location"
Despite the doors open to the parking lot, the rooms were surprisingly quiet. The hotel is mostly renovated, so things look quite fresh. The breakfast was great; it had both hot and cold items and pretty much anything you would want. The beds were clean and comfortable, though my husband and I weren't crazy about the little pillows, which were a bit hard.
Good morning thank you very much for leaving us feedback regarding your stay. We take guest feedback into heavy consideration when discussing with out team at meetings. We hope you enjoyed your stay and have a wonderful rest of the holiday season.
I have a conference periodically in the area of long Beach very near I-805. I always choose this hotel because of the value - clean, comfortable, good breakfast and with the amenities I need. I would recommend it.
Good morning, We are glad to provide a clean, quiet, and affordable place for you and your colleagues. We hope you have a great day, and thank you for always staying with us!
"Good hotel with some problems"
I needed a place to stay while I attended several meetings in El Segundo and Orange County. This hotel appeared conveniently located near I-405 and I-605, and offered a good rate (discounted, in my case. The room and most other features were highly satisfactory: everything worked in the room, it was clean, and WiFi was good. I have low expectations for an included breakfast, and I found the breakfast here just adequate. The serving area was cramped. Somewhat surprisingly, the coffee was served from some sort of concentrate machine -- not what I'm looking for in the morning. Biggest problem was inadequate parking. I suspect the motel was sold out, but there wasn't a 'legal' space available when I returned after dinner. Someone arriving later would have needed to use on-street parking. Staff had not warned me about this when I checked in, and luckily it did not become a serious issue for me on my 3 nights. So ask carefully if you plan to arrive or return late. Also, there are several places to eat within walking distance.
Good morning, Thank you very much for leaving us feedback. Rest assured, we have communicated with the two businesses adjacent to the hotel to provide additional parking for our guests when our free parking fills up. Please keep in mind, parking on the street overnight is prohibited and in some cases can result in your vehicle being towed. As with anything else during your stay, we encourage our guests to swing by the lobby when they have an issue so that we can take matters into our own hands and resolve it; moreover, we are here for you. We hope this clears up any parking issue confusion, have a great day.
This staff went sooo far beyond expectations. Clarissa, specifically, went out of her way to provide extra amenities for my family on short notice. She left pizza in our room and waters as well for us to enjoy during this family emergency.
"Not enough parking for guests"
There is not enough parking for guests, you may have to park offsite and get up at 7: 30 am to move your car ! There is no security box either for your valuables in the room (you have to go to the front office to leave your stuff). And the TV in my room only had 1 channel.
Good morning Sofihuasteca, Absolutely, our parking can be the most troublesome part of our guests' stay and we would like to apologize if you had troubles parking. Unfortunately, because where we are located on Los Alamitos Blvd., each business on our side of the street is tackling limited parking, however, by working together we have made accommodations for our neighbors and vise versa. Despite parking issues being a disadvantage, our lovely city and its businesses have pooled together to provide parking during off hours for others to use, which is the only reason moving back to our parking lot is required. We hope by explaining, being upfront and as transparent as possible, this helps alleviate any tensions. We have made parking arrangements for each guest and only ask that we kindly relocate our vehicles back to our parking lot before our neighbors open so that we can do our part in being a team player. We hope the best for you and you family, have a wonderful day.
Very friendly and accommodating staff, inexpensive rooms with all that's need for a decent night's sleep and quick access to freeways while being away from the noise of them. Some great restaurants nearby: Fish Company, Sango, and for "Gourmet Fast Food go to Paul's Place- best french fries on the planet! Been staying here for business for 16 years and pleased to keep doing so.
Was pleased with Quality of Staff and hotel, free Breakfast and free parking was a big plus. Staff was friendly and helpful, rooms were big and clean. Pool and Spa were nice but would have enjoyed a health center to get exercise while at the hotel.
Good evening, J9957XSjohnm, thank you for leaving feedback for our team and our home. We hope you enjoyed your stay, have a great day.
"We stay here every time we're in town"
A no-frills, clean, comfortable, friendly place to stay with the MOST wonderful pillows EVER! The staff is awesome and tend to your needs right away, always with a smile. They are almost always able to accommodate an early check-in/late check-out and for the price, you can't beat this motel.
Good morning mariahZ7164FU, Thank you very much for leaving this review for us and our future guests. We pride ourselves in being a Best Western hotel that provides superior customer care. Have a great day.
"Will stay here again, really like this hotel"
My main concern is my ability to get an afternoon nap and this hotel works well as it is quiet and comfortable. I didn't get to use the pool and spa this time but have before and it was great. The price is slightly on the high side for Best Western but it is hard to find much of anything in the area for less than 150. I will stay here again.
Good morning Mr. Philip F., We are so happy to hear you enjoyed your stay and that you were able to take advantage of how quiet the hotel grounds are. We hope you have a wonderful rest of 2017.
Very accommodating and friendly service I would recommend this to anyone of these two to business around the Long Beach area. The only thing was is they need to extends the pool hours from 6 am to 10pm and the breakfast hours from 6 am to 10am.
Thank you very much for leaving us feedback. We hope you enjoyed your stay. Have a great day.
"A great place to stay And it was regarding my new place was not ready to be lived in so I knew of this hotel which is th"
Good morning, thank you for leaving us feedback, we hope you enjoyed your stay and consider using us again.
"Great hotel, but very tight parking and breakfast area"
We've stayed here many times and have seen nice improvements. Examples are the improved coffee in the room and at breakfast. The location is close to freeway access so that is always appreciated in the Los Angeles area. However, parking is very tight and the breakfast area is small.
Good morning Shirley L, Thank you very much for pointing out our strengths and also listing our cons, this helps our future guests reach a decision. We hope you have a great day.
"NEVER AGAIN AT THIS LOCATION"
Hmm - let's just say that this particular BW has some issues with staff and management practices. We booked online and when 5 minutes away from arrival check in clerk called and let us know that the only room available was a smoking room and asked if this was ok. told her no, had a 14 with us and did not want to subject him. asked for alternatives, told only thing she could do was cancel our reservation and not charge us !! asked for manager and was told there was none. Asked why this happened and she told me it was because i booked online and that i should have called them direct and she would have informed us (really?). Asked her to call manager to find solution, she refused to do so and then hung up on me. Having no options, we were forced to stay and i now have to write this review to let all others know that they should not consider this facility until they can show that staff has been trained and management can take responsibility for problems and provide solutions.
Good morning DRRVentura, After looking at your reservation confirmation, I do see a double queen smoking room was booked on the same day as your arrival. We have had problems in the past with online reservations coming in last minute (when we are sold out of non-smoking rooms) with a smoking room and when those guest(s) come to check in, we have to be the bearer of bad news and inform them they do not have a non-smoking room. In an attempt to combat this very inconvenient problem for guests, such as yourself, we do ask our team members to contact guest(s) as soon as they see reservations that meet these stipulations come through to verify the reservation with the guest(s) so that we can give our guest(s) as much time as we can to find other accommodations(if we no longer have non-smoking rooms available). We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you, we know that finding out this information can be very frustrating and seriously make or break a vacation/business trip. We would have loved to accommodate you or any other guest(s) when this situation occurs, but unfortunately we are also bound by the number of rooms we have available on any given night. Additionally, the Front Office Manager, Jose Sevilla, and myself wish we could work seven days a week so that we can take care of each and every guest hands-on, but we have full confidence in each and every team member under our wing. We implore each member of our team to take matters into their own hands; moreover, we empower them to make their own decisions while weighing those decisions against their training. We are here Monday-Friday, 7:00am-5:00pm in office, to analyze our teams' decisions, guide them toward decisions that bring guest satisfaction, and assist guest(s) hands-on. Lastly, we sincerely want to apologize, and we want to reiterate that we completely understand how much this information can negatively impact your stay. Our team member contacted Mr. Sevilla immediately following your initial contact with our GSA, for additional guidance to reaffirm that the decision she made was the best possible decision (given the availability), and after confirming that we had no non-smoking suites or non-smoking standard rooms available- we were left with the decision that was reached. We hope that you can see what our intention was and can understand the circumstances we all had to maneuver with. Trying to sell the room for more revenue and thus lead you toward dissatisfaction is not what we are about at the Best Western Los Alamitos Inn & Suites. We hope that our complete transparency in this situation showcases that. We deeply apologize for the messy situation, and hope you have a great rest of the week.
Hotel decor is / was very out date. Staff was friendly and helpful. Location was not great, it was in between two different businesses. due to location there was not a room with a view... Smoking was allowed on stairwell and could smell the smoke. I was a quite in our room and could not hear the traffic from the main highway.
I will definitely be staying at this Best Western again in the future. The staff were especially polite and accomidating, and everything was updated and clean. The bed was very comfortable. I slept better than I have in a long time.
Good morning, thank you very much for leaving us a review. We are so very pleased to hear you enjoyed your stay with us; moreover, it warms our hearts. We hope you return soon, have a great day.
I booked a room in advance with the hotel itself for a double bed suite as I am traveling with my four kids and husband. We get to the hotel and they gave us a king bed only. Anita front desk tried to help and assured me the manager will take care Of us and comp Our rooms. As entering our room it was sooooo hot and had a bad odor. We also were greeted with the biggest spider web and spider at our door. Anita had a hard time but she got it down as my kids were screaming. Upon check out Anita was not there however they lady who booked my room initially was and she told me u will Not be charged and the manager can not talk w me and will not u til Wednesday. I knew something was off I called my credit card company and they charged me triple what the rate initially was. I went back to talk to her and she asked me to leave the property. I wasn't rude I simply asked as in to why you charged me? This was the worst experience I have ever had and really put a huge damper on our vacation.
Good morning hnadib, Thank you for completing a review for our property. We are so sorry to hear you had a negative experience during your visit with us. Unfortunately, our management team operates fully during business hours: Monday-Friday, 7:00am-5:30pm, however, we are there to guide our staff by answering their questions. We would love to be able to help everyone immediately, but sadly, we are actually in office during the days listed above. We hope you understand and that the conversations we have had over the phone have helped show you I completely understand your frustrations and that I am working on it to show our sincerest apology. We are so sorry you had such troubles, and I hope to do my job as a manager to show that I truly appreciate your loyalty to our brand.
I had business in town and decided to try this place since it was close to my meeting. I did not expect much and got the surprise of my life. It looks as if it was recently renovated or is just kept up in perfect condition. Spotless room, fresh paint, clean grounds, and overall immaculate. The room had an extremely comfortable bed, flat screen television, new furniture, great bathroom, etc. Breakfast was included which included eggs, sausage, fruit, coffee, etc. More than enough to get you by. I am familiar with the area and it is very safe with great restaurants all around. Highly recommended.
Good morning PatrickLongBeach, We appreciate your detailed feedback regarding your stay with us. It is really great to hear guests enjoyed their stay with us. We like to read reviews for motivation to grow and evolve to better suit our guests' needs. We hope you had a great stay, and we hope to see you again soon!
"Los Alamitos near Long Beach, CA"
The room and all facilities were improved even since we stayed in January. We received great help from the staff. I enjoyed the fountain and front garden. We used the food venues nearby, Mexican and pizza and donut shop. Family are nearby.
Good morning pattia456, Thank you so much for staying with us and telling us about what you liked about your stay. We are happy to be able to accommodate you during mini family reunions. We hope you are able to continue staying with us in the future, have a great day.
My husband attended a class and I spent the days visiting friends. We were very happy with the comfortable bed as we've experienced hard beds. There are quite a few restaurants nearby and an adjacent liquor store. The breakfast has quite a variety of items to choose from.Our room was very clean with a coffee pot, iron, ironing board, hair dryer, large screen tv. We felt quite safe. There is a set of craft shops and a nice restaurant a short block away. There is a swimming pool but unfortunately we didnt have time to sample it. Overall a good experience.
Good morning Rosa C, Thank you very much for staying with us and pointing out the highlights of your stay. This assists our future guests on deciding if we are a perfect fit for their needs and expectations.
"Big Bang For You Buck"
Very friendly staff. Great breakfast. Very comfortable beds. Good size room. Great location. Close to Long Beach, Cerritos and Norwalk. We were visiting some relatives on this trip. We were going to stay in Long Beach but the parking fees were too much $19-$28 per night, here it was free, Parking lot is a little tight but mostly because people don't know how to park straight. Plus you get free WiFi and breakfast too. There were lot of families with kids but didn't hear any noise at all.
Good morning Maria M, Thank you very much for staying with us. We are so happy to hear we were able to meet your expectations and accommodate you accordingly. We hope to see you again soon, have a wonderful day.
This hotel never disappoints. Always clean, well kept with professional staff. One of the rooms has been made wheelchair friendly with a large walk in shower. would also add that the breakfasts are quite tasty. Usually have a good selection of hot and cold dishes. Have stayed many times in the past and will continue to do so when I am in the area.
Good morning Timonthy M, Thank you very much for staying with us and letting us know what you like and dislike. We hope to see you again soon.
"Small Hotel with HUGE Heart!!!"
In all my years of travel, I have never been treated with such a high level of care and courteousness as I was during my stay at the Best Western in Los Alamitos. I was traveling with my wife and son for a trip to Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland. My son happens to have special needs, as he's autistic, and due to his condition, we often scour the internet for hotel options that will suit his needs. After some investigating, we found a room at this location that we felt would work. Upon arriving and entering our room, we realized it wasn't the same room pictured during the time we reserved online (via Expedia). I mentioned this to the front desk clerk, Anita, as well as the hotel manager, Clarissa, and they immediately went above and beyond to accommodate my family's/son's needs. Needless to say, my wife and I were overwhelmed by their display of kindness and concern. The amount of extra work and effort they put in to accommodating us has left a lasting impression and has established a sense of brand loyalty that no comfy bed, free internet, or complimentary breakfast could ever create on its own. Beyond the AMAZING service, the rooms were spotless and extremely comfortable. I fully recommend this modestly sized hotel, if not for the quality of the rooms, then for the quality of the staff. They demonstrated their HUGE hearts and it's something I forever appreciate and never forget!
Hi alexmt2017, Thank you so much for leaving us feedback online. We appreciate you taking the time to do so. We hope to see you again soon. Best wishes to you and your family.
I have stayed there about 10 times this past year and the staff are completely awesome. Polite, engaging and helpful. It is located by great restaurants and entertainment locations. I highly recommend this location and you won't be disappointed.
Good morning michaeloO6913CG, Thank you very much for staying with us. We are so glad to hear your feedback. We hope to continue to have the opportunity to serve you, have a wonderful day.
"I would highly recomment this hotel to anyone!"
The only negatives would be that the channels on the TV are limited and parking spots are a little narrow. However, overall, the other positive points far outweigh those. Staff was super! Great breakfast. Grounds, rooms and pool area all very clean and inviting.
Good morning X5723VTthomast, thank you for staying with us and leaving us such detailed feedback for us to make improvements on. We hope you have a great day!
Just stay away from the coffee. The coffee in the room is awful and the one they use for "free" breakfast is even worse - it is INSTANT! So, as long as you bring your own, you will enjoy staying here. It is clean, comfortable and in a great area with lots of restaurants to choose from. But best of all Long Beachs' Shoreline Village is about 10 minutes away.
Good morning Silva M, We appreciate you leaving us a detailed review for us to improve on. We hope you have a wonderful day!
"Best Western Los Alamitos June 2017"
Good morning John, Thank you very much for completing a survey on our hotel. We hope you enjoyed your stay and have a great 4th of July!
Clean, quiet, great staff, and awesome location. Would definitely stay here again. Make sure you hit Surf Taco across the road, excellent food. Also a great Tai place down the road and pizza shop around the corner.
Good morning joesk1011cb, We appreciate you taking the time to fill out a survey for us and our future guests. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your summer. Thank you again for staying with us.
Stayed here with a group and the location was great for various activities. Good food at reasonable prices within walking distance. Rooms are spacious and clean. Staff are very polite, helpful and friendly. Breakfast included and has enough basic hot and cold options to cover most people's preferences.
Good morning, Thank you very very much for sharing your thoughts regarding our hotel's performance during your visit. We really appreciate the little things, so thank you! We hope you have a wonderful rest of the summer.
Thank you so much for leaving a review for us, we hope you have a wonderful day and visit again soon!
Clean, quiet and welcoming staff. Breakfast was good and worth the visit to the lobby. They had a variety of items so we didn't have any trouble finding something delicious. The rooms on the second and third floors are more quiet than the bottom ones but that could be expected anywhere. There is an elevator so you do not have to climb stairs.
Thank you so much for staying with us timothyj490, we appreciate your loyalty to the Best Western Resorts. We are glad to hear you enjoyed your stay. Please visit again, have a great day!
This hotel met all of my requirements. It's clean and quiet. The staff was very friendly. I checked in quickly workout any problems. The location great. It's about 15 minutes from the beaches and there's food everywhere.
"Trip for Grandson's School Promotion"
Easy check in. Clerk was friendly and made us feel welcome. Wi-Fi/internet connected easily and thoroughly. Comfortable bed and pillow. Slept well. Breakfast was tasty. Overall this was a pleasant experience.
Good afternoon thank you for your response. We truly appreciate you staying with us for your visit to Los Alamitos area. We hope to see you again, have a great day!
great value, not enough parking so get there early. I stayed in a suite and was well laid out with plenty of hook-ups for mobile devices, etc. TV was kind of small, not a big deal for me. Overall, if you are looking for good clean hotel and nice staff, this is the place.
Clean rooms, within walking distance to many restaurants. Rates are great, parking space reasonable. Staff was excellent, friendly and helpful. Outdoor hot tub and pool are clean. Nice place for a 4 day trip.
Good morning pacificmentor, thank you very much for leaving detailed feedback for us and our future guests, we really appreciate it. We hope to see you again soon, have a great week!
Cofortable and very friendly Staff, Breakfast is included and the Rates are great. They are close to resataurants, Bre Kitchen ale House and Shenandoah at the the Arbor. Excellent Lunch and Dinner. They are within walking distance and a few shopping area that are quaint. It's 2 blocks from the freeway. It has a microwave and fridge and coffee maker. A plus for me. I would stay here again.
This is an above average Best Western. I stay here often for business. Excellent restaurants nearby, close to the freeway and the free breakfast is good. Always receive quality service from the front desk.
Hello! Thank you for staying with us. We hope you have a wonderful day.
"good place to stay for those making their base in los alamitos"
As others have said the parking is somewhat tricky when there are quite a few cars you have to be aware when exiting parking spots. The hotel is near a busy intersection and if you have a room facing the street can hear the noise but it wasn't overwhelming i got a decent nights sleep. The continental breakfast was pretty decent not just fruits and juice but included cereal, eggs, pastries, muffins, sausages. Staff was very helpful especially trying to figure out how to use their microwave turns out the power button you have to hit dead center. Free wifi worked with no problem in my room Close access to many freeways here.
We initially reserved a King Room for 2 nights. The bed was comfortable and I loved the large closet for storing luggage. My only complaint was that sink and vanity were outside the bathroom. I prefer the sink in the bathroom. We decided to extend for a couple more nights, unfortunately only a double queen room was available. The closet in this room is smaller however sink vanity was in the bathroom. The Continental breakfast was adequate, fruit was available in the lobby throughout the day which was a nice touch. Front desk staff was cordial and accommodating. Room appeared to be very clean. All rooms had refrigerators, microwaves, and coffee makers.There is a pool and a hot tub which we did not use. If you are seeking a room with a view, this is not your place. Most rooms overlook the parking lot. Since we weren't in our room that much, that wasn't a problem. I would definitely stay here again.
"Give this staff an award!"
I have stayed in 5 star hotels many times. This was not a trip to holiday but to come and see a sick loved one. I was here for a week in a room beyond clean, comfortable bed, caring staff and good internet. I have stayed at more expensive hotels in the area and this is the BEST and 1/3 of the price!
Good morning, Thank you so much for letting our future guests know how hard we work to bring excellence to our hotel. We feel truly blessed to have such attentive team members on our team. We hope to see you again soon, have a wonderful day.
Nice staff and a decent room, but the location and exterior are not so good. The pool and Jacuzzi are very small and essentially in the parking lot. The parking lot and the property are small making parking difficult especially with several large pickup trucks present. We pulled forward and found that all spaces were full or unusable and then had to back all the way out of the parking lot because there was no way you could turn around.
Good morning, we are so sorry you experienced parking issues, please swing by the front office for our guest service agents will be able to redirect you to a different parking area. Have a great day.
The night staff was very helpful in getting us the exact room that we wanted on short notice. We are always satisfied when we stay here. Although we left earlier then breakfast was served that is one of the reasons we stay here.
Good morning, thank you for leaving a review for us, we are so sorry to hear you did not enjoy your stay. We hope to see you again, have a great day.
"Clean & Comfy - Small Intimate Hotel"
The rooms were comfy and spacious with comfortable beds, good amenities, and clean and fresh. Any rooms ending xx01-xx04 please know you will be on the noisy street (we were in room 302). Needed a room near the elevator, but know here you will be on the main street, and the windows do not keep out the sound, didn't get much sleep. But they tried to move us, even tho they were full, and within 10 minutes of going down to request the move, they already gave the room away, so was disappointed in that since they knew we were having trouble with our rooms. Probably won't visit again with no guarantee of a quiet room, but the hotel still met our standards.
Good morning jamaicabitty, We apologize that you had trouble with a room facing the main street. Unfortunately, over the last few weeks it has been quite busy, which can present issues when trying to accommodate a room move, but our staff will always do their best to make miracles happen. We apologize and can guarantee a room away from the street with a request made ahead of time. Have a wonderful day.
"Nice and clean place - friendly staff"
Nice hotel. Bed was too firm and pillows uncomfortable but overall a good place. Breakfast was awesome and staff was very nice. Shower mat slid out from under me in shower and I fell and hit my head. Got banged and bruised but am okay. Water pressure was a little low.
"Do not disturb, means come right on in, here."
The "Please Do NOT Disturb" placard placed on the door, means don't come in. It would be appreciated if hotel cleaning staff followed this request. The room was good and the location is great, all those things are great reasons to stay here. Hotel breakfast opens at 6. Don't expect to go get a cup of coffee anytime before that because the front door is locked.
Good morning N5573LDwilliama, We apologize you were dissatisfied with our services. Unfortunately, we do have a policy for long term guests that is stated on the registration card all our guests sign that states:"Stays exceeding two days are required to receive cleaning service every third day". We have that there to help clarify what guests can expect, we apologize for any miscommunication. Lastly, our rooms are all stocked with complimentary coffee and a coffee maker for your leisure during closed hours. We apologize for not meeting your expectations, we hope to see you again to show you our dedication to superior customer care.
I had a wonderful experience staying at Best Western Los Alamitos. Small property, quiet and clean. Would definitely recommend it to others. The only drawback is the breakfast; not very family friendly, limited choices, small eating area in lobby.
"On my way to Palm Springs"
This is the second time I stayed at the Los Alamitos Inn. The first stay, the Inn hosted a girls soccer team. This time it was a Wedding party. Several generations of family members in the breakfast room. Great to see. Front desk accommodated a business need even though the lobby/breakfast room was bustling with guests. Good Job to front desk and housekeeping.
Good morning Kathleen K, We are so happy to hear you enjoyed your stay with us. We appreciate you always choosing our hotel when staying in the Los Alamitos area. We hope to see you again soon, have a great day.
"A very good quality 2* hotel."
The hotel is in a very nice quiet area, about 25miles from the airport, easy to get to, enough parking, VERY helpful and pleasant staff! The rooms are big, clean and well equipt, the plumbing was maybe a tiny bit noisy at times, but otherwise nothing at all to complain about! Pool was nice, hot tub great! There were a number of very good restaurants with-in walking distance, 'especially the Shenandoah across the road!! And the marvellous collection of little gift store there! Everyone in the area was so pleasant! Highly recommended! If u need a place to crash for one night after arriving in the US, choose this, you won't regret it!
Good morning Puddingwife, we appreciate your feedback regarding your visit. Constructive criticism goes a very long way! We hope you have a great day and we hope to see you again in the near future!
The room was very clean and well presented. The bed was quite comfortable. The breakfast was good with eggs, potatoes, sausage and a selection of breads. All presented nicely. The staff were friendly and helpful. The surrounding area of the hotel gave you a feeling of security. I highly recommend this hotel.
Thank you very much for reviewing your stay with us, johnandgermainec, we appreciate the time it took to do so. We are so happy to hear you were able to enjoy our breakfast! Have a wonderful evening.
Stayed her before going to another town. Nice location, rooms are clean up to date and comfortable. If your in the area on a budget stay here, it's ranked number one for a reason! Close to restaurants and stores.
Hello, thank you so much for taking the time to review your most recent stay. Hearing guests love the experience makes it all worth it. We hope you have a great weekend!
The rooms are clean and the staff is great! I needed a place to stay while my condo was under construction and they made my stay really exceptional. For those of you who are from out of town, it is close to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, the beach, Long Beach Aquarium, restaurants, shopping, the whole Los Angeles experience is close by.
Thank you aquajetart for reviewing our hotel's performance during your stay. We are ecstatic to hear you enjoyed your stay. We hope you have a great day, and wonderful holidays!
"Quick overnight trip to Long Beach area"
Staff was great! Room was clean and modern. Would return to stay if in area again for a night. Parking is pretty ridiculous, but the staff does everything in their power to address it, and get creative on where to park. The only down side was having to go and move the car again at 7am.
Thank you so much for your review AndyECV, we appreciate constructive criticism. We hope the creative solutions show how much thought we have put into alleviating guest stress over the unfixable issues. Have a great day!
"Good value in an above-average hotel"
We spent one night in this Best Western and it was a good experience. Pros: Clean, comfortable bed, free wifi, breakfast and parking. Cons: $100 was charged in advance to our debit card to hold in event of damage. In spite of this disconcerting experience, we'd stay there again.
Hello, thank you for giving us valuable feedback about your visit with us here in Los Alamitos. We are glad that you enjoyed all our amenities we have worked so hard to deliver to all our guests. Have a great day!
Woke up with headache and cough due to a broken air conditioner. The staff had us stay in the room even though the floor was saturated and moldy. Water pressure was terrible and the parking lot was noisy outside our window. The hotel staff was unaccomodating and rude. They never called us back to rectify the situation. We absolutely do not recommend this hotel!
"Nice Night in Los Alamitos"
Stayed here for one night prior to going to a concert at Spaghettini, Seal Beach. Great location for both the concert and the overnight stay. Room was on the top floor overlooking the pool. I was told they had a balcony room for us but it was on the second floor and I preferred not hearing footsteps over my head. If I had been staying longer, the only reason to get a balcony might be to smoke (which I don't and am not sure is allowed) outdoors without leaving the building - there is no view. Room was clean and large with the usual amenities. Bath is small but adequate. The desk staff were upbeat, smiling, and conversational. The breakfast is small but included hot items, making it easy to get on the road if time is a constraint. The breakfast area was part of the lobby making it small but it was clean and welcoming. The best part is I saw no questionable individuals hanging around the hotel. I will definitely stay here again should my travels bring me to this part of SoCal.
Good morning, thank you for your review of your most recent stay with us. We greatly appreciate all our guest's feedback. We hope to see you again soon, have a great day!
Good morning Van J, Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback for your most recent visit with us. We will strive to uphold the cleanliness that met your expectations during your visit. We hope to see you in the near future, have a wonderful day!
Hello ANAMARIAANDRICHIE, I always feel so blessed to have such wonderful staff, I am so happy to hear our staff went above and beyond for you during your visit. We will continue to provide you with that level of customer service and even try to top it during your next visit. Have a great day, thank you for your time!
This is the nicest Best Western we have been to in a while. The carpet looked new and was very clean, the TV was probably the largest I've ever seen in a hotel room, and the bed was pretty comfy. I would before than happy to stay here again in the future.
Good Morning Dylan D., thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave us some valued feedback. Thank you for noticing the renovated rooms, our team has done everything in their power to prepare the best available room for you and all our guests. Have a great day!
"Best Western Los Alamitos Inn & Suites, Los Alamitos, CALIFORNIA"
I stayed for five nights and it was an easy location, very close to my work assignment. I ate dinner at five different diners that are all on the same street. it is a quiet location and courteous employees. The internet and AC worked well for my late night data entry needs. I enjoyed the grab-n-go breakfast in the early morning because I was not able to stay around for a hot breakfast. I am grateful though because that was my only source of food for several hours into my work day. Thanks!!
This was by far the cleanest and nicest Best Western I've stayed in. The grounds and rooms were very well maintained and the staff was exceptional. Only complaint were that the pillows were very hard and the parking was limited and spaces were extremely tight. Other than that, I would definitely stay again, but with a much smaller car.
This was a good experience for my first stay at this motel. Given the recent price hikes in the area at other locations I was forced to stay here to meet my budget allocated by my client. I was concerned at first but overall this is a nice property with modern rooms. The bed was very comfortable and not to soft like other cheaper hotel brands and locations. TV was large and had good picture quality. AC was great and powerful.
"A Great start to our Holiday"
Great hotel and lovely staff. Clean, quiet, comfortable and only about 20 mins away from Disneyland. Walking distance to restaurants. Beds were comfy and provided a good nights sleep. Didn't get the opportunity to try the pool out but it looked very inviting. Would have no problem in staying here again.
"Good Clean place for a good price in Orange County"
Clean and very quiet rooms. Close to where we wanted to be. Good value. Parking was a little challenging when full, but we would definitely book again. The staff was very friendly. Easy to find and centrally located.
Good Morning, thank you for reviewing your visit with us! We apologize for the parking issues, if problems ever arise for you, please inform the front desk so that we may assist you, as we do have alternative options for parking. Thank you very much for choosing our hotel for your visit, have a wonderful day!
"Comfortable and friendly while within price range"
I found both the Best Western and the reception staff to be welcoming and knowledgeable. Thanks for a lovely stay. Loved the pool, wished the air-conditioning had been a little more realistic as to real temp but at no time uncomfortable.
The hotel and staff were great. The breakfast was very good. The only issue we had was the parking. We needed to park both of our cars, but we were only allowed to park one in the lot at a time. They did allow us to park in the business lot next door, however we had to move the car by 7 am.
We like staying here. It is close to all the places we are visiting. Staff is friendly and helpful. There are a lots of places to eat around this hotel. Shopping is really close too. I stayed here with my family for 4 days, and then brought my husband to this hotel. He liked it. It will be our come to hotel whenever we are in town. We used to live in Long Beach, so when we visit. It's perfect.
"Nice enough hotel for this location, clean, spacious but nothing fancy"
Room #212 2 Queens bed, spacious,clean, comfortable beds, biggest closet I've EVER seen. Microwave, fridge, balcony but no chairs. Breakfast was included and was good, but area is VERY small. It also serves as the business center (desk with computer and chair). No gym, small parking area with tight spaces, beware of entrance ditch, go very slow or you will scrape the bottom of your car. The WiFi was terrible! Service was very good, friendly people. We stayed for two nights as it was central to our plans.
We rented the suite and were very impressed with quality and cleanliness. Overall the hotel was very clean. Only problem was the cooling system in living room section and no available parking when we came back at 11:00 PM.
"Great location and wonderful service"
This hotel is small but is in a great location for both beach and the city experiences. All the employees are very friendly and efficient. The front desk manager is very helpful and makes himself available for all the needs you might have.
Thank you for taking the time to fill out a review for us! We are happy to hear, Jose Sevilla, was able to meet your expectations during your visit, we hope to see you again soon!
Loved the 2 room suite we stayed in for 4 nights! Clean and spacious. The kids loved the pool and hot tub. The house keeping crew went out of their way to keep our room stocked with towels and other essentials. Eveybody was very friendly and made us feel welcomed.
First and foremost, thank you very much for reviewing your stay for us, we greatly appreciate it. We agree, that two room suite is quite lovely and we are glad you think so too! we hope to see you some time soon for another visit!
Thank you for reviewing our hotel and noticing our hard work. Our staff strives to maintain a clean and friendly hotel for all of our loyal guests. Additionally, our rates do depend on availability, so we hope to see you again to hopefully set you up with a better rate than last time, thank you!
"Terriblr check in when informed our reservation was cancelled"
Hotel was fine when we stayed there. Our reservation was canceled and we were informed of this upon arrival late at night after traveling from NY to get there. We were told they could not reach us and that our credit card was declined. They accepted the same credit car for use during the 5 days we did stay there. We were extremely frustrated upon arrival needless to say.
Thank you for taking the time to fill in a review for us. We sincerely apologize for the mishap that occurred prior and during check in. We know you booked in advance and unfortunately there was an error with the card on file which caused the reservation to go from guaranteed to non-guaranteed. We regrettably had to make the decision to cancel since the reservation was considered as I said, non-guaranteed. We hope this will not deter you from staying with us again so that we may show you what we are truly all about here.
"Convenient to Los Alamitos High School"
We love to stay here when visiting family and attending the Los Alamitos High School choir events. Their location is convenient to Los Angeles and Orange County. The rooms have recently been totally renovated.
Thank you very much for your review! Thank you for noticing our newly renovated rooms, we love the new look as well. We are glad to hear you choose our hotel when visiting Los Alamitos, thank you for your loyalty!
"Great Room and even better service"
Very nice, clean room. Jose, the front desk person, was friendly and extremely informative. The parking lot is a bit small and hard to park a large vehicle but we made it in out family van. The hotel is close to various places as well as the 605 freeway which leads all over Southern California. The pool and jacuzzi were very relaxing and a definite plus! We're in the Los Alamitos area at least 3 times a year and will definitely stay there again.
Thank you for taking the time to fill out a review for us! We are glad to hear Jose provided you with excellent customer service, and that you were able to enjoy the swimming pool and jacuzzi during your stay. Hope to see you again soon!
"Clean, convenient, but can be a little noisy..."
I stayed 4 nights for a work trip and overall had a pleasant stay. The room was clean and the bed comfortable. Looks like they have been working on keeping the hotel up. If you're a light sleeper, the halls can be a bit noisy. I suggest the third floor. I stayed on the second and had a very heavy-footed upstairs neighbor. Front desk staff was very friendly and helpful. Breakfast was decent. I just wish it started at 6 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m. to make it more convenient for work hours. Parking is a little tight, but manageable with a small car. I would stay here again.
We are glad to hear you enjoyed your most recent stay! We definitely strive for excellence so constant improvement is our goal, and we are glad you noticed. Thank you for taking the time to fill out a review for us, we hope to see you again soon!
"Good room; small parking lot"
Our stay was descent, however, the second night we had noisy neighbors. The room was nice, but the parking spaces were a little narrow and the two rows were closer together than most places. It was challenging to get out of the parking space and required a couple tries of backing up and pulling forward to get out without hitting other cars. If we didn't have the use of the bigger handicapped space, it would have been even harder.
Hello Lori H! Thank you for your review, we apologize that other guests were noisy during your stay, we definitely take noise complaints seriously. Hopefully we get to see you again soon to show you how we have improved based on your review!
Nice room with a very good breakfast. Parking lot is a bit cramped. Location is good and very close to various eating establishments and freeway. Will stay again when in the area. Very little noise helped making sleep easy. Television had many different channels.
The Los Alamitos is the "Best" Western place to stay. This facility is very close to Disneyland and Long Beach using the arterial roads or easy freeway access. Very clean, reasonably priced, and the management/staff are extremely friendly, courteous and friendly. Number one for us is how clean the rooms and exterior of the properly are. Very well maintained! We have stayed at this facility 10 times over the past 4 months.
"Soo wanted to give 5 stars but.."
Roomed smelled with cigarette smoke and front desk employees (daiy shift females) were more involved with their personal lives rather than the customer. The check out employee was very helpful and fast. House keeping was friendly and helpful.
When considering a hotel in Los Alamitos area this Best Western offeres you a very comfortable, exccellent experience. 4.5 stars all around. Rooms have been recently renovated, beds are very comfortable, breakfast is good..only negative is the breakfast room is a little small.
Easy access to local businesses visited. The premises were comfortable & clean. The breakfast satisfactory with easy access to diners close by if a full breakfast is required. Our third visit here & we would return.
The Alamitos Best Western is extremely clean, staff are exceptional and have very good interpersonal skills and are always responsive to any request or need. As a returning customer they remember you right away and always tell us "so good to see again and how have you been". This means a lot to customers. This past year we were coming often to assist my 100 year old mother in law in moving to assisted living, and an Alzheimer's facility. This staff always remembered us, and always asked how we were doing with kind thoughts and words. We truly appreciated that. This staff is the best ever.
Staff was nice, rooms were nice and clean. My husband and kids enjoyed the free breakfast every morning. We stayed there for our Disneyland vacation, the drive there and back wasn't bad at all. Maybe 20 min, if that. Would definitely stay there again.
"A Great Hotel, no need to look further"
I've only had positive experiences while staying at this hotel. Why stay at other high priced hotels in the area when this little gem is in the heart of the city, with super easy access to the 605 freeway which connects to the 405 San Diego. There is no need for room service when a pizzeria, sandwich shop, and a Mexican restaurant are less than ten minutes walking distance. The rooms are very clean, the beds are comfortable, wi-fi connection, HD tv with cable shows, and a free breakfast every morning with a very good selection of food choices. Their front desk agents are very friendly, and I did not experience any loud disturbances within the neighborhood. This is my new home away from home.
Room was clean, grossly. Bed was very comfortable. It was a good sensation to receive an upgrade and a gift bag. However, we found a dirty coffee maker in the room and had to spend about half an hour in cleaning it, since we did not want next guests to have the same experience. Not enough parking when hotel is completely booked.
"Clean Hotel, Friendly Staff, Great Breakfast"
They recently renovated the rooms and they are very nice. And the price for the room, free breakfast and amenities (pool & Hot tub) is super reasonable. However, the breakfast is very minimal and located in the lobby (just one of my pet peeves). However, there is everything from nails salons, massages, great restaurant and shopping within walking distance.
The Los Alamitos Best Western is extremely well maintained, very clean, and staff are very personable and friendly. This location is easily accessible to the freeway and many venues within the Long Beach area.
We chose this Inn based on the reviews. I think we obviously just had a one off experience because we did not enjoy your stay. My husband checked in and we started to drive toward the underpass where the person who previously reviewed this place stayed and made it clear it was noisy and dark. Yep, our room was in the cave. I walked back to the lobby to attempt to move rooms. She said they couldn't accommodate us. So we walked in the non-smoking cave...I mean, room. The smell of smoke was pretty strong. We decided to tough it out and at about 6am we started to hear the echo of the large diesel trucks starting up that were parked under the hotel, where our room was. Also, no wi-fi in the cave. The next day we attempted to move rooms again and they told us no. They put an ozone machine in our room but by then, everything we owned was saturated in the smell of smoke and the sheets were no different. They tried, the people that worked there were friendly but I can't recommend this place. I need some natural light, internet, and fresh air after our 3 days in the cave.
The room was updated and clean, however, it was very noisy. The room was located under covered parking and we heard every vehicle in the parking lot at all hours. The covered parking allowed very little natural light in the room. The room was also located at the stairs so we eveyone who walked up or down the stairs.
"Good Location with Tons of Amenities around the Area"
I stayed at this Best Western Inn during NYE weekend for an event in Long Beach and was pleasantly surprised. The appearance of the outside/parking didn't look like anything special, in fact it looked out dated, but as soon as I stepped in for check in the staff was friendly and the lobby was extremely clean. When I got into the room, it was even better; flat screen tv, comfortable bed, ac/heater, fridge/microwave and was it very spacious and clean. The location was near food, gas stations, and grocery stores and was in a safe neighborhood. Overall this is a good best western with very comfortable rooms and a friendly staff. Would stay at this location again if business or another event took place nearby.
Stayed at the Best Western Los Alamitos on a Sunday night for a short business trip. The hotel is about a 12 min drive from Long Beach Airport and was a convenient place to stay. The grounds are very well kept and there was ample parking for check-in and stay. The front desk staff was cheerful and friendly; they were very helpful in getting us into our room ahead of normal check-in time. Later in the afternoon, they were more than happy to print our boarding passes, even though I didn't see the lobby computer and printer hidden behind their Christmas tree. Our third floor room had an outside entrance; the elevator is accessed from the parking lot, instead of inside the lobby. The king-size bed was comfortable with an assortment of pillows. The wall mounted flatscreen TV was one of the largest I've seen in a hotel room and the HDMI port was accessible so I could hook my Amazon Firestick up to watch videos on demand. A central marble top unit beneath the flatscreen TV contained drawers on one side, and the refrigerator, microwave, and ice bucket on the other side. The good-sized desk was located near the front door and had a lamp with AC power and USB outlet in the base; convenient for charging devices without having to plug in a charger. Similar lamps were on each nightstand and there was a nice reading chair with footrest. Internet access was solid and fast. The sink area next to the closet was well stocked with towels and toiletries. The bathroom was on the small side, but was well stocked with towels and had a shower/tub. One odd thing we noticed was that the bathroom fan drew in cigarette smell from an adjacent smoking room. It was annoying, so we kept the bathroom fan off. The hotel offers a free breakfast in the morning and there are several restaurants, including a Sizzler across the street from the hotel, within a short walking distance. The Best Western Los Alamitos was good value for the price and we look forward to staying there again.
I needed accommodations near Long Beach Airport. This Best Western is close enough to the airport and allowed me the time needed to travel to appointments, as though I were closer to the airport. Great alternative to the higher priced accommodations in poorer areas close to the airport.
"Nice little tucked away place"
Rooms are pretty big, and the breakfast has a lot of variety for a little place. The hot tub is really hot. The pool is not really very big, but not a lot of people use it, so it's easy to have for one's self.
My room was very clean with new furniture and a flat screen t.v. which had cable and HBO. The refrigerator and microwave were a plus. I spent quite a bit of time at this hotel because it was very close to a hospital that my sister was in. A continental breakfast was available which consisted of bagels, pastries, muffins, eggs, sausage, and french toast. Juice and coffee was also available. There are many places to eat and shop nearby as well as grocery stores and pharmacies. The desk staff was very friendly and accommodating. I highly recommend this hotel for business or pleasure.
"Newly remodled - Nice hotel"
This was a nice place to stay, area seemed pretty good "not scary" if it's where you need to be. The rooms were clean, the beds were comfortable, good breakfast not the best but certainly not the worst, very satisfactory.
Everyone is very helpful, hotel is clean, the pool is excellent and everyone in the staff are very friendly, even the employees welcome you with a smile. I would recommend to my friend and yes I will be staying at this hotel every time I have a business trip to California.
Our stay at Best Western Los Alamitos Inn & Suites was clean and comfortable. They have a refreshed, modern look. The beds were comfortable and they had firm and soft pillows on each bed in our room, which helped us customize our sleep preferences. The staff we encountered were all very professional and helpful. This hotel is within walking distance to several food establishments, which is a nice bonus.
I was pleasantly surprised when I checked into my room at this location. The staff was very friendly and the room was VERY nice. I also liked that there was a store right next door to the motel and that it's also conveniently located to the freeway. A person by the name of Shannon helped me. I would stay here again.
"Stay for Long Beach Marathon"
We needed a place to stay and found this location, The person at the front desk was very accommodating and knowledgeable of the area. She provided easy directions to get us to the marathon for an early morning check-in, The location is also close to many restaurants providing many options for eating.
"Small gem in the city"
On;y stayed 2 days here. Convenient to drive to Disneyland, for a good price. Walked to Sizzler for dinner. Convenient to stay at when we visit relatives in the city. Stayed here before but I cannot remember if they had free breakfast. Fridge & microwave were convenient to have in the room. However, they should provide in room safe. Wifi was OK and free.
Thank you for your response. I am glad that you enjoyed your stay on that our location was convenient for you. If you are ever in the area we'd be more than happy to accommodate you again. Your business is appreciated.
"3 Star Hotel with 4 Star Service !!"
While attending an annual blues festival at Eldorado Park which is located nearby we stayed 4 nights at this hotel. The hotel was well located for our event and there are plenty of fine eating establishments within walking distance. There's a great taco restaurant across the street, a coffee shop called The Grind two blocks away and a wonderful seafood restaurant The Original Fish Market Grill a short drive away. Breakfast at the hotel is very good with a variety of menu items to choose. Only thing missing was the yogurt. In comparison to other hotels in the area the room rate was very affordable. This hotel's greatest feature is the service. Not once did maid service knock on the door and disturb us to see if the room needed cleaning. If we left the room, even if we just down the street for coffee, when we returned the room was cleaned. I definitely plan to stay there again when I next attend the New Blues Festival.
Thank you for such positive feedback Sir. We are pleased to hear that our location was convenient for you & that you enjoyed our property. Your business is greatly appreciated and we home that someday we can accommodate you again. Thank you!
This was a great find tucked away in a busy city area. It was close to everything we needed. It was clean and the staff was so professional and friendly. The person who checked us in was very helpful when we needed to find a place to eat. Their breakfast was very good. The breakfast room is small but I was able to eat there and later my husband brought his food back to the room. We'd stay here again on our next trip!
Thank you for your response. We are pleased to hear that you enjoyed your stay here with us. We'd be more than happy to accommodate you once again. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, as well as your business. Thank you!
Chose this hotel because of price and location and was really glad I did. The rooms were clean, the bed was comfy, the location was quiet, and every staff member was welcoming and friendly. I also like the room cold, and the a/c was terrific. The room had a microwave and mini-fridge which is always a plus for me when I travel. The only drawback to note is its location on a street that can be quite busy and can make it hard to turn into the entrance across the traffic - when the traffic is heavy, just plan to turn early and go around the block. Would definitely stay there again.
Thank you for such positive feedback. We are glad that you had an enjoyable stay. Your business is appreciated & we hope to see you again soon! Thank you.
I had to stay here for 2 nights for a work function. The bed was super comfortable, I felt safe,and it was nice and quiet. The whole property has been recently renovated and everything felt clean and new. There is a great taco restaurant right across the street that was perfect for dinner. It was a great experience.
Thank you for your feedback. We are pleased to hear that you enjoyed your stay and took notice of our newly remodeled rooms. Your business and feedback is greatly appreciated. | 2019-04-24T09:53:06Z | https://www.bestwestern.fr/en/hotel-Los-Alamitos-Best-Western-Los-Alamitos-Inn---Suites-5600 |
Here all of our resources are collected together. Find a resource based on a geography, issue, cultural practice, or impact by using the map and menus below.
Our working definition, principles, and framework for cultural organizing.
Arts & Democracy offers cultural organizing workshops and learning exchanges ranging from a one-hour conversation in the midst of a conference, to a weekend long workshop. Workshops are designed with local cosponsors to support ongoing local organizing.
Some of the most powerful change happens in the intersections of generations, cultures, sectors, and geographies. Collected here are stories about these intersections and the people who make them. They are strategic artists and creative organizers, activist anthropologists, poetic politicians, and loving family members. All are engaged in the deeply creative act of believing that something else is possible.
Arts & Democracy's ongoing collaboration with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) including artists residencies resulting in presentations at SEIU's 2012 convention in Denver, Colorado and culural organizing that supported the minimum wage campaign in Minnesota with SEIU Local 26 and young member leadership development in Detroit, Michigan with Healthcare Michigan.
Arts & Democracy was the co-organizer of the roundtable which stimulated the creation of NOCD-NY, a citywide alliance. NOCD-NY came together in response to the vision, sustained needs, and creative resilience of our communities. It recognizes the power of neighborhood-based arts and culture as an integral part of an equitable and culturally vital city. NOCD-NY is a frequent partner when Arts & Democracy works in NYC.
New York City is experiencing a new kind of democracy. Through Participatory Budgeting, residents are directly deciding how to spend public money. Community members are exchanging ideas, working together to turn ideas into project proposals, and voting to decide what proposals get funded. Arts & Democracy is involved throughout the process as a cultural resource.
It's an important step to state our beliefs in racial and cultural equity in these fraught times. It's a bigger one to change what we do to make those beliefs a reality. The webinar, cosponsored with NOCD-NY and PolicyLink illustrates community-based and public sector approaches to putting equity values into practice. It features Libertad O. Guerra, Loisaida Center; Kathy Hsieh, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture; and Keryl McCord, Equity Quotient.
This annual Brooklyn-based learning exchange, cosponsored with Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY (NOCD-NY), brought together organizers, artists, media makers, and policy makers to learn effective ways to deepen our work and engage our creativity in organizing for community change. The day included a cultural organizing framework, hands on skill building workshops, case studies, networking, and resources. It began at Littlefield, and afternoon breakouts took place at nearby Gowanus community organizations including Fifth Avenue Committee, Gowanus Neighborhood Convervancy, Interference Archive, and Theater Mitu.
Creative Placemaking from the Community Up brought together a national cohort of groups–Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY, Arts & Democracy, LA Commons, Kentucky Cultural Organizing Alliance, and the Oakland Cultural Affairs Office– whose creative placemaking is grounded in communities. Project activities over the 22-month project included experiential learning through cross sector collaborations, peer exchanges and skill building workshops, participatory planning and cultural mapping, thematic convenings, and presentations at local and national conferences. The project also developed and disseminated toolkits, webinars, reflective essays, case studies, cultural plans, and other resources.
Adding arts throughout the participatory budgeting process can make it more fun, meaningful, and powerful. This brochure shares examples for incorporating arts as you brainstorm ideas, develop proposals, get out the vote, and fund winning projects.
On this free walk, we learned more about PB, visited projects that our community chose to invest in, & spoke with City Councilmember Brad Lander, who helped bring PB to NY.
This annual Brooklyn-based workshop, cosponsored with Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY (NOCD-NY), brought together organizers, artists, media makers, and policy makers to learn effective ways to deepen our work and engage our creativity in organizing for community change. The day included a cultural organizing framework, hands on skill building workshops, case studies, networking, and resources. The workshop took place at 540 President Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn, at Groundswell, Reel Works, and Spaceworks.
Cultural Organizing for Community Change took place in Gowanus, Brooklyn on Saturday, November 12, 2016 from 9:30am - 6:00pm. The day-long learning exchange included a cultural organizing framework, skill building workshops, a neighborhood tour, a visual arts installation, discussion of the NYC cultural plan, networking, and resource sharing.
Creative Housing Activism and Engagement focused on how artists and other creative activists are addressing the need for truly affordable housing and the impacts of displacement in our communities through creative alliances, cross sector partnerships, artmaking, and oral history. The call was coponsored with Naturally Occurrng Cultural Districts NY.
AddaArt project (Adda + Art) engaged Bangladeshi women and girls in oral history and artmaking in Kensington, Brooklyn. Led by Monica Jahan Bose, AddaArt included the sharing of stories, painting on saris, the creation and exhibition of kathas (quilts), a public performance, and a video.
The Social Media Workshop took place March 6. The first half, led by Carlos Pareja, was about shooting a video with your camera phone. In the second half, led by Daniel LaTorre, participants developed a social media strategy.
Following up on the powerful Building Connections gathering in West CLT with a story circle about the right to belong as part of the Peoples State of the Union. Hosted by Arts & Democracy, QC Family Tree, The Tribe, and Power Up NC with US Department of Arts and Culture.
Internet + Social Change, Building Culturally, Polically, and Technologically Connected Communities interactive workshop. National sponsors were Arts & Democracy and Media Democracy Fund. Local partners included Behailu Academy, PowerUp NC, QC Family Tree, and The Tribe. Special guests included Center for Media Justice, Color of Change, Coworker.org, and Media Mobilizing Project.
Cultural Organizing for Community Change took place Sunday, November 22 from 9:30-6pm in Gowanus Brooklyn. Organizers, artists, media makers, and policy makers came together to learn effective ways to deepen their work and engage their creativity in organizing.
• Build and strengthened relationships amongst participants.
With a focus on racial inclusion the KY Cultural Organizing Learning Exchange brought together artists, activists, advocates, & educators from across Kentucky at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Bowling Green on June 19, 2015. The Learning Exchange was presented by Arts & Democracy, Kentucky Foundation for Women and Alternate ROOTS.
This call featured: Envisioning Development by the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP); Making Waves by The Culture Group; and the People's Creative Toolkit/Herramientas Populares, Arts & Democracy's soon-to-launch collaboration with SEIU Local 26, Rogue Citizen, and Line Break Media.
Organizers, artists, media makers, educators, and policymakers came together to learn effective ways to deepen our work and engage our creativity in organizing for community change. The day included a cultural organizing framework, hands-on skill building workshops, case studies, resources, and networking opportunities.
Over thirty artists, activists, neighborhood leaders & youth from Charlotte gathered for a Cultural Organizing workshop, produced by Arts & Democracy in collaboration with the UNCC’s College of Art + Architecture and the Charlotte Action Research Project (CHARP).
The Animating PB with Arts & Culture workshop took place at the 2014 Participatory Budgeting Conference in Oakland, CA. It included a mini workshop with artist/planner James Rojas, presentations by Caron Atlas and Valter Ferreira, and group brainstorming about how arts, culture, and grassroots media can animate PB and other participatory proccesses.
This call featured presentations on creative projects leading up to the People's Climate March and beyond. It was cosponsored by the People's Climate March Arts Team.
In the face of growing economic inequity, people around the country are coming together to reimagine and rebuild their economies and communities based on the values of equity, democracy, cooperation, self-determination and sustainability. This New York City focused call featured the POINT, Solidarity NYC, Trade School, Our Goods, and The Rockefeller Foundation's support of the area of work. The call was cosponored by NOCD-NY.
Two dozen artists and activists from the New Orleans area gathered for the 4th annual Cultural Organizing workshop, produced by Arts & Democracy in collaboration with Junebug Productions.
In the face of growing economic inequity, people around the country are coming together to reimagine and rebuild their economies and communities based on the values of equity, democracy, cooperation, self-determination and sustainability. This nationally focused call highlighted examples from Jackson Mississippi, Eastern Kentucky, and from Native communities across the country.
Municipalities, arts councils, and community-based organizations around the country engage in cultural planning in order to better engage their communities, identify and build on resources, and integrate the arts and culture into larger community development strategies. This call featured presentations from two veterans of cultural planning: Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Co-Director, Animating Democracy, and Tom Borrup, Principal, Creative Community Builders.
Over 40 artists, organizers, activists and policy advocates from across Kentucky and beyond came together to participate in this day long workshop focused on Cultural Organizing for Social Change in Kentucky. While the group was quite diverse, they shared a belief in the power of art & culture to advance social justice for all Kentuckians. The purpose of the workshop was to connect individuals, organizations and resources to create and sustain cultural organizing as a statewide strategy.
This experiential mini-course investigated arts and culture, broadly defined, as a critical part of envisioning and building an equitable and sustainable Atlanta. Through site visits, tours, cultural events, and conversations with practitioners and policymakers representing multiple perspectives, we explored the intersection between arts and culture and participatory planning.
This call featured of panel of people with deep experience in rural engagement: Ben Strand, University of Wisconsin Foundation, former development director for Young Auditorium in Whitewater, WI; Maria De Leon; Executive Director of National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, and NEA Council member; Bob Gates, folklorist, formerly of KY and LA Arts Councils, and winner of a lifetime achievement prize from the American Folklife Society; and Frumie Selchen, Executive Director, Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire, and 2013 Governor's Award honoree for Arts Leadership. NOTE: the beginning of this call was dropped due to technical difficulties. The first speaker is Maria De Leon.
This call brought together Khmer Girls in Action (KGA), Save Ethnic Studies / Xican@ Institute for Teaching & Organizing, and Project HIP-HOP (Highways Into the Past, History, Organizing, and Power), all supporting liberatory educational practices through engagement with culture and the arts. They explored the possibilities and challenges of practicing — and fighting for — culturally relevant, creative, liberating education.
Judi Jennings, Kentucky Foundation for Women and Savannah Barrett, Art of the Rural discuss Feminist Art: Advancing Social Change in Rural Kentucky, an innovative digital mapping project documenting the powerful and transformative work taking place across rural Kentucky.
Congratulations! We, leaders from across sectors, write to share how arts and culture can and should play a vital role in achieving the inspirational One City Rising platform.
This policy brief by Arts & Democracy, Groundswell, and Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts New York (NOCD-NY) recommends maximizing the role of arts and culture to advance a transition agenda for a just and equitable New York City. Art and culture can provide the inspiration, tools, and capacity needed to unify New York City into one city for all.
Cultural Organizing for Community Change provided a space where artists, media makers, organizers and policy makers could learn effective ways to deepen their work and strengthen their capacity to connect creativity, culture, and organizing for community change.
On September 19 and 20, 2013 Arts & Democracy Project offered a two-part Cultural Organizing for Social Justice workshop for member / leaders at the SEIU Healthcare PA Leadership Assembly in Lancaster, PA. The first part of the workshop introduced participants to "cultural organizing" and various examples of how people use art and culture for social change. The second part of the workshop was a hands-on art making workshop led Eli Weaver, a Lancaster-based visual artist, musician, farmer and organizer. During the workshop participants designed and made posters, puppets and a large banner to use in future actions for healthcare justice.
"Valuing the intersection between arts, culture, and community: An exchange of research and practice" brought together Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY (NOCD-NY) members and allies with leading researchers to demonstrate the value of arts and culture in communities and for the city. Arts & Democracy joined with NOCD-NY to organize this convening.
Arts & Democracy Project was proud to partner with the AFL-CIO to integrate arts and culture into their 2013 International Convention. We hosted a two hour "Action Session" workshop for delegates to learn the basics of cultural organizing then apply them to creating art for a march later in the day. Nationally recognized Los Angeles artist Ramiro Gomez led the workshop. Gomez creates representative cut-outs primarily of domestic workers and places them in the affluent environments that employee such workers in real life. He led participants through a process of creating their own cut-outs, which were later placed throughout downtown Los Angeles in a convention-wide action.
What Would it Look Like if NYC invested $50 Million in its Communities?
New York City’s recent capital investment of $50 million dollars in the Culture Shed mega project begs the question – how would a $50 million dollar capital investment in the culture and wellbeing of New York City’s diverse neighborhoods look?
This article by Jon Spayde in Public Art Review 48 (Spring/Summer 2013) "The Art of Healing" describes how artists have been helping communities heal after recent disasters. It features features the Park Slope Armory Evacuation Center Wellness Center, Sandy Storyline, and other examples that were part of Arts & Democracy Projects "Relief and Recovery, the Transformative Power of Arts and Culture" briefing call post Hurricane Sandy.
What's a progressive agenda for arts and culture in New York City? Caron Atlas offers her answer to this question in her contribution to Toward A 21st Century City for All, which offers an inclusive vision for city policy to help achieve a more just, equal and prosperous New York City.
As Working Films says, "we know that stories lead to action." From Media to Action: Creative Engagement and Organizing Strategies featured: Fruitvale Station, Herman's House, Land of Opportunity, and 13 in the Hole. The newsletter includes additional strategies for creative community engagement and campaigns for social change that move people to action.
Creative Recovery and Cultural Resiliency is an article by Caron Atlas in the Summer 2013 Grantmakers in the Arts Reader about the ways arts and culture played an integral role in relief and recovery after Hurricane Sandy in New York City. The article features the Wellness Center at the Park Slope Armory Evacuation Shelter, the work of Dance Theatre Etcetera in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the Sandy Storyline, and a summary of a conversation between New York and New Orleans cultural leaders about cultural work following disaster.
Emotions conveyed and evoked by art and culture can open hearts and minds, heal and transform, build community across difference, and promote peace, equality and justice, advancing positive social change. In Forced to Flee, we heard from refugee artists, artists forced into exile, cultural organizers and their allies, as they spoke about how they are using the power of art and culture to amplify the voices and visions of those forced to flee their countries of origin.
Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts New York's From the Nieghborhood Up Citywide Forum on Culture and Community convened people from across New York City on May 30, 2013 to create a vision for the City grounded in the cultural vitality and social networks that make its communities strong.
Cultural Organizing for Community Change (Frankfort, KY) provided a space where artists, activists, cultural workers, organizers and educators from across Kentucky came together to strengthen their relationships, and deepen their capacity to use the tools of creativity, imagination, and culture for social justice organizing. This participatory workshop featured case studies, tools, strategies, networking and relationship building.
This experiential mini-course for Pratt Institute's Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development investigated arts and culture, broadly defined, as a critical part of envisioning and building an equitable and sustainable Chicago. Through site visits, tours, and conversations with practitioners and policymakers we explored the intersection between arts, culture, media and participatory planning.
This blog is the introduction to a longer essay inspired by the Network of Ensemble Theater's Appalachian MicroFest. I learned in Appalachia what it looks like when culture, place, identity, and community come together in the struggle for social justice. I witnessed how mountaintop removal causes great pain, and experienced music as an integral part of organizing. I became aware of the long record of misrepresentation of Appalachian people and their history by the media and how this misrepresentation has been used to justify the exploitation of the region’s resources.
Cultural practice and artistic expression breathe life into communities.They create opportunities for individuals and institutions to transform their sense of self and relationships with one another, and share their local traditions and ways of being.
This conference call looks at the power of place-based culture to create community narratives, advance racial and economic equity, promote participatory democracy, and foster self-determination and inclusion in rural communities. We will hear from five presenters about culturally-based work in a diverse range of contexts addressing themes that include traditional practice, opportunities for young people as emerging leaders, cultural economies, ecological and cultural stewardship and cross-sector partnerships.
This workshop provided a space where artists, activists and organizers learned effective ways to deepen their work and increase their impact by activating the tools of creativity and imagination. By using a combination of local and national resources, the workshops also promoted networking and collaboration.
We hear a lot about creative placemaking these days. Some like the term and others don't. On this conference call, presenters discussed what sorts of creative placemaking practices strengthen self-determination and belonging within a community. The call illustrated the power of place-based arts and culture as an integral part of equitable, democratic, and culturally vital communities and explored placemaking in the digital sphere.
Asian Americans United Executive Director, Ellen Somekawa, writes about cultural organizing in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. She effectively communicates the life of a Chinatown resident, stressing the importance of valuing local cultures with a unified message and a sense of humor via the arts.
We know the power of arts and culture to heal and transform, connect people and build community. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, artists and cultural organizers stepped up to use their creativity to rebuild the city and rebuild community. They are helping people tell their stories and sing together, offering cultural and wellness activities in evacuation shelters, organizing benefits, and providing leadership to recovery efforts. They've helped to restore dignity, build community, make connections, and heal.
Arts & Democray Project director Caron Atlas describes how people came together to create a Wellness Center at the Park Slope Armory evacuation center following Hurricane Sandy and experienced the power of arts and culture to restore respect and dignity in a disaster.
This call highlighted the great work that is happening in civic participation, arts and culture. It addressed elections as well as the ongoing work to strengthen our democracy. The call featured presenters from across the country who are working to protect voting rights and make sure that those who have been historically disconnected from decisionmaking have opportunities to participate.
Caron Atlas reflects on democracy in the thick of the election season and the anniversaries of 9/11 and Occupy Wall Street.
This essay by Roberto Bedoya raises thoughtful questions about the increasingly popular practice of Creative Placmaking and we have reposted it here with the hopes of stimulating dialogue. Writes Bedoya, "I embrace Creative Placemaking and its aspiration as is manifests in a variety of methods —from city planning to art practices with a goal of advancing humanity. But I am bothered by what I consider a significant blind spot – a blind love of sorts – in the Creative Placemaking discourse and practices. I am referring to a lack of awareness about the politics of belonging and dis-belonging that operate in civil society.The essay was originally posted on Arts in a Changing America.
Cultural Organizing for Community Change provided a space where artists, media makers, organizers and policy makers could learn effective ways to deepen their work and strengthen their capacity to use the tools of creativity, imagination and organizing for community change. The workshop included cultural organizing framework, skill building workshops, networking opportunities, and an intergenerational conversation with cultural organizers.
Arts, culture, and media were integrated into Participatory Budgeting in New York City (PBNYC) in its 2011-2012 inaugural year. This list of creative resources, compiled by Arts & Democracy Project with the Arts and Culture Committee of the PBNYC Citywide Steering Committee, is intended as an inspiration for year 2.
On August 15 Arts & Democracy Project joined Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY (NOCD-NY) and Urban Bush Women to cosponsor Spacing Out: Innovative Cultural Uses of Urban Space. The forum took place at the South Oxford Space, 138 S. Oxford, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
Cultural organizing is a core practice of the Arts & Democracy Project that exists at the intersection of arts, culture and activism. Cultural organizing integrates arts and culture into organizing strategies. It is also about organizing from a particular tradition, cultural identity, and community of place or worldview to advance social and economic justice. This call will focus on four different approaches to to this practice.
Center for Media Justice Executive Director Malkia Cyril recently wrote a piece for Organizing Upgrade on communications strategies for building a national narrative for progressive social change. She argues for a comprehensive strategy for progressive social change that impacts both heart and mind. We've reposted the Blog here.
Arts & Democracy co-hosted a book party to celebrate the publication of "Helen Matthews Lewis, Living Social Justice in Appalachia." The Brooklyn event featured Helen in a rare New York City appearence along with book co-editor Judi Jennings and special guest Marie Cirillo. The presentation shared Helen's lifelong commitment to activism and included her writings on environmental justice, moral economy, global solidarity, and powerful women taking a stand.
The convention felt like a family reunion, with members addressing one another as “Sister” or “Brother,” and receiving warm greetings and rousing affirmations from SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. The Colorado Convention Center had become the largest organizing hub I have ever seen; think of a kitchen or a black church and then magnify times 10,000!
Arts & Democracy Project and SEIU (Service Employees International Union) are partnering on artist residencies in six SEIU locals in Miami, Florida; Central CA; Las Vegas, NV; Minneapolis, MN; Toronto, ON; San Juan, Puerto Rico. Each of the residencies will create an artwork to be presented at the SEIU convention in Denver in May 2012.
We are at the Service Employees International Union convention in Denver and are thrilled to see the results of the artists residencies that we cosponsored with the union. Here's a preview of the artwork and performances from locals in Florida; California; Minnesota; Ontario, Canada; and Puerto Rico.
Arts & Democracy is a proud member of the NOCD-NY coalition whose members testified at a joint hearing of the NYC City Council's Arts and Small Business committees. As a result of NOCD-NY's organizing and presence at the May 11 hearing much of it focused on naturally occurring cultural districts. We presented a series of recommendations for how the city could support NOCDs and neighborhood based cultural economies and illustrated the recommendations though our member's testimony.
Arts & Democracy Project and ArtHome (Brooklyn, NY) recently hosted a FREE: Artist Homeownership Workshop, which created a working dialogue for participants who were looking to purchase a home. The event took place at Groundswell Community Mural Project, where there were student paintings still drying on the walls and was further made possible by the co-sponsorship of City Council Members Brad Lander and Steve Levin and the Brooklyn Arts Council.
This experiential course, created for Pratt Institute's Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development investigated arts and culture, broadly defined, as a critical part of envisioning and building an equitable and sustainable Los Angeles. Through site visits, tours, cultural events, and conversations with practitioners and policymakers representing multiple perspectives, we explored the intersection between arts and culture and participatory planning.
Animating Democracy Has a New Web Site!
Animating Democracy's new web site is inspirational, informative, and promotes and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. Animating Democracy co-director Pam Korza takes us on a tour of this great new resource.
What does your neighborhood need? An improved park? Safer streets? A community cultural space? After six months of participatory budgeting in New York the polls are opening and its time to vote!
The conference call focused on creative engagement through civic dialogue, cultural asset mapping, and participatory budgeting.
We’re so happy to have this attractive new online home. We think this site is better able to explain our work, share resources, and highlight some of the exciting work our partners and allies are doing in the field.
Arts & Democracy has jumped into the new year with a workshop in New Orleans, a new collaboration with Service Workers Union International, collaborations in New York City, and a national briefing call about environmental justice.
On March 6, Super Tuesday at 8:14 am an unemployment line with thousands of people holding pink slips over their heads will stretch through Manhattan from the Wall Street bull to Union Square. Join this powerful collaboration between artists and labor.
This weekend-long workshop in New Orleans provided a space where artists and organizers learned effective ways to deepen their work and strengthened their capacity to use creativity, imagination and organizing in community building.
Artismyoccupation.org (AMO) offers direct support to artists and cultural workers dedicated to advancing the stories, struggles and ideas of the 99%. Got an idea for a project? Apply for a grant! The artists’ support program is now online and ready to receive your applications.
This conference call focused on how people and organizations across the country are bringing the power of arts and culture to bear on the environmental devastation that is disproportionately affecting poor communities and communities of color.
This paper explores the power of cultural organizing with examples of groups and individuals placing art and culture at the center of organizing strategies: organizing from a particular cultural identity, community of place, or worldview. It highlights the work of Third World Majority, Raices, M.U.G.A.B.E.E. and Ricardo Levins Morales.
When the Arts & Democracy Project began in 2005, we spoke with artists and activists from across the country who are exemplars at connecting arts, culture, media, and civic participation. We wanted to know more about the work they did. What made it succeed? What challenges did they face? What did they need to increase the impact of their work? We commissioned a series of profiles to document these conversations; some were updated in 2011-2012. "Insights from Arts and Civic Engagement: 13 Profiles" an essay by Lena Richardson, identifies key themes and insights.
Jeremy Liu and Gayle Isa talk about the spaces ‘in between’.
This conference call focused on how arts, culture and creative actions are being used as part of the 99% movement across the country.
Dee Davis and Michelle Miller discuss the art of strategic communications.
Alaka Wali and R. Lena Richardson on drumming circles, sustainable conservation, and valuing difference.
A conversation about the powerfully transformative and at times, painfully fragmented practice of philanthropy.
Arts & Democracy Project held a day-long cultural organizing workshop for women activist artists at the Kentucky Foundation for Women's Hopscotch House retreat just outside of Louisville.
At the recent Policy Link Conference in Detroit, at a session called “Holding Ground,” presenters spoke about maintaining equity in a time of cutbacks. At the end of the session, one of the younger audience members asked where in all this talk of holding ground were the progressive ideas, the vision for the future. His question significantly shifted the room.
Isao Fujimoto and Tim Marema on the power of ‘edgewalking’.
We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. We have a responsibility to those who will come after us.
These simple yet powerful concepts have been echoing in my head the past few days in New Mexico where I participated in a roundtable discussion held at the Institute of American Indian Arts sponsored by the Open Society Foundations, First People’s Fund, and Arts & Democracy Project. The people I met and the stories I heard reinforced the power of the arts – and more importantly culture – in transforming our communities.
Report from a day-long meeting in New York involving musicians, artists, filmmakers, photographers, theater groups, festival producers, chefs and others working to raise public awareness about the threat of climate change and the promise of clean energy. Sponsored by the Chorus Foundation, the gathering was organized and facilitated by Farhad Ebrahimi, Betsy Taylor, Cuong Hoang, and Lauren Nutter. Arts & Democracy presented on arts and social justice organizing.
Maribel Alvarez and Jason Bulluck on paying attention to the ‘little stuff', engaging in critical discourse, and understanding how power can be shaken up.
Building Collaborative Capacity is a series of workshops, gatherings, and partnerships that help build the connective tissue necessary to deepen collaborative work so it can be truly effective.
Harriet Barlow and Kathy Engel talk about the Commons and crossing borders.
This report by Holly Sidford for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) describes how the distribution of arts grantmaking does not reflect the country's evolving cultural landscape and changing demographics, and considers how to address this inbalance.
The summary findings for a series of roundtable discussions convened in several cities across the United States between 2009 and 2011 to better understand the growth of “naturally occurring cultural districts”—grassroots, culturally based efforts that are bringing about significant changes within a variety of communities—and to learn from their successes and challenges.
On August 18, 2010 NOCD-NY, the Naturally Occurring Cultural District Working Group joined with cultural and community leaders and elected officials to launch a citywide alliance to revitalize New York City from the neighborhood up. Arts & Democracy is proud to be part of this coalition.
Arts & Democracy Project hosted a People's Potluck in Brooklyn. The potluck was part of a series of artist-led conversations and meals focused on interdependence taking place in the summer of 2011 created by MAPP International Productions in collaboration with Samita Sinha and Create Collective.
In June and July I was fortunate to attend ROOTS Fest National Learning Exchange in West Baltimore, the Rural Cultural Roundtable in St Paul, and the freeDimensional retreat on Wasan Island in Canada. While diverse in focus, the three events were all grounded in the power of place, culture and creative agency. Collectively they made me reflect on how we can take active roles in creating communities that reflect our values.
This conference call focused on the 10 Year Anniversary of 9/11 and the programs, cultural convenings and artwork that have helped to heal, facilitate dialogue, build community and move us forward.
This conference call focused on the power of radio in fostering art, culture and community. It provided informattion about an exciting upcoming opportunity for community groups to start their own radio stations.
This session at the 2011 National Rural Assembly in St Paul, MN was a conversation about cultural organizing and collaborating across sectors and the role these approaches play in rural development and social change. Participants shared their own experiences and best practices, and reflected on the recommendations from the Rural Cultural Roundtable that proceeded the Rural Assembly.
This nation-wide conference call was focused on the role of the arts, culture and media in economic justice organizing and movement building in communities across the U.S.
Two separate, yet related–events made me think about music and memory, and the healing properties they offer together.
February 2011 was the busiest month of my life. I participated in a revolution that toppled a corrupt regime after 30 years of dictatorship.
Focusing on events in Egypt and the extraordinary pro-democracy movements sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East, this conference call highlights how artists, art spaces and cultural organizers in the region and in the U.S. are participating and responding, and how more cultural workers can engage in positive ways.
A report and reflection on the Community Organizing for Cultural Recovery workshop held in New Orleans February 18-20, at the McKenna Museum for African American Art. Its goal was to strengthen capacity to use the tools of creativity, imagination, and organizing in community building.
Looking back on 2010, I am inspired by the grace and power of the imagination in the midst of challenging times.
This conference call focuses on the arts and equitable development work that is being conducted in Brooklyn, NY; Harlan County, KY; Skid Row, Los Angeles; and beyond.
When I first met Grace Lee Boggs in 2003 she transformed me, along with everyone else. Boggs embodies the US Social Forum concept of "another world is possible, another U.S. is necessary," and she celebrated her 95 birthday at the Detroit Social Forum in 2010, looking to the future.
This newsletter offers nonpartisan resources, opportunities, and events that join creativity and civic participation - during the election cycle - and beyond.
From July 10-15 the Creative Resistance retreat brought together leaders from human rights sector, arts networks, and organizations focused on the mobility of culture workers. Sponsored by freeDimensional and hosted at the Breuninger Foundation's Wasan Island center near Toronto, Canada, the retreat provided space for a critical dialogue on the role of arts networks in strengthening the social justice movement globally.
This rural panel, cosponsored with the Center for Rural Strategies, took place as part of Double Edge Theater's Art and Place Gathering held in Ashfield, MA, August 8, 2010.
Cross-posted from his e-newsletter, reflections from artist Ricardo Levins Morales on his time at the U.S. Social Forum.
On June 22-26, 2010 the 2nd US Social Forum took place in Detroit, MI, and brought together thousands of people from around the country (and beyond) to participate in a movement-building process that distinguishes itself by focusing on creating space "to come up with peoples' solutions to the economic and ecological crisis" we face in the world today.
As ongoing immigration battles are waged in our own backyards, this resource newsletter shares information and cultural organizing resources that are related to migrant and immigrant justice.
Modeled after the World Social Forum process that began in Porto Alegre Brazil in 2005, the US Social Forum is grounded in a belief that social, political and economic transformation are not only possible but necessary, and that they must be embodied by a "multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational, diverse, internationalist movement." Arts & Democracy Project sponsored two workshops at the Social Forum in Detroit in July, 2010, and with several colleagues organized a Creatvity Lab.
A free and open Internet has become a necessity, not a luxury, for all aspects of art and democracy. As laws tighten and access is further limited, this newsletter offers resources that assist in understanding issues and offer opportunities to take action.
This experiential mini-course, offered to Pratt Institute urban planning graduate students, investigated arts and culture, broadly defined, as a critical part of envisioning and rebuilding an equitable and sustainable New Orleans. Through site visits, tours, cultural events, and conversations with practitioners and policymakers representing multiple perspectives, the class explored the intersection between arts and culture and participatory planning.
Bringing together a wide range of networks and groups--including Alternate ROOTS, Animating Democracy, Art is Change, Arts & Democracy Project, Arts & Social Justice Working Group, California Alliance of Traditional Arts and Cultures, First Peoples Fund, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media, Grantmakers in the Arts, League of Young Voters, MAG-Net, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, National Performance Network, Opportunity Agenda, and many more--in Brooklyn, NY, October 2009.
On May 12th, 2009, more than 60 artists and creative organizers engaged in civic participation, community development, education, social justice activism, and philanthropy came together for a White House briefing. It was cosponsored by Arts & Democracy Project, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Pratt Center for Community Development, and Arlene Goldbard. This is the report from that briefing.
In April of 2009, 27 participants from the arts, community development, education and other diverse sectors around the country met at California State Monterey Bay as part of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project to discuss “Cross-Sector Partnership and the Role of the Arts in Policy and Systems Change.” This is the report from that session.
The Arts & Democracy Project joined with the Nathan Cummings Foundation to organize a convening of the Foundation's grassroots arts activist grantees and their allies November 19-21, 2008. The convening connected people from across the country to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and exemplary practices of linking arts and activism. This is the summary report from the convening.
In this strategic conversation, cosponsored with the League of Young Voters, Hip Hop artists, presenters, and activists shared their plans for 2008 and how they might collaborate in their work.
This gathering took place as part of the Highlander Center’s 75th Anniversary and followed a one-day institute on cultural organizing that was also part of the celebration. The goal of Highlander was and is to provide education and support to poor and working people fighting economic injustice, poverty, prejudice, and environmental destruction. Presenters at the gathering included: co-facilitators Anasa Trautman, Highlander Center; Caron Atlas and Javiera Benavente, Arts & Democracy Project; Amelia Kirby, Appalshop; Carlton Turner, Alternate Roots; Michelle Miller, SEIU; Mathew Jones, SNCC Freedom Singers; and Baldemar Velazquez, Farm Labor Organizer Committee.
This was a small 1.5 day-long strategic national gathering of cultural organizers cosponsored by the Main Street Project /Raices, Center for Rural Strategies, and the Humboldt Area Foundation in Klamath, CA, April 2007. Also participating were Alternate Roots, Appalshop, Central Valley Partnership for Citizenship, Llano Grande Center, Feral Arts, United Indian Health Services, and Northland Poster Collective.
At the 2005 Grantmakers in the Arts conference a group of activist artists, community organizers and funders began a conversation about the purposeful intersection of art and activism. That session stimulated follow-up e-mail exchanges and writing among the conference participants and a few others. The resulting discussion is reflected in this article, published in the Summer 2006 GIA Reader. Our intention was to make cultural organizing visible by sharing its principles, demonstrating its rigor and creativity, and illustrating its diverse methodologies.
Report on Latino Culture and Traditional Arts in Tennessee by Norma E. Cantú, Ph.D.
Tennessee Arts Commission hired Norma E. Cantú, Ph.D., to carry out a fact finding mission in West, Middle and East Tennessee to meet with representative members of Latino communities and learn about Latino culture and traditional arts in the state. This is the report that resulted from this inquiry.
Since 1972, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) has supported community building and empowerment for the Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In May 2005, ACCESS opened the first-ever Arab American National Museum devoted solely to Arab-American history and art, in order to exemplify that art nourishes the spirit and helps to build relationships.
All-Ages Movement Project (AMP) is a member-driven network of community based organizations that connect young people through independent music and art. Founder of AMP, Shannon Stewart speaks of the importance and benefit of fostering democratic culture and leadership through youth-run music and cultural spaces.
Appalshop is a multi-disciplinary arts/education center in the heart of Appalachia that produces original films, video, theater, music and spoken-word recordings, radio, photography, multimedia, and books and provides the tools for documenting local stories. It encourages the questioning of media as an information source while building media literacy.
The Future of Music Coalition (FMC) gathers knowledge, translates and educates in the fields of music, technology, public policy, and law to promote public understanding and discussion about freedom of speech, control of music production and distribution, and public ownership of the airwaves and bandwidth.
The Hip Hop Congress (HHC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses powerful potential of hip-hop culture to foster social action, civic service, and cultural creativity among young people. HHC works to develop organizing skills and civic engagement among community members, with a human rights and social justice movement building focus.
The Los Angeles Poverty Department, founded in 1985 and rooted in Los Angeles' Skid Row neighborhood, intends to "create performance work that connects lived experience to the social forces that shape the lives and communities of people living in poverty." These performances raise consciousness about social and political issues, while also creating opportunities for people to intervene in policy decisions that affect their lives.
The League of Young Voters is a national organization that supports young people in developing the power to solve problems facing their communities. They work with those "who have been shut out of the political process to make politics fun, engaging, relevant, and meaningful."
Marty Pottenger is a critically acclaimed writer, director, and performer with more than 20 years of experience in creating and directing community-based arts initiatives. She uses art to "reveal the underlying connection between people, and activate people's inherent desire and momentum for justice and equity."
Based in Portland, Oregon, Sojourn Theatre creates community-engaged theatrical productions that have explored a broad array of social issues, ranging from the Oregon school system (Witness Our Schools), the future of Portland as a city (One Day), and the meaning and impact of going to war (The War Project).
Throughout its 23-year history, the Urban Bush Women performance ensemble has spoken of the power of the spiritual tradtions of African American and the African Diaspora community through dance, music and storytelling.
Founded in 2003, We Got Issues! (WGI!) is a women-led movement and performance project which focuses on young women's leadership through the the power of creative expression. WGI! is committed to creating a safe and supportive space for all women across race, class, gender, and socio-political lines.
In my work as a curator, I was excited that 200 people could sit in a dark room, see a film, be moved, and ask, "what can we do?"...So then, Judith Helfand and I began to think about an organization that could deliberately connect the non-fiction stories of struggles with ground-level activists and organizers. -- Robert West.
Paul Chin and Vanessa Whang talk about animating a Latin American idea in the U.S..
Littleglobe and SouthWest Organizing Project talk about finding a relationship between community-engaged arts and organizing.
The second Bridge Conversation between Littleglobe and SouthWest Organizing Project about their ongoing collaboration.
Carol Fennelly and Ayo Ngozi on artmaking with fathers and children in federal and state prisons.
Adam Huttler and Ruby Lerner on entrepreneurial arts service organizations.
Ken Wilson and Caron Atlas talk about cultural context and creative philanthropy.
Paula Allen and R. Lena Richardson talk about traditional arts and culture as resources for Native community health.
Ron Shiffman and Anusha Venkataraman consider the intersections of organizing, creative practice, and community-based development.
A discussion about whether art can be as powerful a vehicle for change as it can be a bastion for maintaining the status quo.
Francisco Guajardo and Edyael Casaperalta on intentionality, consciousness, and creating new opportunities.
Tufara Waller Muhammad and Javiera Benavente talk about arts and culture in Southern organizing and the danger of spotlighting individuals.
Mark Ritchie and Caron Atlas talk about balancing work and life.
Ismael Ahmed and Anan Ameri discuss the extraordinary model of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS).
Tia Oros Peters and Vanessa Whang talk about maintaining your vision and integrity in rooms of power.
Brad Lander and Esther Robinson discuss organizing and art, anthropological listening, and whether being holistic is important.
freeDimensional talks with the Belarus Free Theatre.
Who Will Carry the Work Forward?
An intergenerational conversation at the State of the Nation festival and a tribute to Nayo Watkins.
The Art of Regional Change (ARC) brings together scholars, students, artists, and community groups to collaborate on media arts projects that strengthen communities, generate engaged scholarship, and inform regional decision making. Founded by media artist jesikah maria ross, ARC is a joint project of the University of California at Davis Humanities Institute and the UC Davis Center for Regional Change.
A Youth Voices Curriculum Resource and Guidebook developed to help other communities engage in similar projects is planned for spring 2012.
The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) Making Policy Public series of foldout posters uses graphic design to explore and explain public policy. Each poster is the result of collaboration between a designer, an advocate, and CUP. To date, CUP has produced eight posters/instructional pamphlets on issues ranging from affordable housing to the rights of domestic workers.
Operation Paydirt/Fundred Dollar Bill Project (Paydirt/Fundred) is a multidisciplinary, artist-driven project addressing the national crisis of lead-contaminated soil. With the self-expression of the young people most affected by lead contamination, these projects propose a solution that incorporates demonstrated scientific procedure. The approach extends across disciplines of art, science, and education and is sensitive to aspects of community development and urban infrastructure.
Not in Our Town (NIOT) is a national organization that creates films and video, and facilitates convenings to help communities working together to stop hate through creative anti-bias programs and responses. Anchored by a social networking website, NIOT documents and shares initiatives, helps link individuals and groups, and provides guidance for positive intergroup responses to hateful actions. Aired on PBS stations on September 21, 2011 (http://www.niot.org/lightinthedarkness), and screened at venues around the country, Light in the Darkness is the latest in a series of films produced by the Working Group of NIOT. In addition to their documentary work, NIOT has produced over 45 videos (http://www.niot.org/videos).
The Llano Grande Center for Research and Development’s vision is to inspire a youth culture that aspires to attend college and engage in community change. Beginning informally in the early 1990s with activities intended to show Edcouch-Elsa High School students in Texas that college was both possible and necessary for them, the Llano Grande Center was formalized in 1997 as a program of the Edcouch-Elsa Independent School District (EEISD). The center has trained students, educators, and community development agents locally, nationally, and internationally on how to distinguish, tell, and use their story to achieve community change.
Sojourn Theatre is an ensemble of ten core artists creating new performances in Portland, Oregon, and around the country. Their innovative work shares a goal of bringing together strangers to collectively experience and strategize in arts-based civic dialogue projects. Sojourn’s members are nationally recognized for their innovation as artists and engagement practitioners, and the company’s work is featured regularly at conferences and universities nationwide as a "best practice model" for arts-based civic dialogue projects.
Scribe Video Center came into being in December 1982. It was founded by Louis Massiah as a place where individuals and communities could learn media making and explore the use of video as both an artistic medium and a tool for progressive social change. The center has grown in size from a small rented workshop space to an internationally recognized media arts education center in a 4,000-square-foot loft that has helped thousands of people and over 150 community groups document their passions and concerns in some 200 videos produced with the center’s support.
Our upcoming cultural organizing workshop in Brooklyn will take place Nov 22. We will post the developing agenda for the workshop soon. | 2019-04-26T11:06:44Z | http://www.artsanddemocracy.org/resources/?catID=11 |
Despite all the plumbing and wiring under the bonnet of the average modern car, there are still some basic things the average car owner can and should do to take better care of their car. Even if you do not intend to service or work on the car yourself, having an understanding of what is required can help avoid problems and allow you to better explain and discuss things with your mechanic.
If you seem to be forever topping up your water, or your oil for that matter, then have the car checked by an expert. Ignore it, and it could cost you heaps. Even while you are driving, have the good sense to continually check your oil and water gauges or lights; they are not there for decoration, they're designed to give you an early warning of trouble. If they do indicate problems while you're driving, then stop immediately and investigate.
Remember, always think safety first; it is better to err on the side of caution.
Invest in a pair of overalls - old work clothes may be okay for the garden but in the garage, loose buttons or sleeves or ties might get caught.
If you have long hair, tie it back or wear a cap or you risk injury.
Remove any jewellery, as it can be easily caught on engine parts or scratch the vehicle.
Invest in a set of axle stands or ramps, or both of these. Jacks, stands and ramps should be of good quality.Never jack a car up and climb underneath and definitely do not prop the car up on bricks.
It is worth buying a fire extinguisher and keeping it in easy reach.
One thing that's common to all cars is the owner's handbook. Chances are it hasn't left the glove box since you first bought the car. Dig it out because it’s specific to your car and is a guidebook to the entire vehicle.
If you want to go a bit further, you can buy a workshop manual for just about every make and model of car.
For most jobs all you really need is a basic toolkit. Chances are you will have most of the essentials at home already - such as screwdrivers, sockets, spanners, a hammer and pliers.
There are one or two other things that might come in handy, such as a powerful light with a good long lead so you can see the darkest corner of the engine bay and underneath the car.
It is a good idea, before starting work, to visit your local auto parts supplier and pick up all the spare parts you might need. But be sure the parts you buy are designed for your make and model.
To work on your car, you will need a garage or workshop. Only some of the smaller jobs can be completed in a driveway.
Before you start, tidy the place up a bit so that you can see where you are going. Every good workshop should be clean and tidy with everything in its proper place.
You need a decent bench or table near the car for easy access to tools and parts while you're working.
First, the car should be parked on solid, level ground. Get as far off the road as possible. Do not park the car where you leave yourself exposed to passing traffic while working.
Apply the hand brake and switch on the hazard lights.
Gather everything you need from the boot, including the spare tyre.
Your car's toolkit will include a jack. There are special jacking points for this, your owner's manual will tell you where they are. Do not use the jack on any other points.
Chock the diagonally opposite wheel to the one being changed. Chock both sides of the wheel.
Remove the wheel trims, if there are any, to get at the wheel nuts.
Loosen them just a little before you lift the car because once the car is jacked up, the wheel will spin freely making it hard to undo the nuts.
Jack the car up until the wheel is just clear of the ground.
Remove the nuts and slide the wheel off, lifting the wheel (on or off) with your hands in a 'ten minutes to four' position.
Caution: Never place your hands directly under the wheel, or put your leg or any part of your body under the car while it's jacked up. There should always be a wheel under the car just in case, so slide the old wheel underneath before pulling out the new one.
Place the spare onto the hub.
Replace the wheel nuts, making sure the tapered end locates the wheel, and tightening them as far as you can.
Lower the car, then tighten the nuts again, using a criss-cross pattern to ensure that the wheel is seated correctly and securely. This means to tighten the nuts opposite each other first rather than going around in a circle.
And, remember, now you don't have a spare, so get the flat tyre repaired as soon as possible.
The jack supplied with the car is designed for changing a wheel. It is not recommended to be used for repair work or getting under the car. Use a suitable trolley jack and safety stands.
CAUTION! Getting under a raised car is a dangerous activity. Take all necessary care.
Park on a solid, level surface that is big enough for your car e.g. concrete driveway or garage floor.
To raise the car, use a trolley-jack that has sufficient capacity to lift the car and complies with Australian Standard - AS 2615 and is in good working condition.
To hold the car up, use sturdy safety stands that comply with AS 2538. The jack is not sufficient for holding the car.
Locate the correct jacking or lifting points and position for safety stands on your car - these can vary from make to make or even model to model. Check the owner's manual. If in doubt, contact a dealer or the car manufacturer. These points will be different to those used for the jack supplied with the car for changing a wheel.
Chock both sides of the wheels opposite to the end being lifted - If applicable, apply park brake.
Position trolley-jack under correct lifting point and raise jack until contact is made.
Check that its head plate is sitting squarely on the part you are lifting and will not slide off.
Steadily lift the car to the required height, making sure the jack is able to roll slightly to allow for the change of angle as the car is raised.
Carefully position the safety stands and slowly lower the jack until the car rests on them.
Reverse this procedure to lower the car.
Never place any part of your body under a raised car until it is sitting securely on safety stands or vehicle ramps.
Large vehicles, such as 4WDs, may be too heavy for smaller jacks to lift safely.
Short wheelbase or narrow track jacks can be unstable.
If the incorrect lifting point is used, the jack could cause damage to the section it is on, or the jack could slip and the car could fall. It is also possible for the car to topple over if it is not be properly balanced.
Never jack on an uneven surface or in loose gravel.If the jack cannot roll, such as on gravel surfaces, the change of angle as the car is raised can pull the car off the jack.
Never use two jacks at the same time to lift the vehicle i.e. front and rear.
are sufficient for the weight to be lifted.
Regular checks provide a good picture of the cars condition and any sudden change can be a warning of developing problems. Catching the problem early may prevent serious and expensive damage.
Perhaps no other item on your car is taken for granted as much as the tyres. We bully them day in, day out and expect them to go on forever. We don't look at them until one goes flat, and that is always at the worst possible moment.
The most common problem with tyres is low pressure. Low pressure causes heavy wear, poor cornering and braking and, in extreme cases, blowouts.
Service station tyre gauges get knocked about a bit so they're not always reliable. When you're talking about something as important as your tyres, it's worth investing a few dollars in a good gauge.
Always check tyre pressures when they are cool as tyres that have been warmed up by running for more than a few kilometres will give misleading pressure readings.
All car makers recommend a particular pressure for the tyres on their cars. These are listed on a little placard on the car itself.
Remove the screw-on dust cap.
Inflate the tyre as necessary.
Refit the dust cap, making sure no dirt gets in, as this will cause a slow leak in the valve.
While checking the tyre pressures, also look out for tyre wear or damage.
Obviously you shouldn't let the treads wear too low. All tyres have inbuilt indicators to show when they are worn too far. The images show a new tyre and another where the indicator has been worn.
If there is noticeably uneven wear then the wheel may need rebalancing, or there is something wrong with the steering alignment. Either way, a specialist should check it.
A specialist should also check any damage to the tyre wall, such as splits or cracking.
Good lights on a car are essential. Light globes can 'blow' at any time, so regular checks are important. The car lights are a roadworthy item and faulty operation is not only dangerous but could incur a hefty fine.
The easiest way to check lights is with two people - one to work the lights, one to check them.
If you can't find a helper, you can do it on your own by switching each light on and walking around the car. To check the stoplights, position the car so you can see the lights' reflection on a wall, the garage door or shop window.
There are a number of different types of globes and fittings used in a car. The most common is the bayonet type, which is changed in a similar manner to the common household globe - push-in slightly, and twist. Your handbook should tell you how to replace blown globes and what type to use.
When you're checking your coolant level, it only takes a few seconds more to check your washer reservoir.
Top it up with clean water and add some windscreen cleaning solvent as well to cut down the greasy road film on the glass.
Ordinary washing detergent is not suitable. Detergent plays havoc with your wiper blades and paintwork. Ordinary household detergents can leave streaks and cause rust.
The jet of water from the washers should hit the screen in the centre of each wiper's sweep.
If the flow is not as good as it used to be, the washer jets can be cleared using a fine needle or pin. Don't use force or the jets may be damaged.
Most washer jets can also be re-aimed using the same needle.
Oil from exhaust fumes and road grime builds up on the windscreen, so a regular wipe with a good quality glass cleaner will help improve visibility and extend wipe rubber life.
The car's cooling system can be very dangerous and should be treated with respect.
Whenever you check the coolant levels, be sure that the system has cooled right down before touching anything.
Before you check the system, look in the handbook and read any warning labels. Check the handbook and undo only the caps that are indicated in the book.
Most cars have a clear plastic reservoir so you don't need to open the cap to read the level. The level should be between the two marks on the side.
If the level is low check with your mechanic for possible causes.
The car should be parked on a level surface and the engine stopped for at least a minute.
Check your owner's handbook for the location of the dipstick.
Remove the dipstick and use a clean rag to wipe off the oil.
Take a look at the end and you will find marks, which show the lowest and highest recommended levels.
Put the dipstick back in, then draw it out again. Look to see where the oil level comes to, it should be around the full mark. It's a good idea to check the level twice.
If the level is low, you need to top it up. As a rule of thumb if the oil is down to the low mark it will require about half a litre.
The handbook will tell you what grade of oil you need and where to find the oil filler cap.
A simple trick when topping up with oil is to put a rag around the filler neck, then if you spill any it will be caught by the rag. To make the job easier it is worth investing in a plastic funnel.
Before you finish, give the oil time to drain into the sump then check the dipstick level again. Do not overfill.
Now this might sound a bit obvious but you would be surprised how many people forget: put the dipstick back.
The 'dirty truth' aims to educate people about the consequences of letting anything except rainwater go into the stormwater drains.
The stormwater network is separate from the sewerage system. Everything that goes down the stormwater drains from our streets, driveways and footpaths goes straight into the nearest creek, river or sea without any filtering or treatment.
Think twice before you let any contamination go into the stormwater system.
Monthly checks on your car are just as important as the weekly checks but tend to be overlooked. If you're prepared to spend the time, it can save you trouble on the road and in the workshop.
Automatic transmissions are fairly reliable and shouldn't need much attention but they do appreciate a monthly fluid level check, and you can do that yourself.
Automatic transmissions vary from car to car but you should be able to check the transmission fluid level easily enough.
It's a matter of checking a dipstick, much like the one on the engine.
Your owner's handbook will tell you how to find the dipstick, the sequence for that particular car and the grade of oil required.
Most manufacturers specify the fluid level is checked with the automatic transmission at operating temperature. This can sometimes require a drive of up to 20 kilometres.
Make sure the car is parked on level ground and the handbrake is applied.
Usually the level is checked with the engine idling and the transmission in park. If the level is down excessively, requires frequent topping up or if it is a dark colour and has a burnt or sugary smell, take the car to a dealer or transmission specialist.
It's a straightforward operation to check the level and top up if necessary.
It is important to check the handbook first.
On some cars you check the level with the engine running and on others with it stopped.
Before topping up stop the engine to prevent the danger of coming into contact with moving parts.
Cars with manual transmissions usually have an hydraulic clutch which uses a similar set-up to the brakes. You can kill two birds with the one stone by checking brake and clutch fluid levels at the same time.
When your foot pushes on the brake or clutch pedal the master cylinder acts like a small pump pushing fluid down the line, transferring the force to operate the clutch or brakes. When the pedal is released the fluid returns and the level in the reservoir should not change dramatically. Over a long period of time there will be a slight drop in the fluid level as the brake pads wear.
The clutch and brake master cylinders are usually located on the rear of the engine bay. The same type of fluid is used in both. Refer owner's manual for specification.
Most cars, have see-through plastic reservoirs with level marks to guide you, so it is simply a matter of checking to see the fluid is up to the correct level.
Before removing the reservoir cap clean around the area. Dirt and other materials will contaminate the fluid, which in turn will affect the clutch and brake systems. In addition brake fluid absorbs water from the atmosphere. This moisture will reduce the effectiveness of the brakes.
Don't remove the caps unless you have to. Keep the cylinders and caps clean and replace them firmly as soon as you have finished. It is also advisable to only use freshly opened brake fluid.
Brake fluid is very damaging to paint work. When topping up reservoirs be extremely careful to avoid splashing it and keep a rag handy to immediately mop up any spills and wash off the paintwork with water.
As always, if the level drops suddenly don't take chances, have it checked by a specialist immediately.
While the six-monthly checklist covers bigger jobs, they're no harder than the ones described in the weekly and monthly checklists.
If you don't have your car serviced by a local dealer every six months, it's advisable to change the engine oil, the air cleaner element and the spark plugs and to check a number of other items. These are normally done automatically as part of a dealer's serviced schedule. If you're smart, you won't overlook them.
In normal operation, unburnt fuel, combustion by-products and condensation contaminates the engine oil. It is recommended to change the oil and filter in accordance with the schedule in the handbook. This will also tell you quantity and grade of oil.
Changing the engine oil is a simple enough task but you will need to get underneath the car so you will need ramps or jack stands, and don't forget to chock the rear wheels.
With the engine stopped, remove the oil filler cap so as not to create a vacuum lock as the oil drains out.
Locate the sump plug under the car at the bottom of the engine.
Place a container under the engine to catch the oil. Make sure the container has sufficient capacity to hold all the oil being drained - usually around four to five litres for the average car.
With the correct size spanner start to loosen the sump plug. Remember the engine has been warmed up and the oil will be hot. It could cause a nasty burn if you don't take care.
Before removing it completely, it's a good idea to tie a piece of string around the plug so it's not dropped and lost in the oil.
Undo the sump plug and let the oil run out. It will take a few minutes to drain properly.
Once the oil has drained out, replace the plug. If it takes a washer, fit a new one then start it by hand before finally tightening it but don't overdo it. Now move to the oil filter. It is usual mounted on the side of the engine block. Once again refer to owner's manual. To loosen this, you will need a special tool, an oil filter wrench available at any automotive store.
The wrench wraps around the filter canister allowing you to turn the filter and screw if off. In some cars there is not a lot of room around the filter, making the job a little awkward. Care is needed sometimes to avoid catching and damaging wires or other parts near the filter with the wrench.
Throw out the old filter, making sure the rubber sealing gasket isn't left behind on the engine.
With a clean rag wipe around the engine block where the filter mounts.
Write the date on the filter to remind you when it's due for a change.
Smear a little oil around the sealing ring of the new filter before screwing it into place.
Directions for tightening a filter on are often on the container or the filter itself.
You will need only to firmly tighten it by hand - don't use the wrench. Once the filter touches the engine, it needs only another half turn.
The owner's handbook will tell you how much and what grade of oil to use. Now it's a simple matter to refill the engine with the specified amount of fresh oil. Pour the oil in slowly as air locks can cause the oil to spurt back and create a nasty mess.
Check the level on the dipstick is showing full and replace the filler cap.
Start the engine and allow it to idle for about a minute, running the oil into the new filter. Make sure the oil light goes out.
Stop the engine and recheck the oil level. Filling the filter, the level may have dropped a little and should be top up as required.
When you're finished, drive your car around the block then check the filter and sump plug for any signs of oil leak.
The rubber blades wear when the wipers are used and perish in sunlight. These should be checked every month but in particular it's wise to fit new blades at the start of winter- the blades that have sat there all through summer have probably deteriorated so much they're next to useless anyway. In some cases it is also not a bad idea to replace them again just before summer.
The correct wiper inserts should be available at your local dealer or auto store.
It is a simple matter to unclip the old ones and slide them out. refer owner's manual.
The most common way is to lift the wiper blade clear of the windscreen.
Push the end of the wiper rubber inwards (back along the blade) until the end can be lifted clear of the metal backing strip.
The rubber can then be pulled out of the backing strip.
Using this old insert as a pattern, the replacement rubber refill is cut to the right length.
To refit the process is reversed with the rubber insert fed into the metal backing strip and slid along.
Once it reaches the end the rubber is pulled back and refitted under the retaining clip.
The blade is then lowered onto the windscreen and the process is repeated for the other wiper.
Note wiper rubbers should always be replaced in pairs.
Once again refer to your handbook for specific vehicle instruction.
Most batteries get pretty grubby sitting in the engine bay. In particular, you will probably find a white ashy looking deposit around one or both terminals. If you want your battery to work well it's best to keep the terminals clean and tight. But be careful: the battery contains poisonous and corrosive sulphuric acid, and produces highly inflammable/explosive hydrogen gas. Avoid contact with skin and eyes. When working around a battery always wear protective clothing and glasses, do not smoke or light a match and take care not to cause a spark.
If there is corrosion (the white deposit) around the battery, wash it off with a solution of warm water and baking soda.
To clean the terminals, it's necessary to disconnect the battery.
A word of warning: on late model cars with computer management systems and electronic radios, the memory may be lost when you disconnect the battery so make sure you have the radio security code before you disconnect.
On all cars, care should be taken not to cause a short circuit with the tools.
Disconnect the earth (or negative) lead first and reconnect it last. The earth is usually a short lead that is bolted directly on the engine block or the body. The battery is normally marked with + or red for positive and - or black for negative. The negative is also the smaller of the two.
Once both leads are disconnected you can use a wire brush terminal cleaner to spruce up the terminal connections (inside) and battery posts. Then re-fit and tighten carefully.
After connecting the leads up again, smear some petroleum jelly on the terminals, this will help prevent build up of scale in the future.
The battery should also be securely clamped down. Be careful, however, as over-tightening may damage the battery casing.
Spark plugs are a wearing part and as their condition deteriorates the engine does not run as smoothly, performance falls away and fuel consumption increases. With the introduction of more efficient electronic engine management systems and platinum-tipped spark plugs the service and replacement intervals on some cars has increased dramatically. Refer to you owner's handbook for the correct type of spark plugs and recommended replacement intervals.
You should make a careful check of the plug leads and plug connections in case they're cracked or damaged.
Be careful to pull on the cap, never the lead.
If you think you will forget which lead goes where, label each one now.
Using the right size plug spanner, undo and carefully remove all the plugs.
If the electrodes have burnt away throw them out and install new ones.
When re-installing the plugs, start them by hand and screw them in as far as they will go before using the plug spanner to finally tighten them. If they do not screw in smoothly, remove and check thread engagement is correct so as to avoid stripping cylinder head thread. Finally, don't over tighten them.
Replace all the plug leads, making sure they're routed clear of other components, start the engine and make sure it runs smoothly.
Do not handle or remove plug leads while the engine is running. It could not only give you a nasty shock but also may open circuit the system and cause expensive damage to the car's electronics.
Radiator and heater hose can leak at and occasionally burst.
Every six months, with the engine cold, go over all the car's hoses and squeeze them to check for any soft spots or any signs of cracking or splitting. If you are in any doubt have them replaced.
Car engines burn a mixture of fuel and air. Like humans, the air our engine breathes needs to be clean.
Every six months you should unscrew/unclip the air cleaner container lid and carefully lift out the old filter.
Don't let any dirt or other rubbish fall in the hole here or you may cause severe damage to the engine.
Wipe out the inside of the filter container before putting everything back together.
It can be hard to see whether an air filter element really needs replacing but they are not expensive and it's probably wiser to simply replace the thing anyway.
Ensure the new filter is correctly located, and the lid is properly fitted and secured.
Cars are very complex machines and from time to time things go wrong. Problems with cars don’t often fix themselves either and get worse with times. So here are a few common symptoms and the most likely diagnosis so you can describe the problem better to your mechanic.
After prolonged idle periods in traffic my vehicle emits clouds of blue smoke. What is the problem?
Blue smoke is usually caused by engine oil getting into the cylinder and burning. Possible causes range from valve stem seals to a more serious broken piston ring. Either way workshop diagnosis would be required.
My brake pedal is vibrating/pulsating when I apply the brakes. Why?
The brake discs/drums are most likely damaged or warped and will need to be machined or replaced if necessary.
I am driving my car normally, but it feels like it has much less power. Why is this?
This is mostly due to faulty ignition timing or there might be a vacuum leak at the intake.
After my engine has warmed up, the car stalls whenever I come to rest and I have to start the motor again. What could be the problem?
It is most likely that your idle speed is set too low or not properly set and will need to be adjusted. Otherwise Look for a vacuum leak at the intake. For older cars, the carburettor may be flooding, or the points could be worn or not properly set.
When trying to start my car, nothing happens but the headlights are bright as normal. Why won’t the car start?
Firstly, if your car is an automatic, make sure the vehicle is in park or neutral. Otherwise, you may have a problem with your Ignition switch, starter motor or the starter motor solenoid. In most cases, the faulty component will need replacement.
Droplets of water are coming from my exhaust tailpipe when the engine is running at normal temperature. Is there anything wrong with this?
Unfortunately, there most likely is a problem. You could have a blown head gasket or a cracked or warped head. This is usually an expensive repair and will need to be done by a qualified mechanic.
My engine check light comes on intermittently. Is there a problem with my on-board computer?
Have the computer codes checked to determine the cause of the check light coming on. The computer will log the fault and keep it in the memory data section.
My engine is running rough and is shaking badly at idle speeds. What can be the problem?
This is generally the symptom of one or more cylinder not firing. This is most likely a problem with the ignition system such as a broken lead or faulty spark plug.
My engine won't start but the radio works. When I put the headlights on they are dull. Why?
I turned my heater on this morning to warm up inside the car but the fan does not work. Why?
You may have a faulty or broken wiring connection in the heater circuit, a blown fuse or dirty fuse holder, faulty switch or a faulty fan motor. Seek advice from an auto electrician.
I hear a grinding/knocking noise coming from the front of my car when I am turning corners. Why?
If your car is front-wheel drive, your CV joints may be worn. If your car is rear-wheel drive, you may have a steering or suspension problem and you will need a repairer to check this.
My heater only blows cold or cool air into the cabin. What could the problem be?
The thermostat may be stuck open so the water in the radiator does not reach a warm operating temperature. Also, the heater core may be blocked and will need to be checked by a specialist.
There is a heavy knocking noise coming from the engine at certain speeds and when I accelerate. What is the problem?
The big end bearings inside the motor could be worn and will need to be replaced. The engine will need to be inspected by a qualified motor mechanic.
My indicator, stop lights and headlights bulbs are constantly blowing. Why does this happen?
The alternator voltage is too high, and an auto electrician will need to repair this.
When I rev up the engine there is a loud squeaking noise. This is worse when the engine is cold. Why?
This sounds like a slipping belt drive on the engine. Have a mechanic check the tension of all the belts.
The outside edges on my tyres are much more worn out than the centre. What causes this?
Either your tyre pressures are too low or the wheel alignment is not correct. Check that the tyre pressures are correct, otherwise you will need to have a wheel alignment done.
I recently had a wheel alignment and all tyres balanced but, on the freeway at 100km/h, I can feel vibration at the steering wheel. Why?
Have the tyres checked for run out (run out is a measure of how round the wheel is); it is not possible to balance an out of round tyre. | 2019-04-24T12:31:25Z | https://www.racv.com.au/on-the-road/driving-maintenance/driving-maintenance-tips.html |
Held, increase in seating capacity of petitioner's theatre consummated in 1942 was a change in capacity within the meaning of section 722 (b) (4), I. R. C., as a result of a course of action to which petitioner was committed prior to January 1, 1940. Constructive average base period net income determined.
Stanley Suydam, Esq., and Jack B. Darragh, Esq., for the petitioner.
Arthur N. Mindling, Esq., for the respondent.
Petitioner filed applications, under section 722, Internal Revenue Code, for excess profits tax relief for the calendar years 1943, 1944, and 1945. Respondent completely denied those applications. The question is whether petitioner is entitled to such relief by reason of an alleged change in the capacity for production or operation of its business consummated during a taxable year ending after December 31, 1939, with the meaning of section 722 (b) (4).
The stipulation of facts filed by the parties, and the exhibits annexed thereto, are hereby incorporated into these findings, and the facts therein are found as stipulated.
Petitioner is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Arizona in 1932, and has its principal place of business at Phoenix, Arizona. For the years in issue, 1943, 1944, and 1945, petitioner executed its Federal tax returns for calendar year periods and on an accrual basis, and filed those returns with the collector of internal revenue for the district of Arizona. Petitioner's excess profits tax liability for those years, without benefit of section 722 of the Internal Revenue Code, was $26,370.58, $28,582.42, and $23,181.88, respectively.
On or about October 7, 1946, applications for relief from excess profits taxes, with supporting data, were filed by petitioner under section 722 of the Internal Revenue Code for the calendar years 1943, 1944, and 1945. Claim was made therein of a constructive average base period net income of $21,902.71, applicable to each of the years in issue. On or about December 27, 1949, respondent denied these applications in full for each of the years involved.
The taxpayer was incorporated under the laws of the State of Arizona on December 31, 1932. The taxpayer is engaged in the theatre business and operates the Studio Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.
During 1942 the taxpayer increased the size and capacity of its theatre as a result of a course of action entered into prior to December 31, 1939. The capacity of such theatre was increased from 337 to 525 seats.
During 1938, the taxpayer started to sell candy and/or popcorn in its theatre.
The foregoing printed forms, on which petitioner's claims for excess profits tax relief were filed, required certain questions to be answered. To the question "Was change in capacity for production or operation of business consummated during a taxable year ending after December 31, 1939, as a result of a course of action to which taxpayer was committed prior to January 1, 1940?", petitioner answered "Yes." The question, "Did the business reach, by the end of the base period, the earning level it would have reached if the business had been commenced, or if the change in the character of the business had occurred, 2 years prior to the time the commencement or change occurred?", was left unanswered by petitioner, and in its claims for excess profits tax relief it provided no particulars as to that question.
After applying the growth formula in section 713 (f) of the Internal Revenue Code, petitioner's average base period net income, without benefit of section 722 of the Internal Revenue Code, was $4,422.17 with respect to each of the years in issue, and the resulting excess profits credit was $4,201.06 for each of these years.
Petitioner's principal business, since its incorporation and at all times material hereto, consisted of the operation of a single moving picture theatre, known as Studio Theatre (hereinafter also referred to as the "theatre"), located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1932, Harold Stetson and his brother Albert Stetson (hereinafter also referred to as the "Stetsons") felt there was an opportunity in Phoenix, Arizona, for a small motion picture theatre. They began negotiations with Ackel Investment Company (hereinafter also referred to as "Ackel") for a lease on the property at 18-20 East Washington Street in Phoenix (hereinafter also referred to as the "Ackel property"). But being unable to conclude a transaction with Ackel at that time, in October 1932 the Stetsons leased for a term of 5 years, from Mrs. Anna B. Thalheimer, the adjoining property at 14-16 East Washington Street (hereinafter also referred to as the "Thalheimer property"). A one-story, store-front building on the Thalheimer property was to be converted into the contemplated theatre; this conversion, involving considerable alteration in the existing structure, thereafter was completed, and the theatre was opened for business on December 22, 1932.
During the period that negotiations were being carried on for a location for the theatre, Harold Stetson went to Los Angeles, California, to arrange for films to be shown at the theatre. While there he met Milton Arthur who, with his brother Harry Arthur (hereinafter also referred to as the "Arthurs"), agreed to finance the theatre for a half interest therein.
Petitioner was then organized, and the lease of the Thalheimer property (hereinafter referred to as the "Thalheimer lease") was assigned to it. Each of the Stetsons and the Arthurs received 25 per cent of petitioner's capital stock. Shortly after petitioner was organized, the Arthurs transferred their 50 per cent interest to Cabart Theatres Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Cabart"), a theatre-operating corporation which they controlled. In October 1937 Cabart transferred this 50 per cent interest to Publix-Rickards-Nace, Inc., a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, Incorporated (hereinafter referred to as "Paramount"), and this 50 per cent interest continued to be so held at least through the years in issue.
The theatre, when it was opened, had a total seating capacity of 337 seats. Shortly after petitioner began operating the theatre, its officers were of the opinion that its seating capacity was inadequate for its operation at a sufficiently profitable level.
4. Said Lessee further covenants and agrees not to make or cause to be made any material alterations or changes of any kind in or to said leased premises subsequent to the first contemplated alterations or changes intended to be made by the said Lessee without the written consent of the Lessor first obtained therefor; however, Lessee has the right to make any changes or alterations without Lessor's consent at any time during the term of this lease provided such changes or alterations do not weaken or cause the value of the said building or premises to be lessened or diminished.
11. And the said Lessee further agrees not to let or underlet the whole of the said leased premises, or to assign this lease or any interest herein, without the written consent of the Lessor first had and obtained therefor, and any attempt by the said Lessee to assign this lease, or any interest therein, in whole or in part, or to let or to underlet said premises, in whole, shall, at the option of the Lessor, immediately terminate this lease, and the Lessor shall be entitled to the immediate possession of said leased premises thereupon, and all rents paid by said Lessee in advance on account of said premises shall be forfeited to said Lessor for damages due to it for such attempt to violate the conditions of this lease; however, the said Lessee is hereby given the right to mortgage its leasehold without the consent of the Lessor, and it is further provided that the Lessee shall have the right, without obtaining the consent of the Lessor, to sublet the second floor of the said building and space on the first floor not to exceed (50%) per cent of the total floor space thereof.
It is further agreed between said Lessor and said Lessee that no consent by said Lessor to any assignment of this lease or any interest therein, or the subletting the whole of said premises hereby leased, shall be held to waive the covenant not to assign this lease or any interest therein or to sublet the said premises without the written consent of the Lessor as to any further assignment or subletting.
22. Lessee agrees to use the said premises for the purpose of conducting therein the following business; Motion picture theatre, general theatre, and other similar amusement purposes.
28. It is understood and agreed by the parties hereto that for the first time, the Lessee has the right, without obtaining the consent of the Lessor as herein-before provided, to change, alter or remodel the building on the premises herein leased, and make the same fit for its use and purposes; however, nothing herein contained shall be construed as giving Lessee the right to change, alter or remodel the same building subsequent to the first change, alteration or remodeling save and except as in Paragraph 4 herein contained.
On or about February 1, 1936, an agreement was entered into by petitioner which extended the Thalheimer lease to February 1, 1951.
23. It is understood by the parties hereto that the premises herein described are at the present time occupied by a tenant under lease. Lessor hereby covenants and agrees to assign to the Lessee simultaneously with the execution of this lease agreement all its rights, title and interest in and to the lease herein mentioned.
In leasing the Ackel property, petitioner intended to use part of the ground floor of the Ackel building for enlargement of the theatre. The existing frontage of the theatre was considered sufficient by petitioner for its purposes, and the frontage of the Ackel building was considered too valuable to be used as a theatre entrance. Petitioner therefore contemplated subleasing the front portion of the ground floor of the Ackel building, to an extent not in excess of 50 per cent of the available footage on that floor, and utilizing the remainder of that floor for enlargement of the theatre.
Petitioner's intended use of the Ackel property contemplated that Ratner's would vacate its space in the Ackel building. Before executing the Ackel lease, petitioner had received an oral promise from Ratner's that it would vacate the premises in return for payment by petitioner of $100 per month for the remainder of the term of Ratner's lease, which then had 24 months to run. However, upon approaching Ratner's for performance of this agreement immediately after execution of the Ackel lease, petitioner was told that Ratner's had just transferred its remaining 2-year interest, in the space at the Ackel property, to Darling Shops, Inc. (hereinafter also referred to as "Darling"). Thereafter, Darling entered into possession and paid rent to petitioner for that space.
Enlargement of the theatre was dependent upon procurement of the means with which to finance it. Neither petitioner itself nor the Stetsons were able during the base period to finance such an enlargement, and petitioner's financial condition during the base period years was such that bank credit was unavailable for this purpose.
DEAR HAROLD: I have had Stanbery and Leo Hungerford working on the plans for the enlargement of the Studio Theatre and expect to come over to Phoenix shortly. In the meantime, I should like to have Al and you give some thought to the possibility of interesting West Coast in a half interest in the Studio Theatre, Inc., your retaining 25% and we 25%.
There are many advantages in a deal of this kind from a protective point of view as well as a financial point of view. I am finding it extremely difficult to finance a building which I think would meet our needs for the next 14 or 15 years, and I have wondered many, many times, if a 25% interest in a large proposition would not be much better than a 50% interest in a small one.
In September 1937, Publix-Rickards-Nace, Inc., the Paramount subsidiary referred to above, while it was negotiating to acquire Cabart's 50 per cent interest in petitioner, offered to finance the enlargement, if the Stetsons would surrender enough of their stock in petitioner so that they would no longer have a 50 per cent interest. The Stetsons were unwilling to do so, and petitioner declined this offer in October 1937.
Upon Cabart's elimination as a source for financing the enlargement, petitioner was left without the financial means for carrying out the desired expansion, and it was lacking the necessary financial resources when the sublease to Darling expired at the end of January 1938. It therefore was unable at that time to proceed with its intention to use the Ackel property for enlargement purposes, and, still having that property on its hands, it was interested in easing its position through continued subletting of space in the Ackel building.
Darling, on the other hand, was interested in remaining in possession at the Ackel building. Petitioner was agreeable to this, provided Darling obtained the consent of Ackel to it. Darling negotiated with Ackel, and obtained such consent from Ackel, paying Ackel a bonus of about $4,500. As part of Darling's negotiations with Ackel, the latter also agreed to extend the Ackel lease 3 years; petitioner wanted such an extension in order to restore, to the period for which it would have the use of the Ackel property, time lost through an extension of occupancy by Darling.
Pursuant to this consent of Ackel, petitioner, on or about January 20, 1938, subleased the entire Ackel property to Darling for a period of 5 years, from February 1, 1938, to and including January 31, 1943. However, petitioner reserved the right to terminate this sublease, upon 60 days' written notice, at any time after 3 years from February 1, 1938; provided that, if the termination occurred between January 31, 1941, and February 1, 1942 (the fourth year of this sublease), then petitioner was required to pay $1,000 to Darling. The total rental agreed to be paid by Darling for the entire term of this sublease was identical with the total rental payable by petitioner to Ackel (entirely exclusive of the bonus payable by petitioner to Ackel) during the same 5-year period. Prior to this sublease, Darling was sublessee only of the space on the ground floor which Ratner's had occupied; now it became sublessee of the entire Ackel building, and it, rather than petitioner, collected rent from the occupant of the second floor.
On or about the same day, January 20, 1938, Ackel and petitioner entered into a written agreement which (1) extended the Ackel lease for 3 years, to February 1, 1954, for a total rent of $28,800 for this additional term, payable $800 per month; and (2) provided for consent by Ackel to sublease of the entire premises by petitioner to Darling. Thereafter, on or about July 29, 1940, petitioner likewise obtained a 3-year extension of the Thalheimer lease, to February 1, 1954.
Still confronted with the problem of financing the desired enlargement of the theatre, the Stetsons thereafter considered renting out in advance the ground-floor space at the Ackel building that would be available for a tenant after the contemplated enlargement had been made, and requiring such a tenant to pay a substantial advance rental, which could then be used to finance the necessary enlargement alterations.
On or about June 1, 1940, petitioner entered into a written agreement with Herb Bland Clothing Company, Inc. (hereinafter also referred to as "Bland"), which occupied premises neighboring the theatre, to sublease "that portion of the Ackel property which is contemplated to be remodeled into a storeroom as per plans and specifications prepared by architects Alexander Burton, dated April 27, 1940 * * *." It was further provided that the "lease shall begin on such date as the parties hereto may mutually agree upon, which said date shall be not earlier than September 1, 1940, and not later than May 15, 1941; and said lease shall terminate on January 31, 1951; provided, however, that the first party [petitioner] obtains an extension of its existing lease on the Thalheimer property to January 31, 1954, then said lease shall terminate January 31, 1954." Provision was made for a monthly rental, and it was provided that "$7,500.00, in cash, shall be paid to the first party [petitioner] by second party [Bland] upon the execution of a formal lease embodying this agreement." The agreement further provided that if petitioner "shall be unable, by reason of * * * lack of finances for construction purposes, to proceed with the work provided to be done in accordance with the plans and specifications hereinabove mentioned, or substantially in accordance therewith, then this agreement shall be void and both parties will stand released and discharged therefrom."
Bland thereafter wrote petitioner, on or about February 27, 1941, that it was willing to substitute, in its place under this agreement, a specified sublessee on specified conditions and to cancel Bland's "rights in that certain agreement entered into with you calling for the financing up to $7,500 for the alterations of the Studio Theatre and the Darling Shop properties." This substitution of parties was not made.
This arrangement with Bland to obtain financing for the enlargement of the theatre "fell through" and the aforesaid amount of $7,500 was never paid to petitioner by Bland. On or about April 29, 1941, Bland wrote to petitioner to advise that it was ready to proceed under the foregoing agreement and to start negotiations leading to execution of the sublease involved. Petitioner replied, on or about May 2, 1941, that it too was willing to negotiate and proceed pursuant to that agreement, but that "the undersigned [petitioner], making due allowance for the $7500 cash installment to be paid by you under said agreement, is still unable by reason of lack of finances for construction purposes to proceed with the work provided to be done in substantial accordance with the plans and specifications mentioned in said written agreement, and there is no present prospect that Studio Theatre, Inc. will be able to provide such finances. Unless such finances are available, it would serve no purpose to negotiate relative to the formulation and execution of the formal written lease."
Bland's initial desire to lease space in the Ackel property resulted from its uncertainty as to whether it would be able to get a renewal of its lease at the premises it occupied. Thereafter it obtained such renewal, and its interest in the Ackel property waned. Subsequently it consented to surrender its rights to space in the Ackel property provided that such space was not leased to a tenant which might compete with Bland.
immediately upon the execution and delivery of the final form of sublease and of all written instruments required hereunder, signed by both parties, to pay and deposit the sum of Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000) in escrow with the First National Bank of Arizona, Phoenix, as payment of the initial installment of rental, with written instructions to said Bank to pay and deliver said sum, and all thereof, until Studio upon the delivery unto said Bank of a certificate of completion of said Alexander and Burton, architects, certifying to the completion of all alterations of the premises * * *.
It is further understood and agreed that if said Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000) so placed in escrow shall not be so paid unto Studio by March 1, 1942 the amount of said escrow shall be returned by said Bank unto Karl's.
In this agreement, written approval by Paramount was made a condition to execution of a sublease to Karl's, and it was required that the provisions of such a sublease should contain a "guarantee by Paramount of full and faithful performance by Studio of all of its covenants, promises and agreements thereunder, including delivery and continued peaceable possession of the demised premises. Such guarantee shall be in written form satisfactory to Karl's."
On or about August 20, 1941, petitioner gave Darling formal notice of termination, effective November 1, 1941, of the latter's sublease of the Ackel property and advised Darling that petitioner would pay it $1,000 upon delivery of possession.
An architect's blueprint, of structural changes to be made in enlarging the theatre, was drafted by Alexander and Burton, and is referred to above in the agreement between petitioner and Bland made on or about June 1, 1940, and also in the later agreement between petitioner and Karl's. This blueprint was dated April 27, 1940, and its first use was in connection with the aforesaid agreement between petitioner and Bland. Rough sketches preceded this blueprint, and ideas contained in the blueprint existed prior to its drafting; the blueprint was not prepared prior to 1940.
Thereafter, in December 1941, renovation of the Ackel property was commenced in order to enlarge the theatre. Enlargement was achieved by widening the theatre, adding seats to each row, and adding a section of about 60 seats along the side of the theatre. Construction work required the theatre to close for most of January 1942. The alterations were completed at the end of January 1942, after which the seating capacity of the theatre was 518 seats. There had been no change in the seating capacity of the theatre between 1932 and 1942. This enlargement of 1942 was completed substantially in accordance with the blueprint of Alexander and Burton, referred to above.
The stipulation of the parties states that the seating capacity of the theatre became 525 seats. They now agree, however, that the correct figure is the smaller one stated above.
Throughout the base period and up to the time the enlargement of the theatre was thus made, petitioner had an unequivocal intent to expand the seating capacity of the theatre. That intent was never abandoned or suspended during that entire time, and the enlargement of the theatre in 1942 was made in accordance with that intent. Throughout all those years petitioner sought finances to put that intent into effect, and as soon as it found such finances it proceeded with the enlargement of the theatre.
The increase in the seating capacity of the theatre in 1942 was a change in petitioner's capacity for production or operation, and a change in the character of its business, within section 722 (b) (4), Internal Revenue Code. That change was consummated as a result of a course of action to which petitioner was committed prior to January 1, 1940.
1933 1934 1935 1936 AS SUBMITTED BY PETITIONER: Admissions .............. $61,046.99 $64,623.44 $63,833.80 $62,619.23 Advertising ............. Subrents (tenants) ...... 6,280.00 Miscellaneous ........... Interest ................ Candy vending profit .... ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Total income .......... $61,046.99 $64,623.44 $63,833.80 $68,899.23 ========== ========== ========== ========== Film rental ............. $12,291.66 $15,137.54 $18,404.14 $20,616.06 Transportation of film .. 1,694.93 1,528.95 1,448.96 968.17 Production .............. 33.72 33.72 59.72 59.72 Prizes, etc. ............ Publicity ............... 3,435.51 3,637.29 3,828.60 3,918.13 Salaries — officers....... 5,200.00 5,200.00 5,120.00 3,653.55 House salaries .......... 12,476.73 13,899.85 9,279.74 12,081.85 Legal and auditing ...... 60.00 306.55 Traveling (exc. overhead) 1,007.18 345.95 292.29 167.35 Telephone and telegraph 461.11 750.08 452.06 308.17 Elect., fuel, water and cooling ............... 3,962.61 3,820.88 3,438.20 3,804.01 Repairs ................. 1,554.55 1,317.19 1,439.96 1,446.72 Supplies, other ......... 2,153.70 1,136.12 1,129.67 1,222.15 Uniforms ................ Miscellaneous ........... 747.02 356.59 187.90 Management .............. 1,835.00 1,954.00 1,934.00 2,381.00 Rent .................... 4,869.22 5,092.59 5,145.59 11,604.20 Insurance ............... 321.67 331.20 431.66 594.81 Taxes (excluding Fed. Income) ............... 735.18 539.70 533.50 2,387.78 Interest ................ 955.33 594.29 342.20 Bad debts ............... 392.31 Arizona income tax ...... 80.53 Pre-opening ............. 1,768.00 Theatre Project — abandoned ............. 5,916.87 Depreciation ............ 3,699.80 5,338.84 8,148.65 2,519.18 -------- -------- --------- -------- Total expense ....... $59,242.92 $60,772.55 $67,440.73 $68,961.81 ========== ========== ========== ========== Net earnings ....... $1,804.07 $3,850.89 (3,606.93) (62.58) AS ADJUSTED: Net earnings ........ $3,059.63 $3,942.88 $3,606.93 $335.28 1937 1938 1939 AS SUBMITTED BY PETITIONER: Admissions .............. $65,757.86 $59,816.58 $58,565.41 Advertising ............. Subrents (tenants) ...... 6,730.00 7,685.00 8,900.00 Miscellaneous ........... 20.21 165.98 40.79 Interest ................ 28.37 112.18 Candy vending profit .... 149.11 169.35 --------- --------- --------- Total income .......... $72,508.07 $67,845.04 $67,787.73 ========== ========== ========== Film rental ............. $22,254.92 $15,810.87 $15,62.75 Transportation of film .. 890.16 747.23 662.93 Production .............. 33.07 62.52 42.57 Prizes, etc. ............ 120.00 860.00 1,733.52 Publicity ............... 3,922.11 3,969.03 3,768.38 Salaries — officers. 3,719.98 3,119.92 3,144.99 House salaries .......... 13,256.45 12,630.76 12,757.27 Legal and auditing ...... 153.16 400.00 205.00 Traveling (exc. overhead) 57.00 Telephone and telegraph . 239.21 192.12 235.27 Elect., fuel, water and cooling ............... 3,362.73 2,780.73 2,839.54 Repairs ................. 1,179.44 987.34 854.07 Supplies, other ......... 1,173.11 678.00 595.48 Uniforms ................ Miscellaneous ........... 263.90 215.09 169.74 Management .............. 2,567.65 1,804.65 1,763.50 Rent .................... 12,272.24 12,146.63 13,455.00 Insurance ............... 304.33 357.16 163.03 Taxes (excluding Fed. Income) ............... 4,221.81 3,899.71 4,227.33 Interest ................ 74.08 5.82 4.04 Bad debts ............... Arizona income tax ...... 103.17 43.25 Pre-opening ............. Theatre Project — abandoned ............. Depreciation ............ 2,551.79 2,548.52 2,216.38 -------- -------- -------- Total expense ....... $72,617.14 $63,319.87 $64,514.04 ========== ========== ========== Net earnings ....... (109.07) $4,525.17 $3,273.69 AS ADJUSTED: Net earnings ........ $288.69 $4,422.17 $3,670.45 During the base period, seven theatres besides Studio Theatre were in operation in Phoenix. Of the seven theatres, Paramount, by itself or through subsidiaries, operated four; Fox West Coast Theatres operated a fifth; a sixth was operated by the owner of a group of theatres in southern Arizona; and the seventh was an independent theatre which showed only Mexican pictures. All of these theatres had larger seating capacities than the original capacity of Studio Theatre.
Petitioner rented or "purchased" the films shown at the Studio Theatre. Harold Stetson purchased films on behalf of petitioner during the first year of its existence. Cabart handled the purchase of films for petitioner thereafter and until it sold its stock in petitioner in October 1937 to the Paramount subsidiary referred to above. Paramount handled the purchase of films for petitioner for the remainder of the base period as well as thereafter.
"First-run" referred to the first showing of a motion picture film in a trade area. "Second-run" referred to the second showing of a film in a trade area, and in Phoenix during the period since 1932, this usually occurred about sixty days after the first run. "Third-run" referred to the third showing of a film in a trade area, and in the case of Studio Theatre this usually occurred thirty days after the second run. "Revival" referred to any film which had finished the ordinary showings and was no longer for sale on a competitive basis. The age of a revival might vary from a year to fifteen or twenty years after its original showing. The "drawing power" of a film diminished with each showing; thus a second-run drew fewer persons than a first-run, and a third-run drew fewer persons than a second-run.
Prior to the acquisition of the stock interest in petitioner by the Paramount subsidiary referred to above, Studio Theatre operated almost exclusively with second-run and third-run feature pictures. Starting with the acquisition of that interest in petitioner and until February 1940, petitioner operated almost exclusively with third-run feature pictures. From February 1940 until the end of April 1941, petitioner operated almost exclusively with revival and third-run feature pictures. From the end of April 1941 until January 1943, petitioner operated primarily with revival feature pictures, although on occasion it used some second-run pictures. Petitioner initially changed to revivals in order to reduce its expense of renting films.
Films were rated by the producer according to quality, those considered best being rated as "A," and those considered progressively poorer in quality being rated "B," "C," and "D." During the period 1932 through 1939, petitioner was able to obtain films only by purchasing an entire block or group of pictures at one time from a given producer. These blocks would include A, B, C, and D pictures. Many of the D pictures were so poor in quality and drawing power that, although paid for, they would not be shown; these pictures were referred to as PNU's (pay and not use).
The cost to a theatre of a film diminished rapidly in relation to the order of showing, first-run being most expensive, second-run less expensive, and revivals ordinarily costing substantially less than third-run films. The cost further varied with the rating of the film, an A picture being the most expensive. The A pictures sometimes rented for a flat amount and sometimes on the basis of a percentage of the theatre's gross receipts on the showing; the rental charged for B, C, and D films would ordinarily be a flat amount, and varied with the rating. The cost also tended to vary to some extent with the theatre's capacity, so that the cost of a film might be higher to a theatre of greater seating capacity.
During the base period, Studio Theatre's box office usually opened at 10 a. m. and closed at 10 p. m., although on Saturday it might be open until 11 p. m. The change from matinee to evening shows during the base period took place either at 5 p. m. or at 6 p. m.
Studio Theatre showed single-feature bills from the time it opened in 1932 until about the end of 1935; then, to meet competition, it began to show double-feature bills as well during a transition period which lasted until about April 1936; and thereafter it adopted the policy of showing only double-features.
Usually at least six complete shows were run per day with a single feature, and four complete shows per day with a double feature. The number of shows varied both for single and double features, however, and often there were more than four showings per day of double features. On Saturdays the number of showings usually increased.
During the base period, the theatre's periods of greatest business, or "peak demand," were during evening showings throughout the week and during matinees on Saturday and Sunday. The "peak period" during weekday evening performances was about one hour from about 6:30 p. m. to about 7:30 p. m.
Weekday matinees which did not come on holidays were usually times of poor business for the theatre, and, if at those times during the base period the seating capacity of the theatre had been greater than 337 seats, there would have resulted very little increase in petitioner's gross receipts from admissions. Increased earnings from increased capacity could come only during the times of "peak demand" described above.
Petitioner was not permitted to have standees within the theatre during the base period. Waiting customers were lined up outside the theatre. It was petitioner's experience that, when there were such lines of waiting customers, persons coming to the theatre often tended to go elsewhere rather than wait in line. There were times in the course of the base period, during the foregoing periods of peak demand, when petitioner lost customers and its paid admissions were reduced because the theatre was then filled to capacity and petitioner was unable to provide these customers with seats promptly. There were times during "peak periods" when petitioner lost customers because it could not accommodate them promptly or only after a brief wait. At such times, if petitioner had more seats in the theatre, it could have sold more tickets, and it would have increased its average base period net income.
Because of the expansion of the seating capacity of Studio Theatre from 337 seats to 518 seats, petitioner's average base period net income, as determined under the growth formula of section 713 (f) of the Internal Revenue Code, does not reflect the normal operation of the business for the base period, and petitioner's average base period net income as thus determined is an inadequate standard of normal earnings for Studio Theatre as expanded to 518 seats.
Operation of Studio Theatre as enlarged to a seating capacity of 518 seats entailed greater expenses than operation of Studio Theatre with its original seating capacity of 337 seats. Because of the foregoing expansion in seating capacity, and taking into account this increase in expenses as well as all the other facts and circumstances found herein to have been established, a fair and just amount representing normal earnings to be used by petitioner as a constructive average base period net income is $1,500 more than petitioner's average base period net income of $4,422.17 determined under the foregoing growth formula.
Petitioner commenced the sale of candy and similar items in the lobby of its theatre in 1937 or 1938, at which time confectionary vending machines were installed in the theatre lobby. These machines were not owned or operated by petitioner; it received a commission of 35 per cent of the net proceeds of the machines.
In July 1941, after the end of the base period but before the theatre was enlarged, a confectionary "counter" was installed in the lobby of the theatre for the sale of items such as candy and popcorn. This "counter" replaced the candy vending machines, which were used in the lobby up to that time. Installation of this "counter" was completely unrelated to the enlargement thereafter made in the theatre in 1942. Installation of this "counter" was not made as a result of a course of action to which petitioner was committed prior to January 1, 1940.
Because of the location of the front lobby doors of the theatre prior to the time the alterations were made in 1942 enlarging the theatre, this confectionary "counter" was not too readily accessible to persons already admitted into the theatre. Among the alterations made to the theatre in 1942, the front lobby doors were moved forward about fifty or sixty inches toward the box-office so that they were located immediately behind the box-office, and the area within the lobby was thus increased. After this expansion in lobby space, the "counter" in the lobby became more readily accessible to persons already admitted into the theatre. No change was made in the "counter" itself at that time. At the same time that the theatre was enlarged in 1942, there was installed a second "counter" at the entrance to the theatre outside the front lobby doors, for sale of confectionary items such as candy and popcorn to persons outside the theatre. Nothing concerning either of these "counters" appeared in the architectural blueprint of Alexander and Burton, referred to above.
Addition of the "counter" outside the lobby in 1942 and the increased accessibility of the "counter" inside the lobby at about the same time did not result in a material difference in petitioner's capacity for production or operation, and did not constitute a change in the character of petitioner's business.
An intent to take action with respect to either of those "counters" was not part of the course of action to which petitioner was committed prior to January 1, 1940, and which resulted in enlargement of the theatre in 1942.
The population of Phoenix, Arizona, was 48,118 in 1930 and 65,414 in 1940, according to the census for those years. The population of Maricopa County, Arizona, in which Phoenix was located, was 186,193 according to the census taken as of April 1, 1940, and the civilian population of Maricopa County as of November 1, 1943, was estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Census at 206,095. The 1940 census of Maricopa County showed a population increase of 23.3 per cent over the 1930 census for that county.
In 1932 petitioner was organized and commenced its business of operating a motion picture theatre, named Studio Theatre, at Phoenix, Arizona. Converted shortly theretofore from a one-story, store-type building on premises leased several months earlier by persons responsible for petitioner's formation, Studio Theatre had been opened with a capacity of 337 seats. Petitioner's business experience convinced its management within the next two years that this seating capacity was too small for operation at a satisfactory level of profit, and it was decided to increase the seating capacity of the theatre. It actually took a lease on adjacent property on December 31, 1935, in order to provide such additional seating capacity. The unexpected failure to obtain immediate possession from a sublessee at that property together with subsequent difficulties in securing the necessary financing prevented petitioner from carrying out its plan for some time. Finally, the theatre's capacity was expanded in January 1942 to 518 seats. Petitioner claims that the enlargement of its theatre entitles it to excess profits tax relief under section 722 of the Internal Revenue Code, by reason of a change in "the character of the business" within subparagraph (b) (4).
SEC. 722. GENERAL RELIEF — CONSTRUCTIVE AVERAGE BASE PERIOD NET INCOME.
(a) GENERAL RULE. — In any case in which the taxpayer establishes that the tax computed under this subchapter (without the benefit of this section) results in an excessive and discriminatory tax and establishes what would be a fair and just amount representing normal earnings to be used as a constructive average base period net income for the purposes of an excess profits tax based upon a comparison of normal earnings and earnings during an excess profits tax period, the tax shall be determined by using such constructive average base period net income in lieu of the average base period net income otherwise determined under this subchapter. In determining such constructive average base period net income, no regard shall be had to events or conditions affecting the taxpayer, the industry of which it is a member, or taxpayers generally occurring or existing after December 31, 1939, except that in the cases described in the last sentence of section 722 (b) (4) and in section 722 (c), regard shall be had to the change in the character of the business under section 722 (b) (4) or the nature of the taxpayer and the character of its business under section 722 (c) to the extent necessary to establish the normal earnings to be used as the constructive average base period net income.
(4) the taxpayer, either during or immediately prior to the base period, commenced business or changed the character of the business and the average base period net income does not reflect the normal operation for the entire base period of the business. If the business of the taxpayer did not reach, by the end of the base period, the earning level which it would have reached if the taxpayer had commenced business or made the change in the character of the business two years before it did so, it shall be deemed to have commenced the business or made the change at such earlier time. For the purposes of this subparagraph, the term "change in the character of the business" includes a change in the operation or management of the business, a difference in the products or services furnished, a difference in the capacity for production or operation, * * *. Any change in the capacity for production or operation of the business consummated during any taxable year ending after December 31, 1939, as a result of a course of action to which the taxpayer was committed prior to January 1, 1940, * * * shall be deemed to be a change on December 31, 1939, in the character of the business.
There appears to be no dispute that the substantial increase in seating capacity resulted in the requisite "difference in the capacity for production or operation" of the theatre, and therefore constituted a change in the character of petitioner's business within the terms of (b) (4). It is quite clear that petitioner's expansion in seating capacity qualified as such a change, and we have so found.
Relief is generally available under (b) (4), however, only if the change occurred "either during or immediately prior to the base period." But exception to this time limitation is made by the statute with respect to "Any change in the capacity for production or operation of the business consummated during any taxable year ending after December 31, 1939, as a result of a course of action to which the taxpayer was committed prior to January 1, 1940 * * *." The change here involved having been consummated in 1942, respondent urges that it is a change which fails to come within (b) (4) because it did not result from a course of action to which petitioner was committed prior to the specified date. We are unable to agree with this contention, and think that the expansion in seating capacity which took place in 1942 was the result of a "commitment" within the meaning of the statute.
At the end of 1935, petitioner leased premises adjacent to the theatre with the purpose of acting on the desire of its management for an increase in seating capacity. Enlargement was to be achieved through expansion into a portion of a building located at these adjacent premises. This lease was for a term of 15 years, and obligated petitioner to pay a total rental of $135,000, and in addition petitioner agreed to pay the lessor-owner, Ackel Investment Company, a bonus of $7,500. The record shows, first, that, prior to the execution of this lease from Ackel, petitioner had assurance of a source for financing the expansion; and, secondly, that prior to execution of that lease, it had the promise of a tenant at the adjacent premises that the latter promptly thereafter would transfer its lease, which still had 2 years to run and which covered a portion of the premises needed for the contemplated enlargement, to petitioner for an agreed consideration.
Petitioner therefore thought, and with reason, that it would be ready to proceed with the expansion in due course after the Ackel lease was executed. It was prevented from doing so, however, by a chain of developments which started with the unanticipated failure of the tenant to abide by its promise to transfer its lease to petitioner; instead, that tenant transferred its rights to another party, which then moved into the premises for the remaining 2 years of the transferor's lease. The effect of this continued occupancy was that petitioner was unable to proceed with the enlargement and to take advantage of the offer it then had of financial assistance; and before the 2-year period of that occupancy had expired, that offer was withdrawn, and petitioner found itself at the end of that 2-year period without some other substitute which was immediately available on acceptable terms. Therefore, when petitioner found at the expiration of this 2-year period that the new occupant was interested in remaining for a further term, petitioner sublet the entire Ackel property for an additional 5 years beginning on February 1, 1938, but sooner terminable at petitioner's option after 3 years from that date. Thereafter petitioner continued to try to find means with which to finance the expansion; and when it succeeded in doing so in 1941, it terminated this sublease, and proceeded to have the structural alterations made which were involved in achieving the contemplated expansion.
Although the record is not without some suggestion that before the end of the base period petitioner, possibly because of the discouraging turn of events, at least suspended if not substantially abandoned its interest and intent in carrying through the expansion and put off the expansion for further examination at some indefinite time in the future, we think the facts and circumstances on the whole show rather a continuing, active interest in expansion and a continuing, persistent search for a way of financing it. True, there are facts which make suspect a claim that petitioner continued to be seriously "committed" to enlargement of the theatre, such as the long period of some six years between petitioner's lease of the adjoining Ackel premises and the consummation of the enlargement, and petitioner's sublease of the Ackel property for a minimum period of three years, beginning in the base period and extending beyond the end of the base period, during which petitioner disabled itself from making the enlargement. We find, however, that these facts are largely explained by the remainder of the record in a manner which does not negate the continued existence of a substantially unabated intent and effort to enlarge the theatre. The circumstances mentioned, rather than indicating an abandonment or suspension of prior intent, seem to us in the context of this record to reflect a subsisting attempt on petitioner's part to cope with and resolve its difficulties in a way which would minimize potential losses and yet permit it to realize its objective of expansion.
While petitioner's failure to contract during the base period for the necessary alterations incident to expansion may be taken into account, it is not necessarily conclusive of the question of commitment. That is made clear by the history of the statute, as is shown in the statement of the Senate Committee on Finance that "the commitments made need not take the form of legally binding contracts only." S. Rept. No. 1631, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 201-202. See also E. P. C. 15, 1947-1 C. B. 89, amending Bulletin on section 722, p. 58: "Progress to the point where the taxpayer could not withdraw without substantial detriment may be given substantial weight in determining whether or not taxpayer has committed itself * * *. On the other hand, commitment claims are not to be rejected solely on the ground that taxpayers which have otherwise complied with all of the essentials in commitment cases may, neverthless, be in a position where they might have withdrawn without substantial detriment prior to January 1, 1940." We think it incorrect to say on this record that petitioner could have withdrawn from enlargement of the theatre without incurring "substantial detriment"; the evidence does not show, for example, that it was able to recoup the bonus of $7,500 it paid on originally leasing the Ackel property, and it was a matter of speculation whether it would be able to recover the amount of rent for which it became liable for the remainder of the term of that lease. Even if we were to assume, however, that petitioner did not proceed during the base period to a point from which it could not withdraw without substantial detriment, we would still be satisfied, on all the facts and circumstances, that it had adopted a course of action within the statute which resulted in the enlargement of the theatre. If petitioner failed to proceed beyond such a point, it was due to the difficulties which it encountered without fault or design on its part, and failure to progress further under those circumstances was not evidence of a change in its plans. The record as a whole shows in our opinion that petitioner made "changes in position unequivocally establishing the intent to make the changes [in capacity for production or operation]," and that is enough to establish the "commitment" required by the statute. S. Rept. No. 1631, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 202; see also Treasury Regulations 112, sec. 35.722-3 (d).
The "commitment" provision of (b) (4) was added to section 722 by the Revenue Act of 1942, section 222 (a). As that provision was introduced by the Committee on Ways and Means of the House, it required the post-1939 change in capacity for production or operation to be a result of "commitments made prior to January 1, 1940, binding the taxpayer to make the change * * *." (Emphasis added.) H. R. 7378, 77th Cong., 2d Sess.; see also H. Rept. No. 2333, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 146. The quoted language was deleted in the Senate and in its place there was put the wording ultimately adopted as law, namely, "a course of action to which the taxpayer was committed prior to January 1, 1940." In explaining the purpose motivating this amendment, the Senate Committee on Finance stated that "Your committee has made a clarifying amendment to this provision to make it manifest that the commitments made need not take the form of legally binding contracts only. * * * A course of action to which the taxpayer was committed may be evidenced by a contract, the expenditure of money in the commencement of the desired changes, or other changes in position unequivocally establishing the intent to make the changes." (Emphasis added.) S. Rept. No. 1631, 77th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 201-202.
The mere existence of a change in the character of the business within (b) (4) is not enough, however, to entitle petitioner to relief under section 722. Petitioner must also prove that, because of such change, its actual average base period net income does not reflect the normal operation during the base period of the business as changed, and it must also establish a fair and just amount representing normal base period earnings for the changed business.
Respondent contends that petitioner has failed to prove compliance with these additional requirements, and that in any event it therefore must be denied relief. Respondent points out that the average base period net income of $4,422.17 used by petitioner (computed by use of the section 713 (f) growth formula) was about twice as great as the average of its excess profits net income for the base period years, which amounted only to $2,179.17; and respondent contends that in such circumstances petitioner must prove, if it is to get any relief, that it is entitled to a constructive average base period net income large enough to produce a credit in excess of the credit computed under the growth formula. Irwin B. Schwabe Co., 12 T.C. 606, 613-614. While petitioner's proof is not as complete as might be desired, we are convinced on the record that its average base period net income even under the growth formula does not reflect the normal base period earnings of Studio Theatre enlarged to a capacity of 518 seats, and we are satisfied on all the evidence that, because of the expansion in seating capacity, petitioner is entitled to a constructive average base period net income which is $1500 more than its average base period net income of $4,422.17 under the growth formula.
Expansion in the theatre's seating capacity could have no effect in increasing petitioner's base period income unless it would have had customers for those additional seats. If seating capacity was not a factor which limited petitioner's base period earnings, then obviously it cannot be said that it would have enjoyed greater earnings with greater capacity. Indeed, to the extent that additional capacity would have imposed higher expenses without bringing a comparable increase in customers and revenues, petitioner's net base period earnings would have declined rather than increased. It was therefore incumbent on petitioner to show that it lost customers because of insufficient seating capacity during base period years, and to prove the extent to which its net income would have increased, after allowance for increased expenses which would have been incurred, if its theatre during the base period had 518 rather than 337 seats. Cf. Green Spring Dairy, Inc., 18 T.C. 217, 237-240.
The record shows that during the base years Studio Theatre had periods of "peak attendance," which recurred on certain days of the week and at certain times of the day, and that during such periods there was a convergence of customers seeking admission to the theatre. It further appears in the record that at such times queues of waiting customers outside the theatre were not uncommon, due to the limited seating capacity of the theatre, and that not infrequently it happened, in such circumstances, that some persons would not wait long enough to be seated and others, seeing a line for admission to the theatre, would not wait at all. Such persons were lost as customers because the seating capacity was not larger during base period years. It may well have been, as respondent emphasizes, that on many such days the theatre had not reached its "saturation point," in the sense that the aggregate number of persons admitted for all the performances during the day was less than the maximum number of persons who could have been accommodated throughout the entire day even by a theatre with 337 seats. Petitioner nevertheless could lose customers on such days because of the irregular and inconstant flow of customers; on the same day there might be times of surplus seating capacity and times of insufficient seating capacity. We are satisfied that there were concentrations of customers during these times of "peak demand" which the 337-seat capacity could not absorb, resulting in a loss of revenue which could have been avoided had a larger seating capacity been available.
The proof leaves us somewhat in doubt as to the numbers of customers and the amounts of revenue thus lost. We think petitioner has failed to establish that it could have filled substantially all 518 seats with any appreciable regularity if they had existed during the base period years. The proof is also somewhat unsatisfactory as to the extent to which petitioner's expenses would have risen as a result of these additional seats. While we believe from the record that they would have been somewhat less than the resulting increase in revenues, we are not satisfied that they would have been as insignificant as petitioner contends. Such expenses as salaries and compensation and the cost of utilities would have remained substantially the same or would have risen only a little. On the other hand, there can be little doubt that there would have been a substantial increase in depreciation deductions, resulting from the alterations and equipment necessary to make the enlargement. Taking into account all of the facts and circumstances relating to the effect of the expanded seating capacity on petitioner's revenues from admissions and on its expenses of operation, and considering the record as a whole, we find the evidence to establish that petitioner's average base period net income of $4,422.17, as determined under the growth formula, does not reflect the normal earnings of Studio Theatre with a capacity of 518 seats; and that, because of the increase in seating capacity, petitioner is entitled to a constructive average base period net income which is $1,500 more than the foregoing actual average base period net income of $4,422.17.
Petitioner claims that the "changes" made in the theatre in 1942 entitled it to relief because of the impact on its earnings, not only of a rise in income from admissions to the theatre, but also of an alleged increase in its sales of certain confectionary items such as candy and popcorn. Petitioner began to sell such items during the base period, through vending machines placed in the theatre lobby by an operator which paid petitioner a commission. In 1941, this arrangement was discontinued, and petitioner installed its own candy "counter" in the lobby in place of those vending machines. In 1942, when the seating capacity of the theatre was increased, the space in the lobby was enlarged by moving forward the doors behind the box-office at the entrance to the theatre, and a second candy "counter" was also installed outside those doors astride the theatre entrance. While the testimony in this connection is somewhat confusing, that is our understanding from the record of the sequence and nature of events relating to petitioner's sale of candy and popcorn.
The claim petitioner urges in these circumstances is rather uncertain. While petitioner stated in the claim it filed with respondent that it started to sell such items during 1938, petitioner does not seem to rely for relief on the fact of commencement of such sales during the base period. If it means to press a claim based on that fact, it must be unsuccessful if only for failure of proof that its normal earnings from those items, under the arrangement which existed during the base period for their sale, were not adequately reflected in the higher average base period net income which resulted from use of the growth formula of section 713 (f). Cf. Irwin B. Schwabe Co., 12 T.C. 606. If petitioner's claim for relief depends on the installation of its own candy counter in 1941, we are unable to find the necessary "commitment" by petitioner to that development prior to January 1, 1940. The only "commitment" we have been able to find on petitioner's part relates to expansion in the seating capacity of the theatre; that took place in 1942 and, on the evidence, has not been shown to have had any connection with the installation of the candy "counter" more than a year earlier.
The claim petitioner makes with respect to its sales of candy and popcorn seems to be based rather on the alterations petitioner made in enlarging the theatre in 1942, and, while not articulated too well, seems to rest on the dual assertion that the new "outside-counter" would contribute substantially to such sales by reaching persons outside the theatre, and that the old "inside-counter" would add to sales for the reason that enlargement of the lobby made the latter "counter" more readily accessible to patrons already admitted to the theatre. We are unable to find on the record, however, that these "changes" in 1942 relating to sales of candy and popcorn were the result of a course of action to which petitioner was committed prior to January 1, 1940.
Moreover, we are unable to find that the "changes" made in 1942 with respect to sales of candy and popcorn worked a change in the character of petitioner's business within (b) (4). Those "changes" were not of sufficient scope or importance, so far as petitioner's operations were concerned, to qualify as a change in the character of its business. While commencement of the sale of candy and popcorn in a chain of more than fifteen theatres owned by a taxpayer may be of sufficient business importance to it to qualify as a change in the character of its business (cf. Jefferson Amusement Co., 18 T.C. 44), it does not follow that petitioner's addition of a second "counter" in a single theatre, in which such items were already being sold, is of comparable consequence to warrant similar treatment. Even less significant for petitioner, on the evidence before us, was the action taken in 1942 with respect to the "indoor-counter." The record in this case leaves us with no doubt whatever that under the statute there was no substantial difference made in petitioner's capacity for production or operation and no change in the character of its business in 1942 in connection with its sales of candy and popcorn. Cf. Treasury Regulations 112, sec. 35.722-3 (d); Farmers Creamery Co. of Fredericksburg, Va., 18 T.C. 241, 250-254; Clermont Groves, Inc., 17 T.C. 1616, 1621-1622; Wisconsin Farmer Co., 14, T. C. 1021, 1028.
Respondent asserts that petitioner derived abnormal income during the base period as a result of its connection with Paramount Pictures, Incorporated, which controlled a 50 per cent stock interest in petitioner, and that a reconstruction under section 722 must be adjusted to exclude such income. The record is insufficient to establish, however, that "abnormal income" was in fact realized by petitioner because of that relationship or, if it was, the amount thereof, and there is consequently no occasion to pass on the matter.
Reviewed by the Special Division. | 2019-04-19T12:53:41Z | https://casetext.com/case/studio-theatre-inc-v-commr-of-internal-revenue |
All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field . . . the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever (Isaiah 40:6-8).
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14).
Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro; He bustles about, but only in vain: he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you (Psalm 39:4-7).
Death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death (Eccles. 8:8).
From everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn men back to dust . . . For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning—though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. . . . The length of our days is seventy years-or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. . . . Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. . . . May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands (Psalm 90).
I have plenty of good things laid up for many years. I’ll take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God (Luke 12:19-21).
Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment (Hebrews 9:27).
Built into every person, society and religion is a sense of accountability, a fundamental belief that good will be rewarded and evil will be punished. God has written his moral law on human hearts. There is an inborn sense that everyone will be judged in light of that law.
When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them. This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares (Romans 2:14-16).
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the Man he has appointed (Acts 17:31).
I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve (Jeremiah 17:10).
They will be paid back for the harm they have done (2 Peter 2:13).
But they will have to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead (1 Peter 4:5).
1. God is fully aware of every aspect of our lives and will overlook nothing in our judgment. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13); “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or bad” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
2. Our accounting to God will be detailed and extensive: “Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Matthew 12:36).
3. God knows the motives of our hearts, and will judge us in light of those motives: “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5).
1. Jesus spoke of Hell as a literal place, using graphic terms (Matthew 10:28; 13:40-42; Mark 9:43, 44).
4. Hell will also be inhabited by people who do not accept God’s gift of the Savior (Revelation 20:12-15). Because of man’s sinfulness, he deserves to spend eternity away from the presence of God, in Hell. The opportunity to spend eternity in heaven because of God’s grace is undeserved by men but offered freely by God. 5. Hell is a horrible place of suffering and everlasting destruction (Matthew 13:41, 42; 2 Thessalonians 1:9).
6. In Hell people are fully conscious and retain all their capacities and desires with no hope for any fulfillment for all eternity (Luke 16:22-31).
7. Because God is fair, Hell will not be the same for everyone. The severity of punishment will vary with the amount of truth known and the nature and number of the sins committed (Matthew 11:20-24; Luke 20:45-47, Romans 2:3-5).
1. Heaven is an actual place, to and from which Christ (John 1:32; 6:33; Acts 1:2), angels (Matt. 28:2; Rev. 10:1) and in rare circumstances people, even prior to their deaths, have traveled (2 Kings 2:11; 2 Cor. 12:2; Rev. 11:12). Heaven has light, water, trees and fruit (Rev. 21:1-2), as well as animals (Rev. 6:2-8; 19:11).
2. Heaven is described as a city (Heb. 11:16; 12:22; 13:14; Rev. 21:12). A city is a place of many residences in near proximity, the inhabitants of which are subject to a common government. City normally connotes varied and bustling activity, education and arts. Heaven will be a place of great pleasure, characterized by magnificent beauty, including streets of gold and buildings of pearls and emeralds and precious stones (Rev. 21:19-21). Heaven will have all the advantages we associated with cities on earth, with none of the disadvantages.
3. In heaven, the city’s gates are always open, and people will travel in and out, some bringing treasures into the city (Rev. 21:24-25; 22:14). Travel outside the city shows that the city is not the whole of heaven, but merely its center.
4. In heaven we will worship God (Revelation 5:11-13), serve God (Revelation 7:15) and rule with God (Revelation 22:5). Service and ruling involve responsibilities, duties, effort, and creativity to do work well. This will be work with lasting accomplishment, unhindered by decay and fatigue, and enhanced by unlimited resources. Heaven will be a place of meaningful activity, not boredom.
5. In heaven, we will experience rest from our labors on earth (Rev. 14:13). Heaven’s labor will be refreshing, productive and unthwarted, without futility and frustration. Perhaps it will be like the Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15), before sin brought the curse on the ground, with its thorns (Gen. 3:17-19).
6. In heaven, we will celebrate, fellowship, eat and drink (Revelation 19:9; Luke 22:29, 30). Communication, dialogue, corporate worship and other relationship-building interactions all take place heaven (Rev. 1-22). Saints and angels and God Himself will interact together, building and deepening their relationships.
7. Between our entrance to heaven and our resurrection, we may have temporary pre-resurrection bodies (e.g. Luke 16:19ff.; Rev. 6:11). Unlike God and the angels, who are in essence spirits though capable of inhabiting bodies (John 4:24; Heb. 1:14), man is in essence both spiritual and physical (Gen. 2:7). Hence, between our earthly life and our resurrection, a temporary body would allow us to retain the qualities of full humanity.
8. Jesus described heaven as having many rooms or dwellings, and promised that he himself would go there and prepare a place there for us (John 14:2-3). Heaven contains for believers a permanent inheritance, an unperishable estate specifically reserved for us (1 Pet. 1:4).
9. When we are in heaven, it may be possible for us to welcome others into our dwelling places. After speaking of the shrewd servant’s desire to use earthly resources so that “people will welcome me into their houses,” Jesus tells his followers to use “worldly wealth” (earthly resources) to “gain friends” (by making a difference in their lives on earth), “so that when it is gone [when life on earth is over] you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). Our “friends” in heaven appear to be to those whose lives we’ve touched in a significant way on earth. They will apparently have their own “eternal dwellings.” Luke 16:9 appears to mean literally these eternal dwelling places of friends could be places to fellowship and/or reside in as we move about the heavenly kingdom.
10. Some believers will receive a “rich welcome” when they enter heaven (2 Peter 1:11). It seems likely those who on earth have impacted and/or been impacted by the arriving believer (perhaps including family members), and who have gone to heaven before him, may participate in the welcoming committee at his “rich welcome” into heaven.
11. Heaven is the place and time when all righteous acts—many of which will have been disregarded and some punished on earth—will be finally rewarded. There is a “proper time” for the harvest, a time that normally follows our life on earth—“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). The Christian’s works done for God’s glory will have eternal significance—of those who die in Christ, God says “their deeds will follow them” (Rev. 14:13). Our rewards in heaven will link us eternally to our service for Christ while on earth. There is a radical change in our location, but no essential discontinuity between our lives here and there.
Heaven marks the beginning of eternal adventure, but the end of earth’s window of opportunity. As Scripture gives no opportunity for the unbeliever to go back to earth and live his life again and this time to put faith in Christ, so there is no opportunity for the believer to go back and relieve his life, this time for Christ.
Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned (John 5:28-29.
1. Scripture teaches first a judgment of faith, then a judgment of works, both for believers and unbelievers.
2. All true believers will pass the judgment of faith in Christ-their names are written in the Book of Life.
3. All unbelievers will fail the judgment of faith at the Great White Throne, since their names are not written in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:11-15).
4. The judgment of works follows the judgment of faith. Scripture states all men, not just unbelievers, will be judged for their works (Prov. 24:12; Eccles. 12:14).
5. The unbeliever’s judgment of works comes at the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:12).
1. Jesus watches and evaluates the churches, keeping score, giving grades (Revelation 2-3).
2. To Christians Jesus says, “I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds” (Revelation 2:23).
3. At the end of our lives all believers will give an account of their lives to their Lord. “We will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:10-12).
4. We will be judged by Christ according to our works, both good and bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).
5. The result of this judgment will be the gain or loss of eternal rewards (1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:9, 10; Romans 14:10-12).
The Bible treats this judgment with great sobriety. It is not a meaningless formality, but a monumental event in which things of eternal significance are brought to light and things of eternal consequence are put into effect.
1. Some Christians will and others will not hear Christ say, “Well done my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).
2. Some Christians will be ashamed when they meet Christ—”Dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28).
If any man builds on this foundation [the foundation of Christ] using gold, silver, costly stones, wood hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism (Colossians 3:25).
DOES GOD CARE ABOUT OUR WORKS?
Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them” (Revelation 14:13).
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them (Hebrews 6:10).
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.… You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead (James 2:17-26).
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom (James 3:13).
If you do these things [then] you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10-11).
Consider, to provoke you to good works, that you shall have from God, when you come to glory, a reward for everything you do for him on earth.
1. God promises great reward for those who have served him faithfully.
The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great-and for destroying those who destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18).
2. God will reward every servant for this life’s labor.
At that time each will receive his praise from God (1 Corinthians 4:5).
3. God will reward generously.
This is a promise of infinite return—a return far out of proportion to the amount invested.
4. God rewards what we do, not what we believe.
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done (Matt. 16:27).
God will give to each person according to what he has done (Romans 2:6).
Because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free (Ephesians 6:8).
5. God rewards us for kindness to the undeserving.
6. God rewards us for caring for our brothers in need.
7. God rewards us when we care for those too poor or incapacitated to pay us back.
8. God rewards us for wise and productive use of the resources and opportunities he has given us.
9. God rewards us for being persecuted for Christ.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets (Luke 6:22-24).
10. God rewards us for identifying with those suffering for Christ, and for taking material loss.
You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised (Hebrews 10:34-36).
1. God will reward greater service on earth with greater responsibility in heaven.
His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things” (Matthew 25:21).
2. God will reward faithfulness in the “small things” of this life with leadership over big things in heaven.
“Well done, my good servant!” his master replied. “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities” (Luke 19:17).
3. God will make Christians rulers over the earth.
They will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years (Revelation 20:6).
4. God will make Christians rulers over angels.
5. God requires certain conditions be fulfilled in order for us to serve as rulers.
If we endure, we shall also reign with him (2 Timothy 2:12).
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne (Revelation 3:21).
To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations . . . just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star (Revelation 2:26-28).
1. The Crown of Life—given for faithfulness to Christ in persecution or martyrdom.
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer . . . Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).
2. The Incorruptible Crown—given for determination, discipline and victory in the Christian life.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).
3. The Crown of Glory—given for faithfully representing Christ in a position of spiritual leadership (1 Pet. 5:1-4).
To the elders among you, be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away (1 Peter 5:1-4).
4. The Crown of Righteousness—given for purifying and readying yourself to meet Christ at his return.
The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
5. The Crown of Rejoicing—given for pouring oneself into others in evangelism and discipleship.
. . . my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown . . . (Philippians 4:1).
The twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:10-11).
Though God’s glory is the highest and ultimate reason for any course of action, Scripture sees no contradiction between God’s eternal glory and our eternal good. On the contrary, glorifying God will always result in our greatest eternal good. Likewise, pursuing our eternal good, as he commands us to, will always glorify God.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:5-6).
Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him (Matthew 25:28-29).
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize (1 Corinthians 9:27).
If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames (1 Corinthians 3:15).
Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully (2 John 8).
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown (Revelation 3:11).
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men (2 Corinthians 5:9-11).
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life (1 Tim. 6:17-19).
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward (Hebrews 11:26).
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Mt. 6:19-21).
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous (Luke 14:13-14).
Slaves, obey your earthly masters . . . not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him (Ephesians 6:5-9).
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism (Colossians 3:22-25).
Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. . . if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us (2 Timothy 2:5, 12).
WHAT MOTIVATES US TO FOLLOW GOD?
But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:17).
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine (Proverbs 3:9-10).
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20).
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him (Deut. 7:9-10).
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys (Luke 12:32-33).
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it (2 Cor. 5:9).
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28).
MOTIVATION: WHY SHOULD WE OBEY GOD?
1. Out of our love for him as Father and Redeemer (Deuteronomy 7:9; 11:1; 30:20).
2. Out of our fear of him as Creator and Judge (Genesis 2:17; Deuteronomy 28:58-67; Hebrews 10:30-31).
3. Out of our hope in him as Rewarder of those who serve him (Deuteronomy 28:2-9; Hebrews 11:6).
Example of Motivations: WHY SHOULD WE EVANGELIZE?
Out of love for God, gratefulness to God, desire to please God, love for men, fear of their destination without Christ, hope for their fulfillment, hope for their service to God’s glory, fear of our disobedience, hope for our eternal reward.
Each of these motivations is legitimate, and each compliments the other. In God’s universe, what is right is always smart. Sometimes we need the combined persuasiveness of all these incentives to do what is pleasing to the Lord.
The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager? . . . he will put him in charge of all his possessions” (Luke 12:42-44).
Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy (Matthew 6:19-21).
Peter answered, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said, “. . . everyone who has left houses or brothers . . . or mother . . . or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:27-30).
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand (Psalms 16:11).
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven (Luke 6:23).
The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice (John 3:29).
A woman giving birth to a child has pain, but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy (John 16:21-22).
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” (Hebrews 12:22).
God appeals to our natures as people, not as sinners. Power, possessions and pleasures are legitimate desires he has instilled in us, and by which he motivates us.
The temptation is to try to grasp onto power, pleasure and possessions here and now, in the present world. The way of the Lord is to gain them in the future not by clinging to them in the present, but by forgoing them in the present!
The three-fold disciplines of fasting, giving and prayer are developed by Christ in Matthew 6:1-18, and each is said to offer a reward, either from man in the short term or God in the long term.
1. Fasting is denying the momentary pleasure of eating to gain eternal pleasure in God.
2. Giving is denying the momentary possession of riches to gain eternal possessions from God.
3. Prayer is denying the momentary exercise of one’s own power to gain the eternal power of God.
Eating, accumulating and ruling are not bad—but in these three spiritual disciplines they are temporarily abstained from to accomplish a higher kingdom purpose.
3. Vow of obedience (forgoing power of self-determination).
One need not forgo power, pleasures or possessions because he hates them. He may forgo them because he wants them in their purest forms, in another time, another world. Jesus told his disciples they could become great in the next world by being a servant in this one (Mark 10:42-44), and they could become rich in the next world by giving up riches in this one (Matthew 6:19-21).
Given the limitations of sin, we are ill-equipped to handle large doses of power, pleasures and possessions in this life. In heaven we will be sinless, and will not abuse the power, pleasure and possessions entrusted to us.
CAN APPEALS TO OUR DESIRES REALLY BE SPIRITUAL?
It has been cited as a flaw in Christianity that it is more concerned with the world to come than with the world that now is, and some have been fluttering about trying to defend the faith of Christ against this accusation. Both the attack and the defense are wasted. No one who knows what the New Testament is about will worry over the charge that Christianity is other-worldly. Of course it is, and that is precisely where its power lies.
Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come. Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience. When Christ arose from death and ascended into heaven He established forever three important facts, namely, that this world has been condemned to ultimate dissolution, that the human spirit persists beyond the grave and that there is indeed a world to come.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:20).
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20).
Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear (1 Peter 1:17).
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul (1 Peter 2:11).
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:4).
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. . . For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:8-10).
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:13-16).
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:24-27).
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?
You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him (2 Peter 3:10-14). | 2019-04-23T10:14:27Z | https://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Jan/14/eternal-rewards/ |
Wake up America: How Does Barack Hussein Obama Lie to Us-Let Us Count the Ways!
How Does Barack Hussein Obama Lie to Us-Let Us Count the Ways!
Cross posted from Miss Beth's Victory Dance here.
This came to me in my email and I was given permission to post and spread this anywhere and everywhere I can. While I am no fan of HRC, her lies are well documented in many places. Barack Hussein Obama's lies have been effectively compiled here, by Mr. Peters. I don't think this was what Barack Hussein Obama meant by the words "hope" (hoping we wouldn't get something like this put together for all to see?) and "change" (change from a republic into a socialist state is what he wants).
Read, memorize, swipe and publish!
1. Selma Got Me Born. LIAR--your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961; Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965.
2. Father Was A Goat Herder. LIAR--he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.
4. My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom. LIAR--your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in Kenya . It is the first widespread violence in decades.
5. My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian. LIAR--she does her daily Salat prayers at 5 a.m. according to her own interviews. Not to mention Christianity wouldn’t allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
6. My Name is African Swahili. LIAR--your name is Arabic and Baraka’ (from which Barack came) means blessed in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
7. I Never Practiced Islam. LIAR--you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change so you could run for office.
8. My School In Indonesia Was Christian. LIAR--you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces (check your own book).
9. I Was Fluent In Indonesian. LIAR--not one teacher says you could speak the language.
10. Because I Lived In Indonesia, I Have More Foreign Experience. LIAR--you were there from ages 6 to 10 and couldn’t even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons?
11. I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs. LIAR--except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
12. I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion. LIAR--you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify-your classmates said you were just fine.
13. An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office. LIAR--Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t--and never did--exist.
14. A LIFE Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life. LIAR--LIFE has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t--and never did--exist.
15. I Won’t Run On A National Ticket In ‘08. LIAR--here you are, despite saying on live TV you would not have enough experience by then and you are all about having experience first.
16. Present Votes Are Common In Illinois. LIAR--they are common for YOU, but not many others have 130 NO VOTES.
17. Oops, I Mis-voted. LIAR--only when caught by church groups and democrats did you beg to change your “mis-vote”.
18. I Was A Professor Of Law. LIAR--you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
19. I Was A Constitutional Lawyer. LIAR--you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
20. Without Me, There Would Be No Ethics Bill. LIAR--you didn’t write it, introduce it, change it or create it.
21. The Ethics Bill Was Hard To Pass. LIAR--it took just 14 days from start to finish.
22. I Wrote A Tough Nuclear Bill. LIAR--your bill was rejected by your own party for its pandering and lack of all regulation-mainly because of your Nuclear Donor, Exelon, from which David Axelrod came.
23. I Have Released My State Records. LIAR--as of March, 2008, state bills you sponsored or voted for have yet to be released, exposing all the special interests pork hidden within.
24. I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess. LIAR--you were part of a large group of people who remedied Altgeld Gardens. You failed to mention anyone else but yourself in your books.
25. My Economics Bill Will Help America. LIAR--your 111 economic policies were just combined into a proposal which lost 99-0, and even YOU voted against your own bill.
26. I Have Been A Bold Leader In Illinois. LIAR--even your own supporters claim to have not seen BOLD action on your part.
27. I Passed 26 Of My Own Bills In One Year. LIAR--they were not YOUR bills but rather handed to you after their creation by a fellow Senator, to assist you in a future bid for higher office.
28. No One Contacted Canada About NAFTA. LIAR--the Canadian Government issued the names and a memo of the conversation your campaign had with them.
29. I Am Tough On Terrorism. LIAR--you missed the Iran Resolution vote on terrorism and your good friend Ali Abunimah supports the destruction of Israel.
30. I Am Not Acting As President Yet. LIAR--after the NAFTA Memo a dead terrorist in the FARC, in Colombia, was found with a letter stating how you and he were working together on getting FARC recognized officially.
31. I Didn’t Run Ads In Florida. LIAR--you allowed national ads to run 8-12 times per day for two weeks-and you still lost.
32. I won Michigan. LIAR--no you didn’t.
33. I won Nevada. LIAR--no you didn’t.
34. I Want All Votes To Count. LIAR--you said let the delegates decide.
35. I Want Americans To Decide. LIAR--you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote and only operate during small windows of time.
36. I passed 900 Bills in the State Senate. LIAR--you passed 26, most of which you didn’t write yourself.
37. My Campaign Was Extorted By A Friend. LIAR--that friend is threatening to sue if you do not stop saying this. Obama has stopped saying this.
38. I Believe In Fairness, Not Tactics. LIAR--you used tactics to eliminate Alice Palmer from running against you.
39. I Don’t Take PAC Money. LIAR--you take loads of it.
40. I Don’t Have Lobbyists. LIAR--you have over 47 lobbyists and counting.
41. My Campaign Had Nothing To Do With The 1984 Ad. LIAR--your own campaign worker made the ad on his Apple in one afternoon.
42. My Campaign Never Took Over MySpace. LIAR--Tom, who started MySpace, issued a warning about this advertising to MySpace clients.
43. I Inspire People With My Words. LIAR--you inspire people with other peoples’ words.
44. I Have Passed Bills In The U.S. Senate. LIAR--you have passed A BILL in the U.S. Senate-- for Africa--which shows YOUR priorities.
45. I Have Always Been Against Iraq. LIAR--you weren’t in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time, unlike Kucinich, who seems to be out gutting you, Obama. You also seem to be stepping back from your departure date - AGAIN.
46. I Have Always Supported Universal Health Care. LIAR--your plan leaves us all to pay for the 15,000,000 who don’t have to buy it.
47. I Only Found Out About My Investment Conflicts Via Mail. LIAR--both companies you cite as having sent you letters about this conflict have no record of any such letter ever being created or sent.
48. I Am As Patriotic As Anyone. LIAR--you won’t wear a flag pin and you don’t put your hand over your heart during the Anthem.
49. My Wife Didn’t Mean What She Said About Pride In Country. LIAR--your wife’s words follow lock-step in the vein of Wright and Farrakhan, in relation to their contempt and hatred of America.
50. WalMart Is A Company I Wouldn’t Support. LIAR--your wife has received nearly a quater of a million dollars through Treehouse, which is connected to WalMart.
51. Treehouse Is A Small Company. LIAR--the CEO of Treehouse--last year--made more than the CEO of WalMart, according to public records.
52. University Of Chicago Hospital Pay Is Fair. LIAR--your wife’s pay raise was nearly 150% her already bloated rate and the hospital is a Non-Profit Hospital, which made $100,000,000 in the last 3 years. They overcharge blacks VS whites for services and overcharge everyone in general by 538%!
53. I Barely Know Rezko-Only 5 Billed Hours. LIAR--you have known him for 17 years and decided to do a real estate deal with him during a time when he was proven to be under investigation. Despite this, you divided your property and had $300K taken off before the mortgage problems started. Then Rezko’s wife buys the lot beside it that you can’t afford saving you $625,000.
54. My Donations Have Been Checked Thoroughly. LIAR--you only gave back Hsu ($72K) and Rezko (first $66K, then when caught lying $86K, then when caught lying again $150K and now caught lying YET AGAIN OBAMA, it’s $250k) their money when publically called on their involvement in your campaigns.
55. My Church Is Like Any Other Christian Church. LIAR--your church is so extreme, the pastor who married you, Rev. Wright, just got done blaming the US for 9/11 and named Louis Farrakhan their person of the year.
56. I Disagree With My Church All The Time. LIAR--you have yet to repudiate Wright, who married you and your wife and you still donate large sums of money to assist the church in furthering its message--hatred and revenge. In 2006 alone you donated $22,500 to the church you so terribly disagree with. That is nearly $500 PER WEEK-that sure is disagreement, Senator Obama.
57. I Have Clean Connections Despite Rezko. LIAR--you are not only connected to Exelon and Rezko, you are also connected to Hillary PAC supporter Mr. Hsu AND an Iraqi Billionaire of ill repute, Nadhmi Auchi, who ripped off people in the Food For Oil Iraqi deal. Seems Mr. Auchi may have helped Obama buy his million dollar property long before Obama had millions of dollars. Wonder what favors Mr. Auchi expects when Obama leaves Iraq free to be taken over by special interests such as him.
59. The Passport Invasion is a conspiracy to find dirt on me. LIAR–your own Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor is the CEO of the company that looked into your records. PS-You had them look into yours to hide the fact you looked into Clinton’s and McCain’s more than a year before!
60. Rev. Meeks has nothing to do with my campaigning. LIAR--Rev. Meeks appeared in ads for your Senate Campaign, donated to you and helped raise money, then AND NOW. PS-He also seems to despise America .
61. My wife didn’t mean America is ignorant, she was just using a phrase. LIAR–again, MicHELLe’s comments perfectly sync with Wright’s, Meek’s, and Farrakhan’s, both in language, anger, and direction.
62. I am very Anti-Terror. LIAR--[03/30/2008] One of your good pals is long time radical and terrorist William Ayers, with whom you have been seen in the last 12 months and who has helped the now jailed Khalidi, Professor at Columbia who invited Ahmadinejad to the University, to raise money for Palestinian terrorism attacks against Israel. PS-Your church published a pro Hamas Manifesto - guess you weren’t there on THAT Sunday either? How lucky for you.
63. I have the best plan to cure the Mortgage Crisis. LIAR--[03/30/2008] You and your campaign buddy Penny SubPrime Bank Collapse Prizker have had your little fingers full of subprime cash - Obama has taken $1,180,103 from the top issuers of subprime loans; Obama received $266,907 from Lehman; $5,395 from GMAC; $150,850 from Credit Suisse First Boston; $11,250 from Countrywide; $9,052 from Washington Mutual; $161,850 from Citigroup; $4,600 from CBASS; $170,050 from Morgan Stanley; $1,150 from Centex and last but certainly NOT LEAST-Obama received $351,900 from Goldman Sachs. I am sure that cash all came from folks who knew the subprime loan they had was a dream, eh?
64. I played a greater role in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion. LIAR--[03/31/2008] It was found that Obama-the day after sitting for the interview-filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes added to one answer. Read Obama had greater role on liberal survey.
65. I did NOT play the race card. LIAR--[03/31/2008] Obama was the first to play the race card. According to Philadelphia Inquirer, Quietly, the storm over the hateful views expressed by Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has blown away the most insidious myth of the Democratic primary campaign. Obama and his surrogates have charged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has deliberately and cleverly played the race card in order to label Obama the black candidate.
66. I did not take money from oil companies. LIAR--[03/31/2008] THE FACTS: True enough, Obama does not take money from oil companies. No candidate does. It is illegal for corporations to give money to politicians.
Corporations do, however, have political action committees that collect voluntary donations from employees and then donate them to candidates.
Obama doesn’t take money from PACs. He also doesn’t take money from lobbyists.
But he does accept money from executives and other employees of oil companies and two of his fundraisers are oil company executives. As of Feb. 29, Obama’s presidential campaign had received nearly $214,000 from oil and gas industry employees and their families, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Clinton had received nearly $307,000 from industry workers and their families and Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely GOP presidential nominee, received nearly $394,000, according to the Center’s totals.
Two of Obama’s fundraisers are Robert Cavnar, the chairman and chief executive of Houston-based Mission Resources Corp., and George Kaiser, the president and CEO of Tulsa-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Source: Associated Press via Yahoo News.
67. I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial, Obama said at a community meeting in Nelsonville, Ohio, earlier this month. LIAR–Yesterday, he told a different story. “Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes,” he said in his speech yesterday in Philadelphia .
68. Look at my education record in Illinois. LIAR--In reality, Obama never really championed the local councils. He supported them behind the scenes and only eventually came out publicly on their behalf. When he did weigh in, he came down on the wrong side of the debate against protecting principals from unwarranted dismissals and in favor of keeping councils independent, no matter what.
1. Obama claims special birth. Much more so than we might believe.
Reports emanating from Africa allege his mother was in Kenya with his ARAB Kenyan (NOT Black Kenyan) father--this is clearly shown in Kenyan Govt. Registry documents which list the father as an Arab Kenyan--at a very late term of her pregnancy and was not allowed on a flight to return to HAWAII .
She gave birth to him in Kenya , immediately got on a plane and then registered him as being born in Hawaii.
2. He is NOT an African American but an Arab American and cannot claim African minority status, which by US Federal regulations require a person to have 1/8 (one eighth) of the minority blood (12%).
He has had to duck and weave all his life and use whatever lies he could use to even pass for black and the benefits this minority status provided. So even this, while understandable-is a documented LIE.
1. Word has been out in the Islamic community worldwide for some time (especially Indonesia and Malaysia) to begin overt support for Obama.
2. We heard rumors the Islamic Republic of Iran is also passing the word to their American agents and clerics to support Obama but had nothing tangible till now.
3. The photo above was taken during the last week of March, 2008 by an AntiMullah person who happened to see this woman and was delighted to have a camera on hand.
4. Don't be misled by there only being one person. Mosques have been told to get the message across effectively rather than to hold demonstrations since there was no protest involved where numbers rather than a "bilingual" sign become important. | 2019-04-26T17:11:00Z | http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-does-barack-hussein-obama-lie-to-us.html |
CTRL/Command (2019) riffs on the classic New York City icon of pedestrian traffic signals in an outlandishly oversized format. The colors blink from red to white, keeping with the traditional color coding seen on New York City’s text-based street crossing signals, which were installed in the 1930s and replaced with pictograms starting in 2000. Scalin replaces “WALK” and “DONT WALK” with new messages, “WAKE,” and, “DONT WAKE.” The work asks us to consider the commands and transactions that we passively encounter throughout the day via a constant flow of subliminally transmitted information, all while our data is collected, sometimes without our knowledge or consent. We provide and consume this information — our credit card numbers, tastes, spending habits, thoughts, ideas, locations, and ideologies — through digital and personal interactions.
The seminal album It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy came out in 1988, 30 years later it’s messages and themes remain as powerful and necessary as when it was released.
I uses commercially produced stickers to represent the cacophony of our modern American culture. We’re constantly bombarded with images and information and rather than feeling more informed and connected, it seems we’re more confused and separated. My goal is to organize this noise into a recognizable signal, one that can be a guidepost for us when it feels like there are no good messages to be found. There are historical antecedents that give us an inspiring way forward if we can focus our attention on them and not be distracted by the spectacle.
Ten artists were asked to create new murals inside the museum inspired by objects from the collection.
The Readjusters is a story of hope and inspiration. It’s a story about how even during our darkest times there have always been people who have risen up, spoken out and worked tirelessly to make sure that this country truly lived up to the values it proclaims. It’s the story of educator and social reformer Janie Porter Barrett, who created a school in Hampton to help incarcerated African-American girls escape the prison system. It’s the story of the men, organized by pioneering social justice lawyer Samuel W.Tucker, who were part of the first civil rights sit-in protest in Alexandria in 1939. It’s the story of the interracial Readjuster Party that seized political power during the turbulent Reconstruction era and made education for African-Americans in Virginia a priority. It’s a story of the “readjusters” who exist today who are fighting to tell a new story about our priorities as a state and a nation.
I first encountered The Readjuster Party in the museum and it was indicative of the education that I received growing up in Richmond in the 70s/80s that this was a piece of history I missed. For this piece I wanted to extrapolate out from the term Readjuster which could easily be applied to both the African-Americans who were trying to remove the yolk of slavery and oppression to become full citizens of this country post Civil War as well as the white Southerners who chose to reframe their failure as a lost cause worth celebrating and their ongoing attempt to stem the flow of progress. For this image I have stripped the the people and symbols of the Confederacy from the centerpiece of Charles Hoffbauer’s Military Murals (painted in the museum between 1913–1920) and in turn replaced them with images of early civil rights activists who laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement to come and the struggles we're continuing to experience today.
Inspired by the 17th century Dutch painting genre of the same name. I like to think of this technique as a manual version of the Google neural network's dreamlike surreal image translations.
This portrait of a young girl from Kathmandu, Nepal was created in collaboration with Micro Galleries. The work was made in my studio in Richmond, Virginia and then sent digitally to be printed and wheatpased by the Micro Galleries crew in the same town where this girl is from.
The Witness sticker portrait series asks viewers to rethink the endless barrage of messages that mass & social media tell us about ourselves and each other on a daily basis. Commercially produced stickers provide a perfect medium to represent the swirling din of cultural noise that attempts to define us. Layered in a technique inspired by the work of my own daughter at age two, the chaotic interplay of pop culture elements becomes the tapestry out of which I’m trying to form images of what’s truly worth looking at. The subjects are children who represent the real diversity of our world – faces that have been viewed with suspicion, fear, and aggression by tyrannical leaders and xenophobic governments. These works emphasize the need to turn our attention away from what we’re being told about each other and instead focus on looking at each other directly, recognizing the humanity within us and considering the ways we can connect with each other more and work together to create our own new shared vision of the world.
Inspired by a photo of activist Iesha Evans taken in 2016 at a Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge by photographer Jonathan Bachman.
Commercially produced stickers provide a perfect medium for expressing the overwhelming visual noise of American culture. Layered, in a technique inspired by my daughter’s own explorations with stickers as a two-year-old, the chaotic interplay of familiar pop culture elements becomes the tapestry out which I’m trying to form the counterpoint to the chaos.
These pieces are part of “of America” my solo show at Krause Gallery, NYC. On display May 12-June 5, 2018.
Based on the famous photo of civil rights activist Ruby Bridges being escorted from school by federal marshals, after she became the first black child to attend the all-white elementary school in her hometown in 1960. Her bravery inspired the Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With. My interpretation of this photo, made with thousands of commercially produced stickers, places this powerful image into our modern context, where sadly it remains as relevant today as it was then.
This work is part of "of America" my solo show at at Krause Gallery, May 12-June 5, 2018.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock-n-roll, lived in my hometown for a decade, but there’s been no formal acknowledgement of her contribution to our community. This is my way of paying tribute to her here.
This portrait of a young girl from Cape Town was created in collaboration with Micro Galleries. The work was created in my studio in Richmond, Virginia and then sent digitally to be printed and wheatpased by the Micro Galleries crew in the same town where this girl is from.
Created for the Spring Break Art Show, 4 Times Square, NYC. Curated by Dawne Langford.
While most people are familiar with Helen Keller's story of childhood triumph, few are aware of her activism as an adult. As an outspoken advocate for disabled rights, an anti-war activist, a Socialist and one of the founders of the ACLU, the media turned on their former darling child, claiming that she was impaired in her mental facilities because of her other disabilities. She spent her entire life trying to control her own narrative.
This portrait of a young girl from Jarkata was created for the Micro Galleries: Jakarta exhibition a street art installation from October 6–21, 2018. The work was created in my studio in Richmond, Virginia and then sent digitally to be printed in Indonesia where it was wheatpased by the Micro Galleries crew in the same village where this girl is from.
Jakarta photos courtesy of credit Teresa Schebiella and Micro Galleries.
Stickers on panel. 24 x 36 in.
Portrait of Innovation: John Mitchell Jr.
Portrait of civil rights activist John Mitchell Jr. the "fighting editor" of the Richmond Planet.
Created as part of my role as the first artist-in-residence at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Business, Richmond, VA.
As a successful businesswoman of color, Maggie L. Walker represents the diverse students who are currently enrolled at the School of Business. As the first woman to charter a bank in America, she was a true pioneer in her time and the embodiment of the values the school wants to instill in its students. She was also a resident of the neighborhood that abuts VCU, so recognizing her importance helps the school show that it is thoughtfully connected to its community.
Clothing was collected by students, faculty & staff and donated after the piece is disassembled.
Based on a photograph of an anonymous Richmonder by James Conway Farley, the first prominent African-American photographer in America, from the collection of The Valentine, utilizing clothing from Diversity Thrift.
While named for Lewis Ginter, few people know that the land for the Botanical Garden was actually bequeathed to the city by the shy benefactor Grace Arents. She had inherited Ginter's fortune and used it for philanthropic works throughout the city of Richmond, including opening the first public baths in Oregon Hill, the first free library and the first playground with recreation instruction. She also funded the first low income housing in the area. Arents' preferred not to be photographed or have her portrait painted, so images of her are rare. A photo of her as a young woman, used as reference for this piece, is from the collection of the garden.
As a follow-up to my first installation in the building's atrium it was decided to focus on a living figure from Richmond's combined business and art history. Frances Lewis was a pioneer in business creating the BEST Products chain store with her husband Sydney. The stores were housed in innovative buildings that were standalone works of art created by the SITE architecture firm. Lewis has been a longtime supporter of the arts and her philanthropy in the Richmond community and beyond is widespread.
The items used in this piece were donated by the students & faculty of the VCU School of Business and in turn were donated to two non-profit organizations: VCU RAM Pantry, which serves students dealing with food insecurity & Forgotten Soldiers, which supports both active military members and their families.
Arranged dog biscuits. Digital print, wood, acrylic, plastic, aluminum.
A photograph of a portrait made entirely of dog treats depicting James Spratt, the 19th century inventor of the dog biscuit, is installed inside a chapel-like doghouse. The image is only viewable only from a dog's perspective; humans will need to lower themselves to their dog's level to appreciate it. Within the space, dogs and humans are invited to contemplate their relationship as feeder and fed.
Portrait made from dog biscuits by Noah Scalin.
Inspired by the overwhelming 2016 election I created this self portrait using commercially produced stickers that represent the worldview we share with our children.
The background is made from the Wacky Packages product parody stickers that I grew up with. Alongside Mad Magazine, those stickers were one of the first ways I saw how people could creatively react to the culture in which we're mired in the US.
Gaston Glock (2016) 24 x 36 in.
Skull (2016) 24 x 36 in.
Glock 19 (2016) 24 x 18 in.
Stickers on wood panel, varnish.
Gaston Glock is the Austrian-born inventor of one of the most popular guns in America.
Glock's portrait, invention and skull have been created out of commercially produced stickers that feature images from popular culture as well as generic messages aimed at children. Most feature some element of modern or historical violence or stylized reminders of how boys and girls should behave. The technique was inspired by the layered collages of stickers that were initiated by my two-year-old daughter.
The conflict between the rights of gun owners and the fears of gun violence has created a great chasm in American culture. There seems to be little common ground on which advocates from each side can share a common vision for the future. And yet the need for a space to have a civil conversation and thoughtful resolution has never been more desperately needed.
American Dream asks people to consider the value that is placed on the entire range of American freedoms and how best to prioritize them.
Pulse: Walther (2017) 30 x 40 in.
Pulse: Glock (2016) 30 x 40 in.
These are effigies of guns created from common household matches. They are lit on fire and the resulting image is captured in carbon, like the permanent shadows that remained after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wanted to talk about gun violence in America, but the incendiary responses on both sides of the issue have make it extremely difficult to have thoughtful discussions about how to move forward. I’m both fascinated and repulsed by guns. I have friends who have experienced loss because of them and I have friends who feel safer because of them. The fact that they cause such intense emotional responses in Americans is important to explore if we’re to move forward as a nation.
Pulse: MCX was specifically inspired by the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida, considered the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the 9-11. The weapon used in the attack was a Sig Saur MCX, which has a remarkably skeletal appearance.
A Walther 9mm was used in the January 2017 shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport.
The Glock is one of the most commonly used guns in the United States.
AK-47 Anatomy I & II (2015) 39 x 11 x 2 in. polymer clay, polymer resin, acrylic, enamel, epoxy.
These guns have been clinically dissected revealing a remarkably human set of internal organs – rather than the cold steel and bullets normally found within. The objects becomes as fragile as the lives that they can potentially take. In addition the gun become a physical extension of the body of the user of the weapon, albeit one with a conspicuously absent brain.
It’s impossible to separate the violence of the ongoing wars around the globe from the weapons that fuel them – specifically the countless numbers of small arms that are endlessly in circulation passing hand-to-hand. However, too often the discussion around guns in America gets wrapped up in emotional terms around the 2nd Amendment. Anatomy of War brings the discussion back to the individual human level.
In constant use since its creation in 1946, it is estimated that there are nearly 100 million AK-47 style assault rifles currently in circulation around the globe. Because of its resilience and ease of use this weapon can be found in the hands of military personnel, terrorists, freedom fighters, and child soldiers alike. It has become an iconic image – a symbol that is found on album covers & jewelry and in photos of the famous & infamous. It’s also the only modern weapon to appear on a national flag (Mozambique).
Mikhail Kalashnikov created the design of the AK-47 while a soldier in the Russian army, but his relationship to the weapon he created remained ambivalent throughout his life. While never outright denouncing it he often made statements that showed his unease with its proliferation, “I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists. I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work - for example a lawnmower.” And he ultimately reached out to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church seeking absolution for his contribution to the deaths of untold numbers of people, shortly before his death in 2013 at 94 years old.
3-D printing by Third Surface.
Created for the Family Room group show featuring works by two generations of the Scalin family.
Created in the spirit of the Mexican papel picado decorations, which are often used as part of the Dia de los Muertos celebrations.
Bullet Kalashnikov (2015) 30 x 40 in. bullet holes, acrylic & gunshot residue on wood panel.
Bullet Skull II (2015) 30 x 40 in. bullet holes, acrylic & gunshot residue on wood panel.
Bullet Kalashnikov II (2015) 30 x 40 in. bullet holes & gunshot residue on wood panel.
Bullet Skull III (2015) 30 x 40 in. bullet holes & gunshot residue on wood panel.
Portraits of Mikhail Kalashnikov & his skull created by shooting real bullets into a wooden panel and capturing and preserving the resulting gunshot residue.
Match AK-47 I (2015) 40 x 30 in. carbon and matches on paper.
Match AK-47 II (2015) 40 x 30 in. carbon and matches on paper.
Match Kalashnikov (2015) 30 x 40 in. carbon and matches on paper.
Match Skull (2015) 30 x 40 in. carbon and matches on paper.
These works are effigies created from common household matches. They are lit on fire and the resulting image is captured in carbon, like the permanent shadows that remained after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In constant use since its creation in 1946, it is estimated that there are nearly 100 million AK-47 style assault rifles currently in circulation around the globe. Because of its resilence and ease of use this weapon can be found in the hands of military personnel, terrorists, freedom fighters, and child soldiers alike. It has become an iconic image – a symbol that is found on album covers & jewelry and in photos of the famous & infamous. It’s also the only modern weapon to appear on a national flag (Mozambique).
The Manhattan Project portrait series features scientists who were fundamental in the creation of the world’s first nuclear weapon. Each piece was meticulously created out of one thousand of wooden matches and then set on fire. The resulting burned afterimages are reminiscent of the permanent nuclear shadows of the victims of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. Also included are silhouettes of Fat Man and Little Boy, the first two atomic bombs, which were dropped on Japan.
The series deals with the dissonance between the good intentions of scientists who believed they were preventing Hitler from winning World War with the devastating long-term reality of their work. It also deals with the childhood fears of death and destruction, often first encountered with household matches burning fingers and sometimes much more.
The Natural Selection portrait series specifically explores the lives of great scientists whose work has had an incredible impact on the world. Each diptych is made up of the portrait of a deceased scientist and a representation of his/her skull. The skull is made by literally rearranging the elements used in the portrait, thus destroying that original creation in the spirit of the traditional sand mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism. The scientists represented are all great thinkers whose creations had an impact on our lives today, but also serious repercussions for their own lives (and deaths).
Inspired by the work of 16th century Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the images are intentionally created at a scale that allows the faces/skulls and the objects that are used to make them to be visible at the same time, thus creating a visible vibration – an oscillation between form and symbol – in the viewers’ minds.
Installation co-created with Thea Duskin.
Madame Zoe’s is a historical recreation of the home & parlor of Madame Zoe (neé Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins) who was a psychic advisor and palmist working on Hull Street Road in Richmond’s Southside from the 1940s until her death in 1976.
Fans of author Tom Robbins (who lived in Richmond in the late 1950’s) may recognize Madame Zoe’s name from her fictionalized version featured in his book Even Cowgirls Get The Blues.
Working with researchers Alane Cameron Miles & Phil D. Ford, Duskin & Scalin poured over historical documents and photographs to create a highly accurate recreation of Zoe’s work & living space, featuring several authentic artifacts provided by her living descendants.
In addition, Circe Moss Mallory, a disciple of Zoe’s agreed to a residency in the space, providing readings free of charge at various times throughout the length of the installation. Her companion Jake “Pepper” Malloy accompanies her, providing more detail regarding the installation.
Installation co-curated with Thea Duskin @ Chop Suey Books, Richmond, VA.
A recreation of the study of Kenton J. Stanfield (1890 – 1937?) displaying unusual artifacts from his collection, as well as the enigmatic state it was in at the time of his disappearance. While mostly forgotten today, the native Richmonder was known in his lifetime as an intrepid world traveler, an expert in gemology, and writer of some renown. After his unexplained disappearance in March of 1937 Stanfield’s home (at 5317 Marshall Street) was preserved intact until its destruction in the 1980s. Luckily the contents were saved by the son of a former student of Stanfield, who recently provided them to Duskin & Scalin. Thanks to the work of researchers Phil Ford & Alane Miles, the curators have managed to produce an accurate representation of what Stanfield’s study looked like at the time of his disappearance.
Kenton J. Stanfield was born August 20, 1890 in Richmond, Virginia. His formal studies included the College of William and Mary and Drexel University in geological science and astronomy, but he was primarily an autodidact, learning through his travels and sponsored expeditions. His field studies took him to exotic locales around the world not limited to the jungles of South America, the Isle of Skye in Scotland and the Danforth Mountains of Antarctica.
After college he returned to Richmond where he tutored upper class youth in geology and astronomy. He was a trader of indigenous goods and fossils as a side business. By 1926 he had gained a reputation for gem seam detection as well as publishing with famous biologist Dr. William Beebe. Soon thereafter business ventures in gemology, propulsion science, and fossil hunting took him from Virginia for extended expeditions.
When home in the beloved capital of Virginia he catalogued his extensive collection of gems, fossils, and curios and wrote articles on his findings from his travels. Stanfield wrote on a variety of topics for scholarly journals, travel magazines, newspapers, and adventure serials.
A lifelong bachelor and socialite among the local political and social classes, he had been a member of the Commonwealth Club and owned at least five properties around Richmond’s West End at one time in the late 1920’s. Stanfield disappeared on March 15, 1937. After a lengthy search, without any evidence of his whereabouts, he is presumed to be dead.
Audio cassettes, zip ties, caution tape, acrylic.
Created for InFinite Futures a building-wide exhibition.
Asked to consider the future of the Lower East Side – the neighborhood in which this venerable icon of art & activist culture has been located since its founding in 1980 – I imagined a DIY rocket created to colonize a new planet in the spirit of ABC No Rio.
Built from the detritus of our civilization, its components harken to the activists & punks that kept the squatted space alive as the city transformed around it. 300 audio cassettes were donated to the the project and include many from my personal collection of tapes made by friends that introduced me to punk rock music in high school. The zip ties speak to the cheap, disposable handcuffs used on protesters in the last few decades & the police line tape is a familiar element from life in the rapidly transforming NYC.
Kevin Caplicki with Alexander Drywall, Peter Cramer + Jack Waters, Barrie Cline with Paul Vance, Jody Culkin + Christy Rupp, Mike Estabrook, Fly, Brian George + Kelly Savage, Julie Hair with Douglas Landau, Takashi Horisaki, Becky Howland, Vandana Jain, Mac McGill, Max Schumann, Amy Westpfahl, and Zero Boy.
"A Rose is a rose is a rose" Created as part of the season of Gertrude Stein productions by Target Margin Theater.
Gertrude Stein made from 10,000 artificial flower petals by Noah Scalin.
Site specific installation created with design students at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. March 2016.
In this modern era of digital communication and cloud storage, the physical formats for storing data are rapidly becoming extinct. What happens to the massive amounts of stuff we've created once they serve no functional purpose?
The specific newspapers used in this installation were particularly appropriate since they were from the Wichita Eagle, which had just announced that it would no longer be printed locally, but was shifting operations to another city. In addition it was planning on moving towards a digital only format in the near future.
Arranged VHS videocassettes. 20′-8″ x 8′-11″ (6.29 x 2.71 meters). Site-specific anamorphic installation at TCC Visual Arts Center in Tidewater Virginia.
Arranged human brain slices, encased in acrylic. Site-specific anamorphic installation at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum.
Also shown: images from the 2009 After Life installation at Quirk Gallery, in Richmond, Virginia. The installation including the majority of the physical pieces from the project, as well as several new objects created specifically for the exhibition.
Continued explorations of the skull in the spirit of my original yearlong Skull-A-Day project.
Arcylic on wood panel. One hundred 4” x 4” wooden panels. Created between June 2011 and June 2012.
An ongoing series of hand-painted vintage vacuum tubes. | 2019-04-22T04:32:01Z | https://www.noahscalin.com/work |
Boston, 1767: In D.B. Jackson’s Thieftaker, revolution is brewing as the British Crown imposes increasingly onerous taxes on the colonies, and intrigue swirls around firebrands like Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty. But for Ethan Kaille, a thieftaker who makes his living by conjuring spells that help him solve crimes, politics is for others…until he is asked to recover a necklace worn by the murdered daughter of a prominent family.
Suddenly, he faces another conjurer of enormous power, someone unknown, who is part of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of power in the turbulent colony. His adversary has already killed—and not for his own gain, but in the service of his powerful masters, people for whom others are mere pawns in a game of politics and power. Ethan is in way over his head, and he knows it. Already a man with a dark past, he can ill afford to fail, lest his livelihood be forfeit. But he can’t stop now, for his magic has marked him, so he must fight the odds, even though he seems hopelessly overmatched, his doom seeming certain at the spectral hands of one he cannot even see.
Ethan Kaille eased his knife from the leather sheath on his belt as he approached Griffin’s Wharf, the words of a warding spell on his lips. He had sweated through his linen shirt, and nearly through his waistcoat, as well. His leg ached and he was breathing hard, gasping greedily at the warm, heavy air hanging over Boston on this August eve. But he had chased Daniel Folter this far—from the Town Dock to Purchase Street, over cobblestone and dirt, past storefronts and homes and pastures empty save for crows and grazing cows—and he wasn’t about to let the pup escape him now.
The western horizon still glowed with the last golden light of day, but the sky over Boston Harbor and the South End shoreline had darkened to a deep indigo. Hulking wooden warehouses, shrouded in a faint mist, cast deep, elongated shadows across the wharves. Clouds of midges danced around Ethan’s head, scattering when he waved a hand at them, only to swarm again as soon as he turned his attention back to his quarry.
Ethan stepped onto the wharf and peered into murky corners, expecting Folter to fly at him at any moment. The boy had shown himself to be a fool; now he was desperate as well, a dangerous combination. Ethan preferred to handle this without casting, but he already knew what spell he would speak if he had to.
No answer. He crept forward, wary, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the warehouses that loomed on either side of the pier. He heard small waves lapping at the timbers, and the echoing cries of a lone gull. But Ethan was listening for the man’s breathing, for the scrape of a shoe or the whisper of a blade clearing leather.
After a few more steps, Ethan halted, afraid to stray too far out onto the pier lest the pup sneak past him. If he lost Folter to the tangled streets of the South End, he would have to begin his search anew.
Still no response. Doubt started to gnaw at Ethan’s mind. Had Folter found some other way off the wharf? Or was he simply smarter and more patient than Ethan had allowed?
Neither, as it turned out.
Ethan heard a footfall to his left and wheeled quickly, his knife held ready. Folter stepped from the darkness, the faint glow of twilight shining in his eyes and glinting off the dagger he carried.
“Corbett can rot fer all I care!” he said. Brave words, but his voice trembled, almost as badly as his blade hand.
Folter was bigger than he remembered. He stood a full head taller than Ethan, with long limbs and a thin, bony face. His hair, damp and lank, hung to his stooped shoulders. His breeches were torn at the knees, his waistcoat stained; the sleeves of his shirt barely reached his narrow wrists. His knife had a long, curved blade, and though he passed it from one hand to the other, wiping his sweaty palms on his breeches, the movements were deft. Ethan guessed that he would be a formidable foe in a knife fight if it came to that.
Ethan stopped, leaving some distance between them. Folter’s gaze met his for a moment before darting away, first to one side, then to the other. He was looking for a way out or past—or through, if need be. Ethan sensed that Folter had already taken his measure and convinced himself that he could prevail in a fight if he had to. He was wrong, but he had no way of knowing that. Ethan didn’t exactly cut an imposing figure. He was of medium height and build, and looked like a competent fighter, but not one to be truly feared. His hair was starting to go gray at the temples, and his face was lined and scarred. Folter would see in him someone too old and too small to be a true threat. Others had made the same mistake.
“I don’t work for Pryce,” Ethan said.
Folter’s smile faded. “Who are ya?” he asked.
The young man shook his head, panic in his eyes. “I don’ believe ya.” He shifted his weight just slightly toward his right, his knees bending, his shoulders tensing. Subtle changes, but taken together they were all the warning Ethan needed.
By the time Folter lunged at him, leading with his blade, Ethan had already started to spin away. He had every intention of countering over Folter’s off hand, but at the last moment he saw that the boy— more cur now than pup—somehow had drawn a second knife. Only another spin saved Ethan from being skewered.
But in evading Folter’s attacks, Ethan had opened a path of escape. Folter looked at the thieftaker once, perhaps weighing another assault. Instead, he ran up the wharf back toward Purchase Street.
With the harbor at his back and the air heavy with moisture, Ethan had enough water at hand to cast an elemental spell. He spoke it quickly under his breath—“Imago ex aqua evocata”; illusion, conjured from water—and at the same time made a small flicking gesture with his hands, directing the charm so that the image formed directly in front of Folter.
Instantly the air around him felt charged, as it did when a storm came upon a ship at sea; as it did any time he conjured. Ethan felt the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end.
The old ghost appeared at Ethan’s side, glowing a rich reddish brown like the moon when it hangs low in the night. His eyes gleamed like brands, and they held a hint of annoyance, as if Ethan had torn him away from something too important to be interrupted for a mere illusion spell. Not that the ghost could refuse him. He was Ethan’s guide, a spectral guardian of the power-laden realm between the living world and the domain of the dead. Folter wouldn’t be able to see the specter; no one who wasn’t a conjurer could. But he would see the conjuring that Ethan’s ghost made possible.
For this illusion, Ethan summoned the first image that came to mind: a great white horse with a flowing mane, like the one he had seen earlier that day leading a chaise through the streets near the Common. Ethan cast the spell quickly, with little preparation; at midday, the creature might have looked insubstantial, but in the gloaming it appeared solid and huge and wild. It bore down on Folter as if intent on trampling him, and the pup did exactly what Ethan had hoped. He halted, dove to one side, and wrapped his hands over his head to shield himself. He gave no sign of noticing that though the beast looked real enough, its hooves made no sound on the wharf.
Ethan sprinted forward just as Folter scrambled to his feet.
Ethan didn’t allow him to finish the thought. He crashed into him, sending him sprawling. Ethan fell, too, rolled, and was on his feet again. One of the knives had flown from Folter’s hand; Ethan kicked the other one away. He aimed a second kick at Folter’s jaw, but the pup was too fast for him. He grabbed Ethan’s foot and twisted viciously, flipping Ethan to the ground.
Folter threw himself onto Ethan, and for a few harrowing moments the two of them grappled for control of Ethan’s blade. Folter was younger, quicker, stronger. He tried to pry Ethan’s fingers off the knife, and though Ethan fought him, he could feel his grip on the weapon slipping.
He wrapped his other hand around Folter’s throat and squeezed as hard as he could. Immediately the younger man stopped trying to tear the knife away and instead grabbed at Ethan’s other hand. Ethan, his blade hand now free, drove the heel of it up into Folter’s nose. He heard bone break, felt hot blood splatter on his cheek. An instant later, Folter rolled off of him, both hands clutching his face, blood running over his fingers.
“Damn ya!” the pup said, his voice thick.
Ethan got to his feet and kicked Folter in the side. The pup gasped and doubled up.
“Where are the jewels?” Ethan demanded.
Kneeling beside him, Ethan laid the edge of his blade along Folter’s throat. The young man stiffened.
“Don’t try it, lad,” Ethan said. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will.” Folter didn’t move; Ethan began to search his pockets with his free hand. In no time at all, he had found three bejeweled golden necklaces. “Was this it, or were there more?” he asked.
When Folter didn’t answer, Ethan pressed harder with his knife, drawing a small trickle of blood from the pup’s throat.
“Tha’s all,” Folter said sullenly.
After holding him for another moment, Ethan removed the knife and stood once more.
“Are ya going t’ kill me now?” Folter asked. He sat up, eyeing Ethan, his body tensing, coiled.
Folter opened his mouth to argue.
The young man nodded glumly.
“I didn’t see it.” Folter eyed him curiously.
Ethan retrieved Folter’s knives and put them in his pocket. He made no answer.
Even in the failing light, Ethan could see the pup’s face go white. In truth, the fact that Ethan was a conjurer—a speller, as Folter put it—wasn’t as much of a secret as he would have liked. He suspected that Sephira Pryce already knew, and it was possible that some on the Admiralty Court still remembered the names Ruby Blade and Ethan Kaille. But he didn’t want word of his talents spreading farther than necessary, and he surely didn’t want Folter thinking that he had any advantage over him.
The pup nodded, and began to back away from him, his eyes wide, his face still ashen save for the bright blood that trickled from his nose. After a few steps, he turned and ran.
Ezra Corbett and his wife lived only a few streets west of the South End waterfront, in a house on Long Lane along the edge of d’Acosta’s Pasture, a broad ley within the confines of the city. Ethan made his way up from the water’s edge, crossing Purchase Street once more, and then Cow Lane. The sky had darkened almost to black. A gibbous moon hung in the east, its glow dulled and made faintly yellow by the summer haze that had settled over Boston.
As Ethan approached the Corbett house, he caught the scent of smoke riding the warm breeze, and he thought he heard the excited babble of many voices in the distance. He wondered if another mob was abroad in the city, drinking Madeira wine and making mischief. Only two weeks before, such a rabble had made its way to Kilby Street, just a short distance from Henry Dall’s cooperage, where Ethan leased a room, and had destroyed a building belonging to Andrew Oliver, the king’s newly designated distributor of stamps here in the province. The crowd had been loud, vulgar, and violent. Ethan sat out front for several hours guarding Henry’s cooperage, while the rioters dismantled Oliver’s building, ransacked his home, which was also nearby, and finally built a bonfire at Fort Hill. In the end, they didn’t approach Cooper’s Alley, but Ethan didn’t relish the idea of spending another sleepless night listening to the drunken cries of agitators.
The Corbett house was no more grand than its neighbors, but neither was it any less so. It was built of stone and oak, its few windows thrown open to coax inside whatever breeze drifted along the lane. Ethan rapped on the door with the brass knocker and stood with his hands behind his back. His shoulder hurt where he had run into Folter, and he was sure that he would be sore come morning. Twenty years ago he could fight in the streets without worrying about such things. Not anymore.
A pretty young servant opened the door and led Ethan into a small sitting room before going in search of her master. He surveyed the room: wooden floors, simple furnishings, an empty hearth in the center of the south wall. The subtle aroma of roasted fowl and fresh bread blended with the bitter scent of spermaceti candles. There were finer houses in town—mostly on Beacon Street and in the North End—but it was obvious the Corbett family didn’t want for much.
Ethan strolled around the room, looking at the paintings of Corbett’s wife and his two daughters. After several moments, a door opened at the far end of the chamber. Mr. Corbett stepped in and closed the door quietly behind him. Facing Ethan and eyeing his clothes, he faltered, a frown on his homely face. Belatedly it occurred to Ethan that he must look a mess. His breeches were filthy from his struggles with Folter on the wharf, and there probably were bloodstains on his waistcoat and shirt.
He was a short, round man whose clothes didn’t fit him quite right. They were too long in the sleeves and legs and too tight around the middle. He was bald except for tufts of steel gray hair that poked out from behind his ears, and he wore spectacles on the end of his nose.
“And the thief?” Corbett asked, examining each necklace by the light of an oil lamp.
“He won’t trouble you again, sir,” Ethan said, holding the man’s gaze.
Corbett raised an eyebrow. “Fifteen is it?” he asked.
“Hmmm, I suppose that’s right.” The merchant dug into a small pocket on his vest and pulled out a coin purse. He poured its contents onto his desk and began to count out Ethan’s payment. “An acquaintance of mine said I shouldn’t hire you,” he said as he piled the coins.
Ethan didn’t know whether to laugh or yank out his own hair. There was only one other thieftaker in Boston; Corbett’s friend thought Sephira Pryce would be a safer choice than Ethan.
He knew this already, of course. Nearly twenty years had passed since the Ruby Blade mutiny, but few who were old enough to have heard of the incident when it happened would have forgotten. Mutinies were scandalous enough; add to that whispers of witchcraft and the result was enough to cause quite a stir.
“Thank you, sir,” Ethan said stiffly.
The merchant finished counting out the money and returned the coin purse to his pocket. “I intend to tell my friend that he was wrong about you,” he said.
I don’t give a damn, Ethan wanted to say. Instead, he thanked him once more.
Corbett smiled and led him back to the front door. “My wife will be most pleased,” he said, pulling the door open.
Ethan was about to answer, but in that moment he felt the pulse of a spell, the air around him thrumming like a bowstring. Ethan’s first impulse was to ward himself, and his hand flew to the hilt of his blade.
An instant later, Ethan realized that the spell had not been intended for him, that it hadn’t even been cast in this part of the city. Which meant that it must have been a powerful conjuring. He stared into the night, trying to locate the conjurer, wondering who could have cast such a spell.
“I do, sir.” He wanted to go. Right now. He wanted to find the conjurer who had cast that spell. But Corbett had paid him, and might well hire him again. Kannice would tell him that he should give the man his undivided attention.
In recent days, Ethan had heard arguments on both sides of this issue. There was nowhere a man could go in the city without overhearing discussions of Grenville’s Stamp Act. Like much of Boston, all the people he knew were beginning to align themselves according to whether they supported or opposed Parliament’s latest attempt to raise revenue. Corbett had made his position clear, and Ethan thought it best to give the safest response he could, even if it didn’t exactly answer the man’s question.
Ethan stepped out of the house, followed the path back to Long Lane, and turned northward. As he walked, he wondered if Corbett and his acquaintances knew only of the mutiny and Ethan’s time in forced labor, or if they knew as well the role that conjurings played in all that happened aboard the Ruby Blade. Just how many people in Boston knew that he was a conjurer? Three or four months might pass without anyone speaking to him of his spellmaking abilities. And then he could have days like this one, when it seemed that everyone knew.
He had his share of enemies in the city, and none of them would hesitate to use his secret against him if they thought themselves safe from his retribution. But fear of conjuring ran deep, even among the wealthy, even among the likes of Sephira Pryce.
Corbett’s coins jingled in Ethan’s pocket, bringing a smile. Combined with the seven and a half shillings Corbett had paid upon hiring him last week, it was money enough to last him a while. He wouldn’t need to work again for at least a month, perhaps longer. Maybe this would be a good time for him to stay out of sight; let talk of his . . . talents die out. Particularly if there was another conjurer in the city casting spells as potent as the one he had just sensed. And in the meantime, he could spend a few days with Kannice.
He was headed to the Dowsing Rod now. She would want to know that he had found Folter and managed to avoid getting himself killed in the process.
Ethan strode through the heart of the South End, passing by the brick edifice of the Third Church, its steeple looming dark and tall against the moonlit sky. The smell of smoke grew stronger as he walked, and he could hear shouts coming from different parts of the city—the area just north of Cornhill as well as the North End. He wondered if there were two mobs loose in the streets, or if there might be even more. As he neared the First Church and the Town House, he saw the glow of the fire he had been smelling.
He slowed. Ezra Corbett wasn’t the only client who might look askance at Ethan’s involvement in any mischief, and Ethan had no interest in attracting the notice of officials of the Crown. He had already endured enough British justice to last a lifetime.
A sound behind him made him spin; his knife was in his hand almost before he realized that he had reached for it. Two shadows emerged from behind a dark house and trotted up to him. Shelly and Pitch: a pair of dogs who lived in the streets, and spent most of their time scrounging for food at Henry’s door. Ethan lowered his blade, laughing at himself. But his heart continued to hammer as he sheathed his weapon and squatted down to greet the dogs. They licked his hand, tails wagging.
Shelly had first shown up at the cooperage several years before, not long after Ethan took a room there. She was a large dog with a short coat, mottled gray and white. She had a splash of tan on her snout, and pale gray-blue eyes. Henry had named her Shells because he said her coloring reminded him of the shells that washed up on the harbor shore. But before long he and Ethan were both calling her Shelly.
Pitch, who showed up a few months later, was a bit smaller, and entirely black, save for his deep brown eyes. His coat was long and silky. Ethan often wondered if he had once belonged to a wealthy family; dogs as pretty as Pitch generally didn’t live in the streets.
He scratched them both behind their ears. Judging from their response, this made up for the fact that he had nothing to feed them.
Standing again, he backtracked to School Street, and followed Treamount northward, the two dogs flanking him. He hoped to keep his distance from those abroad in the streets. He soon realized, though, that rather than avoiding the mob, he was walking directly toward it. The closer he got to Queen Street, the louder the noise grew. He could hear raucous laughter and shouted curses, the shattering of glass and the splintering of wood. As he crossed the lane and gazed eastward, he saw men tossing broken furniture and bundles of parchment from the window of a stately home directly across the street from the courthouse and prison. The irony of it nearly made him laugh out loud.
Ethan waved a hand and shook his head without breaking stride.
Ethan walked on, allowing the man to shout at his back. But he spoke a spell under his breath. “Veni ad me.” Come to me.
The air around him hummed, and the ghost of the old man appeared at his shoulder again and fell in stride beside him. The drunkard continued to shout after him, but he didn’t follow. Shelly and Pitch broke off, whining slightly as they headed back to the South End. This wasn’t the first time Ethan had seen the dogs flee at the first appearance of the ghost. He regretted scaring them off, but he felt better knowing that he could summon his power instantly if he had to. Too much was happening this evening. The spell he had felt, these rioters; he had grown cautious over the years, and if ever there was a night that called for care, this seemed to be it.
Ethan felt the ghost watching him, but he kept his eyes trained on the street ahead. He wished he knew more about this glowing figure who materialized at his side whenever he conjured. The man was tall and lean, with a trim beard and mustache, and close-cropped hair that looked like it would have been white had it not been for the shade’s reddish glow. He was always dressed the same way: in a coat of mail and an ornate tabard bearing the leopards of the ancient kings, like those worn by medieval knights. Ethan guessed that he had lived hundreds of years ago, and he assumed that the old man was one of his mother’s forebears. All Ethan knew for certain was that every time he spoke the words of a spell, the ghost materialized to blend his power with whatever source Ethan had chosen to complete his conjuring.
The ghost couldn’t speak; at least, he had never said anything to Ethan, although his bright eyes and bushy eyebrows could be quite expressive. Over the years, Ethan had taken to calling him Uncle Reginald—Reg, for short—after one of his mother’s older brothers who had a prickly personality.
At last, as he continued to walk up Treamount, Ethan glanced at the wraith, who was still eyeing him with that familiar vexed expression.
“Something on your mind?” Ethan asked.
By way of answer, the ghost pointedly glanced back toward Queen Street and then nodded toward the knife on Ethan’s belt.
The specter glowered at him.
They reached Hanover Street, and Ethan heard more commotion coming from down the lane. Two weeks ago the agitators had concentrated their ire on Oliver; tonight, they were casting a wider net. Best to get off the streets.
When at last he reached the Dowsing Rod, Ethan turned to Uncle Reg again. “Dimittas,” he said within his mind, not bothering to speak the words aloud. I release you.
The ghost touched a glowing hand to his own brow and then began to fade from view. Ethan gazed back toward the center of the city, where smoke continued to billow into the night. Shouts echoed through the streets, punctuated occasionally by strident cheers. If anything, there was more commotion now than there had been earlier. He could guess who was behind these riots, and he knew that only trouble could come of them. | 2019-04-19T05:06:06Z | https://www.tor.com/2012/05/08/thieftaker-excerpt/ |
Hump Day Hilarity – Al Gore's AIT Firesale | Watts Up With That?
Al Gore’s book, An Inconvenient Truth used to be one of the hottest items (no pun intended…umm, well maybe) but now, not so much. While it is still being sold on Amazon.com for as much as ten dollars, it seems there is now a burgeoning discount market for AIT.
And, it gets worse, some Amazon used book sellers are unloading it for a penny!
October 8, 2014 in Al Gore, Humor.
It would probably hold its price better if they moved it to the comedy section.
…or at least the Junk Science pile.
I’d like to agree. But it’s no laughing matter that many people believed in this science fiction novel enough to riot in the streets, vote for carbon taxes, lie to other that PV solar and windmills are job creators, and so on. This book has been a destructive force for most, and helped make a few very wealthy off the anguish of others.
Can I use carbon credits instead of cash?
Maybe if you promise to sequester this carbon and not burn it.
If it ends up in my septic tank, does that count as sequestration?
You are aware, I preume, that that is a spoof site?
This is an amusing website which, at first, appears to be a ‘green’ site but is actually just an advert for a book called ‘Biodiesel’. Go to the bottom of the homepage and read the extremely small print.
Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” #196,056.
Amazon Unlimited is the “borrow” thing they’ve set up, right? Glad to hear of it. Mostly just want to keep law-abiding people from ending up in jail because they were unfortunate enough to be chosen as prey and fortunate enough to have won the contest.
lot of good info on this site if you have not visited often.
At those prices I’m tempted to buy a copy – with the rising price of heating fuel, thanks to the brutal cold weather which seems to be occurring lately, it could come in useful.
Heck, I’m wondering if you can buy in bulk.
Even with 5 bucks shipping?
Wayne, you beat me to it. Up here in the great white north, 1 penny per copy could keep the cabin warm very cost effectively. I wonder how much CO2 would be generated per copy?
Good point! At that rate, it’d be cheaper than a cord of wood, AND it would double in a pinch as toilet paper…!
Don’t use it as TP! You’ll get a terrible burning sensation that’ll ruin your day.
Unfortunately, you’re right for once. The important thing about propaganda is not its accuracy or price; it’s how many people’s minds are corrupted by it beyond repair at any price.
Tagged as humour, I dont think so. If a warmist site made a humerous jab at skeptic book sales figures then that would be ok too. Its when people like Cook or Lewendowsky start analysing book sales and reading into it people’s beliefs in global warming it becomes a game and goes too far.
Who’s got more at risk ?
The fact is that a book that’s about ten years old is still well enough known that humour can be made from it.
So it has been influential.
(And everyone who would ant a copy probably already has one).
Inevitable? Check for “The Origin of Species” on Amazon. It was originally published in 1859, and is still going strong and well worth reading.
Perhaps. But most (all?) scientific disciplines have a number of works that never really grow obsolete or redundant. Just check the books any working scientist keeps handy.
I’m STILL waiting for your answer to my question regarding the HotWhoppers debate, Peter, which was whether you agreed with her position or not.
Obviously, you just cherry pick topics and aren’t man enough to answer a simple Yes/No question.
You are just a self-serving shill when it comes to the scientific debate, sir.
And I’m STILL waiting for an answer.
Save, a tree. Burn an Inconvenient Truth.
Only if it doesn’t work as toilet paper..
Koch Bros, The target of the green movement sells Angel Soft TP by Georgia Pacific. Retail over one dollar. Koch has a better handle on consumer demand.
Fiction usually has some basis in truth, fantasy would be more appropriate.
Tom wins today’s groaner award for the driest humour with “Climatyville Horror”.
Made me groan out loud.
I wouldn’t pay the lint in my belly button for that POS.
I didn’t read the book, but I actually watched the whole film recently. I was hoping this article would list his predictions 1 by 1 and see what has really happened since the book was published. I guess I would have to buy the book for $1 and list the predictions I mentioned. I’m sure the book must make predictions/forecasts.
Does it, I haven’t read it?
Over representing facts (knowingly lying) to get people to listen (buy your book, watch your movie) is only necessary when you know the real facts won’t make any one care, and they won’t buy your book, and they won’t watch your movie.
At that price it might be an economically viable replacement for Lewpaper.
For a much more useful book at the almost-as-low price of $5, download a PDF copy of Bob Tisdale’s Who Turned Up the Heat?. The background on the ENSO process is critical to understanding his many excellent posts here.
Since WTUtH? is an E-book, you can’t burn it to keep warm; use AIT for that purpose, although good old fashioned coal will give you a lot more heat for the same price, and has the added benefit of making Bill McKibben weep.
Thanks, Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7.
They should sell it next to the Charmin!
AIT weight per book (including jacket) approximately 1 pound 11oz.
5000 of them at a cost of $50.00.
Run them in an incinerator.
where a cord averages about 2800 pounds per cord.
burning AIT books at 1/3 the cost of coal.
There you go again with those equation thingees.
And how does the resulting CO2 emission compare? I imagine that AIT emits much less CO2 as well, coming from Mr Gore after all (because of the low-carbon footprint example that he continues to set for us to follow).
do I really need the sarc tag?
I found this reference which claims 6,500 BTU / lb of “waste paper” (a description I’m sure we can agree on), which is actually slightly lower than 7,500 BTU / lb for “dung” (another apt description). If I use the 6,500 BTU/lb value and your estimate of 1.69 lb for each book I get 54.8 million BTU rather than your 60 million for 5,000 copies, but close enough.
So if you can get enough copies of AIT for the cash and carry price of $0.03 each or less, you will beat or break even with the cost of coal for heating. You will also be transporting roughly 8,430 lbs of AIT to your incinerator rather than 6,000 lbs of coal.
If you assume the hauling capacity of a typical pickup truck (Dodge Ram 1500) is about 1,400 lbs, you will make 5 trips to transport the 3 short tons of coal and 6 trips for the 5,000 copies of AIT.
Or you could burn 8,000 lbs of “dung” instead, which means you won’t have to shovel as much s**t to stay warm.
get yours before they it becomes scarce and rare.
Archaeologists in some future millennia would get a laugh.. or feel sick.
It could be used as a dart board in paperback form – apologies to dart boards everywhere..
31 sources for < $3.50 delivered!
Now if it was printed on softer 3-ply tissue I may have an excellent use for it !!!!
Hmm. That’s costing somebody some money somewhere.
Somehow, I doubt that Al’s contract with his publisher contained a clause putting him on the hook for unsold units.
We need a study to determine if burning “An Inconvenient Truth” is more cost effective than wood pellets.
These prices have got to be less than cost – less even than the royalty Al Gore receives for each copy sold. Booksellers just should not be selling at these prices. It ought to be more profitable for them to shred the books than sell them at this price. So why are they on sale at all? Somebody must be subsidising the sale of this book. Whoever that somebody is, I really hope no public money is involved.
It may be that publishers are clearing the deck for a revised edition.
Sometime back over 20 years ago the tax laws were changed regarding how publishers could treat the production costs of a book. Previously they could claim all the production costs as an expense in the year they were paid. After the change publishers had to ammortize the costs of the run over the sales life of the entire production run. As a result, publishers do not keep unsold books, but dump them at any price once it is clear they are no longer selling.
My wife encountered this when working for a major university library. It used to be when a circulation book became too damaged to use they simply called the publisher and ordered a new copy. After the tax change they had to start calling used bookstores and other resellers.
An electrical utility plant running on unsold copies of this book would be unsustainable.
Even if it was subsidized with our taxes.
Think about the carbon sequestration requirements.
and the best use for it.
I’m a retired book publisher, and there’s no mystery here: When you see a book selling for $5 or less, what you’re most likely seeing are remaindered copies. When a book reaches what the publisher considers “end of life,” remaining inventory is written off and sold for almost nothing to remainder dealers, many of whom are now online. (They used to be tent sellers at flea markets, strip mall used bookstores, and so on.) “Penny sellers” are basically giving the book away and padding the shipping cost a little, which is how they make their money. Remaindered books are marked as such with a black felt marker swipe across the page edge. After remaining inventory is gone, a book is typically declared “out of print.” It could be heading to another edition, typically from hardback to paperback. Most of the time, the book is just dead, and rights revert to the author, who is not paid for whatever money is received from remainder houses.
Obviously been deemed an ‘Inconvenient Book’ which is clogging up valuable floorspace.
Actually, this is very serious stuff. The price is the real revision to the book indicated in the blue masthead wherein it says, ‘Adapted for a NEW GENERATION.’ That adaptation is for the new generation of jobless, penniless, student loan debt ridden, recent college graduates.
Works for me. Is there a quantity discount ? Christmas is coming soon.
Al Gore is the solution to warming. Has anyone received any grant money to study the Gore effect? This guy’s life’s work should be to fly into localized hot spots, deliver a speech thereby bringing the temp down to slightly below normal.
That wasn’t a pun, d@mmit.
At a penny it might be worthwhile as kindling.
For a penny, it’s worth buying if only to punch a hole through one corner and hang it up in the privy on a length of string.
I don’t want it even if it is free.
Pelletize the remaining inventory and sell it to Britain for fuel. No point in cutting trees twice for the same stupidity. Surprised Al hasn’t thought of that already.
Might make decent boiler fuel at $0.01 each. A way to recycle the carbon….lol.
Still, its lies and propaganda are now being disseminated on the cheap!
$0.01 is a lot to pay for a load of codswallop.
back when USPS had media mail rates, you could mail that book for 2.25. amazon would get their cut, which at one penny is nothing. amazon would give you the $3.99 shipping. so, with media mail and a decent cut for amazon, you could make 1.75 selling a book for a penny. if you got a trunkload of books for a quarter each, you can make money if you are efficient.
sadly, USPS has modified the ol’ ‘media mail’ class. probably too many ppl were mis-using it. but you can still make money selling a book for a penny.
Ah, yes. “On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”.
Now, let’s get on with the sterilization of those undesirables! Three generations of imbeciles is enough!
People who stretch words into meanings that Darwin never intended do him an injustice. Favoured in this sense does not mean favored by human society or human individuals, but by natural selection. The word race in this context does not mean racial distinctions within homo sapiens, but means species of organisms. Don’t blame Darwin’s correct observations of nature and reality for the bigotry of human beings.
Acceptable to a point; have you read “The Descent of Man?” Get 100 pages into it and you’re ready to rip the thing up.
Darwin’s nephew, at the least thought his uncle was all for eugenics. Here is a excerpt that is chilling in its name dropping significance.
And eugenics was the sciencey fad embraced by the educated self-declared elites and government officials of the day. Sort of like a certain other sciencey fad that one gets in trouble for resisting.
Don’t get upset with me. Get upset with his excitable cousin, Galton.
For hundreds of years, at least since the beginning of the Poor Laws, the educated elite in Britain had been trying to understand why some people don’t pull their own weight in society.
Micky, if you or anyone else goes and reads about the initiation and subsequent history of the Poor Laws, poor houses, and alms houses in Britain, you will see the class issues very clearly.
Darwin simply gave Galton, Haeckel, and other elitist intellectuals a convincing mechanistic theory of the way that some “races” came to be superior or inferior to others.
This is not stretching words, but illuminating truth. We carry these ideas to the present day. Involuntary sterilization of inferiors was normal up through the 1970s. Well, at least here in the United States. I don’t know what country you are in, Micky.
Anyone can ignore this info or begin reading. I myself simply do not trust educated elitist totalitarians very much anymore. I have seen enough.
I’m opposed to book burning on general principles, but given the continued downward slide in the price, and the remarkable lack of warmth these past few winters, this is looking like a cost-effective alternative to firewood.
It’s not at all uncommon for books, CDs, and DVDs that sold large numbers of copies to be sold on Amazon for one cent. I’ve bought many of them. The sellers make their money on the difference between the amount charged for postage ($3.99) and what it cost to actually mail most of these items.
The reviews of the book (28 very positive, 22 very negative) and its Amazon Best Sellers rank of #115,777 are more revealing.
EDIT: It’s not at all uncommon for used copies of books, CDs, and DVDs that sold large numbers of copies to be sold on Amazon for one cent.
$10.12 with free 2 day shipping (prime membership) is cheapest I found (with shipping added in) on Amazon.
found a paperback for 8.78 with the 2 day shipping (prime) there.
Still not going to buy it.
I avoid this tripe like I avoid Ebola.
While I know the derision of Al’s book is justified, it is a fact this book and the movie influenced a lot of people and is worthy of note. I have reluctantly put it in my library where it joined my first edition of Nansen’s Furthest North, in two volumes, and my 6th edition of Darwin’s Origin. I am not saying it is on the same level but if you are rummaging through the scraps of history trying to figure out why the hell people did what they did, something like Al’s opus might be useful.
I am certain when the global warming tide starts to go out, the story will sink quickly into the sand. The book will become inconvenient evidence of how really stupid we can collectively become.
I thought we fowned on book buurning here. This one is suitable to repair a wobbly table. yes. But Burn it NO.
I thought we frowned on book burning here.
@RobRoy, hence the term Thought Experiment. And in reality, getting enough for a warm fire would be hard. It is just fun to fantasize.
I buy excellent books on Abe and Amazon for $1 as often as possible.
I would not take money to have to wade through Goreon’s book again.
But the other commenters who point out that liquidating old books at $1 and less are on track: It is no big deal either way.
got a few (3 iirc) newer brad thor books for 14$ total and prime 2 day shipping on amazon.
there are really good deals there, people forget amazon started as book sales.
I might go ahead and buy a copy and use the pages for target practice at the gun club. I will then take the torn up pages home and free the trapped CO by burning them in my wood stove.
Keep in mind there may well be a tax incentive to get rid of old stock. Some fiefdoms with inventory tax started valuing unsold books at selling price rather than production cost or “remainder” selling price. So publishers were motivated to dump stock – unfortunate because some books will continue to sell but slowly.
There’s also the cost of warehousing space.
(Amusing side note to the bureaucracy called the publishing industry.
There’s a store in Canada selling remainders of books not well distributed in Canada. Appear to be a dealer for a US operation. Typical price in their window was several dollars per book.
That’s on top of the bookstore retailing stupidity that motivated the founding of Amazon company. Few got organized to order books for customers.
Another dumb move was only dealing with a limited number of book distributors, which limited selection.
Bookstores continue to be odd people, different stores claim different maxims for the industry, I think they are like climate alarmists – saying whatever feels good to them.
Nevertheless, publishers must have badly over-estimated demand for algore’s blather. The price sounds low for remainders if it once was a strong seller.
Maybe he is coming out with a new edition. All he’d have to do is substitute “warming” with “cooling” and he might get another Nobel Lariat.
His Warholian fifteen minutes has finally passed. | 2019-04-22T22:27:41Z | https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/08/hump-day-hilarity-al-gores-ait-firesale/ |
This article is about the medieval Muslim scientist and scholar. For the lunar crater, see Al-Biruni (crater). For the university, see Al-Beroni University.
Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Al-Bīrūnī (Chorasmian/Persian: ابوریحان محمد بن احمد البیرونی Abū Rayḥān Bērōnī; New Persian: Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī) (973–1050), known as Al-Biruni (Arabic: البيروني) in English, was an Iranian scholar and polymath. He was from Khwarazm – a region which encompasses modern-day western Uzbekistan, and northern Turkmenistan.
Biruni is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic era and was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. He studied almost all fields of science and was compensated for his research and strenuous work. Royalty and powerful members of society sought out Al-Biruni to conduct research and study to uncover certain findings. He lived during the Islamic Golden Age, in which scholarly thought went hand in hand with the thinking and methodology of the Islamic religion. In addition to this type of influence, Al-Biruni was also influenced by other nations, such as the Greeks, who he took inspiration from when he turned to studies of philosophy. He was conversant in Khwarezmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and also knew Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. He spent much of his life in Ghazni, then capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty, in modern-day central-eastern Afghanistan. In 1017 he travelled to South Asia and authored a study of Indian culture (Tahqiq ma li-l-hind...) after exploring the Hinduism practised in India.[a] He was given the title "founder of Indology". He was an impartial writer on customs and creeds of various nations, and was given the title al-Ustadh ("The Master") for his remarkable description of early 11th-century India.
He was born in the outer district of Kath, the capital of the Afrighid dynasty of Khwarezm (now a part of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) (or Chorasmia). To conduct research, Al-Biruni used different methods to tackle the various fields he studied. Many consider Al-Biruni one of the greatest scientists in history, and especially of Islam because of his discoveries and methodology. He lived during the Islamic Golden Age, which promoted astronomy and encouraged all scholars to work on their research. Al-Biruni spent the first twenty-five years of his life in Khwarezm where he studied Islamic jurisprudence, theology, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy and also dabbled in the field of physics and most other sciences as well. The Iranian Khwarezmian language, which was the language of Biruni, survived for several centuries after Islam until the Turkification of the region, and so must some at least of the culture and lore of ancient Khwarezm, for it is hard to see the commanding figure of Biruni, a repository of so much knowledge, appearing in a cultural vacuum. He was sympathetic to the Afrighids, who were overthrown by the rival dynasty of Ma'munids in 995. He left his homeland for Bukhara, then under the Samanid ruler Mansur II the son of Nuh. There he corresponded with Avicenna and there are extant exchanges of views between these two scholars.
In 998, he went to the court of the Ziyarid amir of Tabaristan, Shams al-Mo'ali Abol-hasan Ghaboos ibn Wushmgir. There he wrote his first important work, al-Athar al-Baqqiya 'an al-Qorun al-Khaliyya (literally: "The remaining traces of past centuries" and translated as "Chronology of ancient nations" or "Vestiges of the Past") on historical and scientific chronology, probably around 1000 A.D., though he later made some amendments to the book. He also visited the court of the Bavandid ruler Al-Marzuban. Accepting the definite demise of the Afrighids at the hands of the Ma'munids, he made peace with the latter who then ruled Khwarezm. Their court at Gorganj (also in Khwarezm) was gaining fame for its gathering of brilliant scientists.
Ninety-five of 146 books known to have been written by Bīrūnī were devoted to astronomy, mathematics, and related subjects like mathematical geography. His religion contributed to his research of astronomy, as in Islam, worship and prayer require knowing the precise directions of sacred locations, which can only be accurately found using astronomical data. Biruni's major work on astrology is primarily an astronomical and mathematical text, only the last chapter concerns astrological prognostication. His endorsement of astrology is limited, in so far as he condemns horary astrology as 'sorcery'.
[T]he rotation of the earth does in no way impair the value of astronomy, as all appearances of an astronomic character can quite as well be explained according to this theory as to the other. There are, however, other reasons which make it impossible. This question is most difficult to solve. The most prominent of both modern and ancient astronomers have deeply studied the question of the moving of the earth, and tried to refute it. We, too, have composed a book on the subject called Miftah-ilm-alhai'a (Key to Astronomy), in which we think we have surpassed our predecessors, if not in the words, at all events in the matter.
In his description of Sijzi's astrolabe he hints at contemporary debates over the movement of the earth. He carried on a lengthy correspondence and sometimes heated debate with Ibn Sina, in which Biruni repeatedly attacks Aristotle's celestial physics: he argues by simple experiment that vacuum must exist; he is "amazed" by the weakness of Aristotle's argument against elliptical orbits on the basis that they would create vacuum; he attacks the immutability of the celestial spheres; and so on.
In his major extant astronomical work, the Mas'ud Canon, Biruni utilizes his observational data to disprove Ptolemy's immobile solar apogee. Not only did he perform research on theories, but he also wrote an in-depth analysis and explanation of an astrolabe and how it should work. He drew many different depictions of various instruments that are considered to be the precursors of more modern objects such as clocks and the astrolabe, in which other scientists were able to use to complete these inventions in the coming years. More recently, Biruni's eclipse data was used by Dunthorne in 1749 to help determine the acceleration of the moon, and his observational data has entered the larger astronomical historical record and is still used today in geophysics and astronomy.
"Al-Biruni contributed to the introduction of the experimental scientific method to mechanics, unified statics and dynamics into the science of mechanics, and combined the fields of hydrostatics with dynamics to create hydrodynamics. He came up with different methods for exploring densities, weight, and even gravity. Along with those methods, Biruni went so far as to describe instruments that go along with each of those areas as well. Although he never entirely focuses just on physics in any of his books, the study of physics is present throughout many of his various works. Biruni also came up with different hypotheses about heat and light.
Bīrūnī devised a method of determining the earth's radius by means of the observation of the height of a mountain. He carried it out at Nandana in Pind Dadan Khan in Pakistan. He was heavily interested in the workings of the earth and included research about the planet in many of his works. The result of his discovery of radius measurement was due to Biruni's arduous research about the earth.
In his Codex Masudicus (1037), Al-Biruni theorized the existence of a landmass along the vast ocean between Asia and Europe, or what is today known as the Americas. He deduced its existence on the basis of his accurate estimations of the Earth's circumference and Afro-Eurasia's size, which he found spanned only two-fifths of the Earth's circumference, and his discovery of the concept of specific gravity, from which he deduced that the geological processes that gave rise to Eurasia must've also given rise to lands in the vast ocean between Asia and Europe. He also theorized that the landmass must be inhabited by human beings, which he deduced from his knowledge of humans inhabiting the broad north-south band stretching from Russia to South India and Sub-Saharan Africa, theorizing that the landmass would most likely lie along the same band.
Biruni's most important work was a major pharmacopoeia, the "Kitab al-saydala fi al-tibb" (Book on the Pharmacopoeia of Medicine), describing essentially all the medicines known in his time. It lists synonyms for drug names in Syriac, Persian, Greek, Baluchi, Afghan, Kurdi, and some Indian languages.
Due to an apparatus he constructed himself, he succeeded in determining the specific gravity of a certain number of metals and minerals with remarkable precision.
Biruni's main essay on political history, Kitāb al-musāmara fī aḵbār Ḵᵛārazm (Book of nightly conversation concerning the affairs of Ḵᵛārazm) is now known only from quotations in Bayhaqī's Tārīkh-e masʿūdī. In addition to this various discussions of historical events and methodology are found in connection with the lists of kings in his al-Āthār al-bāqiya and in the Qānūn as well as elsewhere in the Āthār, in India, and scattered throughout his other works. Al-Biruni's study of history was not limited to the aforementioned topics, he also touched upon the topic of the earth's creation. He elaborated upon the fact that the earth was created from the elements and not solely through divine creation. Even though Islam did influence his study, he did acknowledge the role of the elements.
Bīrūnī is one of the most important Muslim authorities on the history of religion. Al-Biruni was a pioneer in the study of comparative religion. He studied Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and other religions. He treated religions objectively, striving to understand them on their own terms rather than trying to prove them wrong. His underlying concept was that all cultures are at least distant relatives of all other cultures because they are all human constructs. "What al-Biruni seems to be arguing is that there is a common human element in every culture that makes all cultures distant relatives, however foreign they might seem to one another."
Al-Biruni divides Hindus into an educated and an uneducated class. He describes the educated as monotheistic, believing that God is one, eternal, and omnipotent and eschewing all forms of idol worship. He recognizes that uneducated Hindus worshipped a multiplicity of idols yet points out that even some Muslims (such as the Jabiriyya) have adopted anthropomorphic concepts of God.
Al-Biruni wrote about the peoples, customs and religions of the Indian subcontinent. According to Akbar S. Ahmed, like modern anthropologists, he engaged in extensive participant observation with a given group of people, learnt their language and studied their primary texts, presenting his findings with objectivity and neutrality using cross-cultural comparisons. Akhbar S. Ahmed concluded that Al-Biruni can be considered as the first Anthropologist, however, others argue that he hardly can be considered an anthropologist in the conventional sense.
Bīrūnī's fame as an Indologist rests primarily on two texts. Al-Biruni wrote an encyclopedic work on India called Taḥqīq mā li-l-hind min maqūlah maqbūlah fī al-ʿaql aw mardhūlah (variously translated as "Verifying All That the Indians Recount, the Reasonable and the Unreasonable" or "The book confirming what pertains to India, whether rational or despicable") in which he explored nearly every aspect of Indian life, including religion, history, geography, geology, science, and mathematics. During his journey through India, military and political histories were not of Al-Biruni's main focus. Instead, he decided to document the more civilian and scholarly areas of Hindu life such as culture, science, and religion. He explores religion within a rich cultural context. He expresses his objective with simple eloquence: He also translated the works of Indian sage Patanjali with the title Tarjamat ketāb Bātanjalī fi’l-ḵalāṣ men al-ertebāk.
An example of Al-Biruni's analysis is his summary of why many Hindus hate Muslims. Biruni notes in the beginning of his book how the Muslims had a hard time learning about Hindu knowledge and culture. He explains that Hinduism and Islam are totally different from each other. Moreover, Hindus in 11th century India had suffered waves of destructive attacks on many of its cities, and Islamic armies had taken numerous Hindu slaves to Persia, which—claimed Al-Biruni—contributed to Hindus becoming suspicious of all foreigners, not just Muslims. Hindus considered Muslims violent and impure, and did not want to share anything with them. Over time, Al-Biruni won the welcome of Hindu scholars. Al-Biruni collected books and studied with these Hindu scholars to become fluent in Sanskrit, discover and translate into Arabic the mathematics, science, medicine, astronomy and other fields of arts as practiced in 11th-century India. He was inspired by the arguments offered by Indian scholars who believed earth must be globular in shape, which is the only way to fully explain the difference in daylight hours by latitude, seasons and earth's relative positions with moon and stars. At the same time, Al-Biruni was also critical of Indian scribes who he believed carelessly corrupted Indian documents while making copies of older documents. He also criticized the Hindus on what he saw them do and not do, like their deficiencies in curiosity about history and religion.
One of the specific aspects of Hindu life that Al-Biruni studied was the Hindu calendar. His scholarship on the topic exhibited great determination and focus, not to mention the excellence in his approach of the in-depth research he performed. He developed a method for converting the dates of the Hindu calendar to the dates of the three different calendars that were common in the Islamic countries of his time period, the Greek, the Arab/Muslim, and the Persian. Biruni also employed astronomy in the determination of his theories, which were complex mathematical equations and scientific calculation that allows one to convert dates and years between the different calendars.
The book does not limit itself to tedious records of battle because Al-Biruni found the social culture to be more important. The work includes research on a vast array of topics of Indian culture, including descriptions of their traditions and customs. Although he tried to stay away from political and military history, Biruni did indeed record important dates and noted actual sites of where significant battles occurred. Additionally, he chronicled stories of Indian rulers and told of how they ruled over their people with their beneficial actions and acted in the interests of the nation. But, his details are brief and mostly just list rulers without referring to their real names. He did not go on about deeds that each one carried out during their reign, which keeps in line with Al-Biruni's mission to try to stay away from political histories. Al-Biruni also described the geography of India in his work. He documented different bodies of water and other natural phenomena. These descriptions are useful to today's modern historians because they are able to use Biruni's scholarship to locate certain destinations in modern-day India. Historians are able to make some matches while also concluding that certain areas seem to have disappeared and been replaced with different cities. Different forts and landmarks were able to be located, legitimizing Al-Biruni's contributions with their usefulness to even modern history and archeology.
The dispassionate account of Hinduism given by Al-Biruni was remarkable for its time. He stated that he was fully objective in his writings, remaining unbiased like a proper historian should. Biruni documented everything about India just as it happened. But, he did note how some of the accounts of information that he was given by natives of the land may not have been reliable in terms of complete accuracy, however, he did try to be as honest as possible in his writing. Mohammad Yasin compares it to "a magic island of quiet, impartial research in the midst of a world of clashing swords, burning towns, and plundered temples." Biruni's writing was very poetic, which may diminish some of the historical value of the work for modern times. The lack of description of battle and politics makes those parts of the picture completely lost. However, Many have used Al-Biruni's work to check facts of history in other works that may have been ambiguous or had their validity questioned.
Most of the works of Al-Biruni are in Arabic although he wrote one of his masterpieces, the Kitab al-Tafhim apparently in both Persian and Arabic, showing his mastery over both languages. Bīrūnī's catalogue of his own literary production up to his 65th lunar/63rd solar year (the end of 427/1036) lists 103 titles divided into 12 categories: astronomy, mathematical geography, mathematics, astrological aspects and transits, astronomical instruments, chronology, comets, an untitled category, astrology, anecdotes, religion, and books he no longer possesses.
A Critical Study of What India Says, Whether Accepted by Reason or Refused (تحقيق ما للهند من مقولة معقولة في العقل أو مرذولة); or Indica; or Kitab al-Hind; Kitab al-Bīrūnī fī Taḥqīq mā li-al-Hind.; or Alberuni's India (Translation) – compendium of India's religion and philosophy.
The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries (الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية) – a comparative study of calendars of cultures and civilizations, (including several chapters on Christian cults) with mathematical, astronomical, and historical information.
Melkite Calendar, or Les Fetes des Melchites – Arabic text with French translation extract from The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries.
The Mas'udi Canon (قانون مسعودي) – encyclopedia of astronomy, geography, and engineering, dedicated to Mas'ud, son of Mahmud of Ghazni of the eponymous title.
Understanding Astrology (التفهيم لصناعة التنجيم) – a question and answer style book about mathematics and astronomy, in Arabic and Persian.
Pharmacy – on drugs and medicines.
Gems (الجماهر في معرفة الجواهر) – geology manual of minerals and gems. Dedicated to Mawdud son of Mas'ud.
Kitab al-Āthār al-Bāqīyah ‘an al-Qurūn al-Khālīyah.
Biruni wrote most of his works in Arabic, as the scientific language of his age, however, his Persian version of the Al-Tafhim is one of the most important of the early works of science in the Persian language, and is a rich source for Persian prose and lexicography. The book covers the Quadrivium in a detailed and skilled fashion.
After Al-Biruni's death, in the Ghaznavid dynasty and following centuries his work was not built on, nor referenced. It was only hundreds of years later in the West, that his books became read and referenced again, especially his book on India which became relevant to the British Empire's activity in India from the 17th century.
A film about his life, Abu Raykhan Beruni, was released in the Soviet Union in 1974.
The lunar crater Al-Biruni and the asteroid 9936 Al-Biruni were named in his honour.
In June 2009, Iran donated a pavilion to the United Nations Office in Vienna—placed in the central Memorial Plaza of the Vienna International Center. Named the Scholars Pavilion, it features the statues of four prominent Iranian scholars: Avicenna, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Zakariya Razi (Rhazes) and Omar Khayyam.
^ Al-Biruni's idea of al-Hind (India) was a cultural zone, more or less coinciding with the present day India.
^ Patrologia orientalis. Robarts – University of Toronto. Paris Firmin-Didot. 1907. p. 291.
^ a b Kennedy, E.S. (1975-06-26). "The Exact Sciences". In Frye, R. N.; Fisher, William Bayne. The Cambridge History of Iran: The period from the Arab invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge University Press. p. 394. ISBN 9780521200936.
^ Ataman, Kemal (2008). Understanding Other Religions: Al-Biruni's and Gadamer's "fusion of Horizons". CRVP. p. 58. ISBN 9781565182523.
^ Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (1879). The Chronology of Ancient Nations: An English Version of the Arabic Text of the Athâr-ul-Bâkiya of Albîrûnî, Or "Vestiges of the Past". Translated by Sachau, Eduard. Oriental translation fund of Great Britain & Ireland. In our time the word is pronounced Biruni (or Beerooni), e.g. in Teheran. but the vowel of the first syllable is majhul, which means that in more ancient times it was pronounced Beron (or Bayroon)... That the name was pronounced in this way in Central Asia about the author's time, we learn from indisputable statement regarding our author from the pen of Alsam'ani, a philologist and biographer of high repute.
^ Mackenzie, D.N. (2014-09-25). A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-1366-1396-8.
^ BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN. Encyclopædia Iranica, (1989, December 15). Retrieved August 20, 2015.
Rahman, H. U. (1995), A Chronology of Islamic History : 570 – 1000 CE, London: Mansell Publishing, p. 167, ISBN 1-897940-32-7, A Persian by birth, Biruni produced his writings in Arabic, though he knew, besides Persian, no less than four other languages.
"Al-Bīrūnī | Persian scholar and scientist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
Lindberg, David C. (1980-03-15). Science in the Middle Ages. University of Chicago Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780226482330. A Persian by birth, a rationalist in disposition, this contemporary of Avicenna and Alhazen not only studied history, philosophy, and geography in depth, but wrote one of the most comprehensive Muslim astronomical treatises, the Qanun Al-Masu'di.
Massignon, L. (1951). "Al-Biruni et la valuer internationale de la science arabe"". Al-Bīrūnī Commemoration Volume A.H.362-A.H.1362. Iran Society. pp. 217–219. In a celebrated preface to the book of Drugs, Biruni says, "And if it is true that in all nations one likes to adorn oneself by using the language to which one has remained loyal, having become accustomed to using it with friends and companions according to need, I must judge for myself that in my native Khwarezmian, science has as much as chance of becoming perpetuated as a camel has of facing Kaaba.
^ Healey, Christina (2006). Al-Biruni.
^ Verdon, Noémie (2015). "Conceptualisation of al-Hind by Arabic and Persian writers". In Ray, Himanshu Prabha. Negotiating Cultural Identity: Landscapes in Early Medieval South Asian History. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-317-34130-7.
^ a b c d e f g h i j Sparavigna, Amelia (2013). "The Science of Al-Biruni". International Journal of Sciences. 2.
^ Strohmaier 2006, p. 112.
^ Papan-Matin, Firoozeh (2010). Beyond Death: The Mystical Teachings of ʻAyn Al-Quḍāt Al-Hamadhānī. BRILL. p. 111. ISBN 9004174133.
^ Hodgson, Marshall G. S. (1974). The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. University of Chicago Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0226346779.
^ Waardenburg, Jacques (1999-08-19). Muslim Perceptions of Other Religions: A Historical Survey. Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780195355765.
^ Khan, M.S. (1976). "Al-Biruni and the Political History of India". Oriens. 25/26.
^ Al-Biruni, R. (2004-03-01). The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 9780766193079.
^ Noonan, George C. (July 2005). Classical Scientific Astrology. American Federation of Astr. ISBN 9780866900492.
^ Berjak 2005, part 5.
^ Berjak 2005, part 3.
^ Berjak 2005, part 8.
^ Rosenfeld, B. "Book review of Life and Works of al-Buruni by P. Bulgakov". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 5: 135. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
^ Covington, Richard. "Rediscovering Arabic Science". Aramco World. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
^ Houtsma M. Th. in Encyclopaedia of Islam (Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P., eds.), (2007).
^ Stephenson, F. Richard (2008-03-24). Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation. Cambridge University Press. pp. 45, 457, 488–499. ISBN 9780521056335.
^ a b Alikuzai 2013.
^ Rozhanskaya, Mariam; Levinova, I. S. (1996). Rushdī, Rāshid, ed. Statics. Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Psychology Press. p. 642. ISBN 9780415124119. Using a whole body of mathematical methods (not only those inherited from the antique theory of ratios and infinitesimal techniques, but also the methods of the contemporary algebra and fine calculation techniques), Muslim scientists raised statics to a new, higher level. The classical results of Archimedes in the theory of the centre of gravity were generalized and applied to three-dimensional bodies, the theory of ponderable lever was founded and the 'science of gravity' was created and later further developed in medieval Europe. The phenomena of statics were studied by using the dynamic approach so that two trends – statics and dynamics – turned out to be inter-related within a single science, mechanics. The combination of the dynamic approach with Archimedean hydrostatics gave birth to a direction in science which may be called medieval hydrodynamics. [...] Numerous fine experimental methods were developed for determining the specific weight, which were based, in particular, on the theory of balances and weighing. The classical works of al-Biruni and al-Khazini can by right be considered as the beginning of the application of experimental methods in medieval science.
^ Starr, S. Frederick (12 December 2013). "So, Who Did Discover America? | History Today". www.historytoday.com. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
^ Kujundzić, E.; Masić, I. (1999). "[Al-Biruni—a universal scientist]". Med. Arh. (in Croatian). 53 (2): 117–120. PMID 10386051.
^ Levey, Martin (1973). Early Arabic Pharmacology: An Introduction Based on Ancient and Medieval Sources. Brill Archive. p. 179. ISBN 90-04-03796-9.
^ a b Pingree 2010.
^ Rosenthal 1976, p. 10.
^ Ahmed, Akbar S. (1984). "Al-Beruni: The First Anthropologist". RAIN (60): 9–10. doi:10.2307/3033407. JSTOR 3033407.
^ Tapper, Richard (1995). ""Islamic Anthropology" and the "Anthropology of Islam"". Anthropological Quarterly. 68 (3): 185–193. doi:10.2307/3318074. JSTOR 3318074.
^ a b Lawrence 1989.
^ George Saliba. "Al-Bīrūnī". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved Aug 12, 2017.
^ a b c d e f Khan, M.S. (1976). "Al-Biruni and the Political History of India". Oriens. 25/26.
^ Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (1910). "On the Hindus in General, as an Introduction to Our Account of Them". Alberuni's India: An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India about A.D. 1030. 1. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner. p. 17see also Vol 2 of Al-Biruni's India.
^ Kennedy, E.S.; Engle, Susan; Wamstad, Jeanne (1965). "The Hindu Calendar as Described in Al-Biruni's Masudic Canon". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 24.
^ Yasin, Mohammad (1988). Reading in Indian history. New Delhi, India: Atlantic Publishers & Distri. p. 19. ISBN 978-8-1715-6120-9. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
^ a b c d S.H. Nasr, "An introduction to Islamic cosmological doctrines: conceptions of nature and methods used for its study by the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, al-Bīrūnī, and Ibn Sīnā", 2nd edition, Revised. SUNY press, 1993. pp 111: "Al-Biruni wrote one of the masterpieces of medieval science, Kitab al-Tafhim, apparently in both Arabic and Persian, demonstrating how conversant he was in both tongues. The Kitab al-Tafhim is without doubt the most important of the early works of science in Persian and serves as a rich source for Persian prose and lexicography as well as for the knowledge of the Quadrivium whose subjects it covers in a masterly fashion"
^ "Kitāb al-tafhīm li-awā'īl ṣinā'at al-tanjīm كتاب التفهيم لأوائل صناعة التنجيم Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad بيروني، محمد بن أحمد". Qatar Digital Library. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
^ Patrologia orientalis. Robarts – University of Toronto. Paris Firmin-Didot. 1907 . pp. 291–312.
^ "BBc Radio: In our Time – Al-Biruni".
^ UNIS. "Monument to Be Inaugurated at the Vienna International Centre, 'Scholars Pavilion' donated to International Organizations in Vienna by Iran". Retrieved 11 September 2016.
^ "Permanent mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations office – Vienna". en.viennaun.mfa.ir.
^ Hosseini, Mir Masood. "Negareh: Persian Scholars Pavilion at United Nations Vienna, Austria". Retrieved 11 September 2016.
Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P., eds. (2007). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
MacKenzie, D. N. (October 18, 2011). "CHORASMIA iii. The Chorasmian Language". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2018-07-06. Chorasmian, the original Iranian language of Chorasmia, is attested at two stages of its development. The earliest examples have been left by the great Chorasmian scholar Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī.
Strohmaier, Gotthard (2006). "Biruni". In Meri, Josef W. Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K, index. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415966917.
"Ibn Sina - Al-Biruni Correspondence" (PDF). Translated by Berjak, Rafik. 2005. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
Alikuzai, Hamid Wahed (October 2013). A Concise History of Afghanistan in 25 Volumes. 1. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 9781490714462.
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Saliba, George (2010). "BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN iii. Mathematics and Astronomy". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2018-07-04.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abu Rayhan al-Biruni.
"BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN – Index". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
"Al-Biruni (973–1048)." Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 5 Feb. 2015. | 2019-04-18T17:38:00Z | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab%C5%AB_Ray%E1%B8%A5%C4%81n_al-B%C4%ABr%C5%ABn%C4%AB |
I met Jen and Patrick at Rosecliff Mansion at the annual Newport Bridal Show. Patrick looked at my work and said:” I am going to call you. Soon. “ … and he did. Nothing feels better than clients valuing your work and all you put into to it, to capture one’s wedding day as authentic as possible. It takes a lot of questions on my end, getting to know them, meetings over coffee or wine - or both and good chemistry. Luckily we had all those thing and by the time I met them again it was pretty clear, this is going to be awesome. I was super excited.
Jen and Patrick got married at Newport’s Oceancliff Resort, right on the water. After the first look we jumped into my car and drove to Fort Adams for photographs in the old Officers Quarters, which were SO cold - because it was winter - but so worth it! We had a blast! After being done there we headed to Brenton Point Park Beach and took some more photos on the rocks. We witnessed a nature phenomenon. A sun dog! I don’t know if you have ever heard of it, I didn’t. Please google it, it is fascinating. By far the most amazing thing I have seen so far in nature and we happened to be there. Breathtaking.
After finishing up the portraits and heading back to the venue, the ceremony was about to begin and there was no stopping this wedding party. Everybody just had an amazing time. The weather was chilly, of course, it was December … but that is what you want for a winter wedding right on the ocean. 65F wouldn’t cut it, with all the stunning Christmas decorations. It was simply perfect.
I woke up the next day, with a wedding hang over… that all of us photographers have a day after the wedding.. Heavy legs, sore arms.. exactly like you would feel after a heavy workout. But I couldn’t help myself but think.. omg, I will miss these guys. This was one of my favorite weddings to photograph.
Thank you Patrick for knowing what you wanted in terms of photography and going for it! It means everything. Please enjoy the photographs. They truly are special.
A very special thank you to Dave Paek for coming up from NY to photograph this event with me. Always so much fun. Can’t wait for the next one.
Basha and Marcin got married on October 28th, 2018 in Rye, NY. I met Marcin, when I injured my shoulder in 2015. He worked at the physical therapy place I was sent to. When he asked me about my photography business and that he proposed to his girlfriend I was thrilled being considered to photograph their wedding. After meeting Basha, I knew we were a perfect fit and photographing their wedding will be amazing. We are all Europeans and we share the same humor and view on life. To describe these two… To call Marcin a goofball, is an understatement. He is such a happy human being and he spreads it around and you can’t help it but laugh. Basha’s biggest trade I think is the endless patience she has to have to let him be. These two are an inspiration to me. They figured it out.
Basha and the girls got ready at her parents house. These girls know how to celebrate. I had the best time capturing those moments for them and being a part of this special day.
When Marcin arrived at her house for the polish blessing from the parents before heading to church, everybody was just simply overjoyed with love and excitement. It was quite a different ceremony and I was able to experience similarities, but also differences in religion. This is one of the parts I love most about my job. Different cultures, different ceremonies, always new experiences.
After church we headed to Whitby Castle in Rye. This one of a kind Golf Course location was the perfect setting for portraits and bridal party photos.
Basha and Marcin practiced a ton for their first dance and surprised us all with a choreographed piece, which was amazing! I don’t really have to tell you how well Europeans can party so I leave it up to your imagination.. or check out the photos! The rest of the night was a mix of dancing and singing and I truly loved to capture this day for them. I wish we could do it all over again.
Melissa and Doug got married at a wonderful venue in Hastings on Hudson, called the Harvest on Hudson. When I met with them first to talk about their wedding, I was so fascinated by their story and the deep love they have for each other. Doug just went through two rounds of chemo. I have never met a person so full of life, love and positivity. He is an inspiration to me.
When their wedding day arrived I was so excited to be capturing their love and tying the knot. The Harvest on Hudson is a tuscan looking venue, right on the Hudson River. Their ceremony was outside on the patio, followed by the cocktail hour and a sit down dinner.
We did a first look to save time later after the ceremony for enjoying their family and friends. The Hudson River is the perfect background for stunning portraits, especially when the sky gives you amazing clouds to play with.
The ceremony was one of the most moving I have heard in a long time. Not because of just the words, but because of their story and looking in their faces just made me realize how powerful love can be. Everybody was in tears. Including myself. This is what makes my work so wonderful.
Since it was a daytime wedding we stayed a little longer after the reception and took some sunset photos at the venue first and then went to the Tarrytown House, where they stayed to take more sunset shots on their roof top terrace. What a view. See for yourself. I hope you will enjoy the photos.
A special thank you to Dave Paek for coming out to shoot with me. Can’t wait to work with you again soon. You are such an inspiration.
Rachel and Michael got married at the State Room in Boston. It is a Longwood Venue. If you ever looked into wedding venues to pick for your special day, don’t look any further. They have a bunch to choose from and each and everyone of them is unique and stunning in its own way. The State Room is a overlooking the Boston Harbor and has breathtaking views.
Rachel and Michael picked the Langham Hotel to get ready with their bridal party, family and friends. It is right next to the Post Office Square Park, where they met to see each other for the first time. The weather couldn’t have been any better. Blue skies, sunshine all the way.
After taking portraits at the park with the two of them and the bridal party after, the family joined for family portraits with the bride and groom. I took the bridal party on a different route to the State Room so we could do some more fun shots on the way.
Arriving at the venue everything was all set for the ceremony. Lady Slippers Designs created the most beautiful arch for those two to get married. Simply stunning. When I visited the venue prior to the wedding day for scouting I saw this photo in front of my eyes. Rachels father walking her down the aisle, with the Boston Harbor in the background. A powerful moment in a stunning scenery. This photo ended up winning one national and one international award. The photo gods were good to me and it just happened to all fall into place. The bride and groom were thrilled once they found out.
After the reception everybody was just ready to party. And a true party it was!!! Please check out the photos and see for yourself. This is why I love my job. To capture the love and laughter, all these emotions. It simply makes my day.
Lina and Steve approached me after meeting with me at a bridal show in NJ. The reason they stopped at my booth was only partly my photographs, the other half was the Russian chocolate I had on my table. Lina is from Russia and I just happened to receive these chocolate as a gift from my painter, who finished up painting my house. I would always treat him with German goodies while he was working and he returned the favor in bringing the Russian chocolate.
After Skyping with these two, we knew we found each other. Fast forward to the engagement photos, which we took near Tuxedo in NY in a beautiful park setting. It was just too much fun. Check out the link if you like.
Their wedding was for July 21st, 2018 at the gorgeous Ballyowen Country Club in Hamburg, New Jersey. It wasn’t super sunny but we got some amazing clouds to work with, which to me is sometimes even more interesting than just simple blue sky. It makes the photos more dramatic and gives them an extra edge.
Once the reception started, there was no stopping them. The dance floor was packed and everybody simply enjoyed the love they have for each other. Lina and Steven are truly special and I am forever grateful they picked me to photograph their big day.
A favorite from this day.. the peach gummy bears got for everyone to take home. OMG!!! SO good!
Rachel and Matthew got married in the beautiful Hudson Valley in a small town called Chatham on a private estate, overlooking the mountains.
They started their celebrations the night before with their rehearsal dinner at the Rivertown Lodge in Hudson, NY. A very artsy town, with lots of great restaurants and galleries. People gathered from all over the country to celebrate Rachel and Matthew’s big weekend. They had dinner inside and then went outside to a tent area to continue their party and enjoying everyone’s company.
The next morning the bride and groom got ready at Matthew’s family estate, in separate rooms - of course - getting ready to see each other for the first time, surrounded by family and close friends. Proceeding with portraits after around the estate, which couldn’t have looked more stunning with all the flowers in bloom, the pool and the stunning views.
The ceremony was outside on the lawn in front of the house with gorgeous views overlooking the mountains. It was filled with funny stories about the bride and groom, important accomplishments and steps of their life’s, alone and together. The deal was sealed with breaking the glass and everybody was ready for cocktails around the pool and the big party in the tent after.
Rachel and Matt hired a fabulous band for their reception, which was held in a tent they put up the day before right outside the house. It was perfect. The esthetics of the design starting with the shape of the tent, the floral designs, the rustic tables and the round bar in the middle of the tent. It was out of this world. Matthew’s mom Meryl envisioned most of it. It was tasteful and so well executed with the help of Ashley Douglas Events. The reception couldn't have been more successful. Everybody was on their feet dancing the entire night. The band wouldn’t give them a break until the end of the celebrations. What a day. It was perfect.
A special thank you to Jeff Tisman, who came out to shoot with me. Always a pleasure and so fun.
Kelly and Harry got married on Nantucket on June 9th, 2018 in the most beautiful surroundings of the island.
Their rehearsal dinner was at the Sankaty Golf Club. I am talking beautiful scenery, overlooking the golf course at sunset, a cozy dinner room with lots of candles and filled with love and laughter. Hands down, this was the most emotionally expressive wedding I have photographed so far. So many happy tears. It was so beautiful.
After getting ready at separate houses, the couple met at the famous oceanfront street in Siasconset for their first look. Words cannot describe the feelings these two have for each other. Time was limited so we took our portraits and headed down the the walkway to meet eh bridal party for more photographs and then making our way towards the church.
The church in Siasconset is the cutest one I have seen in a long time. Very intimate and cozy, but bright and elegant. Since Nantucket is an island and Siasconset a fairly small town, the church will be used by both religious parties. Catholic and Christian, depending who needs it for the day. This makes so much sense even though I never experienced this before. The ceremony was full of stories and love and beautiful musicians and singers to go along with it.
For their reception the Kelly & Harry picked the Siasconset Casino. A super open and cozy space, which they transformed into an elegant ball room with the help of Soiree Floral. It simply looked amazing. I am fascinated by floral designs in general.. no idea how they do it! It takes a certain, very unique eye to envision an empty room and filling it with just the right amount of flowers and colors.
As soon as the party started the dance floor was never empty. Biggest highlight of the night next to fabulous, heartwarming speeches and lots of tears on the bride and grooms side - Harry’s dad singing on stage! Excuse me… ROCKING on stage. The room was ecstatic. One of the groomsmen took his job super serious and offered me a different angle… from sitting on his shoulders! How could you I say no?! I had a super awesome time photographing this wedding. Can’t wait to get back on the island in 2019!
A special thank you to my friend and college Patience Cleveland for coming all the way from Maine and shooting with me!
NYIT de Seversky Mansion brings together Gatsby-era opulence, modern convenience and comfort, and highly personalized service. Whether you are looking for a stylish location for your wedding or other social occasion, or a distinctive, flexible environment for your corporate meeting, the Mansion's elegant rooms and grounds will set just the right tone.
Imagine the romance and opulence of the Gold Coast in the 1920s. That era comes alive again as you are escorted into the mansion’s marble foyer with its grand staircase and mosaic inlays. Stroll across the landscaped grounds— simply the perfect backdrop for wedding photos. Seversky Mansion's elegant décor and historic architectural details make every kind of wedding celebration truly special and one of a kind.
Paulette and Nick created the perfect day and the perfect venue to celebrate their love. The elegance and classic style reflects in their personalities. I was truly honored to be their wedding photographer, to capture the emotions and candid moments throughout the day. Thank you for your trust in me.
Denise and Mariano got married at this super gorgeous wedding venue in Jersey City. The Liberty House, right across the Hudson River with the Manhattan Skyline in the background. This amazing location was designed to exemplify the view with a room concept and focus on the magnificent Manhattan skyline views. With farm to table cuisine, handcrafted decor and lavish grounds it has been named one of the best wedding venues and makes for a perfect wedding day.
Enjoy the photographs. I hope you like them.
Buttermilk Falls’ extraordinary 75 acre Hudson River estate offers a remarkable selection of lodgings, a farm-to-table restaurant, an organic kitchen garden and orchard and a world class spa. It is the perfect venue for your very special day. With farm animals around, in the middle of nature, perfectly secluded and private you can enjoy your stay in peace and quiet.
Skylar and Bob's wedding was a day of fun and extraordinary moments. I guess it comes with the territory when the wedding party is full of actresses and actors. Despite the brutal heat wave that day and the torrential rain, it turned out to be perfect. I was truly honored to be capturing all those moments for them to remember forever.
Diana and Erik's wedding was simply amazing. We had the best time photographing it and capturing their love story. Two truly unique human beings and I was so honored to be their wedding photographer. I kind of wish we could do it all over again! Their jewish wedding celebration was followed by a super fun reception, which highlighted their love for each other with family and friends.
This wedding followed the romanian tradition and we loved to capture all the details. Only a few know, that Romania has its own clear and colorless liquid with a kick, and it's actually the country's national beverage. It is called Tuica.
This wonderful couple couldn't have picked a better sport for their celebration. I hope you enjoy scrolling through their photos.
We were thrilled to be chosen to photograph Emily and Sam's NYC wedding. Have you ever been to the Kimpton Hotel Eventi?! You should go! What an artsy and elegant location. The perfect spot for a wedding right in the heart of NYC. And as we all know. New York City is always worth the travel.
Emily and Sam got ready at the hotel with their family and bridal party. They decide not to have a first look and see each other for the first time, when Emily would walk down the aisle. The smile on their faces said it all. They couldn’t wait to husband and wife.
After the ceremony I went out to take portraits with the bride and groom, followed by the bridal party. We got some fun NYC photos including a stranger falling down on one knee “proposing” to the just newly wed bride. Hilarious.
The reception was a blast. The Hotel itself already gave it such a gorgeous, artsy feel but they decorations and uplighting made it just amazing looking. Everybody had a blast and danced all night. | 2019-04-20T21:00:04Z | http://www.stefyhilmerphotography.com/blog-1/ |
Why to Think about Coffee Fund Raiser?
Times are difficult and basically everyone can utilize more loan, particularly groups and organizations. Now more than ever it is important to think of charity events and fundraising ideas. You need to be innovative to find up with a fundraiser that can eek what little money people have from their ever diminishing cost savings. This overview will assist you iron out what you should ultimate select for your fundraising requirements, and ultimately, come up with some special fundraising suggestions.
The charity event you pick depends a lot on your company. Are you seeking fundraising ideas for colleges, or are you seeking suggestions for charity events generally? You may not wish to utilize coffee for a primary school charity event, yet it could be a fantastic secondary school fundraising idea. It is constantly a great idea to make use of an internet search engine and be as details as possible with your search inquiry.
It is important to consider what you or your organization considers vital. Do you care about social justice? You may want to consider a charity event using coffee fundraiser. Does your company appreciate the setting? Then you will certainly want to promote an environmentally friendly alternative. Considering you or your company’s core worth’s is a healthy and balanced very first step in concentrating on a correct charity event.
Now, consider what will make your fundraiser distinct. One point that can truly make people determine and want to sustain your fundraising event is to have a personal tag. Some business will certainly utilize your organization’s logo or artwork to make a personalized label to reflect your organization or beliefs. Prices can vary from free to excessively high quantities for label arrangement, so it is good to look around.
Where is your organization found? It may exist are neighborhood business that can give fundraising solutions. If you are located in the middle of nowhere you might have to locate an online fundraiser.
It is always a good concept to check out the regional competitors. If there are a great deal of regional charity events from institutions, churches and other organizations people might me sick of fundraising events. If all the school kids are trying to sell cookie dough, you may intend to make use of another thing. How much cookie dough can one person usage? Even if one fundraising event appears popular it does not suggest that it succeeds. Possibly everyone is simply following along which will certainly result in a saturated market and low sales.
You need to keep in mind why you are doing this, to raise funds! You must look at the revenue, or margin of the item you’re selling. An additional good idea to consider is not just the percent markup, yet the real dollar amount earnings per product marketed. As you well know, a lot of companies utilize sweet bars for fundraisers. A lot of these sweet fundraisers have margins as low as 40%, so from the sale of a 1.00 sweet bar you’re just making 40 cents! The margins are generally around 45% leading to a profit of over 5.00 per bag.
The quantity of folks shopping online is expanding every year like a not every person is revealing the benefits of producing consumption of the Net to obtain items. Shrewd online buyer’s edge from getting distinct points far more sensible and moreover aside from extra time and the cost of an excursion for the Shopping concentrate. Unthinkable, some could guarantee. Nevertheless genuine, really, for the who see how to income by shop value slices available through coupon codes. First is a Mother’s time coupon code having a 15% rebate price plus the 2nd a Saint Patrick coupon using a ten percent benefit minimize, on distinct things? Coupon codes are known as in several approaches plus some simply will never state a lot with regards to the arrangement with no portrayal.
Coupon codes are available on the merchant’s website, found in a simple components location of the property Site or Discount web page. A standout amongst the most commonly accepted coupon code is Free Transport after a bottom demand amount and contains no code … Diverse coupons most often have a small credibility and in addition are given on extraordinary events or situations. The vendor’s site is not the place the best rebates can be found. You will find websites known as coupon code spots that rundown every one of the present legitimate markdown coupons for a selection of dealers and things collected in categories. A few provides are offered just during these coupon code websites and in addition cannot be discovered anyplace else, not actually around the merchant’s website.
The suitable strategy to go shopping online would undoubtedly be to abstain from going directly to a preferred vender, however to ascertain if there is a A Day Roi reachable for this particular certain seller or possibly a simultaneous shop with significantly better preparations. One could discover significantly better markdown charges following a few snaps of the mouse. There are actually coupon codes for fairly everything supplied at any picture of the season. Providing that a see is the necessary point, a markdown coupon internet site could display every one of the venders with honest to goodness coupon codes advertising designer watches. The inquiry enclose exhibit these websites would definitely in the same manner can be a swift intends to locate a plan of designer watches of your distinct type or brand name.
For all those not acclimated with creating utilization of Recommendation Codes from Protein Coupon Code the approach is essential. Once the sought after thing image with depiction, price and coupon code is displayed in the coupon website; every one of the purchaser has to do is faucet the connection provided to be diverted for the proportional factor about the merchant’s web site. Presently the cost is made an appearance without the importance cut in the thing’s site. Following the factor has truly been put into the vehicle; a site page is shown with a synopsis of the object, amount and likewise price. This will likely positively be time then for that cunning and likewise charmed purchaser to go to the design at web site with a grin in the experience.
If you are having an animal, it is important to offer them the most effective foods, deals with and chews. Love, love as well as care are what the pets get out of the people. To show your love towards your pet cat or pet cat, make use on-line shopping of devices, food to look for various other services. There are a number of shops offering a wider variety of selections to buy the items that the pet cat requires. Rather than browsing in the physical stores one can easily take the help of the on the internet platforms that offers a great deal of alternatives to understand the need for canines and pet cats and even the things are available in affordable.
There are different factors that make on-line shopping the best alternative to buy necessary items for your family pet shop sg. Let’s have a look at the factors that makes buying online a viable alternative for the proprietors.
This is the most important feature that makes the owner conserve a significant amount of loan on pet cat food and devices. While getting pet foods as well as devices online, person is sure of obtaining supplier discounts that reduces the price. Surfing the web in properly will certainly aid family pet proprietor to locate a number of on the internet shops that use marked down prices on each of the items they use. One can delight in the advantages of purchasing items in bulk from the online shops while taking pleasure in a greater quantity of discounts.
Getting products from physical market implies that individuals need to lug baggage to the shops. However while an individual prepares to acquire the items online they can get totally free shipping. This also reduces the added problem of stress in carrying the massive plan securely to the wanted location. You can buy the products being in convenience of your house.
Acquiring the most effective natural deals with and eat from physical stores indicates that these products were present on the racks for a number of week or days. However while you plan to buy online this indicates that the deals with are fresh. The choices used online come with a particular information section helps in comprehending the functions of the items before getting it. On-line stores display the things that are offered in the marketplace. If you are running out of pet cat food you can instantly place your order in the on the internet shop for prompt shipment that will certainly naturally reach you within the ideal time. Usually options are offered to make urgent distributions with a minimum extra cost on delivery. As a result, on-line systems are the most possible choices to select the appropriate product that you intend to buy and likewise provide foods of terrific nutritional value to the canines.
Recover the physical, psychological, psychological and energy bodies to recover PTSD, Depression and Anxiety Adopt a high nutrient diet plan. consume foods with a lot of vitamins, minerals and also anti oxidants. Eat primarily whole fresh veggies and fruit with some nuts, seeds and whole grains- raw and natural is finest – eat a great deal of green leafy veggies, especially spinach and kale. Avoid refined foods and also polished sugar – normally talking, they are toxic and are not healthy and have no fiber and also include a great deal of refined sugar/high fructose corn syrup and salt. Prevent fine-tuned sugar and also sugary and also unnaturally sweetened drinks such as soda and fruit drinks – they are toxic.
Consume at the very least 8 oz. glasses of filtered or sparkling water per day and eco-friendly tea. Press fresh lemon and also lime in your drinks. Detoxification with milk thistle and cilantro, along with warm water with fresh lemon and also Himalayan or Sea salt. Take great sized dosages of vitamins – a, b complex, c, d3, k1 and also k2 and trace minerals along with Co-Q 10 or Ubiquinol, turmeric or curcumin, fish oil and flaxseed oil supplements and coconut oil. For anxiety, try valerian origin, divine basil, kava kava, kratom, dark delicious chocolate and chocolate, magnesium supplements, b complex vitamins, chamomile, melatonin, passion blossom, clinical marijuana, walnuts, almonds, cashews, ground flaxseeds, ashwagandha, rhodiola, Gaba-aminobutync acid GABA and also triptophan.
For depression, attempt vitamins b comlex, folic acid, and d3, st. john’s wort, Sam-e, 5 HTP, colloidal silver and gold, nac, dhea, siberian ginseng eleuthero, ginseng, lion’s mane mushrooms, dpla, walnuts, almonds, cashews and ground flaxseeds,, complete spectrum amino acids. triptophan and omega 3, 6 and 9 fats fish oil supplements, flaxseed oil and hemp oil. Good sized dosages of Co-Q 10 Ubiquinol and Turmeric/Curcumin are good for clinical depression and anxiety. Get kratom online in canada .Holistic research study indicates the benefits of the following supplements for clinical depression and stress and anxiety: Holy Basil, Ormus/Monoatomic Gold, Valerian Root, Gaba, Ashwagandha, Tryptophan, Inositol, Choline, DPLA, Dark Chocolate/Cocoa, Kava, Chamomile, Magnesium and also Passion Flower. Holistic research study additionally indicates the benefits of N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine NAC, Lactium and also L-Theanine in addition to amino acid supplements for clinical depression and also anxiety.
Web shopping is viewed as among the noteworthy components of the internet in this day and age. On the off chance that you shop online, you will have points of interest. An expansive number of individuals are even now unacquainted with indicate that they are capable help spare a huge amount of cash by considering this store shopping strategy. As should be obvious there are restricted competitions between division shops, the equivalent runs with web stores. These electronic stores actually fight among each other to offer you shoppers with best costs they can. Purchasers advantage such a great amount from the fight between web merchants. To a great extent people decide on shabby arrangements; fortunately most online retailers help them to meet their necessities. A standout amongst the best examples of advantageous prizes is known as the ‘online just arrangements’. They can be for the most part given by stores who additionally have off the web income in the things. How this may profit customers is that they offer outstanding reserve funds for any individual who purchase things of specific items off their web destinations.
One of the other essential preferences of web shopping is it causes you to stop the occasion break dash. By choosing this purchasing strategy, you will never again need to take the time about remaining in the extensive line for making installments just as transporting every one of the stock that you have procured. Web shopping can be an engaging experience, in view of the things what you are looking for. For example, you might search for a specific Compact plate, and unimaginably regularly web retailers do give tests of the tunes joined into it. You may focus on these preliminary examples and may pick whether to purchase the Compact plate or generally not. This methodology preferably is superior to anything putting resources into a Compact plate from a retail location where by you conceivably won’t care for music once you have conveyed it home and played it inside your sound member.
Time reserve funds are an extra advantage of web shopping. With online shopping, you really do not have to push kilometers to find a retail outlet that offers the thing that you are looking given that you can buy it with the snap of a catch. With the solace of your home, it will be anything but difficult to deliver your purchasing handy experience very agreeable. 명품쇼핑몰 is just ideal for those individuals who wish to purchase key presents with respect to their dearest variants given that they do not have to look into costs in open territories. In the occasion you in any case didn’t agree to accept the expansive number of online customers, this is the suitable plausibility. You may absolutely lessen costs, time alongside your work.
Are you presently interested in learning revamping the way you look, at least when it comes to your personal style? In case you are, you almost certainly want to buy new clothes or type extras. When you attempt to stick to the most up-to-date variations in fashion developments, you probably take into consideration finding a popular and stylish style retailer to buy at, since they often hold the main necessary collection of apparel and clothes accessories for best fashion of the times.Whenever it consists of choosing a fashion shop to look at, you may have a wide array of alternatives. Among those options entails jogging appropriate all the way down to the natural shopping mall. Shopping malls really are a great place to discover a number of well known and prevalent fashion stores. While many minimal malls do have some good fashion stores to look at, you’ll get a bigger collection of fashion stores by looking at a bigger shopping center. Larger shopping centers are generally found in huge metropolitan areas or perhaps in fashion trip places.
Moreover, you’ll be thinking about asking men and women what you are about acquainted with for a few suggestions. This operates a smart idea to watch your close friend wearing some apparel, such as attire or perhaps an organization match that you might want to possess for yourself. So all you need to do is merely request your good friend for the retail outlet she obtained the piece. You can also inquire your good friend about her impressions concerning the retail outlet and if she appreciates shopping there. If she wants and when you favor her fashion and style, there’s a high possibility that you just will delight in the design retail store. In case you have by no means heard about the design and style shop simply being recommended for you just before, you will need to discover the placement from the go shopping to begin with 홍콩명품쇼핑몰.
Yet another option you could opt for with regards to getting a wonderful fashion store to buy at is simply by keeping your view large open. As previously mentioned, a lot of style stores can be found inside of shopping malls, nevertheless not necessarily. Several fashion stores are stand-alone stores. Because of this, if you are shopping for foodstuffs or just driving residence from operate; make your eyes open to not miss your chance to find your fashion store. Lots of the individuals who find yourself discovering their favorite fashion stores simply happen to do it by accident.The internet is an additional way you can go for regarding locating info on the regionally dependent design shop. Several organizations, in addition to vogue stores, get their online websites. Additionally, you will be able to use enterprise directories, as numerous connect to the business’s online web site. | 2019-04-23T17:08:40Z | http://www.wildwinghunts.com/category/shopping/ |
It’s a shame that Jamie Whyte’s books are so brief. They keep me rolling on the floor almost continuously. Then again, I would probably develop an even worse set of lungs if I spent more time rolling around dirty carpets gasping for air.
[p14] Beginners in specifying political goals ought to study this list well. It is a beautiful example. First, there are ten goals. Ten is really the only suitable number of goals. Not only is it a round number, it is likely to bring to mind the Ten Commandments with all its divine authority. Seven, though also biblical, might conjure up the deadly sins and so should be avoided. Twelve is OK, what with the twelve disciples and all that, but the number has been tainted by the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve step recovery programme. You don’t want to cast Britain as a recovering alcoholic.
[p16] In January 2004, shortly after becoming leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard published a personal creed of sixteen principles. Sixteen is a strange number of principles; for reasons already considered, it should have been ten. And in the case of Mr Howard’s principles ten would also have had the virtue of reducing their number. For they are pathetic. None distinguishes Mr Howard from Mr Blair or from Gordon Brown or, indeed, from anyone who can operate a toaster.
[p24] Any system that depends on the superior morality of its participants is poorly designed. A well-run army does not require heroic soldiers, and a well-structured polity does not require honest politicians. Political deceit should be so readily discovered and punished that even the most conniving politician becomes utterly trustworthy.
[p28] Even given the great progress of British sentimentality, American political campaigning still strikes most of us as gauche. But that doesn’t mean British politicians do not indulge in the same shenanigans. They simply employ a style better suited to British sensibilities. Irrelevant associations needn’t be boldly declared in red, white and blue; they can be subtly suggested just as well.
[p61] But if people really did want to spend more of their income on education, they were free to do so. They could hire private tutors for their children or donate money to local schools to improve facilities or hire extra teachers. The only justification for increasing tax to spend on something is that the [p62] money would not otherwise be spent on it. Mr Salmond wanted to increase income tax and spending on education precisely because he doubted people would spend the money if not compelled to. A policy of compulsion may be right, but it cannot be right because people want to do what they will now be compelled to do.
It isn’t only some on the Left who claim that people should be compelled to do what they prefer to do. John Hayes, Conservative MP for South Holland and Deeping, recently wrote an article in The Spectator lamenting a new liberalism infecting the Conservative Party. He claimed that the party should adopt a policy of actively promoting certain virtues, such as ‘duty, restraint and loyalty’. Why? Because these are the values of the vast majority of British citizens. Yet if they are, why would the government need to promote them? Why waste money encouraging the values that people already have?
Mr Hayes favours policies that promote his values. You would expect him to justify this idea on the ground that his values are right but sadly uncommon. Alas, that would look undemocratic. Who is he to impose his values on a population that does not share them? So instead he claims that his values should be imposed on people precisely because they share them. It may be crazy but at least it’s democratic.
[p64] It is an absurd argument insofar as it is intended to win your vote. If something really is inevitable, then it should make no difference to how you cast your vote; it will happen whoever comes to power. But the absurdity of an argument never stopped a politician making it.
[p65] There is something mesmerising about obvious falsehoods declared with conviction.
This theory has at least two problems. It is inconsistent with what modern scientists believe about the age of the Earth, which they estimate to be not 6000 but 4.5 billion years old. And there is no evidence for the theory, beyond the opinions of the authors of relevant bits of the Bible, who we cannot regard as reliable sources: they fail to explain either their evidence or their research methods.
Creationists are acutely aware of the first problem. They devote much energy to challenging contemporary theories about the age of the Earth and its natural history: evolution, dinosaurs and all that nonsense. But they fail to notice the second problem. They argue as though refuting the contemporary scientific view would suffice to establish the truth of [p70] Creationism. They argue as if modern science and Creationism were the only options.
They are not. There are also the creation stories of the world’s other pre-enlightenment cultures. Establishing the truth of Creationism by a process of elimination would require the refutation of these stories too. And not just these stories but all those possible creation stories that have not been made up but could have been - that the earth is a giant pomegranate that fell off the back of a cosmic fruit truck or was created three weeks ago by the number 12 or whatever you like.
When there are infinitely many possible answers, you cannot gain victory for your hypothesis by eliminating the alternatives: there will always be another you have not yet defeated. And you certainly cannot win by eliminating just one of them. Creationists who think that they can prove their position by attacking the popular scientific view commit the false dichotomy fallacy. They argue as though there were only two possibilities when in fact there are many.
What’s good for the priest is good for the politician.
[p81] The standard argument against fox hunting is that it is cruel to foxes. Or, as the Blairite Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, recently put it: the government supports ‘the right of the majority to live in a humane, modern society, which does not treat the killing of animals as “sport”‘.31 But the sports of fishing and shooting involve the killing of animals. Surely they too should be illegal. What is the relevant difference between the cruel sport of hunting foxes with hounds and the cruel sports of shooting and fishing? Why should the former be outlawed and the latter protected at all political cost?
In his article Mr Blair hinted at an answer. He pointed out that hunting with hounds is a ‘minority interest’. He could not have been suggesting a whole new principal of jurisprudence, that all minority interests should be illegal. That would rule out stamp collecting and running for political office, among other harmless activities. Rather, he must have been suggesting a qualification to the cruelty principle. He thinks that cruel minority sports should be illegal; popular forms of cruelty are just fine.
[p84] Since his intellectual conversion, Mr Blair has claimed that free markets, competition and the profit motive are the best way to ensure an efficient allocation of resources. Why then does he not try to privatise the NHS and state schools? The answer cannot be that these services are too important to ‘be left to the free market’. What could be more important than the production and distribution of food? Yet the Labour Party never suggests nationalising farms and supermarkets. Perhaps Mr Blair has some complex set of principles that explains why schools should be nationalised but not supermarkets. But if he does, he doesn’t tell us what it is. In the meantime, he appears to have an incoherent set of policies.
Many think it is childishly pedantic to demand consistency from politicians. It shows a failure to understand the messy reality of politics. Politicians need to be masters of ‘the art of the possible’, not intellectual purists. Those of us who worry about consistency should grow up.
But consistency is not a matter of purely academic concern. If statements are inconsistent, then at least one of them is false. A politician who advocates policies that violate principles he uses to defend other policies isn’t just intellectually corrupt; he has some wrong policies - at least, he does if his principles are true. If smoking and drinking should be allowed because they cause little harm to anyone but the smokers and drinkers, then snorting cocaine should be allowed too. The law preventing it is wrong. Improperly denying citizens their liberties is a serious mistake. It is not something that only pedants should worry about.
[p86] No one likes changing his mind, for a simple reason: if your new opinion is true then your old opinion must have been false. To change your mind is to admit error.
People really shouldn’t worry about it so much. There need be nothing shameful in changing your opinion. Intelligent, well-informed people get things wrong. And, when they disCOver they have, revising their opinions is the only sensible thing to do. Changing your mind occasionally should be taken as a virtue. It shows that you are still thinking about things. If you have held exactly the same opinions for the past ten years, then you know when your brain shut down.
Why then are politicians so reluctant to admit that they have changed their position on an issue? The obvious answer is that doing so creates a kerfuffle in the media. The politician will immediately be accused of making a U-turn. It is a strange accusation. Making a U-turn is, of Course, prohibited on some busy streets, but usually it is a sensible thing to do when you discover you are travelling in the wrong direction.
[p94] What, after all, is anti-social justice? But if social justice is simply justice, then who could ever have thought it inconsistent with economic efficiency? The economic efficiency of developed nations is founded upon the rule of law and enforceable contracts provided by their judicial systems. This has been well understood for centuries. To suggest that, prior to the advent of New Labour, conventional wisdom had considered justice and economic efficiency to be at odds is outrageously stupid.
Of course, by ‘social justice’ Mr Blair might not mean justice. He might mean what many on the Left mean by it: namely, redistribution of wealth. But if this is what he means then social justice and economic efficiency really are at odds, even now that we have New Labour.
Taxation creates what economists call deadweight losses. These are losses that are not offset by any corresponding gain. Deadweight loss is economic inefficiency. The greater the deadweight loss, the greater the inefficiency. Taxes create this economic inefficiency because they discourage people from engaging in the taxed activity, such as earning income or purchasing goods. Head or ‘poll’ taxes are an exception because they cannot be avoided by changing your economic behaviour. Only killing yourself will suffice, and that defeats the purpose of avoiding tax, which is normally better to enjoy your money, not just to thwart the government.
Mr Blair has not found a way of redistributing wealth that does not require taxation. Nor has he discovered a way to avoid the deadweight losses of taxation. So he has not found a way of avoiding the trade-off between economic efficiency and the redistribution of wealth.
[p97] Remove prices, however, and the optimal supply cannot be determined. When everything costs consumers the same - in this case, nothing - consumers will always choose the best available. If Chateau Petrus and Jacob’s Creek were both free, everyone would want lots of the former and none of the latter. Petrus would have to be rationed, and Jacob’s Creek forced on disgruntled drinkers.
Where consumers pay nothing, state rationing is unavoidable. As consumers, people want rations increased; as taxpayers, they want them decreased. The state ration imposes a [p98] trade-off between these conflicting desires. Where there are prices, however, consumers ration themselves. The advantage of prices over tax-funded free consumption is that individuals know their preferred trade-offs better than the state can. That is why consumers are typically more satisfied with goods and services they receive via the private sector than those they receive from the state.
Perhaps Mr Blair has an answer for this apparent problem, a breakthrough idea that eliminates the need for prices in efficiently allocating resources. If he has, he should share it with us, if only because it would be worth a Nobel prize in economics. Until he does, however, it can only seem that Mr Blair is attempting the impossible.
Many will be impressed to hear that Mr Blair is attempting to do the impossible. Because nothing is really impossible. ‘Impossible’ is just a word for people who aren’t willing to put in 110% effort.
New societies do not arrive just like that, of course. It takes more than a few months to establish a heritage of hope. So this kind of rhetoric can be enjoyed for quite some time. But not forever. People have limited patience. Even Jesus told his followers that he would return to establish paradise on earth while they still lived. And modern men are not nearly as patient or as gullible as first century Christians. It takes only a few years before they get tired of hearing about the promised New Jerusalem and start asking what the government has actually achieved.
But even a politician should stick to the basic rules of boasting. He should not take credit for others’ achievements, he should not pretend that failures are successes and he should not exaggerate his achievements.
The following three chapters concern the ways Mr Blair breaks these rules.
[p112] Where spending is outsourced it is unlikely to deliver a net-benefit. So Mr Blair ought to go to unusual lengths to show that, in the case of his public services policy, the benefits of this spending really do exceed the costs. Instead, he simply asks us to rejoice at the very scale of the spending, as if there were not the least risk of its being wasteful.
[p113] Presbyterians may like working but most people do not. \ That is why they need to be paid to do it. Your job gives you \ a salary, friends and eight hours a day away from the family. \ These are the benefits that offset the cost of the actual toil. If you made a breakthrough in your productivity, so that you – ~-~ could generate the same income with half the effort, you would have an interesting decision to make. Should you work just as hard for twice the money, or work half as hard for the same money, or something in between? Those who value money higher than leisure will keep their heads down; those who value their free time higher will put their feet up.
The same goes for an entire economy. As productivity improves, the population can press on and deliver a larger Gross Domestic product (GDP). Or the nation could make do with its current GDP and people could take it a little easier. Those of us who favour the second option will be accused of promoting an ethos of sloth. Perhaps. But as far as I know the seven deadly sins are not ranked: sloth is no worse than greed.
[p116] All must proceed on a mere hunch that the services [taxes] would provide are worth the cost.
In reality, the hunch on which they proceed is probably rather different. It is not that the benefits of their spending exceed the cost in tax. It is that the policy will gain more votes than it loses. And, when it comes to government spending, this calculation tends to favour increasing it, for two reasons.
The first is that the benefits of increased spending are typically enjoyed by many voters while the costs are borne by a few. Improving the quality of state education, for example, benefits 90 percent of families with school aged children. But the increased tax burden falls disproportionately on the rich: 50 percent of income tax is contributed by 10 percent of taxpayers. The policy has more winners than losers, even if the total cost exceeds the total benefit. Given our one-man onevote system, any policy that has many small winners and a few big losers is likely to be a vote winner.
The second reason is that many voters now seem to believe that taxation is intrinsically good. They favour it even when they believe it will fund wasteful spending. In November 2002, an ICM poll asked voters if they were willing to pay more tax to fund increased spending on public services. 62 percent said yes. It also asked respondents if they believed this extra spending would improve standards in health and education. Only 51 percent said yes. At least eleven percent of voters favour pointless increases in taxation.
With such people in the electorate it is little wonder that Mr Blair promotes his policies on the ground that they are expensive. But that doesn’t make the argument any better. Even in a democracy, pandering to fools is not the path to enlightenment. | 2019-04-25T10:51:07Z | https://www.robnagler.com/2006/12/31/A-Load-of-Blair.html |
The Fujifilm X-T1 is a new compact system camera that looks and feels very much like a miniature DSLR. The X-T1 features a 2.36m dot resolution OLED electronic viewfinder with the world's highest magnification and a lag-time of just 0.005 sec, hybrid auto-focus system with a fast response time of 0.08sec, a weather-proof body, five mechanical dials and six customisable function buttons, and compatibility with Ultra High Speed UHS-II SDXC memory cards. At the heart of the X-T1 is a 16.3 megapixel APS-C sized X-Trans CMOS II sensor, which has a colour filter array that mimics film grain and no optical low-pass filter for higher resolution images, Fujifilm's EXR Processor II, and a Lens Modulation Optimiser which automatically corrects diffraction blur. The X-T1 also has a tilting 3-inch LCD screen, 8fps burst shooting, enhanced wi-fi connectivity, interval timer shooting, in-camera raw conversion, a range of film simulation modes, multiple exposure and panoramic shooting modes, Digital Split Image and Focus Peaking for easier manual focusing, and Full HD video recording capabilities at up to 60fps. The Fujifilm X-T1 is available in all-black or silver and black and costs £1099 in the UK and $1299 in the US body-only, or £1449 / $1699 with the 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS kit lens.
In terms of its outward appearance, the new Fujifilm X-T1 is quite a departure from previous X-series cameras, sporting a DSLR-look rather than the classic rangefinder design that the range has become well-known for. Fujifilm claim that this decision has been taken to try and broaden the appeal of the X-series to action photographers armed with longer lenses, but we suspect that the X-T1 has also been designed to appeal to the large number of potential customers that want a DSLR, or at least a camera that looks like one. Whatever the reason, the X-T1 is undoubtedly a good-looking camera, with a classic DSLR profile, just in miniature.
The X-T1 is the first weather-proof X-series camera, with 80 points of weather sealing offering dust-resistance, water-resistance and freeze-resistance down to -10°C. The optional Vertical Battery Grip (VG-XT1) offers the same levels of weather-proof-ness. Curiously, Fujifilm didn't launch a wather-resistant lens at the same time as the X-T1, which means that it won't actually become a fully weather-proof system until you can pair it with one of the three new weather-resistant zoom lenses that are slated for release in 2014 (the first being the XF 18-135mm lens, due out in June).
As with the X-E2, the the X-T1 dispenses with the range-topping X-Pro1's innovative Hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder, replaced instead by a brand new high-resolution OLED electronic viewfinder. Although sharing the same 2.36m dot resolution as the X-E2, Fujifilm have clearly been hard at work on making the X-T1's electronic viewfinder even better. With a magnification of 0.77x, it narrowly beats the Olympus M-D E-M1 to the title of "EVF with the world's highest magnification", while it has a lag-time of just 0.005 sec, in practice answering one of the most common complaints about electronic viewfinders.
Fujfilm's engineers haven't stopped there though. The viewfinder has a stunning new Graphic User Interface that no optical viewfinder could ever hope to emulate. The default Full mode does what its name suggests and displays an uninterrupted view of the scene with all the settings information displayed outside the frame so that you can really concentrate on your subject. Normal provides an optimum view, including the shooting settings. The very clever new Dual mode is unlike anything that we've seen before, taking advantage of the EVF's size to display a split view of the scene before you, with the full frame on the left and a smaller 100% manual focus area on the right, complete with either focus peaking or Fujifilm's digital split image function. Finally, the displayed settings in the Full and Normal modes automatically rotate when the camera is held in a portrait orientation (although sadly not for the Dual view).
All of this - size, magnification, speed, and display - adds up to make the Fujifilm X-T1's EVF the best that we've ever looked through, no mean feat considering the likes of the viewfinders inside the Olympus M-D E-M1 and the Sony A7/A7R. Electronic viewfinder sceptics should definitely take a look through the X-T1's viewfinder - you might never go back to an optical viewfinder again.
The Fujifilm X-T1 is another amazingly well-built X-series camera, with absolutely no flex or movement in its chassis thanks to the die-cast magnesium alloy body and machined control dials. At the same time, it's actually a little lighter than a first glance might suggest, weighing in at 440g body only with the battery and memory card fitted, about the same as the X-Pro1. Measuring 129.0mm (W) x 89.8mm (H) x 46.7mm, it's slightly taller and deeper than the X-E2.
The X-T1 has a pronounced hand-grip at the front and a prominent rest at the rear for your thumb, with your grip helped in no small part by the textured faux-leather surface that runs around the full width of the camera. Two small metal eyelets on either side of the body are used for connecting the supplied shoulder strap. A metal tripod mount is positioned slightly off-centre from the lens and next to the battery compartment, so you'll have to remove the camera from the tripod to change the battery. The memory card is located on the right-hand flank of the camera when viewed from the rear. The X-T1 is the first ever camera to offer compatibility with Ultra High Speed UHS-II SDXC memory cards, which has the main benefit of increasing the data writing speed in continuous mode to about twice that of a conventional UHS-1 card. The X-T1 offers a continuous shooting rate of 8fps for 47 JPEGs if you use a UHS-II SDXC card, certainly up there with the fastest compact system cameras, although not as fast as the Olympus O-MD E-M1 which can shoot up to 50 RAW files at 10fps (even with a non-UHS II card).
At the heart of the X-T1 is the 16.3 megapixel APS-C sized X-Trans CMOS sensor, which is also used by the X-E2 camera. APS-C is a sensor size that's more commonly used by the majority of DSLR cameras, rather than by compact system cameras - Sony's NEX range and Samsung's NX series are the others. Fujifilm actually claim that the X-T1's sensor will deliver image quality that surpasses most APS-C DSLRs and even some full-frame ones, and as our test photos and sample images on the next two pages show , the X-T1 actually does live up to those claims. We won't say any more at this point other than to recommend that you take a look at our Sample Images for yourself.
Helping to keep the image quality high is the 18-55mm standard zoom kit lens that we tested the X-T1 with. This offers fast maximum apertures of F/2.8 at 18mm and F/4 at 55mm, with the added benefit of built-in optical image stabilisation to help keep your images sharp. There are aperture and manual focus rings on the lens barrel, which in conjunction with the shutter speed and exposure compensation dials on top of the camera body makes it straight-forward to set the exposure. We did find though that the aperture ring is easily moved, particularly when taking the lens on and off the camera, so watch out for an incorrectly set aperture. The 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS is a really nice standard zoom that's certainly a cut above the kit lenses that ship with most interchangeable lens cameras.
The 18-55mm lens' fast maximum apertures in conjunction with the large APS-C sensor make it easy to throw the background out of focus and achieve some really nice bokeh effects. The combination of the fast apertures and the extensive ISO range of 100-51200 makes the X-T1 very well suited to low-light shooting, allowing you to hand-hold the camera in places where you'd usually be reaching for a tripod (if allowed) or other support. The clever ISO Auto Control setting allows you to set a maximum sensitivity (up to 6400) and a minimum shutter speed (1/30th is a good starting point), with the camera over-riding your ISO choice if it thinks you're being too ambitious whilst maintaining a shutter speed that won't introduce camera shake.
With its focal-plane shutter, the X-T1 has a very adaptable top shutter-speed limit of 1/4000th second in all shooting modes. Consequently there's no built-in ND filter as on the X100/S, so if you want to use the 35mm lens at F/1.4 in very bright sunlight, for example, then it's a good idea to buy an actual glass ND filter. The X-T1 utilises a focal-plane shutter rather than the leaf shutter that the X100/S cameras have, much like a regular DSLR camera. This results in slightly noisier operation than on those very quiet cameras, although the shutter on the X-T1 is pretty stealthy by DSLR standards, and a much slower flash-sync speed of 1/180th second (versus the X100/S's 1/400th second). To make the camera less obtrusive there's a Silent menu option which turns off the speaker, flash, AF-assist lamp and most importantly the shutter-release sound, instantly making the X-T1 perfectly suited to candid photography.
The Fujifilm X-T1's auto-focusing speed is very similar to the X-E2, with a quoted fastest auto-focus time of just 0.08 seconds when using the 18-55mm zoom. The X-T1 has the same ultra-fast hybrid AF system with both a conventional contrast-detection system and built-in Phase Detection pixels which enables the camera to achieve a focus lock so quickly and accurately. The X-T1 has 49 individual AF points laid out in a 7 x 7 grid, with the ability to change the size of the focus point via the rear command dial to achieve more precise focusing.
Manual focusing is activated by setting the focusing switch on the front of the camera to Manual and using the ring that encircles the lens to focus. The X-series lenses have an electronically coupled focus-by-wire manual focusing ring, rather than a physical one. We criticised some older X-series bodies for taking a lot of turns to change the focus from 0.1m to infinity, commenting that it was a much better idea to use the AEL button on the rear of the camera to set the focus automatically, then use the focusing ring to micro-adjust the focus manually, if required. This is still a viable technique, but is perhaps no longer required as Fujifilm have cleverly made the focusing ring more sensitive to how you use it - turn it slowly and the focusing distance changes slowly, but turn it more quickly and the camera quickly moves through the distance scale. It now only takes less than 2 full turns and a couple of seconds to jump from the closest focus distance to infinity.
The X-T1 offers not one, not two, but three ways of manually focusing. Firstly, there's a handy blue distance scale along the bottom of the viewfinder (both the OVF and EVF) and on the LCD screen if you're using that for composition, with a red bar indicating the the focusing distance and a white bar showing the depth of field, which actually changes in line with the current aperture - very clever. In addition to the AEL button, the X-T1 has another trick up its manual focusing sleeve in the shape of the new Focus Assist. As its name suggests, you can press this in to magnify the view in the electronic viewfinder. Furthermore, if you hold down the Focus Assist button, the manual focusing aid then switches to Digital Split Image, and then to Focus Peaking - a very neat way to change between the three modes.
The second manual focusing method is the Digital Split Image feature. Harking back to film cameras of the past, this displays dual images on the left and right which then need to be lined up together for accurate manual focusing, enabling accurate focusing especially when shooting wide-open or for macro shooting. It's much easier to understand in practice than written down. The third and final method is the Focus Peak Highlight function, which displays a white line around the subject when it's in focus, something that Sony NEX users in particular have been enjoying for a while. Both of these functions make manual focusing on the X-T1 more of a pleasure than a chore, although the revised fly-by-wire manual focusing ring operation is arguably more important.
In addition to the class-leading electronic viewfinder, the X-T1 has a higher-resolution 3 inch LCD monitor on the back, which offers 100% scene coverage and 1.04 million dots, and can be usefully tilted up and down by about 90 degrees. The LCD screen has a handy Info view which presents all of the key settings at once, or you can switch to the Standard or Custom Live View modes, with the latter offering 14 customisable options (these are also used for the electronic viewfinder). The X-T1 has a built-in eye sensor so that you only have to hold the camera up to eye-level to switch between the rear LCD and the electronic viewfinder (or you can press the View Mode button on the side of the pentaprism).
In terms of operational speed, the Fujifilm X-T1 is very satisfying to use. Shutter lag is virtually non-existent on this camera (0.05 second), so once you have set the focus, you'll never miss the moment because the camera can't fire the shutter quickly enough. The shot-to-shot time is just 0.5 second, and it starts-up in only 0.5 second too. The write speeds from pressing the shutter button to recording to the SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card are fast too. Shooting a single RAW + Fine JPEG takes less than a second to record to a UHS-II card, a big improvement on the already speedy X-E2. Continuous shooting speeds have been slightly improved, with a faster top rate of 8fps for up to 47 JPEGs or 23 RAW files if using a UHS-II card, with a slower 3fps speed with AF tracking up to the capacity of the card also available. Thankfully the camera doesn't lock up completely for a long time if you shoot the maximum number of images in a burst, allowing you to continue shooting after just a few seconds. The X-T1 also offers interval timer shooting for time lapses, with intervals of 1 second to 24 hours and up to 999 frames.
One area in which the Fujifilm X-T1 excels is its handling, thanks in no small part to the numerous external controls that make changing the key settings a breeze, especially when holding the camera at eye-level. Surrounding the 18-55m lens is a circular aperture ring, although it has no markings due to the variable aperture. This dial also allows you to choose third-stop apertures. On top of the X-T1 is a large, tactile, lockable control dial for setting the shutter speed, with settings ranging from 1 second to 1/4000th second, an Auto option, a T setting for longer exposures (2 to 30 seconds, set via the circular command wheel) and a Bulb mode for exposures up to a whopping 60 minutes in length. Alongside the shutter speed dial is another tactile dial for changing the exposure compensation, with a range of +-3EV, and on the left-hand side is a third, lockable dial for setting the ISO speed, with settings ranging from Auto to H2. Together these three controls make it extremely easy to set the exposure.
Underneath the ISO Speed and Shutter Speed dials are two more dials, the first for setting bracketing, burst, multiple exposure, advanced and panorama functions, and the second for setting the metering mode. Cleverly, unlike the dials that sit on top of the them, these two dials are not locked in place.
Four other controls complete the X-T1's top-plate. The small but responsive shutter release button is encircled by the On/Off switch, although sadly there's no thread for a traditional mechanical cable release, as on the X-E2. Alongside are the one-touch Movie Record and-the Fn/Wi-Fi buttons, which by default provides quick access to the Wi-Fi options, but can be customised to suit your own needs from 12 different settings. Further customisation is available via the 7 Custom Menu options, which let you create, save and recall up to 7 sets of user-defined settings, and no less than 6 configurable function buttons. Finally there's an external flash hotshoe for suitable dedicated external units, into which fits the new EF-X8 flash that ships in the box. This small but handy flash unit has a guide number of 11 at ISO 200, more powerful than the X-E2's flash, which goes some way to compensating for the fact that it's not built-in to the camera.
The X-T1 features enhanced built-in wi-fi connectivity. Install the new FUJIFILM Camera Remote App and you can transfer your pictures immediately to a smartphone or tablet PC and then edit and share them as you wish, transfer stills and video onto the camera, and embed GPS information in your shots from your smartphone. You can also now control the camera remotely, the first time on an X-series camera, with the list of available functions including Touch AF, shutter release for stills and movies, shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO sensitivity, Film Simulation modes, White Balance, macro, timer and flash. The built-in wi-fi also provides a simple means to backup your photos to your home PC.
The Fujifilm X-T1 can record full HD 1080p movies at 60/30fps with stereo sound and a high bitrate (36Mbps), with the option for turning this mode on curiously buried at the bottom of the Drive menu, although at least Fujifilm have finally added a one-touch record button. It's fair to say that the X-T1's movie mode isn't overly advanced. You can set the aperture and shutter speed before recording begins, but not during, and you can also set the Film Simulation mode, so black and white footage is possible, and the exposure compensation. Continuous auto-focusing is possible, although it still tends to hunt around before locking onto the subject, and manual focusing is also available (with the same caveats as for stills). There is a HDMI port for connecting the X-T1 to a high-definition TV, although as usual there's no cable supplied in the box. Also missing is a paper copy of the otherwise helpful manual, which is supplied on CD-ROM instead, along with the consumer MyFinepix software the slow and rather unintuitive RAW convertor (essentially a specially customised version of the commercial Silkypix application).
The X-T1 has a logical enough rear control layout, although it's not quite as streamlined as the X-E2 thanks to the inclusion of the tilting screen. Above the LCD screen and to the left of the viewfinder are two buttons for choosing image deletion or playback, while on the right is the AE-L button, rear control dial and the AF-L button. Beneath those is the Focus Assist button, then the Quick Menu button. This provides quick access to lots of frequently used shooting settings including the ISO speed, White Balance, File Size and File Quality, with the 4-way controller and command dial used to quickly change them. A 4-way controller is used to change the shutter speed and aperture, toggle the macro mode on and off, and set the AF point. In the middle of the controller is the Menu button, which accesses the eight Shooting and Set-up menus. Underneath is the Disp/Back button which is used for changing the LCD display or going back. | 2019-04-26T14:28:04Z | https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/fujifilm_x_t1_review |
Where does state Rep. Kurt Bills stand on the issues he would face if he was elected to the U.S. Senate?
Beats me. I’ve only been waiting three weeks for an interview so I could ask him.
Bills, of Rosemount, a high school teacher and freshman legislator, is rumored to be the frontrunner for the Repub endorsement heading into this weekend’s convention in St. Cloud. That’s based on the belief that he is a Ron Paul acolyte and that the Paulites have played an inside game to get a lot of delegates slots to the convention.
The other guys seeking the endorsement dispute that Bills will prevail, and I wish them all the best of luck. I just think Rep. Bills ought to tell Minnesotans where he stands on the basic issues he would face if he beats incumbent Amy Klobuchar and becomes a U.S. senator. Bills’ chief rival, former soldier Pete Hegseth, answered my question the week he announced for the Senate, and I was tough on him. But he gets points for explaining his issue positions.
So I’ve been asking for an interview with Bills. I know his campaign manager Mike Osskopp got my emails, because he replied to some of them and said he would look for a time to get me on the phone with the candidate. But he never did, and now he’s ignoring requests even though I told him I would have to write about his candidate’s unwillingness to answer basic substantive issue questions.
Bills says he aligns with Paul predominantly on economic issues. “We’re all Ron Paul fans on economics,” says Bills’s campaign manager, Mike Osskopp. When it comes to talking about foreign policy, Bills says, Israel is an important ally and America ought not retreat from the world stage, contrasting himself from some of Paul’s well-known foreign policy stances. But, Bills adds, Republicans have to campaign in 2012 on issues regarding federal spending and the economy, not world affairs.
“That’s not what we win on in November,” Bills says. Osskopp puts it more bluntly.
That’s just silly. But it would be well worth knowing how much of Ron Paul’s general denunciation of recent wars and excessive military spending Bills shares.
Now, in the absence of an interview, if I really wanted to know about Bills’ issue positions, I suppose I could go to the “issues” page on his campaign website.
Federal Budget — The United States Senate should pass a budget; they haven’t since April 29, 2009, which is over 1,000 days. Our national debt now exceeds $15 trillion and is the direct result of unsustainable spending. If we want our children and our grandchildren to live with the same liberty and prosperity that we have, we must reverse this trend. Federal spending per household has grown more than 150% since 1965. The answers are straightforward. As your next U.S. Senator, I will work with fellow members to pass a budget, along with focusing on lowering spending. Unsustainable spending can be curbed by the federal government focusing on what it was designed to do as defined by the constitution.
This is purt near pitiful. For starters, can we stipulate that every member of Congress and everyone running for either house of Congress agrees with Rep. Bills that Congress should adopt a budget. Trouble is that with the House and Senate controlled by separate parties, and the Dem Senate majority being well short of a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, the question is can the two parties compromise their very significant divisions over the relative roles of tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit.
The question that Bills, and Klobuchar, and anyone else running for either house of Congress should answer is: What kind of compromise would cut across party lines?
In general, Republican unwillingness to agree to any deal that includes higher taxes on very high-income families and/or very profitable corporations has rendered progress on budget/deficit/debt issues very hard to achieve. There was that moment during one of the Repub presidential debates when every one of the candidates – each of whom claims to be horrified by the growing debt – said they wouldn’t make a deal that included tax increases and spending cuts (each of which would reduce the deficit) even if the deal was $10 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increase.
So if Rep. Bills would take a question or two on his budgetary thinking, I would ask him if would make a $10-for-$1 deal or even a (gasp) $2-for-$1 deficit-reduction deal.
Take a peek at Rep. Bills’ issue statements on Social Security and health care. He claims to have big ideas for improving them, but he doesn’t specify the ideas. I think you might have a few follow-up questions.
In the contest to be the Republican challenger to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Ron Paul’s supporters may decide the outcome.
The Republican from Rosemount said he'll seek his party's endorsement to run against U.S Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November.
Submitted by Hiram Foster on 05/16/2012 - 09:50 am.
Concerning senate procedures, I have been informed and to some extent my research indicates, that budget resolutions are not subject to filibuster and therefore can be passed by less than a filibuster proof majority. There are reasons why the senate hasn’t passed a budget resolution, but the need to put together 60 votes isn’t one of them.
Submitted by Eric Ferguson on 05/16/2012 - 05:23 pm.
It’s just not true there hasn’t been a budget passed. In fact, the Budget Control Act, which put the deal that ended the debt ceiling crisis into law, is a budget. More than a typical budget, which is just a congressional resolution with no force of law, this actually is law.
But will Republicans get off their “no budget since 2009” talking point. No. It’s false, but it works too well to give up.
Submitted by mark wallek on 05/16/2012 - 09:55 am.
How many more worthless candidates will the GOPers field? One would think that, with the presence of the horrific Bachmann, it ewould be embarassment enough for the state.
Submitted by Neal Rovick on 05/16/2012 - 09:56 am.
A lawyer’s primer: If you don’t have the law, you argue the facts; if you don’t have the facts, you argue the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, then you argue the Constitution.
Facts and positions are nothing but trouble. The less said the better. And if you can wrap in grand sounding pretension and platitudes, then it’s better. It’s a “wink and a nod” type of campaign–politics by dog whistle and publicly undisclosed agenda.
By the way, on his website positions page, he has it exactly wrong related to “political virtue”.–unlike what he says, “political virtue” is taking the public interest as paramount, not one’s private interests.
Kurt Bills, you don’t know his plans and he doesn’t either. And he doesn’t like political virtue, either.
Submitted by Paul Udstrand on 05/16/2012 - 10:06 am.
Republican positions are perfectly predictable, frankly there’s no need to interview him. The only thing Paulite’s might change is the emphasis on social issues and defense spending. They claim to be big on defense but as a practical matter we all know that if we had a much smaller military we wouldn’t be intervening all over the world, so the logic of non-intervention leads to a forgone conclusion.
Submitted by Eric Black on 05/16/2012 - 10:12 am.
but the kind of budget the Senate can pass with less than 60 votes has no effect. It’s explained here — although your eyes may glaze a bit. Anyway, I stand by my point. Candidates should talk about how they can contribute to actual lawmaking and buedgetmaking in today’s deadlocked climate.
Submitted by Tim Droogsma on 05/16/2012 - 10:24 am.
I’m not sure if Eric is being intentionally dishonest or just ignorant when he writes that the Democrats’ being “well short of a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority” has anything to do with the Senate’s failure to pass a budget.
A Senate budget resolution is not subject to filibuster, and does not need 60 votes to pass. In fact, it doesn’t even need 50 votes, all it needs is a majority of those senators voting. For example, the 2009 budget resolution passed on a 48-45 vote.
The Senate’s failure to pass a budget is an incredible breach of its legal obligation, and it’s dishonest of Black to write that “every member of Congress and everyone running for either house of Congress agrees with Rep. Bills that Congress should adopt a budget.” In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said it would be “foolish” for the Senate to pass a budget because it would mean his members – including the hapless senators Klobuchar and Franken – would have to take a difficult vote favoring either a) tax hikes, b) deep spending cuts or c) trillion-dollar deficits.
I’m not a delegate, and I don’t have a dog in the Republican senate endorsement fight, but I can’t really fault Rep. Bills for not taking the time to answer questions from a reporter that – at least on the topic of the federal budget – doesn’t really seem to know what he’s talking about.
Submitted by Paul Brandon on 05/16/2012 - 03:37 pm.
I suggest you look up the sequence of actions needed to get a resolution onto the floor for a vote.
Submitted by Tim Droogsma on 05/16/2012 - 06:57 pm.
Mr. Brandon – The Budget Resolution is prepared in, and passed out of, the Senate Budget Committee, then sent to the floor of the Senate. This is supposed to be done by April 15 of each year. By rule, it cannot be filibustered.
At least, that’s how it was done during the four years I worked in the Senate for a senator on the Budget Committee. If the process has changed since then, perhaps you can enlighten me as to the changes.
The Democrat-controlled Senate Budget Committee has not passed a budget resolution since 2009, during which time more than $2 trillion has been added to the national debt, bringing the total national debt to somewhere around $15.7 trillion.
Submitted by RB Holbrook on 05/16/2012 - 10:31 am.
Rep. Bills has not been in the House very long, but he has nonetheless cast votes and sponsored legislation. As far as I can tell, his votes have been pretty run-of-the-mill Republican party-line votes. His legislation raises some interesting questions. For example, does he think the US, as well as the state of Minnesota, should return to gold and metal coinage as the basis of our monetary system?
Submitted by Ross Williams on 05/16/2012 - 10:34 am.
This is the internet Eric, people don’t need you to cherry-pick information when you can provide a link. That is, if your goal is really to inform people. Here is the link to Kurt Bill’s stand on issues: http://kurtbills.com/issues/.
What you appear to be complaining about is that he won’t give you an exclusive interview that will help you to attract readers and sell advertising. That isn’t really the purpose of elections though and Bills has no responsibility to help you do either of those things.
He is running for the Republican nomination for Senate, a decision made by the elected Republican state convention delegates. How many of those folks are relying on you to inform them? I suspect the answer is close to none.
If he wins that nomination, he has a lot of time to inform voters about his positions. I am sure he will have a plan for doing that. Whether that will include providing you with exclusive content is another question.
Frankly, I suspect most voters have little need to know or care what Bills’ positions are. They think Amy Klobuchar has done a good job and plan to vote for her. Unless he can get people to reconsider that decision, his own positions are irrelevant.
Submitted by Paul Brandon on 05/16/2012 - 03:40 pm.
Bills will need more than just registered Republicans to win an election.
It’s those independent voters who will register something other than Fox news.
Submitted by Ross Williams on 05/16/2012 - 04:35 pm.
And how many of those “swing voters” are going to form their opinions while reading Eric Black on MnPOST in May? None. That Bills isn’t willing to spend time right now doing interviews with glorified bloggers is not an indication he doesn’t intend to educate voters about his stands on issues.
Submitted by Dennis Tester on 05/16/2012 - 11:23 am.
You’re missing his point. Not only hasn’t the democrat-controlled senate “passed” a budget in over 1,000 days, they haven’t even SUBMITTED one for approval in over 1,000 days.
Also, I repeat my suggestion that if you’re taking your role as a political journalist seriously, that Amy Klobuchar be asked to answer these same questions.
I’m still waiting for anyone to ask her anything substantive.
Submitted by Joe Williams on 05/16/2012 - 12:00 pm.
One could argue that the House is just as irresponsible in its budgeting as the Senate.
Plus, the budget control act was a lot more concrete than a non-binding budget resolution, and the Senate has passed that.
Interviews are important, and the opportunity to differentiate yourself from another talking-point spewing automaton should be taken at every opportunity, unless that is what the candidate really is. Good luck getting the interview!
Submitted by Hiram Foster on 05/16/2012 - 12:06 pm.
Thanks, Eric, for your response. The fact is, like any legislative action intended to have a legal effect, a budget resolution must be passed by both houses of Congress. With respect to the deeming issue, it really makes little sense to deem that something has happened when it hasn’t. The real reason the senate hasn’t passed a budget resolution is political and practical. It would involve choices that are politically unpopular, and legislators have little or no incentive to support politically unpopular measures that have no chance of being enacted into law. In the current political climate, any budget resolution passed by the senate will do nothing more than provide an opportunity for the Republican leadership in the house to hold a press conference declaring it dead on arrival. This dynamic, by the way, is inherent with bicameral legislatures. It works much the same way in the Minnesota legislature. Often there is some sort of charade where the majority party proposes some version of a minority budget, in Minnesota it’s Dayton’s budget, just in order to make the minority take a difficult vote, usually against the budget. It’s the sort of gamesmanship that when either party does it, and both parties do it, isn’t greeted with nearly the scorn it deserves.
Submitted by Eric Black on 05/16/2012 - 12:22 pm.
who knows more about politics and Senate procedures than I do. I already supplied a link to the Economist (here it is again) explaining why a Senate budget resolution passed with fewer than 60 votes has no effect. The piece starts from the very Wash Post piece Mr. Droogsma cited.
It would be fine with me, in fact it would be good, if the Senate (by which we mean the Senate Dems) would adopt a budget resolution. I give credit to the House Repubs for adopting the Ryan blueprint. But it wouldn’t change anything if the Senate adopted a budget resolution, which would presumably differ on most of its key points from the House majority.
On the scale from substantive discussion to empty talking point, focusing on the lack of a “Senate budget” is much closer to the talking point end of the scale.
If I could interview Rep. Bills, I would be happy to ask him whether he embraces the House Republican budget, and if not where he differs with it. That budget answers many of the questions that Bills’ “issues” page avoids. He wants to reduce the deficit. He wants to put Social Security and Medicare on a sustainable basis. He wants to simplify the tax code. He even says he know what it would take to do these things. He should specify.
Submitted by Hiram Foster on 05/16/2012 - 12:22 pm.
In glancing at the link above, particularly with respect to what he says about the fed and money, it’s clear enough that Bills takes Ron Paul’s view of things.
Submitted by John Farrell on 05/16/2012 - 03:08 pm.
I’m a guy that enjoys watching the Legislature in both houses debate issues via PBS. I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time watching, but a couple of hours a day several days a week would, probably, get me qualified for “legislative junkie” status.
I don’t recall ever seeing Mr. Bills making a comment on any issue during the recent debates, bill hearings, or discussions in the 2012 Legislative Session. I disagree with Mr. Droogsma that Bills giving an interview to Mr. Black would be for the benefit of Mr. Black and advertising sales. An interview to be published in a public forum would enlighten this voter on Mr. Bills’ general demeanor, knowledge (either broad or narrow) of any issue he cared to bring up and his ability to have an original thought, idea or premise upon which we would all be better off as citizens of our state and the nation.
If Mr. Bills wants the benefit of the votes of the general public in November, he and his cohort need to step out into the sunshine of the public forum and not hide under the bushel of the Paul movement. While in the sunshine, Bills needs to comport himself as worthy of ascending to the lofty office he wishes to occupy and present his beliefs with provable facts.
Submitted by Eric Black on 05/16/2012 - 12:56 pm.
Submitted by Ray Schoch on 05/16/2012 - 01:26 pm.
Neal Rovick is right on target.
What does any of this MEAN? If the answers are straightforward, why not at least suggest what those answers might be?
The Obama administration’s health care reform package has basically not been put into action yet, nor will it be until next year at the earliest. What rights are being infringed upon by a change in the national health care system that hasn’t even begun?
The private health care system is the PROBLEM, Mr. Bills, not the solution. If you have the money, you can get the best health care in the world. If you don’t have the money, good luck at the ER. That’s why health care reform has been a topic of conversation for at least a decade. My last routine visit to the doctor – 15 minutes, plus the same simple blood tests I’ve been getting done for 15 years to monitor cholesterol and blood sugar– was billed at $688. THAT’S the problem, and no mandates were involved.
Who does not want a fair tax code? And how will you “simplify” it?
First, there’s no proof of this assertion. Second, any nation worth mentioning has its national government controlling its trade policies. To suggest otherwise is foolishness.
It’s Mark Twain’s line: “There are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics.” Odd – very odd – the Bills would choose 1930 as a year to cite, since the Great Depression was under way by then, and the federal government, in Republican hands, was loathe to spend money on anything, including national defense. No wonder federal spending was 3.4% of GDP.
Mr. Bills has not been paying attention.
There is no free market. Never has been. Never will be. The housing market collapse was brought about by deregulated private “investment” banks driven by greed to package fraudulent securities. Had Glass-Steagall regulations still been in place, there’d have been no “investment banks” (an oxymoronic term), far less inflation of housing prices, and far less likelihood of the collapse we’ve all suffered from.
Submitted by RB Holbrook on 05/16/2012 - 03:48 pm.
I would not have had the patience to wade through this combination of tired bromides, vague promises, and economic hallucination. Thank you for doing it for us.
Submitted by rolf westgard on 05/16/2012 - 07:12 pm.
Fortunately, Mr Bills has as much chance of defeating Amy Klobuchar as I have of winning the Power Ball.
Submitted by Paul Udstrand on 05/17/2012 - 10:57 am.
Who needs the media at all Mr. Black?
Hey, since we can all just go a candidates web site for the unadulterated truth, what do we need you or anyone else for Eric? Why should any candidate give any interviews at all? And what’s with this thinly veiled attempt to pump up your exposure using poor Mr. Bills as pawn in your liberal game of celebrity? And while we’re at it: why do you hate America?
Submitted by Greg Kapphahn on 05/17/2012 - 03:44 pm.
On MPR this morning. He was evasive. Refused to give any detailed answers and defensively hostile when pressed.
I woudn’t buy a used car from this guy, let alone give him a position of responsibility and power in the US Senate.
Submitted by Mark Borchardt on 05/19/2012 - 06:48 am.
I would be truly curious to see a journalist, interview any of the sitting representatives or senators with a list of their previous campaign promises. I would like to see this put against their voting record and against their effectiveness in meeting those promises. And be tough on all of them, why wouldn’t you be. Let’s hold those who have already gained our trust accountable first. I realize this requires more work as a journalist, but it should, after all, be part of the job. | 2019-04-22T22:06:29Z | https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2012/05/guessing-where-kurt-bills-stands-issues/ |
1. ELIGIBILITY: The Char-Griller Win it Wednesday Sweepstake (the “Sweepstakes”) is open to legal residents of the forty-eight (48) contiguous United States and Washington, D.C. (i.e., excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico and all other U.S. territories and possessions), who are physically located and residing therein at the time of entry (“Entrants”). Each Entrant must be at least eighteen (18) years of age and the age of majority in his/her state of primary residence at the time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, or any of its affiliate or subsidiary companies, promotion prize suppliers, and each of their respective parent companies, affiliated companies, subsidiaries, licensees, distributors, dealers, sales representatives, retailers, printers, individuals engaged in the development, production or distribution of Contest materials, their advertising and promotion agencies, and any and all other companies associated with the Contest (collectively, the “Promotion Entities”), and each of their immediate family members (as defined by the IRS) and/or people living in the same household, are not eligible to enter or win a prize in the Contest. All eligibility is subject to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations. All entries submitted become the property of the Sponsor and may not be acknowledged or returned. Sponsor’s database clock will be the timekeeper for this Contest. This Contest is void where prohibited.
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As digital natives become more immersed in and dependent upon technology, they are likely to experience “cyber fatigue,” which can be thought of cybersecurity complacency. Paired with the invincible feeling that often accompanies being young, this can be a dangerous combination. It’s easy to mistakenly believe that hacked devices and identity theft are things that only happen to adults. Kids and teenagers, however, are just as high-risk and the impacts of cybersecurity breaches could potentially affect them for years into their future. So how can we protect our kids’ digital lives in the same way we protect their offline lives?
The internet may seem like a playground of endless entertainment, but we need to educate our children about the dangers that exist there as well. Have you had a friend or family member who’s been hacked or somehow had important information compromised? Talk to your kids about it, how it happened, why it happened, and the work needed to fix it. These real-life examples may be one of your most powerful education tools, as they help children more concretely understand the concept of cybersecurity threats. Demonstrating that these things can happen to anyone, including them, is the quickest way to get their cybersecurity guard up. Looking for fresh ideas on how to talk to your kids about cybersecurity? Check out the Webroot Community for advice and tips.
Teach your children about the most common cybersecurity threats, especially ones that are particularly pervasive on social media, including phishing, identity theft, and malicious websites. They should never accept private messages from people they don’t know, or click on links from friends or family that seem out of character or suspect. If they aren’t sure a message from a friend is actually from that individual, they should not hesitate to verify their identity by calling them, or by asking specific questions only that individual would know. The comments sections of websites like YouTube are also potential flashpoints. Clever comments can entice users into clicking on a risky link that navigates them to a malicious site.
The temptation to download an illegal copy of a favorite movie, game, or album can be strong, but ethical and legal implications aside, it remains one of the most risky online behaviors. In fact, a recent study found that there was a 20% increase in malware infection rates associated with visits to infringing sites. Make sure your kids know the impact illegal downloads have on their security, and inform them of alternative streaming and download options. If you’re able, give your child an allowance for services like Steam for video games, or Amazon Video for films and shows. Providing them with alternative options is the best way to keep your child from giving into the temptation of illegally torrenting content.
A recent study found that people aged 15 to 24 spend about four hours a day on their phones. This works out to roughly 1,456 hours of mobile engagement a year, making mobile devices one of the most vulnerable entry points for cybersecurity breaches. Make sure your child’s phone is protected with a pin number, password, or biometrics on the lock screen, and that they know to leave Bluetooth turned off when not in use. Connecting to public WiFi networks could also leave your child vulnerable, but you can protect their devices from open networks by securing them with a VPN.
Many young people today use anonymous or “private” messaging services, like Whisper, Sarahah, or Snapchat, believing that they are protected by the apparent anonymity. However, cybersecurity experts have long been critical of these services, as nothing online is 100% anonymous.
Free applications have to make a profit somewhere, which often means that they are storing, tracking and selling user data. This is particularly dangerous as users are lulled into a false sense of security, which can quickly be shattered when these services are affected by a cybersecurity breach. Make sure your kids know nothing they say online is truly private, and that a negative digital footprint can drastically alter the course of their lives.
We believe cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, and that it is not just up to parents to educate digital natives. This is why we’ve developed a cybersecurity awareness initiative with the Aurora Public School System in Colorado. In addition to providing students with online safety tips, we’ve given them insights on potential career paths, and connected them with our engineers to solve problems using skills like math and coding that could benefit them later in their careers.
We encourage parents to explore and advocate for cybersecurity and STEM education opportunities for children in their local communities. For more educational content to help keep your family safe from cyber threats, visit the Home + Mobile section of our blog.
Earlier this week, a security researcher found payment card-stealing scripts running on the Infowars online site. The scripts managed to stay active for nearly 24 hours. At least 1,600 users of the site may have been affected during this period, though many were returning customers who wouldn’t have had to re-enter their payment information into the compromised forms. As of writing, the malicious scripts being used by Magecart are active on nearly 100 other online stores, with almost 20% getting re-infected within a two-week period.
A lawsuit recently revealed that savvy scammers successfully took nearly €19 million through a series of unauthorized transfers from a spoofed personal email address of the company’s CEO. After requesting additional information from the scammers, who continued to provide highly-detailed documents suggesting their legitimacy, several payments were transferred from the company’s main cash pool with promises of a quick payback from the scammers.
The headmaster of a Chinese school was fired after staff discovered an excessively high power bill previously written off as a faulty HVAC system was actually caused by several cryptomining rigs running off the school’s electricity. The headmaster brought the mining machines into the school in mid-2017 and evaded blame for the excess power consumption until the physical proof was discovered. While it appears no other harm was done, cryptomining software can be dangerous, as you can never be sure nothing else is bundled with it.
Researchers have been monitoring a relatively new botnet that is currently controlling over 100,000 devices, including 116 device types from multiple manufacturers. By taking advantage of well-known bugs within Universal Plug n Play, hackers can quickly take control of the device and begin monitoring traffic from outside of the network.
After originally claiming a data breach had taken place last month, affecting 9.4 million customers, new findings have shown the attacks have been happening regularly since March. Even though local laws didn’t require the company to notify authorities regarding a data breach, it is still surprising that it has taken almost nine months to determine what data had been exposed and what hadn’t.
It’s no secret that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are marked by an uptick in online shopping. Cyber Monday 2017 marked the single largest day of online sales to date, with reported sales figures upwards of $6.5 billion. Data from Webroot charted a 58 percent increase in traffic to shopping sites on that day. And while Black Friday originated as a day to tussle with your neighbors for deals in person, online retailers like Amazon and eBay wouldn’t be left out and have begun offering their own deals.
What’s less often discussed is the corresponding rise in cybercrime that accompanies these online retail holidays. Webroot noted a surge in phishing and fraud sites of 203 percent between November 19 and December 5, with the number of such sites peaking on Cyber Monday. Instances of spyware and adware also rose 57 percent during the busy holiday shopping period, again peaking on Cyber Monday.
For business owners and those in IT, Cyber Monday likely means lost productivity as employees bargain hunt at work rather than actually work. (It’s interesting to note that, according to CNET, the first Cyber Monday in 2005 was intentionally made to fall on a weekday so workers could browse shopping sites on faster computers.) As our data shows, more than just a few hours of lost productivity are at stake.
Employees expose business owners to greater risks of phishing scams, ransomware, and other types of attack that could significantly lengthen downtimes for all employees, or even shutter a business completely. According to a Better Business Bureau study on cybercrime, more than half of businesses would cease to be profitable within a month if a ransomware attack were to lock them out of essential data.
What’s a Business Owner to Do about Cyber Monday?
Whether you’re a business owner or provide IT services, you’re likely to see employees or clients indulging in deals this Cyber Monday. But there are strategies for limiting your risk on November 26. As with much of cybersecurity, you can manage your policy for online shopping based on what you consider acceptable levels of risk.
With network-level protection it’s possible to block access to any sites categorized as “shopping,” while still whitelisting trusted domains. Our research shows Amazon, the Apple iTunes Store, and Walmart rounded out the top three most visited shopping sites last Cyber Monday, so employers may want to consider whitelisting those sites specifically, while still blocking less reputable ones. Webroot offers DNS protection with the ability to filter according to more than 80 categories, including gambling, adult content, and weapons, as well as shopping. Set a policy to block the shopping category this Cyber Monday, with your own tailored exceptions and presto, problem solved.
There are also other, less prohibitive strategies for protecting employees and clients, too. Tools like Webroot’s Web Classification and Reputation services forecast the risks of visiting more than 27 billion URLs, which can help user determine if that deal really is a little too good to be true. IP Reputation Services make a similar determination based on an IP’s risk score.
Real-Time phishing protection and hands-on phishing simulations can go a long way toward improving security, too. The surge in these types of attacks represents cybercriminals focus on the weakest element of a company’s IT security: the end users themselves. Catching phishing attacks before they’re clicked and teaching users to be vigilant about threats by using custom phishing templates are paramount to your business’s security posture.
So there are a variety of methods for limiting disruption from online shopping in the workplace, so business owners and managed service providers shouldn’t let Cyber Monday come and go without preparation. Employees will almost certainly be on an online hunt for deals and cybercriminals know it.
Focus on security now, before a user’s big savings end up costing you.
HSBC has been monitoring some unauthorized access occurring over a ten-day period on their customer’s online accounts. During this time, attackers used credentials that were likely part of prior breaches to access numerous accounts. HSBC worked quickly to disable online access to any accounts that showed suspicious activity. The bank also began notifying potential victims of the incident and have taken additional steps in securing their online access points.
With the rollout of Google’s Chrome 71, the company is looking to enhance the user experience by blocking all advertisements on sites that have continued to allow the hosting of offensive material. Chrome 71 will also be more efficient at blocking phishing attacks and misleading pop-up notifications that may redirect users. Fortunately, sites that are flagged can check their status and are given 30 days to correct for offending content.
A Canadian University was forced to shut down its entire network after IT staff discovered a cryptocurrency miner operating illicitly on several university systems. While they are still unsure who installed the cryptominer, they have removed the software from the systems and brought the remainder of the networks back online. Along with slowly restoring the remaining services taken offline, the university also forced a password change for all current users.
Several arrests in Ohio have recently revealed a new scam that leverages SMS phishing attacks to withdraw money from ATMs that don’t require the use of a bank card. By sending a victim’s smartphone an SMS message containing a link to “unlock” their accounts, they are redirected to a phony site that steals their credentials. The scam has netted the attackers nearly $68,000 over a two-week period.
Even as Twitter-based Bitcoin scams have slowed, a new Elon Musk spoof account has popped up with the usual offer to multiply any amount of Bitcoins received and return the inflated amount. This scammer may have the benefit of taking over a verified account, but modifications to the profile name and obvious spelling errors reveal its clearly not legitimate, though it does leave raise questions regarding the verification system’s security.
Threat researchers and other cybersecurity industry analysts spend much of their time trying to anticipate the next major malware strain or exploit with the potential to cause millions of dollars in damage, disrupt global commerce, or put individuals at physical risk by targeting critical infrastructure.
However, a new Webroot survey of principals at 500 small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), suggests that phishing attacks and other forms of social engineering actually represent the most real and immediate threat to the health of their business.
Twenty-four percent of SMBs consider phishing scams as their most significant threat, the highest for any single method of attack, and ahead of ransomware at 19 percent.
Statistics released by the FBI this past summer in its 2017 Internet Crime Report reinforce the scope of the problem. Costing nearly $30 million in total losses last year, phishing and other social engineering attacks were the third leading crime by volume of complaints, behind only personal data breaches and non-payment/non-delivery of services. Verizon Wireless’s 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, a thorough and well-researched annual study we cite often, blames 93 percent of successful breaches on phishing and pretexting, another social engineering tactic.
So how are businesses responding? In short, not well.
24 percent of principals see phishing scams as the number one threat facing their business. Only 35 percent are doing something about it with cybersecurity awareness training.
One of the more insidious aspects of phishing as a method of attack is that even some otherwise strong email security gateways, network firewalls and endpoint security solutions are often unable to stop it. The tallest walls in the world won’t protect you when your users give away the keys to the castle. And that’s exactly what happens in a successful phishing scam.
Despite this, our survey found that 65 percent of SMBs reported having no employee training on cybersecurity best practices. So far in 2018, World Cup phishing scams, compromised MailChimp accounts, and opportunist GDPR hoaxers have all experienced some success, among many others.
So, can training change user behavior to stop handing over the keys to the castle? Yes! Cybersecurity awareness training, when it includes features like realistic phishing simulations and engaging, topical content, can elevate the security IQ of users, reducing user error and improving the organization’s security posture along the way.
The research and advisory firm Gartner maintains that applied examples of cybersecurity awareness training easily justify its costs. According to their data, untrained users click on 90 percent of the links within emails received from outside email addresses, causing 10,000 malware infections within a single year. By their calculations, these infections led to an overall loss of productivity of 15,000 hours per year. Assuming an average wage of $85/hr, lost productive costs reach $1,275,000 which does not necessarily account for other potential costs such as reputational damage, remediation cost, or fines associated with breaches.
And it’s not just phishing attacks users must be trained to identify. Only 20 percent of the SMBs in our survey enforced strong password management. Ransomware also remains a significant threat, and there are technological aspects to regulatory compliance that users are rarely fully trained on. Even the most basic educational courses on these threats would go a long way toward bolstering a user’s security IQ and the organizations cybersecurity posture.
Finding after finding suggests that training on cybersecurity best practices produces results. When implemented as part of a layered cybersecurity strategy, cybersecurity awareness training improves SMB security by reducing the risks of end-user hacking and creating a workforce of cyber-savvy end users with the tools they need to defend themselves from threats.
All that remains to be seen is whether a business will act in time to protect against their next phishing attack and prevent a potentially catastrophic breach.
You can access the findings of our SMB Pulse Survey here.
You’re probably familiar with some of the most common requirements for creating passwords. A mix of upper and lowercase letters is a simple example. These are known as password constraints. They’re rules for how you must construct a password. If your password must be at least eight characters long, contain lower case, uppercase, numbers and symbol characters, then you have one length, and four character set constraints.
Password constraints eliminate a number of both good and bad passwords. I had never heard anyone ask “how many potential passwords, good and bad, are eliminated?” And so I began searching for the answer. The results were surprising. If you want to know the precise number of possible 8-character passwords there are if all of the character sets must be used, then the equation looks something like this.
We choose to use a Monte Carlo simulation to analyze the mathematical impact of the various combinations of constraints. A Monte Carlo simulation uses a statistical analysis approach that provides a close approximation of the answer, while also providing the flexibility to quickly and easily measure the impact of each constraint and combination of constraints.
To start, let’s look at the impact of an eight-character length constraint alone. There are 95^8 possible combinations of 8 characters. 26 uppercase letters + 26 lowercase letters + 10 numerals + 33 symbols = 95 characters. For a length of 8 characters, we have 95˄8 possible passwords.
If a password must be at least 8 characters long, then there are also about 70.6 trillion otherwise viable passwords you are not allowed to use (95+(95^2 ) +(95^3 ) +(95^4 ) +(95^5)+(95^6 )+(95^7)). That’s a good thing. It means you can’t use 95 one character passwords, 9,025 two character passwords, and so on. Almost 70 trillion of those passwords you cannot use are seven characters long. This is a great and wholly intended effect of a password length constraint.
The problem with a lack of constraints is that people will use a very small set of all possible passwords, which invariably includes passwords that are incredibly easy to guess. In the analysis of over one million leaked passwords, it was found that 30.8 percent passwords eight to 11 characters long contained only lowercase letters, and 43.9 percent contained only lowercase letters and numbers. In fact, to perform a primitive brute force attack against an eight-character password containing only lower case letters, it’s only necessary to try about 209 billion character combinations. That does not take a computer very long to crack. And, as we know from analyzing large numbers of passwords, it’s likely to contain one of the most popular ten thousand passwords.
To beef up security, we begin to add character constraints. But, in doing so, we decrease the number of possible passwords; both good and bad.
Just by requiring both uppercase and lowercase letters, more than 15 percent of all possible 8-character combinations have been eliminated as possible passwords. This means that 1QV5#T&|cannot be a password because there are no lowercase letters. Compared to Darnrats,which meets the constraint requirements, 1QV5#T&|is a fantastic password. But you cannot use it. Superior passwords that cannot be used are acceptable collateral damage in the battle for better security. “Corndogs” is acceptable, but “fruit&veggies” is not. This clearly is not a battle for lower cholesterol.
If a password must be exactly eight characters long and contain at least one lower case letter, at least one uppercase letter and at least one symbol, we are getting close to one-in-five combinations of 8 characters that are not allowable as passwords. Still, the effect of constraints on 12 and 16 character passwords is negligible. But that is all about to change… you can count on it.
Are you required to use a password that is at least eight characters long, has lower and uppercase letters, number and symbols? Just requiring a number to be part of a password removes over 40 percent of 8-character combinations from the pool of possible passwords. Even though you can use lowercase and uppercase letters, and you can use symbols, if one of the characters in your password must be a number then there are far fewer great passwords that you can use. If a 16 character long password must have a number, then 13 times more potential passwords have become illegal as a result of that one constraint than the combined constraints of lower and uppercase letters and symbols caused. More than one-in-four combinations of 12 characters can no longer become a passwords either.
People tend to be very predictable. There are more symbols (than there are in any other characters set. Theoretically that means that symbols are going to do the most to make a password strong, but 80 percent of the time it is going to be one of the top five most frequently used symbols, and 95 percent of the time is will be one of the top 10 most frequently used symbols.
Analysis of two million compromised passwords showed that about one in 14 passwords start with the number one, however for those that started with the number one, 75 percent of them ended with a number as well.
The use of birthdays and names, for example, make it much easier to quickly crack many passwords.
As covered above, all four character sets (95 characters) in an eight character password allow for about 6.634 quadrillion different password possibilities. But a 16 character password with only lowercase letters has about 43.8 sextillion possible passwords. That means that there are well over 6.5 million times more possible passwords for 16 consecutive lowercase letters than for any combination of eight characters regardless of how complex the password is.
My great password is “cats and hippos are friends!”, but I can’t use it because of constraints – and because I just told you what it is.
For years password experts have been advocating for the use of simple passphrases over complex passwords because they are stronger and simpler to remember. I’d like to throw a bit of gasoline on to the fire and tell you, those 95^8 combinations of characters are only half that many when you tell me I have to use uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols.
DemonBot, while not the most sophisticated botnet discovered to date, has seen a significant rise in usage over the last week. With the ability to take control of Hadoop cloud frameworks, DemonBot has been using the platform to carry out DDoS attacks across the globe. By exploiting Hadoop’s resource management functionality, the infection can quickly spread itself and allows for remote code execution on affected servers.
Bank Islami, one of the largest banks in Pakistan, announced that an unusual attack had occurred involving local cards used far outside of the country’s borders. While the bank was quick to return the funds removed from customer’s accounts, the remainder of the malicious transactions processed internationally have the bank being on the hook for nearly $6 million in phony withdrawals, mainly in the US and Brazil. Unfortunately, due to a lack of information regarding the malicious transactions, several other top banks in the country were forced to temporarily restrict international purchases to protect their own clients.
Researchers recently discovered the credentials for over 600,000 individuals, all closely tied to construction or building firms, available for sale on the dark web. Presently it appears that the credentials were all compromised during breaches involving third-parties users would have given corporate email into, rather than specific breaches for the industry group. Fortunately, it appears there haven’t been any related breaches thus far, though this type of data could lead to additional sensitive information being stolen.
A new ransomware variant has been making an unusual request from its victims: allowing remote desktop access in order to decrypt their files. Dubbed CommonRansom, due to the appended extension on the encrypted files, the variant also demands a 0.1 Bitcoin payment before making the request for administrator credentials to the victim’s computer. Even though this variant isn’t widespread, it does appear to be using a similar Bitcoin wallet as other infections, as 65 Bitcoins were recently sent from the designated wallet.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last week they had discovered malicious activity within their direct enrollment pathway, which connects patients and healthcare brokers. At least 75,000 individuals were affected. The pathway has since been disabled to prevent further exposure. Until the pathway is fixed, hopefully within a week, CMS is contacting affected patients and offering them credit protection services.
City officials in West Haven, Connecticut finally gave in to ransom demands following a cyberattack against their systems. The attack began early Tuesday morning and disabled 23 individual servers before a decision was made to pay a ransom in hopes for the return of their data. While it is still unclear if the systems were fully restored, the town was lucky to receive a relatively small ransom request ($2,000 given the significant amount of data stolen.
A string of eight adult sites, all owned by the same individual, fell victim to hackers who took advantage of poor security to expose records for up to 1.2 million individuals. While not as large as similar adult-related breaches, it still presents questions as to why proper security measures aren’t put in place on these sites proactively. The owner of the sites has since taken them down and replaced them with messages warning users to update their passwords and take extra security precautions.
A new browser-based tech support scam has been spotted recently that warns users their McAfee subscription has run out and needs to be renewed. Rather than redirect victims through an affiliate link to the real McAfee site, though, this latest scam directly prompts the user to input payment card information and other personal data into a small pop-up window. To top it off, once payment info is entered, an additional pop-up appears that suggests contacting support to help install your new software and eventually falsely claiming payment wasn’t successful and users must re-purchase the software.
The city of Muscatine, Iowa is working to determine how several of their main computer systems, both within city hall and its library, were infiltrated by ransomware that’s knocked them offline. Officials have announced that no information was stolen and the city does not maintain any payment records, so citizens shouldn’t be worried. The city’s emergency services were also unaffected and continue to operate as normal.
By now, you likely know that a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is essential to remaining safe when working remotely. But, once set up, how can you optimize your VPN to work well with your devices and meet your security needs? Here are our top five tips for maximizing your VPN experience.
One of the biggest misconceptions about VPNs is that they protect your device from malicious programs. While a VPN will encrypt your network traffic, preventing others from viewing intercepted data, most do not warn you when you visit dangerous sites. If your VPN provides advanced web filtering for risky sites, that can be an additional defense against cyber threats such as malware and phishing. Alternatively, while strong antivirus software actively monitors for viruses and malware within files and applications, it does not encrypt your data or prevent it from being monitored. Both are equally important for protecting your devices, and are ideally used together. Combining the two services provides additional security.
Setting up a VPN to keep your data safe is an important first step, but what happens if your VPN server goes down or disconnects while you are entering sensitive data and you don’t notice the connection was lost? Without the protection of a VPN kill switch, your devices will often automatically reconnect to the network without alerting you, this time without the protection of your VPN. A kill switch feature blocks sending and receiving data until the VPN connection is re-established.. For maximum protection, select a VPN with a kill switch feature and ensure it has been enabled.
Having a VPN on your home router may seem like a helpful boost to your cybersecurity, but it’s actually the opposite. Most routers lack the processing power of a modern CPU, meaning that even older personal devices (phones, tablets, computers) will have a much easier time handling the task of encrypting/decrypting data than your router will. Instead, set up a VPN for each personal device to prevent a bottleneck of data to your router while simultaneously securing it at all access points. Selecting an easy-to-use VPN solution with cross-device functionality will make this task much easier on the end user, while providing maximum security.
When it comes to cybersecurity, we tend to imagine a nefarious hacker out to steal and sell your data. But not all data collection is illegal. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has a vested interest in tracking your streaming habits, and they may even throttle your network depending on your usage. Our phones, computers, and tablets are each a potential interception point for our private data. Securing each of your smart devices with a VPN, even those that stay in your home, is the best way to prevent your data from potentially being monitored by third parties.
While your cellular network is more secure than public WiFi options, it remains vulnerable to an attack. LTE user data can be exploited by what is known as an “aLTEr attack”. This attack redirects domain name system (DNS) requests, performing a DNS spoofing attack that can fool your device into using a malicious DNS server. This spoofed DNS server will deliver you to websites as normal until you request a high-value website the attack is targeting, like your banking or email provider. Oftentimes this fake website will scrape your data before you realize what has happened. You give yourself an extra layer of security by wrapping your LTE connection in a VPN, allowing you to access your most sensitive data confidently.
When it comes to getting the most out of your VPN, this list is just the beginning. Our privacy concerns and security needs will continue to change as our connected devices mature and we recommend keeping an eye on your VPN provider for any potential updates to their services.
Ready to take back control of your privacy? Learn how our Webroot WiFi Security VPN protects what matters most wherever you connect.
As the United States midterm elections draw closer, concern surrounding voter information is on the rise, and for good reason. Records for nearly 35 million registered voters from 19 different states were found for sale on a hacker forum, with prices ranging from $500 to $12,500, depending on the state. Unfortunately, a crowdfunding campaign has begun on the forums to purchase each database and post them publicly, with 2 states already being published.
Just a week after Hurricane Florence hit land in North Carolina, a coastline county’s water utilities fell victim to a ransomware attack. Effectively shutting down all services during a time when they are working on emergency operations left the local water authority with limited capabilities until they began the lengthy process of restoring everything from backup files. By choosing to ignore the ransom and restore manually, the utility service has taken on a more time and resource consuming task, as they continue operating without any of their online systems.
A new exploit has been discovered that allows attackers to send a malicious message to other PlayStations that will effectively render the console unusable. The message itself doesn’t even need to be opened to cause considerable damage, resulting in most users performing a factory reset to return everything to normal. While some users have been successful in deleting the message from the mobile app before it causes any harm, others still had to rebuild the system’s database.
Days after Apple released a patch for iOS 12.0 that shutdown a passcode bypass method, the same researcher was able to find yet another way to access the phone illicitly. By using a combination of Siri and the VoiceOver feature, anyone with physical access to the device could obtain pictures, and other data with ease. To make matters worse, the latest bypass also gives attackers the ability to send files to other devices and view them in full resolution, rather than minimized like the previous bypass allowed.
Over the weekend, thousands of emails were sent out to the relatively small population of Iceland, most of which claimed to be from the local police and threatened judicial action if they did not comply. The email then linked victims to a nearly perfect replica of the official Icelandic Police website and requested their social security number. The attack itself was focused on gaining bank details and further compromising already infected computers for more information.
Your SMB clients will be attacked.
Basic security will not stop an attack.
The MSP will be held accountable.
While MSPs may have historically set up clients with “effective” security measures, the threat landscape is changing and the evolution of risk needs to be properly, and immediately, addressed. This means redefining how your clients think about risk and encouraging them to respond to the significant increase in attack volume with security measures that will actually prove effective in today’s threat environment.
Even if the security tools you’ve been leveraging are 99.99% effective, risk has evolved from minimal to material due simply to the fact that there are far more security events per year than ever before.
Again, the state of cybersecurity today is pretty straightforward: with advanced threats like rapidly evolving and hyper-targeted malware, ransomware, and user-enabled breaches, foundational security tools aren’t enough to keep SMB clients secure. Their data is valuable, and there is real risk of a breach if they remain vulnerable.Additional layers of security need to be added to the equation to provide holistic protection. Otherwise, your opportunity to fulfill the role as your clients’ managed security services providerwill be missed, and your SMB clients could be exposed to existential risk.
Start by discussing “acceptable risk.” Your client should understand that there will always be some level of risk in today’s cyber landscape. Working together to define a businesses’ acceptable risk, and to determine what it will take to maintain an acceptable risk level, will solidify your partnership. Keep in mind that security needs to be both proactive and reactive in its capabilities for risk levels to remain in check.
Once you’ve identified where the gaps in your client’s protection lie, map them to the type of security services that will keep those risks constantly managed. Providing regular visibility into security gaps, offering cybersecurity training,and leveraging more advanced and comprehensive security tools will ultimately get the client to their desired state of protection—and that should be clearly communicated upfront.
At this point, it’s not a question of ifSMBs will experience a cyberattack, but when. That’s why it’s important to establish ongoing, communicative relationships with all clients. Assure clients that your security services will improve their risk level over time, and that you will maintain acceptable risk levels by consistently identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating gaps in coverage. This essentially justifies additional costs and opens you to upsell opportunities over the course of your relationship.
Keeping your security solutions well-defined and client communication clear will help validate your offering. Through a combination of advanced software and services, you can build a framework that maps to your clients’ specific security needs so you’re providing the technologies that are now essential for securing their business from modern attacks.
Once you understand how to effectively respond to new and shifting risks, you’ll be in the best possible position to keep your clients secure and avoid potentially debilitating breaches.
For the past 20 years, Webroot’s technology has been driven by our dedication to protecting users from malware, viruses, and other online threats. The release of Webroot® WiFi Security—a new virtual private network (VPN) app for phones, computers, and tablets—is the next step in fulfilling our commitment to protect everyone’s right to be secure in a connected world.
Webroot WiFi Security arrives at a time when the fragile state of our online privacy is becoming more apparent and better understood by internet users around the world. Recent revelations of government surveillance via the Snowden leaks, social media data collection like that in the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, and data breaches including the Equifax hack have fueled a palpable rise in data privacy concerns.
Over half of internet users from around the world say they are “more concerned about their online privacy than they were a year ago,” according to a 2018 CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust.
Another key factor with grave implications for data privacy in the United States specifically was the 2017 repeal of privacy regulations for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which aimed to ensure broadband customers had choice, greater transparency, and strong security protections for their personal info collected by ISPs.
“ISPs are facing less regulation today, and so can continue to share, sell, and profit by passing on user information to third parties— browser history, location, communications content, financial details, etc.—without the user’s knowledge or consent,” said Webroot Sr. VP of Product Strategy & Technology Alliances Chad Bacher.
Now more than ever, individual users must take steps to regain control over their online privacy and security. Along with keeping trusted antivirus software installed on mobile and home devices, users should actively protect their data in transit over networks with a VPN.
But it’s important to note that all VPN applications are not created equal. Many users looking for a privacy solution find themselves wondering if they can trust that their VPN provider has their interests at heart. Consumer wariness concerning the privacy of VPN products is justified—some VPN apps, especially free ones, are guilty of sharing or selling their user data to third parties, limiting bandwidth, or serving ads. Facebook’s VPN app was recently removed from the Apple App Store® following concerns over the app’s misuse of user data.
Webroot WiFi Security provides one of the most powerful forms of encryption available, AES 256-bit encryption, and protects user data from cybercriminals and ISPs alike. Webroot WiFi Security does not collect your browsing activity, the sites you visit, downloaded data (or shared or viewed), DNS queries, or IP addresses. The full Webroot WiFi Security Privacy Statement can be found here.
In addition to the privacy safeguards of Webroot WiFi Security that protect users while they work, share, bank, and browse online, users also benefit from the integration of Webroot BrightCloud® Threat Intelligence.* The app’s Web Filtering feature provides an extra layer of protection to keep your financial information, passwords, and personal files from being exploited. Webroot WiFi Security is powered by the same threat intelligence platform the world’s leading IT security vendors trust.
“Not only is Webroot protecting user privacy, it’s also shielding users from phishing sites and websites associated with malware,” said Malinger.
Webroot WiFi Security is compatible with devices running iOS®, Android™, macOS® and Windows® operating systems, and is now available to download on the Apple App Store, Google Play™ store, and Webroot.com. | 2019-04-24T04:50:12Z | https://www.webroot.com/blog/page/5/ |
Welcome to the new world of Mid-Evil beginning here on phocas.net with the arrival of Aldrin The Great's New original Progressive Drum & Bass ALbum entitled Imagination. In this his 3rd Album He pulls upon his life long experiance as a musician and his years of DJ skills to combine them with his love for electronic music and drum & bass creating a new sound all his own. When asked why he changed his stage name he replied "I found out there was annother DJ out there with the name DJ Aldrin.
I thought I had come up with an original name when I took it on back in 2000 but I guess not. So now since I perform Live PA I wanted to have a new name for that anyway. So, I asked a few friends what I should change my name to and ended up going with Aldrin the Great. I still get the name recognition I worked so hard to achieve and dont have to worry about using some other DJs name." To co-enicde with the launch of his new album here his website, MidEvilRecords.com has also recieved a makeover. You can go there to hear more of Aldrin's tracks, see pictures and videos, or book his Live PA or DJ act for your next event.
This title's definition is intended to inspire deep listening. Plug in your headphones and go for a ride inside your own imagination. This is the Fuel for that journey. Now you can go to the party of your minds eye and Let Aldrin provide the smooth sounds of his D&B.
Intro - the lights are all off inside the arena as aldrin takes the stage. You suddenly see the lights slowly fade up revealing a stage of your imagination.
Track 2 - I Don't Mind - Annother Groove gets underway this one has a slower section where I bring the beat down to half time for a bit. It's like a resting place before the real mind bending Destinations ahead.
Track 3 - It Can Be Done - A simple reminder that whatever you face in life all you have to tell yourself is Yes it can be done. then you can do it. the seering deep Bassline on this track drives you flying at the spped of light across the world below.
Track 4 - The Power - Im sure you all remember that tune from the 80's I've got the power. Well with this track you can have the power to be motivated in any direction. It's gettin kinda hectic.
Track 5 - Goodnight - A deep trancy D&B production Simply putting it all in perspective. Good night indeed. you find yourself becoming lost in the music and the words all melt away. Now WAKE UP!
Track 6 - Sexual Healin - Ahh You know whats up. After Goodnight When we get that feelin we need... well you know the rest. Smooth sounds propell this track through the night. Just hit Repeat.
Track 7 - Sent To Me - I wanted to do a track featuring bjork's vocalsso I snipped a couple riffs from the song hidden place. Here is my new track . I have allways liked Bjorks voice and her productions. Hope you do too.
Track 9 - Whos Bad - By this time you know whos Bad. Aldrins got the beats to keep you goin all night long but we have reached the end of annother journey.
Track10 - Want my love - The final track is bringing down the intensity of the music and preparing us for the ending. The journey is over now but we will allways have the imagination of our minds eye.
Brent Crampton ~ Omaha, Ne – Notorious for being one of the best events of the summer, catch the Labor Day-Eve annual boat party: SoundWaves 7. Happening on September 3, the pre-dock party begins at 8 p.m., and the boat sails from 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. on the River City Star boat, at 151 Freedom Park Road. Tickets for sale online at www.ultramusique.com. Buy now because this will be a sold-out event!
This year features three levels of music with three distinct atmospheres. The top deck features deep house, organic vibes, star-lit skyscapes and breeze-blowing from the troposphere. The line-up includes the Summer Drum duo in their last summer performance – Brent Crampton and Shif-D the percussionist, a rare CD release performance by LJ with free mix CD give-aways, and guest appearance by New Mexico’s top DJ – Chrystalline.
The Main floor features big-room vibes and big-booming sounds with Lincoln’s top break beat DJ – Chief, a Progressive House set by KC promoter – Nology – a tricked-out set by Bricktop’s DJ Contest winner – Mix Masta Meza, and the classic close-out set of dirty beats by Nico resident – Myth.
The bottom deck features the region’s top Drum and Bass act – Plan 9 and +One of internationally recognized Cymbalism Recordings plus a performance by the Psy Trance Latin-duo, Cesa La Die.
Just imagine your Sunday night - you could be sitting in the same dive bar with the same boring music, or you could be cruising down the Missouri river with 350 other people having the swift breeze blowing through your hair while the music and drinks are pumpin’. I think the choice is obvious. See you on the boat!
For additional information visit UltraMusique.com.
Nathan McWaters ~ photos by joe & todd ~ Let me see your booty bounce! If any single sentence sums up the evening of the 11th of August at the Grand Emporium in Kansas City, Missouri, I think that one covers it.
This was the first club, first set, and first event I’ve ever attended in the Midwest. Up on leave from Fort Hood and visiting “yon olde pal” David McGlothlin before my next tour in Iraq, it seemed the thing to do to not blow off phocas bringing in DJ Monk as the headliner for what was promised to be an evening of eclecticism the likes of which are seen by few yet spoken of often. I had very few expectations for this, since I knew little to nothing about Monk except for the work he’d done with Rabbit In The Moon, so I decided on the outset to throw out any kind of preconceived notion of how this might go down and just roll with it as it came. That was probably wishful thinking on my part, because while I may not have had expectations, I most certainly had desires.
I went ahead and read up a little on Monk just because I’m a curious kind of cat about things like this, and in spite of the bio, there was still no way to judge just what the man was going to unleash on Grand Emporium. With the local duo Cold Front opening, it was a given that the lead-in was going to involve breaks, lasers, more breaks, more lasers, and did I mention breaks? Judging from prior knowledge with RITM, it was a toss-up as to what Monk would do, even with a breakbeat opener. We arrived on scene at about 2230, reasonably early yet with an air of just not being rushed for things.
Cold Front was up and spinning, and it was definitely breaks. There were also definitely lasers, many many lasers. Phocas had said there was going to be quite the laser rig for this event, and they weren’t kidding. I hadn’t seen that many lasers in one place since The Crystal Method at Antro in San Antonio, where I was certain that I was going to catch one in the eyeball before that night was out, and Grand Emporium is a much smaller venue than Antro. The place looked like the Death Star trench run was going on, and we had been booked seats strapped to the front of Lord Vader’s TIE fighter for the floor show. It was pretty to see, and made my camera have so many fits that I gave up trying to take pictures. I left those to the heavy hitters present.
In the midst of the light-amplified-stimulated-emitted-radiation, Cold Front was dropping a breaks set that was pretty solid. Aside from some technical issues with the equipment at some really bad times that put a dint on the performance’s polish, Cold Front weathered their storm well, and the crowd built up during their set as the evening progressed. The only thing was, what Cold Front was dropping wasn’t doing a whole lot for me. It was almost-fluffy party music, and while the crowd was clearly enjoying it, I personally got little to no emotional satisfaction from it. Admittedly, I lean more towards the grittier side of EDM, deep and dark.
As their set progressed and the technicals were ironed out, RJ Bass and DJ Prato started trading off deck time, which would have livened things up pretty well had they been doing it as a “vs.” faceoff as opposed to continuing the light and airy stuff they were dropping. So while the crowd was amping to it, and the set was well-mixed and well-blended, from a personal standpoint it was like expecting a double-espresso mocha and getting Kool-Aid instead. By the time Monk showed up, I think I had gone through three bottles of water and gone to find an ATM just to catch a break from the PLUR. When I got back, I was ready for some Monk to throw down serious tech-trance, DnB, and house to drag this party into a much dimmer light.
As it turns out, Cold Front’s set was the perfect opener for Monk. His transition right off of Cold Front’s last track was a beautiful piece of break-work. The Dreadlocked One built that sucker up like Rome, and then promptly pillaged it.
For the first ten minutes of Monk’s set, it was Booty House. I was astounded. The crowd was going wild for it, and I was dumbfounded. I understood that Monk came pre-warned that there was a significant hip-hop influence to a lot of his work, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing when crafted into EDM, provided the mixing is tight, the beat is thumping, and it doesn’t fall victim to redundancy. Booty House for ten solid minutes, followed by a continuation of basically what Cold Front had dropped, and I started wondering where RITM was. The crowd was filling the floor, though, pausing only to hit the bar and then return to the floor. Lasers were flying everywhere, and Monk was dropping what had to have been personal mixes of his own crafting, including a mix of Bubba Sparxxx w/ Yin-Yang Twins “Ms. New Booty” blended with Salt ‘n Pepa’s “Push It” that even I found fascinatingly well-blended. Fun was being had by all. . .but it wasn’t doing a darn thing for me.
was proving it most adequately. He gave them exactly what they wanted. He is a consummate showman, the lasers bothered him not a bit, and he was clearly having a good time absorbing the love the crowd was giving back to him. For me, the inner-EDMer in me who demands satisfaction was left holding the begging bowl and plaintively crying out for more, while the crowd around me feasted on cotton candy.
Nevertheless, the crowd was extremely well-pleased, Grand Emporium wasn’t exactly gutted and emptied by my disappointments, and I don’t think Monk or Cold Front had many or any complaints to voice about the venue or the participation level of those present. If club sets like what I’ve described are definitely your thing, you would have had a thrill and a half with the kind of stuff Cold Front and Monk were bringing to the floor. This jaded Texan may not have gotten the transcendent experience he wanted from an RITM founder, but that shouldn’t sway a soul if you’re looking for something else from a set.
Mike Zelezak ~ The split-level Club Hide warehouse at Seventh and Folsom on Saturday venue is usually a no-frills, rock and punk venue, but the booking agents embrace variety a few nights per month. On July 29, drum and bass artists bucked their typical back/side-room status to take over the club’s cavernous main room.
The freeform interpreters of the woofer-dependent genre were fenced off from the audience by equipment in a restricted petting-zoo of lyricists. MC Child visibly struggled with the stage layout and was meek compared to his more experienced peers who sung later in the evening. This initial disconnect with the audience was unusual for such a small venue, but chivalrous DJs assisted ladies to mount the amps post-medianoche. Not unnoticed, a mostly female contingent dominated the club thus kicking the stereotype of a male-dominated jungle night.
One of the night’s attendees, Debbie, appreciated the steady build of MC-vigor throughout the night as the venue reached fire-code capacity. She said earplugs became a must as Femme Fatale’s forearm tatts flexed while operating his heavy machinery. Last up on the decks were Mathematics who did not struggle to make everyone (including the bartenders) move. They passed the NYC-UK jungle torch to the headlining duo of John and Matt, Cyantific, who kept the connection with the Left Coast audience.
Despite the quality beats, intermittent retreats to the upstairs house room or Hide’s open-air terrace menagerie with Asian statuary allowed for some D&B relief and hearing preservation. Another SoMA regular, Beth, admitted she was not impressed with the night’s noise—alluding to the difficulty the style has standing on its own with the signature syncopation becoming tedious. She noted her preference for the sound coming from the curiously near-empty House room, and that she’ll be attending the Summer Music Conference (formerly known as the San Francisco Love Parade) in a few weeks to hear a buffet of all styles with a small helping of D&B instead.
Much of the jungle talent from this night has been graciously invited to that massive to perform to city crowds electronic driven crowds the city has not seen since September 2005!
For more information on the chill Club Hide, check out SFClubHide.com and you can find more information about Cyantific atHospitalRecords.com and Mathematics at SocialStudiesMusic.com.
Kansas City - Friday, September 8, 2006 - ~phocas~ and Disco Productions proudly present the third installment in their concert series featuring some of best acts in the Dance Music Industry!
Following the huge success of Nigel Richards and Monk of Rabbit in the Moon, this third event will be a very special engagement with internationally acclaimed West Coast Breaks pioneer, John Kelley!
Last appearing at the first Chaos Theory party, the dance floor swelled with thousands of dancers, all grooovin to his signature "Desert Breaks".
Breaking out of the Desert, he will be coming immediately following his performance at this year's Burning Man Festival in Nevada. In the more intimate setting of the Kansas City's First House of Music, the Grand Emporium this will be a rare opportunity for Kansas City to witness a true legend up close and personal.
For those that love to dance, this will be a night of musical beauty and genius that will be remembered for a very long time to come! Don't miss this chance!
John Kelley was originally known for his sets at Full Moon Gatherings. The influential series of raves held in the deserts outside Los Angeles during the mid-'90s created an emergent sound, led by breakout producers like Crystal Method, Überzone, Bassbin Twins, and Electric Skychurch. Fused with the breakbeat genius of UK acts such as Leftfield and Underworld, Kelley pushed the intensely funky, hard sound of breakbeat techno from the underground into the masses.
For the past decade, Los Angeles native John Kelley has been considered one of North America’s foremost breaks DJs - a true pioneer of the West Coast sound. Over the past few years, he has been busy perfecting a selection of edgy, well-crafted tracks that combine his signature desert breaks with a new flavor of hard tech-hop and broken beats. The release of his debut artist album, “A Night in the Park”, marks a new chapter in Kelley’s long-standing career and, most notably, his transformation from DJ to world-class producer.
In 1996, Kelley released, Funkydesertbreaks, his first mix album with Moonshine Music patterned after his desert sets. The compilation became an instant hit, sparked a US tour and spawned a sequel one year later. With 1998’s “Knee Deep”, he exhibited a transition into a more club-friendly mix of house, techno, trance and breakbeats. The release of “High Desert Soundsystem” and “High Desert Soundsystem 2”, released in 1999 and 2000 launched a number of tours with The Crystal Method, Orbital, Carl Cox, Frankie Bones, Darude, and Christopher Lawrence. The well received mix, “United DJs of America 19”, followed in 2001 and went on to become nominated at the 2002 Winter Music Conference as one of the best DJ mix albums of 2001.
After five grueling years on tour, Kelley began to focus on writing his own music. Along with friend David deLaski (aka Lord Runningclam), Kelley launched the label and production company Ball of Waxx in 2002.
Teaming up with the studio talents of deLaski, Simply Jeff, Moontribe’s Brian Seed, and Brian Saitzyk (aka Eastern Sun), Kelley created a multitude of productions, including two songs on the Ball of Waxx downtempo compilation “Groove Closet”. With the success of the collaboration, Eastern Sun and Kelley followed up in early 2005 with a full-length downtempo CD, “In Emptiness”. Meanwhile, the team of Kelley, Saitzyk and Brian Seed embarked on creating techno breakbeat tracks for John’s debut artist release.
His latest work of art, A Night in the Park, has been praised by beatmasters The Crystal Method as a stellar artist debut from the west coast breaks pioneer. Clearly, this new chapter of Kelleys career has transformed him from renowned DJ to producer on the forefront of the electronic music scene.
Don’t let the title fool you. It’s not the type of music you would listen to while taking a romantic stroll through the park at night with your beloved, holding hands, watching the stars glittering above. This is an intense, gritty, uncompromising hybrid of breakbeat and techno that seems more suited for the soundtrack of a high-speed police chase through the shadowy backstreets of Los Angeles. John Kelley, the legendary pioneer of West Coast breakbeat, has returned to the scene with his debut artist album “A Night in the Park”.
The first track on the album, conveniently titled A Night in the Park, quickly explodes into a spinning cocktail of electro-tinged techno funk. As the album progresses along, the sounds range from the chunky house rhythms of Fat Stacks to the hip-hop inspired turntablism of Funkasaurus.
Breaking things down on the final track, the hypnotic groove of Chopstix almost seems to emerge from the speakers, pulsating and rotating through the listeners ear canals until it retreats back into the dark, edgy depths of the Park.
Armed with a sound that has been described as everything from tribal to techno funk, John Kelley has proven himself to be the leader of American breakbeat techno. Kelley and co-producers, Moontribe DJ Brian Seed, Brian Saitzyk and Simply Jeff, have put together a journey of an album a range of sounds and speeds that come together in a whirlwind of flawless electronic music. The only question is, are you up for the ride?
John Kelley's "Chopstix" and "A Night in the Park" were both featured on Showtime's Huff. The series, starring Hank Azaria and Sharon Stone has tapped four tracks from "A Night in the Park" for the new 2006 season.
John's track Desert Days will make it's network broadcast premiere on Wednesday October 5th, featured in an Episode of CSI: NY airing on CBS at 10pm ET/PT.
To learn more about John Kelley and get some free downloads and stuff, check out his web site at djJohnKelley.com,BallofWaxx.com, MoonTribe.org. As well, there's always ... MySpace.com/djJohnKelley.
Be sure to catch John Kelley at the Grand Emporium on Friday, September 8, 2006. Advance tickets for this event can be purchased online at GrooveTickets.com for only $5.
In the meantime, the popular internet radio program, Frosted Breaks provided us with a copy of a mix he did for them just this past February... click HERE to get it now!
Also appearing will be Aldrin the Great, performing a mix of Progressive Drum & Bass and opening the night will be a newly discovered gem in the Dance Music Industry of Kansas City, Phazorslut, doing a bit of ElectroBreaks! You can find out more about these two by either checking the "on decks" column this month, or just check my "Top 8 Friends" on MySpace.com/phocas!
For the cover this month, I dipped back into the archives for a shot that I got of John Kelley over three years ago at Chaos Theory. Of course, I had to play with it a little in Photoshop because it really wasn't all that fabulous. It really wasn't all that clear either, but it was the best I had and it actually turned out interesting enough.
I really am looking forward to his return next week as I know many others are too! An event that also heralds another birthday for me, it has been entirely too long since he was in Kansas City. As well, it had been for Monk, pictured here with me. Aaron grabbed this shot at the end of the night last month, while we stopped to talk for a minute and caught our breath after his fantastic performance which kept people dancing for hours!
Elsewhere in Kansas City this month, Kyle Pound made a special appearance to a disappointingly thin crowd, much the same as it was for big-name DJ Steve Porter just last week at the Voodoo Lounge. Even in San Francisco, Mike noted extremely sparse attendance in the House music room of Club Hide. It does appear that with diminished attendance at many other House music events around the country, the time is definitely ripe for, and dancers are making a statement that they want something a little more unique than the same old 4/4.
Ready, waiting and gaining attendance at every event that happens for them, Breakbeats and Drum & Bass are standing up to the challenge. With striking similarities to much of the mainstream music available now, it's no surprise either. Modeled on these mostly underground genres are some of the most popular hits in the world. From HipHop to Rock, their roots almost always find their way back to the broken beat.
I suppose you could say this is much of the reason we decided to go in the direction we did with our series of concert events at the Grand Emporium. We thought we should offer an alternative, a different beat to dance to that at the same time is more familiar, more comfortable and ultimately... more fun.
Overall, I cannot think of anyone better than John Kelley to bring you that sound! He is just the man to get you moving! Check out the story on him in this month's issue, especially the links and his MySpace page. Personally, I am totally hooked on the Funkasaurus track. I can't wait to see him throw that out there live next Friday! | 2019-04-19T01:21:30Z | https://www.phocas.net/2006/09/ |
JPS: The traditional, or perennial, philosophy of which you are a well-known proponent reserves a privileged place for the sacred scriptures of the religious traditions of the world. The majority of Western philosophy over the past few centuries has been in the process of segregating itself from these scriptures. How would you characterize the different approaches of Western philosophy and traditional philosophy to sacred scripture?
SHN: There’s a very profound distinction if by Western philosophy you mean modern Western philosophy. In the West, Christian and Jewish philosophy both in the middle ages and, to some extent, afterward still paid a great deal of attention to the scriptures, and Islamic philosophy has always paid attention to the scriptures. Not that it has just based itself on the scriptures, or it would be just theology and not philosophy, but it has paid a great deal of attention especially to the inner meaning of scripture. Some of the great Islamic philosophers like Mulla Sadra, and before him Ibn Sina (Avicenna), had written commentaries upon the Qur'an. And we have parallels in the west: St. Thomas Aquinas, and many Jewish thinkers and philosophers as well.
Now modern philosophy, beginning with Descartes, is characterized by practically a total disregard for scripture as a source of philosophical knowledge. Although there are people here and there.
who pay some attention to this, by and large, European philosophy in the modern period from Descartes on is not concerned with scripture. If it is, it would be only on the level of ethics but not metaphysics. Perennial philosophy, on the other hand, looks upon the scriptures as revelations from God and believes that in the inner dimension, the esoteric dimension, of scriptures is contained the perennial wisdom with which the perennial philosophy is concerned. So the heart, the inner aspect of the religions as revealed in scriptures contain that religion perennials, that eternal religion, or the Sophia pennies, the eternal wisdom, with which perennial philosophy is concerned. And therefore, perennial philosophy pays a great deal of attention to scripture, not only as a source of ethics but also as a source of metaphysics.
JPS: Y ou made a distinction between having scripture as a foundation, which would be more like theology, and paying attention to scripture within a philosophical context. How can philosophy pay attention to and incorporate scripture when most scriptures are not written in the philosophical language, often using narrative or metaphor to convey their meaning?
SHN: I think that can be clarified by having recourse to two very important truths which have been emphasized a great deal in perennial philosophy. First of all, the perennial philosophers believe that the instrument of revelation is none other than the intellect, understood metaphysically, which is also the element which illuminates our mind and provides us with knowledge. For example, in Arabic, the word ‛aql, which means the intellect—not only reason but also intellect in the medieval sense of the term—is also associated with the very instrument of revelation, the archangel Gabriel who brought the Qur’an to the Prophet. And also in Augustinian illuminationistic philosophy, knowledge is considered to be a kind of illumination by the angel, and revelation is also concerned with the coming into this world of a message through what one could call the angelic agency. Therefore, the first point is that the means whereby scripture is revealed and the means whereby one knows in a noetic and intellectual sense are the same.
Secondly, philosophers—that is, traditional philosophers, those who follow the perennial philosophy—they have looked upon scripture not simply on its literal level but on its symbolic level. So even something which is descriptive, let us say the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament, have been the source of very profound metaphysical commentaries and mystical commentaries, because the traditional philosophers have looked upon the text not only in its literal aspect but in its symbolic aspect. In Islam, we have many, many commentaries upon the Qur’an, by both Sufis and Islamic philosophers, in which even what appears to be a narrative of some sacred history is interpreted in a symbolic way to convey meanings which are transhistorical and metaphysical.
JPS: Recently many so-called postmodern philosophers from the continental tradition have been incorporating readings of scriptures and other religious texts in a way that is, in a sense, much more open than some of their modern predecessors. Do you think this might signal new possibilities for a dialogue with the traditional perspective?
SHN: I don’t think so. Of course, it depends on where postmodernism goes. Every few years, some new current comes, and by the time you study it some another new current comes. As far as studying scripture, yes, that would be an opening, but postmodernism by and large denies certitude in knowledge. It tries to deconstruct the world of meaning of traditional philosophies, and its understanding of the intellect, of our noetic faculties, of the way we know, are very different from what the perennial philosophy envisages. So although there is now some interest in the reading of scripture, how we read and what it means I think in the two cases are very different.
SHN: Well, they’re relativists; that is, ultimately they read sacred scripture, but they do not accept revelation in the real sense of the term—that there’s a divine reality, God, who can reveal knowledge to human beings, whether in the form of a book, or, in India, in the form of creatures, or whatever it is. Revelation as understood metaphysically, they do not accept that. So, what is important for them, as you say, is cultural determinance, which reduces things to a kind of relativism. This has been going on for a long time, and much of postmodern philosophy is the extreme denouement, unfolding, of that process. By that, I mean that, for a long time now in the West, philosophers who have been rationalists have tried to deny the certitudes of religion, and that’s why natural theology gradually became marginalized and Christians who tried to continue to accept a religion based themselves upon faith rather than upon reason. Now there’s a kind of revival within Catholic theology, and to some extent Protestant theology, to try to come back to the older position. Anyway, as far as philosophy is concerned, it began to relativize these matters, and in the nineteenth-century sociology and the positivism of Auguste Comte and these people tried to reduce all religious truth to consequences of a social situation—socially determined, culturally determined. That is, let’s say if Moses received the revelation on Mount Sinai that “thou shalt not kill,” that was now a revelation that was culturally determined by the conditions of the nomads on the Sinai peninsula or something like that, or the Jews in Egypt.
language; that is, scripture is revealed in a particular language for a particular humanity to understand. But by virtue of its inner levels of meaning, it has a meaning that transcends those conditions. For example, let me take the specific case of Christianity. Christ said in the famous Sermon on the Mount in Jerusalem some very exalted ethical teachings. Now, many Christians consider that to be valid, and to say, “Oh, that was determined by the social and cultural conditions of Jerusalem at that time, and they’re totally irrelevant to Washington, DC or Philadelphia in 2004.”... There are some people who say that, there’s no doubt about it, but those who remain Christians do not believe that the teachings of Christ are simply culturally determined by the Palestine of 2000 years ago. And philosophically speaking, as far as the perennial philosophy is concerned, there’s no way that these postmodern philosophers can prove that scripture is simply determined by cultural conditions. It’s just a matter of faith by them that scriptures are not revealed, as it is a matter of faith by people of faith that they are revealed.
JPS: As you mentioned—and I think this is one of the points of perennial philosophy that are most misunderstood by people thinking outside it—there is still an emphasis in the perennial philosophy on those differences despite the certainty of revelation.
SHN: Oh absolutely, the perennial philosophy emphasizes not only that there are differences of forms, but that the differences of forms are themselves significant—that Hinduism doesn’t look like Judaism on the level of forms—and what these forms mean. But what it refuses to do is to deny that there is such a thing as a reality beyond the temporal. Whereas most of these postmodern philosophers, that’s what they do. They don’t want to come out and say it, but they deny that there is any reality beyond the spatio-temporal sequence in which we live, and therefore everything is reduced to that flow in time.
JPS: Do you think that Islam and the history of Islamic philosophy lends itself and has leant itself more easily to the adoption of the traditional perspective than, say, Christianity in the West, which has become increasingly secularized throughout the modern period?
SHN: Yes, and the reason for that is that in the Islamic world what we would call gnosis, pure metaphysics, a spiritual path based on knowledge, the knowledge that saves and that is illuminative, continued to survive and was very strong until modern times. Whereas in the Christian West, these forms of sapiental knowledge and perspective and spirituality became to a large extent eclipsed at the end of the middle ages, and that gave rise to nominalism, first of all, while Christian philosophy was still alive, and then a rebelling against Christian philosophy in the Renaissance and especially in the seventeenth century with modern philosophy. These things did not occur in the Islamic world, not because Islamic philosophers were stupid and didn’t understand what these Western philosophers were doing, but because there was no need in a Cartesian way to overcome a doubt which had been created in the mind of Descartes precisely because of the loss of intellectual intuition. In the earlier period of Christian history, the trajectory of the life of Christian philosophy and Islamic philosophy were very similar, besides the fact that many Islamic texts were translated into Latin and influenced Western philosophy a great deal. Independently of the influence, Christian philosophy was following a path very similar in many ways—not identical because for example Christian philosophy accepted the incarnation and Islamic philosophy did not, but in many ways similar. But Islamic philosophy, rather than turning against illumination towards empiricism as it did in the West, in fact went the other way around and became more and more wed to the doctrines of illumination and knowledge that is illuminative and salvific, and therefore survived as a very important, you might say, protector of the perennial philosophy up to our own times.
JPS: Do you think that there is anything particular in the foundation of the Christian tradition—for instance the belief in the incarnation—that would have made it more susceptible to a modern, Cartesian turn, or do you think it is just a contingency of history?
SHN: It’s a very complicated matter, and there are several elements that made it possible for anti-religious forces to overcome Christian thought more easily than in any other part of the world, as far as other religions are concerned. First of all, Christianity was heir to a rabid rationalism in the ancient Mediterranean world and so came as a way of love to overcome this false rationalism. But soon, of course, it had developed its own ways of sapiens, its own philosophies, and it did so but was not able to neutralize completely the paganism of the ancient world. It did for some time, but then it [rationalism] raised its head in the Renaissance independently of Christianity and marginalized to a large extent Christian philosophy. Not so that it died completely, but it was marginalized to a large extent, and the mainstream of European philosophy became secularized. Nothing like that occurred in any of the other civilizations of the world, not only in the Islamic but also Hindu, Chinese, Japanese, etc. In those cases, it was the militarily powerful West, which became militarily powerful as a result of secularism, that dominated over those worlds militarily during the colonial period and brought secularism with it, which is quite a different process.
And there are many other elements in the structure of Christianity. For example, in Islam the esoteric dimension, associated with Sufism primarily, and the form of knowledge, of gnosis, of divine knowledge which is preserved therein, was always very clearly protected throughout the history of the tradition. Although here or there somebody may have attacked it, it remained very viable and vibrant. Whereas in Christianity, while we have the great mystical currents of the middle ages, some of which like that of St. Bonaventure and Dante are very sapiental and really are forms of perennial philosophy at the highest level, they were not protected by the Church at all, and, in fact, gradually they were put down. So in the modern period, you can ask the question, “What happened to Christian mysticism? Why were there no Meister Eckharts and St. Bonaventures in eighteenth century Germany or France? What happened?” Of course, secularism destroyed many things, but also the religion itself—the Church itself—was not the guardian of the esoteric currents. So after the middle ages, it became more and more a means of putting them down, so that some of them became marginalized, some of them became cults, some of them died out, and by and large access to the more inner dimension of Christianity became less and less available after the middle ages. All of these are elements that have to be considered, and it’s a very complex set of events that are contained in your question.
JPS: You’ve noted in your work three distinct attitudes in contemporary Islam, the so-called fundamentalist, the modern, and the traditional, and you observe that only the first two have become instantiated in socio-political institutions. So, what kind of political, ethical, and ecological consequences would a more concrete form of the traditional perspective have?
SHN: I do not know that the world is good enough for the traditional perspective to have direct political expression, only God knows, but it does have its influence in the other two worlds. The fact that there is no government in the Islamic world today that is neither fundamentalist nor modernist but traditional doesn’t mean that the influence of traditional Islam is not strong in other ways in those countries which are either fundamentalist or modern. This having been said, if there were to be a whole state structure, a whole social structure based on traditional Islamic teachings... First of all, there would be a lack of this extremism which characterizes certain parts of the Islamic world today, which we associate with fundamentalism, and this exclusivism. There would be a much more accommodating attitude towards other religions, as we see in traditional Islamic history—for example, the Ottoman Empire in Iran, in Egypt the Mamluk period, in Spain especially during Islamic rule, and so forth. Secondly, there would not be this rabid acceptance of Westernization and modernization. Some elements are unavoidable, I accept that today. But many things are avoidable, and those could be avoided and as much as possible traditional forms of arts, of crafts, of creation, of alternative technologies, could be used. And that itself would have a very profound effect upon the ecological questions. Today in the Islamic world every country, whether it’s modernist or fundamentalist, is trying to ape Western technology and industry, and therefore with it all of the ecological consequences that this modernist tradition has brought upon us throughout the world. It [traditionalism] would be a much more sane way of dealing with the world of nature.
Now, whether other countries in the world, I mean outside the Islamic world, would allow such a thing to survive is another question. That’s a question for another day and not for me to discuss. But, if there were to be, let’s say, a country which would be ruled completely on the basis of traditional Islamic teachings, there would be these differences: the attitude towards other religions, the attitude towards other minorities, the question of the revival of Islamic art, of Islamic traditional thought, and at the same time modes of production which would be more traditional and less destructive of the environment, and many other things. It’s very difficult, of course, while we have a global economy which tries to encompass everything within itself, to have exceptions. So there are degrees to which this could be done. I’m not saying it could be done one-hundred percent, while the rest of the world is galloping in another direction. But there would be perceptible changes. Meanwhile, the role of the traditional Islam in the Islamic world is precisely to try to prevent forms of extreme interpretation, either on behalf of the fundamentalists or the modernists in the Islamic world. That role is a very significant one. | 2019-04-25T00:49:24Z | https://iccnc.org/news/NEWS/2017/01/scripture-society-traditional-wisdoman-interview-seyyed-hossein-nasr |
In this debate, Peter Navarro, the director and producer of the movie "Death by China," and Phil Potter debate wheter China's unfair trade and membership in the WTO are the primary causes of job losses and weak US growth. September, 2012.
Related: Ford Policy Union - U.S.-China Relations: Cooperation or Conflict?
>> My name is Cynthia Rathinasamy and I am an MPP here at the Ford School, and I'll be your moderator today. So on behalf of Alstom, I'd like to welcome you all to the first of the policy -- Ford Policy MU Debates. These debates, sponsored by the Ford School's International Policy Center are intended to bring informed discussion of international policy issues of importance and interest to the students of the Ford School, the University of Michigan community and the wider policy world as a part of the Ford School's mission to educate the future policymakers. The International Policy Center plans to host several of these events over the remainder of this academic year, and continue the series in subsequent years to enrich the educational experiences of students, bring the leading voices on key policy issues to the Ford School, and contribute to the wider, more informed discussion. Today's topic is the issue of U.S. - China relations, and in particular U.S. - China trade relations. I will explain the conduct of the debate in a moment, but first I'd like to welcome our two participants, first let me introduce Doctor Pete Navarro, a professor of economics and public policy at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, welcome.
>> Our other participant [applause], other participant is Doctor Phil Potter, an assistant professor of public policy here at the Ford School, specializing in international security and American foreign policy. If you all could please -- and welcome [applause]. If you all could please refer to your programs for their full biographies they have more -- much more information in there. So our debate today will be conducted in a fashion similar to a competitive forensic debate but with the difference that there will be participation by the audience. The debate will center on the following question: whether China's trade and membership in the World Trade Organization are not the primary causes of job losses and weak growth in the United States. Doctor Potter will be advocating for the passage of this resolution, while Doctor Navarro will argue against passage. In all rounds of the debate, Doctor Potter, as the advocate, will go first. The debate will begin with each debater giving a twelve-minute opening statement of his argument, with the argument for resolution by Doctor Potter opening the debate. And then Doctor Navarro will go, and two minutes of his twelve will be used to show the trailer for his film, Death by China. Following the two opening statements, each debater will then make a five minute closing statement. The debate will close with questions submitted by the audience, as you came into the auditorium you all received index cards, and we'll plan to collect those after the opening statement. Please write whatever question you may have on there, and people will come around and collect then, and we'll continue to ask as many of those questions as time allows during the audience portion. Following the audience questions we will then evaluate the results in two -- the debate in two ways. First we'll take a vote in the audience by show of hands, I'll ask all of you just to raise your hands and ask--- also ask for some patience as we just count because there's a lot of people here, as we're doing this, Miss Maria Lew up here in the front will serve as our forensic debate judge, and she will also provide her expert opinion on who she believes won the results of the debate. Finally, after all of that counting and evaluation we'll submit -- we'll tell you all who won, both in your opinion and Maria's opinion. Finally, after the debate has concluded there'll be a few minutes while we clean up and organize everything for the showing of the film -- Doctor Navarro's film, Death by China, so please stick around if you'd like to watch that. And then once again, welcome to our ongoing series of international policy debates, and I'm just going to move over there and we'll get started. All right, so Doctor Potter you have twelve minutes to go ahead with your opening statement.
>> Let's see if I've messed with this. Can everyone hear me all right? Okay, so I am not a debater by training, so I will probably now break every rule and convention of that discipline, but here goes anyway. So what I'm going to argue is that the WTO is not the primary cause of - or China's entry into the WTO is not the primary cause of our current economic difficulties, and more generally that we need to be taking a more nuanced view of the U.S. - China relationship than what is being proposed in this film that you're going to see a trailer for in a moment, and then I believe the full movie will show afterwards if you're interested in staying and taking a look at that. The reason for that is that at its core, China is now a major power, and we need to be taking seriously how we want to deal with China. We're not in a position to dictate terms in the way that I think this discussion suggests we could, and still achieve U.S. strategic interests. By pursuing some of these -- kind of cracking down on China paths, we're actually likely to undermine our own self-interest. So at its core I really question sort of what this movie really is for, right? It seems to be about sort of stirring up passions in the U.S., about exciting people for a certain course of political action, in a lot of ways it strikes me as something that is very much at home in the current debates regarding the presidential election. But I see this as much more an inherently complex situation and more than that, the oversimplifications of this kind are not benign, they're not clarifying and they can, in fact, be dangerous. So the first reason for that I think is that this and a lot of arguments about the deficiencies of China on the international system sort of harken back to these "Good Old Days" arguments, right? I think one needs to be very careful about that in the U.S., right? And specifically, I'm referring to stories about how, you know in the 50's through the 70's, man could have a blue collar job, and his wife could stay at home and they could have a car and life was good, right? First of all, household income in the U.S. was $25,000 adjusted for U.S. dollars now, it's roughly double that now, there are issues of inequality, some of which China has something to do with that we should be paying attention to and I'll return to that in a minute, but I don't think that this is a cut-and-dried case where we want to be returning to the past, right? Second of all, that past was very much the product of a very odd historical moment in which we were coming out of World War II; we controlled half of the global GDP, right? This is not something that's likely to be replicated, okay? And so we need to start thinking about how we grapple with other major powers, other major economic powers, rather than cracking down on them. So the reason for this I think is that blaming China is really pretty easy, right? But they're not fundamentally the problem. Manufacturing output in the U.S. has actually been relatively consistent since the 1940's, that line is actually quite flat with some bouncing around the mean, of course the number of people employed in manufacturing has declined almost linearly over that same period, okay? The reason for that is not China, right? It's machines, it's computers, it's productivity, okay? Second of all -- sorry, lost my train of thought there, broke a debating rule I'm sure. Second of all, manufacturing as a sheer global GDP has also been in decline over this period, right? And the share of U.S. GDP has gone right along with it. Again, much longer time series than you see with China's entry into the WTO, and representing a broader global phenomenon that we need to be taking -- paying attention to, right? Manufacturing just isn't the way to prosperity anymore, and this is sort of the fundamental thing that we're missing here. Both in the U.S. and globally, the path forward is not through manufacturing, okay? Finally, China's entry into the WTO -- it's a singular event, right? It comes in in 2001, late 2001 specifically, right? And tinning everything that happened after that with all its complexities, with sort of U.S. rises and declines, I think really washes out a lot of the information we want to know, okay? First of all, we entered a recession in 2001, right? And when you look at -- maybe some of you have seen this, there's kind of a pretty graph that got kicked around pretty frequently with the decline in U.S. jobs and manufacturing that seems to go down in 2001, I'd actually point tot that same graph as evidence that something else was going on. China entered in late 2001; the trend's already falling off the cliff prior to that, right? We have things like 9/11 in 2001. I could name any number of events in that period that could have important shifts -- important effects on the U.S. system, okay? So China's had some impact, I'm not trying to say that they've had no impact, but it's been dwarfed by larger shifts in the global economy. Specifically I think points where Doctor Navarro is correct is that there are some issues with particular regard to intellectual property, with regard to property rights, things that are not problems are things like currency manipulation, just being in Beijing and talking to a lot of business leaders at the beginning of the summer, a lot of people in U.S. business circles are concerned that if China floated its currency it would go the other way, not the way that we are insisting in congress that it's likely to go, okay? So part of the reason I think we need to be very careful about this, and that these are not just statements that are in my opinion factually incorrect, but are potentially damaging, are issues of unintended audiences, okay? I am not trying to draw an overly strong parallel here, but we've seen what happens when you put movies out that could reach the wrong people, right? And I'm specifically referring to this movie that we've been dealing with in the broader Middle East, which has enraged a lot of passions. Throughout this movie, Doctor Navarro has sort of caveats that say, "Well, there's the big bad Chinese government, but we do love the Chinese people."
Okay, I would put forward to you that the Chinese people are not out of step with the government in this direction. If anything, Chinese people have lower opinions of U.S. behavior, right, and would like to see the government take a stronger line against us, right? And then this is something that we need to be paying a fair amount of attention to, right? We assume on some level that at a popular level, if the Chinese government went away then the Chinese people would be our friends. It's false, okay? On this same trip to Beijing some Ford School students and I sat through a fairly lengthy diatribe by a member of the economics ministry who pointed out that the U.S. is -- sorry I'm trying to think of a more civil word for it, ruining China's day because of control of the reserve currency, because of our control of international institutions, because of our control of an international system in which they were a latecomer, okay? And so what I want to say is that our -- China's presence in the WTO is actually a very positive thing for the U.S., right? It brings China to the table and it brings us into a conversation with China where otherwise we might be direct loggerheads. That conversation doesn't always go well, it doesn't always work smoothly, we don't always get what we want, but it's a hell of a lot better than the alternatives, okay? So rather than China exploiting us, I think it's much more productive to think of this in terms of a mutual hostage situation, okay? Yes, absolutely, China owes -- has an enormous amount of our debt, that's a problem, but this also poses substantial problems for China, right? It prevents efficient investment, right? It inflates -- and on the U.S. side, it's inflated asset bubbles, okay, so this is not a good thing. It's something that both sides need to back off in a serious way, but that's done through conversation, right? In a mutual hostage situation you can't dictate terms, okay? And I would posit that that is very much where we are. So the point that I'd like to make here is Navarro's film is both sort of wrong and antiquated, and the real question is what we're going to do when China falls on hard times, okay? This film is very much geared towards the U.S. falling on hard times, but I think the real question for us is what happens when China falls on hard times, and I think that's likely to happen fairly soon. Inflation is very high; some of these same issues we've talked about productive investment are coming home to roost, right? From the Chinese perspective, they didn't kick us while we were down, right? They did it in their own way, but they stimulated when we said they should stimulate, they played ball with the global system, okay, and I think for a lot of Chinese people, the real test is going to come when it comes time for us to reciprocate. And what concerns me about movies like this and a lot of the dialogue that comes out of the presidential elections and out of the congress is that the U.S. is much more inclined to take advantage of the situation. And if you're going to take advantage of the situation you'd better finish the job, because this is a country that is gigantic in population, has an enormous amount going for it and is likely to rebound regardless of what we do. And when they rebound, it's going to be a heck of a lot harder for the Chinese government to make the case to the Chinese people that they should be cooperating in a system that we designed and ran and in many ways privilege our interests. Thanks [applause].
>> How are you all doing?
>> Yeah? Last time I was at U of M was literally 45 years ago and I jumped out of a plane, it was weird. My brother went here and he made me go skydiving, and this might be just the same kind of experience [laughter]. The question before us is really simple, is China's entry into the World Trade Organization responsible for the last ten years, essentially of economic misery that we've endured here in the United States. That's the question. So let's stay focused just on that for a minute. If you look at the five and a half decades prior to 2001, our gross domestic product in this country averaged 3.5% and life was pretty good. Once we hit 2001, for the last 11 years now, that GDP growth rate has fallen to 1.6%. 3.5 to 1.6. Now, two percentage points, roughly, may not seem much, but one percent is one million jobs you don't create when you lose it, two a year for ten years is about 20 million jobs, and that's about what we need right now to put everybody back to work. We have an unemployment rate which looks to be at 8.3, but for example the unemployment rate dropped in the last report, but only because 400,000 people dropped out of the labor force, 400,000 people. By my estimate and by the estimate of many economists, there's 25 million people in this country that can't find a decent job. Now, it's true that the forces of globalization started long before 2001. But something happened that year you can blame it maybe on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you can blame it on the war on terror, but the other elephant in the room is China's entry into the World Trade Organization. If you look at the history of our economy, the problems of this last decade did not begin in 2007, make no mistake about that. Here in Michigan, which was ground zero for the problem, the recession started back in 2001 and just kept going, okay? There was never, never any recovery here. And you've got General Motors, one of the biggest corporations in the world now, saved by our government, offshoring not only its production to China, but also its research and development, which is where the new jobs come from. So something happened. If you look at the statistics, they're pretty simple, and you'll see them in the film, 50,000 factories gone, six million manufacturing jobs out of here. Now this whole notion which is common to academia that you don't really need manufacturing base anymore, you don't need an industrial base, you know, we're all going to be running around in suits, and life's going to be okay, really doesn't make sense. If you look for example at one of the strongest economies in the world, Germany, 25% of their women and men are in manufacturing. What do you think it is for us ? What do you think? Pick a number. Ten, yeah, but it's nine and still going down. Okay? And when I talk about manufacturing in America, I'm not talking about t-shirts, all right? They're gone forever to Honduras and so be it, great. But the difference between countries like Honduras and China is Honduras will buy our stuff and probably they won't go to war with us, okay? Now here's the thing about the World Trade Organization: China joins it and that would have been fine if they'd done what they said they were going to do, which is play by the rules, okay? What does that mean? It means no illegal export subsidies and respect for intellectual property. Now, since that time, because of weakness here in the U.S., they've broken every single rule in the book. The currency manipulation which 40% -- 40% advantage alone, okay, just on that, and then you have -- you'll see a wonderful scene in the film where this guy Dan Slane, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 2002, because China got in he was forced to move his furniture company over to China or go out of business, right? So he's over there and he makes stuff and he makes it at cost, right? Ships it over here, dumps it over here, because business don't generally do stuff at cost, right? The way he made his profit? The Chinese government gave him a check every month for 17% of his revenues, okay? That's huge, okay? Now another thing that's interesting about the World Trade Organization is that it is absolutely silent on two things: worker abuses and then environmental abuses. In other words, you can do anything you want -- anything you want to your workers or to your environment, there's no ability to complain to the World Trade Organization. And the biggest flaw with the World Trade Organization is that you have to take it case by case by case, and any case that you file takes three or four years. And often by the time you get relief, the problem's gone. The factories that you were trying to save are gone.
So this is a serious issue, and if the people of Michigan -- most of you are sons and daughters of the people of Michigan, I would assume, the people of Michigan can't understand how important manufacturing is by the fact that you see now what has happened that it's gone and nothing's really replaced it, then we've got issues here in this country. Now in terms of what needs to happen going forward, I really think we need to talk about whether this country needs to be in the World Trade Organization at all, I mean if you think about what it is, I remember when I was shooting the film, one of the worst things that happened was I had this really good interview with a lawyer who prosecuted cases at the World Trade Organization, and he told me things like, "Yeah there's over 150 countries in the World Trade Organization and most of them don't like us." Okay? So we're not going to get much justice there. The funny thing about that interview was simply that when we shot it we lost the sound on it. It was the one interview we had where that happened; it was kind of the worst case for a director. Now what I've been doing with the film is going throughout the Midwest, I spent a lot of time in Ohio -- let me just tell you a couple of stories so you kind of understand kind of what I'm hearing from the grassroots. For example, I go to a place like Mansfield, Ohio, used to be a huge steelmaking town. There's a mill there, AK Steel. It's about a mile long, about a mile long okay? And you can cut that thing in half and half of it now is nothing but weeds and grass and beat up concrete, and what happened to that -- half of that plant, a cold finishing mill, is it was boxed up and shipped off to China, and now that plant competes against American steelmakers. You'll see in the film there's this guy, Tom Dancer, who talks about the irony of China being the highest cost producer, check this out now, highest cost producer of steel in the world, with the lowest price, okay? That can only happen if there are legal -- illegal export subsidies. But when you take half a plant from a place like Mansfield, you take out not only the steelworker jobs that go with it, but all of the surrounding support jobs. I was in Portsmouth, Ohio, down -- it's a beautiful town, anybody ever been there? Anybody? Portsmouth, it's a beautiful river, Port's mouth, hence Portsmouth, there's a young man there who had just graduated from college. He wanted to be a teacher. The best work he could get was occasionally a sub, but the tax base of Ohio has been so decimated by the loss of the manufacturing base, that they're cutting teachers left and right and cutting budgets left and right, so the only place he could work was Wal-Mart, which was some high irony. But what he told me, with tears in his eyes, and he told the people in the audience was, his grandfather who was a World War I veteran, he wanted to go and basically honor him with a flag on the grave, and he couldn't find an American flag that wasn't made in China. And there's something really desperately wrong with that. And so the bottom line here is, this is a mystery, okay? You solve it. You look at the statistics and you give me a counter hypothesis as to why in 2001, like a step function down, everything's gone. You tell me if you can compete here in the state of Michigan with a company over in Chengdu run by the state government that has the advantage of currency manipulation, that has the advantage of illegal export subsidies, that may have taken your own technology and taken it over to use against you, to dump anything in the river, anything in the air, and keep its workers working 16 hour days, 7 days a week and often not pay them. And I think some of you may have noticed the news today? Anybody see that? 2000 workers, 2000 workers in a Foxcon, i.e. an apple factory in China, rioted, and it's just like the Pinkertons back in the Ford days, right? They sent in 5000 storm troopers to keep those folks under wrap. So bottom line is I never say, "Enjoy the film," because that's not the kind of film it is. It is alarming, but I reject the idea that it's alarmist, because everything in there is factual, and the 50 people you will see in there, every one of them is an expert in their own way, that tells a very simple truth, and it's a very, very nonpartisan film. Neither right nor left but it's about right or wrong. It's the American film. Thank you [applause].
>> [Music] I was laid off three times within six months until I was permanently laid off.
>> I graduated with my Bachelor's and I haven't been able to find anything.
>> Jobs disappear, and the way the economy's going right now it's tough to find a job.
>> When the workers in China are being abused, then workers in America have a tougher time competing against them.
>> Five and a half million manufacturing jobs gone.
>> 57,000 manufacturing facilities closed in this nation.
>> Some of the workers at the companies literally their last act at the factory was to unbolt the machine and load it up to be shipped off to China.
>> There's no question that a large part of China's competitive advantage has come from environmental neglect. 16 of the world's 20 dirtiest cities are located in the People's Republic.
>> That leads to carbon emissions and particulate matter falling all along the coast of the United States.
>> If you put it in your mouth or the hands of a child, don't buy it from China.
>> We're poisoning our children with the toys that we give them!
>> China today is a [inaudible] regime. It's a dynasty, no republic, not people's country.
>> China's military power is strengthening very, very rapidly. It's developing a modern, well-equipped, technologically capable military.
>> China is the only major nation in the world that is preparing to kill Americans.
>> [Music] we're a subsidiary of China and getting worse and worse because they're going to own us pretty soon.
>> If we talk about who's to blame, I think partially our own government.
>> Our government should be doing something.
>> They could have stepped in I think a long time ago.
>> I think that at every level, people could break out, and there would be a shot heard around the world.
>> Doctor Potter you have five minutes for your response statement.
>> Okay, so maybe we should have started with that, because it gives us, I think, a better idea of why this movie sort of alarms me a little bit. I would say it's alarmist, but I mean images of World War II-looking jets replace Asian people here with Chinese, carpet bombing the U.S.? A bowie knife, blood dripping out of the continental United States, I mean, maybe alarmist is not the right word but I might one up, okay. So, you know, Doctor Navarro gave us some really touching anecdotes, but then challenged us to look at the numbers a little bit, okay? So I would say, let's start there: let's look at the numbers, all right? This supposed cutoff in 2001, right, where you have over 3% growth higher than that, 1.6% growth after that, so you know here at the Ford School we like to do a fair bit of analysis, I think this should be well within your reach. What happens to those numbers if we shift the cutoff to 2000? We still have high on one side, low on the other. If we cut it to 2005 or better yet, 8, right? You have negative on the one side and positive on the other. So my point is this supposedly smoking gun cutoff at 2001 is arbitrary, okay? And it looks compelling if you sort of say that the number's on one side or the other, but that is not smoking gun evidence, that's not what smoking gun evidence looks like. In general, China has consistently lagged behind the U.S. several steps on the value chain, okay? So this is part of the problem with the story that China is taking American jobs, right? China's comparative advantage despite what's being claimed here is actually low-cost labor, okay? That's what they've got, they've got people. This isn't terribly complicated, okay? Unfortunately, and I think the Foxcom example's a great pointer for this -- that's been changing, right? China's been having a lot of problems recently because they're having trouble competing on price for the lowest cost labor, which are jobs they took from the rest of the developing world, not from us, right? They're having trouble competing on price for labor, and having a really tough time moving up the value chain the kind of things that we do well, okay? And this is what really concerns me about this story we keep hearing that "we need to be returning to manufacturing." Right, the Chinese are desperately trying to figure out how to get the heck out of manufacturing, okay? It makes very little sense for us to turn around and say, "That's what we need to be doing," okay?
The Germany example I think is a really good one, all right? Germany's in the World Trade Organization, right? Why is Germany -- if you need the [inaudible], why is Germany doing well, and the U.S. not? It's the type of manufacturing that matters, okay? China has not been doing that sort of -- that high tech, machining, that sort of work that the Germans have long been very good at, right? And certainly it is true that having some manufacturing sector, the right kind of manufacturing sector, German-style manufacturing sector, is good for security interests, those are things that -- those are capabilities you want to have, but these blanket statements about steel mills being hollowed out in Youngstown or wherever it might be are again, missing the larger point. That's enough [laughter and applause].
>> Doctor Navarro before you start your response statement I just want to remind everyone if you have any questions to please give it to the individuals at the top row here and they will give them to me.
>> Okay, let's start with the data, first of all. The claim here is that the points are arbitrary, okay? But let's look at the data. Let's start with jobs growth, okay? If you look at the average monthly job, net new jobs, which is the big number that comes out in the employment report, last one was like 90,000. If you look at that and you go back to the 1960's, right, through that whole decade we were generating about 160,000. We went to the 1970's, about 170,000 a month. Our best year was the nineties, and that was 181,000 a month throughout the nineties. Once we got to 2001 for the last decade, okay? What is it? It's minus 2000. Minus 2000! And that's not like a single year, it's across years. It's not an aberration, it just does that. Same thing with personal income, okay? Our average median household income grew 18% in the 80's, 16% in the 90's, went to zero, zero in the 2000's. Something happened. Something happened. Now the thing that I find to be the most counterfactual is the idea that cheap labor is the source of Chinese competitive advantage. If that were true, Bangladesh and Cambodia would be powerhouses. I spent two years studying the sources of Chinese competitive advantage at UCI, and the study I did came up with the fact that, yeah, cheap labor matters, okay, but it was the other five things, the other five things, the currency manipulation, the illegal export subsidies, the counterfeiting and piracy, the pollution, the ability to pollute for profits, and the ability to abuse workers, which creates the real advantage in China, the real advantage in China. And so everything that the Chinese government is doing to gain competitive advantage, even as their labor costs start to rise is contrary to the rules of the World Trade Organization. They cheat, you'll see in the film people talking about they cheat, they cheat. Now, in terms of the knife going through, yeah, that's a little bit of Hollywood, but I was in Los Angeles standing up with 12 people from China or Tibet and this gentleman from Tibet says, "When I saw that knife, first time I saw that knife it was exactly how I felt about what the Chinese government has done to Tibet." Any Tibetans in the audience? Do you know what is being done to the Tibetans and the Uighurs? These people are kept in essentially locked states, all right? And they bring in Han Chinese to dilute the population. And they send the women out so they can't breed with Tibetan or Uighur men as a way of pacifying -- these are the kinds of things that are going on that we -- you know, we go about our merry way, we buy the cheap stuff, you'll see in the film, it's like, you can go ahead and buy the cheap stuff, but as Lord Chang says in the film, "Yeah things are cheap at Wal-Mart but we have to consider the consequences." So approach this like an academic. Look at the numbers. Look at the startling step function down, look at how year after year since 2001, year after year we've lost -- steadily lost our manufacturing base, trend it out, see where we're going, and understand that unless we start producing things -- and by the way the Chinese are the largest producers of automobiles right now, do you know that? They are the largest producers of automobiles and they're going to aircraft, okay? Unless we start making things again, there are not going to be any jobs for everybody to prosper. Thank you [applause].
>> Great, now we will proceed to the question portion, and Doctor Potter you will have the first question. What factors influenced the movement of manufacturing jobs abroad? Are these all traceable to China's trade policies?
>> So no, I don't think they're all traceable to China's trade policies. The U.S. has been losing manufacturing jobs for quite a long time, right? As I said, a lot of this story is inevitable, right? When we talk about this incredible vibrancy of our manufacturing sector you're talking about a post-World War II environment in which we are primed and everybody else is decimated, right? And we used that to lock in a lot of advantages in manufacturing that carried us for quite a ways. We also used it to lock in things like the World Trade Organization which can continue to help us out, right? So as far as things that have shifted manufacturing jobs abroad, as I said, the U.S. has kept a fairly steady state as far as overall manufacturing production, all right, we have become a lot more efficient in how we do it. We've done most of our economic growth in other sectors: the financial sector, various service sectors, and you know, I think this example that was brought up just a moment ago about the 1990's is a perfect illustration of that. We did not grow in the 1990's because we got super good at building cars, right? We were not doing that -- growth was not about manufacturing, that was a decade of unprecedented American growth and it was about things that we are, frankly, right now better than China at, and I think that's where we need to be dedicating our attention.
>> Doctor Navarro, the next one is for you, how can the U.S. avoid starting a trade war with China at a time of economic uncertainty? Or are you advocating a trade war?
>> There's a great part in the movie where Dan Slane a member of the U.S. China Commission says that we're already in a trade war, and I think that's the case. It's an undeclared trade war. If you think about what trade wars are they're basically when one country bends the rules for advantage, and China has been doing that very, very effectively since they joined the World Trade Organization. So I don't advocate a -- so you see, here's what's the most interesting thing. If you simply take the currency manipulation issue, okay, if you just take that issue alone, if you have an undervalued currency by 40% gives them an advantage that's basically like a tariff on our exports to China and a subsidy to their exports here. Now that's worked for them up to this point in time, but if you were to let them strengthen their currency now, gradually, say over a two year period, it would solve the most fundamental problem facing the Chinese economy: which is they're too export-dependent. In order for China to maintain a steady growth rate they've got to sell to Europe and the U.S. and now the U.S. and Europe are so weak it can't do that. So a stronger Yuan coupled with health and pension reform would give birth to a Chinese consumer and therefore basically make that country strong, prosperous and less in conflict with us.
>> And here's a question that I'd like both of you to answer, Doctor Potter you can feel free to take the first whack at it. What are the next steps to achieving a more normalized trade relationship between China and the United States?
>> I think a lot of it is continuing with what we've been doing, right? Which is having conversations in an international forum, right? So we've you know, the car example just came up a moment ago, we don't like how China is handling their car exports, right? Are we better off in a situation where we force conflict and force China out of the World Trade Organization which is a built-in forum, where we -- or as was posited earlier, where we remove ourselves from the World Trade Organization, where we don't have the opportunity to have conversations about these things, right? Everybody in the end bends the rules on the World Trade Organization, right? We -- the aforementioned diatribe we got from the Chinese economic ministry, I cut that off after about two and a half hours, because it was moving into the discussion of all of the ways that the U.S. has manipulated the World Trade Organization to rip off China, right?
We actually globally have a pretty lousy reputation, as far as the World Trade Organization is concerned, but it continues to be an important place where we can have conversations, and it prevents us from having these sorts of spillages where suddenly economic concerns have no built-in place for discussion, they start spilling into security concerns, and this is what I mean about us needing to take seriously the implications of these arguments for our broader geopolitical interests.
>> Repeat the question, please?
>> What are the next steps to achieving a more normalized trade relationship between China and the United States?
>> My own view is that China respects strength and exploits weakness, and what we've been showing China for a long time now is either benign neglect in the Bush administration or flat-out weakness in the Clinton administration. One of the first things that Hillary Clinton did, and I've been a fan of hers, but one of the first things she did in 2008 when she became Secretary of State is basically announce in a speech that she would not hassle the Chinese government about human rights, that it was all about trade relationships and national security things vis-à-vis North Korea and things like that. The Chinese will exploit that kind of weakness. I believe that if Barack Obama had kept his promise that he made in 2008 to the people of Michigan and Pennsylvania to brand China a currency manipulator, that if he'd kept that promise then we'd have a strong Yuan and a more balanced trade with China. I think that we just simply have to stand up for our own interests, not tolerate cheating and I think that the Chinese government will respond positively to that.
>> Thank you. The next question is from Doctor Potter: The 2001 recession is commonly attributed to the bursting of the tech bubble and the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates too high. How does this explanation square with Doctor Navarro's assertion that China's entrance into the World Trade Organization is the primary cause of the U.S. economic woes starting at that time?
>> It doesn't. No, I mean, in all seriousness though, the answer to the question is baked into it, right? The origins of the 2001 recession, which is often attributed -- you know, it starts slightly before China's entry into the World Trade Organization, right, and certainly before the effects of China's entry into the World Trade Organization is felt on an economic level, right? And what's often attributed to this sort of step function thing that Doctor Navarro has referred to a number of times is that declines and declining sectors tend to happen in recessionary periods, right? So you're inefficient in important ways, you're being passed by, suddenly there's a lot of belt-tightening, a lot of industries got shaken out, but the fact that the macroeconomic situation has changed means that when the rebound comes, that industry doesn't rebound to the same extent, right? So that's a lot of the origin of this supposed numerical blip that we see, which again, as I said before, actually comes ever so slightly before the supposed causal factor.
>> Would it be okay to say something at this point?
>> Sure, if you'd like to respond.
>> Look, again, treat this as a mystery that you have to solve, okay, and then look at the data. It's pretty clear that what happened after China came into the World Trade Organization and began using basically these illegal subsidies, it's pretty clear what happened, okay? You look -- the first industries that got hit were in the south. They were primarily furniture, film and textiles. I mean, virtually within a two to three year period, half of those industries were wiped out, and that was all due to China -- those things went right to China, okay? And then as you go through time to today even, you see this spread first up into the Midwest with things like steel and autos and then it spread to the rest of the country. So there's no way you can explain 1.6 over a ten year period when you had three and a half over the past five and a half decades. There's got to be a reason, okay? And it can't be, well, yeah, we had 9/11. That's not it, okay? There has to be something. So you tell me what it is, if it's not letting the largest populated country in the world come into your markets with cheap labor and ungodly unfair trade practices.
>> Doctor Potter, would you like to respond to this, since I gave him an opportunity to? It's all off-book, you don't have to.
>> Then I'll go to the next question after that.
>> I think by saying, you know, I would need to be able to look this up, but I'd be really interested to know what the numbers were once we'd rebounded from the 2001 recession and prior to the 2008 crash. My sense is that those are not consistently lousy numbers for U.S. growth.
>> We dropped into this lower pattern, it's fascinating, like the latest numbers that came out, we're back down to 1.6, like we're settling into this lower glide path. Like somebody get tenure studying this, or a PhD thesis okay? But I'm telling you that the numbers are really startling.
>> But if you could explain why it happened, you could solve it, and that's what we're supposed to do in academia, my friend. I think we're in a policy place.
>> Agreed, and so my concern here is that we seem to be averaging in the financial crisis, which has again , as I've said, something that has to do with these asset bubbles, but has not a lot to do with this World Trade Organization entry.
>> It's not a glide path.
>> This thing started, okay, the idea that our economic woes began in '07 is absurd. And everybody in Michigan should know that, because the recession and the slow growth basically began here, and in Ohio and in Pennsylvania. And that goes back to '03 and '04 and has persisted throughout that time. And what's missing? The only thing that's missing is all the steel mills and the auto parts factories and the manufacturing facilities that are now gone. And you'll see Richard McCormick in there, an expert on this, gone, vanished. And that's what's missing.
>> This has been a very good exchange, but I will move on to the next question, Doctor Navarro, is there a role for cooperation and competition, since the economies are so closely intertwined?
>> See, you know, look. I think that in one scenario, the relationship between China and the U.S. could be wonderful, okay? You go -- you'll see in the film there's this great rhetoric by Bill Clinton talking about how we were going to let China into the World Trade Organization and get access to the biggest market in the world, and American companies are going to produce on American soil selling to that market, okay? If the Chinese government can make the move now, basically, and empower their consumers, and move from a third of their economy consumption to two-thirds like Germany, Europe and we are, okay. They would buy our stuff, we would make some of it here, their standard of living would go up, and life would be good. That's what free and fair trade is supposed to be like, but we don't have that now, and until we have that, the relationship is going to be very, very, very conflicting, as it is now. And you can just see what's going on with Japan and China, and us being drawn into that, to know that there's nothing alarmist about a prediction that there could be a hot war.
>> I have a question for both of you, Doctor Potter you can start: do U.S. consumers benefit from cheaper Chinese commodities?
>> Yes, I mean, cheaper is good, there are costs to that, right? I'm not making the case that this is a relationship that has been perfect or that China does not engage in some unfair trade practices, right? This is not a perfect relationship, right? So yes the U.S. consumers benefit from that but in certain cases there are downsides to that as well. I would say that in aggregate the U.S. benefits, but the point is that -- you know, it's two questions, right? Whether it's World Trade Organization entry is the key variable we need to be paying attention to, and whether these sorts of remedies that we're talking about are essentially taking a baseball bat to the problem, right? And whether we in the end would be a lot worse off for doing that, and I'm making the case that yeah, we would be worse off for trying to blow this thing up.
>> Sure, look, here's the choice, okay? Yeah, things are cheap at Wal-Mart, as Gordon Chang says, but you have to consider the consequences. So here's one scenario: you have income basically zero for the last ten years, you have 25 million people now out of work, and when they go to a Wal-Mart they can barely pay for anything, and it's nice to have the prices as low as possible.
Scenario two: 25 million people have a job, and they have rising income and they pay a little bit more for their stuff at Wal-Mart. I like that world a lot better.
>> Doctor Potter, next question's for you. How would you advocate addressing IP theft and illegal export subsidies?
>> I think that this is something that we should be pursuing through the channels that we're pursuing it, right? I mean, there are limited avenues to force China's hand, right? And this is sort of the broader theme that I'm driving at here, I think there's the sense here that this film is sort of putting out there that we have tools at our disposal that involve compelling China to end practices like that, right? That era's gone. We don't have compelling tools in that regard without essentially withdrawing from the international system. All right, so the question is how do we get the most of what we want, right? How do we move in the right direction? And I think that's what international institutions do, right? They allow powers to come together in an iterated way, build collaboration, cooperation and trust. That doesn't mean that that's a clean process, that doesn't mean that you immediately get to where you want to be, but these forums allow us to continually revisit the issue, to file trade claims, to hash that out, and hopefully in a step-wise manner, move in a direction that we want to be moving in. I don't think the alternative is either realistic, I don't think this is something we can do on a policy level. There's a reason that presidents on the campaign trail tend to get tough with China, and then when reality comes home and they look at what tools are at their disposal, everyone tends to go back to the same course, right? You can tell a special interest story, as Doctor Navarro does about that, but I think the reality is that they're highly constrained in this relationship, right? And so I think, that's what these international institutions are for, I think we're very lucky that we designed the rules of the road and that by forcing China out and reshaking the whole situation, we're looking at a new order in which we would be significantly disadvantaged.
>> Let me just ask you, though, if you want to use these institutions: the White House, through the treasury department, has the duty every six months to consider branding China a currency manipulator, and if they do that, that allows the ability to introduce countervailing duties if China does not comply. Now, would you as president in '08 or '09 have branded China a currency manipulator, if not, why?
>> But it's not working!
>> Hold on, it is working!
>> How has it worked? How has this worked?
>> Nothing works! I mean, China just does what they do.
>> If you guys are both okay with going on with this exchange we can continue, but I just want to make sure it's okay with both of you.
>> So, you changed the nature of the discussion there, right? You said we kept losing jobs. Where it's worked is where it's supposed to work: on currency.
>> But you wouldn't have cracked down on China as a currency manipulator.
>> As technical matter, okay, you can have a currency appreciating, maybe appreciating 20% at the most over time, but it's the trade deficits increasing at a faster rate, the undervaluation stays either the same or gets worse. Any macro class that you take, any macro class that you take which talks about how trade is balanced will talk about how it's through currency adjustments, it goes back to David Hume, and the goal species low adjustment mechanism. And if China pegs the currency, it doesn't allow what's supposed to happen, which is in the presence of trade deficit, the Yuan is supposed to go up, the dollar is supposed to go down, our exports are cheaper and you sell more to China, our imports here, we buy less and everything comes back into balance, so this idea that they've done something like, oh yeah it's gone up a little bit, if you've got a 300 Billion dollar deficit every year and rising, that currency by definition is undervalued, my friend, and I just, I don't understand -- see, you mentioned the special interest story. Yeah, in the movie you'll see how it's GE, GM, Caterpillar and Boeing, basically they love that currency manipulation because it allows them to go offshore, produce over there, dump stuff here.
>> We can go on to the next question?
>> This is for you Doctor Navarro. Doctor Potter said, 'The advantage to having China in the World Trade Organization is that they have a seat at the negotiating table." if, as you say, they break all the rules, why not have an opportunity to hold them responsible?
>> Well, there's two things. There's an interesting thing going on on the campaign trail. Romney comes out and wants to brand China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. Now the advantage of that is that it's a global solution: in other words, if you impose duties there, it would basically be duties and tariffs across the board and would help all industries in America offset that. On the other hand, Obama, when he was down in Ohio, in fact in Columbus, the day I was there, he announced some additional cases before the World Trade Organization for auto parts. Okay, so far in his administration he's done like 80 cases. That helped very specific industries but it leaves all the other industries apart. So the World Trade Organization is a very, very ineffective mechanism to basically bring somebody to the table on the question of unfair trade practices, because you have to go piece by piece, industry by industry and it takes too long.
>> So a question for both: how do we encourage American investment in the U.S.? Doctor Potter?
>> I think we, I don't know, that' a tough question. I think that we want to continue to, within the rules, subsidize certain industries, right, again, this is a little bit like the critique that China lobbed at us, that you actually protect a number of your domestic industries, right? We've been in the process of trying to grow a, you know, a green energy industry for example, and I think that techniques like that can have their place, but you have to be very careful because we run into charges of hypocrisy on this stuff fairly regularly, you know? Some of these practices that China is doing, they're looking at the situation and saying, "You know, you had long periods in which you were protecting domestic industries before you sort of loosed them on us and now you tell us that we have to -- or even if you weren't actually protecting them they were allowed to grow, sort of, free of competition, and now you're telling us as a developing country that we have to play by mature country rules, right?" That's a critique that we need to take seriously because even if we don't believe it it's strongly felt.
>> Well, interestingly enough one of the things that draws our American multinational companies abroad is the differential tax system, and we go far beyond China on this, we have the highest corporate tax in the world of the major producing countries. And so if Caterpillar has a choice between Peoria and Chengdu, okay, they can move a new plant, right, build it in Chengdu and get immediate huge tax break. I was in Cincinnati doing a town hall and after the film this former P and G, Proctor and Gamble executive says -- I don't know if you know this, but Cincinnati is like, Proctor and Gamble land, they might as well call it Proctor and Gamble instead of Cincinnati, but he was an accountant and his whole job for many years was to evaluate where to put production distribution facilities. And he said that the only thing that mattered at the end of the day after he did his calculations was not labor, labor costs had nothing to do with it, it was all about the tax system. So that would be one constructive thing that we could do in terms of tax reform, and the other thing is, look, you'll see in the film, Alan Tomlinson says, you know, these American based multinationals that do not salute the American flag, they like the status quo, they like the cheap currency and the subsidies, if you take those away they'll be more likely to come back here. And by the way, if we're going to bail out GM, we ought to have a little clause in the contract that says, "Hey, the next plant you build, build it here."
>> The next question is also for you, Doctor Navarro. Don't U.S. companies benefit from cheap production abroad? Isn't greater efficiency in the U.S.' interest as well?
>> Well, who's the U.S.? If you look there's a great scene in the film, this guy Ralph Domery [phonetic spelling], who was professor emeritus at I think MIT and a very distinguished man, and he says, he says, he was talking about Apple, and it was like, "The shareholders get the profits, but China gets the wages," right?
And what America needs is wages, right, so that's the conundrum. So we're in danger in this country -- I mean this whole thing with Romney and the 47% thing, right? It's scary, if you think about to have 47% of the people in this country not paying any taxes, I was in Calgary about four days ago, giving a speech up there and they were talking all about it because in Canada it's only 36%, it's only 36%, so our percentage is rising and rising and rising because we've lost this manufacturing base and we've had zero wage raise. So there it is.
>> And I believe this is the last question? It's about 5:15. And it's a question for both, and it's about human rights. How can the U.S. promote human rights in China without being counterproductive?
>> I think this is, like a lot of these issues, it's important to understand what we can do and what we can't do. The reason that China engages in a lot of these practices that we're talking about, right, that promote -- that promote some of these export imbalances is because they're deeply, deeply concerned with domestic employment, right? They're concerned with internal security. Okay, they're concerned about regime preservation, all right, when those are the stakes of your adversary, it's very important to sort of know what you're dealing with, right. When those are the values that they think are on the table here, it -- most of the tools we're talking about are not going to work for you, right, because the stakes are too high. What they care about is more important than what you care about. I think you're dealing with a similar situation with regard to human rights. A lot of the ways in which people talk about manipulating the human rights issue fail to understand the origins of both problems in the Chinese system. Okay, so I think it's very important both with trade and with human rights for the U.S. not to be overly confident about how many tools we have in our tool bag for dealing with this, all right? That said, I think that there are practices that can be put in place involving sort of identifying human rights violations, boycotts of particular industries, bringing in, you know, using trade rules to deal with unfair practices as far as the overlap between human rights and trade production, which Doctor Navarro brings into the film, so there are tools, and I think this is something that the U.S. needs to be concerned about, and it is something that we've talked to the Chinese about it every time we have one of these bilateral meetings, but part of the reason you don't see a lot of either us banging our fists or them responding in kind is because there aren't an enormous number of tools we can do that'll allow -- sort of force the Chinese to start behaving you know, in ways we want them to.
>> This is really important. We gave away the most powerful tool we had to put pressure on the Chinese government on human rights, when we let them into the World Trade Organization, okay? And the history goes like this. Before China had most favored nation status, which was a precondition for entering the World Trade Organization, there was an annual rite of passage in congress basically, as to whether or not we were going to renew trade with China under the existing rules, okay? At that point there was some trade, but it wasn't a flood, okay? So we did it, we did it every year, and every year we were able to use that debate to extract concessions from the Chinese government on human rights. Now, 1994 was the year that Bill Clinton as president loosened up on that, and you'll see in the film a guy named Chris Smith, conservative, Republican, who focuses a lot on human rights, just disgusted with that because it was a pure sellout to the multinationals that you'll see also in the film. But when we got to 2001, the vote that was held in congress wasn't to let them into the World Trade Organization, it was to give them permanent MFN, permanent Most Favored Nation status. And that was the best bargaining tool we had up until that point to have them abide by more humane human rights abuses. And you will see in the film. Do we have any Thalum Dong [phonetic spelling] in this room? Does anybody know what that is, Thalum Dong practitioners? Okay, you will see in the film that for the practice of Thalum Dong Buddhism, that's probably the wrong word, but tens of thousands of people have been put --- not only put in prison, worked in forced labor camps. But some of them have their organs removed while they're still alive by the government as part of an organ harvesting thing. That kind of thing, I mean -- our government allows that, we allow that. When we go into a Wal-Mart, we as consumers basically tacitly approve that kind of thing. There's a great scene, I'll end it with this: Harry Root was in a forced labor camp for 19 years, you'll see him in the film, he says in the film, China is a dynasty, no republic, not people's country." And he talks about from firsthand experience how the rubber boots we buy, the buttons on our shirts, the Christmas lights and a lot of stuff in between are made in forced labor camps, by people who get no payment at all, and when I was in Los Angeles that one time, along with the Tibetan there was a woman on the stage who's in a movie now called Free China, and she sat there and told the audience that in 2002 she was a Thalun Dong practitioner, in a prison camp, making rabbits, little furry rabbits that got sold out into the west. So the human rights issue is one of many, but I'm telling you, this country, as the greatest democracy in the world, has at least some responsibility to do a lot better on that issue than we're doing. | 2019-04-19T10:58:14Z | http://fordschool.umich.edu/video/2012/peter-navarro-phil-potter-us-china-relations-cooperation-or-conflict |
5/22/2013 - SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- "You are, in fact, the masters of space."
These are the words Gen. Robert Kehler, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, stated when he visited Schriever Air Force Base May 17 to present the 2012 Omaha Trophy for Global Operations to the 50th Space Wing.
For the second time in three years, the wing has captured the trophy, which is awarded annually to units that demonstrate the highest performance standards in USSTRATCOM's global strategic mission. Selections are based on formal evaluations, meritorious achievement, safety and other factors such as community involvement and humanitarian actions. Col. James Ross, 50 SW commander, received the trophy on behalf of the wing.
"I want to congratulate you on a job spectacularly well done," Kehler said. "The Omaha trophy is a big deal; it's a big deal in Strategic Command and it's a big deal for the people of Omaha. They maintain a connection with this award. They know who gets it. We sit down with our consultation committee members, which is the sponsor of the Omaha trophy. And every year, we review with them who gets the award and why."
Typically, the committee members find a very tough set of choices they have in order to get to a selection.
"Once we make the selection, it's obvious why we did it," Kehler said. "And for this case, it's obvious why we did it."
The general said many of the units assigned to USSTRATCOM are operating in the shadows with the 50 SW as the epitome of "ultimate operation in the shadows."
"It's difficult for the people who benefit the most from what you do, which are the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and in particular, those who are forward deployed, and in some cases, engaged with the enemy, and in other cases, deployed elsewhere around the world, [to appreciate what you do]," he said. "They are the ones who benefit the most from what you do and yet the odds are, they don't know who is doing it. This is our chance to say thanks to you, on their behalf."
During the presentation ceremony, Kehler also talked about the changes in USSTRATCOM and how the wing is not only a part of a legacy of honor and valor, but also a part of legacy of change.
"Not only will we recognize you here today for what you have done and the outstanding way you've done it, but I think when we leave this trophy with you today, we are recognizing your potential," he said. "You are, in fact, the masters of space. We are going to rely on you to do things differently as time passes. We are going to rely on your expertise to keep providing for those forward users who can't fight the American way of warfare without GPS, can't fight the American way of warfare without satellite communications, can't fight the American way of warfare without surveillance, without weather, without all of the other things that are provided by you and people like you."
Additionally, Kehler stressed the award is about the whole team, which includes civil engineers, security forces, medical services and more.
"All of the things that go in to making the skills across an entire wing are being recognized here with the Omaha trophy," he said. "Congratulations to you, you deserve it. You don't get enough praise for the things that you do. You labor in silence and in the shadows."
Ross said the award, the Trophy for Global Operations, is what the wing does with its mission "Command satellites to deliver decisive global effects."
"What General Kehler said was exactly right," he said. "It was a team effort; the entire team is responsible for this. This is your award. Each and every one of you should be proud of how you contributed to the outstanding manner in which we did our mission."
Ross said he is blessed to be part of this team and proud of each and every member.
"Hopefully, you are as proud of this unit as I am," Ross said. "Thank you for what you do for the wing, for the Air Force and for this great nation."
/25/2013 - LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, El Segundo, California -- The U.S. Air Force's fifth Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft (WGS-5) was successfully launched on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV launch vehicle at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on May 24, the first step in its journey to expand satellite communications services to the warfighter.
Over the next several months, the satellite will undergo orbit-raising activities to reach geosynchronous orbit and on-orbit testing to verify nominal performance and prepare the satellite for operational use. Ultimately, the satellite will be controlled by the U.S. Air Force's 3rd Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base Colo. WGS-5 should enter operations by the end of 2013.
"WGS continues to meet user requirements and provides the highest capacity of any DoD communications satellite," said Mr. Luke Scab, chief Wideband SATCOM division, MILSATCOM Systems directorate. "WGS is a vital piece of the MILSATCOM enterprise consisting of WGS, Defense Satellite Communications System, Advanced Extremely High Frequency System, Minstar, and terminals providing diversified communications services to soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen around the world. This continued success is due to the hard work and dedication from the combined government and industry team."
The Space and Missile Systems Center, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the U.S. Air Force's center of acquisition excellence for acquiring and developing military space systems including Global Positioning System, military satellite communications, defense meteorological satellites, space launch and range systems, satellite control network, space based infrared systems, and space situational awareness capabilities.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the kind introduction. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today and speak to you at the Georgetown Cybersecurity Law Institute.
The cyber threat takes the form of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attacks – that have interrupted or suspended the service of webservers at banks.
It takes the form of theft and general invasions of privacy by “keystroke logging.” Installing malicious code, or malware, into a computer, and tracking almost every letter, number, or character you type on your keyboard, including all of the communications you are having over the Internet.
The cyber world has been a useful tool for economic espionage and trade secret theft. Criminal organizations, or even foreign governments, without having to leave their countries or even their offices, can break into the computer system of a private company and steal innovative product designs, formulas, or trade secrets. As a result of this, the company loses the benefit of its investment of money and years of hard work, and more importantly, Americans lose their jobs.
The cyber threat also takes the form of destructive malware. This is malicious software that is capable of deleting everything on a given computer hard drive. This is not an imaginary scenario. In Saudi Arabia, an oil company called Aramco was infected with just such a virus.
Our country’s critical infrastructure is one of the most important areas requiring protection from cyber-threats. Today, most of the important critical functions in our society are run by computer systems. The power grid, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, transportation systems, stock markets and communication systems are all controlled through sophisticated computer systems that allow them to be efficient, effective and coordinate with numerous other critical functions.
By now, you have also heard a lot about what the government can do to help you address cybersecurity issues. But I want to emphasize that government cannot fight the cyber threat alone. And I want to provide you with some thoughts about your role in all of this. What are the things that you can do in the areas of prevention, preparedness, and incidence response. Some of this may seem quite basic to many of you, but it doesn't hurt to hear it again. Unless we work together, we will not be able to address the cyber threat successfully.
Let’s begin with prevention. There are some key things that you and your companies should be doing to build resilience to your networks. Companies should put best practices and technologies in place. For example, each company needs a strong system of network firewalls. You, of course, need an external firewall. This will serve to protect you from the hacker trying to get inside. But that’s not enough. No matter how strong your external firewall is, the likelihood is that a hacker will inevitably break inside. So you also need internal firewalls. These should wall off different departments or divisions in your company from each other. And those areas that contain your company's most sensitive and valuable information should have particularly robust protections. This way, even if a hacker gets onto your network, he doesn’t get very far. Or, at least, he doesn’t get to your company’s most sensitive information.
Companies need to educate their employees on intrusion techniques such as spear-phishing or redirecting websites – the scams that use a combination of email and bogus websites to trick victims into clicking on website links or opening attachments. It only takes the carelessness of one employee to let a hacker into your network. So companies need to train their employees to recognize and avoid these kinds of scams.
And you need to set up a strong system for passwords. The strongest system has multiple layers, and yes, I know it is a pain, but it is so much less of a pain than losing all your data, your trade secrets, or your financial information. This may require the user not only to type in a number of different passwords, but also to send images or even to do a form of biometrics. You should consider using all of these to protect your core, most sensitive network areas.
But you can't do this alone, either. You're going to need up to date information on what cyber threats are out there and what they look like. Participating in information sharing platforms like InfraGard can help you in this regard. InfraGard is an FBI-sponsored initiative that brings together representatives from the private and public sectors to help protect our nation’s critical infrastructure from attacks by terrorists and criminals. Members have access to FBI secure communications network featuring an encrypted website, web mail, list serves, and message boards. FBI uses the InfraGard website to disseminate threat alerts and advisories. InfraGard also sends out intelligence products from the FBI and other agencies.
Beyond InfraGard, you can access other information sharing organizations like the Information Sharing and Analysis Centers – ISACs. ISACs are trusted groups established by critical infrastructure owners and operators. There are different ISACs for different sectors and areas of expertise. Members of ISACs share information with each other and maintain contacts with the government to share and receive cyber threat information. Services provided by ISACs include risk mitigation, incidence response, and information sharing. Depending on the ISAC, you may have access to a 24/7 security operations center, briefings, and white papers.
What can the Government do to help with prevention? Well, for starters, we can share actionable information with you. We have collected and shared hundreds of thousands of indicators of malicious activity with the private sector and over a hundred nations. And this is just in the past six months. These indicators include information like IP addresses associated with malicious activity.
You may have also heard about ECS — the Enhanced Cybersecurity Services program. This is a program that has been available to the U.S. defense industrial base. The Department of Homeland Security has been working with cybersecurity organizations from across the federal government to gain access to a broad range of sensitive and classified cyber threat information. DHS provides that information to qualified service providers to help them counter known malicious cyber activity.
In the Executive Order that the President announced at the State of the Union earlier this year, we committed to expanding ECS beyond the defense industrial base to cover our nation's critical infrastructure. We also committed to redoubling the effort to share malicious indicators not just with members of critical infrastructure, but with the private sector writ large.
Beyond information sharing, the President’s EO gave also the National Institutes of Standards and Technology – NIST – the responsibility, along with the private sector, to develop a framework of baseline standards for cybersecurity. The Framework’s purpose is to assist owners and operators of critical infrastructure to identify and manage risks posed from cyber threats. Once the Framework is established, DHS will establish a voluntary program to support adoption of the Framework. While the Framework is directly applicable to critical infrastructure members, there is nothing that prevents all companies from adopting the framework as part of their cyber program.
Next is preparation for an attack. Even a well-defended organization will inevitably experience a cyber incidence at some point. Therefore, your company has got to have a strong and comprehensive plan for responding to a cyber incident. Determine what kinds of filters to employ in the face of a DDOS attack, how to implement mechanisms to shut down access to important sectors of your computer systems, procedures to change passwords and access controls, and provisions to preserve all your critical data to ensure continuity of your company's operation if your data has been destroyed. And importantly, mechanisms to notify customers or employees if PII has been stolen.
I may be saying the obvious, but these procedures need to be developed before any cyber attack occurs. After an attack has started, it’s usually too late to figure what to do, or to have any hope that it will be effective. And your plan needs to be tailored to your particular company. You and the other IT professionals in your company are the only ones with the expertise and detailed familiarity with your own system to undertake the evaluation of how all your systems work together and how a hostile actor might exploit vulnerabilities. So take the time to really think about it.
Finally, think about your cyber protection program from the perspective of your shareholders. The SEC has issued specific guidance regarding disclosure obligations relating to cybersecurity risks and cyber incidents. The guidance, which was issued in 2011, makes clear that there are particular obligations that apply before, during, and after a cyber incident. But you should think about your disclosure obligations beyond just particular cyber incidents. If you had to explain to your shareholders how you are going about protecting the most valuable trade secrets of your company, or its financial information, or its critical operations, or the personally identifiable information of your customers or employees, what would you want that explanation to look like? What kind of impression would you want the investing public to have about your dedication to cyber protection.
So, your company has followed all this advice. It has put in place a resilient network, and you have set up a comprehensive plan of action for responding to cyber incidences. You have also been able to rehearse your plan repeatedly and have even exercised it in responding to small-scale cyber attacks. But the attack still comes. Unfortunately, it’s inevitable. What do you do then? I know that many companies are reluctant to let anyone know they have been the victim of a cyber attack. They don't want their shareholders or their customers to lose confidence in their systems. So they deal with it themselves, and don't tell anyone about it. But that kind of thinking leads to only one result - more attacks, on you and other companies. I want to urge you, in those situations, to notify law enforcement immediately. We have tools to help you and others who are the victims of the attack and we can use your attack information to help prevent future attacks. And, we are dedicated to maintaining the confidentiality as best we can so you don’t get victimized again through bad publicity.
Let me give you an example of how law enforcement can respond when we learn of a cyber attack.
This was a particularly pernicious infection, in large part because the malware was continually updated to escape detection by most anti-virus tools. In this scheme, the botnet creators, through keystroke loggers, were stealing peoples’ personal and financial information. Because these criminals were overseas and could not be easily identified, arrested or prosecuted, we had to figure out a way to disrupt the network and stop the theft. We did this through a combination of civil and criminal authorities that allowed us to wrest control of the network from the criminals and shut it down.
First, because the central command computers that operated the botnet were in the United States, we sought a criminal seizure order to take control of those servers. This took the botnet control away from the criminals, and let us respond when the infected computers beaconed back asking for their next instruction.
Finally, although we had put the malware to sleep, it was still on all of the individual computers. With the malware in place the botnet creators could reconstitute the botnet fairly easily. So we went to work with antivirus companies and other industry partners to solve this problem. Software companies and Internet Service Providers offered free self-help tools and advice that enabled users to rid their computers of the malware. By combining authorities and working together with the private sector, we developed an effective solution to address this one network of malicious code.
But in this instance we were lucky. We were able to locate key components in the United States and did some creative lawyering to seize control of those servers. But that won't always be the case. Most of the law enforcement we have today was designed for the 20th century. We are, unfortunately, dealing with a 21st century problem.
Although the federal government currently has a range of tools at its disposal, we still need to give law enforcement better ways to stop cyber crime without having to piece together ad hoc, creative solutions.
We need to facilitate the appropriate sharing of cybersecurity information like malware codes between the government and private industry so industry can protect itself.
We also need legislation to incorporate privacy and civil liberties safeguards into all aspects of cybersecurity.
We have been and should also continue to engage our Allies and partners worldwide to solidify norms of cyber behavior — to help ensure that the Internet remains open, secure, and stable. It is also crucial for us to maintain a meaningful dialogue with the world’s largest cyber actors and work together to develop an understanding of acceptable behavior in cyberspace.
But above all, we must work together — the government and the private sector — to build closer and even better partnerships. Only by doing this will be able to make the future Internet a place where we can be more confident that our businesses, our privacy, and our personal finances can operate safely. The responsibility of protecting all of this rests not only with the government, but also with, individuals, firms, and companies themselves. We know that you have been working hard to provide security for your systems. We commend you for doing so and look forward to working closely with you as we move forward in addressing and countering the cyber threat.
Thank you again giving me the opportunity to talk with you today about this important topic.
5/23/2013 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. -- When the Air Force successfully launched an Atlas rocket carrying a GPS satellite May 15, reservists in the 19th Space Operations Squadron provided all of the operational manpower from the launch through the first 96 hours on orbit.
"The Air Force Reserve has supported 28 of 36 GPS launches," said Lt. Col. Mark Strub, 19th SOPS commander at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo. "This is the ninth launch led by the 19th SOPS and the 12th for which squadron personnel have been an integral part of the launch team."
The GPS IIF-4 spacecraft ascended into a constellation of satellites circling 11,000 nautical miles above the earth. It provides precision navigation and timing to U.S. military forces and civilian users worldwide.
- A 12-year design life providing long-term service.
These upgrades improve anti-jam capabilities for the warfighter and improve security for military and civil users around the world.
SAN DIEGO, May 17, 2013 – Unmanned vehicles, known as UxVs, deliver enhanced information dominance capabilities to the fleet, increasing the utility of robotic systems employed in military operations.
Such military operations can range from combat to disaster-relief missions, which create the requirement for robotic command-and-control systems with mission-specific functionality that display mission-specific information to the operator.
Guided by Gary Gilbreath, chief software engineer for unmanned systems here at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific -- SSC Pacific for short -- has developed an unmanned vehicle/sensor operator-control interface that can simultaneously handle multiple sets of disparate remote systems.
Development of the Multi-robot Operator Control Unit, which enables command and control of a wide range of vehicles and payloads under varying mission scenarios, began in 2001.
It’s the first “common controller” for SSC Pacific’s broad family of developmental UxV systems, including land, air, sea and undersea vehicles and sensors.
Government-owned, MOCU has a modular, scalable, and flexible architecture. Modularity allows for a breadth of functionality, such as communicating in unrelated protocols. Scalability allows MOCU to be installed on a wide range of hardware. While, flexibility allows MOCU users to define what information is displayed and determine what control is needed for each system.
One key advantage of MOCU is that the user interface can be easily reconfigured as needed by editing XML configuration files, without the need to recompile.
Under Gilbreath’s direction, MOCU was ported to more than 30 government programs by 2005, and to an additional 26 outside users by 2010.
Additionally, MOCU was selected for use on the Navy's littoral combat ship mission modules and the Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System. More recently, it was selected by the Marine Corps/Army Robotic Systems Joint Program Office for joint UxV acquisition programs.
With this rapid adoption of MOCU by industry and other government agencies, the title of chief software engineer for unmanned systems was created to oversee, coordinate, and manage all internal and external development and implementation activities.
“As our chief software engineer, Gilbreath has provided technical direction, coordination, and management of the growth of MOCU software across [the Defense Department] and throughout industry and academia,” Everett said.
Having worked in the area of unmanned systems for more than 26 years, Gilbreath is nationally recognized as a subject-matter expert in UxV C2. He has provided high-level architecture design for UxV C2 software, guiding multiple stakeholders, including the Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Army, the Marine Corps and industry.
“Our goal is to provide the most adaptable, extensible, and appropriate technology solution to the sponsors and users, thereby ensuring SPAWAR remains at the forefront of UxV C2 in all operational domains and across the globe,” Gilbreath said.
5/16/2013 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. -- The U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing successfully launched the first Atlas rocket carrying a GPS satellite since 1985 at 5:38 p.m. May 15 from Space Complex 41.
The United Launch Alliance-built Atlas V rocket carried into orbit the 64th GPS satellite, an enhancement to the orbiting constellation.
Brig. Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander, 45th Space Wing, praised the combined team of military, government civilians and contractors on the outstanding results.
"I am proud of the hard work of the 45th and 50th Space Wings, the Space and Missile Systems Center, United Launch Alliance, Boeing, our industry partners and the Atlas V and GPS IIF launch teams," said Brig. Gen. Cotton. "Once again, our entire team worked hand-in-hand to make this another successful launch for the Air Force and our nation."
The GPS IIF-4 spacecraft ascended into a constellation of satellites circling 11,000 nautical miles above Earth. It provides precision navigation and timing to U.S. military forces and civilian users worldwide.
The new capabilities of the IIF satellites will provide greater navigational accuracy through improvements in atomic clock technology; a more robust signal for commercial aviation and safety-of-life applications, known as the new third civil signal (L5); and a 12-year design life providing long-term service. These upgrades improve anti-jam capabilities for the warfighter and improve security for military and civil users around the world.
"The Air Force is working hard to advance the GPS network for improved accuracy across the board for things like commercial aviation signals, anti-jammers and a longer shelf life as we evolve the system over time," said Lt. Col. Paul Konyha, commander, 5th Launch Support Squadron.
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb., May 14, 2013 – Recognizing the value of multinational coalitions for operations in the land, maritime and air domains, officials at U.S. Strategic Command here hope to forge a coalition that shares assets and capabilities in space.
However, as more nations, organizations and commercial companies vie to take advantage of space-based capabilities, the once-pristine space domain is becoming increasingly congested and competitive, Thompson said.
And of particular concern to military leaders, space is an increasingly contested domain, with potential adversaries hoping to level the playing field by denying access to space and space-based capabilities, he said. The response, Thompson said, must be the same unity in numbers that has proven itself out in every other domain. Coalitions provide more capability than any one nation can provide alone, while also sending an important deterrent message to potential adversaries, he said.
Unlike recent coalitions, formed for specific periods to accomplish specific objectives, Thompson said he hopes those formed for operations in space endure.
“We have enduring requirements and enduring interests that are common among ourselves. So we see this as a longer-standing coalition with these nations,” he said.
Working together to support their shared interests and objectives, Thompson said, the coalition members will help ensure that space remains a global common open to all.
5/14/2013 - LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The U.S. Air Force Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF-4 satellite is ready for launch aboard a UnitedLaunch Alliance Atlas V Launch Vehicle on May 15 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
The launch window opens at 5:38 p.m. EDT and will remain open for 18 minutes to accommodate any delays for weather or technical reasons. The satellite, designated as Space Vehicle Number (SVN) 66, is the fourth in the series of 12 IIF space vehicles that Boeing has on contract with the Air Force. SVN-66 will be joining the other operational satellites currently on-orbit in the GPS constellation.
"We are looking forward to yet another successful launch; tremendous progress is being made with the GPS IIF space vehicles. The first three satellites are on-orbit and meeting all mission requirements and the atomic clocks on-board the payloads are providing the best accuracy ever," said Col. Bernie Gruber, director of the Space and Missile Systems Center's Global Positioning Systems Directorate.
"This is just the beginning of the modernization plan to improve operations, sustainment and overall GPS service for military and civil users around the globe. I would like to commend the 45th and the 50th Space Wings, United Launch Alliance, our industry partners, the Atlas V and GPS IIF launch teams. Thanks to the hard work and focus on mission success, we are ready tolaunch the fourth GPS IIF satellite," he said. "To mission success!"
The new capabilities of the IIF satellites will provide greater navigational accuracy through improvements in atomic clock technology; an increased design life of 12 years for long-term service; and a new third civil signal (L5) to provide a more robust signal for commercial aviation and safety-of-life applications, while the second civil signal (L2C) is available for dual-frequency equipment.
GPS will deliver sustained, reliable and improved military and civil navigation capabilities to ensure GPS remains the "Center of Excellence forspaced-based navigation."
5/14/2013 - PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- In the early 1940s, Peterson Air Force Base, or as it was known back then, Colorado Springs Army Air Base, was little more than a dusty runway with a few small white buildings that provided a place to train bombers during World War II. After the war, the base closed until the start of the Cold War in the 1950s.
From this point forward, Peterson Air Force Base saw many transitions, but none more significant than the birth of the 21st Space Wing in 1992. This week marks the 21st anniversary for the 21st Space Wing. As we celebrate how far we've come, it's important to remember how the wing began.
Retired Brig. Gen. Ronald Gray, the first commander of the 21st Space Wing, recently explained that the creation of the 21st Space Wing was a much needed improvement from the 1st Space and 3rd Space Support Wings that previously occupied Peterson AFB.
"I guess you had to be there previously to get a real understanding of how it was a significant change," Gray said.
Gray, who was the director of operations at Air Force Space Command during this time, said this change was a direct result of newly appointed Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Merrill McPeak.
"(McPeak) had some very strong views on the Air Force's organization and where the problems were and what could be done to solve some of those problems," said Gray. "He came up with a concept called the 'objective wing,' meaning that the organizational structure, roles and missions would be the objective for all Air Force wings to adhere to."
The objective wing concept, said Gray, eliminated staff activities overseeing operations and maintenance creating group commanders instead. Gray added that this new structure created a clearly defined line of responsibility from the CSAF to the lowest ranking airman.
Along with the 1st Space Wing and 3rd Space Support Wing at Peterson AFB, there was also the 2nd Space Wing at Schriever AFB. Many of the issues faced by Peterson and Schriever AFBs as well as the GSUs is the difficulty in working with another wing to garner critical support.
Prior to Gray's assignment at AFSPC, Gray was the commander of the 1st Space Wing. One of his many frustrations at that time was the funding decisions made by the support wing that affected mission organizations.
"We were buying sod at Peterson AFB while mission organizations were starving," said Gray. "We were always $10 short on funds and $20 short on people."
Gray said all of that changed on May 1, 1992, however, when they stood up the 21st Space Wing.
"It was a new start in many ways: organizationally, functionally, mission-wise, as well as people, which was a breath of fresh air," said Gray. "It gave them a purpose, I think, that they did not have before. They couldn't point to any mission other than support."
Stepping into the role of commander of the 21st Space Wing, Gray made a promise to visit every office on base. Although it took him three months, Gray fulfilled that promise.
"I walked into every shop on Peterson AFB and I emphasized to them, the purpose of the 21st Space Wing is missile warning and space surveillance and don't you forget it," said Gray. "I figured I could get everyone moving in the same direction at the same time doing the same mission, and I think it worked."
Since then, the Wing has grown to be the fourth largest wing in the Air Force, spread out over 16 states, eight countries and 13 time zones. It supports six installations across 34 locations and employs about 4,300 military, civilians and contractors. These Airmen operate and sustain global missile warning and space control capabilities and installations to dominate the high ground for America and its allies.
5/8/2013 - ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- An innovative program developed by Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command here is expected to improve productivity, save maintenance man-hours, and the Air Force $12 million.
Called eTools Lite, the program improves on the Air Force's original mandate to put aircraft maintenance technical orders into an electronic format by placing the digital files on iPads instead of the costlier, heavier and more complicated ruggedized laptops.
With the iPads and eTools Lite, access to more than 2,000 technical orders is a simple swipe of the finger, a convenience not lost on aircraft maintainers.
"Maintainers are calling this the best thing since sliced bread, a game changer," said Corey Runge, a former F-16 crew chief and a member of the AFRC team that developed, tested and fielded the ingenious solution.
Developed in partnership with AFRC's Communications and Logistics directorates, eTools Lite reduces the number of ruggedized laptops needed by the maintenance community. Some laptops will still be used in supervisory and troubleshooting roles but the vast majority of tech data access by AFRC maintainers will be done via iPads.
According to Col. Wendy Deemer, chief of AFRC Logistics Operations, eTools Lite will be adopted by the Air Force on an attrition basis.
Col. Larry Stephenson, deputy director of Logistics, led the AFRC team that took eTools Lite from concept to implementation in just two and half years. Team members included, Deemer, Majs. Christina Manning and Ellen Weaver, Capt. Terrell Eikner, Senior Master Sgt. Wendy Blevins, Jerry Ruiz, Bruce Gaynor, Cynthia Schultz, Michael Phillips and Runge.
Several years ago Air Force mandated that technical orders and other instructions be converted from paper to portable digital format so aircraft maintainers could easily access tech data in PDF form on laptops instead of lugging binders of paper TOs to the flightline.
In concept, the laptop solution seemed plausible. In reality, Deemer said, the laptops did not work as originally intended.
Runge agreed. A crew chief for eight years at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., before joining the AFRC logistics team, he has firsthand experience with the cumbersome, heavy laptops.
"We had to wait 10-15 minutes after logging in just to connect to the network," he said. "By the time I got out to the flight line, I had to deal with WIFI connectivity issues. It just wasn't working. At the time, most of the mechanics preferred to take paper TOs."
"It really defeated the purpose [of having electronic tech orders]," Deemer said. "The whole idea was to save money. It didn't save a whole lot of money.
Ruggedized laptops cost nearly $3,500 apiece. Converting to the iPads provides the Air Force a cost avoidance of more than $12 million over the course of a three-year tech refresh cycle, according to Deemer.
Michael Phillips, AFRC Technical Order Distribution Office manager, is credited with bringing the iPad solution to the table.
The iPad was chosen because it performed better than other tablet devices they tested, Phillips said.
"The iPad can hold thousands of TOs, and it can open more than one book at a time, which wasn't a capability of some of the other tablets we tested at the time," he said.
"These are standard off-the-shelf iPads," Phillips explained. "We haven't changed a thing other than disable WIFI and the camera. All we added was a rubber waterproof and scratch-resistant cover. And, we can field them at less than one-ninth the cost of the ruggedized laptops."
"Oddly enough, the maintainers like the iPads so much, they take better care of them because they see them as such a valuable tool"
To ensure the iPads could safely be used in and around aircraft, the devices underwent military standards testing at the Air National Guard and Air Reserve Test Center in Tucson, Ariz.
The command then fielded iPads at six AFRC bases to stress the devices in extreme cold, heat and humidity. Maintainers in Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Indiana, Ohio and Florida put the iPads through the paces.
"Feedback we got from the maintainers was fantastic. They said the devices could revolutionize maintenance," Phillips said.
"What we're seeing with the iPads is more efficient and effective tech order usage, as has been reported during operational readiness and other inspections," Deemer said.
A recent Air Combat Command Combined Unit Inspection of the 920th Rescue Wing, Patrick AFB, Fla., commended the unit for "sound technical order usage." The rescue wing was an early adopter of the eTools Lite system.
The iPads are so convenient and easy to use, maintainers race to the tool crib each morning to get one before they run out.
On a typical maintenance job, an F-16 crew chief carries six to eight tech orders, work cards and job guides. This makes the TO kit weigh 15 to 20 pounds. The iPad, which contains nearly all the TO's in the Air Force library, weighs 2.5 pounds and can be grasped in one hand.
"With paper tech orders, maintainers have a tough time dealing with wind, rain and hydraulic fluid. The paper has the potential to blow away, creating a foreign object damage hazard better known as FOD," Runge said. "You get the picture."
Despite the benefits of the iPads, the logistics directorate faced an uphill battle to get them, said Deemer.
"There were a lot of naysayers," she said. Fielding the iPads took considerable effort, from selecting the best device from a host of competing products, testing, then developing the concept of operations, policies and procedures and management of the program.
"But, it was worth pursing," Deemer said.
"We've had the great privilege to have leaders here who recognized that it was worth pursuing and went through all the pain that is required to get something like this. I think this is a tremendous accomplishment.
"This is one of the greatest advancements in maintenance that we've seen in recent years because it directly benefits maintainers. It immediately makes their jobs easier, quicker. I'm excited about this and as more people start using the iPad they will be excited, too," Deemer said.
FORT MEADE, Md., May 9, 2013 – Approval last week of security technical implementation guides for BlackBerry and Samsung Knox devices means that Defense Department organizations will be able to use those devices in conjunction with a secure enterprise mobility environment.
The May 2 release of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Samsung Knox STIG provisionally allows DOD to use the latest technology as soon as it is available commercially. Officials also released STIGs for the BlackBerry 10, Blackberry Playbook and Blackberry Device Service. The STIGs allow use of accepted devices as part of approved mobility pilots with actively defended mobile device management systems, DISA officials said.
The Samsung Knox STIG represents a paradigm shift in DISA's business processes that dramatically increased the efficiency of bringing new devices into the DOD enterprise, officials added. DISA field security operations developed the Samsung Knox STIG ahead of its commercial release, they noted, highlighting how close partnerships between government and industry are delivering the latest enterprise technology to meet department needs.
A key component of the secure mobility environment is the mobile device management system that provides enforcement of the STIG settings, as well as other key security functions. Achieving DOD security objectives requires both the device security, defined in the STIG, as well as active defense provided through the mobile device management system, which DISA will implement through a contract award in early summer.
The DOD Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan, released in February, led to the new process and served as the basis for establishing the list of approved devices. The plan tasked DISA to develop a new process for approving mobile devices "to ensure that DOD will have access to the latest mobile technologies in a timely manner by maximizing vendor participation."
"DISA established a process where vendors develop STIGs following DOD security requirements guides and submit documentation and evidence for DISA's validation," said Terry Sherald, chief of DISA’s information assurance standards branch. "We are excited to continue working with other commercial mobile device providers to support a diverse, competitive multivendor environment."
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2013 – The Defense Department is committed to providing the best medical care and recovery for service members with traumatic brain injury, DOD’s top doctor said in a statement issued yesterday.
NICoE was constructed with philanthropic donations and is staffed by DOD personnel, which represents an “important new model in public-private partnership,” Woodson said.
Located on the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center campus in Bethesda, Md., NICoE brings in leading academic and military researchers to collaborate on the “nexus of TBI and psychological health conditions” that affect military readiness and public health, Woodson said.
Coming initiatives will further broaden TBI research, treatment and education as facilities and programs come online, he said.
-- NICoE is expanding with nine satellite clinics situated on military installations. They are Camp Lejeune, S.C.; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; Fort Belvoir, Va.; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Carson, Colo.; and Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, Texas.
-- Research findings will be rapidly translated into clinical policy to ensure service members receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based medical care following a concussion.
-- Another goal is to reduce the stigma of TBI through partnerships, such as the formalized agreement made in August 2012 between the Army and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The agreement pledges work on both sides to improve awareness of brain injuries, reduce the stigma of TBI, and change the culture surrounding such injuries on the battlefield and in the locker room.
-- The first brain tissue repository has been created to address the underlying mechanisms that cause brain injury and disabilities in service members with TBI. The repository is kept at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, also on the Walter Reed campus.
“Although our work has been underway for years, we are still in the early stages of beginning to unlock the mysteries of how the brain responds to traumatic events,” Woodson said.
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2013 – Pentagon officials yesterday approved the security technical implementation guides for BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, as well as Samsung's Android Knox, to be used on Defense Department networks.
“This is a significant step towards establishing a multivendor environment that supports a variety of state-of-the-art devices and operating systems,” Air Force Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement announcing the approval.
Several mobile devices and operating systems are going through the Defense Information Systems Agency's review and approval process. A security technical implementation guide approval establishes a configuration that allows a secure connection to DOD networks, which facilitates the process by eliminating the need for security reviews at the individual organization level, Pickart explained. However, he added, yesterday's decision does not result in product orders.
The level of security necessary throughout the department does not rest solely on any one mobile device, Pickart said, adding that the network and software also must be secured and managed appropriately. An integral part of the secure mobility framework will be the Mobility Device Management and Mobile Application Store, which is in source selection now and anticipated for award in early summer, he said.
5/3/2013 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The final flight of the X-51A Waverider test program has accomplished a breakthrough in the development of flight reaching Mach 5.1 over the Pacific Ocean on May 1, 2103.
"It was a full mission success," said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate.
The cruiser traveled over 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes over the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range. It was the longest of the four X-51A test flights and the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever.
The X-51A took off from the Air Force Test Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., under the wing of a B-52H Stratofortress. It was released at approximately 50,000 feet and accelerated to Mach 4.8 in about 26 seconds, powered by a solid rocket booster. After separating from the booster, the cruiser's scramjet engine then lit and accelerated to Mach 5.1 at 60,000 feet.
After exhausting its 240-second fuel supply, the vehicle continued to send back telemetry data until it splashed down into the ocean and was destroyed as designed. All told, 370 seconds of data was collected from the experiment.
"This success is the result of a lot of hard work by an incredible team. The contributions of Boeing, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, NASA Dryden and DARPA were all vital," said Brink.
This was the last of four test vehicles originally conceived when the $300 million technology demonstration program began in 2004. The program objective was to prove the viability of air-breathing, high-speed scramjet propulsion.
The X-51A is unique primarily due to its use of a hydrocarbon fuel in its supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, engine. Other vehicles have achieved hypersonic -- generally defined as speeds above Mach 5 -- flight with the use of hydrogen fuel. Without any moving parts, hydrocarbon fuel is injected into the scramjet's combustion chamber where it mixes with the air rushing through the chamber and is ignited in a process likened to lighting a match in a hurricane.
The use of logistically supportable hydrocarbon fuel is widely considered vital for the practical application of hypersonic flight.
As a technology demonstration program, there is no immediate successor to the X-51A program. However, the Air Force will continue hypersonic research and the successes of the X-51A will pay dividends to the High Speed Strike Weapon program currently in its early formation phase with AFRL.
5/2/2013 - EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- A team of researchers from the NASA Airborne Science Program recently visited Eielson to assemble topography of glaciers and ice sheets in Alaska April 25 to 27, 2013.
Due to some of the research taking place in the Beaufort Sea, Eielson's location provided NASA with necessary personnel and equipment to achieve mission objectives.
"This NASA mission is just another example of how Eielson's unique location, capacity and support infrastructure can be leveraged to support and enable a myriad of [Department of Defense] and federal organization's missions," said Robert Cologie, 354th Operations Support Squadron current operations flight commander. "The NASA support distinctly captures the cornerstone essence of Team Eielson's prepare, enable and deploy skillset."
NASA's team developed a radar system capable of generating wide-swath, precise digital elevation models of glaciers and ice sheets. Aptly named GLISTIN-A, Glacier and Ice Surface Topography Interferometer-Airborne, this sensor collects glacier measurements and sea ice observations.
"Specifically, the GLISTIN-A sensor ... contributes high accuracy, high resolution swath measurements in targeted regions that are topographically and dynamically complex," said Delwyn Moller, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The sea ice acquisitions are a test of the sensor's capabilities and potential to measure freeboard and are the first measurements of this kind."
To obtain images from the sensor, GLISTIN-A is attached to a NASA C-20A aircraft. The aircraft, obtained from the Air Force in 2003, has been structurally modified and instrumented by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to serve as a multirole, cooperative research platform.
The mission to Alaska focused primarily on tidal glaciers, which have a more direct contribution to sea level rise, in order to potentially seed larger-scale observations in other campaigns for climate change science, Moller said.
"Sea ice is just one factor in studying climate change, but it is a major indicator of a warming climate," she explained. "GLISTIN-A has a potential to map and monitor the distribution and mass of the sea ice in a way not currently available through alternate space-borne or airborne sensors."
With the success of the mission to Alaska and the support received from the Iceman Team, members of the C-20A crew are excited to return to the Interior in the future.
"We spend a lot of time at Air Force bases and international airports across the globe, receiving the necessary ground support that is needed to make our missions a success," said John McGrath, C-20A project manager. "The help we have received from everyone here at Eielson is by far the best we have ever experienced and has made our lives very easy and our mission a success, and we are looking forward to coming back up here again."
5/2/2013 - COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The kind of dramatic innovation that brought the world the Global Positioning System is desperately needed today in military space and cyberspace, according to Air Force Space Command's Vice Commander.
"Innovation is really what defines us as a Service," said Lt. Gen. John Hyten at the annual National Security Innovation Competition held here Apr. 25. "Our Service has been built on Airmen doing amazing things, fueled by innovation."
"There are some spectacular examples of innovation ," in the Air Force's history, General Hyten told the audience of about 50 college students and technology professionals. The Air Force was one of the first to put integrated circuits to use in the early 1960's as part of the guidance system for Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles. Probably the best-known innovation, he said, was the Global Positioning System, better known to the world as GPS.
Early in the development of GPS, even Air Force leaders could not fully appreciate the potential uses of global, precision navigation and timing. "Very few could think out of the box and look into the future and see there was a different way of doing business" said the general.
Today, of course, people all over the world depend on not only the navigation GPS provides, but many financial systems depend on the precision timing signal. "You can't buy gas without GPS," in the United States, he said. GPS, "fundamentally changed warfare; it fundamentally changed the world."
Innovation is a central theme in the new Air Force Vision. "Our Airmen's ability to rethink the battle while incorporating new technologies will improve the varied ways our Air Force accomplishes its missions," wrote Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff General Mark Walsh III, in the document released in January, 2013.
General Hyten challenged the competitors to fight for their innovations, even in the face of opposition from bureaucracies and naysayers.
"We have a desperate need for innovation in both space and cyber," he said. "We have declining budgets. We have a completely different threat environment," in both cyber and space. "We need to figure out how to fight through contested environments," he said. "We have to come up with new ideas. If we don't, we fail as a nation."
As Vice Commander, General Hyten helps lead more than 40,000 professionals engaged in military space and cyberspace operations for the Air Force, a mission which requires experts with a Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics education.
The National Security Innovation Competition links students conducting cutting-edge research on concepts and technologies intended to meet national security capability needs with government and industry customers. Finalists this year included teams from the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, University of California, Davis; University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; Virginia Tech; Colorado Technical University and the University of Wyoming.
Innovations presented at the conference included an underwater texting system, search-and-rescue robots, cyber security software, and nerve agent detectors.
5/1/2013 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- The Space Development and Test Directorate at Kirtland is helping NASA launch a spacecraft to the moon this summer.
NASA is sending the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, to orbit the moon and study the moon's atmosphere. LADEE will be launched into space from a rocket the SDTD helped build.
"We developed a unique five-stage rocket that could get a probe to the moon and utilize the different experiments onboard," said Col. Urban Gillespie, SDTD Launch Systems Division chief.
The rocket is built to have five stages to ensure the probe makes it to the moon and is in the right orbit to perform its mission.
"It's similar to the different clubs you use in golf," Gillespie said. "The first three stages of the rocket are like your drivers, and will be used to send the probe into orbit around the earth. The fourth stage is like your mid-iron, and is used to propel the probe toward the moon. The final stage is like a putter, and will put the probe in the exact orbit trajectory it needs to reach the moon."
The rocket, which uses three retired Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile motors and two commercial motors, is scheduled to launch Aug. 12 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. LADEE is the first major NASA payload to fly on an Air Force rocket from NASA's range at Wallops.
"The rocket is being processed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and then will be transported to Wallops and assembled there before it is launched," said Master Sgt. Dave Grimes, Peacekeeper operations support manager.
Grimes said transporting 35-foot, 117,000-pound rocket motors presents unique challenges, particularly moving it along traffic-congested highways and narrow back roads in eastern states - so to gain experience, he and his team transported rocket motor mockups across the country last year. The mockups are the same size as the real rocket motors, but are weighted with cement instead of propellant.
Once LADEE is launched, its mission is expected to last 160 days. It will take 30 days for the probe to reach the moon, followed by 30 days ensuring everything on the satellite is working properly. For the next 100 days, LADEE will orbit the moon, studying the lunar atmosphere, performing various science experiments and analyzing data.
"Obviously, we want NASA to be successful, but for us, success will be getting the rocket and the probe on the precise trajectory which will be challenging, because we have only a narrow 30-minute window to launch the rocket and get it where it needs to be," Gillespie said. | 2019-04-21T05:10:05Z | http://talk-technology.blogspot.com/2013/05/ |
Last updated on 2 April 2019, to include amendments to clause 6.3 with respect to when and how payment must be made.
This Learning Agreement is also known as the Student Learning Agreement.
1.1. What these terms cover. These are the terms and conditions on which we supply a course (or courses) to you, whether these are services or digital content.
1.2. Why you should read them. Please read these terms carefully before you enrol with us. These terms tell you who we are, how we will provide the course(s) to you, how you and we may change or end the contract, what to do if there is a problem, and other important information. If you think that there is a mistake in these terms, please contact us to discuss it.
2.1. Who we are. We are the College of Media and Publishing Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. Our company registration number is 05220267, and our registered office is at Forum House Business Centre, Stirling Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7DN. Our registered VAT number is 924385414.
2.2. How to contact us. Enquirers can contact us by emailing [email protected] or by writing to us at College of Media and Publishing, Forum House, Stirling Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7DN.
2.3. How we may contact you. If we have to contact you we will do so by phone or by writing to you at the email address or postal address you provided to us at the time of enrolment.
2.4. We may occasionally communicate with you on Facebook or Messenger if other methods of communication are unavailable.
3.1. How we will accept your order. Our acceptance of your order will take place when we email you to accept it, at which point a contract will come in to existence between you and us.
3.2. If we cannot accept your order. If we are unable to accept your order, we will inform you of this and will not charge you for the course(s). This may be because of unexpected limits on our resources which we could not reasonably plan for, because we have identified an error in the price or description of the course(s), or because we are unable to meet a deadline you have specified.
3.3. Our course materials are classified as digital content by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and are made available for you to download upon enrolment.
3.5. Discount codes must be applied at the time of enrolment. They cannot be used retrospectively.
3.6. This agreement covers the period from the point of enrolment until the date we dispatch your CMP diploma and ABC/Certa Awards diploma when you complete a course. Any services and contact provided outside these periods are entirely at our discretion.
4.1. You must be aged 16 or over to enrol on a course with us. Learners under the age of 16 will need to provide us with a letter of consent from a parent / guardian or teacher.
4.2. You must provide truthful, accurate and complete information when registering for your course(s).
4.3. It is your responsibility to maintain any changes to your registered information (including your contact details). Your registered information can be viewed in the initial enrolment confirmation email you received from us when you signed up. Please message us through the Online Learning Area if you wish to alter any of your registered information. You can update your name and email address through the “edit profile” option on your Online Learning Area account without informing us.
4.4. Enrolment is at your own risk and we will not be liable for any unauthorised transactions or communications made using your username or password.
4.5. You are responsible for the security and use of any usernames or passwords needed to access our websites, or any of the content in relation to your course(s). It is your responsibility to ensure that security, and you agree not to allow or assist any other person, without express permission from us, to access content using your account.
5.1. Our materials are updated, if necessary, at least every 12 months.
5.2. All updates will improve the materials, and the materials will continue to match the product descriptions on the course pages and the course subjects’ pages. Updates will not reduce the quality of the content that was described upon purchase. However, some aspects of our materials, such as hyperlinks, online references, and content relating to digital media and technology may become out of date due to the ever-changing and fast-moving nature of the internet. We undertake to update materials more frequently than every 12 months, when we consider it necessary and upon receipt of a reasonable request by email.
It is your duty to read these policies and adhere to them at all times. If you breach them, we may remove you from your course(s), without a refund of payments made.
5.4. Our courses are delivered in English. If English is not your first language, it is entirely your responsibility to ensure that your written English is good enough to study our course materials, and to be able to communicate by email with our tutors and our administration department. We do not provide language support.
5.5. Our course materials are at all times owned by the College of Media and Publishing Ltd, which also owns the copyright. Your enrolment entitles you to save one copy of each Lesson and other course-related documents on to your computer; and to print one copy of each Lesson and other course-related documents.
No part of our Lessons, or other course-related documents, may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without our prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests send us an email titled “Attention: Permissions”.
Please also see section 8.2.
6.1. Where to find the price for the course(s). The price of the course(s) (which includes VAT) will be the price indicated on the order pages when you placed your order. We take all reasonable care to ensure that the price of the course(s) advised to you is correct.
(a) 60% – course materials (digital content).
(b) 35% – tutorial support.
(c) 5% – administrative costs.
6.3. When you must pay and how you must pay.
(a) You are paying by instalments, in which case the first instalment must be paid.
(b) You are paying by employer invoice, in which case, the funds must clear.
(c) Your course(s) is part of a redundancy / severance package or a similar arrangement put in place by your employer, that requires you to complete the course before the fees(s) are paid. In these circumstances, you must complete the course within six months of the date of enrolment. If you fail to do so, your employer will be liable for all fees and must pay for them within 30 days of the six month period ending.
(d) If your employer / ex employer cannot or will not pay the fees, you accept that you will be personally liable for them.
We will agree on an appropriate payment method for your course(s) at the point of enrolment.
From time to time, we provide discounts for our courses. These are activated by typing a discount code in the appropriate box on a course enrolment form.
Some of these codes are time-sensitive and have expiry dates. We will not accept any code that has expired. We also do not allow discount codes to be used with a monthly instalment plan.
Only one discount code can be used per course. Discount codes cannot be aggregated.
Discount codes must be used at the point of enrolment. They cannot be used retrospectively.
6.4. We can charge interest if you pay late. If you do not make any payment to us by the due date we may charge interest to you on the overdue amount at the rate of 8% per year above the base lending rate of Santander Bank. This interest shall accrue on a daily basis from the due date until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgement. You must pay us interest together with any overdue amount.
6.5. What to do if you think an invoice is wrong. If you think an invoice is wrong please contact us promptly to let us know and we will not charge you interest until we have resolved the issue.
6.7. The prices stated on our course pages are inclusive of 20% VAT. You will not have to pay VAT if you live outside the European Union.
7.1. These conditions shall remain in place until terminated by either us or you.
7.2. If you wish to terminate you must inform us in writing.
7.3. We reserve sole discretion to immediately terminate our contract with you.
7.4. On termination, you must destroy all materials obtained from our websites together with any related documentation and all installations or copies of these, howsoever made.
8.1. Establish a learning outcome with you for your course(s).
8.2. Provide you with suitable materials, sufficient for your online course(s). Our materials are fit-for-purpose, and are compatible with all mainstream internet browsers (Google, Firefox, Bing, Safari and Microsoft Edge); and with MS Word, Adobe Acrobat and similar programs; and with most computers.
However, we are not responsible if any of our materials do not operate efficiently, or at all, because of incompatibility and your local technical issues with software, hardware, browsers, broadband, firewalls, antivirus or anti-spyware / malware software, or device settings at the user’s end.
Please remember that you are enrolling on an online course(s). You can see the equipment you will need to undertake the course(s) under the section: What will I need, on the relevant page(s). It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary hardware and software, and that you know how to use it, before you enrol on the course.
8.3. Encourage you during your studies.
8.4. Provide you with access to appropriate expertise to support you during your course(s).
8.5. Update your learning materials as and when they require it, by announcing replacement teaching materials for download in the Learner Forum. This constant updating process means that course structures may change after you have enrolled. New subjects may be added, out-of-date subjects removed, and Lesson content / numbers / formatting may differ.
You should have the same tutor for the duration of your course(s). However, we cannot guarantee this. If we need to change your tutor, either permanently or temporarily, due to holidays, sickness or for any other reason, you will be provided with an appropriate replacement and will be informed of any changes through the Learner Forum.
8.7. Provide tutorial support for our course materials and directly related issues: careers / job / work advice. While our tutors will try to help with other queries, this is entirely at their discretion.
8.8. Inform you about contact arrangements between yourself and your tutor.
8.9. Deal with your tutorial queries via the OLA within two working days of receipt. Note: we do not do phone tutorials.
8.10. Return marked work to you within three working days of receipt (if you are doing a course where we mark assignments for you).
8.11. Provide constructive and individual feedback on your progress (if you are doing a course where we mark assignments for you).
8.12. Deal with any difficulties promptly and fairly.
8.14. Allow you to transfer to another more suitable course, at your request, and after discussion with us. A transfer fee may be charged. This will be in proportion to the amount of the original course you have completed. We only allow learners to transfer to another course once. Second and subsequent transfers are charged at the full course price.
8.15. Remind you if you have fallen behind with any course fee instalments and only lapse your tuition if you have failed to respond to two warning emails. We will then give you written notice that we have lapsed your tuition and we will archive your records. We will then calculate the amount that you owe us for course materials and services not paid for, and invoice you for the amount owed. See Clause 9.4. below.
8.16. You may rejoin the course(s) at any time if your course fees are brought up to date, and on payment of an administration fee. See details of our fees.
8.18. We will not mark work, offer tutorial advice or provide new Lessons if your course fee instalments are not paid up to date.
8.19. Offer advice and support if you are seeking work placements.
8.20. Offer advice and support if you are looking for work.
8.21. Offer advice and support if you are going for a job interview.
8.22. Not be held responsible, or liable, for problems, issues, or financial losses that are caused by outside agents or circumstances outside our control, for example, exam boards, overseas agencies, ISPs, web hosts, software creators, and servers, PayPal, banks, etc.
8.23. Remove you from the course(s) if, in our opinion, your behaviour towards us, or any member of our staff, is abusive or unreasonable, or if you indulge in plagiarism by submitting work for marking that is not your own. We have a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism. Refunds will not be made in such circumstances.
8.24. Offer other courses with a 40% discount once you have paid for one of our existing courses. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.
8.25. Occasionally mention you in a positive context in our social media feeds, unless you tell us not to in an email. We will not disclose any personal information.
(a) You have completed and passed every course assignment to the required standard.
(b) You have paid any and all fees owed to us. If you still owe us any money at the time you complete any course(s), we will not issue your CMP diploma or your ABC/Certa Awards diploma until everything has been paid in full.
(a) The MBG is available to all learners, provided they do not owe us money for any other course(s) or service(s).
(b) The MBG is unconditional. We will refund you the full amount that you paid for the course(s).
(c) To claim a refund, you must email us within five working days of us sending you your Graduation pack.
(d) We will then cancel your enrolment, and withdraw your access to the Online Learning Area. You will no longer qualify for a CMP diploma, ABC/Certa Awards diploma, reference, or any post-course advice or support.
(e) Refunds will be made within two working days of receiving your email.
(f) Payment will be made by BACS or PayPal. We are not responsible for any fees that your bank, or PayPal, deducts from the payment.
(g) The MBG does not affect your legal rights.
8.29. Award you our CMP diploma and the ABC/Certa Awards diploma on successful completion of the course(s), provided you have passed every assignment with a grade of C or above, and have achieved an overall average grade of C or above, and have paid for your course fees in full.
We will send you your CMP diploma as a PDF, by email only, within seven days of you requesting it.
Your ABC/Certa diploma will be sent by surface mail within 21 days of you requesting it.
9.1.a. Prior to enrolment, read the relevant course information pages on this website to establish that the course is appropriate for you, and that you have the academic ability and the relevant IT and language skills needed to study it and complete it. You may email us or phone us if you wish to discuss your options and your suitability. We are bound by the ABCC Code of Ethics to give honest and impartial advice.
(a) Your level of academic achievement.
(b) Your level of written English, if English is not your first language.
(c) Your level of IT knowledge.
(d) The IT equipment that you use on the course(s).
We take no responsibility and will offer no refund if you discover that a course is too difficult for you or if you decide that any course is inappropriate for you, for whatever reason.
9.2. Read the Enrolment pack thoroughly, so that you are fully aware of how we work. Note: please refer only to the Enrolment pack, which we email you upon enrolment, for information about our procedures, etc. Do not refer to any other website or document for this information, as they may be out of date and unreliable.
9.3. Proceed with the course(s) in the way prescribed in the Enrolment pack. We may not be able to support you fully, or at all, if you decide to proceed with the course(s) in a different way.
9.4. Ensure that all course instalments are paid on time. If an instalment is late or you cancel it, the entire course fee then becomes due if your studies or your downloads of course learning materials from the Online Learning Area have progressed beyond your rate of payments. In these circumstances, we will calculate what you owe us, pro rata, according to the charges listed in clause 6.2. above, and invoice you for the amount that you owe us.
9.5. Accept that instalments are automatically debited from your credit / debit card, with your consent. If you wish to cancel your instalment plan, please email us five working days before the instalment is due. We cannot guarantee to cancel your plan without five days’ notice. All instalment plans are paid monthly. For example, if you enrol on a course on the first day of the month, your next instalments will automatically be taken on the first day of each month until the balance has been settled.
9.6. Undertake sufficient private study to maintain progress on your course(s). This will involve doing your own research to supplement our teaching materials.
9.7. Submit work which is your own original work, clearly presented, and which is a true reflection of your knowledge and abilities. Learners who commit plagiarism by submitting work that is not theirs will be removed from the course immediately, without refund of fees. We have a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism and cheating.
9.8. Conduct yourself in an ethical, legal and professional manner when using the name or services of the College of Media and Publishing Limited or any of our tutors in job applications, work experience applications, or references.
9.9. Submit work in the format and by the method explained in the Enrolment pack.
9.10. Ensure that your IT and software equipment works efficiently so that you can participate in the course(s). All our course files are created in standard Windows Microsoft software and can all be opened, and / or played. We cannot accept responsibility if your IT system does not open them, or play them. If files will not open or play, this is because of problems at your end such as incompatible software, broken file associations, or firewalls and other programs, etc, that are blocking access. We cannot provide IT support for these issues, though we may advise when we can.
9.11. Keep in contact with your tutor by using the Online Learning Area’s contact system only, without making unnecessary demands upon his or her time. We only provide tutorial support for our course materials and directly related issues such as careers / job / work advice. While our tutors will try to help with other queries, this is entirely at their discretion. Tutors will only respond to messages sent via the OLA. They do not engage in social media contact with learners.
9.12. Treat our staff and tutors with courtesy and respect. We have a zero tolerance policy on rudeness and will exclude you from the course(s) without refund of fees, if it occurs.
(b) Take legal action for defamation, malicious falsehood, breach of privacy, copyright or data protection laws, against any such person, whether or not they have used our Complaints Procedure (please also see clause 12.6).
9.13. Email your tutor to ask for help if you are stuck or need support.
9.14. Take reasonable precautions against computer viruses if communicating with us online.
9.15. Register with any external awarding body if we ask you to do so. Please note that there may be third party charges in connection with such registration, and that you are entirely responsible for paying them.
We take no responsibility if your learning or learning outcomes, are not fully or partially achieved because of any failure on your part to register, or pay fees to, an external awarding body.
9.16. Notify us in advance if you wish to take a break from your course(s), and tell us for how long (please note: we do not chase learners who take a break from their studies without notifying us).
9.17. Notify us if you are going to lapse from the course(s) for any reason (please note: we do not chase learners who discontinue their course(s)).
The following conditions will apply to you when using the Learner Chatroom (the Chatroom). You agree to accept and be bound by these conditions as outlined below. Should you reject the following conditions and not wish to be bound by them, then use of the Chatroom is prohibited to you.
10.1. We may update these conditions from time to time without any notice to you. In addition to the following conditions, you agree also to be bound by any guidelines or announcements that are made during your membership of the Learner Forum.
10.2. In addition, when using particular sections of the Chatroom, you shall be subject to any guidelines or rules applicable to such services, which may be posted from time to time. All such guidelines or rules are hereby incorporated by reference to the conditions.
(a) Post, transmit, upload, email or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses, computer code, programs or files that are designed to interrupt, limit the functionality of, or destroy any computer hardware, software or telecommunications equipment.
(b) Impersonate any person or entity. This includes, but is not limited to, any College of Media and Publishing Ltd team member, learner or administrator, or falsely stating or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with another person or entity.
(c) Manipulate or forge headers or identifiers with the intention of disguising the origin of any content that you provide to the Learner Forum.
(d) Register or post in excess of one account with us. Should it come to our attention that you have registered more than one account, we may remove your use of the Chatroom.
10.4. You accept that we cannot be held responsible for any third party websites that you may access through the Learner Forum or Chatroom, and further agree that any third party content is not our responsibility.
10.5. We do not endorse any third party websites or content unless clearly stated, and therefore cannot be held liable or responsible for any promotion, content, service or product that is located on a third party website.
10.6. We further cannot be held liable or responsible for any loss or damage, or offence that may be caused, or that you allege has been caused, by third party content or websites.
10.7. All and any contact that you have with third party traders or websites that you may come in to contact with during your use of the Learner Forum, or Chatroom, including but not limited to payments for products or services, any conditions made, warranties offered, or contracts entered in to, are your responsibility and not the responsibility of College of Media and Publishing Ltd.
10.8. You acknowledge and accept that we are neither liable nor responsible for the content that you submit to the Chatroom. We will only remove objectionable material if there is a complaint.
10.9. You acknowledge and accept that we have the right to temporarily or permanently remove your ability to post content, and that we further have the right to ban you from the Chatroom should you break any of these conditions.
10.10. We reserve the right to terminate any user’s access to the Chatroom for any reason at any time.
10.11. You acknowledge and accept that in certain circumstances we have the right to provide information to your Internet Service Provider at our discretion following (but not limited to) severe disruption by you, the provision of illegal or abusive content, any attempts made by you to reregister after being banned, or for any other reason that involves you breaking these conditions.
10.12. You acknowledge that reproduction of material from the Learner Forum without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All contributions to the Learner Forum are also copyright of College of Media and Publishing Limited.
10.13. You acknowledge and accept that if you are banned from use of the Chatroom, you will not in any way attempt to reregister using any other name or identity not known to us, or any other email address not known to us. If you do so, we will pursue the maximum penalty available under your Internet Service Provider’s Acceptable Use Policy.
10.14. Contributions to the Chatroom are governed in their entirety by section 6, above.
(c) If you agreed to this during the order process, that we use your personal information to tell you about further courses that we provide, and that you may stop receiving these at any time by contacting us.
11.2. We will only give your personal information to third parties where the law either requires or allows us to do so.
12.1. We may transfer this agreement to someone else. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.
12.2. Nobody else has any rights under this contract. This contract is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.
12.3. If a court finds part of this contract illegal, the rest will continue in force. Each of the paragraphs of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.
12.4. Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date. For example, if you miss a payment and we do not chase you and we continue to provide the products, we can still require you to make the payment at a later date.
12.5. Which laws apply to this contract and where you may bring legal proceedings. These terms are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in the English courts. If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.
We hope that all of our learners will have an enjoyable experience with us.
However, if you have a complaint about any aspect of the course(s), or your learning experience, please email us and tell us about it.
The agreement, which you accepted when you enrolled, explains our responsibilities, and yours, and may help to avoid any misunderstandings.
(a) Reply within two working days.
(b) Do what we can to put things right.
(c) Let you know the outcome by email.
If a complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, please email us. Put the word “Complaint” in the subject field.
(a) Acknowledge your email within two working days.
(b) Investigate the issue within seven working days.
(d) Do what we can to put things right.
If we are unable to resolve your complaint you may be able to conduct Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) via the European Commission Online Dispute Resolution portal.
For more information, please visit the Online Dispute Resolution website.
13.1. CMP grants reseller licences to other Organisations who sell courses on its behalf.
Inter-mission Industrial Development Association (IIDA).
13.2. A learner who purchases a course(s) from a licensed Reseller Organisation creates a financial agreement with that Organisation once payment is complete, not with CMP.
13.3. All queries and complaints about the purchase are the sole responsibility of the Organisation, not CMP.
13.4. Such learners are also required to complete CMP’s Learning Agreement, which creates a legal agreement between them and CMP.
13.5. CMP is solely responsible for fulfilling its responsibilities under the Learning Agreement, with the exception of the 14-day Refunds Policy. See clause 13.8 below.
13.6. When a learner has purchased a course from a Reseller Organisation, the delivery of the course and all further contact with the learner on all matters related to the course is the sole responsibility of CMP.
13.7. Learners who purchase a course from a Licensed Reseller Organisation do not qualify for CMP’s Money Back Guarantee.
13.8. Learners who purchase a course from a Licensed Reseller Organisation are entitled to a full refund of the course fees for a period of 14 days after purchase, but not after this period has elapsed.
13.9. Learners who require a refund within the 14-day period should contact the Organisation, not CMP. | 2019-04-21T22:36:37Z | https://collegeofmediaandpublishing.co.uk/student-learning-agreement/ |
The film, Strictly Ballroom, was released in 1992. The screenplay was based on an earlier thirty-minute stage play developed by Luhrmann in the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1985. It was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win the ‘Prix de Jeunnes’ there. Various Australian Film Institute awards were followed by two BAFTA awards, a Golden Globe nomination, and prizes from the Sydney, Melbourne and Chicago Film Festivals.
This story is about the Hastings family who are Australian and who take part in ballroom dancing competitions. Scott, the young son, is participating in the Waratah Dance Championship. He is determined to be creative in his style of dancing and not adhere to the conventional steps. Barry Fife is the manager of the Pan Pacific Dancing Competition and controls all entries and all styles of dance. In addition, Scott’s mother Shirley is determined that Scott will win this competition. Scott loses his partner Liz who is frustrated at his innovativeness.
Later, Scott encounters a young girl called Fran. Fran is keen to become Scott’s partner and dance along with his style. They practice secretly and improve their steps greatly. At the same time, we see Scott’s father Doug practicing his own style of dance. As the story develops, we learn that Doug was banned by the Federation for attempting to dance according to his own style. This makes Scott and Fran even more determined to dance and to win the competition.
They enter the competition in spite of the huge opposition from Fife and Shirley. Fife’s bullying and corrupt methods are overturned at the conclusion. Scott and Fran dance to the music of Love is in the Air and are joined on the ballroom floor by the whole audience. Scott’s efforts have not only helped him win the competition but it has vindicated the reputation of his father.
The film is a romantic comedy/musical that tells the story of how Scott Hastings manages to find a way to buck the system, dance his own steps, and find true love in the form of his unlikely dancing partner, Fran. It uses parody in the ‘mockumentary’ about ballroom dancing in the opening sequences. Here Shirley is satirized frequently when she intervenes to inform the audience about the proceedings. There are undertones of hysteria in these documentary-style interventions. It also uses elements of farce and caricature to mock certain figures and poke fun at institutions such as Barry Fife’s Federation. It satirizes the glitzy artificiality of the ballroom competition circuit by contrasting it with the much simpler and genuine approach to dance taken by Fran’s family.
Fran and Scott must cross the bridge between these two worlds and find the freedom to grow into people who are not afraid to express themselves in the way they themselves choose. There is more than a touch of the fairy-tale about it. Its origins as a piece of theatre are signalled in the many features of drama that occur throughout the film. For example, the film opens with the curtains being drawn back as in a theatre. The action moves from the district to the state championships and on to the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix.
The film constructs its own unique world where the characters exist only to dance and win competitions. Normal routines of family life and social life take second place to the demands of dancing. It is a world where tradition is in conflict with innovation and change. This conflict is further heightened by the clash of cultural traditions of the old world and the new, the influence of Spanish dance versus those of the ballroom tradition. The conflict is resolved in the final dance sequence where the new steps which draw on both traditions are seen to win. A new equilibrium is established which respects the best of both worlds.
We need to be aware that this is a film (!) and films use various ‘tricks’ and techniques to tell their story. The whole point of this Comparative Section is to make you more aware of these techniques and of the underlying symbolism in the story being presented before us. Much of the imagery of a film (or a play or novel, for that matter) may only emerge after a number of viewings. In the opinion of many, this is what makes a film great, the fact that you can watch it again and again, not just on a literal level, on the level of the story, but on a deeper metaphorical level as well.
When you listen to the music in this film you will begin to see that certain tunes become associated with certain characters or groups. The Blue Danube Waltz is constantly linked with the Federation and the hold that it has over its members. Once you hear this tune, even though there is no mention of Barry Fife and his organisation, you begin to realise that the power of the organisation over the individual is being asserted. So the music acts as a symbol. Likewise with the percussion-driven music that Scott dances to as Fran peeps in at him, and the music that Doug dances to in secret. We have here the basic music of the individual dancer and the elaborate orchestral score of the Strauss waltz being juxtaposed. This points up one of the major themes of the film – how an organisation can stifle individual flair and initiative. The Flamenco music also comes to stand for something more than itself. It symbolises the whole culture of Fran’s people, who find themselves living on the edge of Scott’s world, on the other side of the tracks, trying to keep their traditions alive in a foreign environment.
The use of the Spanish language and dance also take on symbolic significance when they are used to assert group identity and exclude outsiders. Fran is an outsider trying to use dance to break into Scott’s world. Scott enters Fran’s world first by trying to work out the Spanish proverb and then by using dance.
The characters must move between each one and adapt to their changing conditions. Each setting is distinct and separate, which helps to underline the symbolic differences between them.
The spotlight in Les’ studio acts symbolically to set Doug, Scott and Fran apart from the rest of the characters in this story. The lighting is used throughout the film to show characters in a good or bad light. Barry Fife and Shirley are constantly shown in light that distorts their features. The effect is added to by the close-up use of the camera.
In the dressing room scene, we are expected to be able to make the connection between what is happening here and our knowledge of fairy-tales. We are expected to be able to recognize the Evil Stepmother and the Ugly Sisters and we are reminded of an earlier scene of Fran working, sprinkling the floor of the studio, as everyone else dances around the floor. She is represented here as a Cinderella figure who does all the work. She finally meets Prince Charming and becomes a dazzling beauty at the ball at the film’s end!
Items of dress, spectacles, hairpieces and hair styles all form part of the imagery of the film and take on symbolic meaning to back up the characterisation and themes of the film. Barry Fife’s hair-piece may signify his attempt to cover up what he really is, or to put it another way, his attempts to appear to be something that he is not. Fran’s increasing confidence is symbolised by the gradual change in her costume and ‘look’ as the film progresses. She graduates from the sloppy white t-shirt to the elegance of her mother’s Flamenco dress (the Ugly Duckling becomes a Swan!). This dress and Rico’s jacket may represent the continuation of the traditional Flamenco dancing in an environment that is, on the face of it, an alien one.
Various props assume symbolic significance as we get more familiar with the film. Doug’s camera is old-fashioned in this Netflix age. This hints that Doug himself is somehow locked into the past. The shop sign reading ‘closed’ may indicate the attitude of Fran’s people to those who come from ‘the other side of the tracks’. All the photographs and trophies take on symbolic significance in the building up of character and theme. The only thing Shirley lives for is to win trophies. These are knocked over and cast down at the end of the film, an image of the way Scott and Fran have brought about a revolution in the world of the Australian Dance Federation.
Although Strictly Ballroom may seem to be a light romantic comedy on first viewing, there are several serious themes being explored throughout the film.
The most important relationships in the story revolve around Scott and Fran. You need to examine the parent/child relationship between Scott and Fran and their parents.
Another relationships theme you could look for is ‘The individual and society’, examining the relationship between Scott and Fran and the Federation.
Many of the relationships treated in this film centre on the dancing world. Scott is at odds with Barry Fife and his mother because of his refusal to conform to the particular style of dancing required by the Pan Pacific Competition. When he meets Fran their relationship flourishes through their strong dancing partnership. As a result of this Scott’s father who is originally seen as a type of outcast in his own family is seen to be a heroic figure.
However, the main relationship, the one that gives the film its romantic thrust, is the one between Fran and Scott. She is in love with Scott from the start but he is blind to her true worth. She lacks confidence in herself. In the second half of the film true love wins out and we close with the lovers in each other’s arms. This plot line is typical of the genre we call ‘Romance’.
The relationship between young people and their parents is explored in some detail in the film and the manner in which young people have to challenge their parents’ values rather than simply accept them is also explored. There is also the added dimension that the parents in this tale are using their children to achieve what they themselves have failed to achieve.
Scott tells us that he has been training to win the Pan Pacific competitions since he was six years old. Obviously, it was his parents who decided on this goal for him. Part of Scott’s struggle involves him challenging the path his parents have laid out for him. Fran too has to challenge her father and the control he tries to exert on her life.
In Strictly Ballroom, identity is being explored on two levels. On one level we have the struggle for personal identity, which all the main characters have to endure before the film’s narrative is resolved. On another level we have a conflict of cultural as well as group identity against which the individual characters must seek to define themselves.
Initially, identity is defined in terms of insider and outsider. As the film opens, the world of ballroom dancing is a closed and competitive world. Within this world Scott, Shirley, Les, Barry and Liz are some of the key insiders. They are known in terms of their success and expertise as dancers. They have reputations and are looked up to by other people.
Doug and Fran, on the other hand, are the outsiders and are generally ignored by everyone else. Fran has been a beginner for two years and still has no partner. Doug, even though he is Scott’s father, is treated as something of a fool by his wife Shirley and others.
It is obvious from the way Fran is treated that this is a difficult world to break into. When she first approaches Scott, he tries to dismiss her as ‘only a beginner’ who has no right to approach an ‘open amateur’. He turns on her for trying to break the ‘rules’ and it is only when she points out to him how he is trying to change the rules, that he begins to realise that they have something in common.
As the film’s narrative progresses we discover the reason for Doug’s isolation from the group. He had tried to dance his own steps, thereby breaking the rules, and was ostracised by the rest of the ballroom dancing world. This detail establishes how strong the group identity is and how ruthless it can be to those who challenge the established order. In the beginning Scott was unaware of the fact that his father had already tried to cultivate an individual style of dance and self-expression. However, through Scott’s sustained efforts and with the help of Fran both characters succeed where he had failed and they go on to cultivate their own unique style of dance and triumph over the corruption of the system personified by Barry Fife and his Federation.
As a balance to the tightly controlled world of ballroom dancing the film takes us into the world of Fran’s family. This is a world of outsiders in a cultural sense. Their outsider status is shown through the location of their home close to the bridge and the railway tracks, both of which signify travel and distance (as well as the old cliché about being born on ‘the wrong side of the tracks’!). It is also underlined by the family’s use of Spanish and the need for subtitles so that the audience can follow what they are saying.
Unlike the world of dance whose members are kept together and gain their identity from the rules they follow, the world of Fran’s family is bound by a common language and a tradition of values and friendship. It too is a world which is slow to accept outsiders, as Scott discovers, but once he shows them that he understands and appreciates their values and traditions he is accepted by them.
The struggle between the two worlds is resolved in the final dance sequence of the film. To the accompaniment of ‘Love is in the Air’, dancers, parents and audience take to the floor and mingle. They are not dancing to the strict movements of either side but are developing a closer, more intimate style. In a sense, a new, more inclusive identity is being created out of the old order.
Likewise, Scott and Fran’s struggle for their own personal identity is resolved by their successful challenge to the rules of ballroom dancing and their acceptance by the audience at the championships.
The film explores the nature of power and the manner in which corrupt individuals can have a controlling influence on an organisation. In many ways Barry Fife is portrayed as a comic figure. The constant use of close-up shots exaggerates his features and tends to make him look grotesque rather than natural.
However, there is nothing comical about the way he exerts control over the Australian Dance Federation or the manner in which he turns this control to his own ends. At every event Barry is placed above the dancers, judging and controlling their performance. The halls are full of reminders of his influence in the form of photographs and display stands for his videos.
He moves in a world of shadows from where he issues his orders. He also manipulates the weaker characters such as Wayne Burns or Ken Railings in order to achieve his ends. He is the ‘evil’ force against which the hero, Scott, must struggle.
In this way, the film can be read as a traditional fairy-tale narrative in which the forces of ‘good’ as personified by Scott and Fran must struggle against the forces of ‘evil’ as personified by Barry Fife.
The ability to withstand pressure and to fight for what one believes in becomes evident throughout the film. Scott is forced to take a stance against his family and suffer rejection, like his father before him, in order to stand up for what he believes is right. Fran also, is forced to confront her family and fight for her relationship with Scott. The strength of conviction and its capacity to expose lies and deceit becomes evident as the story unfolds and the corrupt maneuverings of Fife becomes evident to everyone.
In Strictly Ballroom the director creates a fairy-tale world in which the ‘good’ characters must struggle to overcome the ‘evil’ ones. The film identifies with Scott’s point of view. It is the story of his struggle to achieve his ambition of dancing his own steps. All the other characters are judged in relation to Scott.
As an audience, we have a privileged viewpoint. At all points in the film we, as audience, know more about what is happening than any of the characters. Although there may be surprises for the characters, there is none for us until the final sequence when Doug’s intervention allows Scott and Fran to finish their dance.
It is a point of view that allows us to relax and enjoy the spectacle of the film with its dancing set pieces without any disturbing elements of suspense or danger. The story opens in flashback to set up the conflict between Scott and Barry Fife, which drives the narrative. It is a film in which action, i.e. the dance set pieces, dominates character development.
NOW VIEW THE FILM AGAIN BELOW! MICROWAVE THAT POPCORN! | 2019-04-19T00:59:31Z | https://vinhanley.com/category/film-reviews/ |
Fiona opens the door of her flat at the boarding house to find Barney standing there in full army uniform. Looking surprised, she tells him to come in. Barney explains that he was looking for Mitch - he's moved in, hasn't he? Fiona replies that he's in the bedsit opposite. She asks if there isn't any answer there, and Barney comments that he must be working late. Fiona just agrees distantly, "Probably." Looking concerned, Barney asks if something is wrong. Fiona explains that she's just on tenterhooks: her son, Terry, was due before the parole board this afternoon; she thought she would have heard something by now. She then asks Barney if he'd like to wait a while. Barney, though, says that, seeing as she doesn't feel like talking... He adds that there's one thing, though: there's a regimental dinner on the week after next and he thought she might like to come with him. Fiona smiles and tells him that she'd love to. Barney suggests they make arrangements when there's less on her mind. Someone suddenly starts hammering on Fiona's front door, and Fiona growls that she hopes it isn't Mrs. Longhurst - she's been pestering her all day. She opens the door and looks gobsmacked as a man in a straw hat and denim jacket smiles and asks, "Does a Mrs. Fiona Thompson live there, by any chance?" It's Terry, holding a bunch of flowers and several presents! As Fiona stares at him in delight, he explains that they brought the parole board meeting forward, so he thought he'd surprise her! Fiona looks overwhelmed!
At the Fisher house, Karen explains to Mitch that she lived with George Brandon while Fay was overseas; she had a son to George - Alan - but when Fay got home, she was out in the cold. She goes on that, when George died, Fay got enough to live on happily, Alan got left a fortune and she didn't even get a mention. Mitch comments that now she wants him to steal the old girl's jewellery for her. Karen retorts that she thinks she deserves some of it; after all, she gave George a son, and that's something Fay was unable to do. Mitch points out that, if something went wrong, they'd both end up in jail - and he's damned if he's going back in there again. Karen, though, assures him that nothing will go wrong - it'll be easy. Mitch tells her that he's sorry - it may sound easy but there's always a risk and he's not prepared to take it. Karen snaps at him that he's always looking to impress Amanda, and she's offering him the perfect opportunity to do so, and he hasn't got the guts to take it. She continues angrily that, alright, he can stay broke all his life - he doesn't deserve anything better. The 'phone suddenly starts ringing and she storms over to it and answers it, leaving Mitch looking thoughtful. After a moment, she tells him that the call is for him - someone called Terry Hansen. Mitch takes it and cheerfully says, "Terry, me old mate. How are ya?"
A while later, Terry, Katie, Fiona, Barney and Mitch are sitting around the table in Fiona's flat, and Fiona is telling a story that involves her putting on an Irish accent. Everybody laughs at the punchline, and Katie says she doesn't know why everyone makes fun of the Irish - her great grandparents were Irish! Terry humorously comments that that explains a lot! Everyone laughs again! Changing the subject, Fiona asks Katie if she can check on the coffee, and Katie heads out to the kitchen. Terry says he'll give her a hand and he stands up. Fiona tells him that there's some cheese in the 'fridge, too. Terry goes and joins Katie in the kitchen, and asks her how things have been. Katie just replies, "Alright." She then tells him that it's good to see him again. Terry replies, "You too." He quickly adds that she's not still hung up on him, is she? Katie assures him, "No. It took me a long time to get over you, though." Terry tells her that he didn't want to hurt her. Katie tells him that she's found someone else that she's crazy about, and Terry replies that Fiona told him that in her letters. He continues that he reckons she could do better than Wayne Morrell... Katie indignantly replies that she loves him. Terry, not wanting to argue, suggests that if that's what she wants... Katie tells him that it is. They suddenly hear more laughter emanating from the guests at the table, and Terry comments that it sounds like he missed out on a good joke. Katie says she'll be in with the coffee in a minute, and Terry heads back to the lounge with the cheese. As he sits down, he remarks to Barney that he must hear some very good jokes in the army. Barney smiles and replies that he can't repeat most of them in this company! Fiona assures him that she's pretty broad-minded. Terry laughs and tells Barney not to encourage her, as she'll tell a few to make his hair curl! Fiona laughs, "That'll do!" Suddenly looking at Mitch, Terry comments to him that he seems a bit down, and he asks him if he's OK. Mitch just grunts, "Yeah. Sure." Barney asks Terry what his plans are now - does he have anything lined up? Fiona interjects that she has something lined up for him: a garage - he's a darn good mechanic and she's going to set him up in a business of his own. Barney comments to Terry that it sounds like he's taken care of. Sounding slightly uncertain, Terry just says, "Yeah..." Fiona goes on that she wants Terry to know that he has something to build his future on; it's a rough old world without it. Mitch glares at Terry. Looking slightly embarrassed, Terry suggests that they liven the party up a bit. He adds that he reckons he could do with a beer instead of a coffee. Fiona says she doesn't think she's got any left. Mitch, though, chips in sullenly that he's got a six-pack in his bedsit; he'll go and get that. He gets up and heads out. Terry comments that if there's one thing he's missed, it's a nice cold beer. Fiona, looking puzzled says she would have thought Mitch would be over the moon. Terry agrees that he seems a bit down. Barney, though, tells them that Mitch has always been a bit moody; he'll be alright.
Mitch walks into the bedsit and closes the door. He then goes and sits down on the bed and picks up the 'phone handset from the bedside table. He dials a number. The 'phone rings at the Fisher house and Karen answers it. Mitch announces that it's him. Karen curtly comments that he's been thinking, has he? Mitch mutters, "Yeah." Karen retorts that she thought he might. Mitch growls that everyone else seems to get things handed to them on a plate, so why shouldn't he? He tells Karen that what she's talking about is probably his only chance to get his hands on big money. Karen says, "You'll do it?" Mitch growls, "Yeah. I'll do it."
The next morning, Terry is with Mitch in the bedsit and he incredulously asks him if he's some kind of idiot; has he forgotten what it's like inside? Mitch snaps that he's not going back in there. Terry snaps back at him that like hell he's not; if he pulls a job like that, he'll be back before he can think twice. Mitch, though, tells him that it'll be as easy as falling off a log. Terry angrily asks him if he's some kind of nut. He then adds that he wishes Mitch had never even told him. Mitch retorts that he thought he'd be interested - it'll be easier with two blokes doing the job. Terry tells him to forget it - and if he goes through with it, he'll-- Mitch interrupts him and asks him, "What? Tell the cops? You wouldn't lag on me." Terry, though, growls at him that he deserves whatever he gets. He storms out, and bumps into Fiona in the corridor. She tells him that she's been looking for him: she had Jill on the 'phone - she's bringing Fee over to see him later. Terry just mutters, "Good." Looking surprised, Fiona comments that she thought he'd be crying to see little Fee. Terry mutters that he is, and he walks into Fiona's flat, leaving Fiona looking puzzled.
At the country house, Patricia is standing by the sink in the kitchen, and she pours some medicine out of a bottle into a glass and then swallows it, wincing at the taste. She then rinses the glass. She suddenly hears Mike's voice outside, asking the person he's with if they brought any extra paintbrushes. Heather replies that she brought some. Patricia decides to head into the lounge room, leaving the kitchen empty. Outside, as they approach the back door, Heather says to Mike that she just hopes Patricia keeps out of their way today. Mike suggests that maybe she shouldn't have come, but Heather assures him that she wanted to. She adds by way of explanation that, if she goes to somebody else's place, they always want to tell her how sorry they are about Jeff. The two of them head inside the house.
In the lounge room, Patricia puts her hand to her head, apparently in slight pain. She goes to her handbag, but then suddenly notices that the wallet containing the photo of Margaret is missing. She tips the contents of the bag onto the coffee table and starts rifling through it, but the wallet isn't there. She turns to the dresser and lifts up a basket lying on it, but there's no sign of the photo. She then opens the doors of a nearby cupboard, but still nothing. Growing frantic, she checks a shelf and picks up the newspaper on the coffee table, eventually returning to her bag. She looks worried as she realises the photo isn't there.
In the kitchen, Heather checks the stove to see if there's any heat and then comments that Patricia might still be in bed. Mike points out that the stove is lit, isn't it? Heather suggests that Patricia might have done that and then gone back to bed. She adds bitterly that she hopes she stays there all day. She then suddenly notices the bottle of medicine by the sink and she picks it up, commenting as she does so that it must be something Patricia is taking; she wonders what it's for. Patricia suddenly bursts in and snaps, "I want it back. One of you took it out of my handbag, didn't you?" Looking puzzled, Mike asks her what she's talking about. Patricia snaps that she means the photograph of Margaret: it's gone. Her eyes suddenly turn to Heather and she growls at her that it was her, wasn't it: she was trying to get back at her. Heather assures her that she wouldn't touch anything of hers, but Patricia goes on that, since Heather's son's death, Heather has being trying to hurt her through Margaret - but it's not fair; she didn't want anything to happen to Jeff, so please, just give her the photograph back. Mike chips in angrily that neither of them took the photo - that's the truth. He then tells Patricia that he thinks she'd better lie down. He and Heather head outside. Patricia glares at them as they go.
A while later, Ross is in the lounge room with Patricia, a syringe in his hand. He flicks the top of it and tells her that at least this will be a little less painful than her injection yesterday. Patricia asks what it is, and Ross explains that it's just something to steady her nerves. Patricia reluctantly says, "Alright." As he administers the shot to her arm, Ross goes on that he knows she's been under a lot of strain recently... He then tells her that she really should have another injection in her knee, but as she's been a bit unsettled, he thinks they'll skip that today. He adds that he wants her to spend the rest of the day as quietly as possible. Patricia cries that she's just waiting for David to come home; it's awful when he's not there. Ross hands her a bottle of tablets and tells her that they're to keep her calm: she's to take one every four hours. He asks her to promise that she won't forget. Patricia replies, "As long as they help." Ross, looking wary, tells her, "Oh yes. Yes, I think they'll do the trick..."
In the kitchen, Heather hands Mike a cup of tea and sits down at the table with him. Mike sips the tea and tells his wife that it's just how he likes it. Ross suddenly comes in from the lounge room and Mike asks him how Patricia is now. Ross replies that she's quietened down - and the injection he gave her should keep it that way. Mike says to him that he didn't let on that he called, did he? He adds that Patricia seems to think he and Heather have got it in for her. Ross assures him that he didn't; Patricia thinks he came to treat her knee. He then continues that, as a surgeon, he sees a lot of people under stress: some people cope very well indeed, but he's afraid Patricia isn't one of those people; in fact, she could be on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown. Mike looks at Heather.
Karen is sitting at the table in the lounge room at the Fisher house, some hand-drawn floorplans in front of her and a marker pen in her right hand. Mitch is standing next to her and he asks her if she's sure they haven't put any new alarm systems in. Karen tells him, "Not from what Alan says." Looking surprised, Mitch asks if he knows what's going on. Karen, though, snaps that of course he doesn't - she drew it out in conversation; he doesn't suspect anything. Mitch growls that he'd better not. He then says he'll have a look at the place tonight - get some idea of it from the outside. Karen warns him to be careful. In reply, Mitch sarcastically asks her what she thinks he's going to do: turn up with a brass band? Karen tells him that she doesn't want him to take unnecessary risks. Mitch retorts that he won't - he's not going to do anything that will get him back inside. Karen points out that at least she'll be able to provide him with an alibi if he needs one. Mitch, though, tells her that, if it gets to that stage, they'll both be in trouble. Looking surprised, Karen asks him what he means. Mitch retorts that, if the cops get onto him, they both go together, so she's not to get any smart ideas about selling him out. Karen asks why she'd do that. In reply, Mitch asks who knows. He then suggests that, once she gets the jewels, she might not want to share the profits. Karen points out that said 50/50. Mitch, though, tells her that he knows the way she operates; she's to just remember: if he goes under, so does she.
Terry is sitting in Fiona's flat, but he sighs heavily and screws up the empty can of beer that he's holding. Fiona, looking surprised, says, "Hey hey..." She adds that he's not worrying about Jill, is he? Terry assures her that it isn't that. Fiona asks what it is, then, adding that it seems like Mitch's mood of last night has rubbed off on him. Terry snaps at her that he's alright. He quickly calms down and says he's sorry - he guesses it just takes a while to adjust to being back outside; it must have been hard for Mitch after all those years. Fiona says she's not sure he's adjusted even now - he certainly hasn't learnt to control that temper of his. Terry growls that he's an idiot. There's suddenly a knock on the front door, and Fiona comments that it must be Jill. She goes and opens the door to find that it is, indeed, Jill, with Fee in her pushchair. She wheels Fee in and Terry smiles in delight as he turns to the little girl and says, "Look who it is. Hello sweetheart." He comments that she's grown, hasn't she! Jill agrees that she's certainly shooting up! Terry asks if he can pick her up. Jill undoes her belt and Terry lifts up his daughter, lovingly. He fusses, "Hello, beautiful." He then kisses her, before telling Fiona and Jill that he kept imagining what it would be like, holding his little girl again. He looks ecstatically happy.
David pulls up in his truck at the country house. Mike immediately dashes over to him and exclaims that he's glad he's back. Looking surprised, David asks if something is wrong. Mike explains that it's Patricia - she's not too good. David asks if it's something to do with the operation. Mike, though, tells him that she didn't have the operation - she checked herself out of hospital. Looking worried, David heads inside.
The 'phone rings at Ross's apartment and Ross answers it. David comes on, says it's him and then explains that he's ringing about Pat: she's worse than ever. Ross asks if she's suffering pain from the knee. David, though, replies that it's not her knee - she's acting strange. Ross comments that he noticed that when he saw her earlier. He then goes on that he's not a psychiatrist, but Patricia struck him as being pretty unstable - and with her history of mental instability-- David interrupts him and asks him how he knows about that. Ross explains that Mrs. O'Brien told him. He then says he really does think David should contact Patricia's psychiatrist and let him decide what has to be done. David, looking worried, says, "Sure..." He then comments that Ross gave Patricia some tablets... Ross explains that they were just some tranquillisers - the sooner she has them, the better. David says he'll see how she goes in a few days. Ross asks him to just make sure she takes those tablets. David just says, "I'll see." Ross hangs up, looking thoughtful.
A few moments later, David heads out to where Mike is working just outside the kitchen door. Mike asks how Patricia is now, and David replies that she's a bit quieter. He goes on that he just rang her doctor and he wants him to get her to her psychiatrist - but he doesn't reckon he needs to do that yet. He ask Mike what he thinks. Mike, looking dubious, replies that she was really off the planet this morning. David insists that he can't drag her off to the psychiatrist - he'd probably put her back in the sanatorium again, and that would be the last straw. Mike says he's sorry, but it's the best place for her, he reckons. David asks what would happen if she goes to pieces completely - she won't ever come out again. Appearing to make a decision, he tells Mike, "No way - she's a lot better when I'm around." Mike warns him that he can't carry it all, but David retorts that he has to do what he can for her - Margaret asked him to stick by her, no matter what, and he thinks he knows what could be up. He heads back inside, leaving Mike looking worried.
A short time later, in the lounge room, Patricia stands up and says she doesn't understand. David tells her to change into something nice - he's made all the arrangements: the celebrant will be there at 3:30pm and the O'Briens will be witnesses. Patricia exclaims, "Witnesses?" David explains, "To our wedding. We're going to get married, Pat."
Mike and Heather are sitting in the kitchen and Mike tells his wife, "So I said that we'd do it. " Heather, looking incredulous, snaps at him that he can, but she's not. She adds that David must be as mad as Patricia; how can he even think of marrying her? Mike points out that they were engaged to be married before - and Dave feels responsible for her; he thinks that if they were married, she'll feel more secure. Heather snaps that she won't be a party to it - Patricia will only drag David down with her; she deserves to be put away and left there. David suddenly comes in and Heather tells him curtly that she's sorry: he might think he's doing the right thing, but as far as she's concerned, he's a fool and she won't be a witness to the wedding. She storms outside. David gently tells Mike to take her home. Mike says he's sorry - Heather is upset about everything. David assures him that it's OK - he'll find some other witnesses. Mike goes. David walks to the 'phone and starts dialling.
The 'phone rings at Toorak and Andy answers it in the lounge room. David comes on and asks him if Irene is there, but Andy tells him that she and Barbara are out. He adds that they should be back soon, though. David explains that this is important - he needs two witnesses for his wedding. Andy incredulously says, "Your wedding?!" David tells him that he and Pat are getting married and he needs Irene and Barbara to be witnesses. He asks Andy if he'll tell them as soon as they come in and get them to ring him back. Andy says he will, and he excitedly offers David his congratulations. David thanks him quite stiffly, says, "Bye," and hangs up. Patricia comes into the kitchen, still wearing what she was wearing before, and David comments that he thought she'd be getting ready. Patricia sadly tells him that she can't let him throw his life away - she wants to marry him, but she can't. Looking puzzled, David asks her what she's talking about. Patricia points out that she could end up in a sanatorium or jail; what good is it to him to have a a wife who's locked away somewhere? David, though, tells her that she's not going back to the sanatorium and she's not going to jail for something she didn't do. Patricia quietly says to him that he does believe she didn't kill Luke...? David asks her if he'd marry her if he thought she did it. Patricia tells him that it's so unfair that he doesn't know what will happen. David, though, tells her that he does know: once they're married, she'll come good - everything will turn out fine; they'll have a good life together. Patricia murmurs, "A good life..." David says, "You will marry me, won't you?" Patricia smiles weakly and tells him, "Yeah. I need you very much." She hugs him lovingly. | 2019-04-22T22:01:10Z | http://sonsanddaughters.co.uk/episodes/ep515.htm |
You searched for subject:(Parent Involvement). Showing records 1 – 30 of 473 total matches.
1. Dove, Meghan Mimi. Parent involvement: the impact of community connections and technology.
▼ The benefits of parent involvement have been found to impact children, parents, teachers, and schools as a whole. This study builds of the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (1997, 2005) Theoretical Model of the Parental Involvement Process to explore specific influences on parent involvement behaviors. Two additions to the model were made to account for the lack of research on the impact of parents feeling connected to a school community and parents’ use of technology to connect with their children’s school. The current study used structural equation modeling to analyze the paths hypothesized by the model of parent involvement process. A sample of 220 parents with kindergarten to fifth grade students completed surveys addressing their perceptions of their personal motivators to be involved, perceptions of invitations to be involved, feelings of being connected to their child’s school community, ways of communication with the school, and involvement practices at home and at school. Findings partially supported Hoover-Dempsey’s model as well as the predicted model of parent involvement being influenced by parents feeling connected and technology usage. Furthermore, feeling connected to the school community was found to mediate the relationship between role construction and parent involvement. Lastly, lower technology usage was found to moderate the relationships between parents feeling connected to the school and parent involvement. Advisors/Committee Members: David W. Wright.
Dove, Meghan Mimi. “Parent involvement: the impact of community connections and technology.” 2013. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/dove_meghan_m_201308_phd.
Dove, Meghan Mimi. “Parent involvement: the impact of community connections and technology.” 2013. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Dove MM. Parent involvement: the impact of community connections and technology. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2013. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/dove_meghan_m_201308_phd.
2. Lim, Minjung. An analysis of ethnic networking of Korean immigrant parents in school participation.
▼ Parent involvement in schools involves constantly constructing meaning through social interactions. Immigrant parents often encounter structural barriers that constrain their ownerships in schools, and turn to their own ethnic groups in search of supportive social networks. The purpose of this study is to examine whether Korean immigrant parents as a group create effective social capital conducive to authentic involvement in the school. As a collective mode of social interaction, ethnic networking of a particular ethnic group negotiates understandings and actions authored by immigrant parents, in relation to parental involvement in school. By using a critical ethnographic case study, this study unpacks contradictions and complexities in Korean immigrant parents’ participation experiences, and challenges the hegemonic discourse of parent involvement prevailing in the school. Advisors/Committee Members: Kyunghwa Lee.
Lim, Minjung. “An analysis of ethnic networking of Korean immigrant parents in school participation.” 2009. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/lim_minjung_200908_phd.
Lim, Minjung. “An analysis of ethnic networking of Korean immigrant parents in school participation.” 2009. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Lim M. An analysis of ethnic networking of Korean immigrant parents in school participation. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2009. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/lim_minjung_200908_phd.
3. King, Shireen Powell. Expected and actual parental involvement during the college years: perceptions of parents and students.
▼ The majority of today’s traditional-age college students are from the Millennial generation, meaning, among other things, that they have a different type of relationship with their parents than previous generations. Typically, their parents have been involved in their school lives throughout their K-12 years. Many parents expect to continue being involved while their sons and daughters are in college. Because there is a changing trend in parent-child relationships and this change is being seen in higher education, administrators need to understand and prepare for the impact of these trends. In order to meet the challenges surrounding parental involvement and to create avenues for improvement of parent-student-institution relationships, it is important to have a clear understanding of the underpinnings and the expectations of parents and traditional-age college students. Much of what is available in the literature today regarding parental involvement during the college years is anecdotal and conceptual in nature. The purpose of this study was to examine parental involvement from the perspectives of today’s traditional-age college students and their parents, including the examination of several variables (race/ethnicity, gender, family income level, educational background of the parent, having siblings in college, first generation to attend college, student classification, type of institution currently attending, or level of parental involvement in high school) to determine if differences existed in their expectations for involvement. Additionally, 122 parent-student family unit matched pairs were examined for similarities and differences in their perceptions of parental involvement. Two parallel versions of the College Parent Experience Questionnaire (CPEQ) were administered online: one for college students and one for their parents. Data analysis of the 502 parent respondents and 159 student respondents produced a multitude of significant findings. These findings provide empirical data on parental involvement that will guide institutions in the development of parent programs, parent offices, and guideline for parent interactions. Additionally this information is useful when planning programs for today’s Millennial college students. Advisors/Committee Members: Diane L. Cooper.
King, Shireen Powell. “Expected and actual parental involvement during the college years: perceptions of parents and students.” 2007. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/king_shireen_p_200708_phd.
King, Shireen Powell. “Expected and actual parental involvement during the college years: perceptions of parents and students.” 2007. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
King SP. Expected and actual parental involvement during the college years: perceptions of parents and students. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2007. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/king_shireen_p_200708_phd.
4. Nosek, Erin Marie. The Initiation and Implementation of a K-2 Parent Involvement Program in a Rural Context.
▼ This qualitative case study focused on K-2 Parent Involvement in a small rural elementary school. It was designed to review the types of parent involvement that occur over time and to identify the most effective forms of parent involvement. The study also investigated specific teacher beliefs and behaviors related to parent involvement and documented any changes in these beliefs and behaviors as a result of being in the study. A final review of challenges to parent involvement was documented. Data was collected from six volunteer teachers working in kindergarten, grade one, and grade two. Data collection tools included staff pre and post interviews, staff surveys, classroom parent involvement logs, and teacher monthly reflection prompts. The findings of the study indicate that teachers do value parent involvement and that they believe they encourage this involvement in their classroom. The teachers also believe there is a link between parent involvement and student achievement. The teachers in this study identified many challenges to the creation of a parent involvement program including time constraints of parents and teachers, a classroom and school structure that may not welcome or support parent involvement, as well as an education or training issue for parents, so that they may understand the benefits of parent involvement. It was also suggested that teachers would benefit from professional development in the area of parent involvement. Implications for practice include offering workshops for parents on curriculum expectations and on the importance of parent involvement, professional development for teachers highlighting the need for parent involvement, initiating a coordinated school wide parent involvement program, and creating a welcoming and supportive school climate that encourages parent involvement. Limitations to the study include the small sample size, the short duration of the study, and the researcher's role as superintendent. Advisors/Committee Members: Elizabeth Twomey (Thesis advisor), Robert Starratt (Thesis advisor).
Nosek, Erin Marie. “The Initiation and Implementation of a K-2 Parent Involvement Program in a Rural Context.” 2009. Doctoral Dissertation, Boston College. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:101826.
Nosek, Erin Marie. “The Initiation and Implementation of a K-2 Parent Involvement Program in a Rural Context.” 2009. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Nosek EM. The Initiation and Implementation of a K-2 Parent Involvement Program in a Rural Context. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Boston College; 2009. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:101826.
5. Sedory, Stacy Jill. Comparing the Viewpoint: Understanding New and Experienced High School Teachers' Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Students' Educational Experiences.
▼ The purpose of this study was to examine the high school teacher's perceptions of parent involvement and how viewpoints differ based on years of experience and the population served. The study consisted of a survey with open-ended questions given to teachers and administrators and other non-classroom instructional personnel at a high socio-economic school and at a low socio-economic school. The surveys were analyzed and data were presented based on the viewpoints of teachers with fewer than six years of experience, between six and fourteen years of experience and greater than fifteen years of experience. Responses were also presented from non-classroom educators such as guidance counselors and administrators. There were five findings emerging from this study. The first finding revealed that teacher perceptions of parent involvement varied between low and high socio-economic schools. Another finding discovered that the group of students being taught may play more of a role in teacher perception of parent involvement than the socio-economic status of the school. The third finding was teacher perceptions of key characteristics of parent involvement don't necessarily align with ways teachers say parents are involved. The next finding revealed that teachers communicate with parents via various forms of technology. The final finding exposed that teachers feel that school related involvement at home is important. Advisors/Committee Members: Cash, Carol S. (committeechair), Rogers, Catherine Spain (committee member), Price, Ted S. (committee member), Twiford, Travis W. (committee member).
Sedory, Stacy Jill. “Comparing the Viewpoint: Understanding New and Experienced High School Teachers' Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Students' Educational Experiences.” 2014. Doctoral Dissertation, Virginia Tech. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/48590.
Sedory, Stacy Jill. “Comparing the Viewpoint: Understanding New and Experienced High School Teachers' Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Students' Educational Experiences.” 2014. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Sedory SJ. Comparing the Viewpoint: Understanding New and Experienced High School Teachers' Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Students' Educational Experiences. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Virginia Tech; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/48590.
6. Wanda, Innocent Bhekani. Parent-educator partnership in schools .
▼ The aims of this study are: ~ To pursue a study of relevant literature on the parent-educator partnership. ~ To undertake an empirical investigation concerning parents and educators as partners in the education of the child. ~ To formulate certain recommendations that may serve as guidelines for the establishment of an effective partnership between parents and educators at schools. Research with regard to this study will be conducted as follows: ~ A literature study of available relevant literature. ~ An empirical survey comprising a questionnaire to be completed by educators. Chapter 2 will be a literature review on the parent-educator partnership. Chapter 3 will explain the planning of the empirical research. Chapter 4 will be a presentation and analysis of the research data. Chapter 5 will contain a summary, findings and recommendations. Advisors/Committee Members: Vos, M.S (advisor).
Wanda, Innocent Bhekani. “Parent-educator partnership in schools .” 2006. Thesis, University of Zululand. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/98.
Wanda, Innocent Bhekani. “Parent-educator partnership in schools .” 2006. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Wanda IB. Parent-educator partnership in schools . [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Zululand; 2006. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10530/98.
7. Adams, Jackie Brewer. When parents meet with a high school principal.
▼ The purpose of this study was to examine the interactions between parents and principals in principal-parent conferences in a high school setting. Ethnographic research procedures, guided by the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, were used to report the interactions from the perspectives of the participants. This research was a case study featuring in-depth interviews with parents and principals. Interviews, focusing on participant perspectives of the conference, were audio taped and transcribed for interpretation and analysis. Additional research procedures included observations of the conferences, journal writing, and the inclusion of archival materials drawn from the site. A phenomenological analysis, applied to the data, yielded categories and themes that were grounded in the data and framed interactions as stories based on the perspectives of each principal and parent participant. Although limited in scope, findings from the study revealed principal-parent interactions provide a valuable source of knowledge surrounding principal-parent conferences. The study revealed differences in the meanings principals and parents attached to the same conference. At times, these differences blocked partnership building between parent and principal participants. Results from the study emphasized the importance of understanding meanings parents attach to interactions with principals. This kind of knowledge could contribute to building more effective relationships with parents. The study also points to the need for more research that could help principals implement strategies for building partnerships with parents for the benefit of all students. Advisors/Committee Members: Sally Zepeda.
Adams, Jackie Brewer. “When parents meet with a high school principal.” 2003. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/adams_jackie_b_200308_edd.
Adams, Jackie Brewer. “When parents meet with a high school principal.” 2003. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Adams JB. When parents meet with a high school principal. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2003. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/adams_jackie_b_200308_edd.
8. Smith, Kimberly Evon. Critical Reflections: Interviews with Parents Regarding Truancy.
▼ Truancy is an issue that markedly impacts many children nationwide. Truancy takes root in many elementary schools. When socioeconomic and engagement problems are unaddressed, students exhibit a much higher likelihood of abusing drugs and alcohol and engaging in criminal behaviors that are harmful to themselves and society at large. Research on truancy has mainly focused on high school students; however, little research has been conducted specific to elementary school students and parental involvement as it relates to truancy. This research study queried the perspectives of minority parents of habitually truant elementary school students on truancy. The key question was if school attendance review board letters sent to truant families monthly effectively resolved truancy at the school in this study. This study captured the voices of parents using semistructured interviews, examining the effectiveness of current truancy-reduction strategies at the school site studied and gain insight from parents about possible solutions to truancy problems. Predicated on Ogbu’s cultural-inversion theory and Cummins’s cultural-invasion theory, the study focused on minority families’ attitudes and behaviors toward systemic and crystallized institutions of learning. The following themes emerged from participants’ responses to the interview questions: a lack of academic impact, a different perception of truancy, illness as a challenge, lack of support, and limited ability to be involved with school matters. In conclusion, findings revealed that parents genuinely cared about their child’s education and felt disempowered due to socioeconomic challenges. Also, impersonal letters were ineffective as parents desired to be treated as individuals by the school. Additional research is needed concerning parents’ knowledge and understanding of truancy laws. Advisors/Committee Members: Dr. Patricia Mitchell, Dr. Betty Taylor, Dr. Rosita Galang.
Smith, Kimberly Evon. “Critical Reflections: Interviews with Parents Regarding Truancy.” 2015. Thesis, University of San Francisco. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://repository.usfca.edu/diss/290.
Smith, Kimberly Evon. “Critical Reflections: Interviews with Parents Regarding Truancy.” 2015. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Smith KE. Critical Reflections: Interviews with Parents Regarding Truancy. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of San Francisco; 2015. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: https://repository.usfca.edu/diss/290.
9. Flavell, Margaret. Pacific Island families’ perceptions of the parental role in the learning process – in a high school setting.
Flavell, Margaret. “Pacific Island families’ perceptions of the parental role in the learning process – in a high school setting.” 2014. Masters Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3468.
Flavell, Margaret. “Pacific Island families’ perceptions of the parental role in the learning process – in a high school setting.” 2014. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Flavell M. Pacific Island families’ perceptions of the parental role in the learning process – in a high school setting. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Victoria University of Wellington; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10063/3468.
10. Unsinn, Alicia Savelich. The efficacies of home visits: a study in Mrs. Garcia's 3rd grade classroom at Tahoe Elementary School.
▼ The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacies of home visits in Mrs. Garcia???s 3rd grade classroom at Tahoe Elementary School. Specifically, answers to the following research questions were sought: ??? Do the families feel that home visits have positive outcomes? ??? Do the students feel that home visits have positive outcomes? ??? How did the families and their children react to the home visits? ??? What effect did the home visits have on the parent teacher communication throughout the school year? Sources of Data The population used for this study consisted of the students and their families in Mrs. Garcia???s 3rd grade classroom, Mrs. Garcia herself, and the principal, Ms. Curry, at Tahoe Elementary School. Data was collected through the use of questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The responses represented the opinions of those students and their parents in Mrs. Garcia???s 3rd grade classroom. The data collected was reviewed and analysed by the researcher. All of this information was documented and formulated into an organized group of data to complete this study. Conclusions Reached The researcher concludes that the students and their families in Mrs. Garcia???s classroom, Mrs. Garcia herself, and the principal at Tahoe Elementary School, are all advocates of home visits. All of the subjects agreed that the outcomes of home visits were positive and beneficial to not only the students but their families as well. The communication between the student, their families and the teacher increased due to the home visits. Many of the students??? confidence in school increased as well, both socially and academically. Advisors/Committee Members: Orey, Daniel C..
Unsinn, Alicia Savelich. “The efficacies of home visits: a study in Mrs. Garcia's 3rd grade classroom at Tahoe Elementary School.” 2010. Masters Thesis, California State University – Sacramento. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10211.9/447.
Unsinn, Alicia Savelich. “The efficacies of home visits: a study in Mrs. Garcia's 3rd grade classroom at Tahoe Elementary School.” 2010. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Unsinn AS. The efficacies of home visits: a study in Mrs. Garcia's 3rd grade classroom at Tahoe Elementary School. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. California State University – Sacramento; 2010. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.9/447.
11. Romero, Gabriela. The Role of Latino Parent Involvement and Academic Achievement of Students .
▼ Parent involvement in the classroom is a challenge to acquire for communities that have not had positive experience with schools, specifically Latinos. The issues with overcoming the lack of Latino parental involvement can be addressed by educators with a focus on culture, andragogy and effective outreach. This project includes a set of workshops to reach out to Latino parents and help them understand schooling and learn how to support their child???s learning at home. The workshops are designed with a focus on Latino culture (culturally relevant pedagogy), best practices for adult learning (andragogy) and effective instruction (Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). The project consists of five workshops: What are (Homework) Boundaries?, How to Make a Special Place to Do Homework, Better Communication Between Parent and Child, Math Support Strategies, and Getting Involved with the School. Each workshop has been developed to provide engaging activities that are supported by culture and language. The workshops focus on the importance of parent involvement, culture, and developing a relationship between parents, children, and teachers. Advisors/Committee Members: Elsbree, Anne Rene (advisor).
Romero, Gabriela. “The Role of Latino Parent Involvement and Academic Achievement of Students .” 2012. Thesis, California State University – San Marcos. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10211.8/126.
Romero, Gabriela. “The Role of Latino Parent Involvement and Academic Achievement of Students .” 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Romero G. The Role of Latino Parent Involvement and Academic Achievement of Students . [Internet] [Thesis]. California State University – San Marcos; 2012. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.8/126.
12. Mason, Alleson. Parent Involvement in Education Among African and Caribbean Born Immigrants in Saskatoon.
▼ Abstract The difference in educators’ and immigrant parents’ definition of parent involvement has led to the view that immigrant parents are less involved in their children’s education than native parents from the middle class (Crozier & Davies, 2005). The purpose of this study was to understand the experience of three immigrant parents born in Africa and the Caribbean with parent involvement in their children’s education at the elementary level. This phenomenological study utilized semi-structured interviews to gain a better understanding of the various ways in which immigrant parents are involved in their children’s education, and the factors that influenced how they became involved. The findings revealed that the essence of the parents’ experience of involvement in their children’s education was maintaining nurturing relationships. Participants guided their children into a relationship with God, they cultivated a loving relationship with their children, and had a cooperative relationship with their children’s school. The parents’ experience is explored using the themes spiritual leadership, creating and nurturing relationships, and anticipatory socialization. The description of the parents’ experiences provides some insight into how immigrant parents view and enact their role in their children’s education. The study also highlights how different cultural beliefs influence the ways in which parents contributed to their children’s development. The parents were already making contributions in a variety of ways to their children’s education. However, for the most part their activities were home-based and geared towards only their own children. There were opportunities for the parent to become more involved in ways that would extend to other members of the school community. The implications of this study for practice are that educators should give an orientation to parents new to Canada about strategies they can use to incorporate school based involvement activities into their busy schedules. This will suggest ideas that parents may not have considered and could be effective in increasing their involvement on the school compound. Implications for future research include the need to investigate how culture delimits the ways in which parents become involved. There is also a need to explore what factors would motivate immigrant parents to become more involved in their children’s education on the school site. Advisors/Committee Members: Okoko, Janet, Burgess, David, Noonan, Warren, Newton, Paul, Pushor, Debbie.
Mason, Alleson. “Parent Involvement in Education Among African and Caribbean Born Immigrants in Saskatoon.” 2016. Thesis, University of Saskatchewan. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2016-12-2375.
Mason, Alleson. “Parent Involvement in Education Among African and Caribbean Born Immigrants in Saskatoon.” 2016. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Mason A. Parent Involvement in Education Among African and Caribbean Born Immigrants in Saskatoon. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Saskatchewan; 2016. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2016-12-2375.
13. Zink, Sarah. Involvement Matters.
▼ This project examines how parents’ past educational experiences affect how they help their children at home with literacy. To conduct this study, I sent home open-ended surveys to parents in my second grade classroom that pertain to parents’ knowledge, beliefs, and how they contribute to their current involvement with their children’s literacy activities at home. Along with the survey, I interviewed second grade students with open-ended questions to uncover their perception of interactions and involvement of their parents at home. Analysis uncovered common themes across the data. Previous literature shows that there is a connection between parent involvement and student’s achievement; however, literature is limited to parents’ past experiences and their involvement. Advisors/Committee Members: Sue Robb.
Zink, Sarah. “Involvement Matters.” 2016. Thesis, SUNY College at Brockport. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/649.
Zink, Sarah. “Involvement Matters.” 2016. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Zink S. Involvement Matters. [Internet] [Thesis]. SUNY College at Brockport; 2016. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/649.
14. Hurst, Natalie Jo. Parental Participation in Speech and Language Therapy.
▼ This study explored parental involvement and factors that may affect parental involvement. Parental involvement has been shown to provide beneficial outcomes when used in conjunction with speech-language therapy. The purpose of this study was to explore factors that may affect parental involvement. Fifteen parents participated in this study. Parents were administered the Parent Involvement Questionnaire, which was designed for the purpose of this study. This questionnaire was used to interview parents about their involvement in speech-language therapy. Questions looked at parental involvement on three levels: first, the type of initiation; second, the type of input provided by the parent; and third, the frequency of parental involvement in the clinic or at home. Results indicate that parental education level was a substantial factor in parental involvement. Parent education level had significant positive correlations with parent initiation of interaction with clinician and working with the child at home on therapy goals. Also, results indicate that parents are participating in the home far more frequently than in the clinical setting. Advisors/Committee Members: Ash, Andrea (advisor), Giddens, Cheryl L. (committee member), Strom-Aulgur, Kaye (committee member).
Hurst, Natalie Jo. “Parental Participation in Speech and Language Therapy.” 2010. Thesis, Oklahoma State University. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11244/8587.
Hurst, Natalie Jo. “Parental Participation in Speech and Language Therapy.” 2010. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Hurst NJ. Parental Participation in Speech and Language Therapy. [Internet] [Thesis]. Oklahoma State University; 2010. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11244/8587.
15. St. George, Carol Yerger; Mock, Martha. An Action research study : how can elementary teachers collaborate more effectively with parents to support student literacy learning?.
▼ Parental involvement (broadly defined as including both natural parents and other significant adults) has been consistently shown to produce positive results in students’ literacy achievement, and there is widespread agreement among parents and school personnel about the value of parental involvement in education. However, educators do not routinely include parents in literacy learning programs. The literature suggests that there may be many reasons for this phenomenon, including educators’ unfamiliarity with ways to build and sustain productive home-school connections. I developed this study with the ultimate goal of initiating better home-school partnerships to support elementary students’ literacy learning in my district, capitalizing on the findings of the rich literature on parental involvement. As a first step in this direction, I engaged a mixed group of elementary teachers and parents in my district in a Collegial Circle (a type of professional development offered in my district) designed to explore effective ways to collaborate with parents to support literacy learning. The Collegial Circle involved the participants in readings and discussions to make them aware of relevant literature findings, personal perceptions and biases, and alternative viewpoints, with the ultimate goal of producing a list of concrete recommendations about how to establish productive home-school collaborations to support literacy learning in our district. Assuming action research as the research methodology, this intervention along with the accompanying data collection and analysis was designed to address the following research questions: 1) What are some of the perceived challenges to building effective partnerships between parents (broadly defined) and teachers in our district? 2) How can the challenges thus identified be overcome? 3) How has participation in the Collegial Circle changed the thinking of the participating parents and teachers concerning the concepts of parent-teacher partnerships and literacy? I collected data from a variety of sources, including participants’ reflective journals and other assignments, audiotapes and artifacts from the Collegial Circle sessions, and a researcher’s journal. Qualitative methodology was employed to analyze these data with the goal of uncovering emerging themes that could shed light on each of the research questions. Epstein’s Theory of Overlapping Spheres and her typology of parental involvement provided the theoretical basis and framework informing the study. In the spirit of action research, teachers and parents participating in the Collegial Circle were not “passive participants” but rather were involved in on-going reflection about the Collegial Circle activities and provided input that changed some of the original plan and activities, as well as co-constructed with the researcher the list of recommendations constituting the end product of the Collegial Circle.
St. George, Carol Yerger; Mock, Martha. “An Action research study : how can elementary teachers collaborate more effectively with parents to support student literacy learning?.” 2009. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Rochester. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1802/7544.
St. George, Carol Yerger; Mock, Martha. “An Action research study : how can elementary teachers collaborate more effectively with parents to support student literacy learning?.” 2009. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
St. George, Carol Yerger; Mock M. An Action research study : how can elementary teachers collaborate more effectively with parents to support student literacy learning?. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Rochester; 2009. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1802/7544.
16. Kuzin, Chuan Ally. Parent compacts in urban charter schools: an exploration of contents and processes.
▼ Research has shown that parent involvement activities, as outlined by Epstein (2001), are positively associated with student achievement. In urban areas, however, schools often face challenges in the area of parent involvement. Charter schools, as laboratories of innovation, often utilize parent compacts as tools for parent involvement. The goal of parent compacts is to increase parent involvement activities that support and contribute to student achievement. ❧ This study utilizes a qualitative case study approach to examine charter schools’ use of parent compact as a tool for parent involvement. A research model for the study of parent compact is employed to assess the implementation processes of parent compacts. Findings revealed that parent compacts can be utilized by schools of various sizes, ages, grade levels, and locations as a tool for parent involvement. The contents of parent compacts currently being used by urban charter schools included much of the activities outlined by Epstein. Findings also showed that the proper implementation, namely the communication, implementation, and enforcement of parent compacts along with contextual variables such as organizational culture are keys to compact success. ❧ This research has implications for charter school operators seeking to increase parent involvement, as well as for policymakers who shape legislation that can mandate and facilitate the use of parent compacts. Advisors/Committee Members: Wohlstetter, Priscilla (Committee Chair), Wong, Janelle (Committee Member), Hentschke, Guilbert (Committee Member).
Kuzin, Chuan Ally. “Parent compacts in urban charter schools: an exploration of contents and processes.” 2012. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Southern California. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/67766/rec/4917.
Kuzin, Chuan Ally. “Parent compacts in urban charter schools: an exploration of contents and processes.” 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Kuzin CA. Parent compacts in urban charter schools: an exploration of contents and processes. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Southern California; 2012. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/67766/rec/4917.
17. Morrison, Tomasine A. The Impact of a Family Home-learning Program on levels of Parental/Caregiver Efficacy.
▼ This study sought to determine if participation in a home education learning program would impact the perceived levels of parental self-efficacy of parents/caregivers who participate in the completion of home-learning assignments and increase their levels of home-learning involvement practices. Also, the study examined the relationship between the parental involvement practice of completing interactive home-learning assignments and the reading comprehension achievement of first grade students. A total of 146 students and their parents/caregivers representing a convenience sample of eight first grade classes participated in the study. Four classes (n=74) were selected as the experimental group and four classes (n=72) served as the control group. . There were 72 girls in the sample and 74 boys and the median age was 6 years 6 months. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design utilizing eight existing first grade classes. It examined the effects of a home-learning support intervention program on the perceived efficacy levels of the participating parents/care¬givers, as measured by the Parent Perceptions of Parent Efficacy Scale (Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Brissie, 1992) administered on a pre/post basis. The amount and type of parent involvement in the completion of home assignments was determined by means of a locally developed instrument, the H.E.L.P. Parent Involvement Home-learning Scale, administered on a pre/post basis. Student achievement in reading comprehension was measured via the reading subtest of the Brigance, CIB-S pre and post. The elementary students and their parents/caregivers participated in an interactive home-learning intervention program for 12 weeks that required parent/caregiver assistance. Results revealed the experimental group of parents/caregivers had a significant increase in their levels of perceived self-efficacy, p<.001, from the pre to post, and also had significantly increased levels of parental involvement in seven home-learning activities, p<.001, than the control group parents/caregivers. The experimental group students demonstrated significantly higher reading levels than the control group students, p<.001. This study provided evidence that interactive home-learning activities improved the levels of parental self-efficacy and parental involvement in home-learning activities, and improved the reading comprehension of the experimental group in comparison to the control. Advisors/Committee Members: Delia C. Garcia, Peter J. Cistone, Paulette Johnson, Glenda Musoba, Aixa Perez-Prado.
Morrison, Tomasine A. “The Impact of a Family Home-learning Program on levels of Parental/Caregiver Efficacy.” 2009. Thesis, Florida International University. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/102 ; 10.25148/etd.FI09082404 ; FI09082404.
Morrison, Tomasine A. “The Impact of a Family Home-learning Program on levels of Parental/Caregiver Efficacy.” 2009. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Morrison TA. The Impact of a Family Home-learning Program on levels of Parental/Caregiver Efficacy. [Internet] [Thesis]. Florida International University; 2009. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/102 ; 10.25148/etd.FI09082404 ; FI09082404.
18. Majerus, Timothy C. Development of a parent-teacher relationship survey.
▼ Elementary educators searching for strategies to improve student achievement may benefit from examining the relationship between parents and classroom teachers. The literature indicates that parent involvement may be linked to student achievement, attendance, student motivation, and student self-esteem. Likewise, parents who have a positive relationship with their child's teacher may also be associated with an increase in their child's academic achievement. The intent of this study was to create an instrument to measure parents' perceptions of their relationship with their child's classroom teacher. An initial instrument was developed based upon a review of the literature on parent involvement in schools, and on parent-teacher relationships. The instrument was administered to 945 parents from a mid-size Midwestern school district. A 26-item, four-factor instrument was developed through the use of factor analysis. The Parent-Teacher Relationship Survey provides classroom teachers and principals the opportunity to gather data to gain an understanding of parents' perceptions of their child's classroom teacher. Furthermore, use of the survey could help determine whether a correlation exists between parents' positive perceptions of their child's classroom teacher and increased student achievement. If a positive correlation exists, teachers and administrators will have concrete evidence regarding the importance of the parent-teacher relationship. Having this information will greatly help educators in their efforts to help every child achieve to his or her potential. Advisors/Committee Members: Valentine, Jerry (advisor).
Majerus, Timothy C. “Development of a parent-teacher relationship survey.” 2011. Thesis, University of Missouri – Columbia. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/14424.
Majerus, Timothy C. “Development of a parent-teacher relationship survey.” 2011. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Majerus TC. Development of a parent-teacher relationship survey. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Missouri – Columbia; 2011. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10355/14424.
19. Pitts, Lindsey. Increasing father involvement: a research based workshop to support father involvement.
▼ Father involvement is linked to children's positive developmental outcomes in social-emotional development, cognitive development, and academic achievement (Wilson & Prior, 2011). While previous research in relation to children's development focuses on mother??s involvement, current research on father??s involvement continues to grow. Research reveals evidence-based strategies for increasing the quality and quantity of time fathers spend with their children to help support development (Wilson & Prior, 2011). Research also suggests that fathers who attend parenting workshops show increased involvement with their child (Doherty, Erickson, Farrell & La Rossa, 2006). The current project sought to inform fathers about how increasing involvement with their children could benefit children's overall development, as well as provide tools for fathers to help support them in increasing involvement. Research was disseminated through the development and implementation of a Father Involvement Workshop. A variety of sources were used to compile materials for the current project including: articles, books, literatures reviews, and parent education materials. These sources provided research from the fields of child development and early childhood education, as well as parent education courses. This information was used to provide a foundation for the workshop that discussed the topics of father-child attachment, socialemotional development, cognitive development, academic achievement, and coparenting practices. The workshop was reviewed by experts in the field, then presented to a group of 20 fathers of preschool children. Fathers?? evaluation of the workshop verified it was resourceful and beneficial to fathers in attendance and most participants reported learning new information. This reveals a need for additional implementation of workshops to help support increased father involvement. Advisors/Committee Members: Gordon Biddle, Kimberly.
Pitts, Lindsey. “Increasing father involvement: a research based workshop to support father involvement.” 2018. Masters Thesis, California State University – Sacramento. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/206481.
Pitts, Lindsey. “Increasing father involvement: a research based workshop to support father involvement.” 2018. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Pitts L. Increasing father involvement: a research based workshop to support father involvement. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. California State University – Sacramento; 2018. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/206481.
20. Mahoney, Margaret A. The Relation between Parent Involvement and Student Academic Achievement: Parent, Teacher, and Child Perspectives.
▼ Using a multidimensional conceptualization of parent involvement, this study examined the relations between academic achievement and parent involvement across three informants (parents, teachers, and children), explored the dimensions of parent involvement that best predict student academic achievement, and examined the extent to which children's perceptions of involvement mediated the relationship between parent involvement and academic achievement. Participants were 275 elementary school students, their parents, and teachers from a rural school district. Measures of parent involvement were completed during the 3rd quarter of the academic year based upon perceptions of parent involvement during the first two quarters of the year. The parent involvement dimensions assessed included parent educational expectations, home involvement/supervision, and school contact/participation. Teacher and parent reports were found to be strongly associated. Reports of parent involvement from the child perception differed significantly from parent and teacher. Across all predictors, parent educational expectations (as perceived by parents and teachers) were found to be the strongest predictor of academic achievement, accounting for 9.4 to 19.6 percent of the variance in GPA (depending on the model), beyond that accounted for by socioeconomic status. Parental education, family configuration, and socioeconomic status played a significant role in the relation between parent involvement and academic achievement. Implications and future directions are presented. Advisors/Committee Members: Owens, Julie (Advisor).
Mahoney, Margaret A. “The Relation between Parent Involvement and Student Academic Achievement: Parent, Teacher, and Child Perspectives.” 2010. Masters Thesis, Ohio University. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1285798165.
Mahoney, Margaret A. “The Relation between Parent Involvement and Student Academic Achievement: Parent, Teacher, and Child Perspectives.” 2010. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Mahoney MA. The Relation between Parent Involvement and Student Academic Achievement: Parent, Teacher, and Child Perspectives. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. Ohio University; 2010. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1285798165.
21. Damman, Jeri L. Birth Parent Involvement at a System Level in Child Welfare: Exploring the Perspectives of Birth Parents in Parent Partner Programs.
▼ Promoting child welfare services improvement and reform through the system level involvement of birth parents is an emerging national trend, but little is known about how this type of involvement is reflected in practice and what involvement achieves. One approach to involving parents is through parent partner programs, where parents with prior child welfare service experience provide direct services to families currently receiving child welfare services, and often serve as representatives to the child welfare agency. This exploratory qualitative study uses a pragmatic paradigm to examine birth parent involvement at the system level through parent partner programs. In-depth telephone and focus group interviews were conducted with 28 birth parents in parent partner and parent partner coordinator roles at two nationally recognized parent partner programs in the U.S. Interviews explored the perceptions and experiences of parent partners, including the factors that led to parent partners becoming involved at a system level, what they hope to achieve from this involvement, their experiences of involvement activity, and how their involvement may contribute to service improvement and reform. Findings indicate that birth parents’ life experiences are a substantial factor in their decision to become a parent partner, and that considerable development is required to prepare them for their system level involvement role. Parent partners are involved in a wide range of involvement activities that include varied roles and processes. Parent partners also identify child, family, system, and community outcomes they hope to achieve or perceive are being achieved through their system level involvement. This study develops new knowledge of birth parent involvement at the system level in child welfare and offers practice, policy, and research implications to inform the continued development of meaningful involvement practices in child welfare. Advisors/Committee Members: Johnson-Motoyama, Michelle (advisor), Banerjee, Mahasweta (cmtemember), Akin, Becci (cmtemember), Petr, Chris (cmtemember), Skrtic, Tom (cmtemember).
Damman, Jeri L. “Birth Parent Involvement at a System Level in Child Welfare: Exploring the Perspectives of Birth Parents in Parent Partner Programs.” 2018. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Kansas. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27116.
Damman, Jeri L. “Birth Parent Involvement at a System Level in Child Welfare: Exploring the Perspectives of Birth Parents in Parent Partner Programs.” 2018. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Damman JL. Birth Parent Involvement at a System Level in Child Welfare: Exploring the Perspectives of Birth Parents in Parent Partner Programs. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Kansas; 2018. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27116.
22. Dede, Brandy Taylor. The Effect of Parent School Involvement and Parent Perceptions about School on Children?s Perceived Academic Competence and Behavioral Engagement: A Mediational Model.
▼ Behavioral engagement at school has been cited as an avenue for improving low academic performance and decreasing boredom and disaffection among students and dropout rate. What we don?t know is how dimensions of parent involvement and students? perceived academic competence contribute to behavioral engagement at school. Specifically, the present study contributed to the limited research on the mechanisms responsible for the influences of the aforementioned variables on students? academic related outcomes. Participants consisted of a sample of 637 elementary students from a larger sample of 784 academically at-risk and ethnically and linguistically diverse first grade students recruited from three school districts (i.e., two rural and one urban) for a longitudinal study focused on the impact of grade retention on academic achievement. Participants? behavioral engagement, parent school-based involvement, and parents? perceptions about the school were rated by their teachers and parents. Three separate Structural Equation Model (SEM) analyses were conducted, one for each dimension of parent involvement. Results suggest that perceived academic competence does not mediate the relationship between these dimensions of parent involvement and behavioral engagement. However, there were expected within-wave associations between study variables, further supporting concurrent relationships between dimensions of parent involvement, academic competence, and behavioral engagement. Findings have implications for researching more indirect forms of parent involvement and their impact on children?s academic competence and behavioral engagement. Advisors/Committee Members: Hughes, Jan N (advisor), Liew, Jeffrey (committee member), Bowman-Perrott, Lisa (committee member), Shaw-Ridley, Mary (committee member).
Dede, Brandy Taylor. “The Effect of Parent School Involvement and Parent Perceptions about School on Children?s Perceived Academic Competence and Behavioral Engagement: A Mediational Model.” 2015. Thesis, Texas A&M University. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/155393.
Dede, Brandy Taylor. “The Effect of Parent School Involvement and Parent Perceptions about School on Children?s Perceived Academic Competence and Behavioral Engagement: A Mediational Model.” 2015. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Dede BT. The Effect of Parent School Involvement and Parent Perceptions about School on Children?s Perceived Academic Competence and Behavioral Engagement: A Mediational Model. [Internet] [Thesis]. Texas A&M University; 2015. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/155393.
23. Scott, Quiauna Nate. The Parents' Perspective: Deconstructing the Overrepresentation of African American Males in Special Education.
▼ Nationwide, there has been an overrepresentation of students of color in the special education programs in public schools. There were multiple factors researchers theorized that contributed to such overrepresentation. Despite the vast amount of research analyzing the overrepresentation of African American males in special education, there was a lack of research that focused on the African American parents' involvement in the special education process. With the overrepresentation of African American males in special education, parents are a vital part of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) referral process. The purpose of this study was to examine the parents' experiences and perspectives of the IEP process and to understand what extent the parents were involved in the decision making process for their male children. By using a mixed methods study through the lens of critical race theory, the researcher examined to what extent practices within a school district can help to redress the overrepresentation of African American male students in special education programs. Advisors/Committee Members: Jennings, Dr. Greg (advisor).
Scott, Quiauna Nate. “The Parents' Perspective: Deconstructing the Overrepresentation of African American Males in Special Education.” 2014. Thesis, California State University – East Bay. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/131268.
Scott, Quiauna Nate. “The Parents' Perspective: Deconstructing the Overrepresentation of African American Males in Special Education.” 2014. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Scott QN. The Parents' Perspective: Deconstructing the Overrepresentation of African American Males in Special Education. [Internet] [Thesis]. California State University – East Bay; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/131268.
24. Gledhill, Aimee. Homework and continued learning at home: How should parents be involved?.
Gledhill, Aimee. “Homework and continued learning at home: How should parents be involved?.” 2015. Thesis, University of Canterbury. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/11457.
Gledhill, Aimee. “Homework and continued learning at home: How should parents be involved?.” 2015. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Gledhill A. Homework and continued learning at home: How should parents be involved?. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Canterbury; 2015. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/11457.
25. Ramsay, Paula Mary Virginia. Using home visits to connect with families: a classroom action research project.
▼ Federal guidelines mandate that schools find meaningful ways to communicate with families. One of the most effective means of communication is the home visit. This project uses classroom action research in home visits using the model developed by the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project to document the effectiveness of home visits and provide a handbook for special education teachers at Vineland Preschool. The handbook is designed to assuage the fears of educators and provide effective tools for using home visits to improve the quality of classroom instruction. This project concludes that home visits are a particularly effective means of engaging parents in the education of their children and are particularly meaningful when educators treat each individual visit as a unique experience. Home visits should be strongly encouraged at all levels and teachers provided tools to train allow them to make use of the information gained during home visits to transform teaching practice in all areas. Advisors/Committee Members: Gonzales, Rachael.
Ramsay, Paula Mary Virginia. “Using home visits to connect with families: a classroom action research project.” 2010. Masters Thesis, California State University – Sacramento. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10211.9/831.
Ramsay, Paula Mary Virginia. “Using home visits to connect with families: a classroom action research project.” 2010. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Ramsay PMV. Using home visits to connect with families: a classroom action research project. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. California State University – Sacramento; 2010. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.9/831.
26. Richards, Kaitlynn Ann. Experiencing the prison industrial complex: the impact of incarceration on families.
▼ The purpose of this mixed methods study is to understand how families are affected by the incarceration of their loved ones. This research uses 1) quantitative data to determine the level of family involvedness of incarcerated individuals across race and SES factors, 2) qualitative methods to understand how families cope with incarceration and 3) frames these experiences within the prison industrial complex and neoliberal politics. The results showed that family involvement is not predicted by race and that race was not a salient theme, however, lack of emotional support, stigma, isolation and the acquisition of additional parental roles were salient issues for the families of prisoners. Identifying the struggles of families and understanding how race and class play out in this context may inform future outreach and build upon existing prison research. Advisors/Committee Members: Wehr, Kevin, 1972-.
Richards, Kaitlynn Ann. “Experiencing the prison industrial complex: the impact of incarceration on families.” 2014. Masters Thesis, California State University – Sacramento. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/121927.
Richards, Kaitlynn Ann. “Experiencing the prison industrial complex: the impact of incarceration on families.” 2014. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Richards KA. Experiencing the prison industrial complex: the impact of incarceration on families. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. California State University – Sacramento; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/121927.
27. Simpson Baird, Ashley. "The Children Want to Learn; the Parents Want to Participate": Expanding Understandings of the Parental Involvement of English Learners.
This manuscript-style dissertation contains three papers on EL parent involvement. The first, Beyond the Greatest Hits: A Counter Story of English Learners’ Parent Involvement, is an integrative review of 20 years of research on EL parent involvement. Specifically, I examine the ways in which EL parent involvement aligns with and/or differs from widely held notions of what constitutes involvement for all parents—in other words, “the greatest hits” (Hong, 2011). I show how parents are involved in their ELs’ education through engaging in three key relationships: (1) relationships with their children’s schools, (2) relationships with their children, and (3) relationships with other families. Moreover, I argue that these relationships exist along a continuum that moves away from school-directed involvement to more parent-led engagement.
The second and third manuscripts are both studies from data that I collected during seven months at Arbor Elementary, an urban school with a large and quickly growing Latino, EL population—a trend that is reflective of many schools across the U.S. (Hussar & Bailey, 2014). In the second manuscript, Teachers Reading Parents: An Examination of Urban Elementary School Educators’ Reflections on Latino Families, I used data collected from parent workshops to create a discourse-based interview protocol that elicited educators’ reflections on statements made by parents during the workshops. Analyses of these reflections revealed that educators’ backgrounds and experiences were related to the types of reflections that they made. Additionally, these reflections show the Arbor is a school in transition where educators are still coming to understand and respond to its recent demographic shifts.
In manuscript three, Contradictory Discourses of Valued Participation: A Principal’s Discursive Construction of a Parent Literacy Program, I examine the discourse of Eleanor Parker, Arbor’s principal, as she designs and implements an in-class literacy program aimed at Latino parents. I show that Eleanor’s discourse presents two contradictory Discourses of valued participation for EL parents. The first is a Discourse of responsivity where the school acts in response to the needs of EL parents. The second is a Discourse of rigidity where the school maintains a unidirectional transmission of communication from the school to the home.
Advisors/Committee Members: Kibler, Amanda (advisor).
Simpson Baird, Ashley. “"The Children Want to Learn; the Parents Want to Participate": Expanding Understandings of the Parental Involvement of English Learners.” 2015. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Virginia. Accessed April 18, 2019. http://libra.virginia.edu/catalog/libra-oa:8521.
Simpson Baird, Ashley. “"The Children Want to Learn; the Parents Want to Participate": Expanding Understandings of the Parental Involvement of English Learners.” 2015. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Simpson Baird A. "The Children Want to Learn; the Parents Want to Participate": Expanding Understandings of the Parental Involvement of English Learners. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia; 2015. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: http://libra.virginia.edu/catalog/libra-oa:8521.
28. FitzGerald, Anne Marie. How and why do Latino parents get involved in their children's education? A test of the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model with middle school parents in a community school.
▼ This study used qualitative interviews to explore and describe the perceptions of Latino and Puerto Rican parents in a community middle school about if, why, and how Latino families decide to engage in their children's schooling. All 15 Latino parents perceived that they held or shared responsibility with the school for their child's educational success (parent or partnership-focused). Parents reported involvement despite their perceptions of low levels of knowledge and skills, and/or time and energy. Parents responded to school, teacher, and student invitations for involvement; however, no parent described the school as a community school and few parents reported teacher invitations. Parents reported much more home-based involvement than school-based involvement. All parents reported talking to their children in ways that communicated values, goals, expectations, or aspirations, yet only one parent reported planning for post-secondary education. Implications for further research with Latino parents and school practice are presented. Advisors/Committee Members: White, George P..
FitzGerald, Anne Marie. “How and why do Latino parents get involved in their children's education? A test of the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model with middle school parents in a community school.” 2013. Thesis, Lehigh University. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://preserve.lehigh.edu/etd/1484.
FitzGerald, Anne Marie. “How and why do Latino parents get involved in their children's education? A test of the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model with middle school parents in a community school.” 2013. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
FitzGerald AM. How and why do Latino parents get involved in their children's education? A test of the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model with middle school parents in a community school. [Internet] [Thesis]. Lehigh University; 2013. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: https://preserve.lehigh.edu/etd/1484.
29. Barlet, Katelyn Danielle. Latina parent involvement: An action research study exploring a Spanish teaching and learning program.
Barlet, Katelyn Danielle. “Latina parent involvement: An action research study exploring a Spanish teaching and learning program.” 2014. Doctoral Dissertation, Penn State University. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/21082.
Barlet, Katelyn Danielle. “Latina parent involvement: An action research study exploring a Spanish teaching and learning program.” 2014. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Barlet KD. Latina parent involvement: An action research study exploring a Spanish teaching and learning program. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Penn State University; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/21082.
30. Morgan, Nicole R. Evaluating the role of parental involvement in public preschool in predicting the development of emergent literacy skills.
▼ Preschool parental involvement is critical to fighting the war on poverty and strengthening children’s school readiness skills. Existing empirical studies demonstrate that broad indicators of parent involvement are positively associated with children’s academic success. However, longitudinal studies that clarify the role of preschool participation in promoting parent involvement and that link specific components of parental involvement to specific dimensions of emergent literacy skills are needed. This dissertation has two primary goals: (1) to clarify how parent involvement changes as a result of one year compared to two years of a universal preschool program; and (2) to clarify how specific domains of parent involvement predict to children’s emergent literacy skills in Kindergarten. Preschool children (ages 3-4 years) and their parents were recruited from a very disadvantaged Northeastern urban community. The total analytic sample included 290 children (n=145 entered at age 3; n=145 entered at age 4). Three hypotheses were partially supported. The first hypothesis was that a longer duration of preschool programming (2 years versus 1 year) would result in increased parent involvement. By using matched propensity score analyses, findings suggest that two years of preschool programming, compared to one year, improved parent-child talking activities and parent emergent literacy practices at home. Also, two years of preschool programming was marginally related to parents “showing up” at school (e.g., volunteering in class, field trips, and attending school wide events). The second hypothesis was that the quality of teacher-parent interactions would help explain the increased parent involvement. Teacher’s ratings of the quality of the relationship with the parent were positively related to parents making more visits to the library. The third hypothesis was that greater parent involvement would improve children’s school readiness skills, specifically emergent literacy skills. Parent talking activities predicted Kindergarten receptive vocabulary skills, and a composite of parents “showing up” at school activities was a significant predictor of receptive vocabulary. Lastly, visits to the library significantly predicted children’s Kindergarten letter word identification skills. Implications for parent involvement and future directions for preschool programs are discussed.
Morgan, Nicole R. “Evaluating the role of parental involvement in public preschool in predicting the development of emergent literacy skills.” 2014. Doctoral Dissertation, Penn State University. Accessed April 18, 2019. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/21840.
Morgan, Nicole R. “Evaluating the role of parental involvement in public preschool in predicting the development of emergent literacy skills.” 2014. Web. 18 Apr 2019.
Morgan NR. Evaluating the role of parental involvement in public preschool in predicting the development of emergent literacy skills. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. Penn State University; 2014. [cited 2019 Apr 18]. Available from: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/21840. | 2019-04-18T15:33:39Z | https://oatd.org/oatd/search?q=subject%3A%28Parent%20Involvement%29&pagesize=30 |
The text of the bill below is as of Feb 24, 2016 (Referred to Senate Committee).
To authorize, streamline, and identify efficiencies within the Transportation Security Administration, and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the Transportation Security Administration Reform and Improvement Act of 2015 .
Sec. 102. PreCheck and general passenger biometric identification.
Sec. 103. Limitation; PreCheck operations maintained; Alternate methods.
Sec. 104. Secure Flight program.
Sec. 105. Efficiency review by TSA.
Sec. 106. Donation of screening equipment to protect the United States.
Sec. 107. Review of sustained security directives.
Sec. 108. Maintenance of security-related technology.
Sec. 109. Vetting of aviation workers.
Sec. 110. Aviation Security Advisory Committee consultation.
Sec. 111. Private contractor canine evaluation and integration pilot program.
Sec. 112. Covert testing at airports.
Sec. 113. Training for transportation security officers.
Sec. 201. Surface Transportation Inspectors.
Sec. 202. Inspector General audit; TSA Office of Inspection workforce certification.
Sec. 203. Repeal of biennial reporting requirement for the Government Accountability Office relating to the Transportation Security Information Sharing Plan.
Sec. 204. Security training for frontline transportation workers.
The terms Administration and TSA mean the Transportation Security Administration.
The term intelligence community has the meaning given such term in section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4)).
The term Secure Flight means the Administration’s watchlist matching program.
operate a trusted passenger screening program known as TSA PreCheck that provides expedited screening for low-risk passengers and their accessible property based on a comprehensive and continuous analysis of factors specified in subsection (b).
Whether passengers described in such subsection are members of other trusted traveler programs of the Department.
Whether such passengers are traveling pursuant to subsection (m) of section 44903 of title 49, United States Code (as established under the Risk-Based Security for Members of the Armed Forces Act (Public Law 112–86)), section 44927 of such title (as established under the Helping Heroes Fly Act (Public Law 113–27)), or section 44928 of such title (as established under the Honor Flight Act (Public Law 113–221)).
Whether such passengers possess an active security clearance or other credential issued by the Federal Government for which TSA has conducted a written threat assessment and determined that such passengers present a low risk to transportation or national security.
Whether such passengers are members of a population for whom TSA has conducted a written security threat assessment, determined that such population poses a low risk to transportation or national security, and has issued such passengers a known traveler number.
The ability of the Administration to verify such passengers’ identity and whether such passengers pose a risk to aviation security.
Threats to transportation or national security as identified by the intelligence community and law enforcement community.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall publish PreCheck application enrollment standards to add multiple private sector application capabilities for the TSA PreCheck program to increase the public’s enrollment access to such program, including standards that allow the use of secure technologies, including online enrollment, kiosks, tablets, or staffed computer stations at which individuals can apply for entry into such program.
ensure that any enrollment expansion using a private sector risk assessment instead of a fingerprint-based criminal history records check is determined, by the Secretary of Homeland Security, to be equivalent to a fingerprint-based criminal history records check conducted through the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
submit to Congress a report on any PreCheck fees collected in excess of the costs of administering such program, including recommendations for using such amounts to support marketing of such program under this subsection.
partner with the private sector to use advanced biometrics and standards comparable with National Institute of Standards and Technology standards to facilitate enrollment in such program.
make every practicable effort to provide expedited screening at standard screening lanes during times when PreCheck screening lanes are closed to individuals enrolled in such program in order to maintain operational efficiency.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall initiate an assessment of the security vulnerabilities in the vetting process for the PreCheck program that includes an evaluation of whether subjecting PreCheck participants to recurrent fingerprint-based criminal history records checks, in addition to recurrent checks against the terrorist watchlist, could be done in a cost-effective manner to strengthen the security of the PreCheck program.
consider capabilities and policies of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry Program, as appropriate.
be integrated with other checkpoint technologies to further facilitate risk-based passenger screening at the checkpoint, to the extent practicable and consistent with security standards.
A passenger who voluntarily submits biographic and biometric information for a security risk assessment and whose application for the PreCheck program has been approved, or a passenger who is a participant in another trusted or registered traveler program of the Department.
A passenger traveling pursuant to section 44903 of title 49, United States Code (as established under the Risk-Based Security for Members of the Armed Forces Act (Public Law 112–86)), section 44927 of such title (as established under the Helping Heroes Fly Act (Public Law 113–27)), or section 44928 of such title (as established under the Honor Flight Act (Public Law 113–221)).
A passenger who did not voluntarily submit biographic and biometric information for a security risk assessment but is a member of a population designated by the Administrator as known and low-risk and who may be issued a unique, known traveler number by the Administrator determining that such passenger is a member of a category of travelers designated by the Administrator as known and low-risk.
In carrying out subsection (a), the Administrator shall ensure that expedited airport security screening remains available to passengers at or above the level that exists on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act.
If the Administrator determines that such is appropriate, the implementation of subsection (a) may be delayed by up to 1 year with respect to the population of passengers who did not voluntarily submit biographic and biometric information for security risk assessments but who nevertheless receive expedited airport security screening because such passengers are designated as frequent fliers by air carriers. If the Administrator uses the authority provided by this subsection, the Administrator shall notify the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate of such phased-in implementation.
address known and evolving security risks to the United States aviation system.
The Administrator shall provide to the entity conducting the independent assessment under subsection (d) effectiveness testing results that are consistent with established evaluation design practices, as identified by the Comptroller General of the United States.
Not later than 3 months after the date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, the Administrator shall report to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on the percentage of all passengers who are provided expedited security screening, and of such passengers so provided, the percentage who are participants in the PreCheck program (who have voluntarily submitted biographic and biometric information for security risk assessments), the percentage who are participants in another trusted traveler program of the Department, the percentage who are participants in the PreCheck program due to the Administrator’s issuance of known traveler numbers, and for the remaining percentage of passengers granted access to expedited security screening in PreCheck security lanes, information on the percentages attributable to each alternative method utilized by the Administration to direct passengers to expedited airport security screening at PreCheck security lanes.
limit the authority of the Administrator to use technologies and systems, including passenger screening canines and explosives trace detection, as a part of security screening operations.
develop a mechanism to comprehensively document and track key Secure Flight program privacy issues and decisions to ensure the Secure Flight program has complete information for effective oversight of its privacy controls.
The elimination of any duplicative or overlapping programs and initiatives that can be streamlined.
The elimination of any unnecessary or obsolete rules, regulations, directives, or procedures.
Any other matters the Administrator determines are appropriate.
Not later than 30 days after the completion of the efficiency review required under subsection (a), the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report that specifies the results and cost savings expected to be achieved through such efficiency review. Such report shall also include information relating to how the Administration may use efficiencies identified through such efficiency review to provide funding to reimburse airports that incurred eligible costs for in-line baggage screening systems.
The Administrator is authorized to donate security screening equipment to a foreign last-point-of-departure airport operator if such equipment can be reasonably expected to mitigate a specific vulnerability to the security of the United States or United States citizens.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, for any security directive that has been in effect for longer than 1 year, the Administrator shall review the necessity of such directives, from a risk-based perspective.
the planned disposition of any such directive.
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this subtitle, the Administrator shall develop and implement a preventive maintenance validation process for security-related technology deployed to airports.
Guidance to Administration personnel, equipment maintenance technicians, and other personnel at airports specifying how to conduct and document preventive maintenance actions.
Mechanisms for the Administrator to verify compliance with the guidance issued pursuant to paragraph (1).
Provision of monthly preventive maintenance schedules to appropriate Administration personnel at each airport that includes information on each action to be completed by a contractor.
Notification to appropriate Administration personnel at each airport when maintenance action is completed by a contractor.
A process for independent validation by a third party of contractor maintenance.
The Administrator shall require maintenance contracts for security-related technology deployed to airports to include penalties for noncompliance when it is determined that either preventive or corrective maintenance has not been completed according to contractual requirements and manufacturers’ specifications.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security shall assess implementation of the requirements under section 1621 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (as added by subsection (a) of this section), and provide findings and recommendations with respect to the provision of training to Administration personnel, equipment maintenance technicians, and other personnel under such section 1621 and the availability and utilization of equipment maintenance technicians employed by the Administration.
Sec. 1621. Maintenance validation and oversight.
By not later than December 31, 2015, the Administrator, in coordination with the Assistant Secretary for Policy of the Department, shall request from the Director of National Intelligence access to additional data from the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) data and any or other terrorism-related information to improve the effectiveness of the Administration’s credential vetting program for individuals with unescorted access to sensitive areas of airports.
By not later than December 31, 2015, the Administrator shall issue guidance for Transportation Security Inspectors to annually review airport badging office procedures for applicants seeking access to sensitive areas of airports. Such guidance shall include a comprehensive review of applicants’ Criminal History Records Check (CHRC) and work authorization documentation during the course of an inspection.
By not later than December 31, 2015, the Administrator may conduct a pilot program of the Rap Back Service, in coordination with the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to determine the feasibility of full implementation of a service through which the Administrator would be notified of a change in status of an individual holding a valid credential granting unescorted access to sensitive areas of airports across eligible Administration-regulated populations.
The pilot program under subsection (c) shall evaluate whether information can be narrowly tailored to ensure that the Administrator only receives notification of a change with respect to a disqualifying offense under the credential vetting program under subsection (a), as specified in 49 CFR 1542.209, and in a manner that complies with current regulations for fingerprint-based criminal history records checks. The pilot program shall be carried out in a manner so as to ensure that, in the event that notification is made through the Rap Back Service of a change but a determination of arrest status or conviction is in question, the matter will be handled in a manner that is consistent with current regulations. The pilot program shall also be carried out in a manner that is consistent with current regulations governing an investigation of arrest status, correction of Federal Bureau of Investigation records and notification of disqualification, and corrective action by the individual who is the subject of an inquiry.
If the Administrator determines that full implementation of the Rap Back Service is feasible and can be carried out in a manner that is consistent with current regulations for fingerprint-based criminal history checks, including the rights of individuals seeking credentials, the Administrator shall submit such determination, in writing, to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, together with information on the costs associated with such implementation, including the costs incurred by the private sector. In preparing this determination, the Administrator shall consult with the Chief Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer of the Department to ensure that protocols are in place to align the period of retention of personally identifiable information and biometric information, including fingerprints, in the Rap Back Service with the period in which the individual who is the subject of an inquiry has a valid credential.
By not later than September 30, 2015, the Administrator shall issue guidance to airports mandating that all federalized airport badging authorities place an expiration date on airport credentials commensurate with the period of time during which an individual is lawfully authorized to work in the United States.
By not later than December 31, 2015, the Administrator shall review the denial of credentials due to issues associated with determining an applicant’s lawful status in order to identify airports with specific weaknesses and shall coordinate with such airports to mutually address such weaknesses, as appropriate.
Upon completion of the determinations and reviews required under this section, the Administrator shall brief the Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on the results of such determinations and reviews.
Sec. 1602. Vetting of aviation workers.
Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on the status of plans to conduct a pilot program in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Rap Back Service in accordance with subsection (c) of section 1602 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as added by subsection (a) of this section. The report shall include details on the business, technical, and resource requirements for the Transportation Security Administration and pilot program participants, and provide a timeline and goals for the pilot program.
The Administrator shall consult, to the extent practicable, with the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (established pursuant to section 44946 of title 49 of the United States Code) regarding any modification to the prohibited item list prior to issuing a determination about any such modification.
Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to the Transportation Security Oversight Board (established pursuant to section 115 of title 49, United States Code), the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report that includes general information on how often the Board has met, the current composition of the Board, and what activities the Board has undertaken, consistent with the duties specified in subsection (c) of such section. The Secretary may include in such report recommendations for changes to such section in consideration of the provisions of section 44946 of title 49, United States Code.
The term of each member of the Advisory Committee shall be 2 years but may continue until such time as a successor member begins serving on the Advisory Committee. A member of the Advisory Committee may be reappointed.
In this section, the term prohibited item list means the list of items passengers are prohibited from carrying as accessible property or on their persons through passenger screening checkpoints at airports, into sterile areas at airports, and on board passenger aircraft, pursuant to section 1540.111 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on January 1, 2015).
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall establish a pilot program to evaluate the use, effectiveness, and integration of privately-operated explosives detection canine teams using both the passenger screening canine and traditional explosives detection canine methods.
A full-time presence in three Category X, two Category I, and one Category II airports.
A duration of at least 12 months from the time private contractor teams are operating at full capacity.
A methodology for evaluating how to integrate private contractor teams into the checkpoint area to detect explosive devices missed by mechanical or human error at other points in the screening process.
Covert testing with inert improvised explosive devices and accurately recreated explosives odor traces to determine the relative effectiveness of a full-time canine team in strengthening checkpoint security.
The Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate written updates on the procurement, deployment, and evaluation process related to the implementation of the pilot program under subsection (a) for every calendar quarter after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Not later than 90 days after the completion of the pilot program under subsection (a), the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a final report on such pilot program.
Out of funds made available to the Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security, $6,000,000 is authorized to be used to carry out this section.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter through 2020, the Administrator shall conduct covert testing on an ongoing basis to test vulnerabilities and identify weaknesses in the measures used to secure the aviation system of the United States. The Administrator shall, on a quarterly basis if practicable, provide to the Inspector General of the Department such testing results, methodology, and data.
identify reasons for failure when TSA personnel or the screening equipment used do not identify and resolve any threat item used during such a covert test.
The Inspector General of the Department shall conduct covert testing of the aviation system of the United States in addition to the covert testing conducted by the Administrator under subsection (a), as appropriate, and analyze TSA covert testing results, methodology, and data provided pursuant to such subsection to determine the sufficiency of TSA covert testing protocols. The Inspector General shall, as appropriate, compare testing results of any additional covert testing conducted pursuant to this subsection with the results of TSA covert testing under subsection (a) to determine systemic weaknesses in the security of the aviation system of the United States.
Not later than 30 days upon completion of any covert testing under subsection (a), the Administrator shall make recommendations and implement corrective actions to mitigate vulnerabilities identified by such covert testing and shall notify the Inspector General of the Department of such recommendations and actions. The Inspector General shall review the extent to which such recommendations and actions are implemented and the degree to which such recommendations and actions improve the security of the aviation system of the United States.
Not later than 30 days upon completion of any covert testing under subsection (a), the Administrator shall brief the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on the results of such covert testing.
The Inspector General shall brief the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate annually on the requirements specified in this section.
Nothing in this section may be construed to prohibit the Administrator or the Inspector General of the Department from conducting covert testing of the aviation system of the United States with greater frequency than required under this section.
The Administrator shall, on a periodic basis, brief the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on the status of efforts to enhance initial and recurrent training of Transportation Security Officers.
by striking , as determined appropriate .
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Administration’s Surface Transportation Security Inspectors Program under subsection (d) of section 1304 of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (6 U.S.C. 1113; Public Law 110–53).
The roles and responsibilities of surface transportation security inspectors.
The extent to which the TSA has used a risk-based, strategic approach to determine the appropriate number of surface transportation security inspectors and resource allocation across field offices.
Whether TSA’s surface transportation regulations are risk-based and whether surface transportation security inspectors have adequate experience and training to perform their day-to-day responsibilities.
Feedback from regulated surface transportation industry stakeholders on the benefit of surface transportation security inspectors to the overall security of the surface transportation systems of such stakeholders and the consistency of regulatory enforcement.
Whether surface transportation security inspectors have appropriate qualifications to help secure and inspect surface transportation systems.
Whether TSA measures the effectiveness of surface transportation security inspectors.
Any overlap between the TSA and the Department of Transportation as such relates to surface transportation security inspectors in accordance with section 1310 of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (6 U.S.C. 1117; Public Law 110–53).
The extent to which surface transportation security inspectors review and enhance information security practices and enforce applicable information security regulations and directives.
Any recommendations relating to the efficiency and effectiveness of the TSA’s surface transportation security inspectors program.
Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Inspector General of the Department shall analyze the data and methods that the Administrator uses to identify Office of Inspection employees of the Administration who meet the requirements of sections 8331(20), 8401(17), and 5545a of title 5, United States Code, and provide the relevant findings to the Administrator, including a finding on whether such data and methods are adequate and valid.
the Inspector General submits to such Committees a finding, not later than 30 days after the Administrator makes such certification, that the Administrator utilized adequate and valid data and methods to make such certification.
The Administrator shall, by not later than 90 days after the date the Inspector General of the Department provides its findings to the Assistant Secretary under subsection (a)(1), document and certify in writing to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate that only those Office of Inspection employees of the Administration who meet the requirements of sections 8331(20), 8401(17), and 5545a of title 5, United States Code, are classified as criminal investigators and are receiving premium pay and other benefits associated with such classification.
The Administrator shall reclassify criminal investigator positions in the Office of Inspection of the Administration as noncriminal investigator positions or non-law enforcement positions if the individuals in such positions do not, or are not expected to, spend an average of at least 50 percent of their time performing criminal investigative duties.
The Administrator shall estimate the total long-term cost savings to the Federal Government resulting from the implementation of paragraph (2), and provide such estimate to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate by not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
weapons, vehicles, and communications devices.
identifying any inconsistencies and costs implications for differences between the varying employee requirements, responsibilities, and benefits.
redesignating paragraphs (8) and (9) as paragraphs (7) and (8), respectively.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of the Act, the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report regarding the status of the implementation of sections 1408 (6 U.S.C. 1137) and 1534 (6 U.S.C. 1184) of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (Public Law 110–53). The Administrator shall include in such report specific information on the challenges that the Administrator has encountered since the date of the enactment of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 with respect to establishing regulations requiring the provision of basic security training to public transportation frontline employees and over-the-road bus frontline employees for preparedness for potential security threats and conditions.
Establishing an independent, not-for-profit organization, modeled after the In-Q-tel program, a venture capital partnership between the private sector and the intelligence community (as such term is defined in section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4)), to help businesses, particularly small businesses, commercialize innovative security-related technologies.
Enhanced engagement, either through the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security or directly, with the In-Q-tel program described in paragraph (1).
Passed the House of Representatives February 23, 2016. | 2019-04-26T15:37:50Z | https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr3584/text |
A city away from the glitz and glamour, Fujairah is the youngest and among the most industrious emirates in the UAE.
Located on the East Coast, it is home to some of the pristine beaches, terrific monuments and beautiful landscape. Indeed, the city is teeming with wonderful tourist spots and attractions; here is a list of the most popular ones.
Also known as ‘Ottoman Mosque’, Al-Bidyah Mosque is the oldest mosque in the UAE. Built in 1446 AD, the structure is known for its beautifully crafted four helical domes. Each dome here consists of several small domes mounted one over the other. The entrance gate and walls here are dotted with beautiful decorative carvings and paintings. After a full day of exploring the beautiful site, you can enjoy a sumptuous range of authentic cuisines and delicacies at nearby food stalls and restaurants.
Situated in the old village, Fujairah Fort is among the oldest forts in the UAE. Built in 1670, the fort stands as a classic example of traditional Arabian architecture. Constructed at an height of about 20 meters above sea level using locally available materials like stone, gravel, clay, hay and alsarooj substance (gypsum), the fort is a must visit. The entrance gate of the fort is dotted with beautifully crafted paintings and carvings. It has three major sections, several halls and a square tower preserved and maintained by Fujairah’s Department of Archaeology and Heritage. The weapons and items used and possessed by the royal family are among the most prized possession of the museum.
Located in the heart of the city, Fujairah Museum is one of the most important museums in the UAE. Constructed in 1991, the structure is divided into three halls and is known for featuring some of the most ancient artefacts and antiques excavated during the time of the discovery of the city. While the first hall is designated to tools used by early humans for agriculture, fishing and trade, the second hall includes ancient weapons and utensils used by people in the past. The ancient rifle called Khedewi is an important possession of the museum.
Nestled between Fujairah and Masafi, Al Bithnah Fort is another famous tourist spot. Excavated in 1987, the structure houses some of the ancient petroglyphs created and crafted during the war era. Constructed using stone, mud-brick, adobe bricks and palm-wood planking, it is a must visit attraction in the city. Some of the weapons used by the army at the time of the war are displayed here. Interestingly, there are a series of paintings and sculptures put on display from the entrance till the main hall.
This entry was posted in Middle East, UAE on April 19, 2017 by GM.
Located along the Southern coast of the Persian Gulf, Sharjah is one of the most populous cities in the UAE. Known for its rich history and culture, the city is recognized as the ‘Cultural Capital of the Arab World’.
Preserving a major chunk of Emirati history, Sharjah is home to several museums and cultural centres. For those of you looking to know more, here is a list of the most popular museums in Sharjah.
First opened to public in 2005, Sharjah Heritage Museum is one of the famous museums in the city. Located in the heart of Sharjah, the popular preservatory is known for featuring durables, utilitarian items and other luxury goods, all highlighting different aspects of local life. The wide collection of items and objects at the museum include a ‘Loom’ or ‘Sadu’ (a wooden tool used for knitting woollen yarn), Aftakh (a golden ring generally worn by women on their toe), Soieih Abaya (a mantle for the head usually made of golden yarn) and crescent shaped glass bottles mostly used by babies. Exhibitions on subjects of literature and culture are organized regularly.
Located at the Al Majaz Waterfront, Maraya Art Centre is a famous art centre in Sharjah. Officially launched in 2006, the well known site is home to Maraya Video Archive. Featuring works of prominent Middle Eastern and International artists, the centre is home to several paintings and sculptures dating back to the early 19th century. The private collection of Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi referred to as ‘Barjeel Art Foundation’ is a popular attraction at the centre. For tourists to have a firsthand experience of the arts and culture, regular exhibitions and informative workshops are organised at the centre from time to time.
Located in the heart of the city, Sharjah Archaeology Museum is a beautiful archaeological museum in Sharjah. Established in 1993, the preservatory is known for featuring age-old artefacts, currencies, jewellery, pottery and weapons excavated during the discovery of the city. The golden bible, ivory comb placed inside an alabaster bowl and the ceramic dome are among the popular exhibits at the museum. On display are beautifully crafted models of 2500 years old tombs, cemeteries and houses found in and around the city.
Located in the Al Shuwaihiyeen area, Sharjah Art Museum is another famous museum in the emirate. Inaugurated in 1997, it features a collection of paintings and contemporary art forms by prominent artists from the Middle East. Paintings of famous artists dating back to the early 18th and 19th century are also displayed in the museum. Fresh exhibitions, displaying works of popular artists from across the world, are regular phenomena at the museum.
Located in the Al-Majjarah area, Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization is a cultural museum. Opened to public in 2008, the preservatory is known for featuring over 5000 artefacts from across the Islamic world. Other objects at the museum include carvings, manuscripts, metalwork and scientific instruments dating back to the period. Exhibitions on Islamic culture and practices and informative workshops are organised for travellers visiting the site.
This entry was posted in Dubai, Middle East, UAE on March 17, 2017 by GM.
Dubai is such a beautiful and luxurious Middle Eastern land that people are usually lost in the glitz and glamour and go about doing the bare minimum on their visits! However, there is a sea of opportunities that you can indulge in here but you need to think beyond the obvious and find out things to do that might interest you.
If you’re feeling pricey, act like it! There is a splendid Gold Facial that you can have while in Dubai. It is obviously going to cost you a little higher than regular skin treatments, but the results they say are spectacular. It uses 24 karat gold sheets that are placed on your skin and then massaged; leaving your skin glowing and supple.
Living in an aquarium suite!
Opt for the splendid Atlantis underwater suite that costs around £5,500 per night and you can spot hundreds of marine creatures while you enjoy a stay here! The two underwater suites – Poseidon and Neptune – boast floor-to-ceiling and look directly to Ambassador Lagoon aquarium.
Swimming with dolphins, diving with sharks!
Atlantis The Palm also provides opportunities for swimming with majestic and playful dolphins. When you get closer to this creature you will realise how docile, loving and fun they are, and you will have a great time watching them perform tricks. You can also go scuba diving and see sharks as well a number of other aquatic animals in their natural habitat. These are one of kind experiences and if you are looking to try something interesting, this can definitely be one of the things you do.
Dubai is famous for extreme adventure sports and you must try some of these interesting activities. Skydiving is a rare and once in a lifetime kind of experience and if it is something you have been meaning to try for a while Dubai offers the safest options for trying this extreme sport.
Amongst all things new and exciting, Fly-boarding is a terrific new water sport and if you are up for trying exciting things in Dubai, this is definitely something you have to do. An inspired creation of a French Jet Ski designer, this sport will make you feel like an action movie star!
This entry was posted in Dubai, Middle East, UAE on March 7, 2017 by GM.
Shopping in Dubai – Check out Some of the Most Popular Souks in the Emirate!
Shopping in Dubai can be best enjoyed at one of those traditional souks and shopping complexes spread across the city, offering a flavour of authentic Arabic culture along with a wide range of products from across the region. For those of you hunting for a unique shopping experience, here is a list of some of the most popular souks in Dubai!
For most people in the world, Dubai is the city of gold! Located in the heart of Deira, Gold Souk is Dubai’s most famous and visited souk. The popular market comprises of over 3000 gold merchants and traders dealing exclusively in 22 or 24 carat gold jewellery. Prices of these items are decided by the market rate of gold and include the charge of workmanship.
Breathe in the rich aromas of authentic herbs and spices at the traditional spice souk in Dubai. Situated on Baniyas street in Deira, the souk is filled with an incredible range of spices and ingredients from across the Middle East and other parts of the world. Popular spices available at the souk include cardamom, cinnamon, saffron, and henna along with different sorts of dry fruits, incense sticks, sheesha and tobacco. Along with the variety of herbs and spices, it is the fragrance and aroma which attracts tourists and shoppers to this market.
For those of you obsessed with heavenly scents, Dubai’s Perfume Souk is just the place for you. Located on Sikkat Al Khali Street in Deira, the market is a perfect place to pick up your favourite scents and perfumes made by essential oils and traditional ingredients. You can choose from over thousand fragrances. If you don’t like any of the available ones, there’s always the option of creating your own perfume!
Also known as Old Souk, this popular souk is situated in Bur Dubai. The marketplace features a massive range of fabrics and textiles including cashmere, silk, cotton, wool along with souvenirs, gifts and other goods. Although the area is dedicated to fabrics and textiles, the souk is also home to some of the city’s most skilled tailors to help you stitch your favourite attire with the best material from the market. Fabric and textile prices are negotiable and most shops offer a sale on special days and occasions.
One of the city’s oldest markets, Naif Souk is the most famous souks in Dubai. The former camel market today feature over 1000 shops and stalls selling a wide range of products, such as textiles, goods, scents, fabrics, electronics and souvenirs. For those of you who know how to bargain, this place can turn out some terrific deals. Shopping in Naif Souk is a great way to experience Dubai’s traditional culture!
This entry was posted in Dubai, Middle East, UAE on February 21, 2017 by GM.
Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE, is a complete family destination. The city is full of engaging attractions that are exciting for the young as well as the old.
It welcomes you with its pretty waterside location, terrific dhow harbour, traditional marketplaces and bustling sheesha cafes. Read on to know more about some of the best attractions of this city.
An important place of worship across the country and a popular landmark, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque welcomes you with mystical serenity. This huge mosque exhibits stunning Islamic architecture and is the largest mosque in the UAE. Built of beautiful Macedonian marble, the mosque is full of intricate carvings, stunning glass-work and mosaic tiling.
Visit the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and enjoy the thrills of roller-coaster rides and other attractions. It is the first Ferrari-branded theme park in the world and is home to numerous Ferrari inspired rides, a huge Ferrari Store and a host of authentic Italian restaurants and eating outlets. Marvel at its iconic red roof, enjoy the thrill of riding the fastest roller-coaster in the world and get entertained by lively shows – all within this indoor, climate-controlled environment of the Ferrari World.
Travel back in time with a visit to the beautiful Qasr Al Hosn, which is probably one of the most popular forts in Abu Dhabi. The spectacular fort enjoys the title of being the oldest stone building in the city, which dates back to 1760. This white-washed fort was built as a watchtower, which slowly transformed into the royal abode of the ruling Al Nahyan family. History buffs will find the fort’s exhibits, photographs and archaeological finds interesting to explore as it offers a rare insight into the region’s history.
A popular hangout among locals as well as tourists, the Abu Dhabi Corniche is a good place to spend some time observing the local culture. It is an eight kilometre stretch of road flanked by well-maintained waterfront with features such as children’s play areas, separate cycle and pedestrian pathways, cafés and restaurants. The Corniche Beach is another interesting feature, which you should explore. Take a cool dip or sunbathe or just sink your toes in the sand at this lifeguarded beach park.
Falconry is an important part of the local culture, and you should visit the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital to observe this bird’s wonderful relationship with humans. Visitors can book tours of this veterinary hospital, which includes exploring areas such as the falcon museum, the examination room and the free-flight aviary. One can even get a chance to hold these birds or feed them.
This entry was posted in Abu Dhabi, Middle East, UAE on January 16, 2017 by GM.
The dazzling city of Dubai, UAE, needs no introduction. The destination is full of amazing attractions, which go into the itinerary of every traveller visiting the ‘City of Gold’.
However, there are many lesser known attractions as well, which offer plenty of opportunities to tourists to experience new and exciting things. Read on to know more about a few of these underrated charms.
Stroll down the beautiful Jumeirah Beach Residence and treat yourself to a fun-filled shopping and dining experience. The Walk at the Jumeirah Beach Residence stretches around 1.7 kilometres and consists of roads with several shopping outlets and plenty of outdoor restaurants. These restaurants serve everything from popular local delicacies to international cuisines and fast food. As you walk along this 1.7 km stretch of shopping and eating joints, you will reach the Jumeirah Beach.
Visit the stunning Dubai Miracle Garden in Barsha South for a deeply soothing experience. The garden boasts of being the biggest natural flower garden in the world and is home to more than 45 million different species of flowering plants. Travellers can easily spend a considerable amount of time here exploring this huge sprawling garden’s lavish landscapes and colourful flower settings. The site gives you a beautiful visual treat with its topiary style majestic displays of vividly coloured flowers trimmed into different shapes such as huge hearts, pyramids, stars, and igloos. It is a good, romantic getaway for couples.
The Chillout Lounge, located at Times Square Center Dubai, is the first ice lounge in the Middle East. Travellers will have a unique experience chilling (pun intended) out at sub-zero temperatures within the confines of this lounge, while temperatures soar outside. Wear the thermal clothing provided by the lounge and keep yourself warm. The lounge is dotted with big and small ice sculptures and different types of lighting emitting a variety of colours. Enjoy an uninterrupted supply of hot soups, sandwiches, juices, hot chocolates, coffee, tea, and mock tails at the lounge.
Another offbeat place of interest in Dubai is the Big Red. Located a little out of Dubai on the Dubai-Hatta Road (E44), this tricky dune bashing centre is more popular with the old hands at the sport. As you drive along E44, you will notice that the desert changes colour from a grey-white to a reddish hue. Many visitors choose to simply play a cheering audience rather than join the heart thudding activity.
Last but not the least; the Bastakia Mosque is a place to soak in serenity and bliss. Although, Dubai has many other noted and well-known mosques, the Bastakia Mosque can easily be called one of the most photogenic mosques in Dubai. It has exquisite lattice work and a stark white facade. Travellers can also stroll around to see the remnants of Dubai’s gypsum and coral city walls built in the mid-19th century.
This entry was posted in Middle East, UAE on January 13, 2017 by GM.
Visit Dubai during Christmas and you will know why it is said to be one of the best places to celebrate the festival. Maybe, that’s why tourists from across the world visit Dubai at this time of the year. Another reason is obviously that Dubai is a warm place and the weather around December is just perfect there.
So what do you do when you’re in Dubai for Christmas? Here are some tips!
It is enthralling to see that the entire world has different interpretations of Christmas and this reflects in the different styles of decorations. You have to visit beautifully adorned local Christmas markets to see how the colours and ornaments create the perfect melange of festivity. Shopping at these local stores will give you a new perspective and help you understand how different the same the festival is, compared to most of the other European countries.
Dubai has some of the most exotic and aesthetically pleasing malls in the world. You cannot go to Dubai and not check out the malls. Even if you don’t plan to shop, you need to go see the art, architecture, and the variety of brands displaying their collections; be it clothes, shoes, bags, perfumes, electronics, jewellery, or anything else that you can imagine! This will sure be a way to burn the extra calories that you are going to intake through the scrumptious food you are going to eat in Dubai.
Dubai has so many mouth-watering cuisines to offer that you are going to be fattened up for sure! Try local delicacies or indulge in fine dining experiences spanning cuisines from across the world at some of the most sought after Michelin star restaurants that Dubai is home to. Try anything from the Middle Eastern delicacies or go global. Enjoy Thai, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, English, and American food at some of the best restaurants in the world.
Another pleasant surprise is that Dubai hosts many Christmas plays. You can watch them with your friends and family and get your Christmas cheer on! Peter Pan, The Nut Cracker, and Alice in Wonderland are some of the best ones and you should definitely go check them out. You may have to make prior bookings though, as the tickets get sold out easily.
So, the next time you plan a holiday to Dubai around Christmas, you know that there are plenty of things you can do and you won’t have a single dull moment.
This entry was posted in Dubai, Middle East, UAE on December 22, 2016 by GM.
Dubai is better known for its awe-inspiring man-made attractions such as glittering malls, amazing theme parks, bustling souks, and Burj Khalifa; the tallest building in the world.
However, the ‘City of Gold’ also boasts of numerous white sandy beaches that are perfect for picnics, playing games, and enjoying waters sports. Many of these amazing beaches are part of resorts and are accessible only to the resort guests. However, Dubai has some great public beaches that can be visited for free or for a small fee. Read on to know more about these public beaches.
The JBR Beach is a popular beach among locals and tourists alike. The JBR beach is located beside the Jumeirah Beach Resort and is a free to use public beach, with clean facilities, showers, and beachfront restaurants. This beach, which is filled with people particularly on weekends, is the site of many popular events.
Don’t forget to visit the Kitesurfing Beach in Dubai to see numerous kite surfers in action. This sporty beach is also a popular spot for soccer, volleyball, and kayaking. Also, known as the Woollongong Beach as it is close to the University of Wollongong, the beach is perfect for long walks. However, it has no facilities; so bring your own stuff.
The Mamzer or Mamzar Beach Park is a huge picturesque beach. The Mamzer Park has five beaches in coves along the coastline of the park. These beaches have sheltered areas with public utilities such as changing rooms and showers. Sun loungers and umbrellas are available on rent. The area around the beach also has stores and cafes.
The 4X4 Beach is another popular public beach. It is located close to the Jumeirah Beach Park and has earned this quirky name because it is a popular spot for drivers to stop and enjoy stunning ocean and bay views.
Visit the Jumeirah Open Beach, which was earlier popular as the Russian Beach. This huge public beach is a great place to enjoy a quick swim or even bathe for hours! The beach is large and includes a 1.8km running track. Facilities include showers, public toilets, and round-the-clock shops.
Explore this small and charming peninsular beach known as the Bu Qtair Beach. The beach is popular and has been named after a famous fresh seafood eating joint, the Bu Qtair. You can easily spend an entire day here.
This entry was posted in Dubai, Middle East, UAE on November 2, 2016 by GM.
Get Set for Dubai Shopping Festival 2017!
Get ready to attend the Mecca of all shopping festivals: the Dubai Shopping Festival 2017! This month long event is an extravagant shopping festival packed with amazing activities and festivities to keep you on your toes. The Dubai Shopping Festival 2017 will mark the 22nd anniversary of this amazing shopping and entertainment event. Billed as one of the largest shopping festivals in the Middle East, the event offers discounts up to 75%.
The Dubai Shopping Festival 2017 will be held from 26th December, 2016 to 28th January, 2017. It is one of the longest running shopping festivals across the world.
The event is a major tourist attraction in Dubai, not just for shopping, but also for vibrant festivities involving spectacular fireworks, fashion flash mobs, film screenings, and street plays.
There is not one single venue for the event, but the festival is held across all shopping avenues such as shopping malls, traditional souks, and flea markets across the city of Dubai. Travellers will see special deals and offers at all shops, big or small, to attract visitors. The entire city revels in this international shopping bonanza, with not just shops, but also restaurants and hotels offering irresistible discounts and deals.
You’ll feel dizzy at the plethora of things being sold during the event across the city. So, here is a simplified list of the best things to keep an eye for during the event.
Clothing – From designer clothes to international brands to local creations – there is something for everyone.
Gold – Dubai is already a popular destination to buy tax free gold at cheaper rates. This festival takes the incentive even further and lets you buy gold jewellery, ranging from traditional to modern designs, as per your needs.
Cosmetics – Ladies, it will be criminal not to buy international beauty brands such as Chanel, Bvlgari, Estee Lauder, and Bobbi Brown at cheaper rates during the festival.
Perfumes – Buy duty free premium perfumes brands such as Bvlgari, Chanel, Burberry at discounts.
Watches – Be it non-branded diamond-studded watches or branded watches such as Cartier, Rado or Burberry, buy all these at discounted rates.
Leather Goods – Buy Dubai’s best quality leather products, including bags, belts and jackets, or choose from international leather brands such as Condotti, Burberry, and Prada!
Home Decor – Bag beautiful home decor items including amazing floor carpets at 50 or even 75% discounts.
Electronics – Reputed international electronic brands such as Sony, Bose, Apple, Acer, and Fujitsu can be bought at very low prices here.
Local Produce – Buy local specialities such as spices and dry fruits at discounts at local stores and shops.
The amazing festival is not all about shopping and sales. During the festival, the city of Dubai turns into a cultural hub with many celebrity performances, fireworks, international fashion shows, and rock concerts at cultural centres across the city. Some of the other major attractions to look out for at Dubai Shopping Festival 2017 are as follows.
• Be sure to witness the vibrant fireworks held at night during the festival.
• Many local companies also offer amazing desert safaris, hot air balloon rides, and dune bashing experiences as part of the festival.
• There are several world-class concerts, musical shows, and acrobatic performances held at cultural centres during the event.
• Learn about the latest fashion treads at fashion shows of leading international designers and brands at various venues across the city.
This entry was posted in Dubai, UAE on October 20, 2016 by GM.
Planning to explore Dubai with your children? Well, we have a list of attractions and activities that’ll easily grab the attention of your kids and ensure an enjoyable time for them in the ‘City of Gold’. Some of these are exclusively meant for youngsters, while others encourage parents as well!
Open 7 days a week, the KidZania is an ‘interactive edutainment centre’, where the little ones can experience more than 80 role-playing professions in the replica of a real city. This ‘city’ is built to scale for children, complete with buildings, paved streets, vehicles, and identifiable destinations. The role playing professions enhance the physical, social, and intellectual skills of the participants. There’s a safe and independent area for toddlers too.
Sega Republic is an indoor theme park for kids and others. It features 15 breathtaking attractions and more than 170 games, ranging from cutting-edge motion simulators and virtual experiences to one of the area’s biggest assortment of skill and redemption games. Some of the ‘attractions’ are Giant Slider, Xyclone, Racer, Wild Jungle and Rope Rush. Sega Republic is open daily from 10 AM to 1 AM.
If your child or even you love to ice-skate, then head to the ‘Dubai Ice Rink’ right away! This Olympic-size venue has over 2,000 pairs of skates imported from a popular manufacturer in Italy to fit children and adults of all ages and sizes.
‘Ice Marshals’ keeps an eye on everyone during public skating hours to ensure safety. To entice people further, there are awesome DJ nights for ultimate entertainment.
Youngsters will have a delightful time at Al Nasr Leisureland as it features amazing rides such as Go Kart, Bumber Car, Himalaya Ride, Helicopter & Mini Bumber. There are superb facilities for tennis, squash, swimming, and bowling as well. The Olympic-sized ice rink with gallery is an apt spot for social entertainment events, stage shows, and award ceremonies. The food at the on-site restaurants is truly admirable!
Dubai Dolphinarium is a jaw-dropping attraction not only for kids but adults too! Over here, one can swim and interact with dolphins.
The bottlenose dolphins and seals show off their master skills in various action-packed shows. Dubai Dolphinarium also hosts programmes where more than 20 different birds and parrots flaunt their spectacular abilities. There are numerous souvenirs and toys at the gift shop.
This entry was posted in Dubai, Middle East, UAE on September 24, 2016 by GM. | 2019-04-20T13:22:57Z | http://blog.traveltrolley.co.uk/middle-east/uae/page/2/ |
I was working for a company for 3 months. I had had a couple of informal meetings with my immediate supervisor over lunch (nothing was ever documented in writing that I saw) about how they needed me to improve a couple of performance based issues (which were corrected and no longer an issue before my termination).
However, I was still brought into the owner's office by the owner and my immediate supervisor a couple of weeks later, a couple of days before my 100% company-paid health benefits would have kicked in, and was told that they knew that I was unhappy at the company and that I had the choice to either resign or be let go. I told them that I was not unhappy and had never said that I was, had just been frustrated with how things had been handled regarding certain situations within the company, but had also not made that widely known. That is when the owner told me that if I did not resign, he would say that I was discharged for misconduct and using the internet excessively. I told him that the only times that I had used the internet that I could recall were during my hour lunch break (which was allowed and which my supervisor knew that I was doing), that there may have been a couple of times during the work day when I had sent a personal email, but nothing that had been excessive.
me what he was referring to as far as times I had accessed email or the internet, so all I have to go by is the time stamps on my sent and received personal email account (I did not use the company email system). I had never been warned about my internet usage, and my immediate manager had been aware that I accessed the internet during my lunch break and emailed through my personal email account. She had even instructed me to look up information for personal use during company time on a couple of occasions. Company policy in the handbook states that you can use the internet for personal use, just that if it gets to be excessive then you will be warned. If you do not correct it once you have been warned, then you may be let go. However, I was never warned.
I have already spoken to the unemployment claims representative about all of this but he did not give me any indication one way or the other what his determination would be. It is my opinion that I should be able to receive unemployment because I thought that use of the internet for personal use was okay as long as it was not excessive (per instruction and per company policy), and I was not aware that what I was doing was considered "excessive", so therefore it was not willful misconduct. Am I thinking right?
Comments for Can I unemployment if I have been fired for excessive personal use of the email/computer without prior warning?
The hearing was last friday and I am waiting on the decision in the mail.
Then you should let me know how that decision comes down and the reasoning used in the hearing decision because you would know better than I, your impression about what the hearing officer might find.
I think, even if you didn't sign a social network policy .. it comes down to common sense and what the comment actually was, and whether any similar "reasonable person" (the standard) would of, could of reasonably been expected to know making the comment, whether on a social network .. or not, would/could of caused harm to the employer's business interest.
I was fired for inappropriate comments made on a social networking site that I often went to during the day for information that was related to my job.
Since you already lost the hearing, I'd say none.
Regardless of whether you think you're trying to collect benefits based upon BP wages paid by a different employer, it is the last separation from a job that basically rules over a claim.
The one thing you failed to mention in your "argument" for benefits is what the "inappropriate" comments made on a social network .. where you went to do a part of your job apparently, happened to be.
The employer, and the hearing officer must of thought that whatever they were, any reasonable person would of known they had the potential for causing harm to your employers interest.
Was the social network policy included in the employee handbook? Did you sign an acknowledgement form to prove receipt of said handbook?
And what do you think, was your comment so egregious that if you had a business and one of your employees made it in public .. would you be upset?
Inappropriate, is a strong word and you left us all clueless as to make our own determination about your comments in relationship to that word.
Slam dunk appeals are the rarity. Chances are what most people have .. when they represent themselves effectively .. which includes knowing how to cross examine an employer witness.
I was put on administrative leave without pay for illegal use, misuse of city computers and electronic equipment. All I was doing was looking at various home page news links (i.e. yahoo, msn, bing), job websites for my brother, and sports scores....nothing crazy. I was asked how long was I looking online for and sometimes I would leave the browser open and sometimes would close out the browser so it depends on how much usage I was actually using. Also, I was shown browsing of the internet by my coworkers and seen them do the same. Now I am being put on admin leave and they aren't even being investigated. What should I do??? I need to be paid but don't want loose my job either. I was honest with them during the preliminary investigation and told them that I did use the computer but only for those websites stated earlier. I read the employee regulations and it said that violation of the computers will result in an employee to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. Will I be able to recieve unemployment??? If terminated, can I still use them as a past employer???
Guess what would have been more useful in addition to a rundown of what you might have been doing to violate the employer's Internet/computer use policy ..
THE EMPLOYER'S INTERNET/COMPUTER USE POLICY.
As far as being shown that co-workers were also misusing the employer's internet/computers in violation of the policy and that you were unfairly singled out for a "not uniform enforcement of the policy" ..
How will you prove that? Any co-worker's willing to be your witness and admit to their blatant misuse?
You most likely do have good cause to be stressed.
And I'm no resume expert, but depending on how long you worked for them .. I would think a blank spot on your resume would be useless.
If it were me .. I would hire a professional resume service to "minimize" the damage ..
Personally, I cannot write an effective resume for myself .. although I wouldn't find it that hard to do for others.
For myself there's just too much tooting of your own horn that goes on in a resume and I think it's a hard line to walk between bragging and arrogance and confidence and matter of fact presentation of your goals and accomplishments.
In other words .. it's an ego issue.
Me being a funny guy with a great sense of humor and a thick skin, have sent jokes and very innocent pics located on a google search to various people at work from a work computer. They were only intended for the people I sent them to and they in turn found them as funny as I did. Company then used it against me to terminate my employment.
They were sent and received by those they were intended for and no more.
Should I have been terminated or given a warning for this particular incident?
It depends entirely on what the employer's policy states. Use of company internet/email is at the discretion of the employer.
What an employer wouldn't want to do though is not "uniformly enforce" the policy in all instances regardless of who might have broken the rule that everyone was made aware of when they received the employee handbook.
What I'm trying to say is .. since you were fired the most important piece of missing information is the actual rule used to terminate your employment.
I was fired for computer use at work with no prior warning that I could get fired. I signed a paper in my work policy booklet that stated not to go on the internet during work times but it didn't state anything about getting fired for using the computer at work. I was spoken to on June 2nd and advised that they caught me on the computer at times that I shouldn't be and I had signed a form on May 26th stating I knew not to go on the computer. Well on May 28th, I did look at various websites throughout the day and my boss went back and researched what sites I had looked at and printed them out for me to look at and then let me go. Do I stand a chance of getting unemployment based on not being warned that if I did use the internet at work that I could ge fired?
I think if you signed an acknowledgment of receipt of the rule, it should have mentioned the consequence as well. It would be nice to know what state you're in .. some states are bigger sticklers for the details.
What I'd like to see from an employer .. to prove misconduct is something in that policy you signed, that let's the employee know that they were also made aware that a one time violation of the policy would be cause for termination.
Unemployment hearing officers like to know that the employer made an employee "aware a violation of a policy would jeopardize their job".
Since you said the policy you signed for did not mention any consequence, it is reasonable that you would assume it fell under the "progressive discipline policy".
At least .. that's what I think.
Okay, I finally found out what the determination said. It said that I was discharged for violating a known company internet and email policy. That it was a reasonable and well known policy and was thus misconduct. It did not say anything about excessive computer use, just that I violated a company policy. It does not spell out exactly what the policy was, so I am still not sure what "policy" my former employer sent to them.
So for my appeal letter, I should just write that I received my unfavorable determination for the claim that I filed on April 8th and would like to request an appeal hearing. I was not fired for misconduct because company policy stated that personal use of the internet and email systems was permitted. I was never warned or told otherwise.
Think that's sufficient to start? And then in the hearing I can bring up the names and dates of people who told me it was okay, who knew about it, when my manager knew about the different incidents and did not warn me, the other people who accessed company internet and were not disciplined or let go, the company policy, etc?
Your strategy sounds sound, but I feel the need to again say something about the difference between an unemployment appeal letter and an unemployment appeal hearing.
It is of course wise to first check out what a state says the appeal letter must contain, but it does not require you to reveal every detail about the information you will present for the hearing either through testimony, or documentation. You can and should submit documentation as per the instructions on the hearing notice.
An overly detailed appeal letter allows the other side to develop strategies including gathering up the correct witnesses to rebut information you present.
Claimants win when the employer isn't well prepared. An employer or their rep scour your appeal letter for weaknesses in your case. Revealing all details in an appeal letter is sort of like laying your poker hand face up on the table. It helps your opponent determine how they will bet.
So obviously, the statement above wouldn't hold true if when you have irrefutable information to present. If this is the case and you are CERTAIN the state will have no choice, but to find in your favor .. this technique may serve the purpose of actually disuading the other side from even showing up to the hearing .. which could be a good thing.
When a claimant acts as their own legal representative at an unemployment hearing and make no mistake .. you are .. they need to somewhat detach them self from the situation in order to represent them self well. They need to understand what it is they must prove.
LR, I think you have grasped this concept very well and will do well. You may even understand what I'm trying to say here, but I write my answers with the idea that someone not wanting to "ask" a question may get value from it.
When I was hired, I was given a salary lower than expected and was compensated for it by being told that once my 90 day probationary period was over, I would receive 100% company paid health benefits. My discharge came 4 days before my benefits would have come into effect, and at the time of my discharge I had not received any kind of enrollment paperwork, which leads me to believe that all of this was "planned."
Three weeks before my discharge is when my manager took me to lunch and had the talk with me about adjusting how I performed one of my duties. I complied and have proof of this. At the end of the next week, the owner of the company asked me to come into his office and said that he had received a complaint about me from one of the consultants. He asked the consultant to come into the office, and the consultant then said that the only issue he had with me was that I did not remember all of the names of the people at the companies he worked for. Again...not misconduct. However the owner still said that he had to decide whether or not to keep me employed.
The owner then went out of town for a week, coming back the following Monday, and then on that Tuesday I was called into the office around 4:00pm and the discharge in my original post took place.
1) Names of people who used the internet but were not disciplined.
5) Policy that says personal internet usage is okay.
I figure that I have good standing for an appeal because the only internet usage policy I knew of stated that it was allowed, other employees were not disciplined or terminated for their internet usage, there were no clear outlines for internet usage so I did not know that I was stepping out of my boundaries, it did not affect my work, I was not warned about it even though my immediate supervisor had been aware of it for my entire employment, and obviously the employer's disciplinary actions were not uniform company-wide.
I'm thinking on the right track, correct?
I have one word for you, Credibility.
This is what you need to understand about your situation.
You were fired, therefore, at the hearing it is the employer that will have to "sustain the burden" that you were discharged for misconduct .. according to their policies.
If the rule says that you could use company computers for personal use, but that if it became excessive you should be warned .. so you would know your job was in jeopardy if the problem was not corrected. I think you will be okay.
1. Focus on the lack of warning and the policy.
2. Beware that an employer can use computer logs to show excessive use, at least that's what I'd like to see ... how else do they prove something like that .. especially if they have a rule that allows personal use.
3. That conversation you had where you were given the option of quitting and then when you didn't opt for it they said what they intended to do. This is where the credibility comes in. You've never really mentioned what was "frustrating", but this conversation might make the employer's action ring of a retaliatory measure for other issues going on.
I received the determination (finally!) and it was not favorable for me. Evidently the claims adjudicator did not listen to me when I told him about the company policy that okay'd computer usage for personal use. It seems as if he did not listen to what I said at all in the phone interview. Appeal time! I spoke with another claims adjudicator who reviewed the file after the determination was made, and he said that with the information that they had, he probably would have made the same determination (the original claims adjudicator did not document everything that I said during our interview). However, he said that I stood a good chance of turning it around in the appeals process if I was able to convey my information to the referee correctly...showing the company policy that shows that it is okay to use the company internet for personal use and that my manager knew all along that I was and never wrote me up. I just have to figure out how to make it unquestionable that this was not an issue of misconduct. | 2019-04-20T09:17:34Z | https://www.unemployment-tips.com/can-i-unemployment-if-i-have-been-fired-for-excessive-personal-use-of-the-emailcomputer-without-prior-warning.html |
Hey, havent posted in a while. New Years Eve is coming up, and I was wondering if anybody would be willing to share family traditions for luck in the new year. With the economy being what it is, luck is something we could all use. So any imput would be greatly appreciated.
In HHRM, on page 43-44, Cat includes some recipies from southern traditions of first footing, which includes corn bread, black-eye peas, and collared greens. I hope to at least cook up some black-eye peas (I was talking about this with a black co-worker a while back, and he said he still cooks up a pot of the peas as per his family tradition, however, since nobody in his family likes eating them,he lets them sit on the stove all ny's day and then tosses them out afterwards).
Not many in souhtern West Virginia let the New Year's day pass without eating cabbage in some form. The saying goes, "Eat your cabbage or you won't get any money this year!" Some families prepare a mean of cabbage rolls and hide a silver dime in one -- whoever finds the "lucky roll" will have even better than usual luck in the coming year.
In addition to the traditional southern black eyed peas (sometimes I make Hoppin John instead of plain peas) for luck, greens (usually cabbage, but can be collards, mustard greens, spinach, whatever) for money, and some sort of pork (usually bacon or ham in the sausage and the beans), we usually try to eat fish as well, as a nod to Jesus' loaves and fishes and re-birth and spiritual growth in the new year.
My family has two other traditions I have always heard were traditionally Southern in nature but I don't know. First, the house must be cleaned top top bottom, every corner, before the clock strikes midnight- to clean out any remnants of the previous year- this includes going through closets and drawers and tossing out anything unnecessary; my grandmother always insisted it had to be with Pine Sol. Second is that whatever you spend the first day of the New Year doing represents what you will do over the course of the year...i.e. if you spend it bickering, you will have a year of difficult relations, if you spend it loving and sharing with your friends and family, they will return the generosity the whole year through. It is particularly lucky if something lucky happens- like winning the lottery or finding money- then you will have an unexpectedly lucky year. This is also the other reason you want the house completely clean.
I am cleaning right now, lol, and trying to decide how best to spend the New Year's day. Best New Years wishes to everyone.
Thought I'd add another alternative to just boiling black eyed peas on the stove into a mush... black eyed pea salad is nice and can be made a hundred different ways. I like ones with vinegar dressing, in Texas we often make one called Black Eyed Pea Caviar.
We scrub the house from top to bottom and get rid of anything we don't want or need. Kind of like Chinese New Year, which I also celebrate. If you want to travel, you take an empty suitcase and walk around your block. You will take a trip.
In Vodou, we honor the LWA throughout the week from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day. New Year's Eve is for the Baron and the Ghede. I also make sure to do a lot of ancestral work at this time. As for guidance for the coming year and give thanks for the previous year.
Since this New Year's Eve has a "blue" moon, I am quite excited. My boyfriend's birthday is January 1, so I have to juggle a few things on New Year's Eve. It is too good of night not to do some work. It is a great time to cleanse yourself.
At midnight, it is traditional to fire a gun (usually a shotgun) into the sky three times. I assume this tradition is based on the idea of scaring away evil spirits. All around my neighborhood at midnight, you can hear the sound of dozens of guns being fired into the sky. The children are given noisemakers and firecrackers. Another custom is to share a kiss at midnight, presumably for love in the new year.
As for the cabbage, someone asked if coleslaw counts -- so far as I know, cabbage in any form is acceptable. Some commonly prepared dishes in my area are corned beef and cabbage and cabbage rolls. These dishes also include rice as an ingredient -- a nod to the idea that rice represents plentitude. Although most of the dishes prepared here have a decidedly Germanic/Scots-Irish flavor to them, you could even make a stir-fry dish with cabbage and rice, if you wanted.
We make several different New Year's meals, depending on our mood, but the cabbage is a fixed ingredient. This year, we are having kraut und speck (pork roast and kraut), cornbread and rice pudding for dessert. I didn't want to leave out the lucky rice and I was looking for a dessert that would echo my intent for a loving and prosperous New Year's fortune so rice pudding fits the bill nicely -- rice represents good fortune/prosperity in many cultures and I season the dish with cinnamon and nutmeg (love/money/luck). The kraut und speck gets seasoned with rosemary and caraway seeds -- both noted for their protective and cleansing influences.
Thanks to all for sharing their New Year's traditions & I wish everyone love, luck, health & wealth in the coming year!
I forgot the 12 grapes! This is a Spanish custom, but my Portuguese grandmother adopted it. You must eat 12 grapes (for each month) right at midnight to have a good year.
Every year my family has hoppin john. You can't live in the south, central VA and not have Hoppin John. Actually, people here in my very conservative mostly white office were discussing who was having Hoppin John, and more than half of us were. It is bad luck not to eat it!
I think i have told this before, but here goes. Back in the days of civil war, Union troops swept through the south, confiscating crops and livestock to use as provisions for their troops. Southerners who weren’t off fighting were left with precious little, save for peas and greens. You see, Union soldiers considered “field peas” and greens to be fit only for animal fodder. These dishes became cherished and appreciated as what saved many a family from starvation during those times and the tradition of celebrating these dishes on the new year was born.
There are three things every southerner must eat on New Years day, Black eyed peas, greens, and hog jowl or fatback.Black Eyed peas are said to bring luck in the coming year, with many traditions holding that you must eat at least 365 of them. They also stand for wealth and coins. We never had a number, but the more you ate, the more luck you were supposed to have so Mama always makes plenty!
Hog Jowl is very tough and extremely salty, it looks just like a thick slice of bacon but is more difficult to chew. As one of the cheapest cuts of meat, it rose rapidly in popularity during the depression era of the South. Eating this is said to ensure good health in the coming year and I must say, it is delicious.
Greens can be either turnip, collard, or a mix of greens or a “mess” as we call them. They are said to bring wealth in the new year and as with black eyed peas, the amount of wealth you have is directly proportionate to how much of them you eat!
The recipe we use is very, very simple.
I’ve told this story before, but it certainly bears repeating in reference to this meal. Back in the days of civil war, Union troops swept through the south, confiscating crops and livestock to use as provisions for their troops. Southerners who weren’t off fighting were left with precious little, save for peas and greens. You see, Union soldiers considered “field peas” and greens to be fit only for animal fodder. These dishes became cherished and appreciated as what saved many a family from starvation during those times and the tradition of celebrating these dishes on the new year was born.
There are three things every southerner must eat on New Years day, Black eyed peas, greens, and hog jowl or fatback.Black Eyed peas are said to bring luck in the coming year, with many traditions holding that you must eat at least 365 of them. We never had a number, but the more you ate, the more luck you were supposed to have so Mama always makes plenty!
Greens can be either turnip, collard, or a mix of greens or a “mess” as we call them. They are said to bring wealth in the new year and as with black eyed peas, the amount of wealth you have is directly proportionate to how much of them you eat! Tomorrow, I’m bringing you a greens tutorial.
So I should focus on banishing, not drawing? I had a rough end of year. I wanted to make sure my boat will turn around early this year.
Get started in the New Year with a thorough cleansing of yourself and your surroundings. You'd be amazed how the simplest cleansing can begin to turn your luck and free up your energies. Then you can begin to work for what you need in earnest.
Hope everyone had a good new year. Wasnt able to make black eyed peas, but I did carry 12 dried ones in a mojo bag, along with some salt and a few drops lucky oil.
Tell you the gold standard in Alabama: black-eyed peas, greens (I like turnip), hamhocks, and cornbread. And you gotta have a big glass of sweet tea. Finish off with a slice of buttermilk pie and you'll be in high cotton for the rest of the year!
Sweet Tea because it washes everything down soooogood!
That would be OK if I could choose who it was!
I forgot to call and remind my baby brother to eat his cabbage on New Year's day; when I asked if he remembered he said no, and that he guessed he'd jinxed his money luck for the year. He was calling to tell me he'd lost his new job. Anyhow, he's not conjure inclined and only pays lip service to what I'm sure he thinks of as "my hillbilly superstitions." If only he knew how often big sister works for him. I'll be setting some lights for him at my prosperity and ancestor's altar and may have the MISC set a light for him, too.
I hold a party before / near / on my birthday.
As a young woman i used to feel sad if people did not celebrate my birthday, due to childhood issues with an emotionally distant, negligent, and cold mother, so one year, in my 20s, when a friend of mine who did brilliant childrens' puppet theater work heard my sad tale of neglected birthdays (so unlike her happy childhood) and she held a festive child-centered birthday party for me, with cake and icecream, and a puppet show for all the kids of our young families.
I was so happy that i couldn't stop crying -- and i knew she wouldn't be able to do this for me every year (i haven't even seen her in 25 years!) so i just started doing it for myself. I told people i would provide all the food and beverages -- and i am blessed to have a sister who always brings a cake -- and we have a nice party.
It's not about me any more, just a nice spring day, with food.
If you have a ritual that you do for your birthday please share.
Search "birthday" on the forum, as there has already been a thread on this topic that had lots of interesting answers.
hmmmmm, well, I put birthday in the search box and lots on birthday candles and using someones birthday in your work, but not really much on things to do for a birthday.
Anyone else out there have a birthday ritual they'd like to share with me?
I see what you mean, I typed in Birthday Rituals and received 10 pages, but take time to go thorough you will find great info and answer your question.
lol...too funny...now when i type birthday rituals the only thing that comes up is your post jw!
Good evening all and Greetings! Any suggestions on blessings for a child for a great year by using their Birthday-- ON THEIR BIRTHDAY.
I Bless my child often and say a prayer with Holy Water, and I also use LM Protection and LM Crown of Success -- OFTEN. I did a search for Birthday-- but I found nothing specific to the topic.
Not sure but Happy Bday to your little one!
I can tell you that I decided to wake up early on my b-day, take a 7-herb bath, cleanse the house, simmered some lemongrass oil. I have a bottle spell that I will do tomorrow... Maybe doing a bottle spell, since the LM bottles are really cute and small, might be a good thing for a child. Maybe getting them a blessing bottle (spell) and letting them keep it their room after the candle burning. Explaining how special it is of course . Or perhaps giving them a wishing bean, LM has quite a few different kinds.
I dressed a few Good Ones --and went with instict. LM Protection, (for obvious reasons) LM Crown of Success,(as dressing requires) and a little John the Conquerer (for leadership and talent-- and The World Can Be A Love-- Dream Big!!-- but do right and give back WHEN ya make it!!!) and of course--- Holy Water for Blessing and Prayer.
"Just some ideas--make a braid--ribbons, yarn in your favorite colors. as long as you are tall. Attach favorite cards, pictures, a piece of parchment with a goal written on it and annointed Hang it in your bedroom. The list of things you could add is endless--shells for the month Cancer--you could add as many cowries as you have had birthdays, Then, you could create a verse to go with it while you are creating it, or a song that has meaning for you. Something like this could be made quickly".
A few days before, clean the house, then CLEANSE the house.
2 nights before, typical beauty rituals, hair, toenails, fingernails, etc.
Night before, a 13 herb cleansing bath with anointed white candles, after a light supper, with soothing spiritual music playing the whole time. I use this 3 hours or so for myself, and everone knows to leave me alone. During and after my bath, a prayer for a truly blessed year to come. I feel so good after all this is done.
That sounds divine I wish I had seen it sooner. Thank you for sharing.
Then afterwards I painted my nails - which is something I haven't done in a long time. Put on a pretty dress and took myself out. Went to an art exhibit, a fancy restaurant, and then to a play.
interestingly, after the bath I got a call from my big brother with some divine and timely advice - treat myself the way I want others to treat me. If I don't know what I like, then how will someone else know what to give me.
Oh, and a few days before my b-day, I got a reading with Miss Cat.
After all of the above - I've really been feeling good. Much happier than I have in a very, very long time. As a present to myself I ordered two mojos and I am so excited for their arrival.
Annual work is a great idea. Picking a date like a birthday, the new years, or an anniversary can be significant in noting magical timing as well. I always do a "long" year reading for myself. I'll cast out the cards and do a bit of predictive astrology. After this I'll renew certain work from the year before. Some moving lodestone spells are washed off and redone, mojo hands are remade, the house is throughly cleansed followed by a a blessing and drawing wash.
After this the protections are renewed and things are tied down, nailed down, and kept in place.
It is a thorough, but rewarding process.
I really like the idea of renewing the work from the year before. And also the idea of renewing protections etc.
. i'm just learning to read the cards...perhaps in a year I'll be good enough to do a long year reading.
I was just wondering what work could I do for myself and my household to have a good 2012 year.[health, luck, school. money,work,ect...] Happy New Year Lucky Mojo and members. Everyone here been a great help to me since I've join here and using the products.
Start off the new year with a spiritually clean house, too! Use a Van Van Spell kit to clean yourself and wash the house down with Chinese Wash.
Don't forget your lucky New Year's Day meal of black-eyed peas, greens and cornbread!
Thanks to everyone for there advise and knowledge. It very much appreciated.
I don't know where to post this question so hopefully this is the right place.
I'm creating a vision board (law of attraction), and I wanted to incorporate this into a sorta "New Years Eve" ritual. Any ideas? My main focus for the new years coming up is stability for my son and I, financially AND emotionally, and happiness, love, and wealth. Any ideas of any rituals to perform on new years eve, and how I can incorporate my vision board into it?
Vision board? Is this board like with all your goals and hopes for 2012?
I mean you probably would need to get a reading to see what you can do to help you bring in some good luck into the year.
But you are going to want to do the work ongoing rather than just on new years eve.
I would start off with doing some uncrossing work along with a road opener. Then you may want to follow that up with good luck, money drawing, come to me , and master candles.
Hello,i wanna take a bath for the new years when it gonna start,the first day of january,a bath for remove all the negativ things and help me to start the new year in good condition, who can help me to find wich one i need to choose in the lucky mojo store.I hav in mind the 13rd uncrossing bath but i make one already 6 month ago.Let me know please.
Perhaps you may want to take your cleansing bath on the last day of the year and your Success baths on the first day of the year. The 13 herb bath is a great choice and you can also find Crown of Success, Money Drawing and wide range of baths to draw success in you life.
Enjoy! & Many Blessings to you!
I was always told to scrub the house from back to front and out the front door with Chinese Wash for the New Year, to clean out (to wash off all the negative conditions encountered during that year) and then to take a Van Van bath (to change your luck) on New Year's Day. I was always told not to do the laundry on New Year's because it will "wash away your luck" -- but to hold it over until the next day. Also that the first person in your door on New Year's sets the "tone" or the "luck" of the year, so you want that person to be a strong, tall, dark-hared man of middle age, if possible. That's what they tell me. That's what they say.
I just received my order from lucky mojo and wanna some advice before i use all the product,about the vanvan bath,i wanna know if i need to use it with hot or cool water and where i must throw the water after this bath.
You'll especially want to focus on the subsection, "The Role of Bathing & Cleaning in Hoodoo Spell-Work." This not only will answer your basic questions, but give you other info that may prove useful.
The temperature of the water is less important that the intent and proper disposal of the remains. You want positive things to happen for you so follow the instructions for bringing good luck to you, burying remains at your front door to bring in good luck. Also read what miss cat said about three threads prior.
Merry christmas,thanks a lots for all the people on this board.
The New Year is upon us and I want to start the New Year with a positive me.
In my life I have become impatient, anxious, and I have an attitude about me that keeps people at bay, after getting to know me. I am not big on letting people in on my life so I lie about me, make up stories about me because I feel comfortable being anyone other than myself.
Life has a strange way of letting us know we need help. And I realize that no spell will be beneficial to me unless I am able to be honest, loving, truthful, and humble within myself and to myself first.
4-Telling the truth, as in honest Abe, and being proud to be ME.
5-Having an Aura about me that others notice enough to ask me; Did you do something different?
8-Ability to make friends wherever I go.
9-Attracting people in my life that will be beneficial to my life.
10-A newfound energy that I never knew existed.
I realize that this may be a lot for one person. I have had readings with Ms. Bri, and Professor Ames and they both think it is a great idea that I want to work on myself FIRST and FOREMOST. I am in the process of having work done by Ms Bri that will allow me to be present for blessings I may have been responsible for blocking out of my life.
My question is in the meantime and in between time, what can I do at home that will incorporate numbers 1-10 so that I remain that humble, full of life, loving, honest abe, etc woman that I long to be.
P.S. If there is one spell I can do that incororates 1-10 please let me know. I want something I can do whenever I am feeling like resulting back to old behaviors.
It's so wonderful that you're strong enough to admit your weak points. I congratulate you on that!
But, if this were me, I would consider some counseling also to help me to discover why I do the things that I do to have a negative impact on people.
And, to help with understanding the cause/root of these problems.
It then would be nice to prioritize your list. Determine which of these improvements you would want to work on first. A clarity spell on yourself would help you in this arena.
This is a long process and not just one spell will cure all and fix everything. You do need to work on the mundane aspects of these problems in order to attain the New you.
Last, but not least, I find that frequent positive affirmations (at lease once a day....at the minimum) will change your energies (and your aura).
You can do it! You can attain everything on your list. But, it will take time.
Prayer, as well as affirmation as mentioned by Miss Aida, are powerful tools for change. Prayer and service are also great ways to learn and nurture humility. Consider getting lots of people praying on your behalf via the Crystal Silence League: http://www.crystalsilenceleague.org/. It's a free service that packs quite a punch.
Mundanely, in addition to counseling, excercise and good diet (or at least changes in that direction!) can go a long way to helping with items 1,7 & 10. You might want to consider doing a session or two with an herbalist, lifestyle coach, personal trainer and/or nutritionist to give you new ideas and strategies to integrate into your life.
Miss Aida and Aura have covered the bases here.
Now, what to do with all this?
First, make a tea of the Deer's Tongue. Drink a cup of it while you are getting the rest of the spell together.
Dress the Angelica Root with Crucible of Courage, Healing and Clarity oils. Place it on a tray with three white or blue candles on it and take it into the bathroom.
On a Saturday evening, light some Cast Off Evil incense and then light the candles. Take a Cast Off Evil bath. Name the faults you listed, and any others that occur to you, and say, "I cast off these evils and banish them from my life." Put on a bathrobe and throw some of the water away to the west of your house -- toward the sunset.
Now, go back into the bathroom and light a mixture Crucible of Courage, Clarity and Healing incenses. Then take a bath in Crucible of Courage, Clarity and Healing, mixed with Deer's Tongue tea. Soak in it and think about the confident and successful people you know: how do they do that? Also, recall the times when you have felt confident and successful, and when you have attracted friends. Bring those feelings forward into the present.
Save some of the bathwater to put in your hair products, your bath products, and your laundry and cleaning products -- and some more to pour out in your back yard, to the east.
Take your tray of candles and angelica root out to your altar and pray Psalm 57 over it seven times. Psalm 23, of course, is another good choice. Repeat this step for a total of seven days, with fresh candles and incense as necessary.
Attraction and Look Me Over can be added to the Angelica-and-candles rite, your grooming/laundry/cleaning supplies, and the oils used as personal fragrances.
After the rite ends on the seventh day, the Angelica Root will be a powerful pocket piece or the nucleus of a wonderful Attraction mojo bag. | 2019-04-22T11:04:17Z | http://forum.luckymojo.com/post40807.html |
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