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Select Arrival and Departure dates
Hôtels
With an outdoor swimming pool, massage sessions and gourmet dishes prepared with products from the hotel’s own vegetable garden, Don Puerto Bemberg Lodge offers rustic-style rooms with free WiFi access and private balconies overlooking the garden. The property features a private nature reserve preserving native flora and fauna.
Air-conditioned rooms have dark wood furnishings and parquet floors. They are styled with natural fabric rugs and bedspreads in earth and olive shades. There are touches of rustic décor, loungers and large windows that allow natural light into the rooms.
Guests staying at Don Puerto Bemberg Lodge can relax by the wooden framed fireplace with a library of over 2500 books. They can also arrange visits to Iguazu National Park, located a 35-minute drive away, through the tour desk. The rate also includes jungle trekking, bird watching and siling activities along Salto Yasi.
A continental breakfast with regional jams and treats can be enjoyed in the room. Don Puerto Bemberg Lodge ´s exclusive restaurant serves specialties of local cuisine. Yerba Mate ice-cream is not to be missed.
San Ignacio Ruins are 250 km from Puerto Bemberg. Bicycle rental is available. Shuttles to Iguazu Airport, 37 km away, are possible. Plus d'informations
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Arthur Pollard, the Anglo Scotian Mills & Prosperity -
John Pollardís will set up a trust to manage the factory and to provide for his wife Eliza, who continued to live at Cromwell House. The firm then
operated under the name of "John Pollard Executors" until Eliza died in 1922. The trustees were Arthur Pollard, Samuel Weston1 a
lace yarn agent from Nottingham and Arthur Meakin the factory draughtsman. Arthur Pollardís agreement, for taking half of the profits, was renewed by the
trustees and at the age of 40 he was in effective charge of the factory. The period that followed, until the outbreak of World War I, saw the factory
prosper. The clock and bell, with its ornamental belfry, were moved around this time from the closed Silk Mill on High Road2. The belfry,
perched rather incongruously on the Swiss Mills roof, could be seen as a statement, a symbol of prosperity. In 1905-6, for example, sales of lace brought
in £37,6003 and profits of £6565. A new engine house was built in 1906 and three new lace machines arrived in that year. Also in 1906,
single story buildings, Earls Court and the Palace4, were erected along Villa Street, and most of the Pollardsí machines were moved there,separate
from those of the tenants. The date and initial "P" on the new engine house5 are shown left.
A major development was the purchase of the Anglo Scotian Mills (map on previous page) in 1909. The first lace factory on this site was that of William Felkin,
author of a history of Nottingham lace, but the "Anglo", as we know it, was built by Frank Wilkinson after the fire there in 18926. He made
a fortune from lace curtains, revolutionising marketing methods. The Gothic style frontage is well known and the exotic Anglo Scotian entrance on Villa Street
(shown below right) was part of our childhood landscape.7
Frank Wilkinson died in 1897, aged only 51, and without his leadership his business soon failed. The liquidators spent a considerable amount of money
to make the complex saleable and a new steam engine by Tangye8 was added to the existing Reader engine9. There was also a stationary steam fire
engine, not surprising in view of the fires in the Wilkinson period. In spite of the improvements, this large complex, covering 8120 square yards sold
for the relatively small sum of £8,500. The purchaser was Arthur Pollard, who now owned both the lace factories in the Villa Street area.
The Anglo was sold with established tenants, lace curtain makers and lace makers, and most continued under the new ownership (Appendix 4). A new boiler
was added, lit by John and Walter10, and a wing built at the Poplars (north) side of the factory in 1911. Like Swiss Mills, the Anglo became a
mixture of rented standings and the Pollardsí own machines although never as many of the latter as at Swiss Mills. The Anglo was run as a separate business,
because Swiss Mills was still in the hands of trustees. The firms were administered from the same (Swiss Mills) office, with, inevitably, occasional confusion
in the books11.
Although the Anglo had a new steam engine just before the 1909 sale, steam was soon replaced by electricity. There is no direct information on the timing
of the change, but entries in the Day Book, suggests that electricity was first used to run machines in 1912. In that year electric motors and Vickersí
generators, presumably powered by the steam engines, were bought for the Anglo (some time around 1920, mains electricy arrived12).
Arthur Pollard was a highly skilled lace technician, recognised as such in the trade. At his death in 1953, A.E. Spowage of Spowage Humphreys and Wyer,
the noted machine builders, said that Arthur Pollard was generally regarded in Nottingham as the most gifted lace man of his time13. He was also a generous
man and we have on several occasions been told by elderly Beestonians of his acts of kindness in difficult times. He did not have the forceful nature of his
father, but this was perhaps less important for an established business. The Pollard lace business was at its peak just prior to the first World War; in the
two factories they had some 55 to 60 machines and there were many tenants with machines of their own.
In 1913, Arthurís son John, like his father before him, went to school in Calais, to learn the language and make contacts in the trade. His father took
him across the Channel and a postcard home from Arthur to his mother at Cromwell House shows that he did not miss the chance to look at the fashions.
Postcard from Arthur Pollard in Calais to his mother, in 1913
My dear Mar, we arrived quite safe, it was rather rough and very wet crossing, the weather is very fine and hot here, John
is looking very well, there are quite a lot of Nottm manfrs here, there was a great deal of lace worn but not much for Nottm, all silk flounces very
wide, the dresses are very much wider & a good many of them kilted, home Saturday evening love from both - Arthur
Our fatherís own postcards show that he was unhappy away from home; he must have been one of very few people pleased at the outbreak of World War I, which
saw him start work in Beeston rather than in France.
1 From whose firm the Pollards bought yarn into the 1950s.2 The clock was made by Bosworth of Nottingham c1842; the clock face was of blue slate, 4ft diameter, and the weight dropped the length of
the 4 storey factory in a week. Information from John Pollard, in conversation with Sheila Mason. The author remembers, as a very small boy, climbing
the stairs with the help of his father to wind the clock. Taylors of Loughborough cast the bell; when on the Silk Mill it was used to call children,
working in the factories, to school for their half day of education. (Judith Church, Beeston Local History Society Newsletter, Christmas 1984).3 Trading Accounts 1905-6, family papers. The main expenditure was for yarn, "Cotton etc. £13,872".4 Named the Crystal Palace; perhaps a joke by the workers as it was a dingy place when we were young. However it had roof lights and may
have seemed a little more like a glass palace when new.5 Rescued after the fire and demolition in 1984.6 For the life of Frank Wilkinson, see S.M. p.257-8 and Chapman, S. (2005) The history of Beeston lace, C.P. Walker, Beeston, produced
to mark the conversion of the Anglo Scotian Mills to appartments.7 The entrance survives until today, although a grand arch over the entrance had made way for modern lorries when this photograph was taken in the late 1970s.8 Sales particulars and plan, family papers.9 Readers were also lace machine makers and John Pollard jnr learnt his twisthand skills at a Reader machine while still at school. John
Pollard in conversation with Sheila Mason.10 Note by John Pollard jnr.11 Another complication was that "Anglo Scotian Lace" were tenants in Swiss Mills for a period.12 Mains electricity gets its first mention in Anglo ledgers in 1921, with payments to the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Electric Power
Company and a note by John Pollard jnr tells us that at Swiss Mills the steam engine was scrapped in 1923.13 In a letter to John Pollard jnr, when his father died.
The picture at top right is of Arthur Pollard and his wife Lillian at 42 Villa Street, "Chestnut Villa"
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How to Make Time for Gun Maintenance
I’ve got some bad news for you if you’re a big gun aficionado. I know you love your firearms.
You probably have all sorts of collections. You probably do a lot of research regarding the different brands and models of firearms and rifles out there.
Whether you’re into pistols or assault rifles, please understand that you are buying equipment. That’s really what you’re doing.
I know that this should be obvious to a lot of people. Unfortunately, regardless of how enthusiastic or knowledgeable people become, they let the stress of the rest of their life get through them.
This is going to be an issue.
You have to understand that for your guns to work properly, you have to take good care of your equipment. You can’t just buy a weapon and refuse to do anything for its upkeep and then, expect it to operate like clockwork when you need it to.
It’s not unusual for gun owners, whether we’re talking about rifles or pistols to find themselves in a very sticky situation because they simply could not find the time to take proper care of their equipment. Again, I keep repeating this, you are buying equipment. You have to treat it as such.
For example, if you bought a backhoe or a tractor, it would be obvious to you. Regardless of how lazy, unmotivated, or distracted you are, you know that you need to keep that piece of equipment regularly maintained.
Otherwise, it’s going to break down and it’s not going to produce the outcome that you bought it for. Do you see how this works? You bought it to do a job. You bought it to take care of certain tasks.
Unfortunately, if you do not maintain it properly, it’s not going to do any of that.
The same applies to a gun.
That’s why you have to make the time for gun maintenance.
The good news is it’s not as hard as you think. A lot of people are under the impression that they have to fully take apart their rifle to make sure that every single part is fully cleaned, well-oiled, and ready for action.
Here’s the thing. If you don’t really use your gun all that much, you only need to do a proper take down every once in a while. We’re talking about twice a year at most. That’s not too bad. That’s not going to set you back, as far as your daily schedule is concerned.
What’s important here is consistency.
It really doesn’t matter how pumped up you are. It really doesn’t matter how motivated you are when you do your maintenance.
If it turns out that you’re going to take a long time before you take your rifle apart again for cleaning, there’s going to be a problem. Focus instead on consistency.
This is why I suggest that you download a calendar or some sort of scheduling app and specifically and purposefully make a notation for gun maintenance. Also, make it easy on yourself by watching a lot of gun maintenance videos.
These are all over YouTube. These are not hard to find. Get a hold of these. Watch them and keep in mind that you’re watching for two reasons.
First, you’re watching to get raw instructions.
You’d know what to do at the right time, with the right guns to produce the right results. Also, you are watching these to get motivated.
How can you not get motivated when you see that it’s actually pretty easy? All you need to do is go through the process at least a few times and this would become like second nature to you. The key here is to get started and to remain consistent.
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On Dec. 29, it also earned a written government response. While noting the UK government does not “routinely comment” on individual cases, the response points out that it is within government’s right to exclude a non-EU area national who works against the public good, and then specifically mentions Trump, saying Prime Minister David Cameron disagrees with his remarks:
The Home Secretary may exclude a non-European Economic Area national from the UK if she considers their presence in the UK to be non-conducive to the public good.
The Home Secretary has said that coming to the UK is a privilege and not a right and she will continue to use the powers available to prevent from entering the UK those who seek to harm our society and who do not share our basic values.
Exclusion powers are very serious and are not used lightly. The Home Secretary will use these powers when justified and based on all available evidence.
The Prime Minister has made clear that he completely disagrees with Donald Trump’s remarks. The Home Secretary has said that Donald Trump’s remarks in relation to Muslims are divisive, unhelpful and wrong.
The Government recognises the strength of feeling against the remarks and will continue to speak out against comments which have the potential to divide our communities, regardless of who makes them. We reject any attempts to create division and marginalisation amongst those we endeavour to protect.
Next week, a parliamentary committee will meet to decide whether or not to hold a debate in Parliament on the petition, the BBC reports. The petition was started after Trump called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States. Cameron has previously called Trump’s remarks “divisive, stupid and wrong,” but disagreed with a member of Parliament who suggested he should be banned.
The “block Donald Trump” petition now has more signatories than any of the over 2,400 petitions currently in front of the UK government.
Petitions made to the UK government are supposed to get a routine response after they collect 10,000 signatures, but there are almost two dozen that have not yet.
Trump, who owns two golf courses in Scotland, has already been stripped of various honors and titles there in recent weeks. Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon repealed his membership in the GlobalScots business network, and role as a global business ambassador for Scotland. The Scottish government said Trump was “no longer fit to be a business ambassador for Scotland.”
Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University revoked an honorary degree it gave Trump in 2010, calling his statements “wholly incompatible with the ethos and values of the university.” And his Turnberry golf course will no longer host the British Open, according to a report in the Independent, because Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which governs the tournament, has decided Trump’s reputation is “toxic.”
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08.12.10:
Peter Wolf
01.20.10:
Tony Whitfield
Prepared for Haiti
Tony Whitfield meditates on the assistance designers should give in Haiti following the earthquake, and in future catastrophes.READ MORE
12.18.09:
Jay Parkinson
The Road to Wellville
Recommendations for designing a healthcare system around our nation's health needs — chronic care management, prevention and acute care treatment — not history, doctors and their profitability.READ MORE
12.15.09:
Bradford McKee
Brass Knuckles and Better Ideas
Reflections on two initiatives to protect U.S. landscapes: EPA rules to stabilize soil at construction sites, and a LEED-like program for sustainable landscape design.READ MORE
08.29.09:
Phil Patton
08.10.09:
Juliette LaMontagne
Please Turn on Your Cell Phone
In response to the New York City Department of Education's ban on cell phones in schools, an educator argues for their continued use — as mini computers that help students learn.READ MORE
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2014 DX110 Asteroid, 90 Feet Wide, Passes Between Earth and Moon
Astronomers are calling the close approach of the 90-foot 2014 DX110 asteroid a "non-event" as the large rock passes between Earth and the moon on Wednesday.
2014 DX110 has received particular attention for its "close approach," but NASA is telling the public not to worry, USA Today says. The closest the asteroid will reach is 217,000 miles away from the Earth, or "9/10th of the distance to the moon," Lindley Johnson of NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington D.C. told USA Today. It will be that close for about seven hours before flying back into space.
"In the last year, 21 small asteroids ranging in size from 1 to 30 meters have come closer to Earth than this," Johnson told USA Today. "The close approach of 2014 DX110 is really a non-event in our eyes."
The name of the asteroid is a product of naming conventions used by the Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. "DX110" simply means it was the 110th asteroid discovered in 2014, and DX refers to the portion of the year in which it was discovered, according to USA Today.
The asteroid was scheduled to be viewable at 4 p.m. EST Wednesday, and two Web-based viewing services, the online Slooh observatory and the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy are attempting to offer free live views during the flyby. Both webcasts are also available on Space.com, beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST.
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Project Artist
Labels
What is the TK Project?
The TK Project is a charity event for the Make A Wish Foundation. The 501st Stormtooper Legion is inviting our Honorary Members, Friends Of the Legion and a few 501st troopers to create one of a kind Stormtrooper helmets. This project is similar to the Vader Project that Sarah Jo Marks and Dov Kelemer completed.
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歡迎光臨riley3x在痞客邦的小天地
If you are a initial juncture genitor or a new parent, one of the best unclear cross-question in your knowledge is the snoozing place of duty of your kid or infant to insure his safekeeping of dyspneal or dyspnoeal by a bolster. Should you situation your baby descending to slumber on his sideways or on his back? What should you in truth do to guarantee his absolute refuge during slumber and dodge the fearful Sudden Infant Death syndrome?
Here are 5 big tips fixed by babycare experts that you can follow:
1. Sleeping job of the child should always be on his final. This allows for a unsubtle rhinal lane. Placing a newborn on his put a bet on to slumber scheme you should not be placing an infant to catnap on his sidelong.
2. Get an to the point tot crib, and fit out it beside a crib pad that is firm, tight-fitting and lacking a bed side that can be change or captive by baby's crusade. A durable mattress kit out good vertebrae mast and besides impede any unreasonable folds of the bedsheet that will metal to smoothering of baby's breathed.
3. Do not lodge toys, covers and even blankets in baby's baby bed. Instead, if you stipulation to supply the toddler with both frolic toy, bent it on the cot where on earth he can see it and be attracted to the toy by its movement or glimmering colours. Covers and blankets are not essential during the infant's prototypal year of energy it the newborn is appareled for fit temperature near suitable infant wear. Too two-ply a wardrobe or not fitting wear will lead to kid rashes and would bother the babe-in-arms and lead to not due howling.
4. Should you furnish your toddler a pacifier or teats at dark and during nap incident during his original year? There is new writing and utilize that indicates this is the suggested tour for new parents to take, Providing the kid a peacemaker book as a kind of indemnity contact, albeit imitative association similar to that of the kid next to the mother, and allows for some awareness of uncontrolled and corporal contact and helps the tot to cognisance more than at relief and to catnap easier.
5. If the child is blubbing non break or excessively, keep an eye on to see that his diapers are not wet, or that he is not bad-tempered substantially by more than a few status specified as a rash, or bitten by any arthropod or that he is not having a temperature or a febrility. The infant exclusive course of communicating his condition or malady is by howling. Many times, it is his way to voice communication he is supperless and many drinkable will glibness his crying.
By next these 5 tips, you will be competent to activity your infant get his best ever sleep lightly and as well fend off the commonness of the Sudden Infant Death syndrome arising from sleeping accidents.
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March 29, 2006
Expression of gratitude by the family of Lennart Meri
At 18.00 on 29 March two years ago, exactly at the moment when Estonia officially became a member of NATO, Lennart Meri hoisted the alliance’s flag in his home yard. Estonia will never be alone again, Lennart Meri said on that day, his birthday, in the midst of Estonia’s destiny and the beauty of history.
Now we are thanking all those thousands of people whose compassion has made us confident that we were never alone when saying goodbye to our husband, father, grandfather and brother. We thank the conscientious and industrious Estonian state officials who helped organise the President’s funeral in a way that is worthy of a Nordic European country.
We thank the Estonian Police and Defence Forces who helped the mourners and escorted the late President with dignified solemnity and discrete meekness.
We thank the residents of Viimsi and Nõmme who paid their last respects to the traveller so devoted to his homes.
We thank the representatives of all confessions of faith who sent Lennart Meri on his final journey in the Kaarli Church.
We are moved and grateful to all those who shared our mourning and who have already extended their support to making Lennart Meri’s ideas last through the objectives of his foundation.
We thank, from the bottom of our hearts, all of our friends here and throughout the world who joined us in action and in their thoughts upon Lennart Meri’s parting.
Lennart Meri wanted to see a wakeful and smiling Estonia that is never alone again. It’s in our hands now ! Thank you.
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Wedding – Rachael & Brendan – 19th September 2015
Our wedding ceremony setting for Rachael & Brendan at The Boat Shed, Cotton Tree on the Sunshine Coast. We decorated this gorgeous tree with white love hearts which provided a canopy of leaves over the ceremony. Such a beautiful location.
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Next lesson playing in5seconds
Free Preview: How to Create User Accounts With OAuth in Rails
Introduction
01:07
OAuth is the most common authorization protocol in use today and is supported by popular web apps like GitHub, Google, and Facebook. With OAuth, users can log in to your site without needing to create a separate login name and password. This is convenient for your users and lowers the barrier to new signups.
This course, from Envato Tuts+ instructor José Mota, explains how to use OAuth in a web application. Follow along as José adds an OAuth login system to an existing Rails application. You'll get a high-level view of how OAuth works, and you'll learn how to use the OmniAuth gem together with Devise to create a robust, OAuth-compliant authentication system for Ruby on Rails.
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As we were eating dinner a couple of cop cars would speed around the corner, lights and sirens blazing, then just stop. Hoping it was just for a scene…
Here’s the kicker.
On Saturday night, we were just sitting down to eat at Andrew’s house. We then heard a loud thud, thud. Andrew immediately went to my parents car to take a look. A girl while talking on her phone and possibly drunk hit my parents car. Awesome. She hit the car with such force that it did something to the rear and front axle making the car undriveable. Even better! Guess what this equation equals…more cops!
Luckily my brother’s neighbors were coming home after a walk, saw pretty much the whole accident, and had the license plate number. A cop came and took a statement and said they were going to cite the girl with leaving the scene of a crime.
So there, see? Totally brought to you by the word police.
The rest of the weekend was great and did not involve police of any kind.
Look! I have photographic proof!
Wait that’s a lie. When we took a walk to look at this monument and Vietnam War Wall, we saw a guy getting arrested…
That box of goodies is from Sweet Lorraine’s Bakery in Charlotte. I tried the peanut butter and jelly cookie and the Sweet Lorraine (the one that looks like a giant chocolate chip cookie) and both were delicious!
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MOTHER'S DAY SESSION! Beginner Weaving : Weave a Hand Towel
Weaving is actually pretty easy, it's just the set up that is so darn complicated. When you come to this class, the majority of the set up will already be done! The looms will be "dressed" and you'll be weaving in no time. That said, the set up is important/necessary and also fascinating so we will spend about an hour going over that process.
PROJECT: Students will weave a twill cotton tea towel using a four harness floor or table loom
DEMONSTRATION: condensed version of the warping process, plain and twill weave
PREREQUISITE: None! This is a beginner class, no experience necessary
NOTE: Class size limited to 4 people. All materials provided, Lady Craft portrait included. One hour lunch break, lunch NOT provided. Cancellations must be made 72 hours before class date for full refund. Class subject to cancellation if the minimum registration of four people is not met.
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Each year, Starbucks comes out with a special holiday cup. Last year, the company’s choice of design for their seasonal cups struck up controversy and they’re apparently not disappointing in doing the same this year – whether intentional or not. A green holiday cup (as opposed to their previously red holiday cups) has been described by Starbucks as a “unity” cup, displaying a drawing of several people of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. Starbucks wanted to show that, during this divided and chaotic time, we are still all humans and all one people.
So why the uproar? Many customers seem to feel that the cups being green instead of red is an utter lack of respect or acknowledgment for what Christians believe to be the meaning of Christmas. Apparently, those who are causing a commotion over a cup have no thoughts that perhaps we need a little hope this holiday season and a reminder that people are just people. Or maybe they don’t remember that Starbucks does not claim to be a Christian company. If Chick-Fil-A had done something like this, I might understand the confusion…even extreme upset. Chick-Fil-A proudly advertises that they are a religious company, even closing on Sundays to recognize the importance of this day of rest and worship for Christians. But Starbucks does not affiliate with any religion.
There has also been a bit of an uproar from the other side. Those that truly don’t care about the color of the cup are making their voices heard as well: essentially, they’re all saying, “Shut up! It’s just a cup!” Twitter particularly has been taken over with #starbuckschristmas, including the annoyance of those who are tired of hearing people complain about the color green.
Interestingly, there is rumor that this is not the official holiday cup of Starbucks this year. A photo was leaked that the holiday cups are supposed to be revealed on November 10th. Guys, today is only November 7th. So what will happen on this upcoming Thursday? Maybe the company will reveal a line of spiritual-based cups – possibly based on the beliefs of several religions. Maybe they will laugh and say, “Ha! The green cups really are the official holiday cups!” Maybe they will announce that they will discontinue the holiday cup tradition altogether, since people can’t seem to handle it. No matter what they decide to unveil on Thursday, it’s sure to stir up the controversy pot since that is apparently what people are most concerned about these days. Didn’t you know that the color of a cup that’s holding a $6 coffee is a vital part of society and a defining piece of the individual drinking from it?!
What was Starbucks thinking when making this crucial decision about their holiday cups? Honestly, after the outrage from last year about a simple red cup – lacking anything other than their logo – you would think that they realized that this reaction was definitely a possibility. But maybe they did think about this. The 2015 Starbucks pandemonium kept the company’s name on the tongues of everyone throughout the entire holiday season. For better or worse, people were talking about Starbucks. As they say, there is no good or bad publicity – just publicity.
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Dorell Wright has agreed to terms on a two-year deal with the Miami Heat, with his contract expected to be signed later this week.
Wright was a restricted free agent, with the Heat having the right to match outside offers.
With little outside interest, Wright will receive a deal that will start at roughly the $2.9 million qualifying offer he had been extended by the Heat for 2008-09.
RealGM Note: Despite playing in just 44 games, Wright was ranked 221st in season FIC and had a very good per 40 FIC of 12.2 (league median is around 10.0). He therefore 'deserved' to make $2.64 million last season, making the $2.9 million qualifying offer easy for Wright to beat assuming he stays healthy.
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food – The New Hunthttp://thenewhunt.in
Follow Latest TrendSat, 18 Nov 2017 10:43:08 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1http://thenewhunt.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cropped-images-1-150x150.pngfood – The New Hunthttp://thenewhunt.in
3232Smile Foundation’s goodwill ambassador Chef Vikas Khanna leads a tree plantation drive in support of Tropicana’s Gift A Tree initiativehttp://thenewhunt.in/smile-foundations-goodwill-ambassador-chef-vikas-khanna-leads-a-tree-plantation-drive-in-support-of-tropicanas-gift-a-tree-initiative/
http://thenewhunt.in/smile-foundations-goodwill-ambassador-chef-vikas-khanna-leads-a-tree-plantation-drive-in-support-of-tropicanas-gift-a-tree-initiative/#respondSat, 18 Nov 2017 10:43:08 +0000http://thenewhunt.in/?p=1528To mark the special occasion, Chef Vikas Khanna planted trees with 250 children from Smile Foundation and unveiled his new book for children – ‘A Tree Named Ganga’
New Delhi, 16th November 2017: Tropicana, PepsiCo’s flagship nutrition brand, along with Smile Foundation, a national level development organization, and Michelin star Chef Vikas Khanna, today conducted a tree plantation drive as part of the Tropicana ‘Gift A Tree’ initiative. Tropicana ‘Gift A Tree’ is a commitment from Tropicana to gift back to nature, with trees that are a life essential. Michelin star Chef Vikas Khanna joined in to support the initiative by leading a group of 250 children from Smile Foundation to plant saplings in the city. He also launched his children’s book, his 28th so far, called ‘A Tree Named Ganga’.
While at the event, Chef Vikas Khanna addressed an enthusiastic group of children from Smile Foundation; educating them about the importance of planting trees and being one with nature. Donning his role as an author, he engaged with the children as he spoke about the importance of trees in our lives. Drawing references from his newly launched book, he encouraged them to imbibe one of the most important virtues of trees – the virtue of giving, and made them promise to become responsible young guardians of nature.
He commented, “For me trees have always been an inspiration as they teach us to give without expecting anything in return. So I’m happy to join Tropicana’s ‘Gift A Tree’ initiative that embodies a powerful thought of gifting back to nature. I’m excited to share this experience of planting trees with children from Smile Foundation who are our future generation. Through the story of ‘A Tree Named Ganga’, I’ve made an honest effort to help children understand the value of staying humble and the essence of giving.”
Tropicana’s Gift A Tree initiative aims to spread awareness about the importance of planting trees. The brand partnered with the ‘Rally for Rivers’ and grow-trees.com, and has pledged to plant over 25,000 trees. In the words of Vineet Sharma, Brand Manager – Tropicana, PepsiCo India, said, “Tropicana is closely linked to nature as all our products are made from the fruits of nature. We are delighted to have found like-minded partners in Chef Vikas Khanna and Smile Foundation, who are equally inspired by nature and believe in the spirit of ‘giving’. With Tropicana ‘Gift A Tree, we are taking a small step to gift trees back to nature and encouraging people to do the same.”
The event saw Chef Vikas Khanna plant trees with 250 children at Smile Foundation’s Aarohan – Mission Education Centre in Malviya Nagar, New Delhi. Children from Delhi International School and Health & Care Society – a Mission Education center of Smile Foundation, also joined on this occasion. The children were seen having a great time interacting with their favourite chef at the event.
While at the event, Mr. Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation commented, “Children are the future of our country. With their unprejudiced minds and unique way of seeing the world, they are a powerful resource to initiate social transformation. If we sensitize them about environmental issues from an early age, they develop positive habits that will make a lifelong difference to the environment. I am thankful to PepsiCo for this wonderful initiative and look forward to taking the message forward on a larger level.”
During the recent festive season, Tropicana had also introduced a special gift pack, part of the sales from which were contributed towards the initiative.
About PepsiCo India:
PepsiCo entered India in 1989 and has grown to become one of the largest MNC food and beverage businesses in India. PepsiCo India has been consistently investing in the country and has built an expansive beverage and snack food business supported by 62 plants across foods and beverages. PepsiCo India’s diverse portfolio includes iconic brands like Pepsi, Lay’s, Kurkure, Tropicana 100%, Gatorade and Quaker. PepsiCo’s growth in India has been guided by “Performance with Purpose”- our fundamental belief that the success of our company is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world around. We believe that continuously improving the products we sell, operating responsibly to protect our planet and empowering people around the world is what enables PepsiCo to run a successful global company that creates long-term value for society and our shareholders. In 2009, PepsiCo India achieved a significant milestone, by becoming the first business to achieve ‘Positive Water Balance’ in the beverage world, a fact verified by Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd. The company has been Water Positive since then. For more information, please visit www.pepsicoindia.co.in
About Tropicana:
Tropicana is the #1 brand in packaged 100% Juice* in the world. Launched in India in 2004, Tropicana is offers 100% Juices and juice-based drinks. Tropicana selects the best fruit to manufacture high-quality juices and original products, pioneer innovative processes and explore new markets for its products. It is committed to fostering healthy lifestyles by ensuring that its products are naturally nutritious and provide the daily benefits that one needs.
About Smile Foundation:
Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation directly benefitting over 400,000 children and their families every year, through more than 200 live welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment, in over 950 remote villages and slums across 25 states of India.
Education is both the means as well as the end to a better life: the means because it empowers an individual to earn his/her livelihood and the end because it increases one’s awareness on a range of issues – from healthcare to appropriate social behavior to understanding one’s rights – and in the process help him/her evolve as a better citizen.
Doubtless, education is the most powerful catalyst for social transformation. But child education cannot be done in isolation. A child will go to school only if the family, particularly the mother, is assured of healthcare and empowered. Moreover, when an elder sibling is relevantly skilled to be employable and begins earning, the journey of empowerment continues beyond the present generation.
]]>http://thenewhunt.in/smile-foundations-goodwill-ambassador-chef-vikas-khanna-leads-a-tree-plantation-drive-in-support-of-tropicanas-gift-a-tree-initiative/feed/0Making Healthcare Affordable and Sustainable is India’s Biggest Health Challenge’http://thenewhunt.in/making-healthcare-affordable-and-sustainable-is-indias-biggest-health-challenge/
http://thenewhunt.in/making-healthcare-affordable-and-sustainable-is-indias-biggest-health-challenge/#respondSat, 18 Nov 2017 10:39:24 +0000http://thenewhunt.in/?p=1525· Say Health Experts at IIHMR University’s, Jaipur Conference
· They stress that there can be no development without good health
· Need to shift focus from ‘traditional healthcare’ to ‘well-managed healthcare’
· By 2030 non-communicable diseases will be 75% of the total disease burden
· Institutions must focus on effective, timely and safe medical care
Jaipur, November 17, 2017: IIHMR University, Jaipur, held a stimulating and high profile conference ‘Imagining Sustainable Futures’ on November 16-17, 2017. The conference was part of the University’s annual intellectual offering to the healthcare community called Pradanya. This was Pradanya’s 22nd edition which brought together some notable figures from the healthcare sector to ideate, debate and deliberate on the various challenges confronting the healthcare industry including public health and hospital management, development sector and pharmaceutical segments in both public and the private sector.
The conference was a huge success with more than 600 students of hospital and health management, executives and management professionals from private and government healthcare and social/development sector, in addition to doctors’ nurses, academicians, healthcare researchers, participating in it.
IIHMR University, Jaipur has created a niche for itself in high-quality research, education, and training in health, hospital and pharmaceutical management. It is recognized in national and international health circles for its outstanding work in the field.
Pradanya 2017, the much-awaited annual healthcare conference in the city, focused on the 5 ‘SMART’ issues — S for Sustainable Design And Healthcare, M For Managing Change in Disruptive Times, A for Analytics Mobility and the Cloud, R For Rurban (rural +urban) Challenges and Opportunities and T for Technological Innovation and Well Being.
Explaining the choice of themes for the conference, Dr Vivek Bhandari, President, IIHMR University said, “We chose ‘Sustainable Design And Healthcare’ because it is a concept that has proven its worth across a range of industries and has shaped important policy initiatives. ‘Managing Change in Disruptive Times’, is relevant as the world faces unprecedented global challenges caused by the parallel emergence of multiple disruptive forces. We included ‘Analytics, Mobility and The Cloud’ because of its potential, especially in clinical, financial and operational systems. ‘Rurban Challenges and Opportunities’ another important focus area of the conference exhorts us on creating smart people instead of smart cities. Technology, Innovation and Wellbeing, undeniably, need to be the future of healthcare sector.”
Pro-President, IIHMR University, Mr. P.R. Sodani, in his welcome address, stressed that smart, innovative and sustainable development is critical to transforming our lives and should be the focus of all our healthcare strategies.
Chairman, IIHMR University, Dr. S.D. Gupta underscored the fact that if people are not healthy, development cannot happen. There is a need to shift focus from “traditional healthcare to well-managed healthcare”, he said. Highlighting the key criteria for sustainable development Dr. Gupta said that while environment, social and economic conditions play an important role, the foundation of development is based on good health. “Non-communicable diseases are on the rise (by 2030 they will 75% of the total disease burden) because of behavioural and lifestyle changes. We need to keep this in mind while devising strategies for the future, he said.
Dr. Ram Narain, Executive Director, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute who was the chief guest at the Conference, said, “The biggest challenge of the healthcare industry is to create a system which is affordable, fair, acceptable and adaptable. Healthcare has become very expensive in India; 17.3% of the nation’s GDP is spent on healthcare. At present, 25% of healthcare expenses are borne by the public system and the rest 75% by the individual which is often backbreaking. We need to narrow the gap and reorient and strengthen our healthcare system.”
Executive Director went on to add that India’s healthcare system is going through a transition. It is vital to handle the medical challenges through better infrastructure, governance, altered recruitment policies and better patient care. Institutions must be focused on effectiveness and delivering timely and safe medical care.”
Health experts and participants hoped that the host of ideas generated at the conference would be executed with the available resources, infrastructure, and technology in a sustainable manner.
Mr. Sandesh Kumar Sharma of the Organizing Committee of IIHMR University Jaipur proposed the vote of thanks.
]]>http://thenewhunt.in/making-healthcare-affordable-and-sustainable-is-indias-biggest-health-challenge/feed/0LE CREUSET CELEBRATES THE MANY FLAVORS OF ROYAL KITCHENS WITH ROYAL FABLEShttp://thenewhunt.in/le-creuset-celebrates-the-many-flavors-of-royal-kitchens-with-royal-fables/
http://thenewhunt.in/le-creuset-celebrates-the-many-flavors-of-royal-kitchens-with-royal-fables/#respondSat, 18 Nov 2017 10:34:07 +0000http://thenewhunt.in/?p=1522Gurugram, 16th November 2017:A French brand that makes cooking a work of art, Le Creuset joins hands with Royal Fables, India’s only platform showcasing regal, royal culture to present kitchen tales of four blue blooded scions. Chefs by love and royals by birth the scions demonstrate four distinctly unique dishes at the Le CreusetAmbience Experience Centre. The brand welcomes BaisaPushpita Singh, Kharwa; Kunwar Hemendra Singh of Bhainsrorgarh, Shradha Akka Nikam, Kolhapur and Rani Kirti Singh of Dhampur. They come together under the umbrella of Kitchen of the kings, a brand by Royal Fables that will showcase kitchen tales of royal families.
This cookout brings forth the mystical journey of flavors from sprawling royal kitchens paired with perfect cookware and serving dishes by Le Creuset. We begin with a sumptuous Bajre ka soyta by Pushpita. Otherwise a jewellery designer, she recreates this traditional lentil based dish with regional vegetables. A spectacular chef himself, Hemender cooks his famed kali mirch and elaichi chicken, pairing it with Indian breads as Shradha presents a classic Maratha recipe of mutton bhat with pandar rasa. The treat ends on a sweet note with baker and pastry chef Kirti Kumari who whips up cup-cakes and muffins made from her pre-mixes that she retails at gourmet stores under her brand Bake Me.
Restauranteur, chef and a true connoisseur of traditional cooking, Osama Jalali interacts with the royal chefs, highlighting the heritage story behind each recipe in the impeccable magic of Le Creuset cookware.
Kitchen of the Kings is a newly launched sub brand of Royal Fables thatrevives the fabled recipes of Princely states, offering unique experiences from royal kitchens. With scions from four leading families cooking different royal recipes, this cookout served as a perfect window to the regal kitchens of India.
About Le Creuset:
Le Creuset is recognized the world over for market-leading, premium quality ranges of enameled cast iron cookware, multi-ply stainless steel, toughened non-stick, stoneware and ceramics, along with its outstanding range of wine accessories. Established in 1925, Le Creuset has been making world-class cookware for almost 100 years, innovation remains at the forefront of Le Creuset’s success. Used by leading chefs and keen cooks around the globe, Le Creuset cookware offers outstanding performance time after time.
For more information please visit our websitewww.le-creuset.in
About Royal Fables:
A must attend in the calendar of leading royal families of India, besides connoisseurs of evolved living, Royal Fables presents some of the most iconic design bastions of regal India. Reborn in a contemporary, design forward language under the caring tutelage of royal scions, Royal Fables showcases the various creative and indulgent life-style forums of regal heritage. Launched in 2010 with its first exhibition at DLF Emporio, New Delhi, the platform has since then held seven extravagant seasons and travelled to cities like New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai in India and Bangkok and Marrakech overseas. The Royal Fables Trunk Collection has toured the Americas, anchoring the Vancouver Bridal Week and also presenting at Dallas and Los Angeles.Royal Fables has, through the last nine seasons, presented the regal legacy before discerning audiences both in India and abroad. It has successfully showcased many cultural forums that together add to the mystique of Imperial India.For more information, please visit our website www.royalfables.com
Mumbai, October 2017: QNet, a leading global direct selling company has launched Nutriplus EDG3 in the Indian market through its network. EDG3 is another addition to QNet’s basked of products in the health and wellness segment which are being sold through its online channel.
Nutriplus EDG3 is powdered drink which is designed to be consumed daily. It helps in activating the production of Gluthathione in the body which is a blend of three amino acids (L-Cystine, Glycine, L-Glutamine and Selenomethionine). This helps in detoxification and is very essential for the human immune system. It is said that Glutathione is the master of antioxidants which works at an intracellular level and helps to protect the cell from damage. Glutathione has the unique ability to regenerate other antioxidants like Vitamin C and E. Regular consumption of Nutriplus EDG3 optimises good health and well-being. The key benefits other than good health and wellbeing are:
• Increases energy levels
• Maintains healthy joints
• Improves skin health
• Promotes healthy hair and nails
The launch of Nutriplus EDG3 is expected to strengthen QNet’s overall product offering in the health and wellness space in India. QNet has been sourcing close to 70% of the products it sells through its network of Independent Representatives (IRs) from local manufacturers, which includes a lot of SMEs. This is perfectly in sync with the Government’s stated objective of promoting ‘Make in India’. EDG3 is currently one of the fastest selling products in other international markets that QNet operates in. It is now available through distributors of the company’s products which are referred to as IRs.
Available in a pleasant-tasting pomegranate and mixed berry flavour Nutriplus EDG3 is suitable for adults as well as children above 6 years of age. It is available in a box of 30 single-serve sachets at INR 6630 per box.
According to report from IDSA which in collaboration with the PHD Chamber, as an ongoing process, has benchmarked monitoring of the Direct Selling Industry in India the direct selling industry is estimated to reach up to INR 2,36,543 million by 2019-20 on account of conducive policy framework in our country.
Commenting on the launch of the new product in the health and wellness segment Trevor Kuna, Global CEO, QNet said “QNet is aligned with the “Make in India” initiative of the government and supports several SMEs in India who develop exclusive products for them. Around 70 per cent of QNET’s product portfolio comprises products made in India. QNET are in a process of introducing 8-10 new products in this upcoming year.”
ABOUT QNET:
QNET is one of Asia’s leading Direct Selling Company that offers a portfolio of lifestyle products to customers in more than 100 countries through its proprietary e-commerce platform. The company also offers an entrepreneurial network marketing business opportunity. QNET has offices and agency representations in 25 countries around the world and employs approximately 1,000 employees. Established in Hong Kong in 1998, QNET is a member of the Direct Selling Association of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
QNET is also a part of the Hong Kong Health Food Association and the Health Supplements Industry Association of Singapore among others. In India, QNET operates through its franchisee Vihaan Direct Selling (Pvt) Ltd and is a member of Health Foods and Dietary Supplements Association (HADSA).
QNET is active in sports sponsorships around the world, including football, badminton and more, due to the company’s strong belief that the drive, passion and teamwork involved in sports mirrors the values upheld by QNET. QNET is currently the official direct selling partner of the Manchester City Football Club (MCFC).
]]>http://thenewhunt.in/qnet-launches-revolutionary-antioxidant-health-supplement-nutriplus-edg3-for-indian-market/feed/0Super99 store – A top destination for low-priced everyday productshttp://thenewhunt.in/super99-store-a-top-destination-for-low-priced-everyday-products/
http://thenewhunt.in/super99-store-a-top-destination-for-low-priced-everyday-products/#respondWed, 01 Nov 2017 02:57:55 +0000http://thenewhunt.in/?p=1477Super99 store is really for those who love buying everyday products at amazingly low prices. We found out this store during a recent visit the Opulent Mall in Ghaziabad. It definitely deserves a look!
Good thing about the store
Price, obviously! It struck me how prices can be that low! Surprised, I also liked the variety and range on offer as the store stocks products from categories such as Kitchen & Dining, Toys & Games, Beauty, Snacks, Stationery, Home Accessories, Gift & Décor, and Ready to Wear and Bathroom items.
The best part, low prices were for all products. I took time, browsed through the racks there and tried to make sense of offers and discounts. The store was full of everyday items like cup, mugs, plates, piggybacks, flasks and all those things.
The ‘99’ catch
When it entered the store, I thought they were offering every item at Rs 99. Which was not the case. But yes, they have strategically priced every items in a denominator of 99.
So, you can expect products to start from INR 99 and be available in 199, 299 and so on. Wait, I was saw some products under 50! It tried grabbing them all but left them for some other times.
What I bought?
Well, I was extremely tired and hungry. So, thought of buying some snacks. I chanced up the boxes of butter cookies stacked up there and picked out one. It felt tasty and crunchy. Given the packaging and all those, the cookies were extremely cheap, dare I say, dirt cheap!
Conclusion
We can safely recommend Super99 for two main reasons – price and quality. You can visit the store near your house and buy top everyday products at extremely low prices. What else you need!
Ingredients
• 5 eggs
• 350 grams pasta flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tablespoon Olive oil for marination of Butter nut pumpkin
• 1 garlic clove
• 600 grams butternut pumpkin
• 100 grams freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 100 grams butter
• Fresh sage leaves
Method
Making the Dough
1. Mix Eggs, Flour and salt. Knead Well. About 3 mins should be ok. Keep it for 30 mins.
Making the Filling
2. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly oil a baking sheet. Peel and Cut the Pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and cut into small dices Bake the squash for 45 mins along with garlic or until well cooked
3. Place it in a bowl, mesh it well, stir in the cheese and grate the nutmeg and some crushed pepper corns and mix well.
Making the Pasta
4. Roll out the pasta dough very thin so as to literally see the yellowish filling inside
5. Cut the pasta sheet into 2 ½ inch squares.
6. Place 1 spoon of filling and stick the parallel ends together to form a triangle and then stick the other ends together for form the Cappellacci.
7. In boiling water, cook Cappellacci for 3-4 mins approximately or Until firm or as they say “Al Dente”
8. Melt the butter in a pan and add sage leaves
9. Transfer Cappellacci to the pan, add few spoons of stock if needed.
10. Check on the seasoning.
11. Top up with some Parmesan Cheese. Serve Hot.
About The pasta Bowl Company
Conceptualised by Chef Om’s Hospitality, The Pasta Bowl Company came into existence in April 2013 to soon become the top 10 restaurants of Gurgaon. The award winning restaurant is the first step of Ms. Aditi Bicholia and Chef Om Nayak, to build an authentic food enterprise.
Committed to deliver authentic Italian experience to the diners, the husband-wife duo has not designed the restaurant on the format of an Italian eatery but kept it true to the Italian-Sicilian cuisine through their innovative menu.
Since Indians and Italians are very similar in food habits, cultural values and gestures, the company is on the mission to create right set of awareness for authentic Sicilian cuisine in the country to set new benchmarks in the dining business.
About Chef Om Nayak
Chef Om Nayak is an award winning Chef, restaurateur and a true culinary explorer. He started his entrepreneurial journey with Chef Om’s Hospitality in 2009, where he consults for various successful Hospitality Businesses and has a feather of creating ventures all across India, Mid-East, UK and Hongkong.
A young dynamic Chef Om Nayak conceptualized The Pasta Bowl Company in 2013 when his wife Aditi Bicholia came up with the idea of opening a speciality restaurant. It was the next step in his culinary journey and the first step in establishing an authentic and distinguished food enterprise. The Pasta Bowl Company is a reflection of his experience and love for Italian cuisine. He specially chose to focus and experiment with Sicilian Cuisine as he feels it’s more suited and likable to the Indian pallet.
New Delhi, 26th October 2017: Hon’ble Minister of Culture, Government of India Dr Mahesh Sharma will inaugurate SWAD SANSKRITI, a celebration of food culture and philosophy. Organised by Food and Beverage Buzz magazine SWAD SANSKRITI will be held on 26 November 2017 at Radisson Blu, Paschim Vihar (Saphire 1&2), from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.
Curated by Dr Ashish Chopra, well known culinary historian, TV Host, Author and Senior Consulting Editor of Food and Beverage Buzz magazine, Swad Sanskriti as the event will look into exploring the wisdom of our cultural philosophy through food that has shaped Indian history and which today has become the identification factor for us Indians.
Mr Pawan Agrawal, Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Media Private Limited, that publishes the magazine Food and Beverage Buzz, says, “Understanding our past is imperative to understand our present food habits. So, how do we come to an elaborate understanding of our cultural habits? These are some of the questions that we will look at exploring through these events.”
Slated as the first conclave of many to come, SWAD SANSKRITI will host Cultural Gastronomy as its first chapter and Cultural Diversity will explore the diversity and unity of Indian Food and how its influence has helped develop and evolve Indian culture.To discuss some key issues that pertain to Indian culinary heritage, SWAD SANSKRITI will bring together eminent stalwarts from various food verticals which will include Chefs, Hoteliers, Restaurateurs, Food Historians, Anthropologists, Researchers, FMCG, food packaging industry, representatives from the Dairy companies, E-retailers, Food app companies among others. (please inform who we have from the packaging industry)
The eminent advisory board panel for SWAD SANSKRITI consists of the following:
“Swad Sanskriti isn’t just about discovering the culture of food and taste, it is a platform to bring together food lovers and those who are always excited about experimenting with different combination of ingredients,” says Ms Urvashi Jaahnvi Agrawal, Editor-in-Chief of Food and Beverage Buzz magazine.
About Food and Beverage Buzz Magazine
Food and Beverage Buzz magazine is part of Ocean Media Private Limited (a group company of 90-year-old publishing house, Prabhat Prakashan) which also publishes another world-class magazine Defence and Security Alert (DSA). FnB Buzz magazine covers a wide spectrum of subjects like cuisines, hospitality, FMCG Industry, F&B and restaurants, health & nutrition, who’s who from the F&B world, success stories and governing bodies like the MoFPI, FSSAI, APEDA, etc. For further details, please visit http://www.fnbbuzz.com/swad-sanskriti/
]]>http://thenewhunt.in/food-and-beverage-buzz-to-organise-swad-sanskriti/feed/0Chef Sanjeev Kapoor inaugurates Wonderchef Store and encourages the budding Chefs of Gurugramhttp://thenewhunt.in/chef-sanjeev-kapoor-inaugurates-wonderchef-store-and-encourages-the-budding-chefs-of-gurugram/
http://thenewhunt.in/chef-sanjeev-kapoor-inaugurates-wonderchef-store-and-encourages-the-budding-chefs-of-gurugram/#respondSun, 17 Sep 2017 20:11:44 +0000http://thenewhunt.in/?p=1425Usually Chefs cook for foodies and food lovers but this time it was turn of foodies of Gurugram to turn chef and cook for celebrity Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and impress him. This interesting event was organized at Wonderchef Outlet in Gurugram where more than 30 finalists who were selected presented their recipes and delicious dishes to Chef. A week long contest COOK FOR ME was launched by Wonderchef and Sanjeev Kapoor where 100s of people participated and submitted their recipes.
Wonderchef, which is India’s favorite brand of healthy cooking, opened its first store in Gurugram today which is its first Exclusive Brand Outlet (EBO) of North India. First of its kind store offers a wide range of innovative and easy to use appliances which not only enhance the beauty of kitchen but also help to cook healthy and tasty food without any hassle and also reduce the cooking time too.
The one-of-its kind competition, which was designed to provide platform to amateur chefs and food lovers to showcase their culinary talent through LIVE cooking on ‘innovative and healthy food”, witnessed huge audience on Sunday. Chef along with renowned Food Entrepreneur and Managing Director of Wonderchef Ravi Saxena, Marketing Head Mukti Saxena and their team selected the real Wonderchef amongst hundreds of participants.
On this occasion of Store launch, Mr. Ravi Saxena, Managing Director, Wonderchef said, “Wonderchef has grown into a trusted & the most loved brand of cookware and healthy appliances in the country. With the motto of Eat Healthy & Live Healthy today we have entered the fastest growing city of Haryana. City’s lifestyle is very fast, so people of the city have very less time for cooking. Being a leading player of the country it is our responsibility to educate the people about what they eat, how they eat and what is healthy? On the basis of our R&D and experience of Chef we made Wonderchef a, unique brand amongst others. Everything we would do over the next three years would be in this direction till the time we are one of the top 3 players in kitchenware industry in India’’.
Chef Sanjeev Kapoor who judged the recipes and gave away prizes to winner said “I am very happy and overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm and zeal of the people of Gurugram. It gives me immense pleasure to see an evolving cooking culture with such innovative recipes. Wonderchef is committed to empowering and educating the women by enabling them to cook healthy”.
The winners of the contest were Reeta Arora, Anju was 1st st runner up and Rajni Anand was the 2nd runner-up for this live cooking competition that was held at Wonderchef Store, Galleria Market, Gurugram.
White cub has decided to take this initiative after Delhipedia backed White Cub’s Crowd funding campaign in the Catapooolt Changemakers Contest 2017. CATAPOOOLT, is India’s most rewarded and industry-backed crowd funding platform during which start-ups will launch their crowd funding campaigns and compete with each other to make it to the grand finale.
According to Arjun Pandey, Founder of DelhiPedia, “White Cub ice-creams have been created to fill the gap of no ‘Ice-cream’ in the Indian market for people looking for dairy free and healthy alternatives and DelhiPedia aims to spread the word across Delhi for the launch of ice-creams specially for Delhizens through the limited edition tubs specifically created for us”.
White Cub ice-cream will let people who are Lactose Intolerant enjoy ice-creams’ as it is Vegan, Dairy and Gluten free and certified from FRAC, FICCI Research Analysis Centre. The ice-creams do not contain hydrogenated fats or trans fats.
White Cub will not just benefit from funds raised via Crowd funding during this competition but also in terms of Market Validation, Marketing Buzz, Media Coverage from Partners and Community Building etc.
White Cub under the umbrella of the company consciously named as Compassionate Choices Pvt Ltd is offering such food choices to people which may be compassionate to their own health and to the environment and its life forms
White Cub along with ice-creams also makes some other Dairy free foods as well like Yogurts, Milk, Bakery, etc.
About Delhipedia
Delhipedia has grown at a rapid pace with more than 800,000 Facebook followers and these followers are growing day by day. Delhipedia is an online portal which allows viewers (travellers, explorers and youngsters) to take virtual tours via short 3 to 5 minutes videos and share their experience through various platforms (Youtube, Facebook, Instagram etc). Delhipedia covers all aspects of the city, starting from heritage monuments, bazaars, thriving cultural scene, to platefuls of delicious food that bring Delhiites together. Delhipedia’s YouTube channel brings alive the true essence of Delhi and its magnificent culture. In a way, Delhipedia is an audio visual encyclopedia about the city, which the Delhiites are still unaware of. Delhipedia is a one-stop solution for anyone visiting the city.In order to explore the unexplored, the Delhipedia team created short videos and uploaded them on Delhipedia’s YouTube channel and built a successful community on Facebook. The idea is to bring in some ‘fun’ element and at the same time, help people discover places of interest. For further details, please visit https://www.delhipedia.com.
About WhiteCub
The journey started by a parlour / kiosk format, presently supplying the ‘ice-creams to different retail stores across 4 cities of India- Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai White Cub encourages people to leave smaller carbon footprints, its ingredients are gentler than the other ice-creams’ animal –derived ones on Mother Earth.WhiteCub has earlier won PETA Vegan Food Awards for two consecutive years. Recently it also bagged Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology’s Grant of Excellence Award 2017.
Bengaluru, July 28th, 2017: FreshMenu.com launched its very own magazine ‘Food For Thought’ today at The Oberoi, Bengaluru.
The magazine is anchored around interesting global food trends and has been produced with the help of agency, DontBeContent. It will be published once in two months, which will be circulated to the discerning customers of the brand.
Good food being the key focus, the brands constant endeavour is to offer something new to the customers each time. The magazine is a step further towards this ambition and hopes to delight, engage and interact extensively with the customers of FreshMenu, to create patronage.
Talking about the launch, Rashmi Daga, CEO & Founder, FreshMenu.com, said “Our motto is to delight customers with taste and provide them with an array of interesting experiences connected in some way to food. FreshMenu as brand brings together several aspects of lifestyle like travel, health and the appetite to explore the unknown. We understand the pulse of modern Indian customers. Hence, ‘Food For Thought’ will be a medium to start a deeper conversation with them and further fortify our effort to bring something exciting to their plates. Innovation and being unconventional is in the DNA of the brand and this magazine is yet another step in that direction.
Talking about her experience on working with the brand and process of curating the magazine, Manjira Dutta, Co-Founder at DontBeContent said, “Very few people know about the kind of work which goes behind a brand like FreshMenu. The entire process of curating a new menu every day and giving a twist to global cuisine to meet the Indian palate is extremely fascinating. Modern Indian consumers are hungry to know about global food, ingredients, trends and cooking process. Considering FreshMenu is an app-based service, it’s impossible to exhibit all these through the app or the website. A magazine hence becomes a great medium to communicate this. We were impressed with the clarity the brand team has in terms of what works for their customers. They are committed to provide good international food to their customers. We would sum up our experience of coming up with ‘Food For Thought’ extremely enriching and are confident of receiving good response from the customers.”
The event was attended by an eclectic mix of members from the Start-Up/VC world and influencers; all bound together by the love for Good Food.
About FreshMenu.com
FreshMenu is an online restaurant that serves freshly-made, chef-cooked gourmet meals in a box. Started in Bangalore, the company has expanded its services to Mumbai and Delhi-NCR. It pioneered the concept of app-based food delivery kitchens in the country. A team of about 500, FreshMenu.com operates its own kitchens and runs its own delivery fleet to drive the entire process of food ordering.
It was founded in 2014 by IIM Ahmedabad alumni, Rashmi Daga, who has previously worked with cab aggregator Ola and online jewellery store Bluestone. Aimed at rescuing food- seekers from mundane meals, FreshMenu is on a constant quest to whip-up interesting food options in the kitchens spread out across the city that deliver freshly cooked food to the doorsteps of its customers. It received Series B funding in January 2016 of Rs. 110 crore led by Zodius Capital with participation from existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partner and had raised $5 million in Series A round of funding in 2015 from Lightspeed Venture Partners.
|
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"The bullet entered the right side of his leg and severed three arteries," Murray said. "He described it to me as the most amount of blood he's seen. This officer's been on for eight years and a number of years with the tactical support team, and he said it was like something out of a movie."
Winnipeg police say the officer was taken to hospital and is in stable condition. (Riley Laychuk/CBC)
Police are investigating whether the weapon, a Glock 35, was faulty and if there have been similar incidents in other police departments. Murray said the investigation is being overseen by Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba told CBC News it is not doing its own investigation because it has not received a formal report. The unit investigates serious incidents involving police officers.
Murray told CBC that police didn't submit a report to the unit because the incident did not meet the required elements in legislation governing the IIU.
At the moment, there are no concerns about the type of gun tactical officers carry, Murray said.
"Officers with the tactical support team, they've all examined their weapons," he said.
Firearms unit officers are investigating the officer's gun to determine exactly what happened.
"Once that's known, then we can proceed further to see if this is a bigger issue or if it was isolated to this firearm," Murray said.
The officer remains in hospital, and the bullet is still in his leg.
What is a tactical tourniquet?
The officer used a Winnipeg Police Service-issued tactical tourniquet to stop his bleeding.
It's similar to a regular tourniquet, but made of Velcro and nylon, said Sgt. Shane Cooke, a 21-year member of the tactical support team who gave media a demonstration.
"It's very simple to use," he said. "If you have a belt and a pen you can mimic something like this, but this is something that allows us to self-apply very quickly."
The tourniquet is placed around the limb and tightened to cut off blood flow, preventing blood loss.
Members of the tactical support team have carried the tourniquet since 2011, Murray said. In 2017, the police service purchased 1,000 to distribute to all front-line officers. They all learned to use them as part of their first aid training, which is refreshed every three years.
The tourniquets have been used 10 times since 2011, but this was the first time it was used on an officer, said Murray.
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Download Barking Dog 03
Download Barking Dog 03 @ Waptrick
You will find background wav files and you can send them to your friends. Visit this portal for unique background audio effects and download into your device gallery. This content has named as: Barking Dog.
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The Future of JavaScript with Eric Elliott
“I think that anybody who’s not using universal JavaScript is wasting a ton of time and a ton of money, and it’s just a silly thing to do.”
Eric Elliott is a JavaScript advocate, and the author of Programming JavaScript Applications. He is also an entrepreneur tackling social issues including homelessness and inequality in the tech industry.
Questions
Why will not knowing programming be akin to illiteracy in the future?
Does it suffice to know how code works, or is it important for people to kno how to write code?
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Barnsley play Leeds. Barnsley have scored 0 times so far this year and Leeds have got 0 goals. Defensively Barnsley are down 0 while Leeds have let in 0 goals. Barnsley have won 1 times out of their previous eight fixtures. Leeds have won 2 out of the previous eight league games.
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Switchblade UAVs to launch from subs? While they could retain their kamikaze capabilities, the reality is that sub-launched UAVs are going to be 1-shot items at first. Why not adapt an existing UAV designed for that?
InnoCentive offers a $15,000 reward for a concept or design of a medical transportation device that would enable a rescuer to quickly and safely transport an injured person away from an active combat site.
At least the US Navy is not facing a fire on one of its nuclear submarines, unlike its Russian counterpart yesterday.
Thursday was not a good day for the Russian military since they also had a Su-24 crash. These crashes have happened like clockwork over the years [in Russian]. Nobody died in either incident yesterday though some people appear to have been injured in the submarine fire.
Yet another cybersecurity acquisition for Raytheon: Henggeler Computer Consultants, Inc. It’s the 2nd this month and the 10th in the last 4 years.
How do you squeeze a Merlin AW101 helicopter into a C17? The BBC explains with a timelapse video and helpful charts.
Some British soldiers are complaining that their new Personal Clothing System (PCS) makes them look American, which is apparently not a flattering statement.
Turkey has frozen political and military relations with France because of the French recognition of the Armenian genocide as such. Back in September Turkey suspended its defense ties with Israel, though last week coordination between their respective air forces was reestablished.
How will the United States’ AirSea Battle work-in-progress doctrine affect Japan?
Kit Up‘s advice on Carl Gustaf tactical employment: learn to use it or someone is going to get hurt, and not just the intended target.
The US military’s Dash-7 derived “Crazy Hawk”/ Airborne Reconnaissance Low aircraft use their short-field takeoff capabilities and array of imaging, signals collection, and radar sensors to monitor developments on the ground. The planes made the news briefly in 1999 when one went down in Colombia, but the capability was needed, and that aircraft was replaced. Fort Bliss, TX reportedly hosts several aircraft, and in 2011 one of the planes based in South Korea was reportedly forced to return to base by North Korean GPS jamming.
The modernized ARL fleet remains a valuable asset, with an estimated 8 ARL-M/EO-5C planes. In December 2011, King Aerospace, Inc. in Addison, TX won a $28.2 million firm-fixed-price contract, for life cycle contract support of the USA’s Airborne Reconnaissance – Low fleet until Dec 31/14. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 3 bids received by US Army Contracting Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W58RGZ-05-C-0302).
The ARL-Ms will serve alongside aircraft bought for similar programs, as surveillance needs have grown. Programs like MARSS have added similar contractor-operated aircraft. In parallel, smaller twin-engine Beechcraft King Airs were bought (MC-12W) and refurbished (RC-12X), to serve in similar surveillance and COMINT/SIGINT roles.
Last week the US GAO dismissed Hawker Beechcraft’s [HBDC] protest of the Air Force’s decision to exclude the company’s proposal as “technically unacceptable”, in the context of the Light Air Support (LAS) RFP (FA8637-10-R-6000). The agency “fundamentally [disagrees] with HBDC’s premise that the Air Force directed the notice of exclusion to an ‘incorrect’ address.” Now the company is suing the USAF. At stake is a $1B award for the Afghan Air Force that Embraer otherwise looks set to win with its A-29/EMB-314 Super Tucano.
In December 2011, Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense in Simsbury, CT received a $10.8 million firm-fixed-price contract for 3,000 Man Portable Line Charge Systems that can fire rope-shaped plastic explosives for remote detonation, and 206 Inert Training Systems. Work will be performed in Graham, KY; Simsbury, CT; and Sterling, CT, with an estimated completion date of April 8/12. One bid was solicited, with 1 bid received by US Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (W91CRB-12-C-0012).
In August 2011, an FBO.gov RFI explained the rationale behind the MPLC: US forces needed a system for quickly clearing paths through land mines, which was lighter and easier to carry than existing gear. To be specific…
The United Kingdom may involve the private sector in running defense procurement. Chief of Defence Materiel Bernard Gray and Minister for Defence Equipment Peter Luff will discuss options under consideration today on BBC Radio 4.
The US Navy’s departure from standard ship class-naming conventions, and insertion of political figures instead (vid. “John P. Murtha” for LPD-26, instead of a city name), has raised a few eyebrows in recent years. USNS Cesar Chavez [T-AKE-14] may have tipped a backlash in Congress. This is so even though that example has far more merit. The T-AKE ships have honored other pioneering political figures, and Chavez was a Navy veteran.
Manufacturers are working on ground control stations that could let a single pilot manage several UAVs at once.
Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel had an entire system of encrypted short-range radio relays around their territories, in what amounted to a military communication infrastructure. The NPR report adds that some of their kidnappings have even been designed to get technical expertise – though holding highly technical people hasn’t always gone well for them.
M7 Aerospace became an Elbit Systems of America subsidiary in December 2010. Its 6 integrated business segments include Aerostructures Manufacturing; Government Logistics Support Services; Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul; Engineering Services; Aircraft Parts & Support and Supply Chain Management and Purchasing. Their platform specialties include the Shorts Aircraft series of short take-off light transports (incl. US Army’s C-23), and Fairchild’s Merlin & Metro (US C-26 variants).
The US military continues to operate variants of these aircraft, and M7’s strong position in those niches has led to a number of contract wins. A pair of December 2011 support contracts, dating back to FY 2005 and FY 2009, illustrate the point…
F-15s and F-16s make up the backbone of Israel’s potent fighter force. The IDF’s main fighter is the F-16 Fighting Falcon, including aging F-16 A/B Netz (“Falcon”), plus F-16C Barak (“Lightning”) and 2-seat F-16D Brakeets (“Thunderbolt”), and now the heavily customized two-seat F-16I Block 52+ Soufa (“Storm”). The Israelis fly the largest contingent of F-16s outside the United States, alongside longer range, higher performance F-15s. F-15A-D Baz (“Eagle”) models have greatly distinguished themselves in IDF service, and the customized two-seat F-15I Ra’ahm (“Thunder”) Strike Eagle is optimized for advanced ground attack and long range interception. All of these aircraft are heavily modified from the US versions, with Israeli avionics, self-protection systems, weapons, and sometimes radars as well.
While Israel’s F-16A/B Netz inventory may well be sold on the international market, their F-16 C/D and F-15 A-D planes were expected to serve the Air Force Corps until at least 2020. Unfortunately, Israel’s new F-35As won’t even start arriving until 2016 or 2017. To keep their edge, Israel began spending money in 2006 to improve and upgrade its legacy fighter fleet…
The USAF Medical Service needs qualified health care workers to provide direct patient care services inside military treatment facilities, and to act as extensions of the military treatment facilities within the United States and Guam. The 773rd ESG/PKJ at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH received 26 proposals, and issued 23 multiple-award, indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity fixed-firm-price contracts with a maximum total value of of $992 million. This sort of contract is not uncommon; the US Army does the same thing.
Recipient will be eligible to bid on specific delivery orders, and each is guaranteed only $5,000 as a way of offsetting bid expenses. Winners included:
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Learn more about the benefits of both the Donaldson PowerCore and Pro-5 filters
"After a long and careful review of many cold air intakes, I'm glad I chose Volant. Extremely easy to install, looks & performs as it says. Gas mileage is improved, if you can keep your foot out of it!" - Jeremy S. Chesapeake, VA
Learn more about the benefits of both the Donaldson PowerCore and Pro-5 filters
"After a long and careful review of many cold air intakes, I'm glad I chose Volant. Extremely easy to install, looks & performs as it says. Gas mileage is improved, if you can keep your foot out of it!" - Jeremy S. Chesapeake, VA
The Volant Cold air intake is easy to install but you cant do it the way the instructions tell you had to go buy a large hose clap for the filter because the one they sent was a cheap piece off shit. Once installed looks very nice.
This is a great intake. Installation was easy. Direct fit with no problems.
Produces a nice growl from the engine. Not sure that any performance gains were obtained but seems like the Jeep runs smoother. Would recommend to anyone looking for a simple mod.
The intake performs well and sounds great once I got it installed. The primary issue with it is the grommet that holds the IAT sensor. The stock elbow has a nice molded in rubber piece that the sensor pushes into and locks. The Volant elbow has a rubber grommet that you need to push the sensor into. When you do this though, the grommet pushes through to the inside of the elbow and you have to start over; it is really difficult. For the price, a fitting should be integrated.
Intake is great ! My Jeep breathes much better. Only thing I could ask is that Volant had a better solution for the air temp sensor that is more vehicle specific, a grommet that just holds it in by pressure is not sufficient. Carefull Jeep owners .... Pulling the sensor out of the OME is not a simple task . All in all a good product and I'd buy again.
Great product!!! looks great under the hood, lets you know that it is there when u hit the gas, throttle response is ok still better than stock and power is good aswell, using powercore filter (running 35 bfg muds) compared to other intakes i would buy this one again
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Buy Garden Tools & Accessories Online!
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HMV sell their games at full price everytime, people just went somewhere else that's all. I'm surprised HMV have stayed afloat with their ridiculous prices for music. They sell standard albums for £20 it's insane.
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Monday, January 11, 2010
Farmers fight back against animal rights groups
The Humane Society of the U.S. has shepherded laws in at least six states to ban cramped cages for farm animals and persuaded some of the country's largest fast-food restaurants and retailers to make at least a gradual switch to cage-free eggs. The group last year championed a ban on tail docking at California dairies.
Jack Fisher of the Ohio Farm Bureau implored farmers in other states to be proactive and take similar steps of their own. He noted that the Human Society has turned its efforts toward regulating so-called "puppy mills" and dog breeding operations and urged farmers to join forces with that industry in educating consumers.
SEATTLE (AP) - It's little wonder that farmers fret about the future of the livestock industry. In the past two years, feed costs skyrocketed, pork and dairy prices plummeted, and animal rights groups stepped up efforts to improve living conditions for farm animals.
Some farmers are hoping to strike back with proactive efforts to ward off unwanted legislation and boost the struggling industry.
"A line must be drawn between our polite and respectful engagement with consumers and how we must aggressively respond to extremists who want to drag agriculture back to the day of 40 acres and a mule," said Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
"The time has come for us to face our opponents with a new attitude," he told some 5,000 members gathered in Seattle for the group's annual convention Sunday. "The days of their elitist power grabs are over."
Several segments of the livestock industry found 2009 to be a rough year. Everyone suffered with higher feed and energy costs. Pig farmers endured slow pork sales that were triggered in part by the H1N1 flu virus, also known as swine flu, even though the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said swine flu cannot be transmitted by eating pork products.Full story ...
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Eddie Martinez Is Ready For His New York Close Up
I have to admit – shooting the material that forms the heart of this film, an afternoon in Eddie Martinez’s studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn – was one of the more intense, enlightening, and privileged shoot experiences I’ve had on location for the New York Close Up project.
It was our second shoot day together. The crew showed up – just myself, the very gifted camera man Rafa Salazar, and a compact HDSLR camera package – at the studio and Eddie immediately dived in to a new painting. I really mean dived in, spray painting before the primer had time to truly set. Before the shoot, Rafa and I had talked about a handheld, stalking, almost predatory approach. The operative metaphor was a boxing match, and we were Eddie’s opponent, bobbing and weaving in and around Eddie as he in turn boxed against his painting. I knew from previously shooting with Eddie that I wanted to visually dramatize Eddie’s very physical process with our own kind of pointed movement.
And Eddie certainly delivered the punches. With spray paint, rags, spray bottles, scrapers, and thumbs Eddie literally attacked the painting. And Rafa followed along with, establishing a darting rhythm in time with Eddie’s movements. As a frustrated painter and in general, a plodding worker myself, watching Eddie was a liberating lesson in just getting your marks, literally your first thoughts down, and building quickly from there. As a documentary producer, Eddie’s open-ness to us, the physical proximity he allowed us to himself and his process, felt like a very rare thing. By the end of the day, Eddie was happy with what was really just a first stage in the long process of making a painting. But I felt we had documented something complete in its own right.
There’s no doubt been a healthy supply of films depicting painters working in their studio over the years. But despite the saturation, I had faith that an intensely focused portrait of Eddie in the studio would deliver something more than the norm, that it could add something new to the old experience of painter’s painting. I hope it panned out.
From their home in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, married artists Daniel Gordon and Ruby Sky Stiler candidly discuss the complex professional and personal dynamics of bringing a baby into their already busy lives.
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Get the blogcast[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3) Listen in iTunes? Submit a review[RSS] Add the Major Nelson Blogcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically (MP3).[MP3] Download the show (MP3)
Edit: Since I am bound to have some new folks reading the comments here due to the coverage on this show, I wanted to say that I am sorry if I offended anyone. I was trying to lighten up the situation with a little humor, and clearly I failed. Sorry about that…no harm was intended. Commence flogging.
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The bill contains broad conscience clause protections that specify that anyone providing or participating in a medical procedure or research cannot be required to participate or provide services that violates his or her religious, moral, or ethical principles that are adherent to a sincere and meaningful belief in God or in relation to a supreme being.
“Because of the attack on our religious institutions and business leaders who because of their faith choose not to participate in destroying innocent human life this is a real and pressing issue for our pro-life medical professionals,” said Pam Fichter, President of Missouri Right to Life.
She added: “Those in the medical and research fields that labor every day to save lives should not be forced to take lives against their religious and moral beliefs. This bill would protect them from negative repercussions by their employers.”
“Missouri Right to Life thanks the members of all the Missouri House who supported this important legislation,” said Fichter.
HCS HB 457 passed the House by a veto proof bi-partisan vote of 116 to 41. HCS HB 457 now moves to the Senate for consideration.
“The measure would bar discrimination against doctors, nurses, researchers and other medical personnel for opting out of certain procedures or research. It would apply to abortion, sterilization that is not medically necessary, embryonic stem-cell research, assisted reproduction and contraception,” AP indicates. “Workers seeking to invoke the so-called conscience protection would have to provide reasonable notice. Institutions such as hospitals, clinics and medical or nursing schools also could refuse to perform procedures that violate the institution’s conscience.”
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Check to be sure that cables are clean, free of corrosion, and not loose.
How’s the “ground” from the battery to the engine? You could try using a jumper cable and “jumping” from the negative (-) battery post to a clean spot on the engine. This way if there is a “ground” problem, you will temporarily create a good ground. Are you sure the “new” battery is fully charged?
Has this happened before or is this the only time it has failed to turn over?
Has it ever cranked over after the battery and starter were replaced?
What happened just before this when the car was parked? Was everything working just fine until the next time you attempted to start it? Was there some kind of problem or indication that something was going wrong?
Any lights on or gauges reading out of the ordinary? Is the serpentine or accessory belt that drives the alternator tight enough?
Good news, After I turned the engine over with the harmonic balancer bolt a few times, the car started. Then I found another issue. The serpentine belt had snapped, and I have found that the pully on the a/c compressor is frozen.
I reinstalled a new serp belt, but the pully on the a/c compressor is not turning. Is my only solution to replace the compressor?
It may be that the clutch on the front of the compressor (right behind the pulley) has locked up. There should be an eletrical connector on the clutch. Disconnect it and see if you can turn the pulley. If so, the compressor has locked up and you will need a new compressor. If you can’t turn the pulley when the power is disconnected, the pully clutch is locked. You shouldn’t have to replace the compressor to replace the clutch.
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On Saturday, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle attended day 12 of the Wimbledon tennis tournament together on Saturday. This was the first time the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex went out together in public as a duo since Markle became royalty. This wasn't the first time that either of...
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South Africa’s Withdrawal from ICC Undermines Victims of War Crimes worldwide—Amnesty International
South African Parliament must urgently convene to reconsider the government’s decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the founding instrument of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Amnesty International said.
The group added that “South Africa’s sudden notice to withdraw from the ICC is a betrayal to millions of victims of the gravest human rights violations”
Africa’s economic powerhouse is considering withdrawal from the Hague-based Institution according to media reports
A document confirming the withdrawal plan, signed by South Africa’s International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, was published by public broadcaster SABC’s United Nations correspondent.
The “Instrument of Withdrawal” letter said South Africa “found that its obligations with respect to the peaceful resolution of conflicts at times are incompatible with the interpretation given by the International Criminal Court”.
Amnesty International said “South Africa’s sudden notice to withdraw from the ICC is deeply disappointing. In making this move, the country is betraying millions of victims of the gravest human rights violations and undermining the international justice system,” Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for Africa said in a statement.
“South Africa’s support for the ICC, after the country suffered through decades of apartheid, was an important step towards creating rights respecting societies around the world.” he said
The move to withdraw from the court follows non-cooperation procedures against South Africa at the ICC after the country failed to institute a warrant of arrest against Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir when he visited the country in June 2015 to attend the AU Summit.
About
East Africa Daily is the leading East Africa regional digital News and Information provider.
We offer a collective coverage and expert analysis of of Political, Social and Economic issues in each East African community State in a context of 'Fast-tracking regional Integration'.
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Children's Gardening Gloves size 5
Let your children develop a green thumb early on! With these small gardening gloves size5 young children can help in the garden, with well protected hands.
These gloves have a latex carrier and dipped latex foam coating, making them suitable for all kinds of gardening work. They keep their grip when wet.
Children will have optimal feeling in their fingers, so they can operate gardening tools easily.
Want to know the right size for your child? Measure the circumference of the child's hand by placing a tape measure on the lowest knuckle of the index finger and going over the knuckles of the other fingers around the hand (thumb out). Size 4 is for a hand circumference of 10,16 cm, size 5 is for a hand circumference of 12,70 cm.
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Surprise, Surprise…
The rest of the players involved in Biogenesis-gate are expected to take their suspensions of 50 games or more, without appeal. Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan, has reported that the suspensions will be handed out within 72 hours, with just Arod expected to make some noise.
Those among the unlucky bunch include notables like Nelson Cruz of the Rangers and Jhonny Peralta of the Tigers–plus some Major Leaguers whose names have not yet been made public.
MLB has prepared long and hard for Arod to come back swinging and that’s why they’ve threatened to suspend Arod through a clause in the collective bargaining agreement, rather than through the league’s joint drug agreement, per Yahoo:
By threatening to suspend Rodriguez under a best-interests-of-baseball clause in the collective-bargaining agreement rather than the agreed-upon discipline of the league’s joint drug agreement, commissioner Bud Selig amped up the game of chicken between MLB and Rodriguez. The fear inside baseball is that if Rodriguez appeals a suspension, he could be playing games within the next week while the rest of the players in the Biogenesis case, including the already-suspended Ryan Braun, are sidelined.
Selig is taking a risk by choosing to go this route, which may tick of the Player’s Association, whose support through this matter has been key to doling down suspensions. That also would lead one to believe that MLB is beyond fed up of Arod’s antics and will get a very stiff punishment coming his way.
As for the other players, they are also facing an additional double digit add-on to suspensions if they do not cooperate with the investigation–which is why Braun got in excess of 50 games.
Looks like, to the surprise of no one when it’s all said and done it will be Arod on one side of the ring and MLB on the going at it.
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MP3: Longest Serving Mayor In NYS History Wins Re-Election
LATTINGTOWN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – New York State’s longest-serving mayor held off a challenge and kept his seat in a small village on Long Island.
It was a battle between 91-year old incumbent Clarence Michalis and 23-year old recent college grad Nicholas Della Fera in the race for mayor of Lattingtown.
Michalis has served as mayor of the village near Locust Valley for 44 years – nearly half his l... Source: newyork.cbslocal.com
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - In the week since the horrific school massacre, a generous outpouring of offers to help have been pouring into Newtown from all over the country.
WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau On The Story
Download: schneidau_newtown1w_midday_121221.mp3
People want to do whatever they can to help ease the pain.
“We’ve had calls from people who are experts in trauma, ...
FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - People on Long Island are planning an event to say thank you to the firefighters who worked to battle this week’s brush fire.
WCBSÂ 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs On The Story
A day-long celebration is planned for May 19 at the Brookhaven Amphitheater in Farmingville. It will honor the hundreds of volunteer firefighters who helped douse the brush fire that sc...
BETHPAGE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano says he’s proud of his county’s emergency response after superstorm Sandy.
WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs On The Story
Download: xirinachs_mangano1w_morn_121127.mp3
Some village mayors, however, say that the county and state, underestimated the need for manpower and equipment.
“This could have been a storm that...
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — It was a scary morning Saturday for passengers at Newark Liberty International Airport, as their plane made a crash landing.
During the 8 a.m. hour, the plane was hauled off the tarmac at the airport. The runway was closed for more than eight hours in all.
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pause
Plane Crash-Lands With No Gear At Newark Airport
WCBS 880's Jim Smith Reports
US Air...
Today the guys were happy to welcome in lovely Ashley and friends (all pictured with Boomer & Craig – Ashley is the gal on Boomer’s left. Helloooo!!!!) into the Allstate Studio to play a little game of ‘Do You Know Sports Than…’
Ashley is employed by the NY Red Bulls (which is a professional soccer team by the way) and she was pitted against the esteemed executive producer of t...
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Aim High Profits News
With Wednesday being somewhat of a slaughtering on the OTC Markets, one penny stock really stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd. Creative Edge Nutrition, Inc. (FITX), aka CEN Biotech, Inc., although it closed the trading session lower than the open price from this morning, held it’s ground strongly on news of their part in the world’s largest and most advanced legal cannabis production facility. Because of it, FITX stock set a new 52 week high and, considering the massive market pullback, could be setting it’s sights on new found territory – a dime!
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Since the last 2 trading sessions of 2013, the best-performing penny stocks have been linked directly to medical marijuana in one way or another. FITX stock is up 2,247.83% since December 27, 2013 and the fact that a new 52 week high was set today only implies that, although it appears that this entire sector is nothing more than the latest bubble with the recent gains set up to quickly evaporate, collaborating with GrowLife, Inc. (PHOT) to be capable of producing as much as 1.3 million pounds of medical marijuana annually is not something to be overlooked.
Creative Edge Nutrition is already a superb company when you look at them strictly from a muscle and fitness point of view. Growth in the health and fitness markets has been so strong over the last 18 months that without having entered into the marijuana sector, FITX could have sustained themselves albeit at lower levels than where they are today.
However, since they are in bed with one of the best companies in the sector, Growlife, the report detailing how Creative Edge Nutrition’s partially owned subsidiary, CEN Biotech, has been working under the inspection and authority of Health Canada, completed the extraordinary governmental processes in Canada to receive approval to begin constructing their state of the art medical marijuana facility in the City of Lakeshore, Ontario, Canada, screams only one thing – BUY!
Today, a ton of new money flocked towards FITX stock allowing for many traders who already owned shares to execute a trading philosophy which is becoming more and more popular when it comes to marijuana stocks – sell half when you’re up 100% and ride the “free shares” for the next decade. It might be a little over optimistic to think in terms of a decade from now, especially since FITX is going to have to RS their stock if they plan on raising any funds to build this facility, but to think FITX hits a dime in the next few weeks is something every trader can see happening after today’s strong performance.
About FITX Stock
Creative Edge Nutrition, Inc. is a development stage bio-science company engaged in the development and sales of nutraceuticals and health supplements.
Bottom Line:
Only 5 of the top 20 traded penny stocks ended their session in green today with PHOT and FITX ending 3rd and 4th, respectively, in total trades executed. Let there be one whisper of positive commentary to come from the government in regards to cannabis and your seat belt had best be buckled for a ride on FITX stock which can only be matched by driving an Enzo Ferrari on the Autobahn.
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Long ago, Arrow and others noted that innovations do not meet the usual assumptions necessary for efficient decentralized production, hence the necessity of policies like patents or prize contests to rectify the market's inefficiency. Theoretical models exploring innovation policy tend to focus either on the amount of effort exerted on innovation, or on the extent of spillovers from one firm to another. We are interested not in how hard firms work, but on which types of projects they work. Using some neat tricks to make a very general model of innovation direction tractable, we show that every policy which rewards inventors and depends only on inventions that are actually seen will distort innovation direction. Patents, prizes, and laissez faire are all examples of such distortionary policies.
Open Access mandates are common among funders and universities, with the NIH mandate binding on over one-third of publications in top medical journals. Yet prior research has not found substantive measurable benefits from these mandates. We show that open access increases citation of medical research in patents by 25 to 50 percent, an effect measured using double and triple differences that take advantage of a 2008 NIH policy change. Further, we match academic papers to patents using the in-specification references in the actual writeup of the patent, and show that these references are actually very different from the types of references you see in the prior art section. We argue that in-specification references are more likely to measure "the paper trail of knowledge."
Open Access mandates are common among funders and universities, with the NIH mandate binding on over one-third of publications in top medical journals. Yet prior research has not found substantive measurable benefits from these mandates. We show that open access increases citation of medical research in patents by 25 to 50 percent, an effect measured using double and triple differences that take advantage of a 2008 NIH policy change. Further, we match academic papers to patents using the in-specification references in the actual writeup of the patent, and show that these references are actually very different from the types of references you see in the prior art section. We argue that in-specification references are more likely to measure "the paper trail of knowledge."
When successive monopolies price noncooperatively, the resulting double markup is higher than that a monopolist would choose, hence vertically related firms often merge to coordinate the markup, maximize joint profits, and improve overall welfare. None of this is true when downstream is an oligopoly, whether the upstream markup is chosen cooperatively or noncooperatively. Therefore, there is a need to complete our intuition on what double marginalization does in the non-monopoly setting. We show precisely when noncooperative double marginalization is profitable, note that cooperative double marginalization chooses an upstream markup such that the downstream firm has a "consistent conjecture" about the rival's response curve, and show that simultaneous cooperative double marginalization induces an approximation of the "consistent conjectures equilibrium" from the theory of conjectural variation even though all upstream and downstream firms are individually Nash agents.
Industrial Reversals of Fortune: The Meaning of Invention in the Early Airplane Industry
The Wright Brothers invented the airplane in 1903 in the US, but the airplane industry is dominated by European firms by 1914. What happened? An invention is a discrete technological step where a series of necessary components are sufficiently advanced to make a technological leap. By decomposing inventions in their components, it is possible to see how an "inventing" location to actually be a technological laggard. This was true of the airplane: Europeans even in 1903 were more advanced in essentially every area necessary for the later commercial airplane except for lateral control.
Coming shortly:
A Note on Local Envy-Freeness in the GSP Auction
A User's Guide to In-Specification Patent Citations
Other Publications
The Perils of Path Dependencein book Survive and Thrive (eds J. Gans and S. Kaplan) [September 2017]When technological development in an industry is critical, firms ought be wary of inadvertendly pushing their industry onto a less profitable technological path; an example from the Nuclear Power industry is given in detail
Contracts for Adaptive Programming (w/ P. Carter)
Overseas Development Institute Report [October 2016]The theory of dynamic mechanism design, particularly results developed in the past decade, can inform the design of contracts by development agencies who want to encourage their local partners to experiment with how to deliver policy.
The Evolution of City Population Density in the United States (w/ P.-D. Sarte & B. Minton)
FRB Richmond Economic Quarterly 93.4 [2007] | CodeNo matter how the concept is measured, population density has been falling in the United States since the early 20th century. This is true across regions, in new and old cities, in legal cities, and in urbanized areas.
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The series starts off with the discovery of a murdered teenage girl, Laura Palmer. This event in turn leads to the eccentric Special Agent Dale Cooper visiting the town as part of his hunt for a serial killer. Although the murder investigation wraps up partway through season two, a new foe from Cooper's past keeps the plot moving until the notorious "How's Annie?" Cliff Hanger ending of season two (and in fact the series). The 1992 movie Fire Walk With Me mostly wraps things up. The show features a rather large and colorful cast with about as many subplots as there are characters, and the story contains quite a few examples of Red Herring Twist and Powers That Be.
In October 2014, David Lynch announced that Twin Peaks will be returning to TV in 2016 on Showtime. In late 2015, the premiere was pushed back to 2017. As of this writing, filming has been completed on the series, which was shot continuously from a single long shooting script; while it was initially described as a nine-episode limited series, the final episode count will not be determined until editing is complete. The so-called "Season 3" was written by Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost and directed entirely by Lynch.
Bunny Ears Lawyer: Some of Agent Cooper's investigation methods are unique to say the least. Surprisingly this is tolerated and even factored into serious case work by the officers of the Twin Peak's sheriff's department, who have probably never seen an FBI agent before and don't know any better.
The Chessmaster: Windom Earle is a rather literal example of this trope. He determines his victims through a game of chess played against Cooper, and even at one point dresses a victim as a giant chess piece before shooting him with a crossbow.
Cliffhanger Copout: Episode Two in the first season of ends with Agent Cooper having a dream from which he learns the identity of who killed Laura Palmer. Cooper immediately wakes up from the dream to call up Sheriff Truman to tell him that he knows who the murderer is but teases that the answer could "wait 'till morning." Come the next episode, taking place that following morning, Cooper recaps all the events from the dream that ended with Laura Palmer whispering the name of her killer in his ear. Then, once he's asked who the killer is, Cooper nonchalantly responds "I don't remember."
TMFAP: She's my cousin. But doesn't she look almost exactly like Laura Palmer?Cooper: But she is Laura Palmer. Are you Laura Palmer?Not-Laura: I feel like I know her, but sometimes my arms bend back.TMFAP: She's filled with secrets.
The Cuckoolander Was Right: Played straight with the Log Lady and several other characters. Averted by Cooper in that everyone takes his far-out theories seriously anyway (except for Albert, the only person who actually does have good reason to believe him).
Dark Is Not Evil: The inhabitants of the Black Lodge could not by any stretch of the imagination be called good (they eat pain and suffering, after all) but they do help Cooper with his investigation on numerous occasions.
Downer Ending: As there is no third season to provide closure, we're left to assume that half the cast is dead and Cooper's soul is trapped in the Black Lodge while BOB makes use of his possessed body.
Drugs Are Bad: A heavily implied (but not quite Anvilicious) aesop. While drugs are indeed a major part of Laura's downfall, her drug use doesn't exactly lead to her problems so much as result from them.
Gainax Ending: The ending for the "International Version" of the pilot episode. It ended up being heavily edited and re-contextualized for Cooper's dream at the end of the second episode.
Government Agency of Fiction: The FBI in the Twin Peaks universe often deals heavily in supernatural cases. These more often than not tend to be just a little more dangerous than the usual kind of work.
Government Conspiracy: Dale Cooper is a strong believer in conspiracy theories. Given his own experience...
Grotesque Gallery: Lodge inhabitants include The Man From Another Place (a dwarf, who is actually a severed arm in, for lack of a better word, "human" form), The Giant (a ... giant, obviously), a one-armed man, and Jimmy Scott (who suffered from Kallmann Syndrome).
Leo Johnson is one of the few examples of a Complete Monster who manages to turn face. He is an redeemable, abusive control freak toward Shelly in Season 1, but suffers much of the same abuse at the hands of Windom Earle in Season 2. His Heel Face Turn begins when he is reluctant in assisting Windom Earle kill an innocent victim, then sets fellow captive, Major Garland Briggs free and asks him to keep Shelly safe. Bear in mind Leo previously tried to immolate Shelly at the end of Season 1.
Audrey Horne. At first sight she seems to be a spoiled troublemaker who aspires to be a femme fatale (often successfully), but with time it is revealed that she's actually an lonely innocent with good intentions.
The director Todd Holland on Audrey's character: "She's one of my favorite characters because you thought she was such a big slut and she's probably the most moralistic person in Twin Peaks and that's all tremendous fun. The ones like her father feign morality and are incredibly treacherous, but they carry on a good business front."
Humanoid Abomination: Whatever else the inhabitants of the Black Lodge are, they are all surely this -- even the more benevolent ones, such as the Giant.
Idiot Ball: Happens sometimes towards the end of the series with both Harry and Cooper. The greatest offender, however, is Major Briggs, who after establishing that a murderous psychopath is hiding out in the forest decides to take a casual relaxing walk in the forest on the way home. Harry and Cooper thinks it's a great idea.
I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: In Episode 4, Andy drops his gun and it goes off by accident. In the next episode, a character gives a braggadocio-filled impression of how he'd handle being caught having an affair while waving a gun around with his finger on the trigger.
Interservice Rivalry: The Deer Meadow law enforcement don't like FBI sniffin' around their neck of the woods.
Invisible Backup Band: James' song he sings while playing guitar in the episode "Coma" has bass and percussion come out of nowhere halfway through.
Is This Thing On?: Played painfully straight with the town's mayor in the pilot and later on in the second season.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Albert defines this. After an amazing speech in which Albert's heart of gold becomes apparent, he and Sheriff Truman -- formerly bitter enemies -- become close friends and even hug one another in a later episode.
Audrey: But don't you like me?
Cooper: I like you very much. You're beautiful, intelligent, desirable. Everything a man wants in his life. But what you need right now, more than anything, is a friend. Someone who will listen.
Leitmotif: "Laura Palmer's Theme" and later (in the second season) "Audrey's Prayer" are repeatedly used as love themes. Some characters (Hank Jennings or Windom Earle for example) have their own themes as well.
Occult Detective: The natural result of Agent Cooper becoming aware of the town's less-than-normal qualities.
Of course, he started out using such investigative techniques as throwing rocks at a bottle while listening to the list of suspects to determine which leads to follow, which he learned from the Dalai Lama in a dream.
Keep in mind, given what we find out in The Movie, Cooper had already foreseen Laura's death and Gordon Cole likely informed him beforehand that he was working on a Blue Rose case. Which means the rules are, to put it mildly, just a little different.
Odd Friendship: Well, most of the town's residents and the agents dispatched there are odd, to say the least, but the trope is best exemplified by Albert and Truman later in Season 2.
Old Cop, Young Cop: Windom Earle and Dale Cooper might have been this before Earle went insane.
One-Scene Wonder: Loads of these in the movie. David Bowie shows up for all of a minute as Agent Jeffries (whose role in the shooting script was slightly larger), Harry Dean Stanton as a bizarre trailer park landlord, etc.
Owl Be Damned: They are the eyes of BOB. Maybe (in any case, they are not what they seem).
Place Beyond Time: The Black Lodge, where Cooper winds up stuck for at least 25 years while still communicating with himself and others through their dreams at various points in time -- including before Laura Palmer's murder, which brought him to Twin Peaks in the first place, even happened.
Rape as Backstory: A common explanation of Leland's backstory is that he was sexually assaulted by Bob Robertson, possibly as a means of demonic possession (or thus creating said demonic force). And that's not even bringing up how it affected Laura.
The "Cooper's Diary" book suggests that Cooper was also sexually abused by BOB (he came into his room) as a child.
Rasputinian Death: Leo Johnson. He survives being shot twice, two axe battles with Bobby Briggs (one of them being right after awakening from a coma from said gunshot), survives being out in the woods with no water, gets electrocuted by Windom Earle on a number of occasions, then finally it is implied Leo finally met his fate by a venomous spider.
Real Life Writes the Plot: BOB only murders women who resemble Laura Palmer. Kind of helps that his second and first victim were played by the same actor before David Lynch had even thought to establish this as a plot point.
She Really Can Act: Sheryl Lee's work as Laura (specifically Laura and not Maddie) in the few brief flashbacks in the series was...a little underwhelming, although it did fit in with the spirit of the high-concept Soap Opera spoof. Then along comes Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and she proved she does have the acting chops.
She does it again with the jukebox at the diner in the second episode.
"God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?"
This happens on a radio (which is immediately changed) in Season 2 episode 2. Actually, this happens a lot on Twin Peaks.
In another season two episode, some melancholy flute music plays over an establishing shot of the abandoned house Windom Earle is occupying, which turns out to be... Windom Earle himself playing the flute. It sounds kind of silly, but it's in fact a pretty eerie moment since he's doing it while waiting for Leo Johnson to come to so he can torture him.
Spider Sense: In The Movie Cooper reveals to Albert that he's foreseen Laura's death before it actually happens (possibly by meeting his future self in the Black Lodge), putting Albert's skepticism in an entirely different context on a second re-watch of the series.
"I've got good news. That gum you like is going to come back in style."
Temporal Paradox: Agent Cooper examines the live security cameras in the FBI office and catches sight of himself on screen as Agent Jeffries walks in the room (which had already happened just a few seconds ago). It's later claimed that Agent Jeffries was never there in the first place. This is hinted to be similar to the way time works in the Black Lodge when Cooper tries to contact Laura through her dreams.
"Now, could we talk about something more important? Exactly how old is that girl?"
"Denise, I would assume you're no longer interested in girls."
"Coop, I may be wearing a dress, but I still put my panties on one leg at a time, if you know what I mean."
"Not really."
Wild Mass Guessing: Due to the extremely ambiguous nature of Word of God (we're talking about David Lynch here after all), much of what is accepted as canon online (especially on this page) is based on some of the more probable and believable examples of Wild Mass Guessing as to what's going on in the series. Even that isn't exactly saying much...
Wild Wilderness: The setting has a creepy lodge in the middle of the woods that may or may not be there and no one seems to notice it.
Word of Dante: It's important to apply this rather than Word of God when summarizing the series. A rather fitting trope when you consider the White and Black Lodge might as well be the in-series equivalent of Dante's Paradise and Inferno... which would make Twin Peaks itself Purgatory...
Wham! Episode: The final one, and several others along the way, including Maddy's death at the hands of of Laura's killer.
What about the first season finale? Audrey is captured at "One Eyed Jacks", Nadine tries to commit suicide, Leland murders the newly captured Jacques Renault in the hospital, Leo tries to kill Bobby but is shot by Hank, the mill, with Catherine and Shelly inside burns down as Pete rushes to the rescue and Cooper is shot in his hotel room by an unknown assailant.
Mark Frost has talked about how he really wasn't sure the show would get a second season, so he packed every conceivable cliffhanger he could into the first season finale (to the point that it almost became a parody) in the hopes that someone would say, "Okay, I have to know what happens next."
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Herald of the Titans Protection Paladin Gearing Guide
评论
评论来自 tralum
Hey mateFirst off i enjoyed your generall guide a lot and am currently trying to get the AV, so i appreciate the work you put into all these guides a lot.BUUUUT ( yeah i know this had to come now :D) i have several rather specific suggestions that all come from the same 2 generall ones:a) Normal mode Burning Crusade dungeon-gear, when farmed by a level 80 is in quite some cases supperior to level 80 raid gear.For this specific specc the examples i have are: Shaarde the Lesser- weapon from Auchenai Cryptsas well as the Gauntlets of Divine Blessings from Magisters' Terraceand the Girdle of the Immovable from The Slave Pens.So as you can see there are quite a lot.b) Proccing items (trinkets and weapons) dont seem to have an internal cooldown anymore, so quite a few of them have almost 100% uptime, which makes them in almost all cases supperior to active trinkets, which DO have their normal cooldown. (Sadly this issue does NOT seem to be shared by the ICC-faction rings.)I do NOT have any examples for this on the tank pali side, as i havent been able to get my hands on the tanktrinket from azjol. But it is true for the tank weapon from icc "last word" (which still isnt particulaly good) and healing trinkets such as pandoras plea from mimiron, which, im fairly certain, makes it BiS for every heal class as it just gives a flat 91 int (i also think that the eye of the broodmother slipped past you for the heal shaman guide, but thats a side note)
评论来自 Raivhen
Hey there! Thanks so much for taking the time to do these guides!
Many of the gear/weapon items are over 100 ilv now, after the stat squash. Any change you'll be updating this for current content (8.1.5)?
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Pritam Chakraborty is known for creating interesting and impressive soundtracks, but he fails to compose anything extraordinary for "Thank You". The sounds and songs are ordinary.
The music album contains five originals and four remixed tracks.
It opens with the a re-arranged version of "Pyar do pyar lo", a hit cabret number from Firoz Khan's 1986 film"Jaanbaaz". Pritam has revisited it with new lyrics and new appeal. Crooned by Mika Singh, both sounds and lyrics are a put off. The neo-age version falls flat. Not a very good beginning for the album.
It also has a remixed version.
Next is "Razia", a fast-paced item number kind of a song that has Master Saleem and Ritu Pathak lending vocals to it. While the musical arrangements have contemporary techno beats, the style of singing and lyrics are rustic. Despite the experiment, the song falls flat and creates no interest.
A remix follows this version too, which is average.
Then comes in "Full volume", which hints at the olden style of singing. Sung by Neeraj Shridhar and Richa Sharma with nasal touch, which used to be prevalent in retro songs. It also has rap in the background and the base beat reminds you of the composition in "Zor ka jhatka". On the whole, this love song too fails to make a mark.
Even the remix sounds stale.
Next is titled "My heart is beating", where Sonu Niigaam tries to mimic singer Shabbir Kumar, giving the song a touch of the 1980s and 1990s. It offers equal amount of contemporisation with English lyrics and modern beats. However, even though it's funny in the beginning, the song fails to hold the interest.
Again the remix version has nothing extraordinary to offer.
Finally, the album offers a moderately-paced love song called "Pyaar mein". Javed Ali and Neeraj Shridhar try to impress with the mushy lines, but ordinary composition takes away the soul from the song. It doesn't connect with the listener, although Pritam tries to come in his own skin with this number.
On the whole, quite a disappointing soundtrack by Pritam. The composer has done a much better job in the past, but "Thank You" somehow misses his magic touch.
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Microsoft Probing ActiveX Bug in Internet Explorer
Microsoft continues to investigate a new vulnerability revealed at the top of the week regarding an ActiveX control component in Internet Explorer. The software giant issued a security advisory on Monday to that effect.
At the heart of the bug is a flaw in Internet Explorer's video ActiveX control that could allow a hacker to gain control of a workstation if a malicious media file on a vulnerable or untrustworthy Web site is accessed by a user.
"Looks like ActiveX strikes again," said Andrew Storms, director of security at nCircle. "While the tidal wave of ActiveX issues seemed to have slowed in recent years, veterans of Microsoft security will recall the endless headaches caused by ActiveX vulnerabilities in the not too distant past."
Recent ActiveX bugs include one outlined in a security advisory rolled out exactly a year ago. In that case, Redmond said that a bug enabled hackers to exploit a hole in ActiveX controls for certain components of Microsoft Access.
"This time, Microsoft claims that there are no by-design uses for this ActiveX Control," Storms said. "This leaves security professionals wondering why Microsoft chose to leave the ActiveX control available anyway."
To Microsoft's credit, the difference between last year and this year is its attention to detail. The software giant said Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 users aren't touched by the vulnerability but that as a precautionary measure, IT pros working with all operating systems should "implement [the advisory workarounds] as a defense-in-depth measure."
Indeed, Redmond offered many workarounds to this IE ActiveX bug. A couple of them involve merely adjusting IE settings. For instance, administrators can choose to run IE in a restricted mode allowing enterprise-level enhanced security configuration methodology to separate client-side or local workstation Web surfing from server side Internet access. Redmond said this is "a mitigating factor for Web sites that you have not added to the Internet Explorer Trusted sites zone."
Another workaround involves preventing the Microsoft video ActiveX control from running in Internet Explorer. In doing this, the advisory said that there would be no operational "impact to application compatibility."
To that end, nCircle's Storms and others, such as Shavlik Technologies Chief Technology Officer Eric Schultze, laud the thorough workaround approach Redmond has taken with what has been a persistent threat in ActiveX vulnerabilities.
"Corporations and some end users may be protected via their antivirus solutions," Schultze explained. "For all others, I recommend the Microsoft Fix-It tool on their Web site -- this is a very simple and easy way for users to protect themselves."
For his part, Storms said the key positive with this latest security advisory is the "excellent set of workarounds."
"Mitigation information like this demonstrates what the industry standard should be in security bulletin information," he said.
Microsoft's security bulletin explains that the company is "currently working to develop a security update for Windows to address this vulnerability" and will release it when ready for public distribution.
About the Author
Jabulani Leffall is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the Financial Times of London, Investor's Business Daily, The Economist and CFO Magazine, among others.
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Samsung are pushing hard to win over users of their MP3 players and the last year has thrown up some interesting offerings. The P3, or YP-P3 to use the full title, is the latest in this line, but now bringing full touchscreen controls into the game. We check it out to see what is on offer.
First up you'd be forgiven for thinking the P3 is a phone - the 3-inch, 480 x 272, 16:9 screen certainly brings to mind the likes of the Tocco. The body is solidly constructed with a brushed aluminium back and a solid feel - it doesn't twist or creak. Attention has been given to the details which you are going to need if you are lining yourself up against something like the Apple iPod touch.
In terms of hard buttons you'll find a power switch which doubles as a screen lock and a volume control on the top, nestled alongside a small internal speaker. The bottom of the player features the 3.5mm headphone jack and the proprietary connector for hooking up to your PC via the included USB cable. The mic is also found lurking on the bottom.
The screen itself is all touch-enabled, with an additional touch area across the bottom that fires up a mini player, meaning you can be browsing your photos, and dive in and skip on a track without having to back out and enter the music section itself. It makes it easy to make changes on the fly without have to dive into the menus.
When in the video player, this touch area will double as a volume control, so you can slide the volume up and down on the screen rather than using the buttons on the top. There is also a Quick Tray at the top, that can be accessed when not on the home page, giving shortcuts back home, to select the output option, make a Bluetooth connection or lock the screen.
The lock button (or on-screen option) is slow to respond and as a result is incredibly irritating, as you spend your time locking and unlocking the thing because it takes a little longer than you think it should.
Touch is reasonably responsive. We say reasonably because like other touch devices, it is easy to select something, get a haptic buzz to tell you you have touched, but not actually trigger the event you wanted. You need to be firmer than you might first think, a good firm press of the icon or menu option you want and you'll be on your way.
Given the screen space available it is surprising then that some of the buttons are so small: tap an icon and you enter a menu - usually the bottom left corner gives you the back icon to revert to the home screen or back a step. This back icon is one you'll use frequently and we found it to be too small, especially if you tried to use your thumb in a one-handed navigation style.
Held in one hand and using the forefinger of your other hand gives better results, but we were occasionally frustrated by what seemed like a wasted opportunity here and this is the main point where it falls behind the usability of the iPod touch.
The home page is set over three screens with a collection of icons and widgets, meaning you can have less-used features hiding over another page, rather than buried in a menu that you never open. Everything can be moved around, dragging icons to new locations so you can actually get to what you want quickly and comfortably. The widgets too can be added or removed, so if you don't want that butterfly idly flying around you can get rid of it.
Some of the widgets are nothing more than a bit if decoration with no real purpose, but it does mean you can have that custom look and feel and break away from the formal grid that your icons have to stick to. Our favourite widget is the slideshow, which will just leaf through your images right there on the homepage. The overall result is impressive, it's fun, you aren't stuck to the same boring static screen, you can make the player your own, which we really like.
It's a shame that the menus aren't quite as interesting as you might want them to be until you make a few select presses. You can navigate by the usual artist, album, genre and so on, but the P3 also supports cover art so you can opt for a cover view meaning you can swipe through your albums with your finger and find the one you want. It isn't as slick as Cover Flow, but is a nice attempt.
That screen lends itself natively to watching movies on the move, and supporting the BBC's iPlayer, users in the UK will be able to download and sideload Eastenders for watching on the train to work. The colours are bright, bold, and the screen is nice and sharp so watching it is a pleasure, if you can handle watching video files in such a small format. However, with the sharpness that the glossy screen provides, it does suffer in daylight with reflections, something to bear in mind, but often unavoidable on this type of device.
Other interesting features include FM radio, Datacast player, picture viewer with slideshow function, as well as a text browser. You also have an address book, alarms, voice recorder, games (although our model didn't have any games loaded). A subway map application is useful, and provides some notable landmarks with brief descriptions, ideal for those long evenings in foreign cities at boring conferences.
On a hardware front you have Bluetooth included, meaning that you can connect to a Bluetooth headset, or use the P3 as a handsfree speakerphone with your mobile, or transfer files. Unfortunately you don't get Wi-Fi, so you don't get a direct connection to the Internet.
Sound quality from Samsung players is generally pretty good, with the biggest boost coming from upgrading the headphones over the rather lack-lustre hard plastic bundled options. You get the normal array of Samsung technology, such as DNSe, which claims to improve the sound offering. What will please users is the range of file formats supported, which on the audio front include MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC and FLAC, whilst video support gives you WMV, MPEG4, H.264.
The internal speaker is average for a player of this size, but thankfully you can opt to disable it, so if you pull out the headphones, it won't broadcast your music to everyone. You can also set different volumes for the speaker and headphones, so you could have your speaker full blast for your mates, but only at 50% for your headphones, which is a great option.
The battery claims 30 hours of music playback, or 5 hours of video. Unfortunately you can't listen to it whilst you charge it from your PC.
Verdict
Samsung's premise with the P3 was to create a player for the "most demanding consumers". In some senses that's what the P3 is. It is certainly well constructed and the interface is, for the most part, a pleasure to use. We like the customisability too and there are plenty of features packed into the player.
However with the number of features on offer here, it feels more like a mobile phone, but without calling functions, which as we've mentioned numerous times above, bring it up against the iPod touch. It's a shame then that it doesn't go one step further and give you Wi-Fi to complete the package, connecting things up and providing a true alternative to Apple's offering.
The Samsung YP-P3 is available in 4, 8, 16, 32GB models, and a choice of silver or black.
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A -19C windchill becomes a matter of life or death for the homeless. Our Clinical Manager, Joyce Rankin, interviewed by CBC Radio's Matt Galloway
Compassionate health care for Toronto's homeless
Street Health is a non-profit community
based agency that strives to improve the health and well-being of homeless
and under-housed people in downtown Toronto. We offer physical and mental
health programs, as well as supports that improve clients’ ability to access other
services. Our work is focused in the neighbourhood around Dundas and Sherbourne
Streets, an area with the largest concentration of homeless shelters and drop-in
centres in Canada. On an average day, 115 clients come through our doors; we
have 40,000 client visits each year.
The people we work with have lives
characterized by extreme poverty, chronic unemployment, housing insecurity, poor
nutrition, high stress and loneliness. They also have more frequent and serious
illnesses, and die younger on average than the general population. People who
are homeless, and those experiencing income insecurity, often cannot afford or
have difficulty following medical treatment plans. Many people living on the
street have difficulty accessing mainstream health services due to barriers
such as lack of valid ID, the cost of transportation or social stigma.
With your support, we can make it work. We envision a day when our services are not needed, but until then our fierce commitment continues.
Health Care at Street Level
The health services we provide are
client-centered, flexible, and responsive.Our multi-disciplinary service model can assess individual needs from
different perspectives and respond with dynamic solutions. Street Health’s team of full-time and
volunteer Nursesprovides much
needed primary healthcare at our location, at other community locations, and at
area drop-ins. Our five-member community Mental Health team builds ongoing
relationships that help people with mental health issues access vital services
and supports. Our ID Team operates
nine clinics per month, where they help people replace essential pieces of lost
or stolen identification. One of the biggest barriers to accessing support or
services is the lack of valid government-issued ID. Once a client’s ID is replaced, the Street
Health ID Safe Programprovides a
secure and confidential place for them to store their valuable documents, which
may still be at risk of loss or theft. The ID Safe also operates a secure Mail Service, which provides a reliable
mailing address for clients dealing with housing instability. Our Harm Reduction program provides
supports for community members dealing with addiction issues and the risks
associated with substance use. We offer a needle exchange and stem
distribution, as well as education, drop-in programming, and access to all the
other services we provide. We firmly believe that healthy public policies are
building blocks for creating healthier communities, and our decades of
published Research and ongoing
systemicAdvocacy focus on gathering
facts and information and using them to work upstream for positive change.
If you would like to access our
services, or refer your clients, please call us at (416) 921-8668 or send an
email to [email protected]
To learn more about Street Health
programs and services, please follow the hyperlinks above or click on the tabs to
the left of your screen.
If you would like to donate to help
support our services, please click hereor call (416) 921-8668 ext. 229. All
donations will receive a charitable tax receipt.
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9.25.2015
Happy Friday Y'all!! The leaves are starting to turn, the cool mornings are upon us and the projects...well, they are just neverending! If you enjoy fixing up a curb side find, trying your hand at those scary saws in the garage or slapping a few coats of chalk paint onto a piece of furniture that needed a new lease on life, then please visit my Linky Fun Tab above and link up to all the fun blog linky parties that I've found through this wonderful world, we call the internet!
They are sorted and alphabetical, so you can find them again with ease. So go ahead and link up
your shabby, crafty, wowididthat, yummy, trash to treasure, amazing creations and share them with the rest of us!
TERMS & CONDITIONS: this giveaway is open to US residents ONLY. By entering you give the right to use your name and likeness. Number of entries received determines the odds of winning. One winner will be selected. This is a giveaway sponsored as a group buy, which means the bloggers pooled their money together to purchase this product for you or are gifting their services. Winner will be drawn by random.org from all verified entries, contacted by email provided, and announced on this page at the end of the contest. Winner has 48 hours to respond or prize will be redrawn. Entrant is responsible for the email address they provide, whether through typing it directly or through the Facebook entry method. Amber Nicole and LeroyLime is not responsible for lost or misdirected emails. All prizes will be awarded. No prize substitutions allowed. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook and we hereby release Facebook of any liability. Information is provided to Amber Nicole, not to Facebook and your information is never sold or shared. Facebook, Rodan + Fields and Target are not a sponsor of this giveaway. Prize is mailed or emailed directly by Amber Nicole and bloggers giving away items and requires confirmation of delivery. Protected tweets do not count as an entry method for tweeting. Tweets must come from a public account. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.
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The ATLAS experiment has recently commissioned a new hardware component of its first-level trigger: the topological processor (L1Topo). This innovative system, using state-of-the-art FPGA processors, selects events by applying kinematic and topological requirements on candidate objects (energy clusters, jets, and muons) measured by calorimeters and muon sub-detectors. Since the first-level trigger is a synchronous pipelined system, such requirements are applied within a latency of 200ns. We will present the first results from data recorded using the L1Topo trigger; these demonstrate a significantly improved background event rejection, thus allowing for a rate reduction without efficiency loss. This improvement has been shown for several physics processes leading to low-pT leptons, including H->tau tau and J/Psi->mu mu. In addition, we will discuss the use of an accurate L1Topo simulation as a powerful tool to validate and optimize the performance of this new trigger system. To reach the required accuracy, the simulation must take into account the limited precision that can be achieved with kinematic calculations implemented in firmware.
This contribution reviews the novel LHC luminosity control software stack. All luminosity-related manipulations and scans in the LHC interaction points are managed by the LHC luminosity server, which enforces concurrency correctness and transactionality. Operational features include luminosity optimization scans to find the head-on position, luminosity levelling, and the execution of arbitrary scan patterns defined by the LHC experiments in a domain specific language. The LHC luminosity server also provides full built-in simulation capabilities for testing and development without affecting the real hardware. The performance of the software in 2016 and 2017 LHC operation is discussed and plans for further upgrades are presented.
Accelerator control software often has to handle multi-dimensional data of physical quantities when aggregating readings from multiple devices (e.g. the reading of an orbit in the LHC). When storing such data as nested hashtables or lists, the ability to do structural operations or calculations along an arbitrary dimensions is hampered. Tensorics is a Java library to provide a solution for these problems. A Tensor is a n-dimensional data structure, and both structural (e.g. extraction) and mathematical operations are possible along any dimension. Any Java class or interface can serve as a dimension, with coordinates being instances of a dimension class. This contribution will elaborate on the design and the functionality of the Tensorics library and highlight existing use cases in operational LHC control software, e.g. the LHC luminosity server or the LHC chromaticity correction application.
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GolfDigest Best tips ever
since our First issue in 1950, one mission has persisted: Find the teachers and players with the best instruction, and deliver it in ways that will help golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
When we set out to identify the 60 greatest tips from our 60 years, we again turned to the experts: Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America.
After a panel of editors searched the archives, creating a list of nalists, we surveyed the teachers, asking them to grade the tips on a scale of 1 to 10 for:
(1) effectiveness
(2) originality
(3) presentation
(4) author prominence
#golf
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Attention A T users. To access the menus on this page please perform the following steps.
1. Please switch auto forms mode to off.
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Background:Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disabling neurological disease that affects many Veterans. More than 16,000 Veterans with MS receive care in the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VHS) and over 6,000 of those have service connection for MS. Treatment of MS is largely outpatient but Veterans with MS require more visits per person than all but a handful of other diagnostic groups. Treatment of MS includes complex and expensive pharmacologic agents as well as multidisciplinary medical and rehabilitation services and assistive technology. In 2003, because of surveys showing wide unexplained variations in the care of Veterans with MS across the VHS, the Department of Veterans Affairs established two Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence (MSCoE) to improve access to MS specialty care, to develop national standards of care and to implement those standards through a network of regional MS programs. VA Central Office (VACO), with input from the MSCoE and a network of over 70 VA MS programs has released a handbook for MS care, “The multiple sclerosis system of care procedures handbook,” VHA Handbook 1011.
Standards of Care: Because of the complex needs of Veterans with MS, care must be comprehensive and multidisciplinary. The handbook describes the diagnostic and therapeutic health care services that are required by Veterans with MS including primary care, MS specialty care, rehabilitation, palliative care, respite care, home care, long-term care, mental health care, social work services, care coordination telehealth services and access to disease modifying and symptomatic pharmacological therapies.
National System of Care: The handbook specifies that the location of care should be dictated by individual needs and should be as convenient for the Veteran as possible. To support this, the handbook outlines a regional hub and spoke network (MS Handbook Figure 2, page 25). Every VISN should support MS Regional Programs (hub sites) staffed with MS subspecialists and other care providers following the guidelines in this handbook (see MS Handbook section 11, page 21-24 and Appendix A). VA facilities without an MS Regional Program are designated as spoke sites and should follow the staffing recommendations for MS Support Programs (see MS Handbook section 12, page 24-25) so Veterans with MS are able to access appropriate services as close to home as possible. The integration of VA care coordination, telehealth and informatics approaches to improve Veteran access to health care services and to provide subspecialist support to spoke sites is encouraged.
Annual evaluations: In order to ensure high quality care, the handbook specifies that every Veteran with MS should undergo an annual evaluation in which the care plan is reviewed by a provider knowledgeable in MS and a simple electronic clinical data surveillance tool (CDS Tool, see MS Handbook Appendix C) is completed. Ideally this would be in a face-to-face office visit for each Veteran with an MS subspecialist but this requirement could be satisfied through primary care with input from a provider familiar with MS or even a telephone interview with the Veteran by a provider knowledgeable about MS.
Funding: Funds are allocated to the facilities to care for Veterans with MS through the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) system. Veterans with MS who have impairments of paraplegia or quadriparesis fall into price group 8. Since 2006, less disabled Veterans with MS have been moved from Price Group 2 to Price Group 4 or 5 depending on whether disease modifying agents are prescribed. This change was determined by VERA to provide local facilities with the resources needed to support the health services required by these Veterans. MSCoE will work with VACO to monitor the funding allocation to facilities for this cohort over time to assure that adequate resources are available for needed care.
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Cite This Source
Low-Down
Have you ever played that game "Telephone" where the first person whispers a sentence to the next, and that person whispers it to the next person, and so on? The point of the game is to see just how far off from the original the sentence becomes by the time the last person recites it. No matter how many people are in the chain, it's always different by the time it reaches the last one. And usually it's gotten a bit raunchier as well.
In the real world there are people who make a living trying to make sure that people get the story straight. These are professional "Telephone" players, just as real estate developers are professional "Monopoly" players and actors are professional "Don't Tip the Waiter" players. They work in a field called "Public Relations."
You'll often be told that, to get into Public Relations, you need to write and speak well. That's true. But there's more to the story. To get in and stay in you had better be a really quick-thinker, willing to regularly have the demeanor of a bulldog gripping a big soup bone, and at the same time be the biggest suck-up the world has seen. You need to be like a Transformer, able to instantaneously morph yourself and change how you handle situations to best meet the needs of your client (Sybil and her multiple personalities have nothing on you).
Sometimes she even thinks she's Mary Todd Lincoln.
Public Relations (or PR as it is commonly called) involves controlling information about something—usually a company or a prominent person (like an entertainer or politician). There are different areas of PR, some more exciting than others. The most common type of PR jobs fall under the oversized umbrella of a marketing department at a company. While companies use some of their marketing staff to create expensive collateral materials (think printed pieces, TV commercials, radio spots, etc.), the public relations group gets to do the fun stuff. More fun than making TV commercials, you ask? Yes siree. The E-Trade baby wishes he was in PR.
The entire focus of the PR specialist's work is to build relationships with the people who buy the products, use the services, or have other affiliations with the company they represent. Depending on the type of "client" being represented (and yes, the company that you work for can be considered your client), there are plenty of ways to get the word out.
Writing press releases, planning book signings, booking your company big shots as guest lecturers, creating interview opportunities for personnel with particular expertise in something, email blasts, newsletter production, blogging, tweeting, attending speaking engagements held by closely affiliated business groups, scheduling personal appearances by the client, planning and orchestrating photo ops, brainstorming and executing publicity stunts (like when Taco Bell bought the Liberty Bell or when Burger King took the Whopper off the menu for a day), press kit development, providing support for new product launches, planning (and attending) red carpet events, booking concert promotions, and trade show participation are just some examples. They are quite a few examples, actually, but even still it only scratches the surface. A big part of the job is about doing the leg work that helps get the "faces" of the company (chief execs, creatives, your boss, etc.) out into the public eye. And you can't just slap their literal faces onto a giant billboard and be done with that. It takes a bit more finesse than that.
The less common role of a PR person is the one you see on TV or in the movies. (As if anything on TV or in the movies does not perfectly reflect the way the real world works…please!) If you’ve ever seen the new version of Melrose Place, think about Ella, the character played by Katie Cassidy. Her job was one that most people who enter this field dream about doing. She worked for a big PR firm that got to represent all sorts of high-falutin clients. Her work took her to great places for exotic photo shoots, she got to meet the hottest talent in music and television, and she got to go to some of the swankiest parties around (on the level of P. Diddy's New Year's party), all while wearing the hottest clothing, usually provided by a designer her firm represented, eating at the finest restaurants while entertaining clients (with the meals paid for by her vast expense account), and much more.
Yes—these top-notch positions are out there, but they are few and far between, and it usually takes years and years of hard work in the PR trenches before you're ready to take on this type of role (unlike Ella who seemed to have landed this job right out of the college gate. Hm…it's as if the writers of Melrose Place wanted us to suspend our disbelief…).
For the more normal PR specialists (or the abnormal ones with the more normal jobs, anyway) there are times when the gig can approach this glorified position. This happens when the company wants to drum up a lot of publicity about something—typically a new product or service. To accomplish this, lots of planning takes place as to what types of PR should be done (like in our uber-long list above) to best get the word out. Once the game plan is made, it's all hands on deck! Your contact list and calendar become your best friends. (Not your "best friend 4EVA" though. That's Janet and always will be.) There's a wide variety of projects to get done and typically there's never enough time to get it all worked out. You need to be beyond excellent at what you do to keep everything moving and on schedule. And don't think that it will all go smoothly. It never does. Problems crop up almost daily—the printer lost your files, the suite at a hotel your boss told you to book for a press conference is not available, the limo that's supposed to drive your big shots to their speaking engagement broke down, there's no electricity in your client’s room at the hotel suite—these are just some examples of the issues (hold curse words in) that can and do occur.
If you're good at holding your temper and finding a way to get people to help you out of tough situations, then you’ll be okay. Part of working through this is what's known by PR pros as "spin." Many people think spin is basically creative lying, when in reality it's more like diverting the negative attention that is being received and turning the situation to your advantage. It's a "why-focus-on-that-hungry-escaped-tiger-heading-toward-us-when-it’s-such-a-beatiful-day!" way of looking at things. Here's an example of spinning using a company that makes heart medication:
News breaks about a heart medication that is causing people to lose their hair by the handful. (Better than a hair growth product that is making people lose their hearts by the handful.) Rather than run and hide—or worse, deny that this is occurring—the PR execs at the company issue press releases in various forms (blog posts, tweets, print, TV spots, etc.) stating that they will quickly launch an investigation into the claims. It further states that production of the product will stop until the investigation is finished and all product on the shelves will immediately be pulled. Taking such action is costly for the company, but not as costly as if somebody's entire scalp falls off and they end up suing for some ungodly sum.
As time goes on, the company keeps the public up-to-date as newsworthy developments occur in the investigation. This shows that they care about the victims and are trying to resolve an issue for them. Quite often, these releases are timed to coincide with other good news about the company, to soften the emotion that is wrapped up in the more scandalous issue. "We’re working on getting your hair to grow back, but in the meantime, we're offering a 2-for-1 deal on Ibuprofin!" That’s spin, baby.
The company's efforts to fix the problem continue until some resolution has been made and a final announcement can be delivered to the public. However, in the background (and this is the "sneaky" part that PR people excel at), the company actively searches out ways to align themselves with groups or organizations that have something to do with heart disease. They decide to sponsor at least three of them: The American Heart Association, WomenHeart, and some heart camps sponsored by the cardiology departments of two major children's hospitals in prominent cities (because whose heart doesn't bleed—figuratively, of course—when a sick child is thrust in front of their face).
This picture had better make you feel something, robot.
The company chooses to become the "official sponsor" supporting events that these organizations hold, which does a couple of things. It keeps their name in the public eye in a positive way and, more importantly, it diverts attention away from the negative issue that it is tackling behind the scenes. The value of the newfound public goodwill that is generated typically outweighs the dollars that the company expends on this sponsorship. So even charitable acts do not always come from a wholly unselfish place. But hey, is there really anything so bad about a situation where everyone wins?
This is essentially why public relations pros have jobs. Rather than let word of mouth dictate the outcome of an event, PR people take charge and tell you what they want you to know and believe about a particular situation or client. And, when that's not enough, they divert your attention to what they want you to see and believe. Even if it means resorting to helping those in need.
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Slice of Prince William’s Wedding Cake Going Up For Auction
A slice of the wedding cake Prince William and Catherine Duchess Of Cambridge tucked into at their lavish 2011 nuptials is expected to fetch up to $2,000 when it goes up for auction next month.
The fruit cake was enjoyed by guests including Queen Elizabeth II former soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria and wedding singer Ellie Goulding three years ago and now one lucky royal devotee has been given the chance to own a piece.
The slice sealed in a special presentation tin is estimated to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000 at the Julien’s Auctions of Beverly Hills sale in December.
The wedding cake won’t be the only royal lot for sale a number of ball gowns belonging to William’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, are also up for auction. The dresses the latest from Diana’s wardrobe to be sold off include a petal pink design by Catherine Walker which the princess wore to an opera in London in 1993 and a Zandra Rhodes evening gown Diana donned for a benefit in the U.K. capital in 1987. The items are expected to sell for at least $60,000 and $80,000 respectively.
The lots are currently on display in New York and will be auctioned off in Beverly Hills California on 5 and 6 December 2014.
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Slant is written by a community helping you be informed. Tell us what you’re passionate about to get an awesome personalized feed.
5 0
Google Cardboard Review
Review of Google Cardboard powered by the Slant community.
It may not be your high end gaming VRE headset, but with just a few pieces of cardboard and a phone (Nexus 5 should be but you can adapt), you'll get a fully working VR headset with audio, gyroscope, 3D, etc. That little metal ring on the side is actually a trigger (using the Nexus 5 magnetic sensor).
Google Cardboard is more of a standard than a single product. It started with a cardboard box with glass lenses and a slot to hold your phone, but now there are many different hardware solutions that are all just as capable as the next.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro
Very low barrier to entry
Google Cardboard was specifically designed to make it easy to try out VR. The cost is low, and virtually any phone you have in your pocket today can power it. Content is even available on the Google Play Store - it can't get any simpler than that.
Pro
Works with any Android phone
Depending on the version of cardboard, there may be some size limitations which limit your options. However, if you aren't picky about the hardware phones from 4" all the way to 7" are supported.
Cons
Con
Requires an Android phone
The low price is somewhat deceptive, since it does require an Android phone to work. However, you might already have one.
Con
Your experience will vary
Older hardware won't perform admirably, whether it be the SoC (system on a chip), display (resolution as well as sub-pixel arrangement make a huge impact on display quality for VR), or battery life (VR takes a lot of power).
Con
Very basic
Google Cardboard was Google's way of generating interest for phone powered VR, and is literally just a piece of cardboard (or plastic) and glass lenses. The software is integrated into the Google Play Store, and Google more-or-less put Cardboard out there to see what developers would do with it. Later in 2016, Google will be making their next push forward with Daydream which will be a more modern, well thought through platform.
Con
The official box is for Nexus 5 only
Even though you may apply the technique to other phones, the prebuilt one is only working well with Nexus 5 because of the screen size, NFC sensor, camera position, and magnetic sensor. However all of these are optional and it'll work as long as your phone screen size is roughly 5 inches.
[Additional Information:] Many phones can fit with minimal modifications to the Cardboard.
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Password
Clicked Item
Customer Review
rate: 75Delivery was late
Expected delivery was supposed to be 4-7pm. However, received a call at around 7.15pm that delivery will be late & they are reaching in 5mins.
BUT, we waited till close to 8pm then we received our items. Waited 4hours from 4-8pm!!!
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National Coffee Day
Happy National Coffee Day. As if we need an excuse to buy coffee for a friend.
Do you remember the Maryland State Trooper who maybe drank too much coffee and pulled his gun on a speeding motorcyclist? The motorcycle rider, Anthony Graber, posted helmetcam video to YouTube of officer Joseph Uhler jumping out of his patrol car with his weapon drawn. The police responded by raiding Graber’s home, seizing his video and computer equipment, and arresting him for violating Maryland’s wiretapping laws. Happily, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Emory A. Plitt Jr threw out the charges, ruling that police officers enjoy little expectation of privacy as they perform their duties.
“Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public,” Plitt wrote. “When we exercise that power in a public forum, we should not expect our activity to be shielded from public scrutiny.”
Thank you, Judge Plitt.
Caffeine is not prohibited by the World Anti Doping Agency, so Svitlana Galyuk (pictured below) can drink as much coffee as she can handle as she races in the UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, Australia. I have about a zillion more photos from the UCI Road Worlds – I’ll try to post if there’s time.
I’m curious why somebody would think CDs inserted into bike spokes is newsworthy? Does the fact that it occurred in Copenhagen instead of, say, Kansas City, make it special?
Grist: Should cyclists pay a road tax? As far as I can tell, there are no import duties, tariffs or taxes on coffee. The United States Government publishes a “Harmonized Tariff Schedule,” and “Coffee, whether or not roasted or decaffeinated; coffee
husks and skins” are all listed as “Free.” The only exception is “Coffee substitutes containing coffee,” which is charged either 1.5¢/kg, 6.6¢/kg, or nothing, depending on which “Rate of Duty” applies.
Danish bike crash caught on Google Maps. The location is Vestergade 12, 1456 København, Denmark, but Google has changed the image and removed the crash. Reportedly, the crashing cyclist saw the Google Maps car and crashed while he tried to take a photo of it. Oops.
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, NYSE Composite , Russell 1000 Eidetikers as those 比特币indexticker who possess this ability are called, report a vivid afterimage that lingers in the visual field with their eyes appearing to scan across the
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Footballer Sergio Romero is a famous and renowned football player. He is an Argentine professional footballer. Romero plays for his Argentina national team. Sergio Germán Romero is his full / real name. Sergio Romero is one of the best footballers across world. Sergio Romero also plays for English football club Manchester United FC. Sergio Romero playing position is goalkeeper.
Footballer Sergio Romero House or resident address, contact number, biography, family and related information is listed here with the latest news of Footballer Sergio Romero. You can also get more information from here like birth date or place, parents, family background, debut career. In addition you can also download photos, images, wallpapers of Sergio Romero from here.
At various online sources, the many people are looking how to contact Sergio Romero or how to meet Sergio Romero? And are also searching what is the mobile number of Sergio Romero, height of Sergio Romero, age of Sergio Romero, contact number of Sergio Romero?
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Kanye West's new song 'White Dresses' appears online in full – listen
Kanye West's new song, titled 'White Dresses', has appeared online in full – scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen.
A snippet of the track had been released earlier this week (October 11), but the rapper's latest new effort has now been posted on YouTube in its entirety.
The song features on the soundtrack to the forthcoming kung fu film The Man With The Iron Fists and was produced by Wu Tang Clan's RZA, who will make his directorial debut with the film the song has been taken from. The soundtrack, which also features tracks from other members of Wu-Tang Clan and The Black Keys, will be released on October 26.
The Man With The Iron Fists has been co-written by RZA and Eli Roth, and was produced by Quentin Tarantino and stars Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu.
Earlier this month, Kanye West's GOOD Music cohort Q-Tip dropped hints of a follow-up to last month's 'Cruel Summer' compilation with a new LP titled 'Cruel Winter'. The rapper said: "I'm sorry, I have to let the cat out of the bag. Kanye's probably gonna get… if there's a 'Cruel Summer' then there's got to be a 'Cruel Winter', right?"
'Cruel Summer', released September 18, contains 12 tracks in total and features all the acts signed to West's GOOD Music label including Mr Hudson, 2 Chainz, Kid Cudi, Pusha T and Big Sean.
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Ravioli? Check. Lasagna? Check. Caprese salad? Check. You can find all the typical Italian-American dishes at Sosta Caffe, but what sets this place apart are the more authentic eats. The family-owned and operated restaurant prepares all of its breads and pastas fresh daily. In the mornings, this rustic and homey café serves homemade pastries and Italian bagels known as taralli—savory bread seasoned with black pepper, hot red pepper, fennel, or anise seeds. Come lunch, try a panini or piadini (Italian flatbread) sandwich like the Toscano, a blend of herb-flecked chicken oreganato with fontina cheese, arugula, tomato, and a freshly whipped olive mayonnaise. For dinner, try the Ravioli Duo ($16.99): a few homemade three-cheese ravioli in a rich Alfredo sauce served beneath a braised beef bolognese sauce. And then there's always chef Maria's Italian meatloaf, her mother's recipe. Known in Italian as polpettone ($15.99)—a mixture of meats stuffed with a blend of herbs, spinach, cheese, and mortadella—it's delectable hot or cold. The recipe also makes for a stellar ciabatta de polpettone which, with a layer of melted provolone between two freshly baked ciabatta rolls, is perhaps the most flavorful meatball sub you'll ever get your hands on. For dessert, the homemade tiramisu arrives fluffy and decadent, but the Nutella cheesecake steals the show.
Husband-and-wife team Mike Hampton and Christy Samoy dreamt of building a cozy, from-scratch kitchen serving internationally inspired soul food. Let's just say their dream came true. Every day Hampton heads to the market to garner inspiration for the day's eight or so special menu items. From there, a pair of talented chefs work alongside him to create epic collaborations, often with an Asian or Indian flair. Since opening three years ago, the 54-seat restaurant has also offered a rotation of "hit singles"—dishes that were once specials, but became so popular the couple had no choice but to keep them on the standard menu for fear of disgruntled regulars. Case in point: the mushroom manchego toast ($6/$12), a popular appetizer of toasted French bread points layered with a decadent combination of melted manchego cheese atop a pile of onion- and brown cream sherry sauce-smothered mushrooms. There's also the gnocchi with oxtail ($12/$22), a signature entree Hampton has been preparing since day one. The first thing the kitchen is tasked with preparing each day, an entire oxtail is braised for six hours in a rich vegetable stock until the meat falls from the bone, served with a basic San Marzano tomato sauce flavored with garlic, onion, and basil over a bed of pillowy soft homemade gnocchi. A rotating selection of boutique wines and craft beers completes the multicultural vibe.
They say the best things come in small packages. That's certainly true of Jimmy's Bistro in Delray Beach, a pint-sized eatery serving up an innovative New American-Italian menu. Despite its location in the heart of downtown Delray Beach, the six-table boutique establishment and wine bar has so far managed to fly under the tourist-trap radar thanks to its clandestine location off Swinton Avenue—but locals sure have found it. Even in the height of summer, regulars flock to chef-owner Jimmy Mills' eponymous eatery. A well-traveled, classically trained chef, Mills has done well over the years with a handwritten chalkboard in place of a handheld menu. Homemade pastas ($24) and a roasted half duck ($36) have become locals' favorites, and fish entrees change depending on what's supplied by Captain Clay and Sons Fish Market a few blocks north. Favorites include the housemade mozzarella ($12) served with locally grown tomatoes or glutinous ribbons of handmade fettuccine smothered beneath a rich tomato and meat ragu. All you need to complete the evening: a bottle of wine and some good company. And, of course, a reservation.
Ritz-Carlton is reinventing the typical hotel restaurant. The oceanfront Burlock Coast is a café, market, restaurant, and bar all rolled into one, and it entices locals as well as tourists. It offers a marketplace for artisanal goods, grab-and-go lunches, retail bottles of small-batch rums, and a formal restaurant. The emphasis here is on locally sourced ingredients, from raw bar offerings like king crab cocktails to mains like New York Strip steaks ($46), plus a tomato bruschetta made with Little Pond Farm heirloom tomatoes. In the restaurant's carefully curated marketplace, patrons can find breads made by revered Miami baker Zak Stern (aka Zak the Baker), a hot cup of Panther Coffee, or charcuterie from Miami Smokers. And on top of all the local goodness, cocktail lovers can build their own drinks using a selection of Caribbean, French, and Spanish rums.
At Grato, which opened in January, chef-owner Clay Conley (owner of Buccan) is going rustic Italian for the first time just a few miles away from his familiar Palm Beach stomping grounds. Conley calls the area around the Norton Museum of Art "an underserved market" into which he hopes to breathe some life. The restaurant is already attracting huge crowds; any night of the week, a troop of valets must manage the flood of patrons who swarm for happy hour. Dinner service seems as though all of Palm Beach has shown up, packing Grato's industrial-sized room wall to wall with a handsome crowd of guests. The focal point is the exposed wood-fueled oven painted Ferrari red. Patrons can sit at the kitchen bar to watch chefs shuffle pies and meats in and out from open to close. The best part of Grato, however, is devouring any of Conley's handmade extruded pastas. True bliss is twirling a forkful of fat paccheri smothered in a pork-riddled Sunday gravy, stabbing a single bucatini smothered in pasty-thick carbonara sauce seasoned with a heavy dose of fresh-cracked black pepper; or piling a spoonful of tender, dumpling-like ricotta gnocchi that seem to be held together by nothing more than the force of the Palm Beach pasta prince's will. It makes for a restaurant that is equal parts social hotspot and culinary tour de force.
Fort Lauderdale is not a city lacking in restaurant options, so proclaiming a certain establishment the best is a tall task. Thankfully, Cafe Martorano—brought to us by a South Philly export, the big-mouthed and bigger-muscled Steve Martorano—makes it a little easier to call. Linguine and clams ($28), chicken cutlet broccoli rabe ($34), and veal parmesan ($42) are just a few of the Italian classics that keep loyal Martorano customers (and celebs like Dwyane Wade) coming back to this mainstay for more. Martorano's "gravy" (don't call it sauce!) is to die for, and his meatballs are so renowned that Jimmy Kimmel once booked Martorano on his show to demonstrate how to make them. The open kitchen provides a front row seat to the action, while mafia movies showing on TV provide a welcome tongue-in-cheek respite from the oh-so-serious farm-to-table joints around these days.
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Why I Was Never a Riot Grrrl
A couple of years ago I saw ex-Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna speak in New York City, right before she donated her musical archives to New York University’s Fales Library. I was struck by her acerbic wit, her ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude.
While I was a teenager during the grunge and Riot Grrrl era, for some reason I was (at the time) more drawn to hyper-masculine, testosterone-saturated grunge and metal bands and was not that interested in what was happening on the other side of the scene. As Hanna’s talk was intriguing, I took the opportunity to check out The Punk Singer, part of the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto.
About 10 minutes into the documentary, I knew that I had made a colossal mistake.
Well, actually, as soon as I saw a snippet of 17 year-old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson waxing poetic about an era she was not even alive to witness, I knew that I would not be able to put my personal biases in regards to my age—and more importantly, my ethnicity as a black woman—aside when watching this documentary.
From watching The Punk Singer, I realized why I had never been that psyched on the Riot Grrrl scene. It wasn’t for me. It was for white women.
In The Punk Singer, women I greatly admire, like Joan Jett, Corin Tucker, Kim Gordon and Tribe 8’s Lynn Breedlove laud Hanna’s courage and tenacity. And a great front person she is. But the film is a simplistic portrait where the flaws of both the riot grrl phenomenon and Hanna are not examined.
The film tells the interesting story of how Hanna got involved in the music scene: Hanna always knew that she was an artist, but the brutal assault of a close friend propelled her into first becoming a spoken word artist. A friend suggested that she might get more attention if she was in a rock band. Bikini Kill was anchored by Hanna’s personality, her powerful voice, and—while no one seemed to mention the elephant in the room—her beauty. She is one drop-dead-gorgeous-looking woman, both as a teenager and now as an adult. I would argue that it was her physical attractiveness helped her music get mainstream attention. Some in the film point out that some women at the time (and still) had issues with Hanna showing her body during performances, arguments Hanna dismisses as being anti-feminist.
Hanna briefly notes in the film that she used to work as a stripper. Later in the film, archived footage of a panel discussion she participated in shows her blaming the media for making accusations that she is a stripper. While being a stripper is nothing to be ashamed about, own it. In reference to that that panel, she accuses female journalists of being condescending and seems shocked that “women are doing this to other women.” That comes off as being oddly naïve and a great example of her penchant for navel-gazing: A woman who works as a stripper is taking her clothes off for the enjoyment of (primarily) men. It might be a stretch for women who have never been strippers to understand how a self-proclaimed feminist would willingly choose to put herself in a position where she is at the financial mercy of a man. While I didn’t know this until after I saw the film, there has been much consternation with punk women working as strippers. Mimi Thi Nguyen notes the discussion in her essay “Riot Grrrl, Race and Revival” (PDF) in the feminist theory journal Women & Performance: “The ‘passing thru’ of some punk women into the sex industry detrimentally alters the ‘class/ beauty standards’ (because of lifelong access to healthcare, for instance) that others whose survival depends upon an underground economy must accommodate thereafter.”
Now I remember why I never felt interested in being part of the riot grrrl scene. The film shows snippets of footage of young white women in that era, saying that the riot grrrl was a scene in which they didn’t have to fight in the mosh pit, or have men sexualize them for being at a show. For me, I was in the mosh pit, getting bruised and punched because as an individual, not as a woman, I wanted to be where the action was and even back then I knew that allies, regardless of gender, were few and far between. So I was just me. I also remembered being more fearful of being assaulted because I was black than because I was a young woman. I would have almost begged to be seen as a woman back then, but my ethnicity trumped my gender.
In Women & Performance, Nguyen writes that certain forms of rebellion performed by white women were translated differently when filtered through a racial lens.
“For instance, women of color wondered out loud for whom writing ‘SLUT” across their stomachs operated as reclamations of sexual agency against feminine passivity, where racisms had already inscribed such terms onto some bodies, and poor or criminal-class women argued that feminists ‘slumming’ in the sex industry (through stripping, for the most part) as a confrontational act implied that other women in this or other tiers of the industry were otherwise conceding to patriarchy.”
I distinctly remember the white women within the punk scene were capable of being just as exclusionary and bigoted as the men were, and among the white women I knew who identified as feminists, there was a strong sense that there was little to no concern as to how ethnicity made my experiences as a woman different than theirs. There was no knowledge, and more importantly no interest to know…well outside of Rebecca Walker, who was the right age, of the right class and most importantly, not ‘too angry’ to alienate them or challenge their naïve idealized notions about how the world works. If my ideas differed from them, guess who was wrong and who was right?
Given the lack of women of color in The Punk Singer, we were an afterthought, and from reading Nquyen’s essay, this issue is nothing new – this documentary was the latest demonstration of a woman using her societal privilege to dabble in a sub-culture and while at the film’s ending, even though she is happily married and has a family and insists that her feminist ideology still remains true—she has been able to exit into a comfortable life in which many, for instance women of color who strip for survival, cannot.
In addition, one of The Punk Singer’s interviewees Jennifer Baumgardner proclaims some revisionist feminist history: that ‘feminists’ from as far back as the 18th Century were somehow responsible for promoting racial equality during the Civil Rights era. In the States the emancipation of slavery was seen as a tool for women’s organizations to bolster their own rights and there was no activism specifically conducted to liberate black women from the physical and sexual abuse they faced at the hands of their slave owners. This offensive statement cemented what had bothered me about the Riot Grrrl scene: These women activists created a movement that was only relatable for them and there was no thought given to the inclusion of women of color. We were expected to be grateful that they were fighting for us because we shared the same lady parts. That was not—and still is not—the case.
In terms of providing a historical narrative of the Riot Grrl scene, The Punk Singer does an adequate, yet rushed job within an 80-minute film. Is Hanna iconic? For some people, she definitely is. Especially for those who do not want to either look too deep into the film, or for young, heterosexual, able-bodied white women like Gevinson who clearly romanticize that era and are looking for an icon. But I didn’t see it.
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75 Comments Have Been Posted
Thank you for this piece. I
Gillian replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 10:32am
Thank you for this piece. I deeply wanted to explore riot grrl music once I found out about the era some years back, but there was a lot I read about the leaders that held me back. Your article explores some of the themes I am familiar with and introduced me to some I had not considered as fully. My hope is that a new generation of feminist musicians will arise within rock music (and other genres) that will be more balanced and inclusive.
Ideally, white women should
Anonymous replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 10:46am
Ideally, white women should just realize their privilege and step in a do something that actually matters. However, our ignorance into what it is like being POC prevents a lot of us from even realizing our privilege. Without people in the scene pointing out my privilege and opening up discussion on this topic, I would not, and I still do not fully, realize my privilege. I am eternally grateful to these people for helping to create a diverse network in my own community and within the punk community as a whole.
I am so happy that these people didn't just sit complacently in a male dominated culture because they saw something wrong with the other spectrum of the community and refused to fix it. I'm glad that they didn't just sit around and complain about the way things were for them, because that doesn't change anything.
Your commentary is interesting. But it's also bitter. It's not a feminist commentary, not because you called out an area feminism but because your discount sisterhood and throw the entire movement under the bus by refusing to belong to a movement that didn't include you. And from what you said, you didn't want it to include you. This makes no sense to me.
hey, you said you wanted
hey, you said you wanted people to point out your privilege. your privilege is showing with this comment. stop telling women who were actively excluded, sacrificed, and disenfranchised by feminism that they aren't feminist enough for not whole-heartedly embracing the movement.
It is not the role of 'POC'
Anonymous replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 11:31am
It is not the role of 'POC' or any other marginalized group of individuals to point out every time someone acts ignorantly in privilege. We, as the people with privilege (specifically white women in this case), must instead take the time to educate ourselves and ask to build bridges of knowledge and solidarity across differences. There are tons of resources established to educate folks on their privilege, it's time we start using them instead of forcing groups to have to continuously deviate from the real issues they have at hand.
Also, I fail to see how this article is not feminist. Feminist is multi-faceted and has developed over the years due to constant self-reflection and critique. This article is contributing to that critique on an intersectional basis and while that may not be YOUR feminism, it sure is feminism for a lot of other folks.
Wait, "anonymous", you're
Awood33 replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 11:41am
Wait, "anonymous", you're saying that your ignorance is innocent? Seriously? And where do you get off saying that this is not feminist commentary? Because it can't be both feminist and address privilege? Your lofty attitude here is comical. What privileged ideas of sisterhood and feminism do you portend to represent here? Brown girls know a hell of a lot about sisterhood because we know how we need to stick together in a world where there are still separate standards for all sorts of activism. Talk about throwing an entire movement under a bus--I think you just did that yourself. The punk movement was exclusive. It was white, and it was privileged in what it fought against and how it was fought. In one breath you say a bogus thank you for being called out on your privilege, and in the next you are arrogantly chastising the sister who called it out. Check yourself.
You're right about one thing:
You're right about one thing: you haven't fully checked your privilege. It's not the responsibility of POC to attempt to force themselves into spaces they feel are hostile to them. It's our responsibility as white people to try to eradicate that hostility.
Also, the measurement of whether a commentary is feminist is NOT how nice it is to you and your interests. Stifling the voices of women who aren't white, able-bodied, cisgendered, and heterosexual in the name of "sisterhood" or group unity is an unfortunate part of historical feminisms; let's not allow that trend to continue in the present day.
I don't see why you would
Anonymous replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 12:01pm
I don't see why you would think she didn't want the movement to include her. She states when she engaged in discussion with some of these women her point of view was not even considered. How is that sisterhood? "Agree or shut up" is anything but punk. They could have heard her out...Riot Grrrl could have been more interested in black females in general and done something much much more profound.
I'm happy to be able to reclaim the word "slut" for myself and I'm grateful for that but in the scheme of things, I think black women still have a lot to struggle through in comparison to privileged white girls. It'd be nice if more of us acknowledged that and cared to do something about it. Reading this makes me a little sick to my stomach how much time we spend lionizing these people from the past instead of looking at what they didn't do and taking it upon ourselves to finish the job.
As for your white privilege, maybe instead of thinking its the responsibility of non white people to point it out to you (which would put them in a position that would most likely end up with someone accusing them of pulling the "race card") you could instead do some of your own research. There is plenty of material on white privilege. I'd recommend Tim Wise's "White Like Me" to start.
Privilaged white girls
CBURNZ replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 1:29pm
Hmm, I agree with your response to the original comment but look at the way you are referring to "black women" vs "privileged white girls." Is it possible to engage in a discussion without demeaning each other and dismissing each others' unique experiences? I myself am a privileged white "girl" as you would put it and I think it is infinitely important for white feminists to tune in to the experiences of people of color and take part in creating an inclusive feminist community that recognizes the experiences of diverse people and fights to end all forms of oppression. This has certainly been a failure of past feminist movements. This does not mean that its ok to make blanketed statements about white women or white feminists as if we are all the same and its certainly not ok to use patriarchal language to put people down because you disagree with one segment of that population.
From one privileged white girl to another
I'm also a privileged white girl feminist, and when we make this about us? And center ourselves in a conversation about women of color? It's not okay. Being judged and lumped into a stereotype is something that marginalized people deal with EVERY DAY. If you are not the kind of person the commenter was talking about then it's not about you. Don't suddenly make this about yourself when there is a bigger discussion at hand, that's actually the embodiment of what Laina Dawes is critiquing about riot grrrl.
LOL. I am sure other people
Khristina replied on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 6:42pm
LOL. I am sure other people have schooled you but your statement just revealed how clueless you are and how you hide behind your privilege. Also the idea of sisterhood is cis-sexist and gross. Please expand your definitions of feminism because I don't want to be part of your 'movement'.
Not everyone's definition of
Anonymous replied on Tue, 09/17/2013 - 11:54am
Not everyone's definition of sisterhood is cis-sexist. Mine is inclusive of anyone in any form self-identifying as female and who is wiling to be conscious of what it means, collectively or on an individual scale, to visibly represent as female in a culture that normalizes misogyny and sexual violence to the extent that ours does. You can't automatically assume that everyone who believes in a "sisterhood" ideal, or even uses the concept in discourse as though it is still relevant, is referring to a hetero-normative, cis-sexist excuse for privilege and exclusivity. As do many articles about Riot Grrrl, this one fails to contextualize the movement within the Third Wave: for example, Hanna wrote "slut" on her body at a time when many women (some of them Riot Grrrls,) were attempting to reclaim the word as a symbol for their own sexual autonomy, rather than a slur that passes judgment based on patriarchal definitions of a woman's "worth" and reproductive suitability. Since that experiment seems to have failed and slut is still used by most women in it's patriarchal context, Hanna's action now seems a bit self-defeating under modern examination. The word sisterhood has became so associated with much of the literature and activism of the second wave, while third wave politics grew to be much more aware and inclusive of the issues and marginalization that trans people face, even and especially within a self-identified "feminist" context.
Wow, really? Third-wave
Anonymous replied on Fri, 09/20/2013 - 5:36am
Wow, really? Third-wave feminism wasn't inclusive of trans people. The reason that trans people and POC were not a huge part of the riot grrrl movement was because it was led by Kathleen Hanna, who was racist and cis-sexist. She wanted it to be a movement that changed the world, but only for white girls. Funny how that part often gets left out.
I am all for "girl power." Respect your girl friends, but also respect your boy friends, and your non-binary friends, and your friends of color. Don't exclude a group of people based on gender/race (both things that Kathleen Hanna did with riot grrrl); that's counteractive to feminism. You can't truly be a feminist and want equality for everybody if you do not accept people for who they are.
I really don't think it's
Anonymous replied on Sun, 08/10/2014 - 8:32am
I really don't think it's productive or fair to call Kathleen Hanna racist or cis-sexist in such a blanketed way. It's one thing to point out the failures or faults of a movement, but to make personal attacks on someone's character - someone who, if you know anything about her, did have good intentions and is not a bigoted person - is really not helping anyone's cause. It only discourages discourse, understanding, and positive change moving forward. Hanna herself has admitted that the movement was flawed in it's inclusion of POC and has made statements about how, looking back, she could have done things to be more inclusive. If she's willing to critique her own choices and to be honest about her failures which were rooted in her perspective as a young, white woman, then I don't see how you can call her names and label her a bigot. There are plenty of people out there who are ACTUALLY racist and cis-sexist (and bigoted in many other ways). Why make each other out to be enemies? We may not fully understand each other and we may not always get it right, but constructive criticism seems much more useful to feminism than mud slinging.
It's an interesting comment.
JP replied on Tue, 09/02/2014 - 3:07pm
It's an interesting comment. My experience is fairly different, and I am sitting with whether that is b/c of the specific communities of which I was a part. For me, third wave feminism was very much about genderfuck, genderqueer, attention to intersectional oppression, and really important spaces like Camp Trans. This is my reality. Having said that, although I am gender non-conforming, I am also white, so there are experiences to which I cannot speak. I hear and trust the author's lived experience and am saddened by it, and simultaneously recognize my privilege in my inability to know what the fuck.
You don't get it
Sisterhood? Not feminist? I *don't blame her for refusing to belong to anything that doesn't include her. WTH.
Maybe she didn't want it to include her because it would be tokenism? I don't know, it's not my place to guess, but damn it's no wonder why WOC distrust white feminism.
The whole sisterhood meme is historically very fucked up. You want your privilege pointed out? Well a few of us have done that. Now it's your turn to educate yourself. Find WOC blogs. Don't get defensive. Listen instead of talking.
Don't expect cookies, realize your going to make mistakes, learn from them. Understand what institutional racism is, Also reading about this history of Malcom X, the Black Panthers, the murder of Fred Hampton, Shirley Chisom, Angela Davis, bell hooks.
You'll be a better person for it.
There is SO much wrong with
Annon replied on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 1:10pm
There is SO much wrong with this statement.
It is NOT the job of POC to do this work for you. How can you NOT know your privilege? You live in the U.S.! There is a long HISTORY OF RACISM IN THE U.S.!!! Indigenous Genocide! The Atlantic Slave Trade! Jim Crow! The mass incarceration of Indigenous people and African Americans!
ALSO re: if this is a feminist text or not--seriously?? SERIOUSLY??? You just threw out everything Laina wrote by writing your comment. She's pointing out a problem within punk and feminism which by the way still exists!!!
To Laina and all the other POC who are in the punk scene thank you for dealing with so much bull shit. As a WOC myself and as the ONLY WOC at shows where I'm from, I'm in the pit raging hard for all of us.
Hey white girls:
Education yourself. The tumblr below is a quick but good place to start. Don't get all pissy and defensive either if someone calls you out, even I cringed at a couple because I had said them before. Good medicine tastes bad. Realize you blew it and don't do it again. Make amends to whomever you've offended and don't expect them to fawn over you for it.
That said I don't want to call myself a feminist anymore because of the fuck ups and hateful things white feminists have said and done. Don't be that person
nice share
This is not a comment about
Sisi replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 11:10am
This is not a comment about the documentary. I loved the documentary. I don't think it was meant to address the problems with riot grrrl. But it's great that it has started a necessary dialogue about women of color in riot grrrl.
This is always an interesting topic to me. I was a riot grrrl. I am Chicana. I grew up working-poor, in barrios, bi-lingual, and bi-cultural. Although I don’t feel that riot grrrl opened it’s arms out to me, I did seek out meetings and hung in there for about 6 months. There were positive and negative experiences. The bottom line was that even though the meetings I was going to were somewhat diverse, I didn’t feel comfortable talking about race or class with all of the women and girls that attended. It was important to me to discuss those subjects, but it felt awkward (for lack of a better word). I didn’t know how to handle it then, so I stopped going. Nevertheless, Riot Grrrl was important to me and still is. I hope that current Riot Grrrls are doing things differently this time around.
I can relate to a lot of
I can relate to a lot of this. I agree that Riot Grrl was about white women: THIN, PRETTY, WHITE WOMEN. I was not thin and I was not pretty. I couldn't "own" my sexuality as a stripper because I didn't conform to that body standard. The line "I would have almost begged to be seen as a woman back then, but my ethnicity trumped my gender" particularly resonates with me because not actually fitting a certain 'acceptable' body type meant I wasn't seen as a woman either.
I am the same age as Kathleen Hanna. I should have been on the front line of Riot Grrl. But I couldn't write "slut" on my belly as a statement because no one ever saw it -- and more to the point, it was made quite clear to me that no one wanted to see it.
Funny how this movement included so few women of its generation...
I still heart riot grrrl, with caveats
Thank you for this piece. I was very active in the riot grrrl 'movement' and have also long been invested in understanding the many ways that it functioned as elitist and exclusionary, or was otherwise a generally inadequate platform to address a vast majority of women's lives. As a grown up (whatever that means), I've had the opportunity to teach Women's Studies to college freshmen and have been forced to confront my own tendencies to romanticize the era, as you accuse Tavi Gevinson of doing here. The experience has been very valuable.
While acknowledging the irrefutable truth you write about here—that young women of color did not (always) feel welcomed, understood or spoken for within the context of riot grrrl—I want to defend my personal (subjective) nostalgia for the 'movement.' I recognize all of its flaws, and yet I persist in romanticizing it a little because I got involved with it when I was 14. I romanticize it because at that point my girlfriends and I were just beginning our long, exhausting, soul-crushing careers as the subjects of male violence and aggression of all kinds (womanhood, in other words) and riot grrrl offered something at once playful and fearsome, a mini-culture we got to make and shape ourselves where we could be sexual without being sexualized and where we could tell the truth about a lot of shit no one wanted to talk about, including some serious, big ticket issues like rape, incest, and eating disorders. That we didn't craft a scene where more women felt at home is a damn shame. I think about ways we could have done better all the time. But the fact that teenage girls resuscitated the consciousness raising model of '70s feminism (which was also of course exclusionary and the province of the privileged) in suburban bedrooms and made zines about how it felt to be raped in high school was pretty incredible. Or maybe it just felt that way.
Regardless, I don't ever think my critical take on the movement and my nostalgia for it have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, I would argue that this is how most people look back on their participation in most social movements: we could have done it better. We should have done it better. But still, that was pretty fucking cool.
[Also, you write defensively of having been in the pit, being "me" and not just Girl, the identity riot grrrls clung to. I was also deeply into hardcore and metal, I was also in the pit, and I ended up playing in a band and going on tour playing shows and living in a van with band dudes. But the whole point of riot grrrl—indeed, of feminism—was that that whole time, there was no essential "me" that was not also Girl. In male-centric domains like mosh pits, to say nothing of corporate boardrooms, etc., you are always already a marked body if you're female. Your piece seemed to move between arguing for and against this fundamental point. I guess maybe that just highlights a tension we all feel, some more than others, between the feeling of ME and the categories to which we're assigned.]
Good article. While I've not
NoNYmouse replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 1:46pm
Good article. While I've not yet seen The Punk Singer, Dasha Bikceem talks about the white-centric nature of the movement in an earlier documentary on riot grrrl (Don't Need You - The Herstory of Riot, available on youtube watch?v=a9G45K6FgaI , around 22 minutes in). Despite its very obvious limitations in terms of exclusion at the time riot grrrl has positively influenced a range of different people. Kinda sad if TPS doesn't reflect that.
Punk rock is inherently white
Anonymous replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 2:09pm
Punk rock is inherently white and privileged. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. If you have the means (by which I mean parents to pay your bills) to go around throwing shows for 30 of your friends to attend, put out records no one listens to and dress in such a way that you'll never achieve more than minimum wage, then you're privileged. I say this as someone who's been in the scene for 20 years. I laugh at the idea that Kathleen Hanna's current good fortune and iconic status could somehow be separated from her beauty. It can't- though she might still be a stripper today if she hadn't married a Beastie Boy. I was a suburban riot grrl back in the day, and it made perfect sense for me as a slutty white chick. I took my sexual privilege and attempted to make it a radical political statement. It failed. I hated the idea of an all-girl pit, still do. Everyone, irregardless of race, gender or class has the right to get bashed around in the pit. If someone touches you in a way you don't like, hit them. It's one of the only places where it's safe to do that.
Scenes that grow out of networks of teenage girls are going to be exclusionary, because that's what teenagers do! They draw the magic circle of exclusion to make a very narrow band of who's cool. At least the riot grrls were trying. I think most folks have forgotten that back then it wasn't cool to be lesbian or bisexual, and you certainly didn't tell anyone if you got assaulted. Until they came along and made it ok to scream at the top of your lungs, to talk, and to ask for help. They got that part absolutely right.
If there's a revival, maybe this time some rad POC will be the founding mothers. That would be the coolest thing ever.
Bad Brains...
I call BS on this. Maybe the
Anonymous replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 7:57pm
I call BS on this. Maybe the Riot Grrl scene was "white and privileged" Maybe a vast majority of Punk was, but don't erase the people who WERE there-the music that was being made by people of different backgrounds, in the very urban universe that we inhabited. Maybe not in the suburbs, but the Punk Scene in the 80's in the City where I lived, was very politically progressive, and racially mixed- there were Black Punks AND Black Skins (anti-racist music was part of the scene). By the time Riot Grrls were around, many of us had left the scene., and those of us who had to eat to live, did have to modify our lives to survive.
SoCal was different
In Los Angeles in the early 90s the riot grrrl scene was mostly hispanic, asian, and filipina. OC riot grrrl did shows with the local Black Panthers. One of the riot grrrl collectives in Los Angeles, Revolution Rising, was created specifically to address racism in the scene.
Were you there Anon?
While I agree with you about
JP replied on Tue, 09/02/2014 - 3:18pm
While I agree with you about the movement being very white, I really disagree with you about the movement being inherently privileged. Punk Rock is (was) actually a working class movement composed of largely white teens in blue color British neighborhoods. It's probably one of the more class-driven music movements we've seen. It's grounded in a dismantling of capitalism and an attention to anarchy, which is really fucking racist sometimes. But, it is not globally a movement of privilege by any stretch of the imagination.
Race and Class Are Not The Same Thing
So you know what class privilege is? Then you must also know that there are different kinds of privilege, so just because a movement was conducive to people who had little to no class privilege (People in the low to middle classes) doesn't mean that the movement was also conducive to people without racial privilege (People of color). Since the movement was primarily white, it was inherently privileged (In regards to race). If you don't know what white privilege is, then I encourage you to educate yourself on that matter. But in the future, please make the distinction between the two.
Important points
Tracy replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 2:25pm
Thanks for your review. I especially appreciated the mention of the elephant in the room that Kathleen Hanna's relative good looks. While it doesn't mean her work is invalid, it makes me think about a young Polystyrene with braces at 14 belting out the vocals for X-Ray Specs that Hanna so closely (ahem) emulates.
I think you raise some
Anonymous replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 2:38pm
I think you raise some important points in this piece, but it is unfortunate that you are basing your critique entirely on the film "The Punk Singer". (Full disclosure, I loved the film and I'm a fan of Kathleen Hanna's work, but the film is a piece of fandom made for fans. It is not meant to be critical of her or her work, it is meant to document her importance as a feminist icon. And yes, she is a feminist icon, even if she is not your feminist icon. It doesn't do feminism any favours when we minimize the work of other feminists simply because we don't agree with everything they have done.)
The lack of awareness to race/racism in the riot grrrl movement has been addressed in other forums, in fact, Kathleen Hanna herself was/is critical of this. It was one of the main reasons she distanced herself from the riot grrrl movement as it grew. For more on this, I would suggest reading Girls To The Front by Sara Marcus. Also, even this documentary about riot grrrl gets into the race issue: http://networkawesome.com/show/dont-need-you-the-herstory-of-riot-grrrl/ (She has also spoken to the privilege she enjoyed as an attractive woman in the past as well, to address another one of your points.)
My point is that there is a lot to critical about past (and contemporary) feminism, but I think we need to focus on constructive criticism rather than discrediting an entire movement, that while flawed was important in many ways and to many people. You are certainly right that feminism must be intersectional to be both theoretically rigorous and meaningful in application. But it does not mean that there is no value in attempts that fell/fall short of this goal.
Finally, about half way down in this article you say:
"The film shows snippets of footage of young white women in that era, saying that the riot grrrl was a scene in which they didn’t have to fight in the mosh pit, or have men sexualize them for being at a show. For me, I was in the mosh pit, getting bruised and punched because as an individual, not as a woman, I wanted to be where the action was and even back then I knew that allies, regardless of gender, were few and far between. So I was just me. "
I'm sure this is not what you mean, but reading this made me very uncomfortable. This echoes the argument that people just need to "work harder" if they don't want to be poor. It seems like you are saying that women should have just sucked it up and gotten in the mosh pits; that focusing on the fact that they were women is what kept them from enjoying the privilege that men had.
(ps. I also agree that Tavi was woefully misused in the film, to the point where I questioned why they used her at all. I think she could have had some very interesting insights into how feminist blogging represents a kind of continuity of zine culture for girls and young women today . . . but no such luck)
Able-Bodied? Did Anyone SEE the film???
Anonymous replied on Wed, 05/15/2013 - 5:31pm
As a queer person who lives with a life altering chronic illness, I found this film empowering in it's portrayal of the fear, shame and total silence that surrounds illness. And funny thing is, articles like this continue to keep the issue of illness silent because it muddies up "the point." I understand that feminism is a complicated issue, as is re-examining history and race relations, but please don't minimize (um completely silence) aspects of this movie simply because they don't fit into your idea of everyone in the film being of privilege (in every sense of the word including "able-bodied" & "comfortable"). And, on a side note, why must the word "able-bodied" be always lumped into the "non-privilege" list and yet issues involving illness are never addressed by the people who "add" us in there? DONE!
Stereotypes
Not all riot grrrl scenes were the same, and many riot grrrls were solitary, not part of any scene. Angie Young the director of The Coat Hanger Project is doing a documentary called Riot Grrrl: The Self Told Narrative, the first to look at scenes that didn't fit the stereotype. For instance Los Angeles where white girls and college students were in the minority. The film is in production. Please contact them if you'd like to be interviewed. You can read more about it here and there's a link to the film's FB page: http://newtopiamagazine.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/annual-riot-grrrl-memoir/
Sorry , just reading article
Anonymous replied on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 5:27pm
Sorry , just reading article then , comments, but I am not a "privileged white girl" which I find not racially offensive , but just out right ignorant, not the whole white female race is fortunate and "privileged" I have fought many battles on my own to keep a roof above my head, for healthcare and other means to survive, to marginalize a whole race of people and a movement shows lack of exposure , and yes i as a white female have experienced exclusion and attitude from , white privileged girls, with in or proclaiming the title of riot grrrl , and have at most times felt to be an outsider in an movement miss- lead and represented by people. I personally do not and will not acknowledged Kathleen Hanna as the head leader and as a person who started movement , I find her to be a stuffy , whiny , women who I never felt did much at all for women in music that was not done before , and now she is a lofty middle aged women high on her pedestal looking down on new wave of feminist and riot grrlrs. She is such a bad representation of what riot grrrl meant for me , which was not being afraid to pick up my guitar and make sme noise , even if I did not play like Metallica , which I can , but to make my own music , not be afraid to wear and be comfortable in my own skin whatever shade that may be , and not all males are the enemy , a big miss understanding , Many male musician in punk and rock and hip hop , have been supportive and backed female musicians. Many male musicians in predominantly female bands!!! Also so much more to riot grrrl , and ye I am one of the rare non stereo type riot grrrls who did not fit into main stream view of what it is , I also enjoy many types of music and other scenes. Not just one dimensional. One important thing , I feel to take away from any scene, think for yourself and follow what you feel is right , not what is dictated to you by any particular "leader" of a scene, no scene should have a leader , you are you own person , not to be defined by one particular view or set of rules ....
I think there's some
Emmie replied on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 9:31pm
I think there's some confusion over "privilege." Calling someone "privileged" implies they're rich. Saying someone has white privilege, if they're white, is just a statement that they'll undoubtedly run into situations where some agent in a system gives them an advantage for being white instead of a POC. Similar to the men you mention who support women artists, those men will still have male privilege, whether they care about women's issues or not.
White privilege 101
1. I don't think you'd be as comfortable in your skin if you weren't white.
2.<I>and not all males are the enemy , a big miss understanding , Many male musician in punk and rock and hip hop , have been supportive and backed female musicians. Many male musicians in predominantly female bands!!! </I>
Guess what? Men have male privilege, and usually flip the fuck out when it's pointed out to them. White men? Holy shit they are the worst, even so called liberal men. We live in a society that HATES women, that glorifies rape, that lets men murder women with a shrug, unless they are white, pretty, cis-gendered middle class women.
So excuse me, but even hetrosexual me is wary of men, ESP. white men. They know they can get away with more shit from society that would get moc killed.
Fuck, I hate seeing comments like this on a so called progressive blog. And it's no wonder women of color don't trust us.
so because she doesn't choose
Anonymous replied on Fri, 08/08/2014 - 2:13pm
so because she doesn't choose to generalise, that makes her un-progressive? lol. 'white men are the worst' - do you have statistics to back that up? grow up! just because white/male privilege exists it doesn't mean every single white person/male is awful by default. imagine making these generalisations about other groups based on statistics, there would be uproar!! btw i am a POC and working class woman. i'm guessing you're a guilt ridden white girl who reads too many 'check your privilege' tumblrs, lol. BYE.
Seems bitter. Don't undermine
Elle replied on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 4:12am
Seems bitter. Don't undermine Kathleen Hanna's work just because she is a white female who didn't do everything up to your standards. Every action matters by all sisters everywhere. She made things better for the community around her and for future females.
Good points, Wrong context
hubbubs replied on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 8:15am
The writer raises some interesting points, based upon her personal experience RE: riot grrrl - her experience is limited to the place/scene that she was a part of (as noted by a comment, the scene in CA - where I lived - was a lot more racially diverse). After all Riot Grrrl and third wave feminism was a global movement.
Though her point is valid, using The Punk Singer as the target of her disappointment with roit grrrl and punk rock is seriously misguided.
The film is called THE PUNK SINGER, it's about the life and career of one person. It's not a portrait of Roit Grrrl. It is not about any single scene or time. It spans twenty plus years of an artists life and work... It's about Kathleen Hanna.
Using the film as a target and a launching pad for the writer's own opinions and issues with Roit Grrrl is disingenuous at best, unfair and opportunistic at worst.
Yes ! thank you for saying
Eve replied on Mon, 07/08/2013 - 2:35am
Yes ! thank you for saying that.
And this earlier comment needs repeating as well
" In Los Angeles in the early 90s the riot grrrl scene was mostly hispanic, asian, and filipina. OC riot grrrl did shows with the local Black Panthers. One of the riot grrrl collectives in Los Angeles, Revolution Rising, was created specifically to address racism in the scene. "
There was a whole mexican american scene going on in LA.
And In Olympia,WA. where a lot of the Riot Grrrl scene developed is very predominantly white and not exactly the home of rich kids either. (Tonya Harding ? and that richie rich Kurt Cobain)
In NYC the punk scene was full of blacks, and females, and Puerto Ricans, Hatians, ever hear of The Black Rock Coalition ? A little band called Living Color was a part of it.
punk, riot grrrl, post punk, anyone who wanted to be a part of it only ever had to show up and be able to play.
I am wondering if the person who wrote this article has ever humped gear in and out of a beat up van ?
If you were not part of a scene how can you know who was there ?
me ? I'm a woman of color, a drummer, and I've been there, done that, twice, got the t shirt !!
and I wasn't the only one.
Intersectionality
Though parts of this article are somewhat incoherent, it makes a point that a lot of white feminists who don't have a huge background in intersectional feminism (like myself) need to hear, which is that there are fundamentally different defining factors of womanhood/femaleness/the female experience between white and black women.
I used to think the only difference between white and non-white women in regards to feminism was that non-white women were subject to both sexism and racism. But articles like this help point to the fact that it's far more complicated than that.
http://www.papercoffin.com/mi
Here is an old interview with Kathleen Hanna, I don't know if it specifically is addressed in the movie, but here's one quote:
"And then someone brought up that it was really racist for the white girls to assume that non-white girls/girls of color would want to be involved in what was basically a white girl thing, a thing that had pretty much been based on the needs of white women and girls. You know? Like, does bell hooks really want to go to Lollapalooza?"
(The last part refers to the Beastie Boys genuinely considering the risk/benefit of inviting bell hooks to Lollapalooza.)
never a Riot Grrl
Not my cup of tea
LisaLisaandtheO... replied on Tue, 05/21/2013 - 10:56am
I wanted to like it badly, but Kathleen Hanna has always seemed to me to have this naivete that I cannot be comfortable with. I was the perfect age to get into Riot Grrrl when it was around, but I have always been wary of groups with an inherent ideology. I prefer much more to form my own views, which are never quite synonymous with the group's.
^^
SweetMintyChuy replied on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 11:09am
<i>I was the perfect age to get into Riot Grrrl when it was around, but I have always been wary of groups with an inherent ideology. I prefer much more to form my own views, which are never quite synonymous with the group's.</i>
~describes me in a nutshell. I look at Bikini Kill fondly, but never quite felt that the whole scene had anything to do with me.
WOWSERZ!! I was just amazed
Downtown T B replied on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 3:04pm
WOWSERZ!! I was just amazed that someone even wrote this article and then I started reading the comments, and goodness gracious, it was almost like I was reading my own personal conflicting conversations I have in my head....First of all, thank you Laina for being able to put these confusing feelings about this subject into words....I've never heard anyone else so closely state similar experiences about attending shows, of any musical form, like you have...From my own observations (about 15 years now) of going to metal/punk/everything between, I quickly realized how important it was to make sure my comrades (friends AND strangers) were on the same trusting level while thrashing and moshing around....I hadn't thought about this before but it was because of situations like a 250 LB, long-haired, thrashing male picking me up and into a safety cradle WHILE in a pit, that I was able to avoid falling into the trap of dominating labels--for head-banging's sake! I was there for MUSIC, and to feel like I was among my own, regardless of pigment or genitals, I felt better as a HUMAN for being able to stomp out pent up emotions and have fun doing so...
-Second, I'm so glad that threads like this exist because it serves as a conduit for pro-actively educating ourselves...via...ourselves; what's more important is that even though these conversations seem a bit "two-thousand-late", they are appropriately timed and quite obviously needed...in opposition to one comment made, I do support the act of speaking up and complaining about things that bother you (isn't that what these articles and comment forums for?), otherwise these things WILL get swept under the rug and stay there, and then eventually suck us under there with them...
-Third, we are closing in on the next steps of our evolutionary climb through this universal stairway...the language that we've been taught to use is outright turning outdated; transforming the way in which we think abut how to say things will lead us into being better teachers...the whole "privilege" regurgitated fodder is messing with everyone's ability to learn, retain, and move on...by claiming this whole notion that's been heard and repeated numerous times, is to put oneself on some kind of pedestal and push away from being able to link into our insane human chain...we think as uniquely as we look and that's a GREAT thing to acknowledge and possess! From the time before we were zygotes our purpose has not been to "stay put" but to (hopefully) positively and progressively force ourselves to function, somewhat coherently with everything else that is struggling to do the same...
-Finally, I am very motivated and inspired to start writing about my own experiences now and I really want to hear accounts from so many of the others who commented on this article...maybe we can get some kind of massive international zine going ladies!!!
Well put! I hope you do talk
I was actually around for
Lark replied on Fri, 05/24/2013 - 7:34am
I was actually around for riot grrrl - more around the periphery, never thought of myself as part of it, but it was a large presence when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I still have, for example, a couple of Bikini Kill EPs and some old zines. (White queer trans guy here, lower middle class, pink collar gig.)
I find the way that the history of riot grrl is being written/filmed to be really problematic, both because it falsifies what actually happened and because it concentrates on setting up a handful of women as leaders and heroes, and all those women are white, middle class, able-bodied and have parlayed their riot grrl days into celebrity. It takes a time that was confusing, good and bad, up for grabs, radical and racist by turns, and describes it as a golden age of heroic feminism. And it does this in the service of fashion, sales, self-branding.
Folks are absolutely right that riot grrl was incredibly white. I never, <i>ever</i> read anything in any Riot Grrl material that alluded to race except in a "and there's sexism and racism and homophobia"-style laundry list. The left/anarchist/political/feminist-sympathizing punk scene was incredibly, incredibly white in most of the country, with IIRC some difference in New York and CA. I grew up in a very segregated and racist town in the Midwest and did not even recognize this at the time, but I still remember reading bell hooks's book <i>Black Looks</i> in my early twenties and being just completely blown away, it changed my political worldview so deeply - which would not have been this big dramatic revelation if I'd been encountering stuff about race in riot grrl. ( I look back and one of the most pivotal moments of my <i>life</i> was thinking "hey, this is a book about movies and pop culture, and I sort of know that racism still exists, so it might be kind of cool".)
I have huge problems with the way riot grrl is being turned into this golden age nostalgia factory "Kathleen Hanna the elder stateswoman of punk rock" business. I don't like the way riot grrl is being dressed up as this big giant fashion marketing self-branding opportunity - it was a flawed movement which did some things really well and other things really badly, like a lot of artistic and political movements. I think it's important to criticize what was going on in terms of race and white supremacy, but I also think that it's just as important to stop treating riot grrl like a Big Giant Magisterial Referendum On Punk Rock And Feminism, treating it like something that was either Very Good or a Total Failure. If we talk about it as "an artistic and political scene full of people who could be awesome in some ways and then incredibly fucked up in others", it's easy to say "hey, these were ordinary people who did some good stuff and some hurtful and ignorant stuff. We are probably doing some good stuff and some hurtful stuff right now in our own activism. What led them to believe that they were <i>not</i> doing hurtful and ignorant stuff? What can we learn from their mistakes so that we can try to improve?"
It's funny, one thing there really <i>was</i> back in the riot grrl day was this criticism of heroes, which is why it's so perverse that Kathleen Hanna has risen to the kind of fame she's attained. It would have seemed against people's beliefs to imagine a future world where "Riot Grrl" was a fashion thing, where one woman was the Famous Face, where the ordinary flailings, successes and fuck-ups of a bunch of ordinary people should be held up like a plan for a new world. Where someone's <i>papers</i> for chrissake, should be treated like this.
Another thing I notice in contemporary treatments of riot grrl - how it totally flattens the experience of even the white women who were around then. One reason I read some zines and got some albums back then but never really got into it (I identified as a woman then) - it seemed like a movement for women whose big problem was being treated as sex objects by men. Like, I would never write "slut" on my chubby stomach or wear a crop-top, because that's cute when it's Kathleen Hanna but a ridiculous joke when you're unwanted, called ugly all the time, living as a butch queer woman. All that "cute vintage dresses" stuff was predicated on the idea that you <i>had</i> beauty and cuteness and attractiveness, but they <i>weren't recognized by the regular world</i>. The girls I knew who really participated in riot grrl were all slim, feminine and pretty, and their problems with patriarchy were contoured by that way of being. (These were real, genuine <i>problems</i>, though - I'm not saying that if you are slim, feminine and pretty you should just accept being sexually harassed and marginalized.)
At least for me, systems of knowledge were really different then - this was before the internet and unless you lived in a city or were really plugged in to left/radical/feminist/anti-racist/activist knowledge distribution systems it was incredibly hard to find out about things. I look back on my then-self and realize that until I happened across the bell hooks book completely by accident, <i>I had almost no access to any kind of critical material about race, racism or white supremacy</i>. My local library had a couple of Toni Morrison books and some Alice Walker, probably a few other things, but there was no <i>system of knowledge</i> for me to fit those things into or to discover more. The one thing I want younger people to understand that is <i>so different now</i> - it was <i>so easy</i> to be incredibly ignorant of large, important things if you did not experience them daily. I was known in my high school as this bizarre communist (that was a term of insult back then, even though I didn't know anything about communism) because I believed that maybe racism still existed sorta, a little bit, and maybe it had not actually been necessary to commit genocide against native people. My political ideas were so timid and weak and inadequate, but in that time of much more restricted information, they looked like radical ideas to my peers. (And were met with incredible hostility). I feel so fortunate now that I am able to read the work of incredible historians, theorists, tumblr folks, artists of color - unlike in my late teens and early twenties, when I had this pervasive sense that there was <i>something</i> I did not know, but it was out of reach.
Is that an <i>excuse</i> for riot grrl's whiteness? No, it's not. There were some things that <i>contoured</i> the whiteness of riot grrl, and one of them was how incredibly ignorant a lot of us white participants were. Now, today, that's why it's so important not to hold up "riot grrl" as this great, magic moment. At best, we were really, really ignorant. The value-judgment question is "what did you do when you had the opportunity to <i>stop</i> being ignorant?" And I'm sure that there were many concrete instances of failure - I am sure that there were times when white women who described themselves as riot grrls said and did directly racist things, invalidated the experiences of women of color, chose consciously not to talk about racism or our own whiteness. Those things in particular are inexcusable - it's one thing to be ignorant in an abstract way, and another to fail people who are right there in front of you.
It's really scary to me that Kathleen Hanna is playing along with all of this. Is that the way that movements will always go? Like, we'll try to have a critique of heroes, we'll try NOT to have the idea that some people are Perfect Great Awesome Leaders....and then twenty years down the line, we have this story about Perfect Great Awesome Leaders that obscures the real lived experience of the time, in both its successes and its failures. It really makes me hyper-aware of how dangerous certain ways of writing history are.
There were so many women in riot grrl, so many zines, so much music. It isn't true that all white women in riot grrl had the option of exit into a middle class, heteronormative married existence. It's just that when we <i>write the history</i> of riot grrl, that is the comfortable history that fits in with a white supremacist, heteronormative understanding of the world. It is <i>comforting</i> to a lot of people to think that you can "dabble" in a subculture and then get out when you want to, and that people's choices to participate in a subculture (or in sex work) are purely free-market individual choices. That is why women whose experience did NOT match that get written out.
Another thing that strikes me - in punk rock generally, the experience of working class punks gets totally written out. I am slightly troubled by the whole "punk women who do sex work are slumming, have access to health care, etc" narrative - not because it is untrue (and there sure was a fashion for middle class women stripping to be all transgressive back then, something else that made me aware of how I was not like them) but because it is sometimes used against working class punk women who do sex work. I have a friend, for instance, who has been through a lot, and one of the things that has perennially sucked for her, as she's tried to participate in radical political and artistic stuff, has been the assumption that she is just slumming when she does shitty jobs, works as a stripper, lives in shitty apartments, etc. I think that when there is this critique of middle class privilege, folks need to be careful to remember that <i>style</i> does not necessarily map perfectly onto <i>class</i>.
Thank you
What it was for.
Anonymous replied on Sun, 05/26/2013 - 8:02am
Like the author, in my 20's at the this time, I was not a Riot Grrrl. I too was deep into grunge. We can debate the flaws of the Riot Grrrl movement, but not the impact they had on young women at the time. Being a teenager in the 80's was all about misogynist heavy metal. All it did was sexualize women. Although I agree with her article, let's not leave out the fact that up until this time women were not respected within the music industry, especially punk or any music that was not poppy. If the Riot Grrrl movement pushed women to wake up to what was going on around them politically or within society then let's not diminish their impact on women in general. Could they have done a better job, yes. But if you look at history we take small steps within societal change. Women now can play and write any music they want. Young women need to not take for granted the past and continue to fight for women's rights, whether it's playing music or our place at the table. It will not be perfect and it will be a messy fight.
The Real Issue
The real issue here is the buzz and idolatry of Riot Grrl fails to critique Kathleen and the movements message.
I think it's great that riot grrl gave a space for women to be punk and wild and not have to worry about some dudes molesting them. But it was racist and classist in the fact that no songs I've ever heard by any of those riot grrl bands tries to confront racism, and classism. It's all very much centered around a white middle class experience of gender.
Women of color were constantly erased. Given no mention to or solidarity. The fact that Riot Grrl encourages women to choose to sexually exploit themselves, take their clothes off, and identify with terms such as "slut" shows how it failed to critique gender or recognize that women of color EXIST. And that our bodies are seen as slutty and dirty. And trying to claim those labels is not liberating at all for us, but will lead to further rape of us.
FUCK Riot Grrl, because these idiots were too privileged, yet apparently not privileged enough to incorporate anything from the second wave, to understand that it's not all about them. The movement lacked intellectuality and was all about white girl lifestylism and carelessness.
Kathleen Hanna's typical subcultural immature mentality lead her to support the animal abusing, porn embracing, male created, Pussy Riot. A bunch of women who had manarchists hands shoved so far up their skirts they were willing to participate in public humiliation by men.
Kathleen Hanna has mainstream appeal because she fits patriarchal beauty standards, and married a beastie boy. The mainstream also picks up on Riot Grrl because her type of feminism does not actually hurt or challenged patriarchy.
Wtf?! Riot Grrrl music was never racist!
Jess11 replied on Tue, 10/01/2013 - 9:03pm
If you were not in the scene at the time how can you say it was racist? Riot grrl music was never racist. I grew up in NJ and went to Sleater Kinney shows in NYC and Philly with my black girlfriend at the time. I also have a friend who is East Indian and another who is Chinese that were also attending SK, Bikini Kill and Le Tigre shows during the time. Riot grrl music was very progressive and completely against racism and any form of oppression. The Le Tigre song FYR is about black people not getting reparation. Maybe privileged white girls where the ones who had the means of not having to work and be able to afford the instruments. So yes they were the ones making the music. But it was a scene for all women and was never ever racist. The audience was majority white in the same way say India Arie's audience is mostly black.
As a Gen Xer who was actually around back then
I have to say that I think some of these younger people are viewing the RG (or punk) movement incorrectly in terms of context. To start with, you have to understand the climate from which the RG movement emerged. 1980s: Very white. As was all popular cutlure. Check out a John Hughes film. For the most part, POC's, nonwhite, non-beauty standard, non-straight, non-able bodied voices were not heard. Hell, people with tattoos and who wore their baseball cap backwards were met with hostility (yes, the backwards baseball cap, the signifier of all things bro used to read as subversive to Baby Boomers). This was the time when rock stars still wore shirts that read, "AIDS: Kills Fags Dead" (See Guns n' Roses). Can you imagine is someone wore that today? That's how much things have changed.
I would argue that judging the movement 25 years ago by today's standards is like judging the JFK by today's standards. They were breaking through during aninflexible,. non-tolerant time and I think definitely helped lay the groundwork for the more tolerant climate of today (though still not perfect). They may not have been as far along as we would have hoped today, but the Feminism/Riot Grrrl/PC (and much of the early grunge) of the late 80s/early 90s ideology was definitely not racist (I realize people had different experiences). The whole point was questioning the paradigms for gender, race, appearance, etc. Yes, they were still learning about white privilege, but for god's sake, they were talking about it, which is pretty amazing in Reagan's/Bush #1's America. No movement is politically perfect and reflects everyone. But to paint RG as racist is deeply flawed.
But what about the music?
Latisha replied on Sun, 12/15/2013 - 2:01pm
Irrespective of all these flip accusations of racism, elitism, blah blah blah....there should be something said about the music itself. For all the fanzines and associated rhetoric, the nerve center of the "scene" was still the music and the live music performances. And in what, musically speaking, did the riot grrrl scene culminate? Any classic anthems that are still revered today by more than a half dozen diehards? Nope. A sad fact that the riot grrrl scene still doesn't own up to is that the music was weak, cookie cutter, and not memorable. I guess it's tough to say that those awful, sexist, male pig punks made a hell of a lot better music.
"Rebel Girl" is still iconic.
Daniel Swinney replied on Wed, 08/06/2014 - 9:26am
"Rebel Girl" is still iconic. And certainly the lyric from "White Boy": "I'm so sorry if I'm alienating some of you. Your whole fucking culture alienates me" I do think she made better music once Le Tigre started though.
Its so sad that the author
frankie replied on Mon, 04/28/2014 - 10:37pm
Its so sad that the author had to make it about rave. That is the number one problem we all face, it can never just be an idea or a movement or a song a job an ANYTHING without being about race. The ignorance and blatant racism in this article is unfortunate. You were not "part of it" or "interested" , you say, because you were seeking something more aggressive, more physical then what those bands were offering. And that's totally cool! But own THAT part of it. The main bands were predominantly white, not because they were exclusive, BUT because its the fricken Pacific North West! Any one was welcomed to join in, but, like the author, CHOSE not to.
Quit with the racist b.s. already! Stop taking 3 steps back. U didn't like it. . you didn't like it! that's all I hate Justin beiber cuz I think he sucks, not because he's a white male, "privileged" as you lie to throw around, or Canadian. ... is cuz he's not good!and I'm just not into that!
Stop playing the race card. It makes you sound ignorant. Its sad that you uninvited yourself from the party that had no formal invitations.
Solidarity
AnnaLou replied on Mon, 06/16/2014 - 1:49am
I think that we should really have more solidarity and work together for our common goal of equality for all people. I think we should appreciate great feminist work like Kathleen Hanna's regardless of what skin color she has. To me it seems like doing the opposite is falling into one of the traps of patriarchy: Dividing oppressed peoples and not allowing them to have solidarity and collect together to support one another and create great things. By being divided as feminists we are losing focus and losing support. I think instead of fighting against white feminists we should fight for global solidarity, equal rights for all people, and any injustices such as sexism, racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, classism, etc. Needless to say I want to support women of color in any way I can, but by being told that art made by white women is invalid and you would rather support white men enrages me.
This term privileged white
Anonymous replied on Fri, 07/25/2014 - 2:25pm
This term privileged white girl. You don't know me and you don't know any of these other women, which deeply offends me. My skin color is white, but my thoughts and actions are not defined by my skin color. How I was raised was not defined by my skin color. This shit goes deeper than skin. You're basically pissed because this documentary focused on ONE leader and her influence in HER movement and did not focus on black women. The Riot Grrrl movement appealed to everyone of all types and skin colors and was started by Kathleen Hanna who HAPPENS to be white and a band who just HAPPENS to not have any black members. The only racist here is the author. Shame on her for dragging her race into a long war that has been fought by same team for centuries.
I find in incredibly unfortunate that we can not travel back in time and try to fix the errors in the first and second waves of feminism movement to include our sisters and for that, I will forever understand the eternal grudge, but just because a particular segment of modern feminism did not appeal to you, does not mean it was racist. It appealed to other women of all kinds and introduced them to the on-going battle that we have fought for centuries until present day. As women united together, we should try to encourage one another and move together against this social construct of race. We will only be able to surpass this peacefully together, not dragging a whole movement down because we didn't feel connected to it.
Whether or not you realize
anonymousomg replied on Sat, 10/25/2014 - 7:57pm
Whether or not you realize it, or want to, your skin color does give certain privileges or disadvantages. Not because of you, but because of the prejudices of the people around you. It isn't racist to point that out, it's a common and proven fact. Say as a woman, you don't have male privilege. That alters your life experience in innumerable ways, as I'm sure you totally get being into riot grrrl. POCs have an insurmountably different life experience and set of issues to deal with than do the white population, regardless of gender. But yeah, sure, we should all try to work together to pass the difficulties and challenges in our society. One of the ways of doing this is by realizing such differences. Not letting them rule us, but by giving us a broader perspective.
Riot grrrrl Perspective
Scott Anderson replied on Mon, 09/29/2014 - 7:04am
Thanks for this piece. I just watched the Punk Singer last night, primarily due to my interest in music. I'm a white male almost 60 so I could be imagined as entirely insensitive to the issues raised. The film was valuable to me in several respects, but I think number one was the clear statement concerning the pain of a person who is relegated to object status based on criteria beyond her control. Our culture is blind to the imbalance in the way we treat women. As much as we've banished overt sexist talk from the workplace and polite discussion, women are still elevated or dismissed based on criteria that are not applied to men. Most of all though, I want to say thanks for this perspective. I detected an ordinary amount of hypocrisy in the view that the filmmaker chose to give us, it was simply amplified by Hanna's powerful personality. After all, I subscribe to the view that we're almost all self-righteous hypocrites when we step back and look at ourselves honestly.
Did you not even think of the
anon replied on Thu, 10/23/2014 - 8:24am
<p>Did you not even think of the fact that they were in a different area, Olympia ( i have lived there) WA dc(have not) but the majority of people there are white, that means a majority of the girls were white, that doesnt mean they werent for equality of all races, kathleen talks about it all the time. It was about not being scared and equality if you fought with them or not.</p><p> </p>
Olympia early 1990s scene
Anonymouslida replied on Thu, 02/12/2015 - 6:16pm
I lived in Olympia pre second wave riot grrl - which Kathleen was part of- yes there was a first wave that never got media attention - and witnessed a dead men don't rape rally at evergreen by early 90s riot grrls at evergreen- I was standing with my black girlfriend who said confused and disappointed why are there no black riot grrls? The Oly riot grrls were of a white middle class background and privileged and often were seen as a sorority of sorts . There has definitely been a mythology propagated - exclusion and girl competition and jealousy were rife amongst Kathleen and the scene - it's with mature hindsight that an ideal of inclusive feminism has come to be propagated in the media by Kathleen - which is how it should be as we all can rewrite history and reorient the feminist project in a better direction that it deserves to be.
This has definitely been a
Ariele VB replied on Sat, 10/25/2014 - 7:46pm
This has definitely been a good read. I'm disappointed that a movement I took so much from (in hindsight, I guess, I was born in '92) could still be so divided and non-inclusive. Anybody have any other articles or books that would be good to look into?
Check out the book girls to
Olympia 90s and now
Anonymouslida replied on Thu, 02/12/2015 - 6:22pm
I lived in Olympia pre second wave riot grrl - which Kathleen was part of- yes there was a first wave that never got media attention - and witnessed a dead men don't rape rally at evergreen by early 90s riot grrls at evergreen- I was standing with my black girlfriend who said confused and disappointed why are there no black riot grrls? The Oly riot grrls were of a white middle class background and privileged and often were seen as a sorority of sorts . There has definitely been a mythology propagated - exclusion and girl competition and jealousy were rife amongst Kathleen and the scene - it's with mature hindsight that an ideal of inclusive feminism has come to be propagated in the media by Kathleen - which is how it should be as we all can rewrite history her story and reorient the feminist project in a better direction that it deserves to be.
Jennifer Herrema RULES
jackie replied on Thu, 04/09/2015 - 1:09pm
This discussion was started by Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux/RTX/Black Bananas back when she was starting out as a youngster in the early 90's. She refused to play with Bikini Kill and has never participated in anything that is exclusively for "women" and has always maintained her identity as a human being as opposed to a "woman" in rock. She has been "opting" out and in interviews and conversations since 1990 but then again she has always been "ahead of the pack and against the grain". This conversation is not new as she planted the seed 20 years ago but like most things Herrema she was ahead of her time.
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boxman. moles. badges
Here are a few things that I made my lovely boyfriend for Valentines day! They are all based around one of my favourite animals -moles! There is a mole boxman and a mole card. I also put a mole badge on the front of the card’s envelope and made a badge for the mole to hold!
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Friday, September 30, 2011
Recently, Netflix separated their streaming and DVD subscription plans. As per Netflix's forecast, they will lose about 1 million subscribers by the end of this quarter. The customers did not like what Netflix did. A few days back, Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, wrote a blog post explaining why Netflix separated their plans. He also announced their new brand, Qwikster, which will be a separate DVD service from Netflix's streaming website. These two services won't share the queues and movie recommendations even if you subscribe to both of them. A lot has been said and discussed about how poorly Netlflix communicated the overall situation and made wrong decisions.
I have no insider information about these decisions. They might seem wrong in short term but I am on Netflix's side and agree with the co-founder Marc Randolph that Netflix didn't screw up. I believe it was the right thing to do, but they could have executed it a little better. Not only I am on their side, but I see parallels between Netflix's transition from DVD to steaming and on-premise enterprise ISVs' transition from on-premise to cloud. The on-premise ISVs don't want to cannibalize their existing on-premise business to move to the cloud even if they know that's the future, but they don't want to wait long enough to be in a situation where they run out of money and become irrelevant before the transition.
So, what can these on-premise ISV's learn from Netflix's decisions and mistakes?
Run it as a separate business unit, compete in the right category, and manage street's expectations:
Most companies run their business as single P&L and that's how the street sees it and expects certain revenue and margins. Single P&L muddies the water.The companies have no way of knowing how much money they are spending on a specific business and how much revenue it brings in. In many cases, there is not even an internal separation between different business units. Setting up a separate business unit is a first step to get the accounting practices right including tracking cost and giving the right guidance to the street. DVD business is like maintenance revenue and the streaming is like license revenue. The investors want to know two things: you're still a growth company (streaming) and you still have enough cash coming in (DVD business) to tap into the potential to grow.
Netflix faces competition in streaming as well as in their DVD business, but the nature of competition is quite different. For the enterprise ISVs competing with on-premise vendors is quite different than competing with SaaS vendors. The nature of business — cost structure, revenue streams, ecosystem, platform, anti-trust issues, marketing campaigns, sales strategy — is so different that you almost need a separate organization.
Prepare yourself to acquire and be acquired:
Netflix could potentially acquire a vendor in the streaming business or in the DVD business and that makes it easy for them to integrate. This is even more true in the case of ISVs since most of the on-premise ISVs will grow into the cloud through acquisitions. If you're running your SaaS business as a separate entity, it is much easier to integrate the new business from technology as well as business perspective.
Just as you could acquire companies, you should prepare yourself for an exit as well. Netflix could potentially sell the DVD unit to someone else. This will be a difficult transaction if their streaming business is intertwined with their DVD business. The same is true for the enterprise ISVs. One day, they might decide to sell their existing on-premise business. Running it as a separate business entity makes it much easier to attract a buyer and sell it as a clean transaction.
Take your customers through the journey:
This is where Netflix failed. They did not communicate to the customers early on and ended up designing a service that doesn't leverage existing participation of the customers such as recommendations and queues. There is no logical reason why they cannot have a contract in place between two business units to exchange data, even if these two units are essentially separate business entities. The ISVs should not make this mistake. When you move to the cloud, make sure that your customers can connect to their on-premise systems. Not only that, you need to take care of their current contracts and extend them to the cloud if possible and make it easy for them to transition. Don't make it painful for your customers. The whole should be great than the sum of its parts.
Run your business as a global brand:
Learn from P&G and GE. They are companies made up of companies. They do run these sub-companies independently with a function to manage them across. It does work. Netflix has a great brand and they will retain that. As an on-premise ISV you should consider running your on-premise and cloud businesses as sub-brands under single brand umbrella. Branding is the opposite of financials; brand is a perception and financials is a reality. Customers care for the brand and service and the street cares for the financials. They seem to be very closely related to each other for a company looking inside-in but from an outside-in perspective they are quite different. There is indeed a way to please them both. This is where the most companies make wrong decisions.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
It is estimated that approximately 41% of revenue, close to $53 billion, is "lost" in software piracy. This number is totally misleading since it assumes that all the people who knowingly or unknowingly pirated software would have bought the software at the published price had they not pirated it. RIAA also applies the same nonsense logic to blow the music piracy number way out of proportion. The most people who pirate software are similar to the people who pirate music. They may not necessarily buy software at all. If they can't pirate your software, they will pirate something else. If they can't do that, they will find some other alternative to get the job done.
Fortunately, some software companies understand this very well and they have a two-pronged approach to deal with this situation: prevent large scale piracy and leverage piracy when you can't prevent it. If an individual has access to free (pirated) software, as a vendor, you're essentially encouraging an organic ecosystem. The person who pirated your software is more likely to make a recommendation to continue using it when he/she is employed by a company that cannot and will not pirate. This model has worked extremely well. What has not been working so well and what the most on-premise vendors struggle with is the unintentional license usage or revenue leakage. Customers buy on-premise software through channels and deploy to large number of users. Most on-premise software are not instrumented to prevent unintentional license usage. The license activation, monitoring, and compliance systems are antiquated in most cases and cannot deal with this problem. This is very different than piracy because the most corporations, at least in the western world, that deploy the on-premise software want to be honest but they have no easy way to figure out how many licenses have beed used.
In the SaaS world, this problem goes away. The cloud becomes the platform to ensure that the subscriptions are paid for and monitored for continuous compliance. You could argue that there is no license leakage since there are no licenses to deal with. But, what about piracy? Well, there's no piracy either. This is a bad thing. Even though a try before buy exists, there's no organic grass-roots adoption of your software (as a service) since people can't pirate. In many countries where software piracy is rampant, the internet access is not ubiquitous and bandwidth is still limited. This creates one more hurdle for the people to use your software.
So, what does this mean to you?
SaaS ISV: It is very important for you to have a freemium model that is country-specific and not just a vanilla try-before-buy. You need to get users start using your service for free early on and make it difficult for them to move away when they work for someone who can pay you. Even though you're a SaaS company, consider a free on-premise version that provides significant value. Evernote is a great example of this strategy. It shouldn't surprise you that people still download software, pirated or otherwise. Don't try to change their behavior, instead make your business model fit to their needs. As these users become more connected and the economics work in their favor, they will buy your service. It's also important to understand that the countries where piracy is rampant, people are extremely value conscious.
On-premise ISV: Don't lose your sleep over piracy. It's not an easy problem to solve but do make sure that you're doing all you can to prevent it. Consider a freemium business model where you're providing a clean and free version to your users. If the users can get enough basic value from a free version, they are less likely to pirate a paid version. What you absolutely must do is to fix your license management systems to prevent unintentional license usage. Help yourself by helping your customers who want to be honest. The cloud is a great platform to collect, clean, and match all the license usage data. You have a little or no control over customers' landscapes but you do have control over your own system in the cloud as long as there's a little instrumentation embedded in your on-premise software and a hybrid architecture that connects your on-premise software to the cloud. In nutshell you should be able to manage your licenses the way SaaS companies manage their subscriptions. There are plenty of other benefits of this approach including the most important benefit being a SaaS repository of your customers and their landscapes. This would help you better integrate your future SaaS offerings and acquisitions as well as third-part tools that you might use to run your business.
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Monday, November 19, 2018
I want to know as little about a show as possible before I see it. This would be true even if I wasn't a critic. Ever since that Canadian kid visiting South Florida for the summer blurted out to me that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father BEFORE I saw The Empire Strikes Back, I've been horrified by spoilers. ("Why? Why did you tell me?") Despite all this, I'm not a fanatic. On revivals, I'll perk up when hearing details about their approach to a show, like the recent Oklahoma at St. Ann's that included corn bread and chili during the interval and a general picnic-vibe. Cool!
So I've seen Mike Birbiglia before, I knew his new show was about becoming a father (the new one is a baby) and I heard...murmurings. Comments. By and large, his stand-up persona is to self-deprecate; most of Birbiglia's jokes are at his own expense, especially when detailing the myriad medical issues that have bedeviled him. So it seemed out of character for such an everyman, relatable guy, but I kept hearing he came across as a jerk. He crossed some line and risked people...well, it wasn't that they wouldn't like him. They would hate him. What a terrible person! Don't be that honest, Mike! WTF? What could he have possibly said?
Well, it's not a spoiler, so I won't feel bad in telling you that during his new show about being a new parent, Birbiglia confesses that being a parent is...really hard. Oh, he goes farther, but that's the gist of it. In fact, Birbiglia confesses it's so hard that -- and here he drops to that conspiratorial whisper where you imagine he's speaking to you and you alone -- that he understands why some men leave. (I'll admit, a small ripple of astonishment spread through the audience at the performance I attended.) Yeah, he gets it. Birbiglia immediately follows that "confession" with a reassurance. He doesn't mind telling us this because he knows: HE'LL NEVER LEAVE. Not a chance.
Well, if that's bold, someone should have told the classic original sitcom Roseanne or a thousand other TV shows where the parents cheerfully joked about dumping the kids and heading for the hills. Heck, even moms can feel sometimes it's a hell of a lot of work and they've considered tossing in the towel. (Of course, women abandoning their kids is somehow even more difficult for people to accept, much as they understand it intellectually.) Now remember, we're not talking about adults leaving their kids on the side of the road. We're talking about parents overwhelmed by the responsibility and admitting to themselves and each other, "Wow. This is hard."
I never would have thought this was Lenny Bruce territory, deeply confessional truth-telling that risked alienating an audience. And it wasn't. The show I saw was warmly embraced and ended on just the sort of awww emotional moment you saw coming a mile away but still sort of bought since we're all suckers when it comes to the emotional bond of parent and child.
[Here's Birbiglia on Jimmy Kimmel talking about his show.]
That's how the show ends. But it begins with a couch. In a nifty throughline, Birbiglia charts his maturity through his couch, which started with a beast he "rescued" off the street (his roommates gave him an "awesome" and a thumbs up) and then progressed to deciding he was going to go full adult and buy a new couch only to experience sticker shock and finally discovering his beloved favorite couch (the place he would collapse after weeks on the road doing standup) had been commandeered by "the new one." And God help him if he thought this was temporary.
Maturity becomes him, that's for certain. Birbiglia has a sad sack, Ray Romano sort of vibe (he must have turned down sitcoms by now) with his own sneaky delivery. He keeps calling his wife by the wrong name (a hilarious distillation of male indifference; "oh, it's our anniversary?"), bemoans any change, laughably thinks the fact that his wife saying she didn't want kids when they got married meant she would NEVER wants kids and generally rolls with the punches.
From frighteningly intrusive medical exams to discovering his sperm don't swim to realizing he is NOT the most important person in the room when the new one arrives, Birbiglia is in fine form. It's a story -- not stand-up -- and he is ably supported by the sneakily simple set of Beowulf Boritt, the lighting of Aaron Copp, the sound of Leon Rothenberg (nicely invisible but crucial) and director Seth Barrish to build the story and use his distinctive delivery (an offhand comment here, a mumbled punchline there) to share it rather than as a crutch. You're never waiting for the jokes, which makes the jokes all the more satisfying.
It's Mike Birbiglia's most satisfying show yet, which bodes well for his next piece, The Terrible Twos.
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
I've never seen this Bertolt Brecht play before and it's easy to see why. I can readily imagine it as an earnest, tiresomely obvious lecture on the rise of Adolf Hitler, a production that would scare one off this play and Brecht in general for years to come. This dire warning was essentially ready to be performed in 1941. But American theater companies weren't ready to stage such a provocative show when the US was still officially neutral in World War II. So it sat in a drawer until after Brecht died. Finally in 1958 it made its debut and has proven catnip ever since for lead actors like Christopher Plummer, Simon Callow, Al Pacino, Antony Sher and many others.
Who can resist the idea of playing a two-bit hood from Brooklyn that muscles into the cauliflower trade in Chicago, viciously betraying any friend and crushing any enemy that gets in his way? Not star Raúl Esparza, in an electrifying, satisfying performance that reminds us how good this actor can be. Arturo Ui is intended to be a flashy, larger than life role and you can't go too big when transforming from a punk into a world class dictator.
And yet Esparza never does go big, except when the finale absolutely demands it. He has an intriguing emotional reserve on stage; you feel Esparza is always holding something back, something that remains his own even when he's in the spotlight demanding your attention. That works a charm here since no one ever really knows Arturo Ui, the soulless, pitiless golem that cannot betray anyone since he never pretended anyone else matters. Arturo demands loyalty but he never, ever offers it.
Photo by Joan Marcus (c) 2018
In John Doyle's brisk direction, this brutally funny work embraces the didactic nature of the text with glee. The audience is seated on three sides and the cast is held behind a metal fence, rattling off the introduction that spells out the action soon to take place. They enter the bare stage via a gate that clangs shut like the door of a prison or the perimeter of a concentration camp. In case you miss the point, the real life incidents that served as raw material for Brecht are spelled out year by year, scene by scene, sometimes punctuated with the sound of adoring crowds cheering on the Führer.
Functional folding tables -- the kind you'll find in any community center -- are constantly being set up or taken down. Actors move into position with military briskness, firing off lines like bullets. And then a table is rotated, two chairs appear and another scene begins with a negotiation or a plea or a plan. Back and forth, again and again, with Arturo just an annoying pest on the margins at the start. Then he proves maybe a little useful and is allowed in the door. And then he's speaking up a little more forcefully and then he has a seat at the table and before you know it he's at the head of the table. The front man he used to garner the support of the public is pushed aside and how the hell did that happen anyway? Is this schmuck in charge? Really?
Photo by Joan Marcus (c) 2018
This is agitprop, not realistic drama and it might prove more medicinal than the bracing tonic we want. Happily, it's fun! The cast delivers their lines with rat-a-tat glee, like the announcer in a Movietone News reel. Arturo Ui has come to Chicago! The cauliflower racket is feeling the pressure! The town of Cicero may be next! The terrific George Abud as a head of the syndicate Arturo wants to take over is especially good at offering up his dialogue with verve and a wicked, desperate gleam in his eyes. But it's not all hijinks and end-of-the-world desperation. As the widow of a man who tried to bend to Arturo (but didn't bend readily enough), Omozé Idehenre offers an essential glimpse into the heartrending toll of this tragedy. That makes her eventual acquiescence, her public embrace of this killer and her oh-so-subtly reluctant applause all the more painful. (She's also wonderful as a cynical official overseeing an investigation with diligence but inevitably sidelined by the syndicate.)
Yes, Brecht has changed Hitler's domination of German politics into the deflating "dream" of conquering the vegetable trade. The invasion of Austria becomes the invasion of Cicero. The Reichstag fire is transformed into a warehouse fire used to intimidate anyone foolish enough to stand up to Arturo's reign. It's silly and mocking -- wonderfully so. Brecht doesn't deflate or diminish what Hitler did; he just gives it a smaller scale so you can begin to grasp the horror of it all. The death of eight million is beyond us; the death of eight might be within our ken.
Photo by Joan Marcus (c) 2018
It's a strong cast, with Abud (The Band's Visit) in particular proving yet again why it's always a good sign to see his name in the credits of a show. Others like Eddie Cooper and Christopher Gurr keep the satire stinging but hold onto a core humanity that makes this more than allegory. When hearts aren't breaking, satire can be pretty toothless.
The space of the Classic Stage Company has some magic that brings out the best in scenic designers. Here that holds true, mostly, though a upper level set behind the fence is distracting. Stairs lead up to it and one can't help wondering when this space will be used. When it is finally -- and briefly -- employed, the effect hardly seems worth the bother. Doyle's instinct to pare down failed him here, but it's only a minor distraction. Otherwise, the tech elements are a plus, from the costumes of Ann Hould-Ward (casually revealing character) to the lighting of Jane Cox and Teresa James (never attention-grabbing but always focusing our attention where it needs to be) to the sound design of Matt Stine (flashier than sound design usually proves, but necessarily so in this context).
Doyle uses every inch of the space, fluidly so, and it all climaxes for me at the end of act one. Arturo knows he must speak in public and command more respect, so he turns to a classically trained actor for pointers. She coaches him in how to walk, how to stand, how to sit and above all how to speak. Esperza has some fun holding his hands over his crotch the way she suggests, but for the rest of the play these mannerisms become more and more natural in nicely timed stages. Act one ends with him reciting the famous Marc Antony speech from Julius Caesar as practice and Esparza transforms from a simple man of Brooklyn into a more and more commanding speaker until you're simultaneously magnetized and horrified. At the end of the scene, he's sitting in a chair with casual authority, spotlit and glowering -- not like a two-bit Mussolini, but like Il Duce himself.
That's it, I thought. I think I've just experienced everything this play has to offer. Indeed, act two was in many ways just more of the same: it takes the message of act one and underlines it and then adds a few exclamation points for good measure, nothing more.
But Doyle allows it to slow down and even slip back a bit in pacing, so we see again Arturo overwhelm the opposition, such as it is. Yes, we'd already seen this but it felt fresh or at least like a new stage in his malignant growth. I still believe everything was there in one act; Brecht's work was done. Yet act two had its own pull, with Idenhenre getting her chance to shine emotionally. At the very end, Esparza goes full Adolph during a final ranting speech. While I preferred the silent menace of his glowering visage of the end of act one, it was shiver-inducing.
Recent productions have reportedly underlined comparisons to President Trump and the rise of fascism around the world. I'd call Brecht prescient except one can always safely predict ugliness and hate will appear in hard times and need to be confronted. The play concludes by saying yes, this villain Hitler was faced down by the world. Just don't take too much comfort in that. As Brecht promises in delphic fashion at the very end, "The bitch that bore him is in heat again."
In a final modest misstep, the audio mix crescendoes with cries of "Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!" and then segues to "Lock her up! Lock her up!" No need for that, people; Brecht was blunt enough. We got the message loud and clear.
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
Friday, November 09, 2018
No, the spectacle of King Kong the technical achievement does not make the show worth a peek. Sure, maybe you were happy to sit through Titanic to watch the boat sink or endured the absurd story of Avatar to savor the cutting edge 3-D effects. But much as I love puppetry, that spectacle for its own sake argument does not hold true here.
And no, kids would be bored out of their minds.
Unless you or someone you love is really, really nuts about puppetry (which I am) or is so into Kong they can happily discuss the 1976 version as compared to the 2005 version or wax eloquent over King Kong Vs. Godzilla, then...no. I mean, if they're even aware of the Rankin/Bass TV series The King Kong Show (three seasons!) and the sequel to the classic original that came out literally MONTHS later way back in 1933 (The Son Of Kong), well, then they already have their tickets and didn't wait and can properly lower their expectations.
Other than that...no.
Now back to the good news. They really did a terrific, ground-breaking job with the character of King Kong, a combination of on-stage puppeteers, remote controlled manipulators and backstage actors voicing the creatures grunts and bellows. As with The Lion King, you soon ignore the artists making it happen (except when it's really fun to do so) and just watch the character. It's no diss on the other actors to say Kong gives the best performance of the show -- you feel actual empathy for the creature and every all-too-brief moment when he is center stage and interacting with others finds the audience pin-drop quiet and engaged. Let me emphasize again, it's not so magical that this makes a trip to King Kong worth the visit, but it's a genuine achievement nonetheless.
Of such things are special Tony Awards created and Kong would be a worthy recipient. Plus, who would want to tell Kong he LOST an award? Best to make it a sure thing and announce the award far in advance. Beyond that, it would be wise for the highly competitive theme park impresarios to check this out. Their theme parks often employ giant mechanized creatures and the approach taken here probably isn't any cheaper but it sure as heck is far more satisfying creatively and emotionally. The Kong of theme parks is just a stunt; this Kong lets you MEET the beast and sense his emotions, his intelligence, his fearsomeness. If there's one electric moment in King Kong, it's the scene where Kong has broken free of his chains on Broadway and then lumbers out to the edge of the stage, finally acknowledging us the audience and looming over the front rows, eying the orchestra seat members like a tasty snack. A ripple of amused tension spreads throughout the crowd as Kong breaks the fourth wall. I doubt there's anything as convincing in any theme park anywhere.
The tortured history of this punchline of a show waiting to happen (King Kong? The MUSICAL?) is well-documented. Still, what has arrived on Broadway directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie made some smart choices. It kept the Depression America setting to capture the desperation of a two-bit film director/impresario named Carl Denham (Eric William Morris). He has a cockamamie idea to head to an uncharted spit of land dubbed Skull Island, drag along a leading lady and capture...something with his footage. He stumbles across would-be actress Ann Darrow (Christiani Pitts), likes her spunk and they roll the dice. Of course, when they find King Kong, Denham decides instead of capturing something on film he'd rather capture the beast itself, bring it back to New York and get rich a la P.T. Barnum. Things go wrong.
In this version, the natives looking to sacrifice a blond beauty to their god Kong are well forgotten. Instead, Ann Darrow is black, which immediately erases -- or at least minimizes -- all sorts of racial stereotypes embedded in the original scenario. Further, this Ann Darrow is no Fay Wray shrinking violet known only for her screams. She's more likely to save herself, thank you very much and her scream is more of a roar that Kong himself might identify with. (In one of the show's many misbegotten technical choices, Ann's roar is a pre-taped bit of nonsense that takes you out of the show every time they employ it.)
That's all well and good, but the show goes way too far. Ann isn't just a competent gal, she's a striver who becomes self-actualized by her bonding with Kong. Towards the end of the play, she's actually telling the big fella he's made her a better person; God bless Pitts for delivering such tripe without rolling her eyes at the same time.
And MILD SPOILER ALERT, she actually encourages Kong to break free in New York (because what could go wrong?), jumps on his back and they ride off together to Central Park. One can easily imagine Ann feeling sympathy for the creature and suffering guilt for seeing him chained up and miserable. But actually getting within arms reach, much less climbing on his back as a willing partner in crime? We actually believe in the creature too much to buy such nonsense. Kong could have easily grabbed Ann of his own volition and taken her to the top of the Empire State Building without undercutting Ann's agency, thank you very much. END OF SPOILER ALERT
Finally, the show was right to understand the spectacle of Kong needed a full orchestra and a genuine score (Marius de Vries) to make it work. What the show most definitely didn't need, however, were songs by Eddie Perfect or anyone frankly. Since none of them work -- at all -- and the only decent scenes are the dramatic ones, it's a shame after scrapping two complete versions they didn't just say to hell with the tunes.
Much else does not work. The digital backdrops employed throughout the show do fine when trying to give a sense of excitement as Kong races through the jungle or the streets of New York. Otherwise, they're murky and kind of ugly, somehow, as if the Depression setting meant the visuals had to be dark and depressing and murky too. The transformation from the streets of New York to the bow of the ship is so clumsily handled by director McOnie it made me appreciate how smoothly such things are often achieved by others. (I kept thinking, Why are the two leads standing on a box and being pushed around the stage or Why are the sailors surrounding the two leads with a bunch of ropes, rather than simply enjoying as one should as one image flowed into another and the boat magically appeared.) The jungle is goofily unconvincing (green lasers certainly don't help), though Kong's lair (or rather, penthouse with a great view) works fine.
While Kong is impressive, clearly every penny went to him. A battle with a giant serpent is deeply disappointing for two reasons. One, the giant serpent isn't terribly convincing. Two, as they face off, Kong and the serpent sort of wander off stage for their climactic showdown because it was too difficult or expensive to stage the fight in front of the audience who dearly would have enjoyed seeing it. This isn't just a cost-saving; it cheats the audience out of the necessary sight of Kong's fearsome power and it happens at a few key moments. Most of the big action happens offstage, though the planes shooting at Kong above the Empire State Building is a nice image. The result is that he's a lot less fearsome than he might have been.
The book by Jack Thorne is weak and does a poor job of making up its mind about that impresario Carl Denham. Is he the villain? Does he turn bad or make the wrong choice at certain impulsive moments? The show has no idea and so neither do we and a chance for a genuine hiss-able foil (or at minimum a flesh and blood character) is lost. It's so clumsy in dealing with the two leads that the only notable (but brief) moments of actual drama involve Lumpy. Who you might well ask is Lumpy? Lumpy (Erik Lochtefeld) is Denham's assistant, a sad sack fellow who has perhaps the only substantial speeches of the show -- in one he gives Ann the spine to stand up to Denham and in another he quits his job. They almost sort of work, leaving you with the feeling that if they'd dumped the godawful songs and actually had some more scenes that this nonsense might have sorted itself out a little. No such luck.
This drama by Christopher Demos-Brown is the second work on Broadway that feels like a throw-back to the good ole days. Like Lifespan Of A Fact, it's a topical entertainment with some big stars and something on its mind. In this case, it's the sadly perennial topic of racism in America, the dangers young black men face on a daily basis and the constant hum of tension felt by their parents at all hours of the day and night but especially at night and especially at 4 am when their son hasn't come home yet and they can't reach them on the phone.
That's the nerve-fraying situation of Kendra (Kerry Washington) when the play opens. It's 4 am, it's raining and she's pacing around an anonymous waiting area of a Miami Florida police station where a new but clueless cop (Jeremy Jordan) tries to placate Kendra despite his inability to tell her much of anything about her son. They know the car he was driving was involved in an incident, but other than that he knows just as little as she does and Kendra is just going to have to calm down until the public affairs officer shows up and can give her more help. Uh-huh.
When Kendra's estranged husband Scott shows up (Steven Pasquale) and we discover he's a white FBI agent, you can easily map out the rest of the action in this tepid, ripped from the headlines work. Sadly, nothing surprises in the least, right down to the unsurprising surprise ending. American Son is earnest, well-intentioned and inert, even with four strong actors ready to give it their all. It's not enough, just as it wasn't enough for the similarly bland Lifespan Of A Fact, which desperately tried to add a little timeliness to its tale of fact-checking by making allusions to our supposed post-truth era.
Do such plays simply not work on Broadway? Is TV where they belong? I'd say, no, not really. They just need to be done well. And with TV tackling such stories with a hell of a lot of integrity and smarts, the bar has raised. A show like American Son might have been the only game in town in 1950. Today, it just feels played out. All director Kenny Leon and his sterling cast could really have done in the situation was take a pass or demanded more.
The first problem is that American Son takes place in real time. In the old days, that might have created some tension. Instead, it creates an artificial aura around the entire show. Plus, audiences are too savvy. We know in real life how even an incompetent police station in Miami would have handled the situation we always assume is playing out and it isn't by having a distraught mom handled in bungling fashion by a newbie who doesn't know the first thing about preventing a bad situation from getting worse. Further, when the drama takes place in real time, it makes it all the harder to accept that Kendra and Scott -- who are separated and likely never to reunite -- would be desperately worried about their son and yet take time to share anecdotes about the first time they met, hash over old memories and the like. It's the sort of artificiality drama used to traffic in without thinking but is much harder to pull off now.
Among the many other problems is the core relationship between the two adults. Scott has left Kendra, is sleeping with another woman and if they'r not already divorced, they surely will be. (The timing of when he left the marriage was a little murky for me as I watched the show.) As the clunky text brings up everything from baggy pants and corn rows on young black men to the dangers men of color face every single day of their life, the idea that Kendra and Scott were married for 15+ years becomes increasingly difficult to believe.
If their nightmare of a situation (her son is missing) was taking place on a date these two people were on, I'd believe it. But instead they were in love and Scott has been married to Kendra and raised their son with love and affection and presumably at least a modicum of intelligence? Not buying it. Scott has to be lectured to about what can happen to his son? You mean, this FBI agent has never had the "talk" with his son, the one where he must acknowledge his son literally can't casually run down a street for any reason without endangering his life? Scott can't even bring himself to call his own son by the name they chose, Jamal? Scott is so focused on having Jamal -- or "J" as he would say -- getting into West Point and having every "advantage" that he hasn't clued himself in to the need for his son to celebrate and appreciate and accept the color of his own skin? Scott uses the word "uppity" and he's not even being ironic to make a point? And college professor Kendra married him? I don't even think they would have made it to the third date. It is impossible to believe the relationship at the heart of this play and thus it's hard to believe anything else either.
Nonetheless, the set by Derek McLane is a solid, unprepossessing work that does what it must and then gets out of the way. Washington and Pasquale do what they can with their roles, just as Jeremy Jordan does with a cop who of course makes a casually racist comment the moment Kendra is out of the room and is so dumb he confuses Emily Dickinson with Charles Dickens and so sexist he tells this highly educated college professor he believes she is wrong when she corrects him.
Then Eugene Lee walks in. When a stodgy play like American Son begins by saying someone is going to show up later, you just know they're going to show up later and set off some fireworks, upending the dynamics of everything that has gone on before. That's precisely what happens Lt. John Stokes (Lee) walks in and asserts his authority. The marvelous Lee (a mainstay of August Wilson productions, the legendary original cast of A Soldier's Play in 1982 and the TV show Homicide: Life On The Streets among many others) strolls in, pickpockets all the attention and never let's it go.
It's a pity to report that the godawful final scene is wholly unbelievable, tiresomely predictable, rests on Lee's shoulders...and he flubbed a key line. It was momentary and nothing really and even the performance of a lifetime wouldn't have made the scene good, but it happened. It's poorly staged by Leon (why is the character standing and addressing the audience with his back to the other characters) and even more poorly written by Demos-Brown (we are all too aware that the level of detail offered in the scene simply wouldn't be available at that stage). Even a talent like Lee can be tripped up by a flimsy piece and that's precisely what American Son remains from start to finish.
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
Thursday, November 08, 2018
Just as filmgoers sometimes idly wonder "What exactly is a best boy?"theatergoers pouring over credits might ask themselves, "What does a dramaturg do?" The answer varies from production to production and -- in the case of an ongoing institution like The Public -- from company to company. In its simplest form, a dramaturg is often another pair of eyes, someone who can observe your theatrical piece without an agenda. A set designer might want a bigger set, an actor might want more lines, a producer might want to save money. But a dramaturg? They don't care if a particular song or monologue is added or cut except for one reason and one reason alone: they are always thinking about what is best for the work as a whole. And so while their opinion may have no more weight than anyone else, it is a blessedly neutral one.
I haven't a clue as to the role of the dramaturg at the Public or what role if any they played in this debut. But they are nurturing playwright Patricia Ione Lloyd and part of that nurturing should have included a neutral and trusted set of eyes that might have kept Eve's Song from numerous obvious missteps.
It's a piece with a lot on its mind and eager to spell that out for you. Lloyd tells the story of Deborah (De'Adre Aziza), a divorced woman overseeing her just-out daughter and isolated son Mark (Karl Green), a teen who obsessively watches news footage of police brutality against young black men. Deborah is succeeding at a difficult job where her talents as an executive are used but not wholly appreciated, while her status as a woman of color is abused with incessant sexual harassment. Eve's Song deals with gender and #MeToo and sexual orientation and the societal invisibility of violence against black women and ghosts and legacies and activism and inequality and presumably a few other issues I forgot about.
All admirable, if spelled out far too flatly. But Eve's Song also rolls the dice theatrically, playing with abrupt changes in style that veer from satire to surreal to naturalistic drama to a heavy-handed, ghostly climax. Even the stuff that doesn't work (and there's a lot) is at least bold in its attempt.
One can easily see why Lloyd caught the eye of the Public -- she has ambition and humor and some sharp, original dialogue. But part of nurturing talent is to help them shape their work. It's hard to understand why no one ever spoke up and said, "Hey, you know what's really working here? The relationship between the daughter Lauren (Kadijah Raquel) and the activist Upendo (Ashley D. Kelley)." You know, the rare scenes that actually stick to the form of a traditional play, one where people meet and bounce off each other and something real and tangible happens. Playwrights may love to fire on all cylinders and try every trick in the book the first time out, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.
Family scenes are played in a highly theatrical manner, with the mom and kids sitting in rhythmic unison, flapping their cloth napkins and speaking with exaggerated politesse. But prowling around the stage are ghost-like people, dubbed Spirit People in the text. And a crack in the wall of the living room turns into an August Wilsonian crack in the firmament through which the desperately unfair and unacknowledged trauma black women endure comes pouring out. But every once in a while Lloyd just tells a story. Lauren spots Upendo at a bus stop and their tentative sparring is sweet and human, with both actors fleshing out these roles with chemistry and genuine emotion.
That's the play one would actually like to see. But even the play Lloyd has written should have been steered more thoughtfully by director Jo Bonney or the dramaturg or someone. For example, early in the play, the lights dim, a spotlight falls on the mom and she addresses the audience with her personal thoughts. Soon after, the same happens with the daughter. And the son? Nothing. For almost the entire play, he does not get his moment to open up and reveal something about himself. Naturally, you just assume he won't; this seems a perfectly reasonable stance since the play is focused on the silenced voices of black women. But right towards the end, suddenly the lights dim and the spotlight turns on him. You sit up straight -- since his confessional scene has been saved till the last moment and he's had the least dialogue of the three, you have every reason to assume it's going to be a doozy of some sort. Instead, it's just as unremarkable as their asides to the audience. Either he should be given a moment up front like the others (so we're not kept in suspense and expect too much) or it might have been cut entirely for the thematic reasons I just gave. The only choice that shouldn't be made is the one Lloyd went with.
Similarly, much is made of a creaky floorboard. The house is "haunted" perhaps and coming apart at the seams as their middle class existence is smashed apart by a racist and misogynist society. The son trips over the floorboard. It's commented upon. Eventually the mother and son take the time to check it out...and the floorboard is accidentally ripped up! Do they find something buried underneath? Do spirits escape it? Does it play any role whatsoever after that? No, they just move a table to cover the unsightly bulge in the floor.
Those Spirit Women? Like the son, they are not given a moment to speak out -- until they do, three quarters of the way through the play. Again, they spent so much of the play NOT speaking that we accepted their mute presence. Having them first speak up so late in the play felt like a violation of the rules the play had set. If what they said proved remarkable, of course all would be forgiven. There are no "rules," much as I am quoting convention. Yet what they ultimately offer are blunt recitations of the abusive violence black women suffer, telling their stories of woe. It feels far, far removed from the story at hand, like a blunt intrusion from another, more didactic play.
Even here, the play is confused. The mom suddenly blurts out that her son is "weird," though it certainly wasn't obvious to us. We know he's deeply disturbed by police brutality against young black men and views examples of it online over and over again. Yet, the play condemns the world for not paying equal attention to the brutality meted out against black women. Is the son being somehow condemned for his fixation? His fears do seem unhealthy, though of course he lives in a world where unthinkingly running down the block or an abrupt comment to a cop will put his life in danger.
But is he bad or wrong? If he's indifferent to the plight of black women, we don't see it. Certainly the women in his life have no idea what he's worried about and don't try to educate him. Worse, the play begins with the mom and son watching the local news. It begins with a story about a pet trapped down a well and the mom eats it up, even smiling when the cat is rescued. But when the next story is about a black man brutalized by the police, the son sits up alertly...and the mom turns off the tv. That's a weird way to begin and what could it possibly mean, given what comes later? However much one needs violence against black women to be treated seriously, surely turning off the TV when the violence against black men is finally covered after decades or centuries of indifference is not the answer.
While a major climatic plot twist was surely essential to the play Lloyd had in mind (though deeply misguided and unconvincing), there is no excuse for the blunder at the very end. The drama reaches the end, the lights slowly dim, characters are backlit against the image of a painting melting into nothing and if there's a moment of "ok, they built to a moment," well this is it. And then inexplicably there is another very minor scene of such unimportance that you are shocked that no one said, "Hey, I think the play already ended. That last little bit? Does it add anything? Maybe it should be cut?" However delicately one would word this in the real world, it's absurd that conversation never took place.
Raquel and Kelley actually have characters rather than archetypes to play and they bring a spark to their scenes. True, their relationship flies by in record time, going from meet-cute to passionate romance to woke activism to Lauren suddenly deciding Upendo's activism isn't woke enough and she's ready to move on! As with the son being weird (he is?), the accusation that Upendo is a flighty activist obsessed with likes on social media comes out of nowhere, as does Upendo's rejoinder that privileged Lauren couldn't really appreciate the struggle. If Llioyd wanted to show economic inequality affecting their relationship or even just coloring it, she should have done so. But like so much else here, she usually tells rather than shows. It's a credit to the two that we buy their romance as much as we do.
The set by Riccardo Hernandez lacks either the imagination or -- far more likely -- the money to bring to life the disintegrating home of the family that the play calls for. Still, this production essentially shows the Public presenting a play -- flaws and all -- at a level most writers can only dream about. Lloyd will surely learn from the experience and grow, though she might have grown more with better guidance all around.
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
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Beauty, love, life, motherhood, and everyday experiences
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BEESTRIPE!!
I know random title but this is an app I wanted to tell you all about! Yes it is called Bee Stripe. This is an app where you collect coins for downloading apps and doing a survey about them. Then once you reach a certain amount of coins you get gift cards. For example,
12,000 coins gets you a $5 startbucks card
14,000 coins gets you 5 movie rentals from redbox
24,000 gets you a $10 Amazon gift card
all the way up to
325,000 coins getting you $100 to spend at Coach!
There are many options not just the ones I listed. Yes for some it takes a while to get that many coins. Like it took me 2 months to get up the 24,000 coins for the Amazon gift card but hey its something to do in your free time. I cashed in my coins about 2 weeks ago and got an email yesterday with my ecard for Amazon.
My order is on its way!!!
The amount of coins you get for each app ranges between 200 and 1000 that I have seen so far. All you do is download the app and play it for a bit then do a survey that just asks if you would play it again, what you recommend to make it fun, and if you would tell a friend about it!
I love it!! So if your bored and wanna get gift cards super easy check it out!! Its Legit!!!!
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RAMPAGE, the latest film from director Brad Peyton (San Andreas), is an exhilarating action/adventure movie that includes over-the-top creature designs that will still appeal to the masses why also finding enjoyment from fans of the horror genre. The film stars everyone’s favorite, Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock), as well as Naomie Harris (Moonlight), Malin Akerman (Final Girls), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“The Walking Dead”), Jake Lacy (Miss Sloane), and Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike XXL).
The film centers around primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) and his friendship with George, an albino gorilla that he has cared for since rescuing him from poachers as a child. Meanwhile, we learn that in space, a genetic company has been testing out a new experiment titled Rampage as a way to weaponize animals for combat. However, the experiment takes a harsh left turn, resulting in the formula escaping and crashing towards Earth transforming George, and two other ferocious animals, into raging killing machine monsters. It’s up to Okoye and his team to retrieve the antidote, not only to save George, but to stop a catastrophe from spreading across the world.
Let me start off by saying that after seeing RAMPAGE, I can say with 100% certainty, that I will watch any movie that stars Dwayne Johnson. I don’t care how ridiculous the premise is, Johnson delivers every single time and remains one of the most likable and enjoyable actors of the current times. Going into this film I had very little expectations, mostly because it was based off a video game where monstrous creatures, such as George the Gorilla, smashed buildings. I wasn’t really sure how this was going to translate properly onto the big screen, but honestly, I wasn’t disappointed at all. Having never played the game I can’t compare the enjoyment of the video game experience as it pertains to the film, but nevertheless, I walked away with a giant grin on my face and a happiness towards big budget monster movies.
What really blew me away with RAMPAGE was how violent the film actually is. For a PG-13 rating, I was insanely impressed with the amount of bloodshed they were able to get away with. Also, without spoiling anything, there is a death scene that I was shocked to see occur considering how high profile one of the actors were. I love when films are willing to take a risk in killing off a big name early on, it’s something that most big budget movies aren’t willing to do. For those of you wondering if there was enough horror elements in the film to satiate your cravings, I’m here to tell you YES THERE ARE! Though maybe not in the most traditional sense, depending on what you consider “horror”, the film packs some heavy punches in not only the monster creations but also in violence and jump scares.
The movie also presents us with a slew of acting talent that make the film even more enjoyable. We’ve already discussed briefly how incredible Johnson is, but it’s important to also point out the strong female presence that this movie has. Not only do we have a troubled yet kickass scientist, Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) who becomes Okoye’s right-hand person, but our main villain is played by Malin Akerman. So often the villain role is played by a male actor that it becomes a tad bit repetitive so it was definitely refreshing to see a strong female character in that role. With all that said, I would have liked to have seen more screen time for these characters and hopefully in future films more strong female based characters will reign supreme.
Overall, as I'm sure you can tell, I absolutely loved RAMPAGE. I loved the extreme antics of the monsters, I loved the silly premise of a weaponized experiment on animals gone wrong, and I love all the actors that were involved. Even though I’m a huge fan of practical effects, I was willing to put that aside in order to take in all the glorious CGI of the creature effects. I fully believe that sometimes we all just need an entertaining movie to take our minds off the horrors of day-to-day life and RAMPAGE was that movie for me. It may not be the best movie of the year, but you’ll be hard pressed to not have a hell of a good time watching it! RAMPAGE is now out in theaters across the U.S. from Warner Bros. Pictures.
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UK judge rules wealthy Russian died of natural causes
December 19, 2018
LONDON (AP) — A British judge says a wealthy Russian businessman who collapsed near his home outside London died from a heart attack.
Alexander Perepilichnyy collapsed while jogging in November 2012. Police initially said the 44-year-old died of natural causes, but foul play concerns increased after ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury earlier this year.
Perepilichnyy had been helping Kremlin critic Bill Browder expose an alleged $230 million Russian tax fraud before he died.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard, who oversaw a long-running coroner’s inquest into the death, concluded Wednesday that “it is more likely than not he had died from natural causes,” namely sudden arrhythmic death syndrome.
He said the other potential cause of death, poisoning, couldn’t be ruled out but was “unlikely.”
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Could Kyrie Irving Make the Garden Eden Once More?
You may ask, why? Why pity a team with the greatest player in the world, three All-Stars, and three number one overall picks in four years? Why pity the only team that can currently make any kind of argument that they can beat the Warriors in a fair fight? Champions for the first time in the city’s history a mere two years ago? And no, it is not because Jose Calderon will be their backup point guard.
No. Pity them because, for all their riches, theirs will be a desert soon – and a desert in Ohio no less.
Team success grows from the top, and the Cavaliers (just like the Knicks) are rotten from the head down. Dan Gilbert, he of Comic Sans infamy, in spite of all the competitive advantages in the world, will ruin this. And he might just ruin it three to five years earlier this time than anyone could have reasonably expected.
After what seems like months long background noise about a potential LeBron James departure in the summer of 2018 and a less than an amiable parting of ways with well-regarded general manager David Griffin, the unraveling has begun in earnest. Kyrie Irving has demanded a trade, and in doing so has positioned himself as the first piece to fall in what could turn into a cascade of dominoes that flips the perennial Eastern Conference Champions into bottom feeders once more. Kyrie Irving has aspirations to be the star of his own squad and to emerge from the (admittedly vast) shadow of LeBron.
Well, on top of expressing to Cavaliers brass earlier this week that he would like to be traded, Irving and his agent also expressed that his four preferable trade destinations are the Spurs, Wolves, Heat, and the Knicks. Because Knicks fans are so used to dealing with Melo’s No-Trade Clause, they might instinctively feel like that is meaningful. However, Irving has two years left on an affordable deal (~$18 million per), is in his prime, and ultimately has no leverage concerning his final destination in a trade.
But in spite of all that, the Knicks are not a terrible option for newly minted Cavaliers GM and Griffin disciple Koby Altman. Altman has to walk the difficult path of both attempting to satisfy LeBron’s immediate desires to remain competitive while also threading the needle of sustainability in the event that the worst happens again. Melo would be the centerpiece speaking to former, while a third team alongside the Knicks future picks and perhaps young players would go toward satisfying the latter.
How realistic is it that the Knicks could pull this off? At first blush, it appears that many other teams are in a position to make very competitive offers, but let’s take a closer look. Of the other three teams that Irving has expressed a preference in playing for, the Spurs have very few assets that would tempt the Cavaliers other than perhaps Danny Green. The Wolves would need to move off of Teague in any deal, and as a newly signed free agent he can’t be traded until December 15th and it’s unclear what other assets could be included to make the trade worthwhile to the Cavaliers. I doubt very much if the Wolves are willing to trade Andrew Wiggins in the deal, even if the Cavaliers thought he was a good fit. The Heat have a few compelling players like Goran Dragic but don’t have any picks to speak of. The Sixers and the Celtics are both obviously in possession of assets that would allow them to comfortably outbid the Knicks, but both seem to have stabilized at the point guard position around Fultz and Thomas respectively. Teams with a bevy of young players like the Nuggets, Denver, and the Kings don’t have the same kind of win now add-on pieces that will keep the Cavaliers from losing too much competitive ground next season. The Suns are perhaps a realistic option, and much can be made of the fact that Eric Bledsoe, a possible Irving replacement, is signed with Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports. But it remains unclear if the Suns, who seem content on remaining firmly in rebuilding mode, will see the value in acquiring two years of Kyrie. This is also what makes them such an appealing potential third team in an Irving to Knicks deal.
Most other teams are either too good, too bad, or too asset poor to really find their way into the discussion – though after everything that has happened this offseason I suppose it is impossible to outright dismiss almost any teams chance of trading for Irving. Further, it seems likely that Irving’s trade value is going to be greater to one of the four teams he specifically referred to, as it stands to reason he would be likely to re-sign – conversely, the other 25 potential teams are likely to give up less relative value.
In short, the Knicks have a real shot here. It’s difficult to impossible to find a trade partner that will not make Cleveland worse at least in the short term, and ultimately what the Cavaliers do will speak volumes to their confidence concerning their ability to re-sign LeBron James. But the Knicks - perhaps with the assistance of the Suns or another third team - present a middle way for the Cavaliers that allows them to both make the case to LeBron now and also prepare for their uncertain future. The Cavaliers can acquire some combination of future assets as well as LeBron’s best friend in Carmelo Anthony, whom he has openly expressed a desire to play with in the future as recently as last season.
A Knicks package of Melo, one of Hernangomez or Frank Ntilikina, an unprotected 2018 first round pick, and perhaps another protected 2020 pick would get the Knicks into the discussion, particularly if a team like Phoenix is willing to help facilitate and trade Eric Bledsoe to the Cavaliers. That is a lot, no doubt, but don’t think for a moment that the Knicks front office won’t give it serious thought – even in the least advantageous version of the trade. If there is any way that the Knicks could come away with Irving without giving up Frank, then it’s an extremely compelling deal.
Kyrie Irving is a no question star in this league, but there remain very real questions about how a team centered around him would perform over the long term. His defense remains passable to occasionally awful, and he has a reputation for selfishness that this latest demand to “be the guy” is not exactly doing anything to disprove.
So then how valuable is Kyrie? In the regular season last year he was perhaps the Eastern Conferences third or fourth best guard behind Wall, Thomas, and arguably Kyle Lowry.
However, Kyrie cooks during the playoffs like few others. He is a proven closer and has demonstrated his ability to be at least the best of the second best players on championship teams. Much credit is given to LeBron for his Herculean effort in rewriting what seemed like inevitable history in the defeat of a 73 win Warriors team, but he needed Kyrie’s production to make it remotely possible. In games 5-7 Kyrie shot 53% from the floor, 50% from downtown, and averaged 32 PPG. They’re still replacing the lights in Oracle Arena.
His offensive performances are transcendent in a way that the Garden will not have seen consistently since the likes of Bernard King. He makes an efficient scoring diet out of sometimes ludicrously difficult attempts. But for all that, he has been in the absolute best possible situation as a player during his time with LeBron, and it’s likely his production and efficiency would both take somewhat of a step back no matter what other team he goes to.
Is Kyrie Irving a great fit on the Knicks squad? It’s debatable. If the Knicks are required to relinquish young Frank Ntilikina in the deal, their perimeter defense – the bane of every Knicks team for time immemorial – figures to remain atrocious. If by some long overdue miracle the Knicks are able to concoct a deal wherein they retain KP, Frank, and get Irving – then you are beginning to see the outline of something with true potential. Irving is still young at 25 and will be under team control for 2 more seasons, and the Knicks would inherit full bird rights. Further, while Porzingis and Kyrie are a natural fit on the offensive end – they would rain fiery death with a plethora of pick and roll/pick and pop actions – Frank is actually the ideal backcourt partner for a player like Kyrie Irving.
The league is in a golden age of score-first point guards. Long past are the days wherein NBA analysts would wring their hands about whether or not Derrick Rose or Russell Westbrook are “true” point guards. Score first playmakers are the norm, but such a load on the offensive end generally means that it isn’t optimal for that player to then also go and defend the best guard on the opposing team. So although Frank is nominally a point guard, his skill set and build suit him wonderfully to play behind Kyrie, spotting up for threes and locking down the Curry’s and Westbrook’s of the world while Kyrie saves himself for further reality-bending layups. Franks greatest weakness figures to be his lack of explosion off the dribble, and so the Knicks are once desperate for the space created by dribble penetration – this is Kyrie Irving’s greatest weapon, and it is from this weapon that he changes the gravity on the court.
Look, it’s easy to get excited about Kyrie Irving lighting up the Garden on a nightly basis, but this isn’t a no brainer. There are many permutations of a trade for Kyrie Irving that could make the Knicks worse, some that will make them better, and a treasured few with franchise changing potential. Mills and new GM Scott Perry are reportedly looking to make a splash, but the temptation to once more totally mortgage the future in service of the present should be resisted.
As ever, God resides in the details. Even more so in the case of the Basketball Gods. But to return the Garden to Eden, it’s to those heights that the Knicks front office must aspire.
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Catholic priest reported for criminal solicitation
Decimoputzu (Sardinia – Italy) – After mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL in the United States, the Gay Lex Studio in Bologna (Italy) launched a campaign to gather any homophobic statements and any reports of solicitation of violence against GLBT people.
On June 19th 2016, Cathy La Torre (lawyer and vice president of MIT – Movement of Transsexual Identity), reported to the authorities the catholic priest Don Massimiliano Pusceddu. Just few days after the mass shooting in Orlando in which 49 persons were murdered at the Pulse nightclub, Don Pusheddu, in a sermon, clearly stated that “homosexuals deserve to die”, defining as “prophetical” some words of Saint Paul.
“I’ve just reported Don Massimiliano Pusceddu for criminal solicitation. Now I’m in front of his church. because also in Decimoputzu there are gays and lesbians and they shouldn’t have to fear ex-boxer priests and their guns! Share it, don’t be silent anymore.”
The priest who invoked the death for homosexuals during his sermon, is also known for his passion for boxing, has been previously accused of injuries, threats, and possession of a handgun.
Don Pusceddu defends himself saying that he can express freely his own opinion in favor of the traditional family because “he pays taxes and he is a citizen like everyone else“.
“Homosexuals deserve to die“, declares again the pastor on a radio interview, “I just defend the traditional family made up by a man and a woman, all the rest are all naughtiness”.
A petition on Change.org has been launched against the priest. The target of the petition is to gather at least 50,000 signatures to ask the Pope Francesco to dismiss him.
The petition will be forwarded not only to Pope Francesco, but also to the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini, to the President of the Italian Senate Pietro Grasso, to the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, to the Minister of Justice Andrea Orlando and to the President of Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella in order to ask for a specific law protecting against homophobia and transphobia.
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A new record high in US life expectancy raises the question, what will your children do with 0.2 more years of living? Well, that’s not exactly how life expectancy works, but it’s still a time to celebrate! Preliminary data from the National Vital Statistics System (part of the National Center for Health Stats and the [...]
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Paging Dr. Dad...
Friday, November 11, 2016
About a month before the 2016 election, I was discussing politics with someone online via voicechat . My 8 year-old daughter came into the room and began begging me to stop. I asked her what was wrong, Her response was surprising. She said, “I don’t like it when you talk about scary things like presidents.”
I didn’t think I had been very politically involved this election cycle. I certainly hadn’t discussed politics with my children. Maybe she picked up more than I realized from me, or maybe there is no way to avoid political argument in today’s world of social media. Either way, somehow she had come to equate the process of government and democracy as “scary”.
This was one of the worst election cycles in my lifetime to endure. I often commented that if the two choices we had for President were the best we as a nation could come up with, then we were really in trouble. Maybe my Grace heard me say that. I still believe it, but what she needed to hear me say was that as messy and ugly as the process got, it is still an amazing blessing to have a say in the choice of our country’s leaders. That is not something to fear, but to rejoice in.
Now that the election is over, it seems that many people don’t want to put it behind us. Some feel so strongly that they would sacrifice friendships and relationships out of bitterness and anger toward people who didn’t agree with their choice. I think that that is the real travesty. Consequently I have avoided any commenting or opinionating on social media. I have ignored hurtful and demeaning speech before and after the election, because quite honestly, I don’t need to attack someone because they don’t think the way I do.
One question that keeps popping up constantly on social media is “What are you going to tell your daughter?” Well, let me answer that for you as best as I can.
First of all, I think my brother made a brilliant observation. He had not vilified either candidate to his children. He had not told them horror stories of what would happen if the wrong candidate won. Consequently, his children were not traumatized by the outcome. Likewise, I didn’t paint a bleak vision of a dystopian future if one candidate beat the other. My kids could sleep in peace because they didn’t fear the outcome of the election.
I would tell my daughter that we live in a country that gives us the freedom to chose our leaders. Sometimes there are no great choices, but no one gets to be king just because they were born into a certain family. That is a really good thing, even when the choices aren’t great.
I would tell her that our country has proven that it doesn’t matter what race or sex you are, you can achieve whatever you are willing to work for. We have had a black President and a woman was almost elected to the office. Yes, Hillary Clinton lost, but it was a shock to most people that she did. There are many women and minorities running for and winning elected offices at all levels of government. This also is a good thing.
I would tell her that our leaders are not super humans. They are flawed and broken people just like everyone else. Power corrupts, and that became painfully obvious this election cycle. In my mind, both candidates were morally bankrupt and dirty. One was an egotistical, loudmouth with a history of treating women like objects for his personal satisfaction. The other was a cheating and manipulative individual who viewed herself as above the law and entitled to whatever she wanted. Sometimes we have to make decision where there is no right answer. Other people will disagree with you. At the end of the day you have to be able to live with your choices and the people that disagree with you.
I would tell her that her value as a person and as a woman is not based on what anybody, even the President of the United States says about her. Her value comes from being one of God’s unique creations. In life she will run into people that try to objectify her, demean her, maybe even take advantage of her and use her. She needs to have enough strength to remember that her true worth as a person does not change with what anyone says or does to her. I will tell her that I love her and that God loves her and that she is precious to both of us. Donald Trump is not the first person in political office or even the office of the President, to treat women like chattel. It is a sad truth and I think anyone in whatever party affiliation who does this is despicable.That however, doesn’t mean my daughter has to view herself that way. It is my job as her father, not the President's, to reaffirm how truly special and amazing she is.
I would tell her that things are going to be okay. Throughout human history worse leaders than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have ruled. You know what, human civilization survived. There have been crazy leaders, ignorant leaders, violent leaders, evil leaders. We are still here. The President may be the most powerful person in the world, but he still does not have that much true power. If anything, the president is just a reflection of the nation. If you don’t like who we have elected, then perhaps we should focus on how we as a people have gotten off track. Many people felt like the election of Barack Obama would lead to the destruction of America too. Well, it didn’t. Politics is a pendulum. Every few years it swings back the other direction. It will happen again and again. If you don’t like the outcome of an election wait 4 or 8 years. Life is not ruled by Washington. My daughter will grow up, go to school, marry, raise a family, and live the life she chooses regardless of who is elected to public office.
Finally, I will tell my daughter to show love to people, even if they disagree with her. She doesn’t have to accept or even understand their view, but she does need to love them because they, like her, are all God’s unique creations. It is not a single man or woman serving as President who will destroy our country. It is our own lack of kindness and respect toward each other that will do that.
Monday, May 11, 2015
I had a Mother's Day Fail. I thought I had everything lined up to celebrate yesterday for Karlye. I had the cards bought, I made her a special breakfast treat, I even remembered to buy the special neclace she had hinted at. I just forgot one thing...
I knew it had been a long time since I last wrote on this blog. I also suddenly realized I let Mother's Day slip by without my annual gift post to Karlye. So I checked and indeed it has been a year and a day since my last post.
My wife is truly an amazing woman. She deserves an award for putting up with pre-adolescent males, in particular a certain 12 year old, who in the last year has become all knowing and takes every opportunity to give us a detailed exposition on our failures in the role of parenting.
Somehow he has managed to survive, due in large part to a mother who loves him in spite of his smart mouth and aversion to personal hygiene.
Being a mother is never easy work. Being the mother of adolescents is one of those tasks that makes you question everything you ever thought true. It wears you down to the point you think you can't handle another minute and then pushes you even farther. It shakes you to the core and threatens to break you.
My wonderful wife has not broken. She's been beat down, exhausted and discouraged, but she keeps on. By the end of the day, she has reached her limit. She is mentally and physically exhausted but the job never is done. Still, somehow she manages to get up and do it all again the next day. Amazingly, even in the worst of it all, she still manages to show love and care for the monsters and their father.
I wish I could say I'm always there to back her up, to lend her moral support, to build up her self-esteem after a day of having it beaten down by a household of insensitive ingrates. I try sometimes, but usually I just block out her her unspoken plea for help along with all the other noise.
For that, I am truly sorry. I am finding that I really don't have many good answers for this whole parenting thing. We try our best, but most of the time it feels we are banging out heads against a brick wall. I have been told that this is not a unique experience. All parents deal with this to some extent or another, and yes in time it too will pass. Here and now though, it's just tough sometimes.
This Mother's Day, what I needed to tell my wife is that she is not alone. I am here with her. I am on her team. We will get through this together. I don't have to know all the answers, I just need to remember that even though she is tough and capable, it still hurts her when the kids and I don't treat her with the respect she deserves.
So Karlye, love of my life, I'm sorry if I am not more understanding. I want to do a better job of listening to you. You can vent to me. You can vent about me. I want you to know that I'm here with you to help you carry out this amazing and challenging responsibility of raising the five wonderful children God has blessed us with. Thank you for all you do every day.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
We were driving in the van, the kids and I, and in the back someone started telling "Yo Momma" jokes. It being almost Mother's Day, I decided to try and steer the conversation a bit more positively. I suggested that rather than say "Your Momma is so fat..." or "Your Momma is so ugly..." That we see who could come with the best compliment about their Momma. Apparently it must be easier and funnier to put people down than build them up. It's much easier to put people down than to be positive. We struggled a bit to come up with some creative, encouraging "Yo Momma" lines. We did come up with "Your Momma is so sweet she makes honey taste nasty." and Elijah's contribution of "Your Momma's so cute when she looked out the window she got arrested for being so cute." I suggested to the kids, "Your Momma's so patient, you are all still alive." For that matter, she's so patient that she still is putting up with me after nearly 15 years.
I have been pondering this all day and here are some things that the kids should know about their Momma:
Your Momma is your greatest ally.
Your Momma will fight to the death for you.
Your Momma loves you unconditionally.
Your Momma is the glue that holds out family together.
Your Momma gives up her time to cook your food, wash your clothes, teach you school, keeps you clean, and watches over you.
Your Momma does it all, not only without thanks, but often while hearing nothing but complaining in return.
Face it kids. Without your mother, your life would be miserable. If all you had was me, you might get fed and have free access to health care, but you'd have about 3 dirty outfits apiece. You'd never get to any event (including school) on time. Several of you would probably have been misplaced by now. Vacations would probably be a tent in the back yard. Your teeth would probably have rotted out from not having anyone remind you to brush them. All I know, is that it would be pretty grim around here.
There is something magical that happens during those nine months in which a baby grows inside its mother. I'm not talking about the miracle of life. I'm talking about the miracle of Motherhood. It's when a woman forms a bond with her child that no man can ever comprehend. I watched the change in Karlye when she sat for hours feeling Will (and later the others) kicking inside her. She would have me put my hand on her belly, hoping for some of the magic to soak into me. Where I felt a small thump, she felt something entirely different. It was part her and part someone new. I would watch her as she held each new baby close to her breast, awash in that magic. I tried holding them, it was different. I loved each and every child, but it seemed an anemic love compared to hers. Each new child only strengthened it. Her heart seemed to grow exponentially with each new addition to the family. As the children age, the magic seems to grow and change with them.
I married the most amazing and wonderful woman I had ever met. I didn't realize it at the time, but she was incomplete. It was that magic of motherhood that completed her. Like a diamond when lit just right sends out a million sparkles of vibrant light, motherhood lit up her beauty and made it deeper, more precious and breathtaking.
I know I don't show Karlye the respect she deserves. Each time I hear one of the kids show her disrespect, it eats at me that I have not been the best example to them. So kids, let's make a deal this year. For Mother's Day and every day that comes after (because every day really is Mother's Day), help me honor your mother for what she is and brings to this family.
Your Momma is the life and breath of this crazy clan. She is the most amazing and beautiful woman in the world, and we are the luckiest people in the world to have her.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
My last night of quiet. My last night of my annual spring-break bachelorhood. It has been a good week and a quiet week. I have had a fairly productive time. I have been refreshed. Most importantly I have realized once again that when I chose to marry my wonderful wife and have 5 children, I made the right choice.
This house has grown to big with only me to fill it. I am beginning to long for a bit of thee craziness that fills it ever day under normal circumstances. Not that I love the noise so much as I love the noise makers. The noise has become a part of me and without it, my world seems empty.
I am growing tired of not having my best friend beside me in bed. I am lonely for the hugs and kisses at bedtime, even if there is usually a battle involved in getting the munckins in bed. I miss the laughter and joking, the interaction with my children. I like to be alone, but I don't want to be alone more than this. I hate to think of the moments I have missed with my family. Time is so short.
I often think about what it will be like to have them all grown and gone. While there will be quiet and time in abundance, I know that what there will be most of, is emptiness. So tonight I will relish these last few hours of serenity. It will be sweet and precious, but more so because tomorrow I know that tomorrow my life will come rushing back to me in all its wild splendor.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
I've been hearing a lot about Matthew McConaughey over the last few days. Apparently there is some annual event called the Oscars, where the pretty, rich people give each other awards for being rich and pretty and for making movies that show how bad life is for those who aren't pretty and rich. Mr. McConaughey won one of these awards. I guess it was the first time for him, and so he got to give an impassioned acceptance speech. My understanding is that this is standard operating procedure. What McConaughey did that caused such a stir was to start his speech by saying, "First off, I want to thank God, because that's who I look up to."
This simple statement caused a flurry of activity on the internet. It offended most of the pretty, rich people and their worshipers, because if you are rich and pretty, you aren't supposed to believe in God. ( I think it was only the 15th time in the last 35 years that someone had thanked God during one of these Oscar events.) It made many Christians very happy because a pretty, rich person was admitting that he believed in God. It mostly left me a little perplexed as to why this made such a big news story, but I've had a day or so to think over things, and I think there may be a little bit of a take home lesson for me.
It is obvious to anyone who has ever had any contact with a television or magazine, that God is not cool in our culture. Spirituality, that's cool. Self-empowerment is really cool. But old-fashioned belief in a traditional God of the Bible: totally not cool. I did hear a clip of McConaughey's speech on the radio. In the awkward silence that followed his mention of God, you could almost hear the confusion. It was like the man had said he wanted to thank Adolf Hitler or Sarah Palin. These people have no concept of God in their philosophy. (Sure, I'm generalizing here.) I don't know if they consider themselves too enlightened to believe in "fairy tales" or if celebrity has infected them so much that they cannot conceive of a higher power than themselves. Perhaps is a bit of both. Whatever the reason, the entertainment culture has increasingly become more anti-God. In fact, the cool thing now seems to be for celebrities who came from Christian backgrounds to go out of there way to prove that they are no longer affected by that whole Christian thing. Thus you get Katy Perry saying she no longer believes in Christianity while she performs a Satanic ritual on stage and I don't even need to comment on little Miss Hannah Montana.
For those of us who are Christians, it is demoralizing to see our faith continuously derided. With so many voices speaking against us, we long for a voice to stand up for us. We want one of the people the world deems acceptable to side with us, as if that would make us acceptable to the world. While this is understandable, we have to be careful about throwing ourselves at every celebrity that claims to represent God.
Which brings me back to Matthew McConaughey. I think he's a good actor, from what little I've seen of his work. He's the good-looking, bad-boy type with the smooth southern drawl that makes him seem like someone those of us in the middle of America can relate to. Christians got all excited, because this would be someone who could represent our faith and we could feel good about. In the speech I heard though, he used a pretty generic god reference. He didn't
mention Jesus Christ or Christianity. Let's however, for the sake of
argument, say that's what he meant. I have no idea what he is like in person, but the people he portrays on the screen are pretty depraved. Maybe that's just acting, but I have a hard time understanding how a follower of Jesus Christ could participate in such a sinful lifestyle, even if it's just acting.
That is the core problem I see with Christianity in the modern era. We believe that we can separate our faith from our lives. We want to live a life contrary to the teaching of Christ and the Bible, and then give a "shout out to God" every once in a while to make it all okay. We like to pick and chose Bible verses that make us feel good about ourselves and quietly ignore the ones that make us uncomfortable. We opt for the "Christianity Light" free trial version, but are unwilling to pay for the full program. We want to have enough faith to assuage our guilt, but not so much that it makes the people around us uncomfortable.
I'm not here to knock Mr. McConaughey. I hope he truly has a saving faith in Jesus Christ. It did take courage to stand up in the middle of one of the most godless groups of people in this country and say he puts God first in his life and I doubt many Christians would be nearly so bold to do even that. I just think that placing our hope in people like him to represent us to the world is foolish. If you want to follow Christ, you have to give up any hope of popularity. Jesus said it himself, "If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you." (John 15:18-19) We need to get over the fact that people might not like us if we claim to be followers of Christ.
I also am reminded of the statement from Revelation 3:15-16 "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot.So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth." I am tired of being one of those Christians who like to play church, but don't want to let it affect their life too much. Jesus never called people to follow him half way. It was all or nothing. He never spent much time worrying about if this offended people. He didn't woo people. He made difficult and unpopular statements about sin. He told people if they gave up their sin and followed Him, they would be freed from the burden of sin, and then He died to pay for their sin. He went all in, giving everything for us. His followers throughout the centuries have given their lives to spread that message. Where do we get off thinking that a "Jesus is my copilot" bumper sticker on our car is all that we owe Him? We who claim to be Christians need to seriously consider if we are followers of Christ or not. I can't judge anyone but myself, but if I am worried about whether or not people will be offended if I talk about Jesus and salvation, then chances are I'm not really following Him all that closely.
Maybe rather than getting our hopes up when a celebrity says he wants to thank God for the opportunity to portray sinful lifestyles in movies, we as Christians could share what God has done in our lives. Maybe rather than waiting for a celebrity voice to represent us, we should find our own voice and represent Christ.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The boys have been studying astronomy in science. Caleb was supposed to make a solar system poster to compare the different planets. That's all well and good, but we decided to take it a little farther. Why be content with a poster when we could make a scale model of the solar system?
Our first step was to make scale models of the planets. I helped out by making a printout with the planets scaled to an 8 inch sun. Caleb then used Model Magic to sculpt out the planets to match up.
Mercury and Pluto were tiny. Less than 0.5 mm in diameter. Jupiter and Saturn were a little over an inch in diameter.
Next we attached them to dowel rods.
Here they are in order with an 8 inch yellow balloon in the back to represent the Sun.
So far so good, but I wanted the boys to get an appreciation of the immensity of the solar system. I forced Will to sit down with me and calculate the planets' distances from the Sun. Based on the sun being 8 inches (20 cm), we were using a scale of 7,000,000,000:1.
We headed out to the end of a road near our house. We placed the Sun near the stop sign so we would have a good reference point from farther away.
Now we moved 8 meters away. This reflected Mercury's orbit.
Here is the closest planet, burning up in the Sun's heat. Hard to believe when you are looking at a speck the size of a poppy seed 25 feet away an 8 inch balloon.
Next we moved out to a distance of 15 meters. This is where we placed Venus.
At this difference the average temperature is 860°F!
Next we moved out to place Earth it it's place 23 meters away from our Sun.
If you zoom in on the picture you can see the Earth model and the Sun. This will give you an idea of the scale. I was starting to feel pretty small.
Mars on this scale would be another 10 meters farther out. Zooming in, you can still see the sun, but it's getting difficult. Mars is the last inner planet. To understand why it's called that we just need to move out to Jupiter's orbit.
We are now 111 meters away from the center of our solar system. The Sun is just a spot now. We are almost 5 times farther away than the Earth.
Saturn is almost twice as far away as Jupiter at 205 meters.
Oops! We lost Uranus somewhere along the road, bu at least we could still mark it's orbit at 411 meters out. That's twice the distance of Saturn. No wonder no one discovered this 3rd largest planet until the telescope was invented.
With Neptune we were really starting to get far away. 643 meters out. We could barely see the stop sign, let alone the Sun. This is the last of the planets these days. Now Pluto is the first of the dwarf planets.
Over a kilometer away from the Sun in our model at the farthest part of its orbit (845 meter would be the average), Pluto appeared a mere speck lost in space. And while that's as far as we went with our model, the solar system goes out much further.
Beyond Pluto lie Haumea, Makemake, Eris, and Sedna which at it's furthest point would be 20 km or 12 miles away on our model.
If you really want to be overwhelmed, on this scale the next closest star Alpha Centauri A would be somewhere in Panama 3600 miles away.
I hope the boys got a good sense of the sheer enormity of space. Even with this I really cannot comprehend such distance.
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Friday, September 21, 2007
ARE WE BECOMING WHAT WE HATE MOST?
Bears,
Winning does funny things to a man (or men). Now that the Bears are experiencing success, guys who once sucked it up, puking and dropping 10lbs in a sweaty afternoon session of double days, have now become the bitchy, cranky housewives we never wanted to marry.
Nothing is good enough for us anymore.Why is that?
We find ourselves watching games (to wit: Louisiana State-Tech-A & M or whatever they were called) and little joy comes from a resounding win.
We can’t flap our jaws without moaning about the ineptitude of young 19 year olds, or the mistakes of perhaps the finest coaching staff in the country.
I’m the worst offender.
The bottle is always half full (Ok, not the one in our hands.That one is empty and we are frantically looking for a re-fill).
We question the Bears’ focus.Desean’s hands.The Coaches’ calls.Why Best doesn’t touch the ball more.Why Longshore is missing on long ones.Why we don’t go deep more to Desean.The D backs’ lack of open field tackling.The questionable pass rush.Why we didn’t go for it on 4th and short.Why we don’t run more.Why we don’t pass more.
Poor Tedford.He’s become Dagwood to 60,000 howling Blondie’s each Saturday.
His crime?Bringing success to a group of alumni who are used to chronic failure.
Being true Bear fans we are certain that the bubble is going to pop.Like an orphan who’s been adopted by the crown prince, we can’t believe that we are deserving of this fairy tale existence, so we focus only on the negative, that we might not be too hurt when the clock strikes 12 and that Golden coach reverts to its proverbial pumpkin status.
Our fears are not entirely baseless.When the Rose Bowl was finally ours (after almost 50 years) who knew that aclever Mac Brown could whine on TV, make a few phone calls and gip us out of our birthright?He was simply smarter than we were.
Or who knew that SC would lose to UCLA, meaning that if a receiver hadn’t stumled on the one yard line; or a ref hadn’t called a bogus P.I. penalty in the endzone; or replay hadn’t been invented (so Desean’s foot could be called on the line), that we would have been in the Rose Bowl last year as well?
We know the Gods like to toy with us.
They send us Ayr, Burlap, and that famous SoSueMe Indian Chief, Zachary Running Wolf, just to torment us like locusts of old.
No doubt the open sores are on their way.
To torture the women they send plastic, ordorific porta potties with urinals about face high.(On the internet, “executive”, clean ones can be ordered for $1,000 per).Wouldn’t 10 of those be nice—now that the stadium is close to capacity with paying customers).
Opps.See.We bitch about everything.
Anyway, getting home to the Rose Bowl, or the Game in New Orleans (looks like nothing short of a National Championship will suffice), is going to be like Odysseus’ Odyssey.
There will be lots of baptisms by fire, and many tempting sirens which will attempt to lure our ships of hope between Scylla and Charybdis—that those monsters may once again, dash our dreams to pieces.
My guess is that the football Gods are going to continue to test us until we prove ourselves worthy—and the first step in that direction is to drop the bitchy gambit.
Strategy is fair game—hey, we are fans after all, and no one is smarter than we are.
Constructive criticisms are fine as are basic differences of opinion.
But to make the grade, all this has to be tempered with loyalty, propriety, and a sense of gratefulness for what has been put on our plate.
We’ve been given a glimpse of what we’ve always wanted, and at some point we’re going to have to grow up and earn the right to be as classy as our program appears to be.
It ain’t gonna be all wins, all perfect, all the time.
‘Nuff said.
See you tomorrow in the parking lot, and if my glass appears half full, please fill it up so I can ease my pain if things don’t go right.
Go Bears,
Jeffrey Earl Warren ‘70
Per the blog below, the injuries to the defensive lineman now do not appear to be as serious as originally feared...............The Bears are a 16-point favorite over the Wildcats this Saturday, in what the USA Today is claiming to be "redemption game no. 2".......... article below from the Daily Cal on the stadium hearing, which starts today and is scheduled to last two days.
It looks like the injuries to defensive lineman Matt Malele and Rulon Davis aren't as serious as originally feared. Malele has a strained muscle in his foot while Davis has a sprained foot. Coach Jeff Tedford said each is day-to-day, and was unsure if either could be ready by Saturday's game against Arizona. But it doesn't sound like it will be an extended period of time out of action for either. Tedford also reiterated that linebacker Zack Follett is day-to-day with a neck stinger.
From the Cal Grid of Sacramento Eric Bachman sent this piece from The New York Times.
> Subject: letter from Sandy Barbour and Nathan Brostrom>> Dear Friends,>> For the first time in recent memory, a group of people...that would be> you...came together to do the hard work it takes to support the> University and stand up for what you believe. Usually, people are too> busy, too overworked or overbooked, to step up when needed. You did so> and you have our everlasting gratitude.>> In early August, this was a one sided battle, with Cal's detractors> controlling the airwaves, news pages and websites. By last week, we> had at least brought the City of Berkeley to a place where they> recognize the enormous outpouring of support Cal enjoys in our> community. We believe it was a wakeup call for the City. And we hope> it will serve to improve the relationship between the City of Berkeley> and the University in the future.>> There will undoubtedly be more opportunities for all of you to come> forward and support Cal again. We needed you this time and we'll need> you again. The good news is we know we have your support and can> count on it in the future..>> To all of you who wrote letters, sent emails, displayed signs, talked> to friends and neighbors and city council members, came to meetings,> helped at Fan Appreciation Day, the Tennessee game and the City> Council meeting, thanks for all you've done in the last six weeks to> support Cal and our student athletes. We couldn't ask for better> friends.>> Go Bears!>> Sincerely,>> Sandy Barbour and Nathan Brostrom
**If the links and images are not displaying properly, click here to view in your internet browser.**
CAA supports Memorial Stadium Campaign
A message from CAA President Darek DeFreece
Today, the Board of Directors of the California Alumni Association unanimously passed a resolution in support of the University regarding the Memorial Stadium Campaign. The campaign is ambitious. It will retrofit and enhance an historic structure, it will build a state-of-the-art training facility for student-athletes from thirteen different disciplines and it will set forth a plan to completely change the face of the south-east quadrant of the University campus.
The timing of the CAA resolution is important. Tomorrow, in an Alameda Superior Court Room, a judge will preside over a hearing pitting the Berkeley City Council against the University and its plans for Memorial Stadium. The Berkeley City Council rebuffed numerous attempts by the University to settle the issue short of this hearing date. Alongside of this hearing occurs another trial of sorts—the continued occupation of a grove of oak trees by Berkeley residents in front of the stadium. While as the occupation of the trees makes for an interesting, and media-friendly, circus in effect it has sidetracked the real issue. Lost in the headlines is the University's consistent proposal to replace trees planted mostly during a 1923 landscaping project on a three-to-one ratio. Arguments for and against the trees have replaced the question of seismic safety for hundreds of student-athletes and conceivably, thousands of spectators.
The larger issue of course is of the future of the stadium. The Memorial Stadium Campaign must continue and must succeed. Our beloved stadium, while majestic and arguably one of the most beautiful contest fields in all of collegiate sports, is aging. Seismically suspect, its facilities are comfortably at the bottom of the Pacific-10 conference. In order for Memorial Stadium to receive its much-needed facelift, student-athletes and staff must safely relocate to another location. The opportunity to build the training center for the first phase of the campaign is therefore present and makes unarguable sense.
Alumni from all over have already spoken on this issue. They believe in the diligent work that the University has done to show that its proposal is sound and principled. It is with the voice of the alumni firmly backing the Board that the Board passes and introduces its resolution is support of the University. The CAA urges the Berkeley City Council to come to the table for meaningful settlement discussions. The CAA urges our 424,000 alumni to raise its collective voice in support of our beloved alma mater.
About Me
I write a Weekly Column for the St. Helena Star and have a Weekly Radio Show on KVON 1440am (KVON.com) on Wednesday's at 5pm. My Columns are about daily small town life in rural St. Helena. I'm old school and often write about the "old Days." I'm a Capitalist an believe in individual liberty and the rugged individualist. I also do a weekly blog on my trips to the Cal Bears Football games--but you gotta luv the Bears to like it. Having no marketable skills I sell dirt (vineyards wineries, ranches and estates), having formerly been a Creative Director and Copy Writer in New York and S.F.
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Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Immerse yourself in this powerful multi-screen video installation by the award-winning Thai filmmaker
Inspired in part by surrealism, Weerasethakul’s films present a world that is distinctly mutable and elusive, evoking the artist’s interest in the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse, whereby players add words or images sequentially to a sentence or diagram without knowing what came before, so as to construct a fanciful, multi-layered scenario.
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GET THE FREE 5-PAGE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR WEDDING OFFICIANTS
It takes a small army of wedding planners, coordinators, caterers, florists, and designers to pull off most weddings these days. As wedding officiants, will we always be working with planners or designers at every wedding? Probably not. But we’ll almost always be working with a wedding photographer.
In another post, I sketched out 4 tips for working well with the wedding planner. But plenty of weddings I’ve officiated didn’t actually have a planner. On the other hand, I’ve never officiated a wedding that didn’t have a wedding photographer. The wedding photographer is the professional vendor we’ll see most often.
She has a very important job to do for the couple. And so do we. How can we wedding officiants and wedding photographers make sure we don’t step on each other’s toes or cramp each other’s style?
I asked four prominent Toronto wedding photographers how we officiants can do better. The results are in: there are 5 things we can do to work well with the wedding photographer so we can both produce the best result for our couple.
1. Discuss requests and expectations with the wedding photographer ahead of time
Wedding officiants and wedding photographers have really scarred each other in our history of working together. If either an officiant or a photographer has been doing their job for a long-ish time, chances are she has at least one horror story about the other.
An officiant friend once told me about a photographer who climbed up and stood on the chancel table in the cathedral to get the shot. It absolutely scandalized the couple and their family and friends. Oops.
A photographer friend once told me of an officiant who insisted that the photographers stand with their backs against the wall and get no closer to the couple. If they did, he would call them out. (They did, and he did. Loudly.) Yikes.
Officiants and photographers have experienced or heard the worst of working with each other. How can we do better?
Toronto photographer TJ Tindale says it plainly: “Really, I would say the one thing officiants can do to make our job easier is have a conversation with us just before the ceremony.”
So what should we talk about?
First of all, we need to have a chat about our requests and expectations.
I’ve gotten upset at photographers when they’ve moved my mic stand without telling me before the ceremony, or even hissed at me to step out of the way while the bride is coming down the aisle (an unusual and unreasonable request, I feel). So now, I usually ask them, “Are you going to need to move the mic stand? Because right now, it’s all set up and adjusted. I’d rather you didn’t.” or “Will you need me to stand aside during the processional at all? I’d rather not when the bride is on her way.” As I’ve said before, let’s not give up our ceremony non-negotiables. But let’s not be jerks about it either.
I have a few non-negotiables; maybe yours are different. To avoid harsh feelings and unpleasant surprises with the wedding photographer, let’s talk over those requests and expectations – what we’d appreciate the photographer do or not do – ahead of time.
But we officiants are not the only ones with requests and expectations. We need to keep in mind it’s a two-way street; the photographers have things they need from us, too.
So a helpful question we can ask the photographer in this conversation is, “Now, do you need anything from me?”
Photographer Scarlet O’Neill of Scarlet O’Neill | Photography would love for officiants to remember that “not all photographers are the same; we all shoot differently and have different approaches, too. A lot of us prefer to be really candid and sometimes officiants just assume we are invasive, so they limit what we can do because they’ve had bad experiences. I think chatting with them and hearing their approach and being a team with them is the best we can all do for the couple.”
At the end of the day, we’re all working for the couple getting married. So let’s get our mutual requests and expectations on the table with a quick chat before the ceremony.
Which leads to the most important thing a wedding photographer wants to know about the ceremony itself.
2. Give the wedding photographer a rundown of our Order of Ceremony
Okay; we’re on the same page about requests and expectations. The other thing the wedding photographer would appreciate is a general sense of our Order of Ceremony – what’s happening when?
TJ Tindale says, “Create a game plan so photographers know when key moments are about to happen. It can be a quick conversation that kills any surprises!”
Surprises for the guests and couple in the ceremony can be great! Surprises for the officiant and photographer are totally unwelcome.
There’s no need to go into excruciating detail here. The photographer has to get back to work! So I typically just say something like, “First we’ll do the processional, then I’ll tell the couple’s story and say a few words for about 8 minutes, then they’ll exchange vows, then rings, then kiss, and everyone will cheer. Then we’ll sign and we’ll come back; I’ll present them for the first time, and everyone will cheer again. Then recessional, aaaaand done.”
When the photographer knows the order of the ceremony, she won’t miss that all-important shot. We just can’t re-enact that magic moment. If it’s missed, it’s missed. Again, since we’re all working for the couple, we can pull together to make sure that doesn’t happen.
If you didn’t catch it above, I like to highlight for the photographer when the “cheers” will happen, and I script the ceremony very intentionally to maximize the number of times everyone will cheer. (At least twice.)
While many wedding ceremonies follow a very similar format, one thing that varies from officiant to officiant is when the kiss occurs. Some officiants put it before the signing of the registry; some put if after the signing. I’m firmly for putting the kiss before the signing.
Wherever you decide to put it, Anastasia of Olive Photography emphasizes that the kiss is a hugely important moment in the ceremony, and the photographer wants to catch just perfectly: “Let us know if the kiss will be before or after the signing of the registry so we know when to be ready for it.”
So give the photographer a quick rundown, and give them a sense of when the couple are gonna kiss and when guests are gonna cheer. Those moments are magic, and we want to help our photographer-colleagues be ready for them.
So we’ve spelled out 2 things that our quick pre-ceremony chat with the wedding photographer needs to cover: mutual requests and expectations, and the order of our ceremony.
In Part 2 next week, we’ll cover 3 more ways we can help the photographer: some instructions we can give the couple in the rehearsal, important things to keep in mind about pacing, and getting out of the way when the couple kiss… or not.
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The Designer Discount
Density keeps energy costs down
April 6, 2005 | Great Lakes Bulletin News Service
MLUI
A key ingredient to a fuel efficient economy: putting people and the places they want to be in closer proximity, otherwise known in planner-speak as "density."
To the select group of common rituals that really attract people’s attention -- like stepping on the scale, enjoying a really good piece of cheese cake, spotting the tattoo that suddenly appeared over your teenage daughter’s navel -- add one more: Filling the gas tank. Thanks to steadily climbing oil prices, the latter has become particularly noteworthy, so much so that after languishing as a non-issue for years, the cost of fuel is pushing its way back onto the public agenda.
Gas-sipping hybrids are flying off new car lots as fast as they arrive while, for the first time in decades, legislators—at least at the state level—are discussing fuel conservation without fearing for their political lives. Seven northeastern states have already adopted California's clean car standards, which give a huge boost to vehicle fuel economy, and Washington and Oregon are considering joining the clean car bandwagon.
Know Thy Neighborhood BetterBut while improving vehicle efficiency is an important step, it’s only one half of the job. The other half -- certainly less heralded, but arguably just as important -- is to design cities and neighborhoods so that we drive less. After all, improving gas mileage doesn’t mean much if we have to travel longer distances to get where we need to go. Urban planners have long understood the key ingredient to fuel-efficient neighborhood design: Putting people and the places they want to be in closer proximity, otherwise known in planner-speak as "density."
When it comes to energy efficiency, density is good. More compact neighborhoods place destinations closer together, which not only allows for shorter car trips, but also makes it possible for residents to make some trips on foot, bike, or transit. Compact community design can save just as much gas as a well designed car engine.
Low density, however, is an ever bigger problem in America. Spread out community designs -- with big lawns, wide boulevards, huge parking lots -- force destinations farther apart, making cars a necessity for every trip.
New York is #1A look at recent gas consumption trends confirms the planners’ insight. According to the Federal Highway Administration, from 2001 through 2003 residents of New York used the least gasoline, person for person, of any state: about 0.8 gallons per person per day, a third less than the national average. That should come as little surprise. New York City -- which makes up a sizable chunk of the state's population -- is dense enough to allow many of its residents to get by perfectly well without cars, except for the occasional taxi.
The runners-up to New York were a little more unexpected: Hawaii, with high priced gas and surprisingly dense Honolulu; Rhode Island, dominated by urban Providence; and Illinois, which has a significant share of residents in urban Chicago and its dense inner suburbs.
States with high gas consumption, on the other hand, tend to be rural, to have particularly sprawling cities, or both. Residents of wide open Wyoming use the most gasoline of any state. Not far behind are sprawling Georgia and South Carolina and predominantly rural Vermont.
Density figures in longer-term gas consumption trends as well: States that have controlled growth in sprawling, low-density suburbs have actually managed to reduce per capita gasoline consumption over the past two and a half decades.
West is UrbanizingTake, for example, Nevada. That’s right, Nevada. Today, the Silver State’s residents use about 1.2 gallons of gas per person per day. That’s close to the national average, but a decline of nearly one third since 1976-1978, the peak period for per capita gas consumption in both the state and the nation overall. In terms of reductions in gas consumption, no other state is in the same league.
The other states that saw significant reductions in gas consumption per capita were predominantly western: New Mexico (-20%), Oregon (-19%), and Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Utah (-16%). Yes, Wyoming residents still use a lot of gas, but they’re apparently doing better than they used to.
These results may come as a bit of surprise. Oregon’s efforts to control urban sprawl are nationally known. But few people think of Las Vegas or Santa Fe as Smart Growth meccas.
However, Western states — Nevada in particular — are rapidly urbanizing. According to census data, for example, Las Vegas was the fastest growing big city in the country, with a population increase of 83 percent in a decade. These trends herald a major population shift, in which more and more residents of the arid West must be classed as city slickers. And city folks tend to use less gas than their rural counterparts.
The lesson is clear: If we want to use less gas, we need to pay close attention to how cities grow. Places that have done a good job of reining in low-density development have positioned themselves well for a world of rising gas prices.
Clark Williams-Derry, who writes about land use policy and environmental trends, is the research director of Northwest Environment Watch, a public policy think tank and advocacy organization in Seattle. Reach him at [email protected]. For more commentary on sprawl and Smart Growth see the Elm Street Writers Group.
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It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day and it’s new tax for homeowners in the Liberties
By Jennifer McDonald | April 19, 2013.
Photo by Jennifer McDonald
On Saturday 13 April, an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 people took to the streets of Dublin to protest against the recent property tax.
Environment Minister Phil Hogan, confirmed earlier this year, it had been agreed that 80 per cent of taxes would be retained within local authority areas where properties were based. The remaining 20 per cent will go into a central fund to be used by local authorities on a “needs basis,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Environment.
“The local authorities have been cut by 20 per cent, leading to parks being closed early, roads in suburban areas only being swept once every three months by the Councils and the privatisation of the bin service,” said Local TD, Joan Collins.
However, Collins stresses, that this tax will not improve local services and said she supports “a tax on wealth and property, not a family home tax”.
Local resident, Cliona Hayden said, “I don’t see the point of the tax. I already pay for the services I use in my community”.
Homeowners have complained in recent weeks, tax estimates for their houses and others in their area, are over or under valued on various property tax websites. This is mainly due to the fact that certain sites such as Revenue.ie base their assessment on how old the property is and its location. However, property websites have also account for any extensions made to the houses and its number of bedrooms.
Revenue.ie began sending out letters in March to 1.6m households, demanding the property tax payment.
The letter includes a “notice of estimate of local property tax”, but householders have to calculate the amount they need to pay themselves.
However, due to errors made by the Revenue Commission letters demanding the tax payment have also been sent to children and non- property owners.
Revenue property tax manager, Vivienne Dempsey said, “We are saying that it [the property website] is another piece of information. We’re encouraging property owners to look at as many sources of information as they can”.
Joan Collins said, “We believe this confusion is an attempt to engage people to contact the Revenue Commission. The valuation process is a joke”.
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Jeffrey D. Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport. If you're an elected official, political operative or anyone else upset at his views, don't go bothering LSUS or LSU System officials about that because these are his own views solely.
This publishes Sunday through Thursday with the exception of 7 holidays. Also check out his Louisiana Legislature Log especially during legislative sessions (in "Louisiana Politics Blog Roll" below).
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3.12.13
Elite instransigence cause of possible EBR breakaway
Has it come to this: people
exercising their constitutional rights, whose policy preferences are given
second-class status because they are less numerous than those in the wagon that
they pull, are selfish for doing so?
That’s an apt description of the
reactions from opponents of the drive for south East Baton Rouge Parish
to incorporate itself into its own separate municipality, proposed to be named
St. George, removing itself from a metropolitan government that would have only
the northern and central parts of the parish that are not the municipalities of
Baker, Central, and Zachary and the city of Baton Rouge remaining. This
presently southern unincorporated area of the parish would create a city of
around 107,000 people and become almost as large in land area as Baton Rouge
itself.
The process is simple: collect
signatures on a petition without time limit representing a quarter of the
registered voters in the area, which then triggers an election where a majority
of those voters can approve of the new municipality. The politics behind it, by
contrast, are complex.
A couple
of years ago concerned families in the area pressured the Legislature to
create an independent school district in a large part of the area, voicing a
frustration that the East Baton Rouge Parish School System pursued policies
that put vested interests among politicians, administrators, and unions ahead
of children’s education. That paid off this past year in the creation of such a
majority-black district that while would not have been ranked a high performer
compared to others statewide it would have been scored higher than the
consistently lagging EBRPSS, except that no means of financing was provided.
Legislators signaled they did not feel comfortable carving a district out of an
existing district without some municipality to anchor it.
So, backers of the breakaway
district went about creating that municipality, which if then the district were
altered to conform to that would make it even better performing than in its
present version at the expense of the EBRPSS. This tossed opponents from the
frying pan into the fire, for now the proposition was about more authority over
more people and they could no longer control the process, as now it didn’t
matter that they had the backing of almost all elected officials in East Baton
Rouge outside of the district for the policymaking locus has shifted from their
having the majority of power to that now being in the hands of the people of
the district.
Naturally, in response they have
set about on a campaign of misrepresentation and scare-mongering. It started
with Mayor-President Kip
Holdeninsinuating
the enterprise was racist, but now has become less bigoted and more sophisticated
in the attempt to discourage success of the petitioning process. It continued
in the alarmist mode when a paid shill for city-parish interests imagined
the new municipality would remove $90 million from EBR coffers, but took a more
reasonable tack in embracing the view from local academicians that this figure
was $53
million, or a fifth of the current EBR budget, based upon the idea that a
quarter of the residents in areas covered by the city-parish government would
separate but take 40 percent of the sales tax revenue with them.
Some opponents, perhaps lacking
confidence they can defeat the petition/election process, have approached going
berserk over the possibility of breakaway. EBR Metro Council member Denise Marcelle,
playing the role of Pharaoh, threatens extralegal annexation of the area by
fiat to stop it, laying bare for observers the real reason why it has come to
this: it’s all about money and power, to the point where elites feel they have
the right to impose their will on their employers to enjoy both. The strategy
of talking about how the move in and of itself would make the whole suffer, with
the undercurrent that the selfish few would act so to harm the many, is to
distract from the fact that the portion that wants out of the current
arrangement does because of poor policy choices made by majorities of existing
political elites of which they disproportionately bear this burden.
While it mainly rests with dissatisfaction
of the poor-performing EBRPSS, that the area with both the state’s major
university and its capital does so poorly
relative to the rest of the country in terms of income testifies to the
fact that this local government has created policy insufficient to rectify this
shortcoming. Part of this underperformance does get weighed down by the
inadequacies of the school system – it’s more difficult to spur economic
development when the product coming out of the schools is substandard – but city-parish
politicians can both pressure schools to place a higher primacy on children’s
learning and less on satisfying special interests and come up with policy more
towards growth and efficient government less enamored with redistribution and
attention to special interests. Already, St. George organizers have done precisely
this with a governance plan long
on efficiency through contracting.
In other words, it is not that
portion of the citizenry that wants this policy change that is the enemy that
elites try to demonize as not having its mind right with total commitment for
EBR, but that enemy is themselves, because of the poor policy choices that they
have made (such as employee benefits even more generous than the gravy train offered by the state). The easiest solution is for them to put ego and interests aside and
change their policies, for those and the intransigence in holding onto them are
the actual cause of the schism. Trying to delegitimize dissenters who have real
grievances and who are following constitutional means by which to redress them
isn’t just a dereliction of duty, it’s politics at the rankest and lowest
level.
And this approach
does nothing to address the disease affecting both schools and city-parish
government that they disavow to have nurtured, the officials of the latter of
which would do well to emulate ideas expressed in the St. George governance plan.
When leaders appear unserious in that task of restoration and rejuvenation, it
is not selfish to want to exit that scene, but instead draws upon the very foundational
aspects of American government.
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Mix all ingredients except beer. Once it is all well mixed, start incorporating the beer to form the batter.
Shrimp Tempura:
16 pieces of Shrimps, clean and deveined.
Directions:
Add shrimp to the batter.
Heat the fryer to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Slowly throw shrimp into the fryer until you get a nice golden color, and it’s nice and crispy.
Salad:
½ of Napa cabbage (medium size) finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
¾ ounce of Lime juice
Salt
Direction:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and add salt to taste.
Mango Salsa:
2 pieces of roasted chile serrano
2 cups of fresh mango
1 tablespoon of Lime juice
Honey to balance flavor
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt
Directions:
In a blender add all ingredients and while blending slowly add olive oil and add salt to taste. Use honey to balance the sweetness of the salsa to your taste.
Now let’s assemble the tacos. Have 8 Tortillas, 16 tempura shrimp, ¼ quart Mango salsa and the Napa cabbage salad ready. On a flat pan, heat the tortillas and assemble the tacos. Add two shrimps per taco, salad on top, and finishing with the mango salsa.
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Tag Archives: Virtual Hero
One of the newest forms of entertainment for special events is incorporating gamification into event activities. Amusement Masters is proud to be a pioneer of this new trend by offering gamification opportunities to clients through a suite of virtual and customizable games called Virtual Hero. The term gamification refers to an incorporation of social and reward aspects into an activity. Essentially the concept of ‘gamifying’ links the game player with a system of online social interactions and rewards through customization – personalizing the game experience all-around for the user. With Virtual Hero we use green screen imaging to capture an event attendee’s image and literally place them ‘inside’ the game that’s played on their own personal mobile device during the event. Each Virtual Hero game can be customized to the specific event’s theme or company brand of the host of the party. It’s a unique game tie in with ‘social engagement’ that most games cannot match – engaging for players of all ages!
By adding our Virtual Hero game to an event clients’ have the option of four interactive games, each with a fun virtual twist:
• Hit the Hero, is a fast-paced game that emulates the old arcade favorite Whack-A-Mole. In this modern update, the game is customized so that the player whacks their own face and attempts to not hit the rabbit. All good fun, in an effort to increase their points and make it to the event leaderboard for prizes and recognition. Want to see how this game works? Click onto Google Play!
• Hero Jumpis a game that completely engages the player into the action. Players work to jump towards the top and beat the record by climbing the hero tower. Like Hit The Hero, players maneuver to increase their points and make it to the event leaderboard for prizes and recognition. Want to see how this game works? Click onto Google Play!
• Bring casino fun to your event with Hero Slot Machine. This game makes the user feel like they’re in a Las Vegas casino…virtually! The image of the attendee’s face is added to this game and incorporated into a rolling slot machine. Guests then choose a bet and win according to their playing result. Want to see how this game works? Just click onto Google Play!
• For guests who want to show off their style then Hero Dress Up is the perfect activity! The attendee’s image is captured by green screen photography and then put onto a touch screen iPad. Attendees can then customize their virtual fashions to their liking. Once customized and completed the fashionable results are printed…making the photo a great party take away. Want to see how this game works? Click onto Google Play!
Super fun – Virtual Hero offers games and entertainment activties that can be added to any type of event, from youth Bar and Bat Mitzvahs to adult corporate parties. Interested in bringing this incredibly innovative technology to your next event? Contact us or visit our website by clicking here.
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The analogy has been used by some scholars, United Nations investigators, and human rights groups critical of Israeli policy.[2][3] Critics of Israeli policy say that "a system of control" in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including the ID system, Israeli settlements, separate roads for Israeli and Palestinian citizens around many of these settlements, military checkpoints, marriage law, the West Bank barrier, use of Palestinians as cheaper labour, Palestinian West Bank exclaves, inequities in infrastructure, legal rights, and access to land and resources between Palestinians and Israeli residents in the Israeli-occupied territories, resembles some aspects of the South African apartheid regime, and that elements of Israel's occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid, contrary to international law.[4] Some commentators extend the analogy to include treatment of Arab citizens of Israel, describing their citizenship status as second-class. [12]
Opponents of the analogy claim that the comparison is factually,[13] morally,[13] and historically[14] inaccurate and intended to delegitimize Israel.[1][15][16][17] Opponents state that the West Bank and Gaza are not part of sovereign Israel. They argue that though the internal free movement of Palestinians is heavily regulated by the Israeli government, the territories are governed by the elected Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders, so they cannot be compared to the internal policies of apartheid South Africa.[18][19][20]
In regards to the situation within Israel itself, critics of the analogy argue that Israel cannot be called an apartheid state because unlike South Africa which enshrined its racial segregation policies in law, Israeli law is the same for Jewish citizens and other Israeli citizens, with no explicit distinction between race, creed or sex.[23] However, others believe that even if Israeli law does not make explicit distinction between categories of citizens, by creating benefits for IDF service, which is not mandatory for Arabs, in effect it privileges Jewish citizens and discriminates against non-Jewish, and particularly Arab, citizens of the state.[24][25][26]
In 1961, the South African prime minister, and the architect of South Africa's apartheid policies, Hendrik Verwoerd, dismissed an Israeli vote against South African apartheid at the United Nations, saying, "Israel is not consistent in its new anti-apartheid attitude ... they took Israel away from the Arabs after the Arabs lived there for a thousand years. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state."[27] Since then, a number of sources have used the apartheid analogy in their examination of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, David Ben-Gurion stated that unless Israel managed to 'rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible,' it would become an apartheid state.[28] In the early 1970s, Arabic language magazines of the PLO and PFLP compared the Israeli proposals for a Palestinian autonomy to the Bantustan strategy of South Africa.[27] In 1979 the Palestinian sociologist Elia Zureik argued that while not de jure an apartheid state, Israeli society was characterized by a latent form of apartheid.[29] The analogy emerged with some frequency in both academic and activist writings in the 1980–90s,[30] when Uri Davis, Meron Benvenisti, Richard Locke and Anthony Stewart employed the analogy to describe Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
In the 1990s, the analogy gained prominence, after Israel, as a result of the Oslo Accords, granted the Palestinians limited self-government in form the Palestinian Authority, and established a system of permits and checkpoints in the Palestinian Territories. The analogy has gained additional traction following Israel's construction of the West Bank Barrier.[27] By 2013 the analogy between the West Bank and Bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa was widely drawn in international circles.[31] Also in the United States, where the notion had previously been taboo, Israel's rule over the occupied territories was increasingly compared to apartheid.[32][33]
Heribert Adam of Simon Fraser University and Kogila Moodley of the University of British Columbia, in their 2005 book-length study Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking Between Israelis and Palestinians, argue the controversy over terminology arises because Israel as a state is unique in the region. Israel is perceived as a Western democracy and is thus likely to be judged by the standards of such a state. Western commentators, too, may feel "a greater affinity to a like minded polity than to an autocratic Third World state."[55] Israel also claims to be a home for the worldwide Jewish diaspora[55] and a strategic outpost of the Western world that "is heavily bankrolled by U.S. taxpayers" who can be viewed as sharing a collective responsibility for its behaviors.[55] Radical Islamists, according to some analysts, "use Israeli policies to mobilize anti-Western sentiment",[55] leading to a situation in which "(u)nconditional U.S. support for Israeli expansionism potentially unites Muslim moderates with jihadists".[55] As a result of these factors, according to this analysis, the West Bank Barrier — nicknamed the "apartheid wall" — has become a critical frontline in the War on Terrorism.[55]
Adam and Moodley note that Jewish historical suffering has imbued Zionism with a subjective sense of moral validity that the whites ruling South Africa never had: "Afrikaner moral standing was constantly undermined by exclusion and domination of blacks, even subconsciously in the minds of its beneficiaries. In contrast, the similar Israeli dispossession of Palestinians is perceived as self-defense and therefore not immoral."[56] They also suggest that academic comparisons between Israel and apartheid South Africa that see both dominant groups as "settler societies" leave unanswered the question of "when and how settlers become indigenous", as well as failing to take into account that Israeli's Jewish immigrants view themselves as returning home.[57] "In their self-concept, Zionists are simply returning to their ancestral homeland from which they were dispersed two millennia ago. Originally most did not intend to exploit native labor and resources, as colonizers do." Adam and Moodley stress, "because people give meaning to their lives and interpret their worlds through these diverse ideological prisms, the perceptions are real and have to be taken seriously."[58]
Adam and Moodley argue that notwithstanding universal suffrage within Israel proper, if the occupied Palestinian territories and settler presence are considered part of the entity under analysis, the comparison between a disenfranchised African population in apartheid South Africa and the Palestinians under Israeli occupation gains more validity.[59]
Adam and Moodley also argue that "apartheid ideologues" who justified their rule by claiming self-defense against "African National Congress (ANC)-led communism" found that excuse outdated after the collapse of the Soviet Union, whereas "continued Arab hostilities sustain the Israeli perception of justifiable self-defense."[60]
Adam and Moodley contend that the relationship of South African apartheid to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been misinterpreted as justifying suicide bombing and glorifying martyrdom. They argue that the ANC "never endorsed terrorism", and stress "not one suicide has been committed in the cause of a thirty-year-long armed struggle, although in practice the ANC drifted increasingly toward violence during the latter years of apartheid."[61]
In 2009, a comprehensive 18-month independent academic study was completed for the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa for the South African Department of Foreign Affairs on the legal status of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[62] The specific questions examined in the study were whether Israeli policies are consistent with colonialism and apartheid, as these practices and regimes are spelled out in relevant international legal instruments. The second question, regarding apartheid, was the major focus of the study. Authors and analysts contributing to the study included jurists, academics and international lawyers from Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, South Africa, England, Ireland and the United States. The team considered whether human rights law can be applied to cases of belligerent occupation, the legal context in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and related international law and comparative practices. The question of apartheid was examined through a dual approach: reference to international law and comparison to policies and practices by the apartheid regime in South Africa. Initially released as a report, the report was later edited and published in 2012 (by Pluto Press) as Beyond Occupation: Apartheid, Colonialism and International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Regarding international law, the team reported that Israel's practices in the OPT correlate almost entirely with the definition of apartheid as established in Article 2 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. (The exception was the Convention's reference to genocidal policies, which were not found to be part of Israeli practices, although the team noted that genocide was not the policy in apartheid South Africa either.) Comparison to South African laws and practices by the apartheid regime also found strong correlations with Israeli practices, including violations of international standards for due process (such as illegal detention); discriminatory privileges based on ascribed ethnicity (legally, as Jewish or non-Jewish); draconian enforced ethnic segregation in all parts of life, including by confining groups to ethnic "reserves and ghettoes"; comprehensive restrictions on individual freedoms, such as movement and expression; a dual legal system based on ethno-national identity (Jewish or Palestinian); denationalization (denial of citizenship); and a special system of laws designed selectively to punish any Palestinian resistance to the system.
Thematically, the team concluded that Israel's practices could be grouped into three "pillars" of apartheid comparable to practices in South Africa:
The first pillar "derives from Israeli laws and policies that establish Jewish identity for purposes of law and afford a preferential legal status and material benefits to Jews over non-Jews".
The second pillar is reflected in "Israel's 'grand' policy to fragment the OPT [and] ensure that Palestinians remain confined to the reserves designated for them while Israeli Jews are prohibited from entering those reserves but enjoy freedom of movement throughout the rest of the Palestinian territory. This policy is evidenced by Israel's extensive appropriation of Palestinian land, which continues to shrink the territorial space available to Palestinians; the hermetic closure and isolation of the Gaza Strip from the rest of the OPT; the deliberate severing of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank; and the appropriation and construction policies serving to carve up the West Bank into an intricate and well-serviced network of connected settlements for Jewish-Israelis and an archipelago of besieged and non-contiguous enclaves for Palestinians".
The third pillar is "Israel's invocation of 'security' to validate sweeping restrictions on Palestinian freedom of opinion, expression, assembly, association and movement [to] mask a true underlying intent to suppress dissent to its system of domination and thereby maintain control over Palestinians as a group."
In 1973 the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (ICSPCA) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.[63] The ICSPCA defines the crime of apartheid as "inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group ... over another racial group ... and systematically oppressing them".[64] In 2002 the crime of apartheid was further defined by Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as encompassing inhumane acts such as torture, murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, or persecution of an identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, or other grounds, "committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime".[65]
In a 2007 report, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine John Dugard stated, "elements of the Israeli occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid, which are contrary to international law" and suggested that the "legal consequences of a prolonged occupation with features of colonialism and apartheid" be put to the International Court of Justice.[66]
In 2009 South Africa's statutory research agency the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) published a legal study finding that, "the State of Israel exercises control in the [Occupied Palestinian Territories] with the purpose of maintaining a system of domination by Jews over Palestinians and that this system constitutes a breach of the prohibition of apartheid." (See under above section,'Analysis by International Legal Team'.)
In 2010 United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine Richard A. Falk reported that criminal apartheid features of the Israeli occupation had been entrenched in the three years since the report of his predecessor, John Dugard.[67] In March 2011, Falk said, "The continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians is creating an intolerable situation ... [and] can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing."[68]
The question of whether Israelis and Palestinians can be said to constitute "racial groups" has been a point of contention in regard to the applicability of the ICSPCA and Article 7 of the Rome Statute. Political writer Ronald Bruce St John has argued that in regards to the ICSPCA Israeli policy in the West Bank cannot technically be defined as apartheid, because it lacks the racial component. However he then states that with the 2002 introduction of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court "the emphasis shifts to an identifiable national, ethnic or cultural group, as opposed to a racial group," in which case "Israeli policy in the West Bank clearly constitutes a form of apartheid with an effect on the Palestinian people much the same as apartheid had on the non-White population in South Africa."[63] The HSRC's 2009 report states that in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jewish and Palestinian identities are "socially constructed as groups distinguished by ancestry or descent as well as nationality, ethnicity, and religion". On this basis, the study concludes that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs can be considered "racial groups" for the purposes of the definition of apartheid in international law.[62]
Activists for Palestinian rights have accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid.[69] For example, in 2006, at the UN-sponsored International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People, Phyllis Bennis, co-chair of the International Coordinating Network on Palestine, alleged that the crime of apartheid is being committed by Israel.[70] Likewise, Zahir Kolliah of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid has argued that the indigenous Palestinian population lives under an apartheid regime settler colony as described by the ICSPCA.[71]
In contrast, according to former Judge of the Constitutional Court of South AfricaRichard Goldstone, the situation in Israel does not conform to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute. As examples, Goldstone pointed to the facts that Israeli Arabs vote, have political representation in the Knesset and occupy positions of acclaim, including on the Israeli Supreme Court, and that Arab patients lie alongside Jewish patients in Israeli hospitals, receiving identical treatment. According to Goldstone, in Israel equal rights are the law, the aspiration and the ideal, and inequities are often successfully challenged in court.[72]
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law was passed by the Knesset in 2003 as an interim emergency measure after Israel had suffered its worst ever spate of suicide bombings[73] and after several Palestinians who had been granted permanent residency on the grounds of family reunification took part in terrorist attacks in Israel.[74] The law makes inhabitants of Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and areas governed by the Palestinian Authority ineligible for the automatic granting of Israeli citizenship and residency permits that is usually available through marriage to an Israeli citizen. This applies equally to a spouse of any Israeli citizen, whether Arab or Jewish, but in practice the law mostly affects Palestinian Israelis living in the towns bordering the West Bank.[73] The law was intended to be temporary but has since been extended annually.[75][76]
According to Amnon Rubinstein, a backer of the citizenship law, there are many international precedents for banning citizens of an enemy country in wartime, and with Hamas, which runs the Palestinian Authority, refusing to recognise Israel, that label applies to the Palestinian Authority.[73]
In formulating the law, the government cited security concerns that terrorist organizations try to enlist Palestinians who have already received or will receive Israeli documentation and that the security services have a hard time distinguishing between Palestinians who might help the terrorists and those who will not.[77] A representative for the State, said in court, "In the past two years, 27 people who had applied for permission to join their spouses in Israel were directly involved in attempted or actual attacks."[76]
In the Israeli Supreme Court decision on this matter, Deputy Chief Justice Mishael Cheshin argued that, "Israeli citizens [do not] enjoy a constitutional right to bring a foreign national into Israel ... and it is the right—moreover, it is the duty—of the state, of any state, to protect its residents from those wishing to harm them. And it derives from this that the state is entitled to prevent the immigration of enemy nationals into it—even if they are spouses of Israeli citizens—while it is waging an armed conflict with that same enemy."[78]
The law was upheld in May 2006, by the Supreme Court of Israel on a six to five vote. Israel's Chief Justice, Aharon Barak, sided with the minority on the bench, declaring: "This violation of rights is directed against Arab citizens of Israel. As a result, therefore, the law is a violation of the right of Arab citizens in Israel to equality."[79] Zehava Gal-On, one of the founders of B'Tselem and a Knesset member with the Meretz-Yachad party, stated that with the ruling "The Supreme Court could have taken a braver decision and not relegated us to the level of an apartheid state."[80] The law was also criticized by Amnesty International[81] and Human Rights Watch.[82] In 2007, the restriction was expanded to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.[76]
Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley cite the marriage law as an example of how Arab Israelis "resemble in many ways 'Colored' and Indian South Africans".[6] They write: "Both Israeli Palestinians and Colored and Indian South Africans are restricted to second-class citizen status when another ethnic group monopolizes state power, treats the minorities as intrinsically suspect, and legally prohibits their access to land or allocates civil service positions or per capita expenditure on education differentially between dominant and minority citizens."
In June 2008 after the law was extended for another year, Amos Schocken, the publisher of the Israeli daily Haaretz, wrote in an opinion article, that the law severely discriminates when comparing the rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens who marry, and that its existence in the law books turns Israel into an apartheid state.[83]
Israel's Declaration of Independence called for the establishment of a Jewish state with equality of social and political rights, irrespective of religion, race, or sex.[84] The rights of citizens are guaranteed by a set of basic laws (Israel does not have a written constitution).[85] Although this set of laws does not explicitly include the term "right to equality", the Israeli Supreme Court has consistently interpreted "Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty"[86] and "Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (1994)"[87] as guaranteeing equal rights for all Israeli citizens.[88] According to the 2010 U.S. State DepartmentCountry Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israeli law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, and the government effectively enforced these prohibitions.[89]
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs states, "Arab Israelis are citizens of Israel with equal rights" and "only legal distinction between Arab and Jewish citizens is not one of rights, but rather of civic duty". However a number of official sources acknowledge that Arab citizens of Israel experience systematic discrimination in many aspects of life. Israeli High Court Justice (Ret.) Theodor Or chaired the Or Commission, which noted that discrimination against the country's Arab citizens had been documented in a large number of professional surveys and studies, had been confirmed in court judgments and government resolutions, and had also found expression in reports by the state comptroller and in other official documents. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticised in 2008 what he called "deliberate and insufferable" discrimination against Arabs at the hands of the Israeli establishment.[90]
According to the 2004 U.S. State DepartmentCountry Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israel maintained the full range of normal equal rights found in Western liberal democracies, and in specific issues "generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas," and the government had done "little to reduce institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's Arab citizens".[91] Reports of subsequent years also identified discrimination against Arab citizens as a problem area for Israel, but did not repeat the assertion that Israel had done little to reduce discrimination.[92] Before 2004, too, there had been some significant improvements in Israeli Arab rights. For example, there has been a steady extension of Israeli Arab rights to lease or purchase land formerly restricted to Jewish applicants, such as that owned by the Jewish National Fund or the Jewish Agency. These groups, established by Jews during the Ottoman period to aid in building up a viable Jewish community in Ottoman Palestine, purchased land, including arid desert and swamps, that could be reclaimed, leased to and farmed by Jews, thus encouraging Jewish immigration. After the establishment of the state of Israel, the Israel Lands Authority oversaw the administration of these properties. On 8 March 2000, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israeli Arabs, too, had an equal right to purchase long-term leases of such land, even inside previously solely Jewish communities and villages. The court ruled that the government may not allocate land based on religion or ethnicity and may not prevent Arab citizens from living wherever they choose: "The principle of equality prohibits the state from distinguishing between its citizens on the basis of religion or nationality," Chief Justice Aharon Barak wrote. "The principle also applies to the allocation of state land.... The Jewish character of the state does not permit Israel to discriminate between its citizens."[93] Commenting on this ruling, the British philosopher Bernard Harrison has written, in a book chapter dealing with the "apartheid Israel" accusation: "No doubt much more needs to be done. But we are discussing, remember, the question of whether Israel is, or is not, an 'apartheid state'. It is not merely hard, but impossible, to imagine the South African Supreme Court, under the premiership of Hendrik Verwoerd, say, delivering an analogous decision, because to have done so would have struck at the root of the entire system of apartheid, which was nothing if not a system for separating the races by separating the areas they were permitted to occupy."[94]
Some observers have accused Israeli officials of partiality, for example being more lenient on Jews who kill Arabs in Israel, as compared to Israeli Arabs who kill Jews in Israel.[95]
Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and deemed to be occupied territory under international law, are under the civil control of the Palestinian Authority, and are not Israeli citizens. In some areas of the West Bank, they are under Israeli security control.
In 2007, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reported that Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the occupied territories are subject to different criminal laws, leading to longer detention and harsher punishments for Palestinians than for Israelis for the same offenses.[96] Amnesty International has reported that in the West Bank, Israeli settlers and soldiers who engage in abuses against Palestinians, including unlawful killings, enjoy "impunity" from punishment and are rarely prosecuted. However Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces may be imprisoned for prolonged periods of time, and reports of their torture and other ill-treatment are not credibly investigated.[97][98][99]
John Dugard has compared Israeli imprisonment of Palestinians to policies of Apartheid-era South Africa, saying "Apartheid's security police practiced torture on a large scale. So do the Israeli security forces. There were many political prisoners on Robben Island but there are more Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails."[100]
In the early 2000s, several community settlements in the Negev and the Galilee were accused of barring Arab applicants from moving in. In 2010, the Knesset passed legislation that allowed admissions committees to function in smaller communities in the Galilee and the Negev, while explicitly forbidding committees to bar applicants on the basis of race, religion, sex, ethnicity, disability, personal status, age, parenthood, sexual orientation, country of origin, political views, or political affiliation.[101][102] Critics, however, say the law gives the privately run admissions committees a wide latitude over public lands, and believe it will worsen discrimination against the Arab minority.[103]
Chris McGreal, The Guardian's former chief Israel correspondent, compared Israel's Population Registry Law of 1965, which requires all residents of Israel to register their nationality, to South Africa's Apartheid-era Population Registration Act, which categorized South Africans according to racial definitions in order to determine who could live in what land. According to McGreal, the Israeli identification cards determine where people are permitted to live, affects access to some government welfare programs, and has impact on how people are likely to be treated by civil servants and policemen.[104]
Yossi Paritzky, a former Israeli minister, has used the apartheid analogy to describe a proposed bill that banned non-Jewish citizens of Israel from purchasing land privately owned by the Jewish National Fund (JNF).[9] The JNF has long insisted that its lands be sold only to Jews, due to the fact that the land was purchased with money from Jewish donors for the purpose of settling Jews in Israel. Noam Chomsky, American professor of linguistics and political activist, has stated, "if you look at the land laws, and decode it all, what it amounts to is that about ninety percent of the land inside Israel is reserved to what's called 'people of Jewish race, religion and origin' ... That's in the contract between the state of Israel and the Jewish National Fund, which is a non-Israeli organization, which, however, by various bureaucratic arrangements, administers the land.... All of this is covered up enough so that nobody can say, "Look, here's an apartheid law."[105]
In 2006, Chris McGreal of The Guardian stated that as a result of the government's control over most of the land in Israel, the vast majority of land in Israel is not available to non-Jews.[104] In 2007 in response to a 2004 petition filed by Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled that the policy was discriminatory, it has been ruled that the JNF must sell land to non-Jews, and will be compensated with other land for any such land to ensure that the overall amount of Jewish-owned land in Israel remains unchanged.[106]
Representative of a Palestinian view is that of Leila Farsakh, associate professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Boston, according to whom, after 1977, "the military government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) expropriated and enclosed Palestinian land and allowed the transfer of Israeli settlers to the occupied territories: they continued to be governed by Israeli laws. The government also enacted different military laws and decrees to regulate the civilian, economic and legal affairs of Palestinian inhabitants. These strangled the Palestinian economy and increased its dependence and integration into Israel." Farsakh says, "[m]any view these Israeli policies of territorial integration and societal separation as apartheid, even if they were never given such a name."[107]
Henry Siegman, a former national director of the American Jewish Congress, has stated that the network of settlements in the West Bank has created an "irreversible colonial project" aimed to foreclose the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. According to Siegman, in accomplishing this Israel has "crossed the threshold from 'the only democracy in the Middle East' to the only apartheid regime in the Western world". Siegman argues that denial of both self-determination and Israeli citizenship to Palestinians amounts to a "double disenfranchisement", which when based on ethnicity amounts to racism. Siegman continues to state that reserving democracy for privileged citizens and keeping others "behind checkpoints and barbed wire fences" is the opposite of democracy.[108]
John Dugard has compared Israel's confiscation of Palestinian farms and land, and destruction of Palestinian homes, to similar policies of Apartheid-era South Africa.[100]
Palestinians living in the non-annexed portions of the West Bank do not have Israeli citizenship or voting rights in Israel, but are subject to movement restrictions of the Israeli government. Israel has created roads and checkpoints in the West Bank with the stated purpose of preventing the uninhibited movement of suicide bombers and militants in the region. The human rights NGO B'Tselem has indicated that such policies have isolated some Palestinian communities and state that Israel's road regime "based on the principle of separation through discrimination, bears striking similarities to the racist apartheid regime that existed in South Africa until 1994".[109][110][111] The International Court of Justice stated that the fundamental rights of the Palestinian population of the occupied territories are guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and that Israel could not deny them on the grounds of security.[112] Marwan Bishara, a teacher of international relations at the American University of Paris, has claimed that the restrictions on the movement of goods between Israel and the West Bank are "a de facto apartheid system".[113]Michael Oren argues that none of this even remotely resembles apartheid, since "the vast majority of settlers and Palestinians choose to live apart because of cultural and historical differences, not segregation, though thousands of them do work side by side. The separate roads were created in response to terrorist attacks — not to segregate Palestinians but to save Jewish lives. And Israeli roads are used by Israeli Jews and Arabs alike."[114]
David Saks claims that the comparison of Israel's policies in the West Bank (Gaza having been evacuated in 2005) is fundamentally false, since Israel and the Palestinian territories are in a state of war, with Israeli population centers continuously bombarded from Gaza. Saks says that the Israelis have responded to this situation with checkpoints, curfews, security fences, segregated road systems, military incursions, and other similar measures, which impact negatively on the everyday life of ordinary Palestinians, and indeed, he says, it is legitimate to demand of Israelis that they not go further than is necessary in ensuring their safety. However, he asserts it is false to accuse the Israelis of apartheid-like strategies when they are facing military threats that have no parallel in pre-1994 South Africa.[115]
A permit and closure system was introduced in 1990. Leila Farsakh maintains that this system imposes "on Palestinians similar conditions to those faced by blacks under the pass laws. Like the pass laws, the permit system controlled population movement according to the settlers' unilaterally defined considerations." In response to the al-Aqsa intifada, Israel modified the permit system and fragmented the WBGS [West Bank and Gaza Strip] territorially. "In April 2002 Israel declared that the WBGS would be cut into eight main areas, outside which Palestinians could not live without a permit."[107]John Dugard has said these laws "resemble, but in severity go far beyond, apartheid's pass system".[118]
B'Tselem wrote in 2004, "Palestinians are barred from or have restricted access to 450 miles of West Bank roads, a system with 'clear similarities' to South Africa's former apartheid regime."[119]
In October 2005 the Israel Defense Forces stopped Palestinians from driving on Highway 60, as part of a plan for a separate Road Network for Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank. The road had been sealed after the fatal shooting of three settlers near Bethlehem. As of 2005, no private Palestinian cars were permitted on the road although public transport was still allowed. B'Tselem described this as a first step towards "total 'road apartheid'".[120] In 2011, Major General Nitzan Alon abolished separate transportation systems on the West Bank, permitting Palestinians to ride alongside Israelis. The measure has been protested by settlers, who argue the presence of Palestinians could be a security concern; some women cited sexual harassment as an issue (“What parent would allow his daughter to travel on a bus full of Arabs?” an interviewee mused).[121] The IDF order was reportedly overturned by Moshe Ya'alon who, in response to pressure from settler groups, issued a directive, operative from December 2014, that would deny Palestinians passage on buses running from Israel to the West Bank. Instead they would be restricted to a route far from settlements through the Eyal checkpoint near Qalqilya. The measure affects Palestinians who travel towards Ariel on the Trans-Samaria highway.[122][123] The decision was said to be made on security grounds, though according to Haaretz military officials state that Palestinian use of such transport poses no security threat. Justice Minister Tzipi Livini asked the Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to examine the ban's legality and Weinstein immediately demanded that Ya'alon provide an explanation for his decision.[124] Israeli security sources were quoted saying the decision had nothing to do with public buses and said that the goal was to supervise the entrance into and exit out of Israeli territory, thereby decreasing the chance of terrorist attacks inside Israel. Critics on the left described the policy, which would make using Israeli buses very cumbersome to Palestinians, as tantamount to apartheid, and something that would render Israel a pariah state.[125]
Criticism of Israeli policies on similar grounds has arisen from, among others, Haggai Alon, a senior defence advisor. In an interview with Haaretz, Haggai Alon, an adviser to the then Israeli defence minister Amir Peretz, claimed that the army was "carrying out an apartheid policy" and was "emptying Hebron of Arabs, setting up roadblocks without anyone knowing where and how many, Judaizing the Jordan Valley and cooperating openly and blatantly with the settlers".[126] On 29 December 2009 Israel's High Court of Justice accepted the Association for Civil Rights in Israel's petition against an IDF order barring Palestinians from driving on Highway 443. The ruling should come into effect five months after being issued, allowing Palestinians to use the road.[127] According to plans laid out by the Israeli Defence Forces to implement the court's ruling, Palestinian use of the road is seen to remain limited.[128] In March 2013, the Israeli Afikim bus company announced that, as from 4 March 2013, it would be operating separate bus lines for Jews and Arabs in the occupied territories.[129][130][131]
Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian legislator and former presidential candidate, said that apartheid was the only word to describe Israel's creation of separate roads for Palestinians, its discrimination in allocation of water, ongoing settlement construction, and differences in per capita income between Israelis (both Jewish and non-Jewish) and Palestinians. He also asserted that the US-sponsored peace process gave Israel time to "continue settlements building, to continue having the checkpoints and restrictions, to continue creating this apartheid system".[132] The World Bank found in 2009 that Israeli settlements in the West Bank (which amount to 15% of the population of the West Bank) are given access to over 80% of its fresh water resources, despite the fact that the Oslo accords call for "joint" management of such resources. This has created, according to the Bank, "real water shortages" for the Palestinians.[133] In January 2012, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French parliament published a report describing Israel's water policies in the West Bank as "a weapon serving the new apartheid". The report noted that the 450,000 Israeli settlers used more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians, "in contravention of international law", that Palestinians are not allowed to use the underground aquifers, and that Israel was deliberately destroying wells, reservoirs and water purification plants. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the report was "loaded with the language of vicious propaganda, far removed from any professional criticism with which one could argue intelligently".[134] A report by the Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies concludes that Israel has fulfilled the water agreements it has made with the Palestinians, and the author has commented that the situation is "just the opposite of apartheid" as Israel has provided water infrastructure to more than 700 Palestinian villages.[135][136] The Association for Civil Rights in Israel concluded in 2008 that a segregated road network in the West Bank, expansion of Jewish settlements, restriction of the growth of Palestinian towns and discriminatory granting of services, budgets and access to natural resources are "a blatant violation of the principle of equality and in many ways reminiscent of the Apartheid regime in South Africa". The group reversed its previous reluctance to use the comparison to South Africa because "things are getting worse rather than better", according to spokeswoman Melanie Takefman.[137]
Supporters of the West Bank barrier consider it to be largely responsible for reducing incidents of terrorism by 90% from 2002 to 2005.[148][149] Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, stated in 2004 that the barrier is not a border but a temporary defensive measure designed to protect Israeli civilians from terrorist infiltration and attack, and can be dismantled if appropriate.[150] The Supreme Court of Israel ruled that the barrier is defensive and accepted the government's position that the route is based on security considerations.[151]
The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 in an advisory opinion that the wall is illegal where it extends beyond the 1967 Green Line into the West Bank. Israel disagreed with the ruling, but its supreme court subsequently ordered the barrier to be moved in sections where its route was seen to cause more hardship to Palestinians than security concerns could motivate.[152]
In January 2004, Ahmed Qureia, then the Palestinian Prime Minister, said that the building of the West Bank barrier, and the associated Israeli absorption of parts of the West Bank, constituted "an apartheid solution to put the Palestinians in cantons".[153]Colin Powell, then U.S. Secretary of State, commented on Queria's statements by affirming U.S. commitment to a two-state solution, while saying, "I don't believe that we can accept a situation that results in anything that one might characterize as apartheid or Bantuism."[154]
Malcolm Hedding, a South African minister who worked against South African apartheid and Executive Director of the Christian Zionist organisation 'International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem', said that the West Bank barrier has nothing to do with apartheid and everything to do with Israel's self-defense. He said that Israel has proven its desire to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians while granting political rights to its own Arab citizens within a liberal democratic system, but that the Palestinians remain committed to Israel's destruction. By contrast, he says, it was a tiny minority in South Africa that held power and once democracy came, the National Party that had dominated the masses disappeared.[155][156][157]
Separate and unequal education systems were a central part of apartheid in South Africa, as part of a deliberate strategy designed to limit black children to a life of manual labor. Some disparities between Jews and Arabs in Israel's education system exist, although they are not nearly so significant and the intent not so malign.[104] The Israeli Pupils' Rights Law of 2000 prohibits educators from establishing different rights, obligations and disciplinary standards for students of different religions. Educational institutions may not discriminate against religious minorities in admissions or expulsion decisions, or when developing curricula or assigning students to classes.[158] Unlike apartheid South Africa, In Israel, education is free and compulsory for all citizens, from elementary school to the end of high school, and university access is based on uniform tuition for all citizens.[159]
Israel has Hebrew-language and Arabic-language schools, while some schools are bilingual. Most Arabs study in Arabic, while a small number of Arab parents choose to enroll their children in Hebrew schools. All of Israel's eight universities use Hebrew.[104] In 1992 a government report concluded that nearly twice as much money was allocated to each Jewish child as to each Arab pupil.[104] Likewise, a 2004 Human Rights Watch report identified significant disparities in education spending and stated that discrimination against Arab children affects every aspect of the education system. Exam pass-rate for Arab pupils were about one-third lower than that for their Jewish compatriots.[104] A 2007 report of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern over the existence of separate Arab and Jewish sectors may amount to racial segregation, and recommended that mixed Arab–Jewish communities and schools, and intercultural education should be promoted.[160] In a 2008 report Israel responded that parents are entitled to enroll their children in the educational institution of their choice, whether the spoken language is Hebrew, Arabic or bilingual. It also noted that Israel promotes a variety of programs that promote intercultural cooperation, tolerance and understanding.[161] In 2007, Israeli Education Ministry announced a plan to increase funding for schools in Arab communities. According to a ministry official, "At the end of the process, a lot of money will be directed toward schools with students from families with low education and income levels, mainly in the Arab sector."[162] The Education Ministry prepared a five-year plan to close the gaps and raise the number of students eligible for high school matriculation.[163]
In August 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip, after 38 years of occupation.[169]
Prior to the disengagement, Oren Yiftachel, Chair of the Geography Department at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, predicted that Israel's unilateral disengagement plan will result in "creeping apartheid" in the West Bank, Gaza, and in Israel itself. Yiftachel argues that the reality of apartheid existed for decades in Israel/Palestine, but this is the first time a Prime Minister "spells out clearly the strengthening of this reality as a long-term political platform" and that the plan would entrench a situation that can be described as "neither two states nor one", separating Israelis from Palestinians without giving Palestinians true sovereignty.[170]
Meron Benvenisti, an Israeli political scientist and the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, predicted that the interim disengagement plan would become permanent, with the West Bank barrier entrenching both the isolation of Palestinian communities and the existence of Israeli settlements. He warned that Israel is moving towards the model of apartheid South Africa through the creation of "Bantustan" like conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[171] Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar states the Israeli plan for disengagement from Gaza is "amazingly similar" to South Africa's Bantustans, in that it releases Israel from responsibility for the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip — except for the provision of basic services to avoid a humanitarian disaster — while retaining complete control over the area by controlling international passages.[172]
Michael Tarazi, a Palestinian proponent of the binational solution has argued that it is in Palestine's interest to "make this an argument about apartheid," even to the extent of advocating Israeli settlement: "The longer they stay out there, the more Israel will appear to the world to be essentially an apartheid state".[173]
Geoffrey Wheatcroft has noted that, historically, Israeli officials had mulled the possibility of adopting the South African apartheid model as one that the state of Israel itself might emulate. In the late 1970s "(t)hey didn't wish to copy what was once called 'petty apartheid', the everyday harassment of black South Africans, but 'grand apartheid', the Nationalists' attempt to conjure away the problem of minority rule by dividing the country into supposedly autonomous cantons or 'homelands'".[174]
Uri Davis wrote in 1987 that apartheid in Israel is a legal reality, even though it has a different legal structure than in the Republic of South Africa. He asserts that where the Republic of South Africa had an official value system of apartheid and made a key legal distinction between "white", "coloured", "Indian" and "black", Israel has an official value system of Zionism and makes a key legal distinction between "Jew" and "non-Jew". He suggests that this distinction is made in a two-tier structure that had concealed Israeli apartheid legislation for "almost four decades" at the time when he wrote.[175]
David Hirst has documented numerous occurrences of what he refers to as apartheid in his book The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East. In his updated historical account, he traces the violent acts of terrorism and prejudices committed by all sides involved from the year 1880 until 2003.
Former Special RapporteurJohn Dugard described the situation in the West Bank as "an apartheid regime ... worse than the one that existed in South Africa."[176] In 2007, in advance of a report from the United Nations Human Rights Council, Dugard wrote, "Israel's laws and practices in the OPT [occupied Palestinian territories] certainly resemble aspects of apartheid." Referring to Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank, he wrote, "Can it seriously be denied that the purpose [...] is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically oppressing them? Israel denies that this is its intention or purpose. But such an intention or purpose may be inferred from the actions described in this report."[177][178]
In October 2010 Richard A. Falk reported to the General Assembly Third Committee "It is the opinion of the current Special Rapporteur that the nature of the occupation as of 2010 substantiates earlier allegations of colonialism and apartheid in evidence and law to a greater extent than was the case even three years ago. The entrenching of colonialist and apartheid features of the Israeli occupation has been a cumulative process. The longer it continues, the more difficult it is to overcome and the more serious is the abridgement of fundamental Palestinian rights."[67]
The Foreign Minister of Jordan, Nasser Judeh, has said Israel's failure to withdraw from the 1967 territories would expose it as an "apartheid" country.[182] The foreign minister of Egypt, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in 2010, "You have a bi-national state or you have occupation or apartheid. The ... option which we are all preferring is to have two states instead of one state based on apartheid."[183] In a letter to the United Nations Security Council the Syrian government stated that "Zionist Israeli institutional terrorism" was identical to that of the apartheid regimes in South Africa and Namibia.[184]
Turkish president Abdullah Gül has also warned that Israel's failure to withdraw from the 1967 territories would make it perceived as "an apartheid island surrounded by an Arab sea of anger and hostility".[185]
In his 2011 address to the United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said, "Our people will continue their popular peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation and its settlement and apartheid policies and its construction of the racist annexation Wall, and they receive support for their resistance, which is consistent with international humanitarian law and international conventions (...) Our efforts are not aimed at isolating Israel or de-legitimizing it; rather we want to gain legitimacy for the cause of the people of Palestine. We only aim to de-legitimize the settlement activities and the occupation and apartheid and the logic of ruthless force, and we believe that all the countries of the world stand with us in this regard".[186]
Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States, Camp David Accords negotiator, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, authored the 2006 book titled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, maintaining in that book that Israel's options included a "system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. This is the policy now being followed, although many citizens of Israel deride the racist connotations of prescribing permanent second-class status for the Palestinians."[187] Carter's use of the term "apartheid" was calibrated to avoid specific accusations of racism against the government of Israel, and carefully limited to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. For instance, in a news release, Carter described discussing his book and his use of the word "apartheid" with the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, and noted, "I made clear in the book's text and in my response to the rabbis that the system of apartheid in Palestine is not based on racism but the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence."[188][189]
“
It's not Israel. The book has nothing to do with what's going on inside Israel which is a wonderful democracy, you know, where everyone has guaranteed equal rights and where, under the law, Arabs and Jews who are Israelis have the same privileges about Israel. That's been most of the controversy because people assume it's about Israel. It's not.[190]
”
—Comments by Jimmy Carter to LifeandTimes
“
I've never alleged that the framework of apartheid existed within Israel at all, and that what does exist in the West Bank is based on trying to take Palestinian land and not on racism. So it was a very clear distinction.[191]
”
—Comments by Jimmy Carter to CNN
University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer stated in June 2008 that, "Five, 10 or 15 years ago, it was unthinkable to mention 'apartheid' in relation to Israel. Now [Jimmy] Carter has used it in the title of his book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid". Mearsheimer added, "Israel is, in effect, creating an apartheid state."[192]
Israel academic David Dean Shulman writing in the aftermath of the creation of separate bus lines in the West Bank to separate Palestinians and settlers, remarks that:'Israelis often protest when the word "apartheid" is used to describe life in the West Bank, with its settlers-only roads and its settlers' electricity grid and its settlers' water-supply and its blatantly discriminatory courts; more and more the word seems sadly close to the mark.'[193]
Yakov Malik, the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations accused Israel—an ally of the US in the Cold War against the Soviets—of promulgating a "racist policy of apartheid against Palestinians" following the imposition of Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the Six-Day War in 1967.[194] Israel accused the Soviet Union of publishing anti-Zionist tracts.[195]
American academic Norman Finkelstein defends Carter's analysis in Palestine Peace Not Apartheid as both historically accurate and non-controversial outside the United States: "After four decades of Israeli occupation, the infrastructure and superstructure of apartheid have been put in place. Outside the never-never land of mainstream American Jewry and U.S. media[,] this reality is barely disputed."[197]
Adrian Guelke, Professor of Comparative Politics at Queen's University Belfast and Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict wrote, "Comparison of Israel's policies with the South African policy of apartheid has become a very common theme of Palestinian discourse at both an analytical and polemical level and, it should be noted, use of the analogy is by no means confined to Palestinians." Since the breakdown of the peace process in 2000, he observed, "the use of this analogy has mushroomed."[198]
An early example of the use of the word is a full-page advertisement placed in The New York Times in March 1988 by hundreds of intellectuals, academics, and activists declaring Israel to be "an apartheid state, founded on pillage and predicated on exclusivity".[199]
In 2010 Dr Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, compared circumstances in the Gaza strip to Israel and concluded that the situation resembled South African apartheid since infrastructure and educational opportunities in Gaza were substantially inferior to those in Israel.[201]
The Ontario wing of Canadian Union of Public Employees unanimously passed a decision to "support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel" citing "the apartheid nature of the Israeli state" as the reason for the decision.[202] The Congress of South African Trade Unions joined this boycott, calling Israel an apartheid state and saying that boycotts by workers against apartheid-era South Africa had "hastened our march to democracy".[203]
In November 2010 a group of 100 Norwegian artists and cultural figures published a petition accusing Israel of apartheid, and calling for an artistic and cultural boycott of Israel.[204]
Irish peace activist and Nobel peace laureate Máiread Maguire has criticized Israel for "racist and apartheid policies of siege, occupation and militarization of both Israel and Palestinian villages and towns". She has called on the US to stop supporting Israel with military aid and to urge Israel to change its policies regarding the Palestinians.[205]
African-American author Alice Walker forbade in 2012 an Israeli edition of her prize-winning novel The Color Purple, citing Israel's "apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people". In refusing to authorize the book, Walker made reference to the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and said that Israel's treatment of Palestinians was "far worse" than the racial segregation she grew up under in the United States.[206]
In August 2013, introducing a BBC Proms concert in which he played Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the Palestine Strings players, violinist Nigel Kennedy remarked, "giving equality and getting rid of apartheid gives a beautiful chance for things to happen." The BBC edited the comment out of the subsequent television broadcast of the concert.[207]
Jacobus Johannes Fouché, South African Minister of Defence during the apartheid era, compared the two states and said that Israel also practiced apartheid.[3]
Former deputy mayor of JerusalemMeron Benvenisti relates in his 1986 book Conflicts and Contradictions that during the 1970s, an official of the South African apartheid government compared Israeli–Palestinian relations to South African policy for the Transkei in a meeting. The Israeli officials present expressed shock at the comparison, and the South African official said "I understand your reaction. But aren't we actually doing the same thing? We are faced with the same existential problem, therefore we arrive at the same solution. The only difference is that yours is pragmatic and ours is ideological."[208]
On 24 November 2009, the South African government responded to Israeli plans to expand the settlement of Gilo in East Jerusalem by condemning it harshly, stating, "We condemn the fact that Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem is coupled with Israel's campaign to evict and displace the original Palestinian residents from the City." The South African government drew a parallel between Israel's actions in Jerusalem and forced removals of persons effected as part of the South African apartheid regime.[209][210]
On 21 April 2010, the South African government expressed "the greatest concern" over Israeli Infiltration Order 1650, saying that the order has a broad definition of "infiltrator" and unclear terms as to which permits would allow a person to reside in the West Bank, as well as how valid residency might be proven. The South African government said the terms of the order are "reminiscent of pass laws under apartheid South Africa".[211]
In 2002 Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu wrote a series of articles in major newspapers,[212] comparing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to apartheid South Africa, and calling for the international community to divest support from Israel until the territories were no longer occupied.[212] In an April 2010 open letter to the University of Berkeley, Tutu wrote "I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government."[213] In 2011, Tutu wrote an article for the Tampa Bay Times, arguing that Israeli apartheid is now so bad that only an international boycott can force Israel to change its policies.[214] In 2014, Tutu complained about the "systemic humiliation" of the Palestinian people by the "Israeli security forces".[215]
Following Tutu's original comparison, the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein, in an open letter to Tutu, deplored the "outrageous falsehood" of the apartheid accusation, and listed the key laws and practices that were characteristic of South African apartheid, none of which are found in Israel: "In the State of Israel all citizens—Jew and Arab—are equal before the law. Israel has no Population Registration Act, no Group Areas Act, no Mixed Marriages and Immorality Act, no Separate Representation of Voters Act, no Separate Amenities Act, no pass laws or any of the myriad apartheid laws. Israel is a vibrant liberal democracy with a free press and independent judiciary, and accords full political, religious and other human rights to all its people, including its more than 1 million Arab citizens, many of whom hold positions of authority including that of cabinet minister, member of parliament and judge at every level — including that of the Supreme Court. All citizens vote on the same roll in regular, multiparty elections; there are Arab parties and Arab members of other parties in Israel's parliament. Arabs and Jews share all public facilities, including hospitals and malls, buses, cinemas and parks. And, archbishop, that includes universities and opera houses."[216]
Sudanese human rights activist Simon Deng, writing for the Gatestone Institute, has also criticized Tutu for referring to Israel as an apartheid state, stating that Arabs in Israel enjoy a variety of rights that blacks in apartheid-era South Africa did not, including the right to vote, and that Palestinians are only stopped at checkpoints to prevent attacks. Deng asks why Tutu criticizes Israel for apartheid policies it does not have, but ignores what Deng believes to be actual apartheid practices in other countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and especially his own country Sudan.[217]
In December 2006, Maurice Ostroff of The Jerusalem Post criticized Tutu for being well-intentioned, but ultimately misguided: "If he took the opportunity during his forthcoming visit to impartially examine all the facts, he would discover—to his pleasant surprise—that accusations of Israeli apartheid are mean-spirited and wrong-headed.... He would find that whereas the apartheid of the old South Africa was entrenched in law, Israel's Declaration of Independence absolutely ensures complete equality of social and political rights to all inhabitants, irrespective of religion, race, or gender.[218]
As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of the atrocities committed against the South Africans by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa pale in comparison to those committed against the Palestinians."
On 15 May 2008, 34 leading South African activists published an open letter in The Citizen, under the heading "We fought apartheid; we see no reason to celebrate it in Israel now!". The signatories, who included Kasrils and several other government ministers, COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, Ahmed Kathrada, Sam Ramsamy and Blade Nzimande, wrote "Apartheid is a crime against humanity. It was when it was done against South Africans; it is so when it is done against Palestinians!"[225]
On 6 June 2008, Mr. Kgalema Motlanthe, the Deputy President of South Africa and of the African National Congress, who had recently visited the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, told a delegation of Arab Knesset members visiting South Africa to study its democratic constitution that conditions for Palestinians under occupation were "worse than conditions were for Blacks under the Apartheid regime".[226]
In 2008 a delegation of ANC veterans visited Israel and the Occupied Territories, and said that in some respects it was worse than apartheid.[227][228] One member said "The daily indignity to which the Palestinian population is subjected far outstrips the apartheid regime." Another member, human rights lawyer Fatima Hassan, cited the separate roads, different registration of cars, the indignity of having to produce a permit, and long queues at checkpoints as worse than what they had experienced during apartheid. But she also thought the apartheid comparison was a potential "red herring".[229] Andrew Feinstein, a former ANC parliament member, was shocked to see footage of teenagers heaping abuse on and throwing stones at Palestinian children, especially done in the name of Judaism. The delegation's final formal statement made no mention of comparisons with apartheid and Dennis Davis, a high court judge, said he thought the use of the term in the Middle East context was "very unhelpful".[227] Davis also noted, "There's no racial superiority here. There's no pervading ideology that confirms the inferiority of Palestinians." and concluded "But I think it's incredibly unhelpful to say you can simply take this to be apartheid and therefore the South African struggle is the same and the South African solution is the same. That's a very lazy form of reasoning."[230] One of the Jewish members of the delegation said that the comparison with apartheid is very relevant and that the Israelis are even more efficient in implementing the separation-of-races regime than the South Africans were, and that if he were to say this publicly, he would be attacked by the members of the Jewish community.[228]
In May 2009, The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa released a legal study, subsequently published in 2012, finding that Israel is practicing both colonialism and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to the definition of apartheid provided by the International Convention for the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. (See under section, Analysis by International Legal Team, above.)
In July 2011 South Africa's media watchdog the 'Advertising Standards Agency' (ASA), dismissed complaints relating to an advert on 5fm radio that called for a boycott of Israel while comparing Israel to Apartheid South Africa. The advert aired in February 2011, when Dave Randall, lead guitarist of the band Faithless, stated: "Twenty years ago I would not have played in apartheid South Africa; today I refuse to play in Israel. Be on the right side of history. Don't entertain apartheid. Join the international boycott of Israel." As a result, an official complaint was filed to ASA by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), stating that the adverts claim that Israel was an Apartheid State was "untrue, not supported by any evidence ... and contains a lie which amounts to false propaganda." The ASA dismissed every complaint made by SAJBD against the advert.[231]
In a November 2011 interview Reverend Allan Boesak called Israeli apartheid "more terrifying" than South Africa ever was. Boesak commented on many pernicious aspects of Israeli apartheid and said that two separate justice systems exist, one for Palestinians [who are tried in Israeli military courts] and Israelis [who are tried in civil, not military courts]. Boesak stated: "So in many ways the Israeli system is worse."[232]
In October 2012, Baleka Mbete, chairman of the ANC, described the situation as "far worse than apartheid South Africa".[233] The president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies responded by calling Mbete's statement "disappointing for Jewish people in SA as this adds no value but to incite a level of anti-Israel feeling" and that Mbete was trying "as usual, to bash and demonise Israel".[234]
According to former Italian Prime Minister Massimo d'Alema, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had described to him "at length" that he felt the "bantustan model" was the most appropriate solution to the conflict in the West Bank.[235] The term "Bantustan" historically refers to the separate territorial areas designated as homelands under the South African apartheid State. Adam and Moodley argue that Israeli officials such as Sharon and Ehud Barak had used the analogy "self-servingly in their exhortations and rationalizations" and yet that, while they repeatedly deplored the occupation and seeming 'South Africanization', yet "have done everything to entrench it".[6]
Shulamit Aloni, who served as Minister for Education under Yitzhak Rabin, discussed Israeli practices in the West Bank in an article published in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Aloni wrote, "Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what's right in front of our eyes. It's simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds. Nevertheless, the state of Israel practises its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population. The US Jewish Establishment's onslaught on former President Jimmy Carter is based on him daring to tell the truth which is known to all: through its army, the government of Israel practises a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies."[236]
In November 2014, former Israeli Attorney-General (1993-1996) Michael Ben-Yair, who had referred already in 2002 to Israel having establishing "an apartheid regime in the occupied territories" in an essay published in Haaretz.,[237] urged the European Economic Union to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state, arguing that Israel had imposed an apartheid regime on the West Bank.[238] Specifically he wrote that:
With the excuse that we need the West Bank for security reasons, we have turned it into a colonial state. The West Bank has remained an occupied territory for over 47 years. During this period we have ignored international treaties; expropriated land; moved Israeli settlers from Israel to the occupied territories; engaged in acts of disinheritance and theft. We have justified all these actions in the name of security.[239]
Yossi Sarid, who served as environment minister under Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, writing in Haaretz stated, "the white Afrikaners, too, had reasons for their segregation policy; they, too, felt threatened — a great evil was at their door, and they were frightened, out to defend themselves. Unfortunately, however, all good reasons for apartheid are bad reasons; apartheid always has a reason, and it never has a justification. And what acts like apartheid, is run like apartheid and harasses like apartheid, is not a duck—it is apartheid."[9]
Jamal Zahalka, an Israeli-Arab member of the Knesset argued that an apartheid system has already taken shape in that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are separated into "cantons" and Palestinians are required to carry permits to travel between them.[240]Azmi Bishara, a former Knesset member, argued that the Palestinian situation had been caused by "colonialist apartheid".[241]
A major 2002 study of Israeli settlement practices by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem concluded: "Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime is the only one of its kind in the world, and is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past, such as the apartheid regime in South Africa." A more recent B'Tselem publication on the road system Israel has established in the West Bank concluded that it "bears striking similarities to the racist Apartheid regime", and even "entails a greater degree of arbitrariness than was the case with the regime that existed in South Africa".[244]
Academic and political activist Uri Davis, an Israeli citizen who describes himself as "a Palestinian Hebrew national of Jewish origin, anti-Zionist, registered as Muslim and a citizen of an apartheid state — the State of Israel"[245] has written several books on the subject, including Israel: An Apartheid State in 1987.[246]
Daphna Golan-Agnon, co-founder of B'Tselem and founding director of Bat Shalom writes in her 2002 book Next Year in Jerusalem, "I'm not sure if the use of the term apartheid helps us to understand the discrimination against Palestinians in Israel or the oppression against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. I'm not sure the discussion about how we are like or unlike South Africa helps move us forward to a solution. But the comparison reminds us that hundreds of laws do not make discrimination just and that the international community, the same international community we want to belong to, did not permit the perpetuation of apartheid. And it doesn't matter how we explain it and how many articles are written by Israeli scholars and lawyers—there are two groups living in this small piece of land, and one enjoys rights and liberty while the other does not."[247]
In October 2000, a group of Israeli Jews living in London signed a statement, initiated by Moshé Machover, describing Israel's policies in the occupied territories as apartheid.[248] In a later essay, Machover, co-founder of Matzpen, the Israeli Socialist Organization and professor of philosophy in London, warned against "an unthinking use of this misleading analogy between Israeli policy and that of the defunct apartheid regime in South Africa". Accepting that "the two have many features in common", Machover concluded that Zionism, which aimed to "eliminate, exterminate or expel" Palestinians, rather than to exploit them, "is far worse than apartheid. Apartheid can be reversed. Ethnic cleansing is immeasurably harder to reverse; at least not in the short or medium term."[249]
Retired Israeli judge and legal commentator for the daily Yedioth Ahronoth Boaz Okon wrote in June 2010 that events in Israel, when taken together, constituted apartheid and fascism. Okon used as examples segregated schools and streets, a "minute" proportion of Israeli Arabs employed in the civil service, censorship, limits on foreign workers having children in Israel and the monitoring of cell phones, email and Internet usage.[250]
Poster for the 2009 Israeli Apartheid Week, designed by Carlos Latuff.
Danny Rubinstein, a columnist at Haaretz reportedly likened Israel to apartheid South Africa during a United Nations conference at the European Parliament in Brussels on 30 August 2007, stating: "Israel today was an apartheid State with four different Palestinian groups: those in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli Palestinians, each of which had a different status."[251]
In an article in Haaretz in October 2010, Israeli journalist and academic Zvi Bar'el wrote "Israel's apartheid movement is coming out of the woodwork and is taking on a formal, legal shape. It is moving from voluntary apartheid, which hides its ugliness through justifications of 'cultural differences' and 'historic neglect' which only requires a little funding and a couple of more sewage pipes to make everything right — to a purposeful, open, obligatory apartheid, which no longer requires any justification."[252]
Israeli poet, author and journalist Yitzhak Laor wrote in 2009 that Israel had a form of apartheid with a supporting system "more ruthless" than that seen in South Africa. He argued that the "lie" of the system being temporary makes it harder to oppose, and that because the existing situation has the political support of Israeli voters the US government will not oppose it with conviction.[253]
Professor Daniel Blatman[254] of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has said that the aim legislation passed in the Knesset around 2009–2011 was a gradual establishment of an apartheid state in Israel, and future separation of Jews and non-Jews "on a racial basis". He drew parallels to the establishment of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and also racial separation laws passed by the Nazis. According to Blatman in all cases, individual laws were argued for using reasoned arguments but the overall effect of the legislation was racist.[255] In 2011 Alon Liel, former director general of the ministry of foreign affairs of Israel, compared legislation under consideration in the Knesset to laws of apartheid-era South Africa. The legislation under consideration would, if passed, place limits on NGOs operating in Israel, in effect restricting funding from foreign sources to Israeli human rights groups. According to Liel, this legislation was reminiscent of the South African "Affected Organisations Act", and was aimed at organizations "fighting to preserve what remains of Israeli democracy".[256] In June 2012, Liel expressed his support for a cultural boycott of Israel, as a means of pressure to bring about "Palestinian independence, not an Israeli apartheid state".[257]
In August 2010, Israeli-born academic Ran Greenstein, based at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, argued that Israel (referring to the single differentiated regime governing both pre-1967 and post-1967 territories) is a form of 'apartheid of a special type', displaying systematic exclusion of Palestinians on an ethnic—not racial—basis, and yet is different in some respects from the original South African model of apartheid. The differences have to do with the use of indigenous labor power by settlers (much more common in South Africa than in Israel), and the more rigid identity boundaries between groups in Israel. Consequently, this type of apartheid displays greater tendency towards physical exclusion of indigenous people (affecting to varying degrees Palestinian citizens, residents under occupation and refugees) than was the case for indigenous people under South African apartheid.[258]
Israeli writer Uri Avnery said in a 2012 interview that in his view, Israel was an apartheid state. He said apartheid was "full" in the occupied territories and "growing" inside Israel's borders. According to Avnery, if it goes on, it will be "incontestably" full apartheid throughout Israel.[259] The point was made also by Oren Yiftachel, who distinguished a full apartheid regime in Gaza and the West Bank. to the "creeping apartheid" he believed to be taking place in Israel proper.[260]
In 2014, Amos Schocken, publisher of Haaretz, wrote: "Israel’s citizens ostensibly live in a democratic situation, with the right to vote and to be elected – but here, regrettably, I must resort to a comparison with South Africa. The whites there also had the right to vote and to be elected, but South Africa was not a democracy. The regime there ruled millions of disenfranchised blacks. The Israeli occupation and Israel’s control of broad aspects of the life of the Palestinians – who do not have the right to influence their lives by democratic means – is an undemocratic, South Africa-type situation which conflicts with the democratic Zionist vision."[261] Earlier in 2011, Schocken had written: "The term 'apartheid' refers to the undemocratic system of discriminating between the rights of the whites and the blacks, which once existed in South Africa. Even though there is a difference between the apartheid that was practiced there and what is happening in the territories, there are also some points of resemblance. There are two population groups in one region, one of which possesses all the rights and protections, while the other is deprived of rights and is ruled by the first group. This is a flagrantly undemocratic situation."[262]
In an article in Haaretz in October 2014, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote that "The binational state is already here, and has been for a long time.... The only question still open is what kind of state it will be: a binational democracy, or binational with an apartheid regime".[263]
Also in October 2014, following the ruling by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon barring Palestinian labourers from using Israeli public transport, Haaretz wrote in an editorial "The minister’s decision reeks of apartheid, typical of the Israeli occupation regime in the territories. One of the most blatant symbols of the regime of racial separation in South Africa was the separate bus lines for whites and blacks. Now, Ya’alon has implemented the same policy in the occupied territories. In so doing, he justifies the claims of those who brand Israel internationally as an apartheid state."[264]
In October 2012, a poll surveying the attitudes of Israelis toward their Arab neighbors was commissioned by a group of peace activists, and paid by a family fund ("Yisraela Fund") of Amiram Goldblum and others, and conducted by the polling agency Dialog.[265] According to the poll, 39% said there is apartheid in Israel "in some ways" and 19% "in many ways". The survey conductors say perhaps the term "apartheid" was not clear enough to some interviewees.[266][267]
Critics argued that respondents might not have understood precisely what "apartheid" meant and that the wording in the survey's questionnaire was potentially misleading.[265][268] Levy also reported that the majority of Jewish Israelis supported apartheid policies in the West Bank in denying the vote to Palestinian Arabs if the West Bank was annexed. He later retracted this interpretation but stood by the substance of his article, stating in an article titled "Errors and omissions excepted" that 'Most Israelis do support apartheid, but only if the occupied territories are annexed; and most Israelis oppose such annexation.'[269] Following the retraction, the paper changed its headline on the story, and published a clarification.[265]
Among other findings of the poll, are that 47% of respondents want part of Israel's Arab population to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, and that a third of respondents supported denying the vote to Israel's Arab citizens.[266]
David Haslam has noted seven similarities between the struggle against apartheid and the current Israeli situation.[270]
An Israeli Apartheid Week has been established to draw attention to the analogy and build support for an international boycott movement against Israel.[271] The annual event began in 2005 in Toronto and as of 2011 involved a series of talks, film screenings, parties and protests in 55 cities and several countries. Israel's supporters stage counter-protests.[272]
Those who criticize the analogy argue that Israeli policies have little or no resemblance to apartheid South Africa, and that the motivation and historical context of Israel's policies are different. It is argued that Israel itself is a democratic and pluralist state, while the West Bank and Gaza are not part of sovereign Israel and cannot be compared to the internal policies of apartheid South Africa. Other critics of the analogy argue that there are significant differences between the policy of the Israeli government and the apartheid model, and that the analogy is theoretically false and politically harmful.[249]
the equivalence simply isn't true. Israel is not an apartheid state. Israel's human rights record in the occupied territories, its settlement policy, and its firm responses to terror may sometimes warrant criticism. And Prime Minister Ehud Olmert himself recently warned that Israel could face an apartheid-style struggle if it did not reach a deal with the Palestinians and end the occupation in the West Bank. But racism and discrimination do not form the rationale for Israel's policies and actions. Arab citizens of Israel can vote and serve in the Knesset; black South Africans could not vote until 1994. There are no laws in Israel that discriminate against Arab citizens or separate them from Jews. Unlike the United Kingdom, Greece, and Norway, Israel has no state religion, and it recognizes Arabic as one of its official languages."
Academic Susie Jacobs states that the apartheid analogy is "inadequate", and that it is a rhetoric that skims over substantive differences. She points out that Apartheid was a great deal more than segregation, instead it was a society almost wholly based on racial criteria.[275] Close to that statement, the criticism of the analogy made by Prof. Giraut, head of the geography department, University of Geneva and specialist of the apartheid policies, is based on the ontological difference of nature between the two historical experiences. According to Giraut, the logic of the Israeli land grabbing in the occupied West bank is colonial and nationalist, while the Grand apartheid logic with the bantustans policy was post colonial and racialist.[276]
StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, argues that apartheid in South Africa was an official policy of discrimination against blacks enforced through police violence, based on minority control over a majority population who could not vote. They point out that in contrast, Israel is a majority-rule democracy with equal rights for all citizens including Arab citizens of Israel who vote freely. Israel contends with prejudice in its population as all societies do, but such prejudices are opposed by law. They also point out that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are not governed by Israel but by the Palestinian Authority.[18]
HonestReporting, another pro-Israel advocacy organization, argues that today, within Israel, Jews are a majority, but the Arab minority are full citizens who enjoy equal rights. Arabs are represented in the Knesset, and have served in the Cabinet, high-level foreign ministry posts and on the Supreme Court. Under apartheid, black South Africans could not vote and were not citizens of the country in which they formed the overwhelming majority of the population; laws dictated where they could live, work and travel. And in South Africa, the government killed blacks who protested against its policies. By contrast, Israel allows freedom of movement, assembly and speech. Some of the government's harshest critics are Israeli Arabs who are members of the Knesset.[277] In addition, most of the West Bank and all of Gaza are not expected to be controlled by Israel after a final settlement.[clarification needed][19][278]
The difference between the current Israeli situation and apartheid South Africa is emphasized at a very human level: Jewish and Arab babies are born in the same delivery room, with the same facilities, attended by the same doctors and nurses, with the mothers recovering in adjoining beds in a ward. Two years ago I had major surgery in a Jerusalem hospital: the surgeon was Jewish, the anaesthetist was Arab, the doctors and nurses who looked after me were Jews and Arabs. Jews and Arabs share meals in restaurants and travel on the same trains, buses and taxis, and visit each other's homes. Could any of this possibly have happened under apartheid? Of course not.[279]
In response to increasing inequality between the Jewish and Arab populations, the Israeli government established a committee[when?] to consider, among other issues, policies of affirmative action for housing Arab citizens.[280] According to Israel advocacy group, Stand With Us, the city of Jerusalem gives Arab residents free professional advice to assist with the housing permit process and structural regulations, advice not available to Jewish residents on the same terms.[281][282][283]
Criticism of the "Israeli apartheid" usage for its inherent implication of racism has been widespread. In 2003, South Africa's minister for home affairs Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi said, "The Israeli regime is not apartheid. It is a unique case of democracy."[284] According to Fred Taub, the President of Boycott Watch, "[t]he assertion ... that Israel is practicing apartheid is not only false, but may be considered libelous.... The fact is that it is the Arabs who are discriminating against non-Muslims, especially Jews."[285] Similarly, in 2004, Jean-Christophe Rufin, former vice-president of Médecins Sans Frontières and president of Action Against Hunger, recommended in a report about anti-Semitism commissioned by French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin[286] that charges of apartheid and racism against Israel be criminalized in France, to the extent they're unjustified.[287][288][289] He wrote that the "perverse" and "defamatory" use of the charge of racism against the very people who were victims of racism "to an unparalleled degree" should be penalized. In his view, the accusations of racism, of apartheid, of Nazism carry grave moral implications and can put in danger the lives of French Jewish citizens. He advocated punishment of those who make accusations of racism against groups, utilizing unjustified comparisons with apartheid or Nazism. He maintained that political opinions that are critical of any government are perfectly legitimate.[287]
“
In any event, what is racism? Under apartheid it was skin colour. Applied to Israel that's a joke: for proof of that, just look at a crowd of Israeli Jews and their gradations in skin-colour from the "blackest" to the "whitest".... Occupation is brutalising and corrupting both Palestinians and Israelis ... [b]ut it is not apartheid. Palestinians are not oppressed on racial grounds as Arabs, but, rather, as competitors — until now, at the losing end — in a national/religious conflict for land.
Israel ... lacks the features of an apartheid state. The Palestinian, Druze and other minorities in Israel are guaranteed equal rights under the Basic Laws. All citizens of Israel vote in elections on an equal basis. There are no legal restrictions on movement, employment or sexual or marital relations. The universities are integrated. Opponents of Zionism have free speech and assembly and may form political organizations.
”
—John Strawson, professor of international law at the University of East London[290]
Michael Kinsley's article "It's Not Apartheid", published in Slate and The Washington Post, states that Carter "makes no attempt to explain [the use of the word 'apartheid']" and refers to Carter's usage of the term as "a foolish and unfair comparison, unworthy of the man who won—and deserved—the Nobel Peace Prize...".[21]
“
Israel has always had Arab citizens.... No doubt many Israelis have racist attitudes toward Arabs, but the official philosophy of the government is quite the opposite, and sincere efforts are made to, for example, instill humanitarian and egalitarian attitudes in children.
Calling Israel an 'apartheid state' is absolute nonsense. You might have structures that look like apartheid, but they're not. The barrier fence has nothing to do with apartheid and everything to do with Israel's self-defense. There was no such barrier until the second intifada, when people were being murdered on the highways. And the country does not dehumanize its minority in the sense of apartheid. The issues are totally different.
Do Israel's Arab citizens suffer from disadvantage? You better believe it. Do African Americans 10 minutes from the Berkeley campus suffer from disadvantage—you better believe it, too. So should we launch a Berkeley Apartheid Week, or should we seek real ways to better our societies and make opportunity more available.... Vilification and false labeling is a blind alley that is unjust and takes us nowhere.... You deny Israel the fundamental right of every society to defend itself.... Your criticism is willfully hypocritical.... You are betraying the moderate Muslims and Jews who are working to achieve peace.... To the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week I would like to say: If Israel were an apartheid state, I would not have been appointed here, nor would I have chosen to take upon myself this duty.
The idea that "Israeli apartheid" implies a policy of racial or other discrimination against Arabs or Muslims has been rejected by other figures. In 2004's The Trouble with Islam Today, Irshad Manji argues that the allegation of apartheid in Israel is deeply misleading, noting that there are in Israel several Arab political parties; that Arab-Muslim legislators have veto powers; and that Arab parties have overturned disqualifications. She also points to Arabs like Emile Habibi, who have been awarded prestigious prizes. She also observes that Israel has a free Arab press; that road signs bear Arabic translations; and that Arabs live and study alongside Jews. She also claims that Palestinians commuting from the West Bank are entitled to state benefits and legal protections.[294]
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations (June 1975 – February 1976), Daniel Patrick Moynihan[295] voiced the strong disagreement of the United States with the General Assembly's resolution declaring that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination" in 1975 stated that unlike apartheid, Zionism is clearly is not a racist ideology. He said that racist ideologies such as apartheid favor discrimination on the grounds of alleged biological differences, yet few people are as biologically heterogeneous as the Jews.[296]
In an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post, Gerald Steinberg, Professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University, argued, "Ethno-national disputes, occupation, and charges of discrimination against minorities are also part of the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Kosovo and Bosnia, Sri Lanka, India/Pakistan, etc., but the demonization campaign is unique to Israel.... Indeed, the racism and denial of legitimacy characteristic of apartheid are actually applicable to Arab and Islamic rejection of Jewish rights." Among those rights is the right to self-defense, including passive methods such as the security fence. "The 'Zionism is apartheid' propaganda is also used to justify Palestinian terrorist attacks and the efforts to deny Israelis the basic human right of self-defense against being ripped apart in bus and cafe bombings.... By screaming 'apartheid' at every opportunity, the leaders of this campaign have succeeded in burying data showing that [the security] barrier has saved the lives of many Israelis. In today's immoral political doublespeak, protecting Israelis from terror has become 'apartheid."[297]
Gideon Shimoni, professor emeritus of Hebrew University, has said that while apartheid was characterized by racially based legal inequality and exploitation of Black Africans by the dominant Whites within a common society, the Israel–Palestinian conflict reflects "separate nationalisms," in which Israel refuses exploitation of Palestinians and on the contrary seeks separation and "divorce" from Palestinians for legitimate self-defense reasons.[298] Alon Liel, former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa and former Director General of the Israel Foreign Ministry, argues that Israel is presently both Jewish and democratic but that ongoing demographic trends, if occurring within a single state embracing both peoples, would create a future situation in which a Jewish minority would rule over a Palestinian majority, as in political apartheid, so this explains and justifies the security fence separating the two peoples physically, and the desire by Israel for two separate states with firm borders.[299]
Delegitimization of Israel as a motivation for the apartheid analogy[edit]
Some critics of the apartheid analogy state that it is intended to delegitimize Israel and Zionism, applying a higher standard of behaviour to Israel than to other nations or to the Palestinian Authority in order to justify the boycotting, ostracism, or elimination of the State of Israel.[15][16][17][277][300][301] Critics say that much more obviously "apartheid"-like treatment of Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian Authority territory, Jordan and Lebanon, are ignored and are not the subject of delegitimization campaigns, exemplifying double standards.[302][303][304][305]
Irwin Cotler, a Jewish Canadian MP and anti-apartheid activist who was once a lawyer for Nelson Mandela said "The second manifestation [of anti-semitism] is the indictment of Israel as an apartheid state [which involves] more than the simple indictment of Israel as an apartheid state. It involves a call for dismantling Israel" He links this to other forms of delegitimization of the Jewish state by Palestinians, such as their attempt to deny any Jewish historical or religious links to the Holy Land as such, and especially to Jerusalem itself.[306]
Benny Morris, an Israeli historian of the Arab–Israeli conflict, has said that those that equate Israeli efforts to separate the two populations to apartheid are effectively trying to undermine the legitimacy of any peace agreement based on a two-state solution.[307]
Canadian political scientist Anne Bayefsky has written that the apartheid label was used by Arab states at the Durban World Conference on Racism in 2001 as part of a campaign to delegitimize Israel and to legitimize violence against Israeli citizens.[308]
Some critics[who?] consider the analogy defamatory and say it reflects a double standard when applied to Israel and not to neighboring Arab countries, whose policies towards their own Palestinian minorities have been described as discriminatory.[315][not in citation given]
South African Judge Richard Goldstone, writing in The New York Times in October 2011, said that while there exists a degree of separation between Israeli Jews and Arabs, "in Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute". Concerning the West Bank, Goldstone wrote that the situation "is more complex. But here too there is no intent to maintain 'an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group'."[72][316] Goldstone also wrote in The New York Times, "the charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony."[317]
Former President of apartheid-era South Africa F.W. de Klerk, who with Nelson Mandela, helped end apartheid, when asked in an interview with France24 about apartheid South Africa being compared to Israel and the Palestinian territories, answered "I think comparisons are odious. I think it's dangerous. It's not a direct parallel, but there are some parallels to be drawn. Why did the old vision of so many separate states in South Africa fail? Because the whites wanted to keep too much land for themselves. Why will it fail, if it fails in Israel and Palestine? Because Palestine is maybe not offered an attractive enough geographical area to say 'this is the country of Palestine'".[319]
David Saks, the director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, claims the Apartheid analogy is "a cynical ploy" designed for propaganda purposes. In 2010. he wrote that in stark contrast with the racist, color-based apartheid regime, Israel is one of the most multi-racial societies in the world, which goes to great lengths to ensure tolerance and equality before the law. He points to the fact that Israel's Declaration of Independence specifically mandates complete equality of social and political rights to all inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or gender, and that Jews and non-Jews in Israel vote and stand for election together, live side by side in the same residential areas, and make use in equal measure of public amenities such as beaches and parks. While acknowledging that inequality still exists in certain areas, he says this is in no way comparable to the legalized race-based repression and discrimination that was experienced by non-whites in South Africa, and those cases of discrimination are continuously confronted and eroded through the Israeli courts and legislation.[115]
Josh Benjamin, chairman of the South African Union of Jewish Students, stated that comparing the current status quo in Israel to apartheid is a "viciously false analogy". Benjamin wrote that the Palestinian people must have their dream of self-determination actualized, however, he believes this cannot be achieved through "virulently false" analogies that promote polarization and prohibit dialogue.[320]
The pitfalls of a focus exclusively on what happens "in Israel" and avoiding analysis of Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories, were highlighted in the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa) report discussed above.[321] pointing out that one of the most 'notorious' aspects of the Apartheid policy was the 'racial enclave policy' manifested in the Black Homelands (Bantustans). The corollaries of population transfer, military occupation, nominal self-governance, travel restrictions, residency revoking, and prevention of family unification are all cited as being mirrors of what Israel imposes on the Occupied Territories. "As did the apartheid regime in South Africa, Israel justifies these measures under the pretext of ‘security'. Contrary to such claims, they are in fact part of an overall regime aimed at preserving demographic superiority of one racial group over the other in certain areas".[322]
Kenneth Meshoe, President of the African Christian Democratic Party, has argued against claims that Israel is an apartheid state, calling such accusations slanderous and deceptive. According to Meshoe, these claims trivialize the word apartheid, and belittles the magnitude of the racism and suffering endured by South Africans of color during apartheid era.[323][324]
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And then they come here to tell us that Israel is a state of apartheid?
Excuse me. What kind of hypocrisy is this? What then are you doing in the Knesset? If you are living in an apartheid system, why were you allowed, as an Arab, to run in the election? What are you talking about?
We do have problems as Arabs with the establishment here. But to come and say that Israel is an apartheid state is a big exaggeration. I am not here to defend Israel, but I think that Knesset members like this gentleman are doing huge damage to the cause of Israeli Arabs. I want to see the Knesset member sitting in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, and fighting for the rights of Arabs over there.[325]
He continued by stating, "Israel is a wonderful place to live and we are happy to be there. Israel is a free and open country. If I were given the choice, I would rather live in Israel as a second class citizen than as a first class citizen in Cairo, Gaza, Amman or Ramallah."[325][326][327]
As an Israeli citizen, I belong to a political entity.... I have no other home than the State of Israel. I am a proud Israeli citizen but that doesn't mean I can't criticize it ... At the same time I am a proud Arab national ...
Is there discrimination in Israel? Yes — there is discrimination against women, elderly, Arabs, Russian Jews, Christians.... But the same goes for Canada. Is it good — No? But it means we have to deal with the problem from within.... The existence of discrimination in a state does not mean it is an apartheid state.... There is a big difference between apartheid and discrimination,
In an apartheid regime, there is no possibility of judicial review, because the judges are appointed by the regime and all serve one ideology. This is not the case in Israel ... There is a very strong, independent Supreme Court in Israel. In an apartheid regime [unlike in Israel] there is no place to go to argue against the government,[328]
The African-American student organization Vanguard Leadership Group, a group that has developed ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,[330][331][332] published an ad in April 2011 requesting that the Students for Justice in Palestine group "immediately stop referring to Israel as an apartheid society and to acknowledge that the Arab minority in Israel enjoys full citizenship with voting rights and representation in the government", and that "It is highly objectionable to those who know the truth about the Israelis' record on human rights and how it so clearly contrasts with South Africa's." Vanguard Leadership maintains that Students for Justice in Palestine "has chosen to manipulate rather than inform with this illegitimate analogy", and that "Decency, justice, and the hope of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East compel us to demand an immediate cessation to the deliberate mischaracterizations of Israel."[333]
In October 2011, Jarrod Jordan, executive director of the Vanguard Leadership Group, said that SJP's holding a conference about Israel and apartheid is like "the Ku Klux Klan holding a conference at Morehouse College in Atlanta, a total affront to Jewish culture and identity". In addition, Jordan said that the use of the word 'apartheid' in referring to Israel is "patently false and deeply offensive to all who feel a connection to the State of Israel". The Columbia Spectator refused to publish a full-page ad paid for by VLG because it was "judged it to be political".[334]
Ian Buruma has argued that even though there is social discrimination against Arabs in Israel and that "the ideal of a Jewish state smacks of racism", the analogy is "intellectually lazy, morally questionable and possibly even mendacious", as "[n]on-Jews, mostly Arab Muslims, make up 20% of the Israeli population, and they enjoy full citizen's rights" and "[i]nside the state of Israel, there is no apartheid".[335]
In his review of Carter's book Joseph Lelyveld notes that South Africa's Apartheid policy was also about land as much as racism, and comments that the use of "apartheid" by Carter is "basically a slogan, not reasoned argument".[336] Book review of Palestine Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter and Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide by Jeffrey Goldberg</ref Law professor Alan Dershowitz has also criticised Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, stating that Carter fails to define apartheid or to offer evidence that Israel practices apartheid. Dershowitz also accuses Carter of using fraudulent sources, and of having a "hard left" political bias that leads him to accuse Israel of apartheid while "refusing to apply such labels to countries that actually deserve it".[16]Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, argues that the apartheid analogy presented in the book is incompatible with Carter's later statements that Israeli policy toward the Palestinians is not motivated by racial hatred.[337]
Fifty-three faculty members from Stanford University signed a letter expressing the view that "Israel is not an Apartheid State" and that "the State of Israel has nothing in common with apartheid"; that within its national territory Israel is a liberal democracy in which Arab citizens of Israel enjoy civil, religious, social, and political equality. They alleged that likening Israel to apartheid South Africa was a "smear", part of a campaign of "malicious propaganda".[338]
In March 2011, professor Denis MacEoin, a senior editor of the Middle East Forum's Middle East Quarterly, wrote an open letter to the Edinburgh University Students' Association. It was prompted by 270 students at Edinburgh University voting in favour of a motion that described Israel as an apartheid state and called for a boycott of goods. In part he expressed the opinion that a "University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak."[339][unreliable source?] Subsequently the Edinburgh University Students' Association has confirmed a proposed boycott of Israeli products will not be enforced.[340]
In March 2011, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has said that he will not allow city funding for the 2011 Toronto Pride Parade if organizers allow the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) march again this year. "Taxpayers dollars should not go toward funding hate speech," Ford said.[341] However, in April 2011, the city manager reported to the city's executive committee that the use of the phrase 'Israeli apartheid' does not violate the City's Anti-discrimination policy, nor does it constitute discrimination under the Canadian Criminal Code or the Ontario Human Rights Code[342]
In June 2012, the Toronto city council voted to condemn the phrase "Israeli apartheid", as part of a resolution recognizing the gay Pride Toronto parade as a "significant cultural event that strongly promotes the ideals of tolerance and diversity". The resolution said it slams the term Israel Apartheid for undermining the values of Pride and diminishing "the suffering experienced by individuals during the apartheid regime in South Africa".[343]
In September 2012, British Member of Parliament Denis MacShane said that the motivation for the allegations that Israel is an apartheid state is in order to destroy Israel as a country, and that these allegations constitute an anti-Semitic canard. MacShane said that while criticizing Israel is legitimate, "We have to be clear that the new antisemitic trope is beyond the pale of legitimate criticism. The notion of Israel as an apartheid state is deliberately promoted because an apartheid state cannot exist.... Arabs and Jews in Israel are enjoying the same sea. An Arab Supreme Court judge presided in the case against the Israeli president."[344]
American rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein has written of a "multifaceted campaign demonizing Israel by rebranding her as an evil apartheid regime". He describes this as "the big lie", stating that Israeli Arabs enjoy political freedoms that are unknown in the Arab world.[345]
Benjamin Pogrund, was born in South Africa and spent 26 years as a journalist specialising in reporting apartheid. He is also familiar with Israel. He has lived in Jerusalem since 1997. In an article published in The Guardian he wrote: "Whatever attitudes might be claimed for Israel's Jewish public the situation on the ground does not support accusations of apartheid. The Arab population, some 20%, certainly suffers discrimination but to liken their lot to apartheid South Africa is baseless, indeed ridiculous. Arabs have the vote, which in itself makes them fundamentally different from South Africa's black population under apartheid. And even the current rightwing government says that it wants to overcome Arab disadvantage and promises action to upgrade education and housing and increase job opportunities. Of course time will show how genuine it is.
The West Bank is a linked but separate issue: it's a military occupation which, in its nature, is violent and discriminatory. Trying to put an erroneous apartheid label on it confuses and distorts and is propagandistic."[346]
Warnings that Israel might become an apartheid state in the future[edit]
Ehud Olmert, then Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, commented in April 2004 that; "More and more Palestinians are uninterested in a negotiated, two-state solution, because they want to change the essence of the conflict from an Algerian paradigm to a South African one. From a struggle against 'occupation,' in their parlance, to a struggle for one man, one vote. That is, of course, a much cleaner struggle, a much more popular struggle—and ultimately a much more powerful one. For us, it would mean the end of the Jewish state."[347] Olmert made a similar remark in November 2007 as Prime Minister: "If the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, then the State of Israel is finished."[348][349]
When speaking in a national security conference in Israel, Ehud Barak warned that unless Israel makes peace with the Palestinians it will be faced with either a state with no Jewish -majority or an "apartheid" regime. "As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic," Barak said. "If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."[350]
According to Jeffrey Goldberg, US president Barack Obama has consistenly expressed a view that unless Israel extricates itself from the lives of West Bank Palestinians, it will eventually be seen internationally as an apartheid state.[351]John Kerry, secretary of state of the Obama administration, expressed similar views in 2014.[352] This sparked criticism from Americans and Israelis.[353][354] Later Kerry made it clear that he didn't call Israel an apartheid state, but if he did he should have chosen different words.[355]
In 2010, Mick Davis, chairman of the UK Jewish community and executive of the Jewish Leadership Council stated that Israel could in the future become an apartheid state unless there was a two-state solution with the Palestinians, "because we then have the majority going to be governed by the minority".[356] However, at the same meeting he also said explicitly "Israel is not today an apartheid state.... Even though we have things that are entirely offensive to us passed in the Knesset, those things come from tactical issues ... and do not represent the mainstream of Israeli society."[357]
The Economist warned in 2005 that if Israel did not withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it would be forced in the future an "impossible choice" of becoming either an apartheid state, or a binational state with Jews as a minority.[358]
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor to President Carter, commented that the absence of a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "likely to produce a situation which de facto will resemble apartheid".[359]
In 2015 Meir Dagan, a former head of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad, said a continuation of prime minister Netanyahu's policies would result in an Israel that is either a bi-national state or an apartheid state.[361]
Sasha Polakow-Suransky addresses the Israeli apartheid analogy in the epilogue of his book, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa (2010). Polakow-Suransky argues that some aspects of apartheid in South Africa are "ominously similar" to developments in contemporary Israel but that the analogy is nonetheless an imperfect one. He notes that Israel's labour policies are very different from those of apartheid-era South Africa, that Israel has never enacted miscegenation laws, and that liberation movements in South Africa and Palestine have had different "aspirations and tactics."[362] This notwithstanding, he argues that the apartheid analogy is likely to gain further legitimacy in coming years unless Israel moves to dismantle West Bank settlements and create a viable Palestinian state.[363]
Polakow-Suransky also writes that the response of Israel's defenders to the analogy since 2007 has been "knee-jerk" and based on "vitriol and recycled propaganda" rather than an honest assessment of the situation. He notes that public discourse on the subject has been far more "nuanced and thoughtful" in Israel than in America, drawing particular attention to the reviews of Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid in both countries.[364]
In June 2011, Canadian politician and scholar Irwin Cotler was interviewed by Israeli television on the concept of "new antisemitism". In the course of the interview, he argued that labelling Israel as an apartheid state, while in his view "distasteful", nonetheless falls "within the boundaries of argument" and is not inherently antisemitic. "It's where you say, because it's an apartheid state, it has to be dismantled—then [you've] crossed the line into a racist argument, or an anti-Jewish argument," he said.[365]
Cary Nelson and Ken Stern of the Alliance for Academic Freedom say that regardless of the issue of whether or not it is compelling, the analogy lacks empathy, and therefore, is useless in debates on university campuses. There was no significant pro-Apartheid advocates on campuses in the 1970s, and even if there were, they could not convincingly claim that history and justice was in their favor the way that pro-Israel advocates can in the 2010s. For this reason, instead of hurling slogans and insulting analogies, Nelson and Stern suggest that campus leaders model empathy by asking questions of each other such as, "What would it be like to be a Palestinian in Gaza? An Israeli in Sderot? Can you imagine either, both? Can you construct an argument that is logical, comparative, historically and evidence-based that takes a position opposite to your political beliefs?"[366]
^ abc"Our Apartheid State". Accessed: 4 April 2011. "The third racist decision was the one that banned Arab citizens of Israel from purchasing national land. Well, not all land, but only a part of it — Jewish National Fund land."
^ abcAlan Dershowitz, The Case Against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace (New York: John Wiley, 2009), pp. 20–25, 28–29, 36, 44–48
^ abE.g., see Sabel, Robbie: "The Campaign to Delegitimize Israel with the False charge of Apartheid" at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2009. Global Law Forum, at: http://www.globallawforum.org/ViewPublication.aspx?ArticleId=110; David Matas, Aftershock: Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism (Toronto: The Dunburn Group, 2005), pp. 53–55
^Elia Zureik,The Palestinians in Israel: A Study in Internal Colonialism, Routledge & K. Paul, 1979 p. 16:'While official de jure apartheid of the African variety does not exist in Israel, national apartheid on the latent and informal levels ... is a characteristic feature of Israeli society.' cited by David Lyon 'Identification, colonialism, and control: surveillant sorting in Israel/Palestine', in Elia Zureik, David Lyon, Yasmeen Abu-Laban (eds.), Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power, Routledge 2011 pp. 49–65, p. 58
^According to the Milon and Masada dictionaries, hafrada translates into English as "separation", "segregation", "division", "severance", "disassociation" or "divorce". Milon: English Hebrew DictionaryAlcalai, Reuben (1981). The Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary. Masada.
^Undoing and Redoing Corpus Planning, Michael G. Clyne, p.403, "In the Language of “us" and “them" we could have expected an undoing when an integrative policy of the two communities was introduced. Obviously the [Peace] Process moves in the opposite direction: separation. Actually, one of the most popular arguments use by the government to justify its policy is the "danger" (“the demographic bomb”, “the Arab womb") of a “bi-national state" if no separation is made: the Process is thus a measure taken to secure the Jewish majority. The term ‘separation’ ‘’hafrada’’ has become extremely popular during the Process referring to fences built around Palestinian autonomous enclaves, to roads pave in the Territories exclusively for Israelis to the decrease of the number of Palestinians employed in Israel or allowed to enter into it altogether. The stereotypes of the Palestinian society as backward" have not changed either."
^Beyond the Two-State Solution: A Jewish Political Essay, Yehouda Shenhav, "Israel's present separation policy - known in Israel as hafrada, a Hebrew Word which can mean both segregation and separation - is a natural continuation of the cultural-political position designed by the new nostalgia and of the demographic project, which constitutes the continuation of the war through other means."
^Cultural Autonomy in Contemporary Europe, edited by David J. Smith, Karl Cordell, "The Hebrew term Hafrada is the official descriptor of the policy of the Israeli Government to separate the Palestinian population in the territories occupied by Israel from the Israeli population, by means such as the West Bank barrier and the unilateral disengagement from those territories. The barrier is thus sometimes called gader ha'hafrada (separation fence) in Hebrew. The term Hafrada has striking similarities with the term apanheid, as this term mean 'apartness' in Afrikaans and Hafrada is the closest Hebrew equivalent."
^[2], Sunday Herald, 28 May 2006, "Even among Israelis, the term 'Hafrada', 'separation or apartheid in Hebrew' has entered the mainstream lexicon, despite strident denials by the Jewish state that it is engaged in any such process."
^Adam, Heribert & Moodley, Kogila. Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking Between Israelis and Palestinians (2005) excerpt PDF, University College London Press, p. 20f. ISBN 1-84472-130-2Second-class citizenship: "Above all, both Israeli Palestinians and Coloured and Indian South Africans are restricted to second-class citizen status when another ethnic group monopolizes state power, treats the minorities as intrinsically suspect, and legally prohibits their access to land or allocates civil service positions or per capita expenditure on education differently between dominant and minority citizens."
"Mandela's vision succeeded because it evoked a universal morality. Common ideological and economic bonds existed between the antagonists inside South Africa. An outdated racial hierarchy eventually clashed with economic imperatives when the costs exceeded the benefits of racial minority rule in a global pariah state. In the Israeli case, outside support sustains intransigence. Only when the colonial policies of occupation embarrass and threaten their stronger patrons abroad or can no longer be so easily contained inside (as apartheid racial capitalism did in the Cold War competition) can outside pressure on Israel be expected. This turning of the tables will impact the Israeli public as much as outside perception is affected by visionary local leaders and events. Despite gains in global empathy, Palestinians are still at the mercy of a superior adversary in every respect, which even a Mandela would not have been able to overcome. In this impasse, hope is offered by Israeli progressive moral dissent on the Left as well as opportunistic calculations on the Right that the occupation harms the occupier. Israel has the capacity to reach a meaningful compromise, but has yet to prove its willingness. The Palestinian mainstream has the willingness, but lacks the capacity, to initiate a fair settlement."
^Dugard, John. "Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, John Dugard"(PDF). p. 3. The international community has identified three regimes as inimical to human rights—colonialism, apartheid and foreign occupation. Israel is clearly in military occupation of the OPT. At the same time elements of the occupation constitute forms of colonialism and of apartheid, which are contrary to international law. What are the legal consequences of a regime of prolonged occupation with features of colonialism and apartheid for the occupied people, the occupying Power and third States? It is suggested that this question might appropriately be put to the International Court of Justice for a further advisory opinion.
^"Carter explains 'apartheid' reference in letter to U.S. Jews". International Herald Tribune. 15 December 2006. Retrieved 23 April 2007. The six rabbis ... and I ... discussed the word 'apartheid', which I defined as the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land, with one of them dominating and persecuting the other. I made clear in the book's text and in my response to the rabbis that the system of apartheid in Palestine is not based on racism but the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence ... my use of 'apartheid' does not apply to circumstances within Israel.[dead link]
[5]
"It reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. Many South Africans are beginning to recognize the parallels to what we went through."
^"The logic of Apartheid is akin to the logic of Zionism.... Life for the Palestinians is infinitely worse than what we ever had experienced under Apartheid.... The price they (Palestinians) have had to pay for resistance much more horrendous." http://cjpip.org/0609_esack.html Audio: Learning from South Africa – Religion, Violence, Nonviolence, and International Engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle
^Arun Ghandhi.Occupation "Ten Times Worse than Apartheid", Speech, Palestinian International Press Center, 29 August 2004. Retrieved 17 September 2006.
"When I come here and see the situation [in the Palestinian territories], I find that what is happening here is ten times worse than what I had experienced in South Africa. This is Apartheid."
^"... the context is different and the debate on whether this is Apartheid or not deflects from the real issue of occupation, encroachment of more land, building of the wall and the indignity of the occupation and the conduct of the military and police. I saw the check point at Nablus, I met with Palestinians in Hebron, I met the villagers who are against the wall—I met Israeli's and Palestinians who have lost family members, their land and homes. They have not lost hope though—and they believe in a joint struggle against the occupation and are willing in non-violent means to transform the daily direct and indirect forms of injustice and violence. To sum up—there is a transgression that is continuing unabated–call it what you want, apartheid/separation/closure/security—it remains a transgression".Ngugi, Mukoma Wa (23 July 2008). "What Palestine is to me: An interview with Fatima Hassan". Pambazuka News. Fahamu – Networks For Social Justice. Retrieved 13 August 2008.
^"An apartheid-like system is when we are talking about two peoples who live in the same territory, between the sea and the river, the Mediterranean and the River of Jordan, two peoples. And there are two sets of laws which apply to each separate people. There are two—there are privileges and rights for the one people, for the Israeli people, and mostly for the Jews among—within—of the Israeli people, and there are restrictions and decrees and military laws which apply to the other people, to the Palestinians." Interview with Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, 12 April 2005
^Golan-Agnon, Daphna, Next Year in Jerusalem, New York: The New Press, 2002. p. 206.
^Moshé Machover (28 October 2000). "UK Israeli Jews deplore outrages perpetrated by Israel". Labournet. Retrieved 23 October 2010. ... the areas left to the Palestinians are mere enclaves, cut off from each other, utterly dependent on Israel. Such enclaves, used to exclude an ethnic population from social and political rights, while keeping them disenfranchised and subservient, have a name: Bantustans. Such a policy also has a name: apartheid.
^Oren Yiftachel, Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006 pp. 9, 82–85, 125–129 "creeping apartheid" p. 304 n. 15:'In the West Bank and Gaza a full (and not creeping) apartheid is well in place. But given the persistence of democratic practices in large parts of Israeli society and yet the slow slide toward apartheid in Israel proper, I have deemed the term "creeping apartheid" more appropriate to account for the entire Israel/Palestine'
^Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (23 February 2000). "Israel Government Action in the Arab Sector – February 2000". www.mfa.gov.il. Retrieved 13 June 2008. The Director Generals' Committee was assigned the responsibility of devising a program of action for the development and advancement of the Arab sector, and drawing up a cooperation framework involving the various government ministries. This program will include the raising of resources and promotion of investment, while applying an affirmative action policy in the areas of housing, employment, industry, transport, infrastructures, agriculture, and education in the non-Jewish sector.
^"Black student group slams 'apartheid' abuse". Jewish Telegraph Agency. 8 April 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011. Vanguard, a leadership development group for students from historically black universities, in recent years has forged ties with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its members have visited Israel.
^"AIPAC Awards Top Student Activists". American Israel Public Affairs Committee. 24 May 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011. Advocate of the Year honors were awarded to Greg Smith of Brigham Young University, the Vanguard Leadership Group, the College Democrats of America and the College Republican National Committee.[dead link]
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12 million records, 2 BRIT award nominations, one stunning late-night TV performance. Watch the Little Mix girls (and massive-shoe-wearer Jason Derulo) hit high notes on their lush new single ‘Secret Love Song’, performed on The Graham Norton show just hours ago. The performance is as stripped-back and stunning as the girls’ beautiful outfits. Has anyone got any tissues?
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Starter Kit: Free Jazz
Regardless of one’s musical background, free jazz is one of those genres that can be extremely confusing and often border on nonsensical and sonically belligerent. There are even fans of jazz who still can’t get into the likes of the late works of John Coltrane or anything made by Pharaoh Sanders, preferring instead to listen to other, less insane iterations of the genre. While we believe that music’s value is something strictly decided by the listener, we’ve also found that, despite the difficulty of the genre, free jazz is incredibly rewarding. There’s something undeniably special about musicians that can improvise; if music is the expression of the soul, then free jazz is the direct output of an unrestrained musical voice. While it can sound like noise, it’s in fact a huge show of musicianship, as the artist in question must compress everything they know about music theory into one single point and, in a sense, abandon the strictures it causes for what they feel. In this way, we think free jazz can be one of the most magical and spiritually uplifting genres of music out there, and for those interested in exploring the genre further, the following albums are great introductions to the most liberated plane of jazz.
Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz To Come (1959, Atlantic)
Although Coltrane has his place as a pioneer of free jazz, the brunt of the genre ultimately comes down to Ornette Coleman, who was initially despised for his strange sound and approach to music. Improvisation wasn’t unwelcome in the world of jazz, as it was utilized in soloing and other live performances. But Coleman’s take on improvisation through a jazz lens was an upheaval of structure, with his music ignoring tempos, keys or any traditional music theory. Of course, he wasn’t really able to do this in its entirety—his career would’ve probably taken a huge hit if that was the case—and with that in mind, The Shape of Jazz To Come was created.
Although there are significant free jazz parts to Shape, the album is still supported by structure; every track has its own melody, with parts in between this central melody being moments of improvisation. To further loosen the ties to key and more traditional jazz structure, Coleman also quickly did away with instruments that mainly utilized chords, such as piano. These innovations allowed him to project his experimental ideas without completely alienating audiences, and essentially gave birth to free jazz as we know it today. (This album is so mind-bogglingly different from what had come before it that some of the biggest names in jazz at the time—including Miles Davis and Charles Mingus—were initially very critical of this album, though Davis eventually came around to it.) If you have any curiosity whatsoever for this genre of music, there is no better album to start with—the melodic themes of tracks like “Lonely Woman,” “Peace” and “Congeniality” are beautiful earworms, and the improvisations by Coleman’s quartet (featuring future free jazz heavyweight Don Cherry on trumpet), while not as insane as some of his later work (such as Free Jazz), still contain some immense power and are replete with some of the best musical chemistry ever recorded.
– Jimmy Mullett
John Coltrane – Meditations (1966, Impulse!)
Speaking personally, Meditations was the first free jazz album that I fell in love with. I’d heard other albums in the genre, like The Shape of Jazz To Come and Coltrane’s album Ascension (released earlier in 1966), I found them a bit too dissonant and noisy for me. I eventually came to love both of these albums, but Meditationswas what set me down the path, for really no other reason than Coltrane’s presence on this album. Obviously, any Coltrane album will have his presence on it, but sometimes that varies in degrees, especially when it came to Ascension, where eleven musicians were listed as contributing (with four of those being members of the saxophone family). Trane’s tone on tenor is one of the most unmistakeable sounds in all of jazz music—it holds a serious power that, while capable of some insane virtuosic tendencies (just listen to the track “Countdown” off of Giant Steps if you don’t believe me) can still retain a sort of calm beauty, an aural gentle giant.
Don’t get me wrong about Meditations, though—Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders still go absolutely nuts all through this release, experimenting with woodwind extended techniques like overblowing and multiphonics (i.e. creating two different pitches at the same time out of an instrument normally only capable of one pitch at a time). This wildness cannot be denied; the opening track “The Father and The Son and The Holy Ghost” probably showcases this tendency towards extended techniques the most, though it appears in all the tracks. However, Coltrane couples his experimental tendencies with some immaculate work from his sidemen—such as McCoy Tyner‘s hauntingly beautiful piano work near the end of “Consequences”—and more melodic stylings with his signature tone, which seem to resonate the man’s spirit even now, fifty years after his passing. This might not be the quintessential free jazz album, but it’s certainly the most personal free jazz album to me, and maybe it can be that for you, too.
– Jimmy Mullett
Cecil Taylor – Unit Structures (1966, Blue Note)
Blue Note remains one of the most crucial record labels in jazz history, releasing some of the genre’s most important album. While the label is more commonly associated with hard bop—Cannonball Adderley‘s Somethin’ Else, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers‘ Moanin’,John Coltrane’s Blue Train, Herbie Hancock‘s Maiden Voyage and Wayne Shorter‘s Speak No Evil, to name a select few—they also released a fair amount of early avant-garde jazz albums that helped pave the way for further experimentation. Highlights from the label’s experimental period include Out to Lunch, the seminal swan song from the late multi-instrumentalist and composer Eric Dolphy; the off-kilter bop of pianist/composer Andrew Hill‘s Point of Departure; and perhaps most notable of all, pianist/composer Cecil Taylor‘s landmark album Unit Structures. Ornette Coleman used Jackson Pollock painting White Light on Free Jazz to help symbolize his new creative direction, and in the same way, Unit Structures‘ emulation of Andy Warhol’s silkscreen printing helps symbolize Taylor’s status as a free jazz innovator.
Due to the work of Coleman, Coltrane, Sanders and others, saxophone is commonly seen as a defining element of free jazz. The same can’t be said for piano, especially since most of the genre’s essential records either omit keys from their lineup or don’t allow them much time in the spotlight. Though there’s no harm in calling a spade a spade when it comes to giving piano-less free jazz classics their due, bandleaders like Taylor deserve an enormous amount of credit for his work as a player and a composer, with both roles leading to some truly invaluable installments in the genre’s catalog. Unit Structures is a perfect example of this, as the album is comparable to Coleman’s Free Jazz with the addition of keys and a more adventurous, avant-garde nature. With the thunder of two bassists (Henry Grimes and Alan Silva) and appearances from alto sax, flute, oboe and trumpet, Taylor’s compositions mold the free-wheeling performances of his septet into a loose structure that channels a free jazz core through an avant-garde filter. Taylor himself brings a unique sensation to the tracks with his deranged piano improvisations, mostly playing on the fringes of the proceedings but always adding a chaotic, inventive edge. Though not a traditional jazz album by any means, Unit Structures presents free jazz within a lightly defined mold, making for a challenging but rewarding choice for a free jazz virgin’s first listen.
– Scott Murphy
Pharaoh Sanders – Black Unity (1971, Impulse!)
Since the early days of my exploration into avant-garde jazz, it’s become clear there’s a “six degrees of Pharaoh Sanders” connection that applies to nearly all the genres’ key players. The list of seminal albums he was involved with is extensive—Don Cherry’s Symphony for Improvisers; Alice Coltrane‘s Journey in Satchidananda; Sonny Sharrock‘s Ask the Ages; and most notably, John Coltrane’s Ascension, Kulu Sé Mama, Meditations and Om. In terms of the evolution of free jazz sax, this close-knit musical bond between Coltrane and Sanders helped push both players further and develop some of the most prominent techniques in the style’s playbook, including multiphonics and overblowing. Sanders’ “sheets of sound” became particularly synonymous with free jazz playing, with his spiritual compositions’ themes of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam providing an expansive backdrop to the unhinged power of his sax’s bleating, honking and rapidfire arpeggios. Reverberations of Sanders’ pioneering style can still be felt today, such as with the playing of modern visionaries like Kamasi Washington and his excellent debut The Epic.
Admittedly, most jazz fans will place Karma above Black Unity when ranking Sanders’ output as a bandleader and composer. But though Karma is an inarguable avant-garde jazz classic, its strong leaning toward his spiritual jazz tendencies makes it a much more tonal listen than Black Unity, which contains stronger roots in the realm of free jazz. Over the singular title track’s nearly 40-minute run time, Black Unity builds a kinetic tribal base with two drummers (Norman Connors and Billy Hart) and a percussionist (Lawrence Killian) before launching into an ensemble of flute, trumpet, alto and tenor sax led by Sanders. His distinct tone and technique bring the composition to another level and capitalizes on the the size of the ensemble and the scope of his composition. With a strong, underlying melody and incredible playing from Sanders and his bandmates, Black Unity is an accessible yet potent entry point into free jazz as well as one of the greatest installments in the genre’s history.
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Social Media
History of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at PLU
The Women’s Studies Program was legislated into existence by the faculty in April of 1990; it was officially launched in the academic year of 1990-1991. This program was initially offered as a minor with Elizabeth Brusco serving as the first Chair of the Department. As academic awareness and interest in the program emerged, it was submitted for approval as a major in the academic year of 1995-1996. It was officially offered as a complementary major the following year.
Due to the overwhelming amount of classes that featured gender and sexuality as a topic in addition to classes focusing on women, the Women’s Studies Executive Committee petitioned for the titular transition to Women’s and Gender Studies in 2001.
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The bizarre question of Harry Potter’s Jewish identity is to be discussed at a three-day conference
covering the entire spectrum of the magical children’s book.
Originally written for a young audience, the Harry Potter series has become a phenomenon enjoyed by adults and children alike.
Over the weekend of 29-31 July this year around 250 Potter enthusiasts will gather at a venue in Reading University, UK, to explore the book which follows Harry as he grows up as a wizard at a school in England.
One of the presentations will focus on the question of whether Harry Potter is, in fact, a nice Jewish boy.
Presenter Amy Miller believes the wizard created by JK Rowling has created “has a yiddishe neshama” -a Jewish soul.
“That Harry Potter could be called ‘a nice Jewish boy’ makes many people laugh, including me. He doesn't wear a skull cap, or go to Hebrew school, or keep kosher,” she said.
“But he cares about how others are feeling, he is kind, and he defends his beliefs; these are a very few examples of proper Jewish behavior.”
Miller’s presentation will be one of a number of discussions on the religious persuasion of the character who is soon to be featured in the sixth and penultimate book.
Kabbala connection
Another academic debating the issue will be Cia Sautter, whose session will be entitled “Blessed are you for Creating Harry: Jewish Affinity with Rowling's tale.”
Sautter believes there are a number of comparisons between the growth of the Harry Potter character and kabbala.
“With spells that may sound like blessings, apparent borrowing of Rabbinic tales, and even use of last names like ‘Black’ the affection is not surprising. It reads ‘Jewish’,” she said.
“The session will explore some important reasons for Jewish embracing of Harry Potter books, especially exploring how Harry's growth as an individual follows the kabbalistic ‘tree of life’ sefirot system,” she added.
Astounding interest
Serena Culfeather, spokesman for the conference organizers Accio UK, said she is surprised by the interest there has been in the Jewish discussions.
“I was quite surprised that there were any discussions planned on the Jewish connection because it wasn’t an aspect of Harry Potter I was aware of,” she told EJP.
“Since we’ve published the abstract for the session I have been astounded by the number of people who have commented,” she added.
Gila Bar Hillel, the Israeli translator of the Harry Potter books, will also be attending the conference to present a session on the difficulties of purveying mystical words in Hebrew.
She said: “I don’t think anyone is literally claiming Harry Potter is Jewish. It is all very tongue-in-cheek but a lot of the points are kind of cute.”
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Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Welcome Home, Wayward Stamper (part 2)
I know you're tired of looking at those thumbprint cookies! They're pretty, but not very exciting, so here is the card I made today for a friend who recently lost her grandmother. Branch Out is a wonderful stamp set to use when you haven't stamped in awhile, but I still had to consult SCS for an idea. I found this beautiful card and thought it was a perfect sympathy card. I sponged the background instead of brayering it like the original. I love Cameo Coral and Certainly Celery together, but I think Blush Blossom is a non-color and not one I use very often. I might try a different background color if I make this card again. Thanks for stopping by!
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About Me
I am a stay-at-home mom, Starbucks lover, and paper fanatic! I have been married to my sweet husband for almost 22 years (YIKES!) and we have two beautiful daughters: 16-year-old Bailey (who's driving!!) and 6-year-old Morgan (who's in kindergarten!). My life is richly blessed!
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Terminally ill woman dies during power outage in winter storm
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Another life has been claimed in North Carolina after the winter storm brought snow, freezing rain, and ice across the state.
In a morning press conference Monday, Governor Roy Cooper confirmed a woman living at home, on hospice care, died Sunday in Haywood County as the storm struck the state.
“North Carolina has gotten through the worst of the storm, but we need to stay vigilant,” Governor Cooper stated. “Unfortunately, the snow has turned into a nightmare and a tragedy for some, claiming three lives. We mourn them and offer our deepest sympathies to their loved ones.”
The Governor’s office says the terminally ill woman died when her oxygen concentrator stopped working after a power outage.
This is the third death caused by the storm.
A man died Sunday in Matthews when a tree fell on his car. In Yadkin County, a person died from a heart related condition while on the way to a shelter.
A fourth death is under investigation. It's unclear if that death is related to the storm.
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Setting it down
I have a secret. Okay, for many of my friends, it’s not really a secret. I don’t like football. Okay, it’s more than that. I believe that football does more harm than good. There are a number of reasons for this, but they aren’t important at the moment.
One part of my dislike of football has come in the form of me (mostly secretly) rooting against hometown heroes the Seattle Seahawks. Why? Because if they lose, they don’t go to the Super Bowl, and I get to stop hearing about football for six or so months. It’s not exactly in the spirit of kindness, but it’s been how I’ve held this for a few years (really, since the last time they went to the Super Bowl and it seemed like we’d never hear the end of it).
Today, I found myself checking in in this and it hit me out of left field (sorry for the sports adjacent metaphor) that I was making this worse for myself by giving it my attention. I could put my attention in so many better places. Places that would actually do some freakin’ good in the world. So I let it go.
I have a feeling I could repeat this process with a large number of other things. It may be one of the most important things we can do: setting down that which doesn’t serve us.
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Extra Points
News and commentary from around the Web
For a Passing League, the NFL Still Doesn't Pass Enough
For a lot of Football Outsiders, this won't come as a big surprise, but NFL coaches tend to run way too often, even in long-yardage situations where passing would seem to be a much better strategy. Josh Hermsmeyer at FiveThirtyEight shows all the data and finds only one team that passed more than it ran on second-and-long: your reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Comments
And yet the Eagles still run it too much. Multiple times tonight we've had 2nd and 10+, with Eagles running it. Hopefully that's a Foles gameplan and not a trend in the wrong direction.
I just hope teams embrace the data like has happened in MLB and NBA. Forget the screens and run more slants, for example.
I think this is called the Hide Nick Foles strategy ya. Foles has flaws and the team won in spite of him there last night and they want to keep things simpler for him in stuff like down and distance. They are willing to get creative and scheme open things for tricks and the like but have to otherwise support him.
NFL playcalling will never get anywhere near efficient in regards to run/pass as long as commentators/fans/etc lose their shit ever time a team loses a game on a passing play.
There's this ridiculous perception that there's no risk to running the ball, so coaches get pilloried when they do things like not give the ball to Marshawn Lynch (despite him having a terrible record on short yardage), or letting your MVP quarterback try to throw (and get sacked) when you have a lead in the superbowl. If you hand the ball off and get stuffed, people just say "well, they tried". You throw and lose, we spend months talking shit about you.
I've spent the last year analyzing grandmasters playing chess, and I see the same completely stupid decision making. They're *totally* not using the "turn the pawn into a queen" move as much as they should. In games where they turn the pawn into a queen, they win *much* more often than when they don't. It's insane. They should totally use that move right at the beginning of the game!
Are you serious about the chess thing? I've been fascinated by AlphaZero's games. They didn't program in any piece values, so the AI is notably nonmaterialistic, but it's so good at neutralizing the pieces on the board…
Most Recent FO Features
After a dull postseason, Championship Sunday produced two overtime games and two road upsets. The Chiefs join a growing list of offensive juggernauts paired with poor defenses that fell short of a ring. Also: was that the worst non-call ever in New Orleans, and what should the NFL do about expanding replay and overtime?
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Located in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the booth will feature appearances by off-road racing champions Robby Gordon and BJ Baldwin, as well as X-Games Gold Medalist and Team Toyo driver Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg.
This new group of speakers will cover event management and museums, with sub topics including utilization, weather delays, accommodating the needs of stakeholders; and history, staying relevant, non-profits and the capital campaign.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series, Pirelli World Challenge Series, and SCCA Trans-Am Series roll into Road America on June 19-21, bringing intense door-to-door racing action to the nation’s most intimidating road course.
With rising travel costs, the NDRL would like to give fans and businesses the opportunity to help their favorite drivers attend the NDRL events at Tucson International Raceway and El Paso Speedway Park in January of 2014.
Skip Barber Racing School will award $336,000 in Skip Barber Race Series and driver development scholarship awards to winners of three separate shootouts. Each event combines extensive amounts of seat time with industry experts providing feedback, insight and instruction.
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Ideal for use in day care centers, offices, schools, restaurants and other commercial facilities
Use on a wide variety of tough jobs and surfaces including floors, counters and sinks
3 pack case of 144 ounce bottles in lemon scent
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Pine-Sol Lemon Fresh All Purpose Cleaner deodorizes and eliminates unpleasant odors, with deep-down cleaning power. The fresh scent of lemon lingers long after the job is done, assuring customers, guests and staff that their environment is clean. Use Pine-Sol All Purpose Cleaner on a wide variety of surfaces including floors, counters, and sinks. From Clorox Commercial Solutions, the large size bottle is perfect for use in offices, day care centers, restaurants, schools and other commercial facilities.
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Category: Indoor Tanning Lotions
When you are looking to get a good-looking tan, you have multiple options, especially if we are in the summer. However, sometimes, there are some events that you need to attend to and you just can’t waste a single minute just to get a beautiful tan. Therefore, you tend to use a tanning bed. Events…
If you’re one of the many people with fair skin, then you know how careful you need to be when you want to get a good tan. The truth is that while the sun may be good for you (after all, it’s a great source of Vitamin D), the reality is that you probably end…
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"When embraced,the rod of violence[1] breeds danger & fear:Look at people quarreling. I will tell of how I experienced dismay.Seeing people flounderinglike fish in small puddles,competing with one another — as I saw this, fear came into me.The world was entirely without substance.All the directions were knocked out of line.Wanting a haven for myself,I saw nothing that wasn't laid claim to.Seeing nothing in the endbut competition,I felt discontent.And then I sawan arrow here, so very hard to see, embedded in the heart.Overcome by this arrowyou run in all directions.But simply on pulling it out you don't run, you don't sink.[2]
[Here the trainings are recited.] [3]
Whatever things are tied down in the world,you shouldn't be set on them.Having totally penetratedsensual pleasures,sensual passions,[4] you should train for your own Unbinding.Be truthful, not insolent,not deceptive, ridof divisiveness.Without anger, the sageshould cross over the evil of greed & avarice.He should conquer laziness, weariness, sloth;shouldn't consort with heedlessness,shouldn't stand firm in his pride — the man with his heart set on Unbinding.He shouldn't engage in lying,shouldn't create a sense of allure in form,should fully fathom conceit,and live refraining from impulsiveness;shouldn't delight in what's old, prefer what's new,[5] grieve over decline, get entangled in what's dazzling & bright.[6]
I call greed a 'great flood';hunger, a swift current.Preoccupations are ripples;sensuality, a bog hard to cross over.Not deviating from truth,a sage stands on high ground : a brahman.
Having renounced All,[7] he is said to be at peace;having clearly known, heis an attainer-of-wisdom;knowing the Dhamma, he's independent.Moving rightly through the world, he doesn't envy anyone here.
Burn up what's before,and have nothing for after.If you don't graspat what's in between,[8] you will go about, calm.
For whom, in name & form, in every way,there's no sense of mine,and who doesn't grieveover what is not: he, in the world, isn't defeated, suffers no loss.[9]
To whom there doesn't occur 'This is mine,'for whom 'nothing is others,'feeling no sense of mine-ness,doesn't grieve at the thought 'I have nothing.'
Not harsh,not greedy, not perturbed, everywherein tune: this is the reward — I say when asked — for those who are free from pre- conceptions.
For one unperturbed — who knows —there's no accumulating.Abstaining, unaroused,he everywhere sees security.[10] The sagedoesn't speak of himselfas among those who are higher, equal,or lower.At peace, free of selfishness,he doesn't embrace, doesn't reject,"
the Blessed One said.
Notes1. Nd. I: The rod of violence takes three forms: physical violence (the three forms of bodily misconduct), verbal violence (the four forms of verbal misconduct), and mental violence (the three forms of mental misconduct). See AN 10.176.
2. Nd. I: "One doesn't run" to any of the destinations of rebirth; "one doesn't sink" into any of the four floods of sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance (see SN 45.171 and AN 4.10).
3. This phrase, a kind of stage direction, seems to indicate that this poem had a ritual use, as part of a ceremony for giving the precepts.
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News, reviews, information and apps for Windows Phone.
Delight CFW hits *some* Nokia C6-01 handsets
If you have an ageing Nokia C6-01 and fancy getting in on the Delight custom firmware action then you may (or may not) be in luck. There's now a build for C6-01s with product code RM-718 - other C6-01s have product code RM-601 and slightly different internals, but the Delight CFW creators say that this will get some firmware love too in due course.
As usual with custom firmwares, there are a few caveats that we have to get through:
if it all goes pearshaped (unlikely, but....) then don't blame us
if this is your first time flashing custom firmware and you don't really know what you're doing then allow an hour or two to take it slow and learn as you go
if this is your device's first brush with Delight CFW then you'll have to 'refurbish' its firmware (rather than 'update'), meaning that the device will be wiped - a perfect time to test your backup regime and to make sure you have all your passwords, themes and installers to hand?
if, after reading the first three caveats, you're having doubts then maybe custom firmware isn't for you!
The benefits of Delight custom firmware are obvious though - more system disk space (a lot more), more free RAM, less bloat generally, all patches and updates already in place, the ability to install even 'unsigned' applications (especially important now that the main Nokia Store is frozen), plus more customisable UI components than you could ever imagine. All laid out and ready to roll with one update, one download.
You can replace all skins which are in C:\resource\apps with your own (without wasting RAM via joshlog/iChris patch). To restore default/delight skins check Delight resolver documentation. Some widgets need joshlog or flashing: all email, all contacts and bookmarks widget.
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Monday, 18 March 2013
Don't you hate it when you ask a perfectly good question, and someone comes back with the answer "it depends"?
It's so frustrating to think that in a world of ones and zeros, people can't give absolute answers and you can't rely on "best practice".
It's an answer I've given so many times, especially when someone asks about performance. Well, I've had my comeuppance. The entire exercise of designing the new Java driver for MongoDB has been nothing but a series of questions where the answer is "it depends":
Which Java version are our users, um, using?
Do people want an asynchronous driver?
How will they want to work with async?
Will they want to use async and synchronous method calls from the same application?
Do people typically use the Java driver directly, or do they use something that wraps it, like Morphia or Spring Data?
What's most important for users in terms of performance? Throughput? Latency? Consistent GC profile? Something else?
What sorts of operations are our users doing?
Do people usually update their driver and the server version at the same time?
Is it easier for them to update their driver version than their server version?
Do they use (or will they need) custom encoders and decoders?
When should we deprecate? When should we remove deprecated methods?
...and so on, and so forth.
It's such a change from the sort of development I'm used to: "the business" (a business analyst, a customer, a business owner) comes to you with a requirement, you ask a bunch of questions, preferably explaining the trade-offs that come with decisions or approaches, and then you and the team come up with a design and implement it. If you're agile, this is all done in a nice, iterative fashion, which hopefully leads to "the business" being happy, or at the very least to another series of stories/requirements to work on.
The problem is that working on a library, particularly an open source library, is a completely different thing. We don't even know who our users are. This statement is true for pretty much any web application, of course, but there at least you can (if you choose) use tools like analytics and A/B testing to figure out what works for your users and what doesn't.
When your library is used for free by all kinds of different teams and companies, including organisations behind closed doors, you have no idea what's being used, what works, what people like, what people don't like. The most visible feedback you have is when you see blog posts telling everyone how bad your product is.
This makes the design exercise VERY difficult. Take performance for example. Having come from a high performance, low latency background, I'm desperate to have a very extensive suite of automated performance tests (and we do already have some). But how do I design those, when I don't know:
What operations are typical for our users
Whether our users care more about latency or throughput, or mean latency vs the long tail, or GC pauses, etc
How much data customers tend to punt around
What the hardware or network topology looks like?
The number one lesson you learn when performance testing is to make your test environment as similar to production as possible. How can we do that for all our customers?
Well, we can't. Of course.
What we can do is offer an easy way for our users to test it for themselves, with their own data, their own hardware, their own use-cases. If we can provide some sort of hook into standard metrics, we could get users to plug into that and do what they needed. In theory, as we get more examples of these standard metrics from a range of users, it will be easier for us to help them diagnose problems.
What I discovered thinking about this problem is that I was asking the wrong question - it's not "how do we test this?" but "how do we make it as easy as possible for users to test this in a production-like environment?".
My biggest headache has been backwards compatibility. I've worked on plenty of systems where we've provided an API which has to be maintained in a friendly way for those who use it. That's tough enough - you have to be careful to only add methods, not to change signatures or remove them altogether. But when your system is not simply an API to code against, but a library that runs within other people's systems, this problem is even harder. Greg Young talked at QCon about this problem from the developer's point of view - every piece of code in your system, even if it's a third party library, is your code. Because you're the one who'll get called at three in the morning if your system falls over with a ConcurrentModificationException in some third party data structure.
So as library developers, we have to not only provide excellent quality, well tested code, but we also have to let our baby go off and run in strange environments. Ones that might not be running Oracle's Java 1.7, ones that might contain other libraries that could clash with our own. Have you ever looked at all the Maven dependencies in a large project? You can end up with conflicting versions of common libraries (e.g. logging or DI frameworks) as every library you use pulls in dozens of libraries for itself.
In our case then, we need to use as few dependencies as possible, and to write nice, clean, modern Java, whilst supporting older versions of Java. What's modern enough? We know that some large organisations take a loooong time to upgrade to the latest versions of Java. We currently support Java 5 and above, as 5 was a big enough change (and is old enough now) to be a good point to draw the line. But what about Java 7, with its shiny new asynchronous channels? That would be awesome for a driver like ours, an application that exists solely to connect to some server somewhere. What about Java 8, with lambda goodness and a very appealing Stream interface, that supports (and encourages) a syntax that looks like it might work well for providing a fluent API for querying, I dunno, databases? How do we make the most out of advances in modern Java, without alienating our existing users?
And, of course, I haven't even talked about actually changing the API. The existing Java driver doesn't even make use of generics. How can we change our API to provide a more modern-looking interface, without either forcing all our users to make massive changes to their applications (and for what? Their code already works), or adding so many new classes and methods that it becomes very difficult for new users to work out the Best Practice way of interacting with our driver?
So, what can we do?
Firstly we have to figure out which questions we have and what possible solutions exist.
Then we have to weigh up the pros and cons of each of the possible solutions.
Ideally we'd get feedback early and often from our users, from the community, about the approaches we're taking.
Development would happen in parallel, in a nice, agile, way, to bring the best possible solution for everyone.
What this all really means, though, is that the Shiny New Java Driver™ is not ready right now, and will not be ready immediately, despite the fact that we've already spent some time on its development, and considered all of those questions and more. Right now, we're starting to get feedback from the community - from users, and from committers (or people who would like to be committers). Which means that I get to to go to more conferences and user groups, and talk about our problems when designing the new driver. I'm hoping to get two things out of this, apart from more air miles:
Feedback from the community about our assumptions and the direction we're taking.
Present to the development community some of the lessons we've learnt/are learning, in the hope that you can use them when approaching the design of your own applications.
If you're more interested in everything MongoDB, and want to get a much better look at what it is, how it works, how to design for it, then come to MongoDB London, where I am one of numerous presenters, all going into MongoDB specifics.</gratuitous-conference-plug>
So... I'm afraid to say that even after this long post, even after bemoaning my own experiences of hearing "it depends", I still don't have an answer for you.
But maybe I do.
"It Depends" means "you need to get more information in order to answer that question". And it's our job as developers to ask the right questions to gather that information. If the answer is "it depends", you're not asking the right question yet, or you're not asking the right people. So dig down, find out why you can't answer the original question, and start iterating through your design process until you have answers that you can act upon.
18-19th June - GOTO Amsterdam (I think, although I'm not on their site!)
Note that I'm actually going to be in the UK for all of March and April (at the moment), which will be a nice change.
I'm hoping to be able to speak about the same types of things for the rest of the year, it has been exhausting presenting on new topics for every event over the last 6 months. I'll happily take feedback on what people are most interested in hearing about.
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
I like QCon London, I really do. Not only is it on home turf, but, as I've said before, it doesn't just focus on technology, or a set of technologies.
Full disclosure: I've been involved in planning QCon this year. So this time I know all the thinking, hard work, planning and last-minute changes that go into a conference like this. And it's a joy to be able to sit in the audience and see the conference that you've helped build.
There are things I took out of today that I want to get down on "paper" now, because I think the next few days will have different themes.
Let's Not Forget About Computer Science
I'm so pleased to see this in a conference! After documenting and talking about the Disruptor so much last year, I felt it was important for us to go back to our roots a bit, and have some Mechanical Sympathy. Some of the sessions today brought us back to the school room and had us thinking about the tools we're using.
In my new role I'm doing something I've never had to do before, and that's writing a library that will be used by other developers. Barbara Liskov's keynote had me thinking hard about "readability over writability" and "design for the case that is used most often". I also came out slightly depressed that some things hadn't changed in 40 years. Martin Thompson's talk made me wish I had written my driver performance tests up front, and poked me to continue thinking about our users' performance needs. I'd like to say Damian Conway's keynote made me want to code in Latin, but in fact it motivated me to get back to learning Spanish. But it also (unintentionally) backed up a point I've heard before, which is that programming is at least twice as hard to learn if you don't speak English. Probably worse if you don't speak a European language.
Overall, the message I took from the combination of these sessions is that it's almost more important than ever to get back to basics. Stop obsessing about frameworks and tools and different flavoured JVM languages. Start remembering all these things are tools, that they run on machines that work with ones and zeros. Whatever abstractions we're using, we will write better, cleaner, more performant, fit-for-purpose code if we understand our tools, and their strengths and weaknesses. One of these tools is even our own brain - understand how it shapes the information and presents us with solutions.
Art Is Awesome (and Useful)
I went a bit off topic to go to two sessions on visual information. My excuse is that this blog needs more pictures, and I want more visual ways of representing what's going on with MongoDB/the driver.
Heather Willem's session encouraged us to doodle throughout. In fact, forced us to. Right up front she adresses the fact that doodling is seen as a lack of attention, as a waste of time. And I realised, sitting there in the audience with my iPad and stylus, that I did feel guilty drawing away while someone talked at me. But it was a brilliant exercise in unblocking some of those creative juices, and letting us see the power in visual information. Perfect is not important, pictures are powerful.
Fernando Orellana is an artist fascinated by building machines to create art. It was awesome to see an artist who also builds robots and codes stuff to do what he wants. He said "code is like paint, I use it to create". See? I knew coding was a creative activity. He's done some stuff that I probably would have been tempted to say "is that art?", like aiming to create 40 000 play doh cars. Or making creepy rodents that live in "dumb little suburban homes" out of singing hamster toys. Go to his website and watch the videos, nothing else can describe it. I was blown away, it was inspiring. And useful too for sparking creativity in all of us.
Here's my "subconscious drawing" from the start of the session. We need more child-like art in our lives.
These two sessions really rekindled my desire to do arty, drawing-y creative stuff. And helped me see how fear blocks many of us from using this medium.
And...
Sitting in the audience as an attendee, different things jump out at you. I was shocked, as someone who's been involved in suggesting and selecting speakers, at how few women there were again on this first day. My thought was, how could this happen with me on the committee?? So I have more sympathy for conference organisers than I did, when facing this tough problem, but more conviction than ever that we need to do something different to showcase different types of role models.
On the other hand, it might be my imagination or wishful thinking, but the overall diversity of the attendees seemed much greater than recent years, which is a Good Thing.
I'm sorry for bringing up this subject again, but you might consider it blind of me not to notice something in a conference I've actually worked on.
But overall
I've been really impressed with the first day of the conference. Not only was it, of course, a great opportunity to meet new people, catch up with old friends, and generally network, the sessions that I went to were excellent, and have me excited to be working in this industry, at this time. And to be in a position to hear about it all. And maybe, just maybe, contribute something of my own.
I was flattered a couple of weeks ago to be interviewed by Google as part of their women techmaker's series, as it moves over to Europe. In this video I talk about going to Mars, education, planning your career, being a developer, and the impact of technology on our lives. So, not much...
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Jail inmate charged for contact with former cell mate
• ‘Boarder’ Goetz, 31, incarcerated since 2006 on two Hennepin County convictions
by Jim Boyle
Editor
An inmate at the Sherburne County Jail has been charged with criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.
John Allen Goetz, 31, is accused of touching the private parts of a 18- or 19-year-old cell mate while sharing cell No. 221 with him at the Elk River jail, according to the criminal complaint filed on April 1 in Sherburne County 10th District Court.
Goetz has been incarcerated in the jail since Jan. 30 and is not scheduled to be released for another five years. He is a “boarder” in Sherburne County Jail from the Minnesota Department of Corrections. He was sentenced on June 2, 2006, in Hennepin County for two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. His anticipated release date is currently May 6, 2019.
Goetz
He was a cell mate with the victim from Feb. 27 to March 6, according to the criminal complaint.
The victim went to corrections staff on March 25 to report that the defendant had touched his privates almost every night while he was in the top bunk of their cell trying to sleep, the complaint said.
He reported to corrections that he would awaken to the abuse but be too afraid to say anything. So he said he would pretend to be asleep and move or turn over so the defendant would stop.
The victim also reported being asked questions by the defendant about his private parts and told by the cell mate he would get cookies if he allowed him to perform sex acts on him, according to the complaint.
The victim said he declined and told the defendant to stop on other occasions when he would touch him on other areas of his body.
The victim asked to be moved to a different cell and that occurred on March 6.
In a post-Miranda statement, Goetz reportedly admitted to “feeling up” his former cell mate two to three times while they shared a cell, the complaint said. He also said his cell mate was sleeping when he did it.
Goetz denied doing it for sexual gratification. He called the fellow inmate “cute and young” and said that he wanted pleasure, the criminal complaint said.
Goetz faces more than 10 years in prison and/or a $20,000 fine if convicted of the offenses.
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Common Topics
Recent Articles
As an external hard drive, you've got three options when it comes to hooking it up to your PC. The simplest is USB, but if you want to access the drive from multiple machines then wired or wireless networking is the better option. As the network port tops out at 100Mb/s, though, USB is by far the fastest.
The power LED isn't distracting
We tested the performance of the drive using three sets of files that all add up to 1GB to see how it handled not only large files but also lots of small ones. The first set was a single 1GB file, the second was 1024 1024KB files and the third set consisted of 8192 128KB files.
Using the USB connection, copying the single 1GB file took 55 seconds, 1024 files took one minute 28 seconds, and 8192 files took two minutes 16 seconds. Reading the same files from the drive took 38 seconds, one minute 15 seconds and one minute 30 seconds, respectively.
Connecting the drive to a PC through a Gigabit Ethernet hub saw the performance drop drastically. Copying the 1GB file took nine minutes 25 seconds, 1024 files took 36 minutes 12 seconds and the 8192 files hadn't completed in an hour with Windows' initial estimation at over three hours. Reading the files back took 11 minutes 21 seconds and 25 minutes 18 seconds for the first two sets, respectively. Again, the 8192 files hadn't completed in an hour and Windows' initial estimate was over five hours.
Switching over to 802.11b/g Wi-Fi saw transfer speeds drop further still. Copying the 1GB file took 14 minutes 24 seconds, 1024 files took 43 minutes 38 seconds and the 8192 file set didn't complete in over an hour, with Windows guestimating it would take at least four. Reading the files back from the drive took 22 minutes 21 seconds for the 1GB files and 27 minutes 20 seconds for the 1024 set. The set of 8192 files failed to transfer in under an hour and this time Windows reckoned it would take over ten hours to complete the job.
File Transfer Results
Time in Seconds (s)
Shorter bars are better
* Windows' estimate
We also ran CrystalDiskMark using the three connections and for USB it achieved a speed of 32.47MB/s for a 50MB sequential read, 22.83MB/s for random 512KB reads and 0.57MB/s for 4KB random reads. Write speeds were 27.32MB/s, 27.14MB/s and 1.80MB/s, respectively.
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White House expected to address Trump’s tweets on Omarosa
"It is interesting that he is trying to silence me, and what is he trying to hide or be afraid of?" she said.
The revelations surrounding Omarosa Manigault Newman's new memoir, and the ensuing fallout, are underscoring a level of dysfunction many now see as just part of life under PresidentDonald Trump. "Shebegged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok".
Manigault Newman was sacked from her job as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison by Trump's chief of staff John Kelly last December.
Omarosa may be able to play with Trump, but Ryan makes it clear that she won't be toyed with.
But surreptitious tapes in Trump's world are nothing new, with the president himself once suggesting he secretly recorded fired FBI Director James Comey (who responded by saying: "Lordy, I hope there are tapes").
A feud between the two has escalated as Mrs Newman promotes a new book that is very critical of him. In it, Manigault Newman describes the recorded conversation as being a conference call held on October 11, 2016.
The action, which the campaign said was filed in NY, comes amid a publicity tour by Manigault Newman to promote her book, Unhinged, which portrays Trump as bigoted and racist and questions his mental capacity.
Manigault Newman provided audio to NBC, which aired portions of her recording during the interview.
"I can tell you that it's common in a lot of places for employees to sign NDAs including in government, particularly anyone with a security clearance", Sanders said. "Good work by General (John) Kelly for quickly firing that dog!", Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to his chief of staff.
The recording by the disgruntled 44-year-old, once an ardent Trump ally, represents another stunning breach of presidential trust.
His influence, having mentored her in Season One of "The Apprentice" and beyond, prevailed.
Meanwhile, Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said on "Fox and Friends" Monday that Manigault Newman may have broken the law by recording private conversations inside the White House.
She said: "Taken as a whole, all of her style rebellions have served the same goal". No wonder they thought I " d bite at the apple a second time, ' she wrote. Trump was obsessed with leaks to the news media and repeatedly demanded that McGahn draft the agreement, the aides said.
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It was unclear how Manigault Newman, if her story is true, managed to get a cell phone into the Situation Room. She also claims she was offered hush money in exchange for her silence about her tenure at the White House.
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And if I didn't have these recordings, no one in America would believe me. "So I protected myself and now I am glad I did". President Donald Trump called former White House adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman a "lowlife" Saturday.
Callaway, the Browns' fourth-round pick, played despite being cited for marijuana possession and driving with a suspended license. Mayfield found tight end David Njoku on a 10-yard TD pass to cap a 14-play, 72-yard drive on his second series.
The incident came after Szabo punched a resident who came outside amid the ruckus, according to The Post , which led Jones to act. An eyewitness said Szabo was banging on cars and slammed down on Jones' vehicle before the confrontation, the official said.
According to the website , the plan has been rejected by North Korean negotiators multiple times over the past two months. The finding comes as South Korean President Moon Jae-in's administration pursues detente with the North.
There is no economic reason. "This is called carrying out an operation against Turkey", he told reporters on Sunday, Aug. 12. This is due to the collapse of the lira against a strong dollar as well as inflation, which is higher than 15 percent.
Rite Aid fell 10.9 percent after the drug store chain and US grocer Albertsons Cos agreed to terminate their merger agreement. Oil prices were down slightly as the escalating China-U.S. trade dispute cast doubt on the outlook for crude demand.
Latest news
NASA launches spacecraft to 'touch sun' - USA
Spacecrafts aren't normally named after living people, but astrophysicists say that Parker is a "celebrity" in the field. The probe is created to plunge into the Sun's atmosphere, known as the corona , during a seven-year mission.
Afghan forces battle Taliban in key city for third day
Militants destroyed a telecommunications tower outside the city, cutting all cellphone and landline access to Ghazni . They hit the city from several points of ingress, attempting to overrun it and expel US -backed forces from the city.
Romanian police clash with anti-government protesters
Some politicians from the ruling coalition derided the rally, saying they did not understand why the diaspora would protest. Sorin Radu, who works in IT, said he was protesting "because we have a government where many are corrupt".
Looks Like Idris Elba Won’t Be James Bond After All
The first was a heavily filtered selfie of the top half of his head with the caption, "my name is Elba, Idris Elba ". But before fans go overboard, Elba posted another tweet a few hours later saying, " Don't believe the HYPE ".
Scientists give ailing killer whale shot of antibiotics
The Center for Whale Researchers confirmed that she was still seen pushing the now-deteriorating corpse of her newborn calf. The teams were, however, racing out to sea to help another ailing young killer whale in the same critically endangered pod.
Chelsea blank Huddersfield in Sarri's debut
Was a menace throughout until he was replaced with 15 minutes to play. "The Bale I've met is happy and committed to the club". Jorginho will clearly be the key, the expert at quickly shifting the ball that Sarri knows well from Napoli.
Tiemoue Bakayoko close to AC Milan loan move from Chelsea
He signed Jorginho from Napoli in a five year deal valued around €57 million, while Mateo Kovacic joined on loan from Real Madrid. Chelsea are extremely busy as the transfer window comes to a close, with many arrivals and departures expected.
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I can’t believe that I have been studying in the United States for longer than a year. I am already in my 10th week of my first semester of my sophomore year, and it feels like I just started yesterday. I am absolutely in love with the University I chose and I can honestly say that studying abroad is one of the best experiences in my life.
Today, we had our first Hale or as my Ecuadorian friend and I like to call it: SNOW! It was great, just looking through the glass and experiencing things and events that back home, in our countries, we don’t get to experience.
I found great friends, who have accompanied me through these ride and I am so grateful for them. Life is easier with friends you know? My friends come from all over the world (including the US) and it is great to know people from all over because I can travel so much and find friends anywhere I go. In the same way, my friends can come visit me anytime if they ever visit Mexico and I am there at the same time.
Some of my friends are from Germany, and they are really enjoying their time while living in the United States. For fall break, some of them visited California, surrounding parts of Indiana, Illinois, and many other places. Also, others for Thanksgiving will visit Miami, Bahamas, New York, Canada, and many other places. They are really enjoying and taking advantage of their time here and I feel like every student while abroad, should visit the country where they are as much as they can. Who knows when they will have the same opportunity again?
Classes are beginning to get harder and at the same time I am starting to feel more comfortable with the University’s academic atmosphere. I am getting a hang on of things and this is helping me to further immerse myself in the Academic world of Academics.
Everything can get to our hands if we fight for what we believe in. Definitely try harder than your normal standards and no challenge (especially the one of studying abroad) will be strong enough to get you down.
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{
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New Guy
Well like I said I'm the new to this forum. I hail from Indiana. Have been pulling for a few years now mostly street stock. I've noticed a lot of you are Ford guys and you will be happy to know that you now have another CHEVY guy to poke fun at. But I'm just here to learn what I can have a good day and happy pulling.
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}
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Just how effective is antivirus software?
IT security experts increasingly ask the same question
Mark Huffman has been a consumer news reporter for ConsumerAffairs since 2004. He covers real estate, gas prices and the economy and has reported extensively on negative-option sales. He was previously an Associated Press reporter and editor in Washington, D.C., a correspondent for Westwoood One Radio Networks and Marketwatch.
Read Full Bio→
For years, any article about how to protect yourself from computer viruses and malware was usually tagged with “and keep your antivirus software up to date.”
That advice, however, appears to be in the review process as several tech sources have started to question the software's effectiveness.
The latest concern comes from the Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), which singled out the popular antivirus software packages from Symantec, most commonly marketed under the Norton brand.
“Symantec antivirus products use common unpackers to extract malware binaries when scanning a system,” the agency noted. “A heap overflow vulnerability in the ASPack unpacker could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to gain root privileges on Linux or OSX platforms. The vulnerability can be triggered remotely using a malicious file (via email or link) with no user interaction.”
Multiple critical vulnerabilities
Last month, Google's Project Zero also sounded the alarm over Symantec products. It published details of what it called “multiple critical vulnerabilities” in the company's endpoint protection products that include ways for a hacker to remotely execute code changes.
“These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets,” the Google researchers warned. “They don’t require any user interaction, they affect the default configuration, and the software runs at the highest privilege levels possible. In certain cases on Windows, vulnerable code is even loaded into the kernel, resulting in remote kernel memory corruption.”
In statements to various media, Symantec has said that it addressed the issues raised by Project Zero in subsequent updates.
Other warnings
But it turns out that questions about the effectiveness of antivirus software aren't exactly news. Last year, a technology blog for government IT specialists warned that “simply installing antivirus technology does not protect today’s endpoints.”
It cited a Lastline Labs study the previous year on the effectiveness of antivirus scanners, noting that much of the newly introduced malware slipped by nearly half of the antivirus vendors.
The study said that two months in, one third of the antivirus scanners still failed to find many of the malware samples. In fact, the malware that experts conceded is the least likely to be detected proved the points, with a majority of the antivirus scanners failing to find it. Some eventually found it, but it took a while.
Waste of money?
So at $30 to $50 a year, is antivirus-software a waste of money? Wired posed that question as early as 2012, when it discovered that many of the world's top IT security experts personally do not use an antivirus product.
At the time, Wired concluded the software is probably not a waste of money, especially for businesses that employ multiple users who might do stupid things.
But the report noted that malware creators test their products against the latest antivirus-software, so the most effective defense for most consumers is to be cautious about the websites they visit and to not open questionable attachments.
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You are here
About the project
The methodology designed uses up to three heterogeneous vehicles cooperating in different configurations at each phase of the mission. A first stage is implemented with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) endowed with acoustic and optical sensors and a Surface vehicle (ASC) whose mission is the localization and supervision of the AUV and link it to the remote base. This configuration is used to elaborate, first, an acoustic map on which a second survey of the AUV is planned. Later, the AUV uses the optical sensors and moves closer to specific regions to record detailed information of potential targets. The data from these surveys, georeferenced by the ASC, permit obtaining an accurate 3D reconstruction of the area under study to plan the intervention stage. Next, an operator, using an HMI that includes a target recognition system, identifies the target and plans the manipulation stage. Finally, a Hybrid-ROV with a multifunctional system formed by a manipulator and a hoover carries out the supervised intervention task. During this stage, an AUV equipped with cameras stays close and supports the HROV operation providing images from an external viewpoint. This complementary information guarantees a robust and realiable manipulation, which is essential in archaeological missions. A good communication link between vehicles is important in all the stages of the mission, but critical during the last one. Hence, we will develop new wireless underwater communication systems, allowing the vehicles to exchange commands and images.
The application of the project has been focused in underwater archeology, although the same technologies could be applied in other scenarios. Two distinctive missions will be required to realistically face the problem.The first one (Fig. 1), cooperative survey, will comprise an autonomous survey of the seabed by means of an AUV assisted by a surface vehicle that provides absolute localisation and communication. The second mission (Fig. 2), cooperative intervention, will comprise a semi-autonomous intervention by means of an HROV assisted by an AUV providing an external view of the intervention.
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Untitled Album
The interaction between nature and mankind. The bueatiful sights of sunset and the weather which inter-relates with the socialising and interaction between the human species (Always something to do). The beaches represent the peaceful, active, passionate and successful nature of Australian people, which is shown in our sporting excellence. A pure and well established country, Australia.
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Implementation and Integration services
ACI Worldwide offers a range of services that can ensure the smooth implementation of new payment systems delivered based on your own unique business and technical requirements.
ACI’s Professional Services staff have worked with customers of all sizes and complexities to ensure their needs are met and, as you would expect, no one has more knowledge of ACI’s products. This combination of ACI’s experience and expertise means you can begin to realize the benefits of our products faster.
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The included S Pen stylus allows you to intuitively navigate the Android 5.0.1 Lollipop operating system. Using the S-Pen gives you the ability to write naturally in compatible applications, similar to using a traditional pen. When not in use, the S Pen docks inside of the Galaxy Note 4 for safe and convenient storage.
This smartphone’s 3.7MP f/1.9 front camera allows you to take high-quality selfies. The rear 16MP camera is accompanied by an LED flash for capturing photos in low-light situations. With built-in optical image stabilization, you can capture images with reduced blur. The rear camera also features high-resolution 2160p (4K) recording. Bluetooth 4.1 is built-in for wireless communication with other Bluetooth-enabled devices, along with Wi-Fi for high-speed Internet access.
The Android operating system features a user-friendly interface, and is designed for intuitive multi-touch navigation. You can customize your home screen with frequently used apps and widgets, as well as create folders and shortcuts to often used items like system settings and bookmarked webpages. With the Android operating system, you will also have access to the Google Play Store, which offers a vast library of apps, games, books, music, movies, and more. And with native mass storage support, you can have your Android device interface with a computer for file management and content sharing.
GSM / 4G LTE Wireless Connectivity
This phone is designed to work on select GSM networks and is 4G LTE capable. LTE is an advanced cellular network data protocol capable of data speeds so fast that they compete with wired broadband Internet providers. With an LTE connection, this phone should have no problem streaming HD video, downloading apps, uploading photos, or anything else that requires a high-speed data connection. The phone is also backwards compatible with 3G and 2G data for instances when you can’t get LTE. In addition to cellular wireless, this phone also features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.Note: Not compatible with all cellular networks. Please make sure your provider uses a frequency or band that this phone supports. You can check which bands this phone works with in the Specifications.
Fast Charging Technology
Thanks to charging speed improvement, recharging time for the Galaxy Note 4 has decreased by approximately 30%. You can go from zero to 50% in about 30 minutes. Ultra Power Saving mode is also available on the Galaxy Note 4, which allows you to disable several device functions for even greater battery life.
Samsung Enhancements
Smart Select: With S pen, you can select the contents you want from any text, screen and apps, and put together what you select and share & save at once
Photo Note: Take photos with Photo Note and instantly convert analog to digital, as well as edit notes, change colors, and put in additional memos with the S Pen
This MacBook Pro has dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, a high-speed interface that can move data at an amazing 20 Gbps, which is four times that of the USB 3.0 standard. Speaking of USB 3.0, Apple still supports USB 3.0. This MacBook Pro now features two USB 3.0 ports so you no longer have to buy an adapter, but can use USB 3.0-compliant devices natively as well. There is also a MagSafe 2 power port, which uses a magnetic connector that safely disengages from the computer when accidentally pulled. Please note that MagSafe 2 is not compatible with MagSafe adapters.
The computer features a comfortable backlit chiclet-style keyboard, which features space between each key for improved accuracy and comfort when typing. It also sports a glass multi-touch trackpad with a clickable design. Rather than having a separate button for mouse clicks, the entire surface of the pad is clickable. This increases the active surface area and allows you to quickly click without having to maneuver to the bottom of the trackpad.
The trackpad also fully supports multi-touch gestures. You can tap the trackpad with one finger to click, tap with two fingers to right click, scroll through documents using two fingers, pinch to zoom, navigate through Safari or Photos with three-finger left and right swipes or use two fingers to rotate a photo or PDF.
Photos, iMovie, GarageBand, and iWork come free with every qualifying Mac. Photos for OS X keeps your growing photo and video collection automatically organized, easy to navigate and accessible across all of your compatible Apple devices using iCloud Photo Library. iMovie lets you create high quality movies, and you can use GarageBand to make music or learn to play piano or guitar. The iWork suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote makes it easy to create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iCloud let you create a document on iPhone or iPad, edit it on your Mac and collaborate with friends, even if they are on a PC.
The 64-bit Mac OS X features Time Machine backup, which automatically backs up system data to an external hard drive. It also features intuitive Cover Flow navigation, the powerful Spotlight search tool and Quick Look document preview. You’ll be able to use Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac, if needed.
Features
Force Touch Trackpad
The Force Touch trackpad takes all the capabilities of Multi-Touch and adds force sensors that detect subtle differences in the amount of downward pressure you apply. This lets you have a deeper connection to your content, bringing more functionality right to your fingertip. It also introduces haptic feedback to MacBook Pro – allowing you not just to see what’s happening on the screen, but to feel it. With Multi-Touch in OS X, you can use realistic gestures like swiping or pinching to switch between apps, navigate your content, and get the most out of your desktop space.
Retina Display
The 15.4″ display of this MacBook Pro features over 5 million pixels. The pixel density is so high your eyes won’t be able to discern individual pixels. Now with a 2880 x 1800 native resolution, you can see more of your high-resolution images onscreen with pixel-for-pixel accuracy. The Retina display also reduces glare while maintaining incredible color and quality. In fact, it has a 29 percent higher contrast ratio than a standard MacBook Pro display. IPS technology gives you a wide, 178-degree view of everything on the screen, so you’ll see the difference at practically any angle.
Quad-Core 4th-Gen Crystalwell Intel Core i7 Performance
The 4th-gen Crystalwell Intel Core i7 processor with a state-of-the-art 22-nanometer single-die microarchitecture in this MacBook Pro provides fast quad-core performance. Intel Hyper-Threading technology allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core. The quad cores can run at a stock speed of 2.5 GHz. The processor can be overclocked up to 3.7 GHz, thanks to Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology. With a 6MB L3 cache and 16GB of onboard 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM memory, this MacBook Pro can run professional applications like Aperture and Final Cut Pro with ease.
AMD Radeon R9 M370X Graphics (2GB GDDR5)
The MacBook Pro with Retina Display features Iris Pro Graphics with 128MB of embedded memory, which accelerates demanding graphics tasks by acting as an ultrafast cache. For even more graphical performance, this MacBook Pro with Retina Display combines the power of Iris Pro Graphics with the AMD Radeon R9 M370X. Thanks to 2GB of GDDR5 memory, you’ll get high performance when playing high-resolution games, editing video in Final Cut Pro X, or rendering images in pro graphics applications.
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/lenovo-edge-15-multi-mode-fhd-15-6-2-in-1-touchscreen-notebook-computer/feed/0DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter with 4K Camera and 3-Axis Gimbalhttps://nitagemilang.com/dji-phantom-3-professional-quadcopter-with-4k-camera-and-3-axis-gimbal/
https://nitagemilang.com/dji-phantom-3-professional-quadcopter-with-4k-camera-and-3-axis-gimbal/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 16:00:58 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=81A complete 4K camera and 3-axis gimbal system come integrated with the Phantom 3 Professional edition quadcopter from DJI. In addition to video, the camera is capable shooting up to 12MP still photos using JPEG or non-proprietary DNG RAW format. The three axes of the gimbal give you pan and tilt control, and keep the horizon line level even as the aircraft banks. Different gimbal settings allow the camera to lock onto a fixed subject, be moved manually using transmitter rotaries or the app, or to simply provide camera stabilization.
This bundle of the Phantom 3 is classed as “ready-to-fly.” This means the basics to get you in the air are included – a flight battery, charger, and pre-bound handheld transmitter (radio controller), and 16GB microSD card among them. Depending on you application, you may also require additional memory cards, additional flight batteries, and a mobile device to access the app, and possibly other accessories. Also note that a number of important compass and GPS calibration steps must be carried out before flying to ensure the flight control computer operates correctly. Please refer to the manual or Quick Start Guide before your first flight.
Intuitive DesignWith sensitive control sticks, dedicated buttons, and over 1.2 mile range, the customizable Phantom 3 remote controller has been designed to put the controls you need where you need them. Functionality includes:
Power on/off
Take photos
Start/stop recording video
Gimbal control dial
Camera settings dial
Sensitive control sticks
Flight mode switch
Return Home button
USB output
Customizable buttons
Mobile device holder
Power indicators
Slip-free rubber matte
Phantom 3 Flight Control System
Main Controller
The burden of processing and analyzing flight data in real time it taken up by the Main Controller, the brains of the computerized flight control system. It collects data from the entire system, including motor speed, GPS location, your command inputs, and data from automatic sensors, and analyzes it all to tell your Phantom 3 exactly how to behave at any given moment
GPS Navigation
Because of the complexity associated with multi-rotor aircraft the Phantom 3 relies on a GPS-based navigation system to maintain flight stability and provide other features. While fully manual operation is possible, most users, especially videographers hoping to get the smoothest possible shoots, will opt for one of the GPS-assisted modes
IMU
The Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) uses a 6-axis gyroscope plus an accelerometer to keep track the slightest tilt or change in acceleration. This data is relayed to the Main Controller and used to help maintain a stable flight
ESCs
Four Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs) not only relay vital motor speed information to the Main Controller, they also send commands back to the motors based on your input. This constant communication helps keeps your Phantom 3 stable in flight, and also helps you achieve any flight movement, from gentle pans to rapid acceleration
Vision Positioning System for Indoor Navigation
Vision Positioning System uses a specially designed camera as well as sonic waves to provide comparable stability function indoors or close to the ground as GPS does outdoors. This technology allows the Phantom 3 to hold its location, stop when the controls are released, and quickly respond to pilot commands even when GPS is unavailable
Auto-Takeoff
With one tap in the DJI Pilot app, the Phantom 3 will turn on its motors and raise to a pre-set height. It will then hover in place, completely motionless until you direct it where to go
Auto-Landing
When GPS is available, the Phantom 3 remembers the exact spot that it took off. Simply tap a button to have it return to the point from which it took off
Return to Home Failsafe
If the Quadcopter loses the signal from the controller for any reason or the battery starts to run low the “return to home” feature will initialize. The aircraft will ascend to 60 feet then make a straight-line course back to the “home position” you will have defined during the GPS calibration process. Once there, it will safely descend to the ground and power itself off
Intelligent Orientation Control (IOC)
IOC is designed to help make flying more intuitive. Nominally, the yaw control will allow the Quadcopter to rotate continuously, which can quickly become confusing if you lose track of which way is “front”. Suddenly your controls can get mixed up, where pressing right causes the craft to move left and pressing forward causes it move backward. Intelligent Orientation Control prevents this from happening, keeping the “tail” of the Quadcopter pointed roughly toward the pilot at all times
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/dji-phantom-3-professional-quadcopter-with-4k-camera-and-3-axis-gimbal/feed/0Nikon COOLPIX P900 Digital Camerahttps://nitagemilang.com/nikon-coolpix-p900-digital-camera/
https://nitagemilang.com/nikon-coolpix-p900-digital-camera/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 22:23:00 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=130The lightweight, compact body features both an electronic viewfinder and a rear LCD screen. The high-density 2,764k-dot viewfinder lets you confidently frame your shots, even in bright outdoor environments. Delivering approximately 100% of the Adobe RGB color space, the viewfinder accurately reproduces hues, so you know what you see is what you’re capturing. The rear 3.0″ screen is also available, with a 921k-dot resolution. Additionally, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity with NFC allows remote camera control and image sharing from linked mobile devices using the Panasonic Image App.
The LX100 features a 4/3″-sized MOS image sensor – similar in size to the sensors found in Panasonic’s interchangeable lens mirrorless Micro Four Thirds cameras. The high-sensitivity sensor features a multi-aspect sensor with 16.8MP total resolution, enabling you to use more height or width of the sensor, depending on the aspect ratio you’re shooting in. Additionally, by maintaining an effective resolution of 12.8MP (in 4:3 mode), the volume of light is controlled to improve the S/N ratio for clearer, detailed imaged with reduced noise, even when shooting at ISO 25600.
Multiple Aspect Ratios
To take advantage of the multi-aspect sensor, a switch on the lens barrel lets you quickly switch between 4:3, 3:2, or 16:9 aspect ratios without having to scroll through menus.
Manual Controls
The LX100 is designed to inspire creativity by offering a full range of manual controls and advanced imaging features. Dedicated lens rings give you intuitive control of aperture, zoom, while dials on the top of the camera give you easy access to shutter speed and exposure compensation.
24-75mm Leica DC Vario-Summilux f/1.7-2.8 Lens
The built-in Leica DC Vario-Summilux lens provides a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 24-75mm, covering wide-angle to portrait length perspectives to suit working in a wide variety of shooting conditions. An f/1.7-2.8 maximum aperture benefits working in low light conditions throughout the entire zoom range and enables greater control over focus placement for shallow depth of field imagery. Five aspherical elements, including two ED lenses, are incorporated into the lens design to minimize chromatic aberrations throughout the zoom range to benefit creating sharp, clear imagery.
Light Speed AF with DFD Technology
Light Speed AF, a contrast-detection AF system, uses Depth from Defocus technology to greatly reduce focus time. It instantly calculates distance to subject by evaluating two separate images with different sharpness levels. The result is a high-speed AF in approximately 0.14 seconds.
High-Resolution EVF
The integrated 2764k-dot resolution viewfinder lets you frame and capture shots even in bright sunlight. Based on the Adobe RGB color space, the viewfinder faithfully reproduces the primary colors for more true-to-life hues, allowing you to accurate judge the colors of your scene. And to prevent missing any shooting opportunity, the Eye Sensor AF can be set to initiate auto focusing the instant you look into it.
4K UHD and Full HD Video Recording
Take advantage of 4K Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 video recording at 30 or 24 fps in MP4 format. 4K video can be recorded for up to 15 minutes, and requires an SD card rated at UHS-I Speed Class 3. The camera also records Full HD 1080p video at 60 or 30 fps in MP4 or AVCHD formats.
Grab High-Resolutions Stills from 4K Video
The LX100 has the ability to use the 4K video as a high-speed burst shooting mode, letting you extract 8MP resolution stills from the footage. This yields images with enough resolution to enlarge and print high-quality photos. Once 4K photo mode is selected, the luminance level is adjusted to 0-255. At the same time, you can select 4:3 or 3:2, in addition to 16:9 with the aspect ratio switch.
Brackets
In addition to tradition exposure bracketing, the camera can also bracket images with different aspect ratios (4:3, 3:2, 16:9, and 1:1), white balance parameters, and monochrome photo styles.
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/nikon-coolpix-p900-digital-camera/feed/0Fujifilm X100T Digital Camerahttps://nitagemilang.com/fujifilm-x100t-digital-camera/
https://nitagemilang.com/fujifilm-x100t-digital-camera/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 22:18:20 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=123The built-in Leica DC Vario-Summilux zoom lens provides a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 24-75mm, covering wide-angle to portrait-length perspectives. With a fast maximum aperture of f/1.7-2.8, the lens lets you work in lower light situations and provides selective focus control for shallow depth of field imagery, enhanced by a nine-bladed aperture for smooth out-of-focus rendering. When more light is needed, the camera features an integrated hot shoe, letting you use external flash units. A compact flash unit is included with the camera, matching the style and color of the body, and providing a GN of 23′ (7m) at ISO 100.
The lightweight, compact body features both an electronic viewfinder and a rear LCD screen. The high-density 2,764k-dot viewfinder lets you confidently frame your shots, even in bright outdoor environments. Delivering approximately 100% of the Adobe RGB color space, the viewfinder accurately reproduces hues, so you know what you see is what you’re capturing. The rear 3.0″ screen is also available, with a 921k-dot resolution. Additionally, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity with NFC allows remote camera control and image sharing from linked mobile devices using the Panasonic Image App.
4/3″ Type MOS Sensor
The LX100 features a 4/3″-sized MOS image sensor – similar in size to the sensors found in Panasonic’s interchangeable lens mirrorless Micro Four Thirds cameras. The high-sensitivity sensor features a multi-aspect sensor with 16.8MP total resolution, enabling you to use more height or width of the sensor, depending on the aspect ratio you’re shooting in. Additionally, by maintaining an effective resolution of 12.8MP (in 4:3 mode), the volume of light is controlled to improve the S/N ratio for clearer, detailed imaged with reduced noise, even when shooting at ISO 25600.
Multiple Aspect Ratios
To take advantage of the multi-aspect sensor, a switch on the lens barrel lets you quickly switch between 4:3, 3:2, or 16:9 aspect ratios without having to scroll through menus.
Manual Controls
The LX100 is designed to inspire creativity by offering a full range of manual controls and advanced imaging features. Dedicated lens rings give you intuitive control of aperture, zoom, while dials on the top of the camera give you easy access to shutter speed and exposure compensation.
24-75mm Leica DC Vario-Summilux f/1.7-2.8 Lens
The built-in Leica DC Vario-Summilux lens provides a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 24-75mm, covering wide-angle to portrait length perspectives to suit working in a wide variety of shooting conditions. An f/1.7-2.8 maximum aperture benefits working in low light conditions throughout the entire zoom range and enables greater control over focus placement for shallow depth of field imagery. Five aspherical elements, including two ED lenses, are incorporated into the lens design to minimize chromatic aberrations throughout the zoom range to benefit creating sharp, clear imagery.
Light Speed AF with DFD Technology
Light Speed AF, a contrast-detection AF system, uses Depth from Defocus technology to greatly reduce focus time. It instantly calculates distance to subject by evaluating two separate images with different sharpness levels. The result is a high-speed AF in approximately 0.14 seconds.
High-Resolution EVF
The integrated 2764k-dot resolution viewfinder lets you frame and capture shots even in bright sunlight. Based on the Adobe RGB color space, the viewfinder faithfully reproduces the primary colors for more true-to-life hues, allowing you to accurate judge the colors of your scene. And to prevent missing any shooting opportunity, the Eye Sensor AF can be set to initiate auto focusing the instant you look into it.
4K UHD and Full HD Video Recording
Take advantage of 4K Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 video recording at 30 or 24 fps in MP4 format. 4K video can be recorded for up to 15 minutes, and requires an SD card rated at UHS-I Speed Class 3. The camera also records Full HD 1080p video at 60 or 30 fps in MP4 or AVCHD formats.
Grab High-Resolutions Stills from 4K Video
The LX100 has the ability to use the 4K video as a high-speed burst shooting mode, letting you extract 8MP resolution stills from the footage. This yields images with enough resolution to enlarge and print high-quality photos. Once 4K photo mode is selected, the luminance level is adjusted to 0-255. At the same time, you can select 4:3 or 3:2, in addition to 16:9 with the aspect ratio switch.
Brackets
In addition to tradition exposure bracketing, the camera can also bracket images with different aspect ratios (4:3, 3:2, 16:9, and 1:1), white balance parameters, and monochrome photo styles.
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/fujifilm-x100t-digital-camera/feed/0Nikon COOLPIX S9900https://nitagemilang.com/nikon-coolpix-s9900/
https://nitagemilang.com/nikon-coolpix-s9900/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 22:06:35 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=116The black Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 Digital Camera is an advanced Four Thirds format point-and-shoot with manual controls designed to enable and inspire creativity. It features a large multi-aspect 4/3″ type MOS sensor to produce 12.8MP still images (4:3) and 4K Ultra HD video at 30 and 24 fps. You also have the ability to extract high-resolution 8MP images from the 4K video, letting you capture entire scenes without missing a shot.
The built-in Leica DC Vario-Summilux zoom lens provides a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 24-75mm, covering wide-angle to portrait-length perspectives. With a fast maximum aperture of f/1.7-2.8, the lens lets you work in lower light situations and provides selective focus control for shallow depth of field imagery, enhanced by a nine-bladed aperture for smooth out-of-focus rendering. When more light is needed, the camera features an integrated hot shoe, letting you use external flash units. A compact flash unit is included with the camera, matching the style and color of the body, and providing a GN of 23′ (7m) at ISO 100.
When extra light is needed, take advantage of the camera’s integrated hot shoe with the included external flash unit. The flash features a guide number of 23′ (7 m) at ISO 100.
Wireless Connectivity
Built-in Wi-Fi lets you use the Panasonic Image App on your mobile device to set focus and shoot photos and videos remotely. You can then instantly upload and share images to social media sites, as well as tag location information to the image using the GPS log on your smartphone or tablet. NFC support lets you instantly sync an NFC-compatible smartphone or tablet simply by touching it to the camera. You can also scan the QR code displayed on the camera monitor to sync.
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/nikon-coolpix-s9900/feed/0Apple 15.4″ MacBook Pro Notebook Computer with Retina Displayhttps://nitagemilang.com/apple-15-4-macbook-pro-notebook-computer-with-retina-display/
https://nitagemilang.com/apple-15-4-macbook-pro-notebook-computer-with-retina-display/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 22:00:37 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=109The computer features a comfortable backlit chiclet-style keyboard, which features space between each key for improved accuracy and comfort when typing. It also sports a glass multi-touch trackpad with a clickable design. Rather than having a separate button for mouse clicks, the entire surface of the pad is clickable. This increases the active surface area and allows you to quickly click without having to maneuver to the bottom of the trackpad.
The trackpad also fully supports multi-touch gestures. You can tap the trackpad with one finger to click, tap with two fingers to right click, scroll through documents using two fingers, pinch to zoom, navigate through Safari or Photos with three-finger left and right swipes or use two fingers to rotate a photo or PDF.
Photos, iMovie, GarageBand, and iWork come free with every qualifying Mac. Photos for OS X keeps your growing photo and video collection automatically organized, easy to navigate and accessible across all of your compatible Apple devices using iCloud Photo Library. iMovie lets you create high quality movies, and you can use GarageBand to make music or learn to play piano or guitar. The iWork suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote makes it easy to create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iCloud let you create a document on iPhone or iPad, edit it on your Mac and collaborate with friends, even if they are on a PC.
The 64-bit Mac OS X features Time Machine backup, which automatically backs up system data to an external hard drive. It also features intuitive Cover Flow navigation, the powerful Spotlight search tool and Quick Look document preview. You’ll be able to use Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac, if needed.
Features
Force Touch Trackpad
The Force Touch trackpad takes all the capabilities of Multi-Touch and adds force sensors that detect subtle differences in the amount of downward pressure you apply. This lets you have a deeper connection to your content, bringing more functionality right to your fingertip. It also introduces haptic feedback to MacBook Pro – allowing you not just to see what’s happening on the screen, but to feel it. With Multi-Touch in OS X, you can use realistic gestures like swiping or pinching to switch between apps, navigate your content, and get the most out of your desktop space.
Retina Display
The 15.4″ display of this MacBook Pro features over 5 million pixels. The pixel density is so high your eyes won’t be able to discern individual pixels. Now with a 2880 x 1800 native resolution, you can see more of your high-resolution images onscreen with pixel-for-pixel accuracy. The Retina display also reduces glare while maintaining incredible color and quality. In fact, it has a 29 percent higher contrast ratio than a standard MacBook Pro display. IPS technology gives you a wide, 178-degree view of everything on the screen, so you’ll see the difference at practically any angle.
Quad-Core 4th-Gen Crystalwell Intel Core i7 Performance
The 4th-gen Crystalwell Intel Core i7 processor with a state-of-the-art 22-nanometer single-die microarchitecture in this MacBook Pro provides fast quad-core performance. Intel Hyper-Threading technology allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core. The quad cores can run at a stock speed of 2.5 GHz. The processor can be overclocked up to 3.7 GHz, thanks to Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology. With a 6MB L3 cache and 16GB of onboard 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM memory, this MacBook Pro can run professional applications like Aperture and Final Cut Pro with ease.
AMD Radeon R9 M370X Graphics (2GB GDDR5)
The MacBook Pro with Retina Display features Iris Pro Graphics with 128MB of embedded memory, which accelerates demanding graphics tasks by acting as an ultrafast cache. For even more graphical performance, this MacBook Pro with Retina Display combines the power of Iris Pro Graphics with the AMD Radeon R9 M370X. Thanks to 2GB of GDDR5 memory, you’ll get high performance when playing high-resolution games, editing video in Final Cut Pro X, or rendering images in pro graphics applications.
All Flash Storage
This MacBook Pro feels incredibly fluid and responsive. It’s all thanks to its PCIe-based flash storage, which gives you up to 60 percent faster read and write performance than its predecessor. When you use apps like Final Cut Pro or Aperture, you can perform even the most demanding tasks right from your internal storage. And since this MacBook Pro comes with 512GB of flash storage, you can keep all your important files with you, including large video and photo libraries. Flash doesn’t have any moving parts, which makes it reliable and quiet. And flash storage is extremely energy efficient, which means your MacBook Pro also has the ability to stay in standby mode for up to a month without having to be plugged in.
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/apple-15-4-macbook-pro-notebook-computer-with-retina-display/feed/0ASUS Chromebook Flip 10.1″ Multi-Touch Convertiblehttps://nitagemilang.com/asus-chromebook-flip-c100pa-db02-10-1-multi-touch-convertible-chromebook/
https://nitagemilang.com/asus-chromebook-flip-c100pa-db02-10-1-multi-touch-convertible-chromebook/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 21:29:40 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=102The computer features a comfortable backlit chiclet-style keyboard, which features space between each key for improved accuracy and comfort when typing. It also sports a glass multi-touch trackpad with a clickable design. Rather than having a separate button for mouse clicks, the entire surface of the pad is clickable. This increases the active surface area and allows you to quickly click without having to maneuver to the bottom of the trackpad.
The trackpad also fully supports multi-touch gestures. You can tap the trackpad with one finger to click, tap with two fingers to right click, scroll through documents using two fingers, pinch to zoom, navigate through Safari or Photos with three-finger left and right swipes or use two fingers to rotate a photo or PDF.
Photos, iMovie, GarageBand, and iWork come free with every qualifying Mac. Photos for OS X keeps your growing photo and video collection automatically organized, easy to navigate and accessible across all of your compatible Apple devices using iCloud Photo Library. iMovie lets you create high quality movies, and you can use GarageBand to make music or learn to play piano or guitar. The iWork suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote makes it easy to create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iCloud let you create a document on iPhone or iPad, edit it on your Mac and collaborate with friends, even if they are on a PC.
The 64-bit Mac OS X features Time Machine backup, which automatically backs up system data to an external hard drive. It also features intuitive Cover Flow navigation, the powerful Spotlight search tool and Quick Look document preview. You’ll be able to use Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac, if needed.
Features
Force Touch Trackpad
The Force Touch trackpad takes all the capabilities of Multi-Touch and adds force sensors that detect subtle differences in the amount of downward pressure you apply. This lets you have a deeper connection to your content, bringing more functionality right to your fingertip. It also introduces haptic feedback to MacBook Pro – allowing you not just to see what’s happening on the screen, but to feel it. With Multi-Touch in OS X, you can use realistic gestures like swiping or pinching to switch between apps, navigate your content, and get the most out of your desktop space.
Retina Display
The 15.4″ display of this MacBook Pro features over 5 million pixels. The pixel density is so high your eyes won’t be able to discern individual pixels. Now with a 2880 x 1800 native resolution, you can see more of your high-resolution images onscreen with pixel-for-pixel accuracy. The Retina display also reduces glare while maintaining incredible color and quality. In fact, it has a 29 percent higher contrast ratio than a standard MacBook Pro display. IPS technology gives you a wide, 178-degree view of everything on the screen, so you’ll see the difference at practically any angle.
Quad-Core 4th-Gen Crystalwell Intel Core i7 Performance
The 4th-gen Crystalwell Intel Core i7 processor with a state-of-the-art 22-nanometer single-die microarchitecture in this MacBook Pro provides fast quad-core performance. Intel Hyper-Threading technology allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core. The quad cores can run at a stock speed of 2.5 GHz. The processor can be overclocked up to 3.7 GHz, thanks to Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology. With a 6MB L3 cache and 16GB of onboard 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM memory, this MacBook Pro can run professional applications like Aperture and Final Cut Pro with ease.
AMD Radeon R9 M370X Graphics (2GB GDDR5)
The MacBook Pro with Retina Display features Iris Pro Graphics with 128MB of embedded memory, which accelerates demanding graphics tasks by acting as an ultrafast cache. For even more graphical performance, this MacBook Pro with Retina Display combines the power of Iris Pro Graphics with the AMD Radeon R9 M370X. Thanks to 2GB of GDDR5 memory, you’ll get high performance when playing high-resolution games, editing video in Final Cut Pro X, or rendering images in pro graphics applications.
All Flash Storage
This MacBook Pro feels incredibly fluid and responsive. It’s all thanks to its PCIe-based flash storage, which gives you up to 60 percent faster read and write performance than its predecessor. When you use apps like Final Cut Pro or Aperture, you can perform even the most demanding tasks right from your internal storage. And since this MacBook Pro comes with 512GB of flash storage, you can keep all your important files with you, including large video and photo libraries. Flash doesn’t have any moving parts, which makes it reliable and quiet. And flash storage is extremely energy efficient, which means your MacBook Pro also has the ability to stay in standby mode for up to a month without having to be plugged in.
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/asus-chromebook-flip-c100pa-db02-10-1-multi-touch-convertible-chromebook/feed/03DR Solo Quadcopter (No Gimbal)https://nitagemilang.com/3dr-solo-quadcopter-no-gimbal/
https://nitagemilang.com/3dr-solo-quadcopter-no-gimbal/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 21:12:13 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=87A complete 4K camera and 3-axis gimbal system come integrated with the Phantom 3 Professional edition quadcopter from DJI. In addition to video, the camera is capable shooting up to 12MP still photos using JPEG or non-proprietary DNG RAW format. The three axes of the gimbal give you pan and tilt control, and keep the horizon line level even as the aircraft banks. Different gimbal settings allow the camera to lock onto a fixed subject, be moved manually using transmitter rotaries or the app, or to simply provide camera stabilization.
This bundle of the Phantom 3 is classed as “ready-to-fly.” This means the basics to get you in the air are included – a flight battery, charger, and pre-bound handheld transmitter (radio controller), and 16GB microSD card among them. Depending on you application, you may also require additional memory cards, additional flight batteries, and a mobile device to access the app, and possibly other accessories. Also note that a number of important compass and GPS calibration steps must be carried out before flying to ensure the flight control computer operates correctly. Please refer to the manual or Quick Start Guide before your first flight.
Intuitive Design
With sensitive control sticks, dedicated buttons, and over 1.2 mile range, the customizable Phantom 3 remote controller has been designed to put the controls you need where you need them. Functionality includes:
Power on/off
Take photos
Start/stop recording video
Gimbal control dial
Camera settings dial
Phantom 3 Flight Control System
Main Controller
The burden of processing and analyzing flight data in real time it taken up by the Main Controller, the brains of the computerized flight control system. It collects data from the entire system, including motor speed, GPS location, your command inputs, and data from automatic sensors, and analyzes it all to tell your Phantom 3 exactly how to behave at any given moment
GPS Navigation
Because of the complexity associated with multi-rotor aircraft the Phantom 3 relies on a GPS-based navigation system to maintain flight stability and provide other features. While fully manual operation is possible, most users, especially videographers hoping to get the smoothest possible shoots, will opt for one of the GPS-assisted modes
IMU
The Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) uses a 6-axis gyroscope plus an accelerometer to keep track the slightest tilt or change in acceleration. This data is relayed to the Main Controller and used to help maintain a stable flight
ESCs
Four Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs) not only relay vital motor speed information to the Main Controller, they also send commands back to the motors based on your input. This constant communication helps keeps your Phantom 3 stable in flight, and also helps you achieve any flight movement, from gentle pans to rapid acceleration
]]>https://nitagemilang.com/3dr-solo-quadcopter-no-gimbal/feed/0UDI RC Discovery Quadcopter with HD Camerahttps://nitagemilang.com/udi-rc-discovery-quadcopter-with-hd-camera/
https://nitagemilang.com/udi-rc-discovery-quadcopter-with-hd-camera/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 20:58:07 +0000http://lapax.oketheme.com/?p=74A complete 4K camera and 3-axis gimbal system come integrated with the Phantom 3 Professional edition quadcopter from DJI. In addition to video, the camera is capable shooting up to 12MP still photos using JPEG or non-proprietary DNG RAW format. The three axes of the gimbal give you pan and tilt control, and keep the horizon line level even as the aircraft banks. Different gimbal settings allow the camera to lock onto a fixed subject, be moved manually using transmitter rotaries or the app, or to simply provide camera stabilization.
This bundle of the Phantom 3 is classed as “ready-to-fly.” This means the basics to get you in the air are included – a flight battery, charger, and pre-bound handheld transmitter (radio controller), and 16GB microSD card among them. Depending on you application, you may also require additional memory cards, additional flight batteries, and a mobile device to access the app, and possibly other accessories. Also note that a number of important compass and GPS calibration steps must be carried out before flying to ensure the flight control computer operates correctly. Please refer to the manual or Quick Start Guide before your first flight.
Phantom 3 Flight Control System
Main Controller
The burden of processing and analyzing flight data in real time it taken up by the Main Controller, the brains of the computerized flight control system. It collects data from the entire system, including motor speed, GPS location, your command inputs, and data from automatic sensors, and analyzes it all to tell your Phantom 3 exactly how to behave at any given moment
GPS Navigation
Because of the complexity associated with multi-rotor aircraft the Phantom 3 relies on a GPS-based navigation system to maintain flight stability and provide other features. While fully manual operation is possible, most users, especially videographers hoping to get the smoothest possible shoots, will opt for one of the GPS-assisted modes
IMU
The Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) uses a 6-axis gyroscope plus an accelerometer to keep track the slightest tilt or change in acceleration. This data is relayed to the Main Controller and used to help maintain a stable flight
ESCs
Four Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs) not only relay vital motor speed information to the Main Controller, they also send commands back to the motors based on your input. This constant communication helps keeps your Phantom 3 stable in flight, and also helps you achieve any flight movement, from gentle pans to rapid acceleration
Vision Positioning System for Indoor Navigation
Vision Positioning System uses a specially designed camera as well as sonic waves to provide comparable stability function indoors or close to the ground as GPS does outdoors. This technology allows the Phantom 3 to hold its location, stop when the controls are released, and quickly respond to pilot commands even when GPS is unavailable
Auto-Takeoff
With one tap in the DJI Pilot app, the Phantom 3 will turn on its motors and raise to a pre-set height. It will then hover in place, completely motionless until you direct it where to go
Auto-Landing
When GPS is available, the Phantom 3 remembers the exact spot that it took off. Simply tap a button to have it return to the point from which it took off
Return to Home Failsafe
If the Quadcopter loses the signal from the controller for any reason or the battery starts to run low the “return to home” feature will initialize. The aircraft will ascend to 60 feet then make a straight-line course back to the “home position” you will have defined during the GPS calibration process. Once there, it will safely descend to the ground and power itself off
Intelligent Orientation Control (IOC)
IOC is designed to help make flying more intuitive. Nominally, the yaw control will allow the Quadcopter to rotate continuously, which can quickly become confusing if you lose track of which way is “front”. Suddenly your controls can get mixed up, where pressing right causes the craft to move left and pressing forward causes it move backward. Intelligent Orientation Control prevents this from happening, keeping the “tail” of the Quadcopter pointed roughly toward the pilot at all times
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{
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
}
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