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Posts Tagged 'Sexual harassment'
Army of Spies hired by Harvey Weinstein? To suppress allegations of sexual harassment?
Posted by: adonis49 on: November 21, 2017
In: Essays | Events/Cultural/Educational/Arts | social articles | Time for Outrage
Harvey Weinstein's Army of Spies
The film executive hired private investigators, including ex-Mossad agents, to track actresses and journalists.
By Ronan Farrow. November 6, 2017
In the fall of 2016, Harvey Weinstein set out to suppress allegations that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women.
He began to hire private security agencies to collect information on the women and the journalists trying to expose the allegations. According to dozens of pages of documents, and 7 people directly involved in the effort, the firms that Weinstein hired included Kroll, which is one of the world's largest corporate-intelligence companies, and Black Cube, an enterprise run largely by former Israeli officers of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies.
Black Cube, which has branches in Tel Aviv, London, and Paris, offers its clients the skills of operatives "highly experienced and trained in Israel's elite military and governmental intelligence units," according to its literature.
Two private investigators from Black Cube, using false identities, met with the actress Rose McGowan, who eventually publicly accused Weinstein of rape, to extract information from her.
One of the investigators pretended to be a women's-rights advocate and secretly recorded at least 4 meetings with McGowan. The same operative, using a different false identity and implying that she had an allegation against Weinstein, met twice with a journalist to find out which women were talking to the press.
In other cases, journalists directed by Weinstein or the private investigators interviewed women and reported back the details.
The explicit goal of the investigations, laid out in one contract with Black Cube, signed in July, was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the New York Times and The New Yorker.
Over the course of a year, Weinstein had the agencies "target," or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focused on their personal or sexual histories.
Weinstein monitored the progress of the investigations personally. He also enlisted former employees from his film enterprises to join in the effort, collecting names and placing calls that, according to some sources who received them, felt intimidating.
In some cases, the investigative effort was run through Weinstein's lawyers, including David Boies, a celebrated attorney who represented Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential-election dispute and argued for marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Boies personally signed the contract directing Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a Times story about Weinstein's abuses, while his firm was also representing the Times, including in a libel case.
Boies confirmed that his firm contracted with and paid two of the agencies and that investigators from one of them sent him reports, which were then passed on to Weinstein. He said that he did not select the firms or direct the investigators' work. He also denied that the work regarding the Times story represented a conflict of interest.
Boies said that his firm's involvement with the investigators was a mistake. "We should not have been contracting with and paying investigators that we did not select and direct," he told me. "At the time, it seemed a reasonable accommodation for a client, but it was not thought through, and that was my mistake. It was a mistake at the time."
Techniques like the ones used by the agencies on Weinstein's behalf are almost always kept secret, and, because such relationships are often run through law firms, the investigations are theoretically protected by attorney-client privilege, which could prevent them from being disclosed in court. The documents and sources reveal the tools and tactics available to powerful individuals to suppress negative stories and, in some cases, forestall criminal investigations.
In a statement, Weinstein's spokesperson, Sallie Hofmeister, said, "It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time."
In May, 2017, McGowan received an e-mail from a literary agency introducing her to a woman who identified herself as Diana Filip, the deputy head of sustainable and responsible investments at Reuben Capital Partners, a London-based wealth-management firm.
Filip told McGowan that she was launching an initiative to combat discrimination against women in the workplace, and asked McGowan, a vocal women's-rights advocate, to speak at a gala kickoff event later that year. Filip offered McGowan a fee of sixty thousand dollars.
"I understand that we have a lot in common," Filip wrote to McGowan before their first meeting, in May, at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Filip had a U.K. cell-phone number, and she spoke with what McGowan took to be a German accent. Over the following months, the two women met at least 3 more times at hotel bars in Los Angeles and New York and other locations.
"I took her to the Venice boardwalk and we had ice cream while we strolled," McGowan told me, adding that Filip was "very kind." The two talked at length about issues relating to women's empowerment. Filip also repeatedly told McGowan that she wanted to make a significant investment in McGowan's production company.
Filip was persistent. In one e-mail, she suggested meeting in Los Angeles and then, when McGowan said she would be in New York, Filip said she could meet there just as easily. She also began pressing McGowan for information.
In a conversation in July, McGowan revealed to Filip that she had spoken to me as part of my reporting on Weinstein. A week later, I received an e-mail from Filip asking for a meeting and suggesting that I join her campaign to end professional discrimination against women.
"I am very impressed with your work as a male advocate for gender equality, and believe that you would make an invaluable addition to our activities," she wrote, using her wealth-management firm's e-mail address. Unsure of who she was, I did not respond.
Filip continued to meet with McGowan. In one meeting in September, Filip was joined by another Black Cube operative, who used the name Paul and claimed to be a colleague at Reuben Capital Partners.
The goal, according to two sources with knowledge of the effort, was to pass McGowan to another operative to extract more information. On October 10th, the day The New Yorker published my story about Weinstein, Filip reached out to McGowan in an e-mail. "Hi Love," she wrote. "How are you feeling? . . . Just wanted to tell you how brave I think you are." She signed off with an "xx." Filip e-mailed McGowan as recently as October 23rd.
In fact, "Diana Filip" was an alias for a former officer in the Israeli Defense Forces who originally hailed from Eastern Europe and was working for Black Cube, according to three individuals with knowledge of the situation. When I sent McGowan photos of the Black Cube agent, she recognized her instantly. "Oh my God," she wrote back. "Reuben Capital. Diana Filip. No fucking way."
Ben Wallace, a reporter at New York who was pursuing a story on Weinstein, said that the same woman met with him twice last fall. She identified herself only as Anna and suggested that she had an allegation against Weinstein. When I presented Wallace with the same photographs of Black Cube's undercover operative, Wallace recalled her vividly. "That's her," he said.
Like McGowan, Wallace said that the woman had what he assumed to be a German accent, as well as a U.K. cell-phone number. Wallace told me that Anna first contacted him on October 28, 2016, when he had been working on the Weinstein story for about a month and a half. Anna declined to disclose who had given her Wallace's information.
Over the course of the two meetings, Wallace grew increasingly suspicious of her motives. Anna seemed to be pushing him for information, he recalled, "about the status and scope of my inquiry, and about who I might be talking to, without giving me any meaningful help or information."
During their second meeting, Anna requested that they sit close together, leading Wallace to suspect that she might be recording the exchange. When she recounted her experiences with Weinstein, Wallace said, "it seemed like soap-opera acting." Wallace wasn't the only journalist the woman contacted. In addition to her e-mails to me, Filip also e-mailed Jodi Kantor, of the Times, according to sources involved in the effort.
The U.K. cell-phone numbers that Filip provided to Wallace and McGowan have been disconnected. Calls to Reuben Capital Partners' number in London went unanswered. As recently as Friday, the firm had a bare-bones Web site, with stock photos and generic text passages about asset management and an initiative called Women in Focus.
The site, which has now been taken down, listed an address near Piccadilly Circus, operated by a company specializing in shared office space. That company said that it had never heard of Reuben Capital Partners. Two sources with knowledge of Weinstein's work with Black Cube said that the firm creates fictional companies to provide cover for its operatives, and that Filip's firm was one of them.
Black Cube declined to comment on the specifics of any work it did for Weinstein. The agency said in a statement, "It is Black Cube's policy to never discuss its clients with any third party, and to never confirm or deny any speculation made with regard to the company's work.
Black Cube supports the work of many leading law firms around the world, especially in the US, gathering evidence for complex legal processes, involving commercial disputes, among them uncovering negative campaigns. . . . It should be highlighted that Black Cube applies high moral standards to its work, and operates in full compliance with the law of any jurisdiction in which it operates—strictly following the guidance and legal opinions provided by leading law firms from around the world."
The contract with the firm also specified that all of its work would be obtained "by legal means and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations."
Last fall, Weinstein began mentioning Black Cube by name in conversations with his associates and attorneys. The agency had made a name for itself digging up information for companies in Israel, Europe, and the U.S. that led to successful legal judgments against business rivals. But the firm has also faced legal questions about its employees' use of fake identities and other tactics.
Last year, two of its investigators were arrested in Romania on hacking charges. In the end, the company reached an agreement with the Romanian authorities, under which the operatives admitted to hacking and were released. Two sources familiar with the agency defended its decision to work for Weinstein, saying that they originally believed that the assignment focussed on his business rivals. But even the earliest lists of names that Weinstein provided to Black Cube included actresses and journalists.
On October 28, 2016, Boies's law firm, Boies Schiller Flexner, wired to Black Cube the first hundred thousand dollars, toward what would ultimately be a six-hundred-thousand-dollar invoice. (The documents do not make clear how much of the invoice was paid.)
The law firm and Black Cube signed a contract that month and several others later. One, dated July 11, 2017, and bearing Boies's signature, states that the project's "primary objectives" are to "provide intelligence which will help the Client's efforts to completely stop the publication of a new negative article in a leading NY newspaper" and to "obtain additional content of a book which currently being written and includes harmful negative information on and about the Client," who is identified as Weinstein in multiple documents.
(In one e-mail, a Black Cube executive asks lawyers retained by the agency to refer to Weinstein as "the end client" or "Mr. X," noting that referring to him by name "will make him extremely angry.")
The article mentioned in the contract was, according to three sources, the storythat ultimately ran in the Times on October 5th. The book was "Brave," a memoir by McGowan, scheduled for publication by HarperCollins in January. The documents show that, in the end, the agency delivered to Weinstein more than a hundred pages of transcripts and descriptions of the book, based on tens of hours of recorded conversations between McGowan and the female private investigator.
The contract between a private security firm and one of Harvey Weinstein's lawyers.
Weinstein's spokesperson, Hofmeister, called "the assertion that Mr. Weinstein secured any portion of a book . . . false and among the many inaccuracies and wild conspiracy theories promoted in this article."
The July agreement included several "success fees" if Black Cube met its goals. The firm would receive an additional three hundred thousand dollars if the agency "provides intelligence which will directly contribute to the efforts to completely stop the Article from being published at all in any shape or form." Black Cube would also be paid fifty thousand dollars if it secured "the other half" of McGowan's book "in readable book and legally admissible format."
The contracts also show some of the techniques that Black Cube employs. The agency promised "a dedicated team of expert intelligence officers that will operate in the USA and any other necessary country," including a project manager, intelligence analysts, linguists, and "Avatar Operators" specifically hired to create fake identities on social media, as well as "operations experts with extensive experience in social engineering."
The agency also said that it would provide "a full time agent by the name of 'Anna' (hereinafter 'the Agent'), who will be based in New York and Los Angeles as per the Client's instructions and who will be available full time to assist the Client and his attorneys for the next four months." Four sources with knowledge of Weinstein's work with Black Cube confirmed that this was the same woman who met with McGowan and Wallace.
Black Cube also agreed to hire "an investigative journalist, as per the Client request," who would be required to conduct ten interviews a month for four months and be paid forty thousand dollars. Black Cube agreed to "promptly report to the Client the results of such interviews by the Journalist."
In January, 2017, a freelance journalist called McGowan and had a lengthy conversation with her that he recorded without telling her; he subsequently communicated with Black Cube about the interviews, though he denied he was reporting back to them in a formal capacity. He contacted at least two other women with allegations against Weinstein, including the actress Annabella Sciorra, who later went public in The New Yorker with a rape allegation against Weinstein.
Sciorra, whom he called in August, said that she found the conversation suspicious and got off the phone as quickly as possible. "It struck me as B.S.," she told me. "And it scared me that Harvey was testing to see if I would talk." The freelancer also placed calls to Wallace, the New York reporter, and to me.
Two sources close to the effort and several documents show that the same freelancer received contact information for actresses, journalists, and business rivals of Weinstein from Black Cube, and that the agency ultimately passed summaries of those interviews to Weinstein's lawyers.
When contacted about his role, the freelancer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he had been working on his own story about Weinstein, using contact information fed to him by Black Cube. The freelancer said that he reached out to other reporters, one of whom used material from his interviews, in the hopes of helping to expose Weinstein. He denied that he was paid by Black Cube or Weinstein.
Weinstein also enlisted other journalists to uncover information that he could use to undermine women with allegations. A December, 2016, e-mail exchange between Weinstein and Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, shows that Howard shared with Weinstein material obtained by one of his reporters, as part of an effort to help Weinstein disprove McGowan's allegation of rape. In one e-mail, Howard sent Weinstein a list of contacts.
"Let's discuss next steps on each," he wrote. After Weinstein thanked him, Howard described a call that one of his reporters made to Elizabeth Avellan, the ex-wife of the director Robert Rodriguez, whom Rodriguez left to have a relationship with McGowan.
Avellan told me that she remembered the interview. Howard's reporter "kept calling and calling and calling," she said, and also contacted others close to her. Avellan finally called back, because "I was afraid people might start calling my kids." In a long phone call, the reporter pressed her for unflattering statements about McGowan. She insisted that the call be off the record, and the reporter agreed. The reporter recorded the call, and subsequently passed the audio to Howard.
In subsequent e-mails to Weinstein, Howard said, "I have something AMAZING . . . eventually she laid into Rose pretty hard." Weinstein replied, "This is the killer. Especially if my fingerprints r not on this." Howard then reassured Weinstein, "They are not. And the conversation . . . is RECORDED." The next day, Howard added, in another e-mail, "Audio file to follow." (Howard denied sending the audio to Weinstein.) Avellan told me that she would not have agreed to coöperate in efforts to discredit McGowan. "I don't want to shame people," she said. "I wasn't interested. Women should stand together."
In a statement, Howard said that, in addition to his role as the chief content officer at American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's publisher, he oversaw a television-production agreement with Weinstein, which has since been terminated. He said that, at the time of the e-mails, "absent a corporate decision to terminate the agreement with The Weinstein Company, I had an obligation to protect AMI's interests by seeking out—but not publishing—truthful information about people who Mr. Weinstein insisted were making false claims against him.
To the extent I provided 'off the record' information to Mr. Weinstein about one of his accusers—at a time when Mr. Weinstein was denying any harassment of any woman—it was information which I would never have allowed AMI to publish on the internet or in its magazines." Although at least one of Howard's reporters made calls related to Weinstein's investigations, Howard insisted that he strictly divided his work with Weinstein from his work as a journalist.
"I always separated those two roles carefully and completely—and resisted Mr. Weinstein's repeated efforts to have AMI titles publish favorable stories about him or negative articles about his accusers," Howard said. An A.M.I. representative noted that, at the time, Weinstein insisted that the encounter was consensual, and that the allegations were untrue.
Hofmeister, Weinstein's spokesperson, added, "In regard to Mr. Howard, he has served as the point person for American Media's long-standing business relationship with The Weinstein Company. Earlier this year, Mr. Weinstein gave Mr. Howard a news tip that Mr. Howard agreed might make a good story. Mr. Howard pursued the tip and followed up with Mr. Weinstein as a courtesy, but declined to publish any story."
Weinstein's relationship with Kroll, one of the other agencies he contracted with, dates back years. After Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, an Italian model, accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting her, in 2015, she reached a settlement with Weinstein that required her to surrender all her personal devices to Kroll, so that they could be wiped of evidence of a conversation in which Weinstein admitted to groping her. A recording of that exchange, captured during a police sting operation, was released by The New Yorker last month.
During the more recent effort to shut down emerging stories, Kroll again played a central role. E-mails show that Dan Karson, the chairman of Kroll Americas' Investigations and Disputes practice, contacted Weinstein at his personal e-mail address with information about women with allegations.
In one October, 2016, e-mail, Karson sent Weinstein eleven photographs of McGowan and Weinstein together at different events in the years after he allegedly assaulted her. Three hours later, Weinstein forwarded Karson's e-mail to Boies and Weinstein's criminal-defense attorney, Blair Berk, and told them to "scroll thru the extra ones." The next morning, Berk replied that one photo, which showed McGowan warmly talking with Weinstein, "is the money shot."
Berk defended her actions. "Any criminal-defense lawyer worth her salt would investigate unproven allegations to determine if they are credible," she said. "And it would be dereliction of duty not to conduct a public-records search for photographs of the accuser embracing the accused taken after the time of the alleged assault."
Another firm, the Los Angeles-based psops, and its lead private investigator, Jack Palladino, as well as another one of its investigators, Sara Ness, produced detailed profiles of various individuals in the saga, sometimes of a personal nature, which included information that could be used to undermine their credibility.
One report on McGowan that Ness sent to Weinstein last December ran for more than a hundred pages and featured McGowan's address and other personal information, along with sections labelled "Lies/Exaggerations/Contradictions," "Hypocrisy," and "Potential Negative Character Wits," an apparent abbreviation of "witnesses."
One subhead read "Past Lovers." The section included details of acrimonious breakups, mentioning Avellan, and discussed Facebook posts expressing negative sentiments about McGowan. (Palladino and Ness did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
Other firms were also involved in assembling such profiles, including ones that focussed on factors that, in theory, might make women likely to speak out against sexual abuse. One of the other firm's profiles was of Rosanna Arquette, an actress who later, in The New Yorker, accused Weinstein of sexual harassment. The file mentions Arquette's friendship with McGowan, social-media posts about sexual abuse, and the fact that a family member had gone public with an allegation that she had been molested as a child.
All of the security firms that Weinstein hired were also involved in trying to ferret out reporters' sources and probe their backgrounds. Wallace, the reporter for New York, said that he was suspicious when he received the call from the Black Cube operative using the pseudonym Anna, because Weinstein had already requested a meeting with Wallace; Adam Moss, the editor-in-chief of New York; David Boies; and a representative from Kroll. The intention, Wallace assumed, was to "come in with dossiers slagging various women and me." Moss declined the meeting.
In a series of e-mails sent in the weeks before Wallace received the call from Anna, Dan Karson, of Kroll, sent Weinstein preliminary background information on Wallace and Moss. "No adverse information about Adam Moss so far (no libel/defamation cases, no court records or judgments/liens/UCC, etc.)," Karson wrote in one e-mail. Two months later, Palladino, the psopsinvestigator, sent Weinstein a detailed profile of Moss. It stated, "Our research did not yield any promising avenues for the personal impeachment of Moss."
Similar e-mail exchanges occurred regarding Wallace. Kroll sent Weinstein a list of public criticisms of Wallace's previous reporting and a detailed description of a U.K. libel suit filed in response to a book he wrote, in 2008, about the rare-wine market. psops also profiled Wallace's ex-wife, noting that she "might prove relevant to considerations of our response strategy when Wallace's article on our client is finally published."
In January, 2017, Wallace, Moss, and other editors at New York decided to shelve the story. Wallace had assembled a detailed list of women with allegations, but he lacked on-the-record statements from any victims. Wallace said that the decision not to run a story was made for legitimate journalistic reasons. Nevertheless, he said, "There was much more static and distraction than I've encountered on any other story."
Other reporters were investigated as well. In April, 2017, Ness, of psops, sent Weinstein an assessment of my own interactions with "persons of interest"—a list largely consisting of women with allegations, or those connected to them. Later, psops submitted a detailed report focusing jointly on me and Jodi Kantor, of the Times. Some of the observations in the report are mundane.
"Kantor is NOT following Ronan Farrow," it notes, referring to relationships on Twitter. At other times, the report reflects a detailed effort to uncover sources. One individual I interviewed, and another whom Kantor spoke to in her separate endeavor, were listed as having reported the details of the conversations back to Weinstein.
For years, Weinstein had used private security agencies to investigate reporters. In the early aughts, as the journalist David Carr, who died in 2015, worked on a report on Weinstein for New York, Weinstein assigned Kroll to dig up unflattering information about him, according to a source close to the matter. Carr's widow, Jill Rooney Carr, told me that her husband believed that he was being surveilled, though he didn't know by whom.
"He thought he was being followed," she recalled. In one document, Weinstein's investigators wrote that Carr had learned of McGowan's allegation in the course of his reporting. Carr "wrote a number of critical/unflattering articles about HW over the years," the document says, "none of which touched on the topic of women (due to fear of HW's retaliation, according to HW)."
Weinstein's relationships with the private investigators were often routed through law firms that represented him. This is designed to place investigative materials under the aegis of attorney-client privilege, which can prevent the disclosure of communications, even in court.
David Boies, who was involved in the relationships with Black Cube and psops, was initially reluctant to speak with The New Yorker, out of concern that he might be "misinterpreted either as trying to deny or minimize mistakes that were made, or as agreeing with criticisms that I don't agree are valid."
But Boies did feel the need to respond to what he considered "fair and important" questions about his hiring of investigators. He said that he did not consider the contractual provisions directing Black Cube to stop the publication of the Times story to be a conflict of interest, because his firm was also representing the newspaper in a libel suit.
From the beginning, he said, he advised Weinstein "that the story could not be stopped by threats or influence and that the only way the story could be stopped was by convincing the Times that there was no rape." Boies told me he never pressured any news outlet. "If evidence could be uncovered to convince the Times the charges should not be published, I did not believe, and do not believe, that that would be averse to the Times' interest."
He conceded, however, that any efforts to profile and undermine reporters, at the Times and elsewhere, were problematic. "In general, I don't think it's appropriate to try to pressure reporters," he said. "If that did happen here, it would not have been appropriate."
Although the agencies paid by his firm focussed on many women with allegations, Boies said that he had only been aware of their work related to McGowan, whose allegations Weinstein denied. "Given what was known at the time, I thought it was entirely appropriate to investigate precisely what he was accused of doing, and to investigate whether there were facts that would rebut those accusations," he said.
Of his representation of Weinstein in general, he said, "I don't believe former lawyers should criticize former clients." But he expressed regrets. "Although he vigorously denies using physical force, Mr. Weinstein has himself recognized that his contact with women was indefensible and incredibly hurtful," Boies told me. "In retrospect, I knew enough in 2015 that I believe I should have been on notice of a problem, and done something about it. I don't know what, if anything, happened after 2015, but to the extent it did, I think I have some responsibility. I also think that if people had taken action earlier it would have been better for Mr. Weinstein."
Weinstein also drafted individuals around him into his efforts—willingly and not. In December, 2016, Weinstein asked the actress Asia Argento, who ultimately went public in The New Yorker with her allegation of rape against Weinstein, to meet in Italy with his private investigators to give testimony on his behalf.
Argento, who felt pressure to say yes, declined after her partner, the chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain, advised her to avoid the meeting. Another actress, who declined to be named in this story, said that Weinstein asked her to meet with reporters to extract information about other sources.
Weinstein also enlisted two former employees, Denise Doyle Chambers and Pamela Lubell, in what turned out to be an effort to identify and call people who might speak to the press about their own, or others', allegations. Weinstein secretly shared the lists they compiled with Black Cube.
Hofmeister, speaking on Weinstein's behalf, said, "Any 'lists' that were prepared included names of former employees and others who were relevant to the research and preparation of a book about Miramax. Former employees conducting interviews for the book reported receiving unwanted contacts from the media."
Doyle Chambers declined an interview request. But Lubell, a producer who worked for Weinstein at Miramax decades ago, told me that she was manipulated into participating.
In July, 2017, Lubell visited Weinstein's offices to pitch him on an app that she was developing. In the middle of the meeting, Weinstein asked Lubell if they could have a private conversation in his office. Lubell told me that a lawyer working with Weinstein was already there, along with Doyle Chambers. Weinstein asked if Lubell and Doyle Chambers could write a "fun book on the old times, the heyday, of Miramax." "Pam," she recalled him saying, "write down all the employees that you know, and can you get in touch with them?"
A few weeks later, in August, after they had made the list, Weinstein "called us back into the office," Lubell recalled. "And he said, 'You know what, we're going to put a hold on the book.' " He asked Doyle Chambers and Lubell to "call some of your friends from the list and see if they got calls from the press."
In early September, Weinstein summoned Lubell and Doyle Chambers to his office and asked them to start making calls to people connected to several actresses. "It got kind of intense," Lubell recalled. "We didn't know these people, and all of a sudden this was something very different from what we signed up for." Several of the targeted women said that they felt the calls they received from Lubell and Doyle Chambers, and from Weinstein himself, were frightening.
Lubell told me that hours before the first Times story broke, on October 5th, Weinstein summoned her, Doyle Chambers, and others on his team, including the attorney Lisa Bloom, who has since resigned, to his office. "He was in a panic," Lubell recalled. "He starts screaming, 'Get so-and-so on the phone.' " After the story was published, the team scrambled to respond to it.
Bloom and others pored over pictures that, like the ones featured in the Kroll e-mails, showed ongoing contact between Weinstein and women who made allegations. "He was screaming at us, 'Send these to the board members,' " Lubell recalled. She e-mailed the photographs to the board ahead of the crisis meeting at which Weinstein's position at his company began unravelling.
Since the allegations against Weinstein became public, Lubell hasn't slept well. She told me that, although she knew that Weinstein "was a bully and a cheater," she "never thought he was a predator." Lubell has wondered if she should have known more, sooner.
After a year of concerted effort, Weinstein's campaign to track and silence his accusers crumbled.
Several of the women targeted, however, said that Weinstein's use of private security agencies deepened the challenge of speaking out. "It scared me," Sciorra said, "because I knew what it meant to be threatened by Harvey.
I was in fear of him finding me." McGowan said that the agencies and law firms enabled Weinstein's behavior. As she was targeted, she felt a growing sense of paranoia. "It was like the movie 'Gaslight,' " she told me. "Everyone lied to me all the time." For the past year, she said, "I've lived inside a mirrored fun house."
Ronan Farrow, a television and print reporter, is the author of the upcoming book "War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence."
Tags: adonis49, Army of Spies, Ben Wallace, Decline of American Influence, Harvey Weinstein, Jodi Kantor, Ronan Farrow, Rose McGowan, Sexual harassment, suppress allegations
Sexual harassment at Brick's bar in Hamra
In: Essays | Events/Cultural/Educational/Arts | social articles | women
Thurayya Zreik posted on FB
I would like to share an incident that happened with me at Brick's Hamra.
More shocking than this incident, I would like to detail the appalling reaction and response of the management.
On Friday November 2015 at around 8.20 PM, I walked into Brick's Hamra to say hello to a girl I knew. On the next table was a young man, who, as soon I walked in, turned to me and yelled something along the lines of "Hey baby" / "let's get together" / "give me your number."
His advances were quite loud and offensive, and could be heard by all in the bar. However, I decided not to respond after my girl friend informed me that he was with her group of friends.
The second time he yelled at me, he was equally offensive and obnoxious, and this time I asked him to please stop. By the third time, I had had enough. I turned and yelled back, at the same volume, that I was not his "Baby," that he was disrespectful, and I demanded that he stops harassing me (تلطيش).
At this, he began to yell back, calling me, among other things, a "bitch," a "stupid bitch," a "f–king bitch," and other variations of the word "bitch", telling me to "shut the f–k up" and "get the f–k out of his face."
Nobody reacted to the very loud, very audible torrent of abuse he was hurling at me. I continued to yell in defense of myself, as I was being insulted and threatened by him because I had told him not to harass me; which I see as a very reasonable and justifiable request on my part and definitely not one that warrants that level of verbal abuse.
He got up, and made motions towards me, warning me to "get the f–k away" before he "slapped the f–k out of me." As he approached, I slapped his arm away to push him back. At this, he proceeded to slap me hard in the face and throw a lit cigarette at me, also in my face.
Again, at this point, nobody from the staff to the manager (who was a woman, if I might add) made any movement to intervene. Luckily, I am fit and sprightly, and know how to stand for myself, so I was able to pin him back in a chokehold.
Still, nobody moved, until the manager sauntered over at a pace so slow it was nearly comical, and took me away, telling me to calm down. A member of staff removed the aggressor, allowed him to take a walk around the block, and then let him back in.
During the time that the aggressor had left, I sat in tears of rage for ten minutes, listening to people telling me to calm down, that I should accept that he didn't mean it, and insinuating that I didn't think he was cute or funny because I had to have already been in a bad mood before I walked in, which is why I reacted the way I did.
It seemed like people, including all the women, found it genuinely hard to believe that what happened could be offensive and that loud public harassment is not a cause for being incensed in and of itself.
It was almost as if I wasn't threatened, verbally abused, or hit in the face in public for asking someone not to harass me.
I decided to leave after the aggressor returned and began to tell me he was "f–king sorry, okay?!"
I returned to Brick's later that night because I had decided to speak to the manager about the poor and inexcusable response of the staff to this incident, and I thought it was important to do so in order to avoid the same thing happening to another woman customer. In response, she told me the following:
1. That she did not act because she assumed I was friends with the young man, which is both:
A) a poor management decision, because it is not in any management job description to make assumptions about the relationships of customers; and
B) totally irrelevant to the fact that someone was being an aggressor
2. She told me "But he said sorry, you just didn't accept his apology"
3. She also informed me that it was, in fact, my own fault for being in a bad mood to begin with
4. That if I didn't like what he was telling me, I should have just ignored him instead of making a scene
(NOTE: I find it interesting that loudly yelling harassment in public at a young woman does not constitute a scene, but her legitimate resistance to it does)
So, it is for this reason that I have decided to boycott Brick's, and I hope that you will join me in my boycott and maybe even share this and engage in some wide public shaming over social media smile emoticon I am sure there are plenty of bars in Beirut that are safer environments for women.
Update: someone from Brick's has contacted me and it seems like they are planning on dealing with the situation more appropriately.
بريكس خاضع للنظام الأبوي
لا_للتلطيش #
لا_للتحرش#
Tags: adonis49, Brick's bar, Hamra, Sexual harassment, Thurayya Zreik
Sexual-Abuse: Woody Allen , allegations, facts, adoptive kids
Posted by: adonis49 on: February 10, 2014
In: biographies/books | Events/Cultural/Educational/Arts | sex/ love/seduction | social articles | women
This week, a number of commentators have published articles containing incorrect and irresponsible claims regarding the allegation of Woody Allen's having sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Too many claims and cases of sexual abuses and most the times the verdict rendered is "We might never know the truth". What truth are the victims and defendants are expected to know?
Unless they are very mentally sick, they know exactly what happened and not many people care to know how they are going about their life.
It is about time that these "sexual abuses" allegations be defined operationally, every term of the dozens of innuendos related to sexual abuses, harassment, molestation and their various synonyms.
The general public must have a clear idea what the charges are, simply by reading the definition and description of the charge, complete with the consequences and damages (physical, mental and legal) understood to carry with.
I'm working on a follow up article that expand on this pragmatic notion of operationally defining and describing sexual abuse cases.
Maureen Orth posted this Feb. 7, 2014
10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation
As the author of two lengthy, heavily researched and thoroughly fact-checked articles that deal with that allegation—the first published in 1992, when Dylan was seven, and the second last fall, when she was 28—I feel obliged to set the record straight.
As such, I have compiled the following list of undeniable facts:
1. Mia never went to the police about the allegation of sexual abuse. Her lawyer told her on August 5, 1992, to take the 7-year-old Dylan to a pediatrician, who was bound by law to report Dylan's story of sexual violation to law enforcement and did so on August 6.
2. Allen had been in therapy for alleged inappropriate behavior toward Dylan with a child psychologist before the abuse allegation was presented to the authorities or made public. Mia Farrow had instructed her babysitters that Allen was never to be left alone with Dylan.
3. Allen refused to take a polygraph administered by the Connecticut state police.Instead, he took one from someone hired by his legal team. The Connecticut state police refused to accept the test as evidence. The state attorney, Frank Maco, says that Mia was never asked to take a lie-detector test during the investigation.
4. Allen subsequently lost 4 exhaustive court battles—a lawsuit, a disciplinary charge against the prosecutor, and two appeals—and was made to pay more than $1 million in Mia's legal fees. Judge Elliott Wilk, the presiding judge in Allen's custody suit against Farrow, concluded that there is "no credible evidence to support Mr. Allen's contention that Ms. Farrow coached Dylan or that Ms. Farrow acted upon a desire for revenge against him for seducing Soon-Yi."
5. In his 33-page decision, Judge Wilk found that Mr. Allen's behavior toward Dylan was "grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her." The judge also recounts Farrow's misgivings regarding Allen's behavior toward Dylan from the time she was between two and three years old. According to the judge's decision, Farrow told Allen, "You look at her [Dylan] in a sexual way. You fondled her . . . You don't give her any breathing room. You look at her when she's naked." (Should Mia marry a blind man?)
6. Dylan's claim of abuse was consistent with the testimony of 3 adults who were present that day. On the day of the alleged assault, a babysitter of a friend told police and gave sworn testimony that Allen and Dylan went missing for 15 or 20 minutes, while she was at the house. Another babysitter told police and also swore in court that on that same day, she saw Allen with his head on Dylan's lap facing her body, while Dylan sat on a couch "staring vacantly in the direction of a television set." A French tutor for the family told police and testified that that day she found Dylan was not wearing underpants under her sundress. The first babysitter also testified she did not tell Farrow that Allen and Dylan had gone missing until after Dylan made her statements. These sworn accounts contradict Moses Farrow's recollection of that day in People magazine.
7. The Yale-New Haven Hospital Child Sex Abuse Clinic's finding that Dylan had not been sexually molested, cited repeatedly by Allen's attorneys, was not accepted as reliable by Judge Wilk, or by the Connecticut state prosecutor who originally commissioned them. The state prosecutor, Frank Maco, engaged the Yale-New Haven team to determine whether Dylan would be able to perceive facts correctly and be able to repeat her story on the witness stand. The panel consisted of two social workers and a pediatrician, Dr. John Leventhal, who signed off on the report but who never saw Dylan or Mia Farrow. No psychologists or psychiatrists were on the panel. The social workers never testified; the hospital team only presented a sworn deposition by Dr. Leventhal, who did not examine Dylan.
All the notes from the report were destroyed. Her confidentiality was then violated, and Allen held a news conference on the steps of Yale University to announce the results of the case.
The report concluded Dylan had trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. (For example, she had told them there were "dead heads" in the attic and called sunset "the magic hour." (What's wrong with a poetic spirit?)
In fact, Mia kept wigs from her movies on Styrofoam blocks in a trunk in the attic. The doctor subsequently backed down from his contention.
The Connecticut state police, the state attorney, and Judge Wilk all had serious reservations about the report's reliability.
8. Allen changed his story about the attic where the abuse allegedly took place.
First, Allen told investigators he had never been in the attic where the alleged abuse took place.
After his hair was found on a painting in the attic, he admitted that he might have stuck his head in once or twice. A top investigator concluded that his account was not credible.
9. The state attorney, Maco, said publicly he did have probable cause to press charges against Allen but declined, due to the fragility of the "child victim." Maco told me that he refused to put Dylan through an exhausting trial, and without her on the stand, he could not prosecute Allen. (Good idea not to put kids on trial too)
10. I am not a longtime friend of Mia Farrow's, and I did not make any deal with her. I have been personally accused of helping my "long-time friend" Mia Farrow place the story that ran in Vanity Fair's November 2013 issue as part of an effort to help launch Ronan Farrow's media career.
I have also been accused of agreeing to some type of deal with Mia Farrow guaranteeing that the sexual-abuse allegation against Woody Allen would be revisited.
For the record, I met Mia Farrow for the first time in 2003, more than 10 years after the first piece was published, at a nonfiction play she appeared in for a benefit in Washington, D.C. I saw her and Dylan again the next day.
That is the last time I saw her until I approached her in April 2013 to do a story about her family and how they had fared over the years. I talked to 8 of her children, including Dylan and a reluctant Ronan. There was no deal of any kind. Moses Farrow declined to be interviewed for the 2013 piece.
Read: The scathing 33-page decision from the presiding judge in Woody Allen's 1992 custody suit against Mia Farrow.
Tags: adonis49, adoptive kids, Dr. John Leventhal, Dylan Farrow, Frank Maco, John Leventhal, judge Elliott Wilk, legal team, Maureen Orth, Mia Farrow, Moses Farrow, polygraph, Ronan Farrow, Sexual harassment, sexual molestation, Sexual-Abuse, Soon-Yi, the magic hour, Woody Allen
Kinds of rapes, Mob sexual assault, Culture of sexual violent harassment…
Posted by: adonis49 on: August 15, 2013
Mob sexual assault? Culture of sexual violent harassment…
On 30 June, as "the Coup That Must Not Be Mentioned" was being celebrated in Tahrir Square of Cairo, news of over 80 reports of mob sexual violence and harassment emerged as a reminder of an ugly undercurrent behind the two-and-a-half-year-long anti-regime uprising.
Sexual harassment and violence in Egypt is a daily occurrence – an epidemic, with 99.3% of women (pdf) claiming to have suffered some form of it.
Sana Saeed published in the guardian.co.uk this July 2013 "How we 'other' sexual assault to ignore our own norms of abuse?"
Is rape used to bully women out of the public forum in Tahrir? Yes.
But does Egypt have a monopoly of sexual violence? No
Mob sexual violence, however, carries a certain brand of particularity as a near-explicit political tool used to discourage women, who make up nearly half of the total population, from attending demonstrations.
Maria S Muñoz, co-founder and director of the anti-sexual assault initiative Tahrir Bodyguard, traces the advent and use of organized mob sexual assaults to the days of Mubarak, pointing to the 2005 assault of journalist Nawal Ali by hired "thugs" during a demonstration.
Despite being aware of the risk of attending political demonstrations, women, Muñoz notes, "have continued to share the public space in protests, becoming an essential part of the opposition's voice and presence."
A protest against the gang rape of a student in Delhi, which provoked soul-searching about India's 'women problem'. Photograph: Piyal Adhikary/EPA
The culture of sexual violence and harrassment, in Egypt, has received considerable media attention, often highlighting the efforts of groups such as Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault, HarassMap and Tahrir Bodyguard as people-powered initiatives tackling sexual violence and harassment head-on. Despite this, it is apparently still difficult to have an honest discussion over why it happens.
Are there levels of seriousness to rape incidents?
https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/are-there-levels-of-seriousness-for-rape-how-many-kinds-of-rapes-are-you-aware-of/
Tags: adonis49, Culture of sexual violent harassment, HarassMap, journalist Nawal Ali, Joyce Carol Oates, levels of seriousness to rape incidents, Maria S Muñoz, Mob sexual assault, near-explicit political tool, Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault, Piyal Adhikary, Sana Saeed, Sexual harassment, Tahrir Bodyguard
Sex for a Sufi
In: Book Review | education methods/programs | Essays | humor | Islam/Moslem/Islamic world | Near-East Mediterranean civilization | professional articles | sex/ love/seduction | social articles | women
Sex for a Sufi, (Nov. 16, 2009)
Sexual harassment is highest among women enjoying positions of supervisors or in management staff.
These findings were known for mankind before they stepped off trees. Sexual intercourse for man is very weakly correlated with sexual pleasures: it is a power status.
Unfortunately, older men tend to be forgetful, and younger ones still are ignorant that their female partners are far more proficient in the power games.
Intercourse for women has mixed correlations with sexual pleasures. It can be almost nil for virgins and almost 100% for practiced women who experienced with a few "compatible partners".
Warning! Invariably, once you had intercourse with a woman, if she digs you, then you are demanded to becoming her slave, "love slave" along with and many other varied tasks.
Are you waiting for explanation?
Discussing details in writing interest me; verbal discussion does not: I am not verbally intelligent. We have two hands; one is more sensitive, functional, and dexter than the other; not for manual work but for relieving your emotional anger and passions.
You will discover that this maneuver quickly re-adjust your set of priorities. For how long? It is up to you to experiment with your potentials. Man must learn and be encouraged using his professional hand as often as his rational mind desires to focus on important matters.
Man is not endowed to experiencing sexual pleasures: they just want to get natural relief, like pissing or shitting without getting their hands dirty.
In fact, women have focused so much on their well deserved sexual endowment for pleasure that man deduced that women are less fit for rational reasoning.
In fact, women learned that luring man to sexual desires is the quickest and most effective mean for satisfying their wishes and wants; they did abuse it to such an extent that man banished women from rational functions, such as governing soberly and equitably among all people.
Consequently, wise men banished women from "statesmanship" and leadership jobs.
Sexual desires are not sins; how could they be sins if they are natural?
Sexual desire is the main enemy for both genders if the mind is to be considered the most valued part in man.
Mystics and Sufis, of both genders, comprehended this dialectic: You cannot vanquish your enemy (sexual desires) if you fail to know the enemy completely.
Mystics and Sufis dissected sexual desire in all its forms, shapes, and varieties; they explained sexual desire in the minute details, pornography, physiologically, anatomically, and psychologically and left us scientific manuscripts in that field with accurate terminologies.
Mystics and Sufis achieved the highest level of serenity in personal victories after mastering the characteristics of the enemy in order to defeat it: they said that they finally faced it boldly. I am not convinced; they must have been getting worn out.
They say that they lost many battles but their purpose was to keeping the struggle. Steadfastness in the struggle for the victory of rational thinking is the discipline of the courageous and strong men and women.
Practiced women Sufis should have far more value than men: they should be elected representatives of the UN to promoting rational thinking, instead of models and actresses!
All religions approached sexual desire as the most disturbing factors for social stability.
A few religions attacked sexual desire as sins attached to various myths; they have woven fantastic tales to demonstrate their premises and applied drastic punishments and ordained stupid conditions to overpower the most natural of instincts.
Other religions defined sexual desire as the enemy for rational thinking, and for equitable functioning in society; they faced that enemy rationally and didn't run away from rational temptations or hide from natural facts.
Unfortunately, rational thinking require studying, application, follow-up, and training; rational thinking is not endowed to vanquish natural inclinations when society is lazy; especially, if a government is not intelligent and bold to disseminate literacy and permit freedom of speech, opinion, publishing, and gathering.
Virgin ladies abuse sex seduction more frequently than the staunchest nymphomaniac experienced ladies.
Sex decoying is independent from sexual practices; in fact, the less practiced the virgin the most experienced she is in seduction; women learn that skill since childhood, directly and indirectly. They already mastered that domain before puberty.
Contrary to man; man needs years of practice and continuing education for sexual baiting, after he realized that there is more than one function for the pissing ridiculous projection.
I am interested in serious sexual proposals; I have strict terms and will set detailed conditions, more rigorous than financial or marriage deals.
I'll have sex, take times off, extend the cuddling phase, spend hours on foreplay, and even have intercourse for pleasuring my friendly partner who genuinely is in need of companionship.
In almost all religions, particularly in Islam, women have rights to dictate conditions and clauses for marriage. That they fail to exercise their rights is not simply a matter of lack of character. In most instances it is illiteracy, pressures of deviant traditions, and ignorance of THEIR RIGHTS.
Sakina, the grand-daughter of Caliph Ali, Aicha Bint Talhat, and Hababa imposed their conditions to the astonishment of the Moslem society in the 7th century; those intelligent and ambitious women refused to wear the veil and keep silent in gathering; they behaved as they imposed the clauses that suit their life style and got it.
Remember, man does not get sexual pleasures; he works to make life and the world goes on.
Man, when you are surprised by sexual lure, remember that you have got a professional hand to get in control if your terms are denied.
This post is not on love: that would be a different ball game.
It is not on feelings.
This post is on sexual desires. Reading sex tales interest me; discussing fictitious love proposals does not. Discussing actual sex propositions interest me; performing actual intercourse does not; though I am functional.
I tend to occasionally cling on day-dreaming sex: maybe I am not there for being considered a Master Sufi; I never considered that honor; I am confined to it.
Let your comments not mix love with sexual desires. I suggest you read this post in two dispositions: serious and funny. You might understand it in two perspectives. That is my style.
You need references? You need qualifications? Good luck in your research. I am reflecting loudly on personal experiences. Take my reflection or leave it. (You may read a few of my addendum in "Introspection")
Tags: adonis49, Aicha Bint Talhat, compatible partners, Hababa, humor, introspection, love slave, mixed correlations, Mystics, pornographically, power games, power status, rational thinking, representatives of the UN, Sakina, Sex for a Sufi, sex seduction, sexual desire, Sexual harassment, Sexual intercourse, sexual pleasures, Sufis, Virgin ladies, women, writing
Did Nabil Alam passed away? Was he the planner of the Assassination of President elect Bashir Gemayel?


text:
package com.home.rxtwitch.ui.fragment;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;

import butterknife.ButterKnife;
import rx.subscriptions.CompositeSubscription;

/**
 * Created by xmax on 4/13/16.
 */
public class BaseFragment extends Fragment{

    protected CompositeSubscription mSubscriptions = new CompositeSubscription();

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        ButterKnife.unbind(this);
        mSubscriptions.unsubscribe();
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Japan Yokohama Manchester United FC Premier League Germany Olympic Team Ivory Coast National Soccer Team Saudi Arabia National Soccer Team Saudi Arabia Olympic Team Ivory Coast Olympic Team AC Milan Serie A Brazil National Soccer Team Franck Kessie Sports Men's soccer Soccer Men's sports Professional soccer Olympic games Summer Olympic games International soccer
Kessie gives Ivory Coast a 2-1 victory over Saudi Arabia
Ivory Coast's Ismael Diallo, right, and Saudi Arabia's Ayman Alkhulaif battle for the ball during a men's soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 22, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Jul. 22, 2021 06:11 AM EDT
Saudi Arabia's Ali Alhassan, left battles for the ball with Ivory Coast's Max Gradel during a men's soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 22, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Ivory Coast's Ismael Diallo and Saudi Arabia's Ayman Alkhulaif fall during a men's soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 22, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Ivory Coast's Franck Kessie is challenged by Saudi Arabia's Ali Alhassan during a men's soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 22, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Ivory Coast's Franck Kessie celebrates after scoring his side's second goal against Saudi Arabia during a men's soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 22, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Although the academic year has just begun, quite a few interesting academic articles on economic development have already been published. Among them are several articles that examine the nature of capital flows to developing countries as well as articles addressing problems associated with measuring various aspects of economic development.
Banking unconditionally: the political economy of Chinese finance in Latin America by Stephan Kaplan in the September issue of Review of International Political Economy. Kaplan discusses the effects of increased Chinese capital in two of China's largest debtors, namely Brazil and Venezuela. He finds that Chinese capital is associated with an increase in budget deficits, but also an increase in long-term capital, giving national governments more national policy autonomy.
IMF conditionality and development policy space, 1985–2014 by Alexander Kentikelenis, Thomas Stubbs and Lawrence King in the September issue of Review of International Political Economy. Dismal reading for anyone hoping that IMF policies have evolved to provide increased policy space for its borrowers. The authors find little evidence of fundamental transformation of IMF conditionality since 1985 and they find that policies introduced to ameliorate the social consequences of IMF macroeconomic advice have not been adequately incorporated into program design.
Governing Capital Flows by Sunanda Sen in the September issue of Economic and Political Weekly. This is a book review of Ruling Capital: Emerging Markets and the Reregulation of Cross-Border Finance by Kevin P Gallagher (2015).
The Misty Grail: The Search for a Comprehensive Measure of Development and the Reasons for GDP Primacy by Emanuele Felice in the September issue of Development and Change. This article attempts to explain why GDP has remained the most used indicator to measure economic progress, and the relative merits of alternative approaches.
Development by Numbers – A primer by Morten Jerven. This NYU Development Research Institute (DRI) working paper was published this summer. The paper reviews data quality of important databases on economic development and provides guidance on how to use (and how not to use) the numbers provided.
Book review of Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis by Inaki Permanyer in the September issue of The Journal of Economic Inequality. The book (2015) is by Sabina Alkire, James Foster, Suman Seth, Maria Emma Santos, José Manuel Roche, and Paola Ballón.
In addition, Jacob Assa published the book The Financialization of GDP: Implications for economic theory and policy earlier this month (watch this blog for a post by Assa himself on the implications of his findings for economic development) and this summer the Journal of Globalization and Development published a special issue on Global Inequality, in which several articles address measurement issues.


Again this year, these exclusive project bags are hand-crafted by one of this year's co-hosts, Silvia Mendoza of Not Knots. A little larger than past years' bags, these are approximately 10 inches tall, 10 inches wide with a 3 inch reinforcing casing band and a 3 1/2 inch gusset which makes for a generous rectangular base; ample room for most knitting and crochet projects.
They are fully lined with brightly-colored coordinating gamer & candy-themed fabric. This year's bag also features two 4-inch pockets in a thematically color-coordinating fabric and features Not Knots' signature needle/hook pocket.
The price for these bags are $28 each.
There is an extremely limited quantity, so get them while supplies last. Quantities will be limited to one per customer, or one per bundle*. Pre-orders will open around August 6th. Orders will be filled in a first-come, first served basis. But when they're gone, they're gone!
So mark your calendars for AUGUST 23, 2018 to make sure you get yours before they're all sold out!
Where can we order? It's 8/7 and I don't see any order forms on anyone's websites for these or for your colorway. All I can see is where to buy Lazer Sheep Yarns colorway–and ONLY that one.
Hi Kerry! I LOVE your enthusiasm! Alas, I have yet to post my colorway…but stay tuned, I'm working on that post right now!


As a child grows up and becomes more autonomous, the direct influence and impact of parents'/caregivers' behavior on the child normally diminishes. This is true for children who have developed a reasonable healthy SoS, but for those in an "Enmeshment," an unhealthy degree of dependency continues through adulthood and even into old age, even though the parent's or caregiver's influence has become less visible, less obvious, and therefore less traceable. The continuation of this unhealthy relationship is often facilitated by modern ease of communication (see Chapter 7 for more on Enmeshment). Too often, for example, grown children become terribly stressed when visiting their parents, because they know they are not the sons and daughters their parents want them to be, and they feel the need of their parent's approval and validation. It's often similarly stressing when parents come to visit. A grown woman, for example, may start to clean and organize like a madwoman because her house never seems to be "good enough" for her mother. If you point this out to her, she might prefer to not look at her own behavior and to be in denial of the truth and mention futile things that justify her behavior. But when the stress level she experiences is so much higher than is justified by the actual event, it is likely that deep down inside she feels her SSoS is at stake.
At any age, grown children whose parents are alive can still be needy; they still hope that by facilitating their parents' caprices they might finally get their deepest wish come true: being unconditionally loved and feeling accepted the way they are, being acknowledged as a valuable human being important in their parent's lives.
Even if an ocean lies between parents and their grown children, parents' influence can be just as present as ever within the child's inner life. The parent's standards and criteria still reverberate in his or her head and form what I call the Virtual, Internalized Parental Voice (VIPV).
Self-absorbed parents are unable to regard their children as anything but a pawn in the (subconsciously played) emotional games of their own lives. I call this "playing games" because their actions and world in fact have nothing to do with the reality of life in the world outside their small circle of awareness; the developmental needs of their children are part of that reality of life outside that circle.
Self-absorbed parents can never foster the development of a Natural SoS in their children because they put themselves continuously not only in the center of their own world but also in the center of other people's worlds while their child bends over backward in an attempt to get his or her need of acknowledgment as a being, as existing, met.
A parent who lacks a SoS and who is compulsively driven to fulfill his or her perceived survival conditions makes that his or her children have to facilitate the parent's Hidden Agenda—consequently there is hardly no room for their own input, whether that be wanting to have friends over for play, engaging in activities that the parent has no interest in, or being sick or demanding attention in any way.
These patterns of behavior are likely to develop into a vicious behavioral cycle that extends over generations. The parents are not able to focus on their child and acknowledge it as a truly existing human being with all the rights that come with it. They then raise their child in such a way that, when in the situation of being a parent themselves, they will be unable to pay attention to their own children. Again they are not free from dependencies on fulfilling the Ego-References of trying to be heard and seen themselves.
So the good vibes of the caregiver, when no longer available, are not even directly necessary anymore. The now-grown children judge themselves by their caregiver's criteria, which they take on as their own. This approval from the virtual parent, also called the internalized parent, includes criteria that were used by the now-long-gone parent. They use these internalized parental judgments as criteria to anchor themselves in their lives through the FgaS state that then constitutes a SSoS for them.
To include the presence of another voice other than your own in your Self may sound strange or even far-fetched. And truly, it took me quite a while to discover this aspect, but when looking into myself more deeply, I felt as if my parent was still present through my own voice, which really wasn't my own voice. The voice that was supposedly mine presented criteria copied from my parent, not generated by myself.


Companies are now facing significant pressure with today's need for fast, reliable data backup and recovery – often in complex IT environments. Innovation across the storage domain constantly addresses these challenges. However, the explosive growth of data volume in MSPs and other IT departments, combined with complexity and increased security risks, means that there is an emerging need for more easily scalable, efficient and flexible data backup and recovery solutions. These solutions must also be instrumental in driving down infrastructure costs in the data centre.
Bacula Systems is the commercial arm of the bacula.org project, providing Bacula Enterprise Edition in answer to the needs of the modern data centre. This is an enterprise-grade software for backup and data recovery, equipped with specialist technologies in areas such as Virtual Machines, Advanced Database Backup, Bare Metal Recovery, Snapshot Technology, Silent Data Corruption Detection, Data Duplication and much more. Training and support are also included, all as part of a subscription package.
Bacula Systems' strategy is to provide a modern, single platform for backup and data recovery – universally applicable for physical, virtual and cloud alike. It offers extreme scalability – but with an important stand-out fact: there are no charges based on data volume. This means that data centres with large data volume can modernize their backup environment with Bacula Enterprise Edition, while simultaneously slashing costs by a factor of up to ten. This is a notable advantage over other vendors' solutions.
Another strategy is for its engineering to be led by customer demand, delivering technical features that are modern and relevant. An example is its backup of PostgreSQL databases, with unique 'Late Data Inclusion' technology, or its rapid Single File Recovery for VMware environments, both features in high demand by customers.
Kern Sibbald, Chairman, and CTO and Key Founder of Bacula Systems, was also a founder of Autodesk, where he was development manager for AutoCAD, a highly successful CAD program.
Frank Barker, CEO at Bacula Systems. He started his IT career with Hewlett-Packard, running their Telco, Financial Services and Global Accounts Businesses. He subsequently ran HP's Consulting and Systems Integration Business across EMEA, then moved to the US to set up a worldwide Division around cloud computing.
Their vision is to increase the security of their customer's data and accordingly, the health of their customers business. Delivering on that promise with a software solution that is especially stable and reliable – and can run literally for years without necessarily needing updates or maintenance, is a mission that extends throughout the entire company.
With its capability to back up the most complex data centres from a single modern platform, Bacula Systems has made a major impact in the industry, effectively freeing large enterprises, service providers and other organizations from the financial taxes levied by other vendors on ever-growing data volumes. That gives Bacula Systems an exciting future, and also illustrates the reason for its high growth rate. "It is truly exciting to enable data centres the freedom to grow their business without data volume-related constraints – and see them enjoy business success" said Frank Barker, CEO of Bacula Systems.
Is Your Cloud-Based Backup Impregnable?


Lean Cuisine® Favorites Five Cheese Rigatoni.Rigatoni pasta in a sweet tomato sauce topped with a five cheese blend.Freshly made pasta.Our promise: No preservatives.Per package: 360 Calories.4g Sat fat, 20% DV.560mg Sodium, 23% DV.7g Sugars.Calcium 15% DV.Net Wt 10 oz (283 g).
Lean Cuisine® Favorites Five Cheese Rigatoni.
Rigatoni pasta in a sweet tomato sauce topped with a five cheese blend.
4g Sat fat, 20% DV.
Net Wt 10 oz (283 g).


text:
Menswear trends you need to master for next season
Avoiding footwear fumbles when exercising or playing sp...
Move over carrots: other key nutrients for healthy visi...
About Newport Beach
Tickets On Sale Now For Pacific Symphony SummerFest 2018 At Pacific Amphitheatre On The OC Fairgrounds
Posted by Mission Viejo News Group | Dec 10, 2018 | Entertainment | 0 |
Pacific Symphony has once again put together an entertaining SummerFest program for 2018 at Pacific Amphitheatre (located in the heart of Orange County). Pop open a bottle of wine, kick back, relax and enjoy the perfect soundtrack for summer evenings under the stars. This season features the classic rock'n'roll energy of "Brass Transit: The Music of Chicago" (July 4); the thrilling soundtrack of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in Concert" performed live to film (Aug. 18); and everyone's favorite summer finale—Tchaikovsky Spectacular (Sept. 8), with guest pianist Vadym Kholodenko, winner of the coveted gold medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Tickets for SummerFest 2018 are on sale now! Subscriptions for the three-concert series range from $63-$252 with boxes and front-row packages also available. Single tickets begin at just $25. All concerts take place at 8 p.m. With a variety of vendor options onsite to serve up delicious selections from a gourmet menu for pre-concert dining, your evening of great music in the great outdoors is sure to be memorable. Dine on the Plaza Pacifica pre-concert or in the seats during the performance. Gates open at 6 p.m. for picnicking. For more information or to purchase tickets call (714) 755-5799 or visit us online at PacificSymphony.org.
The season sponsors include PBS SoCal, K-Earth 101, KPCC 89.3FM and Classical KUSC 91.5 and the Westin South Coast Plaza. SummerFest 2018 is generously supported by the OC Fair & Event Center.
Brass Transit: The Music of Chicago (with fireworks)
Wednesday, July 4, 2018 – 8 p.m.
Pacific Amphitheatre, OC Fairgrounds
Richard Kaufman, conductor
Brass Transit – Chicago Tribute Band
Pacific Symphony
Celebrate the Fourth with the music of Chicago, known as the "rock and roll band with horns." With hits like "You're the Inspiration," "If You Leave Me Now," and "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" you'll be swept away by the melodies that make this band such a beloved classic. To cap off the evening, sing along to your favorite patriotic tunes as we salute our armed forces and thrill to a sizzling Fourth of July fireworks show.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in Concert
Saturday, Aug. 18, 2018 – 8 p.m.
Experience "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" as never before when Pacific Symphony performs John Williams' Academy Award® -winning score live while the classic film is projected on a giant high definition screen. Filled with unparalleled magic and imagination, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial follows the moving story of a little lost alien who befriends a 10-year-old boy named Elliot.
TM & © Universal Studios.
Tchaikovsky Spectacular (with fireworks)
Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018 – 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Vadym Kholodenko, piano
SHOSTAKOVICH: Festive Overture
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: "Procession of the Nobles"
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: "Russian Easter "Overture
BORODIN: "Polovtsian Dances" from Prince Igor
TCHAIKOVSKY: "1812" Overture
No SummerFest is complete without Pacific Symphony performing Tchaikovsky's thrilling "1812" overture, complete with live cannons and brilliant fireworks. You'll enjoy this famous romantic composer's greatest hits along with his memorable Piano Concerto No. 1, performed by the First Prize Winner of the 14th Tchaikovsky Competition, Vadym Kholodenko. In 2013, the young Ukrainian pianist captured the attention of the competition jury, audience and critics alike for "mesmerizing and exhilarating" performances that brought the crowd to their feet, "cheering him like a rock star" (Cincinnati Enquirer).
About Pacific Symphony
Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair since 1990, has been the resident orchestra of Orange County's Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for over a decade. Founded in 1978, the Symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years and is not only a fixture of musical life in Southern California, but also is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scenes.
In April 2018, Pacific Symphony made its debut at Carnegie Hall, where it was invited to perform as part of a yearlong celebration of composer Philip Glass's 80th birthday. The Symphony made its first-ever tour to China this year, with performances in five cities, including Shanghai and Beijing. In Orange County, the orchestra presents more than 100 concerts and events each year and a rich array of education and community engagement programs, reaching more than 300,000 residents of all ages. The Symphony has been recognized with multiple ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming and included among the country's five most innovative orchestras by the League of American Orchestras. The Symphony's education and community engagement activities have also been recognized by the League, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.
About Pacific Amphitheatre
Originally developed and operated by private promoters, the Pacific Amphitheatre today is owned and managed by the OC Fair & Event Center, a multi-faceted, year-round events center committed to developing the cultural and community interests of Orange County's diverse populations. Since the Pacific Amphitheatre was reopened in 2003, sell-out crowds have regularly been attracted to this intimate 7,850 seat venue, one of the most consistently successful destinations—in one of the more desirable concert markets – in the world.
The Pacific Amphitheatre is conveniently located near three major freeways—the 405, 55 and 73—so access/egress by car is quick and easy, and there are acres of parking spaces on site.
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Regency Storage Systems provided the building materials for this indoor storage conversion project in Napoleonville, Louisiana. Due to the growing demand for storage space, the owner of a strip mall wanted to convert his commercial space in to an indoor storage facility.
The 1st building is an indoor storage, it stands 33'9″x14'3 1/2″x6′ and houses (1) one 33'9″ climate controlled unit w/ a 6'x8′ framed opening. The 2nd indoor storage building stands 14'2″x86'2″x6 and houses (9) nine 9'6″x14'2″ climate controlled storage units w/ 6'x8′ framed openings. The 3rd indoor storage building stands 11'8″x86'2″ and houses (9) nine 9'6″x11'8″ climate controlled storage units w/ 6'x8′ framed openings. Louisiana engineer stamped drawings were also included.
This building was already designed in accordance with county building codes when it was originally built as a strip mall, therefore the wind speed and snow load were not factored into the engineering floor plans.
The city of Napoleonville, Louisiana is located about 33 miles outside Morgan City and 14 miles from the Donaldsonville.


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With Advanced Features Rails Stays as Favorite
January 7, 2013 | 3 min read | By admin
In Ruby on Rails
The frequency at which Ruby on Rails, written in Rails programming language, is chosen as a framework to develop web applications is highly superior to other open source technologies.
Rails, as it is often called as, is an open source platform which uses the object oriented programming language enabling Ruby on Rails developers to develop simple and competent web applications rich in interactivity and flexibility.
One of the features which intrigue programmers to turn into Ruby on Rails programmers is the simplicity of the platform to ease the process of writing code for even the most complex of developments. By allowing every Ruby on Rails developer to analyze a project based on convention instead of concentrating on the configuration, the process of development is made almost effortless.
By relaxing convention at instances where the relaxation doesn't make much of an impact to the development the Ruby on Rails programmer can tweak the configuration part of coding to customize the project. This saves a lot of time and effort enabling in the completion of projects at a rapid pace. Using the Model View Controller, Rails simplifies the coding aspect of the development as MVC organizes the structure of the coding that is done.
By doing this the related code gets highlighted in the project and the complexity of the code gets diminished. This MVC feature also helps in segregating the project into three parts: Model, View and Controller. The model takes care of the interactivity part of the project which deals with databases, servers etc. The model separates the web application from the rest of the backend and the controller.
These are some of the aspects which make developing Ruby on Rails development highly effective and simply effortless. And with such advanced features provided by this platform the developers using it are definitely not looking for an alternative.
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I love the description of being stuck in the 'messy middle', it really resonates with me. And this is where I find myself again, experiencing the messy middle. Doubts and frustrations bubbling up, constant questioning, and feeling like everything is really hard work – argh!
I'm working on a big project which feels like it's plateaued and I'm not sure whether my original plan will work out or if I need to pivot. My inner critic has had a field day and I've had to do a lot of work on myself. It feels rubbish, but I know it's all part of the journey.
For me, it's when you're right in the middle of a project or process and feel like you're floundering. You've lost the initial enthusiasm of starting out and you're past the point of no return. You must keep going, one step at a time, even though you're not close enough to see the finish line yet.
The messy middle is a place filled with uncertainty, struggles, where you can feel tired, vulnerable and overwhelmed. You want to avoid it, unfortunately, there's no escape if you want to progress. The middle isn't pretty, but it is illuminating and full of essential realisations. It's the part where the magic happens, and you have to go through it to get to the end.
I'm reading 'Rising Strong' by Brené Brown and this morning, it was all about the messy middle. Perfect timing!
Brené shared a story about a meeting she had with Pixar Studio where they likened the 'messy middle' to act two of their storytelling. It's the bit the writers find most challenging, but it's critical to the story and can't be missed out.
It's the hero's journey (Joseph Campbell) made up of three acts and forms the framework of all great myths.
First, you're called to the adventure and the rules are established.
Second, you look for a comfortable way to solve the problem, but you find out what it's really going to take to get through.
Third, you've learnt the lesson and know what to do to move forward.
Brené describes the messy middle as a dark, vulnerable and turbulent place we will do anything to avoid it. Unfortunately, it's a non-negotiable part of the process. Experience and success don't give you an easy passage through it, they just provide you with the faith knowing you can navigate it.
Recognise the messy middle is part of the journey and you can't skip it.
Becoming aware of and getting curious about our emotions and feelings and how they connect with the way we think and behave.
Being honest about the stories we are making up about the struggle. Challenge them to determine the truth. Identify what is self-protection and needs to change in order to move forward.
Write a new ending to our story based on the learnings. Use this to transform ourselves and change how we engage with the world.
I find at times like these, my support network is priceless. Surround yourself with people who are on your side and supportive. Those who will listen when necessary and hold you accountable when you need a reality check. These are the people you can bounce ideas off and believe in you. They will remind you, you are enough, and you're heading in the right direction.
I'm lucky to have a business buddy and a mastermind group who will help me make sense of what's happening. Another great option is to have a mentor or coach to help keep you moving through your 'messy middle'. Contact me for a chat and find out how I can help you.


Melon Ball Recipe. How to prepare a delicious Melon Ball Cocktail!
BarBug! shows you how to make a MELON BALL Mixed Drink.
BarBug! is now serving up a Melon Ball! He shows you his Melon Ball mixed drink recipe and makes suggestions for spirits, mixers and the proper serving glass.
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This is a wonderful fallback salad when you are not sure what to have for dinner. I used organic spinach leaves, freshly cooked bacon and sliced strawberries. The finishing touch was a drizzle of Basil Olive Oil and Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar. So yummy with the salty and sweet flavors and gone in seconds. I did have to share a few times with the hubby, but I didn't mind too much. Anytime I can get him to eat something other than a burger, I have won the battle!


The Consul will be visiting Port of Spain from March 25 to 29, 2019. During her visit, two sessions will be dedicated to setting up proxy voting.
The St. Lucia-based French Consul will be visiting Port of Spain from February 4-6 2019. Click on the Article for more information.
On the eve of the opening of the COP 24, The Embassy hosted, at the French Residence, the participants of the Climate Change Leadership Academy workshop, in conjunction with the Embassy of Costa Rica.


On 5 Aug, a retaining wall of a holding pond at the now retired Gold King mine was accidentally breached by workers from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), releasing millions of gallons of contaminants into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River. News reports and pictures showed the bright orange plume cascading through towns along the river, especially the recreation hot spot of Durango. This is one of the largest spills in the river since 1978, when the Sunnyside Mine breached the floor of Lake Emma high above Silverton, sending an estimated 500 million gallons of water and sludge into downstream waters. Nevertheless, the Gold King spill caused a spectacular, if transient, spike in concentration of total and dissolved metals in the Animas River – from arsenic to zinc – in a profile pretty typical of concentrated mine drainage oozing from old mines in the San Juan mountains. This mine has been slowly leaching and leaking contaminants into Cement creek for years, and was designated a Superfund cleanup site. The spill was caused during a remediation effort to install a pipe to drain and treat the backed up waters in the mine, but the amount of water and back pressure was underestimated and led to the blow out.
Many are obviously concerned about the long term effects on people and fish along the popular recreation areas and populated regions along the Animas (note that thefisheries of the San Juan were not impacted by the spill). Recently, the EPA released data collected over the past two weeks, which shows surface water metal levels at 24 sampling locations along the watershed below the spill are "trending toward pre-event conditions." Metal levels in the sediment are below the agency's recreational screening level. However, environmental officials say their long-term concern centers around the potential for stirring up of sediment during "high-water events" and the sludge's effect on people who are continually using or exposed to the water for long periods – several weeks – of time. The effects on aquatic life still remain unknown, state wildlife officials say, but no immediate widespread impacts have been observed.


The doctor, a pale, nervous young man, dressed in an ultra-professional, long black frock-coat, with a high, white collar cutting off his dapper side-whiskers in the centre, rubbed his hands together and smiled. In the thick, burly man in front of him he scented a patient, and it would be his first. His scanty resources had begun to run somewhat low, and, although he had his first quarter's rent safely locked away in the right-hand drawer of his desk, it was becoming a question with him how he should meet the current expenses of his very simple housekeeping. He bowed, therefore, waved his visitor in, closed the hall door in a careless fashion, as though his own presence thereat had been a purely accidental circumstance, and finally led the burly stranger into his scantily furnished front room, where he motioned him to a seat. Dr. Wilkinson planted himself behind his desk, and, placing his finger-tips together, he gazed with some apprehension at his companion. What was the matter with the man? He seemed very red in the face. Some of his old professors would have diagnosed his case by now, and would have electrified the patient by describing his own symptoms before he had said a word about them. Dr. Horace Wilkinson racked his brains for some clue, but Nature had fashioned him as a plodder--a very reliable plodder and nothing more. He could think of nothing save that the visitor's watch-chain had a very brassy appearance, with a corollary to the effect that he would be lucky if he got half-a-crown out of him. Still, even half-a-crown was something in those early days of struggle.
Whilst the doctor had been running his eyes over the stranger, the latter had been plunging his hands into pocket after pocket of his heavy coat. The heat of the weather, his dress, and this exercise of pocket-rummaging had all combined to still further redden his face, which had changed from brick to beet, with a gloss of moisture on his brow. This extreme ruddiness brought a clue at last to the observant doctor. Surely it was not to be attained without alcohol. In alcohol lay the secret of this man's trouble. Some little delicacy was needed, however, in showing him that he had read his case aright--that at a glance he had penetrated to the inmost sources of his ailments.
"Yes, I was just going to tell you. I heard of your coming, but I couldn't get round before----" He broke into a nervous little cough.
Dr. Horace Wilkinson collapsed into his chair. " Then you're not a patient?" he gasped.
"If you could make it convenient, sir, now that I am here, it would save trouble----"
When he had gone Dr. Wilkinson rearranged his room, as was his habit a dozen times in the day. He laid out his large Quain's Dictionary of Medicine in the forefront of the table so as to impress the casual patient that he had ever the best authorities at his elbow. Then he cleared all the little instruments out of his pocket-case--the scissors, the forceps, the bistouries, the lancets--and he laid them all out beside the stethoscope, to make as good a show as possible. His ledger, day-book, and visiting-book were spread in front of him. There was no entry in any of them yet, but it would not look well to have the covers too glossy and new, so he rubbed them together and daubed ink over them. Neither would it be well that any patient should observe that his name was the first in the book, so he filled up the first page of each with notes of imaginary visits paid to nameless patients during the last three weeks. Having done all this, he rested his head upon his hands and relapsed into the terrible occupation of waiting.
And yet it was a bustling, prosperous town, with so much money in it that it seemed strange that a man with a trained brain and dexterous fingers should be starved out of it for want of employment. At his desk, Dr. Horace Wilkinson could see the never-ending double current of people which ebbed and flowed in front of his window. It was a busy street, and the air was forever filled with the dull roar of life, the grinding of the wheels, and the patter of countless feet. Men, women, and children, thousands and thousands of them passed in the day, and yet each was hurrying on upon his own business, scarce glancing at the small brass plate, or wasting a thought upon the man who waited in the front room. And yet how many of them would obviously, glaringly have been the better for his professional assistance. Dyspeptic men, anemic women, blotched faces, bilious complexions--they flowed past him, they needing him, he needing them, and yet the remorseless bar of professional etiquette kept them forever apart. What could he do? Could he stand at his own front door, pluck the casual stranger by the sleeve, and whisper in his ear, "Sir, you will forgive me for remarking that you are suffering from a severe attack of acne rosacea, which makes you a peculiarly unpleasant object. Allow me to suggest that a small prescription containing arsenic, which will not cost you more than you often spend upon a single meal, will be very much to your advantage." Such an address would be a degradation to the high and lofty profession of Medicine, and there are no such sticklers for the ethics of that profession as some to whom she has been but a bitter and a grudging mother.
In an instant he was rubbing his hands again with his blandest professional smile. These were patients, then, whom he had tried to hunt from his doorstep--the very first patients, whom he had waited for so impatiently. They did not look very promising. The man, a tall, lank-haired gypsy, had gone back to the horse's head. There remained a small, hard-faced woman with a great bruise all round her eye. She wore a yellow silk handkerchief round her head, and a baby, tucked in a red shawl, was pressed to her bosom.
"Hum! Yes. Measles, sure enough--and a smart attack."
"And now that you've seen it, sir, I'll go on, for Reuben--that's my man--is in a hurry."
"But my fee is half-a-crown." The doctor's views of the glory of his profession cried out against this wretched haggling, and yet what was he to do? "Where am I to get 'arf-a-crown? It is well for gentlefolk like you who sit in your grand houses, and can eat and drink what you like, an' charge 'arf-a-crown for just saying as much as, `'Ow d'ye do?' We can't pick up' arf-crowns like that. What we gets we earns 'ard. This sevenpence is just all I've got. You told me to feed the child light. She must feed light, for what she's to have is more than I know."
"Hullo! hullo! hullo! What's this--heh?" cried the irritable man. "Are you Dr. Wilkinson? Eh?"
"Really, now. You seem very young--much younger than I expected. Well, well, well, Mason's old, and yet he don't seem to know much about it. I suppose we must try the other end now. You're the Wilkinson who wrote something about the lungs? Heh?"
Here was a light! The only two letters which the doctor had ever written to The Lancet--modest little letters thrust away in a back column among the wrangles about medical ethics and the inquiries as to how much it took to keep a horse in the country--had been upon pulmonary disease. They had not been wasted, then. Some eye had picked them out and marked the name of the writer. Who could say that work was ever wasted, or that merit did not promptly meet with its reward?
"No?--that's queer too. He knows you and thinks a lot of your opinion. You're a stranger in the town, are you not?"
"Nevertheless I am Dr. Wilkinson--Dr. Horace Wilkinson, of 114 Canal View."
This page was last edited on 13 April 2012, at 17:51.