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Луцевич — белорусская фамилия.

 Луцевич, Андрей Филиппович (1919—1944) — Герой Советского Союза.
 Луцевич, Владислава Францевна (1891—1960) — жена Янки Купалы и первый директор его музея.
 Луцевич, Иван Доминикович (Янка Купала, 1882—1942) — белорусский поэт и переводчик, драматург, публицист.

 Луцевич, Сергей Валерьевич (род. 1975) — российский футболист.
 Луцевич, Терентий (род. 1991) — белорусский футболист.
 Луцевич, Эммануил Викентьевич (1928—2016) — советский и российский хирург.


Explore the Joanneum Quarter and 3 museums with your 48hour pass. The museums featured are the Museum of Natural History, Neue Galerie, and BRUSEUM. After your visit in the museums take a rest and enjoy refreshments in the adjoining cafe Oho. Please reserve your table for Lunch in advance under the following telephone number: +43-660/266 1056Lunch (a delicious dish of the day including a non alcoholic beverage of choice) can be booked Tue to Sat from 11:30 – 14:30.


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Review of 2011: Cinema - 10 Favourite Films
Cinema-memories, 2011.
Texan boyhoods. Parisian chimes at midnight. The end of the world. On Tresco, a painter gives a young man some advice. In Nottingham, two men meet, connect, part. Somewhere, a wedding reception goes off the rails. A Roman hero in a Balkan warzone. A novel use for Viagra. A mother and daughter ponder loss. A portly fantasist turns up in someone else's fantasy. A waiting cat gets philosophical. Christophe Honoré goes p*rn... Not quite a movie year to match 2010 for me, but, even so, 2011 offered some incredible cinema experiences, many of which demonstrated film's ability to encompass the domestic and the cosmic as no other medium can do.
Archipelago (dir. Joanna Hogg)
Joanna Hogg's tender, funny chamber drama, revealing under-the-surface tensions (and under-the-surface love) on a family vacation on Tresco, makes most other films this year look heavy-handed and overstated by comparison. Beautiful work from Tom Hiddleston, Kate Fahy, Lydia Leonard, Amy Lloyd and Christopher Baker.
Weekend (dir. Andrew Haigh)
Well, here's a surprise. Not one but two British films ending up on this year's list... Haigh's Nottingham-set boy-meets-boy romance is perfectly scaled, beautifully observed, brilliantly acted, and convincing in every detail.
Elena (dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev)
Oh boy. My favourite film of the London Film Festival was Zvyagintsev's third movie, a subtle but bracingly intense drama that explores issues of class and social status in contemporary Russia through the story of the title character (brilliantly played by Nadezhda Markina). A Tarkovsky for those of us who (confession time) have been bored by the majority of Tarkovsky's work, Zvyagintsev is as philosophically-inclined as his illustrious predecessor but without losing sight of character and narrative. Elena is a marvellously assured piece of filmmaking: beautifully rhythmed, rich in unstressed details, and full of spaces for the viewer's involvement and interpretation.
A Separation (dir. Asghar Farhadi)
I don't know anyone who didn't love and admire this: Farhadi's splendid, complex drama seemed to grip and involve everyone who saw it.
Melancholia (dir. Lars von Trier)
It's the end of the world as they know it. And Lars's characters feel… well, not exactly fine.
The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)
As divisive as Melancholia. Sure, "that" montage is a chore and the ending is soggy. But Malick's grandiose evolution opus has the most wonderful stretches: piercingly evocative scenes of Texan boyhood that strike many deep chords. Risible at its most expansive, then, but singularly affecting at its most personal and intimate.
Midnight in Paris (dir. Woody Allen)
At which American audiences finally renewed their love affair with Woody Allen. And indeed who could resist Allen's completely charming and generous-spirited time-travel comedy, a valentine to Paris, an ode to living in the now? Less loved, Allen's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010), which got its British release this year, also had its merits, not least a lovely performance from Gemma Jones.
The Future (dir. Miranda July)
A few very inventive and original movies emerged from America this year, among them Miranda July's The Future, a brilliant meditation on time that made me exclaim an enthralled "Wow!" on two occasions.
Dark Horse (dir. Todd Solondz)
Toning down the misanthropy and the shock value a notch Todd Solondz produced in Dark Horse one of his most involving and resonant films, one that follows its portly protagonist into a very odd liaison - and even further into his even odder fantasy life. Its narration unravelling as the protagonist unravels, Dark Horse takes some wonderfully confounding twists and turns as it progresses, culminating in an exquisite final shot. And few filmmakers can match Solondz's unnerving ability to capture the sheer awkwardness of human interaction on screen.
Coriolanus (dir. Ralph Fiennes)
And wait a minute ... is that a third British film on the list? Ralph Fiennes's big 'n' brawny adaptation of one of Shakespeare's least-loved tragedies doesn't win many points for subtlety. But it's still one of the most memorable Shakespeare adaptations seen in many a year.
Honourable mentions and 2010 releases not seen until this year:
Rabbit Hole, True Grit, Homme Au Bain, A Simple Life, Li and the Poet, Bal, A Screaming Man, Farewell, Animal Kingdom, Potiche
Labels: 2011, A Separation, Archipelago, Coriolanus, Dark Horse, Elena, Film Review, Melancholia, Midnight in Paris, The Future, Weekend
Review of 2011: Theatre - 10 Favourite Productions
Make of it what you will, there was a hell of a lot of theatre that polarised people this year, and several of those productions seem to have ended up on this list. You didn't hear many theatre-goers saying that they "quite liked" I Am the Wind or The School for Scandal or the Young Vic Hamlet - and the diversity of responses kept post-show debates lively, both in the Twittersphere and in what used to be known as the real world. The difficulty I had in whittling this list down to just ten shows (note the unseemly amount of "Honourable Mentions") confirms that 2011 was, overall, an excellent theatre year with many a welcome revival, a few strong new plays, and some great Shakes, plus a few inevitable disappointments, of course. And, most memorably perhaps, the work of actors, giving performances of sometimes startling originality and inventiveness. Max Reinhardt: "We can telegraph and telephone and wire pictures across the ocean; we can fly over it. But ... the human being next to us is still as far away as the stars. The actor takes us on this way."
The Comedy of Errors (Propeller; Sheffield Lyceum)
"Madam, do you have a Devil inside you? …Would you like one?" So enquired Tony Bell's exceedingly cheeky Dr. Pinch - Robert Duvall's Apostle via Les Patterson - to a rather startled woman on the third row, having just led the assembled company in a raucous gospel number entitled "He Was Saved!" That sequence was the exhilarating highlight of Propeller's altogether miraculous version of one of Shakespeare's creakier comedies, a production that, along with their stunning Richard III (which made my list last year), constituted one of the company's greatest-ever double-bills. Propeller's Comedy was the feel-good show of the year for me, exemplifying the particular brand of lyricism and wild inventiveness that characterises the work of our best (fact!) Shakespeare company. What pleasure and insight these guys offer - even when they choose to draw attention to certain audience members' bald spots. Bonus points to Henry V as well.
A Delicate Balance (Almeida)
Existential angst in a well-appointed drawing-room is something I can't seem to resist. Especially when we're talking about Edward Albee's maniacally convoluted, Henry-James-goes-Pop dialogue being immaculately delivered by a brilliant cast including Penelope Wilton, Imelda Staunton, Tim Pigott-Smith and (intoning my favourite line of the year) Diana Hardcastle. By turns funny, moving and chilling, James Macdonald's production didn't delight everyone. But to me it seemed perfectly attuned to the play's own, very delicate balance between comedy and tragedy, philosophy and bitchery, craziness and calm.
Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Trevor Nunn's season at Theatre Royal Haymarket disappointed, in the end, but it opened with a gem: a production of Terence Rattigan's Flare Path that had all the human drama, poignancy and humour that you could wish for. Few would call this WWII drama about a group of RAF pilots, crew and their wives holed up, between raids, in a Lincolnshire hotel one of Rattigan's finest or most penetrating works. And yet in a year that saw a fair number of productions staged to mark the centenary of the playwright's birth this is in some ways the one that I recall with the most affection. In a sterling ensemble, Sienna Miller failed to shine, but there were beautiful characterisations elsewhere, especially from Harry Hadden-Paton, James Purefoy and (star of the show) Sheridan Smith who, with Purefoy, shared one of the year's most touching scenes. A bit of all right, all round.
Anna Christie (Donmar)
"Don't talk dat vay, Anna!" Look - or, rather, listen - past those accents and you'll find in Rob Ashford's atmospheric production as strong and sensitive account of O'Neill's hoary drama as you could ever hope to see. A strapping Jude Law - as beefy of bicep as of brogue - gave a memorable performance, but the evening belonged to Ruth Wilson, goose-bump-inducingly good in the title role.
Grief (National Theatre, Cottesloe)
Quiet heartbreak in a suburban living room. Its understated tone and measured pace proved a turn-off to many. But I found Mike Leigh's latest to be one of the most emotionally affecting experiences of the year. (And after the disappointment of his last film Another Year, for me, this came as something of a relief.) As memorably as any other production I saw in 2011, Grief succeeded in putting an emotional state on the stage. There was something about the languid-yet-taut rhythm of this production that I found completely immersive: watching it felt like being placed, ever so gently, into a vice. Superb performances, too, especially from the amazing Lesley Manville, here the beating heart of one of the most humane and tender dramas Leigh has ever produced.
Hamlet! The Musical (Richmond)
"Where else? Where else? Where else? ELSINORE!" Very silly but also very smart, this was one of the happiest nights I had in a theatre in 2011, so happy, in fact, that I went to see the show again three days later. Here's hoping for a 2012 revival. Altogether now: "The question is to be or not to be..."
The Golden Dragon (Arcola)
A (warmly appreciated) gesture against what its director Ramin Gray termed "crawling realism," Actors Touring Company's excellent production of Roland Schimmelpfennig's play anatomised economic migration and its resultant exploitations through exciting anti-naturalistic means. But as its cast crossed lines of gender, age and even species to create the diverse protagonists of the establishment of the title, the humanity of Schimmelpfennig's writing - and, ultimately, its emphasis upon theatre as a site of empathy and imaginative transformation - rang as clear as a bell.
The School For Scandal (Barbican)
Too cool for School? It's a funny thing about Deborah Warner: there's no director whose ideas seem more questionable, to me, in theory, but whose productions I find so totally thrilling to watch. Approaching Sheridan's classic comedy through all kinds of self-consciously quirky means - rock and fashion show, a touch or two of Brechtian distanciation left over from her great Mother Courage - Warner's po-mo mash-up of a production was sometimes heavy-handed but it succeeded in giving the play the shock of the new. And the themes emerged with surprising clarity, helped by great performances from Alan Howard, Leo Bill and John Shrapnel. Torture for those who didn't respond, apparently, but a deep pleasure for those who did.
Much Ado About Nothing (Globe)
Wa-hey! They say the first time can be a disappointment, but I'm proud and pleased to have - shockingly belatedly, for shame - lost my Globe virginity to Jeremy Herrin's joyous production of Much Ado About Nothing. Very funny, the production also succeeded in doing justice to the play's undertow of sadness and rue. With solid work from the cast across the board (sorry, naysayers, but I even liked Paul Hunter's Dogberry), it boasted an especially delightful Benedick in Charles Edwards, while, as Beatrice, the highly-anticipated return of a certain Eve to the London stage proved conclusively that you cannot beat the Best. David and Catherine Who?
Othello (Sheffield Crucible)
Wired! The estimable Dominic West delivered two of my favourite performances of the year: first as the acerbic academic-in-meltdown in Lindsay Posner's pitch-perfect West End revival of Simon Gray's Butley, and then as a chillingly hale-and-hearty Iago in Daniel Evans's Othello in Sheffield, an altogether excellent production in which Desdemona's handkerchief saw alot of exciting action indeed.
Honourable Mentions (in very rough order of preference): Mary Broome (Orange Tree), Butley (Duchess), Eden End (Richmond), Salt, Root and Roe (Trafalgar), The Deep Blue Sea (Chichester), Richard II (Donmar), The Tempest (Cheek by Jowl/Barbican), The Children's Hour (Comedy), Korczak (Rose Kingston), Bernarda Alba (Union), Journey's End (Richmond), Richard III (Old Vic), The Village Bike (Royal Court), How To Be Happy (Orange Tree), Beasts and Beauties (Hampstead), The Government Inspector (Young Vic).
Disappointments: Twelfth Night (NT), Cause Célébre (Old Vic), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (TRH), The Kitchen (NT), Doctor Faustus (Globe), Driving Miss Daisy (Wyndham's).
Nightmare: I Am the Wind (Young Vic)
Sorry to have missed: London Road (NT)
Yet to see: Matilda (RSC/Cambridge)
Unexpected bonus: Annoying Neil LaBute.
Labels: 2011, A Delicate Balance, Anna Christie, Flare Path, Grief, Hamlet the Musical, The Comedy of Errors, The Golden Dragon, The School For Scandal
Review of 2011: Music - 10 Favourite Albums
2011 turned out to be a year in which the majority of my most beloved artists put out an album (or even two). This meant that I didn't end up making many new musical discoveries this year - and still have many 2011 releases to catch up on (Ryan Adams, M83, St. Vincent, Metronomy, Camille... I'll get to you). But it did offer the very great compensatory pleasure of finding old favourites continuing to surprise, delight and inspire by producing some of their best-ever work. What's more, in their attention to structure, transitions, pace and song-by-song flow, most of the records featured here prove conclusively that there's plenty of life in the album-as-art-form yet, despite claims to the contrary. To quote the venerable Mr. Sexsmith: "This ain't no random shuffle/There's reason in these rhymes …"
Night of Hunters, Tori Amos
Tides and waves. Fires and storms. A relationship hitting the rocks. A 3,000 year flashback. Epiphanies. Imperatives. Blood by your thorn. A fox, a fire muse, and a constellation show the way. Adapting classical pieces by composers including Schubert, Granados, Bach and Satie and recruiting a select band of collaborators to help realise her vision (including the phenomenonal Apollon Musagete Quartett, currently ripping it up with her on tour every night), Amos's latest opus of empowerment is a stunning thing: by turns dramatic and delicate, full of grit and grace. One of her finest achievements, it's an exquisite long night's journey into day - and one that might just have created a few new classical music converts as well. Full album review here. Live review here.
Ashore, June Tabor
Ragged Kingdom, June Tabor and Oysterband
"If you don't like June Tabor then you should just stop listening to music," advised Elvis Costello. A little over-zealous, perhaps, but 2011 certainly proved to be a rather good year to be a Tabor fan. An appropriately immersive experience, Ashore, Tabor's brilliant album on maritime themes, requires and deeply rewards the listener's commitment. The choice of material is superb (a seamless mix of the political and the personal, the ancient and the contemporary, the intimate and the epic), the singing characteristically sublime, and the spacious arrangements so richly evocative that you may feel the need to bundle up in a big cuddly warm jumper every time you put this album on. If I had to pick just one song for the ages it would be the dolorous, windswept take on Cyril Tawney's "The Oggie Man," an indelible vision of human transience compressed into a chorus and two crisp verses. But from the stately re-visiting of "Finisterre" to the widescreen 11-minute close of "Across the Wide Ocean," Les Barker's great song about the Highland Clearances, there are no weak links on this ship. Ditto for Tabor's long-anticipated second collaboration album with Oysterband, a vibrant reunion that even exceeded the glories of Freedom and Rain (1990) for me. Full reviews here and here.
Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009, Tindersticks
Another place to set up home, this one. I wasn't fortunate enough to see Tindersticks perform live this year but this six-CD collection of their stunning soundtracks for Denis's films was compensation enough. Full review here.
The People's Key, Bright Eyes
"You got a soul? Use it." Catchy but contemplative, sketching both tough and redemptive times on the way to the Apocalypse, the songs on The People's Key are some of the sharpest and most substantial that Conor Oberst has written. The sound is cohesive yet diverse. Check out the thrilling stabby guitar-work in "Jejune Stars," the heavy chug of "Haile Sellassie," the steely crawl of "Approximate Sunlight," the beautiful echoy piano intimacy of "Ladder Song," and, especially, the utterly gorgeous electro-rock exuberance of "Triple Spiral." Even the portentous Malick-ish spoken word segments - musings on time, the universe, and the whole damn thing - have grown on me by this stage. I sincerely hope that this isn't, as has been claimed, the last Bright Eyes album. But if it so proves then Oberst, Mogis and Walcott have gone out on a high with this great offering.
Hard Bargain, Emmylou Harris
The Harrow & the Harvest, Gillian Welch
Three of the most loved and respected artists in contemporary country music (aka the O Brother Sireens) released new albums this year. As usual Alison Krauss's record with Union Station didn't get far beyond the "pleasant" box, for me, and wasn't an album that I felt compelled to return to that often. But Emmylou Harris's Hard Bargain and Gillian Welch's The Harrow & the Harvest have continued to absorb and beguile throughout the year. The artists' approach seems similarly minimalist, with just two musicians accompanying Harris on Hard Bargain and Welch and David Rawlings returning to their patented duo format for The Harrow… after the more expansive sound developed on their recent work. But the results couldn't be more different: the underrated Hard Bargain turned out to be Harris's most ambient and fullest-sounding release in some time, its clear-eyed confessions and poignant remembrances cloaked in lovely sonic layers, while The Harrow & the Harvest was quiet and hushed, offering a series of distilled hard-luck tales that combined the mythic and the everyday with consummate ease. Americana classics, both. And two very cool album covers, to boot. Full reviews here and here.
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
"Wake up to your starboard breath"? "Sat down in the soup"? Surely not? As readers of this blog might be aware, I'm a fan of "bad" diction - when it comes to singing, at least. And the fact that I can barely make out a word that Justin Vernon is intoning on Bon Iver - an effect accentuated by the recourse to over-dubbing -only adds to the fascination and beauty of its haunting, gauzy songs to me. A gorgeously atmospheric work; very special. "Towers" is favourite.
Suck It and See, Arctic Monkeys
What's always set Arctic Monkeys apart from the (many, many) guitar bands who appeared in the noughties is Alex Turner's particular lyrical genius. (I'd nominate Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not [2006] as one of the best-written rock albums ever.) There's less of that genius on display on Suck It and See, it must be said : recorded in the States (like its predessor, the brawnier Josh Homme-helmed Humbug [2009]) this album bleaches some of the gorgeous Britishness out of Turner's lyrics and out of the band's sound which is smoother and slicker here. Still, the stand-out moments - "She's Thunderstorms," "Black Treacle," "Library Pictures," "Piledriver Waltz," and "Love is a Laserquest" - convince me that this is a band I'll always have a soft spot for.
Cinderella's Eyes, Nicola Roberts
A list book-ended by redheads, therefore. A stronger singer might give the surprisingly sparky lyrics the punch they deserve. But for the most part Ms. Roberts acquits herself admirably on this very enjoyable solo debut, an album that contains several of my favourite pop songs of the year. Rhian Jones, of Wears the Trousers, sums up the album's appeal best: "It's like finding extracts from The Bell Jar slipped inside a copy of Heat." Cream of the crop: "Gladiator."
Honourable mentions: Don't Stop Singing (Thea Gilmore), Let England Shake (PJ Harvey), Long Player, Late Bloomer (Ron Sexsmith), American Folk Songbook (Suzy Bogguss), Horses and High Heels (Marianne Faithfull), Walk (Israel Cannan), 50 Words For Snow (Kate Bush). And, from 2010, but not heard until this year Olympia (Bryan Ferry) (oh, "Alphaville"!) and Have One On Me (Joanna Newsom). (With thanks to moviesandsongs365 for finally convincing me on the Newsom front.)
Labels: Arctic Monkeys, Bon Iver, Bright Eyes, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, June Tabor, Nicola Roberts, Tindersticks, Tori Amos
Theatre Review: The Ladykillers (Gielgud)
Following Joel and Ethan Coen's fairly disastrous 2004 film remake, it may be considered a daring team that takes on Alexander Mackendrick's The Ladykillers (1955) again. But writer Graham Linehan (Father Ted, The IT Crowd) and director Sean Foley have proved just such brave men. And their rather ingenious stage version of Mackendrick's venerable comedy, now in the West End following a successful run at Liverpool Playhouse, yields considerably more entertaining results than did the Coen bros' misguided film.
One of the most beloved and best-known of the Ealing comedies, Mackendrick's black farce concerns a gang of robbers who, posing as members of a string quintet, rent a room in the subsidence-afflicted King's Cross abode of an elderly widow, Mrs. Wilberforce, from where they plan to carry out their next job: a raid on a security van. The humour emerges, in the main, from the way in which the genteelly innocent (yet surprisingly tough-minded) Mrs. W becomes involved in their nefarious actions, first as an unwitting accomplice and then as an unwitting foil.
Retaining the outline, structure and time-period of William Rose's screenplay, Linehan gives the material a few contemporary spins, most of which work very well. Character histories are amusingly fleshed out - the gang now includes a cross-dresser and a pill-popper amongst their number - while the classic scene in which Mrs. Wilberforce's friends descend on the house expecting a recital is cleverly re-imagined as a parody of "avant-garde" composition.
But what's more surprising are the elements of inventive expressionist dash that Foley's direction brings to the evening. Michael Taylor's superb design is a star in itself, constructing the house as a lop-sided, tilting creation, its contents set a-quiver as trains pass by. And in a brilliant sequence that elicited a round of applause, the heist itself plays out with model trains and cars whizzing across the wall of the building. (Now, that's the way to do driving on stage, Driving Miss Daisy people!)
Such effects would be wasted without the human element, though. And the performances are all wonderful. Peter Capaldi brings gleaming-eyed glee to the Alec Guinness role as the smugly self-satisfied and increasingly unhinged would-be criminal mastermind. Clive Rowe is adorable as the ex-boxer "One-Round," the most dim-witted but also the most good-hearted of the group, who, in this version, reveals untapped musical potential, while Ben Miller's volatile, old-lady-hating Romanian, James Fleet's befuddled Major and Stephen Wight's spiv are equally enjoyable. And as Mrs. Wilberforce the great Marcia Warren flutes, flutters and fusses beguilingly, while finally suggesting as steely a moral resolve as did Katie Johnson (whom she sometimes resembles) in the 1955 film.
The endless series of running gags and slapstick moments occasionally pall, and the evening loses is spark a little in the prolonged no-honour-amongst-thieves climax, though there are some great touches even here, especially the very memorable manner in which Rowe and Capaldi's characters meet their fates. Super-slick but with enough eccentric elements to keep you on your toes, Foley's production exudes assurance. It's terrific fun.
The production runs for 2 hours 15 minutes and is booking until 14th April 2012. Website here.
Labels: Ben Miller, Clive Rowe, Gielgud, James Fleet, Marcia Warren, Peter Capaldi, Review, Stephen Wight, The Ladykillers
Theatre Review: The Importance of Being Earnest - A New Musical (Riverside Studios)
Arriving so soon after the Rose Theatre's production, another version of The Importance of Being Earnest may not seem an especially attractive proposition, despite the deep delight that Wilde's classic comedy is still able to generate. But Hammersmith's Riverside Studios are presenting an Earnest with a difference: a musicalisation of the play that boasts intriguing novelty-value casting, with Gyles Brandreth - actor, author, presenter and former Tory MP - taking on the role of Lady Bracknell. Directed by the versatile Iqbal Khan, attractively designed by Samal Black, and staged in the cosy confines of Riverside's Studio 3, the production proves most enjoyable, and strong enough to engage even those viewers who may have felt that they'd had their fill of this particular play for a while.
Despite updating the action to the 1920s, a move that widens the piece's scope in terms of choreography and musical styles, Douglas Livingstone's book sticks closely to the content and structure of Wilde's play, offering no major changes or revisionist elements. This, coupled with the melodious but relatively reserved style of Adam McGuinness and Zia Moranne's piano-centred score, initially makes the evening seem a little tame. Yet after a solid but somewhat sedate opening, in which Livingstone's lyrics aren't always quite Wilde enough, the production kicks into gear in its second half, which is a pure and unadulterated pleasure. Here, responding to the escalating comic complications of the plot, the tunes are stronger and the lyrics more biting and artful, with hilarious duets for those tentative would-be paramours Miss Prism (Susie Blake) and Dr. Chasuble (Edward Petherbridge), and for Cecily (Flora Spencer-Longhurst) and Gwendolyn (Anya Murphy) during their face-off over tea, as well as a nicely-judged nod to the play's (much-debated) queer subtext in Algernon (Colin Ryan) and Jack (Mark Edel-Hunt)'s bachelor-bromance vaudeville number "On the Spree."
The performances are thoroughly pleasing, too, with spot-on turns from Edel-Hunt as a very likeable Jack, and from Ryan as a louche Algernon. The chaps are well matched by Anya Murphy's supremely pert Gwendolen, and by Flora Spencer-Longhurst, glowing and slightly gaga as Cecily. There's characteristically fine support from veterans Blake and Peterbridge, and wry work from the production's Musical Director, Stefan Bednarczyk, as the butlers Lane and Merriman. And let's not forget Brandreth's striking Queen Mary-modelled Lady Bracknell, a decidedly unfeminine creation with an especially fine line in imperious reactions, and a truly delicious delivery on the sly xenophobe's ode to avarice "In the Funds." All in all, a delight.
The production runs for 2 hours 10 minutes and is booking until 31st December. Further information here.
Labels: Anya Murphy, Colin Ryan, Edward Petherbridge, Gyles Brandreth, Iqbal Khan, Mark Edel-Hunt, Review, Riverside Studios, Susie Blake, The Importance of Being Earnest
5 Christmas Films
Five to watch within the next couple of weeks. Which films will make your list?
Home Alone (Columbus, 1990)
"This is my house - I have to defend it." Vigilantism and family values, John Hughes-style. A childhood obsession, this one, and still capable of inspiring warm and fuzzy feelings.
Gremlins (Dante, 1984)
"And that's how I found out there wasn't a Santa Claus…"
Dans Paris (Honoré 2006)
I love grumpy père Guy Marchand dragging a Christmas tree through the Paris streets and returning home to find Romain Duris having his 80s pop moment. Screen with Honoré's equally adorable wintry musical Les Chansons d'amour (2007) for maximum festive enjoyment.
Joyeux Noël (Carion, 2005)
Christian Carion's sincere and touching film about the Christmas truce.
It's A Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946)
Must we? Oh, go on then.
Labels: Christmas films, Dans Paris, Gremlins, Home Alone, It's A Wonderful Life
Theatre Review: Driving Miss Daisy (Wyndham's)
Sometimes, material that struck you as believable and poignant on film can end up seeming broad, cardboard and obvious on stage. This may sound like something of a contradictory statement after my remarks about The Deep Blue Sea in the previous review, but it's one that I stand by in relation to the unhappy experience that was Calendar Girls and also - to a lesser yet perhaps more painful extent - in relation to David Esbjornson's production of Driving Miss Daisy which ends its successful run at Wyndham's next week.
Alfred Uhry's 1987 play - which charts the gradual growth into closeness of an elderly Jewish woman and her African-American chauffeur Hoke over almost three decades in Atlanta, Georgia - was made into a fine film by Bruce Beresford in 1989 with Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd in the lead roles. Beresford's is pretty much an ideal play-to-film transposition it seems to me (the script was written by Uhry himself), skilfully "opened out" with new scenes and additional characters that add texture and nuance, and a very touching relationship, delicately underplayed, at its centre. But on stage - and despite the presences of Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones - the piece seems more inconsequential and considerably less affecting.
It's not just the way that the driving's handled in Esbjornson's production that's the problem - though the sight of the two actors sitting on a bench and a chair as Jones rotates a steering wheel attached to a pole can't exactly be said to help matters. It's more that the social context seems much sketchier here, and also that a level of hamminess in the performances sometimes exposes the faker elements in the material.
Vanessa Redgrave - still so often a magnetic presence and so very good in the upcoming Coriolanus - doesn't seem completely in her element in this role. She communicates Daisy's cantankerousness amusingly enough, and tries out a few typically odd, inventive things, including a bizarre bit of Isadora-esque movement as the punch-line to the scene in which Daisy convinces herself that Hoke's been stealing. But such bits of business don't seem precisely in character. Elsewhere, she tends to either rattle through the lines at breakneck speed - one of the loveliest passages, Miss Daisy's recollection of the first time that she saw the ocean, is all but thrown away - or else drawls them out affectedly: "A'hm naht pre-edge-jerdiced." (Her wavering Southern accent recalls the one she used to much greater effect in her startling turn as Miss Amelia in The Ballad of the Sad Café [1991].) James Earl Jones's performance is all about The Voice, and although he has some effective moments, he indulges in a tad too much bellowing and cackling. And Boyd Gaines as Daisy's son Boolie also strikes over-effusive notes. A few scenes - Hoke's confession of his illiteracy; the Alzheimer's-afflicted Miss Daisy finally speaking the truth about what Hoke means to her - resonate. But overall Esbjornson's production offers less of a sense of involvement in characters and relationships than it does the spectacle of observing icons, acting. A compliant - or complacent? - mood of reverence (including applause between the scene changes) fills the auditorium.
The production runs for 1 hour 30 minutes, until December 17th.
Posted by Alex Ramon at 12/12/2011 03:22:00 am 1 comment:
Labels: Boyd Gaines, Driving Miss Daisy, Review. Vanessa Redgrave
Film Review: The Deep Blue Sea (Davies, 2011)
Terence Rattigan's centenary has been commemorated by several major stagings of the playwright's work this year - including London revivals of Flare Path and Cause Celebre, and an excellent season at Chichester which presented The Deep Blue Sea and The Browning Version alongside new plays inspired by Rattigan's life and work. Apart from a series of films and TV adaptations screened at BFI Southbank, cinema has been slower to celebrate Rattigan's achievements, however, despite his close association with the medium throughout the 1940s and 50s.
So the news that Terence Davies would be making his first fiction feature in eleven years with an adaptation of The Deep Blue Sea starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale in the lead roles was a particular cause for celebration, especially for those of us who admire Rattigan and Davies just about equally. Unfortunately, though, and despite some striking and affecting individual moments, the meeting of Terry and Terry hasn't quite resulted in the perfect marriage that might have been anticipated.
Along with The Browning Version and The Winslow Boy, The Deep Blue Sea is recognised as Rattigan's most flawlessly-constructed work - the epitome of the "well-made play," indeed - its water-tight three act structure presenting the final few hours in the affair between Hester Collyer and her younger ex-RAF lover Freddie as they play out in a shabby London boarding house.
Resisting the idea of "just photographing the play," Davies has - unsurprisingly and justifiably - transformed that structure, developing a non-linear narrative that presents episodes from Hester's past with Freddie (Hiddleston) and her husband William (Russell Beale) in counterpoint with her present situation, and that clearly reflects Davies's own abiding concern with the workings of memory. (Unlike the play, the film presents the events entirely from Hester's point-of-view.) Always strong on ambience, Davies evokes the drear of 1950s London with the feeling with which he conjured 50s Liverpool in Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992), Florian Hoffmeister's misty, soft-focus cinematography and James Merifield's production design sustaining a distinctive - though not precisely pleasurable - oppressive mood. The opening is masterly: a nine-minute sequence scored to Samuel Barber's gorgeously intense Violin Concerto that pans from the Ladbroke Grove street up the front of the boarding house to find Hester in the throes of her suicide attempt. Davies-land (milk bottles on the doorstep, sounds of "the wireless") and Rattigan-land form a perfect synthesis here. And the ending - a beautifully-judged reverse of this sequence - is similarly strong.
It's in the middle that things get a little sticky, at times. For it's hard not to conclude that, in re-jigging the play's structure, Davies has removed the material's dramatic motor. The film drifts and dribbles, tension (and humour) dissipating in sequences that sometimes feel stilted and look posed. And the new scenes and characters that Davies has devised don't, for the most part, seem like improvements upon those he's excised. Especially ill-advised is a bogus early sequence - striving for bitchy wit and missing the target - that finds Hester facing off with her monstrous mummy-in-law (Barbara Jefford), the latter helpfully underlining the societal forces that Hester is up against when she intones "Beware of passion... It always leads to something ugly." (The first part of that quote has become the film's tagline.) As Hester's parson pater the great Oliver Ford Davies is wasted in a similarly superfluous scene in which Hester seeks his counsel (in church! Wouldn't he grant her an audience at home?) only to be rebuffed. Such moments seem, for Davies, atypically crass ways of ensuring audience sympathy with Hester, and emphasising the rebelliousness of her actions.
Elsewhere, the director's movie-ardour leads him into a few unfortunate indulgences too, including a Blitz flashback that seems to express nothing more than the filmmaker's pleasure at devising an elaborate tracking shot, and a Brief Encounter homage for Hester's second suicide attempt. (It might have been more fun if Davies had had Hester and Freddie duck into an illicit matinee at one point - to watch Alec and Laura ducking into their illicit matinee in Brief Encounter, perhaps?)
There's a crucial piece of miscasting, too, I'd argue. Weisz's commitment to the role is evident in every scene, and she acquits herself admirably throughout. But even in her strongest moments here (such as a great final scene) her performance never completely transcends the fact that she seems about ten years too young for the role, an issue that, I think, does diminish our sense of Hester's transgressiveness in falling for Freddie in the first place. ("She looks younger than he does," mused my companion at one point.) And the re-ordering of the scenes impacts upon the arc of the character: as Davies has re-arranged the material, Hester becomes more hysterical when Freddie storms out for the evening than she does when he announces that he's leaving her for good.
Even though he's been directed to overdo Freddie's RAF-slang and his belligerence (especially in an over-pitched argument scene set in an art gallery), the engaging Hiddleston comes through with a good performance. Two pub singalong scenes - quintessential Davies moments, of course - turn out to be two of the finest innovations here, adding more to our sense of Freddie and Hester's relationship than most of the new dialogue does.
And, playing William the cuckold, it's great to see Simon Russell Beale in a decent screen role for once. Hester and William's scenes here may lack the deep sense of complicity and history that other actors have brought to them, but Russell Beale conveys William's predicament with touching understatement. And Davies succeeds in bringing out the poignancy of this triangle, made up of three protagonists who all desire different kinds of love.
But apart from Harry Hadden-Paton, who's likeable in an expanded role as Freddie's friend Jackie Jackson, the supporting roles feel somewhat mismanaged. As Miller, Karl Johnson suffers the most from the cuts, his pivotal role - which, according to Davies, "no-one is convinced by" - reduced to a bit of disgruntled comic business. Ann Mitchell portrays the grimmest Mrs. Elton ever seen before being transformed into a sentimentalised salt-of-the-earth font-of-wisdom towards the end, replacing Miller as the person to shift Hester's perspective on her situation with the pearl: "Suicide? No-one's worth it." (Now how about that as the movie's tag-line?)
Davies's two previous adaptations - the underrated The Neon Bible (1995) and the great The House of Mirth (2000) - seemed like pretty seamless, dynamic mergings of his highly distinctive sensibility and those of the creators of the novels. Here, in contrast, the director's admirable but sometimes heavy-handed drive to cinematise Rattigan's material proves less successful overall. There are, to be sure, many elements to admire in Davies's Deep Blue Sea. But along the way a level of intensity seems to have gone missing.
Labels: Film Review, Harry Hadden-Paton, Karl Johnson, Rachel Weisz, Simon Russell Beale, Terence Davies, Terence Rattigan, The Deep Blue Sea, Tom Hiddleston
Theatre Review: Beasts and Beauties (Hampstead Theatre)
Following its highly successful revival last year, Melly Still's Beasts and Beauties once again takes up residence as the Hampstead's Christmas show. It's a most welcome return for this dark and delectable adaptation of a selection of folk and fairytales - as well as a welcome return to theatre of the imagination at a venue whose programming has been reliant upon fact-based material this season. In its new incarnation, Beasts and Beauties has been shorn of two tales: it now comprises six rather than eight pieces, and benefits from the streamlining. Apart from an enjoyably (and appropriately) modish take on "The Emperor's New Clothes" - which presents the hero as a hilariously strutting and posing fashionista surrounded by suited flunkies - Still and her co-writers (Tim Supple and Carol Ann Duffy) have resisted the temptation to update the stories excessively. Instead, they've trusted the content of the tales to resonate with a contemporary audience, and dramatised them through thrillingly theatrical means that blend diverse elements - song, shadow-play, drawing, puppetry and mime - into a cohesive and dynamic whole.
There's female curiosity and consequent marital terror in the opening "Bluebeard" (which features one sequence so chilling that the small child behind us burst into tears); superb slapstick, suggestive butter-churning and satisfying gender politics in "The Husband Who Was to Mind the House for the Day"; manic anthropomorphising in "Toby and the Wolf"; and a frightening, funny and ultimately very touching take on "Beauty and the Beast." The most striking and surprising of the six pieces might be "The Juniper Tree," though, a stunning adaptation of a German tale that boldly touches upon infanticide and cannibalism before reaching its hard-won redemptive close.
The line between narrator and participant is rendered marvellously fluid in Still's production, and the seven-strong cast - Justin Avoth, Michelle Bonnard, Jake Harders, Rhiannon Harper-Rafferty, Jack Tarlton, Jason Thorpe and Kelly Williams - work brilliantly together, demonstrating superb physical and vocal dexterity as they vividly create characters animal and human (or somewhere in between). Williams is especially effective as she trades the winsomeness of Beauty for the cleaver-wielding frenzy of the stepmother-from-hell in "The Juniper Tree," unleashing some hilarious, Matrix-esque slow-mo moves as a disgruntled colt along the way, while Tarlton's scary-then-sympathetic Beast and Thorpe's dopey dog Toby are among the other stand-out characterisations. But this is the kind of show in which everyone gets their chance to shine, and its inclusive spirit is entirely winning. Still and her collaborators dramatise these tales with all the playfulness, heart and theatrical inventiveness that you could wish for, resulting in what is surely one of the richest and most entertaining family shows to be seen in London this season.
The production runs for 2 hours 15 minutes and is booking until 7 January. Further information at the Hampstead Theatre website.
Labels: Beasts and Beauties, Hampstead Theatre, Jack Tarlton, Jake Harders, Jason Thorpe, Justin Avoth, Kelly Williams, Michelle Bonnard, Review, Rhiannon Harper-Rafferty
Theatre Review: Calendar Girls (touring)
"The global phenomenon is back for the very last time!" trumpets the publicity material for the current tour of Calendar Girls. But whether you consider this news to be a great shame or a blessed relief will be very much down to taste.
The story that inspired Calendar Girls - that of the group of Yorkshire Women's Institute ladies who stripped off for a charity calendar that's now raised more than £3 million - needs no detailed introduction at this juncture. Fashioned from his own screenplay for Nigel Cole's 2003 film, Tim Firth's stage adaptation has enjoyed a successful West End run and sell-out national tours in the last few years. Yet despite the evident audience good-will that's built up around the show, the stage version struggles to replicate the film's success at an artistic level. Rather, Firth's adaptation seems to have drained most of the poignancy and grace notes out of the material, resulting in a show that at times veers perilously close to Carry On Calendar Girls in tone.
As in its previous incarnations, the show, directed by (former cast member) Jack Ryder from Hamish McColl's original production, benefits from strong casting, with Lynda Bellingham and Debbie Chazen reprising their roles as Chris and Ruth, Jennifer Ellison switching roles from Celia to Cora, and Rula Lenska, Jan Harvey, Ruth Madoc and June Watson now joining the team.
For some of the cast, panto season seems to have come early. Speaking in deep tones, Madoc hams outrageously as the stickler WI leader Marie, while Bellingham plays to the hilt Chris's good-hearted cheekiness. As Jessie, the oldest member of the group, June Watson gets the best piece of writing in the play - a monologue on age - perhaps to compensate for the fact that the rest of her dialogue is simply a series of quips and rejoinders of the "No front bottoms!" variety. Channelling Joanna Lumley as Patsy Stone, and using her hair as a prop when the dialogue lets her down, Rula Lenska has her stylish moments as Celia, while Debbie Chazen brings a few endearing touches to the unassertive Ruth, but ultimately can do little with a role that wrests laughs by such comic "business" as having her appear in a rabbit costume. As Annie, whose husband John's death from cancer prompts the women to do the calendar, Jan Harvey delivers the least showy performance, but her scenes with John (an underused Joe McGann) are too brief to generate much emotional impact.
Indeed, for a piece that's based on a true story, it's surprising just how many details here strike false notes. The back-stories that Firth has devised for the characters - a single mother here, a straying hubby there - have little weight, and the characters' dilemmas tend to be resolved in the most contrived and obvious of manners. This is the kind of production in which absolutely everything is on the surface. Tensions arise on cue, followed by hasty reconciliations. Plaintive piano music underscores the "poignant" moments.
The achievements of the real-life Calendar Girls certainly deserve celebrating, and, judging by the vocal response of much of the audience, Calendar Girls is a show that clearly makes a great deal of people very happy indeed. But those anticipating a somewhat less broad approach may find it a disappointing experience overall.
Reviewed for British Theatre Guide.
Labels: Calendar Girls, Debbie Chazen, Jan Harvery, Jennifer Ellison, Joe McGann, Lynda Bellingham, Rula Lenska, Ruth Madoc
Film Review: The Tree (Bertuccelli, 2010)
In The Tree (2010), Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Dawn, an Anglo-Frenchwoman living with her Australian husband Peter (Aden Young) and their four children - teen Tim (Christian Byers) , 10-year-old Lou (Tom Russell), toddler Charlie (Gabriel Gotting) and eight-year-old Simone (Morgana Davies)- in the Queensland outback. Peter's sudden death throws the family into disorder and grief, and is followed shortly thereafter by Simone's announcement that she's able to communicate with her father through the leaves of the large tree that's next to the family's house.
Adapted from a novel by Judy Pascoe, Julie Bertuccelli's second feature following the superb Since Otar Left (2003) is an equally distinctive - though tonally very different - family drama. Despite the premise, symbolic and spiritual resonances are downplayed; instead, Bertuccelli locates the substance and texture of the movie in the marvellously messy and realistic scenes depicting the family's daily life. The Australian landscapes are filmed expressively, and the performances that the director gets from her cast are superb across the board. Davies's angelic looks belie a wonderfully tough-minded and un-cutesy portrayal of the stubborn Simone, and her scenes with Russell, Gotting and Byers convey sibling tensions and complicities with total naturalness and believability. Marton Csokas, so very bad in Peter Hall's Twelfth Night production at the National Theatre earlier this year, is easy and charming as the new man who (to Simone's chagrin) enters Dawn's life. And, as Dawn, Gainsbourg brings her particular candour and emotional transparency to the screen. Some developments in the final third feel schematic, but the movie has built up so much good will - and such a close rapport with its characters - by this stage that the elements of contrivance don't seem to matter very much. Highly recommended.
Labels: Charlottle Gainsbourg, Christian Byers, Julie Bertuccelli, Marton Csokas, Review, The Tree
Theatre Review: The Importance of Being Earnest - ...
Theatre Review: Beasts and Beauties (Hampstead The...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: exim4 show delivered messages is there a command within exim4 (4.70-4.71) package (ubuntu) to display
the message-id (exim's message-id) of delivered messages? (shows as Completed in /var/log/exim4/mainlog) ?
there is a exim4 -bpu command for undelivered ones.
Purpose: Tell and proof user that his mail was accepted by remote smtp and all problems are not our's :)
Size of log ~ 100 MB per day.

A: As far as I know, there is no builtin command for this, but you could simply use grep and awk:
grep Completed /var/log/exim4/mainlog | awk '{print $3}'

Which should turn this:
2011-04-17 18:03:58 1QBUS6-0004Gc-1p Completed
2011-04-17 18:04:19 1QBUSQ-0004Lp-LT Completed
2011-04-17 18:05:16 1QBUTM-0004hP-Da Completed
2011-04-17 18:05:33 1QBUTd-0004jB-1M Completed
2011-04-17 18:08:23 1QBUWN-00052T-2E Completed
2011-04-17 18:09:39 1QBUXb-0005Co-Gc Completed
2011-04-17 18:09:51 1QBUXn-0005G0-6L Completed
2011-04-17 18:10:30 1QBUYQ-0005Jo-47 Completed

...into this:
1QBUS6-0004Gc-1p
1QBUSQ-0004Lp-LT
1QBUTM-0004hP-Da
1QBUTd-0004jB-1M
1QBUWN-00052T-2E
1QBUXb-0005Co-Gc
1QBUXn-0005G0-6L
1QBUYQ-0005Jo-47

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Das Sieghochwasser 1909 im Februar war das höchste der vielen Hochwasser der Sieg, zugleich gab es in vielen anderen Landstrichen Deutschlands ebenfalls Hochwasseralarm. Als Auslöser galten umfangreiche Regenfälle, gekoppelt mit schneller Schneeschmelze und einer ungünstigen Witterungskonstellation.

Beschreibung der Schäden
Nach einem Bericht der Eitorfer Zeitung wurden in der Gemeinde Herchen sämtliche Brücken, mit Ausnahme der an Haus Dernburg, vom Hochwasser weggerissen. Dies betraf die Brücken in Röcklingen, Herchen, die abgebildete Eisenbahnbrücke sowie die Brücken in Stromberg und Troisdorf.

In Eitorf-Merten wurde ein Pfeiler der Eisenbahnbrücke der Siegstrecke unterspült, so dass sich die Gleise absenkten. In Hennef wurde eine Herde von 600 Schafen vom Wasser eingeschlossen, von denen 150 durch Feuerwehr und mutige Bürger gerettet werden konnten.

In Siegburg stand das Siegwasser nach einer Aufnahme des Fotografen Eduard Dickopf bis auf die Frankfurter Straße (ehemalige B8).

Einzelnachweise

Hochwasserereignis (Rhein)
Geschichte (Rhein-Sieg-Kreis)
Sieg (Fluss)
Naturkatastrophe 1909
Rheinprovinz

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The Scholar Everyone Sought: Claudine Gay, Harvard's Next President
Following Walkout, Hundreds Email Harvard to Fire Harvard Professor Comaroff Over Harassment Allegations
'Spiritually Stimulating': Harvard Students Embark on First Umrah Trip in Four Years
Family Appeals Dismissal in Wrongful Death Lawsuit Over 2015 Harvard Student Suicide
Harvard Affiliates Hold Vigil for Victims of Lunar New Year Weekend Mass Shootings
Harvard Law School Pledges $500,000 Gift to Royall House and Slave Quarters
At First State of the City Address, Mayor Michelle Wu '07 Promises City Planning Overhaul
Former Philadelphia Mayor Tapped to Chair IOP's Senior Advisory Committee
By Jasper G. Goodman, Crimson Staff Writer November 11, 2021
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Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter was tapped to serve as chair of the Harvard Institute of Politics's Senior Advisory Committee Wednesday, filling a role that was left vacant for nearly two years.
Nutter, who was elected twice as mayor of Philadelphia, will become chair of the 17-member committee after serving as a general member of the group for just eight months. His appointment comes after several high-profile members of the body have resigned over the last two years.
The IOP Senior Advisory Committee has helped oversee and direct the Institute since it was founded in 1966 as a memorial to former President John F. Kennedy '40. The committee's role in overseeing the Institute has increasingly become a source of controversy since the 2009 death of former U.S. Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy '54-'56, who helped steer the organization for decades as the main Kennedy family representative on the committee.
Caroline B. Kennedy '80 — JFK's last living child, who took over as the family's main representative on the committee after Ted Kennedy died — resigned from her post in February 2020 amid concerns over the governance, performance, and leadership of the IOP.
In a letter to University President Lawrence S. Bacow after her resignation, Caroline Kennedy wrote that changes to the committee's role in overseeing the Institute proposed by Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf "did not reflect the mission or history of the IOP as a non-academic center founded as a memorial to my father, in which three generations of our family has invested time, effort and devotion."
Nutter will replace former White House Chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein, who resigned from the committee around the same time as Kennedy more than 20 months ago after serving as chair for the previous seven years.
"The IOP is one of the world's premiere arenas for political debate and policy making, and I'm thrilled to provide guidance and leadership of the Advisory Committee as the IOP meets the evolving challenges of our 21st century democracy," Nutter said in a press release Wednesday.
Elmendorf, who has played a more active role in overseeing operations at the IOP than some of his predecessors, said in a press release Wednesday that Harvard "will benefit greatly from Mayor Michael Nutter's leadership on the Senior Advisory Committee."
"His valuable experience in governance and elected office will help the IOP continue to expand and innovate in its mission to inspire students to lives of public service," Elmendorf said.
—Staff writer Jasper G. Goodman can be reached at jasper.goodman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jasper_Goodman.
Read more in University News
Rep. Pressley, Supporters Call on Harvard to Raise Staff Wages at Tuesday Rally
IOP Politics Harvard Kennedy School University University News Front Middle Feature
A 'Fundamental' Shift: Harvard Institute of Politics Marred by Tensions, Turnover as Kennedy School Asserts Increased Control
Caroline Kennedy, Ken Duberstein Leave Institute of Politics Leadership
The Kennedy Connection
The Crimson Brand Studio
VELLUTO VERDE: TABLE SPORTS REIMAGINED
Reimagining the table sports experience.
Stock up on delicious essentials or treat yourself to something new with Weee!
Your schedule is busy enough. Don't food slow you down. Weee!, the nation's largest Asian grocery, has got you covered. Weee!, the nation's largest Asian grocery, has got you covered.
Harvard Summer School
Build Community at Harvard: 2023 Proctor Opportunities
Still looking for the perfect summer opportunity to expand both your leadership and mentorship skills? Eager to take a summer course while still being able to maintain a job on the side?
Home Chef: Innovative Meals and Ease of Mind at Your Doorstep
It's a typical Sunday night in Harvard Square, and the options are pretty slim. Home Chef Home Chef offers innovative recipes with high-quality ingredients, leaving you time to focus on other responsibilities while satisfying your cravings. Home Chef's wide variety of flavor-packed meals leads the industry in satisfaction rate amongst college students.
10 Successful Harvard Essays | 2022
With the top applicants from every high school applying to the best schools in the country, it's important to have an edge in your college application. Check out ten Harvard application essays below from students who made it in, and hear from expert college consultants about what made these work.


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Cash Logistic Insurance
communications and technology insurance
diamonds and jewellery insurance
Energy Insurance
Financial Institutions Insurance
Fine Art Insurance
food and agriculture insurance
Australian notification regime leads to change
Data breach notifications in Australia have spiked under the country's new mandatory breach notification scheme, which came into force on 22 February 2018.
According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) the regulator has received 63 data breach notifications during the first six weeks of the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme. This compares to 114 data breach notifications made to the OAIC on a voluntary basis during the entire 2016–17 financial year.
This year has seen a number of organisations notify customers of a data breach under the scheme. Family Planning New South Wales recently notified the OAIC and customers that personal information may have been compromised after the organisation suffered a ransomware attack in April. The OAIC is also looking into claims that Australia's Commonwealth Bank lost personal data for 20 million accounts after a contractor failed to destroy magnetic data storage tapes in 2016.
Just over half of the eligible data breach notifications in the first quarter were caused by human error, according to the OAIC quarterly report. Around 44%of reported breaches were the result of malicious or criminal attack, and 3% the result of system faults.
Over three quarters of the breaches involved personal contact information while around a third involved health information and 30% financial details. Some 90% of data breach notifications related to breaches involving the personal information of less than 1,000 individuals, although three breaches affected 1,000 – 9,999 people and a further three breaches 10,000 - 99,999 people.
Health service providers were responsible for the highest proportion of notifications (24%), followed by legal, accounting and management services (16%), finance (13%), private education (10%) and charities (6%).
With the NDB now in place, many Australian businesses are turning their attention to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from 25 May 2018. Given the extraterritorial reach of the GDPR (it covers the data of individuals that reside within the EU when Australian companies have offered to sell them goods/services or is monitoring their behaviour), the regulation is expected to affect a large number of Australian companies. It will also expose them to potential fines of EUR 20 million or 4% of annual turnover if they breach the rules.
The GDPR is similar to Australia's Privacy Act, but the new EU rules go further than the Act in many respects. For example, under the GDPR, individuals have rights in respect of data portability, the right to be forgotten, and the right to restrict processing.
Speaking at a recent event ahead of the GDPR implementation date, Australian Information Commissioner and acting Privacy Commissioner, Angelene Falkand emphasised the need for businesses to foster accountability and transparency as a mechanism to drive consumer trust. Privacy-by-design, and clear and transparent information handling practices must be at the heart of all projects that involve personal information, she said.
With Facebook's data privacy breach hitting the headlines, data protection and privacy has gained heightened awareness at a time of increasing regulation and consumer rights. In a litigious society like Australia, legal experts have speculated about the prospect of data protection and privacy law suits.
As yet, there has not been a successful collective class action case brought in Australia for a data breach, as has been the case in English courts. However, lawyers believe that Australia's new mandatory data breach notification regime may have the effect of identifying a group of consumers that could constitute a "class" for the purposes of class action litigation.
According to lawyers, significant hurdles exist for individuals to pursue legal action for a data breach in Australia, but the law is evolving and there is potential for cases to arise in the future.
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News from Israel
HEBRON (April 1) - The burial of 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass, shot in the head by a Palestinian sniper at the entrance to the Avraham Avinu quarter of Hebron last Monday, will take place today in the city's ancient cemetery, ending demands by the girl's parents that the IDF conquer and evacuate the Abu Sneneh neighborhood from where the fatal shot was fired.
The funeral procession will leave from the Machpela Cave at 11 a.m.
For close to a week Pass's father, Yitzhak, who was wounded in the legs in the shooting, and mother Uriya had refused to conduct the funeral. They ignored requests by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who telephoned Pass on Wednesday to express his condolences and implore the family to allow the funeral to go ahead, and by Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Meir Lau.
Pass's murder generated headlines worldwide, and was used by Israel to alert the world to Palestinian terrorism.
On Friday, shortly after Pass was released from hospital, the Hebron Jewish Community announced that the funeral would take place today. A statement issued by the community said the purpose of the delay was to pressure the government into retaking the hills.
"Unfortunately, this has yet to be implemented," the statement said. "A weekhas passed and the point has been made, throughout the world. We will not allow the Israeli government to sit idly by while Arabs spill Jewish blood."
However, the statement continued, "It is now time to bring little Shalhevet toher final resting place. With the approaching Pessah holiday, the familyshould be allowed to fulfill the seven-day period of mourning."
Sgt. Danny Dara'i, 19, of Arad, was shot and killed by a sniper while guarding Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem. He was hit in the chest and was pronounced dead on arrival at Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem's
Ein Kerem.
Tanks pounded the sources of Palestinian gunfire in Bethlehem, the Al Aida refugee camp on its outskirts, and Beit Jalla yesterday. The Paradise Hotel near Rachel's Tomb on the outskirts of Bethlehem was heavily damaged by shells. Palestinians reported seven were wounded in the exchange of gunfire.
The gun battle continued for more than an hour, abated for a short period, then resumed for another hour. During the fight, the Jerusalem-Gush Etzion (tunnel) road was closed, and the sounds of the fighting were heard in Jerusalem's southern neighborhoods.
Losing a War - with Style
Winston Mideast Analysis & Commentary
If anyone knows how to lose a war with style it's Secretary of State General Colin L. Powell and the State Department. It seems apparent that our conventional wisdom in foreign policy is to lose wars with style and make sure our allies are prohibited from winning wars thrust upon them by implacable enemies.
But, Powell is not the only loser of war and preservers of enemies. Look for James Baker and former President Bush who maneuvered the Gulf War to a point where it seemed as if we and our (invisible) Allies had won but, in point of fact, Saddam and his elite four hundred thousand elite Republican Guards were carefully preserved by Bush/Baker. In deference to the vaunted Arab sensitivities about losing wars they start, our President saved Saddam - allowing him to continue his insidious program of building catastrophic weapons of mass destruction.
Islamic Military Strategy and Israel's Nuclear Posture
Louis Rene Beres - Professor of International Law
When an independent state of Palestine is declared in the next twelve months, on territories carved out of the still-living body of Israel, it will become an optimal platform for future war and terrorism. But the truly existential threat posed by this platform could require some form of prior Israeli nuclear disarmament. Once the new enemy Arab state and its allies believe that Israel had bent sufficiently to their incessant "nonproliferation" demands, the Islamic military strategy would progress from terror to war, from attrition to annihilation. In this respect, any expression of Israeli denuclearization could represent the last nail in Israel's coffin.
Soap Bubble #194
Boris Shusteff
When the ship of Barak's diplomacy sank after hitting the reef of the "Palestinian Hope," known by its code name "the refugees' right of return," very few people realized that this so-called "right" is nothing but a soap bubble. Sometimes one can't stop wondering how the Arabs time and again keep selling the same old junk to the Jews, and the Jews excitedly keep buying it, believing that they are getting a priceless treasure. Not only the Jews, but the whole world, mesmerized by Arab propaganda, keeps repeating in chorus with the Arabs that UN Resolution 194 supports "the right of return for the Palestinian refugees."
Israel Army Goes Proactive
Israel's heavy aerial-naval assault across the Gaza Strip Sunday night carried forward the systematic campaign launched last week in Jericho and Jenin to dismantle Palestinian strike power. It was also a blunt warning to Yasser Arafat that continuing on the path of violence and terrorism would be costly, because the IDF would progressively divest him of the military strength for buttressing his regime.
The raid's timing was linked to two events: Nakba Day, May 15, which Arafat has designated a day of massive terrorist and mob operations both in the West Bank and inside Israel, and the deadlock reached in the American CIA Director George Tenet's contacts with Palestinian security chiefs on Saturday. The Palestinian leader once again promised the US official to stop the shooting and rein in the terrorists but, as usual, went on to do the exact opposite.
The Israeli bombardment was launched shortly after midnight Sunday. It was the heaviest seen over the Gaza Strip since the 1967 War. Gunships loosed rockets, including anti-tank projectiles, while warships off the Mediterranean coast directed heavy automatic artillery and missiles at a number of military targets in the City of Gaza, Nuseirat, Jabaliya, Khan Younis and Deir el Balah. Hit were the command posts of Arafat's presidential guard Force 17, a naval police firing position and around 8 armored vehicles. DEBKAfile's military sources add that among them were armored vehicles fitted up as mortar and missile carriers.
The spiraling war marginalizes at best all the diplomatic initiatives hailed loudly in the last week. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called off a Minister Danny Naveh's mission to Washington to deliver Israel's reply to the Mitchell Commission's findings, after US officials notified him that diplomatic channels would suffice - a clear hint that those findings were far from the center of Bush administration thinking at the moment.
Fatah Tanzim terrorize Palestinians in Bethlehem and Beit Jalah
Aaron Lerner Date: 16 May 2001
Israel Radio reported today that Israeli security sources say Palestinians living in Bethlehem and Beit Jalah are so frustrated with the reign of terror they are subjected to by Yasser Arafat's Fatah Tanzim that they are providing Israel with information so that they might be stopped from attacking Israel.
The Palestinians are not just concerned about the return fire that Tanzim attacks draw to Palestinian neighborhoods, they also complain of Tanzim violence against their own community.
Recently a local Palestinian girl was raped by Tanzim members in the Tanzim's club in Beit Jalah. The girl's family then murdered the girl since the rape defamed the family. No action was taken against the rapists.
The report also noted that Tanzim collects protection money from local businesses. They also get payments from the PA for attacks against Israeli targets. The reporter observed that while Arafat may not be able to instantly halt Tanzim attacks, his control on the purse strings that PAY for the attacks enable him to put a halt on the action within a short period of time if he wants to.
Woman killed in terror shooting
By Margot Dudkevitch (Jerusalem Post)
JERUSALEM (May 16) - Terrorists shot and killed Idit Mizrahi yesterday as she rode in a car driven by her father Moshe on the Alon Highway approximately 1.5 kilometers north of Ma'aleh Michmash. The family was on its way to a wedding in Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the murder of an innocent civilian.
Mizrahi, 22, of Rimonim was hit in the back and neck and died shortly after. Her father, 51, was shot in the leg and taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. Her brother, Amit, 20, was lightly wounded by glass shards.
Passing civilians on the road offered assistance and attempted to resuscitate Mizrahi.
Soldiers and police sealed off the area and began searching for the perpetrators - two different weapons were used in the attack - and IDF officials said the terrorists are believed to have fled in a waiting car to the nearby village of Deir Dibwan. The army imposed a curfew on the village.
Residents of Rimonim last night met to discuss the terror attack that had such tragic consequences for the Mizrahi family and the entire community of 130 families. Aharon Niran, the community's spokesman, said Dalia and Moshe Mizrahi had lived in Rimonim for 15 years.
"Three years ago their son was killed in the army, now their daughter was killed by terrorists, and all they have left is one son. All they did was travel to Jerusalem to attend a wedding," he said.
The Myth of the "Occupied Territories"
One of the most misused, misapplied, and misunderstood definitions in the dictionary of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the term "occupied territories." The vast majority of people simply do not know the facts or misinterpret them, thus completely distorting the real picture of the land distribution between the Arabs and the Jews. The truth of the matter is that, according to international law, the Jews have the complete and unquestionable right to settle the territories of Judea, Samaria and Gaza (collectively known as Yesha). Not a single enforceable international document exists that forbids them from settling the lands of Yesha.
On the contrary, the only existing enforceable document actually encourages Jewish settlement. Article 6 of the Mandate "encouraged ... close settlement by Jews on the land," including the lands of Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha).
1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And Yahushua answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (KJV)
It appears the winds of war are blowing and yet for some strange reason the national media does seem to think it's news worthy.
The situation appears to be that Jordan, along side Israel, are already at war with Iraq and yet not one single word is mentioned in the national news about this.
World Net Daily News
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GAMLA: NEWS AND VIEWS FROM ISRAEL
11 Av, 5761
DEBKAfile's military sources report that, following Israel's air bombardment Monday night of a mortar factory concealed inside the Palestinian police compound in Gaza, Yasser Arafat is reported to have ordered from Tunis the launching of a large scale mortar offensive in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jerusalem. The Palestinian munitions factory was demolished after Israeli settlements were subjected to a night of mortar fire.
Arafat's new offensive comes on top of the fast-multiplying Palestinian assaults at every hand that brought the confrontation to boiling point Monday.
In Jerusalem alone, an orthodox Jew is fighting for his life after being repeatedly stabbed at Damascus Gate. At noon, a Heineken beer can stuffed with explosives blew up in a supermarket in downtown Jerusalem, causing no casualties. It looked no different from the harmless cans on the same shelf. Monday night, two women were strolling outside their home in Armon Hanatziv, Jerusalem, when two Palestinians fell on one with a knife. She was not badly injured.
During the day, the Jerusalem police scrambled half a dozen times for false alarms in a city whose nerves were stretched as tightly as wire. Twenty-four hours earlier, under cover of the melee staged jointly by Palestinian and Israeli Moslem militants on Temple Mount, a booby-trapped car exploded in an underground parking lot beneath an apartment building in Pisgat Zeev, N. Jerusalem. It was rigged to bring the building crashing down. Fortunately, the bomb made of two gas balloons and hand grenades was defective. The building though damaged remained standing. But the adjoining apartment blocks were evacuated for
hours as police sappers dismantled the bomb.
Sunday night, gunmen in the Jerusalem Arab village of Issewiyeh opened fire on an Israeli patrol car on the main road to Maale Adummim, injuring one policeman.
That attack was highly significant. It carried a message that, after targeting Jerusalem for terrorist strikes for the last ten days, the Palestinians had begun to single out Israeli police and military personnel as their new focus.
Monday, that focus was highlighted. A speeding Palestinian Toyota blasted an Israeli police jeep near Kibbutz Bahan in central Israel and escaped to Tulkarm. Hanni Abramov from Netanya was critically injured, becoming the first Border Police woman casualty of the intifada. Seriously injured too was police officer Amir Azaida from the Bedouin village of Rahat. A third policeman, Wahid Hasson from the Druze village of Daliat al Carmel, was slightly hurt.
Monday morning, six Fatah activists blew themselves up while manufacturing a booby-trapped car in south Jenin. During the day, gunfire was opened on Israeli buses in the West Bank and military positions around the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hebron has not had a quiet day for weeks.
Monday night, the IDF tightened the closures around Ramallah and Bethlehem, both in firing distance of Jerusalem. A third West Bank town, Nablus, was placed under siege a week ago in view of terrorist alerts centering on the town.
Israeli defense authorities take this heavy Palestinian onslaught as a signal from Arafat that he is not afraid to go all out. Israel's army chiefs, attending a consultation with the defense minister Monday night, were all in favor of a forceful and rapid response to Arafat's challenge in order to arrest the precipitous increase of Israeli casualties among the armed forces and civilians.
Intense criticism has been leveled at the Sharon government, rising with the level of Palestinian terrorism, for dragging in Arafat's wake and letting him get away with holding the country to siege, instead of taking the initiative and cutting him down. Those critics blame the government for allowing Arafat to hit Israel so hard for so long. Various commentators have taken to diagnosing the latest Palestinian methods of operation as harking back to the techniques Arafat's PLO employed in the seventies. DEBKAfile's terrorism experts take the opposite view, emphasizing the enhanced operational capabilities displayed in the present Intifada.
They range from disguising bombs by stuffing explosives in watermelons, water canteens and beer cans,to building large bombing devices activated by cell phones, charges linked for chain reaction ' like the 12 devices strewn through Haifa's streets last week that were detected in time, booby-trapped cars and suicide bombers wearing exploding belts. Add to these the knifemen roaming the streets of Israeli towns who claimed two victims in Jerusalem Monday, the mortar crews and the thousands of gunmen lurking everywhere.
This terrorist army requires a highly proficient infrastructure of surveillance, intelligence gatherers, logistics, transport, training, armourers, explosives engineers and tacticians. It has to be fed, paid and kept supplied with the tools of its trade and medical facilities. Arafat has had ten months to perfect his machine for a terrorist offensive to crown all others.
Volume 2 Issue 114 Jerusalem, Israel
30 Tishri, 5762 * * October 17, 2001
Assassination of Israeli Minister, Rehavam Zeevi
Police sources report that the Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, 75, was shot three times at close range in the corridor of his hotel room at the Hyatt Hotel on French Hill in Jerusalem, as he came up from breakfast shortly before 7 am. His wife found him lying unconscious on the floor. One bullet entered his brain. Hadassah doctors fought hard for his life. Police have closed all the hotel's exits to interrogate guests and staff, many of whom are Arabs.
The Shin Beit ordered all government ministers not to leave their homes. Zeevi, a longtime combat general before he found his Moledeth (Homeland) party, consistently refuses bodyguards and defies Shin Beit guidelines for his safety, refusing to change his way of life as a citizen.
A few days ago, all Israeli ministers were directed to refrain from attending pre-publicized events. The PFLP, whose headquarters are in Damascus, took responsibility for the murder in a statement to the French News Agency. The group claims it was in revenge for Israeli's liquidation of its leader, Abu Ali Mustafa in Ramallah last month Two days ago, the minister resigned from the government with his co-minister Infrastructure minister Avigdor Lieberman in protest over what he regarded as the Sharon unity government's lenience in the face of Palestinian violence.
NOTE: Last week, Dr. Haim Salomon, 45, an Israeli resident of French Hill, which is bounded by Palestinian areas, was murdered in his home in circumstances that Jerusalem Police refuse to reveal. He too was shot as he entered his apartment.


An appeals court judge has upheld a previous ruling that the MTA's policy of refusing all political and religious ads in the transit system is legal, meaning the agency can continue to reject controversial posters by firebrand Pamela Geller and the anti-Muslim American Freedom law Center– for now.
But Islamic supremacists who sued to run an ad, "The Muslims are Coming! The Muslims are Coming!" (no, its not referring to the Muslim invasion of Europe) will be allowed to run.
That is sharia. We were running ads with DIRECT quotes from Muslim groups. That was considered "hate speech." When they say it, we are told to respect it. When we repeat it, it's hate speech.
This is exactly what the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid when they wrote the First Amendment. The freedom of speech amendment was meant to protect all speech, not just the speech the elites and their running dogs in the media liked. The MTA issued a ban that appears increasingly to only apply to AFDI. The Muslim supremacist ad and a Nazi ad can run. But not our pro-freedom ads.
This is exactly why the First Amendment was enshrined in our Constitution — because who would decide what's good and what's forbidden? Sharia-compliant, leftist judges?
Shame on this court. These quislings did not want to really handle this appeal in a serious way. They issued their opinion per curiam (anonymous agreement) — no one just wanted to put his/her name on this opinion. Cowards.
They just cite to the general rule that the appellate court only reverses trial court's decision to dissolve injunction if that decision was "clearly erroneous." But First Amendment cases are the exception, and there the review must start from the beginning. The appellate court did not even hint that the free amendment might affect the level of review. This is plainly wrong and goes against prior Second Circuit case law. For all those pleased with this ruling, don't rub your hooves in glee. This kind of abuse of our rights enshrined in the Constitution will come back to bite you.
Of course we will continue to fight on, but just look at how stacked the deck is. And considering Donald Trump's anti-free speech declarations, I don't see much changing.
"AFDI is, of course, free to challenge the MTA's new advertising standards, but it must do so through an amended complaint," the ruling reads.
The case began in 2014, when Geller's AFDI filed suit against the MTA for blocking it from purchasing Islam-bashing ads on city buses.
MTA officials said they are happy that the court took the agency's side.
"The MTA is pleased by the Second Circuit's decision, which reiterated that we have acted in good faith when balancing enforcement of our advertising regulations with respect for the First Amendment," said MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg.
What respect for the first amendment? You shredded it, Lisberg. Wait until you need it.


text:
Home thriller Debt Bomb by Micheal E. Ginsberg - Teaser Tuesday
Debt Bomb by Micheal E. Ginsberg - Teaser Tuesday
Thriller/Suspense/Spy Fiction/Political Fiction
Date Published: July 1, 2021
Publisher: BQB Publishing
China hungers to take the United States' place as the global hegemon.
And it is plotting to use America's $40 trillion national debt to do it.
Only one person stands in China's way: suburban accountant Andrea Gartner.
For years she has dreaded the day of America's reckoning about its national debt. She's gotten involved in local politics. She's run for Congress. But the debt marches remorselessly higher.
Rejected by her party in her congressional race, she joins the insurgent presidential campaign of Congressman Earl Murray. When he wins in an upset, he defies all Washington convention and names Andrea his Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The Washington rookie finally has her chance to solve America's debt addition.
But China has other plans, engineering financial crises and military confrontations designed to bankrupt and collapse the United States. Wars rage overseas as America's health care system, schools, and social fabric disintegrate. Desperately coping with these existential threats to America's very existence, Andrea finds herself enmeshed in vicious Washington infighting with belligerent military brass and ruthless politicians, including the powerful and complicated Congressman Lewis Mason and his chief of staff Frank Palmer. Chinese agents lurk in the shadows, threatening Andrea's life and family, as she struggles to keep the country afloat.
No aspect of American life is spared as the country teeters on the brink of financial collapse. Can Andrea stave off China's assault and ensure the United States survives? Or will the Red Chinese flag fly over the American Capitol?
Debt Bomb is a sobering fictional account of a future facing the United States if it fails to control its debt and get its financial house in order.
"Andrea Gartner, South Carolina. Why are you running? And why should we endorse you?"
Andrea hesitated and took a sip of water, followed by a deep breath to steady her nerves. She leaned into her microphone.
"That's a fair question, Congressman Mason. I've been a leader in the South Carolina Republican Party for years," she said, unnerved by the entire Debt Rebel Gang staring down at her. She couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. They were nothing like what she practiced. "This is my first time running, but I've gotten a lot of campaign experience from my leadership positions in the local and state party organizations. Professionally, I'm an accountant with a degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. I've been in private practice for fifteen years and I've been married for ten years with two children . . ."
She could see from the Gang members' bored expressions she was getting nowhere. She took another sip of water. You've got this, she told herself. Stay focused. She felt a wave of control, of inspiration, of her spine stiffening. She took a breath. Now she was ready.
"Mr. Mason, Gang members, honestly, I'm running for one reason only." Her voice was firm now. "The United States is utterly dependent on members of the public and foreign countries to buy our debt. If they decide they don't want to loan us money and we can't finance our debt, the country goes broke. We won't have a dime to spend. No Social Security. No Medicare. This thought terrifies me. And we're doing this on the backs of our kids and grandkids. If we don't cut our deficits and pay down our national debt, they will be paying for all the things we're spending money on now. No one is speaking for them. I want to be their voice. Believe me, Congressmen, I have lived this. My father died when I was young and left my family in a pile of debt. I don't want other families to go through the same hardships. This country needs financial help. I have two kids at home, and I'll be damned if I saddle them with debt they have to pay tomorrow so I can get free government goodies today. There is nothing—absolutely nothing—I hate in this world more than ruinous debt." Andrea began gesticulating for emphasis as she built momentum. "You're the only people who have raised this issue. You inspired me to run. I'm an accountant. Balancing books is what I do. With me on your side you'll have as credible an ally for debt reduction as you can possibly imagine."
The Gang members had no reaction whatsoever.
What am I doing wrong? she wondered. Cutting the debt is these guys' calling card. Their raison d'être. What gives? Keep going. Maybe they'll come around.
"Congressmen, if you—"
"Thank you, Ms. Gartner, but I'm afraid we can't endorse you this election cycle," interrupted Mason.
The words sent a shock through Andrea's body. She'd barely gotten two minutes to state her case and the Debt Rebel Gang had already rejected her. And the way Mason emotionlessly dismissed her only added to the shock. All those years of helping candidates who were worried about the debt, and she got three sentences in before these guys rejected her?
"Come again?" Andrea said.
"We're endorsing Dan Morgan."
Seriously? Dan Morgan? That ridiculous opportunist?
She'd known Dan Morgan from her local Republican work.
When cutting spending was all the rage, Dan Morgan was a deficit cutter. When Republican-controlled Congresses were spending like drunken sailors but conservatism demanded absolute support for President Roberts, Morgan was there. You could always count on Dan Morgan to get a double dip of the Republican flavor of the month.
Ryan and Cam were right. Politics was a dirty business. And once again, she'd gotten the short end of the stick.
Mason continued, "Dan Morgan has been an unwavering supporter of the Roberts Agenda. You spent your time blasting the debts and the deficits at a time when President Roberts needed all the support he could get. We need a team player, not a Johnny-one-note. Dan's reliable. You aren't."
"But reducing the debt was your signature issue. You all inspired me to get active and fight to reduce spending and debt. I'm here because of you," Andrea said, her voice rising to a crescendo. "I'm an accountant, and what America needs right now is an accountant!"
Michael E. Ginsberg is an attorney in Washington, DC practicing in the field of national security law. He spent a decade in private practice at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, DC and then worked several years in the U.S. government as a Senior Associate General Counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where he served as legal counsel for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). He currently is Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at a Virginia-based defense contractor.
Ginsberg has also served in senior leadership positions in the Republican Party of Virginia and is the co-founder of the Suburban Virginia Republican Coalition.
A 1997 graduate of Harvard College and 2002 graduate of Harvard Law School, he also holds a master's in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University (1999). A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Ginsberg lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
BQB Publishing
Debt Bomb by Micheal E. Ginsberg - Teaser Tuesday Reviewed by Jasmine J on 5:30 AM Rating: 5


Sanctions have effects. Yet the Trump administration is imposing them casually, just to make a statement. That's a mistake.
Opinion: Sanctions have effects. It's a mistake to impose them so casually.
Sanctions have become a principal tool of U.S. foreign policy.
There are reasons to doubt the wisdom of this.
The U.S. maintains a current sanctions regimen, to identify only the biggies, against Russia, Iran, Turkey, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.
We apply sanctions for a variety of reasons. Some are supposedly for human rights violations. Some are supposedly for national security reasons.
For example, sanctions have been imposed against Russia for its takeover of Crimea, the attempted killing of a double agent in Britain and interfering in U.S. elections.
Sanctions take various forms. Sometimes we target senior leaders, threatening assets they might have in the United States and prohibiting their travel to this country.
Other times, we try to cut off the access of entire countries to the U.S. financial system, which, at present, is tantamount to cutting off their access to the global financial system.
These sanctions have effects. The economies of the countries we have targeted for sanctions have been damaged, in some cases severely.
But, presumably, the purpose of the sanctions isn't to inflict economic damage. Presumably, the purpose is to alter the behavior of the countries targeted. In that regard, there is scant evidence that our sanctions regimens have much of an effect.
Russia isn't going to give back Crimea. It isn't going to respect human rights at home. It isn't going to stop trying to undermine faith in democratic governance in NATO countries, which it perceives as attempting to hem it in. And it probably isn't going to stop going after Russian apostates living in other countries.
The United States has maintained a sanctions regimen against Cuba for over a half century, with no notable effect on either its internal or external activities.
Some believe that a sanctions regimen brought Iran and North Korea to the table to discuss curtailing their nuclear weapons programs. In both cases, discerning motives is difficult. And so far, the fruit of those discussions remains uncertain.
Why do it just to make a statement?
For the most part, the United States is making a statement with our sanctions, expressing our disapproval of the behavior that supposedly triggered their adoption. But there are adverse consequences to this particular method of making a statement.
In imposing sanctions for human rights violations, it exposes our transparent hypocrisy. As always, Saudi Arabia is the primary example. It is one of the most repressive regimes in the world. But we not only impose no sanctions on it, we trade freely with it. We even sell it arms.
The greatest human rights violation on the planet right now is arguably the mass incarceration of Uighurs in re-education camps by China. But that hasn't triggered U.S. sanctions.
Sanctions can make the U.S. part of the story when we shouldn't be. That's happening in Venezuela.
With the rise of socialist sentiment, Venezuela is a useful reminder of its catastrophic consequences.
Yet the U.S., by imposing sanctions, has blurred the lesson. We first targeted senior leaders, but then targeted the entire country by forbidding Americans from buying any Venezuelan debt.
That permits autocrat Nicolas Maduro to blame the country's economic collapse on the United States, and that's at least partially correct.
The short-term effect of sanctions is often to strengthen the hand of the autocrats. That was the case in Iraq, under Saddam Hussein. And it seems to have been the case in Iran. As sanctions made it more difficult for private businesses to function, the ruling clerics and the Revolutionary Guard took over larger swaths of the economy.
So far, sanctions haven't proved to have much in the way of long-term effects either. Certainly not in Cuba. Perhaps they will produce results in Iran and North Korea. But doubters would seem to have the better case at present.
Using access to the U.S. economy as a weapon carries risks. It increases the incentive of other countries to find ways to do business that exclude us. And not just our adversaries, the targets of our sanctions. The European Union, which wants to salvage the Iranian nuclear deal, is activity trying to figure out a way to enable its members to do business with Iran despite the U.S. sanctions.
There needs to be some serious thinking about the casual way the United States has come to impose sanctions. It may prove to be an expensive way of making a statement.


Gothamist's Nathan Tempey takes on the task of putting together a fair list of top skateparks in the city. Instead of listing them in any particular order, the writer gives a good description of each park that is relatable for both the skateboarder and the rest of Gothamist's readership. Nathan even throws in some honorable mentions for good measure. Check out the list here.


text:
Volume 25, Number 1—January 2019
In Memoriam: Katrin Susanne Kohl (1964–2018)
Risk Factors for Reinfection with SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19 Vaccination Strategies, Ghana
Hepatitis E Virus Outbreak among Tigray War Refugees from Ethiopia, Sudan
More articles on Vaccine, Immunization
Nina Marano and Stephen H. Waterman
Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (N. Marano); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA (S.H. Waterman)
Katrin Susanne Kohl, MD, PhD, MPH, who served over a decade as Deputy Director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta, Georgia, USA), died suddenly and unexpectedly at her home in Atlanta on May 20, 2018, at the age of 54. She was a beloved physician epidemiologist leader at CDC who made major contributions in international health and vaccine safety.
While at CDC's Immunization Safety Branch starting in 2000, Kohl brilliantly succeeded in launching and coordinating The Brighton Collaboration, an international effort of >800 participants in 80 countries to enhance vaccine safety. The collaboration was a new global initiative to improve the rigor of immunization safety science at a time of increasing public controversy and vaccine hesitancy. She worked tirelessly to promote the new collaboration among key policymakers in the global immunization community, resulting in publication of the first set of Brighton case definitions in the journal Vaccine.
Kohl was born in Duisburg, Germany, in 1964. Her Austrian father was a prominent architect there. She attended medical school in Graz, Austria, and completed her MD in 1991 and PhD in 1993 at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. In 1996, she earned her MPH from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (New Orleans. LA, USA). She joined CDC in 1997 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer assigned to the Louisiana Department of Health, where her work focused mainly on infectious disease epidemiology and sexually transmitted diseases. Tom Farley, her Epidemic Intelligence Service supervisor and later the New York City Commissioner of Health, remarked that the Louisiana staff fell in love with this German woman who made disease investigation a happy and exhilarating experience.
At the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, working with the division's director Martin Cetron, she participated in CDC quarantine and border health responses for Middle East respiratory syndrome, the 2009 (H1N1) influenza pandemic, the 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and the 2016 Zika epidemic. She also played a key role in strengthening a new unit addressing United States–Mexico binational and border health. Kohl was the division's champion for helping to implement the World Health Organization's 2005 International Health Regulations, skillfully educating staff from US federal and state agencies, and liaising with World Health Organization member states and regional offices to help implement enhanced transparency and collaboration in international disease and outbreak reporting. Kohl also published in and reviewed articles for Emerging Infectious Diseases.
In addition to her scientific accomplishments, Kohl will be remembered for her passionate, caring, and ebullient personality, which made her such an effective ambassador, bringing together persons with diverse scientific viewpoints to reach technical and public health policy consensus. She will be greatly missed by her husband, Gene Spiegel; her son, Alexander, and daughter, Clara; her mother, Christel Kohl; her brother, Christian; and her many colleagues at CDC and around the world.
Figure. Katrin Susanne Kohl.
Original Publication Date: November 14, 2018
Table of Contents – Volume 25, Number 1—January 2019
Nina Marano, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Mailstop E03, Atlanta, GA 30329-4027, USA
Page created: December 18, 2018
Page updated: December 18, 2018
Page reviewed: December 18, 2018
January 2019expand
In Memoriam: Katrin Susanne Kohl (1964–2018)expand
Marano N, Waterman SH. In Memoriam: Katrin Susanne Kohl (1964–2018). Emerg Infect Dis. 2019;25(1):197. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2501.180961
Marano N, Waterman SH. In Memoriam: Katrin Susanne Kohl (1964–2018). Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2019;25(1):197. doi:10.3201/eid2501.180961.
Marano, N., & Waterman, S. H. (2019). In Memoriam: Katrin Susanne Kohl (1964–2018). Emerging Infectious Diseases, 25(1), 197. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2501.180961.