Welcome to Petra Consultants Inc.
Petra Consultants is able to minimize engineering and project management costs by providing engineers, project managers, designers, and inspectors custom fit to the specific needs of our clients.
We provide value added design documentation necessary to drive projects to completion, meeting the rigorous schedules of our clients to save time, materials, and effort.
Emphasis is placed on construction orientated engineering which drives time and cost savings during engineering and construction phases of our projects.
THE PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS IN PROVIDING QUALITY, EFFICIENT SERVICES WILL CONTINUE TO SET PETRA CONSULTANTS APART FROM ITS PEERS.
Emphasis is placed on communications between engineering, construction, and operations to promote efficiency throughout all phases of a project.
Petra Consultants provides quality engineers to meet the facility, pipeline, and operational needs of energy operators.
Petra Consultants provides engineers with field construction and project management experience emphasizing communication during all phases of a project. The engineers at Petra Consultants are knowledgeable in the regulatory requirements of the oil and gas industry. Our engineers are capable of filling roles as both design engineers and project managers.
The designers and drafters at Petra Consultants have a wide range of skill sets.
Our designers utilize 3D design software which provides realistic construction drawings in a timely manner. Laser scans of existing facilities can be incorporated into our 3D models making the as-built process for modifications more efficient from both the perspective of time and cost. Our drafters are efficient at generating and modifying drawings and documents. Many of our designers have over 20 years of onshore and offshore oilfield experience.
Petra Consultants has inspectors specializing in fabrication; blast and paint; health, safety and environmental; and construction of energy processing facilities and pipelines.
Our inspectors are capable of overseeing onsite procurement, cost tracking, and reporting in addition to acting as third party inspectors for their respective area of expertise. Our health, safety and environmental inspectors provide effective HSE oversite without affecting the continuity of the project.
The project managers at Petra Consultants are able to fill many roles and are flexible depending on the size and scope of a project.
On projects that do not require dedicated support staff our project managers can fill all project management roles from procurement to scheduling. Our project managers emphasize efficiency in their projects through proper planning and communication with the client and other members of the project team. With experience in cost tracking, scheduling, procurement, and project oversite, the project managers at Petra Consultants are responsive to decisions that require attention through each cycle of a project and will ensure that your projects run smoothly and efficiently.
This multi-well production skid is fully API 14C compliant. Designed to operate in remote locations this skid utilizes produced gas for all safety and control valves along with a solar panel powered panel to provide, safety control, alarms and reporting.
On this Deepwater Spar Tie-Back Project we oversaw platform modifications and installations in order to accommodate the additional production and tie-back from two (2) new remote deep water wells.
Petra Consultants performs preliminary engineering and design authorizations for expenditures (AFE). AFE's are developed to include costs for front end engineering and design (FEED), all required vessels, piping, and valves, construction, instrumentation and electronics, and supporting pipeline systems to meet client specifications.


Adam Goldstein is a technology entrepreneur in the financial recruiting space. In late 2012, he co-founded Vettery (formerly Street of Walls), a recruiting firm with over 200 clients including the top investment banks, hedge funds and private equity funds. Prior to founding Vettery, he spent 11 years on Wall Street at some of the largest investment banks and hedge funds on the street, in various roles including investment banking analyst, hedge fund analyst and portfolio manager.
Mr. Goldstein was also the co-founder of Minetta Lane Capital Partners, a hedge fund/private equity fund located in New York. He holds a BS in Finance and International Economics from the University of Florida and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He has been a member of the Museum's Board of Trustees since 2013.


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Voice Program
MT Conservatory
Commercial Dance
Ballet Conservatory
Electric Youth
Little Music School
About LMS
Academy +
Performing Ensembles
Classes for performing troupes include advanced work in ensemble singing, vocal and acting technique and choreography. Class work builds musical theater repertoire used in a variety of performing opportunities.
FSPA's Musical Theater Ensembles meet and rehearse throughout the year for various school and community performances. The high school troupes are a part of FSPA's annual trip to Disney World for workshops and performances.
Hallie Wetzell
FSPA Vocal Director, Glee Club, Instructor of Voice
Hallie Wetzell holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Occidental College and Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from New England Conservatory of Music. As FSPA Vocal Director, Hallie oversees the FSPA Voice program and serves as music director for all ensembles, as well as productions of the Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC) and Electric Youth. Hallie was the Vocal Director for the FSPA Children's Choirs for the professional touring companies of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 2000 and 2005 and Evita in 2004. She has been on FSPA's Faculty since 1998 and became Vocal Director for FPAC in 1999.
Nick Paone
FSPA Drama Director, Instructor of Acting and Improvisation
Nick Paone holds a BA in Theater from Occidental College. A former Equity performer, Nick traveled all over the US performing with TheaterWorks, USA. His regional performing credits include Cabaret, Macbeth, The Wedding Singer, Little Shop of Horrors, Pirates of Penzance and The Tempest. Nick has written, conceived and directed for the Franklin Performing Arts Company since 2001. In 2007 he created FPAC's Whatever Theater Festival, a week-long festival of one-act plays, Shakespeare on the Common and musical entertainment. Nick joined the FSPA Drama Faculty in 2001.
Kellie Stamp
Director of FSPA Dance Ensembles, Instructor of Tap and Jazz
Kellie Stamp is a graduate of Stonehill College where she was an active member of the Stonehill Theater Company. She served on their Board of Directors and competed at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. After receiving her Masters of Performing Arts Education from Emerson College, she continued her tap and jazz training at the On Stage Academy for the Performing Arts, as well as with Rosemarie Boyden and at the Broadway Dance Center in NYC. Kellie has also studied Dance for Musical Theater with Broadway actress and choreographer, Leslie Woodies. In addition to teaching dance classes as FSPA, Kellie choreographs for Electric Youth, Broadway Bound, Broadway Light and many FSPA and FPAC productions. She is also the Director and choreographer of CenterStage and Next Step. Kellie first joined FSPA in 2001. Her performing credits include lead roles in 42nd Street, West Side Story and Sweet Charity, as well as many roles in FPAC productions including Addams Family, Anything Goes, Into the Woods, Humbug!, The Miracle Worker and Little Shop of Horrors. Her choreography credits include FSPA and FPAC productions of Humbug!, Anything Goes, 'Tis the Season, Cabaret and many others.
Raye Lynn Mercer
Founder of the Franklin School for the Performing Arts, Raye Lynn Mercer received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music from Middlebury College and attended the Vienna International Music Center in Vienna, Austria, where she studied with Maria-Regina Seidlhofer of the Academy of Music. Her teachers included Guiseppe deLellis, Diana Fanning, Gabriel Chodos and Yoriko Takahashi. Pianist, director and choreographer, Raye Lynn has presented 34 seasons of musicals, plays, concerts and dance productions with FSPA and the community-based Franklin Performing Arts Company, established in 1991. Raye Lynn serves as Administrator of the school, oversees the FSPA musical theater program and directs the international touring ensemble Electric Youth. Her school's student résumés include Broadway's Matilda and Wicked, Lincoln Center, national Broadway tours, regional companies, European concert tours, Fox-TV's American Idol, annual performances at Walt Disney World, and placement in top college and conservatory arts programs. Combining profession and hobby, Raye Lynn has directed Symphony of Horses productions across the country. Internationally, she has developed Electric Youth's professional concert tours in Europe and taught musical theater workshops in Austria and Hong Kong. President and Executive Director of the Franklin Performing Arts Company, Raye Lynn is the visionary behind THE BLACK BOX, a performance and event venue located behind FSPA in the heart of downtown Franklin.
Franklin School for the Performing Arts
Catalogues and Schedules
Cast Information
FSPA School Store
Franklin Performing Arts Company
Franklin Costume Rentals
2022 FSPA

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Intellectual property (IP) is rapidly replacing tangible assets as a major driving force for business growth. However, despite being a potentially powerful tool for business, IP is not often fully used or optimally exploited. Recognizing this, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a think tank based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has prepared this e-learning course to provide you with a basic understanding of how IP can be strategically leveraged to advance business objectives.
This free introductory online course will take you from understanding forms of IP all the way to developing the skills of an IP strategist. Designed as a self-study experience, the course content and skill-testing quizzes are perfect for innovative businesspeople and the professionals who support them, such as technology transfer professionals, patent agents, lawyers and business consultants.
Foundations of IP Strategy was created by CIGI Senior Fellows Myra Tawfik and Karima Bawa.
Myra Tawfik is a professor of law and the EPICentre Professor of Intellectual Property Commercialization and Strategy at the University of Windsor. She is a CIGI senior fellow, leading research on capacity building in IP knowledge mobilization. Her research and teaching focus primarily on copyright law, trademark law, international IP law, IP strategy and IP legal history.
Karima Bawa is an expert in IP strategy and a CIGI senior fellow. Her research focuses on the commercialization of university research and development and capacity building in IP strategy for Canadian innovators. She also advises and supports technology start-ups. As chief legal officer and general counsel at Research In Motion (now BlackBerry) from 2000 to 2012, she led and managed the company's IP portfolio. She holds a B.Sc., an LL.B. and an M.B.A.
French language translation support for this project was provided by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
Designed as a self-study experience, the content and skill-testing quizzes are perfect for innovative business people and the professionals who support them (such as technology transfer professionals, patent agents, lawyers and business consultants).
Fondements de la stratégie de la propriété intellectuelle
Conçu sous la forme d'un expérience d'auto-apprentissage, le contenu de ce cours et les questionnaires de test des compétences sont parfaits pour les gens d'affaires innovateurs et les professionnels qui les soutiennent (comme les professionnels du transfert de technologies, les agents de brevets, les avocats et les consultants en affaires).


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Boards/Committees » Land Use Board » Minutes: February 9, 2011
All meeting minutes posted on the township website are unofficial minutes. Official copies of minutes may be obtained from the Planning/Zoning Department.
Minutes: February 9, 2011
Ms. Paladini, called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m.
Pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of this Regular Meeting has been provided to the public and the press on January 20, 2011 by delivering to the press such notice and posting same at the Municipal Building and filed with the office of the Township Clerk.
Salute to the Flag
Also Present
Andrew Borisuk P Michael Garofalo, Esq., Board Attorney
Andrea Cocula P Jessica Caldwell, Board Planner
David Gornstein P Corey Stoner, Board Engineer
Jessi Paladini P
Mayor Rinker P
Councilmember Seufert NP
Jean Murphy P
Martin Theobald NP
Joseph Tadrick P
Chris Hack (#1 Alt) P
Ed Rolando (#2 Alt) P
Joseph Ferrer (#3 Alt) P
Edward Seger (#4 Alt) NP
PB# 5-07-6: Top of Vernon, Block 131.01, Lots 13, 14 & 15 - Final Major Subdivision - Extension of Time
Bernd Heffele, Esq. came forward on behalf of the applicant and asked that this hearing be carried to the March 23, 2011, as he and the applicant need to have more discussion with the Board Attorney.
Motion: Ms. Cocula made a motion to carry this hearing to March 23, 2011. Mr. Tadrick seconded the motion. All were in favor.
PB# 2-08-2: Mountain Creek Resort, Inc., Block 183, Lots 12 & 13, Block 184, Lots 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 25, 25.01, Block 190, Lots 9, 10, & 10.01 - Amend the Site Plan Approval to Relocate a Building on Site.
(Note: Mr. Rolando stepped down from this hearing.)
Bernd Heffele, Esq. came forward on behalf of the applicant. He explained that the applicant is ready to move ahead with the construction of the day lodge. This application is a modification to that site plan which would keep and move the Discovery Center to a new location near the current ticket booths, to the left of the bridge. Mr. Andy Mulvihill and Mario Ianelli, P.E., came forward and were sworn in by the LUB attorney.
Mr. Mulvihill discussed moving the Discovery Center, constructing the day lodge and a restaurant for the Appalachian to all be completed by the next ski season. He went on to say that it is their intention to take all the tents down and use the Discovery Center for the Kids Kamp, ski school and possibly house the EMT department.
Mr. Ianelli came forward and discussed the project. He feels the revised plans are more aesthetically pleasing and the flow is better. The revised plans also have approximately 2000 square feet less impervious coverage than the plans that were submitted in early January 2011.
With regard to the overflow parking issue during this current winter ski season the applicant has the issue with the police department and an application has been submitted to the town regarding this matter.
Mr. Stoner discussed his concerns, which mostly had been answered by tonight's testimony. He commented that he likes the layout and that handicap parking spaces have been added. He requested more detail on the sewer lines and profiles, etc.
With regard to signage and the possibility that the proposed signage may need to be changed slightly; Mr. Garofalo suggested that the applicant advise him if there is to be a change and he will inform the LUB instead of having to come back before the LUB. Mr. Heffele agreed to put the parameters or general guidelines in terms of the proposed signage on their plan.
Mr. Garofalo said that this application is for an amended preliminary final site plan and there are no variances required. Absent the LUB finding something outrageous about what's been presented; this is an "as right" application.
Meeting was opened to the public
Meeting was closed to the public
Motion: Mr. Gornstein made a motion to approve of this application. Mayor Rinker seconded the motion. ROLL CALL: BORISUK - Y, COCULA - Y, FERRER - Y, GORNSTEIN - Y, HACK - Y, TADRICK - Y, MURHPY - Y, PALADINI - Y, RINKER - Y. Passed.
PB # 2-91-4: Water Park Master Plan Annual Review
Bernd Heffele, Esq. came forward to review the Water Park Master Plan which was originally adopted in 1992. Mr. Heffele said there hadn't been an update provided to the LUB since 2007. The applicant provided an update for the past five years as well as providing information on the new rides that will be installed for the upcoming season. Mr. Mulvihill discussed the future addition of 4 new year-round rides including the Mountain Coaster, similar to the Alpine Slide (without the risk of coming off the track), a Zip Line, a Screaming Swing and one other thrill ride. He commended the Town's cooperation while working with them and hopes the relationship will continue as such.
Open meeting to the public for items other than those listed on the agenda
LU # 11-10-10: Robert Baldwin, Block 94, Lot 1 - Lot Line Adjustment with a Use Variance
Motion: A motion was made by Ms. Cocula to approve of the resolution. Mr. Tadrick seconded the motion. ROLL CALL: COCULA - Y, PALADINI - Y, RINKER - Y, TADRICK - Y, MURPHY - Y, HACK - Y, ORLANDO - Y, FERRER - Y.
Land Use Board Discussion Items (action may or may not be taken)
Performance and Maintenance Bonds
Mr. Stoner came forward and discussed the proposed changes to the Performance and Maintenance Bonds requirements. (Please see his proposal as recording is inaudible due to foreground noise.)
Mr. Garofalo commented that the current addition of Vernon's Land Use Ordinance, drafted during the 1990s by Don Ross, contains a lot of language that is the State statute, word-for-word, transferred to the ordinance book. He feels Mr. Stoner's proposal is well-drafted and makes clear when performance guarantees are required.
Motion: A motion was made by Mrs. Cocula to approve of the proposed changes to the Performance and Maintenance Bond requirements as set forth by Mr. Stoner's proposal, to be presented to the governing body for adoption. Mr. Gornstein seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Ms. Paladini commented that the Historic Preservation Commission had nominated and given the LUB a list of cemeteries for landmark designation about 6-7 months ago. She advised that they are still working on this list. One of the cemeteries being considered for memorializing is the cemetery shared by St. Thomas Episcopal Church and United Methodist Church which is conjoined. One Minister is in favor and one is coming in favor. Ms. Paladini asked if the whole lot and block would have to be designated or just the cemetery area. She went on to say that it seems that entire lot and blocks are being designated, such as with the Mastodon Lake designation. If only items located on a lot are proposed to be memorialized, she asked if GPS mapping would be adequate for designation purposes and who would be qualified to do that? Mr. Garofalo will need to do further research on this matter.
January 12, 2011: Reorganization Meeting Minutes (Cocula, Paladini, Rinker, Murphy, Theobald, Tadrick, Hack, Rolando, Ferrer)
Motion: Mayor Rinker made a motion to approve of the 1/12/11 Reorganization Meeting Minutes. Mr. Ferrer seconded the motion. ROLL CALL: COCULA - Y, PALADINI - Y, RINKER - Y, TADRICK - Y, HACK - Y, ROLANDO - Y, FERRER - Y.
January 12, 2011: Regular Meeting Minutes (Cocula, Paladini, Rinker, Murphy, Theobald, Tadrick, Hack, Rolando, Ferrer)
Motion: Rinker made a motion to approve of the 1/12/11 Regular Meeting Minutes. Mr. Hack seconded the motion. ROLL CALL: COCULA - Y, PALADINI - Y, RINKER - Y, TADRICK - Y, HACK - Y, ROLANDO - Y, FERRER - Y.
Escrows, Board Fees and Bond Reductions
Board Fees
Board Attorney: Michael Garofalo, Laddey, Clark & Ryan, LLP
Land Use Board Business: 12/31/10 ($480.00)
Mountain Creek Resort, Inc.: PB# 2-08-2- Services through 12/31/10 - ($150.00)
Cellco Partnership/Verizon: LU# 7-10-5 - Services through 12/31/10 - ($210.00)
US Fish & Wildlife Service: Services through 12/31/10 - ($225.00)
Board Planner: Jessica Caldwell, Harold E. Pellow & Associates
Land Use Board Business: 10/1/10 & 10/28/10 ($649.75)
Board Engineer: Cory Stoner, Harold E. Pellow & Associates
Land Use Board Business: 10/1/10 - 10/28/10 - ($810.00)
Mountain Creek Day Lodge: PB# 2-08-2 - Services through 12/31/10 - ($240.00)
Mountain Creek: Master Plan - PB# 2-91-4 - Services through 12/31/10 - ($120.00)
Board Recording Secretary: Cynthia Davis
Services through 1/17/11 - ($161.25)
Request for Escrows to be Closed
Motion: A motion was made by Mr. Gornstein to approve of the above listed Board Fees. Mayor Rinker seconded the motion. ROLL CALL: BORISUK - Y, COCULA - Y, GORNSTEIN - Y, PALADINI - Y, RINKER - Y, TADRICK - Y, MURPHY - Y, HACK - Y, ROLANDO - Y, FERRER - Y.
Mayor Rinker made a motion to adjourn the LUB meeting at 8:32 p.m. Mr. Gornstein seconded the motion. All were in favor.
These minutes were transcribed by Cynthia Davis on February 15, 2011.
I, the Board Secretary, hereby certify that the above minutes were approved at the regularly scheduled Land Use Board meeting on February 23, 2011.
Cynthia Davis


How many years has the physician been dedicated to doing hair restoration?
How many hair restoration procedures does the surgeon perform in one day? Ideally the physician will be dedicated to working on you all day if you are doing a large mega session procedure.
Does the physician perform hair restoration surgery full time or predominantly? If not, the clinic may not have a staff that is experienced enough to successfully perform large sessions of all microscopically prepared Follicular Unit (FU) grafts.
What is the hair restoration surgeon's reputation among his or her peers?
Does the physician take a holistic approach to hair loss treatment and also offer advice or Rogaine?
Does the physician use microscopes for the dissection of the donor tissue into 1, 2, 3, and 4 hair Follicular Unit (FU) grafts?
Large sessions of all microscopically prepared grafts are a team effort. But how "hands on" will your hair restoration surgeon be? Will he or she be making all the incisions in the graft recipient area, thus determining the design and hair direction of your transplanted hair? How involved will your surgeon be in the placing of the actual grafts?
Can the surgeon provide a list of names and phone numbers of patients willing to discuss their personal experiences? Patient testimonials will say a lot.
Can the surgeon provide at least one dozen sets of clinical "before" and "after" case photos for your review? Be sure the photos offer good clarity and detail and include "before" views as well as "after" views that allow for critical evaluation.
Verify claims by visiting online discussion forums and searching for previous posts regarding a hair transplant physician you are considering.
Our member physicians are carefully reviewed and granted membership in the Coalition based on their high level of ethics, skill, and the quality of their patient results.
Learn more about our network of quality prescreened physicians.


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Patients going weeks without isotretinoin after website overhaul
Nearly a month later, Soohoo still doesn't have her prescription
Patients can't log in, doctors can't verify their patients and call centers have hours-long wait times
There's really no substitute for isotretinoin
A flawed system, now nearly unusable
Acne — and acne treatment — can affect mental health too
Unpredictability and a lack of transparency
Jessica Soohoo, a 20-year-old student in New Jersey, was supposed to start her sixth and final month of isotretinoin acne treatment in December. Isotretinoin is the generic name for Absorica, Claravis and others, and is still frequently referred to by its former brand name Accutane.
Soohoo dutifully followed all the usual procedures to get her medication, including taking a pregnancy test. But this month, she had trouble logging into the iPledge website to check the required digital boxes. And when she finally got in, it gave her an error message and told her to contact her dermatologist.
Her dermatologist couldn't help and directed her to the iPledge customer service line. When she called, however, no one picked up for hours at a time. If she got an answer, it was an automated message saying the call center was too busy.
After an overhaul to the iPledge website last month, patients on isotretinoin across the country are complaining that tech issues like these are making it impossible for them to access their medication.
"The main problem is the fact that they can't pick up their calls ever. It would just be nice to have someone to contact to know something is going to be worked on, but they don't really let anyone know anything," Soohoo told TODAY.
Isotretinoin is used to treat severe acne, including in cases where other medications have failed, the American Academy of Dermatology explains. But it's also a known teratogen, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration makes clear, meaning it can cause birth defects if taken during pregnancy. That's why anyone who takes isotretinoin — whether they can become pregnant or not — has to go through a risk-management procedure aimed at pregnancy prevention called iPledge.
The FDA requires that isotretinoin patients use iPledge as part of a Risk Evaluation and Management Strategy to prevent fetal exposure to the medication. (People who take other medications also have to abide by similar REMS requirements, but iPledge is unique to isotretinoin.) And it falls to the Isotretinoin Producers Manufacturing Group — the companies that make the drug — to run the website.
But over the weekend of Dec. 10, just a few days before Soohoo tried to refill her prescription for what should have been the last time, the iPledge website went through an overhaul. Doctors and patients say it's been nearly unusable since. And, without iPledge, patients are forced to delay going on the medication or to stop taking it during what is meant to be a consistent treatment period.
The issues have inspired TikTok videos (including one from Dr. Pimple Popper), at least three change.org petitions calling for a halt to iPledge and a patient-created guide to troubleshooting the website.
It's hard to know exactly how widespread the problems are, but the drug statistics website ClinCalc estimates there are around 350,000 isotretinoin patients in the U.S. every year. And a Dermatology Times poll found that, as of Jan. 6, almost two-thirds of the poll's respondents were still locked out of their iPledge accounts.
"Anyone who was on Accutane during the month of December was affected by this," Dr. Evan Rieder, assistant professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told TODAY. "Everyone was affected."
But those trying to use the site say there still haven't been any significant improvements. The FDA shared a statement in late December, acknowledging and addressing the issues.
"Given the magnitude of the issues that iPledge  participants are currently facing, FDA has communicated to the IPMG a potential temporary solution to support isotretinoin patients during the transition to the new iPledge  website and we have been prompting the IPMG to work with prescribers and pharmacies to put in place this temporary solution as quickly as possible," the statement read, in part.
The FDA also said it has "strongly encouraged the IPMG to work with the American Academy of Dermatology Association  and pharmacy organizations to find solutions that would minimize treatment interruptions during the transition to the modified iPledge program."
For its part, the IPMG told TODAY in a statement that it has begun implementing strategies to help fix the issues. "We appreciate the feedback we have received from the patient, prescriber and pharmacist communities and we are working — collaboratively with the FDA and stakeholders contributing to solutions — to help resolve the current situation, as quickly as possible," the IPMG said.
"We have taken multiple immediate actions to alleviate technical issues, handle call volumes and reduce wait times. We have added staff at the contact center and outbound call campaigns are continuing. We have added features to the site to address login issues," the full IPMG statement continued. "There is more work to be done; however, we are focused on getting there. We encourage iPledge users to visit the website as enhancements are rolled out regularly."
TODAY asked IPMG if it could share any other specific actions it would be taking to address the issues patients and providers were reporting, as well as when IPMG hopes to have the issues resolved. But IPMG responded that it had "nothing further to add" at the time.
As of Friday, the iPledge site does have one noticeable new feature: It now allows providers to directly assist some patients having login issues through the site, making it possible for them to bypass the call center.
But depending on when patients were slated to start or renew their isotretinoin prescriptions, they may have already gone a week — or weeks — without the medication. Being forced to go without it and experiencing anxiety about when it will finally be available has both physical and mental health effects for patients, said dermatologists who spoke to TODAY.
"Isotretinoin is the gold standard medication in the treatment of scarring and nodular cystic acne, and it's really like our last line of defense," Rieder said.
Not only can isotretinoin treat severe acne, but it can also help prevent the scarring that often comes with the painful pimples — and make it significantly less likely that the acne will ever return, Rieder said.
"It's really our best option for trying to prevent scarring, which is a permanent mark left behind from acne and can impact people for the rest of their lives," Dr. John Barbieri, director of the Advanced Acne Therapeutics Clinic at Brigham and Women's Hospital, told TODAY.
Isotretinoin is also used to treat other skin conditions, including a group of issues that primarily affect children called ichthyoses, Barbieri said. It can also be used preventively in people who have a high risk for skin cancer. And, outside of dermatology, it's sometimes used in the treatment of neuroblastomas in children, he said.
Although some patients come in with the type of acne that can only be treated with isotretinoin, many other patients try various other treatment options before resorting to isotretinoin, Dr. Rita Khodosh, vice chair of dermatology at the University of Massachusetts.
For instance, Anna Lucking, a 22-year-old esthetician in Maple Grove, Minnesota, told TODAY that she's "someone who's spent thousands of dollars on my face before even thinking about Accutane." Having dealt with acne since the eighth grade that only became more severe and painful over the years, Lucking tried chemical peels, cortisone injections, laser treatments and more before going through the process to start isotretinoin in mid-November.
After the iPledge system update, however, Lucking told TODAY that it was nearly three weeks before she could get through to someone at the call center to reset her password and allow her to log into the website.
It took Anna Lucking three weeks to finally get set up in the iPledge system.Courtesy Anna Lucking
In some cases, the oral medication can come with side effects, the AAD explains. Those might include dryness and a temporary worsening of acne colloquially called "purging."
And if taken while pregnant, the medication can also cause birth defects. That's where the iPledge system comes in: Each month, patients have to fill out questionnaires using iPledge about their mental health and, if they can become pregnant, the two forms of birth control they're required to be on.
With past versions of this process, a patient could fill out the initial consent forms on paper and take a monthly pregnancy test. Then, the patient's negative test results would be uploaded to electronic health records, allowing the pharmacist to give the patient the medication. When the iPledge system was implemented in 2006, it introduced additional digital requirements for the patient and provider.
Among the most recent changes to the iPledge site is the incorporation of gender-neutral language in the questions. But on the tech side, the new version of iPledge is essentially nonfunctional for many patients and providers.
Chelsea Robarge Fife has been trying to get isotretinoin for her 16-year-old daughter Cristie since October, before the December changes to the iPledge site. They went through the initial steps: two negative pregnancy tests 30 days apart, bloodwork and a mountain of paperwork. But when it came time to pick up the prescription, the pharmacy told Robarge Fife that she and her daughter needed to fill out iPledge information online.
Patients are supposed to receive login information for the website through their email or the mail, but Robarge Fife told TODAY that she never received it. After a conversation with Cristie's dermatologist, Robarge Fife turned to the call center. She's called dozens of times, been on hold for upwards of five hours, and only once had her call go through — to an automated message.
"We're just kind of left to their mercy and their staffing issues as to whether we're going to be able to get the prescription filled," Robarge Fife said.
When asked about Robarge Fife's experience, IPMG again told TODAY it had "nothing further to add."
If patients don't pick up their isotretinoin prescription within a week of the negative pregnancy test, it gets sent back and they need to take another test. So Robarge Fife missed Cristie's initial prescription window and had to go through the process again. Now, months later, she's still dealing with login issues and her daughter doesn't have the medication.
"I'm a leukemia survivor and I had a bone marrow transplant and I didn't have to jump through these kinds of hoops," she said. "It's been more work for me to get my kid's acne taken care of than it was for me to go through cancer treatment."
For the system to work, all three parties — the patient, their prescribing doctor and the pharmacist — need to be able to access iPledge. If any one of them can't get in, the patient can't get isotretinoin. This timing was always precarious with isotretinoin, especially for those patients who can become pregnant. The changes to iPledge made the process even more challenging.
"It's been more work for me to get my kid's acne taken care of than it was for me to go through cancer treatment."
said Chelsea Robarge Fife
When Victoria Guillemard first tried to log into the new iPledge system right before Christmas, it wouldn't let her, she told TODAY. After three days, she was finally able to log in, but her doctor still didn't have access. "So even though he knows and he's able to see that I am not pregnant, he can't report it to the iPledge website, which means that my pharmacist couldn't fill the prescription," she explained.
Guillemard ended up going five days without isotretinoin, which was long enough that she experienced purging symptoms again when she restarted the medication — despite the fact that she'd already been using it for five months.
Even people who can't get pregnant are negatively impacted by the site's issues. For 16-year-old Ryan, who falls into this category, isotretinoin was the last resort after two years of antibiotic treatments, his mom Adrienne Dunfee told TODAY.
After five months on isotretinoin, Victoria Guillemard's phone is full of selfies.Courtesy Victoria Guillemard
He'd been on the medication for two full months when the iPledge update happened, which locked his dermatologist out of the system. The two were unable to get Ryan's prescription before going away on vacation, leaving him without the medication for more than a week.
"It seems like it was this incredibly glitchy system to begin with, it transitioned overnight to a system that was even worse and it's just completely overloaded the call center," Dunfee said.
On the provider side, Rieder said he's been locked out of the system at random times, which made it impossible to do the correct consent procedures with patients going on isotretinoin for the first time. "They gave me a new login and a new password, which didn't work," he said. "And then you call the service line and you're on hold for like six hours or you can't get through at all."
The end result is that some patients haven't been able to get their medication for a week or more. Outside of a few exceptions, "they basically abruptly shut off the dispensation of isotretinoin for all the patients in the United States," Reider said.
"I always tell people acne is a three-part disease: It's medical, it's cosmetic and it's psychological," said Rieder, who is board-certified in both dermatology and psychiatry. "You have to deal with the psychology of having your skin not in an ideal state when you're having acne. And then if you have acne scarring, those psychological scars can be with you indefinitely."
Among these patients, a forced break or delay in isotretinoin treatment can cause frustration and anxiety about whether or not they'll ever be able to get back on a medication that feels like a lifeline.
"I've been dealing with this for the past almost three weeks now. I have just been in tears," Lucking said. "It has drained my mental health. I feel insecure about my skin when I should feel comfortable in my skin."
Dunfee recalled Ryan asking her every day whether she'd heard from his doctor or the pharmacy. "He's very cognizant of the fact that he was supposed to be taking this medicine and wasn't able to. It's just adding to that normal teenage stress," Dunfee said.
Soohoo didn't realize how much her skin was affecting her mental health until it started to clear up. "I just remember that it was a lot harder to wake up in the morning and like wash your face and look at yourself," she said. For Guillemard, the changes were subtle as well. She went from not taking a photo of herself in two years to a phone "full of selfies," she said.
"I know people look at it as just an acne medication, but I think it's very life-changing," Soohoo added.
"This rollout was a total disaster for practitioners and patients alike," Rieder said. But it's not clear exactly who is responsible for the changes to the website or which third-party contractors, if any, IPMG has running the site's operations.
"There's really been a lack of transparency," Barbieri said, adding that while he's heard horror stories from his patients and others online, there's no way to know how the issues have affected prescription numbers or the call center wait times for instance. Answers to questions like these are "really critical information to be able to monitor the progress of any intervention that we're taking to try to address this issue," said Barbieri, who is part of the AAD's iPledge workgroup, which has met with the FDA to offer guidance on the program. "We know nothing about what's happening," he said.
The AAD's workgroup doesn't know much about the people at IPMG they're supposed to be collaborating with. "We'd love to work with those people, but we don't know who they are and we don't have a way to contact them directly," Barbieri said. In fact, he and the workgroup have proposed several potential solutions such as temporarily pausing use of the iPledge site, for instance, or pausing it for patients who can't get pregnant to free up call center staff for those who can.
"It'd be great if the IPMG and the FDA could be more transparent in terms of engaging with key stakeholders," he continued. "As dermatologists, we're eager and ready to work together to try to address this issue and we'd love to be more involved in the process and have more access to what's going on."
The iPledge site right now is "really touch and go," Rieder said. Some days he can log in and get things going, but other days he can't — and he's resorted to keeping a running list of patients who still need access to their medication.
People look at it as just an acne medication, but I think it's very life-changing."
said jessica soohoo
"I'm just really frustrated and sad that nobody seems to want to help these patients. And I feel very powerless because no matter how hard we try, there are many patients we can't help," Khodosh said. "To have a website stand between you and this life-altering medication that you really need is just beyond frustrating."
In her department, dermatologists who are locked out of the system have had some success in transferring their patients to others who do have access, she said. But it's a workaround that takes time and effort and still doesn't help everyone.
"This is all a bureaucratic failure," said Guillemard, who is also days away from graduating law school with a focus on health care compliance.
To some, treating acne may seem less significant than other medical issues. "But these are the things that matter to teenagers. These are things that cost money. These are things that take time," Robarge Fife said. "It just feels like a system that's broken at the expense of patients."
https://www.today.com/health/skin-beauty/acne-medication-website-issues-rcna12156
Tags: isotretinoin overhaul patients website weeks
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Burlington's Thomas Kingsbury Adds Chairman's Title
Continues as president and chief executive officer of off-price retailer.
By Arnold J. Karr Plus Icon
Arnold J. Karr
Recent Articles by Arnold J. Karr
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M-commerce Outpacing E-commerce Growth
June 2, 2014, 9:54am
Thomas Kingsbury, president and chief executive officer of Burlington Stores Inc., has added the title of chairman.
Kingsbury joined Burlington as president and ceo in 2008, two years after the company was acquired for $2.06 billion and taken private by Bain Capital. He was previously senior executive vice president of Kohl's Corp.
The post of chairman had been vacant since the Bain acquisition. It was last held by Monroe Milstein, founder of the off-price retailer.
The company went public through an initial public offering last year.
The board said that Kingsbury "has provided excellent strategic direction for the business and he has used his leadership skills to build a strong team at the company. The growth of the business has been impressive under Tom's leadership and we look forward to this continuing under Tom's expanded role as chairman and ceo."
The Burlington, N.J.-based firm also formed a nominating and corporate governance committee of its board of directors with responsibility for identifying potential directors. John Mahoney has been appointed its chairman and Tricia Patrick and Jordan Hitch have been appointed members of the new committee.
Retail Markets


In a world of 150 character texts, Facebook Posts and Tweets, handwritten notes, letters and cards are substantially more sentimental. While the practice of handwriting isn't completely lost, it is certainly less common than ever before. One of the hottest trends in jewelry right now is taking handwritten memos like notes from grandma, grandpa, mom or dad & kids drawings or birthday cards and memorializing them with fine jewelry.
Ready to design your own? Email your note or picture to us at [email protected] or call us at 1-912-771-1133 to get started.
I'm so excited to feature a new jewelry design this Tuesday!
This gorgeous 14k nameplate necklace was designed to compliment a returning customer's pave diamond nameplate necklace with her children's names. She knew she wanted a similar style in order to layer the necklaces together, but she didn't want an exact match. I suggested creating a gold satellite chain with bezel set diamonds dispersed throughout the solid gold cable chain. The result is stunning and she agreed!
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The Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Short Film, officially known as Efere Ozako Award for Best Short Film, is an annual merit by the Africa Film Academy to reward the best short films for the year. It was introduced in the 4th Africa Movie Academy Awards, but no film was rewarded because the jury didn't deem any of the nominee fit for the award. No submitted film was nominated for the award in 2009.  At the 10th Africa Movie Academy Awards, the award category was renamed to honor the memory of renowned entertainment lawyer Efere Ozako.

References

Lists of award winners
Africa Movie Academy Awards

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Bexons Chartered Accountants
Where to invest in today's financial environment?
In the current business environment, businesses must seize opportunities to invest in future business growth.
Britain's businesses are gradually moving into expansion mode as the economic outlook improves. More than half the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) surveyed recently said they planned to invest in their businesses this year, amid increasing optimism for their growth prospects.
In practice, however, investment means different things to different companies, as leading finance directors will tell you. Finance directors are now beginning to take a lead role in the strategic direction of their companies in a growth environment.
At gambling firm Betfair, a restructuring has occurred that has saved the business £30m. At international catering group Sodexo, Siân Herbert-Jones says businesses must be prepared to take every possible opportunity to enter new markets.
In the current business environment, businesses therefore must seize opportunities to invest in future business growth. Finance directors must also decide how to fund such investments. With 4 in 10 SMEs now actively seeking funding, access to finance is a crucial issue. Without that finance, growth plans may be thwarted.
In a marketplace where traditional sources of finance may not be available or appropriate, it is important that finance directors consider every possible avenue of potential funding. This includes the value locked up in a company's assets, such as its unpaid invoices, inventory and property. Alternative finance options such as invoice finance and asset based lending (ABL) offer an opportunity to access this value, improving cash flow and freeing up funding for investments in future growth.
Finance directors are now showing remarkable imagination as they plan strategically for future growth, investing in different ways to achieve their ambitions. The modern FD now needs to be equally imaginative as they plan how to fund these investments.
Click here to arrange a free consultation with one of our advisors - book now.
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Look beyond traditional sources of finance to secure the most appropriate type of funding for your plans.
Why do I need an accountant?
Taking care of your wealth as you get older
Bexons Accountants
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Child-health concerns overcome former Yugoslavia's divisions: Physicians join together to counter war's damage
Publication: AAP News
AAP News (1995) 11 (1): 1–10.
Even in the bloodiest conflicts, common ground exists. That was the hope, at least, of Massachusetts pediatrician Jane Schaller, M.D., FAAP. She proposed bringing together physicians, from warring sides in the former Yugoslavia, to discuss the mutual concerns they shared for children living in the war-torn region. Six months after offering her proposal, that hope has been realized. Pediatricians and public-health officials from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia are participating in a series of workshops with U.S. and European child-care providers. They're aimed at addressing the array of child-health problems caused, or complicated, by the nearly three-year-old war.
Group aims to unify Bosnian pediatricians
AAP News (1995) 11 (1): 11.
While war has shattered their country, homes and hospitals — it has not shaken Bosnian pediatricians' commitment to children and medicine. The Bosnian Pediatric Society's formation strengthened that commitment. The society, consisting of approximately 150 pediatricians from the war-torn country, held its first meeting last September. AAP Vice President Ed Keenan, M.D., and Massachusetts pediatrician and AAP Committee on International Child Health member Jane Schaller, M.D., attended the meeting. They said the society's formation is an attempt to unify Bosnia's pediatric community. "Their primary goal is to form a nationwide pediatric society that will meet the needs of children, serve as their advocates and educate its members," Dr. Keenan said. "Right now, they feel very isolated. They have no access to the outside world. They have no opportunity to interact with other pediatricians."
AAP members receive Primary Care Achievement Award
AAP News (1994) 10 (10): 5.
Published: October 1994
AAP members Robert Haggerty, M.D., and Barbara Starfield, M.D., were among the three recipients of the inaugural Primary Care Achievement Awards. The awards, which honor excellence in advancing primary care in the United States, provides $10,000 for outstanding contributions in the areas of education, patient care and research. It is presented by The Pew Charitable Trusts in cooperation with the U.S. Public Health Service, Pew Health Professions Commission and Primary Care Organizations Network.
Managed-care negotiations demand medical/financial balance
AAP News (1994) 10 (6): 7.
Two AAP leaders recently offered their advice on how to negotiate a managed-care contract Edward Saltzman, M.D., of Palm City, Fla., and Don Blim,, M.D., of Kansas City,, Mo., illustrated to the AAP Council on Pediatric Practice (COPP) what typically takes place during managed-care contract negotiations. Both physicians were invited guests at last month's COPP meeting, in which a significant portion of the agenda was dedicated to managed-care issues, including a role-playing exchange between the two physicians.
Health reform likely to boost HMO impact: Physicians adopt managed-care mode
While some pediatricians might wish to avoid managed-care organizations and the changes they bring, AAP leaders say managed care is a delivery system with which most physicians had better become familiar. "Pediatricians have no choice," Edward Saltzman, M.D., chairperson of the AAP Administration and Practice Management Steering Committee, said. "One hundred and ten million people in this country are under managed care and that's before the arrival of health care reform. Health care reform will make managed care even more pronounced."
Nongovernmental forces dominate reform picture: Private sector pushes physicians to alter practice
While federal lawmakers decide the future of health care reform, physicians in several states say the anticipation of its arrival is already sparking significant change in their practices. For example, in Eugene, Ore., Robert Velarde, M.D., FAAP, lost approximately 150 patients last year when his local hospital's managedcare plan did not include solo-practice practitioners in its provider network. In Brainerd, Minn., Mike Severson, M.D., FAAP, traded 15 years of private practice for a partnership in a larger, multispecialty group.
AAP targets health reform improvements
Aiming to enhance pediatric-specific provisions in President Clinton's health care reform bill, the AAP Board of Directors targeted 10 areas for improvements and outlined strategies for addressing them during a January AAP standing board committee meeting. AAP officials say the 10 areas encompass issues not adequately addressed by the president's bill, called "The Health Security Act" (HSA), which was introduced last November. The Academy, noting improvements were needed, issued "qualified" support for the bill in December.
Government revises neonatal care reimbursement
The U.S. Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) ended a seven-year negotiation with pediatricians and other providers of newborn care last month by releasing work values for physicians directing the care in neonatal intensive care units (NI-CUs). The move clears the way for including NICU physician work values in the Medicare resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS).
AAP supports health care reform bill: Academy vows to make added improvements
The Academy lent official support for President Clinton's health care reform bill, Dec. 17, when AAP President Betty Lowe sent a letter to the administration on behalf of the AAP Board of Directors. The move marked the first time the Academy has officially supported the President's "Health Security Act of 1993" (S. 1757 and H.R. 3600), which was introduced as legislation before Congress on Nov. 20.
Work codes move toward Medicaid approval
Physician work value recommendations for preventive medicine, individual risk reduction/counseling and newborn care services took the first step toward gaining inclusion in the Medicare Resource Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) by winning approval from the Relative Value Services Update Committee (RUC) last month.
Academy issues reform report card: Clinton health plan gets good grades
AAP News (1993) 9 (12): 1–12.
Published: December 1993
President Clinton's Health Security Act received top marks on an "AAP report card" delivered to the Senate labor committee by AAP Immediate Past President Howard Pearson, M.D., on Nov. 16. The report card, which examined the president's health care plan and four top senate proposals, was an attempt by AAP leaders to provide the committee with a brief overview of how leading Senate health care plans address children's needs.
Academy reinforces reform plan stance: Eleventh-hour bid made for child health
AAP News (1993) 9 (11): 1–9.
Taking advantage of a delay in the release of the Clinton administration's health care plan, former AAP President Howard Pearson, M.D., reiterated the Academy's position on key child health care reform issues during testimony before a House Ways and Means subcommittee on Oct. 22. The testimony, given before Rep. Pete Stark's (D-Calif.) subcommittee on Health, will likely be the last offered by the Academy before President Clinton's official plan is released.
U.S. hospital help sought to aid Bosnian children
AAP News (1993) 9 (9): 19.
A recently formed committee is asking U.S. hospitals to volunteer their help in providing needed health care services to the war-torn children of what was once Yugoslavia. The National Emergency Committee for Medical Evacuation of Children from the former Yugoslavia, organized in early August, is looking to foster and facilitate the medical evacuation of children, and accompanying parents or other adults to the United States for medical care.
AAP leaders seek added CLIA changes: White House reps say lab regulations might be modified
Amid assurances from top White House officials that relief from CLIA regulations is forthcoming, AAP leaders maintain a concerted effort to hasten its arrival. A letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala is the latest in what has become a long list of efforts by AAP officials to obtain relief from what many pediatricians consider burdensome regulations.
Strain: Campaign commitment needed
SAN FRANCISCO -- Telling members the fate of the AAP campaign for children rests in their hands, AAP Executive Director James Strain, M.D., urged pediatricians to "take the lead in doing the necessary work to make (the) campaign a winner." "We can't wait for others to do the work for us," he said. "As pediatricians, we have to be willing to make a commitment and, we have to be willing to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children. Ultimately we will decide the fate of this campaign."
Matsui: Cost control vital to health care bill
AAP News (1992) 8 (12): 7.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The controversial issue of cost containment took center stage in remarks made by Rep. Robert Matsui, (D-Calif.), during his keynote address at the 1992 AAP Annual Meeting. Addressing concerns expressed by some pediatricians, Matsui said cost containment provisions were needed to make his "Children's and Pregnant Women's Health Insurance Act," a "credible piece of legislation." Matsui's bill is designed to guarantee access to health insurance for all children and pregnant women. The bill is based on the Academy's Children First health care proposal.
Shea: face bureaucracy head on, resist surrender
SAN FRANCISCO -- In his final address as 1991-92 AAP president, Daniel Shea, M.D., challenged AAP members to "cause something good to happen for children and the (pediatric) speciality during the upcoming year." Speaking during the business luncheon at the 1992 AAP Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Shea described the past year as a "topsy-turvy" one for pediatricians and pediatrics. "It's been the best of times and the worst times," Dr. Shea said.
Progress shedding light on regulatory darkness
SAN FRANCISCO -- Telling AAP members that "the best way out of difficulty is through it," 1991-92 AAP President Daniel Shea, M.D., urged pediatricians to continue working through the myriad of regulatory issues besieging their practices. Addressing issues such as access to care, and new federal regulations, Dr. Shea said, "regulatory excesses have made doing what (pediatricians) do best -- providing quality care to children -- increasingly difficult." He said pediatricians must confront these issues directly.
Search committee seeks new AAP executive director
AAP News (1992) 8 (2): 4.
The AAP Executive Committee has appointed an eight-member search committee to seek a successor for retiring AAP Executive Director James Strain, M.D. The committee, chaired by AAP President Daniel Shea, M.D., represents a cross-section of AAP members and will be responsible for reviewing all applications, interviewing qualified candidates and making a final recommendation to the AAP Executive Board.
AAP forms three educational groups on `trial basis'
AAP News (1992) 8 (1): 16–17.
The Academy is forming three new educational groups that will be open to physicians interested in sports medicine and fitness, child psychiatry, and issues affecting pediatricians age 55 and older. The three groups, which are being called "interim forums," will be managed by the AAP Division of Sections.


The spiritual revelation recorded in the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel affords us what we need for our task. In that chapter, the karma of evil is boldly outlined. The delineation begins with the picture of "the four winds of heaven [that] strove upon the great sea" (Daniel 7:2).
This figure shows us the cosmic scene of the conflict between good and evil. Space – with its four cardinal points of north, south, east, west – is neither one of the three abstract categories of Kantian philosophy, nor is it merely the distance that must be covered to reach some particular point; it is an ocean of forces at rest, set in motion by four active forces. These four active forces are the spiritual influences within the elemental world – the "winds" that cover the elemental world.
The currents caused by the four "winds" in the elemental world give rise to the four elements, which are impregnated by the four realms of elemental beings (salamanders, sylphs, undines and gnomes). These four groups of elemental beings are simply the lowest expression of the "four winds". Their origin is rooted in the eternal Trinity, from which issue the cosmic impulses called 'north', 'south', 'east' and 'west'. The Father being works through the cosmic impulses of north and south' the Son and the Holy Spirit are active in the impulses of east and west.
When these impulses work together, cosmic good results; when the "four winds" work against one another, the result is cosmic evil. This is why the description of Daniel's night vision begins with this image: "The four winds of the heaven strove." These winds striving against one another are the four currents of cosmic evil. They are not controlled from Heaven, but from the depths of the 'sea'; their origin must be sought in the "four….beasts" that appear out of the depth of the sea:"And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse from one another" (Daniel 7:3).


Bristol and the west country had to produce goods in order to trade with African tribal chiefs, goods to exchange for people captured in war or kidnapped to sell as slaves.
Brass goods were of particular value to the African chiefs. Brass pots and pans were used for cooking, washing and decoration. Brass bars could be melted down and made into beautiful artefacts by African craftsmen. Later, as the trade became more established, guns and gunpowder were much in demand for trading. Businessmen in Bristol and the surrounding areas produced or bought in goods for trading with Africa. Because of this, many industries developed. Ships had to be built and maintained. All the items needed on the voyage to repair the ship like sails, ropes and rigging had to be produced. Food for the crew and the slaves and barrels for water had to be bought. Many people were employed, from sailors to customs officers.
Wealth from the 'Africa trade' helped to fund the building of large private houses and other notable buildings in Bristol, including the theatre, the library, the Infirmary (hospital), the Exchange and the Merchant's Hall.
The population of Bristol grew from around 20,000 in 1700 to 64,000 in 1801.
People came to Bristol to find work. Many of these found themselves living in the poorest slums in the city and working in the industries which supplied the slave trade or developed from it, such as sugar processing.


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Off Topic Chit-Chat
Jim Crow Confederate Monuments Go Down in America
By Princess of Tap,
April 24, 2017 in Off Topic Chit-Chat
Vautrin
Quel siecle a mains!
LocationNorth Carolina
Does history still have an ash heap? I believe some of the monuments have been moved
to battlefields or cemeteries. I recall getting off the interstate in Virginia to get something
to eat and on the way was a small, well tended Confederate graveyard all by its lonesome.
mr6666
Truthout @truthout 2h2 hours ago
Think Confederate Monuments Are Racist?
Consider Pioneer Monuments http://bit.ly/2KH94VW
"....The design of the "pioneer monument" was celebrated in newspapers across the country when it was erected in 1894. Today, however, activists argue that the monument – particularly its depiction of a Spanish missionary and Mexican "vaquero," or cowboy, towering over an American Indian – is demeaning to American Indians.
Should the city take down part of this 125-year-old monument?
Princess of Tap
All of these statues that are controversial today are part of the racist and bigoted historical Foundation of the United States of America.
While these statues should NOT be in a place of honor in the public sphere,
*** they need to be preserved for history and for a clear understanding of our own culture and backgrounds.***
We are where we are today as a nation because of where we were and what we were in the past.
These statues should be taken to Museums or some other educational non-profit Foundations to be studied --
not just by young people, but by all Americans
to better understand who we are and what we are and how far we still need to go.
12 minutes ago, mr6666 said:
18 minutes ago, jakeem said:
MediaiteVerified account @Mediaite
In Tense Clash, GOP Senate Candidate Corey Stewart Tells Al Sharpton 'You're a Race Hustler' That's 'Obsessed' with Slavery http://mediaite.com/a/lzemj
Republican Senate candidate fron Virginia, Corey Stewart, is making a name for himself as a national leader in supporting the preservation of Confederate symbols being honored in public spaces.
After A Year Of Rising Tensions, Protesters Tear Down Confederate Statue On UNC Campus
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640435962/after-a-year-of-rising-tensions-protesters-tear-down-confederate-statue-on-unc-c?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180821
11 hours ago, jakeem said:
NPRVerified account@NPR
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640435962/after-a-year-of-rising-tensions-protesters-tear-down-confederate-statue-on-unc-c?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
hamradio
Silent Sam sure lived up to his name, never heard of him before. Pays to keep one's mouth shut.....guess not.


ADVERTISING ON TV TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS: SHOULD THE STATION PRODUCE MY SPOT?
Watch any amount of TV and you'll see the most successful businesses in your area advertising consistently, because it obviously brings in customers. TV stations and Cable companies make money selling time, so if you don't have a ready made commercial, they may offer to produce one for a small fee, usually around $1000-$1500. If you spend enough money on air time, they may even do it for "Free".
With budget cuts, most TV stations have long since closed their production departments and sub out your job to 1 or 2 local production companies. That's why many of the ads on that station or Cable outlet look the same. You can hire an ad agency, but they can be expensive. And most will sub out the actual production to a "Wholesale" production company like ours, while they concentrate on client relations and the media buy.
No matter how many times you run a bland ad, the results will always be weak. But a great ad gets noticed. Plus a powerful spot saves a lot on on air time because it produces faster results and a larger turnout! Here's what we tell all our clients: To end up with a unique spot start with a unique message. Pick ONE thing that sets you apart and make it your hallmark. Or pick a date and have an event. The key word is FOCUS.
Next, make it look professional. Advancements in technology make it affordable to shoot a high quality HD TV spot. Don't write complicated scripts with lots of actors and different sets. Keep it simple. Green Screen and White Board ads are popular because they get the message out and keep costs down. There's no need to spend 10 grand when you can get better results with a spot that cost $1500-$2000! Manufacture footage is another way to keep costs down. Ask your vendors if they have footage.
1. The TV Station. Affordable, but it will look like all the others.
2. An Ad Agency. Expensive, but will be unique!
3. A "Wholesale" production Company. High Quality, affordable.
At Kaplowe Studios, we produce hundreds of commercials each month. For over 25 years, we've been helping clients get the most effective and affordable spots on TV! And we make it simple…. You give us the facts, we develop an idea and write a script. Once you approve it, we can make your spot in a day or 2!
To get started, call us for a free consultation!
SHOULD I DO MY OWN COMMERCIALS? (What every business owner should know before doing their own Web Videos, Radio and TV ads).
A lot of business owners struggle with this one. If you're one of them, here are some things to consider.
1. Nobody knows your business, or your customer better!
2. You save money… there's no "Talent Fee". (Unless you want one, of course).
When it's done right, it look so easy for those local business owners who appear in their own ads. They've been on the air for years, and now dominate the market. But almost all of them started small. A thousand dollar buy on local radio or cable TV. When it worked they added to the budget. They stuck with it. When one spot didn't deliver the expected boost, they made a better one. That's the good thing about advertising…a good spot works fast. There's no ambiguity. I always say, "If you're not sure that your advertising is working, it isn't". Put a good ad on the air, or a good video on the web and, to be a bit corny…the phone rings and the door swings…right away. So how do you make a "good" ad?
Smart business owners always look for new ways to get more results, including putting themselves in their ads. The ones who do this well have found a niche. Their image has become familiar, their message is consistent and clear and they're even a welcome site on local radio and TV. They seem to be everywhere, all the time and their businesses thrive because of it. They get good results because they're either "naturals", have an excellent scriptwriter, coach or director, or any combination thereof.
Regardless of your personality type, the right script will make you look like a "natural". A good director will suggest ways to try a "take", while a great director will know how to get your best. Be open to suggestions. They may see something in you that will make the spot, or even your whole campaign! Even the biggest stars have coaches, and they take their advise.
We've all seen these "bad" local ads featuring the business owner. Some are a bit annoying, others are just plain ridiculous. But that doesn't mean they don't work. "Bad" ads aren't necessarily bad advertising. Stay with me here…. On countless occasions I've been asked about the latest "bad" ad running in our local market. Like the discount furniture guy with the high, whinny voice who looks like he could be working on his own loading dock. Actually, he really knows his target market, is honest about who he is, and he's growing like crazy! Or the car dealer in the shinny suit who looks like he'd sell you a fake Rolex…. he's growing rapidly because he knows his target market: Customers who can relate. Now you wouldn't want to see a financial advisor catch a pie in the face, but a used car dealer… appealing to folks with bad credit? Why not! When you see the same advertiser running spots (even ones you don't like) over and over, month after month, it's probably working very well for them.
Obviously, one of the worst things you can do is spend money to HURT your business. There are several ways to avoid this. A) Never run a cheap spot. With todays technology, it's very affordable to produce a great sounding radio spot, a well lit TV commercial or a beautiful HD Web Video. Regardless of what the script says, high quality production speaks even louder. B) Never loose trust. Only promise what you can deliver. If you advertise a sale with 50% off, be sure you offer a lot of merchandise at half price. People will rarely, if ever, go back to a store that disappointed, or worse, mislead them. C) Never spend money without getting a return. A common reason ads fail is because no one paid attention to them. The cardinal sin of advertising and entertainment is NEVER BORE THEM! They can like or dislike your ad, as long as they are paying attention to it.
Write some copy (Or have it written for you) and go to your local radio/TV station/production company and make a demo, Show it to your business associates, family members and friends. Ask them all to be candid. Don't worry that you're not George Cloony or Beyonce (only people 2 are). But the good news is that nobody else is YOU. If you like the idea of being on the air, and you don't scare small children when you speak, you can do this.
A) Know your target audience. Picture the person who represents your ideal customer and write specifically for that person. NEVER say "Hi 'Everybody' or 'Folks"! You're talking to one person, remember?
B) Know what you want to say. The best spots have one main theme and stick to it. If you tell us 6 things in 30 seconds we'll remember nothing. Tell us 3 things twice! Are you clearing out last season's models? Or introducing a new item?
C) Stay on message. DON'T get into minutia like your business hours, the specific physical address or long, non sequential phone numbers. (You're paying for every second of airtime) If we like your overall message, we'll get more details from your website.
D) Make us want to come to your store.. you only have 30 or 60 seconds…so keep it simple, and memorable. If you want a friend to come over for dinner, you don't get into a long worded, unnatural invitation.. you talk like YOU talk and get to the point.
E) "Feel" the script. Are you naturally funny? Be funny. (Don't reach. If you're really funny, it'll just come out that way) Are you a logical person? Use logic, people understand it. Are you a "Family" person? Incorporate your family somehow. Share a popular hobby with many of your customers, write it in! Animal lover? You can't go wrong with your dog by your side! I'm reluctant to use a cliche but… just be yourself, or even a slightly exaggerated version of yourself, for effect.
Now, here's the secret….. how you "SHINE": You must simultaneously be excited and relaxed. The best ones have a calm AND commanding presence. They Love doing this kind of work and we can feel it. Notice how actors, athletes and authors "Light Up" when they're on a talk show. If you love talking to us, you'll light up too!
Prepare, and you'll be confident. Practice, and you'll be relaxed. Perform, and you'll get excited. It will come across in your eyes and your voice. To be great on camera or radio, you never "read", you talk. We can always tell when people are reading a script. But you're not going to read a word, the script or prompter is there just for reference.
You're talking to just ONE person, a loved one, who's there, deep in the camera lens. It sounds a bit strange, but you'll be amazed how well this works. Ask the director to see a playback so you can practice a few times.
Please, (I say this with love) for the sake of all of us.. DON'T DO AN IMPRESSION OF AN ANNOUNCER! It's so obvious when someone reads copy like they think an announcer would …. so "sing songy" and unnatural. You are YOU. Tell us what's going on at your business…a sale?! … WOW! We're actually looking for what you have! And we'd love to buy it from YOU, not some "Fake" announcer wannabe.
"I WANT TO DO MY OWN ADS, BUT ….
I love it when clients are open to doing their own spots. Even if they're too busy to come in every month, we have lots of creative options. You may consider going into a studio to tape several spots that will run throughout the year. Or perhaps you can record the "Open" or "Close" and have your local radio/TV station or production company produce the "Donut", which they can change for each season, event or sale.
And if you're not feeling particularly creative, you can always work with a writer who designs a promotional calendar, comes up with marketing ideas and prepares scripts. There are also very good coaches available. Find one you're comfortable with and you two can make magic!
As I said, nobody knows your business or your customer better. Who would be better at telling your story? With SO MANY ads competing for attention, you must look for every unique advantage, and there's only one, YOU. So go for it!
Mark Kaplowe is the founder and Creative Director of Kaplowe Studios. He has written and produced thousands of Radio and TV spots, as well as videos for businesses of all types and sizes. His voice has been heard on countless national commercials and networks including HBO, Showtime and ESPN.
1 Comment on SHOULD I DO MY OWN COMMERCIALS? (What every business owner should know before doing their own Web Videos, Radio and TV ads).


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Syria Accuses Saudi Foreign Minister of Trying to Thwart Truce
February 29, 2016, 3 years ago
NewsWorld
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir, seen at a ministerial meeting in Rome on February 2, has been accused by the Syrian government of thwarting the truce agreement. Reuters/Nichols Kamm
BEIRUT, Feb 29 – The Syrian government accused Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Monday of trying to undermine a fragile cessation of hostilities agreement by saying there would be a "plan B" if it failed.
Adel Al Jubeir said on Sunday that Syria's government and its ally Russia had violated the truce, and that there would be an alternate plan if it became clear Damascus and its allies were not serious about the ceasefire. He did not give details on the plan.
"What Adel Al Jubeir says … about a plan B regarding the current developments in Syria is merely a delusion in the mind of the Saudi regime," a Syrian foreign ministry official was quoted as saying in a statement on state media.
"Jubeir's statements are … an attempt to thwart the cessation of combat operations," the statement added.
Saudi Arabia supports insurgents fighting against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, and backs the main Syrian opposition body.
The fragile cessation, drawn up by the United States and Russia, has led to a dramatic reduction of violence in Syria, though rebels are accusing the government of numerous violations including air strikes. A Syrian military source has said the army is not violating the agreement.
[Adel Al Jubeir], [Bashar al-Assad], [Saudi Arabia], [syria], [syria ceasefire]
Gaza Audiences Enjoy First Night Out At The Movies In 20 Years
Mumtaz Qadri's Execution May Just Be A Turning Point In Pakistan
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text:
NGC 6804 est une nébuleuse planétaire dans la constellation de l'Aigle.

Ascension droite 19h 31' 40,8", déclinaison 9h 13' 13", taille 1,1', magnitude 12.

Elle ressemble à une tache pâle, avec une partie plus brillante entourant le centre.

Lien externe

Constellation de l'Aigle
Nébuleuse planétaire
6804


text:
Power trip: might China's struggles with its neighbours bring war to Asia?
For the first time in decades, China is making aggressive territorial claims in the South and East China seas – sparking an arms race as its neighbours turn to the US for protection.
US President Barack Obama, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in November. The Obama administration's policy to 'pivot' resources to Asia is a thought to be an attempt to constrain China. Feng Li / Getty Images
Joshua Kurlantzick
From the air, the Spratly Islands, a cluster of miniature rocks and sandbars 425,000 kilometres square in the middle of the South China Sea, are almost imperceptible. Even up close, the Spratlys do not look like much – a few islands have tiny rocky beaches or occasional makeshift buildings. A tiny contingent of Filipino marines camps on a rusty hulk of an American ship from the Second World War grounded in the Spratlys.
It's hard to believe these outcroppings could be at the centre of an international dispute, let alone one that could lead to a future Asian war. But the Spratlys are not only claimed by China as Beijing's exclusive economic zone. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei angrily retort that parts of the South China Sea belong to them, including areas that Beijing insists is China's alone.
The South East Asian countries and China have been unable to resolve their overlapping claims to the sea, believed to be rich in oil and strategically vital – more than US$5 trillion (Dh18.4 trillion) in trade passes through annually. The Philippines and Vietnam have asked an international tribunal to rule on what areas of the South China Sea are within Beijing's exclusive economic zones but any decision will be meaningless; China argues that the tribunal has no power.
In the past three years, under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has for the first time since Mao stated its desire to be the dominant power in Asia. China's leadership is asserting long-dormant claims to unsettled land borders and large portions of Asia's waters, including the South China Sea and the East China Sea in North East Asia, and demanding that it, not America or Japan, lead regional organisations. With the United States desperately trying to maintain its influence in Asia, countries like Vietnam, the Philippines and many others that relied on US protection are scrambling to build up their own armies and navies.
China does not appear threatened. In November, during a forum sponsored by a Chinese military organisation, China's vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin declared that "Asian countries bear primary responsibility for the security of their region", a statement interpreted as a warning to the United States. While the forum was being held, satellite photos revealed that China had been secretly building a landing strip in the Spratlys – one that could allow Chinese military aircraft to land in the archipelago in case war broke out.
Despite the increasingly bellicose climate in the region, some Asian businesspeople and leaders believe that growth and trade in Asia, increasingly the powerhouse of the entire world economy, will prevent tensions from escalating. Asia's economies are becoming increasingly integrated. China already has a free trade deal in place with the 10 countries of South East Asia, and Beijing has become the major trading partner of most other Asian economies, as well as a huge aid donor to poorer Asian countries. "Asia will experience a new golden era of peace and prosperity over the next 10 years" because of integration and trade, notes Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
But these trade ties might not stop a future war. In many respects, the situation in East Asia today resembles Europe before the First World War. Just as in East Asia today, at that time in Europe rising powers challenged established ones, militarism spread, and countries maintained intricate webs of economic ties. Yet even while they traded with each other, European powers in the 1900s and 1910s launched an arms race, and trade links ultimately did not guarantee peace. The Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has admitted that the comparison is apt, telling reporters last year that despite growing Japan-China trade, the two countries are in a "similar situation" as Britain and Germany were shortly before the First World War, when the European powers engaged in a naval arms race while also becoming major trading partners.
As happened then in Europe, today's East Asian standoff could end bloodily. China and South East Asian countries are becoming more openly hostile to each other. Beijing has warned ExxonMobil and other big oil and gas companies not to launch joint ventures with South East Asian nations to explore the South China Sea. Chinese officials also have become explicit in warning South East Asian countries not to challenge Beijing's claims to water and land. "China is a big country and other countries [in South East Asia] are small countries, and that's just a fact," the Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi declared at a summit of China and South East Asian countries in 2010.
In an interview last year with The New York Times, Philippines President Benigno Aquino III pointedly compared China's rising assertiveness to the Nazis' domination of Europe before the Second World War, though some Filipino officials also have compared the situation in Asia to the period before the First World War. "If we say yes to something we believe is wrong now [giving China its claims to the South China Sea], what guarantee is there that the wrong will not be further exacerbated down the line?" Aquino said. "At what point do you say: 'Enough is enough'? Well, the world has to say it – remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War Two."
Asia's dangerous environment stems in part from American weakness. Coming into office, Barack Obama launched a policy that would be called "the pivot" to Asia, although the White House now calls it "the rebalance". The policy was supposed to shift American economic, diplomatic and military resources to Asia from other parts of the world.
The Obama administration publicly denied that one rationale for the pivot was to contain China's growing power and strengthen American partners that might confront Beijing. But in private administration officials, and many members of the US Congress, admitted that containing China was indeed a reason for the pivot.
Some said so publicly. The former US senator James Webb, head of the Senate subcommittee on Asia during Obama's first term, pushed for the United States to restore close relations with Myanmar, a pariah for decades because of its brutal military regime. "Sanctions by western governments have not been matched by other countries, particularly Russia and China. Indeed, they have allowed China to dramatically increase its economic and political influence in Myanmar, furthering a dangerous strategic imbalance in the region," Webb wrote in one prominent op-ed in 2009.
Yet despite its ambitions, the pivot has fallen far short of its promises, leaving many Asian states wondering whether the United States can really serve as a guarantor of security in the coming decades. "The pivot is seen by many in Asia as a slogan but not much more than that," says one former senior South East Asian leader.
Indeed, despite pledges to boost US assistance to Asian countries, a recent report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee found that America is still only spending a measly 4 per cent of its aid money in South East Asia. In addition, although the Obama administration promised to move the bulk of America's naval assets into the Pacific by the end of this decade, it now appears it will fall well short of that goal. Although this delay is due, in part, to the real threat of conflict along Russia's borders, the slowdown in moving more of the American navy into the Pacific is perceived, several South East Asian officials say, as a worrying sign that the United States will never be able to divorce itself from events in Europe and the Middle East.
While the pivot has faltered, China's new leadership has become the most politically powerful within China and the most nationalistic in foreign affairs since the time of Mao. After Mao's death, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping issued a maxim on Chinese foreign policy that, until 2013, dictated how Beijing acted abroad: "Keep a low profile [in the world] and bide our time." In the 1990s and early 2000s, Beijing started a new charm offensive towards its neighbours, boosting aid and investment to Asian countries, tempering any military moves and launching cultural diplomacy across the region.
During that time, Beijing also played down its existing disputes over waters in the South and East China seas. As it does now, Beijing still claimed nearly all of the South China Sea, and those claims were challenged by Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia. But China generally stopped publicising its vast claims.
Yet in the past three years, new Chinese president Xi Jinping, and the group of leaders around him, have shattered Deng's maxim of humility and abandoned the charm offensive. Today's Chinese leaders are the first generation that rose up in the party after the Cultural Revolution, and have only known an increasingly rich and powerful China – yet one that still had to play by international rules created by the West.
As president, Xi has made clear he believes China should regain its regional and global pre-eminence, and he has not been shy of staking that claim. Xi has declared that his goal is to build what he calls the "Chinese dream" – a phrase his confidants explain as meaning he wants to restore China to the power it enjoyed in the world for millennia.
Xi has backed up his words with action. On the one hand, Xi's power within the Chinese leadership, which he has amassed through skilful backdoor manoeuvring, has allowed him to deliver major domestic and international accomplishments. Last autumn, he agreed on a landmark emissions reduction deal with Obama. Within China, Xi has launched a major crackdown on graft in the Communist Party. Senior officials like former minister of public security Zhou Yongkang have been charged with corruption. In October, China also launched a bold new development bank focused on Asia. China has pledged up to $50 billion for the bank.
Yet at the same time, Xi's assertive style has fostered a foreign policy that seems, to many of China's neighbours, increasingly threatening. Besides rhetorically claiming much of the South and East China seas, under Xi the Chinese government has had Chinese state oil companies move oil rigs, accompanied by naval or coastguard vessels, into disputed waters as a means of claiming them. Last May, such a move by one of China's state oil companies triggered anti-China riots in Vietnam that killed at least 20 people and raised the possibility of a war between the two countries. Top Chinese and Vietnamese leaders refused to speak to each other for a month; only in June did their leaders talk and finally cool tensions, for the time being. Beijing also has started buzzing US surveillance planes in Asia, moved thousands of troops to its Himalayan border with India, and declared in 2013 that it controls areas of airspace relatively close to Japan. Since that 2013 declaration, Japanese and Chinese military aircraft have repeatedly buzzed each other, coming close to deadly crashes.
Many countries in East Asia are now clearly frightened of China's growing power and willingness to use it. Vietnam's leaders increasingly seem willing to boost ties with the US, even at the risk of totally alienating China, Vietnam's leading trading partner and longtime strategic ally. This past autumn, the US dropped a ban on selling arms to Hanoi. Several congressional sources predict that the US will, within the next five years, sell significant quantities of weapons to Hanoi and will start large-scale joint military exercises with Vietnam's armed forces.
The Philippines, which in the early 1990s kicked US armed forces out of the bases it maintained in its former colony, is now so worried about Beijing's rise that it has essentially welcomed the US army back. Last April, Manila signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Act with Washington, a 10-year deal that basically allows American forces to be stationed in the Philippines again. Philippine national security advisers have also gone privately to Washington repeatedly in the past three years to beg US officials to sell Manila advanced military equipment. Washington agreed to sell the Philippines more arms.
Other countries also have responded to China. Under its new president, Joko Widodo, Indonesia has announced a new foreign policy doctrine that, Jakarta says, will make the country into a maritime power. To show Jakarta is serious, in December Indonesia sank several foreign fishing boats it claimed were illegally operating in Indonesian waters. A senior adviser to the president, Rizal Sukma, told a forum in Washington that the sinking was designed to send a message primarily to China. "We sank Vietnamese boats last week … maybe we will sink Chinese boats after that also," Sukma said.
Japan has pushed back as well. Last year, Tokyo approved a five-year budget plan to dramatically increase military spending on new fighter planes, submarines and amphibious warfare carriers. Unfortunately, Japan's growing willingness to defend itself also has come along with historical revisionism. While Abe has pushed to rewrite Japan's post-Second World War constitution, written by the US occupiers, so that Tokyo can expand its military, he also has appointed senior officials who deny that Japan committed massive atrocities against other Asian peoples during that war, such as forcing captured women into sexual slavery and slaughtering civilians during the occupation of Nanjing in China. This revisionism has only further poisoned Sino-Japanese relations.
Indeed, Asia is now in the middle of a rapid arms race. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks country-by-country military spending, reports that arms sales to East Asia are up by more than 100 per cent since 2005. Clashes in the South and East China seas – between Chinese and Vietnamese boats, Chinese and Filipino boats, Chinese and Japanese boats, and others – occur now on an almost daily basis. On several recent occasions, such as the standoff between Beijing and Hanoi last May, war was only narrowly averted.
If war erupted in East Asia, it could easily draw in America. Although the Obama administration has not explicitly stated how it would respond to conflict in the South or East China seas, the US is a treaty ally of the Philippines, Japan and South Korea, bound to defend these countries against attacks. America also has increasingly close military partnerships with Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and other Asian countries. If China occupied disputed islands in the South China Sea, "of course" the United States would help the Philippines to respond, the head of US naval operations declared last February.
Barack Obama only has two years left in the White House. But after he leaves, there is little guarantee a new American president would help restore calm in Asia.
As secretary of state during Obama's first term, Hillary Clinton was a central architect of the pivot and was believed to be more hawkish about confronting China than the president. During a trip to Asia in July 2010, Clinton asserted that the South China Sea was a central US "national interest", the first time an American official had made such a claim. Clinton, the likely Democratic front-runner for the presidency in 2016, is hardly backing down now. She has repeatedly suggested that Obama's foreign policy is too weak, and that, as president, she would be much tougher on national security affairs.
But even Clinton would not risk war between the biggest powers. Of course, people said the same thing about German and British leaders before the outbreak of the First World War.
Joshua Kurlantzick is Senior Fellow for South East Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest working paper, which examines some of the issues raised in this piece at greater length, can be found here.
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